Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

I really should read my own blog.

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

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

American History and Black History can not be separated.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

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

We won’t go back.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Not all heroes wear capes.

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

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

Maybe you would prefer that we take Joelle’s side in ALL CAPS?

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

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

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60Comments

  1. 1.

    WaterGirl

    Totally open thread, but I am going to sneak in a reminder about the Pets of Balloon Juice calendar.

    Send me an email if you haven’t already and let me know what pets you want in this year’s calendar. I’ll reply with the instructions and the upload link.

    Deadline is Monday, so it’s not too late!

    Resume open thread.

  2. 2.

    Another Scott

    I assume the cat never learned how to drink from a dish, perhaps??

    ObOpenThread:

    Anthime Gionet, the white nationalist livestreamer known as "Baked Alaska," was just found GUILTY on all three charges during his assault trial in Scottsdale, Arizona.

    — Nick Martin (@nickmartin) October 29, 2021

    Good, good.

    (via JJMacNab)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  3. 3.

    HumboldtBlue

    I love refried beans.

    I have never made refried beans.

    Tomorrow I will prepare refried beans and I will be happy.

    Like the cat is happy.

    I won’t pour the beans on my head and lick them from my face, but it’ll be close.

  7. 7.

    CaseyL

    @Another Scott:

    I assume the cat never learned how to drink from a dish, perhaps??

    That was my initial reaction, too.  Cats drink “backwards” (the underside of the tongue scoops liquids into mouth, rather than the surface of the tongue lapping it up) which has always blown my mind, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some poor kitties never quite got the hang of that.  Maybe sticking your head under a cascade of water and letting it dribble into your mouth is easier…?

  10. 10.

    citizen dave

    This cat rules!  Some would say it’s a bit off, but I always admire blunt force methods.   Our current cat model loves to be outside in the rain, watching it from his dry wooden elevated catbox.

  11. 11.

    sab

    @CaseyL: My sisiter says there are lots of old Chinese ink on silk paintings of tigers drinking out of waterfalls, so apparently this is pretty mormal.

  16. 16.

    CaseyL

    @sab: Drinking from a waterfall while sitting under/inside said waterfall?

    Admittedly, my beloved, long -departed Ariel loved her Kitty Water Fountain so much that she would stick her head under the stream of water and drink from the inside of it, just like the kitty in the video.

    Mostly, though, I’ve had kitties who liked to drink from a running faucet, but they did so from the side, looking delicate and staying dry.

  19. 19.

    trollhattan

    Hilarious cat is hilarious. Shoves head under stream. Repeatedly.

    Kiddo ran in the WCC XC championships today, #2 on her team so a good showing. The country’s top two teams are in WCC and finished pretty much where you’d expect. Fast kids are fast (like, maybe next Olympics fast). Enuf tautology for one day.

    Surprisingly hot day for Oct 29 and I have a surprising sunburn. Dumb.

    Halloween weather will be good here. One week ago we got a LOT of rain on Sunday, so the kids catch a break this year.

  20. 20.

    trollhattan

    @Benw: ​
     I channel-surfed across last night’s game and saw a Braves batter wearing a ginormous string of pearls. Is that a thing now or is he just weird as fuck? NB I do not follow beezeboll.

  23. 23.

    JWR

    @HumboldtBlue:

    fuck that racist chant.

    Geez, they’re still doing that dumbass chant? How about that “Tomahawk Chop” crap? I mean c’mon, I’ll always love Henry “the real homerun king” Aaron, but fcuk the Braves.

    So there! ;)

  24. 24.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @trollhattan:

    Joc Pedersen started wearing a string of pearls for reasons he doesn’t really explain (probably no reason), except he likes them. They’ve become something of a good-luck accessory for Atlanta fans, apparently.

  25. 25.

    Poe Larity

    Astronomy Owls assemble and tell me what binoculars to buy. Celestron 25×100 or whatever. Havent been active in decades and being asked for advice.

