Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Petty moves from a petty man.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

So many bastards, so little time.

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

T R E 4 5 O N

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

When I was faster i was always behind.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night Open Thread: The Cutting Ad

Late Night Open Thread: The Cutting Ad

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As described in Cole’s post, next one down. Sharing is caring! Via Paul Constant, who adds:

… I have a response for President Reagan.These are nine words that are even more terrifying than his own, when it comes to an Ebola outbreak: “I’m from the government and you’re on your own.”

Also, would it be wrong to hope that some “fat lesbians” cornered Erick Erickson and gave him… the scare of his life?

… In a post for his RedState.com blog this morning, Erickson assails a new ad highlighting the GOP’s support for budget cuts that crippled the agencies charged with leading the response to Ebola. Over the weekend, National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins told the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein that 10 years of stagnant spending on the agency has “slowed down” critical research… A Democratic bill to boost the NIH’s budget to $46 billion by 2021 isn’t likely to advance anytime soon.

Erickson’s post, titled “Fat Lesbians Got All the Ebola Dollars, But Blame the GOP,” cites an NIH-funded study examining why lesbians confront higher rates of obesity; the research is in line with other demographic studies examining public health challenges, but Erickson seized on the study to wage a demagogic attack on the agency for frivolously “studying the propensity of lesbians to be fat.” He also attacked CDC research on gun violence and smoking cessation…

Reader Interactions

59Comments

  1. 1.

    Batocchio

    Why, it’s almost as if all that conservative dogma had negative, real world consequences. (It’s great to see the Reagan connection made.)

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    Yup, that Ellen DeGeneres is a total blimp.

    Not.

    Seriously, though, there will always be studies or programs which either appear or are of lesser import or may on their face seem frivolous if their use as a piece in a larger jigsaw puzzle of interconnected knowledge and disciplines is ignored.

    Senator William Proxmire used to hand out the Golden Fleece awards, but never without microscopic scrutiny of the recipients. Then there are the shortsighted fools like Bobby Jindal with his slam at “volcano monitoring.”

    And by the way Erick, there is zero guarantee or evidence that the funds for the study you decry would otherwise have been applied to Ebola research. Zero. Zip. Nada. Logic isn’t even your short suit, it is evidently altogether absent from your psyche.

  4. 4.

    Arclite

    He also attacked CDC research on gun violence and smoking cessation…

    I don’t get it, why would those draw fire? They affect the whole country. An attack on lesbians, scurrilous though it may be, could be viewed as wasting resources on a tiny demographic. Not so with gun violence and smoking.

  5. 5.

    PurpleGirl

    @Arclite: Research about gun violence is a big No-No. Don’t you know that any research involving guns is contrary to the 2nd Amendment. And that just can’t be allowed.

  6. 6.

    JDreyer

    Since this is an open thread, I had a thought about Asian cinema and how different countries approach improving it in their country:

    Japan – continues to live in its own bubble, making films strictly for the home audience with very little crossover appeal. Studio Ghibli is the one exception here, but otherwise Japanese cinema remains very insular, missing a huge opportunity given its wide cultural influence and popularity in other spheres.

    South Korea – they’ve made a conscious effort to promote film makers and films that have broader appeal while remaining distinctly Korean. Their directors and actors have established themselves on the world stage, and they’ve created well-respected movies like Bong Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer and Chan Wook Park’s Oldboy and more recently Stoker. For a smaller country, they’ve made a lot of waves internationally in cinema in the past decade.

    China – China seems to be bringing Hollywood to them, helping finance films in exchange for them including Chinese actors and being shot partly in China. Recent examples include Rian Johnson’s Looper and Michael Bay’s Transformers Age of Extinction. It’s an interesting strategy, but I think it’s a product of their government and its need to control. I think they’re fearful of promoting the true creativity needed for a thriving film industry, and this is a way to involve their citizens in entertainment while not relinquishing control.

  7. 7.

