Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

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

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

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

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

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

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

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Reader Interactions

85Comments

  2. 2.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    Oh Season 4 is just playing here now, isn’t it.

    Oh man, are you in for — okay, no spoilers.

    I will be curious to hear what people think of the Transformers thing, not to mention the whole space alien invasion to begin with, and I really did not like the entire Kardashian family added as cast members — but I’ve said too much.

  3. 3.

    MikeJ

    Downton Abbey? Meh. Sherlock episode two, “The Sign of Three.”

    But I’m going to eat dinner first.

  9. 9.

    ruemara

    I think all I’ll do is squint and try to work on something. I think I’m having a dose of stomache flu and the thundering headache is ruining my plans to study.

  10. 10.

    srv

    Sherlock for me too.

    It is really a sad state of affairs when all the toties want to watch a series that just reinforces classism.

    Back to stoking the coals, cudlips.

  16. 16.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @srv: I know, I once started to watch Ben Hur, and then realized that we’d immediately revert to an imperial system if I did, so I turned it off.

    Then GWB became President and I realized it had happened anyway (rimshot), but I doubt it was because I had watched a movie about it.

  22. 22.

    srv

    @John Cole: John, you get a VPN in the UK.

    1) Get a VPN that support the UK. Ex: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/
    (search “BBC iPlayer VPN” for other options)
    2) Login, set it to use one of the UK IPs
    3) Goto the BBC website. Before you downloaded the BBC iPlayer, but now there’s a BBC iPlayer download app. Install it.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer
    4) Run the download app. In the lower right, it has “Go to BBC iPlayer website” select
    5) Search for Sherlock (it should be on the first page). Select it.
    6) It will then have a video window, watch or select download

    Given the VPN is slow, I suggest dowload. It will take hours. Except, protip: Once you start a download (shows up in the download player), there is a pause/resume selection. Let it download 20 MB or so. Then pause it. Go to your VPN, disconnect, and then back to the download window and resume (they don’t recheck). It will then download much faster.

  23. 23.

    BD of MN

    @srv: Or wait until next Sunday, (at least here in the Twin Cities) Downton Abbey from 7-8pm, Sherlock from 8-10pm…

  25. 25.

    Heliopause

    Dare I say, another fawning post about characters who make Mitt Romney look like a populist by comparison?

  27. 27.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Heliopause: You actually can’t tell the difference between real life and dramatic fiction, can you?

    This place becomes so silly some nights it’s like someone scripted it as a comedy.

  28. 28.

    ruemara

    I don’t get the adoration of this update to Upstairs, Downstairs. Especially in America, land of merit-based success and egalitarianism. But if it drives people to dress better and have a nice cup of tea, I’m all for it.

  32. 32.

    JordanRules

    Oh boy.

    Amy Chua, the self-proclaimed “Tiger Mom” who, in 2011, published a book arguing that Chinese women are superior mothers — thus their offspring superior children — has even more to say.
    In “The Triple Package,” Chua and her husband, co-author Jed Rubenfeld, gather some specious stats and anecdotal evidence to argue that some groups are just superior to others and everyone else is contributing to the downfall of America.

    http://nypost.com/2014/01/04/tiger-mom-some-groups-are-just-better-than-others/

  36. 36.

    jl

    @JordanRules: Totebaggers on their list? How about high minded PBS drama show watchers? Are they good or are they bad?

    And waddabout football fans!!??

    Edit: though I do have some groups’ numbers. Heard a radio report about a psych study of music lovers. Classical listeners are dopers. Blues have traffic tickets. Dance music people are into sexytime!

    Edit2: not sure I believe the study, but thought the results were fun and surprising, at least as a joke.

  37. 37.

    gwangung

    @JordanRules: Yes, well white people have their Duck Dynasty and we have…her.

    Not sure who has it worse.

    (And I’ll brain the next person who makes a Peking Duck Dynasty or Joy Luck Dynasty joke).

  39. 39.

    eemom

    @danielx:

    Well, ok….but at least your weather is sane. Here in NoVA tomorrow, they’re saying high 44, low 3 (three). This is crazy shit. This weather could buy a gun.

  42. 42.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @JordanRules:

    Well, if “everyone else” includes Palin, Romney, the entire Bush Crime family, Darth Cheney and his vile consort and spawn, the entire Robertson clan, everyone employed at Faux Noise, and all teabaggers everywhere, she may be on to something.

  43. 43.

    Heliopause

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Yes, that’s exactly the point being made. You are all discerning.

    I’m trying to decide, if the choice is to take the director’s cut boxed set of Downton or Duck Dynasty to the desert island, which?

  45. 45.

    scav

    @JordanRules: Ho-leeeeeee Shit she’s got Nigerians on the Superior list! The 419-meets Wall Street Success jokes write themselves. And beyond the stereotypes, I wouldn’t count the Naijamen I hung with as paragons of impulse control. Faaar too much fun for that.

  48. 48.

    JordanRules

    @Villago Delenda Est: Sweet mother of something…my state refuses to let the other crazy states win.
    @scav: It’s probably like a list of “good” people she and her husband met or something. She’s a pitiful grifter troll borrowing some of Coulters poses for her press pics.

  49. 49.

    FlyingToaster

    @JordanRules: I think that the battier olds are all picking Arizona these days.

