• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • Comment
  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

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

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

So many bastards, so little time.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

So very ready.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

“They all knew.”

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

Mobile Menu

  • 4 Directions VA 2025 Raffle
  • 2025 Activism
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Breathtaking Criminality and Lawlessness / Simple Messages. Short. Sweet. Clear.

Simple Messages. Short. Sweet. Clear.

by WaterGirl|  October 3, 20251:08 pm| 94 Comments

This post is in: Breathtaking Criminality and Lawlessness, Democratic Response to Trump 2.0, Political Action, Taking Action to Defend Democracy

FacebookTweetEmail

This is how it’s done.

ICE is running around Chicago harassing people for not being white.

Just a year ago, that was illegal in the United States and now it’s commonplace.

That’s not making America great again.

[image or embed]

— Governor JB Pritzker (@govpritzker.illinois.gov) October 2, 2025 at 6:58 PM

.

We stand together — elected officials, business leaders, the faith community, law enforcement, educators, and more — in our opposition to the abuses of power by Donald Trump’s administration.

We’re telling this unwarranted and unconstitutional occupation to stay out of Chicago.

[image or embed]

— Governor JB Pritzker (@govpritzker.illinois.gov) October 2, 2025 at 2:57 PM

.

Republicans control the White House, Senate, and House.

This government shutdown is on them.

— Governor JB Pritzker (@govpritzker.illinois.gov) October 2, 2025 at 10:46 AM

.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Playing to Win No, Fighting to Win
Next Post: And Now for Something Completely Different: A Bit of Old-School Sexism screen grab of a story on the Sky News website describing the new Archbishop of Canterbury as some guy's wife, FFS»

Reader Interactions

  • Commenters
  • Filtered
  • Settings

Commenters

No commenters available.

  • A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno)
  • A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
  • Alquitti
  • Another Scott
  • Barney
  • Baud
  • Belafon
  • Bill Arnold
  • Citizen Alan
  • comrade scotts agenda of rage
  • dc
  • Eyeroller
  • gene108
  • Glidwrith
  • Gretchen
  • iKropoclast
  • Interesting Name Goes Here
  • Ishiyama
  • Lily
  • Lord Fartdaddy (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
  • MagdaInBlack
  • Marc
  • Marcopolo
  • mark
  • Matt McIrvin
  • OGliberal
  • Pennsylvanian
  • Professor Bigfoot
  • RaflW
  • rikyrah
  • rusty
  • Time Travelin
  • Trivia Man
  • trollhattan
  • WaterGirl
  • WTFGhost

Filtered Commenters

No filtered commenters available.

    Settings




    Settings are saved immediately; press X to close the box.

    94Comments

    1. 1.

      Ishiyama

      October 3, 2025 at 1:12 pm

      Eat the Rich!

      Reply
    2. 2.

      Baud

      October 3, 2025 at 1:14 pm

      Just a year ago, that was illegal in the United States and now it’s commonplace

      It was legal and commonplace 100 years ago. That’s what they want to return to.

      Reply
    3. 3.

      trollhattan

      October 3, 2025 at 1:18 pm

      x.com/CAgovernor/status/1973898544609464403

      Reply
    4. 4.

      WaterGirl

      October 3, 2025 at 1:22 pm

      @trollhattan: People without twitter accounts can no longer see tweets even if they click on them.

      Glad you linked to that, but it’s super helpful going forward if people who are going to link to twitter to include the gist of what you are linking to.

      In this case, it’s good enough that I will do screen caps so people can see it.

      Reply
    5. 5.

      WaterGirl

      October 3, 2025 at 1:23 pm

      Simple Messages. Short. Sweet. Clear. 1

      Simple Messages. Short. Sweet. Clear.

      Reply
    6. 6.

      Gretchen

      October 3, 2025 at 1:28 pm

      Surely there’s something Governor Pritzger could do about this: demand to see the warrants ordering this raid, the names and apartment numbers of those targeted, names of those arrested, who were the children shoved into vans and where were they taken, names of officers involved.

      I’d really like an investigation into the officers conducting these raids: what agencies are they with, whether they had criminal records. Some of these guys enjoy roughing people up so much I suspect they have domestic violence records.

      Turns out the reason helicopters were involved was because they took videos of soldiers rappelling down to the roof and made an action-movie style video of the raid. These guys think they’re characters in an awesome video game.

      I haven’t lived in Chicago for a long time but that area of South Shore was mostly black, while Hispanics were more concentrated on the North Side. There was some speculation that footage of another raid was interspersed with this one so they could blame it on an immigration action, while the real reason was that a slumlord wanted tenants out. Whatever happened, it needs thorough investigation and consequences for those ordering it.

      Reply
    7. 7.

      trollhattan

      October 3, 2025 at 1:29 pm

      @WaterGirl: Okay.

      Weird, because I can open the above link in Firefox and don’t have a twitter account.

      Most accounts do not chron-sort for me in a browser, but some blue and gold medallion ones do. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

      Reply
    8. 8.

      Professor Bigfoot

      October 3, 2025 at 1:30 pm

      I saw that IL State Police were helping ICE and, well, now what?