    Suffern ACE

    @NotMax: @NotMax: because proxmire had to find something each month, he did hand out stinkers. Let’s go to the wiki

    The Federal Aviation Administration was named for spending $57,800 on a study of the physical measurements of 432 airline stewardesses, paying special attention to the “length of the buttocks” and how their knees were arranged when they were seated.[17] He gave the award to a study of the sex life of the screw-worm fly. The results were used to create sterile screw-worms that were released into the wild and eliminated this major cattle parasite from the US and reducing the cost of beef across the globe.[18]

    Trying to determine standards for the seats stewardesses sit in and how much space to allow in their seating compartments seems valid. And the screw worm research is a no brainer.

  9. 9.

    Tommy

    I like to think my parents, who are not liberals, raised a liberal because they didn’t raise an idiot! One thing of many is that you could not walk into a room and say something stupid. Not allowed.

    Dinner table as a family was just a given. 5:30 PM each day. Family sat down. We talk about our day. Talk about something stupid and you’d be called on it. Told to go read. And by “read” I grew up in a household with so many books they were everywhere.

    I am 44. Pretty successful.

    Dad still buys me books 24/7.

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    Friend has been raving about and recommending the cook at home deep dish pizza from Costco.

    Chose that as the first thing to cook in the brand new stove’s oven.

    Okay, and filling, but has a cloying edge to the sauce, which I attribute to using garlic powder rather than fresh garlic.

    Speaking of the new stove, the delivery Monday was a first for me, as they had called Sunday and arranged to come between 2:30 and 4:30 Monday (and promised to call 20 minutes before arrival). Anyway, 11:45 on Monday got a call saying “Hi, this is the delivery service for your stove. we’re running way early, so is it okay if we come over now rather than later?”

    It’s been lightly raining most of the day, but stopped 15 minutes before they got here and began again 15 minutes after they left.

  11. 11.

    Tommy

    @NotMax: The all veggie pizza at Walmat is nice. Yes I just said that.

    Now with that said I have a 70s stove. Not getting rid of it. Love the thing.

  13. 13.

    Chris

    @JDreyer:

    Speaking of movie industries in communist-controlled countries (East Germany, not China): I watched my first Red Western (“White Wolves”) last night. It was actually not half bad. I was expecting something, I don’t know, heavy-handed and unsubtle, the kind of crap our right wingers churn out where the ideology strangles any worthwhile art, just told from the opposite ideological bent. But no. It did come off as deconstructiony, but not more than any Spaghetti Western or even some of our homegrown ones. I may have to try some more.

  14. 14.

    raven

    OK got the dizzy again when I woke up. Looks like BPPV is possible so I’ll call the doc after the tornado’s pass through!

  15. 15.

    JPL

    Rainy weather here. We had a tornado warning but that cell moved east, so I’m in the clear for awhile.

    I have a friend who listened to Erick until I mentioned the goat fucker line. Of course, I did mention that whackos tend to get promoted by saying outrageous things. She no longer listens to him.

    @raven: I’d wait a few hours for sure.

  16. 16.

    raven

    On Monday, Snyderman issued a statement about the violation that was read by Brian Williams of NBC’s Nightly News:

    While under voluntary quarantine guidelines, which called for our team to avoid public contact for 21 days, members of our group violated those guidelines and understand that our quarantine is now mandatory until 21 days have passed. We remain healthy and our temperatures are normal.
    As a health professional I know that we have no symptoms and pose no risk to the public, but I am deeply sorry for the concerns this episode caused. We are thrilled that Ashoka is getting better and our thoughts continue to be with the thousands affected by Ebola whose stories we all went to cover.

  17. 17.

    Botsplainer

    Some idiot state court judge in Louisiana granted Buddy Caldwell’s idiot injunction on the dumping of the incinerated ebola waste.

  18. 18.

    JPL

    @raven: My understanding was that she stayed in the car.
    If that’s correct, then what was the problem?

    It sounds as though lots of trees down in the Roswell, Alpharetta, Sandy Springs area.

