Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

So many bastards, so little time.

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

This really is a full service blog.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

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

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

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

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night Open Thread: Worth A Try

Late Night Open Thread: Worth A Try

by | 95 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Reader Interactions

95Comments

  1. 1.

    The Pale Scot

    Well I think much of this anger and frustration could have be ameliorated by Equine Reiki Masters.

    Unfortunately the horses have spoken;

    “the horses are asking that people work more consciously and deliberately with their discordant energy, and they will continue to support the healing and clearing processes. The healing benefits are much the same, but with your participation.”

    Edit: There you have it, horses are more humane than Republicans.

  2. 2.

    Gian

    Since it’s an open thread. Could the feds put up a Benedict Arnold statute next to every confederate monument?

  5. 5.

    Steeplejack

    @Mnemosyne (tablet):

    That is a good one. William Talman is particularly good as the killer. And great locations. I’m not watching it tonight, as I’m trying to go to bed soon. I watched Red Light earlier and was slightly disappointed. George Raft’s character was a little too unsympathetic, and the Christian redemption gloss at the end was weird. Photography was superb, I will say that.

    I watched part of Follow Me Quietly this morning and recorded the rest to watch later. Nothing amazing, but I want to see how it turns out. And Dorothy Patrick is kind of interesting, like a clone of Glenda Farrell. According to IMDB, it looks like she had an undistinguished career and migrated to TV in the early ’50s.

    ETA: I background-watched Kiss Me Deadly, and there is a candidate for that worst-movie thread!

  6. 6.

    The Pale Scot

    @Amir Khalid:
    It has something to do 5th level dimensional energy upgrades.

    I hear this stuff on a podcast about the paranormal from Australia. some of the stories are epic, “Limpy the kind hearted Bigfoot”. I keep meaning to get an account somewhere so I can post clips.

    The sad thing is I don’t see much of a difference between Mysterious Universe and american MSM now and days.

  8. 8.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I’ve been on the road for about 13 hours so haven’t checked the threads, but if John is around he should do this with Steve (would have been awesome with Tunch and the Furminator, but I think Steve will look good all beTrumped).

    https://instagram.com/trumpyourcat/

  10. 10.

    Steeplejack

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Just thought I would report that the Nexus 7 is working better—well enough for me to use it for browsing again—although I still have a suspicion that it ran faster pre-Lollipop. I didn’t have to do a factory reset, and I didn’t scrape Chrome and reinstall it (or the upgrades).

    One thing that may have helped is that the Nexus experienced a stealth upgrade a few days ago, I think. I went to turn it on, and, instead of coming right on, it did the long “starting from power off” boot thing, and then there was a period where it said it was updating 80 or 90 applications. So I think some upgrade(s) got sent down from the mother ship.

    Anyway, the only real lingering nuisance is that the Balloon Juice site is slow, in a very particular way, i.e., when I switch among open tabs Chrome will quite often do a lengthy page refresh. It seems to happen only on Balloon Juice. Wish I could find a way to turn that off and let me manually issue page refreshes.

  11. 11.

    Major Major Major Major

    WWI-themed card game I made with a friend seems to be gaining traction. A few more rules adjustments and we might have ourselves a real “thing that costs less to produce than you get from selling it.”

    It’s a labor of love so I don’t care but cool? Everybody’s had fun playing it so far.

  13. 13.

    John Revolta

    No Ted, you human shitstain, but hey…………………….if we took all the guns away, then I bet they’d stop!

  14. 14.

    Comrade Nimrod Humperdink

    Greetings to all. The spawn is nearing the 8 month mark and has discovered raspberries. On a semi-related note, my wife has discovered my new favorite Twitter feed: I’m sure others here are familiar with it, but I’m impressed with the consistency.

  15. 15.

    Steeplejack

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Yeah, I figured. What’s weird is that I don’t get that on my cell phone, where I also use Chrome to view Balloon Juice (the desktop site) and have several tabs open. If I do see a page update, it goes much more quickly. (Phone is on Android 4.4.4, I think.)

