Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

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

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

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

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

The words do not have to be perfect.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Republicans do not trust women.

Books are my comfort food!

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

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

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

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Reader Interactions

72Comments

  1. 1.

    El Cid

    Nothing like the classic Pink Floyd movies of the ’40s, with all the suspense and the snappy dialogue.

  4. 4.

    foodriots

    That’s exactly the sort of comment one would expect from someone living life as an observer from a computer screen reading Rolling Stone and actually believing it when they write a story that global food riots are just around the corner.

    In other words, get a life.

  7. 7.

    pseudonymous in nc

    “Bonkers” seems to have been the preferred term. I liked Marina Hyde’s tweet: “I can’t believe this country is allowed nuclear weapons.”

  8. 8.

    Lavocat

    McCartney was as cringeworthy as ever. And he looked like shit. Good christ!

    Four words: Best. Lighting. Ceremony. Evah!

    Only thing missing was a giant inflatable pig floating over the stadium.

  10. 10.

    Tom The First

    Well, I fell asleep and woke up right when they lit the torch… my sleep-endured reverie only enhanced what was a somewhat surreal moment. Thought it was awesome.

  12. 12.

    Tsukune

    They showed the inflatable pig floating in the sky during the pre-ceremony bit where they went down the Thames.

  13. 13.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    @Lavocat: There was an inflatable pink pig floating above the city in the opening montage. And McCartney sounded like shite.

  14. 14.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    How come we’re not seeing any criticism or advertising about Romney raising money in foreign capitals?

    I’m surprised that’s even legal — if it is — but whatever it’s legality, can you imagine what the outcry would be if a Democratic Presidential candidate were raising money outside of the country?

    Why aren’t we attacking Mitt on this?

    .

  22. 22.

    Ash Can

    Oh, fuck y’all, I had fun watching this silly, pretty pageantry. Some of those national costumes were really lovely. And the queen and her corgis are just too cute for words.

    Ash Can + a few beers and a shot of — what else? — gin.

  23. 23.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @JGabriel: They aready attacked PBO for attending a fundraiser in Paris that he didn’t attend.

    ETA: Not the one in 2008, earlier this month.

  25. 25.

    JGabriel

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    As long as the donors are US citizens, it is perfectly legal.

    The optics still suck. Romney parties with rich donors in Europe while Americans suffer at home?

    I mean, seriously, that’s a bullseye as big as a continent.

    .

  28. 28.

    JGabriel

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    They aready attacked PBO for attending a fundraiser in Paris that he didn’t attend.

    So we have truth on our side and the GOP doesn’t. Where’s the downside?

    .

  29. 29.

    namekarB

    @NotMax:

    Couldn’t get the rights to “Money?”

    That would have made a lot of heads explode. Thanks for the vision.

  34. 34.

    eco2geek

    What genius at NBC thought letting Ryan effing Seacrest do interviews was a good idea? Instead of Sports Illustrated, we get the National Enquirer.

    It warmed my cold, cynical heart just a tiny bit that they actually gave a shout out to both kid’s lit and the National Health Service.

    Having Lauer and Vieira there to explain things was actually good, I thought.

  35. 35.

    Lavocat

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: OMFG. I was JOKING! You’re SERIOUS!? I obviously missed that. Not that I wouldn’t have enjoyed it. Still, a bit heavy on the Floyd, one would think.

    Did I also miss some massive wall being broken down on stage?

    Just a tad derivative, if you ask me.

  36. 36.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JGabriel:

    The optics still suck. Romney parties with rich donors in Europe while Americans suffer at home?

    that’s the meat of it, Romney isn’t hosting students, teachers, spouses of foreign nationals… I’m sure there are a couple of dozen reasons US voters live abroad for months or years that I’m not thinking of. Romney is meeting with the Fabulous Fabs and their ilk. IIRC, the US citizen head of Barclays who quickly resigned when the LIBOR manipulations became public was one of the named hosts of that fund-raiser.

  39. 39.

    Don K

    Well, I haven’t watched an opening or closing ceremony in a while, and downhill skiing, ski jumping, luge, and bobsled are more my style for spectator sports, but still, playing Eclipse shows someone in the programming department of the organizing committee either has one hell of a sense of humor or doesn’t have a fucking clue.

  42. 42.

    The Dangerman

    @eco2geek:

    What genius at NBC thought letting Ryan effing Seacrest do interviews was a good idea?

    Another indeed; did he have to tell the little gymnasts that Justin Bieber was sending them his package?

  43. 43.

    Thomas DeVito

    I loved the festivities, personally. Then again, I’m an admitted anglophile, and would probably love whatever they put on.

  44. 44.

    satanicpanic

    Found Paul Mccartney singing Hey Jude on Youtube- ouch. It must suck to reach the age when you can’t sing your own song well anymore.

