Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s finish the job.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

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

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

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

Peak wingnut was a lie.

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

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

I really should read my own blog.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

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

Republicans do not pay their debts.

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Open Thread: Ugliest 80s Reunion Band Yet

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At least Jeane Kirkpatrick isn’t around to give us the benefit of her vast foreign policy experience…

Reader Interactions

130Comments

  2. 2.

    p.a.

    Elliott Abrams offers test 2 screen out Muslim refugees. “Muslims but not most Middle East Christians r circumcised”

    Rethug Congress: Will do. As long as the Pecker Peepers can’t unionize…

  3. 3.

    Amir Khalid

    Elliott Abrams offers test 2 screen out Muslim refugees. “Muslims but not most Middle East Christians r circumcised”

    “They wanted to see your WHAT!?”

  4. 4.

    Felonius Monk

    Pat Buchanan, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and Eliot Abrams. Weren’t they in a 1980’s band bund called The Swastikas?

  5. 5.

    jl

    OMG! WE! ARE! GONNA! DIE!!
    More outbursts of sincere concern and righteous wrath from the righteous right.
    What has the inadequate weak black man, totalitarian commie muslim tyrant, who crushes America, done now to destroy us and deliver us to the Mongol… I mean.. Chinese… no… Soviet… no, I mean Muslim hordes!?

    “Muslims but not most Middle East Christians r circumcised”
    So, Abrams wants male refugees from Syria to walk around with their junk out?
    Have to say that is an innovative solution. Have to hand it to Abrams… (no on second thought, forget I said that).

  6. 6.

    ruemara

    These people are depressing me, not that that’s hard to do.

    Working on audio today. Funny how sound helps make a boring scene seem livelier. Just have to record a pitch and edit a trailer.

  7. 7.

    khead

    I’m curious to see how many wingnuts on my FB feed will actually applaud the people who gave the beatdown to the protestor at the Trump rally today. No one yet, but I’m guessing by this time tomorrow…..

  8. 8.

    jl

    Nice to see Jeb? hanging in there, like a rock, at a distant fifth. I don’t see why people make fun of him. He’s lurking there ready to make a run when the time is right.

  11. 11.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Ah, yes, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, who made the ever so nice distinction between “authoritarian” and “totalitarian” regimes…as if when you’re being tortured by either of them you can tell the difference.

    Vile creature.

  16. 16.

    benw

    At least if we’ve inspected their schlongs before we let them in, we’ll know which ones will be purchasing a jacked-up pickup in a couple of years.

    But what to do about the chicks? Should we only let the hot ones in? Maybe at a ratio of ten women to each American man?

  17. 17.

    Jager

    Question:

    Which one of the Republican candidates, if elected, would be the most likely to fire an M-4 in the air from the Rose Garden?

  18. 18.

    NotMax

    Ugliest 80s Reunion Band Yet

    Phish is back in town?

    (Or, to capture stray evangelicals., Stryper.)

  23. 23.

    jl

    @efgoldman: OK, thanks for to the info, but I’ve given up. I am going to crawl under my bed with a few gallons of gatorade and some cheetos and hide there pissing my pants. It’s the American Way. The surrender to Mongol hordes has gone on for over 200 years, started by the DemocRAT Jefferson, it appears, and it is too late, we are doomed.

    For More Than 200 Years, America Has Shunned A ‘War On Islam’

    “…Morocco was the first in the world to recognize the new United States (in 1777); the two nations would subsequently sign a Treaty of Friendship in 1786, with John Adams and Thomas Jefferson signing for the United States… when a number of Moroccan Muslims… sought to flee the rising power and brutality of the Barbary States, they chose America as their destination. Many of these refugees settled in Charleston, South Carolina, helping comprise the state’s burgeoning Moorish community that would become the subject of one of South Carolina’s first post-Constitution laws, the Moors Sundry Act of 1790 ”

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/america-has-never-been-at-war-with-islam-barbary-pirates

    Morocco tricked us back in 1777, playing the long game. And as Trump could tell you, after the dumb loser DemocRAT Jefferson had the Barbary Pirates beat, he was a loser and didn’t take their oil (!?). It’s over now and we are doomed.

