• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

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

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

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

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

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

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Mobile Menu

  • 4 Directions VA 2025 Raffle
  • 2025 Activism
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / It’s All Fun and Games Until the Leopard Eats Your Face

It’s All Fun and Games Until the Leopard Eats Your Face

by @heymistermix.com|  September 17, 202411:32 pm| 112 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

FacebookTweetEmail

It's All Fun and Games Until the Leopard Eats Your Face

Camera Bartolotta is a Republican State Senator in Pennsylvania, who apparently loves re-posting Libs of TikTok (Chaya Raichik) content except when the lies that Raichik tells hit a little too close to home.  So, the anti-trans, anti-LGBT, anti-drag show content that leads to bomb threats is generally OK, but in this particular instance, where Sen. Bartolotta actually knows what the facts are, it’s a bridge too far.  It apparently wasn’t too far for Sen. Bartolotta when a shooter who killed 9 people in Allen, TX dedicated his screed denouncing Drag Queen Story Hour to Libs of TikTok.  And it sure wasn’t too far when the lies Raichik told about childrens’ hospitals performing bottom surgery on minors caused led to bomb threats and made one of those hospitals transition their transgender support group from in-person to on-line.  Nope, all that stuff was A-OK for the good Republican Senator.

Will this change Sen. Bartolotta’s support of the Trump/Vance ticket?   Will she connect the lies from Libs of TikTok to other lies about immigrants?  I doubt it, since her career as a Republican depends on not doing either of those things.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: «Tuesday Late Night Open Thread Tuesday Late Night Open Thread
Next Post: On The Road – frosty – More Views of Ornament on Louis Sullivan Banks On The Road - frosty - More Views of Ornament on Louis Sullivan Banks 4»

Reader Interactions

112Comments

  1. 1.

    Urza

    September 17, 2024 at 11:40 pm

    I wish there were real leopards to eat their faces.  The people trying to ride the tiger of crazy never bothered to understand the story of what happens eventually.  But that is a problem with conservatives the world over, they think literally and never metaphorically.  And misinterpret the actual literal bits.

  2. 2.

    RaflW

    September 17, 2024 at 11:41 pm

    Camera ran unopposed in SD 46 two years ago. She’s up in ’26.

    C’mon PA Dems. Go for it!! I’d chip in a hundred in a heartbeat just so that Ms. Bartolotta there has to answer to somebody, somehwere along the campaign trail. Maybe she could lose!

  3. 3.

    Sister Golden Bear

    September 17, 2024 at 11:47 pm

    If only the anti-trans/anti-LGBTQ bomb threats and death threats had gotten a fraction of the attention Springfield has gotten….

    Obviously I don’t wish any of this on Springfield, but we’ve been enduring this for years and the media barely shrugs eggs it on. <looking at you FYFNYT>

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    September 17, 2024 at 11:50 pm

    Chaya Raichik is an active agent of fascism.

  5. 5.

    Jackie

    September 17, 2024 at 11:50 pm

    mistermix, Thanks for posting this. I posted this a few posts back. I see it as not all republicans see eye to eye with TCFG.

    There are republicans who recognize TCFG is NOT America’s answer for America.

    Here’s the link I posted on this subject on an earlier thread: https://www.rawstory.com/libs-of-tiktok-2669223001/

  6. 6.

    Chet Murthy

    September 17, 2024 at 11:51 pm

    The problem is that we don’t have any ratfuckers on our side.  A ratfucker would get her details — all of them, including where her kids go to school, where her siblings live, parents, etc — and spread it all over right-wing boards with her defense of these immigrants, get them riled-up and attacking her, attacking her family.  Make her go into hiding, so she’d find out what it’s like.

    But we’re decent human beings, so we don’t do that.

    ETA: and of course, a good ratfucker would do it without leaving fingerprints.  Make it look like  it was all the work of right-wing nutters.

  7. 7.

    cain

    September 18, 2024 at 12:01 am

    @Chet Murthy: Well we do have ratfuckers – Rick Wilson for one. But all of them into decent human beings after joining our side!

  8. 8.

    Anotherlurker.

    September 18, 2024 at 12:03 am

    @Chet Murthy: It is people like Raichik and Bartlotta that make me wish for our own ratfuckers. Both need to be doxed and doxed hard.

  9. 9.

    chemiclord

    September 18, 2024 at 12:11 am

    We love to think we’d love to have some left-wing ratfuckers… until we got some ratfuckers and realized there’s a reason why rat-fuckers tend to be right-wing assholes.  The sort of person who is willing to jeopardize the health and well-being of their enemies to make a political point isn’t the sort of person that makes for a very good political ally for terribly long.

  10. 10.

    H.E.Wolf

    September 18, 2024 at 12:23 am

    @Urza: “​I wish there were real leopards to eat their faces.”

