Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

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

The jury literally has a bell they can ring to force Trump to show up on command. Greatest thing ever!

Consistently wrong since 2002

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

Battle won, war still ongoing.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

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

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

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

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

In my day, never was longer.

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

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

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Open Thread

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Just checking in to see what y’all are up to. I’m watching the West Wing, Season 4. I kind of burned out during my last West Wing marathon at the end of season 3 six or seven months ago and never finished all seven seasons, but on a lark I threw it in tonight and it sucked me right back in. I feel like there was no gap in my intense parasocial relationship with Donatella Moss.

What are you up to?

Reader Interactions

86Comments

  1. 1.

    Trentrunner

    Let’s see…

    Watching Carole Lombard impersonate Greta Garbo on TCM.

    Enjoying the fuck out of Chicago-style politics. Who knew Romney was such a big fucking poopypants whinyass babyhead?

  2. 2.

    Alison

    Watching the Giants game now, waiting for the soccer game to start, then probably some reading later. I try to get in a certain number of pages a day and slacked off a bit today due to errands and tiredness, so my awesome Saturday night will be spent with my nose in a book :) Hey, it’s awesome to *me*!

  3. 3.

    TheOtherWA

    Trying to talk myself into going out. Two friends are having a party and I really want to go but I’m so fucking tired (this has been a bitch of a week at work) that I just want to stay home.

    But it’s Saturday night and I’m single so I need to get off the damn couch and go be social and shit.

  6. 6.

    General Stuck

    Reds beat the Cards on a walk off homer in the tenth inning. Doesn’t get any better than that for me in the sports department

    Similar goodness for the political front as well

    There is no whining in politics. Stop demanding an apology, release your tax returns.” — John Weaver, a veteran Republican strategist, after presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney said anew that he won’t go beyond releasing his 2010 tax records and, before the election, his 2011 taxes.

    I think we are going to see more and more of this coming from the GOP branetrust. They know full well that politically, they and Romney have no choice but to release those tax returns, in this particular election, from this particular candidate that is basing all his qualifications on a successful business career. Plus, I think if there is a political suicide grade smoking gun, the GOP proper is going to want to now that now, rather than later.

  7. 7.

    RedKitten

    Getting ready to hit the hay. I know, it’s sad that I’m going to bed at 11pm on a Saturday night, but fuck it — I’m growing a person, and it takes a lot out of me.

    Today was the farmer’s market, and tomorrow’s the beach. Hubby and I BOTH got small raises on Friday, so we’ve been rather giddy all weekend.

  8. 8.

    Jewish Steel

    One of the few aesthetically gratifying janitorial tasks: Buffing floors. That’s what I’m about on this Saturday night.

  11. 11.

    BethanyAnne

    I just found that Netflix carries “Top Gear”, and I’m watching boys play with their toys :)

  12. 12.

    Mnemosyne

    Desperately trying to stay awake until 9 pm so I don’t go to bed at a stupid hour (like, say, 7 pm, which is what it is right now) and wake up at 4 am unable to fall back asleep.

    Stupid jet lag.

    Also, too, I’ve been getting caught up on “great literature” that I missed earlier in my life, so I’m about halfway through Of Human Bondage. I find Philip quite whiny, but I suspect that’s part of the point.

  13. 13.

    kideni

    Celebrating Woody Guthrie’s centennial with a lot of Dust Bowl ballads and the Mermaid Avenue discs. Still trying to come down from meeting and singing with Billy Bragg on Tuesday (I’m not in any of the pictures). Trying to edit a crappy article.

  14. 14.

    eclare

    Guilty pleasure night, Grease and some wine. First PG movie my parents ley me see. And basking in the kick ass ad for BO.

  17. 17.

    texascowgirl

    Someone at LGF raised an interesting point about how Mitt’s refusal to release his tax returns won’t go away. Mitt has to pick a VP candidate and VP candidates normally release 10 years or so of tax returns. Will the VP choice follow tradition or follow Mitt’s lead and only release a year or two? Either way the tax return question stays front and center and doesn’t go away.

  19. 19.

    suzanne

    Enjoying one hell of a downpour here in Phoenix. It started while my husband and I were in Costco with the baby. After we were done, he stayed with the baby while I ran out to get the car. I wasn’t even halfway through the parking lot before I was absolutely soaked, including my underwear. But it’s lovely….74 degrees right now! WOOT!

