Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Reality always gets a vote in the end.

Come on, man.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

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

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

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

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

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

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

We are learning that “working class” means “white” for way too many people.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

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

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

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

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52Comments

  1. 1.

    Alex S.

    So I hear that there is a growing possibility of an international military intervention in Libya. Must be the oil.

  3. 3.

    jo6pac

    Alex S. that oil belongs to us, well oil companies that pay no taxes that is, so yes we need to send the young to die for it. If Libyas new leaders are smart they’ll just say No to any help us govt. offers.

  4. 4.

    WyldPirate

    Let me take this opportunity to announce that Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a sorry cocksucker.

    From his NYT editorial, Limit Pay, Not Unions:

    Across the country, taxpayers are providing pensions, benefits and job security protections for public workers that almost no one in the private sector enjoys. Taxpayers simply cannot afford to continue paying these costs, which are growing at rates far outpacing inflation. Yes, public sector workers need a secure retirement. And yes, taxpayers need top-quality police officers, teachers and firefighters. It’s the job of government to balance those competing needs. But for a variety of reasons, the scale has been increasingly tipping away from taxpayers.

    Then he goes on to say…

    In New York City, we share the same goal as cities and states across the nation — less spending and better services. We, too, are seeking to legislate changes to reduce pension and benefit costs and modernize our labor laws. But in some cases, we believe expanding collective bargaining would be more beneficial than trying to eliminate it.

    Fuck that smarmy, rich cocksucker. Pay more goddamned taxes Michael and convince your thieving rich bastard peers to stoop ripping off the lower 99% and do something about medical costs.

  5. 5.

    RossInDetroit

    I left my cell phone off all weekend to take a mini vacation from having to talk into devices on demand. As soon as I turned it on this morning the calls started.
    Boo Monday.

  6. 6.

    piratedan

    @WyldPirate: yeah, as start, lets limit how much Goldman Sachs staffers make regarding the size of their bonuses then we can get around to how well compensated the Atlantic staffers are compensated….

  8. 8.

    General Stuck

    Since today it is the last day to renew my truck reg, it automatically the worst day yet of the new year. I would about rather have a dentist fill a tooth with hot molten lava than deal with those folks. And I always put it off to the very last minute.

    Tomorrow, I order my long range wifi antenna and will be going off the grid until it arrives, and hopefully works, so I can freeload on free internet. If not, I will learn to blog by smoke signal.

  10. 10.

    BGinCHI

    Here’s my analogy for what’s going on with public sector workers and the efforts to curtail collective bargaining and salary/benefits:

    The Wicked Stepmother had two children, one hers and one adopted. After making her favorite, natural child miserable and unable to cope with life’s challenges, she turned to her adopted one and did the same.

  11. 11.

    PurpleGirl

    @WyldPirate: You don’t happen to live in NYC, do you? For the record, Bloomberg never had to deal with unions in his company. It was wondered when he first became mayor how he would deal with the unions that represent his workforce.

  14. 14.

    Poopyman

    @srv: I believe the correct term is “redeploying to the rear”, although that can have other connotations as well.

    @Cole: First Doug Hill and now Christian Mistermix. Pretty soon you’ll have a whole new stable of front–pagers.

  15. 15.

    Mike E

    After next Mon I am officially a 99er–no more teat sucking for this Tbone steak eater. My only gig lately has been a min wage p/t usher job at the local performing arts center. Last night was Frankie Valli lipsynching to the oldies. Seated a former colleague of mine from nonprofit world. That one left a mark!

    Now my daughter’s knees are bothering her, she missed school today because of this. Gotta get her into her Dr’s office in a timely fashion so we can get her to a specialist. Fcuk Mondays 4evah!
    ETA Oh, my windstar got recalled, which I had already repaired, so now I have to fight for a refund of that $1,000 I forked out last year. It isn’t too early to start drinking, izzit?

  18. 18.

    WyldPirate

    @PurpleGirl:

    No, i don’t live in NYC. It’s just the contradiction in the rich prick’s arguments that pissed me off so much.

    He’s essentially saying–among other things–public employees get paid too much and we should limit both their pay and their benefits because the private sector got away with gutting those things for the working class while directing the cash from that AND profit growth into the top 1% pockets.

    It’s a blood out of turnip sort of thing. Bloomberg sees public servants as turnips and he wants to squeeze the last bit of blood out of them he can. Fucking asshole.

  20. 20.

    WyldPirate

    @Southern Beale:
    Damn is Tina Brown a fucking idiot or what?

    from your Daily Beast link, SB…

    When he started his outpost on the Web in 2000, long before political blogging became fashionable, he outdid even his über-productive Fleet Street precursors. Andrew wrote constantly, and obsessively, about everything from politics to his pet beagles

    “über-productive Fleet Street precursors”? Please.

