Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

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

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Books are my comfort food!

The willow is too close to the house.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

I really should read my own blog.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Republicans do not trust women.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

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

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

No one could have predicted…

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Evening Open Thread: Searching for A New Scapegoat Paradigm

Friday Evening Open Thread: Searching for A New Scapegoat Paradigm

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(via Josh Marshall at TPM)
__
Interesting that the Heritage Foundation has found a younger, blurrier Blue-Eyed Paul Ryan imitator to narrate their Red Dawn: Obama reboot trailer.

What is best in life?… I figure we have until next Tuesday (Monday being a federal holiday) to indulge our tribalist schadenfreude before turning back to the serious, constructive work of governmentalizing (not that Politico isn’t eager to move on to 2016!). Also from Politico:

Senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said on Thursday that besides the president’s reelection, the other good news from 2012 is the failure of conservative super PACs.

“If I were one of those billionaires [who donated to them] …I’d be wanting to talk to someone and asking where my refund is, because they didn’t get much for their money,” he said on a conference call with reporters, noting that Democrats gained seats in the Senate and the House as well as the presidency. “Just looking at the results, the heartening news is that you can’t buy the White house, you can’t overwhelm the Congress with these super PAC dollars.”

He singled out Karl Rove and the Crossroads groups…

Alex Pareene at Salon discusses what happens after “Fox discovers constant lying isn’t consistently effective electoral strategy”

… Fox knows that the sort of people who clog its airwaves on normal, regularly scheduled programming days — and especially prime time — are liars, phonies, wackos and con men. It knows it’s constantly lying to its audience. In the Bush era this was fine for morale. In the first years of Obama’s term it was good for midterm election turnout. But it’s apparent that it’s clearly bad for the movement in the long term. Counting midterms, the parallel conservative media has now utterly failed to grasp the reality of the American electorate in three of the last four national elections. (And for the record, their counterparts on the left did not spend 2010 furiously pretending that everything would turn out great for the Democratic Party.)

Roger Ailes is as paranoid, hysterical and deluded as Jack Welch, but he does grasp that this is unsustainable. He fired Glenn Beck and replaced him with a dumb panel show because he knew Beck was going too far to be useful. “The Nightly Apocalyptic Death Cult Report” is decent for ratings and great for buzz but it doesn’t help Republicans win elections, or at least doesn’t help them remain able to win many elections in the long term…

*********
Apart from the lamentations of our enemies, what’s on the agenda for the start of the weekend?

Reader Interactions

178Comments

  1. 1.

    Yutsano

    I’m starting the groundwork for another major surgery next year. Sharing a disease with Bo Jackson isn’t nearly as much fun as the brochure said.

  2. 2.

    Robin G.

    Reihan Salam is on Bill Moyars right now and Bob Herbert is about to beat the shit out of him. Douche tried to claim there was no voter suppression. Bob told him that kind of talk ain’t gonna help him much with the Not Whites (I’m paraphrasing).

    Edit: They also discussed this video. Salam said it’s just because Republicans Haz a Sad, just like the Dems in 2004, who totes did shit like this too. Herbert’s eyes almost popped out of his head as he rolled them.

  4. 4.

    Pope Ratzy

    Start a new meme:
    Karl Rove is to politics what…

    Karl Rove is to politics what Super Dave Osborne is to stunts.
    Karl Rove is to politics what Shecky Greene is to comedy.
    …

  5. 5.

    BGinCHI

    The other point to be made about the GOP is that the party chair, Reince Priebus, is a straight college Republican, which means he has no desire to do anything that takes reality into account.

    So the party will stubbornly try to prove it made no mistakes.

    And those who do not learn about history, especially very recent, just-happened history, are doomed.

  6. 6.

    mai naem

    If I was an evil Karl Rove type and I was Jim Messina’s deputy’s deputy’s deputy I would get present myself to the billionaires and tell them I will give them all the secrets of the Obama 2012 campaign and take them for a very long ride. And, of course, pull a Bain consultant game and sell them a load of crap.

  8. 8.

    BruceFromOhio

    Roger Ailes is as paranoid, hysterical and deluded as Jack Welch, but he does grasp that this is unsustainable.

    Does he? How can anyone be certain? If you are hitting your monthly ad sales quota, and the ratings are good, why change anything? Grifters gotta grift, its the money now that counts the most in the bank account.

    Let these fuckers implode while bloodying each other. The sooner America is rid of this filth the better.

  9. 9.

    Villago Delenda Est

    You know, it would not surprise me, in the least, to learn sometime in the next month that Karl Rove’s body has been found in a back alley someplace with a gunshot to the head.

    He’s pissed off some seriously assholish types, separating them from a substantial pile of their money. They are not happy.

  13. 13.

    aimai

    Yeah, the name “Reince Priebus” was shockingly missing from every postmortem interview I’ve seen. Its like he and Ryan vanished from the face of the earth.

    aimai

  15. 15.

    jwb

    @You Know Who: You want to play chicken: we’ll take that deal of no deal. Tax rates go up on 1 January and Obama controls the levers of the government. If need be, debt ceiling can be solved by minting large denomination platinum coins. Obama holds all the cards. HA HA HA HA HA. UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH. HA HA HA HA HA.

