Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

The jury literally has a bell they can ring to force Trump to show up on command. Greatest thing ever!

Motown is Joe-Town!

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

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

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

Republicans don’t trust women.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Even though I know this is a bad idea, I’m off to do it anyway!

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

Republicans in disarray!

Optimism opens the door to great things.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Where Your Road Takes You

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Where Your Road Takes You

by | 228 Comments

This post is in: ,


Some backstory, from the Washington Post:

The first time Michael Gordon asked Kerry-Anne Perkins out on a date, she said no.

It was 2013, and Kerry-Anne was focused on medical school, not dating. Plus, they’d met at their gym in Philadelphia, where Kerry-Anne’s mind was on her workout. “I’m not here to find a man,” she recalls thinking, adding that she “didn’t like being approached in the gym.” …

He was very patient. Seven years after that first meeting at the gym, they got married in Philadelphia this past week, with Black Lives Matters protesters witnessing them together and cheering their union.

In 2015, they had their first date. Kerry-Anne came to the Philadelphia suburbs, where Michael lived, and they went out for a quiet dinner. “That moment sparked it all,” says Michael, now a 42-year-old engineer and product manager. “After that, we became a little more direct with each other. We started talking more and spending time together more.” …

They got engaged in January 2019, Kerry-Anne moved back to Philadelphia and they started planning a wedding for May 2020. Then the coronavirus pandemic happened. They postponed their large celebration but didn’t want to wait to get married. So they found additional vendors and planned a smaller wedding with 21 family members on Saturday at the Logan Hotel.

When it was time for their first look before the ceremony, Black Lives Matters protesters were walking on Benjamin Franklin Parkway, headed to where Kerry-Anne was waiting to meet Michael. Suddenly hundreds of strangers spotted Kerry-Anne in her wedding dress. They started cheering and yelling “Congratulations,” while surrounding her and telling her that her groom better treat her right.

Out of the throngs of people, Michael appeared and grabbed her hand, and the couple raised their fists in joyous solidarity with the protesters. Holding hands as the crowd around them hoisted protest signs and banged on drums, Kerry-Anne blew Michael a kiss. “We were just feeling the people and the love around us,” Kerry-Anne says of the spontaneous demonstration of love, in the middle of a roving Black Lives Matter protest. “It was so powerful.”

The protest wasn’t about them, but Michael says they support the Black Lives Matter movement, adding that “black love matters,” too. “We were there as black love. … We’re so happy to have an opportunity to put a positive spin on the movement, the day, all of it.”

The night before the ceremony, Kerry-Anne had told her officiant, the Rev. Roxy Birchfield, that she didn’t want her to post any pictures on social media. But when Birchfield saw the protesters celebrating them, she had to capture it…

“Though it feels like everyone is turning on everybody … there is hope. I had hope again,” says Birchfield. “It was amazing to see an image of not just black life, but black family.”

After a few minutes of cheers, the protesters marched on, and Kerry-Anne and Michael walked down the aisle to say their vows.

May they have a hundred years together, each one happier than the last.

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Where Your Road Takes You

(Tom Toles via GoComics.com)

Reader Interactions

228Comments

  2. 2.

    debbie

    Does anyone know if the fence/wall around the White House is still festooned or if the Park Service removes the festooning every night?

  6. 6.

    Brachiator

    Saw something about the married couple earlier. Very nice to see it featured here.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    GOP expects to move its convention to Jacksonville after dispute with North Carolina over pandemic safeguards
    ….
    The convention’s more routine and lower-profile meetings still would take place in Charlotte, the original host site for the convention, according to two officials. Those smaller meetings are intended to honor the RNC’s contractual obligation to hold its convention in North Carolina and shield the party from lawsuits for moving the large events elsewhere.

  8. 8.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    The over-55 community I live in is holding a walk-a-thon today to raise money for local COVID relief. We can walk the circuit any time and just say how much we did. It’s going to be hot and humid, so I plan to do some laps early.

  9. 9.

    MagdaInBlack

    I saw this the other day and it made me all misty eyed. I’m glad you highlighted it ?

  12. 12.

    SFAW

    Very nice story, good way to start a day ending in “y.”

    And Tom Toles should be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for Editorial Cartooning

  13. 13.

    Kay

    Hunter Walker
    @hunterw
    ·11h
    Took my dog for a long walk tonight and can report that Jared and Ivanka’s next door neighbor has a “BIDEN 2020” sign prominently displayed on the front of their house.

  14. 14.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Baud:

    I figured it would be Florida.

    I was worried yesterday about Biden visiting George Floyd’s family. Floyd had apparently tested positive for COVID, so I was afraid someone in his family might have it too. I read he spoke virtually at the funeral. Did he physically visit?

  17. 17.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    I love it when neighbors stick it to each other!

    Among the many Biden signs here is one that says “Byedon 2020.” A very elderly couple lives at that house.

  19. 19.

    JPL

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:  He visited with the family the day before, I believe. My fear is that something happens to him and then we have Bernie. I wish Biden would announce his running mate, so that there is another logical choice.

