I just wanted to hop in and provide some proof of life. Been like a week since I posted and that is because I have nothing to say and everyone else says it better.
God we need to hold the House and Senate.
This post is in: Open Threads
I just wanted to hop in and provide some proof of life. Been like a week since I posted and that is because I have nothing to say and everyone else says it better.
God we need to hold the House and Senate.
Comments are closed.
PsiFighter37
Hard to overcome 33% approval ratings, earned fairly or not.
hells littlest angel
That’s pretty well said.
cain
We will. I think the needle is shifting. The revelations of this commission is startling and it’s getting people’s attention.
ETA – my goodness, #3!!!!
MisterForkbeard
@PsiFighter37: Maybe? He’s got a low approval rating, but our generic ratings are pretty excellent and Biden still wins when matched up against actual Republicans.
Still a really tough lift during a midterm year.
Kropacetic
Who’s this John Cole fella? A new front pager? Welcome. We like pet pics.
As far as Biden’s 33%, he isn’t on the ballot this year. Also, I recall Deval Patrick being in worse shape than that a few months before his successful reelection.
Sister Golden Bear
Thanks Cole. We were worried there had been a fatal naked mopping incident and Steve was feasting on your lifeless body.
Leto
All the new pictures from the James Webb Space Telescope.
danielx
@Sister Golden Bear:
Steve has better taste.
SpaceUnit
I’m taking these poll numbers with a sizable helping of salt.
Our corporate MSM just can’t quit the GOP and their usual bothsides bullshit isn’t working so well anymore.
HypershericalCow
Are we sure this is the John Cole, or a Life Model Decoy?
Omnes Omnibus
@PsiFighter37:
Head to head match-ups matter more than approval ratings. But you be you.
Alison Rose
It’s okay, John, we know you’ve been busy with your quiche porn.
Kropacetic
@Omnes Omnibus: This. Also when voters reengage there’s at least a risk they’ll notice Biden isn’t the doddering fool the media is trying to create out of whole straw.
I’ve seen and participated in a lot of fetishes, but that’s new.
Jerry
This post makes me miss Jim Anchower
M31
“Greetings Humans” is making a lot of assumptions
Omnes Omnibus
@M31: Well, it certainly isn’t inclusive.
jeffreyw
Sammich Pr0n
SpaceUnit
@M31:
Exactly. I’m totally a bot.
ETA: And I really hate it when I get asked to click on the all images with a mailbox or a bicycle or some stupid shit in them. It’s not like I go around asking people to generate prime numbers.
Layer8Problem
It’s good to see the proprietor of this shebeen walking amongst us saying “Don’t you people have homes?“
PsiFighter37
@Omnes Omnibus: For the Senate, sure, won’t make enough of a difference in the House, though.
eclare
@PsiFighter37: Joe still beats TFG in a matchup according to that poll.
But that was buried in I think the fifteenth paragraph, according to the Jen Rubin op-ed in the WaPo.
Kropacetic
@PsiFighter37: Loads of competitive Senate races this year, Senate coattails may make a difference in the house.
Alison Rose
@Kropacetic: His FB page is a constant source of revelations.
Omnes Omnibus
@PsiFighter37: Bullshit, to coin a phrase.
HumboldtBlue
This why Uvalde police don’t want video released while 19 kids and two adults were being slaughtered. They ran away.
tom
Since this is an open thread, Twitter has sued Elon for trying to weasel out of his agreement to buy the company, and it’s a doozy. Inter alia, the suit calls his withdrawal a “model of hypocrisy “, and noted that the agreement has no “no financing contingency and no diligence condition.”
Laying in the popcorn.
satby
‘@JC: I could swear I saw you being funny on a thread just yesterday.
I signed up to potentially sponsor a Ukrainian refugee (or more, depending on family status). At Welcome.us you can fill out a profile and it’s shared with refugees eligible for the humanitarian parole. Like Match.com for sponsorship, though no commitment unless all parties agree. Just in case anyone else is interested in finding out about it.
eclare
@jeffreyw: Lose the tomatoes, and that looks delish.
HumboldtBlue
Kropacetic
Are we talking the Biblical variety? May be worth reactivating my FB account.
