Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

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

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

He really is that stupid.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

“But what about the lurkers?”

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

The willow is too close to the house.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

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

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

So many bastards, so little time.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Saturday Morning (Political) Cartoons

Open Thread: Saturday Morning (Political) Cartoons

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Saturday morning cartoons, with a side of links to some coronavirus podcasts, all courtesy of one of our jackals.

I only know her by name, so as soon as she gets back to me with her nym, I will add it here.  Hmm, I believe it’s a her, but now that I think about it, it’s one of those names that can go either way.

Update:  Cartoon and other links came from Jackal:  August West.  I guess I was wrong about the gender!

Saturday Morning Cartoons

via The Moderate Voice, a nice roundup of Trump cartoons:

Trump’s Coronavirus Performance Through the Eyes of Political Cartoonists

***

Update:  PODCASTS

I haven’t listened to any of these podcasts, so I can’t vouch for them personally.

Coronavirus 411 alerts, updates, and information
https://tunein.com/podcasts/News–Politics-Podcasts/Coronavirus-411-alerts-updates-and-information-p1289595/

Coronavirus Daily Briefing
https://art19.com/shows/coronavirus-daily-briefing

Coronavirus: Fact vs Fiction with Dr. Sanjay Gupta
https://www.cnn.com/audio/podcasts/corona-virus

Coronavirus Global Update (BBC World Service)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xtv39

Coronavirus Today: Alerts and Updates with Dr. Brian McDonough
https://open.spotify.com/show/2cW5kWzQna8DOU28RpDHyt

Epidemic With Dr. Celine Gounder and Ronald Klain
https://open.spotify.com/show/3DLvofLCx0o7adGqnfZvxl

Social Distance with Dr. James Hamblin
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1502770015

Viral: Coronavirus
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/viral-coronavirus/id1500978005

Open thread.

 

Reader Interactions

108Comments

  1. 1.

    khead

    When I saw the thread title I thought it was going to be about Super Friends, The Bugs Bunny/Road Show, and Scooby Doo. With maybe some Thundarr in there somewhere.

  4. 4.

    No One of Consequence

    @khead:

    Loved me some Thundarr. Missed my Saturday morning ritual of cereal and milk and cartoons.

    Simpler times when my President was a simple Peanut Farmer from Georgia who had a few other odd qualifications: nuclear engineer, State Governor, Genuinely Decent Human Being, Actual Practicing Christian Who Tries to Walk the Walk, etc.

    He said malaise, and they crucified him on it. But he signed the Home Brew act and gave rise to good beer once again being widely available in my Blessed Country.

    Following his only term, he is the most Decent Human Being to hold that office in my lifetime. And I believe Obama is a Good Man, lest one think I don’t.

    (edited to add a missed point: Look at what the man has done since he left office. Let him be Known by His Works.)

    This fuggin’ timeline…

    Peace,

    – NOoC

  7. 7.

    Tony Jay

     

    Over here in the Rotten Borough of Lower Brexitannia the necrotic pussy tu jour is the revelation that Dominic Cummings, the not-at-all-a-Russian-asset who serves (if that’s the right word, and I don’t think it is) as chief political advisor/handler to Prime Minister Flatulent Wordgust violated Lockdown rules by driving a few hundred miles north so he could dump his sprog on either his parents or his sister (accounts already differ) while potentially infected with C-19.

    Given that Cummings is the source of the infamous “So a few thousand old people die? So what?” quote that underpins this Government’s entire strategy of seeking mass infection of the population ASAP, and the previous revelation that, despite a comprehensive lack of anything approaching the necessary qualifications for membership, he sits on the ‘independent’ Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) as Flobalob Johnson’s enforcer of politically-correct outcomes, not to mention his role in perverting British democracy before, during and after the 2016 Referendum and the 2019 General Election through his involvement with Cambridge Analytica and that whole shadowy netherworld of dirty foreign funding and even dirtier foreign intelligence operations, you’d think that this would be the last straw for his career as a cartoon supervillan.

    You would be wrong, though. Cummings is the borderline-criminal power behind a Tory throne, and in this country that means he’s a made-man, protected to the hilt by an Establishment that understands the need for low-born men of high-functioning sociopathy to oversee the necessary cutting and crushing of plebeian lives that scions of gentler bloodlines might balk at. The Media are already tapping their foot to the mood-music coming out of Tory Party HQ, gobbling up soundbites like Billy Bunter in a Tuck-Shop. Downing St is circling the wagons, assembling anonymous and on-the-record statements defending Cummings’ rule-breaking by pretending to a morality they can only mimic (“He was protecting the life of a child!!”) and moving the goalposts (“It wasn’t illegal, so what’s the problem?”), while back-bench Tory MPs line up to assure our practitioners of Access Journalism that they can’t stand the man and if they were running things he’d be out on his ear… if they were running things, which they’re not, because Parliament doesn’t matter anymore, does it?

