Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

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

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

This really is a full service blog.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Republicans don’t trust women.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

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

Let’s finish the job.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

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

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

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Reader Interactions

114Comments

  1. 1.

    Sad_Dem

    I love the background. Somewhere just out of frame, Milton is clutching his red stapler, and the receptionist is saying “Good morning U.S. Senate building! Just a moment!”

  2. 2.

    dagh (fka tesslibrarian)

    But he isn’t orange at all!

    I guess it’s the sad face that caused the confusion.

  8. 8.

    MomSense

    What is happening to the Danube? And why have we not heard anything about it here?

  15. 15.

    gene108

    @MomSense:

    Danube’s flooding pretty badly.

    Why haven’t we heard about it? Probably because people don’t feel like going to Budapest* to cover it.

    *Fun town. Was there last summer. Though the taxi drivers are all crooks.

  20. 20.

    gene108

    @Violet:

    In the 80′s, like everyone else.

    I wasn’t balding in the 80’s. I had nice thick black hair on my head and more and more popping up all over my body. And thankfully, I finally started getting some hair on my face, which felt good. Though the facial hair didn’t really kick into an everyday thing until the early 1990’s.

  22. 22.

    Todd

    @MomSense:

    What is happening to the Danube? And why have we not heard anything about it here?

    My wife is a luxury/leisure travel agent. Flooding in Central Europe has been giving her fits.

  25. 25.

    Corner Stone

    @Violet: I started in the early ’90s. Good exercise.
    I had to stop after all the people I went with wanted to do nothing but go down parking garage ramps at top speed. There’s only so many SUV’s you can roll underneath before it gets tiresome.

  26. 26.

    Amir Khalid

    @Keith:
    @Violet:
    I started, um, blading in the mid- to late 1990s, myself. A friend noticed a thinning spot on my scalp when she happened to meet me right after I’d had a haircut.

  27. 27.

    Soonergrunt

    Supporter of the Iraq war who’s never apologized or admitted error, attacks people who question his puffed up and occasionally inaccurate statements with more puffery and vitriol…
    Al Jazeera may be onto something here.

    @SatanicPanic: One group is dishonestly mendacious comically evil and the other group is mendaciously dishonest evilly comical?

  29. 29.

    Todd

    I started, um, blading in the mid- to late 1990s, myself. A friend noticed a thinning spot on my scalp when she happened to meet me right after I’d had a haircut.

    Middle age sucks. My hair stopped growing on my head, and migrated to my ears and my back.

  30. 30.

    Morbo

    @Keith:

    When did GG start blading?

    He saw the infamous Great Muta vs. Hiroshi Hase match and thought it would really up the drama in some of those interviews.

  32. 32.

    BGinCHI

    Fox & Friends report on that screen shot tomorrow morning:

    “Obviously the terrorists have won.”

  37. 37.

    Corner Stone

    Otherwise, it looks like GG owns a time machine. Because that office space is pure fucking 1980’s furniture setup.
    Why do they have all those little gray scrapbooking drawers on every desk?

  39. 39.

    Violet

    @Corner Stone: If it’s the 80’s, that fits with the blading. Late 80’s. I could even go early 90’s on the furniture and blading fits right in that timeframe.

  40. 40.

    Corner Stone

    @Violet: I think he may already be in Russia waiting for Snowden and that’s a picture of Nadia Comenici.
    Ok, she’s Romanian but still…clearly a communist setup going on there.

  44. 44.

    Corner Stone

    @Violet: No way. It would be like the first iteration of the Matrix where everything was perfect and humans self-terminated because they couldn’t take it.
    This setup has to be from Office Space general casting, or in Eastern Europe.
    I bet the corkboard behind him to the right has the Communist Party Diktat listed.

  57. 57.

    lamh35

    Kaine Delivers Immigration Speech in Spanish

    Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) “made history Tuesday, becoming the first senator of the modern era to deliver a Senate floor speech entirely in Spanish as he explained his support for a bipartisan immigration bill up for consideration,” the Washington Post reports.

    “Over the course of a 14-minute speech, Kaine said he wanted to use the Spanish-speaking skills he learned working in Honduras in order to explain aspects of the bill to the roughly 40 million Spanish speakers living in the United States.

    http://politicalwire.com/archives/2013/06/11/kaine_delivers_immigration_speech_in_spanish.html

  58. 58.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)

    @Todd: This is Balloon Juice so I can’t be the only one that initially read that as, ” Flooding in Central Europe has been giving her tits,” and thought that this had more to do with marrying a pre-pubescent than it did with flooding.

  59. 59.

