Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

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

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You cannot shame the shameless.

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

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

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

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

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

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

In my day, never was longer.

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55Comments

  1. 1.

    Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)

    I’ll see your Monkey Gone to Heaven and raise you a Hey

  2. 2.

    Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)

    BTW, people were slagging on 80s music the other day, but I would just remind them that the Pixies’ best album was released in the 80s. Suck it millennials. ;)

  5. 5.

    Comrade Jake

    This story about the high-school kid in Oregon who wanted to blow up his school is kind of nuts.

    Among other things, he made a napalm bomb. I’m guessing something like that takes a bit more effort than your standard pipe bomb.

  10. 10.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    I need more music suggestions. Good beat and solid bass. I’m testing a special headphone amplifier with bass boost and a full watt of output power. I need something that will rattle windowpanes.

    I have Chemical Brothers’ “Block Rockin’ Beats” and Oakenfold’s “Ready Steady Go” but those are electronica. I should find tracks with more analog sounding drums and bass.

    ETA: That Pixies track is a really clean mix!

  11. 11.

    Comrade Jake

    I think I’ve mentioned this in one of JC’s late-night Netflix threads before, but I’m always late to the party.

    It cracks me up that the vast majority of films people suggest aren’t actually available on Netflix streaming.

  12. 12.

    Yatsuno

    @Alison: We may have to resort to pugil sticks at dawn. He will be a Sounder. Oh yes, he WILL be a Sounder! :P

  13. 13.

    cyntax

    @Comrade Jake:

    Wellllll… remember that these are the same people that used a FB valuation of at least $45 a share (can’t recall exact number) as part of their fiscal projections for state revenues. A surplus would be nice but we’ll see.

  17. 17.

    Keith

    @Comrade Jake: Quite topical, because I saw a comment on the WaPo’s article about North Carolina going ultra-right-wing that claimed California is desperate for a Republican governor since “Jerry boy” is apparently running it into the ground. For a single sentence, it had a very high density of wishful thinking; only Sarah Palin can do better, and that’s because she writes in a run-on sentence.

  20. 20.

    Comrade Jake

    @Keith: The NC legislature really has run completely off the rails of late. It’s like just when we were starting to distance ourselves from the batshit-crazyness that is SC, we get sucked back into the vortex.

  21. 21.

    MomSense

    Having the laziest day today. It is still raining and freezing cold so we are just sitting around the fireplace eating and listening to my oldest play guitar. I liked one song in particular and I asked him what it was and it turns out he was just improvising.

    Maybe all those years of having all kinds of music playing all day long instead of tv are paying off.

  22. 22.

    Keith

    @Comrade Jake: As tasteless as it is, The Onion had a line about 10 years ago or so that said, “They say we get the government we deserve, but I don’t recall ever knife-raping any retarded nuns.” Offensive as hell, but it kind of brings home the point about how bad government can be.

  23. 23.

    Elizabelle

    I see you guys are already discussing this. Tuning in late.

    WaPost article about North Carolina’s turn to severely conservative politics. Front page of Sunday paper.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/in-north-carolina-unimpeded-gop-drives-state-hard-to-the-right/2013/05/25/a9c9ccd2-c3c7-11e2-914f-a7aba60512a7_story.html

    Know BJ has discussed this before.

    Craptastic about the WP article: it’s only “liberals” upset about the conservatives’ takeover.

    Got that? People and politics are libs and conservatives and nothing in between.

    I see that a lot in fourth estate reporting. It’s so false.

  25. 25.

    Elizabelle

    Was it really only a couple of million $$ far right cash that turned the state? That’s tragic.

  26. 26.

    quannlace

    @becca:

    An editorial in today’s paper by Jennifer Rubin. Starts out promising, her argument is that the GOP needs to get over Ronald Reagan. But then she ruins it by calling Cruz, Bobby Jindal and Rand Paul as the future for the right wing, their ‘innovators and problem-solvers.’

    Snort!

  27. 27.

    Elizabelle

    Good article about the IRS doing its best despite underfunding in today’s LA Times.

    http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20130526,0,1884244.column

    Most honest analysis I’ve seen to date.

    The last time the IRS was hauled over the coals for its supposed wrongdoing — in 1998, when the ostensible issue was the mistreatment of innocent individual taxpayers by revenue agents — Congress’ true underlying motive was to hamstring its enforcement program against corporations and wealthy taxpayers. And that’s precisely how things turned out.

    What’s the underlying motive today? Most likely to hobble the agency’s scrutiny of political organizations claiming legal advantages as “social welfare” groups under section 501(c)4 of the tax code, which allows them to keep their donors secret.

  28. 28.

    SarahT

    @Ultraviolet Thunder: Martina Topley-Bird – “Too Tough to Die”‘; TV On The Radio – “Wolf Like Me”; Secret Machines “First Wave Intact”; Queens Of The Stoneage – “Regular John”

  29. 29.

    Yatsuno

    @Elizabelle: The IRS is doing big resource shifting right now because we can’t hire anyone plus the emphasis is so hard on customer service that collections is almost a joke. The worst part is a lot of the collection system is automated, and negotiating with a computer is about as effective as you would think. And after this wonderful scandal (which I blame partly on the underfunding issue) Congress has a great excuse to kneecap us further, Yep, my job is fun sometimes!

  32. 32.

    Yatsuno

    @Elizabelle: It’s about what I expected. Picking on the IRS is an easy thing to do, and the agency has been a big target ever since its creation. It would be nice if someone in the Congress would wake up and fund us so we could get the revenue that’s out there. I mean, every dollar spent on the IRS yields 8 dollars of revenue. It’s not wasted money by a long shot. And if we could actually do collections well we’d cut the deficit significantly.

