Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not all heroes wear capes.

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

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

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

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

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

“woke” is the new caravan.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

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

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Another Open Thread

Reader Interactions

169Comments

  1. 1.

    Randiego

    I’m not much for sci-fi, but I’m hooked on Orphan Black on BBC America. Then hockey.

  2. 2.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    I’m listening to Dwight Yoakam on the jukebox. Trying to work up the energy to go finish cleaning the spa.

  4. 4.

    Corner Stone

    Waiting for you to slit your wrists with a butter knife and spend your dying moments spooning Rush Limbaugh.

  5. 5.

    cmorenc

    I refereed soccer today, drove home and walked my dog on the beach. My ambition for tonight is listening to the Tony Rice or Albert Lee channels on Pandora while drinking a beer and maybe a little more :=)

    Gotta go to bed early tonight. Four soccer games to ref, starting at 8am.

  6. 6.

    Omnes Omnibus

    A buncha Elsa Lanchester flicks on TCM tonight. Bride of Frankenstein, Life of Henry VIII, Murder by Death.

  7. 7.

    Suffern ACE

    Me. I’m trying to convince my partner that there isn’t a Mr. Spark on the enterprise.

  11. 11.

    jl

    Well, Cole is SOOL on that.. Everybody knows this here miserable lefty politics and everything else under the sun blog is supposed to be all politics all the time, preferably outraged and intense style. A commenter will come by to remind the hapless Dr. evil mastermind Cole soon.

    So, Cole needs to chose a spoon for Rush.
    I was going to suggest a runcible spoon, but Wiki says that doesn’t exist. I always thought it was some fancy Victorian age high class spoon for ice cream. But today I am clueless and out of it on everything, looks like.

    List of types of spoons
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_types_of_spoons

  13. 13.

    Heliopause

    “I would rather slit my wrists with a butter knife and spend my dying moments spooning Rush Limbaugh than talk about the IRS, Benghazi, umbrellas, or whatever.”

    Kind of defeats the purpose of a politically oriented blog, doesn’t it?

    “Just waiting for the Sharks/Kings”

    You’ll never compete with real sports sites for the traffic of people interested in the Neutral Zone Trap League.

    “Rock and Roll HoF concert”

    Oh, Christ.

  16. 16.

    Anya

    I want to talk about Umbrellagate because it’s the stupidest thing ever. Dumber even than flag ping crap in 08.

  21. 21.

    Mark B.

    Saturday night is Dr. Who night on BBC America. Jenna Louise Coleman is pretty hot bit it’s kind of unexplained what is going with her relationship with the Doctor since he’s supposed to be married.

  23. 23.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Anya: What about Obama disrespecting the Oval Office by putting his feet on the desk? That was pretty dumb.

  24. 24.

    Chris

    Since it’s an open thread –

    Can anyone recommend a good book on the politics of the Great Depression/New Deal era? Specifically, how the advent of the former led to the rise of the former. Yes, I know the CliffNotes – worst depression ever finally leads enough people to say “we’ve had enough!” and push for real reform – just looking for something a little more in depth than that. (And especially on which actors, other than the Roosevelt administration, were involved and how).

  25. 25.

    BGinCHI

    Giro d’Italia after a fine meal of grilled peppers and onions over sausages from Gene’s Palace of Encased Meats.

    Yes, our sausages are better than yours.

  28. 28.

    Corner Stone

    @Poopyman: Crazy ass old hillbilly looks like he may start bringing a dead possum to the games. So when he goes home he has something to put on fer stewmeat.
    He’s freakin 36 for God’s sake.

  30. 30.

    Chris

    @Anya:

    I want to talk about Umbrellagate because it’s the stupidest thing ever. Dumber even than flag ping crap in 08.

    I know. Isn’t it great?

    I really, really hope they milk this for everything they think it’s worth.

  31. 31.

    Mark B.

    @MikeJ: I could be wrong, but I believe the David Tennant doctor married River. Although the timeline was unclear, the presence of Tennant as the doctor places it before the Matt Smith doctor. I can’t remember the name of the episode but it was the one where River’s true identity was revealed.

  33. 33.

