Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

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

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

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

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

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

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

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

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

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

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100Comments

  3. 3.

    Shlemizel

    As a grad student, B.F.Skinner worked nights at a state mental hospital. He found an old Edison Victrola, the kind that used wax cylinders and came up with an experiment. He took a cylinder with random scratches on it and played it for patients. Then he asked them what they heard. He discovered he could predict their diagnosis by the answers. Basically an audio ink blot test. I think of this every time some one “hears” something on a tape played backwards or “sees” someone in a freeway underpass stain (or dogs butt hole).

  4. 4.

    THE

    Split a piece of wood, and I am there.
    Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.

    The Gospel of Thomas.

  6. 6.

    The Other Bob

    Did anyone catch this essay in the Washington Post?

    It is written by, Thomas L. Day, an Iraq war vet. In the essay, he says:

    Think of the world our parents’ generation inherited. They inherited a country of boundless economic prosperity and the highest admiration overseas, produced by the hands of their mothers and fathers. They were safe. For most, they were endowed opportunities to succeed, to prosper, and build on their parents’ work.

    For those of us in our 20s and early 30s, this is not the world we are inheriting.

    Day says what I have been thinking for a long, long time. If the WW II generation was the greatest, the one that followed may have been the worst. (sorry to all you boomers here) The greatest generation paid the taxes that built our roads and infrastructure that created an economic boom. They went to school on the GI Bill and sent us to the moon. They were patriots, who paid their fair share.

    The generation that followed failed us. They greedily squandered what their parents built, because they selfishly wanted cuts to their taxes and favored benefits of the individual and rich over the collective prosperity of our nation.

    This is what the Occupy Wall Street protests are all about.

  8. 8.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    “Think of the world our parents’ generation inherited. They inherited a country of boundless economic prosperity and the highest admiration overseas, produced by the hands of their mothers and fathers. They were safe. For most, they were endowed opportunities to succeed, to prosper, and build on their parents’ work.”

    What horseshit.

  9. 9.

    Brian S

    Yeah, my parents inherited a world beset by Vietnam, no access to birth control, race riots, poverty somewhere north of 20%, and the reasonable fear that it would all end in a nuclear holocaust. They got married in 1966. I inherited poorly named sausage. I think I’ve gotten the better end of the deal.

  12. 12.

    nodakfarmboy

    It is currently 14 degrees here, snow draped, and the roads are an icy mess. Unfortunately, my reserves of “northern plains stoicism” are at low levels. Would it be wrong to just call in sick to work for, oh, the next five months?

    Ugh.

  14. 14.

    Geysergazers

    Cookie Monster on recent American History:

    “When Liberals run country for 30 years following New Deal, American economy double in size, and wages double along with it. That fair. When Conservatives run country for 30 years following Reagan, American economy double again, and wages stay flat. What happen to our share of money? All of it go to richest 1%. That not “there always going to be rich people”. That unfair system. That why we upset. That what Occupy Sesame Street about.”
    ~ Cookie Monster

  15. 15.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    @Brian S: I can understand someone who got suckered into this stupid fucking war being pissed. The rest, fuck em.

  16. 16.

    Brian S

    @Raven (formerly stuckinred): Yeah, I’m not saying they shouldn’t be pissed. Hell, I didn’t get suckered into that war and I’m pissed. But looking back at a “better time” that probably never existed isn’t the answer. For most people, the past is a shithole, and the present is way better, even if it’s not everything we wish it was. We just don’t remember it that way.

  17. 17.

    harlana

    um, interesting, i’m not a prude or anything, but i just don’t think i could stare at a dog’s b-hole long enough to see an image of Christ so i’d be a little embarrassed to make that public. just saying.

    i must admit, the “click here for larger image” is a nice touch, though.

  18. 18.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    @Brian S: I was too fucking dumb to know. The GI bill sucked when I came home but we figured out a way and partied like there was no tomorrow.

  20. 20.

    The Other Bob

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    mighty white world.

    You make a valid point to say that maybe the author is a little to positive about the past, but from an economic standpoint everything hasn’t gotten better for minorities either. When I think of economic justice, our trade and tax policies, everything is much mroe geared to the top than it used to be and it was partially due to the boomers adopting Reaganomics as religion.

  23. 23.

    geg6

    @Brian S:

    Women’s rights were just a dream, birth control and abortion were illegal, and people with mental health issues were subjected to lobotomies. My parents got married in 1948 and I’m a Generation Jones, but the Boomers built on their parents’ legacies in those areas and expanded them exponentially.

    But they suck, those fucking selfish ass Boomers.

  27. 27.

