Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

The National Guard is not Batman.

Stay strong, because they are weak.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Bark louder, little dog.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

When we show up, we win.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

So fucking stupid, and still doing a tremendous amount of damage.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

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

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Reader Interactions

65Comments

  1. 1.

    Belafon

    This may have been written by someone here, but the title of this Daily Kos diary is hilarious: America Shocked As It’s Revealed: Bill Kristol May Be Right About Something.

    ETA: The gist of the diary is Kristol’s prediction that Clinton’s healthcare bill becoming law would hurt Republicans is true because of what’s happening with the ACA. This is the first paragraph, to save you from going there:

    Reports are coming in from across America today that people have started panic-buying food, water and weapons in preparation for the End Times. The reason for their terror is the revelation that Bill Kristol, the right-wing charlatan and ‘pundit’, may have actually have once been right.

  4. 4.

    Shakezula

    @Belafon: Does Der Blutig acknowledge that any harm is 100% self-inflicted? If not there may still be hope.

    p.s. I know that no one is perfect, but I think Bonham got pretty close with his drumming for this song.

  5. 5.

    Roger Moore

    It’s going to have to rain a lot harder than it is right now before any of the levees in my neck of the woods break. I’m actually getting some precipitation- which is a big deal given how dry California has been- but it could rain this hard forever without threatening the levees.

  6. 6.

    Wally Ballou

    Big sports day here in Detroit. The Tigers are playing the Royals at Comerica Park starting at 4 pm local time. Then, right next door at Ford Field, the Lions open the season against the Giants at 7.

    Given that Woodward Avenue is currently torn up for the M-1 light rail project, I suspect the traffic situation this evening is going to be “interesting” in the Chinese sense.

  9. 9.

    Chyron HR

    Obviously a reference to when Liv Tyler Glorfindel summons a mighty wave to sweep away the Nazgul.

    Hey, puff and pass, dude. Don’t bogart it.

  11. 11.

    Cacti

    A white teenage thug resisted arrested and assaulted a police officer, after fleeing from a 3-car hit and run in Philadelphia.

    Strangely enough, this vicious thug wasn’t shot, tasered, or clubbed repeatedly.

    In an utterly unrelated coincidence, the suspect was a female, driving a BMW.

  13. 13.

    mai naem mobile

    We are getting a ton of rain in Phoenix today. I woke up early am and I thought the dishwasher was broken but it was the noise from the rain. At least a third of schools are closed. Freeways are parking lots. Flash flood warning. Jeezus, the end times are here and I’m not going to go to heaven. Oh, well.

  14. 14.

    Amir Khalid

    @Shakezula:
    I’m fighting hard to keep my inner Grammar Nazi from pointing out that that should be Der Blutige.

    I guess I lost. Oh, the shame.

  15. 15.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Noisemax is at it again:

    Kissinger: Iran Is Bigger Threat Than ISIS

    George Will: Putin Is Greater Threat Than ISIS

    Hillary: George Michael Is Much More Humonger Threat Than ISIS

    OK, I made the last one up.

  17. 17.

    Violet

    @Tractarian: Chuck Todd was seriously nervous in that interview. In the only clip I saw, he had his left hand pointed up and was rubbing his fingers and thumbs together–sure sign of being nervous. His first time as official MTP host and he interviews the president for it. I can imagine it was kind of nerve-wracking. Doesn’t excuse that “gotcha” style though. Dumbass.

  21. 21.

    Shakezula

    Here’s an original version (I think I’ve heard it with Memphis Minnie on vocals).

    “When the Levee Breaks” was originally recorded by the blues musical duo Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie. In the first half of 1927, the Great Mississippi Flood ravaged the state of Mississippi and surrounding areas. It destroyed many homes and devastated the agricultural economy of the Mississippi Basin. Many people were forced to flee to the cities of the Midwest in search of work, contributing to the “Great Migration” of African Americans in the first half of the 20th century. During the flood and the years after it subsided, it became the subject of numerous Delta blues songs, including “When the Levee Breaks”, hence the lyrics, “I works on the levee, mama both night and day, I works so hard, to keep the water away” and “I’s a mean old levee, cause me to weep and moan, gonna leave my baby, and my happy home”. The song focused mainly on when more than 13,000 residents in and near Greenville, Mississippi evacuated to a nearby, unaffected levee for its shelter at high ground. The tumult that would have been caused if this and other levees had broken was the song’s underlying theme.

  26. 26.

    Mnemosyne

    Blogwhoring for the weekday folks: my Pre-Code movies blog is back and I have an essay about Norma Shearer’s The Divorcee (1930). I may try to also cover Night Nurse (starring Barbara Stanwyck and Clark Gable) and give my DVR recommendations for this Friday, so stay tuned!

  29. 29.

    Mnemosyne

    @Tractarian:

    We were watching John Oliver’s show last night and they had two segments of “60 Minutes” interviewers prompting people to get the soundbite they want. I know that’s their schtick, but it was pretty striking to have it all edited together.

  34. 34.

    Schlemizel

    @Tractarian:
    I assume brain damage caused by extended exposure to methane gas. Given where he keeps his head most time I am stunned he is not dead from it yet.

