Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

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

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

In my day, never was longer.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Also, It’s Hard on the Worm

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Also, It’s Hard on the Worm

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I would be happier about the whole “In the end, the Repubs will sober up and not vote for a dangerous ignoramous out of pure spite” if my younger brother, age eight, had not actually eaten an earthworm just to prove that he could so eat worms if he wanted to, since I was not the boss of him.

Technically, the average GOP voter has more life experience than a very stubborn eight-year-old, but then, it’s not like the average GOP voter seems capable of learning anything from that experience.

****************
Apart from not encouraging the idiots, for those of us not lucky enough to be at Tom Levenson’s talk, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

93Comments

  1. 1.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Apart from not encouraging the idiots? Well, then I got nothing.

    ETA: Isn’t Tom’s last name Levenson?

  3. 3.

    Anoniminous

    Waiting for results from Kentucky governor race. Sitting Dem Gov is retiring, GOP hopes to grab it. The Dem candidate Jack Conway actually ran as a Democrat instead of Repug-Lite so should be a good test case to compare with the 2014 Senate race.

  5. 5.

    p.a.

    Technically, the average GOP voter has more life experience than a very stubborn eight-year-old, but then, it’s not like the average GOP voter seems capable of learning anything from that experience.

    “They had learned nothing and forgotten nothing.”

    The quote is attributed to Talleyrand in speaking about the restored Bourbon dynasty after the abdication of Napoleon

  6. 6.

    Srv

    Americans are smart, except sometimes:

    Carson has written of several instances in which he fell asleep at the wheel of his car. According to his books, he narrowly escaped colliding with an 18-wheeler after falling asleep on the road on two occasions, decades apart

    We need a president with energy.

  8. 8.

    max

    I would be happier about the whole “In the end, the Repubs will sober up and not vote for a dangerous ignoramous out of pure spite”

    Given the field of candidates at hand, it is not actually possible for the Republicans to not vote for a dangerous ignoramus (cf. Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio.)

    max
    [‘One of those 14 loons is going to be the nominee.’]

  9. 9.

    Roger Moore

    Who cares if the Republicans sober up and select one of the other guys rather than Trump or Carson? The biggest difference between them and the rest of the field is style, not substance. None of the Republican candidates belongs anywhere near the levers of power.

    ETA: or what max said.

  10. 10.

    Arm The Homeless

    Spending another week on the road, exploring the sights and sounds of rural Floriduh.

    I am somewhere north-east of the B. Cracker compound. I have been on the lookout for a trail of wine foil sculptures, but to no avail, so far.

  12. 12.

    Keith G

    I am waiting for voting results here on an issue best summed up in the Times.

    On Tuesday, Houston voters will be asked if they want to keep or repeal the city’s strong and enlightened equal rights ordinance, which was approved by the City Council last year and put on hold pending this week’s vote. Opponents of the law have perversely turned a broad, sensible measure that protects people from discrimination in employment, city services, housing and public accommodations, among other things, into a debate about sexual predators in women’s restrooms.

    What is disheartening about this very close issue is that polling indicates that a large vote against the ordinance will come from the city’s Black and Hispanic populations (they combine for 62% of the 2,233,000 living here).

    I hope the polling is wrong.

  13. 13.

    NotMax

    First day in the Oval Office for any of the cavalcade of clowns:

    “I still don’t understand. It doesn’t even look like a football.”

  14. 14.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @gogol’s wife:

    I was comparing it to “Frozen” — it’s just one of those right time, right place, right music things that happen once in a blue moon, and there’s no way to predict or imitate it.

    As POTUS says, it’s the only thing he and Dick Cheney can agree on.

  19. 19.

    PurpleGirl

    I’m going back and forth between BJ and the Livestream of Cassie’s Kitten Kastle. She had shut the cam down when she she began packing her apartment to move into her house. She had the cam on as a test for about a day and I think she is bringing in kittens!!! tonight. (I am trying to be patient…)

    http://livestream.com/cassieskittenkastle/events/4477322

    (Cassie is the rescuer I know in Northeast Connecticut.)

  21. 21.

