Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Petty moves from a petty man.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

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

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

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

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

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

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Reader Interactions

99Comments

  3. 3.

    Hunter Gathers

    Some people just have no sense of humor. Which explains why Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon are still on TV.

  4. 4.

    Mnemosyne

    Oh, fine, I finally find the perfect music video for a thread and it gets deleted. Hmpf.

  6. 6.

    beltane

    @randiego: Did I miss something other than the stalker? My father once told me that half this country is on drugs while the other half is naturally insane. He had a point.

  8. 8.

    beltane

    @demimondian: This one was creepy. I kind of miss Brick Oven Bill, who is now annoying people over at Wonkette. Even that crowd finds him hard to take.

  9. 9.

    eemom

    uh oh……the mighty Cole is flexing his Moderator muscles…..

    And which post was it?? I hate missing flame wars.

  10. 10.

    Josh

    I’m glad I missed it. My foray into the world of trolling produced within me a heart of darkness–

    Blah blah.

    Futurama was awesome.

    But I’m serious. 95% of the internet is just unhinged.

    The FBI agrees.

  11. 11.

    soonergrunt

    Your blog, your rules. Who was the psycho troll? I mean, I know I kind of went round the twist there a bit, but surely I wasn’t the psycho…

  20. 20.

    handy

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    Good one.

    I just deleted an earlier post because the comments were going downhill and I didn’t want to wake up and have to deal with you all bitching at each other saying ugly things.

    I didn’t read the post, so I can’t say how bad it got, but I’ve seen it get pretty toxic here before. Why the hammer now?

  22. 22.

    General Egali Tarian Stuck

    @eemom:

    I swore off the flame wars. You can only bang your head against the wall so many times till brain damage sets in. Plus, I got one hell rippin;’ temper when provoked the right way. Ugly, very.

    And it is raining outside. woot! almost forgot what it was like. Thanky you Druid Earth Mother! And the mighty FSM too., also.

  24. 24.

    Josh

    I used to be a blogger for a low-key blog that monitored several right-wing whackjobs. I was at the forefront of some of the things people brush off as “crazy-talk” back when they were first starting. The birthers, for one.

    I don’t know what kind of vitriol Cole and his compatriots see behind the scenes, but our blog got a lot of comments that were death threats, stalking, and just completely crazy gibberish. They stalked some of our bloggers, found out their identities, and—I just can’t go on with what happened.

    Right-wing whackjobs are dangerous. These things should be taken seriously.

  25. 25.

    arguingwithsignposts

    I just deleted an earlier post because the comments were going downhill and I didn’t want to wake up and have to deal with you all bitching at each other saying ugly things.

    And how many posts did we have about the blockade of Gaza?

  26. 26.

    Brian J

    Yesterday, my new iPhone came in the mail. I set it up all by myself, as I am sure many others did, seeing as how it’s so quick and easy. After seeing a ton of people waiting in line at the Apple store as I was going home from work, I had to wonder, why would anyone pick it up at the store? What can they do there that justifies such a long wait? I know of one guy who waited from 9:30 in the morning until about 3:00 in the afternoon. Who in his right mind would do that?

    Speaking of which, I think I like the feel of the old phone just a little better. Maybe I will think differently after a few days, or once I get a new case, but it doesn’t feel natural like the other one did.

  29. 29.

    fucen tarmal

    for the second time today on b.j. i invoketh the carlin…

    where else can i see a 37 car pile up and not be part of it?

    sorry i missed it, i love e-rubbernecking.

  30. 30.

    amorphous

    John, now you’re just one step closer to deleting all the Cole-as-wingnut history in the arXivs here. Then how will little boats ever know why you abandoned the right?

  31. 31.

    Warren Terra

    @Katie:

    I always miss the obnoxious ones.

    And this is a bad thing?