      We’re getting to the point of “how many divisions does Pritzger have?”

      Reply
    9. 9.

      Trivia Man

      October 3, 2025 at 1:30 pm

      @WaterGirl:
      On my phone, i can read linked tweets without an account but sometimes not the comments. On my laptop i cant see the link at all.

      Reply
    10. 10.

      OGliberal

      October 3, 2025 at 1:30 pm

      This ICE bullshit.  Until it starts to negatively impact enough white people, nothing will change.  That is the sad reality.  To be certain, it will impact them eventually – authoritarians never stop.  But may be too late at that point.  Wake up, country.  And you Second Amendment folks, enjoy your arsenals while you have them because if this is allowed to continue, they will come for them.    Will you still love MAGA when that happens?

      Reply
    11. 11.

      OGliberal

      October 3, 2025 at 1:33 pm

      @Gretchen: Law enforcement tends to attract bullies, Rambo wannabes and sociopaths.  Because it gives those cowards a license to fuck with people they’d normally shit themselves in fear in front of if they didn’t have a badge.

      Reply
    12. 12.

      Time Travelin

      October 3, 2025 at 1:34 pm

      The Illinois state police are currently assisting ice attack and arrest people in Broadview because ice barbie is on her way. Doesn’t Pritzker have any say over them?

      bsky.app/profile/unraveledpress.com/post/3m2bzlhzp6c2g

      Reply
    13. 13.

      mark

      October 3, 2025 at 1:40 pm

      To add on to Betty Crackers post about health. Yesterday I had my vision checked and the dr. informed me that the state of Washington considers me to be blind. She told me that it is illegal for me to drive.

      Reply
    14. 14.

      WaterGirl

      October 3, 2025 at 1:42 pm

      @trollhattan: Well, that’s what I was told by someone here who doesn’t have a twitter account and can no longer see anything on twitter.

      Reply
    15. 15.

      WaterGirl

      October 3, 2025 at 1:43 pm

      @mark: oh, no!  That’s hard news.

      Reply
    16. 16.

      iKropoclast

      October 3, 2025 at 1:43 pm

      @OGliberal: Rambo wannabes and sociopaths.

      I think of Rambo as more of a tragic figure than an action hero. Then again, I only saw the first movie.

      Reply
    17. 17.

      mark

      October 3, 2025 at 1:45 pm

      @OGliberal: I had an uncle that was the commissioner of the Idaho state police in the late 1970’s. I remember him as being a real good guy.

      Reply
    18. 18.

      Belafon

      October 3, 2025 at 1:46 pm

      @Time Travelin: I’ve noticed that states, especially Democratic ones, don’t seem to have much control. You would think the state police would fall under the executive, but even then, there may be barriers in place that were meant to keep the police force from being used as a private army.

      Reply
    19. 19.

      Alquitti

      October 3, 2025 at 1:49 pm

      @Professor Bigfoot: Yup, as you and Time Travelin point out IL state police are not behaving very well at all. What’s the explanation for this? Has Trump taken control of the state police or is Pritzker allowing this?

      Reply
    20. 20.

      A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

      October 3, 2025 at 1:50 pm

      @WaterGirl: I was actually able to see the post on X, after clicking through a couple of signin with Google and don’t you want the app? window messages, and I have never been a member of X or Twitter. Just FYI annecdata, so mileage may vary

      ETA: I’m on a Samsung Galaxy Android phone.

      Reply
    21. 21.

      trollhattan

      October 3, 2025 at 1:50 pm

      @mark: Well fvck. Sorry.

      I’m halfway through eyeball reconstruction on account of the whole mess. Thanks, mom.

      Right eye, next Monday. I think it’s going to fix the things that needed fixing, whilst draining the everliving hell out of my wallet. World’s. Best. Healthcare.

      Reply
    22. 22.

      Time Travelin

      October 3, 2025 at 1:53 pm

      @Alquitti: police are infested with magas. It seems like governors, mayors, etc. have never had much control over them.

      Reply
    23. 23.

      trollhattan

      October 3, 2025 at 1:55 pm

      @WaterGirl: Once Elmo acquired and wrecked the joint, random failures are being presented as feature, not bug. I never presume any two people have the same experience with it.

      At work twitter posts display inside a browser and bluesky does not. Perhaps because work still uses twitter. IDK if they know the account does not chron sort properly, because it doesn’t.

      Reply
    24. 24.

      mark

      October 3, 2025 at 1:55 pm

      @WaterGirl: I have cataracts. Routine surgery to fix the problem. I hope. Messing around with a person’s eyes isn’t fun though.

      Reply
    25. 25.

      OGliberal

      October 3, 2025 at 1:56 pm

      @mark: Ugh!  I worry that my teenage daughter will be in the same boat.  She’s had surgery for her strabismus but that was mostly aesthetic.  Should help her eyesight from getting worse but also didn’t really improve her current state – and the doctor was clear it would not.  To be clear, she tells us she has no desire to drive – a feeling not based on her vision problems – but that may change later in life.  We’re lucky to live in a city currently so car not so important, but that may not always be the case.

