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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Everybody saw this coming.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

The words do not have to be perfect.

This really is a full service blog.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

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

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

The willow is too close to the house.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

“Look, it’s not against the rules anywhere, but a black woman with power was dating and there has to be something wrong with that.”

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

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You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "Stories from the Road" / Sunday Night Open Thread

Sunday Night Open Thread

by John Cole|  March 17, 20247:28 pm| 141 Comments

This post is in: John Cole Presents "Stories from the Road", John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House"

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Thought I would crank out a post before you all are in bed and I am off doing things. I have to pick up Joelle in a couple hours, and have been running around doing last minute shit getting ready for departure. I didn’t want to lose track of time again and go to write a post and realize it’s 1pm East Coast time.

That is one weird thing- even though the DST change took me from two hours behind EST to three hours, and it is only ONE HOUR, it really makes a difference, especially in the flow of the day. People on the East coast might as well be on a different planet now. You want to talk to me on the phone? Ok, but not before at least noon EST because if you call me before I am in morning mode and am not going to put up with your caffeinated bullshit when I have not even showered yet.

I put off my departure until Tuesday because I didn’t want to Joelle to come home miserable from three days at a funeral and then leave 12 hours later. So I am taking the extra time to make sure all work related stuff is done, everything is packed, and last minute things are done. It just made sense. Also doing something different with the cats this time- both are going in a massive crate that Joelle had that basically take up the entire back of the car. It’s warm enough that they can just stay there the entire trip home and I am not even going to bother bringing them into the motel. I put two carboard boxes in the crate with little beds, so they can just chill there in their own personal spaces with the litter box there for both of them rather than two tiny litter boxes in two small crates. Not having Thurston on the ride home is going to make this so much easier.

It has come to my attention that some people are uncomfortable with the tone in some of the Israel/Palestine discussions. To the point that people I care about deeply no longer feel comfortable commenting. Cut that bullshit out.

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Reader Interactions

141Comments

  1. 1.

    JPL

    March 17, 2024 at 7:31 pm

    Why isn’t Thurston returning with you?    I’m not able to read the post as much as I would like, so I missed it.

  2. 2.

    JPL

    March 17, 2024 at 7:35 pm

    In good news, even the NYTimes has an article about trump’s comments about migrants and  bloodbath.  I guess his cleanup folks didn’t convince everyone he only meant the car industry when he referred to blood bath.

  3. 3.

    Jackie

    March 17, 2024 at 7:36 pm

    Glad you’re taking an extra day to get things done spend with Joelle before you head back to the hills and hollers!

    I wonder how long it will be before you find yourself missing Thurston and find an abandoned dog on the side of the road 😁

  4. 4.

    Anonymous at Work

    March 17, 2024 at 7:41 pm

    At conference, went from EDT to PST.  FOUR entire hours while traveling.

    Not for the weak

  5. 5.

    Jackie

    March 17, 2024 at 7:41 pm

    @JPL: Thurston loves Joelle more than Cole. I would too!😂

  6. 6.

    JPL

    March 17, 2024 at 7:45 pm

    @Jackie: Happy news indeed!   Thanks.

  7. 7.

    BR

    March 17, 2024 at 7:48 pm

    @JPL:

    I think it is more important that we double down on the “he’s right that he’s a loser who will lose again, and when he does he’ll whine online with those tiny thumbs how it’s not fair that he lost again.”

    His base likes that he makes people scared and likes the norm breaking. They don’t like him being framed as a loser.

  8. 8.

    lowtechcyclist

    March 17, 2024 at 7:49 pm

    Glad you’re spending the extra day with Joelle, John!  You’ll both be glad for that extra bit of time together and emotional sustenance.

    Safe travels!

  9. 9.

    Cacti

    March 17, 2024 at 7:49 pm

    @JPL:   CNN went ahead and sanitized his comments for him and said he promised an “economic bloodbath”.

    I definitely did not hear the word “economic” before “bloodbath”.

    But, it’s always best to assume good faith from the guy who tried to overthrow the last election.  (smh)

  10. 10.

    Anne Laurie

    March 17, 2024 at 7:50 pm

    *Not* taking Thurston back to WV with you is a(n unexpectedly) smart decision, Cole!

    He’ll be happier with Jack & Curtis — and, of course, Joelle — and you’ll be, hopefully, a lot less stressed on the trip.

  11. 11.

    billcoop4

    March 17, 2024 at 7:55 pm

    I so do not understand the time change drama.  At all. It gets old.

    BC

  12. 12.

    JPL

    March 17, 2024 at 8:00 pm

    @Cacti:  I’m not sure who was the afternoon host but she did say he mentioned the entire country not just Ohio.   She questioned the spin.

    BR is right about painting trump as a loser though, because that is the one thing he can’t accept.   He’ll just melt down.

  13. 13.

    WaterGirl

    March 17, 2024 at 8:10 pm

    @Anne Laurie: Pretty sure that’s been the plan since Cole arrived in AZ.  Good that they are sticking with it.

  14. 14.

    wjca

    March 17, 2024 at 8:10 pm

    @JPL: BR is right about painting trump as a loser though, because that is the one thing he can’t accept.   He’ll just melt down. 

    Over, and over, and over again.

    He’s demonstrated repeatedly that he just can’t help himself.  Even when it’s said somewhere obscure.  If it’s somewhere high profile, the only question is whether “melt down” or “erupt” is a closer description.  I suppose the distinction is in whether his makeup starts to run….

