Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

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

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

A consequence of cucumbers

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

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

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

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

The revolution will be supervised.

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

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Late Night Open Thread: Thrown

Late Night Open Thread: Thrown

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gop throws the first stone toles

(Tom Toles via GoComics.com)
.

Jeb Lund, at Rolling Stone, “GOP to LGBT: “OMG, You’re Still Here?“:

… While even the most principled candidate waffles eventually, we’ve been gifted a real brace of chickenshits in the GOP primary. And nothing’s thrown them into the spotlight quite like Republican Indiana Governor Mike Pence’s chickenshit volte-face on his own economic smear-the-queers bill. All that’s left is for you to wonder who has the most potential for blundering numbskullery, but, in a pinch, let’s say it’s Scott Walker…

Here’s the problem: Almost all the 2016 GOP presidential candidates ran onto the bridge to defend Pence and Indiana Republicans loud enough to be heard in Iowa — then Pence dynamited the thing, sending them crashing to the canyon floor like Wile E. Coyote after holding up two signs reading “I ♥ Jesus” and “Eep.” Each championed the Indiana bill not as discriminatory toward LGBT citizens, which it transparently was, but rather some last desperate bulwark between universally oppressed Christians and predatory gay customers backed up by big gay government. Pence fucked it up.

Certainly some of the conservative bodies down in the canyon are happy to remain at such a low level. Mike Huckabee doesn’t care. Ted Cruz, who has calculated that his only chance is somehow running as even more of a religious fundamentalist than a former preacher like Mike Huckabee, is just fine. Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum is fiiiiiiine… This good for them and immaterial for us, because none of them stands a fucking chance unless Foster Freiss starts dropping eight figure donations on Rick again. Meanwhile, everyone else is stuck holding the bag for Mike Pence, while he scampers off and a fellow traveler like Republican Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson knuckles under to Wal-Mart, pins his change of heart on his son’s activism and refuses to sign an RFRA like Indiana’s.

The guys left holding the bag are the ones to watch…

Which brings us to the really interesting candidate to watch, Scott Walker… He’s already fully or partially flip-flopped on a pathway to citizenship, political donations from gaming companies, abortion rights, ethanol mandates, right-to-work laws and Common Core. But while previously seeing no need for an RFRA law in Wisconsin because of “a healthy balance” between an anti-discrimination statute and defense-of-marriage legislation, a Walker spokesperson supported the Indiana RFRA. By Wednesday, the night before Pence’s signed, legally binding flip-flop, Walker was trying to downplay the backlash to the Indiana legislation as the product of “people who are chronically looking for ways to be upset about things instead of really looking at what it is.”…

Scott Walker is so regularly clueless that he’d tell voters that he’s gay if someone put that on the schedule. Then, if his aides put it on the schedule, he’d vote against himself…

Reader Interactions

94Comments

  2. 2.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Walker can play his games in a mid-sized state – and, god knows, he has – but he will not stand up to top level oppo research. He isn’t that nimble.

  3. 3.

    jl

    Funny summary of the GOP ‘deep bench’ for 2016. I guess Christie’s 2016 ambition has been floating dead in the water for so long that it is ready to sink now and he is not even worth mentioning anymore.

    The local news items i heard and saw about Jeb!’s Silicon Valley trip did not emphasize his speech where he ‘seems’ to have shifted his stance. They emphasized his private meetings with Silicon Valley gazillionaires, after which they said they had convinced him to definitely oppose these religious discrimination bills, and that after these very meetings Jeb! avoided the press and scampered out of town without speaking to anyone. That is sure brave leaderering.

    Jeb! may be the smart one compared to his brother, but he does not seem to be the straight talking or resolute one.

    So, the local news media seemed to make it clear that Jeb! did not impress in this little test of leadership and that made me slightly happier today.

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I’m enjoying Walker’s utter cluelessness about what it takes to win the general Presidential election. It’s the classic Rethug dilemma…you have to be a raving wingtard to be competitive for the nomination, then you have to tack back to the center at warp speed to stand the slightest chance in the general.

  5. 5.

    Tripod

    I drove I-65 today, it was straight up Mad Max shit out there. What is it with these dumb GOP peckers? Spend some money you cheap, God bothering fucks. Two lanes between Louisville and Gary isn’t because Obama, it’s because you’re idiots.

