Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Everybody saw this coming.

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

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

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

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

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Let there be snark.

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

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

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

This fight is for everything.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

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

Good lord, these people are nuts.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

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101Comments

  1. 1.

    yeahyeahwhatevs (Studly Pantload, once upon a time)

    I just wanted to say — Halleluja-ding-dong, veggie-fellating girl’s gone! Now I don’t have to worry that my boss will think I’m surfing porn if she happens by while I’ve got this blog up.

  2. 2.

    Trurl

    Greenwald – enemy of all that is good and true – destroys Cole’s partisan excuse-making.

    Your question — which assumes that he was forced into these cuts and/or that he wanted a clean debt ceiling increase – is thus totally flawed.  He’s been very candid that he wants to cut entitlement programs and other domestic programs for the poor – happy to send you all the links if you need them, but I know you know this, and even wrote about it once when he said it in his Press Conference (https://balloon-juice.com/2011/07/12/bad-politics/).  Here are a few to start…

    Guess this puts him ahead of That Hamsher Woman as Goldstein-Of-The-Day for a while.

  3. 3.

    The Moar You Know

    I miss Kortney. She was a green-dick-sucking bright spot in my otherwise tedious day.

  6. 6.

    yeahyeahwhatevs (Studly Pantload, once upon a time)

    Also, *John Galt Cole,* new numbers released today show that an average of 3,518 fewer workers stubbed their toe on the job over the last rolling four weeks. But you won’t report the *good* economic news, will you?

  12. 12.

    John Cole

    @Trurl: Um, we’ve already linked that piece. I posted it about two hours ago.

    Needless to say, there is a lot I disagree with in the Greenwald post. He is still running under the assumption that the Republicans could be dealt with rationally or with threats. Their desired outcome is to kill the hostage.

    Second, my favorite part of the Greenwald letter was the part about Obama using the 14th. Lord, almighty. If he had done that, I could have written Glenn’s Salon posts- I’d just cut and paste “IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY” 1000 times, and every one of you idiots would be here quoting it.

  13. 13.

    eric

    One last (for the moment) debt comment: there are those that believe that you need to let people feel the consequences of the TPers actions to understand and vote the “right” way in the future. This assumes (as I beat my dead horse) that the MSM would let you. For example, is there any objective dispute that the tax cuts from W badly hurt the US economy? No, there is not. So, one might think that the people hurt, the poor, the middle class, the unemployed, would run, not walk, away from the GOP. Yet, 2010 tells us that such running never happened. Why? because the MSM will not tolerate a single-threaded story of economic fault. First, it runs counter to their collective economic interests. And second, it runs counter to their he said-she said coverage, which requires little, if any, expertise on the part of the talking heads.

    Think of it this way: you are in litigation and you have the law and facts on your side, but the judge rules for the other side. You cant change the judge; you cant change the MSM.

  16. 16.

    Beauzeaux

    Those eyes!
    I’d be out shopping for new furniture just for him. Whatever you want, Maxie!

  17. 17.

    Violet

    Max is gorgeous. What a sweetheart. His eyes in that top picture. Awwww…why won’t you give him a treat and pet him and throw a ball for him? He suffers so much. You must not love him. That’s what those eyes say. LOL.

  20. 20.

    Stooleo

    Look at Max use his adorableness to extort doggie biscuits from you. Don’t sell out Tim!

  21. 21.

    Phylllis

    Who’s a good pup-pup? You are, yes you are!

    In other news, got word first thing this morning we were awarded a grant that was very competitive. Yay!

  22. 22.

    PeakVT

    @Tim F. – have you looked at the EP-3 yet? Does it look like a worthwhile upgrade?

    ETA: I have a bunch of information on digital interchangeable-lens cameras here which may be useful to anyone planning on buying such a camera in the near future.

  26. 26.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Trurl: And no amount of pointing out that Obama first asked for a clean bill, and then asked to allow Medicare to negotiate with drug companies – which would have saved money – is going to change the myth that he has been trying to cut entitlements all along, is it?

  28. 28.

    Tim F.

    @PeakVT: I would love to upgrade to an E-P3, but I don’t see justifying the expense right now. Better image quality, ISO sensitivity, dynamic range, whatever would have sealed it for me but so far IQ looks about the same.

  29. 29.

    IrishGirl

    I just want to rub his ears and start talking all baby talk with him. I miss having a dog. My cats aren’t social enough for my needs.

