Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

White supremacy is terrorism.

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

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Be a wild strawberry.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

So very ready.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

This chaos was totally avoidable.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

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

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

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

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

The National Guard is not Batman.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

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On The Road – Captain C – Arizona – February 2024: Valley of the Sun

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Captain C

For 12 years from the mid-’90s to the mid-‘oughts, I lived in Arizona, mostly in Mesa.  After I moved back East, I continued to go back and visit my friends and family there (and also because it’s beautiful and had bands and food and more that I missed).  This past February, I went back for the first time in four years, since a month before the plague started.  This first set is from the Valley of the Sun (that is, the greater Phoenix area).

And before anyone asks, no, while in or near Tempe I did not see a man, naked or in tie-dye overalls, running down the street with a mop either pursuing or being pursued by an angry cat with a shaved ass.  So unless he was one of the folks in tie-dye at Noodles on my last Sunday (see the last set when it posts), I did not come across our dear blogfather.

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On The Road - Captain C - Arizona - February 2024: Valley of the Sun 7
Mesa Public Library, Mesa, AZ

While most of the photos in this set (and indeed all the AZ collection) were taken outdoors, I thought I’d post this one taken in the main branch of Mesa Public Library, where I got my start in librarianship.  As you might imagine, it looked a bit different a quarter century or so ago when I first worked there as a shelving page.

Late Night Open Thread: The Fanbearer & the Fluffers

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I think this is the best caricature of ‘Leader’ Mike Johnson I’ve seen. Not, as he flatters himself, a Moses, just another untrustworthy servant to a a cartoonish pharaoh…
The Fanbearer & the Fluffers - STOCKPILE

(Ann Telnaes via the Washington Post)

 

On Monday [May 13th], Sen. J.D. Vance, the Appalachian memoirist from the suburbs of Dayton, showed up at Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan wearing a blue suit and plain red necktie, and proceeded to say the sorts of things that a gag order is supposed to be preventing the defendant from saying in public anymore. As the week went on, more synthetic Trumps kept showing up, a parade of major and minor Republican figures—some of them major and minor at the same time, like House Speaker-by-default Mike Johnson, or the media-penetrating failed presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

The men were decked out like Vance, which is to say like costume-store versions of Trump, to varying degrees of fidelity. Johnson finessed it with a striped tie in equal proportions of red and navy, but with the red naturally catching the eye; centimillionaire Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who turned up last week, went with a red-dominated repp tie. But a Tuesday lineup of Ramaswamy, Florida Reps. Byron Donalds and Cory Mills, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum stood shoulder to shoulder in nearly matching, fully blank red neckwear, like groomsmen, or backup singers looking for a band.

Or—in the most widespread interpretation—they looked as if they were auditioning for a part. Specifically, they were supposed to be auditioning for the role of Trump’s running mate. This seemed like a reasonable reading of the spectacle, but the details were hard to pin down….

The first, non-negotiable thing that Trump wants in a running mate is the guarantee that there won’t be another Mike Pence—that his new vice president would never turn against him, no matter what the law or constitutional duty might say. Already, under pressure from Trump, Republicans are refusing to say they’ll accept the results of this year’s balloting. He needs a crook he can trust.

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War for Ukraine Day 819: The Russian Punishment of Sumy and Kharkiv Oblasts Continues

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Painting by NEIVANMADE. It has a white background an in the center are Soldiers in green doing air defense by firing at incoming Russian missiles in the upper right. The missiles are red and yellow. In the upper left, written in green, is the text: "SAVE THE BRAVEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD!" Below the Soldiers, also written in green, is "SUPPORT FOR KHARKIV"

(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Quick housekeeping note: Rosie is still doing well after her chemo on Monday. She’s still a bit wobbly, but she’s active, eating, drinking, wanting attention, and her temperature is still normal. She’ll have bloodwork done Saturday, but otherwise, she’s got a two week break before round 2 starts. Thank everyone again for their good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

As I started tonight’s update – 6:40 PM EDT – air raid alerts were up over all of eastern Ukraine except for Sumy Oblast. In the past seven minutes they’ve also gone up in Mykolaiv and Odesa Oblasts. So they’re now up in all of eastern and southern Ukraine with the exception of Sumy Oblast.

Russia is still pounding the daylights out of Sumy and Kharkiv Oblasts. As well as other parts of Ukraine.

From The Kyiv Independent:

Russian forces attacked ten border areas and settlements of Sumy Oblast on May 22, firing 30 times and causing at least 139 explosions, the Sumy Oblast Military Administration reported.

The communities of Mykolaivka, Bilopillia, Krasnopillia, Velyka Pysarivka, Esman, Shalyhyne, Putyvl, Znob-Novhorodske, Hlukhiv, Seredyna-Buda were targeted.

The Russian military struck the communities using artillery fire, drones, and mortar shelling, while also dropping mines.

No casualties were reported.

The town of Velyka Pysarivka experienced the most attacks, with 71 explosions recorded in the area.

