Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

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

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

The gop couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

The willow is too close to the house.

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

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

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute / No Labels, mo’ problems

Reader Interactions

117Comments

  2. 2.

    Hunter Gathers

    A year free shipping and video isn’t worth it. I can always watch SpongeBob some other way.

  10. 10.

    divF

    @ruemara:

    I demand Fred Hiatt’s credit card number and a shopping day.

    Fred’s credit card is probably only good at Amazon.

  13. 13.

    srv

    free year of Amazon Prime.

    And you people thought the world had changed with Murdoch’s retirement. Clearly, Jeff Bezos is stepping up and bringing his empire along. Wait till he hires Roger Ailes from the Murdoch bros and starts the Amazon Network. And that Netflix guy – brilliant!

    The only real question outside the 20% or so of doucheliberals who have hijacked this country is whether America needs to return to 1860 or 1802. The debate on the right is vigorous and keenly penetrative – I expect House of Cards S3 to continue to move us in the right ideological path.

  16. 16.

    EriktheRed

    @srv:

    I expect House of Cards S3 to continue to move us in the right ideological path.

    Season 3 has already come and gone.

  17. 17.

    srv

    @EriktheRed: Wow, thx! Please no spoilers, can’t wait to see what thug union he breaks this year!

    I can’t wait until there a 4 or 5 shows with men like Frank Underwood. There’s a dem I could vote for, even if he is gay.

  18. 18.

    CaseyL

    Reminds me of the old W. C. Fields joke about a contest: the first prize was a week in Philadelphia, and the second prize was two weeks in Philadelphia.

    Who’s more desperate, Amazon or No Labels?

  20. 20.

    Urza

    Not that I like the NoLabels guys, but a free year of Amazon Prime, can we get a link? Also helps I dont actually pay attention to Twitter.

  21. 21.

    Mike J

    Frustrated police in Gulfport, Mississippi, were unable to arrest a man menacing shoppers with a loaded shotgun in a local Walmart because of the state’s permissive “open carry” gun laws. Terrified employees huddled in a safe room while the man loaded and racked the 12-gauge, but police said there was nothing they could do. “Our state law allows for this,” said police chief Leonard Papania.

    http://theweek.com/speedreads/562711/only-america-mississippi-police-unable-arrest-man-terrorizing-walmart-shoppers-loaded-gun

  22. 22.

    jl

    “1802 ”

    That was a pretty liberal time. If not 1860, will have to back another couple of centuries at least.

  23. 23.

    jl

    @Mike J: Huh wha? So, I can go to Mississippi with a real pistol and point at people and click away scaring the crap out of people, waving a clip around my other hand?

    That is insane.

  24. 24.

    Eric U.

    @Mike J: they were eventually arrested for disturbing the peace. Just walking around with a gun is legal, but they loaded it.

  25. 25.

    jl

    @Eric U.: Arrested days later. Glad that if he had shot a loaded gun, the bullets would still be on their way, so no harm done (/snark)

  26. 26.

    jayjaybear

    Has anyone commented yet on the lousy quality of trolling we’ve been getting here lately? I think Cole should look into hiring a new Resident Troll…this one sucks.

  28. 28.

    Eric U.

    @jl: these laws have exceeded what is ridiculous, and they are trying to make it so what they did is legal. Do they really want shootouts in public? I don’t think that will work out well for the ammosexuals. That sort of thing is how California got the strictest gun laws in the country.

    eta: I’m at work, family can’t get one of the dogs to come in. I really wish they would work on not letting him dominate them so badly

    eastta: I’d take no labels money, I barely pay attention to twitter, and it could be fun to follow them and mock appropriately

  29. 29.

    Mike J

    @jl: In most places, “brandishing” is illegal, which is usually defined as displaying a weapon in a menacing fashion. Racking a shotgun could be described as brandishing. But maybe not in Mississippi.

  30. 30.

    jl

    @Mike J: Good point. Still, things were pretty liberal. Women and minorities could still vote in some mid-Atlantic states.

  31. 31.

    slag

    Ironically, these last few weeks have uniquely proven how important the differences between Democrats and Republicans have become. How different would our country be today if either a John McCain or a Mitt Romney presidency had come to pass? Shit matters.

  36. 36.

    jl

    @slag: Shit matters to center-right corporate hacks and operatives too.They must be feeling nervous. All the Democratic presidential candidates have started out sounding progressive on economics. I think all three are pragmatic enough to want to negotiate with corporate center-right, but it won’t be a gimme for the corporations, and they don’t like those rules.

