Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The willow is too close to the house.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Bark louder, little dog.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

Books are my comfort food!

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

Optimism opens the door to great things.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

So fucking stupid, and still doing a tremendous amount of damage.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: “Frolicking”

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: “Frolicking”

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Looks to me like Chewbacca is pondering the evanescence of beauty… and the perky cluenessness of the human animal. (Also, as the Spousal Unit pointed out, those are magnolia petals… )
 
Speaking of the deliberately obtuse:

Reader Interactions

133Comments

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    But her heart was in the right place:

    Rose Marie Bentley was an avid swimmer, raised five children, helped her husband run a feed store and lived to 99. It was only after she died that medical students discovered that all her internal organs, except for her heart, were in the wrong place.

    The discovery of the rare condition, which was presented this week to a conference of anatomists, was astounding — especially because Bentley had lived so long. People with the condition known as situs inversus with levocardia often have life-threatening cardiac ailments and other abnormalities, according to Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU).

    The finding was made when the class of Cameron Walker, an assistant professor of anatomy at the university in Portland, was examining the heart of a cadaver last year. They noticed the blood vessels were different. When they opened the abdominal cavity, they saw that all the other organs were on the wrong side. The unusual blood vessels helped the heart compensate.

    Walker described his reaction to the find as “definitely a mix of curiosity, fascination and a sense of wanting to explore a little bit of a medical mystery — a medical marvel really — that was in front of us”.

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    Light drizzle in the swamp this morning. Nothing so soothing as the sound of rain falling on a metal roof, not that it helps me sleep or anything. Still amazed and delighted by the video Cheryl posted of the lynx purring! I had no idea big cats purr! Anyone know if lions, tigers, etc., also purr?

  6. 6.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Lori Loughlin had a very bad day

    The money laundering charge alone carries a maximum of 20 years in prison.

    This means if Lori and her husband now want to plea bargain their cases, instead of a minimum range of 2 to 2 and a half years in prison … prosecutors would recommend to the judge a MINIMUM RANGE OF 4 YEARS AND 9 MONTHS UP TO 5 YEARS AND 11 MONTHS.

    There’s also a very technical rub. Theoretically by charging CONSPIRACY to money launder, the minimum sentence could go even higher — way higher. (link)

    Wow – 4 years in prison. She could have gone to college in that time frame.

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Beeauty is in the eye of the *Beeholder*:

    When a young Taiwanese woman named He took herself to a hospital this week complaining of a swollen eye, she expected to be treated for a simple infection.

    Instead, the 29-year-old and her doctor were horrified to discover four bees living under her eyelids, feasting on her tears.

    Doctors at Fooyin University Hospital in Taiwan described the incident as a “world first”, having successfully managed to extract all four sweat bees alive from He’s tear duct.

    Speaking at a press conference, the hospital’s head of ophthalmology Dr Hung Chi-ting said: “I saw something that looked like insect legs, so I pulled them out under a microscope slowly, and one at a time without damaging their bodies.”

    **guardian pun

  10. 10.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Fosse/Verdon kicks off with a show-stopping opener

    In the very best Broadway musicals and Hollywood blockbusters, there’s an absolute wow number to hook your audience from the start. Lin-Manuel Miranda, one of the Fosse/Verdon executive producers gets this, as does Hamilton director Thomas Kail, who helms this episode, and Dear Evan Hansen scribe Steven Levenson, who wrote it. So to pay homage to the royal Broadway partnership of Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon, Fosse/Verdon gives us both Sweet Charity (specifically, the iconic “Big Spender) and Fosse’s professional peak Cabaret in the very first episode, as if daring the viewer not to be enthralled. (link)

    If you get the FX channel, check it out, it was really good.

  14. 14.

    Baud

    Male candidates are all alike; every woman candidate is awful in her own way.
    —– Tolstoy

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JPL: Come August/September we get a plague of gnats that are bound and determined to get into one’s eyes for the salty tears. Some days it’s so bad I wear safety glasses. I can’t imagine a sweat bee.

  19. 19.

    prob50

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Beeauty is in the eye of the *Beeholder*:

    When a young Taiwanese woman named He took herself to a hospital this week complaining of a swollen eye, she expected to be treated for a simple infection

    Instead, the 29-year-old and her doctor were horrified to discover four bees living under her eyelids, feasting on her tears.

    So these were “He’s” bees?

    Sorry, couldn’t help myself. I’ll surely be pun-ished if I keep this up.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    Speaking of women

    A Texas bill would make it possible to put women to death for having abortion

    It won’t pass until after Roe is overturned, but once that happens, the red states will be off to the races.

