Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

“woke” is the new caravan.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

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

Come on, man.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

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

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

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

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

When I was faster i was always behind.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Reader Interactions

62Comments

  2. 2.

    MikeJ

    “In my 35 years as CEO we had multiple times when we had out of synch supply and demand situations,” he said. “More than 20 times. Never once did we go to the pricing tool.”

    Let me translate: “We’re already charging as much as people will pay.”

  3. 3.

    Baud

    Everyone seems to be off doing something else. Anne Laurie is going to be forced to step on her own posts.

  5. 5.

    Amir Khalid

    If you bump into Randinho on your vacay, will you invite him to come back here and start posting on football again? A lot of us really miss him.

  6. 6.

    dmsilev

    Via TPM, Mississippi finally (as in just last week) ratified the 13th Amendment. Granted that was mainly because they forgot to send the paperwork in, but still…

    But there was an asterisk beside Mississippi. A note read: “Mississippi ratified the amendment in 1995, but because the state never officially notified the US Archivist, the ratification is not official.”

    (and no, waiting until 1995 is nothing to be proud of either)

  11. 11.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Have a good time, mistermix!

    (Posting this nothing comment only because I don’t have to enter my nym and email. Yay autofill!)

  12. 12.

    JPL

    The President seems to be leading on the immigration and now the repubs are whining because the President is leading..
    Oh no!!!!

    @dmsilev: 1995 is not something to be proud of.

  14. 14.

    Shortstop

    @dmsilev: Anyone remember Michael Moore’s short-lived TV show? He’d do juvenile but entertaining things like have Janeane Garafolo land a boatful of scruffy-looking people on the Greenwich, CT, town beach, which is closed to non-residents. In the best segment, he “discovered” that MS hadn’t ratified the amendment and invited a black guy to purchase a white guy. Scenes showed the “slave” picking up golf balls, serving cool drinks, tracking down lost remotes, etc.

  15. 15.

    PurpleGirl

    @jeffreyw: It was a pilot for another series. It had Robert Lansing as an alien living on Earth, Terry Garr plays his secretary. The cat, Isis, is Lansing’s familiar. And I don’t remember the name of the episode.

  16. 16.

    Anya

    God help us. It looks like we’ll be dealing with Ben Carson as the great black hope in the future. As a pediatric neurosurgeon, I hope he supports health care for all, and early childhood education but he sounds like he has a typical wingnut views.

  17. 17.

    PurpleGirl

    @PurpleGirl: Cheating by going to Wikipedia (entry for Robert Lansing):

    …interstellar secret agent Gary Seven in a 1968 episode “Assignment: Earth” on Star Trek. This Star Trek episode launched several novels and an entire comic book series, and Lansing’s likeness alongside Terri Garr became the artwork of many science fiction artists (including drawings on trading cards, novels, and Star Trek episode guides). The last Star Trek episode of season two, it nearly became a new weekly series, but NBC executives rejected it.

    ETA: I was a Star Trek snob who called herself a Trekker and not a Trekkie. Trekkers loved the show and even worked on conventions but weren’t like the 12-year-olds who asked earnest questions of Jimmy Doohan about warp drives and the engines, etc.

  19. 19.

    gbear

    I listen to a weekend radio program that’s sponsored by Maker’s Mark and they use the tag line “Maker’s Mark. It is what is isn’t”. I have no idea what this means. Can anyone fill me in?

  20. 20.

    Suffern ACE

    This weekend, I attended a birthday dinner where everyone was asked to bring a fifth of Makers to the host so he’d have a stash before the watered down product hit the market. We were wondering if he wasn’t actually planning a sale since he ended up with fifteen bottles of the stuff. If so, the market just fell out for him.

  21. 21.

    PurpleGirl

    @Anya: If he’s a Republican and they are promoting for anything, I doubt he believes in health care for all. Otherwise he’d be a Democrat, I think.

    ETA: I really don’t know who he is, but this is based on just what you said.

  22. 22.

    Shortstop

    @gbear: I think it means that some ad copywriter thought it was irresistible in its sparkling opacity, and the account exec sold it to the client over the client’s best instincts.

