Well, it’s stormy here, anyway. I welcome the rain (need more water to float the boat), but I hope it clears out by this evening because my sister and I have perhaps foolishly scored tickets to the Rays game this evening. We’re not used to un-domed fields. Last time we went, we sweltered in the midday heat. Tonight there’s a chance we’ll be chased off by lightning.
Prior to the game, I’m making my sister-in-law’s favorite meal: fettucine alfredo. She’s a super picky eater and only likes MY alfredo, so I supply it when disaster strikes or we need to curry favor for a ride to the game so we can drink beer and Uber home. I only make it once a year or so because it’s terrible for you — all butter and cheese and cream. (Recipe below.)
***
I love how House Dems are using the Epstein scandal to keep Republicans from passing more horrid legislation. Politico:
House Republicans will scrap several votes this week as internal party drama over Jeffrey Epstein derails a key committee that handles legislation on its way to the floor.
The House Rules Committee came to a standstill Monday night as GOP leaders struggled to contain rank-and-file Republicans and their Democratic allies clamoring for a floor vote to compel the publication of materials related to the late disgraced financier and convicted sex offender.
Committee Democrats had planned to force a vote that evening on legislation that would call for the release of the materials, as the panel worked to tee up floor consideration on a slate of unrelated bills. It was poised to be a repeat of what transpired last Thursday inside Rules, which gummed up the works for several hours.
But rather than this time work through the Democratic disruption, Republicans chose instead Monday to recess the rest of the Rules meeting altogether, with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) saying it was “unlikely” that the panel would reconvene this week at all. Later, lawmakers said there were no plans to return at all…
“See you in September,” said Rules Committee ranking member Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). He was spearheading the effort to call up a vote on the legislation from Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). The two men are working to force a floor vote on that bill through a procedural maneuver known as a discharge petition, which allows members to put a bill on the floor without leadership approval if the effort gets 218 signatures.
Trump is pissed about Massie’s involvement:
Thomas Massie, the worst Republican Congressman, and an almost guaranteed NO VOTE each and every time, is an Embarrassment to Kentucky. He’s lazy, slow moving, and totally disingenuous – A real loser! Never has anything positive to add. Looking for someone good to run against this guy, someone I can Endorse and vigorously campaign for!
Credit where it’s due: Trump is an expert on “lazy, slow moving and totally disingenuous.”
I assume a district that elects and reelects Massie must be redder than a baboon’s ass. Weird how Trump hasn’t unearthed a specific MAGA toady to run against Massie yet. Seems like he’s been bellowing about Massie’s perfidy for ages, and the KY statehouse must have a large array of MAGA dopes to choose from. Anybody know what’s the hold-up?
***
In case you missed it, Trump posted a stupid AI-generated video of Obama getting arrested and has followed up Tulsi Gabbard’s dumb weekend press release with multiple threats to prosecute people associated with the investigation of the Russian influence operation that helped sleaze Trump into office in 2016. It’s most likely squid ink to hide the fallout of the Epstein scandal. But if not, I think this is right:
i don’t think he does this, but this is the “break glass, everyone in the streets until he is removed” line (i think even he knows that)
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) July 21, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Fuckin’ A. I would also add this to the list of things that should prompt instantaneous massive protests from coast to coast:
Republican Rep. James Comer, who is leading an investigation into President Biden’s use of autopen, claimed to Fox News that all of Biden’s judicial appointments are in jeopardy—including that of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
— Comic Sands (@comicsandsnews.bsky.social) July 22, 2025 at 3:51 AM
Again, I think it’s bullshit blather to give people who watch Fox News something to talk about besides their orange lord and savior’s close personal friendship with a conveniently dead child sex trafficker. But you come for KBJ? We’ll come for you, motherfuckers.
Open thread!
