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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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Republicans do not pay their debts.

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T R E 4 5 O N

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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread: Douchecanoes Flotilla

Open Thread: Douchecanoes Flotilla

by Anne Laurie|  February 5, 20162:44 pm| 102 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Women's Rights Are Human Rights, Assholes

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In case you’re thinking only low-info trailer trash white racists support Donald Trump, Raw Story shares the “thoughts” of a(nother) second-generation “business leader” born-on-third-base-thinks-he-hit-a-home run car dealer:

Billionaire businessman Ernie Boch Jr., President and CEO of Subaru New England, told CNN on Thursday that he supported Donald Trump because picking a presidential candidate was like having to pick a girl to take home before the bar closes…

Cuomo wondered what gave Boch confidence that Trump could make difficult decisions like whether or not to bomb another country.

Boch argued that Trump could make those decisions “as well as anybody else.”

“You’ve got to think of it like this, it’s 2 a.m. and there’s a few girls at the bar, you have to go home with one of them,” Boch opined. “So, you have to pick who you are with. And I think that Mr. Trump is the best qualified.”

The answer stunned Cuomo.

“Hold on a second, Ernie,” the CNN host replied. “Your analogy for what makes you the right guy when you get the bad call at 2 a.m. is what you need to do in the bar when you have women there and you have to decide which one? Is that how your head works?”
“You’re misunderstanding!” Boch insisted. “If you’re single you understand this. You know, it’s the end of the night, you want to go home with somebody. You know, the bar is about to close. You have to pick somebody!”…

Hey, barring a genuine armed revolution, nothing any of the Repub clowns might do to our battered republic over the next four years is liable to seriously impact Ernie Jr’s nice life. For him, it’s like picking a favorite in the Superbowl — light entertainment, something to chat about over “business deals” at the country club. And Trump just seems right, for some reason.

Speaking of douchecanoes, this is amusing:

Pro-rape meet-up canceled after women's boxing club threatens to show up: https://t.co/80qW1QiQgv pic.twitter.com/FQQ8VUCOgC

— New York Magazine (@NYMag) February 5, 2016

From the NYMag article:

Professional douchebag Roosh V. has made a name for himself advocating offensive misogynistic positions on his terrible website Return of Kings, and he’s collected a handful of devoted followers in the process. But after scheduling an International Meetup Day for his “tribesmen” this weekend, he appears to have met his match: female boxers.

When they heard that Roosh and his followers were planning to meet up in Toronto, the women of the Toronto Newsgirls boxing club decided they’d attend the meet-up, too. That way when Roosh did what he threatened to do — take photos of any female protesters who showed up to dissect and criticize online later — he’d actually be snapping photos of badass bitches in boxing gloves…

Jessica Roy’s article has one of the greatest closing lines in all journalism, but you’re gonna have to click over to read it.

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Previous Post: « So Tired of All the Bullshit
Next Post: Open Thread: Who Says Debates Don’t Get Results? »

Reader Interactions

102Comments

  1. 1.

    Trentrunner

    February 5, 2016 at 2:49 pm

    Question for all, simple yes or no:

    In 2008, would Hillary have won the Dem nomination if she had voted against the Iraq war? (Assume this is the ONLY difference.)

    Thanks. :)

  2. 2.

    kc

    February 5, 2016 at 2:49 pm

    I hate to be looksist, but that dude is extremely unattractive.

  3. 3.

    Frankensteinbeck

    February 5, 2016 at 2:50 pm

    Have I mentioned that the rich are no smarter, more rational, or less bigoted than the poor?

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 5, 2016 at 2:54 pm

    it’s 2 a.m. and there’s a few girls at the bar, you have to go home with one of them,

    Umm, no I don’t.

  5. 5.

    FlyingToaster

    February 5, 2016 at 2:56 pm

    Ernie is a local (to Boston) rich crazy; his dad built the business, and Ernie just keeps it up and plays in his band on the side. I didn’t my my car from him.

    He’s let his hair grow too long; it looked better when it stopped at the collar.

  6. 6.

