I just wanted to say that I thought Biden was fucking excellent last night. He was clear, coherent, concise, straightforward, and called the Republicans out on their bullshit. And in return, the Republicans looked like a bunch of assholes. If they had any shame or if the American electorate was not composed of mouthbreathing idiots, the Republicans would have like eight members in the House and none in the Senate. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
This was 30 years ago, by the way:
By the way, I am doing well.
Next weekend I head to the East Coast to pick up the new kitty and I am very excited!
Steeplejack
What new kitty? Details, please.
Mary
What kitty?! Did we miss something?
Suzanne
New kitty? Deets, plz.
Mary
What kitty?! Did we miss something? You’re a good man, John. We’re happy you’re doing well. And we want pictures of the kitty.
dww44
Yes we’re all agog to hear about this new kitty. Thanks for weighing in on last night’s SOTU. I was hoping you would.
Alison Rose
Is it the little black kitty you told us about a few months ago? Also, aren’t you already on the East Coast, basically?
Poptartacus
Uncle joe did a great job. All the “he’s too old” handwringing can wait for another day.
https://youtu.be/cKdRis64tsQ
mvr
Glad John Cole is doing well! (Somehow it feels odd using the second person when we know he doesn’t stick around the comments.)
trollhattan
Bonus Alan Rickman appearance!
cain
oooohhhh… a new pet in the cole family! Rockin!
If it is the cute black cat – then awesome! Looks like you have time to add them to the calendar! :) Can’t believe it’s 2nd week of Feb and they still don’t have paper stock – they must be losing a ton of money.
ETA #10!!!
danielx
Please – give at least the jackal voters some credit. eta: yes, i too am convinced there are voters who should be checked for a pulse before they are allowed to push the button.
CaseyL
You did mention looking at another kitty, but IIRC that was, like, 2 months ago. Seems a long time to wait.
OTOH, the last two months have been pretty damn brutal for you, so no wonder you wanted to wait until you were in a better place physically and emotionally.
Looking forward to
hearing how Steve reacts tomeeting the new family member!Redshift
Kitty!
different-church-lady
None of you subscribe to his Substack, do you.
Curtis
Need some meow meow pictures
BigJimSlade
KITTEH!!!
John Cole
@mvr: yes I do
Jackie
@different-church-lady: No. Clue us in!
grammypat
John, Last month I emailed you to see if you would be interested in a young, female Maine Coon stray who decided that I was the easiest mark in the neighborhood. Since you didn’t respond, I assumed that you were not interested. Now I know why.
Little Girl is healthy, spayed, vaxxed, gorgeous, dainty, well behaved, self-confident, growing into her huge feet, and has a irresistible personality. Oh well, your loss. I’ll try to place her with a rescue group locally.
I hope the east coast cat works out well for you.
TaMara
@grammypat: Send her photo and deets to Anne Laurie or Watergirl and they can probably do an adoption post. We’ve had good luck with those. And Maine Coon, she’ll get snapped up fast, I’m sure.
TaMara
@John Cole: So excited the house Panther is soon to arrive! Looking forward to hearing about the new family dynamics and lots of photos.
grammypat
@TaMara: Thx, I’ll do that. My original thought was that John would be interested in an mini-Steve(ette).
different-church-lady
@grammypat:
Shouldn’t we ask Steve how he feels about it?
grammypat
@different-church-lady: That’s John’s job. Little Girl is calm enough to be tolerated by my Mi’ja who would like to kill her. I’m sure that she can get along with anybody.
TaMara
@grammypat: I’d be interested, but I’ve got my own little bobcat girl.
Yutsano
KITTEH???
HumboldtBlue
Also, Family Guy hits the Schiavo case as well.
grammypat
@TaMara: Would you be interested in posting about her or should I contact another front pager (paging John Cole!)
TaMara
@Steeplejack: @Mary: @Suzanne:
There’s been a lot going on, but here’s the kitty that John is picking up (unless something has changed)
https://balloon-juice.com/2022/10/22/greetings-earthlings-3/
Wombat Probability Cloud
@trollhattan: Yes, I miss his presence in the world.
TaMara
@grammypat: Anne or Watergirl. I’d love to, but I don’t have the bandwidth these days to do the followup.
ETA: I should be in bed now…or finishing up my to-do list, but couldn’t resist a Cole kitteh post.
John Cole
@grammypat: I never saw the email send it again!
John Cole
@grammypat: EMAIL ME SLOW YOUR ROLL
jnfr
I agree. Dems are doing good.
