Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

I really should read my own blog.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

The willow is too close to the house.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

It’s a doggy dog world.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

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

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Second rate reporter says what?

T R E 4 5 O N

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / LGBTQ Rights / LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Country Pride (Friends in *Those* Places, Too)

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Country Pride (Friends in *Those* Places, Too)

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… Brooks, who’s set to open Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk in Nashville’s lower Broadway area later this summer, shared his thoughts on the Bud Light boycott during a panel at Billboard Country Live this week. “I want it to be a place you feel safe in. I want it to be a place where you feel like there are manners and people like one another. And yes, we’re going to serve every brand of beer. We just are,” Brooks said, referring to the transphobic backlash faced by Bud Light following its partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Brooks continued, “It’s not our decision to make. Our thing is this: If you [are let] into this house, love one another. If you’re an asshole, there are plenty of other places on lower Broadway.”…

Much more in that Billboard interview:

Billboard Country Live kicked off today (June 7) in Nashville with some major superstar energy, via a conversation between Garth Brooks and Billboard’s executive editor, West Coast and Nashville, Melinda Newman.

The pair engaged in a sprawling 50-minute talk touching on the past, present of future of Brooks’ unparalleled career, including his Las Vegas residency, new and old music, the radio network he’s launching this summer via TuneIn and why he’s grateful social media didn’t exist when he was a younger artist.

Regarding the radio network, a suite of stations dedicated to country and more, Brooks spoke about how curating country music that will be streamed in the 120 countries will offer him “a chance to shrink the world,” and show audiences the roots and sounds of the genre. He noted that while European labels used to request he take the steel guitars and fiddles off his work in order to get European radio play, via TuneIn he’ll be presenting real country music that “will lean a little bit more traditional.” …

Reader Interactions

169Comments

  3. 3.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    I’ve never been a modern country fan (I like a lot of the vintage stuff) so I didn’t know that much about Brooks’s civil rights views but I do recall the SNL Mango skit he did with Chris Kattan back in the day and thought at the time he must be alright if he’s willing to do a skit like that. Glad to see that impression confirmed.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “A dream for some, a nightmare for others!”

    Footage shared on social media and by local news outlets captures six Nevada counties under siege, with thick carpets of bugs moving slowly and efficiently across the state. A local hospital had to deploy brooms and leafblowers to clear the way for patients to get into the building, a spokesperson for the Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital, told local news outlet KSL.

    Not only do the bugs make for terrifying plague-like images and videos, they make roadways dangerous when large numbers of them get crushed.

    “They get run over, two or three come out and eat their buddy, and they get run over, and the roads can get covered with crickets and they can get slick,” Jeff Knight, an entomologist for the Nevada agriculture department, also told KSL. “The bigger issue is these afternoon thunderstorms and put a little water on that and it gets slick, we’ve had a number of accidents caused by crickets.”

    Despite their name, the insects are not biologically crickets but technically large shield-backed katydids that closely resemble grasshoppers, according to the University of Nevada, Reno. They don’t fly, and instead walk or hop.

    They lay eggs in the summer, which lie dormant in the winter and then hatch in the spring. But this year, due to an unusually rainy winter, the hatchlings were delayed. The large number of insects moving across Nevada can remain at their peak for four to six years, before being brought back under control by other insects and predators, Knight told the Guardian.

    ian bremmer @ianbremmer
    a plague of crickets in nevada
    the end is nigh
    (w/ short video)

    My gift to you this Saturday morn.

  6. 6.

    CliosFanBoy

    I apologize, but I have to share a bit.  We had to say goodbye to our little 16-year-old mini dachshund, Candy, yesterday due to congestive heart failure.  She was a shy, affectionate, funny little girl who followed my wife everywhere.  When my wife and I got home at the same time she’d run past me to greet my wife, and only then come back to me. We adopted Candy and her “sister” Brandy in spring 2019 as a bonded pair of elderly wiener dogs.  Brandy died suddenly of a heart attack last July, followed by my big buddy, Spud, in August.  All were elderly dachshunds.