  19. 19.

    raven

    @JPL: Come on, you know better than that. For one thing fucking high profile MD should be setting an example.

    “In a deal with the CDC and the New Jersey Health Department, the NBC News crew agreed to stay home and take their temperatures for 21 days after one of their colleagues was diagnosed with the virus. At least one of the crew members broke that order, prompting health officials to make their confinement mandatory. The team was reporting on the Liberian Ebola outbreak when its cameraman fell ill.”

  28. 28.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @raven: At first I thought your tornado reference was a joke about your dizziness, but I see not. Take care with both things.

  31. 31.

    danielx

    I am shocked, shocked that Erick Son of Erick has shown himself to be a world class douche rocket.

    Again.

  32. 32.

    raven

    I feel badly for our neighborhood school parents and kids. It all came down right when they were supposed to be on their way to school.

  33. 33.

    JPL

    There’s a NH representative that is auditioning for a role in right wing media…

    A Republican New Hampshire state lawmaker has called a Democratic congresswoman ‘‘ugly’’ and said the GOP opponent in her November re-election race is one of the most attractive women in politics…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
    Manchester Rep. Steve Vaillancourt called U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster ‘‘ugly as sin’’ in a blog post last week and compared her to a drag queen.

    link

  34. 34.

    Botsplainer

    @Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:

    I waded into the comments. The Ammosexuals are – finally – receiving the appropriate laughter and pushback that had been lamentably restrained from for years.

    I think we have the Open Carry activists to thank for that – they illustrate the goofiness of the gun fetish far more aptly than any set of words, and woke people up with their absurdity.

  35. 35.

    JPL

    @raven: School is out here because of teachers work day .
    There are several trees down near the middle school which is about two miles south of me.
    I just walked the perimeter of my yard to check on the fence and I didn’t even see a limb down.
    Finch has decided that he doesn’t need to go out today. haha

  36. 36.

    Aimai

    @Arclite: because its not “wasting resources” like spending money on military oricurement it is spending money on research into social aspects of a major disease/disease risk factor:obesity.

  37. 37.

    debbie

    “I’m from the government and you’re on your own.”

    Too late for the Dems to make this a label for the GOP for the 2014 races? It is genius.

  38. 38.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Aimai: It’s the Centers for Disease Control _and Prevention_. Contra Erick “Irk Irksome” Erickson, their interest in preventing disease is kind of… unsurprising.

  40. 40.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    And by the way Erick, there is zero guarantee or evidence that the funds for the study you decry would otherwise have been applied to Ebola research. Zero. Zip. Nada. Logic isn’t even your short suit, it is evidently altogether absent from your psyche.

    You’re joking, right? Why would any Rethug ever willingly be seen in the same galaxy as the the word or concept “logic”?

    @goblue72:

    Some enterprising hacker needs to publish that douchetard’s personal home address.

    Seconded. I have a strange urge for someone to find out if he walks around half-naked, fondling his wife’s shotgun has granite countertops. [I almost left off the “half-,” but then I’d get blamed for a lot of youse puking on yer keyboards.]

    @srv:

    Does this mean Erick is a lesbian?

    Nah, just a pu$$y. (Is that still a proscribed word here?)

  41. 41.

    SFAW

    @raven:

    Glad you’re A-OK.

    Also glad I don’t live in a frequent-tornado, frequent-earthquake, frequent-wildfire area. I don’t know how people put up with it, year after year.

  42. 42.

    SFAW

    @JPL:

    Which is “funny,” because Vaillancourt is uglier than Ewick Ewickswimp. Hell, he’s even uglier than I am, and that’s saying a lot.

    ETA: Looks like danielx beat me to it. Dang.

  43. 43.

    Ruviana

    @NotMax: Given that Proxmire dissed a Mayan/Spanish/English dictionary that helped me when I was doing fieldwork, I have nothing but a big F U to the late senator.

  47. 47.