    I’d be astonished if anything comes of this. The British Media have let Cummings get away with far, far worse in service to the Far-Right, and breaking him now would be tantamount to declaring war on the current Government. However, it is possible that this is the latest strategic thrust in Murdoch’s campaign to get Flobalob turfed out of Downing Street in favour of his own asset, so we could well see a sustained concentration on the connection between the Sicknote King and his Bald Right Hand, with pointed questions about what Downing Street knew, when it knew it, and if it lied about it to the Press during the seven weeks between Cummings’ jaunt and today’s headlines. It’s been a while since anyone in the British Media aggressively investigated anything the Tories say or do, so I imagine the mechanisms for such an operation are a bit rusty and buried under merchandise from the Britpop Era, but if the word goes out that it’s open season we could well see some movement in that direction.

    They could just pretend that Cummings is a left-winger affiliated with Labour. Those muscles are well-exercised and bulging with artificially enhanced venom. And this time they wouldn’t even have to lie so much to make the scandal ‘work’.

    Meanwhile about 55,000 people have died, the Lockdown was far too porous to do more than slow the rate of infection, we don’t have a Testing/Tracing operation in place and the bastards are still pushing to reopen schools and force millions of people back to dangerous workplaces. Plus the steady barrage of “Hey, everything is cool and safe now, right?” coming from the billionaire owned propaganda outlets have convinced a lot of otherwise sentient lifeforms that Summer is here and the time is right for a 2nd wave pan-dem-ic.

    These fucking people.

  8. 8.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @khead: I remember being a young curmudgeon in training, grumbling to myself at how all the Saturday morning cartoons were crap these days, except Bugs Bunny. This was just about the time Scooby Doo started.

  14. 14.

    Another Scott

    @Tony Jay: Thanks for the report.

    The BBC has a long front-page report about it mentioning that it happened March 31 – early April. Lots and lots of “he was protecting his child!!”. :-/

    It’s kinda strange that it’s coming out now, isn’t it? It’s like BoJo was able to bury it for weeks and weeks, but can’t any longer? Or he’s looking to set up a sacrificial lamb or something?

    Too much #10 intrigue.

    People need to follow the rules, especially in a pandemic, especially when they have political power. This isn’t hard to understand.

    Hang in there.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  16. 16.

    The Moar You Know

    Fisherman’s Wharf is burning.

    @raven: As a former resident of the City, all I can say “good”.  The locals avoid that entire part of town like it’s plagueville.  Full of nothing but aggressive homeless, midwestern tourists, and San Francisco’s worst restaurants.

  20. 20.

    bemused

    I’m glad I’m recording AM Joy this morning to watch later when I have more time. What I did hear was good panel of Tom Nichols, Rick Wilson, Kurt Bardella and Michael Steele talking about grifting on trump’s dime by Brad Parscale and republicans in general and more.

  21. 21.

    Citizen Alan

    @No One of Consequence: After all these year, I remain baffled that no one in Hollywood has ever even tried to make a live action Thundarr movie. Given the endless parade of GI Joe/Transformers dreck, I felt sure someone would the incredible cinematic potential of a post-Apocalyptic sword & sorcery (& “super-science”) world envisioned by Jack Kirby.

  22. 22.

    Tony Jay

    @Amir Khalid:

    Near as I can tell Flobalob’s loyalty is to the same general cause of Oligarchy Uber Alles, but unlike Michael Give and others he’s not directly on Murdoch’s payroll. Whoever holds the chit on Flobalob’s soul it’s more likely to be a Russian or American billionaire than the aging Aussie wrecker.I

    As far as Murdoch and his I’ll are concerned they’ve succeeded in conquering the UK, all that’s left is the apportionment of spoils, and it would simply be easier for Murdoch to claim bragging rights and guarantee his choice of plum treasures (BBC) if he has his own Renfield in Number 10 controlling Cabinet posts.

  24. 24.

    Another Scott

    @sdhays: +1

    Matt Bai at FTFNYT (from 2009):

    In July 1979, as the fabric of American civil society seemed to be unraveling, the president of the United States disappeared. For 10 days, Jimmy Carter holed up at Camp David, engaging in sometimes painful discussions with intellectuals and clerics. Then he returned to deliver a 32-minute televised sermon that would somehow come to be known as the “malaise” speech. (Carter never actually uttered the word, which was used by advisers and popularized by the media.)