    We still have Jazz, who we adopted last fall.  She’s mostly standard dachshund and a double-dapple, so she is deaf and mostly blind.  But she was very respectful of Candy, understanding that she was elderly and the alpha.  I am so going to miss my sweet little girl even though I know we gave her so much love.   You can find photos of Candy (and Brandy and Spud) on one of the previous BJ Pet calendars if you still have them.

  8. 8.

    ian

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    “They get run over, two or three come out and eat their buddy, and they get run over, and the roads can get covered with crickets and they can get slick,”

    I feel like I’m reading the script of a walking dead episode, not a story about crickets

  10. 10.

    Tim C.

    Now I feel bad for making some Chris Gaines jokes the last couple of decades.   Party on Garth!

  11. 11.

    Suzanne

    I know that it’s fairly lame of me, but I am a longtime Garth fan. I got to see him perform a few years ago and it was fun AF.

    I will also note that he wrote some very big checks to Phoenix Children’s Hospital, and I would bet others.

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    In Sleeping with the Ancestors, written with Herb Frazier, Joseph McGill Jr relates a fascinating, decades-long quest for truth. His work as a preservationist led to the formation of the Slave Dwelling Project. All over America, McGill sleeps overnight in former slave quarters. In an informative and engrossing book, he now tells the story of this groundbreaking endeavor.

    The idea came to McGill after a visit to Anne Frank’s hiding place in Amsterdam. Cramped quarters gave Anne, her family and friends temporary sanctuary from the Nazis. For McGill, “being there connected that space to her and her diaries that told of her life in hiding … That tour taught me the importance of preserving historic buildings.”

    McGill started out as a civil war re-enactor. Now, as a Black man, his job is particularly important. He is part of a growing movement to save landmarks of Black history. Calling attention to the perilous condition of many slave cabins, his is a clarion call, grounded in the message that Black history is American history.
    ……………………………..
    His subtitle is: “How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery”. For sure, his book will help counter the toxicity of these times. With carefully researched fact, he refutes countless Gone With the Wind-like fictions, tales that comfort white supremacists. He confronts racist fantasy head on, through vivid first-hand reportage and thoughtful scholarship. Briefly living as our forebears did, he challenges nostalgia for a nation that never was. Amid rightwing book bans and anti-woke laws, this is a book long overdue. What is at stake is the unifying possibility offered by America’s heritage.

    Another one for the “To read” pile.

  15. 15.

    Suzanne

    I will also note this about Garth’s specific approach here: it’s probably the right one. He never tries to tell any of his religious fanbase that God never mentions homosexuality or trans people in the Bible, he never tries to convince anybody of anything, he doesn’t get into any debates. He essentially says that everyone can feel however they want to feel things, but that, when they’re in his spaces (his bar, his concerts), the code of public conduct is to keep one’s hands and opinions to oneself. And if you don’t want to do that, that’s completely fine and you can just go do that elsewhere.

    This is the rhetorical approach I wish we would take more. It takes the wind out of the bigots’ sails when we tell them, “you can feel however you want”. They want to trigger us. They enjoy that. It helps them feel righteous.

  20. 20.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Suzanne:

    This is the rhetorical approach I wish we would take more. It takes the wind out of the bigots’ sails when we tell them, “you can feel however you want”. They want to trigger us. They enjoy that. It helps them feel righteous.

    That’s fine, as long as publicly expressing their bigotry at whatever frequency and volume is as far as it goes.

    But when they pass laws to erase any mention of LGBTQ persons or the history of Black persons in America from the public schools and denying appropriate medical care to women and trans persons, yeah, I’m triggered.

  23. 23.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @CliosFanBoy: I am sorry to hear about your puppy. It sounds like you gave her a wonderful life for the short time you had her. RIP Candy.

  24. 24.

    satby

    @CliosFanBoy: Adopting senior dogs takes a very special human. Letting them live out their lives in love and comfort takes kindness and courage. You gave Brandy, Candy, and Spud a second chance at a happy, well-loved life. Good on you and your wife; and thank you, because without people like you, rescues couldn’t save them.

  25. 25.

    Suzanne

    @lowtechcyclist: Agreed.

