Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
I'm proud to be a Joe Biden Democrat. pic.twitter.com/EudcQ4kiqm
— The Biden Accomplishments Guy (on Threads) (@What46HasDone) July 25, 2023
When firms like Morgan Stanley are praising a Democrat’s handling of the economy, things must REALLY be going well! #Bidenomics pic.twitter.com/emXM8llMgE
— Nick Knudsen ???? (@NickKnudsenUS) July 24, 2023
Tuesday Morning Open Thread: The Economy, Still Bangin’Post + Comments (279)
Elon has been obsessed with calling everything "X," Space X, Model X, X AE A-12, now just X, ever since the rest of the PayPal owners told him it was a stupid name. He's going to erase a globally recognized, culturally impactful brand because he was told "No" 25yrs ago.
Moron. https://t.co/V8ux1eHKvq
— Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek) July 23, 2023
Found a dead Twitter on the street. pic.twitter.com/H7BjhFGFeA
— Jason Hazeley (@JasonHazeley) July 12, 2023
It’s all pretty shoddy, but on the other hand, tickets are cheep, you don’t have to put on (or take off) your pants to participate, and the shows run 24/7…
Just spoke to @mattdorsey, the SF Supervisor in the area, who happened to be near the building at lunch. He said he witnessed several self-driving cars become confused by the crane, which was in the street.
"It was very 2023," he said. https://t.co/HdTczCW6O5
— Ryan Mac 🙃 (@RMac18) July 24, 2023
Monday Evening Open Thread: Speaking of Blockbuster Summer Entertainment…Post + Comments (132)
(Image by NEIVANMADE)
Quick housekeeping note: I’m going to cover a bit of what is going on in Israel at the end of this post. The Bottom Line Up Front from a nat-sec is that imagine if the majority of JSOC, the US Navy, US Marine Corps, and US Army Aviators all resigned effective immediately and significant portions of the Intelligence Community, both ops and analysis, were threatening to do so as well. Right now Israel couldn’t deter a girl scout troupe. While I hope it does not happen, I expect Iran to attack sooner rather than later.
Russia continues to bombard civilian targets in Odesa. Including the granaries and food warehouses.
russian terrorists continue their war on grain. Last night, they attacked the grain infrastructure on the Danube River with Shaheds. Three drones were shot down by air defense. Unfortunately, as a result of the attack, six people were injured and a grain hangar and cargo storage… pic.twitter.com/TY7S0IOvtq
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) July 24, 2023
russian terrorists continue their war on grain. Last night, they attacked the grain infrastructure on the Danube River with Shaheds. Three drones were shot down by air defense. Unfortunately, as a result of the attack, six people were injured and a grain hangar and cargo storage tanks were destroyed.
The solution to this problem is actually quite simple: a couple of well placed Patriot batteries.
The simple math of war. The issue of protecting the key grain export port of Reni on the border with Romania (NATO) is one additional Patriot or SAMP/T system that will immediately go into operation, as the Ukrainian military knows how to work with these systems. The issue of…
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) July 24, 2023
The simple math of war. The issue of protecting the key grain export port of Reni on the border with Romania (NATO) is one additional Patriot or SAMP/T system that will immediately go into operation, as the Ukrainian military knows how to work with these systems. The issue of protecting the historic center of Odesa and the Black Sea ports, which are strategically important for the Global South, is virtually the same. The value to global markets of losing these ports is thousands of times greater than the cost of just two missile defense systems. Conclusions? They are obvious.
Of course the issue here is getting the US or one of our allies to send a couple of more Patriot batteries and the ammo for them into theater ASAP.
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
We’re getting a lot of rain here today, which is good. The river is so low it’s a pain in the ass to get the boat out of the lagoon. But the exposed banks seem to bring more feathered visitors, like this Roseate Spoonbill I saw just now:
Over the weekend, we also had a couple of Black-Bellied Whistling Duck visitors:
We generally call them BBWDs for short.
Open thread!
As I’ve noted in this space before, I have the keen political instincts of a concussed garden snail. So when I read about Repubs doing something that seems stupidly self-destructive on its face, my second impulse (after “haha, please proceed, morons!”) is to wonder if it’s a double-reverse trap or if maybe there’s an angle my lib blinders prevent me from seeing.
But with the Dobbs backlash manifesting even in red states and the meatball-face of anti-woke floundering even among Repub primary voters, it looks like the House GOP is going to double-down on the full feral agenda, with an extra shot of mean-spiritedness. They’re tacking unpopular austerity cuts, anti-woman, anti-LGBTQ, etc., riders to House spending bills, perhaps setting the stage for a government shutdown later this year led by Freedom Caucus loons. From Politico:
Even the GOP’s two less-divisive funding bills coming to the floor this week have proven difficult for many House Republicans to swallow. Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.), for example, said he’s opposed to the fiscal 2024 funding bill for the Department of Agriculture and FDA because it would nix mail-order access to medication abortion and cut federal nutrition programs.
Teeing up partisan spending bills this summer will also challenge nearly every House Republican to vote for controversial social policies like denying abortion access to veterans, stripping funding from organizations that serve LGBTQ people and barring young immigrants who were brought to the United States as children from filling federal government jobs.
