Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Bark louder, little dog.

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

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

You cannot shame the shameless.

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

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

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

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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

The words do not have to be perfect.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

This really is a full service blog.

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

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

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Reader Interactions

60Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    Grateful for a fresh thread.

    You still doing good with matching cars and drivers? Still at your coffice?

    ETA: mistook you for Betty Cracker, Mr. Doug J. But if you’re matching cars and drivers, we’d be interested in hearing about it.

  5. 5.

    Elizabelle

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    AHhhh! There’s that word!!

    However: here’s a gorgeous photo essay the NY Times magazine put up recently. The Great Plains. Treat yourself to looking at these spare landscapes.

    Life Along the 100th Meridian

    Photographer “Andrew Moore is based in New York. His exhibition, “Dirt Meridian,” opens at the Yancey Richardson Gallery in Manhattan on Jan. 9.”

    Be worth it to come up to see it.

  10. 10.

    Belafon

    So the Pope had just more (awesome) words today. Among other things he went after “widening gap between those who have more and those who must be content with the crumbs.” The Daily Kos article (by TomP, who I can recommend), goes into detail, and including a link to the transcript of the Pope’s radio address. At the end, TomP writes this, which I also thought was good:

    Not everyone is Christian and not everyone is religious. Moreover, while not the focus, he does mention “life” issues, which means anti-abortion to the Church.

    I am not Catholic (but was as a child) and do not seek to promote or disparage any religion. The Pope’s elevation of economic inequality, a world-wide issue, matters. He is not a Marxist and comes to it from a different approach entirely. I think many people, however, can find common ground on this issue.

    Bluntly put, gross economic inequality ain’t right. However one gets to that position, through belief in Christ, Allah, understanding God’s law as expressed in the Torah, through Buddha, Hindu, Zoroastrianism, pagan beliefs, atheistic ethics, Marxism, anarchism, liberal capitalists, social democracy, socialism, whatever, this is something that many people can find common ground on.

  14. 14.

    elmo

    @Alison:
    Just bought it based on TNC’s recommendation. It’s waiting on my Kindle for my next airline travel, which will be right after the first of the new year.

  15. 15.

    Punchy

    GOP not happy with budget bill because it has bipartisan fingerprints. No, I’m not kidding. And here I thought Congress’s job was to find compromises!

    How much more evidence do we need to cement Cleek’s Law into the history books as an absolute fact of nature?

  16. 16.

    elmo

    @Belafon:

    I love that his focus on economic inequality is dovetailing with the President’s. I have this little dream, where the mythical ’80’s alliance of Pope JPII and Ronald Reagan that the RWNJs love to credit with defeating the Soviets is mirrored in the 2010’s with President Obama and Pope Francis joining forces to defeat the Koch brothers.

  17. 17.

    dmsilev

    @Jay C: Actually it gets even worse if you look inside the rag:

    You might not be all that familiar if you aren’t a Twitter user, presumably because the photos were rightly treated as a goofy meme more than a news story. But Peyser, writing in her column on Thursday, somehow knows it’s a sign of trouble in paradise for Obama.

    In front of 91 world leaders, the mourning nation of South Africa and Obama’s clearly furious wife, Michelle, the president flirted, giggled, whispered like a recalcitrant child and made a damn fool of himself at first sight of Denmark’s voluptuously curvy and married prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

    And don’t think Thorning-Schmidt was let off the hook either! Peyser cooked up a batch of sexually-charged labels drawn from both baked goods and Thorning-Schmidt’s nationality. The prime minister of Denmark, Peyser reminds readers throughout the column, is Danish.

    Not just any Dane, but a “Danish pastry,” “Danish hellcat,” and “cross-legged Danish cupcake.”

    Nice.

  18. 18.

    oldster

    Very nice tune, and proof of my age, that I have not heard it before.

    I am usually very skeptical of the blue-eyed soul kids, but this guy has chops, esp. when he goes diminuendo to piano at the very end of the song. Some real soul in there.

  20. 20.

    Roger Moore

    @Punchy:

    GOP not happy with budget bill because it has bipartisan fingerprints.

    Cleek’s Law strikes again! If those DFH Demonrats like it are willing to accept it while holding their noses, there must be something wrong with it.

  22. 22.

    jayboat

    I’ve been troubled by miss bubblebutt.
    Her bubble is not her butt- it’s a damn pad sewn into that ‘dress’.

    Anyone else bothered by this?
    Truth in advertising… also, too- BENGHAZI!

  23. 23.