    I think the proper rhetorical response it, “if you hate LGBT people, you can teach your kids to also hate LGBT people. At home, at your church, whatever. If you don’t want your kid to read books, you don’t have to let your kid read books. But in our shared public schools, in our public libraries, we’re not going to teach that. Other people’s kids can read books.”

  26. 26.

    geg6

    @Suzanne:

    He’s a big Pirates and Steelers fan.  He and Trisha Yearwood are two of a small but mighty group of quietly more liberal country artists.  People like Billy Ray Cyrus, Dolly, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill and a bunch of younger artists.  I’m not a country fan at all, but I will listen to them

  27. 27.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I’ve liked Garth Brooks from way back. I probably like his older stuff better and he’s been on the correct side of politics for a long time. There’s a few non RW country music folks. The RW ones just tend to be louder.

  28. 28.

    Amir Khalid

    @CliosFanBoy:

    You don’t need to apologise for sharing your loss. We’re all here to provide comfort at moments just like this. Candy was a good and loving girl, and you and she gave each other happiness in the time you had together. RIP Candy.

  31. 31.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Well, if this ain’t a “blech”-worthy item, I don’t know what is.

    OK, technically, it might be “yech,” (or “yuck”) not “blech,” but still …

  32. 32.

    Kay

    Navigator Research
    @NavigatorSurvey
    Only three in ten Americans find Ron DeSantis’ plan of adopting approaches like the ones proposed in Florida on a national scale to be appealing (net -19; 29 percent appealing – 48 percent not appealing) a 17-point decline since mid-April.

    Only 30% want to “Make America Florida” as it turns out. Decline is interesting though.

  33. 33.

    SFAW

    As a general rule, I can’t stand country music — in no small part because of the presumed demo — but Brooks is a good man.

  35. 35.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    Now, if only those numbers were in Florida, too. And if the FL Dems could find someone other than Charlie Fucking Crist to run as their nominee.

    Betty Cracker: any way you can get Crist to move to Wyoming? At least there, the damage might be reduced.

  36. 36.

    OldDave

    @CliosFanBoy: So sorry for your loss.  Dachshunds have a way of working themselves into one’s heart, as I’ve found out over the last quarter of a century.  May you find comfort in the days to come.

  37. 37.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    I’m with you on “modern country” as far as the men are concerned (love the modern husband-killing women and old timey-stuff – not a fan of “gun-flags-‘Murka-truck-Jesus” dudes that seem so prevalent lately).

    Good on Garth, though.

  38. 38.

    Burnspbesq

    Musical talent (or lack thereof) aside, it’s nice to know that Brooks’ hear is in the right place.

  39. 39.

    Kay

    @SFAW:

    That polling comapny is funny because they also poll on Disney favorability

    “Disney remains broadly liked”

    Unlike Governor DeSantis, who has dropped 20 points in a month :)

    I just love watching this. Christopher Rufo needs to lose.

  41. 41.

    frosty

    @Suzanne: My mom surprised me by being a big Garth Brooks fan. I’d never paid much attention, figuring he was just another Big Hat country singer. A few years ago, when I drove home from NC with her ashes I blasted her Garth CDs the whole way in her memory. Good music!! Who knew??

  44. 44.

    JML

    @SFAW: yeah, I’m not a fan of country music really at all, but Garth Brooks seems like a real mensch. Which is particularly good in a genre where they’ve allowed if not embraced some pretty rotten behavior and people.

  47. 47.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: pre-decline: “We want Competent MAGA-lite!”

    post-decline: “He ain’t competent or likable, and he’s MAGA-plus!”

    (or whatever – I don’t know.  I do know that he’s not keeping the base entertained like ol’ trumpov does, that’s for sure.  Maybe that matters to them?)

    Sorry, Ron – get your own fake reality show for a decade and call us back if you want to run again.

  51. 51.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay:  People say to know DeSantis is to despise him; that poll is a proof point! I am here for anything that humiliates DeSantis and Rufo. Their influence should decline since they are thoroughly toxic shitheads. 

    @SFAW: The latest Mrs. Crist is from up north somewhere, IIRC. Maybe they can move there?

