Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

When we show up, we win.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

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

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

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

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61Comments

  1. 1.

    cmorenc

    Why does Justin Bieber seem to haunt every third thread or so here at BJ? (Or rather, what appears to be an ad for his new movie?)

    IMHO the reason so many of us hate him is because he reminds us of the smooth pretty-boy we knew back in high school who, without any particular accomplishments or reason, seemed to effortlessly become the heart-throb of so many of the high-school girls we had the hots for but had little chance of getting so much as a turn at bat with, let alone reaching any base. Or for girls, because you were one of the girls he ignored rather than flirted with.

    He’s the male version of Miley Cyrus, that too also.

  2. 2.

    SteveinSC

    Congressman Allen West (R-Deutschland 1933), his voice rising with emotion and fire concluded by saying “Ein volk, ein Reich!” “Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil!” responded the CPAC assembled host, breasts heaving, in rapturous abandon.

  3. 3.

    Villago Delenda Est

    OK, now I see what all the kids playing WoW are talking about when they dis Justin Bieber.

    This guy is packaged by they same annoying marketing twits that gave us Poochy.

  4. 4.

    Poopyman

    Why yes, yes I did. Just finishing up some eggs and toast, and some rather thick coffee. Gotta get rolling.

    In Casablanca, Peter Lorre asks Bogart “You despise me, don’t you Rick?” Bogart responds ” I suppose I would, if I gave you any thought”. That’s how I am about Bieber.

  6. 6.

    nitpicker

    I recently met a woman who actually says “also, too.” I initially thought she was joking and kind of laughed, but, no, she just talks like that, using those words as a pair all the time.

  7. 7.

    Cat Lady

    Old white American men are on my teevee telling me all about what young Egyptians have to do to make them happy. OK.

  9. 9.

    RossInDetroit

    Josie and the Pussycats. The film is about the packaging of teen pop stars. It’s surprisingly funny, bitter and smart. It also has Alan Cumming and mind control. And a boy band gone stale, disposed of in a plane crash to cash in on their deaths.

    Pop music has always looked peculiar to everyone outside the demographic. Or that’s what the high school kids in Black Flag tees tell me.

  12. 12.

    JPL

    @nitpicker: A few months ago while shopping in Lowe’s the kitchen spec..ialist kept saying also, too. I had the urge to slap him.

    Since this is OT, I’m curious what other thought of The Social Network. I found Jesse Eisenberg’s acting great but the movie itself just okay. Maybe I’m showing my age.

  14. 14.

    BruceFromOhio

    The youngest is intent on making dutch babies. After resisting the temptation to comment about the lack of Nederlanders in the neighborhood, I resigned to surfing and drinking tea while the concoctions are concocted.

    Everything is melting.

    ETA: Re: soshulism, speshialist, and other deliberately mangled words to satisfy the Mod(eration) Squad – FYWP.

  17. 17.

    Blackfrancis

    @jethro:

    Hand in glove
    The sun shines out of our behinds
    No, it’s not like any other love
    This one is different – because it’s us.

    Why does this make me think of Senator Wide Stance?

  19. 19.

    JGabriel

    cmorenc:

    Why does Justin Bieber seem to haunt every third thread or so here at BJ?

    Well, the ads are based on your browsing history. Is there anything you want to tell us?

    .

  21. 21.

    JGabriel

    @Cat Lady:

    Old white American men are on my teevee telling me all about what young Egyptians have to do to make them happy.

    Sheesh. Don’t they have porn sites for that?

    .

  22. 22.

    RossInDetroit

    Grammys tonight. The haunted Fishtank will be turned on for that. I’ll be in the shop tackling some loud project so I don’t have to be aware of it.
    A friend is up for an award as a producer. He’s been posting party pix on Facebook all week of him schmoozing with famous musicians and industry bigwigs.

  23. 23.

    Steeplejack

    Despite working late last night and going to bed at 2:30, I have been up and about for an hour or two. Balmy weather is predicted for NoVa today–high of 54°!–so I am planning to do something that will require me to go outside and sniff the breezes a bit. I caught a quick, very faint whiff of spring in the air when I was walking to work yesterday afternoon. Most welcome and very energizing. There may be an end to winter.

    And I just heard a great classical guitar arrangement of Bill Evans’s “Waltz for Debby” by Niño Josele on the cable jazz channel. Can’t find that on YouTube, but here is his equally excellent arrangement of “Peace Piece.”

  24. 24.

    matoko_chan

    Zoe Pollack links some pud that reminds me an awful lot of Chunky Reese Witherspoon Douthat’s piece on how he cant get it up unless hes impregnating.
    slut-shaming, rape worship and forced breeding.

