My favorite twit-pic of the day:
Courtesy of @Yogi47951368, via @bluegal.
Sad news: Chuck Berry has died at age 90. That’s a damn good run. Rock on, Chuck.
Open thread.
by Betty Cracker| 126 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, RIP, Trump Crime Cartel
Comments are closed.
[…] Via Balloon Juice. […]
smintheus
Trump’s body language around foreign leaders speaks volumes about how anti-social the small man is.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
dowd is one of those who helped Bush get elected, then spent the Obama years simpering about how divisive our politics have somehow become, right? There are three or four of them I think.
smintheus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Dowd can’t do the maths. Trump got 46.1% of the vote from the people who showed up to vote. National opinion polls aren’t limited to voters in the last election.
J R in WV
So Chuck Berry, well spoken musical genius is gone, but Donald John Trump is still “President”… what did I do to deserve this, Dawg!??
Eric S.
R.I.P. Chuck Berry.
Long live rock n roll!
germy
@Eric S.:
Villago Delenda Est
@smintheus: Seriously. Can you imagine Obama sitting with anyone like that?
This is a petulant child who is inhabiting a 70 year old body.
Villago Delenda Est
@J R in WV: Also, too, Darth Cheney continues to be animated. There ain’t no justice.
germy
Some say Gorka himself showed up in the comments section at LGM:
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2017/03/done-sebastian-v-gorkas-dissertation
germy
@Villago Delenda Est: Fats Domino and Little Richard still live.
smintheus
My favorite Chuck Berry tune is You Never Can Tell.
Baud
@germy: The big shots never come here to argue.
What are we doing right?
germy
@Baud: No nested comments.
smintheus
@Villago Delenda Est: No I can’t, and Obama never struck me as your standard back-slapping pol. Trump however just can’t deal with anyone he can’t manipulate in some way.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: We are too bawdy and uncouth.
Lapassionara
@germy: two of my faves! Good golly, Miss Molly!
greennotGreen
@Baud: What are you talking about? I’m here!
And I want to talk about dogs.
Ruckus
@J R in WV:
I wish I knew what we did.
Had the temerity to vote for a woman for president? Wanted to actually live in a manner responsible to our constitution and laws? Gave a shit about other humans? Actually considered people that don’t look like us to be human? Didn’t listen to fucking faux news and/or think that R Murdoch is a major fucking asshole?
I could go on…….
schrodingers_cat
Finally, I found someone with a worse haircut than my own.
Baud
@germy: They really are evil.
SiubhanDuinne
I simply can’t tell you how very much I want Trump to see that captioned photo. It’s all over the internets and twitters, so he likely will.
”’Tis a thing of sublime beauty.
Baud
@greennotGreen: Dogs > Gorka
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne: I linked to it in an earlier thread. Got no credit tho.
greennotGreen
BTW, I vote that we make this a strictly non-Orange Thing thread. I need a break. I think we all do.
Baud
@greennotGreen: Hard to do given the photo up top.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@SiubhanDuinne: i wouldn’t be surprised if he, on some sugar fueled long dark night of the soulless, has wandered all the way down to these threads to see what’s being said about him
If there’s a sudden wave of IRS audits among BJers, we’ll know why
JMG
Blending two themes on this comments post, it will be of interest to see how Trump reacts to Berry’s death. Even GW Bush would have had some appropriate tribute, platitudinous as it might have been. What will Trump (or his dopey press office) say, tweet, etc.?
Villago Delenda Est
@Baud: Paramecia > Gorka
Villago Delenda Est
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
How can they find the time when they’ve been continuously auditing Donald for the past two decades?
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I heard he doesn’t go lower than the 9999 top sites.
MazeDancer
Living til 90, helping create Rock ‘n Roll, and releasing one’s last album at 89, is definitely a good run.
Every musician of note has been poignantly remembering Chuck Berry on Twitter. What a catalogue of work he had. Father of Rock ‘n Roll feels not overstated.
