Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Bark louder, little dog.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

You are here: Home / Politics / Proud to Be A Democrat / About God Damned Time

About God Damned Time

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The attitude of Democrats to Fox News, the NY Post, the Washington Examiner, the National Review, the Daily Caller, you name it, should be to completely starve them of oxygen. They get nothing. Nada. There is literally no point in engaging them, just like there is ZERO point in trying to tailor policies or massage messaging to the rotten 30% of the voting age public who supports Trump.

There is no god damned point having the top tier Democratic candidates appear in a Fox News debate where they can be asked by Brett Baer or Ed Henry or one of their indistinguishable fascism Barbies why they support aborting live babies or want MS-13 to rape your daughter. Fuck them.

And I’m one wingnut hire away from feeling the same fucking way about CNN.

Reader Interactions

144Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    The attitude of Democrats to Fox News, the NY Post, the Washington Examiner, the National Review, the Daily Caller, you name it, should be to completely starve them of oxygen. They get nothing. Nada. There is literally no point in engaging them, just like there is ZERO point in trying to tailor policies or massage messaging to the rotten 30% of the voting age public who supports Trump.

    CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP

    Say it again for the bleacher seats.

  2. 2.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    Agreed. I don’t think someone that watches FOX News is persuadable in any way, shape or form.

  3. 3.

    PsiFighter37

    Good. Don’t even give them broadcasting rights. And whomever takes office in 2021 should also blacklist them from the press pool. Fuck Rupert Murdoch and the rest of those assholes.

  4. 4.

    rikyrah

    UH HUH
    UH HUH

    A Matter of Public Trust: AOC Should Fire Chief of Staff Who Ran Deceptive Campaign Finance Scheme

    The Washington Post has picked up a story that had thus far been predominantly limited to conservative outlets: it appears that Saikat Chakrabarti, the Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), treated AOC’s campaign as well as complicit progressive groups like the Justice Democrats as a corporate slush fund for a limited liability corporation he owns.

    The reason the Washington Post picked up the story, I suspect, is that filings from the two PACs involved appear to back up the case that Chakrabarti – no relations that I’m aware of – ran a deceptive money moving scheme during the 2018 election cycle and may have violated campaign finance laws.

    It turns out that two PACs that supported Ocasio-Cortez, Justice Democrats (JD) and Brand New Congress (BNC) paid more than $1 million for “strategic consulting” to a limited liability corporation associated with Brand New Congress, Brand New Congress LLC (BNC LLC). It would be bad enough that PACs were passing money back and forth basically amongst themselves, but things get really interesting when you find out who owns BNC LLC: you guessed it, Saikat Chakrabarti. Since Saikat Chakrabarti is also a founder of both Justice Democrats and the Brand New Congress PAC, it looks like two fundraising operations he had huge influence over were feeding cash to his LLC.

  5. 5.

    The Moar You Know

    CNN gave Trump, it is estimated (I don’t know how) over a billion dollars worth of free airtime during his campaign. Trump and Zucker (head asshole at CNN) have been joined at the dick since the Apprentice, which gave Trump his start in reality TV and led directly to the presidency.

    Long winded way of saying they needed to go on the list several years ago. Fox should have been locked out of the press room by Clinton. And then again by Obama. That it is only starting to be considered now by the DNC is about the most damnable thing I could point out about the Dem party at this moment in history.

    (Something about being complicit in your own destruction)

  6. 6.

    Betty Cracker

    I know this isn’t an open thread, but I have to share this: a fucking spider bit me on the face! I don’t think it was a particularly toxic spider, but sweet Jesus, a fucking spider bit me on the face! Thanks for listening.

  7. 7.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @PsiFighter37: I don’t think they should be blacklisted from the press pool. I just think they should never be called on or granted any interviews. Except for Shepard Smith. If Shepard Smith wanted an interview, then I wouldn’t object. But fuck everybody else at that network.

  8. 8.

    cain

    It’s about goddam time. Perhaps we can leave both the “lets move rightward” in the Clinton era, to “let’s kumbaya” during the Obama time, and now we can just be out and proud progressive/liberals and tell these assholes to take a hike. I mean that about CNN too. Those fuckers think they are legitimate but they aren’t, they put people who have no reason to be on there. They have help moved conversations rightward and I believe they are the reasons why we have shit like anti-vaxxers.

