Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

We still have time to mess this up!

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

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

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

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

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

You cannot shame the shameless.

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Reader Interactions

77Comments

  1. 1.

    Culture of Truth

    Economists predicted 50,000 to 150,000 additional jobs for June. Companies added 176,000 jobs, more than forecast.

  3. 3.

    Culture of Truth

    Construction + 8,000
    Factories + 4,000
    Manufacturers & builders + 16,000
    Service jobs + 160,000

  4. 4.

    Hill Dweller

    Obama needs to hit the Republicans for public sector layoffs. That has, and continues to be, the biggest drag on the economy.

  5. 5.

    dmsilev

    I’d like to congratulate Mitt Romney on executing a flip-flop-flip with extra half-twist on the “is the mandate a tax?” question. Granted, he did trip and fall on his face in the landing (mandatory 1 point deduction), but it’s a difficult move.

  6. 6.

    Hunter Gathers

    Like the jobs number actually matters. Unless it’s more than a million, it will be ‘weak’, ‘disappointing’ ‘lackluster’ or a thousand other negative metaphors. Because this is America and the president’s black. Of course if McCain were president, any job report showing positive job growth would be a sign that it’s Morning In America.

  11. 11.

    Linda Featheringill

    It’s good news for the folks who didn’t have a job and now do. Congrats, people.

  12. 12.

    EIGRP

    I saw a guy on the corner of Monroe and Goodman yesterday. He had on a Guy Fawkes mask and was holding a sign that said “MISSING” and then what looked to be a copy of the US Constitution underneath it.

    There was only 1 guy, and it was probably 2:15 in the afternoon. Seemed way to hot in Rochester to be doing that.

    Has anyone else seen this in their town?

    Eric

  13. 13.

    jibeaux

    Something cheerful…well, that lets out local NC news straight away…how about, some family members we’ve missed have moved back home due to getting something close to a dream job, my daughter is learning to embrace her curls, and my son recently finished a very long sentence with “and that’s all I know about the internal combustion engine”, which made me laugh.

  15. 15.

    jibeaux

    Oh, and we refinanced our house and knocked 9 years off the term of the mortgage for just pennies more in payments, and will be building equity faster.

  16. 16.

    Linda Featheringill

    ECB: It would be nice if Europe could collect themselves and crawl out of the hole.

    I noticed somewhere that France is trying to pay off its debts by increasing taxes on the wealthy. Commies.

    Edited. Spelling.

  17. 17.

    Goblue72

    Douchehats in the neighborhood setting off fireworks till past 3 am last night. Is it justifiable homicide if I knock off a hipster in skinny jeans today?

  20. 20.

    Chris

    @Linda Featheringill:

    I noticed somewhere that France is trying to pay off its debts by increasing taxes on the wealthy. Commies.

    Fairly proud of Hollande for that. Somewhere in the free world there’s still a government with a goddamn shred of common sense.

  21. 21.

    realbtl

    Cheerful huh. I’ve discovered a sport bike sized hole in my motorcycle stable so I’m off to test ride (and likely buy) an 02 VFR800. Gorgeous sunny day here in NW Montana.

  23. 23.

    J.W. Hamner

    Here is an HDR shot of some sun pickles I’m making. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Note that the color of the brine is because of my choice to use red wine vinegar instead of white, not because of crazy filters or anything.

  25. 25.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    I’m not sure it can be called “cheerful,” but I found it quite interesting. I was at a meeting of a county association of police chiefs, held at the county sheriff’s office. This is an extremely red* Ohio county and it was announced that the King’s Governor’s staff, and perhaps the King himself would be in town next week to announce increased state funding for police telecomm equipment. Someone said “[last name of the King] himself; really?” The sheriff replied, “we should try to get as high a concentration of idiots in one place as we can.” Other mumbles went throughout the room about “us idiots.”

    It’s clear these folks have not forgotten – and certainly not forgiven the King for his comment about getting pulled over for disregarding an emergency vehicle’s signal. In case you aren’t aware, at a state employee meeting – teleconferenced to many agencies throughout the state, the King announced that he’d been pulled over by “an idiot,”(emphasis his) when he hadn’t been aware there was an emergency vehicle. He probably noted that the LEO was “an idiot“(emphasis his) 3 or 4 times while relaying the story. Of course the dashboard recording showed the LEO was nothing but professional and courteous during the encounter, and that the King was as gracious as expected. Which is of course, not at all.