  21. 21.

    Betty Cracker

    Seriously, I don’t understand why ANYONE would hold an event in Florida during the summer. It’s like luring people to Alaska in the dead of winter.

  22. 22.

    JPL

    @Kay: haha   If the polls stay the same in October, Ivanka might put out a Biden sign just so she’ll be welcomed back to NYC.

    She’ll never be welcomed back in NYC though, cause the damage is done.

  24. 24.

    SFAW

    @MattF:

    A side-note about Barr. Bad person.

    Holy shit. I knew he was a fuckhead, but didn’t realize it was so longstanding. Reading the story’s comments about the “bully Barr boys” reminded me of reading about Pat Buchanan and the “Buchanan boys” — his brothers — who used to terrorize others not like them.

  25. 25.

    Baud

    @JPL:

    It’ll never be Bernie.  The only question is how much butthurt there will be because  it’s not Bernie.

  26. 26.

    NotMax

    Wait until someone breaks it to Dolt 45 that Jacksonville is named for a Dem president.

  28. 28.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    Wait until someone breaks it to Dolt 45 that Jacksonville is named for a Dem president.

    “Not many people know that. Did you know Lincoln was a POW Republican?”

  29. 29.

    Kirk Spencer

    @Betty Cracker: Well, this is the party that suggested injections of bleach and guzzling disinfectant. That recommends against masks and for mass gatherings.

    Was Jones a Republican?

  34. 34.

    SFAW

    @debbie:

    Trump has claimed him as his hero and has his portrait hanging in the Oval Office.

    How did he manage to find space alongside the other portraits of his admirees: Jeff Davis, Roy Cohn, Kodos the Executioner, Pennywise, Putin?

  35. 35.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    To be fair to Jackson (sorry, SFAW), he never would have cowered in a bunker.

    And he’d probably shoot (or at least court martial) the Coward-in-Chief.

    Just kidding! The Murderer-in-Chief would never serve in the military.

  39. 39.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: What would happen, I wonder? Don’t want to even think about that scenario, but with a nominee in his late 70s and a pandemic that disproportionately affects that demographic, I hope someone is…

  40. 40.

    NotMax

    @SFAW

    Historical tidbit: Mary Todd Lincoln apparently bought her silver tea service at Baba Yaga’s estate sale.

    :)

    @Baud

    I really didn’t think my including the snark tag was necessary, that it was self-evident.

  41. 41.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker:

    What would happen, I wonder?

    The evil DNC would name Eddie Quinn as the nominee. [Sorry, that’s a reference to a very obscure book (Dark Horse by Fletcher Knebel) which had a similar situation.]

  45. 45.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    I really didn’t think my including the snark tag was necessary, that it was self-evident.

    Snark? From you? What has the world come to?

  48. 48.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Kay: Would be better if it were a “FUCK TRUMP” sign.  (We’d all know who they’ll be voting for.)

  49. 49.

    satby

    @Baud: wingnuts of my acquaintance are breathlessly waiting for Joe to name Hillary as his running mate, and then (depending on how demented they are) either Joe steps aside after the election for Hillary to become President, or she murders him to become President. I wish I was joking, or that they were, but nope.

  54. 54.

    rikyrah

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Dorothy,

     

    Don’t know if you saw, but I replied to you about a mail ballot.

    I believe that you will be able to order one sooner than August 5th in Illinois.

    That was the old date, before the new bill that the Governor is about to sign.

  57. 57.

    Kay

    Some real information on the ordinary person the President is attacking:

    Tom Casey, a retired civil engineer from Buffalo and a local coordinator for Pax Christi, an international Catholic peace movement, said the idea that Gugino is a provocateur is ludicrous. Gugino was certainly opinionated, Casey said, but always respectful of others.
    “I have never heard him use a vile or angry word against anybody and I spent a lot of time talking to him,” Casey said.

  58. 58.

    Baud

    @satby:

    If something were to happen to Joe, I personally would love to have another shot with Hillary, but I can’t say for certain that she would objectively be the best choice.

  59. 59.

    Amir Khalid

    @Betty Cracker:

    Florida summer weather is about the same as KL weather year-round. If you stick to airconditioned spaces, you’ll be okay; although I gather this is not an option for the RNC, given the crowds that Trump wants to see.

  62. 62.

    JWR

    From TPM:

    “My absentee ballot, when it finally arrived, had an unusable return envelope,” Abrams told reporters in a conference call, per local NBC News affiliate 11Alive. “And so I had to vote in person today because I could not replace that envelope.”

    Abrams described her efforts to fix the faulty envelope, which she said had been sealed shut when she received it.

    “I attempted to steam it open because I’ve watched lots of mystery shows,” she said. “It didn’t work and I unable to open the envelope which meant that I was unable to return my ballot.”

  63. 63.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    The most annoying thing about this is that there’s a blame-the-victim effort, to which Gugino’s friend felt he had to respond.

  65. 65.

