Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

I really should read my own blog.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

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

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

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Reader Interactions

178Comments

  2. 2.

    c u n d gulag

    I never watch this show.

    Who’s this?
    The love-child of Chris Christie and Brian Dennehy?

  3. 3.

    shell

    Speakin’ of which: The season finale of ‘Game of Thrones’ on tonight. Wonder if all the people who swore off the show after last week’s upsetting episode will be able to stay away.
    *****

    That is one pair of mug shots.

  9. 9.

    dmsilev

    @WereBear: Yeah, after Jeb! ™ bobbled the Iraq question a couple of weeks back, I doubt I was the only one wondering whether George was in fact “the smart one”.

  10. 10.

    MazeDancer

    But Hodor is a very good, very trustworthy guy with a big heart and high moral values.

    Jeb! is the opposite of all of those.

  11. 11.

    Karen in GA

    @dmsilev: I wondered that too, but then I remembered that there’s no law requiring a family to have a “smart one.”

    (ETA: Which are the idiots? All of them, Katie.)

  13. 13.

    Lavocat

    One is a lumbering moron who grunts the same-old, same-old, while the other is an actor on the tee-vee!

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    Are we sure that first photo wasn’t photoshopped? ‘Cause he doesn’t just look a little cross-eyed, he looks very cross-eyed to me.

    On to more important matters… Does anybody have a dish detergent they like for hand washing dishes? I tend to buy cleaning products from the health food store. I used ECOver for years, but then they screwed up their product. I just tried DIshMate – it’s hard to get suds and my dishes don’t feel clean.

    Any recommendations?

  18. 18.

    RepubAnon

    @Karen in GA: Dumb and Dumber Part Duh: the race to the bottom. Today’s episode: Jeb uses the phrase “unleash Chiang” without realizing that it referred to having the US 7th Fleet stop blockading the Taiwan Strait (thus preventing Mao’s forces from invading Taiwan), thus “allowing” Chiang Kai-Shek to invade and re-take mainland China.

    The Nationalist Chinese Government maintained as its goal the recovery of control of mainland China, and this required a resumption of the military confrontation with the Red Chinese. Truman and his advisors regarded that goal as unrealizable, but regrets over losing China to international communism was quite prominent in public opinion at the time, and the Truman Administration was criticized by anticommunists for preventing any attempt by Chiang Kai-shek’s forces to liberate mainland China.

    Truman, a member of the Democratic Party did not run for reelection in the presidential election of 1952, even though he was eligible to do so. This election was won by the Republican Dwight Eisenhower, a World War II general.

    On February 2, 1953, the new President lifted the Seventh Fleet’s blockade in order to fulfill demands by anticommunists to “unleash Chiang Kai-shek” on mainland China.
    Source: Wikipedia, First Taiwan Strait Crisis (Emphasis added)

  19. 19.

    piratedan

    well in all fairness, I don’t think Hodor would have mandated that we keep that Ms. Schiavo alive waiting on a miracle against the wishes of her husband….

  20. 20.

    MattF

    @dmsilev: The fact that Jeb! bobbled that question continues to amaze. Even supposing that he didn’t, personally, see a problem there, how could he have ‘advisors’ who didn’t insist that he have a prepared answer? Boggles the mind.

  21. 21.

    gene108

    @Pogonip:

    Hello shaper-uppers, I was good this week! How’s about you?

    How does regularly eating ice cream rank on the “good” list for shaper-uppers?

    It’s hot. I like ice cream.

    I have been excreting a bit more, so hope it off-sets.

  28. 28.

    fuckwit

    What’s with these blue-blood nicknames for these chumps?

    Willard Rmoney, nicknamed “Mitt”
    John Ellis Bush, nicknamed “Jeb”

    What’s next, a candidate named “Chip” or “Biff”?

    Can the R’s possibly get any more prepschool?

  31. 31.

    Elmo

    @WaterGirl: John Cole and some commenters here turned me on to Mrs Meyers Clean Day products. Now I don’t use anything else – surface cleaner, laundry detergent, hand soap, and dish soap. It’s amazing stuff, and the available scents – geranium, honeysuckle, lavender – are the shiznit. I get mine on Amazon.

  34. 34.

    Svensker

    Is that pic of Jeb really not photoshopped? Is he that, um, lopsided? And that flat greasy hair? I thought rich people had stuff they could do for that shit.

  37. 37.

    Redshift

    @WaterGirl:

    Are we sure that first photo wasn’t photoshopped? ‘Cause he doesn’t just look a little cross-eyed, he looks very cross-eyed to me.

    Seems likely. I just scanned through a bunch of the photos that showed up in a Google search, and though his eyes look a little funny in some, they don’t look nearly as cross-eyed in any of them.

  45. 45.

