Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Republicans in disarray!

ha ha ha! Nice try weird people.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

“They not like us!” (that’s for sure!)

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Republicans don’t trust women.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Respite Open Thread: Listen to a Real Leader Tonight

Reader Interactions

147Comments

  4. 4.

    The Dangerman

    The Blue Angels flew? I thought they were scrubbed for weather?

    I missed it all because I took a nap. I think I win. Now for beer, beef, and Dodgers (Win x 3)

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Say what you will about Georgia — and gods know I do, often and noisily — it’s no bad thing to live in a state that can boast both Jimmy Carter and John Lewis. I’ve been lucky enough to have met both men, multiple times, but I’d feel the same even if I had only ever seen them on TV.

    Happy Fourth of July!

  6. 6.

    MagdaInBlack

    My day has been made:
    I was sitting on the balcony reading, when a dad and 2 little girls came out, girls dressed in red white and blue sundresses. The older one, I’d guess 8 y/o, stopped, spread her arms and sang Happy Birthday America followed by throwing a kiss ?

    I’ve lived here long enough to watch those girls grow, they are bilingual, as are most of the kids here. Their parents are all Eastern European*

    *Please be forgiving if that description is incorrect usage.

  8. 8.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Exciting times at Old People Central this noon. I saw two old ladies nearly get in a slap fight in the café. One was a dark haired lady who pushes her dog around in her walker, and the other was a white haired lady who’s often sitting by herself near the fireplace in the lobby. The white haired lady was ordering food and the dark-haired one came up beside her and asked if the soup was included with the buffet. The white-haired lady says “Don’t interrupt!” and kind of slaps her hand back near the dark-haired woman’s chest though she doesn’t land the blow. The dark-haired one says, “Don’t touch me!” Eventually she retreats.

    Then someone’s aide comes up and reaches over the counter to get something and the white-haired lady actually pushes her aside and says “You’re reaching right in front of me”

    Holy cow.

  12. 12.

    NotMax

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Seems to have dropped down the memory hole, which leads to wondering if there was something in it which wouldn’t pass muster today.

  13. 13.

    Mnemosyne

    For folks who have Turner Classic Movies on their cable system, 1776, the best musical ever made about the signing of the Declaration of Independence, starts at 10:15 pm EDT / 7:15 pm PDT.

    It’s long, but the new director’s cut keeps it at a snappy pace and the central trio of William Daniels, Howard Da Silva, and Ken Howard as Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson is a hoot.

  16. 16.

    laura

    I’m having a lie down, feet up for a moment, tato and rice salads made and chilling, deviled egg slurry is in the ziplock awaiting piping at the party destination and the big ole bag of sloughouse corn is in grab and go status. Friends, food, fireworks await.
    Wishing all a happy 4th however you are marking the occasion.

  17. 17.

    Mike in NC

    Hard to believe not that long ago we had such an eloquent president, not the current moron who talks like an angry drunk at the end of the bar.

  19. 19.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    I honestly haven’t thought of it in (*mumblemumble*) years. It may well be that something in it would be perfectly acceptable to early 1950s audiences but offensive, or at least inartfully phrased, to 21st-century ears. Would have to watch the whole thing again.

  20. 20.

    MomSense

    @Mnemosyne:

    Did you feel the earthquake today?

    I’m home from a nice party. Kid ended up at a friend’s house tonight so I’m having a quiet evening with To Catch a Thief.

  22. 22.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    Fun fact: Virginia Vestoff, who portrayed Abigail Adams both on Broadway and in the film, was a Randroid.

    She was a good solid actress, and died of cancer way too young (early 40s, IIRC).

  26. 26.

    NotMax

    @Dorothy A. Winsor

    Yuppers. From a book of the same name published during the 30s.

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Memory of it ultra-hazy as well. Perhaps Mnemosyne might offer something? Used to pop up annually around this time; seems to be out of rotation now.

  31. 31.

