Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Usually wrong but never in doubt

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

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

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

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

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

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Fuck that bum, let’s go Joe!

“But what about the lurkers?”

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

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

Cole is on a roll !

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

We won’t go back.

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

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

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

This blog will pay for itself.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

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

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Reader Interactions

97Comments

  1. 1.

    Yutsano

    I was almost put out about the thread below as it will air here in an hour and a half. Otherwise all I got is peacocks and possibly job hunting.

  4. 4.

    Yutsano

    @efgoldman: Not necessarily because of the furlough. Has to do with other happenings involving the upper management treating us like dirt. I’ve made no firm decisions but a lot will depend upon what happens Monday.

  7. 7.

    Maude

    Exxon has closed the pipeline that caused a major spill in Arkansas.
    The Repubs are hot on the trail to get Keystone XL up and running. They are saying they will somehow approve it. Their timing stinks.

  10. 10.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Maude: Rachel Maddow said last week, if I heard her right, that OFA had come out against the pipeline–Keystone, that is, which would seem to me a pretty clear indication of Obama’s thinking, but I haven’t seen or heard anything about it that anywhere else

  13. 13.

    Walker

    Some choice dialog in the show tonight. My favorite:

    Doctor: Imagine that … Human souls trapped like flies in the World Wide Web, stuck forever, crying out for help.

    Clara: Isn’t that basically Twitter?

  14. 14.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Pretty bored. Hoping John falls or accidentally eats one of the pets or something entertaining.

  21. 21.

    cyntax

    @Just Some Fuckhead:
    Ahhhh… that’s not nice. But I absolutely would not take the under on that one.

    Anyone watch Vikings? I’ve caught a couple episodes and was pleasantly surprised, so far.

  22. 22.

    gene108

    Watching The Men Who Built America on H2. Pretty good T.V. about the post-Civil War industrialization of America and the Gilded Age.

  24. 24.

    gene108

    @Maude:

    Just glad they’ve quit trying to open ANWR up for drilling. Really surprising how that was going to secure our energy independence 10 years ago, but now has fallen off the right-wing radar.

  25. 25.

    Redshirt

    Can someone learn me on the viking influence in France? Is it just in the Normandy area, with Gaulic influence elsewhere? Or are the French viking descendents?

  26. 26.

    Maude

    @gene108:
    Some idiot right winger somewhere brought up the drilling again, but it didn’t go anywhere.
    Haven’t heard drill baby drill for a time.
    Now I guess it’s frack, baby frack.

  27. 27.

    rikyrah

    General Hospital is celebrating 50 years on Monday. Soapnet has been running 50 episodes since last night. Ah, the memories it has brought back.

  29. 29.

    Cassidy

    I don’t like Doctor Who. It ranks right around the Highlander tv series for me. Completely unrelated, I’ve been sick for four days straight now and have been in a Mucinex DM plus NyQuil fog for a while. But I have been able to catch up on some good Tv. Why didn’t anyone tel me The Following was so damn creepy!

  33. 33.

    catclub

    1. NPR reporting on Grain Silo deaths is appalling, and will continue ( the deaths not the reporting).

    2. Pope Francis continues to surprise and appal. At the moment, the traditionalists. No Tridentine Rite, no Ermine Cape.
    Heavens!

  39. 39.

    mainmati

    @efgoldman: Everybody better be job hunting/creating. The vampires are out there and the meme is to destroy even ordinary benefits like paid sick leave. Next stop no annual leave at all. The aim is to recreate the Chinese economy and that’s a war that we had better be prepared for.

  40. 40.

    PsiFighter37

    Had foie gras truffle flan for dinner tonight. I think at 27 years old, after eating that, my life is complete.

  42. 42.

    Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)

    LittleMan is down for spring break. His new little sister (I’ve dubbed her TinyDancer ’cause she, well, she is and does) is doing the dual feeding thing so long term visits are out for now. Welcome break from the stress of the last few weeks.