TS
@cain:
The house republicans really shot themselves in the foot by refusing to be part of the investigative committee. We could have had their pushback over and over – instead there is no-one on the committee interested in the basic GOP take on the event.
Keep the public hearings going all year & there could be some good results for democrats in November.
Phylllis
@HumboldtBlue: Absolutely disgusting. They’re all bulked up with their bulletproof vests and other tactical gear, and literally turned tail and fled. Firing is too good for them; they should be shunned by all and sundry, including their own family members.
Kropacetic
@eclare: Nah, for me, tomato stays. I’m a lettuce skeptic, but looks like they picked a good one.
JPL
@PsiFighter37: The House will lose seats because of gerrymandering. Biden’s approval ratings will have little to do with that.
eclare
@Phylllis: As one comment said, the police could have given their gear to the parents so they could have gone in!
Kropacetic
@Phylllis: Here to address the Uvalde police response, police Captain, Brave Sir Robin…
Steeplejack
For anybody interested, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) is coming up on TCM at 8:00 EDT. WWII veterans return to civilian society. Won seven Oscars, including best picture. Starring Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, Frederic March, Myrna Loy.
Recently discussed here at Balloon Juice.
Citizen_X
@Jerry: Now there’s a name I have not heard in quite some time. Hola, dudes!
mrmoshpotato
@Sister Golden Bear:
With the missing mustard.
mrmoshpotato
@Alison Rose : So I’m not the only one who got that message from that tweet.
HumboldtBlue
Uh oh, guys, Elon and Trump are fighting!
Baud
@HumboldtBlue:
Donald really wanted back on Twitter.
mrmoshpotato
@HumboldtBlue: Meh. Are they fighting in shark-infested waters?
David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch
@HumboldtBlue:
I love the smell of fratricide in the morning
satby
@Steeplejack: And also available in full on YouTube.
Such a great movie.
eclare
@mrmoshpotato: I got it too! But there was no picture of a quiche.
danielx
@HumboldtBlue:
Rooting for injuries.
eta: reminded that “rooting” is Australian for “fucking”. Going to have to come up with a different word.
Baud
I learned on Reddit that Kidd Rock has new MAGA video out. Here was Weird Al’s response.
https://i.redd.it/83yauomka7b91.png
Here’s the video. I didn’t have the courage to watch it, but it’s apparently a doozy.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kyFnLqJx-uU
Starfish
@PsiFighter37: I think this is misreading the mood.
People may not want to vote for a President who is near 80 in 2024 (This may be part of why DeSantis is polling better than Trump as well), but they do want to clobber some ghouls who are going to “thoughts and prayers” their way through school shootings, force elementary school children to experience the magic of childbirth, and let women die of ectopic pregnancies.
mrmoshpotato
@eclare:
I think we should all thank our lucky stars.
Josie
@eclare: Heresy! There is no BLT without the tomato.
Bill Arnold
@HumboldtBlue:
Do you think DJT wrote those? I’m betting no, written by Scavino or whoever is his
tweetTruth(?) boy now after listening to an incoherent rant, and given the go ahead, maybe after a tweak or three.What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Steeplejack: I saw it several years back on TCM (Robert Osborne was still the host). Excellent movie and a rare portrayal/acknowledgement of PTSD and serious physical damage involving WWII vets.
Bill Arnold
@danielx:
Also, “fascinating”:
Danielx
@Bill Arnold:
The things I learn here…
prostratedragon
@HumboldtBlue: Amazing, horrible. Talk is cheap, but at the very least I’d have been as afraid of justifying myself after a failure like that — to the end of my days.
HumboldtBlue
@Baud:
Don’t. Just don’t.
@Bill Arnold:
No doubt.
Jackie
Holding the House starts with voting the 10 Republican traitors who attended the Dec 21 meeting with TFG out of office!
mrmoshpotato
@Kropacetic:
You’re why YouTube is now showing me ads for a local fetish bar.
Kropacetic
@mrmoshpotato: Link?
persistentillusion
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: The interesting comment my father made (WWII vet, basically catch-22, serving at a airbase in Morocco) was that his cohort had 3-6 months to destress. It took that long for troops to get home. Lots of time to talk to men who had the same experience they had. In Vietnam and subsequent conflicts, they went from the battlefield to home in 24-48 hours. No wonder coping has difficult.
mrmoshpotato
@Kropacetic: Are you in Chicago?