    Immanentize

    @MomSense:

    Robie: Say something nice to her, Danielle.
    Danielle: She looks a lot older, up close.
    Robie: Ohhh –
    Francie: To a mere child, anything over twenty might seem old.
    Danielle: A child? Shall we stand in shallower water and discuss that?

  32. 32.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    From a book of the same name published during the 30s.

    I read the book some years before I saw the movie. By Robert Lawson (who also wrote the story about Ferdinand the Bull, which Disney also adapted as a short-subject cartoon).

  33. 33.

    germy

    PBS News Hour did a segment on trumps tank rally. The weather looked fine. Big crowd. They spoke to some non-VIP attendees and they were excited to be there.

    I just checked WaPo, and there’s a photo of the jets flying over the Memorial.

    So am I living in a bubble, reading all these accounts of torrential rain, no jets, and no crowds?

  34. 34.

    NotMax

    Going to watch The Lost Missile on Prime later on today. Cheesy to da max B-movie apocalypse is nigh science fiction made on a fraction of a shoestring budget. But it takes itself so earnestly, so seriously, it mostly works.

  37. 37.

    Another Scott

    @germy: The thunderstorms weren’t continuous and have pretty much moved on.

    The first tweet that I saw (yesterday?) talking about the planes being grounded also said that there were “gale force” winds forecast (and that was never the case). So, it was probably wishful thinking, or someone wanting some twitter fame…

    HTH!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  39. 39.

    germy

    “Even though everybody has different opinions,” said Kevin Malton, a Trump supporter from Middlesboro, Kentucky, “everybody’s getting along.”

    But Daniela Guray, a 19-year-old from Chicago who held a “Dump Trump” sign, said she was subjected to a racial epithet while walking along the Constitution Avenue parade route and told to go home.

    She said she did not come to the Mall to protest but ended up doing so. “I started seeing all the tanks with all the protests and that’s when I said, ‘Wait, this is not an actual Fourth of July,'” she said. “Trump is making it his day rather than the Fourth of July.”

    Associated Press

  41. 41.

    Baud

    @germy:

    I haven’t heard any accounts of Trump saying anything especially offensive. I guess that’s a plus.

  42. 42.

    opiejeanne

    @germy: I am equally confused. I heard it was pouring and there was a flood watch in the area, and that the Blue Angels had canceled. And I’ve seen photos that showed almost no one there and a couple that showed a big crowd.

    I think we need an explanation from someone reliable.

  43. 43.

    Raven

    We went to a couple of gatherings and got home in time to take care of the pups when the ordnance starts.

  45. 45.

    opiejeanne

    @Baud: He mentioned the US taking over the airports in a portion of the speech that seemed to refer to the War of 1812.

  46. 46.

    germy

    @opiejeanne: This is why I think I’m living in a bubble. I read stuff and I reach conclusions, and then those conclusions seem contrary to what I observe later.

    I got a taste of that in 2004, when I read all sorts of progressives who told me W was toast. … And then he beat Kerry, and I was astounded.

    I wonder if it’s like the teaparty types who were convinced Obama and Holder and Clinton would be locked up any day now, for Fast and Furious or Benghazi… and now they’re confused this hasn’t happened.

  47. 47.

    opiejeanne

    @Baud: Yeah, well I’m so cynical these days I thought the big crowd photos were for some other event, like so many others we’ve seen that were actually sports crowds and not rally attendees. I don’t trust them.

  49. 49.

    Baud

    @opiejeanne:

    Sounds more daft than offensive.

    @opiejeanne:

    Don’t know. There’s usually always a crowd there for the 4th of July festivities. I haven’t gone to look at the photos.

  50. 50.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Raven: we are busy handing out our traditional July 4 hors d’oeuvres: Benadryl wrapped in cheese

  51. 51.

    Baud

    @germy:

    There’s a bubble. Unlike the right, we usually filter most of it out over time. But initial hot takes are often pretty off.