    I read the post Cole deleted, but not the comments. Seemed like Weigel got a bit too graphic in expressing himself for the uncontrolled medium on which he expressed himself (after all, other peoples’ choice comments have previously leaked from the email list to which he sent his comment, when some Fauxtrage could be concocted from them). But (aside from the borderline violent imagery of his comment) he wasn’t wrong. Intemperate, and dumb to express himself in such an inappropriate fashion, but his basic point about his antagonists wasn’t wrong.

    Still, given that Weigel had crossed a boundary into metaphorical violence, sort-of in public, I can imagine his lapse was great big bloody hunks of chum to incite the trolls.

  33. 33.

    Brian J

    Oh yeah, in regards to the previous thread about the failure of some recent economic legislation, I am not sure if a lot of people read the entire thing. You only need to read through half of it, in fact, to see that the reporter did give several reasons for why the legislation failed.

    Here are some clips from the article:

    The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has insisted that the bill not add to the deficit. Democrats argued that they had found ways to cover the entire cost of the $112 billion measure, with the exception of the $35.5 billion extension of unemployment benefits, which some Republicans said they could accept.

    “The only thing Republicans have opposed in this debate are job-killing taxes and adding to the national debt,” Mr. McConnell said. Anticipating that Democrats would reject his proposal, he added, “Their commitment to deficit spending trumps their desire to help the unemployed.”

  34. 34.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    I take the day off and all hell breaks loose. I guess my hulking presence is required to maintain order. Sigh.

    I do and I do..

  35. 35.

    Placebo

    HAH, the blog that hosts DougJ suddenly doesn’t like bitch fests in their comments section. Classic.

  36. 36.

    ondioline

    This is what happens when you promise pictures of Tunch and then you jew us, welsh on the deal, you indian-giver.

    OFFENSIVE! UGLY!!!1

    I DEMAND TUNCH

  37. 37.

    someguy

    Who gives a crap what Weigel said? He’s the designated libertoid troll for the WaPo. So he hurt poow wittow matty’s feewings? Waaaaaaah.

    The shit ordinary wingers say is an order of magnitude worse than anything Weigel wrote on journolist. The concern trolling about rhetorical violence – when 40% of the country is neck deep in it – is a bit much.

  40. 40.

    eemom

    @General Egali Tarian Stuck:

    well, ya gotta choose your flame wars. Often times it’s best to be a spectator.

    I will say that one about the 16 year old sailor threw me for a loop, though. I really didn’t expect that to be as controversial as it was.

  41. 41.

    Kered (formerly Derek)

    Posting in an open thread just so I can do that “+ however many” thing.

    +1 (I try to limit it to one drink a night on the weekdays, because I drink a LOT more than that on the weekends)

    Had some Evan Williams Black Label with a nice big ice cube in a sweet-ass glass I got at the Goodwill for a buck. Can’t believe this whiskey is only ten bucks for a 750.

  43. 43.

    Brian J

    @handy:

    In what sense? Wouldn’t being such a fan make you want to have the device as fast as possible?

    I also don’t understand the people who will pay several times the asking price just to get a phone a few days before they would otherwise get it. Perhaps it’s not that common, but the last time I was buying some related product on Ebay, I remember seeing phones going for a few thousand bucks. Anyone who would pay that much more to get a phone a week earlier than they otherwise would is a moron, plain and simple.

  45. 45.

    demimondian

    @ellaesther: Yeah, but it’s the meek, mild milquetoasts you need to watch out for in flame wars. They have so much *bottled up* anger, you know.

  47. 47.

    Mike Kay

    @someguy: sounds like one of his editors asked him to apologize. remember, wapo doesn’t like to hurt winger fee fees.

  48. 48.

    demimondian

    @mai naem: You know, it’s odd. There’s a great tradition of underhanded tricksters who are heroes in their own ethnic groups: the “Yankee trader”, the “Arkansas traveller”, the “traveling medicine show”. All of them are figures of amused respect, clever, cunning, perhaps not completely honest, but mostly prized.