    I should just go out and shoot myself instead of living on a planet where idiots can get paid such huge sums of money for writing such horseshit.

  23. 23.

    Amir_Khalid

    Now that I’m kinda, sorta fluent in reading German and French after two years of teaching myself (and have started Arabic) I’m thinking about what language I might want to take up next. I note that there’s Spanish and Latin American Spanish available. How different are they, and could I get away with learning just one of them?

  24. 24.

    RossInDetroit

    @General Stuck:

    There are a number of ingenious hacks to boost WiFi sensitivity. Most can be built with common, if funky looking, household materials. Some of the simple DIY stuff out performs commercial extended range antennas. Performance metrics on DIY projects are scarce so you have to take the builder’s credibility into account.

  27. 27.

    JGabriel

    Bloomberg via WyldPirate:

    Across the country, taxpayers are providing pensions, benefits and job security protections for public workers that almost no one in the private sector enjoys.

    Even assuming that were true (and it probably isn’t), why does that mean we should pay public sector employees less? Doesn’t it mean we should be paying private sector employees more, and giving them better benefits?

    Eighty percent of the country’s wages have stagnated for the past 30 years, while the top fifth collects all the profits from increased productivity. It’s time for the upper class to give back to the rest of us. The fact that Bloomberg writes this bullshit while belonging to that class only highlights the insult and egregiousness of it.

    .

  28. 28.

    Shinobi

    My dog had me up half the night because he has the poops. I am exhausted, and annoyingly I have NO work to do this week. So I am sitting here in an uncomfortable chair, wishing I were anywhere else.

  30. 30.

    Shoemaker-Levy 9

    Watch for this narrative to be developed; it’s 1979 all over again.

    Flipping channels this morning I caught a couple of minutes of CNBC, and while I wasn’t able to identify the little heads in the boxes they seemed to be concerned that a restive Muslim world coupled with a stagnant economy at home, all presided over by giant pussies in our government, were a replay of 1979. This strikes me as a good narrative for the GOP in 2012. Obama is losing “our” oil in the middle east and his economic policies are a failure. Send that peanut farmer Muslim socialist back to Georgia Chicago.

    I think this will make the punditocracy very, very sexually aroused. Whether they can sell it to the rest of the electorate, I don’t know.

  31. 31.

    General Stuck

    @RossInDetroit:

    Since it for my desktop, I had to buy a wifi card anyway with any home made rig, and there are very good reviews with the antenna and usb adapter that comes with it, for just 32 bucks at Amazon. but thanks.

  33. 33.

    WyldPirate

    @Southern Beale:

    This from Kathleen Sebelius has more detail, SB.

    The President said:
    __
    “This recognition – that states need flexibility to tailor their approach to their unique needs – is why part of the law says that, beginning in 2017, if you can come up with a better system for your state to provide coverage of the same quality and affordability as the Affordable Care Act, you can take that route instead…
    __
    A few weeks ago, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat, Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, a Republican, and Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, they proposed legislation that would accelerate that provision, so it would allow states to apply for such a waiver by 2014 instead of 2017. I think that’s a very reasonable proposal. I support it. It will give you flexibility more quickly, while still guaranteeing the American people reform. If your state can create a plan that covers as many people as affordably and comprehensively as the Affordable Care Act does – without increasing the deficit – you can implement that plan, and we’ll work with you to do it. I’ve said before, I don’t believe that either party holds a monopoly on good ideas. And I will go to bat for whatever works, no matter who or where it comes from.”

    The particulars from the same linky:

    Under this legislation, governors will be able to apply for State Innovation Waivers to implement reforms that:
    __
    Provide coverage that is at least as comprehensive as the coverage offered through the Exchanges – a new competitive, private health insurance marketplace.
    Make coverage at least as affordable as it would have been through the Exchanges.
    Provide coverage to at least as many residents as the Affordable Care Act would have provided.
    Do not increase the Federal deficit.
    State reforms could take many forms. Among the models states could adopt are:
    __
    Linking tax credits for small businesses with tax credits for low-income families;
    Automatically enrolling people in health plans;
    Alternative health plan options to increase competition and provide consumers with additional choices;
    A broader choice of benefit packages to provide more choices for individuals and small businesses; and
    Allowing large businesses to purchase health insurance through the Exchanges.
    The law also allows states to submit a single application that includes Medicaid waiver requests which could, for example, seek to give people eligible for Medicaid the choice of enrolling in Exchange health plans.

    This should go really well….

  34. 34.