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    March 17, 2024 at 8:11 pm

    @wjca: Yeah, I’m sure that Trump doing the equivalent of writing I AM NOT A LOSER on “truth” social every day will do wonders for people not perceiving him as a loser.

  16. 16.

    Chacal Charles Calthrop

    March 17, 2024 at 8:15 pm

    thanks for posting! was wondering what was happening chez Cole.

    re cats: I just sublet my NYC place to an old friend with two cats.  Today he calls me in a panic, telling me he can’t find one of his cats.  I patiently explain that I lived there with four cats, in total, over the years, and none of them ever got out, so as long as he hasn’t opened any windows without screens (of which there are none) his missing cat is somewhere in the apartment and will come out in due course for dinner.

    Turns out the cat had figured out how to get into the lower kitchen cabinet next to the stove, which slides out, being one of these: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rev-A-Shelf-25-5-in-H-x-5-5-in-W-x-21-625-in-D-Pull-Out-Wood-Base-Cabinet-4-Shelves-with-3-Bins-and-Soft-Close-Slides-448UT-BCSC-5C/312771967

    This particular piece of kitchen cabinetry had apparently slide back in with cat inside, from which the cat had ventured forth, as cats will, into the adjoining space allowing access into the other lower kitchen cabinet, which with its usual quota for rarely-used kitchen equipment may well have played host to mice during this past winter, the presence of which would make the contents of a rarely-used kitchen cabinet of infinite interest to a cat.

    So of course the cat had not meowed to be let free until such an adventure was completely concluded with absolutely no mice, at which point, of course, the cat had effectively vanished for hours….

  17. 17.

    zhena gogolia

    March 17, 2024 at 8:23 pm

    Yulia Navalnaya called for Russians to appear at polling places today at noon as a sign of protest against Putin. They turned out all over Russia and Europe (and Dubai).

  18. 18.

    JPL

    March 17, 2024 at 8:27 pm

    @wjca:  trump’s authoritarian language should not be ignored though.    The Biden campaign is more than capable of doing both, and the media should not brush aside or excuse his I’m like Hitler speeches.  trump’s cleanup crew was in full force because they understood that what he said was damaging.

  19. 19.

    wjca

    March 17, 2024 at 8:33 pm

    @JPL: trump’s cleanup crew was in full force because they understood that what he said was damaging.

    I’m anticipating him deciding that they are undercutting his ineffable message, and ordering them to stop obscuring it.  It would be no more of an own goal than the things he keeps insisting that his lawyers do.

  20. 20.

    Jackie

    March 17, 2024 at 8:34 pm

    @WaterGirl: So much for GQPers trying to defend TIFG’s statement as being about shipping cars from Mexico to the US.

    TIFG decided to triple-down on what he said and meant:

    Donald Trump doubled down on his description of immigrants as “poisoning the blood” of the country, language that echoes Hitler, the New York Times reports.

    Said Trump: “We can be nice about it, we can talk about, ‘Oh, I want to be politically correct.’ But we have people coming in from prisons and jails, long-term murderers, people with sentences that the rest of their lives they’re going to spend in some jail in some country that many people have never even heard of. They’re all being released into our country.”

    He went on: “These are people at the highest level of crime, and then you have mental institutions and insane asylums — I always say the difference is one is ‘Silence of the Lambs,’ you know, it’s a mental institution on steroids, OK? — and those mental institutions and insane asylums are being emptied out into the United States, and then you have terrorists pouring in at levels we have never seen before.”

    Tomorrow’s news programs are going to be filled with GQP apologists STILL trying to say we did not hear what we heard with our lying ears.

  21. 21.

    zhena gogolia

    March 17, 2024 at 8:34 pm

    Had to throw the NYT across the room again. I thought I’d peek at the Opinion section. I was greeted with another article about how we all hate both candidates! Both sides!

    I wish they could all be sent to a prison in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug for what they’re doing to our country.

  22. 22.

    Jay

    March 17, 2024 at 8:35 pm

    Well, we just had our first forest fire of the year here.

  23. 23.

    JPL

    March 17, 2024 at 8:36 pm

    @wjca: I just saw this on mediaite and will share it, because I’m not sure what the best approach is.   I do have faith in the Biden campaign.      link

  24. 24.

    JPL

    March 17, 2024 at 8:37 pm

    @Jackie: I just want to have someone say WHO?  and then follow up.

  25. 25.

    SteveinPHX

    March 17, 2024 at 8:41 pm

    @Chacal Charles Calthrop: Great story! We have four cats here and occasionally have to do a cat count when one has slunk into a closet unbeknownst to us human types.

    Thanks for the very helpful Home Depot link.

  26. 26.

    ronno2018

    March 17, 2024 at 8:41 pm

    you guys are amazing to do so much care for the pets!  safe travels!

  27. 27.

    Anoniminous

    March 17, 2024 at 8:42 pm

    @Jay:

    Welcome to the New Normal.

  28. 28.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    March 17, 2024 at 8:45 pm

    About time zones: yeah, I live in California and the East Coast is practically another world, as Cole has noticed. A three-hour offset is not something to take lightly, both when you have to call someone there, or get a call from someone.

    The most fun I ever had with time zones was some years ago when I took a trip to Greece.  I would email my husband in the evening about my days’ adventures, and he would get it the morning of the same day (I think it was a 10-hour time difference). It was a bit like time-travel :-)

  29. 29.

    Ruviana

    March 17, 2024 at 8:52 pm

    @JPL:  I wonder if she’ll tell her husband this.

