Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

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

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

People are complicated. Love is not.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

We will not go back.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

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

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Sweet Dreams (Aren’t Made of This)

Sweet Dreams (Aren’t Made of This)

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First, the soundtrack:

I had a weird dream this morning. It wasn’t as weird as that dream I told y’all about some years back, which was apparently the result of taking a prescription drug to help me quit smoking.

That time, I dreamt I was a passenger in a car that was being driven by several hens (three or four perched on the wheel to shift their weight and steer, two stationed on the floor to work the gas and brake pedals, and one in charge of the gear shift).

But today’s dream, while not quite that weird, also involved riding in a car. There was no poultry present, but I was the driver, and scandal-besieged Prime Minister Boris Johnson was my passenger.

The circumstances were murky as is often the case in dreams. I was in our beat-up Mazda MX5 two-seat convertible, and for some reason, I had agreed to drive Johnson to an event some distance away, even though I can’t stand the sight of the corrupt buffoon.

He was all dressed up in tail coat and carried a fancy hat, while I was in my usual grungy attire. He tried to make small talk during the trip, but the roar of the wind drowned out everything he said, a small mercy.

We finally arrived at an ornate stone church, and Johnson departed wordlessly to join the event in progress. Riding in a car with the top down had turned our respective hairdos into fright wigs, so Johnson didn’t even have to tousle his mop to maintain his bizarre messy hair affectation.

I rooted through my purse for a comb and angrily detangled my hair in the driveway before setting off for home, fuming because Johnson hadn’t offered to reimburse me for fuel nor even thanked me for my trouble.

I have no idea what this means, but I sort of blame Tony Jay.

Open thread!

ETA: WaPo phone alert says former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone will testify on Friday in response to a January 6th committee subpoena. Time to clear the calendar for another edition of must-see TV. (Never mind about TV — it’s a closed-door hearing that will be videotaped, but they don’t say if/when we’ll get to see it.)

Reader Interactions

75Comments

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    which was apparently the result of taking a prescription drug to help me quit smoking.

    Ah yes, the chantrix. God, the dreams were spectacular! Better than acid. I wanted to get a refill on the scrip just so I could keep having those dreams.

    Here of late, I’ve been having some weird dreams too. I think it’s a symptom of sleep deprivation.

  4. 4.

    different-church-lady

    That time, I dreamt I was a passenger in a car that was being driven by several hens (three or four perched on the wheel to shift their weight and steer, two stationed on the floor to work the gas and brake pedals, and one in charge of the gear shift).

    You need to lay off the Muppet clips before bed.

  5. 5.

    trollhattan

    Def. has Tony Jay’s fingerprints all over it.

    Whether you need to thank or shake your fist at Tony Jay remains a point of debate. Good times! On to discuss wither driving hens or BoJo make the better passenger.

  6. 6.

    Betty Cracker

    Just updated the post to note that Patsy Baloney is testifying before the January 6th committee on Friday. Honest to Christ, I don’t know how I’m supposed to get any work done…

  11. 11.

    jefft452

    “I dreamt I was a passenger in a car that was being driven by several hens (three or four perched on the wheel to shift their weight and steer, two stationed on the floor to work the gas and brake pedals, and one in charge of the gear shift).”

    That wasnt a dream! It was a repressed memory

  15. 15.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kristine: Could have been inspired by a forgotten Muppets clip, but it was my personal hens driving in the dream. And they were surprisingly competent!

  17. 17.

    gratuitous

    When my friend Ed hears about a weird dream from someone, he invariably says, “You were probably just thirsty.” I don’t know what it means, but I kinda like it.

  21. 21.

    Betty Cracker

    @japa21: Oh, maybe not, upon checking the phone alert again. It just says he’s testifying Friday, not that it’ll be televised. (Never mind!)

  22. 22.

    zhena gogolia

    Okay, as I mentioned at the time, a few nights ago I dreamed that Bill Barr redid my bathroom. It was now a strange stainless-steel construction that seemed to have a shower but had no obvious toilet. I kept asking him, “Where are we supposed to defecate?” He had no good answer.

  24. 24.

    narya

    @OzarkHillbilly: I quit cold turkey (34 years ago), and then did some smoking cessation groups with the person who ran my group (a nurse dedicated to smoking cessation; she became a friend). As other tools became available, esp. chantix, I wondered if I would have used any of them, and I suspect not. I mean, I HATED the process of quitting (2-3 packs/day to nothing is serious withdrawal), but oddly enough, that was its own reinforcement: It sucked so much I knew I wouldn’t want to go through it again. It does seem to help other people, though, so I’m glad it’s available!