  53. 53.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    I feel like we need a different spokesperson for Rufo’s agenda to test this because you can’t tell if people don’t like Rufo’s agenda or people just don’t like DeSantis. It’s funny how often that happens- where a popular “state wide” politician just flops nationally.

  54. 54.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     

    The latest Mrs. Crist is from up north somewhere, IIRC. Maybe they can move there?

    Not really what I was hoping, — Wyoming or Mississippi or Outer Slobovia would be preferable — but at least it would get him outta FLA.

  55. 55.

    Chris T.

    @ian:

    I feel like I’m reading the script of a walking dead episode, not a story about crickets

    They’re Mormon Crickets, which means they’re neither Mormon nor crickets.

  56. 56.

    SFAW

    @Kay: ​
     

    I feel like we need a different spokesperson for Rufo

    The only Rufo-spokesperson I want to read/hear about is the clergyman speaking at his funeral. Rufo’s a fucking menace to this country and its people.

  58. 58.

    Raoul Paste

    @CliosFanBoy: It takes a special person to sign up for impending outbreak when you adopt a pair of elderly dogs.  It doesn’t make it hurt any less, but you did a good thing.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    Garth Brooks stopped working for 14 years because his soon-to-be ex wife told him she was raising their three children alone because he worked all the time. Obviously he had plenty of money to do that but still a risky move- dropped out at his peak. The three daughters are grown now so he tours again and he seems to be as popular as ever.

  60. 60.

    frosty

    @OzarkHillbilly: When we were in New Orleans a few years ago we toured the Laura Plantation. I was shocked to find that sharecropppers lived in the slave cabins until 1977!

  61. 61.

    SFAW

    @Chris T.: ​
     
    Maybe if someone erected local statues of Brigham Young or Joseph Smith, they’d all flock to them? [There’s probably a joke to be made about making them wear magic underwear, but I need NotMax to come up with that one.]

  62. 62.

    Jerry

    Garth’s Friends in Low Places is one of the greatest country anthems of all time.

  64. 64.

    kalakal

    @Chris T.:

    They’re Mormon Crickets, which means they’re neither Mormon nor crickets.

    The Jerusalem Artichokes of the insect world

  65. 65.

    Avalune

    Awe sorry about puppers.

    Leto and I are on our way to Philly for the second time this weekend. Biden is joining the labor unions in his first rally since announcing his run. In solidarity!

  66. 66.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    My writer group (Barrington Writers Workshop) is celebrating its 45th anniversary today in an event that lasts from 1-6. First, there’s a group pic under the marquee of a vacant movie theater that currently reads “Congratulations BWW 45 years,” which is kind of cryptic. Then there’s a speech and a champagne and appetizer reception. Then there’s a panel of 3 writers talking about The Writing Life. And then we sell books. We hope. The three panelists are well known and will be selling too, so I don’t expect to get a lot of traffic. Also, I’m sharing a card table with two other writers. By 6:00, I’ll be exhausted. I’m not used to being “on” for that long anymore.

  67. 67.

    bluefoot

    I’ve never really been into Garth Brooks’ music, but he’s been an outspoken LGBTQ ally since I first heard of him back in the 90s. He’s taken a lot of flak for it but he just keeps on keeping on. Massive respect.

  68. 68.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    The weirdest thing to me is I think he does that “blank face, dumb” look deliberately. I think it’s supposed to be a “tough guy” demeanor.

  70. 70.

    Geminid

    People like to crap on Charlie Crist, and some dump on Florida Democrats for picking him. But Crist is not the reason Ron DeSantis won reelection. No Democrat would have beaten him last year.

    It could be that Nikki Fried would have run a 2 or 3 points better than Crist. We’ll never know. But Florida Democrats chose Crist as their candidate, and by a good margin. I figure they know their state better than I do and they had a lot more at stake, so I’m not gonna run them down, or Crist either.

  72. 72.

    kalakal

    Crist is very likeable in person and actually did tear into DeStumpy at the last election (made no difference sadly) but he needs to step back and get out of the way, he’s had his shot. I get why they picked him last time, the local Dems felt, rightly, that he was easily the candidate with the most name recognition. I’d have gone with Fried personally but I got a lot of “Who She?”

