Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

This blog will pay for itself.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

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

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

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

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

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

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

Let’s finish the job.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

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80Comments

  1. 1.

    zmulls

    I posted this in the last open thread, after it had dropped down the page, so I’ll put it early in this one.

    I’m still stunned at Romney’s assertion that he was given $100K a year from Bain but did absolutely nothing for it. $100K for doing nothing. That’s his DEFENSE.

    $100K is greater than the household income of 84% of the nation. Romney was paid more than 80% of households in America for doing no work. Can you imagine how that would play, stated so plainly?

    And you can imagine Romney thinking to himself: “A hundred thousand is NOTHING, it’s NOTHING. It’s chicken-feed! It’s pocket money! It’s a…a….a….a TIP! It was just a token little payment! Hmmmm…..my advisors are telling me not to say that in public though…..”

  5. 5.

    SatanicPanic

    Normally avoid the GOS, but enjoying the meldown after they found out a popular diarist was not who he claimed to be and, allegedly was stalking some other diarists. Now everyone’s running around writing diaries telling the people who found out to shut up because it’s becoming embarassing.

  11. 11.

    SatanicPanic

    @barath: Remember about a year ago this lady writes this diary about how her teenage nephew was gay and kicked out of his house and she rescued him? The Nephew went on to be a regular rec-lister. SURPRISE! Turns out the aunt and the Nephew were one guy who is not a teenager and isn’t gay. Internets, how do they work?

  12. 12.

    scav

    @zmulls: the little detail that it came the day after he roused himself to chide those Other people for wanting something for nothing is sort of halfway between gravy and icing on the cake — a very odd flavor but probably post-modern in its bacon on everything aesthetic.

  16. 16.

    SatanicPanic

    @barath: Me neither, I never read past the first diary. I’m just amused by the aftermath. First people were saying, he was a phony! Now others are saying- the people who called out the phony are phony too! I’m not taking sides, I’m just laughing at the whole episode.

  18. 18.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @zmulls: Only it wasn’t $100K that is “a range” as was explained on The Last Word last night, it was probably much more than that. I was just over on a web chat at The Guardian US with Richard Adams and Ana Marie Cox and I asked the question about why won’t Romney release the tax returns? Richard speculated that it was the Bain income that would be the kicker. It was probably a huge amount paid to him for doing nothing (according to Romney).

  19. 19.

    daverave

    After yesterday’s shitstorm about the Bain/Romney revelations, I sat down this morning with my Sacto Bee and lo and behold, the story was nowhere near the front page… relegated to page 12, bottom corner (two pages after a story on the Green Party presidential candidate) and giving space to the Romney camp’s outrage that the Obama camp called the R-bot a liar. Yep, nothing to see here, move along now.

  20. 20.

    jl

    French Navy?

    Where are those handsome rugged men in those cute delightful, indeed, fetching, French Navy uniforms?

    And not to forget, more interesting to me, there should be some hot chicks in the hot chick version (very low cut striped t-shirt and short shorts)?

    I don’t get this song.

  21. 21.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @SatanicPanic: I guess it’s hard for some people to just admit they were taken.

    I haven’t quite figured out what his purpose was, though.

  22. 22.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    @SatanicPanic:

    There’s this really nice feature there: the +/- sign that hides the Wrecks List. Hide it and look at only the Front Page and the stuff in the CS box and it’s amazing how much improved Teh Orange can be.

  24. 24.

    Jebediah

    I was hoping I could start the morning with an open thread, some coffee, and my dogs being cute.
    I am kind of happy since I am now no longer unemployed – on Monday I start the job I was hoping to get. Woo hoo! Tempered by budget woes – due to unemployment department fucking with me and not sending my benefits that I should have gotten over a week ago, I am on a budget of ~$20/day until my first check. That’s gonna be fun! (Of course, they might send me mah munny at any point, which sure would be nice.)
    I now feel like a regular, deserving-of-regular-treatment person again – which means I am not totally immune to that gross American attitude about the worth of the unemployed, unfortunate, etc. In my defense, however, I never apply it to anyone else. Just myself.
    New job! Woo hoo! And it’s union! Double woo hoo!

