This is a fairly large gator upriver from me:
Probably eight or nine feet, I’m guessing. Wouldn’t want to swim past it!
And here’s a swallow-tailed kite:
Enjoying your evening so far?
Open thread!
Florida woman, still rocking a punk rock ethos in the 2020s, which is kind of sad. Betty Cracker has been a Balloon Juice writer since 2012.
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Open Threads
This is a fairly large gator upriver from me:
Probably eight or nine feet, I’m guessing. Wouldn’t want to swim past it!
And here’s a swallow-tailed kite:
Enjoying your evening so far?
Open thread!
by Betty Cracker| 189 Comments
This post is in: Election 2016, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Politics, General Stupidity, Our Failed Media Experiment
Saw this clip on Twitter of former Labour/Respect Party MP George Galloway talking about his vision of Brexit:
George Galloway: "I want Britain post-Brexit to be what it was in the Swinging 60s, when we were the cultural capital of the world. When we had a steel industry, when we had a coal industry – when we were something!"@GeorgeGalloway | #MOATS | https://t.co/sv3MZUm41c pic.twitter.com/X4WlpCYdwl
— talkRADIO (@talkRADIO) March 8, 2019
I don’t follow British politics closely, but from what I gather, Galloway was part of the pro-Brexit populist left coalition that made common cause with UKIP/Brexit Party member (and Trump booster) Nigel Farage to support the Leave campaign. Galloway said of the relationship with Farage: “We are not pals. We are allies in one cause. Like Churchill and Stalin.”
This upcoming week is crunch time for the UK. I don’t have any idea what will happen, but I’m haunted by the similarities between the situation there and here in the US. We know the same malevolent forces were at work in driving both our countries to the brink of madness: similar species of homegrown nationalists, plus an exchange program that sent British nuts like Farage here to campaign for Trump and right-wing villains like Bannon and the Mercers to the UK to foment nationalism there, with the exact same set of Russians interfering.
Less remarked upon are the lefty counterparts in both countries who helped set the stage for the disaster, whether on purpose or by accident. One thing they have in common is toxic nostalgia of the type Galloway engages in above. It’s the same delusion that is rampant in Trump and his “status anxiety” supporters and certain (invariably white) figures on the left who seem as nostalgic for a time when they were the noble saviors in society as they are for non-achy bones and a full head of hair.
Anyhoo, to repeat, I have no idea how next week will play out for our cousins across the pond, but I’ll be thinking of our British jackal friends. I remember foolishly believing after the shock Brexit vote that we in the US wouldn’t follow the UK off a similar cliff in the 2016 election since our version of Brexit had a human avatar, and he was so odious that the idea of him ascending to the presidency was too absurd to contemplate. Boy, was I wrong!
The impact of those twin disasters is still reverberating across the Atlantic. The same forces are still in place on the right and left, and the narrative is still formed by the same vicious and/or stupid media. May we all wake the fuck up before it’s too late.
by Betty Cracker| 130 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Faunasphere, Open Threads, General Stupidity
Fellow jackal lamh36, aka @psddluva4evah on Twitter, highlighted a thread on a little-discussed childhood trauma — being terrorized by monkeys at Florida tourist traps:
OMG! This was fascinating! @Johngcole @DougJBalloon @bettycrackerfl @CherylRofer @TomLevenson @soonergrunt https://t.co/Kza1VBZqBo
— #ListenToBlackWomenKamalaHarris2020 (@psddluva4evah) March 10, 2019
I should say up front (as the author of the tweet thread acknowledges) that the true victims of these tales are the captive monkeys. It’s perfectly understandable that they’d want to terrorize children herded into their prisons by human captors.
But that doesn’t make the terror of those children any less real. I know; I was one of them.
My tale begins at a local tourist trap with my kindergarten classmates. It was a field trip, and a dumb one since all of us had seen everything at that nature-themed roadside attraction before with our relatives, so it wasn’t educational. Maybe the principal was getting a kickback from the person who owned the place, who knows.
