Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

I was promised a recession.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Republicans in disarray!

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

T R E 4 5 O N

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

We still have time to mess this up!

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

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Open Thread

by | 76 Comments

This post is in: 

Sorry for the lack of posts, and there is a ton going on, including the updates on the wiretapping stuff, the reform of the Rockefeller laws in NY (I forget who I was reading that was talking about that), and a whole host more, but I woke up this morning with a sinus headache that has, through the course of the day, gotten progressively worse. I am now starting to feel serious flu related stuff as well.

Oh wells.

Reader Interactions

76Comments

  1. 1.

    Comrade Stuck

    That’s Ok. I’m about sick of politics anyway. About all we have are wingnut Clown Cars running amock. You see one crash and the rest just keep piling up behind it. It’s getting embarrassing to tell the truth. Meanwhile. Obama keeps plugging along passing his bills.

  2. 2.

    MikeJ

    Tomorrow is the anniversary of the one day presidency of David Rice Atchison. HE never claimed he was president, but it’s a fun little bit of trivia.

  4. 4.

    Jay

    I’m beginning to think that we are going to legalize marijuana very soon. I just heard some Mexican official say that the cartels are getting 60% of their revenue from it. Obama couldn’t care less about enforcement. California is screaming for it. CNBC is turning into the Pot Channel at night.

    Anybody else feelin’ it?

  6. 6.

    Nicole

    It sounds like you’re getting what I had. Three days of misery (day 1 is the worst) and it’s over. And you’re not hungry, so it’s totally awesome once it’s over because you lose weight. Always a pony somewhere.

  7. 7.

    Studly Pantload, Would Be Minion of John Cole

    They say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, but the state says I have a weekly quota of jobs to apply for to keep receiving unemployment bennies. Maybe this upcoming fourth month will be a charm. That, or I need to find my big Napoleon hat.

  8. 8.

    bootlegger

    @Jay: Yay Jay! But it will be hemp first at the national level for interstate commerce and then the states will be allowed to decide their own smoking laws.

  9. 9.

    bootlegger

    @Nicole: Go to the pharmacy counter and get the good stuff with ephedrine in it. If you’re going to be sick you may as well catch a buzz. Also, the whole "Meth Watch" paperwork is a circus to behold.

  11. 11.

    syl

    Did anyone hear anything about the Senate debate on the Omnibus Appropriations Bill today? I’m hoping the relative silence means there were only limited porkulus-style theatrics, but I’m having trouble believing that.

  13. 13.

    passerby

    I hate headaches of any sort. Hope it goes away soon. For those of the sinus type, I’ll have some pineapple or pineapple juice or some bromelin capsules and it breaks right up. I used to live on daily Claritin D before I quit using pharmaceuticals.

    OT:

    Tavis Smiley’s State of The Black Union (10th Year) was held in LA this past Saturday. I watched the 6 and 1/2 hour broadcast on CSpan last night. As usual, Smiley assembled 2 of the most outstanding panels of philosophers, academics, businessmen, politicians and the like.

    Cornell West, Sharpton, JJackson, Les Brown, Maxine Waters, Michael Steele (!!), and others held forth on a variety of topics with wisdom, candor, passion, and humor.

    The best insight, IMO, was from Tricia Rose (on the a.m. panel) who explained why the whole Hip Hop culture of "ganstas, pimps, and hos" was not a net positive for the black community but has been made into a commodity (a money maker) and therefore (erroneously) embraced as "black culture". I was astounded by her reasoning.

    The program was intelligent and thought provoking. I look forward to it every year. I think this year Tavis outdid himself. Bravo.

  14. 14.

    Tim in SF

    Hi John,

    Since this is an open thread, I thought I’d point out the strange way Google Reader treats your blog.

    Here’s a post. See the how the block quote ends early?

    http://hisnameistimmy.com/temp/google-reader.png

    Here’s the real post by way of comparison:

    http://hisnameistimmy.com/temp/b-j.png

    I looked at the source code and there is no reason I can figure out that this should be happening. The /blockquote tag just doesn’t appear where the blockquote is ending. It’s boggling my mind. The only thing I can think of as a possible cause is the blockquote is being placed inside the paragraph tag, instead of outside of the paragraph, which I think is more browser friendly.

    [p] [blockquote] text (on Balloon juice)

    versus

    [blockquote] [p] text (elsewhere)

  17. 17.