  25. 25.

    Violet

    @zmulls: Say what you will about Andrew Sullivan, he’s all over this Romney/Bain stuff. Latest is a discussion about Kessler and also the Public Financial Disclosure Romney had to make in 2011 when he decided to run for President. He said he wasn’t involved with Bain during that time and it’s perjury if he lied. A felony.

    I don’t think this is going to go away. Romney said two different things on two different legal financial forms. Both cannot be right.

  27. 27.

    Hill Dweller

    @daverave: The Obama campaign isn’t counting on any help from the media. Instead, they’ll go around them, using other forms of communication.

    As an aside, OFA has a pretty good ad out this morning essentially saying what we’ve been saying here, namely Romney either lied on the SEC filings or he was actually still running Bain. They also go on to describe what Bain did during ’99-’02, and imply that’s the reason for Willard’s lying.

    Moreover, I have the feeling the Obama campaign has more stuff in the pipeline waiting to be rolled out over the coming weeks.

  29. 29.

    Elizabelle

    @Jebediah:

    Congratulations! Woo hoo!

    The pups are probably glad too.

    If I may ask: what do you do? (Generically, if you wish.)

  30. 30.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Hill Dweller: I’m waiting for after Labor Day. If this is the stuff they are rolling out now, (I hope) the stuff they release after then, when people start paying attention, is going to require Romney to spend 50x what Obama does just to drown it out. And then people will be sick of every commercial being about Romney.

  31. 31.

    quannlace

    from Bain but did absolutely nothing for it. $100K for doing nothing. That’s his DEFENSE.

    He was paid for the use of his fabulous name!
    ********

    Friday the 13th? Didn’t we already have one this year?

  32. 32.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Hill Dweller:

    I am convinced there is more. Who knows maybe there is video somewhere of Romney at a board meeting or something. His face on literature sent out about the company. There could be a whole bunch of things, or other things that I think would be revealed in the tax returns, which is why he won’t release them.

  33. 33.

    ruemara

    @Jebediah: w00t! Congratulations! Welcome to early use of medical bennies.

    One of my friends will be taking her dad off life support today, so I get to puppy sit. But I’d rather not under these circumstances. Other than that, I’m planning to head to NYC for a family reunion. And all I can think of is packing my handmixer, spices and what books to put on my laptop. And work projects to catch up on.

  35. 35.

    Mino

    Just watched half an hour of MSM with Dem surrogates nattering about the House cutting food stamps and NO ONE mentioned how many of our military are on fucking foodstamps. Get a clue, Dems.

  37. 37.

    Violet

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Yeah, he’s fun to read when he’s on a roll like this. He gets so incredulous at the idiocy and stubbornness of his conservative buddies in insisting that there’s nothing there. He takes their “arguments” apart line by line. It’s fun to watch and especially fun when it’s fact-based and not emotion-based, as Sully so often is.

    Sully has a large readership and if he’s on this like a puppy with a new bone, it’ll get a much wider read than if it was just stuck on liberal blogs. I’m glad he’s made it an issue. The media won’t unless they start to sniff out scandal potential. They’re too invested in the horse race = ratings concept and haven’t thrown that out to go in the scandal = ratings direction yet.

  39. 39.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    @Violet:

    The media won’t unless they start to sniff out scandal potential. They’re too invested in the horse race = ratings concept and haven’t thrown that out to go in the scandal = ratings direction yet.

    Should that happen (and I’m convinced it won’t since the Villagers essentially give Rmoney home field advantage in this race), the Villagers will flog it to death because it would be a ratings bonanza. The Repups are too far along to select anybody else and whether they did or not, it wouldn’t matter since in either case, Obama really would win in a landslide come November.

