Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

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

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

People are complicated. Love is not.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

T R E 4 5 O N

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

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

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

He really is that stupid.

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Reader Interactions

58Comments

  1. 1.

    Joe

    Reporters ought to keep a truth/lie score for politicians. Then, after each person’s name, they could put something like (R-NJ, 17/35).

  3. 3.

    mclaren

    So sorry, Timmy, you’re just not getting it.

    “Rutherford unperson. Substitute Ogilvy. Ogilvy blog details as follows: war hero, recently killed, Malabar front. Today awarded posthumous secondary order of conspicuous merit second class.”

    [1984, George Orwell, 1948]

    That’s how the mainstream news media works today. A powerful or wealthy person who tells a lie today never spoke. Meanwhile, one of the 99% who tells the truth in public becomes a criminal guilty of slander. Ask Julian Assange if you don’t believe me.

  4. 4.

    Gin & Tonic

    Ages ago I was with my family on vacation somewhere in the Caribbean. My father was a newspaper junky (the NY Herald-Tribune, IIRC) and was trying to find a paper, without success. One of the hotel staff asked him “why do you need a paper? – there’s a war on somewhere and some politician said something stupid; that’s the news” It was hard to argue.

  6. 6.

    DCLaw1

    When a powerful person lies in public or directly to a journalist’s face, that is a noteworthy event. Also known as news. It might be worth writing about.

    A thousand journalists’ heads are nodding and thinking, “Of course! We write down, ‘Mr./Mrs. X said….'”

  8. 8.

    Kyle

    When a Serious and Important Person lies to their face, we can count on the New York Times to report it verbatim, without any further investigation or comment, bcause they are also Serious and Important and must uphold loyalty to their class against the unwashed masses.

  9. 9.

    RSA

    I wonder about what it takes to be journalist these days. In rare cases when someone has lied to my face, I’ve gotten mad. What do people in the business do? Go home and take a pill? Or just say, “That’s the way the game is played,” and forget about it?

  11. 11.

    phantomist

    “I remember how my Great Uncle Jerry would sit on the porch and whittle all day long. Once he whittled me a toy boat out of a larger toy boat I had. It was almost as good as the first one, except now it had bumpy whittle marks all over it. And no paint, because he had whittled off the paint.”

    Jack Handy

  12. 12.

    dr. bloor

    When a powerful person lies in public or directly to a journalist’s face, that is a noteworthy event. Also known as news. It might be worth writing about.

    Who cares? The real issue is whether journalismists should avoid the obvious in the main article, or in a sidebar piece?

  15. 15.

    Paula68154

    I stopped getting my newspaper years ago (Warren Buffett bought it last fall, so…).

    Last spring, an article stated that a nearby nuclear plant was all cool, because the company rep said so. I spent 3 minutes on the net & found out that the plant had some serious issues, per the NRSC. Some issues were surrounding flood preparedness and of course we had a 100 yr flood.

    WTF do I want with a newspaper that doesn’t report the news?

  16. 16.

    p.a.

    I will now reveal myself to be a hopeless romantic fool, but given the collapsing state of the newspaper industry, you’ld think someone would maybe try to provide honest analysis to see if that could possibly maybe stop the bleeding.

  17. 17.

    magurakurin

    So, none of the Front Pagers or the Host has an opinion on the video of Marines pissing on dead bodies and the enormous shitstorm it is about to produce? It’s all Girl Scout Cookies and Pravda on the Hudson meta.

    Those guys fucked up real bad. At the very least one has to ask what the fuck were thinking filming that? Apparently it is being consider a Geneva Convention violation.

  23. 23.

    Richard

    Anyone remember Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert, the “8 inches uncut” whore that used to attend and get called on to ask questions at Dubya’s White House press conferences?

    I think he’s the perfect symbol for what journalism has become in this century.

  25. 25.

    magurakurin

    @Arclite: They’ve decide to run with it:

    The Taliban initially indicated that the video would not undermine the push toward talks, saying that they saw it as just more evidence of what they said was American brutality and arrogance.But later on Thursday, in an official statement, the Taliban dropped references to the talks and emphasized the brutality message. “We strongly condemn the inhuman act of wild American soldiers, as ever, and consider this act in contradiction with all human and ethical norms,” the statement said.

    I’m not judging the individuals. I can’t begin to imagine the trauma they have been through. We asked them to go to war and war is a terrible thing. Pissing on dead bodies is certainly the least terrible thing a soldier does. But still, what were they thinking? I feel sorry for those Marines because they are going to get punished far beyond their crime because of the politics of war. But politics is a part of war and somebody should have taken a step back and said, “hey maybe this isn’t such a good idea.” Other marines are going to be killed because of what these guys did and I’m sure there are marines and soldiers who are disgusted and disappointed at what was done.