  32. 32.

    cleek

    @Arclite:

    Republicans are getting 95% of what they wanted.

    oddly, actual Republicans disagree with that assessment. which is why Boehner was selling it to the House GOP with lines like this:

    “It isn’t the greatest deal in the world, but it shows how much we’ve changed the terms of the debate in this town,”

    and Bachmann said:

    “spends too much and doesn’t cut enough. … Someone has to say no. I will.”

    they don’t sound 95% happy.

  35. 35.

    shortstop

    Second, my favorite part of the Greenwald letter was the part about Obama using the 14th. Lord, almighty. If he had done that, I could have written Glenn’s Salon posts- I’d just cut and paste “IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY” 1000 times, and every one of you idiots would be here quoting it.

    A-fucking-men.

  36. 36.

    shortstop

    I can’t drop F bombs here now? This doesn’t have anything to do with Mrs. Cole, does it? Cause I think she’s cool with it.

  37. 37.

    gogol's wife

    Thanks for Max. Thanks to cleek and others for comments that seem to reflect an awareness of the actual world we live in.

  39. 39.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @shortstop: Have you heard the story about “Little Lion Man” by Mumford and Sons? One of the lines in the chorus goes “I really fucked it up this time.” The producers said he should change it, but when the lead singer asked his mom about it, she said it was the only word that made sense.

  40. 40.

    kjazz

    I lean toward the opinion of this reader at TPM:

    Let me get this straight. The President kept revenues on the table, did not touch the sunset provisions in the Bush tax cuts, ensured that military cuts keep the GOP honest, protected Medicare by adding in only provider cuts in the trigger, made the reduction apparently enough to stave off a debt downgrade, got the debt ceiling raised, wounded Boehner by demonstrating to the world that he is controlled by the Tea Party caucus, took out the requirement that a BBA be passed and sent to the states and got the extension through 2012? What exactly is wrong with this deal? The fact that there are cuts? If people don’t like that, why in God’s name didn’t they turn out to vote and bring back our Congressional majority? Once these nut jobs were in there, it was inevitable that this crap was going to happen. Whether or not it is advisable to cut spending, what exactly was going to stop this from happening? My experience is that the primary factor in all negotiations are the facts on the ground. The complaints center on a ridiculous notion that if the President had only said “no” harder, that these guys would have caved in. This isn’t negotiating over who gets the side of the bed near the A/C. This is a complex matter involving 3,000 members and staffers. Negotiations in these situations don’t work like this. That’s why I’m irked by the constant parade of people comparing the negotiations to movies and card games. These comparisons obscure more than they reveal.

    The GOP came out of this looking unreasonable–I’ve been getting E-mail messages from friends saying they are back with the Democrats because the Tea Party is “destroying this country.” Nate Silver tweeted last week that local conservative talk radio in Kansas was filled with callers attacking the Tea Party! The Wall Street Journal ran two editorials which called the GOP delusional and “childish.” The vaunted GOP message discipline broke down–I read stories all over the “inside baseball” papers here in DC where GOP House members went on the record after the Friday vote wondering out loud if the party had been damaged! I don’t know if you noticed, but John Boehner spent last week negotiating with himself. No new proposals came out from the Dem side, but he produced two proposals, one of which he had to pull after he didn’t have votes. A congressional Dem staffer told me his dad, an urban Catholic who voted for Nixon over Kennedy and has always voted Republican suddenly thinks the GOP is out to lunch and supports the President.

    Hey, we all hate the pain, but this is an ongoing process. They are going to try this again with a government shutdown. When that happens, I’m pretty sure that the country will be resoundingly against a repeat of these types of hijinks.

  43. 43.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @kjazz:

    This isn’t negotiating over who gets the side of the bed near the A/C. This is a complex matter involving 3,000 members and staffers. Negotiations in these situations don’t work like this. That’s why I’m irked by the constant parade of people comparing the negotiations to movies and card games. These comparisons obscure more than they reveal.

    I wish this would fit inside my sig on DK.

  45. 45.

    Roger Moore

    @Arclite:

    Fucking idiots. Republicans are getting 95% of what they wanted.

    Sorry, but by MSM standards that means they still aren’t the winner. They haven’t won unless they get 110% of their final demands.

  47. 47.

    PeakVT

    @Tim F.: Yeah, what I’ve read indicates most of the changes from the E-P1 are operational, the most important of which is better AF. But apparently the sensors are the same so it will be at least another generation before IQ changes significantly.

  48. 48.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent): This gives me what I think is a much better analogy: In the next Superbowl, everyone pays one price for tickets, there are no assigned seats, and everyone must be seated before the game can start.

  49. 49.

    PurpleGirl

    Max! Always love pictures of Max.