    Mike in NC

    February 5, 2016 at 2:56 pm

    My brother bought a Subaru back when Ernie Sr was running the business. Didn’t like the car very much. Amazed that the son is now a rich asshole.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 5, 2016 at 2:57 pm

    @Trentrunner: So pro-invade Iraq Hillary against anti-invade Iraq Hillary?

  8. 8.

    jl

    February 5, 2016 at 2:59 pm

    I hope Trump chooses this Boch Jr. dude as his spokesperson, and then if he does a good job, ditch Palin and choose him for veep nom.

    Since this is an open thread, the rapey meet up guys were wise to cancel. I got a mouthpece for the Muay Tai martial arts class so I could join the others with moutpieces and do some ‘light’ sparring after class. I drew one of the instructors.

    The instructor asked what I wanted to do. I said ‘light light light very very light light extra light, did I mention light BTW, sparring so I could practice ducking and weaving punches’. He asked if I wanted just punching, or wrassling or kicking or what. I said “are you effing kidding, I no way I can handle all that, no kicking, please.’

    I got massakrreed, except when I could close and do some wrassling and try some sweeps.

    The whole goal of the thing was defeated for me, since he was so quick, he gave me no time to duck and weave. Which was not fair. On the other hand, he also gave me no time to practice one of my favorite problems, which was to try to duck and weave and somehow lean my face right into the punch.

    He was very light when aiming at my head, but not on body blows, and I am quite stiff today.

    So, the crude dudes are smart enough to steer clear of pissing off people who know how to fight.

    Edit: to be fair to me, we had a different mind set about it. When I landed a solid blow I heard myself automatically apologizing. And I noticed he did not return the favor. The instructor is a nice guy, but I am afraid not a refined gentlemen.

  9. 9.

    bemused

    February 5, 2016 at 3:01 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    He also bragged that he was pulled over by a cop when he was driving his son to school but the cop just wanted to thank him for supporting Trump. So that made me wonder if he let his son watch his CNN appearance saying you can’t go home from the bar without a woman.

  10. 10.

    boatboy_srq

    February 5, 2016 at 3:04 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: It has been said. Doesn’t change that the rich have far more filthy lucre with which to indulge their stupid irrational bigotry.

  11. 11.

    raven

    February 5, 2016 at 3:05 pm

    The Roosh dopes had Athens on their list for tomorrow but supposedly it’s cancelled. A bunch of people I know were posting “be afraid” stuff on the book of faces. Don’t seem like it would take much to walk over there and adjust their shit.

  12. 12.

    Amir Khalid

    February 5, 2016 at 3:07 pm

    So Donald Trump is like the last girl left at the bar, the one the other guys didn’t want to take home? Did this Ernie Boch guy realise how sexist, and insulting (to Donald, not that I’m shedding tears) that sounds?

  13. 13.

    jl

    February 5, 2016 at 3:07 pm

    @efgoldman: Comedian Rob Schneider is a big supporter of school music, and art and drama too. I met him when he made an appearance at concert for a program he funded. Not sure I would officially approve of those grade schoolers watching all of his movies. But many of them probably do, and not a big deal.

  14. 14.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    February 5, 2016 at 3:08 pm

    Roosh. “Return of Kings”. Professional pickup artist. Flashing bills and Beemers.

    Lives in his mother’s basement and is unemployed, I shit you not a bit.

    Oh, nobody’s surprised? I wasn’t either. Carry on.

  15. 15.

    raven

    February 5, 2016 at 3:08 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Don’t The Girls All Get Prettier At Closing Time by Mickey Gilley

  16. 16.

    Germy

    February 5, 2016 at 3:09 pm

    C’mon, girls! How can you resist Ernie, Jr. with that shoulder-length hair combined with horn rims?? Yuh stuck up or something?

    Where have I seen that look before? Oh, yeah:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQx9Tr4QIzA

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 5, 2016 at 3:09 pm

    @bemused: I’m pretty sure his son is well on the way to full indoctrination in how to “be a man”. Those type are never too quiet about their views on the ‘fairer sex’. Unless the wife is around. Then, if they know what is good for them, they STFU.

  18. 18.