      Reply
    26. 26.

      Belafon

      October 3, 2025 at 1:57 pm

      @Time Travelin: one of the things we will need to fix is making sure more people from the left choose to join the police. While we can all hate the police as they are now, they’re going to be here as long as more than a dozen people live together.

      Reply
    27. 27.

      iKropoclast

      October 3, 2025 at 1:58 pm

      @Belafon: While we can all hate the police as they are now, they’re going to be here as long as more than a dozen people live together.

      So razing our cities is the solution after all…

      Reply
    28. 28.

      OGliberal

      October 3, 2025 at 2:00 pm

      @mark: There are always good ones and they tend to rise in the ranks more than most, although – of course – there are bad people at the top as well.  I feel like being a cop isn’t as desired a profession that it once was, so you end up getting less than desirable candidates for the job.  Also, it often seems the good ones often have to keep their heads down and their mouths shut in the face of the larger number who are, frankly, just bad people.

      Reply
    29. 29.

      Time Travelin

      October 3, 2025 at 2:01 pm

      @Belafon: Unfortunately police are a necessary evil. Reform is needed. The ice goons couldn’t get hired as small town cops or even security guards.

      Reply
    30. 30.

      Eyeroller

      October 3, 2025 at 2:03 pm

      @WaterGirl: I can see the Twitter post with Firefox at least, but never the comments.​ I don’t have (and won’t get) a Xitter account.

      Reply
    31. 31.

      trollhattan

      October 3, 2025 at 2:06 pm

      Flashing back to Greenspan’s “irrational exuberance” WRT the stock market. Just received the first of my Q3/25 401(k) statements, which shows 16% growth this calendar year.

      WTAF are they smoking? This AI thing, combined with Donny’s lunatic tax and spending bill, have the entire joint imagining gold-brick shitting rainbow unicorns.

      Reply
    32. 32.

      Eyeroller

      October 3, 2025 at 2:07 pm

      @mark: Cataract surgery isn’t too much to worry about.  It’s about a 15-minute surgery and a few days of blurry vision.  All eye surgeries have a risk of complications, but cataract surgery is one of the safer ones.

      Reply
    33. 33.

      OGliberal

      October 3, 2025 at 2:10 pm

      @iKropoclast: Yeah, the first one was a bit more of little guy v. the man.  Rambo was always portrayed as being crapped on by the man, but Sly (with co-writer James Cameron..just learned that) went full-on cold war propaganda with Rambo II – evil Commies, the BS Ross Perot funded/fueled POW/MIA con, all that stuff.  I saw Rambo II when it was first released in a big old theater and when John R. opened his eye while hidden in a wall of mud and stabbed that evil Russkie, the place erupted in cheers and hoots and howls with people jumping out of their seats.  I will admit, as a 15-year old at the time, I got fired up as well – but because it was kind of cool and unexpected, not because I was some rabid anti-commie still bitter about losing ‘Nam.

      Reply
    34. 34.

      gene108

      October 3, 2025 at 2:10 pm

      @OGliberal:

      And you Second Amendment folks, enjoy your arsenals while you have them because if this is allowed to continue, they will come for them. Will you still love MAGA when that happens?

      They will never come after MAGAs with guns. The whole point of the 2A crowd is to make sure the government can be resisted, if the government openly supports people the 2A folks don’t like.

      They’re the fascist foot soldiers for stuff like J6, and every Republican knows and appreciates them for it.

      Reply
    35. 35.

      mark

      October 3, 2025 at 2:11 pm

      @OGliberal: I remember uncle Kenny being a gentle friendly big man.

      Reply
    36. 36.

      OGliberal

      October 3, 2025 at 2:11 pm

      @Belafon: But it’s OK for the president to use them.  You are correct – in normal times, those barriers serve the good..but we are not in normal times.

      Reply
    37. 37.

      rikyrah

      October 3, 2025 at 2:14 pm

      VoteVets (@votevets) posted at 1:27 PM on Thu, Oct 02, 2025:
      ICE attacked the police chief in Broadview, IL. He says his officers are being tear-gassed by ICE and diverted from their duties. Over 20% of U.S. cops are veterans. Kristi Noem and Donald Trump’s forces are anti-cop, anti-safety, and anti-American.
      t.co/xcYLS3e8vF
      (https://x.com/votevets/status/1973817166236659944?t=gPlHKnlMa5PzE0vzdgRZHQ&s=03)

      Reply
    38. 38.

      iKropoclast

      October 3, 2025 at 2:15 pm

      @OGliberal: Next you’ll be telling me Robocop isn’t just about a really cool AI police officer who kills very effectively…

      Reply
    39. 39.

      Lord Fartdaddy (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

      October 3, 2025 at 2:15 pm

      I really hope Pritzker runs in 2028. He’s easily my first choice.

      Reply
    40. 40.

      Marcopolo

      October 3, 2025 at 2:16 pm

      Here’s a simple message for my fellow BJ peeps that I saw on bluesky a while ago & copied but don’t know the original poster:

      “When people talk about traveling to the past, they worry about radically changing the present by doing something small, but barely anyone in the present really thinks that they can radically change the future by doing something small.”

