Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

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

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

All hail the time of the bunny!

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

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

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

The lights are all blinking red.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open thread

Reader Interactions

94Comments

  1. 1.

    Belafon

    I see the great statesman actor Kevin Sorbo has spoken. We have surely been blessed by his guidance and wisdom.

  5. 5.

    schrodinger's cat

    Dish Update: I went to the Dish to check the color of its header.
    -AS is on vacation, again.
    -His fees fees are hurt because Krugman called his blue eyed boy a racist
    -He is defending Charles Murray, again.

    Conclusion: I hadn’t missed much despite not checking his blog for months.

  7. 7.

    DougJ

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    I also haven’t checked in months. I admire Sullivan’s (or his staff’s) work ethic, but the whole thing just became too predictable for me, as your update indicates.

  9. 9.

    Amir Khalid

    @Belafon:
    Well, we’ve heard from Courtney Love, Rupert Murdoch, Oliver North, and now Kevin Sorbo. What are the Kardashians waiting for?

    I just realised I’ve confused two different topics, but I don’t care.

  10. 10.

    DougJ

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    I feel bad for Patrick Appel and Chris Bodenner, still working there. Even young Conor found a better gig.

    Now that he’s on vacay might be a good time to bombard them with emails to see if they’ll nominate someone here for a Moore award.

  17. 17.

    Violet

    And of cousre liberalism is BOOGA BOOGA scary Muslim Commie black man in the White House soshulism black men coming to get your white wimmins FEMA re-education camps forced gay marriage abortionplexes and not supporting the troops. And health insurance. Terrifying.

  18. 18.

    David Fud

    In the sense that centrists basically want no change, liberals want a future golden age and conservatives want to return to an imaginary past golden age, yes, centrists are the opposite.

  19. 19.

    Bob In Portland

    @Villago Delenda Est: Around 1990 I was sitting around my union office and looked through two different editions of the American Heritage Dictionary. The definition of fascism changed. Most curious. The newer definition dropped the whole corporatism thing.

  20. 20.

    Mandalay

    @DougJ:

    but the whole thing just became too predictable for me

    Heh. The greatest thing about Sullivan’s web site for me (more than almost any other web site) is that you really cannot predict what will be there. Just steer clear of his Its-All-About-Me posts and it’s fine. Recent topics:
    – The Poisons In Our Pantry
    – The Wear And Tear Of Police Work
    – The Whiteness Of Poverty
    – Busting The For-Profit College Racket
    – Sanctions For Sanctions’ Sake

    It’s BJ that’s entirely predictable, though that is not meant disparagingly.

  26. 26.

    Neldob

    but liberalism is centrism. So it’s also its opposite? Well muddied waters made muddier. Good work!

  28. 28.

    Mandalay

    @Bob In Portland: This is how they currently define it:

    A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, a capitalist economy subject to stringent governmental controls, violent suppression of the opposition, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.

    Which sounds about right to me – Fascism allows the private sector to do whatever it wants, and will even collude with it, as long as it meets with the State’s approval.

    We have a different system here: The private sector allows the government to do whatever it wants as long as it meets with the approval of the one percenters.

  29. 29.

    pacem appellant

    @Villago Delenda Est: A poster here pointed me to Stylish, a Chrome plugin, and then directed me to install “Balloon Juice Light” as a style. Since then, this website runs clean and smooth and noise-free.

  33. 33.

    cleek

    centrists are happy to enact liberal policies but only where it can be done conservatively.

    it would be fine if we could have better roads and bridges, but gosh darn it, that would be just too expensive given all the things your parents bought and didn’t yet pay for. maybe next year.

  35. 35.

    taylormattd

    I don’t think it is. Although I don’t know. The problem is “centrism” is a completely meaningless term, especially in the left blogosphere.

    I realize you are likely using “centrism” as a proxy for all of that horrifying David Broder / Thomas Friedman / Evan Bayh / Third Way bullshit. But frankly, when people on allegedly left blogs call others “centrist” they are usually trying to insult another lefty by using the word as a proxy for “kind of republican.”

  36. 36.

    Suffern ACE

    @Southern Beale: I like the comment you pulled out about how everytime he or she sees the first lady, she’s stuffing her face. I guess that’s another one of those liberal press cover ups. She might be walking around the white house with a bag of egg rolls in one hand and a dozen donuts in the other, but do they ever let us see those photos?

  38. 38.

    Roger Moore

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    You should try something like Flashblock. I don’t know if there’s a version for Chrome, but the version for Firefox has saved me from a whole host of evils. It apparently even blocks the to*na*l f*ngus ads that drive everyone else nuts.

  39. 39.

    cmorenc

    @DougJ:

    The opposite of liberalism is not conservatism, it’s centrism. Discuss.