    Such a scenario might help in the as-important down-ticket races. I sound like a broken record but unless he gets both Houses, he might as well devote his administration to foreign policy accomplishments cuz nothing will get done domestically.

  40. 40.

    Cassidy

    John,

    Anti-gun bureaucrats at the United Nations are meeting right now to hash out the final details of their international gun-grab, the UN “Small Arms Treaty.”

    Once their meeting ends on July 27th, the “Small Arms Treaty” could be heading to the floor of the U.S. Senate for a vote at any time.

    And what’s even worse for Colorado gun owners, is that both of our U.S. Senators, Michael Bennet and Mark Udall, are proven anti-gunners.

    That’s why I need you to take action — at once!

    As a grassroots gun rights activist and member of RMGO, I’m asking you to sign this petition to both Senators Bennet and Udall demanding they vote against the UN “Small Arms Treaty” or any of the following provisions that may be included:
    >>> Tougher licensing requirements, making law-abiding Americans cut through even more bureaucratic red tape just to own a firearm legally;

    >>> CONFISCATION and DESTRUCTION of ALL “unauthorized” civilian firearms (all firearms owned by the government are excluded, of course);

    >>> A BAN on the trade, sale and private ownership of ALL semi-automatic weapons; and

    >>> The creation of an INTERNATIONAL gun registry, setting the stage for full-scale gun CONFISCATION.

    Grassroots pressure is the only force that can beat back and kill the UN “Small Arms Treaty.”

    If you don’t take action to protect our gun rights, who will?

    Please sign your petition against the UN “Small Arms Treaty” by clicking HERE.

    I’m glad to be walking beside you in this fight.

    Thanks in advance for taking action.

    For freedom,

    Dudley Brown
    Executive Director, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners

    Love the crazy emails I get.

  41. 41.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Violet:

    I liked this line:

    Is Kessler that much in the Romney tank? Or can he not read his own column?

    I would suspect that the Romney tank thing is the answer although perhaps he doesn’t read his own column as it was obvious that he doesn’t read his own paper when he gave the Obama ad that was based solely on a piece in his paper four pinnochios.

  44. 44.

    quannlace

    Just looked it up. Seems we get three Friday the 13th’s in 2012. Guess thats par for the course.

  46. 46.

    Elizabelle

    Obama speaking live in Virginia Beach.

    Just started.

    Still doing the intros of local politicos.

  47. 47.

    mistermix

    This has to be one of my favorite couplets ever:

    You and your dietary restriction
    Said you loved me with a lot of conviction

  48. 48.

    zmulls

    I assumed the $100K was his “salary” and there were other investment-related payments or bonuses that went along with it.

    It’s like a CEO getting paid a dollar in salary but getting lots of much more lucrative types of compensation. For Romney, a salary of $100K is sort of like a lesser CEO getting a dollar.

  50. 50.

    Face

    @SatanicPanic: Can you please link to the diary that calls him out? I cannot in good faith wade through that swamp of butthurt and prolls.

    kthxbai

  51. 51.

    Jebediah

    @Elizabelle:

    If I may ask: what do you do? (Generically, if you wish.)

    Thanks!
    I was going to try to be a smart-ass and come up with the purest generic job description (“I perform duties in exchange for recompense” etc.) but thought better of it… I work in television post-production, specifically as an assistant editor. I mostly work with Avid Media Composer. And the union thing is important – the differences in pay and conditions between union and non-union are stark. After I got laid off, I interviewed for a non-union job that was offering, for a six-day week,* ~$250 less, gross, than I was netting for three nights at a union job.
    As for the pups, the three of us are going to go for a nice walk right now – and yeah, I think they will enjoy my better emotional state, which will include not worrying about whether or not I can afford Otto’s various medicines. He’s old and big – I fear how miserable he would be without them. And right now he is giving me that look – “look how miserable I am that you are making me wait for a walk.” Sorry, Otto. We’ll go right now, I promise…

    *it’s a dodge a lot of non-union jobs do – “You’re paid for six days but most weeks you will only work five” – meaning you can always be made to work for free on Saturday or Sunday

  54. 54.

