Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

I really should read my own blog.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

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

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Battle won, war still ongoing.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

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

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

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

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Open Thread

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I really didn’t think my last post was that emo, but several of you have called me out. If I were to classify it, it would be disgusted.

If the “undecideds and independents” go for Romney, can we all conclude once and for all that undecided and independent voters have all the political acumen of Sarah Palin? At that poiint, we kind of deserve what we get when Bain Cap., Inc. rogers us all.

BTW- this is open thread number 1472. That’s a lot of insane/inane babble.

Reader Interactions

76Comments

  5. 5.

    Chris

    John, whether or not they go for Romney, indies and undecideds are still dumbass motherfuckers, possibly even dumber than conservatives.

  9. 9.

    DPS

    can we all conclude once and for all that undecided and independent voters have all the political acumen of Sarah Palin

    Was there ever any question about this?

  10. 10.

    Poopyman

    1472 was a very good year.

    For somebody, somewhere.

    Probably.

    But to get back on-topic in this Open Thread, I’m guessing we all get disgusted at times, and we all get afraid about the path our country can be going down, and sometimes it’s at the same time.

    I frankly find it hard to believe so many people will actually vote for Romney, but then I remember half the country is below-average intelligence, and a disturbing number of supposedly intelligent people aren’t paying attention to anything outside of their jobs, the Kardashians, and Monday Night Football.

  12. 12.

    FoxinSocks

    Hey John,

    I made this comment in the last thread but I think it got eaten by the comment monster. You should try volunteering. I don’t know where you are in WV but are you anywhere close to Ohio or Virginia? I know you’re a misanthrope, but have you considered whipping up some meals for hungry volunteers? We’re working longer and longer hours and right now, we’re pretty much surviving on the kindness of strangers who come in and bring us food.

    I would’ve passed out from starvation last night if it wasn’t for the kind lady who brought in pumpkin spice bagels. The phonebank before that, we devoured homemade samosas. Just something to consider, it’s a way to do something you’re really good at while helping the campaign.

  13. 13.

    TheMightyTrowel

    Been listening to too much Triple J lately – I play a game called ‘how many songs will i recognise in an hour of radio play’ – usually the answer is 1.

    Put some links to youtube in previous threads because i’ve got earworms like you wouldn’t believe but also because a lot of the Aussie music they’re playing is bubbly, happy and spring-time-y and totally what i needed after endless fricking debate threads.

    Dig into some Chance Waters, guys. you won’t regret it.

  14. 14.

    GregB

    It’s the mushy middle that gets roped into doing good or bad almost exclusively on the effectiveness of the media sales pitch.

    In 2000 many were swayed by GW’s compassionate conservative shtick.

    Then they were roped into and supported the Iraq invasion.

    Then they bought the line that George W. was the more honorable man in Vietnam when compared with Kerry.

    Then they finally saw the bullshit of the idea that privatizing Social Security was a good idea.

    Then they saw that they were being sold a bill of goods in Iraq and went and bailed.

    Then they went for President Obama.

    Then they bought the sales pitch that the Affordable Care Act was worse than Hitler.

    Then they bought the Tea-Party histrionics.

    Then they were leaning Obama and then they saw a debate wherein Romney acted like an alpha douche and were swayed again and will be getting swayed back after President Obama takes another shot at the MittBot 3000.

    “These are people of the land….the common clay of the new West. You know-morons.”

    -The Waco Kid

  15. 15.

    jrg

    At that poiint, we kind of deserve what we get when Bain Cap., Inc. rogers us all.

    It’s kind of like savages shitting in their own water supply, after being warned repeatedly not to.

    It’s not so much that I’d mind grannie McTeabagger and Joey McKnowNothing getting a bad case of political dysentery, more that they’re shitting in my water supply, too.

  16. 16.

    AkaDad

    Instead of focusing on Romney’s lies and the media failing to make his lies the story, let’s focus on Obama’s performance. This is a winning strategy.

  17. 17.