    Brian S

    @geg6: Absolutely. It’s not a straight-line improvement–it’s harder for women in much of the country to get an abortion today than it was 25 years ago, for instance–but the arrow of history points toward greater freedom in the aggregate. On the whole, we weren’t a better country in the past than we are now by any stretch of the imagination.

  28. 28.

    cleek

    @The Other Bob: (i know you didn’t write this, but…)

    For those of us in our 20s and early 30s, this is not the world we are inheriting.

    1. what about the generation of mid-30’s to 50 year-olds ? don’t we count for anything ?

    2. it’s not the world the WWII generation inherited either. it’s the world the WWII generation created for themselves. you are not entitled to everything your parents had, and better. sometimes you gotta make your own success.

  29. 29.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    so, if the 60s and 70s sucked so bad, and i am not saying they didn’t, why all the relentless nostalgia?

    you don’t realize its nostalgia? oh.

    never in the field of popular consciousness have so many, coalesced around the tastes of so few, to become the greatest veneration, in order to create more perfect advertising.

  33. 33.

    Amir Khalid

    @JGabriel:
    It seems to be a Christian thing. It’s either Jesus, or his mother Mary that you people see on food. You never hear of us Muslims seeing the Prophet’s face on naan bread, or Hindus seeing Krishna on a dhosai, or Jews seeing Moses on a bagel.

    Jesus on a dog’s arse, though, is utterly beyond my ability to understand.

  35. 35.

    low-tech cyclist

    Jesus in a dog’s butt, huh?

    “Where is God? Everywhere!”
    -Fr. Guido Sarducci

    ETA: “Religion is the smile on a dog.”
    -Edie Brickell

    Didn’t realize she meant that smile…

  37. 37.

    Kirbster

    There’s a new Jon Huntsman campaign ad in heavy rotation in the Boston/New Hampshire TV markets. The tag line is “Why haven’t we heard of this guy?”

    It’s such a relentless downer with three embittered middle-age white people saying things like, “The whole world is collapsing”, “Health care reform? Chuck it!” and “You’ll probably lose your job next week”, that it seems designed to reinforce the worldview of in-patients with clinical depression. This would explain why the target audience hasn’t heard of Huntsman.

  42. 42.

    Winston Smith

    Remember that dogs sniff each other’s butts. You might think this image is funny, but a lot of dogs will probably be lead to Christ by this clearly divine miracle.

    Think of the puppies!

  43. 43.

    Nutella

    @The Other Bob:

    “Everybody older than me” is not the same as “baby boomers”. The people who are in charge now are mostly boomers but blaming everything since WWII on boomers skips over that fine, upstanding generation before them.

    If you think that a good example of selfish boomers is the Tea Party’s over 65s who want to keep government out of their Medicare while lowering taxes, get out your calculator and you’ll see that the oldest boomers are 65 this year so those old Tea Party geezers are the boomers parents.

    It’s ridiculous anyway to lump everyone born in 1946 (now 65) in with everyone born in 1964 (now 47) as a homogeneous group, just as ridiculous as it is to look back to the Golden Age before those terrible people ruined everything.

    It’s cartoon history.

    Inter-generational conflict like this a tool of the 1% that’s been very effective. Millions have fallen for it instead of looking at who really screwed things up for Day’s generation.

  44. 44.

    Steeplejack

    @The Other Bob:

    I see you removed the reference to Reagan from your comment. Good move. You can’t blame the boomers for him:

    You say the boomers elected Reagan? In the 1980 election, people born after 1951 split evenly between Carter and Reagan. Only the cohort of boomers born between 1946 and 1950 went for Reagan (54% to 37%), and they’re lumped in with pre-boomers born since 1936. People older than that voted overwhelmingly for Reagan.
    __
    And, by the way, Reagan won in a landslide. Carter didn’t carry any age group. So it seems like “generational slagging” to blame the boomers for Reagan.
    __
    Source.

    And those old people who voted overwhelmingly for Reagan? That was your “greatest generation” right there. Make sure to thank them for that, too, when you’re singing their praises.

    If you read this blog for any time at all, you will find that there are many, many boomers who are not privileged, self-absorbed assholes. If you can get past your own prejudices, that is.

  51. 51.

    JPL

    @nodakfarmboy: It actually feels eerie. Even in the Atlanta area, it’s not suppose to be quite like this. The news channels are already hyping the possibility of severe weather even though we are not under watches as of yet.

  54. 54.

    Mark B.

    The 1980 election was NOT a landslide. It was a relatively narrow victory by Reagan, where he got 50.7% of the vote. Now, Carter only got 41%, since Anderson was also in the mix. Honestly, I view 1980 as the modern beginning of America’s decline, where a majority of the voters decided to vote for someone who made them feel good about their faults, instead of someone who wanted America to become a better nation. The eight of Reagan dismantling most of the progress of the 20th century had huge consequences that we will be facing for many years to come.

