Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

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

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

“woke” is the new caravan.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

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

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

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

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

All hail the time of the bunny!

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Let there be snark.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

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

You are here: Home / Music / Monday Morning Open Thread: St. Padraig’s Day

Monday Morning Open Thread: St. Padraig’s Day

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Honoring my ancestors by engaging in our traditions this st. Patrick’s day (alcoholism, political violence)

— William B. Fuckley (@opinionhaver.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 8:04 PM

And nursing old grievances, our most longstanding political tradition!

Shout-out to much-missed commentor LilBitBrit…

Here we see Saint Patrick facing the prospect of having to go over, again, how—like so many supposedly “national” dishes from Italy to China and beyond—Corned Beef and Cabbage originated in America, most likely in New York, and most Irish people did not in fact grow up eating it.

[image or embed]

— Kieran Healy (@kjhealy.co) March 16, 2025 at 5:48 PM


(True! As a result of the Great Famine, thousands of Irish ‘girls’ emigrated to America — primarily New York & Boston, because the fares there were cheaper — and took up domestic service with prosperous German-ancestry Jewish families. Corned beef was the fancy weekend dish in those families, and the ‘girls’ didn’t have much knowledge of cooking apart from potatoes, so they celebrated their newfound immigrant prosperity with corned beef… and, of course, potatoes.)

Earnest! Constructive!…

General political update, grudging credit to SpaceX:

And, yes, if you weren’t reading over the weekend: The Oval Office Occupant signed the Continuing Resolution, so the government is (theoretically) funded through September.

Reader Interactions

322Comments

  1. 1.

    eclare

    The film Brooklyn, with Saoirse Ronan, is a very good portrayal of a young woman coming to America in the 1950’s.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    The Oval Office Occupant signed the Continuing Resolution, so the government is (theoretically) funded through September.

    Normies everywhere rejoice by ignoring it and going on with their lives.

  3. 3.

    Suzanne

    I am not a big drinker, so I typically don’t enjoy this holiday to its, uhhhh, fullest extent. But I hope everyone has a great day!

    Of my eight great-grandparents, one was born in Ireland, and one in the U.S. of Irish and Scottish descent. So I guess I get to wear a little green today.

  4. 4.

    Hildebrand

    We celebrated this weekend by attending the Irish Festival in York.  Heard some good live music, drank a pint of Guinness, and saw more gingers per square foot than I have seen in quite some time – my wife felt at home.

  7. 7.

    Suzanne

    @eclare: Were you named for anyone? I ask because one of my great-grandmothers had a professor and mentor who was very special to her — she went to university in the days when very few women did — and her younger son, aka SuzGrandfather, was given that professor’s surname as a first name. And we have a few other instances of that. As a result, we’ve got quite a few people in the tree whose names and ancestry don’t line up!

  8. 8.

    Betty Cracker

    I’ve loved the Dropkick Murphys for years and am delighted to learn they aren’t down with Trump’s cult. Casey (lead singer) spotted a MAGA cultist at a concert last week near Tampa and made a wager — let’s check the tags on your MAGA tee, and if it’s foreign made, replace it right here, right now, with an American-made Dropkick Murphys tee. The MAGA rag was in fact foreign made, and the fan took off his shirt and traded it for the band’s. Casey called him a good sport.

    This made me laugh:

    Me: Happy St. Patrick's day!

    My snake roommate:…Wow.

    Me: Sorry, I didn't thin-

    Snake roommate:-It's *fine*.

    — Richy Craven (@richycraven.bsky.social) March 16, 2025 at 7:07 AM

  9. 9.

    Jackie

    Hope the J6 Select Committee members still have their attorneys on retainer:

    President Donald Trump declared void the presidential pardons given to the House Select Committee that investigated the January 6th Capitol riots by President Joe Biden.

    Writing on his Truth Social page, Trump became the first president in history to try to overturn pardons given by his predecessor.

    “The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen.”

    “In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them! The necessary Pardoning Documents were not explained to, or approved by, Biden. He knew nothing about them, and the people that did may have committed a crime. Therefore, those on the Unselect Committee, who destroyed and deleted ALL evidence obtained during their two year Witch Hunt of me, and many other innocent people, should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level. The fact is, they were probably responsible for the Documents that were signed on their behalf without the knowledge or consent of the Worst President in the History of our Country, Crooked Joe Biden!”

    As Snopes explains, presidents have long used assorted versions of the autopen since the early 19th Century and using such devices does not undermine the legitimacy of presidential signatures.

    This is total bullshit, but nonetheless…

  10. 10.

    MagdaInBlack

    Speaking of snakes: I see on the tabloidy Raw Story that trump has voided Biden’s pardons of the J6 committee, due to something something auto-pen signature.

    Guess it has to be a sharpie.

  11. 11.

    Liminal Owl

    @eclare: oh, yes! We loved that movie.  (And in general love Saoirse Ronan.)

    I have no Irish ancestry but grew up on Irish music, and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of my very favorite books.

  12. 12.

    snoey

    @Betty Cracker: There’s an everybody up on stage part of the Murphys show and a few years ago some loser started with the Nazi salute on stage. Bass player unplugged and escorted the guy out. Most videos of the incident have been removed since a bass is solid hardwood and deploying one as a weapon is probably (well deserved) felony assault.

  15. 15.

    Suzanne

    @Betty Cracker: A few years back, Mike Ness of Social Distortion punched a MAGA concertgoer in the face. Dude was screaming at Ness over and over, and said something about “not coming here for your politics!”.

    The absolute dipshittery of screaming and harassing over and over at an old punk, who is incredibly explicit about his politics in his music….. I mean, FAFO.

  17. 17.

    oldgold

    It appears the Tangerine Terror is deeply confused and thinks today is not St. Patrick’s Day; but rather, that it is April Fool’s Day. Otherwise, what sane person would write this:

    “The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen.”

  20. 20.

    WereBear

    A big recc for 1958’s The Last Hurrah, both book and movie.

    Great look at an up-from-nothing Irish politician outlining the nuance of machine politics and how they were treated by the landed gentry.

    Spencer Tracy, John Carradine, and a young Captain Pike (if one is a Star Trek fan.) Plenty of Irish players.

    An inside look at campaigning (rented dogs! rich failsons! looming gamechanger of TV!) to contrast the old and new, and just a wonderfully written story to hold it all up.

  21. 21.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Jackie: I saw Trump’s pardon lunacy quoted elsewhere and wasn’t sure if it was real or some sort of parody account. Actually, I often can’t tell these days

    ETA: I just looked to be sure he included “hereby.” He seems to think that word makes things official.

