Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Republicans in disarray!

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

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

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

When we show up, we win.

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

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Saturday Night Open Thread

Saturday Night Open Thread

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It was another shitty day so I could get no mowing done, but decided to be a lazy slob so did some things around the house, made a pot of red beans and rice, took a nap, had dinner, and now I find myself wondering what to do with the night. Perhaps a full watch of Andor, which I have at the top of my queue.

Anyone got any idea what is going on with the NASA Administrator?

Reader Interactions

90Comments

  2. 2.

    Jackie

    I saw/heard FFOTUS found out Isaacman committed the first deadliest sin: He donated to Democrats.

    New York Times: “Mr. Trump told associates he intended to yank Mr. Isaacman’s nomination after learning that he had donated to prominent Democrats.”

  3. 3.

    Spanky

    “It’s essential that the next leader of NASA is in complete alignment with President Trump’s America First agenda and a replacement will be announced directly by President Trump soon,” a White House spokesperson told The Hill.

    Means that Isaacman was pro-NASA, and Trump needs an administrator who will destroy it.

    Now things are about to get very personal and I’m not going to be able to share my thoughts going forward.

  4. 4.

    Michael Bersin

    The third event in three days – today was the Warrensburg, Missouri annual Pride Festival, held at an event venue in town. For the past several years anti-LGBTQIA+ busybodies have demonstrated their ire at the festival (usually across the street in a small historic marker park).

    This year, unbeknownst to everyone, a group of allies set up large rainbow umbrellas and camp chairs in the historic marker park before the anti-LGBTQIA+ crowd showed up. Apparently, much hilarity ensued. The end result was that the protesters and counter protesters/allies were in fairly close proximity from around 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in mid-80s temperatures.

    Pride Festival – Warrensburg, Missouri – May 31, 2025 – It was a good day

    At one point, a local minister ally stood among the anti-LGBTQIA+ protesters with a bull horn and read them passages in the Bible about loving everyone. The ant–LGBTQIA+ crowd was not happy. The ally/minister is a friend and a total badass.

    The event went well, with great attendance.

  5. 5.

    RevRick

    I highly recommend Andor, @John Cole. It’s the most complex and brutal of the whole Star Wars universe. And it renders the ending of the original Star Wars unintentionally ridiculous — the scene where Luke and Han get awarded medals by Leia to thunderous applause. Andor makes it clear that there are countless people who struggled for decades in the cause of the Rebellion. And there are no light sabers or Jedi and their Force in this struggle. Just ordinary people who want freedom.

  7. 7.

    prostratedragon

    One for the calendar:

    Sir Ian McKellen will be introducing a UK performance of William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” featuring a cast entirely of transgender and non-binary performers this summer.

    The Trans What You Will theater group will soon be globally livestreaming their performance of a rehearsed reading of Shakespeare comedy “Twelfth Night” at The Space theater in London on July 25.

  8. 8.

    RevRick

    @Michael Bersin: You can always count on Calvinists in the UCC/Presbyterian traditions to be in the forefront of progress. (The Unitarians split from the Congregationalists {UCC forerunner} over the doctrine of the Trinity, so they’re descendants of Calvinism.)

  10. 10.

    Michael Bersin

    @Joy in FL:

    Look at the photos of the anti-LGBTQIA+ crowd. Read between the lines if you wish.

    The account of the “conversation” between the late-arriving bigot confronted with a group of allies occupying their usual spot is hilarious. A lot of spluttering  – and a threat to call the Sheriff’s department, except the little park is in the city limits. For the rest of the day allies and other attendees at the festival kept saying, “Why didn’t we think of this years ago?”

    Paster Heather reported that the anti-LGBTQIA+ were quite upset at her. Pastor Heather is truly a badass and a treasure.

    It was a great event and it took a community effort to pull it off.

    The bonus of the day, for me, was the empathetic, smart, people who put the monkey in the anti-LGBTQIA+ wrench.

  11. 11.

    Blue mouser

    Season two of Andor is really good. Just fyi there are one year jumps between each 3 episodes bundle.  So the flow of the story is a little different from season one. At the end it segues smoothly into Rogue 1.  I feel like it’s themes of rebellion and how does one get motivated to fight back against facism are more timely than ever

    I wish Disney had shared this show with HBO max. That channel has a better target audience for this show. It deserves wider viewership

  14. 14.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Spanky: ​
     

    Now things are about to get very personal and I’m not going to be able to share my thoughts going forward.

