Yes, I'm going to Hell, but….
"They can't take the sky from me"—Starbuck— Sister Golden Bear (@sistergoldenbear.bsky.social) May 4, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Hey y'all: event alert:
I'll be talking So Very Small with Dr. Rabia DeLatour on SiriusXM-Doctor Radio, live at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. Drive time!
The book & this conversation have become only more timely with the news over the last week or so. I hope you'll tune in.
www.siriusxm.com/channels/doc…— Boston Tom Levenson (@tomlevenson.bsky.social) May 4, 2025 at 10:59 AM
Trump: "I don't think a beautiful baby girl that's 11 years old needs to have 30 dolls. I think they can have three dolls or four dolls … they don't need to have 250 pencils. They can have five."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) May 4, 2025 at 10:08 AM
describing eleven year old children as beautiful babies and saying they need fewer toys is some old person shit so severe that if biden did it the washington post would call for him to be shot
— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) May 4, 2025 at 11:00 AM
command economy but instead of a committee it’s one guy and he is 78 years old and doesn’t understand economics and also is the worst person alive
— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) May 4, 2025 at 11:17 AM
The Guy Who Uses His Mugshot As His Favored Likeness Is Not Having a Good Week
Baud
Wendy’s called it.
They Call Me Noni
@Baud: I remember that!!
dmsilev
More importantly to the Trump family, how many giant rideable stuffed lions does any given young boy need?
Melancholy Jaques
Because of where I’m from & how old I am, May 4th will always be Kent State.
Lacuna Synecdoche
“Let them eat 2 slices of cake. I don’t think they need 30.”
different-church-lady
YOU DON’T NEED A THOUSAND DAYS LEFT IN OFFICE. YOU COULD HAVE NONE.
Suzanne
I spent the morning of Star Wars Day running a half-marathon. I took a spill about a half-mile from the end, scraped up my hands and knees, fell out of my shoe and tore my pants….. but still beat my previous best time by over three minutes — held to a sub-11-minute pace. May the course be with you!
Jeffro
LOVE the Spock meme, lol!
Not only is today May the Fourth, but yesterday was ‘Free Comic Book Day’ all across America, woot woot!
(I think if both events were to occur on the same day, a Nerd Singularity might engulf us all in endless Star Wars and superhero entertainment…oh wait…) ;)
different-church-lady
I DON’T THINK YOU NEED TO HAVE 30 RESORT PROPERTIES, ASSHOLE.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Whoa.
Suzanne
@Baud: An 11-minute-mile is not very fast….. but it’s good for me! So Imma take it as a victory and feel good about myself.
WaterGirl
@Suzanne: Oh, yikes! Did you trip on something or did your legs give out? And did you keep running even after that???
Albatrossity
@Melancholy Jaques: Yes, for me too. Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
different-church-lady
@Suzanne: That’s about as fast as I cycle.
NotMax
What the hey, here’s some music fit to accompany an Open Thread.
Franz von Suppé — Banditenstreiche (Jolly Robbers) Overture.
;)
Suzanne
@WaterGirl: I totally didn’t see a seam in the pavement as I turned a corner. Just didn’t see it at all. Screamed some profanity, got that shoe back on, and got on my way. So I would have liked to have finished with a little bit more grace….. but hey!
They Call Me Noni
@different-church-lady: Madame, you win the day!
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Suzanne: Thought at first you were watching a Star Wars (half) marathon, and I was trying to figure out which films (or parts of films) would be included/excluded.
“What’s in your Star Wars half-marathon?”
They Call Me Noni
@Suzanne: Victorious!! Congrats.
Suzanne
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: There was a lot of Star Wars-themes signage out on the course. Lots of fun.
ColoradoGuy
His goal is North Korea, not weak-assed shit like Orban’s Hungary. He demands not just unquestioning obedience, but actual worship, every single day. In his reality, he is the greatest human that’s ever lived, and the chosen of God. Maybe even God’s equal.