  25. 25.

    NotMax

    “Sure and begorrah, lassie, that fellow’s so Irish his blood type is O apostrophe.”
    :)

  26. 26.

    Jackie

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I just looked to be sure he included “hereby.” He seems to think that word makes things official kingly.

    Hereby and hear ye are his royal legal terms; thus making it so 🤪

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    @raven: That’s an awesome photo! I bet she had some stories. BTW, thanks for recommending The Creek. I’m really enjoying it.

    @Suzanne: LMAO! Hadn’t heard about Ness punching out a MAGA. There’s a YouTube with the punchee whining about the incident, and while as a rule YouTube comments are garbage, in this case they’re on point. TL;DR: WTF did you expect?

  29. 29.

    raven

    @Betty Cracker: Thanks! She had two sons in the Confederate Army and her husband was in the Union Army. One son, James Figg, was killed at the Battle of Atlanta but I never was able to locate his grave. He was probable buried in a common grave in the Oakland Cemetery.

  30. 30.

    Geminid

    I saw a couple funny things looking for Middle East news. Some Turkish guy reposted this with grin  emoji:

    Do not overrate the Turks.

    That’s their own job.

    And the acerbic Iris Boker captioned a picture, “My order came in!” The picture shows an object with an orange handle which ends with a man’s torso and head. The man is wearing a red tie and has his thumbs up.

    His mouth forms a circle, and his hair is a big cone of orange bristles because it’s a Trump toilet brush.

  32. 32.

    Suzanne

    @Betty Cracker: Liiiiiiike, I will be all Glenn Greenwald about it and say, “Punk violence, which I do not support, is a natural and expected consequence of being a whiny piece of shit Trump supporter who will not shut up, which I also do not support.”

  36. 36.

    Betty Cracker

    @Princess: Honest to dog, if we somehow pull this stupid country out of its current authoritarian tailspin, we’re going to have to stupid-proof it in so many ways to prevent another authoritarian assault. IMO, the stupid-proofing would have to include reform of the inexcusably monarchical presidential pardon powers. Basically, any rule that relied on a presumption that the people would not elect a Dumbfuck Hitler will have to be revised.

  39. 39.

    wil

    @Spanky: In some weird way this is emblematic of our problem.

    People on our side are busy saying “Look how smart we are and how dumb you Trumpers are”

    But it’s the Trumper walking away with the free merchandise and laughing on his way to the bank.

  41. 41.

    satby

    I’ll echo the Taoiseach (tee-sock) to wish you all Lá Fhéile Phádraig sona daoibh (Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all).  Though I ‘ll never be fluent, it gladdens my heart to hear the resurgence of the language that the occupiers tried so hard to eradicate. Just as it does when I hear of the resurrection of American indigenous languages being taught again.

  42. 42.

    Almost Retired

    Love the blurb about the New York origin of many supposedly “national” dishes.
    We once stopped at Panda Express in Barstow. A busload of Chinese tourists en route to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon pulled up at the same time for lunch.  Once they got to the counter and very critically eyed the food, they looked horrified.  I’m pretty sure I learned how to say “what the fuck” in Mandarin.

    I don’t think the last imperial rulers of the Qing dynasty ever ate Orange Chicken, unless they happened to be in Pasadena.​​

  43. 43.

    Betty Cracker

    @wil: That’s one way to look at it. Here’s another: thousands of fans heard from a famously working class band they admire that Trumpism is a fucking scam — it’s fake patriotism peddled with dumb slogans on cheap foreign-made crap.

  44. 44.

    satby

    @wil: Well, if you’re determined to overlook the public humiliation of being singled out for scorn by hundreds and having the MAGA “America First” lie shown for the empty marketing slogan it is, I guess getting a free shirt out of the deal was winning. I’d call it more of a pity fuck.

  51. 51.

    satby

    @Princess: Well, several seem to be putting themselves back into jail (or in at least one case the ground) even after they got the pardon.

  53. 53.

    WereBear

    @Betty Cracker: Key was voter suppression and that needs more mayors being sued, I guess.

    The bar association has to step up, too. “Populating everything with failsons” is even more pre-emptive, ask me. This crowds out the good men, too.

  55. 55.

    trnc

    @Jackie: Hope the J6 Select Committee members still have their attorneys on retainer:

    I hope the response from all the pardonees for literally any official notification, document request or subpoena from the DOJ is “Nice try, asshole,” and not even on attorney letterhead.

  57. 57.

    wil

    @satby: Not my free t-shirt.  Enjoy going ‘neener neener’ at Trumpers as they get what they want while you don’t even understand what’s going on.

  58. 58.

    satby

    @eclare: like many indigenous languages, Irish was a spoken, not written one. When it came time to write it down the (mostly) monks adapted the letters used in the other Western European languages as best they could, but it was a poor match since Irish has no common origin (i.e. Latin) with them. So phonetically it’s not pronounced at all the same. Patrick sounds like “Poric” in Irish.

  59. 59.

    WereBear

    @satby: I am a fan of Dr. Samenow’s theory of the Criminal Mind.

    Errors in thinking, incredibly common in conspiracy theory which actually guides people into madness, and more errors in thinking.

    Too many men are socialized to deal with their problems by making the world around them deal with them.

    Maybe on my mind while reading the giant tome, Twelfth of Never, about the Betty Broderick murders.

    Spoiler: I always thought she was driven to it. If there was ever a gender-role atrocity, that might be its apex.

    If you delve into these QAnon people, they are so confused. They literally can’t think anymore.

  63. 63.

    Soprano2

    @Jackie: Just wow, anyone who still thinks he doesn’t want to be a king is fooling themselves. I can’t imagine even this Supreme Court would go along with this.

  64. 64.

    Betty Cracker

    @wil: Contrary to popular belief, “what’s going on” is pretty complicated, and probably no one fully understands every aspect of it, not even you. That’s why “hur hur you’re doing it WRONG” discourse is so goddamn annoying.

  65. 65.

    Soprano2

    @Almost Retired: I can only imagine what they’d think of Springfield Cashew Chicken. Every other place tries to put vegetables in it! There are no veggies in cashew chicken except some green onion pieces.

  66. 66.

    narya

    @Soprano2: Unfortunately, I can imagine that. They know he’s a fool, but (IMHO) they’re setting it up so they can put in someone smarter who can then benefit from all of the permissions they’ve granted the office. (Hot tip: I don’t think JDivan is the person they have in mind, either, try-hard though he may be.)

  70. 70.

    Almost Retired

    @Soprano2:   We drove through your fair city en route from Branson (don’t ask) to St. Louis.  I waived in what I thought to be your general direction.