    Anya

    If you don’t want to talk about all the Obama “scandals” that are billion times worse than Watergate then we can talk about how Star Trek is better than Star Wars.

  35. 35.

    Anne Laurie

    @jl:

    I was going to suggest a runcible spoon, but Wiki says that doesn’t exist. I always thought it was some fancy Victorian age high class spoon for ice cream.

    It’s a spork, sometimes with a cutting edge for added inutility. Word is that Edward Lear invented the word, and a bunch of novelty manufacturers did their best to make it a ‘thing’ for Victorian hipsters.

  36. 36.

    Jerzy Russian

    Went and saw the new Star Trek movie. I thought it was pretty good. It was an early show, so not many people were there. I was distracted by a cell phone only once.

  37. 37.

    Anya

    @Chris: I think we should encourage it. All the liberal blogs need to cover this so that it has more legs.

  38. 38.

    MobiusKlein

    It’s not possible to ‘spoon’ Rush.
    Think bigger: you have to ladle him

  40. 40.

    Catsy

    For all you PC game junkies out there, Borderlands 2 is on sale for $14 all weekend on Steam. Go get it.

  41. 41.

    MikeJ

    @Mark B.: I was pretty sure she got married in the ep called “The Wedding of River Song”, which had Matt Smith.

    Her first/last appearance was in “Silence in the Library.” But timey wimey and stuff, as Yatsuno said. Says. Will have said.

  44. 44.

    BGinCHI

    @MikeJ: I like that place but Gene’s is a bit more working class and less specialty foods. I was just sassing: a lot of places have great butcher shops and encased meat goodness.

    I feel sorry for vegetarians during grilling season.

  49. 49.

    Anya

    @Just Some Fuckhead: How about the time lip readers uncovered Michelle Obama whispering ‘All this for a damn flag’ in President Obama’s ear during a flag folding ceremony on the anniversary of 9/11?

  55. 55.

    Keith

    I think it should be “You know noothing, John Cole”.
    For me, I’ll be switching between UFC and boxing (Matthyse-Peterson should be a lot of action). I’d like to catch the Hall of Fame show (last year’s was really good), but I know it’ll be on 100 times between now and next week.

  56. 56.

    PIGL

    @Anya: well, it could hardly be worse. I mean, after the first movie, I don’t think I have ever seen anything that sucked so awesomly and for so long. Seven sequels and prequels (or was it late), each worse then the other.

  57. 57.

    Schlemizel

    got into an argument on Reddit with a couple of glibertarians & would gladly kiss death on the lips now.

    Those guys deserve the ass fucking they are going to get from our masters – unfortunately the rest of us who don’t deserve it will get it too.

    I have lost the desire to fight any more. gonna go out & buy a powerball ticket and when I will I am going to become one of them

  58. 58.

    Chris

    @Anya:

    If you don’t want to talk about all the Obama “scandals” that are billion times worse than Watergate then we can talk about how Star Trek is better than Star Wars.

    And Anya throws down the gauntlet!

    @Jerzy Russian:

    I liked it just fine, too, better than I expected. I may have to review my opinion of this Trek continuity upwards. Based on how it ended, looks like the next one will really be back to the basics, too.

  59. 59.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Anya: Star Trek lost me with that godawful whale movie. I couldn’t figure out if it was supposed to be comedy or not.

  60. 60.

    NickT

    @kindness:

    You think Cole wants to be told “You know nothing, John Cole” by Tunch and a hot chick on the same night?

  65. 65.

    MomSense

    My backyard looks like Obama attacked it with dronez! Craters and conifer carnage everywhere.

    Ever have one of those days where you do chores for hours and it looks worse at the end?

  66. 66.

    NickT

    @IowaOldLady:

    I am tempted to congratulate my Danish cousins, but I am pretty sure that they would fall about laughing at the notion that anyone from Denmark even bothered to enter the event.

  67. 67.