Very Bad For You Fettucine Alfredo Sauce
INGREDIENTS:
1 stick of butter
2 smashed garlic cloves
2 cups heavy cream
1-1/2 cups of finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
1 teaspoon white pepper
INSTRUCTIONS:
Melt butter in a medium saucepan and add garlic cloves. Let the cloves infuse the butter, then remove after 5 minutes or so. Whisk in cream slowly. When fully blended, start adding the cheese a little at a time, whisking all the while until blended before adding more cheese. (If you do it too fast, the sauce will split.) Once all the cheese is incorporated, add pepper and enjoy over pasta as the plaque builds up in your arteries!
ETA: It’s really important to use Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (for the flavor) and to grate it finely. I use a microplane grater that I otherwise mostly use for zesting citrus or grating nutmeg. If it’s not finely grated, the cheese won’t blend as well, though it will still taste good.
On The Road – BarcaChicago – Off the Gunflint Trail/Boundary Waters
Baud
Trump currently has Wall Street back on his side, so he might be wary of upsetting the apple cart too much.
Nothing is beyond him, but I appreciate that this time our people don’t seem to be assuming that Trump has already successfully done what he is threatening to do.
Jerry
(the two cloves of smashed garlic counteracts the negative effects of the butter, heavy cream, and cheese)
Gin & Tonic
But I thought I’d recently learned that sitting Presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution?
BellyCat
Looking forward to when the MAGAtariat realize Obama was NOT arrested. Should slot in nicely alongside the “WE’VE BEEN LIED TO” Epstein fracas.
twbrandt
My cardiologist would have his own heart attack if he read your recipe, BC!
Splitting Image
Bullshit blather is probably the most accurate description, but remember that Republican bullshit is only bullshit until they think they can get away with it. Then it becomes party policy.
stinger
First, I will be making that alfredo sauce before the week is out! And I agree with Jerry, garlic is a vegetable, so this is health food.
Second, the Felon’s “vigorous” campaigning will consist of a Few Randomly capitalized tweets posted in the DEAD OF NIGHT and probably without any thanks for our attention to this matter.
Third, I can’t look at a photo of the Felon’s tiny hands without chuckling — the most “positive” response I can generate to any reminder of his existence.
Fourth, regarding Comer’s threat, didn’t it used to be that successive governments tried to build on the work of their predecessors, even when of a different party, or has it always been that each one tries only to tear down the work of the last?
Deputinize America
Sadly, my house is located at the far western end of Massie’s really shitty, sprawling district. It runs from the West Virginia border and some underpopulated and grotesquely impoverished hilljack counties along the Ohio River to the hyperconservative and wealthy Cincinnati exurbs of Northern Kentucky to the wealthy northeastern exurbs of Louisville. The only Democrat that ever had a chance was Nick Clooney (George’s dad), and he was roundly beaten – and that’s before they redrew the lines to draw in even more redneck hilljacks.
Back when I ran for judge (nonpartisan race), I went to some GOP events to sit in the cheap seats and hustle votes and had to play nice. He showed up to a few, and I got to see him work.
He’s totally beholden to the Koch/NRA/GOA faction (along with the GRU), but is a decent retail politician. He appears to pretend to listen and makes the right facial expressions and sounds to feign concern, but then he goes and does what his handlers and paymasters command.
The man doesn’t know jack shit about district needs, and his constituent services are shit, but those routine experiences bring home the votes.
prufrock
That recipe follows the rule for why restaurant food usually tastes better than home cooked food; it uses waaaaay more butter (and/or salt) than a home cook feels comfortable adding.
mrmoshpotato
Mmmmm fettuccine alfredo.
Go Rays!
p.a.
Heh, Italian-American food is so often denigrated by Italians. I don’t know if Ligurians make fun of Puglian food or vice-versa for example, or the other regions of each others’ dishes, but I think it’s arrogant of them to not consider Italian-American, Italian-Argentine, Italian-Australian cuisine as simply the 21st, 22nd, 23rd regional foods.