    Corner Stone

    @Dee Loralei: Sure, now…but in the ’80s when this picture was taken? She was still living high on the Party’s hog after recording her perfect 10.

  60. 60.

    Mike in NC

    We took a Danube cruise in 2010 and many times tour guides would point out record high water marks on buildings by the river. They were sometimes about ten feet above street level.

  63. 63.

    Haydnseek

    @lamh35: …………and in a related story, Jan Brewer and Joe Arpaio immediately called for the deportation of Kaine, saying that: “Even though he’s not noticeably brown, he still embodies the un-American “taker” mentality that is destroying our god-given freedoms. His use of a foreign language marks him as the sort of traitor that voted for Obama. This is why we cherish our 2nd amendment rights so strongly. I call on all right-thinking Americans to call for Kaine’s impeachment immediately, or forfeit their right to call themselves true teabagger patriots.”

  64. 64.

    lamh35

    My sister Robin loves this ATT commerical. I love it too. The check out the lil white girl at the end while the lil Black girl is talking about her “puppy brother”, she looks like the lil Black gril just blew her mind up with the thought of a “puppy brother”…lol

    http://youtu.be/0TYdrfm7yaI

  65. 65.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    I got issues, but it looks as like when I eventually go to my grave, it will be with all my hair.

    Why is there a picture of Rand Paul labeled as “John Boehner” above?

  66. 66.

    JCJ

    @MomSense:

    I was in Germany and the Czech Republic during the rains that led to the flooding. While driving back to Berlin I was listening to the radio and heard flood warnings for Passau, Leipzig and Dresden. The picture of the submerged highway interchange near Deggendorf was part of my drive. I did not realize the Danube was flooding so much downstream until I saw the pictures from Budapest. Yikes.

  69. 69.

    lamh35

    As if the article wasn’t enough, the pic will make you misty-eyed.

    Trayvon’s Dad: ‘My Kid Was Perfect to Me’

    The Root: If you knew then what you know now, would you have told your son anything different about what it means to be a young black man in an American society that treats him as suspicious? What would “the talk” sound like? And do you have any advice for African-American fathers raising sons?

    Tracy Martin: You can’t prepare your child to contend with the warped mentality of someone else. You can only teach them to be good and live by the laws of the land. George Zimmerman acted in a deranged way — and all the evidence supports that. I know how society negatively portrays black boys, and my son Trayvon wasn’t naive. He wasn’t blind to stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination. But I shouldn’t have to tell my child to fear walking to the store to get snacks just because he’s black…

  70. 70.

    Violet

    @lamh35: Heartbreaking. From the article:

    So many people want their kids to grow up to be doctors, lawyers or professional athletes. My son was interested in aviation. He took two summers and studied for his pilot-mechanic license. He would have definitely become an engineer. And I would have been so proud. Trayvon would have learned to fly.

    So sad.

  72. 72.

    MomSense

    @Josie:

    That is horrible! And they have flood walls and cool things that we can never have because BENGHAZIIRSNSACIABAH!

    @JCJ: Yikes is right! Glad you are ok and didn’t get caught up in a torrent of flood waters. Oh my.

    @Todd: I can imagine. My son’s senior class trip was cancelled because of the iceberg that can’t be pronounced.

    @gene108:
    “Though the taxi drivers are all crooks.”

    We can only hope that Friedman will visit soon seeking knowledge.

    @cleek: @BGinCHI:

    Great minds! We call the Charleton Heston voice the Voice of God or VOG because it is the only thing that works with bad puppehs.

    ETA–something is messed up with the block quotes–I think the NSA is just messing with me now.

  73. 73.

    WaynersT

    And he got a way-too-good-looking for him Brazilian guy 20 years younger than him that he met on the beach –
    Glenzilla has magical powers.

  74. 74.

    JPL

    @lamh35: I’m not alone in remembering that event, and history books and The Help educated several others. Events like that I still don’t understand.

  81. 81.

    Citizen_X

    @eemom:

    He looks tired, poor thing.

    Well of course he is. You can’t turn on the goddam TV without seeing Glenn Greenwald being interviewed. Fucking Nickelodeon and the Home Shopping Network are interviewing him now, for chrissake.

  82. 82.

    Hal

    @Citizen_X:

    Fucking Nickelodeon and the Home Shopping Network are interviewing him now, for chrissake.

    He’s on Househunters International tonight. Looking for an apartment in Brazil with at least 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, and stainless steel appliances.

  83. 83.

    Corner Stone

    @Keith G: Probably. Although in my defense, I always hit the deck instead of crash landing into the SUV’s.
    So, I got that going for me.

  84. 84.

    Corner Stone

    Has there ever been a better movie than Reign of Fire ?
    I’m voting no, there has never been a better movie.