  52. 52.

    NotMax

    @opiejeanne

    Dolly Madison: An aerodrome? What’s that? Looks like any other field to me.

    Entrepreneur: It may not look like much now, but just you wait. Gonna be a BFD. Talk it up to Jemmy, would ya?

    :)

  53. 53.

    Mnemosyne

    @MomSense:

    Yep, even though we’re pretty far from the epicenter. It was two good-sized quakes in quick succession, so it seemed to last fairly long.

    We didn’t so much as have anything fall over, though. It did give the cats a good scare.

  54. 54.

    Jay

    The Metropolitan DC police escorted the Proud Boys around town &then to the conservative hang out Harry's. They even asked for directions and told them they'd protect them wherever they wanted to go. One officer even joined them in their "I Like Beer" chant. for @NationofChange pic.twitter.com/gcnfnO9kmk— Zach D Roberts (@zdroberts) July 4, 2019

  57. 57.

    plato

    Wait, they put shitty chain-link fences across the Reflecting Pool — in the water?! Nothing screams "American greatness" like obstructing the beauty of that spot with cages he normally uses for prison camps. https://t.co/o24NktS6BG— Bob Cesca (@bobcesca_go) July 4, 2019

  58. 58.

    opiejeanne

    @Baud: Now some reliable reporters are showing pictures that show a decent crowd, and saying that it stopped raining for a while.

  59. 59.

    germy

    @NotMax: Here’s another example: comment #53 mentions the proud boys.

    Now whenever some here mentions RW citizens, immediately everyone makes jokes about them showing up on hoverounds. As if all RWNJs are geriatric and pathetic. But then I see photos of the proud boys, and they look rather tough and dangerous to me.

  60. 60.

    Ruckus

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:
    Had a somewhat similar experience on Monday, getting off the Metro train at the end of the line. Extremely rude woman probably 20-25 yrs younger than me, pushed through the entire car load of people to get to a seat for a train that wasn’t leaving for at least 10 minutes. I’ve seen worse on the EL in Chicago.

  61. 61.

    plato

    bj is the only site that won’t let my phone turn off the display in sleep mode. unsticky sign-ins. new comments not showing up. time travel. blog is fucked up in so any levels.

  62. 62.

    Baud

    @opiejeanne:

    I’m watching PBS, and their showing their normal 4th program at the Capitol. Just finished. No Trump, except for the over the top fireworks.

  63. 63.

    zhena gogolia

    @MomSense:

    Me too. One day I thought I was nauseated. It passed in a few minutes, and later I heard the news that we’d had an earthquake.

    I saw San Francisco (1936) at an impressionable age. It’s my biggest fear.

  64. 64.

    opiejeanne

    @Baud: Definitely daft.

    From a friend: “…that the army of the revolution—after snatching victory from that noted uniform designer Cornwallis of Yorktown—won the war because they “manned the air, rammed the ramparts, and took over the airports.”

    I’ll say, we really rammed those ramparts.

  68. 68.

    Ruckus

    @Mike in NC:
    It might be better if he was an actual drunk. We could all buy him drinks till he passes out and wouldn’t have to listen to him. Has the added benefit of making him unable to fuck up a lot of stuff the next day.

  69. 69.

    Mnemosyne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I had not heard that, but you would be in the know about that. We did get to see a screening of the film with its director a few years ago and he mostly had stories about Howard Da Silva. Apparently one of the producers had made a false promise to Da Silva early on that he would get to direct the show, so he was an asshole pretty much throughout the run of the whole thing. But he did make a humble apology when they considered recasting his role for the film and was an angel for the filming.

    @NotMax:

    I honestly don’t remember ever seeing it, which is weird since I remember a ton of other Disney short films, like the Paul Bunyan and Pecks Bill ones. It may show up on Disney+ since they’re emptying out the vaults to have enough programming for that.

  70. 70.

