Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

This fight is for everything.

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

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

This blog will pay for itself.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Come on, man.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

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

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

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

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

People are weird.

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Reader Interactions

82Comments

  1. 1.

    Germy

    I love that Trump says he will run as an independent if the GOP doesn’t treat him right.

    “But we had a contract!!”

  2. 2.

    Germy

    ‏@ivortossell
    5 stages of Trump thinkpiece:
    1. Ha Ha, Trump
    2. Why Trump Can’t Win
    3. Explaining Trump
    4. We Must Respect Real America
    5. Oh God, Oh God

  6. 6.

    redshirt

    What is “truth”?

    Doesn’t Einstein’s theory of relativity tell us all things depend on perspective?

    And isn’t perspective always subjective?

    And isn’t subjectivity never objective?

  8. 8.

    Amir Khalid

    Dear God. Donald Trump transzendiert die Wahrheit, wie Scheiße Sauberkeit transzendiert.

    (I don’t know why, but that thought came to me in German.)

  13. 13.

    goblue72

    Is there a workaround to including a webpage link in a comment and NOT getting borked into moderation?

  15. 15.

    goblue72

    I see that photo and all I think is that its a guy who misplaced his dildo and just sat down and found it, and some talking airhead who is really really hoping nobody finds that porn video she shot for some extra cash when she was in college.

  18. 18.

    Amir Khalid

    @goblue72:
    As you type your comment, highlight the text you want to associate with the link; hit the “link” button (top of the comment text box, third from left); paste in the link URL; hit OK to confirm. Then, type the rest of your comment and hit Post Comment as normal.

  21. 21.

    Luthe

    @goblue72: This is terribly OT, but you’ve mentioned before you work/worked in real estate development. Have you any need for a planner or do you know someone who does? *waves resume*

  25. 25.

    Mike J

    @Mike J: Ok, I think I found the problem with naked links going into moderation. The yoast seo script that rewrites all outbound links to register in google analytics winds up repeating the url multiple times. Enough times in fact, to trigger the “three links you’re out” rule for moderation.

    ex:
    a href= URL onclick=”__gaTracker(‘send’, ‘event’, ‘outbound-comment’, ‘URL’, ‘TRUNCATED URL’);” rel=”nofollow”>TRUNCATED URL

    URL is the naked url you entered. TRUNCATED URL is the shortened form of it that wordpress displays. If you have a long naked url it will replace the middle bit with an ellipsis, but keep the protocol name and punctuation up front.

    So the naked url shows up twice, and the truncated version shows up twice. Four urls in one post, instant moderation.

    Is yoast actually doing anything worthwhile, or is it just fun to say SEO? If you don’t need it and don’t use the data, use the plugin that’s trying to game search engine results and hosing the users at the same time.

  26. 26.

    NotMax

    @goblue72

    An alternative to using the button is to use basic HTML.

    <a href=”full URL”>Text</a>

    Don’t forget the quote marks, or else it won’t work.

  28. 28.

    jl

    Tag is ‘Decline and Fall’.

    Does the blog have a ‘life, such as it is, in the smoking ruins’ tag?

    Probably should get one. Might be badly needed on a daily basis after January 2016.

  32. 32.

    Mike J

    @goblue72:

    Is there a workaround to including a webpage link in a comment and NOT getting borked into moderation?

    I figured out why it does it, but my comment explaining it is stuck in moderation.

  33. 33.

    jl

    @redshirt: I’ll go with slime mold. Indestructible, closest thing we have to The Blob. The waterbears are deserving, but they are the cutest little microscopic things you can imagine, they graze on tiny herbs, and seem nice. I think they might prefer to shoot themselves off into space, since they probably can do fine there, rather than stay on a planet obliterated by GOPers and Trumpismo.

  39. 39.

    goblue72

    @Luthe: Where in country you at? I’m in SF Bay Area, but have worked in Seattle and Boston and still maintain contacts there.

    Urban planning for public agencies, urban design in architecture/design space, or urban/regional planning for private consultancy?

  41. 41.