  44. 44.

    mai naem

    @Corner Stone: Wrong

    Wichita->->Obama’s Mom->->Obama->->Obama’s dad->->Kenyan usurper

    Also, I was watching the Phil Spector movie on HBO. Didn’t finish watching the whole thing but they seemed to show him in a somewhat sympathetic light.

    Also also too, I started reading stuff on http://qz.com/top/ through a twitter link. It’s called Quartz. It’s an Atlantic media product. Anyhow, they have some really good long form journalism on the site. Covers everything.

  46. 46.

    West of the Rockies

    Hey, does anyone else keep getting friggin’ Allen West and Sarah Palin ads here, or is Google targeting me based upon my occasional surfing of Redstate to see what the mouth-breathers over there have to say about news? If I click on those ads, will I actually cost the producers any money? If so, that is a quarter of a cent here and there they won’t be spending later down the road, right?

  47. 47.

    mainmati

    @Maude: The part of State (this is an international issue after all) that deals with this is under the Asst Secy for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, headed by Dr. Kerri Ann Jones. an outstanding scientist I know personally. (This branch used to be called OES for a long time.)

    State has been intensively trying to deal with this in the most objective way possible. The politics on this has been disgusting from the Hill, of course. I am not involved directly in it and am personally strongly against the pipeline as an environmental, economic and climate disaster. I think the Obama Administration will vote against it because it will have little jobs impact and will make that point and will point to the potential agricultural negative impact.

    However, as always the media are completely useless when it comes to any kind of informed reporting and we are left to the blanket of rightwing bullsh#t.

  48. 48.

    the Conster

    On Cole’s recommendation I just finished watching God Bless America. Ho lee shit. He should have mentioned that the main character is Freddy Rumsen from Mad Men, which just makes it that much more amazing, which is pretty fucking amazing.

  50. 50.

    Shortstop

    All of a sudden there are massive, I mean MASSIVE, shooting pains in my little finger. It’s so bad that I’m having to trust that drunken halfwit Siri with this. Do y’all think it could be pinky cancer?

  51. 51.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    I hate rooting for burnsie’s alma mater, but they are taking BC to the woodshed. The brackets in the hockey tournament are a bigger mess than in basketball.

  54. 54.

    MikeJ

    @the Conster: I was glad I made past the first half hour. When they were trying to demonstrate what drove him to it, they almost drove me to it. I almost turned it off because it was so unpleasant until they started killing people.

  55. 55.

    the Conster

    @MikeJ:

    Huh. They had me at “Michael Jackson just wants to make people happy”. If there’s a better marker for fucktardedness that deserves to die than that, I’d like to know.

  57. 57.

    MikeJ

    @the Conster: I agreed with all the targets. I just couldn’t stand being exposed to all that concentrated stupidity when they were showing the people who deserved to die.

  58. 58.

    Schlemizel

    @efgoldman:

    WTF happened to your boys tonight?!? UNION? Of course I had to pull for Yale today so that yesterday was not so humiliating. That worked.

  59. 59.

    dewzke

    No reading the thread yet but it’s gotta be the Walking Dead season end or the Game of Thrones season beginning. But Mr. Selfridge does look promising.

  60. 60.

    the Conster

    @MikeJ:

    TV is exactly just that bad, and the morons that watch that shit are just that stupid. The Fox guy dying was so satisfying. I want a cigarette.

  61. 61.

    the Conster

    @efgoldman:

    He’s not in it and doesn’t have a speaking role, so yeah, it’s definitely worth watching. It’s Freddy Rumsen meets Falling Down meets Natural Born Killers meets Network. With tons of blood! And laughs!

  62. 62.

    Corner Stone

    @dewzke:

    it’s gotta be the Walking Dead season end

    Is there any series with a better made-for-watching premise but yet a totally unwatchable TV show?
    I seriously want zombies to eat every one of these people, or them just kill each other. But not enough to actually tune in to watch it happen.