  23. 23.

    WereBear

    I hate sounding like an old curmudgeon, especially since I am still an good-lookin’ middle-ager, but this kind of “watering down” idiocy infuriates me.

    I don’t mind paying more for actual quality. I do, very much, mind, when I am not offered the choice!

  26. 26.

    Mobile Grumpy Code Monkey

    @jeffreyw:

    “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”, one of the worst 2nd season eps. Bele and Loki were assholes and deserved to be trapped chasing each other for all eternity.

  29. 29.

    Shortstop

    @gbear: What they’re saying, I assume, is that its strength is in not being those other brands with all their substandardity and shit. But it’s a bad choice for a tagline, IMO.

  30. 30.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @WereBear:

    I hate the trick of keeping the price the same on things but reducing the amount of product you get in the package. They have been doing that for years now.

  36. 36.

    LanceThruster

    I’m going to have a drink or several in honor of my rescue Dalmatian “Chief” who merged with the infinite on President’s Day years ago. He was a good boy and you all would have loved him.

    Los Perditos!

  37. 37.

    gbear

    @Shortstop: That was the first thing that came to my mind too. The GS cookie makers are getting pretty creative at making a dozen cookies fit securely into a package that could easily hold two dozen.

  38. 38.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @WereBear:

    @Shortstop:

    I wonder how many people actually look at those “price per oz/lb” whatever numbers on the price tags? I know I do and am amazed hat what Werebear said how more often than not these days the smaller package is cheaper. Just the other day I found it was cheaper to buy the single rolls of paper towels rather than the 6 pack. It is no wonder that the stores make those numbers so small.

  39. 39.

    WereBear

    @Litlebritdifrnt: And they will make some of them with different metrics, too. Like paper towels; some of them are per square foot, but some of them are not. Just to make comparisons that much more difficult.

    I use the calculator on my iPod touch all the time.

  42. 42.

    Anya

    @PurpleGirl: He’s a renowned neurosurgeon who’s always featured on black history month posters. Unfortunately he’s a god freak wingnut. Sad that someone as accomplished as this man gave the same answer that Sarah Palin gave, when he was asked about running for president.

    This (from his Wikipedia page) tells you all you need to know about his politics:

    On February 7, 2013, Carson was the keynote speaker at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast.[6] Despite the fact that all speakers are told by organizers to steer clear of politics, Carson broke with the non-political tradition of the National Prayer Breakfast and directly criticized President Barack Obama’s policies on healthcare, the national debt, and taxation. His observations, which some have called conservative, created an immediate national reaction. The YouTube video of the breakfast reached over two million views in six days. (Two identical YouTube clips equal over 2 million views.)[7] Conservative commentators from Rush Limbaugh, to Fox News commentators Sean Hannity and Neil Cavuto widely praised the speech as speaking “truth to power”.

    I don’t understand what makes someone as smart and as accomplished, and with his background became a wingnut. Even if he was religious, why can’t it lead him to compassion and humanity instead of using religion to justify greed and lack of responsibility for the disadvantaged.

  44. 44.

    Violet

    @Litlebritdifrnt: The smaller package is cheaper on a lot of things. Paper towels and toilet paper are usually that way, but look at cereal as well. The stores often run sales on the smaller sized boxes and the price per ounce is much cheaper than the larger boxes. It’s crazy.

  46. 46.

    Roger Moore

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    Just the other day I found it was cheaper to buy the single rolls of paper towels rather than the 6 pack.

    Funny, because that’s exactly the example I was thinking of. I generally prefer the individual rolls, since I go through paper towels slowly and don’t want to devote a lot of shelf space to them, so it was great when I figured out that they’re actually cheaper when bought individually. The thing that really annoys me about it is that the brand I usually buy makes the single roll larger than the individual rolls in the 6 pack- IIRC it’s a bit more than 50% more area per roll- to try to fool people who shop by the roll rather than the square foot.

  47. 47.