    SatanicPanic

    If I had to choose, I suppose I would say Carson seems less likely to use nukes than Trump. Then again, Carson is very clearly a fool and who knows what kind of creeps he’d put in his cabinet. Not to mention, explaining a concept like “hey if we use to many nukes we might end up with a nuclear winter” to either of them would be a mission impossible.

  22. 22.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Keith G:

    Unfortunately for transwomen, weirdo creepy men have made it difficult for women to be comfortable with the idea of sharing public bathrooms with people who might have penises. Men are caught ALL THE DAMN TIME setting up cameras in women’s public bathrooms. So a lot of women are very, very uncomfortable with the idea of men being allowed in the women’s bathroom.

    This may be TMI, but if you’re a transwoman (or even just in drag) and need to use the ladies room in public, PLEASE sit down. Using it while standing up will freak out every other woman in that room and convince them that you are a pervert planning to take an upskirt video of them while they pee. Thank you.

  25. 25.

    Corner Stone

    @Keith G: I’ve honestly thought a lot about this and still am not sure why there’s a push for HERO.
    Not putting it on you to explain it to me but just wondering how it promotes equality.

  26. 26.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    NBC’s Chris Jansing, who says she covered her first presidential election in 1980, seems to think Ben Carson would be a formidable general election candidate

  32. 32.

    benw

    @SatanicPanic: other way around. My gut feeling is that Trump likes to be the biggest asshole in the room but wouldn’t pull the launch trigger because he wouldn’t see the profit/ego-gratification in it. I’d like someone to ask Carson the difference between nuclear and conventional bombs and see how whacked out his answer is. I can imagine him giving the order to fire without raising his voice.

  33. 33.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Corner Stone: Carson’s press secretary.

    Have any MSM VSP-types pointed out that the man is nuttier and squirrelier than a dumpster full of fruitcakes on December 26?

  36. 36.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Have any MSM VSP-types pointed out that the man is nuttier and squirrelier than a dumpster full of fruitcakes on December 26?

    No, because that would out the MSM VSP-types as liberals with a bias against good hard workin’ conservatives.

  40. 40.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Elizabelle: Hogwash, I’ve been assured by none less than Joe Scar that NBC is full of liberals that never voted for a Republican in their lives. This include the one’s that have passed on like Tim Potato.

  41. 41.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @piratedan7: I’m a congenital pessimist, but the three GOP nominees who wouldn’t scare me are Trump, Cruz and the guy calling for a Bible-based tax code.

  44. 44.

    Patricia Kayden

    Republican big wigs better do something to sabotage Trump and Carson long before the primaries get popping. They’ve got to know that neither of those Clowns will win in a general election and the Democratic candidate will give either of them a good shellacking. At least with a Rubio, they’d get closer to 50% of the popular vote.

  54. 54.

    Schlemazel

    @NotMax:
    +1 for the reference

    Back in the early 70’s I worked in a small resort community in Northern MN. 1500 residents & during fishing season 15,000 vacationers. The town theater had a PA system that could play outside and the owner had it running during their big community hoopla. He just grabbed the stack of records the kids working at the theater had. I’m walking down the street in a huge crowd and from the theater I hear, “DON”T BOGART THAT JOINT MY FRIEND!” The looks on faces was priceless.

  55. 55.

    Alex

    @Anoniminous: Kentucky race looks like the Republican is going to win the Governorship.

    Next up — getting rid of health insurance for 400,000 people.

  56. 56.

    Elizabelle

    Some excitement in the immediate neighborhood late afternoon. 11 year old girl got wedged in but good to a baby swing at the playground. Had to call 911 to get her extricated; they had to cut the swing off her. She’ll be fine.

    Asked dispatcher if there would be a charge to her family; didn’t want to saddle them with that but was worried people on the scene might dislocate her hip trying to get her out.

    Dispatcher: “No. It’s completely covered. Your tax dollars at work.”

    Rescue did a great job, but it was tricky and took a while to free her. They were wonderful and soothing, but she was very scared. Fine after her ordeal, but might have a bruise.