  31. 31.

    Fair Economist

    Elliott Abrams offers test 2 screen out Muslim refugees. “Muslims but not most Middle East Christians r circumcised”

    Leave it to Republicans to come up with a “test” that involves examining the penises of little boys and men. And what about the women? Republicans are scared of little girls, how does he propose testing them?

  32. 32.

    Steeplejack

    @Mnemosyne (tablet):

    This reminds me that every year I say I’m going to get the complete Blackadder DVD set because it includes Blackadder’s Christmas Carol, which is hilarious. Robbie Coltrane is one of the ghosts. But of course I never do. End of story.

  34. 34.

    Lamh36

    Hmmm…interesting election results so far John Bell Edwards in lead…GO voters are voting down ballet foe GOP pols and so far abandoning Vitter at the top!

    Let’s see of it holds.

  36. 36.

    Lamh36

    Just stunning Edwards has a double-digit lead with NOTHING reporting from New Orleans.

    Mary Landrieu lost by 20% outside of New Orleans.

  37. 37.

    Amir Khalid

    @efgoldman:
    I was curious as to why the child of a Podhoretz would be named Abrams, so I checked Wikipedia. Elliott Abrams is the widower of Norman Podhoretz’s stepdaughter Rachel Decter.

  42. 42.

    redshirt

    @khead: I saw Stryper in concert. They were terrible, but I shall never forget them tossing bibles out to the crowd and then those bibles getting destroyed. I could feel the atheism surging in me.

    To hell with the devil!

  44. 44.

    Gin & Tonic

    @jl: efgoldman got it better than I. It is inconceivable that Abrams did not know the history of that “test.”

  46. 46.

    Fair Economist

    @ruemara:

    Funny how sound helps make a boring scene seem livelier. Just have to record a pitch and edit a trailer.

    You’ve probably already seen this, but a funny illustration of that is the Star Wars IV throne scene without music.

  48. 48.

    Matt McIrvin

    Pat Buchanan has always had this sneaking admiration for radical Islamists’ cultural opinions, and, if I recall correctly, thinks it’s kind of legit for them to be pissed off at our shameless whoring around. Dinesh D’Souza has said similar things on occasion.

  49. 49.

    Corner Stone

    @JPL: It’s funny that Vitter is under carding other R’s up for election.
    Maybe hard core politics by D’s actually mean something when it comes to actual voting?

  57. 57.

    lamh36

    Local stations calling for Edwards, but waiting for official numbers.

    Vitter down 10% with NOLA not yet in…so

  61. 61.

    Corner Stone

    @JPL: And I’m sure this means something in Deep South election BS, somehow. Edwards is an asshole, and about as far right as you can be and still have a D by your name on the ballot.
    But Vitter is being utterly repudiated here. Maybe by hard core politicking by a statewide D pol? Maybe we can do this in other red spots?

  65. 65.

    Corner Stone

    @Baud: If it was that easy we’d be winning in at least 8 other red states.
    Oh… you mean hire one for the candidate. Sorry.

  66. 66.

    lamh36

    Headlines tomorrow will be that Vitter was a flawed candidate that GOP didn’t want. Credit should be given to Edwards who didn’t back down

  75. 75.

    lamh36

    @Gin & Tonic: and yet the Republican voter I know was voting for Vitter cause he also has high rating with NRA.

    I understand the need to go their with Southern Dem pols, but one thing I can say is unlike in Kentucky, If I recall correctly, John Bel Edwards did not run against Obama. He did not embrace him, by any means, but he did not run away from him either, nor did he try to back away from his party line votes. As I said at the very least, he wasn’t afraid to bring it to Vitter and his campaign never let up in any of the debates or commercials.

  76. 76.

    lamh36

    Vitter has announced he won’t be running for re-election to the Senate. Open seat race, here we come! #LASEN

    My bet is…the wife said…if you lose, I’m done.

