Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

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

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Good lord, these people are nuts.

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

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. Do not congratulate. This is not business as usual.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Wednesday Night Open Thread

Wednesday Night Open Thread

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(World’s most tolerant husky)

It me, right now…

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88Comments

  2. 2.

    Inventor

    Cancer succumbs to the might of the Notorious R.B.G.
    She starts the new year cancer free and with an industrial sized can of Whoop-Ass!

  4. 4.

    Kent

    Brexit is just the Trumpiest thing ever.

    You have a passport that allows you unlimited opportunity to work, study, and live in 27 of the wealthiest and most developed countries in the history of the world.

    You are going to tear that up and throw it away to “own” the Polish plumbers that come to do the work you don’t want to do.  And because of the untapped economic opportunities in Birmingham, Leeds, and Liverpool.

  5. 5.

    Gin & Tonic, Duke of Tanqueray

    Been very busy, but time for a nightcap at one of my favorite cocktail lounges, The Dearborn.

  6. 6.

    FelonyGovt

    Nice to see that there IS such a thing as a Barbie Science Lab these days. Barbies weren’t  allowed to do stuff like that when I was a kid.

  7. 7.

    AliceBlue

    @Inventor: I was watching the evening news earlier, and the anchor intoned in a serious voice “and after the break some news about Ruth Bader Ginsburg” and I started hyperventilating and thinking “ohshitohshitohshit.”

    What a relief to know it’s good news.

     

     

    @Inventor:

  8. 8.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @FelonyGovt: Barbies weren’t allowed to do stuff like that when I was a kid.

    It was very hush hush in those days, but how do you think she made Ken?

  9. 9.

    Ken

    @Kent: The alternative would be to obey the new EU rules requiring financial disclosure, and no one wants to do that.  Well, no one who donates large sums to the Tories.

  10. 10.

    John Revolta

    @AliceBlue: Assholes do that on purpose. They know that no way are you changing the channel after that.

    Also: that poor hedgehog looks just like I feel at the end of a typical news cycle nowdays. I wanna go back to No Drama!

  12. 12.

    Kent

    @Ken:@Kent: The alternative would be to obey the new EU rules requiring financial disclosure, and no one wants to do that.  Well, no one who donates large sums to the Tories.

    Poetic justice would be President Warren DEMANDING even stronger financial disclosure rules as part of any new US-UK trade agreement to save their economy from the ashes.   And the EU doing the same.  Heh….

  13. 13.

    jl

    ” a Barbie Science Lab for Christmas which is essentially a Barbie Breaking Bad starter kit. ”

    But where is the Ken and Barbie SWAT team?

  14. 14.

    Kay (not the front-pager)

    I just love the large dog who gingerly finds an edge of the dog bed to lie on so as not to disturb the entitled cat sleeping dead center. It reminds me of the second heated dog bed my son bought for his hairless chihuahua. The idea was that the cat that likes to bully him can’t sleep in 2 beds at once, so he at least would have someplace warm to sleep. It works, but only if the cat thinks he’s sleeping in the bed the dog really wants to be in.

    To be fair, the cats were very patient with the dog for a long time, thinking eventually he would grow up. They have decided that at 11 years old he is no longer a kitten (or dog equivalent) and they are no longer cutting him any slack.

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    Love the kitty and the husky, and the deflated hedgehog!  Do we think the hedgehog is real?

  18. 18.

    Mnemosyne

    Because I rarely have a significant fever and I don’t have kids who would get them, I had forgotten that my thermometer makes a very concerned “chirp” when I have anything over a 100 degree fever.

    So, yeah, Day 2 of the flu has been going swimmingly, and I’m still mad that the flu shot I got in October didn’t include this strain. ?

  19. 19.

    The Dangerman

    @Kent:

    Brexit is just the Trumpiest thing ever.

    This summer, Trump will probably be extolling the wonders of Brexit just about the time the riots start.

  25. 25.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I really hated “The Graduate” when I was younger, but now I see it as a tragedy about Mrs. Robinson, who allowed herself to be trapped into a bad marriage and takes her resentment out on everyone around her. That whole scene when Benjamin gets her to admit that she had to drop out of college because she got pregnant is … ooof. And Anne Bancroft carries it off like no one else could have.

  27. 27.

    Kay

    This is good, about Australia. You’ll recognize all of it as also happening in the US. Different issues, same response:

    The people in power will let your country burn
    The response from the Australian government and media to the country’s unprecedented fires are a bleak vision of everyone’s future

    No one is being told to calm down anymore. The smug reassurances have given way to blind panic as it comes apparent that not even the friendly media can shield the government from the rising ire of the public. But even as the army is called in to assist in the relief effort, even as Morrison agrees to pay volunteer firefighters, even as a two billion dollar recovery fund is pledged, the government refuses to alter its climate change policy.

