Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn – Nancy Pelosi

Usually wrong but never in doubt

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

An almost top 10,000 blog!

There will be lawyers.

Everybody saw this coming.

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

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Han shot first.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Shelter in place is one thing. Shelter in pants is quite another.

Wetsuit optional.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

They are all Michael Cohen now.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

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

It was down to kool-aid drinkers and next of kin at the trump White House

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Where tasty lettuce and good mustard aren’t elitist.

How does anyone do Gilligan’s Island as trump world and not cast Jared as Gilligan?

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Reader Interactions

209Comments

  2. 2.

    HinTN

    I admit the first time I saw that Bernie meme I laughed thoroughly and unabashedly.  Now, meh…

    ETA – Gotta admit that one’s good though. / grump

  3. 3.

    Jeffro

    Hunkering down for a loooooong, blessed day of championship football!  Go Packers and Go Chiefs!!

  4. 4.

    japa21

    @HinTN: Has gotten to be a little too much.

  8. 8.

    SFAW

    Front pagers must be on strike.

    Maybe they just can’t pony up the $5,000 Cole is now requiring for them to get published on an almost-top-10,000 blog?

  11. 11.

    MisterForkbeard

    Frankly, I’m annoyed this morning because I’ve been reading about how the Republicans seem to be pulling together  in solidarity after causing an insurrection, and punishing party members who recognize it’s a problem.

    We’ll see, because there’s still some doubt as to how the Senate trial will go. But the media is not being particularly helpful.

    I think I’ll just hang out with the kitties today.

  13. 13.

    mali muso

    @HinTN: Yeah, it was funny for about a day.

    On a FTFNYT note, this Twitter thread on the firing of an NYT editor for the thought crime of tweeting that she felt “chills” when Biden’s plane landed last week is worth reading.  I had been thinking of subscribing to the NYT recipes but nah.

  16. 16.

    cope

    @SFAW: Yes, to lowly Burnley 1-0.  I am despondent as well.  I haven’t signed up for NBC’s Peacock streaming service so I don’t get to see nearly as many games as I used to so when an LFC game pops up on a regular channel, I get very excited.  Too bad all the games I have been able to watch in the past few weeks Liverpool has, at best, tied or, at worst, lost.  Sigh…

    I did just start watching Ted Lasso though and that is an entertaining soccer story.

  20. 20.

    SFAW

    @Jeffro:

    Go Packers

    My daughter was in a local (Boston suburbs) liquor store*, wearing a Packers sweatshirt (because one of her housemates is from WI), and the guy was giving her some not-very-serious grief because Brady is on the Bucs, etc. I think he ended up giving her and her roomie a couple of Brady-branded (or some such) Bud Light glasses, no charge. She got a kick out of it.

    Go Chiefs!!

    Led by the son of former Mets pitcher Pat Mahomes! Keeping my fingers crossed he doesn’t get his bell rung again. [Don’t have a lot invested in who wins, but I’d hate to see Mahomes’s career shortened because of too many concussions.]

     

    GO JETS!

  24. 24.

    SFAW

    @cope:

    My condolences to you and Amir, although they’re tempered because I have a friend born-and-raised in Burnley (but who lives in my town now).

  27. 27.

    cope

    @SFAW: Thanks for the kind thoughts.  In the immortal words of my college buddy Johnny D. after tipping over an entire Risk board and sending pieces across the room because he had been wiped out:  “It’s just a FUCKING GAME!”.

  28. 28.

    NotMax

    @SFAW

    Has the bell migrated north?

    Sportscasters used to say getting his bell rung as a euphemism for having been whacked in the nuts.

  30. 30.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    Sportscasters used to say getting his bell rung as a euphemism for having been whacked in the nuts.

    I don’t recall if I’ve ever heard it used that way. Most, if not all, of the times I’ve heard it used, it’s been relative to a particularly hard hit, where the hittee was not completely aware of his surroundings thereafter.

  31. 31.

    Starfish

    @SFAW: I am deeply interested in our spendy and fancy thoughtfluencers who have donated the big bucks to save various animals. Show us your fanciest cat tree. Do you have a special and magical litter box that no one notices that never smells bad? Tell us about that.

  33. 33.

    Aziz, light!

    (CNN) Many once-loyal members of Mar-a-Lago are leaving because they no longer want to have any connection to former President Donald Trump, according to the author of the definitive book about the resort.

    “It’s a very dispirited place,” Laurence Leamer, historian and author of “Mar-a-Lago: Inside the Gates of Power at Donald Trump’s Presidential Palace,” told MSNBC host Alex Witt on “Weekends with Alex Witt” Saturday. He said members are “not concerned about politics and they said the food is no good.”

    The big-ass wedge of iceberg lettuce is not haute cuisine?

  36. 36.

    Elizabelle

    @mali muso: 

    The FTF NYTimes should acknowledge they made a mistake and hire Lauren back.

    But I am not comfortable with what that Josh guy tweeting is doing at all. He is going way too far. He is stripping away her privacy and crossing the line into maudlin. (“You see this old dog? This dog may DIE if Lauren does not get her job back!”) I think Josh might be making it hard for the NY Times to reconsider. Spare me hysterical friends like that.

    Poor Lauren, on many counts. Privacy is good. Getting rehired to a job she should not have lost is better.

  37. 37.

    germy

    @Elizabelle:

    She was a contract employee from what I understand.  A freelancer.

    Glenn doesn’t think he bears any responsibility for getting Wolfe fired. Does he bear any responsibility for random bullying based off multiple false claims in one tweet?

