Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The National Guard is not Batman.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

They spent the last eight months firing professionals and replacing them with ideologues.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

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

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Stand up, dammit!

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Books are my comfort food!

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

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

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread: Return from the Dead?

Open Thread: Return from the Dead?

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I find it very amusing, now that Scott Walker is an ex-candidate, all the tv newsfeeds put up a clip showing that the notorious “bumped my head on the kitchen cabinet” bald spot is rapidly turning into an early-stage combover. Presidential!

Also, Liz Mair — who got hired & fired by the Walker campaign back in March — took a pretty sweet victory lap around twitter earlier this evening:

Another investigation, Scotty? Which of your underlings will get thrown under this bus?

Reader Interactions

121Comments

  4. 4.

    gbear

    Another investigation, Scotty? Which of your underlings will get thrown under this bus?

    Hopefully all of them, Katie!

    Seriously, after what he’s done to Wisconsin, I want to see him get kicked reel guud while he’s down and I want to see him take a lot of people with him.

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Welcome back, AL! You’ve possibly been back for a while and I haven’t known on account of my own sad sorry iPad issues, but believe me, you have been missed.

    NO OFFENSE to all the other BJFPs who have done their valiant best in your absence.

  7. 7.

    Arm The Homeless

    I feel sorry for the teachers and state workers who will bear the brunt of his spurned ambition.

    I’m sure he will be working extra hard for 2020. I wonder what he does with a few months of a new, toady supreme court justice.

  10. 10.

    Hal

    I’m today’s I hate (some) people news:

    micdotcom.tumblr.com/post/129591576707/what-would-you-do-if-the-price-of-your-everyday

    What would you do if the price of your everyday prescription rose 5,500%?

    It may seem far-fetched, but it’s exactly what happened to Daraprim (pyrimethamine), a drug originally developed over 60 years ago to fight protozoal infections like malaria and toxoplasmosis. After Martin Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager, acquired the drug for his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, he raised the price by 55 times overnight, according to the New York Times.

    Daraprim used to cost just $13.50 per dose. Now it’s $750 for each and every tablet, meaning some people who need it to manage chronic infections have seen the cost of their health-care explode into the six-figure range. People who take Daraprim include immunocompromised HIV and cancer patients.

  11. 11.

    Anne Laurie

    Thanks, everybody, but don’t get your hopes too high just yet — I’m using an anonymizer to get here, and it’s… weirdly incomplete. But I’m too chicken to shut down & start over, so you’ll have to do without pictures in my posts, at least for the short term…

  15. 15.

    JPL

    @Hal: There’ s a thread down below talking about this. My son is impacted by the anti-biotic cuz others are not effective.

  16. 16.

    Mike J

    @redshirt:

    I keep reading Liz Phair and thinking “nooo!”

    He’s just a hero in a long line of heroes
    Looking for action at a price he can pay
    They say he’s famous, but no one can prove it
    Make him an offer just to see what he’ll say

  17. 17.

    NotMax

    Admit it, once Walker found out you’d taken a hiatus from BJ to do oppo research he folded his tent and slithered off the stage.

    Nicely done.

  18. 18.

    Hal

    @JPL: doh! That’s what I get for not scrolling down.

    Sorry about your son. This story is enraging to me. It reminds me of the early fight over azt costs.

  22. 22.

    gf120581

    Regardless of this supposed “very bad story,” I have to wonder if Walker will pull a Palin before too long. The only reason he ran for reelection was to lay the groundwork for his WH run. Now that plan is in ashes, so what the fuck reason does he have to stay around? Unless, of course, he wants to take it out on Wisconsin like a guy who doesn’t get the promotion he thought he deserved and promptly goes home and smacks his wife around.

    Word of waring though for those in Wisconsin who might be eager for him to quit; his Lt. Guv is as bad as he is. Arguably worse.

  23. 23.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    Welcome back AL.

    Peach pie turned out well. Flavor transcendent, even. Buying more peaches tomorrow.

    Saw last few minutes of Minority Report TV show. In their 2065, the Washington NFLs are named the Redclouds. Wonder if the show were made 10 years ago how that would played out.

