Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

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

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

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

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

How stupid are these people?

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

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

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87Comments

  7. 7.

    The Dangerman

    @Jon O.:

    So Scott Walker is bringing the Michigan bill to Wisconsin? Disgusting.

    How can that disenfranchisement pass constitutional review?

  12. 12.

    Suffern ACE

    @piratedan: This is honestly the most bizaare story I’ve followed for awhile. Benton Harbor has a newspaper, or at least the county it is does. As I posted last night, the local newspaper web site did not have any story related to this. I went there this evening – still nothing – even though there are local news stories posted for today. It’s like they’ve closed the town due to lack of interest.

  13. 13.

    Comrade Luke

    A friend of mine updated his Facebook status to: Who is John Galt? And someone else i know commented on that status that “The book was good. And you should read The Fountainhead, too. Another good book”.

    I just shook my head and added another “Hide all posts by X” to my list.

  14. 14.

    piratedan

    @Suffern ACE: well it may be because it was done on a friday afternoon, late. Less time for anyone to pick up on it and the paper may not even have a weekend edition (especially considering the size of the town). If this pans out as being accurate, you have to ask yourself, who stands to gain. I wonder if it’ll be those white folks in the town immediately south? It would be irresponsible for me not to speculate.

  15. 15.

    Suffern ACE

    @piratedan: The order was actually dated Thursday. I also can’t speculate on local conspiracies. The town’s 2010 FS audit opinion was not clean and they’ve had a manager of some sort since at least 2010. Today’s top story was a herion bust. What a lousy newspaper.

  16. 16.

    piratedan

    @Suffern ACE: well I could say the same about just about every media outlet, after all, when there were 100k folks in the street in Wisconsin, you see much about it on CBS, NBC or ABC? I live in southern AZ and in order to keep up with the crazyfication factor in Phoenix I have to read the Phoenix paper (the Republic) because the AZ Faily Star is run by a bunch of bozos that are quite happy with the wingnuttia in power.

  17. 17.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Comrade Luke:

    A friend of mine updated his Facebook status to: Who is John Galt? And someone else i know commented on that status that “The book was good. And you should read The Fountainhead, too. Another good book”.

    I suppose you could have mentioned “A fictional character with about as much chance of being right as the Orcs.” But why piss people off, right?

  18. 18.

    Stillwater

    @Suffern ACE: It’s like they’ve closed the town due to lack of interest.

    I remember a town disappearing due to lack of interest on Buffy.

  19. 19.

    lol

    @Comrade Luke:

    You should reply “John Galt is a fictional character, not unlike Frodo or Darth Vader.”

    This is the thing Teabaggers don’t like to hear – John Galt doesn’t exist. There are no irreplaceable captains of industry in this country, without whom this country would fail. If you took every CEO, board member and misc executive out to the streets and executed them, Wall Street would move on. If Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Steve Jobs (the only people even remotely close to a Galtian figure) were to die of heart attacks tomorrow, it would suck for their respective firms but life would go on. Other companies, other software will fill the void.

    This is the unpleasant truth – people are easily replaced cogs. CEOs are not special. Fund managers are not special. Engineers are not special. You are not special. If you die, you will be replaced. There’s over 5 billion of us, we’ll get by.

    Presidents die and the United States still nukes Japan. The Queen dies and Britain prevails. Your ideas aren’t that unique. Someone else is going to think of them eventually. In fact, they’re probably thinking of them right now and it’s just a matter of which one you makes it to the patent office first. History is replete with also-rans who were just a little too slow to file their game-changing inventions before the ones who got all the glory.

    Yes, one person can make a huge difference and change things, especially for other individual people. But the world also isn’t going to end if they decide to head for Galt’s Gulch instead. Someone else will pick up the slack.

    You will die and life will go on without you. This is truth.

  26. 26.

    Keith G

    @lol:

    You will die and life will go on without you. This is truth.

    NTL, everyone still gets a little plastic trophy.

  29. 29.

    Duncan Dönitz (formerly Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)

    I just saw that the Missouri House passed Senate Bill 113, which guts the puppy mill reform referendum that passed last fall. It’ll strip out all the anti-cruelty provisions that passed, so if you live in Missouri, would you call the governor and ask him to veto this bill? If you know anybody who lives in Missouri, would you ask them to call the governor and ask him to veto it? Gracias.