    — emptywheel (@emptywheel) January 24, 2021

  40. 40.

    SFAW

    @mrmoshpotato:

    The second appended tweet after Selzer’s was Niall Fucking Ferguson approvingly retweeting Andy Fucking Sullivan’s “opinion” re: how President Biden is “fuel[ing] the culture war.” Morons.

  41. 41.

    JoyceH

    @Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):

    Dude just trying to stay warm. I got no beef with him. Memes have been funny but the net beats everything into a fine powder so…

    I saw a cartoon the other day where a guy opens up his laptop and all these little Bernies come spilling out – the last panel is him on the floor buried in Bernies. It has been quite a thing. Maybe the intensity means it will be of short duration – PLEASE don’t let it last as long as minion memes!

    (That said, I must confess to reposting a Bernie meme – in my defense it was also a Bob Ross meme, and I adore Bob Ross.)

  44. 44.

    MisterForkbeard

    @SFAW: Remember, the biggest crime is always NOTICING the incivility/racism/insurrection and noting that maybe the Republicans should stop it.

  47. 47.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    I don’t think that owl has good intentions towards Bernie….

    Today at work, I noticed a super weird coloring book The title? Cat Farts Vol 3. I shit you not, that was what it was called. And it had two previous volumes. Dozens of pages of cats with the same exact clipart fart cloud behind them.

    It was so bizarre I couldn’t believe it was real at first. Like, why would you make something like this? An entire coloring book dedicated to cats farting? There was a page I randomly flipped to which had a cat and some butterflies. Even the goddam butterflies had the fart clouds behind them! Funny, but also bizarre

  49. 49.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Aziz, light!: Yeah, I get that. I’m an AFC guy but Packers are my favorite NFC team. I’d be cool with them winning. But Brady is a freak of nature in much the same way Michael Jordan was, due in large part to that same competitive drive.

  52. 52.

    Another Scott

    @germy: A contract “editor” is my understanding.  Which seems like a strange position for a newspaper/news media outfit.  It might indicate how tenuous employment at The New York Times Company is for anyone these days.

    The bigger point is that a news place as big as FTFNYT should not get stampeded into firing someone by a bunch of trolls.  Trolls should not and must not be the gatekeepers.

    I hope she lands on her feet at a good spot soon.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  53. 53.

    HRA

    Go Bills! We do not want to see anyone hurt badly in a game and do not allow it to be said. If it does happen we contribute to their favorite charity along with wishing them well in their recovery.

  56. 56.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Yeah, it’s disgusting. I guess it’s because Trump is threatening to form his own “MAGA” Party if they vote to convict him.

    I wonder how much longer the corporate spigots will remain shut off to GOP pols because of the insurrection? Surely them failing to convict Trump in the Senate won’t help that?

  59. 59.

    Ken

    Front pagers must be on strike.

    Angry about the scabs guest writers that Cole recruited?

    When that was announced, I wondered if it meant Cole was looking for someone to take over the blog.  Sort of like Willy Wonka’s golden tickets, except presumably with fewer children getting mangled in the equipment.

  60. 60.

    J R in WV

    Rooting for Green Bay, the only locally owned team in football, and Arron Rodgers, at least as deserving as Tom Brady of the New England Cheatriots.

  61. 61.

    Kropacetic

    Oh, I was thinkin about subscribing to the NYT again.  Figured I’d give them another chance, but now I’m not so sure.  They didn’t even make it to payday so I could follow through with subscribing.

    @germy: She has requested that no one cancel their subscription over this.

    I take this to mean she wants to continue to get work as an editor.

  66. 66.

    Ken

    @Aziz, light!: The big-ass wedge of iceberg lettuce is not haute cuisine?

    If you look closely at the menu, you’ll see it’s spelled “hute cusine”. Legally they aren’t allowed to call it “haute cuisine”.

    (Joke stolen from a Cheers episode; Norm’s favorite cheap restaurant had “beff” and “lubster” on the menu, IIRC.)

  68. 68.

    Ruckus

    @MisterForkbeard:

    I wonder how much of that is media bias, or that every story has to get your attention. I wonder how much of our politics follows the same line. Everything has to grab you in some way, good, or bad. We’ve been at some level of war for most of my life, have we never actually decided that we can come to any agreement about how life is structured, should be structured, that we still just have to always fight about it at some level?

  69. 69.

    EmanG

    Can anyone explain what happened to Glenn Greenwald? In the early Snowden days I followed him enthusiastically as an anti-Bush oasis in the desert of MSM, but the last few years he’s turned into such a whiny victimization addict. I’m also starting to worry about Matt Taibbi’s mindset as well. But Greenwald’s pro-Russia thing is really confusing to me.

  70. 70.

    Kropacetic

    @satby: They must have other people worth saving, no one whose name I can think of, but probably some of their less celebrated reporters.

  76. 76.

    WaterGirl

    @Ken:

    When that was announced, I wondered if it meant Cole was looking for someone to take over the blog.

    Nothing at all like that.  Cole is not looking for a front-pager, or for someone to take over.

    Here’s what he said:

    There’s going to be a lot more ugly in the upcoming weeks, but I would like to try to focus on moving forward, because that is all we can control, really.

    I’d like to hear your thoughts, and starting on the 18th and through Inauguration, we’re going to be posting guest submissions from you all.

    And that’s what he meant.  That’s it.  No secret agenda.

  78. 78.

    WaterGirl

    @Ken: Though I suppose front pagers could be mad at me for putting the 10 posts up over a 3 day period, but I was only doing what John asked and sticking to the timeline he set.

    edit: not intended as a serious statement.

