Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

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

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

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

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Open Thread

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Pic of the dog. Love the city parks in Pittsburgh, especially Highland Park (pictured here). Mountain bikers have built a warren of single track trails in the hills below the main reservoir, but they forgot to send the announcement email because the trails are empty enough for Max and friends to run free all weekend. Apart from one other guy who walks his dogs there we have run into two or three runners in twelve months. These trails are really well built, with banked turns and flagstone cobbles where mud would rut them out. Kids need to get off their xboxstations and enjoy some old-fashioned dirt in the face.

Max

Chat about stuff.

Reader Interactions

60Comments

  5. 5.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    All this Thatcher stuff has me confused because I don’t remember all this turmoil of which they speak. Perhaps I was insulated by having joined the military in ’78 a year before she was elected.

  6. 6.

    Wag

    O went to Pittsburgh lat year for the first time and really enjoyed it. Had a great night at The Church brewery. Excellent beet, good food, and an excellent space. I never would have thought about putting all the mash tuns and other brewing paraphanelia on the old alter of the church, but it worked. Very cool place.

  7. 7.

    SiubhanDuinne

    :: looks around for Yutsano ::
    :: looks to the left ::
    :: looks to the right ::
    :: does not see Yutsano anywhere ::

    PUPPEH!!

  10. 10.

    Wag

    Ok. I’m bummed that the edit function doesn’t work for smart phones. I wasn’t drinking excellent beets at the Church, but I did enjoy excellent beer.

  13. 13.

    scav

    @Wag: Existence of excellent beet (digitally) is poignant testimony to the excellence of the beer (physically), no?

  18. 18.

    Southern Beale

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    Oh I remember the turmoil. And man, some people have not forgotten either. I was listening to the BBC on my satellite radio and there was some amazingly tough criticism coming over the airwaves. So unlike U.S. media — when a prominent leader dies, the eulogizing invariably puts on rose colored glasses. No criticism allowed, unless it’s a serial killer! There might be a passing mention of some ickyness in the past but by and large it’s all, let’s inflate this person to sainthood. Whether they deserved it or not.

  19. 19.

    Another Halocene Human

    My thoughts on Margaret Thatcher are I thought she was already dead.

    Nevertheless, our local “public” radio station, control wrested by top university administrators basically in a coup (the original owners were too trusting), and switched from mostly classical to all Neal Conan all the time, is running full starbursts coverage of the Iron Lady right now.

    Dude on air even almost called her the most popular pm of recent years, then amended to to “well known” maybe because Americans get Blair and Major confused.

  20. 20.

    scav

    @Wag: sigh, true. I’m hoping for your sake it’s that comfortable low-level warm buzz and not the annoying feature that won’t restrict itself to our work-lives any longer.

  22. 22.

    RoonieRoo

    Grumpy Code Monkey and I getting a new Labrador puppy. We’re picking him up the first weekend of May. This will be dog number 2 for us.

  23. 23.

    Another Halocene Human

    I have been informed that the twitters have blurted out this comment on #nowthatCHERsdead : So, who found all the horcruxes?

  24. 24.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Southern Beale: Actually, I wouldn’t mind if they’d bring it back with a real, eloquent liberal voice instead of the punks they used to have on across from the fire-breathing conservatives. And have a real discussion. Say a Rachel Maddow across from …

    Okay, that was a silly idea.

  26. 26.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @arguingwithsignposts: I always liked Paul Begala, but for the rest of that show…. pffffft. I remember a commercial in ’96 of Bob Novak and Warthog Sununu moaning over Clinton’s reelection, and cheering themselves up by smirking about all the scandals they could rake over. A pretty blatant admission that it was all bullshit and showbiz. Two years later Congress impeached the president.

  27. 27.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    Kids need to get off their xboxstations and enjoy some old-fashioned dirt in the face.

    So long as they do it not on your lawn, eh?

  29. 29.

    BD of MN

    @Wag: I’ve actually made a beer with sugar beets. It didn’t taste as good as I had hoped (the sugar from the beets thinned out the beer more than I had planned) but it looked stunning, a gorgeous purple with a lighter purple head…

  30. 30.

    Mnemosyne

    Just got back from visiting my mom in Arizona. Driving through high winds for 6 hours is not as much fun as it sounds.

  31. 31.

    Another Halocene Human

    @ranchandsyrup: I must be the old fuddy duddy now because I don’t get it.

    Also, that cloud? YEAH, YOU! Stop making obscene gestures at my lawn. Imma call cloud dispersal on you. Serve you right! Arrr!

  33. 33.

    Another Halocene Human

    @gnomedad: Star Parker used to be carried a lot in my local tinder (there’s not much fish, as such, to wrap, unless you fancy dioxin poisoning) and/or gerbil cage liner, with her Christianist bully-mouth bluster and I’ve come to the conclusion that she is a being of pure evil, subsisting on the diffuse vapors of rage expelled by the hapless rurals who read her syndicated column.

    In other words she is best ignored. It’s really best for everyone.

  35. 35.

    Southern Beale

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    I’ve seen the format done well. I saw a clip of Krugman arguing against austerity on a British TV program that was a lot like Crossfire, posted a clip of it here. The difference is that in the UK, people get to finish a fucking sentence, they get to complete a fucking thought. A point gets made.

    That’s not what happens here. Here, people are interrupted, the right speaks in bumper stickers, the left speaks in broad concepts, no one finishes a sentence let alone a thought, no bigger point is made, my blood pressure is elevated, the TV gets chucked out the window. I fucking hate it.