    Studly Pantload, Would Be Minion of John Cole

    Shuster’s twisting some GOPer congresscritter’s balls on Rush’s "Obama must fail" stance. ‘Tis quite entertaining.

  18. 18.

    JL

    OT According to Barry at The Big Picture, playboy pulled the Santelli article. How many of CNBC’s lawyers pounced on them?

  19. 19.

    Brick Oven Bill

    My open thread contribution regards Germany and mechanical bottling lines. When travelling in Latin America, it is a common occurrence to encounter German tourists. My impression is almost always that the individual is very disciplined, perhaps this is a stereotype, but it is also my impression. There was a guy I hung out with who called an ex-girlfriend ‘rubbish’, in a way which really impressed me.

    I was involved in a brewery project once, and interacted with a German company named Krones. Did you know it costs $10 million+ to set up a basic Krones carbonated bottling line? In any case, I signed up for the Krones magazine, which has become my favorite periodical. Today, I opened up the 1/2009 issue and it does not disappoint.

  20. 20.

    Laura W Darling

    Ah man…here I thought the lack of posts was a deliberate, charitable action on your part so the Lend a Hand post could sit at the top of the front page for 5 hours with no competition from clowns or Rush (redundancy alert.)
    Worked out nicely for Svensker’s friend anyhow. Maybe all the good karma accrued will lessen the pain of your symptoms.

    There was a guy I hung out with who called an ex-girlfriend ‘rubbish’, in a way which really impressed me.

    Oh Bill…you are so incorrigible.

  21. 21.

    Betsy

    It’s gross, but since I started using a neti pot early this winter I haven’t had a single sinus headache. Sinus infections and the accompanying headaches are usually a regular feature of winter for me, so I am totally impressed with how well it’s worked. (Sorry for the overshare.)

  22. 22.

    Comrade Dread

    I love greater wingnutosphere.

    Apparently when the Dow drops during a Democratic presidency, it’s because no one believes in him. But when it drops during a Republican presidency, it’s because of market fundamentals and corrections.

    And yes, legalize marijuana now. I don’t smoke it, but Prohibition of any sort was extremely stupid and of dubious constitutionality (considering the temperance brigades had to get an amendment for it the first time around).

  23. 23.

    JL

    @The Grand Panjandrum: I missed it. Did he admit that he wanted the Administration to fail? I have two sons that enjoy working. If the administration fails, their jobs as well as the jobs of lots of others are in jeopardy.

  24. 24.

    Studly Pantload, Would Be Minion of John Cole

    [email protected]: The rep did state he didn’t want Obama – or any – president to fail, but wouldn’t say Rush was wrong on this, and just kept heaping platitudes his way. One wonders where Rush stashes all those elected Republicans’ testicles.

    [Edit: Just backed up the Tivo to re-watch. The rep is John Barrasso out of Wyoming. And, yes, his inability to say, “on this one issue, Rush is wrong” is just — veritably stupefying.]

  25. 25.

    Comrade Stuck

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    I was involved in a brewery project once, and interacted with a German company named Krones

    Was that before or after you flew Mars on an eclectic training mission with the Chinese waitress?

  30. 30.

    Josh Hueco

    @JL:

    I have two sons that enjoy working. If the administration fails, their jobs as well as the jobs of lots of others are in jeopardy.

    This is exactly why Obama was so shrewd in tying Rush around the GOPs neck. Many Americans now consider their individual fates tied to the success of the Obama’s legislative program, especially as regards job creation, health care, and so on. When they hear Rush openly wish for Obama to fail, they take that to mean that he and the GOP both are wanting their lives to go down the drain with Obama. No wonder the the GOP and the Fat Man are polling at around 20%.

  31. 31.

    demkat620

    Can somebody answer a question for me, cause my winger friend won’t?

    If a business is losing money because people aren’t buying what they produce, how does a tax cut help them to hire more people?

  32. 32.

    Comrade Stuck

    @JL:

    Did he admit that he wanted the Administration to fail?

    He kissed Limbaugh’s ass boil with a nervous declaration he was on the same wingnut page as Rush. Said he didn’t want Obama to fail but wouldn’t say Limbaugh was wrong, or even that he disagreed with him. I am soooo thankful I’m not a republican.

  37. 37.

