Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

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

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Second rate reporter says what?

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

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

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

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

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

So many bastards, so little time.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Afternoon Open Thread

Saturday Afternoon Open Thread

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This post is in: 

I don’t have much to say today, but this is a phenomenal ad.

This ad captures Biden so well, just a regular guy talking, nothing fake here in the slightest.  Maybe what’s-her-name from the rebuttal will want to try to rebut this?

If someone wants to locate it on YouTube, I will post the YouTube version, too.  (thanks Baud!)

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

114Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    I don’t have much to say either.

    Why does Biden have to be so boring?

    ETA: Haha. Stay for the ending.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    @Jay: That looks like the harder one to get done. I don’t think the GOP is going to shut down the Pentagon and DHS.

  10. 10.

    sdhays

    @Baud: I don’t know. Doesn’t the Pentagon have something to do with witchcraft and doesn’t DHS mean “woke” or something?

  11. 11.

    Hoodie

    Good ad in that it’s short and to the point, which is that Joe gets things done while Trump runs his mouth.  That message should be on repeat, as it should become more effective as Trump gets more exposure, particularly those rambling rants where he just endlessly spews.  I think one of the more effective moments of the 2020 campaign was in one of the debates where Joe asks him if he’s ever going to shut up.  One of Trump’s biggest liabilities is that he loves to hear himself talk.  Unless you’re really ensconced in the cult, you really get tired of that, his unending intrusion into your psyche.  It’s the kind of thing people can forget when he’s not around, but may quickly remember when they encounter it again.

  13. 13.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @sdhays: Doesn’t the Pentagon have something to do with witchcraft …

    Nah, aliens but they deny it of course.

  14. 14.

    RaflW

    Random tidbit: A Republican assumed a woman testifying about aviation fatigue must be a flight attendant. Via a Mpls StarTribune newsletter I subscribe to:

    Laura Haynor was wearing her uniform, including her golden wings pin, and testifying in front of the MN Senate Labor Committee on Tuesday morning about sick time. She stated that she is a Minnesota resident and Minneapolis-based pilot for Delta Airlines. She was there on behalf of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA).
    Sen. Gene Dornink, (R-Brownsdale), the panel’s minority lead, had some questions. “Miss Haynor,” he said. “Can you tell me what a typical week, a work week looks like for you as a stewardess?”
    She cut him off. “I’m a first officer for Delta.”
    “Pardon me?” Dornink said.
    Haynor replied, “I’m a pilot.”
    A flustered Dornink apologized immediately. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that.”

    I can guess why the ranking member of a committee, that had explicitly invited a pilot to testify, would be daydreaming/not paying any attention, and sexistly assume she’s an F.A. And note he called her a stewardess. Jebus.

    He was probably also mad that she didn’t use a high, breathy fundi-voice.

  15. 15.

    japa21

    Great ad. Yes, the little tag at the end is great, but the best part is that quick smile.

  16. 16.

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

    Remember that 12 year old girl Katie Britt told us about in her histrionic rebuttal Thursday night? The girl who was sex trafficked across the border after President Biden came into office? You (won’t) be surprised to learn she lied. This happened in the oughts, In the Bush administration not the Biden administration, in Mexico not the US. And the woman is an activist (good for her) who didn’t confess to Britt in a private conversation, but spoke to a group in which Britt participated. Jonathan Katz debunks her lie in a video on this tweet (or whatever you call them now).

    Oh yeah, and this is a great ad!

  17. 17.

    Hoodie

    @RaflW: Not just that she’s a flight attendant, that she’s a stewardess, an anachronistic, sexist label.  A lot of flight attendants are men.

  19. 19.

    bbleh

    He has no problem poking fun at himself, in my experience a trait conspicuously lacking among MAGAts, their candidate very much included.

  21. 21.

    scav

    And it’s so damn cheerful.  Cheeky even.  I think that will resonate strongly with a fair number — at least in my neck of the woods it’ll do so.  (sudden thought.  Why neck?!)

  22. 22.

    bbleh

    @scav: ‘The phrase comes from the sense of neck as a strip of land. In Britain, this refers to land with water on both sides, but early Americans used it to mean “a settlement in the woods.”‘

  25. 25.

    Baud

    @RaflW: We have a few fuddy-duddies out there, so I’m glad he wasn’t one of ours.

    I wonder if the pilot speaks jive (turkey).

  26. 26.

    Betty

    I just saw a clip on Threads from his interview with Jonathan Capeheart where he acknowledges he made a mistake by using the word illegal. A strong man readily admits his mistakes, unlike you know who.

  27. 27.

    trollhattan

    Love that ad. Because I’m a Close Personal Friend that captures Joe being Joe.

    Now I want one where he pulls up on a bicycle, then speaks. End with challenging Donny to a race–“anytime, anywhere, anyplace, and Donny, those last two mean the same thing.”