    Good luck with whatever is going on. If you can use some help from someone local, WaterGirl has my contact info.

  16. 16.

    trollhattan

    David Lynch was truly David Lynch through and through. Get a load of his estate auction.

    https://www.juliensauctions.com/en/auctions/julien-s-auctions-turner-classic-movies-present-the-david-lynch-collection

    I’m all, except for the guitars and woodworking tools it’s EXACTLY what I’d expect David Lynch to surround himself with. Special shoutout to that 5-neck guitar, though. Pretty Lynch.

    In a similar vein, the Paul Rubens series is pretty great. Miss both.

  21. 21.

    dnfree

    @RevRick: As you know, among the denominations that formed the UCC were the Congregationalists and some Reform groups.  We first became members (in the early 1980s) of a UCC that had come out of the Congregational tradition, and it was relatively liberal, as we expected.  In 1985 we moved to a small town where there were two UCC churches, and we joined the one that had been German Reform.  That church had considerable tension between more liberal members and those who had grown up in the church when it was German Reform.  It ultimately splintered over gender-flexible ideas like “our mother-father God” and “fisherfolk” instead of “fishermen”.  It took until some of those older members died to become gender-affirming etc.

    Edited to add that we were married by a UCC campus minister in the later 1960s, and he later became what he called a Christian atheist.  He didn’t believe in God anymore, but he did believe in the teachings of Jesus.

  22. 22.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    Every one of my team’s Saturday softball games in May has been rained out.  : (

  23. 23.

    Bill Arnold

    @Jackie:
    Yeah. I poked too, and was disappointed to find that it (allegedly) was an ordinary MAGA sin.
    Laura Loomer has egg ( :-) on her face, though. She was saying that deep state operatives were trying to disrupt the nomination.
    She added that “Isaacman was on track to get over 70 Senate votes. So why the sudden reversal and talks to pull his nomination? Because the Deep State doesn’t want President Trump to have allies like this in his administration. This is concerning.”

  25. 25.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Bill Arnold: the phrase about trump having Allies  seems counter to reality. I think of Allie’s as mutual support, having each other’s backs. But w trump, isn’t it usually only a one way thing?

    I wish senate could confirm in a hurry w these 70 votes, before T can pull the nomination. NASA is not a place to cut corners or be understaffed or without safety standards.

  27. 27.

    eclare

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I watched PSG kick Inter’s ass today in the UEFA Champions League final (I am a PSG fan).  The final score was 5-0!  That is a blowout in metric football.

  30. 30.

    Leto

    @trollhattan: looked at the woodworking tools, and basically people have driven them past the used price. Exception is the collection of Festool tools that has a current $3500 price; if it stays there, someone is getting a steal of a deal.

  31. 31.

    RevRick

    @dnfree: One of my older colleagues, who had been raised in the German Reformed Church, explained what he felt were the differences between them and the Congregationalists. The former were shaped by belonging since they were the state churches of the Palatine following the Treaty of Westphalia. The latter, however, were born out of dissent, having broken with the Church of England.

    There were also stark sociological differences between the two in terms of class. The German Reformed being solidly working class, while the Congregationalists were often the status churches in their communities.

  34. 34.

    Scout211

    from the horse’s mouth on his social screed:

    After a thorough review of prior associations, I am hereby withdrawing the nomination of Jared Isaacman to head NASA.

    Clear as mud.

  35. 35.

    Jay

    @Gloria DryGarden:

    So, last night you asked about me swimming the Chehalis.

    So the vid I showed, was shot in peak winter, high water. I swam it, bit by bit over 2 summers, wearing a wet suit, mapping it out.

    There are only about 8 runs and pools you can get to on foot, and most of the time, you can only get a tantalizing look at the next pool, because the cliffs are sheer. There are a couple, where you can “deep wade” in strong currents, placing each foot carefully amongst the boulders, to cross to the next pool.

    And there are hundreds of pools and runs on the river.

  42. 42.

    Trivia Man

    WIsconsin meetup in 3 weeks? We can all join the WNBR event and put green balloons on the bikes so we can find each other. N help asking “what color is your shirt?” at that event.

  43. 43.

    Trivia Man

    @RevRick: I don’t think it makes it ridiculous at all. It is wild to see the end of ANH is like 3 weeks after the end of Andor. But it was a team effort and luke definitely made the kill shot.

    The best silly  thing to see in context of that wild month of rebellion s Darth grabbing Leia. “I was on a diplomatic mission.” DV says, TF you on about? I SAW YOU at the battle like 2 hours ago!

