Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

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

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

T R E 4 5 O N

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

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

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

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

The willow is too close to the house.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

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

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

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

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread: Real-World Impact!

Open Thread: Real-World Impact!

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National Review‘s latest “standing athwart history yelling stop” effort has been a feast of gleeful schadenfreude across the political spectrum. But now Ye Editors can claim their fearfulsome efforts had an actual real-world effect, at least on their publication:

Curated selection of NR/Trump abuse below the break, because honestly, could you resist?

Reader Interactions

65Comments

  1. 1.

    MazeDancer

    Andrew Sullivan must be writing blog posts in secret or under a nom de web or something. How can he possibly be sitting out the past few days? And/or stay silent all year?

  2. 2.

    PhoenixRising

    Hahahahahaha OMG someone pass the bourbon the monster is loose and Dr Frankenstein won’t stop riding the carousel.

    The National Review said it.

  3. 3.

    Chris

    “We expected this was coming.”

    I very much doubt it. I think you really thought you could influence things, and instead are being slapped in the face with the fact of your irrelevance.

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    The “why don’t the rabble just accept our gospel and swallow whole what we’re serving as they used to” issue.

    Or, as Jonathan Chait puts it,

    This is the rub with Trump. Conservatives fear him not because he is an ignorant demagogue, but because he’s not their ignorant demagogue.

  6. 6.

    Tim C.

    We are really though the looking glass, aren’t we? Which factor has caused this Trumpo-Cruzogeddon more? The fact that since 2000 the GOP has peddled lies and promised things that just simply can’t actually come true in the real world, or appealing to the racist, nationalist, and Christian supramacist part of the electorate?

  8. 8.

    trollhattan

    @MazeDancer:
    We know damn well he’s not silent, but I really feel sorry for the beagles.

    He’ll doubtless pop up (and off) on Maher soon enough.

  13. 13.

    Van Buren

    I honestly think they hate Trump because they are afraid he will be too pragmatic (he’s a successful businessman!) and not dogmatic. They want Cruz, so that they can nod approvingly when the police state cracks down on any and everyone who does not pass their purity tests.

  15. 15.

    Ridnik Chrome

    @trollhattan: Domenech is the Virgin Ben. He’s also the one who had to resign from his wingnut-affirmative-action job at the Washington Post after he got caught plagiarizing…

  16. 16.

    qwerty42

    @MazeDancer:

    Andrew Sullivan must be writing blog posts in secret or under a nom de web or something. How can he possibly be sitting out the past few days? And/or stay silent all year?

    Yeah. First there was hysteria over gay rights, then I was sure Trump/Cruz would get him out, and when Palin came in, what could stop him? Maybe the constant blogging did wear him out. But this primary season is so cartoonish, you just cannot see him sitting it out.

  17. 17.

    MazeDancer

    The collection of tweets in this post is very funny.

    I was unaware of the @darth(TM) person, but there is an abundance of amusement on their Twitter feed. (In this post, theirs is the Gary Larson cartoon homage of the side-by-side of what published and “What Trump sees”.)

    The @darthTwitter feed is full of cute doggie pics, a few cat pics, and a bit of leftie politics. What’s not to like?

  20. 20.

    Gimlet

    If they want to control Trump, they should go after his sources of money, inspections of his hotels and casinos for regulatory violations, fines, court appearances… all of which ease up if he abides by the policies of TPTB.

  23. 23.

    jl

    Not going to follow Cruzilla meets Trumpra battle inside the GOP all that closely. I’ll wait for the Michael Bay movie. At least will get some hottie pix and explosions

    And, of course it is all Obama’s fault, and it is just no fair, you guys! Everything is that way, now and forever more.

    GOP politics will be fun after January 2017, with a Zombie Reagan and Zombie Obama. I wounder if they will do battle, and stomp several major world metropolises into rubble. Zombie Reagan will shoot laser (Star Wars!) death beams from his eyes and Obama will lower his black protective force field. The epic battle will go on forever The Bay movie of that will be fun too.

    Maybe the GOP will still be running with Zombie Reagan and against Zombie Obama when Cory Booker or DiFi’s great grand kids decide to get into politics.

    Edit: And some say, that Zombie Reagan is really Zombie Obama’s political father. O. M. G. !.

  24. 24.

    srv

    All this just makes Trump stronger.

    Arguably, the only chance for real change in America will be offered by Trump. Once his focus turns towards status quo Hillary, liberals will be shrieking like the cuckservatory at the NR.

  25. 25.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    For once in my life, I want to see some conservative, one of the “moderate” ones, one of those “respectable” ones, come out and own up to what they’ve done:

    “Yeah. We did this. Donald Trump and ted Cruz are the logical outcomes, the only plausible outcomes, really, of what we’ve been doing for 50 years now. We may well be fucked here, and it’s all our own doing. This was inevitable. Not this specific this, but some this along these lines. It was going to happen sooner or later, as long as we wouldn’t get off this ride. We have nobody to blame but ourselves. We’ve been riding what we thought was Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, and it turned out that it was Mr. Toad’s Messed-Up Crack Deal. Please forgive us.”