  22. 22.

    Robin G.

    Fallows is on now and ripping into Peggy Noonan. “She and the right wing said that Real America would come out. Real America did. It just wasn’t the Real America they thought it was.”

  24. 24.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Yutsano: Sorry about the disease, shared or otherwise. I looked up Bo Jackson, and it doesn’t sound fun at all. Wishing you well for the mildest of diagnoses, the kindest of treatments, and the speediest of recoveries.

  25. 25.

    Liberty60

    @You Know Who: The new strategy for the GOP Dems?

    JUST SAY NO DEAL. No deal on the fiscal cliff. No deal on the debt ceiling. No deal on the debt ceiling. No deal on entitlements. JUST SAY “NO DEAL” to Barack ObamaGOP. Ever. That’s the new mantra of the White House.

    Works for me.

  26. 26.

    jl

    @Yutsano:

    Good luck. I did not know about ‘Bo Jackson’ disease. From Wiki, looks like you mean avascular necrosis? You need a hip replacement? Good luck, Yutsano.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    Who’s paying the troll? Didn’t our billionaire friends learn any lessons about throwing their money away?

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Does anybody know yet who the guests are going to be on the Sunday talk shows? I almost never watch, but if the wingnut tears are still flowing, I might make an exception this weekend.

  31. 31.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Apart from the lamentations of our enemies, what’s on the agenda for the start of the weekend?

    Well, our enemies lamentations have turned into the sure-fire, can’t fail, only be failed strategy of GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN to get their way, sort of like a 3 year old throwing a conniption.

    Barack Obama…the adult in the room, has to deal with the whining babies of the GOP demanding cheese to go with their whine.

    GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN will work with the same roaring success that UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH worked on Tuesday.

    The Schadenfreude. We’re soaking in it!

  32. 32.

    jl

    Thanks for commercial. Saw that on TPM, but did not feel like clicking. But if BJ blog says so, I watch dammit.

    Funny ad.

    Looks like Heritage whackaPac is going to run Reagan on 2016. That will be cool. Might do better than R_mn_y.

    Heritage foundation puts the ‘tank’ in ‘think’, that’s for sure.

  33. 33.

    redshirt

    @Villago Delenda Est: I was a DJ in college. My show’s name was “Madge, the Omniscient Beautician”, with the tag line of “You’re soaking in it.” I spun crazy tracks and answered stupid phone calls from listeners for advice. It was a blast.

    O! To be a DJ in College again….

  35. 35.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Does anybody know yet who the guests are going to be on the Sunday talk shows? I almost never watch, but if the wingnut tears are still flowing, I might make an exception this weekend.

    I’ll go with John McCain.

  36. 36.

    Mnemosyne

    @You Know Who:

    That’s the new same old, same old mantra of the House GOP

    Fix’d. You appear not to have been paying attention to what your party’s been doing since November of 2010. Coma or Memento-like amnesia problem?

    Because, really, with the House controlled by the Republicans and the Senate Republicans blocking everything, what incentive does Obama have to keep you guys from shooting yourselves in the foot? Taxes go up with Republicans in control of the House and Obama not having to worry about re-election? Oh, no, don’t throw me in that briar patch!

  37. 37.

    jwb

    @You Know Who: Minting trillion dollar coins would cause no more inflation now than what we already have, and you may notice we haven’t had much real inflation in years. If it did produce some inflation, that would actually be good. But unfortunately it wouldn’t because the government would actually be cutting spending and taxes would be going up due to the no deal. All minting the coins would do is prevent default and make the debt ceiling irrelevant. In reality it is simply an internal transfer from Treasury to Fed, and it would have no tangible effect so long as it was used as part of a normal increase to the debt ceiling. The House GOP is toast. HA HA HA HA HA.

  39. 39.

    Mike E

    Miss E is marching with her HS JROTC color guard in our Veterans Day parade, here in Mayberry. I just wish I had some huge satin Obama jacket to wear in the viewing gallery. USA!

  40. 40.

    Baud

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    ABC’s “This Week” — Sens. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Patty Murray, D-Wash.; Reps. Donna Edwards, D-Md., and Aaron Schock, R-Ill.

    ___

    NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla.; Rep.-elect Joaquin Castro, D-Texas.

    ___

    CBS’ “Face the Nation” — David Axelrod, adviser to President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign; Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

    ___

    CNN’s “State of the Union” — Gov. Jerry Brown, D-Calif.; former Gov. Jon Huntsman, R-Utah; former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez; Gary Bauer, president of American Values.

    ___

    “Fox News Sunday” — Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Reps. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Tom Price, R-Ga.

  42. 42.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    Did Rove say why they called their group Crossroads? I always figured it was because that’s where you go to sell your soul to the Devil.

  43. 43.

    Mnemosyne

    @jwb:

    You have to admit, if there’s one thing Republicans are good at, it’s doubling down on the strategy that didn’t work the last three times they tried it, and then stumbling around saying, “Wha’ happen?” when it fails again.

  45. 45.

