• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Books are my comfort food!

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

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

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

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

I really should read my own blog.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

Mobile Menu

  • 4 Directions VA 2025 Raffle
  • 2025 Activism
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / Thursday Morning Open Thread: All the New ‘Normals’

Thursday Morning Open Thread: All the New ‘Normals’

by Anne Laurie|  April 16, 20207:08 am| 284 Comments

This post is in: COVID-19, Music, Open Threads

FacebookTweetEmail

Wildlife is returning to the streets of San Diego. Nature is healing. pic.twitter.com/yatwEUdo5g

— Drew Savicki (@SenhorRaposa) April 16, 2020

For fans of songwriter Adam Schlesinger:

Calling all Oneders fans!!
Join the band and special guests for a LIVE #ThatThingYouDo watch party in support of @MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund this Friday, April 17 at 7pmEsT/4pmPST on our YouTube channelhttps://t.co/aUcxXlz1vf pic.twitter.com/ISEtQr3tuz

— Tom Everett Scott (@TomEScott) April 13, 2020

Factfile on an online concert planned for April 18 by @ladygaga and a host of international stars to support health workers on the frontline against COVID-19 pic.twitter.com/OxLc1q5mGa

— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 15, 2020

Can’t wait for you to see what we’ve put together! Tune in! ? https://t.co/v4owoA8QdM

— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) April 14, 2020

Extra fabric from the AIDS Memorial Quilt is being used to make face masks for critical workers on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic. https://t.co/V5eABsBc8V

— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 15, 2020

If we say “we’re all in this together” we have to mean it.

I stand with essential workers—and Congress must do the same.

Demand an Essential Workers Bill of Rights: https://t.co/29WrFpBxCt pic.twitter.com/hHQ37gfCKP

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 15, 2020

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « COVID-19 Coronavirus Update – Wednesday/Thursday, April 15/16
Next Post: The reasons behind the 3 R’s of risk stabilization »

Reader Interactions

284Comments

  1. 1.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 7:13 am

    We started Mrs America with Cate Blanchett as Phillis Schlafly last night. It looks really good and we can’t wait to see how she goes from being treated like chattel to where she ended up.

  2. 2.

    debbie

    April 16, 2020 at 7:14 am

    I wonder why performers’ ages are included in that graphic about the benefit concert.

  3. 3.

    debbie

    April 16, 2020 at 7:18 am

    @raven:

    to where she ended up

    As in demanding that every woman accept and appreciate being treated as chattel? //

    If Blanchett can make Schafly at all sympathetic, she will deserve every acting award there is.

  4. 4.

    WereBear

    April 16, 2020 at 7:22 am

    @raven: we can’t wait to see how she goes from being treated like chattel to where she ended up

     
    As I recall, getting herself to a higher social position where she could treat other women like chattel.

  5. 5.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 7:24 am

    @debbie: I doubt that is her goal (she’s the executive director). It has a great cast and the first episode was very good. As an aside, since Bella Abzug is portrayed in the show I was looking at VVAW pics and found myself in the crowd as Bella spoke!

  6. 6.

    Baud

    April 16, 2020 at 7:26 am

    @raven: Awesome.

  7. 7.

    WereBear

    April 16, 2020 at 7:27 am

    @raven: Love Bella Abzug.

  8. 8.

    Baud

    April 16, 2020 at 7:28 am

    @WereBear:

    I should have oppressed more people.

  9. 9.

    debbie

    April 16, 2020 at 7:35 am

    @raven:

    Wow!

  10. 10.

    WereBear

    April 16, 2020 at 7:36 am

    @Baud: You work with the oppression you have, not the oppression you wish to have…

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    April 16, 2020 at 7:41 am

    @raven: Damn it all, Hulu is the one streaming service I don’t subscribe to, so I’ll have to wait until it’s available on Prime or Netflix. I love Cate Blanchett, whom I consider my generation’s Meryl Streep. She’s got such range! I look forward to seeing her portray Schlafly brilliantly.

    My wingnut religious fanatic gran used to purchase subscriptions to far right Christianist publications in my name, I guess to counter the influence of my hippie mom (her daughter). Schlafly featured in many of them! I read them with amusement and horror back in the day. :)

  12. 12.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 7:41 am

    Well, they did put music in the clip.

    Pizza groundhog is the hero that none of us deserve https://t.co/z5Mg7wH33p— Molly Jong-Fast? (@MollyJongFast) April 16, 2020

  13. 13.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 7:42 am

    @Baud: I’ve located three pics of me from that week and I also found myself and my buddies i a crowd shot at the Palm Beach Rock festival in 69!

  14. 14.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 7:44 am

    @Betty Cracker: It’s weird, it’s on Hulu FX exclusively. It was $12 a month but we figured there was enough stuff on there to make it worth it. We dumped cable for youtube tv (because it had ALL the sports I wanted) but we’re still way ahead at $50 a month.

     

    It also has Tracey Ullman as Betty Friedan, Margo Martindale as Bella, Uzu Aduba as Shirley Chislom and Rose Byrne as Gloria Steinem. The first episode ends with them laughing it up about “who the fuck is Phillis Schlafly” and “the ERA is in the bag’!

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    April 16, 2020 at 7:45 am

    Couple of curiosities on TCM today. Noted, not necessarily recommended.

    The Lost Continent (1968), 11 a.m. Eastern time. Hammer films dips its toes into chilling SF (okay, okay, plunges both feet in). Giant creatures, irascible wayward conquistadors and killer seaweed.

    Last of the Pagans (1935), 2:15 p.m. From the age of talkies although for the time scant of dialogue (a lot of it non-English) and plays as well with the volume turned down. Product of its time yet a damning portrait of Western imperialism (so much so that all or parts were banned in France and Germany). Very loosely based on Melville’s Typee; shot on location in Tahiti. One thing Hollywood had learned to pull off on film with elan by the 30s was hurricanes.

    Also too, while people are searching for things with which to fill some time, once again give highest recommendation to the anti-McCarthy radio play The Investigator (1954). You’ll spot some unnerving parallels to current politics. Excellent quality copy. Written after he was deported from the U.S. back to Canada by successful scriptwriter Reuben Ship. Pour yourself a large tumbler of whatever tickles your fancy, lean back in a comfy chair and enjoy.

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 7:46 am

    @Baud: It’s never too late to start.

  17. 17.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 7:47 am

    @debbie:

    If Blanchett can make Schafly at all sympathetic, she will deserve every acting award there is. 

    And all the Nobel prizes too!

  18. 18.

    Betty Cracker

    April 16, 2020 at 7:48 am

    @raven: How are you getting by without your sports fix? IIRC, you aren’t really a baseball guy, right? My husband is jonesing so hard for baseball! (Me too, but to a lesser extent.) The first COVID-19 disruption in our lives was the cancellation of a spring training game to which we had tickets. Seems impossible that it was just LAST MONTH!

  19. 19.

    Baud

    April 16, 2020 at 7:51 am

    @Betty Cracker:  I’m glad your mom won that battle.

  20. 20.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 7:51 am

    @Betty Cracker: Yea, baseball was never my thing. Personally I don’t think there will be college football this year which is a shame because our D is loaded. I guess I’m just hoping this will work out in the long run and trying not to get down. The replay of last years Masters was the only thing I’ve watched so far.

  21. 21.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 7:52 am

    @NotMax: Please keep us abreast for when they reair Famous Boners (1942).  Thanks, NotMax!

  22. 22.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 7:54 am

    @mrmoshpotato: I mean it starts with her in a bikini at some Republican event and then shows here being totally humiliated in a meeting with Goldwater so they are laying the groundwork for what comes.

  23. 23.

    NotMax

    April 16, 2020 at 7:55 am

    @mrmoshpotato

    Repeated, just for you.

    :)

  24. 24.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 7:56 am

    Joe and Jill coming up on Morning Joe.

  25. 25.

    rikyrah

    April 16, 2020 at 7:56 am

    Good Morning, Everyone ???

  26. 26.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 7:57 am

    @Betty Cracker: I found out about Taiwanese baseball last night from Keith Olbermann!

    ⚾| 2020/4/15 #LIVE sports only on ELEVEN SPORTS. Watch here for the 2020 #CPBL season #UniLions vs #RakutenMonkeys#ForTheFans #ELEVENSPORTS https://t.co/YTAZOH2p7A— ELEVEN SPORTS TW (@ElevenSportsTW) April 14, 2020

  27. 27.

    Lee

    April 16, 2020 at 7:58 am

    There is an article on CNN about a high school senior’s tweet asking Obama to give a virtual commencement address to the graduating seniors.

    I get teary just thinking about him doing that.

    At the moment there is no comment from the Obama’s but I can see him doing it.

  28. 28.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 8:00 am

    Stuck in moderation.  Whee!

  29. 29.

    WereBear

    April 16, 2020 at 8:03 am

    @raven: You are the Forrest Gump of Balloon Juice.

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 8:04 am

    @Betty Cracker: Your husband and my son. I miss baseball but not near as much as my son.

  31. 31.

    scribbler

    April 16, 2020 at 8:06 am

    @raven:  Wonderful actors all, and I’m sure with great production values, but no part of me wants to watch.  I already (painfully) lived through it.