  45. 45.

    NotMax

    @eclare

    Am not much of a ham fan. And even yet have to quell a gag reflex at the smell of ham hocks from encounters with them some 50 years ago.

    How about Andouille sausage in place of the hock?

  47. 47.

    JoyceH

    I feel all accomplished today – I got my old desktop out of the closet and got it hooked up, found my old book covers and got them onto a thumb drive. Geez, I’d forgotten that computer was Windows XP.

    Also did my workout at the Y, so I’m getting all fit and muscular. I’m going to England in October and want to be in better touring shape than I was for the Italian trip.

    Did you guys know that you can find a wide assortment of Let’s Go Taco tees and flags and bumper stickers and coffee mugs over on Amazon?

  49. 49.

    NotMax

    First attempt at cooking baked potatoes in the air fryer underway.

    Cross your fingers. Takes about 40 minutes according to online sources.

  51. 51.

    Jay

    @NotMax:

    Did you Alton Brown them first?

    Stabbed deep with a fork, coated with olive oil and salt, so that the skin is crusty and crisp?

  53. 53.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Jay: Alton must have known my mother, because she always did that. (In the oven, not air-fryer)

  55. 55.

    Jay

    @MagdaInBlack:

    My Mom just foil wrapped them or just baked them, so I learned from Alton Brown, oven, bbq.

    In New Brunswick, on the ocean, we would bury potatoes under the sand, with a layer of seaweed, build a fire, when it was down to coals, another layer of seaweed, fresh mussels, another layer of seaweed.

    The mussels were always great, the potatoes, often char on the outside, okay on the inside.

  57. 57.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Jay: so you went alone, and swam, but carried a dry bags camping gear? Were met by friends at the can-get to it By foot places? Pre dropped caches for yourself, in some bear proof way? Went w friends in canoes or kayaks, who carried gear for you? Were the get to it by foot places good for a put out, and overnight?

    it sounds like an incredible place for the soul, to be in the water for two days. When we went down the salmon, our guide had us ground through our paddles into the river, to feel it. What a feeling.

  59. 59.

    Gloria DryGarden

    11:11 here.

    magic number time.

    jay I’m so happy to read your recounting of these things. I was reading some of your comments on the other thread, and tonight I was noticing how clear your writing is.  Even on deeper and complicated points. I don’t know if that’s from practice, or experience, or it’s just natural.

  62. 62.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @NotMax: can you be specific about your vegetable oil?

    because of dietary and allergy reasons, I’m always asking what it is, in restaurants, and reading labels at the grocery store. Choosy, for a reason. It’s weird at a restaurant to ask what kind of oil, and they come back with “ vegetable oil”. Mm. Say more

  63. 63.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @NotMax: vog? Winds blow east to west around there?
    Are you on Maui?
    Didn’t big island have some big straight upwards lava eruption? Not just little spouts and rivers of lava pouring down? The pic I saw was impressive.

  64. 64.

    Jay

    @Gloria DryGarden:

    2 summers, no dry bags, no caches, no overnights.

    I would swim a pool, sketch it, go down to the next, and, other find a trail or a climb out, go home. Map the trail out or the rappel. Go back in the next weekend, where I took out, swim down lower.

    The worst stretch was from the Junction pool to the Frog, 5 km. No hike outs, no cliff climbing.

    15 years ago, I would have used a single person, whitewater rated pontoon boat, but they did not exist then. Now they are affordable.

    These days it can all be done via drone.

  65. 65.

    eclare

    @Jay:

    My mom rarely cooked baked white potatoes, but we had a lot of sweet potatoes which she would coat with butter.

  68. 68.

    Jay

    @NotMax:

    The salt is a key to making the potato peel dry and crusty, perfect for potato skins. You don’t need a lot of salt, just a little. When baking, the bakers release steam through the stabs, the salt and oil keep the skin from getting steamed.

  71. 71.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Jay: oh! It took most of the 2 summers! Wow.
    what you would have missed, doing it by drone.
    Depends on your curiosity, and whether the outcome desired was just the sketches and maps, or if it was the whole experience, the efforts, climbing cliffs in a wetsuit, the entire endeavor…which sounds amazing.

    I have a bucket list for “do your physical adventures while you’re younger, and you can.” There’s so much I never got to, on that list. Deep nature experiences, that I’m grateful for, and more of them, that I longed for.

    Adulting slowed me down some. And now… oh well.