  24. 24.

    RK

    But I also feared that the reasons behind his firing of me would be the ultimate causes of his demise. Now that appears to be true.

    And those reasons would be?

  26. 26.

    SFAW

    @RK:

    And those reasons would be?

    He thought he had hired Liz Phair, and someone finally clued him in. (It was as if redshirt @ #3 read my “mind”)

  28. 28.

    Anne Laurie

    RK: If you click the date links in the individual Mair tweets, it’ll take you to her twitter feed and you can read the whole thing.

    Short answer, in her role as a professional campaign worker, Mair says that Walker didn’t pay attention to his established, dependable staffers — easy (Koch) money turned his head, and a fleet of parasitic newbies poured those dollars down ratholes to construct an overambitious post-primary-frontrunner machine rather than the few-but-experienced guerrilla campaign necessary to get from May 2015 to February 2016.

  29. 29.

    Mary G

    @Anne Laurie: Welcome back, with or without pictures. What did Verizon do to you? Why is it not fixed yet? Feels like it’s been forever. (More so for you than me, of course.)

    ETA: clicking the data links in the Liz Mair tweets actually takes me back to a Tim F. post here from 2010 about calling your congresscritter about getting healthcare reform done.

  30. 30.

    RK

    Politico 3/18/15

    Only a day after being announced as an aide to Gov. Scott Walker’s political operation, Liz Mair told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she was resigning. Mair took considerable heat for her frank Twitter criticism of Iowa’s early role in the presidential nomination process.

    “The tone of some of my tweets concerning Iowa was at odds with that which Gov. Walker has always encouraged in political discourse,” Mair said in a statement to the AP in which she announced her immediate resignation. “I wish Gov. Walker and his team all the best.”

    Mair took considerable heat for her frank Twitter criticism of Iowa’s early role in the presidential nomination process.

    “Morons across America are astounded to learn that people from *IOWA* grow up rather government-dependent. #agsubsidies #ethanol #brainless,” she tweeted on Jan. 22.

    Two days later, she fired another missive against the Hawkeye State’s political status.

    “The sooner we remove Iowa’s frontrunning status, the better off American politics and policy will be,” Mair tweeted on Jan. 24.

    Iowa news outlets picked up the story, and conservatives blasted her hiring, with Breitbart News reporting on her advocacy for “amnesty” during the 2013 immigration debate..

  31. 31.

    SRW1

    Another one bites the dust
    And another one gone, and another one gone
    Another one bites the dust
    Hey, I’m gonna get you, too

  32. 32.

    trollhattan

    @RK:
    Funny. I hail from there and pretty much agree. “Flyover country” should not have an outsized influence over national politics–the states where people actually live should. When’s the last time California’s primary had a significant effect on either party’s nomination? Ridiculous.

  36. 36.

    JPL

    @rikyrah: You might be right, but why doesn’t the polls take that into count,
    The polls take into count that Biden might run which reduces Hillary’s support so why not take into account Romney.

  37. 37.

    Chris

    Opem thread, right?

    Colonoscopy tomorrow, for which I just drank an enormous cup of Suprep. Oh my fucking Lord. That is the most unpleasant, disgusting, repellent, nauseating, foul, nasty, gross, icky, doubleplusungood substance I have ever had in my life. Why can’t they just assign prune juice?

    (Yes, I’m sure there’s a medical reason. I’m just bitching. Because seriously, ick and double ick).

  39. 39.

    JPL

    @Chris: I took sixteen horse pills. It’s not any better. I hope that you’ll be drugged enough during the test and the results will be okay. Thinking of you.

  40. 40.

    Timurid

    So the cops/government officials/journalists/victims with a score to settle will just dump all of the incriminating evidence now that he’s quit? The only way Walker withdrawing would make a scandal disappear is if he was being straight up blackmailed.

  41. 41.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    As of this morning, I am done creating the story of Becoming Phoebe. There’s still a lot of work to do to turn that story into a book, but the storytelling is done. Other than marketing.

    The character of Phoebe came into existence on the night of January 30, 2011 as I was driving home from Madison after the Gophers’ series against Wisconsin. It was fifteen months before I started actually writing, but I have probably thought about her every single day of the last 4+ years.