    Zaftig Amazon

    The only reason this election is close is that Obama is a Ni-Clang. This is also the last national election that Republicans can use race-baiting to win elections, and if they win, they want to make a lasting imprint, by repealing the New Deal. Virtually all of the Republican rank-and-filers I’ve spoken with do not believe that their Masters would do such a thing.

  18. 18.

    Keith

    Part of it for me is that your posts are just so bi-polar. Seems like half of them are depressing tomes on how the future looks bad, while the other half are long “fuck you, readers” posts that you spout off because you don’t like what someone said in the comments. Between JC, ABL, and Sully, I feel like a calm, well-adjusted, grounded individual (and I’m not)

  19. 19.

    RedKitten

    I don’t blame you for being disgusted and yes, scared. From the outside looking in, it’s just absolutely bewildering to realize that the race is even this close. It’s scary, because it really makes us realize just how fucking insane SO many people in your country truly are, that they would vote for a sociopathic, oily, FYIGM lizard like Romney.

  20. 20.

    YellowJournalism

    Both my folks are voting Obama and voting early. Sis and her husband are, too. I don’t know what my other family members are voting. It’s why I avoid talking to a lot of them.

  21. 21.

    Kadzimiel

    Your average independent is several Sullivans short of a Beltway in the information gathering and data processing departments. So it was, so it is, so it ever shall be until they develop sufficient intellectual curiosity to figure out why this fence thing is leaving such a marked imprint on their delicate behinds.

  22. 22.

    ericblair

    @PeakVT:

    Well, I’m emo, and it’s because Curiosity did not, in fact, discover a discarded Martian pull tab yesterday.

    I thought it was going to be election junk mail.

  23. 23.

    Gin & Tonic

    Since this is an open thread, does anyone know if the disk drive manufacturers in Thailand who were flooded out last year are all recovered?

  25. 25.

    PeakVT

    @DPS: If you go by how the media portrays independents, you’d think they’re all philosopher-wonks who go the extra mile and carefully consider every point each party’s platform. In reality, independents are the kind of people who are stumped by the question of paper or plastic.

  26. 26.

    burnspbesq

    @Kadzimiel:

    Your average independent is several Sullivans short of a Beltway

    Is that anything like being one taco short of a combo plate?

  27. 27.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    I just want to say how much I appreciate the NC Republican Party sending me a voting guide so I will know who to absolutely NOT vote for.

    Also, I think I put this on a dead thread earlier. At the last report, they were getting close to their goal:

    Donations accepted to pay vet bill for a kitten severely burned in a house fire. The family lost their dog in the fire. The kitten is recovering but will need to be hospitalized for most of the month of October.

  31. 31.

    Heliopause

    If the “undecideds and independents” go for Romney, can we all conclude once and for all that undecided and independent voters have all the political acumen of Sarah Palin?

    They went for Obama in ’08. So, what’s your conclusion?

  32. 32.

    muddy

    @PeakVT: I know a woman who basically votes by which one she’d be attracted to romantically. But then they tell her to vote for the other one at church. It’s so hard! She was fine for Bush though, he fit both criteria. Finally I understood her sad choice of husband.

  35. 35.

    raven

    @muddy: From the earlier Prine thread:

    I am an old woman named after my mother
    My old man is another child that’s grown old
    If dreams were lightning thunder was desire
    This old house would have burnt down a long time ago

  36. 36.

    Michael

    The media is already setting the stage for the Obama come back. Cnn.com has the headline “Biden v Ryan – VP Debate Could Shift Momentum.” In their main news column, they lead with “Will Romney’s debate bounce last?” and their third story is “5 Ways Obama could bounce back”. Then you have “Romney abortion comment draws fire” and “Rand Paul: Ryan errs on Mideast.”

    So when the bounce predictably fades, the media will have about 10 different story lines queued up to “explain” it – whichever fits best, wins!

  37. 37.

    eemom

    @raven:

    Love that song, and most especially Prine’s version of it on the album of all his oldies that he released in 2005 or so — after recovering from lung cancer surgery IIRC. Absolutely haunting.

  38. 38.

    DPirate

    If the “undecideds and independents” go for Romney

    I will conclude that people are sick of presidents who do not do anything they’ve promised to do and refuse to re-elect people who claim the right to summarily execute us.