Another hill McCarthy and the House GOP may die on: a pointless vote to “expunge” Trump’s two impeachments, which almost certainly isn’t a thing that is even possible; it’s on his Permanent Record!™️ And even if it were possible, the attempt might embarrassingly fail to gather enough votes if it’s brought forward anyway. Pelosi commented about it on one of the Sunday shows (via Rolling Stone):
“Kevin is, you know, playing politics. It’s not even clear if he constitutionally can expunge those things. If he wants to put his members on the spot, his members in difficult races on the spot, that’s a decision he has to make… As I have said before, Donald Trump is the puppeteer, and what does he do all the time but shine the light on the strings. These people look pathetic.”
I think the puppeteer action in this scenario is more a hand-up-the-ass than strings-from-above, but apart from that quibble, Pelosi is right — Repubs do look pathetic, and no one more so than McCarthy.
Meanwhile, Politico claims the spirit of bipartisanship is stronger in the Senate than it has been in recent memory as the 100 Club watches the clown show in the House. Jon Tester was blunt about it:
“Hopefully we can avoid a government shutdown and all the craziness that those crazy bastards are going to do over there,” Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who oversees defense funding in the upper chamber, said of House Republicans.
I’ve learned to never say never. Maybe doubling down on all the unpopular things and showcasing the most feral party members going into an election year will redound to the party’s benefit. Or not. Looks like we’re gonna find out.
Open thread!
It was just last Sunday that we put out the call to see what we could do to help Ozark’s family, and you guys rose to the occasion, as always!
I received these two lovely notes today, one from OzarkHillbilly and another from Renee.
I will let them speak for themselves – I wanted to share them with all of you.
From OzarkHillbilly:
A week ago I said I was humbled at the response Renee’s fundraiser garnered. I could never have dreamed of such a response. I remain humbled to my core. I want to say that this place and it’s inhabitants are truly special. For that I want to say that I owe a special debt of gratitude to John Cole. Without him this place could never have been. It is thru his efforts and growth as a human, thru his constant work on our behalf and his inestimable patience with this pack of jackals that Balloon Juice has grown into the community it is.
I also want to give a tip of the hat to WaterGirl. She made it happen. Anticipated every possible problem, guided Renee and I thru it all, making sure that everything went off without a hitch. It was a lot of work for her and she gladly did it because she has a heart of gold and the patience of a saint. Over the course of her ordeal she and I exchanged a total of 71 emails and probably 8 or 10 phone calls and she never once called me an idiot Luddite. Which if she had I could hardly have disputed it. With all that she still displays her deep and sunny goodwill.
To all the jackals who contributed funds to a woman you have never met going thru what has to be one of the most difficult things any person can go thru, words alone are insufficient. I said above that I could never have dreamed of such a response and that is true, but that being said, I am not in the least surprised. Over the years I have seen dozens of these fundraisers, for abandoned old dogs to artists facing crushing medical debts and you people always come thru.
Because you care.
To the 4 who gave $1,000 each and the 2 who gave $500, words fail. Literally. I hope my acknowledgement of your above and beyond the call generosity conveys in some small way my feelings, even tho I know it can’t.
For me, for Renee, and especially for my brother Dave, I thank you all.
Yer ever lovin’ OzarkHillbilly,
tom
And this lovely note from Renee:
“It is so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone”
-John Steinbeck
I wanted to reach out and extend my gratitude to each and everyone who donated to help me and our family out. It goes without saying David’s death was a traumatic blow to all of us.
When Tom mentioned WaterGirl wanted to extend the offer for the group to raise money to help us out and as I read the letter tears came to my eyes.
When the donations started coming in it was amazing the outpouring care and unselfishness of such wonderful people. People whom we have never met with such big hearts.
Donations of all amounts poured in and have been our lifeline to keep the lights on, the house cool for me, the family, friends and visitors coming by. Paying for groceries, making the house payment which enabled me to stay in my house and also helping in David’s cremation and planning his celebration of life.
Once again I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Please always remember someone out there loves you, cares about you, and is listening. You just have to reach out and let them in.
With Warm Regards
Renee
Open thread.
Family Is Family – Notes From OzarkHillbilly and ReneePost + Comments (32)
(Image by NEIVANMADE)
From sundown Wednesday 26 July through sundown Thursday 27 July, Jews will observe Tishs B’Av, which commemorates the destructions of the first and second temples.*
Destroyed twice – by Stalin and Putin – the Odesa Transfiguration Cathedral was built between 1794 and 1808. It was blown up by the Bolsheviks in 1936 and rebuilt after Ukraine regained independence (1996–2006).
On the night of July 22–23, 2023, it was hit by a russian missile.… pic.twitter.com/vCwDhANoR1— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) July 23, 2023
Destroyed twice – by Stalin and Putin – the Odesa Transfiguration Cathedral was built between 1794 and 1808. It was blown up by the Bolsheviks in 1936 and rebuilt after Ukraine regained independence (1996–2006).
On the night of July 22–23, 2023, it was hit by a russian missile.
📷 Konstantin Brizhnichenko, Roman Savitskyi, @Liberov
Odesa’s main Orthodox cathedral. Established in 1794, destroyed by Stalin in 1936, rebuilt under an independent Ukraine and destroyed again by Putin in 2023. One of several historical parts of central Odesa, a UNESCO world heritage site, hit by Russian missiles strikes today. pic.twitter.com/X9BvICUbQ4
— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) July 22, 2023
At night Russians launched another missile attack on Odessa. During the attack the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral in Odessa was severely damaged. https://t.co/HZMlvGkIuP pic.twitter.com/iPMjHFa0KS
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) July 23, 2023
History never repeats, but sometimes it rhymes.
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
War for Ukraine Day 515: Russia Bombards Odesa’s Civilian Targets AgainPost + Comments (87)
