Popped to Sainsbury’s this morning to pick up a few things I’d forgotten to add to my Saturday grocery order, and was pleased to see all the papers front-paging their support for President Zelenskyy (and even, to an extent, the PM). Someone on Bluesky helpfully put together a montage for me:
If there’s one thing the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday hate more than Labour politicians, it’s being told what to do by foreigners. (N.B.: British papers often have separate titles and editorial teams for their Sunday editions; this BBC reference for high schoolers is helpful for understanding some key differences between the UK and US press.) The summit meeting underway down in London seems to be going well, too, per the Guardian liveblog. It is painful to recall the footage of that shameful ambush in the White House on Friday, but it is a relief to know that at least one of the countries I pay tax to is doing the right thing vis a vis Ukraine.
Fresh, open thread for you. Bonus Monty under the fold.
The big shiny himbo cat I live with has been sulking since Thursday, when I ran out of the Friskies treats my mother sends him from the US. Here he is casually lounging in my eyeline, letting me know he requires the goodies:
Fortunately for him, I’ve started my spring cleaning this week. I cleared out a kitchen cabinet a little while ago and found an unopened packet of the Friskies buried in a storage bin.
I suppose you could say it’s fortunate for me, too, as he won’t try to trip me on the stairs and then eat me instead.
Baud
The British are back, baby!
Professor Bigfoot
We’ve started that here, too; and is there anything more frustrating AND funny than finding things tucked away unopened that you’ve already gone and replaced? LOL
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: Sassenach buggers getting it right this time, bless ‘em.
Rose Judson
@Professor Bigfoot: In our home, which is occupied by two ladies with longish hair, there are SO MANY forgotten packages of hair elastics lurking in cabinets. I’m better about this than I was years ago, as I do go through everything twice a year now, but UGH.
One friend of mine has a spreadsheet for tracking this stuff, but he’s an accountant, and so is wired differently from me.
TBone
Heee is gorgeous and your home warm & lovely!
ETA I have decided to hire Spring cleaning help this year for the heavy lifting so hubby and I can catch up on some projects put off too long. Touch up painting (bigger job than it sounds), etc. replacement of certain home goods that will require careful searching which takes up cleaning time better left to yutes my neighbor recommended.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Back where? I hope they stay back on their little overcast and dreary island.
I went to Sainsbury once when I was in London.
Betty Cracker
Lovely cat!
Re: the ambush: as you mentioned yesterday, the King should rescind the state invitation issued to the orange fart cloud now that the latter has switched sides in a genocidal war against an ally. From the vast expertise on the British monarchy I acquired from watching The Crown, I gather the odds of that are low? Maybe he’ll surprise us.
Betty
So happy to see the British and European leaders demonstrating sound principles and leadership against the tyrants.
ETA: For your sake and for Monty’s, I hope some additional treats arrive soon.
trollhattan
So glad it’s boring ol’ Starmer and not BoJo or that salad lady who wanted to cut UK taxes, to victory!
Rose Judson
@Betty Cracker: I’m genuinely not sure whether he could get away with that unless there were signals that there’d be mass unrest. Which there probably would be! I don’t think we know exactly when the visit is meant to go ahead yet.
@Betty: My parents are coming to visit in April, and Mom is aware of the supply situation. In exchange I’ll be making them many omelettes.
Anonymous At Work
If literally everyone supports Ukraine, maybe Starmer will have the balls to act on that support. So far, he’s been a disappointment since he won’t *act* for fear of isolating or disappointing anyone.
mikefromArlington
Meanwhile Republicans are throwing poop at everyone.
Professor Bigfoot
@mikefromArlington: So, just another day ending in “y,” I see.
Elizabelle
Monty has more patriotism in his little tuxedo bones than The Felon will ever have.
Good for the UK and EU and everyone supporting Ukraine. The Felon has turned this country into a Rogue State, but please let us be able to do something about that.
Today is Fasching (OK, almost a week) in Germany, and its equivalent Mardi Gras is Tuesday. We need spring and renewal.
sp98
@Anonymous At Work:
Hildebrand
The folks we’ve talked to since arriving (first London, now York) have been unanimous in their disgust with Trump’s antics – and I just can’t imagine they are all Labour voters.
sp98
@Anonymous At Work: Unfortunately, Hungry and Slovakia do not support Ukraine.
#15 – my bad, please ignore
Spanky
@Professor Bigfoot:
I have concluded that it is the natural order to only find something lost after you have replaced it.
Rose Judson
@Hildebrand: They are very unlikely to be just Labour. Boris Johnson was a loud early supporter of Zelenskyy, and even the far-right Reform, headed by Nigel Farage, is generally pro-Ukraine.
