Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

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

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

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

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

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

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

People are complicated. Love is not.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

The words do not have to be perfect.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

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

Not all heroes wear capes.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tap…Tap…Is This Thing On….

Tap…Tap…Is This Thing On….

by | 78 Comments

This post is in: 

Sometimes the law gets it right.  Timeliness is not guaranteed, however:

Massachusetts lawmakers on Thursday formally exonerated Elizabeth Johnson Jr., clearing her name 329 years after she was convicted of witchcraft in 1693 and sentenced to death at the height of the Salem Witch Trials.

Lawmakers agreed to reconsider her case last year after a curious eighth-grade civics class at North Andover Middle School took up her cause and researched the legislative steps needed to clear her name.

Subsequent legislation introduced by state Sen. Diana DiZoglio, a Democrat from Methuen, was tacked onto a budget bill and approved.

Just thought I’d drop in an add my glee at the return of Balloon Juice to its proper home.  I get that the furniture may need renewing and a rug or two might get replaced, but this is good news.

And in this benighted time, it is a relief to know that while the mills of justice do grind slow–and I do mean exceeding slow–they do, sometimes, get there in the end. Which, when that happens, is good news too.

I’ll get back to the gob smackers and the general disasters in due time.  But tonight, this thread is open.

(NB: there’s still some glitches in loading images, at least at my level of blog-fu.  Vaguely allusive art will return once I get proper instructions.)

Reader Interactions

78Comments

  3. 3.

    SpaceUnit

    I’m going to assume all the Republican legislators voted against exoneration.

  4. 4.

    Gin & Tonic

    Surely the good professor can clarify, but this is the first time I can recall seeing a “Jr.” appended to a woman’s name.

  7. 7.

    mapanghimagsik

    Tiki Mugs. People go nuts. Some have dozens of the exact same mug — if only for some change in glaze, or even unglazed. Its crazy, but better than guns.

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    Good news, though as you say a bit too late to do her much good. Also,

    In the more than three centuries that have ensued, dozens of suspects officially were cleared, including Johnson’s own mother, the daughter of a minister whose conviction eventually was reversed.
    But for some reason, Johnson’s name wasn’t included in various legislative attempts to set the record straight. Because she wasn’t among those whose convictions were formally set aside, hers still technically stood. Unlike others wrongfully accused, Johnson never had children and thus had no descendants to act on her behalf.

    Be nice to your kids and grandkids; you might someday need them to clear your (posthumous) name.

  10. 10.

    citizen dave

    I can’t recall when they started doing this, but here in Indianapolis the Indy 500 Awards Banquet is televised.  It’s on right now.  I shit you not.

  11. 11.

    dmsilev

    @Poe Larity: Little-known fact (*): Make Way For Ducklings was intended to be read as an allegory about the falsely-accused children in the Salem Witch Trials.

    (*) I just made it up

  12. 12.

    bbleh

    “NEW NEW YORK: May 30, 2422.  A New York court found Donald Trump guilty today of dozens of counts of financial malfeasance, tax fraud, and criminal conspiracy.  The cases, which had been mired in literally centuries of appeals over motions, discovery, relevance of evidence, and arguments over jurisdiction following the final submergence of Manhattan Island, were finally resolved when the last remaining partner of the legacy firm representing the defendant renounced her US citizenship and moved permanently to Mare Tranquilitatis Colony.”

  13. 13.

    FlyingToaster (Tablet)

    @SpaceUnit: What, all 32 of them?

    Seriously, the Lege (Formally: the General Court of Massachusetts) has 3 Republican Senators ( of 40) and 29 Republican Represtatives (of 160).

  14. 14.

    UncleEbeneezer

    A friend/neighbor of mine from grade/high school is married to Aaron Mankhe of the Unobscured podcast which did a great season 1 that was all about the Salem witch trials.  I haven’t finished it yet, but it’s very good.  Though challenging because there are a LOT of characters.  We grew up in Topsfield, one of the towns that was part of Salem Village and part of the story, so it was rather fascinating to me.

  16. 16.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Glad this place is back! A question for WG, what’s going to happen to Jackal Action, the substitute blog?

  17. 17.

    Grumpy Old Railroader

    Tom L where have ya been kid? Now that yer back get to work mumble grumble. These boxcars won’t switch themselves while ya sits around the shanty swapping stories

  19. 19.

    SpaceUnit

    @FlyingToaster (Tablet):

    I was just speculating, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

    And after hearing that one of our Supreme Court justices (Roberts?  Alito?) recently cited an actual witch trial judge in a leaked opinion I can imagine calls for witch burnings becoming standard Republican boiler plate.

  21. 21.

    Mel

    @UncleEbeneezer: That podcast sounds intriguing!

    I’m a descendant of Mary Wright, a Quaker who was arrested with her sister for giving the Puritan magistrates a verbal smackdown after they executed Mary Dyer. Mary Wright was transferred to Salem and tried.

