This probably counts as animal abuse:
I’m on the phone with Amazon customer service, and my issue has been escalated! Weee! Hope your day is better.
Open thread!
Florida woman, still rocking a punk rock ethos in the 2020s, which is kind of sad. Betty Cracker has been a Balloon Juice writer since 2012.
by Betty Cracker| 124 Comments
This post is in: Dog Blogging, Domestic Politics, Open Threads, General Stupidity
This probably counts as animal abuse:
I’m on the phone with Amazon customer service, and my issue has been escalated! Weee! Hope your day is better.
Open thread!
This post is in: Election 2016, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, General Stupidity, Our Failed Media Experiment
Here’s an excerpt from a Yahoo News piece published earlier today:
As described by sources familiar with various aspects of the investigation, the Mueller probe is fast approaching a critical crossroads. The president’s lawyers, Ty Cobb and John Dowd, are pressing Mueller to wind down the investigation and exonerate their client, which they have assured the president will happen by early next year.
But the sources familiar with the probe say that such a rapid conclusion is — as one put it — “fanciful.” Mueller and his team, they say, are pursuing new leads, interrogating new witnesses and collecting a mountain of new evidence, including subpoenaed bank records and thousands of emails from the campaign and the Trump transition.
In just the last few weeks, his prosecutors have begun questioning Republican National Committee staffers about the party digital operation that worked with the Trump campaign to target voters in key swing states. They are seeking to determine if the joint effort was related to the activities of Russian trolls and bots aimed at influencing the American electorate, according to two of the sources.
In what is potentially another ominous sign for the White House, the lawyer for Jared Kushner, the president’s son in law and senior adviser who was in charge of the campaign’s digital operation, recently began searching for a crisis public relations firm to handle press inquiries — a step frequently taken by people who believe they may be facing criminal charges. (Kushner has denied all wrongdoing, and his lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has said he is cooperating with the Mueller investigation.)
If this is accurate, I hope it also means the investigators are looking into House and Senate campaign shenanigans too. We know Rep. Brian Mast’s campaign consultant admitted working with a hacker the intelligence services identify as a Russian agent to target ad buys. The NYT ran a story about a year ago on other House races that were targeted, but the issue has received almost no attention since then.
Given that Trump refuses to hold Russia accountable for the 2016 meddling and is actively undermining the FBI’s investigation, we’ll be sitting ducks next year — unless the investigation turns up some bombshells on the congressional side that are more difficult to shove down the memory hole. The Trump campaign is the center ring in the circus, but it’s only one of three.
Mueller Investigation Looking at RNC Digital OperationPost + Comments (81)
by Betty Cracker| 154 Comments
This post is in: Birdwatching, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, General Stupidity, Our Failed Media Experiment
I was going to post some stuff about the Trump admin putting a Koch Industries hack in charge of weakening environmental protections for birds so that energy companies can kill our feathered friends with impunity while pursuing profits. But why bother? Everything the Trump admin is doing is evil and must be opposed. There — covered it all in a dozen words!
Other than that, I got nothin.’ Open thread!
by Betty Cracker| 105 Comments
This post is in: Cooking, Domestic Politics, Open Threads
Sure, it looks like a bucket of feeble suds and rolled gym socks now, but the contents of this pot are slowly forming the basis for the most delicious French onion soup ever, which will be consumed with relish* this evening:
Every Christmas, we have a four-bone prime rib for Christmas dinner. The dogs get two of the ribs. The other two ribs get lightly sauteed in olive oil and placed in a stock pot, along with bay leaves, thyme, garlic, onions, carrots, celery and salt. After it simmers for a few hours, the stock is strained into containers and cooled.
Meanwhile, a few pounds of onions are slowly caramelized (which takes nearly an hour — don’t listen to the recipes that lie about this!) in butter and oil with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar.
White wine is added to the onions and cooked nearly out, then in goes the broth, which is simmered again for a while with the onions, then in goes a bit of extra butter and perhaps some sherry. Then seasonings are adjusted as need be, and the soup ladled into oven-proof bowls, topped with toasted baguette slices and then topped again with modest piles of Gruyère and placed under a broiler until golden brown and bubbly. There is no better soup, in my opinion, even though French onion soup can be treacherous!
