Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Fucking consultants! (of the political variety)

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

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

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

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

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

The National Guard is not Batman.

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

Too little, too late, ftfnyt. fuck all the way off.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

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Reader Interactions

119Comments

  3. 3.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: Except one thing, you need to bludgeon the Granny Starver over the head a few times prior to the ‘mike drop’.

  7. 7.

    gogol's wife

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    That would make it perfect!

    BTW, I just read the Vanity Fair interview with Megyn Kelly. It’s an incredible puff piece. She’s such a fair, courageous journalist. Who goes after middle-school kids who bring clocks to school.

  9. 9.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    ObOpenThread. DeLong posted a revised and extended transcript of his remarks at a recent meeting:

    The Grand Strategy of Rising Superpower Management

    Munk School Trans-Pacific Partnership Conference: Geopolitics Panel

    Revised and Extended: I could now talk about the risks of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. You have already heard a lot about the risks in the previous session here. You have heard about dispute resolution and about intellectual property. You have heard about instituting largely-untested dispute resolution procedures in such a way that they will be very difficult indeed to amend or suspend or replace or adjust in the future.

    We all know very well the eurozone’s ongoing experience. We remember that the euro single currency is in its origins a geopolitical project. We remember the origins of the eurozone at Maastricht—the decision of the great and good of Europe that something needed to be done to bind Europe more closely together in the wake of the absorption into the Bundesrepublik of the German East and the collapse of the Soviet Empire. The creation of a single currency was clearly something.

    But “we must do something; this is something; therefore we must do this” is a very dangerous syllogism to serve as a basis for any form of technocratic government. The inability of Europe to back itself out of and adjust away from unwise commitments made in the founding of the euro has not been a source of sunny happiness and light in Europe over the past now-eight years.

    […]

    It rambles a bit, but given his love of history you have to expect that. It’s a good read, especially if you’re interested in what’s good and bad about the TPP and what it means with respect to a rising China.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  21. 21.

    Gin & Tonic

    Just got home from seeing a brilliant young Czech pianist, Lukas Vondracek (sorry, won’t do the necessary diacritics) perform the Schumann piano concerto masterfully. Kid is only 26. But it’s late, so off to bed.

  22. 22.

    seaboogie

    @lol chikinburd:

    The heartbreak of moderation. Have to read the comment again to see what triggered it.

    And you have had quite enough heartbreak already – sometimes life seems like a perfect shitstorm. And typing that last bit makes me feel like I just channeled Suzanne – she of the zesty turn of phrase.

    How are you faring today?

  25. 25.

    slag

    Libertarian paradise:

    Why has Bitcoin failed? It has failed because the community has failed. What was meant to be a new, decentralised form of money that lacked “systemically important institutions” and “too big to fail” has become something even worse: a system completely controlled by just a handful of people. Worse still, the network is on the brink of technical collapse. The mechanisms that should have prevented this outcome have broken down, and as a result there’s no longer much reason to think Bitcoin can actually be better than the existing financial system.

  26. 26.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Keith P: It’s an animated .gif that’s in some weird format. It’s the State of the Union speech that Obama probably wanted to give. :-)

    It’s based on this clip from Ellen’s show. YouTube (0:49) with some different subtitles.

    HTH!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  34. 34.

    Mike in NC

    Fucking shit bird weasel Paul Ryan, shamed by wingnuts into shaving off his “Muslim beard”, then else did he have to say?

  36. 36.

    max

    By Paul Ryan’s Beard… BITCOIN!

    max
    [‘Distributed network services basically resemble botnets. Who knew?’]

  39. 39.

    seaboogie

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I’m clearing it as fast as I can…

    You are seriously the most “on it” FPer through the comments that we’ve ever had on this front, and a wonderful complement to AL, without whom this blog would simply fade away, such are the demands of the commentariat that keep the joint a place that we all enjoy hanging out in. Plus, you bring awesome expertise in your field, much like Richard Mayhew.