  26. 26.

    Betty Cracker

    WaPo has more details about the race to contain Trump’s latest immigration temper tantrum. Among the tidbits: Trump was pissed off that Nielsen was in Europe (on official business) while a “crisis” was underway at home (a “crisis” that Trump “oversaw” while waddling around self-branded golf resorts).

    So, Nielsen cut short her trip and flew home, trying desperately to save her job by begging colleagues to help, only to get fired, allegedly at the White House by Trump himself. (Good — it’s only fitting that Trump’s enablers suffer the consequences of their prick boss’s cruelty and capriciousness to some degree.)

    On Trump’s about-face on shutting down the southern border, the report says it was the US Chamber of Commerce, McConnell and Cornyn who drove the economic consequences of that move into Trump’s thick skull. Here’s an amazing quote from Cornyn:

    In an interview, Cornyn said he warned the president of the potential unintended consequences of acting out of frustration, and Trump asked him to collaborate with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on other ideas.

    “I told him I’d be happy to work with him and his administration,” Cornyn said. “But sealing off the border is not a solution.”“We think a lot of the drama that has occurred . . . is making America look very bad to the rest of the world,” he said.

    Ya think? If there’s any justice, all of these assholes will suffer the same fate as Nielsen — burned publicly by the ignorant, malevolent sociopath whose ass they’ve spent the last three years kissing.

  28. 28.

    Immanentize

    @prob50:
    When the doctor discovered the insects, what he said was: “He Bee? Gee, bees!”

    Which is frankly what that story gave me.

  29. 29.

    Immanentize

    @Baud:
    Just like when Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act was struck down by the Supreme Court. No guardrails now!

  30. 30.

    John S.

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Oh, it totally is. Which is why if Trump gets another SCOTUS pick, it will be the most horrifyingly conservative white woman he can find. He has a pretty good track record of finding them.

  33. 33.

    plato

    Common sense over guns.

    New Zealand’s parliament has voted to ban all types of semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles following the Christchurch attacks.

    The gun reform bill passed 119-1 after the final reading in parliament.

    It is expected to become law within the next few days after receiving royal assent from the governor general.

    PM Jacinda Ardern announced changes to the law after 50 people were killed last month by a suspected lone gunman at two mosques in Christchurch.

  37. 37.

    plato

    nut a yahoo again for record 5th term.

    No point blaming the elected pols when the ‘people’ who put them and keep them are the real culprits.

  40. 40.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: That is a hopeful idea: that there will be a future in which we see him (and his court) for the monster it is.

    I just re-read Dred Scott. Ugh.

  42. 42.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Wouldn’t surprise me if in reality Trump fled to the TV room and left Mulvaney in the Oval to collect Nielsen’s lanyard. He’s a giant chickenshit among his endless list of bad qualities. Does the man have a single redeeming feature? I can’t think of one. It would be hard to pick a worse person for president, even if you randomly chose from a pool of death row inmates.

  45. 45.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “You can’t just walk away,” says Q, as she describes the reality of what it’s like to leave a pimp. “There is no just walking away.” In walking away and leaving her exploiter behind, she “blew up”, a phrase used by Emmy nominated film-maker Stephanie Wang-Breal in her new documentary Blowin’ Up. In it, she spotlights the stories of women working in the sex industry with the groundbreaking court they enter after being arrested: Queens human trafficking intervention court.

    “There are so many films that have been made about prostitution and I think that there’s a stereotypical narrative that goes with that kind of film-making,” Wang-Breal said to the Guardian. “I definitely did not want to do that.”

    By focusing on the aforementioned court (the first problem-solving court focused on prostitution created in the US) and the judge who presides over it, Toko Serita, Blowin’ Up does offer a unique narrative.
    ………………
    In the film, all of the defendants, the service providers, prosecutors and Serita all take a hand in doing so for the greater good, acknowledging that help is the first step. Susan Liu, a service provider of the Garden of Hope, says in the film: “I see myself in them. Somehow, I feel like we are the same. I mean, I pray a lot and I feel like my prayers, many of the requests I make to God are the same requests of the women, their wishes when they tell me in session. ‘[I want] somebody to love me, somebody who will never abandon me, somewhere safe, stable housing.’ Basic, basic things like in normal people’s lives. They just want that! And I want that too. Every person wants that.”