    El Cid

    You mean the same Heritage Foundation that helped write and pass Ronald Reagan’s 1986 expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit which exempted lower income workers from having to pay any income tax?

    You mean, those pro-moocher soshullists of the 47%?

  46. 46.

    Democrat Partisan Asshole

    Funny thing about the idiot’s threatened government shutdown – that only happens if the government hits the debt ceiling and the ceiling is not extended. If everything stays as is, that happens in March.

    If “fiscal cliff” happens, the massive amount of new taxes flowing in, combined with the 10% across the board cutbacks, means that we’ll never hit the debt ceiling. The government can then just keep operating on continuing resolutions – 51 Senate votes – with no input from the House at all.

    Better news? According to the CBO, the economic contraction only lasts for one year, and then unemployment goes right down again.

    Your move, GOP. I’ll take the fiscal cliff any day. We have nothing to lose. The GOP has everything to lose.

  47. 47.

    some guy

    Did everyone catch the troll epic fail thread over at LGM?

    SEK documented the list of stupidity you know who spewed over there the weeks before the election. Too funny.

  49. 49.

    dmsilev

    @Villago Delenda Est: Sheldon Adelson for one. Billionaire c*sino owner who is strongly suspected of paying off Chinese mafia types so he can operate in Macao. Yeah, he probably knows a guy who knows a guy who can take care of …problems.

  50. 50.

    Baud

    @Democrat Partisan Asshole:

    The government can then just keep operating on continuing resolutions – 51 Senate votes – with no input from the House at all.

    Continuing resolutions require the House, just like any legislation.

  52. 52.

    The Dangerman

    Scapegoat, thy name is Mike Brown, formerly Coach of the Lakers. I almost feel for the Dude. I figured he’d be fired by Christmas and maybe even by Thanksgiving; shit, he didn’t make it much beyond Halloween…

    …but, shit, he didn’t sign a bench with nothing but stiffs and a backup (now starting) PG that is the stiffest of stiffs. Really rather remarkable for a franchise such as the Lakers to look so much like the old Clippers (who now look like the Lakers).

  56. 56.

    Yutsano

    @SiubhanDuinne: @jl: I’m still talking to the docs, but I’m hoping we can avoid a full replacement and just do a hip resurfacing. It’s still up in the air. It’s funny because the back is much better but the hips started hurting worse. Ggrrr aargh.

  58. 58.

    Scamp Dog

    I’ll be at the Thornton, CO OfA office tomorrow. We’re having a potluck for the volunteers (I’m one of them) to celebrate, and (I hope) make some plans and contacts for the 2014 election. I don’t want the disloyal opposition making any headway like they did in 2010.

  60. 60.

    jl

    @Yutsano: I will hope for hip resurfacing. That sounds more like a home improvement project and no big deal, and that is my attempt at :) in a bad situation.

    At any rate, good luck and keep us posted.

  63. 63.

    Gus

    I’ve been surfing the web for schadenfreude opportunities. For the first time in years, I’ve been to RedState. It’s still really stupid out there. For people who call themselves “Constitutional conservatives” these people have no idea how our system of government or Constitution work.

  66. 66.

    Roger Moore

    @Gus:

    For people who call themselves “Constitutional conservatives” these people have no idea how our system of government or Constitution work.

    Sounds like fundamentalists of any stripe.

  67. 67.

    Schlemizel

    Whats the deal with the “Obama phone” The wingnuts are blathering about? Usually I know the moran memes but this is a brand new one to me but it being passed around a lot

  68. 68.

    Yutsano

    @jl: I’m a good candidate for it. Most of the bone is intact so there will be a secure anchor should they decide to just root me out and refill it. They won’t know for sure until they check in there with a few MRIs. I usually sleep through those anyway.

  69. 69.

    Roger Moore

    @Robin G.:

    As we learned Tuesday, billions cannot buy you the tears of thine enemies.

    Sure they can. The billionaires just forgot to check the fine print to see that they were buying tears of joy and mirth rather than tears of sorrow. The big print giveth, and the small print taketh away.

  71. 71.

    Joseph Nobles

    @Schlemizel: Longtime phone assistance program for the needy. It was expanded to cellphones, I believe under Bush. Someone was taped saying she got her Obama phone, and a meme was born.

  72. 72.

    Mnemosyne

    @Schlemizel:

    Short version: the Obama administration continued an anti-poverty initiative started under Bush II that helps subsidize cell phones for people at or under the poverty line. IOW, cell phones are now being treated like landlines have been treated for years and people under X amount of income are eligible for government subsidies.

    If the wingnuts you know are Shocked! and Horrified! at this, ask them if they were equally as upset that the government subsidized people’s landline phone service for 40 years, or if they’re upset that the government gives people money to keep the heat on.

    Or you can just point and laugh at them for being Olds who don’t realize that nobody has a landline anymore. Hell, my 65-year-old boss has given up her landline and gone cell-only. How behind the times are they to only find out now that cell phones replaced landlines, like, 5 years ago?

    (Edited for clarity.)

  73. 73.