    Why is it that the equivalent Jewish and Roma figures are epithets?

  50. 50.

    demimondian

    @Mike Kay: Not exactly. WaPo doesn’t want to lose winger Kaplan fees. Pretty much the same outcome, in the end, just a slightly different motivation.

  55. 55.

    demimondian

    This “little boots”…entity. Is it the creepy troll? I mean, it’s certainly creepy and odd and a troll.

  56. 56.

    Little Boots

    He is not a troll. He is, however, wondering what is with the oversenstivity on this site.

  57. 57.

    Little Boots

    This is not a humorless, or stupid, site. What is with you people tonight? Why are you impersonating Cornerites? Am I being punked?

  58. 58.

    hamletta

    @mai naem: Well, I am Welsh (partly, anyway), and I…don’t give a shit.

    It was really Englishmen whose markers were no good who lit out west and gave welshing its name. In fact, my Welsh ancestor had an English name, so he or his forefathers might have been one of those nogoodniks.

  62. 62.

    arguingwithsignposts

    BTW, since this is an open thread, I’m posting again. I’m going to be in the Windy City Saturday for the Pride Parade. I’ll be wearing my BJ t-shirt (get your minds out of the gutter!), so if you are there, be on the lookout and say “hi” if you can. I hope to have some photos to post as well. Closest I’ve ever gotten to Lord Stanley’s Cup.

  63. 63.

    Anne Laurie

    @beltane:

    I kind of miss Brick Oven Bill, who is now annoying people over at Wonkette.

    Bite your tongue! Normally I agree with you, but… SRLSY?

    What I saw of the disappeared thread (and I completely understand JC’s choice to end the argument) involved the semi-regular who… well, if Balloon Juice were important enough to have its own NSA monitor, s/he would be that monitor. Or actually is that monitor, depending on your taste for tinfoil as a fashion option. The quality of the arguments were not such that the world will miss them even an iota.

  68. 68.

    handy

    @Brian J:

    You’re asking me to explain why it’s fanboism when people wait in line through ungodly hours to buy overpriced Apple products from Apple stores?

  70. 70.

    ellaesther

    @mai naem: Well yes, but if you were a Jew, a Welshman/woman and/or an Indian, you would have to feel offended by ondioline, and dude, that’s three against one! Or something.

    (Full disclosure: I had no idea until I was very much an adult — like, late-30s — that “gypped” was in anyway related to anything ethnic. Which I’m not sure says very much for my powers of observation, but there it is).

  72. 72.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @handy:

    Looks like Doug’s +infinity and beyond again and is messing with us.

    I would say that apparently DougJ is in Europe atm, and for him to be +infinity and beyond would mean he’s up at an ungodly hour.

  74. 74.

    Anne Laurie

    @MikeJ:

    Are they wasting resources, posting two of us here?

    Hey, I assumed you guys worked opposite shifts, but maybe you should walk over to the other wing and have The Talk, eh?

  75. 75.

    Electricgrendel

    There are times when I imagine John to be the nanny from the Muppet Babies cartoon. Except instead of offering comfort and wisdom he’s confiscating flamethrowers and long knives.

  76. 76.

    Brachiator

    @handy:

    You’re asking me to explain why it’s fanboism when people wait in line through ungodly hours to buy overpriced Apple products from Apple stores?

    Yeah, it’s nothing like all those people who have been in line waiting for the next Twilight film to open.

    Everybody has something that they are nuts about, God bless ’em. A couple of guys in my office kept checking with the warehouse guy on when the FedEx delivery of their iPhones was going to happen and when the units finally arrived they were useless for the rest of the day, because they needed to charge and set up their phones right away.

    The whole iPhone craziness almost distracted from the people who were sneaking peeks at the World Cup play. Fortunately, it was a slow day at the office.

  77. 77.

