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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

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

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

I really should read my own blog.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

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

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

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

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

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

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

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

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / The Latest Controversy

The Latest Controversy

by Betty Cracker|  May 22, 202012:48 pm| 115 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Politics

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I’ve never listened to The Breakfast Club radio program, and am in fact only aware of its existence because of controversies that arise from white politicians being interviewed on the show and coming off as clueless and/or tone deaf. Here’s the latest controversy:*

The presumptive Democratic nominee’s comment came at the end of an at times tense interview with Charlamagne tha God on “The Breakfast Club…”

Biden also defended his calls to decriminalize marijuana, rather than legalizing it. He said before legalizing it, he wants to wait and see the results of studies on “what it affects, doesn’t affect in long-term development of the brain. And we should wait till the studies are done.”

“I think we got decades of studies from actual weed smokers though,” Charlemagne cut in.

“Yeah, I do,” Biden said. “I know a lot of weed smokers.”

Emphasis mine. Jesus God. But seriously, Biden made another comment of which wingnuts are hypocritically and furiously making hay. My thoughts about it are as follows: as Biden’s fellow white person, I think it was a colossally dumb thing to say, but I’d rather discuss this bird:

Bearded Barbet (Lybius dubius)???️?❤️ pic.twitter.com/hB21fJTLG1

— World birds (@worldbirds32) May 21, 2020

Look at it! My God, it has a beard like Bluto from Popeye!!!

Open thread?

*ETA because I’m apparently incapable of conveying sarcasm in print (I blame weed); the weed comment isn’t really all that controversial. If you’re interested in what caused an uproar, click the handy link provided prior to the quote. (But really, the bearded bird is more interesting.)

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Reader Interactions

115Comments

  1. 1.

    Emma from FL

    May 22, 2020 at 12:53 pm

    The only way I would turn away from Biden is if the consensus of black voters did.  To my mind, the other option is so much worse that there is no comparison.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    May 22, 2020 at 12:56 pm

    I don’t get the weed thing.

  3. 3.

    Matt

    May 22, 2020 at 12:56 pm

    And we should wait till the studies are done.

    OTOH if there was a half-finished preprint study of 2 people who smoked weed and were damaged, centrist worms like ol’ Joe would be the first to scaremonger.

    Y’know what *does* have well-documented effects on brain development in kids? Putting their parents in jail for possessing a plant because Joe and his friends wanted to punch hippies.

    Marijuana prohibition has been a racist project from the get-go, and anybody defending it on scientific grounds is either a moron or a liar.

  4. 4.

    RobertDSC-Work

    May 22, 2020 at 12:58 pm

    What is wrong with what he said? Is there context missing?

  5. 5.

    MisterForkbeard

    May 22, 2020 at 1:00 pm

    I don’t understand the problem. Biden says he knows people who smoke weed. This is an issue?

    Trump literally ran in circles where everyone used cocaine.

  6. 6.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    May 22, 2020 at 1:02 pm

    What he meant to say was, Pick it, pack it, fire it up, come along, and take a hit from the bong.

  7. 7.

    cintibud

    May 22, 2020 at 1:02 pm

    I think there was another comment that’s causing the vapors – something like if you vote for Trump you’re not black.

  8. 8.

    ALurkSupreme

    May 22, 2020 at 1:03 pm

    I guess I must be missing something as well.

    Back to lurking!

  9. 9.

    Miss Bianca

    May 22, 2020 at 1:03 pm

    @Matt: From what I understand, there actually is evidence to the effect that cannabis use affects brain development. Which is why habitual use for people under 25 is dangerous and should, in fact, be discouraged.

    Just because it suits a retrograde political agenda to demonize cannabis use, doesn’t mean that cannabis is benign for everyone under every circumstance.

    But your purpose here is to bash Joe Biden, obviously, so I’m not sure why I’m even bothering to point this out.

  10. 10.

    clay

    May 22, 2020 at 1:03 pm

    Anecdotally, as a teacher, when I have a student who has been doing well and their grades and work ethic plummet all of a sudden… the reason is usually that they started smoking a bunch of weed.

  11. 11.

    James E Powell

    May 22, 2020 at 1:04 pm

    It’s going to be like this all summer, isn’t it.

  12. 12.

    Betty Cracker

    May 22, 2020 at 1:05 pm

    @MisterForkbeard: It was a failed attempt at sarcasm. That part made me roll my eyes because DUH, weed should be legal, but what Biden said there isn’t really controversial. The “you ain’t black” part was.

  13. 13.