    @chemiclord: “The sort of person who is willing to jeopardize the health and well-being of their enemies to make a political point isn’t the sort of person that makes for a very good political ally for terribly long.​”

    And I’d add, that sort of person is just as scary to me as any other person who talks about doing people harm.

    It normalizes violence. I have family members in previous generations who learned, the tragic way, what happens next.

    Let’s leave violent talk to the creepy, weird people in the Republican Party.

  11. 11.

    Mai Naem mobile

    September 18, 2024 at 12:24 am

    I know this sounds crass but i hopeope the Harris Walz campaign is taking advantage of this situation and reaching out to Haitian Ameeican voters. Florida and Texas have decent sized populations of Haitian Americans. Get them out to vote for Harris Walz and the Senate candidates. I wouldn’t be surprised if West Indian Americans and first generation African Americans  are getting caught up in this getting confused with Haitian Americans. Anecdotally, I’ve known a few Haitian Americans and first gen African Americans and they tend to be pretty conservative, attending evangelical churches. Get them to vote blue.

  12. 12.

    wjca

    September 18, 2024 at 12:24 am

    Camera Bartolotta is a Republican State Senator in Pennsylvania, who apparently loves re-posting Libs of TikTok (Chaya Raichik) content except when the lies that Raichik tells hit a little too close to home.  So, the anti-trans, anti-LGBT, anti-drag show content that leads to bomb threats is generally OK, but in this particular instance, where Sen. Bartolotta actually knows what the facts are, it’s a bridge too far.

    I understand the scorn.  But only consider how many Republican politicians would not push back, even when they actually know what the facts are.  This woman at least retains enough of a grip on reality to recognize the lies right in front of her.  For a lot of people, just that much would be a huge step back from the brink.

  13. 13.

    RevRick

    September 18, 2024 at 12:31 am

    For 13 years I served a working class Congregation in Westmoreland County, about 20 miles from Charleroi. When I first arrived in 1975, the whole Pittsburgh area was solidly Democratic, though cracks were starting to appear over the Roe v. Wade decision which the Catholic hierarchy opposed. At that point, I was invited to be the first Protestant pastor in God knows when to offer the prayer of invocation at the annual Westmoreland County Democratic Dinner. While I was there, the region was devastated by wholesale deindustrialization. In the course of my time there, the steel industry shrank from 120,000 jobs to about 20,000. Meanwhile, such major employers as Pullman Car and Alcoa Aluminum closed their doors, and Alcoa reinvented itself as a financial service company, and locally important businesses, such as specialty glass makers (hitting communities like Charleroi and Jeannette), valve manufacturers, and Caloric stoves fled to Mexico or simply vanished.
    What I noticed among my parishioners is that as the jobs disappeared, the working class value of respectability took on more salience. It was always important among them that they had well- kept homes, well-behaved children, and a well-ordered community (as exemplified by the great importance played by the volunteer fire company). But now they redoubled their efforts to maintain those underlying conservative values. Rush Limbaugh found ready ears in the community, because they couldn’t connect decisions that were made over lunch on Wall Street were the source of their communities distress. No, feminazis and liberals were the ones undermining their values.
    I began a food bank ministry at St. John’s UCC, Larimer, something they continued for almost 40 years, and they now have a black woman pastor, but the tide has turned against churches like that, and the area is now dominated by conservative mega churches.

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    September 18, 2024 at 12:32 am

    Maladroit in Ohio.

    A sheriff in Ohio who made disparaging remarks about Vice President Kamala Harris and immigrants on social media suggested that residents compile a list of addresses where they see yard signs in support of the Democratic presidential nominee.

    In a public Facebook post Friday, Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski used anti-immigrant rhetoric and denounced both Harris and her supporters.
    [snip]
    Zuchowski’s Facebook page includes a photo of him with Vance and other pictures of him with Trump allies such as former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Source

    Someone ‘s gonna be looking for new employment in the very near future, methiniks.

  15. 15.

    Shalimar

    September 18, 2024 at 12:38 am

    @Urza: I don’t think it would be that hard to start a MAGA trend saying it is manly to have real leopards as pets.

  16. 16.

    Chet Murthy

    September 18, 2024 at 12:42 am

    @Shalimar: Remember that trend of dipshit guys taking pics of  themselves with sleeping (or drugged?) big cats?  Gotta restart that trend, maybe some of ’em will fail to drug the cats enough, and we’ll get hijinks!

  17. 17.

    Shalimar

    September 18, 2024 at 12:44 am

    @Chet Murthy: I don’t remember, but I am now intrigued.   I don’t want anyone to get hurt, but god there are so many stupid people out there who will get hurt no matter what I want.

  18. 18.