    Next time I’m at Best Buy or Micro Center I’m going to look at some random tablets and see how they do with multiple Balloon Juice pages open.

  17. 17.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Steeplejack: I would try uninstalling Chrome and reinstalling it. I’ve found Lolipop much faster and vastly better battery life on my Note3. I don’t generally use it for browsing, though. Also you might try using the regular browser for Balloon Juice and see it that makes a difference.

  18. 18.

    Comrade Nimrod Humperdink

    Oh holy hell, I tried to fix the link and I apparently am not allowed to edit the post. Los Feliz Day Care twitter feed, if you care to google it.

  22. 22.

    Steeplejack

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Also you might try using the regular browser for Balloon Juice and see it that makes a difference.

    What regular browser? Chrome is the regular browser on the Nexus 7, as far as I know. It was the only one that came installed on it.

    I will look into uninstalling and reinstalling Chrome.

    P.S. My underlying concern is that Lollipop is taxing my first-gen (1GB) Nexus 7.

  24. 24.

    Elmo

    @ruemara: When I was a young lawyer, before they built the new courthouse, there were civil courtrooms set up in one of the office buildings on Broadway, right at the edge of the Gaslamp. We females were advised in no uncertain terms that we were not, under any circumstances, to turn right when we exited the building. Only left, away from the nest of crack dens and prostitutes that was the Gaslamp back then.

  25. 25.

    KG

    if we’re going to burn all the confederate flags, can we wait until the neo-confederates are done wrapping themselves in those flags?

  26. 26.

    Tree With Water

    @Major Major Major Major: Sounds cool. Got a website? Gary Trudeau of Doonesbury fame collaborated on a book that used graphics to portray the battle of Stalingrad. That was way back in the ’70’s when I saw it, and wished now I’d bought it. It was a excellent stab at putting that particular story together- he gave it the old college try, and it was obviously something he cared about..

  27. 27.

    joel hanes

    @Mnemosyne (tablet):

    Ida Lupino

    ANNOUNCER: [ ziii-iip beep ]’s incipient negritude will come as a big surprise to his honorary Aquarium Parents, Ralph Bunch and Ida Lupino.

    GEORGE: I’ll bet.

  28. 28.

    Suzanne

    I am going to see Donald Trump tomorrow afternoon, and Bernie Sanders next weekend.

    I know it’s sick, but I’m looking forward to Trump. I want to boo his ass. And his dead muskrat on his head.

  29. 29.

    divF

    @Comrade Nimrod Humperdink:

    The spawn is nearing the 8 month mark and has discovered raspberries.

    That evokes some really vivid images, from delicacy of small finger movements to mouth extravagantly smeared with raspberry juice.

  33. 33.

    bago

    If every confederate flag owner stopped shooting… would we all have a lovely saturday?

  35. 35.

    The Thin Black Duke

    Remember, Teddy is the doofus who called Jimi Hendrix “overrated”.

  38. 38.

    Botsplainer

    There’s one song that encapsulates every aspect of Nugent. The puerile lyrics, sloppy play, goofy crowd interaction, lousy vocals.

    I give you “Wang Dang Sweet Poontang”, from the Double Live Gonzo album. It was dedicated to all that Nashville pussy (the female attendees now being fervently moral Tea Party shriekers by now); I must’ve worn the grooves of that vinyl down when I was 13.

  39. 39.

    magurakurin

    @Suzanne: It is interesting though, that the fact that you are going to see Trump puts a different spin on the “huge rally” thing that is all the rage right now.

