Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Second rate reporter says what?

The revolution will be supervised.

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

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Let there be snark.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

“woke” is the new caravan.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Reader Interactions

113Comments

  3. 3.

    BGinCHI

    Finally saw Selma on Friday. Really shocking that Oyewolo didn’t get nominated for best actor. What a crime.

    Going to see Inherent Vice next week I think. Dying to see it. No one makes movies like PTA.

    Also, we need a thread where we make fun of Bobby Jindal. Man, that guy is off the rails.

  4. 4.

    BGinCHI

    @Violet: I really liked it. So sad and beautiful.

    Keep your eye on that Irish director, Lenny Abrahamson. He’s going places.

  7. 7.

    Violet

    @BGinCHI: Yeah, I kind of liked it. There were some beautiful parts to it. But it was weird. Lots to make you think in the movie, that’s for sure.

  8. 8.

    rikyrah

    hat tip- POU:

    Miranda

    This is an actual paragraph, in an actual column, by an actual human being, in the Washington Post. This is an actual argument FOR people dying, in exchange for repealing the ACA – all in the name of freedom…ACTUALLY….I kid you not.
    ————————–

    End Obamacare, and people could die. That’s okay.
    We make such trade-offs all the time.

    In a world of scarce resources, a slightly higher mortality rate is an acceptable price to pay for certain goals — including more cash for other programs, such as those that help the poor; less government coercion and more individual liberty; more health-care choice for consumers, allowing them to find plans that better fit their needs; more money for taxpayers to spend themselves; and less federal health-care spending. This opinion is not immoral. Such choices are inevitable. They are made all the time.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/end-obamacare-and-people-could-die-thats-okay/2015/01/23/f436df30-a1c4-11e4-903f-9f2faf7cd9fe_story.html?hpid=z2

    this is who they are.

    this is who they’ve always been.

  9. 9.

    Marc

    Your WTF factor: ascending or descending?

    I liked Inherent Vice a lot. Haven’t seen Birdman yet.

  10. 10.

    shortstop

    Saw A Most Violent Year yesterday and was impressed by the tight script, great performances and gorgeous cinematography. I love movies that are deceptively simple and slow-paced but turn out to have plenty of layers to delve into.

    Can’t wait to see Inherent Vice.

    Since we’re mocking Jindal, I’ll add that I watched part of Palin’s Iowa speech and must conclude that coke is the culprit. Not counting rank stupidity, of course.

  12. 12.

    srv

    Birdman. New foreign flick on netflix, Metro Manila was alright.

    Peaky Blinders is on flix too. Hasn’t gone completely off the rails yet like most series do after a season or two. Also, too, season 8 of Foyle’s War.

  13. 13.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    I just saw The Butler. Wow! That’s easily the best movie I’ve ever seen. Hopefully it will win an Oscar.

  14. 14.

    BGinCHI

    @shortstop: Whoa on that Palin speech. Peak dumbass achieved.

    Want to see A Most Violent Year as well. Chandor’s first film (Margin Call) is terrific.

    Remind me: are you a vegetarian? I have a rec if not….

  15. 15.

    Amir Khalid

    Mortdecai has gotten so many bad reviews (12% on Rotten Tomatoes!) that now I want to see it. Is it really that bad, or have the professional critics failed to understand it? (In my experience as a moviegoer, even the best ones can fail to grok a movie.)

  18. 18.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @rikyrah: @WereBear: I actually prefer it when they’re honestly callous like that, none of the underpants gnomes emptiness of John McCain’s recent brilliant proposal that health insurance reforms should be rooted first in freedom (!)

  19. 19.

    shortstop

    @BGinCHI: We watched Margin Call sort of by accident and were surprised by how good it was. Haven’t seen the boat thing with Redford yet — it’s not my usual cup of tea — but Chandor’s so awesome I’ll have to give it a try. Do see AMVY — it’s fantastically well done.

    Not veg; I eat fish but not meat or poultry.

  20. 20.

    RobertDSC (Quad Intel Mac)

    I went to see American Sniper last night. The war parts were pretty good, but the rest of it wasn’t.

  23. 23.

    BGinCHI

    @shortstop: Boat movie is really good. Grim but good.

    Was going to recommend the Korean Taco place on Foster, but it’s pretty meat-centric. Kimchi rice? Amazing.

    Maybe try the veggie burrito?

  25. 25.