    It’s not a binary distinction…a better analogy would be that liberalism, centrism, and conservatism are three respective apexes of an ideological triangle. Except that the centers-of-mass of some ideological dispositions aren’t necessarily inside the triangle, but outside one of the edges, i.e. some politicians are a mix of conservatism and centrism, but nevertheless on the whole are farther from having many (or any) liberal tendencies than they are to either the conservative or centrist apex. Some chamber-of-commerce republicans would be examples of this. Likewise, Rand Paul’s partial social libertarianism e.g. on marijuana (though not obviously abortion), is outside the triangle, between liberal and conservative, but he’s further away from centrism than he is to either conservatism or liberalism. Bill Clinton, OTOH is a great example of a politician who is somewhere *inside* the triangle, much closer to the liberal and centrist apexes than the conservative, but nevertheless in some respects his triangulation approach while in office creeps toward the conservative side, not away from it.

  42. 42.

    Southern Beale

    Just found out the White House pastry chef smear started with Frank Luntz. Can’t even believe that he’d stoop that low. From “death taxes” and “right to work” to twisting a person’s quotes in the NY Times to smear the first lady. I’d call that the bottom of the political barrel.

  43. 43.

    Amir Khalid

    @Roger Moore:
    Just once, I’d like to actually see that ad. All I ever get is John Cornyn begging me (in Malaysia!) for campaign money.

  45. 45.

    Southern Beale

    @SatanicPanic:

    Just when I think we’ve reached Peak Wingnut we haven’t. The corollary to that is that just when you think they’ve gone as low as it gets, we find a new bottom.

    Sorta like the “inflation” echo thingie they found confirming the Big Bang.

  48. 48.

    p.a.

    @cmorenc: pretty good analysis. Maybe Venn rather than triangle. Snark: the opposite of liberalism is BlueDog-ism. Clintonism (and I think Hilary will show this) is a liberal version of BlueDog-ism. Remember “Bill Clinton was the best Republican president of our lifetime”?

  49. 49.

    Calouste

    @David Fud:

    Strictly speaking, it’s conservatives that don’t want change, and reactionaries that want to return to the past. Although of course no one really wants to call themselves a “reactionary”, so they call themselves “conservative” instead.

  50. 50.

    Southern Beale

    @Calouste:

    These days the kewl kids are calling themselves “Constitutional conservatives.” I think that means they want to return to 1776, as opposed to the regular conservatives who just want to return to 1956.

  53. 53.

    WereBear

    @Southern Beale: Just found out the White House pastry chef smear started with Frank Luntz. Can’t even believe that he’d stoop that low.

    I guess that depression he went through didn’t last long enough.

  59. 59.

    Southern Beale

    @WereBear:

    I think he’s still the Loneliest Man In Politics. I find it deeply bizarre that the once high-powered Republican political strategist has resorted to twisting New York Times quotes into a FLOTUS smear on Twitter. Can’t be much pay in that (see schrodinger’s link).

    So easy even a cat can do it.

  61. 61.

    Bobby Thomson

    @taylormattd:

    I realize you are likely using “centrism” as a proxy for all of that horrifying David Broder / Thomas Friedman / Evan Bayh / Third Way bullshit. But frankly, when people on allegedly left blogs call others “centrist” they are usually trying to insult another lefty by using the word as a proxy for “kind of republican.”

    What’s the difference? Serious question.

  63. 63.

    boatboy_srq

    @Calouste: And in case anyone thinks this is a recent phenomenon:

    Of course you will pooh-pooh
    Whatever’s fresh and new
    And declare it’s crude and mean;
    For art stopped short
    In the cultivated court
    Of the Empress Josephine!

  64. 64.

    FlipYrWhig

    “Centrism” isn’t an -ism except by accident. People who call themselves “centrists” mean that they care about helping everyday people but also want businesses to prosper and for taxes to be low but also they don’t act showy with holy books. Most of that used to be called “conservative” until the people calling _themselves_ “conservative” started using that label to mean standing up for the privileges of straight white people and smiting enemies within and abroad. Even Edmund Burke, conservative icon, for fuck’s sake, went on and on and on about compassion and interdependence, and would probably be pilloried as a homo by your Eric Ericksons and Sean Hannities and whatnot.

    Ergo liberalism and conservatism are opposites still, but the people who call themselves “conservatives” aren’t conservatives by the customary pre-Goldwater, pre-Reagan definitions, and the people who call themselves “centrists” are.

    Or to put it another way, conservatives think the government should implement conservative policies, but “conservatives” think the government should just burn down, except for a few huge divisions of soldiers to intimidate the wussier countries. Until recently I’d’ve said that conservatives would also believe in cops, but they don’t even want them around anymore, apparently being content with “law” “enforcement” by vigilantes and lynch mobs.

  67. 67.

    Violet

    @Southern Beale:

    Just found out the White House pastry chef smear started with Frank Luntz. Can’t even believe that he’d stoop that low.

    Why not? He’s done nothing to suggest otherwise. However low you can imagine he’d stoop or crawl or slither, he can always go lower.

  68. 68.

    FlipYrWhig

    BTW my mom, once a fairly active hippie type, throughout my youth used the word “conservative” as an insult essentially synonymous with “square.” Short hair, button-down shirt, listens to neither rock nor roll let alone the two at once, etc.

  69. 69.

    different-church-lady

    @taylormattd:

    But frankly, when people on allegedly left blogs call others “centrist” they are usually trying to insult another lefty by using the word as a proxy for “kind of republican.” “betrayer of my fantasies for revolution.”