  32. 32.

    waspuppet

    @Gin & Tonic: It’s always a possibility, but I think he wouldn’t mind being live on TV if he was going to do that. The closed interview at least hints at the possibility that he’s going to say something that would prompt Trump to summon a mob to murder him if he were able to read.

  36. 36.

    Betty Cracker

    @narya: Chantix helped me! It was still hard, but doable. I think it was about 10 years ago when I quit. If our archives were working, I could verify the timeframe with that dream post.

  38. 38.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @narya: If not for chantix, I’d probably be dead now. I had tried quitting for 20+ years and hadn’t managed it. My last year + I smoked 4 cigarettes a day, and could.not.let.go.of.them. I had a 3 month scrip of chantix and after 2 months was still smoking those same damned 4 cigs a day. That 3rd month, I knew it was do or die and I managed to finally do it.

    I am addicted to them, always will be. If tomorrow I am diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer, the first thing I’m gonna do is light up.

  39. 39.

    Tony Jay

    I have no idea what this means, but I sort of blame Tony Jay.

    Given even the faintest likelihood of Deja Vu being an actual thing, I’d steer well clear of drunkenly buying a raffle ticket from any Celebrity Carpool charities if I were you.

    Just in case.

  41. 41.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker:

    Just updated the post to note that Patsy Baloney is testifying before the January 6th committee on Friday. Honest to Christ, I don’t know how I’m supposed to get any work done…

    Live and on TeeVee? damn, that was fast. I think the whole strategy of “we know what people have said you said and did, you might want to get your own version out there” has been dern effective. And probably wouldn’t have worked if McCarthy (and some say trump behind him but I don’t remember that in real time) hadn’t been so ham-fisted in his attempted appointments

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @narya: Without chantix I’d probably be dead now. My last year of smoking I had 4 cigs a day, and couldn’t let go of them. I had a 3 month scrip for the chantix and after 2 months I was still smoking 4 cigs a day. That 3rd month was do or die, so I finally did it.

    But if tomorrow I am diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer, the first thing I’m gonna do is light up.

  44. 44.

    TS

    At least 31 ministers and aids have resigned from the British Government – don’t think we can blame Tony Jay for that.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-politics-62048657

    Perhaps our world is about to stop electing RW idiots into positions of power – not before time – but it is nice to get some good political news for a change – regardless of country.

  46. 46.

    oatler

    @narya:

    I quit cold turkey and it was rough.  As Louise Belcher said about addictions, when you dance with the bear you can’t stop until the bear wants to stop.

  47. 47.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: still, gets him on record, and I doubt they’ve agreed to keep that testimony secret, and they’ve had a year and thousands of hours of questions and answers (that he doesn’t know about) to prepare their questions for him. Not that he’s not smart and won’t be cagey and have convenient lapses of memory….

  48. 48.

    Tony Jay

    Oh, and BTW.

    There are apparently a coven of remaining Ministers waiting for Flobby to return so they can tell him to resign. They include Nadhim Zahawi, who he was just last night bullied into making Chancellor.

    Loyalty!

    OTOH, when asked in a committee about calling a surprise General Election to take his future out of MPs hands and into those of the General Public, Flobalob responded – “people do not want an election… but…  an election might be justified if people were trying to block a government with a “substantial mandate from the electorate”.

    So he’s threatening them. Back the fuck off or I put all of your jobs out for tender.

  50. 50.

    Matt McIrvin

    While we were on vacation in Maryland, we ate at a Silver Diner where they were playing a mix of random 80s music and on came the early Eurythmics tune “Love Is A Stranger”, and we both wondered aloud why it wasn’t a better-remembered hit, because, man, that song was a banger.

  52. 52.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kelly:

    and when you get to Heaven you can have a cigarette 9 nine miles long

    Ha! just had that lyric going through my head. My sister, who’s never smoked, and orders vodka maybe once a year, likes to sing that song with gusto

  53. 53.

    Philbert

    I’m watching Boris Johnson being questioned…Flobalob indeed..so much uh er um. It’s a thing of beauty to watch him flop in public.

  54. 54.

    RedDirtGirl

    When I was a small child with a fever I dreamt about watching a tennis match where the players were police officers in uniform eating PBJ sandwiches throughout the game. I have never forgotten that.

  55. 55.

    MisterForkbeard

    @waspuppet: Nah. I think it means that they don’t know exactly what he’s going to say, can’t script it and can’t guarantee he won’t just lie out of his ass and ‘exonerate’ Trump, and they don’t want that on TV.