    J C

    You lost me by putting Imitation Game first. Birdman and Inherent Vice had much, much more of a WTF Factor. Imitation Game is nowhere near first. Plus, you missed Nightcrawler

  27. 27.

    Amir Khalid

    Where are The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything? They both have best-actor nominations. Why aren’t they in KL cinemas?

    @rikyrah: He’s a lying, heartless bastard. Quite a few of his commentors clearly think so.

  35. 35.

    scav

    @rikyrah: “My Freedom® is worth those other people’s deaths.” is pretty multi-purpose in their world. “Freedom isn’t Free” usually involves other people picking up the tab.

  40. 40.

    sparrow

    Since this is an OT thread, I have a funny dillemma of sorts to ask about. I live in an apartment building, and have become “good acquaintances” with some neighbors, about 20 years older than me, who are Jewish. We’ve had each other over for a few dinner parties and they are nice, educated people and we like each other. Anyway, this year they’ve invited me and my BF over for both Passover and Rosh Hashana. That was cool, I made the Challah for the latter, and am sort of passingly familiar with Jewish customs from dating a Jewish guy years ago. Anyway, to the point, the wife invited me (via mass email) to join a Jewish activist group (along the lines of “Jews for peace”). I’m not actually Jewish, so now I am confused. Is it totally normal to invite non-jews to groups like that (sorta like “jews and allies”?) or should I assume they got confused and think I am Jewish (my name is commonly so, but obvs not always)? I realize this is a stupid sounding problem, but I would hate to be all “um by the way I’m not Jewish” and have them look at me like I’m crazy “Yeah, we KNOW…” or conversely have a really awkward conversation where they realize why I did not really know all the words to the passover songs. Anyway, advice plz. So far I just ignored the invite but I don’t want to be rude.

  41. 41.

    Hal

    My favorite from last year was the winter soldier. A straight up spy thriller, espionage, action flick that happens to star a super hero.

  45. 45.

    Howard Beale IV

    @rikyrah: Ah yes, written by a ‘resident scholar’ (cough) at the American Enterprise Institute (like Ayan al Hirsi (Niall Ferguson’s wife) is-fancy that!)

    Remember his face-and if you see him in an accident-render no aid.

  46. 46.

    PurpleGirl

    I haven’t been to the movies in quite a while. I do want to see The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything. Probably some others too. I need to get active again and do things outside my home again.

  47. 47.

    cosima

    @Amir Khalid:

    Re: Mortdecai, I love the books by Kyril Bonfiglioli, so my suggestion would be that if you have the time to read those first, then see the movie in spite of the reviews if you enjoy the books. I’ll be doing that if it gets to the tiny village theatre near us. Mortdecai has a hint of Wodehouse about it.

    We watched Imitation Game a couple of weeks ago. It was great. Even knowing the outcome it still held me. I’ve watched Grand Budapest Hotel a couple of times within the last several months (once for me, once because our daughter wanted to watch it while home for a while). Love it.

    Have bought tickets to watch Unbroken on the 6th of Feb at the village theatre. Anyone watched that yet?

  49. 49.

    WereBear

    @cosima: Have bought tickets to watch Unbroken on the 6th of Feb at the village theatre. Anyone watched that yet?

    Read the book. I’m not sure if it’s proper to say I’m “looking forward” to the moving because it’s quite harrowing. But I wish the woman director all the best! Selma was sadly overlooked for the nomination, but that was another woman director, and we can’t have too many of those.

  51. 51.

    Mike J

    @sparrow: The director Norman Jewison was offered Fiddler on the Roof, and when he told the producers he wasn’t Jewish he could see their faces fall. He still got the gig though.

  53. 53.

    Zinsky

    @RobertDSC (Quad Intel Mac): I went to American Sniper last night too, coincidentally, and was really disgusted with the stereotyping and the uncritical way the Iraq War is presented. First, they show the attack on the Twin Towers on Sept. 11th and almost in the next scene, Kyle is in Iraq. At a minimum, those events are 18 months apart. Is that an accurate telling of history? It also perpetuates the myth, held by a large percentage of Americans, that Saddam Hussein was somehow responsible for 9-11. Second, Kyle says, explicitly, “they are all savages”, implying the entire Iraqi population are savage and deserve to die. No one brings up the fact that the entire mission to invade Iraq was about WMD and removing Hussein from power, not about killing Iraqis, in general. How did that morph and get so twisted in the American people’s mind? Anyway, I really liked The Grand Budapest Hotel!