  71. 71.

    narya

    @satby: There are a lot of written texts in the Sister Fidelma novels, and I think they’re not written in latin or latinate languages; any clue what they might be?

  76. 76.

    Soprano2

    @Almost Retired: So you drove by on Hwy 65 & I-44. I almost could have seen you wave. Too bad you didn’t stop, I could have bought you some real Springfield cashew chicken. My only warning about it is that it’s addictive – the friends I went to college with always want it first thing when they visit here.

    Branson has some good stuff, it’s not all theaters with older performers in their last act.

  81. 81.

    Baud

    No design is going to withstand 40 years of civic rot caused by right wing political culture.

  88. 88.

    Betty Cracker

    @wil: I think the band got a much-needed anti-cult, anti-fascist message out to thousands of people in the moment and countless more via social media, and yes, I consider that a win.

    @glory b: You are correct. There won’t be anything easy about it if we get another shot and hope to make it stick. And that is a big IF.

  91. 91.

    satby

    @Baud: especially when the design (mostly) assumed for people who might disagree on legislation but agreed on the fundamentals of democracy (if we could keep it).

  98. 98.

    WereBear

    @snoey: I still laugh about that. I should sell embroidered pillows. If we had any VISITORS.

    One sick thing is that all these people who depend on tourism around here — most of them voted for war on Canada.

    Tsk tsk.

  101. 101.

    wil

    @Betty Cracker:

    The former leader of Project 2025 Paul Dans said he is thrilled “way beyond my wildest dreams” that the Trump administration has largely implemented his vision from the Heritage Foundation plan, Politico reports.

    Well, see you in the showers…glad you think you got some kind of a win.

  107. 107.

    wil

    @satby:

    @Betty Cracker: Obviously, I agree. I doubt most of the crowd buying T-shirts felt aggrieved by the incident. In fact, they probably bought more in support.

    You guys are hilarious.  Well, you can ‘buy more in support’ at their online shop, just $35-$40 per T-shirt, and $80 for a hoodie.  $95 for a hockey jersey with their logo.  Glad they’re such a ‘working class’ band, though, or so I’ve heard.   :)

    https://dropkickmurphys.store/

  108. 108.

    narya

    @satby: Yes! Now that you say that, that’s how it’s described in the books, but not written. I had forgotten that the author names the language.

  113. 113.

    Matt McIrvin

    @gene108: There will not be another Democratic President, and even if there were, pardons can’t be rescinded. What I hope is that we at least have some kind of Truth and Reconciliation Commission to air everything out after we get a new, small-d-democratic government decades from now. However that happens.

  116. 116.

    Loquacious Scribble

    “…and the ‘girls’ didn’t have much knowledge of cooking apart from potatoes, so they celebrated their newfound immigrant prosperity with corned beef… and, of course, potatoes.”

    And of course potatoes themselves were originally from the Western Hemisphere and unknown in Europe until the Columbian Exchange after 1492.  The tomato was also unknown in Europe, and therefore Italy, until the 16th Century. It was originally from the Andean region of South America.

    In return for giving Europe what would eventually become staples of their cuisine and identity, Europe gave the “New World” measles, smallpox, influenza, and mumps.

  118. 118.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Jackie: Trump always does this bullshit distract when something goes bad for him – mostly like this time is the leak that he hates Musk along with  Russia isn’t going for Trump’s peace plan.

  121. 121.

    Belafon

    @wil: The Trumper didn’t pay attention to where his shirt came from until challenged. You’re thinking for him after the fact.

  126. 126.

    wil

    @Jackie: Not at all.

    Apparently saying that giving a Trumper a free T-shirt and calling him a ‘good sport’ is not actually a big win just really upsets some people.

  127. 127.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @wil: As I’m sorry you can’t act like an adult and have to resort to being an sea lioning asshole.

  131. 131.

    lowtechcyclist

    @glory b:

    That’s not just “reform.” It would call for a constitutional amendment, an excruciatingly drawn out process.

    This is one of the reasons I think we’ll ultimately need secession in some manner.  You define a new country, you get to write a new constitution.

  133. 133.

    wil

    @Belafon:

    @wil: The Trumper didn’t pay attention to where his shirt came from until challenged. You’re thinking for him after the fact.

    Since he would see the label every time he puts the shirt on, you don’t know that. You are thinking for him as well.

  135. 135.

    karen gail

    The only thing my Irish ancestors shared with me about why they left was a deep abiding hatred of all things Catholic along with great dislike of all things Christian. While a few of the ‘greats’ shared dislike for a few other things mostly Monarchy of Britian related.

  138. 138.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Eunicecycle:

    I have to admit, it took a minute for me to figure out the bear proof trash cans in the Smokies!

    You could bearly manage it, huh? ;-)

  141. 141.

    narya

    I rarely use the pie filter (we all have our moments of less-than-felicitous participation and commentary), but when I do, suddenly the thread is full of tasty treats! The amount of treats is part of what helps confirm my choice.

  146. 146.

    laura

    @wil: and yet, you come waltzing in like the pope of chili town and have smote us all with your power and your words and such big feels, and we’ve all been taught a powerful lesson about who knows what and we’re all gonna die, and our last thoughts will of course be “that will was right, shite-bag got a free tee-shirt, and that’s when America fell but we were too dumb to recognize it.” Enjoy your victory lap champ, you slayed us, one and all.

  147. 147.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Omnes Omnibus: I just don’t think politics as we know it is gonna work any more at the federal level. This is the end state, particularly for the Presidency. Either the United States breaks up or we get some kind of systemic overhaul, and those things don’t happen quietly.

    We’ll keep having elections and in the blue states, and probably even in the whiter of the deep-red states (where it doesn’t matter anyway), they will be adequately free and fair. But the thumb will be on the scale such that the Democratic Party can never regain influence on a national level and can probably never win the Presidency.

    And we may never even be able to win a popular majority, because the people will sense this impossibility and take it out on the Democrats for being somehow inadequate. I’m seeing this now even in liberal comment boards and discussion forums: liberals hate Trump but they REALLY hate Schumer and Fetterman, and then they start one-upping each other and congratulating themselves for hating Hakeem Jeffries, and then hating all of them except Crockett, AOC and Bernie, and then not being so sure about AOC or Bernie.

  148. 148.

    tam1MI

    @wil: Since he would see the label every time he puts the shirt on

    Labels on shirts are generally located on the back of the neck or on a side near the bottom. The tag free labels are often only one or two shades of from the color of the shirt itself. You have to be specifically looking for the tag in order to read it.  Most people when they put on a shirt just put it on.