    By her third drink, having a conversation with her was like trying to play the game Telephone during a Sleigh Bells concert. I didn’t want to be judgmental. I wanted to be the coolest sober person ever. But she kept sucking down vodka tonics, as if in defiance of arcane Prohibition laws, and as she got looser, I grew more anxious: Am I allowed to kiss her like this? Did I even want to?
    It was a mistake to pick up a girl in a bar in the first place, let alone bring her to another bar. It was like watching “Schindler’s List”and complaining it wasn’t funny enough.

    ;)
    Meanwhile, back at the League.

    MFarmer February 13, 2011 at 6:45 am
    This is enough. This place has become Balloon Juice II — Adios. This is not a flounce — this is a final goodbye — I’ve had enough. I came back to particpate the last time I left because Erick asked me to, but this time I’m leaving because personally I don’t see any value in this type of propaganda and smearing.

    wallah…..has DougJ the Master Troll set up a chain of events that is going to tear the psuedo-intellectual fabric of EDK’s blog to pieces? and……was Cole actually the stealthy instigator all along by having EDK blog here and become infected with a virulent strain of empiricism with the purpose of infecting the League as well?
    my world is shaken.

    muhahahahaha
    all ur base IQ points are belong to us

  25. 25.

    RossInDetroit

    Oh. I’m modded because I mentioned the movie Josie and the P***ycats in reference to Bieber.

    Duh.

  26. 26.

    cathyx

    As much as you hate Justin Beiber, he’s not the male equivalent of Miley Cirus. She came from famous parents, he was a nobody who got discovered on Youtube because of his talent. And I say talent because although he doesn’t appeal to your generation, he certainly appeals to the tween generation. I’m sure when you were a tween, your parents hated the music you listened to and couldn’t understand your fascination with it.

  27. 27.

    Phyllis

    @The Pale Scot: The Boykin Spaniel debuts in the Sporting category Tuesday. I predict there will be much love expressed for this delightful pooch.

    In other news, Rumsfield talking about his son on CBS’ Sunday Morning appears almost human.

  29. 29.

    JGabriel

    @BruceFromOhio:

    The youngest is intent on making dutch babies.

    I had to look that up, and discovered: OMG, DUTCH BABIES ARE FOOD! PEOPLE ARE EATING DUTCH BABIES! THEY’RE MAKING OUR FOOD OUT OF DUTCH BABIES! WILL NO ONE THINK OF THE DUTCH BABIES?

    HELP! HELP! WE MUST SAVE THE DUTCH BABIES!

    .

  31. 31.

    A Farmer

    In the unfortunate case that we are stuck with a Republican winning the election in 2012, who would be considered the best-case scenario as far as actual good governance is concerned? Currently, I would guess Daniels, Huntsman or maybe Gary Johnson. What do you think?

  32. 32.

    Svensker

    @cmorenc:

    I don’t hate him, I just see no reason I should be interested in him at all. And I don’t approve of the sexualization of the pre-teen crowd that he is the poster boy for (she said, ungrammatically). Also, too, get off my lawn.

  33. 33.

    Svensker

    @BruceFromOhio:

    Oh, I LOVE Dutch Babies. Haven’t had one in years. With lemon juice and powdered sugar! Huge sigh. (The hubster is all about the low carb — no DBs in our house.)

  36. 36.

    RossInDetroit

    Bieber is irrelevant to me. May he have a long and prosperous career, avoiding the many pitfalls of stardom.
    There’s plenty of music that I like being made by young(er) people, so I concentrate on that.

    Speaking of music, local heroes The White Stripes are no more. They forewent the cash-in of a farewell tour and just announced that they’re done. Other projects ahead. That was a pretty classy way to end a successful run.

    And in other news, Hank (The Tank) Rollins turned 50 today.

  38. 38.

    nitpicker

    I’ve seen the Justin Bieber story before. It ends with a chubby, 40-something Bieber apologizing to a wheelchair-bound friend for drunkenly hurting him, only to have the friend shockingly claim Bieber “actually saved my life that day man, I was on a path to destruction.”

  39. 39.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Svensker: We “save up” for the occasional carbotarian blowout. The price is spending most of Sunday afternoon napping.

    Oh, JGabriel, we make ’em from scratch. Better that way!

    Ah, Henry Rollins – you were so eloquent with the stage jumpers when your band opened for Jane’s Addiction one frosty night in Ohio so many seasons ago.

  40. 40.

    RossInDetroit

    @BruceFromOhio:

    Ah, Henry Rollins – you were so eloquent with the stage jumpers when your band opened for Jane’s Addiction one frosty night in Ohio so many seasons ago.

    I like Hank’s spoken performances somewhat more than his music. Oddly, for a big square-headed dude covered in ink, he’s quite wise and insightful. An optimist about humanity.

  41. 41.