    MattF

    @Amir Khalid: Barr went to Horace Mann School, a private high school in the Bronx (Riverdale). He and his brothers were well-known as bullies there. As in calling liberal kids ‘commies’. Little Bill was the worst.

  67. 67.

    SFAW

    @satby:

    I wish I was joking, or that they were, but nope.

    The preferred (although not “proper”) response to them is: “Are you able to walk and chew gum at the same time? Because you seem too fucking stupid to be able to do that. Just saying.”

  68. 68.

    SFAW

    @MattF:

    As in calling liberal kids ‘commies’. Little Bill was the worst.

    I think there was a fair dose of Jew-hatred present, according to the story. [Or maybe it was only expressed toward Lohmann, although I doubt Lohmann was the only one.]

  69. 69.

    mrmoshpotato

    @satby:

    or she murders him to become President 

    Boy oh boy.  When the day comes, and hopefully it’s a long ways away, the “Hillary’s-ghost-murdered…” stories are going to drown out, sorry, murder, all other stories.

    These demented cranks.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    @SFAW:

    Dumbass Trump, who is old and has clear balance issues- Donald Trump has obvious and easily observable trouble walking on an even surface because he has balance issues- is too stupid to realize pushing an elderly person is really dangerous.

    They fall more than younger people, and when they fall they get more badly hurt than younger people.

  71. 71.

    Betty Cracker

    @Amir Khalid: Exactly — sensible folks stay indoors unless they’re engaged in water sports. My daughter was a middle-school photojournalist in 2012, when the RNC was in Tampa, so I schlepped around town carrying her spare camera lenses, etc., and saw firsthand how wretched it was for the RNC participants. I saw so many miserable GOPers tottering around in a daze, sweating through their fancy clothes, fleeing in a panic from the evening thunderstorms, hair and makeup ruined. Ya hate to see it! (Not.)

  74. 74.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud: I don’t think COVID-19 even thinks about loving itself.  Maybe that’s why it’s so murderous.  It should seek help.

  75. 75.

    mrmoshpotato

    @rikyrah:

    I believe that you will be able to order one sooner than August 5th in Illinois. 

    ? Vote very early, vote very often!

  76. 76.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @debbie: Among the many Biden signs here is one that says “Byedon 2020.”

    Bumpersticker! With the Biden “E” –

    BYE,DON!
    2020

  78. 78.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    Re: balance

    I think I commented last night about the balance issues we old farts have, which increase as we become older farts. My wife educated me about that some years ago — before we became old farts — because she sees it with her geriatric patients, etc.

    I have serious balance issues, but thankfully they’re only mental. [As in “mentally unbalanced.”]

  80. 80.

    SFAW

    @satby:

    I just did a hysterically laughing emoji with “you’re pathetically deranged” as a response, because I’m subtle.

    OK, I guess that will suffice.

  81. 81.

    A Ghost to Most

    @Amir Khalid:

     

    Back in 1991, during Barr’s confirmation to be George H.W. Bush’s attorney general, lawyer Jimmy Lohman, who overlapped with Barr at New York’s Horace Mann School and later Columbia University, wrote a piece for the little-known Florida Flambeau newspaper about Barr being “my very own high-school tormentor” — a “classic bully” and “power abuser” in the 1960s who “put the crunch on me every chance [he] got.”

    The 1991 description of 1963 Barr’s harassment sounds eerily like the 2020 Barr. He “lived to make me miserable,” with a “vicious fixation on my little Jewish ‘commie’ ass,” Lohman alleged, because he wore peace and racial-equality pins. He said the four Barr brothers picketed the school’s “Junior Carnival” because proceeds went to the NAACP, and he alleged that Billy Barr, the “most fanatic rightist” of the four, later “teamed with the New York City riot police to attack anti-war protesters and ‘long hairs.’ ”

    From the article

  83. 83.

    A Ghost to Most

    @A Ghost to Most:
    More:

    Lohman’s account is consistent with Marie Brenner’s reporting for Vanity Fair: “A few who knew the Barr boys came to call them ‘the bully Barrs’; the siblings, these former classmates claimed, could be intimidating.” A petition from Horace Mann alumni asks the school to “rethink” an award for Barr, who “violated our school’s Core Values of Mutual Respect and Mature Behavior.”

    Historian Paul Cronin, in Politico this week, says Barr was part of the “Majority Coalition” at Columbia that fought antiwar demonstrators. Barr had told the New York Times Magazine he was part of a “fistfight” in which “over a dozen people went to the hospital.” Cronin noted: “There appears to be no record of any trip to the hospital”.

  84. 84.

    NotMax

    @SFAW

    Step-brother, who is 8 months younger than I, broke 4 ribs this month by way of losing his balance on a flight of stairs.

    But then he’s 6’4″ and has farther to fall. Waited an appropriate interval before inquiring if he was chewing gum at the time.

    ;)

  85. 85.

    BellyCat

    Got this news brief emailed to me from FTFNYT:

    As [Floyd’s funeral] began, the New York Stock Exchange went silent for eight minutes, 46 seconds — the length of time a police officer held his knee on Floyd’s neck. It was the longest moment of silence on the stock exchange floor in its 228-year history.