  45. 45.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @HelpThe99ers:

    One shot. A long, slow, beautiful arc.

    That missed, but looked good.

    NBC cut out the ‘Abide With Me’ memorial interlude and showed a Seacrest interview with Michael Phelps instead. That’s the ‘context’ that they didn’t want to deprive viewers of in a live broadcast.

  50. 50.

    scav

    @pseudonymous in nc: . . . I liked Marina Hyde’s tweet: “I can’t believe this country is allowed nuclear weapons.”

    hhhmmmm. Country that pairs Simon Rattle with Mr. Bean, sets off a bunch of fireworks and seems to indulge in synchronized bed jumping about nationalized Sozialized! medicine or a set of people that can’t distinguish Faux from a news station … who do I send the nuclear codes to . . .

  52. 52.

    dead existentialist

    OMG! The stadium lights look like the top of the pyramid with the eye in it on the back of a dollar bill so that must mean the Illuminati are up to something or something-something. Here’s the youtube video that I watched for about one of the 14 minutes it runs.

    Let me know what happens.

    Plus, also, too, I hate NBC with the heat of a thousand suns for their horseshit coverage. Seriously, how can you fuck up the Olympics? And yet they do it over and over again. Grrrrr.

  54. 54.

    Jon H

    Nerdsquee: Tim Berners Lee in the ceremony, at a desk in front of a NeXT Cube, NeXT monitor, and NeXT keyboard and mouse.

    (Although I think the monitor was modified to house a light. It was glowing bright yellow, while a real one would be a more muted blue, being a monochrome monitor.)

  55. 55.

    Dexter's new approach

    I thought the 1st hour or so was pretty awful. Like a small art play theme on a huge stage. Or the film Synecdoche, New York. Or a Plink Floyd show gone wrong. I mean how many outside the UK got half the stuff? Well executed though. The 2nd half was very cool.

    I suggested at the end that they should go with Young Lust, but seconds later it was a song from Dark of the Moon. So Close.

  58. 58.

    vera lynn

    Being a huge Floyd fan, my favorite was the pig flying over Battersea at the beginning with Breathe (Reprise) playing. But I did love Eclipse too :)

  59. 59.

    Anniecat45

    Having the young athletes light the torch was awesome, and so was having some of the construction workers participate in the ceremony.

  60. 60.

    Nellcote

    It needed Hobbits but otherwise and aside from Paul go away Mcartney it was fun and colorful. Oh yeah nbc commentary really really sucks and I’m reminded every couple of years why it so difficult to watch the Olympics.

  62. 62.

    Tehanu

    @eco2geek:

    It warmed my cold, cynical heart just a tiny bit that they actually gave a shout out to both kid’s lit and the National Health Service.

    Mine too, not to mention the Industrial Revolution shown as workers instead of Captains of Industry, and the suffragettes. And the choir of both deaf and hearing children. And Tim Berners-Lee, for chrissake, and Rowan Atkinson! As a whole it was sorta clunky but who cares? All the pieces were terrific.

  63. 63.

    arguingwithsignposts

    I know nobody will probably read this comment, but after watching the ceremony with all its quirky british sensibilities, I am sooooo freakin’ glad Chicago didn’t win 2016. Could you imagine the America, Fuck Yeah opening ceremony for that one?

  64. 64.

    AnotherBruce

    If only Bob Costas could shut the fuck up and quit telling me what I’m seeing, for just one minute. I mean, why should some overpaid shitstick with a sickly studio tan have to filter the Olympics for me?

  65. 65.

    mai naem

    I Tivo’d it and watched the whole damn thing. I thought it was pretty good. This is the first opening ceremony where I’ve watched the entire thing in a long long time. I didn’t think they covered New Wave/Punk/Ska enough. That was pretty damn big in the UK in the late 70s/early 80s with a ton of Brit artists…. No English Beat/Depeche Mode/Ultravox/Buzzcocks/OMD/Gary Numan/Adam Ant? I was surprised they didn’t stick a little Abba in the 70s piece. They had some non-English stuff in there so that shouldn’t have been a problem and Abba was huge in the UK in the 70s/80s.

  67. 67.

    Wag

    @mai naem:

    I think they did cover that, but NBC cut away to an ad. I distinctly heard the opening chords of “Pretty Vacant” as they cut to an ad, and they were into later new wave (New Order) when NBC returned.

  70. 70.

    SRW1

    Anybody care to explain to a twitterphobe what the square root thingy in the retweet might mean?

  71. 71.

    MikeF

    @Dexter’s new approach:

    I thought the 1st hour or so was pretty awful. Like a small art play theme on a huge stage. Or the film Synecdoche, New York. Or a Plink Floyd show gone wrong.

    I liked it. A bit hit-and-miss, but for me at least, quirky and surprising is more fun to watch than sterile spectacle.

Comments are closed.