This seems appropriate:
We’re grilling out and putting together fabulous side dishes from the bounty of the mister’s garden this evening, which is warmish (mid-80s). You?
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.
by Betty Cracker| 114 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Open Threads
This seems appropriate:
We’re grilling out and putting together fabulous side dishes from the bounty of the mister’s garden this evening, which is warmish (mid-80s). You?
by Betty Cracker| 277 Comments
This post is in: Election 2010, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Television, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It, Assholes, General Stupidity
Absurd “potty prefect” laws, eroded reproductive rights, increased voter suppression, etc. — Samantha Bee explains yet again why it’s not enough to elect good presidents:
In last night’s show, Bee also did an exposé (emceed by Patton Oswalt as Alfred Hitchcock!) on crisis pregnancy centers, the anti-choice propaganda outlets that masquerade as abortion clinics, luring young women in so religious nutjob charlatans can dispense heaping helpings phony statistics and guilt — at taxpayer expense in Georgia.
If you’re dialed into politics enough to hang out at this blog, chances are you vote in every single election. But as you lean on your more loosely affiliated friends, relatives and neighbors to get their asses to the polls this year to prevent the Trumpocalypse, maybe spare a moment to emphasize the importance of state, local and midterm elections too?
by Betty Cracker| 128 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, General Stupidity
This is where pointy birds come from:
In other news, this creature is still the presumptive Republican Party nominee:
It’s not like we haven’t had time to get used to it. It’s not like the Republican Party hasn’t been venal, corrupt and evil for decades. But it still seems surreal, at least to me.
Open thread!
Pointy Egg, O Pointy, Pointy… (Open Thread)Post + Comments (128)
by Betty Cracker| 154 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Open Threads
Your favorite blog got a shout-out in the “Guy Noir” segment of this week’s “Prairie Home Companion,” which is broadcast on NPR local public radio stations nationwide. (But you knew that, you damned totebagger!)
The reference comes at around the 7:20-ish mark and is made by Brad Paisley, a country music star. The context is a country songwriter complaining about the internet distractions that impede his productivity and reciting a list of apps, sites, etc., with vacuous-sounding names, including your own Balloon Juice. So we’ve got that going for us. Woohoo!
Open thread!
Balloon Juice Shout-Out on Prairie Home Companion (Open Thread)Post + Comments (154)
by Betty Cracker| 195 Comments
This post is in: Election 2016, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Assholes
Well, I was totally wrong about who would win the Republican nomination. Now let’s see how wrong I can be about who Trump will select as VP!
My guess is that Trump will choose FL Attorney General Pam Bondi. He has to win Florida to have a prayer of winning the election, and he has to do something about his abysmal ratings with women, or he’s toast. Bondi is a woman, and Trump is sexist knob enough to believe one vagina cancels out another, just as McCain thought La Palin would lure Hillary supporters.
Bondi was an early Trump endorser. She serves in the administration of Florida Governor Rick Scott, so she clearly doesn’t have any problem working with skeevy con men. She allegedly did Trump a solid by failing to prosecute Trump University for swindling gullible Floridians, and three days later, Trump cut a $25K check to Bondi’s reelection campaign, so they’ve already expressed a grift-affinity.
Before she went full-metal wingnut, Bondi was an assistant state attorney in Hillsborough County (home of Tampa), where she served as a spokeswoman for the office and was a media favorite. She’s good on TV, unlike Rick Scott, who is the worst retail campaigner, public speaker and debater I’ve ever personally seen.
Bondi would add some wingnut cred to the Trump campaign, but not too much. Like Trump, she’s had to straddle the line, appeasing the hardcore wingnut contingent in Florida on the one hand while not pursuing so-con issues so vigorously as to alienate the Club for Growth types. But in general, hardcore wingnuts like her.
It also doesn’t hurt that Bondi looks as if she could have been stamped from the Trump female entourage member mold, i.e., carved out of cream cheese with long blond hair. I’ll be surprised if he chooses someone else.
What say you?
by Betty Cracker| 275 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Here’s a reminder to keep Thor in Thursday:
Open thread!
ETA: Commenter Keith P mentioned this tweet from Trump in comments below. I thought he was joking, but nope, it’s real:
Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics! https://t.co/ufoTeQd8yA pic.twitter.com/k01Mc6CuDI
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2016
Holy mole.
Thursday Afternoon Open Thread (Updated)Post + Comments (275)
by Betty Cracker| 213 Comments
This post is in: Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Stupidity, General Stupidity
In the morning thread, valued commenter Rikyrah highlighted comments President Obama made yesterday in Flint, Michigan (full transcript here):
It doesn’t matter how hard you work, how responsible you are, how you raise your kids. You can’t set up a whole water system for a city. That’s not something you do by yourself. You do it with other people. You can’t hire your own fire department or your own police force, or your own army. They’re things we have to do together. Basic things that we all benefit from.
Volunteers don’t build water systems and keep lead from leaching into our drinking glasses. We can’t rely on faith groups to reinforce bridges and repave runways at the airport. We can’t ask second graders, even ones as patriotic as Isiah Britt, who raised all that money, to raise enough money to keep our kids healthy. You hear a lot about government overreach. Oh, Obama, he’s for big government. Listen, it’s not government overreach to say our government’s responsible for making sure that you can wash your hands in your own sink, or shower in your own home, or cook for your family. These are the most basic services. There’s no more basic element sustaining human life than water. It’s not too much to expect for all Americans that their water is going to be safe.
This is a theme every Democrat should take up and champion, from Hillary Clinton on down to the lowliest city council candidate in Lizarddick, New Mexico. The situation in Flint is a great illustration of this principle — of the disaster that results from putting balance sheet-focused MBAs with no remit other than slashing costs in charge of public assets.
There’s an example in every single community in America of a facility, infrastructure asset or service citizens banded together and built for the public good — something that’s now falling apart because the cheap bastards in the GOP would rather shovel tax cuts to Donald Trump. It’s a disgrace.
I love what Obama said above because it implicitly calls out Reagan’s “government is the problem” bullshit. It wasn’t over-regulation that poisoned Flint’s water. It wasn’t government overreach that dug the pothole that bashed the undercarriage of your car. It isn’t anti-business bureaucrats who make driving over crumbling bridges a life-or-death adventure.
In a widely misunderstood remark he made during the 2008 primaries, then-candidate Obama said he aspired to have a presidency as truly consequential as Reagan’s. I think history will say he has. And he could have no better legacy than inspiring his party to drown Reaganism in a bathtub and embrace the truth that the government is us.
Drowning Reaganism in a Bathtub (Water Courtesy of Flint, MI)Post + Comments (213)