Anyhoo, the way it was supposed to work is that tourists would board a boat that would chug slowly around a lagoon and series of canals to see animals, including a bored hippo, some manatees, flamingos and other exotic birds, etc.
One of the draws on the tour was Monkey Island, a spit of land inhabited by feral spider monkeys. The boat would motor past — not too close! — and the monkeys would screech and fling shit at the people gawking at them from the boat.
Well, on this tour, the boat broke down just as we were approaching Monkey Island and started drifting toward it. The monkeys, perhaps sensing that something was amiss, screamed even more loudly, showed their teeth and flung poo with greater force the closer we got.
It was like a slow-motion scene in a horror movie, the monkeys’ rising hysteria as we drifted closer and closer, matched by the increasingly terrified screams of the children. As we ran aground on the island, the monkeys swarmed the boat like an invading horde of hairy pirates, swinging from the bars that held up the canvas roof and screaming right in our faces. Utterly terrifying!
I crawled under the bench seat, curled up in the fetal position with my face pressed against the hull and apparently went into a catatonic state. I don’t really remember much after that, but was told later we were rescued by another boat and there were no physical injuries among monkeys or humans.
Anyhoo, decades later, I saw that island again. It still has a handful of monkeys on it, but it’s part of a nature preserve now.
My father says my memory of the field trip incident is ridiculously over-dramatized. I know he’s right because I was shocked when I saw the island again as an adult.
I remembered a much larger island teeming with dozens of angry, screeching, revenge-seeking monkeys. The reality is a little clump of rocks and vegetation occupied by few desultory primates who aren’t at all interested in passersby.
That’s the thing about growing up. Reality scales down the remembered terrors. It diminishes the sense of wonder too, I suppose, but I’ll take that bargain. I bet most folks who were terrorized by monkeys as children would too. And don’t even get me started on hissing, angry swans!
Open thread!
by Betty Cracker| 225 Comments
This post is in: Dog Blogging, Domestic Politics, Food, Open Threads
Badger always looks super alarmed when I’m dusting in his location:
I mean, I know dusting is rare around here, but really?
We’re having a chill day. The mister took the kids fishing upriver, and what do I do when I finally have a moment to myself? Dust and make fun of my dog on the internet.
Hope y’all are doing something more exciting. Open thread!
ETA: I’m also making a big pot of ropa vieja using Ingrid Hoffmann’s recipe. It’s a great recipe, and I’ve made it dozens of times, but Hoffmann must have servants because she unnecessarily directs you to dirty an entire sink full of dishes when in reality all you need is one big pot and a large bowl.
PPS: I’d link the recipe, but the WP mobile interface sucks great big green gators…
This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, General Stupidity
Remember when Republicans had an ear-splitting hissy fit about alleged influence peddling at the Clinton Foundation? I’m sure they’ll be even more outraged to learn that wealthy members of Trump’s tacky-ass, for-profit South Florida resort have been openly selling access to Trump and the “Minister of Commerce” to foreigners. (Haha, no they won’t!) Via Mother Jones:
The latest Trump political donor to draw controversy is Li Yang, a 45-year-old Florida entrepreneur from China who founded a chain of spas and massage parlors that included the one where New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft was recently busted for soliciting prostitution. She made the news this week when the Miami Herald reported that last month she had attended a Super Bowl viewing party at Donald Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club and had snapped a selfie with the president during the event. Though Yang no longer owns the spa Kraft allegedly visited, the newspaper noted that other massage parlors her family runs have “gained a reputation for offering sexual services.” (She told the newspaper she has never violated the law.) Beyond this sordid tale, there is another angle to the strange story of Yang: She runs an investment business that has offered to sell Chinese clients access to Trump and his family. And a website for the business—which includes numerous photos of Yang and her purported clients hobnobbing at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach—suggests she had some success in doing so.
