SpinnyNuNu

Joining Syria and Nicaragua* in order to keep a campaign promise to his delusional and ignorant base.

*And the reason Nicaragua didn't sign was because the agreement wasn't tough enough.

A new report from AAA shows deadly crashes involving teenagers are up 10 percent.

Jennifer Garner may be smiling on the cover of this week's People magazine, but she is anything but happy about it.

Margaret Court, the former Australian tennis star now known for her virulent anti-LGBT bigotry, has doubled down on her faith-based hatred.

What makes a purse worth a house?

Trump has urged leaders of Canada and Mexico to reach him on his cellphone, according to former and current U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the practice.

A man trying to boogie board down the Yuba River went missing during the weekend.

Plus-sized model, Tess Holliday, called the movie posters "damaging to girls." Do you agree?

We had five guys wear male rompers through the streets of New York City. Here's what happened.

The president's attorney said the request was a "total fishing expedition."

There's new controversy brewing over the statue known as "Fearless Girl."

Police say they'll examine what appears to be the extremist ideology of an Oregon man accused of fatally stabbing two men who intervened when the suspect yelled racial slurs at two young women who appeared to be Muslim on a Portland light-rail train

Here's what you need to know before heading out on the river:

A Denver sportswriter's comment on Takuma Sato led to sharp rebukes and an apology.

Consumer Reports rates ready to eat popcorn.

There's nothing Republican Christians can do that'll upset the Religious Right, even though liberal leaders offering even a hint of those actions would result in full-blown conservative outrage.

A woman is facing child abuse charges after she locked her two children in the trunk of her car while she shopped at a Walmart in Utah, police say.

It has gotten lately that I can't look at the news without repeatedly screaming, "What the hell is wrong with you people?"

And I'm not talking here about people doing bad stuff themselves, although there is certainly enough to scream about in that category, too.  I'm talking about people being willing to cast their votes for idiots, liars, moral degenerates, and people who are out-and-out batshit crazy, so that they can get into government and do bad stuff on a grander scale.

Let's start at the top, with the President of the United States.  Donald Trump has been involved in cringe-worthy stuff on a daily basis since the American electorate chose for some reason to elect a narcissistic compulsive liar to the highest office in the land, but I don't think I've cringed quite so hard as I did yesterday.  Because Trump, who when he was in kindergarten evidently never learned the rule "Don't budge," said, "Move," and shoved his way in front of the Prime Minister of Montenegro so he could be at the front of the photo-op.  And because that wasn't humiliating enough, he gave one of his typical poorly-informed, word-salad speeches at a meeting of NATO leaders -- and it was so bad that the other members laughed at him and rolled their eyes.


How's that Making America Great Again going for you these days, Trump voters?  It's turning out to be more Making America An International Laughingstock, as far as I can see.

It's not only things happening overseas that are making me wonder if I should admit that I'm an American when I visit South America this summer.  There's enough crazy shit happening right here on American soil for me to fill ten blog posts with non-stop ranting.  In the interest of brevity, let's just look at two.

First, this week lawmakers in Arizona saw fit to appoint one Sylvia Allen as chairperson of the State Education Committee.  Allen, who gives every appearance of being only marginally sane, has appeared in Skeptophilia before; first for babbling about chemtrails during a hearing about mine safety, and then for blurting out, during a hearing about laws governing concealed weapons, that all of the problems in the United States would be solved if we just made church attendance mandatory.

Oh, and did I mention that she's a young-Earth creationist?  There's that.

This, Dear Readers, is the person who will be overseeing the education of children in an entire state.

But nothing pegged my Rage-O-Meter quite as much as when I found out that Greg Gianforte had won the special election to fill the seat in the House of Representatives vacated when Ryan Zinke was appointed Secretary of the Interior.  Why is this infuriating?

Because two days ago, Gianforte assaulted a reporter.  In front of a large crowd.

Which, you'd think, would have been the end of it.  Game over, Gianforte loses.

But no.  Exit pollsters asked voters if the incident had changed their vote... and almost no one said it had.  One person even said, "It's about time our politicians start standing up to these damn reporters."

Yes.  You read that right.  This person thinks that our elected officials are justified in assaulting a person who was doing his job, which is to report to the public what our elected officials are doing.  In fact, this person apparently believes that the reporter was himself to blame for being assaulted.

So Gianforte went on to win the election by a six-point margin, with crowds cheering "You're forgiven!" when he brought up the assault in his election speech.  It's reminiscent of the comment Donald Trump made last summer, that he could "shoot someone in Times Square" and not lose a bit of his support.

Oh, and did I mention that Gianforte is also a young-Earth creationist?  There's that.

It's getting to the point that I regret it every time I look at the news, because I'm bombarded by more examples of how credulous and ignorant a significant slice of my countrymen are -- and how willing they are to overlook immorality, sociopathy, anger management issues, dishonesty, and downright looniness from the people they vote for, as long as the candidates trot out the party line.  "Values voters."  "Patriotism."  "Religious freedom."  "Small government."  "Deregulation."

And, as I mentioned earlier, "Make America Great Again."

As long as you say the magic words, it doesn't matter what you do.  The voters will still follow right behind you, mooing loudly, and pull the lever on your behalf.

Even writing this is making me have to check my blood pressure.  So I'll end this here, by simply repeating what I started with: What the fuck is wrong with these people?

A woman is suing Jelly Belly because she thought their 'athletic' jelly beans weren't made of sugar.

Sheriff David Clarke's texts to one of his captains asked them to question and follow Dan Black out of the airport because Black had commented on Clarke's Dallas Cowboys gear.

Mayor Andy Burnham's comment was enough to send honest people -- a group in which he can no longer claim membership -- into spasms of disbelief.

This is horrible!

The Facebook founder received an honorary degree from the college on Thursday.

The Big Three were almost the Big Eight!

Third child was not injured in crash

The host was in the middle of her rundown when a loud bark could be heard.

The student said the teacher meant it to be "funny."

"It made me very happy, brought me a lot of joy just to see how happy he was," the bride said.

The recall covers 7-Series vehicles with specific options from the 2005 through 2008 model years.

Wine and wine-based cocktails are always great choices for a party. I often whip up a big batch of sangria when I’m hosting – or attending – a summer barbecue, but it’s not the only way to play with your wine. The New York Sour is a fantastic cocktail for a party because not only is it delicious, but it’s got a dramatic presentation that will make everyone want one.

The drink is a riff on a whiskey sour, a very classic cocktail made with whiskey, lemon juice and simple syrup. You can make whiskey sours with bourbon or rye, and you can also adjust the ratio of sweet to sour to suit your own tastes. The New York Sour is a whiskey sour with a float of red wine on top, a two-tone cocktail that is almost too pretty to drink. In this particular drink, we start with a rye whiskey, which has a nice spiciness and is able to stand up to the red wine very well. I make this drink a touch sweeter than I might make a “plain” whiskey sour because the dry wine on top saps a little of the sweetness out of the base.

To float the wine neatly on top, put it in a small measuring cup and pour it over the back of a spoon. This distributes the wine as you pour it so it floats neatly, rather than mixing in with the rye base. Once the drink is served, you can either stir the two components together with a straw or simply sip the cocktail as-is.

New York Sour
2 oz rye whiskey
3/4 oz lemon juice
3/4 oz simple syrup
1 oz red wine

Combine whiskey, lemon juice and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker and fill with ice. Shake vigorously until cold, then strain into a rocks glass filled with ice. Float red wine on top by slowly pouring it over the back of a spoon near the surface of the drink.

Makes 1.