    Tim F: Does he think he’s a lap dog? If a person sits on that chair before he does, does he plop down in their lap and share the chair. My friends’ Dobi (Hugo) would always wait for me to sit and then get next to me and try to sit in my lap — of course, only his head fit. LOL.

  50. 50.

    Roger Moore

    @Tim F.:
    That seems to roughly agree with what Thom Hogan says. He had a recent article in which he commented that the 4/3 and µ4/3 sensors seem to have gotten almost no improvement in still image quality for the past couple of generations; all of their work seems to have gone into improved video instead. That seems kind of disappointing if you’re mostly interested in photography rather than video.

  51. 51.

    The Moar You Know

    Pat Lang:

    The Tea Party has destroyed Boehner as Speaker of the House, and is working on destroying the GOP. Boehner may survive for a while but having been defied as leader of his party in the House of Representative he is essentially “toast.” Eric Cantor waits in the wings like the XO on a Klingon battle cruiser waiting to sit in the dead man’s chair.

    Republicans as Klingons. Makes sense to me.

  52. 52.

    Trurl

    Needless to say, there is a lot I disagree with in the Greenwald post. He is still running under the assumption that the Republicans could be dealt with rationally or with threats

    Nice attempt to change the subject.

    The subject is your having formerly owned up to Obama wanting to cut SS (documented at one of those pesky links GG is always digging up) and now lapsing back into your characteristic amnesia in which we end up with a Super Congress cutting SS due to Obama’s poor negotiating skills.

    And he’s such an intelligent man! Most puzzling indeed.

  53. 53.

    JPL

    @The Moar You Know: Personally I think the President should invite Boehner to play golf this weekend. They have both been working so hard they need to unwind. The tea party type would love that wouldn’t they.

  55. 55.

    SenyorDave

    I just realized what we need (I assume many posters here are middle class):

    A MIDDLE CLASS TAX CUT

    I propose that Obama announce, and the Democrats endorse an immediate 10% tax cut on all income below $250,000. It would be a huge shot in the arm to the Middle Class, and a major boost to the economy. I assume all Republicans would jump on board, and it would sail through Congress.

    Fiscally irresponsible? Who cares, besides its just your opinion (after all, the media always says there are two sides to every story).

    The big advantage is that once these new tax rates are in place, they will be the new normal. Then if they ever raise taxes, the wealthy will pay a higher share than they otherwise would have.

    This was snark at first, but as I write it I’m not sure I see a down side. Plus, I want to see Limbaugh’s head explode as he tries to adopt a contrary position on a tax cut proposed by Democrats.

  56. 56.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Trurl:
    So you don’t know that the Super Congress specifically cannot cut SS. Cool. It’s nice to have confirmation that you really don’t know what’s in the deal.

  57. 57.

    SensesFail

    @John Cole:

    Second, my favorite part of the Greenwald letter was the part about Obama using the 14th. Lord, almighty. If he had done that, I could have written Glenn’s Salon posts- I’d just cut and paste “IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY” 1000 times, and every one of you idiots would be here quoting it.

    THIS.

  58. 58.

    Tim F.

    @PurpleGirl: If I’m already on the couch, Max will jump up and try to fit next to me. At one time he could lie out with his head in my lap, but now the best he can do is curl his butt around against me and lean his head over the armrest.

  59. 59.

    cckids

    @Jared:

    waiting for the OMB and CBO to weigh in before rushing to judgement…

    But. . . I thought rushing to judgement was the rule of the day!! What is this, Calvinball?

  60. 60.

    SensesFail

    So the markets are down today? Shouldn’t the private sector be in the middle of an austerity orgy?

  61. 61.

    PeakVT

    @Roger Moore: The µ4/3 cameras started out with pretty high resolutions. 12.1 MP on a 225mm3 sensor is basically the same density as 18MP on a 332mm3 sensor in a Canon 600D, their latest midrange DLSR. So focusing on non-still features isn’t unreasonable, especially since that’s the latest craze. It’s hard for a mainstream company to fight the tide on such things. And the home market for almost all digicams values the gadgetiness of gadgets, so there’s that factor, too.

  63. 63.

    Jared

    @cckids:
    Yeah I know…
    Weirdly, reddit.com (the angry white male voice of the internet) seems to have correctly assigned blame to the GOP for taking the world economy hostage. Is our electorates learning?

  65. 65.

    Dragon-King Wangchuck, firebagger (apparently)

    frankensteinbeck @ 52,

    Where did you get that? Super Congress has teh mandate to find up to 1.5 trillion in cuts over nine years. And they have until Thanksgiving to do it.

