Ugh, I’m having a day. I spelled the first word of the heading “MOnay” on a prior attempt. Better stop now. 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.
“60 Minutes” Open Thread
We don’t have to talk about this:
Anyone watching? What else is happening this fine Sunday evening?
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
GOOD — As those of you who follow me on Twitter know, we were lucky enough to host a flock of cedar waxwings in our bamboo this morning. These birds have cooler ‘dos and shades than any human being I’ve ever seen:
BAD — The retired Fox News rage-gramps who pretends to be president on TV is golfing at his self-branded club in Florida today. He has spent a quarter of his presidency golfing, which would be a scandal if these were normal times. But I’m grateful for every goddamned second he befouls his own greens because people with cobwebs like this lurking in their noggins don’t have any business serving as clubhouse restroom attendant, much less president of a nuclear-armed state:
Because of the $700 & $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich. Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2018
UGLY — Stormy Daniels’ lawyer tweeted an image of a CD in a safe earlier this week. Daniels will be interviewed on “60 Minutes” tonight. Unless Daniels’ attorney is doing a build-up that will become more infamously lame than Geraldo’s empty Capone safe reveal, we’re going to be exposed to hideous, nausea-inducing images soon. (“Alexa, order ALL the brain bleach!”) If Trump dick pics (or worse) emerge, I pledge to you all not to publish them here.
Open thread!
March for Our Lives: Reader Photos (Open Thread)
Like a sunrise after a long night, yesterday’s march gave me renewed strength for the fight ahead. I’ll keep in it my heart even as Stormy Daniels blows the media away or whatever kookery Trump gets up to resets the news cycle.
Judging from the vitriol aimed at the high school shooting survivors on Twitter and other dank corners of social media, the gun-humpers are running scared. I hate that the kids are being harassed and disparaged by the type of scumbags who would threaten or mock traumatized children, but the desperation of the harassers is a good sign.
The sunrise photo above was taken by valued commenter Schlemazel in Minnesota prior to the local march. There are tons of photos below the fold — more from Schlemazel, plus photos from PaulW in Lakeland, FL; Humboldt in Humboldt Co., CA; Central Planning in Rochester, NY; Hellbastard in Moscow, ID; and Arrieve in NYC. Enjoy!
March for Our Lives: Reader Photos (Open Thread)Post + Comments (74)
The Apocapeachment Will Be Televised!
Earlier this year, we cut the cable cord. My husband is thrifty (cheap!), and as we considered streaming TV options, he pushed for an inexpensive Sling TV package that includes CNN but not MSNBC. I agreed, figuring I could get my Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid fix online and watch CNN on TV for breaking news, even though CNN kinda sucks since it lards its panels with raving wingnut assholes in a futile attempt to avoid “fake news” and “liberal media” criticisms.
We don’t watch that much live TV anyway, so this arrangement worked — until yesterday. It was a big news day, and we were watching CNN’s coverage of the Bolton prepocalypse. Then, right in the middle of that, CNN aired an hour of Anderson Cooper interviewing a woman who is so goddamned dumb that she admits she slept with Donald Fucking Trump for FREE! An hour of this moron! On the day the demagogue in the White House appointed a noted Reichstag arsonist as nat-sec adviser!
After enduring half an hour of that agony — which was akin to listening to a punctured blow-up girlfriend lose air in response to vapid questions — I grabbed my phone and upgraded our Sling package to include MSNBC. It’s several extra bucks a month, but, as I told the mister, if we’re going to blunder into additional wars of choice (maybe with nukes this time!) and/or (please FSM) have an opportunity to view impeachment proceedings, I’ll be damned if I’m going to look at Jason Miller’s hideous ass-face during those momentous events.
At precisely 8:59 p.m. Eastern time, our package upgrade completed, and I switched to MSNBC just in time to see Maddow start her broadcast in front of a massive wall with all the names of departed Trump administration villains. Good Christ, how I’d missed her! I know we bitch about MSNBC around here a lot, but friends, it took going cold turkey for a few months to make me realize the value of that network. In our household, at least, the apocapeachment will be televised!
Open thread!
Thursday Afternoon Open Thread
Saw this pretty and skittish little palm warbler during my travels this past weekend:
A few minutes ago, my dog was barking her head off. I didn’t pay any attention to it at first. She’s the classic “boxer who cried woof” — she barks at molecules, squirrels, falling leaves, UPS delivery people, etc.
But this time, she had good reason: A marauding rottweiler had chased someone’s cat into my yard and cornered it. Luckily, before I was required to risk being maimed to save the cat, the rottweiler’s owners arrived with a leash and hauled it off. Whew!
I know we’ve got some gear-heads here, so, a question: My daughter’s roommate blew up her (my daughter’s) car by driving it overheated. The car is fairly recent vintage (2014) and was reliable until this incident (bad thermostat that was ignored until knucklehead blew the head gasket by driving it hot).
Is it worth rebuilding the engine, which would cost about $3K? Or would she be better off buying a crappy old beater for $3K? Those are the only choices at the moment. Any expert input would be greatly appreciated!
Steel Cage Breath Match (Open Thread)
So, Joe Biden was in Miami yesterday, speaking at an event to raise awareness about sexual assault on campus, and he said High School Joe Biden would have whipped High School Donald Trump’s ass for disrespecting women. Here’s the quote, via NBC Channel 2:
Former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday told an audience at the University of Miami that he would have “beat the hell out” of President Trump in high school for comments he has made about women.
“A guy who ended up becoming our national leader said, ‘I can grab a woman anywhere and she likes it,'” Biden said, according to ABC News. “They asked me if I’d like to debate this gentleman, and I said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘If we were in high school, I’d take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him.'”
“I’ve been in a lot of locker rooms my whole life. I’m a pretty damn good athlete.”
He added, “Any guy that talked that way was usually the fattest, ugliest S.O.B. in the room.”
I like Biden, but I wish he hadn’t gone there.
This morning, Trump responded to Biden’s remarks via Twitter in exactly the manner you’d expect:
Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault. He doesn’t know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way. Don’t threaten people Joe!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 22, 2018
Maybe Anti-Cyberbullying Czar Melania Trump can weigh in here?
There’s no equivalence between Trump and Biden on women. Biden has his flaws and has made serious mistakes (Anita Hill), but his heart is generally in the right place. He’s just a few years older than my dad, who also has old-fashioned views on chivalry: “Don’t bother reporting a sexual harasser to HR, honey — tell me, and I’ll beat the living shit out of him.”
Trump is a sociopathic pig who sees women as objects to be used and controlled, which is infinitely worse. But there’s an objectification and lack of agency in the Biden and Dad-style impulse to protect women too. That’s part of the problem.
Alyssa Rosenberg at The Post wrote a column that outlines why Biden’s remarks were unhelpful. I recommend the whole thing, but here’s the concluding paragraph:
There’s no question that Trump’s policies and nasty, sexist behavior can do real damage to women. But the best way to fight Trump isn’t for Biden to remind us how tough he was in high school. It’s for the former vice president, and everyone else, to get behind the women who are standing up to Trump.
Yeah, what she said.