Martin had something really interesting to say about institutions the other day, and I think it deserves a wider audience.
Institutions – Martin, Promoted from the CommentsPost + Comments (99)
by WaterGirl| 99 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Martin had something really interesting to say about institutions the other day, and I think it deserves a wider audience.
Institutions – Martin, Promoted from the CommentsPost + Comments (99)
by WaterGirl| 36 Comments
This post is in: On The Road, Photo Blogging
I am invariably asked “What’s your favorite bird?” whenever I give talks to elementary or middle school students, so I posed that question to a few fascists. Here are their responses!
On The Road – Albatrossity – Favorite BirdsPost + Comments (36)
Donald J. Trump: I SEE A LOT OF BIRDS, BIGLY NUMBERS, WHEN I AM GOLFING OR DRIVING TO MY GOLF COURSES TO BURY MY EX-WIVES. SO LOTS OF PEOPLE COME UP AND ASK ME, “SIR, WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BIRD?”. THAT’S A REALLY HARD QUESTION, AND IT WASN’T EVEN ON THE DEMENTIA TEST THAT I ACED THAT ONE TIME! IS IT THE COVFEFE CANOODLER? OR THE SHARPIE-TAILED CISTICOLA? NO, THOSE ARE BOTH TOO WOKE!!!!!! IT IS THE GREAT FLIGHTLESS GRIFTER, WHICH MANY PEOPLE SAY IS THEIR FAVORITE BIRD TOO!
This post is in: Medium Cool, Sports, Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We're Living In
Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in. We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.
Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered. We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.
Seeing as this is a holiday, at least for some of us, that makes me think about family. Earlier this week, I saw a couple of comments about baseball, and there was talk about going to games when we were little. Let’s combine the two and talk about sports when we were growing up. Growing up in Chicago, I loved going to games with my Dad. White Sox, of course! Not that other team. :-)
So let’s share some memories. Did you go to baseball games with your brother, shoot hoops with your dad, play in a soccer league?
Sports and culture, anything goes.
Medium Cool – Sports are Part of Culture, Too!Post + Comments (121)
This post is in: Open Threads
For me, it wouldn’t be Easter if I didn’t listen to this story.
Open thread!
by WaterGirl| 69 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
I mean it. Seriously. We should all subscribe to the this Cleveland newspaper. The Plain Dealer.
As much as we complain about the NYT and the Washington Post – and they deserve it – this is a chance to support a newspaper that appears to still values facts. Subscribe for just $1 for the first 3 months. If they don’t live up to what’s in this editorial, you can always cancel.
But I sure like what I see in this letter FROM the Editor. Read the editorial below and then decide. Maybe the next story we’ll see is that 10,000 new subscribers signed on after reading this letter from the editor. If money talks, this is our chance to support something good and send a message to the NYT and the Washington Post.
After you sign up, there is a 3-minute survey where they ask why you subscribed. So they make it easy to tell them exactly whey we are subscribing.
Read this editorial and let us know what you think in the comments.
Editor: Chris Quinn
A more-than-occasional arrival in the email these days is a question expressed two ways, one with dripping condescension and the other with courtesy:
Why don’t our opinion platforms treat Donald Trump and other politicians exactly the same way. Some phrase it differently, asking why we demean the former president’s supporters in describing his behavior as monstrous, insurrectionist and authoritarian.
I feel for those who write. They believe in Trump and want their local news source to recognize what they see in him.
The angry writers denounce me for ignoring what they call the Biden family crime syndicate and criminality far beyond that of Trump. They quote news sources of no credibility as proof the mainstream media ignores evidence that Biden, not Trump, is the criminal dictator.
The courteous writers don’t go down that road. They politely ask how we can discount the passions and beliefs of the many people who believe in Trump.
This is a tough column to write, because I don’t want to demean or insult those who write me in good faith. I’ve started it a half dozen times since November but turned to other topics each time because this needle hard to thread. No matter how I present it, I’ll offend some thoughtful, decent people.
The north star here is truth. We tell the truth, even when it offends some of the people who pay us for information.
The truth is that Donald Trump undermined faith in our elections in his false bid to retain the presidency. He sparked an insurrection intended to overthrow our government and keep himself in power. No president in our history has done worse.
This is not subjective. We all saw it. Plenty of leaders today try to convince the masses we did not see what we saw, but our eyes don’t deceive. (If leaders began a yearslong campaign today to convince us that the Baltimore bridge did not collapse Tuesday morning, would you ever believe them?) Trust your eyes. Trump on Jan. 6 launched the most serious threat to our system of government since the Civil War. You know that. You saw it.
We Should All Subscribe to this Cleveland Newspaper – The Plain DealerPost + Comments (69)
The facts involving Trump are crystal clear, and as news people, we cannot pretend otherwise, as unpopular as that might be with a segment of our readers. There aren’t two sides to facts. People who say the earth is flat don’t get space on our platforms. If that offends them, so be it.
