Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

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

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Everybody saw this coming.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

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

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

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

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

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

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

“But what about the lurkers?”

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Racial Justice / This Week In Blackness / A-Hole Of The Day?

A-Hole Of The Day?

by | 105 Comments

This post is in: 

Greetings  Folks,

First let me say thanks for the kind words that a bunch of y’all have thrown my way. The TWiB team is excited that we’re now publishing to this community. So here’s the first episode of TWiB! Radio of the week.  I was forced to crown our first A-Hole of the Day and I’m sure you’ll understand where I’m coming from when you hear the news story that made it happen.  Here’s the show! 

Subscribe on iTunes | Subscribe On Stitcher | Direct Download | RSS

(note: I know someone mentioned on my  last post that there’s a lot of banter up front. This is true. It’s sort of how our community works. Yes we cover news but we crack jokes + share whats going on with the team. I hope you guys can dig that but if you’re like “I SIMPLY WANT A NEWS STORY” you can jump a head 15 minutes or so.)

And just in case you want to follow along with the 2 major stories we covered here are the articles that were on our docket.  And please note: We’d LOVE for you folks here on Balloon Juice to contribute to our docket!  If you’re on Twitter you can submit by tweeting on the hashtag #TWiBdocket. Or you can even post on this thread any stories that you think should be getting more play or if you simply would like to hear our take on it. We’ll take a look at it!

John was kind enough to give me free rein of what I can post here but I don’t want to overload you folks. We do a morning along with our afternoon show TWiB! Radio (the former is hosted by political strategist and Up With Chris regular L. Joy Williams), an interview show on race, a nerd show, a terribly inappropriate show and a food show.  If you guys are interested in some of those things I’ll try to post a few eps of those here as well! But for today I’ll just throw in today’s episode of “TWiB! in the Morning”. Take a listen!

 Subscribe on iTunes | Subscribe On Stitcher | Direct Download | RSS

Thanks folks! I will be all up in the comment section and one of my co-host Dacia Mitchell will be jumping in to! Magic shall ensue.

 

 

Reader Interactions

105Comments

  2. 2.

    BGinCHI

    On a day when so many GOP House and Senate members honored themselves by trying to stop the browns from being part of the melting pot, I can’t guess who took the prize.

    OK, now I’ll go listen.

  3. 3.

    Elon James White

    @BGinCHI:

    On a day when so many GOP House and Senate members honored themselves by trying to stop the browns from being part of the melting pot, I can’t guess who took the prize.

    They have been magically assholic haven’t they?

  4. 4.

    RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist

    I’m in Kokomo and on a VPN that won’t allow streaming. Will someone let me know who the A-hole is, or would that be a spoiler?

  5. 5.

    ulee

    This Tennessee legislator is right. You don’t produce the grades you don’t get to eat. This is sound public policy.

  6. 6.

    Roger Moore

    If the goal is to discourage people from being assholes, I don’t think the asshole of the day is a good idea. These people will wear it like a badge of honor.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    We’d LOVE for you folks here on Balloon Juice to contribute to our docket!

    David Brooks, 24/7. Maybe throw in a little Sully as a chaser.

  8. 8.

    Violet

    Hmmm…is the show supposed to be embedded into the post? I’m clicking the big arrow and nothing is happening. I can move the circle to the right on the timeline, but it jumps right back to the zero/beginning point.

    Is that just me? Am I doing something wrong or is it not supposed to be embedded? I’m using Firefox.

  9. 9.

    ulee

    And then I think the kids should be punished if they begin to lose weight and energy. Anyone knows that a dedicated student’s body has ways of shutting this down.

  10. 10.

    Dacia Mitchell

    @ulee:

    This Tennessee legislator is right. You don’t produce the grades you don’t get to eat. This is sound public policy.

    I mean, he’s practically quoting John Stuart Mill.

  13. 13.

    RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist

    Nutrition has been cited as one of the causes of poor school performance. hence the school lunch programs that provide free or discounted meals to the underpriveliged.
    But I guess that’s against GOP orthodoxy so never mind.

  14. 14.

    Elon James White

    @Violet:

    Hmmm…is the show supposed to be embedded into the post? I’m clicking the big arrow and nothing is happening. I can move the circle to the right on the timeline, but it jumps right back to the zero/beginning point.
    Is that just me? Am I doing something wrong or is it not supposed to be embedded? I’m using Firefox.

    I’m not sure. It’s actually html5 which is supposed to be a little easier for folks to play across platforms and such. Like I told RossInDetroit try the direct download link to be able to simply play it on your computer with your audio player of choice!

  15. 15.

    Baud

    @ulee:

    You don’t produce the grades you don’t get to eat.

    If you don’t pass your tests, you can’t have any pudding.

    How can you have any pudding if you don’t pass your tests?

  16. 16.

    ulee

    @Groucho48: You said “ya” instead of “you.” I don’t care if you are being sarcastic or funny. This will cost you a digit. Toe, finger, whatever. That’ll learn you fast. Follow the rules and don’t be sad or bad.