  32. 32.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 8:16 am

    @WereBear: Zelig

  33. 33.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 16, 2020 at 8:17 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Same here. I miss baseball, but my son *really* misses it. But since he’s living in a country where it’s not played and is seven hours ahead of EDT, he wouldn’t have gotten much anyway, at least not in real time.

  34. 34.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 16, 2020 at 8:21 am

    @raven:

    I saw Cate Blanchett talking about this role. I hope the show is good watching.

    I’m remember Phyllis Schlafly. She did a lot of damage to causes I believe in. I’m not letting her on my TV.

    ETA: I classify here with Betsy DeVos. And btw, I saw that the DeVos family organized those protests in Michigan yesterday.

  35. 35.

    SFAW

    April 16, 2020 at 8:23 am

    @Baud:

    I should have oppressed more people.

    “Should have”? I thought that was why you’re here in the first place. Or was your “Baud!/Torquemada 2020” thing no longer your thing?

  36. 36.

    SFAW

    April 16, 2020 at 8:25 am

    @raven: @raven:

    That is cool.

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 8:25 am

    NYT: Relying on Science and Politics, Merkel Offers a Cautious Virus Re-entry Plan

    BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday set in motion a plan for Germany to begin lifting social and economic restrictions in place because of the coronavirus, even as she warned that the road ahead would look less like a return to normal than a way to live with a pandemic that has overturned ordinary life.

    The chancellor, a physicist by training, was typically restrained and focused on the science as she announced the government’s cautious step-by-step plan, for which she had won the agreement of regional leaders in Germany’s diffuse federal system.

    Shorn of any bravado, her announcement seemed again to make Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, a de facto leader on the Continent and something of an example for Western nations looking to navigate the tricky course of rebooting economic activity and fighting the virus.

    Her approach stood in stark contrast to the fraught political divisions in the United States, where state authorities have often been at odds with President Trump, who has made forceful but erratic predictions about the virus.

    “We have achieved something,” Ms. Merkel said at a news conference, “something that by no means was a given at the start — namely that our doctors and carers, all those in the medical field, in the hospitals, were not overwhelmed.”

    But she added: “What we’ve achieved is an interim success — no more, no less. And I stress that it is a fragile interim success.”
    ………………………..
    Every two weeks the government will take stock of infection numbers, Ms. Merkel said, to evaluate in real time the impact of each incremental measure that is lifted — and to avoid the danger of infections picking up pace again.

    “We can’t have a wrongheaded push forward, even when the best intentions are behind it,” Ms. Merkel said. “We need to understand that we need to live with this virus as long as there is no vaccine and no treatment.”
    ……………………………
    As in previous stages of the pandemic, Ms. Merkel consulted widely before she made her announcement Wednesday. She had studied the recommendations from a panel of 26 top academics from a range of fields including behavioral psychology and ethics, and then hammered out an agreement with the governors of Germany’s 16 states.

    Highlighting this broad consensus, the chancellor was flanked at her hourlong news conference not just by her finance minister, but also by the governor of Bavaria and the mayor of Hamburg.

    A LOT more at the link, and well worth the sacrifice of one of the 5 free articles per month, but reading it makes me sad. All I can think is, “That could have been us, but she was too prepared.”

    But that’s not really true is it? We still would have had the batshit crazy Republican party fighting her every step of the way.

  38. 38.

    satby

    April 16, 2020 at 8:28 am

    Second night of a hard freeze here. Looks like the tulips will not survive. The early daffodils are kaput too, but I hope the late ones that haven’t bloomed yet make it. It snowed basically all day yesterday though it didn’t stick long, but more snow expected tonight and tomorrow. And no stimulus check yet ?

    2020 blows. And the news that covid-19 might have a cardiac outcome even for mild cases is not good either.

  39. 39.

    Soprano2

    April 16, 2020 at 8:28 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I miss my Double AA Cardinal games!  By now we would have been to two or three.  Did you read about the proposal for the majors to go to their spring training parks and play an abbreviated season?  Strange days…..

  40. 40.

    SFAW

    April 16, 2020 at 8:30 am

    @satby:

    Second night of a hard freeze here.

    Snowing here, although pretty meager.

  41. 41.

    Immanentize

    April 16, 2020 at 8:31 am

    @raven: Where are you in the palm beach shot?  Looking for the tall blonde with long hair….  But rain.

  42. 42.

    artem1s

    April 16, 2020 at 8:32 am

    @raven:

    The first episode ends with them laughing it up about “who the fuck is Phillis Schlafly” and “the ERA is in the bag’!

    so the plan is to blame second wave feminists for systemic misogyny that allowed the religious right to put doughy old dead white men back at the center of US politics from Raygun to the present day?  Hard pass.

  43. 43.

    WereBear

    April 16, 2020 at 8:33 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    All I can think is, “That could have been us, but she was too prepared.”

    But that’s not really true is it? We still would have had the batshit crazy Republican party fighting her every step of the way.

     
    Correct. Which is why we must nuke the site from space.

  44. 44.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 8:35 am

    @Immanentize: I had only been home since September so my hair is still short, I have a headband on and I’m next to my two pals with big Jewfrows!

  45. 45.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 8:36 am

    @artem1s: How the fuck do I know what the “plan” is?

  46. 46.

    Immanentize

    April 16, 2020 at 8:36 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I saw that the DeVos family organized those protests in Michigan yesterday.

    Of course they did. Sigh.

    Pernicious Klan and criminal to boot.

  47. 47.

    SFAW

    April 16, 2020 at 8:36 am

    It appears that new unemployment claims were “only” 5.24 million last week, a 20 percent (approx) drop from the week before.

    Thanks, Obama!

    Let’s see:

    1. Trump University
    2. Trump Steaks
    3. Trump “Wines”
    4. The USFL
    5. The US Economy

    There are probably a few or 20 more things that the Murderer-in-Chief has bankrupted, but this list depresses me enough as it is.

  48. 48.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 8:37 am

    @Gin & Tonic: If the ball games weren’t all on cable TV, I’d probably be watching them most nights. But I’m too damn cheap for that so I watch the highlights the next day. In addition to going to a few games every year (3 or 4 at most). My son on the other hand goes to almost half the home games and watches the rest on TV. Talks about the games, who’s hot, who’s not, endlessly. Can’t shut him up about it. It’s a good thing I enjoy and follow as the season progresses because otherwise love would be the only thing keeping him alive.

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 8:39 am

    @Soprano2: Yeah I saw that. I really don’t think it would work, at least not the proposal I saw.

  50. 50.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 8:39 am

    “The miniseries follows leaders on both sides of the debate, with Schlafly fighting against the amendment and National Women’s Political Caucus co-founders Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug, and Jill Ruckelshaus fighting for it. Weaving together multiple storylines, both personal and political, the show offers a nuanced portrait of the battles over the women’s rights movement in the early 1970s”

  51. 51.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 8:42 am

    @raven: I’d ask for a Public Land Survey location but it would take too long to explain it if you don’t know of it, so I’ll settle for which quadrant?

  52. 52.

    Immanentize

    April 16, 2020 at 8:42 am

    @raven: Ha!  Gotcha!  You couldn’t even see the stage past the ‘fro in front of you.  Shit, you were young.

  53. 53.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 8:43 am

    In Mrs. America’s third episode, “Shirley,” Chisholm, an extraordinary civil rights leader, the first black woman ever elected to Congress, receives long-overdue attention for her role in shaping the women’s rights movement and carving out a space for women of color within the predominantly white feminist agenda.
    One of the plots that emerges early in the season surrounds the question of the women’s liberation movement’s support for Chisholm. In the show, Steinem and Abzug waffle between supporting Chisholm and supporting McGovern, whom they are less enthusiastic about but whom they believe has a better chance of winning the Democratic nomination. At one point, Chisholm confronts Abzug and Steinem about their support of McGovern and receives harsh words from Abzug while Steinem sits quietly by. The details of these fights seem to be fictionalized, but they are certainly based in truth: Chisholm was indeed abandoned by many of her feminist supporters during her primary campaign because they didn’t believe she would win. The question of whether or not white feminists were supportive of Chisholm has been the subject of some lingering controversy. As recently as July 2019, an article in the Times Sunday Review claimed that Chisholm had been “abandoned by white feminists” in the early 1970s, specifically naming Steinem. In response, Steinem wrote a letter to the editor the following day refuting the claim and outlining how she campaigned for Chisholm in 1972.

  54. 54.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 8:44 am

    @Immanentize: I had just turned 20.

  55. 55.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 8:46 am

    @raven: Now I think I see you. NW quad?

  56. 56.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 8:48 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Nah, I’m partially obscured by a guy in a hat and my two pals have Fro’s one blonde and one black.

  57. 57.

    Amir Khalid

    April 16, 2020 at 8:51 am

    @SFAW:

    I don’t understand why anyone would buy steak from a guy who eats it well-done, wine and vodka from a teetotaler, or a university education from an ignoramus.

  58. 58.

    Immanentize

    April 16, 2020 at 8:53 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Look at the picture, see the guy near the front with the white Bob Dylan Desire album hat?  Now follow the diagonal line of people back into the crowd slightly to the left. Count back 7 or 8 hippies and you will come upon our friend in a dark headband, right behind a guy with, as Raven says, a very impressive jewfro.