    Chet Murthy

    September 18, 2024 at 12:47 am

    @Shalimar: google ” tiger selfies”

  19. 19.

    Rusty

    September 18, 2024 at 12:53 am

    @RevRick: Thank you for this.  You make a good point, communities were under stress and they were fed easy scapegoats (I don’t want to take all the responsibility from those communities,  those scapegoats offered played on preexisting biases).  I’m glad that congregation still exists and continues to provide support to the community.

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    September 18, 2024 at 12:54 am

    @Chet Murthy

    Lions and tigers and Herrs, oh my.
    :)

  21. 21.

    NotMax

    September 18, 2024 at 12:58 am

    Did someone say eat your face?
    ;)

  22. 22.

    Chet Murthy

    September 18, 2024 at 1:04 am

    @Rusty: @RevRick: I remember in 1981 or so, I took an econ course at the local community college, and the prof told us that America had two conservative parties (where “conservative” is “chiefly concerned with the defense of the rights of property”).  I’ve always wondered how he kept a job in that small conservative Texas small town.

    When the US started liberalizing trade, the argument was a made that it would benefit the US.  And that was true: overall, the US profited.  But the gains were maldistributed: the rich got most of it and the working class actually got hurt.  The Democrats tried to pass redistributive laws to make up for the maldistribution, but conservative forces in both parties, esp in the GOP, put paid to that.  So we got the trade liberalization, but not the redistribution that should have gone with it.  America was a much more conservative country back then, and that was true of both parties (hence my preface).  We can do better today if we get a chance.

  23. 23.

    TBone

    September 18, 2024 at 1:18 am

    Noting that this bullshit was started by Donold:

    https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/donald-trump-haitian-immigrants-charleroi-pennsylvania-20240916.html

    More than 2,000 miles away from the sleepy Pennsylvania town during a rally in Tucson, Ariz., Thursday, Trump promoted inflammatory rhetoric about Haitian migrants in Charleroi on the national stage, promoting the misleading claim that the Washington County borough’s Haitian immigrant population was costing local taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. He also suggested the town is “virtually bankrupt” and that the immigrants are bringing an increase of crime, neither of which are true. The borough’s crime rate is down, Manning said.

  24. 24.

    trollhattan

    September 18, 2024 at 1:26 am

    Busing/bussing. If I kissed a cute girl on the bus ride home from junior high, would that be a bus buss?

    Anyway, stoopid people be stoopid.

    The end.

  25. 25.

    TBone

    September 18, 2024 at 1:27 am

    @TBone: he is such a dick

    “[Charleroi] experienced a 2,000% increase in the population of Haitian migrants under Kamala Harris. So Pennsylvania, remember this when you have to go to vote … just remember this 2,000% increase,” Trump said in Tucson. “It’s a small town. All of a sudden they got thousands of people. The schools are scrambling to hire translators for the influx of students who don’t speak not a word of English, costing local taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
    Trump’s invocation of the Pennsylvania borough is the latest example in a slew of fearmongering claims the former president has made about immigrant communities across the country, as he and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, continue to attack Vice President Kamala Harris on immigration and the border.

  26. 26.

    TBone

    September 18, 2024 at 1:37 am

    Also, some people actually do believe the eating dogs and cats thing because Donold said it. Hubby’s nephew went there today when I was asked by hubby to deflate him on Fascistbook.  He couldn’t dispute the facts I presented to him and resorted to that ‘nyah nyah I know you are but what am I’ type of retort that resulted in my use of many laughing emojis while telling him absolutely no one is doing that and he is a moron (after initially being polite at hubby’s request, we both lost it and had to go there).

  27. 27.

    David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch

    September 18, 2024 at 2:06 am

    Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

    ― John F. Kennedy

  28. 28.

    NotMax

    September 18, 2024 at 2:07 am

    @TBone

    Next they’ll be accusing Kamala of instructing the FDA to browbeati the golden arches to test market a McKitty sandwich and Doggy Nuggets is certain neighborhoods. “I saw it on the internet.”

    And the brain dead schlubs in his audience will nod their heads and applaud.

  29. 29.

    Citizen Alan

    September 18, 2024 at 2:15 am

    @NotMax: why? It’s an elected position in a red state. Plus, he’ll make a note of the addresses of anyone who might run against him. Seriously?Are there any sheriff’s offices in the country?Then aren’t run by right wing nut cases? Is it because sheriffs are elected by the counties, which means disproportionately white flight voters?

  30. 30.

    NotMax

    September 18, 2024 at 2:28 am

    @Citizen Alan

    If you read some of the excerpts of his deranged, hateful postings included in the article they’re so far beyond it one cannot even see the pale from his position.

  31. 31.

    SiubhanDuinne

    September 18, 2024 at 2:33 am

    @NotMax:

    they’re so far beyond it one cannot even see the pale from his position.

