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Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Not all heroes wear capes.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

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

Another missed opportunity for Jamie Dimon to just shut the fuck up.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Let there be snark.

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“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Evening Open Thread

Tuesday Evening Open Thread

by | 98 Comments

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Via Dave Weigel, who explains:

For the better part of a year, young DREAMer activists (young people brought to the country illegally by their parents) have been ambushing Republican politicians and asking them to explain themselves. Erika Andiola and Cesar Vargas, experienced activists both, confronted Iowa Rep. Steve King while he was touring his district with Sen. Rand Paul. There is, arguably, no member of Congress more bold in his opposition to any kind of legalization than King…

0:56: King stands up, offended that Andiola thinks he insults people. “You’re very good at English,” he says. “You can understand the English language, so don’t play with it.”

1:17: King asks for reassurance that Andiola is not a drug smuggler…

(What, are her calves the size of cantalopes?… )
***********

Apart from deploring the new depths to which GOP standardbearers keep sinking, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

98Comments

  1. 1.

    Gopher2b

    Rand Paul nearly pulled a muscle running away from that table.

    Rear thrusters, full power!!!

  2. 2.

    Cacti

    Senator Paul was just testing out his new campaign theme music…

    And I Rand, I Rand so far away…

  6. 6.

    chopper

    @Cacti:

    When DREAMers reared their ugly heads
    He bravely turned his tail and fled
    Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Randy

  7. 7.

    Elizabelle

    Thank you for the open thread.

    However, looks like PBS (WETA) in DC is running the second part of Ken Burns’ Mark Twain documentary, so my drink and I are decamping for it.

    OH: and next week is Shark Week, per Omnes. Mark our calendars.

  11. 11.

    Schlemizel

    @SatanicPanic:
    posted earlier but it bears repeating so people cannot deny the truth later

    On HBO’s Real Time Friday, former presidential candidate Ralph Nader had no problem deciding between two potential 2016 candidates.
    Asked if he prefers Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Nader, widely known for his political independence, replied, “You mean Generalissima Hillary Clinton?”

    “No,” he said, “I support Rand Paul on foreign, military policy, the federal reserve and the bloated military budget. All of which she is on the other side. Who’s liberal and who’s conservative anymore?”

    I would like to start a kickstarter to buy Ralphie a 1961 Corvair.

  15. 15.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul on Monday denied that he once supported ending federal aid to Israel — an idea he proposed as recently as 2011.
    “I haven’t really proposed that in the past,” Paul told Yahoo News when asked if he still thought the U.S. should phase out aid to Israel, which has been battling Hamas in Gaza for weeks. “We’ve never had a legislative proposal to do that. You can mistake my position, but then I’ll answer the question. That has not been a position — a legislative position — we have introduced to phase out or get rid of Israel’s aid. That’s the answer to that question. Israel has always been a strong ally of ours and I appreciate that. I voted just this week to give money — more money — to the Iron Dome, so don’t mischaracterize my position on Israel.”

    Kevin Drum:

    This is starting to become one of Paul’s distinguishing features. He’s also done the same thing regarding the Civil Rights Act. Instead of simply saying that his thinking has evolved in some way or another, he aggressively denies he ever held his previous position and then pretends to be outraged that some liberal shill of a reporter is deliberately misrepresenting his position. How dare he?!?

  17. 17.

    Karen in GA

    @Schlemizel: This is why I avoid shows like Real Time. I’m sure my blood pressure skyrocketed just reading that; I can’t do an hour of that sort of thing, even with the occasional laughs.

  18. 18.

    JPL

    Brooks is a willfully ignorant f..kstick. Iraq War link

    Patrick O’Day was born in Scotland. Francisco Martinez Flores was born in Mexico. Neither were U.S. citizens, but they died together in Iraq as U.S. Marines. At least seven U.S. servicemen killed in the Iraq war weren’t citizens, the Defense Department says. They’re among approximately 31,000 “green-card” soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen in the U.S. military. They’re permanent legal residents but not U.S. citizens. Yet they chose to defend the country where they live.

    yes I plagiarized that phrase so sue me Bill Weir..