  36. 36.

    Hill Dweller

    So, Jon Stewart is about to have Dave Stockman(ran OMB under Reagan) on his show. Stockman is going to claim the Fed needs to raise rates, which is insane. Look no further than Europe to see the effects.

    Let’s see if Stewart has a f’n clue.

  42. 42.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Mnemosyne: Thank McCain. While other senators looked for ways to use their seniority to get special Amtrak trains run for their constituents (Byrd, for one), McCain has thrown brickbats at America’s Railroad for decades.

    Amtrak relies on freight trackage in that area and they’re also in the midst of rejiggering service as a result of PRIIA, so I wouldn’t expect the service you see in the SW to be the same in ten years or even five years from now. The Raton Pass is going to be abandoned, and UP is probably going to doubletrack the main line which would make a daily Sunset feasible.

    And then there’s this (no comfort to AZ).

  43. 43.

    Jamey

    Wow, what the FUCK was up with the CBS announcers? They were so in the tank for UM that I turned the game off midway through the first half.

    Embarrassing, even by the lowly standards of network sports broadcasting.

  44. 44.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Southern Beale: Nope, Florida. I wonder what the deal is. The talk blocks cost way, way more.

    Maybe it’s a conspiracy by the manufacturers of blood pressure pills.

  45. 45.

    Another Halocene Human

    @The prophet Nostradumbass: Probably was not important on the freight network? Used to be a much smaller town? Zero investment in passenger rail?

    NM has some intercity rail. They are investing in passenger rail. AZ spits on it.

    And now with PRIIA, good luck getting service enhancements to a single state without the state paying for it.

    AZ could be sponsoring more Ambuses (bus to rail, single ticket) like Oregon and California do… but they don’t.

  48. 48.

    Tripod

    @The prophet Nostradumbass:

    The Sunset Limited used to run Tuscon – Phoenix – L.A. The old jointed rail on the Phoenix-Yuma section needs replacement and the line is of little use to the Union Pacific RR. So Amtrak now runs on the freight main that bypasses Phoenix.

  49. 49.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @Tripod: the Coast Starlight mostly runs on UP freight lines between San Jose and LA, which has caused problems at times when I’ve been on the train.

  51. 51.

    Tripod

    @The prophet Nostradumbass:

    The UPRR refuses to let Amtrak run the Sunset Limited more than three times per week.

    I don’t believe the line west of Phoenix has been officially abandoned, just embargoed west of the nuke plant. IMO the railroad is waiting for public money to pay for the upgrades and maintenance.

    A similar situation is developing with the Southwest Chief route over Raton Pass in NW New Mexico.

  52. 52.

    Mart

    A friend of mine who was a near world class cyclist got a speeding ticket (48MPH) tearing down a Highland Park hill. We were so proud of him. Forty years later, living on the foothills of the Ozarks, I look for nice flat rails to trails and river levee trails to ride on.

  53. 53.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    For train people, there’s a program produced for California PBS stations called “Daylight: The Most Beautiful Train in the World”, about the old Coast Daylight train that SP ran between San Francisco and Los Angeles, which is a really great watch. When Amtrak took over, of course, that part of the service was terminated, but the Coast Starlight (SEA-LAX) is still around.

  56. 56.

    Another Halocene Human

    @The prophet Nostradumbass: Some version of a Coast Daylight is coming with state support, thanks to the Democrat supermajority in California. Don’t bet on it having Pacific Parlour Cars, though.

    See, the D’s can do SOMETHING right!

  57. 57.

    Another Halocene Human

    @PeakVT: CSX is balls too. They’re out to “maximize shareholder value” which is corporate speak for “soak the states”. Kinda like major league clubs and stadiums. But worse when you see the indemnity agreements — and realize why they push that so hard (two horrific fatal accidents caused by their epic failure to maintain track switches in good working order or even do what they promised the state after the first accident).

    Conrail is a good argument against nationalizing railroads, but, ooo, it would be nice if CSX abruptly fell under new ownership.

  58. 58.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Tripod: Pretty sure Raton Pass is going bye-bye, so ride it now while you can (if you care about that sort of thing). They still have semaphore signals. Which is DEFS not high-speed rail!

    (To go fast today, you have to have cab signals. FRA safety regs. That’s why some of the old skool trains were faster than some of today’s Amtraks.)

    But don’t take my word for it: search for “raton pass” on Train Orders, railroad.net forums, or Amtrak Unlimited.

  59. 59.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @Another Halocene Human:

    Some version of a Coast Daylight is coming with state support, thanks to the Democrat supermajority in California. Don’t bet on it having Pacific Parlour Cars, though.

    I’m not sure what you’re talking about now. If it’s the High Speed Rail, I feel fairly confident in predicting that it will never be completely built. If not, I don’t know.

  60. 60.

    Jebediah

    @Mart:

    A friend of mine who was a near world class cyclist got a speeding ticket (48MPH)

    Fastest I have ever gone on a bicycle was ~55 mph, down a fairly steep road in Mandeville Canyon. I am unlikely to do it again – my brother-in-law pointed out I might be in some trouble if anyone pulled out of their driveway too fast.
    It is kind of cool and scary to go very fast on 23mm wide tires, but you have to be scanning the road ahead pretty carefully for rocks, etc.
    And I didn’t get a ticket…phew!

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