  59. 59.

    Immanentize

    April 16, 2020 at 8:53 am

    @Amir Khalid: You should write for Colbert.

  60. 60.

    germy

    April 16, 2020 at 8:57 am

    @Amir Khalid:  I was married in a catholic church, and before we could do it, we had to attend a pre cana, a “marriage preparation course”  hosted by an unmarried,  celibate man.

  61. 61.

    Immanentize

    April 16, 2020 at 8:58 am

    Remember in the 70s when all the white basketball players wore tight little shorts and spotted ‘fros?  I doubt that look is coming back.

  62. 62.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 16, 2020 at 8:58 am

    @Amir Khalid: Most people didn’t, which is why those businesses no longer exist, and why Trump University had to pay out a huge fraud claim.

  63. 63.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 8:58 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: annotated.

  64. 64.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 8:58 am

    @raven: Yeah, got you.

    ETA <blockquote><a href=”#comment-7674357″>@Immanentize</a>:white Bob Dylan Desire album hat</blockquote>

    Really? I have to reach back to a glanced at album cover I saw once in the 70s? Or when ever? ;-)

  65. 65.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 9:00 am

    @Immanentize: Like the guy in the red ?

  66. 66.

    JeanneT

    April 16, 2020 at 9:03 am

    I lived/worked in the heart of Springfield, IL during the ERA battle there.  Phyllis Schlafly was a frequent visitor at the state capitol.  She once crossed the street in front of my car, and I was so sorely tempted…..  To this day I don’t know whether it was my better angel or the my personal demon that held my foot off the gas pedal.

  67. 67.

    Immanentize

    April 16, 2020 at 9:04 am

    @germy: Same here, but my pre-cana was painless because the priest who married us was the President of my Uni. and very cool.  Ours consisted of 5 dinners I cooked at home.  It was considered a “mixed marriage” by the church because Julie was Lutheran.

    My favorite part was when the priest has to ask each of you questions, one being to me: Will you do everything in your power to raise your children as Catholics? I turned to Julie and said, are we raising our kids as Catholics? She said, “Absolutely not, no way.”

    A brief silence. Father John said, “I guess you’ve done all you can.”

  68. 68.

    Immanentize

    April 16, 2020 at 9:05 am

    @raven: Bury that one.

  69. 69.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 9:09 am

    @JeanneT: It was your sense of self loathing. Or maybe you just hated me?

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 9:11 am

    @Immanentize: My kind of priest. They are a lot more common than the Church admits.

  71. 71.

    germy

    April 16, 2020 at 9:11 am

    I’m delighted to have Michael Caputo join our team at @HHSGov as our Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, especially at this critical time in our nation’s public health history. pic.twitter.com/xf2YFeXzqy— Secretary Alex Azar (@SecAzar) April 15, 2020

    Caputo, who moved to Moscow in 1990s, was Putin’s image maker, worked for Gasprom, & is close pals with Stone & Manafort, spent last year promoting the Kremlin’s 2016 election Ukraine conspiracy and nonsense about Bidens, in coordination w/ Russian agent Telizhenko. But now… https://t.co/3eroU65Wm0— Alexandra Chalupa (@AlexandraChalup) April 16, 2020

  72. 72.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 16, 2020 at 9:13 am

    @Immanentize:

    We were married in the Catholic student chapel in Ann Arbor and I don’t think we had to do pre-Cana. The priest who married us was a Jesuit who taught in the economics department.

  73. 73.

    germy

    April 16, 2020 at 9:14 am

    Quote of the day:

    If I wanted a check signed by Trump I would have become a porn star. #TrumpCheck

    — Brooke Smith (@Iam_BrookeSmith) April 15, 2020

  74. 74.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 16, 2020 at 9:14 am

    @Immanentize: Wasn’t just the white dudes with the short shorts.

  75. 75.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 16, 2020 at 9:16 am

    @germy: So Alex Azar says “Thanks, boss, this shit sandwich tastes so good!”

  76. 76.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 9:18 am

    @germy: HA! Thanx so much for that. I’m gonna share the wealth.

  77. 77.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    April 16, 2020 at 9:19 am

    @WereBear: If you can’t beat the patriarchy , make that internalized misogyny work FOR you…I think about that each and every time I hear the phrases “Make it your bitch” “Don’t be a pussy!!” and “I’m going to make him cry like a little girl”  Learning to hate ourselves, from the cradle.  Just another day that ends in Y.  My lesson to myself today, is learn to stifle yourself, literally no one wants your opinion.

  78. 78.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    April 16, 2020 at 9:21 am

    @raven: This is so cool.  Thank you

  79. 79.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 9:24 am

    @germy: In reply:

    David Williams@David_Williams
    Replying to
    @Iam_BrookeSmith
    But then you wouldn’t have gotten any stimulus.

  80. 80.

    Immanentize

    April 16, 2020 at 9:26 am

    @Gin & Tonic: I know. I was thinking Walton too. Lots of Chuck Taylors I see on that hardwood.

  81. 81.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    April 16, 2020 at 9:28 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: If HIllary were President right now, they would have simultaneously fought her on every thing she put in place to try to stop the virus before it got started (“Dranconian!” “Dictator!”)  and blamed her for every death from COVID-19 amd every hit to the economy.  And if she had managed to work with Congress to get massive stimulus and aid packages passed the Senate would have fought them at every turn for more giveaways to their buddies.

  82. 82.

    Immanentize

    April 16, 2020 at 9:29 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Jesuits and the priesthood somehow are always at odds. Our priest was a Marionist. He left the priesthood to get married about two years afterwards.

  83. 83.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 16, 2020 at 9:29 am

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone:

    All true. And it would still be better.

  84. 84.

    Sab

    April 16, 2020 at 9:31 am

    My spouse is having his weekly coffee klatch voa Zoom. It’s so cute. This one is multi-state imstead of at the local Giant Eagle.

  85. 85.

    Citizen_X

    April 16, 2020 at 9:37 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I saw that the DeVos family organized those protests in Michigan yesterday.

    Lots of those people are going to be dead in two weeks or so. An even greater percentage of the idiots at the Ohio demonstration earlier in the week will be so as well.

    Holy shit, that family has a lot to answer for.

  86. 86.

    germy

    April 16, 2020 at 9:42 am

    @Immanentize:

    my pre-cana was painless because the priest who married us was the President of my Uni. and very cool.

    Shows how everyone’s experience is different.

    My pre cana consisted of a crowd of nervous working class young people herded into a classroom and given a stern lecture by a conservative priest.  I only remember one thing he said:  “Be grateful you were all born Catholic!”  His point was that everyone else was going to hell.

  87. 87.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 16, 2020 at 9:42 am

    @Sab:

    My writer group met via zoom last night. It’s amazingly good to see them.

  88. 88.

    germy

    April 16, 2020 at 9:43 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Well, that’s what the courts are for.

  89. 89.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 16, 2020 at 9:43 am

    Talk about religious idiots.

    Moscow Patriarchate continues to insist it will hold full-scale Easter services in churches this weekend, in defiance of law and common sense and despite being a hotspot of C19 https://t.co/iOJkNcDoTv
    — Katya Gorchinskaya (@kgorchinskaya) April 16, 2020

  90. 90.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 9:49 am

    @raven: @WereBear:

    I got to see Bella Abzug speak at the University of Illinois, in the Auditorium, I think.  Raven, is that where you saw her speak?

  91. 91.

    khead

    April 16, 2020 at 9:51 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    I can’t speak for Raven but…. it’s been difficult for me.  Because, well, gambling. Heh.  Also, I tend to agree with Raven that football (all sports, really) is doubtful for 2020.

  92. 92.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 9:51 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I knew that if I could be patient enough to read through the comments first, someone else would have said that for me.  thanks for coming through!

  93. 93.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 9:51 am

    @Immanentize:  Michael wore em. https://images.app.goo.gl/K1uWfUMWP9rEciDf6

  94. 94.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 9:51 am

    @Immanentize: The Jesuits are the only order allowed to question the existence of God. (or so somebody with a tongue half embedded in cheek once wrote)

  95. 95.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 9:53 am

    @WaterGirl: No, it was at Operation Dewey Canyon 3, the VVAW action in DC.

  96. 96.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 9:55 am

    @raven: I was definitely not at that one! :-)

  97. 97.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 9:56 am

    @WaterGirl: “I live to serve.” he says while bowing in a most humble manner.

  98. 98.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 9:56 am

    @WaterGirl: I saw Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Hanoi Jane there!

  99. 99.

    satby

    April 16, 2020 at 9:59 am

    O.T bigly, but in taking stock of my overloaded dining room table groaning under the contents of my market booth, I realized that I have a huge overstock of lavender lotion. I made several gallons ramping up for the selling season. So I’m running a special on that if anyone needs mother’s /grandma day gifts. Just lavender scent on sale, but that sells 2/1 over other scents. At my nym or you can email directly sbarrt at hotmail dot com and I can tell you what else isn’t listed on Etsy.
    I have high hopes of eating at that table again some day ?

  100. 100.