    I gotta admit, I’m just not feeling the Bern. And I really, really gotta stop going over to the DKOS because the Bernie supporters there are gonna turn me into a sociopathic killer. It’s getting super stupid over there these days. The main thing I notice is that they don’t seem to realize that Hillary Clinton isn’t actually Bernie Sanders main opponent. I’d wage that almost to a one, every Clinton supporter likes Sanders and would be happy to have him as president, but they don’t think he can win. Now, at the KOS they are going nuts over a poll showing Sanders over 20% support nationally against Clinton. So what? His numbers against Scott Walker show him losing badly. The only things that matter is how he polls and eventually does against Walker, Bush, Rubio or whatever clown the other side chooses. But for the KOS Bernimaniacs, it just all about beating Clinton. Sad, really.

  40. 40.

    Botsplainer

    There’s one song that encapsulates every aspect of Nugent. The puerile lyrics, sloppy play, goofy crowd interaction, lousy vocals, the juvenile core, all on display.

    I give you “Wang Dang Sweet Poontang”, from the Double Live Gonzo album. It was dedicated to all that Nashville pu55y (the female attendees being fervently moral Tea Party shriekers by now); I must’ve worn the grooves of that vinyl down when I was 13.

  43. 43.

    canegiallo

    @Baud: @Baud: My SO, who has been employed in politics for more than thirty years, has gone over to the Bernie side. As a person experienced in political realities, he should know better. And my adult spawn are on the bandwagon. All say they will vote for HRC in the general, though. Well, we are spread out over two states and the District of Columbia so their influence will be diluted. Me, I’m going for the win. HRC all the way.

  44. 44.

    magurakurin

    @Baud: they are more deluded than short-sighted. I mean, Sanders is a great guy, I’ve thought it was cool how he did his own thing, but the truth is, he just isn’t all that liberal. Yes, he is to the left of Clinton on economics…somewhat, but he is to the right of her on guns and the legalization of marijuana. And since I would abolish the 2nd Amendment altogether, he is way to the right of me on guns. And guns worry me…a lot. I dunno, maybe I’m just too cynical, but I can’t feel the Bern…..

  46. 46.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    Nikki Haley’s facebook post about removing the confederate flag from SC state house is a hive of villainy and scum.

    I picked up an apple watch yesterday. It’s….a watch.

  48. 48.

    Jeffro

    @magurakurin: The Sanders/Clinton thing…it’s one of those VERY rare cases where I suggest people take an internet poll; in this case, one where they can enter their views on political issues and see which politician best represents them. Most any D is going to come up with Clinton & Sanders within 1-2% difference. I mean, really, people…

  49. 49.

    ThresherK

    @Botsplainer: There’s a joke about this Nugent song and Chuck Berry’s “My Ding-a-Ling”. Some assembly required. I’m not awake enough to fit the pieces yet.

  50. 50.

    SFAW

    @Amir Khalid:

    Proof that Ted Nugent, even if he knows how to pick a guitar, is no musician.

    Which one would he pick? A Strat? A Martin? Oh, wait …

    Besides, three power chords (if we spot him two) and a cloud of dust is not picking, I think.

    What he meant (re: Hendrix) was that ANYBODY can play guitar left-handed, upside-down, or with his teeth. But could Jimi play guitar while white? Or while dodging the draft? Those are Ted’s key tests – and Hendrix failed miserably.

    It’s, what, three years since Ted promised us he’d be dead? Come on, you whiny-ass-motherfucker-who-needs-an-external-death-p3nis-or-a-12-year-old-girl-in-order-to-feel-manly, make good on your promise. The world would be a better place. (And even it it doesn’t get better, how will we know unless you actually do it. Candy-ass.)

    ETA: Moderation? What was wrong, the mention of a certain part of male anatomy (since modified)?

  51. 51.

    Gene108

    @Major Major Major Major:

    When you say WW1 card game is it “Risk” meets “Magic”?

    @Gian:

    Benedict Arnold was a successful general for the Americans and responsible for at least one major early victory over the British.

    In short, he was more useful to America than anything the Confederacy stood for or people want to represent with the Stars and Bars.

  52. 52.

