Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

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

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

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

Everybody saw this coming.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Bark louder, little dog.

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

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Open Thread

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Hockey, baseball, and football in one night. If the Pirates had even made it a game I might be developing carpal tunnel right about now from excessive remote control action.

BTW- Is it just me, or every you time you heard “Grand Bargain” you hear the Republicans saying “If you just let us fuck with poor people and minorities and women a little bit, we won’t blow up the global economy.”

Reader Interactions

117Comments

  2. 2.

    SiubhanDuinne

    No offense, John, it just has to do with where I grew up, but the Cards are my third-favourite team (after the Braves and the Cubs). But I’m sorry the game was such a rout of your Pirates.

    Now I am ready for Atlanta to take on the Dodgers. Go Braves!

  3. 3.

    beltane

    I was shocked to hear some Wall Street person on NPR saying that “they” did not want to see any deal on the debt limit that included draconian budget cuts. What is going on here.

  4. 4.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Great thing I saw on twitter today. “Can I burn down your house?” “No” “How about the second floor?” “No”, “How about the garage?” “No” “Okay so lets talk about what I can burn down” “No” “You are not COMPROMISING!”

  5. 5.

    Cacti

    Cole, since you know nothing about baseball, I’ll fill you in. As a Cardinals fan, I can tell you that the Pirates had our number for most of the season, and stand a good chance to win this series.

    ETA: Game 1 notwithstanding.

  9. 9.

    raven

    Washington (CNN) — The federal government may not be hit with a double whammy on top of the ongoing shutdown, as House Speaker John Boehner told a group of fellow GOP legislators that he’s willing to rely on Democrats to raise the nation’s debt limit to avoid a default, according to a House Republican.

  10. 10.

    The Dangerman

    As memory serves, previous “Grand Bargains” blew up because the Republicans wouldn’t increase revenue; now, they think they can get a “Grand Bargain” for not defaulting and/or opening the government?

    I’ve given up prognostication on the shutdown (I figured no shut down or very short shut down), but if that’s their negotiating position, we’re fucked.

    ETA: (from upstairs)…Boehner told a group of fellow GOP legislators that he’s willing to rely on Democrats to raise the nation’s debt limit to avoid a default, according to a House Republican.

    Trial balloon to see if he wakes up with a horses head in his bed tomorrow.

  11. 11.

    Violet

    @beltane: Speaking of NPR, they did a segment on how Fox News and conservative media have been “very aggressive about creating a narrative for their own audience” during the shutdown. They pointed out that they don’t use the word “shutdown”–they use “slimdown” instead. They played clips from Fox News, Mark Levin, and so forth. It was interesting to hear them devote an entire segment to pointing out that conservatives have their own echo chamber.

  13. 13.

    Hill Dweller

    @Violet:

    Speaking of NPR, they did a segment on how Fox News and conservative media have been “very aggressive about creating a narrative for their own audience” during the shutdown. They pointed out that they don’t use the word “shutdown”–they use “slimdown” instead. They played clips from Fox News, Mark Levin, and so forth. It was interesting to hear them devote an entire segment to pointing out that conservatives have their own echo chamber.

    The Twitter machine is telling me Fox is calling it the “Obama Shutdown”.

  14. 14.

    cathyx

    @JPL: Yeah, no Emmitt Smith this time. In fact, didn’t he win when he was on and robbed Mario Lopez of the righteously deserved title. Bill Nye the Science Guy just got booted. Hopefully Snooky is right behind him. I hate her.

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    World War II vets are allowed back in their war memorial now, shutdown or no shutdown.

    A day after hundreds of tourist veterans took over the closed down World War II Memorial in the heart of the Nation’s Capital, the United States Park Police announced that planned Honor Flight visits to the monument are considered “First Amendment activities,” which are allowed regardless of the government’s operating status. Source

  18. 18.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven: I am so fuckin tired tonight, I hope it’s an exciting game so I can stay awake. In other circumstances I’d probably already be asleep by now. Long day.

  24. 24.

    raven

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yea, I had to go to the ATL for a meeting so I left here @ 5:30 and had my coffee in midtown. I’m going to try to makeup the rainout by taking the crew up to Maggie Valley in the morning and come back for the Dawgs Saturday afternoon. I’ll make this game as far as I can and then hit the DVR and finish when I get up.