    AhabTRuler, Union Minion

    Photo here of snow day. It was cheap, it didn’t snow that much, but I’ll take it.

    -AhabTRuler, Minions’ Local #45, Amalgamated Federation of Underlings.

    I did not now that there was a limit on handle length, but when I tried to post the above, it broke. Learn something new…

    Union First.

  38. 38.

    Martin

    If a business is losing money because people aren’t buying what they produce, how does a tax cut help them to hire more people?

    Shut up, that’s why!

  39. 39.

    Studly Pantload, Would Be Minion of John Cole

    Snark Based @ 33:

    Ha! Shorter Steele: "All my lunch monies are belong to Rush."

  41. 41.

    Krista

    It’s gross, but since I started using a neti pot early this winter I haven’t had a single sinus headache. Sinus infections and the accompanying headaches are usually a regular feature of winter for me, so I am totally impressed with how well it’s worked. (Sorry for the overshare.)

    You must have missed it when we actually had an entire thread devoted to the neti pot. Needless to say, we’re not an easily grossed-out lot.

  45. 45.

    Studly Pantload, Would Be Minion of John Cole

    Now Michelle Bernard is on Shuster’s show, and boy-howdy, is she concerned! Since that’s pretty rare coming from her, I better sit up and listen! /cold-induced snark

  46. 46.

    Comrade Dread

    If a business is losing money because people aren’t buying what they produce, how does a tax cut help them to hire more people?

    In the middle of a recessionary cycle, it won’t. A rational actor will take the extra money and likely put it into a bank as a personal safety net against worse times.

    Banks, in all likelihood, will probably keep most of that on hand to pad their own cash reserves, because there is still the matter of a lot of phantom toxic assets hovering around out there on their balance sheets.

    Best case scenario, by cutting taxes, we allow some businesses to have a buffer which they can use to pay their fixed costs and stay in business if it gets really bad for them. But most of that money will not be out circulating in the economy, and it sure as hell won’t be used to expand a business to meet a non-existent demand.

    The exception to this would be if your company produced an inferior good (a good whose demand increases when personal income falls, think Spam or Campbell’s Soup), in which case, you might very likely use a cash infusion to boost production.

    But for the rest of the businesses out there, a tax cut might prompt expansion or new enterprises, if we were already on our way out of the recession, but it won’t work when we’re riding the Dow coaster down to hell.

  47. 47.

    TenguPhule

    Shut up, that’s why!

    Hookers and booze. You can’t go wrong with hookers and booze.

  48. 48.

    Svensker

    If you’re getting an upper respiratory/schnozz type flu, John, then definitely go for the Zicam and the Sambucol. They really do help reduce the effects and duration.

  50. 50.

    Numberwang

    I think Obama’s following through on Bush’s policies in order to get the court to strike it down at the root after he gets some picks for the Supreme Court. You need that if you’re going to do a halfway decent job with investigation of the previous administration.

  53. 53.

    Brick Oven Bill

    This Krones issue highlights Spain, and I have found it online and will share when I have it downloaded. The writing in this magazine is disciplined and fact-based, I personally enjoy it very much.

    Here is one fact: Spain has 46 million residents, but 60 million tourists. Per capita beer consumption among the residents is going down while beer consumption among the tourists is going up. The overall rate of beer consumption has gone from 67 liters per head to 83 liters per head each year.

    Krones does not speculate as to why, but I have a theory. Spain is poorer than Germany. The Spanish decrease is thus budget-based (beer is expensive in Europe); while the German tourist increase is a situational awareness-based coping mechanism.

    I believe the European Union to be falling apart and that the German people, who have funded most of the effort, are going to pull in their horns. In other news, the Pizza Price Index has fallen again, to $1.45. It was the cheese again.

  55. 55.

    Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse

    If you don’t have a neti pot, a syringe like the one used to remove ear wax also works. Push GENTLY on the syringe, though.

  56. 56.

    Studly Pantload, Would Be Minion of John Cole

    Numberwang @ 50 (well, for now it’s comment #50):

    Interesting theory. And not too dissimilar from my theory that Obama’s insistence that we can’t nationalize (establish receivership for, or what have you) the Big Banks is so that when we finally do, he can claim he got dragged into it kicking and screaming. I’m not convinced we actually have a President Rope-a-Dope on our hands, but it just might be…

  58. 58.

    hana

    So I’m at home feeling a bit poorly today myself, and have been looking at various links John has up. Just clicked over to Calvinists for Conservatism and OH MY GOD that can’t possibly for real, can it? Seriously now. This can’t be true? (Sorry for the long cut-and-paste)

    "Real Americans and Christians salute this fine couple!