    Kudos to John Cole, for finding such wonderful FPers, and a very belated welcome to you Adam – you are all that and a bag of chips. (Not forgetting you, Ms. Cracker – you are an endless delight!).

  40. 40.

    jl

    That Ryan sure showed strength and resolve by not clapping. Wheww… I’m sure the loonies in the GOP House will cut him some slack for that brave stand.

    Ha ha. I make a joke.

    And speaking of strength and resolve, what are Baud’s proposals to solve the Schabziger cheese shortage in this damn country? I can’t find it anywhere anymore, and this supposedly sophisticated foodie high toned shithole.

    And what is Baud’s proposal to revive the California pawpaw industry? The couple from Escalon ripped up their patch last year because the foodie snots in SF wouldn’t buy it. Which was great for me since I’d buy up a lot of their unsold stuff at a discount, but it’s gone now.

    Baud: hard problems and no ideas. Baud has turned his back on one of the great all-American fruits. Trump would get a great deal on pawpaws, a fantastic deal.

  41. 41.

    mclaren

    @Yutsano:

    Please explain.

    Explanations are unnecessary. Facts and logic are irrelevant. Hillary supporters merely pepper this forum with “Bernie Sanders will not win the Democratic nomination,” without explanation, without logic, without facts.

    Turnabout is fair play. “What can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”

    Hillary Clinton is not going to be the Democratic nominee.

  42. 42.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @jl: Yes, all of those. But what will Baud do about Bitcoin, it’s failing, it’s the END OF THE WORLD!!!

  43. 43.

    jl

    No no. Jim Webb will console disgruntled whites with he-man egghead bafflegab about the frisson and tragedy of Scots-Irish econ-psycho-social dilemmas in a world they never made, and will win with 99 percent of the vote.

  45. 45.

    Amir Khalid

    @mclaren:

    Hillary supporters merely pepper this forum with “Bernie Sanders will not win the Democratic nomination,” without explanation, without logic, without facts.

    Not true.

  46. 46.

    jl

    @Joel: Megyn Kelly: not the worst at Fox News, sometimes OK, comparatively. but that is a low bar. I think that is an appropriate puff piece for Kelly.

  48. 48.

    mclaren

    @Amir Khalid:

    Not true.

    Yet another assertion offered sans facts, sans logic, sans anything.

    Of course it’s true. Why? Because shut up, that’s why. The same answer Hillary supporters give to anyone who points out that insanely stupid faux pas like Hillary calling for more sanctions against Iran is so self-destructive and so dumb, it’s impossible to underestimate how dumb Hillary’s move is in the wake of Obama’s rapprochement with Iran.

    Hillary is toast. Stick a fork in her, she’s done.

  51. 51.

    mclaren

    More folly, ignorance and blunders by Hillary Clinton:

    Bernie Sanders’s argument in favor of single-payer health care is pretty simple.

    “The United States is the only major nation in the industrialized world that does not guarantee health care as a right to its people,” Sanders said at a 2015 rally of the National Nurses Union, one of the leading advocacy groups in favor of moving to a Medicare-for-all approach. “Meanwhile, we spend far more per capita on health care with worse results than other countries. It is time that we bring about a fundamental transformation of the American health care system.”

    Hillary Clinton’s campaign has sought to counter the appeal of this proposition with a questionable line of attack, arguing that the election of a Democratic president on a Medicare-for-all platform would somehow help Republicans unwind the existing Affordable Care Act and other aspects of insurance provision.

    Alternately, she has (accurately) noted that a universal Medicare system would require higher taxes — only to be met with the counter that a universal Medicare system would involve less overall spending.

    On this, too, Sanders is right. Medicare manages to finance patients’ health care at dramatically lower per-person rates — just as foreign countries do — so if Medicare covered everyone, total spending would decline even as some of it was shifted to the tax side of the ledger.