    So, the GOP shows signs of going off the deep end on same sex marriage, ACA, immigration, and pretty much everything else. And their paymasters are right wing loons that don’t give a rat’s ass about the economy as long as piles of cash sweet cash keep pouring in their way.

    Center-right corporatist interests must be feeling nervous and lonely right now.

    Edit: this the group that held a national internet primary/caucus thing last election and like twenty people bothered to respond? Or is that some other group?

  37. 37.

    Little Boots

    not sure anyone is going to do what they should, and overturn the rich, but we’ll see.

  62. 62.

    Mike J

    @opiejeanne: I once went through airport security and forgot until I was asked to boot my computer that my windows wallpaper was set to this.

    Happily they just wanted to see the boot sequence start and I shut it down before it became an issue.

  66. 66.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @opiejeanne: Thank you. I am up later than I promised to be. But threads that go musical are a temptation that is oh so hard to resist.

  68. 68.

    opiejeanne

    @Omnes Omnibus: I love these threads, but usually can’t stay up late enough for them, or I arrive just after they’ve died.

    You guys post stuff that I’ve heard or heard of, but haven’t thought about in many years.

  69. 69.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Hiatt, being one of Atrios’ most favorite hacks, is very high on the tumbrel manifest, written in indelible ink.

  72. 72.

    opiejeanne

    @Villago Delenda Est: Isn’t this No Labels group a big fraud? Another distraction by people on the right? Or have I confused them with some other false political movement that pretends to be neutral?

  73. 73.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @opiejeanne: I am glad we give you pleasure. And because we (am I in particular) had a damned good week and a post above reminded me this album, I offer this.

  77. 77.

    opiejeanne

    @BillinGlendaleCA: It occurred to me that it was the next obvious choice for someone like me. When it was released I thought it was a total spoof on the Beach Boys song California Girls, but one day my brother-in-law bought it (age 15) and my father-in-law heard it and hit the roof.

    He burned the album.

    BIL committed other “sins” that drove his dad nuts, such as combing his hair into an Afro. It was absolutely perfect, but I thought his dad was going to kick him out of the house. He didn’t see the humor in it. He would not like what I found in the family’s racial background by digging around in genealogy records, not at all.

  84. 84.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @opiejeanne: My wife was not pleased with my new haircut(dyed black and longish in front) or that I put black nail polish on my fingernails(I’m going for a soft goth look). On the other hand she’s made no comments on my new ear piercing or new tat.

  86. 86.

    EconWatcher

    Can’t get Obama’s Charleston speech out of my head.

    I’m living outside the U.S. now, and I tend to get my U.S. news late, so I watched it in the middle of the night on youtube in our apartment, while the family slept. I am late to the party, but I was left with all kinds of emotions I don’t know what to do with.

    After 7 years, the man can still take me by surprise. Lame duck? I don’t think so.

    I now have great hopes for what he can still achieve in the last 18 months, even if nothing at all can be done in Congress, and even more hope for what he will do with the rest of his life. He may be the first President in U.S. history to exert even more influence out of office than in. He’s inventive and resourceful, in a profound way and for serious causes.

  87. 87.

    opiejeanne

    @Omnes Omnibus: What a disarmingly happy-sounding piece of music. Those pictures, though. I remember. I wrote about it in a diary at the time for a writing class I was in, and how the day’s cries of the mothers, “Why are they killing my children?” was the next day’s fish wrap, because of the non-reaction to the news of the atrocities we were involved in .

  89. 89.

    opiejeanne

    @EconWatcher: Not the first to be more influential out of office; Jimmy Carter has been that guy, but Obama may exceed what he has done.

  91. 91.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @opiejeanne: Joe was talented.

    I’ve recently found myself becoming interested in that region’s history and politics. I have always been an Atlanticist, so it is new to me.

  94. 94.

    opiejeanne

    @Omnes Omnibus: The LA Times had a headline that just screamed those words, and they just disappeared when the papers were taken out to the trash in the evening, like every other blunder and horror during the Reagan regime. He really was the Teflon president.

  95. 95.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @opiejeanne: That is weird. The pic is a cover from an earlier Roxy album. And on this, I am out. I don’t want to be disciplined tomorrow for staying up too late.

  99. 99.

    opiejeanne

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Yes. I always thought it was funny in the 60s and 70s when adults freaked out over kids’ hair, the length or the color, because it’s just hair and it will grow out or can be cut in a different style.