  73. 73.

    NotMax

    A leg-end in his own mind.

    A suburban Chicago man is facing firearm charges after he told officers he accidentally shot himself in the leg while dreaming that an intruder was breaking into his home, police said. Source

  74. 74.

    Splitting Image

    Another mostly non-fan of country here, so I mostly missed Brooks’ heyday, but there’s no question he’s one of the good ones.

    It seems these days like any fiftyish white male who can get through a day without making a complete ass of himself gets treated like one of the Seven Sages of Greece, so it’s nice to see a dude of his age turn out to be genuinely good.

  75. 75.

    kalakal

    @Splitting Image:

    It seems these days like any fiftyish white male who can get through a day without making a complete ass of himself gets treated like one of the Seven Sages of Greece

    Ahah! That’s where I’m going wrong.

  77. 77.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    No Democrat would have beaten him last year.

    People don’t think enough abut WHY the field is what it is- DeSantis being a strong opponent in a good position tends to discourage good, young candidates. They want a race where they have a better shot. A weaker candidate would have had stronger opponents because good people want to enter races they can win.

  84. 84.

    kindness

    Good for Garth.  I saw him once at the first Bottlerock music festival they have in Napa every year.  It’s a rock festival so Garth wasn’t on the main stage, but one of the secondary side stages.  I left the main area to go check his set out and he was fun.   I didn’t grow up in a country house.  But I enjoy most of it, even though it isn’t my main squeeze.

  88. 88.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    So maybe they’re too poor to buy books? Anything is possible! 

    There are books on how to NOT shoot your leg in your sleep?

    Ya learn something everyday I guess!  And it’s only 9AM!

  94. 94.

    Nukular Biskits

    @SFAW:

    A big, fat “WHATEVER DID I DO TO YOU?!?!?!?” regarding that suggestion Crist relocate to MS.

    We have too many do-nothing Democrats in this benighted state as it is, which allows “conservative Christians” like Tate Reeves (who refuses to expand Medicaid) and Phillip Gunn (MS Leg Speaker who said abortion should be illegal even for 12-year-old incest rape victims.

    I’d like this state to move at least into the 20th century. And, yes, I meant 20th.

  95. 95.

    brendancalling

    For the record, Nashville itself is quite LGBTQ+ friendly. There as several gay performers out there, many gay writers, etc. The problem ain’t Nashville, it’s Tennessee.

    And Garth is very much a good egg, if not my taste.

  97. 97.

    Old School

    @Tim C.:

    Now I feel bad for making some Chris Gaines jokes the last couple of decades.

    Nahhh… no need to feel bad about that.

    FYI – Garth still has plans on releasing five more Chris Gaines albums.

  104. 104.

    Steeplejack

    @Betty Cracker:

    I agree with you 1,000%, but “several years of happiness” made me laugh, for some reason. Maybe thinking of some other relationships.

  105. 105.

    MagdaInBlack

    @SFAW: Oh no. Lake county has its very own home grown breed of “Florida Man.”  Kyle Rittenhouse is from the general area, further north but…ya.

  106. 106.

    Steeplejack

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I’m not used to being “on” for that long anymore.

    You need to become one of those “grumpy” writers that people idolize because they can’t be bothered with their readers. Uncompromising!

  107. 107.

    SFAW

    @Baud: ​
     

    Hopefully, he won’t dream of being sexually assaulted.

    Woke the cats with my laugh at that one.

  108. 108.

    Gvg

    Speaking as a Floridian, I thought Crist had a better shot than Fried and would have had to hold my nose to vote for her. This state is not all that ready for a woman Governor IMO and Nikki strikes me as a flake. Not really ready for the big time and not that smart. She likes crypto for Pete’s sake. I think she can be fooled too easily. Which gets me back to the Democratic Party has fallen apart in this state. Some of the democrats I have seen run and win have had previous problems with corruption charges but are back because there are apparently no younger ones running and no party organizing, so their name recognition gets votes because the republicans are worse. Crist is not a flake and knows quite a lot about how things work.

  111. 111.

