Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

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

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

He really is that stupid.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Let there be snark.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

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

We won’t go back.

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

When they say they’re pro-life, they don’t mean yours.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Giving up is unforgivable.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

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86Comments

  1. 1.

    c u n d gulag

    If stretch-limo’s were buses, our idle rich would be this generation’s Rosa Parks!

  2. 2.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The virgin Ben whines:

    This routine, in which Colbert plays at conservatism in order to portray it as unendingly ugly, should be labeled for what it is: vile political blackface.

    You mean accurately unendingly ugly, you pathetic little shit.

  3. 3.

    Cervantes

    That is idiotic, you’re right.

    On the bright side, at least this one genius appears to know that “blackface” routines are something to be avoided.

  6. 6.

    Schlemizel

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Yet he has no problem with the ugly political blackface performances of Rush Lamebrain, Sean Hannity, Bil Whore’Riely, Bill Bennet, Michelle Malkin, mAnn Coulter – I could go on and on obviously as their are hundreds of them that virgin Ben has no problem with.

  7. 7.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Schlemizel: Precisely. As the link indicates, Colbert takes what is out there from “authentic” “conservatives” and takes it to it’s logical extreme. The Virgin Ben is OUTRAGED that someone does that.

    Pathetic little cowardly shit can find a fire to die in…not like he’d every volunteer for the military to find one out of the country, mind you.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    Ironically, the phrase “political blackface” is more vile than anything Colbert has ever done.

  14. 14.

    rikyrah

    Senate bill allows released criminals to vote

    Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) introduced a bill Thursday that would give criminals the right to vote after they are released from prison. S. 2235, the Democracy Restoration Act,
    would restore voting rights to the nearly 3 million people who cannot
    vote even after they’re released from prison because they have been convicted of a felony.[….]

    Some states have already restored these voting rights. But 35 states don’t let convicts vote while on parole, and 11 states have a lifetime ban on voting.[….] Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) has a companion measure in the House.

    http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/203381-senate-bill-allows-released-criminals-to-vote

  17. 17.

    mai naem

    I don’t know where I heard this theory but whatever…the majority of people doing artistic work will be liberal partly because the majority of people in the arts tend to not do as well financially and many realize they won’t make a lot of money and money is not their most important goal. Conversely, the majority of people in business tend to be GOPrs because they want to make a bunch of money.

  18. 18.

    patrick II

    @Cervantes:

    White men in black face mock black culture.
    Stephen Colbert in “conservative face” mocks conservative culture.

    That is the parallel, what is different is accuracy, mean spirit, and the reversal of power relationships, plus about a dozen other things, among which is it is much tougher to punch up (See White House correspondent’s dinner).

    It is like taking a description of one similar aspect of two things, asserting a false equivalence of the two aspects, and declaring the entire thing equivalent. Like saying Jimmy Durante has a big nose. Elephants have big noses, therefore Jimmy Durante is an elephant.

  21. 21.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Unlike Stewart, whose mockery is no different in kind from Greg Gutfeld’s on the other side,

    I wonder if that’s the meanest thing anyone has ever said about Jon Stewart.

  25. 25.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @patrick II:

    Like saying Jimmy Durante has a big nose. Elephants have big noses, therefore Jimmy Durante is an elephant.

    You’ve captured the Virgin Ben’s grasp of elementary logic well.

  26. 26.

    patrick II

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    While channel surfing I happened across “Redeye” at about 2 in the morning on Fox. The were speculating on who would replace Letterman. Every name but Colbert came up. The agreed that Gutfeld had a good chance. It was like Dick Morris calling the election for Romney, except worse.

  34. 34.

    Amir Khalid

    Quoth Shapiro:

    It is nearly impossible to watch an episode of The Colbert Report without coming away with a viscerally negative response to conservatives.

    Truth be told, it is nearly impossible to watch American conservatives in action and not come away with a viscerally negative response to conservatives. “Colbert” the character is undeniably a liberal’s caricature of conservatives, but can Shapiro point to any actual falsehood in that caricature? I think not.

  35. 35.

    Xenos

    @Baud: given the experience of ethnic whites, secure in the benefits of the new deal, going Reagan Democratic on us, it could well be that obamacare and 15$/hour minimum wage will make the middle class safe for republicanism again.

  36. 36.

    scav

    @Amir Khalid: yu-up. certainly is indicative that an minimal awareness of how their SOP appears to others (making the leap that there are indeed others who may think differently) is not a part of the mental toolkit. might explain their ‘outreach’ ‘programs’.

  37. 37.

    Tommy

    @patrick II: Somehow I watched Red Eye years ago when it first came on. I was kind of surprise how vile it was for a 24 hour TV news network. I have a pretty crude sense of humor and I found myself stunned by all the talk about sex, drugs, downgrading women. Even gay sex. Some could argue talk of the rape of boys. Gutfield joked in about half the shows I saw about the “pool boy” he kept in his basement.

    I don’t know if it changed but it was like that for a long time. I might have watched it 15 times over about six months cause it was such a train wreck I couldn’t believe it.

