Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Finding joy where we can, and muddling through where we can’t.

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

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

How stupid are these people?

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

In my day, never was longer.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

We are learning that “working class” means “white” for way too many people.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

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

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

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

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

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

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

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Squishable Pre-Dawn Open Thread

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Yesterday we opted to sit on the porch observing the antics of the local birds rather than plug into the outrage machine. So I’m just now seeing the news that Israel bombed Iran in retaliation for Iran’s attack on Israel last week, which was in response to Israel’s strike on Iranian personnel in Damascus blah blah blah.

According to CBS News, Iranian officials are “downplaying” the missile strikes, which perhaps signals they don’t intend to escalate. Or maybe not. The people in charge of both countries are goddamn nuts, so anything is possible. I’d rather look at windswept herons than think about that:

Great Blue Heron on a windy day

Not a great picture — we have Albatrossity for that — but it shows how the bird is harnessing the breeze to complete his grooming routine. Before that, he was standing in a not-so-shallow spot taking a full-on bath. Date night!

Open thread.

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On The Road – Paul in Jacksonville – California Wine Country #1

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Paul in Jacksonville

I worked for a San Francisco based wine marketing company as the Southeast Regional Manager from 1998-2008. The company represented one family owned winery from the various appellations in the state. Approximately once each quarter, I would host a small group of people by leading a tour of these properties. The wineries were located from Santa Barbara County in the south to the Anderson Valley, a couple of hours north of San Francisco. It involved lots of windshield time.The Pacific Coast Highway was used in every tour I guided.

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On The Road - Paul in Jacksonville - California Wine Country #1 9

Andy Quadys winery is in Madera, California, which he described as “10 miles east of the middle of nowhere.” Andy was a chemical engineer and former bomb builder who decided that he wanted a different lifestyle. He went to the University of California-Davis, which is the primary university for all aspects of the wine business. He also wanted to create a niche, so he decided to specialize in dessert wines.

Thursday Night Open Thread

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I started watching Fallout last night, and it is just crazy to me that the games I was playing close to thirty years ago that no one had heard of and my friends called me a dork for being such an avid gamer are now completely and totally mainstreamed. I’m happy about it, regardless, and glad that video games are being recognized for the works of art they are.

One of the greatest game design decisions in history has to be the selection of the music for the Fallout series of games, and it shines just as brightly in the tv series. Really a masterful idea.

I’m too depressed to talk about politics. Like I am not personally depressed and in the hole I was a month ago, but just thinking about it and that fucking Trump makes me depressed.

And what the fuck are all these university president’s doing calling the cops on protestors.

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Foreign Affairs Open Thread: Our Failed Major Media’s Splendid Little War

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The world will little note nor long remember, but it irks me personally that President Biden doesn’t get credit for making the best of TFG’s bad bargain with the Taliban. From the Guardian, “US review finds August 2021 suicide bombing at Kabul airport was unpreventable”:

The suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that killed US troops and Afghans in August 2021 was not preventable, and a “bald man in black” spotted by US service members on the morning of the attack was not the bomber, according to a new review by US Central Command.

The findings, released on Monday, refute assertions by some service members who believed they had a chance to take out the would-be bomber but did not get approval. And, for the first time, the USmilitary confirmed that the bomber was Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an Islamic State militant who had been in an Afghan prison but was released by the Taliban as the group took control of the country that summer.

The Abbey Gate bombing during the final chaotic days of the Afghanistan withdrawal killed 13 US service members and 170 Afghans, and wounded scores more. It triggered widespread debate and congressional criticism, fueled by emotional testimony from a Marine injured in the blast, who said snipers believed they saw the possible bomber but could not get approval to take him out.

In a detailed briefing to a small number of reporters, members of the team that carried out the review released photos of the bald man identified by military snipers as a potential threat and compared them with photos of al-Logari. The team members described facial recognition and other analysis they used confirmed those were not the same man.