      I sent this quote to my friends text group yesterday w/ the phone numbers for our two R senators asking them to call, tell them they blame Rs for the shutdown, and that Rs need to stop lying & work with Ds to fix the dramatic healthcare cost increases they caused in their Big Awful Bill.  I personalized my call by mentioning I get my insurance thru the ACA & had just looked at next year and learned my 2026 ACA payments will be 3x what I am paying now.

      Anyway, half my text group has called now which makes me proud (also like 2x as many as the prior record).

      I know a lot of y’all also make calls but if you haven’t yet please do.  Especially w/ R senators.  They know the polling is showing they are taking the largest share of the blame.

      Reply
    41. 41.

      rikyrah

      October 3, 2025 at 2:16 pm

      Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) posted at 8:12 AM on Fri, Oct 03, 2025:
      Republicans: Biden was trying to buy votes with student loan forgiveness.

      Also Republicans: We need taxpayers to bail out farmers who vote for us since Trump put them out of business.
      (https://x.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1974100332641993064?t=SCVmptI4Y1Nb-XDy8ZBovg&s=03)

      Reply
    42. 42.

      OGliberal

      October 3, 2025 at 2:16 pm

      @gene108: They do now…but authoritarians also tend to be very paranoid, suspicious of even supposed allies and friends.  There’s always the chance – a pretty good one, in fact – that if things proceed as they are, the MAGA world and their actions may start to piss off some of the arsenal holding folks, to that point that those folks may contemplate taking action.  Authoritarians can’t have that.  They are useful tools (fools?) now, but they will wear out their usefulness, unless they are willing to give up their much beloved “freedom” and join an official MAGA army.

      Reply
    43. 43.

      rikyrah

      October 3, 2025 at 2:18 pm

      Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) posted at 9:17 AM on Fri, Oct 03, 2025:
      NEW: @WIRED reports that the Trump admin is planning on building a mass social media surveillance team at ICE, which will be trawling through social media to find people to arrest and deport. t.co/btGTYIw4Q0
      (https://x.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1974116709020938406?t=7YF91KLpbaY5l5pM-D0tVw&s=03)

      Reply
    44. 44.

      trollhattan

      October 3, 2025 at 2:18 pm

      @OGliberal:

      Revenge movies have long been a thing. Dirty Harry series, spaghetti westerns, Death Wish series, Billy Jack, Die Hard series and a jillion others I can’t recall ATM.

      Reply
    45. 45.

      OGliberal

      October 3, 2025 at 2:18 pm

      @mark: So is one of my good and old friends from high school, who retired as chief of police in our hometown.  But he worked for/with and managed sociopaths and was – and still is – friends with some of them.  He is, I believe, kind of MAGA these days.  His mother, bless her, is a flaming liberal…so there’s that.

      Reply
    46. 46.

      rikyrah

      October 3, 2025 at 2:19 pm

      Charles Kuck (@ckuck) posted at 9:07 AM on Fri, Oct 03, 2025:
      There is a darkness and evil that is taking over ICE, led by the dark lord Miller.

      ICE is launching a nationwide operation today, Friday 10/3, reportedly named “Freaky Friday” that will target unaccompanied children aged 14 and older of all nationalities. Here is what we know:

      1.          Children detained and released will be sent a “threat” letter from ICE threatening indefinite detention and immediate transfer to ICE upon age-out if they do not waive jurisdiction under the TVPRA and withdraw applications for relief, including withdrawing their request for admission with EOIR.
      2.          Children will be offered $2,500 to return to their countries of origin.
      3.          If children do not comply with the “offer”, the letter indicates their parents/family living in the US will be arrested.
      4.          ICE plans to detain all age-outs, and they anticipate legal challenges.
      5.          It is possible that the age threshold for this threat letter may be lowered to youth 10 years old and older.
      6.          ICE will first target detained children but will also target children released from custody.

      Some private and non-profit legal service providers have suggested the following steps.

      1.            Consider advising children out of custody of the possibility of receiving a letter.
      2.            Provide Know Your Rights (KYR) presentations to all children you are working with in custody as soon as practicable, advising them of this plan and their right not to sign anything without consulting their attorney.
      3.            File L-3 forms for all children in custody, as capacity allows.
      4.            If a child receives a letter, consider preparing a declaration that particularly highlights the manner in which this ICE letter was delivered (Was counsel present and able to advise? Was the youth able to ask questions? Etc.), evidence of coercion or intimidation, underlying fear of return elements related to child’s relief application.  These declarations will help litigators challenge this practice.
      (https://x.com/ckuck/status/1974114080127660088?t=0TN2j6gxJ52IpGxd8_wRyA&s=03)

      Reply
    47. 47.

      rikyrah

      October 3, 2025 at 2:20 pm

      Hey, Dave! (@davegreenidge57) posted at 3:46 AM on Fri, Oct 03, 2025:
      The same day Trump announced the $20 billion bailout for Argentina, they cut grain exports taxes by $7 billion. Then China rushed in and bought 10 freighters worth of soybeans. Argentina used the bailout to undercut U.S. grain exports.
      Farmers and exporters should be outraged. t.co/QPHb8FWTln
      (https://x.com/davegreenidge57/status/1974033267335532711?t=gTIbAb9ybTOOXa6Amsjp7Q&s=03)

      Reply
    48. 48.

      iKropoclast

      October 3, 2025 at 2:20 pm

      @rikyrah: WIRED reports that the Trump admin is planning on building a mass social media surveillance team at ICE, which will be trawling through social media to find people to arrest and deport.