    Suffern ACE

    Hmmm. I’m thinking I can stay solvent longer than the GOP can stay crazy. But I’m not a banker.

  75. 75.

    jl

    @Yutsano: Don’t feel you have to answer if too personal, but do they know what is causing it? The list of possible causes in the Wiki article was long.

  76. 76.

    Baud

    @Mnemosyne:

    The government spends billions of dollars making phone and broadband service affordable to people in rural (i.e., Republican) areas, which we all pay for as part of our phone bills.

  78. 78.

    Anne Laurie

    @Yutsano: Owwwwwwww! (mild one-sided congenital displasia, here, so I have a shadow of an inkling of the universal impossibility of finding a comfortable position when the hip joint is hurting). If it helps any, a dear friend had his hip replaced at not-quite-AARP age, and he said that even right after surgery, having the non-stop unrelenting low-level ‘discomfort’ replaced by a more insistent pain for which they gave him morphine was an improvement!

  80. 80.

    Mnemosyne

    @Baud:

    The government spends billions of dollars making phone and broadband service affordable to people in rural (i.e., Republican) areas, which we all pay for as part of our phone bills.

    Yes, but that’s Natural and As Life Should Be. It’s only when that same money goes towards a cell phone for someone who, shall we say, lives in an urban area that it becomes an outrage.

  81. 81.

    GregB

    @Schlemizel:

    There was a video posted, I think it was pimped by known race-baiter Matt Drudge wherein a poor black woman talks about her government supplied phone and calls it an Obamaphone.

    Nutpicking of poor and uneducated folks for race based ridicule.

  82. 82.

    Roger Moore

    @Baud:
    But those people deserve phones because they’re self-reliant, frontier types who do everything for themselves and lift themselves up by their bootstraps. They’re not moochers like the urban working poor.

  83. 83.

    Yutsano

    @jl: Same as with Bo: steroids. Mine were legal and clinical though. When I had pneumonia I lost a ton of weight. They tried to get some back on me. It worked, but it had consequences.

  85. 85.

    Democrat Partisan Asshole

    Looks like YKW was nuked by the powers that be.

    @jwb: He’s gonna learn one day not to post on AL’s threads. Unlike the other front pagers, she has no compunction about banning his ass on sight.

  86. 86.

    reality-based

    @jwb:

    which sucks, cuz I was looking forward to pounding the troll, but I don’t know what he/she/it/ said, so have no starting point for my vituperation.

  92. 92.

    DPS

    Since I don’t currently have a biographer, I thought I might turn in early and work on my autobiography.

  94. 94.

    jwb

    @reality-based: While he was around, he was just repeating the mantra of NO DEAL. He seemed rather disappointed that no one here seemed alarmed by the prospect of no deal. It was very sad. He so lives to piss us off.

  97. 97.

    jl

    @Yutsano:

    ” Same as with Bo: steroids. Mine were legal and clinical though. When I had pneumonia I lost a ton of weight. They tried to get some back on me. It worked, but it had consequences. ”

    thanks. I did not know Bo used steroids, but I probably should have guessed.

    Glad to hear that they know the cause, and you only needed steroids for a specific time for a specific purpose.

    I will hope for a just a little resurfacing.

  99. 99.

    Felonius Monk

    Here’s a little tidbit from our “friends” down in the great state of Texas:

    A Republican official in Texas called for his state to separate from the United States and the “maggots” who reelected President Barack Obama in a newsletter he sent out this week.

    via TPM

    Here’s an appropriate response: My Texas Anthem

    (No offense intended to our real Texas friends)

  102. 102.

    Kremer

    I’ve always wondered how much Ailes ‘controls’ Hannity’s producer, and thus Hannity himself?

    (Talking heads, no matter how “important”, can’t do shit without their producer’s approval and message/program control.)

  104. 104.

    West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)

    @Yutsano: Best wishes for a successful procedure and full recovery. I know my cyber-sympathy ain’t worth much, but it’s genuine.

    This weekend, I’ll be grading essays, watching Dr. Who on Netflix, and attempting to push forward a couple creative writing projects.

  106. 106.

    The Moar You Know

    How behind the times are they to only find out now that cell phones replaced landlines, like, 5 years ago?

    @Mnemosyne: We got a good reminder of the value of a landline when last summer here in San Diego the power went out countywide for about 16 hours.

    Turns out there’s a federal requirement for landline service to have backup power. When I went through the Loma Prieta quake in 1989, the phones never stopped working. Nothing else did, but if we needed help we could call for it.

    Turns out no such backup requirement exists for cell service. If someone on the block had a medical emergency, the only option would have been to load ’em in the car and pray they didn’t die on the way to the hospital, because we couldn’t have called the ambulance station that’s only a mile from our house. Nobody on the block has a landline anymore.

    The wife and I went round about it, but we’re getting landline service in the new year. And a generator.

  107. 107.

    Mnemosyne

    @The Moar You Know:

    We live just north of downtown Los Angeles and we both lived in the LA area in January of 1994. We will never, ever give up our landline.

    G talks about it occasionally because it is stupidly expensive compared to cell service, but I am unwilling to take the risk.

  108. 108.

