Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

A dilettante blog from the great progressive state of West Virginia.

Everybody saw this coming.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

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

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

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

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

Infrastructure week. at last.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

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

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Afternoon Open Thread

Saturday Afternoon Open Thread

by | 57 Comments

This post is in: , ,

We’re watching Auburn vs. Arkansas (Go Hawgs!), currently tied in the 4th with the Razorbacks driving. Auburn has a player named Kerryon Johnson, a blue-chip recruit. But FFS, what was his mother thinking — Kerryon??

You might as well name your boy “Roadkill!” The snarky sports beat headlines write themselves: “The Buzzards Are Circling for Kerryon,” etc. Gah!

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

57Comments

  4. 4.

    Elizabelle

    Top-ranked reader comment on NYTimes story about how Poppy Bush does not understand why Jeb! is having such a tough ride of it; what’s happened to the party?: by commenter AR:

    The Bushes are like silk stockings filled with mud, some of the nastiest campaigners out there.

    Silk stockings filled with mud. True, and memorable.

    Bush at 91: Irritated and Invigorated by ’16 Race

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    @Roger Moore: You’ve heard the joke about the buzzard attempting to board the plane while carrying two dead possums? The flight attendant says, “Sorry, sir — only one carrion per passenger.” [insert sad trombone sound here.]

  6. 6.

    catclub

    Buried relatively deeply on Politico’s front page, beneath stories about Benghazi and the Jeb Bush campaign’s pay cuts, is a piece about how we are a handful of legislative days from surpassing our statutory borrowing limit and no one is doing anything.

    Also there may not be votes there, even with ALL Democrats voting in favor.

    http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/10/the_debt_ceiling_deadline_is_coming_fast_can_john_boehner_paul_ryan_or_someone.html

    Could be fun, now that the stock market is doing well, so expects no problems on this front.

  7. 7.

    PhoenixRising

    Logged in to find that Levenson already said it: It’s the verb phrase, not the noun.

    Or his mama is Kerri and his dad is Ontrel. I grew up with a number of kids whose unique names (LoShawn, Tondell, etc) were structured in that fashion.

    (Diverse schools made this white child smarter…by exposing me to the rich naming traditions of the African-American community in the Black Power era. Also grew up with kids with Yoruba and Swahili names, but the one-syllable-from-each-parent tactic was the one that I haven’t observed in other US ethnic communities. Probably a linguistics paper or a diss in that for someone.)

  8. 8.

    catclub

    Since it is an open thread, I just saw this:

    U.S. Sen. David Vitter is one of nine candidates looking to replace Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who has to step down because of term limits.

    Of course, Jindal could not get elected dogcatcher in Louisiana today.

  9. 9.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    Key and Peele have a funny sketch with a series of college football players solemnly saying their (obviously made-up) names.

    Also, too, I’m reading Ron Chernow’s “Alexander Hamilton.” It does come across as a little hagiographic, but that may be a necessary corrective since Hamilton was unfairly maligned by Jefferson’s partisans for so long. In retrospect, it does seem that there was a deep divide between Washington’s supporters and Jefferson’s supporters that nobody really thinks about these days, but was a real and sometimes deadly feud at the time.

  11. 11.

    Mandalay

    @Elizabelle:

    Silk stockings filled with mud. True, and memorable.

    And here’s another, from Matt Taibbi, after TreyGowdy asked Hillary Clinton an especially dumb question:

    He was proud, like a 3-year-old who went potty all by himself.

  12. 12.

    Tommy

    I don’t think I have ever pulled for TN. But go TN. Beat the shit out of Bama. LSU raven fan here and I’ll take Alabama losing today.

  14. 14.

    Ajabu

    @PhoenixRising:

    Back in the 70s there was a joke re: band names in South African trumpet player Hugh Masekela’s group.
    The intros would go:
    On piano, from Johannesburg, South Africa – Joe Smith
    On bass, from Moshi, Tanzania – Fred Johnson
    And on drums, from Detroit, Michigan – Kwame Mbutu Ulimwengu.

    Because we did have a thing in the states about creating names from the Motherland back then…

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    @Elizabelle: My hope is that the Bush clan unleashes every last bit of dirty tactics that they’ve stored up, only to see Jeb fall short. Maximum collateral damage, in other words.

  18. 18.

    different-church-lady

    Son, this world is rough
    And if a man’s gonna make it, he’s gotta be tough
    And I knew I wouldn’t be there to help ya along.
    So I give ya that name and I said goodbye
    I knew you’d have to get tough or die
    And it’s the name that helped to make you strong.

  19. 19.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @PhoenixRising:

    “Her mother’s name was Cleo,
    Her father’s name was Pat —
    They called her Cleopatra:
    Now whaddya think of that?”

    One of many nonsense verses to an old American folk song called Down on the Bingo Farm.

  25. 25.

    dmsilev

    @efgoldman:

    It’s all up to Shelob. If she says forget it, it’s all over. If she wants to keep going. Jebbie! will continue to embarrass himself.