      I am an illegal immigrant, find me, m’fuckers.

      I can expect they won’t try to corroborate my claim, right?

      Reply
    49. 49.

      rusty

      October 3, 2025 at 2:20 pm

      @Baud: It was legal and commonplace against a whole series of oppressed classes, blacks, Hispanics, the poor, the LGBTQ+ community, etc.  Then we had essentially a second reconstruction that really began post WWII with the integration of the military, the series of legal cases that threw out separate but equal, and then culminated in the Civil Rights acts.  The woman’s movement and gay rights followed from there, but already the pull back had started.  The right really does want to go back 100 years ago to pre-WWII.  I don’t know what reconstruction 3.0 should look like, but this time it will include serious Supreme Court reform, and codification of much of civil rights to better protect them.  Our current constitutional order has failed, it’s time to figure out how to solve these now obvious deficiencies.

      Reply
    50. 50.

      rikyrah

      October 3, 2025 at 2:20 pm

      The United States versus Elon R. Musk (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 10:48 AM on Fri, Oct 03, 2025:
      the ICE raid in Chicago was meant to provoke an urban Black backlash and subsequently mass mobilization of federal troops to kill Black people in the streets en masse
      (https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1974139510985535873?t=BkpiUxjzw5NN4k6r-TyW6g&s=03)

      Reply
    51. 51.

      trollhattan

      October 3, 2025 at 2:20 pm

      @Lord Fartdaddy (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): ​
      He’d certainly liven up the primaries, which I’d welcome.

      Am too far removed from IL to know anything about him day to day, but VERY pleased he and Gav are aggressively present and demanding to be heard.

      Reply
    52. 52.

      OGliberal

      October 3, 2025 at 2:21 pm

      @iKropoclast: No, it was very early test marketing for that abomination Elon sells as a “truck”.  Except that the vehicles in Robocop look so much better.

      Reply
    53. 53.

      Interesting Name Goes Here

      October 3, 2025 at 2:21 pm

      @trollhattan: None of the Die Hard movies are revenge thrillers in the slightest unless you’re taking the sides of the villains (who often use revenge to mask other, usually financial, intentions).

      Reply
    54. 54.

      gene108

      October 3, 2025 at 2:21 pm

      @mark:

      I have cataracts. Routine surgery to fix the problem. I hope.

      My mom had cataract surgery in 2018. She’s seeing better than she did before the surgery. Took three to four weeks to get back to normal. No issues since.

      Good luck.

      Reply
    55. 55.

      iKropoclast

      October 3, 2025 at 2:22 pm

      @rikyrah: Is there no line these people won’t cross? Threatening children and using them as messengers for their parents?

      Sick. Sad.

      Reply
    56. 56.

      comrade scotts agenda of rage

      October 3, 2025 at 2:22 pm

      @Ishiyama:

      Eat the Rich!

      Hush your mouth!

      At least that’s what Ezra Broder Klein, MattY and the rest of the center-right “liberals” will tell you and in the next breath say something about expanding the tent by abandoning unions, abandoning core civil rights positions, abandoning abortion rights because it can’t be a big tent without some stink in it.

      Reply
    57. 57.

      dc

      October 3, 2025 at 2:22 pm

      I sent the following to my two asshole Republican (I repeat my self) senators:

      I am writing to urge you to stop the government shutdown now. Republicans control the Senate, the House and the White House. This shutdown is owned 100% by the Republicans who control everything. Modify, eliminate or sidestep the filibuster and pass any bill you wish. You do not need even one Democratic vote. The question is why are Republicans not moving ahead if they really want to pass this or any other legislation. You all either want to shut down the government or you want to hide behind Democrats for your bad and unpopular ideas. Your budget is designed to hurt the majority of Americans. It’s a Republican budget, and you could pass it without Democrats. Simple majority to end the filibuster, simple majority to pass. If it’s such a great budget, stop the crocodile tears and lies and be like Nike, just do it!

      I cribbed the last three sentences from a Cheryl Rofer post at LGM with the addition of the crocodile tears, lies and Nike.

      Reply
    58. 58.

      iKropoclast

      October 3, 2025 at 2:23 pm

      @OGliberal: No, it was very early test marketing for that abomination Elon sells as a “truck”

      I thought that was a design for the Batmobile from a Batman pilot that was rejected for an art style that was too angular and uncanny.

      Reply
    59. 59.

      mark

      October 3, 2025 at 2:24 pm

      @gene108: Thank you.

      Reply
    60. 60.