    Rob in CT

    February 5, 2016 at 3:12 pm

    @Trentrunner:

    I think so. I voted for Obama over her for that reason and, clearly, that means everybody else did too. ;)

  19. 19.

    bemused

    February 5, 2016 at 3:13 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Yes, I was imagining the “comprehensive” sex ed education the son is getting from douchedad. Eeww.

  20. 20.

    feebog

    February 5, 2016 at 3:14 pm

    So freaking tired of these A-holes who were born to into wealth and now think they are the smartest person in the world because they didn’t piss it all away. This guy would be an Assistant Manager of a Rite-Aid drug store if he hadn’t been born with a silver spoon stuck up his ass.

  21. 21.

    catclub

    February 5, 2016 at 3:14 pm

    @efgoldman: I think she gets it. It is not clear that Obama even runs in 2008 in that VERY different theoretical world. One basis of his run was the fall 2002 speech when he said he opposed stupid wars.

  22. 22.

    Doug R

    February 5, 2016 at 3:14 pm

    @Trentrunner: Not sure Senator Obama would have in that case.

  23. 23.

    Germy

    February 5, 2016 at 3:16 pm

    @CONGRATULATIONS!: What a catch!

  24. 24.

    bemused

    February 5, 2016 at 3:18 pm

    Roosh panicked by female boxers is pretty damn hilarious.

  25. 25.

    oklahomo

    February 5, 2016 at 3:18 pm

    @raven: I think all of these douchebags’ mothers need to show up and beat the living shit out of them with cast iron skillets.

  26. 26.

    raven

    February 5, 2016 at 3:18 pm

    @oklahomo: I wonder how many there really are? Did you catch the “pet shop” secret words?

  27. 27.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    February 5, 2016 at 3:19 pm

    @Trentrunner:
    No. There was far and away too much excitement for Obama. I live in a white plurality (not majority) district. In presidential years we get 20-30 people to our precinct caucus. In 2008 we had over 200. Not all were people of color but most were young & ready to go. I was not a fan of Senator Obama and had not gone to caucus for him but I changed my mind, I saw history happening. Even though I thought there was no way this nation would elect a black man president, I knew we had to try. Clinton may have been outmaneuvered but It was the huge enthusiasm gap that really ended her chances.

  28. 28.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 5, 2016 at 3:19 pm

    @bemused: I know a guy like that, he is one of those people you just don’t want to be alone with (he’s straight, but twisted in a way that is just…. discomforting) His son is even more perverted. Got busted for acts of pedophilia.

  29. 29.

    Snarkworth

    February 5, 2016 at 3:19 pm

    The thing is, Ernie, when you pick a president, it’s like a one-way thing. When you pick a girl to take home from a bar, she has to want to go home with you. And you know what? You’re sitting on this barstool over here, and she’s WAAY over there. There’s a reason for that.

  30. 30.

    catclub

    February 5, 2016 at 3:20 pm

    @Amir Khalid: No, Donald is like the least unattractive of the few unattractive girls left at the bar at 2am. Just think who wants to take home Ted Cruz at that hour?

  31. 31.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    February 5, 2016 at 3:20 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    He does, he has no value as a human unless he makes a conquest. Its the same thing with car sales I am sure. As long as he can screw someone he is a real man

  32. 32.

    bystander

    February 5, 2016 at 3:24 pm

    I figured Boch just admires another bootstrap success story like Trump. I was shocked to see Boch inherited his wealth.

  33. 33.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    February 5, 2016 at 3:26 pm

    @feebog:
    You are wrong! The guy would only dream of getting that assistant managers gig. The manager would have given it to the girl “because he was hoping to do her” or the colored guy “cuz you know racial discrimination against white guys”. It couldn’t have been all those times he was late, or hung over or caught sleeping in the back room.

  34. 34.

    Germy

    February 5, 2016 at 3:27 pm

    “I jokingly say that when we were growing up in Midland and Houston that mom was fortunate not to have a child abuse hotline available, because the discipline of learning right and wrong was her doing.”
    – Jeb Bush
    http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a41850/jeb-bush-mom-awkward-interview/

  35. 35.

    Matt McIrvin

    February 5, 2016 at 3:28 pm

    Ernie Sr. used to run these weird, folksy ads for Boch Tie-yota featuring Kramer, the Magical Donkey (who passed away last year).

