Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

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

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

They spent the last eight months firing professionals and replacing them with ideologues.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

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

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

… gradually, and then suddenly.

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49Comments

  2. 2.

    Ija

    You are sooo sleeping on the couch tonight.

    Anybody been watching Downton Abbey? I’m so disgusted with how much I like it. It’s mostly about rich people and their rich people problems, albeit in the past, but the story is so compelling I actually feel sorry for the rich people. I guess the British can make even disgustingly rich and aristocratic people sympathetic. Matthew and Mary foeva!

  3. 3.

    Comrade Mary

    You get to work during the day? Looxury! I worked all day yesterday, pulled an all-nighter, and am now working until I collapse or blow up my single, can’t be saved or exported, major project.

  5. 5.

    Valdivia

    @Ija:

    I was sick for like a week and watched it in a marathon one of those days. Totally awesome. You know they’re filming a second season?

  6. 6.

    Valdivia

    @cleek:

    Can I pretty please bother you to remind me how to install your pie filter in chrome? My laptop died and I had to do a restore uploading everything again.

    Thanks!

  7. 7.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    Nice to see somebody cover REM’s “The One I Love” but why did they change the song title and the lyrics?

  8. 8.

    Ija

    @Valdivia:

    I know! Can’t wait. I have a horrible feeling Matthew is going to die in the war, though. Or marry Sybil.

    It’s funny, the first time I watched it I missed the part where they say that Cora is an American heiress. I was thinking it was just Elizabeth McGovern doing a bad English accent. I was so embarrassed for her, oh god, an American actor in a British show doing a bad English accent.

  9. 9.

    New Yorker

    projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/map?hp

    Interesting stuff from the census. I’m actually surprised how little New York City grew. The two shocks of 9/11 and the financial collapse must’ve hit the city harder than was previously believed. Either that, or the census data is completely unreliable.

    Upstate NY did better than I expected. Buffalo is still bleeding people, but not as badly as, say, Cleveland or Detroit, and the rest of Upstate seems to be growing modestly. Even Utica added people over the last decade.

  11. 11.

    The Raven

    Oh, wow.

    Staring at ALEC.

    After watching the sudden and impressively well-organized wave of legislation being introduced into state legislatures that all seem to be pursuing parallel goals only tangentially related to current fiscal challenges–ending collective bargaining rights for public employees, requiring photo IDs at the ballot box, rolling back environmental protections, privileging property rights over civil rights, and so on–I’ve found myself wondering where all of this legislation is coming from.

    And ALEC staring back.

    Here’s the headline: the Wisconsin Republican Party has issued an Open Records Law request for access to my emails since January 1 in response to a blog entry I posted on March 15 concerning the role of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in influencing recent legislation in this state and across the country. I find this a disturbing development, and hope readers will bear with me as I explain the strange circumstances in which I find myself as a result.

    Via Josh Marshall at TPM.

  13. 13.

    merrinc

    I saw this performed on Conan and immediately downloaded it from iTunes. Great song and beg to differ, Comrade J as I don’t think it’s a ripoff of that awful REM song. (And I love REM. But not that damn song.)

    On a totally unrelated note, I finally got in touch with the office of my mother’s oncologist and furiously scribbled notes while the nurse manager read the file to me. Then I spent an hour or so Googling “malignant ascites” and now I’m wondering: doesn’t a doctor have an obligation to tell his patient the fucking TRUTH? My mother seems to think she’s going to be all better after the chemo and from what I’ve found, she’s in final stage.

  15. 15.

    Incoherent Dennis SGMM

    @New Yorker:

    Interesting information. Thanks for the link! I was surprised to see that California’s population managed to grow 10% despite our stubbornly high unemployment (12.7%) and a recovery that exists only in the minds of politicians.

  18. 18.

    Kristine

    I love this song. It never struck me as a rip-off–and I like that REM song, fwiw, but not as much as this one.

    @merrinc I am so sorry. It’s possible that your mom and the oncologist have spoken and your mom already knows. If she’s like my mom was, well, my mom didn’t tell me everything she and her doctor talked about. I had to hear it from him. It could be not wanting to talk about it. It could be denial. And it could be not wanting you to worry, because sometimes moms are moms right to the end.

  19. 19.

    The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    BLrgh….I know WaPo’s Op-Ed page is abysmal and all, but it’s still fucking telling how, on the ‘anniversary’ of ‘Obamacare’, they put up Op-Eds about how evil and soshulistic and how it’s the root of all fucking evil. You know, never once mentioning when the guest op-ed folks have a distinctly vested interest in seeing things like that fail. Just when was the last reasonably ‘liberal’ guest columnist for the page? Oh wait, I forgot, Fred Hiatt would never do that, he thinks the page is already too irredeemably liberal already.