      OGliberal

      October 3, 2025 at 2:26 pm

      @trollhattan: Yes, I love revenge/vengeance movies – when they are movies.  Too many people with guns out there thinking they may want to do stuff like that in real life.  Thankfully, a lot of them don’t have the guts to act on out on their fantasies.  But I worry they might if somebody increasingly leads them to believe that it is A-OK to do so.

      Reply
    61. 61.

      MagdaInBlack

      October 3, 2025 at 2:27 pm

      @rikyrah: reddit chicago has them up on Armitage and Central tossing tear gas in the street

      reddit.com/r/chicago/comments/1nx61vn/guess_its_time_to_get_gear_gas_mask_they_are/

      Reply
    62. 62.

      Matt McIrvin

      October 3, 2025 at 2:27 pm

      @rikyrah: so, they’ve decided to be the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Again. I’m sure this will go over swimmingly.

      Reply
    63. 63.

      Interesting Name Goes Here

      October 3, 2025 at 2:28 pm

      @rikyrah: It’s amazing how many people on the Left, even here, consistently fail to see the game being played.  It makes that thing I posted from the person summarizing White Leftists just that much more relevant.  It’s entertainment to those people and a hard reality to us who have to live it.

      Reply
    64. 64.

      OGliberal

      October 3, 2025 at 2:29 pm

      @Interesting Name Goes Here: They are Christmas movies.

      Reply
    65. 65.

      RaflW

      October 3, 2025 at 2:30 pm

      @Belafon: @Alquitti: “Brendan F. Kelly was appointed by Governor JB Pritzker and confirmed unanimously by the Illinois Senate to serve as the eighth Director of the Illinois State Police in 2019.”

      I don’t know how closely the two work in practice. In MN, the DPS Commissioner (as we call the approximate equivalent) coordinates quite closely with the governor, but I believe has final decision authority. I suppose a governor can fire such an official, but likely can’t order them to do or not do a particular police action.

      I’m still very disappointed in this emerging situation.

      Reply
    66. 66.

      gene108

      October 3, 2025 at 2:30 pm

      @rikyrah:

      Trump really wants to provoke a backlash to send the active duty military in to occupy cities. He’s not at all subtle about it, especially after Tuesday.

      Reply
    67. 67.

      OGliberal

      October 3, 2025 at 2:32 pm

      @iKropoclast: Actually, it’s what a “future car” would look like if you asked a 4-year old in 1985 to draw one.

      ETA:  And they would have been correct, considering now is the future!

      Reply
    68. 68.

      WaterGirl

      October 3, 2025 at 2:35 pm

      @mark: oh, fixable!  yay!  (scary but fixable)  much relieved!

      Reply
    69. 69.

      iKropoclast

      October 3, 2025 at 2:37 pm

      @OGliberal: I would hope the typical 4 year old should have better design sensibilities. Like a 4 year old should know how door locks work. They probably already have a couple formative experiences around car door locks.

      Reply
    70. 70.

      A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno)

      October 3, 2025 at 2:49 pm

      @mark: I just had cataracts surgery. Same couldn’t drive situation, though the state never really found out about it.

      It’s weird. I need no glasses for driving, one set of glasses for working on the computer, and a third for close viewing like book reading, because the plastic lenses they put in can’t adjust to different distances like the original could.

      Reply
    71. 71.

      Another Scott

      October 3, 2025 at 2:49 pm

      I just finished dropping off my absentee ballot in Virginia.  Team D all the way, and Yes on the school bonds.

      There were at least 6 other people voting in person, about 90 minutes after the polling location opened.  Everything was going smoothly.

      Forward!!

      Best wishes,
      Scott.

      Reply
    72. 72.

      Bill Arnold

      October 3, 2025 at 2:52 pm

      @Time Travelin:

      police are infested with magas.

      Police in many (most?) parts of the the USA are now basically MAGA with qualified immunity.

      Reply
    73. 73.

      Trivia Man

      October 3, 2025 at 2:59 pm

      @Marcopolo: thanks for the kick in the pants. Of course ron Johnson only has voice mail. “I blame you fir the shutdown. Stop smirking and start negotiating.”

      passed on his contact info to my Wisconsin family peeps.

      Reply
    74. 74.

      Bill Arnold

      October 3, 2025 at 3:00 pm

      @trollhattan:

      Once Elmo acquired and wrecked the joint, random failures are being presented as feature, not bug.

      The main failure I see with post-naziification twitter/X is some sort of rate limiting, that e.g. limits opening a bunch of tabs for x pages quickly; some of them fail to load, but reload works.
      Have not seen any problems viewing “tweets” with browsers without an x login, ever. Post musk takeover, cannot see the replies, and user account pages are near useless. (can look at profile, but a random assortment-subset of tweets is presented.)
      I’d suspect blocking of some sort, maybe a work firewall, or some forgotten or broken plugin.

      Reply
    75. 75.

      Trivia Man

      October 3, 2025 at 3:02 pm

      @rikyrah: dont forget the added goal – get some bitchin footage of ACTION! EXCITEMENT for recruiting and internal morale boosting. Rumor is the EXCITING rappelling from helicopters was filmed with high end cameras for that purpose.

