Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

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

I really should read my own blog.

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

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

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

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

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Bark louder, little dog.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

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

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

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Good Times

Reader Interactions

96Comments

  1. 1.

    ronin122

    We do. We just end up being called “libtards/commies/etc” and get dismissed by Republicans outright and ignored by blue dog Democrat enablers.

  2. 2.

    Shinobi (@shinobi42)

    People on twitter were mad yesterday because someone else had tweeted this whole “If white people were talked about like black people” thing a while ago, and they argued the gawker guy plagiarized. I don’t know that I AGREE that he plagiarized, but I am pretty sure Gawker was a dick about it.

  3. 3.

    flukebucket

    It is caused by the disintegration of the family and the lack of a white father figure.

  4. 4.

    kwAwk

    I’ve been thinking lately that there are two issues I’d like to see our liberal friends in the media explore:

    1) It would be interesting to see how the polarization of the political culture in this country mirrors the white flight phenomenon of the 1960s. White folks keep pulling futher and futher to the right as minorities become more economically mainstream and centrist in order to keep their party pure.

    2) Kevin Drum (I think) likes to point from time to time about how the reduction in crime in the 1990s was possibly related to the elimination of lead in gasoline. Lead exposure makes people more prone to agressiveness, impusiveness and clouds reasoning skills. In the 80s and 90s the peak lead folks would have been in their teens and twenties, the prime age range for crime commission. It is now 2013 and those same people would be in their 40’s adn 50’s. Approaching peak time for people to be especially politically active.

    Just some thoughts.

  5. 5.

    cathyx

    My girlfriend was really white. She used to ride horses and do that kind of stuff. Too funny.

  8. 8.

    Linda Featheringill

    @flukebucket:

    It is caused by the disintegration of the family and the lack of a white father figure.

    Right. A bunch of white males disappear right after conception and another bunch walk out while the child is preschool. And a large portion of those white males that do stick with their women and the children are complete assholes and thereby drive the kids totally nuts.

    What to do?

  9. 9.

    Keith G

    Very funny. Good satire in that it pokes at two serious social concerns.

    Also too, Snowden, Greenwald and Manning are all white. Coincidence?

  10. 10.

    Chris

    @ronin122:

    We do. We just end up being called “libtards/commies/etc” and get dismissed by Republicans outright and ignored by blue dog Democrat enablers.

    Well, that’s not “moderate whites” so much as “liberal whites.” “Moderate whites” I associate with the apathetic assholes who aren’t proactively racist, but get annoyed whenever nonwhites and their do-gooder white friends make noise about their problems, and wish they would all just go away and stop make them feeling bad.

  15. 15.

    MattR

    That is great troll bait for facebook. I may have to post it to see who gets so mad watching it that they have to post their screed about how “of course the liberal media focuses on white mobs while ignoring all the black crime” before they watch through to the end.

  16. 16.

    Southern Beale

    Also, in Texas:

    New dumb thing happening in Texas! The latest insultingly stupid proposed law would require any woman seeking an abortion to take a 3 hour adoption class beforehand. Because apparently the Lone Star State’s zealot legislators and their zealot-in-chief Rick Perry think women are such idiotic simpletons that they don’t know that adoption is a thing. Gee, what would women do with their bodies if men who probably can’t bring themselves to say “vagina” aloud without blushing weren’t around to educate them?

    Seriously, when is it going to be enough? Ever?

  20. 20.

    The Moar You Know

    Seriously, when is it going to be enough? Ever?

    @Southern Beale: When you’re covered head to toe in black cloth, can’t leave the house without the permission and company of your husband (one of his brothers can fill in a pinch if this is his day to fuck one of the other wives), and have to walk three steps behind that male.

  23. 23.

    MattR

    @cathyx: Yikes. I missed that opening screen. Must’ve been while I was changing from the embedded version to the version on MSNBC’s site. Still worth posting on facebook. But I won’t get the reaction I expected.

  25. 25.

    bemused

    Randi Rhodes is covering this today and it completely flew right over the head of her first caller, a woman from Huntington Beach. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry hysterically.

  26. 26.

    gogol's wife

    @bemused:

    Yes, I’m sure that despite the initial disclaimer people will get their knickers in a twist about it.

  27. 27.

    Bubblegum Tate

    Usually, comments sections are to be avoided at all costs, but the comments on the original Gawker article are fucking fantastic.

  28. 28.

    Amir Khalid

    @Southern Beale:
    I’d just ignore “neighbourhood watch hero” George Zimmerman until the next time he shoots an innocent person. Let him fade into obscurity. That’s what he deserves for his clumsy attempt at faking an act of heroism.

