Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

This really is a full service blog.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

This blog will pay for itself.

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

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

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

We still have time to mess this up!

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

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

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

This fight is for everything.

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

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

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Reader Interactions

82Comments

  2. 2.

    Emma

    Can’t sleep. Body aches all over. Listening to Sherlock Holmes stories in Italian. My vocabulary has doubled since I started using English literature translated to Italian as “reading” material.

  3. 3.

    TheMightyTrowel

    Been listening to the Gaslight Anthem all day while working on a lecture. I’m suitably annoyed.

  9. 9.

    different-church-lady

    Eventful night…

    a) Stuff I worked on got aired on CNN tonight.

    b) Very S.O. from deep in my past hits me with an e-mail, kicking off a the howling of many ghosts.

    It feels kind of like having a splitting headache the night your team wins a championship.

  10. 10.

    Steeplejack

    Great album. I always liked “Swlabr.”

    This might have been the album where my mother started to worry that I was becoming a “hippie”—which in her mind was anyone who would look out of place in a Beach Boys video. We have both loosened up a lot since then.

  11. 11.

    different-church-lady

    Oh yeah, and the guy who engineered the song in the top post? I had the honor of working for him on a Ronnie Earl disc in the 90s.

    I feel like bragging tonight.

  13. 13.

    fourmorewars

    You all remember Nancy Pelosi’s famous response to Dem lawmakers-w/o-backbones who wanted to waffle and offer some alternate to W’s attack on Social Security: ‘How about never? Is never soon enough for you?’

    Well, this is something I wanted to throw in some right wingers’ faces on facebook, so I googled it, playing it conservative by using the phrase, “is never soon enough for you”.

    Goggle gave me 14 hits. No, I didn’t say 14 million. I said 14. It’s enough to make a liberal a little paranoid about google. What do you think? Feel free to google that exact phrase, one that should be one of the most famous in recent political history. Tell me if you get more than 14 hits. And then maybe we should discuss whether liberals deserve to be paranoid about google, and about whether the right wing has some sort of stranglehold on information we didn’t think they had.

  14. 14.

    Suzanne

    @different-church-lady: Did the S.O. recently go through a breakup? Is that why he’s contacting you?

    I’ve had a few exes look me up and contact me, and it’s been because they were horny and lonely. Every time.

  15. 15.

    The Dangerman

    @Yatsuno:

    What’s your alternative? Choose carefully…

    Be easy on him/her; he/she probably voted for Nader and that worked out so well.

  16. 16.

    longtime lurk

    @Yatsuno: At present, there is no alternative. I voted for Obama at least in part because he promised to keep us out of “stupid wars”, and now he is doing everything he can to drag us into another stupid war. How can I believe the next Democrat who promises the same thing? And if it’s Hillary Clinton, she is already on record as supporting our entry into this stupid war.

    The point being: I don’t know what the solution is, but it’s definitely not MOAR DEMOCRATS!

  19. 19.

    piratedan

    @longtime lurk: begone troll…. yet another fucking poniless firebagger…. “everything he can to drag us into another stupid war” yeah that duplicitous ass found a way to encourage someone on the Syrian Civil War Wheel of Fortune to use Chemical Weapons and we’re rushing headlong into war are we? If that were so, why aren’t we getting giddy reports from Damascus or Beirut regarding what buildings we’ve managed to level from afar? Just a tad oblivious to real global politics and players are we? By all means, vote Republican you ass because you’ll know EXACTLY what you’re getting with them, a party for the rich by the rich and a system to maintain that setup ad infinitum. Enjoy your Theocratic Christian Fascist state you asshat..

  20. 20.

    Alison

    and now he is doing everything he can to drag us into another stupid war

    Yes, so crafty of Obama, using his Vulcan mind-meld powers on Assad to get him to engage in horrific slaughter of his own people just so we could get our war on! Damn, that guy is good. And obvs bloodthirsty and maniacal.

    You know, there is a sane and healthy and reasonable debate that could be had about this situation, but if you come into it believing that Obama was just itching to get into a war and was looking for any reason to do it – and if you also think what’s going on here is akin to Iraq – then it ain’t going to happen.

  22. 22.

    The prophet Nostradumbass

    @longtime lurk: You’re the one whining about Obama debasing that prize that was a joke 40 years ago when Henry Kissinger “won” it, and later when Yasser Arafat “won” it.

  29. 29.

    longtime lurk

    Hah. So, you’re all convinced that this chemical weapons attack occurred as advertised, and that Assad himself pulled the trigger on it. Maybe so, but maybe Saddam Hussein imported aluminum tubes for his uranium enrichment program. And the smoking gun will be a mushroom cloud. Sure.