    Team Hillary needs to go in big in this state, If Obama can win it, she can, bring Barron Hill to DC and boot Pence back to wherever he slithered out from.

    P.S. Spend some money on your cheap ass Amtrak train to Chicago, so it runs more than once a day, and not the long way around.

    .

  6. 6.

    jl

    I’ve noticed frequent mention of how homosexuality goes against Jesus, or Jesus’ teachings, or Jesus’ gospel. Which I find odd, because one place you find not one word about sexual orientation at all is in the Gospels. You hear about greed, anger, lying, cheating, cruelty, indifference, violence, exploitation of fellow humans, pride are bad. But not the gay.

    New Testament talks about how the gay is a sin in the epistles, which Jesus’ disciples and apostles wrote, not Jesus. But to be honest, hard to say since the meanings of the terms they use are obscure, and may refer to all sorts of sexual exploitation for money. And in the most famous passage, Paul makes clear that it is just the same level of sin as all those other sin things like greed, anger, lying, cheating, cruelty, indifference, violence, exploitation of fellow humans, pride. And then Paul goes on to say that the sin of spiritual pride in Christians who think they are better than those other sinners is a worse sin.

    So, makes me think that a lot of people who consider themselves good Christians, or savvy pundits who understand the importance of Christian tradition in this country, would not be able to tell the Bible from a dead tree stump. But whatever. As long as you believe in some comic book action movie Endtimes violence, it’s all good: that is ye real ole tymey religion.

  8. 8.

    Violet

    @jl:

    I guess Christie’s 2016 ambition has been floating dead in the water for so long that it is ready to sink now and he is not even worth mentioning anymore.

    I saw some article this week that mentioned Christie and included something like, “It seems Chris Christie still thinks he’s still got a chance at winning the Republican nomination. Ha ha ha ha.” Seriously. It was pretty much laughing at Christie’s presidential ambitions and it was in a more serious article. Caught me off guard. Wish I could find it to link.

  10. 10.

    Major Major Major Major

    @jl: I like to point to the story of Christ and the Centurion, where the bashful Roman asks him to heal his boyfriend from afar, and Jesus is like OK, he’s healed even though he’s miles away, and by the way, everybody present, this gay guy’s faith in me right here, that he thinks I can do that? That’s the sort of faith y’all should have. So good for you, gay Roman dude.

    (Often translated as “slave” but the Greek word in question more or less means servant-boyfriend)

  14. 14.

    Tree With Water

    “people who are chronically looking for ways to be upset about things instead of really looking at what it is.”…

    I suspect that was Walker’s lame attempt to echo Jeanne Kirpatrick’s pithy remark about domestic critics of U.S. foreign policy, i.e., it was a startlingly unintelligible attempt to shift blame for the republican party’s Indiana train wreck onto the same old “blame America first crowd”, i.e., Barack Obama and the democratic party. If that’s not it, it beats me what he’s talking about.

    And talk about projection: “chronically looking for ways to be upset about things”. Today’s GOP lurches from one demented attack to the other without pausing to draw a breath, and it has for years. Remember color coded terrorist alerts? (Boo!!). Remember when we we’re all going to die in an ebola plague, until the first Wednesday in November 2014 when we no longer were? The GOP is a party of rule or ruin, run by hysterics. They’re also more dangerous than arsonists with matches and gasoline.

  15. 15.

    jl

    @Major Major Major Major: I never heard that the centurian’s slave was also his boyfriend. I will try to check out that angle.

    Only bad sexy time sin i think is mentioned in the gospels is adultery, which of course, Jesus forgives.
    Oh, and I forgot about marrying after a divorce, except for a divorce because the spouse cheated. But no one does anything like that, it is so horrible. And Jesus explicitly condemned it, too. Can’t be clearer than that.

    Funny that in so many of Jesus’ parables, street harlots end up going to heaven while cold nasty prideful right minded assholes end up left out. I wonder how these Xtianists can read them and not get a clue that they have truly lost the plot. But then, I guess they don’t read them, or at least are capable of reading them and not thinking about it at all.

    But then,in the very ornate and complicated Xtianist approach to interpreting Jesus’ parables, the good people in the parables are always really the Xtianists themselves in deep disguise, if you put a fancy enough interpretation on everything, and have an elaborate system of hidden symbols and signifiers So that might be part of it too.

  18. 18.