    Immanentize

    April 16, 2020 at 10:03 am

    @raven: I was a creative writing major in college.  Ferlinghetti came to read once. Maybe 20/30 students tops. Then, years later I was in San Fran at a work convention. Stopped into City Lights and he was there drinking something from a tea cup near the first floor back. I said hello, he was gracious.

    I just looked it up — Dude is still alive. 101!

  101. 101.

    satby

    April 16, 2020 at 10:04 am

    @Citizen_X: the protesters blocked access to the hospital near the capitol, and then massed with their penis substitutes and Trump 2020 signs on the capitol steps to scream “lock her (Whitmer) up”. Just ugly horrible people.

  102. 102.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 10:08 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: laughing

  103. 103.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 10:12 am

    @satby: I am allergic to lavender, so ix-nay on that for me.  But when I read “lavender” I pictured the lovely lilac lotion that I grew up with, which was lavender in color.

    So for just a minute, I was really excited, thinking about that lilac lotion I loved as a kid.  On the other hand, for all I know, the lilac lotion that I loved in 8th grade may well have been some disgusting, cloying scent that would be appalling to me now.

    So maybe it’s all for the best.

  104. 104.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 10:13 am

    @raven: Wow.  Quite an event.

  105. 105.

    O. Felix Culpa

    April 16, 2020 at 10:14 am

    @Immanentize: Cool story. I remember reading Coney Island of the Mind back in the day. Apparently Ferlinghetti published a novel, Little Boy, in 2019. Sounds interesting. Might add it to my quarantine reading pile.

  106. 106.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    April 16, 2020 at 10:17 am

    @satby: I am trying not to wish COVID-19 on them because their children, elderly parents and coworkers/neighbors/etc don’t deserve that.  But it’s hard some days to try to be nice.

  107. 107.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 16, 2020 at 10:20 am

    Donuts just appeared on the shelf outside my condo door! Once again, building management is on the job.

  108. 108.

    Ladyraxterinok

    April 16, 2020 at 10:23 am

    @scribbler:

    Likewise!!

    Can’t even stand to even hear her name. She had a horrendous effect on US women !!

  109. 109.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 10:26 am

    @WaterGirl: Have I mentioned lately how humble I am? I am very humble.

  110. 110.

    O. Felix Culpa

    April 16, 2020 at 10:26 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  Jealous. No magic donuts here. :)

  111. 111.

    satby

    April 16, 2020 at 10:26 am

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: the only thing keeping me from wishing the mayhem of Covid-19 on them is my healthy respect for the concept that what goes around comes around. But just like when the smartass ministers who insisted on holding church services and downplayed the risk got it, I won’t feel a tiny bit bad if any of these astroturf protesters get it. I may even smirk a bit.

    I don’t like what the last three years have done to me.

  112. 112.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    April 16, 2020 at 10:27 am

    Re sports. I was looking forward to watching the gymnastics among other things at this year’s Summer Olympics. Since that’s obviously not happening, I was wondering if there are archives with reasonably complete coverage of any big gymnastics competitions. I’d love to see some Simone Biles routines, I’ve heard so much about her and I’d love to see some complete routines, not just occasional highlight clips. But also full competitions if possible, men’s and women’s.

    I’m not a big sports watcher, I mostly come out of my sports-free shell at Olympics time (Summer and Winter). So maybe this is an obvious one that all you sports fans know.

    Come to think of it, I’d also watch archives of weird winter sports that I only see every four years.

  113. 113.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 10:27 am

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Fuck being nice. I’m just honest. They hate that.

  114. 114.

    MomSense

    April 16, 2020 at 10:29 am

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    No doughnuts here either. ?

  115. 115.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 10:31 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: The only thing I can think of is go to the broadcaster’s web site and do a search. They have the footage but who knows if it is up on their sites.

  116. 116.

    JeanneT

    April 16, 2020 at 10:32 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’m sure I wasn’t hating on you!    I certainly was hating on Phyllis  – but my chance to be an assassin ended as she hustled past in her pink suit, so smug, so coifed and so proper….

  117. 117.

    MomSense

    April 16, 2020 at 10:33 am

    @satby:

    Yeah I would wish it on all of them if I weren’t  so concerned for all the health care workers, nurses, and doctors.

    We are going to need a truth and reconciliation process if we get through this, because I don’t see how we move forward without some kind of reckoning and healing.

  118. 118.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 16, 2020 at 10:34 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: YouTube is always the answer.

  119. 119.

    Aziz, light!

    April 16, 2020 at 10:34 am

    I briefly met Schlafly in 1970. She came to my university (Washington U. in St. Louis, Schlafly’s alma mater) for a debate with Gloria Steinem. This was my first full taste of right wing nuttery. I remember her explaining how feminism was a communist plot. Her claim to fame in the ’60s was full-dress Bircherism.

  120. 120.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 10:37 am

    @WaterGirl: Not at the same gig.

  121. 121.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 16, 2020 at 10:37 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: And hey, if you want the weird winter stuff – biathlon is about as strange as they come, IMO. Two things as different as chalk and cheese, rolled into one event.

  122. 122.

    Ladyraxterinok

    April 16, 2020 at 10:37 am

    @scribbler:

    Likewise!!

    Can’t even stand to even hear her name. She had a horrendous effect on US women !!

     

    @WaterGirl:

    I saw her at the airport in early 70s when she was leaving Aspen after speaking at some conference

  123. 123.

    O. Felix Culpa

    April 16, 2020 at 10:37 am

    @MomSense:

    We are going to need a truth and reconciliation retribution process

    FIFY. I’ve become a bad person too. ;)

  124. 124.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 16, 2020 at 10:38 am

    @Citizen_X: Lots of those people are going to be dead in two weeks or so. An even greater percentage of the idiots at the Ohio demonstration earlier in the week will be so as well.

    Yup, in two or three weeks there will probably be a spate of “He protested for freedom, and caught covid-19” stories, “he was the best grandpa in the world, he just wanted to take his grandkids fishing”, with pictures of Harold holding his newborn granddaughter, instead of a confederate flag

  125. 125.

    Betty Cracker

    April 16, 2020 at 10:38 am

    It’s been really warm here for the last couple of weeks. It’s not unusual for Florida to be warm, of course, but I mean it’s been unseasonably hot — like in the 90s — which doesn’t often occur until First Summer gets underway in May.

    Well, a big storm blew through yesterday and today, a cold front that may be our last of the season. So, I opened all the windows to air the place out. And now I’m freezing! I had to go dig up a sweater and find socks! Poor Badger is shivering and burrowing under the sofa throw pillows. Daisy’s blubber keeps her warm. :)

  126. 126.

    raven

    April 16, 2020 at 10:38 am

    @Immanentize: And a huge baseball fan!

  127. 127.

    planetjanet

    April 16, 2020 at 10:42 am

    @raven: That is just so cool, Raven!

  128. 128.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    April 16, 2020 at 10:42 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: True.  I have a reputation for being a loudmouth and too negative at work because when they come up with “out there” proposals I say things like, that sounds great in theory but we have to also make this, this and this work in concert with that so can we come up with a plan for how we are going to handle that?  I am now the Dora Downer of the office.  SO I tell myself every day when I want to put my two cents in, Don’t Bother.

  129. 129.

    O. Felix Culpa

    April 16, 2020 at 10:45 am

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Sounds like me at my former workplaces. I would periodically remind myself to keep my mouth shut when I saw disaster coming down the pike…but not always successfully. Cassandra never gets heeded nor rewarded when she consistently turns out to have been right.

  130. 130.

    Lacuna Synechdoche

    April 16, 2020 at 10:45 am

    We need language to emphasize how truly, spectacularly, stupid Trump’s and the GOP’s insistence on re-opening the economy is, without a vaccine, testing, or contact-tracing in place.

    I hereby nominate my own neologism: Corona Roulette.

    As in:

    Republicans might want to take a look at Wisconsin to see how voters really feel about the GOP playing Corona Roulette with their lives.

  131. 131.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    April 16, 2020 at 10:45 am

    @Gin & Tonic: It’s a sport that always makes me giggle, “Let’s combine shooting with skiing, come on What’s the worst that could happen?”  I need to look up how it came into being..was it a bet between two drunk people in the middle of a snow storm?  I hope it was.

  132. 132.

    Ladyraxterinok

    April 16, 2020 at 10:46 am

    @Aziz, light!:

    Didn’t she write A Choice Not an Echo during a 50s or 60s election?

  133. 133.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 10:46 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Perhaps you meant to say most humblest?

  134. 134.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    April 16, 2020 at 10:46 am

    @Lacuna Synechdoche: Seconded

  135. 135.

    delk

    April 16, 2020 at 10:46 am

    We are picking up groceries this afternoon that we ordered last Wednesday.
    Schlafly has a self loathing gay son.

  136. 136.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 10:47 am

    @raven: laughing.  i was wondering about that…

  137. 137.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 10:48 am

    @Ladyraxterinok: I related to her SO MUCH.  My favorite line from her Q & A afterwards was “I have always had a strong sense of outrage.”

    I felt very much connected to her.

