Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

This fight is for everything.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

But frankly mr. cole, Iā€™ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

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

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

We will not go back.

If you donā€™t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isnā€™t freedom, it is privilege.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

If you still canā€™t see these things even now, maybe politics isnā€™t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

ā€œIn this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.ā€

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

You donā€™t get rid of your umbrella while itā€™s still raining.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Proud to Be A Biden Democrat

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Proud to Be A Biden Democrat

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101Comments

  1. 1.

    Spanky

    Yup. Cleek’s Law has been enshrined in Republican philosophy for years, and the media refuses to acknowledge it.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    You guys are back!

    I was just about to find the cure for cancer but, oh well, back to the scrum.

  6. 6.

    debbie

    I think every single Democrat needs to work “Actions speak louder than words” into their campaign slogans and materials. After all, Democrats are the only ones trying to fix anything at this point.

  13. 13.

    oldgold

    Unless gas prices moderate before November, we are in for a punishing political pummeling. Things like the repeal of Roe or Republican creepiness are not going to save us from $5.00 + per gallon gas. To think so is whistling past the graveyard.

    We need to immediately make MBS an offer he cannot refuse.

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    My fountain stopped running this AM, something it does from time to time for, reasons. So I got down on my knees to revive the pump and reaching into the water I espied at the bottom…. Lo and behold, a 5-6″ snapping turtle.

    Never never expected to find one of them in there.

  15. 15.

    Skepticat

    ‘@debbie I think every single Democrat needs to work ā€œActions speak louder than wordsā€ into their campaign slogans and materials.

    SPOT ON.

  17. 17.

    Spanky

    “Never never expected to find one of them in there.”

    That’s what he said about you.

  19. 19.

    WaterGirl

    ‘@debbie @Baud

    What was I thinking? This is Baud! I should have made a first comment for Baud, and then pre-approved it. :-)

    edit: I swear I read this before reading any of the comments suggesting this!

  20. 20.

    Suzanne

    Something else I have been thinking about during this last week sans blog: this meme about “a victim of feminism” (link: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/an-established-and-complete-woman )
    I saw much internet snark from the typical terrible men about how single women gain weight because they eat crap but tradwives stay slim because they cook healthy meals for their families. It got me thinking. My female friends, in our single days, all talked about how getting into a relationship made one gain weight, because you went out to eat together, and how men will not eat as many salads as women do. I have been losing weight in recent months because I personally said FUCK IT and mentally gave myself permission to eat like I did when I was single, which it to have an apple and peanut butter as a meal.

  21. 21.

    Professor Bigfoot

    So good to see some familiar names again. I was suffering from Balloon Juice withdrawal.

    I swear, the civil discussions / flaming rows here are what help me make sense of the world and itā€™s good to be here. Even if I get kicked into moderation. ;)

  22. 22.

    WaterGirl

    ‘@OzarkHIllbillly

    First of all, with the appearance of your “blech”, I now consider our home away from home to be christened!

    Second, ouch. Did you get bit by the snapping turtle, or just startled?

  23. 23.

    WaterGirl

    ‘@Suzanne

    Who needs statistics and facts when you can just make shit up and 40% of people will believe you?

  24. 24.

    Dorothy A Winsor

    Between being gone for so long and then BJ being down, I’ve lost track of some political stories, including the John Durham special prosecution. As I recall, Durham is supposed to be proving that HRC originated a false investigation against the poor innocent TFG for getting help from Russia. I see Marcy Wheeler tweeting about a trial of a HRC campaign lawyer. Is it worth my time and indignation to figure out how that’s going?

  26. 26.

    MaiNaem mobile

    ‘@oldgold I agree about the doing something about gas prices. I just can’t about MBS. I’ve heard more complaints about gas prices from people i work with than anything else. Its impossible to ignore. And these are people who drive trucks for legit reasons not for fun.

  27. 27.

    Suzanne

    ‘@WaterGirl
    Truth.
    I think itā€™s an interesting perception, because data suggests that heterosexual marriage (probably gay marriage, too) is good for men. On average, married men are healthier, happier, and live longer. Suggesting that good lifestyle habits come with marriage. The opposite is true for women. I wonder if, in these days of assortative mating, that pattern holds true.