    BOY dad Alfie Patten yesterday admitted he does not know how much nappies cost — but said: “I think it’s a lot.”

    Baby-faced Alfie, who is 13 but looks more like eight, became a father four days ago when his girlfriend Chantelle Steadman gave birth to 7lb 3oz Maisie Roxanne.

    He told how he and Chantelle, 15, decided against an abortion after discovering she was pregnant.

    While these children may be on grounds for execution because of their selfish, sinful desires to fornicate, one has to admire their stance towards the sanctity of life. I am hardly the only one who expresses such viewpoints, however:

    Last night Michaela Aston, of the anti-abortion Christian charity LIFE, said: “We commend these teenagers for their courage in bringing their child into the world.

    “At the same time this is symptomatic of the over-sexualisation of our youngsters and shows the policy of value-free sex education just isn’t working.”

    We should be thankful that these children did not attempt to use a condom while fornicating, and we should also be thankful that they knew of no such thing before fornicating. (Hopefully, they are still unaware that condoms exist, which is an excellent preemptive strategy to keep teenagers from fornicating.) When one wears a condom, the desire to fornicate increases quite rapidly; furthermore, the 99% failure rate of condoms is not something we should take lightly." "

  59. 59.

    hana

    Also, their "Enemies List" is awesome!

    Edited to add: Sweet Jesus, the Presbyterian Church is on their Enemies List! I hate to think what they’d make of, say, CuteOverload.

  60. 60.

    Studly Pantload, Would Be Minion of John Cole

    @Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse:

    Well, today, Ms. Bernard was concerned that the left using Rush as a 300-lb wedge and the right using Pelosi as a wedge were harmful to a substantive debate about how conservative values and policies would save the day, blah blah. Did I mention that she said this in a very concerned way?

  61. 61.

    Laura W Darling

    @AhabTRuler, Minions’ Local #45, Amalgamated Federation of Underlings: I am totally enamored with your new long-form handle. I was just about to ditch my Darling, but seeing the minion masses rise up and boldly claim their status, wearing it on their posts so proudly….Darling I shall remain.

    Edit: Hey! Did you see what happened? That dash – in front of your handle causes it to strike through all the way on my reply instead of turn blue and link back to your comment. I took out the – and magic!

  62. 62.

    Martin

    If a business is losing money because people aren’t buying what they produce, how does a tax cut help them to hire more people?

    I should give a real answer….

    Credit has always been the resource for expansion – not cash on hand. You hire people because a challenge has arisen – more customers, new market you can capture, loss of a competitor, etc. – that you think will allow you to bring in more revenue. No self respecting CEO looks at the books and says ‘Hey, we’ve got all this money, go hire some people!’.

    You hire because an opportunity is there and you take out credit to do it. Normally, if you can’t get credit, that’s a pretty good measure from the marketplace that you shouldn’t be doing it at all. But the credit situation is a bit different now, so the tax cut argument actually carries a little more weight than usual – very little, but a little.

    Any successful company would ignore the tax cut altogether wrt expansion. If they needed to expand they would have even without the tax cut and if they didn’t need to expand, they’d bank the tax cut and either turn it back toward investors, use it to acquire someone, or save it for a rainy day. They certainly wouldn’t use it to hire people.

  64. 64.

    Brick Oven Bill

    Here is another fact from this industry publication. One page 110, this magazine describes how in only one liter of soil, there are on average ONE BILLION living creatures, broken down as follows:

    One billion ciliates, flagellates, and amoebas;
    One thousand springtails;
    Five hundred rotifers and tardigrades (isopods);
    Two thousand mites and ticks;
    Two earthworms;
    One hundred insects, centipedes, and small spiders;
    Thirty thousand nermatode worms; and
    Fifty small bristle worms.

    Then check out the fannie on page ten. All of this from a beer equipment supplier. This may be one reason why German equipment costs triple what Chinese equipment costs.

  65. 65.

