Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Giving up is unforgivable.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

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

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

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

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

People are weird.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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Reader Interactions

126Comments

  5. 5.

    Violet

    I particularly like the chinstraps for the hat in front of the eyes. Adds a certain air of crazy mystery.

  6. 6.

    Peter VE

    That’s what he looks like after only 3 pints (at least, that’s how many he had whilst I was sipping my one).

  10. 10.

    David Koch

    wow, look at the diversity. there’s white and off white and pasty white and dirty white.

  14. 14.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    Weird, doesn’t LOOK like wallowing in emoprog despair. Are you sure you’re at NRN?

  16. 16.

    lamh35

    Alright, back to watching “Action Jackson” on right now! like I’m 12 again, watching the “nasty” movie with Vanity and Sharon Stone showing boob…LOL! Wait ‘hol ?up, who remembers the “balls in a jar” scene. When I was 12 I was like “why they got ping pong balls in the jar”? So young and innocent then…LOL!

  17. 17.

    David Koch

    with everyone sitting around the table, it’s almost reminiscent of Pete Souza’s famous photo of the Situation Room.

  19. 19.

    RD

    Novelty hats and sunglasses have been an important part of my day to day armor since 1995.

    I approve.

  21. 21.

    The Pale Scot

    Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture wrote a WaPo column last Sunday offering what I (and a retired corporate CFO/but not me) think is a a do-able idea to shut down the Wall Street Casino. Basically retract the FDIC insurance of any bank that plays the stock market. You can read it here.

    I’d really like to see this idea get some traction, Ritholtz appears on CNBC occasionally. Barry has a Sunday WaPo column that often has had hundreds of comments refuting his position soon after it appears. This one has presently seventeen. That to me is pretty odd.

    The idea is to just refuse to insure WS speculation.
    The WaPo article is here

    “Let’s be blunt: Banking has devolved into an unruly mess.

    After years of deregulation, it has become all but impossible to re-regulate modern banking. There was a brief window during the credit crisis, but that has passed. Today, profits trump soundness. Safety and security are secondary to risk-taking and speculation.

    I have been wondering what we, as a democratic nation, are going to do about this. Are we going to rule banks, or are bankers going to rule us?……….”

  25. 25.

    cat48

    I noticed on the prior thread that DOOM is predicted for Obama if the Healthcare bill is struck down by the Supremes. Not so much, the Acela Corridor Pundits are wrong AGAIN:

    Even though President Obama fought for passage of the landmark 2010 health care law, very small minorities say their attitudes about him would change one way or the other should the Supreme Court strike down the law that is so often referred to as “Obamacare.”
    Two-thirds of those surveyed in a new public-opinion poll said that their respect for Obama would be unchanged if the Supreme Court struck down his signature legislative achievement. Fourteen percent said they would respect Obama more under such a scenario, while 15 percent said they would respect him less.
    That trend was consistent across the political spectrum—similar proportions of Republicans, Democrats, and independents said they would be unmoved, despite the pundits’ speculation that a Court decision declaring the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional in part or in its entirety might alter public opinion toward the president. The nonplussed attitude also held across nearly all age, income, regional, and racial categories, with at least 60 percent of each surveyed group saying that the ruling would have no impact on their view of the president.
    The results appear in the latest edition of the United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll.

  26. 26.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Xecky Gilchrist:

    Weird, doesn’t LOOK like wallowing in emoprog despair. Are you sure you’re at NRN?

    They’ve moved on to trolling the servers at local dives.

  27. 27.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Although the guy with the purple band looks just like the sort that cares too much and wants everyone to know how much he cares.

  29. 29.

    ruemara

    4 people? Failure to bumrush the NRN. Hope you guys are having a good time, once you leave the seminars of “Gloom: How to prolong it and profit! & True Progressives Only Run For President”.

  30. 30.

    Peter VE

    @Just Some Fuckhead:
    “They’ve moved on to trolling the servers at local dives.”
    Murphy’s is fine pseudo-Irish establishment. The dive you’re thinking of just closed a couple weeks ago.

  35. 35.

    Comrade Mary

    I think Doug looks cute, despite the Tilly hat exactly like the one my ex-husband used to wear.

    mistermix, are you in this photo?