    When you’ve lost the NY Stock Exchange…

  91. 91.

    Ken

    @Baud: From the linked article:

    Iowa, where [Trump] has spent more than $300,000 on TV in recent weeks

    In other words, less than the campaign’s spent for cable ads in DC, targeting one viewer.

  95. 95.

    prufrock

    @Betty Cracker: I remember the fancy columns they erected in St. Petersburg as part of the effort to welcome the RNC across the bay.  Needless to say, the columns were so phallic that I don’t think they’d show up on Google if safe search is turned on.

  97. 97.

    Jeffro

    @satby: they do love their endless Hillz conspiracies and last-second-save-for-the-GOP theories, don’t they?

    Wouldn’t it be easier to run a sane candidate, and a platform that majorities actually support?  Just spitballin’ here…

  100. 100.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Betty Cracker: Seriously, I don’t understand why ANYONE would hold an event in Florida during the summer. It’s like luring people to Alaska in the dead of winter.

    After my junior year in college I qualified for a special summer course & 7,000-mile field trip junket to NASA facilities.  In high August. I spent a month west of Houston one night prior to touring the Manned Spacecraft (later Johnson Space) Center – where it was so hot we boarded a/c’d buses to travel between buildings. And another month in Cocoa Freakin’ Beach (5 miles north to south, 500 feet east to west clinging to Highway A1A)** waiting for 3 days before they let us onto the Cape.

    Look at the bright side, Cracker – all those RWNJs scurrying between A/C’d low-ceilinged rooms for the duration, all scrabbling back to cookouts & pool parties in RWNJ ‘burbs afterwards, is a recipe tailor-made for a follow-on wave of Thuh Varss where it will do the most good.

    ** “The land beyond where the land any sane man wants runs out,” according to Tom Wolfe in The Right Stuff. (Paraphrased, from memory)

  102. 102.

    Jeffro

    @Ken: Btw I see that the Lincoln Project has an ad up targeting Joni Ernst for being a two-faced, lying, trumpov enabler.  (Ok, it’s actually for doing nothing for Iowa, but still)

    I’m encouraged.  =)

  107. 107.

    Immanentize

    @Raven: I was imagining that what your leg needs is the surf cure — standing and soaking those dogs of yours in the warm salt water of the Gulf or the Atlantic, while casting about (for something to do or for reds) might be just the thing?

  108. 108.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @satby:

    I just did a hysterically laughing emoji with “you’re pathetically deranged” as a response, because I’m subtle.

    ??? Somehow this just tickled me no end.

  109. 109.

    Jeffro

    I may have missed it but did anyone already comment about the Christopher Columbus statue getting pulled down and tossed into a pond in Richmond last night?

    I’m sure the trumpublicans are going nuts.  Which is fine.

  110. 110.

    Ken

    @BellyCat: From my industry contacts many large corporations are going beyond their usual HR “diversity is good” programs, and acknowledging that systematic racism and bias is a huge problem. How much of that reflects an actual re-orientation of corporate policy, and how much is driven by the recent polls, isn’t clear yet. (Though it may not matter, if the polls stay where they are the corporations will damn well match what their customers want.)

  112. 112.

    Jeffro

    And right on schedule…Don Jr tweets that it’s the protests, not the Memorial Day festivities in “re-opening” states, that are causing the huge spike in Covid-19 cases

    (excerpt is from the Post, not Dummy Jr’s tweet ;)

    As the number of new coronavirus cases continues to increase worldwide, and more than a dozen states and Puerto Rico are recording their highest averages of new cases since the pandemic began, hospitalizations in at least nine states have been on the rise since Memorial Day.  In Texas, North and South Carolina, California, Oregon, Arkansas, Mississippi, Utah and Arizona, there are an increasing number of patients under supervised care since the holiday weekend because of coronavirus infections. The spikes generally began in the past couple weeks and in most states are trending higher.  Data…is disproving the notion that the country is seeing such a spike in cases solely because of the continued increase in testing, according to data tracked by The Washington Post.

  113. 113.

    NotMax

    Short notice: Not necessarily top notch, just a nice, sweet film, The Clock on TCM at 12:15 p.m. Eastern. The short scene including interplay between James Gleason and his real-life wife Lucile (also an actress) is wonderful.

  114. 114.

    Kay

    @A Ghost to Most:

    It’s just so, so bad that Barr lies all the time. There are now members of the National Guard who were interviewed about the DC protests and they say it was not violent that day and they thought the Trump Administration response was excessive and “violated civil rights”

    Barr has now lied 5 times about this incident. The top law enforcement official in the United States. He’s a liar. No one can trust what he says, no one can trust him to supervise lawyers, no one can trust a pleading or filing he approves- he’s a liar. It calls the whole system into question.