      Reply
    76. 76.

      Eyeroller

      October 3, 2025 at 3:06 pm

      @A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno): Well, when they destroy the original lens they can’t reattach the ciliary muscle that pulls the natural lens into various shapes.  There are accommodating intraocular lenses that have some kind of “arms” sticking out that contact the ciliary muscle, but they don’t seem to be very common or to be of all that much benefit compared to the standard lenses.

      I have a lens on the right that is only very slightly nearsighted, but I have little vision in that eye (due to complications from a much more substantial surgery than the cataract).  When I had the left eye done last year I chose to keep my existing degree of nearsightedness, since I’d rather take my glasses off for close work than use reading glasses.

      Reply
    77. 77.

      Another Scott

      October 3, 2025 at 3:06 pm

      @Bill Arnold: You may already know this, but xcancel.com (a version of Nitter) works pretty well without a login.

      E.g. xcancel.com/Tendar

      Best wishes,
      Scott.

      Reply
    78. 78.

      Trivia Man

      October 3, 2025 at 3:07 pm

      @comrade scotts agenda of rage: just eat one and i bet the rest of those fuckers will at least dial it back.

      Reply
    79. 79.

      Trivia Man

      October 3, 2025 at 3:08 pm

      @OGliberal: No cap

      Reply
    80. 80.

      Citizen Alan

      October 3, 2025 at 3:11 pm

      @iKropoclast: A wise decision. Rambo and Rocky proved that Sylvester Stallone could act. But the sequels to both proved that he made more money when he didn’t bother to.

      Reply
    81. 81.

      Belafon

      October 3, 2025 at 3:15 pm

      @RaflW: Biden appointed Garland, and then left him alone because the DOJ is supposed to operate independent of the presidency. But Democrats view their positions differently than Republicans.

      The problem is that the cops are, more than not, happy to do this, and all the governor would do by trying to rein in the head is just cause the state police to double down.

      Reply
    82. 82.

      Barney

      October 3, 2025 at 3:19 pm

      My only quibble with Gov. Pritzker is “harassing people” – “invading people’s homes” is more accurate, and damning, while still simple and short. “In the middle of the night” could be added.

      Reply
    83. 83.

      Professor Bigfoot

      October 3, 2025 at 3:24 pm

      @Belafon:  This country needs a uniform set of training and educational requirements for police officers.

      Those requirements should be a lot closer to the Bundesrepublik than they do to Boss Hogg County.

      Reply
    84. 84.

      Matt McIrvin

      October 3, 2025 at 3:30 pm

      An old friend of mine had his door busted in by the Somerville cops in the middle of the night– it was a drug raid and they had the wrong address.

      It takes a long time to recover psychologically from that sort of thing. He got precious little sympathy from the cops or the city too. And I don’t think they stole any of his stuff, just destroyed his front door.

      Reply
    85. 85.

      trollhattan

      October 3, 2025 at 3:32 pm

      @A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno): @Eyeroller:
      Am going for a monovision scheme with left corrected near-mid and right, far. VERY myopic so it’s a new path and I experimented with contacts beforehand. Will I need glasses/contacts later? Magic 8 Ball says “probably.”

      Was presented with four lens options arranged in elevating cost. When handed the card I thought “not toooo bad” and only then was told it’s per eye.

      The first two were not options for me. The multifocal lens option gives near-to-far correction in both eyes, with some drawbacks. My choice is light-adjustable-lens that goes for monovision and is tweaked after surgery.
      “With lasers“/Dr. Evil voice

      So in addition to the month 1 surgery and healing phase I have a second month getting the things lasered weekly until correction lockdown with UV. Two month of wearing UV-blocking glasses just like Ali G’s. It’s a look.

      With one eye done the other thing I notice is color. My new eye has a fuller spectrum, shifting away from the former orange hue by maybe a thousand degrees Kelvin. Weird.
      On top of all else is the canaloplasty glaucoma procedure. “As long as we’re in there.” Don’t look at pictures unless you like that sort of thing.

      Folks with little or no vision correction can make this a one-and-done. I say don’t put it off.​

      Reply
    86. 86.

      Glidwrith

      October 3, 2025 at 3:50 pm

      @Gretchen: Someone needs to make that slumlord famous and make damn sure everyone knows not to rent from the bastard.

      Reply
    87. 87.

      Professor Bigfoot

      October 3, 2025 at 4:18 pm

      @Interesting Name Goes Here: John Wick, on the other hand…

      Reply
    88. 88.

      Marc

      October 3, 2025 at 4:24 pm

      @WaterGirl: I never had a Twitter account, the link worked for me, that may be an account option.

      Reply
    89. 89.