    The Moar You Know

    You know, it would not surprise me, in the least, to learn sometime in the next month that Karl Rove’s body has been found in a back alley someplace with a gunshot to the head.
    __
    He’s pissed off some seriously assholish types, separating them from a substantial pile of their money. They are not happy.

    @Villago Delenda Est: Adelson got taken, by my crude count, for a minimum of 50 million dollars. He runs gambling establishments in Singapore and Macao. Does anyone think he’s not involved up to his eyeballs with the triads?

    I wouldn’t buy a candy bar for that guy without coming back with exact change and a signed receipt. Rove must have a fucking death wish.

  109. 109.

    Roger Moore

    @Suffern ACE:

    Finally they notice Asians dont vote for them either.

    Well, Asian Americans are both growing (ETA: as a share of the population) and rapidly turning away from the Republicans, which tends to attract attention. The last presidential election they favored Democrats, but by a small enough margin that the Republicans could plausibly believe they could still be won over. This election, they were stronger partisans for the Democrats than Hispanics. That’s going to leave a mark.

  111. 111.

    hamletta

    @The Moar You Know: @Mnemosyne: After the ’98 tornado, I was the only one on the block with phone service, because my line came in from the alley instead of the street.

    I will never give up my old-school landline. Nor my old-school handsets, even though I use a powered phone for everyday stuff.

    My mom has the triple play from a famous cable operator, and her landline went out, even though she never lost power during Sandy.

    I don’t trust cable companies with phone or internet service.

  112. 112.

    dww44

    @The Moar You Know: I know this dates me, but we’ve never given up our land line. Don’t use it for long distance, but it is reliable for the occasional power outages we’ve endured in our heavily wooded neighborhood. Also still have an old analog phone, so all we do when the power goes out, is plug it in.

  113. 113.

    danielx

    It appears this will be the last weekend with temperatures in the 60s for a while, so a lot of the weekend will be occupied with finishing the last of the prewinter chores, such as putting up storm windows on the back porch and blowing leaves out of the gutters (again).

    Eventually I’m going to have to quit wallowing in schadenfreude, but as with that well known ascetic St Augustine and his pre-sainthood attitude towards chastity…not yet.

    @aimai:

    Perhaps it has finally come to the attention of the RNC that one of the many anagrams for Reince Priebus is Be Precise Ruin.

    There are many, but I’m fond of that one.

  114. 114.

    The Moar You Know

    We live just north of downtown Los Angeles and we both lived in the LA area in January of 1994. We will never, ever give up our landline.
    __
    G talks about it occasionally because it is stupidly expensive compared to cell service, but I am unwilling to take the risk.

    @Mnemosyne: Yeah, you took a good shot up there in 1994.

    Looking like the landline for us is going to run about $20 a month. I can live with that.

    What keeps me up at night sometimes is the idea of a Loma Prieta size quake here in SoCal. It’s not something I frankly want to think about – if it hit the Delta canal it would be game over for all of Southern California. 20 million people with savagely rationed or just plain no water. Grapes of Wrath in reverse, multiplied by twenty million.

  115. 115.

    jharp

    Watching Fox News tonight and the last few days I’ve seen the GOP plan to attract Latino voters.

    “Marco Rubio for President”

    Weird. They still just don’t get it. Right?

  116. 116.

    gex

    @Mnemosyne: The other thing I ask them is how are these moochers supposed to get a job, if prospective employers can’t call them? Deprive people of the tools required to get a job and you end up with people who can’t get off assistance. Why would conservatives argue for that? (Apart from the fact that they can’t think long term and they prefer to be ideologically correct over being effective.)

  117. 117.

    mai naem

    @Joseph Nobles: I didn’t know that was what were called Obama phones. Anyhow, I know a couple of people who got the phones. The deal is you have to be getting some kind of assistance – welfare or medicaid to get it. Second, you get a very basic refurb phone. I’ve seen brand new similar or same prepay phones for $40 at retail stores. I believe the only extra feature they have is a speaker phone. Anyhow, the deal is you get $250 mins a month. After you use those minutes you have to pay more(I think $10/100mins) but 911 works even if you’ve used your minutes up.

  118. 118.

    catclub

    @Suffern ACE: There is a long blogpost out and about that discusses how the GOP killed their chances with Muslims too.

    They went from something like 70% for Bush to 4% for Romney. Ouch.
    Plus they are instituting sharia ;)

  120. 120.

    Roger Moore

    @The Moar You Know:

    He runs gambling establishments in Singapore and Macao. Does anyone think he’s not involved up to his eyeballs with the triads?

    You think the triads control those places? I’m guessing he’s in bed with the Communist Party in China and the PAP in Singapore, both of which are probably scarier than the triads. Of course he also owns establishments here in the USA, so he’s probably in touch with our home-grown organized criminals and won’t need to import them from overseas.

  121. 121.

    danielx

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    For the amount of money involved, he’d be lucky to be found shot in the back of the head. Some of the people he put in a trick bag would likely prefer to hang his head on a wall and have his hide salted down and tacked to a barn door somewhere.

  123. 123.