  115. 115.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @debbie: Really depends.  Obviously, if it is White House staff, then the work is probably trashed.  If the NPS is removing the artwork, then it depends on the NPS curator.  Who could be a Trump Toady.  NPS mainly collects items left at the Vietnam Memorial Wall and the Shanksville Memorial for Flight 93.  However, I know some of the staff at the National Museum of African-American History AND the National Museum of American History, and they are already collecting regarding this moment.  The new Secretary created a pan museum initiative, funding it with $25 million.  I would not be surprised if some of them go to the fence and collect.  

  118. 118.

    Ken

    @Jeffro: I am reminded of a line from Tuf Voyaging, a George R.R. Martin book from before That Series.

    “Permit me to mention a concept with which you are perhaps unfamiliar. It is referred to as an incubation period.”

  119. 119.

    NotMax

    @Raven

    Somehow missed it; what happened now?

    BTW, did you see the mention of My Way on Prime as possibly being up your alley?

  120. 120.

    Kay

    NPR
    @NPR
    ·2h
    Attorney General Barr has repeatedly blamed anti-fascist activists for violence that has erupted during protests over George Floyd’s killing.
    But an NPR review found no alleged links to Antifa in any Justice Department cases brought over unrest so far.

    Nothing that comes out of the DOJ is reliable as long as he’s in charge. The people they’re currently prosecuting deserve a qualified, impartial review of their cases by people OUTSIDE Barr’s control. There’s no cure for this. It’s fatal. As long as he’s in there nothing they produce is trustworthy.

  122. 122.

    Raven

    @NotMax: my bride was trying to clean the business end of an immersion blender with her finger and she pulled the trigger. The film looks interesting

  123. 123.

    Jeffro

    GOP going to keep trying to have it both ways from now ’til November…here is my shocked face.

     

    Strategists over the past week have suggested myriad ways embattled incumbents could tiptoe around Trump’s rolling controversies, as opposed to embracing them, according to participants in private discussions and conference calls with donors, many of which are informal check-ins and catch-up sessions due to the pandemic.

    “It’s subtle stuff, like maybe your senator should try to duck Kasie Hunt in the hallway,” one of the strategists said, referring to the NBC News correspondent whose on-camera questioning of Republican senators last week over the use of military force against peaceful protesters was widely replayed. “It’s all about operating outside of the tumult of the moment with him, but leaving yourself in a position for him to rally for you this fall.”  This operative continued: “Look — no one can afford at this point to get on the wrong side of Trump. But you can kind of play it cool and don’t have to comment on everything he does.”

    C’mon snooze media, pin ’em down!  Give the Dems and the Lincoln Project more great footage to work with in ads.  =)

  124. 124.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: Seriously, putting aside all the wishful thinking about trials and arrests.

    AFTER inauguration, I would like Biden to announce a type of Agency restorative review effort across the whole of federal government in which all federal agency employees would be (mostly) given amnesty for revealing wrong doing, theft, cronyism, self-sealing, lawbreaking, etc. Then report it all. All of it. And those who do not accept the offer to take part in the restoration process will thereafter be prosecuted.

    I offer my services to that effort.

  126. 126.

    Ken

    @Jeffro: “It’s subtle stuff, like maybe your senator should try to duck Kasie Hunt in the hallway,”

    Not The Onion?

  127. 127.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    And I’m glad. I’m glad the lawyers in the justice department have not yet been so corrupted that they’re creating Antifa links to satisfy the crooked attorney general, their boss.
    But people are entitled to a fair process. They shouldn’t have to rely on individual actors and whether or not they can resist their crooked boss. That’s not the due process guarantee. The guarantee is better than that. This is a cheap, shoddy replacement for the process we are entitled to.

  129. 129.

    clay

    @mrmoshpotato: And of course the comments are full of idiots who assume that this Hill opinion column means that Biden will actually pick Rice, and are castigating him for it ?

  131. 131.

    WaterGirl

    @mrmoshpotato: UGH!  Reading that leaves me feeling sick to my stomach.

    edit. see my comment below – that tweet is totally misleading. Joe didn’t say that, that’s just some woman’s opinion. I’ll stick with the “ugh!”, though.

  132. 132.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    That’s a good idea. It is just horrifying the DOJ is bringing charges on these protests while at the same time the AG does a media tour LYING about them! I mean, WTF? Every one of those cases is tainted. They can’t just pretend he’s not doing this. It’s a problem!

  133. 133.

    NotMax

    @Raven

    That I’m aware of, meant what’s the story with the leg?

    (Over here, one of the two knees twisted back to normal service, the other is being stubborn about doing so and sends out reminders now and again signaling “not yet, guy.”)

  137. 137.

    raven

    @NotMax: Oh, well I’ve been having quad issues for sometime but now I’m also having gait problems. It seems like “drop foot” but it occurs when I get about a mile into my walk. I’ve had a lumbar and pelvis MRI and there is nothing orthopedic showing up so I’m leaning toward nerve. Ruckus things I’m old so there is that! They opened the Y pool back up but I’m not ready for the locker room so it’s drag my ass up and down the street for now.

  138. 138.

    WaterGirl

    @mrmoshpotato: Wait, that appears to be total BS.  It’s SOMEONE’S opinion that she would be Biden’s best pick, but she appears to have pulled that out of her ass.