  46. 46.

    prob50

    @Betty Cracker:

    It would be hard to pick a worse person for president, even if you randomly chose from a pool of death row inmates.

    That’s a thought that has occurred to me on more than one occasion over the past 2+ years. There has to be millions of Americans over age 35 who would be more suitable.

    OOPS! I sure messed up the blockquote here, didn’t I?

  48. 48.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @prob50: The homeless guy on the Sullivan off ramp with mental issues and a sign that says. “Will work for food” is more suitable than trump. He knows just how shitty life can get thru bad luck alone.

  54. 54.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Despite the ongoing effort to stigmatize Nielsen, two leading Washington-based corporate recruiters told POLITICO she will likely land a well-paid business job. But they both said her baggage could make image-conscious corporations, fearful of boycotts and Twitter backlashes, think twice about hiring her.

    “Image-conscious” private sector companies won’t hire them, but we get stuck with them. They’re unemployable outside 1. the Trump Administration and 2. Fox News.

    Bottom of the barrel.

  57. 57.

    rikyrah

    ????

    Wakandan War Dog (@Kennymack1971) Tweeted:
    A disclaimer: In a vacuum I don’t give a flying fuck about Bernie’s coins. If he ain’t hurting anybody then get paid…my issue is that he’s a fucking hypocrite who rails at others while doing basically the same shit. twitter.com/Kennymack1971/status/1115827656631697408?s=17

    Wakandan War Dog (@Kennymack1971) Tweeted:
    I mean this is the asshole who sat up on that other raggedy motherfucker Thom Hartmann’s radio show and purity trolled President Obama. Took shots at Hillary Clinton…always presented himself as the unsullied by money perfect progressive…and now look.

    Fuck this dude. twitter.com/Kennymack1971/status/1115828478350434304?s=17

  61. 61.

    NotMax

    @Kay

    Bottom of the barrel.

    Heck, at this point the bottom of the barrel is an ever more distant ceiling, receding so fast it’s showing a red shift.

  62. 62.

    Another Scott

    The pedants are slacking off.

    Chewbacca was not among the cherry blossoms in that image. Those are petals from something like a saucer magnolia.

    [eta: I see that Mr. AL already pointed that out. Serves me right for revisiting threads and not reading closely.]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  65. 65.

    Baud

    @NotMax:

    Wouldn’t it be awesome if the picture of the black hole they release this morning is Trump’s official portrait?

  66. 66.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I don’t think it will pass muster. It’s too easy to extend it to everyone who owes a fine or owes the state in some fashion. They almost have to. Why deny just these debtors? It’s endless. Tens of millions of people owe a state or county or the feds money. Just using it for court imposed fines would be huge.

    If they applied it to people who owe child support, there goes half the GOP base.

  71. 71.

    prob50

    @rikyrah: Florida Republicans are advancing what’s effectively a poll tax that many citizens who have completed their felony sentences will never be able to repay, which could disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of potential

    Republicans remind me of John Carpenter’s 1988 movie, “They Live” – Where the ruling class are actually hideous alien creatures who conceal their real appearance through subliminal means.

    Geezus, I did it again – need to go to sleep.

  72. 72.

    gene108

    @Baud:

    Roberts doesn’t want to be Taney 2.0, but that’s where he might end up.

    Might be as bad as Taney, but I think he’s heading towards Plessy v. Ferguson territory, after they come up with bullshit reasons to ban abortion, if he hasn’t already gotten their after gutting the VRA, because racism is over

  74. 74.

    tobie

    I thought it would be perfectly apparent to anyone that Mnuchin telling the House Finance committee that he couldn’t stay past 5:15 for a hearing would be considered an affront but my house guest this week disabused me of this notion. He’s your average Dem from a blue state (Mass), an immigrant, someone devoted to his family and who has little sense of being a member of any other collective. He blurted out when he saw the video of Mnuchin and Maxine Waters, “They’re as bad as my grandchilden. They’re both so rude.” It was impossible to convince him that this wasn’t an issue of ‘both-sides,’ ‘throw the bums out,’ etc. It’s depressing to see that line sink in.

  75. 75.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I don’t care if he has a million dollars. With the salary he made alone he could easily have a million dollars based on just some saving, compounded over a period of years. I would expect him to have a million dollars. I also think it’s perfectly consistent to have some money and also work for a fairer playing field. Millions of large and small D donors do it every day.

    I just think he’s silly and weirdly vain to dodge the issue. The response about the book was dumb too. He makes high 100’s and he’s ancient. He has made a lot of money over 40 years.