  20. 20.

    Valdivia

    @cleek:

    Thanks I tried yesterday but it would not let me set the parameters on who to pie. Will try the Mike version.

    And random question for the BJ peeps—any thoughts on the opera browser? I love chrome but a good friend has been raving about it so was curious.

    @Ija:
    Yeah I caught her bad accent and then all the talk about going to America to catch a prospect given the stories circulating about her. I too have a bad feeling about him not returning. The BBC is just fucking awesome. I love pretty much everything they do.

  21. 21.

    cathyx

    @merrinc: Maybe when the doctor knows the news is bad, the only thing left that can be relied on is the patient having a positive mental attitude and hope that she will overcome it. And sometimes that actually works.

  22. 22.

    Valdivia

    @merrinc:

    So so sorry. I know all about frustrating dr speak. Which is why I never miss any of my mom’s oncologist appointments so I can grill her face to face. Though we’ve been lucky since she is super responsive and solid.

  24. 24.

    Incoherent Dennis SGMM

    @Chad N Freude:
    Do you really think that will in any way deter Republicans from calling for cuts in onerous business taxes so that “we can compete globally”?

    Thought not.

  25. 25.

    Chad N Freude

    Downton Abbey is one of the best — maybe the best — drama TV series ever. Season 1 is available on DVD if you can’t hold back until Season 2 airs.

  26. 26.

    Chad N Freude

    @Incoherent Dennis SGMM: Of course not. I do think this is a Tax Cutter’s wet dream, cutting all the way to negative numbers.

    ETA: Heaven forbid we should do something like this for the poor and unemployed.

  27. 27.

    Ija

    @Chad N Freude:

    Better than Brideshead Revisited? I don’t know ….

    The weird thing is, I hated the book. I thought it was Waugh indulging in Catholic guilt mumbo jumbo and sentimentality for the past. But I loved the miniseries. I guess we can’t underestimate the effect of handsome men in funny clothes.

  30. 30.

    merrinc

    @Kristine:

    That’s what my siblings and I suspected but after talking to her yesterday, I’m pretty convinced that she doesn’t know because she hasn’t been told. Also too, I am the oldest and the one Mom always leans on. She might prevaricate with my sister or brother but not she’s never hesitate to drop truth bombs on me.

    @cathyx:

    I understand the power of a positive attitude but it does not justify a doctor withholding the truth from his patient. If my mother is in final stage and only has 1-6 months (I’ve read extensively and that’s consistent), she needs to know that. If there’s something she wants to do or somewhere she wants to go before she dies, I will make sure that happens. I can’t do that if she thinks everything is going to be all hunky-dory.

    @Valdivia:

    Part of the problem is she went to a lousy hospital and has three doctors. It also doesn’t help that I’m 400 miles south of her and while I’ve been there three times in six weeks, I haven’t been there for one of her TWO visits with the oncologist. I have spoken personally with the general surgeon and urologist but they’ve both positive about what they’ve done and of course, will not discuss the cancer in detail. I’ve got another call into the onc’s office and after confirming with the nurse mgr that malignant ascites has been diagnosed, I’m going to insist that the dr either call me or meet with me personally.

    Thanks to everyone for the commiseration. There is much to be said for the kindness of strangers.

  32. 32.

    Valdivia

    @merrinc:

    I so understand. When my mom was doing chemotherapy I moved to be with her for the summer because I was tea ing and could do it. And was able to schedule her follow up appts according to my teaching schedule so I could be there. again I was lucky I could do that gave me peace of mind. Hope you manage to get them on the phone or in person. And from my own experience if they say they can’t discuss it in detail without your moms permission make sure you get something signed from her so you can get all the info. Hang in there!

  33. 33.

    OGLiberal

    @Sentient Puddle: Great cover. BTW, I don’t think The Decemberists would mind people saying that this song reminds them of REM – they’ll admit that REM was an inspiration for this album. The album version of this tune sounds even more like REM because Peter Buck plays his trademark 12-string on it. (he also plays on 2 other songs on the album)

  34. 34.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    @OGLiberal: Exactly. I was being snarky but I like both songs and think this was an intentional homage. If you play the video I posted it’s pretty clear the bass lines and tempo are an almost exact match.

  35. 35.

    PurpleGirl

    Ija, Valdivia and Chad N Freude: I’ve also been watching Downton Abbey. I do love it. I wish they would flesh out or explain more fully the whys and wherefores of the inheritance laws. I loved the Dowager Duchess’ question: “What’s a weekend?” (Maggie Smith is awesome.)

  36. 36.

    Cris

    @Valdivia: And random question for the BJ peeps—-any thoughts on the opera browser? I love chrome but a good friend has been raving about it so was curious.