    Douthat tweeted a couple of weeks ago about how men are less likely to marry and stay married, have kids, live with their kids, etc. than they were in the pre-Roe days. Iā€™ve been thinking a lot about the myriad critical ways the world is different from that world, and how a ban on abortion is really part of a larger project to (attempt to) restore white patriarchy. It is no accident that this is taking place simultaneous with Great Replacement theory, women achieving higher education at greater rates than men, and again, assortative mating.

  28. 28.

    OzarkHillbilly

    ‘@ Watergirl: “Second, ouch. Did you get bit by the snapping turtle, or just startled?”

    Neither. I saw it right away and it is way too small to get aggressive. If I leave it in the pond here, it will never make it, so I’ll take it down to the creek later today when the rains have stopped.

  29. 29.

    Mag

    I probably shouldnā€™t point this out, but for me this makeshift site loads and scrolls far better and faster than the primary site. Has anyone else noticed a difference in performance?

  30. 30.

    debbie

    ‘@DAW

    You might want to check into the story about Tucker C. and Wifey asking Hunter Biden for help getting their kid into some college. It generated a few chuckles.

  32. 32.

    JPL

    ‘@Dorothy, Apparently after years of searching high and low, they charged a lawyer with lying, because he didn’t tell an agent he worked with the Clinton campaign.
    Marcy’s twitter feed is worth the time.

  33. 33.

    Dorothy A Winsor

    ‘@debbie

    Dear god. I just can’t.

    Sometimes I feel like the people in power all live in some isolated world where they all know one another and are good buddies. They’re just putting on a show for the rest of us and they’re all in on it. They cooperate to establish storylines. We’re like the little world they play with

  35. 35.

    Viva BrisVegas

    It’s the end of election day here in Australia and while vote counting continues, there is a result. The conservative Liberal-National Party has lost government and Labor will either govern with an absolute majority or as a minority government with Green support. The most notable feature of the election is the movement in affluent urban seats from the Lib-Nats to centrist climate friendly independents. This has shattered the conservative vote and left the Lib-Nats pondering the wisdom of their push to the hard right.

    The next Prime Minister of Australia is Anthony Albanese.

  39. 39.

    Layer8Problem

    ‘@Viva BrisVegas: “This has shattered the conservative vote and left the Lib-Nats pondering the wisdom of their push to the hard right.” Well that’s frickin’ encouraging. Congratulations!

  40. 40.

    Baud

    __________________________________________
    Gin & Tonic
    May 21, 2022 at 9:45 AM

    @WG ā€“ 81.3% of statistics you read on the Internet are made up.
    __________________________________________

    ——Abraham Lincoln

  41. 41.

    Soprano2

    ‘@Suzanne; It’s as if the people saying “tradwives” (hate that term) are thinner because they cook don’t know anything about biology or metabolism or how marriage affects people’s weight in general. Every woman I know gained weight after they got married. Almost all the women I know struggled more with their weight after having children. Our bodies are programmed to hold on to fat as we get older. Then we could talk about how menopause affects that, and mostly not in a good way. Idiots.

  42. 42.

    Montanareddog

    And the media are calling the Australian election for Labor, but without an overall majority. They will have to govern in a coalition, probably with the Greens who have surged

  45. 45.

    FelonyGovt

    Just realized Iā€™ve been spending much less time on Twitter since this site has been up! No wonder Iā€™m in a better mood.

  46. 46.

    Chip Daniels

    Fascism confounds conventional political pundits like Chris Hayes because fascism does NOT operate by conventional political rules.

    Conventional politics is based on the premise that the vast majority of citizens want the same things like widespread prosperity, peace, and a shared sense of justice.

    But fascists don’t want those things. They want vengeance upon the hated outgroup above all else and will happily endure all manner of sacrifice to get it.

    This is why they scream indignantly when Hillary says something about coal miners but chuckle when Trump sneers at Gold Star families.

    People like Hayes are bewildered by this phenomenon.

    edited to add the missing “NOT”.

  47. 47.

    Central Planning

    My wife and I have both gained weight and lost weight while we have been married. Right now we are in the red, but we blame covid for that.

    And, posting to get validated for future use.

  48. 48.

    Soprano2

    It drives me crazy how butthurt the press is that Biden doesn’t talk to them daily. Don’t they realize that the reason TFG talked to them so much was 1) he’s a flaming narcissist who has to make everything about himself and 2) he didn’t do any work! Of course they don’t, it’s why they loved TFG so much – he made them feel important.

  49. 49.