  31. 31.

    Shalimar

    Anyone who wants to contribute lines, I’m writing a special commemorative version of Tom Petty’s “Don’t Back Down” to celebrate Lara Trump’s ascension as co-chair of the RNC.  It’s called “Don’t Back Clowns.”

  32. 32.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Hoodie:

    An excellent choice of video clips especially in the bit about infrastructure, showing TIFG wrestling with a huge volume of paper. Trump looked overwhelmed and incompetent (which is, of course, accurate). Great job by Biden’s comms team!

  40. 40.

    Eyeroller

    @trollhattan: ​Dialect pronunciation of “hollow.”‘ I.e. a low-lying wooded area or a small valley.

    But I had never heard of “neck” meaning strip of land. Now the name “Great Neck” makes sense.

    Edit: and I see several commenters beat me to the explanation for “holler.”

  41. 41.

    RaflW

    @Hoodie: I recall hearing (but can no longer find attribution) that the jackass Frank Lorenzo, former Continental CEO / union buster, said about flight attendants basically, he could screw them over because they were “just women and gays”.

    I feel like that sentiment is en vogue in the current Republican retrograde era.

  43. 43.

    Almost Retired

    @Baud: Pseudonymously?!?  Shoot.  I picture you as Arthur W. Baud, Esq., a semi retired small town lawyer who lives alone except for a kindly housekeeper.  You care deeply for your clients and also occasionally solve mysteries.

  45. 45.

    Shalimar

    @Baud: Shhhhh.  Obviously, the writing has not advanced to the google research phase yet

    I had to walk a dog first.

  47. 47.

    WaterGirl

    @RaflW:

    A flustered Dornink apologized immediately. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that.”

    I laughed.

    That was shockingly honest, to blurt that out.  For just a second, anyway, but he couldn’t seem to take it just a tiny bit further to get to “oh, yeah, I’m a sexist asshole.”

  48. 48.

    WaterGirl

    Can I just say that I am impressed by the number of BJ peeps who actually watched the video.  All the way to the end!  Impressive.

  49. 49.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @RaflW:

    …that the jackass Frank Lorenzo, former Continental CEO / union buster…

    Good lord, I’d forgotten about that bastard.  Then wondered if he was still alive and if not, hope that he’d died painfully.

    Alas, he’s still around.  Still time for him to die painfully.

    I am not a nice person.

  52. 52.

    WaterGirl

    Have we talked about this yet?

    Or maybe owing 3/4 of a million dollars for this looks like chump change compared to $81 million and $700 million or so for the other case?

  53. 53.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Eyeroller: ​But I had never heard of “neck” meaning strip of land. Now the name “Great Neck” makes sense.

     Oooh! I have another one for all y’all: “Kill”, meaning “a body of water” (often a creek). It’s in lots of place names in areas of the USA, including NY, where there were Dutch-speaking settlers.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_(body_of_water)

  54. 54.

    WaterGirl

    I surely hope it’s possible for the E. Jean Carroll judge to require Donnie to tell us what / how much he had to put up to get the bond for that case.

  55. 55.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Jay:

    corruption of the word hollow

    Yes, the hollow space between hills.  Alas, I am assured by my Kentucky brethren that the derivation of the word is because you can ‘holler’ between the hills on either side.

    Of course, I am also assured by my Kentucky brethren that the Grand Canyon was made up for an episode of Brady Bunch.

  57. 57.

    WaterGirl

    @WaterGirl: I see that Andrew Weissmann is thinking along the same lines.

  59. 59.

    WaterGirl

    @Jackie: Is she a laughingstock yet?  I mean, beyond here on Balloon Juice.

    edit: That article in the Washington Post really calls her out.  Yay for that!

    Mockable for delivery, and totally lying in the content.  I would have to rate her rebuttal at -1.5 on a scale of 10.

  60. 60.

    Steeplejack

    OMG technology! Disney XD is running the Pittsburgh-Boston NHL game with live animation from Big City Greens. The background is Big City, the main characters are on the ice—Tilly just scored a goal a few minutes ago—and it’s pretty amazing. (All of the Bruins are actual bears.) I saw promos for it all week, but I wasn’t expecting this.

    ETA: The Disney feed is about 25 seconds behind the actual game on ABC. But it is the real game in (almost) real time.

  61. 61.

    Miki

    @WaterGirl: I’m thinking he’s not “just” a sexist a-hole, but also a fundie. Among other things, he and his wife have 12 kids, one of whom married a Basic life Principles woman (think The Duggars).

    The inner-tubes is surprisingly devoid of personal info about him and his family other than he was a union member carpenter for his career until 2009 or so. Forgive my bigotry, but the fundie fragrance is strong with this guy.

    So, yeah, he should know exactly why he said this.

  62. 62.