  9. 9.

    ruemara

    And you get to see the journalists from other outlets opine that it’s a terrible thing to do to the real journalists of Fox. They’re such idiots

    @Betty Cracker: Based on the podcast I’ve been binging for nearly a week, this means you’re probably the new host for avatar of The Web. I’m nearly done but I think the mental damage of 7 days of horror stories is permanent.

  13. 13.

    Ruckus

    @ruemara:
    It isn’t the size of their brains, or how little they use them, it’s that they are afraid they will be next.

  16. 16.

    Chyron HR

    They’re just rigging the primary against Bernie, the self-proclaimed favorite candidate of Republicans.

  17. 17.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @rikyrah: I sure would like to see AOC do the right thing and fire his ass pronto. This should be the last straw.

    AOC and other progressive MOC should distance themselves from “Justice Dem” grifters.

  18. 18.

    trollhattan

    @Betty Cracker:
    EeeYOOO! I dislike spiders.

    Once as a kid awoke feeling something on my face. Grabbed at and flung it, only to actually hear the thing click off the wall. And don’t get me started on black widows. Fucking spiders.

  19. 19.

    Droppy

    But how will we get a fair and balanced perspective? how will we learn that there are fine people on both sides except for the Democrat side? how will the free speech rights of fraternity boys at southern schools be upheld? will no one think of the oppressed white, middle-aged, heterosexual (or at least deeply closeted), over-compensated, under-educated, indolent, ignorant males of America?

  23. 23.

    MattF

    And, fwiw, there wouldn’t be any difficulty in finding actual non-FOX conservatives to ask debate questions, if there’s an issue about ‘balance’. I know, real debate about policy is a novel concept– but, hey, why not?

  25. 25.

    trollhattan

    @Pogonip:
    Not uncommon to walk into one dangling or in their webs. And there’s nothing quite like walking face-first into a bigass garden spider web. One must remember our Betty is now a swamp dog.

  26. 26.

    A Ghost To Most

    @trollhattan:

    And don’t get me started on black widows. Fucking spiders.

    We have black widows in our house. Meh. Brown recluses, I pay attention to.

  28. 28.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    And I’m one wingnut hire away from feeling the same fucking way about CNN.

    AFAIK, Sarah Isgur– formerly of Cruz and (I think?) Santorum campaigns and the Jeff Sessions DoJ– is still with CNN? I thought they’d have backed down by now, at least given her some kind of partisan designation in-house

  29. 29.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    I know this isn’t an open thread, but I have to share this: a fucking spider bit me on the face! I don’t think it was a particularly toxic spider, but sweet Jesus, a fucking spider bit me on the face! Thanks for listening.

    So, are you going to be signing off as the Amazing Spider Cracker?

    More seriously, hope you are all right.

  32. 32.

    trollhattan

    @Ksmiami:
    Remember when Obama was inaugurated and the RWers were all shrieking in terror he was going to restore the equal time rule, even if he had never uttered equal time and rule together? They really fear having the public claw back control of the…public…airwaves.

  34. 34.

    Ninedragonspot

    @Betty Cracker: Maybe you’ll get some new superpowers.

    Added: reviewing the thread, I can see that I am well out of medal contention for making this joke.

  40. 40.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: I’ve read, I think, every Carl Hiassen novel, but I never understood just how crazy Florida was till I started reading your posts, Ms C

  44. 44.

    trollhattan

    Holy fvcking shit.

    A US senator welled up with emotion as she told colleagues she was raped by a superior officer while serving in the Air Force.

    Senator Martha McSally, who was the first female US fighter pilot to fly in combat, said she did not report the rape as she felt ashamed and confused. She also said that she had lacked faith in the system.

    The Arizona Republican was testifying to a hearing on the armed services’ efforts to prevent sexual assaults. Reports of sexual assaults across the military jumped nearly 10% in 2017, according to the Pentagon.

    Senator McSally said: “I stayed silent for many years, but later in my career, as the military grappled with the scandals, and their wholly inadequate responses, I felt the need to let some people know, I too was a survivor.

  45. 45.

    Jacel

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: The only condition I think the Democrats should agree to a debate on Fox News is if the debate is moderated solo by Shepard Smith. And that Fox News promise to not fire or demote him afterwards.