    Jay C

    @dmsilev:

    Actually, I wouldn’t wrap fish in the New York Post for fear of it spoiling the fish by association: but this is pretty stenchful – dumping on Obama is one thing, but cheap digs at the Prime Minister of Denmark? Over her looks?
    Does Denmark control a stealth drone force? If so, I’d stay away from this neighborhood for a while….

    The New York Post: carefully crafted to be Archie Bunker’s favorite newspaper: except that they never quite realized that Archie Bunker is a fictional character.

  24. 24.

    greennotGreen

    December 14 is the one year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. My friends Jeremy Richman and Jen Hensel lost their only child there. Jeremy and Jen were interviewed this morning on NPR and will be part of an Anderson Cooper program on Saturday.

    Jeremy is right: we can imagine the horror of losing a child which is why we all need to work to prevent such tragedies from ever happening again.

  26. 26.

    Roger Moore

    @jayboat:
    Wait, wait! So the web site that’s trying to suck me in to watching a dishonest conservative screed by using an unrelated picture of an allegedly sexy woman is using tricks to enhance her appearance? Is nothing sacred in this world?

  28. 28.

    Suffern ACE

    @Jay C: Hussy had is coming. Did you know that she got close enough to the president to exchange body heat? Did she push back against those advances?

  30. 30.

    rikyrah

    Tuesday, December 10, 2013
    For Republicans, a Homeless 11-Year-Old Black Girl Named Dasani is a “Useless Eater” Who Should Just Die

    Al Sharpton did some great work on Monday’s PoliticsNation where he further exposed the politics of cruelty that have possessed the Republican Party.

    Republicans want to cut food stamps, believe that kicking people off of unemployment insurance who cannot find a job in an economy where there are 3 people for every available position, and that a particularly evil and twisted version of “Christian faith” justifies punishing and hurting poor people as righteous deeds and acts that mark conservatives as “the elect” who are destined for heaven.

    I am not a “Christian”. But my understanding of the “historical” Jesus was that he was a man who died fighting State tyranny and would do anything to help the poor, the weak, and the vulnerable. The Tea Party GOP’s bastardization of Jesus Christ remakes him into a figure who puts his foot on the throats of the hungry, weak, the vulnerable, and the needy, in order to motivate them into self-sufficiency–or alternatively die from a lack of breath.

    For the Tea Party GOP, either outcome is acceptable.

    The panoply of Right-wing hypocrites that Al Sharpton calls out, what is a rogues gallery of the cruel and the heartless, are wealthy people who have not taken to heart basic principles such as how noblesse oblige may actually create the social stability necessary to protect the rich while advancing their long-term interests.

    http://www.chaunceydevega.com/2013/12/for-republicans-homeless-11-year-old.html

  33. 33.

    handsmile

    @Alison:

    Yes, much of it. It’s very good, which is true of most everything Judt wrote. His death a few years ago came far too soon for a writer and thinker of his erudition and luminosity.

    I’m afraid my off-line life beckons in five minutes. But if it could be of any help to you, I’d be happy to try to answer your question(s) when I return around 8:00pm this evening.

  34. 34.

    Yatsuno

    @Suffern ACE: If Patty put it out there it has the votes. There will still be last-minute sausage making as well, but this should be what passes. Plus she’s a fucking tough arm twister even if she is a foot shorter than Michelle.

  35. 35.

    TaMara (BHF)

    Love this song. Posted it on both my blog and book of faces page earlier this year. I’ve liked it enough times that Pandora plays it a couple times a day for me.

  38. 38.

    muricafukyea

    Jesus titty fucking christ Cole. You don’t know shit about shit but you sure have figured out the most annoying way to try puke your ads all over the fucking place. The newmax ads are annoying enough but that car commercial is the most annoying fucking ad I’ve seen in awhile. Just have to move the mouse over it without even clicking and the fucking thing runs with no obvious way to disable audio.

    Way to whore out your site Cole. Whatever it takes to buy your pet food.

  39. 39.

    Yatsuno

    @TaMara (BHF): The surgeon has a really good reputation, his assistant is awesome (I impressed her by knowing what the henna on her hands meant) and this is the next best option. Three weeks here, two months of border collie therapy, yeah, should be good.

  40. 40.

    Belafon

    @muricafukyea:

    Jesus titty fucking christ muricafukyea. You don’t know shit about shit but you sure have figured out the most annoying way to try puke all over the fucking place.

    I missed the part where you’re required to be here.

  41. 41.

    James E Powell

    @Alison:

    Hey, anyone here read Tony Judt’s Postwar?

    Twice and I’m planning on reading it again when I get time. Obviously I liked it. I recommend it to everyone who reads history or politics.

  43. 43.