    I still hold out some hope that somebody in that fucked up excuse for a party might find the moral backbone to face up to this, but I know it’s a long shot.

  27. 27.

    Mike J

    I know that Republicans have been angry at NBC since the debate, but I was never really clear on what earned their ire. Wasn’t that the one where the moderator apologized for saying something that was true?

  29. 29.

    debbie

    @Mike J:

    Stuff like this:

    Republicans were angered by what they characterized as petty, non-substantive questions by debate moderators Carl Quintanilla, Becky Quick and John Harwood designed to embarrass the candidates. Harwood asked Donald Trump whether he was running a “comic-book version of a presidential campaign.”

    Jeb Bush was asked to explain why his campaign was doing so poorly in the polls, Carly Fiorina was asked why Americans should hire her when she had been fired by Hewlett-Packard and Marco Rubio was asked if he should “slow down, get a few things done first” before running for president.

  30. 30.

    trollhattan

    @Julie:
    Oh FFS, they’re occupying federal land telling federal law enforcement they have no standing. Jesus, these people.

  36. 36.

    BR

    Seems time to me that some Democrat / progressive figure needs to hug Trump rather than attack him. Someone like Gore or Kerry or the like saying nice things, repeatedly and sincerely, about Trump would change the dynamic.

  37. 37.

    trollhattan

    @BR:
    That would be hilarious. “Donald Trump, recipient of the coveted Jimmy Carter endorsement.”

  39. 39.

    Julie

    @trollhattan: Pretty much. Also- if you listen closely at the beginning of the video, you can hear their fancy Jericho-destroying sheep horns in the background.

  40. 40.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:

    Yeah, I’ve seen a few people say the party needs to stand up to Trump, but none of them–and this guy didn’t do it, either–have owned up to how much they themselves have done to bring Mr. Toad’s Messed-Up Crack Deal into being. These people won’t acknowledge what the southern strategy did, or all the years they spent talking about Cadillac-driving Welfare queens. Until they own up to this, they can never fix this mess, since they need to face up to how their own deeds and words over the years have made this happen. And if they don’t do that, they can’t change. And if they don’t change, they can’t fix this mess.

  41. 41.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    I have to ask – wtf is up with the categories/tags migrating to before the author?

  44. 44.

    Turgidson

    @MazeDancer:

    He pops up on Bill Maher sometimes, and the couple times I’ve caught him he’s spent his airtime calling Hillary names.

    I stand by my prediction, made before he quit blogging. He hates Hillary SO.FUCKING.MUCH that he’ll end up endorsing the GOP nominee (mayyyybe not, if it’s Trump). Even though he’s been a huge Obama supporter overall and Hillary is almost explicitly running for his 3rd term. Even though whatever vile hairball the GOP process coughs up will be the most extreme candidate in generations, no matter who it is (mild exception of Kasich, who’s still pretty fucking extreme).

    We’ll presumably be spared the painfully threadbare pretzel logic he would have unleashed on his blog if he’d still been blogging. But I still think he’ll make some public statement of some kind supporting the GOP candidate.

  45. 45.

    Turgidson

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    David f’ing Brooks might be in the midst of a mental breakdown over the whole mess. If he falls apart completely and before his benefactors can reprogram or muzzle him, maybe he’ll issue a confession.

    But he’s so dedicated to his “both sides do it, but really when you think it through the hippies are to blame for everything bad that ever happens forever” mantra and his lucrative assigned role of “reasonable-sounding GOP shit polisher” in the Wurlitzer that I think he’ll rally and become his usual heinous self in time to kiss GOP ass this spring and summer (even if it’s Trump or Tailgunner Ted).

  50. 50.

    satby

    Once the religious, the hunted and weary
    Chasing the promise of freedom and hope
    Came to this country to build a new vision
    Far from the reaches of kingdom and pope
    Like good Christians, some would burn the witches
    Later some got slaves to gather riches

    But still from near and far to seek America
    They came by thousands to court the wild
    But she just patiently smiled and bore a child
    To be their spirit and guiding light

    And once the ties with the crown had been broken
    Westward in saddle and wagon it went
    And ’til the railroad linked ocean to ocean
    Many the lives which had come to an end
    While we bullied, stole and bought our homeland
    We began the slaughter of the red man

    But still from near and far to seek America
    They came by thousands to court the wild
    But she just patiently smiled and bore a child
    To be their spirit and guiding light

    The blue and gray they stomped it
    They kicked it just like a dog
    And when the war was over
    They stuffed it just like a hog

    And though the past has it’s share of injustice
    Kind was the spirit in many a way
    But it’s protectors and friends have been sleeping
    Now it’s a monster and will not obey