  33. 33.

    askew

    @Comrade Jake:

    It cracks me up that the vast majority of films people suggest aren’t actually available on Netflix streaming.

    It drives me freaking nuts when that happens.

    On a more political note, it looks like Israeli/Arab peace process is making progress with John Kerry’s involvement. I doubt it will happen, but if a peace treaty happens doesn’t it weaken Hillary’s 2016 campaign? She becomes the irrelevant SoS who is over-shadowed by Kerry’s SoS tenure.

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne

    Sitting in the lobby of our hotel while housekeeping makes up our room. Giant breakfast at Marston’s is making us both a little logy, but soon G will go get his hair cut and I will go on a Big Train Adventure to the yarn store in South Pasadena. Good day so far, IOW.

  36. 36.

    Mnemosyne

    On my iPhone, I can post comments from the regular site, but not from the mobile site. Weird.

  39. 39.

    Yatsuno

    @askew: I don’t think so. She did a really good job representing the US around the world and honestly I don’t recall her focusing on Israel/Palestine much. That might be a weakness but not really a dealbreaker.

  41. 41.

    burnspbesq

    @Ultraviolet Thunder:

    This may seem like a bit of a left-field recommendation, but try the very first Pat Metheny album, Bright Size Life. It’s a trio recording, with Jaco Pastorius’ bass very prominent in the mix, and Bob Moses’ drums were very well recorded, so the cymbals will give you a good idea of whether you’ve got any issues with transient response.

  42. 42.

    Corner Stone

    @askew:

    I doubt it will happen, but if a peace treaty happens doesn’t it weaken Hillary’s 2016 campaign? She becomes the irrelevant SoS who is over-shadowed by Kerry’s SoS tenure.

    Jesus. The warnings all say if you have a hard on for more than four years you should go see a fucking doctor.

  43. 43.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    Thanks for all of the music recommendations. I’m listening to the Queen track now with the headphone amp prototype. This thing plays LOUD. And the bass is super-tasty.

    I’ll definitely check out the rest of the tracks. I was playing the Pat Metheney album First Circle last night. I had no idea the great Jaco ever played with him. That’s a must hear.

  44. 44.

    kmeyerthelurker

    @Amir Khalid: Man, I haven’t heard that name in a while. Met him when I was a kid. My dad was stationed at Mildenhall, and we lived in Great Hockham, just a few miles from Shropham. His adoptive mother was my piano teacher (man did I hate those lessons!). I remember he gave me a telescope, for no reason at all. That was just before he started playing for Norwich, which we were all excited about, them being the local premeir league team (Go Canaries!). I just remember him being a very nice, quiet young man, was so sad to read of his suicide 18 years later.

    Anyway, I gotta say I’m pretty pleased with this new pope. Of course he’ll do & say stuff I can’t stand, because you can’t expect him to not be a severe catholic, but at least he’s focusing on the good things that came out of catholicism, instead of all the terrible stuff.

  46. 46.

    askew

    @Yatsuno:

    @askew: I don’t think so. She did a really good job representing the US around the world and honestly I don’t recall her focusing on Israel/Palestine much. That might be a weakness but not really a dealbreaker.

    But, she can’t point to any real accomplishments. Well, she can take credit for Obama’s START treaty but that is about it. Yeah, she traveled around the world, but so did Condi Rice. That’s not saying a whole hell of a lot.

  47. 47.

    Comrade Jake

    @askew:

    I doubt it will happen, but if a peace treaty happens doesn’t it weaken Hillary’s 2016 campaign? She becomes the irrelevant SoS who is over-shadowed by Kerry’s SoS tenure.

    I don’t think the legions of Hillary voters from 2008 are quite going to view things that way.

  48. 48.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @burnspbesq:

    SS or tubes? Architecture?

    A pair of LM386 chip amps running off of batteries. Custom passive tone control based on the Big Muff guitar effect. -3 to +13 dB of bass control. The chips will put out 500mw of power each off of batteries. I could run a pair of Klipsch Heresy speakers off of this headphone amp.

    I still want to do a tube amp for the magazine but it will have to wait until the current round of Radio Shack projects has run its course.

    ETA: I’m running my bass-shy Beyer DT-990 headcans now with some very bass-shy music. It balances out nicely at +6 db so I think we have a winner.
    Now I need to figure out how to get the local AM radio station interference out of the input.

  52. 52.

    rikyrah

    if you’re in a mood to go see a movie..

    Peeples—–go see it!

    I only went because the moviegoers on Fandango gave it a GO rating.

    I’m so glad I went.

    I didn’t know the lead actor- had never seen him before, but I totally bought him and Kerry Washington’s character. I understood why she loved him and how he completed her.

    The movie was funny. Laugh out loud funny, but not buffoonish behavior.

    I loved this being a ‘meet the parents’ movie, with the twist of it being a Black family.

    The cast was terrific. I love David Alan Grier, and S. Epatha Merkison. I loved the little brother being Chris from Everybody Hates Chris. There were also cameos by Diahann Carroll and Melvin Van Peebles.

    This movie was marketed all wrong.

    Totally loved it

  53. 53.

    Wilson Heath

    Am I the only person who thinks Monkey is the most overrated Pixies song ever?

  55. 55.

    goblue72

    Bowie, this is Bowie. Yes Bowie. Bowie, can you put on Bone Machine? Sure, Bowie. Thanks Bowie.

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