    […]

    “All the legislation in the world can’t fix what’s wrong with America,” Carter warned in his epiphanic speech, written chiefly by a young Hendrik Hertzberg. “We’ve learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.” This message, he acknowledged, conveyed no “happiness or reassurance, but it is the truth and it is a warning.” Only after railing against the shallowness of the culture did Carter mention the steps he would take to liberate the country from foreign oil — proposals that would be mostly ignored for the next 30 years, perhaps because he had so stained the whole idea of energy conservation with smears of pessimism and weakness. (Sadly, he did the same thing to the cardigan sweater.) Carter closed by asking Americans to “say something good about our country” whenever they had the chance.

    Noting how positively the speech was initially received,

    [ We can’t have a Democratic President actually be popular and have popular policies now, can we?? ]

    Mattson concludes that it might have galvanized the country had Carter not misstepped by demanding the resignations of his entire cabinet a few days later. Maybe — it doesn’t seem likely that the nation’s trajectory could really have been righted by a president who, in Mattson’s words, thought he could ­“improve the people by improving himself in direct relation to them.”

    […]

    Etc., etc. Yada, yada, yada. Really nice flavoring words there, innit?

    FTFNYT and the WaPo had it in for Carter before he even arrived (probably because new people were coming in and they were losing access to all their great ‘sources’ cultivated for decades). It continued for decades….

    Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  25. 25.

    zhena gogolia

    Lincoln Project Memorial Day:

    To the families of the fallen women and men who have died for this land we love: we thank you and honor your loss by continuing the fight for liberty, justice, and freedom each and every day. pic.twitter.com/jiU2s8EyaA— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) May 22, 2020

  26. 26.

    Beagleowned

    @Tony Jay: I am an industrial-strength BJ lurker. This may be only my third or fourth comment submitted in more than a decade. Most likely the first time sober, no matter.
    Nonetheless your uhhm, missive…no, no, soliloquy…that’s not right…hmmm diatribe, that’s it! Your diatribe is astounding in breadth, perspicuous in presentation and entertaining in it’s execution.
    My hat’s off to you sir; my gob is, indeed, smacked.

  28. 28.

    Tony Jay

    @Another Scott:

    It would surprise me not a jot if this was a twofer.

    1) Spark a “well if they can do it why can’t we?” response amongst the public, drawing on the blatant double standards shown towards those who get away with violating Lockdown rules (Cummings, Prince Charles, Flobalob himself) and those who don’t (everyone else). Result – another few bricks kicked out of the national consensus that Lockdown is worth it and working and a happy Downing St.

    2) Another nose-rubbing session to teach the Media it’s place and give the rancid Tory Base dominance material to fap over. “Yeah he did it. But he stays and you have to, a) swallow it and, b) run cover for us or run foul of your publisher’s best interests.

    Result – a happy Downing Street.

    Will it work?  Have they overreached? Only time will tell, but the real kick to the balls is their confidence that no one else’s opinion matters. 4.5 more years and an 80 seat majority, suckers.

    I hate these people.

  29. 29.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Hopefully this is not behind a paywall. A little humor from the New Yorker: Batman works from home.

    Now that I work from home, I’ve been spending a lot of time on Zoom with Two-Face, the Joker, the Riddler, and Poison Ivy. The other day, as a goof, the Joker changed his background to the Batcave. We all had a good laugh.

    . . .

    The hardest part of all of this is trying to remain motivated. I’ve been fighting crime online to stay sharp. Yesterday I got a man blocked from the Herkimer County Bird Lovers Facebook group, because his Zip Code technically falls in Otsego County. Love your own birds, mister

  30. 30.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Saturday morning cartoons were crap these days, except Bugs Bunny. This was just about the time Scooby Doo started.

    Then you were correct.  Like, objectively, historically correct.  That was exactly the period where the expense of television animation and the rise of ‘limited animation’ convinced almost every producer in the animation industry that the only possible kind of profitable television cartoon was the cheapest, lowest quality they could make.  This quickly became a culture-wide belief, often referred to as the ‘cartoon ghetto’, that cartoons are for children, and stupid children at that.

  31. 31.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @Tony Jay: fucking Tory jerks.  Because taking care of your child means it’s okay to have him confined in a car for several hours with COVID-19 infected people.  They’ve got fucking money, if they really cared for the kid they could have hired someone to deliver whatever caviar they hadn’t hoarded, stayed isolated in their rooms with newly purchased mini-fridges, and paid someone to monitor all of them via Zoom or similar and phone.  But no, they have to drive, probably infecting others on the way to their fucking rich parents’ estate with a separate house so his sister can do caviar runs and his kid can be free of responsibility and then run the risk the chance of infecting his vulnerable parents and his doormat sister.  Jesus wept.

