Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

This blog will pay for itself.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

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

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

People are weird.

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

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

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

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

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

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

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Reader Interactions

130Comments

  1. 1.

    Roger Moore

    Is there anything else to talk about, except possibly for John’s latest baking experiment?

  5. 5.

    SteveinSC

    Can we talk about Buddy Roemer? He was just on Lawrence O’Donnell and said he’s running in the Republican race, but won’t take more than $100 per donation. He say’s the country is in trouble with SuperPac money and that liberals and conservatives should join to fight this. I think me an my wife will send him $50.

  9. 9.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    My 93 year old aunt died today. She was a great lady and lived a long and rich life. In the days leading up to WWII she lived in San Diego where her husband and my dad and his brother were all crew members of the USS Crosby. She knew all and the enlisted crew and legend had it she cooked for many of them.

  11. 11.

    JPL

    @SteveinSC: A Fulton County, GA commissioner is trying to institute a law stating that businesses who donate more to $500.00 to a candidate cannot be awarded a contract for a year. It’s in the AJC which you might be signed onto so won’t bother with the link but here’s the relevant paragraphs.

    What Commissioner Emma Darnell is proposing would be among the most stringent campaign finance restrictions in the nation, banning any company that donates more than $500 to a commission candidate’s war chest from doing business with the county for a year. No jurisdiction in the metro Atlanta area has anything similar on its books………………….
    “Many contractors don’t believe they have a chance, unless they are connected,” said Darnell, who will ask the board to adopt the new rules at Wednesday’s meeting. “That’s not true in Fulton County, but that’s the perception.”

  12. 12.

    Roger Moore

    @jeffreyw:
    Does he chirp when he’s birdwatching? I can always tell when a hummingbird is stopping by my feeder because Jake starts making a strange, strangling chirping noise, as if he’s trying to stop himself from meowing but can’t completely manage.

  16. 16.

    hilts

    I emailed Ben Smith regarding the contradiction that John highlighted in his post “The Balls On These People…”

    I asked him “What’s the difference between “weird” and “awkwardness”?” and “How is your post Today in Mitt Romney awkwardness any different from what you have accused the Obama campaign of planning to do in the future?”

    Ben’s response to me:

    It is possible to read too much into things you know! Romney is, to reporters covering him, a notoriously awkward retail campaigner. This seemed an instance of that. No conspiracy…

    I sent a follow-up message to get further clarification from Ben

    This is Ben’s 2nd response to me:

    I said it WASN’T their planned line of attack. John is totally misreading that first piece and confused as to my motives.

  17. 17.

    SiubhanDuinne

    RIP, Raven’s aunt. She sounds like an amazing lady.

    “legend had it she cooked for many of them.” There is nothing euphemistic here, right? You’re talking about cooking in the jeffreyw, TaMara, John Cole sense, I assume. (Not that there’s ANYTHING wrong with another interpretation.)

    Sounds like a cool lady. Sympathies to you and all who loved her.

  18. 18.

    Phyllis

    Speaking of Atlanta, Giants just tied it up with the Braves. Who are determined to break ny heart again this year, I’m afraid.

  20. 20.

    JPL

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): girls gotta dream.
    Can you access the NYTimes? If so read about Nancy Wake former party girl who while in Germany saw Nazi’s randomly beating jewish men in the mid thirties and it changed her life. The article is Nancy Wake proud spy and nazi foe. She just died at 98. link
    The greatest generation indeed.

  21. 21.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @hilts:

    It wasn’t their planned line of attack?

    OK, someone is confused. It’s not anyone here. It’s Village dumbass Smith.

  22. 22.

    General Stuck

    Flickers of light in our long dark economic tunnel

    Industrial output increased 0.9 percent, the Federal Reserve said on Tuesday, after a 0.4 percent gain in June — nearly double economists’ expectations for a 0.5 percent rise.

    Manufacturing rose 0.6 percent as motor vehicles production surged 5.2 percent after falling 0.9 percent in June. Excluding autos, manufacturing rose 0.3 percent, pointing to resilience in the sector that has been the economy’s main pillar of support, even when regional factory activity has been cooling. […]

    Also supporting the improving tone for the economy, housing starts slipped a less-than-expected 1.5 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 604,000 units as builders broke ground on new multifamily units to meet demand for rental apartments, Commerce Department data showed.

  23. 23.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    @SiubhanDuinne: Nope, she was straight as an arrow. You don’t get raised by Ingeborg to do no foolin around. And I’m surprised you’d say something like that.

  24. 24.