    Mai Naem mobile

     

     

    @OzarkHillbilly:  Nikki Haley is such an ugly POS. I hadn’t realized the dad taught at a HBCU. I could swear she’s  talked about her parents having a good sized retail business which she also worked at.

  113. 113.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @OzarkHillbilly: On a related note, but fiction/horror, I just started When The Reckoning Comes by Latanya McQueen:

    “LaTanya McQueen’s When The Reckoning Comes is so deliciously uncomfortable there were moments where I had to put the book down, take a deep breath, and like Mira, its protagonist, urge myself to go further. This is a novel, like Octavia Butler’s Kindred, that reminds its readers that as long as people don’t acknowledge how much of the past still shapes the present, it will bring its whips, its hatchets, and fists to make us learn.” — Megan Giddings, author of Lakewood

    A haunting novel about a black woman who returns to her hometown for a plantation wedding and the horror that ensues as she reconnects with the blood-soaked history of the land and the best friends she left behind.

  117. 117.

    Leto

    Avalune and I made it to the convention center.  There’s so many people here. We made it into the building, but then the line to get into the convention floor wraps around three sides of building. So many union members here. AFT, IBEW, Philly Federation of Teachers, SEIU, NEA, but to name a few. Again, very large turn out. We’ll check in and update along the way.

  119. 119.

    Ohio Mom

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yes, worth the read, thanks for the link. Caucasian but not white is quite the stretch, that thread reinforced everything I believe about Nikki Haley and her heartless ambition.

    I was introduced to the 1965 Immigration Act by Calvin Trillin, who credited the law with bringing ethnic food of all kinds to the U.S. — one way of earning money for people just arriving, with only rudimentary English at their command, is to open a restaurant serving their mother’s recipes.

    Just another legacy of LBJ’s (hat tip to Raven).

  121. 121.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Another Scott: Thanks.  It really comes down to whether or not playing with him will be fun for me, or will I be thinking about his bullshit views the whole time.  Otherwise it’s not something that is likely to come up.

  122. 122.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Suzanne: I don’t see that it’s lame at all. Brooks is a great songwriter, musician, and performer. And he did it the hard way, playing tiny bars around OK, KS, AR, TX, but mainly Stillwater, OK. He failed on his first foray to Nashville, went back to the basics (again, mainly in Stillwater), and eventually found his groove. He’s for a long time advocated live-and-let-live: at best try to love one another, at worst just mind your own fucking business. Nobody’s perfect, but there is a lot to admire about the guy.

  123. 123.

    cain

    @CliosFanBoy: So sorry to hear this. Candy sounds wonderful – thank you for adopting these senior pets. At least they live their twlight years in love.

  124. 124.

    Jackie

    @Leto: That’s awesome! Glad y’all are there; I couldn’t handle that crowd! Just reading your description gives me claustrophobia!

  125. 125.

    Gin & Tonic

    We love to hate on the FTFNYT, but today they published a good piece, with explanatory graphics, on how the Nova Kakhovka dam could only have been blown from the inside – meaning by russians. This link, which came from Twitter, seems to work well.

  126. 126.

    opiejeanne

    @HumboldtBlue: There’s a name that evokes a memory of my mom. She worked at Nuclear Undersea Warfare (NUWC) when the Pentagon Papers were released and she was beside herself because she handled sensitive documents for the Navy.

  129. 129.

    cain

    @frosty: You know.. he does have some rock music albums. He took on a different persona to do it.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garth_Brooks_in…the_Life_of_Chris_Gaines

    He looks nothing like a country western singer in the pictures. I actually liked that version of him. He’s a remarkable person – while doing the search – I read an article where he refused his wife’s offer to take his last name.

    I think his songwriting truly reflects who he is.

  130. 130.

    Geminid

    @Ohio Mom: I just shopped at the farmer’s market in Stanardsville, Virginia. I was not surprised to see a Mennonite lady and her daughter selling vegetables and baked goods. I got some onions and a packet of chocolate crinkle cookies (someone beat me to the lemon squares!).

    Diagonally across from them were some Asians selling organic beef and pork from their farm in Madison County. I bought some pork bratwurst. I think it was a mother and son, and my guess is that they are from Tibet. There is a small Tibetan community in the Charlottesville area. The daughter had a booth right behind them. She was selling original art cards and stickers.