  28. 28.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kay:

    Conservatives really believed it when they said that they could make their own reality, but some things are big enough to cut through the bullshit.

    I hope the opposition parties in Australia are up to the challenge and don’t get caught up in petty bickering.

  30. 30.

    spudgun

    @Mnemosyne: Ugh, how frustrating. A cold is one thing, but nothing makes a difference with flu – it’s just feeling really shitty 24/7 for several days (although I find hot & sour or tom yum soup sometimes gives me a very brief respite). Hope it passes soon.

  31. 31.

    Josie

    The patient husky and the cat remind me of my son’s pug and my late wonderful akbash (140 pounds) sharing a large bed, which they divided exactly in half.  It never occurred to Emma that Teddi was somewhat larger than she was.

  32. 32.

    Another Scott

    Yay RGB! RBG!!

    RIP Buck.  :-(

    In other news…

    Run back Facebook did today.They bought a story in a publication, pretended it wasn’t sponsored, their COO posted it, then when they got caught, they denied knowing anything about it.And what was that ad/story about?Their commitment to stopping disinformation.Incredible.— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) January 9, 2020

    Of course. It’s what FB does.

    Grr…

    (via nycsouthpaw)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  33. 33.

    Biff Longbotham

    What’s up with these people that leave a full car length (or more!) between their car and the one in front when stopped at a light! Is this just a Virginia thing? I never saw this back in Chi-Raq.

  35. 35.

    Kay

    @Mnemosyne:

     

    I just want them to be infamous- loathed historical figures. Rupert Murdoch, blamed, not just short term but long after he dies. I feel they’ve earned that kind of place in history. “These are the people who destroyed their own countries during this period”:

    It’s difficult to overstate the influence and vitriol of the conservative media in Australia. The Murdoch press enjoys one of the world’s densest concentrations of media ownership here

  37. 37.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I don’t believe Russia, or anyone, has dirt on Lindsey Graham, but he seems to want to encourage those rumors

    Acyn Torabi‏ @Acyn
    Lindsey Graham says Trump’s speech from this morning will be remembered long after his second term. He also says it’s as good as Reagan’s Tear Down This Wall speech

  38. 38.

    Amir Khalid

    @Calouste:

    In my experience, educated people from the EU countries that are not Britain speak excellent English, or at least better English than Nigel Farage, and unlike him they generally don’t speak with a forked tongue.

  39. 39.

    Kay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I think the Lee and Paul “opposition” to Trump’s briefing was orchestrated. It must be time for congressional Republicans to pretend to be a separate branch again. Trump probably gave them special permission to feign outrage. But not too much outrage. Not enough to actually do anything.

  40. 40.

    Calouste

    @Amir Khalid: Yes, but a lot of Brits don’t have much experience with Europe, besides going on cheap holidays in the Mediterranean in places where there’s mostly just other Brits.

  43. 43.

    Splitting Image

    RBG getting the all-clear has to be the greatest news of the year so far.

    Sorry to hear about Buck Henry. I had totally forgotten he was in Eating Raoul. He was also the screenwriter for Mike Nichols’ Catch-22. He did a pretty good job helping to make that book filmable.

    Get Smart was just a work of genius all around.

  45. 45.

    Eric S.

    I arrived home about 1 hour ago. The corner I live on was populated by fire trucks and police vehicles. They were focused on house 3 doors down. Pretty scary fire based on pic I got from a neighbor. All is safe now but Ozzie the Cat is frazzled.

  47. 47.

    Amir Khalid

    @Biff Longbotham:

    I think it has to do with local driving habits. In a place with a lot of wannabe drag racers, keeping a car’s length away from the vehicle in front of you at a traffic light might be prudent.

  48. 48.

    sdhays

    @Kay: I’m skeptical that Dump has the maturity to handle anything more than slavish praise.

    But I don’t think Paul or Lee are anything he needs to worry his ugly, empty head about. He will, but he doesn’t need to.

  50. 50.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    BBC The World played the clip of Morrison bringing in a lump of coal  into the legislature and sneeringly telling the members not to be afraid of it.

    They should be  throwing that back in his face non-stop.

  51. 51.

    Mike in Pasadena

    Serious question: why does nobody in the lame stream media discuss Trump’s slurring, sniffing, inability to pronounce easy words such as tolerated, his gasping for breath after walking ten feet, etc.?

    Have the Republicans so cowed reporters and commentators that they are afraid? Is it off limits to ask whether the president is unwell? What?

  53. 53.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kay:

    Some people were saying that Lee seemed to be genuinely pissed, like it honestly hadn’t occurred to him before that he was one of the rubes, not one of the insiders.

    Paul is probably there to keep Lee from doing something rash, like declaring himself an independent and caucusing with the Democrats.