    It feels very weird to say that the story is done.

  48. 48.

    Ruckus

    @Chris:
    Put off the last one scheduled because of surgery in the general area of where the scope goes. Now I scheduled for sometime after the first of the year. And yes it is a vile mixture, one I’ve had to do before for a different procedure. As others are saying, you will have an interesting night. Don’t get too far from the bathroom. Like maybe sleep on the floor.

  50. 50.

    Kristine

    @Chris: I wonder if that’s what had to drink. It’s been about 6 years–I managed to blot it out. Two liters or so of the most godawful sweet blech blech blech.

    Compared to the prep, the test is a snap. Great drugs. Good wishes that you’re in and out see ya in ten years.

  52. 52.

    PaulW

    Walker’s departure does not bode well for Jeb the Musical, because Jeb (sans exclamation point) is having trouble with the GOP voting base, period.

    The only thing keeping Jeb in this race is pride: his family name is on the line (hence his paradoxical need to defend Dubya’s record all the while trying to avoid the negative connections that Duyba’s disasters still are for most Americans). That and all the SuperPAC money that Walker apparently couldn’t siphon off.

  54. 54.

    trollhattan

    @Chris:
    While you’re on the throne, declare in a loud voice, “Scotty Walker, be GONE!” It will help.

    As a veteran, I assure the prep for a colonoscopy is 10x worse than the colonoscopy. Happy dreams and no polyps to you.

  56. 56.

    NotMax

    Just flipped on TCM.

    If Dr. Zhivago isn’t the most tedious film ever made at a major studio, it’s in the top three.

    David wasn’t very Lean when it came to epic cinema.

  57. 57.

    burnspbesq

    @efgoldman:

    I still think that the Becton Regional Wildcats are going to be the only playoff team in East Rutherford this year, as they were last year.

  58. 58.

    NotMax

    @Doug R

    Most people remain conscious and lucid. The drug administered nowadays blocks the formation of memories, so that time interval is a blank spot afterward.

  59. 59.

    22over7

    @Chris: Eric Idle tweeted about his last year, something about not looking forward to the unpleasant bathroom business, but looking forward to the drugs and warm blankets afterward.

  60. 60.

    Chris

    @Kristine:

    Compared to the prep, the test is a snap.

    @trollhattan:

    As a veteran, I assure the prep for a colonoscopy is 10x worse than the colonoscopy.

    That’s pretty much what everybody’s been telling me. I do believe I’m out for the entire thing, which is more than okay with me. At this point, the main thing I’m dreading isn’t the operation, it’s having to drink the entire second bottle of that… stuff, tomorrow morning.

    Thanks for the support, veterans.

  63. 63.

    lamh36

    Welp…two new shows to add to my DVR queue!
    Minority Report and Blindspot…I liked both for different reasons.

    Final thoughts: Minority Report – Meagan Good…damn makes me wanna hit the gym hard! Good to see a curvy girl doing stunts and being awesome

    Blindspot – Jamie Alexander, Lady Sif (Thor reference) as bad azz possible Navy Seal! Awesome.

  64. 64.

    Amir Khalid

    @Chris:
    The most recent colonoscopy I went through was a troll on this blog. The next most recent one, I had in, I think, 2006.

  66. 66.

    catclub

    @Doug R: yeah, I think Mittens is starting to get his hopes up. If No one wraps it up,
    that means the respectable ones in the race are incompetent. And Trump could not quite clinch.

  67. 67.

    NotMax

    @Amir Khalid

    Been hoping you’d come by. Noticed you evinced some uncertainty or confusion about the expunging of a middle name by a certain Bush.

    Have posted multiple times here about that since first noticed it, so won’t repeat type it again. Here’s my most recent mention of this, which includes comparative links.

  70. 70.

    rikyrah

    @PaulW:

    The only thing keeping Jeb in this race is pride: his family name is on the line (hence his paradoxical need to defend Dubya’s record all the while trying to avoid the negative connections that Duyba’s disasters still are for most Americans).

    That and Jeb’s 100 million bucks keep him in the game.