  151. 151.

    lowtechcyclist

    @narya:

    I rarely use the pie filter (we all have our moments of less-than-felicitous participation and commentary), but when I do, suddenly the thread is full of tasty treats! The amount of treats is part of what helps confirm my choice.

    Which reminds me, I found out awhile back that the pie filter seems to be device-specific (a cookie of some sort, perhaps?) because I’d see comments from people I’d pied on the laptop (where I do most of my commenting) when I was on my desktop computer, as I am now.

    Reading wil’s comments just now reminded me, “oh yeah, I pied him on the laptop.” I’ll pie him here if it rises to being worth the effort.

  158. 158.

    Omnes Omnibus

    In the spirit of the Day and all that (although I have no Irish ancestry whatsoever), I am listening to the first Pogues album, Red Roses for Me.

  162. 162.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker: Dropkick Murphys are very pro-union (and always have been)…it’s always been great to see my RWNJ bro cringe at their shows when they tee off on rich folks, scabs, and trumpov

    (same with Springsteen, Social D, etc)

    And man that is an awesome BlueSky post, LOL

  164. 164.

    frosty

    @Matt McIrvin: I disagree; I think we’ll still have a Democratic President. The one I worry about is the Senate. There are too many states that are full-blown Republican now, thanks to Limbaugh and Murdoch. I don’t think we’ll see a McGovern from North Dakota again.

    I also worry about PA going the way of Ohio.

  165. 165.

    schrodingers_cat

    @frosty: If you get rid of the pie, its even faster. Click the pie filter. then on the settings tab, click hide comment.

    BTW I got myself three 100% cotton sketchbooks for watercolor and waterbased media. I am excited to try them.

    Plus got myself FaberCastells Pitt Matt Graphite pencils.

  166. 166.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Rusty: It’s a good tag. I recall Douglas Adams’ variant: “A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.”

  170. 170.

    frosty

    @schrodingers_cat: I didn’t know about hiding the comment. That would have been good for this one. With most of the pies, I toggle to check and some of them are rational now and then so I’m not ready to toss them out entirely.

    Congrats on the art supplies. New gear is always fun!

  171. 171.

    lowtechcyclist

    Sixteen years ago today, we brought our son out of Baby House #1 in Samara, Russia, and took him into our family.  That tiny little boy is now a tall, skinny 17 year old finishing up his senior year in high school.  Tonight we’ll be taking him out to dinner at one of his favorite restaurants to celebrate this anniversary.

    Excuse me, my monitor is getting blurry for some reason.

  172. 172.

    gene108

    @lowtechcyclist:

    This is one of the reasons I think we’ll ultimately need secession in some manner. You define a new country, you get to write a new constitution.

    Once the rivers of blood stop flowing as scores are settled, people are uprooted out of their homes to the new country they “belong” to, and new rounds of violent retaliation keep going to settle the score from the last round of violence.

    Outside of Czechoslovakia, I can’t think of another case of partition that wasn’t bloody.

  173. 173.

    satby

    @Matt McIrvin: And of course all the people you’re reading online are making statements/arguments in good faith with no underlying agendas, because that’s exactly how online comments work.

    Or, maybe not?

  176. 176.

    wil

    @japa21: To you, perhaps.   Sorry to upset the mutual appreciation society you guys practice in here with a little bit of reality.

  179. 179.

    Jackie

    Is the USA now a rogue nation? Or quickly becoming one?

    Paul Krugman: “This turn away from military dependence on the U.S. is understandable. America is no longer a reliable ally to the world’s democracies; indeed, between Trump’s turn toward Putin and his talk of annexing Canada and Greenland, we don’t look like an ally at all. Rumors that U.S. jets have a “kill switch” that would allow Trump to disable them at will are probably false, but sophisticated military equipment requires a lot of technical support, so you don’t want to buy it from a country you don’t trust.”

    “And this observation got me thinking. How much economic damage will America suffer because it has become a rogue nation?”

    Worth clicking on Krugman’s sub stack link to read his thoughts.

    I’m beginning to realize what the FFOTUS is doing to our country and our allies’ reactions is really heartbreakingly real.

  181. 181.

    lowtechcyclist

    @satby:

    happy gotcha day to your son and his happy and proud dad and mom!

    Thanks, satby!  It’s a happy day indeed.

  184. 184.

    Jackie

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Sixteen years ago today, we brought our son out of Baby House #1 in Samara, Russia, and took him into our family.  That tiny little boy is now a tall, skinny 17 year old finishing up his senior year in high school.

    Happy X 16 Gotcha Day anniversary!

    My monitor is looking a wee bit blurry too…

  185. 185.

    Betty Cracker

    @Matt McIrvin: That’s one possibility, but there are still other ways it could shake out. IMO, a lot of the Dem voter anger at figures in the Senate like Schumer is justified.

    I was against helping Repubs pass the CR but think reasonable people can disagree on that. What makes me furious at Schumer is 1) the lack of planning for what happened, and 2) bullshit like this quote in a NYT interview this weekend:

    Look, I talk to a lot of these Republican legislators. I’ve worked with them. Some of them are Trump devotees. But many of them don’t like him, don’t respect him and worry about what he’s doing to our country. Right now he’s so popular they can’t resist him… The Republicans would like to have some freedom from Trump, but they won’t until we bring him down in popularity. That happened with Bush in 2005. It happened with Trump in 2017. When it happens, I am hopeful that our Republican colleagues will resume working with us. And I talk to them. One of the places is in the gym. When you’re on that bike in your shorts, panting away next to a Republican, a lot of the inhibitions come off.

    Sweet tap-dancing Christ. He thinks it’s still 2005.

    If you believe that one of the two viable parties is now an authoritarian cult of personality and that our democracy is in serious danger due to a lawless executive, you need leaders who understand that, or you’re fucked right out of the gate.

    So I don’t find the internecine warfare discouraging, really. It’s a necessary conversation. I still have hope for a stronger opposition to emerge that is capable of better outlining the stakes and making the pro-democracy case.

    I think the centrist vs. progressive framing is off too. The divide is whether elected Dems are responding to this grave threat appropriately or not. Some are, some aren’t, and it’s not neatly ideological, IMO.

  187. 187.

    lowtechcyclist

    Laugh of the day, courtesy of this morning’s WaPo top headline: “Trump has a plan to remake the economy. But he’s not explaining it very well.”

    1) Trump has plans?

    2) He’s capable of actually explaining shit?

    3) If he could explain it, would it make any sense?

    Etc.

  188. 188.