  25. 25.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven:

    I wish Fredi Gonzalez didn’t chew … whatever that is he chews … with his mouth open. I’m feeling slightly nauseated just watching him on the teevee.

  28. 28.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Yup.

    Now sort of idly wondering if the eternal flame at JFK’s grave might be extinguished due to non-payment of the gas bill.

  29. 29.

    beltane

    @Violet: Maybe this is a sign that the non-Koch plutocrats are fed up with the Republicans. Teabagging is all fine and well until it starts costing them money.

  30. 30.

    fuckwit

    @Litlebritdifrnt: That’s it, perfect, beautiful.

    Also I’m reminded of the old (horrible, sexist, trigger-warning) joke: “Q: What do 10,000 battered wives have in common? A: THEY DON’T FUCKING LISTEN!!!”

    There’s a scary corrolary between how the Rethugs are acting, actually, and how an abusive partner acts. The fact that they are always blaming their abuse upon the victim (as in the above joke) being the most frightening one.

    I can just picture the teabaggers hollering “LOOK AT WHAT YOU MADE ME DO TO YOU? WHY MUST YOU ALWAYS PROVOKE ME?” into the face of the crying, black-and-blue nation.

    (Ugh, wow, that was dark. I feel like I need a shower now).

  31. 31.

    Felonius Monk

    I posted this in an earlier thread which apparently was already dead, so put it up here. For the seeming animosity between Cruz and Boehner there is this:

    In 1998, Cruz served as private counsel for Congressman John Boehner during Boehner’s lawsuit against Congressman Jim McDermott for releasing a tape recording of a Boehner telephone conversation.

    Never realized they were old buds.

  34. 34.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @qwerty42:

    I thought Cubs fans hated the Cards.

    When it’s a Cards-Cubbies game, of course you are right. And maybe it’s just me. I’m not trying to be tribally correct here.

    Go Braves!

  35. 35.

    NotMax

    Speaking of football:

    The [shutdown induced] travel suspension also prompted the Pentagon to cancel intercollegiate sports at its three service academies, including a sold-out football game scheduled for Saturday between the Air Force Falcons and the Naval Academy Midshipmen in Annapolis, Md. Source

    Hardly a tragedy, just mentioned in passing (no pun intended).

  38. 38.

    Felonius Monk

    @NotMax: Interesting. I saw a report yesterday that said the Army-Navy game would not be cancelled if this thing goes on that long.

  40. 40.

    Frankensteinbeck

    ‘Grand Bargain’ are just words. Like ‘reform’, some people will use them to mean ‘I think we can help everyone’ and some people will use them to mean ‘I want to destroy everything and lie about it’.

  44. 44.

    Hill Dweller

    @dmsilev: After the ridicule they were getting for the “slimdown” nonsense, it wouldn’t surprise me if they quite using it. That said, I suspect they’re flailing around trying to find something that sticks.

  47. 47.

    raven

    Dr. Brian L. Evans, a periodontist in Hamden, Conn., for whom Ms. Carey had worked until about a year ago, said that he believed that she had suffered a significant head injury sometime during the year she was employed by him.

    He described Ms. Carey as having “a bit of a temper,” but “nothing unusual, nothing that would ever lead us to think she would ever do anything like this.”

    eta

    “This is so scary,” Vazquez said. “It makes you realize you can’t escape stuff like this anymore. It doesn’t matter if you live in a big city or a small one.”

    Kevin Morano said he lives two doors down from the suspect and said he only knew that she was a dental hygienist and that she drove too fast in a black Infiniti and a white BMW.

    “I know one thing, she always drove too fast,” Morano said.

  48. 48.

    JPL

    @Felonius Monk: I just googled and it was the Gingrich discussion. I actually forgot that Boehner was involved. I can’t believe that Boehner and Cruz are long time acquaintances .. It seems like that would be important news for his constituents and the public..

  51. 51.

    cckids

    Is anyone else watching Chris Hayes? That smarmy little f*ckstick from The Heartland Institute is making me throw things at my TV. Big smile while he talks about how the TP’ers are “relishing” the shutdown, and slipping a lie or two in under the radar in almost every statement.

    You can just tell he studied at Gingrich’s knee.

  52. 52.

    Redshirt

    The other part of the joke being the entire Republican Party, soup to nuts, New England moderate to Southern Snake Handler. To be a Republican today is to be down with the party of Terror and violence and lies and outright evil. It’s outrageous, really, but here we are: Shut down because of a plus 8 Rethuglican House caucus.