    Jebediah

    @ruemara:
    @R-Jud:
    @Violet:

    Thanks! And yeah, when I get out of the financial hole, maybe I ‘ll take a quick trip to go visit my nieces or something like that. Seeing them is always worth the various hassles of modern air travel.

  57. 57.

    Violet

    @comrade scott’s agenda of rage: I’ve been saying that since I first started seeing this break. If there’s a scandal here, it’s ratings gold for the media. They’ll be on it non-stop, especially since Romney isn’t the official nominee yet. There’s convention chaos to be mined for ratings, the Paulistas and their antics, the fight between Romney and another nominee. They know they aren’t getting ratings from the current race. They’ll be looking for something the help in that department.

    In the sense that it’s a scandal, it’s akin to how Watergate broke. It didn’t start out as much and the media didn’t cover it intensively. But it kept rolling, info kept drip, drip, dripping out and Nixon had to lie to cover the lie he told previously. That’s where Romney is. There are still tax returns that would answer questions, and he’s refusing to release those. The cry for that will probably increase. At some point a MSM outlet will decide to do a report on why the SEC filing and the Personal Financial Disclosure statement, both of which are signed under penalty of perjury and a felony, say something different.

    Romney may try to sweep this under the rug, but the media doesn’t like him (he’s no tire-swinging John McCain), so they don’t have a lot of incentive to prop him up if the horse race = viewers narrative is going nowhere and a scandal narrative might help. Other Republicans don’t want to be tied to a losing candidate, and he doesn’t have a lot of friends among them anyway, so they’ll throw him under the bus to save themselves if they have to. Pete Sessions started doing that yesterday.

    This story is only just getting going. Popcorn!

  58. 58.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Hill Dweller: Good. I knew they would do an ad. Apparently Romneybot 2.0 is going on vacation again this weekend. Guess he’ll let his minions cover up for him until Monday.

  59. 59.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    OK, Hillary, I like you, I’m ready to give you 100% support in ’16, but right now you need to call this asshole, call him an asshole, and tell him to Shut. The Fuck. Up.

    Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D), a former chair of the DNC, told MSNBC Friday that some of the language the Obama campaign is using to attack Mitt Romney over his time at Bain Capital may be crossing the line.
    “It’s a great ad in the making. But on the other hand, I think Carol also made a very good point about all this attack may be hurting the president’s brand a little bit, too,” Rendell said on an MSNBC panel show. “I think our supporters went a little bit too far with the felony business.”

    I was in the car this morning, I missed this gem but I caught just enough of this show on XM to hear him say “both sides need to sit their rear ends down and agree on something like Bowles-Simpson”. I’ve really come to hate him with a passion. Luckily I was able to switch to Bob Dylan with the press of a button. Modern technology.

  60. 60.

    Violet

    @SatanicPanic: Was the one that was deleted the “The Truth About The Nephew” one? I still have that open on a tab because I was in the mood for a drama. Never read it. I could copy/paste some of it, but it’s incredibly long.

    Sorry, don’t want to get B-J in trouble and copying/pasting from a deleted diary on another site might not be appropriate. Also don’t feel like stirring up trouble, but am happy to if someone wants. Thoughts?

  62. 62.

    Patricia Kayden

    @BGinCHI: Rendell shouldn’t be commenting on politics since he’s so fragile and delicate and stuff. Interesting that he never says that the Bot’s ads calling Obama a liar are not going too far.

  63. 63.

    quannlace

    Romney may try to sweep this under the rug, but the media doesn’t li

    I bet Romney is praying and hoping that the upcoming Olympics will push this off the radar. Only…you know, it’ll also remind people of that other Olympics thats part of this whole story.

