Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

The words do not have to be perfect.

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

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

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

In my day, never was longer.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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

This fight is for everything.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Fanatics, All the Way Down

Wednesday Evening Open Thread: Fanatics, All the Way Down

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“I try to be cynical, but I just can’t keep up.” — Lily Tomlin

Apart from marking every box on the End Times Bingo card, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

86Comments

  1. 1.

    Belafon

    The Cowboys signed Michael Sam to their practice squad. Not quite starting, but good on the Cowboys.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    Apart from marking every box on the End Times Bingo card,

    You write that without posting a pic of dogs and cats living together?!

    Shame on you, AL.

  5. 5.

    Citizen_X

    “Dear Phil Robertson,

    ‘Convert them or kill them.’ Funny, but that just happens to be our motto!

    We like your style, Mr. Robertson. And your beard. Would you like to join us?

    Your friends,
    ISIS and ISIL

    PS: We hate the homos too! And Obama!”

    “Dear ISIS: Count me in!

    Yours,
    Phil Robertson”

  6. 6.

    Keith G

    Phil is not alone. Joe may not be on the same page, but sounds like the same chapter.

    Staking out a hard line against the vicious jihadist group ISIS, Vice President Biden vowed Wednesday that the U.S. “will follow them to the Gates of Hell!

    Is he being the West Wing’s human test balloon?

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Tweety is discussing birth control with two men, and told them a lot of women he knows, the women he works with at MSNBC, find it weird that three men would be on TV talking about birth control.

    It doesn’t seem to occur to him that he could do something about that.

    And speaking of creepy religious fanatics, the lodestar of the discussion seems to be Rick Santorum– in fairness because their talking about Cory Gardner (R-Sen candidate in CO) flip-flopping on BC (he now wants it to be available OTC) after a big splashy primary endorsement from Santorumarola.

  9. 9.

    jl

    And this doofus knows what all about it? Maybe I can’t wrap my silly little liberal brain around it, but IIRC, he knows about making duck calls, right?

    But whatever, all the brains on reactionary wing from Perry to Paul to Duck Call Doofus know the trick: Something wrong, just kill all the bad guys. It is just that simple. But Obama just won’t get up off his blah presidentin’ ass and do it. I’d like to hear an innocent explanation of that inconvenient fact.

    Now look at the last REPUBLICAN president…. uh…. never mind. And anyway, he was really a liberal. Dub had a few decent impulses, which was the give away.

  11. 11.

    Linda Featheringill

    Ah, the sweet smell of genocide.

    Why doesn’t Duckface just go home and count his money?

  12. 12.

    Suffern ACE

    Sadly I think we’re going to have this all Semitic big daddy god war whether we want it or not.

  14. 14.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    This seems like either desperation, or a bold long ball, I can’t decide which

    The Democratic challenger to Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) dropped out of the race on Wednesday, the Wichita Eagle reported.
    Chad Taylor asked to remove his name from the ballot even though a recent poll had him just four points within Roberts.

    and center-right independent caucus in the Senate (Orman, King, Manchin– Heidkamp? Pryor? Nelson?) could make things interesting, and not necessarily in a good way.

  17. 17.

    Anonym

    Posting under a nym…

    Uh. Anybody know anything about a positive ELIZA test and an ‘indeterminate’ Western Blot? This week is going to be really, really long while I wait for #3…

  21. 21.

    Suffern ACE

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: puts me in a bind. Part of me says that the voters IN Kansas have been let down. But it would appear that the lesser of two weasels may be Roberts. Roberts at least is honest about which party he belongs to.

  23. 23.

    Hungry Joe

    Obama is pissing them off because they can’t criticize his strategy on ISIS until he announces his strategy on ISIS. So for now they have to make do with criticizing his not having announced his strategy on ISIS. It’s frustrating, is what it is.

  24. 24.