  55. 55.

    Ivan Ivanovich Renko

    White people don’t remember that America has been a ‘police state’ for black folks… well, since the Founders’ day.

    There were NEVER any “good old days” in America for us.

  56. 56.

    gnomedad

    @Shlemizel:

    I think of this every time some one “hears” something on a tape played backwards or “sees” someone in a freeway underpass stain (or dogs butt hole).

    The term for this is pareidolia.

  59. 59.

    Judas Escargot

    Details of this year’s NASA budget compromise from Congress are coming out.

    Amount that Congress is allocating to commercial crew: $406 million. (Obama and NASA asked for 850; the Tea Party House wanted only 312; the Senate originally wanted 500).

    Amount that Congress will be giving to Russia for use of Soyuz next year: At least $450 million. We’ll be hitching rides from them for at least four more years, at this rate.

    So to explain this: Congress is allocating less to American private companies than they are to the Russians. Meanwhile, mouthbreathers like Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich criticize the Obama admin for not supporting commercial space (which is a lie)… even as hard-righties in Congress have been trying to kill it (probably because it threatens the older, more established pork-feeding troughs in red states like FL, AL and TX).

    No Republican gets to lecture me on space policy, ever again.

  62. 62.

    Xantar

    Karl Rove came to speak at Johns Hopkins (where I’m currently studying) and #occupybaltimore mic checked him. Fast forward to 1:45 for the drama:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8ePZHSOmvQ&feature=share

    Honestly, I think the protesters screwed this up. It was disorganized, and at some points the audience was cheering KARL ROVE when he told them they should just wait for the Q&A session at the end.

    There was also a protest outside the building. I didn’t see it but it sounds like they were doing better.

  63. 63.

    Poopyman

    @nodakfarmboy: Yeah, there’s a chance all along this frontal boundary for some rough weather.

    And I heard the local (DC) weather forecaster making his Winter Prediction of a continuation of 2011’s “extreme” weather, with at least 2 major storms in the DC area. I’m assuming he’s using real predictive models rather than just assuming that extreme weather will continue since it was Bob Ryan who said it – former President of the AMA and a degreed meteorologist.

  66. 66.

    Steeplejack

    @Napoleon:

    The cohort around my age (now 50) who were able to vote went by a fair margin for Ronnie.

    If you actually look at the Wikipedia article I cited, voters age 18-21 in 1980–now about your age, 50–went 44% for Carter and 43% for Reagan.

    @Mark B.:

    The 1980 election was not a landslide.

    Reagan carried 44 states and won the Electoral College vote 489-49. That’s pretty landslidey. The popular vote was about 44 million to 35 million.

  67. 67.

    harlana

    @Steeplejack: ugh, agreed, really now, i don’t want to be lumped in with a bunch of other people i don’t even understand, please, i’ve never been a member of that tribe, much less any tribe. i’ve been able to think for myself most of my adult life as evidenced by my vociferous opposition to the Iraq war from the very beginning as everyone around me dove headlong into some kind of blind revenge-frenzy, completely devoid of reason and totally manufactured by the Bush administration. the first vote i was old enough to cast was for Carter. now everybody knows how stinking ancient i am.

  68. 68.

    PurpleGirl

    @Nutella:

    If you think that a good example of selfish boomers is the Tea Party’s over 65s who want to keep government out of their Medicare while lowering taxes, get out your calculator and you’ll see that the oldest boomers are 65 this year so those old Tea Party geezers are the boomers parents.

    I have only one nitpick: Not just parents but the older siblings of the oldest Boomers. My parents were born circa 1910. They married in 1940. Their first child was born 1941 — now she’s the one who’s a tea partier. I was born in 1951, a solid Boomer, but I’m the bleeding-heart, liberal, commie, pinko of the family (and proud of it) and the one doesn’t mind paying for civilization through my taxes.

  70. 70.

    Mark B.

    @Steeplejack: Yeah, the electoral college can make a relatively close election look like a landslide if the losing candidate doesn’t have any particular region where they win. Or it can make the popular loser the winner (see 2000). It’s a terrible institution.

  76. 76.

    JGabriel

    @Amir Khalid:

    You never hear of us Muslims seeing the Prophet’s face on naan bread, or Hindus seeing Krishna on a dhosai, or Jews seeing Moses on a bagel.

    Actually … I think I have heard of Hindus seeing Krishna on a dosai. But maybe that was a joke in one of Salman Rushdie’s novels. The source eludes me.