    Amir Khalid

    @ThresherK:

    There’s a joke about this Nugent song and Chuck Berry’s “My Ding-a-Ling”. Some assembly required.

    If I’m not mistaken, that’s the joke right there.

  54. 54.

    Gene108

    @GHayduke (formerly lojasmo):

    I thought the Apple Watch could give you your heart beat and count calories and the steps you take and a bunch of other stuff.

    If you wanted to kow what,time is you’d just take your phone out of your pocket. You don’t need a device strapped to your wrist for that anymore.

  56. 56.

    Baud

    @canegiallo:

    Some people vote straight ideology in the primary. That’s fine. I tend to vote based on who I think would make the best candidate and president, and ideology is only one part of the puzzle.

  59. 59.

    Germy Shoemangler

    Here’s something I just read. Maybe it’s old news here; I don’t know:

    “The largest association of psychologists in the United States is on the brink of a crisis,” writes Spencer Ackerman at the Guardian, “as an independent review prepares to reveal that medical professionals lied and covered up their extensive involvement in post-9/11 torture.” The revelation follows years of denials, and opens up the possibility of leadership firings, loss of licenses and even prosecutions.

  61. 61.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    @Steeplejack:

    Just thought I would report that the Nexus 7 is working better—well enough for me to use it for browsing again—although I still have a suspicion that it ran faster pre-Lollipop. I didn’t have to do a factory reset, and I didn’t scrape Chrome and reinstall it (or the upgrades).

    One thing that may have helped is that the Nexus experienced a stealth upgrade a few days ago, I think. I went to turn it on, and, instead of coming right on, it did the long “starting from power off” boot thing, and then there was a period where it said it was updating 80 or 90 applications. So I think some upgrade(s) got sent down from the mother ship.

    Anyway, the only real lingering nuisance is that the Balloon Juice site is slow, in a very particular way, i.e., when I switch among open tabs Chrome will quite often do a lengthy page refresh. It seems to happen only on Balloon Juice. Wish I could find a way to turn that off and let me manually issue page refreshes.

    I was thinking if my grandparents had read a quote like that 60 years ago what they would have thought? They might have wondered if it was Asimov’s neighbour writing in some science fiction code?

  63. 63.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Gene108: They should make an apple watch designed like a steam punk pocket watch.
    I still wouldn’t buy it, but it’d be fun to know it existed.

  65. 65.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Germy Shoemangler: I read about that last night, and it really sounds yooge (but not very classy.) They have their annual convention coming up in 3 weeks, if I’m not mistaken, and I bet it’ll be more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

  66. 66.

    SFAW

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Those are the geniuses who gave us US Senator Ned Lamont, right?

    No, that was the Connecticut voters. And you’re saying an uncontested Lieberman was better how? At least with Lamont, there was a chance, which might have worked, had the Rethugs not remained tribal for one in their lives.

  67. 67.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @Steeplejack:

    Yesterday, news broke that Google has been stealth downloading audio listeners onto every computer that runs Chrome, and transmits audio data back to Google. Effectively, this means that Google had taken itself the right to listen to every conversation in every room that runs Chrome somewhere, without any kind of consent from the people eavesdropped on. In official statements, Google shrugged off the practice with what amounts to “we can do that”.

  69. 69.

    Amir Khalid

    @SFAW:
    Okay, but quick trip to the store for a few necessities was more tiring than expected. Conspicuously so, to a few people. Probably just as well I’ve ended fasting this year on medical advice.
    ETA: At least I don’t seem in any further danger of fainting from hypotension. For now.

  80. 80.

    Germy Shoemangler

    @MomSense: I will vomit if I read one more defender of the flag on any comments section anywhere on the internet.

    That includes the “polite” bullshit that invokes “history” and “brave young men on both sides” as well as the convoluted, moronic logic of comments like this:

    • 4 hours ago
    You do know that Lincoln and Washington were racist as well? …so when are you going to remove all their statues and flags and shit?

    That one appears below the article I linked to.