Velyka Pysarivka, located directly on the Russia-Ukraine border, has become a main target of attack for Russia. Amid an up-tick in Russian attacks, authorities have been working to increase evacuation efforts in the town Velyka Pysarivka with nearly 300 residents being evacuated this week.

Shelling is a daily occurrence for the communities near Ukraine’s northeastern border with Russia, with residents in the region’s vulnerable border settlements experiencing multiple attacks per day.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

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RIP Koda, the Balloon Juice Pup

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I cried the whole time I was putting this together for geg6.  ~ WaterGirl

RIP Koda, the Balloon Juice Pup

by geg6

Here we go, hopefully not through my tears.

Last night, my John, Lovey and I said goodbye to our Koda for the last time. I decided to let everyone at Balloon Juice know because our Koda is also Balloon Juice’s Koda because we would not have had that wonderful dog if not for Balloon Juice.

That picture on a rescue bleg here on Balloon Juice is what started it all. Look at her! Adorable! I had to have her! BUT…she was in Santa Monica, CA and I am in Pittsburgh, PA. It would be impossible. Except this happened on Balloon Juice, where rescue miracles happen. Turns out that just commenting that I would love to adopt her set the wheels in motion. And before we knew it, funds had been raised, plane ticket had been purchased and Koda was winging her way to us. And John and I knew that Koda would always be partially owned by jackals.

From the moment they wheeled her out to us at the airport, we knew she was a special dog. And in all of these years, she has proven that over and over again. She came into our house and instantly made friends with our old golden, Otis.

When Otis left us, she was lonely and another pup was up for adoption on Balloon Juice a year later. Lovey came to us and Koda was like the big sister with an annoying little sister. Patient and sweet and always tolerant of Lovey, even when Lovey didn’t deserve it.

 

One of Lovey’s favorite things to show affection to Koda was to lick her ears and Koda always loved that. But Lovey has a bit of an attitude and, believe it or not, she would try to bully Koda. Koda always took that with grace and, if Lovey finally went too far, Koda would put a big paw on her and hold her down until she calmed down.

She had the best personality, always happy, never grumbling, eating everything she could get, thrilled to ride in the car. She loved to have her ears scratched and to rub her head in my lap. She slept with us in bed until she got too old to jump up. We got stairs for her but she never liked stairs and was just as happy to lay next to the bed where one of us could reach down and pet her. She loved to travel, going to Florida with us and even driving down to West Virginia to visit our blogfather.

Over the last year or so, her hips started to really cause her problems, as is pretty typical of older larger dogs like Labs. The vet told us to give her Cosequin and dog aspirins and that all worked for a while. But about a month ago, she started not being able to get up by herself and that got progressively worse until the last week or so when she seriously injured her foot trying to get up by herself.

We called the vet and had a visit, which was exhausting for us all. Koda, because of the pain, and for us, because she weighted 86 pounds and that’s a lot for two geezers like us to lift into and out of the car and house. Basically, it’s as I expected. She was an old, big dog who was basically healthy (no cancer or heart issues) but who was at the end of her life.

The vet told us to take her home, make her comfortable and that she would let us know when it was time. And that time came over this past weekend. You could see the pain in her eyes and she wasn’t even enthusiastic about her food or treats (though she always ate them!). We called and made an appointment with the traveling vet and she came last night.

I held Koda’s head in my lap and one paw in my hand and John held her other paw. Lovey would not stay away quietly, so we let her in and she came over and started licking Koda’s ears as the vet gave the anesthesia and put in the IV. She went to sleep surrounded by all who loved her most.

I cannot express how grateful I am to all the jackals who allowed her to come to us. I wish you all could have known her. You would have loved her as much as we did. Goodbye sweet Koda, my heart dog and the Balloon Juice. Pup.

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Let’s Check In with a Couple of the GOP Women

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Let's Check In with a Couple of the GOP Women

First, in the least surprising news ever, jelly-spined Nikki Haley has announced that she’s going to vote for Trump.  I don’t know if that’s an official endorsement, but really, who gives a shit.

Second, whenever I write about Kristi Noem, I note that she’s not as popular as you’d think in South Dakota.  Well, now we have some post-Cricket and post-Kim Jong Un polling in the state and it sure doesn’t look good for her.  First, her overall favorable/unfavorable/neutral rating is 39% favorable / 48% unfavorable / 14% neutral.    Her job approval rating is still 52% approval, but that’s down from 59% in a poll taken last month.

By a 59% to 38% margin, respondents believe that the killing of poor Cricket was unjustified.  By a 62% to 34% margin, folks think that her response to the book fallout has hurt her credibility.  Remember, this is in a blood red state where she won 62% of the vote in her last race for Governor.

This is all from a good piece in the South Dakota News Watch site, and there are a lot more results at the link, including breakdowns by party affiliation.

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Mishmash of Questions Answered, What’s Next

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Our Balloon Juice community is amazing isn’t it?    We met $60,000 goal for Betty in less than 24 hours!

Wedding photo, as promised.  More than one person asked for it!