Professor Bigfoot
@Spanky: I’ve actually USED that undocumented cosmic law– literally gone out and bought a replacement for something in an effort to find it.
IT DOESN’T WORK. The Universe is not only slicker than we think, it’s slicker than we CAN think.
kindness
We here at BJ are not shocked that world leaders find Trump an abomination, not to mention bought and paid for (sure there is blackmail too) by Putin. It’s funny, we agree about most big things but frequently get caught up in minutia. I’m wondering when the torch and pitchfork protests hit Washington DC.
Betty Cracker
@Rose Judson: In the race to the bottom that is far-right politics, America seems to be a step ahead of the Brits since Reagan.
U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
Professor Bigfoot
@Rose Judson: It’s kind of a binary thing, isn’t it?
One either supports Zelenskyy and Ukraine, the victims of this war, or one supports the aggressor, Putin’s Russia.
MOST decent humans will side against the aggressor; but that shows just who our “conservatives” really are.
Thor Heyerdahl
A classic clip about British papers
kindness
@sp98: I’d be so happy if the EU were to kick Hungary out. It’ll be easier to do when Trump pulls the US out of NATO.
Thor Heyerdahl
@Betty Cracker: Thatcher was elected in May 1979…
sp98
@kindness:
Hungry, Slovakia & Serbia would contribute more to world peace by fighting each other over their mutually disputed territories.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Andrew Weisman posted a series of suggestions answering the question What Can I Do?
Scout211
SNL’s cold open last night was good, parodying the Oval Office nightmare, with an added appearance by Mike Myers as Musk. Worth a watch, if only to see the parody of JD Vance, Musk, Rubio and “Big Balls.”
Elon Musk Cold Open
I know it’s hard, but laughing at the horrors helps me cope a little.
pieceofpeace
@Betty Cracker: Yes, he could use as a cover the need to step back and for the forseeable future let the countries reconsider their positions, blah, blach. So putting off this visit to deter further confusion and dis-unity for England. and maybe other countries.
I’m sure other pro writers could frame this better, but I see this as an opportunity for British politicos to regain some points with the EU as well.
Omnes Omnibus
@sp98: Another shooting war in Europe would not be good for world peace.
mrmoshpotato
@Rose Judson:
Wow. Both BoJo and Lying Red Bus Farage being on the correct side of history on Ukraine.
I no longer want to know what Putin has on the orange shitstain because it has to be absolutely horrific.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: Charles would not do that off his own bat, but his government could advise him to do it.
Betty Cracker
@Thor Heyerdahl: You’re right — Thatcher outlasted Reagan a bit. Since her then. Horrid as the Tories are, seems like our Repubs are worse. But maybe that’s just my perception because they directly affect me.
TBone
@mikefromArlington:
Bescumber is a new to me word I picked up this year for the occasion. I thought I needed some new cuss words.
Oxford English Dictionary (OED):
The earliest known use of the verb bescumber is in the late 1500s.
OED’s earliest evidence for bescumber is from 1598, in the writing of John Marston, poet and playwright.
Elizabelle
Hmmm. Thatcher. Horrible Prime Minister, but she certainly inspired Elvis Costello to some of his finest. Tramp the Dirt Down. The lyrics.
SO: who else from the UK was really good at opposing Thatcher and the Tories?
And who from the US left some good music protesting Reagan?
Used to know this, but have not thought about it in years. Maybe we will get some good music protesting The Felon, but it is too high a price to pay for art.
Also, FWIW, Rest in Power to David Johansen of the New York Dolls; later adopted the Buster Poindexter persona. Had not followed him much, but he seems like he was quite a raconteur as well. (As is Iggy Pop.)
Elizabelle
Elvis Costello:
sp98
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yes, I agree – my comment was not meant seriously. Sorry.
arrieve
Zelenskyy met with King Charles as scheduled.
Elizabelle
More from those Elvis Costello lyrics. If Dylan got a Pulitzer Prize, Costello deserves one too. Dipped in acid, perhaps.
He got the “oppressors expect you to thank them for their actions” into his lyrics. We are learning that ourselves, now.
trollhattan
@arrieve: We know what mother thought of Trump and I’d imagine His Majesty’s views are if anything, even harsher since they’re approximately the same generation. Donny has yet another reason to be jealous of Zelenskyy. Pity.
Elizabelle
@arrieve: Love it. Trump and Vance disgraced and unmasked themselves.
And Zelenskyy is on a victory tour of his allies in Europe.
trollhattan
Wow, they can’t keep their mitts off the stove burners, can they?
zhena gogolia
@trollhattan: It’s not going to burn them.
