Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

This blog will pay for itself.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

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

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Republicans in disarray!

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

This really is a full service blog.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

I really should read my own blog.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Because of wow. / Go Big Or Stay Home

Reader Interactions

87Comments

  1. 1.

    pharniel

    Given that this yakass authored the ‘violent video game’ bill many sites I read are having massive hategasims. The hot sticky schadenfreude is going everywhere and will require massive amounts of Windex and squeegees to clean up.

  2. 2.

    ranchandsyrup

    Strange midlife crisis solution, Sen. Yee.
    Worked with him and his staff in the past on some water conservation issues and he’s done some good things. But this is insane.

  5. 5.

    Tommy

    Wow. My dad was in town today and I told him Edwin Edwards was running again. When I was born in 1969 in Baton Rouge, Mom worked for him. He agreed he wasn’t a nice person, but alas people know what they were getting when they voted for him.

    As you said, go big or go home. If you are going to break the law, you might as well break it in a big way.

    That got us to talking about what would it be like if Huey Long was alive today …. but think that is a conversation for another time.

  9. 9.

    Belafon

    @Joel: Yes, but it’s failing because Obama wants to let people who started their enrollment finish. At least that’s what Newsmax says.

  12. 12.

    Roger Moore

    Trying to reserve judgment given that an accusation is not proof, but damn I’m glad this came out before the primary. The guy is running for Secretary of State. I don’t think he was likely to unseat Debra Bowen, but I’m just as glad not to be in a position to find out.

  14. 14.

    maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor

    In specific the Moro Islamic Liberation Front: “[The agent] asked about the major Muslim organizations in the Mindanao region of the Philippines. Senator Yee responded by saying ‘M.I.L.F.'”

    I see a defense strategy emerging…

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    @MCA1: Via the DKos main page, Boehner is even less coherent than normal in reaction:

    Boehner on ACA enrollment numbers: This report is a symbol of the failure of the president’s health care law. It is a rolling calamity.

    Is Boehner still in mid-winter reruns and we won’t get new press releases until April or something?

  16. 16.

    raven

    @flukebucket:

    But just how many people fully enroll in the program this year remains to be seen. The latest figures reflect those picking plans, not paying their premiums. Only those who pay their first month’s premium are considered enrolled, while those who don’t pay have their policy selections canceled.
    Insurers have said that the share of people sending in payments is in the 80% range.

    Hey, I asked you yesterday, did you see the right wing freakout on Get The Picture?

  17. 17.

    Gin & Tonic

    I know UN General Assembly resolutions are symbolic, if even that, yet today’s resolution condemning the sham Crimean referendum was 100-11, with 58 abstentions. So who, you may ask, voted on the side of Russia? Armenia, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, North Korea, Nicaragua, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

  18. 18.

    jonas

    The Chinese community in California goes way back and one of their own finally reaches the upper echelons of state government and he turns out to be involved in a major international gun running racket? And not only that, he rose through the ranks on a strong record of being *pro* gun control! Well, I guess now Dems can point to at least one of their own pols being caught up in an ironic corruption scandal on par with all those pro-life, anti-gay Repubs who have been busted with a male prostitute or found dead in a gimp suit with five dildos stuffed up their butts.

    On the other hand, Oliver North is still running around a free man speaking to crowds of people who think he’s a hero after he got caught laundering money and arming dodgy rebel groups, so maybe there’s hope for ol’ Leland yet.

  19. 19.

    ranchandsyrup

    fournier sez it is the “soft bigotry of low expectations” because ACA didn’t hit the 7M number and the 6M number isn’t a “real” number. The only thing that’ll fix things is some leadery leadership.

  21. 21.

    Tommy

    @dmsilev: Six million. Look what pisses me off about the Republicans is they want shit to fail. Even when it doesn’t they can’t still just say, hey good job. I am not sure I can think of a single thing Bush did I really liked. But I didn’t actively hope he failed. I would have rather I was proven wrong and he was right and all the shit that happened didn’t happen.

    I don’t take much joy in being right Bush was wrong.

    The ACA is working. Sure it fell down a few times. Got hit in the head with a baseball bat. A few times a Republican here or there could have offered help, but they didn’t. They fought not to help.

    But it is FUCKING working.

  22. 22.

    Ash Can

    And in other news, New Mexico congresstwit Steve Pearce (R-trashheap) has hired someone famous for spewing bigoted/misogynistic/anti-semitic bile on Twitter as his press secretary (h/t LGF).