    This was 2 years ago, and an entire county of reliably Republican LEOs are still furious about it. Interesting, no?

    *I’d rather not name the county in case the King’s court has eyes on Balloon Juice as the clerks of Chief Justice Roberts do. I will note that it has a famous inn, owned by the family of a current Senator, where White House residents have been known to overnight, both before and after such residency.

  26. 26.

    rlrr

    but the government cuts will likely drag the total numbers down a bit.

    Conservative should be celebrating this. To them, those jobs weren’t real jobs to begin with.

  27. 27.

    rikyrah

    I coulda told you months ago Miss Ann that nobody in the Prudential Building is playing with Willard.

    You’ve been up against amateurs and grifters.

    You’re so ENTITLED, that you and your ENTITLED husband just thought Barack Hussein Obama was gonna hand over the Presidency

    ‘ cause it was YOUR TURN’.

    Bitch, he gotta be ELECTED
    …………………………………………….

    (CBS News) On a mission to shatter the image of her husband as rigid and unrelatable, Ann Romney told CBS News she worries that President Obama’s entire campaign strategy is “kill Romney.”

    “I feel like all he’s doing is saying, ‘Let’s kill this guy,” she said, seated next to her husband, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, in an exclusive interview with CBS News chief political correspondent Jan Crawford. “And I feel like that’s not really a very good campaign policy.

    “I feel like Mitt’s got the answers to turn this country around,” she continued. “He’s the one that’s got to bring back hope for this country, which is what they ran on last time. But the truth is, this is the one that has the hope for the – for America.”

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57466625/ann-romney-obamas-whole-campaign-strategy-is-lets-kill-this-guy/

  28. 28.

    Gin & Tonic

    How much do you have in your IRA, if you have one at all? Willard Romney has between $20 million and $100 million in his. How does someone do that when IRA contributions are limited to $2,000 per year, you may ask? Easy, you just contribute the maximum every year for about 25,000 years. Piece of cake.

    If you don’t expect to live for 25,000 years before retiring, though, you can accomplish the same thing by using what even the Wall Street Journal is calling “highly unusual” strategies. Unfortunately, there is nothing in any of Willard’s public disclosures which would allow anyone to determine precisely which strategies he used.

  30. 30.

    NonyNony

    @Linda Featheringill:

    I noticed somewhere that France is trying to pay off its debts by increasing taxes on the wealthy. Commies.

    That will never work – I’ve been assured that there can’t possibly be any wealthy people left in France. The taxes in a Yurpean nation are so oppressively high that the rich flee the country in fear and move to less oppressive places like Dubai and Shanghai. After all, why would anyone with any kind of wealth want to live in a dystopian Communist place like Yurp?

  31. 31.

    Amir Khalid

    I was just wondering: where can I get me one of them Dagwood Bumstead shirts with one humongous button in the front?

    @dmsilev:
    I guess the Republican party elders are privately horrified at Mitt’s candidational ineptitudity.

    Incidentally, this is all coming to pass exactly as I predicted last year. Then I likened the party base to the bride in an arranged marriage, who reluctantly settled on him because the other suitors were all obviously drooling idiots. But then I also said it would end in tears when his own shortcomings came to be exposed. We are now in that second phase, watching the Mitt-train wreck happen in slow motion. I don’t think anyone is surprised.

  33. 33.

    The Red Pen

    My brother accused Obama of “being in favor of big government,” and immediately excoriated him for cutting government jobs during a period of high unemployment.

    He also accused me of not reading what he writes carefully, leading me to ask, “Do you read what you write?”

  34. 34.

    amk

    @rikyrah: “kill romney ” ? How much more dog whistly this man’s campaign is going to get ? A niggah comment is in the offing ?

  37. 37.

    Starfish

    @Gin & Tonic: I thought the IRA contribution limit is closer to $5k or $6k these days, but I also thought that when you leave a job, you can transfer your 401k to a rollover IRA. And the limits do not apply to these rollovers. I thought the maximum contribution to a 401k was closer to $15k in pre-tax dollars. But I thought if you accidentally end up over your limit, you just end up contributing post tax dollars.

  38. 38.

    NotMax

    Found this snippet taken from the biographical sketch at an archive of some of Mitt’s mother’s papers of some interest.