    Germy

    Nate Silver On Trump’s Poll Numbers

    FiveThirtyEight: Dear Media, Stop Freaking Out About Donald Trump’s Polls By Nate Silver

    Right now, he has 25 to 30 percent of the vote in polls among the roughly 25 percent of Americans who identify as Republican. (That’s something like 6 to 8 percent of the electorate overall, or about the same share of people who think the Apollo moon landings were faked.)

  42. 42.

    Germy

    @trollhattan:

    Has Sippy Cup transcended her brunetteness? Clearly trolling for a Fox gig.

    that’s Cupp??

    I didn’t recognize her. Every photo I’ve ever seen of her, she’s got her feet up on her desk. Not sure why.

  43. 43.

    JPL

    @Germy: Let’s see what happens if Trump wins the first few states. There are so many running that at this point he’s not going to get much higher. If Carson were to drop out, his support would probably go to Trump. Carson saw the film of the people celebrating in Jersey also.

  52. 52.

    Luthe

    @goblue72: I’m currently in CT, but I’m willing to move. Public agencies would be the preference, but I’ll do private, too. I don’t have any design background, though. Basic Photoshop and ArcGIS yes, complicated stuff no.

  56. 56.

    goblue72

    @Luthe: Boston Redevelopment Authority has been undergoing a bit of a shakeup lately under Mayor Walsh. He canned the BRA’s longtime Director of Planning earlier this year. And Walsh has plans to undertake a comprehensive updating of Boston’s zoning code – first time in half a century. Not sure what the BRA’s hiring plans are, but worth checking out.

    Metropolitan Area Planning Council is metro Boston’s regional planning agency. Marc Draisen runs the agency – I knew him waaaay long time ago, but its been ages. I think they are hiring.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    He asked me what was “going on”. I love how he’s completely willing to have all current events filtered exclusively thru me- like a personal pundit. He was surprised how few refugees were coming, considering the controversy. I think Toledo has 46 arrived or expected. He was thinking tens of thousands. :)

  60. 60.

    Calouste

    @Germy: Trump’s been polling in the 25-30% range in the GOP primaries for 4 months now. That indicates a very solid backing. The 2008 and 2012 GOP races were far more volatile.

    Also, if Silver thinks that Trump has considerably less than 20% chance to win the nomination, considering there are only 5 candidates left with a serious chance (Trump, Carson, Rubio, Cruz, and Bush), who does he think has a considerably better than 20% chance?

  61. 61.

    goblue72

    @Calouste: Kinda depends on who drops out and when, doesn’t it. Carson is clearly doing this to push his book and rake in the wingnut welfare. At some point his declining poll numbers will eat into his profit margins and he will drop out. Big question is where his support goes. Is Trump the #2 choice for Carson supporters? Is Cruz? Rubio? Evenly split?

    As candidates fall off and their voters redistribute to the next guy in line, how those votes divy up will be important, no?

  62. 62.

    PurpleGirl

    @Kay: Yes, from the way the bedwetters have been crying you’d think we’re taking in soooooooooooooooo many people and not just 10 here and 30 there, whatever.

  64. 64.

    different-church-lady

    @JPL:

    Carson saw the video also.

    You gotta give that Carson some credit for one-upsmanship: Trump merely saw something that didn’t happen. But Carson saw a video that doesn’t exist of something that didn’t happen.

  65. 65.

    different-church-lady

    @Germy:

    Every photo I’ve ever seen of her, she’s got her feet up on her desk. Not sure why.

    I bet your search history is… “interesting”…

  67. 67.

    Calouste

    @goblue72: It somewhat depends on who drops out when, but only to a certain extend. Iowa and New Hampshire have a huge influence on the primaries due to setting the media narrative and voters liking to follow a winner. If Trump wins both Iowa and New Hampshire, it’s all over but the shouting.

  69. 69.

    SFAW

    @Gravenstone:

    So he’s moved on to channeling Carly Fiorina now?

    My literacy (or perhaps speed-reading) skills need some work. When I glanced at your comment, my braims initially read it as “charming Carly Fiorina,” to which the rest of my braims responded “WTF?”

  70. 70.

    shell

    Transcend? Is that what theyre calling lying these days?
    I see Trump resurrected that hideous old canard that was disproved a couple of days after Sept. 11 Namely, there were swarthy people cheering in the streets in Hoboken (or…..the NJ town changes from story to story) over the Twin Tower’s collapse .
    Its a lie, he knows it a lie and yet it goes out there unchallenged. And all we still get from the media is starbursts over his poll numbers.

