Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

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

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

The world has changed, and neither one recognizes it.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

We still have time to mess this up!

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

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Michael Demmons (Michael D.) wrote for Balloon juice from 2007-17.

Michael D.

My Travel To Iran

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My Canadian passport is currently in the hands of the Iranian Interests Section at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington. I’ve been approved for am Iranian visa, so now I am just waiting for them to glue it in my passport so I can go to Iran on February 24th.

My understanding is that Iran has, or is considering, a ban on U.S. citizens entering Iran. Obviously, legally, this doesn’t affect me as a Canadian. But I am a little worried about what will happen when I come back to the U.S.. I’m afraid that some ignoramus, Trump-supporting border agent will have a problem with me, a green card holder, coming to the U.S. after being in Iran. I’ve been thinking about whether or not the trip is worth the stress.

I certainly won’t put my fears and issues up against the horrible problems being experienced by good people from the many countries that have explicit bans. But this is an issue that extends far beyond the people in the seven countries the ban applies to.

Additionally, my husband, who is Indonesian (and also a green card holder), is currently in Guatemala for an extra long weekend. He is due back Tuesday morning. I’m worried that he will be detained either in Guatemala or when he gets back to the U.S. because he is from a so-called “Muslim country.” We’ve contacted the immigration lawyer I used during my green card process, and she tells us to call her if anything out of the ordinary happens when he comes back.

I wouldn’t normally worry about it, but god only knows what impulsive EO Trump/Bannon could issue in the next three days. I was hoping to spend the weekend painting our condo. I’ll be spending it worrying instead. What a clusterf**k of a weekend.

I’m sure there are a few readers here who are going through issues far more serious than I am because of this stupidity. You have my sympathies. Best of luck.

P.S.: I donated $100 to the ACLU today. My way of helping people I don’t know deal with problems they’re going to experience that I couldn’t possibly fathom. If you can spare it, I’m sure they’re going to have a shit ton of expenses over the next four years – at least. You can donate here.

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Charlotte

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When I first posted here a couple weeks back, some of you remembered that I used to post here a long time ago – 2008 actually. And a couple of you even remembered that I had a dog at the time – a Black Labrador Retriever named Charlotte. Well, I’m happy to report that she still exists and is doing well. Of course, “well” is relative nowadays. In 2008, she was just 6 years old, completely active, and a handful. A couple of weeks ago, she passed the 14.5 year mark.

Like everyone, I’ve gone through some shit. For 14 years, this girl has been with me through it all. She’s been the constant in my life – from a divorce, to dating, to marrying again. I used to always tell people what a wonderful dog she is – especially a friend at work who had to remind me that I wasn’t the only one who loved my dog. Sometimes I think we love our own pets so much that we forget that other people have them and love them just as much!

Charlotte at the vet. She’s not happy. She’s scared shitless.

Of course, she’s the one going through stuff now. At 14+, which is pretty much two-years past the due date for a lot of Labs, she’s experiencing the same things all old dogs and people experience. Mostly mobility issues. There was a time a year back when she would pace the house late at night, panting and seeming distressed. We discovered that she was pretty much deaf and, of course, at night she became deaf and blind. So leaving a light on for her in the living room really helped. She has a bit of arthritis in her front shoulders, but not enough to bother her too much, and easily controlled with pain medication. It’s her back legs I worry about most. They’re giving out, pretty quickly actually. We don’t go for walks anymore, but we do go to the courtyard a couple times a day. I sometimes have to carry her there, but not usually. She just finds the sunniest spot and lays there. We’ve put carpet runners throughout the condo so she doesn’t slip on the hardwood floors. And one sofa cushion is always left off so there’s 4-5 inches less between her and a comfortable place to lay down.

We’ve had to stop traveling together so one of us can stay home and take care of her. My cousin lives in Atlanta and lost his old Lab a couple years ago, and even though he would take her in a heartbeat, we don’t want to put the responsibility on him to make a difficult decision if it comes up. We also don’t want to stress Charlotte out by being in a less familiar home.

It’s been hard for us, but we don’t question it. It just is.

It’s heartbreaking for me to know that this will almost certainly be the year we we have to let our girl go. She’s still completely sharp mentally, but her body just isn’t lasting as long as her brain. I made her a promise when she was little that I would never keep her alive just to make me happy, and I intend to keep that promise, sad as it will be. But for now, I think she’s OK. The vet seems to think so, too. Still, we chatted about the “right time” and I think it’ll be here sooner rather than later. Until that time, I am going to enjoy the hell out of her!