    A whiter shade of pale?

    :-)

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    September 18, 2024 at 2:45 am

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Blast from the past: White tornado.

  33. 33.

    opiejeanne

    September 18, 2024 at 3:41 am

    Libs of TikTok’s lies about transgender surgery on minors caused the Portland Oregon hospital where my grandchild was born to move much of their child health services to another building, because of protesters and bomb threats.  We were told that they had to move the birthing suites it was felt that it was so dangerous. It’s a huge campus and very confusing to navigate, and we never saw the protesters but there were a lot of cops and security people in and around the buildings.

  34. 34.

    p.a.

    September 18, 2024 at 5:39 am

    Shocked.  SHOCKED I SAY!
    AP:

    Republicans have blocked for a second time this year legislation to establish a nationwide right to in vitro fertilization….

    The 51-44 vote was short of the 60 votes needed to move forward on the bill, with only two Republicans voting in favor. Democrats say Republicans who insist they support IVF are being hypocritical because they won’t support legislation guaranteeing a right to it.

    “They say they support IVF — here you go, vote on this,” said Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the bill’s lead sponsor and a military veteran who has used the fertility treatment to have her two children.

  35. 35.

    Baud

    September 18, 2024 at 6:05 am

    Via reddit, Missouri billboard 

  36. 36.

    Gvg

    September 18, 2024 at 6:13 am

    @wjca: yes. This Republican actually does constituent services and knows their own district. That seems to be rare among the current generation of elected attention whores. I think that it’s a possible good vulnerability. Also, none of them seem to respect the needs of the constituents of their fellow elected republicans. This republicans calls for a cease fire are not being listened to by any of the leadership. That’s why Johnson and McCarthy before him were weak leaders and can’t control the group. They all think of themselves as a leader. They aren’t even really controlled by Trump because they fight among themselves and he likes it that way.
    We are used to Nancy Smash “just win baby”. The story of the republicans trying to get them to stop is probably getting more play with democrats and independents than republicans. It can get a few more persuadable too, old type republicans to whom legality and business matter, but not the tribalists.

  37. 37.

    Princess

    September 18, 2024 at 6:28 am

    @TBone: That’s not true that *no one* is doing it. I’m sure RFKjr is eating his pets.
    /winks

    Seriously, I’d expect anything from that bunch of weirdos and everything is projection with them.

  38. 38.

    Baud

    September 18, 2024 at 7:19 am

    A Georgia woman died after doctors delayed abortion care. Harris blamed her death on ‘Trump abortion bans

  39. 39.

    Chris Johnson

    September 18, 2024 at 7:27 am

    @Chet Murthy: But that’s just it. ‘The problem is WE’RE not criminals’. ‘The problem is WE’RE not also terrorists’.

    These are not problems. These are how it’s supposed to go. It is no answer to join in helping to make THEIR world a reality for them.

    Us not being monsters is NOT a problem. It is a solution. Don’t be jumping to the conclusion of ‘we don’t have enough GOOD terrorists’.

  40. 40.

    Betty Cracker

    September 18, 2024 at 7:28 am

    I’ve always thought it was a terrible idea to make county sheriff a partisan elected position. The MAGA sheriff who runs my county like Boss Hogg got voted out in a stunning upset this year.

    The replacement, who takes over in January, is also a Repub; no Dems can get elected here for anything. But this election proved a coalition to oust an incumbent sheriff can work.

    Been meaning to do a post about it. 

  41. 41.

    Kay

    September 18, 2024 at 7:30 am

    @Baud:

    She knew what was happening to her- she was a medical assistant. Imagine 20 hours knowing you’re dying, knowing this modern fully staffed hospital could save you, but they won’t because religious fundamentalists have issued an edict that you must die.

  42. 42.

    Ken

    September 18, 2024 at 7:31 am

    @Baud: When I saw “Crawford County Democrats were able to raise funds”, my reaction was “all three of them?” I know Crawford, I have relatives there, and it’s very red.

  43. 43.

    Baud

    September 18, 2024 at 7:33 am

    @Kay:

    I wish people who are on the fence on this election would imagine it.

  44. 44.

    Baud

    September 18, 2024 at 7:34 am

    @Ken:

    Billboards are an inexpensive way to reach red rural areas IMHO. If we can lower Republican margins even a little bit, it would do wonders.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    September 18, 2024 at 7:37 am

    @Baud:

    Harris has been fantastic on it. Also Propublica, NPR and Instagram. We need more “entertainment” type media coverage of it – morning shows, talk shows, etc.

  46. 46.

    Baud

    September 18, 2024 at 7:40 am

    @Kay:

    I was watching MJ for a hot second this morning. They played a clip of Doug Emhoff talking about not getting distracted by Trump and to keep focusing on our issues. Then the MJ crew started talking about the latest Trump thing.