  86. 86.

    Corner Stone

    @Hal:

    Looking for an apartment in Brazil with at least 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, and stainless steel appliances.

    If he demands a room for a home office and says, “this would be great for entertaining” then I will totes bash his no account ass.
    Hate those fucking people.

  87. 87.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    One thing about this whole kerfluffle that has me laughing is how the outrage on the far left sounds almost exactly like the outrage on the far right. If someone were to read me the comments from Daily Kos and Redstate, I wouldn’t be able to tell which comment was from where. Obviously this means that Markos and Erick need to hold a summit to discuss actions that their two groups can take together to restore freedom across the land.

    Grover and Jane can mediate, they have experience in reaching across the aisle.

  88. 88.

    Hal

    @Corner Stone:

    If he demands a room for a home office and says, “this would be great for entertaining” then I will totes bash his no account ass.
    Hate those fucking people.

    Watching those shows makes me feel like I’m the only one who grew up with one bathroom, stairs in the house and carpet everywhere.

    And do people really entertain all that much? If you invite me over for dinner party I don’t want to talk to you while you cook and wash dishes.

  89. 89.

    shortstop

    Just sitting here sipping my Red Bull and lovin’ the daylights out of this thread.

  91. 91.

    the Conster

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    I have a bachelor’s in poli sci, and I remember back in the 70s having a great professor who diagrammed out the political spectrum showing how the far right and the far left end up essentially the same, and not essentially different. My 20 year old mind understood it intellectually, but it’s been “fun” to watch it happen in real time.

  93. 93.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @the Conster:

    No poli sci degree but I did take some classes while in college many moons ago and saw the same thing. While they hold intense differences on certain issues they agree on many others. What’s funny now is how much they detest each other and yet still sound so similar. What’s even funnier is that many on the right who are decrying this are acting like they had no idea this has been going on for years. At least the left has been consistently against this…lol! What they both seems to really agree on with this issue is that Obama is the problem. While I can understand how those on the far right wouldn’t understand how the legislative side of our government works, I thought the left understood.

    What’s sad about the whole mess is that both sides think the solution to the problem is simple.

  94. 94.

    Redshirt

    @Corner Stone: Why is it awful? It’s got a plot, with acts. It’s got characterization. It’s got action and drama. It’s not Oscar worthy, for sure, but there’s waaay worse movies out there. Also, whats his name plays a fantastic American douche – the guy with all the muscles.

  95. 95.

    Mnemosyne

    @the Conster:
    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    I still have never seen a good explanation of what the differences are between anarchism and libertarianism that don’t seem to be completely cosmetic. If anything, libertarianism seems slightly more realistic about the probability of things degenerating into feudalism run by warlords.

  96. 96.

    Corner Stone

    @Redshirt: There’s definitely some serious hunky going on in it.
    McConaughey, Bale, Butler. That’s some hunk right there.
    McConaughey is a major douchecanoe alright. But jumping out of a helicopter with a net trying to catch flying dragons? And the helicopter itself flying blind until three dudes on motorbikes stake out radar posts in a triangle pattern so the radar will work?
    How about somebody going to Afghanistan and asking the Taliban really nicely if we can borrow some of the 1980’s style RPGs they have cached so we can eliminate these fucking reptiles.
    Or maybe setting some claymores in the fields they like to land in and walk around burning?
    It’s just so awesomely bad I have to watch it any time I catch it on TV.

  97. 97.

    ericblair

    @Hal:

    And do people really entertain all that much? If you invite me over for dinner party I don’t want to talk to you while you cook and wash dishes.

    I can’t watch these shows because my eyes roll so far back in my head it takes me half an hour to get my contact lenses out. No, nobody “entertains” like that except our socialite vermin Village buddies with $4m Georgetown pads. Also, you don’t need a $5k Viking oven to heat up frozen pizza. But it sounds better than wanting a bathroom close to the TV room so you can take a dump during commercial breaks.

  98. 98.

    Hawes

    That’s not fair. While I disagree with almost everything he does, he at least does his job well. Greenwald that is.

  99. 99.

    eemom

    @Mnemosyne:

    I still have never seen a good explanation of what the differences are between anarchism and libertarianism that don’t seem to be completely cosmetic.

    Chomsky’s is pretty persuasive, imo….and I’ve never seen a better smackdown of the so-called “libertarians.”

  100. 100.

    Redshirt

    @Corner Stone: Armchair dragon warriors are the worst. As you sit on your nice comfy couch, talking up a big game, you don’t know what it’s like out there, man. Those fuckers breathe fire! And they’re smart, and evil. And they’ve already burned most everything.

