Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

This really is a full service blog.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

So many bastards, so little time.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Come on, man.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

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

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155Comments

  2. 2.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Well, technically the other thread is also open, it even says so in the title, but there was a lot of non-open-thread talk.

    So I thought I’d put this one up and throw it wide open.

    I suppose we could make this into two simultaneous open threads.  Even number comments could respond to one another, and odd number comments could talk among themselves.

    Are we sharp enough to pull that off?

  5. 5.

    Alison Rose

    I laughed myself silly over this video, although part of me was concerned there was something wrong with this birb. However, commenters seem to think the birb is just getting his rocks off against the perch. But the writhing and the music are so well-matched, and with the caption it just had me cackling to the point of tears. Sometimes I am easily amused

    (You may have to click the volume icon in the lower right to hear it.)

  10. 10.

    Yutsano

    @Alison Rose: ​That’s just birb being birb. Conures are known to be silly like that.

    As the Cougs are currently not couging it, I am going to nap for a bit.

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    Only one episode into it but think I may be hooked.

    New on MHz Choice, Pandora, a Belgian legal/political drama. First episode so dense with plot I succumbed to rewinding so as not to miss details.

    And something which would probably never fly on American TV, a strong female lead (the investigating judge) with a head of long silver-gray hair.

  16. 16.

    gwangung

    In less…risque…theatre news, my production, She Devil of the China Seas, apparently won Best Original Production (Community Theatre) from one the local reviewer organizations. Not quite the Tonys or Obies, but I’m pleased with it (even more so, given that I was the playwright).

  18. 18.

    Mike in NC

    We rolled into Hilton Head Island, So. Carolina a little while ago. Here for a few nights with family. No doubt Lindsey Graham has a mansion around here somewhere.

  20. 20.

    Rachel Bakes

    Daughter’s HS theater is doing “The Play that Goes Wrong” this fall. She’s an understudy plus the costume designer, and it’s me as one of her minions. My husband is designing and taking lead on building the (extremely complicated) set. Apparently our family is responsible for much of the physical appearance of this play. Good move for her Sr year but surprising what happens with a new director.

  25. 25.

    Another Scott

    @eversor: That clip is getting to be like “BTW, Biden is old!!”.   It’s been posted quite a few times.  ;-)

    She’s lucky that the screen and TV comedy show writers are still on strike.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  26. 26.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I read a book that if you positioned it one way, you got to hear “his” side of the events that were taking place, and if you flipped the book over, you read “her” side of the same events.

    Not the same, but really interesting!

  27. 27.

    eversor

    @Yutsano:

    Agree but it’s kinda funny.  The don’t sexualize kids group starting with some titties grabbing, followed by jerking, followed by finger banging in a theater with kids.

  30. 30.

    Alison Rose

    Bahahaha bye bitch. I read some of that interview and was like, wow fuck off.

    Jann Wenner, the co-founder of Rolling Stone magazine, has been removed from the board of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, which he also helped found, one day after an interview with him was published in The New York Times in which he made comments that were widely criticized as sexist and racist.

    …

    But the dismissal of Mr. Wenner comes after an interview with The Times, published Friday and timed to the publication of his new book, called “The Masters,” which collects his decades of interviews with rock legends like Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen and Bono — all of them white and male.

    In the interview, David Marchese of The Times asked Mr. Wenner, 77, why the book included no women or people of color.

    Regarding women, Mr. Wenner said, “Just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level,” and remarked that Joni Mitchell “was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll.”

    His answer about artists of color was less direct. “Of Black artists — you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right?” he said. “I suppose when you use a word as broad as ‘masters,’ the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level.”

    Only white men have ever had anything interest to say or do in rock music! Never mind the fact that much of rock and roll was adapted by white people from Black people.

    Another quote from the interview:

    The selection was intuitive. It was what I was interested in. You know, just for public relations sake, maybe I should have gone and found one Black and one woman artist to include here that didn’t measure up to that same historical standard, just to avert this kind of criticism. Which, I get it. I had a chance to do that. Maybe I’m old-fashioned and I don’t give a [expletive] or whatever.

    Piss off.

  34. 34.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    My sisters saw “Jagged Little Pill” last night.  Maybe boebert and her date thought they were at that show.  Would you go down on him in a theater?

  37. 37.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    It sounds like Kristen Welker’s debut as the new host of Meet the Press will be a major league disaster:

    ‘Sold Her Soul’: #BoycottMeetThePress Trends Big Over Welker’s Trump Interview

    https://www.mediaite.com/tv/sold-her-soul-boycottmeetthepress-trends-big-over-welkers-trump-interview/

    Dan Froomkin (PressWatchers.org) @froomkin

    6:00 PM · Sep 15, 2023

    https://twitter.com/froomkin/status/1702804483657392302

    In these clips, Trump utters about 30 different lies, and there’s zero pushback from Kristen Welker, who instead calls him “fired up” and “defiant” – and “the president.”  This is, actually, worse than the CNN town hall in terms of normalizing a maniac.