    But even if that’s exactly what happened, how in the world is lobbing a few dozen cruise missiles into Syria going to help those people that are already dead? And how will it help the civilians who get “collaterally damaged” by our attacks? And why, exactly, are the people who died from chemical attacks any deader than the thousands he previously killed with guns and missiles and bombs? Or any different from the hundreds that were killed in the wake of the US-supported military coup in Egypt? Why aren’t we outraged about the protesters brutally killed there? Why aren’t we positioning our navy off the coast of Egypt to punish them for that?

    And why should the US government, supposedly so broke that we need a Grand Bargain(TM) to whittle down our social security benefits, be spending billions of dollars attacking some pissant country on the other side of the planet that could not possibly threaten us even if it wanted to?

    There are a lot of nasty dictators in this world, and those dictators do a lot of nasty stuff all the time, including killing their own citizens. Mostly it doesn’t even make the news, much less cause the president to go on the teevee and demand a congressional vote to bomb the shit out of them. Why is that?

    And have you seen the roster of fuckheads supporting this? Ari Fleischer and Karl Rove and Bill Kristol. Among many other asshole warmongers. You should be proud to count yourself among them. Fuck.

  30. 30.

    longtime lurk

    @piratedan: Hah, yeah, you’re a real genius. Good smackdown there. Nice touch with the “apology” thing. I see you’ve given a great deal of thought to these issues.

  31. 31.

    Cacti

    @longtime lurk:

    Hah. So, you’re all convinced that this chemical weapons attack occurred as advertised

    I guess it’s possible that Doctors Without Borders could have imagined treating 3,600 people with neurotoxic symptoms.

  32. 32.

    longtime lurk

    @Cacti: I said “as advertised”, meaning as advertised by the people with an agenda, which is to convince people like you to support their belligerent foreign policy. Job well done, I suppose.

  34. 34.

    Cacti

    @longtime lurk:

    I said “as advertised”, meaning as advertised by the people with an agenda, which is to convince people like you to support their belligerent foreign policy. Job well done, I suppose.

    Yawn

  36. 36.

    piratedan

    @longtime lurk: more so than you….

    if he’s ready to headlong rush us into a war, guess what, we’d be in it, because thanks to established precedent and the fact that with the history of folks like Raygun Ronnie, the War Powers act is nothing but a flimsy sham of what it used to be, so if he REALLY wanted to, the missiles and the birds of war would already be engaged and yet…. yet somehow, hasn’t happened. Please explain how this warmonger in office has somehow been restrained from doing so…. feel free to provide examples. Then again, this President has actually stated that he believes that there is a need to comply with the international treaties that this country has signed and despite that, takes it to Congress to ensure that there’s a purse to pay for any intervention and that the entire government (or at least a majority of it) is working in concert for the effort. As well as outlining what the scope of the effort will entail, providing one is accepted. If you wish proof of that, feel free to read the transcript of his last speech outlining his actions and reasons.

    I await your compelling evidence otherwise….

  38. 38.

    Cacti

    @The prophet Nostradumbass:

    They’re Authoritarian boot-lickers. I heard it on Pacifica.

    Natch.

    They’re in cahoots with the US, the Arab League, the Turks, and those warmongering cheese eating surrender monkeys in France.

  41. 41.

    Cacti

    @longtime lurk:

    But yes, those doctors will surely be a lot happier with hundreds of more victims to treat, right?

    Hmmm…I’m thinking more of an Alex Jones fan than a Pacifica fan.

  42. 42.

    longtime lurk

    @piratedan: Because if it is the Chemical Weapons Convention, then, first of all, Syria didn’t sign it and therefore is not bound by it, and secondly, the enforcement mechanism for that treaty is the UN Security Council, NOT unilateral cruise missile strikes by a country that wasn’t even slightly affected by the attack.

  43. 43.

    Cacti

    @piratedan:

    the ones signed by about 140+ nations in the international community that outlaw the use of chemical weapons… google is your friend.

    Our new chew toy will retort with “But Syria never signed it!” in 3…2…1…

  44. 44.

    Cacti

    @longtime lurk:

    Because if it is the Chemical Weapons Convention, then, first of all, Syria didn’t sign it and therefore is not bound by it

    Utterly predictable and wholly incorrect.