  32. 32.

    laura

    @The Moar You Know: yes it’s a shite tourist trap BUT it’s also a very important reminder of the City’s labor history. There’s a very public art display that runs the length of the embarcadero made from repurposed coca cola bottles in the sidewalk that captures the history of longshoreman and dock workers past each of the warehouses along the pier. It’s the scene of the 1934 3 day west coast general strike led by Harry Bridges and as these warehouses burn, it’s likely that the history and importance of these buildings – many still in use and not for tourism will be lost. And yes, the foods for shite and parking is not even possible.

  37. 37.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Tony Jay:

    I keep meaning to ask you — and because it’s private and I’m nosy, feel free to tell me to bugger off — but is your nym by any chance an homage to the late Sir Antony Jay (co-creator, with Jonathan Lynn, of Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister)?

  38. 38.

    patroclus

    Dominic bloody Cummings should be run out of town on a rail!!  What a wanker toff!!

  40. 40.

    Percysowner

    My personal “Ohio is opening” anecdote. As I mentioned in a couple of posts, I have taken care of my granddaughter, at my kids’ home, 4 days a week since she was born. Her other grandma took her one day a week to give me a day off, this becomes important in my story. When DeWine, intelligently, issued Stay At Home order my kids started working from home and diligently social distancing, so I continued to come in and take care of my GD. Other grandpa “Bob”, however continued to work outside of the home, God knows why, he’s over 65, has had TWO “widow maker” emergency procedures to open blockage to his heart. He is also retired on a probably pretty good state pension.  However he  went back to working in his old position which included going into mental health facilities to supervise and institute changes to the system.  So for a while, I was watching my GD five days a week, until “Bob”  got talked into working from home by his kids.  After 2 weeks of them social distancing we went back to the original schedule.

    Thursday night “Bob” got a call, 2 patients on a ward of a hospital he was supervising had COVID symptoms and tested positive. The other 18 patients on the ward were tested and are all positive for COVID-19 although currently they are asymptomatic.  It’s really scary. I’m grateful that “Bob’s ” his kids got him to work from home, because he would have been exposed, but boy am I afraid DeWine got pushed into reopening the state way too early.

    Anyway, one anecdote about how this is no where NEAR over. People here on BJ  know it, but a lot of people don’t.

    Stay safe, stay home.

     

    Edited because boy was I unclear.

  41. 41.

    WaterGirl

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: That is totally awesome.

    Also, The New Yorker has some stones.  At the end, the popup box requires you to either accept the newsletter OR you have to click the box that says “Reject the Newsletter”.

    Geez, why can’t any journalists nail Trump to the wall that way. Nail all politicians and all of his supporters to the wall.

    You have two choices.

    Accept the newsletter.  (Trump)

    REJECT THE NEWSLETTER  (Trump)

    Pick one.

  46. 46.

    Brachiator

    A few more podcast recommendations

    There are some really good British podcasts featuring mathematicians and public intellectuals who talk about the pandemic in clear, understandable non-technical language.  Needless to say, these individuals tend to be ignored when it comes to actual policy. Also, many of these podcast segments are relatively short, and make efficient use of your time.

    A recent Numberphile podcast featured the excellent Dr Hannah Fry, who a couple of years ago presented a program called Contagion, an incredibly prescient program about a catastrophic flu pandemic.

    BBC Inside Science has featured clear explanations of the Corona Virus R number, and dealt with the question of the effectiveness of masks and how to understand Corona Virus death rates. Any program that features Tim Yates deserves a listen.

    And More or Less: Behind the Statistics is the essential listening for the way in which it focuses on how statistics and data are presented in the media, and not only punctures bad and sloppy reporting, but offers useful clarifications and revisions.

    I also recommend NPR programs like Marketplace, The Indicator and Planet Money for intelligent programs about the impact of the pandemic on the economy.

    A recent Marketplace episode made the point that Trump is unable to understand, that the stock market is not the economy. Many of these podcast episodes also feature economists and scholars who try to look beyond the conventional wisdom about the economy, which may be essential as we try to get out of this mess.

    But the best of the bunch may be Make Me Smart, which consistently deals with the economy and the pandemic with the greatest insight, and features great guests. And again, they do it in a relatively short amount of time.  A recent episode highlighted the Federal Reserve’s excellent summary on the impact on the pandemic on households, and did so without a lot of blather.

  49. 49.