  40. 40.

    gbear

    @Just Some Fuckhead: It’s all good fun until someone asks the waitress how much of a tip they’ll have to leave in order for her to make the minimum wage that normal workers get.

  41. 41.

    Tripod

    @Baud:

    Come on now, he’s more of a pre-heroin chic Dave Gahan.

    @David Koch:

    Are you expecting a little self awareness in the narrow demographic band that the online progressive voice represents when shaking its angry fist? Hah!

  42. 42.

    Villago Delenda Est

    with DougJ in disguise.

    “I guess I’ll just take your glas-ses”

  43. 43.

    gocart mozart

    And the winner for best footnote in an Appellate Court decision goes to footnote 2 in BROWNMARK FILMS, LLC, v. COMEDY PARTNERS, et al. AKA “What What in Your Butt v. Butters.” Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin,7th Circuit.

    Adopting this posture would have given SPDS greater freedom in setting out its fair-use defense. In its reply brief, Brownmark makes much of the fact that SPDS mentions Butters’naïveté, but had not introduced evidence on Butters’ innocent nature. While we do not feel that this case turns on any such naïveté, SPDS could have introduced previous South Park episodes to show that Butters has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of understanding of sex. See, e.g., Butters’ Very OwnEpisode (Comedy Central television broadcast Dec. 12, 2001)(perceiving sex as wrestling), see also Cartman Sucks (Comedy Central television broadcast Mar. 14, 2007); Stupid Spoiled
    Whore Video Playset (Comedy Central television broadcast Dec.1, 2004). Indeed, in one of these episodes, Butters is dressed in the same teddy bear costume he wears in the WWITB video. Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset (Comedy Central television broadcast Dec. 1, 2004).

    https://www.eff.org/sites/default/files/Brownmark%20Decision.pdf

  47. 47.

    Ben Franklin

    Rebels on the Border by Aaron Astor seems worth reading. With reference to the ongoing spat between disparate forces amongst Democrats, this graf seemed appropriate.

    Nowhere was the Civil War more hotly contested – militarily, culturally and politically – than the northernmost tier of slave states that remained loyal to the Union, especially Kentucky and Missouri. President Lincoln famously remarked “I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game. Kentucky gone, we can not hold Missouri, nor, as I think, Maryland. These all against us, and the job on our hands is too large for us. We would as well consent to separation at once, including the surrender of this capitol.”

    My recently released book, Rebels on the Border: Civil War, Emancipation, and the Reconstruction of Kentucky and Missouri delves into the conflicted racial politics at the grassroots of these two states. And if you’re interested in reading further, LSU Press is having a 40% off sale on it until June 25!

    But I wanted to touch on some of the contemporary relevance of the Civil War border states.

    The reason for Lincoln’s September 1862 letter to his Illinois friend seems remarkably prescient regarding today’s politics. Frustrated by calls among his “base” to turn the war for Union into a war of emancipation – despite the precarious situation in the border states where a premature emancipation proclamation could very likely lead to the loss of the border states to the Confederacy – Lincoln reminds his allies of just how tough the long game really is. It’s hard not to see similar echoes between President Obama and frustrations among the Democratic base over myriad “concessions” to Republicans on this, that and everything else. The reality was – and is – that a tug of war took place in all directions, where any major misstep could have catastrophic consequences.

    What is most pertinent, today, though is the nature of the border states then and the “swing states” or “purple states” of today. We often think of states like Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Colorado as relatively moderate states where well-informed voters vacillate between political options. But, like Kentucky and Missouri of the Civil War (and Maryland and Tennessee, for that matter), an equally accurate way to depict these places is a collection of militant supporters of each side in close proximity to one another. In some cases the close-quarters rivalry leads to a sort of equilibrium and the moderates end up running things. But just as commonly, the vortex of conflict just becomes more intense and, like Civil War Missouri, devolves into even MORE extremism and chaos.

    I’ve written more on this in an LSU Press blog. One thing I’m quite sure of, however, is that the geographic boundaries may shift, but the intense cultural and political conflicts will persist. And, yes, Missouri is STILL in the vortex.