  74. 74.

    Gex

    @DougJ: A while ago Cole posted something on Facebook he got from Sully’s blog. And it was something from an Internet aggregator that had gone viral a week earlier. It just cracks me up that people are paying Sullivan to read a blog where he regurgitates week old content he got from a free site that his readers, if they had any size social circle on Facebook would have seen days before it hit his site. Plus content written by interns.

  75. 75.

    Archon

    In practice I would say liberalism (especially American progressivism) is staunchly anti-Fascist. Post WWII liberalism is also staunchly anti-communist too.

    I personally base my liberalism more on political and democratic ideals then economic ones. To that end the opposite of liberalism in my opinion is totalitarianism, whether it’s the Nazi kind, Chinese kind or Cuban kind matters little conceptually.

  77. 77.

    MikeJ

    @? Martin: Great. Can you restrict it to this site instead of making it global? The @-moz-document rules don’t work on chrome.

  78. 78.

    Joe Buck

    The current definition of “centrist” is “whatever rich people want”. Most rich people don’t care about the delusions of the religious right, and most aren’t bigots. But they care about their investments, don’t like taxes and want the best return on their money. So they are fiscally conservative and socially liberal, but these both fall out of the fact that they are thinking of their own interests.

    An alternative definition of “centrist” might be someone who holds roughly the median position on most controversial issues. But by this definition, the idea of cutting Social Security or other entitlements would hardly be centrist.

  79. 79.

    Trollhattan

    Some Kentucky gun-fondler needs his ass kicked.

    UC Davis veterinarians hope to partially reconstruct the jaw of a Kentucky collie that was shot in the muzzle. Lad was delivered Monday to the UC Davis’ veterinary teaching hospital by The Arrow Fund, a group that provides medical treatment for animals that are victims of torture, abuse or neglect.

    An investigation is underway to find who shot the 9-month-old collie, according to the Kentucky-based Arrow Fund. The Arrow Fund acquired the dog on Feb. 10, about six days after the shooting. His wound was badly infected and he appeared near death, according to a UC Davis press release.

    He was taken to Blue Pearl Veterinary in Louisville for emergency veterinary treatment where he received care from specialists. After his transfer to UC Davis, doctors determined that he was in general good health.

    His lower jaw has three teeth on one side and two teeth on the other side. Plans are for one or more surgeries in 10 to 14 days.

    http://www.sacbee.com/2014/03/18/6247965/uc-davis-to-help-kentucky-collie.html#storylink=cpy

  82. 82.

    Kay

    About 80 senators are expected to attend a dinner discussion at the Capitol tonight with Microsoft founder Bill Gates and the NYT’s David Brooks. The 6:45 p.m. dinner, according to an invitation obtained by Huddle, is sponsored by the No Labels Foundation, and one of that group’s honorary co-chairs, Sen. Joe Manchin, will make opening remarks. So what’s the No Labels-Microsoft connection? No Labels co-founder Nancy Jacobson is married to longtime pollster Mark Penn, executive vice president and chief strategy officer at Microsoft, said a source who will be attending the event.

    A billionaire, David Brooks, No Labels and Mark Penn. Is this a laser-like focus on the middle class?

    I don’t know. It may be hopeless. It’s like they’re trying to make me sad. And lose. They want to lose. They have a death wish.

  86. 86.

    mclaren

    No, the opposite of liberalism is cats.

    Who is Nebraska? What is the square root of yellow? Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?

  88. 88.

    Cervantes

    @Southern Beale:

    Just found out the White House pastry chef smear started with Frank Luntz. Can’t even believe that he’d stoop that low. From “death taxes” and “right to work” to twisting a person’s quotes in the NY Times to smear the first lady. I’d call that the bottom of the political barrel.

    I saw Howley’s article. What’s the connection to Luntz? (Thanks.)

  89. 89.

    Ian

    @schrodinger’s cat:
    I would guess that given his importance to Republican electoral chances, each and every single one of his dirty secrets is kept in a secured safe. If Luntz fails to perform, a folder gets released to the hungry wolves.

  91. 91.

    Kay

    @the Conster:

    Well, I disagree. He just got re-elected and he’s a great senator. He should stay where he is.

    What about the Democrats, though? I have to admit I didn’t see this brilliant counterintuitive midterm strategy coming, where they’re running as the Party for Plutocrats.

    Ladders of Opportunity was bad enough. This is worse.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    @the Conster:

    I think Manchin has a kind of exalted opinion of himself, like he’s the commonsense leader who can bridge gaps. I’m not so worried about Republicans if Republicans take the Senate. I’m worried about Democrats joining with Republicans.

    That will happen.

  93. 93.

    David Koch

    @Kay:

    No Labels co-founder Nancy Jacobson is married to longtime pollster Mark Penn,

    These PUMAs are something else. Obama salvages Hillary’s career, lifting her out of the toxic snake pit of the Senate, making her Secretary of State, which catapults her to a level of popularity and respect she never reached before.

    But nothing is good enough for them. They still act like the whinny, petty, sore losers they are.

Comments are closed.