Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Consistently wrong since 2002

People are complicated. Love is not.

This blog will pay for itself.

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

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

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

I really should read my own blog.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

The revolution will be supervised.

This really is a full service blog.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open thread

Reader Interactions

103Comments

  1. 1.

    lamh34

    Wow, 3 back to back open threads. Heck let’s make it a record all the FPer’s should do back to back open threads!

  3. 3.

    batgirl

    Reuters headline: Republicans bill passes, opening path to debt deal

    This is why Boehner had to pass a bill. Now the so-called liberal press can blame Democrats for the lack of compromise.

    We are so screwed.

  8. 8.

    SiubhanDuinne

    DougJ: Not sure I can meditate in your direction. However, I can fart in your general direction, if that helps.

  13. 13.

    beltane

    @batgirl: The media part of it was preordained. Even if the teabagger bill required that all poor children be sold into slavery, our “suck and swallow” media would paint the Democrats as unreasonable for not going along with it. If we had an honest media, most of our country’s problems would be relatively easy to solve.

  14. 14.

    Violet

    @batgirl:
    Maybe. But it’s been a bad week for the Republicans. Boehner has looked incompetent. The Republicans are in disarray. Meanwhile, Harry Reid in the Democrat-controlled Senate will pass something quickly. Which party looks competent when that happens?

    I know the media is horrible, but even they have been saying how terrible it is for the Republicans and the Tea Party.

  17. 17.

    Felanius Kootea

    @Violet: A major problem is that the media never delves into the details or does side by side comparisons of bills, etc. That makes it easier for the lazy “both sides are awful” squeals we’ll hear when the senate rejects the house bill. And most people won’t understand why. It’s almost like we need to outsource real news reporting to get some truth out.

  19. 19.

    Gin & Tonic

    Boehner looks borderline incompetent now. Elections are in what, 14 months? I’ll bet my house that by then nobody except the political junkies will remember this, and nobody at all will give a shit.

  23. 23.

    Cat Lady

    I know the media is horrible, but even they have been saying how terrible it is for the Republicans and the Tea Party.

    If it all comes down to he who is the most stupid loses, I’m fine with that. Peak Wingnut is a lie but there is a floor to going along with teh stoopid beyond which anyone with half a brain won’t go and will be forced to wave goodbye, and I’m lookin’ at you Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell. I hope we’re there.

  25. 25.

    Violet

    @Felanius Kootea:
    Yes, I know. I wish the media were competent. More and more voices seem to be pointing out that the Republicans are crazy and are held hostage by the Tea Party. I’ve even seen hints of it on places like MSNBC and CNN. I think there could be cracks in the dam of “both sides do it”. We’ll see, I guess.

    The thing is, the Tea Crazies are going to affect reporters’ financial health too. They don’t usually. It’s usually just something that affects poor people. But this time a default or downgrade will hit all of us. Maybe that’s enough to get the reporters off the both-sides-do-it bandwagon.

  26. 26.

    clayton

    I miss-read this at first and was planning on responding:

    When so few twat, what does a 10,000 loss in twatters mean?

    I don’t get this shit. How can one spam twatters? How does a twatter get so offended to untwat someone?

    Any explanation?

  27. 27.

    lol

    I think that McConnell is talking about a filibuster of the Reid bill. Hasn’t started yet.

    Reid’s timeline assumed there would a fillibuster and McConnell himself, AFAIK, was never expected to support the bill either. So this doesn’t really change anything.

  28. 28.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    Here comes that 14th nervous breakdown. . .
    Oh, who’s to blame

  29. 29.

    Davis X. Machina

    @Zyla: Pass a cloture motion now, today, and there’s still something like three days worth of debate required by Senate rules.

  30. 30.

    laboo

    The thread that binds together all the silliness that is the Obama first term is that both parties have lost control of their members. It used to be that if a bill needed to be passed, arms could be twisted, promises could be made, and everyone in a given party would toe the line. Apparently those days are gone.