“For the past two years, some service members have claimed that they had the bomber in their sights and they could have prevented the attack. We now know that is not correct,” said a team member…

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War for Ukraine Day 786: The Butcher’s Bill for Chernihiv

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(Image by NEIVANMADE)

Brief housekeeping note: Thank you to everyone for the good thoughts and well wishes. Rosie’s fever had broken by mid evening last night, she ate dinner, and did quite well. When I spoke with the vet this morning she had further improved, her blood work was normal, they had consulted with her oncology vet who is part of the same practice, and I was able to pick her up this afternoon. She inhaled her dinner and is now laying on the bed with her little sister. She’s still a bit wobbly, but the vet says that’s to be expected between the fever and the chemo. I, however, am exhausted, so I’m going to keep tonight’s update on the shorter side as I want to rack out early. Honestly, if she wanted a spa day she just had to ask.

As I’ve been drafting tonight’s update, so for the past hour or so, air raid alerts have been going up over eastern and southern Ukraine. As of 7:02 PM EDT about half of Ukraine is under air raid alert.

Here’s the butcher’s bill from Russia’s attack on Chernihiv:

I know everyone is excited and feeling positive that the foreign aid or nat-sec or military supplemental is going to pass. It is important to remember that because Speaker Johnson has split this into multiple bills, which have significant differences to the Senate bill that has been languishing in the House for several months.

The first, third, fourth, and fifth bullet points are just bad policy.

Even if they were good policy, the simple truth is that whatever passes the House has to go back to the Senate. When that happens it can be filibustered. Everyone is giving Johnson plaudits for suddenly finding a backbone and doing the right thing. I’m a bit more cynical and think that Johnson is doing it this way because he knows that if he sends three separate bills to the Senate that Republican Senators Paul, Vance, Lee, and a number of the other GOP senators will try to kill it through the filibuster. He’s going to jam the Democratic majority Senate and then blame the Democrats when the Republican Senate minority kills it using the filibuster.

Imagine that, who could’ve possibly imagined?

More seriously, the problem right now is that it is unclear that McConnell still has enough control of the Senate GOP minority caucus to get whatever the House sends over through a cloture vote so that the supplementals can get to the simple majority vote and be voted into law. This is by no means a done deal on the House side, let alone the Senate side.

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

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Anachronisms (Open Thread)

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Anyone watching “Franklin” on Apple TV? Michael Douglas stars, and the early reviews are mixed.

I like it — Ol’ Ben is my favorite Founder and denomination of U.S. currency. Douglas is compelling, and the cast includes many fine actors.

However, I spotted an anachronism in a recent episode:

Boston terrier resting on cushion

That’s a Boston terrier in a scene that is set in 1777. The breed did not exist in that century.

Oh well. Anachronisms happen. For example, you can’t swing a cat in this town without walloping a fascist, nearly 80 years after my heroic grandfather left to help defeat Nazis across the ocean.

So it goes, poo-tee-weet, etc.

Open thread!

 

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Twice in the Same Week!

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The last person I was certain would be president, though I didn’t know if it would be in my lifetime, was Barack Obama.  I have been pretty sure since – what, maybe 2017 or so? – that the same thing would be true of Jon Ossoff.

Both GA Senators are worth their weigh in gold.  This is Jon Ossoff again, just a couple of days ago.

When I posted this one a couple of days ago, I reminded everyone that Balloon Juice donated $700,000 to various entities in GA in 2020, and look what we got for our trouble.  We won the presidency, we got two amazing GA senators; we got the Senate, which was huge.

Let’s do it again this cycle!

Two mystery Balloon Juice Angels have $1,000 matches – one for NV and one for AZ.

As I type, we have $17,027 for AZ ($1k is a check) and $15,204 for NV.  That means we are $7,769 away from our $40,000 goal.  $2k of that will be covered by our Mystery Angels, which means we need to raise $5,769 to meet the external angel match.

Excluding the $2k from the Mystery Angels, that’s about $2k needed for AZ and about $3,750 for NV.

We can do this, right?

ARIZONA

NEVADA

Out-raise them.  Out-organize them.  Out-strategize them.  Out vote them.

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