    Personally, I’d prefer something with image stabilization now that that is a thing and I don’t want to mess with a parallelogram tripod, but what do I know.

  27. 27.

    trollhattan

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    From my teevee view they looked like the real thing. Having purchased a good number of pearls I can well surmise that’s quite an…investment? Hey, it’s only money! But then, MLB players have lots so there ya go.

  37. 37.

    Another Scott

    ICYMI, Biden is working on ending TFG’s Remain in Mexico program even as he’s working to comply with a court order to restore it.

    Reuters

    The new memo is comprehensive, DHS officials said on a call with reporters. It “squarely addresses some of the alleged failures of the prior memo,” one of the officials said.

    “It takes into account a whole range of new information that’s been made available or that’s occurred since June,” when the previous memo was issued, one official said. The administration will seek to have the court order vacated in light of the new memo, the officials said.

    Meanwhile, the Biden administration will continue to take steps to restart the program by mid-November, to comply with the judge’s ruling, officials said.

    Forward!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  38. 38.

    Jean

    @Another Scott:  Good for Biden. So much to do, so little time. How are you feeling about VA election. I live in Midlo, we voted two weeks ago, and I’ve been worried but not panicked. Polls seem tighter, yes, but not very reliable. As long as Youngkin doesn’t get as much as he needs in NOVA, Nova should wipe out gains in Henrico. I don’t know. Does seem that Dems have a good GOTV game.

  39. 39.

    JWR

    @Another Scott:

    ICYMI, Biden is working on ending TFG’s Remain in Mexico program

    Not only that, but I just heard, (on TV news), that many of the families separated under TFG’s Zero Tolerance policy, aided by the ACLU, have just won a rather sizable settlement. Good.

    Another sign that there’s still some hope in this post-TFG world.

  40. 40.

    WaterGirl

    @Jean: I think we have to assume that polls are pretty worthless after 2020. I think we just don’t know.

    Except I also think that campaigns have a pretty good feel for how it’s going based on door knocking, etc. now whether our side would want to say so if they thought we had this? Does thinking we might lose bring out more voters, or fewer? I just don’t know how they game this out.

    Bottom line, I think with working blind because of bad polling, you just have to work your ass off until the bitter and and hope for the best.

    They have most definitely not solved the polling issues we saw in 2020.

  41. 41.

    Another Scott

    @Jean: I’m hopeful and I think it’s likely that Terry is going to do well.  There’s a WaPo poll out that has him up by 3.  But we need every vote we can get and can’t let up.

    We dropped out absentee ballots in the box a while ago.  Every time we go by there (a site in Fairfax County) there’s a short line and with a forest of signs in the lawn.  Good signs, I hope!

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  42. 42.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @CaseyL: Yes.  It reminds me of a cat we used to have who would dip her paw into the water and then lick water off her paw.  She never seemed to get lapping down either.

  43. 43.

    Anne Laurie

    @Another Scott: I assume the cat never learned how to drink from a dish, perhaps??

    Naw, while almost all cats like their water running — it’s fresher! — the rare feline connoisseur discovers they enjoy the feel of water pushing down on their heads, as well.  Best I’ve been able to figure out, it’s like a deep-tissue massage feels for humans.  Cats, after all (even tigers) like having their foreheads massaged, but it’s hard for a solitary cat (such as a tiger) to find another individual who’ll provide the right firm-yet-forceful touch…

  44. 44.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Anne Laurie:

    Best I’ve been able to figure out, it’s like a deep-tissue massage feels for humans. Cats, after all (even tigers) like having their foreheads massaged

    That’s cat-facts worthy right there.

  45. 45.

    eddie blake

    @WaterGirl:  hey, i was hopin’ you were gonna write me back, but i guess you didn’t see the mail. i wanted to check that i didn’t fuck up the upload of the image i wanna use of our cats for the calendar.