    The Thin Black Duke

    May 22, 2020 at 1:05 pm

    I don’t care.

  14. 14.

    clay

    May 22, 2020 at 1:06 pm

    @cintibud: To quote our esteemed bloghost

     

    Rose twitter speaking for black people to tell joe biden how to talk to black people just shut this fucking hell site down

    Edit: One day I’ll learn how to embed a tweet. Today is not that day.

  15. 15.

    Leto

    May 22, 2020 at 1:06 pm

    @MisterForkbeard: The cocaine circle was probably the least worst circle he was involved in.

  16. 16.

    WereBear

    May 22, 2020 at 1:07 pm

    Sigh. At his age, that probably IS the radical position…

    Bringing up what Mr WereBear said just this morning, “If only he could get the younger generations on board…”

    That didn’t help. Because of the cluelessness, frankly.

  17. 17.

    Melville

    May 22, 2020 at 1:07 pm

    Pretty sure this is the issue:

    A staffer interjected that Biden needed to go, and Charlamagne shot back: “You can’t do that to black media!”
    “I do that to white media and black media because my wife has to go on at 6 o’clock,” Biden said, referring to his wife Jill Biden apparently needing to use the broadcast studio they’ve built in their basement in Delaware as the coronavirus pandemic has knocked Biden off the campaign trail. Glancing at his watch, Biden said, “uh oh, I’m in trouble.”

    Charlamagne told Biden that he should come to the studio in New York City for another interview, telling the former vice president that “we’ve got more questions.”

    “You’ve got more questions?” Biden replied. “Well I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”

  18. 18.

    JPL

    May 22, 2020 at 1:07 pm

    @James E Powell: Yes it is.

  19. 19.

    khead

    May 22, 2020 at 1:08 pm

    Biden – or if it had been any other Dem nominee – would have to threaten my cats to lose me at this point.  I mean, I’m not the one who set the bar so fucking low in 2016.

  20. 20.

    debbie

    May 22, 2020 at 1:09 pm

    Which is the outrage, that he won’t legalize it or that he’s known many weed smokers?

  21. 21.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    May 22, 2020 at 1:09 pm

    Joe and his friends wanted to punch hippies.

    hold on, I have something to add to “banksters” and “didn’t even try” and “Timmy Geithner” on my list of Self-Beclowning Internet Phrases.

  22. 22.

    rp

    May 22, 2020 at 1:10 pm

    I am not African American, so i’m talking out of my a**, but I suspect that Biden’s “you ain’t black” comments will not offend 99% of African American voters, and, in fact, many of them will find it funny.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    May 22, 2020 at 1:10 pm

    @The Thin Black Duke: Man, what do you know about black people?

  24. 24.

    download my app in the app store mistermix

    May 22, 2020 at 1:10 pm

    I saw that quote go by and I thought – he’s right, good.  Let them Streisand the fuck out of it, as far as I’m concerned.

  25. 25.

    PeakVT

    May 22, 2020 at 1:11 pm

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: I don’t partake, but I do love that song (and the first 2 albums as a whole).

  26. 26.

    Elizabelle

    May 22, 2020 at 1:12 pm

    @Miss Bianca:   Good comment.  I agree with you.

    There is a reason it’s fine for adults to be experts on the taste and drinking of wine and cognac, etc., whereas that’s not such a good idea in infants, children, or young teenagers.

    Medical marijuana and using it for relaxation?  Fine.  Using it to escape life, as happens with young folks whose brains are still forming — very bad idea.  Maybe better than prescription drug abuse, but it’s all bad for a brain in development.

  27. 27.

    eemom

    May 22, 2020 at 1:12 pm

    @James E Powell:

    It’s going to be like this all summer, isn’t it.

    Not pandemic though. Look on the bright side.

  28. 28.

    Amir Khalid

    May 22, 2020 at 1:12 pm

    @MisterForkbeard:

    I’d go a bit further, and venture that the typical American is  acquainted with more weed smokers than they realise.

  29. 29.

    Barbara

    May 22, 2020 at 1:12 pm

    @Miss Bianca: Thank you.  I think marijuana should be decriminalized, full stop, which will stop people from being jailed for possessing it.  Now, I don’t really see how you can do that without it becoming a commercial commodity but I am well past the marijuana fabulism that has taken place in what has been an unforgivable vacuum of research imposed by the DEA, whereby, in the absence of such research, people make fantastic claims about marijuana as a miracle drug.  Yeah, most of us know people who use weed.

  30. 30.