    Biden did not say that.  Maybe you should make a note of that if you post that again?

  141. 141.

    japa21

    @Immanentize:

     

    I offer my services to that effort.

    This triggered a thought I have had lurking in the back of my mind. It probably would be best left there, but here goes.

    This blog has some fantastic front pagers and commenters, yourself included. I actually think we could put together a good cabinet for President Biden just from folks here.

    Let’s come up with suggestions. I’ll start with Cheryl Rofer for Secretary of Energy.

  142. 142.

    BellyCat

    @WaterGirl: No, didn’t see it. Thanks for response!  Can try and find it (on phone, so no search) but if you can easily post it again in this thread, I’ll see it. :-)

  143. 143.

    raven

    @NotMax: That’s what’s really frustrating, we made that walk for 15 years and haven’t since this shit started. They open at 9 but that doesn’t work for us. Since I’m not good for much more that a mile at a time the boss has been walking with friends or alone.

    We had a friend last week who took her Pyrenees out for a late walk. The dog went after something and the woman tried to catch it, fell in a ravine and wasn’t found until the morning. She been having some “confusion ” issues so we don’t know how that played into it. Fun times in the Classic City.

  146. 146.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WaterGirl: I guess it would be better read in a beanbag chair – to keep from falling out of a chair from the piece’s laughable stupidity.

    (I didn’t read it myself.  I just needed to see someone thinking Biden should pick Condi Rice as VP to be off to BWHAHAHAHaHA land.)

  147. 147.

    germy

    The Hill is trying to scare undecideds away from Joe:
    Five ways America would take a hard left under Joe Biden
    They even have a photo of him frowning, to scare them even more. Gasp!

    The Hill is just doing its part to keep Trump in the white house

    (The editorial is by Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union and CPAC. He was the White House political director to former President George W. Bush.)

  153. 153.

    BellyCat

    @WaterGirl: Found your comment. Yes, I’m aware of the feature you describe, but this is not really what is hoped for. What is sought may not be possible since I now see that the full website on the ol’ com-puuutor works the same way.

    In a perfect Drumpfless World, one could browse the various posts on the front page and at the bottom of each of these posts, before the next post, there would be a link to immediately see the comments. (Sort of like expanding this section, in a more natural sort of way)

    Instead, and this may be a FYWP limitation, one currently has to use the “Post + Comment” link below each post, which opens the post, BUT takes you back up to the top of the post (which you’ve already read) and then one has to scroll down to the comments or click the comments link at the top.

    Put simpler: at the top of each post, there is a “# Comments” link. But this is before you read  the post, so not usually desired. Can this exact “# Comments” link ALSO be put at the bottom of the Post, next to (or instead of?)  the existing “Post + Comments” link?

    Make sense?

  155. 155.

    WaterGirl

    @BellyCat:

    Let’s see if I’ve got this right.  You are reading on the front page, find a post where you want to read the comments, so you hit Post + Comments.  That takes you to the thread itself.  Yes?

    Are you aware that you can click on 12 Comments in this line at the top, just under the title, to go directly to the comments?

    Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Where Your Road Takes You 1

    Does that work for you?

  157. 157.

    WaterGirl

    @BellyCat: But you don’t have to scroll down.  You just have to click on the number of comments in the byline on the page you have just been taken to.

    I get that you would like to avoid that second click, but I want to be sure that you understand that you do not have to do all that scrolling.

  159. 159.

    Kay

    Charlie Cook
    @CharlieCookDC
    ·57m
    Anyone ever see a ten-point drop in Gallup presidential approval in less than a month, from 49% to 39%

    Yikes. Let’s all hope they keep following Master Strategist Jared.

  160. 160.

    BellyCat

    @WaterGirl:  TA DA!  I see what you’re talking about now. :-) I’ve never done the process that you described (Post + Comments, then # Comments). Definitely helps!

    I’m apparently the only dunderhead here since I’ve failed to figure this out for longer than I will ever admit. Old Dog New Tricks and all. Ack!…  Thank you!!!

  161. 161.

    BellyCat

    @Raven: There should be a small carrot (arrow-ish kinda thing) on the left bottom edge that expands or contracts the ad to reveal the Refresh.  Annoying, but doable.

  162. 162.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @germy: The editorial is by Matt Schlapp

    Wasn’t Schlapp the surname of the Trump aide who retweeted the video of that maniac with the chainsaw and the enwurd?

    @BellyCat: There should be a small carrot

    Caret

  165. 165.

    MattF

    @Kay: Note that when you’re trying to understand a poll that gives ‘approval’ and ‘disapproval’ numbers, you should at least try to resist simply taking the difference. Changes in the difference beween approval and disapproval percentages depend on a much smaller slice of the population and have a greater likelihood of error. Think instead about trends in the larger numbers.

  166. 166.

    germy

    Wichita State donors are threatening to cut ties and pull support from the university if the Kansas Board of Regents don’t dump president Jay Golden for canceling Ivanka Trump’s commencement speech.