  30. 30.

    Steve in the ATL

    March 17, 2024 at 8:52 pm

    @wjca:

    his ineffable message

    Is it ineffable, though? Or is it really effed up?

  31. 31.

    billcoop4

    March 17, 2024 at 8:56 pm

    I go to AZ by plane yearly (ok only for 2 weeks) and have no issue adjusting to the time change in either direction. I just get on local time, as I’ve done when going to Europe.  Someone please help me understand why it’s an issue?

    (I land in AZ and drive for 4-6 hours before getting to my final destination; I arrive back in Newark and drive 4 hours to around 10 pm EDT). I’m 63. Please explain.

    BC

  32. 32.

    Jackie

    March 17, 2024 at 8:58 pm

    😂  🤣  😂  🤣  😂

    #1, the Dems will be led by House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries next year, and #2, I boldly predict TIFG will NOT be the President!

    House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) said GOP leadership should reconsider how they invite presidents to give the State of the Union address, citing President Biden’s “divisive” speech, Axios reports.

    Said Emmer: “That was about the most divisive State of the Union — I wouldn’t extend him an invitation next year, if that’s what we’re going to get.”

    He added: “He’s not going to be there next year — it’ll be a different president. But I think you’ve got to rethink issuing invitations for a State of the Union if it’s not going to be a State of the Union, and that was not. That was a campaign speech.”

  33. 33.

    Almost Retired

    March 17, 2024 at 9:00 pm

    @billcoop4:  it’s like allergies.  You have them or you don’t.  I’m woozy for a few days after traveling through time zones.  My wife takes a nap and is ready to go.

  34. 34.

    WaterGirl

    March 17, 2024 at 9:02 pm

    @JPL: I say to Susan Glasser – keep it up!  Keep telling the truth.

    WTF is wrong with these people who cover for what Trump says?

  35. 35.

    lowtechcyclist

    March 17, 2024 at 9:02 pm

    @Ruviana:

    I wonder if she’ll tell her husband this.

    Could you remind us? I really don’t think much about who’s who in the commentariat, let alone who’s connected with whom.

  36. 36.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 17, 2024 at 9:03 pm

    @zhena gogolia: An idiotic thing to call for.

  37. 37.

    WaterGirl

    March 17, 2024 at 9:03 pm

    @Ruviana: Who is the she and what is the what in your sentence?

  38. 38.

    bk

    March 17, 2024 at 9:03 pm

    @billcoop4: same

  39. 39.

    Jackie

    March 17, 2024 at 9:05 pm

    @billcoop4:

    Someone please help me understand why it’s an issue?

    Trying to watch your west coast sports team waaay after bedtime! Especially baseball – when 1st pitch is at 7 pm PT. 😉

  40. 40.

    WaterGirl

    March 17, 2024 at 9:06 pm

    @bk: I don’t think it’s a choice for people.  My best friend is a no-drama person, but the time changes throw her for a loop for at least a couple of weeks.  It’s always been like this.

    For me it’s a nothing-burger blip – I mostly notice it because the dog and the cat are rattling their (virtual) tin cups against the (virtual) bars saying WHERE’S MY DINNER?

    I think we’re just built differently.

  41. 41.

    Honus

    March 17, 2024 at 9:08 pm

    Sort of off topic but I just discovered yesterday that Frances McDormand went to Bethany.  Maybe the most famous alumnus

  42. 42.

    WaterGirl

    March 17, 2024 at 9:08 pm

    @Almost Retired: I see that you and I basically said the same thing.

    Yours was more concise, of course!

  43. 43.

    JPL

    March 17, 2024 at 9:09 pm

    @Ruviana: They all know but are more concerned about their own salvation.  Good for her though

  44. 44.

    WaterGirl

    March 17, 2024 at 9:10 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:  Perhaps she saw it as a first, relatively risk-free thing that people could do?  And then having done that first thing, might be more brave for the next thing?

    Or maybe it was testing the waters to get a feel for how many people might be brave enough to do something?

  45. 45.

    Scout211

    March 17, 2024 at 9:10 pm

    @billcoop4: Someone please help me understand why it’s an issue?

    If you mean why it’s an issue in John’s post, it’s because he is working remotely and he just went from working a two hour time difference with his work to a three hour time difference.  So if someone from work calls him at 8:30 am ET, his phone rings in Arizona at 5:30 am PT.

    And also, some people just have a more difficult time changing their body clock than other people do.

    Edited for clarity.

  46. 46.

    Jackie

    March 17, 2024 at 9:12 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    WTF is wrong with these people who cover for what Trump says?

    Do you really not know the answer?

    Hint: They’re not supporting Country over Power. They don’t want to be primaried.

    And others are worried about their family’s safety and/or being swatted by mega MAGAts.

  47. 47.

    karen marie

    March 17, 2024 at 9:13 pm

    @billcoop4:  I thought John was pretty clear what the issue was – communicating in real time with people in another time zone, with the extra whammy that AZ doesn’t do DST, so there’s a second shift of time between the two places when the other time zone begins (or ends) DST.

    It’s a pain in the ass.

  48. 48.

    WaterGirl

    March 17, 2024 at 9:13 pm

    @Scout211: Also, if, like me, you happen to suck at time zones, that could throw you.

    I suck at time zones, but I do know that (normally) Cole is an hour later than me, that my friend in CA is 2 hours earlier than me, but is 3 hours earlier than blog time.