    Salty Sam

    May 22, 2020 at 1:13 pm

    Two things:

    1- I’m in the “I don’t get how his weed comment is bad” camp.  It’s nowhere nearly as stupid as “…but I didn’t inhale.”  I’d still do the broken glass thing to vote for him, but I’d be less supportive if he claimed NOT to know any weed smokers.

    2-  One positive thing that the relentless dive-for-the-bottom that the GOP/winguts have engaged in for… well, decades, at least, is that I DON’T GIVE A FLYING FUCK *WHAT* THEY THINK ABOUT US OR OURS ANYMORE!   If I spent one second of my life worrying about what Louis Gohmert thinks about Joe Biden, that’s a second of my life that I’ll never get back.

    They need to be rubbed out.

  31. 31.

    Elizabelle

    May 22, 2020 at 1:14 pm

    @rp:   For all we know, Biden is repeating something he heard from a black friend or supporter.  Cuz you know people have said that to him.

  32. 32.

    James E Powell

    May 22, 2020 at 1:15 pm

    @clay:

    I’m a teacher too, and I see a lot of the same thing, though I also see other causes of dramatic downturns – student’s involvement in intense teenage romances, parents’ divorce, lose a job, or get deported, and gang involvements.

    And just like when I was in high school, smoking weed causes some students to collapse academically, but for some it has almost no effect.

  33. 33.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    May 22, 2020 at 1:16 pm

    @PeakVT: What song?  ; )

  34. 34.

    rp

    May 22, 2020 at 1:16 pm

    @Elizabelle: Yes…good point.

  35. 35.

    jc

    May 22, 2020 at 1:16 pm

    Biden’s comment may not have been super sharp, but anything Trump has to say on the subject of weed is surely based on what science and medical experts have advised him. Just kidding.

  36. 36.

    Nora Lenderbee

    May 22, 2020 at 1:17 pm

    it has a beard like Bluto from Popeye

    Maynard G Krebs. Its call sounds like “Daddy-o, daddy-o, daddy-o.”

  37. 37.

    Betty Cracker

    May 22, 2020 at 1:18 pm

    Post updated to make it even more clear than “but seriously” that I was being sarcastic about the weed comment. And really, 30 comments and not one about that amazing bird? It’s got a beard, FFS!

    ETA: @Nora Lenderbee: Thank you! Thank you for noticing the bird!

  38. 38.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    May 22, 2020 at 1:18 pm

    In that comment about knowing people who smoked weed, I thought Biden was making a sort of jokey reference to Obama saying he’d smoked it.

  39. 39.

    Princess

    May 22, 2020 at 1:19 pm

    I logged out of twitter last night when everyone’s heads were exploding at the thought Klobuchar was being vetted for VP (is this really news) and it looks like I should stay away today too. It’s almost as if we didn’t have real things to worry about.

    (Im not saying what he said was smart or okay or fine. I’m just saying that even if someone is genuinely upset by it, it is also true that there are bigger issues now.)

  40. 40.

    Elizabelle

    May 22, 2020 at 1:20 pm

    Don’t feel like taking any whacks at Joe Biden.

    New post:  Mistermix has a good post up on contrast of COVID response by GOP Governor Kristi Noem and the Pine Ridge leadership.

  41. 41.

    Elizabelle

    May 22, 2020 at 1:20 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:   Yes!  Or Bill Clinton, even though he did not inhale.

  42. 42.

    MisterForkbeard

    May 22, 2020 at 1:24 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Okay. Yeah, that strikes me as dumb to say but not something I significantly care about.

    I’ll outsource whether or not I SHOULD care to the black community, but saying “Supporting Trump isn’t what ‘black’ people do” is something I’ve heard various black folks say… and something that makes sense.

    If this is an actual issue, Biden should just say “That came across wrong and inappropriately and I apologize for it. What I meant to say is that black people have and will get nothing from Trump other than racism, and I think it’s a bad idea for them to vote Republican.”

    Then just leave it at that and go on. Turn any accusations around on Republicans and then stop paying attention.

  43. 43.

    Salty Sam

    May 22, 2020 at 1:24 pm

    That bird has the worst neck-beard ever.  Probably posts on rose-twitter…

  44. 44.

    MisterForkbeard

    May 22, 2020 at 1:25 pm

    @rp: Right – that’s sort of where I am with it. I’ll defer to our AA commenters on whether or not this is actually offensive, but I kind of doubt it.

  45. 45.