    MomSense

    @tybee:

    Three weeks ago I drove on route 1 to bring some stuff to my kids.  It was the first warm day of the spring.  I was horrified by all the crowded shops, nurseries, big box stores, restaurants and ice cream stands with no one wearing masks.  Sure enough 3 weeks later and we had our biggest one day increase in COVID positive tests.  I’m so mad at people for not taking this seriously.

    Meanwhile I’m back in the office three days a week scared that I’m going to bring it home.  Anyway, today I woke up really late because I was wide awake for hours in the night.  So I’Ve decided to sip a beer slowly and do some knitting on my deck until I feel motivated to work in the garden.

  50. 50.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Omnes Omnibus: I loved Rocky & Bullwinkle, but I don’t think they were on Saturdays in my area.  I also loved a lot of Hanna-Barbera stuff, which in my memory was after school. Maybe that’s when Rocky and Bullwinkle were as well.

    By the time Scooby Doo started, my Saturday watching was reduced to the early morning Western, Bugs Bunny, and then the afternoon monster movie. Occasionally Scooby but I wasn’t super fond of it.

  52. 52.

    Tony Jay

    @Beagleowned:

    You are too kind. Seriously, you are. I confessed here yesterday that I farm these rants out to young Baxter (I cant pronounce his real name) the Kandaq refuge who lives in my attic feeding on captures birds and whatever rainwater slips through the tiles. I bring anger, but it’s Baxter who makes them into sentences.

    Yes, I’m pretty sure it’s legal. Brexit Britain and all that.

  54. 54.

    Tokyokie

    @L85NJGT:

     

    Jay Ward, the creator of Rocky & Bullwinkle, embraced the constraints of limited animation, putting more emphasis on the writing and voice talent. Because the animation was so crude, viewers paid more attention to the dialogue, which was filled with outrageous word play and obscure references that children wouldn’t get, but their parents would. I think that’s why his cartoons are still watchable 60 years after they were first televised.

  56. 56.

    Brachiator

    @Tony Jay:

    Cummings is the borderline-criminal power behind a Tory throne, and in this country that means he’s a made-man, protected to the hilt by an Establishment that understands the need for low-born men of high-functioning sociopathy to oversee the necessary cutting and crushing of plebeian lives that scions of gentler bloodlines might balk at.

    From my reading of history, the upper classes have never been shy about kicking the lower classes. They absolutely revel in it. And they also have no problem in disposing of the lower-born help who foolishly believe that they have become the power behind the throne. Cummings is in that long tradition headed by Thomas Cromwell. No matter how well he does what is wanted, he is, in the end, expendable.

    I do agree that he is safe for now. And my inner cynic notes that the media is playing that old game, “one of yours vs one of mine.” So, perceived lefty Neil Ferguson is forced to resign for violating the lockdown rules, so Cummings is targeted as a right wing morsel.

    But to the right, Cummings is as essential as an NHS doctor in an ICU ward. And he’s still got to help BoJo deliver on BREXIT. Look for him to stick around for a while longer.

    I see that there is some buzz about reliably conservative media taking shots at Boris Johnson, especially for his ineffectual responses at Question Time. But since Johnson himself banished even semi-competent rivals from the Conservative Party, the plutocrats are going to have to stick with Johnson for some time.

    In short, the UK is competing hard with the US for title of “most fucked up democracy.” And both these nations seemed intent on leaving those upstarts Brazil and India in the dust as they try to wreck their societies and economies.

  57. 57.

    dmsilev

    @MomSense:

    I was horrified by all the crowded shops, nurseries, big box stores, restaurants and ice cream stands with no one wearing masks.

    I’m in the middle of writing a reopening plan for my group, and “masks are required” was so bloody obvious that even typing it felt stupid. We’re going one step above that. We’re keeping people apart as much as possible, but for tasks where that isn’t possible, PPE requirements get upped to “mask plus plastic face shield”.

  58. 58.

    MomSense

    My stepmom’s mom tested positive.  She lives in a nursing home in Middlesex County, MA.  She is 100.  She had a low grade fever last night, but no other symptoms. We’re hoping for the best.

  60. 60.

    bemused

    @PST:

    Exactly why I read or watch them. They know what the republican grifters and the magaheads are all about.

  61. 61.

    Brachiator

    @khead:

    Am I the only person who hated Tom and Jerry?

    Nah. There are probably a couple of you.

    They were not my favorites either, but I didn’t hate them.

     

    @Tokyokie:

    Because the animation was so crude, viewers paid more attention to the dialogue, which was filled with outrageous word play and obscure references that children wouldn’t get, but their parents would.

    I think the trick was to appeal to both children and adults. And there was also plenty of puns and in-jokes that sailed over parents’ heads as well.