  45. 45.

    john

    Just to be clear here, you’re bitching about something that hasn’t happened, correct? I mean, maybe I missed the part where we launched the cruise missiles? Why do you assume that the stories about Assad’s forces using chemical weapons are specious, but give full credence to the stories that say Obama is going to bomb Syria? It seems that everything being said in public should be heard with the caveat that maybe you’re not the intended recipient of the message. Or maybe you’re just a concern troll firebagger.

  46. 46.

    longtime lurk

    Furthermore, have you heard of cluster bombs? 100+ countries have signed a treaty outlawing cluster bombs. The US is not one of those countries. We used them in Yemen (drone strike) in 2009. The US just made an agreement with Saudi Arabia to sell them several hundred million dollars worth of cluster munitions. Look it up. Cluster bombs are far more deadly than CW, and also the unexploded bomblets can kill people years after the initial attacks.

  47. 47.

    longtime lurk

    @Cacti: Hah, you are dumb, and slow too. I know hippie punching is a fun sport for some people, but the thing is, sometimes the hippies actually punch back. It can be really annoying for a mentally deficient war-supporter like you.

  48. 48.

    piratedan

    @Cacti: already there….. next up, the “not in our national interest argument”, which has some merit imho since none of the players are exactly friendly to the US, yet if we’re supposed to be rehabilitating our international community reputation, sitting by blithely while tyrannical regimes murder their opposition doesn’t look good on the resume. Didn’t look good in Rwanda, doesn’t look good here.

    I’m not sure what intervention is best (if any), although the President’s idea of doing whatever is required to take the Chemical warfare angle off the table is understandable though no one relishes it. So he’s buying time (imho) to build a coalition. If I thought that all we could do was to render humanitarian aid to those in the refugee camps, I would be in favor of that, but I think this is a case of if America doesn’t put on their big boy pants, then what inducement is there for the rest of the world to act rationally in the interests of a common cause against these types of weapons from being used; while allowing us the nicety to still allow us to render populations into ash and wreckage using conventional weapons.

  51. 51.

    john

    As can land mines. Unexploded munitions are among the awful aspects of war and are one of the many reasons war should be avoids at all costs. But please don’t try to downplay the specific horrors of chemical weapons. There is a reason that the primary participants of WWI all signed on to banning them. All of those nations had witnessed the spectacle of men drowning in the trenches on their own sputum and pus as the mustard gas rolled over them. There is a reason we treat those weapons differently, just as we treat nuclear weapons differently.

  53. 53.

    longtime lurk

    @Alison: : And by the way, you may be able to prove I’m an idiot (doubtful but possible), but I am most certainly a hippie and you’ll never prove otherwise.

  54. 54.

    Cacti

    @longtime lurk:

    Hah, you are dumb, and slow too. I know hippie punching is a fun sport for some people, but the thing is, sometimes the hippies actually punch back. It can be really annoying for a mentally deficient war-supporter like you.

    Long on bluster, short on facts.

    You lack even a rudimentary understanding of international law, and have suggested that Doctors Without Borders wants to prolong the Syrian civil war with nothing to back it up other than your fevered imagination.

    Do you have anything to say that’s remotely grounded in reality? Rhetorical question, I know you don’t.

  55. 55.

    longtime lurk

    Ok, well y’all aren’t making much of a case, but I’m on the east coast and it’s late, so I’ll leave all you guys to go on agreeing with yourselves about our fun new exciting(!) war in the middle east. Enjoy!

  58. 58.

    Cacti

    @longtime lurk:

    Ok, well y’all aren’t making much of a case, but I’m on the east coast and it’s late, so I’ll leave all you guys to go on agreeing with yourselves about our fun new exciting(!) war in the middle east. Enjoy!

    Don’t wake your mother on your way to bed l’il fella. And remember, Tuesday’s a school day.

  59. 59.

    piratedan

    @Cacti: as a piece for the historical record, did longtime actually happen to cite any facts? I tracked it as an assertion, followed by an accusation followed up with an opinion.

  60. 60.

    Alison

    @longtime lurk: You’re making totally random assumptions based on your preferred view of the world, which is that our President is some kind of secret psychotic warmongering monster who’s been slavering over maps of the world and concocting horror stories for no other reason than he just wants to go to war, more war, war all the time. Never mind the fact that he ended one stupid war and is close to ending another. You apparently believe he’s exactly the same as Bush and would make up enormous lies just to get his way…which I’m not sure exactly what that is, what his motivation would be, but I’m sure you have plenty of bloviation to provide on that too.

    And I would think anyone who considers him or herself a hippie would be somewhat bothered by endless numbers of innocent bystanders, including children, being slaughtered. Oh, but you don’t think they exist. In your mind, Obama is the evil tyrant and Assad is, what, a swarthy Mr Rogers? Cool story, bro.