    JPL

    @Phyllis: As of this date in August the top four teams are Phillies, Red Sox, Yankees and Braves. The Braves unfortunately share the same division with the Phillies. As I type though they are 5 games up for the wild card which isn’t bad.

  25. 25.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I’m cat-sitting a pair of lovely guys this week for a new colleague who was called away suddenly for family stuff. It’s been a few years since I’ve had a cat of my own, but I’m falling in love again. I had planned (hah!) to hold out until I’m retired, but I’m beginning to think about rescue moggies. Not wanting to move too fast on this. But there’s been a hole in my life since Bessie went off to lap at the creamy edges of the Milky Way a few years ago.

  27. 27.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    @JPL: I read that in the Sunday Times. Have you ever seen “Plenty” with Streep? She plays a similar person who just can’t reclaim the excitement of combat after the war. Tracey Ullman is in the film as well and it is quite interesting.

  30. 30.

    Mustang Bobby

    Watching the Tigers play Minnesota at Comerica. “Watching” means I’m viewing it via Gameday, which is sort of like watching it in stop-action Wii.

    Tigers ahead 7-0, Verlander pitching.

  34. 34.

    JPL

    @Mark S.: The news media already tossed Bachmann overboard when the latest cowboy entered the race. The Elvis gaff was funny though.

  35. 35.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Phyllis:

    Ah, another fan of “The Green Fields of the Mind.”

    We are almost at the 20th anniversary (August 26) of my becoming a forever baseball fan. a day to remember.

  38. 38.

    Roger Moore

    @tdd:

    I need a little help naming our rats.

    You left out “Pinky and The Brain”. Yes, I know they’re actually mice, but it’s a classic pairing for rodents.

    ETA: @SiubhanDuinne: Damn, just a bit too late.

  41. 41.

    Loneoak

    @tdd:

    I voted for Stringer and Omar, but realized that those dudes would never be rats. I love the Wire, but you just can’t name a rat Omar.

  48. 48.

    Darkrose

    The Giants have clearly pissed off the Baseball Gods. Six guys hurt in the last couple of days and now Sanchez sprains his ankle? Seriously, we need to pack our remaining starters in bubble wrap; this is ridiculous. Only good thing is that at this rate, Bochy will have to give in and start playing the rookies. Lord knows they can’t do much worse than his beloved veterans.

  49. 49.

    Splitting Image

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred):

    My 93 year old aunt died today. She was a great lady and lived a long and rich life. In the days leading up to WWII she lived in San Diego where her husband and my dad and his brother were all crew members of the USS Crosby. She knew all and the enlisted crew and legend had it she cooked for many of them.

    Sorry to hear that. My grandmother passed away at 90 a couple of years ago and I had similar feelings at the time. As sad as it was at the time it was good to think that she had had such a good run of it for such a long time.

  50. 50.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    @Splitting Image: Yea, that’s the way I feel. I’m a bit bummed that I missed a family gathering a couple of weeks back but my sibs and their kids made it so that’s good. Living in Georgia when everyone else is in California is a mixed blessing.

    Sorry for your loss too.

  51. 51.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @scav: I can’t wait until two angels kicked out of heaven try to have their abortions absolved.

  53. 53.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    i am doing good work in saving the economy and shit. i ordered my tv today, i am looking at whether to update my sound system, and trying to decide if i will want or need a 3d blu-ray with netflix streaming(they do 3d right?) also, i am not totally into the 3d, but the better tvs has it, ergo…

    oh yeah and those 3d glasses cost almost as much as my oakleys did, back when i was young and foolish, its so nice to be old and foolish, and out of things like that.

  54. 54.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    i am doing good work in saving the economy and shit. i ordered my tv today, i am looking at whether to update my sound system, and trying to decide if i will want or need a 3d blu-ray with netflix streaming(they do 3d right?) also, i am not totally into the 3d, but the better tvs has it, ergo…

    oh yeah and those 3d glasses cost almost as much as my oakleys did, back when i was young and foolish, its so nice to be old and foolish, and out of things like that.

  60. 60.

    MikeBoyScout

    @56 gwangung:

    We’re Seattlites in our house. We’re straight and Caucasian (not that there’s anything wrong with that) but it looks interesting, so we’ll swing by in the next week.

    Thanks for the heads up!

  61. 61.

    gwangung

    @MikeBoyScout: Well, thanks. Hope you enjoy the show.

    I originally got into theatre, because that’s where a lot of women were, and half the guys were gay, but somehow that plan didn’t work out…

  63. 63.