  48. 48.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    DougJ looks like someone that Jimmy O’Queef would hire to do dirty work. ;p

    Good thing he’s on our side. Or is he?

  49. 49.

    28 Percent

    Is anybody there talking about the California cities that voted to not honor their pension agreements? I’m really not understanding why anybody thought this was a good idea. You can’t just vote to decide not to honor a contract. You can vote to rack up a metric ass-ton of legal bills and then honor the contract anyway, but a government that has decided to stop enforcing the terms of contracts is a government that has decided to stop, full stop.

  50. 50.

    Ben Franklin

    Speaking of books, I just finished Manhunt by Peter Bergen. Stodgy, and a little too conservative, it nevertheless gives a great timeline on the hunt for OBL. Hope I’m not too far behind other comments on this.

  53. 53.

    Ben Franklin

    This was covered by SoonerG the other day. Mannings lawyers were only defending him on 10 of the 22.

  55. 55.

    cathyx

    I wish someone would post a meaty subject that we could argue about and hurl personal insults at each other. I miss the old days.

  58. 58.

    lamh35

    Now watching “Unstoppable” with Denzel Washington about the run away train loaded with explosive on a path of destruction. Saw it in theatre, and even though I know the ending, it’s still pretty rivetting. Or I’m just an “easy lay” when it comes to action films…LOL!

  59. 59.

    cathyx

    @Yutsano: That’s a meaty subject all right, but I can’t see us fighting over it or hurling insults at each other over it.

  60. 60.

    Yutsano

    @cathyx: Oh I dunno. We can get creative when it comes to insult material. We turned a soccer thread into a discussion of German food.

  63. 63.

    jl

    @JenJen:

    Looks like a nice tip, but how much did they drink? That question is related to some Balloon Juice traditions, I am told.

    Or, are you not aware of all Balloon Juice traditions? :)

  65. 65.

    jl

    @eemom:

    Speaking of Balloon Juice traditions, I think you’re supposed to assume you know who they are and launch into some bizarre, preferably opaque, diatribe.

    Try that and see if you get a response.

    Edit: actually I am curious too, but figure I should wait too see if they want to volunteer their IDs.

  68. 68.

    eemom

    @jl:

    The lady’s name tag is visible but not readable.

    Also too, somebody brought their grandfather.

  69. 69.

    cathyx

    In order to get a new subject we’ll just have to wait for the middle of the night for John to write a post about how much he loves his pets.

  71. 71.

    shortstop

    I see no red rose despite my polite request. I assume Doug and Suzanne were dancing the tango and it fell off.

    @gbear: Snerking with laughter.

  72. 72.

    shortstop

    Also, why does Suzanne have an Action Jackson down when she’s not even drinking?! Did you guys sip and dash on her?

  73. 73.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @28 Percent:

    If the Republicans want to go down this road then I hope the California Prison Prison guards are quaking in their boots about this. The benefits those assholes have finagled are outrageous. I live in southern Oregon and Cali prison guards live all around here, several are friends plus some others are customers. One friend retired on a pension that has medical benefits that will cover every ache and pain, no charge, for the rest of his life. The eighty grand a year he gets makes sure he’s nice and comfy. He was a guard who made a career out of it (25 years), that’s all, and what he gets is nothing compared to what the ‘big boys’ get.

    These are the assholes that make the rest of the public unions look bad.

  75. 75.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    Also too, somebody brought their grandfather.

    And the problem with that is …? This gramma would drink and dance you under the proverbial table, lady.

  76. 76.

    cathyx

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: Finally a subject meaty enough to argue about.

    No their benefits aren’t outrageous. We need to change this way of thinking. They have the benefits we all should enjoy. And we shouldn’t get mad that they have what we all want. We should be fighting to get them for all of us.

  80. 80.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @Ben Franklin:

    the intense cultural and political conflicts will persist

    After reading Albion’s Seed, I’ve come to the realization that we’re still fighting the English Civil War between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers. These cultural conflicts never end. The Balkans have nothing on us.

  81. 81.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @lamh35:

    “Unstoppable” with Denzel Washington

    Everything with Denzel Washington is great. The time travel one set in Louisiana is one of my faves.