  59. 59.

    bemused

    “You’re not the boss of me” definitely plays a big role in the mindsets of Republicans, Libertarians, right leaning “independents” and hybrids which makes them prone to latch on to wildcards. It does make me nervous. Heck, bluish Minnesota went for Jesse Ventura.

  61. 61.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: The camera I’m using for infrared isn’t the best (10mp) but it’s been altered to capture IR. I got it on ebay for around $50.

  73. 73.

    Keith G

    @Corner Stone: I will give it a very brief attempt to be clear (I have just gotten back from a new Italian restaurant in the neighborhood and several glasses of wine are sloshing around in my system)

    Even though restaurants, excuse me, restrooms have gotten most of the press, the issue is about the consumption of all public services within the city.

    The explosive controversary is about the inclusion of gender identity as one of the protected classes. That is only one portion of the ordinance. There are 17 states and over 200 municipalities that have these protections extended to transgender citizens. These protections include the ability for transgender people to use public restrooms consistent with their gender identity. This is the part of the issue causing the greatest backlash.

  74. 74.

    JMG

    Perhaps I’m way off, but I think Carson could easily win a general election. The majority of voters know less than zero about public policy, and he looks and sounds nice.

  75. 75.

    Corner Stone

    @Keith G:

    Even though restaurants, excuse me, restrooms have gotten most of the press, the issue is about the consumption of all public services within the city.

    I’ve read multiple articles on this issue and what I repeatedly find interesting is that articles supporting HERO spend 5% or less casually mentioning it’s about equal rights and then the rest of the time talking about how ridiculous anti-HERO people are on bathrooms. None of them, that I have seen have clearly articulated that it’s about equal rights for public consumption and equal protection. All they ever talk about is crazy bathroom fetishists.
    I got the impression we were fighting to vote for Ally McBeal style bathrooms across the city.

  76. 76.

    PaulW

    right now I’m seeing on Twitter that Kentucky voters are going with the Tea Party psycho, meaning their state health care program is doomed.

    And this is after weeks of polling suggesting the Democrat was going to win.

    this is why we can’t take the Republicans for granted at the national level. If they send us the craziest SOB possible as their candidate for 2016, there’s a 50-50 chance that crazy SOB can win and we as a nation will be fucked.

  77. 77.

    Keith G

    @JMG: Being the nominee gets him to about 45% of the popular vote, but that does not translate to 45% of the electoral vote.

    I can’t imagine him doing better in the swing states than McCain or Romney. So….consider that.

  78. 78.

    JMG

    @Keith G: The white men who voted to take away their own health insurance tonight, and a whole lot of other white men, will take out their sexual anxieties and frustrations by voting against Hillary. I think it’s an underrated part of this election.

  79. 79.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @JMG: I don’t think he’s reality-based enough to finesse his Biblical literalism, and that would scare the crap out of a whole lot of Chamber of Commerce types and “fiscally-conservative, socially-liberal” tote-baggers who can tell themselves that McCain, Romney and Whoever are just humoring those… odd people.
    ETA: He’s loopier than Palin, and he would be on the top of the ticket. Nobody would want him in the number two spot, and I doubt he’d want it.

    ETA, again: Did anyone see a clip yesterday of some woman kneeling in front of Carson’s book-signing table and serenading him? I think it was a song from one of those Jesus musicals from the early 70s? Godspell or JC, Superstar?

  80. 80.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Keith G:

    As I said above, creepy perverts like this guy make women very nervous at the prospect of having biological men sharing the same bathrooms. It’s not fair, but that’s what people are thinking of when they think of transwomen using the women’s bathroom.

    I do wonder if it might be helpful to try and increase the penalties for that kind of thing in conjunction with the next version of the law.

  81. 81.

    Keith G

    @Corner Stone:

    I repeatedly find interesting is that articles supporting HERO spend 5% or less casually mentioning it’s about equal rights and then the rest of the time talking about how ridiculous anti-HERO people are on bathrooms. None of them, that I have seen have clearly articulated that it’s about equal rights for public consumption and equal protection. All they ever talk about is crazy bathroom fetishists.