    But I don’t really know. I probably would have done the same thing if I had been there. They shouldn’t be there at all. It’s clearly time for them all to come home. Let’s write down another one in the L column and move on.

  26. 26.

    JC

    Election reform – how does it work? How can it work better? Which version? Local or national? how is it funded? How can it pass?

  27. 27.

    Corner Stone

    @Arclite:

    Dude, the FREAKIN’ TALIBAN didn’t even get upset about it. This, too, will pass.

    That’s kind of the craziest fucking response I might have ever imagined.
    Marines pissing on dead bodies.
    Well, the Taliban doesn’t seem to care! So we’re good bra!

    Did you even read your post?

  31. 31.

    MikeJ

    @magurakurin: What is a post about it supposed to say? Everybody agrees that it’s horrible and the jarheads were morons. Yes, Pam Geller thought it was awesome, but nobody with an IQ over room temperature.

  33. 33.

    Tim F.

    @magirakurin: I think that if that is the worst thing our troops do this week we should count ourselves lucky. Christ, at least these victims were already dead. I’m used to news about torture, summary executions, shooting peole at checkoints for virtually no reason, home invasions at Haditha that killed entire families in cold blood. Chopper pilots cutting down innocent civilians and joking about it. We blew up wedding parties on a weekly basis.

    So no, I am not terribly worked up about this video. War makes people do things a whole lot more evil and stupider than that. I doubt that many Taliban care much either, save for whatever PR They might squeeze from it.

  35. 35.

    Tim F.

    Also too. Unlike most soldiers who have committed war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, these guys will most likely face discipline that is commensurate with what they did. Ask me again if, like Alan West, they get elected to a House seat in Florida.

  37. 37.

    Linda Featheringill

    Newt Gingrich:

    A commenter on GOS suggested that we try to keep the Bain video on youtube for as long as we can.

    How would we do that? Clicking on it so that it doesn’t sink into the mire from disuse?

  38. 38.

    noodler

    @magurakurin: This is a tremendous failure of leadership on the part of the USMC. The marines that did this deserve a GCM, but their officers and even more senior USMC leadership needs to be accountable for this. It is disgusting and abhorrent behavior.

  39. 39.

    Corner Stone

    I don’t know man. The day an American soldier pisses on a corpse they’ve most likely terminated and I’m kind of “meh” about it?

  40. 40.

    dead existentialist

    Re: the Marines going R Kelly. Four or five guys acting like assholes represent a nation of 308 million. Yeah, right. Let’s get upset.

    Have you been paying attention to the Republicant primary? That’s trickle down on an otherworldly scale.

    Get upset.

  42. 42.

    Brachiator

    @Tim F.:

    @magirakurin: I think that if that is the worst thing our troops do this week we should count ourselves lucky.

    You talk about this purely from your point of view. Even though there has been a great effort by both the US and the Taliban to downplay the incident, do you have a clue how even desecration of the dead is perceived?

    Even after bin Laden was killed, a deliberate effort was made to bury him within an appropriate period, and not to desecrate his corpse, or at least not let stories about a desecration leak out.

    Insults can be compounded by acts of disrespect. Even to the dead.

  45. 45.

    moops

    My only real opinion on the marine issue is that I’d like to see how far up the chain of command the punishment reaches.

    Navy guys have been making a lot of blather about how the Navy and Marines have accountability, unlike those savages in the Army.

    OK. Prove it. Someone was in charge when this happened. There is a process for determining how far up the chain of command the punishment should proceed.

  46. 46.

    FlipYrWhig

    The idea of pissing on a dead body is just beyond the pale abhorrent and reminiscent of the trophy pix from Lynndie England et al. It kind of made me sick when I saw it at the gym today.

  47. 47.

    Palli

    @Narcissus:
    yea who but also how much Gannon/Guckert is still getting monthly as hush money?

    Lots of think tanks launder money to keep people quiet but when does the bank of silence cash out?

  48. 48.

    gaz

    War is a golem we *all* create. Soldiers that commit specific heinous acts under color of uniform do so in our name – that doesn’t excuse them – but we own it – I’d argue at least as much as they do. Even if I don’t support a specific war, or any wars – I live in a country that does. I’m complicit.

    Soldiers do horrible shit, especially when subjected to lengthy active combat duty.

    If anything, the crux of my point is if we want this to stop – we need to stop the useless wars. We need to take care of our returning troops – and yes, we need to demand that our UCMJ is evenly and fairly applied to specific offenders, (like maybe these soldiers, IANAL?)