  47. 47.

    Betty Cracker

    Regarding the spider, I think it was a wolf spider, and it bit me while I was sitting in my car in the driveway. Luckily I wasn’t driving at the time! I didn’t know it was a spider at first — just felt a bite and brushed it off, and it landed on my little screen thingy, and that’s when I saw it was a spider. I attempted to squash it with my bag, but it vanished. Now it’s just lying in wait in the car, plotting its revenge, I suppose. I’ll have to find out its lifespan and avoid driving until I’m sure it’s dead, but the fucker probably laid EGGS!

  50. 50.

    Major Major Major Major

    I know this isn’t original, but I still think it’s weird how Spider-Man’s most iconic spider power–his web-shooters–is just a completely unrelated invention that he came up with using his completely unrelated genius.

  52. 52.

    Kraux Pas

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I know this isn’t original, but I still think it’s weird how Spider-Man’s most iconic spider power–his web-shooters–is just a completely unrelated invention that he came up with using his completely unrelated genius.

    Depends on the continuity

  53. 53.

    catclub

    @Ninedragonspot:

    I can see that I am well out of medal contention for making this joke.

    but I am not too late to ask how the spider bit her while it was fucking. multi-legs and multi-tasking.

  55. 55.

    Marcopolo

    @rikyrah: So I’m not one hundred percent sure if you posted this as an example of how “news” moves from rightwing sites to mainstream ones, or if you are doing that and also trying to put forth derogatory info about AOC & her affiliates. I certainly agree with the former. But in case anyone wants an unbiased opinion from a campaign finance person about what AOC’s current COS did here is a twitter thread discussing it: https://twitter.com/brendan_fischer

    tl;dr Everything that was done was done legally. The amounts paid were within acceptable limits for PACs to pay to consultants (there is a comparison to Trump PACs & payments they make as an example). The explanation for why they did the things they did is reasonable. There doesn’t appear to be any chicanery afoot.

    Whether AOC, who seems to really want to walk the walk in addition to talking the talk, wants to do things like this in the future while making comments critical of how our campaign finance mechanisms work (or don’t work) is another question.

  57. 57.

    Martin

    @Betty Cracker: You live in Florida. Of course you did. Goddamn lucky it wasn’t some naked guy tripping on whatever passes for weed down there.

    And like the others, I await discovery of your new superpowers (beyond those you already possess).

  58. 58.

    Mary G

    Alexandra Petri at WaPo is a national treasure:

    Enough is enough! Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez needs to stop inserting herself into our every waking moment!

    I am sick of hearing about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from my voice talking about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. I would like to spend just one day without seeking out, looking at and commenting on pictures of her everywhere she goes. It would be nice, just once, not to have to be enraged by clicking on an article that mentions her name, and then another, and then another. Just once I want to spend a day without bringing her up, unprovoked, in the middle of a discussion of an unrelated subject.

    I just don’t know why people are so obsessed with her, specifically, myself. Why has she compelled me to type her name so many times that when I type the letter “A,” my phone supplies “OC”? It is a conspiracy, I think.

    The whole thing is hilarious, but the last two sentences are a sick burn of Republicans:

    I used to think about the deficit, I think. I don’t remember.

    I blame her.

  59. 59.

    A Ghost To Most

    @chopper: They are beautiful, and visible. It’s the ones that you don’t see that cause the worst bites.

    Frankly, I’d rather get bit by a spider than a dog.

  61. 61.

    Aleta

    Yesterday

    Jess Morales Rocketto @JessLivMo

    Humongous news: @jpmorgan is backing away from funding private prisons, including detention centers that separate families. This is the result of pressure from all of US!!! We did this!

  62. 62.

    Chyron HR

    @Marcopolo:

    Yes, I recall well the many campaign rallies in 2016 where AOC’s mentor exhorted his worshipers to forget about Clinton’s finances because, “Everything that was done was done legally.”

  64. 64.

    Marcopolo

    @Adam L Silverman: As the link I just posted about this indicates (and I am not a Justice Dem trying to defend them just trying to inform about their place on the playing field), the PACs associated with them & the consultants involved with them seem to be middle-of-the-road in terms of how they do business compared to other PACs/consultants.

    That is not to say the vast majority of political PACs & the people involved with them are not riddled with grifters & shakedown artists.