    The older spawn has been on a trip with her Girl Scout troop learning how to hate America, and is flying home right now. I miss the crap outta her. I’m practically sitting by the phone waiting to hear that they’ve landed so I can go pick her up.

  21. 21.

    22over7

    Season four is great. Watch the whole thing and the first two episodes of season five, then stop. Seriously, just walk away.

    But you might enjoy season seven.

  22. 22.

    burnspbesq

    Reading the new Spenser novel. Yes, Robert B. Parker is dead, but the publishing company wants to keep the franchise going, and hired somebody I’ve never heard of to write in that style. I’m skeptical, but we’ll see.

    Just waiting for Walter Mosely to bring Easy Rawlins back from the dead next year (you thought he died in the car wreck at the end of “Blonde Faith,” didn’t you? So did I).

  23. 23.

    Comrade Luke

    @TheOtherWA:

    I’m in a similar position, also in TheOtherWa. In my case, I’m choosing to stay home tonight, and most nights now. I’m just so frustrated with the social situation in the Seattle area that I need to take a break. I don’t know where the nice women are, but if you look at online dating services they appear to be in the mountains or running marathons. That makes them hard to find :)

    So anyway…yea, I feel your pain.

  26. 26.

    burnspbesq

    @hilts:

    There’s nothing wrong with having Swiss bank accounts if (a) you live or work in Switzerland, (b) you put all the income on your 1040, and (c) you file accurate FBARs and Forms 8938.

    /Swiss banker

  27. 27.

    Matthew Reid Krell

    Just saw title card releases for Thor 2 and Captain America 2. I will be in my bunk.

  28. 28.

    Redshift

    Watching the re-broadcast of the Tour de France with a friend who’s a big fan. After that, there’s a Soyuz launch on NASA TV.

  29. 29.

    Alison

    @texascowgirl: Wow, that is a very interesting point, one I hadn’t even thought of. Can’t wait to see how they handle it, mostly so I can laugh more at the sheer ineptitude and mendacity…

  31. 31.

    JPL

    Well I was reading an article about gw bush presenting a book about the 4% solution. See if we have 4% growth forever, we will live happily ever after. BTW the debt is now bad..

    link

    i might just take a long hot bath and try to wash off the filth.

  35. 35.

    Hill Dweller

    @texascowgirl: Even if his VP pick doesn’t release them publicly, Willard’s campaign will sure as hell request at least 10 years when vetting.

    I won’t hold my breath, but a decent reporter could ask Willard if he is demanding/requesting to see his VP prospects’ tax returns. If so, why isn’t Willard living up to the standard he is expecting his VP to meet?

  36. 36.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Finishing up the final season 4 episode of Breaking Bad, waiting for the start of Season 5. Walter White was a bad boy wasn’t he?

  39. 39.

    texascowgirl

    @Alison: Here’s something else I just thought of. If the VP choice doesn’t release his/her tax returns the VP choice will be asked if they let the Romney campaign saw any of the tax returns during the vetting process. If the campaign gets to see the tax returns, why can’t the media and the voters?

  40. 40.

    NCSteve

    . . . my intense parasocial relationship with Donatella Moss.

    Ahhhh, yes. I remember when I had one of those with her. Fortunately, I’m not the parajealous type about fictitious television characters with whom I had intense parasocial relationships in the distant past.

    Except for Bailey Quarters! You just keep your distance from her, Cole! You hear?

  41. 41.

    El Cid

    British horror series “Bedlam”, pretty darn good, final episode of absurd podcast-generated surreal discussion by Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and idiot nitwit savant Karl Pilkington “Ricky Gervais Show.”

  43. 43.

    Canuckistani Tom

    @Narcissus:

    What’s truly amazing is the muppets. It’s a little weird to think that Dominar Rygel the 16th is part of the same artistic evolutionary chain as Kermit the Frog.

    By far my favourite character is Pilot.

  45. 45.

    suzanne

    My husband and I are currently watching Barney. It’s better than the screaming.

    Anyone have any toddler-safe sedatives?

  49. 49.

    Calouste

    @JPL:

    The 4% solution is pretty weak shit according to Sherlock Holmes. You’d think that a fellow cokehead like Dubya would know that 7% is the solution.

  50. 50.

    Yutsano

    @suzanne: Believe it or not small amounts of wine are fine to give to children. Europeans have been doing this for centuries to quiet children.

  51. 51.

    Mnemosyne

    @suzanne:

    Try “Blue’s Clues.” My nephew used to pantomime wanting us (his aunt and uncle) to turn it on for him by fetching his handy-dandy notebook and sitting in his thinking chair.