  54. 54.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    Isn’t that how change happens though? First one person sees something that they’ve overlooked for a long time and doesn’t say much in response. Then another, then a couple more then the tide shifts and someone sees the whole trail. And gets pissed. And then the avalanche begins. How many congressional republicans, haven’t said a word but are not running, a couple of them find their balls……

  56. 56.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    The smug reassurances have given way to blind panic

    I’ve noticed “smug reassurances” are never followed by “quiet, concerted competence”. The smug reassurance phase seems to guarantee the blind panic phase that follows.

  57. 57.

    Kay

    @Mnemosyne:

    I saw that but I don’t buy it. Through this whole thing they’ve tried to have it both ways- they’re warmongers for the warmonger part of the base and non-interventionists for the other part. That’s Trump’s play. They’re just following Dear Leader, as per usual.

    It’s absolutely incoherent but it doesn’t matter- none of them believe in anything anyway.

  59. 59.

    rikyrah

    Dear Quinerly:

    I heard about Poco???

    Of all the dogs here at BJ, I always thought that Poco was my thought of what I always wanted in a dog. Reading of your travels and adventures these past few years have been a joy.

    Poco knows that he was loved. So very loved.

    {{{{HUGS}}}}

    Poco and the member of his tribe that he’s met up with…. they are sending you love??????

  61. 61.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    Every fucking one of them should be feeling a sense of panic. They’re just now realizing there could be consequences. I trust Australia to do the right thing, to show the United States how to deal with these pricks.

  63. 63.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Kent: It’s really weird how they hate the Pols.

    In an article during the Brexit vote some leave voters interviewed were spitting angry over understaffed nursing jobs going to immigrant Pols.  They would rather suffer and have critical jobs go empty than have Caroline Wozniacki (photo) fill it.

  65. 65.

    James E Powell

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    Curious to know if there is a UK equivalent of Davis X Machina’s archetype – those who will volunteer to live in a cardboard box under an overpass and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, etc.

    I recall some interviews right after the Brexit where if it weren’t for the accents they were indistinguishable from Trump supporters.

  66. 66.

    The Pale Scot

    @Kent: To be fair, the Poles undercut Brit tradesman by a substantial amount. Unless people think everyone should be making no more than the minimum it’s a problem. On the other hand, there are EU laws and reg processes available to the UK to limit this, and if it weren’t for the Romanian etc migrant labour root vegetables would go unharvested.  But the Tories and Tory light (Blair) have no interest in availing themselves of this, their so OK watching the race to the bottom of everyone that isn’t living off their assets. The outrageous price of a ploughman these days and all that, they should bloody well be happy with what’s offered

  67. 67.

    James E Powell

    @Mike in Pasadena:

    Have the Republicans so cowed reporters and commentators that they are afraid? Is it off limits to ask whether the president is unwell? What?

    I could be way off here, but I believe that they all have so much invested in Trump as president, in his supporters as good-hearted RealAmericans®, and in the Republican Party as the strong and wise Daddy Party, that they cannot bring themselves to admit that everything they believe in and everything they’ve been telling the world is a lie and that they have done incalculable damage to the nation. They are never going to admit that their takedown of Hillary Clinton was a mistake. They are going to keep pretending Trump is fit for office until the day everyone agrees he isn’t after which they will never mention his name again.

  70. 70.

    Mary G

    R.I.P. Buck Henry – our most fearless screenwriter. Buck was also a big personality & a performer… he gave screenwriting a face. Growing up I could turn on Saturday Night LIve (which Buck hosted 10 times) and point to the funniest, smartest guy and say – that’s a screenwriter. pic.twitter.com/21CqPqzicL
    — Larry Karaszewski (@Karaszewski) January 9, 2020

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Just saw this. I loved Buck Henry.

  72. 72.

    Mnemosyne

    @The Pale Scot:

    I’m guessing that there are also shenanigans like the ones on this side of the pond where people are being paid sub-minimum wage, having their wages stolen, etc. Those things are WAY easier to do when the people you hire don’t understand the language and/or the laws of their new country.

  73. 73.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mnemosyne:

    I’m guessing that there are also shenanigans like the ones on this side of the pond where people are being paid sub-minimum wage, having their wages stolen, etc.

    You are no doubt well aware of a known perpetrator, the property businessman and politician Donald J. … uh, something.

  74. 74.