  65. 65.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Marcopolo: I’m not accusing you of anything (Where were you on the night of the 14th?!?!?). If you go to the link to the post I did about Shahid, you’ll get plenty of direct statements by candidates about how they were shaken down by the Justice Dems. You can do everything legally and still be immoral.

  66. 66.

    rikyrah

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The Justice Dems, and the PAC created to back them, and the campaign company created to profit off of them are a cross between a grift and a shakedown.

    I remember that post. I spread the word about that post. That AOC is involved with anyone, let alone, has a Chief of Staff, that’s associated with them..

    Makes me give her the side eye.

  67. 67.

    trollhattan

    @Betty Cracker:
    I’m think Wolfie, the revenge spider is used to heat so here’s what you do: find a fruit packing joint with a drive in freezer and leave your vee-hickle in there overnight.

    “Fuck you, Wolfie!”

  70. 70.

    joel hanes

    Sinclair should not have broadcast rights either.

    They’re actually just as ubiquitous and even more vile than Fox, and insidious because in many rural places they’re the voice of local radio.

  72. 72.

    Marcopolo

    So there was a report out yesterday that illegal border crossings surged to 76,000 in Feb, a 10 year high. (link to NYT article).

    Has anyone seen any explanations for this in the last 24 hours? My initial reaction is it is the Trump Admin trying to goose numbers in support of the wall & national emergency (particularly as the numbers seem to pop out of nowhere–ie there is no trend line). Beyond that I wonder if: a) the Border Security folks are playing the numbers by redefining some acton; whether Trump has cut a deal w/ Mexico that is funneling more folks to the border atm; if, as I assume, the US under Trump no longer does any work to try to ameliorate emigration pressure from Central/South American countries that has led to more border attempts (but then there would be a trend line right?).

    I dunno. Just curious and very suspicious of outlying numbers coming from out of the blue.

  75. 75.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Marcopolo: The result of functionally closing the official border crossing points of entries to asylum seekers. You can make an asylum claim anywhere in the US regardless of whether you entered documented or undocumented. As a result of the functional closing of the official border crossing points to those seeking asylum, they’re redirecting themselves to other parts of the border. It is as simple as that.

  78. 78.

    Marcopolo

    @Adam L Silverman: Well, that was the point of the last sentence/caveat in my post. Also, wasn’t accusing you of accusing me but I wanted to clarify I don’t have a dog in the fight when it comes to Justice Ds but I do object to folks taking activities that are “run-of-the-mill legal” (and yes still entirely sketchy) to tar and feather particular targets. And I see a lot of that vis a vis AOC.

    I, personally, have a very negative opinion of most of the folks involved with these activities (PACs/Consultants) whether associated with AOC, BS, Hillary, or the orange dotard. I would much rather campaign fundraising money go to hiring staff, registering voters, in other words “capacity building” than consultants getting large checks.

  79. 79.

    Adam L Silverman

    @ruemara: @The Moar You Know: Even worse, she voted to confirm Noemi Rao last week to a Federal judgeship. Rao has a long record of questioning whether sexual assault and rape are really an issue.

  80. 80.

    Aleta

    Boy did I once have a mean spider bite . I was in CA on my sister’s shaggy rug LR floor, felt a wicked painful bite. Pain didn’t last, no big deal, all signs are gone in a day.

    Two weeks later, the night before my bio father’s funeral, the finger starts to swell and the bit area turns bluish. The next day my whole finger is dark black and tripled in size.

    Fortunately my cousin who wanted to be a Dr. is there. For some reason has a scalpel-like thing with him, and he operates on it late that night.

    (He would have been a good Dr too. But by the time he worked his way through college with a family (and even though he got the highest pre med grades in the state, which was supposed to guarantee him the state seat and paid tuition to the only med school in state), the med school exercised some clause and denied him because he was 33.) (Something that’s better now than in 1981 I guess.)

  81. 81.

    The Moar You Know

    So there was a report out yesterday that illegal border crossings surged to 76,000 in Feb, a 10 year high.

    @Marcopolo: As you note, that number is a staggering outlier with no trendline precedent.

    Anecdata: I live about 20 miles from Tijuana and the number of migrant laborers I see out and about is the lowest it has been for years. The construction market, the traditional employer of such folks, has softened up locally to an astonishing degree (I truly suspect the next step, Giant Recession, is right around the corner).