  40. 40.

    Alison Rose

    @Wyatt Salamanca: When I first heard that she had him on, I was like 1) why, and 2) this is gonna be a shitshow. She’s one of those reporters who loves to toss out baseless snide little questions at the press secretary and seems to think she’s being a Hard-Hitting Journalist.

  41. 41.

    OHJo

    @WaterGirl: Wondering the same…Mr. OHJo and I (ages 67 and 70) just finished scraping, sanding and staining a large deck, and are limping and hobbling around like old people! Imagine! Last time we do that!

  42. 42.

    WaterGirl

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    You can always tell yourself you’re going to read in bed.

    Watch something on Netflix or listen to a podcast.  Excellent idea.  I will shower and then run off to watch (or listen to) something on my adorable new iPad mini.

    Saturday Evening Open Thread 1

  51. 51.

    Nukular Biskits

    Getting dark.  Hummers probably going to bed down soon.

    I haz a sad.

    Still, it’s nice out here on the porch tonight, quite a departure from the hellish heat from just a couple of weeks ago.

  56. 56.

    eversor

    @Suzanne:

    I dunno most bars I go to would toss you for that as well.  Now I do know a few late hour clubs where you can do that, or just strip and do it on stage and people will cheer for you….

  57. 57.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Alison Rose:

    and remarked that Joni Mitchell “was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll.” 

    Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell need to write a song about what an asshole this dude is.

  59. 59.

    Miss Bianca

    @Rachel Bakes: In other theater news, looks like I will be directing (and likely acting in, God love me) an all-female cast, Steampunk-themed version of Gaslight for our Halloween production. YEE-HAW!!

  65. 65.

    TurnItOffAndOnAgain

    @WaterGirl:

    I read a book that if you positioned it one way, you got to hear “his” side of the events that were taking place, and if you flipped the book over, you read “her” side of the same events.

    Not the same, but really interesting!

    Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski. Same dude who did House of Leaves.

    And I read Un Lun Dun by China Miéville when I was a kid. Still revisit it sometimes. It’s fun.

  70. 70.

    zhena gogolia

    @Frankensteinbeck: It’s based on a stage play, I think it was called East Lynne [just looked it up, it’s Angel Street]. This guy tries to make his wife think she’s insane by constantly turning the gaslight lamps down (and other pranks). It’s where the term “gaslighting” originated. Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer play it to the hilt. Anton Walbrook is almost too scary in the earlier version.

  72. 72.

    Jackie

    Apparently Boebert’s new beau owns a gay-friendly bar……..that has hosted at least one drag show:

    A bar owned by Rep. Lauren Boebert’s apparent new beau has staged at least one drag show, according to a review of social media posts.

    In January, the Hooch Craft Cocktail Bar in Aspen, which is co-owned by Quinn Gallagher, staged “a winter Wonderland Burlesque & Drag Show,” an invitation for the event reveals.

    https://nypost.com/2023/09/16/lauren-boeberts-new-man-owns-gay-friendly-bar-which-hosts-drag-shows/

    Let’s all sit back and enjoy watching her GQP cohorts try spinning this – on top of her not-for-family-viewing public antics the other night.

  80. 80.

    JoyceH

    @zhena gogolia: Sigh. Though the movie was called Gaslight, Boyer wasn’t tinkering with the gaslights to make Bergman think she was crazy. He was doing other things to make her think she was crazy so she would believe the flickering gaslights were also a delusion.

    Unlike electricity, with gaslight the lights will flicker if someone turns on a light in another room. She was seeing the flicker when apparently alone in the house, but actually he was turning on the light in the boarded up part of the house, searching for her deceased aunt’s fortune in jewels.

  84. 84.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Miss Bianca:

    In other theater news, looks like I will be directing (and likely acting in, God love me) an all-female cast, Steampunk-themed version of Gaslight for our Halloween production. YEE-HAW!! 

    That! Is! AWESOME! 👏

  86. 86.

    prostratedragon

    zhena gogolia@70: It’s even worse than that. The gaslights would flicker because he was elsewhere on the same fuel line doing some nefarious business. He knew she’d notice and remark on it, so the other pranks were to undermine her but also make anything she said seem unreliable to the household help. Both versions are great, but in my view you can’t beat Boyer’s feigned — I don’t know, stupidity — for proving what a higher moral being Paula is at the end.