    What was Batman supposed to do?! TELL ME!!!

  101. 101.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Mnemosyne:

    If anything, libertarianism seems slightly more realistic optimistic about the probability of things degenerating into feudalism run by warlords.

    FTFY. :)

    Agreed, there is little difference between them.

  102. 102.

    Corner Stone

    @Redshirt: It’s pretty obvious you are objectively pro-dragon. Please wait one while our men make their way to your location.
    How long have you been a secret dragon fucker?! When did you give them the intel on how to fire us up?! Answer me!
    ANSWER ME YOU FUCKING DRAGON FUCKER!

  103. 103.

    Mnemosyne

    @eemom:

    This is pretty much exactly what you hear every libertarian say:

    Well I think because freedom is better than subordination. It’s better to be free than to be a slave. Its’ better to be able to make your own decisions than to have someone else make decisions and force you to observe them.

    Again, libertarians and anarchists seem to have the exact same ideals, but libertarians seem slightly more realistic about human nature and how things would actually turn out, as opposed to Chomsky’s wish for how things would turn out.

  105. 105.

    eemom

    @Mnemosyne:

    dunno, I thought his distinction about libertarians wanting to concentrate power in private interests was pretty compelling.

  106. 106.

    Mnemosyne

    @eemom:

    dunno, I thought his distinction about libertarians wanting to concentrate power in private interests was pretty compelling.

    Since anarchists want to dissolve the government, aren’t they also proposing to concentrate power in private interests? I guess I’m not getting the big and meaningful difference between a corporation and a syndicate when it all comes down to it.

  107. 107.

    the Conster

    @Mnemosyne:

    Now, everyone close your eyes and try to imagine a private, profit-making rights-enforcement organization which does not resemble the mafia, a street gang, those pesky fire-fighters/arsonists/looters who used to provide such “services” in old New York and Tokyo, medieval tax-farmers, or a Lendu militia. (In general, if thoughts of the Eastern Congo intrude, I suggest waving them away with the invisible hand and repeating “that’s anarcho-capitalism” several times.) Nothing’s happening but a buzzing noise, right?

    This never gets old.

  108. 108.

    Ramiah Ariya

    Way to confuse civil libertarians with economic libertarians.
    And Greenwald was not even blogging during the Iraq war for him to “support” it. The only way anyone knows he supported it is because he talked about it in his book much later. He has nothing to apologize to anyone – he was not propagandizing for the Iraq war and therefore need not apologize for it.

  109. 109.

    Another Halocene Human

    @gene108: Why ride taxi in Budapest when they take such pride in their public transit, uniformed employees everywhere, broken ticket machines, ha ha, can buy tickets at corner marts, hope you speak hand gestures if you don’t speak Magyar, oh and the bridges are lovely too, love the 1910s Austrian streetcars. One has the number 1337 no joke, and the view is wonderful!

    Budapest is the only city in Europe where you don’t have to beg for more than one ice cube (so far in my experience). Budapest limonade FTW.

  110. 110.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @Mnemosyne:

    I guess I’m not getting the big and meaningful difference between a corporation and a syndicate when it all comes down to it.

    On the very off chance that you return to this thread…

    It’s not Anarcho-Syndicatism, but Anarcho-Syndicalism from the French syndicale which translates to trade union. The units of organization are unions and guilds, which, as Chomsky points out, control their own workplaces. The unions and guilds then cooperate with each other, the shoemakers trading with the machinists and the farmers (etc., etc.) so that needs of each union and guild are met.

  111. 111.

    Comrade Nimrod Humperdink

    @Mnemosyne: to me the split comes down to property rights. Both hate the state, hate authority, etc, but Libertarians are basically anarchists with a hard-on for the moneez. The market is all, property rights are to be respected and enforced by the state but never overruled by it. Anarchists are more interested in group consensus and often hold property rights claims in disdain, and as a result are often as pure and impractical as it gets. Libertarians would organize via incorparation, anarchists by trade union (or guild really, the yearning for skilled meaningful work with autonomy, like what you had in pre-industrial times, leaks through some of their writing).

  112. 112.

    brantl

    @SatanicPanic: Really? What’s the differnece these days? As far as I can tell, the only difference is Greenwald pees his pants, and the great orange boner cries. BIG difference.

  114. 114.

    TG Chicago

    @Soonergrunt:

    Supporter of the Iraq war who’s never apologized or admitted error…

    If you’re saying Greenwald hasn’t made it clear that he knows the Iraq war was wrong, you might need to admit some error yourself. He’s also retracted that old immigration post that people like to bring up. I’m not sure whether he apologized — probably not — but if you think he never admits errors, you’re wrong.

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