    In short, I call bullshit.

  82. 82.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Marcopolo: The way we run campaigns is basically legalized corruption. There’s a ton of money sloshing around because of it, which also makes it almost impossible to reform. Similar problems exist in how we build, maintain, and/or repair infrastructure. We have a lot of legal corruption in the US and because we’ve allowed it to become ubiquitous we basically just ignore it. Until things have gone far off the rails and something catastrophic has happened.

  83. 83.

    Brachiator

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Or if you suddenly feel the need to fight crime in one of the outer boroughs.

    Florida Spidey commits crimes instead of fighting crime.

    His (or her) arch nemesis is the Green Gator.

  84. 84.

    Marcopolo

    @Adam L Silverman: This makes sense. And since there doesn’t seem to be a ramp up through Dec & Jan, are you suggesting the Trump admin decided to make it even worse in Feb? That is the kicker for me, that 76K figure just seems to pop out of the blue.

  85. 85.

    Raven

    @Aleta: I just had some weird thing cut out the outside of my calf. I tried some salves but nothing had any impact so I went into the dermo and she said, “let’s cut that sucker out and biopsy it”!

  86. 86.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty Cracker: Without realizing what it was, I brushed something off my face one day and saw the disgusting centipede upside down on its back on the carpet. Ugh. Yuck. Ick. Shudder. I picked up a shoe and killed it, took it outside, came back in and called pest control to spray around the perimeter of my house.

    Bugs do not get to be on my face. It was creepy. I feel you.

  87. 87.

    JustRuss

    @Betty Cracker: If you’re worried about the spider, you could try the hose-from-the-exhaust-in-the-window-with-the-engine-running trick and gas him. No guaranties that won’t make your car smell forever. Maybe save time and just douse it in gasoline and let er burn.

  88. 88.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Marcopolo: I think it simply built. The more the word got out, the more migrants started trying to cross away from the official border crossings. I also think the spikes are probably a lagged time response to events going on in Central American states that are contributing to the migration north.

  90. 90.

    Adam L Silverman

    @WaterGirl:

    Without realizing what it was, I brushed something off my face one day and saw the disgusting centipede upside down on its back on the carpet. Bugs do not get to be on my face.

    Narrator: Contrary to her protestations, apparently bugs do, indeed, get on WaterGirl’s face.

  92. 92.

    Aleta

    @Ruckus: “It isn’t the size of their brains, or how little they use them, it’s that they are afraid they will be next.” True for spiders and bees too.

    I used to have motorcycles; once in a sudden hard rainstorm, the kind where motor oil reside starts to wash all over the road, a couple of bees began stinging me inside my helmet. I couldn’t brake right away or even get them off my head of course.

  93. 93.

    VOR

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m a little bemused by the trade deficit hitting record levels despite his tariffs. Almost as if there wasn’t a coherent trade policy, just a series of angry tweets.

  94. 94.

    A Ghost To Most

    @Aleta: Dang, that sounds scary. It’s nice to have medical folks in the family.

    I once danced with a 5 feet rattler in PA. He went for my walking stick instead of my leg. He chose poorly.

  95. 95.

    TomatoQueen

    Nobody look at the microscope pics of all the mites and bugs that crawl around on our faces while we’re sleeping. Just don’t. It’s horrible.

  96. 96.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Marcopolo:

    I would much rather campaign fundraising money go to hiring staff, registering voters, in other words “capacity building” than consultants getting large checks.

    Here, here! Political consultants are frequently leeches, feeding off and feeding back into a corrosive political culture that just happens to make them lots of money $$$. Precious campaign funds should be spent on things like paying local folks to pound the pavement and knock on doors (literally and metaphorically – i.e. online).

    Fuck grifter political consultants. Politicians are their marks and we all pay the price.

  98. 98.

    WaterGirl

    @Mary G: That’s a classic! Very reminiscent of the Onion article named something like “why do all these guys keep sucking my dick?” And no, I am not willing to google that in order to get the title exactly right.

  100. 100.