    Are these the markers of soon-to-be-extinct political parties? I don’t know, but they seem very much like the music/movie industries to me, resorting to extreme behavior to keep things under control. Mostly the Republicans, of course, but the blue dogs kept the Democrats from being effective in much the same way as the Tea Party is the Republicans.

  33. 33.

    lol

    I miss-read this at first and was planning on responding:

    When so few twat, what does a 10,000 loss in twatters mean?

    I don’t get this shit. How can one spam twatters? How does a twatter get so offended to untwat someone?

    Any explanation?

    Firebaggers and right-wingers are gloating that because Obama posted too many tweets asking people to contact their Congressmembers, a massive 0.1% of his followers unfollowed.

    This is obviously good news for John McCain.

  37. 37.

    Corner Stone

    @lol:

    Firebaggers and right-wingers are gloating

    Guess that means OzoneR here at BJ is one of these since he’s the only one here who thinks that number is significant in some way.

  39. 39.

    lol

    Kind of hard to vote down something that hasn’t passed the Senate.

    We’ll see what Wall Street Republicans really think on Monday when there’s no time left on the clock and Reid’s bill is the only thing on the table.

  40. 40.

    JC

    Well, what I’ve written for the last couple of weeks, still seems like the most likely outcome.

    Digby has been on the case as well.

    She’s been essentially saying the same thing for over a month.

    Assuming that an altered version of the Reid bill goes through – still a big assumption, of course – there really aren’t many differences in the bill on the ‘austerity cuts’, although most of them are backloaded, and I don’t know exactly what they are pulled from.

    We have to wait on – well, first, something being passed – but also, second, what is actually ‘cut’.

    Still, it’s a loss for liberalism, and that both the Senate and the Presidency had to back down, if this is what happens, to a completely dysfunctional House, as proved by events this last week – seems to me this is definitely a backdown by Obama and the democrats.

    After all – where are the revenues in the Reid plan?

    EDIT: To this COMPLETELY MANUFACTURED crisis??

  41. 41.

    Corner Stone

    @Felanius Kootea: Kabuki to make sure it’s not brought up under 2/3rds rule for the House.
    If Boehner brings it up under suspension rule then make sure your powder is dry and your water is pure.

  42. 42.

    jl

    Edit button is gone.

    Re my previous comment, Mort Zuckerman runs US News and WR, right? He is pretty centrist and tied in with the big finance, so probably makes sense his mag would be pissed at no resolution to the silly but disastrous debt ceiling crisis over bogus nonexistent debt crisis.

    Edit: Edit button back. Well, I see my html and scripting language for dummies books waaay over there on the shelf, so when Balloon Juice totally decompensates, I guess I can code my own from scratch. Fewer comments from me, probably a bonus there.

  44. 44.

    clayton

    I will never tweet a thing, but reluctantly I am signing up the twat. Just to “follow” the prez.

    Backfire maybe?

  45. 45.

    JC

    The House is planning to vote down Reid’s bill (introduced yesterday) tomorrow morning. Impasse, here we come.

    So we have a bad outcome, and a national disaster outcome.

    Awesome.

  46. 46.

    Gravenstone

    Because I can’t be bothered to give a fuck about the debt ceiling kabuki tonight, I’m vegging to the new iteration of Thundercats on Cartoon Network. Let loose your own inner child of the 80’s!

  47. 47.

    shortstop

    Well then people will get the fuckers in office that they deserve.

    Yeah, I find this shit uncomforting. I’m people, and I’m sick of getting the government that other people deserve.

  48. 48.

    shortstop

    Boehner bill goes down in Senate 59-41.

    McConnell refuses to negotiate with Reid, insists on negotiating only with Obama.

    ETA: Veggie food pron. That’s a little bit of all right.

  50. 50.

    normal liberal

    @jeffreyw: Okay, now you’re just taunting me, although I admit it’s unintentional. I have the basil, but the tomatoes are refusing to step up. Some of the basil is infusing in olive oil, so I have that covered.