  77. 77.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lamh36:The reporting over the last several days seemed to indicate that it was a combination of the fact that Jindal’s version of governance, combined with his disastrous GOP primary run and the fact that Vitter is widely known to be a vindictive SOB is what’s really done it. A number of Louisiana GOP professionals have all come out in the media and made some version of the above over the past week.

  80. 80.

    lamh36

    @Adam L Silverman: correct. my understaning… no establishment was behind Vitter. The wanted the former Lt Governor to be the nominee, but Vitter beat him barely in the run off to this election and so they were stuck with him.

    But there is no love lost for Vitter with establishment State Louisian Repub and that’s really more important than national establishment in off elections like this here.

    they wouldn’t complain, bad form, but they were not gung ho for him. I don’t recall seeing many RNC ads for Vitter.

    Scott Angelle the guy who lost to Vitter, I believe was more there guy, but the Jefferson Parish suburbs gave Vitter the run off win

    David Vitter did not even carry his own parish of Jefferson, according to @clancygambit

  83. 83.

    a different chris

    @efgoldman: The two situations are totally unrelated. German/European Jews were persecuted based on complete lies, whereas the Muslim Hordes are obviously guilty of everything they’re being accused of. So it’s OK to do… whatever might be required to deal with the situation.

  86. 86.

    lamh36

    If John Bel Edwards, does what Jindal did not, expands Medicaid, then his election is a win for a large number of Louisianians…regardless of his NRA rating or pro-life rating.

    So maybe Louisiana won’t be Kentucky!

    ‏kylewilsontharp 30m30 minutes ago Philadelphia, PA
    Big win for obamacare tonight too, Edwards expanding Medicaid for 250,000 Louisianians on day one in office

    KaiserFamFound 6m6 minutes ago
    Who could get coverage if #Louisiana expands #Medicaid?#Medicaidexpansion #lagov

  93. 93.

    catclub

    Has anyone suggested waterboarding refugees? Not sure what you would find out, but hey, give it a try!

  94. 94.

    Adam L Silverman

    @The Pale Scot: I’ve had that picture for a while. I always imagine the conversation going something like this:
    Francine: “George it was your turn to pick up the Black Republicans. I got the donuts”.
    George: “But I brought the plates and napkins, I thought Walt was bringing them.”
    Walt: “I brought the coffee…”

  96. 96.

    debbie

    Wow, it’s been quite a day, seeing the Republican Brain Trust: fake pro-Trump ads and eyeballing Mooslim dicks. It’s a pity that Phillip Roth has retired.

  97. 97.

    redshirt

    Speaking of 80’s bands, file this under “Sad but true”: The Romantics, creators of hits like “What I like about you” and “Talking in your sleep” sold the rights to all their music in the 80’s for a pittance, before Madison Avenue discovered that “What I like about you” is great for all kinds of commercials. So they’ve never seen a penny of that money, and are still touring, playing 3rd to 4th tier places in rural towns near you, maybe right now.

    Can you imagine the torture? You’ve got a couple of worldwide hits, decades ago, but are still driving an RV from podunk gym to smelly bar, playing the same songs over and over and over again for 30 years.

  98. 98.

    Steeplejack

    @redshirt:

    I assume the connection issues are at least part of Alain’s focus, as he’s the one who announced that there would be tweaking around 4:00 p.m. EST and then later asked for people’s experiences afterwards.

    And a “hosting problem” still has to get solved in reference to the site that’s having the problem. You can’t just kick it upstairs to the server gods and expect it to be magically taken care of.

  99. 99.

    Steeplejack

    @redshirt:

    [. . .] sold the rights to all their music in the ’80s for a pittance [. . .].

    Them and just about every other second-tier artist ever.

  100. 100.

    redshirt

    @Steeplejack: Yeah, probably. I thought the hosting company was involved, primarily.

    I wonder if the connection issues are related to the upgrade or just co-incidental. The latter seems unlikely, but it’s possible.

  103. 103.

    Steeplejack

    @redshirt:

    I wonder if the connection issues are related to the upgrade or just coincidental. The latter seems unlikely, but it’s possible.

    Magic 8-Ball says, “Upgrade.” How often before that were you getting any kind of server errors?