    Mike J

    @jl:

    Oh, and I forgot about marrying after a divorce, except for a divorce because the spouse cheated.

    The book of Numbers requires a chemical abortion if a cheating wife becomes pregnant.

  19. 19.

    jl

    @Mike J: I guess that is why chemical abortions are OK with the reactionary Christian forced birthers in certain circumstances. Right? I guess I missed that.

  20. 20.

    Mike J

    @jl: It’s does call for a priest to administer it.

    If we opened an abortion church in Indiana, could the state regulate it?

  22. 22.

    Tree With Water

    This trial was conducted in California, but today’s sentencing hearing is the first I’ve heard of it. I saw the headline and wondered, “what did the guy do online to get so badly jammed up?”. It turned out his behavior was sick and twisted, and the idiot was bound to be busted for it, and no two ways about it.. It’s a wonder he can tie his own shoes, much less read and write.

    “In a first-of-its-kind prosecution, the convicted operator of a “revenge porn” website was sentenced to nearly 18 years in prison, officials announced Friday….Kevin Christopher Bollaert, 28, of San Diego, was found guilty in February on six counts of extortion and 21 counts of identity theft for running a website that posted nude photos of individuals, as well as identifying information, without their consent, according to Attorney General Kamala Harris”.

  23. 23.

    mclaren

    @Tripod:

    Team Hillary needs to go in big in this state, If Obama can win it, she can…

    BZZZT! WRONG!

    Obama has charisma and he’s a dynamite campaigner. Hillary has anti-charisma and she’s a fucking horrible campaigner. Team Hillary will need to put all their resources into explaining away Hillary’s non-stop flubs and mis-statements and gaffes.

    At this juncture, the big question for 2016 is:

    Will Hillary’s incompetent campaigning and total anti-charisma nevertheless be able to overcome the radioactive toxicity of the Bush name and Jeb’s dark cesspool Bush-crime-family past?

    Time will tell…

  24. 24.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Tree With Water: Note that this was a conviction/sentencing under state laws, not federal laws. The Feds are too busy trying to create terrorists out of whole cloth, rather than dealing with the crooks ensconced in our too-big-to-fail financial institutions who launder money for Mexican drug cartels, ad naseum….

  25. 25.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @jl:

    I never heard that the centurian’s slave was also his boyfriend. I will try to check out that angle.

    Everything I’ve read says that it’s really a stretch to read it this way. The Greek word “pais” has a lot of possible meanings and is used numerous times in the Bible, almost all of which are unambiguously something other than a homosexual lover. So it’s textually possible but not at all likely unless you’re determined to interpret it thus.

  27. 27.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: my recollection, this is years ago in linguistics class now, is that pais in conjunction with the roman-ness of the roman and the century in question gives strong evidence towards the (not boyfriend, more of a pederasty thing) angle.

  28. 28.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Major Major Major Major: The century in question isn’t really going to differentiate the usage here from that elsewhere in the Bible; it’s a Greek word, so even when it’s used in the Old Testament, it dates from the Christian era, not when the Old Testament was written in Hebrew. And I’m really skeptical that it takes on a different meaning the centurion is Roman than it does when it is used with some other master in mind.

  29. 29.

    MattF

    The Devil is making them do it. And also those libtards who have the gall to suggest that humility, compassion, and turning the other cheek has anything to do with anything. Whereever those devil-worshiping perverts got that idea, G-d only knows.

  30. 30.

    Keith G

    @jl: Indeed.

    A few months ago I remember several very serious talking heads opining that the GOP was so lucky to have this crop of governors and political leaders, this deep bench, who would lead a spirited debate on the direction of the Republican Party.

    Speculative Fiction.

  31. 31.

    Zinsky

    Thanks for the Rolling Stone article link – I plan to read the whole thing today. I keep saying that Scott Walker has absolutely no chance because he is such a dullard. The man is just downright fucking stupid. But then, I also thought there was no way George W. Bush could become president! Scott Walker doesn’t have a brother who is governor of a key swing state, does he?

  33. 33.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: your point seems pretty well considered. Like I said, college, decades ago, one of multiple interpretations. Not a Hellenic expert alas, if it was latin we could spar.

    Besides my story is better :D

  35. 35.

    satby

    BillinGlendaleCA beat me to it, but the eclipse is on, and for once it’s clear here and I can see it. It’s also almost dawn.

  37. 37.