    Mexican Independence Day co-incided with headphone break-in day: Danzon No.2, Marquez; at the Proms.

  87. 87.

    Joy in FL

    @Baud: The City and The City, right? I listened to the audio book of it. I even looked forward to my commute while I was listening to it. I loved that story, and the narrator was perfect.

  90. 90.

    JoyceH

    @zhena gogolia: the reason that I started with a sigh was because I see that explanation for the term gaslighting over and over in very respectable publications. Makes me go, “guys, watch the movie!” The term comes from the title of the movie, not from the action of light tinkering.

  91. 91.

    wjca

    @M31: GOP spin: “See, the drag show did it! Evil drag show guy tricked our innocent angel!”

    Better spin: “This was a false flag operation!  A secret operative (and groomer and faggot lover) seduced our heroine!  People say he works for the Biden Crime Family!”

    Actually, it will likely be even more ridiculous that that.  But I lack the reality-challenged imagination of the MAGAts.

  96. 96.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @mrmoshpotato:

    In addition to being my two favorite female singers, Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell are two of the most thoughtful and intelligent interview subjects.

    Jann Wenner proves once again that he does not know what the fuck he’s talking about.

  97. 97.

    Kathleen

    @Wyatt Salamanca: She may have sold her soul (like most of her peers in Beltway Political Pundlandia Land) but she is doing her job. We need to understand our concept of “their jobs” is totally at odds with what their master deem “their jobs”, and the masters pay them.

  98. 98.

    Kathleen

    @Ben Cisco: Absolutely. While I find 99% of the people on camera to be execrable, they are also doing what they are told. Their replaceable cogs. Which none of them understand.

  101. 101.

    twbrandt

    Bebe Neuwirth on Bluesky:

    Apropos of nothing in particular, but just in case anyone’s wondering – Yes, from the stage, we can pretty much see anyone in the orchestra seats.

  106. 106.

    zhena gogolia

    @NotMax: It’s definitely a Hitchcockian movie, but not a Hitchcock movie.

    ETA: And Joseph Cotten is also in it, another fave of Hitch’s.

  108. 108.

    Alison Rose

    @zhena gogolia: I am too, although I’m annoyed that all she has to do is sniffle like a little girl and cry about her divorce and how she “fell short of her values” and people will forget about it. Even though she spends 99% of her waking hours calling trans people and drag queens pedophile groomers who shouldn’t be around kids, while she’s getting to second base in public with kids mere feet away from her.

  109. 109.

    Ken

    @mrmoshpotato:  I’m seriously curious about which of the Master of Suspense’s movie you’re thinking about.

    A Hitchcock movie in which a woman is subjected to horrible treatment by a manipulative man in a position of power over her? So many to choose from…

    Oh, wait, you mean in the plot of the movie, not as an actress working with Hitchcock.

  114. 114.

    Jackie

    @Alison Rose: I’m fantasizing the pregnant woman who complained about the vaping also files a complaint that Boebert and boyfriend harmed her baby by exposing it to sexual acts.

    Said semi-tongue-in-cheek as the GQP claim sperm meets egg = a human being capable of emotion who was forced to witness such scandalous behavior!

  115. 115.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    John R Parkinson @jparkABC 3h
    As President Biden left church, I shouted quite loudly across the cemetery, “Mr. President, will you pardon your son?!” But Biden did not visibly react or acknowledge the question.

    this isn’t Fox or Newsmax or that weird guy who writes for shady African wire service. This is an ABC reporter bragging about shouting a stupid question at Biden “across the cemetery”, the cemetery where (per the replies) Biden visits the graves of his first wife, elder daughter, and elder son after mass whenever he’s in Delaware.

    The ratio, as the kids say, is 9,500 replies, most of them quite unfriendly, to 270 likes.

  117. 117.

    Geminid

    @Wyatt Salamanca: He also could have interviewed Laura Nyro, before she got sick. She would have had a lot to say. Although Laura Nyro might not have given Wenner an interview if he’d asked.

  125. 125.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @Geminid:

    I agree and Laura Nyro died way too soon.

    It would be nice if someone could seize this opportunity and publish a book of interviews with women and African Americans whom Jann Wenner deemed unworthy such as Chrissie Hynde, Stevie Nicks, Marianne Faithfull, Judy Collins, Maureen Tucker, Patti Smith, Sheryl Crow just to name a few.

  129. 129.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Geminid:

    I mean, I’m glad you are still up and around. But in this time of seasonal change, it’s important to stay well rested.

    There are football and baseball  to watch – and movies to argue about!

    :)

  133. 133.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    I’ve seen “Beetlejuice”, it’s a horror comedy musical. At no point does it trigger carnal inspiration.