    So, then, the amount of time it takes her to get her ass fired from her new job for defending lynching, Hitler’s gas chambers, or some other shit: will it be measured in days or weeks?

  23. 23.

    Dolly Llama

    @raven: You didn’t ask me, but I visit GTP daily. I presume it happened on the Northwestern unionization thread with all the comments. I knew better than to even click on it. I like that place and know that I need to avoid certain threads/topics if I am to continue to like it.

  24. 24.

    flukebucket

    @raven: Nah. I missed it. I was going to go back and look for it last night but just didn’t get around to it.

  25. 25.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Belafon:

    The people who are outraged about the Admin extending the deadline by, what, a couple of weeks? They are almost literally frothing at the mouth. Did you see that woman on Chris Hayes’ show last night? I don’t seem to be able to embed the video link, but if you go to Charlie Pierce’s place, he’ll give you the video.

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    @jonas:

    The Chinese community in California goes way back and one of their own finally reaches the upper echelons of state government and he turns out to be involved in a major international gun running racket?

    I think John Chiang and Goodwin Liu would claim that Yee is hardly the only hope for Chinese Americans in the highest echelons of California’s government.

  29. 29.

    Another Holocene Human

    I guess that means special election? Does California have jungle primaries for the state senate as well as the US House? Because that would be a good chance for a very liberal district to pick the most progressive candidate.

    If Dems are going down in a Dem controlled region that means the system is working. When Dems aren’t going down, look out. I’m looking at you, Eastern Massachusetts. You may have gotten rid of Scott Harshbarger, the Last Honest Man In Politics, but you can’t just wipe our memories clean, can you?

    I know why you voted to shield priests from having to mandatorily report crimes heard in confession: it was to cover your OWN asses. You never thought for a minute that Bernie was having you on, covering his OWN silk-clad ass. What a turnaround! But it hasn’t stopped you, even though the Bulger boys are gone you tossed the troublemaker Turner in the clink on some faked up charges by your own corrupt Boston FBI to cover the real crimes going on in the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission. SHAME.

  31. 31.

    beth

    @SiubhanDuinne: And the sad part of that is that she probably went back to her office and said “nailed it!” and collected high-fives from all her co-workers.

  32. 32.

    Tommy

    All you folks that need glasses. I am sorry. Never knew …. until now. They suck.

    Just got my first pair at 44. My god I hate them.

    The only good I can think of is, my father was over today. I wasn’t wearing them. Asked me to put them on, mom wanted a picture. He said you look like a nerd. I was dad I am a nerd, that was kind of the look I was going for :).

  33. 33.

    Belafon

    @SiubhanDuinne: Daily Kos had a transcript of a small portion of it. It’s about as incoherent as Boehner’s quote:

    “As a mother, I take real offense that women are being forced to have no choices to cover their children,” Stefano continued.

    “What are you talking about?” an incredulous Hayes responded, before arguing that much of the “heavy lifting” under the law would be accomplished by expansion of state Medicare [sic—Medicaid] programs, which have been frequently been opposed by conservatives. […]

    “Do you believe in Medicaid expansion?” Hayes asked.

    “I have a real problem, when you talk about raising the poverty level, that’s people making $94,000 a year,” she said. “They’re not poor. That is taking resources from the poor.”

    “Not on the Medicaid expansion,” Hayes said, shaking his head.

    “The expansion of Medicaid is a moral issue, not an economic one” Stefano charged.

    “That’s a math trainwreck, that’s not the Medicaid expansion,” he said.

  34. 34.

    Trollhattan

    I just love that he’s an associate of Shrimp Boy Chow. That’s Big Trouble in Little China-level good times.

  36. 36.

    raven

    @Dolly Llama: It was way before that “Thanks College Football” He asked some shit about the Obama-Romney campaign and the fuckers came out of the woodwork.

    “Always interested to hear that we are running out of money to pay Social Security but we apparently are not running out of money to hand out to freeloaders and miscreants on welfare. Those that have paid in to Social Security DESERVE a full payment of their benefits. They EARNED it. It is only the fault of the socialistic, tax and spend Democratic party that they ROBBED the Social Security bank to pay for their entitlement programs. Obama is a pathetic, feckless moron, overmatched by the requirements of his position, who feels that every time he opens his lying mouth, he can issue edicts to the supposedly unwashed and intellectually deprived citizens he rules over lawlessly and great things will happen.”