  17. 17.

    Elon James White

    @ulee:

    This Tennessee legislator is right. You don’t produce the grades you don’t get to eat. This is sound public policy.

    What if you’re simply not that bright? What if you don’t test well? You should go hungry?

  18. 18.

    muddy

    This level of FP/comment engagement is unprecedented. You will spoil us, and we will all bitch at John for not doing the same. In multi multi emails.

  21. 21.

    The Dangerman

    The last posted episode was “D’Plato”; what am I missing in the title or am I just an old fart that won’t get it?

    Oh, and for Yutsano, who, if memory serves is a Tax Dude (but I may have forgotten; see old fart comment previously) I found out this afternoon that someone ID thefted my SSN and “filed a return for me” last year. I would have known of this if I had been getting the mail from the IRS, but the the thefter changed the snailmail address for me, too. IRS Dude on the phone said this is common, but I don’t see what it gets the ID thieves (other than the joy in screwing with me). They didn’t get any of my money (hell, I didn’t get any of my money). I don’t get it.

  22. 22.

    Spaghetti Lee

    That ‘starve kids who don’t test well’ thing surprised even me. Yes, genius, kids who aren’t doing well in school, it can’t be because of a learning disorder or a bad home life or bullying or puberty or any of a million other damn things (ETA: And even if it is just willful laziness, you think a kid’s going to work harder for a school that does that to them?), it must be that the grilled cheese on Wonderbread they get at the cafeteria has made them too soft! Well, we’ll just see how the little bastards react after a week of no lunch! It certainly won’t make them moody and angry in the short term and hate education in general due to their bad memory in the long term.

    Jeeeee-sus. In general, a good rule for politicians is to avoid saying something that makes you sound like a Roald Dahl villain.

  27. 27.

    Elon James White

    @Baud:

    I’m afraid you’ll need to get your snark detector checked out if you want to keep posting here, newbie.

    Listen, I’ve seen some folks argue some crazy shit on-line so I always ask a genuine question when I don’t immediately detect it as opposed to assuming folks are kidding…because so many arent… ;-)

  29. 29.

    Elon James White

    @The Dangerman:

    The last posted episode was “D’Plato”; what am I missing in the title or am I just an old fart that won’t get it?

    Did you get a chance to listen to it? The title of the episode is explained during the show. Old farts totally get it. We have a bunch who listen to the show! ;-)

  32. 32.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Elon James White: If it’s not:

    Trolls:
    Spatula
    Ted & Helen (who is/was/can be Spatula)

    Serious people:
    Brachiator

    It’s most likely snark.

    To help him, folks, we may need the /snark tag for a few days.

    ETA: I can’t wait to find out who’s going to be Elon’s personal troll.

  34. 34.

    ulee

    @Elon James White: I’m sure you get your quota of truly stupid unfeeling jackasses. They do turn up here, but mostly the commenters here are kind and sometimes sarcastic. (not that I haven’t been a jackass here myself. I’ve had my moments)

  38. 38.

    Violet

    @Elon James White: Yeah, I can do the direct download. I was just wondering if it was embedded–sounds like it is.

    It’s probably my laptop. After it has been up for awhile, I find some things like that don’t work. If I reboot it’ll probably work fine.

  39. 39.

    Spaghetti Lee

    Just sent an e-mail to the good senator. Yeah, yeah, I know e-mail is useless. Hell, I don’t even live in Tennessee-this was just to make me feel good. I told him that he was a human waste product and that he may face eternal damnation. I may have used different words, though.

  40. 40.

    The Dangerman

    @Elon James White:

    Did you get a chance to listen to it?

    Oh, so you want us to listen? ;-)

    I haven’t had a free hour (or whatever the show was) in a while … I’ll go back and listen sometime.

    (Full disclosure: I started it and then refreshed the page and, well, bad things happened).

  45. 45.

    Dacia Mitchell

    @The Dangerman:

    To give you a teaser: we discussed feminism (and feminist checking) and, well, Plato came up. He had … “ideas” about women and their lady parts.

  47. 47.

    General Stuck

    Well, Dacia sounds way cool, the rest of youze is fairly nutz. Ambien for birth control was most excellent.

  48. 48.

    General Stuck

    Well, Dacia sounds way cool, the rest of youze is fairly nutz. Amb ien for birth control was most excellent.

  53. 53.

    Maude

    @Baud:
    I didn’t really understand the type of post this was at first. Now I do.
    It’s a floor wax and a dessert topping.
    I guess you’re right to start at level one. Wait until we get to level three.

  57. 57.

    Cacti

    @ulee:

    This Tennessee legislator is right. You don’t produce the grades you don’t get to eat. This is sound public policy.

    Contrary to numerous historical examples, Republicans seem to think that if they just decree it, poor people will quietly and happily starve to death.

  58. 58.

    My Truth Hurts

    The Senators blog accepts comments even though they are moderated. At least you can send a message even if it isn’t published. Just sayin…

  63. 63.