    Maybe this might be worth its own thread. There must be a lot of readers who live in Missouri or know somebody who does. They’d be far likelier to see this if it had its own thread, rather than being buried in this one…

  33. 33.

    Jay C

    Amazing: The Donald doubles down on Teh Crazy:

    Trump rakes Eric Cantor over “birther” issue (h/t TPM)

    I especially liked his “rationale” (emphasis added):

    Donald Trump snapped back Saturday at party leaders like House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) who accuse him of being less than serious about his presidential ambitions, warning Republicans that abandoning the conspiracy theories surrounding President Obama’s birth certificate will harm the party.

    Yep – abandoning “birther” crapola will HARM the Party…

    Oy.

  34. 34.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Haz you seen Homer pics? I swear Tunch ran out and had an illegitimate litter on the side somewhere in Southern Illinois.

    Hi hon. I seem to have slept about half the day today. I’m not sick, just exhausted as hell.

    @Jay C: Please continue to fornicate that poultry Donald. By all means don’t let us stop you.

  36. 36.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: Yes. Homer is the spittin’ little image of my Tunchie. Cole swears Tunch is fixed, but I have to wonder. It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

    Sorry you ain’t feeling so hot. At least you got a job, amirite?

  37. 37.

    Peter

    Been playing Bioshock lately. This whole game is an elaborate Take That to Atlas Shrugged, and it’s glorious.

  38. 38.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Jay C: I think the Donald may become a big problem for the GOP bigwigs. Sure, he’s a megalomaniacal, lying attention-whore, but the idea of him being a stealth liberal is becoming more and more plausible.

    I suppose he heard rumors that Stephen Colbert was thinking about running in the GOP primaries, and couldn’t bear the thought of someone else getting there first.

  39. 39.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Yep, still employed, although I was supposed to have an eval on Friday and it got stalled because I didn’t get off the phone until REALLY late. Plus I’ve gotten in the habit of driving to work lately. That’s all well and good as the commute that way takes up much less time, but it’s hella expensive and I really get my exercise in going from the bus stops and back. Oh well, next week I’ll back off on that some.

  42. 42.

    Jay C

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):

    Maybe: but if Stephen Colbert were running even a semi-serious campaign, he could spout any sort of outrageous shit, and no one would take it very seriously. Trump? Scarily, I’m not so sure….

  45. 45.

    sfinny

    Wait a minute, where is the rest of Lily? Has she burrowed into the couch seats to hide her body? Maybe she is covered by another throw?

    Cute picture though. Love that dog.

  46. 46.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Yeah and I’m not all that worried about it. I made the decision that if I worry about getting every single little nitpicky thing right I really couldn’t concentrate on what I was doing, so I just learned to force myself to relax and do my best. I know the basics of what I do, the other stuff I can build upon as my career grows. Maybe that’s the wrong attitude, but unless something forces me to change it that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.

    @Elia Isquire: Oh my. I’ll make popcorn.

  47. 47.

    Peter

    @kdaug: Yeah, I’ve seen that too. I’m pretty excited for it as well.

    I’m not going to say that this is the first video game that qualifies as art, because that’s patently untrue. But it certainly is a nice big piss into the eyesockets of curmudgeons who refuse to admit the possibility of video games being art. It is a big leap forward.

  49. 49.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Do not expect me to share. That’s my only warning about that. And my milkshake craving just went way up. I might haz to go indulge here in a few.

  50. 50.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    .
    .
    Criticism of President Obama from the left is exactly like criticism from the right.
    .
    .

  51. 51.

    kdaug

    @Peter: Ebert’s walked back a bit on that, but even in his original post he said he never played video games.

    A bit like me saying movies can’t be art if I’d never seen one.

    I’ll cut him some slack – he’s a good movie reviewer – but his opinion on games carries the same weight to me as his opinion on discreet particle physics or the best way to frame a Mongolian yurt.

  52. 52.

    Punchy

    at a mountain sprout concert, and the fiddle player is HAMMERED. Nonetheless, great times. Could be best live show outside of Yonder Mountain and Split Lip Rayfield

  53. 53.

    Susan Kitchens

    (inspired by something I saw in Facebook, with a photo of Donald Trump)

    We shall overcomb, we shall overcomb,
    We shall overcomb someday;
    Oh, keep on my head a hair covering,
    We shall overcomb someday.

    The fraud will see us through, The fraud will see us through,
    The fraud will see us through someday;
    Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe,
    We shall overcomb someday.