    PsiFighter37

    I can’t believe someone would ask this duck-fucking asshole his opinion on foreign policy. He probably can’t even tell you the 3 most important cities in Islam or why the Shiites and Sunnis have been fighting for centuries.

  26. 26.

    Tommy

    @Belafon: The Rams were the wrong team to draft him. They may have the best defensive line in the game. Not sure how he could make the team. But I hope the best for the guy. There are a lot of stories of players being drafted in the late rounds. Getting started on the practice squad. Then they become one of the best players at their position. Hope that for the guy.

  28. 28.

    Hal

    @BGinCHI:

    Look, some actual journalists calling out Cudlip Johnson

    Never heard of this guy, but I de-friended someone on Facebook last week who went on this racist rant about Ferguson. Basically everyone protesting was an uneducated thug, crook and/or criminal waiting for their welfare checks. Because they didn’t have jobs, they could come out and loot. Also, they are all very racist.

    What confused me is the last thing I saw before defriending was this idiots friend saying Brown was a member of either the crips or the bloods (seriously people, there are more than two gangs in America) and that he had committed a murder when he was younger. I was wondering where the hell that little diddy originated. I had heard of Cochran’s wife in a nursing home and that scandal as well, but must have missed this guy’s name in the coverage I saw on Rachel Maddow. One more bullshit right wing smear artist.

  29. 29.

    PsiFighter37

    @Suffern ACE: The worst outcome is this guy wins and caucuses with the GOP. He’s definitely nowhere near as conservative as Roberts, and frankly, anything that moderates the GOP in these blood-red states is a good first step towards having some kind of sane Republican Party (which is definitely a good thing, in the long run, for the country).

  32. 32.

    BGinCHI

    @Hal: Yeah, he was the one spreading that shit. And when confronted with the truth you can guess what he’s doing.

    GOP: Benefiting from the misery of others.

  37. 37.

    jl

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    ” Tweety is discussing birth control with two men, and told them a lot of women he knows, the women he works with at MSNBC, find it weird that three men would be on TV talking about birth control.

    It doesn’t seem to occur to him that he could do something about that. ”

    I assume Tweety was not only talking with two men, but two pompous well off older farts who would be totally clueless about the realities of life that most people face. I only see displays like Tweety when I visit home and my parents watch that crud. Those moments of complete clueless lack of self-awareness have some amusement value.

  38. 38.

    shelley

    So he made his fortune designing a superior duck call. Don’t get me wrong, good for him, all ‘build a better mousetrap and..” But I don’t see how that somehow makes him the moral authority on naughty bits for the rest of us.

  42. 42.

    Tommy

    @jl: I am always stunned that men (and I am one) can’t get the concept of birth control. I would say about half of the women I dated and/or had sex with where on the pill to help with their menstrual cycle. I’d also bought the best condemns I could. Just seemed like basic respect for the women. And that is what it comes down to me. Respect.

  44. 44.

    karen

    ‘Convert them or kill them.’

    Now it’s Isis. Next it will be all Muslims in the US. Then it’ll be the Jews who will be forced into Israel if they don’t convert since it’ll bring on the End of Days.

    Huckabee already promised that if he was President that he’d force non Christians convert after all.

  46. 46.

    Anne Laurie

    @Roger Moore: Google “Jim Hoft, Dumbest Man on the Internet“.

    Even his fellows in the Wingnut Puke Funnel (Malkin, the Breitbrats) realize Hoft’s only utility is getting the dumbest, nastiest, least verifiable rumors into circulation. Hoft’s most recent achievement, IIRC, was front-paging the extremely amateur “Officer Wilson’s shattered eyesocket x-ray”, complete with the tag showing it was stolen from a medical textbook.

    But they need Hoft’s puke funnel, so he’s “an established source on the internet” for them to siphon toxins further up the media feeding chain.

  47. 47.

    Tommy

    @schrodinger’s cat: Good question. I watched the first couple years of Duck Dynasty. Then I learned about his political views and they made me stop. I assume how it is produced, but the entire family comes across really well IMHO. Like touching.