    Hal

    I’m reading Caroline Knapp’s Drinking: A Love Story again. She writes about her alcoholism in such a deeply meaningful, and poetic manner it spoke to me about my own issues of weight and over eating. But overall, it’s just a great read. Very well written. I also think one of her opening quotes really summarizes the drinking experience for so many.

    “I loved the way drink made me feel, and I loved it’s special power of deflection, it’s ability to shift my focus away from my own awareness of self and onto something else, something less painful than my own feelings. I loved the sounds of drink: the slide of a cork as it eased out of a wine bottle, the distinct glug-glug of booze pouring into a glass, the clatter of ice cubes in a tumbler. I loved the rituals, the camaraderie of drinking with others, the warming, melting feeling of ease and courage it gave me.
    Caroline Knapp, Drinking: A Love Story”

  46. 46.

    sparrow

    @WaterGirl: We use “Eco Olea” which we get at Whole Foods. It’s a light-blue bottle, and smells like lemongrass. It’s supposed to be super-duper eco-friendly, and it’s the only one of that type I have used that actually works. It is not concentrated, so you have to use a bit more to clean dishes, but it does suds up reasonably and the dishes get clean.

  50. 50.

    RaflW

    PEZ! or, I dunno, Bazooka! Or, Bubbles the Klown!

    I mean, that logo. The more I think about it, the more I think of crappy 70s kids candies. The kind with the strange corn starch coatings that I guess kept the candy free-flowing but tasting extra-gross. Totally lost in time. And not in a hip way at all.

  53. 53.

    lol

    @shell:

    The “Previously On” got leaked yesterday and it’s generating substantial quantities of hype because it seems a dangling plotline from season 1 is finally going to get addressed.

  55. 55.

    Suzanne

    If the picture was taken from very close up, he may look more cross-eyed than he really is. i look really cross-eyed in my passport photo, because the high school student taking it held the camera about three inches from my face.

    It is so hot that I am not going to leave the house for the rest of the day. I want to get a beauty treatment, but not badly enough to go outside. It’s hot and I don’t feel well.

    NBA finals and GoT tonight. Woohoo!

  57. 57.

    Elie

    — Watch out for this guy — or more specifically, this clan. As horrible as he has seemed in this early going, I am uncomfortable with blowing him off. He remains the most likely to get the nomination — even though he has looked and sounded like a shlub. I don’t trust this at all and know that Hillary will be in for a hell of an assault. This will make Obama look like Bush league.. the tell is in the early media sniping — some from the usual suspects and some from so called friends. I hope she is ready to dish it to the wall. These people are evil.

  59. 59.

    Tommy

    @Josie: Agreed. I wash my dishes as I go. As I cook. Dawn works. I guess I wish I had something else but I don’t.

  60. 60.

    gene108

    @Elie:

    even though he has looked and sounded like a shlub

    So did his older brother, but I think the difference is people ran to Bush, Jr.’s defense and tried to spin his stupidity and ignorance as “what do you expect from a good ‘ole boy Texas rancher, who you could just sit down and have a beer with after a day of clearing brush”.

    I do not see that level of deference and support being given to John Ellis.

    There are enough candidates, with some credentials as good as him, that he’s on his own with his stupidity and ignorance.

    Also, pre-Citizen’s United, Bush, Jr. made it clear he was going to lock up all the Republican donors, so no one else bothered to run for what was an open Presidential seat, which is a rare thing. Though John McCain threw his hat in the ring for a little while, but in this time 1999, no one else was really lining up to be President.

    Now there’s no way John Ellis can try to lock up large donors, as all any of his challengers need is one billionaire sugar daddy to keep funding the candidacy.

    He’s really in a tougher spot than George, because of his brother’s Supreme Court nominees.

  61. 61.

    seaboogie

    Really want a Hillz blackberry campaign response on this! Too bad we aren’t to the nominee stage yet.

  63. 63.

    Ruviana

    @Hal: One of the best descriptions of the pull of drinking. Paraphrasing, a woman in Caroline’s support group describe a horrific experience where, I think, she was in a car accident and people raped and robbed her, and when someone said, “why are you here?” she said, “It got better so I went back to drinking.” Yep.

  65. 65.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Elie:

    As soon as she figures out who is going to be her GOP opponent, Clinton needs to come out swinging and keep swinging until she sees blood. If it’s going to get ugly, she should make sure she gets her licks in. So far, I’m not worried about her. I don’t see how a White woman is going to have a more difficult time of running against any of the Clown Car Occupants (especially one with the last name of Bush) than a Black man with an African/Muslim name. The only problem she may have is ticking off Obama loyalists (which so far she has avoided).

  66. 66.

    Stella B

    @WaterGirl: I used to use Mrs. Meyer’s because I liked the smell. I had terrible hand dermatitis for years. I switched to Dawn for some reason that I forget and by the time I finished the first bottle, the hands had completely healed. Also, it works really well and you don’t need as much. It doesn’t smell as nice as the Mrs. Meyers, though.