  76. 76.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Can you imagine? If payment of fines was a requirement to vote? Tens of millions. A hundred million.

    When I went to renew my driver’s license recently I found out I had an unpaid parking ticket in South Bend 20 years ago. I have NO memory of this – but there it was.

  77. 77.

    Baud

    @tobie:

    It’s safer for a lot of folks to internalize that view. Saves them from having to defend their stance against often hostile pushback. The effect is unfortunately disproportionately harmful to our side. I don’t know how to solve that.

  78. 78.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay:

    If they applied it to people who owe child support, there goes half the GOP base.

    LOL! That’s the truth! One of my dumber Trumpster cousins is always on the wrong side of child support enforcement decisions. He also collects disability checks while taking jobs under the table. Thinks of himself as a law-abiding taxpayer who is under siege by “illegals,” of course.

  80. 80.

    But her emails!!!

    @Baud:
    Smack them upside the head and say “It’s really both our faults. Me for striking you and you for being an obtuse moron.”

  82. 82.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: I’m pretty sure deadbeat donny has more than a few outstanding fines for building code violations.

  83. 83.

    MomSense

    Oh my. I just watched the video of Maxine Waters and Steve Mnuchin… he was completely out of his league.

    And then trump apparently commented at Mt. Vernon that if Washington had been smart he would have put his name on it because no one remembers you if you don’t put your name on stuff.

    How the hell is this real life?

    My kids convinced me to go to the cool hair salon yesterday. It was a lot of fun. I resisted getting a violet fade but she did up my layers game. Also heard some new to me music.

  85. 85.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    Uh oh. I’m pretty sure my kids have driven through the easy pass lanes without an easy pass. Also, too there’s a bridge in Boston that doesn’t have a cash toll option.

  89. 89.

    Just One More Canuck

    @Kay: then there would be no end to the fuckery they could use to suppress the vote. Behind on your property taxes? Sorry. Got a student loan? Too bad.

  91. 91.

    MomSense

    @JPL:

    Did he say that too? Oh FFS the lobby of his stupid tower smells like a pool from all the chlorine they use to keep the tacky 80s water feature (dripping water over a wall of dark mauve granite with ledges for ugly plants) from turning moldy. I’m sorry but even if the food at the cafe there weren’t gross, I could never enjoy a leisurely lunch next to a giant dripping faucet.

  92. 92.

    Immanentize

    Just an observation. The GOS is oddly Bernie-silent today. Folks must be waiting for orders from Central Command.

  93. 93.

    NotMax

    @MomSense

    because no one remembers you if you don’t put your name on stuff.

    Indeed. Who among us would remember Mr. Grand without the canyon, Mr. Brooklyn without the bridge, Mr. Stone without the henge? //

    @ Just One More Canuck

    Will be chalked up to pure coincidence when jaywalking tickets octuple during October of an election year. In certain select neighborhoods. //

  95. 95.

    MomSense

    I’m also laughing about poor Wilmer’s situation. We called his predicament back in 2016 before he finally dropped out. Now I’d still like to see how his campaign responded to those thousands of FEC violations. Only a mediocre white man who is a self identified socialist could get away with calling for tougher election laws while simultaneously not complying with the current ones.

  98. 98.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Immanentize: It’s almost quittin’ time in St. Petersburg.

    I think I’m going to go write a best-selling book. See you folks later.

  101. 101.

    Immanentize

    @rikyrah:
    I love that Mnuchin’s snide threat was worded in a way that allowed Chair Waters to say she accepted his proposal to stay as long as they wanted but he would never come back. Ha! Too bad he didn’t say, “over my dead body.”

  104. 104.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) seemed to forget that “on the record” rules apply no matter voice volume when he whispered his opinion on former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s viability for one of the now-open DHS slots.

    “Don’t go there,” he hissed to a Kansas City Star reporter on his way into a Senate vote. ‘We can’t confirm him.”

    “I never said that to you,” Roberts added hastily.

  105. 105.

    MattF

    @OzarkHillbilly: My dad was a radiologist and -once-, in a long career, saw an x-ray of a ‘reversed’ patient. Bear in mind that he worked at it for thirty years and read a hundred films a day.

    Funny thing, he said– he stared at the film for a while, with the feeling that ‘something’ was amiss– before light dawned. Interesting, because it suggests that radiologists look at details, rather than the gestalt.

    And, yeah, I’m waiting for the black hole image at 9 am.

  106. 106.

