Here’s a fresh thread to discuss the proceedings, or even other topics. Will the Big Dog bring it tonight?
[Illustration stolen from Wonkette]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.
Dems in Array*
For me, watching the first night of the Democratic National Convention in some ways mirrored the experience of participating on beloved yet flawed internet hangouts, including this here blog: There were some incredibly thoughtful, fun and inspiring discussions and a handful of asshole trolls trying to ruin everything.
Iâm still pissed off about the classless jackholes who chanted during Elijah Cummingsâ speech. At times I wished the adjacent delegates had risen up against the jerkwads who heckled Elizabeth Warren, rolled them up in the handiest carpet and bounced them down the venue steps and out into traffic. I briefly wished I were in charge of floor security so I could disperse archers throughout the venue with plunger-tipped arrows ready to silence anyone cretinous enough to interrupt Michelle Obamaâs amazing speech.
But one reason weâre so lucky to have a woman like FLOTUS in public life is that she inspires us to be better people. âWhen they go low, we go high.â Words to live by, and if she and her family can endure the abuse of hateful gasbags like Trump with poise and grace — creating in the process a contrast that shows just how small their detractors are — surely our party can put up with a handful of sanctimonious twits for a few more nights and show the nation by contrast what grace, fortitude and leadership look like.
*Shamelessly stolen from this tweet featured in the morning thread.
Democratic National Convention Livestream
Report so far: Some people are being dicks; others aren’t. Open thread!
Democratic National Convention LivestreamPost + Comments (257)
Bernie Heckled by His Own Delegates
Well, as you’ve probably heard, this happened earlier today:
.@BernieSanders booed telling supporters to help elect Clinton: "This is the real world that we live in." https://t.co/8jV2wUWtiK
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 25, 2016
My first thought was something along the lines of sowing and reaping — if you sit back and bask in your supporters’ adulation for you and antipathy toward your opponent for long enough, if you indulge fantasies that can’t come true, it’s not possible to flip the crowd’s sentiments like a switch, and they may not believe you when you tell them that we don’t, in fact, live in that fantasy world.
So far, at least, hate is trumping the ever-loving fuck outta love at the convention. But Sanders gets some sympathy from an unexpected source:
I don’t take much comfort from the fact that the 1992 convention featured Jerry Brown boo-birds and that Bill Clinton went on to win anyway. Am I wrong in thinking today’s media is an order of magnitude worse than it was back then? That they’ll use the discord to mainstream the Republican freak show in a way they wouldn’t have attempted 25 years ago?
But Giordano knows a lot more about that topic than I do, so maybe he’s right. I hope so. Anyhoo, should be interesting!
Monday Mid-Day Open Thread
Did you see the movie “Boyhood,” starring Ethan Hawke and one of the lesser Arquettes, among others? I thought it was just okay. But there was one piece of dialogue in it that I really loved and haven’t forgotten — it was centered around the boy (Mason) asking his dad about magic:
Mason: Dad, there’s no real magic in the world, right?
Dad: What do you mean?
Mason: You know, like elves and stuff. People just made that up.
Dad: Oh, I don’t know. I mean, what makes you think that elves are any more magical than something like a whale? You know what I mean? What if I told you a story about how underneath the ocean, there was this giant sea mammal that used sonar and sang songs and it was so big that its heart was the size of a car and you could crawl through the arteries? I mean, you’d think that was pretty magical, right?
Well, here’s another real thing that’s magical — Honduran white bats:
They have white fur, pointy lemon-colored ears and noses, and they live in tents they fashion out of living plants. How cool is that?
Open thread!
Late Night Pie Fight (Open Thread)
Attracted by the agonized squeals emanating from “Even the Liberal” thread below, I began reading the comments and learned that Hillary Clinton had turned around and hired the ousted Debbie Wasserman Schultz!
“OMFG,” I thought. “You are so goddamned gangsta with an ‘A,’ Hillary Clinton, to deflate the dingy cargo pants of so many bros who were positively tumescent with glee at having slain Historyâs Greatest Monster on the eve of the Democratic Party convention!”
So what position was DWS hired for, I wondered — from what lofty perch will she continue her evil machinations? Senior Stamper-Outer of People-Powered Revolutions? Earnest Moppet Dream-Crushing Consultant? Patchouli-Repellent Developer? Chief Unicorn Slayer?
I looked for tidings of DWS’s next act at the usual political news outlets but found nothing except a statement from the Clinton camp saying DWS is now Clinton’s “honorary chair” for a 50-state GOTV program and will continue to act as a surrogate in Florida. Seriously, that’s it?
Congrats, Berniacs who are bellowing like ruptured cows over this face-saving sop to a long-time party hack: You are now officially dumber than the PUMAs of aught-eight.
Sunday Afternoon Open Thread
Here’s a statue of former Tampa Mayor Nick Nuccio with his trademark cigar and fedora:
One unique thing about Tampa — or Ybor City, anyway — is that you can still smoke cigars if you’re so inclined without becoming a pariah. Not everywhere, of course, but in plenty of places, and it’s socially acceptable to walk down the sidewalk puffing on a big stogie.
It’s another scorcher of a day, but with any luck, it’ll rain sideways this afternoon and cool things off (for half an hour). Open thread!