  39. 39.

    SteveinSC

    Well, I will say to John Cole. It is true, you have changed tribes. You changed tribes when the scales fell from your eyes on Iraq. The tribe you are in now is the rest of us and like the lines Viggo Mortensen spoke in LOTR after Legolas lamented that the people in Helms Deep will not live out the night, “…then I will die with them!” Welcome to the Forlorn Hope.

  42. 42.

    Maude

    @PeakVT:
    6, yeah, they think she lost a tad of plastic. Poor Curiosity, no Martian to locate.

    @AkaDad:
    16, speaking of self defeat. What a strange week. All the media trying for that horse race and making it happen.
    No mention that we will all be peons if he wins.
    And, the media doesn’t like Obama because he has called them out on occasion.

  44. 44.

    KoolEarl

    The numbnuts who would probably vote for Obama if America had compulsory voting but mutter “they all suck” and/or are just too lazy to bother themselves tick me off more than than the malleble low-info goofs who do vote.

  45. 45.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @raven: Yah, I figured if nothing else the efforts being made for this family would restore a little faith in humanity.

  46. 46.

    Bill Arnold

    via boingboing, the Neiman Marcus $100000 chicken coop.
    ” Slipping on your wellies, you start for the coop and are greeted by the pleasant clucking of your specially chosen flock and the site of the poshest hen house ever imagined. … You’ve always fancied yourself a farmer—now thanks to Heritage Hen Farm, you’re doing it in the fanciest way possible!”

  48. 48.

    Corner Stone

    @DPirate:

    I will conclude that people are sick of presidents who do not do anything they’ve promised to do and refuse to re-elect people who claim the right to summarily execute us.

    I’m not quite sure I want to subscribe to your newsletter. Do you have a pamphlet, or maybe a sampler platter I could purchase until I know more?

  49. 49.

    Gin & Tonic

    @DPirate:

    I will conclude that people are sick of presidents who do not do anything they’ve promised to do and refuse to re-elect people who claim the right to summarily execute us.

    Damn, that’s just what I overheard in the checkout line at Tractor Supply yesterday.

  53. 53.

    raven

    @SteveinSC:

    Posted: Tuesday, August 30, 2011

    A well-known Oconee County restaurant owner apparently committed suicide in Athens today.

    Howard “Hot” Thomas, 76, died around 3 p.m. after he shot himself behind Tractor Supply Store on Lexington Road, police said.

  54. 54.

    Joel

    Here’s the thing John, your thoughts have a multiplier effect, and despairing doesn’t help anybody. So don’t do it. Use some of that stoicism the army taught you.

  55. 55.

    Drew

    Shit if Romney wins I will pity everyone except those who voted for him (or who voluntarily abstained from voting in a swing state). I wish he could just govern the red states he wins, and if Florida goes red I will gladly move to a blue Obama governed state.

    What I’m saying is, the Bush years made me lose all pity I had for lower middle class and working class Republicans voting against their interests. If it hasn’t sunk in by now, fuck em. Can’t be saved.

  59. 59.

    Drew

    @Chris: I actually just realized that my Florida voter card says “No Party Affiliation.” I’ve considered myself a Democrat for several years-in my case it’s laziness/apathy. I care enough to vote, just not enough to care what my registered affiliation is.

  60. 60.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Steeplejack: That’s actually funny. Are we sure that was SNL?

    “What are the names of the two people running? And, be specific.”

    That’s the impression I have so often when seeing one of them interviewed, as if they’ve learned how to imitate “people asking probing, demanding questions” but only in the style, the actual question is moronic.

    I got the same “here’s how big people talk all serious on the phone” impression every time Sarah Palin spoke.

  61. 61.

    Anatoliĭ Lъudьvigovich Bzyp (Mumphrey, et al.)

    I don’t think that what Señor Cole wrote was at all over the top. It’s the only reasonable reaction to watching almost half the country working to flush us all down the toilet.

    @jrg:

    It’s like savages shitting in their own wells, and then, when the ones who know what they’re talking about warn them to stop, the savages call them nazis and communists.