    Ash Can

    I’m not a big fan of “banning” Reality Shpritz (and I put the word in quotation marks because I’m still not convinced that this isn’t all some grand front-page kabuki). The guy hits all the most ridiculous RW talking points, and dares us to beat the hell out of them. He’s throwing batting practice to us, FFS, and we all get a crack at hitting them out of the park. It’s fun.

  124. 124.

    jl

    @Roger Moore:

    ” …last presidential election [Asians] favored Democrats, but by a small enough margin that the Republicans could plausibly believe they could still be won over. This election, they were stronger partisans for the Democrats than Hispanics. That’s going to leave a mark. ”

    Immigration and anti-education stands damage the GOP with more groups than Hispanics. Most younger Asians I know (and I know many since I teach in a professional grad program), even from long standing GOP bastions like Vietnamese community, want nothing to do with the GOP. A lot of independents, but they are not GOP voters, at least from what I have heard them talk about politics.

    But, then maybe I misinterpret eye rolling that looks like they are trying to see out of the top of their heads and muttering when topic of GOP comes up.

  125. 125.

    suzanne

    I am taking the next of my licensing exams on December 22, so now that the election is over, every weekend is devoted to studying. However, both of my cats have recently decided that their cat food sucks, and that human food is DA BOMB. One goes for meats, the other for carbs. The one who likes starches got into the pantry when my husband left the door open, and tore into some unopened bags of flour, sugar, and flax meal. The mess, it is to CRY. So I will be cleaning out my pantry tomorrow. I just went to Petsmart and bought them some new food, and they apparently think it is the greatest thing EVAR. I had been kind of excited because the older cat is overweight, and she’s been losing weight by eating human food instead, but she would steal from the baby.

  126. 126.

    trollhattan

    @jharp:
    I have it on good authority that Mexicans and other Spanish-speaking folks from south of wherever TOTALLY LOVE middle-class Castro refugees because their stories are so gosh darn similar.

    So yeah, Rubio-Jindal ’16 and I’m so there.

  127. 127.

    Mnemosyne

    @The Moar You Know:

    I don’t think you realize that Northridge was that big — it was only .2 smaller than Loma Prieta (6.7 vs 6.9) and had the highest ground velocity ever recorded. They felt that sonovabitch in Las fucking Vegas. Nevada.

    If you’re worried about the Delta-Mendota Canal, that’s central California, not southern, and it would mean “game over” for a much bigger chunk of California than you think since it stretches up to Sacramento. The LA metropolitan area (LA and Orange counties) alone has 16 million people right now — throw in San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties to get a more accurate picture of the fuckedupitude in store.

    (Fixed for better geographical accuracy.)

  129. 129.

    redshirt

    Seriously guys every “House of Pizza” everywhere is owned by the same guy – this rich, crazy Greek dude who lives on a volcano in the Aegean. It’s a nice volcano, of course.

  130. 130.

    The Moar You Know

    You think the triads control those places?

    @Roger Moore: No. But when you run gambling establishments, you need your lower-level criminals to provides hookers and blow to the high rollers. Adelson can certainly procure the services of such folks at a moment’s notice.

    You point is well taken, there’s a whole slew of powerful people who will want a chunk of Rove’s sizable ass.

  131. 131.

    Jeff Spender

    Republicans think that having Rubio on the ticket will attract Latinos because they can’t reason. They look at their own bullshit reasoning about why they think black people voted for Obama and think, gee–why not put a ‘spanic on the ballot. Then they’d all vote for us.

    I’m not above calling a spade a spade–this is racism. They can’t comprehend that hispanics and asians don’t vote for the GOP not because they are a party full of white people, but because their ideas are repugnant.

    Wasn’t there a poll conducted in Florida about how the presidential race would change if Rubio was on the Republican ticket that showed Republicans would do worse without him?

    I recall that.

  132. 132.

    Mnemosyne

    @gex:

    Why would conservatives argue for that? (Apart from the fact that they can’t think long term and they prefer to be ideologically correct over being effective.)

    I think you answered your own question.

  134. 134.

    Geoduck

    My political predictions are usually wrong, but I suspect Rove’s not going anywhere. At most, he’ll be shuffled off into very comfortable retirement.

  135. 135.

    JCT

    I’m sitting here on the couch with a glass of Watkins Select trying to recover from my severe schadenfreude poisoning. So much fun!

    Surrounded by the 3 cats and 2 beagles and since the better half is traveling I have the music blaring.

    But honestly, where the hell is that loser fuckwit Priebus? He was all over the place when he was talking about that “war on caterpillars”.

    And hah, @suzanne: we came home one day and couldn’t find our naughty beagle ANYWHERE. We were just starting to panic that she got out and was eaten by some animal when I noticed some broken tortilla chips under the pantry door. Ah, yes, bad beagle got locked in the pantry and ate everything she could reach. Bad dog!

  136. 136.

    trollhattan

    @Mnemosyne:
    Bigger threat to the SoCal water supply is a big enough Bay Area quake to rupture levees on Delta islands and cause an influx of saltwater, rendering Delta water unfit to export south. Anytime between July and January will do, as it will take months to flush out. Good times!