And the MAGA true believers are good with that. They’ve been craving a cult leader since Reagan.
prostratedragon
@Baud: Ah, a long-time favorite!
prostratedragon
@Suzanne: Victory!
schrodingers_cat
I’m not a little girl and I have more than 250 pencils. I love colored pencils and they may be my favorite medium after watercolor.
JoyceH
We need to really start beating up on Republicans in Congress, because Trump is UNWELL and unable to perform in office – and every one of them knows it! A sane president doesn’t publicly post pictures of himself as Pope. A sane president doesn’t suggest using military force against GREENLAND fercryinoutloud! Before Trump came back to office, NONE of these guys were advocating taking over Greenland or imposing tariffs on the entire rest of the world. They KNOW this shit is loonytunes. And yet – there they sit. Get in their faces, yell at them! When the shelves are empty, that’s on THEM because they sat back and allowed it to happen. And, I know it’s trivial compared to the upcoming economic collapse, but by all that is holy, do NOT allow the guy who stuck tacky gold curlicues all over the Oval Office build a ballroom extension on the White House!
Suzanne
@prostratedragon: Also did a kids’ race with Spawn the Youngest yesterday. She ran the entire mile! Pretty good for a munchkin.
NotMax
@ColoradoGuy
Once again the McCarthy era radio production “The Investigator” comes to mind.
FYI, after the creator behind it had been deported from the U.S. to his native Canada the year previous.
stinger
Three or four dolls, five pencils, but only ONE scoop of ice cream!
Like Imma take parenting advice from a convicted felon.
frosty
@different-church-lady: Perfect response. ESPECIALLY THE CAPS!
prostratedragon
@Suzanne: Yes, indeed, even just for having the patience at a young age.
NotMax
@frosty
Her use of all caps is traditional B-J shorthand for the sun being well over the yardarm, as it were.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
;)
They Call Me Noni
@Suzanne: How old is she?
Matt McIrvin
@Melancholy Jaques: It was probably that to George Lucas, too–given the things he says he was thinking about when he wrote Star Wars.
Portly Neighbor
Eighteen holes of golf? You can have one.
(maybe the one where you putt through the windmill)
Yes, you can still use the cart.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
I settled on dueling poster to put on empty store shelves. One with Trump saying “I did that” and another with Harris that says “This shelf would be fully stocked if you’d voted for me!”
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
Felonious Thunk is pushing the most “depth of The Great Depression” line heard since 1932 (or 1935 France).
Remember when, to boost the GWoT effort, Shrub told us all to “go shopping” as our patriotic duty? Good times.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@different-church-lady: effing briliant.
Baud
Keep up the good work, JC.
Suzanne
@They Call Me Noni: She’s five!
Baud
@Suzanne:
Whoa. A mile is a lot.
Baud
storm777
@Melancholy Jaques: me too.
pharniel
He’s spouting literal Ming the Merciless lines now:
Let’s just say they’ll be satisfied with less.
lowtechcyclist
@Melancholy Jaques:
Same here, at least for the ‘because of how old I am’ part.
Another Scott
@Baud: It’s just astounding the amount of horrible, incredibly damaging stuff that Z has enabled and far too few of the powers that be seem to have any care at all about it.
I don’t understand it.
Grr…
Best wishes,
Scott.
Jay
@pharniel:
Which Ming the Mercyless?
The one from Flash Gordon?
Or the one from Flesh Gordon?
frosty
I love the Spock meme. It hits every show imaginable and all of them completely wrong. I was doing OK until I went back to the top and saw “They can’t take the sky from me.” was said by Starbuck. Nice!!
lowtechcyclist
@Suzanne:
No, it’s not – but sustaining it for 13 miles impresses the hell out of me!
Too bad you had that fall near the end, I bet the time it cost you is probably bugging you more than the scrapes and bruises! At least that’s how I’d feel – scrapes and bruises are just normal life for me.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@different-church-lady: absolutely lovely notion !
twbrandt
Today is also Paul Desmond Day.
Desmond wrote Take Five, which is of course in 5/4.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@ColoradoGuy: he appears to believe he is the new sun god emperor
One of André Leon Talley's Fifty Pieces of Monogrammed Louis Vuitton Luggage
Star Trek > Star Wars.