  138. 138.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 16, 2020 at 10:49 am

    Jonathan Capehart @CapehartJ  4h
    Y’aaallll! –> Lindsey Graham outraised by Democrat Jaime Harrison in SC’s record-setting Senate race

    I will count no chickens, especially since Rs don’t so much raise funds as just have them, but this makes me smile.

  139. 139.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 10:50 am

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: @O. Felix Culpa:

    I worked with a fellow who got tired of the negative responses when he would point out why thus and so was a bad idea, or would not work, or would have these unintended consequences.

    He would say: “When I get really mad, I do exactly what they tell me to do.”

    And then let them live with the consequences of their stupidity.  I always kind of admired that.

  140. 140.

    O. Felix Culpa

    April 16, 2020 at 10:51 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: While I’m encouraged by those markers, $$$ =/= votes. But we can hope.

  141. 141.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 10:51 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    And btw, I saw that the DeVos family organized those protests in Michigan yesterday. 

    Shitbags.  Need me to elaborate?  I didn’t think so either.

  142. 142.

    Betty Cracker

    April 16, 2020 at 10:52 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Wouldn’t that be something if Harrison ousted Graham? I’d put the chances at less than 5%, but damn, it would be all kinds of awesome to see Lindsey get bounced. Harrison seems like a really strong candidate, from what I’ve read.

  143. 143.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 10:53 am

    @Lacuna Synechdoche:  Corona Roulette

    I love that!

  144. 144.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 10:53 am

    @Betty Cracker: What’s the temp? (so I can heap the proper amount of derision on you)

  145. 145.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    April 16, 2020 at 10:53 am

    @Gin & Tonic: And hey, if you want the weird winter stuff – biathlon is about as strange as they come, IMO. Two things as different as chalk and cheese, rolled into one event.

    I was talking about that once with my Finnish sister-in-law and she said, “oh yeah, we used to do that in Girl Scouts”.

    Excellent links, those look like great places to start down this particular YouTube rabbit hole. Thanks!

  146. 146.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 10:54 am

    @WaterGirl: That too.

  147. 147.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 16, 2020 at 10:55 am

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: It’s supposed to emulate winter hunting in Nordic or Alpine countries.

  148. 148.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 16, 2020 at 10:55 am

    @O. Felix Culpa: my dream is that Harrison can take Lindsey down, my hope is that his campaign can boost down-ticket races– state lege, county and municipal offices– and build up the state party

  149. 149.

    MomSense

    April 16, 2020 at 10:55 am

    @Gin & Tonic:

    It’s one of the hardest sports!  When I spent time in Norway I learned to appreciate it.  It is incredibly difficult to lower your heart rate in order to shoot accurately.

  150. 150.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 11:01 am

    @Citizen_X:

    Holy shit, that family has a lot to answer for. 

    How many of their own gallows will one yacht buy?

  151. 151.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 16, 2020 at 11:01 am

    @O. Felix Culpa: @MomSense: Eat your hearts out. :-)

  152. 152.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 11:02 am

    @Gin & Tonic: Killing your own flock to…….own the gays?

  153. 153.

    O. Felix Culpa

    April 16, 2020 at 11:04 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: LOL. I guess I’ll just have to eat one of my killer truffle brownies left over from our Easter repast.

  154. 154.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 16, 2020 at 11:05 am

    Wow, even National Review alum Robert Costa allowing himself the barest bit of editorializing

    Robert Costa @costareports 29m
     Follow the money: “The Michigan Conservative Coalition and Michigan Freedom Fund — founded by Greg McNeilly, political adviser to the family of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — planned the protest following Whitmer’s executive order.”

  155. 155.

    O. Felix Culpa

    April 16, 2020 at 11:05 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m down with that outcome, and all the better if Harrison ousts Graham too.

  156. 156.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 16, 2020 at 11:06 am

    @O. Felix Culpa: how do you make a “leftover brownie”?

  157. 157.

    Just One More Canuck

    April 16, 2020 at 11:07 am

    @NotMax:

    that’s hilarious

  158. 158.

    germy

    April 16, 2020 at 11:07 am

    HUGE.

    Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which authorizes loans to small businesses to pay employees during the COVID-19 crisis, has run out of money and is now frozen.

    Small Business Administration says it is "currently unable to accept new applications" or enroll new lenders.

    — Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) April 16, 2020

  159. 159.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 11:09 am

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Would you settle for them being beaten with their own bones?  I’d find it humerus.

  160. 160.

    Betty Cracker

    April 16, 2020 at 11:12 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: 61 F, but it’s DAMP!

  161. 161.

    O. Felix Culpa

    April 16, 2020 at 11:14 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: LOL. You hide them from your spouse and eat them [the baked goods] in the dark.

    ETA: Phrasing.

  162. 162.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 11:14 am

    @O. Felix Culpa: Feed your head

  163. 163.

    L85NJGT

    April 16, 2020 at 11:14 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    For the progressive eyores who whing about such things, he put together the DNC’s “Every Zipcode Counts”, aka Trump country voter outreach.

  164. 164.

    O. Felix Culpa

    April 16, 2020 at 11:16 am

    @mrmoshpotato: Go ask Alice.

  165. 165.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 11:17 am

    @Gin & Tonic: ?Are you ready for some football balance beam?!? :)

  166. 166.

    L85NJGT

    April 16, 2020 at 11:18 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Speaking of money, what struck me was all those idiots in Lansing had their zero down, 72 month note pickup trucks.

  167. 167.

    Immanentize

    April 16, 2020 at 11:18 am

    @Gin & Tonic: I love the biathlon.  Stilling your heart and breath after miles of cross country skiing.  Those guys (mostly until recently) were heavy beta blocker users during the 80s.

  168. 168.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 16, 2020 at 11:21 am

    @mrmoshpotato: No, but I’m really bummed that the Tour de France has been cancelled.

  169. 169.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 11:24 am

    @WaterGirl: LOL Love it!

  170. 170.

    Immanentize

    April 16, 2020 at 11:24 am

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: It was one of the perceived marshal skills for battle in cold climes.  The pentathalon is the same for the cavalry:  fencing, swimming, horse riding, shooting and running.

    The ever instructive wikipedia:

    Norwegian skiing regiments organized military skiing contests in the 18th century, divided in four classes: shooting at mark while skiing at top speed, downhill race among trees, downhill race on big hills without falling, and a long race on flat ground while carrying rifle and military pack. In modern terminology these military contests included downhill, slalom, biathlon, and cross-country skiing.

    Who coulda knowed?

  171. 171.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 11:27 am

    @O. Felix Culpa: Did you make these killer truffle brownies yourself?

  172. 172.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 11:31 am

    @Betty Cracker: 39 degrees, sunny, 37% humidity.

    Low of 34 tonight with light rain and snow.

    Trade?

  173. 173.

    Immanentize

    April 16, 2020 at 11:31 am

    @mrmoshpotato: And where are the leftovers?

  174. 174.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 16, 2020 at 11:31 am

    @Immanentize: *martial.

  175. 175.

    Origuy

    April 16, 2020 at 11:32 am

    NBCSN is streaming a series of great Olympic moments, including Simone Biles and Usain Bolt.

    Also check out The World Game channel, which has a lot of videos of sports you may not have heard of. The World Games is an Olympic event featuring sports that are not in the regular Olympic games. It’s held in smaller cities. Birmingham, Alabama was supposed to host it in 2021, but will now host it in 2022.

  176. 176.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 11:32 am

    @Gin & Tonic: Yeah. :(

  177. 177.

    L85NJGT

    April 16, 2020 at 11:33 am

    @Immanentize:

    The Finns used ski troops to beat back the Soviets in 1939-40.

    @Gin & Tonic:

    One of Putin’s refrains is that he is the only thing keeping the Whites from winning the Russian Civil War. How he squares that with empowering them over the last twenty years ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  178. 178.

    Immanentize

    April 16, 2020 at 11:35 am

    @Gin & Tonic: Thank you.  I should just grant you editing privileges to my comments.

  179. 179.

    Immanentize

    April 16, 2020 at 11:38 am

    OK  Break is over — back to the double jeopardy clause

  180. 180.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 16, 2020 at 11:39 am

    @Betty Cracker: Awwwww…. Poor baby, what I wouldn’t give to see 61 degrees again!  ;-)  Actually going to see it today for the first time in a week. High of 41 tomorrow tho,  :-(  then back to more seasonal temps for the wkend. Kind weird the weather we’ve been having.

  181. 181.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 11:39 am

    @Immanentize: Any Daily Doubles left?

  182. 182.

    Fair Economist

    April 16, 2020 at 11:45 am

    @Betty Cracker: My son was suffering in SoCal in our blazingly hot low-80s yesterday. Yes, really, he was complaining. At 70 he’s complaining that it’s freezing. Having gone to college in Chicago I find him amusing or annoying depending on the circumstances.

  183. 183.

    O. Felix Culpa

    April 16, 2020 at 11:47 am

    @mrmoshpotato: I did! I did!

  184. 184.

    trollhattan

    April 16, 2020 at 11:47 am

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Phil is the narrator of my summer, so summer won’t technically happen this year, heat or no heat (there will be heat).

    I know they didn’t have an inkling this was coming when they cancelled the 2020 Tour of California, but they’re probably feeling kind of smart now. Impossible to guess whether it’s on hiatus or gone for good.