  100. 100.

    opiejeanne

    Oh no, it’s 11pm. We have to get up and drive the rest of the way home tomorrow. Good thing it’s only a little more than 5 hours now. This blog has kept us company for the trip, kept us informed and entertained, for the past two days.

    I thank you all and good night.

  102. 102.

    opiejeanne

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Southern Oregon right now. Roseburg, exit 125, which means we are a little north of the 1/3 point.

    Maybe that map lied to me about how long it takes to get to Woodinville. I need to check a different source, because now that you mention it that sounds a bit too short.

  106. 106.

    Lurking Canadian

    @opiejeanne: Not a fraud, in the strict sense of that term. It’s made of people like Ron Fournier, and Thomas Friedman who think there’s a vital center of American politics made up of pragmatists who are sick of partisanship and just want to come together to solve problems, if only somebody would lead.

    There are falsehoods at the core of what they believe. First, there is no such demographic. It’s just Tom Friedman and the people he hangs out with at parties. There aren’t enough of them to take over the PTA in Flatbush New Jersey.

    Second, they are not “centrists”. They want a radically right-wing agenda (regressive taxation, privatization of key government services, including Social Security, no restrictions on corporate activity, war, war, war), but because they don’t make a point of hating gay people and abortion, they get to pretend they are the center.

    So, full of shit, but not fraudulent, because it’s shit they genuinely believe.

  107. 107.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Lurking Canadian: It’s the old “socially liberal, fiscally conservative” line, which is basically politics-speak for “I have money, and regard the attitudes of people with money as obvious sweet reason; why don’t more people have them?”

  108. 108.

    Elizabelle

    @Lurking Canadian: Great comment.

    And you are not wrong.

    The Flatbush PTA is safe. I just hope No Labels does not stink up the 2016 election too much.

    Can’t you see them going all out on mancrush John Kasich? I can.

    Their labels never, ever include an electable Democrat. They don’t roll that way.

  109. 109.

    Elizabelle

    @opiejeanne: Safe travels! (Although I know it’s O dark hundred in Oregon and you’re not reading this right now….)

    @EconWatcher: I wish PBO a long and productive post-presidency. And safety.

  110. 110.

    Kay

    @Lurking Canadian:

    The whole thing is premised on a more specific lie, too. They got a Senate hearing on their national strategic plan 2 weeks ago. A Senate hearing!

    They got that because of Lieberman and Huntsman. They get attention not because they represent some constituency or group but because they are well-connected and their “ideas” don’t offend anyone important- 25 million jobs and “securing” Social Security is easy to support. They thought someone would oppose 25 million jobs?

    They are exactly what’s wrong with government.

    Why are the people who want to cut Social Security always so financially secure? My God, you would think they could find one ordinary person as the public face of this if only as a fig leaf. Jeb Bush doesn’t even know the benefit-eligible age was raised. He thinks it’s 65 for people younger than him. Obviously he’s given this a lot of thought, huh?

  112. 112.

    Peale

    @Kay: I know. They should at least try appealing to people who hate their parents so much that they want to cut off their social security checks. There’s got to be enough of them to make a difference in an election. That would swing a purple state Red.

  113. 113.

    Kathleen

    @Kay: That reads like a cheesy 1950-ish filler reel on the wonders of Cypress Gardens (I actually saw one of those).

  114. 114.

    Kay

    @Peale:

    I just think they should have to go sit with a group of financially insecure 50 year olds and tell then to their faces they have too much retirement security and sacrifices have to be made. Why are they meeting with Senators? Senators are in the secure group. Leiberman was cashing in well before he left the Senate. He’s probably got a lot saved.

  115. 115.

    opiejeanne

    @Lurking Canadian: Thanks, that’s what I thought.

    That pretense in their statement that they are neither Right nor Left is why I called it a fraudulent statement, for want of a better word. Maybe you’ve got a better word for it.

    Just how big is the Flatbush PTA, anyway?

  116. 116.

    opiejeanne

    @Kay:That hearing was Special. Kelly Ayotte and Joni Ernst, Joe Lieberman as chairman?

    I noticed that after the hearing they headed to two luncheons, one of them with the bigwigs. I don’t suppose those people with the green shirts were invited to the one where policy was discussed with the powerful and rich.

    And just who do you think this group will choose to support for President? Who will qualify as a No Labels candidate?

  117. 117.

    Hurling Dervish

    To bring it around full circle, dont forget that Frank Underwood was regarded as a hero and a real leader for finally telling the truth to the American people that Social Security needs to be cut, and the people who die because of it are true patriots.

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