Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“But what about the lurkers?”

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Keep the Immigrants and deport the fascists!

Optimism opens the door to great things.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

Too little, too late, ftfnyt. fuck all the way off.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

This fight is for everything.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

You are here: Home / Archives for WaterGirl

Two Balloon Juice Items This Week for Your Calendar (Open Thread)

by | 36 Comments

This post is in: 

Open Thread!

Just a quick reminder about two Balloon Juice events this week.

Just skip to the comments if you’re not interested in either event!

On Wednesday at 8 pm, we have the second part of Tom Levenson’s discussion of So Very Small.

ZOOM
starts 8pm Eastern Time  (90 minutes)
Same zoom link as last week

if you didn’t RSVP the first time around, it’s not too late!  Send email to WaterGirl

On Thursday, at 5 pm, we have a Q & A with Zee, the founder of National Ground Game / Unfuck America 

THIS IS A POST – OLD-FASHIONED STYLE
starts at 5pm Eastern Time  (we have her for 60 minutes!)

Ask her anything!

  • TheUnfuck America tour.
  • The current state of theTurning Point USA / Nick Fuentes / Unfuck America fight for the youth of this county.
  • What their goals are, what they are trying to accomplish.
  • What the campus events are like.
  • The influencers they have on board for the events.
  • What their plans are for between now and November
  • Any questions you have, ask them!

Open thread!

Two Balloon Juice Items This Week for Your Calendar (Open Thread)Post + Comments (36)

Another Thing We Need to Change As Soon As We Get the Reins Back

by | 96 Comments

This post is in: , ,

The United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit (LIVE AUDIO)

I was appalled when I read this.

Judges Fired After Blocking Deportations of Pro-Palestinian Students

The immigration judges’ abrupt dismissals marked the latest efforts by the Trump administration to reshape the country’s immigration courts.

The Trump administration has fired two immigration judges who dismissed high-profile deportation cases against international students who had advocated for Palestinians.

The firings of the judges, Roopal Patel and Nina Froes, marked the latest efforts by the Trump administration to reshape the country’s immigration courts.

The administration has dismissed dozens of immigration judges and, according to those on the bench, has put judges under pressure to deny asylum claims and order deportations. Unlike federal judges in the independent judicial branch, immigration judges work for the Justice Department and are hired and fired by the attorney general.

The two judges, who were terminated alongside four colleagues on Friday, oversaw two high-profile cases filed by the government against the students, Rumeysa Ozturk and Mohsen Mahdawi.

If I ever knew that immigration judges are hired and fired by the A.G., I had forgotten it.  Maybe that wasn’t a problem in administrations that believe in the rule of law, but it sure as hell is a problem now.  I think this is one of the first things that needs to be changed.

The nation’s immigration courts are little known to the general public but have tremendous power. They are often the final stop before a person can be lawfully removed from the United States.

Before Mr. Trump returned to office, it was rare for immigration judges to be fired. His administration has so far dismissed more than 100 of them. In addition to the firings, the administration has hired more than 140 permanent and temporary judges seen as more aligned with Mr. Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign.

Both Ms. Patel and Ms. Froes fit the profile of many judges who have lost their jobs during the second Trump administration: They had been appointed by a Democrat and previously represented immigrants in court.

They also granted asylum at higher rates than other judges. Under Mr. Trump, Ms. Patel granted asylum in 41.5 percent of cases, while Ms. Froes granted asylum in 33 percent of cases, compared with 18 percent for judges overall, according to a New York Times analysis of immigration court data.

Another immigration judge was literally fired by email while she in the middle of an asylum hearing!

Thoughts on that and other things that need to be changed, pronto?   Can we make a list?

 

 

Another Thing We Need to Change As Soon As We Get the Reins BackPost + Comments (96)

On The Road – dmkingto – SF Legion of Honor – Manet & Morisot Exhibition

by | 16 Comments

This post is in: ,

dmkingto

Inspired by Tom Levenson’s Respite: Reading AND Looking As Resistance post from 2/3/26, I decided to renew my long-expired membership in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (the de Young and the Legion of Honor). So during the next to last week of the exhibition, I went to see the Manet & Morisot exhibit at the Legion of Honor. It’s a wonderful exhibit, and if you’re in the Cleveland area I highly recommend checking it out – it runs from 3/29 to 7/5 at the Cleveland Museum of Art. I also recommend the audio tour.