BlueGuitarist
Borowitz response to the arrest video
borowitzreport.com/p/obama-posts-video-of-trump-actually
lowtechcyclist
@stinger:
Certainly each recent GOP administration has tried to tear down the work of its Dem predecessor. Clinton had the Agreed Framework with North Korea in which NK agreed to not develop nukes, in return for food aid and other considerations, IIRC. Bush the Younger and Dumber tossed that away, and NK became a nuclear power shortly thereafter.
And of course Trump I tossed away the nuclear deal with Iran that had kept them nuke-free. And he tried to kill the ACA, but fortunately McCain was looking to do just one good deed before he died. Basically, anything big with Obama’s name on it, he wanted to kill.
And you can see what’s going on with Trump 2.0.
Betty Cracker
I’m not going to embed the video because it’s too horrifying (Bluesky link), but Lara Trump auto-tuned her face to the point where she no longer looks human. THE EYEBROWS!
catclub
@Gin & Tonic: Is Obama the sitting President now?
Kirk
@p.a.:
Yes. Consider the US discussions of pizza and bbq and clam chowder (iykyk) as obvious example, but all cuisine variations I know there are people who dismiss and ridicule the version that isn’t their preference.
MattF
For reference, here’s the Marcella Hazan version. Nutmeg rather than garlic as a flavoring. But I’m a garlic-person, so I’d favor the Cracker version.
catclub
Yes. watch Julia Child and Jacques Pepin
Lapassionara
@Betty Cracker: is “auto tuned” what they call it now?
catclub
@Lapassionara: you knew exactly what she meant, so yes.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Lara Trump will be one weird looking candidate if she runs for Thom Tillis’s Senate seat next year. I wonder if Trump and his advisors will let her. Ms. Trump could lose a winnable race.
Kirk
@BlueGuitarist:
So what Leavitt is saying is, “If Trump posts a video, it’s a fake”?
I mean, yes, but she’s admitting it?
@BlueGuitarist:
CaseyL
Betty C, I swear I could smell the garlic when you posted your recipe!
But I thought dairy fat’s reputation had been rehabilitated? “The problem is sugar, not fat!” But it’s possible that Alfredo sauce is still too much of a good thing :)
stinger
@Betty Cracker: Good God. They nearly distract from her mustache.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Geminid:
Then we all should be pulling for Lara to toss her, whatever, into the ring!
/s
Booger
@MattF: Cracker Alfredo? I mean, that could work…
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Jackie
The Ghislaine Maxwell Pardon Watch clock begins:
Old School
@Kirk:
The Borowitz Report is humor/satire.
Gloria DryGarden
I have a very fond memory of going out every Thursday night for fettuccine Alfredo, or primavera ( just add some steamed veggies), peas snow peas broccoli) or chicken Alfredo ( just add chicken tenders).
this was at the end of working 11 am-8 pm, giving 8 back to back one hour massages, with thirty minute lunch. At the end of which, one is blearily, stumbling down exhausted. Food ! Now! That Alfredo hit the spot. This is a visceral memory.
Racines (Denver peeps remember this place for their walnut ice cream cake, harlequin mouse and about 20 amazing dishes) served a big enough plate fir generous leftovers, so I had lunch the next day.
Splitting Image
@Jackie:
Good God. Trump would have to be the stupidest moron who ever lived to even think about …
He’s going to do it, isn’t he?
Geminid
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I’m also hoping Lara Trump is their Senate candidate. I’m not sure it’s her choice though. I think it may be up to Dad and Aunt Suzie, and I expect Susan Wiles is overseeing some extensive private polling on this race.
A lot could come down to Roy Cooper’s decision. I think the former governor will declare whether he’s in or out by Labor Day. If Cooper runs, North Carolina Republicans will have their bring their “A Game” to beat him. I’m not sure how Lara Trump would fit into any kind of A Game.