    Nothing we do will ever make war any less brutal. Arguably we can’t stop the kind of desensitization that active combat duty will inflict on a soldier. All we can do is try to stop the damned wars. And hope that justice is done when war leads to crime. *shrug*

    my $0.02, is all.

  49. 49.

    Yutsano

    @Tim F.:

    I think that if that is the worst thing our troops do this week we should count ourselves lucky.

    They were beyond stupid. These are not dumb boots right out of Parris. This was an elite sniper team who should be living, breathing, and eating discipline. They all deserve to get busted back to one stripe, including their CO. If not drummed out of the Corps altogether. A Marine lives and dies by his honour. Once s/he loses that, they lose the title Marine.

  50. 50.

    Triassic Sands

    When a powerful person lies in public or directly to a journalist’s face, that is a noteworthy event.

    It may be important, but it certainly isn’t noteworthy. Not today anyway, when the entire Republican Party is one stinking pile of lying frauds and clowns. Virtually everything they say is a lie; and it is noteworthy that they are so wedded to dishonesty. But an individual lie coming from Mitt Romney is like a leaf on the ground in a deciduous forest in November — utterly commonplace. Or a grain of sand at the beach.

  51. 51.

    Schlemizel

    @Narcissus:
    He was Rove’s dom. Seriously. Did you read his web ad (before they took it down)? He specialized in B&D. He was in the WH on days Boy Blunder was away (besides W is too much a sadist to be a sub – all sympathy to Laura (and you wonder why she looks like that?))

    Add to that Rove’s daddies leather fetish and I think the conclusion is obvious. It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

    P.S. He started with Cheney but the bastard left too many marks & was too abusive so they brought in a pro.

  52. 52.

    Mino

    There’s another element to this failure of our press–they produce a population pig-ignorant about the rest of the world.

    If you think domestic reporting is slanted, try the international, what there is of it.

  54. 54.

    Digital Amish

    The idea of pissing on a dead body is just beyond the pale abhorrent and reminiscent of the trophy pix from Lynndie England et al. It kind of made me sick when I saw it at the gym today

    Yeah, you’d think they could have just put a bullet through their heads and be done with it.

    I’m not picking on FlipYrWhig. You’re just the last handwringer. If we don’t want this shit to happen we probably shouldn’t give testosterone fueled young men guns and send them off to war.

  55. 55.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Digital Amish: Even testosterone fueled young men should have the common sense not to piss on dead bodies, much less film it. It’s against code. Think of how football fans reacted to the Suh incident, or Bill Romanowski spitting at somebody. There’s being macho, and then there’s being repugnant. It really is worse to shoot someone then piss on them than it would be to shoot them and leave it at that. It really isn’t a case of War Is Hell And Shit Happens.

  56. 56.

    FlipYrWhig

    ETA: for “It’s against code” read “At an absolute minimum, it’s against code.” FYWP.

  57. 57.

    Rafer Janders

    @Richard:

    Anyone remember Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert, the “8 inches uncut” whore that used to attend and get called on to ask questions at Dubya’s White House press conferences?

    Nope. No one remembers that. The Bush White House planted an ACTUAL MALE PROSTITUTE to ask fake questions at White House news conferences, and, amazing to say, by now it’s as if it never happened. Not one person in a hundred could tell you his name or remembers who he was.

    Now, if the Clinton or Obama White Houses had done that, it would be all we would ever have heard about for the rest of time.

  58. 58.

    Rafer Janders

    @magurakurin:

    I’m not judging the individuals.

    What? I certainly am judging them. They’re adults. They’re responsible for their actions. Beyond that, they’re United States Marines, and they’re supposed to stand for something, to adhere to a code of honor. They’ve dishonored themselves and dishonored their comrades by their flagrant disrespect for the corpses of slain enemy fighters.

    I can’t begin to imagine the trauma they have been through.

    Nothing they have been through excuses what they did. Plenty of other soldiers and marines went through the exact same things they did and didn’t respond by doing that.

    Pissing on dead bodies is certainly the least terrible thing a soldier does.

    Um, no, it’s not at all one of the least terrible. It’s horrendous.

    I feel sorry for those Marines because they are going to get punished far beyond their crime because of the politics of war.

    I feel sorry for them not at all. Not at all. This kind of shit has to be stomped down on, and hard. It’s all part of the process of brutalizing and dehumanizing the enemy, and if you allow this kind of stuff, you send a message that it’s OK to do anything at all to the enemy — which eventually leads to the torture of prisoners.

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