Love it or hate it, it looks like time for another open thread.
Open Thread
by @heymistermix.com| 30 Comments
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Open Thread
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.
Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.
Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!
Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.
“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”
“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly
In my day, never was longer.
Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.
Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers
Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.
The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.
Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.
You cannot love your country only when you win.
Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.
The willow is too close to the house.
If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.
It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.
Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.
This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.
Impressively dumb. Congratulations.
I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.
Not loving this new fraud based economy.
Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.
Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!
Comrade Jake
Judging from the reaction of children who think they are men, This Week with Amanpour may actually be worth watching.
More evidence here that McCain is such a fucking child. Yes, I know, tell you something you don’t know.
dmsilev
@Comrade Jake:
“World’s Greatest Deliberative Body”. Hah!
Though I suppose it’s mildly encouraging that Politico is pointing out the “nothing to do with the nominee” bit in the very first paragraph.
dms
Cat Lady
I had the accidental “pleasure” of riding an elevator with Sen. Centerfold McTrucknutz and his posse yesterday. 53 floors of dickitude – it burned.
ETA: calling an air strike on the Senate would be a-ok with me.
Comrade Jake
Some of the comments at that Politico link are gold:
stuckinred
Did John know his old CO was on Rachel last night?
dmsilev
@Comrade Jake: Amazing. The Politico comment section is usually the same level of swamp-infested muck as, say, a RedState diary. To see the majority of the commenters slamming McCain is just astounding.
dms
Michael
@Cat Lady:
During a bout of insomnia this morning, I watched the 1987 Reaganistical era crapfest that was “The Hanoi Hilton”. And yes, it was nearly as crappy and jingoistic as the unable-to-be-topped “The Green Berets”.
I rooted for the Vietnamese. Amazing what age and experience can do for perspective.
harlana peppper
@Comrade Jake: can you provide link? I cannot find it and I need a good laugh this morning
Kurzleg
Love John Doe! He has one of the best voices eva!
Cat Lady
@Michael:
The Hanoi Hilton? Did you know McCain was a POW? I bet he still tries to use that line on Cindy. I understand why older men lose their shit for young women. It’s pathetic, but I get it.
Punchy
@dmsilev: i donut kno how yawl spend so much tym reedin Poelittiko.
Kryptik
This just in: Law & Order hates rich people, and that hurts Stanley Fish’s fee-fees.
Alex S.
The Senate is dysfunctional.
The Dangerman
Yesterday, there was a question on composting pooch piles; I don’t think this qualifies as composting as much as a septic system, but it looks interesting and (as an Engineer) has a fair amount of details on how it works:
http://solarcone.net/home/index.php
flukebucket
Looking for somebody to make it easy for me.
When you are in a discussion with a person who just insists that cutting taxes always increases revenue what links would you point them to in order to show the flip side of the argument or would you even bother?
Omnes Omnibus
@flukebucket: As a practical matter, I would say hold your hands up to show you mean no harm and back slowly, slowly, away from the person. What you have found is a crazy person.
If you must engage with the person, ask what happens if taxes are reduced to zero. Then ask at what point above zero the taxes should be set.
Chat Noir
Primary Day here in Michigan. There are some real pieces of work running for governor on the Republican side. Think I’m voting for Dillon on the Democratic side.
Nerd that I am, I totally love to vote.
dmsilev
Via TPM, apparently General JC Christian, honored proprietor of the Jesus’s General blog, thinks people should show up to Tea Party rallies and burn the flag. The Confederate flag.
dms
dmsilev
@flukebucket: Take out a napkin, or envelope, or some other random piece of paper. Draw axes labeled ‘tax rate’ on the x and ‘Total revenue’ on y. Put a dot somewhere where we are now. Ask them what total revenue would be if the tax rate is zero. Put another dot at (0,0). Draw a line between the two dots and ask them if the line is decreasing or increasing.
dms
Xenos
@dmsilev: Sensible liberals appear to hate the flag burning idea. So maybe it is a good idea after all. I would like to hear these Teabaggers explain their outrage about this.
flukebucket
Thanks guys. That is about what I expected. The entire time I am trying to reason with this guy I am thinking about a quote I read in these comments that said, “when you argue with a fool he is doing the same god damn thing”
So it is almost always best to just walk away.
Cat Lady
@flukebucket:
One word: Somalia.
Stillwater
Question 1: When you are in a discussion with a person who just insists that cutting taxes always increases revenue what links would you point them to in order to show the flip side of the argument…?
Answer: Trick question. There is no article you could point them to since any such article (ie, one denying tax cuts lead to revenue increases) would by definition be written by a lieberal.
Question 2: Or would you even bother?
Answer: Is this another trick question?
Actually, in my own experience (which I would imagine is similar to yours) I have had few, if any, positive results when using facts and sound argument to try to correct a conservatives false view of the world.
NobodySpecial
I’m disconnecting today. I have the new album from The Pimps to listen to. It is appropriately titled, ‘Fuck This Shit, We’re Outta Here.’
Steeplejack
@flukebucket:
I presume you are talking about lower taxes increasing government revenue.
Don’t know if this will work for you, but I have occasionally gotten a Lafferite to shut up for a while by doing the following:
1. Point out that if taxes go down to 0 then there wouldn’t be any government revenue. This means that (theoretically) there should be a “sweet spot” on the Laffer curve where the (low) rate of taxation yields the highest (or optimal) government revenue.
2. Ask the Lafferite for an approximate number for that magic tax rate. At least in my experience, they are flummoxed, at least temporarily, because they have never, ever thought beyond “Lower taxes! Lower taxes!” You might get one who veers off into “Flat tax! Fair tax!” and mumbles something about “23 percent,” but I have not encountered this in the field. (I think these are a subspecies of Neal Boortz listeners.)
ETA: I see several others replied ahead of me.Damn my tardy thread-reading habits!
Xenos
@Steeplejack: It is useful to ask this question about the ‘ideal’ tax rate, because even if it exists, whatever that sweet spot is it is much too high for these conservatives. And I would probably agree with them, for example, that if the rate that maximizes revenue is, say, 80%, then it is too high.
I have a conservative friend who keeps declaring that he and I are on the opposite side of every issue. I keep responding that we actually agree on a lot more than we disagree about, and give examples. He can’t respond to that, just changes the subject – Fox News does not prepare him for that sort of argument.
Brachiator
@Steeplejack:
Hah! You nailed it. But this is also why this usually works so well for the Republicans. A lot of people have this general feeling that their taxes should be lower, but they don’t even know their own tax bracket or effective tax rate, let alone any idea about the larger economy.
burnspbesq
Genius choice of music. That song is a perfect description of what it’s like to be in love. “A Year in the Wilderness” was one of the best records of the ’00s.
Tom Hilton
Weirdly creepy story at SFGate yesterday afternoon: 28 year old lead singer of a Bay Area metal band was killed in a car crash. The name of the band: Early Graves.
4jkb4ia
(On TNC’s blog I was actually able to mention Bradamante and get credit for it, although the person may have recognized Britomart instead. Take that, out-of-period Kafka and Faulkner!)