    Tommy

    @SFAW: It is where I live, minus the wildfires. Floods fuck shit up. I am always stunned more people don’t get it. My hardware store has been around since the 1870s. Outside the front of it, marks on the foundation of where all the floods peaked. Times above my head. The Mississipi can be a cruel bitch.

  48. 48.

    Betty Cracker

    @raven: Glad you’re okay. The trailing end of that front is supposed to hit us soon. I can already hear the thunder out in the Gulf. I don’t think we’re expected to get severe weather from it, but it is supposed to cool things down. Yay!

  50. 50.

    SFAW

    @JPL:

    I appreciated daniel x link because I hadn’t seen a picture of him.

    I was just trying to spare you the upset.

    Not really. I was just too lazy.

  51. 51.

    debbie

    Glenn Beck is freaking out over this ad, accusing the Democrats of fear mongering even while there are up to 10,000 new cases of Ebola per week. He finishes up by saying the Democrats must stop their partisanship immediately. But not him?

    Because he won’t ban all flights from Western Africa, Obama is now the worst president in “the history of the world.”

  53. 53.

    RSA

    From the linked proposal abstract:

    It is now well-established that women of minority sexual orientation are disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic, with nearly three-quarters of adult lesbians overweight or obese, compared to half of heterosexual women. In stark contrast, among men, heterosexual males have nearly double the risk of obesity compared to gay males. Despite clear evidence from descriptive epidemiologic research that sexual orientation and gender markedly pattern obesity disparities, there is almost no prospective, analytic epidemiologic research into the causes of these disparities. It will be impossible to develop evidence-based preventive interventions unless we first answer basic questions about causal pathways, as we plan to do. Our study has high potential for public health impact not only for sexual minorities but also for heterosexuals, as we seek to uncover how processes of gender socialization may exacerbate obesity risk in both sexual minority females and heterosexual males.

    Pretty fascinating. I didn’t know any of that.

  54. 54.

    rk

    If I were doling out money for research I’m not sure Ebola would have been high on the list of infectious diseases. We were taught that Ebola was not terribly contagious and burned itself out because of it’s high mortality rate (an inefficient virus so to speak). There are so many diseases which would come before Ebola. A better way to tackle Ebola like diseases is through education and to improve healthcare in the region. A virus like Ebola takes hold only because of the lack of healthcare infrastructure. Unless that’s taken care of there are plenty of other viruses waiting in the wings. Marburg is just as bad if not worse than Ebola.
    Of course none of this would ever be understood by fat heads like Eric the idiot or any of the other idiots who comprise the right wing in this country.

  55. 55.

    muddy

    Erick son of wev needs to look in the mirror before calling anyone else fat, lesbians or otherwise. He’s got a face like a side of beef.

  56. 56.

    StringOnAStick

    I just wanted to remind everyone:

    Erickson announced earlier this year that he was accepted to seminary, calling it part of his journey “to glorify God more fully in this multidimensional platform of a career God has blessed me with.”

    He’s such a God-glorifier, don’t you think?

  57. 57.

    Darkrose

    I’m more than happy to give Erick von Eric a reason to be afraid of fat lesbians. Three words:

    Weaponized

    Cat

    Farts

  58. 58.

    Mnemosyne

    @StringOnAStick:

    I always liked William Goldman’s phrase: “god-huggers.”

    He was actually on the Miss America judging panel the year Gretchen Carlson won. He didn’t like her, because she was a god-hugger, and wanted someone else, but the other judges beat him down. It’s all in his book Hype and Glory (which was written well before Carlson’s Fox News days — it was kind of a shock to get to the end of the Miss America section and realize who had just won).

  59. 59.

    SFAW

    @muddy:

    He’s got a face like a side of beef.

    Now if we could only point some Reavers in his direction …

    @StringOnAStick:

    Erickson announced earlier this year that he was accepted to seminary, calling it part of his journey “to glorify God more fully in this multidimensional platform of a career God has blessed me with.”

    First time if heard Evil being referred to that way. “Multidimensional platform?” Riiiight

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