  19. 19.

    Elizabelle

    @efgoldman:

    Actually, he’s David Bobo Brooks’ truth-tellin’ cousin.

    He tells the story that Bobo endeavors to obfuscate about their beloved GOP.

  20. 20.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @SatanicPanic: Nader is a sack of dogshit. Anyone who defends him is a sack of dogshit.

    The slow, painful death of Ralph Nader cannot come too soon.

  24. 24.

    Mnemosyne

    I got to meet a real live movie star at work today, and he was awesome. Not some lame flash-in-the-pan of a Pitt or Cruise, but the real thing.

    (For the record — so nice, so gracious, just wonderful and personable and we all wanted to take him home. My coworker who’s idolized him since she was a kid is still walking on clouds.)

  25. 25.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @JPL:

    Brooks is a willfully ignorant f..kstick

    Brooks is neo-confederate scum.

    There is a lamppost with his name on it.

  26. 26.

    Roger Moore

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Nader is a sack of dogshit.

    Nader is a pathetic shadow of the man who made the auto industry take safety seriously. He doesn’t have a real issue to tout anymore, so he’s just saying stuff to make himself look and sound important. He doesn’t need to die a painful death, just be put away in a home for has beens.

  28. 28.

    Suffern ACE

    @Kay: why are you looking into Rand Paul’s past? What do things he’s said in the past to one group of people have to do with what he’s saying today to a different set of people who want to hear him say something different?

  30. 30.

    joel hanes

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Nader is a sack of dogshit.

    Like Saruman, he was long ago counted as one of the Wise and Good, and may actually have done much good in the world before he lost his bearings.

    Like Saruman, he began to believe his own press notices, and then gave in to spite and malice.

  32. 32.

    Mustang Bobby

    I had a very nice lunch today with fellow B.J. commenter a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q) who took the time to contact me while I’m visiting her home town and invite me out. We had a great time.

    Thanks for making this a great community.

  33. 33.

    Elizabelle

    @Mnemosyne:

    Wow. And not just a good actor, a wonderful writer too.

    You lucky dog.

    Saw him in Patch of Blue on TCM very recently.

    Think it must pain him that, after living through the 1960s, too much of the country was not ready for President Barack Obama.

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne

    @NotMax:

    I did not know that! I’m assuming it’s not really a time-consuming job.

    @Violet:

    He brought his 18-year-old grandson, who was also an absolute sweetheart. My coworker has been trying to get this to happen for at least five years now, so it was really fun to watch her take him on the tour.

    There apparently was a funny moment where the guide was explaining how animators are like actors and she says she thought, Did he just explain acting to Sidney Poitier?!

  35. 35.

    scav

    I’d have more confidence in Mo’s Brave Conservative Chili if it deported all the dangerous, subversive, foreign elements out of the dish.Our National cuisine is contaminate — ebola creeping in along with the frijoles and cantalopes!

  36. 36.

    Mnemosyne

    @Elizabelle:

    Usually the people who come through are ones that only other animation geeks get excited about (like the day I met Bruno Bozzetto) so it was very fun to have a real movie star that other people had heard of.

  39. 39.

    Elizabelle

    I like that this blog can pivet from Rand Paul and Ralph Nader to Sidney Poitier.

    You know. Actual royalty.

  40. 40.

    danielx

    Apart from deploring the new depths to which GOP standardbearers keep sinking, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

    The usual pointing and mocking, plus making chicken nachos and canning bread and butter pickle chips.

  41. 41.

    Elizabelle

    @Mnemosyne:

    I have never heard of that gentleman.

    Could be a Formula 1 driver.

    But Sidney Poitier!

    ETA: I think Morgan Freeman is able to do his God and omniscient gigs because Sidney Poitier paved the way for him.

    Starbursts!

  45. 45.

