Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

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

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

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

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

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

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

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

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

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

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

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

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87Comments

  3. 3.

    piratedan

    btw, thanks to all about the uninstall of Stylish on the Firefox browser, all is now back to normal and I can eschew the travails of working in IE again.

  4. 4.

    pharniel

    @Redshirt: Yoda translating “All you need is love” transforms to “Love, is all you need” though it really should be “Love, all you need is”

  6. 6.

    Maude

    When those pictures were taken All You Need is Love hadn’t been made into a song yet.
    That’s Meet The Beatles. The first songs that made them famous.
    Aside from that, it’s stupid.

  8. 8.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @Maude:

    That’s Meet The Beatles.

    That album came out when I was in H.S. Its title was immediately transformed into “Beat Your Meatles.”

  9. 9.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Amused we are.

    Soonergrunt, can we haz update?

    BTW, that wink from George is delightful.

  11. 11.

    Calming Influence

    @Maude: OK Maud, you’re getting a bit agitated. How’s about we get your lap blanket and wheel you out in the sun for little nap, hmmmmm?

  17. 17.

    Luthe

    While we’re doing site improvements, can we get a link to Charles Pierce in the sidebar?

  35. 35.

    Wallis Lane

    Hold your hand, I want to.

    USSR, I’m back in.

    In the road, why don’t we do it.

    Blisters on my fingers, I got.

  39. 39.

    Redshirt

    You know, Yoda is like 800 years old and the head of the Jedi Council. You’d think he’d have the time and resources to learn to speak proper English like everyone else in the Galaxy.

    That he cannot says a lot about Yoda, and the Jedi.

  40. 40.

    Neddie Jingo

    @Cris (without an H):

    Mmm, I think those photos are from A Hard Day’s Night. I think.

    Correct. “Meet the Beatles” is all four in one shot, high contrast, left sides of faces lost in shadow. This thing.

    My favorite Paul Is Dead website is this one: James Paul McCartney (1942-1966). Dude uses Science! to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt what the rational world has been laughing up its sleeve about since I was in the sixth grade.

    Honestly, as a fan of True Crackpottery, I could explore that site for hours without getting bored. Science! I tell you!

  42. 42.

    ? Martin

    @Redshirt:

    You know, Yoda is like 800 years old and the head of the Jedi Council. You’d think he’d have the time and resources to learn to speak proper English like everyone else in the Galaxy.

    I’m still impressed that he can speak a language from both the future and another galaxy.

  43. 43.

    Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn

    @Higgs Boson’s Mate: Ah, yes, sweet adolescence. When a young man’s fancies turn to are completely hijacked by “Mr. Happy Will See You — Now!“

  45. 45.

    max

    I’m guessing, judging by the rain, that all short-term droughts will end at least east of OKC, this being the way that shit usually ends – with flash flooding. Woo.

    Meantime, the tornado watch zone covers half of Texas and big chunks of Arkansas & LA. Fun times ahead. (The lightening strikes map is just awesome.) The wind seems to have died back a little, so that helps. Maybe.

    max
    [‘Tom Coburn: a proud Southern Baptist fuckhead.’]

  48. 48.

    Amir Khalid

    Best, Pete is.

    I saw Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby today, in 2D. It’s faithful to the book, to the point of putting F. Scott’s prose on the screen as titles, but offers no real insight into what Fitzgerald was getting at. I sense that when Baz sat down to think through the movie, the first thing on his mind was JAY! GATSBY’S! PARTIES! IN 3D!

    I found that having Gatsby’s and Tom Buchanan’s sports coupes move like the toon cars out of Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a cartoonish touch. And Amitabh Bachchan is about as plausible playing a “Meyer Wolfshiem” as Benedict Cumberbatch is playing a “Khan Noonien Singh”.

  52. 52.

    gbear

    There should be an extra ‘love’ in George’s photo.

    Also, at the time that photo was taken, The Beatles should be singing “All You Need Is Uppers”. They hadn’t discovered pot yet.

  54. 54.

    the Conster

    @Shakezula:

    Also, nothing says “sharia law” like same sex marriage. WTF? The guy had some serious problems, but same sex marriage wasn’t one of them.

  58. 58.

    Amir Khalid

    @Shakezula:

    Earlier today Venner posted a screed against same-sex marriage on his website.

    “His long essay was a tirade against gay marriage but also a warning that the ‘population of France and Europe’ was going to be ‘replaced’ and brought under ‘Islamist control’ and ‘sharia law,’” the Independent reports.

    I must have missed the art in my religious education where they said Sharia law was pro gay-marriage.

  61. 61.

    beltane

    @Amir Khalid: I think he meant that France would be punished for legalizing gay marriage by eventually being annexed by the Caliphate. You’d think he’d be pleased by this prospect but I guess not.