Can’t wait to meet the new kitty.
Origuy
Hopefully this turns out to be nothing.
Sister Golden Bear
KITTEH PICS OR IT DIDN’T HAPPEN!
grammypat
@John Cole: Calm down. Email on 1/14 and just now sent to : [email protected]
Martin
@Origuy: Probably just altitude sickness.
mvr
@John Cole: Pleased to be able to use the second person to refer to you then!
Glad you are doing well.
Tim Ellis
@Origuy: If I were a recent stroke victim, you’d better believe I’d be masking up in crowds like we saw last night. Poor guy, but he’s extra vulnerable to COVID now and it’s damn near everywhere. And like, not that I don’t love John – I definitely do – but he’s also not just John Fetterman, he’s also our Senate majority. Can’t be taking chances!
Anotherlurker
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4awHoFTD9Q
I have been told that all BJ threads are open threads. therefor I’d like to share with you my friend, Randy Langione. He is performing a perennial standard, “My One And Only Love”.
I also know that Randy is proud to be a Democrat.
BellyCat
Where to stream Bob Roberts? Amazon Prime, the main returned result from Google, says “This video is currently unavailable”.
Too Soon or Cancel Culture?!?! It would be wrong not to speculate, right?
Amir Khalid
Be sure to post plenty of pix of the new kitty. As for me, it’s been two years and change since my own kitty soulmate Bianca passed on. Maybe the Bloglord’s pictures of his new feline master/mistress will inspire me to get off my ass and get to an animal shelter.
NotMax
@BellyCat
Not streaming at the moment. That’s not to say it won’t pop up again here or there. Came out over 30 years ago and wasn’t exactly a box office champ so likely not high on the priority list for programmers. Than again, could be an issue with the tangled web of rights attached to popular culture fare.
BTW, to check on where stuff is streaming bypass Google and bookmark JustWatch. Kept practically up to the minute current so far as where and cost (if any).
BellyCat
@NotMax: Thanks for ‘Just Watch’ tip. (Not yet sure what I’ll do with the hours saved previously spent endlessly hunting for things.)
As for things ‘not currently streaming’ this seems like hokum. If something is digital, do they just unhook the wires? Ok, sure, BR might not be digital given 1993, but AMERICA NEEDS THIS PRESCIENT FILM NOW!
HumboldtBlue
@BellyCat:
The two-part documentary on the life and impact of Bill Russell is now available. So, that’s prescient.
Aussie Sheila
@Poptartacus: Yes indeed. He’s old enough to know what his job is and the electorate he must appeal to. A truly excellent lesson in the value of political experience married to decency and a good heart.
It is to be hoped that the younger up and comers are encouraged, and that it no longer takes a septuagenarian to teach wannabe politicos the hard lesson. Good politics, plus toiling away in the sausage making machine makes effective leaders. There is no magic bullet. Politics is a vocation. It can be more or less honourable, but it is a set of skills, and when married to clear ethics/ideological commitments can pay off big time.
Biden (and the inimitable Ron Klain) teach a very important lesson.
Less magic pixie unbeatable charisma, and more hard graft in the place where appealing to actual normal people counts.
Also too, personnel is politics.
NotMax
@HumboldtBlue
Besides the obvious example of prescience of Network (1976), both Ace in the Hole (1951) and A Face in the Crowd (1957), also too.
Traversing further back, for a more comedic take, The Dark Horse (1932).
opiejeanne
@NotMax: Dear NotMax, I have an earworm, thanks to you. TELSTAR!
It keeps playing in my head, dammit.
NotMax
@opiejeanne
Two-ply tinfoil hat should fix that right up.
:)
Kathleen
@NotMax: Those 3 films are brilliant.
TriassicSands
Is anyone watching “The 1619 Project?”
opiejeanne
@NotMax: Dang. We just ran out today.
prostratedragon
@NotMax: And Meet John Doe. All proving yet again that popular culture slides right by a great many people.
J R in WV
@grammypat:
We are in the market for a new kat! We’re down to one, who is a tortie snd very affectionate, and a big cat would be ideal for our wooded hillsides.
Where are you?
Cole — so glad you are doing well !
I’m awake for a medical procedure involving my bladder, to look and see if the first one took care of the tiny cancer.
Manyakitty
@J R in WV: hope the procedure is quick and gives you good news!
Nukular Biskits
A frequent BJ reader, occasional commenter here.
I can’t remember the last time I saw John actually participate in a conversation in the comments on his own blog. LOL!