  67. 67.

    Brachiator

    @gene108: It’s weird that people still see Dubya as a Texan and a rancher, when he was neither. Nor do I think that he was entirely stupid. But he had a mixture of an extreme lack of curiosity and certainty about religion, politics and economics that appealed to the people who voted for him, because they think just like he does. And he hid some of his elitism well, though he appeared to pick people for government positions the way you would pick buddies for an event at the country club.

    Jeb is an odd duck. I would think that he appeals to both the Establishment and to religious fundamentalist. But there are so many jamming themselves into the GOP klown kar that it’s hard to see who has any real advantage.

  70. 70.

    raven

    Hillary Clinton: Obama Should Listen To Nancy Pelosi On Trade

    Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton encouraged President Barack Obama on Sunday to listen to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D) on trade.

    “The president should listen to and work with his allies in Congress, starting with Nancy Pelosi,” Clinton said while speaking at a rally in Iowa.

    Pelosi took to the House floor Friday to oppose trade legislation Obama had personally lobbied for on Capitol Hill earlier that day.

  74. 74.

    JGabriel

    The saddest thing about those pictures at top is that, of the two, Hodor is the one who looks the smartest.

  78. 78.

    raven

    @Haroldo:

    I want you to think (think) what your family would say
    Think (think) what you’re throwing away
    Now think what the future would be with a poor boy like me
    Me

  84. 84.

    Germy Shoemangler

    Everyone laughs at Bush, but if the money boys want him to win, he’ll win, no matter how dumb we agree he is.

    I remember an old 1970s National Lampoon cartoon by M.K. Brown. A candidate (an obvious geek) is being led around by handlers. At one point he devours a rat. The advisors go into a huddle: “Did anyone actually see the candidate eat the rat?” “Damn foolish thing to let happen.”

    Here’s the cartoon:

    http://blaineo.blogspot.com/2012/05/did-anyone-actually-see-candidate-eat.html

  85. 85.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Germy Shoemangler: You mean win the GOP nomination, not the White House, right? Republicans may go for Jebbie but I don’t see him attracting enough Democrats/Independents to pull off a win with the general electorate. We’re young enough to remember Bush The Second and how he messed up the world.

  86. 86.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Patricia Kayden: I meant the republican nomination, but I never take things for granted in the general election.

    Two terms of Reagan, two terms of Bush, Nixon winning (when every thinking person knew way back in the 1950s that he was a crook); I remember those elections.

  87. 87.

    Brachiator

    Jurassic World absolutely dominates. US weekend was $204.6 million. Worldwide was $511.8 million. Apparently, this is the first time a film has ever grossed more than $500 million in one weekend. And the demographics look good. From Box Office Mojo.

    “Things look rosy for the film in the future as well with an “A” Cinema Score, with audience attendance splitting up 52% Male and 48% female. 39% were under age 25 and 61% age 25 and over. Approximately 50% of the international box office came from 3D.”

    A little random nugget before I run off to take care of some things, and an early dinner.

    Oh yeah, has anyone asked Jeb! what he thinks about dinosaurs?

  88. 88.

    Patricia Kayden

    @raven: I’m alright with the failure of the TPP. President Obama faced a lot of valid opposition and perhaps it’s a good thing it failed.

  90. 90.

    Keith G

    @Brachiator:

    Oh yeah, has anyone asked Jeb! what he thinks about dinosaurs?

    Actually someone has. His answer…

    Oh, Mom’s doing fine.

    I kid. As far as 90 year old Republican matriarchs go, Bar is okay.

  92. 92.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Keith G: Her comments during Katrina were despicable.

    And didn’t she call Geraldine Ferraro a b**ch?

    A balloon-juicer a few threads back quoted an article that revealed many in her family are afraid of her.

  93. 93.

    Corner Stone

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I’m alright with the failure of the TPP. President Obama faced a lot of valid opposition and perhaps it’s a good thing it failed.

    Pelosi and her caucus had no investment in the trade deal, and no incentive to defend it. President Obama made it personal and the D reps decided, for now, that their constituents’ voices were more valuable.
    It’s tough to wager your office on a bill you’ve had no part in crafting, much less one that people volubly hate/are suspicious of.

  94. 94.

    Joseph Nobles

    @Brachiator: And that’s $1.7 away from dethroning “Marvel: The Avengers” as #1 domestic box office opening weekend. It’s almost a rounding error at this level…

  97. 97.

    Belafon

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I’m alright with the failure of the TPP. President Obama faced a lot of valid opposition and perhaps it’s a good thing it failed.

    Just so long as you know the TPP hasn’t failed yet. There hasn’t been a vote on the TPP.

  100. 100.