  62. 62.

    Elizabelle

    From a friend, mother of an extremely bright 6th grade girl:

    Laura this morning, listening to the radio, Morning Edition, presumably:

    “Mom! Is NPR just for Republicans?”

  63. 63.

    Anatoliĭ Lъudьvigovich Bzyp (Mumphrey, et al.)

    @Steeplejack:

    Whenever I think of undecided voters, I think of a story I read about them in 2004. The guy who spoke to a lot of them came away amazed at how clueless and dumb most of them seemed to be. The epitome was the woman who was unhappy that Howard Dean hadn’t won the Democratic nomination, and so, logically enough, since she couldn’t vote for Dean in November, she was going to vote for Bush. There’s no way to work out how she came up with that plan…

  64. 64.

    Lavocat

    You’ve got to admit that it’s pretty fucking laughable that this election is as close as it is.

    Obama should be blowing Rmoney out of the fucking water.

    And yet he is not.

    Why is that, ya think?

    Could it be because Obama betrayed his base?

    Yeah, I think so.

    Sully has every reason in the world to be worried.

    Vote Jill Stein 2012!

  65. 65.

    hester

    If Romney wins, he will govern from the center, just as Obama has done. All of these doom and gloom rants are silly.

  70. 70.

    Kadzimiel

    @Lavocat:

    Waste your vote if you wish, but don’t tell us that Obama betrayed his base. He’s done more to advance a liberal/progressive agenda – in the face of militant obstructionism and chronic stupidity – than any president since LBJ.

  71. 71.

    SFAW

    @Kadzimiel:

    Waste your vote if you wish,

    I think your logic is faulty – it’s only a “waste” if one assumes that Lavocat (what, ANOTHER lawyer here?) DOESN’T want a right-wing agenda enacted.

    But since a vote for Jill Stein is, in effect, a vote for Rmoney, one can assume he’s all for Wingnuts’R’Us.

    Have you already forgotten the truism of 2000 – that both candidates and parties are the same?

    ETA: If only the purity trolls here reacted to sunlight the way Tolkien’s did, this blog’s PIQ would bump up about 15 points.

  72. 72.

    Ellyn

    A lot of things bother me about this country but one of the most depressing, disgusting things in the US is the corporate media. Mitt Romney would not be able to lie to millions of people during a televised debate and then walk back a few of his lies per day if the media were not totally fucked up. And the thing that really pisses me off is that it’s a smart campaign policy because he can actually use the devolved state of the media to target specific groups of potential voters. It really, really sucks.

  75. 75.

    Kane

    If President Obama were to lose in November, the cynical political strategy of Congressional obstruction and the purposeful destruction of the economy designed around the sinister notion of making a democratically elected president of the United States a one-term president will be deemed a brilliant success, and the strategy will certainly become the new normal in American politics.

    If President Obama were to lose, voters will have essentially rewarded Republicans for their misdeeds and condoned this form of Congressional politics in the future. It would also mean that voters have given their seal of approval for future presidential candidates to follow the new path paved by Mitt Romney; a path of pathological lies, a refusal to share tax records, a resistance to openess and an Etch-a-Sketch strategy where a candidate need not have a core set of principles or stand for anything.

    And if President Obama were to lose in November, for the remainder of your life, republicans will beat you over the head with his name like they do now with the name of Jimmy Carter. They will mock Obama mercilessly and belittle the historic campaign of Change you can believe in, and all that we accomplished.

  76. 76.

    pattonbt

    @hester: Ha ha ha ha ha. That is funny. I think you forgot your sarcasm tag.

    Romney doesnt lead at all, he gets lead. He stands for nothing. So you look at who he surrounds himself with. And guess what, the R’s in the house and senate are the furthest and craziest I have seen in my lifetime, and his “inner circle” is the horrible Bush rejects.

    So Romney may believe he’s all centrist and shit on the inside. But he just wants the title, he doesnt want the work. He’ll get lead by the worst of the worst and he wont do anything to corral them.

    At least Cheney was in control of things. Imagine a Bush administration without any control. Thats what you get with Romney.

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