  131. 131.

    RaflW

    Someone tweeted a pic of a florid man drinking Bud Light at Bedminster on June 13th. For some totally mysterious reason, Fox isn’t labeling Trump as “defiant” or “bowing down” to the woke. Huh.

  133. 133.

    opiejeanne

    @Nukular Biskits: Yes. misremembered the exact name. She worked at the Pasadena facility before it moved elsewhere, but she still had a job with a different alphabet soup organization in the same building, IIRC, but I don’t remember the name of that one.

  134. 134.

    cain

    @kalakal: I think the problem is the local dems and their organization. They really need the folks from Georgia coming over and helping.

    I think the Florida legislature is cashing checks that are going to bounce – they’ve over extended themselves.

    I think we can flip Florida if we put the right people in charge there.

  136. 136.

    Hungry Joe

    I interviewed Brooks once, long ago, as he was skyrocketing to fame. Don’t remember much that he said, but he was low-key and funny, genuine and genuinely nice. Didn’t seem in the least impressed with himself.

  137. 137.

    Ruckus

    @Geminid:

    That’s not lame. Brooks has a lot of fans for a reason- he’s a good musical artist, and a positive one.

    Not a fan of C/W but you are right, he’s good. And he’s good in several directions. I’d bet he likes the money he makes because it allows him to spend it well, as Suzanne noted, rather than sitting on it and being Scrooge McDuck about it as so many do.

  138. 138.

    Leto

    After almost a half hour, we’ve made it to the front side of the center. I think we’ve already had some people drop out because of the line/wait. Group behind us was joking that if they didn’t get in, 1) they’d head over to Reading Terminal to grab a bite to eat and 2) head home to watch some NCIS. Don’t care for NCIS, but Reading Terminal is supposed to have a lot of good food so a quick trip over might be in the cards.

  139. 139.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @OzarkHillbilly: Great thread.  But Harriot still hasn’t apologized or in any way owned up to: 1.) refusing to vote for Hillary in 2016, 2.) tweeting out a list of alternative, write-in candidates on the day of the election and 3.) when people called him out afterwards, just doubling down with a long thread on why the Clintons were so terrible and how he’s a long-time supporter of the Dem Party and besides, it didn’t matter because he was in a deep red state etc., etc. (the same bullshit excuse that he would never accept from my white relatives in PA who used them as a rationale to vote for Johnson).

    So while I love his work generally, it’s hard for me to take lectures about White Supremacy from him because while I’m reading them all I can think about is: for all his knowledge, this is the same who dude who refused to do the easiest, painless, most obvious action that we all had at our disposal in 2016 to protect Civil Rights by avoiding a Trump-selected Supreme Court. He knows the history, the importance of voting and the power of SCOTUS all too well and really has no excuse.  And for someone who will gleefully point out other peoples’ refusal to hold themselves accountable, apologize, admit their mistakes etc., none of that apparently applies to him.  He pulled the same bullshit that he rightfully scorns White People for doing and helped throw Black People, Women, LGBTQ People, Immigrants etc., all under the bus, just like my white, Libertarian/Independent family members did.

    All that said, fuck Nikki Haley.

  140. 140.

    Another Scott

    @Gin & Tonic: Thanks.

    Nexta has a short summary (in a single post):

    Kakhovka HPP collapse was most likely caused by an explosion in the tunnel of the concrete base of the dam – New York Times

    🔹 The concrete base, which was underwater and 20 meters high and up to 40 meters wide, was absorbing most of the load on the dam. On June 15, nine days… pic.twitter.com/HSxuX3mQhJ

    — NEXTA (@nexta_tv) June 17, 2023

    Slava Ukraini!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  141. 141.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ohio Mom:

    Caucasian but not white is quite the stretch 

    So is the jury still out on whether we can call Nikki white trash?

  147. 147.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Leto: ​Reading Terminal is supposed to have a lot of good food

    I’ll vouch for that. Mind-boggling variety of choices.