    Marcopolo

    @Adam L Silverman: Yeah, what you said. Where there is money there is corruption…root/evil…something like that. Bringing in the topic of infrastructure–what a kettle of fish that is. From time to time I’ve seen Matt Yglesias comment on how much more expensive it is to build subway tunnels or high-speed rail (or you name it) in the US than Europe (and other places but authoritarian states aren’t good comparisons). And this is why we can’t have nice things.

    And since I gotta run and have not yet directly commented on lead in to this thread: WTF was Perez doing to even be thinking about having Fox News host any kind of D debate or other activity. We’ve seen plenty of reporting & data that Fox News viewers are not persuadable. One of the more interesting small takeaways from the Jane Mayer piece in the New Yorker a few days ago was that Fox found that any time they presented coverage of Trump that was the slightest bit critical their ratings went down! Truly the inmates running the joint.

  101. 101.

    catclub

    @Raven:

    that’s great advice!

    my understanding ( not from experience) is that newer cars have so little CO in the exhaust it is hard to kill oneself
    (or wolf spiders) with them.

  102. 102.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Dear King

    INSIDE TRUMP’S VA
    Trump Mar-a-Lago Buddy Wrote Policy Pitch. The President Sent It to VA Chief.
    A handwritten note to Trump, addressed “Dear King,” presents another instance of access and influence for Mar-a-Lago associates.

    and we got rolled by NORK because somebody over there hit on the idea to address him as “Your Excellency”

    When Hazzouri is not at Mar-a-Lago, he’s a cosmetic dentist in Scranton, Pennsylvania…..
    In a telephone interview, Hazzouri said he sent the note as a favor to the 163,000-member American Dental Association. He said he had only the vaguest sense of what proposal he was vouching for.
    “I’m really not involved in any politics, I’m just a small-time dentist,” he said. “I guess there’s a lot of money spent on veterans’ care and American Native Indians’ care, and I guess they wanted to have a little hand in it, the American Dental Association, to try to guide what’s going on or whatever.”

  106. 106.

    WaterGirl

    @Raven: No, no I do not. I am not a huge bug fan, but I can deal with spiders, etc. But cockroaches, leeches, etc creep me out in a big way. So no, I do not want to see your cockroaches, and I could never in a million years live in florida with the life size bugs and snakes.

    So sadly, I will never have that gorgeous scenery right outside my window, like Ms. Cracker does.

    edit: but I desperately wish I could have your crepe myrtles.

  108. 108.

    A Ghost To Most

    @JustRuss:
    Wolf spiders are everywhere. A new batch will just move in. They wouldn’t be there if there weren’t other bugs to eat.

  111. 111.

    raven

    @Aleta:I was on a long curve on a 54 Harley with a suicide clutch and a bee flew in my shirt and was stinging the shit out of me. It was hell getting that baby down with our dumping.

  112. 112.

    catclub

    @Marcopolo: I hope it is not news that this same thing was done in the last debt ceiling ‘crisis’.
    It is the standard first tool of the Treasury, apparently. Then after all is settled again, it gets repaid.

  113. 113.

    Pogonip

    @JustRuss: Hee hee hee hee.

    I’ve walked into the occasional web—try getting that stuff out of your hair!—but never been bitten. Thus no superpowers

  116. 116.

    raven

    @catclub: Yea, “without”. You don’t want to jerk the handlebars when you’re “headin down the highway, searchin for adventure. . . “

  117. 117.

    A Ghost To Most

    @raven: Grasshoppers can be immense in Nebraska. One hit my future wife in the face while on the back of my bike, and left quite the welt.

    Another time, the guy I was riding next to took a bird in the chest. It put him flat back on the seat, but he rode it out.

  119. 119.

    Raven

    @A Ghost To Most: It doesn’t take much does it? I think back to that Honda 150 in the summer of 66. I rode from Villa Park, Il to Lake Geneva and back without even glasses much less a brain bucket.

    ETA, Ha, I just looked and it’s only 65 miles!!! Seemed like 500.

  120. 120.

    debbie

    This is very good news. Guess NPR was too chicken to include it in their news broadcasts.

  121. 121.

    WaterGirl

    @A Ghost To Most: When I was about 5 years old, I used to put grasshoppers in the basket of my bike and take them for a ride. I felt so bad for them that they had to jump all the time like that, and I was certain that they were very tired.