    Kropadope

    @Belafon:

    Just so long as you know the TPP hasn’t failed yet. There hasn’t been a vote on the TPP.

    A lot of people are having a hard time distinguishing between the TPP and the fast-track authorization. Although, failure of the fast-track will probably result in the failure of the TPP, especially considering it will almost certainly result in worse terms for the TPP.

  101. 101.

    Corner Stone

    @Joseph Nobles: I can only hope there are a lot of backroom deals being cut to get something actually useful, if it ever passes.
    IMO it’s crazy we have to bargain away jobs to get infrastructure deals that would benefit employers all over the place.

  103. 103.

    Germy Shoemangler

    At first I thought Jeb! would be the one to win the nomination. Lately I’ve been reading it’s Scott Walker’s to lose. And then today someone told me Rubio is on top.

    So I don’t know what to think.

  105. 105.

    debbie

    @Brachiator:

    Oh yeah, has anyone asked Jeb! what he thinks about dinosaurs?

    He’d say he’s glad God created them 6,000 years ago.

  106. 106.

    debbie

    @WaterGirl:

    I agree about Dawn. It also cuts through grease more quickly than other detergents. And should a mishap at a gas station result in a drop of diesel fuel stinking up your gloves, it’s the only thing that will get rid of the smell and the stain.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    @Corner Stone:

    It’ll pass. The one and only question is if Democrats get something in return. Not TAA, either. They already had that. This is just an extension and (possible) expansion of TAA. It’s doesn’t even rise to the level of “pot sweetener”. It’s reportedly 450 million dollars which is really nothing in DC terms.

    Did you notice Clinton ommitted “education reform” in her speech? :)

    I read the transcript and the one and only mention of K-12 was “get great teachers in schools!”

  110. 110.

    Belafon

    Did you notice Clinton ommitted “education reform” in her speech? :)

    She also failed to mention paying off my house.

  112. 112.

    gene108

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    Everyone laughs at Bush, but if the money boys want him to win, he’ll win, no matter how dumb we agree he is.

    Money boys does not mean what it used to mean.

    When George ran in 1999, it was the person, who could get the millionaires and the occasional billionaire to max out their contributions.

    I now think it really is parading in front of a bunch of interested billionaires and seeing, which one will pick you to be his “pet”.

    It makes an already disgusting process even more disgusting. I think it’s become so disgusting no one really wants to admit how bad it is.

    From a March 25 article

    “Gosh, I was hearing from everyone and meeting with everyone,” said Neese, an Oklahoma City entrepreneur and former “Ranger” for President George W. Bush who raised more than $1 million for his reelection.

    This year, no potential White House contender has called — not even Bush’s brother, Jeb. As of early Wednesday, the only contacts she had received were e-mails from staffers for two other likely candidates; both went to her spam folder.

    SNIP

    Consider the scene last weekend in South Florida, where top supporters of the Republican National Committee gathered for their spring retreat at a luxury resort in Boca Raton. In the past, members of the RNC’s Regent and Team 100 donor programs attracted the focused attention of presidential aspirants. But this time, there were distractions.

    A number of White House contenders in attendance — including former Texas governor Rick Perry and Govs. Scott Walker (Wis.), Chris Christie (N.J.) and Bobby Jindal (La.) — devoted much of their time to private meetings with high rollers, according to people familiar with their schedules. Bush came to Boca Raton after an afternoon super-PAC fundraiser in Miami.

    Then on Sunday, the governors made a pilgrimage to Palm Beach for a private Republican Governors Association fundraiser hosted by billionaire industrialist David Koch at his 30,000-square-foot beachfront mansion.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-2016-campaign-the-lament-of-the-not-quite-rich-enough/2015/03/24/f0a38b18-cdb4-11e4-8a46-b1dc9be5a8ff_story.html

  113. 113.

    catclub

    @Joseph Nobles:

    Pelosi and Reid want the GOP to fill the Highway Fund back up before they’ll commit to the bill.

    This just shows that Boehner cannot count, and cannot control his own caucus. The GOP has a huge majority in the House, yet they cannot pass this on their own, even though the leadership really, really wants it, to please the business wing of the party.

    Also, what does Reid have to do with it? I guess he will promise not to filibuster in the Senate? But the Senate has already passed both of these pieces.

  114. 114.

    Kay

    @Corner Stone:

    Although this yesterday from the President will probably not help matters:

    “I urge those Members of Congress who voted against Trade Adjustment Assistance to reconsider.”

    They tied TAA to fast track in an attempt to force Democrats to vote for both. Since that didn’t work I don’t know how threatening them with saying they “voted against” trade assistance will help, since they already voted against it once and surely it gets easier the second time.

    I am baffled by why they are continuing with this adversarial approach, really and truly baffled.

  115. 115.

    Corner Stone

    @Kay:

    Did you notice Clinton ommitted “education reform” in her speech?