  62. 62.

    ranchandsyrup

    Was walking back to hotel today and some kids tired to drive by water balloon me. Two balloons missed me. They swung around the block and tried again. Missed with three this time. Guess their dads didn’t play catch enough with them. You gotta hit the target. It’s wicked hot and humid in Hartford and I would have appreciated the cooling off.

  63. 63.

    Mike E

    Yet another Beatles revisionist/hater squeezing Ringo out of the band’s hierarchy…no Rings, no Fabs!

  64. 64.

    Roger Moore

    @beltane:
    The Caliphate is totally the worst thing ever, because they call YHWH by the wrong name and have a different set of rules for oppressing women and nonbelievers.

  65. 65.

    Poopyman

    @ranchandsyrup: Damned kids these days have no interest in science. If they did, they’d have compensated for the moving frame of reference.

    And if these kids had done that in Florida or Texas or Arizona? ….

  71. 71.

    beltane

    @Roger Moore: And some of them even have the audacity to oppress women and nonbelievers while wearing unfashionable clothing. This could be very unsettling in the eyes of a French wingnut, who seems to have had a grudging admiration for the oppressive aspects of Islam while simultaneously being appalled by the religion’s lack of aesthetic appeal. American fundies have no fashion sense and so are not troubled by these things.

  73. 73.

    Amir Khalid

    @Yatsuno:
    I wanted to be one back at The Star, but they told me they already had too many people doing that. Sigh …

  74. 74.

    Shakezula

    Look it’s simple. Equal marriage will result in a complete breakdown of social order as evidenced by what will happen in Massachusetts, any day now, just you wait. While we’re running back and forth waving our arms over our heads because of Equal Marriage Doom, eleven million radical Mooslins, disguised as wedding planners, will enter the country and take over.

    QED.

  76. 76.

    the Conster

    @beltane:

    Wingnuts and christian fundamentalists hate sharia law because they’re the competition to be the oppressor. Why they think everyone else isn’t as confused about that as they are is one of the enduring mysteries.

  81. 81.

    Mike E

    @Cris (without an H): Troof. He’s a drummer’s drummer, universally loved in his biz and ridiculed by know-nothings.

    What’s also a hoot, too, is how everybody’s fave Fab says something about them, like: John, because he’s a badass; George (my man), the truth-teller, and ascetic. Paul gets ragged for his heavy-handedness, treacly pop sensibilities, and, while getting high or something, allowing Michael Jackson to snatch the Beatles’ songbook from right under his bong. Aargh! Truth be told, Paul was The Genius of the group and did most of the mind blowing shit we associate them with to this day.

  82. 82.

    The Moar You Know

    if you were to take the drum track from virtually any Beatles song and isolate it, you’d know based on the drums alone exactly what song it is.

    @Cris (without an H): A tribute to John and Paul, who did most of the drum parts.

    Ringo did some good ones. If you’re a drummer (and I am) there are “tells” that let you know it’s a Ringo track as opposed to John or Paul. His accents are wrong. He’s a self-taught lefty playing a right-handed kit and there’s some things he just doesn’t do correctly. It works but it’s kind of weird to listen to.

  83. 83.

    Randy P

    Don’t want to clutter up Sooner’s thread with this but there was a much smaller disaster in the last week closer to home which I don’t think got much national press notice. Namely, the derailment and collision of a couple of Metro North trains north of New York City. Just want to point out that the MTA folks have been doing amazing work getting that crucial section of track back online.

    There have been no Metro North trains running through there since the accident, and virtually no Amtrak.

    My vacation starts next week with a train ride up to Boston, so I’ve been trying to figure out what to do and started investigating alternate arrangements. I talked to Amtrak about it last night and they said they thought they’d be up and running normally by late this week. I was flabbergasted but the lady on the phone confirmed it.

    MTA has been posting updates about what they’ve been doing to get the tracks up and running again. It truly has been a heroic effort. I’m just amazed.
    http://web.mta.info/mnr/NewHaven/new-haven-line-recovery.html

    Just think what kind of a train system we might have if the Republicans hadn’t been starving it since Reagan.

  84. 84.

    Roger Moore

    @Randy P:

    Just think what kind of a train system we might have if the Republicans hadn’t been starving it since Reagan.

    Just think of what a country we might have if the Confederates hadn’t been trying to destroy it since Lincoln.

  86. 86.

    Shortstop

    @Amir Khalid: Luhrmann (and Maguire, but the buck stops with Luhrmann) fundamentally misunderstand Nick. I mean they miss him by a mile.

  87. 87.

    Death Panel Truck

    @The Moar You Know: Right. Lennon thought Ringo was such a shitty drummer that he asked him to play on Plastic Ono Band. He hated Ringo’s drumming so bad that he told the drummer on the Double Fantasy sessions to “play it like Ringo.”

    And fuck Paul McCartney. I wish he really had died in ’66.

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