    Media is hooked. Hopefully, Trump’s loss will kill that interest.

  47. 47.

    Ken

    September 18, 2024 at 7:41 am

    @Baud: Harris blamed her death on ‘Trump abortion bans

    Please — don’t politicize all these women dying. Or all the children dying in school shootings. Or the money the Trump campaign received from Egypt and other foreign nations, or the plans of Project 2025, or the Trump emails that the news orgs aren’t publishing, or the Justice Roberts memos and Clarence Thomas bribes, or….

    Instead follow the good example of the Republicans, and only politicize things that haven’t actually happened, like ten million Guatemalan immigrants with HIV and monkeypox invading Rowley Iowa with duffle bags full of fentanyl because Kamala Harris opened the borders.

  48. 48.

    Ken

    September 18, 2024 at 7:43 am

    @Baud: Speaking of on the fence voters, a fascinating Bluesky thread from someone who’s run focus groups.

  49. 49.

    Kay

    September 18, 2024 at 7:43 am

    lol.

    Keep suing until you get the number you want!

    The group that successfully sued Harvard to end affirmative action in university admissions last year is now threatening to investigate whether schools are complying with the new rules and to file lawsuits if it believes that they are not.
    The group, Students for Fair Admissions, has focused on three universities — Princeton, Yale and Duke — where there were notable declines in Asian American enrollment this year compared with the last year, which the group said defied expectations.

    Just bring it back to John Roberts and tell him the percentage you “expect”. He’ll deliver.

  50. 50.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    September 18, 2024 at 7:45 am

    @Baud: Wow!

  51. 51.

    Baud

    September 18, 2024 at 7:46 am

    @Ken:

    Thanks. Reading that reminded me of the central limit theorem.

  52. 52.

    lowtechcyclist

    September 18, 2024 at 7:46 am

    @Baud: ​
     

    I linked to the ProPublica story the other day. Heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking.

    Abortion bans are killing women.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    September 18, 2024 at 7:47 am

    @Kay:

    No quotas!

  54. 54.

    BellyCat

    September 18, 2024 at 7:48 am

    @Kay: And with a six year old son, too. Refusal of medical care was exponentially terrifying. This child lost his mother due to this insanity. Breaks my heart…

  55. 55.

    Baud

    September 18, 2024 at 7:49 am

    @BellyCat:

    Men would go apeshit if the roles were reversed. Trump would get 90% of the male vote.

  56. 56.

    Kay

    September 18, 2024 at 7:49 am

    @Baud:

    I’m torn on “distraction”. I get it on one level but I think a focus on Trump tends to benefit us and that is just intensified with Vance, who is really an unpleasant person – people just don’t like him.

    It also gins up our side. So I can’t tell if it’s a plus or a minus.

  57. 57.

    lowtechcyclist

    September 18, 2024 at 7:50 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’ve always thought it was a terrible idea to make county sheriff a partisan elected position. The MAGA sheriff who runs my county like Boss Hogg got voted out in a stunning upset this year.

    Ditto. Law enforcement should be responsible to civilian leadership on a continuing basis, and not just responsible to the voters once every two or four years, as the case may be.  But AFAICT, county sheriff is an elected office in the vast majority of counties.

  58. 58.

    Baud

    September 18, 2024 at 7:51 am

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:

    Did you see the image posted in the top comment?

  59. 59.

    Baud

    September 18, 2024 at 7:52 am

    @Kay:

    Yeah, obviously you can’t just ignore them. But I wish the media would give a little more time to our side.

    ETA: IMHO constantly talking about a problem without offering people a way out is not helpful. But I’m no social scientist.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    September 18, 2024 at 7:55 am

    We never got rid of rich kid affirmative action, for obvious reasons:

    As previously mentioned, the economists find that wealthy children, even when they have comparable SAT and ACT scores to less affluent kids, are much more likely to get into these elite schools. A student from the richest 1% of American families (from families earning over $611,000 per year) is twice as likely to attend an elite private college as a middle-class student (from a family earning between $83,000-$116,000 per year) with the same academic credentials. The economists find this disparity can only be found at elite private colleges: they find no such advantage for rich kids at America’s flagship public universities, like UC Berkeley or the University of Michigan.

  61. 61.

    Baud

    September 18, 2024 at 8:02 am

    @Kay:

    Ohio/Michigan joke on reddit

  62. 62.

    Kay

    September 18, 2024 at 8:03 am

    I attended (some) of criminal justice reform seminar yesterday by Zoom and found out John King, Obama’s 2nd education secretary and now head of the state university system of NY, is a national leader in reforms that allow prisoners to take college courses. It’s great that he went on to good things- and to pick such an unpopular but worthy cause! Impressive.