    TomatoQueen

    The Boston show continues on Bloomberg tv, very nice stream, while PBS ends with The Washington Post march and sparklies, ending at the Iwo Jima statue (which some of us call 4 or 5 Crazy Guys…)

  71. 71.

    Mnemosyne

    We got sucked into Yankee Doodle Dandy on TCM. Not my favorite 40s musical, but it moves quickly.

    Apparently the actress who plays his wife was 16 going on 17 while they were shooting, so they had to organize the schedule around her high school classes.

  72. 72.

    germy

    @Baud: old conservative fox viewers, yes

    But these “alt right” characters with their OK symbols and their online hacking and tricks. They’re a different breed of cat. And they’re infiltrating the police and military.

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    @MomSense:

    I kind of froze during this one because I wouldn’t decide where to shelter. The last time one hit while I was at work, I was under my desk before I had time to think about it.

  78. 78.

    Baud

    Josh Marshall’s take

    For all the build-up, the actual Trump Lincoln Memorial speech was pretty tame – smallish crowd, pretty unremarkable speech. At least on camera the military hardware was basically invisible. In the event, it was two tanks and two fighting vehicles parked nearby the speech. They made occasional cameos. The Blue Angels came at the end.

    To the degree there was news, it was that Trump didn’t go off script. Reportedly, White House staffers were petrified that Trump would go off script and turn the event into a MAGA rally. That didn’t happen. The speech was similar to the State of the Union speeches Trump has given. Trump tone but pretty standard speechifying.

    The whole thing was pretty standard.

  79. 79.

    Martin

    Taking a rest before fireworks. Ate too much as usual. What a wonderful holiday. I’m glad the founders didn’t declare our independence in February – they got the time of year just right.

  80. 80.

    opiejeanne

    @Baud: That sounds nice. How’s the music? Having been a band geek I love some of Sousa’s stuff, and if there’s a good piccolo quartet for the bit after the dogfight in Stars and Stripes Forever I’m in heaven. I’ve been privileged to hear many other fine pieces at concerts on the 4th. Two summers ago we were in Bozeman, Montana and they had a fabulous orchestra and put on a free concert near our hotel. We walked to the fairground and the place was packed. It was great.

    We’re watching a baseball game right now. It’s been remarkably quiet here today. Aside from someone setting off a string of firecrackers this morning we haven’t heard anything, and this place is usually like a war zone. The cat was with us in the garden and got that strange expression on her face that says, “What the heck?” but she didn’t run. We’re staying in tonight with the beasts.

  82. 82.

    Martin

    @Mnemosyne: I was sitting at my patio table monitoring the barbecue – pretty sweet place to be for an earthquake – sitting, outside, with nothing to fall on me. Had long enough sight lines to see things swaying, so I could mostly just sit there and see how long it would go on for.

  83. 83.

    ThresherK

    I would like PBS to stop using “This is a Great Country”, which I’ve heard in maybe four of their annual fests. It is sooo not one of his better songs on the subject. I’d even rather “Song of Freedom” or “Let’s Say it with Firecrackers” from Holiday Inn.

  84. 84.

    Ruckus

    @opiejeanne:
    Don’t forget that 70 million “adults” voted for the shitgibbon. We had one guy at work who was trying to talk everyone into voting for him. Except me of course. I think he understood that doing that might not get the response that he wanted. I wonder how many people voted for him because someone they knew is a closet racist and thought that having him represent them would be the greatest thing ever – and they really didn’t know any better because our media does such a wonderful job of informing the citizens.

  85. 85.

    Steeplejack

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    She was a good solid actress, and died of cancer way too young [. . .].

    That’s what the Randroidism does to you.

    “Fun fact”? Phrasing!

  86. 86.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

    ***

    When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body — it’s a blessing.

    When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed — that’s the finest I know.

    So, I close in saying that I might have been given a bad break, but I’ve got an awful lot to live for.