    Jay

    It’s difficult to know whether to regard Boris Johnson’s reported ban on Ministers and officials using the word Brexit after 31 January as sinister or silly – or perhaps both. But it is a helpful reminder of the dishonesty and chicanery that the Brexit process is going to continue to embody in the coming months. More profoundly, it symbolises how those months are going to entail a battle between remembering and forgetting.

    https://chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-battle-between-remembering-and.html?m=1

  75. 75.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @James E Powell:

    in his supporters as good-hearted RealAmericans®, and in the Republican Party as the strong and wise Daddy Party

    Damn good assessment all around.  I think they’re not very invested in Trump personally, but that the Republican Party is the party of deranged, dumb-as-shit racists is unthinkable.  There are so many side elements here, too, that all point in the same direction.  Their status as savvy experts who know politics is a game.  Their general love of Republican policies and attitudes, which might mean they themselves are racist.  Not wanting to speak badly of their personal friends.  And so on.

  76. 76.

    Jay

    IRON HILLS NEVER GETS A FIRE CATAPULTSES!!!— Gollum J. Trump (@realGollumTrump) January 6, 2020

    We gets ready to flings rocks & stones! Soon as Iron Hills looks at us with fish eye, yes or burps RUDELY, we toss them! Eyes up fiftedy portant statues & Iron Hills gulchy roll sites! Ready to mash them! Battle crimeses STRONG! But maybe we waits precious? Yes follows laws now?— Gollum J. Trump (@realGollumTrump) January 7, 2020

    Sméagol does a wars to stops the peaching hordes! If we does a wars then they forgets we gots peached! Yes they does precious! They does! And we stopsed Iron Hills deals to starts agressions! We dids! NO! Obamagorn’s fault! Always it’s fault yes precious!— Gollum J. Trump (@realGollumTrump) January 3, 2020

  78. 78.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @Kay: The smug reassurances have given way to blind panic as it comes apparent that not even the friendly media can shield the government from the rising ire of the public.

    The principal response is a concerted campaign on the part of talk radio, the Murdoch press, Facebook bots and the government itself, to fix the blame for the bushfire crisis firmly on “left wing greenies”.

    The logic, such as it is, is that “greenies” have legislatively prevented the controlled burnoffs which would have reduced the fuel load in the forests and so saved the country from this crisis.

    The fact that “greenies have never been in control of government anywhere doesn’t seem to register. That there is no such anti burnoff legislation is ignored. That the “greenies” actually support burnoffs is irrelevant.

    As far as I can see the Murdoch spin is winning the argument. It is fast becoming perceived wisdom that the bushfire crisis has been caused by greens (with Labor thrown in as accomplices).

  80. 80.

    joel hanes

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I don’t believe Russia, or anyone, has dirt on Lindsey Graham

     

    If that NRA money came originally from Russia (and IIRC, some of it did), you can bet that Putin has the receipts.

  81. 81.

    Feathers

    @Biff Longbotham: it’s a Virginia thing. People actually wait and do merges with a car from each lane taking turns. I remember driving down from Boston on a college road trip and realizing we were on the far side of the Beltway from our exit, which was coming up fast. The driver was panicking. “Just turn on your signal, they’ll let you across.” She did and they did. It was a major freak out for the New Yorkers and Bostonians in the car. Folks dined out on that story for years.

    People will argue that this isn’t so, but they are wrong.

  82. 82.

    terben

    @Kay: The contrast between the firefighters and politicians couldn’t be greater. We are currently in the midst of an attempt by the Murdoch media to blame everyone except truly responsible. #scomoisacunt

  85. 85.

    TS (the original)

    @Mnemosyne:

    I hope the opposition parties in Australia are up to the challenge and don’t get caught up in petty bickering.

    Not much bickering – but massive incompetence with the current opposition.  They spend all their time acting like the government because they think that is what will get them elected. Useless.

  88. 88.

    Sloane Ranger

    To be fair, three years of gridlock and the main opposition party being “led” by a man who tried to triangulate between the leave and remain factions of his own party (while personally being sympathetic to leaving the EU) created a piss or get off the pot attitude among the electorate. This, allied with negative perceptions about the ideological positions being pushed by Corbyn’s Labour party led to people in even former safe Labour seats deciding that the Tories were the least worse of two bad choices. We now wait to see what actually happens post Brexit with a sort of grim determination,  convinced that whatever happens, it’s got to be better than the last few years, since we will have the opportunity to evaluate the impact and make decisions on what we do then based on our experiences.

    Harry and Meghan’s decision, on the other hand, will have an impact on the long term operational effectiveness of the Royal family. As Robert Sneddon explained in another thread last night, the Monarch relies on having a number of other royals available to assist with official duties. In her early years, the Queen had a mother, sister and a host of Aunts and cousins to help her out. Currently, with Andrew out of the picture, we have Charles, William, Harry, their wives, Anne and Edward.

    I suspect that Charles’ plan to slim down the paid, active duty list was based on the assumption that Harry and Meghan would do their bit until William’s three reached an age where they could take over. Their loss,  basically, will create a staffing problem, especially as Anne is nearly the same age as Charles and Edward has always  been lower profile and it is clear that neither wants their children involved.

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