    WaterGirl

    ‘@Baud @Gin & Tonic

    I wonder what percentage of the QUOTES on the internet are made up! :-)

  51. 51.

    Suzanne

    ‘@ Soprano2
    Itā€™s interesting to me how much of our politics right now is shaped by a perception that “the wrong people” are succeeding. I remember a Trump-era Cletus Safari (in an Ohio diner, probably) in which some woman was quoted to say that Obama “wasnā€™t hurting the people who were supposed to be hurting”. Or, as Serwer so eloquently said, the cruelty is the point.

    Ultimately, that’s the thing that makes me very sad.

  52. 52.

    WaterGirl

    ‘@Viva BrisVegas

    That’s heartening news! Dare I hope that the pendulum is starting to swing back?

    14.275% of people say yes.

  53. 53.

    Sure Lurkalot

    ‘@suzanne
    So is Douthat saying if there was no Roe in the 70ā€™s, more men now would be and stay married and have children? Nothing would have changed womenā€™s place in society or their regard towards partnering in 50 years but for the right to have an abortion? And taking away that right now will result in more married men with children as if the last 50 years didnā€™t happen? The right to have an abortion changed only womenā€™s attitudes towards love and marriage?

  55. 55.

    eclare

    ‘@Suzanne: IIRC, the person who said that worked in a MS prison or jail. I wonder how she treats those she oversees? Nah, I don’t wonder.

  56. 56.

    WaterGirl

    ‘@Chip Daniels

    Since the “NOT” was pivotal to your point, I took the liberty of going back and adding it. I can un-do that if desired.

  57. 57.

    Dorothy A Winsor

    ‘@Sure Lurkalot

    That seems a weird way to articulate those stats anyway, since the percentage of men who are married must be pretty close to the percentage of women, right? Am I missing something about those stats?

  59. 59.

    Suzanne

    ‘@ Sure Lurkalot
    Douthat said this in a tweet, so the statement is not that in-depth. (He’s also not that smart.) He got criticized for a correlation/causation error, but I donā€™t think he made one. I think that legal abortion, among zillions of other social shifts, has probably led to lower marriage rates (but eliminating shotgun marriages and young horny people getting married just so they can bang without guilt) and fewer kids (but fewer unwanted kids). The difference is that I think this outcome is great. Fewer marriages sounds to me like the people who were least likely to be successful at marriage just didnā€™t get married in the first place. Fewer children (and lower rates of adoption, too, and average age at first childbirth) sounds like fewer teen pregnancies and more people waiting until theyā€™re stable to have kids. Douthat thinks all that is bad. I think itā€™s great.

  62. 62.

    eclare

    ‘@Dorothy A Windsor: I worked in corporate state tax for over a decade, old habit for me.

  64. 64.

    Viva BrisVegas

    ‘@Watergirl
    There have been a number of big swings to Labor in recent state elections. At the moment there are only two Lib-Nat state or territory governments, New South Wales and Tasmania. NSW being the most populous state and Tassie the least (about the same as Wyoming).

  65. 65.

    Chip Daniels

    ‘@Suzanne
    What social conservatives like Douthat illustrate is the fervent faith in governments ability to shape and improve the moral posture of the people.

    That with the proper incentives and punishments, men can be forced to become loving responsible fathers.

    If this seems strangely like the socialist way of thinking, you would be correct.

  67. 67.

    jackmac

    Yay!! So happy to see BJ back (even in this limited form). I hope the technical problems get resolved ASAP.

  69. 69.

    scav

    ‘@zhena goglia
    I think people are kluging reply ā€œbuttonsā€ or at least the @whatevers. Clicking them doesn’t do anything as far as I can tell. Might account for the speediness some people report: fewer bells and whistles (eg lpside links to next post etc). This place is lean.

  72. 72.

    WaterGirl

    ‘@Viva BrisVegas

    Really happy to hear that this doesn’t seem like a one-off.

  73. 73.

    WaterGirl

    The site is rudimentary ā€“ there’s not even a shitty continental breakfast in the morning!

    But all our friends are in the lobby, so it’s all good, right?

  75. 75.

    Brachiator

    Well, hello Temporary Balloon Juice. I guess we have both been down recently.

    Lots to catch up on.

  76. 76.