I’ll die on this hill.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud: Big AI Brother is watching you.
May
It is Ohio Sate murder day.
HopefullyNotcassandra
@JoyceH: now he wants to desecrate our house with a ballroom extension?
truly? Say it is not so, please
lowtechcyclist
@twbrandt:
But does he have a barrow in the marketplace?
different-church-lady
@Jay: You know about these things… how?
HopefullyNotcassandra
@Baud: evil
BlueGuitarist
Cheers, juicers. Love all y’all.
Date for next round of protests: June 14
(Same date as America’s next Kim jong Un’s mega million military parade)
Eric S.
@Suzanne: Awesome! Congrats on your new PR.
zhena gogolia
@BlueGuitarist: Even I might turn out for that one. I hope it’s huge.
Harrison Wesley
@BlueGuitarist: The Achtung – Happy Birthday parade?
Jay
@different-church-lady:
As a yute, we could get the French Channel on TV.
Raoul Paste
@BlueGuitarist: Military parade for his birthday?
This guy checks all the boxes for stereotype dictator. Hope there is serious pushback. By then the tariff damage will be in full swing.
lowtechcyclist
@Raoul Paste:
We need to get so many people into the parade route that they wouldn’t have a hope of clearing us all out of there.
Jay
@Raoul Paste:
The Damage to the Parade Route will be epic.
Jay
@lowtechcyclist:
Plan A is to crowd the parade route with protestors on the sidewalks and every viewing station with protest signs.
Plan B would be to leave the parade route empty, Inauguration style.
Sister Golden Bear
@frosty: We aim to please.
Oh and “Take five.”—Mulder
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Raoul Paste:
@zhena gogolia:
@BlueGuitarist:
How much you wanna bet, if it actually happens and they don’t cancel it, the MAGAs will go, “You libtards just hate America/the military!!11 It’s for Flag Day!!1” when protests happen
I’m sure the Republicans/the Administration will try to claim it’s for Flag Day as a fig leaf to justify it.
Even though Independence Day is literally a few weeks later lol
ETA: I hope the protests are huge. Also, having a huge expensive military parade for The Great Leader’s birthday while store shelves are likely empty will be a great contrast
Gloria DryGarden
@Suzanne: that’s amazing. Congratulations. Hope your body is ok after that fall.
@different-church-lady: be it so. I agree, in neon all caps
@Lacuna Synecdoche: 2 slices of cake. So good, so generous. Let them….
different-church-lady
@Jay: Ooh la la!
Gloria DryGarden
@Jay: I want that money to be used for better things.
no parade, dammit.
Gloria DryGarden
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I really think they should cancel it. Do I need to call congress, can they influence this? It should not be in the budget
NotMax
@Jay
Whereas, historically speaking, the French kept an eye on the English Channel.
;)
Suzanne
@lowtechcyclist:
Oh bruh. Yes.
Also frustrated because I had just finished a notoriously difficult part of the course — running over a bridge that goes uphill, and then through the Bluffs neighborhood, which has both a pretty steep hill and terrible pavement. And I had kept my focus throughout, no goofy falls or trips. Seriously just let my attention lapse for a split second as I was doing that final push at the end. I may have shouted some bad words.
ewrunning
Think anyone will inform the stupid callous fragile-egoed extra braggadocious imbecile what happened to Anwar El Sadat at a military parade?
Jay
@NotMax:
So, every Canadian town, had some English language TV Channels, and at least one French Language Channel.
The French language channels had different rules on what they could show. They could show soft core porn after 10 pm, until 5 am. English language channels could not show soft core porn or anything too suggestive.
So, if your parents weren’t home, you were babysitting or your parents had gone to bed, guess which channel the TV was turned to. So we saw all the classics
Nice word play, though.
JoyceH
@HopefullyNotcassandra: Oh it’s true all right. He wants a ballroom “like the one at Mar A Lago”.
But wait, there’s more! He also wants to reopen Alcatraz! Obviously he’s getting a lot of pushback on subcontracting his concentration camp overseas so he’s going to create his own.