    If there was a time change where I was and suddenly my “CA is 2 hours earlier” was thrown out the window, that would throw me for a bit.

  49. 49.

    JPL

    March 17, 2024 at 9:15 pm

    Susan Glasser is married to Peter baker of the nytimes

    She obviously decided not to sugar coat the orange loser.  I doubt her husband has the same courage

  50. 50.

    karen marie

    March 17, 2024 at 9:16 pm

    @Jackie: Does Emmer not remember TFG’s SOTU speeches?

    I don’t – I didn’t listen to them – but I cannot imagine they weren’t completely unhinged and wildly partisan.

    Motherfuckers.

  51. 51.

    WaterGirl

    March 17, 2024 at 9:18 pm

    @Jackie:

    Do you really not know the answer?

    Hint: They’re not supporting Country over Power. They don’t want to be primaried.

    And others are worried about their family’s safety and/or being swatted by mega MAGAts.

    I’ll be more direct. :-)

    If I was afraid my family would be SWATed, then I would give up my position before I would vote differently out of fear.

    If was afraid that I would be primaried while I was in office, I would take the votes I thought I should take and then not run again.

    I wouldn’t take votes I thought were immoral, or amoral, and I sure as hell wouldn’t put power over the good of the country.

  52. 52.

    piratedan

    March 17, 2024 at 9:21 pm

    @karen marie: yeah, the same guy that ran campaign events on the grounds of the White House.  I get tired of all of this bad faith bullshit being given any credence.  Tom get back to us on precedence and civil norms when you guys remember to honor them, otherwise stfu.

    Dear Media, to allow Emmers comments to sit without context is a huge fucking disservice but I guess expecting you to honor any semblance of standards is a bridge too far.

  53. 53.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 17, 2024 at 9:21 pm

    @WaterGirl: How can she possibly know how many of the thousands of people standing in line are doing so to actually vote for Putin and how many are standing there as an empty gesture? 99% of the world sees: 1) thousands of people in line and 2) Putin getting 95% of the vote. The Navalny people are so incompetent it’s painful.

  54. 54.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 17, 2024 at 9:22 pm

    Deleted

  55. 55.

    zhena gogolia

    March 17, 2024 at 9:25 pm

    @WaterGirl: Forget it, Jake.

  56. 56.

    BellyCat

    March 17, 2024 at 9:26 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Navalny people are so incompetent it’s painful.

    Seems a tad insensitive given the consequences for overt disobedience?

  57. 57.

    zhena gogolia

    March 17, 2024 at 9:27 pm

    On Thursday, the Moscow Prosecutor’s Office warned Russians that participating in the “Noon Against Putin” protest would be punishable by up to five years in prison.

    Someone thinks it means something.

  58. 58.

    lowtechcyclist

    March 17, 2024 at 9:29 pm

    @JPL:

    Given what they make between them, they ought to have enough money salted away by now that it shouldn’t take much courage.

    Fuckem.

  59. 59.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 17, 2024 at 9:30 pm

    @BellyCat: Wake me when Navalnaya begins to give a shit about dead Ukrainians.

  60. 60.

    Jeffro

    March 17, 2024 at 9:30 pm

    @JPL:In good news, even the NYTimes has an article about trump’s comments about migrants and  bloodbath

    ABC News also opened tonight with “bloodbath”.  Good for them (and us)!

  61. 61.

    Jeffro

    March 17, 2024 at 9:33 pm

    OT but I see that both JMU and UVA are in the NCAA tournament!  VA REPRESENT!! (for about 15 min, anyway)

    (Longwood too but…Longwood)

  62. 62.

    smike

    March 17, 2024 at 9:36 pm

    @Jackie: But I think you’ve got to rethink issuing invitations for a State of the Union if it’s not going to be a State of the Union, and that was not.

    I guess he thinks Biden should’ve said that the sotu is peachy keen, what with republicans showing such leadership and helping to solve some of our most serious issues. I, for one, am very happy that Biden put it very bluntly that they are being the opposite of helpful to the nation. I guess it’s embarrassing when someone points out your behavior as a political cult.

  63. 63.

    cain

    March 17, 2024 at 9:37 pm

    @JPL: Thurston likes Joelle way more than Cole

  64. 64.

    Jackie

    March 17, 2024 at 9:39 pm

    @WaterGirl: Yes. It’s too scary that basically 1/2 of American politicians are chickenshits and terrified of MAGA’s power. Even more so than TIFG himself. Rabid MAGAts have more power than him. Without them he is toast. TIFG acknowledges it by growing more extreme to keep that 30% with him and not turn away from him.

  65. 65.

    Betty

    March 17, 2024 at 9:39 pm

    @Jackie: My husband has been in several hospitals and rehabs in Miami over the past few months, and I noticed that a majority of the staff are immigrants. So I am picturing Trump in a Miami hospital and wondering what his rapport with the staff would be like.

  66. 66.

    BellyCat

    March 17, 2024 at 9:40 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Fair point. But there is perhaps some logic to fighting one battle at a time.

  67. 67.

    NanaR

    March 17, 2024 at 9:44 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Instead of throwing the paper across the room, better to CANCEL your subscription.

  68. 68.

    cain

    March 17, 2024 at 9:46 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    They can’t keep grifting without it they don’t have regular jobs .. they don’t work. Influencers need drama all the time

  69. 69.

    Jackie

    March 17, 2024 at 9:46 pm

    @smike: True. He complained that it was a political speech, which in all honesty it was, BUT tell me TIFG’s SOTU speeches weren’t political.