  53. 53.

    Felonius Monk

    @JPL: Once again the MSM has its collective head up its ass and doesn’t do any real digging to get the full story.

  54. 54.

    PsiFighter37

    So anything useful happen in shutdown news today? Doesn’t seem like the GOP did as many clownish things today as they’ve been averaging in the recent past.

    I also got told I have to meet a (probably) unreachable target by the end of the year. That’s why I’m drinking right about now.

    PF37 +1 Ryan and the Beaster Bunny

  55. 55.

    cckids

    @Violet:

    It was interesting to hear them devote an entire segment to pointing out that conservatives have their own echo chamber.

    So, 15 or so years later, they have discovered reality? Good for them!!

    Bless their hearts.

  58. 58.

    Suffern ACE

    @cckids: yeah. Not to steal the old blogger’s complaint, but it doesn’t really count until Maureen Dowd gets thrown in the noise machine’s mix.

  59. 59.

    beltane

    @PsiFighter37: The only reason the GOP didn’t do as many clownish things today is that Capitol Hill was on lockdown for a while this afternoon. I am sure they will make up for it tomorrow.

  61. 61.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    @Paddy: No idea who Thomas Roberts is but it’s pretty clear he is the father of small children.

  62. 62.

    cckids

    @PsiFighter37: Not tonight, just the guest/terrorist from the H.I. He so obviously LOVES the idea of screwing people over, and explaining to the dim Dems what “THE AMERICAN PEOPLE” truly think.

    Dick.

  63. 63.

    NotMax

    @Hill dweller

    That said, I suspect they’re flailing around trying to find something that sticks.

    Reasonable realignment?

    Patriotic paring?

    Fiscal flexing?

    Switching topical gears, expecting a parcel from the mainland. Checked tracking number at USPS site and got a response saying delivery scheduled for Oct.3. Postal truck has come and gone, and no package.

    I blame Boehner.

  65. 65.

    David Koch

    CNBC blamed today’s triple-digit drop in the stock market on the shutdown.

    When the wingers have lost CNBC, after losing the WSJ ed. page, there’s not much left.

  66. 66.

    PsiFighter37

    @raven: Well, I am at my place by myself, so I suppose I am having a drink alone. Not sure why I need to get drunk alone, though…

  69. 69.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    You forgot they gays John. They want to screw with them too. But no, you’re not the only one. I can’t believe they’re demonizing park rangers. There’s literally no one that’s off limits. But if youu stuck in the position of making your friendly park ranger public villain no 1 you’re losing big time.

  70. 70.

    PsiFighter37

    @David Koch: CNBC has no concept of causality; they would blame the stock market being up or down based on the weather if there wasn’t a good reason.

    For me, the ISM service sector report was quite weak (biggest drop since Q4 2008), which probably spooked some folks. Otherwise – the market’s been trending down the past week or so…just a continuation of that, nothing otherwise.

  78. 78.

    RobertDSC-iPhone 4

    My hatred of the GOP reached thermonuclear temperatures today. I’ve mentioned before that my company does work for the Air Force and other gov’t departments. Today, the word came down that the Air Force is putting in a partial shutdown of base activities and we’re feeling the aftershocks from that.

    Management sent down word that many company people are going to be furloughed for at least two weeks. Many of the people I deal with are going to be gone. So much rage at the GOP.

  81. 81.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    Today, I was playing checkers inside the general store with the local Republican precinct captain, a former Governor of our small, yet influential, state. We were playing the exciting checkers variant of Fox and Geese. As I maneuvered my geese expertly around the checkerboard, he began to see that I was going to trap his fox for the win. He smiled wryly and said, “Jack, you bastards are doing this same thing to us on the national stage.” We paused our game and began discussing the government shutdown and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He admitted that he thought we were outplaying Republicans. He said he’d sign up for healthcare on one of the exchanges but he didn’t have to because he’s a rich doctor and he can operate on himself and then get reimbursed through Medicare. We had a long conversation but the short of it is I think we are winning.

  85. 85.

    Keith P.

    I’m surprised some group of Senators hasn’t formed a new “Gang of Seven” yet so they can get some TV time and the adulation of centrist pundits everywhere.

  86. 86.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    @Redshirt: Thank you. I am currently working on a longform piece about healthcare that John Cole said he would frontpage when I “suck his hairy nutsack”.