    Shelob isn’t quite the right analogy. Remember, she was the daughter spider, and in Tolkien’s universe the children are usually pale reflections of the parents (much like the Bush clan, actually). Ergo, Barbara really should be analogized to Momma Spider, aka Ungoliant The Unliving.

  29. 29.

    rikyrah

    The Disproportionate Risks of Driving While Black

    An examination of traffic stops and arrests in Greensboro, N.C., uncovered wide racial differences in measure after measure of police conduct.
    OCT. 24, 2015

    GREENSBORO, N.C. — Rufus Scales, 26 and black, was driving his younger brother Devin to his hair-cutting class in this genteel, leafy city when they heard the siren’s whoop and saw the blue light in the rearview mirror of their black pickup. Two police officers pulled them over for minor infractions that included expired plates and failing to hang a flag from a load of scrap metal in the pickup’s bed. But what happened next was nothing like a routine traffic stop.

    Uncertain whether to get out of the car, Rufus Scales said, he reached to restrain his brother from opening the door. A black officer stunned him with a Taser, he said, and a white officer yanked him from the driver’s seat. Temporarily paralyzed by the shock, he said, he fell face down, and the officer dragged him across the asphalt.

    Rufus Scales emerged from the encounter with four traffic tickets; a charge of assaulting an officer, later dismissed; a chipped tooth; and a split upper lip that required five stitches.

    http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-disproportionate-risks-of-driving-while-black/ar-BBmorCP?li=AAa0dzB&ocid=iehp

  31. 31.

    rikyrah

    Ok, folks. Got my full-on ITIS going on right now. All week, I dreamt of the meal I had today. For my Chicago folks, I took myself to Lem’s and got me a Large tip/Hot link combo, hot & mild sauce.

    For the non-Chicagoans…Lem’s is a shack that sits in the middle of the street. No place to sit down..just get yourself in there – maybe 6 people can fit in there at a time, and get your order and go. Until about a year ago, Lem’s didn’t even take credit cards. So, you know what kind of place it is..

    BEST BLACK BBQ EVAH!!

    Stuff’s so greasy, it’s seeping through the paperbag before you can get home.

    So, you get your Lem’s , another plate, paper towels, and babywipes….

    And, here comes the ITIS..LOL

    Sometimes, you just want the ITIS…

    My sister in Minnesota called while I was eating, and when I told her it was Lem’s, she was like, ‘ have a few tips for me.’

    LOL

  32. 32.

    Emma

    @efgoldman: Bull… feathers. Conservatives were the ones who couldn’t let go of Jim Crow and segregation. Who believed a woman had a place and it was firmly under the thumb of a man. Who believed America had the right to take whatever it wanted from the rest of the world. Spare me the reasonable conservative bs.

  33. 33.

    Amir Khalid

    @dmsilev:
    When you consider how pitiful the sons of Bar are, Shelob might actually be the more appropriate comparison for her.

  34. 34.

    dogwood

    As we democrats get ready to make a woman the first nominee of a political party, I would like to remind everyone about what’s coming. The mysogyny republicans heaved upon Hillary when she was First Lady was abhorrent. We’ve seen the same stuff when it comes to women like Cecile Richards and Sandra Fluke, and don’t forget the disrespect of Michelle Obama. It seems every post that involves Jeb Bush ends up with snide comments about Barbara the “shelob”,and as a woman I find it cringeworthy and offensive. As with any public figure I have impressions of Barbara Bush, some negative and some positive, but what I can say for sure about her and any other First Lady is she never made a law or stared a war or handed out tax cuts to anyone. I might be a chorus of one here, but I wish this crap would stop.

  37. 37.

    Brachiator

    @dmsilev:

    Shelob isn’t quite the right analogy. Remember, she was the daughter spider, and in Tolkien’s universe the children are usually pale reflections of the parents (much like the Bush clan, actually).

    I don’t know. The whole thing seems more like something out of The Sopranos. The Bush crime family gather together for a war council, and Bar is consigliere.

    Bar: This Trump, this briscola, comes out of Queens and Manhattan, and thinks he can take us on? Slaps my boy, Jeb around like he’s a school kid. Whatta we do about this? Whatta we gotta do to take him down?

    Problem is, so far Jeb! is more Fredo than he is a Sonny Corleone, let alone a Michael.

  38. 38.

    PaulW

    @dogwood:

    we know. as bad as the Republicans have been about Obama – claiming he’s not even American because he was too African(American) for their tastes – they will be just as bad about Hillary being a woman. They won’t go after her on her birth certificate, but they are going to dredge up every nasty story about her from 1992 and earlier and stick to it until people believe the lies.

  39. 39.

    PhoenixRising

    @rikyrah:
    Mmmmm…barbeque.

    In Oakland, that BBQ was called Flint’s, back in the 90s.

    As the lowest-ranked new hire* in my department at SF’s most racially diverse law firm, I was sent on BART on a 4th Friday (firm buys, each dept. goes out for its own) to bring back lunch. It took the guys 3 bites to put down their plates, look at each other, and burst out laughing.