And that dialogue cartoon of the Leader of the Free World and Trump is brilliant. Read it probably two dozen times. Love it every time.
germy
@JMG: I remember when Reagan released some banal statement after John Lennon was murdered. I don’t remember what it was, but I knew I was in for a shitty decade.
smintheus
@JMG: Trump can’t release anything publicly as long as the IRS is still auditing his tax returns.
greennotGreen
When my nephew was quite little, from the age of two to five, but decreasing slowly after that, he was OBSESSED with dinosaurs. Not so uncommon in little kids, but he was really off the charts about it. One day when he was four we were having a conversation during which he explained to me how he manipulated his parents by how far he stuck out his lower lip. Then out of the blue he said, “I want to talk about dinosaurs.”
Too many times now when the subject of President Circus Peanut comes up, I say to myself, “I want to talk about dinosaurs.”
Baud
@JMG:
“Chuck Berry is someone who has done a terrific job that is being recognized by more and more people.”
Mnemosyne
Fucking Atlanta fucking airport. First I strained my knee so I could get from A to E while still having enough time to pee, and then there was a problem with the plane and we’re still sitting at the gate TWO HOURS LATER.
And since the fucking Delta flight attendants couldn’t be arsed to bring me an ice pack after I asked for one, I am now laying flat on my back at the gate with my foot up on the chairs waiting for the harried gate attendant to call First Aid so I can get a goddamned ice pack.
SD, if it looks like I’m going to be stuck here overnight, I’ll email you. Right now, we’re not supposed to leave the gate area.
Villago Delenda Est
@MazeDancer:
Well, step Father of Rock ‘n Roll. We all know he got the idea from Calvin Klein.
JMG
@Baud: You nailed it! End of possible comment.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@J R in WV:
I used to think it was a terrible thing that life was so unfair. Then I thought, ‘what if life *were* fair, and all of the terrible things that happen to us came because we really deserved them?’ Now I take great comfort in the general unfairness and hostility of the universe.
— Marcus Cole (Babylon 5)
Baud
@greennotGreen: We can talk about Secretary of State T., Rex.
Baud
@Mnemosyne: That sucks. But a slumber party with SD sounds cool.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
Yikes, let me know if you’re going to be here for hours. I’m about 40 miles from the airport but if you desperately need company I will get on MARTA and come down. Would love to meet you but would prefer better circumstances. Do you have my number? Check your email.
Mnemosyne
@Baud:
On the flight from Orlando to Atlanta, I found out that the best dog boarding place is called Camp Mimi. So there’s that.
danielx
And his children are still playing his licks…..
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’m hoping not to be here for much longer, but since it’s a repair to the plane, it’s entirely possible they’ll have to get a new one. If I have to stay overnight, I’ll let you know.
jl
Well, gee, don’t be too hard on Trump, I’ve seen other leaders of major nations act out like that in public meetings. You got W Bush…. and um… and Putin.. and…. and… um…. Ok, that’s not good.
Edit: actually, that is a little unfair to Dub, I think he was actually trying hard to do it right.
greennotGreen
@Certified Mutant Enemy: There’s no question that really shitty things happen to good people…and to bad. But I look at it like this*: If, when we pass from this mortal realm, we go to join the universe in whatever manner that may be, what was that tragedy that befell us in our physical life? In the universe entire galaxies collide, huge meteors may be destroying all life on a distant planet as I type, but on the scale of the infinite, it is a pittance, even less than that. In the universe new stars are born, new life springs up on young planets, and what wonders may be occurring in other dimensions? We are too small to judge whether the universe is fair, cruel, benevolent, or insensate.
*Atheists may ignore this comment, or talk about dogs.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
Do. I’ll hope for the best for you. I’ve spent way too many hours of my life hanging around in airports to be sanguine about it. It’s a huge pain. At any rate, have emailed you my phone and will keep it turned on for another couple of hours. Even if you’re just bored and want to chat for a bit.
Lyrebird
@Villago Delenda Est: SECONDED bc calling him “pond scum” is an insult to pond scum.