  63. 63.

    TBone

    September 18, 2024 at 8:05 am

    @NotMax:

    @Princess:

    The “grown man” relative of hubby insists that hubby stop letting his news sources “blind” him and admonished him several times to do his own research 😆 insisting that YouTube videos prove that “hoodoo” is really going on in Ohio.  That’s not even the worst of his hallucinations. Fascistbook is a whole entire sewer and I’m so glad I quit years ago. Not going back!

  64. 64.

    Kay

    September 18, 2024 at 8:06 am

    @Baud:

    lol. I’ve done some volunteer work with Elissa Slotkin’s campaign and she leans heavily into jeering at JD Vance for Ohio State. Always amusing. I’m a dual citizen :)

  65. 65.

    BellyCat

    September 18, 2024 at 8:10 am

    @Baud: Men would go apeshit if the roles were reversed. Trump Harris would get 90% of the male vote.

    FTFY?

  66. 66.

    Baud

    September 18, 2024 at 8:11 am

    Not all heroes wear capes.

  67. 67.

    TBone

    September 18, 2024 at 8:11 am

    @Baud: I have one of VP Harris as the Statue, holding torch up with one hand and his severed head down with the other.  A la Kathy Griffin, but even better.

  68. 68.

    Baud

    September 18, 2024 at 8:12 am

    @BellyCat:

    I meant all roles reversed, where we are the bad guys and Trump stood for freedom.

    But your formulation works too.

  69. 69.

    Baud

    September 18, 2024 at 8:14 am

    @TBone:

    The severed head thing is not really Harris’s style.

  70. 70.

    BellyCat

    September 18, 2024 at 8:15 am

    @Baud: Ahhh… wasted a lot of brain cells trying to cipher that out!

  71. 71.

    Kay

    September 18, 2024 at 8:16 am

    We’ve given out half our Harris signs in the first week and a half we had them. That’s amazing for this county. So much so that I’m getting suspicious – are Trumpsters taking our signs ?!?

    I really pressure people for the “free will” donation ( I need at least 2 dollars to break even) so they’re paying for them, but they would do that! They hand half their check over to Donald Trump on the regular.

  72. 72.

    Yarrow

    September 18, 2024 at 8:17 am

    I just saw a video clip of Sarah Huckabee Sanders at some TFG rally. Has she been on Ozempic? I didn’t even recognize her. If they hadn’t said who it was I would have had no idea.

  73. 73.

    BellyCat

    September 18, 2024 at 8:19 am

    @Yarrow: Is she also slimming down to compete with Looney for the role of Trump’s next baby mama?

  74. 74.

    Baud

    September 18, 2024 at 8:20 am

    @Yarrow:

    She didn’t like the way she looked behind that fancy podium.

  75. 75.

    TBone

    September 18, 2024 at 8:24 am

    In other PA news, an invasion of giant Joro spiders has been confirmed.  An invasive species that will hopefully eat some Spotted Lantern Flies.  Facepalm.

  76. 76.

    TBone

    September 18, 2024 at 8:25 am

    @Baud: agreed – it’s my style.

    Oh wait, it was her debate style though 😆

  77. 77.

    hueyplong

    September 18, 2024 at 8:28 am

    @Yarrow: I had that exact thought when I saw the picture.

    “Doing my own research” and determining that there is no evidence that Huckabee has a wasting disease, I conclude that your guess is correct.

  78. 78.

    Steve in the ATL

    September 18, 2024 at 8:30 am

    @NotMax: I would have gone with this White Tornado, but I am a child of the Eighties….

  79. 79.

    Ken

    September 18, 2024 at 8:31 am

    @Baud: I meant all roles reversed, where we are the bad guys

    I don’t look good in a goatee.

  80. 80.

    Yarrow

    September 18, 2024 at 8:31 am

    @TBone:  Sorry your nephew is falling for conspiracy theories. You’ve presented him with facts. Tell him you love him and you’re sorry he’s falling for conspiracy theories but you’re no longer discussing any of this with him. He needs to live in the world of facts or there will be no discussion. Arguing just elevates the conspiracy theories, juices his dopamine, and gives him content to tell his MAGA buddies how he stuck it to the libs.

    Obviously I don’t know anything about your nephew but I will say that men falling down the conspiracy rabbit hole are dangerous. Hopefully he won’t go too far in that direction.

  81. 81.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    September 18, 2024 at 8:37 am

    If safety requires Trump to stop golfing, he’ll go even further out of his mind.

  82. 82.

    frosty

    September 18, 2024 at 8:38 am

    @TBone: That would be great! It’s unfortunate that all these invasive species don’t eat each other. None of them has a taste for kudzu??

  83. 83.

    frosty

    September 18, 2024 at 8:39 am

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m not seeing a downside here …

  84. 84.