  54. 54.

    suzanne

    @Yutsano: Actually, Barney did the trick. She’s out like a light.

    Now reading Mitt VP speculation. Now I’m the one that needs a glass of wine.

  55. 55.

    Matthew Reid Krell

    @burnspbesq:

    Telling: Canada’s “wingnuttiest major media outlet” engages in “balanced and thoughtful analysis.”

    Either there’s something wrong with you, with the analysis, or with Canada. It surely isn’t our fault.

  56. 56.

    rammalammadingdong

    Trying to decide if i should get a blood transfusion. I am post surgery, anemic and years ago there would be no question about a transfusion. Nowadays it is a judgement call. I am “young” and my only symptom is fatigue. I will most certainly restore my blood count on my own over time. RN’s are shocked I have not had one. Physicians are hedging. Anyone been through this?

  57. 57.

    suzanne

    @rammalammadingdong: A friend of mine got one after she was in a really bad wreck. She was healing, but feeling exhausted all the time. About a month after the wreck, they gave her one. She said it was like night and day.

  58. 58.

    Diana

    watching the Hollow Crown via bit torrent.

    What, the rest of you are not in love with Tom Hiddleston?

    Jeez, what’s wrong with you? Are you all straight guys or gay women or something?

  59. 59.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    Right now I’m watching an episode of “California’s Gold”. Huell Howser is, uh, unique. Later, I have some episodes of “Bones” on the DVR I might watch.

  60. 60.

    Amir Khalid

    @texascowgirl:
    I think the running mate and tax returns thing will play out like this:

    Mitt will not release his tax returns no matter what. However, he will still expect his VP candidates to turn over their tax returns for the past ten years (or whatever period is the norm). One or two candidates for running mate will then publicly withdraw over this apparent hypocrisy. Mitt has to delay naming his running mate. When questioned on TV about this delay, sometime in early September, Mitt will blue-screen for 45 seconds, reboot, and demand an apology from his interviewer.

  61. 61.

    burnspbesq

    @Matthew Reid Krell:

    Either there’s something wrong with you, with the analysis, or with Canada. It surely isn’t our fault.

    There are a lot of things wrong with me, but none of them are relevant here.

  62. 62.

    Amir Khalid

    @rammalammadingdong: I received one five years ago, when my Ramadan was interrupted by hospitalization for anemia and dehydration. (First and only time, so far, in all my years of fasting. But then that year, people were looking at me and wondering if I had any business fasting.) I’d consider it a no-brainer, myself. Just what are your doctor’s reservations about a transfusion?

  64. 64.

    KyCole

    What a coincidence! I just bought the entire series of the West Wing and am watching it and pretending that it is real.

  65. 65.

    rikyrah

    @Mnemosyne:

    Try “Blue’s Clues.”

    I have a 3 year old niece.

    Damn, I hate Barney and Blues Clues with a passion, and I can usually tolerate a whole lotta kids tv. Blues Clues is so damn slow.

  66. 66.

    Dee Loralei

    @burnspbesq: Is that Ace Atkins? He’s a kick ass writer. I love his mystery series set in the mid-south and south.Ex College and Pro Football player who becomes a musicologist and teaches at Tulane and solves mysteries. He knows his blues music. My mom read the new Spenser, just because Ace wrote it.

  68. 68.

    Nellcote

    Mitt will only ask for one year with the provision that if they’re chosen that they do NOT release any more than that to the public.

  69. 69.

    Mnemosyne

    @rikyrah:

    I’m okay with “Blue’s Clues” being slow, because the whole point is that it’s a mystery show for 3-year-olds, so you have to go really slow and let them piece everything together.

    I like how they have the parts where the kids are supposed to shout their guesses to the screen and the host responds. But I have often been accused of being easily amused. :-)

  71. 71.

    mainmati

    On a rare vacation, when we get to go it is usually funky Chincoteague (just barely VA. eastern shore) next to the wild horses in the Assateague barrier island. The combination results in a marvelously complex ecosystem that is really wonderful. And is set in a 1950s style homey town setting. Also next to Wallops Island satellite tracking station, which is so very weird in this environment. Still the whole environment is very laid back and a real throwback to the early ’60s.