    But I’ll remember this in October, with the bonus that I won’t mind turning on the oven.

    I would make a sage observation about McConnell, but it’s bad for my blood pressure.

  51. 51.

    eemom

    @ lol

    We’ll see what Wall Street Republicans really think on Monday when there’s no time left on the clock and Reid’s bill is the only thing on the table.

    I’ve been thinking that too, but more so my earlier comment that nobody in this mortal universe has any idea how this is going to end up at this point.

  52. 52.

    scav

    here, distractions to meditate upon for those needing a break. All from the usual liveblog

    Scotland Yard is expanding the general hacking investigation by assembling a team looking specifically into computer hacking (e-mail plus?) based at least in part on reports by former army intelligence officer Ian Hurst (aka Martin Ingram) computer was hacked by a private investigator which gets interesting as he was running IRA informers in NI (Northern Ireland) making for a chance of NI on NI action.

    Glenn Mulcaire is showing signs he’s not about to go down alone especially in re: the Sara/Sarah hacking. He acted on the instructions of others. I think he’s missing the absence of his lawyers bills or something but that may just be the cynic in me.

    There’s some Louise Mensch / Piers Morgan stuff (seriously cheap literature turns too), another head that chopped itself off (Lady Buscombe for those that care) but my favorite bit was Mr. Idiot with a Pie emerging from court saying: “This has been the most humble day of my life”. The doubling down aspect made me nostalgic for many of our trolls and hows that for the speed of a court case?

  55. 55.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    Jamie Dupree
    As of now, the Senate will take this cloture vote on the Reid debt bill at 1:01 am on Sunday morning

  57. 57.

    Linda Featheringill

    In the Senate:

    McConnell and Reid are arguing [in a dignified manner] about when and how to debate Reid’s bill.

    I think that Reid is trying to set it up so that if the republicans want to filibuster, they have to do it at 1:00 Sunday morning.

    McConnell actually has a good speaking voice. The only problem is that every other word isn’t true.

  59. 59.

    shortstop

    IM: He did. Which is interesting. It was a vote to table, BTW — tried to edit to make clear but FYWP.

  61. 61.

    JPL

    shortstop Do you know which repubs.. He still doesn’t have enough to stop the filibuster.

  62. 62.

    shortstop

    The House is planning to vote down Reid’s bill (introduced yesterday) tomorrow morning. Impasse, here we come.

    That bill hasn’t been introduced in the Senate yet. The House vote is some symbolic shit to try to get a better deal.

  64. 64.

    Samara Morgan

    feel your way.

    is this the part where you apologize for giving me a three-day timeout FOR TELLING THE TRUTH?

    assclown

  65. 65.

    Randiego

    Mc Connell seems intent on dragging Obama back into this crap pile. Obama’s Gallup approval is down to 40%, so their political goal is being achieved. Turtle boy’s number one goal is to make Obama a one term Pres. so the crazier this gets, the better to bring him down.

  66. 66.

    John O

    Nothing to do on the debt front except wait. On the date front, the critical 3rd date tomorrow night is upon me. Her birthday is today.

    The pressure is intense.

  68. 68.

    PeakVT

    I like this from a Politiho article about the latest vote:

    The 59 to 41 vote, on a motion to table the resolution passed by the House less than two-hours before, ran along party lines easily reaching the the simple majority required to sink legislation in the upper chamber.

    ETA: Placeholder entry for vote.

  69. 69.

    Felanius Kootea

    @lol: I’m confused because it says Reid’s bill is HR2693 in the House and will be brought up under suspension rules (which require a two-thirds majority). Dreier (R-California) apparently introduced Reid’s bill to the House on Thursday. I didn’t know he could do that.

  70. 70.

    Elie

    I picked a hell of a day to stop sniffing glue…

    going outside to do some garden watering and have a wine or two.