    Elon James White

    @Violet:

    Hey, I got to the Asshole of the Day! Are you going to do the Wingnut of the Week segment?

    I’m not against the suggestion at all. Since it was brought up here on Balloon Juice maybe we’ll even say it’s “Powered by Balloon Juice” and we can take suggestions from posts here!

  68. 68.

    General Stuck

    This move by Cole may well have plugged the troll hole on this crazy ass blog. I don’t see any of em surviving the razor wit on this thread. Nerds with a no prisoners plan. :-}.

    Humor really is the ultimate weapon . carry on.

  71. 71.

    General Stuck

    This move by Cole may well have plugged the troll hole on this crazy ass blog. I don’t see any of em surviving the razor wit on this thread. Nerds with a no prisoners plan. :-}.

    Humor really is the ultimate weapon . carry on.

  72. 72.

    Closeted epistemic (formerly Lojasmo)

    @Elon James White:

    Dude. Half of the comments here are tongue in cheek.

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent):

    ETA: I can’t wait to find out who’s going to be Elon’s personal troll.

    I suspect there will be significant overlap with ABL and Zandar’s trolls.

    I’ll be first to admit to suspicions of RAAAAAACISM!

  73. 73.

    Avery Greynold

    EJW, Yes, I am a grumpy old man, but after reading two posts I have no idea what you think about anyone or anything. Well, except that I should go somewhere and find out. Too long, didn’t play.

  75. 75.

    hamletta

    @Violet: It’s probably not your laptop, but your browser. Firefox won’t play MP3 files directly, because it’s a proprietary file format. Webkit browsers (Chrome, Safari) will play them, though.

    But it sounds like the download worked just fine. Or you can get iTunes, which is available for Windows, and subscribe.

  76. 76.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    “Now, as a man who has been there and as a man who has some experience in those kinds of units, I certainly don’t want to be in that environment with a female because it’s degrading and humiliating enough to do your personal hygiene and the other normal functions among your teammates,” Boykin opined.

    Ahh. Dick about the size of a cashew, I see.

  77. 77.

    muddy

    @Dacia Mitchell: You know what’s really fun to play with your cat, clang pans together when they are napping in the daytime. It’s one of my favorite games. I have a nightly marauder who will snake his paw under the covers and slit me under the toes if there was insufficient evening feed.

  80. 80.

    hamletta

    We Tennesseans have been watching Stacey Campfield for years. He’s an endless source of ridiculous. I’m sure Southern Beale has a whole blog category just for him.

  81. 81.

    mainmati

    @Violet: Not Firefox; working just fine for me. Pretty funny station though I don’t listen to talk radio becuz it is 99% RW. This is a refreshing change of pace.

  82. 82.

    Mnemosyne

    @muddy:

    He is becoming quite stately in his adulthood (he turns 7 this year). But he was running around like a crazy kitten when I was trying to nap this afternoon, so we still have the best of both worlds.

  83. 83.

    13th Generation

    Cole, I sincerely hope you realize just how irrelevant and stale that you’ve let this blog become. It’s kind of sad really. The harder you try, the more you fail.

  89. 89.

    muddy

    I feel stupid that I haven’t commented on the show, but I have to wait for studio time in the morning to listen.

  91. 91.

    Aji

    Oh, good. Tennessee Asshole Dude has come up with a perfectly flawless, perfectly circular plan. Bad grades? No food for you. No food? More bad grades. More bad grades? No food for you.

    And on and on and on into teabagger infinity, and they can feel all righteous in having prevented another deadly moral hazard among the nation’s poor. Bonus points for preventing it in someone poor and sorta brownish in hue.

    Boykin, well, Boykin’s nothing if not an insecure authoritarian assholish git, so I’m not at all surprised.

  92. 92.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Aji: These people have never experienced hunger. The only thing they’ve ever “lost” is the advantage of their whiteness. They will try anything to put the “others” in their place.

  95. 95.

    johnny aquitard

    @Dacia Mitchell: Yes I can see he would register fairly high on the Floofindex.

    the Floofindex:
    1 pouf = value for 1 ordinary fluffy house cat, pre-furminator
    100 poufs = 1 floof
    100 floofs = 1 tunch
    1,000 tunch = 1 megatunch

    1 megatunch (1,000 tunch) is especially significant in theroetical kitteh physics. This Floofindex value represents the critical threshold where the kitteh mass is so great even light cannot escape its gravitational pull.

  97. 97.

    Lyrebird

    @Dacia Mitchell: Wow! I’ve only ever seen one Chaplin movie, but your kitty sure is a good likeness… and nice answer, too.

    The above was serious. The remarks about the long intro to the radio show (I think I’m Elon’s “someone”, above) were tongue in cheek. Or hat-off-for-respect or something.

    Peace
    out!

  104. 104.

    Dacia Mitchell

    @Mnemosyne: OMG, China used to do the same thing, tubby cats are hilarious.

    Unfortunately, China died two years ago. She was truly the most evil of them all; we now worship at her alter so as not to disturb her spirit.

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