    The spirit was freedom and justice
    And it’s keepers seem friendly and kind
    It’s leaders were supposed to serve the country
    But now they won’t pay it no mind

    ‘Cause the people got fat and grew lazy
    Now their vote is like a meaningless joke
    You know they talk about law, about order
    But it’s all just an echo of what they’ve been told

    ‘Cause there’s a monster on the loose
    It’s got our heads into a noose
    And it just sits there watchin’

    Our cities have turned into jungles
    And corruption is stranglin’ the land
    The police force is watching the people
    And the people just can’t understand

    We don’t know how to mind our own business
    ‘Cause the whole worlds got to be just like us
    Now we are fighting a war over there
    No matter who’s the winner, we can’t pay the cost

    ‘Cause there’s a monster on the loose
    It’s got our heads into the noose
    And it just sits there watching

    America where are you now?
    Don’t you care about your sons and daughters?
    Don’t you know we need you now
    We can’t fight alone against the monster

    Steppenwolf 1969

  52. 52.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    Sullivan’s in Alaska pushing the theory.that Trig is Track’s kid and that Sailor is Willow’s kid. Sully also alleges another Palin kid is on the way whose name is going to be Trick or Trixie depending on the sex.

  53. 53.

    NotMax

    @satby

    Cat’s foot, iron claw
    Neurosurgeons scream for more
    At paranoia’s poison door
    Twenty-first century schizoid man

    Blood rack, barbed wire
    Politician’s funeral pyre
    Innocents raped with napalm fire
    Twenty-first century schizoid man

    Death seed, blind man’s greed
    Poets starving, children bleed
    Nothing he’s got he really needs
    Twenty-first century schizoid man

      –  King Crimson, 1969.

  54. 54.

    Matt McIrvin

    One of my progressive online friends is urging liberals to send money to National Review to stop Trump. She thinks Trump’s potential as a fascist genocidaire is so alarming that we should be willing to promote Ted Cruz in order to stop it.

  55. 55.

    the Conster

    My favorite part of this GOP clusterfuck is how all of these keyboard kommandos at National Review have all been exposed as professional babymen, incapable of standing up to a bully. This whole issue is about them trying to buck each other up to be brave – like a wingnut Voltron out to destroy the rampaging Donald with the bad combover. They’re pathetic and impotent, and they know it.

  56. 56.

    Anne Laurie

    @Matt McIrvin:

    She thinks Trump’s potential as a fascist genocidaire is so alarming that we should be willing to promote Ted Cruz in order to stop it.

    Tell her that Cruz wouldn’t just rally for genocide like Trump, he’d find a list of “airtight” legal arguments to defend it.

    She can read this: As Supreme Court Clerk, Ted Cruz Made Death Penalty His Cause:

    In interviews with nearly two dozen of Mr. Cruz’s former colleagues on the court, many of the clerks working in the chambers of liberal justices, but also several from conservative chambers, depicted Mr. Cruz as “obsessed” with capital punishment. Some thought his recounting of the crimes — “dime store novel” was how one described his style — seemed more appropriate for a prosecutor persuading a jury than for a law clerk addressing the country’s nine foremost judges.

    Melissa Hart, who clerked for one of the liberal justices, John Paul Stevens, said Mr. Cruz’s memos on death penalty appeals basically boiled down to “frivolous, meritless, deny,” and added that his writing approach “made a lot of people really angry.”…

    … During his clerkship, he presented his boss with a caricature of him and other clerks pulling a stagecoach driven by the judge. According to someone who saw the illustration, there was a graveyard behind them with headstones representing the number of people executed in their jurisdiction that year.

    Mr. Cruz’s careful planning paid off when, at 25, he began a clerkship with Chief Justice Rehnquist, well known for his support of the death penalty…

  58. 58.

    J R in WV

    Open Thread?

    14 inches on the back porch, 13+ on the front steps. Almost too high for the dogs to go out and relieve themselves!

    Starting to taper off now, though. Looks like the East Coast is really gonna get it, even compared to what we got today. We’ll wait until Sunday, then fire up the tractor and start grading the snow off the roads, until we get to where the state DOH got things clear. If the DOH has got anything clear out here by then.

  60. 60.

    SFAW

    @Ridnik Chrome:

    That’s as may be, but the Capital V Capital B Virgin Ben is Shapiro. I think Domenech is the Serial Plagiarist Ben.

    Either way, they’s both morons.

  62. 62.

    Sad_Dem

    What fun to read the comments at the NR. They are all pointing fingers at each other and accusing each other of not being true conservatives. Lulz.

  64. 64.

    Tara the Antisocial Social Worker

    Glenn Beck denouncing Trump as an unsound thinker is like Larry Flynt writing about how Hugh Hefner demeans women

    Poets are all going to have to give up – perfection in metaphor has been achieved.

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