  37. 37.

    MikeJ

    @Amir Khalid: It’s going to be hard to beat Boeing without any idea what happened to the plane.

    They’ve got a much stronger case against MAS since they can show that a nominal expenditure might have provided better telemetry, With that case you don’t have to come up with a theory for how the crash happened, just show that MAS was negligent.

  38. 38.

    rikyrah

    this is what I believe…

    If you are going to betray the public trust and be a crook…

    you best not sell out for pennies on the dollar.

  39. 39.

    Dolly Llama

    @raven: Oh, Lord, I didn’t read that one either. I know it’s the offseason, but some of the Senator’s “reaches” … I would say he’s asking for trouble, but clicks is clicks I reckon.

  42. 42.

    Another Holocene Human

    @jonas: You’ve hit on the one thing narcissistic personalities are good for–being the glass ceiling breacher.

    Narcissists don’t always change the world… Steve Jobs did, though he’s bit unusual among NPD CEOs, most seem to ruin their companies, and Donald Rumsfeld did but a) for the worse and b) he had help. But they often do become the first “blah” to do “blah”. Not always–Jackie Robinson and Barack Obama are firm counter-examples–but sometimes. Sometimes they become leaders, like Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, or possibly Fidel Castro.

    Narcissists want narcissistic supply. That means they will sometimes ignore the wishes of those ostensibly closest to them to get the attention and plaudits they crave. Sometimes along the way they do some good. According to Johnnie Cochran’s first wife, Cochran was diagnosed NPD by a psychologist. He did a lot of great things as a lawyer, while making life hell for those closest to him.

    NPDs are sometimes described as having a black hole inside. “No there there”, as the director of UNKNOWN KNOWN said last night. And that’s more or less how Yee’s colleagues described him. Someone who advanced bills for money. Someone they worked with but didn’t know and couldn’t trust.

    But he broke the barrier. It’s really interesting, don’t you think?

  43. 43.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Roger Moore: Well, hopefully something good will happen in that district. I think the LA Times danced on the Dem Party of California’s grave very prematurely.

  44. 44.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @beth:

    LOL, yes, probably!

    @IowaOldLady:

    Since I allowed my cable to expire last year, I don’t see any MSNBC programs in real time, but figure if it’s either meaningful or amusing, someone will provide a link. Usually I click right away from that noisy crosstalk where both parties are yelling, but I did watch that segment straight through.

  45. 45.

    Another Holocene Human

    I wonder if when it goes to court Leland Yee’s lawyers argue that he said that shit to the undercover agent to impress him and it was all lies and he had no terrorists with missiles connections.

    I really don’t see those particular charges holding up.

    NPD people talk LOTS of shit. From what of the convo the authorities released, he was bragging to the agent.

    Does anyone seriously believe Yee could have delivered? IDK, be interesting to see if there was anything to that. They arrested a bunch of other people simultaneously. Be interesting to see what sort of illegal activity he ACTUALLY had his hands in.

    Dude’s been arrested before, too.

  48. 48.

    Roger Moore

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    You could always wear contact lenses.

    Probably not. If he’s getting glasses for the first time in his 40s, they’re probably for presbyopia, which means they need to be put on and taken off regularly. Not so good for contacts.

  51. 51.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Some people just can’t. I’ve tried every kind of contact lens since those big old hard ones back in the early 1960s, and every improvement since. Just can’t tolerate them — and/or don’t get the acuity that specs give me.

    Edit:Not trying to answer for Tommy, of course. And I’ll bet he rocks the nerdy glasses!

  54. 54.

    Yatsuno

    @MikeJ: Boeing gets sued every single time one of their planes goes down. IIRC only a few of those lawsuits have been successful. And that was way back in the 70s.

  55. 55.

    Trollhattan

    @Roger Moore:

    I have varifocal contacts and they’re pretty darn good, plus I get to wear real sunglasses. Need a persnickety optometrist to get the correction and fit right, though.

  58. 58.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Belafon:

    The article transcript is misleading. In that version, Stefano ‘continued,’ ‘said,’ and ‘charged.’

    No she did not. She screamed, yelled, and bellowed. And grimaced, and frothed at the mouth.

  59. 59.

    Cervantes

    @Baud:

    There’s a terrorist group named M.I.L.F. Haha.

    You call them terrorists. Others don’t.