  82. 82.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    @The Fat Kate Middleton: @cathyx: Well, yeah, this former English teacher says yer right – but back in the day, when I was far from being a grandmother, we liked to spell it this way to make it more …vernacular.

  83. 83.

    gbear

    @cathyx: my goddam hasn’t been working right for months. I’ve forgotten what it’s like. Sucks to get old.

  86. 86.

    cathyx

    @gbear: I wouldn’t know since I plan on living past 100, I’m not even close to being considered old.

  87. 87.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    @cathyx: I got you beat. I’m not planning to die. Just working on my method. White wine might do it.

  89. 89.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Raven:

    My favourite moment in all of Braves baseball history. Even better than winning the WS in ’95.

    I’m actually going to an actual game at the actual Ted tomorrow, first time in forever I’ will have seen a game live and in person.

  91. 91.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @cathyx:

    Sorry, but that’s not the reality here. While anyone with a brain would agree that they deserve to be paid well, what these people get is just crazy. There is no equivalent risk/benefit job-type payoff in the private sector, none. It’s not even close.

    Add in the fact that every single person I know who works there is a wingnut and it makes it even more outrageous when I hear these same assholes bitch that they’re underpaid, overworked and the rest of the Cali public workers are leeches on government. I know that they aren’t all winger but the number of them who are greatly outnumber those who aren’t, and the ones I know definitely DO NOT support the rest of the public unions.

    If you want to defend them, be my guest. You’d be a lonely soul over here.

  93. 93.

    jl

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    From what I know, I agree. Looking at the total voting population, CA may be liberal on social issues, but in terms of economics and law n order is right square in the middle of the country. And CA’s version (I think one of the original) three strikes law is turning into a mess with overcrowded prisons that are one of the causes of the CA budget problems. A sequence of CA grubernators were piss their pants scared of being nailed as soft on crime. And the prison guards benefited, since candidates wanted to avoid getting on the wrong side of the prison supply chain industry and the unions.

    Most of CA state government staffing is pretty lean compared to other states, and the salaries are high because state workers are acting as high level managers coordinating a lot of local government organizations. But the prison guards give the whole state a bad reputation for having a pampered, overpaid state workforce.

    Edit: and I won’t respond to any complaints from the peanut gallery that usually shows up on this issue unless they have the numbers, like from the CA state and US statistical Abstracts, with the staffing and compensation ratios worked out and shown.

  98. 98.

    jl

    @Raven:

    Well, this is BJ, and I did not have my quota rants for today.

    Also, not enough obsessive follow-ups and dead horse beating. Soo….

    The ratio of CA state workers to resident population is low, and ratio of salaries of CA state workers to non CA US average is high. But if you look at total state and local gov worker to population ratio, or CA state and local gov total compensation to non CA US average, they are about the same.

    I guess it drives me crazy because many of my fellow Californians (God bless their hearts), who do have some entitlement issues IMHO. And when the budget comes up, the love to yell about the Gdamn state worker fat cats bankrupting the state.

    Edit: no dead horses were harmed in the composition of this comment.

  99. 99.

    Raven

    @jl: My whole family lives there otherwise I wouldn’t give a fuck
    ” if California slides into the ocean,
    like the mystics and critics say it will . . .”

  100. 100.

    jl

    @PeakVT:

    We are talking CA here. You are talking US national average from BLS. You find me an average salary for a CA state gov worker that is not way higher than national average, let me know.

    Maybe for some jobs were the structure of the services is the same in CA as other states, like DMV, they will be, but it is true that average salary of CA state workers much higher than in other states. Often there are good reasons for that, sometimes, though, there are not, IMO.

  101. 101.

    jl

    @Raven:

    ” My whole family lives there otherwise I wouldn’t give a fuck ”

    Well, many people who live those other 49 dinky, primitive, states have difficulty with the unfairness of their lot. I understand, and forgive them.

  103. 103.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @Raven: No, haven’t seen For Queen and Country. I’ll have to look for it. Is it anything like post WWII “Best Years of Our Lives”?