  79. 79.

    Jay

    Sen. Warren on calls for unity: “How about if we're unified against insurrection? How about if we're unified for accountability? Unity starts with accountability.”— Ana Cabrera (@AnaCabrera) January 24, 2021

  81. 81.

    WaterGirl

    @Elizabelle: I took that to mean that they sent her a chunk of money to get her on her feet while she figures out what’s next.  So I was bummed to see that it was $100.  Which is nice, but somehow I was expecting a couple more zeros.

    Note to self:  never assume.

  83. 83.

    Elizabelle

    Now the WaPost is covering the Lauren Wolfe story.  Comments are available on this story, but none up yet.

    The New York Times says it didn’t part ways with editor over Biden ‘chills’ tweet

    After a firestorm of criticism, the paper sought to clear up ‘inaccurate information circulating on Twitter’ about freelancer Lauren Wolfe

    Facing a torrent of criticism on social media, including broadsides from journalists and celebrities, the New York Times on Sunday sought to correct what it called “incorrect information” regarding a freelance editor, Lauren Wolfe, with whom the paper cut ties after a tweet some conservatives claimed showed bias.

    Outrage had surged since Thursday evening, when journalist Yashar Ali asserted that Wolfe “had her contract canceled” by the Times after she tweeted about having “chills” watching news coverage of Joe Biden’s plane landing at Joint Base Andrews ahead of his inauguration on Wednesday. Many critics accused the paper of caving to conservative pressure and over-punishing one of its journalists for a minor act of impartiality.

    But the Times denied on Sunday that there was a direct connection between Wolfe’s pro-Biden tweet and the end of her working relationship with the newspaper.

    “There’s a lot of inaccurate information circulating on Twitter,” spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha told The Washington Post. “For privacy reasons we don’t get into the details of personnel matters, but we can say that we didn’t end someone’s employment over a single tweet. Out of respect for the individuals involved, we don’t plan to comment further.” (Wolfe could not be reached for comment.)

    [Well that’s clear as mud.]

    The newspaper also clarified that Wolfe was not a full-time employee and did not have a contract with the publication, contrary to widespread reports, and instead worked on a more informal freelance basis.

    According to the Times’s editorial standards, employees are barred from doing “anything that damages The Times’s reputation for strict neutrality in reporting on politics and government.”

    Although: if you want to trash talk about Democrats and their Rolex watches (and their shadows and emails! emails! emails!) — come on down! Clinton Cash?? We’re all ears.

  85. 85.

    WaterGirl

    @Elizabelle:

    strict neutrality?

    Hmm, if only I could think of a NTY employee who had/has close ties with Trump, and tweets a lot, who was never neutral, always making excuses for Trump and his administration.

    To me, them saying, “oh, no, we didn’t cut ties with her for that, it was for some other terrible thing, which of course we can’t mention because of privacy issues, just accept that she did something bad and you don’t need to know the details.”

    That’s a smear against her, that she can’t even fight back against.

  87. 87.

    EmanG

    @Just Some Fuckhead:  I agree but I feel that’s too easy an answer. LIke, they’ve become so disillusioned by the current (and recent) state of affairs that everything is wrong? It’s a head scratcher and a a shame to see such brilliant writers go such an odd direction.

  88. 88.

    Ruckus

    @WaterGirl:

    They could start their own blogs if they don’t have one. Might not have the traffic or coverage of this one but then there would be no competition whatsoever. OTOH I’d bet that they aren’t peeved, just possibly they occasionally get tired of the amount of effort it takes to actually post constantly, especially considering the pay scale.

  90. 90.

    Elizabelle

    @WaterGirl:   You’ll laugh, but the WaPost felt the need to give Maggs Haberman a tongue bath on that.  I kid you not.

    More from the story:

    But she disowned cries from some of her online supporters for readers to cancel their subscriptions to the newspaper to protest her exit. She also defended popular Times journalists, including reporter Maggie Haberman, who have received criticism on her behalf.

    “I truly appreciate everyone’s support but I need to ask you a favor: PLEASE don’t unsubscribe from @nytimes,” she tweeted on Sunday. “I have loved this paper and its mission my whole life. Their journalism is some of the most important & best in the world, & they need to be read widely.”

    On Facebook, she described her departure from the Times as a “firing,” and has also accused the publication of not “standing behind [her],” publishing hateful emails that she has received.

  91. 91.

    mrmoshpotato

    Oh look. It’s the pouty, shouty bastard who couldn’t accept losing the 2016 Democratic nomination.

    Hope these past 4 years of death and destruction were worth it.

    Hope 30+ years of a fucked Supreme Court was worth it.

    Hope 200+ massively unqualified lifetime federal judges was worth it.

    Here’re two better.

    pic.twitter.com/0kIt2rMTTU— Hillary Warned Us (@HillaryWarnedUs) January 24, 2021

    Same energy. pic.twitter.com/OLDygsqXEj— Hillary Warned Us (@HillaryWarnedUs) January 20, 2021

  99. 99.

    Mo Salad

    What, I don’t get any wellness checks?

    LFC desperately needs a center back. They are now even in danger of not qualifying for next year’s Champion’s League.

    Owners FSG need to realize that this isn’t American sports, where you can shut it down and wait for next year. A 5th place finish would be a disaster for their finances and player retention and recruitment. Klopp is running around with his transplanted hair on fire and has been ignored.

  101. 101.

