Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

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

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

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

When I was faster i was always behind.

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

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Fight them, without becoming them!

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Happy Father’s Day

Reader Interactions

74Comments

  1. 1.

    RaflW

    What a lovely peek into their family. I never really felt the urge to be a parent, and that was a topic with my BF relatively early in our dating, but lol not on the first date like those two!

  3. 3.

    SiubhanDuinne

    That was a joy to watch. I didn’t think I could love Secretary Pete any harder. I was wrong. Deo volente, I’ll live long enough to see him in the White House.

  4. 4.

    WaterGirl

    We three sisters always thought our dad was handsome and debonaire like Cary Grant. I might have to watch Father Goose again.

  5. 5.

    M31

    hung out with one kid, texted with the other on this first Father’s Day without my own father :-( so kind of bittersweet

  6. 6.

    Josie

    Thank you for front paging this. Such a lovely family story. I hope things continue to go well for them.

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    @M31: Very sorry, that’s so hard.  The first is the worst.

    It’s 29 years for me,   All you BJ peeps with parents should count your lucky stars.

  10. 10.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Pete is so quick witted and articulate I would love to see him as Solicitor General in the next term just to see him embarrass the corrupt fanatics on the court as he runs rings around them.

    While he’s not an attorney, he’s a fast study and can absorb everything he needs to know about specific case law before the bench.

  13. 13.

    WaterGirl

    @David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: Wherever Pete lands, we will be lucky to have him.

    I was happy to see that both people in the video who said Pete’s last name pronounced it properly!

    I thought I might murder Harry Littman before the NY trial ended – he was told on his show what the correct pronunciation of Justice Merchan’s name was, and he butchered it every single time.

    Even worse than that, actually.  He was taught how to say it by someone who had worked with Justice Merchan for years and years, and he chose to completely disregard that and used a completely inelegant pronunciation of a very lovely name.

  14. 14.

    Geminid

    I miss my Dad too. I was thinking today about one of the camping trips to Cape Hatteras our family made when I was a kid. We stopped at a roadside stand while we were on our way home to Northern Virginia, and my father bought some figs. I had never seen a fresh fig before. I thought of that today when my Atlanta friend sent me a picture of his tree’s first figs of the year.

  16. 16.

    stinger

    @WaterGirl: ​

    our dad was handsome and debonaire like Cary Grant.

     

    Pix or it didn’t happen!

    ETA: Or maybe you’re the daughter of David “The Establishment” Koch??

  18. 18.

    NeenerNeener

    @WaterGirl:

    I’ve got me 10 fine toes to wiggle in the sand

    Lots of idle fingers snap to my command…

     

    My dad used to sing that to us when we were kids. Thanks for the memory.

  22. 22.

    Jackie

    Such a great glimpse into Chasten and Pete’s life with twin toddlers! I’m so glad they chose to share this with us for Father’s Day AND Pride Month.

  24. 24.

    M31

    @WaterGirl:

    thanks, and yeah the first one is tough

    I remember thinking, “wow, I’m the old man now”

    but I’ve been a curmudgeon for a long time so I’m easing into it without too much trouble, and of course BJ has plenty of fine examples to emulate

  31. 31.

    Tazj

    Those kids are incredibly cute. So glad to see them doing well after some health issues.
    Secretary Pete has really been up to the task hasn’t he? I mean it’s his job but I’ve been really impressed by the way these problems have been solved.

  34. 34.

    Suzanne

    Such gorgeous little ones. I hope he has a long political career. I think Secretary Buttigieg is fantastic.

    We have a great Dem team.

  35. 35.

    Heidi Mom

    @RaflW: I’ve read somewhere that while Pete’s paramount ambition in life was to solve big problems, Chasten’s was to be a dad.  So while Pete may have checked all the other boxes, Chasten had to make sure he also checked that one.

  40. 40.

    eversor

    Miss my dad as well.  First fathers day without him.  Mom’s still too much of a wreck to go do anything.