As for those who equate Trump and Joe Biden, that’s false equivalency. Biden has done nothing remotely close to the egregious, anti-American acts of Trump. We can debate the success and mindset of our current president, as we have about most presidents in our lifetimes, but Biden was never a threat to our democracy. Trump is. He is unique among all American presidents for his efforts to keep power at any cost.
Personally, I find it hard to understand how Americans who take pride in our system of government support Trump. All those soldiers who died in World War II were fighting against the kind of regime Trump wants to create on our soil. How do they not see it?
The March 25 edition of the New Yorker magazine offers some insight. It includes a detailed review of a new book about Adolf Hitler, focused on the year 1932. It’s called “Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power” and is by historian Timothy W. Ryback. It explains how German leaders – including some in the media — thought they could use Hitler as a means to get power for themselves and were willing to look past his obvious deficiencies to get where they wanted. In tolerating and using Hitler as a means to an end, they helped create the monstrous dictator responsible for millions of deaths.
How are those German leaders different from people in Congress saying the election was stolen or that Jan. 6 was not an insurrection aimed at destroying our government? They know the truth, but they deny it. They see Trump as a means to an end – power for themselves and their “team” – even if it means repeatedly telling lies.
Sadly, many believe the lies. They trust people in authority, without questioning the obvious discrepancies or relying on their own eyes. These are the people who take offense to the truths we tell about Trump. No one in our newsroom gets up in the morning wanting to make a segment of readers feel bad. No one seeks to demean anyone. We understand what a privilege it is to be welcomed into the lives of the millions of people who visit our platforms each month for news, sports and entertainment. But our duty is to the truth.
Our nation does seem to be slipping down the same slide that Germany did in the 1930s. Maybe the collapse of government in the hands of a madman is inevitable, given how the media landscape has been corrupted by partisans, as it was in 1930s Germany.
I hope not.
In our newsroom, we’ll do our part. Much as it offends some who read us, we will continue to tell the truth about Trump.
I’m at [email protected]
Thanks for reading.
Open thread
This post is in: Open Threads
I won’t link to the post or even put up a screen capture of the photo, but if anyone else posted an image of any elected official tied up in a truck – let alone the President of the United States – law enforcement would be on it in a hot minute. This is so far over the line that you can’t even see the line from there.
Trump is a menace. If Trump isn’t above the law, he will receive a law enforcement visit in response to this.
And if any judge in any Trump case doesn’t think they will be the next person in a similar image, they aren’t good at connecting dots.
As I have been saying since November 2016, this is not normal.
Open thread.
Update: Timill shared this most excellent piece on this subject from Joyce Vance.
This post is in: Biden Administration in Action, Guest Posts, Open Threads
I don’t know where TaMara found this awesome photo, but I’m gonna use it every chance I get.
Timely guest post, thank you ema!
I have a story I think BJ readers might like:
I live within walking distance of Radio City Music Hall so, yesterday, I thought I should go there and take some pictures of the three
TenorsPresidents for BJ. Unfortunately, it was impossible to make it even into the vicinity of the vicinity of the area because of security, the dump trucks were blocking the entire building, and I don’t have a telephoto lens or a fancy camera, so off back home I went, pictureless.This morning, I step out of my building on my way to work and I see double barricades, a bunch of dump trucks, and a police officer guarding every nook and cranny on the street. This only happens when Bibi is in town for the UN General Assembly and he stays at a hotel up my street. I thought something similar might be happening, the NYPD officer guarding my building confirmed that President Biden was on my street, and off I went to work.
A quick aside: Why do these people insist on staying at that hotel is a bit of a mystery. I mean, it’s a nice place, don’t get me wrong, but it’s definitely not The Mark or The Carlyle. Maybe it has something to do with security arrangements?
Back to the story. I thought by the time I returned home all will be back to normal. Not even close! Just as I reached one end of my street , not only was everything still there, but an officer informed me that there’s a freeze order in place (meaning, nothing moves, you cannot go in/out even if you live on the street because they’re expecting the President to be on the move soon). This freeze can last anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour so I wasn’t too keen on it. Just as I was planning my next move – dig a tunnel, sneak into an adjacent building and rappel down to my apartment? – the motorcade starts moving, the presidential limousine passes by, people are clapping and cheering, and I’m waving with one hand and filming (askew) with the other.
And, since we more or less ran into each other, I took the opportunity to tell the President a few things (using my inner voice, of course, because what am I, a peasant who yells at passing cars and famous people?). This is what I “told” him:
1) Great job.
2) Good luck in November. BJ is working hard to reelect you, keep the Senate and flip the House.
3) Give Ukraine whatever it needs and then some.
4) Help the Gaza refugees.
5) In your second term, enough with appointing Republican AGs and SCs, they’re unprofessional.
6) Go for 15! (h/t Another Scott) Between Thomas’ corruption and Alito’s “Burn the Witches” legal arguments, the public is losing trust in the legal system.
7) Give extra scritches to Major, Commander, and Willow.What would you tell President Biden if you had a chance encounter with him?
I hope you like it.
ema
I simply can not hear Hail to the Chief without thinking of this scene and hearing Dave’s lyrics.
Open thread!
Your thoughts?
Totally open thread.