Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

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

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

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

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

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Everybody saw this coming.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

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

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

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

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

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88Comments

  5. 5.

    Frankensteinbeck

    The thing that sticks with me as the testament to how evil a son of a bitch Columbus was, is that he told his men to focus on nine year old girls as the best slaves to ship back home.

    I learned all this stuff pretty recently. Before then I was merely amused that the man was celebrated for being flat wrong. He made the trip because he insisted that his math was right and every previous calculation was wrong, the world was more egg shaped than spherical, and the ocean between Spain and India was waaaay smaller than it really is.

  9. 9.

    Paul in KY

    @Frankensteinbeck: He was like a modern Republican in that he said what he had to say to get fundraising. Also, I guess, probably a parallel somewhere with the 9 year old girls.

  12. 12.

    Oatler.

    Is this a mail day, or not? Do I need to peek at the schoolgirls walking home, or is it a holiday? The inquiring shut-in needs to know.

  13. 13.

    goblue72

    @WereBear: What, a TV series in which the lead female character’s title name is “Wife” hasn’t aged well? The one thing that show DID get right was having a show starring Rock Hudson be set in San Francisco. *ba-dum-dum*

  14. 14.

    ShadeTail

    Columbus “discovered” a landmass that millions of people already knew about because *they lived there*, and single-handedly started the Atlantic slave trade. He did have a fair amount of influence, to be sure, but not the kind that deserves a holiday.

  16. 16.

    Elie

    Per Charles Pierce today:

    If you want to figure out what the Freedom Caucus is up to in the House, look back to Irish history and what Charles Stewart Parnell was able to do in the British Parliament. You don’t have to have a majority to get what you want. All you need is enough votes to keep everyone else from getting what they want, then they have to bargain with you. Parnell did this so well that he came within an ace of getting Home Rule in Ireland, which would have changed a lot of bloody history.

    He goes on to say that he thinks that the goals here are much smaller, but I don’t share his view. This has been my concern all along — that they will use this as leverage to exact concessions from the other so called “moderate” Republicans and ultimately, the Congress and administration. It would have to be handled very carefully to defuse this without having to take major Constitutional risks or face a major Constitutional crisis. These are the Putins of our system — Hope some very very sharp folks are modeling out some possible strategies to defeat this, but I do not think this will be easy.

  18. 18.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    I think sometimes people don’t get that the conflict over Columbus Day wasn’t just about white people vs American Indians, but about Roman Catholic Italian-Americans wanting to keep what was their doorway into being accepted by WASPs. It’s something that can (thankfully) be discarded now, but the conflict was always a bit more complicated and was much more ethnic and religious than people in non-Catholic areas of the country seemed to realize. There’s a reason the Catholic laymen’s organization that’s supposed to defend and promote Catholicism is called the Knights of Columbus.

  20. 20.

    Punchy

    There’s a whole day dedicated to celebrating Ohio’s biggest city! Go eff yerself, Cleveland.

  22. 22.

    MobiusKlein

    @a guy: I know your fantasies about young children being the best stock for wives engages you, but I need brain bleach after reading your crap.

    (not a real a guy comment, but I’m getting my reply in before he posts.)

  24. 24.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Do you know which came first as a mass ethnic celebration, St. Patrick’s Day or Columbus Day? They seem to have parallels in just the way you described, as rallies for Catholic immigrant heritage.

  27. 27.

    PurpleGirl

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): One of the reasons that Arizona did not like the idea of a day for Martin Luther King, Jr. was that the state workers were told they’d have to give up Columbus Day in order to get MLK Day off. Great way to pit one group of people against another.

  28. 28.

    ruemara

    Trying to focus on 4 hours sleep. Still hunting for male actors, but I think we’re gonna do the whole schlamiel.

    I would post my smugmug link to shill for sales for the production but I can’t even remember my name right now. 2 weeks!

  29. 29.

    cokane

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Not even just this. Columbus day is a widely celebrated holiday from Canada to Argentina. Regardless of the bullshit grandstanding over the morals of a 15th century conquistador, the day is an undeniably important event in world history.