    I’ve noted before how even as a kid I understood that the name Boris Badenov was a play on “bad enough.” But it wasn’t until college that I got the skewed reference to Russian tsar Boris Godunov.

    Also, maybe up through the 1940s, animated cartoons were often pitched bits of humor to adults. Some of the Looney Tunes movie parodies included movie stars far more popular with older folk than they were with kiddies.

  64. 64.

    khead

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Marshall, Will and Holly…. On a routine expedition.  Pufenstuf was on after school for me.

    Also, Braichiator is right.  “Hate” is probably too strong a word for Tom and Jerry. More like annoying I guess.

  65. 65.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @The Moar You Know: It was actually Pier 45 that burned. Currently, it was home to a fish processing and storage facility.

    Fortunately, the Musée Mecanique in the front of the building was spared, as well as the WWII Liberty Ship that’s permanently berthed next to the pier.

    But yeah, there’s a reason why the locals don’t visit Fisherman’s Wharf unless they’re forced to by visiting out-of-town relatives.

  66. 66.

    No One of Consequence

    @Citizen Alan: Take heart. With some notable exceptions, a great too many Executive producers with a great too much money cannot grok new IP, and so re-hash old stories.

    That said, there are many childhood stories I would love to see. I have already beheld the Battle at Pelinor Fields (or something like that in the Lord of the Rings). Thought that could never be done justice. Peter Jackson gave it a pretty good stab.

    I’m anxious to see what they do with Shang-Chi, but yes, there is a compelling world of Thundarr that could be way cool to explore with modern visual-making toys, talents and tech.

    Who would you cast as the Mok? Ookla, if I recall correctly.

    Peace,

    – NOoC

  67. 67.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @Beagleowned: I have to go to the little lurkers room, now.

    Totally not the creepiest thing I’ve heard all day. (Sorry buddy, thanks for popping in)

  68. 68.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Sister Golden Bear:  But yeah, there’s a reason why the locals don’t visit Fisherman’s Wharf unless they’re forced to by visiting out-of-town relatives.

    And Parisians don’t visit Notre Dame or the Eifel Tower.  Etc.

  69. 69.

    Tony Jay

    @Cheryl from Maryland:

    I approve of every single word of this comment with a barely restrained urge to buy it a drink and see what it thinks about a little “Love in the Albanian fashion”.

    Strong approval. Much clap-clap.

  70. 70.

    Drdavechemist

    @opiejeanne: I’m not sure why you say Carter wasn’t a nuclear engineer. He earned an engineering degree from the Naval Academy (in 1946 when, admittedly, nuclear engineering didn’t exist as a field of study) and then was chosen by Rickover to work in the navy nuclear program during which time he did some advanced studies in reactor physics, so I think he earned that title.

  71. 71.

    No One of Consequence

    @opiejeanne: My bad. I thought he served on a nuclear submarine in a capacity dealing withe the reactor? I’d better Wikipedia myself. Apologies.

    Peace,

    – NOoC

  72. 72.

    trollhattan

    @opiejeanne:

    He was enrolled in nuclear power school, intending to serve on one of the first two nuke subs when his father died and he left the service to go back to peanuts. Before that he was part of the response team for the Chalk River reactor “oops” incident. So basically a naval engineer being trained in nuclear technology. (Were there “nuclear engineers” at that time?)

  73. 73.

    Tony Jay

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Ha! You ask away, m’dear, I can always just make up something rude and deflecting if I get embarassed.

    In this case, no, it’s just my name and initial.

  76. 76.

    Tony Jay

    @Brachiator:

    Yes. All this. It’s fucking tragic, isn’t it?

    I, for one, would welcome some alien overlords right now. They may be tentacled and carnivorous, but I bet they don’t stand for this level of clumsy arrogance from their underlings.

  79. 79.

    Origuy

    To be clear, a warehouse on Pier 45 caught fire. It threatened the SS Jeremiah O’Brian, WWII era Liberty Ship. No other buildings are threatened, including the Musée Méchanque, a collection of antique arcade games, which is on the same pier. The tacky T-shirt shops and walkaway shrimp stands were never threatened. It looks like they have the fire under control now.

  80. 80.

    hueyplong

    @khead: Can’t say Tom & Jerry stands the test of time very well, but how could you not like The Zoot Cat?

  81. 81.

    hueyplong

    @Origuy: This is for the best, as it keeps the aggressive homeless, midwestern tourists, and bad restaurants in one place, easily avoided by the locals.

  83. 83.

    J R in WV

    @opiejeanne:

    I loveJimmy Carter but he was not a Nuclear Engineer.