    SS and Medicare exemption apply to teh penalty trigger of automatic across-the-board cuts if Super Congress fails. That’s the next “hostage” – if the New Catfood Commission’s suggestions aren’t implemented. Thus regular Congress has a huge motivation to approve Super Congress’ brilliant entitlement spending plans – all with minimal debate and three months to figure it out.

  66. 66.

    Alan

    So, the New York Times has put up a gallery of pictures of the (mostly) kids murdered in Norway, along with links to Facebook memorial pages and the like. It is almost impossibly sad.

    http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/world/europe/Norway-Victims-Oslo-Utoya.html

    Do you see that, right-wingers and journalists? Time for countertop inspections! Time to call them sluts and traitors, to stalk their friends and families, to run the reputations and memories of a bunch of innocent children through the Internet hate machine. Time to dig up or make up every misstep, faux pas, quirk, and fleeting moment of carefree self expression you can to drag these kids through the mud.

    And you know what? I don’t even care. Do whatever you want.

    You can’t hurt them anymore.

  67. 67.

    Poopyman

    Jonathan Chait:

    The third mistake lay in assuming Republicans would agree to raise tax revenue. I spoke several times with administration officials who asserted with total confidence that Republicans would simply have to acknowledge the need for more revenue. They betrayed a complete misunderstanding of the party they’re dealing with.

  69. 69.

    Roger Moore

    @PeakVT:
    Nikon has been quite conservative in increasing sensor resolution. Their recent in-house sensors have leaned very hard in the low pixel count, high pixel quality direction, best shown in the sensor in the D3s. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they’ve been very successful in courting the professional and serious amateur market that way. I love the high ISO capability of my D700, and it’s very rare that I need more than its 12 MP anyway.

  73. 73.

    General Stuck

    @askew:

    Yer gonna spoil a good progressive orgasm with talk like that, with facts and shit. The precious darlings got a load backed up since like the last time Obama didn’t sell the farm. They are in effect arguing against the very theories they claim as gospel, Keynesians support long term deficit reduction. And they also support short term tax cuts in a situation we are in right now. Like say a two year extension to the Bush tax cuts. @

  75. 75.

    Dragon-King Wangchuck, firebagger (apparently)

    In fact, I do believe Medicare is also on the table for Super Congress. It really is hard to tell, what with teh kwalitee of teh Washington Press Corpse.

    Financial Times: Savings from the largest mandatory spending programmes such as Medicare are likely to be considered by this panel, along with tax reform.

    Ezra: 1)Raise the Medicare eligibility age, increase premiums for wealthy recipients, and increase deductibles and co-pays.

    CNN: They could call for tax reform to raise revenues, or propose cuts to popular entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

  76. 76.

    Arclite

    @PeakVT: I have been looking at micro 4/3 cameras for about a year now, but wondering if it isn’t better (for me) to get an all-in-one like the Canon Powershot SX30IS. I borrowed one for a couple weeks last month and was impressed what you can get for $400. Image quality isn’t quite the same, but it is still very good, and the camera has a ton of features and a 35x optical zoom with auto stabilization. Can you even get a 35x (800mm eqiv) zoom lens for a micro 4/3 camera?

  77. 77.

    trollhattan

    @PeakVT:

    Same sensor family but with ongoing improvements to the AA filter and processor. Less aggressive AA filters have increased image detail and the newest Pen-series have a double processor for much faster thruput.

    The 3-series are too new for detailed tests, but I’d expect that to be rectified soon enough. The new 12/2.0 prime looks awesone.

  78. 78.

    burnspbesq

    @Arclite:

    What cleek said. I kinda doubt that Republicans are terribly happy at the prospect of having to choose between raising taxes and cutting defense spending, which is a potential outcome if the Democrats on the commission are even minimally competent.

  79. 79.

    burnspbesq

    @John Cole:

    The irony here is that, like Obama with the Tea Party, you’ve made the mistake of assuming that Trurl can be reasoned with.

  80. 80.

    trollhattan

    @Arclite:

    Longest µ4/3 lens to date is the Lumix G 100-300 (200-600 FF eq). There are no teleconverters yet for the system. All 4/3 lenses can be used via adapter, which means one could mount a µ4/3 body to a Sigma 50-500, for a 1000 mm eq lens.

    Gaudy zoom ranges like 35x are reserved for small-chip cameras and pro video, as they’d be gigantic for larger formats and would offer too many flaws. The best zooms have modest ranges, like 2x or 3x.

  81. 81.