    I always stop at this place when I’m in there. Chocolate is too a food group!​

    The Head Nut is also a great place to get some stuff to take home after you’ve sated your appetite (probably not a good idea to go hungry). Hundreds of varieties of nuts, candies, dried fruit, and everything else you could think of, all sold out of bins by the pound.

  148. 148.

    Gin & Tonic

    The story of the South African “peace” delegation gets stupider by the day. The President was accompanied by a charter plane carrying somewhere around 100 people (estimates vary) comprising his security detail and reporters. They flew to Warsaw and were grounded there because they were carrying a shitload of weapons and didn’t have the right paperwork. Ramaphosa went on to Kyiv, but that second plane remained grounded in Warsaw and eventually the passengers were let off to go to a hotel. Ramaphosa has now gone on to St. Petersburg to fellate VVP, but that second plane is still in Warsaw, and some of those journalists are now saying it couldn’t go to St. Petersburg because Hungary denied it overflight rights. Um, look at a fucking map, OK?

    Latest story is that charter plane is headed back to RSA.

  149. 149.

    trollhattan

    @Gin & Tonic: ​One need only produce a flaw, and water takes care of the rest. Roosha left the door open to blame Ukraine dropping a HIMARS or somesuch weapon on the top, but nothing about the videos remotely suggests such a thing.
    Another example.

    The 2009 accident occurred when five DWR employees were directed to descend into the river valve outlet chamber deep inside the dam, and open the valves to 100 percent as a maintenance test.

    The turbulence caused by the massive water flow through the valves caused hurricane-force winds inside the tunnel, ripping a steel bulkhead from its mountings and blasting the workers off their feet. They were pinned against equipment inside the tunnel, holding on for survival until other workers were able to shut off the massive water flow. All survived, but one suffered a broken leg and arm.

    A subsequent investigation found that DWR supervisors ignored prior advice from U.C. Davis engineering experts, who warned in 1993 that the valves should never be opened to 100 percent. That’s because an “energy dispersion baffle ring” lining the tunnel, meant to reduce turbulence, had been damaged in 1968 when the dam was completed.

    DWR removed the baffle ring in April 2009, four months before the test. It did so without consulting its Division of Dam Safety, which should have approved that action first. The test was ordered because DWR “wanted to determine the destructive effects” of opening the valves to 100 percent, according to the investigation.

    This did not threaten the dam but destroyed a significant piece of the works. Just the force of water.

  152. 152.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Kay: Don’t have them handy, but there are other surveys the show broad support for LGBTQ+ rights, and that the majority reject the things like “don’t say gay” and “bathroom bill” laws.

    Also worth noting that DeSantis barely won the governorship originally, so I’m not sure it’s accurate to say he’s widely popular. I suspect it’s more a case that he’s crushed dissent, and Dems ran a bad candidate again him during his re-election. And of course the FL Democratic Party is a hot mess.

  154. 154.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    Little ronnie also makes them look stupid and weak for supporting him. Not that many other of the choices are really any better….

  156. 156.

    Leto

    Made it to the floor. Have heard three speakers so far and they’re very vocal about all the things Biden/Harris have done. Laying out specific tangible examples of what they’re doing to help us all. Good stuff.

  162. 162.

    Steeplejack

    @Leto:

    You’ve never been to the Reading Market?! I thought everybody in the Philadelphia area was required to go there as part of orientation. So go! “Supposed to have a lot of good food” is a gigantic understatement.

  166. 166.

    Bostondreams

    Good article here about queer country singer Brooke Eden. She mentions the role that Garth Brooks and his wife Tricia Yearwood played in helping her find the courage and strength to be publicly out enough to marry her wife.  The piece features this great quote:

     

    “You know, it’s so funny, because the media talks about queer people being “groomers.” And I’m like, “If you could groom people, I would be straight as f***!” [laughs] Like, growing up, I did beauty pageants. My mom put me in pink every day. My hair was always in curls. I was the freakin’ homecoming queen. All of these quintessential “girly” things. … So, if I could have been “groomed” to be one thing, I would’ve been straight, for sure!”

  168. 168.

    Brianc91764

    @bluefoot: His sister, who was his bass player in his early career, was gay, although that wasn’t necessarily the reason for his stance.

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