     

    At the time Carter served in the USN, he was as well trained in nuclear engineering as one could be without a PhD — so I beg to differ with you!

    From Wikipedia:

    Carter graduated 60th out of 820 midshipmen in the class of 1946 with a Bachelor of Science degree and was commissioned as an ensign. From 1946 to 1953, Carter and Rosalynn lived in Virginia, Hawaii, Connecticut, New York and California, during his deployments in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets. In 1948, he began officers’ training for submarine duty and served aboard USS Pomfret. He was promoted to lieutenant junior grade in 1949.

    In 1952, Carter began an association with the US Navy’s fledgling nuclear submarine program, then led by Captain Hyman G. Rickover. Rickover’s demands on his men and machines were legendary, and Carter later said that, next to his parents, Rickover was the greatest influence on his life. He was sent to the Naval Reactors Branch of the Atomic Energy Commission in Washington, D.C. for three month temporary duty….

    On December 12, 1952, an accident with the experimental NRX reactor at Atomic Energy of Canada’s Chalk River Laboratories caused a partial meltdown resulting in millions of liters of radioactive water flooding the reactor building’s basement. This left the reactor’s core ruined. Carter was ordered to Chalk River to lead a U.S. maintenance crew that joined other American and Canadian service personnel to assist in the shutdown of the reactor.[12] The painstaking process required each team member to don protective gear and be lowered individually into the reactor for a few minutes at a time, limiting their exposure to radioactivity while they disassembled the crippled reactor…..

    In March 1953, Carter began nuclear power school, a six-month non-credit course covering nuclear power plant operation at Union College in Schenectady,[8]. His intent was to eventually work aboard USS Seawolf, which was planned to be one of the first two U.S. nuclear submarines. However, Carter’s father died two months before construction of Seawolf began, and Carter sought and obtained a release from active duty to enable him to take over the family peanut business.

    Maybe not a nuclear engineer technically, but practically, in an era before colleges offered much in the way of nuke engineering, Carter was both brave and experienced in a hands-on way.

    Note that I deleted many footnotes and links so that this post would actually post. You can go to Wikipedia to see all those foot notes if you want, I don’t think they add that much. Who needs a link to know what an ensign in the USN is?

    Dammit !! I left too many links in it !!  Help

  84. 84.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @Beagleowned: It’s good to be known for something.

    Not always, take it from me.

    But you seem nice.  Say hi more often, the boards could use a little more activity some days to be honest.

    And it seems at least you know the rightful power dynamic between beagles and humans.

  86. 86.

    sdhays

    @Brachiator: What help does BoJo need to deliver on Brexit? Isn’t Brexit “done”?

    I mean that only half-sarcastically. I thought they’ve “crossed the Rubicon” at this point. Obviously, the details still need to be worked out, but do they really need old Dominic for that?

  87. 87.

    Brachiator

    @sdhays:

    What help does BoJo need to deliver on Brexit? Isn’t Brexit “done”?

    If only. And there are conservatives who want Johnson to extend the transition period past the end of the year. I think a decision has to be made about this within the next few weeks.

    Also, Johnson may need Cummings to help advise on getting the ridiculous immigration bill passed.

    I mean that only half-sarcastically. I thought they’ve “crossed the Rubicon” at this point. Obviously, the details still need to be worked out, but do they really need old Dominic for that?

    The dirty little secret which the conservative British media keep trying to hide is that almost everything still needs to be worked out. Johnson and Cummings are good at slogans, but terrible at turning slogans into actual policy. Worse, Johnson has reversed himself on items specifically spelled out in the Withdrawal Agreement.

    The pandemic has made things even worse for Johnson. And yet, the British media keeps pitching stories about how Johnson has the upper hand in negotiations, or how angry the EU leaders are, or how bad the EU negotiating team is because they refuse to give the UK what it wants.

    There was even some nonsense about how the UK can get along nicely under WTO rules, even though Trump has pretty much gutted the WTO’s authority.

  89. 89.

    sdhays

    @Brachiator: I knew most of that. I guess my real question is: Is Dominic really that essential to all of this? Britain is pretty much screwed either way.

  90. 90.

    Tony Jay

    @sdhays:

    The “Get this stupid and destructive thing over the line by mainstreaming racism and lying like bastards” phase is over.

    The “This thing is a comprehensive disaster that is destroying lives wholesale to make huge profits for our donors and we need to shift the hate and fear produced onto the backs of Other groups” phase is still to come, and for that Flobalob needs Cummings and his shadowy connections to the (even more) bad guys.

  92. 92.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Sister Golden Bear: Fortunately, the Musée Mecanique in the front of the building was spared, as well as the WWII Liberty Ship that’s permanently berthed next to the pier.