    AhabTRuler, Minions’ Local #45, Amalgamated Federation of Underlings

    @Laura W Darling: I have stopped trying to figure out this page, I think it runs on surplus Soviet-era equipment in some shack in Irkutsk.

    Ever since Rome changed her link to the blockquote instructions, I religious use [p] & [/p] in all my blockquotes. Does it always work as advertised? OTOH, edit is the best thing since sliced bread, and it makes up for many galls, unless you go into mod.

    I also think it is interesting that the word "blockquote" is not in the dictionary.

  72. 72.

    hana

    I thought it must be at first, and I think I have a pretty good BS detector, but especially in the comments section he sounds like your garden variety crazy guy, not a satirist. Anyway, then I followed the link to the Flat Earth Society, where they have a part saying, "Oh yeah, well if the earth is round, I get it why people don’t fall off the North Pole, but what force keeps people on the South Pole from falling off? If you’re so smart?"

    That’s when I suddenly saw the light, locked my chastity belt on, and started baptizing all my stuffed animals. Full immersion, mo-fo!

  73. 73.

    Reality-based

    3 things:

    1. I would like to be a minion-of-John-Cole, too – but are these positions hereditary, or can anyone apply? Also, are our current appearances acceptable, or must we look like Glory’s Minions on BTVS, Season 5? If so, do we also have to get our brains sucked out and eaten by John whenever he is feeling under the weather?

    2. John, if you’ve got/are getting the flu, and don’t have any minions around for a recharging brain feast – then go get yourself some Airborne (at any drug or grocery store) . Fizzy stuff, orange flavored, drop it into a cup of water and chug it 4 or 5 times a day. This stuff really speeds recovery.

    (I learned about it from friends who work in pediatric oncology and really don’t want to pass infections on to their young immuno-compromised patients – they all swear by the stuff. )

    3. If you get sinus infections a lot – I used to, a doctor in a Tel Aviv hotel once prescribed plain old Bactrim (sulfa drug from the 50s) – said it works great on sinuses, and he was right. (Unless you’re allergic, of course. )

    4. Would the BJ-ers on this thread please settle a scrabble argument? If playing with other non-doctrinaire types (which I was) – can the words "bible" and "koran" be used (or "quran", the alternative spelling I really wanted to use ) or are they ALWAYS proper (capitalized) nouns, and as such, verboten. Opinions, lease.

  74. 74.

    handy

    @Reality-based:

    Re: #4 I think "bible" is acceptable because it has reached a common usage even outside its use as a proper noun, e.g. "The mechanic’s bible," "The Dog Bible," etc. Kuran is a little harder case to make, not only cuz it’s furrin but also because it’s use is nearly always specifically about the Muslim holy book. HTH.

  75. 75.

    Tattoosydney

    @hana:

    I know the thread is dead, but this:

    “At the same time this is symptomatic of the over-sexualisation of our youngsters and shows the policy of value-free sex education just isn’t working.”

    We should be thankful that these children did not attempt to use a condom while fornicating, and we should also be thankful that they knew of no such thing before fornicating. (Hopefully, they are still unaware that condoms exist, which is an excellent preemptive strategy to keep teenagers from fornicating.) When one wears a condom, the desire to fornicate increases quite rapidly; furthermore, the 99% failure rate of condoms is not something we should take lightly."

    Must be responded to with this:

    But on Sunday two boys, aged 14 and 16, both claimed they could be the father of 15-year-old Chantelle Steadman’s daughter.

    Several others have also claimed to have had a sexual relationship with the schoolgirl, from Eastbourne in Sussex.

    …

    The Patten family have now accepted that a DNA test is needed to confirm the paternity.

    Max Clifford, the publicist who is representing Alfie and his family, said: "Nicola has agreed that DNA tests are the best way to resolve the issue of paternity.

    "It is inevitable there are going to be doubts, particularly with the number of boys who’ve come forward claiming to have had sex with Chantelle.

    "There is one boy in particular who does seem to have a stronger resemblance to the child."

  76. 76.

    HRA

    I have to repeat my warning of the sinus condition that sends out flu signals. Do not hesitate to go to the doctor.
    I have a medicine cabinet full of over the counter remedies I took from mid December till late January. None of them cured me. I took one antibiotic for 10 days. Two days later I was sick again. The antibacterial 5 pills for 4 days cured me.

    You do not want to go through my misery. Make an appointment with the doctor, John.

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