It’s hard to believe she went from this:

Charlotte as a baby

to this:

Charlotte at Lake Lanier in Atlanta this summer

I don’t think I will ever feel the same way about a person as I have about Charlotte. Bet I’m not the only one. Anyway, this was not meant to be a depressing post. I actually feel exceptionally lucky and happy to have had more than 14 years with her. She’s honestly made my life infinitely more full.

Happy Friday!

CharlottePost + Comments (79)

Thoughts About The Politics of Travel

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Hello there. You most likely don’t know me. I’m Michael Demmons and I am a traveler and a travel blogger based in Atlanta, Georgia. I write at a blog called The Round The World Guys. It’s a place where my husband and I talk about our travels and offer tips & tricks about how you can maximize the value you get out of your vacations.

Well, it will be anyway. It’s only a couple months old and doing quite well so far. We just hired a tech-type person to design us a fancy, user-friendly layout that will evolve and get better over time.

A bit about me. I’m in my late 40s and have been traveling to various places around the world now for about 15 years. I’ve been to over 40 countries and don’t intend to stop till I see them all. I’ve been on every continent except Antarctica, which I’ll remedy in 2019. Travel keeps me sane and grounded and makes me realize how lucky I was to be born in where I was. I mostly travel with my husband, but we can’t travel together much right now because we have a 14.5 year old Labrador Retriever who pretty much needs constant attention. That’s old for a Lab, if you didn’t know. Really old.

Why blog here? To be honest, it’s because I asked John if I could check in once in awhile. A travel blogger might not seem to be a good fit for a blog that’s mostly a discussion about politics, but politics is a big factor in travel. While my first interest is travel nowadays, my second interest has always been politics. I don’t get the chance to talk publicly about politics much anymore. I gave up blogging about that years ago. That said, I thought I could offer a perspective on U.S. politics and how it is likely to affect travel both to the U.S. and around the world for Americans and others. So, as those topics come up, I’ll write about them here as they really don’t fit well at our site.

My next trip is in February, when I will be traveling to Iran for a couple weeks. Iran is a great lesson in how politics affects travel. People who travel a lot necessarily learn about the places they’re going. If you listen to the news here or look at the Department of State’s page on Iran, it looks like a festering hellhole that no sane person would ever travel to. But that’s not the reality. Iran is actually one of the safest places in the world for travelers, the people are friendly, and the food is delicious. Sure, there are things you simply can’t do there – like photograph government buildings. But face it, doing that here nowadays can get you a bit of side-eye from the authorities, too.

The politics here in the U.S. also affects travelers from other countries. I am a Canadian, but I live here. U.S. policy is often mirrored by its allies and Canada is no exception. Because of this, as a Canadian, I will be officially treated exactly the same as an American while I am there, meaning the visa process is strict and I need a guide the entire time. That means the cost increases from just a few hundred dollars to a couple thousand.

So that’s the type of thing I will write about here. I expect to maybe write once a month or so. Unless something weird happens and there’s room for more. If there’s anything you ever wanted to know about travel in general or the politics of it, I’d be interested in having that discussion.

In the mean time, Go Falcons!

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Thank You and Goodbye!

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As suggested by the title of this post, this will be my last entry at Balloon-Juice. Before I say anything else, I must thank both John and Tim… I have really enjoyed this – more than you both know. And, for the rest of you, I haven’t mentioned my leaving before now to either John or Tim. I’m just leaving and they are learning with the rest of y’all!

When I started writing here several months ago, I was absolutely honored. I had my own blog at the time, and I was attracting between 1500-2200 readers a day, mostly on gay issues. I think I shut my own blog down about a couple months before I started blogging here. I can’t quite remember which came first – me shutting down Gay Orbit or being invited to post here!

My experience in voicing my opinions has normally been about gay issues. I know a lot about that, and I’ve expressed some very good opinions and rationales over the years, whether it’s on marriage or hate crimes legislation (which, unlike Andrew Sullivan, I completely support). When it comes to general politics, I have a lot to say as well. I just don’t think I am very good at expressing them – at least not good enough to be expressing them on a blog as widely read as Balloon-Juice. Here, we get about 30-40,000 readers a day. John is amazing at snark and putting his thoughts down in a way that is very intesesting. Tim is great at science and technology. I love reading their posts. Tim is especially interesting to me because I always learn something when I read what he writes. I already know I will agree with John. Tim writes shit I don’t even know about!!