    .

  77. 77.

    Nutella

    @PurpleGirl:

    You’re right. I’m guilty of calling a group a ‘generation’ when it’s not that simple, which is another illustration of the dangers of generalizations applied to many millions of people.

  79. 79.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Poopyman:

    The Onion had a great take on this…that Reagan was to be buried in a pyramid in the Mojave, and to serve him in the afterlife, they were going to entomb the living George H.W. Bush with him.

  80. 80.

    Mnemosyne

    Reagan basically built his power base on intergenerational warfare, starting when he was governor of California. This state used to have the greatest education system in the world — including FREE universities — but the resentments of the Greatest Generation towards the Boomer kids at Berkeley and other campuses shutting things down with their protests opened a space for Reagan to push in a wedge.

    The Baby Boomers are not primarily responsible for our current mess, but the intergenerational warfare between them and their parents absolutely is to blame since the Republicans were able to exploit it so heavily.

  82. 82.

    Mark B.

    @Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal: Part of the cult of Reagan is casting his elections as huge landslides where the only people who voted for his opponents were irrelevant hippies and mentally deficient cretins. The reality is that America was much more evenly divided than that.

  83. 83.

    passerby

    @WereBear:

    Since god is dog spelled backwards…

    Galactic WIN! WereBear.

    Close the thread. Nothing, nothing more needs to be said about this phenomenon.

    (I’m stealing your comment and using it to accompany the photo link I’m sending to all my friends.)

  84. 84.

    Nutella

    @Mnemosyne:

    They’re using exactly the same rotten tactic today by getting the younger generations to resent those same spoiled boomers! And it’s still working.

    They’ve got a real genius for creating and exploiting resentment between groups based on age, race, class, geography…

  85. 85.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Mnemosyne:

    The problem was that the prior generation grew up during the Great Depression, so they were more than satisfied by the material bounty of the post war age.

    But when you grow up in material bounty, you don’t have want to serve as a contrast, and you find something is missing from all that.

    Plus, you’re living in an age where the threat of instant annihilation is literally trumpeted over your TV set. Makes you wonder what the fuss of having all this stuff around you is when it might, with no regard to you at all, be obliterated in minutes.

    So it’s a fairly natural fault line between generations.

  87. 87.

    passerby

    @WereBear:

    Gahdog! WereBear. You are streaking today. I hereby nominate your comments for Cole’s Best Comment of the Year Award (does he still do that?)

  90. 90.

    shortstop

    @WereBear: I’m crying over here. You are so beautiful to meeeeeee.

    Alpha and omega, all time belongs to him, and all asses. Pitiful, I know, but I never claimed to be a WereBear.

  91. 91.

    Brachiator

    Part of the cult of Reagan is casting his elections as huge landslides where the only people who voted for his opponents were irrelevant hippies and mentally deficient cretins. The reality is that America was much more evenly divided than that.

    We may soon be looking back at the good old days when the country was evenly divided politically. In the future, the main issue may be the economic divide: the rich and everybody else.

    Middle-class areas shrink as income gap grows, report finds
    __
    The portion of U.S. families living in middle-income neighborhoods has declined significantly since 1970, according to a new study, as rising income inequality left a growing share of families in neighborhoods that are mostly low-income or mostly affluent….
    __
    In 2007, the last year captured by the data, 44 percent of families lived in neighborhoods the study defined as middle-income, down from 65 percent of families in 1970. At the same time, a third of U.S. families lived in areas of either affluence or poverty, up from just 15 percent of families in 1970.

    Soon the GOP will be telling us to stop complaining and love that oligarchy.

  95. 95.

    Mark B.

    @Joel: So, he killed people with a vehicle in 2009, and he’s out of jail and driving in 2011? Goddamn. Why isn’t there a lifetime driver’s license suspension, at least, for cases like this?

  96. 96.

    Dee Loralei

    Wear Bear wins this thread! Every post was topical and funny and punny!

    Joel, I’m so sorry about your friend.

  97. 97.

    nancydarling

    @jeffreyw: Don’t know what it says about me, but the dog butt picture made me laugh out loud. It also might say something about me that your breakfast picture could be construed as a tad p0rnographic—not by me of course.

  98. 98.

    kindness

    Congrats Mistermix….You made a Front Page link from GOS.

    Good job. Now if only we can get Drudge to link over John will be part of the 1% & will never have to visit his own site ever again.

  99. 99.

    Ruckus

    My first thought about that picture was not what religious figure did I see but what conservative presidential aspirant was I looking at.

    I can’t decide if it really is just a dogs butt or a photoshoped composite of all the rethuglican candidates.

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