    The flap over cancellation of President Trump’s daughter’s speech to students at the university’s separate trade-school campus threatens a multi-million-dollar relationship with Wichita’s largest private corporation, Koch Industries, according to a former state regent with deep ties to WSU.

    https://www.kansas.com/news/local/education/article243382231.html

  170. 170.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I love Nancy Pelosi.

     

    Nancy Pelosi was asked if she’s embarrassed the KKK were once members of the Democratic Party. “Of course. We’re embarrassed Donald Trump was a Democrat for similar reasons”.— Hoodlum ?? (@NotHoodlum) June 10, 2020

  177. 177.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @BellyCat: Although Claret would be even better with this problem

    And that’s something new for me.  See? We help each other here.

    @germy: What a team

    I read Matt Schlapp’s article about how Biden would be an awful president.  I left with a higher opinion of Biden than I had going in.

  178. 178.

    The Moar You Know

    wingnuts of my acquaintance are breathlessly waiting for Joe to name Hillary as his running mate, and then (depending on how demented they are) either Joe steps aside after the election for Hillary to become President, or she murders him to become President. I wish I was joking, or that they were, but nope.

    @satby: I’ve heard this one from two folks of the Nazi persuasion.  It’s a thing that’s been bubbling around in their cesspits since the Dem primary started.

  179. 179.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @The Moar You Know: Crazification factor confirmed once again.

    FTA:

    Slightly more than one-quarter of all Americans questioned in a new poll said they see President Trump as a man of faith.

    Why he must go to church every week.  The way he held that Bible, I’m certain he never handled a book before, bless his heart.

  182. 182.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @MattF: I’d rather have Hillary than anyone who finished top two in any primary this year.

    @SFAW: Especially since everyone knows that Carrot, despite being a dwarf, was two meters tall, which is hardly “small.”

    Great, now to add to my insecurities I’m shorter than a dwarf.

  184. 184.

    catclub

    @SFAW: Sorry, that’s a reference to a very obscure book (Dark Horse by Fletcher Knebel) which had a similar situation.

     

    I am pretty sure I read that book.  Cannot remember much of it.

  186. 186.

    Baud

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Who asked her that question?  It’s standard right-wing framing.  They’re always telling black voters that they should choose the GOP because of something a Republican did in the mid-1860s.

  188. 188.

    SFAW

    @satby:  @The Moar You Know:

    I’ve heard this one from two folks of the Nazi persuasion.  It’s a thing that’s been bubbling around in their cesspits since the Dem primary started.

    I think it would be good humor if you responded to them by saying something like “Hillary? Don’t be silly. EVERYONE knows it’s going to be Nancy Pelosi.” [I guess AOC might also work.] Then watch as their heads a-splode.

  189. 189.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @MattF: But… can you simply overlook the trail of half-eaten babies?

    Well, not finishing one’s food is a bad habit…

  191. 191.

    WaterGirl

    @Raven:

    on my phone the refresh, comment and arrows get covered by ads?

    Everyone gets that, and I know it’s annoying as hell, but nothing will change until people start saying so using the Site Feedback form, and then choosing “Report Ad Issues”.

    Cole says “anybody can complain in the comments, but if it really bothered them, they would be using the form to report it.”

    So, everyone:  If the ads bothers you, then please use the form to say so.  If it annoys you every day, use the form to say so every day.  If you have to click the fucking X 50 times a day, you could fill out the form every time for one day so John can get the picture.

    For me, it’s so annoying that I use an ad blocker. I imagine if everyone who is annoyed with those ads used the form for a week, John would get the picture in a hurry.

  192. 192.

    SFAW

    @catclub:

    Quinn was a highway commissioner (or some such) from NJ. He was a no-bullshit, speak-his-mind Republican (this was in the 1970s, so, back before Rethugs went completely insane). The Repub candidate died of a heart attack, the RNC (or whoever) figured they were going to lose anyway, so picked a nobody.

    I may still have the book kicking around my house somewhere, but I’m not going to go searching for it.

  193. 193.

    James E Powell

    @SFAW:

    The evil DNC would name Eddie Quinn as the nominee. [Sorry, that’s a reference to a very obscure book (Dark Horse by Fletcher Knebel) which had a similar situation.]

    I read that one. He loved cars.

  194. 194.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @WaterGirl: The ads themselves don’t annoy me so much.  But I frequently try to click links on my phone while the page may be partially loaded and there is an uncanny tendency for an ad to move to precisely where what I wanted to click on had been.

  196. 196.

    WaterGirl

    @BellyCat: I was about to assure you that you are not the only dunderhead, but that didn’t sound right.  :-)  i am willing to bet, though, that you are not the only one who hadn’t thought of that.

  197. 197.

    WaterGirl

    @BellyCat: But if you comment a fair amount, then the page gets refreshed EVERY TIME so it can get very annoying.  If you’re a lurker or an occasional commenter, it is probably less so.

  198. 198.

    SFAW

    @Krope, the Formerly Dope:

    Great, now to add to my insecurities I’m shorter than a dwarf.