Gloria DryGarden
@Jay: then You learned some important French…
Gloria DryGarden
@ColoradoGuy: been on top of front pages and headlines for 8+ years now.
Sick
Spanky
@Suzanne:
You just described approximately 100% of Pittsburgh.
Suzanne
@Spanky: I run these streets, so I am aware!
Baud
@Suzanne:
Very mob boss response. Like.
Gloria DryGarden
@JoyceH: at age 79, beautiful baby whiners only need 3 gold curlicues in their Oval Office, and should be given pencils rather than ink pens. The better to erase executive orders with, my dear.
and there is no room in the budget for a new ballroom. What, is he thinking he’ll have private parties there and stay for years and years?
_____
Also, referring to the OP, 11 year old girls aren’t that much into dolls anymore. We’re on the verge of junior high, and womanhood, and we think boys are interesting, and the boys are a brand new interest that came on in 5th grade.
ALTHOUGH, the artists among us could have used vast quantities of colored pencils and 64 color crayon boxes.
And no one at eleven thinks they are a baby anything. At 11, most girls are pretty well developed, wearing bras, and to call a young woman at that age a “baby”
Makes. Him. Sound. Like. A . Pedophile.
Juju
And he still doesn’t know how a tariff works. Why won’t the msm ask him or correct him on that issue. That drives me absolutely buggy.
no body no name
@schrodingers_cat:
Stares at collection of pencils, pens, inks, paints, brushes, paper, and ain’t none of it made here!
We also shop at international grocery stores. I’m guessing that’s going to hurt. However they didn’t price gouge during COVID so we shall see…
American’s in general do not take well to being told “you can’t”. We like telling other people that but tell it to someone and they will do it just to piss you off.
Black Friday and Christmas are going to be hilarious.
JoeyJoeJoe
@Suzanne: I’ve been there. In high school, went to a meet at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. The course has huge uphills and downhills, and a flat straightaway at the end. I traversed the hills, and then managed to trip on a rock embedded half in the ground on my way to the finish line. I went flying, badly twisted my ankle, and I was out for the season .
no body no name
@HopefullyNotcassandra:
Ballroom and pour concrete over the rose garden. He’s not planning on moving out. His family is not planning on leaving either.
JoeyJoeJoe
@JoyceH: Open Alcatraz? And risk Ed Harris and Tony Todd (from the Candyman movies etc) taking it over? At least Nicolas Cage is still around to stop them in that scenario
JoyceH
@JoeyJoeJoe: My take on the Alcatraz thing – he’s reading the tea leaves and seeing that eventually his outsourced concentration camp is going to be ruled unconstitutional, so he’s on shoring it. The current domestic detention facilities are drawing protesters so hey – an island!
ewrunning
@JoeyJoeJoe: Next I expect him to inform Macron that he wants an arrangement to use a reopened Devil’s Island. Remember when people thought Reagan had begun thinking the stuff he’d seen (or played) in movies were real events?
mrmoshpotato
So true. It’s also just strange.
BlueGuitarist
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
In addition to being his birthday and flag day it is the 250th anniversary of the Continental Congress creating the Continental Army, June 14, 1775.
Maybe he couldn’t remember that in the Welker interview today, so he said “I view it for Flag Day, not necessarily my birthday. Somebody put it together.”
He referred to the reported $45 million estimated cost of the parade as “peanuts.”
Also same interview as
Welker: “Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution?”
Trump: “I don’t know”
Welker did not then ask: do you remember that when you took the oath of office you swore to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution”
And there’s this other recent interview when asked what the Declaration of Independence means to him:
“Well, it means exactly what it says, it’s a declaration. A declaration of unity and love and respect, and it means a lot.”
c’mon 4th grader doing book report on book he didn’t read, it’s the opposite of unity: declaring independence is right there in the name.
They Call Me Noni
@Suzanne: wow! I bet she felt quite accomplished, as she should.
catclub
@Jay:
Can we get Ukraine to send drones? They might have just had target practice in Moscow.
catclub
@mrmoshpotato:
And this is not new. And all the Trump voters and nonvoters did not particularly care.