    I did notice that, thanks. I recall, IIRC, that she spoke about pre-K and getting help for parents so they could be there for their young students.
    Something about the first five years of learning being the most crucial for future success.

  116. 116.

    Germy Shoemangler

    More “sensible” talk from the loyal opposition:

    Rupert Murdoch described as “almost fascist” Hillary Clinton’s remarks in support of anti-discrimination protections for LGBT Americans during her campaign launch speech.

    Murdoch falsely claimed during a stream of tweets referencing her June 13 speech that Clinton had “promise[d to] outlaw free speech about LGBT,” adding, “Sounds almost fascist.”

  117. 117.

    Corner Stone

    @Kay:

    Since that didn’t work I don’t know how threatening them with saying they “voted against” trade assistance will help, since they already voted against it once and surely it gets easier the second time.

    I believe I read that labor pulled the rug from extending the TAA so D pols were free to cut loose and say, “Ollie Ollie Oxen Freeeeeeeeee!!!”
    This WH has really gone off the deep edge making this personal and not giving a GD thing back to the lege. And I get some edgy friction for a legacy bill for Obama. But these people are going to get their asses handed to them for voting for trade and Obama is not going to be able to shield them all the next 3 or 4 elections.

  118. 118.

    gene108

    @Kropadope:

    Although, failure of the fast-track will probably result in the failure of the TPP,

    There are 11 other countries involved. If we sit out, we sit out. The world has not waited around for us to come to terms with other international deals.

    Given that the U.S. has the largest economy on the planet, us choosing to sit out usually kills or weakens the effectiveness of deals, but it does not mean the rest of the world will not go ahead without us for whatever that is worth.

    Our refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol has not stopped other advanced countries, such as such as those in the EU from adopting their own CO2 reduction strategies on top of those in the Kyoto Protocol.

    In short, the TPP could still be ratified by 11 other countries and how that will impact the U.S. may be an interesting thing to sort out in the future.

  120. 120.

    sharl

    @Brachiator:

    It’s weird that people still see Dubya as a Texan and a rancher

    Strictly you are right on both counts, but although he was born in New Haven CT (per his Wikipedia page), no one less than the late Molly Ivins – as true a Texan as they come, AFAICT – certainly considered him a true Texan. From a 2003 Fresh Air interview, while she was on tour to publicize her book Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush’s America, here’s the transcription of a snippet that starts around 8m53s into the interview:

    Terri Gross: You write about the President’s religion. You say that, while you acknowledge that religion is usually off limits for the press to write about, you think it’s important to bring it up in the case of President Bush. Why?

    Molly Ivins: Well, I think that George W. Bush, unlike his father – his dad, George Bush, who was clearly an upper-class Eastern WASP – ‘W’ is really, consciously, culturally identified as a Texan. And you see in his character sort of three common strands of Texas culture: one is religiosity, (another is) anti-intellectualism, and (the third is) machismo. All three are appealing to broad groups of voters…

    Ivins went on to say that she thought that Dubya was sincere in his expression of at least those first two strands. She knew the man for many years, at least slightly so even when both were in high school (eighth paragraph here).

    I miss Molly…miss her a lot.

  125. 125.

    Kay

    @Corner Stone:

    This is from the WH yesterday:

    Past trade deals like NAFTA have not always lived up to the hype

    Then they go on to say that TPP “bans workplace discrimination” has a “minimum wage” and ” a right to bargain collectively”.

    Those seem like extraordinary assurances to me. Really? This trade deal bestows a “right” to form a labor union in Vietnam? An 11 nation minimum wage?

    I guess we’ll see because I think fast track passes and fast track is (effectively) passage of the deal, but my goodness. They are making a lot of promises.

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/economy/trade

  128. 128.

    Joseph Nobles

    @catclub: I believe that if the TAA passes on Tuesday as is, then it does have to go back to the Senate for another vote. I could be wrong about that. And the Highway Fund part of it definitely would.

  130. 130.

    Suzanne

    Spawn the Younger is at the stage of development at which she can’t really meaningfully clean up her toys without a lot of help, but, DAMN, can she make a mess FAST. Le sigh.

  131. 131.

    Kay

    @Corner Stone:

    And they’re still using the same either/or language. “What’s at stake if we don’t trade”

    As if anyone was proposing we don’t “trade”. Come on. That didn’t work last time either.

  132. 132.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @NotMax: He was one of my favorites. I was fascinated by the movie parodies. His work is etched into my brain.

  134. 134.

    Elizabelle

    @Omnes Omnibus: Totes thought of the Villagers of the Damned concept.

    There was a sequel. Children of the Damned. Now I want to see it. TCM host said that “some” thought it was even better than the original.