  72. 72.

    NotMax

    @rikyrah

    Technicality, but the $100 million is superPAC money, untouchable by the campaign or by Jebbie.

    Filings from July 2015 with the FEC show Jeb’s campaign having raised about $11 million (compared to Hillary’s $47 million).

    Also too (same link):

    Candidates also released their mandatory bundling disclosures, showing that Democrats and Republicans alike are earning considerable sums. Though candidates only have to disclose bundlers that are registered lobbyists, both Bush and Clinton have pledged to release a list of all their bundlers. Lobbyist bundlers for Bush helped raise $228,000, while the 40 lobbyists bundling for Clinton raised more than $2 million.

  73. 73.

    satby

    Happy Walker is out. Now for the rest of them to fall like dominos.

    Seems like I miss everything now that I’m a “mom” again. Welcome back AL! I missed knowing anything was wrong that kept you away!

  74. 74.

    trollhattan

    @rikyrah:

    That and Jeb’s 100 millionMILLyunnn bucks keep him in the game.

    If you don’t type that while saying it in a Dr. Evil voice it just doesn’t have much impact. Larry Ellison will spend that much on a pretty good party.

  77. 77.

    Mike J

    @efgoldman: I’ve actually been to a party or two paid for by him. Pretty good, even for us underlings, but nothing like the big money guys got.

    I’ve got a long way to go from my five man crew in club races to get his attention for sailing though.

  78. 78.

    SFAW

    @efgoldman:

    Speaking of sucking, can the Colts really be that bad? Because I absolutely refuse to believe that the Jets! Jets!! Jets!!! are anywhere near that good.

    Colts allegedly have key injuries in their secondary. Although Fitzpatrick’s completion rate was good tonight, his long throws were pretty sucky. If he were a first-year man, that’d be one thing, but since he’s a 10-year guy, well … He throws long like a kid who’s just trying to launch it as far as he can – twist his body left and down as he releases. If he could throw it 75 yards that way, it’s be one thing, but we’re talking only 30. Brandon Marshall was looking decent.

    Revis got burned on one play (that I saw) tonight, which is pretty remarkable, but he was the usual Darrelle for most of the game.

    Lots of miscues by the Dolts, the game should have been more competitive.

    Anyway: the Jets aren’t going to the Super Bowl, but they might finish #2 (behind the Cheats … um, I mean Pats). Haven’t seen the Bills play, but considering they had a chance to Beat the Cheats yesterday, until Taylor threw the INT in the last couple of minutes, then Rex might end up doing pretty well, maybe better than the Jets.

    The off-season move that the Jets needed to make was giving Woody his walking papers. But since that ain’t going to happen, they’ll just have to muddle along.

    But what’s with all the Jets hate? Is it because you’re a Pats fan? Or you hate Rex and it’s carrying over from last year? Or they gave you a tryout for Head Coach, but gave it to Rich Kotite instead?

    ETA: I miss Keyshawn.

  79. 79.

    ruemara

    @lamh36: you should watch me doing kickboxing then.

    anyone want to act in a movie? I’m making all the meals.

    OMG, Wilmer Vilderrama is in Minority Report? The urge to make jokes about his dating preferences is huge.

    edited to reflect: my fallback was just send the script out to festivals. HOLY. Shit. The entrance fees. This bites.

  84. 84.

    Mike J

    @SFAW:

    If I get him to give you an invite, would you change your mind?

    If you spend 15 minutes in silicon valley and can’t get an invite to an Oracle party, you should give up.

  87. 87.

    SFAW

    @efgoldman:

    Rex is gonna’ have to hire somebody who can spell “offense” too. Nine sacks, three INTs.

    What, Mornhinweg wasn’t the ne plus ultra of O-cons last year?

    As a New England fan, I was bound at birth to hate all NYC teams.

    See, I know/knew people of advanced years – older than you, certainly – from this area, who were Giants fans. My dear mother-in-law was one. I believe it stemmed from the days when the Giants were the only football team within 300 or 400 miles of Boston, i.e., before the AFL. (The Rochester Jeffersons don’t count.) So it’s not genetic.

  90. 90.