    Yatsuno

    @Belafon: It must be strange to be that man, Durf. A visionary of such obvious genius and talent so underappreciated by us mere plebes. I wonder if he also does self-portraits in the bathroom mirror.

  45. 45.

    Glocksman

    @muricafukyea:

    Sometimes it’s interesting to click on a Newsmax lede and see just how misleading it is when compared to the entirety of the story.
    The latest one is ‘EPA Rules Force Closure of Last Ammo Maker’.

    Now I don’t follow the gun boards nearly as much as I used to, but I would have thought I’d have heard about that.

    Sure enough when you read the actual story, the truth is that the EPA has an agreement with the owners of the last primary lead smelter in the US to close the plant at the end of the year.

    To make Newsmax’s bullshit even more obvious, they quote various industry sources and even the fucking NRA as saying that ammo makers use recycled lead and that the smelter closure shouldn’t have any effect on ammo prices.

  46. 46.

    WaterGIrl

    @Yatsuno: I thought it was kinda weird that derf was ranting at Cole in a thread posted by DougJ. Poor guy, he doesn’t even understand how to figure out who posted a thread.

  47. 47.

    Belafon

    @Yatsuno: Why would he? I’m pretty sure that when he sits outside, someone does a portrait for him, and pays him for the honor.

    The cruelty in the world is that he has to make up the insult’s about John himself.

  50. 50.

    Anoniminous

    Idly wondering whatever happened to the Gun Nut haven in Idaho. Killing themselves by Smelting lead for bullets seems right up their alley.

  53. 53.

    Alison

    @handsmile: @Glocksman: @James E Powell: Hopefully one of you is still checking this thread :P

    So my question is – obviously I know the general subject, and I’m sure some of it is tough and awful, but does it ever get like…super detailed about the violence or overly graphic in depictions or whatnot? Like, if there’s specific discussion of camps or something, is it explicit? I want to read this book but I have a difficult time with reading too-detailed accounts of that stuff, so just want to know going in if I’m going to encounter it or not…

  54. 54.

    Glocksman

    I hate to sound squishy, but it really depends upon your tolerance level.
    I found some of the events described to be horrifying, but not on the level of any serious book about the Holocaust, for example.

    If I were you, I’d read it and skim past anything you might find too detailed as it is a very good book.

  57. 57.

    chopper

    @Suffern ACE:

    the post is just reinforcing it’s old credo. doesn’t matter if a woman is so successful she ends up elected prime minister of a first world country. still a slut.

  58. 58.

    burnspbesq

    Listening to “Neil Young Live at the Cellar Door.” Guitar sounds out of tune and he sounds like he is consistently flat. Are my ears playing tricks on me? And if not, are those things relevant?

  59. 59.

    Cervantes

    From the ridiculous — Harvey Mansfield yesterday — to the sublime …

    @Alison: Re Postwar by Tony Judt:

    So my question is – obviously I know the general subject, and I’m sure some of it is tough and awful, but does it ever get like…super detailed about the violence or overly graphic in depictions or whatnot? Like, if there’s specific discussion of camps or something, is it explicit? I want to read this book but I have a difficult time with reading too-detailed accounts of that stuff, so just want to know going in if I’m going to encounter it or not…

    Honestly … Tony was among the most civilized and courageous of writers. Read his book without further delay!

  60. 60.

    handsmile

    @Alison:

    [should you return to this thread]

    I returned home rather later than anticipated and your question may well have been adequately answered above by Glocksman and Cervantes.

    But I too would like to allay your stated concern by noting that the genocide and atrocities that characterized so much of European history from 1914-1945, the reading of which can be harrowing, is not significantly representative of the postwar period.

    Moreover, given the near-encyclopedic scope of Judt’s subject – the history of Western and Eastern Europe from 1945-2005, often rendered through a country-by-country survey – the narrative emphasis is upon broad social, economic, and cultural currents. By judiciously choosing examples and anecdotes, Judt explores these trends in specific countries or particular circumstances. Political violence is not absent from the book, but it is never gratuitously graphic or clinically detailed.

    In his reply, Cervantes (#59) aptly chose the word “courageous” to describe Tony Judt. Such character is evident throughout his life and career: in his refutation of political orthodoxies of the Right and Left; in his refusal to be cowed by prominent figures who denounced him for his sharply critical views on Israel; and in his determination to continue his scholarship at the highest level after being diagnosed with ALS.

    I had the enormous honor and privilege of being in the audience for Judt’s final public lecture in October 2009. The intellectual and moral stature of the man can be immediately grasped by viewing this presentation of the event:

    http://remarque.as.nyu.edu/object/io_1256242927496.html

    I am confident that you will find Postwar to be immensely informative and rewarding.

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