    PurpleGirl

    @Mnemosyne: It is nice to discover when a “celebrity” is a nice person and genuine.

    Vanessa Redgrave read from a memoir she wrote at one of my former non-profit’s benefits. I did not work the green room that evening but those who did said she was gracious and spoke to them asking about our organization. A signed copy of the memoir was in the silent auction that evening. A number of people offered to match the final price if they could also get signed copies. She most graciously signed about a dozen copies of the book after the benefit, netting us many donations. While we had many celebrities give time for a benefit, she was one of the nicest in terms of her treatment of the staff.

  46. 46.

    Southern Beale

    Oh indeed, this is my pet peeve. Liberals are cheese-eating surrender monkeys offering flowers and therapy to terrorists WHILE AT THE SAME TIME being crazy, bomb-making Bill Ayers-paling-around-with-terrorists types monkey wrenching all sorts of sophisticated things. Make up your minds, folks.

  48. 48.

    Kay

    @Suffern ACE:

    I’m kind of an expert on him. I even watched some of his senate debates. One of my sisters told me to watch. She said “you, especially, will loathe him” She was so right!

    His opponent, Conway, was a little bit of a brawler – he gets worked up. I like that sort of person, generally, and Paul was almost languidly sneering at him. The regretful tone kills me. Like he’s exhausted to be surrounded by all these stupid, excitable people. I’m getting such a kick out of his new GOP presidential primary persona because I know he thinks it’s beneath him.

  49. 49.

    Karen in GA

    @efgoldman: I’ve noticed with RWNJs in general that they say whatever works at the moment, to get whatever reaction they need to get.

    Strikes me as kind of sociopathic, in a way — whether it’s Rand Paul not knowing the Internet exists, or a RWNJ middle manager disregarding facts and saying whatever will please the boss or shut the subordinates up so her day goes more easily, it’s all just manipulation. The only reality that matters to them is “Did I get mine?”

  50. 50.

    muddy

    I have been having trouble opening the main BJ page. I can access the posts and comments if I link through a different way (through author lists etc). I don’t have a problem with any other sites I’ve tried.

  53. 53.

    Mnemosyne

    @PurpleGirl:

    I was a little worried because, like I said, he is my co-worker’s idol and she’s been working towards this (literally) for years, but I’m pretty sure it was just about everything she dreamed it would be. Now tonight will be the letdown. ;-)

  54. 54.

    Belafon

    @nellcote: You gotta love the Trump tweet:

    The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!

    It’s their fault they got sick wanting to help people! Do it again, and we’ll put them on a cross.

  58. 58.

    Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)

    @nellcote: Well, there goes my faith in humanity.

    How sad is it that I heard “Emory” and thought, “Hey, Atlanta’s coming up in the world” all positive mood and shit even though I’ve been on Atlanta newspaper websites and I’ve read the comments. The Atlanta exurbs have some of the most windy bitter haterz known to mankind. They huff and they puff and Atlanta hasn’t blown down yet.

    Philly.com commenters on 48 hour skunked beer benders mainlining Rush Limbaugh and weeping about how mommy didn’t love them best are not one fifth as vile as AJC commenters.

  59. 59.

    Violet

    @Belafon: I’m so glad Donald Trump is a doctor now. And can he also please list the times where he “suffered the consequences” of his actions instead of having taxpayers or others pick up the bill.

  61. 61.

    raven

    I’m sure the fact that Emory in in Atlanta means that is where the emails are coming from.

  62. 62.

    Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)

    @Kay:

    I like that sort of person, generally, and Paul was almost languidly sneering at him. The regretful tone kills me. Like he’s exhausted to be surrounded by all these stupid, excitable people.

    It’s narcissism or sociopathy, possibly the latter. He doesn’t fundamentally give a farthing about anyone other than himself, and he especially disdains those who care about other people or like important shit like where tomorrow comes from because he uses people to get what he wants, he’s a parasite, and he’ll figure out how to carve a chunk out of tomorrow if he has to step over the rotting carcasses of the slaughtered masses to do it. Very Romney like.