  29. 29.

    ranchandsyrup

    In OC today and brought the huntington “riot” up. Two camps emerged. 1. Boys will be boys (or white boys will be boys) and 2. THE RIOTERS WERE FROM ANAHEIM/RIVERSIDE/ARE NOT SURFERS!!!!!!!

  30. 30.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Oh, the snark is strong with these two.

    When will the White Community (particularly the religious leaders) take action?

    So, when will Justin Bieber, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity address this? When they get that beam out of their eye? Good luck with that!

    I loved that comment by Cord about this best friend being white…

  35. 35.

    mclaren

    Despite constant attempts to sweep this societal problem under the rug, there’s some indication that the problem with white people may be genetic.

    This has led to a white culture of hypersexuality and violence, which tends to explain the increasing crisis of white middle-class unemployment. It might be time to think about rounding up all the white people in America and shipping them back to Africa, where they evolved.

  36. 36.

    Belafon

    Related: Black man ordered out of his car at gunpoint over in Queens:

    At least one cop has been disciplined for ordering the NYPD’s highest-ranking uniformed black officer out of his auto [at gunpoint] while the three-star chief was off-duty and parked in Queens, the Daily News has learned.

    “How you can not know or recognize a chief in a department SUV with ID around his neck, I don’t know,” a police source said.

    I think it can be stated that the NYPD officially has a racial profiling problem.

  37. 37.

    bemused

    @gogol’s wife:

    No doubt. Their feelings get hurt when there is a hint they just might be racists and classists. When sarcasm is used and they finally catch on, they really get pissed.

    This woman blamed the property damage and rioting on other people from “outside” moving in. When Randi Rhodes slyly asked her if those others were white trash, the woman didn’t even blink. She just went on as if Randi was on her page. Just clueless. So I’m assuming the woman was either embarrassed after the call and kept listening to the reactions of Randi and the next callers (not likely) or furious (more likely).

  38. 38.

    Belafon

    @mclaren: Or maybe, for those that don’t believe in evolution, we can send them back to the middle east. They can hunt for Eden.

  39. 39.

    Josie

    @the Conster: In some areas of Texas (such as where I live), Hispanics are called majority minorities, since they are in the majority but in some ways are treated like a minority. The verbiage gets a bit confusing.

  40. 40.

    burnspbesq

    @Southern Beale:

    Seriously, when is it going to be enough? Ever?

    This is why God created the TRO (betcha didn’t know the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure were Divinely inspired).

  42. 42.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Bubblegum Tate:

    Agreed. Every possible riff on the “those people” comments you hear from Rethugs has its counterpart. What music they listen to (country music glorifies being rednecks and getting drunk every weekend), the names these white kids are given (Hayden, Jaden, Kayden…they’re obviously making them up!), the works.

  43. 43.

    kindness

    They must have seen my dorm room. I fit that criteria although to be honest I think the bong was discretely up on a shelf and any vomiting took place in the bathroom. I mean, we weren’t utter animals. We were college students.

  47. 47.

    Michele C.

    @bemused: I have racist relatives who live in Huntington Beach, but they’d be horrified if I called them racists because they truly believe that they’re not racists, they’re just telling the truth about how X group is like so.

  49. 49.

    bemused

    @Michele C.:

    Yup, they have no clue but have absolutely no interest in examining why they are being called racist and if that might be possible. Heck, everyone they know is the same so how could they be racist?

  50. 50.

    Mnemosyne

    @kindness:

    True story: one of the reasons my older brother was expelled from his first college was because he left his bong sitting in the middle of the floor when the university housing folks came by to check the room.

  55. 55.

    Gex

    @Shinobi (@shinobi42): As though the Twitter guy was the first one to come up with this. The idea of flipping the argument has been around for forever, and MANY people have made this point. It’s like all the people who think that one movie is a rip off of Hunger Games, not knowing about Running Man or any number of similar stories that occurred prior.

  56. 56.

    Shakezula

    I didn’t realize satire was so dangerous that it required a big WARNING sign. And look out for the irony, eeek! But I assume the DANGER SATIRE label will allow the knotty knicker crowd to claim it was all staged.

    @schrodinger’s cat: Vraiment?

  62. 62.

    IowaOldLady

    Maybe it’s progress that people are horrified at being called racists.

    Now if only they had more self-awareness. Most of us have some element of racism. But if you’re self aware, you try to counteract it.

  64. 64.

    kindness

    @Mnemosyne: I went to Ithaca College in upstate NY. If they expelled everyone who had parephanalia in their room they’d have had no students. This was the mid 70’s though. It was a different era then.

  66. 66.

    Yatsuno

    @Southern Beale: Dunno if I ever mentioned this, but I went to college with a woman who could be a clone of Monica Lewinsky. She also happened to be named Robin Williams. But she played tuba so we watched out for her.