  63. 63.

    Corner Stone

    @the Conster: I’ve tried to finish watching that damn God Bless America about 6 times now. But it keeps going out of audio synch and the visuals slow way down every frackin time.
    I just know somebody is dying in a really good way but I can’t ever tell.
    I did like him whackin little miss “My Sweet 16”. That was good.

  64. 64.

    dewzke

    Well, I’m way off. Mary G. picked one. figured I would have pick a couple of those shows. 60 some comments though? wow!

  66. 66.

    Anoniminous

    @Redshirt:

    The various raids and pillages lead to fracturing and decentralization of the French kingdom. Aside from that, the only major thing was the settlement of Normandy. The Norse settlers were a tiny fraction of the population of France and stuck off in the hinterland to boot. Thus didn’t have the affect on the history of France that the Danelaw had on England.

  67. 67.

    Redshirt

    @Anoniminous: Co-incidental reply or did I guilt you into it?

    So just the current day “Normans” have a Viking background? Is there any kind of racial thing today in France regarding this? Does one group consider themselves superior to the other? Also too, the same Normans that invaded England?

  68. 68.

    Origuy

    @Redshirt:

    Can someone learn me on the viking influence in France?

    They settled mainly in Normandy, although they pillaged up and down most of the navigable rivers on the Atlantic side. The Duchy of Normandy was pretty dominant in the 11th and 12th Centuries.

    Beside the Normans, the French descend from the Bretons (Celts from Briton fleeing the Anglo-Saxons), Franks, Burgundians (both Germanics), Basques, Gauls (the original Celtic inhabitants), and a bunch of others I’ve forgotten.

  69. 69.

    the Conster

    @Corner Stone:

    There’s nothing more to it than killing carefully chosen people who are total wastes of oxygen, and a couple of good rants by Joel Murray. But he has impeccable taste in targets.

  70. 70.

    Pinkamena Panic

    Two things:
    1) If anyone knows a decent job opening in Fort Wayne, Indiana for a low-skilled, fat, old, slow foodservice worker trying desperately to get out of the business, I’d like to hear about it.
    2) I’m selling my old Nook Color. $75 or best offer. I’ve gotta recoup some money off this thing.

  71. 71.

    scav

    @Redshirt: All the French? Nope. Norsemen probably strongest in Normandy and Brittany although they made it inland at least as far as Paris and probably scattered bits of DNA about elsewhere. But then there’s the German edge, The Occitain / Spanish , the Basque, The Gascons, The Burgundians, all sorts of non-Norse French (they’re sneaky at that, do not confuse Vendee with Auvergne). Culturally as diverse. What’s up with the Vikings?

  72. 72.

    MikeJ

    @the Conster:

    But he has impeccable taste in targets.

    What I liked mst about his choices were that he wasn’t in it to kill the inane or tasteless, or poor artists. Only mean people.

    Roxy’s line about Diablo Cody being the only stripper with too much self esteem was gold though.

  73. 73.

    Joel

    By the way, I wasn’t kidding about Enlightened. It really is the best show on TV (or was, HBO just cancelled it).

  74. 74.

    Origuy

    The group that has the strongest connection to the Normans is the people of the Channel Islands (Jersey, Guernsey, Sark, etc.) The islands are the only part of the Duchy of Normandy remaining in English hands. Technically they are not part of the United Kingdom. For hundreds of years the language on the islands was Norman French.

    The group dynamics of France are complicated, but Parisians look down on everyone else.

    BTW, I’m reading Vanished Kingdoms, by Norman Davies. It talks about various European states and nations that have pretty much disappeared. One of those is Burgundia, which got absorbed into France, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland.

  76. 76.

    Ted & Hellen

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Rachel Maddow said last week, if I heard her right, that OFA had come out against the pipeline–Keystone, that is, which would seem to me a pretty clear indication of Obama’s thinking, but I haven’t seen or heard anything about it that anywhere else

    Yes, I wonder why BO is having such a very hard, difficult, and just gosh darn monumental struggle DECIDING how he feels about this. Gosh, I wonder how it will come out…!