    Demand the long certificate, demand the long certificate,
    Demand the long certificate;
    Oh, where was he born? I won’t believe
    so I demand the long certificate.

    We shall overcomb, we shall overcomb,
    We shall overcomb someday;
    Oh, keep on my head a hair covering,
    We shall overcomb someday.

  55. 55.

    Susan Kitchens

    Well, I’m partially responsible. Not for the original idea (I saw the “We shall overcomb” on someone’s image/status) and then just now looked up the lyrics to We shall overcome and started to rewrite them.

    Half a brand new shiny internet is better than none!

  56. 56.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Jay C: I’m not convinced that playing it in a way that made all the racists come out of the woodwork sending Trump up the charts is a bad thing.

  64. 64.

    TooManyJens

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Speaking of, I think this would be a great dessert for our wedding.

    Am I the only one who thinks it’s cheating when they make “most expensive” foods by adding gold to them?

  65. 65.

    Yutsano

    @TooManyJens: Ironically enough, if they had left well enough alone that sundae still might have qualified. Though I wanna know what kind of chocolate costs $2600 a pound. Seriously. Is there honestly a market for that?

  67. 67.

    Martin

    @Yutsano: Meh, it’s all bullshit. Tell Guinness to come to my house. I’ve got a chocolate chip cookie that costs $10,000,000. I use a very rare kind of butter in them.

  68. 68.

    ranger3

    You’re dog is thinking how fucked up it is that the Steelers got a championship from beating the Seahawks.

  69. 69.

    SRW1

    Taking this picture was due to combination of your finger being in the right place and the startle reflex doing its job, amirite?

  70. 70.

    Uloborus

    @Peter:
    Video games can’t be art? ‘The Path’, a game so convolutedly symbolic and meta- that the developer’s web site lies to you.

    @sfinny:
    As I understand it, she’s just a really tiny dog!

  71. 71.

    p.a.

    Republicans have been tending the fields of nutty for a generation, and now the crop is in and ready for harvest. But I can’t see Trump as anything more than a sideshow; the primaries are all about organizational work by true believers, and Trump has neither. BUT if his fee-fees get hurt too much, he moght go rouge rogue and run as an independent. Yum!

    p.s. Isn’t Trump about the best argument out there for an estate tax? A high one.

  72. 72.

    WereBear

    Lilikins!

    What I love is that Tunch and Lily are the same size.

    I am so despairing of the Missouri Puppy Mill bill. Anyone know what kind of a person the MO Gov is?

  73. 73.

    gbear

    My hope for this spring and summer is that Minnesota does not win the ‘Most Tornadoes’ award like we did in 2010.

  74. 74.

    Svensker

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Speaking of, I think this would be a great dessert for our wedding.

    A perfect dish for The Donald. Ostentatious, gauche, and stupid. Time for the French Revolution again!

  75. 75.

    JPL

    It’s my opinion, Donald Trump is trying to improve Obama’s chances for reelection. How else do you explain his latest rantings?

  82. 82.

    kdaug

    @gbear:

    My hope for this spring and summer is that Minnesota does not win the ‘Most Tornadoes’ award like we did in 2010.

    I was working in an office building about 20 miles away when the Jarrell tornado hit.

    Nobody freaked out until our fourth-floor windows started “breathing”, literally bending inwards and outwards.

    In about a minute, it seemed every person from every office in the whole damn building was either in the stairwell or in the lobby.

    We saw a motorcycle being blown, on it’s side, across the parking lot.

    And we were 20 miles away.

    The most amazing pictures, though, were the helicopter shots from immediately after the storms passed. Normally you think of disasters in terms of piles of debris, shattered homes, whatever.

    Not this time.

    There was nothing but concrete slabs. The asphalt had been ripped from the road, and was gone. No wood, no debris, no cars, no nothing. Just a series of concrete foundations sitting in a muddy field where homes used to be. Looked like a cleanup crew had been there for a month, but this was within an hour of the F5 passing.

    Had one of our local weathermen say “Normally we tell you not to get into your car to try to outrun a storm, but with a monster this size, best you can do is run”.

    Guess “Everything’s bigger in Texas” is both a blessing and a curse.

  86. 86.

    debbie

    @Sarah, Proud and Tall:

    Great site, but I have trouble believing Trump could ever have fit in a handbag, no matter the size.

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