Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Let there be snark.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

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

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

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Reader Interactions

52Comments

  1. 1.

    licensed to kill time

    The long arc of history has disappointed me by not fixing the unclosed italic tag at comment #65 in the thread below!

    We’re running out of oxygen, Captain!

  5. 5.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    That one made me laugh out loud.

    Now, Anne, can you find someone to fix the italics problem on the last thread?

  6. 6.

    Comrade Kevin

    If you want to have some fun, go look at mentions of @janehamsher on the Twitter today. Sheesh.

  7. 7.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @James K. Polk, Esq: The comments were hilarious in that. You can just tell that some people were shocked that someone might speak positively about ACA. My favorite part of the article was:

    Of course, there is the nagging banter as to how Obamacare is leading us down the road to socialism.
    __
    Let it go, folks.
    __
    Private market insurance companies are experiencing significant growth because of a tax break provided by the PPACA. I may have missed the day this was discussed in economics class, but I’m pretty sure this is not a socialistic result of federal legislation.

  8. 8.

    Alison

    How has the long arc of history further disappointed you today?

    By not getting to Spring yet.

    Seriously. Done with cold. Hate cold. Want warmth.

  11. 11.

    Chat Noir

    @Alison: You and me both! I have a blanket draped around my shoulders and a heater-fan going to try to take the chill off. I’m ready for April.

    @jeffreyw: That face is so cute. And Homer looks like he’s gotten quite big.

  14. 14.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @James K. Polk, Esq: Now for the unmoderated version:

    The comments were hilarious in that. You can just tell that some people were shocked that someone might speak positively about ACA. My favorite part of the article was:

    Of course, there is the nagging banter as to how Obamacare is leading us down the road to soc-ialism.
    __
    Let it go, folks.
    __
    Private market insurance companies are experiencing significant growth because of a tax break provided by the PPACA. I may have missed the day this was discussed in economics class, but I’m pretty sure this is not a soc-ialistic result of federal legislation.

  17. 17.

    Chat Noir

    @WereBear: Speaking of cats, I love the pix you’ve posted recently of Tristan. He is a little dolly and looks as if he’s growing quite nicely. Is he and/or Olwyn on the Pets of Balloon Juice calendar?

  18. 18.

    Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther

    On the one hand, the cartoon genuinaly made me laugh.

    On the other hand, the first thing the founders/framers would do, actually, is notice all the women and non-white men — including OMG the President — around them, and be HORRIFIED.

    We’re wise to admire the framers, because they were visionaries. Be that as it may, we’ve come a lot farther down the road toward perfecting the union. They were, after all, the authors of the “3/5” clause that Congress chose (in a criminally cowardly fashion) to not read.

    /cranky ellaesther is cranky.

  20. 20.

    Origuy

    Since the Russian Orthodox Church never went along with the heretical Pope Gregory, today is Christmas for them. С Рождеством, everybody!

  23. 23.

    Mumphrey (formerly Renfrew Squeevil (formerly Mumphrey Oddison Yamm (formerly Mumphrey O. Yamm (formerly Mumphrey))))

    That cartoon kind of scares me. We need to do everything we can to hold this country together. The people who wrote the Constitution–well, the ones who really had a big hand in it; a lot of them were drones–were truly amazing people. It’s true, they had their flaws, as we all do, and we need to be forthright about those flaws; they weren’t gods, and we shouldn’t think of them as such. But the big guns at that convention, Madison, Franklin, Hamilton, Washington, William Paterson, Oliver Ellsworth, Roger Sherman, James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris and a few others I can’t think of offhand, these guys were amazingly farsighted. They were amazingly wise about the psychology of people, both ordianry people and people holding power. This is all the more astounding as there was no such field as psychology in 1787.

    They worked and worked through a broiling summer to hash out a system that would hold up over time, and they really did pull it off. When you look at it, the wisdom of separating power really is incredible, since nobody had ever really tried it before, at least not as thoroughly as power is spread out in the Constitution. And it isn’t only the separation of powers between the 3 branches of the federal government, though that’s what we most often think of first. There’s seperation between state, local and federal offices, and between the people and the government. It’s this separation, the tension between the various holders of power, that keeps anybody from gathering truly destructive sway.

    Beyond that, they had the wisdom to try what they had set up and give it a fair shake. They didn’t panic and throw out the whole system at the first sign of any trouble. As an aside, I’d say that it’s this lack of faith in the institutions of government, the institutions of democracy, that has been such a problem for so much of Latin America for so long. Too often, and we saw it a year and a half ago in Honduras, people look at a leader in office, decide he’s disastrous (rightly or wrongly), and rather than wait out his term, and trust the institutions of governing to be stroonger than any one guy, they overthrow him, and all too often, dump the whole democratic system as well.

    Anyway… So even when there was a chaotic presidential election in 1800, even when Jefferson overreached his authority and Justice Marshall had to step in and overrule him, American politicians, and Americans as a whole, had enough faith to trust that what they’d set up was strong enough, well-built enough, to stand up through the storms that had come already and would come again.

    And they knew enough to know that they didn’t know everything, and they left the Constitution open to change. When people talk abut “original intent” like the Framers were minor gods, they do the Framers a real disservice: they imply that the Framers believed they knew all, and didn’t think the people in later years might need to tinker with the Constitution now and then.

    So, where I’m going with this is that I truly pray we can hold together as a society. We all know that when somebody asked Franklin what the convention had put together, his answer was, “A republic if you can keep it.” I pray every day that we can keep it, as I look around, and I just don’t know if we could pull of writing something like the Constitution today. A convention would be hounded by yammering, brainless pundits day and night. Sean Hannity would be stirring up the teabaggers to burn down the convention hall–with enough weaselly words that he could plausibly deny he meant it if anybody took him up on it. It might be hard even to keep any convention teabag-free, and if too many of those freaks ever got a toehold in a convention, who knows how abominable the result would be.