    Soprano2

    May 22, 2020 at 1:28 pm

    I’m sure that the AP reporter who I heard casually say this morning on the radio program 1A that Trump went to Michigan *during a flooding emergency* and “took a swipe” at their governor as if it’s no big deal will probably clutch his pearls as he falls on the fainting couch hollering about how terrible Biden’s comment was. I mean, I don’t give a fuck what any of them think anymore because they give the most odious behavior by Trump a complete pass. I just couldn’t get over how he said it, as if that was something we just expected the president to do now, and I tried to imagine how the same reporter would have talked about Barack Obama if he had done something similar to Christie in New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy. My imagination failed me, but I do know it would have been 24/7/365 shrieking on all the news networks about “civility” and how terrible it was for the president to attack a governor in the middle of a natural disaster. Now they all act like it’s just par for the course and no big deal, something that isn’t worth saying much about.

  46. 46.

    Leto

    May 22, 2020 at 1:30 pm

    @Betty Cracker: just to keep it bird themed, Avalune and I have  local hawks here who are just a majestic. I love watching them soar, hunt around, and just be awesome. I think their nesting area is the local park behind our complex, but they’re definitely active in the area and we enjoy watching them do their thing.

  47. 47.

    Fleeting Expletive

    May 22, 2020 at 1:33 pm

    Fixing the law and the banking regs to allow weed dispensaries to do ordinary business rather than in all cash, bottom to top, would go a long way to just settle the matter.  When I buy from my closest dispensary it is parking lot pickup, everybody in masks, with cash. (kind of like old-school drug deals).

  48. 48.

    germy

    May 22, 2020 at 1:39 pm

    NEW: the latest federal inmate to die in the coronavirus pandemic is a 62-year-old with less than two years left on a 18-year sentence for marijuana charges. t.co/oK7yuscOe7

    — Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) May 22, 2020

  49. 49.

    Amir Khalid

    May 22, 2020 at 1:41 pm

    A birb! With a bearb, even!

  50. 50.

    eemom

    May 22, 2020 at 1:43 pm

    @download my app in the app store mistermix:

    Streisand the fuck out of it,

    I adore that.

  51. 51.

    errg

    May 22, 2020 at 1:45 pm

    @MisterForkbeard:

    That would be a great response for Biden… Apologize, attack Trump, and move on. This is a non-issue…

  52. 52.

    HumboldtBlue

    May 22, 2020 at 1:56 pm

    Did somebody say weed?

  53. 53.

    zhena gogolia

    May 22, 2020 at 2:09 pm

    @MisterForkbeard:

    He was invited to make the comment by the host saying “black media.” As you say, I’ll let black people decide if it’s a huge scandal. But my perception is that he was being invited to joke about it. Maybe he shouldn’t have bitten, I don’t know.

    BUT HIS OPPONENT IS DONALD J. TRUMP

  54. 54.

    geg6

    May 22, 2020 at 2:13 pm

    @clay:

    My anecdotal evidence, based on me when I was in high school and college (and, if I could smoke at work, probably still today), is that I do my best work when stoned.  It allows me to concentrate and think more deeply and ignore distractions.  I never wrote a paper, did research or took a test in college without toking up beforehand.  I graduated summa cum laude and aced my MEd program, too.  Stoned as hell the whole time.

  55. 55.

    Elizabelle

    May 22, 2020 at 2:16 pm

    This should be THE LATEST CONTROVERSY.

    Trump is going to kill even more people.  For politics.  Breaking news from AP, as printed in the LA Times:
    Trump calls on churches and other houses of worship to reopen this weekend

    By ASSOCIATED PRESS

    MAY 22, 2020
    11:06 AM

    WASHINGTON — 

     

    President Donald Trump on Friday said he has deemed churches and other houses of worship “essential” and called on governors to allow them to reopen this weekend despite the threat of the coronavirus.

    “Today I’m identifying houses of worship — churches, synagogues and mosques — as essential places that provide essential services,” Trump said during a hastily arranged press conference Friday. He said if governors don’t abide by his request, he will “override” them, though it’s unclear what authority he has to do so.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had prepared reopening guidelines for churches and other houses of worship weeks ago, but the White House had refused to release them until Thursday when Trump abruptly changed course.

    “I said ‘You better put it out.’ And they’re doing it,” Trump said Thursday at a Ford Motor Co. plant repurposed to make ventilators in Michigan. “And they’re going to be issuing something today or tomorrow on churches. We got to get our churches open.”

  56. 56.

    eemom

    May 22, 2020 at 2:17 pm

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Did somebody say weed?