    Shortstop

    @Cassidy: I know. I was going for humor. I’m actually a volunteer with the Girl Scouts, despite not having any kids, so I’m really not a female Montgomery Burns.

  48. 48.

    WereBear

    Quality can make a huge difference. A lot of people who follow my advice and buy grain free food for their pets get sticker shock from the price. Then, they discover that their pets eat less of the food which has actual nutritional value.

    It might still be more, financially. But it’s not so huge a difference; and we save money on vet bills, guaranteed.

  50. 50.

    Cassidy

    @Shortstop: That’s good. I wasn’t going to say anything else unless someone started ranting. I’ve got two kids in GS and I try to help as much as possible. My wife just got her camping certification and I’m going to get registered as a GS and teach the kids to camp and help them get their first aid badge.

    But, I do understand people’s frustration re: value and packaging, but I think a lot of people don’t realize where that money goes. The GS’s maintain some amazing campsites that only cost about $2-4 a camper per night. Also, the district(s) hands out a lot of grants for lower income girls.

  52. 52.

    Shortstop

    @Cassidy: All that and we don’t ban LGBT members and leaders like the BSA.

    I grew up when girls were just starting to play organized sports on a wide scale. There weren’t a lot of leadership development opportunities for little girls, at least not in my area. My time in scouting made a huge difference in my life, and not just because I can handle myself in the outdoors. I see the same opportunities with the low-income kids we serve here in Chicago.

  53. 53.

    Shortstop

    @Shortstop: geez, I sound 100 and I just turned fitty. To clarify, there were always girls’ sports teams at school (with the same five girls on them). There weren’t the big summer soccer leagues, little league for girls, etc., though…that was all just arriving where we lived.

  54. 54.

    Mike E

    @Shortstop: TV Nation! I still have some episodes on vhs tapes, like the “Get Back” theme where people reunited with grade school bullies and finally asked “WYFP?” And New Yorkers listing their city pet peeves, like:
    Elevator Muzak
    Dumpster retrieval at 4am
    Car alarms blaring at 4am

    Mr Moore would locate a flatbed truck with concert amps, or park half a dozen cars, or slam a dumpster right where the offending company executive made his/her luxurious home, and hit “play” on the Muzak, set off alarms etc. Police would eventually arrive and break up the party, around 7am.

    This is why I will always love Michael Moore.

  55. 55.

    Todd

    Makers isn’t a premium brand, so they can’t adjust price to match supply. The reason why it isn’t premium is that it is thin and one note.

  56. 56.

    Cris (without an H)

    I heard an ad on the radio this morning where a retired Army colonel suggested that “President’s day is a perfect time to remember those who fought and sacrificed for our freedom.”

    You know, you guys already had Memorial Day. Then you turned Armistice Day into Veteran’s Day. Now you want to make President’s Day into a military commemoration? Can you please stop invading holidays like they’re territories in Risk?

  60. 60.

    Avery Greynold

    I had never noticed an advertisement for Maker’s Mark until a couple weeks before this became a news item. Amazing coincidence. Demand for their product mysteriously rose so they needed to dilute their product and increase volume. And reluctantly make more money?!

  61. 61.

    Mnemosyne

    @Shortstop:

    Somewhere around here, I still have a VHS copy of my favorite episode, “Love Day,” where Moore sent various groups around to do nice things for their avowed enemies, like having an interracial group of cheerleaders and a clown dance to “Put A Little Love in Your Heart” outside of a neo-Nazi compound.

    The neo-Nazis were very confused, to say the least.

    And I remember Mrs. Jesse Helms being very gracious when a Gay Men’s Choir showed up on her porch and sang for her — I’m pretty sure she served them all iced tea and lemonade afterward, but I’d have to check the tape.

  62. 62.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Cris (without an H):

    “President’s day is a perfect time to remember those who fought and sacrificed for our freedom.”

    Also, Christmas, July 4th, and any day on which there’s a major sporting event. Which probably leaves a Tuesday in April which can be declared For One Day Only We’re Not Going To Browbeat You About The Holy Sainted Military Day.

Comments are closed.