    And let’s not forget TIFG’s Inauguration speech!

  70. 70.

    Mike in NC

    March 17, 2024 at 9:50 pm

    @karen marie:  At least one time Fat Bastard called anybody who didn’t jump up and give his SOTU address a standing ovation “traitors”. Perfectly normal.

  71. 71.

    TBone

    March 17, 2024 at 9:52 pm

    Jiminy Cricket!  Fux Snews introduced ‘sponsored prayers’ by the app called Hallow today.  Or should I say spinsored.  🤮

  72. 72.

    wjca

    March 17, 2024 at 9:56 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Is it ineffable, though? Or is it really effed up?

    He thinks it’s the former.  In reality, it’s the latter; hence his staff’s scramble for attempted damage control.

  73. 73.

    Jackie

    March 17, 2024 at 9:56 pm

    @Betty: As a rejected former president, does he still have Walter Reed privileges? Or would that “cesspool of Blue elites” scare him more?😉

  74. 74.

    Another Scott

    March 17, 2024 at 9:57 pm

    A.R. Moxon, Verified Duck 🦆
    @[email protected]

    Trump’s going to say we need a “final solution” to the border tomorrow and by evening every fucking centrist media figure will be scolding us for assuming he means anything other than benign immigration reform.

    Mar 17, 2024, 19:59

    No lie told. [/rikyrah]

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  75. 75.

    Jackie

    March 17, 2024 at 10:02 pm

    @TBone: Was it an evangelical prayer, complete with asking for donations to help pay for the lawsuits they lost? And are still facing?

  76. 76.

    wjca

    March 17, 2024 at 10:07 pm

    @Betty: majority of the staff are immigrants. So I am picturing Trump in a Miami hospital and wondering what his rapport with the staff would be like.

    “Rapport” is probably the wrong word.

    They would treat him appropriately, with due courtesy, because that’s the kind of people they are.  And he would treat them like he treats the illegals who mow his lawns, i.e. contemptuously.  Because that’s the kind of person he is.

  77. 77.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 17, 2024 at 10:09 pm

    @Jackie:

    And others are worried about their family’s safety and/or being swatted by mega MAGAts.

    I keep wondering the same thing about this: are any of these Republican politicians, or their families, really in more danger if they step out of line than any Democratic politician or their families? Democrats keep being Democrats, despite the threats we know they face (consider Nancy Pelosi’s husband’s attacker).

  78. 78.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 17, 2024 at 10:13 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    are any of these Republican politicians, or their families, really in more danger if they step out of line than any Democratic politician or their families?

    Republicans are such fucking cowards that their response to angry questions at town halls when they tried to repeal Obamacare was to stop having town halls.  They stopped meeting with their constituents, period.  I’m not sure if they ever restarted.

    These are the most fragile fucking snowflakes you can imagine.  It’s an ideology of chickenshits:  Talk big, threaten from a distance, run and hide from the slightest risk.

  79. 79.

    Ivan X

    March 17, 2024 at 10:14 pm

    It has come to my attention that some people are uncomfortable with the tone in some of the Israel/Palestine discussions. To the point that people I care about deeply no longer feel comfortable commenting. Cut that bullshit out.

    Can you elaborate? What tone? What people? What bullshit?

    I mean, frankly, I’m one of those people who no longer feels comfortable commenting, and I think I appreciate what you’re trying to get across here (though not entirely sure). What is it you want us to do or stop doing?

  80. 80.

    TBone

    March 17, 2024 at 10:15 pm

    @Jackie: I don’t know what brand they’re hawking!

    “We have more Fox and Friends coming up, but you know what this is a transition for transitions if you’ve ever had one so so so Fox and Friends, this is very Fox and Friends, so ready your heart,” Fox News host Pete Hegseth said on Sunday, segueing from a rant against TikTok.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fox-news-introduces-sponsored-prayers-to-jesus-thank-you-again-for-this-partnership/ar-BB1k2JrN

    “It’s a fire in us, the same sacrificial, selfless love selfless love you showed on the cross,” Hegseth added. “Jesus we surrender ourselves to you, take care of everything. Thank you again to Hallow for this partnership.”

  81. 81.

    BellyCat

    March 17, 2024 at 10:17 pm

    @NanaR:

    Worked for me. Same with Nice Polite Republican radio  donations/listening.

    My mental health and blood pressure both gave thanks.

  82. 82.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 17, 2024 at 10:18 pm

    @BR:

    I think it is more important that we double down on the “he’s right that he’s a loser who will lose again, and when he does he’ll whine online with those tiny thumbs how it’s not fair that he lost again.” 

    Also that Dump is a racist, fascistic, misogynistic pile of shit whose disgusting face has been the Kremlin’s colostomy bag since at least 1987.

  83. 83.

    Jackie

    March 17, 2024 at 10:19 pm

    @TBone: Can you translate that Speaking In Tongues into English? 😂

  84. 84.

    TBone

    March 17, 2024 at 10:20 pm

    @Jackie: 😆 nope nope nope

  85. 85.

    jame

    March 17, 2024 at 10:20 pm

    Time change: My son’s wedding was last weekend. His wife is a doctor, so there were a lot of medical professionals attending. I was grousing about the time change being like TSA and shoe removal at the airport — it’s useless and only serves to inconvenience all of us. Several docs chimed in to agree strongly, saying that it hurts not only them as they work 12 hour shifts, but it very negatively affects patient care. And it’s so unnecessary.