    Paris-Nice may have been 2020’s final stage race.

  185. 185.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    April 16, 2020 at 11:48 am

    Re Michigan protesters:

    Like, you built your whole f***ing pseudo-survivalist Obama-era personality on being prepared for the collapse of society and now that there's a real threat requiring people to take shelter you dorks just want a Jolly Rancher margarita.

    — seiZedd tesla & spacex to mass produce ventilators (@Zeddary) April 16, 2020

  186. 186.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 11:49 am

    @Fair Economist: The only thing nice about it being in the 30s in April is “Oh, we shouldn’t go outside?  Well, ok, it’s cold as hell anyway!”

  187. 187.

    L85NJGT

    April 16, 2020 at 11:50 am

    Eastern European farm workers are being flown to the UK on charter flights to pick fruit and vegetable crops.

     

    https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52293061

  188. 188.

    Omnes Omnibus

    April 16, 2020 at 11:51 am

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: How did it come about?  How about hunting in Scandinavia in the winter.  Skiing and shooting might well be a valuable skill set.

  189. 189.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 11:51 am

    @O. Felix Culpa: Which means you have a recipe.  We’re going to have to test that recipe ourselves.  It’s the only way to be sure.

  190. 190.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 11:53 am

    @Steeplejack (phone): Hahaha they can all go suck on their own machine guns.

  191. 191.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 11:54 am

    @L85NJGT: Just keep out the fat Polish plumbers, or the UK will sink.

    Assholes and idiots.

  192. 192.

    Just One More Canuck

    April 16, 2020 at 11:57 am

    @Origuy:

    “fistball”?

  193. 193.

    Origuy

    April 16, 2020 at 12:04 pm

    @Just One More Canuck: Hey, I didn’t make these up. I watched a little bit of a fistball video. It looks like a combination of volleyball and soccer. The page about it says:  “Fistball is a very German sport; six out of nine gold medals have gone to the German team. It does not come as a surprise: Johann Wolfgang Goethe wrote in 1786 about Fistball being played between ‘four noblemen from Verona and four Venetians’.” Sounds like a Shakespeare festival.

  194. 194.

    Barbara

    April 16, 2020 at 12:06 pm

    @Immanentize: I read that if the U.S. had won the same number of medals in the winter Olympics relative to its population as Norway, we would have something like 18,000 medals.

    I never pass up an opportunity to recommend a kids’ book that my son loved, called “Snow Treasure,” which is about Norwegian efforts to keep its reserves of gold away from Nazi Germany, wherein kids were enlisted to ride sleds on top of gold to a cave where it was being squirreled away.  I don’t know how historically accurate it was, but it was written by the lady who lived next to my mother’s family when she was a kid.

  195. 195.

    sdhays

    April 16, 2020 at 12:10 pm

    @Betty Cracker: I lived for a few years in Taiwan and Hong Kong, so I know what you’re talking about. The high humidity can make not-that-cold feel bone-chilling. I grew up in Illinois where we had real winters (oh, god, I still remember being in Chicago when I was 5 or something and I thought I was going die), and while it’s not that bad, it’s pretty darn uncomfortable.

    In Hong Kong/Taiwan, the real problem is that winter is so short, there’s no heat in houses, so you get cold and then never really warm up until winter passes. Which is just a few weeks, so boo hoo, I know. At least in northern Taiwan. Southern Taiwan is pretty mild and dry during winter.

  196. 196.

    O. Felix Culpa

    April 16, 2020 at 12:11 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: Sorry for the delay in responding: I went to get washed up and dressed. My jeans are a titchy bit tighter. No idea why.

    Ah yes, the truffle brownie recipe. HERE. I make a few tweaks, for example substituting 1/4-1/2 cup almond flour for sugar and adding strong coffee or kahlua to the batter (cutting vanilla back to 1 tsp). I’m going to try a hint of mint in the ganache topping one of these days. I typically leave out the nuts, because we prefer our brownies nutless. I like keeping the brownies in the fridge. They’re nice and fudgy that way.

  197. 197.

    rikyrah

    April 16, 2020 at 12:11 pm

    Maddow is the only one in the media who is on the Nursing Home/Senior Care facility problem across the country. As she points out – THE GOVERNMENT ISN’T EVEN GETTING THE STATS ON THIS.

    When it’s all said and done, this story will be one of the cornerstones of the failure of this Administration.
    These damn ghouls.
    And, the VA is lying too.

  198. 198.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    April 16, 2020 at 12:15 pm

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    Holy cow, that’s a lot of butter. No wonder they’re good.

  199. 199.

    O. Felix Culpa

    April 16, 2020 at 12:17 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Don’t forget the chocolate and heavy cream in the ganache topping. Sublime. I save this recipe for special occasions.

  200. 200.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    April 16, 2020 at 12:17 pm

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    My jeans are a titchy bit tighter. No idea why.

    On your way to gaining the COVID 19.

  201. 201.

    O. Felix Culpa

    April 16, 2020 at 12:19 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone): LOL. And ouch. A little too much truth in that.

  202. 202.

    Kent

    April 16, 2020 at 12:23 pm

    @Barbara:

    @Immanentize: I read that if the U.S. had won the same number of medals in the winter Olympics relative to its population as Norway, we would have something like 18,000 medals.

    I never pass up an opportunity to recommend a kids’ book that my son loved, called “Snow Treasure,” which is about Norwegian efforts to keep its reserves of gold away from Nazi Germany, wherein kids were enlisted to ride sleds on top of gold to a cave where it was being squirreled away.  I don’t know how historically accurate it was, but it was written by the lady who lived next to my mother’s family when she was a kid.

    Well yeah.  But that would require the 330 million US population to pack into the few NE and mountain states that actually have winter sports available.   If every HS in the US had a cross country ski team like they do in Norway then we’d be pretty damn good at it too.  In fact, they start the nordic ski programs at the elementary schools so basically every child in Norway grows up on cross country skis.

    BTW, I remember reading that same children’s book too.

  203. 203.

    Kent

    April 16, 2020 at 12:24 pm

    @L85NJGT:Eastern European farm workers are being flown to the UK on charter flights to pick fruit and vegetable crops.

    But….BREXIT!  They aren’t supposed to need them anymore!

  204. 204.

    zhena gogolia

    April 16, 2020 at 12:24 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    I’ve lost 10 pounds so far. Granted, it has plateaued. I lost 10 pounds the first week.

  205. 205.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    April 16, 2020 at 12:27 pm

    I am currently in the midst of one of my big lock-in projects: Clearing out the bags and boxes of unsorted paper I’ve accumulated over the decades (so far the record holder is a collection that apparently dated from about 1984, in a bag from a store which stopped existing in the 90s). It’s quite an interesting / depressing glimpse into the past.

    Anyway, just found a brochure that came with my cell phone circa 1997. There’s a page on FCC rules. If you’re operating a cell phone, it’s a radio frequency device and comes under the regulations any radio operator has to comply with:

    1. No person shall utter any obscene, indecent or profane language by means of radio communication.
    2. No person shall knowingly utter or transmit any false or fraudulent signal of distress or communication.
    3. No person shall willfully or maliciously interfere with or cause interference to any radio communication signal.
    4. The owner shall have the frequency and other operating characteristics checked at least once each year.
    5. It is unlawful to “listen in” on conversations intended for others, or to divulge any information thereby obtained.

    Hope you’re all being compliant and getting your frequency checked every year, and not transmitting any of that indecent language!

  206. 206.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    April 16, 2020 at 12:29 pm

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    We all are.

  207. 207.

    Just One More Canuck

    April 16, 2020 at 12:30 pm

    @Origuy: We could send Raven as the BJ representative in casting

  208. 208.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 16, 2020 at 12:35 pm

    @Kent:

    the few NE and mountain states that actually have winter sports available

    Always boggles my mind that they play ice hockey in Tampa.

  209. 209.

    trollhattan

    April 16, 2020 at 12:36 pm

    @Kent:

    Similar to how rural WWC Americans continue to not pour into Bakersfield to land themselves some sweet fruit-picking jobs.

  210. 210.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 16, 2020 at 12:38 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Which is why I only reply “fuck you!” when I am typing on a desktop computer.

  211. 211.

    trollhattan

    April 16, 2020 at 12:38 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Funny that it skipped #6. No person shall transmit images of their junk, solicited or unsolicited, to any other person.

  212. 212.

    Jay

    April 16, 2020 at 12:44 pm

    @Barbara:

    Norway made plans to evacuate the National Reserves in the late 1930’s. When the evacuation started, ( shortly after the first guns were fired), the Reserves were moved in three stages, by Commercial Trucks from Oslo to a Railhead, by truck and rail to a port, then by ship abroad.

     

    While a great kids story, ( which I remember reading at one time), it’s a work of fiction.

  213. 213.

    Kent

    April 16, 2020 at 12:44 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:Always boggles my mind that they play ice hockey in Tampa.

    Yeah, in Vegas and Phoenix too.  But the NHL paying in a basketball arena is different than having every kid in Phoenix playing ice hockey all winter in his/her back yard like is the case in say Thunder Bay Ontario.

  214. 214.