    Note: I have a sibling there. He’s not old, but he’s definitely a pod person.

  50. 50.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Omnes Omnibus: socialist realism is also bad because it suggests that real problems can be addressed with fiction. Works are either (1) pandering to power or (2) only fantasizing that power can be upended as a kind of narcotizing principle that subverts real revolution. Thus all entertainment is corrupt and quietist. Or, to put it another way, shit sucks and shit.

  53. 53.

    Carrie

    Are you caught up on Justified?
    Omg….Episode 1 of season 5 starts on Tues. on
    FX.
    Timothy Oliphant and Walton Goggins!!!!
    I’m so excited!!!!
    Schoolgirl squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

  56. 56.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Carrie: I am so ready for Justified. I suppose some will interpret this to mean I support drug dealing and poverty in Appalachia.

  58. 58.

    JordanRules

    I’ll be damned, I guess I missed Theraflu being “temporarily” discontinued last year because of some issues with the factory in Lincoln, NE.
    Uggh, I was walking around Walgreens like a horribly lost cootie infested zombie. I was certain I just couldn’t find it cause I was so sick.

  59. 59.

    Suzanne

    @Villago Delenda Est: As an Arizonan, I sort of hope this is true, because I will enjoy watching him get his ass kicked. Hard.

    Actually, he may be marginally better than our current crone at the Capitol.

  60. 60.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @JordanRules: Find a lemon; chop it into bits – peel and all; put it into a cup; drown it in honey; stir occasionally for about 10 minutes; then consume the whole thing. Honey, juice, pulp, and peel. It helps.

  65. 65.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @JordanRules:

    What if I only support reruns? Or reboots?

    Then you won’t enjoy the next season of Justified. BTW, the previews/promos I have seen have used a song by Hanni El-Khatib, so good for them.

  67. 67.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Carrie: @danielx: I was referring to the people above who interpreted an appreciation of Downton Abbey as a fondness for the social construct in which it is set.

    Boyd is one fucked-up human being, but one hell of an interesting character.

  71. 71.

    Carrie

    @Omnes Omnibus: The thing about Boyd is that he was supposed to be an incidental character but he was such a powerful presence that the producers decided that they had to stay….personally I love the guy and he’s such a major personality, makes me love him.

  72. 72.

    scav

    What I like is currently both Chicago and Oslo are at 1°. Oslo’s is °C and ours is °F and with the night to keep dropping.

  73. 73.

    Chris

    @catclub:

    I watched and came away with ever more feeling that the upper classes were a waste of air. But tea is fine.

    I haven’t watched all of it and don’t intend to, but I did see season 2 and half of 3 over the holiday and have to agree. My favorite white-people-problems moment was everyone’s the-sky-is-falling horror at the prospect of losing Downton, particularly after you’ve seen the “squalor” they’d have been “downgraded” to if they’d had to sell the mansion.

  74. 74.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Carrie: Boyd is one of the better anti-heros to show up in modern culture. He has a decency and code from which he won’t deviate, but it is something that allows him to do and say truly appalling things. Raylan, of course, has a similar background and is always dealing with the conflict between the Boyd in him and the civilized law enforcement officer that he is supposed to be.

  75. 75.

    ruemara

    I love the clothes, but I get my fill hanging with a costumer friend. But the whole production is quite gorgeous. Just not my cup of English Breakfast.

  76. 76.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Chris: Oh, come on. Look at how the various characters responded to the “crisis.” Lord Grantham actually had a finest hour there. He was prepared to face up to things and not compromise himself. While DA isn’t Shakespeare, if one watches the characters, above- and below-stairs, one sees the the reactions of a variety of people of differing social classes and viewpoints the real changes that the early 20th century wrought.

  78. 78.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Carrie: Actually, and I forgot – due to a bit of drinky-drink – the name of the leader of the AA clan up in the hills who are neutral arbiters, but I think that he will be a significant influence in the next season.

    Edited to make a bit more sense.

  79. 79.

    cmm

    Totally not reading this thread. I am still pissed at the asshole who posted spoilers of the 2 main character deaths in the Downton Abbey thread after the first episode last January.

  80. 80.

    Ecks

    Quasi-spoiler alert: no plot details below, but does have generic info about the overall quality of the season. You have been warned.

    There really aren’t a whole lot of spoilers you really can give here anyway. Each episode has its monster of the week crisis, but only one character has a particularly dramatic plot arc, and even that is treated as a barely resolved side show. JF writes dialogue same as ever, but seems to be running out of big ideas to keep it all moving. Maggie Smith and some of the servants keep the whole thing just about alive, based on pure watchability. But the show as a whole is limping, and low on steam.

  82. 82.

    jake the snake

    It seems to me from the first episode that they have the boat warming up to jump the shark.

    It is interesting how a show will grow on you. The first time I watched Downton, it brought out my inner Bolshevik.
    However, now I am wondering if it last long enough for Branson to become a raging Tory.

  85. 85.

    LAC

    @gogol’s wife: because being a fucking “hipper than thou” snark douche is no fun if no one knows how hip you are. :-). Of course, these are usually the same people who can describe to you the entire last scene of the last episode of “Veronica Mars” with tears in their eyes. But how dare you like this show!

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