If instead ya wanna read a non-fiction book by a Hungarian who lived through hell in WWII and writes about the experience with compassion, read Pogany’s In My Brother’s Image. May we remember him and his brother long, and soon get to forget Gorka.
greennotGreen
@Baud: If only his kind would go extinct!
germy
@danielx:
jl
Last couple of days is where this Trump shit gets scary. Ol’ oilman Rex goes to South Korea and makes what is a de facto major policy announcement that we will actively consider a preemptive attack on North Korea if they continue on current path (sure, that is always ‘on the table’ but to pointedly remind people about that, is a de facto policy announcement). Then he talks like a dope and cuts the trip short. This morning I hear Trump blather on the radio. He thinks Germany is cheating us in some trade deal that doesn’t exist, he doesn’t understand how NATO is financed, and talks like a penny ante extortion bag man about raising our protection fee. Yeesh.
Too many important institutions could get wrecked, Too much stuff wrecked. Too many people could die.
This idiot is president. I don’t know what people can do. I guess keep scaring the crap out of the nearest GOP Congresscrud over 2018 and 2020 elections by contacting them telling them you are gong to personally do something to make sure they are out of their cush job after the next election. Hope they get scared enough to impeach or reign him in.
Edit: And Ol’ Rex blathers about cutting State Dept. funding good news since we won’t need State Dept, since there will be fewer wars, while the US ramps up military spending and threatens war. Fucking idiot doesn’t know what he’s doing.
efgoldman
@SiubhanDuinne:
Would they even allow you into the gate area without a ticket? I haven’t been thru Atlanta in 25+ years, but they don’t at any other airport.
Villago Delenda Est
@germy: I suspect that Chuck knew that “colored boy” would trigger rejection by radio station managers fearful of offending pristine white ears in the late Jim Crow era, and “country boy” would not. The fans just rocked out to the tune, and the lyrics were secondary.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
I don’t know. When I worked for the Canadian Consulate I could usually get a diplomatic waiver, but it was a complicated process. Mnemosyne would probably have to leave the secure area. And I’d have to check the MARTA schedule to make sure I could get back before tomorrow morning. Even if I left right this minute to go to the nearest MARTA station, it would be at least 11:30 before I managed to get to the airport. It’s probably not the best idea, but maybe Mnem can phone me and vent a bit, which would be fine.
ruemara
Filling out job applications for good old government jobs. Just when I thought I was out… on the plus side, if things go as I think they may, with me taking the fall for this project mess, I have a lot of people pledging housing. That warms the cockles.
I also forgot how tiring being a singleton is. I finally went back to my apartment for at least today and between moving my stuff here, the mess my roommate made of the kitchen and trying to fill out these applications, I’m utterly shagged. And I’m almost out of painkillers so, that is also tiring.
Felonius Monk
I first saw Chuck Berry live on Easter Sunday, 1958 at an Alan Freed Rock ‘n Roll show at the Cleveland Public Auditorium with my then girlfriend (later my wife). I remember it well ’cause I smacked up “my” car at 2 AM after I took her home.
R.I.P. Chuck. I’ve loved your music ever since I first heard Maybellene and I still have the original 45.
Mary G
I don’t know if anyone’s posted this yet, but I love Jason Kander. This is his response to one-of-the-few-people-who-deserved-getting-in-the-face Richard Spencer’s love of the song “Tomorrow Belongs to Me”
I think this young man may just have a future in politics.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’m thinking more of bugging you to meet me for breakfast if I get stuck in a strange city overnight.
Jim
My favorite, too.
Mnemosyne
@Mary G:
I didn’t know he was John Kander’s nephew! You know who is BFFs with Kander … ?
hueyplong
Chuck Berry autographed the back of my Social Security card (it was the only non-laminated thing on me when I met him).
Needless to say, I still have it.
danielx
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Three or four? Jayzus mary and joseph, that particular scam is a good-sized industry.
Mnemosyne
Hooray! We’re re-boarding! Hopefully we don’t all die a fiery death because they rushed the repair of the cargo bay!
Baud
@Mnemosyne: Godspeed.
rikyrah
RIP, Mr. Berry ???
90 and in the music business…Go go go
ruemara
@Mary G: That exchange made me laugh.
@Mnemosyne: I’m gonna wish you a safe return flight and a reduction in swelling for your knee.
Iowa Old Lady
@Mnemosyne: That sounds hopeful! Fingers crossed.
debit
@Mnemosyne: My fingers are crossed for you!
Thru the Looking Glass...