    J R in WV

    April 16, 2020 at 12:45 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    btw, I saw that the DeVos family organized those protests in Michigan yesterday.

    Would I be evil if I hope that all those RWNJ protestors (that blocked an ambulance running hot with lights and siren) managed to infect each other with the virus they don’t believe in?

    After all, it doesn’t matter if they don’t believe in the virus if the virus believes in them.

    And perhaps up the chain to the DeVos monsters? One can hope! Calvinists seem to be power mad, except for those under the thumb of the power mad Calvinists.

  215. 215.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 16, 2020 at 12:45 pm

    Russia has cancelled its annual Victory Day (May 9) parade, the one with all the military hardware passing in front of the Kremlin. This is a BFD, as it was to be the 75th anniversary.

  216. 216.

    Origuy

    April 16, 2020 at 12:46 pm

    @trollhattan: The rules date from the time that cell phones could only transmit audio. You had to use a fax machine to send pictures of your junk.

  217. 217.

    Jay

    April 16, 2020 at 12:51 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    so The Donald isn’t going to get his big military parade this year?

    guess he’s just going to have to attend his BFF’s one in Pongyang.

  218. 218.

    Jay

    April 16, 2020 at 12:54 pm

    Sociopaths,……

    DR OZ: "Schools are a very appetizing opportunity. I just saw a nice piece in The Lancet arguing the opening of schools may only cost us 2 to 3%, in terms of total mortality. Any, you know, any life is a life lost, but … that might be a tradeoff some folks would consider." ? pic.twitter.com/aifMeKTsIv— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 16, 2020

  219. 219.

    Chyron HR

    April 16, 2020 at 1:02 pm

    @Jay:

    Is it possible he’s not evil, just too dumb to know that “three percent” is ten million people?

  220. 220.

    sdhays

    April 16, 2020 at 1:02 pm

    @Jay: Is Dr. Oz an actual doctor, or is he more of a “Dr.”? I seem to recall that the’s not actually a medical doctor. Or else I’m just remembering how he’s been boosting snake oil for years by trading on his title.

  221. 221.

    JPL

    April 16, 2020 at 1:05 pm

    @Jay:

     @glennkirschner2

    More

    Glenn Kirschner Retweeted Aaron Rupar

    The Hippocratic Oath – Dr. Oz edition: First, do 2 to 3 % harm.

  222. 222.

    JPL

    April 16, 2020 at 1:06 pm

    @sdhays: He’s an actual doctor, who gets paid to act like a RWNJ

  223. 223.

    Gin & Tonic

    April 16, 2020 at 1:06 pm

    @sdhays: He’s actually a cardiothoracic surgeon.

    Cue an argument about whether surgeons are doctors or carpenters.

  224. 224.

    The Thin Black Duke

    April 16, 2020 at 1:08 pm

    @JPL: Mengele was a doctor too.

  225. 225.

    JPL

    April 16, 2020 at 1:10 pm

    @The Thin Black Duke: “money, money, money, makes the world go round, the world go round”

  226. 226.

    The Thin Black Duke

    April 16, 2020 at 1:12 pm

    @JPL: “And she doesn’t look Jewish.”

  227. 227.

    Jay

    April 16, 2020 at 1:21 pm

    When I lecture on the Great Depression, I give the rising unemployment numbers, noting that after more than three years of the crisis, there were 15,000,000 Americans unemployed in March 1933.I don't think that number is going to hit students in quite the same way anymore. https://t.co/tkdJoUCSNo— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) April 16, 2020

  228. 228.

    Jay

    April 16, 2020 at 1:25 pm

    This is the new American gothic and the photo is by @joshuabickel pic.twitter.com/rUHieNbn4M— Molly Jong-Fast? (@MollyJongFast) April 16, 2020

  229. 229.

    Kelly

    April 16, 2020 at 1:30 pm

    Sunny and warm here in the Cascade foothills. National Weather Service warning of elevated fire danger due to dry conditions the past few weeks, east winds and low humidity. In the rainy Willamette Valley. In April. March 19th last year was a day like this and a 130 acre wildfire burnt a state park  miles upwind of us. Fire danger used to start in July. Things have changed since I was young.

  230. 230.

    Chacal Charles Calthrop

    April 16, 2020 at 1:31 pm

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: I heard it came about as a result of the deeply bored Finnish army trying to stay in shape while manning the frontier of Finland during WWI. Apocryphal story though, don’t know if it’s true.

  231. 231.

    sdhays

    April 16, 2020 at 1:36 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: I remember seeing John Oliver’s take down of Oz a year or two ago. I don’t have regular TV, just internet-based media, so I was shocked that this guy was on day-time network television. As I recall, he’s anti-vaxxer-curious and willing to shill for any supplement or alternative “medicine” that will pay him $$$.

    At least when Gwyneth Paltrow sells you a rock to shove up your vagina, you aren’t under the illusion that a medical doctor is recommending it.

  232. 232.

    germy

    April 16, 2020 at 1:39 pm

    I like how ads have gone from “buy a toyota” to “this is a difficult and uncertain time for us all…buy a toyota”

    — california guy now (@InternetHippo) April 14, 2020

  233. 233.

    Jay

    April 16, 2020 at 1:39 pm

    @Chacal Charles Calthrop:

    it’s not true.

     

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biathlon

  234. 234.

    Jay

    April 16, 2020 at 1:42 pm

    @Kelly:

    Evacuation north of Squamish, parts of Brakendale evacuated due to a forest fire.

    in April,

    in a Rainforest,

    in the Lower Rainland.

  235. 235.

    germy

    April 16, 2020 at 1:43 pm

    @sdhays:

     I was shocked that this guy was on day-time network television.

    Fox is one thing, but I’ve seen Dr. Oz interviewed on the other, “regular” TV networks as a medical authority.

    As much as I admire Oprah Winfrey for rising up out of poverty and for her charity work, I never understood the calls for her to run for president.  She brought us Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil.  I wouldn’t be comfortable with her choices for staff as president.

  236. 236.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    April 16, 2020 at 1:43 pm

    Cuomo and Trump duet on “With a Little Help from the Feds.”

  237. 237.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 16, 2020 at 1:48 pm

    in other media news: The Intercept is staying on the Nancy Pelosi Ice Cream scandal

    jeremy scahill @jeremyscahill
    Is a powerful Democrat worth $120 million joking around about it from her luxury mansion on a comedy show during a pandemic where people are in massive lines for food and dying left and right?

    Yup, that’s from today.

  238. 238.

    Elizabelle

    April 16, 2020 at 1:49 pm

    Is one of the new normals having the morning thread up until mid-afternoon?

  239. 239.

    opiejeanne

    April 16, 2020 at 1:49 pm

    @L85NJGT: I haven’t seen the size of the crowd reported yet, but was it really in the thousands of protesters at either of the quarantine protests?

  240. 240.

    LuciaMia

    April 16, 2020 at 1:49 pm

    @germy: And the other big phrase now…”From our family to yours.”

  241. 241.

    Kelly

    April 16, 2020 at 1:53 pm

    @Jay: Oh My :-(

  242. 242.

    trollhattan

    April 16, 2020 at 1:55 pm

    @Origuy:

    So, you’re suggesting that rather than junk fax, it’s fax junk.

  243. 243.

    Ksmiami

    April 16, 2020 at 1:57 pm

    @satby: hopefully there will be fewer of them in 16 days

  244. 244.

    germy

    April 16, 2020 at 1:57 pm

    @LuciaMia:

    This poem is called “First lines of emails I’ve received while quarantining.” pic.twitter.com/4keCqPaO63— Jessica Salfia (@jessica_salfia) April 11, 2020

  245. 245.

    MattF

    April 16, 2020 at 1:59 pm

    Nuns playing basketball.

  246. 246.

    trollhattan

    April 16, 2020 at 1:59 pm

    @Jay:

    Dear lord.

    Heard a BBC World Service interview with an Aussie forester, walking fire areas that took place in their rainforest this year, forest evidently directly descended from Antarctic rain forest that existed before the continents broke apart. Tree and plant species of great geologic age are threatened by 21st century climate change.

  247. 247.

    trollhattan

    April 16, 2020 at 2:01 pm

    @germy:

    Hillbilly Elegy dude: your new Secretary of Labor.

  248. 248.

    Mo Salad

    April 16, 2020 at 2:02 pm

    @Ladyraxterinok: 1964. It was a Goldwater campaign apologia.

  249. 249.

    joel hanes

    April 16, 2020 at 2:02 pm

    @Citizen_X:

    Lots of those people are going to be dead in two weeks or so

    five to ten asymptomatic days to first symptoms

    often a week to ten days symptomatic

    crash

    a week to two weeks on a ventilator if there is one.

    So three to five weeks from exposure to death.   That’s one of the difficulties — the consequence is delayed so long that people have difficulty connecting it to the bad choices.

  250. 250.

    germy

    April 16, 2020 at 2:04 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Suze Orman,  Secretary of the Treasury

  251. 251.

    joel hanes

    April 16, 2020 at 2:05 pm

    @germy:

    [Oprah] brought us Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil

    Oprah helped give us Jenny McCarthy and the anti-vax stupidity.