    Haydnseek

    Cole! I missed your “why don’t people like hockey” thread and I’m deeply sorry I did. Playoff hockey is so intense, so exciting, that sometimes I stomp out of the room, because I can’t stand the idea of what might happen next. I’ve been a Kings fan since 1969. They have come close at times, (Marty Mcsorleys illegally curved stick!) but have generally sucked. After they hoisted the Cup last year, all is forgiven. Some people hide their eyes during horror movies. I sometimes want to hide my eyes when the Kings have to kill the power play. Kings vs. Pens! Let The Games Begin!

  69. 69.

    La Caterina

    @Chris: OK, got that for you- The Age of Roosevelt, Volume One, The Crisis of the Old Order, by Arthur M. Schlesinger.

  71. 71.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @Mark B.:
    I prefer the original run of Dr. Who. The low budget sets and cheesy special effects made it good campy fun for me. But then I also enjoy the 1936 serial version of Flash Gordon and I loves me some Commando Cody.

  73. 73.

    ? Martin

    Can we just combine all of these into an official Omnibus Uppity-gate and get it over with?

  74. 74.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    @Mark B.: Matt’s Doctor married River. It was the episode where she tried to destroy the universe to save him. Ahh, love.

    @Mark B.: Alternate timeline isn’t the right phrase. Alternate reality created by River undoing something that was supposed to happen, namely the Doctor getting killed.

  76. 76.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @? Martin:

    Can we just combine all of these into an official Omnibus Uppity-gate and get it over with?

    Don’t drag me into it.

  80. 80.

    MattR

    Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction off to a good start with funny speeches from inductor Don Henley and inductee Randy Neumann. Not sure if I will keep watching or take advantage of one of the 100 replays that Keith mentioned above.

  82. 82.

    lojasmo

    Wife is up lobbying at the capital for the right of child care workers and home health workers to organize. Lads’ night with the boy, so I got Cabin in the Woods and Django from redbox.

  86. 86.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Baud:

    Reportedly, our liberal media have coined “Obamagate” and “scandalgate.”

    BULLSHIT. I coined the term ScandalGate.

  87. 87.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @WereBear:
    I would have loved to see MST3K do the Gene Autry serial “Phantom Empire.” Yeah, I have that one too. It was perhaps the corniest of a seriously corny genre.

  88. 88.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Anya: No, the Whale one was shit. And the search for God one. That one was easily the most anticlimactic movie of all time.

  90. 90.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @Anya:

    Star Trek would have been more awesome if Palpatine had said “Luke, submit to the Dark Side. Bang your sister. You know you want to.”

  92. 92.

    Steeplejack

    @SIA:

    It is back, at least for some people. Are you not seeing “b”, “i”, “link”, “quote” above the edit window? What browser/OS are you using?

  101. 101.

    sacrablue

    I hope some of the many animal lovers here can give me some advice. Does anyone have experience dealing with feline hyperesthesia syndrome? Is there any medication that actually helps? I’m almost five weeks into the process. We started with diazepam and added phenobarbitol this week. The poor baby is a complete zombie, but he is still trying to detach what is left of his tail.

  104. 104.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Anya:

    You didn’t like Spock mind melding with the whale? It was an owesomley goofy moment. What’s not to like?

    I think it could have been better with Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas.

  105. 105.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @sacrablue: I love animals but we keep accidentally killing them. I’m going to let someone else field this one.

  110. 110.

    jl

    @? Martin:

    ” Omnibus Uppity-gate ”

    I’m going with that until and unless Obama can come up with a real scandal,
    But, I dunno maybe an inadequate blah president isn’t GOOD enough to dish up a real scandal. huh? Maybe that kind of real historic achievement is just over his head, hennnghh….?

    Edit: Just think of all the goofy Gaffe-gates Old Handsome Joe would have dished up by now. He would have been impeached for crazy old uncle in the attic high crimes and misdemeanors. And washing his muscle cars on the WH lawn every Saturday morning. And maybe showing up on one of the WH balconies in boxers and a tee waving one of his shotguns around, something…

  111. 111.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Omnes Omnibus: It scares the hell out of me that you could be a judge. Tell me you will never decide anything serious.

    Like is there a special clown courtroom?