They’re going to steal our money.
West of the Rockies
@Omnes Omnibus:
So glad to see your presence around here again.
Sloane Ranger
@Betty Cracker: The King would only do that “on the advice of his Government”.
Currently, as things stand, I don’t think the invitation will be publicly withdrawn, there might, however be “scheduling conflicts” or the King needing to take things easy for a while due to delayed reaction to his cancer treatment. With a bit of imagination, this could be dragged out for quite a while.
There’s also a possibility that, depending on how the the Foreign Office and the SIS assess the importance to Trump of a State visit with attendant rubbing shoulders with King Charles and other members of the Royal Family, the Visit could quietly be made contingent upon him taking a more co-operative tone/position.
Whatever happens, I suspect that Starmer won’t do anything without careful consideration of all the factors involved. It’s boring, but that’s who he is.
Citizen Alan
@Scout211: i wILl never forgive SNL we’re seizing every opportunity to make home horrifically ageist jokes about Joe Biden for pretty much the whole year preceding the election. The last time I watched the show, they had a family feud parody with trump versus kamala. For the GOP side, they had Trump, Vance and Don Jr. for the Dem side, they had Kamala, Doug, Tim… and they added an extra slot on the Dem side just so that aging hack Dana fuckin Carvey could let’s do an impression of joe as completely lost to senility.
Citizen Alan
@Betty Cracker: As much as I detest margaret thatcher and as awful as her policies were for britain, the trump maga croud is worse than the tories under thatcher by orders of magnitude. She might have had an unhealthy obsession with privatization, but she would never have countenanced entire sectors of the british government being handed over to the sort of lunatic oligarchs we are contending with, let alone with the connivance of the russians. She might have been cynical about her patriotism, but I think she was still a patriot.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle: From the era, The English Beat.
IOW she was beloved.
Elizabelle
@Citizen Alan: Agreed. The Tories are not the radicalized Republicans, and the UK is not the US.
We have fallen much farther, and too many here magically believe in American Exceptionalism, and the go it alone toughness of the frontier. Which. Was not what they have been led to believe.
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: Thank you. Will look that one up later and give it a listen.
Liminal Owl
@Professor Bigfoot: Murphy’s law only fails when you attempt to demonstrate it.
Liminal Owl
@Elizabelle: Neither US nor Britain, but Canadian: Spirit of the West, “The Hounds That Wait Outside Your Door.”
(YouTube now has the whole album, woohoo! Labour Day . I also commend to your attention “Profiteers,” about preparations for the Olympics in BC.)
greenergood
@Rose Judson: Rlly?? As far as I’ve seen, Farage is a Putin toady – might try to escape in the next few days as the anti-Putin heat builds up, but Nige has been a Vlad-fan for ages … the idea that European countries (with even Brexit UK on the sidelines) are starting (finally) to band together for Ukraine will be absolute anathema to the Brexit boys and their UK ‘Reform’ Party. This might be a defining (defeating?) moment for the Brexit boys, but we’ll see …
Jeffg166
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s more likely to be drones than guns. War is changing.
trollhattan
Runner Girl at her final NCAA indoor track meet this weekend. In her mile heat is the #2 fastest gal in the nation. Dad’s not going to tell her “don’t get lapped” because of prior lessons learned.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@trollhattan: Congrats to Runner Girl!
trollhattan
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
:-) Merci.
And don’t they just grow up so fast?
Josie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Please don’t go away again. I never said so, but I always depended on your calm, logical way of looking at things.
Rose Judson
@trollhattan: ah, congrats to her!
Betty Cracker
@trollhattan: That’s fantastic — congrats!
WTFGhost
No complaints, no rush, but, scanning the front page to find an open thread is taking a bit of scrolling – might be time for a new one.
sab
@Sloane Ranger: I am glad to see Omnes back, and I am also glad to see you back again.
Jay
https://nitter.poast.org/DefenceHQ/status/1896249742939607355#m
Sloane Ranger
@sab: Thanks. I’ve been trying to take a break from politics because events weren’t doing my blood pressure my good. Then you elected Biden and things were boring, but predictable. Then I watched the Oval Office ambush and now I’m incandescent!
Frank Wilhoit
Years ago I had two kittens, in the toe-biting stage. Someone gave me a coupon for Friskies. I said, that’s the last thing I need — if they made a cat food called Sluggishes, I’d buy that!
Anyway
@trollhattan: congratulations to her! Love track meets
Liminal Owl
Congratulations to RunnerGirl!
Elizabelle
@Liminal Owl: Never heard of these. Thank you.
@trollhattan: Fabulous. Well done, Runner Girl.