    ETA: Not to say the upgrade is a bad thing or that eventually things won’t run better. We’re just in a bit of a sticky transitional period right now.

  104. 104.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Steeplejack: I guess we disagree on what constitutes second tier. Are you going with chart popularity? I was thinking about talent.

    ETA: Bluesmen sold quite well with “urban” audiences. Money was made. Lots of it. The artists just didn’t get it.

  105. 105.

    redshirt

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, that’s stating the obvious. Led Zeppelin stole so much from those guys, as did all the early Rock acts.

    But I think the Romantics got a keg or a party out of their songs, so not as bad.

    Can you imagine how painful it must be to be watching a football game in a hotel in Rochester, NY (for example) and a Bud Light ad comes on featuring the song you actually created? And you’re still eating ramen noodles and living out of a suitcase?

  106. 106.

    redshirt

    @Steeplejack:

    Magic 8-Ball says, “Upgrade.” How often before that were you getting any kind of server errors?

    Seems likely. Must be one of these nefarious “plug-ins” that litter this “complicated” site of text and a few pictures.

  110. 110.

    Ruckus

    Maybe someone got here first.
    Pat Buchanan says millions of Muslims do not support his issues. I’m an atheist and I don’t agree with his issues either. And in my mind given that they don’t support Pat Buchanan or his kind, I’m glad to welcome them to our country. I’d of course also welcome him to take a fucking long hike off a short pier.

  112. 112.

    redshirt

    @Omnes Omnibus: True. But not at Romantics levels. Those guys could have all been multi-millionaires and they’re literally still playing high school gyms. Or the casin0 equivalent.

    EDIT: Said a forbidden word.

  113. 113.

    Steeplejack

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    In this situation I am going with popularity as the metric, because talent had fuck-all to do with who did or didn’t get paid. Only the bestselling artists had the resources for their agents and lawyers to prevent them from being screwed by the record companies.

    ETA:

    Money was made. Lots of it. The artists just didn’t get it.

    Which was my point. The Romantics are hardly alone in having a hard-luck story.

  116. 116.

    khead

    @redshirt:

    Missed your comment earlier. I saw a ridiculous amount of hair bands in my youth but I (thank God, of course) somehow missed out on the Stryper experience.

  122. 122.

    redshirt

    @Steeplejack:

    Which was my point. The Romantics are hardly alone in having a hard-luck story.

    True enough, but few musicians have had a song played in more commercials. “What I like about you” has been selling beer for two decades, with the actual band members seeing not a cent.

  126. 126.

    Karmus

    @Steeplejack: 2+ days ago, John Cole Hisself posted that one the one hand, “over the weekend the tech people at Hosting Matters are doing some sort of upgrade that is supposed to do something that makes things go faster”, and on the other hand, “there are a lot of other little tweaks that Alain is working on.” So these would appear to be two different, if not entirely unrelated, efforts. FWIW.

  128. 128.

    sm*t cl*de

    @Gin & Tonic:

    “Pull down your pants” to see if you were a Jew has a long history.

    Anyone whose relatives survived camps or resistance movements is entitled to get drunk,* because the other side seems to be getting the last word.

    * Like I need an excuse.

  129. 129.

    J R in WV

    @Ruckus:

    And in my mind given that they don’t support Pat Buchanan or his kind, I’m glad to welcome them to our country. I’d of course also welcome him to take a fucking long hike off a short pier.

    But only if we get to chum the water with chicken parts for an hour or two first, before he walks past the end of the pier. With video. For the “Republicans are so dumb” commercial!

    And there should be beer, and shucked oysters we could eat and spit at him when he walked by.

    It’s too late, I’m too sleepy to make any sense. If this isn’t snarky, someone take it away, please. Thank you.

  130. 130.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @jl:

    “Muslims but not most Middle East Christians r circumcised”
    So, Abrams wants male refugees from Syria to walk around with their junk out?
    Have to say that is an innovative solution. Have to hand it to Abrams… (no on second thought, forget I said that).

    And it’s the most NOT gay thing said by a conservative all year.

    But what about those Syrian Jews? I understand there is such a thing.

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