    In any event Malaysia just mediated an agreement between them and the government of the Philippines.

  61. 61.

    raven

    @Dolly Llama: I don’t think he’ll do it again. He deleted the shit out of me but let that Nazi fuck’s shit stay because he posted it before the warning.

  62. 62.

    goblue72

    @jonas: Except that Leland Yee is far from the only prominent Chinese-American in state politics. The State Controller (a statewide elected office) is John Chiang. Judy Chu is the Congresswoman for the Pasadena suburbs. Mike Honda is the Congressman for Silicon Valley. Doris Matsui represents parts of Marin and Sonoma counties in Congress. Ted Lieu and Carol Liu are Chinese-Americans in the state Senate. In the State Assembly, there is Ed Chau, Paul Fong, Richard Pan, & Phil Ting. Fiona Ma was recently termed out and she was the Majority Whip. She’s currently running for State Board of Equalization (the state’s tax commission), to succeed Betty Yee (also Chinese-American) who is terming out. Ed Lee is Mayor of San Francisco. Jean Quan is Mayor of Oakland. (two of the largest cities in the state)

    Leland is nothing special as far as Chinese-Americans in California politics.

    Speaking as a former California (currently in drippy Seattle) whose wife is an Oakland-born Chinese-American, its frankly pretty cool that a corrupt scum like Leland Yee could do this and it really doesn’t reflect much at all on the greater Chinese-American community’s reputation or fortunes.

    Same thing in Cali with respect to Latinos – who are also everywhere. California isn’t like the rest of the country. Its the future.

  63. 63.

    goblue72

    @SatanicPanic: Democrats are at risk of losing their super-majority. That makes THREE Democratic state senators arrested for corruption just this year.

    The case against Yee is pretty damning considering he tried to sell guns to an undercover FBI agent.

  64. 64.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Yes. Honestly, I’ve tried them all. I’ve worn glasses for [pause to count on fingers] the past 66 years. The only time I haven’t was several years ago when I had LASIK surgery and for a few years I needed glasses only for reading. But eyes change shape even after successful surgery, and I went back to glasses, albeit a much milder prescription now than my pre-LASIK lenses.

    Also, to be truthful, I don’t much like the way I look barefaced.

  66. 66.

    Cervantes

    @goblue72: Matsui and Honda are Japanese-Americans who spent their respective early childhoods in our very best internment camps.

    They are not Chinese.

  67. 67.

    Trollhattan

    @goblue72:

    We have a pretty solid Asian representation in California politics, although whether it’s proportionate to the population I cannot say. Doris Matsui is my congresscritter, who won her husband Robert’s seat after he died unexpectedly. (FWIW they are Japanese-American, as is Honda.)

    Also proud of my Seattle roots, which has long had a significant Asian-American political component. Twice governor and later US ambassador to China Gary Locke even went to my high school.

  68. 68.

    Steeplejack

    @SiubhanDuinne, @IowaOldLady:

    Yeah, I watched the late-night rerun after someone mentioned it here, and Stefano was nuts right out of the gate. I could take only a few minutes. I quit watching after I grudgingly accepted that Chris Hayes was not going to shoot her with a tranquilizer dart.

  69. 69.

    Schlemizel

    “Keith Jackson [a political consultant who worked as Yee’s fundraiser] told [an agent] that Senator Yee . . . ”

    WHOA, NELLIE! indeed

  71. 71.

    IowaOldLady

    @Steeplejack: I’m inclined to think Hayes did the right thing–let her rant and laugh at her. Someone on here was quoting research on what makes people change their minds. Facts and logic actually make people dig in harder, but having something they believe become an object of ridicule seems to work. Or so this person said.

    So my idea for an D campaign is to show clips of Rs saying stupid things about birth control, interspersed with women laughing and saying “Seriously?” Or “He has to be joking.” Or “I think of birth control as the responsible course of action. These guys are nuts.”

  72. 72.

    Goblue72

    @Trollhattan: total brain fart on Matsui & Honda. They first sprang to mind as I used to live in Bay Area, then I went “oh wait, they’re J-A’s”, then forgot to edit.

  73. 73.

    Cervantes

    @Goblue72: Not a problem — but it’s never a bad thing to recall what the rest of us — or rather, some of us — put their community through.

  75. 75.

    Trollhattan

    @Jacel:

    It’s not as though the seat will fall into Republican hands but the hangover from the many indictments will carry into fall and perhaps cost more than a few close races for Democrats.