    My alpha cat busted into the steak that I left on the counter inadvertantly when I went to do some errands. Steak was for MY dinner, but he ate some of it and promptly threw up all over it and the counter, so its a big salad for dinner tonight. Buddy (the cat) is in the dog house. Does he give a shit? Well, no — as he calmly licks his paws and cleans himself, stopping only to look at me with those golden, “you lookin at me?” eyes…

  71. 71.

    Keith G

    @batgirl:

    We are so screwed.

    The horrible media is a given. It’s what they are. I do not blame a cat for licking it’s ass.

    I do blame the Democratic leadership for being AWOL in this regard. This has been a time to be imaginative and innovative, not absent or whiny.

  73. 73.

    MaxxLange

    John, take her to the salad bar at Applebee’s. and tell her that you have been up all night reading Burke – – women love that romantic stuff

  75. 75.

    Felanius Kootea

    Who were the six Republicans that voted against Boehner’s bill in the senate?

  77. 77.

    John O

    Thanks, Maxx. I just happened to be brushing up on my first edition Atlas Shrugged thinking the same things, like Olive Garden. That stuff is the hot.

  78. 78.

    Randiego

    @Felanius Kootea: I believe Reid is using the Boehner bill HR
    2693 and simply deleting all the language and substituting his own language. That way he is sending the same bill back to the House for their vote up or down.

  79. 79.

    JPL

    Elie, lol. I am care taking my son’s male cat named Alice. He’s smaller than tunch so you get the idea about his size. He went on the counter and decided to play with a plant that was given to me that still had a bow attached with a pin. After much meowing, he ran to his room and would not pay attention to me until I said I was so sorry master, please forgive me.

  80. 80.

    Elie

    Keith G:

    lol — time for YOU to be imaginative and creative…

    Those dad gummed Democrats — just can’t make those Republicans do right. We should be able to get the sanity cyclotron to zap some sense into them just by looking at them real mean like.

    Honestly, do you ever read your own stuff?

  81. 81.

    eemom

    is this the part where you apologize for giving me a three-day timeout FOR TELLING THE TRUTH?
    assclown

    no, this is the part where he hopefully gives you a LONGER time out for the disgusting way you hijacked that earlier thread about the poor kid who was beaten to death by police to advance your insane vendetta.

    assclown

  82. 82.

    PeakVT

    @Felanius Kootea: From Politiho:

    Six Republicans joined Democrats to table the Boehner resolution were Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Mike Lee (Utah), Rand Paul (Ky.), and David Vitter (La.).

    I see two, maybe three voting for sanity, and the others voting for more insanity.

  83. 83.

    John O

    He’s smaller than tunch so you get the idea about his size.

    That gives me absolutely zero perspective on Alice’s size.

  85. 85.

    Elie

    JPL @ 79

    You have to be made to mind.

    Doncha know that they all go to “Owner Management” seminars?

  86. 86.

    MaxxLange

    ….spread candles around the table, don’t skimp on the candles. The table should look about like Steve Nicks’ dressing room, when it is ready. Look her deeply in the eyes, and take her hand. Tell her : “I love you, and I want you to sign a pledge not to vote for any Congressional candidates who will EVER raise taxes on job creators”

  87. 87.

    IM

    >GOP Senators voting against House debt limit bill: DeMint SC, Graham SC, Hatch UT, Lee UT, Paul KY & Vitter LA<

    I don't understand this. ?

  88. 88.

    JPL

    John O…I should have said a little smaller than tunch..

    By the way, I have a question, Alice is about 18 to 19 pounds and has trained my seventeen pound mutt to obey. I’m going to house sit a 5 pound dog and am a tad concerned about the little pup surviving. Any ideas on how to introduce them?

  89. 89.

    Samara Morgan

    @eemom the crone

    the disgusting way you hijacked that earlier thread about the poor kid who was beaten to death by police to advance your insane vendetta.