  112. 112.

    geg6

    I’m recording the R & R Hall of Fame ceremony. Just socI can fast forward through the blasphemy of honoring the worst band that ever played. I love me some Heart and the Wilson sisters are badasses in the first degree but it’s not worth sitting through anything having to do with Rush (spit, spit, spit) to adore their badassery. Fast forward and all will be well.

  113. 113.

    Mornington Crescent

    @NotMax:

    A couple of decades ago, I wasted many an hour watching Ernie Kovacs at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York, including the famous Nairobi Trio sketch with Jack Lemmon, along with all of the Bob and Ray material they had.

    Another item that’s now widely available because of You Tube are the Scopitone video jukebox performances, including this performance of If I Had a Hammer by Debbie Reynolds in a style that is deliciously oh so wrong somehow:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng2Ls4OA2k4

  114. 114.

    Anya

    Ugh. I hate Facebook. I am arguing with some idiot about how Obama sold us out. Most of my friends are rich assholes who only care about legalizing marijuana, drones and who think that not funding the government to stick it to the republicans is a viable option.

  116. 116.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Because I suggested you adopt standard media practices and let interns do work for you? That’s a bit harsh.

    Yeah, I guess yer right.

  120. 120.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    Just changed out some hoses on one of the cars. As I was installing one hose I noticed that the printing on it identified it as “LOL PLUS” spec.

    I’m hoping it isn’t a joke hose.

  121. 121.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Anya:

    Which Tyler Perry movie would you recommend? I’ve never watched one yet.

    Any of them. The man is a bonafide genius.

  122. 122.

    mouse tolliver

    Rory and the 10th Doctor in a new detective series. So that’s Tennant’s real accent then?

  123. 123.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    OTOH I think they were crazy to give me the job, but I wasn’t going to turn it down.

    Use a magic 8 ball or something neutral like that.

  124. 124.

    Anya

    @Baud: Not really. They don’t relish starving people and they’re not absolutists when it comes to freedom. They’re just against wars and have unrealistic expectations about presidential powers. They matured during W’s time so that’s expected, I suppose.

  125. 125.

    Punchy

    Where’s the damn Soccer Guy Poster to chat up next week’s CL finale? He does fewer cameos than Tall Daves and ppGaz.

  129. 129.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Anya: Corner Stone would be a good resource on this. She’s done a few of Tyler Perry’s scripts in community theater. She calls me on the phone at all hours of the day and pretends to be Madea. I’ll be standing on a loading dock at work doing something vaguely managerial, maybe holding my reading glasses in the corner of my mouth and staring thoughtfully at an upside-down shipping manifest and my phone will ring. Hello?, I’ll answer.

    “I ain’t afraid of the po-po!”

    Cracks me up every time.

  130. 130.

    sacrablue

    @WereBear: I had already switched to grain free/gluten free diet before he mutilated his tail. I have a large container of coconut oil so I will try to find a way to add it his food. We have also been working on weight loss for quite a long time. He is still obese but he has made considerable progress. We couldn’t figure out why he was gaining so much weight. We discovered that a neighbor was putting out a huge bowl of food for the neighborhood ferals. At this point we are decreasing the dosage of phenobarbitol and still hoping that the seizures subside. It is like having a newborn baby. I haven’t slept through the night in weeks.

  131. 131.

    Anya

    @raven: I think Facebook makes people dumber. Some idiot will post a stupid article and everyone will jump on that bandwagon.

  132. 132.

    raven

    The Jack Reacher flick with Cruise is set in Pittsburgh. Not all that bad if you can handle seeing people hit with an M-14 round and fall down like they fell asleep. Werner Herzog is in it and so is the insufferable Robert Duvall as a jarhead range owner.

  133. 133.

    Weaselone

    @Chris:

    I’m hoping it will as well. I enjoyed the most recent version, but I think it was a little action heavy and character development and interaction light. Hopefully, with the ship and crew finally leaving on the 5-year voyage we’ll see something a little different next time. Also, they might want to edit out any plot holes big enough to drive a dreadnought and constitution class starship through the earth’s defensive perimeter.

  137. 137.

    scav

    @Anya: and then they insist that due to the power (infallibility +10) of crowd-sourcing and/or the wisdom of crowds means it simply must be true. That plus the innate magic of reading it on a computer . . .