    Major Major Major Major

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I can’t believe my honeymoon has had two eclipses I can see.

    Although with the air in Taipei being what it is I’m not sure “see” is the operative verb.

  42. 42.

    raven

    @satby: Yep, we gone. The farmers market opens to day and I have to go hang at the Normal hardware store for while too!

  43. 43.

    satby

    @raven: enjoy. Race is on here, Sun coming up in the east as the eclipse sinks behind my neighbors house in the west :(
    But I saw most of it.

  53. 53.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @satby: It’s almost total, I had to move the camera to avoid some powerlines. I’ll post pics after 5am PDT.

  54. 54.

    max

    @efgoldman: Lots of places have bad roads, but only we have MA and RI drivers.

    Tripod is right – Indiana has amazingly shitty roads.

    max
    [‘Welcome to Indiana – The Dead Tire State!’]

  55. 55.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Raven: If they haven’t done it yet, I am sure it is pending in our veto proof Republican majority state legislature.

    @BillinGlendaleCA: MO is on the fast track to steal back all the jobs those thievin’ Kansas redlegs stole from us with their repeal of state income taxes, much higher sales taxes, much lower public school funding, and much much lower “Right to Work” for less and less wages.

    Also they are hard at work to nullify the recently passed by overwhelming majority statewide referendum minimum wage hike, because…. They care.

  57. 57.

    max

    @Major Major Major Major: your point seems pretty well considered. Like I said, college, decades ago, one of multiple interpretations. Not a Hellenic expert alas, if it was latin we could spar.

    Hinging a story on one ambigious word used once in the Gospels is probably a bad idea.

    max
    [‘But thanks for reminding me of a book I have to buy.’]

  58. 58.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @max: The MO state legislature in all their righteous anti-tax wisdom has decided that the best way to make up for the shortfall in DOT funding for road and bridge maintenance, is to reclassify 2/3 of the state roads as secondary roads so they would not be responsible for maintaining them. Problem solved.

  59. 59.

    Major Major Major Major

    @max:

    Hinging a story on one ambigious word used once in the Gospels is probably a bad idea.

    The difference being that I’m not trying to legislate anything. Big big biiiiiiiiiig difference.

  65. 65.

    germy shoemangler

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Meanwhile, are those pizza bigots millionaires yet? Last I heard, they had about 200,000.00 to go. Shouldn’t take more than a few hours.

  69. 69.

    Elizabelle

    Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. Will check in with you later.

    Missed the blood moon. Ahhh.

  70. 70.

    debbie

    @Violet:

    I really want a huge array of klowns up on the stage for the Republican primary debates.

    The competition for the Bombast Crown alone would be something to see.

  71. 71.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @OzarkHillbilly: I hope they send a “thank you” card to the local reporter who was sent out to get reaction to the law. But I’m sure they believe it’s all the doings of baby Jesus. “We were barely scraping by, but I knew our prayers would be answered!”

    All the people who sent donations makes me wonder if we’ll get JEB! or someone for our next POTUS
    …. because they’re motivated, and they sure as hell won’t stay home on election day.

  75. 75.

    germy shoemangler

    @Gin & Tonic: How does that work? They declare it as donations, I suppose. I wonder how much the gubmint will take? An outrage!

  79. 79.

    sm*t cl*de

    We have managed to chase away the sky dragon that was eating the moon, with all our drumming and fireworks. I don’t know why the neighbours are complaining. They should be grateful.

  80. 80.

    germy shoemangler

    There’s a RW troll on another blog who posts under different names as well as names he steals from other commenters. Here’s his latest:

    I wish the GOP Senators and our traitor Menendez would just STFU about Obama’s Iranian Treaty.

    We just need to pass the Treaty so that we all can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.

    He signed it “Nancy Pelosi”

  82. 82.

    Gin & Tonic

    @germy shoemangler: From the extensive research I’ve done over the last five minutes, it appears the IRS hasn’t issued definitive guidelines. But it seems the payment processors (i.e. PayPal, WePay and the like) *are* in the habit of sending you a 1099 for the money they send you. Then it becomes your problem.

  83. 83.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @SectionH: You’re welcome. The air was pretty dry tonight, so I think they came out better than last year. I maxed out the zoom(x21) on my camera.

  84. 84.

    germy shoemangler

    @Gin & Tonic: I hope after paying off the gubmint they tithe a good percentage to their church and local soup kitchen.