    Fair Economist

    @EmanG:

    Can anyone explain what happened to Glenn Greenwald? In the early Snowden days I followed him enthusiastically as an anti-Bush oasis in the desert of MSM, but the last few years he’s turned into such a whiny victimization addict. I’m also starting to worry about Matt Taibbi’s mindset as well. But Greenwald’s pro-Russia thing is really confusing to me.

    Greenwald has always worked for the benefit of Putin. He was against Bush and Obama, who for all their political and policy differences were against Putin, but for Putin’s puppet Trump. Even if it were once upon a time his personal opinions it’s clear he’s bought and paid for now given that his bete noire against Obama was drone strikes but he was totally OK with Trump *tripling* the drone strike rate.

  102. 102.

    WaterGirl

    @Ruckus: Yeah, I don’t really think anyone is mad, just busy or tired.  That was a flip comment, not intended as serious. Everybody, everywhere, is tired.  I know I am.

  103. 103.

    Kropacetic

    @mrmoshpotato: I completely disagree that Comey was the sole reason.

    If only the Comey thing were changed, do you think it would make a decisive difference?

  105. 105.

    satby

    @NotMax: I guess it’s lucky that TCM isn’t available as a stand alone streaming service, or under Prime Video. I would never leave the house.

    Yeah, I had both Hulu and YouTube TV with it, but those both got as expensive as cable fast, so I ditched them. I’m not paying for anything that forces me to have Fox Not News as part of the subscription.

  107. 107.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Jay: I use Feline Pine cat litter, which is just about the same thing: pine tree sawdust compressed into pellets.  It absorbs cat urine well (the pellets absorb the urine and decompose back into sawdust).  For some reason, the pine neutralizes the ammonia in cat urine so the cat box DOESN’T SMELL.  And, afterward, you can use the sawdust as mulch around outdoor plants.  Win, win! (As opposed to the nuclear waste of most used cat litter).

  111. 111.

    Another Scott

    @mrmoshpotato: “Sole” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

    There were many reasons, but the data says that Comey’s actions changed the course of the election and gave us Donnie.  E.g. Nothing happened with Bernie 12 days before the election (IIRC).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  112. 112.

    Ken

    @NotMax: Advisory seen preceding a 1936 movie just now: “Mild profanity, mild drug use.”

    I can only imagine the warnings on pre-Code movies.

  114. 114.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @mrmoshpotato: Comey probably did more to keep it close enough to steal than any of the other factors. My own theory is that Clinton actually won.

  115. 115.

    Ohio Mom

    There has to be a missing piece to the Lauren Wolfe story because it doesn’t quite add up. Some bit of office politics we will probably never know.

    Another mystery to me is, why does anyone care what Greenwald thinks? Aren’t his 15 minutes up yet?

  117. 117.

    Joy in FL

    I am still enjoying the Bernie meme. I love the variety and creativity. I even saw one with the sea chanty : )

  118. 118.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I didn’t even see Bernie at first. Great owl picture. I have only ever seen one live owl in my fifty three years plodding across this world.

    The Times desperately, desperately need a public editor. I’m guessing that salary covers the slip rental on Paunch Sulzberger’s smaller sloop.

  119. 119.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Well, she did win the popular vote, but…

    Hooray to not directly electing the sole head of the Executive branch!

    Oh, and we were something like 44,000 votes from getting fucked this time.  Hooray!

  120. 120.

    Another Scott

    @mrmoshpotato: touche’.

    I guess I should have gone with Drum’s headline for the link:

    “Say It With Me Again: James Comey Elected Donald Trump President”

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  122. 122.

    Matt McIrvin

    @EmanG: Greenwald has always been, basically, a Republican. He got misidentified as an insightful member of the left because he turned against the Iraq war after it had already gone bad. Big deal, a lot of people did that, Cole did that, I did that. But for Greenwald it wasn’t associated with any other sort of political reckoning.

    He clearly always hated Barack Obama in particular and once Obama got in, he started grasping for ways he could characterize Obama as somehow more of a warmonger than Bush. And he just carried that through to other Democratic politicians, to the point where his shtick now seems to be to insist that everyone has the political spectrum reversed, the Democrats are secretly the right-wing party and the Republicans are secretly the left-wing party. But it’s all basically in the service of being an almost bog-standard Republican while maintaining what he thinks is “left” credibility.

  124. 124.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ohio Mom:
    There has to be a missing piece to the Lauren Wolfe story because it doesn’t quite add up. Some bit of office politics we will probably never know.
    good point, but I still hope they’re forced to explain themselves

    Another mystery to me is, why does anyone care what Greenwald thinks? Aren’t his 15 minutes up yet?

    As with “trump is the real peace candidate and Obama started a war in Libya”, the right often finds the anti-Democratic left to be useful idiots

  125. 125.

    There are those who call me...tim... (Still posh)

    I suppose the memes have run their course, but I still haven’t seen one of Jackman’s Wolverine, claws folded across chest, only instead of claws, they’re, well, you know. So if someone who knows how to do things could go ahead and make that, that’d be great. Thanks!

  126. 126.

    Aziz, light!

    @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): Buyer, beware: the pellets sold by PetSmart, etc. at $15 per 40-pound bag are EXACTLY THE SAME as the pellets that I buy for my pellet stove at Home Depot for $5 per bag. The cat litter vendors discovered they could relabel it as cat litter and charge three times as much. It’s all the same stuff.

  128. 128.

    Kropacetic

    @mrmoshpotato: What?  I said I disagree that Comey was the sole reason.

    Right. I understand that to mean you believe other factors are present. i agree there were, no question.

    I’m speculating whether any single factor changing would have been enough to change the outcome.