  71. 71.

    RaflW

    Transcend
    Verb. To rise above or go beyond; overpass; exceed: to transcend the limits of thought; 2. to outdo or exceed in excellence, elevation, extent, degree, etc.; surpass; excel.

    Does Trump transcend the truth? Good g-d NO, you TeeVee morons!

  72. 72.

    Kay

    I had never heard this before:

    And, in early May, 1989, Donald Trump took out a full-page ad in the Daily News to say what he thought he knew about the case. Trump was on the front page of the papers often enough that season; the Post’s “SPLIT!” headline marking the end of his marriage would help fill the tabloid space between the teen-agers’ arrest and their conviction, as did “MARLA BOASTS TO HER PALS ABOUT DONALD: ‘BEST SEX I’VE EVER HAD,’ ” which quoted his then-mistress and second wife; soon, there was also coverage of his baroque business failures. Perhaps he thought it gave him gravitas, that spring, to weigh in on the character of the teen-agers in the park: “How can our great society tolerate the continued brutalization of its citizens by crazed misfits? Criminals must be told that their CIVIL LIBERTIES END WHEN AN ATTACK ON OUR SAFETY BEGINS!” And his headline suggested what ought to be done with them:
    BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY.
    BRING BACK OUR POLICE!

    Since then, talks about some form of restitution for the young men dragged on even as a movie, “The Central Park Five,” gave a wider perspective on the real injustice in the case—the failure of the police, the courts, the press, of the word on the street, of any engine of public doubt. Everything that should have struck one as odd—the cartoonish way that the boys, in their confessions, talked about the rape itself—was taken as proof of the boys’ perversity. Their guilt had been a given; the only question that people seemed interested in, at the time, was what their supposed wildness said about our society, about the boys’ ”culture,” or lack of it. A real-estate developer could take out an ad that contemplated executing children, and only be considered disreputable because of the decor of his buildings.

    Wow. So this isn’t a first for him, and he learned absolutely nothing from how incredibly, tragically wrong he was the last time.

  73. 73.

    sm*t cl*de

    @JPL:

    Carson saw the film of the people celebrating in Jersey also.

    He has since unseen it, and sought refuge behind the Passive Voice. Mistakes were made. Statements were attributed.

    “Dr. Carson does not stand behind the statement attributed to him early today regarding events surrounding 9/11,” said Carson communications director Doug Watts.

    “He does not believe Muslim Americans in New Jersey were celebrating the fall of the Twin Towers, rather he recalls the ample news footage of crowds in the Middle East celebrating the tragic events of 9/11,” he said. “He found their jubilation inappropriate and disturbing, but did not and does not consider it representative of the Muslim American population or the Muslim population at-large.”

  74. 74.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Calouste: He assigns numbers to the different candidates to get to 100. At 538, they occasionally do a feature where they pull up what candidates are trading at on the betting sites and each person says whether they think the candidate is a buy, sell, or hold. Silver is bullish on Rubio. Before that he was bullish on Walker. He puts too much stock in how good people look on paper and not enough on how actual people respond to them. I think part of it is that he probably just doesn’t know and has never met many of the people who are going to pull the lever for someone like Trump.

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @sm*t cl*de:

    I actually wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few people celebrating in the US on 9/11, because some people are assholes. But, like with so many pieces of conservative folklore, it went from a couple of Muslim cabdrivers were seen being dicks in public to all Muslim-Americans celebrated because they hate us for our freedoms!

    It’s the same process that transforms the small number of people who are cheating the welfare system into the entire system being filled with nothing but cheats.

  78. 78.

    PaulW

    Dear CNN and all Trump Apologists:

    We are not talking about “truth”. We are talking about FACTS.

    And with regards to FACTS, Donald Trump is a steaming pile of horsesh-t.

    This isn’t philosophy or classic literature that is up for interpretation.

    This is the body politic, a real-world necessity of law, and a practical application of resources to serve the needs of the people. This requires factual data, and honest acceptance of such facts to make accurate and meaningful decisions.

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