    I know, I’m being silly.

  86. 86.

    Chris

    @jl:

    No, they read them. They just have a fantastic ability to project themselves onto the good guys of every story, and their enemies onto the bad guys.

    Most of the fundiegelicals I know love “Les Miserables,” too, as IIRC did Robert E. Lee’s army (“Lee’s Miserables”), and somehow manage to miss… well, everything… about it.

  87. 87.

    MattF

    @BillinGlendaleCA: We had a total lunar eclipse over the neighborhood about a decade ago. I enjoyed explaining to people that a dragon was eating the moon and then ejecting it out the opposite end.

  88. 88.

    Patrick

    @germy shoemangler:

    We just need to pass the Treaty so that we all can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.

    Didn’t the Wall Street Journal have an article that said Israel had spied on the US and the negotiations of this treaty? And didn’t Israel then share their findings with the GOP in Congress? So what is there for the right-wingers to find out? They already know what’s in the bill.

  89. 89.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @jl:
    The thing about the centurion, the woman in the ‘begging for scraps’ parable, and the Samaritan is that they’re not Christians (technically, not Jews, but let’s take one point at a time). A Roman centurion is a pagan representative of an occupying power. A Samaritan is a despised non-Jewish minority. The woman, ditto. And Christ tells the apostles that the centurion believes in God’s power better than they do, the woman believes in God’s mercy better than they do, and the Samaritan doesn’t believe in God at all, but who cares because God prefers kindness to faith.

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
    Neither culture saw much difference between adult or child homosexual partners, but if it doesn’t imply a lover at all, then it’s extra moot.

  91. 91.

    Chris

    @Mnemosyne (tablet):

    Thanks for this. Just for those who haven’t clicked, the key part –

    The story simply doesn’t give us enough information to be certain.
    …
    But then the story also doesn’t give Jesus enough information to be certain either. And Jesus never interrogates the man on that point. We don’t see a conversation like this:
    …
    “But only speak the word, and let my pais be healed.”
    …
    “Whoa, hold on. When you say pais, do you mean just, like, pais -pais? Or do you mean, you know, nudge nudge, wink wink, [Jesus makes air quotes with his fingers] pais?”
    …
    Jesus didn’t ask that, and he didn’t insist on entering the centurion’s home in order to inspect whatever living arrangements the man had with this beloved companion of his. Jesus simply praised the centurion’s faith and restored health and wholeness to his household and to all the relationships in it. That’s all we know for sure from the story.

    I checked out one of those “Christian health care plans” that a cousin of mine was praising on Facebook a couple years back and it went like this; you pay for all of your expenses up front, and then you ask all the people in the network to send you money to help you pay for it, but in exchange you have to make all your medical records available and public so that they can verify for themselves that you’re not on birth control, you’ve never taken drugs, and you’re otherwise being totally consistent with the Christian lifestyle. In other words, even if you take it for granted that they’ll open their wallets to help you, that help is conditional on you living 100% within the rigidly codified rules of their lifestyles, and if not, you may not join the “insurance” plan or count on their help. You’re Unworthy.

    The contrast with Jesus’ approach couldn’t be more striking.

    And while I hesitate to tell other people that they’re doing their religion wrong… making your assistance conditional on other people not committing X, Y and Z sins seems to me to be completely failing at Christianity 101. Christian doctrine is crystal-clear that everybody is a sinner – “original sin” and all that – and a huge part of the point of Jesus coming down and dying for your sins is that even people who don’t “deserve” your help or their salvation can still get it.

  93. 93.

    drkrick

    @germy shoemangler:

    I hope after paying off the gubmint they tithe a good percentage to their church and local soup kitchen.

    Tithe is on the gross, not the net. Those suits don’t pay for themselves.

  94. 94.

    drkrick

    @Frankensteinbeck: A Samaritan is a despised non-Jewish minority … the Samaritan doesn’t believe in God at all …

    Despised is certainly right, but the Samaritans were more like Jewish heretics – their beliefs were (and are, they still exist) bear some resemblance to those of the Jews of the temple – they also worshiped on a different mountain. Karen Armstrong argues that the Samaritans may be descendants of Israelites who weren’t taken on the Babylonian exile and who didn’t adopt the new doctrines that were developed in Mesopotamia when the exiles returned.

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