  66. 66.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @BGinCHI: I actually think Bill is his first love, HIllary was just a means to his being called “Mr Secretary” for the rest of his life. On this same show a couple weeks ago, he actually delivered a good two minutes soliloquy on the proper titles, and how “secretary” outranks “governor”. It was both pathetic and revealing.

    Apparently in his book about how we’re all pussies, he actually drags up the old Carville chestnut about how Bill CLinton would’ve put on a wetsuit and plugged the BP hole himself! Even intended as an obvious joke, it’s so fucking stupid.

  68. 68.

    SatanicPanic

    @Violet: Yep, that was the one. I didn’t read the whole thing either, just skimmed it. Long and boring. I had drank a few and was cracking up reading the responses. Now some people are saying that diary was faked too. I wouldn’t bother, people can probably track it down if they want to.

  70. 70.

    jl

    Rendell is an awful media hack. Doesn’t read the morning news, apparently. Very bad at contradicting his words through subtext (the GOP people are masters, does Rendell not study them?). Technically, no indication of worldly wise judgment and vast savvy and ‘I know too much to tell’ held in reserve. No nuance. Not one reference to inside knowledge or ‘word on the street’.

    Did Rendell say ‘brand’? Too, too crude. What, does he think he is selling canned beans? That destroyed his facade of credibility.

    Either he blew his assigned role, or somewhat at the network let him improvise.

    He won’t get rich at this kind of gig. Some one needs to break it to him. it’s just not there, Ed.

  71. 71.

    Alex S.

    @zmulls:

    But remember, if blacks want free stuff, they have to vote for Obama… they probably won’t get 100k though.

  72. 72.

    catpal

    @Patricia Kayden: Rendell was a B- graded Pro-Choice, Supported-Education, Helped-Poor/Sick/Disabled, Dem governor dealing with a crappy Repub-controlled legislature.

    But Rendell was also well-known as Comcast Eddie, and Verizon-owned, and a Big Corporate Bought Dem who kept lowering Corporate taxes to practically Zero. He is “worried” because HE was So Owned and Controlled by Wall Street/Comcast.

  73. 73.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @catpal: I thought Eddie was renting his old-school big city back-slappin’ pol persona to T Boone Pickens and the trackers these days. And in that gig, which is propped up by this one, he will get rich.

  74. 74.

    Scott Alloway

    My hobby forum gets weirder and weirder with one member’s posts. My coin collector forum colleague put up another “Obama’s gonna get you” post that’s even weirder than his prior rants. I’d think coin collectors, on the whole, would be interested in numismatics and not this stuff.

    If Obama gets elected again, he will try to disarm Americans and outlaw Americans owning gold. He will try and confiscate coin collections of collectors, because tyrants steal from others, that is there mindset, when they take control. they think they are able to steal with impunity. The Nazi’s stole precious art and peoples gold teeth during there reign of terror, So shall Barak Obama do the same…. There are about 50 million armed Americans who will stop him if he tries, but he has to get a United Nations Army in America to take your stuff first. That is his objective with Hillary Clinton, take you guns, gold, and terrorize you, But I think there will be a civil war and Obama will lose,.. It might just be good all this happens, we can purge the traitors out of our government and the news media, there are many traitors among us. Bring it on You Muslim Scumbag Obama, we will give you something you will never forget!

    I neglect to tell him I hunted with a rifle for years and am considered by him to be a socialist. That’ll happen after his next rave.

  76. 76.

    Amir Khalid

    Saw The Amazing Spiderman. Loved Charlie Sheen’s dad as Uncle Ben. Sally Field is Aunt May? Damn. That makes me feel old. But seeing Peter Parker with Gwen Stacy made me realize I’m on Team Mary Jane.

    It stayed true to the strength of the Spiderman mythos: Peter Parker as an essentially ordinary kid despite his gifts, a kid you could very easily identify with. This is one of the better comic-book movies, like the first two Toby Maguire Spidermans.

  77. 77.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    Everyone in that video seems so hipsterish, in the skinny jean/PBR drinking/American Apparel wearing way.

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