    MaiNaem mobile

    ‘@soprano2 i may be wrong but weren’t the vast majority of TFG’s sit down interviews with Fox? Is Ed O’Keefe really counting Fox interviews as legit? I don’t even remember Obama doing that many sit down interviews. Bidens in front of the camera plenty. Jeezus.

  77. 77.

    Sure Lurkalot

    ‘@Suzanne

    In a longer op-ed, Douthat:

    ā€œFrom the perspective of religion, meanwhile, by constitutionalizing the issue Roe didnā€™t just hand a normal political defeat to the pro-life side; it seemed to read their core convictions out of the American constitutional order entirely, seeding a religious alienation that continues to bear bitter fruit today. And the timing was particularly unfortunate: When Roe was handed down, both Catholicism and evangelicalism had just passed through periods of reform and modernization that promised a reconciliation between Christian faith and liberal modernity. Then immediately, liberal modernity changed its demands and made them all-or-nothing, making the moral price of admission more than many Christians could reasonably pay.ā€

    Apparently with a straight face. Liberal modernity moved the goalposts to an extreme that many Christians could not bear but forcing a woman to bear her rapistā€™s child will be a fair price to pay to have Douthatā€™s ordered society of faith.

  78. 78.

    Immanentize

    Someone’s knockin’ at the door
    Somebody’s ringin’ the bell
    Someone’s knockin’ at the door
    Somebody’s ringin’ the bell…

  79. 79.

    Ruckus

    oldgold
    rethuglican’s only goal is to win. How is not important, winning so that they can steal more money is the only goal. They are greedy fucks, they don’t like anyone but them getting all the money. Look at elon, his grab for all the money has shot him in the ass and so now he’s willing to vocally join the other side. Because the only thing important to the other side is money. Not for their supporters, they give a fuck about that, it’s raw greed and a system that allows them to get money for nothing is all they want. Any way they can make themselves richer is good with them. Be racist fucks and go back oh say 160 yrs to the good old days when they could own slaves and make a profit off of owning the production engine. They are conservatives, they want to have the same way of life that their kind had for centuries, that of being on top for being major league assholes. They compensate for their assholiness by acting religious, mouthing the words, while all the while being anything but.

  80. 80.

    MaiNaem mobile

    ‘@Watergirl forget continental breakfast? It doesn’t even have the crappy little paper cups of coffee you get at the waiting room at the car dealership service area.

  82. 82.

    WaterGirl

    ‘@Baud

    Come on! You’ve got Recent Comments, Recent Posts. You’ve got fly-outs at the top for previous and next threads, and you’ve got sticky nyms. A few years ago you would have killed for the sticky nyms! :-)

    Having said that, I can have some of your favorite pastries delivered, if you like.

  83. 83.

    kalakal

    ‘@Chip Daniels
    He’s channeling Stalin
    “The engineers of the human soul”*
    The RCs tried to instil their idea of societal morality through coercion in Spain under Franco and in Ireland for decades – didn’t work
    *I know Stalin was referring to “cultural workers” but he saw those as an arm of government

  84. 84.

    zhena gogolia

    ‘@GinandTonic, WaterGirl
    Sorry — I could have sworn I saw a reply button yesterday when I was at my office. Thanks!

  86. 86.

    Immanentize

    ‘@GinandTonic — I see the EU may sanction Kiril. I sure hope that happens and then the same happens to the Archbishop of San Francisco.

  87. 87.

    scav

    ‘@WaterGirl
    Feel free to give Baud or etc my favorite pastries. I’m trying to get down to gardening weight in a hurry. If lean sites will contribute, I’m all for it. Don’t touch my coffee though: that’s mine!

  88. 88.

    Kelly

    Packing today for a raft camping trip on the Deschutes river. Rendezvous with a couple old buddies Monday. We ran our first river together in 1981. We’re all retirees so mid-week camping is sweet.

    I put on about 10 lbs since Covid hit. Mrs Kelly won’t say. Dieting is a new concept for me. Most of my life I was one of those skinny guys that could eat whatever I wanted.

    Maybe the time I get back next weekend OR CD5 will be decided. Looks like progressive Jamie McLeod-Skinner beat Blue Dog Kurt Schrader. R opponent is a 2020 election was stolen, cheering the end of Roe v Wade person. Currently about 5,000 more R votes in the CD 5 primary, which worries me a bit. There are more unaffiliated voters in Oregon than Republicans so we have that going for us.

  89. 89.