    Thank you. I was beginning to think I was the only one here not wondering the hell about whether I KNOW anybody who smokes weed. ?

  57. 57.

    Yutsano

    May 22, 2020 at 2:18 pm

    Dat birb is getting shared. Otherwise I got nothin’.

  58. 58.

    HumboldtBlue

    May 22, 2020 at 2:20 pm

    @eemom:

    Hah!

  59. 59.

    WaterGirl

    May 22, 2020 at 2:21 pm

    @Elizabelle: Maybe the evangelical churches are stupid enough to follow Trump’s orders.  But I don’t see the Presbyterian churches or the UU churches opening before it’s safe, based on Donald Trump’s say so.  Quaker meetings?  Guessing those won’t be held this week, either.

    Also, how the fuck can the president declare CHURCHES essential services???

  60. 60.

    catclub

    May 22, 2020 at 2:22 pm

    @Leto: We have swallowtail kites that migrate through our area. They are so pretty to watch.

  61. 61.

    Miss Bianca

    May 22, 2020 at 2:23 pm

    @geg6: It definitely has different effects on different people! : )

  62. 62.

    zhena gogolia

    May 22, 2020 at 2:25 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    I hate him so much. (churchgoing Christian here)

  63. 63.

    Elizabelle

    May 22, 2020 at 2:26 pm

    @WaterGirl:   I don’t see the Catholic Churches reopening, either.

    Not without incredible anti-virus protections.

    All along, some churches have been having drive-up services, haven’t they?

  64. 64.

    Miss Bianca

    May 22, 2020 at 2:27 pm

    @WaterGirl: Well, I don’t know *how* he does it, I can only tell you that some of the churches out here in Cowboyfuckistan, CO, are repeating that “essential services” crap and claiming that their First Amendment rights are being INFRINGED, MAN, and that that shit SHALL NOT STAND, MAN!

    I will say that I think our Public Health Director and our Office of Emergency Management Director have been doing remarkably good jobs, considering the amount of shit they’ve had to put up with. Both women, btw. Coincidence? I think not.

  65. 65.

    HumboldtBlue

    May 22, 2020 at 2:28 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    The folks at this church won’t be returning on Sunday and it has echoes of Mississippi’s ugly church-burning past.

    The church was “burned to the ground” and had been trying to open services, Reeves tweeted Thursday. First Pentecostal filed a lawsuit last month against the city over its public health order on in-person worship services, the station reported.

    And Trump can say whatever he wants, he has no authority to force the governors to do anything about opening up their respective states.

    He’s just pouring gas on the fire and the dumbasses will be out this weekend clamoring to infect each other whether it’s at church or a Memorial Day event.

  66. 66.

    debbie

    May 22, 2020 at 2:30 pm

    The Lutheran church next to my apartment building isn’t opening. A large chunk of their flock is elderly. They doubtless know better than to reduce their membership.

  67. 67.

    Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)

    May 22, 2020 at 2:30 pm

    I don’t know that it was such a dumb thing to say.  Take a look at Black people in America.  If anybody knows the stakes in American elections, it’s Black people.  And they’re like 98% for Biden.

     

    They know he isn’t perfect.  But they sure as fuck aren’t going to sit petulantly out just because Biden isn’t Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln all rolled into one.

    As a rule, I take my political lead from Black Americans.  They know the stakes better than anybody.

  68. 68.

    Elizabelle

    May 22, 2020 at 2:34 pm

    @Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):   OT:  I loved your “imaginary Pets of Balloon Juice” comment last night.

    For those who missed it:  Cole had a dream with a large tortoise (in his care) that lost its shell …

  69. 69.

    Matt McIrvin

    May 22, 2020 at 2:36 pm

    My Twitter feed has sporadic eruptions of friends moaning about how we’re going to lose because Biden is so awful. It seems to be more or less the consensus. They may be right but beyond some point I think it’s unhealthy for me to see this stuff any more.

  70. 70.

    Elizabelle

    May 22, 2020 at 2:36 pm

    “hastily called news conference.”

    That makes me think:  what is Trump trying to distract from now?

    Also missed Cuomo O’Clock today.  Wonder if he said anything about reopening churches/places of worship.

  71. 71.

    Miss Bianca

    May 22, 2020 at 2:37 pm

    @Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):

    As a rule, I take my political lead from Black Americans.  They know the stakes better than anybody.

    Co-signed.

  72. 72.

    Incitatus for Senate

    May 22, 2020 at 2:38 pm

    @geg6: The only way I could handle college calculus was stoned off my ass, every class, every exam. Did no homework, got an A-.