    Needless to say, I’m pretty excited about being published.

  93. 93.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven: Contract worker a couple-three days a week, on special projects. It will all end in mid-December, though.

  94. 94.

    Corner Stone

    @PsiFighter37:

    Thanks for the unsolicited advice, even though I didn’t ask for it.

    Isn’t that the definition of “unsolicited” ?
    You stupid fucking douchecanoe.

  96. 96.

    cathyx

    @NotMax: I see JSF more like Otis Campbell. After a night of commenting here, he needs to impound himself to sleep it off.

  97. 97.

    PsiFighter37

    @cathyx: Well, I was going to be polite, but now I won’t and I’ll just call you an asshole straight up.

    @Corner Stone: Oh hey look, the Neanderthal decided to crawl out from under his/her rock again. Hi there, twatface!

  98. 98.

    Corner Stone

    @Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: Please, please, for their sake, do not yet reveal who this person actually is.
    If you will, please to post snippets of your chess playing conversations, alongside your meaningful interpretations of same so we here have a much more full picture of the true mentality of your chess mate.

  100. 100.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I heard a little bit of an NPR interview with Cathy McMorris Rodgers today, and whew! That lady is both a loon and totally on message. She artfully failed/refused to answer a single question, and reiterated the GOP talking points of the day about 15 times.

    Shorter CMcMR: It’s all the Democrats’ fault, if only they would negotiate! The American people hate Obamacare, I don’t give a fuck what the polls say!

  102. 102.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven: Another officer does, but that’s not what I’m working on. Mine is an international Holocaust Remembrance/Education program.

  103. 103.

    PsiFighter37

    @Corner Stone: God forbid you ever had a little bit too much fun in your life with alcohol. At least I have better things to do with my life than offend everyone else on a politics blog. You’re like T&H, except you have no discernible political views other than being an asshole.

    This is the last post I’m going to waste my wrist muscles on typing to you. I’ll leave you to go bitch and moan from the corner of the room like the loser you are.

  104. 104.

    Corner Stone

    @SiubhanDuinne: *That’s* who’s always haunting the background in every Boehner press conference!
    I think she’s kind of cute, personally. Totes cray cray, but…

  106. 106.

    Corner Stone

    @PsiFighter37: Do you even read the stupid shit you post?
    I feel bad for you sometimes. So stupid and naive, blegging every one to forgive you for being young and rich in Manhattan.
    *No, really. You’re totes successful dawg. We all know it.

  108. 108.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    @Corner Stone: Well, he’s technically family, so I wouldn’t be comfortable revealing his identity. (He is my wife’s brother-in-law’s uncle-in-law. Specifically, my wife’s older brother is married to a gal whose brother’s wife has an aunt who is married to the Republican precinct captain/former Governor, third marriage for both of them. They met a few years back at a catfish dinner put on by the rotary club.)

    Anyway, I see him pretty regularly here and there (except for the four years he was living in the capitol) and we discuss politics irregularly. He knows I lean to the left and and so he calls me “Stalin” as sort of an inside joke because I have a giant mustache and close-cropped hair and my last name sort of sounds like “Stalin”.

    I’ll probably see him in a couple weeks and I will definitely talk to him more about the shutdown and PPACA. If you have any questions you’d like me to ask him, by all means send them along.

  109. 109.

    raven

    @PsiFighter37: Your whole Dean Martin schtick is fucking old. Nobody gives a fuck that you think being a drunken moron is cute. Skip the snappy reply, I’m out.

  114. 114.

    Corner Stone

    @Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: That all depends. Would I excoriate you if I finally figured out who it is you’re defending here with your lengthy and overly complicated conversational interpretations of a formerly elected official?
    Personally, with a job and a family I have to really commend you for the time you’ve taken to play chess with this individual, all in the hopes of providing us lessers here some kind of insightful insight.
    Thank you.

  115. 115.

    Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader

    @Corner Stone: I don’t like to brag but I’m a little bit of a big shot. I keep it on the downlow unless I have the opportunity to enlighten you proles.

  117. 117.

    Linnaeus

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I heard a little bit of an NPR interview with Cathy McMorris Rodgers today, and whew! That lady is both a loon and totally on message. She artfully failed/refused to answer a single question, and reiterated the GOP talking points of the day about 15 times.

    When you cross the Cascades here in Washington, that’s the kind of politician you find.

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