Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Giving up is unforgivable.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Books are my comfort food!

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

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

It’s the corruption, stupid.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

How stupid are these people?

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

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31Comments

  1. 1.

    Svensker

    May I just say that after the national meltdown over Helen Thomas’s comments, the complete lack of outrage — or even comment — over Chuckie Schumer’s comments has even cynical me surprised. Or not.

    I wonder whether the Balloon Juice commenters who were so upset by HT will evince the same emotional turmoil in this new case. Chime in any time, guys.

  2. 2.

    Mumphrey

    Nobody’s up yet, I guess?

    Well, I’d rather be asleep myself, but I have to take our 3 year old girl out for her swim lesson. Only it’s more like a scream and flail in utter panic lesson. She’s getting there, though. She screams and flails less than she did when we began 4 weeks ago…

  3. 3.

    Cat Lady

    Mark Everett’s father was a genius physicist who posited the existence of parallel universes.

    The Chuck Shumer/Helen Thomas comment reactions pretty much is proof of same. The commenter who suggested last week that the space time continuum cleaved in November 2000, and we are in the universe in which Bush won and we are in upside down bizarro world (= hell) was on to something.

  4. 4.

    wengler

    @ svensker

    Here’s the corporate press checklist:

    Is Chuck Schumer a Democrat or does he have any hint of leftism about him? Check.

    Is Chuck Schumer in anyway saying something that offends the government of Israel? No.

    Both parts need to be true to make it a story and/or anti-Semitic like that fired old lady. More dead Arabs don’t matter much. I mean look how critically the US press covered the sanctions/war/invasion against Iraq. If you are brown and foreign you only live at our leisure. It is a gift that can be taken away at any time.

  6. 6.

    Michael

    Here’s an absolute treasure of a 1960 propaganda bit from the American Petroleum Institute on how the drilling industry doesn’t really affect oysters in Louisiana. They soaked oysters in oil and drilling mud, and proclaim that the oysters were “so happy” that they bred futher generations.

    “They never had it so good” is an actual line from the movie.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhTx0a0AkdE&feature=player_embedded

  8. 8.

    wengler

    I think Argentina is overrated despite having the best player in the world. That is all.

  10. 10.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    I’m glad that I decided to sleep the extra 90 minutes rather than wake up at 6am for the start of the Greece/South Korea match.

    I turned on the game in the 55th minute and the Koreans were already up 2-0. I was saying that the Greeks could sneak their way into the second round by playing lock-down defense and sucker-punching their opponents with a counter attack or well taken set piece.

    Yeah, well, that didn’t happen. Now I wouldn’t be surprised if South Korea takes the expected place of either Argentina or Nigeria.

    With the World Cup and the White Sox/Cubs on one game after the other I will be watching a game from 7:30a to about 6p.

    How many people worldwide will be watching the England/USA match today? Hundreds of millions? Billions?

  11. 11.

    Brian J

    What to make of this? From the article:

    The legal battle over the Bush administration’s program of eavesdropping without warrants has never reached the Supreme Court. But it may have come closer than previously known, as a result of an approach to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist prompted by National Security Agency employees who believed the program violated the law.

    Within months of the beginning of the eavesdropping program in October 2001, a staff member of the House Intelligence Committee, alerted to the possibility of illegal spying by N.S.A. insiders and hoping to prompt a high-level legal review, wrote to Chief Justice Rehnquist asking for a meeting, according to several people familiar with the episode.

    …

    In what the employees saw as retaliation, the F.B.I. in 2007 raided the homes of Ms. Roark and the three workers whose complaints started the investigation into the security agency. None have been charged with a crime.

  13. 13.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @wengler:

    I don’t think Argentina is as much overrated as they are under-performing. They’re like Mexico under Hugo Sanchez, or to some extent France under Domenech*. The talent is there but the coach, Maradona, is teched in the head.

    France is either boom or bust. They’ve won 3 cycles ago, were finalist at 2006 but only got 1 point in 2002. And they were lucky to have qualified for 2010 on the handball by Henry (who is my favorite player).

  14. 14.

    Brian J

    On a lighter note, take a look at this outfit worn by Aaron Schock at Tuesday’s White House picnic. Just in case you don’t remember, Schock is the pretty boy House member from Illinois who was supposed to be part of the next generation of Republican leaders, or something like that. He was featured in GQ a couple of months ago. And now it looks like he’s competing for the presidency of the Log Cabin Republicans. I mean, Jesus Christ, there’s nothing wrong with wearing summer colors, but he looks like he’s switched clothes with his wife or girlfriend. I should show this to some of the gay guys I work with. They’d tear him apart (and no, not in that way, you perverts).

  15. 15.

    MikeJ

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:

    I’m glad that I decided to sleep the extra 90 minutes rather than wake up at 6am for the start of the Greece/South Korea match.

    I woke up and saw the beginning and laid in bed. Of course I soon drifted off because man was not meant to wake up at 4:30am. I awoke at halftime when a beer commercial had an announcer yelling GOAL!!!!! over the sound of a cheering crowd. Grrr.