    So glad to hear that. I love the Musée Mecanique, been there a couple times, and their collection of antique games is irreplaceable. As soon as I heard about this fire, I was wondering if it was close to the Musée.

  93. 93.

    The Pale Scot

    @Tony Jay:

    “Love in the Albanian fashion”

    Ok Tony, I don’t really want to read Casonova’s autobiography. What is “Love in the Albanian fashion”

     

    I’m an adult adultish a bit juvenile Calvin’s evil twin brother, I can take it

     

    Uhh.. never mind

  94. 94.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @Tony Jay: I had to read to the emd to figure out if you were talking about Brexit or COVID or some other right-wing mishap.

  95. 95.

    germy

    Lots of orientalist takes about why the animation industry in Japan ended up being so much more interesting but really it comes down to: there was a historic strike at Toei that succeeded, and a historic strike at Disney that failed

    — The Shitposter Assassinated (@julie_neuhouser) May 22, 2020

  96. 96.

    Brachiator

    @sdhays: 

    I knew most of that. I guess my real question is: Is Dominic really that essential to all of this?

    I think that Cummings has to make himself appear to be Mr Essential to Boris Johnson.

    Ultimately, I think that Cummings, like Steve Bannon, has his own agenda. He fancies himself to be a nativist libertarian. He is much more of a devout neo-Nazi than even the typical British plutocrat.

  97. 97.

    Tokyokie

    I didn’t get the joke about Boris Badenov until I took music appreciation as a sophomore in college. When we got to the section on Mussorgsky, and I heard about his opera Boris Gudenov, I burst out laughing and had trouble explaining why.

    And I never much cared for Tom & Jerry, but I’ll root for cats against rodents every time.

  98. 98.

    Brachiator

    @hueyplong:

    @khead: Can’t say Tom & Jerry stands the test of time very well, but how could you not like The Zoot Cat?

    Zoot Cat is actually a bit subversive, until it has to fold in the expected slapstick gags.

  99. 99.

    opiejeanne

    @Tokyokie: My dad explained the Gudenov joke. When it first aired in the Los Angeles market it was part of Tom Hatton’s show, at supper time.

    In High School the school musical was announced as Music Man. and that week we were assigned The Scarlet Letter; when we saw that Hester was the name of the main character, my best friend and I started laughing and sang that one line from The Music Man that had baffled most of us. I don’t remember our teacher being amused.

  101. 101.

    James E Powell

    @Another Scott:

    FTFNYT and the WaPo had it in for Carter before he even arrived.

    The leading lights of the Democratic Party, including most notably Ted Kennedy, had it in for Carter before he even arrived.

  102. 102.

    Tony Jay

    @The Pale Scot:

    Dang it man! I was hoping you could tell me!

    Honest, I read about it years ago and it’s been a standing joke with my friends ever since. I even went to Albania but no one had a clue.

    I mean, we have suspicions, but nothing, uh, solid.

  104. 104.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Brachiator: …[M]aybe up through the 1940s, animated cartoons were often pitched bits of humor to adults. Some of the Looney Tunes movie parodies included movie stars far more popular with older folk than they were with kiddies.

    FFS, of course they were – they were the “short subjects” shown before the feature in movie theaters! And most of the people who paid to get in were adults! It was only in the early 1950s when television broadcasts had lots of time to fill, & the stations realized that there was a real market for Saturday morning shows that would distract kids while Dad was trying to sleep in after a hard week at the office or factory, that cartoons began being created specifically to entertain children.

    This is not rocket science. It’s barely bottle-rocket science.

  106. 106.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    You have the cause and effect backwards, and it is at least a bit more complicated.  The Looney Tunes  shorts were short.  They could be cost efficient.  TV required filling in hugely more time for less payment, and animating is expensive as Hell.  The cost cutting led to a race to the bottom until you had only crap little kids could like, then a belief that’s the natural role of cartoons.  Saturday Morning was just finding a place for it.  Shows like Rocky and Bullwinkle that at least tried to produce adult stuff on a severe budget were not common, and Hannah Barbera gave up on the originally satirical intent of their cartoons quickly, embracing cheap garbage and becoming the leading purveyors for three decades until He-Man changed the financial dynamic and a glacially slow slide in the opposite direction began.

  107. 107.

    Another Scott

    @hueyplong: I’ve always assumed that Itchy and Scratchy was the natural progression of Tom and Jerry.

    I would watch T&J if it was on, but even as a kid I thought there was too much violence in it.  At least that’s my recollection…

    [eta:] or +1 to trollhattan at #82.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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