    Lou Gehrig

    July 4, 1939

  87. 87.

    Mnemosyne

    @opiejeanne:

    It’s a little hard to say since they apparently shut down the camera on the Washington Memorial, but it wasn’t a complete wash-out. Mediocre event, boring speech. It was only “successful” because it wasn’t the expected total clusterfuck.

  88. 88.

    Dan B

    @opiejeanne: Lots of folks were wearing t-shirts or photos of JFK Jr. because they were certain he was going to return to prosecute the Demonrats child sex slavery.

    War of 1812 airports wouldn’t phase em in the least.

  89. 89.

    NotMax

    @TomatoQueen

    There’s a story told that when Sousa returned from a European tour he was asked how it was received, and replied the one thing he found bothersome was that at the end of every concert the audience would shout (affects Germanic accent) “Play der Washington Post!”

  90. 90.

    Steeplejack

    @germy:

    So am I living in a bubble, reading all these accounts of torrential rain, no jets, and no crowds?

    All of those were predictions/​wishes, not what actually happened.

    There was no rain on Trump’s actual speech, there was a crowd—couldn’t really tell how big—and various aircraft did perfunctory flyovers. End of story.

  91. 91.

    jl

    @opiejeanne: ” He mentioned the US taking over the airports in a portion of the speech that seemed to refer to the War of 1812. ”

    Brits pulled that off because they had more brand new Sherman tanks than we did. A lesson for us today.

  92. 92.

    plato

    Chants of “USA, USA” broke out sporadically as he spoke.

    At least, bbc doesn’t have a shrilly 48 point headline on how totus thug’s ‘event’ was a yuuuge success.

  93. 93.

    NotMax

    @opiejeanne

    we haven’t heard anything, and this place is usually like a war zone

    Same here. Usually people in the neighborhood jumping the gun in the days and nights leading up to the 4th. This year, zilch.

  95. 95.

    plato

    Also, too.

    Mr Trump was joined by a Pentagon delegation that was led by the highest-ranking US military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford.

    But the service chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps did not attend.

    The defence department said in a statement it had received 5,000 tickets from the White House. The White House also distributed VIP tickets to major donors and political appointees, amid reported concerns that empty seats might be visible.

    Mr Trump’s re-election campaign sent out an email this week encouraging supporters to attend the event. But the Democratic National Committee has been given no tickets.

  97. 97.

    TomatoQueen

    @NotMax: The Post and Sousa are forever entwined. The old Post building (1150 15th St, NW, recently blown up) had an employees’ meeting area called the Sousa Room, decorated with 1890s murals. I wonder what’s in its place in the new building. Arlo is now playing Goodman’s Hymn (City of New Orleans) backed up by the Pops. Lockhart, the band shell, white jackets, full orchestral treatment.

  99. 99.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @germy: Here’s Raw Story – it sounds like the speech was a bust, the rain drove the crowds away, but they came back for the fireworks/annual Capitol show. So that may be the discrepancy in photos.

    There is also an awful photo of Melania in a wet, clingy white dress, braless. I won’t link to it, but can you imagine if Michelle.. oh nevermind…Mrs. Obama has taste and class.

    https://www.rawstory.com/2019/07/internet-showers-trump-in-ridicule-after-his-mall-speech-turns-into-a-rain-soaked-mess-this-has-become-an-snl-parody/

  101. 101.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    Four of us actually went into work for half a day today and I was standing and started feeling woozy at the first one we could feel. Then the second one hit and I knew what it was. My boss asked me if I had PTSD from the Northridge quake. Which was 25 yrs ago. On an earlier thread someone asked me about the quakes and I looked it up on the USGS site. There have been 124 quakes/aftershakes over 2.5 in the same area since the first, which was at 10:02, with the biggie at 10:32.

  103. 103.