    Sentient Puddle

    @Southern Beale: Actually, this is a very good thing. The part of the law in question says that individual states don’t have to be bound by the mandate as long as they set up a system that meets some minimum standard. Problem is, in the bill that passed, the earliest they could apply for this exemption is 2017, which means they can be stuck with the mandate for up to three years. What Obama is saying he wants now is that come 2014 when the mandate is supposed to go into effect, if the states have coverage in place, they can skip the mandate entirely.

    Only catch is, I’m not entirely sure this is something he can do by executive order. I think this is some reform that has to go through congress. And we all know how easy that’ll be.

  35. 35.

    Sly

    The reason why Bloomberg is harping on city control of pension negotiations is that pensions negotiated before 2010 have a constitutionally protected 3% increase and, like his buddies who stole tens of billions of dollars from NYS pension funds over the past three years, he desperately wants that money. If that 3% increase wasn’t protected, it would disappear in a flash.

    Everyone should have known that these parasites wouldn’t stop with Tier 5.

  36. 36.

    Amir_Khalid

    @Poopyman: That only raises another question: Portuguese Portuguese or Brazilian Portuguese?

    BTW, I’m only learning languages as a hobby. My health is not robust enough for travel, alas.

  37. 37.

    WyldPirate

    @Sentient Puddle:

    Actually, this is a very good thing.

    Right. Nothing could go wrong once a Rethug controlled House and a soon to be Rethug controlled Senate get involved.

    Here is one of the provisons:

    The law also allows states to submit a single application that includes Medicaid waiver requests which could, for example, seek to give people eligible for Medicaid the choice of enrolling in Exchange health plans.

    No. Nothing could go wrong with this. That would be unpossible.

  38. 38.

    Sentient Puddle

    @WyldPirate: That’s still backstopped by HHS, and if whatever Medicaid plan the states came up with was pretty shitty, it could be denied. So…

    Right. Nothing could go wrong once a Rethug controlled House and a soon to be Rethug controlled Senate get involved.

    You should be more worried about a Republican president. Time for you to step up and become an Obot!

  40. 40.

    Hart Williams

    Just to skip ahead. After they finish with the latest round of union-busting, public education comes next.

    Too bad their parents never received pubic education.

  41. 41.

    PurpleGirl

    @JGabriel:

    Even assuming that were true (and it probably isn’t), why does that mean we should pay public sector employees less? Doesn’t it mean we should be paying private sector employees more, and giving them better benefits?

    Ssshhh. We’re not supposed to ask that! It is correct that we should be asking that but the oligarchs don’t want to answer it. That would lower the amount of wealth they could accumulate.

  42. 42.

    jwb

    @Southern Beale: Maybe he’s figuring it won’t work, but if the states want to have that impossible option he’s willing to give it to them.

    ETA: or maybe I could read the link. :) What everyone else said about it changing from 2017 date to 2014.

  43. 43.

    WyldPirate

    @Sentient Puddle:

    That’s still backstopped by HHS, and if whatever Medicaid plan the states came up with was pretty shitty, it could be denied. So…

    Let me walk you through this, SP.

    1. States want to get out of the mandate however they can.
    2. They submit plans with cooked numbers in 2014 to get out of it.
    3. Plans suck because they are cooked numbers, but the state(s) get a pass anyway gutting both Medicaid and the state’s plan.
    4. The plan sucks anyway because it opens up the the health care plans to even more cronyism.

    Obama is weaseling in preparation for the elections and court challenges.

  44. 44.

    TaMara (BHF)

    Jeebus is right. I’ve read three threads on BJ today and I’m about ready to slit-my wrists I’m now so demoralized. You guys are making my day-job seem easy.

  45. 45.

    Sentient Puddle

    @WyldPirate: If there was a ranking of most unfoundedly cynical people on this blog, you’d easily make the top three. I’m rather tempted to say you’d take the gold, but there may be some people I’m forgetting.

  49. 49.

    Amir_Khalid

    @Yutsano: Mandarin is what my Chinese friends recommend as well. But then again, the most common dialect among Chinese-Malaysians is Cantonese. If I actually want to use Chinese I might need to learn both. (Sod Hokkien. I’m not that crazy about Penang state anyway.)

  50. 50.

    ET

    I’m just freakin’ glad February is over. For being the shortest month of the year, it has felt 3 months long.

  51. 51.

    Nutella

    @Amir_Khalid:

    Not very different. Like English English and American English: different slang, different accent, small differences in grammar, but 98% the same.

  52. 52.

    losingtehplot

    @Amir_Khalid: Mandarin and/or Cantonese: I know lots of Chinese people are learning English, but a hell of a lot more will want to in the coming years and you could teach Eng. as a For. Lang. in China if you wanted to. Latin American Spanish too, and keep up with the Arabic. If you’re learning languages just for the fun of learning languages, try this site

    andamanese.net/

    for information about a set of languages that may possibly go back to pre-neolithic times.

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