  127. 127.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @Betty Cracker:
    One night I was rummaging under my porch when I felt a sting just above my right eyebrow. I think it was a spider bite. That sucker swelled up and hurt for days. The venom must have been necrotic because it left a small scar. I live in Virginia, BTW.

  128. 128.

    Pogonip

    @debbie: There are handy compact versions too. Noticed one on my car hood once and when I leaned over for a better look it lifted its front legs in a put-up-your-dukes gesture. Cute as all get-out.

    One of those stupid Asian ladybugs landed on my arm once, bit me, and flew away before I could swat it. Hit-and-run ladybugs!

  129. 129.

    debbie

    @Pogonip:

    The first time I ever saw a stink bug was when one flew onto my glasses while I was out walking. Surprisingly, I resisted the reflex to rip the glasses off and throw them across the street. I would never have found my way home.

  131. 131.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @catclub: And USAns don’t stick their heads in the gas oven to commit Selbstmord for the same reason – since the vast majority (if not all) of them now run on CH4 (with a mercaptan splash to make it stinky), instead of coal gas, which contained a significant fraction of CO.

  136. 136.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Marcopolo: ,

    personally, have a very negative opinion of most of the folks involved with these activities (PACs/Consultants) whether associated with AOC, BS, Hillary, or the orange dotard. I would much rather campaign fundraising money go to hiring staff, registering voters, in other words “capacity building” than consultants getting large checks.

    My mother is a big Clay Akin fan so she hung on his run for a NC rep seat, and it was clear the Consultants talked Akin in mealy mouthing his way into a loss. For example his opponent was some Republican who was from out of state and she was accusing him of “SF values”. Instead of tearing her one for being out of state, the consultants talked Akin into being “nice” and all this high ground nonsense while she labeled him what ever she wanted. It always felt to me like Hilary fell for the same BS from the consultants and was nice instead of tearing into Trump for being a Russian loving phony. Consultants typically are worse than useless.

  137. 137.

    Doug R

    @Betty Cracker:

    I know this isn’t an open thread, but I have to share this: a fucking spider bit me on the face! I don’t think it was a particularly toxic spider, but sweet Jesus, a fucking spider bit me on the face! Thanks for listening.

    Man, Sony marketing doesn’t miss a trick: Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse is already out on digital and out on Blu-Ray/DVD on March 19.

  138. 138.

    chopper

    @debbie:

    when i first moved to atlanta, i pulled up the moving truck and checked out the house i’d rented. it was night time, and i went out back to look at the garage and on the driveway in front of it was this huge fucking wolf spider. with a whole clutch of eggs sitting on its back. massive fucker. it just looked at me and started walking away.

    it was then i decided that the entirety of the south needed to be destroyed with fire.

  140. 140.

    BobS

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I think it’s possible Jeb Bush might have taken Trump out in an early round if he’d gotten up in his face and promised to kick his ass if he kept insulting his family. Instead, he stood there and took it like a chump.

  141. 141.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Brachiator:

    Florida Spidey commits crimes instead of fighting crime.

    THAT’S REGULAR SPIDEY! GET ME PICTURES OF THAT MENACE, PARKER! MISS BRANT, TAKE A MEMO!

  142. 142.

    Aleta

    @trollhattan: That’s wonderful, thanks.

    ducks coming for peas

    flock behavior
    (mute if you don’t want new age music)

    robin bathing

    One thing to say for insects, they do feed the birds. Last year my friend was despairing about fall caterpillars that were all over the maples above her house, even falling on her roof. I looked that kind up to see what she could do. Found out that, with the fall timing, they happen to provide a survival meal for birds that are about to migrate out over the ocean. I had no idea.

    Probably true of the tent caterpillars that show up here early in the spring too; they seem so useless although they don’t kill the trees. (Not the ones that are newly arrived here and are killing beech trees everywhere.)

  143. 143.

    James E Powell

    @BobS:

    Bush and all the other Republican candidates didn’t go after Trump because they could see that the entire base of their party was completely in thrall to him. They knew if they played hard and took him out then the RW core would not show up for them in the general.

  144. 144.

    jonas

    Entirely appropriate. Fox isn’t a news outlet anyway, its the state propaganda arm of the Republican Party and Trump WH. The Democratic debates are so Democratic voters have a chance to weigh the candidates in a primary and face questions from actual journalists. Fox and its virtually 100% deplorable viewership has no business being there.

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