    I’d like to see the same kind of study of the brains of SSRI users who start at 13 as well.

  73. 73.

    Elizabelle

    May 22, 2020 at 2:39 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:  I would really mute or lose your Twitter friends, Matt.  I am serious.  You have mentioned them frequently, and sometimes show up here all depressed and depressing to us.

    No one is taking winning this election lightly.  It will be a lot of fight and a lot of work.  Does not mean we have to give our ears and eyes to those who would depress and distress us.

    It’s stressful enough with COVID and all the changes it has wrought. Why not take a break from those [head]fuckers?

  74. 74.

    wenchacha

    May 22, 2020 at 2:41 pm

    @MisterForkbeard: Yep. I am old enough that I know too many guys of Joe’s era who say stuff like this for a variety of reasons. Often, it is not meant to harm or offend another. It really riled up one of my young friends who had been supporting Bernie.

    If Biden could just not be himself for the next 5 months, we’d be homefree! It hurts to know how much will be spun from his flubs in the meanwhile. It makes it so difficult to GOTV with young voters, and other disaffecteds, who really wanted that pony, dammit.

    I am not without some sympathy for them. Things are seriously messed up. I am going to have to depend on Joe Biden, and God help me, a Democrat-led Senate, to shore up the foundation of this creaky building.

  75. 75.

    zhena gogolia

    May 22, 2020 at 2:43 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Have they looked at any polls?

  76. 76.

    Miss Bianca

    May 22, 2020 at 2:46 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: Just remember, Matt: Twitter Opinion does not necessarily lead or even reflect Real World Opinion(s). I have to repeat this bromide to myself every so often. I have been tempted occasionally to get a Twitter account, and then I read something like this and, as with my father and exercise, I lie down till the feeling goes away.

  77. 77.

    lofgren

    May 22, 2020 at 2:51 pm

    A stupid thing to say, but given Trump’s 14% approval rating among Black voters, statistically extremely accurate.

  78. 78.

    dww44

    May 22, 2020 at 3:00 pm

    @Miss Bianca: My very  progressive high school science teacher daughter agrees with you that cannabis use among the general population is harmful.

  79. 79.

    trollhattan

    May 22, 2020 at 3:02 pm

    @Miss Bianca: @Elizabelle:

    +2. “Just say no” has rightly morphed to “delay, delay, delay” because the longer a growing kid puts off recreational drinking and drug use, the less they might interfere with brain development. And as I note to my kid, while your liver and kidneys get rid of that natty lite overnight, THC takes up residence for a good long while before it’s excreted, and the direct effects can remain active as long as 12 hours.

    IIUC the new NFL CBA has at last backed off on THC as a suspendible offense. “Hey, that guy outran me because weed!” just ain’t a thing.

  80. 80.

    James E Powell

    May 22, 2020 at 3:02 pm

    @Fleeting Expletive:

    When I buy from my closest dispensary it is parking lot pickup, everybody in masks, with cash. (kind of like old-school drug deals).

    Are there some guys sitting on an orange couch?

  81. 81.

    chopper

    May 22, 2020 at 3:02 pm

    @Melville:

    i have yet to meet an IRL black person who hasn’t made up their mind about trump long ago. bots on twitter, not so much.

  82. 82.

    dww44

    May 22, 2020 at 3:02 pm

    @dww44: can’t edit.  Meant to say “among the young” and not the general population.

  83. 83.

    Miss Bianca

    May 22, 2020 at 3:03 pm

    @dww44: Well, I don’t know about the general population…I was speaking specifically about young people

    ETA: Oh, ha ha, I see you got there before me! Got it! : )

  84. 84.

    Miss Bianca

    May 22, 2020 at 3:08 pm

    @trollhattan: I feel pretty lucky that however much I may have indulged in illicit substances later in life, I was squeaky clean in high school. Didn’t like pot, didn’t like beer. That all changed by the time I got to college, of course, but not overnight!

  85. 85.

    Sloane Peterson's knee therapist

    May 22, 2020 at 3:11 pm

    Speaking of the “old enough to remember” frat-rority, I’m old enough to remember when <i>The Breakfast Club</i> was on the radio with host, Don McNeill, out of the Palmer House in Chicago. “Let’s all get up and march around the breakfast table, ladies” It was a mid-morning program that targeted early 1950’s house wives and preceded all the soaps: <i>Our Gal Sunday; Young Doctor Malone: Mary Noble, Backstage Wife</i> which Bob and Ray had a reverse parody, Mary Backstage, etc.