    My guess is that he’ll testify and agree to the bad stuff, say “I don’t know” a lot, and flatly deny where he has plausible deniability to do so. He’ll probably do quite a bit of “I told Trump that something was possibly illegal and he didn’t do it.” Again, not something the committee wants directly on TV if he’s not a friendly witness, and he’s not.

  56. 56.

    Tony Jay

    @Philbert: ,

    It’s true. If anyone watching this is wondering how he got the reputation for being a wonderful and charismatic speaker, it boils down to the crappy nature of our News Media, how easily impressed they are by someone doing a tacky Stephen Fry impression, and the fact that they really, really, really wanted him to be successful, because HEADLINE MACHINE.,

    The fact that he was always a lying sack of shit whose only priority has always been “What’s in it for me?” is neither here nor there to the people who relentlessly made up shit about Corbyn. He was always chummy with them and made them laugh, what more does a political titan possibly need?

  57. 57.

    Betty Cracker

    @Tony Jay: That sure sounds familiar… Here’s hoping y’all finally see that crooked sumbitch drop-kicked across the Thames!

  58. 58.

    mrmoshpotato

    I want to be driven to a fried chicken joint now.  Not Homophobes-fil-A because fuck them, but I’m not picky.

  59. 59.

    Tony Jay

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’ll either be over in the next few hours or he’ll double-cross them and use his press conference to call a General Election and fuck them over.

    I’m going to enjoy ranting about this.

  60. 60.

    Felanius Kootea

    I’m loving the imagery! Great dream ;-).

    Looking at all the ministers resigning from his cabinet, I wonder how much time Boris Johnson has left as prime minister. And the newly appointed chancellor (appointed yesterday, I believe) is among the people telling him to step down. I’ve thought he was done before though, so let’s see if he is as slippery as he seems.

  61. 61.

    cmorenc

    I’ve never been able to take Percocet without getting weird opiate “Dragon Dreams”.  The piece de resistance was the one where my two then-young daughters and I were enjoying wading in White Lake, NC, when a huge albino alligator raised up out of the lake about 100 feet away from us and immediately began chasing toward us.  The dream ended before I found out whether the gator caught us or not.

    I could never become addicted to opiates – for all the painkilling benefits, they tend to make me very nauseous, very similar to bad sea-sickness from a rocking boat heaving on the waves.  When I took them briefly immediately following my two respective knee replacements, I ditched them very quickly because toughing it out was less uncomfortable.

  63. 63.

    KayInMD (formerly Kay (not the front-pager))

    @Tony Jay:

    and the fact that they really, really, really wanted him to be successful, because HEADLINE MACHINE.,

    Wow, sounds a lot like the US press and a certain ex-President I can think of… And they’re doing everything they can to get him (or his mini-me, the FL Governor) back in office.

  65. 65.

    Pennsylvanian

    Yeah, I took Chantix. The dreams were trippy but it changed my personality and made me mean. Very disturbing. I think it’s been pulled off the market. I think I remember reading it became associated with a risk of self-harm.

    I was able to quit on my own about a year later. Best thing I ever did for my health!

  67. 67.

    Kropacetic

    @Tony Jay: The fact that he was always a lying sack of shit whose only priority has always been “What’s in it for me?” is neither here nor there to the people who relentlessly made up shit about Corbyn.

    Some of them want to abuse you.

    Some of them want to be abused…

  68. 68.

    Betty Cracker

    @Pennsylvanian: We had a neighbor who also had to quit taking Chantix because he had disturbing side effects. Hubby and I both had bizarre dreams but no problems. Glad you were able to quit!

  69. 69.

    kalakal

    Hee. QOTD ( so far ) on Johnson’s slide to ruin

    As Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke came out of the 1922 Committee meeting, he was asked if the prime minister would still be in post by Monday. He replied: “Have you met anyone in the building that thinks that?”

    Last Updated: 12:40

    10m ago

  71. 71.

    Omnes Omnibus

    JOEL:  The dream is always the same.
    Instead of going home,
    I go to the neighbors’.
    I ring, but nobody answers.
    The door is open, so I go inside.
    I’m looking around for the people,
    but nobody seems to be there.
    And then
    I hear the shower running…
    …so I go upstairs
    to see what’s what….

  72. 72.

    Miss Bianca

    Sorry, Betty, the BoJo dream sounds like a drag, but the chicken dream sounds all kinds of awesome.

  74. 74.

    eachother

    Chicken is my pilot.
    50% wrong turns. But the chicken doesn’t give a cluck.

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