  135. 135.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    this thread has me trying to decide if I want to watch an old BW movie or rewatch Beetlejuice

  138. 138.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    Maui police revise Lahaina wildfire death toll to 97; list of unaccounted for drops to 31.

    Also,

    Unified Command has complete the search for sunken, derelict or displaced vessels, along with associated marine debris from the Aug. 8 Lahaina fire, and has identified 78 “targets,” according to the US Coast Guard.

    A target could be a sunken vessel or a large piece of marine debris.
    [snip]
    The contract workers will assess the harbor and develop a plan — to be reviewed and approved by the Coast Guard — to remove hazardous materials and submerged vessels.

    Once that step is complete, the contractor will remove identified hazardous materials, fuels and oil in preparation for removal of submerged vessels out of the harbor, with Coast Guard oversight. Source

    To measure the longterm affects of the Lahaina fire on nearby ocean waters, scientists are using three sophisticated sampling instruments that are on loan from the US Geological Survey.

    The devices allow pollutants and toxins like heavy metals and pharmaceuticals to slowly slip inside a membrane and accumulate over time.

    “This mimics what a living creature like coral or fish would absorb,” said Russell Sparks, an aquatic biologist with the state Division of Aquatic Resources. “When the samples are analyzed, we’ll have a much better idea of what the reefs are being exposed to as a result of this fire.”
    [snip]
    Based on visual observation, Sparks said the water quality inside the harbor is “horrible.” Source

  142. 142.

    Jackie

    Entertaining read from Political:

    The government is barreling toward a shutdown. House Republicans threaten to impeach the president — though some of them don’t see the evidence. A Republican senator has a one-man blockade on military promotions with no end in sight.
    The Capitol is in crisis. And though Democrats control much of the government, Republican divisions are driving the chaos.
    snip
    “We need to eliminate preventable errors, and we’re not doing that,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said of her party.
    On policy issues such as inflation, energy and the border, she argued, Republicans have positions “that are very good to be used for a political campaign. But they are getting smothered over by issues that are unhelpful or people don’t care about.”
    snip
    And as Congress barrels toward all-out gridlock, Republicans are growing more frustrated about their lack of a cohesive plan to use their threadbare House majority to stare down President Joe Biden and Hill Democrats.
    Summing up the lack of a GOP spending strategy, Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson opined: “It’s stupid.”
    “We’ve been seeing this coming for the last three or four months. I just didn’t think we were dumb enough to get there,” he said.
    It’s not just House Republicans who are clogging things up. Tuberville refuses to give up his holds on hundreds of military promotions, protesting a Pentagon policy allowing service members time off to seek abortions.

    Democrats could push through some of the top nominations individually but have declined to do so, warning that it could set a precedent of inaction on lower-level military promotions.
    That leaves some House Republicans steaming mad.
    Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), a former Navy SEAL officer, said in a text message to allies that he’s “at a point where I’m going to tear apart (if asked) coach/Senator/non-veteran Tuberville for personally attacking service members who have spent almost 30 years serving our country.”
    “I don’t know what outcome he expected,” Crenshaw added of Tuberville, “but I’m hearing more and more that his actions are having worsening consequences.”
    Tuberville disputes that his holds are having serious consequences. His office declined to respond to Crenshaw.
    At the moment though, the imminent government funding deadline is Congress’ biggest problem. Halfway through September, Speaker Kevin McCarthy has no obvious plan to escape the month without triggering a shutdown that his own members fear could endanger his party’s position — and perhaps even the speaker’s own job — going into the pivotal 2024 election.
    Even McCarthy’s surprising leap toward an impeachment inquiry this week failed to quell the hard-right rebellion.

    Much more at the link: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/15/government-shutdown-congress-gop-00116066

  146. 146.

    NotMax

    Yummo.

    Just took a loaf of port wine & bleu cheese bread out of the super duper bread machine. Cottage smells divine.

  147. 147.

    wjca

    @tam1MI: A (literal) sign that the Biden Administrations gets it.

    No doubt TIFG is (puke) green with envy.  How many projects were there ever with his name up in lights (naturally there would have to be lights; garish ones) on them???

    Of course, if you never get around to actually doing the infrastructure you kept talking about, that’s liable to result in a distinct lack of projects to label.  (Maybe he should have tried rebranding Obamacare.  Seems like his style.)

  153. 153.

    RogeBrian

    @JaySinWA:

    Rachel’s husband here: one of the discussions in the set build is how much to overbuild the sets since they have to fall over vs how much it would hurt to get hit by the falling set.  But we will teach the kids to soldier on

    @JaySinWA:

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