This morning, even before we hit $50k, Betty wrote to ask us to please not put up another GoFundMe (GFM) post on the front page.  So we didn’t!

There were a lot of questions and concerns raised in John’s post last night.  I’ll address the ones I remember, but if I haven’t answered your question, chime in with your question in the comments.

  • Does GFM accept donations after the goal is met?  Yes.
  • Are we free to post the link to the GFM on other blogs and on social media?  Yes.
  • Are we shutting down the GoFundMe once we reach the goal?  We normally do, but in this case, no.
  • Will the GFM still be live when you get paid on the 1st of the month?  Yes.
  • Do we plan to do a second GFM for Betty at a later date?  Not in the plans.   But no one knows what the future might hold.
  • Will we increase the goal amount?  Unclear.  GFM takes 3% off the top.   Then takes out 20% in taxes. So it takes $65k in the GFM to put $50k in Betty’s hands.  This was true in the past, but may no longer be the case.
  • What about flowers?  If you are interested in thinking about flowers, send email to WaterGirl.

Betty thinks we have done more than enough, and I think it’s fair to say that she is blown away by the response.  Do we agree that we have done enough?  I think donations will tell the tale.

Okay, new subject.

I hope we can take to heart what Betty said in her Monday post:

I hope y’all will understand that I don’t have any plans to provide much further detail on this. My illness necessarily consumes so much of my life already. I’d love to have one digital oasis, populated by friends (and frenemies), where it doesn’t dominate the conversation. This could be that place!

To that end, I’d like to point you to this in the sidebar.

Betty Cracker’s Corner

Personal News: Valley of the Shadow
Balloon Juice Sponsored GoFundMe
Leave a Note for Betty (placeholder)

Leave a Note for Betty is a just placeholder link for now, but it will be a post where you can check in with Betty if you’re thinking of her, and she’ll check in on that post and comment when she is up to it. I imagine Betty will have more to say about that when she puts up that post in a day or two.

In the meantime, that seems like a good way to keep Balloon Juice that one place for Betty where everything doesn’t have to be about this fight.  This way we won’t leave landmines in various threads that Betty might stumble on in a day when she is leaving all that behind and just wants to feel normal.  But when we’re thinking of Betty, we can also post a comment in the Leave a Note post that will be linked.

Betty will post updates for us now and again, too, and the links will be added to this section in the sidebar.  For now, the plan is that the updates from Betty will generally be static pages, more like announcements.

Of course, all plans change, but this is the plan for now.

What did I miss?

This morning’s update from Betty Cracker, sent by email to people who donated.

Astonished. Overwhelmed. Verklempt.

Trying to find words, which usually come easily but have deserted me this Wednesday morning. As I said in my personal news post, my focus now is to survive this and to minimize the effect my illness has on my family.

The first part is my job, and I am newly buoyed in that effort by your unexpected (by me) outpouring of love and support. The second part of that burden – and to me the heaviest — has also been lightened by my generous friends, and I will never find the words to adequately express my gratitude for that.

I want to sculpt and hand-deliver individual butter lambs for each and every one of you, but that seems impractical just now, so these words will have to do: Thank you. I love you.

Open thread.

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The Ariana Grande Theory of Politics is Pretty Good

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The Ariana Grande Theory of Politics is Pretty Good

Paul Campos has coined the term the “Ariana Grande Theory of Politics” by pointing out that most people who don’t follow politics know about as much politics as the average older person knows about pop music.  I mean, I know Ariana Grande exists and is a singer, but that’s about it.  That’s her in the photo above.  I couldn’t pick her out of a lineup, and I certainly couldn’t name any of her songs.  (And I do like a bunch of music created in the current century, but I don’t listen to what I assume is her genre, modern pop.)

Anyway, if you don’t think Campos is right, here are the dismal results of a Guardian poll:

  • 55% believe the economy is shrinking, and 56% think the US is experiencing a recession, though the broadest measure of the economy, gross domestic product (GDP), has been growing.
  • 49% believe the S&P 500 stock market index is down for the year, though the index went up about 24% in 2023 and is up more than 12% this year.
  • 49% believe that unemployment is at a 50-year high, though the unemployment rate has been under 4%, a near 50-year low.

I don’t have a larger point here other than to say that this is the job for Democrats in every race:  via ads, door knocking and all other modes of persuasion, to point out that the economy is doing pretty well. Our overall message needs to be dirt simple. Very little nuance is necessary. Do you want the women in your life to have access to abortions and birth control? Vote for the Democrats. Do you want rich fuckers to pay more taxes so you don’t have to? Vote for the Democrats. This isn’t complicated, and the Ezra Kleins of the world who would let Republicans tell bald-faced lies while they nitpick the details of everything that comes out of Biden’s mouth can just be totally ignored, since our target audience doesn’t read the New York Times and doesn’t listen to political podcasts.

If Ariana Grande isn’t the best example, pick someone else.  For me it would be (pauses to google) Luka Dončić, current top scorer in the NBA.

Also, I know that a lot of the reason for those numbers is Fox News, but we can’t change that before the election, so here we are.

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