  55. 55.

    gogol's wife

    Not a current movie, and I’ve already gushed about it here, but we saw Hot Fuzz on TV the other night and I was blown away by it. I’m still laughing about it. That doesn’t happen to me too often. Brilliant parody mashup of Miss Marple-type shows (of which I have seen ’em all) and American action films (of which I have seen virtually none, but it doesn’t matter). The cast is fantastic, especially Anne Reid.

  58. 58.

    sparrow

    @gogol’s wife: Oh I know, I was just making a joke. I don’t really think this is a big deal, I just wondered if I was missing something regarding these kinds of groups. Not really a group-joiner anyway, so whatevs.

  59. 59.

    satby

    @Belafon: One of those “only common sense” statements that their base is so fond of, on the surface truthy, but applies the metric of scarcity to the wrong end of the health debate.
    Preventative care and maintenance of chronic conditions early are proven to save “scarce [healthcare] resources” over the long term, but that’s facts with their ugly liberal bias and all.

  60. 60.

    Gene108

    @BGinCHI:

    I know an accountant, who used to live in New Orleans. Moved to NJ after Katrina (his wife got a job here, there place in NO was destroyed). Older guy, waiting for his first grandkid in a few months. Regularly watches Fox News.

    He thinks Jindal is a terrible governor.

    When Bobby’s lost Fox News viewing grnadp’s (to be) that’s a testament to how bad he’s doing.

  62. 62.

    opiejeanne

    Loved The Hundred Foot Journey. Also saw The Butler and thought it was excellent, and Inglorious Basterds and am still trying to decide just what I think about it.

  63. 63.

    Gordon, the Big Express Engine

    Say what you want about Tom Cruise, but Edge of Tomorrow was really good and really gets better (given the “groundhog day” plot structure) with repeated viewings. I’ve seen it several times (plane flights) and the story and acting is really good. Emily Blunt is teh hawt. Cruise nails his part.

  65. 65.

    Mike E

    @Mike J: Topol called him “Christianson” for “missing the cut”…the St. Petersburg scenes were shot in Zagreb, my mom’s hometown!

  67. 67.

    Tree With Water

    Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo captured the cruelty of humanity at war as effectively as did All Quiet On The Western Front decades before. I haven’t seen Flags Of Our Fathers. The early ’70’s Kelley’s Heroes was a movie-cartoon, and so was director Eastwood’s own silly ass war movie about the Grenada invasion. I have zero interest in seeing Sniper.

    When he was mayor of Carmel, Eastwood spoke at ceremony honoring retired General (and Carmel resident) Jimmy Doolittle. At one point, Eastwood alluded to the fact that Doolittle’s exploit in leading the famous 1942 raid on Tokyo enabled home front Americans to vicariously experience a war the country had only recently been blown into. At that, Doolittle cocked his head and shot Eastwood an intrigued look. Who better to explain vicarious thrills than an actor-director of Eastwood’s stature? Still, as his track record with the genre indicates, that skill doesn’t necessarily guarantee quality storytelling…

  68. 68.

    mai naem mobile

    Jindal needs to learn that they’re just not that into you. Sorry, dude, you just don’t look presidential and no matter how far you go to attract the wingnuts, they are not going to vote for you.
    I know this isn’t right but I find it really odd that he converted from Hinduism to Catholicism. His parents are still Hindu. It’s him alone. IMHO, it was because he couldn’t handle being “different” and he did it to fit in which doesn’t say much for his character. BTW, Hindus in modern times have the lowest rates of conversion to other religions.

  69. 69.

    Buddy H

    @shortstop: Since we’re mocking Jindal, I’ll add that I watched part of Palin’s Iowa speech and must conclude that coke is the culprit. Not counting rank stupidity, of course.

    One thing I noticed: She was talking (or making talk-like sounds) about how “liberals point their fingers and accuse us of racism, sexism” and “what we should do is point our fingers right back” … and then she made a gesture like shooting a gun.

    Did anyone else pick up on that? She already incited that mutant who shot Giffords. She endorses crosshairs on Michael Moore’s name. Does she think of the implications of her words and actions?

  71. 71.