    Oh, you mean where i complained about mistermix farming page clicks for his glibertarain rentboi at Forbes while pretending to be a front pager on a liberal blog?

  90. 90.

    fourmorewars

    Hitting and running. Apologies for any repetition.

    Just wonderin’, I love you guys but I hope you’re trailing off with the firebagger stuff, or at least I’m hoping that you intend to leaven it with some looks around at people like Atrios who are hardly hysterics…and in that vein, this from TBogg, who can be found at fdl but has never fit anyone’s definition of an fb.

    http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2011/07/24/the-dumbest-guys-in-the-room/

  91. 91.

    Randiego

    @IM they are against any raising of the debt ceiling no matter what; will always vote no.

  95. 95.

    MikeJ

    @Keith G: Silly question, but you did install the chrome version and not cleek’s firefox/greasemonkey version? It’s working for me now on windows(I think I had a caching issue yesterday) and has always worked on real computers linux.

    Yesterday, the time it didn’t work it only skipped the last comment by the person but got earlier ones.

    Have you done the obvious like double checking spelling? Perhaps try changing abuse methods and see if that works? If I can get it to fail I could fix it, but right now it’s working for me.

  96. 96.

    John O

    JPL:

    It’s always been my position that you let them work stuff out on their own, the cat can’t hurt the dog badly, and you have to be around to play alpha boss to the cat, I’ll bet, in this case. :-)

  97. 97.

    jwb

    Randiego

    Mc Connell seems intent on dragging Obama back into this crap pile. Obama’s Gallup approval is down to 40%, so their political goal is being achieved. Turtle boy’s number one goal is to make Obama a one term Pres. so the crazier this gets, the better to bring him down.

    Almost certainly that’s why there are not enough votes to break the filibuster. The impasse seems to be working for the goopers inasmuch as their goal is to drive down Obama’s approval ratings. The only question is whether they are driving their own numbers down so far that they end up damaging their own numbers so badly that it doesn’t matter. The jury is out, though anecdotal accounts suggest that the strategy is starting to turn fairly heavily against the GOP. Anecdotes being anecdotes who know what they represent.

  99. 99.

    JPL

    John O… Thanks. That makes sense. Alice is happy in his room but when I’m home I can keep them both in an area within view. My biggest concern was that Alice would think the dog a rat.

  100. 100.

    scav

    I’m still trying, but I can still think of no value of truth that would justify m_c’s continued existence in the space-time continuum. I can’t even conceive of a statement of truth that isn’t better off by not being associated with her. I’ve met budgies that had more self-awareness than that child.

  101. 101.

    Keith G

    @MikeJ: After the week I have had, there are no silly questions. The descriptions of the extention that I downloaded reads:

    Cleek’s pie filter ported to chrome

  102. 102.

    WaterGirl

    @ John O

    I suggest flowers, but not carnations or roses or boring grocery store pre-made bouquets. Pick out the flowers yourself. If you have a sense of her style, go with that. Would she like serious flowers, like roses or irises, or would she be more of a wildflower girl? (hint: always go for the wildflower girls) Mix a bunch of colors together for happy flowers. (not all pink or all yellow or all purple)

    Also, do you know any of her favorite colors? (e.g. I got this red flower because you wore that red shirt when we went to xxx).

    Edit: I had to fix a typo, so as long as I’m here, I guess I will add that if you really like her, whatever you get or do should let her know that you have noticed particular things about her. Like they say that if you look at a kid’s drawing, it’s better to say “oh, look at the bright sun shining in the corner” rather than “good job, nice picture”.

  103. 103.

    Samara Morgan

    @eemom

    the disgusting way you hijacked that earlier thread about the poor kid who was beaten to death by police to advance your insane vendetta.

    oh, i guess you meant the disgusting way mistermix was farming pageclicks for Kain’s Forbes post off of a dead kid while Kains fellow travelers are busily trying to burn down America.
    yeah, im sure that’s what you meant eemom.

Comments are closed.