    MikeBoyScout

    I can bitch and moan with a clever snark as good as any of you, AND I just BBQ-d some totally awesome organic chicken, summer squash and zucchini. My partner is a natural born expert with tossed salads of the European variety.

    So despite all the political & economic sheeet thrown our way we enjoyed a fabulous meal in fabulous summer weather on the lake in the pacnorwest.

    Eat sheet Rick, Crazy Eyes, Gold Bug, Santorum, Newticles…

  69. 69.

    me

    @jwb: Steitz won Burlington (in Racine County) by 800 votes. Right now Wirch is ahead by 900 in Kenosha County so it looks okay so far. If most of the remaining votes are in Kenosha City, Wirch will get a blowout.

  70. 70.

    Martin

    @hilts:

    I said it WASN’T their planned line of attack. John is totally misreading that first piece and confused as to my motives.

    People who write for a living should not be so easily misread. It means they’re shitty at their job. But we already knew that.

  71. 71.

    Southern Beale

    I don’t know what to think about this:

    Rick Perry Hires Away Treasurer Of Stephen Colbert’s SuperPAC
    __
    A new job opening has emerged at Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow, the SuperPAC run by fake news anchor Stephen Colbert. His treasurer, Salvatore Purpura, resigned on Thursday from his duties under Colbert to move on up to manning the same duties at a slightly bigger operation: the Rick Perry (that’s “Perry” with an “e”) campaign.
    __
    The news come by way of Politico, which noted that Purpura initially thought of doing both duties, but realized there was a conflict of interest and so resigned. Purpura has a history of working on other Republican campaigns, so it didn’t come exactly as a surprise, particularly since Colbert’s SuperPAC had already endorsed someone sort of like Rick Perry, “Rick Parry,” a fictional candidate Colbert’s statement on Purpura seemed to ignore was not the same person his former treasurer was now working for.

  74. 74.

    The Dangerman

    @Loneoak:

    I think just about every type of device on the planet now has Netflix streaming…

    I’m really, REALLY happy with my Roku player from Netflix and other stuff.

    Can’t compare it to Blu-Ray much except one Family machine which frequently had to buffer during play. In hours and hours of playing, Roku hasn’t buffered during play once.

  75. 75.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jeffro:

    Wonderful! The only thing POTUS left out was a well-placed “Bless his heart!”

    But maybe he’s saving that for the debates.

  84. 84.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Southern Beale: Simac is the Republican. FWIW Holperin was recalled back when he was an Assemplyman; He survived it then too. It was during a controversy of Native American spearfishing rights under their treaties. Holperin supported the treaty rights and a bunch of redneck yahoos organized a recall. The region that Holperin now represents as Senate has a very large N/A population, who will remember that he stood up
    for them in the past.

    Results link, if no one has posted one yet.

    ETA: I was out working on this one again, so i can’t talk a lot about it. I can say that in the Holperin recall, the trunout was good in all the polling places I visited.

  85. 85.

    tdd

    @Loneoak:

    These are beloved family members, not just rats. That’s why I couldn’t go with Karl and W. Even though the human versions are “rats”

  90. 90.

    BruinKid

    Yes! Both Wisconsin state senate seats up for recall tonight were held by the Democrats.

    So out of the 9 recall elections in Wisconsin, Democrats won 5 of them.

  91. 91.

    Little Boots

    now things get really interesting in the state senate,. one vote. with one Republican who actually voted against Scotty’s “reform.”

  93. 93.

    eemom

    It’s nice how so many WWII heroes and heroines — especially the low key civilian, ordinary folk ones — seem to live to an advanced age. For example Miep Gies, the Dutch lady who helped to hide the Frank family, who died last year at 100. Almost as though there really is some inscrutable, mysterious-ways-esq God who is trying to tell us something.

    RIP, Raven’s Aunt.

  94. 94.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    So, the newspaper titles for the votes in WI will read “Democrats only win two elections in first round, and Republicans only lose two elections in the second round.”

  95. 95.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @eemom: Or it could be that since most of Europe had to participate in the war, a large number of people who lived to be an old age had some type of heroic role in the war.

    (Visions of Bayes’ theorem dancing through my head.)

  97. 97.

    Jenny

    President Obama’s response to Republicans’ use of the term “ObamaCare” to refer to the ACA: “I have no problem with folks saying Obama Cares. I do care.”

  98. 98.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @BruinKid:

    Yes! Both Wisconsin state senate seats up for recall tonight were held by the Democrats.