  30. 30.

    Roger Moore

    @ShadeTail:

    Columbus “discovered” a landmass that millions of people already knew about because *they lived there*, and single-handedly started the Atlantic slave trade.

    Columbus established permanent communication between the Old and New Worlds, and in the process he single-handedly started the basic concept of trans-Atlantic trade. That gets simplified to the concept of him discovering the New World, but don’t let that oversimplification- or the evil that he did personally- get in the way of understanding the epic historical importance of what he did.

  35. 35.

    PurpleGirl

    NYC has two parades — Italians on Columbus Day and a Hispanic Americans parade a day or two earlier. Gotta cover both groups.

  36. 36.

    cokane

    @Just One More Canuck: Right on. In Latin America it’s not even celebrated as “Columbus Day” but rather just the 12th of October. Celebrating the event rather than the man, which is wiser for a number of reasons.

  37. 37.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    @cokane: There’s no Columbus Day in Canuckistan you hoser. It’s Canadian Thanksgiving thank you very much.

    Canada…putting up with USAians knowing shit about their neighbours since the days of the 14 colonies…

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @cokane:

    According to Wikipedia, in Latin America it’s called “La Dia de La Raza” and focuses more on Spanish influence in Latin America than specifically on Columbus.

    Canada celebrates their Thanksgiving the same time as Columbus Day is celebrated in the US (second Monday of October), but I don’t think they’re specifically connected.

    It seems to be primarily in the US where Christopher Columbus is specifically celebrated as an individual, and I think it has to do with the ethnic and religious pride reasons I detailed above.

  45. 45.

    Germy Shoemangler

    I distinctly remember being taught in elementary school that before Columbus, everyone thought the world was flat. And that brave Columbus sailed off and proved everybody wrong. “You’ll fall off the edge of the earth!” they warned him, but he didn’t listen.

    That’s what I was taught in elementary school, in 1965.

  47. 47.

    Germy Shoemangler

    In this Fats Waller song “Christopher Columbus” from 1936

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T3NtEB_4qA

    We learn his crew was “making merry” and “Mary got up and went home”

    Mister Christopher Columbus
    Sailed the sea without a compass.
    When his men began a rumpus,
    Up spoke Christopher Columbus:

    “There is land somewhere.
    Until we get there,
    We will not go wrong,
    If we sing, swing a song.

    Since the world is round,
    We’ll be safe and sound
    Til our goal is found,
    We’ll just keep rhythm bound.”

    Soon the crew was makin’ merry
    Then came a yell: “Let’s drink to Isabelle,
    Hum, bring the rum, Ho Hum.”

    No more mutiny,
    What a time at sea
    With di-plo-ma-cy
    Christy made his-to-ry

    Mister Christopher Columbus,
    He used rhythm as a compass.
    Music ended all the rumpus.
    Wise old Christopher Columbus.

  48. 48.

    Pogonip

    @Punchy: Columbus has a 21st-century population density and Baby Boom roads. It takes forever to go anywhere. I finally couldn’t take it any more, moved, joined a van pool. Still takes forever to go to and from work but now I’m reading so I don’t care.

  49. 49.

    Joseph Nobles

    I celebrate my birthday. And with my birthday powers, I declare today Mazzei Day. Philip Mazzei, that is, the guy who told Jefferson all men were created equal several years before he wrote the Declaration. Happy Mazzei Day!

  53. 53.

    schrodinger's cat

    In ten days time there will be Dassera celebrations (10th day of the month of Ashwin, during the fortnight of the waxing moon), the biggest Hindu feast after Diwali. In north India it is associated with the victory of Rama over Ravana but in the west (Gujarat and Maharashtra) and the east (Bengal) it is the culmination of navratri (9 nights) where you celebrate the feminine form of the divine, Shiva’s consort Parvati as Amba or Durga or Ekveera.
    The hostess usually invites all the women she knows, usually family and friends, treats them as the manifestation of the female divinity, washing their feet, giving them flowers etc. Then there is a celebratory lunch.