PS – Speaking of inspiration, I have more time to wander around and travel these days, so i’m open to to “assignments” from the Balloon-Juice commentariat. If there are things you’d like to see around the SF Bay Area or road-trippable from there let me know. I go to SoCal fairly often, but haven’t been out to Joshua Tree or Anza Borrega in years. If I can get around to planning it I may throw in a road trip through the Southwest this spring (if not, it will have to wait until fall – I’m less heat tolerant than I used to be, so summer is out).

PPS – I retain the right to accept or refuse any assignments – or modify them to my own desires.

PPPS – I’m also a world-class procrastinator, so completion dates will be highly variable!

On The Road – dmkingto – SF Legion of Honor – Manet & Morisot ExhibitionPost + Comments (16)

On The Road - dmkingto - SF Legion of Honor - Manet & Morisot Exhibition 9
San Francisco, CAFebruary 20, 2026

The front of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, located in Lincoln Park in the northwest corner of San Francisco. (Sort of – there isn’t really a defined northwest corner of the city. If you look at a map of the SF peninsula, it looks like a bite was taken out of the northwest portion.) The fountain and plaza in front of it is the western terminus of the Lincoln Highway – one of the first transcontinental highways in the U.S.

So Long, Farewell, What a Fall from Grace (Open Thread)

by | 147 Comments

This post is in: ,

Interesting day when it’s not clear whether the Fall from Grace headline is in reference to Eric Swalwell or Donald Trump.

Swallwell

One minute he’s the front-runner, the next he’s pausing his campaign, the next he resigns from Congress.

Who among us would want to face an expulsion vote you know you are going to lose?

Facing expulsion vote, Swalwell resigns from Congress.

Trump

One minute he’s Jesus, healing the sick, the next minute he’s a blowhard pretending he thought he was a doctor, doing the same.

Loving the headlines!

Trump post appearing to depict him as Jesus removed amid backlash

Staunch Trump Supporters Are Now Asking if He’s the Antichrist

Trump deletes post with AI image of himself as Christ-like figure after outcry

Jesus Trump Deletes Pic Of Himself Healing Sick Because MAGA Is No Fun Anymore

Trump Takes Down Post Depicting Himself as a Jesus-Like Figure

Let’s see if you guys can guess which site each headline belongs to.  I’m thinking the average person here can get 3 out of 5 correctly on the first guess.

*Balloon Juice, where everyone is above average!

Bonus question

You are the spouse of the person who has a famous spouse who is facing public disgrace.

You are the spouse of a famous person who is facing public disgrace:

  • A. credible accusations of rape from multiple people
  • B. caught in a stall in a rubber wetsuit
  • C. thought a picture of himself as Jesus was really himself as a doctor
  • D. you are conservative and are already seen as a disgrace yourself, then your spouse outed as dressing up and behaving in ways you have condemned for a lifetime

Do you dutifully stand at the podium and publicly stand by your man?

So Long, Farewell, What a Fall from Grace (Open Thread)Post + Comments (147)

Fighting for the Youth Vote – Nick Fuentes, Turning Point USA, and National Ground Game

by | 167 Comments

This post is in: 

A fledgling Democratic group and the far-right white nationalist Nick Fuentes seek to make gains on college campuses that have recently been dominated by Turning Point USA.

In what will be the first election cycle since Mr. Kirk’s assassination last September, and with President Trump’s support among young voters rapidly eroding, the fight for the country’s youth pits three forces against one another. Turning Point USA remains formidable but is struggling to maintain its influence; Nicholas J. Fuentes, the 27-year-old white nationalist, is urging his followers to either stay home in November or vote for Democrats, in hopes that the Mr. Trump’s MAGA coalition will collapse and potentially give way to a more extremist Republican Party; and National Ground Game is seeking to replicate Turning Point on college campuses but has its work cut out for it.