  40. 40.

    Another Holocene Human

    I am so fucking tired of 1%er conservative activists appropriating Civil Rights leaders such as Dr. King and Rosa Parks to whine about the tiny impositions that living in a democracy entails.

    What a bunch of DARVO. They’re the appropriators, saying “I’m Rosa Parks” or “MLK was a Republican” or calling someone who calls them out a purveyor of “vile political blackface”. Let’s call Spike Lee–he’s still living–and ask what he thinks about that.

    These asshats want you to be confused about the difference between real, existential power and that ineffable moral high ground. Sometimes, somewhere, the moral high ground can cause all the real existential power to crumble into dust for a moment. It’s one of the most amazing realities of human existence. But it hardly makes the power relationship go away. The Civil Rights movement and Black Liberation, after all, did not end the realities of income inequality, job discrimination, school and housing segregation, racism, institutional racism, racial microaggression, prejudice, injustice and so on go away. That transformative moment, no matter how profound, was only a single step in a long journey of change.

    Virgin Ben, you’re rich, you’re a jerk, and even if people mock you on the internet you’re still a rich jerk who can say whatever horrible thing you want without ever fearing any serious consequences. You have no fucking clue how the bottom 40% of this country lives. You aren’t worthy wipe the dust off the feet of Congr John Lewis or any of his confreres. Nobody is fooled, least of all you, because if you could get it up with this pep talk you wouldn’t be whining on the internets. Why don’t you talk a hot bath in Appalachian miner’s granddaughters’ tears and console yourself with the five year DJIA moving average. Fuckstick.

  42. 42.

    hoodie

    @Xenos: Brings to mind Old Economy Steve.

    So, is Virgin Ben saying conservatives are a race? Do conservatives exhibit immutable physical characteristics that are used to discriminate against them irrespective of merit? What are those characteristics? Paranoia and a high tolerance for cognitive dissonance?

  45. 45.

    patrick II

    @Tommy:

    Gutfeld and the rest of the Redeye crew mistake vile frat boy meanness with humor. Fox wanted an answer to the sometimes biting political humor of “The Daily Show”, what they got instead was just the bite, without the humor. They want it to be funny, but that lack of empathy they are famous for shines through, so what they think is humor has no humanity to it. It is truly vile.

  48. 48.

    Tommy

    @patrick II: Your analysis is better then mine. Look I like really crude humor, but when it isn’t funny, well you get Red Eye. I sat here wondering out loud if the entire show was some kind of joke. That there might be a liberal producing the show to mock Republicans, but nobody at the network had caught on cause their audience skews so old nobody is awake at 2:00 AM.

  49. 49.

    patrick II

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Republicans are very practiced at false equivalence.

    Five supreme court justices assert money is equivalent to speech.
    Four supreme court justices think buying health insurance is equivalent to coerced asparagus buying.

  53. 53.

    patrick II

    @Tommy:

    Yeah, it is horrible. I think if people want a look into the soul of conservatism watching “Redeye” is a better way than most. People on that show say what conservatives normally only say when they think they are among the like minded, they give voice to the emotional (mean, selfish, self-congratulatory, stunted) underpinning of their bankrupt logic.

  54. 54.

    Schlemizel

    @Cervantes: I seriously doubt those clowns believe a word they are saying. They are putting on a minstrel show of the loudmouthed drunken idiot at the end of the bar. Colbert himself complains that O’Riely refused to be Whore’Reily when he came on the Report. My guess is if you had the real Bill over for dinner he would be polite and charming, probably they all would but their TV/radio versions are performance art. Performance art that is destroyed the US.

  56. 56.

    Tommy

    @patrick II: I thought that as well, that they were saying what they really think. Like their filter had been turned off and they forgot they were on camera. Heck I’ve seen it happen. I am a middle aged white dude. Make more then a fair amount of money. Dress like a preppy. Many times I’ve been with people that I just met I didn’t know, but they knew each other. I think I just look like a Republican and in a small group settings you might not believe some of the things I’ve heard come out of their mouths (think really racist stuff).

  57. 57.

    trollhattan

    Tarbender, tarbender, another Chamapgne for the li’l lady and a Fa-French 75 for, hic, me!

  59. 59.

    Liberty60

    @Schlemizel:

    My guess is if you had the real Bill over for dinner he would be polite and charming,

    Or he would bellow- “Hey motherfucker, I want some more iced tea!”

  60. 60.

    Tommy

    @Schlemizel: Agreed. There is so much money to be made on the right that I really wonder how many of them believe even a small percentage of what they are saying. Sure a few do, but I doubt many believe close to everything they say.

    You look at somebody like Beck if you pander to the far, far wacko right it seems like a license to print money. I don’t see any parallel on the left. Even somebody as successful as Rachel Maddow isn’t writing a book every other month, selling door mats and coffee mugs, gold coins, or a daily subscription newsletter (thank gosh).

  62. 62.