    Oprah gave a national stage to Tom Cruise’s anti-psychiatry Scientologist ranting.

    Oprah means well.   That’s not enough.

  252. 252.

    L85NJGT

    April 16, 2020 at 2:06 pm

    @opiejeanne:

     

    Looked like only 50-60 holding signs on the state capitol steps.

    Maybe the rest were practicing social distancing?

  253. 253.

    joel hanes

    April 16, 2020 at 2:08 pm

    @opiejeanne:

    There were probably at least a thousand at the Michigan protest, but many of them stayed in or close to their vehicles, sorta practicing the social distancing that they were supposedly there to protest.

  254. 254.

    Ksmiami

    April 16, 2020 at 2:08 pm

    @O. Felix Culpa: ive been warning friends and family that Covid would be a global pandemic since January a have since learned that being a Cassandra is wretched- people don’t heed the warnings and then lash out at you for being right

  255. 255.

    Elizabelle

    April 16, 2020 at 2:10 pm

    WaterGirl just put up a new thread.  For Netflix favorites, and open thread.

  256. 256.

    Gravenstone

    April 16, 2020 at 2:10 pm

    @Jay: Seems like the good “Doctor” forgot about that little Hippocratic Oath thingy he once took.

  257. 257.

    J R in WV

    April 16, 2020 at 2:10 pm

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone:

    It’s a sport that always makes me giggle, “Let’s combine shooting with skiing, come on What’s the worst that could happen?” I need to look up how it came into being.

     

    I suspect it was because in the parts of the world where winter is hard, troops on skis fight with weapons, once probably spears and bow-and-arrows, now with high powered assault rifles.

    Lots of Olympic sports started as combat  — Greco-Roman wrestling anyone? Javelin? Even foot races perhaps…

    Ah, from the Biathlon Rules:

    Biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. The sport has its origins in an exercise for Norwegian soldiers. The first known competition took place in 1767 when border patrol companies competed against each other.

    What Fun !!!

  258. 258.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 2:12 pm

    @Elizabelle: Ask and you shall receive!

    edit: I see that you did not require an announcement. :-)

  259. 259.

    L85NJGT

    April 16, 2020 at 2:12 pm

    Oil under $20 a bbl.

    That’s going to cause problems in a number of petro-states.

  260. 260.

    Baud

    April 16, 2020 at 2:12 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Gotta please the boss.

  261. 261.

    Elizabelle

    April 16, 2020 at 2:13 pm

    @WaterGirl:   I knew you would come through!  Happy Thursday.

    (And not one, but two.  Which is good, cuz I don’t have Netflix, good as it sounds.)

  262. 262.

    Another Scott

    April 16, 2020 at 2:16 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: https://www.olympicchannel.com/en/

    YouTube TV carries the channel, also too, if it’s not on your system.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  263. 263.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 2:16 pm

    @O. Felix Culpa: Thank you!

    Jeans must’ve magically shrunk a bit overnight.  Weird times we live in.

  264. 264.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 16, 2020 at 2:22 pm

    The Hollywood Reporter @THR
    Brian Dennehy, the regular-guy actor whose bulldog build, good-guy demeanor and no-nonsense approach meshed in an array of memorable roles for film, television and the theater, has died

    RIP. Doesn’t sound like it was the ‘rona. I wish I had gotten a chance to see him on stage.

  265. 265.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 2:23 pm

    @trollhattan: I’m still waiting for the day my grocery stores pay me to take onions, carrots and celery off their hands because 62 million white people have become migrant farm workers and they’re underbidding each other for the back-breaking jobs.

  266. 266.

    trollhattan

    April 16, 2020 at 2:25 pm

    @L85NJGT:

    They had begun construction on Keystone XL pipeline in Montana this week, but a judge just yesterday revoked a permit. As a side note, the tribes did NOT want an influx of pipeline worker dudes bringing the virus with them. (Saw no reports of free blankets on offer.)

    The controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline has been dealt a major setback, after a judge revoked a key permit issued by the US army corps of engineers without properly assessing the impact on endangered species.

    In a legal challenge brought by a coalition of environmental groups, a federal judge in Montana ordered the army corps to suspend all filling and dredging activities until it conducts formal consultations compliant with the Endangered Species Act.

    The ruling revokes the water-crossing permit needed to complete construction of the pipeline, and is expected to cause major delays to the divisive project.

    Keystone XL is a 1,179-mile pipeline which would transport around 830,000 barrels of oil a day from the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to Nebraska, eventually heading to refineries on the Gulf coast.

    IIUC Alberta tar sands oil is the filthiest, most energy-intensive oil in production. So obviously it must not be denied!

  267. 267.

    L85NJGT

    April 16, 2020 at 2:27 pm

    @J R in WV:

    The pre-WWII the equestrian team was the U.S. Cavalry squad, and the shooting team has had lots of military members.

  268. 268.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 2:31 pm

    @Jay: All for the best.  It’s a fucking disgrace that this Soviet shitpile is squatting in the White House during the 75th anniversaries of D-Day, V-E day and V-J day.

    ETA – and the centennial of the end of World War I.

  269. 269.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 2:34 pm

    @Elizabelle: I think we’re all a bit stunned.  Or maybe a lot stunned,  But I had kind of planned to do these this weekend, so I could put them up bare bones to get something out there.

    You’ll have to imagine interesting introductions, lovely graphics, etc. :-)

  270. 270.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 2:35 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: oh, no! i loved him.

  271. 271.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 2:36 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: At this very moment I am eating my chicken soup which used celery, onions and carrots. I had to pay for all of my stuff.

  272. 272.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 2:52 pm

    Had no idea until today that ostriches sound like this… pic.twitter.com/ci1gb31HdW— Rex Chapman?? (@RexChapman) April 16, 2020

  273. 273.

    mrmoshpotato

    April 16, 2020 at 3:02 pm

    @WaterGirl: So do I.  I want a sack of potatoes and 5 bucks off my grocery bill.

  274. 274.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 3:08 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: At this point, I’m just grateful when the store has the stuff I want.

  275. 275.

    opiejeanne

    April 16, 2020 at 3:15 pm

    @WaterGirl: I had to pay for mine, too. I wonder why the world works that way. (sarcasm font)

    I’m making chicken stock today with the leftovers from the roast chicken I made for Easter and was low on carrots and celery.

  276. 276.

    opiejeanne

    April 16, 2020 at 3:20 pm

    @WaterGirl: Nobody has rice.

    I could have bought one of those ridiculously large bags of rice at Costco, just before all of the pain-buying started, but I thought I had lots. I was sorely mistaken.

    I’ve still got some left and we don’t eat it that often because of the blood sugar issue.

  277. 277.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 16, 2020 at 3:33 pm

    I’m sorry, we need a thread about ice cream-gate.

    Shahid Buttar for Congress @ShahidForChange

    US House candidate, CA-12

    This is the kitchen I share with my housemate in the Upper Haight. I often cook at home and freeze leftovers in these used yogurt containers.

    Nancy Pelosi’s Rose Twitter ‘challenger’ is posting a picture of his freezer, filled with virtuous left-overs. It actually took me a long minute to figure out what point he was trying to make. Fellow ice-cream-gaters are joining in the celebration of Freezer Virtue.

  278. 278.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 3:34 pm

    @opiejeanne: I got my rice early, so I am good on rice.  Who knew that Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream would be so hard to find?

  279. 279.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    April 16, 2020 at 3:35 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream

    CORPORATE ICE CREAM!

  280. 280.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 3:42 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oh my god, that is beyond stupid!  Not your comment, but the so-called scandal.

    Is that the best they can do?

  281. 281.

    WaterGirl

    April 16, 2020 at 3:42 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: You’ll have to fight me for my ice cream.

  282. 282.

    Geminid

    April 16, 2020 at 3:44 pm

    @opiejeanne: Kroger’s was out of brown rice the first three weekends of ” the panic.” I finally scored a bag last weekend. I hope people actually cook and eat all that brown rice; it would do them good.

  283. 283.

    sgrAstar

    April 16, 2020 at 4:36 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: there are tons of national and international gymnastics comps on youtube. Many feature the sublime Ms Biles.

     

    ?

  284. 284.

    Another Scott

    April 16, 2020 at 5:54 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: It would be great to have Graham tossed out on his ear, the way that Jesse Helms should have been tossed out by Harvey Gantt in NC.  History is slow sometimes, but sometimes she catches up.

    Go Jaime!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - dmkingto - SF Bay Area Scenes 7
Image by dmkingto (7/31/25)
Donate

Recent Comments

  • HinTN on Space Tech Open Thread: No Theft Too Large or Small (Jul 15, 2025 @ 1:00pm)
  • Kirk on Open Thread: How Has Trump Failed Us, Today? (Jul 15, 2025 @ 1:00pm)
  • Baud on Open Thread: How Has Trump Failed Us, Today? (Jul 15, 2025 @ 1:00pm)
  • Jay on Open Thread: How Has Trump Failed Us, Today? (Jul 15, 2025 @ 12:59pm)
  • prostratedragon on Open Thread: How Has Trump Failed Us, Today? (Jul 15, 2025 @ 12:59pm)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Feeling Defeated?  If We Give Up, It's Game Over

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!