  48. 48.

    JoyceH

    My cat is back from her week-long stay at the vet. And it wasn’t anything all that serious, an upper respiratory infection, just needed antibiotics – she had to stay at the vet because she just wouldn’t let me give her the medicine!​

  50. 50.

    Kayla Rudbek

    I truly hate getting leg cramps in the middle of the night. I got up and took ibuprofen and I’m trying to decide whether to have a little bit of salt. If it was two hours closer to dawn I would go running  to work the cramps out.

  52. 52.

    Gvg

    The litter I am fostering, all love to stand in the water dish knee deep and play in it. Forces me to clean and refill every day. They did not grow up near a pond or anything so I really am not sure why the whole litter is like this.

    My neighbor gave me a cat fountain but evaporation would cause it to run dry within a couple of hours. Not well designed IMO. Some other model probably works better.

  53. 53.

    Ohio Mom

    It’s 7:30 Saturday morning. Where’s Anne Laurie? Swamped under Covid news ortaking the weekend off? Hope she’s okay.

  54. 54.

    prostratedragon

    For me, water taken at first in small sips works. Prevention: be sure to hydrate an hour or two before bed. Night cramps are the worst.

  55. 55.

    JWR

    Wow. From Politico

    Trump’s effort to suppress more than 750 pages of records is far broader than previously known, and includes documents from three separate tranches identified by the National Archives since early October in response to a request from the Jan. 6 select committee.

    In its own filing, the Jan. 6 select committee says a federal court must reject Trump’s effort to stymie its investigation or risk leaving future elections subject to abuse.

    The panel argues that Trump and his allies’ continuing effort to undermine confidence in federal elections reinforces the committee’s need to access Trump’s White House records to understand his attempt to overturn the 2020 election results.

    “The urgency of the work cannot be overstated,” House Counsel Doug Letter writes in the 52-page legal brief delivered Friday night to Judge Tanya Chutkan. “The threat that brought the attack on January 6 is ongoing. Those who falsely claimed the election was stolen (including Mr. Trump) continue to do so.”

    Chutkan is slated to hold a hearing on Trump’s bid to block access to his records on Thursday. She’s been among the most outspoken judges on the federal bench in Washington, D.C., to call the Jan. 6 attack a fundamental assault on democracy — driven by rioters loyal to Trump. In the chaos that day, multiple rioters died, and more than 140 police officers were injured.

  56. 56.

    Betty

    @trollhattan: Have you seen their gold chains and diamond earrings? He took abuse from some for the pearls, but expensive jewelry does seem pretty common for pro baseball players.

  57. 57.

    Geminid

    Sines v. Kessler, the civil trial of thw disastrous “Unite the Right” rally organizers began this week in a Charlottesville federal courthouse. There was jury selection, opening statements, and testimony that will continue next week. Molly Conger, a local activist/journalist, is reporting from the courtroom as @Molly Conger.

    Like most locals, Conger was appalled by the stupid stunt at a Youngkin campaign bus stop in Charlottesville this week, instigated by the Lincoln Project. Those guys really stepped in it this time.

  59. 59.

    Geminid

    @O. Felix Culpa: Five people showed up at a Youngkin event dressed in khaki pants, button down shirts and carrying tiki torches. They passed themselves off as Youngkin supporters and that briefly made a splash. But this was such a flimsy impersonation that it was quickly penetrated, and the organizer and the LP belatedly portrayed it as an ironic attack on Youngkin (the organizer, journalist Lauren Windsor, fancies herself a James O’Keefe of the left). The McAuliffe campaign had to disavow it, and Republicans now have more fuel for the “false flag” narrative.

  60. 60.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Conger and others were pretty hot about this. At the time, people who had been beaten by the real tiki torch marchers were testifying a few blocks away. The stunt was dumb all way around, but so far the organizer and the LP have lacked the moral courage to just admit their mistake and apologize for it.

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