  35. 35.

    Roger Moore

    @Schlemizel:

    I assume brain damage caused by extended exposure to methane gas.

    Methane is mostly harmless, unless it builds up to a flammable concentration. Hydrogen sulfide, OTOH, is a potent neurotoxin and is probably what’s doing the damage.

  36. 36.

    Suzanne

    Today is the wettest day in Phoenix’s recorded history. It has been pouring for hours, and there are floods all over the city. There has been more rain in the last six hours than there was all last year. Across the city, there are stranded cars, flooded roads and washes, canceled schools, collapsed roofs, and thousands without power.

    I am eagerly awaiting some dry heat jokes.

  37. 37.

    Randy P

    There was some discussion over the weekend about the new Equalizer movie. I’m looking forward to seeing the new take on the character (and if you’re a fan of the Edward Woodward show and have never seen The Wicker Man, I recommend it)

    I’m kind of ambivalent about another upcoming movie, A Walk Among the Tombstones. I love the Matthew Scudder novels and most other things Lawrence Block writes, but am not sure how this will transition to film. Liam Neeson? Really?

  39. 39.

    Suzanne

    @Steeplejack: Not too bad.

    I am really looking forward to the inevitable videos of turd burglars who drive into the washes, get stuck, and have to be airlifted off the tops of their cars. Can’t-miss viewing every summer around here.

  40. 40.

    trollhattan

    Trying to recall whether we’ve had a significant storm this year. I guess the question is its own answer.

    Le sigh.

  42. 42.

    Steeplejack

    @Randy P:

    I love the Matthew Scudder novels and most other things Lawrence Block writes, but am not sure how this will transition to film.

    Probably badly. Hollywood has a long history of buying good books, throwing away everything but the title and some vestigial trace of the original premise and then flying into the nearest mountain. The Tom Cruise movie Jack Reacher was actually okay as a movie, but it had very little to do with Lee Child’s protagonist or the books. (Example: Movie has an extended car chase with Cruise doing fancy driving; in the books it is a fact repeatedly belabored that Reacher is an indifferent driver at best. Also, Reacher in the books is a rough-hewn giant: 6'4", 250 pounds. In the movie tiny Tom Cruise is tiny.)

    Get Shorty was a very good adaptation of the Elmore Leonard book, but I have read that that was mostly because John Travolta was a big Leonard fan, was appalled at the first script he read and through sheer star power forced the project back to the book. And, Christ, an Elmore Leonard novel practically is a script; there’s really not much that you need to change.

    I thought Hal Ashby’s Eight Million Ways to Die (1986) was a pretty good movie, and Jeff Bridges did a fair take on the Matt Scudder character (ex-drunk ex-cop), but it had been so long since I read the book when I saw it that I couldn’t compare the plot points. I do know that Scudder is a quintessential New York guy, and the movie is sun-drenched California.

    That said, my interest is piqued by A Walk Among the Tombstones. I’ll probably try to forget that it’s based on a book and just feel good for Lawrence Block getting a big check.

    Also: The new Reacher novel, Personal, which just came out last week, is a big disappointment, in my opinion. Lee Child has reached the dreaded “phoning it in” phase. At least it took him 19 books to reach that point (although some of the other recent ones have been a little underwhelming).

  44. 44.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Steeplejack: THEN there are books that have no business at all being adapted in any way, shape, or form recognizable to the readers of those books.

    The entire Ayn Rand oeuvre, for example.

  46. 46.

    Shakezula

    @Randy P: As in the T.V. show?

    Without spoiling the book (too much) I am not surprised Tombstones got tapped for a movie make-over, it has lots of the right kind of violence.

    I wonder if Neeson got picked for this one since he was in another movie about women in the hands of bad dudes. He sure as hell isn’t my idea of Matt Scudder.

  49. 49.

    BlueNC

    @Amir Khalid: I dont’ have anything useful to contribute, so I’m going with this. Maybe I should change my handle to Grammatikprofi. (BTW, “Nazi” is pretty much the N-word of Germany. Not to be used, ever.)

    Unrelated: Ray Rice. Good Lord.

  50. 50.

    Mnemosyne

    @Suzanne:

    I am really looking forward to the inevitable videos of turd burglars who drive into the washes, get stuck, and have to be airlifted off the tops of their cars. Can’t-miss viewing every summer around here.

    I remember seeing those most winters while visiting my parents in AZ. Lots of talk about friggin’ idiots who think they can drive through a wash because they have four-wheel drive.

  51. 51.

    Mnemosyne

    @Steeplejack:

    For me, the choice for Best Elmore Leonard Adaptation is a toss-up between Jackie Brown and Out of Sight. Plus Michael Keaton plays the same character for two different directors in two different movies, which is the kind of inside joke I always love.

  52. 52.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Mnemosyne: Speaking of Michael Keaton, I’m hearing very good things about the upcoming Birdman. In spite of what F. Scott Fitzgerald said, I think Mr. Keaton is enjoying an exceptional “second act” of his career.

  53. 53.