Kropacetic
@mrmoshpotato: No, but I could be… slide into my BJ DMs.
prostratedragon
@satby: Given that 1. I know a decent print is on YouTube and 2. I have the DVD, why am I frustrated that I won’t be back home for an hour to see this broadcast? Tis a puzzlement I’ve experienced with other movies.
Scout211
Newsom signed the bill similar to the abortion laws recently passed in several states, but for guns. https://www.kcra.com/article/gov-newsom-signs-bill-allowing-californians-to-sue-gun-industry-after-violence/40590108
Baud
@Scout211:
Well, that’s not copying Texas. Texas got around the lawsuit by prohibiting government officials from enforcing it.
FelonyGovt
Here’s something I found fascinating. Turns out Ancient Greek statues weren’t really white but were colored, even with intricate patterns.
The Lodger
@Bill Arnold: I’ll never look at Mr. Spock the same way again.
Baud
@FelonyGovt:
Same with all those Roman buildings.
Kropacetic
Don’t tell those exemplars of Western Civilization on alt-right YouTube.
Steeplejack
@satby:
Sometimes I wonder about posting these notes. Streaming is the thing now, but the Balloon Juice demographic skews older, so . . . still watching cable?
¯_(ツ)_/¯
zhena gogolia
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: William Wyler always delivers
mrmoshpotato
@Kropacetic: LOL!
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@zhena gogolia: Indeed. Roman Holiday may be my favorite RomCom ever. One of my favorite movies period.
Subsole
@SpaceUnit:
This.
The massive pile-on from the Right, the greasebag media, and select elements of the “Left” make me think the douche-signal has gone up.
Someone over in Conservatopia saw some internals they REALLY don’t like and they are calling in everything they have…
Scout211
@Baud: hmmm
“genesis” for the bill
”similar” to the bill.
No, not copying. You are correct.
David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch
@Baud: Also I don’t see how they get around federal preemption as Congress granted gun makers immunity in 2006.
eclare
@Subsole: Makes sense to me.
Subsole
@tom:
Ell Oh – and I cannot stress this enough – Effing Ell.
What are the odds he slime-trails his way out?
mrmoshpotato
@Steeplejack:
Without TCM notes, I wouldn’t know about Famous Boners!
Gravenstone
@Bill Arnold: Kind of paints Mr. Spock in a different light…
tom
@mrmoshpotato: since I am me, I misinterpreted “boners” as referring to … something else.
piratedan
@Jackie: let them run their campaigns from jail imho….
still sitting here watching all of these youtube and web podcasts where everyone on the Right and twitter itself knew what was going down and apparently no one was working at the FBI for that month is damning. I would like to think that it’s mandate should be altered significantly to start shutting down this fascism that is coming from the pulpit and the gun shows.
Subsole
@Bill Arnold:
Wait.
Stop.
Hold. The. Phone.
Isn’t there some kind of ladies’ hat called a “fascinator”?
Also, good to see Balloon Juice After Dark is getting started a little early.
Steeplejack
@prostratedragon:
There is a weird—possibly fake—sense of “connection” to some part of the world when we take in a “broadcast” rather than running the whole process ourselves. Like listening to the radio or a YouTube playlist rather than a specifically chosen CD. And there can be a pleasant overtone of having “someone else” in charge (even if not really). Like being served or “waited on.”
I have experienced it myself. It is a weird thing and a puzzlement.
Subsole
@persistentillusion: I have heard similar. One of the few good things about Iraq is we seem to have learned our lesson on transitioning soldiers back to civilian life.
Lots better care, more managed reintegration, longer timetable and better gradation of steps, etc. At least, that’s what I hear.
eclare
@Steeplejack: Very good description of the sensation. Maybe it’s from the “discovery” that something that you like is on?
Subsole
@FelonyGovt: Yep. Ancient cities were pretty vibrant, color wise. Crazy, right?