  67. 67.

    The Other Bob

    I honestly look suspicious at a group of young white guys walking my way on the street.

    No joke. And I am a white guy.

    It’s probably because in the community I grew up in “those people” were a bunch of well-off disrespectful (often racist) white assholes who regularly made comments about my then girlfriend’s appearance, body, breasts, etc. I had a bottle thrown at me once when I went after one. (Jokes on them, she’s my wife now of 16 + years.)

  71. 71.

    BruceJ

    @kwAwk: Absolutely. I suspect that to a great extent modern conservative “thought” can be largely placed on brain damage. This does give me hope that we might just be able to last it out…

  75. 75.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @gogol’s wife:

    He was mentioned by Cord in the same sentence as the other two, not sure what he did to get there, other than being, you know, pale.

  76. 76.

    gogol's wife

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Right, I didn’t mean to imply that you had brought up Justin Bieber. I just noticed it in the clip and didn’t know if there was some incident I had missed.

  77. 77.

    Susan K of the tech support

    Two (very minor) observations:

    Pronunciation of Huntington Beach. Local SoCal peeps (including Cord Jefferson) pronounce it “Hunnington Beach” … same as Hunnington Library. Whereas Chris Hayes pronounces it HunTington Beach. Sounds strange on my local ears. I guess it takes a White Riot and a cable news segment broadcast from the other coast to call to mind (or ear) some of the idiosyncrasies of local pronunciation.

    Also: Cord Jefferson, bless him, looks tired. Circles under his eyes. I think the reaction of all to his wonderful post on Gawker has kept him up late. Either that, or the tiny remote studio didn’t come with a bit of touch-up makeup.

    Other than these eentsy, minor near-non-sequitors, this whole episode was deeeeeeelish!

  78. 78.

    Yowzat20515

    I’m sorry to be late to the party but what the hell happened with the flames and the helicopters?

  79. 79.

    daverave

    @kindness:

    My brother (really) was expelled from Ithaca in the late 70’s (just a few courses shy of getting his degree) due to marijuana use. True, sad story….

  80. 80.

    Zam

    @gogol’s wife: He’s a generic white musician. Many people demand all famous black people take a stand against black crime because you know, they are one of the few good ones or something like that.

  81. 81.

    Trollhattan

    @Southern Beale:

    Uuugh, he’s not going to stay out of jail forever, is our Zimms? Even the Texas cop had him unstrap and put his precious gun in the glovebox.

  84. 84.

    Jamey

    Well Chris Hayes is “one of the good ones.” Because–and I’m not being racist here–everyone agrees that there are white people and there are “crackers.”

  85. 85.

    shell

    Hey, an armed George Zimmerman was pulled over for speeding in Texas

    Go West, young man. Keep going west till you drive into the blue Pacific. Do us all a favor.
    It’s only a matter of time before this guy ends up shooting somebody else.

  86. 86.

    thalarctos

    @Zam:

    Wasn’t there something recently where he peed into some custodian’s mop bucket? or am I thinking of some other young white jerk?

  88. 88.

    Ivan Ivanovich Renko

    Pre-President Mandela South Afrika. That’s the model for how to deal with being a “minority.”

  89. 89.

    wenchacha

    @Southern Beale: I bet there are millions of women in Texas who would prefer Obamacare to this idiocy. What next: videos of sad puppies? Promises of a patriotic nursery remodel?

  90. 90.

    Turgid Jacobian

    I downloaded the podcast especially–this seems super interesting. I hope to also get the book.

  92. 92.

    Rebecca

    Other sources of good footage of white people rioting: Halloween Riot, Madison, WI 2002 (there were pictures of people standing in line to loot the liquor store) and the James Madison University block party riot of 2010. At least in the later case, it was blamed on people in from out of town (they might be white people, but they’re not our white people). The former is hard to argue about when the principal rioters were all in costume and the undergraduate population is close to 30,000. My favorite was the person dressed as a shower.

  93. 93.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    @FlipYrWhig: Given that the majority of the people that play lacrosse in its country of origin (Canada) aren’t white, they’d probably point and laugh at the pathetic attempt by the roundeye and the black guy at lampooning something they really don’t understand.

  94. 94.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    @kindness: Everybody in North America was a lot freer in the seventies, before Reagan and the blight of the modern oligarchical fascism. Everybody… it’s just that white people have lost the least amount of freedom
    .

  95. 95.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    @burnspbesq: Yes it is. Don’t fucking kid yourself. That’s totally representative of it where I am, a small city with two unis in SE Ontario. You’re just lying to yourself to make yourself feel better.

    At best, you can only say it’s representative of white elite culture. That’s your only escape hatch on that one buddy.

Comments are closed.