    TaMara (HFG)

    We are getting rained out here. Glad I made the decision for a quiet 4th. Last year I was everywhere doing everything, tonight hanging with the critters is just as nice.

  104. 104.

    plato

    @Baud: Pretty much. If it had been otherwise, the rw wurlitzer machine would have cranked up the cacophony by now.

    Yet another shitgibbon’s shitshow with hardly 24 hour shelf life.

  106. 106.

    JR

    @germy: I mean, don’t get caught up in the silly shit. Trump had a lot of people vote for him. Even if he loses by the largest margin in history he will still have had 40+ million voters. Harping on shit like crowd size is just missing the point.

  107. 107.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @Raven: @Steve in the ATL: I went with valium at half a mg/kg because we’re so close to Red, White, and Blue Ash and its big pro fireworks show, plus a smaller one at the town 1/2 mile away. So Harry’s reasonably relaxed.

  108. 108.

    opiejeanne

    @Dan B: Q believers. Every time I notice them I immediately think of that annoying character from Star Trek.

  109. 109.

    NotMax

    @ TaMara (HFG)

    Melania in a wet, clingy white dress, braless

    Oy, there goes the appetite. Is this a part of the Food Goddess’ new diet plan?

    :)

  110. 110.

    Suzanne

    We are staying in tonight. Having a new Spawn is a perfect excuse to avoid doing something that I don’t really enjoy but endure every year out of a sense of tradition and parental obligation, and that is to go see fireworks. I like the fireworks themselves, but I hate dealing with the crowds, and the parking, and the schlepping, and especially the heat. Spawn the Younger is going with a friend, and Spawn the Elder feels the same way about fireworks that I do, so he and Mr. Suzanne will have fun with sparklers out in the front yard. Spawn the Youngest is chillin’ here on my lap with a boob in her mouth: AMERICA.

  114. 114.

    Baud

    @plato:

    I’m not so sure. You saw a lot of awful reactionary people in the 60s and 70s. Reagan-Bush sated them for a bit. They really began to crack with Bill Clinton. Bush and 9/11 helped distract them for a while, but Obama broke them completely.

  115. 115.

    randy khan

    We just watched the end of A Capitol Fourth, which always shows the DC fireworks display and it was, if this can be believed, too many fireworks. At some points the smoke obscured the illuminations.

    On the crowds, it’s worth noting that the Lincoln Memorial crowd for Trump’s extravaganza was essentially completely separate from the Mall/Washington Monument crowd there for the fireworks. It would be a huge shock if the Mall crowd weren’t enormous. The photos I saw from the Lincoln Memorial, including one showing part of the VIP section after the, ah, festivities had begun, seemed to suggest that area was not particularly crowded, but I guess we’ll find out. (Also, it doesn’t seem like that particular spot would have been ideal for seeing the fireworks.)

  116. 116.

    Spanky

    @germy:

    So am I living in a bubble, reading all these accounts of torrential rain, no jets, and no crowds?

    We’re about 10 miles southeast of Andrews AFB, and the flyovers typically form up around here. I got FOUR flyovers! So there! Also too, stealth aircraft are really damned loud.

    And for what it’s worth, we’re having a thunderstorm right now. Too late for Drumpf, though.

  117. 117.

    opiejeanne

    @NotMax: @NotMax: We don’t know what has happened here before today. We just got home from a visit to Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, 20 minutes in Louisiana, and an hour in Arkansas while heading back to KC from Memphis. There were fireworks stands in almost every church and automotive parking lot, and twice as many when we got back to Missouri. We got back home this morning and we’re having a bit of trouble with the time change. It was a great trip and now we’re glad to be home again.

  119. 119.

    plato

    cock fight, french style.

    Rooster Maurice in noisy French court battle with neighbours.

    A rooster named Maurice, whose early-morning crowing got under the skin of his neighbours, has become the focus of a court battle in France.

    The cockerel has been accused of causing noise pollution by a retired couple with a holiday home on the picturesque French island of Oléron.