    There is this social phenomenon where through the magic of xenophobia, someone who is otherwise loving and empathetic and caring and reciprocal will act sociopathic towards outgroup members but in Rand Paul’s case I have to wonder where his ingroup is given the Aqua Buddha antics and his very red flaggy creation of his own board certification and so on. If he doesn’t horrible mistreat ppl close to him it’s only because he needs their cooperation for a little bit longer.

  63. 63.

    Hal

    Rand Paul is terrible in the public spotlight when anything at all goes off course. Last week, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell highlighted his attempts tp deny his past statements. For Maddow it was the civil rights acts, which Paul clearly stated he supported, except for that titles that applied to private business. Now when it comes up he says he supports the act, abhors racism, and acts like the issues never existed except in the minds of the liberal media. It will be a hoot watching him constantly try to just flat out deny his past positions. That didn’t work out for Romney all that well either.

    PS. Every time I hear the word abhor I think of the old Golden Girls episode when Sophia hears Blanche say she is abhorred!

    BLANCHE: I am abhorred.
    SOPHIA: We know what you are, Blanche. I’m glad to finally hear you admit it.
    BLANCHE: Sophia, I said abhorred.
    SOPHIA: Abhorred, a slut, a tramp. It’s all the same.

  64. 64.

    scav

    @nellcote: ooooo, grass-roots self-appointed death panels! How dare those doctors follow their moral precepts and attempt to heal people! Must put a stop to that!

  65. 65.

    Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)

    @Karen in GA: RWNJ Christian churches push this. Anyone who is not a “Christian” (this includes the majority of soi-disants Christians in the world) is hated and reviled or pitied at best.

    Of course, Rand Paul only puts on “Christian” skin when it suits him so he’s sicker than those folks. The xenophobes have an overactive lizard brain on fear overdrive. Hypothetically they could snap out of it and stop being vile and awful and afraid of everything not exactly like them. But a cold heart like Rand Paul’s is cold all the time.

  66. 66.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    I got to meet a real live Balloon Juice Commenter today, the charming and generous Mustang Bobby. He is both a scholar and a gentleman, and I thank him for a delightful lunch. It was great fun.

    Someday I’d like to meet Sidney Poitier. I’m sure he’s as charming as Mustang Bobby, but probably not nearly as funny.

  67. 67.

    Svensker

    @Mnemosyne:

    Are you serious? You got to meet Sidney Poitier? Oooooh. I don’t care one way or the other about most celebrities, but Mr. Poitier? OMG.

  68. 68.

    Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)

    @raven: Ya know, you’re right, cheese-eating sausage lovers in Wisconsin totally freak the fuck out about goings on in Jawjaw, shit, the Machinists’ steward hits the red button to stop the line so everybody can take a tenner and email some deranged racist garbage to Emory (“Hoo, didja noh it’s spelled Eh-Moh-Ree, E-M-O-R-Y, ya, get that email spelled right, mkay?”) from their smartphones before COB.

  76. 76.

    Kay

    @Hal:

    Right, and you know what? It’s a real question. Libertarians have real problems with the Commerce Clause. It is an absolutely legit question Maddow asked him, and she knew he’d stutter and stammer over it and he did.

    This idea libertarians have that we’re not allowed to bring this up is just bullshit. It matters. A lot. It matters for everything from the Civil Rights Act to federal environmental law to worker protections. They have to explain how they can oppose federal reach to the private sector AND support the ideas behind these national laws everyone takes for granted. People aren’t getting worked up because they’re overly excitable hysterics. They’re getting worked up because people like Maddow and the AG of Kentucky (his former opponent) know he’s full of shit when he dodges on this.

  77. 77.

    Roger Moore

    @Southern Beale:

    Make up your minds, folks.

    It’s very simple: Liberals are evil. Since liberals are evil, it’s fine to blame them for whatever problems and accuse them of whatever wrongdoing you can think of. The details aren’t important. Worrying about consistency is for wusses.