    Source: “The single-payer debate we should be having,” Matthew Yglesias, vox.com

  53. 53.

    FlyingToaster

    @mclaren: Not on this blog. Not even over at GOS.

    You seem to be channelling 2008.

    Wake up and smell the coffee.

    Do I think that Hils will probably win the nomination? Sure. If nothing else, she has learned from her primary mistakes in 2008.

    Do I think that Bernie could win? Possibly, but right now, I think he’s cheesed off enough people that he’ll not be able to squeak by. I’m one of them; I really don’t like being yelled at on drive-time radio and every problem isn’t economic. Let Bernie explain to me how his policies will fix the situation when one of my former interns was stopped for DWB. Or why if I tried to go for a full-time-job I’d probably not get one, being in my 50s and female.

    I also think that the Clinton people (many inherited from Obama, mind you) are doing a ‘way better job on primary/caucus GOTV at the moment, but that could change.

    Having lawyers on the ground in places like Kansas dealing with the voter suppression strategies is huge. And that’s where I think Clinton beats both Sanders and O’Malley.

    However, even if somehow Tim Carcetti somehow got in front of both Hillary and Bernie, everyone here but srv, a guy, and whatever RtR is calling himself tonight would vote for him. Of course, this blog, like most of the reality-based community, is chock-full of people who will show up to vote, even if we’re going to write in Mickey Mouse (raises hand, done that in state elections twice).

    A number of us live in blue states (raises hand again), so it won’t make a fuckload of difference whether I vote or not, but I can guarantee that I have enough family members voting in Florida who will vote. And they’re probably not going to vote for Sanders in the primary.

    Does Clinton get stuff wrong? Sure. So does Sanders. So does O’Malley. But each of them is less wrong by several orders of magnitude than the Goompa-Loompas on the KlownBus.

    You’re not smarter than everyone here. You are merely annoying. And I have an eight-year-old who is often more annoying than you are. Find a new hobby, please.

  55. 55.

    FlyingToaster

    @Omnes Omnibus: I know. I’ve worked with the smelly man club since 1987. Being a programmer, it comes with the territory. However, since there is no metaphorical equivalent to dropping a cinderblock on their heads, mocking them on a blog will have to do.

  61. 61.

    jl

    @GregB: If you can forget that these loons wield immense power, it is hilarious. Hard to believe the shit you see out them is true. But it is.

    I haven’t watched the last couple of GOP debates, since the ones I saw messed with my head. Taken as a spectacle both hilarious and disgusting, they were a hoot. But then I remember that one of those loons is going to get 40+ percent of the vote this November. Yikes. It’s like a bad LSD trip (so I have heard from my friends!)

    I guess if the whole shit show collapses into complete chaos, they could draft Romney to lose again. I guess there is more than a femto-chance of that happening. Who knows what will happen when their base has to try to figure shit out on election or caucus day.

  63. 63.

    jl

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’ll put 50 bucks on ol’ Bernie. I’ll send the money to Cole (assuming he’s willing to bother with it) or some other front page poster to prove I have paid up.

  65. 65.

    David *Rafael* Koch

    What @mclaren: is trying to say is the 22nd amendment was repealed tonight and Obama will get a 3rd and 4th term; precluding Clinton from becoming president.

    Bad luck for Hillz, but great news for us, we get 2 more terms of G.O.A.T.!

  66. 66.

    FlyingToaster

    @jl:

    Who knows what will happen when their base has to try to figure shit out on election or caucus day.

    I’m trying to remember where I read the interviewer walking through a Trump rally asking people if they were registered to vote. About a third weren’t, and didn’t know you had to register to vote in the caucus.

  69. 69.

    jl

    @FlyingToaster: I think the goofball factor is the wild card in the GOP primaries. How many of the rabid angry base that seem to be driving the polls are just goofballs who won’t do anything that does not supply entertainment, or who will be swayed by the last grifter who dangles a shiny object in front of them? I guess Trump’s lead is so big, it seems like it can’t matter: he’ll win anyway. But the gofballery of some of his supporters you see in interviews is amazing.