  83. 83.

    SFAW

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    Yeah, but you’d have a lot of catching up to do for all the time you lost (i.e., before now). Join the New-New-Really-New (and We’re Totally Against Whitey) Black Panthers? That’d be a start. I heard that Obama is a charter member.

  85. 85.

    Baud

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    Thanks.

    However, Google has responded to this issue, pointing out that the ability to use “Ok Google” commands and enable the extension is an opt-in feature. Under Settings in Chrome, one will find a box that says “Enable ‘Ok Google’ to start a voice search.” This box is not checked by default, and for Google to start listening out for “Ok Google,” users will have to have checked this box before.

    This isn’t too surprising. You have the same options on Android phones.

  87. 87.

    scav

    Wasn’t there a smart TV with voice activation that had a similar issue? Wouldn’t Voice control constantly raise these or similar issues?

  89. 89.

    J R in WV

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    Ya think?!!

    Google might just push bad Google results down, maybe 8 or 10 pages below whatever page you’re on???? Noooo! They Wouldn’t! That’d be evil!!!!!!!!!!!

    I use DuckDuckgo for everything now, but Google news. Which I take with a grain of salt. At least it’s just a list/index of other’s stories …

  91. 91.

    Suzanne

    @magurakurin: I am pro-winning. I like Bernie a lot, but I will vote strategically. I am more than content to cast my primary ballot for HRC if it helps her dominate, because the progressive agenda is best advanced by a long succession of wins. I would love to show the GOP that we can lose them for another generation and still win.

  92. 92.

    Applejinx

    I’m going to keep pushing to make Bernie the nominee because I think he WOULD win against a Republican: demographics are a cruel master, and the times are right for Bernie to win the Presidency.

    His moderate gun-nuttiness means he can peel off Tea Partier voters, who respond to a populist message and Bernie’s type of personality. Republicans would be LUCKY to get Trump vs. Sanders: Bush would be a Romney replay, a stinking plutocrat RINO to the teabaggers. Trump is setting up Bush to be scorned for his Mexican wife. The Republicans are going to tear each other apart.

    Bernie’s not going to tear the Dems apart, nor am I going to be harsh on Hillary supporters. Heck, I’ll vote for her if it comes to that though I will never give her or the Democrats money directly. She gets that from other plutocrats and from Goldman Sachs etc. and doesn’t need mine. For all that she’d still be better than any of the Republicans, especially with the wind shifting Bernie’s direction. Bernie and Elisabeth Warren are setting the tone of the party now. Hillary can take the credit if she likes, so long as she’s listening.

    And so long as she does clinch the nomination.

    Which is not a given.

  93. 93.

    SFAW

    @Applejinx:

    His moderate gun-nuttiness means he can peel off Tea Partier voters, who respond to a populist message and Bernie’s type of personality.

    Which will be approximately … lemme see … carry the seven … add those … check the cross-tabs … and we get …

    ZERO.

    That the Tea Baggers are sometimes mentioned in the same breath as a populist message is merely coincidence. They are Rethugs who are too candy-assed to wear their Rethuglicanism proudly.

    It’s like Steve Martin’s “Non-Conformists Society” (or whatever he called it). They’re sheep, they just carry a different banner than the other Rethug sheep.

  94. 94.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Applejinx:

    I’m going to keep pushing to make Bernie the nominee because I think he WOULD win against a Republican: demographics are a cruel master, and the times are right for Bernie to win the Presidency.

    Sanders’ supporters are really, really white, aren’t they?

    Minority voters aren’t going to vote for a Republican over him, but he’s not necessarily going to get them excited to turn out. Hillary Clinton had to deal with Barack Obama in ’08, but she seems to actually be doing a pretty good job sealing up that vote this time around.

  95. 95.

    brantl

    Man I would like to try both of those things, you know, like the conservatives say in service to every goal that they’ve tried that never works, “Whatever it takes.” …..

Comments are closed.