Yang, who goes by Cindy, and her husband, Zubin Gong, started GY US Investments LLC in 2017. The company describes itself on its website, which is mostly in Chinese, as an “international business consulting firm that provides public relations services to assist businesses in America to establish and expand their brand image in the modern Chinese marketplace.” But the firm notes that its services also address clients looking to make high-level connections in the United States. On a page displaying a photo of Mar-a-Lago, Yang’s company says its “activities for clients” have included providing them “the opportunity to interact with the president, the [American] Minister of Commerce and other political figures.” The company boasts it has “arranged taking photos with the President” and suggests it can set up a “White House and Capitol Hill Dinner.” (The same day the Herald story about Yang broke, the website stopped functioning.)
I wonder if Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is the “Minister of Commerce” mentioned on the defunct site? Did he get a “happy ending” at one of the massage parlors? It would be irresponsible not to speculate, as gross as it is.
It’s almost disappointing in a way, that this scandal-ridden, corrupt administration is associated with such petty and garish grift operations. Better a pack of greedy, dumb buffoons than a cabal of smart and sinister villains, I suppose. But I can’t help but think the tawdriness of it all reflects poorly on America’s oligarch class.
This post is in: Dog Blogging, Domestic Politics, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, General Stupidity
We’re having a new central air/heat unit installed over the next couple of days, and it’s a big, ugly, expensive undertaking. The previous owners smoked in the house for 30 years, so we’re not just replacing the old, crappy A/C unit and ancient handler; we’re having the duct work ripped out and replaced and starting afresh.
My husband chose the HVAC vendor, and he did not screen them for political views. Imagine my horror when a truck covered in Trump stickers and hauling a trailer with a giant MAGA banner rolled into my fucking driveway a while ago.
I was this-close to saying, “Get your goddamned MAGAtmobile off my property, you gormless dupe of the most obvious conman who ever swindled a sucker!” But then I remembered my husband had given the A/C outfit a substantial deposit.
When the driver emerged from the truck, Badger, who has heretofore been a friend to all, barked hysterically, as if the man were a Nazgûl invading our yard instead of a garden-variety fool. Daisy seemed confused by the hub-bub.
The A/C guys are friendly enough. But I eventually had to banish the dogs to the porch because Badger would not chill, and I thought he might bite someone and cause a lawsuit.
Anyhoo, we’ve got no A/C for the next couple of days (luckily the weather is mild) and an infestation of Trumpsters in our attic. And it looks like Badger has hidden talent as a stupidity sniffer.
How’s your Thursday going?
This post is in: Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, General Stupidity
Remember the “rolling coal” jerks — the morons who modify diesel pickups so they belch out extra-toxic pollutants, thus owning Prius-driving libs and their effete virtue-signaling about breathable air and inhabitable landmasses?
That crowd’s bloated orange cockwaffle is attempting to install sooty smokestacks on U.S. fuel economy standards, and his goons are threatening automakers who have business reasons for not wishing to go along with Trump’s plans to sabotage the planet because Obama (Bloomberg):
The White House has issued an us-versus-them challenge to carmakers: back an administration plan to roll back fuel-economy standards or risk President Donald Trump’s wrath by siding with California’s stringent emissions requirements.
That message was delivered during a tense conference call between Trump administration officials and auto executives in late February, according to five people familiar with the call who spoke on the condition they not be identified discussing the private conversation…
The request has added to industry anxiety about getting caught in a conflict between Trump and the nation’s biggest auto market, the people said. The president is also reviewing the findings of a Commerce Department inquiry into whether imported cars and parts threaten national security, which automakers worry could provide the basis for new tariffs.
A President Harris could rejoin the Paris Agreement, reinstate rolled-back emissions requirements, etc. But I’m not sure how we dissipate the toxic cloud of self-destructive stupidity that has engulfed 40-ish percent of our fellow citizens.
Open thread.