      Eyeroller

      October 3, 2025 at 4:33 pm

      @trollhattan: ​My left-eye lens replacement was in conjunction with a minimally-invasive glaucoma implant. I think a partial canaloplasty goes along with that. Unfortunately it scarred over. My other ophthalmologist then suggested I consult with the MIG guy (for a while I had an ophthalmologist for each eye) about a 360-degree canaloplasty. When discussing it with me he made me watch a video of the procedure on “EyeTube.” So I’ve seen it (it isn’t all that traumatic to watch). MIG guy said it wouldn’t be possible because I have adhesions. So I got a tube (already had one in the right) last July.
      I wasn’t offered any lens options for the cataract replacements. Just run-of-the-mill nonaccommodating.
      Even when we are fairly young, the lens has a slight yellowish tint that helps to block UV from the retina. Cataracts make the yellow-orange shift much worse. Most artificial lenses are transparent well into the UV and our eyes can actually see a little bit into the UV. So typically everything looks bluer/more purple with artificial lenses.

      Reply
    90. 90.

      Marc

      October 3, 2025 at 4:39 pm

      @Matt McIrvin:  When I was working at Sun I lived in Mountain View, CA, in the same apartment complex as one of my college buddies, a 6′ 5″ 350+ black software guy who drove a Honda CR-X (just like everyone else in MTV at the time :).  The MTV cops broke his door at 4AM without being too obvious about being police.  He/they were lucky he was awake working rather than in his bedroom, as I know what he kept in his closet.  I had to go bail him out later.  Luckily, we had some leverage, as we both knew Sun’s CEO (for reasons).  Bogus charges dropped, and he got a personal apology the following day from both the Mayor and Police Chief.

      Reply
    91. 91.

      Pennsylvanian

      October 3, 2025 at 5:31 pm

      I honestly do not understand why everyone is pretending that every executive order is a fucking law of the land. JFC.

      Reply
    92. 92.

      WTFGhost

      October 3, 2025 at 5:38 pm

      @mark: Ah, thanks for clarifying. Ghostwife is a few days away from finishing the eyedrops for the first eye, so she’ll only be doing one eye, every 6 hours, for a week or two after.

      For her, it was routine, and immediately helpful. I hope it’s the same for you.

      Reply
    93. 93.

      WTFGhost

      October 3, 2025 at 5:49 pm

      @Pennsylvanian: It’s not so much that they are the law, but they make it so you have to fight back, and Trump loves the idea of screaming “they’re trying to have your wimminfolk raped! By ILLEGALS!!!” while the SCOTUS, on the emergency docket, says “he can keep doing this, while we figure out if these clearly unlawful actions are legal or not.”

      Reply
    94. 94.

      Lily

      October 4, 2025 at 6:30 pm

      @WaterGirl: To add some information:  I have no account but can click on and see links to Tw, incl that one above.

      In my case, I can’t bring up something specific on my own (like if I do a search on duckduckgo for something about Tw I saw mentioned, and then click that link to Tw);    but I can see what another person links on here or bluesky or news sites etc.

      I have all kinds of  active blockers /anti-trackers set, and those seem to prevent my going to some links, but not in the case of Twi.

      Thanks x 1,000 times for all you do.

      Reply

    Leave a Comment

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    If you don't see both the Visual and the Text tab on the editor, click here to refresh.

    Clear Comment

    To reply to more than one person, click the X to save & close the box.

    Primary Sidebar

    On The Road - Lehrjet - PA Aurora, part 2
    Image by Lehrjet (10/5/25)

    Recent Comments

    • Karen Gail on Authors In Our Midst – Randall Luce – The Cost of ‘Good Trouble’! (Oct 5, 2025 @ 3:04pm)
    • trollhattan on A Budget Is a Moral Document (Oct 5, 2025 @ 3:01pm)
    • Professor Bigfoot on Authors In Our Midst – Randall Luce – The Cost of ‘Good Trouble’! (Oct 5, 2025 @ 3:01pm)
    • Ramalama on Authors In Our Midst – Randall Luce – The Cost of ‘Good Trouble’! (Oct 5, 2025 @ 2:57pm)
    • Professor Bigfoot on A Budget Is a Moral Document (Oct 5, 2025 @ 2:55pm)

    Balloon Juice Posts

    View by Topic
    View by Author
    View by Month & Year
    View by Past Author

    Featuring

    Medium Cool
    Artists in Our Midst
    Authors in Our Midst

    Baseball Post Season Play 10/4

    🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

    Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
    Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

    Calling All Jackals

    Site Feedback
    Nominate a Rotating Tag
    Submit Photos to On the Road
    Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
    Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
    Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

    Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup

    Upcoming Meetups

    Virginia Meetup on Oct 11 please RSVP

    Social Media

    Balloon Juice
    WaterGirl
    TaMara
    John Cole
    DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
    Betty Cracker
    Tom Levenson
    David Anderson
    Major Major Major Major
    DougJ NYT Pitchbot
    mistermix
    Rose Judson (podcast)

    National Ground Game in VA!

    Donate

    Site Footer

    Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

    • Facebook
    • RSS
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
    • Comment Policy
    • Our Authors
    • Blogroll
    • Our Artists
    • Privacy Policy

    Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

    Insert/edit link

    Enter the destination URL

    Or link to existing content

      No search term specified. Showing recent items. Search or use up and down arrow keys to select an item.
        Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

        Email sent!