The political climate for winning back Mr. Trump’s share of the youth electorate would seem to favor Democrats. Polls indicate that the president is losing support among young voters who helped him capture the swing states of Arizona and Wisconsin in 2024. A national survey conducted by The Economist and YouGov in February, roughly three weeks before the start of the Iran war, concluded that Mr. Trump’s approval rating among voters ages 18 to 29 was 25 percent, half of what it had been a year earlier.

National Ground Game is seeking to exploit those vulnerabilities even as polls show that voters give Democrats in Congress record-low approval ratings. The group is still finding its way, and its visit to Arizona State in Tempe, the first in a monthlong swing through college campuses, did not go as planned. But Turning Point and Mr. Fuentes have plenty of challenges of their own.

I admit to being kind of shocked to see such an even-handed article come out of the NYT – the author really explained in depth what is going on right now and why this is so important.

If you want to get a sense of what’s going on with the youth vote, I hope you’ll read the article.  (gift link)

“They lost Charlie and they’re looking for someone new.  And it’s not Erika.”

It’s a 3-way fight for the youth vote.  Who do you want to win?

Nick Fuentes?  Erika Kirk and Turning Point USA?   Unfuck America?  (National Ground Game)

Nick Fuentes:   the white nationalist

Turning Point USA:  whose founder called for overturning hate laws and  thinks stoning gay people was a perfect law

National Ground Game:  democrats providing an alternate path for young people

What do you guys think?  Is the youth vote worth fighting for?

The campus event we are funding in North Carolina is coming up on 4/23.

We have an Angel match for up to $50 per person, for a total of $250.  Just $75 left on the angel match!

Fighting for the Youth Vote – Nick Fuentes, Turning Point USA, and National Ground GamePost + Comments (167)

On The Road – Albatrossity – Vireos!

by | 18 Comments

This post is in: ,

Who knows what awaits us this week, but at least we get to start off on a good note!

On The Road - Albatrossity - Vireos! 10

Albatrossity

Migration has begun here in Flyover Country, and probably where you live, except perhaps for Florida, where it is almost over. So I am planning a series organized around the theme of spring migrants, and we’ll start with the vireos, which are due here any day now. Current taxonomic schemes have 34 species assigned to the genus Vireo; about half of those can be found in the USA, and the rest can be seen in Mexico and Central America. If you remember your Latin, you know that “vireo” means “I am green”, and indeed many of them are, which makes them difficult to spot in leafy trees or shrubs. Thankfully, nearly all of them are incessant songsters, and their tunes add a lot of joy to a walk in the woods or on the prairies in May. I happen to have decent photos of ten of these, which is precisely the number needed to fill out an OTR post!

And I would be remiss if I failed to note that “vireo” is an excellent starting word for the Wordle game.

On The Road – Albatrossity – Vireos!Post + Comments (18)

On The Road - Albatrossity - Vireos! 9
Near Manhattan KSSeptember 7, 2017

Bell’s Vireo (Vireo bellii) is a small inconspicuous bird with an unmistakable song (turn your sound up for this one). They are abundant in shrubby patches of dogwood or sumac on our local prairies, and their cheerful buzzy wind-up toy song is a favorite of mine. Click here for larger image.

Medium Cool – National Poetry Month

by | 57 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in. We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered. We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Did you know that it’s National Poetry Month?

Well, it is, so tonight let’s talk poetry!

Poetry month even has its own poster!

I’ll bet you don’t know that April 30 is Poem In Your Pocket Day this year?  Check it out if poetry floats your boat.

Oh, growing up at my house, we did have to memorize one poem:

The Goops they lick their fingers,
The Goops they lick their knives.
They spill their soup on the tablecloth,
Oh, they lead disgusting lives!

They talk while eating,
And loud and fast they chew,
And that is why I’m glad that
I am not a Goop–
Are you?

Any violation of manners at the dinner table was met with a recitation of that poem.

📚 🎶

I am really not much of a poetry person, though the occasional poem will really grab me.  But most of my favorite musical artists are surely poets; that’s apparently as close as I get to having the poetry gene, but who can really complain about poetry set to music?

So poems as well as music/poetry are both totally fair game for this post!

 

In case you are new to Medium Cool, these are not open threads.

Medium Cool – National Poetry MonthPost + Comments (57)