    His owner, Corinne Fesseau, says her cock is simply doing what cocks do.

    Neither Maurice nor his accusers were present at court in the western town of Rochefort for proceedings on Thursday.

    But the rooster, who has become something of a local celebrity, received a show of support from cockerel owners who had gathered outside the court building.

    For Ms Fesseau, and her supporters in the local community, the issue is simple – cockerels are part of the rural way-of-life, and is it unreasonable to demand an end to their crowing.

    The whiners sound like trumpets, no?

  124. 124.

    NotMax

    Summer camp where worked was part of a tradition observed by all the residents of houses and cottages surrounding the lake. Everyone was provided with road flares, which were lit at an appointed time after sunset, spaced about 100 yards apart along the shoreline of the whole lake.

    @Suzanne

    fun with sparklers

    Once they’ve burned out and cooled down, one can dip them in flour, shake off the excess, and get a second (albeit shorter) life out of them. Worked with the ones from long ago kiddiehood.

  129. 129.

    lamh36

    BREAKING: West Virginia coal tycoon Chris Cline is dead after a helicopter crash in the Bahamas.
    wvnstv.com/top-stories/wv…

  130. 130.

    Steeplejack

    @lamh36:

    This is kind of bullshit. Yes, Steve King is an idiot, but I’m not sure “encyclopedic knowledge of movies and pop culture” is a good qualification for members of Congress. With the volume of communications they get on a daily basis, I’m sure most politicians could be tripped up in a similar way.

    ETA: “Most politicians” or their staff members who actually handle emails, tweets, etc.

  133. 133.

    OldDave

    @opiejeanne:

    and an hour in Arkansas while heading back to KC from Memphis.

    Out of curiosity, was this on I-55 or Arkansas state highways to Popular Bluff or some other route that avoided going back through St. Louis?

  134. 134.

    patrick II

    Just came back from the firework display . I always enjoy them, but I have to say I liked them better before they “enhanced” the experience by adding loud music. The sound of the fireworks, the Crowd’s oohs and abs and applause was better.

  135. 135.

    Jean

    He gave a 3rd grader’s book report on moments in American History, losing his place, I guess, and conflating events:

    “In June of 1775 the Continental Congress created a unified Army out of the Revolutionary Forces encamped around Boston and New York, and named after the great George Washington, commander in chief,” Trump read in his speech. “The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware and seized victory from Cornwallis at Yorktown. Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over airports, it did everything it had to do and at Ft. McHenry under the rocket’s red glare had nothing but victory. When dawn came, the star-spangled banner waved defiant.”

    Remember that great battle at Concourse A where Washington flew out of harm’s way in a Boeing jet?

  136. 136.

    Steeplejack

    @Another Scott:

    @KenKlippenstein? That’s who it came from.

    To be fair, the first screen capture of this that I saw didn’t include the picture of Jack Nicholson.

  137. 137.

    Jean

    And yes, he was reading behind a sheet of plexiglass with rain drops streaming down. The optics were not good.

  138. 138.

    FlipYrWhig

    Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over airports, it did everything it had to do

    I’d wager quite a sum that all it said on the prompter was “Our Army manned the ramparts,” but he has no idea what a “rampart” is, so first he misread it, then he desperately tried to turn it back into words he knows have something to do with Army Stuff.

  141. 141.

    opiejeanne

    @OldDave: We were on a roughly diagonal line from Memphis to Lebanon, MO. A short bit of it was on 55 and 555 but after that it was mostly little roads, like 63 and 60, then really little roads like H and TT. The GPS completely lost us for a while and I managed to keep us on the route using a folding map we picked up at a rest stop. It seems as if a good third of rural Missouri is for sale, little old houses on acreage too far from a town with good jobs, or Grandpa is now in a home and none of the kids wants the house. The places that had avoided the temptation to mow everything had fields of flowers, cow parsley, Black-eyed Susans, and blue, pink and lavedar I don’t know what. Some really glossy, beautiful black Angus in some of the fields, but mostly rusting farm equipment in the yards and the house falling down after being empty for just a couple of years.