    Tenar Darell

    Across the Universe last night. I Remember the Future, Lucy, and Hunchback of Notre Dame with live organ, all at Arisia last weekend. I can recommend them all. The coolest film was the Australian student/film festival I Remember the future. I was really impressed by the character work combined with science fiction elements. Lucy is very stylish, and Scarlett Johanssen plays a woman becoming superhumanly smart with great skill, but the basic premise is bogus. Totally cool to see a cutting edge silent film (for the time) with organ accompaniment anywhere. If you like musicals and even if you don’t really, Across the Universe was beautiful filmmaking. (Look for Joe Cocker cameo in it).

  74. 74.

    Amir Khalid

    @Buddy H:
    I think it’s most likely that Sarah is oblivious to such considerations. While it’s conceivable, just, that she’s very subtly inciting violence against Democrats, she doesn’t really seem capable of such finesse.

  75. 75.

    LWA (Liberal With Attitude)

    @Buddy H:

    Does she think of the implications of her words and actions?

    Given the rambling gibberish, I don’t think she even thinks about the implication of the noun to the verb in an given sentence.

  76. 76.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @LWA (Liberal With Attitude):

    Sarah Palin: A noun, a grammatically incorrect verb, and a racist slur

    Steve Dowdy on twitter, via Tbogg

    ETA: from comments there (Adm Ackbar):

    I understand now. When this snowbilly grifter goes on and on about “Freedom”, she means freedom from the tyranny of….
    – English grammar
    – Logic
    – Sane political discourse
    – Ethics

  77. 77.

    scav

    @LWA (Liberal With Attitude): Speaking of implications of speech and nouns and others listening, this might be the latest bug to infest the tribe (after the epidemic levels of no memory already observed). The GOP changing a subcommittee‘s name, dropping the “Civil Rights and Human Rights” leaving only the “Constitution” is up there, as nothing much will change in what does(n’t) get done by the committee, and it is so teeny a bit of token red meat for the baying hard line already committed with such glorious “outreach” symbolism. They really must be convinced they can rule all with the few they’ve got inside on the noisy side of the tent pissing inwards.

  78. 78.

    Denali

    You could not pay me to see American Sniper. I truly cannot understand the appeal of this movie.
    I did enjoy Wild, mostly because of the beautiful shots of the far west.

  79. 79.

    ruemara

    Thanks for all the car info last night, folks. Unfortunately, CA law does not allow parts shops to do the diagnostic assistance thing anymore. I decided to go workout and then take the beast to the local shop with a good rep. So the workout teacher didn’t show up. Par for the fucking course this month. I can also anticipate spending the entire bit of cash I managed to squirrel away over the past few months on whatever the repair is. I’m so upset/angry/worn out.

  81. 81.

    WaterGirl

    Does anyone want a free t-short? Satby’s rescue group is selling t-shirts, and they have to have orders for 10 before they can start printing and selling them.

    I will gladly buy one, but I don’t wear t-shirts, so if one person wants a free t-shirt, speak up here and then send Anne Laurie an email message so you can let me know size and shipping address.

    T-shirts here.

  82. 82.

    Yatsuno

    Last movie I saw was Big Hero 6 which I thoroughly enjoyed. Otherwise not really much into the movie watchings.

  85. 85.

    Bjacques

    Loved Winter Soldier. Check out the tombstone epitaph at the end.

    Watching Alex Tsipras give his victory speech, saying OXI (pronounced “okhi)” to austerity. Life is good.

  86. 86.

    Elie

    Selma and Birdman were both good but Selma was my favorite.. acting, and cinematography… so excellent.

    Both movies have real lessons for life.

    I also liked Interstellar, though I don’t think its best picture caliber — very good though and I really appreciate its message — that there are mysteries in love and the spirit every bit as powerful as “hard science” and it links big theoretical physics concepts of time and distance with the connection of love. Its not completely successful, but definitely worth seeing (in my opinion)

  87. 87.

    Helen

    Not a movie person. Used to be. Then Woody Allen (who I used to love -before the scandal) had a movie that was supposed to be making fun of movies and movie stars (can anyone remember the name; I can’t) Anyway I left the theatre thinking – I am done giving those assholes money. Didn’t Warren Beatty say something like that in Bullworth?

    Here’s a paraphrase: You have Hollywood , who are (they tell us) the most creative people in the universe. Any they have unlimited budgets (yeah – $200,000,000 is an unlimited budget for anything but a WAR) and they keep pumping out the worst schlock ever.

    So I only go to the movies when my young friends Megan and Devon want to see a movie. So the last one I saw in the theatre was the Lego Movie.

    Yeah I am old. Get offa my lawn!

  88. 88.