However, while my opinions are as strong and as legit as either of theirs, I don’t think I put them “on paper” as well as they do. They are simply better writers and are what you expect from this site.

Now, some of you might think, “Michael’s leaving because he can’t take the heat.” Well, when I first started writing here, I have to admit, I was surprised as the animosity directed towards me – especially when I wrote the post about being a Republican (I do regret that one! I am no longer a Republican!) I learned a lot about having a thick skin from that one thanks to you, and I also learned not to care too much about what some of you thought of me! Having said that….

Let me be clear: I am thankful to each and every one of you for keeping me honest. I have learned SO much from the commentariat here. On my old blog, I could say whatever I wanted and people would just agree or disagree with me. Here, I had to learn to defend my positions – even though I didn’t always do that well. It’s the difference between a couple thousand readers and tens of thousands. It’s taught me to be better about defending my positions – something I am still getting used to.

Even though, as someone noted awhile back, I got the gig at Balloon-Juice because of a joke I made about Larry Craig, I learned a lot here. I really did. Most of all, I learned that you can’t take things personally, even though there are some idiots that want to piss you off and make you feel like an idiot! All personal stuff.

In any case, to all of you who agreed with me, disagreed with me, thought I was an idiot, or simply wanted to keep me honest — thank you so much. My short stint here at Balloon-Juice has made me a better person. It has made me think about issues more clearly before voicing my opinions on them (even if it doesn’t seem like it, it really has.)

My favorite part about this site is not Tim or John – it’s you. I learn so much, and will continue to do so from reading the comments. You are a smart bunch – much more so than me – and much smarter than most center left sites. In fact, I was a staunch defender of the Bush Administration for years. It’s from reading the comments from people like you that I decided I was wrong, and I am so happy that I have the capacity, unlike a lot of people, to see that. You have made me a better person because of that.

This is a terrific site and I am proud to have been a part of it for a short while. I am not leaving because of anything someone said or did. I am leaving because I don’t think I can contribute to the site in the same way that such terrific writers as John and Tim continue to be on a day to day basis.

I appreciate each and every one of you.

Thank you. You all are pretty damned awesome and I learn from all of you every day – whether I agree with you or not!!

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Jesse Jackson, Jr.’s Non-Denial of Misconduct

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First of all, let me disclose that I don’t much like his dad. I don’t know enough about Junior to form an opinion. But if I was going on national TV to address the Blagojevich scandal, I would say something more substantive and definitive than, “I don’t believe we did anything wrong.”

I would say, “I definitely did not do anything wrong. Here’s what you need to know about the contacts I’ve had with Blagojevich. This is exactly what I did, what I said to him, what he said to me, etc., etc.” and give us an exact account of every communication and dealing he’s had with the governor.

Of course, Blagojevich has reportedly identified Jackson as one person who was willing to pay for the seat. While that wouldn’t really surprise me, given the fact that he was brought up by Jesse “Shakedown” Jackson, Sr., I still wouldn’t put much stock in anything Blagojevich says at this point. (EDIT: And, to be honest, Jackson’s demeanor didn’t seem like he was someone who was too worried about anything.)

I won’t link to it, but it’s no surprise that FoxNews is running a picture on its Web site of President-elect Obama and Blagojevich.

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My Dog Says Your Dog is Cute

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My girl, Charlotte, says hi. (Actually, now that I look at this picture, she looks like she is pissed that she is getting her picture taken.)

And this is a picture of our next door neighbor, Sophie, a Golden. Charlotte is a people dog. She does not like other dogs. The only exceptions are this one and a neighbor’s Irish Setter.

I’m on day 10 of quitting smoking, and it sucks. But then, smoking sucks worse, so I will get through it. Went to a Christmas part last night where several people were smoking and managed! Wish me luck. I am sucking on Commit Lozenges like you wouldn’t believe. Fortunately for my wallet, my employer pays for them! I have an awesome employer. I am one of those few people who not only enjoys his job, but also the oppressive corporate overlords he works for!

UPDATE: DAMN!! A lot of you are ex-smokers. I didn’t realize I was in such good company!! Congrats to all of you!!

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