  49. 49.

    Mike G

    Fox is Troll TV. Don’t feed the trolls.
    There’s no reason why you would interview a redneck who makes duck callers about geopolitics in the Middle East, except to get a dumb-as-dirt inflammatory comment and publicize it far and wide to get a “reaction”. They’re like a grade-school kid who flings poop to get attention.

    Of course there’s no reason either why you would put a lazy, ignorant fratboy in the White House or listen to Bill Kristol on anything if you were seeking good judgment or good information, but that doesn’t stop it from happening.

  52. 52.

    Gene108

    Watched the NC Senate debate between Hagan and Tillis. Tillis is so vile and smarmy, I wanted to jump through my TV screen and punch hi in the neck.

    I really wish we lived in a. country, where conservative was a dirty word no one wanted to be associated with.

  54. 54.

    Belafon

    @raven: You’re right, and I meant to use that phrase instead of “starting”. But this is the Cowboys. They’re the team I’ve rooted for since a kid – it was about the only religious observance my grandfather had. They way their defense has been, he could move up if he stays consistent.

  55. 55.

    nellcote

    @Anne Laurie:

    Hoft’s most recent achievement, IIRC, was front-paging the extremely amateur “Officer Wilson’s shattered eyesocket x-ray”, complete with the tag showing it was stolen from a medical textbook.

    you have to give him credit for that garbage making it to cnn though

  58. 58.

    Gene108

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    He was never in the military.

    His only claim to fame, prior to the TV show, was that he was a year ahead of Terry Bradshaw, at Louisiana Tech and started for a couple of seasons ahead of Bradshaw.

    He apparently also has a master’s degree in education and taught for a few years in public schools.

  59. 59.

    PsiFighter37

    @Gene108: How is that debate going overall? Given all the toxic shit the NC legislature has pushed through (Tillis is Speaker of the state House), I would think he should be an easy target for extremist policies.

  62. 62.

    Tommy

    @Gene108: Vile. In my last Congressional election a Republican ran on the Democrat being unamercian. Against the United States. He was running against a two star general. The former head of the Illinois National Guard. More then a few people believed it.

  64. 64.

    Gene108

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Being for birth control to be available OTC, I guess, is the Luntz tested new talking point for Republicans, when confronted about whether or not they support the Hobby Lobby decision.

    Tillis talked about his support for OTC birth control, so he could imply he’s for birth control, in general, while being on board with the Hobby Lobby decision to allow companies to opt out of covering it on their Rx plan.

    Hagan did not do a great job in explaining not every birth control pill will be available OTC and women, who take birth control because it helps them with health problems will not benefit from being denied coverage on their employer sponsor plan, even though some general forms of birth control pills are available OTC.

  65. 65.

    Mnemosyne

    @Gene108:

    Not to mention that the OTC cost of the birth control pill will be quite a bit more than its current cost with insurance — no charge. Included in the cost of insurance.

  67. 67.

    Gene108

    @PsiFighter37:

    Debate ran an hour from 7-8 pm. I am not great at gauging who did better, as I am pretty biased in favor of the more liberal option.

    Hagan stuck to her talking points and appeals to what she believes, will be voters that will help her, such as women.

    I do not know how many voters approve of what Tillis did in the NC legislature, but he was trying to come off as more moderate than what his legislative record would imply.

    Hagan was also trying to stress she’s a moderate, who can work with Republicans, which is understandable because outside Chapel Hill and maybe Carboro, super liberal does not cut in most of NC.

  68. 68.

    Gene108

    @Mnemosyne:

    I get the feeling women understand this at a very intuitive level, but it gives right-wingers a talking point besides being explicitly against birth control and/or being and/or being for forced birth.

    Edit: Makes it so none of their candidates will have repeat of the “legitimate rape” comment and cost the GOP a race.

  69. 69.