    Schlemizel

    @patrick II:

    A lot of humor is ‘punching up’, The disparity of power is important for the thing to be a joke. A servant pushing a pie into his wealthy bosses face is funny, the boss pieing the servant is just mean.

    Never saw Redeye but I doubt they hired funny, they hired true believers. Say what you want about Stewarts supposed lack of pure liberal credentials a lot of what makes TDS work is that they value the joke over the message. We may not like it when he pings ‘our side’ but the jokes work. If they really did want to focus on ideology over humor he would suck.

  63. 63.

    patrick II

    My guess is if you had the real Bill over for dinner he would be polite and charming, probably they all would but their TV/radio versions are performance art.

    I think almost the opposite. I think the polite persona they put on when not among the like minded is the performance art. Remember when Bill O’Reilly went to a black restaurant and was legitimately surprised at how competent and polite all the black people were? That is performance art Bill trying to be polite, but that time mask slipped a bit.

  66. 66.

    Schlemizel

    @Liberty60: That would be TV Bill for sure.

    @Suffern ACE: I’d worry about poo flinging more than how he ate

    @patrick II: I didn’t say I thought he was very bright. He very definitely is a product of white privilege with no understanding of the real world. The smarmy, loudmouthed, egotistical blow-hard he plays on TV probably contains a lot of the real Bill but that is still a character he plays on TV.

  67. 67.

    Cervantes

    @patrick II: Thanks, except my question was not about Colbert. It was about the following:

    Yet he has no problem with the ugly political blackface performances of Rush Lamebrain, Sean Hannity, Bil Whore’Riely, Bill Bennet, Michelle Malkin, mAnn Coulter

  68. 68.

    raven

    OVERLAND PARK, KS (KCTV) –
    One person is dead and a second person is in critical condition after two separate shootings at Jewish-related locations. Authorities confirm that a suspect is in custody.

    The person was killed in the parking lot of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City. Authorities confirm a second person is undergoing emergency surgery at Overland Park Regional Medical Center.

    A suspect was arrested at the Valley View Park Elementary School, which is a mile away from Village Shalom. KCTV5’s Bonyen Lee says the suspect appeared to yell “Heil Hitler” as he was being led away in handcuffs by Overland Park police.

  70. 70.

    Tommy

    @raven: I saw that news and clearly it is just terrible. I really, for some reason hope the person was just a loon (which I think is a given) and not a racist loon yelling “Heil Hitler.” I am a huge free speech person but I am being to think we should be monitoring these racist web sites and running background checks.

  71. 71.

    Violet

    @Tommy: The government does monitor them. Remember the freakout when, early in Obama’s first administration, a government report came out saying that there would be an increase in white supremacist groups and an increased potential for associated violence? And the wingnuts freaked the hell out?

  72. 72.

    Schlemizel

    @Lurking Buffoon:

    We all probably see actors playing parts that we think closely aligns with who they really are. BO really is a pompous blowhard but he also can control it is my guess.

  73. 73.

    satby

    @Schlemizel: my friends are long term neighbors of the Obamas in Hyde Park. They’ll happily tell you he’s a genuinely nice guy with a good sense of humor.

  74. 74.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Omnes Omnibus: @Baud: Don’t serve falafel.

    Or motherfuckin’ iced tea

    as to O’Reilly’s real persona, I suspect what MIchael Kinsley said about Bob Novak would be applicable, underneath the asshole you see on TV is a really nice guy, and underneath that nice guy is an even bigger asshole.

  75. 75.

    Lurking Buffoon

    @Schlemizel: I suppose it boils down to whether or not they think their behavior is going to have a long term impact on their reputation.

    Acting like an asshole while a guest on another show: At best you won’t be picking up any new viewers.
    Acting like an asshole because of teleprompter issues between takes: Probably safe (unless you factor in footage getting on the internet, which BO clearly didn’t).

    So really, if you invite BO for dinner, the important question is whether or not you have camera crews.

  79. 79.

    Violet

    @raven: @DougJ: Did you see the story at the beginning of the broadcast about how every 17 years the winner lowers the “youngest Masters winner” age yet again? And it’s 17 years this year?

  82. 82.

    Violet

    @raven: It was right at the very beginning of the CBS coverage this afternoon. Nick Faldo and the other guy were chatting about the various players in contention and they did a bit on it. Jack Nicklaus was one of them I think. Tiger Woods was 17 years ago.

  85. 85.

    A Humble Lurker

    @Schlemizel:

    Never saw Redeye but I doubt they hired funny, they hired true believers. Say what you want about Stewarts supposed lack of pure liberal credentials a lot of what makes TDS work is that they value the joke over the message. We may not like it when he pings ‘our side’ but the jokes work. If they really did want to focus on ideology over humor he would suck.

    What annoys me about TDS is not a lack of ‘liberal credentials’ (whatever those might be). It’s that a lot of comedy comes from the reassertion of truth through humor and/or absurdity. And there’s no truth to that ‘both sides’ shit. It’s literally B.S.

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