  72. 72.

    David *Rafael* Koch

    @jl: David Brooks reports GOP insiders are freaking out. They think the election is over and Trump will destroy the the down ballot ticket.

    the Republican establishment, who feel like they’re down 50 points and they have decided they’re going to lose the game.

    And that’s how the Republican establishment is right now. They don’t believe that Ted Cruz or Donald Trump can win. They think it could imperil their majorities in Congress, and yet they’re doing nothing about it.

    ***

    Frankly, the country is filled with state legislators who are Republicans, congressmen, senators, local committeemen, a lot of whom are in panic. And so maybe they should do something about it. Maybe they should have a MoveOn.org-type organization and get some rallying, which the other side has already done, and have a counterweight, so they don’t send the party into suicide.

    Now, now, David – suicide is painless, it brings so many changes, and I can take or leave them if I please.

  73. 73.

    magurakurin

    @jl: straight up? I’ll take that bet. Hell, I spot you 500 delegates. Bernie’s not gonna win. He’ll get a lot of delegates as this thing winds on, but not enough to win.

  75. 75.

    seaboogie

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    You’ll notice he hasn’t accepted my offer, right?

    So I understand that mclaren won’t fess up to location, but why do I assume the person of this nym is packing lady-parts, as I do, when y’all refer to mclaren as a ‘he’? I think it comes from a tough position taken from tech stuff, and dealing as a woman in that male-dominated world. Not that it makes any sort of difference, one way or another, because on the internets, nobody knows that you are a dog! (Right up there with another New Yorker cartoon – the praying mantis declaring “You slept with her!)

  76. 76.

    PurpleGirl

    Maybe I shouldn’t mention this, in light of the Sanders’ campaign move to take down their logos from Wikipedia, nut there is a picture of Sanders himself on Jigsaw Planet.

  77. 77.

    magurakurin

    @redshirt:

    I assume it’s part of the monthly medication cycle.

    we probably shouldn’t be making fun about this…but, I always thought it had to do with which personality was at the keyboard at any given moment. Truly, mclaren is as mclaren does.

  78. 78.

    jl

    @magurakurin: I’m not going to make the bet with every BJ commenter who supports HRC. What, you want me out of my house on the streets?

    Omnes has first refusal. In the meantime, I’ll bet you and e-mail beer.

  79. 79.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @jl: You’ve really got to wait for the first few primaries; if tRump wins say, 3 of the first 4, he’ll be the nominee.

  80. 80.

    redshirt

    @magurakurin: I’ll bet serious money H. Clinton is the Dem nominee, and that it’s not even close. She’ll have it wrapped up on Super Tuesday if there’s still such a thing. Bernie is not winning any state other than possibly NH, VT, and ME. And FSM bless him for it.

  81. 81.

    magurakurin

    @jl: sounds good. Of course, I think you can actually put bets down on the race still. Aren’t some of the betting sites still on line? I reckon there are still decent odds to be gotten on Sanders still.

  85. 85.

    jl

    @David *Rafael* Koch: Gray men in suits? What does that mean? I though maybe Brooks was talking about himself, through lectures on character, would take them out. But in that link, Brooks looks like a wino in a gray suit. I will assume the color in the clip needs to be calibrated better.

  86. 86.

    magurakurin

    @redshirt: I also agree with your predictions. He has surged in Iowa, but I think Clinton’s advantages with party support will put her over the top in Iowa. I never figured she would win New Hampshire, and Vermont is surely to go for Bernie even if he does lose NH. I suppose he could walk away with Maine as well. The rest of the board he either keeps it close or gets smashed. Either way, he never gets over 51.

    Iowa and New Hampshire does not equal The United States.

    And if he doesn’t release a health care plan before the caucus, I say he definitely loses Iowa and then maybe NH as well. And it’s over.