    TS

    @wil: This assumes money and nothing else is the issue. Perhaps you see money as the most important thing in life, I am happy that I do not see it that way – a free T-shirt is irrelevant when being called for the fool that you are.

  189. 189.

    sentient ai from the future

    @wil: oh look at the dumbass trying to use the “I’m a brave truth teller” narrative to blow smoke up their own ass about their need for attention and asshole behavior.

  190. 190.

    Denali5

    @satby:  I did not know this about Irish, and I am wondering if the same holds true for Hungarian. I am trying to learn Hungarian for my grandkids, and am finding that many words sound very different from the written version.

  191. 191.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @gene108: Had the Confederates succeeded in their secession, there would have been constant warfare on those borders.

    Think guerrillas with sanctuaries in the remaining United States, operating inside the Confederacy.

    ANY such secession on this continent will result in the exact same thing if not worse– if not the religious wars that rocked Europe for centuries.

  193. 193.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    There will not be another Democratic President,

     

    Hard to imagine one will ever be good enough to support.

    ETA: I see you’ve addressed this.

  195. 195.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Jackie:

    Does anybody else think it’s a real possibility Trump might try, or at least want to, annex Canada, Greenland, and Mexico? Obviously the Canadian government does, as they are obliged to

    Honest to god, I clicked one of the nitter links someone posted here recently and one of the accounts replying was literally themed around a “United North America”. Some of Trump’s online followers clearly take this seriously and approve, which is disturbing

  197. 197.

    David Collier-Brown

    @Ben Cisco:

     Coming from the IT world, I’m sorry to report that stupid-proofing is a myth. Make something idiot-proof and the universe spontaneously spawns a better idiot.

    Technically, it requires you test or prove every possible path through the code is correct. Famously hard!

  198. 198.

    TS

    @Jackie:

    our allies’ reactions is really heartbreakingly real.

    Do you currently  have any allies, Russia perhaps. There is zero trust. No-one knows what he will do next to any country/treaty/relationship.

  200. 200.

    peter

    @wil: So all that matters to you is the shirt? Not the fact that the “winner” (and his cause, and the leader of his cult) was shown to be a sham?

    Now I see what Trump meant when he promised “so much winning.”

  201. 201.

    Jeffro

    @Jackie:How much economic damage will America suffer because it has become a rogue nation?

    (holds arms WIDE open)

    “thiiiiiiiiiiiiis much”

    Between the loss of military equipment sales, the loss of tourism, the slashing of NIH funding, tariffs wars & tariff randomness, deportations, and crippling our nation’s universities?  (and that’s probably just for starters)

    A LOT.  A lot of economic damage.

  202. 202.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Betty Cracker:

    (Schumer quote:}

    The Republicans would like to have some freedom from Trump, but they won’t until we bring him down in popularity. That happened with Bush in 2005. It happened with Trump in 2017. When it happens, I am hopeful that our Republican colleagues will resume working with us.

    What I remember after 2005 was, the Dems won majorities in both houses of Congress in 2006, and Mitch & Co. filibustered everything they passed in 2007 and 2008.

    If that’s his notion of “our Republican colleagues…working with us” then WTF?!

  203. 203.

    Jeffro

    @lowtechcyclist:

    1) Trump has plans?

    2) He’s capable of actually explaining shit?

    3) If he could explain it, would it make any sense?

     

    I have to hand it to Bobo, just this once, when he said:

    We’ve got this perverse situation in which the vast analytic powers of the entire world are being spent trying to understand a guy whose thoughts are often just six fireflies beeping randomly in a jar.

  204. 204.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @David Collier-Brown: I was part of a software testing team at one time and I had FUN by being the biggest idiot I could think of.

    “How can I break this bad boy…” and it’s amazing how easy it can be sometimes.

  206. 206.

    Melancholy Jaques

    As a result of the Great Famine, thousands of Irish ‘girls’ emigrated to America — primarily New York & Boston, because the fares there were cheaper — and took up domestic service with prosperous German-ancestry Jewish families.

    Two good books on those points:

    The Irish Bridgets: Irish Immigrant Women in Domestic Service in America, 1840-1930, by Margaret Lynch-Brennan.

    97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrants Families in One New York Tenement, by Jane Ziegelman.

    Both are the history of regular people that are my favorite kind of history books.

  208. 208.

    Jackie

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Laugh of the day, courtesy of this morning’s WaPo top headline: “Trump has a plan to remake the economy. But he’s not explaining it very well.”

    “Trump has a concept of a plan to remake the economy.”

    The WaPo left out a few crucial words…

  209. 209.

    Belafon

    @David Collier-Brown: (Seen elsewhere)

    A software tester walks into a bar.
    Runs into a bar,
    Crawls into a bar,
    Dances into a bar,
    Flies into a bar,
    Jumps into a bar.
    And orders:
    A beer
    2 beers
    0 beers
    9999999999 beers
    A lizard in a glass
    -1 beer
    “qwertyuiop” beers
    Testing complete.

    A real customer walks into the bar and ask where the toilets are.
    The bar goes up in flames.

  211. 211.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Betty Cracker:

    I agree with your take. No matter how you slice it, Schumer didn’t plan this out well at all. Also, I can’t believe this is a real thing he wrote/said:

    And I talk to them. One of the places is in the gym. When you’re on that bike in your shorts, panting away next to a Republican, a lot of the inhibitions come off.

  212. 212.

    tam1MI

    @sentient ai from the future: oh look at the dumbass trying to use the “I’m a brave truth teller” narrative to blow smoke up their own ass about their need for attention and asshole behavior.

    I figure we are about 3 posts off from the inevitable ” You all SUCK!!!” post and flounce off the forum while we all continue to laugh at him.

    On the “up” side, though, the Dropkick Murphys sold some more merch today!

  213. 213.

    Emily B.

    March 17 is also the feast day of St. Gertrude of Nivelles, patron saint of gardeners, travelers, and (unofficially) cats. She refused to marry—starting with the proposal she received at age 10—so her mother founded an abbey and Gertrude later became the abbess. She did works of charity, studied and collected holy books, and hosted foreign visitors, particularly Irish monks, according to her Wikipedia entry. Her association with cats is pretty recent—first ref is a Metropolitan Museum of Art catalog—but she was long venerated for protecting against rats and mice. Works for me.

  214. 214.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Professor Bigfoot: ​
      People blame lawyers for the warnings on irons not to iron clothing while wearing it and such like. Those warnings are there because someone did it once and then the lawyers suggested thinking of all the other dumb stuff someone might do and suggesting that they just don’t. Someone always thinks of something that wasn’t on the warning label. Always. Then it goes on the next warning label.