  86. 86.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 17, 2024 at 10:27 pm

    It has come to my attention that some people are uncomfortable with the tone in some of the Israel/Palestine discussions.

    I must have missed these discussions.  Aside from a few drive by ARG GENOCIDE JOE commenters I’ve never heard of, this topic has seemed pretty polite.  The biggest disagreements are people who feel that popular concern about the topic is dangerous and being treated too dismissively vs people who think the electoral danger over the issue is overblown and the social media narrative is driven by bad actors.  For this place, the disagreement has been pretty low on jackal snarling, even given some people are obviously passionate about their side of the issue.

  87. 87.

    glc

    March 17, 2024 at 10:28 pm

    @zhena gogolia: The NYT is like a vampire, can’t get in unless you give it permission.

    Anyway, try garlic

     

    Edit: Covered by @NanaR:

  88. 88.

    wjca

    March 17, 2024 at 10:32 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: are any of these Republican politicians, or their families, really in more danger if they step out of line than any Democratic politician or their families?

    Probably, yes.  Democratic politicians (and their families) are just enemies.  Whereas those Republican politicians, if they step out of line, become TRAITORS.  And thus, far more likely to be attacked, and more fiercely, than mere enemies.

  89. 89.

    wjca

    March 17, 2024 at 10:36 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: Also that Dump is a racist, fascistic, misogynistic pile of shit

    None of which would he find nearly as insulting, or as threatening to his self esteem, as “loser!”

  90. 90.

    NotMax

    March 17, 2024 at 10:59 pm

    Three hour difference?

    Hah. Pikers. After the latest change to mainland clocks, Hawaii is six hours removed from Eastern time.

  91. 91.

    RevRick

    March 17, 2024 at 10:59 pm

    @Jeffro: Connecticut benevolently smiles in amusement. Yale… and a five-ton behemoth fifty miles northeast of them.

  92. 92.

    NotMax

    March 17, 2024 at 11:03 pm

    @RevRick

    Rhode island School of Design made the playoffs? Hoocuddanode?
    :)

  93. 93.

    John Cole

    March 17, 2024 at 11:04 pm

    @Cacti: Why are you not answering my emails?

  94. 94.

    Jackie

    March 17, 2024 at 11:11 pm

    @NotMax: My sister and I were in Maui in Sept years ago, celebrating her 50th BD. Her cellphone rang at 4 a.m. multiple times Maui Time with friends calling to wish her a happy BD. “DO YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS?!!?” was her cranky response(s) 😂 I just pulled pillows over my head.

  95. 95.

    RevRick

    March 17, 2024 at 11:18 pm

    I feel, and probably am, like a bomber pilot flying over this website, dropping an occasional load of bombs , and then returning to base, not to be heard or seen until the next mission. Most of the time, I feel like I have very little to add. So tonight I just want to pull a John Cole thing and report my doings.

    I watched an episode on the Civil War on Wondrium on the Northern home front, and then J and I watched an episode about Indigenous peoples of the arctic regions. We watched an episode of Royal Pains on Netflix and Daredevil on Disney. I washed the dishes. And now J and I have settled into to reading our books, she, The Women for her book club, and me, the first volume of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy. I love history and historical fiction.

    Oh, and I’m enjoying a splash of Ardbeg, which claims the flavor notes of treacle, bacon, and bonfires.

  96. 96.

    RevRick

    March 17, 2024 at 11:19 pm

    @NotMax: They did have designs….

  97. 97.

    Jackie

    March 17, 2024 at 11:30 pm

    GQP eating their own!
    👏🏻👏🏻  👏🏻👏🏻  👏🏻👏🏻

    “House Republicans, who have seen their time in the majority devolve into a seemingly endless series of internal party feuds, now have a new problem: GOP lawmakers targeting other sitting members in their primaries,” CNN reports.

    “In at least four primaries – in South Carolina, Illinois, Texas and Virginia – Republican members are actively campaigning against one of their own, inflaming tensions in a conference where emotions are still raw in the aftermath of Kevin McCarthy’s unprecedented ouster atop the House.”

    Gaetz is going after two, and for “personal reasons, McCarthy is targeting the eight who voted him out as Speaker: Gaetz, Mace, Good (VA,) Burchett (TN,) Buck (CO, quit,) Biggs (AZ,) Crane (AZ,) and Rosendale (MT who I think isn’t running for re-election.)

  98. 98.

    NotMax

    March 17, 2024 at 11:31 pm

    @RevRick

    Ardbeg, first whisky in space.

  99. 99.

    glc

    March 17, 2024 at 11:31 pm

    @RevRick: Noted.

    Treacle, bacon, and bonfires.

    I will bear that in mind.

    There is a Rauchbier in Germany which is not to be taken lightly. Tastes as bacon would taste if it were beer.

  100. 100.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 17, 2024 at 11:33 pm

    @Betty:

    So I am picturing Trump in a Miami hospital and wondering what his rapport with the staff would be like.

    One step at a time. Let’s get him in the hospital first and then worry about how well he gets along with staff.

    :-)  :-)  :-)

  101. 101.

    karen marie

    March 17, 2024 at 11:36 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck:    They haven’t.

    David Schweikert was my rep for six years.  He didn’t hold a single town hall.  Andy Biggs has been my rep for the last three years.  He doesn’t hold town halls.

  102. 102.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 17, 2024 at 11:39 pm

    @Jackie:

    GQP eating their own!