BlueGuitarist
@Kirk:
borowitz is satire
Sometimes so spot on
that it’s hard to tell the difference.
nevertheless their reality keeps lapping our satire.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: I remember there were rumors about DeSantis sleazing Lara Trump into Rubio’s seat, but that went nowhere.
Speaking of that US Senate seat, now occupied by DeSantis drone Ashley Moody, I have no idea how the Democratic primary will shake out, but so far, I’m liking what I see from Josh Weil. As far as I know, he’s the only declared candidate right now, but it’s early.
He’s the Democrat who ran an unexpectedly strong campaign in the FL 6th, a heavily Repub district. He lost to former statehouse Repub now-GOP House Rep. Randy Fine. (Fine is one of the worst Republican scumbags to come out of Florida, and by golly, that’s saying something!)
Have you heard anything about Weil? I half expect someone with better name recognition to swoop in and take the nomination, but so far, I’m rooting for Weil!
MattF
@Jackie: One wonders who a Maxwell pardon would be aimed at. I mean… what’s the Venn diagram here?
eclare
Great photo today!
suzanne
@Betty Cracker:
Eyebrows are such a weird aspect of Republican beauty standards. Casey DeSantis does them, too. It’s such a right-wing coded look. I think it’s a deliberate attempt to look high-maintenance. Contrast that to the tradwife look they also have going on.
Belafon
@Splitting Image: The best way to make it go away is to pardon the one person convicted. //
Librettist
@Splitting Image:
kindness
Why it’s almost as if Rep Comer is begging for a shooting civil war to break out. I have friends who have insane militia notions and all of them think their people would make quick work of anyone looking like us were that to happen. The thought itself is an abomination to me. For them it’s akin to doing the lord’s work: thinning the herd and watering the tree of liberty with the blood of their enemies thing. Did I mention they are insane? Yea, I did. Were it to come to that I believe a lot of people would be slaughtered, but I don’t think the police and military would join them, which is what they think.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I haven’t heard much about Josh Weill. I see plenty about Randy Fine on Middle East Twitter, though. Rep. Fine has managed to make himself one of the most hated persons on the internet in just a few short months.
The animus is not just among Middle Esterners disgusted by Fine’s strident support of Netanyahu government. There’s an anti-Israel component among the “America First” crowd, and Fine is a particular target of theirs.
Doc Sardonic
@Betty Cracker: Weil is good, the sad part is that his run against Randy Fine in my district shows how far out of play Florida is currently. Josh Weil ran a really good, bordering on great campaign, opposed to Randy Fine barely running one at all, Fine only showed any life signs the last couple of weeks when his internal polls probably scared the shit out of him. That said, even an excellently done campaign by a Democratic candidate still resulted in a 14 point loss.
Nettoyeur
@Gin & Tonic: For official acts while on office, only.
laura
We had a grilled chuck eye steak last night with a couple few green beans and fettuccine alfredo- garlic and nutmeg as the fsm deigns as righteous and correct. I got to pull a runner out to Bodega Bay last week and on the return, bought a tray of fresh fettuccine along with a alfredo and a pesto sauce from a tiny neighborhood factory called pasta etc. Why is something so bad for your health so very flavorful and unctuous?
Kirk
@Old School:
“Nevermind”
Betty Cracker
@suzanne: The extensive eye-area plastic surgery looks freaky on a 40-something! It’s like they removed her eyeballs during the procedure, scooped out everything around them straight to the bone and then popped the eyeballs back in. Imagine paying someone tens of thousands of dollars to fuck up your face like that!
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Fine is horrible in all kinds of ways. His go-to insult for women who cross him is “whore.” I expect him to distinguish himself as one of the worst of the worst even in the present MAGAfied degenerate party.
@Doc Sardonic: Didn’t Trump and Rick Scott win the 6th with something like 65%? And IIRC, Weil was outspent by Fine in the neighborhood of 10 to 1.