    Amazingly, was convicted of “Quakerism”  but not of witchcraft, and thus escaped a death sentence.

    Weirdly enough, my hubby’s multi-great grandfather was one of the Salem magistrates at Mary Wright’s trial. Looks like that bewitching magic worked then as well as now, since hubby has put up with me for 26 years!

  22. 22.

    Achrachno

    @JWR: Yes,definitely Alito.  Cited an opinion from the 1300s or something stupid like that.  I should look that up.

  24. 24.

    Benw

    Did anyone else see the story (its in the online NYT) about the dude who faked being disabled in a wheelchair to get close to the Mona Lisa then threw a pastry at it, getting cream on the glass cover? Officials say he’s been taken into custardy.

  27. 27.

    SpaceUnit

    @bbleh:

    Ha.  That’s very good.

    In 2422 Trump will still exist as a brain ( such as it is ) in a vat of fluids connected to life-support tubes and the internet.

     

    ETA:   And he will appeal this decision.

  29. 29.

    NotMax

    ‘@Benw

    Dependent (of course) on the pastry, would have been a hoot to see the headline

    Mona Lisa Despoiled By Napoleon.

    :)

  31. 31.

    Mel

    Looks like my comment is stuck in moderation. Do I need to do anything specific to free it, since the reboot?

  33. 33.

    NutmegAgain

    … “glitches in loading images” eh?  seems to me it might maybe “Witches in loading images” My word, I miss living in MA.

  34. 34.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Gin & Tonic: this is the first time I can recall seeing a “Jr.” appended to a woman’s name.

     I’ve seen it in the USA in early 20th century fiction, and in a reference or two in diaries of that period. I believe it was more common then than nowadays that girls might have been named after their mothers.

    In a more contemporary example, actor Stephanie Zimbalist, who was named after her mother, went by “Stephanie Zimbalist Jr.” early in her career.

  37. 37.

    Redshift

    @SpaceUnit:

    In 2422 Trump will still exist as a brain ( such as it is ) in a vat of fluids connected to life-support tubes and the internet. 

    Or more likely, there will exist something his cultists claim is his living brain in a vat, akin to a reliquary.

  41. 41.

    TriassicSands

    MTG strikes again and warns us that Bill Gates wants us to give up burgers made of meat and switch to burgers made in “peach tree dishes.”

    If breathing required conscious though Greene wouldn’t last three minutes. I think there was once something of a consensus that in the hyper-competitive race for Dumbest Republican Louis Gomert was the clear front runner. But along comes Greene with a genuine challenge. Apparently, the “gazpacho police” will determine the winner.

    People actually vote for this woman.

  43. 43.

    TriassicSands

    @Achrachno:   I was off a bit — 16th century.

    Yeah, back when the theories of Quantum Mechanics and both Special and General Relativity were first proposed. And Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace had nailed down Evolution.

  46. 46.

    TriassicSands

    @Chetan Murthy:

    My imagination fails me. How do they even find their way to the polls? I assume the ballots are printed in crayon with photos of each candidate.

    The hate part is easier to imagine, since I don’t have to use my imagination — I see it every day across the whole Republican Party.

  47. 47.

    eclare

    @TriassicSands:   When I lived in ATL I used to occasionally go hiking in her district.  I don’t know how comfortable I’d feel now stopping at a gas station with DeKalb Co (in ATL) tags.

  49. 49.

    Carlo Graziani

    Sorry, I don’t mean to be off-topic or disrespectful. It’s just that I really miss Adam’s Ukraine updates in the evening. Is he coming back soon?

  51. 51.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Carlo Graziani: Having a special section of International Relations/Modern War taught by an accomplished specialist in the field, with interactive lectures and discussion sections, is addictive, innit?

  52. 52.

    HalfAssedHomesteader

    Man, when are Democrats gonna learn good messaging?  This “soft on witchcraft” just plays right into GOP hands!

    Welcome Back Balloon Juice!

  55. 55.

    CaseyL

    Hi, Tom! Fantastic to see you here again!

    Since I don’t particularly believe in an afterlife, I’m not sure what value this very delayed justice has for Ms. Johnson, or for her descendants, since she doesn’t have any. It’s nice to set the record straight, though.

    If things keep going as they are, I can certainly see religious witch trials making a comeback in selected parts of the US, the parts where belligerent ignorance and violent misogyny are ingrained in the local culture. Evangelicals already believe stuff like yoga is Satanic. What happens when SCOTUS announces that “religious liberty” means churches can have their own judicial system, untainted by secular non-believers?

  57. 57.

    TriassicSands

    @eclare:

    I live just about as far away from DeKalb Co. as it is possible to get in the contiguous states. Just knowing it is there is disturbing.

    But then, I’m probably just jealous, cuz they’re real Americans and I’m not.

  58. 58.

    TriassicSands

    Massachusetts lawmakers on Thursday formally exonerated Elizabeth Johnson Jr., clearing her name 329 years after she was convicted…

    Whew, just got in under the standard 330 year statute of limitations!