  216. 216.

    Baud

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    People blame lawyers for the warnings on irons not to iron clothing while wearing it and such like

     

    It saves time when you don’t spot the wrinkles before you put on the shirt.

  217. 217.

    David Collier-Brown

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Does anybody else think it’s a real possibility Trump might try, or at least want to, annex Canada, Greenland?

    … themed around a “United North America”. Some of Trump’s online followers clearly take this seriously and approve, which is disturbing.

    In a word, yes. He wants lebensraum.

    It’s unclear if he will get it, but his trying might kick off a painfull series of annexations and defeats.

  218. 218.

    VeniceRiley

    They don’t even mention St. pats here in Engerland. Not on the news and no pub celebrations.

    It’s St. George’s day that celebrated instead.

    Come to think of it, I never see Ireland in the news unless it’s some state visit one way or the other.

  219. 219.

    tam1MI

    As a result of the Great Famine, thousands of Irish ‘girls’ emigrated to America — primarily New York & Boston, because the fares there were cheaper

    Fun Fact: The city that saw the largest influx of Irish immigrants due to the Famine was Liverpool, England.

  220. 220.

    wil

    @TS: A free T-shirt is a free T-shirt.  That doesn’t mean someone thinks ‘money is the most important thing in life’

    No need to be absurdist about it.

  224. 224.

    wil

    @peter: He showed the Trumper that his Trump shirt was made in China.  BFD.

    And then the Trumper got a free band T-shirt out of the deal.

    You know everybody told the Trumpers his stuff was made in China back around 2015, right?

  230. 230.

    Old School

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Laugh of the day, courtesy of this morning’s WaPo top headline: “Trump has a plan to remake the economy. But he’s not explaining it very well.”

    1) Trump has plans?

    2) He’s capable of actually explaining shit?

    3) If he could explain it, would it make any sense?

    Trump’s plans for the economy:

    The economy will only benefit Trump and people Trump deems worthy of benefiting.

  231. 231.

    wil

    @lowtechcyclist: Trump’s plan to remake the economy centers around everything and everybody bowing and scraping to Trump.  Things and people he likes will be allowed to operate/exist.  Those that cross him will be punished with whatever tools he chooses to use, law enforcement, legal attacks, investigations, his unofficial brownshirt mob of those he just pardoned, etc.

  233. 233.

    zhena gogolia

    @KM in NS: As a U.S. citizen, I am deeply insulted, embarrassed, and nauseated by every piece of shit that comes out of his mouth, and the mouths of his disgusting henchmen and women.

  235. 235.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Old School:The economy will only benefit Trump and people Trump deems worthy of benefiting.

    There’s a deep strain of American (Southern white) conservatism that believes that only white people are worthy of benefiting from citizenship in “their” country.

    There’s a reason why many lynching victims were actually successful farmers, tradesmen, businessmen whose success angered white men.

    Be assured that one of the promises of Trumpism is to “de-Negrify” American public life.

  237. 237.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    @Spanky: Conversation gets a bit heated outside a bar.

    “Fuck you”

    “Fuck you too.”

    “Just Bono, or the whole band?”

  240. 240.

    Hildebrand

    @Omnes Omnibus: My favorite was at the national lab where my son works, a place littered with physicists and engineers of every stripe and discipline – one day a very large sign appeared: ‘please hold on to railing when using stairs’.

    We had a ball trying to figure out what happened to prompt that.

  241. 241.

    prostratedragon

    @David Collier-Brown:

    I agree that he’s likely to try. There’s also some bizarre shit around about giving each techbro part of some State, such as Texas, for their own fiefdom with few|no restrictions. And, of course, the building call for a Constitutional convention. Just little things to keep us on our toes.

  242. 242.

    lowtechcyclist

    @David Collier-Brown:

    In a word, yes. He wants lebensraum.

    Nah. After all, it isn’t like we’ve got any shortage of land as it is. There’s plenty of room in the Dakotas, in Wyoming, in most of Montana, in western Kansas and Nebraska, eastern Colorado, etc.

    He just wants to push people around. And if he can easily take something that isn’t his, then so much the better from his POV.

  243. 243.

    wil

    @lowtechcyclist: Putin also has no shortage of land, but it hasn’t stopped him from invading other countries.  Trump doesn’t operate rationally. He isn’t going to think “we’ve got plenty of room in the Dakotas, etc.”  That’s just not how his mind works.

  245. 245.

    Soprano2

    @schrodingers_cat: You don’t have to like them or interact with them, but I usually give people a few posts before I decide they’re trolls. Attacking someone over their first post is kind of yucky IMHO unless it’s extremely obvious what they’re doing.

  246. 246.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Professor Bigfoot:

    Joy of the day to you and your family and to that “skinny kid in high school!”

    Thanks, Prof!  And have I mentioned that he’s now got a good-looking and absolutely adorable girlfriend? They are just so disgustingly cute together!

  248. 248.

    Soprano2

    @wil: You look at the label when you put on a T-shirt? You’re probably the only one who does that. I only look at the labels before I wash them.

  252. 252.

    wil

    @Soprano2: Then we can agree that people who own T-shirts look at the labels, either when they put them on, or when they wash them.

    As I said earlier also, saying Trump’s stuff was made in China was a thing back in 2015.  It’s hardly news now ten years later.

  253. 253.

    zhena gogolia

    @KM in NS: Millions of us, a tiny bit fewer than the ones who voted for him, DID NOT WANT THIS.

    We were failed by the Republicans in Congress who could have stopped him with the first or second impeachments but were too chickenshit to do so.

  255. 255.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I get it now; Trump is claiming Biden wasn’t in control of the auto pen – in other words Trump is trying to project is own dementia and actuations he is a puppet of Musk on to Biden.

  257. 257.

    Suzanne

    @Soprano2: Thank you for being a mature and normal adult. If one disagrees with another commenter on an issue, one can have a good-faith discussion about it. If one doesn’t like a commenter or thinks they’re trolling, one can….. just not respond to that person. One can even use the pie filter without announcing it to anyone!

  258. 258.

    Gretchen

    @Professor Bigfoot: I didn’t realize, until I moved to the Kansas-Missouri border, how much Civil warfare went on right near my house. There were brutal raids back and forth over the border. One of the killed most of the men and boys in Lawrence, KS, and then retaliatory raids happened. Most of the Kansas City area was cleared out to keep the slave-state sympathizers away from the border. I think you’re right that that kind of nonsense can go on for years if there’s no firm resolution.

  260. 260.