    Subsole

    September 18, 2024 at 8:42 am

    @Kay:

    Speaking of leopards and faces…

    <shakes head ruefully>

  85. 85.

    Subsole

    September 18, 2024 at 8:43 am

    @Baud:

    “No quota, only legacy. Next!”

  86. 86.

    TBone

    September 18, 2024 at 8:45 am

    @Yarrow: thanks!  It’s hubby’s nephew by marriage on his ex side of family.  Hubby implored me to respond to him yesterday because hubby was too angry to do it himself.  I tore nephew a new one in a very polite manner by presenting facts, which devolved into laughing emojis and use of the word dufus at my second reply to his nonsense, which forever ended any future participation by me on any matter whatsoever on Fascistbook.

    I don’t do any social media for a reason – hubby likes to stay connected but I am feral.

  87. 87.

    TBone

    September 18, 2024 at 8:46 am

    @frosty: ik,r?

  88. 88.

    Quinerly

    September 18, 2024 at 8:50 am

    Good Morning! Anyone have a gift link for How Donald Trump Made Billions From Politics?

    Forbe’s Magazine just out. Morning Joe teased it out. Would like to read it in detail. Thanks!

  89. 89.

    3Sice

    September 18, 2024 at 8:59 am

    Paul Volcker cranking interest rates to 20% destroyed these communities, and gifted them forty years worth of slack labor markets.

    Stupid Bidenomics. Creating economic growth and demand for labor.

  90. 90.

    Chief Oshkosh

    September 18, 2024 at 9:01 am

    @Baud: You don’t know enough Jamaican Marxists, man.

  91. 91.

    Geminid

    September 18, 2024 at 9:06 am

    @TBone: That dam’ Spotted Lantern Fly has made it down to Central Virginia and gardeners, orchardists and vineyard operators are feeling the pain. They’re on the warpath against the fly and host plants like the Ailanthus tree.

    My landlord has been poisoning the Ailanthus here, along with the Russian Olives that overran his apple orchard. Bill planted the orchard in the late 1970s but it started to fail in the 90s because of warm winters. Anyway, I’m glad the Ailanthus are gone because I don’t want those giant joro spiders moving in. They sound scary.

    But tell me: just where do these joro spiders come from, and who brought them here? Because you know where the Ailanthus came from, don’t you? China! And guess who brought the Ailanthus to the West. The Jesuits! People try to tell me that Globalism is a made-up thing, but I didn’t just fall off of some turnip truck!

  92. 92.

    Quinerly

    September 18, 2024 at 9:10 am

    @TBone:

    Bear with me…These Haitian lies are pretty recent. Yeah, he described Haiti as a “shit hole country” in one of his rants as president. But me thinks he and Vance are doing this Haitian hate and trying to tie Haitian immigration to Harris because she’s 1/2 Jamaican. “Jamaica/Haiti…..what’s the difference?”

  93. 93.

    Quinerly

    September 18, 2024 at 9:13 am

    @Baud:

    Pretty amazing for Crawford County. That’s the reddest of red in Missouri.

  94. 94.

    Matt McIrvin

    September 18, 2024 at 9:14 am

    @lowtechcyclist: We have elected sheriffs even in Massachusetts, where we don’t really have counties–they are vestigial divisions of the state government mostly organizing the court and prison systems. Local government happens through cities and towns, which cover every point in the state, and there is no such thing as unincorporated county land.

    So all the sheriffs’ officers do here is function as the court, jail and prison police, and the issues in their elections mostly have to do with prison reform.

  95. 95.

    Quinerly

    September 18, 2024 at 9:17 am

    @Baud:

    LOD was on this last night. Must see TV.

  96. 96.

    Quinerly

    September 18, 2024 at 9:19 am

    @Ken:

    I may know your relatives.😉

    I know 6 Dems in Crawford County. Bourbon area.

  97. 97.

    Matt McIrvin

    September 18, 2024 at 9:22 am

    @Quinerly: Yeah, it’s pure racism. Haitians were not particularly on the hate radar until Kamala Harris became the Presidential candidate and Loomer and Vance wanted a group of Black immigrants to drum up hate against.

    That’s the only reason to even pick on them. And the insistence that they’re “illegals” is particularly loathsome in this case since it’s such a transparent lie–they of course have zero evidence, and Haitians are more likely than most groups to be here legally or to be citizens. It’s just further proof that the word “illegal” here is mostly about skin color.

  98. 98.

    Quiltingfool

    September 18, 2024 at 9:25 am

    @Kay: I read an interesting take from a commenter at LGM – this person asserted that we now have state-sanctioned murder of women.

    The Republican Party doesn’t care if women suffer and/or die.  They have now made it legal to murder women.

  99. 99.