I mean, you’re probably right, but maybe in a wave election when Trump isn’t on the ballot and a good regular guy candidate like Weil goes up against a bowl of Cream of Wheat like Moody, lightning could strike!
mardam
Needs moar garlic.
Just sayin’.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Someone said of “stretch” races like Weils’:
French Onion Soup
@kindness:
The POLICE, most federal agents, the military, especially the vast majority of combat arms would join them. We are a minority. Our values are in the minority. And those in the professions of violence are overwhelmingly against us. That’s not because of the MSM or rightwing media. It’s that we are weird, creepy, bullies, and out of the norm. Especially among those who take action. When violence breaks out we will all learn that really fast.
suzanne
@Betty Cracker: I think it’s related to skin damage to the eyelid area, likely to too much sun worship and tanning bed use.
But agree, it looks so weird. It is really interesting to me how beauty/body standards are so different between the Dems and the GOP now. When Naomi Biden and Tiffany Trump’s weddings happened and I looked at their pictures, I couldn’t stop noticing it. But of course, it goes back much further than that.
The Audacity of Krope
My Alfredo is very, very similar. But it also includes half a block of cream cheese. And more like four or five garlic cloves.
PaulWartenberg
Betty, can you tell the Rays to (BLEEP)ING WIN THIS TIME!
/rage
OTOH, I hope the potential new owner has a Ybor location locked up and ready for construction for a new domed ballpark.
sab
My spouse thinks fettucine is too rich. Thank God, because it is the only bad for him food that he doesn’t love.
He is wandering the house now hoping for toll house cookies to be made. It’s July and we have fruit in the fridge.
I broke the news to him last night that there will be no mac and cheese until Fall.
lowtechcyclist
@Doc Sardonic:
Well, your district is rated R+14, while Florida is a theoretically more reachable R+5. The real problem with Florida is that it’s an expensive R+5 to try to take away from the GOP. Not sure the DNC or DSCC would throw money at this race unless it looked like Weil was on the verge of winning.
jonas
The original Fettuccine Alfredo recipe from Rome was just noodles folded into an emulsion of butter, parmasean cheese and pasta water. No need for cream or garlic.
Like any good traditional recipe, though, it’s really a platform on which to build your own dreams and if those include moar cream and garlic, broccoli, or chicken or whatever, that’s ok.
p.a.
Legal eagles of the commentariat, how would/should Maxwell’s atty(s) react to an admin offer of : “you get off for mentioning these names and these names ONLY. And pardon for perjury if caught.”
(I know lawyers can not engage in or condone illegal acts, but to rep her & get her out of jail… real world, what would a Saul do?)
MrPug
I know that MAGA/QAnon are fucking moronic dupes of the highest order, but…I wonder if all of these very hamfisted releases of, in some cases, literally fictitious arrests of Trump’s political foes, will highlight even more the information about that other thing they aren’t releasing. “Look, we can release all of this other shit, but just not this shit over here that you really want to see” just may not fool everyone of those rubes.
Doc Sardonic
@Betty Cracker: Mike Waltz was also at 66 and change% in the 2024 general election, so Fine underperformed the rest of the Republicans in the district by 10 points +/-, but Mango Mussolini wasn’t on the ballot. Fine out spending Weil is not surprising, but I’m not sure where he spent it. I saw no direct mail from him, no canvassers, so he must have spent it on AM talk radio and then TV in last couple of weeks. Also, lighting can sometimes be caught in a bottle, I’m hoping it happens for Josh Weil
@lowtechcyclist: That tracks, it is interesting that Fine’s margin for victory was right at the R+14 plus a few tenths.
They Call Me Noni
@prufrock: Not this home cook.
evodevo
@Deputinize America:
Yep…Massie is libertarian right gun nut, which is what I expect from engineers ( I have 4 engineer friends and 3 of them are frothing MAGAts). He lives in Lewis Co., next to Mason Co. where Mr. Evodevo and I are from. It’s rural in the extreme (my husband used to deer hunt there 60 years ago) and MAGA/Medicaid recipients from top to bottom.