    She announced her candidacy for United States Senator from Michigan in 1969, running against Democratic incumbent Phil Hart. Romney was hampered in her campaign by her unpopular positions–she supported Nixon’s stand on the Vietnam War–and her lack of a concrete platform–long on moral positions but short on specifics. Source

    Indeed, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

  39. 39.

    imonlylurking

    Well, for the first time since I have been hanging out with this group of people (i.e. 10 years) every single person is gainfully employed. Also, I made gazpacho and spinach-artichoke dip last night for my 4th of July bash, and both were well-received.

    I should mention-I’ve never made gazpacho or spinach artichoke dip before.

  41. 41.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Starfish: All questions that are answered in the WSJ article I linked. Other interesting and more complex questions raised there too.

  42. 42.

    catclub

    @Gin & Tonic: “How does someone do that when IRA contributions are limited to $2,000 per year, you may ask?”

    Not quite. The tax free portion (going in) is $2000, the rest is taxed as it goes in – and untaxed coming out – like a Roth.
    But more complicated.

    ETA: Originally $2000, which everyone remembers, but probably higher now. I could look it up but that takes like,
    15 extra keystrokes.

  45. 45.

    Gin & Tonic

    @catclub: I’ll save you the keystrokes.

    Yes, the limit is now $5k or $6k. It was $2k while Willard worked at Bain.

    Yes, I oversimplified for dramatic effect. When the WSJ devotes 1400 words to the complexities of Willard’s IRA I’ll do that, in the hope that people might read the fucking article.

  46. 46.

    PeakVT

    @Gin & Tonic: There are suggestions of self-dealing floating about (forget where I saw them) – putting cash in, buying assets, and then selling the assets at inflated prices.

  48. 48.

    shortstop

    I’m facing the third major surgery in three years! On the other hand, almost everyone else in the world has it a lot worse, and I made it for decades with no health problems to speak of, so I shall desist from whining.

  49. 49.

    Martin

    I got new laptop. It’s good news for me, at least.

    @Gin & Tonic: IRA contributions aren’t capped at all. The only thing that’s capped is the amount you can take a tax deduction against.

    And you can certainly get $20M in your IRA if the money you invest earns some insane return. If you invested the max each year from 1980 to today and put all of that money in Apple stock, you’d be north of $20M today. Similar for a lot of the big techs – Microsoft/Google/Intel, etc.

    Not saying that’s a prudent strategy or a likely one, but such are the benefits of being wealthy – you can take risks the rest of us can’t.

  50. 50.

    gene108

    @rlrr:

    Conservative should be celebrating this. To them, those jobs weren’t real jobs to begin with.

    They do celebrate it.

  53. 53.

    Hypatia's Momma

    @Martin:

    …Ellis said the company’s first responsibility is to ensure that service for its zone is not disrupted, potentially endangering beachgoers there and opening up the company to liability issues.

    I wonder where “Saving Lives” is placed on that responsibility list. Does it even make the top 10?

  55. 55.

    quannlace

    Cheerful, hmmm?

    Well, turkey hotdogs have become quite tasty.

    Turkey bacon? Still an affront to Nature.

  58. 58.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Good news? My editor for Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Teeth showed me the sample cover art, which is a pretty awesome experience. The editor I loudly declared as my favorite was suddenly switched to edit my third book, Wild Children. She talks around the issue and I can’t be sure it means anything, but it sure makes me feel loved.

    And hopefully the home repair mess here is almost over and I can get back to serious writing on Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m A Supervillain.

    REEEEEEEALLY enjoying being employed for the first time since the recession started, and as an officially published novelist, no less. #2 on the ‘dream job’ list!

  60. 60.

    Hypatia's Momma

    Also, for those who are interested in biology and sex and the biology of sex:
    The Dirty Normal.
    Recommended by a friend of mine, who says:

    …an excellent counter to the people who like to run around the internet justifying mid twentieth century suburban American sexism by telling stupid just-so stories about “evolution”.

  61. 61.

    burnspbesq

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Not quite. There are IRAs and there are IRAs. When you leave a job where you are in a pension or 401(k), you can do a tax-deterred “rollover” to a separate IRA. There are large numbers of people with six-figure IRAs, and a non-trivial number with seven-figure IRAs.

    There are plenty of good reasons to not like Romney. Without more info, the mere fact that he has a big IRA isn’t one of them.

  64. 64.