In any case, godspeed to both Mr. Cole & new kitty and I hope its intro to the other denizens of Casa Cole go well.
Princess
Bob Robert’s is basically a documentary.
Jesse
@Origuy: News bits like these are what I was afraid of. I hope he’s well and recovers. I hope it doesn’t come down to him being forced to retire. If he does, we’ll have another hard fight on our hands.
Geminid
Both President Biden and Vice President Harris will be on the move today. Biden will fly to Tampa, Florida later this morning and at 1:30pm will hold an event on protecting Social Security and Medicare and lowering health care costs, at the University of Tampa.
VP Harris will fly to St. Cloud, Minnesota. Unionized workers will lead her on a tour of the New Flyer electric bus plant, and afterwards Harris will deliver remarks on the administration’s investments in electric vehicles.
From Politico Playbook.
Ken
@NotMax: Also Elmer Gantry (1960), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and Seven Days in May (1964).
I was going to add Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here, but I see my memory was faulty — it has not been made into a movie, though according to wikipedia it was indirectly (very indirectly) the source for the alien-invasion miniseries V.
Matt McIrvin
Isn’t Tim Robbins a Naderite/Green type himself? He’s apparently not an item with Susan Sarandon any more.
It seems like these people who make ahead-of-their-time political art often end up being overtaken by events anyway. Roger Waters is caping for Putin now.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Those types of people are perennially better at identifying problems than solving them.
Princess
@Baud: I think they live in a bubble of privilege that badly skews their judgement.
zhena gogolia
@Origuy: I hate “retreats” too.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has really polarized the western “Left” political world that Roger Waters inhabited. I think the larger part has rallied behind Ukraine and NATO, but some like Waters are looking past Russia’s war crimes and calling NATO the greater threat. Many in this group also support Iran’s repressive and murderous regime in the name of “Anti-Hegemonism.”
I follow Democratic Socialists of America politics some. Iran doesn’t seem to be a big internal issue with them, but the war in Ukraine definitely is. One of several controversies is a resolution proposed by the Seattle chapter to withdraw support from elected officials who voted for military aid to Ukraine. These would be the 3 or 4 DSA members who won election to the House as Democrats in 2018 and 2020.. The resolution has opposition and it’s not clear whether it will pass.
The DSA will hold its biennial convention this summer, and the organization may be at an inflection point. It grew to 55,000 members after the 2016 election and was approaching 100,000 members last year. Now membership appears to be falling, perhaps because the Democratic party is where the action is, and it is not perceived to be so hostile to “progressive” causes as it once was. Also, the gravity of the threat from this country’s radical Right is great, and people have to choose between picking a side or standing off and criticizing.
zmulls
And let us not forget Robert Redford in THE CANDIDATE. He doesn’t start out as an ambitious phony, but by the end he is on his way.
Geminid
@Geminid: I realize that the DSA does more than stand off and criticize the Democratic party. I am speaking to the choice people on the left face in deciding which party to align with. Some align with bothor more exactly, align with democratic socialist values as well as with the Democratic Party.
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: Am going in Spring to get me a shelter kitty, after my awesome kitteh Mongo passed away back in Dec. Hope you can get one too, Amir!
Sis
Congratulations on new kitty!!!! So happy for you!
opiejeanne
@zmulls: I was going to say Bulworth, but then I remembered Election.
rikyrah
The new kitty?🤗🤗🤗🤗
Awe, Cole😍😍😍
Miss Bianca
@Amir Khalid: Two years plus? Already? And no new kitty? :(
caring & sensitive
@grammypat: I love Maine Coons. Where are you located?
grammypat
@J R in WV: @caring & sensitive: Central Texas. She’s exiled to the outdoors now and it’s breaking my heart. I can’t imagine her having to live outside further north. I’m hoping for her to be in an indoor only home.
@Nukular Biskits: Yeah, but conversing on his own blog and YELLING at commenters are two very different things.
Tim Ellis
@Geminid: You’re right; I’m firmly in the socialist camp and quite a few of my peers have drunk the kool-aid of Russian propaganda. But it’s been very clarifying for the rest of us and I think what’s happened is it’s begun to isolate out the bad-faith folks as most of the rest of us are firmly with Ukraine.
And I also agree that DSA may have peaked a bit, not because socialism is less popular – if anything it’s even more popular these days – but because the Democratic party under Biden has done a good job of incorporating our key priorities and welcoming us into the fold. I like the way you put it – the party is where the action is.
WereBear
Yay!