  16. 16.

    NobodySpecial

    Oddly enough, I might be the only person here with Eels stuff on their music player. Fresh Blood’s on the iPod.

    Good song choice.

  17. 17.

    Kered (formerly Derek)

    It has come to my attention that there is another poster named Derek. I am the Derek who cusses. I am an IT dude in my mid 20s. The other Derek seems to be some sort of teacher, who doesn’t swear.

    Anyway, out of politeness I will post as something else.

  18. 18.

    Kered (formerly Derek)

    It has come to my attention that there is another poster named Derek. I am the one who cusses. I am a tech support dude in my mid 20s. The other Derek seems to be some sort of teacher and I haven’t seen him say “fuck” yet.

    I have changed my name to ease confusion.

  19. 19.

    Kered (formerly Derek)

    Man, what the shit. I keep trying to post and it’s going into moderation.

    EDIT: I guess it’s the name. Damnit.

  20. 20.

    debit

    Landlady’s son and grandson are here replacing my 40’s era gas stove that is hardpiped into the wall. Neither one is a plumber or a qualified repair person. And it’s not going well. Pray for me.

  21. 21.

    bondwooley

    Here’s what’s on my mind. I find it interesting that there is a public cry for Obama to “feel our pain” and “show his anger.”

    We hired a calm, Harvard intellectual for the Oval Office and that’s what we got. After 8 years of hysterics, I find that refreshing. Not the crisis, just the tone being set.

    This short satire video makes my point:

    http://bit.ly/cGObyC

    There you have it.

  22. 22.

    cleek

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:

    I’m glad that I decided to sleep the extra 90 minutes rather than wake up at 6am for the start of the Greece/South Korea match.

    i’m glad i decided to sleep the extra four hours instead of getting up at five so i could get to Raleigh in time for the 7AM start of the Race For The Cure. running’s hard enough without the weight of sleep deprivation on my back.

    @bondwooley:
    you may find it refreshing, but the country hates it.

  24. 24.

    matoko_chan

    I don’t if any juicers are interested, but here is a relly stellar comment from a turkish muslim on a pipes thread. It supports my hypothesis that more democracy in MENA will lead to more Islam.

    Thank you Yasemin for your lengthy comment. I fully agree with you that darkness will never replace enlightenment …nor should it! It is just that I see democracy …the expressed will of the Turkish people… as enlightenment and Kemalist dogma which silences the voice of the Turkish people as darkness.

    You have done an excellent job of memorizing Kemalist propaganda, but you need to do some critical analysis of this dogma. Remember the Turkish war hero Gen Kazim Karabekir said, “We won our independence, but lost our freedom through a single party regime.” when Ataturk took over.

    Your whole defense of Kemalism boils down to your belief that Turkish people were/are ignorant and cannot elect the “correct” people to represent them. I think you are wrong. Turkish people have elected the AKP to govern the country, not the generals. If AKP doesn’t meet Turkish people’s expectations, they will be kicked out in the next election and replaced by some other party …that’s democracy and all Turks except hardline Kemalists understand it very well. You should try to understand it, too.

    You are saying, there were no empires when Ataturk took over. Well, there are still a lot of empires and kingdoms far more advanced than Republic of Turkey. It may surprise you to find out that England, Belgium, Sweden, Norway & Denmark are NOT republics but kingdoms, not despotic kingdoms, of course. People can get rid of the Kings & Queens through a peaceful referendum. On the other hand, Libya, Syria & Egypt are republics. Where would you rather live if you had a choice?

    Ataturk changed the alphabet to cut off future generations of Turks from the 600-year heritage of the Ottoman empire and re-write history in line with his ego! You see you cannot read the massive Ottoman archives! There were other reasons, too.

    Muslims are commanded to obey (not worship) legitimate authority in the interest of social order. In democracies, elected governments are legitimate authority, not generals armed to the teeth! You seem to think that the only choice in Turkey is Kemalism or Islamic teachings formed in the 6th century. That’s not right. The real options are despotic Kemalist dogma enforced by guns or democracy which is the free expression of the will of the people. I prefer democracy.

  25. 25.

    debit

    @jeffreyw: You’ll be sorry when I’m dead.

    Seriously, there’s no shut off at the wall, so they’re just going to disconnect the current shut off valve and install the new flex pipe while gas merrily flows through the house. “Oh, it’s not that much,” he says. I just hope that when I blow up, I’ll have blown up real good.

  26. 26.

    jeffreyw

    @debit: There is no shut off at the meter? Run away! If you return and it’s hooked up and seems OK, mix a little dish soap in some water and whip up some suds, paint the suds on every joint to check for leaks.

  27. 27.

    Steeplejack

    @Kered (formerly Derek):

    You probably figured this out by now, but when you first post under a new name it goes into moderation to be vetted by the powers that be.

    I have no idea what the “vetting” involves, other than a front-pager mashing a button (as we say in the South).

  29. 29.

    debit

    @jeffreyw: I did not blow up. And thanks for the tip. No bubbles, so I can rest easy-ish that I shall not blow up in the near future.

Comments are closed.