    While I sort of want to go over there and see here I get the impression she’s going to want to be a lone for long time.

  42. 42.

    hitchhiker

    After lots of drifting around Upper Michigan and northern Minnesota, my parents finally settled me and my 7 siblings in Traverse City just as I was entering 9th grade. It’s a beautiful, semi-rural place (rolling hills, orchards, water everywhere) that has made itself a destination for summer at the lake, with the usual gripes from locals. I spent my teen years working the cherry harvest and later waiting table at a few of the many tourist-trap restaurants; my brothers are still there, working the building trades.

    I understand that Chasten and Pete settled there b/c Chasten’s folks live in TC and everybody wanted the grandparents to be in the twins’ lives. Good family, good people!

  44. 44.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: Secretary Buttigieg is the right person in the right job, at the right time.

    It’s the right time because the InfrastructureBill is one of the four legislative cornerstones of Joe Biden’s first term, and most of that money is being spent through the Department of Transportation.

    This is the right job for Pete Buttegieg because as Mayor of South Bend he participated in federal transportation programs at the implementation level and got to learn about them from up close.

    Buttigieg is the right person for the job because he is such an excellent communicator. I expect he’s also an efficient manager, and that he and Biden’s people came up with very capable people to fill the appointed jobs. But Buttegieg’s skill as a speaker is important because the Department of Transportation has been especially important in Biden’s first term.

    There have been problems large and small in the airline industry, and those are DOT matters. There was a notorious train wreck and chemical spill last year in Ohio, and this Spring a container ship knocked the Francis Scott Key Bridge into the Severn River. Buttigieg has represented the Biden administration well throughout.

    Pete Buttegieg has also been very good at promoting the projects and initiatives funded by the Infrastructure bill. These range from bridges to bus stations, from one end of the country to the other. With all but the last few dollars of the American Recovery Act spent, and the CHIPS+ bill and IRA only now beginning to be implemented, Infrastructure bill spending is hauling a lot of political freight for Joe Biden and it’s great that his Secretary of Transportation can explain the value of these investments so well.

  45. 45.

    TBone

    @eversor: I don’t know your situation but my mom’s first father’s day alone was brutal. She asked me not to come over until 5pm when I usually showed up daily to care for her at her wakeup.  Leaving her alone that day until 5pm, despite her instructions, is a regret I’ll always have.  The neighbors said they could hear her keening through closed windows.

    Maybe consider checking in.

  49. 49.

    Steve in the ATL

    @WaterGirl: 29 years for me as well. And 8 without my stepfather.  I miss them both terribly.  Hopefully my kids will have many more with me.

    Assuming, you know, that they feel the same way

    ETA 1: just saw Subaru Diane’s comment.  Trifecta of sorrow!

    ETA 2: hopefully they are all busy in the afterlife today inspiring Rory McIntyre to defeat that trump-loving asshole in the US Open!

  52. 52.

    eclare

    @Geminid:

    So well said.  I commented in a post a while back, usually you don’t hear that much about the Secretary of Transportation, unless something goes horribly wrong.  But it’s like Pete took the job with the attitude of “You want transportation?  I’ll give you transportation!”

    Thinking about it, I think I posted that right after the DOT came out with new rules for airlines issuing refunds after delays.

  53. 53.

    Steve in the ATL

    @eclare: screw that. On my last flight I was upgraded to Comfort+ instead of first class. What good is a transportation secretary who lets such unconscionable acts occur?!  I’m voting for trump now.

  54. 54.

    eversor

    @Suzanne:

    I’d love him as a president but he more seems like a master beaurocrat than anything.

    I don’t think we concentrate on inserting quality people into the positions that actually do things.

  58. 58.

    sab

    @WaterGirl: My aunt and uncle were on waiting lists for more than ten years and almost aged out of eligibility. Back then forty years ago they cut you off at forty.

    They were great parents when they finally got the kids.

  59. 59.

    eversor

    @eclare:

    I already did and she put on a good face but is full force she doesn’t want us there now.