    Ian R

    @MomSense: Fun fact: The “swimming pool smell” isn’t chlorine, it’s the result of chlorine reacting with urine. Now think again about that water feature…

  107. 107.

    tobie

    @Baud: I sometimes wonder if the “they’re all crooks” line is appealing because it makes the public feel superior. So many small business owners I know think they’d be much better at handling the federal budget than folks in DC because they’ve got experience balancing their books. It’s crazy-making.

  109. 109.

    LivinginExile

    @tobie: I think the “They’re all crooks” line is just laziness. The people I hear saying that can’t be bothered to spend the time to sort out who is a thief and liar and who isn’t.

  111. 111.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @MattF: I don’t know if you read the article but she had gall bladder surgery once and they were supposed to remove her appendix too, but they couldn’t find it. Apparently this didn’t pique their curiosity because they said nothing of it to the family.

  112. 112.

    tobie

    @LivinginExile: @Baud: The two of you are probably right that the ‘both sides’ argument is appealing because it spares you the trouble of thinking and helps you avoid offending anyone. It’s disturbing that the line would still work when one party is undercutting democracy at every turn.

  113. 113.

    Betty Cracker

    @tobie: Yep, and as we lament here so often, “both sides” is also the Beltway media narrative, so it’s a self-reinforcing bullshit cycle. I don’t know how we break out of it. If the Trump disaster doesn’t do it, will anything, ever?

  115. 115.

    MattF

    @OzarkHillbilly: And, btw, they’ve seen the black hole in M87. 55 million light-years away. They haven’t shown any results from the Milky Way black hole, so maybe that image is still TBD. We shall see.

  117. 117.

    tobie

    @Immanentize: I didn’t know that movie and now I’m not going to watch it! This sense that experts are obfuscators and that wisdom is to be found in the common man is an age-old American tradition. I guess that’s why we love plain-spoken heroes like Will Rogers. But whatever egalitarian spirit this view once embodied, it’s now been turned on its head and has become an excuse for ignorance, incuriosity, provincialism, and bigotry. I think I’m going to start telling people that expertise is overrated and we should have our surgery done by butchers. They know all the parts of the body and can wield a scalpel.

  120. 120.

    laura

    @Betty Cracker: Yes they do! Roadie brother the elder was in Africa in November and got to tour a preserve. If the guides believe it’s safe- because they’ve been fed, you can have a close encounter. Brother got to get within petting distance of lion cubs and a cheetah. The cheetah was rubbing and scratching on his favorite tree and brother said his purring sounded like an idling chain saw. I wish I could add a photo -which scared me to think said cheetah could just make a quick move and tear out his throat whole he was petting and scritching it.

  125. 125.

    tobie

    @rikyrah: Quinnipiac has a new CA poll out which has Harris 3rd behind Biden and Sanders. Buttigieg and Warren are tied for the next spot. Meanwhile the Post continues its wall-to-wall Buttigieg coverage with a 50 minute podcast with him on faith and yet another Rubin op ed plugging him as the way forward for Democrats. I find the media’s love affair with this guy very off-putting, and they may be trying to make me like him but it’s having the opposite effect.

  127. 127.

    BC in Illinois

    @MomSense:

    . . . because no one remembers you if you don’t put your name on stuff. . . .

    In Trump’s case, in (n+k} years,* his name will be on nothing. No buildings, no golf courses, no vodka, no university, no steak, no airline, no football team, no foundation. Nothing.

    I only hope it happens quickly enough that he can see it.

    * My prediction is that his name will be blotted out from everything but court records and historical analyses [ “Failure: The Donald Trump Story” ] within 3 -5 years. His name may live on in figures of speech. [ “He did a Trump on them . . .” ]

  129. 129.

    Tenar Arha

    @rikyrah: I’m gonna say that the man is totally shameless, though public opprobrium in restaurants did put him off his food. OTOH I want the name of every scummy guy at that seminar at the press club who chuckled at that “joke” bc maybe, just maybe, they still feel enough shame that they’d learn something.

  130. 130.

    rikyrah

    @tobie:

    I find the media’s love affair with this guy very off-putting, and they may be trying to make me like him but it’s having the opposite effect.

    Uh huh
    Uh huh

  131. 131.

    Betty

    @prob50: Funny you should mention that. When my brother was little, he used to confuse the two. There is a state pen in the same area as Penn State. Maybe you knew that?

  133. 133.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense: My niece got the violet fade and I so wish I could do that, too, but I think maybe I’m too old. :-(

    You should definitely do it!

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