    Elie

    @Elie:

    Forgot — Boyhood is very very excellent. Saw it a while ago, but it is amazing and definitely best picture caliber…

  89. 89.

    FlyingToaster

    OT: just de-virused my Firefox; an extension (PhotoZoom) was infected, and installed itself in a non-profile place to keep me from deleting it. If you’re finding “superfish.com” or “visadd.com” in your noscript popup without being in source, look in the Library/Application Support/Mozilla folder instead of your own profile folder. Rat Bastard.

    After having had issues with my new cable (one cable not connecting properly to 30-pin peripherals) and iTunes (will de-install 12 and see if I can find a copy of 11.9.x), and my server MacBook getting veddy veddy unresponsive while having WarriorGirl playing the Lego Movie Special Features disk over-n-over-n-over again, I’m getting entirely sick of everything. And now I’m forcing said ‘orrible daughter to practice her violin — where are my damn ear plugs?

    /whinging

  91. 91.

    Amir Khalid

    Off-topic: in France, you can’t name your daughter Nutella. The registrar at the mairie in Valenciennes filed a complaint over the name, which is of course a trademark; the judge ruled in the registrar’s favour.

  92. 92.

    Elie

    @rikyrah:

    This guy may have been a neurosurgeon — but he is a sociopath .
    He could implement genocide with barely blinking an eye. He is past cold… he is in cyborg category….He is kind of a curiosity. I always wonder what horrible thing he will say next because he really doesn’t have a self censor like people with empathy… He would be maliciously fun to goad and a very easy target… Maybe all people running for President should take the Hare sociopathy screen. I know he would blow the lid off of it…

  93. 93.

    Amir Khalid

    @Elie:
    The writer of the column rikyrah cites is not Ben Carson, but American Enterprise Institute scholar and economist Michael R. Strain.

  95. 95.

    Raven

    I hope Eastwood releases a film from the Iraqi point of view like he did with Letters from Iwo Jima. Y’all’d have a fuckin stroke.

  98. 98.

    Bjacques

    That article had a lot of insultingly bad arguments, strawmen, comparisons—you name it. Calling the GOP strategy group “Project2017” a think tank was a hoot.

  99. 99.

    Mike E

    Watching Get Shorty on my teevee…so much fun. It hits all the right notes, and makes me happy. For a movie goer, what more can you want?

  100. 100.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Raven: Not.going.to.happen. WWII Is far enough away that you can do this, and set aside the broader political context, Iraq is waaay too close to us to even think about it, because in an Iraqi POV story you’d have to include political context, and Eastwood took great steps to strip American Sniper of that.

  101. 101.

    raven

    @Villago Delenda Est: I guess, still all this crap about him skipping time periods and shit is just baloney. No one that believed one way or the other had their minds changed the movie, even those that actually saw it.

  105. 105.

    Console

    The last 4 movies I saw were: American Sniper, Foxcatcher, Imitation Game, The Gambler. Imitation Game was the most entertaining and best movie of the bunch but was a bit shallow. The Gambler was the most pretentious. American Sniper has the most depth. I don’t really know what to make of Foxcatcher. It’s not a bad movie. It just feels like the movie could have been done better.

    The funny thing is that 3 of these movies are fact based critically acclaimed movies, but it seems like Selma is the only one this year that got any real backlash for any ahistorical depictions. White people are sensitive.

  107. 107.

    PaulW

    Last movie I saw was Hobbit: The Attempt to Pad Out The Battle of Five Armies With As Many Inplausible Action Scenes As Hobbitly Possible.

    Before that was Big Hero 6. I am firmly convinced we now have enough trainer movies for our kids to watch in appropriate age orders – Big Hero 6 for the 5-year-olds, Superman the Movie for 8-year-olds, The Incredibles for 13-year-olds, Unbreakable for 17-year-olds – to satisfy their lifetime geekery cred.

  108. 108.

    PaulW

    @Mike E:

    I really think Out of Sight is the better Elmore Leonard movie. More mature, more satisfying. Plus it has GUZMAN.

    Get Shorty was pretty simple and easy-going compared to Out of Sight.

  109. 109.

    Lauren

    Inherent Vice was a hot mess of incomprehensible mumbling. Zero for three of my party could follow the dialog. Plus, it consisted of about 90% of characters narrating to other characters what had happened elsewhere, instead of showing us the actual action. Convoluted, disjointed, wordy, and boring as hell.

Comments are closed.