  138. 138.

    raven

    @Baud: I’m sorry, I meant to say we just watched it. It’s OK, Cruise is a lone wolf seeking justice and he whale’s on quite a few people. Some moderately interesting twists and turns.

  139. 139.

    raven

    @Anya: If you were on mine you could help find Sunday yoga classes and look at all the proud parent’s graduation pictures.

  140. 140.

    burnspbesq

    Still trying to figure out how Syracuse climbed out of the grave today. Yale had those fuckers dead and buried.

    Two more quarterfinals tomorrow. Denver vs. Evil and Uke vs. Ntre Dame.

  141. 141.

    WereBear

    @sacrablue: Yeah, in our house we call such food “kitty crack” because they like it, but it doesn’t exactly like them.

    I went through a lot of research in a short time when my 13 year old cat developed seizures. It’s a process, and I hope things work out.

  143. 143.

    Anya

    @scav: Totally! It makes people susceptible to peer pressure. Some people think if they don’t agree with supper progressive writers like David Sirota (fuck him with a rusty pitchfork) they’re not liberal enough.

  145. 145.

    Baud

    @Anya:

    You need more peer pressure on your side. You should recruit us all as friends so we can mock your other friends relentlessly.

  146. 146.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Anya: All the really liberal issues are the ones involving labor and capital. All the other allegedly liberal stuff is distraction for the proletariat.

  150. 150.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Anya: Thirty-four year old African-American female named Yvette, lives in Houston, works in the IT department for an electronic transaction processing gateway.

    ETA: Lesbian, one child

  151. 151.

    Beldar

    I’m running a electron/positron storage ring and its associated linac and synchrotron. Nothing much to report so far… (this is a good thing)

  153. 153.

    Opie_jeanne

    @NotMax:
    Those gorillas were well-trained dancers. The prima ballerina pulled off a perfect double pirouette near the beginning and the troupe did a nice job. Her partner was no slouch and I thought for a second that she/they would do a “fish”. My delight that she attempted a series of fouettés was dampened slightly when she had to hop a bit near the end, but overall it was a nice performance.

  158. 158.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Anya: Absolutely, it’s why we shouldn’t be required to patronize insurance companies who are not providing a service but merely skimming a percentage of health care dollars.

  159. 159.

    SIA

    @Steeplejack: Didn’t really answer your question. I see the code below the comment box, but not the click on shortcut that used to be available. Using Safari on iPad.

  160. 160.

    Steeplejack

    @SIA:

    I’ll let the iPad weenies comment. One thing this redesign has brought out is that FYWP is a hydra-headed monster and there are very few “one size fits all” answers. So it’s always good to know which platform you’re having a problem with.

  161. 161.

    qwerty42

    @Anya:

    I want to talk about Umbrellagate because it’s the stupidest thing ever….

    See this from Rebecca Schoenkopf’s (Wonkette) older brother.

  162. 162.

    Chris

    @Weaselone:

    I’m more or less resigned that “action heavy” is the way to go, simply because it’s what modern audiences expect. Again, though, I’m one of these people who managed to thoroughly enjoy The Motion Picture and that was already too long and not-action-packed-enough for audiences a generation ago, so I’m not really the target.

    Speaking of ships; the look of the new Enterprise has grown on me, but I still maintain that the refit Enterprise from the TOS movies is still the best looking starship ever made, bar none.

    What hasn’t grown on me, though: Starfleet uniforms that look half Soviet and half Star Wars Imperial? What in the name of Roddenberry were you thinking, J. J?

  166. 166.

    Watching TeeVee

    Me? I was a little misty-eyed after the reveal…

    “Introducing
    John Hurt
    as
    The Doctor”

    Nothing much relevant after THAT…. You??

  167. 167.

    Watching TeeVee

    This has to be the best line ever uttered in the history of dramatic television:

    [said as an unknown apparition has reached inside Strax’s body to stop Strax’s heart]

    Strax: “Don’t worry sir, I think I’ve got him rattled!”

    Strax is my ultimate hero. :-)

Comments are closed.