    Also that the studio chose not to film the initial movie in the US because the Catholic Church objected — subject was a little too close to “immaculate conception” (and that’s a hilarious thought, actually). So they filmed it in England and it screened here and was very popular.

    Wikipedia on the 1960 film. John Carpenter refilmed it in the 1990s.

  135. 135.

    KG

    So, what is Hillary’s actual position on the TPP? She was Secretary of State for 4 years while it was being negotiated, shouldn’t she have some insight? I mean, if she’s taking a positing like this (trigger warning, CNN):

    “No president would be a tougher negotiator on behalf of American workers, either with our trade partners or Republicans on Capitol Hill, than I would be,” Clinton said.

    Wouldn’t this be one of those issues where she could speak from actual experience? Seems like a spot where she could actually say something useful.

  136. 136.

    Elizabelle

    You guys! You’ve got to see “Mr. Bug Goes to Town”, TCM now. Or DVR it.

    Early (1941) rotoscope animation, told from the bug’s point of view in dealing with humans. Color.

    Looks wonderful. Never heard of it.

  137. 137.

    NotMax

    @Kay

    One of the best ever harangues I ever watched live on C-SPAN was Tom Daschle arguing against NAFTA on the Senate floor.

  140. 140.

    Steeplejack

    @WaterGirl:

    I hand-wash my (few) dishes almost all the time. I use Joy (Ultra?—the word is on the label), lemon scent, from the regular grocery. Good sudsing, smells good, and I haven’t seen where they’re actively destroying the planet in the manufacturing process. (Guess I should check back in a bit to find out it’s made by the Koch brothers.)

    Note: This is not a proactive “I thoroughly researched this and it’s the best ever” recommendation; it’s more like “I cycled through what was readily available at my usual grocery and settled on this.”

    ETA: Just did a quick scan through the thread. Guess I’ll buy Dawn next time and check it out. Can’t remember if I’ve tried it before.

  141. 141.

    Elizabelle

    @NotMax: Mr. Potter. In beetle form.

    Mrs. Ladybug was kinda irritating. Still didn’t deserve having her house burned down.

  142. 142.

    WaterGirl

    Thanks for all the dish soap suggestions! I’ve made a list to take to the store with me.

  146. 146.

    Keith G

    @KG:

    Seems like a spot where she could actually say something useful.

    Useful to whom?

    I think if she is getting advice to be a bit circumspect on this, it is good advice. There is very little upside to her weighing in no matter what side of the debate she would support.

    She has encouraged Obama to listen to Pelosi. Good advice from her.

  147. 147.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: Yup. Damned to see more pics of Republican candidates than is palatable.

    I iz sick of Republicans. And it’s only late spring 2015.

  148. 148.

    Kay

    @KG:

    It’s funny because she went further than I would have expected. I knew she’d say “work with Congress” but she goes on to say that the President should use Congressional opposition to get a better deal on the actual TPP, which surprised me. That to me indicates Congressional Dems are not happy with the substance of the trade deal itself, which of course they have read but cannot discuss publicly.

    I know she wants to dodge because it’s terrible politically for Democrats so I’m not making excuses for her, but it is true that if she knows the specifics she cannot discuss them. I don’t know whether she knows the content of the deal or not but even if she did no one can discuss the actual substantive provisions.

    I;m not clear on how she can be more specific while forbidden to discuss specifics :)

    Anyway, stay tuned! At some point this thing gets revealed and then a lot of the machinations disappear.

  150. 150.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Elizabelle: I just found it on youtube. Bookmarked it. I love that animation studio; their version of Superman and of course, Popeye.

  151. 151.

    Keith G

    @raven: Yes and no. As Kay points out, HRC is not spouting specifics, but just commenting about process. And it’s good advice.

    Pelosi and her folks will be held to accounts for what they do by voters. Obama will not. Even if some of this is theatrics, it is necessary theater. Still, I think it is more than that.

  152. 152.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @Elizabelle:

    It’s a great late-career role for George Sanders. The poignancy of the position he ends up in at the end really got to me, especially on the second viewing.

    (Yes, I know it’s a 55-year-old fill but I’m trying to avoid spoilers anyway.)

  155. 155.

    ThresherK

    @Elizabelle: Never heard of “Mr Bug Goes to Town” (aka “Hoppity Goes to Town”?)

    “Hoppity” is certainly not the accomplished feature-length storytelling of “Snow White”, but does have its charms. And the backgrounds are to die for.

    (Hey, don’t tell anyone, but I can totally watch TCM online even though it’s not on my cable package. I thought that wasn’t a thing.)

  160. 160.

    Keith G

    @raven: Some folks seem to get an endorphin rush by bitchin and HRC provides a target rich environment. I am hoping that the circuitry of outrage starts to wear out ’round here.

    She will make goofs and we should address them appropriately, but the reflexive attacks have become stale.

  162. 162.