    Captain C

    @Betty Cracker:

    Sweet tap-dancing Christ. He thinks it’s still 2005.

    And even in 2005, we were over a decade on from Newtie’s Contract On America and the constant treating of Democrats and Liberals as the traitorous enemy to be vanquished.  Bipartisanship (other than the Republican version, i.e. “You Do What We Say and Like It”) was dead at that point.

  261. 261.

    Captain C

    @Jeffro:

    I have to hand it to Bobo

    Bobo, who’s spent the last couple decades trying to put a respectable sheen on extremist (and bad) Republican policies and rhetoric.  Bobo, who got a job teaching morals and ethics around the time he ditched his wife for his (half-his-age) research assistant.  Bobo’s got a lot of atoning to do.

  262. 262.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Betty Cracker: The anger is justified but I feel like the Hack Gap is killing us. We can’t get everyone moving in the same direction because we’re smart and we care about things, and it means we’re constantly turning inward and struggling for control. If we were stupid and cared only about fluffing some Great Leader we’d be a more effective force in elections–though not at governing.

  263. 263.

    Gretchen

    @Melancholy Jaques: thanks for the recommendation. I bought 97 Orchard – sounds good. That reminds me of my visit to the Tenement Museum in New York – the researched the families that lived there and restored the apartments to what they were like in the 1890s.

    That’s what I loved about Ta Nehisi Coate’s articles on the Civil War in the Atlantic. A lot of them were about ordinary people and what it was like for them when the war intruded on their normal lives. I’ve always wished he would collect them into a book, but that doesn’t seem to be happening.

  265. 265.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Soprano2:If you are referring to yesterday’s incident.

    Their first comment out of the gate and the commenter accuses Ds for the Rs in power and calls all Americans authoritarian.  That’s not trollish behavior?

    Google’s AI defines a troll thus

    In online contexts, a “troll” refers to someone who intentionally posts provocative or offensive messages to upset or disrupt a community,

    If my comments offend you, you can scroll past them or mute me.

  266. 266.

    Gretchen

    @Professor Bigfoot: yes. The mediocre white men are enraged that being a mediocre white man isn’t enough any more. I hope this is their last hurrah before they have to deal with the hellscape of actual competition with their betters.

    I’m amazed that quintessential mediocre white man Pete Hegseth has managed to convince three different women that they should marry him and be submissive to his mediocrity. Ugh. It’s always the really stupid ones who insist that women submit to them, because they can’t earn respect. They have to be given it.

  268. 268.

    tam1MI

    @wil: You guys spend more time being thin-skinned than any other site on the Internet.  Pretty funny.

    How to say, “I’ve never been on DAILY KOS” without saying “I’ve never been on DAILY KOS”.

  270. 270.

    Matt McIrvin

    @prostratedragon: Oh damn, are they actually going to do the “spam the country with a hundred new states to slam through Constitutional amendments” thing? That was my personal paranoid scenario.

  272. 272.

    emjayay

    I’m once again wondering why this blog uses such a crap commenting system. The problems with it are obvious. Does Disqus or another well designed system charge for their use and this mess is free or what?

  275. 275.

    Gretchen

    @emjayay: Why do you prefer Disqus? It’s got that stupid nested commenting thing and requires passwords every time you want to comment? The BJ commenting system is the way it is because most of us prefer it that way?

    ”the problems with it are obvious”. What are these obvious problems that the annoying Disqus doesn’t have?

  276. 276.

    Matt McIrvin

    @emjayay: As I explain every time this comes up, most of the front-pagers and commenters prefer it this way and especially don’t want threaded comments, like Disqus has. They will die on this hill.

    (I like threaded comments but think Disqus is a pretty bad implementation.)

  277. 277.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @emjayay: The blogrunner and commentariat like he comment system this way. Mystified me before; but since I started commenting on my phone, I’ve preferred this.

  279. 279.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Matt McIrvin: (I like threaded comments but think Disqus is a pretty bad implementation.)

    Disqus makes it really hard to read what anything is a response to. The lines indicating a thread are jumbled too close together.

  280. 280.

    Matt McIrvin

    The main thing I don’t like about the current commenting system is the bug that deletes the last character from a paragraph if you edit a comment to add a new paragraph. Been there for years, I’ve noted it before.

  284. 284.

    Matt McIrvin

    @The Audacity of Krope: My main objection to Disqus is that if you follow the link “Show comment in discussion” in the Disqus interface, it shows you the comments above yours in the thread, but not any replies to the comment! That is infuriating. The main thing I want to do if I click that link is see replies.

  288. 288.

    Matt McIrvin

    @The Audacity of Krope: Most threaded layouts have the problem that when replies get sufficiently deep, everything is indented so far that the text is crammed into a tiny slot and becomes unreadable. Disqus does this.

  290. 290.

    Ohio Mom

    @SFBayAreaGal: She’s been missing for a long time. I have a vague memory of cancer scare but maybe that was her hubby

    ETA: Satby has a better memory than I do.

  294. 294.

    Gvg

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): A lot of people live with too much unreality. Books, TV, movies, games, anime and what have you. A United North America is a common idea and a year ago I would have thought it much more possible because I thought it could happen gradually what with the countries being Allies and friendly so long etc. We have a lot of trade, a lot of snowbirds, a pretty casual attitude about tourism. Even with Mexico the tourism attitude wasn’t bad. We did have a bad streak of nastiness towards Mexicans that is deplorable even without Trump and Fox. But with better luck that could have faded instead of where we are. Better cooperation would have made a lot of things work better, including law enforcement. Trump has set up a situation to benefit mobs not law and order.
    His voters will do anything to avoid learning how anything actually works. Thinking hurts their heads and makes them feel bad.
    So they don’t understand the difference between stories that writer make up and control in order to make an interesting story the way the writer wants and the way the real world works where nobody is in control,interesting and a pleasing to the audience ending is not a goal and it’s all permanent.

    They also don’t get that nobody reacts well to being threatened, and the way Trump went about it was guaranteed to break up the US Canadian alliance. When people say if Trump was a Russian agent, what would he do differently? This is the kind of example they mean. I didn’t realize it was even possible. And the MAGA cultists don’t even understand that this is the kind of thing that made America powerful. We were not powerful alone. We were powerful as a leader of….and countries were willing to follow. This is why it’s so bad they don’t want to know anything. And to not know the difference between fantasy and reality.

  296. 296.

    Soprano2

    @wil: I only look at the laundering instructions, I don’t look to see where it’s made. I’d bet you $100 that most people never look at tags at all, let along know where their clothing comes from.

  300. 300.