    If you stand back a few decades this is astonishing.  Even before Obama’s election instituted Total War, Reagan’s 11th Commandment was that Republicans should not go after each other.  Party was more important.

    The process of bigots electing assholes with defiant oppositional disorder to represent their juvenile resentment has gone so far that the assholes can’t even cooperate against the absolute evil enemy*.

    *Us

  103. 103.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 17, 2024 at 11:39 pm

    @wjca:

    None of which would he find nearly as insulting, or as threatening to his self esteem, as “loser!”

    This is sadly, sadly, pathetically true.

    And I doubt he’d even know what it means for his face to be the Kremlin’s colostomy bag.

  104. 104.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 17, 2024 at 11:44 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Mental hospital?

  105. 105.

    RevRick

    March 17, 2024 at 11:44 pm

    @glc: Channeling my inner Homer Simpson: Mmmm, bacon.

  106. 106.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 17, 2024 at 11:46 pm

    @RevRick: 😲😋

  107. 107.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 17, 2024 at 11:48 pm

    @Betty:

    I am picturing Trump in a Miami hospital and wondering what his rapport with the staff would be like.

    My god, he must be the worst patient.  Sure he knows better than the doctor, insulting to nurses, randomly violent and destructive.  Constantly demanding everything his way, and sure that rules don’t apply to him.

  108. 108.

    CaseyL

    March 17, 2024 at 11:49 pm

    The weather was lovely here in Seattle today, and I’m very pleased to have gotten out into it.  Went to one of local farmer’s markets and got some food stuff.

    [Deleted a bunch of political whining.]

    Anyway, hope everyone had a great weekend.

  109. 109.

    Another Scott

    March 17, 2024 at 11:49 pm

    @Jackie:

    It’s happening at the county party level too. E.g. BlueVirginia.US on the goings on in Loudoun:

    Yesterday, the Loudoun GOP held an election for chair — and it was as crazy and nasty as you’d expect (according to former Trump official Nick Minock, who now works as a “journalist” at right-wing-propaganda Sinclair’s WJLATV7, tweeted, “A few folks described the race to me as “bare knuckle” “off the rails” and filled with ‘personal attacks’” – such as the incumbent Chair, Scott Pio, accusing his opponent, Paul Lott, of “abusing his wife and Children in 2024”). In the end, incumbent Chair Pio (see below for more about him) barely held off a challenge from Lott (who Del. Rip Sullivan, in his “Flip-and-Defend-a-District-Friday,” described as “focused on Critical Race Theory, banning books, attacking transgender students…taking away a woman’s right to choose…a right-wing extremist”; Lott also claims that transgender “ideology” is “contrary to human history, biology, and commonsense”) – by 37 votes out of 1,159 cast, in a highly divided party (note: the former VA GOP Chair hates Pio, as you can see from his tweets, below).

    There’s going to be a shortage of popcorn, and anvils…

    Forward!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  110. 110.

    Jackie

    March 17, 2024 at 11:55 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: The MAGA party rejects everything Reagan stood for. Today Reagan is considered a RINO by the MAGA Party.

    Truly amazing.

  111. 111.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 17, 2024 at 11:57 pm

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Mental hospital?

    St Dymphna’s Home For the Elderly Deranged (h/t Yes, Prime Minister)

  112. 112.

    Jackie

    March 17, 2024 at 11:59 pm

    @Another Scott: I loaded up on popcorn last wknd at Costco! I’m sure I’ll be reloading again once or more before Nov! 😁

  113. 113.

    Nettoyeur

    March 18, 2024 at 12:00 am

    @zhena gogolia:  There is also Russian Karelia. It used to be part of Finland but I now even the Finns don’t want it back. Vorkuta and Norilsk are pretty awful too. Snow covers a lot of nasty stuff.

  114. 114.

    piratedan

    March 18, 2024 at 12:07 am

    @karen marie:  they know damn well that they would be asked questions that they don’t want to hear, much less answer.

  115. 115.

    Ohio Mom

    March 18, 2024 at 12:08 am

    @Ivan X: I had the same question but then I remembered I’ve started skipping those threads so the answer is to moot to me.

  116. 116.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 18, 2024 at 12:09 am

    @glc: I lived in Bamberg.   My little coterie of friends loved the Schlenkerla.  It was a fixture on Sunday afternoons following the champagne brunch* at the officers’ club.

    *It was probably prosecco and not all that good, but it was all you can drink.

  117. 117.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 18, 2024 at 12:12 am

    @Another Scott: Loudoun was Lyndon LaRouche country back in the day–I don’t suppose there’s a connection here?

  118. 118.

    Kelly

    March 18, 2024 at 12:15 am

    @Jay: I read somewhere that many of last year’s Canadian fires smoldered on thru the winter. Zombie fire ready to spread when the countryside drys out.

  119. 119.

    Jay

    March 18, 2024 at 12:32 am

    @Kelly:

    yup, 91 “zombie” fires in BC alone, in the north and central, but this was a brand new fire on the highway to Squamish, in the “Rainforest”. The Rainforest never used to burn, now it does.

  120. 120.

    frosty

    March 18, 2024 at 12:37 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: ​ Nah, the Zurich Institute for the Criminally Insane (h/t Wednesday)

  121. 121.

    glc

    March 18, 2024 at 1:12 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    it was all you can drink.

    That seems like a tricky point. There was one fellow at an all-you-can-eat buffet who decided he just wanted some chocolate cake. Ate twelve pieces.