As I mentioned in the morning thread, I received Julia Child’s post-WW2 years memoir, “My Life in France,” as a Christmas gift, and I’ve been reading it. Very interesting. I wish I could invite her over for some French onion soup! She would have made a fine jackal; she was a big old libturd just like us, only not quite so snarly.
I also received an electric wok. Looking forward to finding some recipes for that, preferably ones that incorporate fresh ginger since we have scads of that growing. Please feel free to share any you know of in comments!
Open thread!
* “Relish” as in great enjoyment, not a condiment! ?
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Open Threads, General Stupidity
I’m having one of those damned days when every little thing goes wrong. Not big things, so that’s something. But the type of day when you try to fill your birdbaths and the hose gets away and sprays you in the face. You know?
Anyhoo, hope y’all’s Christmas Eve-Eve is progressing more smoothly. Open thread!
by Betty Cracker| 200 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, General Stupidity
Remember the asshole on the left, whom the asshole on the right appointed as U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands?
He’s Pete Hoekstra, former teaturd congressman from Michigan. He jumped on the Trump train early, attracted by Trump’s disdain for immigrants and Muslims. He just made an absolute fool of himself in an exchange with a Dutch journalist:
Just perfect.
Dutch journalist to new US Ambassador: you said there were 'no go zones' in Netherlands, where are they?
Ambassador: That's fake news, I didn't say that
Journalist: We can show you that clip now.
Ambassador: Err ?? pic.twitter.com/8ohIOzmYAc— Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) December 22, 2017
First, Hoekstra lied and claimed he never said there are “no-go zones” in the Netherlands, calling it “fake news.” Then, when called out on that lie, he lied again, denying he’d characterized an accurate account of what he said as “fake news” mere seconds before! These low-quality, integrity-free Trump hires are almost as embarrassing as their boss.
In other news, the man Dictionary.com chose to illustrate the word “sycophant,” Mike Pence, promised endless war in Afghanistan yesterday:
Pence arrived on a military plane at Bagram Airfield under the cover of darkness on Thursday night after leaving Washington on Wednesday night. He then flew by helicopter to Kabul, where he met President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah at the presidential palace.
Pence told the leaders he hoped his presence there was tangible evidence that the United States was “here to see this through.”
In a reversal of his campaign call for a swift withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, Trump in August pledged a stepped-up military campaign against Taliban insurgents and signaled the United States would send more troops to fight in what is the longest war in its history…
“Under President Donald Trump, the armed forces of the United States will remain engaged in Afghanistan until we eliminate the terrorist threat to our homeland, our people once and for all,” Pence said.
Good thing we didn’t elect that warmonger lady with extensive experience in international diplomacy! Le sigh.
Open thread.
Liar-Appointed Liar Lies When Caught in a LiePost + Comments (200)
by Betty Cracker| 173 Comments
This post is in: Food, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, Assholes
Wingnut pizza mogul Papa John Schnatter is hanging up the pizza peel:
Papa John’s Founder To Step Down As CEO After Backlash Over NFL Comments https://t.co/A71ZgKK4OM via @TPM
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December 21, 2017
Schnatter is the cheap prick who previously caught flak for lamenting the additional $0.14-per-pie cost of insuring his employees after the ACA passed.
He was a Trump donor and took up Trump’s line about the NFL players’ BLM protests, claiming it cost his chain of ketchup-encrusted hardtack purveyors $70 million.
White supremacists publicly made Papa John’s their official pizza chain, which made decent folks give it the side-eye. That actually did hurt business.
So, Schnatter will remain chairman and continue to be obscenely wealthy. I’m sure Trump’s tax scam will shower him with extra wealth.
But it turns out that if the public face of your company is a Trumpster, that’s bad for business. Good.
Shitty politics. Shitty pizza. Papa John’s.Post + Comments (173)