    WereBear

    @Gvg: This is why it’s so bad they don’t want to know anything. And to not know the difference between fantasy and reality.

    I’ve come to think that when they whine “they work hard” they add in the mental effort it takes to ignore every source of contrary information, every waking moment, lest an avalanche of cognitive dissonance take down the only way they know how to be.

    They are so confused. But fear knowledge. Which is the only cure.

    And my mother called ME the most stubborn child in the world. But I did grow up, and I don’t feel they did.

  303. 303.

    Citizen Alan

    @WereBear: “MAGAs are confused and ignorant but also fear knowledge, which is the only cure.”

    Wow. When you put it like that, it clears up so much about their pathologies.

  304. 304.

    wil

    @Soprano2:

    @wil: I only look at the laundering instructions, I don’t look to see where it’s made. I’d bet you $100 that most people never look at tags at all, let along know where their clothing comes from.

    That’s one of those comments that says: “Well, I do X, but I bet most of the unwashed masses don’t do X.”

    Let’s be honest.  Whatever YOU do, THEY probably do also.  You are not some special snowflake that behaves in some way most folks don’t.  And I’m sure you, like the rest of us, notice the “Made In ______” line as you are reading whatever other part of the tag you read.

  305. 305.

    Ohio Mom

    @wil: Like all good metaphors, this story has multiple and overlapping interpretations.

    It does indeed work as, “Once again, a Red person manages to get free stuff from the Blues.” Just like Red states are Taker states and Blue states are Maker states (who is making music here, the Blue band).

    It also works as, “Reds have no manners, try to bully, Blues are ultimately smarter and manage to leverage their strengths against the Reds.”

    And those strengths include in this instance, how to get good publicity that reinforces our values (including showing our intrinsic generosity).

    This is another stupid argument on Balloon Juice, about nothing.

  307. 307.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @tam1MI:

    How to say, “I’ve never been on DAILY KOS” without saying “I’ve never been on DAILY KOS”.

    I’d say the same for LG&M. I’ve never been to a right-wing blog, but I imagine is the same or worse.

    The internet definitely allows for the worst things to be expressed in the worst ways.

  308. 308.

    Miss Bianca

    This is the first St Paddy’s Day in forever that I haven’t had a gig. Feels weird. I guess I will make some colcannon and play a tune or two on the fiddle this evening just for myself.

  309. 309.

    Harrison Wesley

    Getting a late start, but after sufficient time at the bar I’ll be celebrating with some traditional Irish piss-dancing.

  310. 310.

    Citizen Alan

    @Miss Bianca: This is the first St. Paddy’s weekend in over ten years when I haven’t done a pub crawl of some kind with friends. For a millisecond, I thought about taking a long weekend and flying back to Mississippi just for the Oxford Pub Crawl. Then, I figured it would probably cost close to $1000 on such short notice and also Shitgibbon is destroying the FAA and turning every plane into a death trap. So I stayed home and sullenly cleaned my apartment.

    I did get an invite to have drinks with a friend here in Fresno, but he wants to meet at a bar that’s 20 minutes from my work and also 20 minutes from my apartment. So I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it.

  312. 312.

    wil

    @Ohio Mom: Yes, another stupid argument.  Could have all been avoided if Betty Cracker had simply been willing to admit I had a point.

    The fact that Trump’s merch is made in China was noted ten years ago.  There are people who are adults now who were in grade school when that point was a thing to hit Trumpers with back in 2015.  It is not some hammer to swing at this late date.

    The singer from Dropkick Murphys making some kind of silly point of this was not being some rad dude really sticking it to The Orange Man.  He was using a really old and really minor thing and taking no risk whatsoever with his ‘bet’.  And while he could have said “if you lose, you leave” or just said “if you lose, I take your shirt” and left the guy shirtless, instead he just gives the guy a free shirt that every other person who bought a shirt at the show paid at least 35 bucks for.  Usually when you LOSE a bet, you LOSE something, you don’t GET something, right?

    Not only was it not some really cool thing the way poor gullible Betty Cracker thought it was, in fact it was a really weak little stunt that only a sucker would be impressed by.

    And yes, I’m sure when the Trumper was at home talking about the show with his friends, he was not overcome with embarrassment over how he really learned what a fool he was, but was rather just looking at the end result, which was getting a free Dropkick Murphys shirt.  As we’ve all learned in the past ten years, Trumpers are generally not affected by shame at all.  If they had any shame, they would not be Trumpers in the first place.

  314. 314.

    Soprano2

    @wil: No, I really don’t, because the laundering instructions are usually on the back of the tag, or on a tag that’s separate from the one that tells you where the product is made. You obviously don’t wash women’s clothing or you would know that. If you honestly believe most people look at the tags on their clothing and know where they’re made, then I believe you’re mistaken.

    Geez this is tiresome.

  315. 315.

    wil

    @Soprano2: It is certainly tiresome that you believe you act in a way that most other people don’t.

    And of course, and BTW, we’re not talking about women’s clothing here, but you are the one wanting to talk about details of clothing tags.

  316. 316.

    Wil

    @Soprano2: Yes, it is tiresome but you are the one who thinks you behave in a way different than most of the rest of humanity when it comes to clothing and how you look at tags.

    And BTW, we are not talking about women’s clothing here.

  318. 318.

    cain

    If you’re in a mood for Irish music, please check out Clannad! Maire Brennan is amazing. She is Enya’s older sister.  Clannad 2 was one of my favorites. I used to listen to it when I walked to work at Guinness in Dublin. :)

    Such fun, I loved walking to work and dropping by the bakery and getting a scone and omg, the butter there.. yuum!

    Fun fact, I and another person from the U.S. were interning at Guinness. I was getting into it with the Irish stuff and my coworkers were amazing, kept giving me things to do or loan me their bicycle. When I left, I got like two bags of gifts from the Guinness gift store. Meanwhile, the person trashed the Irish, made fun of the culture and then came on the last day with nothing. She asked me how I got so many gifts. I shrugged, but inside I was thinking ” you’re a fucking guest in this country, take an interest, learn the culture and immerse yourself  – people love genuine people, you are a putz”

    ETA – I never did St. Paddys day in Ireland, I think it’s an American thing. But we did do James Joyce day! I always got free stuff from work then and nevermind the great 3 day weekend because monday was a bank holiday during the summer!!

  320. 320.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @cain: In celebration of two dancing cultures melded, I’m gonna binge on the Afro-Celt Sound System.

    Thanks for the reminder that they’re in my collection!

  322. 322.

    dnfree

    @wil: Generally speaking, people express their opinions and then after a while they just let it go if there’s pushback.

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