Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it’s a trap.

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

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

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

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

It looks like winning debates is a black job!

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Oppose, oppose, oppose. Do not congratulate. This is not business as usual.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

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Early Morning Open Thread

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Cranky is endemic. I suspect this is one reason:

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Perspective, my people. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the days are growing longer… which will allow us precious extra minutes to contemplate the black ice that needs to be removed from the sidewalks & driveways. And then we come back in, huddle around the fire, and tell each other scary stories to beguile the hours of darkness.

— Signed, Flight Captain Emopants, W.S.S. Thwartships

Reader Interactions

35Comments

  2. 2.

    SGEW

    Oh, I’m sick of politics;
    I’ve had my full of it,
    Now I reek of bullshit.
    So pardon my distemperment.
    Oh, I’m sick of politics;
    But politics isn’t done with me yet.
    So I’ll just notarize my discontent;
    Never mind the sentiment.
    Never mind as the malcontent
    Excoriates the audience.
    We only know what we’re against.

  3. 3.

    geg6

    Every year, I look forward to the holidays and a long break. And every year, I remember that I hate the fucking holidays.

  4. 4.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SGEW: Nice! What’s that from? (I did a quick Google but came up empty.). Very timely, very apt.

  7. 7.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I’ve had four days off, heading back to work this morning for a short week (haven’t decided yet whether I’ll take off NY Eve and make another four-day weekend). It’s a good time to dress down and clear out old files and paper clutter. But part of me is resisting getting up and ready :-)

    Anne Laurie, I appreciate your reminder about seasonal perspective. I know at my latitude there’s always one day in mid-January when I suddenly *know* the days are lengthening — a different quality to the light or something that’s not solely ruled by clock and calendar. It’s always a nice optimistic moment when it happens.

  10. 10.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SGEW: Really!? Well, very nice. Where might one listen to it? What else have you written/recorded?

    (Might not be able to follow up for a while as am leaving for work — soon, any minute now, see my #7 — but would love to hear this performed if you’ve put it up. Thanks.)

  11. 11.

    eastriver

    If Juicers start posting pictures of their plush animals, then the terrorists will have won.

    Don’t hate the troops.

  12. 12.

    Econwatcher

    That postcard is perfect. I spent Christmas listening to wingnut relatives talk about the exciting prospect of Sean Hannity running for public office (apparently, he has a VERY BIG announcement planned for January) and found out that an immediate member of my family actually participated in a tea party. I’m so proud.

  13. 13.

    Mark

    I am concerned about my mom. Almost 60, unemployed for 10 months, rejected by Kaiser and Blue Cross for health insurance despite no health problems. America’s problems writ small on my own family.

    Anyone have any idea what’s going to happen between the time HCR passes and it actually goes into effect? Seems like nothing of consequence.

    I thought Bob Herbert’s piece in the Times today was way off (but apparently the commenters there do not.) Bob attacks John Kerry’s excise tax on high-value insurance plans because it will hit 20% of families earning $50k-$75k in 2020. Really? I can’t find the report he references (from the Joint Council on Taxation) but I’d be shocked that people with incomes in this range – who qualify for government subsidies if they don’t have insurance – have insurance plans that cost more than $23,000 a year.

    Bob’s usually the champion of people who have little or nothing, but he’s got a hard-on for HCR. Regardless of how it turns out, he doesn’t seem to think it’s something Obama should have focused on.

  16. 16.

    Ash Can

    @Econwatcher:

    apparently, he has a VERY BIG announcement planned for January

    That would be great. All his boorishness and goatfuckery is clearly and neatly preserved on video, him being a teevee star an’ all. His opponents, whether Dem or GOP, would never think to dredge any of it up and feature it in their ads etc., I’m just sure. Flash forward six months, he’ll be back on his show covered in tar and feathers and sobbing on camera. Comedy gold.

  17. 17.

    C. Gallagher

    Bob Herbert has a bit of a bombshell in today’s Times, at least for people like me. It seems there is a 40% excise tax in the Senate HCR bill on “Cadillac Plans” that exceed $23,000 annually for family coverage and $8,500 for individuals, starting in 2013. I’m a freelancer making about $50k, and my crummy individual Oxford plan, which cost me $219/month in 1998 and iis now almost $1000/month, puts me well over the limit. So it seems I have a “Cadillac Plan” and am one of the “wealthy few” and I didn’t even know it. Yay!

    Thanks Joe Lieberman, for looking out for the little guy.