  76. 76.

    Roger Moore

    @goblue72:

    Democrats are at risk of losing their super-majority.

    Which isn’t as important now that the budget can pass with a simple majority. A 2/3 majority would still be necessary to raise taxes, but the legislature hasn’t been rushing to raise them even when the Democrats had a supermajority.

  77. 77.

    Long Tooth

    Yee’s arrest is a type of poetic karma, if you’re inclined to think in such terms. 7 or 8 years ago, he ratted out a protege (and member of San Francisco’s board of supervisors) to the FBI for corrupt dealing. Some believe he did it to rid himself of a political rival. That fellow just finished a five year stretch on his federal sentence, and is still on the hook for another year long incarceration on a separate state conviction. He wouldn’t be human if he wasn’t very, very pleased by the arrest of Yee. It will surely make that final stretch of being caged a lot more bearable than it would otherwise be.

  78. 78.

    Roger Moore

    @goblue72:
    I live in Pasadena, so I’m currently represented by both Judy Chu and Carol Liu, who seem to be doing a fine job. In the last election, I noticed that the only white guy I voted for was Joe Biden.

  79. 79.

    Roger Moore

    @Jacel:

    I suspect my district is going to need a new State Senator soon.

    You were going to need one soon anyway, since Yee is termed out. That’s why he was running for Secretary of State.

  80. 80.

    Mnemosyne

    @Another Holocene Human:

    I’m saying this because I’ve heard stories from high-level people who actually worked with Jobs, and he was probably more of a garden-variety narcissist than someone with NPD. He actually was able to admit to being wrong and change direction when necessary, which isn’t usually a feature for someone with NPD.

  81. 81.

    Chris

    @jonas:

    On the other hand, Oliver North is still running around a free man speaking to crowds of people who think he’s a hero after he got caught laundering money and arming dodgy rebel groups, so maybe there’s hope for ol’ Leland yet.

    I have long thought that in a sane world, our first reaction to 9/11 should’ve been to parachute Oliver North gift-wrapped in a straight jacket into Managua with a note inviting them to try him for all the acts of terror he’d funded in their country, because we’re sorry, but now we understand what it must’ve been like for them.

    Alas…

    Then again, in a sane world, our own courts would’ve dealt with him long before now. Hell, in a sane world, Iran-contra wouldn’t have happened in the first place.

  82. 82.

    Llelldorin

    For that matter, I’m pretty sure March Fong Eu beat all the youngsters mentioned to “the upper echelons of state government” (she was elected to the assembly in ’66).

  84. 84.

    Trollhattan

    @Roger Moore:

    A few other areas need a 3/2 vote, including consitutitional amendments and, as it turns out, amendments to the Political Reform Act.

    With a single vote to spare, Republicans blocked a California campaign finance reform bill on Monday, demonstrating the limits of a diminished Democratic caucus. The basic premise of requiring more disclosures of campaign donations is sound, said Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, but he objected to the timeline. The bill carried an urgency clause that would allow it to take effect in July, before the upcoming election.

    “We will be subjecting people to a different process,” Huff said. “They will not have had time to understand the rules of engagement changed.”

    Bills amending the Political Reform Act require a two-thirds vote, making them closely watched tests of Democratic dominance. Legal troubles have ensnared two Democratic senators, Rod Wright of Baldwin Hills and Ron Calderon of Montebello, and dropped Senate Democrats below their two-thirds margin.

    http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2014/03/#storylink=cpy

  85. 85.

    Cervantes

    @Jacel:

    I suspect my district is going to need a new State Senator soon.

    You were going to, anyway. He could not have run for that seat again and is (or was) running for Secretary of State.

    That affidavit is … almost incredible. Special Agent Pascua is nothing if not thorough. If Yee is convicted on each of the charges Pascua listed (which is not likely), he could (theoretically) serve as many as 125 years in prison.

  86. 86.

    PopeRatzy

    If I had known I could buy a California State Senator for $5000.00 I would have bought 2 or 3. Hell, I may still give it a shot.

  87. 87.

    Arclite

    @pharniel:

    Given that this yakass authored the ‘violent video game’ bill many sites I read are having massive hategasims. The hot sticky schadenfreude is going everywhere and will require massive amounts of Windex and squeegees to clean up.

    He probably took envelopes of cash from Christian groups to crusade against said games.

Comments are closed.