    I had to wait until the later afternoon, after school was out, for the kid programs: <i> Sergeant Preston of The Yukon; The Lone Ranger</i> We didn’t even get a TV until 1951.

  86. 86.

    Betty Cracker

    May 22, 2020 at 3:12 pm

    @Leto: Hawks are amazing. We have red-shouldered hawks around here, and they’re beautiful. There was a nearby nest last year, and we’d hear and occasionally catch a glimpse of a baby. I really wanted to photograph them, but I couldn’t figure out a way to do it without disturbing them — would have taken a ladder.

  87. 87.

    NotMax

    May 22, 2020 at 3:22 pm

    @Sloane Peterson’s knee therapist

    Yup. What I first thought of as well, “Is that still running?”

  88. 88.

    HumboldtBlue

    May 22, 2020 at 3:22 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    How did the mysterious bite and swelling turn out?

    Also, you have one more twitter follower

  89. 89.

    Betty Cracker

    May 22, 2020 at 3:26 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: Completely back to normal, thank dog!

  90. 90.

    trollhattan

    May 22, 2020 at 3:28 pm

    @Miss Bianca:

    Accidentally didn’t experience weed in HS because while we though we were having it, what we used did nothing. Did not understand this until hitting college and “whoa.” A semester in I realized I was not cut out for it. “Uh, where’s the kegger tonight?”

    My favorite story involves a guy who showed up at my sophomore dorm room cluching a bunch of arrows, wondering if I needed any opium. “Mark’s not here, man.” One of the most prolific dealers had a dad in the diplomatic corps.

    The typical California over the counter weed must be a hundred times more concentrated than “back in the day.”

  91. 91.

    Matt McIrvin

    May 22, 2020 at 3:30 pm

    @Elizabelle: Because it could all be true. And I don’t want to be the kind of person who runs away from a horrible truth to be happier. It seems like weakness.

  92. 92.

    jl

    May 22, 2020 at 3:31 pm

    I admit I can be slow to pick things up at times, but I can’t figure out what the gaffes are in the latest spate of Bidengaffes. Seem to be several already today.

    Yeesh. Biden has no emails. The Trumpsters are too incompetent to cook up one good enough for the media to take seriously. JoeHunterBiden Ukraine gate is old news. No one can even figure out Obamagate enough to put a banner on it or even find theme music for the ‘developing!’ and ‘breaking news!’ click and eyeball bait.

    So, Biden says stuff and the media and trolls pick several at random, and that is the Bidengaffe of the day?

  93. 93.

    Leto

    May 22, 2020 at 3:32 pm

    @catclub: That’s really cool. We have a lot of local birds, robins/finches/woodpeckers, but just the two hawks. I don’t know if they’re the same ones from previous years, but I like to think they are. Either way, I appreciate them.

     

    @Betty Cracker: They are; I usually stop walking and just stare at them like an idiot. I love watching them circle around, scoping things out. Occasionally they’ll land on a nearby tree, or they might land on one of the telephone poles across the river, and I get a better look at them. I’m the same as you, would like to get some good pictures, but I usually don’t take my phone and we need a new battery for the camera.

  94. 94.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 22, 2020 at 3:40 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: Facing up to unpleasant truths is one thing. Constantly reading endlessly negative stuff because it might be true is another.

  95. 95.

    Aziz, light!

    May 22, 2020 at 3:43 pm

    Man, this political horse race noise is tiring. I don’t care if Biden worships Satan and smokes crack every weekend. If Trump and his enablers are not removed from power, America is over.

  96. 96.

    O. Felix Culpa

    May 22, 2020 at 3:44 pm

    @geg6: On the other hand, my amazingly brilliant son took up weed in his teens as a full-time endeavor and nearly crashed out of high school and then college as a result. He’s gotten his life back together and is doing well now, but the effect was not helpful for that particular individual. I don’t give a rat’s ass if people partake, but weed can have seriously negative consequences for some young people before they’re of an age of discernment.

  97. 97.

    WaterGirl

    May 22, 2020 at 4:27 pm

    @Miss Bianca: People looking for an excuse to be outraged.  Actually the outrage is ingrained, they are looking for a reason to get to throw the tantrum.

    It’s appalling.

  98. 98.

    Baud

    May 22, 2020 at 4:34 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Predictions ≠ truths.

  99. 99.

    Reboot

    May 22, 2020 at 4:53 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    And it could all be false. If so, you’ll be wasting a lot of mental energy staring down a “horrible truth” that doesn’t exist now and may never come to pass.