    Not that it will make you feel any better, but I think Peter Dinklage in Avengers: Infinity War was something like 20 feet tall, and Thor said he was a dwarf. So even Robert Wadlow would have been shorter.

  200. 200.

    MagdaInBlack

    @WaterGirl:

    I get it too but doesnt really trouble me. Also, lately my ads have been real estate in northern Wisconsin and upper Michigan, so Ive been checking them out. (For one of them, it might have been a good idea to take the nazi flag off the living room wall.?

  201. 201.

    Kay

    @gwangung:

    and the usual suspects will start panicking again….

    We’re all scared though and that will get worse before it gets better. I got an email yesterday from a local Democrat and he says “I’m afraid we peaked too soon”

    We should all just say “I’m afraid” and leave it at that. That’s what it means :)

    You’d see emails or comments or texts – “I’m afraid”. Yes, we all are.

  202. 202.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @SFAW: I think Peter Dinklage in Avengers: Infinity War was something like 20 feet tall

    Maybe it’s a physical build/shape thing.

  203. 203.

    SFAW

    @WaterGirl:

    But if you comment a fair amount, then the page gets refreshed EVERY TIME so it can get very annoying.

    Interesting. What’s annoying — well, disheartening, I guess — is the pop-up(s) I get when I post a comment. The pop-up usually says things like “Are you SURE you want to say that? Really? Jesus H. Christ, you’re a moron” and “Try not to be an asshole, OK?” and “If you insist on posting this idiocy, we’re going to send KellyAnne Conway to your house.”

    Am I the only one getting those pop-ups?

  204. 204.

    James E Powell

    @Kay:

    I believe if it weren’t for the press/media continually propping him up and protecting him by not reporting certain stories, the bottom would fall out of Trump’s support and he would have no chance at all.

  209. 209.

    BellyCat

    @WaterGirl:

    But…but… what would we kvetch about if we can’t discuss the indubitable benefits of not wearing women’s underwear? //

  211. 211.

    Kay

    My middle son is almost done with his apprenticeship as an electrician. They take classes one day a week- on Zoom right now. One of the first year apprentices was at a BLM protest and he got hit in the head with a projectile from police- pepper cannister or rubber bullet, he doesn’t know which. He has a big knot on his head. He told this story to the instructors and the other apprentices in the class and my son said they were really interested- he was surprised at how favorable the attention was. It pretty much hijacked the whole class.

  215. 215.

    trollhattan

    @Kay:

    Yesterday I proposed emptying a bear spray can on Barr in order to educate him on the concept of what is a “chemical.” Now, I want to do it just because.

  219. 219.

    MisterForkbeard

    @mrmoshpotato: That’s a misleading and dumb article. Wow

    It’s an “indepedent” opinion writer saying that Biden should choose Condoleeza, and the title presents it as Biden’s opinion too. And the responses on Twitter are all “Why would Biden betray us like this?”

  221. 221.

    SFAW

    @WaterGirl:

    Sorry, wasn’t trying to mislead.

    I was going to respond “If it seems REALLY stupid, assume I’m joking.” But then realized that’s not a good assumption. I mean, I’m not wingnut-level stupid, but I do have my moments.

  223. 223.

    Feathers

    @Baud: I couldn’t resist.

    1) Weaken America militarily. Evidence: votes against various missiles back in the Reagan days.

    2) Weaken America generally. Evidence: wanting clean energy and being anti-fracking will put America under the control of OPEC. Said a nice thing about China once. Actually brings up the gas lines and rationing from the 70s.

    3) Won’t cut taxes.

    4) Will take away your medical savings accounts. (That you won’t need them is never mentioned.)

    5) You got this one – will keep abortion legal.

    All and all, a very strange little polemic. It’s all Reagan, Reagan, Reagan, even pulling into the second coming of Jimmy Carter territory. Definitely trying to scare the olds.

  224. 224.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @Feathers: Weaken America generally. Evidence: wanting clean energy and being anti-fracking will put America under the control of OPEC. Said a nice thing about China once. Actually brings up the gas lines and rationing from the 70s.

    While Biden wasn’t the one calling the shots; when he was VP under Obama, we made remarkable strides toward energy independence.

  225. 225.

    J R in WV

    @Jeffro: 

    “Christopher Columbus” the first slaver in the New World — I always wondered, after reading actual real history about his voyages, why anyone thought he was worthy of veneration.

    Pirates were better people than Columbus was.

  226. 226.

    J R in WV

    @japa21:

    Let’s come up with suggestions. I’ll start with Cheryl Rofer for Secretary of Energy.

    I go with Immanentize  for Attorney General. And David Anderson for Sec of Health and Human Resources. Anyone for Sec of Education, would be an improvement over DeVos.

    ETA:  Don’t know how, but Immanentize’s name gave me a different font…

  228. 228.

    WaterGirl

    @SFAW: Part of it was that I had just started to read your comment when my phone rang – so I’m sure that if I had read the whole thing at once I would have instantly known it was a joke.

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