    Anne Laurie

    @Roger Moore:

    I thought the claim came from Cudlip Johnson, who certainly does need some evidence to claim the title of dumbest person on the internet.

    Ah. Here’s the chain, as best I can reconstruct it:

    Hal, at #28, says he doesn’t know Charles C. ‘Cudlip’ Johnson, but there’s a right-wing FB rumor going around that ‘Michael Brown was a Crips/Bloods member who killed a guy’.

    KG, at #30, says (correctly, AFAICT) that the lie about Brown’s juvenile felony came from Jim Hoft, proprietor of Gateway Pundit, and internet-officially “The Dumbest Man on the Internet”. The blogger exposing Hoft’s filthy fingerprints was… Charles Johnson of LGF, who used to be a wingnut but got better (like Cole).

    You ask, at #36, for evidence of this ‘extraordinary’ claim; I responded to you without realizing the possible confusion.

    As my old man used to say, ya can’t tell the players without a scorecard!

  70. 70.

    Keith G

    @gian: I hope he does. Whether or not he is the one who wins, of all the others, Biden has more of the skills that we need.

  71. 71.

    trollhattan

    @Anne Laurie:
    Wonkette, which has a long and glorious interactive history with the Stupidest Man On the Internet (including a bet he lost and never paid on) covered the idiocy thus.

  75. 75.

    PurpleGirl

    @Jebediah, RBG: Wonderful! His happiness just exploded outward to the world. Love that they used a playpen for it.

    ETA: Doofus in Florida is a double doofus. D’Souza is the Grandhigh Poopah Doofus.

  76. 76.

    WaterGirl

    @Anonym: The only thing I know about a Western Blot is that a friend of mine had that test when they were trying to figure out if she has Lyme disease or some other autoimmune disease.

    But I read the entire article that BAtFFP linked to – I found it very interesting and it made me feel hopeful for you.

    All the best,

  79. 79.

    Tenar Darell

    @Gene108: I just keep thinking, why can’t Hagen just point out that the most effective methods, IUDs and implants have to be inserted with a doctor visit? (Faugh! But not at you). Because pointing out that Tillis is A Idiot who is not stating factual information but shouting “squirrel” is rude I guess.

  82. 82.

    Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)

    @Kitty:

    Others like Roxanne Burke said she is going to give Heben the benefit of the doubt. “I don’t think [the story] was made up. I’m sure something along those lines,” said Burke who owns a hair salon in the plaza.

    Yeah, *snaps gum*, you know, a Black guy did it. *snap* I’m comfortable with that. Go with that.

  83. 83.

    Another Holocene Human (now with new computer)

    @KG: Actually it was UpChuck. DimJim just repeated it. Johnson cited “law enforcement sources”. He then attempted to crowdsource some lawyering to get Brown’s juvenile records unsealed.

  84. 84.

    Sherparick

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: It will be all about the “Deficit” and cutting Social Security, because apparently working class people not working until death is the cause of all our economic problems. Somehow though, farm subsidies to millionaires for the 10,000 acre farms stretching from Oklahoma to the Canadian border don’t count against the deficit like Food Stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security does.

    However, do see a break in the clouds, between ISIS/ISIL and Russia in Ukraine, and China going loggerheads with Vietnam and Japan, we may have another spending spree of military Keynesianism on the horizon.

  85. 85.

    carbon dated

    Funny, I was going to post the Lily Tomlin quote on an unrelated thread yesterday. I can’t find a definitive version (why can’t quote sites like Brainyquote, Wikiquote, etc cite the source of the damn quote?), but I think this one is better than “I try to be cynical…”:

    No matter how cynical you become, it’s never enough to keep up. (wikiquote)

  86. 86.

    JR in WV

    The ELIZA test is very often false positive. The western blot test is used after a positive ELIZA test to weed out the false positives. Since the western blot was not positive, odds are very much with you, but more testing will weed out that indeterminate western blot …

    Best of luck!!

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