Just looked at a picture of chuck playing a Gibson ES-335… not sure I ever saw him playing anything else… I have one… they’re BIG farkin’ guitars… Chuck had yuuuuge hands… he could manhandle that guitar… just like Hendrix…
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
I’ve slept on the floor of the Atlanta airport on several occasions. Best of luck on not having to do that.
Villago Delenda Est
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
(Series of Donald remarks pinging about in my head right now)
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
That I would gladly do.
SFAW
In my later high school years, my buddy and I wore a deep(er) groove in his copy of “Chuck Berry’s Golden Decade.” It was a double album, and a pretty low percentage of “filler” in it.
For some reason, I’ve always been partial to “No Particular Place to Go” (which is not to say I don’t love all his other stuff).
Sorry to see him go.
SFAW
@Mnemosyne:
Safe travels.
Mnemosyne
The gate agent who finally sent someone for ice says she’s going to wheel me to the door. We’ll see. ?
Ruckus
@jl:
First of all QFT.
Second, those seven words are doing a lot more work right now than pretty much any other seven words I can think of.
Another Scott
@smintheus: I noticed how small he seemed when he was in the Oval Office the first time after the election. Sitting there, frown on his face, tapping his fingertips together just as he was with Angela, looking distracted…
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
For your sake, I hope it means you’re boarding and departing soon, even though it may do me out of a breakfast get-together with you! Keep us informed, okay?
Thru the Looking Glass...
@Villago Delenda Est: Understandable…
I do not think Donald can play guitar…
Chuck and Jimi? Yes… Even Michael J. Fox was pretty decent… but Donald?
Not so much…
Baud
@Mnemosyne:
???
raven
@SFAW: You Never Can Tell and Hail Hail are mine.
Iowa Old Lady
@Another Scott: Trump has a resting bitch face.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
That’s not distraction. OK it is for him given his nature, but really it’s gas.
Ruckus
@Iowa Old Lady:
And that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said about him.
efgoldman
@Thru the Looking Glass…:
His… hands… aren’t big enough.
debit
@greennotGreen:
I’ve been looking at the dogs on the Humane Society website and I may head west to Buffalo tomorrow to see this little girl. I’m still feeling very ambivalent about adopting another dog. There are so many that need a home, and I could provide one, but I keep flip flopping on the pros and cons. Ellie has been down and maybe having a new friend will perk her up. But she’ll lose this one too, eventually. Should I get a younger dog? Should I not adopt anyone and concentrate on Ellie for a while? I don’t know.
Ruckus
@raven:
What did the man ever play that wasn’t good/great?
Mike in NC
Picture shows Trump is clearly ready for nap time and the sugar cookie and glass of milk that follow.
Ruckus
@debit:
Ellie seems like a dog that likes company. You seem like a person that likes dogs.
I’d say go for it if you can.
Steve in the ATL
My nym refers to that very airport, but no one calls me. Sad!
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne: Fingers crossed!
Immanentize
@raven: I think my favorite (ugh so hard to pick one) is Havana Moon.
Mnemosyne
I’m back on the plane. We’d better be getting free booze out of this.
Mary G
@debit: I think Walter would cheer you on. But I also think about how hard it must be to get to know and love them and have them such a short time. Poor Kelpie. I wish I could take her.
debit
@Ruckus: Both valid points. I don’t know why I’m waffling.
Villago Delenda Est
@Another Scott: “This is so boring. Did they bring my Playstation off the moving van yet?”
geg6
So I came home from the grocery store today and grabbed the mail on my way into the house. There was a big fat envelope addressed to me from the Federal Court in Pittsburgh. I’ve been called to jury duty. DO NOT WANT. They pay $40 a day and it will cost me almost that much to eat lunch if I have to go in. At least they pay for parking, which will be at least $20 a day in town. Shit.
raven
@Ruckus: Ever seen American Hot Wax?
Omnes Omnibus
@debit: Still grieving.