    I had returned from the mother ship with…the white girl cut. Those tips were not burnt, they were inedible. The fatty end of the brisket. Etc. They put all that Friday’s leavings into 4 mixed plates and sent me out the door knowing no better. And thus the ‘last hired’ tradition of lunch pickup was reshaped for the duration of my stay in the job.

    *In addition to being last hired, I was also the only white person in the room.

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @Brachiator:

    Olivia Soprano was originally supposed to be a major character through the whole series, but unfortunately Nancy Marchand died of cancer after the first season. Not that either W or Jeb match Tony Soprano in intelligence or cunning.

  43. 43.

    Brachiator

    Holy Moly! The Man in the High Castle is gearing up on Amazon

    Looks like the first two episodes are free to stream.

    Watch episodes 1 and 2 of the compelling and provocative new series based on the novel from acclaimed author Philip K. Dick. The Man in the High Castle takes a glimpse into an alternate history and what life may have been like had the Allied Powers lost WWII. All episodes will be available November 20, 2015.

    The pilot was quite good. And chilling.

    Free to Amazon Prime members. Not sure what the season price will be for everyone else.

  45. 45.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne (tablet): Marchand was also great as Margaret Pynchon on “Lou Grant,” perhaps also a nod to another powerful matriarch, Buffy Chandler, wife of LA Times publisher Norman, and momma of Otis.

    Not that either W or Jeb match Tony Soprano in intelligence or cunning.

    Right now, Jeb! can’t even match Daffy Duck in intelligence or cunning.

    BTW: I went to Amazon to see if the album or MP3 for “Alexander Hamilton” was available. Turns out it’s currently free as part of Amazon prime music. Now I have no excuse, and definitely a sign from the gods, along with the availability of the first two episodes of the tv adaptation of “The Man in the High Castle.” Woo hoo!

  48. 48.

    Emma

    @efgoldman: Actually I do know that. My frame is older too. But that paean to conservatism set me off because of its implication that all good things came from conservatism. And the hippie trope was old and stale twenty years ago.

  49. 49.

    Brachiator

    @PaulW:

    we know. as bad as the Republicans have been about Obama – claiming he’s not even American because he was too African(American) for their tastes

    Come on, get it right. ;) The worst conservative scum have a fetish over Obama being “half white,” and presumably wise in the ways of the White Devil, or not authentically black like a Herman Cain or Ben Carson

    – they will be just as bad about Hillary being a woman. They won’t go after her on her birth certificate, but they are going to dredge up every nasty story about her from 1992 and earlier and stick to it until people believe the lies.

    They’ve already tried this, and it will only have resonance with the small core of dedicated haters.

    Some fool whose name I didn’t bother to remember has already been making the media circuit with a book about how Hillary was the Harpy of the White House, terrorizing “the common man,” from the staff to her Secret Service detail. Another stooge, maybe Ed Klein, has given interviews about her unwomanly ambition and calculated phoniness.

    You are very correct that they will go after her, but they are stupid and unimaginative trolls whose efforts hopefully will be futile.

  50. 50.

    Corner Stone

    @Emma:

    As Brooks so succinctly put it: they used to be people who knew how to nurture and run things.

    Nothing else needs to be said about Jim Wright’s stupid fucking paean to “real, genuine, honorable, holy, loving, paragons of society that were conservatives back when blacks were still being lynched”.*
    Yeah, they nurtured the shot outta some stuff. While telling Mamie to hotshoe it while serving their guests.
    There has never, ever, ever been a reasonable Conservative Republican. They went from being abolitionists who in the abstract desired the end of slavery but in reality hated black people, to being privileged white people who made god damn sure no blackies challenged their status quo. They were reasonable and nurturing and interested in governing *only because* blacks, Mexicans and POC had NO POWER TO CHALLENGE THEM.
    Fuck Jim Wright. Fuck him up his stupid ass.

    ETA* Lynched in the real deal rope lynching. They are still being lynched but it’s now mostly by firearm. That’s just what it is.
    Fuck Ronald Reagan. Fuck him up his stupid ass.

  53. 53.

    Corner Stone

    @Steeplejack (phone): The whole thing is fucking bullshit.
    Republicans were nurturing and hippies (aka Democrats in case that wasn’t fucking clear) were high as a kite and stunk like mud and old sweaty sex.
    Fuck that POS, and anyone who says it’s worth reading.

  54. 54.

    Bill Murray

    As we democrats get ready to make a woman the first nominee of a political party,

    While I know many Democrats like to say bad things about the Green Party, they ran an all female ticket in 2012

  55. 55.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Corner Stone:

    You made a great point:

    They were reasonable and nurturing and interested in governing *only because* blacks, Mexicans and POC had NO POWER TO CHALLENGE THEM.

  56. 56.

    redshirt

    @efgoldman:

    All I know about the Ring is the Peter Jackson trilogy, Never read it, don’t want to.

    LOTR is a wonderful book, but not for the reasons you might guess.

    It’s so domestic – i.e. stressing the importance of Home. And so many wonderful details.

Comments are closed.