    Can’t wait to see how the media make this a victory for the Republicans.

  99. 99.

    gnomedad

    @Jeffro:
    FTA:

    Obama’s daughters Sasha and Malia might get a further taste of it over the next few years. Blitzer reminded the President that he had bought the girls a puppy as a gift after his election in 2008. “What are you going to get them the next time, if you’re reelected?” he asked. Obama’s response:

    When I’m reelected, what I’ll be getting them is a continuation of Secret Service so that when boys want to start dating them they are going to be surrounded by men with guns. That’s their gift.

  100. 100.

    Karen

    @The Dangerman:

    I am in love with my Roku. If it could get me pregnant, I’d let it. Not only do I get the Netflix but since I have an Amazon prime account, I get those streaming free too.

  102. 102.

    Karen

    Is it me or does John Stewart seem to be routing for Ron Paul? Tonight is the second day he mentioned him.

  104. 104.

    Steeplejack

    @Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal:

    I have not seen anywhere that Netflix streams anything in 3-D. But I admit that I haven’t really been looking, because I am not a big fan of 3-D, especially not on a home TV.

    (I did enjoy Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams in 3-D at the theater. Glad I saw it that way.)

    I would say go with a good Blu-ray player and a big-ass TV and be done with it. The 3-D thing may or may not be a fad, but so far the movies that have really used it, and not just thrown it in as a gimmick, have been few and far between. I think that probably goes in spades for so-called “3-D TV.”

  106. 106.

    Kane

    @Karen: I think it’s a message long overdue. The Republicans have plagiarize­d Ron Paul’s platform and co-opted the Tea Party, and much of the media has looked the other way instead of calling the Republicans out for their hypocrisy.

  109. 109.

    MikeJ

    @Steeplejack: Night shift has just barely finished dinner. Post meal coffee hasn’t even finished brewing. Although I bet I’m asleep before 10pm and awake before 1am. Bah.

  112. 112.

    Karen

    @Kane:

    So all that other Ayn Randian stuff Ron Paul believes in you’re on board for? I always thought that the Tea Party was made of Dick Army’s people and John Birchers.

  113. 113.

    scav

    Apparently mentioning once or twice without obvious spittle is the new (low) bar for endorsing everything the one mentioned ever said. I can see why some are concerned.

  114. 114.

    Kane

    @Karen: No, I’m not on board on any of teh crazy. And I don’t think Jon Stewart is either. He’s simply doing what he usually does, pointing out the hypocrisy in politics and media where he sees it, and mocking them for it.

  119. 119.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    @Steeplejack:

    i would be inclined to agree with you. but in my research, both in the back alleys of online tech geekdom, and in person, the thing that may make 3-d less gimmicky is the adjustable third d. i don’t like things jumping out at me, but some well done, and conservatively implemented depth, could enhance future productions. particularly hockey.

  121. 121.

    scav

    Alas, old age is merely evidence of old age. Johannes Heesters is a nicely ambiguous figure (Hitler’s favorite actor?) and he’s apparently still going strong, well, as strong as 107 can manage. Just quit smoking though, in Dec 2010.

  122. 122.

    licensed to kill time

    goddamnit just opened a new gallon of milk to make hot cocoa and the whole frackin’ thing is sour and too late to go out and buy more.

    GRRRRRRR……….I want my cocoa, life sucks.

  125. 125.

    Elie

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred):

    I’m late to the thread but my regret for your loss…

    My Dad died four years ago today, making this a special day for me too. He was 83 at his death — a WWII veteran of the Pacific theater…I still remember his wonderful laugh from better days and know that your Aunt will live on in similar memories — its the only thing that speaks to me about what eternity means …. May she have eternity in your memories and heart —

  129. 129.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Kane: I dunno. I’m not going to forget Jon Stewart’s hopeless mancrush on John McCain, which lasted for years. I would not be at all surprised if he has a libertarian streak. He’s definitely been sympathetic to writers who disparage (allegedly) excessive regulation, and IIRC he was very soft on the Pete Peterson crowd.

    FWIW, I think “small government” is senseless bullshit, but it was a pretty good line the other day when Stewart said that Michele Bachmann wasn’t really a “small government” proponent, she was “Moral Majority in a tricorn hat.”

  130. 130.

    Tugg Romney

    The Big O is a bit late with the angry bus tour. A bit like the Patriots up big in the 4th quarter, and the hapless opponent gets a couple of cheap, meaningless scores after the game has been settled.

    It’s a long season, of course. But I’m sure that when next week comes it will be deja vu all over again.

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