    Another Scott

    @H.E.Wolf: “Run” is a similar name for streams in several US states.  E.g. Bull Run, VA; Four Mile Run, VA; etc.

    Language is weird.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  63. 63.

    raven

    The murder of Laken Riley here in Athens two weeks ago doesn’t seemed to have been of much interest here even though President Biden did engage the crazy-ass from North Georgia at the State of the Union. Last night we had a child killed in what the paper is describing as “gang related” and Julian Omar Cubillos has been arrested.  I’m sure the wingers will come out of the woodwork regardless of his nationality or immigration status.

  66. 66.

    hueyplong

    @WaterGirl: Not sure. If he/they become obligated on the bond Trump will owe them and that kind of sounds like a loan or (if forgiven) gift.

  67. 67.

    Jackie

    @WaterGirl: MSNBC has been making hay on it. I just switched over to CNN to see if they’re covering it.

    PSA Jonathan Capehart (MSNBC) has an exclusive interview with Joe Biden today 6 pm ET – Biden’s first interview following the SOTU.

  68. 68.

    Another Scott

    @Jackie: 4 Pinocchios!  But not Pants on Fire??  Oh, I see he doesn’t do Pants on Fire – that’s someone else.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  70. 70.

    Eyeroller

    @H.E.Wolf: That one (kill) I knew and I also knew it was from Dutch. But being from the South/Midwest, “run” for what I’d call a “creek” was foreign when I moved to Virginia a long time ago. The UK meaning of “creek” seems more restricted than the non-UK meaning. And of course the same type of people who say “holler” may say “crick,” as in “the good Lord willin and the crick don’t rise.”

  73. 73.

    Ruckus

    @RaflW:

    Some people walk around with their heads stuffed solidly up their exit port.

    Some walk around with it stuffed solidly up someone else’s.

    Rethuglicans, as a group, seem, through out my lifetime, to be in the second category. What this implies is that they see the world through shit covered lenses. And the reality is that they think this IS the world. They have been doing this my entire life, but the only thing they seemed to have learned is how to be WORSE at it.

  75. 75.

    WaterGirl

    @Dan B: Good one!  Thanks for the visual.  That is probably right!

    When she complains about all the unfair treatment she’s getting, will it be in her breathless little girl voice?

  77. 77.

    Another Scott

    @raven: I’ve seen bits and pieces about it. AJC.com has more.

    I’ve learned to be suspicious of the RWNM (Right Wing Noise Machine) so I’m not ready to jump onboard their train. It’s not like the police never make mistakes, or that the reporting never makes mistakes. Or that context gets erased in some cases but not others.

    One murder of a young white woman in a country of 330M is a tragedy for those involved. But it should not be trumped up into a demand to close the border, and worse. They’re not related.

    It looks like there were 825 murders in Georgia (8.2 per 100,000 people) reported to the GBI in 2022 (the latest numbers I can find (27 page .pdf)). 7 murders in Athens-Clarke County in 2022.

    Peace and comfort to those who loved her.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  78. 78.

    Miki

    @WaterGirl: This particular R-Critter is in Minnesota’s state senate, but I have no doubt he’s one of many state and federal P & RC fundies who are lying low (although he pretty much screwed that pooch) until more of them ascend to Power, as directed and ordained.

    The guy is young enough (a Boomer on the outer edge, but still a Boomer) to know better. Apparently he never intellectually ventures out beyond the doors of his church yet still catches the occasional Waft of Woke (The Horror!).

  81. 81.

    Shalimar

    @Baud: I have rediscovered that “I Won’t Back Down” is a very repetitive song that isn’t as easy to parody as I had thought.  But “Don’t Fuck Clowns” is still coming along nicely.

  82. 82.

    frosty

    @Another Scott: ​ And “Falls” for some streams in Maryland: Jones Falls, Gwynns Falls, Gunpowder Falls. All flowing through the Fall Line where the Piedmont meets the Coastal Plain. All with mills alongside in the early days of settlement.

  83. 83.

    sab

    @sab: I had some blather about “run” meaning creek in some parts from Virginia “Bull Run” to Ohio “Sand Run”.  People new to the area keep wanting to say Sand Run Creek, but Run already says Creek.

  84. 84.

    WaterGirl

    @RSA: He assumed she was “just a stewardess” so why would he listen when she introduced herself?

    It took maybe 10 seconds for this fundie last-century clown to show us who he was.  May they all do that so efficiently!

  85. 85.

    Bill Arnold

    @Eyeroller:

    And of course the same type of people who say “holler” may say “crick,” as in “the good Lord willin and the crick don’t rise.”

    “Crick” is a common pronunciation, at least among the old, in the Hudson Valley (NY), land of “Kills”. My grandmother from the Poughkeepsie NY area used “crick”.
    We also call Amelanchier (genus of tree/shrub) “shadbush”, named because it flowers when the shad run in the river. (Very bony fish, safe(ish) to eat even with pollution because they are just there to spawn.)