    CaseyL

    Birth control and abortion are essential to a woman’s autonomy in life, unless she’s not going to have sex with any man ever (and never gets raped; good luck with that one).

    Autonomy means a woman can pursue her own life’s goals, and choose whether or not to ever get married. She doesn’t need to marry to have a life: she can have her own career, buy her own house, etc.

    Even as a young person (in the 1970s-80s), I could see that anti-feminism was all about keeping women infantalized and dependent. Even as a young person, I realized (and said, frequently) that if the only way traditional marriage could survive was by keeping women infantalized and dependent, then the problem was with traditional marriage, not with feminism.

    And the decades since then have borne that out. If women don’t “have” to get married, they don’t. If they don’t “have” to have children, they don’t.

    This has driven the Right Wing crazy, and they are doubling down on restoring the conditions that kept women infantalized and dependent for so long.

  90. 90.

    Suzanne

    ‘@CaseyL
    100% right. And that has turned out to be a bad thing for a whole lot of shitty men, who expected the life benefits of tradmarriage. But…. again, I’m thrilled. Shitty men should up their game.

  91. 91.

    WereBear

    The problem with Cawthorne is not his age. It’s not like he’s growing beyond adolescence no matter how much time he might put into it.

    And he won’t.

    My experience with fundamentalism and patriarchy indicates one of the benefits is how men are in charge, yet don’t have to grow up.

    Women are to clean up the messes.

  92. 92.

    Jean

    Thank you, WaterGirl. I’m glad we have this plain site so I no longer keep refreshing the fancy one, and so I can at least keep up with some news and read commentary by the jackals on Balloon Juice.

  93. 93.

    Mike in NC

    Since BJ went tits up last week I’ve been visiting alternate sites, especially Digby, where I found what has to be my favorite photo of the Fat Orange Clown.

    He’s shown saluting some North Korean general wearing a ridiculous bucket hat, while in the background dictator Kim has an expression on his face that can only be described as “what the fuck is happening with this idiot?”.

  94. 94.

    Mo MacArbie

    Guess I’ll file this one so I can lurk more effectively.

    You didn’t have to approve me
    But you did, but you did, but you did
    And I thank you

  95. 95.

    Dorothy A Winsor

    ‘@Sure Lurkalot:

    “From the perspective of religion,”

    WTF? I thought we were talking about a country where no religion gets to impose its views on everyone just because god told them to?

  96. 96.

    Spanky

    ‘@Imm: If by “sanction” you mean removing tax exempt status, I’m all for it. For too long and too often, churches (and “churches”) have been acting as political organizations while hiding behind the tax exemption for churches.

    If your goal is to impose your religion on the rest of us, have the guts to do it in the open.

  97. 97.

    Ruckus

    Suzanne

    Shitty men should up their game.

    No, they really shouldn’t. Shitty men should learn the game better. The rules have thankfully changed, because the old way sucked for actual humans. And this is a man saying this. I read a lot as a kid, often 4 or 5 books a week. One of the things I learned was that the world favored men and that women were there for men, not to be actual humans. And this is 10000% wrong. Just like racism is wrong. Humans like things ordered and study – few changes. But men build a world that revolved around them, their desires, their needs above all else. It was wrong. It’s led to wars for bragging rights, for sex, for bullshit. It was wrong. The world is changing, hell you are one of those changing it for the better, what you do for a living. Men – not all of them, have been doing this wrong for a long time. It’s past due understanding that the world is here for all of us. Not just the men, or the money, or just some of us. ALL of us. It isn’t part of us, we are part of it.

  99. 99.

    mrmoshpotato

    .@POTUS on Friday reached a milestone not seen in recent presidential history ā€” 100 consecutive days without conducting a sit-down interview with the media

    Sit down, assclown. He just might have more important things to work on.

  100. 100.

    mrmoshpotato

    Quoting Mike in NC:

    Since BJ went tits up last week Iā€™ve been visiting alternate sites, especially Digby, where I found what has to be my favorite photo of the Fat Orange Clown.

    Heā€™s shown saluting some North Korean general wearing a ridiculous bucket hat, while in the background dictator Kim has an expression on his face that can only be described as ā€œwhat the fuck is happening with this idiot?ā€.

    End quote

    I remember the Kremlin’s orange fascist shitstain saluting the North Koreans like the traitorous, fascist shitstain that he is, but is the photo you mention real?

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