Jay
@catclub:
DJTdiot wanted a Yuuge Military Parade in his first term.
But back then, when there were some actual adult’s in charge, the DOD said Nyet.
DC is built on a swamp. It’s roads are barely DOT rated for truck traffic, let alone tanks. Tanks, even with rubber blocks on the treads, tear up “normal” roads. West Germany, later Just Germany, spent billions of dollars on special roads just so that tanks and other tracked vehicles could travel from NATO, German and US bases, along fixed routes, to exercise grounds and live fire ranges.
And of course, had to spend millions of dollars a year, to repair those roads after every large exercise.
Now in a war, that doesn’t really matter, no need for special roads as a tank tearing up the pavement is the least of your worries.
Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)
@Jay:
The Reichwing detects The District. Ask any of them, and they will tell you it’s a cesspool, uninhabitable, rife with crime, and unworthy of the Greatest Nation On Earth. (One wonders why so many of them rush to work there…). Destroying DC streets could be intentional to sell the nation on a new capital city, somewhere in the middle of the country (Nebraska? Iowa? Ive never heard any state’s delegation entertain such an idea, but it’s out there in the RWNM), and abandoning The District as a fundamentally flawed, irreparable toxic mess.
sab
@schrodingers_cat: When I heard that “five pencil” quote I thought of you: “she’s not going to like that.”
I have at least ten for the graphite black only, B to H. And several dozen for the colors.
Younger, I only wanted one doll, but multiple stuffed animals. They can’t all be bears. Some of us want a zebra or a giraffe or a beaver or a moose, or a unicorn. Or a kangaroo.
Jay
@Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq):
I think it will be the typical DJTdiot shit show with armoured vehicles sinking into the hot DC asphalt, getting bogged down and immobile in the first mile, the ARV’s getting stuck in the mess, DC having to close down the parade route for weeks, as every heavy metal plate in the north east is scrounged up, to lay down a metal road to extract the vehicles, then more weeks of repairs and repaving.
The Pale Scot
@Sister Golden Bear,
Sonny Rhodes The Ballad of Serenity
The Pale Scot
@JoyceH:
The thing is, the couch molester will be worse. I think the best that happen is to lampoon him, delay the 2025 Nazis, bait them all (weird) so it becoming fucking obvious what a dire clusterfuck these tossers are.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
del
The Pale Scot
@NotMax:
Remember the “+1” days
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@lowtechcyclist:
I’ve definitely slowed down after hitting 60 but I’ve done a 50K (with about 3500 ft in elevation gain, ie., extremely hilly back in Central Misery) at 7:50/mile pace. Which still amazes me as it was a minute and a half faster per mile than the year (ten years prior) I ran the Marine Corps marathon in 2:56:48.
Ten years ago I ran a 53K, “technical” (meaning trail and rough, not typically my thing). At mile 7 I fell flat on my face, my eye filled with blood; I tripped and fell six more times, beating the shit outta myself. Finished first in my age group.
I’d come into the aid stations and they’d look at me and gasp and say “can we help clean you up?” And I’d go “no, the dirt’s helping stop the blood flow.”
Two weeks later I ran a 50K rail to trail and finished First Male at the age of 54. I ran it as a test just to see if I could run ultramarathons in quick succession. Normally I do one a year.
I’m tough.
Lyrebird
@sab: When I saw that quote, I thought, what about the supposed business skills? Guy doesn’t care at all what that might do to retailers. And I’m all in favor of families limiting their Xmas or other gift exchanges to avoid waste etc., I avoid fast fashion, all that. But “oh too bad so sad, 5 pencils should be enough”
I would try to say how I feel about that, but @different-church-lady: said it better:
Gin & Tonic
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I got tired just reading this comment.
apocalipstick
@The Pale Scot:
I dusagree. Vance has neither the juice nor the spine to pull it off.
Paul in KY
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Keep it short & sweet, so the TFG one on the empty shelves.