    Reminds me of another decider faking a great period of contemplation before the Great Iraq War for Oil and Freedom.

  77. 77.

    Anoniminous

    @Redshirt:

    Co-incidental.

    So just the current day “Normans” have a Viking background?

    When you get that far back just about everyone with Northern European ancestors has a Viking background. There’s no conscious “Viking-ousity” in Normandy to my knowledge as there is in the Isle of Man or the Orkneys.

    Is there any kind of racial thing today in France regarding this?

    There’s a racial “thing” happening across Europe at the moment, the Greek Golden Dawn is an example. There are others. No idea whether there is something specific in France, or Normandy, due to the Norse settlement.

    Does one group consider themselves superior to the other?

    I don’t know.

    the same Normans that invaded England?

    Yes.

  78. 78.

    dewzke

    harumph…I just watched it without commercials and that it was fun. Good fake fun. Walking Dead, that is. Wrong suspension of reality crowd I guess.

    Unrelated but similar comment…when I was younger, my pops could not….I mean not watch Duckman with me and my brothers… Reason? His glasses floated over his head!

  79. 79.

    NotMax

    @Redshirt

    Ever hear the one about the old-time Basque movie theater?

    As it had only one door, the authorities insisted it be shut down.

    In case of emergency, they were worried about putting all the Basques in one exit.

    (rimshot)

  80. 80.

    Anoniminous

    @Origuy:

    Normandy was given to the Norse as a land grant by the King of France with the idea they would protect the coast and stop other Vikings sailing up rivers and stealing stuff.

  82. 82.

    erlking

    This is apropos of nothing but I just got to shake hands with Richard fucking Thompson. So I’m feeling pretty good about my Saturday night.

    How is everyone else?

  86. 86.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @khead: I second that. For fuck’s sake, keep the Federal job. Transfer to another agency. It’s fucking cold out here in the world. They toss you overboard when you get old. And that 401K doesn’t match a pension.

  88. 88.

    Anne Laurie

    @Redshirt:

    And how did [Scandinavians] all morph into UN diplomats?!

    According to my Spousal Unit, whose mother was born in Norway, it’s easy to evolve into peaceful socialist farmers once you’ve shipped all the hotheads, sociopaths & people with impulse-control issues off to distribute their genes all along both Atlantic coasts and well up the Danube.

    It’s like the Netherlands turning into a prosperous bourgeois paradise, once their troublemakers got offloaded to Northern Ireland and Southern Africa.

  89. 89.

    Yutsano

    @khead: @Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: I may just be blowing off steam, although there is one possibility that would have me walk out the door right away. I think that one will be highly unlikely however. I’m also looking at another possibility: there’s a division of the IRS that has a position open. In Honolulu. I’m thinking about that really hard right now.

  90. 90.

    Joel (Macho Man Randy Savage)

    @Anne Laurie: From my limited reading of Swedish history, a few hundred years of belligerent monarchy followed by a few hundred years of crushing poverty tends to change a society’s perspective on the world.

  91. 91.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @Anne Laurie: the Netherlands have their fascist nutbags as well. See: Pim Fortuyn and Theo Van Gogh for but two examples.

  94. 94.

    dance around in your bones

    @YellowJournalism: I haven’t heard anything from her since the Saturday Open Thread/Tip Your Server thread. I hope she’s ok.

    Gads – I have to go to bed…..the grandkids are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Easter Bunny (they were peering out the back door tonight trying to see him/her hopping around) – I told them the Bunny only comes while you are sleeping, so off they went to bed.

    Anyway, it will be a sugar shock Sunday fer sure. Yippee.

  97. 97.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    Thanks to VPN I’m watching the best show on TV – “Mock the Week” on the BBC iPlayer

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