    Phyllis

    @The Pale Scot: No, but they are delightful pups and if I were to have a breed dog, that’d be it. There’s a guy here in town who has a couple & they’re gorgeous. Says he loves taking them out in the jon boat on the river.

  44. 44.

    JGabriel

    @BruceFromOhio:

    Oh, JGabriel, we make ‘em [Dutch Babies] from scratch.

    You can only do that if you’re Dutch yourself.

    (Eyes widen as stunned realization sets in.)

    YOU COOK AND EAT YOUR OWN BABIES? THAT’S INHUMAN!

    .

  45. 45.

    Irving Clawhammer

    Justin Bieber is another sad example of the sexualization of children. But, he’s SO MONEY!

  47. 47.

    RossInDetroit

    @Amir_Khalid:

    I got modded yesterday for using that same word (partly) in reference to an actual cat.

    I for one welcome our prudish, hyperliteral word robot overlords.

  48. 48.

    BruceFromOhio

    @JGabriel:

    THAT’S INHUMAN!

    That’s a modest proposal! And they’re excellent with some fresh strawberries and blueberries.

    Josie & the Puddytats – total Saturday morning cartoon flashback on this squishy, melting Sunday.

  50. 50.

    JCT

    One of my most amusing discussions with my teenaged son was about the Smiths — he heard me listening to them and asked if I knew who they were, . I nicely explained that I had attended many of their concerts back in the stone ages (uh the 80’s) and owned their entire discography including a fair amount of vinyl. He looked a bit pained (I guess liking the same band as your really old mother is problematic) and admitted that he really liked them as well.

    And yes, the next day he asked for my CDs.

    Next up, Talking Heads and Elvis Costello.

  51. 51.

    RalfW

    The headline of the story is misleading, but this NPR interview with David Stockman this morning was fantastic. He had the balls to call the Republican bluff on taxes and on military spending.
    He also pointed out that Reagan signed tax increases that would, adjusted for inflation, equal $400 billion in tax increases now. St. Ronnie has been tarnished! Oh noes!

  53. 53.

    Cat Lady

    @RalfW:

    David Stockman was on Bill Maher a few weeks ago along with that assclown Stephen Moore and took him to school. I don’t know what happened to him, but by the end of the panel I was rooting for him and felt disoriented. Republicans have gone so far off the rails in the last 30 years that Stockman dealing with reality is shocking. He did admit that he’s a lapsed Republican, although he may just mean that he’s the same Republican he always was and the party has driven off the reality cliff.

  54. 54.

    cmorenc

    JGabriel wrote:

    Well, the ads are based on your browsing history. Is there anything you want to tell us? (regarding my post bemoaning the frequency of Justin Bieber movie promotion ads appearing here at BJ)

    This started yesterday when I clicked on the “Atlas Shrugged” movie trailer link, and then noticed the other movie trailer link directly underneath it and clicked in, not realizing it was a trailer for Justin Bieber’s new movie. He’s been following me ever since here at BJ!

    The more creepy “ad following me everywhere” has been those for Orion Telescopes, because I’m a regular participant in the most prominent amateur astronomy website, Cloudy Nights. For awhile, I seemingly couldn’t escape ads for Orion Telescopes everywhere I went on the web, no matter how radically different or totally unrelated the context of the site was to astronomy. The only way it could have gotten creepier (though humorously creepy) would have to been to test whether the ads for Orion Telescopes followed me to porn sites – “our new 120mm APO refractor will give you spectacular views!” Alas, some experiments which would be interesting, in the pursuit of science, are nevertheless better left undone, and so I never did find out whether that would happen or not.

  57. 57.

    Amir_Khalid

    On the Bieber — he strikes me aa an update of the 1970s Donny Osmond: an artistically insignificant but cute and wholesome tween-girl magnet. (Donny had hits in that demographic with songs like Nat Cole’s Puppy Love and the 1930s ballad Deep Purple. Talk about edgy, man …) The only difference is that instead of coming from a showbiz family like the Osmonds or the Jacksons or the Cyruses, JB was discovered on Youtube and then mentored by Usher.

    One thing he’s got in common with Miley, though: neither one inherited any talent from their parents.

  58. 58.

    asiangrrlMN

    @JGabriel: You had me laughing through the whole thread in part because I thought the same thing initially, so when I read the OP, I was thinking, “Hm. Interesting. She wants to make Dutch babies? Why Dutch in particular? How old is said youngest that she is in the baby-making-thinking stage?”

    @Amir_Khalid: Nah, it was your use of the word m***shake.

  61. 61.

    Catsy

    Apropos of nothing, but the new version of the DKos site is a gigantic flaming piece of shit. If they actually paid someone to produce that abomination of bad UI design, they should sue for professional malpractice.

    I’ve been participating at the GOS on and off for at least 8 years, but I think I’m finally done. What useful content exists there is just not worth putting up with the shitty new design.

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