  73. 73.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @MagdaInBlack: ooh lemon pepper. I’m thinking leeks and green onions, fish sauce. Or roasted chunks, coated in olive oil, finger food. Not as wet and messy as a whole sweet potato, split open.

  75. 75.

    Jay

    @Gloria DryGarden:

    So, more so in salmon or winter steelhead seasons, from the lower Canyon to the Harrison, 10 km, the fishermen are lined up shoulder to shoulder, 5 feet apart, at best. Maybe a 1,000 people or more, on both banks.

    In the canyon’s, 25km worth, maybe all of 20 people.

    Well worth exploring.

  76. 76.

    MagdaInBlack

    @NotMax: Oh my!  Altho, I find sweet potatoes plain to be delicious. My mother used to fry leftovers in butter salt n pepper.

  77. 77.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Jay: 1000 people 5 feet apart along a river all fishing.
    I suppose the silent companionship is something. But still. A lot of people.

    The canyon sounds more peaceful.

  79. 79.

    Jay

    @Gloria DryGarden:

    I won’t give it in miles or km, it was about a 1 1/2 hour “commute”.

    The climbs up were a lot longer than that, often because of cougars.

    20 to 30 minutes on a logging road, then the 5A highway back to Burnaby.

    One time on the opposite bank I saw “The Ghosts”.

    Stopped into the Salishan Band Office to let them know. They said “yeah, we know, we don’t talk about them, bad things will happen”.

    It always weirded them out that I would ask the Band’s permission to explore their claimed, unseeded lands.

  80. 80.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Jay: that a fair drive to make each day, round trip.
    I am Not jealous of the cougar part of your adventure.

    the ghosts sounds a bit eery, too. Interesting you were on the tribal lands. A different feel to the spirits of the land and waters there?

  81. 81.

    Jay

    @Gloria DryGarden:

    The “Ghosts” were/are a wolf pack. BC is not kind to wolves, still a settler mentality. They are extremely rare, even to this day, in the Lower Rainland.

    Cougars, (okay, both kinds) are ambush predator’s. Here their preferred attack mode is leaping off ledges and breaking necks. I got used to checking my backtrail, climbing up, and more than a few times, I found a cougar overprint, (paws, not Millano Blanc’s) in my back trail. So the climb up was not just as simple as “giving er”.

    As a British Colony, BC was required, under the BNA Act, to “extinguish aboriginal land title through treaties”. Articles of Confederation also required that.

    BC didn’t.

    It costs us about $2 billion dollars a year now.

    For example, I am living in a 25 floor condo building built on unseeded Quitlam Salishan land.

    So, I have since the 80’s, always asked permission. Most of the times, the Band’s response is WTF?. Some of the time it’s “we have a White Settler ally”.

  82. 82.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Jay: what is unseeded? Should I google it?
    2 Bn dollars annual, is that the tribal income from settlers living on their land, paying rent to them, instead of to white/ settler landlords?
    im trying to put this together.
    I found maps of both Chehalis rivers. Interesting. The map doesn’t make clear how much of that is steep canyons heading sound from the lake.

    around here, in certain zoom and in person conferences they give acknowledgment of whose (stolen) land they are on. Not everyone. But I think it might be spreading. Then again, now that DEI is forbidden…

  83. 83.

    Jay

    So, the treaty process, give us “lands” and they get “reserves”. No Treaty, legally now, still theirs,

    https://vancouver.ca/people-programs/land-acknowledgement.aspx

    the $2 billion is just projects that could be happening if “title” was established. Lost investment. And it’s growing.

    If you go, on the map, from the dam, to the bridge crossing, the Morris Valley Bridge, all but the last KM is Upper Canyon. Now it’s two lane concrete, back in the day, it was steel, timber and one lane.

  84. 84.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Jay: in Vancouver?
    and the tribal bands don’t want to liaison and make investment projects? Must be completely differing world views. I need to try sleeping soon. I’ll follow you link tomorrow. Thank you for that.

  85. 85.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @Gin & Tonic: Ah, you must be a Knicks fan.

    Same team ended my NBA season a couple of weeks ago.

    It doesn’t feel quite so bad to see the team that beat us going to the Finals, but I hope SGA and his boys hurt their feelings. ;)

  88. 88.

    Lex

    Casual SW fan …. Who gave up on the newer movie offerings and TV shows: Andor is the best SW show since the OG trilogy.  Renews my hope that Star Wars can be saved.

  89. 89.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @dnfree: thank you! The spelling, makes the meaning clear. In USA, I don’t think any First Nations had the chance to not cede their traditional land.

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