    On the tenth day, you exchange “gold” i.e. leaves of the Apte tree with your friends and family. Take this gold and follow the golden rule.

    Dassera is also a day when you pay homage to Saraswati, the goddess of learning by performing pooja of your books and writing implements.

    ETA: My aunt used to have the most awesome navaratri celebrations ever. She doesn’t these days because she is nearing 70 and its too much work.

  55. 55.

    cokane

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): It’s definitely weird how Columbus has such an outsized importance as a historical figure in US culture, which I think explains some of the over-the-top pushback that’s been happening in past decades or two. I remember being taught all the myths (in school!) about Columbus such as him thinking the world was round when others thought it flat.

    I live in Latin America, it certainly varies across the countries, but in almost every big city there’s a plaza or street named 12 of October and it’s really a day celebrating the creation of Latino culture/identity, which is the union of Iberian culture and indigenous culture. But it also clearly celebrates an event in a particular year from which all this arose.

  56. 56.

    schrodinger's cat

    Trying again, I got moderated.
    In ten days time there will be Dassera celebrations (10th day of the month of Ashwin, during the fortnight of the waxing moon), the biggest Hindu feast after Diwali. In north India it is associated with the victory of Rama over Ravana but in the west (Gujarat and Maharashtra) and the east (Bengal) it is the culmination of navratri (9 nights) where you celebrate the feminine form of the divine, Shiva’s consort Parvati as Amba or Durga or Ekveera.
    The hostess usually invites all the women she knows, usually family and friends, treats them as the manifestation of the female divinity, washing their feet, giving them flowers etc. Then there is a celebratory lunch.

    On the tenth day, you exchange “gold” i.e. leaves of the Apte tree with your friends and family. Take this gold and follow the golden rule.

    Dassera is also a day when you pay homage to Saraswati, the goddess of learning by performing pooja of your books and writing implements.

    ETA: My aunt used to have the most awesome navaratri celebrations ever. She doesn’t these days because she is nearing 70 and its too much work.

  57. 57.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    @Punchy:

    There’s a whole day dedicated to celebrating Ohio’s biggest city! Go eff yerself, Cleveland.

    What if I don’t like The Ohio State?

  60. 60.

    Mike in NC

    When I lived in Rhode Island 20 years ago V-J Day was still an official state holiday, I kid you not.

  62. 62.

    Germy Shoemangler

    Autumn is here, but not everyone is fortunate enough to see fall foliage we experience in the northeast, until now.

    A new start-up business will collect, preserve and ship the northeast’s finest fall leaves to your doorstep.
    People can buy a three leaf bundle for $19.99.

    They are being sold at shipfoliage.com.

    Massachusetts entrepreneur Kyle Waring launched the site last week.

    He similarly boxed and marketed New England snow during last year’s record-setting winter in Boston.

    Now he’s branching out to autumn leaves.

  64. 64.

    shell

    Eh on McMillan & Wife, they haven’t aged well,

    I remember reading that Rock Hudson ad Susan St James couldnt stand each other. And I think it shows; zero chemistry.
    *******************

    He similarly boxed and marketed New England snow during last year’s record-setting winter in Boston.

    What an entrepeneur!
    ******************

    Oy, what is the point of Columbus Day? No mail, no banking and a parade that nobody watches.

  67. 67.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Paul in KY: Most Hindi movies have a passing acquaintance with reality at best. This particular movie is set in the present but in a place that doesn’t really exist. Nowhere land in Gujarat between two warring families, where the major commerce is supposedly buying and selling guns.

    ETA: There are realistic Hindi movies too, usually they win awards as such but don’t make much money.
    Lunchbox with Irrfan Khan was one such movie. Shahrukh Khan’s Chakk de India where he is a coach of the winning Indian women’s hockey team was based on a true story and pretty realistic too.

  70. 70.

    PurpleGirl

    @shell:

    I remember reading that Rock Hudson ad Susan St James couldnt stand each other. And I think it shows; zero chemistry.

    Yes, the pairing was really weird. I never got what the characters were supposed to have seen in each other.

  71. 71.