  142. 142.

    Steeplejack

    @Another Scott:

    Screen capture from the original author of the gotcha:

    People keep asking if the Steve King tweet is real (fair) so here’s an archived copy @jordanuhl managed to get: https://t.co/NisY30BYof

    — Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) July 5, 2019

    ETA: Here’s the one that you apparently saw:

    I took one with the name change https://t.co/0c3mlP8HIn

    — Dan Nguyen (@dancow) July 5, 2019

    I suspect that Klippenstein changed his nym to heighten the humor value. And then the thing went viral, so maybe he has some ‘splainin to do.

  143. 143.

    Steeplejack

    1. Regarding reliable sources:

    Daniel Dale on Trump’s gaffe about the 19th-century Army “taking over the airports”:

    Appearing to have some reading trouble, Trump said that the army “took over the airports” during a part of his speech about its actions in the 1700s and early 1800s, when there were not airports or airplanes. pic.twitter.com/fgr8rXBGnD

    — Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 4, 2019

    If you watched the speech—as I did, God have mercy on me—it was clear that it was yet another example of Trump misreading his teleprompter and tossing a little word salad to cover it, not “OMG, he thought they had airplanes—he’s mad, quite mad!”

  144. 144.

    Steeplejack

    2. Regarding reliable sources:

    @Jean:

    [. . .] he was reading behind a sheet of plexiglass with rain drops streaming down.

    The sheet of plexiglass was a good distance in front of Trump, not right in front of him, as a foreshortened camera perspective seems to show. There are streaks of rain on it left over from the earlier rain, but nothing dripping down during Trump’s speech. There’s a three-minute video at this PBS page clearly showing this. At about 1:10, Judy Woodruff (who says it’s raining!) goes to Yamiche Alcindor live at the speech. Alcindor is outside, and it’s clearly not raining on her or on the crowd behind her. Close-ups of Trump during the speech also showed no rain falling.

  145. 145.

    Steeplejack

    3. Regarding reliable sources:

    @TaMara (HFG):

    That Raw Story piece is heavily slanted. I watched parts of the speech on both C-SPAN and Fox—the only two networks to carry it live, as far as I know—and neither had Trump obscured by the rain-streaked plexiglass. And there was no rain visibly falling. Raw Story is using video from some other source.

    I didn’t see a photograph of Melania in that story, so perhaps you were referring to one you saw somewhere else. From what I saw in the live coverage, Melania arrived dry and not discernably braless to this reasonably observant and horndoggy male.

  146. 146.

    Steeplejack

    4. Regarding reliable sources:

    Finally, a lot of people are wondering about the discrepancies between the reports of hellish weather, flyovers canceled and no crowds vs. clear skies, visible flyovers and a good-sized crowd. There was a lot of misinformation going around earlier this week. The right wing doesn’t have a monopoly on jokers, edgelords and liars. This was passed around a lot:

    Latest DC weather for the 4th. Thunderstorms and strong gale force winds. Low ceilings. Blue Angels already washed out. Trucks with tanks may not be able to go near mud. Total washout.

    — ernest lamonica (@ErnestLamonica) July 2, 2019

    Asked “Is this real, or you just trying to cheer me up?,” he replied, “Real as it gets.”

    There was also a viral (unsourced) photograph of some sort of military vehicle on a flatbed trailer stalled because it couldn’t get under an overpass. That also got a lot of play, despite the fact that the vehicles were brought in by rail and were already in D.C.

    People tend to see what they want to see. It’s a danger that we are not immune to just because our cause is good and our hearts are pure.

  147. 147.

    Raven

    Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
    Out by the gas fires of the refinery
    I’m ten years burning down the road
    Nowhere to run ain’t got nowhere to go

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