    @James E Powell:

  60. 60.

    eclare

    @TriassicSands:   No.  DeKalb County is fine, John Lewis’s old district.  I meant I would feel exposed with a DeKalb County tag on my car if I stopped for gas or snacks in MTG’s district.

  61. 61.

    TriassicSands

    @James E Powell: Republican voters will always hate us more.

    They have an unfair advantage, because my capacity to pity anyone that stupid, ignorant, and/or racist limits my capacity for pure hatred. It’s sobering to think that since I had no say in my parents (nurture), where I was born (racism)¹, or my genetic inheritance (nature), it may be sheer chance that I’m not as stupid, ignorant, racist, or hateful as they are.

    Then again, if I were, I undoubtedly wouldn’t know it. I’d be satisfied that I was a superior human being, lucky enough to have a true patriot as my representative.

    ¹ Influential, not determinative.

  62. 62.

    Steeplejack

    @TriassicSands:

    DeKalb County is part of metro Atlanta; it’s fine. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s district (GA-14) is in north Georgia. Eclare was saying she might be worried stopping there with “big city” plates.

  64. 64.

    TriassicSands

    @eclare:

    Oops. Yes, I see now your reference to your own tags. I made the mistake of not rereading your comment and then opening the comment box and reading the name of the county behind the comment box, which kept me from reading the whole comment.

    Sorry, it’s been decades since I was last in Georgia. I’m not familiar with the counties. My apologies to DeKalb Co.’s fine residents.

    I’ve instructed my cat — who will be 19 on Wednesday — to properly discipline me for my carelessness. Therefore, this may be my last comment ever. She doesn’t suffer fools!

  65. 65.

    TriassicSands

    @Steeplejack:

    Yes, I see that now. But I fear it’s too late. I can hear the sound of paws padding down the hall. My cat¹ approacheth. All is lost.

    ¹ I adopted her when she was three weeks shy of 16. If I had named her, Zero Tolerance would have been on the short list.

  68. 68.

    opiejeanne

    @dmsilev:

    Be nice to your kids and grandkids…

    And don’t forget to be kind to your step-children, too. That’s a story from my family. Andover is where that branch of my family settled in the 1600s.

  70. 70.

    TriassicSands

    @eclare:

    Since she went easy on me, I will. Thank you.

    Sadly, at that age cats cat go very suddenly but she still seems to be going strong.

    I volunteer at a cageless, no-kill shelter and she needed a home. The people who had been “caring” for her had decided to euthanize her because she had a UTI. Unbelievable.

    When I brought her home, the idea was I would care for her until she died. She had kidney disease and asthma, but neither was very bad. Now, my concern is that she’s going to outlive me. The Empress of the Universe will not go easily.

  72. 72.

    Chris T.

    @TriassicSands: Yikes. We have an $8000 kitty: he ate some earplugs and needed surgery to have them removed. (The surgery itself was not $8k, that was the grand total from “he’s obviously not doing well and not eating” initial vet visit, to final return home with all the intermediate steps. I think the surgery was $5k.)

    He’s doing fine now. Probably about 14 or 15 years old. (The other three all turned roughly 13 on Saturday; they’re all fine.)

  73. 73.

    TriassicSands

    @Chris T.:

    Yikes, indeed.

    However, I have no doubt that your $8K kitty is eternally grateful for your kindness and generosity. I mean, cats just show gratitude so naturally and effortlessly.

    I love cats, but if I need a “thank you,” I don’t go looking for a cat to fill my need. Affection, yes. Gratitude, uh uh.

  74. 74.

    Mel

    @Chris T.: My childhood cat, who had come to us as a half-starved stray, had a penchant for trying to eat things she definitely should not have been sampling. We would do daily checks of the floors, desk, dressers, etc. to make sure that nothing dangerous was accessible.

    Somehow, she still managed to find and swallow a dime. Three vet visits, 2 specialist visits, a kitty endoscopy and a surgery later, she emerged as “The $6,000 Cat.” For years, we’d make the Bionic Woman action noise every time she jumped onto one of her favorite high places.

    After the surgery, the vet handed me the dime in a plastic bottle and said, totally deadpan, “I recommend that you invest in a more cost efficient piggy bank. “

  77. 77.

    evodevo

    @H.E.Wolf: ​
      I have also seen the Jr thing attached to the name of a Roman empress, Faustina…wife of Marcus Aurelius, I guess as shorthand for Faustina the Younger

  78. 78.

    StringOnAStick

    One of our pair of 5 year old sister cats has a eating things problem.  Blankets, clothing, towels, etc.  She’s such a sweet girl other than this problem; being orphaned at two weeks is likely the reason.  We have a king sized flat sheet as the bedspread that gets tucked in tight every morning to protect the sheets and blankets, and we’ve learned to never leave a closet door open.  When we go on trips, all towels (all on towel racks installed twice as far from the floor) get taken down and locked in the closet.  You learn to adapt.  It means no house clutter, so that’s a benefit.

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