    We have a truly sublime Constitution. And I hope we can keep it, since if we fall apart and have to begin anew, I think we’re pretty well fucked.

  24. 24.

    liberty60

    @Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther:
    I think the style guide at Fox news states that when the Copts are victims of Muslim extremists, they are Christian; when they are treated kindly by said Muslims, they are…

    Oh, look! A pretty blond girl has gone missing!

  25. 25.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    Bootie 2010. Really solid this year.

    Bootie 2009 was a disappointment but it appears the franchise is back on its game. Maybe because Girl Talk released an album? Prop 8 rage coming through? I’m just glad the usual suspects have rediscovered syncopation.

    I’d love to chat some more, but it’s a house cleaning party up in this piece!

    (Skip the Ke$ha song. zzzzz.)

  33. 33.

    Maude

    @Mumphrey (formerly Renfrew Squeevil (formerly Mumphrey Oddison Yamm (formerly Mumphrey O. Yamm (formerly Mumphrey)))):
    Monarchy was a must to avoid. Bloody Mary and Elizabeth the First were enough to make anyone setting up a framework for a Republic make sure religion was not decreed by the government.
    No religious test was also vital. btw, when the religious question was asked during one of the primary debates, I thought it was against the basic foundation of this country to ask such an awful thing of a candidate.

  34. 34.

    Joseph Nobles

    In the spirit of the no-doubt-Luntz-approved addition of “job-killing” to any reference of the health care LAW, I’m now adding “American-killing” to any reference to the repeal bill. It’s fun!

    I capitalized “law” above, because some of our elected representatives seems to have forgotten the ACA is no longer a bill. Perhaps a little less turning the Constitution into a marginalized political prop like the Anthem and the Pledge and a little more attention to Schoolhouse Rock would benefit this Congress greatly.

  37. 37.

    sukabi

    @Mike Kay (Chief of Staff):
    here’s a few:

    TheChickAbides RT @PROTIPZ: Here we go, I’m gonna flip #followfriday on its head. I’ll follow anyone who blocks and reports @janehamsher for being a bullying shit. about 1 hour ago via tGadget

    missb62 RT @BrettR4763: RT @PROTIPZ: Block and report @janehamsher who, I kid you not, dishonestly harasses dissenters at their place of work. about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck

    BrettR4763 RT @PROTIPZ: Block and report @janehamsher who, I kid you not, dishonestly harasses dissenters at their place of work. about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck

    changepat RT @BrnEyeSuss: @dylanratigan and @JaneHamsher should get together so they can wallow in self pity of depression about 1 hour ago via TweetDeck

    not sure what it’s in response to exactly… but she’s seriously pissed in someone’s wheaties.

  38. 38.

    cleek

    i bet the authors of the constitution were doing facepalms (wig powder everywhere!) the first year month week their creation met actual legislators.

    on the bright side, NPR actually called the GOP out for being hypocritical shitwads today! they actually reported how the GOP is happily ignoring their own rules about the deficit when it comes to things they want.

    now if NPR would just learn that control of the House is not actually control of Congress.

  39. 39.

    Jay C

    @burnspbesq:

    So, wait a sec. I thought the Republicans were small business’ best friends.

    They are. It’s just that when it comes to BIG Business, the GOP aren’t just “friends”, but supine submissive f*ckwhores – who know really well where the wads of cash left on their dressers comes from; and don’t want to rock that boat under any avoidable circumstances.

    The whole “Obamacare Fail” nonsense is, AFAICT, just so much political posturing for the teabagger crowd – Big Health makes out just fine under the PPACA as passed, and that’s all that counts. Oh, they’ll make a big show of blathering away about “soshulism” and “death panels” and “job-killing”; and maybe even pass a repeal through the House: either the Senate and/or President Obama will kill it dead, and the GOP (breathing a sigh of relief) can go back to doing what it does best: failing to deal with the nation’s problems, then blaming somebody else for the mess.

    @Mumphrey (formerly Renfrew Squeevil (formerly Mumphrey Oddison Yamm (formerly Mumphrey O. Yamm (formerly Mumphrey)))):

    And Mumphrey: what you said. Twice.

  43. 43.

    Comrade Kevin

    @sukabi: She apparently had one of her minions figure out where one of her detractors worked and called him/her at their job with a bunch of harassing questions, from what I have been able to figure out.

  44. 44.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther:

    I have a feeling that the gentlepeople at Fox would not find the Copts terribly “Christian.” If you see what I mean….

    You mean their skin is dark and they dress funny and they speak a foreign language and their theology veers off in the other direction frequently?

    Yeah.

  45. 45.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    .
    .
    Balloonbaggers will note that I have asked Mr. Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com to tell you not to jump into the lake. It is hoped that those so advised will proudly live up to their creed and do the exact opposite, as they have so loudly and so fiercely promised they will do.
    .
    .

  47. 47.

    Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)

    @sukabi:

    @janehamsher who, I kid you not, dishonestly harasses dissenters at their place of work.

    This reminds me of Glen Close’s psycho character in “Fatal Attraction” who kept harassing Michael Douglas at work. Sadly, this means, she’s only days away from breaking into the White House and boiling Bo.

  48. 48.

    Mike Kay (Chief of Staff)

    @Comrade Kevin: where did you hear this? this is fascinating. And by detractor, do you mean someone posting on her blog or someone who post stuff of their own blog?

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