    Looal TV featured a lot of Romney ads that were whining in nature. I was surprised they weren’t more aggressive. About 4 whining “stop being mean to me” ads to 1 positive sounding Obama ad. I assume this area is bright red but it’s also very homespun and has a lot of former hippies, which Romney is most definitely not so while the vote will probably mostly align along racialist lines rather than on what’s rational for the local individual there maybe a lot less red than expected.

  73. 73.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @El Cid: Karl Pilkington. That reminds me, I think I’ve missed most of this season of “Idiot Abroad” Dang!

  74. 74.

    Mnemosyne

    @Peregrinus:

    One of the worst flights I ever had was on Delta, going from LA to Kauai (Hawaii). The lavatory AND the air conditioning were both broken but they used the plane anyway, which means we all got to sit on a sauna-hot airplane that smelled like disinfectant and shit for 5 endless hours.

    No more Delta. Ever.

  75. 75.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @suzanne: Toddler-safe sedatives? Benadryl saved us from an awful return plane flight from “the terror of seat 22E” on the way out.

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    @Yutsano:

    I would stay and banter, but we had to get up at 4:30 AM to catch our flight from O’Hare to LAX so I’m pretty much a zombie at the moment. I’m declaring Treat Time early tonight so I can give the cats their can of food and go the fuck to sleep.

    I am fully expecting that I will wake up at 2 AM with a cat on either side of my head staring at me to make sure it was really me and not a pod person who returned home after a week’s absence.

  77. 77.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:

    My brother and (ex-) sister in law found out the hard way that ADHD kids can have an anomolous reaction to Benadryl that makes them wired and cranky instead of sleepy.

    (Not that they knew at the time that my niece had ADHD, but once they found out, her weird Benadryl reaction made sense.)

  78. 78.

    sempronia

    hey, remember SteveM’s post some days ago about Joe Olivo? The guy who was interviewed by multiple TV/radio stations as America’s Small Business Owner, but who is also a member of the Koch/ALEC-funded National Federation of Independent Business? (https://balloon-juice.com/?s=olivo&x=0&y=0)

    I was listening to On The Media today, and they discussed the Joe Olivo, Printing Man story. Said they had received a bunch of letters about his ties and asked the NPR ombudsman about the integrity of NPR’s choice. The ombudsman gave some slippery answer about how Joe Olivo wasn’t really representing the NFIB but was giving his own opinion. So OTM’s next question was about journalistic laziness.

    So good job, juicers!

  79. 79.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @Mnemosyne: Well, ours was diagnosed years later as ADD, but it worked, at least for that flight.

    Perhaps the glass of wine is the way to go.

  80. 80.

    askew

    @22over7:

    I hated everything after season 4 when it originally aired. However, when I go back and do re-watches of the show now, I find myself loving season 6 from when Donna leaves the WH through season 7. I love the campaign storyline. I’d say season 7 matches the greatness of season 1-3.

  81. 81.

    Lojasmo

    Hanging in Duluth, mn at an old brewery turned hotel. Visited with family, two new nieces/nephews (squee!) and now just relaxing in bed (lojasmo+6)

    Nice view of lake superior from our room.

  82. 82.

    El Cid

    @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: I thought there were only 2 seasons of Idiot Abroad so far. Season 2 was a level beyond.

    If you’ve never listened to the original 3 podcasts of the Ricky Gervais show, kill anyone you need to get it. It’s an unexpected comedy masterpiece.

    The HBO show with the animated conversations recap the historic first episodes as well as continue the dialog, and the animation makes it all worth it.

    2nd season of Idiot Abroad highlight: Karl is given the choice of either standing on top an aerobatic bipline wing, or performing onstage with gay strippers at leather club. Guess which one he chooses.

  83. 83.

    TheOtherWA

    @Comrade Luke: So I actually did go to the party and had a nice time. No love connections, but it’s hard to expect those anymore. It’s 10pm here and I’m already home and in my comfy clothes. So not bad for a Sat night.

    It was good to surprise people and show up, since I hardly ever do. :)

    I’m a lot closer to Portland and good men are hard to find here, so yeah, I know what you’re saying.

  84. 84.

    Rich (In name only) in Reno

    @Alison: Yeah, me too. Timmy look great, but it was Hector Sanchez nite for better or worse.

    Torture; it’s Back.

  85. 85.

    suzanne

    Spawn The Elder is home. :)

    I forgot to tell you all about her birthday wish list. She handed me a handwritten list with five items on it. Two were books, one was a video game, one was a toy, and the last read, “Barok Obama to be prezadint agian.”

    I am very pleased with my Spawn the Elder.

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