  122. 122.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 18, 2024 at 1:21 am

    @glc: Well, brunch ended at 2:00 pm, so there was a natural ending point to that part of the debauchery.

  123. 123.

    Citizen Alan

    March 18, 2024 at 1:30 am

    @Jackie: Fuck Tom Emmer and every god-damned member of his Nazi death cult! Biden’s speech was divisive?!? In Shitgibbon’s last SOTU address, the son of a bitch interrupted his speech halfway through to give that motherfucker Rush Fucking Limbaugh the PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM ON LIVE FUCKING TV!!!

    Rush Limbaugh! A man whose sole claim to fame was spending 40 years on radio and TV calling Democrats everything but children of god and LITERALLY CHEERING THE DEATHS OF GAYS AND OTHER PEOPLE HE HATED! And for which he was paid HUNDRESDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS!!!

  124. 124.

    Citizen Alan

    March 18, 2024 at 1:33 am

    @WaterGirl: Susan Glasser, huh? Maybe then the vapid bitch should have spent months and months undermining the Biden Administration because Joe ended the Forever War that she and her blood-gargling psychopath husband both needed in order to keep their genitals lubricated for sex. Oh well, better late than never, I guess.

  125. 125.

    Citizen Alan

    March 18, 2024 at 1:38 am

    @Another Scott: Am I the only one who remembers when Shitgibbon floated the idea of internment camps to deal with “the Homeless Problem”?

  126. 126.

    Jay

    March 18, 2024 at 1:38 am

    @Citizen Alan:

    Forever War vs. Personal Lube.

    I choose lube.

  127. 127.

    Jay

    March 18, 2024 at 1:40 am

    @Citizen Alan:

    Nope, but he’s not the only one.

  128. 128.

    Jay

    March 18, 2024 at 1:41 am

    @Citizen Alan:

    Nope, but he wasn’t the only one, or even the first one.

  129. 129.

    AlaskaReader

    March 18, 2024 at 1:55 am

    @Jay: Got a link to a new fire ?

    There was a dumpster fire in Squamish 5 days ago.

  130. 130.

    wjca

    March 18, 2024 at 2:01 am

    @Citizen Alan: Rush Limbaugh! A man whose sole claim to fame was spending 40 years on radio and TV calling Democrats everything but children of god and LITERALLY CHEERING THE DEATHS OF GAYS AND OTHER PEOPLE HE HATED!

    Oh, it was far worse than that.  From what I’ve read, he didn’t actually believe most (all?) of the bile he was spreading.  It was simply a gig that paid well.

    Does explain Trump giving him the award, however.  He would appreciate a successful grift like that.  And admire someone who kept it going that long.

  131. 131.

    Jay

    March 18, 2024 at 2:10 am

    @AlaskaReader:

    Muy bad, 7th,,

    https://infotel.ca/newsitem/first-wildfire-of-the-year-spotted-south-of-valemount/it103050#:~:text=The%20province's%20first%20recorded%20wildfire,its%20course%20near%20Kinbasket%20Lake.

    https://energeticcity.ca/2024/02/23/wildfire-sparks-southwest-of-chetwynd/

    https://bc.ctvnews.ca/new-wildfire-discovered-on-sea-to-sky-bcws-1.6811312

  132. 132.

    Jay

    March 18, 2024 at 2:23 am

    @wjca:

    On the bright side, he’s 3 years sober and drug free.

  133. 133.

    AlaskaReader

    March 18, 2024 at 4:07 am

    @Jay: Thanks I wasn’t even finding any notices on bc fire site.

    I’m afraid it’s going to be another summer of evacuations and highway closures.

  134. 134.

    Jay

    March 18, 2024 at 4:32 am

    @AlaskaReader:

    Given how late winter is going, It’s going to be a hell of a season.

  135. 135.

    Geminid

    March 18, 2024 at 6:14 am

    @Jackie: Matt Rosendale is running for reelection to his Montana seat, which I think is the redder of Montana’s two districts.

    I was in Bob Good’s 5th Virginia CD before redistricting and now it’s next door to me. I think challenger state Senator John McGuire has a good shot in the June primary. Good endorsed DeSantis, and Trump manager Chris LaCivita told Cardinal News that after “we” get through with him, Good will be “unelectable.”

    Cardinal News focuses on Southside and Southwest Virginia, and Good’s district runs from Albemarle County and Charlottesville south to the North Carolina state line. They are covering this race closely.

  136. 136.

    Starfish

    March 18, 2024 at 9:16 am

    @billcoop4: John has loved ones in other time zones that he probably talks to five times a day.

  137. 137.

    Starfish

    March 18, 2024 at 9:22 am

    @TBone: There are several of these Christian apps, and I think I may know a person who went to work for this one. He told us he was going to work on a meditation app.

  138. 138.

    Paul in KY

    March 18, 2024 at 1:24 pm

    @billcoop4: You are made of sterner stuff than us, it appears…

  139. 139.

    Paul in KY

    March 18, 2024 at 1:31 pm

    @RevRick: I think you’ll really love ‘Wolf Hall’.

  140. 140.

    TrainedWreck

    March 18, 2024 at 3:35 pm

    @Geminid: thought rosendale already announced he’s not running reelection & rumors he’s possibly on verge leaving early? I could def be wrong

  141. 141.

    Geminid

    March 18, 2024 at 7:12 pm

    @TrainedWreck: You’re right, Rosendale pulled out of his House race a week ago. Earlier he’d dropped out of the Senate race after one week.

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