    Also, too, when a kid I waz we felt the ’64 Alaska quake. In Seattle.

  137. 137.

    hilts

    Texas Republicans are already using the s-word. One party official from Southeast Texas calls for — not secession — separation. “Why should Vermont and Texas live under the same government?” writes Hardin County Republican treasurer Peter Morrison, a Ron Paul supporter and author of a race-heavy Tea Party newsletter. “Let each go her own way,” he writes, demanding an “amicable divorce” from the U.S. and from the “maggots” who re-elected President Obama.

    star-telegram.com/2012/11/08/4399621/hardin-county-gop-official-wants.html

  139. 139.

    Roger Moore

    @jl:
    It’s not just the younger ones, either. I work closely with several Chinese women who grew up during the Cultural Revolution, were in the first classes to be allowed to go to university after it was over, and came to the US shortly after graduating. I certainly don’t get the feeling that any of them has any love for the Communist Party, and 10 years ago I would have expected them to be loyal Republicans. Today, they appear to distrust the Republicans, and they uniformly despise the Tea Party, to the point that when I warned them that they should be careful about calling them Teabaggers because it also referred to a sex act, they doubled down and used the term with special relish.

  140. 140.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jeff Spender:

    They look at their own bullshit reasoning about why they think black people voted for Obama and think, gee—why not put a ‘spanic on the ballot. Then they’d all vote for us.

    I think it’s even simpler than that — they vote for the white candidate that they think will favor white people over everyone else, so they assume everyone else votes the same way.

    It’s always projection with these guys.

  141. 141.

    danielx

    @hilts:

    Did he, like, miss the history section in school about how that shit was settled with the shitkickers and peckerwoods in 1865?

  142. 142.

    The Moar You Know

    I don’t think you realize that Northridge was that big—it was only .2 smaller than Loma Prieta (6.7 vs 6.9) and had the highest ground velocity ever recorded.

    @Mnemosyne: Magnitude is logarithmic, not linear. That .2 difference in the Richter scale meant that Loma Prieta was, in layman’s terms, twice as powerful.

    Regardless, Northridge sucked, and it definitely had a larger radius of impact than Loma Prieta due to the ground velocity, the far larger human population of the area, and the underlying geology. Cracked the foundation of my mother’s house in San Diego. Plus I think it went on for much longer – Loma Prieta was only 15 seconds. I was only six miles from the epicenter, and I can say that it was the longest 15 seconds of my life.

  143. 143.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @hilts:
    Although it will never happen it would be interesting to open the door to secession. Then the assholes who talk about it would have to put up or shut up. It might just clear the air a bit.

  144. 144.

    The Moar You Know

    Texas Republicans are already using the s-word. One party official from Southeast Texas calls for—not secession—separation. “Why should Vermont and Texas live under the same government?” writes Hardin County Republican treasurer Peter Morrison, a Ron Paul supporter and author of a race-heavy Tea Party newsletter. “Let each go her own way,” he writes, demanding an “amicable divorce” from the U.S. and from the “maggots” who re-elected President Obama.

    @hilts: For once I and a right-wing shitheel are in total agreement. We keep the nukes though. That’s not negotiable. Let them build their own with Bible Science. I’m sure the results would be tragically hilarious.

  145. 145.

    opie_jeanne

    @Yutsano: Oh man, I hope for the best possible outcomes for you.

    We missed you on Tuesday. The place was packed with folks from Drinking Liberally, but we saved you a spot at our table.

  146. 146.

    MikeJ

    Petraeus?

    My wife is having an affair with a government executive. His role is to manage a project whose progress is seen worldwide as a demonstration of American leadership. (This might seem hyperbolic, but it is not an exaggeration.) I have met with him on several occasions, and he has been gracious. (I doubt if he is aware of my knowledge.) I have watched the affair intensify over the last year, and I have also benefited from his generosity. He is engaged in work that I am passionate about and is absolutely the right person for the job. I strongly feel that exposing the affair will create a major distraction that would adversely impact the success of an important effort. My issue: Should I acknowledge this affair and finally force closure? Should I suffer in silence for the next year or two for a project I feel must succeed? Should I be “true to my heart” and walk away from the entire miserable situation and put the episode behind me? NAME WITHHELD

    nytimes.com/2012/07/15/magazine/a-message-from-beyond.html

  148. 148.

    dollared

    someone, somewhere posted this and mentioned Molly Ivins’ comment on a similar work of art: “I preferred this in the original German.”

  150. 150.

    Yutsano

    @opie_jeanne: I still feel bad about that. I really really should have dropped a note to SoonerGrunt to pass over my e-mail addy to MikeJ. Plus I have yet to collect on that drink dollared still owes me. It’s all good, we have the Lojasmo meet-up at the end of the month still.

  151. 151.

    dollared

    @Yutsano: That sucks. I have had a number of friends in their 30s go through this. Good news is that 10 years later they are doing well. But it’s a long recovery span.

    When is the operation?

  154. 154.