FlipYrWhig
@Mary G: I really really really hope Kander doesn’t turn out to be like Grayson and Weiner, the last two up-and-coming Democratic wits.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steve in the ATL:
You wanna drive us both to the airport and back?
raven
@geg6: My bride had it last week. She had to go in Monday, they told her she had a trial Friday and they let her off Thursday night. The last time I was on they had a group interview of 25 people. I was the only one who had ever been in a “physical confrontation”!!!!! The guy asked “can you tell us about that”. I said, “THAT? How much time you got”? They let me go.
Villago Delenda Est
@FlipYrWhig: Having seen Kander’s ads, and also knowing a tad about his background, he doesn’t have the sleazemonster financier aura of Grayson, or the look at my jpgs little girl air of Weiner.
SiubhanDuinne
@debit:
Wow, Kelpie is a beauty, isn’t she? Must be hard to take on such a bundle of love knowing the time is limited — but she looks like someone who would bring great joy to you and Ellie, if you can bear the likely inevitable pain. And you seem like someone who is good at living in the moment. I say go for it, but obviously it’s not my call.
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne: that’s not unusual for me…it’s my second home!
debit
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@debit:
Go for Kelpie!
mike in dc
His personal life was…problematic, but his contributions to music are both undeniable and indelible. RIP Chuck.
debit
@Mary G:
@SiubhanDuinne:
Buffalo is a fair distance away, so I’m going to call in the morning and get more details about her so I know what I’m dealing with. I wound up with Ellie when I went to look at a younger dog; we didn’t click and I saw her curled up in the back of her kennel, read her card with her age and said, “I’m taking her home.” No senior dog should be in a shelter.
Another Scott
@ruemara: :-( Hang in the ruemara, it’ll get better. Keep working and fighting, and sleep well.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@raven:
Can not recall, I’ll have to check it out.
Ruckus
@debit:
I was looking for a cat when I ran across Bud the cocker spaniel at a rescue org in the bay area. One of the best things I ever did was let him take care of me for a while. All I had to do was feed, walk and groom him. Such a deal.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@FlipYrWhig: I think he and Seth Moulton may prove a bit further to the right for the comfort of a lot of people here, but neither strikes me as crazy or flat out stupid.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think they are a bit further left than you would think.
ETA: A friend of mine who I am surprised is a Dem not a Green and lives in Salem was posting fanboi stuff about Moulton for a year before the election.
Another Scott
@debit: It sounds like you’re going to go see her – good! I’m a firm believer that there should be some spark of connection when adopting a pet. Our first dog, “Colleen”, was very sweet and extremely submissive when we saw her in the shelter (rolled over on her back and peed), but I heard her bark once at us when she saw us taking another dog out. (That was the only bark we heard out of her for weeks afterwards.) She picked us.
Maybe Kelpie will pick you too. :-) If not, don’t feel bad. Your next one is out there and will find you when it’s time.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Omnes Omnibus: Moulton was on the Obama Bros’ podcast last week and some of the things he said about foreign policy sounded a bit interventionist to me, a bit too much in line with those who think military force can resolve things, but it was all pretty vague and I might well be wrong
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I tend liberal interventionist anyway.
Jacel
@Villago Delenda Est: Calvin Klein? I thought Chuck Berry got the idea of rock and roll from Marty McFly.
Villago Delenda Est
@Jacel: (Marty was wearing Calvin Klein jeans, and they thought that was his name…)
TenguPhule
Still no pin point asteroid strike that wipes out the Trumpian gene pool.
Next week marks the 2 month mourning period for the Death of the American Republic.
I miss having a government that works and was not secretly trying to get us all killed for short term profits.
sukabi
@TenguPhule: it’s really not a secret, is it? They are pretty openly mocking everyone. Drumpfs “budget”, the no health care bill, ECT…and their reasoning for these things is just >< this short of openly telling everyone to f off and die.
Mnemosyne
Just to close the loop — made it safely back to LA, almost three hours late. Am currently laying on the couch with an ice pack on my knee before I go to bed.
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne: We expect traveling pics. Welcome back; good luck with the knee. Am sure the nieces will remember their trip forever.
Ithink
@Felonius Monk:
That’s amazing that you remember that performance and still have that original record! Your generation (I’m a twilight millennial having been a designated early 90’s baby) is as much a catalyst to that irreconcilable (musical) history as the artist themselves ate. What an incredible iconoclast to rock & roll we just lost!