    If one were, the Comey thing qualifies. Also equitable voter access could have made the difference too.

  129. 129.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Raven:

    YouTube tv has unlimited Dave space 

    Seems a bit much to limit recordings to a 1993 movie, 2020 TV series and other works starring “Dave”s.

    Chappelle – yes.

    Spade and Boreanez – no. :(

    Full House – why?!?!

  130. 130.

    Ruckus

    @WaterGirl:

    In the navy, shipboard life is similar, periods of shear boredom, interspersed with random moments of “Do we have to do this AGAIN?” interspersed regularly with “This is all there is for (insert any meal here)”, interspersed in my experience very occasionally with “Holly Shit!” It gets tiring, repeated day after day after day after you get the picture. And yes the caveat that no one actually ever shot at us is always implied but which also increased the endless mind numbing experience, not that anyone wanted to trade any of the above for that different experience. A guy I meet a few yrs later served on a sister ship, in Vietnam combat and he told me of the time one of their missiles, fired at an enemy plane made a U turn and went between the stacks, at supersonic speed, just clearing the loaded rocket torpedo launcher for just a bit more of a palette cleanser than necessary. Not everyone was as lucky or as bored as I was.

  133. 133.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Kropacetic:

    Also equitable voter access could have made the difference too. 

    As always.  Only now, state GOP officials are saying it out loud!

  134. 134.

    Aziz, light!

    @satby: To my knowledge, nothing is added. In western states it’s usually wet Douglas-fir sawdust extruded under high pressure, then kiln dried. Pellet stoves ignite it with an electric probe

    ETA: I bought a bag of the litter and saw no difference. It didn’t work as litter for me so I used it in my stove.

  135. 135.

    schrodingers_cat

    The BS meme is tired. His mittens are ugly. He looks as grumpy as he did during HRC’s nominating convention. He is jealous that he could not win the Dem nomination with 30% of the vote like the Orange person did in the R primaries. We dodged a bullet.
    I am just glad that the low grade omnipresent terror I lived with for the past 4 years is gone. Thanks for nothing BS. Hopefully I will be able to visit my folks in India and they can come and visit me after we all get vaccines. Its been 5 long years.

  136. 136.

    Mary G

    @Aziz, light!: Same thing with bonito flakes:

    As cat treats: two ounces for $17.99

    As human food: 16 ounces/1lb $21.20

    The one-pound bag is the size of a small pillow, but they are freeze dried and keep for months at room temperature.

    ETA: changed the link for the human version because the one I grabbed is smoked and I buy the plain ones.

  137. 137.

    Nicole

    Just finished a rewatch of WW84 (I liked it a lot, sue me).  I know the creatives “said” that Max Lord wasn’t based on Trump, but on the rewatch, I caught him saying a line about “the power of positive thinking,” the mantra of Norman Vincent Peale’s, the pastor of Trump’s family’s church.  Heh.

  138. 138.

    burnspbesq

    @Amir Khalid:

    Woe is me!

    Everton have now progressed farther in the FA Cup than Liverpool, and a win over Leicester at home on Wednesday will take them above the Reds in the Premier League table.

    Carlo Ancelotti, painting Merseyside blue.

  140. 140.

    FelonyGovt

    I’m really over the Bernie memes. What annoys me is that the implicit assumption that Bernie and his Inauguration Day attire are “cute”. If the women had showed up dressed for warmth and comfort at the inauguration, there would have been no end to the nasty gossip. (And yes, I know one woman- can’t remember who- did show up bundled up. They didn’t make her into a cute meme.)

    Why yes I am cranky about this, why do you ask?

  141. 141.

    Aziz, light!

    @FelonyGovt: I take the memes as an homage to Bernie and his influence on policy, good or bad. It makes his voters happy and less likely to bear grudges.

  142. 142.

    schrodingers_cat

    @FelonyGovt: Janet Yellen. His outfit said that he couldn’t be bothered to dress appropriately. I have lived in the northeast (ME, NY, MA) for over 2 decades and you can look appropriate and still be warmly dressed, if I who was born in subtropical Mumbai can figure out how, NYC born BS can do it too.

  144. 144.

    JoyceH

    Sigh. How is Biden doing at unifying the nation? CNN goes to the Texas county famous for having the largest percentage of Trump voters in the country to find out. County voted 96% for Trump but this is the place to go.

  145. 145.

    The Moar You Know

     

    Oh look. It’s the pouty, shouty bastard who couldn’t accept losing the 2016 Democratic nomination.

    Hope these past 4 years of death and destruction were worth it.

    Hope 30+ years of a fucked Supreme Court was worth it.

    Hope 200+ massively unqualified lifetime federal judges was worth it.

    @mrmoshpotato: Trump’s #2 man.  Glad someone remembers.

  149. 149.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @The Moar You Know: I’ll never forget, or forgive, WALL STREET SPEECHES!, among other things.

    He’s been a on a bit of a tear lately about the Tea Party being the Democrats’ fault. Thank god for the K-Hive.

  152. 152.

    WaterGirl

    @Rob: Thanks.  I feel kind of bad for putting it up, never expecting that there would be so many negative comments about it.  Albatrossity is a good guy and I wouldn’t have exposed him to that if I had known.

  153. 153.

    Jinchi

    @Kropacetic: I’m speculating whether any single factor changing would have been enough to change the outcome.

    Yes.

    Hillary lost in 2016 by 70,000 votes spread over 3 states. Virtually anything could have cost her 70,000 votes on a random day. She was under constant attack on multiple fronts and all of them were dragging her numbers down. Over the course of the campaign she consistently led Trump by about 2 points, but there were repeated points in time (mid-January, late-May, late-July, mid-September, early November) where Trump’s numbers spiked for a week and her’s dropped sharply.