     

    @TBone:

    She’s Dutch and very much of the Netherlands and she grieves in private.  She’s got her little old ladys club in that private gated community and most of them are already widows and they can probably do more for her than me and the brother can do.  Sister the younger was already ejected from there for showing up too much to the point where it became an issue and mom was out right insulted by it.

    I think it’s best to let it sit and let her reach out.

  60. 60.

    Anyway

    Thanks for sharing the CBS video. Secretary Pete has really grown on me. Managing a sprawling,  complex department like Transportation speaks volumes.

  61. 61.

    sab

    My first father’s day without him, but he died two months ago, so it’s even more raw. He died in April with dementia at 99. But despite his dementia he was still mostly there as a person, just increasingly confused and frightened.

    Still processing the loss. Frustration with Vanguard and the bank keeps me distracted.

  63. 63.

    WaterGirl

    @sab: When my Dad died (my Mom died 10 years earlier) I couldn’t believe that no one could just hand you a fucking list of everything that had to be done.

    No, instead we had to stumble along until we tripped over the extra things that had to be done.  Contact X organization?  Sorry, nothing without the death certificate.  Oh, to get the death certificate, you have to jump thru this hoop first.

    I SWORE that when it was all done I was going to make that list for future people who had just lost their final parent.  But of course, you get back home after the whole ordeal and even going to the grocery store feels surreal, because everything feels wrong, so you’re just trying to get through it all and pretty soon you forget that you wanted to make the list.

    THE END

  65. 65.

    sab

    My dad was a lovely father but he didn’t even want kids. Mom did.

    Makes Father’s day more important. He didn’t want us (or not want us)  but he was such a good father because Mom wanted us and she was the center of his world.

  67. 67.

    Maxim

    I read something a while back that said parenthood had completely rewired Pete’s ambitions. If we get four more years of President Biden and then eight years of President Harris, Pete’s kids will be teenagers. I can see him running then, depending on what he’s been up to during that time, but I can also see him deciding that there’s some other way he can serve.

  68. 68.

    sab

    @WaterGirl: Sit by me. I still don’t have money. First on my list is money to dad’s nurse’s aide. Six weeks out and she has heard nothing from me. I promised her severance pay.

    I could contact her, but what is the point? I repeat their lies or I say dunno. I won’t lie.

    ETA My dad died April 14, 2024. He had an IRA and was beneficiary of my Mom’s trust.

    Have not been able to get a dime out of either.

  69. 69.

    sab

    OT I am so old that I remember Mad Magazine. They had the Mad Magazine School oF Art .

    My sister has been a serious art historian for fifty plus years.

  71. 71.

    sab

    Ponyo the Dog got locked up in a bedroom today. American father’s day. Ponyo is not a father. She is not even a boy or a father. She does like  my dad.

  73. 73.

    anastasio beaverhousen

    This video really hit me.  When starting to date my current husband he also said kids.  “I’m going to have them, with or without you.  And the girl will be named Valentina, from the portuguese valente, or brave. ” So now, 15 years later, we have a Valentina, and a Max, and our own stories about these two little ones who also only weighed 4.5lbs when we met them. And also the three “failed adoptions” that raised our hopes, then crushed them.  When planning our family we went to a 12 week course led by Rainbow Families here in DC.  They discussed surrogacy, transcultural adoptions, single parenthood; basically everything. And  I still distinctly remember one presenter saying something to the effect of, “There will be ups and downs, excitement, heartaches and disappointments, but rest assured, you will get the child you were meant to have.”  I remember at the time thinking it was such a crock.  Yet here we are…..

  74. 74.

    WaterGirl

    @sab:

    I could contact her, but what is the point? I repeat their lies or I say dunno. I won’t lie.

    You should contact her.  Tell her that everything is still in limbo and confirm with her that you still intend to give her the severance pay you promised.

    Just knowing that will relieve a lot of uncertainty for her.  Please call her tomorrow.

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