  104. 104.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @jl:

    I have no problem with prison guards being well paid, the work is very dangerous and they are providing a valuable service to a state. The problem with the L&O crowd is that they love to lock-em-up, so they vote for things like Three Strikes laws because not only do they support such a thing, it’s job security and it grows the workforces.

    That and they strongly trend conservative yet feel that they’re (their public union) great and the other public unions/workers suck up state resources that could be put to better use.

    By paying them more and growing their ‘system’.

    @PeakVT:

    Yeah and the Cali guards tilt that number upward pretty damned well. If that’s the national average then the Cali guards are doing very well compared to their brethren.

  106. 106.

    Raven

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: In the sense that he’s a disaffected vet I guess it is. The Jamaican accent isn’t perfect but, like you said, “everything“. Interestingly, his name is Reuben James. The Reuben James was a four stack destroyer sunk in WWII.

  107. 107.

    dlnelson

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: I have not read all the comments, but I cannot stand the prison unions, I live in Folsom, these guys are raping us in California, and most of them are right wingers. I was on jury duty with a guard, and they do not even know what 401 k is. The Cal Patrol and the cops, the firefighters, here in No. Cal are insane. Why do democrats constantly bow to them. They are R’s, why do we protect them. Let them hang on R ‘s. I am done with them. It is over and out. I would rather pay a teacher one hundred grand, than a fire fighter that sits in his house and watches fx news and plays cards. it is over for me.

  109. 109.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @PeakVT:

    Cali guards have a two-tiered system, the noobs start out on the lower tier.

    Makes stats look good, eh? ;)

    @dlnelson:

    Tell PeakVT about it. I live next to you and know what you are going through down there.

    They are the most powerful union in the state and they have abused that power to suck everything they can get out of the system.

  110. 110.

    jl

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    PeakVT gave median salary.

    @PeakVT:

    A lot of higher cost in CA is due to retirement and other benefits. That is why when I worked out the numbers it was with total compensation, not money wage. And I think some state unions have already agreed to two tier compensation structure that would effectively cut compensation for new hires, and that angle would have to be checked out.

    But I don’t want to give the impression that the average CA state worker is living high. They are relative to state workers in other states, maybe, but that isn’t saying much, and they have suffered significant salary reductions over last few years with unpaid furloughs.

    Edit: in fact I think i worked out the numbers for some epic comment battle right here on BJ. I guess they are in the comments someplace.

    Edit: and I forgot overtime, and retirement risers that hang on how much total money compensation worker gets in last few years before retirement, at least in public safety jobs. Some of the lean CA state worker staffing is planned, but more and more of it is uneconomical cause no budget to hire more, and has gone way past the point of being penny wise and pound foolish on over time.

  111. 111.

    dlnelson

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: I know, I used to pay more attention, these guys are the scariest people you have eve seen. I see them on the buses, and they have more tats than the prisoners. They are scary.

  112. 112.

    dlnelson

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: I know, I used to pay more attention, these guys are the scariest people you have eve seen. I see them on the buses, and they have more tats than the prisoners. They are scary.

  117. 117.

    Raven

    @dlnelson: army, but seriously, they mean totally different things. Over means you are waiting for a response, out means out. Roger that?

  118. 118.

    dlnelson

    I need to clarify, these are not city buses, but armed buses, with an army of guns, even at the local grocery store.

  119. 119.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @jl:

    Edit: and I forgot overtime, and retirement risers that hang on how much total money compensation worker gets in last few years before retirement, at least in public safety jobs.

    That’s the big one. A couple of these guys have told me about how they can pad their retirement in all kinds of ways, right before they drop out and retire. I can’t remember all of the stuff they can do but when the guy who retired told me about it, my jaw dropped.

    Private unions would drool to have the kind of package that the Cali guards have wrangled for themselves. Same with other public sector unions.

  120. 120.

    dlnelson

    @Raven: quit over thinking it, I am sick of the cops, firefighters, and prison guards, it is over and out, they are r’s and as a dem, their protection is over. I live it. I live in a Rep area, and I am done with it.

  124. 124.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    @eemom: Just having fun, which I haven’t had much of lately. And I’m very interested in the comments re prison guards. I have a (female) friend who’s a prison guard down in Florida – simply can’t place her in the company of these guys being described here.

Comments are closed.