  62. 62.

    Cacti

    @piratedan:

    as a piece for the historical record, did longtime actually happen to cite any facts? I tracked it as an assertion, followed by an accusation followed up with an opinion.

    S/he mentioned the convention on cluster munitions. But it was more of a “yeah but cluster munitions!”

    But Syria hasn’t signed that one either, so I’m not really sure where s/he was going with it. lol

  63. 63.

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

    @piratedan:

    as for a firebagger bingo card, what’s the free space, Benghazi or NSA?

    “You’re deluding yourself if you think there’s a difference between the Republican and Democratic parties.”

  64. 64.

    Cacti

    @piratedan:

    as for a firebagger bingo card, what’s the free space, Benghazi or NSA?

    NSA for sure.

    Benghazi would the free space for wingnut bingo.

    Maybe we could just call it Obama Derangement Syndrome Bingo, and have a left wing and right wing version.

  67. 67.

    ? Martin

    @longtime lurk:

    But even if that’s exactly what happened, how in the world is lobbing a few dozen cruise missiles into Syria going to help those people that are already dead?

    Why ban nukes? It won’t make the people of Hiroshima alive.

    Stupidest fucking argument.

  68. 68.

    ? Martin

    @longtime lurk:

    Maybe so, but maybe Saddam Hussein imported aluminum tubes for his uranium enrichment program. And the smoking gun will be a mushroom cloud. Sure.

    See, it’s easy to prove that Obama is just like Bush when you start with the assertion that Obama is just like Bush.

  69. 69.

    RaflW

    So my Bf and I are on vacation in Sweden, visiting my cousins. We didn’t know till after we got here that we leave Stockholm on Sept 4, we will probably miss Obama by an hour or two.

    So far there is maybe one story per day in the paper about his visit. They like him but they are failing to either slobber over him or savage him.

    Kinda nice to see a muted reaction in the press somewhere…

  70. 70.

    piratedan

    @Cacti: I like that idea, ODS Bingo…..

    Birther
    Blackity Black
    Benghazi
    Billo/Boehner
    Black Panther Party

    Impeachment
    IRS
    IRAQ
    Issa
    Idiotcracy

    NSA
    Norquist
    Nancy Smash

    Greenwald
    Going Galt

    Obamacare
    Obummer

    That’s what I got so far, just staying alphabetically aligned, or we can just go codeword….

  71. 71.

    different-church-lady

    I’m a little lost here — is the hypocrisy that drones are bad, but gas is okay? Or is it the other way around?

  72. 72.

    piratedan

    @different-church-lady: just hair splitting I suppose, there are actual treaties supposedly in effect against Chemical Weapons on the books at the UN that have been ratified, whereas, drones, not so much. One is considered WMD, the other tactical/conventional although the possibility it could be exploited or converted is certainly there.

  73. 73.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @piratedan: To split hairs even further, our lurky friend seems to be under the impression that a drone can carry a cluster bomb. This didn’t sound correct to me, it looks like the cluster bombs would be too heavy a payload.

  74. 74.

    SixStringFanatic

    Watched that clip. Then lost an hour to a follow up clip – the Classic Rock Great Albums episode on the making of Disreali Gears. Love that series; I could waste a whole day watching episodes on Netflix.

  75. 75.

    Sir Laffs-a-lot

    @Felonius Monk

    Put Cole in the shark suit and let Steve and the piglets watch him ride the Roomba……much more fun.

  76. 76.

    Applejinx

    Obama took the case for war to Congress, and is doing everything in his power to appear like he wants (some form of) it, in the certain knowledge that all Congress can do is politics and oppose everything he ever suggests.

    If he wanted war he’d have acted. There may be a case for the US acting here, but this ain’t the method of making it happen. It’s the single most effective method of NOT acting while causing the Republicans to alienate their own base by forcing that base to pick one: military action or defying everything Obama suggests. There is no win for them in that scenario, and the funny thing is, making that call IS their job and what they’re supposed to take responsibility for.

    To fail to act is what they’ll do, but this time they’re failing to go to war.

    As soon as I heard Obama was deferring to Congress and asking them to act with him and go to war, I knew it was a trick. Since when does Congress do what Obama asks them to do? especially if he seems to really want it?

  80. 80.

    russell

    not that I’m the first one to make this point, but Eric Clapton is channeling Freddie King in that track.

  82. 82.

    John Revolta

    In fact, that would be Albert King. He “channeled” Freddie plenty of other times, however.

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