    Just One More Canuck

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Yeah it seemed to move around a bit before settling on this weekend – it makes sense for us to have it earlier than you since our harvest will generally be earlier,

    In any event, it’s current date is always good for me as it pretty much guarantees me a turkey dinner around my birthday

  72. 72.

    PurpleGirl

    @schrodinger’s cat: Did you see Bride and Prejudice? I thought it was a pretty good film — lots of good dance sequences. One year the theater broker which my non-profit worked with had a ‘thank you’ evening for their best customers. They had a dinner at an Indian restaurant and then hosted us at a performance of Bombay Dreams. That was neat too.

  73. 73.

    Jay C

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    However he failed his primary goal of reaching India from Europe solely by a sea route.

    Well, to be more pedantic precise about it, Columbus’s “primary goal” seems to have been to pioneer a sea route to India/China – that he had control over and could profit from. The Portuguese had already spent much of the latter 15th Century exploring the African coast, and once they rounded the Cape of Good Hope, gone on to India – and more, importantly, gotten back. Columbus (a skilled navigator) had long thought there was land on the other side of the Atlantic: IIRC, he had spent years trying to pitch the Portuguese Crown to finance a voyage for him: when they didn’t bite, he took his act to Spain. He basically HAD to tell them it was “India” he was looking to find: no one was going to cough up the dinero without the prospects of a big payday. Which, of course, they ultimately got (even thought they had to share the New World with Portugal, anyway).

  75. 75.

    schrodinger's cat

    @PurpleGirl: I did see it a while ago. I didn’t much like it. Could be because I am not a great fan of Aishwarya’s.
    @Paul in KY: Thanks for your good wishes and I too love the choreography. Bhansali is coming out with a historical movie this November, with the same lead pair as the Ramleela song and it also has Priyanka Chopra who is starring in ABC’s Quantico right now. I am curious, the preview has me interested.

  77. 77.

    p.a.

    Think it’s been pc’d to Victory Day. I don’t see an issue celebrating the end of WW II if it’s dissociated from racial animus. I think 11/11 should go back to being remembered as Armistice Day as the horrors of WW I fade in our collective memory.

  78. 78.

    kc

    Columbus Day is the day on which enlightened white people on Twitter and blogs can demonstrate how enlightened they are, without making any material sacrifice whatsoever.

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @cokane:

    I really think it’s the ethnic identification of Columbus as an Italian and the discrimination and violence that Italian-Americans had to deal with that led to the holiday being so closely tied to him as a person in the US when it’s a much looser “discovery day” celebration in the rest of the hemisphere. Melting pot!

  80. 80.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    Speaking of ethnic holidays, Illinois is the only state that commemorates Casimir Pulaski Day. There’s a separate federal commemoration day for him, but Illinois decided to commemorate his March birthdate, not his October death date (at the Siege of Savannah during the Revolutionary War) as the federal holiday does.

  82. 82.

    SWMBO

    John Cole. Haven’t read the thread because it’s driving me fucking nuts having it pop back up to the top of the page every few seconds. When I finally get back to where I was, it waits until I’ve read a couple more comments and *whee* I’m back at the top. I’m on firefox if that helps. This is happening across all threads.

  85. 85.

    J R in WV

    @Mike in NC:

    In my home town, there was an Italian guy who ran a tiny fruits and vegetables stand, with maybe shoe-shine or a barber chair too. By himself he raised enough money each year for a V-J Day fireworks display, with a big party to boot.

    It was a real fireworks show, too, European style rockets with showers of lights changing colors as they fell towards earth. V-J Day was the end of World War II… the worst war in history. Everyone kicked in a little money, and Everyone, EVERYONE!! stopped to watch those fireworks.

    And if it rained, he did it anyway! On the correct day!

    Even though he was not upper class, everyone in town knew him, and knew that he was a WW II Vet, and that it was a big deal that that war was over on that day in 1945.

  87. 87.

    Paul in KY

    @J R in WV: My dad was on his way across US (had just returned from Germany) to be in invasion of Japan, when VJ Day was announced. He was quite happy.

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