  88. 88.

    jl

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah yeah yeah. Here comes the BJ peanut gallery.

    And where is Omnes? He scrammed after his offer of a bet?

    Edit: Weren’t you going up to Mount Pinos to try to find three inches of snow for some SoCal ‘winter’ camping?

  90. 90.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @jl: No camping, just a hike to the summit. Right now there’s 12-18 inches up there, so we’re going to wait until there’s less snow. Neither the kid or I have the footwear to hike in the snow.

    ETA: She’s coming over tomorrow for my pre-birthday dinner, so maybe we’ll discuss alternatives.(Echo Mountain, Mt. Ilslip, Devil’s Punchbowl, Mt. Lee).

  91. 91.

    magurakurin

    @jl:

    Weren’t you going up to Mount Pinos to try to find three inches of snow for some SoCal ‘winter’ camping?

    I laughed.

    But I used to live in Western Oregon. And before that Philadelphia. Easy to laugh at Southern California winter.

    But then you cry, when realize how awesome their damn weather is. Love the pics from Glendale and Southern California “winter.”

  92. 92.

    Mike J

    @efgoldman:

    HRC is going to croak him on Super Tuesday. Maybe not enough to drive him out, but it will be a mortal wound in the long run

    SC and any other place with black people will be solid Clinton.

    I read a blog post today about Bernie’s stump speech and how it differs for black and white audiences. When addressing a black audience, he opens with, “brothers and sisters….” and gives the same speech he gives white audiences. Which would be fine if his speech to white audiences addressed the concerns of black Americans.

  93. 93.

    seaboogie

    @efgoldman: @BillinGlendaleCA: Okey Dokey. In my perception, it makes for quite a shift from tetchy middle-aged woman in a man’s world to man-splaining, which means that mclaren loses the benefit of my doubt, gender and experience wise.

    Does this seem fair to the rest of you fellas?

  96. 96.

    Mike E

    I can’t believe what I’m about to say, unlikely as it prolly will sound…mclaren is perfectly acceptable in stating who will or won’t get to stand for the office of the president. It is called laying down your marker.

    Anybody else care to put it out there?

  97. 97.

    David *Rafael* Koch

    @efgoldman: Super Tuesday states on March 1st:

    Alabama
    American Samoa
    Arkansas
    Colorado
    Georgia
    Massachusetts
    Minnesota
    Oklahoma
    Tennessee
    Texas
    Vermont
    Virginia

    Sanders will win VT and maybe Minnesota cuz it’s very white. But the other 10 contests are heterogeneous. For Sanders’s campaign, if it ain’t white, it ain’t right.

  99. 99.

    jl

    @BillinGlendaleCA: @magurakurin:

    We can laugh, but with el Nino, might be five inches this year.

    If it is Billiin’s Birthday, and the weather is nice, how about a stroll through some gardens? Descanso is nice. They have camellias, right? I forget. Almost time for those, I think. The buds are ready to pop in my folks’ dinky little garden.

  100. 100.

    jl

    I’m going to write the Sanders campaign and suggest he put out an album of lullabies. To counter the grandma Clinton angle.

    I’m a Sanders mega-donor, he has to do what I say.

    Slam dunk after that comes out. President Bernie has a nice ring to it. Edit: some of the skeptics here might want to practice it in the mirror, while smiling, just to get ready.

    Edit2: I’ll tell Bernie to step on it. Get it out before the album of Baud’s random mutterings comes out. That could be a wild card.

  102. 102.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @jl: We did our wedding photos at Descanso. We ended up living in Montrose for 18 years and I know the area around there.

  104. 104.

    magurakurin

    @seaboogie:

    Does this seem fair to the rest of you fellas?

    Don’t talk to mclaren unless you’re like super bored and got nothing going on at all. And even then you should feel guilty about it afterwards.