    I tried Opera years ago, and it was okay, but not impressive enough to encourage me to switch. I haven’t tried it since, but I keep a close eye on the web development community and Opera 10 gets extremely good reviews. In particular, it usually leads the pack in Peter-Paul Koch’s tests for advanced standards compliance (if that sort of thing matters to you).

  38. 38.

    The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    @Elizabelle:

    Meh. I knew that split was full of shit the moment I saw Richard fucking Cohen’s face on the ‘left-leaning’ side.

  39. 39.

    Mnemosyne

    @merrinc:

    How old is her doctor? It’s a pretty recent phenomenon that patients are supposed to (or even allowed to) know everything about their condition. Some older doctors still think it’s bad for people to know the truth and will conceal things from their patients because that’s how they did it a generation ago.

    It sucks to be stuck in the middle of a culture change.

  41. 41.

    Ija

    @PurpleGirl:

    I wish they would flesh out or explain more fully the whys and wherefores of the inheritance laws.

    Yup, it’s pretty ridiculous that the girls not only cannot inherit their father’s estate (which I guess makes sense if you think of the estate as the Grantham’s family property rather than their father’s personal property and the law of inheritance at that time is that only males can inherit), but why can’t they inherit their mother’s American money? I think Mary said something like how it’s ridiculous that a woman can be forced to give away all her money to a distant cousin of her husband. Which it is. I guess Matthew has a claim on Downton Abbey and the title as the nearest male heir, but why would he inherit Cora’s money? I was all for Mary marrying him just for the money (that should have been hers and her sisters’ anyway) and then making his life miserable. Payback!

  42. 42.

    Paul in KY

    @Kristine: I’m going to see The Decemberists play at Bonnaroo this Spring. Lots of other killer bands will be there. Can’t wait.

  43. 43.

    Quaker in a Basement

    That awful four-letter word starting with “w” is calling,

    Is that a nice way to talk about mrsmix?

  44. 44.

    Amir_Khalid

    There’s a humongous poster for the Zack Snyder movie Sucker Punch in a train station I often pass through. It’s got babes in short skirts firing automatic weapons, a giant armored battle suit firing a Gatling gun from each forearm, spike-helmeted enemy soldiers wearing gas masks, and a WWI Fokker triplane sharing the sky overhead with blurry things that look like alien spaceships.

    I tell you, Hollywood despises us. It doesn’t care what kind of rubbish it puts in the movie theaters, because it knows there are enough overgrown 12-year-olds out there to make this kid of cinematic abomination a good commercial bet.

    Yes, I know: this ain’t new. But it still rankles to have one’s nose rubbed in it.

  45. 45.

    WereBear

    I have just recently been apprised of a Cat Chow Correspondent position that I believe I was genetically designed to perform.

    May I send out a Balloon Juice appeal that combines financial need… and animal rescue?

    Get WereBear to be the First Purina Cat Chow Correspondent

    SHARE on Facebook or Twitter with the handy link at the bottom of the post and get something social media viral going?

    I humbly thank you for your consideration.

  46. 46.

    FreeAtLast

    @Ija:
    I think they can’t inherit Cora’s money because of a legal agreement made prior to her marriage to Lord Grantham. As he admitted, he married her for the wrong reasons (although she’s made him incredibly happy) and it had to do with the family being in danger of losing Downton Abbey. The only way this could be prevented was by his marrying Cora and her agreement that all her wealth was now “entailed” to Downton. This whole entailment business is at the heart of many Jane Austen novels – girls with no brothers must marry or head to the poorhouse (as opposed to girls with brothers who must marry or rely on their brothers’ kindness to stay out of the poorhouse).

    Anyhow, I LOVE Downton Abbey. Unlike Jane Austen-based movies (Sense & Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, etc.), he actually stays awake for 2 episodes in a row!

  47. 47.

    dj spellchecka

    interestingly, or ironically, enough the 1st week sales for the new decemberists was bigger than the 1st week sales of the new rem

  48. 48.

    Frank

    Don’t know if this will generate any interest… I’m not a golf fan, but why is that Tiger Woods still gets all the attention? He can be tied for 34th place, but it’s his name that will appear in the headline, not the name of the guy who is actually winning the event. When did Woods last win anything of note (besides, perhaps, philanderer of the year)? How much longer do you suppose the media will focus on his mediocre performances?

  49. 49.

    Amir_Khalid

    @Frank: It’s not really about his performance on the links, I reckon. Tiger is a cheap and easy way to pull in readers, since he is still the only golfer at all famous to people who aren’t golf fans.

    It’s more or less the same thing as David Beckham still getting attention in football media, even though his sporting career is well into late-stage decline (Mr Posh hasn’t played for England, or for a club in a top-tier league, for a while) and he is now much better known as a celebrity.

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