    Kay

    @Keith G:

    I think Paul Krugman has it right:

    But the overall selling of TPP, to some extent by the administration and much more so by its business allies, has been nothing like this. Instead, it has been all lectures from Those Who Know How the Global Economy Works — the kind of people who go to Davos and participate in earnest panels on the skills gap and the case for putting Alan Simpson in charge of everything — ….
    This kind of thing worked in the 1990s, when Davos Man actually did seem to know how the world works. But now Davos Democrats are known as the people who told us to trust unregulated finance and fear invisible bond vigilantes. They just don’t have the credibility to pull off arguments from authority any more.

    http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/13/decline-and-fall-of-the-davos-democrats/?_r=0

    This is an example of that, to me:

    “The economic case for #TPP and #TTIP is overwhelming.” —@JohnKerry

  163. 163.

    Steeplejack

    TV Alert!

    Mild plug for excellent Italian series Montalbano, episode “The Terra Cotta Dog” (one of the best) just starting (at 9:00 p.m. EDT) on Eurotrash microchannel MHz. If you don’t get it, you can live-stream it here. It will be repeated at midnight EDT.

    If you like Foyle’s War, Grantchester, Wallander (Swedish or Branagh), etc., you would love Montalbano. It’s set in Sicily in contemporary times (early 2000s), great cinematography, good acting, good foodie subtext, and the stories are based on the novels by Andrea Camilleri.

    Plug is “mild” because I have recommended this show before and gotten nowhere. Sigh.

    ETA: Just checked the feed. It works pretty well.

  164. 164.

    PurpleGirl

    @NotMax: When I was in 7th grade (mumble mumble) years ago, my home room teacher caught one of the wise guys reading a comic during home room period. She loudly told him and the class that ‘if he was going to spend his money on comics, he should at least read Mad Magazine because they do good satire and poke fun at a lot of stuff.’ I began to read it and continued reading it for many years, into college at least.

  165. 165.

    dww44

    @Kropadope: Someone posted this link a couple of days ago. Reading this gave me a bit of perspective about TPP and the terrible, horrible, no good Fast Track Authority, that according to Tobias every prior President, bar Nixon, had legitimate use of. After all the weeks and months of back and forth, I still don’t have a feel for the rightness or wrongness of it. That’s what frustrating to me.

    http://andrewtobias.com/column/fast-track-and-trade/

    Why should we stick with NAFTA “as is” when the TransPacific Partnership, whose 12 nations will include Canada and Mexico, improves on its two most objectionable features: the non-enforceability of its labor and environmental protections?

    Why should we stick with a situation where Fords and Chevy’s made in America face a 30% import duty in countries that allow those same Fords or Chevy’s — if made in Mexico — to enter duty free? How can that possibly help union members in Detroit?

  167. 167.

    Elizabelle

    “Mr. Bug Goes to Town” came out two days before Pearl Harbor.

    Did not find its audience in 1941. But it’s a charmer. Did not watch it closely; DVR’d and will look at it again this week.

  168. 168.

    Steeplejack

    @Elizabelle:

    Children of the Damned was on TCM a month or so ago, and it comes around fairly often. I thought it was kind of meh, and it doesn’t really have anything to do with the previous movie, except for the hook of mutant/whatever children. My two cents. But probably worth seeing so you can get some closure. :-)

  169. 169.

    Kay

    @dww44:

    Why should we stick with a situation where Fords and Chevy’s made in America face a 30% import duty in countries that allow those same Fords or Chevy’s — if made in Mexico — to enter duty free? How can that possibly help union members in Detroit?

    Well, on the other hand, why would anyone trust free traders after they made such a lousy deal last time, where they lowered trade barriers for imports into the US but got no reciprocity for US exports into other countries? What was that all about? Why did they think that would benefit US workers? Have they fixed their models? Are they better at forecasting?

    This is just very tough to swallow; “We need a new trade deal to fix the last lousy trade deal we made on your behalf, where we made exactly the same promises we’re making today”

  170. 170.

    jl

    @Kay: Arguments about the TPP itself are going to be endless and inconclusive until the text is available for analysis. Problem with the actual free trade provisions in previouis deals like NAFTA (as opposed to the IP protections and corporate investment insurance) that lower conventional trade barriers like tarrifs, is that they have been a complicated bunch of bilateral deals. So, for example, NAFTA, had three bilateral tariff pacts between Canada, Mexico and the US. Surprise surprise, most of the tariff barriers between US and Canada stayed in place.

    So, what is really going on with the duties and tariffs on vehicles? What countries will be affected, and how much new demand for US product will be generated?: What does ‘made in’ mean, what with all the current complicated rules for how to account for manufacture of the parts, versus assembly? Who knows?: Tobias got this slam dunk information in two ways: a negotiator with an interest fed him the snippet, or a Congresscritter eyeballed parts of he draft in a quiet back room and fed him the snippet from memory. So, Tobias is peddling unreliable BS.