    Steeplejack

    @Mnemosyne:

    Both of those are great movies. I particularly like Out of Sight, but I like almost all things Soderbergh. And it’s very true to the (excellent) novel. I think Jackie Brown took more liberties (from the novel Rum Punch), but it’s still very Leonardesque.

    Footnote to history: Back in my newspaper days I interviewed Pam Grier at the height of her ’70s blaxploitation phase. ¡Caramba! And very intelligent and articulate. Too bad she couldn’t get better material for so long.

  55. 55.

    Mnemosyne

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    I’ve always liked Michael Keaton — I still think he was a great choice to play Batman. Birdman looks interesting, though González Iñárritu wouldn’t be my first choice to direct anything comic.

    @Steeplejack:

    I still love the story that Grier told about getting the call from Tarantino to say he was going to send her a script and she should look at the part of Jackie Brown. The script arrives and right there on the cover page, the title is Jackie Brown. She was great in it and she and Robert Forester had terrific chemistry together.

    ETA: One of the big changes Tarantino made was to set it in Los Angeles instead of Florida, but I thought it really worked. It helped that I was working in South Bay at the time so I recognized a lot of the locations.

  56. 56.

    Bob In Portland

    On the BBC overnight I heard what is probably a test flag of what the MH17 report will be. The reporter spent a lot of time comparing Putin to villains in a Dr. Who episode, and pointed to two local eyewitnesses on the ground who claimed to see a BUK battery and people speaking Russian.

    Note: Nothing about the black boxes. Nothing about the air tower recordings that the Ukraine government seized. Nothing about Ukrainian fighter jets in the area. No intel satellite photos, no Ukrainian civil or military radar.

    There was also a mention about the photo montage put together that Amir linked to (for the Daily Beast, I think, which the Russians dissected as another false bit of evidence, pointing out that the photos weren’t where they were supposed to be but were in areas controlled by the Ukrainian army).

    Will BJers accept an investigation that’s lacking air tower recordings, black boxes, intel satellites et al?

    I’m guessing so. But if in fact all these things are included how much will I accept? Well, we’ll have to look at the evidence. I’ll be interested in how the world reacts.

    Meanwhile, it appears that this weekend’s kerfluffle over truce violations seems not to be very much of a story after all. However, most commenters I’ve seen believe the truce won’t hold. The rebels won’t give up their territory or put down their weapons, and while the Ukrainian army seems to have been reduced, and there’s no hope for a fresh influx of weapons to stem the tide.

    Does that mean that there will be a long war? Yes, and no. It won’t end, but the longer the truce lasts the more attention will be turned to the failing economics of the Kiev government. It appears that Poroshenko, or whoever takes his place after the next coup, will need the civil war as a distraction, but it won’t have the means to execute it.

    Then there’s talk about a second front opening in the Carpathians. I don’t think that there’s enough unrest there (yet), and besides, the various parts from which Ukraine was constructed will break off as the central government loses control over the edges of its territory.

  58. 58.

    Steeplejack

    @Mnemosyne:

    Damn it! FYWP is killing my responses. Will try later.

    ETA: Okay, this one went through. Must be something in the others that it didn’t like. But I’m pretty sure they’re free of the forbidden words.

  62. 62.

    Bob In Portland

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Scott, did you notice how there was no mention of the black boxes, Ukrainian radar, and especially the air tower recordings? Why do you think that the Ukrainians have withheld them? I’ll also note that in the article there are three unidentified witnesses instead of the two mentioned on BBC overnight, which is stronger proof, right?

    Is that enough for you to hang your helmet on?

  63. 63.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Bob In Portland: If you would loosen that tinfoil wrapped around your head, you would know that the interim report on MH17 is due out tomorrow. Give it a try! Then you’ll be able to answer these repetitive questions yourself, if your friends at Putin Today RT let you, I guess.

    HTH!!

    (sigh)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  64. 64.

    Steeplejack

    @Mnemosyne:

    Okay, here goes:

    The move from Florida to California didn’t hurt Jackie Brown. Similar sun-drenched settings and requisite lowlife supporting characters available.

    Robert Forster hits a nerve for me, because he was great in Jackie Brown and represents a bunch of actors who get short shrift because (back in the day) they were “on TV” or (nowadays) they’re known for only one type of role.

    My inner casting director is always saying, “He/she would be great in x,” followed by my inner studio exec: “Yeah, no. That’ll never happen.”

    ETA: I ran some tests in an old, dead thread, and it turns out that what FYWP didn’t like was the phrase “reality checker” (instead of “studio exec” above). WTF.

  65. 65.

    Bob In Portland

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Yes, the report is tomorrow. If the report doesn’t include the air traffic recordings, radar, or intel sat photos, will you presume to have gotten the full story?

    My original post on the BBC report was to indicate that it was precisely a trial balloon to see if they could fly this version, without all the other data, and would the world be satisfied. I suspect that Russia has a package of information that will be released simultaneously. We know that Russia’s radar covers Ukraine. I would guess that they have satellite photos too. They may also have a copy of the air control tower’s conversations. I would guess that Russia has plenty of operatives in Ukraine.

    My point was to mention what WASN’T in the BBC report. Unidentified witnesses don’t trump pictures or recordings.

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