    Comey’s letter absolutely cost her the election. If he’d followed policy and kept his investigation confidential, she would have won. If he’d announced his investigation a week earlier and given her time to respond, she would have won. But it’s also true that if the media spent less time obsessing about her emails, or if liberals had been less confident of victory, or if Russia hadn’t be engaged in a cyber attack on her campaign, or if she didn’t have to contend with a 4-candidate race, she would have won.

    Trump managed a perfect roll of the dice at a critical point in time, but if she’d caught a break on any one of those, the last four years would have been very different.

  154. 154.

    Kropacetic

    @Nicole: Just finished a rewatch of WW84 (I liked it a lot, sue me).

    I liked it a lot too. It’s weird seeing it so universally panned by critics. The small sample of people I’ve spoken to mostly like it.

    It did some things well. Stronger ending than the first.

  155. 155.

    brantl

    @NotMax: Sportscasters used to say getting his bell rung as a euphemism for having been whacked in the nuts.

     

    No, they didn’t.

  157. 157.

    Felanius Kootea

    On a completely different topic, last year the first Nigerian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscars (Lionheart) was disqualified for having too much English language dialogue. This year Nigeria has a new Best International Film Oscar entry, “The Milkmaid,” which follows one Nigerian woman’s journey after her village is overrun by Boko Haram-style insurgents and she and her sister are captured.

    The story is very well done and the cinematography is great (shot entirely in a part of rural Nigeria that I have never been to). The dialogue is in Hausa, which means most Nigerians have to follow it via subtitles (it’s one of three major indigenous languages but not one of the Nigerian languages I speak). It’s the first time I’ve seen the Boko Haram insurgency taken on by the Nigerian film industry. It’s already won the 2020 Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Picture. I can’t wait for it to be available on streaming services.

  158. 158.

    Jinchi

    @brantl: Right.  I always assumed that the “bell” was the helmet and it was rung when the player’s head slammed against it.

  160. 160.

    Ohio Mom

    Yes, Janet Yellen was photographed in a puffy black coat, hood up, grey scarf around her neck, navy fleece blanket across her lap, and she still looked uncomfortably cold.

    I felt for her, and wondered about what good acting jobs the women in heels and hose were pulling off. At least the men can wear high tech long underwear under their pants.

  161. 161.

    Jay

    @karen marie:

    pine pellets for a woodstove as kitty litter.

    3-4 days if you arn’t on top of it with no smell, 2 cats.

    leaves behind sawdust and poop, flushable, compostable.

  164. 164.

    Rob

    @WaterGirl: I skipped straight to the reply box when I commented, then I saw some of the negative comments. Then I resumed giving my full attention to the other thing I was doing until just now. I’m glad you put the photo up.

  166. 166.

    Another Scott

    @Rob: +1  Great photo and photoshop by Albatrossity.

    In other good news:

    Don't read anything about just-released pardon for #Bannon without reading this by @AWeissmann_:

    The text "clearly leaves—unpardoned—numerous potential federal charges."

    "The decision about whether to charge these new counts is relatively easy."https://t.co/yDzQbFVx2k

    — Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) January 24, 2021

    (via nycsouthpaw)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  167. 167.

    JoyceH

    While we’re talking cat peeing options, have to report my clever workaround. I inherited a cat that I knew had a history of Inappropriate Peeing. You cannot leave anything fabric on the floor, because Abby will pee on it. She will also sometime pee on the bed. (!! I knooow!)  She peed on my bed a couple times and I was beside myself. But then I came up with an ingenious solution. I gave her her own litter box which contains – an old towel. I swap out the towel a couple times a week, and voila. So I have a bunch of old towels that are “Abby’s pee towels”. It seems to be working.

  168. 168.

    Felanius Kootea

    @schrodingers_cat: There’s a whole film industry, Nollywood, partly inspired by Bollywood – there are lots of Nollywood movies on Netflix. The quality varies quite a bit, but the movies pretty much give you a window into what Nigeria is like. When I was growing up, in Ibadan, the second largest city in southwestern Nigeria, our local TV broadcaster only showed Bollywood films on Friday evenings. That had quite an impact on me and my friends!

    Nigeria is large and complex and essentially three different countries depending on where you live.  I’m from the southwest, which is mostly Christian or has followers of African traditional religions; for many people in that part of the country, the Boko Haram Islamic insurgency/tragedy in the North seems like it’s happening on another planet.  The Northern part of Nigeria has had followers of Islam since the thirteenth century but they only recently started to become Wahhabists or the other kinds of Islamic fundamentalists.

  170. 170.

    WaterGirl

    @Another Scott: I listened to PopeHat on his podcast the other day, and he is of the opinion that DOJ will not be evaluating the pardons and will not be going after anyone even if there are holes in the pardons.

    I hope he is wrong about that.

  172. 172.

    Nicole

    @Kropacetic:

    I liked it a lot too. It’s weird seeing it so universally panned by critics. The small sample of people I’ve spoken to mostly like it.

    It did some things well. Stronger ending than the first.

    I appreciated that it presented some big themes; I think that’s where the script had bumps; they were trying get soooo much into it, but I appreciated the ambition.   I felt Cheetah got a bit of short shrift (probably due to the eagerness to get the Trump themes in), but as a third film has been greenlit, I’m hopeful she’ll be back.