  100. 100.

    OGLiberal

    May 22, 2020 at 5:22 pm

    @Elizabelle: My kids’ Catholic Church does mass via YouTube.  CCD/mass got canceled in early March.  The Diocese was ahead of the PA government on shutting down…not far ahead, but ahead.  The Catholic Church is struggling to get new members or to keep younger members on board – can’t be inviting a bunch of seniors – their only steady audience – to gather together in a poorly ventilated old church.  They’ve always been cautious – no holy water or blood of Christ or shaking hands during the “sign of peace” when there is a bad flu season.

  101. 101.

    Origuy

    May 22, 2020 at 5:23 pm

    @Sloane Peterson’s knee therapist: I remember The Breakfast Club radio show; my mom would listen to it in the early sixties. It was carried on WTTW in Bloomington, Indiana. Wikipedia says they didn’t broadcast from the Palmer House though, at least not usually. They started out at the NBC studios at the Merchandise Mart, and then to ABC’s studios when that split off.

    I’ve stayed at the Palmer a couple of times. The place is filled with historical photos and artifacts. I think they would have some memorabilia about the show, but I may have missed it.

  102. 102.

    Geoduck

    May 22, 2020 at 5:26 pm

    @Elizabelle: He’s not trying to distract from anything. There is no plan. There is never a plan. He just jerks around spasmodically as the brain-worms twist inside his head.

  103. 103.

    OGLiberal

    May 22, 2020 at 5:29 pm

    @trollhattan: I always thought it was terrible what they did to Ricky Williams.  Dude had social anxiety disorder and just wanted to smoke weed and do yoga.

  104. 104.

    tam1MI

    May 22, 2020 at 6:09 pm

    Anybody worried about this should see how Biden’s communication director shut down Chuck Toad when he brought it up.  By God, it was a thing of beauty!

  105. 105.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    May 22, 2020 at 6:30 pm

    @Betty Cracker: …weed should be legal, but what Biden said there isn’t really controversial. The “you ain’t black” part was.

    *Sigh*

    I was rooting for Warren as VP, on the basis of her policy chops, but maybe Joe really does need a black VP, say Harris or Abrams,  to remind him on a daily basis not to take the black vote for granted or be cavalier about it.

  106. 106.

    Louis

    May 22, 2020 at 6:37 pm

    @Origuy: They broadcast from The Allerton Hotel, with

    the Tip Top Tap.

  107. 107.

    J R in WV

    May 22, 2020 at 6:37 pm

    @geg6:

    Stoned as hell the whole time.

    Me too… college, work, cut back around 20 years ago, some. Now the drinking light is lit after lunch. I’m too old to give a shit. G&T with fresh lime.

    No, eemom, you are not the only one!

  108. 108.

    Morzer

    May 22, 2020 at 7:30 pm

    Some of my best weed smokers are friends. That’s all I got to say about this. No, wait.. what?

  109. 109.

    prostratedragon

    May 22, 2020 at 8:04 pm

    @lofgren:
    And those statistics don’t convey the intensity, which shows how restrained we generally are. (Ftr, I chuckled when I read it.)

  110. 110.

    WaterGirl

    May 22, 2020 at 8:45 pm

    @lofgren: I thought it was 3%.  How the hell does Trump get to 14% with black voters?

  111. 111.

    Uncle Cosmo

    May 22, 2020 at 8:45 pm

    @Morzer: That one gets filed with “I’m not as think as you drunk I am.”

  112. 112.

    E

    May 22, 2020 at 11:33 pm

    This guy charlamagne the god is a total fucking prick. Every show I’ve seen him on he’s just an arrogant ass who thinks he has some keen insights into everything but is just ignorant.

  113. 113.

    HeartlandLiberal

    May 23, 2020 at 6:38 am

    I live in a major midwest university town. Many of our friends are successful Black professors and professionals. And I can testify to the fact that every last one of them would agree with what Biden said. If you support Trump, you ain’t Black. Just sayin’.

  114. 114.

    lofgren

    May 23, 2020 at 3:21 pm

    @WaterGirl: They’re almost all Black men. Trump’s support among Black women is statistically 0

    The patriarchy: You’re soaking in it.

  115. 115.

    brantl

    May 24, 2020 at 12:27 am

    We really need to start backing up BIden, conversationally. He hasn’t said anything that isn’t true, or even in any way contraversial. It isn’t tough to say, “That’s true, here’s why:” and list the reasons. Why do we always back away from the obvious truth, when the Republicans lie?

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