    The original rationale for fast track authority and all that goes with it is that in global multilateral talks, with participation of the vast majority of world governments, and (theoretically) governments representing a wide cross section of stakeholders at the talks, there was some reason to believe that negotiations would produce an efficient agreement that (at least potentially) would increase the welfare of all countries, and a wide cross section of each country’s stake holders. These potential gains might be diffuse. Therefore it was argued that if the negotiations were open and individual countries could amend the agreements prior to approval, then special interests that suffered concentrated losses would throw wrenches into the works.

    But these trade deals are very different. They are pacts between a small number of specially selected countries in the world economy, and the negotiations are dominated by large corporations. I don’t see how the logic of fast track transfers into the the new trade negotiation framework. Unless you are willing to believe that the giant corporations dominating the negotiations are acting as good faith agents for the welfare of smaller corporations, small business, and workers. If you swallow that without some evidence, I have some bridges to sell you.

    And of course, Tobias merely asserts that labor and environmental standards are now sufficiently enforceable. Obama asks us to trust us without seeing the agreement. It is also interesting that, as you pointed out recently, Vietnamese trade unions have a different opinion.

    As Zombie Godhead Reagan said ‘Trust but verify’. The current system is more like ‘After you trust us and we get the political machine rolling fast enough to almost guarantee passage, you can then verify whether you should have trusted us or not. And if not, then sad day for you, it’s too late.”

    I also find it interesting that the public proponents TPP simply refuse to even acknowledge the objections to the non free trade aspects of the deal (furthering IP property protections for benefit of giant pharma and IT corporations, and increasing blanket international corporate investment insurance). At least Obama has been more honest in acknowledging the corporate investment insurance angle than the likes of propagandists like Tobias, but Obama’s assurances are insufficient, the stakes are too high to simply trust him without any supporting information.

  171. 171.

    Steeplejack

    @Elizabelle:

    Thanks for your interest! MHz does only a live feed, so you can see what’s currently being broadcast, but you can’t do “on demand.” In general the times to look are 9:00 p.m. and midnight EDT each evening and 3:00 p.m. EDT on Saturdays and Sundays. That’s when they run their omnibus series International Mystery, which is really just an umbrella name for the collection of European cop, crime and mystery series they run. A few are clunkers (looking at you, Don Matteo—Terence Hill as a crime-solving village priest bordering on Murder, She Wrote treacle), but many are worthwhile, and a few are amazing. Montalbano is the cream of the crop, in my opinion.

    Don Matteo is tomorrow night. Tuesday is Bruno Cremer as Maigret (French, 1990s), very atmospheric and cerebral. Wednesday and Thursday this week are Fog and Crimes (2005–  ), Italian police inspector in a northern city, pretty good, although the main character is kind of a self-absorbed dick. Friday is Commissario Brunetti (2007–  ), a German series taken from Donna Leon’s novels about Venice. Kind of weird to hear “Italians” speaking German, but whatever; the series is pretty good and it’s shot in Venice. Saturday is Tatort: Cologne (“Scene of the Crime,” 1992–  ), German “buddy” cop show. Gets a little Starsky and Hutch at times, but in an updated German way. Saturday at 3:00 p.m. EDT is a different episode of Maigret.

    Okay, overshare over. This NBA game is not keeping me riveted to the TV, for some reason. I blame the fact that no one cares about traveling any more. Saw somebody at the end of the first half take a good four steps toward the basket sans dribble. WTF.

  172. 172.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Steeplejack: Traveling? I blame Jordan. The guy was amazing, but one can’t legally go from nearly half-court to the basket without dribbling…

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (That horse has left the barn…)

  174. 174.

    Kay

    @jl:

    I think they miss the broad question people have, which is “why did we eliminate trade barriers for imports without assuring trade barriers would be eliminated for entry of our products into other countries?”

    That’s a fair question.

    That’s why people think these deals are mostly about negotiating favorable terms for large multi-national corporations not nationally but globally. Because the deals aren’t reciprocal.

    They’re basically asking people to take a hit to advance “global trade” and some far-awaybenefit that might eventually appear, but probably not for average people unless it trickles down. That is a very hard sell.

  175. 175.

    2liberal

    @NotMax:

    One of the best ever harangues I ever watched live on C-SPAN was Tom Daschle arguing against NAFTA on the Senate floor.

    now he’s on the other side.

    LINK

  177. 177.

    FortGeek

    @fuckwit:

    What’s with these blue-blood nicknames for these chumps?
    […]
    Can the R’s possibly get any more prepschool?

    Wait till they just go with their frat nicknames: “Weasel” (unintentional honesty), “Steve-O!!” or “Broseph.” Can a trilby be far behind?

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