    I think it’s a bit of misogyny by the critics, honestly.  There have been a gajillion mediocre superhero films led by male characters (more than one mediocre Spiderman film alone!) but the vitriol was weird.  I kept reading  the term “unwatchable,” and I thought, “You know, Iron Man 2 is very much not good, but I don’t know that anyone went after it so aggressively.”  And Captain America had no more time with Peggy Carter than Diana had with Steve Trevor (and less kissy time!), but no one criticizes Cap for carrying a decades-long torch.

    What I also love is that my 10-year-old son can watch a superhero film where the woman characters aren’t objectified by the camera.  Compare how the Amazons are filmed in either of the Wonder Woman movies with how they’re filmed in Justice League and it’s really apparent.

  176. 176.

    TS (the original)

    @Elizabelle:

    According to the Times’s editorial standards, employees are barred from doing “anything that damages The Times’s reputation for strict neutrality in reporting on politics and government.”

    Not sure whether to laugh or cry when I read this. No- times political writers must read their editorial standards

  178. 178.

    Rob

    @germy: Those album covers on the first page of the site you link to are great. (I haven’t gone beyond the first page) I hadn’t seen some of them before. I love the London Calling one because Bernie is blurred to match the actual album cover.

    My favorite album cover that I saw on Twitter is the Minor Threat one where the band is seated on the front porch & steps and Bernie is right there.

  179. 179.

    cain

    @Another Scott:

    I rather she get a job not with the grey lady. Maybe some other outfit will pick her up instead. Most of all I want her to thrive. The fascist right thought they could take a scalp.

    The fact that they think they can intimidate a woman and get away with it? That offends me more than anything. I don’t mind that coming out i- she’s gone through some muck.

  181. 181.

    Elizabelle

    @Another Scott:   When you see photos of Bannon, you wonder if he and his liver will make it to a full trial.  Looks like end stage alcoholism, but what do I know?

  182. 182.

    Kropacetic

    @Nicole: I appreciated that it presented some big themes

    I did too. And they explored them and integrated them into the plot well. Another knock was that the movie was campy. I enjoy camp and think that it fits an 80s superhero movie well.

    There have been a gajillion mediocre superhero films led by male characters (more than one mediocre Spiderman film alone!)

    I’m still waiting for a Superman movie to be better than OK.  Shazam was very well received and had a similar profile of weaknesses and strengths to WW84.

    As far as Spiderman, the first series did villains well but not Peter Parker and his normal life. The second series reversed that. The third series does both well so far.

    Also the first series was kind of paint-by-numbers, though one could argue they were still getting the studio formula solidified at that point.

  183. 183.

    Miss Bianca

    @WaterGirl: Hey, I’m not a Bernie fan and I *love* the Bernie memes, including Bernie and the owl. I dunno why that is, maybe I’m just lowbrow. So sue me.

  184. 184.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Miss Bianca: I just get pissed off whenever I see Bernie in the news. That motherfucker knew Russia was meddling in the 2016 primary on his behalf and kept it secret. Then when he was asked about it later, he deflected like they were working against both him and Hillary. Then when he was asked again, he literally lied and made up a story about how his campaign had reported it to the FBI.

    He’s a liar and a fraud.

  185. 185.

    Nicole

    @Kropacetic: I agree with you; I liked the 80s feel. I also loved that there wasn’t an action sequence every 6-and-a-half-minutes, like it feels there is with male-led films. I know they’re supposed to be exciting, but after awhile I zone out during them.  In WW84 Diana and Barbara had a whole long scene that was just them drinking wine and talking!  WUT.

    I agree about the first round of Spiderman films; the villains were, unfortunately, more interesting that Peter Parker (and the 3rd film put too many of them in it).  I couldn’t make it through the 1st round of reboots (with Andrew Garfield?  Is that right?); I got bored.  I thought the most recent one, Far From Home was cute.

    (And, of course, Into the Spiderverse is in its own class.)

  186. 186.

    Nicole

    @WaterGirl: I think the Bernie memes are funny.  Grumpy old man looks grumpy wearing big mittens.  It’s funny!

    (Though my favorite one, I think, is of Biden looking sad through a window, with the caption YOU KNOW GUYS, I HAVE MITTENS TOO.)

  188. 188.

    dnfree

    @Joy in FL: that’s what I want to know. Where did this sea “shantey” or “shanty” business come from?  I always saw it written as “chanty”, which makes more sense. A shanty is a run-down house.

  189. 189.

    Felanius Kootea

    @schrodingers_cat: I would start with movies like October 1 (period piece thriller with a serial killer set during Nigeria’s independence transition), Isoken (chick flick that shows the pressure on young Nigerian women to get married no matter how successful they are career-wise), 93 Days (about how Nigeria overcame the Ebola crisis in 93 days), and Up North (silly romp but it shows southern Nigerians exposed to northern Nigerian culture for the first time and the culture shock that ensues).  There’s also King of Boys (warning – it is over 3 hours long) – sort of a Nigerian Scarface with a twist: a female Tony Montana.  Probably not to everyone’s taste. These are all on Netflix.

    You will probably laugh because it’s sooooo old but my favorite Hindi movie is Amar, Akbar, and Anthony. It arrived in Nigeria many years after its original  release. Amitabh Bachchan was quite popular! I didn’t keep up with Bollywood movies after we moved to the US – it became much harder to do because they weren’t on TV every Friday :-).

    I’m a fan of Mira Nair and Gurinder Chadha’s work but would love a reintroduction to Hindi language films from directors based in India.  What would you recommend?

  190. 190.