  105. 105.

    jl

    Hush, little baby, don’t say a damn.
    Bernies going to get you a single payer plan

    And if that single payer plan won’t pass
    Berniebots’ll kick Paul Ryan in the ass

  107. 107.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @jl: And the baby wakes and says, “Where the fuck did you learn to sing? How much is this single payer plan gonna cost, I want some details.”

    ETA: Think of the baby being the baby in ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’.

  108. 108.

    magurakurin

    @jl: The camelias are blooming now here. The locals call them “tsubaki.” Our winters here in on the Pacific side of Western Japan are fairly mild and sunny. Lots of flowers bloom in the winter and the citrus trees have fruit still. Mostly the hassaku and natsumikan grapefruits which get picked in the spring.

  109. 109.

    jl

    @magurakurin: you live in Japan? That must be interesting. I’d like to go there sometime, hang out in some nice country place for awhile. I gotta look into if there is tourism deal for that kind of thing. I want to go to all Basho and do a narrow road to the deep north!

    Must be pretty there. Hope you enjoy the camellias.

  111. 111.

    seaboogie

    @magurakurin:

    Don’t talk to mclaren unless you’re like super bored and got nothing going on at all. And even then you should feel guilty about it afterwards.

    Excellent point, and well stated.

  112. 112.

    magurakurin

    @jl: Yeah, I live on Shikoku Island which is the fourth largest. Not much in the way of big cities here. Lots of country side and lots of narrow roads. Not sure if there any tours to here though. Most tourists to Japan by pass this island altogether. Public transportation isn’t as good as in other areas.

    @Bill, I’ve been to Nara a couple of times. Just saw the main sites. Some very old temples there. It’s pretty nice. Smaller and quieter than Kyoto, which also has many old temples and many, many tourists.

    Even if the language barrier is a bit high, travel in Japan isn’t bad if only because it is just so damn safe. You’d really have to try to get yourself in trouble here. It’s possible, but it won’t happen to an average tourist who is safe and asleep in their hotel room by midnight or 1am. Only if you prowl the red light districts until the early morning hours will you run up against any really unsavory characters, and even then you’d have to pick a fight with them before anything bad happened.

    Oh, and we don’t have single-payer health care, just so the Sandernistas know. We have what amounts to a version of the PPACA without the exchanges but with the Public Option.

  114. 114.

    magurakurin

    @redshirt: I don’t have much experience with them, but they are pretty hard core. Businessmen routinely pass out on the sidewalks, vomit, stagger and get stirred into various types of brothels by touts which fill the back alleys. The Japanese brothels offer pretty much everything you can imagine except actual intercourse. I have no first hand knowledge of them other then trying to peak in the front doors without anyone noticing. But they are all run by the Yakuza mobsters, so better just to stay away…

  115. 115.

    jl

    @magurakurin: Thanks for info. Searched in Shikoku and saw some pics of beautiful scenery. Seems like it is quite out of the way place, for Japan, but very pretty. I’m going to do searches on tourism for Shikoku, Kyushu and Hokkaido.

    I see there is a famous Buddhist pilgrimage they do in Shikoku, but people don’t want to walk it anymore, so they do it by bus tour. Hmm… is that a real pilgrimage? Maybe I’ll sign up for that.

    I get tired of sight seeing tourism pretty quickly. I like to go and hang out. My favorite travel has been when I collaborate or teach someplace, and stay awhile and enjoy ordinary life someplace new..

  119. 119.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @seaboogie: Nearly dead thread but…

    My recollection is that a few years ago, when I was very new here, mclaren tried to give the impression that “they” (the “new neuter singular pronoun”) was female. I was always skeptical, because they seemed to me to argue far too angrily and stridently to be convincingly female. It would have been a first for me to see a woman post things that way. (Though some of our family members here come close! ;-)

    Like EF said above, mclaren did pretty clearly say he was male not very long ago, and that makes more sense to me. YMMV.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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