    Arclite

    @SenyorDave:

    This was snark at first, but as I write it I’m not sure I see a down side. Plus, I want to see Limbaugh’s head explode as he tries to adopt a contrary position on a tax cut proposed by Democrats.

    Well, I make over $60K and my effective federal income tax rate last year was 3%. I’m not sure how much lower I can go. Also, I’d rather pay a bit more in taxes and use the money for a stimulus package to create jobs (even in a Tennessee Valley Authority manner) as lower class employed people spend money on necessities, which creates demand, which stimulates business to hire to meet that demand, which causes more people to have money to spend on necessities, etc. reigniting the economy. Tax cuts alone don’t create jobs.

  82. 82.

    Arclite

    @burnspbesq: Yeah, I assumed that the cuts in defense were token, but after looking into it, they seem pretty substantial. Maybe this deal isn’t as bad as I thought. Just hard to wrap my head around the fact that there were no revenue increases when we’re trying to address a deficit.

  83. 83.

    burnspbesq

    The 14th Amendment solution was dead as soon as Tribe said he didn’t think it worked. Or has everyone forgotten that Obama was once a research assistant for Tribe?

  84. 84.

    Dragon-King Wangchuck, firebagger (apparently)

    BWaaAhAHHAahAH. O dear. I am sorry. Here it is my first day here and I’m being a terrible ass.

    [email protected] and [email protected], It’s a terrible deal. Let me quote to you what it is that you think might save it from being a total disaster:

    ,,,which is a potential outcome if the Democrats on the commission are even minimally competent.

  85. 85.

    burnspbesq

    @Arclite:

    Just hard to wrap my head around the fact that there were no revenue increases when we’re trying to address a deficit.

    I hear ya, but what we really need now, and can’t seem to get, is more stimulus. On that point, Krugman and DeLong are absolutely correct. If we get the economy moving, revenue comes back automatically, up to a point.

    My personal view, as a Certified Tax Geek, is that we need to clean up the income tax AND put in a Federal VAT. Long term, we need to get tax collections up to about 30 percent of GDP if we ever want to actually, you know, pay down some of the national debt instead of rolling it over indefinitely.

    I understand that a VAT is regressive. Two points in response. There are ways to tweak the income tax at the time you put in a VAT in order to preserve the overall progressivity of the tax system. My law school tax prof, Mike Graetz, gets deep into the weeds on this in his book, 100 Million Unnecessary Returns. Second, regressivity is how you sell a VAT to Republicans and Tea Party fanatics: “Hey, fellas, here’s a great way to fuck the poor.” Except that you don’t actually end up fucking the poor if you do it right.

  87. 87.

    Roger Moore

    @Arclite:

    Can you even get a 35x (800mm eqiv) zoom lens for a micro 4/3 camera?

    Why would you want a 35x zoom for an interchangeable lens camera? One of the major points of interchangeable lenses is that you don’t have to depend on a single do everything lens and can get a set of higher quality specialized lenses instead. The set of lenses may be less convenient, of course, but it can definitely produce better results.

    Not to mention that the 35x zoom you’re talking about is about 23mm equivalent on the wide end, while µ4/3 can go down to 14mm equivalent. I’d much rather have the ultra-wide end available than the ultra-long end.

  88. 88.

    catclub

    @burnspbesq: “Except that you don’t actually end up fucking the poor if you do it right.”

    Assumes facts not in evidence.

    I also see no need to do more than roll over the debt.
    Paying it down to zero is unnecessary if the economy is growing faster than the debt.

  92. 92.

    Arclite

    @Roger Moore: Well, I like to zoom on the fly. I shoot a lot of pics and vid of my wife surfing and my daughter in the ocean and at swim meets, so switching zoom levels on the fly is important to get the right shot. I don’t want a bunch of fixed-length lenses I have to constantly switch out. So, one lens with a range of focal lengths would be best.

    And, yeah, it’s a sacrifice to be limited to 24mm, esp living here in HI. I’d like to do some wide angle stuff at some point.

  95. 95.

    Tim F.

    @trollhattan: That is a great choice for filming surfers from shore, but it is a little long to use as a go-everywhere zoom lens. I would suggest the Olympus 15-150mm f/4.0-5.6.

  96. 96.

    burnspbesq

    @catclub:

    Not paying tens of billions of interest has a certain appeal to me. I can think of other things on which to spend that money. And fucking up every valuation model on earth by eliminating the riskless rate of interest? Too damn bad.

  101. 101.

    Arclite

    @Arclite: Yeah, size is not a huge issue. I want good image quality at a reasonable price. And I want the ability to shoot at a distance. Thanks.

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