  86. 86.

    zhena gogolia

    @RSA: She’s so sweet when she corrects him but she’s clearly offended.

    ETA: I will say that his manner was not the usual assholish Repub one, so I’ll give him a pass.

  87. 87.

    HinTN

    @Eyeroller:

    and the crick don’t rise

    This is actually a total misunderstanding of ole Andy’s assertion that he would get back to Washington for some important event, “God willing and the Creek don’t rise.” He was out and about dealing with “injuns”, the Creek being some of them that he was suppressing.

  88. 88.

    WaterGirl

    @Dan B: She is very punchable.  (figuratively)

    If she was just a bad public speaker, people could probably let it go.  But she is so fucking disingenuous that she just begs to be mocked.

    Also, someone like that has no business being senator.  How is anyone supposed to take her seriously if she speaks on the senate floor?  Or maybe she is a good little girl and only speaks when spoken to?

  92. 92.

    RevRick

    @H.E.Wolf: The River that runs through Philly is the Schuykill, reminding us that New Netherlands originally extended from the Connecticut River to the Delaware.

  93. 93.

    Abnormal Hiker

    @Eyeroller: According to wikipedia ‘creek’ is a small tidal inlet in the UK. That is the meaning of ‘crique’ in French.   In Cayenne French Guiana they have ‘criques’ which seemed to me not to be tidal ie similar to usage in the US and Canada.

  95. 95.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @H.E.Wolf: Like the Schuykill River that lurches through Philadelphia. According to a friend who grew up in Philthy, it’s pronounced “Sure-kill” and in his youth, participants in regattas on said waterway were issued ​cyanide tablets in case they fell in. A fitting foyle (not to say a Gully Foyle) to the Mistake By The Lake (bka Cleveland) and its Cuya(“Burn On BIg River”)hoga… :^p

  96. 96.

    Geminid

    @Bill Arnold: Due to cleaner water and dam removal, shad are making a comeback in Virginia. And now sturgeon are showing up in the James River at Richmond.

    John McPhee wrote a book about shad that I want to read. He titled it Founding Fish.

  97. 97.

    Dan B

    @Geminid: Ate fresh Columbia River Sturgeon the night before last.  I didn’t tell my partner what it was.  His family brought a bug wooden schnooer up from the Bay area and moored on the Columbia in Portland.  Sturgeon swam around their boat and they creeper him out.  He should see what Black Cod ie. Sablefish look like

    Good to hear that Shad and Sturgeon are back.

  98. 98.

    CarolPW

    @sab: Steven Brust had the best take on that in The Phoenix Guard when the place name Bengloarafurd Ford rendered to ford ford ford ford.

  99. 99.

    RevRick

    @Uncle Cosmo: The Sure-kill refers to the Interstate that runs alongside the river. But with its near-constant traffic jams, there are few fatalities on it.

  101. 101.

    Another Scott

    @Dan B: I haven’t been able to find it again, but there are stories from the 1700s or so of sturgeon being caught in the Potomac river that were something like 17 feet long.  Of there being so many fish in the river that one could use them to walk across.

    Things really are different now.

    Nature is coming back, but there’s still a very long way to go!

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  103. 103.

    karen marie

    @Redshift: I tried to fill it out but it got stuck on “you have 1 error.”  I could not see an error.

    No matter.  I don’t need to sign up my email/phone number to get more pleas for donations.

  106. 106.

    cintibud

    Probably too late as usual, but to add to the terminology, a “riil” is smaller than a run

  107. 107.

    frosty

    @Louie Foster: That’s pretty much the way we used “crick” in South PA – small enough to walk across.

    Then there’s the bigger ones that you can’t walk across that some states call rivers, but no. They’re just creeks.

  110. 110.

    BethanyAnne

    I got confused a few weeks ago about a story that referred to Mount Baldy, but put it in Southern California. Ended up finding out that there are over 200 places named some variant of “bald mountain”, and that Wikipedia (of course) has a list.

  111. 111.

    Soprano2

    @raven: What’s ironic is that they wouldn’t care about these murders if they were committed by anyone else, or if they were part of a mass shooting.

  112. 112.

    Citizen Alan

    @WaterGirl: I’m interested in the implications of it being a UK court. Maybe it means he put a lien on Shitgibbon’s Scottish golf course. Or even seize it altogether. I bet it would make a lovely wind farm.

  113. 113.

    Citizen Alan

    @Soprano2: As I’ve said many times, the most absolutely disgusting thing about Republicans (and there are innumerable disgusting things about Republicans but this is the worst in my view) is the fact that they absolutely do not care in the slightest bit about any loss of human life unless that loss of life can be used to slander Democrats, in which case it is the greatest, most outrageous tragedy in living memory.

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