    Ah well….that happens quite a lot here on this blog.

    Much, much bandwidth spent on snark and self congratulation, who is liked and not liked, and not enough spent on what our policy choices are, what they mean about us and our future, or how to make them better.

    Pretty thin gruel, but hey, at least we got a Black president.

  82. 82.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    However the primary turns out, I have to say watching a member of the Bush family get the Al Gore treatment has been pretty enjoyable. Thanks for the schadenfreude JEB!

  83. 83.

    Keith G

    Maybe. I actually think it is more about those “icky trans weirdos”. As said above, very many other places are making the right choice, but there are till pockets of confusion and down right ignorance.

  87. 87.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @Keith G:

    Well, you can discount ciswomen’s fears that are grounded in actual incidents that happen all the time and keep losing, or you can address those fears honestly and see if there’s a compromise or solution that allows transwomen and ciswomen to both feel comfortable and safe. From the non-legal side, there are ways to install and design bathrooms so everyone has privacy.

    Yes, there’s some transphobia and misunderstanding there, but it’s expressed with a rational fear that needs to be addressed, not dismissed.

  89. 89.

    Ajabu

    Road Show Update!
    I passed the half way mark earlier today so I guess I’m actually going to finish this ordeal. I’m currently in Flagstaff, AZ (where it’s cold & raining) so I broke down and checked into motel. – Every other night I’ve slept in the truck in a truck stop. Damn, taking a shower feels good… The worst part of this trip is the endless hours of abject boredom riding through desolation with literally nothing on the radio but country singers & preachers. Shit, I can’t even pick up AM hate talk (which would be good for a laugh or two). Of course, the boredom is occasionally interrupted by periods of intense concentration when you hit the urban traffic in cities and realize that you’re essentially driving a small building with wheels.
    One observation: This kind of trip makes you truly understand why it’s called “flyover country”. If an alien being was dropped down onto I-40W outside of Oklahoma City and didn’t notice Amarillo, Gallup or Flagstaff, AZ (don’t forget Winona!) <—– couldn't help it. I am, after all, a musician, and this fucker runs parallel to Route 66… Anyway, where were we? Oh, said alien would think this was some Mad Max scene with 18 wheelers chasing each other and an occasional stop for worship at Pilot, Flying J or Love's. There's literally NOTHING out here.
    For those of you who'd like to sing along, tomorrow is the hard part – Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino… but also the last ugly stretch before I hit the CA freeways with their own version of ugly. And then I get to spend the night with my lovely wife after 3 long months apart.
    Stay with me, guys. I'm going to finish this MOFO!!!

  90. 90.

    Keith G

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    Well, you can discount ciswomen’s fears that are grounded in actual incidents that happen all the time and keep losing,

    Well, once the exist polling is sifted through, I will let you know. Many of the pre election interviews that I happened to see were cismen talking about protecting their daughters from the herds of dicks poking out of dresses waved in their youngster’s faces.

  92. 92.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @Keith G:

    Nobody knows better just how pervy cismen are than other cismen. I can’t remember which creepy Republican was all, Hur-hur I totally would have dressed in drag to get into the girls’ locker room, but that’s a not atypical thing to say. (I have 4 older brothers who would forget I was within earshot. I’ve heard a lot.)

    The transphobic part of the equation is that people assume that transwomen are just men who want to pretend to be women but have the same creepy interests as certain cismen. The other part is the creepy interests of certain cismen who keep spying on women in bathrooms. I really think that emphasizing bathroom privacy for everyone regardless of gender identification is going to be a more winning message next time.

  93. 93.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Mnemosyne (tablet): For many years, when people heard about gay schoolteachers or Scoutmasters, they automatically thought of pedophiles. And, in fact, pedophile sexual predators are real and are all over the place, preying in positions of authority over kids; it’s just the assumption that gay people are more likely to be pedophiles that’s wrong.

    Somehow, people managed to make the separation from their legitimate fears to a sufficient extent that it’s now considered normal in at least a chunk of the country for there to be openly gay teachers.

    Something like that transition needs to happen. But it’s happened before.

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