    Scout211

    September 18, 2024 at 9:25 am

    @Quinerly: Good Morning! Anyone have a gift link for How Donald Trump Made Billions From Politics?

    web archive version

  100. 100.

    Matt McIrvin

    September 18, 2024 at 9:28 am

    @Kay:

    We’ve given out half our Harris signs in the first week and a half we had them. That’s amazing for this county. So much so that I’m getting suspicious – are Trumpsters taking our signs ?!?

    They could be stealing them from people’s yards, driving them to get another one from you. That happens every cycle, of course.

  101. 101.

    wjca

    September 18, 2024 at 9:29 am

    @Chris Johnson: Don’t be jumping to the conclusion of ‘we don’t have enough GOOD terrorists’.

    Ha!  Next you’ll be arrguing that the solution to mass shootings isn’t a “good guy with a gun.”  :-)

  102. 102.

    Quinerly

    September 18, 2024 at 9:37 am

    @Scout211:

    Thanks! This is wonderful to know. Much appreciated.

    I was using that “ladder” site to get around paywalls, but it is no more.

  103. 103.

    Geminid

    September 18, 2024 at 9:37 am

    @Matt McIrvin: The Trump campaign has made Nativism its theme. “America First” is more than a slogan; The Steve Bannons and Steven Millers of the Republican Party conceive of it as a powerful movement.

    They’ll still be a problem after Trump goes down, especially for the Republican Party. But they won’t just be a Republican problem although I wish that were not the case.

  104. 104.

    Dave

    September 18, 2024 at 9:46 am

    @TBone: I see we’ve arrived at the classic solutions.  Now we need the snakes to eat the spiders and then the raptors to eat the snakes and so on.

  105. 105.

    Dave

    September 18, 2024 at 9:47 am

    @Ken: We can’t all be Leonard Nimoy.

  106. 106.

    JoeyJoeJoe

    September 18, 2024 at 9:48 am

    @Quinerly: maybe interestingly, the Missouri county with the highest Republican voting percentage is often Barton County-the county seat is Liberal, Missouri, I believe

  107. 107.

    Dave

    September 18, 2024 at 9:51 am

    @Quiltingfool: In some ways it’s state required murder because if you as a medical practitioner intervene in an unapproved manner you are exposing yourself to legal consequences.  

    Easy enough to say they should intervene regardless, and they should, but not so easy when you are in their shoes.

    Entirely disgusting state of affairs.

  108. 108.

    Steve in the ATL

    September 18, 2024 at 9:53 am

    @Quiltingfool: ​
     wouldn’t it be closer to manslaughter? Not that it really matters–it’s still an unnecessary loss of human life. By the dishonestly named “pro-life” party.

  109. 109.

    Quiltingfool

    September 18, 2024 at 10:12 am

    @Steve in the ATL: You are right in that manslaughter would most likely be the charge if one had to make a charge in the death of a woman in this circumstance.  Not a lawyer, but murder must have intent?

    Here’s the thing, though.  A woman died.  It could have been prevented, but the state decreed that, short of a miracle, her death was inevitable.  The state is sanctioning death.

  110. 110.

    Quinerly

    September 18, 2024 at 10:14 am

    @JoeyJoeJoe:

    And Liberal, Missouri was founded by an Atheist as a haven for Atheists.

  111. 111.

    Quinerly

    September 18, 2024 at 10:24 am

    @JoeyJoeJoe:

    And I just checked  Liberal’s Wiki. Population less than 700. I knew of the Atheist history but didn’t know about the concerted Christian take over later. I just figured the politics and demographics changed over time. Rural Missouri is so very Red.

    Never been to Liberal, Missouri. I have been to Liberal, KS on one of my taking backroads only trips from St. Louis to Santa Fe before moving here. I’m big on roadside attractions and fading and dying Americana. Was the only tourist here. Poco and I walked the Yellow Brick Road.

    https://dorothyshouse.com/

  112. 112.

    ab_normal

    September 18, 2024 at 12:29 pm

    @Baud: “comments locked due to triggered weirdos” lol

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - BarcaChicago  - Off the Gunflint Trail/Boundary Waters 7
Image by BarcaChicago (7/17/25)
Donate

Recent Comments

  • suzanne on Thursday Night Open Thread (Jul 17, 2025 @ 6:50pm)
  • scav on Thursday Night Open Thread (Jul 17, 2025 @ 6:48pm)
  • Professor Bigfoot on GOP Venality Open Thread: The Emil Bove Nomination (Jul 17, 2025 @ 6:48pm)
  • Rose Judson on Thursday Night Open Thread (Jul 17, 2025 @ 6:47pm)
  • Harrison Wesley on Donald Trump Boosts Higher Ed Enrollments (Jul 17, 2025 @ 6:45pm)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!