    Yutsano

    @MikeJ: Irresponsibility of not speculating and all that…

    @JoyfulA: I have a couple of advantages: I’m relatively young and the damage hasn’t destroyed the femoral head entirely. I could put this off for awhile (in fact I plan to stall for as long as I can hold out although the pain is getting to me) just to be sure everything gets in order before I pull that trigger. One disadvantage: this will most likely preclude moving in August. Unless I move afterwards.

  155. 155.

    James E. Powell

    I am not going to be happy until I see a “Hitler finds out that Romney lost” video. I don’t have the skills to do it myself. Somebody out there, please. I need this.

  156. 156.

    The Moar You Know

    @MikeJ: I would normally say “no chance” but too much fits. I’ll instead say “very unlikely but I ain’t ruling it out!”

  157. 157.

    EmanG

    If interested in corporate fallout from stupid CEO’s check out Papa John’s FB page. They’re getting hammered. I’ve started a thread about asking Peyton Manning if he’s with P. Obama or his homeboy John S. (he’s a franchisee doncha know). Anyone else who wants to join in my meaningless crusade is welcome!!!

  160. 160.

    Radio One

    The problem with thinking that the GOP is going to lose in the long term is that politics is fundamentally always a short term con for the GOP. Obviously. I don’t see how it’s clearly bad for the GOP long term. They’ll just keep running a series of short cons indefinitely, boosted by the mass of idiot media marks.

  161. 161.

    Suffern ACE

    @Villago Delenda Est: I’m just confused by that. If they look at, say, Minnesota, where they did the same thing, they got absolutely crushed – two years later. It’s not like people don’t have memories. Yeah. Great. You’ll cause a recession. What makes them think 2014 then won’t be Minnesota all over the upper Midwest?

  163. 163.

    Suffern ACE

    @Radio One: well for one thing, they never get rid of the old con men. I mean, do you expect newsmax to start running stories about Muslims worshipping peacefully in their mosques and Hispanics not beheading people in Arizona but working legally and paying into social security because Grover told them to knock it off?

  165. 165.

    Anne Laurie

    New thread upstairs. Go make odds on (a) how long it will take Cole to bigfoot it; and/or (b) the chance he’ll post the same video tomorrow, having found it on Sullivan’s blog…

  168. 168.

    aimai

    @freelancer:

    I just watched the trailer, since I’m avoiding doing any work. A) yes, even my not very good gaydar is pinging. B) he has the expression of a person who doesn’t at all feel what he is saying–he is reading off a script and his facial muscles don’t reflect what he is saying. He’s an actor, and not a very good one. Annie Laurie is right that he’s like a blurred, fatter copy of Paul Ryan. C) Leni Riefenshtal and pretty much any horror propaganda piece is, again,the right call for this video. Have you noticed how perfectly it matches, echoes, or creates the extremely high level of hysteria you are seeing from the Republican commenters on Republican sites? I’ve seen that Reagan quote about a jillion times in the last few days. I think this is getting incredibly wide distribution and its hitting their sweet spot, or I guess the right term is massaging their maschochism muscles or patting their paranoia.
    aimai

  169. 169.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    @Bruce S: Yeah, but most of the stories I’ve heard they end up with a better deal.

    Just goes to show what terrific businessmen these Pubbies are!

  170. 170.

    rickstershierpa

    This is an old joke, which someone else may have aleady used, but I did like it better in the original German.

    By the way, in August 2015 we will be celebrating

  171. 171.

    Ksmiami

    @Roger Moore: because a lot of Asian Americans believe in and need good public schools!!! But u have to like know actual Asian Americans to recognize this salient point!!!

  173. 173.

    gelfling545

    @Mnemosyne: @Schlemizel: Look up Safe Link or Assurance phone. They are very limited in calling minutes, limited to one per household and require proof or income or social services. They are really only emergency contact lines although one can purchase additional minutes somewhat reasonable. (Around the holidays a Church group sometimes buys extra minute cards for the residents where I work to contact friends & family). It’s far cheaper than the whole installing a land line deal & a more portable service (as long as the previous tenant changed his address with the service if he had it) which is important since frequent moves are an unfortunate fact of life for the poor.

  174. 174.

    Jay in Oregon

    @Narcissus:
    YKW will be gone in a week or two, I bet.

    He had a good run riling people up when the election looked pretty close, but now that’s settled so all he has left are the same old talking points.

  177. 177.

    zoot

    Axelrod is as wrong as can be. The rich have bought:

    ** a national dialog that only ranges between right and wildly extreme right.

    ** a middle and lower class electorate in which huge numbers of people vote against their interests in support of the plutocratic agenda, buying in the lies and diseembling bought by the rich

    ** a Democratic POTUS that is actually a moderate republican instituting republican programs with literally zero progressive agenda.

    ** a Congress in which every member of Congress is rich like them and political process in which only they can run for office.

    AND they nearly did buy the whole house. A few tweaks, a little more voter suppression and they could be there next time. In the mean time, obama will cut Medicare, and social security, and will not likely implement any tax changes that cost the rich any meaningful amount.

    Axlerod is part if the problem – him, obama, and leading democrats are the side of the equation that is the illusion that American politics are not 100% owned and manipulated by the rich, for the rich.

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