    SFAW

    @Mike J:

    I’ve got a long way to go from my five man crew in club races to get his attention for sailing though

    Four with cox? Why not the straight Four?

  92. 92.

    redshirt

    @SFAW:

    See, I know/knew people of advanced years – older than you, certainly – from this area, who were Giants fans. My dear mother-in-law was one. I believe it stemmed from the days when the Giants were the only football team within 300 or 400 miles of Boston, i.e., before the AFL. (The Rochester Jeffersons don’t count.) So it’s not genetic.

    To my shame my father, my uncle, and my grandfather (their father) are(were) all Giants fans. Their excuse is there was no New England team until the 60’s, so they had already established their fandom in the 50’s.

    But also as Yankee’s fans, because they were Giants fans, and the Yankees won all the titles in the 1950s.

    I’m so ashamed. This is the first time I’ve confessed this online.

  93. 93.

    redshirt

    @efgoldman:

    You sure you’re not projecting from the parties your boss threw at the Hunt Club?

    Don’t get me wrong I went to some swank events. Dinner tabs at 10K. But nothing decadent like caged dancers.

  96. 96.

    redshirt

    @Omnes Omnibus: For a corporate party? You’re pushing boundaries with BDSM stuff.

    I went to a party that had a replica of the Cheers bar, with look a like actors. That’s pretty decadent, I suppose, but also fairly tame.

  99. 99.

    Mike J

    @redshirt:

    That’s pretty decadent, I suppose, but also fairly tame.

    After dinner for a corp event, we went looking for trouble in Soho.Wound up in the back room of a mini cab stand smoking spliffs the size of your arm with the drivers waiting for calls.

  103. 103.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mike J: Ah, Jamaican minicab drivers…. The trip south of the over the river to Brixton with a whacked-out friend who was insisting on finding opium.

  108. 108.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @redshirt: Sorry, I just don’t consider “leather clad chicks in cages” to be decadent. Maybe I am jaded. Maybe it isn’t 1963. Who knows?

  110. 110.

    NotMax

    @Omnes Omnibus

    Emma Peel-type leather garb or miniskirts or thigh-high boots: Not decadent

    Leather ball gags and/or fur-trimmed leather wristcuffs (with chain): Decadent.

  114. 114.

    seaboogie

    @Anne Laurie: just be sure to engage your eemom pie filter. I don’t get her. Hating on you is like hating on puppies, kittens, warm apple pie with melty ice cream, rainbows, and vanilla/jasmine-scented unicorn farts – just puzzling. You are my favorite insomniac!

  115. 115.

    SFAW

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Read the book, damn it. Jeebus.

    Oh, I got the ref the first time. I was just busting your stones a little, what with you being an almost-Canadian (geographical-wise)

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Sailing =/= rowing.

    No shit. Some (lame) attempts at “jokes” you should just let pass.

  116. 116.

    SFAW

    @redshirt:

    I’m so ashamed. This is the first time I’ve confessed this online.

    Absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. As I said, my dear MiL (Portland born-and-bred) was a Giants fan for much of her life. When I first discovered that, I was amazed, but realized on reflection that it made sense.

    We’re here for you. But no need for a 12-step.

  117. 117.

    SFAW

    @redshirt:

    Larry Ellison is a huge Perv, is the point of my stories.

    Yeah, it’s tough to find him likable. Not that he cares whether he is, of course.

  119. 119.

    boatboy_srq

    @trollhattan: @redshirt: Ellison is a Piece’o’Work – but he knows he’s a Piece’o’Work. Case in point: one (of many) yachts he owns was originally named Izanami – until someone at one of those parties pointed out that if you read her name backwards it was…. her name change (to Ronin) was so fast people thought two yachts were built to the same design. Neither Trump nor anyone named Bush is sufficiently self-aware to be embarrassed by something like that.

  120. 120.

    TooManyJens

    @Mary G:

    ETA: clicking the data links in the Liz Mair tweets actually takes me back to a Tim F. post here from 2010 about calling your congresscritter about getting healthcare reform done.

    Thanks to which, I just went back and relived the Pass The Damn Bill days. Man, that was incredible.

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