    WaterGirl

    @Nicole: I am no fan of Bernie, and I agree with everything that was said upthread about Bernie and Russia.

    But I think the meme is funny and I particularly liked him sitting there on the wire with the owl.

    I’m just not a fan of re-litigating who had more responsibility for the result in 2016.  It was wrong and hundreds of thousands of people have died here needlessly.  It’s horrible, but without a wayback machine re-litigating 2016 gets us nowhere good.

  191. 191.

    NotMax

    @mrmoshpotato

    Murder in Pictures, starring Lew Ayres. Marginal B picture, with occasional moderately snappy dialogue.

    “Was he crooked? You could have used his spine as a map of the Yellow River.”

    @satby
    Not TCM, watching it on Prime (which has a gigantic grab bag of lesser known 30s, 40s and 50s films – of varying quality).

  194. 194.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Felanius Kootea: Thanks for the recommendations. I have watched Amar Akbar Anthony as a kid. It is cheesy but great fun. Amitabh has a great screen presence and great comedic timing.

    I recently saw Sholay again and it holds up pretty well! Have you seen it?

    Of the movies I saw recently, Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday made quite an impression on me.

    What kinda movies are you interested in.

    ETA: Movie is from 2004. I just saw it two years ago. I just started rediscovering Hindi movies again after an almost 20 year gap, for the exact same reasons as you did.

  195. 195.

    Citizen Alan

    @Nicole:  Max Lord was so transparently based on Trump that I’m astonished anyone denied it with a straight face. Just as Chris Noth’s character from the most recent Doctor Who special was based on Shitgibbon. The difference is that WW2 actually gave Lord/Trump a redemption arc (and props to Pedro Pascal for making Fat Bastard almost likeable) where s the awful DW story had Noth’s character get away completely with all his crimes, up to and including betraying the whole human race to the Daleks! (There is a scene early on which I described to friends as “Donald Trump and Theresa May join forces with the Daleks to massacre BLM supporters.”)

  196. 196.

    Citizen Alan

    @FelonyGovt: To be fair, most men who are not named Bernie Sanders couldn’t get away with dressing that way at an event as important as the Inauguration either. Stick a toboggan on his head and he’d be dressed exactly the same way Dick Cheney dressed to go to the Auschwitz Memorial for which he got dragged fairly harshly.

  197. 197.

    Citizen Alan

    @Kropacetic: Overall, I liked it, but I had to actively try not to think about the enormous moral elephant in the room: the fact that the dreamstone didn’t just summon Steve back from the dead, it caused him to possess the body an actual living human being whose rights and existence Diana ignored completely just so she could have her ex-boyfriend back. Arguably, the scene where Diana and Steve have sex was a form of rape. I have several friends who were so turned off by that plot point that it ruined the movie for them. A baffling misstep on Patty Jenkins’ part in an otherwise great movie that reminded me a lot of the Donner Superman movie (which, IMO, is the direction the DCEU needs to go; no more grimdark).

  198. 198.

    Kropacetic

    @Citizen Alan: Oh, I was screaming “no” at her the whole movie from the moment she picked up the stone. But everyone turned out alright in the end and they did a good job making me want that outcome.

    Grimdark is fine if not used solely for the sake of being grimdark. It’s a tool. What I want is a story that tells me something about the world ai live in.

  199. 199.

    Citizen Alan

    @Nicole:  I never watched either of the Garfield Spiderman movies. I remember watching the trailer to the first and wondering who decided that the key to a successful Spiderman movie was to focus on a broody, angst-ridden young man obsessed with the death of his parents. They should have called the movie “Bat-Spider.”

  200. 200.

    Citizen Alan

    @WaterGirl:

     It was wrong and hundreds of thousands of people have died here needlessly.

    I think that absolutely infuriates me the most is that if HRC had been president and Covid had hit, she would have handled everything about as well as it possibly could have been with the end result that the infection and death rates would have been a fraction of what they were under Shitgibbon. And yet, every god-damned Republican in the country would have called Hillary an incompetent monster for allowing 40 or 50 thousand people to die of covid under her watch and the entire US media apparatus would have maligned her over it on an hourly basis.

  201. 201.

    Citizen Alan

    @Kropacetic: The fact that she picked up the dreamstone and idly made a wish didn’t bother me because at that point neither she nor the audience knew what it was. And they could have avoided that whole ethical issue (and, I think, made a stronger film) if, instead of transforming some random dude into Steve Trevor, it had instead summoned Steve Trever back from the plane in the first movie a second before it exploded. The whole lack of consent issue would have been avoided and also Diana would have had the heightened moral dilemma of whether to renounce her wish knowing that not only would she be losing Steve again, she would do so by knowingly sending him back to die.

  205. 205.

    Felanius Kootea

    @schrodingers_cat:  I’ve probably seen Sholay but the name doesn’t ring a bell. I’ll have to look it up. I like comedies and thrillers. What’s Black Friday about?

    I saw part of the Pulan Devi (sp?) movie at a film festival in Philadelphia years ago – I was volunteering and couldn’t sit to watch the whole thing. I should try to find that too.

  206. 206.

    Citizen Alan

    @Kropacetic: 
    Oh yeah. Once I just accepted that “this is how they contrive to bring Steve Trevor back from the dead, just roll with it,” I thoroughly enjoyed everything else. Well, the end-stage Cheetah effects could have been better, but otherwise, thoroughly enjoyed it.

  209. 209.

    Just Chuck

    I’m not sure what all these recent Bernie memes are about. The mittens?

    All I can say about them is: you’d think a bald dude who’s lived in Vermont for so long would know to wear a hat.

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