Nick Clooney lives in the next county over (Augusta, KY) and was very well known both locally and in Northern KY, but it was not enough to counter the rightward swing in ’04. The guy who beat him, Geoff Davis, was a relatively moderate Repub (I corresponded with him a couple of times), but evidently saw the MAGA handwriting on the wall and got out in 2011. Massie was the wave of the future, and despite having a “green” home, votes against all the alternative energy proposals. Typical.
Fie on Trumpy for making me agree with Massie on this Epstein shit.
Princess
@MattF: Maxwell will be pardoned for implicating Trump’s enemies and only his enemies.
Gloria DryGarden
@laura: they now say butter is good for you, and saturated fats, too. The heart association may be slow to catch on, or maybe both sides are true, butter is good for you, and bad for you, depending: on how much, who you ask, which nutritional experts one believes.
I am only both sides-ing butter. Not anything else. Although there are a lot of foods that can go both ways depending on you, your genetics and health situation. I can’t have that Alfredo anymore, but the memory of it, and all your joy of eating it, is glorious.
RaflW
July 14, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie has stockpiled more than $1.7 million for his re-election bid as the Kentucky Republican gears up to face President Donald Trump’s vaunted political operation, Massie’s campaign announced Monday.
— —
Trump’s folx have launched an anti-Massie PAC, but I don’t know how well funded. And state Republicans may have looked around and seen how often one of Trump’s ‘hand picked’ nutbags loses and said “I’m good here in the Lege.”
(hand-picked usually at the 11th hour as a hapless endorsement that has negative coattails)
catclub
Mock apple pie made with Ritz crackers was a thing.
RaflW
About that Will Sommer skeet: The WH put out a trash-ass illustration of Trump surrounded by US flags, flying eagles, and fireworks, with the caption “I was the hunted — Now I’m The Hunter!” bullshit.
Saw it and figured this was his latest fashy damp-spot dream of prosecuting Obama. I agree with Hellmachine that if he crosses that line, the No Kings or Good Trouble protests will look like tiny little rumblings compared to the outrage and turnout into the streets.
catclub
but DOJ lawyers can ‘discuss’ them with her lawyers.
WTFGhost
@sab: Okay, that sounds good, but, I did want to clarify. It’s not the fettucine that’s the rich part of the meal, so, maybe it’s gluten intolerance, instead? (jk)
@jonas: I’ll also note, butter and cream are the same ingredient… which makes me wonder if “cream” was a thing, when Alfredo was invented, other than “the stuff you skim off, so you can have butter!”
Garlic *is* a vegetable, and it’s good for you, but… if you eat enough garlic, you’ll fart garlic. And if you eat *still more* than enough to fart garlic, you might just smell of garlic in close proximity.
I think the garlic scent gets into your bloodstream, and some comes out in sweat, and hence, the odor. I say “into your bloodstream” because, in my experience, garlic is like beets – as soon as you eat garlic, if you eat enough, your next fart is going to smell of garlic, long before it’s reached your large intestine.
Similarly, if you eat enough beets, your urine will turn slightly reddish, and, you won’t have *any* idea if there’s any blood in your stool for a day or so, and again, this happens quickly after you eat a big plate of, say, roasted beets.
Kayla Rudbek
@p.a.: considering that the Italian language has a term that translates to “born within the sound of the parish church bells”, they probably gripe about the food in every part of Italy outside their local parish. (Two of my great grandparents were Italian, there’s a reason why my grandfather and father could argue more in two hours than most of the surrounding Scandinavian-descended neighbors could argue in two weeks(
Paul in KY
@Deputinize America: A sober assessment of Rep. Massie.
Gloria DryGarden
@Kayla Rudbek: what is this Italian word, please? Inquiring multilingual minds want to know..