    Gin & Tonic

    @burnspbesq:

    Without more info

    As, for instance, that found in the goddamn article I linked, which says that 8- or possibly 9-figure IRA’s are highly unusual, and that there’s a good likelihood that it got to be that size due to offshore assets or other means of avoiding the unrelated business income tax.

    Yes, he may have a large IRA. No, that alone isn’t reason to dislike him. But when it’s larger than almost any extant IRA and he doesn’t disclose enough about its holdings to know whether its investment and tax strategies were kosher, that is.

    Honest, folks, RTFA before jumping on the minutiae of my abbreviated pointer to it. I didn’t realize I was posting in such a hotbed of Romney-love here.

  66. 66.

    Patricia Kayden

    I’m happy with the job numbers. Hope the unemployment rate goes down a little too.

  67. 67.

    burnspbesq

    @Gin & Tonic:

    that there’s a good likelihood that it got to be that size due to offshore assets or other means of avoiding the unrelated business income tax.

    All of which is speculation. If any of it moves from speculation to fact, I will be at the head of the line with pitchforks and torches. Until then, not so much.

  68. 68.

    nastybrutishntall

    @Goblue72: Only if you shout at them, “Get off my lawn” first. Then you can shoot the “hipsters” dressed in their “blue-jeans” and “t-shirts” listening to loud “so-called music” without compunction or legal troubles. Or that’s what the “Tele-Vision” tells me.

  69. 69.

    Roger Moore

    @Hunter Gathers:

    Like the jobs number actually matters. Unless it’s more than a million, it will be ‘weak’, ‘disappointing’ ‘lackluster’ or a thousand other negative metaphors.

    Like the media spin matters. People pay way less attention to what the news says about the economy than what their personal experience says. If people’s perception of their own situation and their friends’ and relatives’ situations is positive, they’ll think the economy is OK even if the news says it’s terrible. If their situation is bad, or their friends’ and relatives’ situations are bad, they’ll act that way even when the news is all sunshine and roses.

    I honestly think that public perception is often more accurate about these things than the economists are. 2008 was a great example. People were very pessimistic about the economy even when most economists and the media were saying everything was OK and there was little chance of a recession. It turned out the public perception was right, and properly revised numbers showed we were already in a recession in early 2008, even though the professionals were saying a recession was unlikely.

  70. 70.

    nastybrutishntall

    This thread is making me want to throw my skinny jeans in the dryer for extra tightening, and run out on the street with a Ruger and cap some mom-jeans and cargo-short-wearing, goateed motherfuckers listening to dad rock. I’m 38, but fuck am I sick of listening to Gen-Xers age badly into their libertarian buzz-cuts and pudding-rings. Y’all suck. I’m with the youngs on this one.

  71. 71.

    ruemara

    @jibeaux: I’m working on a return to natural, good on your daughter. It’s been quite the rediscovery of curls.

    On the good news front, I sold a lot of beer yesterday to benefit the Dems. Minus… …my warrior’s dps is still laughable. So sad.

    @Frankensteinbeck: Exciting! Congrats to you!

  72. 72.

    Martin

    @Hypatia’s Momma:

    I wonder where “Saving Lives” is placed on that responsibility list. Does it even make the top 10?

    Not on the list.

    On the list would be ‘avoiding lawsuits’ which might require saving lives. This I imagine is what got the lifeguard fired. Saving the gentleman not under the company’s contractual space opens the company up to a lawsuit where it wouldn’t have been before.

    This isn’t a failure of the legal system, but a place to highlight where the private sector is inefficient compared to the public sector. Conservatives keep trying to square that problem, and have failed at every turn.

  73. 73.

    Zagloba

    The physics hits just keep on a’comin’:

    ‹a href=”http://m.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0705/Giant-filament-of-dark-matter-connects-galaxy-clusters-say-astronomers-video”>Dark Matter!

  74. 74.

    Jebediah, The Cornstarch of the Comment Threads

    Talk about something cheerful.

    I got a call just now for a job interview. They have had my resume for a bit and I was starting to think it was going nowhere. It’s not a job offer, its an interview, but I am pretty happy about it.

    ETA: It’s a job I really want – I’m 98% certain it’s union and I think it will be around for a while.

  75. 75.

    Goblue72

    @nastybrutishntall: Maybe you missed the setting off fireworks at 3 am part. You play some loud music at 10 pm, I don’t give a shit. You set off roman candles at 3 am and interfere with my workweek sleep, you’re getting the fuck off my lawn.

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