I follow a historian named Bret Devereaux on twitter. He constantly points out that people in the past were people, and thus liked to look pretty. It sounds obvious, but never really occurred to me until someone mentioned it.
I grew up thinking the Middle Ages were drab, and Antiquity was either gray rock, white rock, or brown rock depending on whether we were talking Mycenae, Rome, or Egypt.
Go check out his blog, A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry. Lots of fascinating details about daily life in Ancient times.
(Plus, he beats the absolute melas zomos out of Ancient Sparta. Which is always worth the price of admission.)
HumboldtBlue
Steeplejack
@eclare:
Yeah. And we’re overloaded with choices in our lives, so sometimes it can be nice to have some made for us.
HumboldtBlue
@Subsole:
Thanks for the tip, now following.
piratedan
if you’re Nonna Pelosi and we’ve all just had names dropped on who was conspiring with the President to initiate a soft-coup of the government…. do you just go ahead and offer up a vote to expel all of those GOP Congressional representatives that were involved and prevent them from serving in any capacity in the Government.
I see that as a win-win… if they get removed, awesome send those shit-kickers home. If it fails, it doesn’t matter anyways, because the gloves are off and you can make your campaign ads all about the party of treason.
kindness
Polling. I seriously doubt the polling and the value of any polling now. November is a long way away and no doubt the Supreme Court will drop a couple more doozies before the elections. We’ll do OK if we can keep the MSM from becoming Fox News. We’re doing a terrible job on that front.
persistentillusion
@Subsole: I hope that’s true, ’cause the guys (and women) who just got dropped off didn’t fare well. And that’s a dis-service to them
glc
@SpaceUnit: I for one welcome our new human overlords.
wombat probabilty cloud
@piratedan: Absolutely.
Subsole
@persistentillusion: Truth. Vietnam was gawdawful all the way around. I would like to think we learned SOMEthing from all that misery…
Subsole
@glc:
I’ve seen them. They’re rubbish…
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Offered without comment.
Subsole
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I admit it:
I chortled like a 13 year-old.
FelonyGovt
@Subsole: Thank you. Now following Bret Deveraux and his blog. I guess all my life I’ve thought these ancient statues were all white, with staring vacant eyeballs. These colorful reconstructions blow me away.
raven
@persistentillusion: After the end of WW2 they sent the First Marine Division to China for a year. I had 10 days between Vietnam and the University of Illinois ( I was in the rear with the gear so the transition wasn’t that bad).
raven
@Subsole: Sheeettttttt. Not one goddamn thing.
raven
@Subsole: Well, they did really improve the educational bennies.
Brachiator
@Steeplejack:
Thanks for the reminder.
Citizen Alan
@HumboldtBlue:
I found it very difficult to watch the video that came with this tweet on account of the fact that the the city council was so white it actually burned out the screen on my phone.
Starfish
Did someone give the Dr. Pepper social media manager a heads-up that their product would be prominently included in the January 6 hearings today, or was their vacation just really well timed?
Jackie
@piratedan: I’m with you, but doesn’t it take 2/3 of the House voting yay? I’m afraid that’s not going to happen.
Dems, Indies, and Never Trumpers need to vote them out. I can’t wait to see the political ads!
catclub
@tom: the judgement for specific performance against Musk should come about a nanosecond after the case is closed.
raven
@Steeplejack: Don’t forget Harold John Avery Russell, he won the Oscar best supporting actor. He lost his hands in a training accident but played a sailor in the film.
persistentillusion
@HumboldtBlue: Yes, because Uvalde City is going to get it’s socks sued off. Too bad.
persistentillusion
@raven: I hope your transition to civilian life was painless.
Ruviana
@Baud: Also Mayan pyramids and temples.
StringOnAStick
@catclub: We have a neighbor who works in a senior technical capacity at the blue bird; he’s a D but wanted the deal to close because if it didn’t “our stock price is going to take a big hit”. I didn’t say that maybe not selling the company to a fascist who wants to enable other fascists is more important than the stock price. He might be a D but apparently does not think deeply about what his company has enabled.
satby
I have felt that too. Just the vague sense that other people in other places are also “sharing” the experience of stopping to watch the same thing you are right at that moment. Even, or especially, when it’s a movie that’s 74 years old.