  19. 19.

    Tattoosydney

    @asiangrrlMN:

    No. Our flatmate is supplying us with regular Pedro pictures to lessen our missing of him.

    Still in Amsterdam for new year, then three weeks in Portugal. Life is hard sometimes.

  23. 23.

    Paul in KY

    Coach of Minn should have sat Brett last week when they were getting stomped by Carolina. Especially when he noted that Brett didn’t want to come out. Just so everyone knew who was in charge.

    Factions on a football team have wrecked better teams than the Vikings.

  26. 26.

    Steeplejack

    @asiangrrlMN:

    I visited Taipei a few times in the late ’60s and found it very interesting. I’m sure it has changed a lot, like every other place.

    Maybe I will watch Yi Yi again in your honor. I bought it a month or so ago, and it really held up well from when I first saw it.

    Hope you have a good time despite the family drama. I managed to make it through Christmas with my brother, his S.O., my girlfriend from college (!) and her now 23-year-old twin daughters, all three of whom are now fast friends with my brother. WTF.

  27. 27.

    jwb

    @asiangrrlMN: Except, really, I couldn’t even blame Favre for the loss, which was, you know, doubly frustrating. (It was a missed PAT in regulation and an AP fumble in OT that did us in.)

  28. 28.

    geg6

    Mark @13: At the risk of being flamed once again as so selfish that I want people to die so as to keep my own “Cadillac” health care insurance, I have to point out the reality that it does not take much to get to a $23,000 insurance policy for a family. My own employer’s plan, I have been told, is valued at $11-12,000 per annum for someone like me, a single person. I already pay over $100/mo for my part of the premium and have increased co-pays for all services this year to the tune of 20% more than last year. Under the Senate’s excise tax plan, I will now have a new tax on top. I have had no increase in salary above 1.5% for the last 5 years and none at all in 2009-10. I barely make it on what I have right now and don’t even use my “Cadillac” plan because I generally can’t afford the co-pays. The plan is something that I have no control over as it is determined by the university, presumably in conjunction with the union employees(faculty and service employees) of which I am not one. Bob Herbert is correct in that this is a poison pill in the Senate bill that will hurt working and middle class citizens and families. This is a deadly serious issue for me as even slightly more out of my paycheck truly creates problems for me in paying for things like rent, utilities, and transportation costs. I know that most here think I’m selfish and silly in this, but I know dozens of people and families in the same boat and the political reality here is screwing over people like me in favor of not pissing off the wealthy friends of Dem senators to pay for this HCR bill is not going to be a great triumph for the Dem party when we go out to vote, if we do. I, myself will vote for Dems because that’s how I roll. But I know plenty who are not so tightly affiliated to the party who won’t.

  30. 30.

    Tom Hilton

    @geg6:

    My own employer’s plan, I have been told, is valued at $11-12,000 per annum for someone like me, a single person….I have had no increase in salary above 1.5% for the last 5 years and none at all in 2009-10.

    Gosh, do ya think maybe there’s a connection there? Do ya think maybe the enormous incentive employers have to offer benefits instead of wages might have something to do with your situation?

    @Mark: I like Bob Herbert, but yeah, this time he is way, way off.

    And tangentially…I respect Glenn Greenwald’s knowledge of constitutional law, but when he gets into a pissing match he is a dishonest douchebag. Try counting the distortions in this one, from mischaracterizing his opponents’ arguments (while claiming that’s what they’re doing) to conflating Jonathan Chait with Marty Peretz. I’ve seen Greenwald argue in comment threads, and this is his standard operating procedure–and it’s hugely frustrating to see him never get called on it.

  31. 31.

    Victory

    Obligatory old joke:

    What’s the difference between inlaws and outlaws?

    Outlaws are wanted.

    (rim shot)

  32. 32.

    Anne Laurie

    @Tattoosydney:

    We suspect Pedro will be a big round ball when we get home.

    But you say that like it was a bad thing!

    @RedKitten: Somebody had a good Xmas, eh? There’s a couple points towards the end of that video where SamKitten folds his hands, cocks his head, and manages to look scarily like Chris Matthews, only smarter.

  35. 35.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Bleah. Fie on thee being so many damn time zones away. I knew if I crashed early y’all would show up. Although I figured you’d be out of touch over there (or at least you implied it). Maybe it was just the fact you want fresh cookies. Hey if I time this right they might be waiting on your porch for you to get home!

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