    Sly

    @Brian J:

    The reporter in question, however, didn’t see through McConnell’s transparently lame argument. Even for a NYT journalist, that was pretty sad. McConnell could have said “We oppose this bill because Saturn is in the Second House” and the interviewer would have dutifully copied it down and went on their way.

  78. 78.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Sly:

    The reporter in question, however, didn’t see through McConnell’s transparently lame argument.

    This is the standard of “he said/she said” journalism. I often wonder how many of these reporters actually see through the transparent GOP bullshit but don’t call them on it because the reporter has been trained to practice that type of “objectivity.”

  79. 79.

    bjkeefe

    I just deleted an earlier post because the comments were going downhill and I didn’t want to wake up and have to deal with you all bitching at each other saying ugly things.

    Ahem.

    I kid, because I love.

  80. 80.

    burnspbesq

    @handy:

    “Overpriced?” Not to those who buy them.

    You do understand the difference between fact and opinion, don’t you?

  81. 81.

    Steeplejack

    @bjkeefe:

    God, are you back again?

    Someone fetch the garlic, the silver bullets and the wooden stakes. And get me Dr. Van Helsing on line 2.

  82. 82.

    Something Fabulous

    @arguingwithsignposts: Aww. Sorry to miss it! Very much fun. Very very sparkly people to look at! I’m in LA, but I used to live there and worked in a bar in the hood. If you ever want to feel completely invisible, be a straight girl in ordinary clothes in boystown that weekend. It’s like a cloaking device, I swear.

  83. 83.

    bjkeefe

    @Steeplejack:

    God, are you back again?

    Thank you kindly for the compliment, but really, I’m not that high on the food chain. Just got stripped of my archangel stripes, matter of fact. (By someone higher up who did not like my sense of humor, I’m told.)

    Actually, I am almost always here, at least via RSS. I love this blog more than almost any other, and that’s no joke.

  84. 84.

    Et Tu Brutus?

    Sounds altogether much to serious for my pointy little head and delicate emotional state ( people seem to be worked up all over the intertubes today). I suggest some breathing exercises, or better yet, knocking back a few cold ones ( Bud Lite Lime does not qualify as sufficiently alcoholic) in concert with a little ganj, or at least some of your better prescription meds.

  91. 91.

    Rosalita

    Must have been a whopper of a thread for John to yank it… impressive considering some of the flame wars that haven’t been deleted.

    edit: I know that sounds redundant, still only partway thru coffee, but you get it

  93. 93.

    soonergrunt

    @ellaesther:

    I had no idea until I was very much an adult—like, late-30s—that “gypped” was in anyway related to anything ethnic.

    I’m 40, and that’s the first I’ve heard of it. I ASSUME that it refers to Egypt in some way and the cheap crap the street hawkers at the tourist sites sell claiming “this cat sculpture is original from Tuthmos IV reign icon and only one like it” when you can buy them by the gross from a distributer in China.
    But I’m just guessing there after you said it was ethinic.

  96. 96.

    Svensker

    Dang. Late to the party again and I missed the part where the cake got stomped on and people got thrown outta windows ? Shoot.

  97. 97.

    Randy P

    @hamletta: From the link:

    But Palin instead chose to follow the advice of another attorney who recommended against seeking input from the attorney general, and instead to simply contest the “inevitable” ethics complaint when it came, Petumenos wrote in his report.

    Sounds like she’s a subscriber to the “it’s easier to ask forgiveness than to ask permission” theory of blundering through life. (That’s advice somebody gave to my wife when she was having some bureaucratic issues with her employer).

  98. 98.

    D-Chance.

    Did Google cache or any of the archive sites manage to capture the fun and games before Dad came home?

  99. 99.

    Brachiator

    @Anne Laurie:

    Gypsies, aka Romani, Tinkers, or Travellers, the only serious European contenders for all-purpose ethnic scapegoating behind the Jews.

    Travellers ain’t Gypsies. Most Travellers are Irish, particularly in the UK.

    However, I agree with your larger point about scapegoats.

Comments are closed.