  79. 79.

    Roger Moore

    @muddy:

    Much more important than, “Did I get mine?” is “Did I keep you from getting yours?”

    I don’t think they see that as a meaningful distinction. Their world is a zero sum game, so there is no difference between me getting mine and me denying you yours. Their actions make a lot more sense if you understand that they assume that anything that makes you better off automatically makes them worse off.

  80. 80.

    muddy

    @Roger Moore: I know people like this, and the stuff they think is funny is the same way. The funny part is where someone gets it in the neck. There is no other real form of humor to them. Glad I don’t have to live inside that skull.

  81. 81.

    Joeshabadoo

    I just saw yesterday’s Colbert and Buchanan was such a disgusting piece of shit.
    Outside of calling Nixon a great president he flat out says all the problems would have been solved if he just destroyed the evidence. He proudly admits recommending they be destroyed and says it would have been a good thing because apparently law breaking doesn’t matter if the public doesn’t know about it.

    The fact that these people have been important in our discourse since then tells you everything you need to know about why politics are so fucked.

  84. 84.

    Citizen_X

    @Schlemizel: Jesus, Mohammed, and Vishnu, if there’s anyone I don’t want to hear one sanctimonious word about the military-industrial complex from, it’s Ralph Motherfucking Nader. Was Clinton wrong to vote for the Iraq war? Hell, yes. But without her, the war still would have happened. Without Nader, it would not have.

    Go tend to your mountain of skulls, Ralph.

  86. 86.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Belafon:

    The U.S. cannot allow EBOLA infected people back. People that go to far away places to help out are great-but must suffer the consequences!

    Does this apply to aid workers, diplomats, and missionaries? Because I kinda remember Republicans making quite a to-do about the fates of faraway do-gooders when it suited their parochial interests…

  87. 87.

    Cervantes

    @Joeshabadoo:

    The fact that these people have been important in our discourse since then tells you everything you need to know about why politics are so fucked.

    Pretty much.

  88. 88.

    Mnemosyne

    @Bob In Portland:

    Just to clarify, Bob, do only fighter jets have machine guns, or is a machine gun something that a human being could carry, perhaps while on the ground?

    (Of course, claiming in the first place that jets have “machine guns” is misleading, to say the least.)

  91. 91.

    Amir Khalid

    @Bob In Portland:
    Incomplete evidence can mislead. Facts isolated from context can mislead. I would want want to know if rounds fired into wreckage from a machine gun had been recovered, and if one could tell whether they were from an aircraft-mounted gun or one carried by a human.

  92. 92.

    Mnemosyne

    @Bob In Portland:

    It’s only misleading if it’s not true.

    Oh my god, you actually do think that fighter jets have AK-47s on board.

    ETA: In the words of Carl Sagan, “It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out.”

  93. 93.

    sm*t cl*de

    The slow, painful death of Ralph Nader cannot come too soon.

    You can’t have it both ways.

  94. 94.

    Emily68

    My husband’s aunt is a dear, sweet, 91 year old woman and a Republican who’s concerned about immigration. We were visiting her some months ago and she asked me, “What’s this DREAM Act about?” I told her it was a way for those who came to the US illegally as children, so they had no say in the matter, but who have kept their noses clean and gone to college or joined the military, to have a path to citizenship. She replied, “Well, that’s a GOOD idea.” I can’t remember my reply. Maybe it was something like, “Democrats think so, too.”

  96. 96.

    wuzzat

    @Kay:
    If reporters had any common sense, they’d air Rand’s comments and then immediately follow-up with soundbites of him endorsing the exact opposite. Forget Ebola — who knew Romnesia was contagious?

  97. 97.

    Mnemosyne

    @Emily68:

    That’s what I really don’t get — we have a group of smart, ambitious, hard-working kids who want to stay here, become citizens, and contribute to our society, and our answer is, No thanks?

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