  36. 36.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    February 5, 2016 at 3:30 pm

    @Germy:
    Well she did a shitty job, we can tell by the way you, Neal and W behaved. The fact that she beat you and failed is prima facia that beating kids does not work

  37. 37.

    bystander

    February 5, 2016 at 3:30 pm

    I also admire Boch’s honesty and refusal to bow to the PC libbies when he notes that women are not attracted to a business famous for backstabbing, theft by trickery and selling dangerously defective vehicles. Another example of how they just don’t have what it takes.

  38. 38.

    jl

    February 5, 2016 at 3:31 pm

    @Germy: People criticize Taibbi, but I think he was absolutely correct about Jeb. Jeb would be a satisfactory commercial lawyer cracking dumb jokes while running meetings for strip mall deals near Tampa. Not cut out for big time politics where he has to put in some high quality effort to win.

  39. 39.

    John Revolta

    February 5, 2016 at 3:31 pm

    I’m not sure how this is a big defeat for this douche Roosh. Lemme see if I can guess what his next post looks like:

    “Meetup cancelled by violent threats from manhating ballbusting homo dyke bitches. P.S. queer.”

    Don’t see how this will hurt his brand much.

  40. 40.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    February 5, 2016 at 3:32 pm

    That’s Geraldo Rivera with a wig. You can’t fool me.

  41. 41.

    oklahomo

    February 5, 2016 at 3:33 pm

    @raven: So they meet in parks and have code phrases…I’m thinking they need to embrace their inner park-queens and be done with it. But “Do you know where the pet shop is?” I pity any pets they do own.

  42. 42.

    bystander

    February 5, 2016 at 3:35 pm

    I’ve also found the Babs As Vigilant, Stern Taskmaster pretty funny. First of all, she’s raising the kids with no nanny, no help? Plus, Babs packed Jebula! off to Phillips at 14, and that was pretty much it for That Force of Nature Earth Mother Babs.

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 5, 2016 at 3:36 pm

    @Schlemazel (parmesan rancor): I have to say I never understood that, and I was a dog. If a woman looked at me that way a woman has of looking at a man…. Sh!t, I was like a bee to honey. But I don’t think I ever headed out my door thinking, “I have to get laid tonight.” In fact in all my years I only left a bar with a woman twice. One was a woman I had known for at least a year and the 2nd was some drunk chick who was literally going to get someone killed. I’d had a best friend get killed by a drunk and letting her go in that condition was not an option. I slept on her couch.

  44. 44.

    Mustang Bobby

    February 5, 2016 at 3:36 pm

    Based on his appearance, this guy couldn’t get picked up in a bar that caters to Klingons.

  45. 45.

    shortribs

    February 5, 2016 at 3:37 pm

    Everyone in and around Trump is just creepy, many levels creepy.

  46. 46.

    Germy

    February 5, 2016 at 3:38 pm

    @jl: I like the way Taibbi describes the candidates. For example, he said Scott Walker looked like an overdressed traffic cop.

    Why has Taibbi been criticized?

  47. 47.

    Frankensteinbeck

    February 5, 2016 at 3:38 pm

    @boatboy_srq:
    Too true, but I point it out as a piece of data for the next discussion of whether the rich must be fleecing the rubes and can’t believe the same shit the rubes do. Yeah. They do.

  48. 48.

    bemused

    February 5, 2016 at 3:38 pm

    @shortribs:

    Yup and he’s been collecting them by the thousands for months.

  49. 49.

    Germy

    February 5, 2016 at 3:39 pm

    @CONGRATULATIONS!: It’s Peter Sellers in “What’s New Pussycat”

  50. 50.

    p.a.

    February 5, 2016 at 3:43 pm

    Ernie’s a big PBS supporter.

    Flamboyant auto dealer Ernie Boch Jr. may finally be done with a long and ugly labor fight at Boch Honda in Norwood, Mass., near Boston.

    The store was found by the National Labor Relations Board last month to have unlawfully instituted policies that violated employee rights to comment on social media and wear union pins on the job.

    But while Boch, known for his zany commercials and big-volume vehicle sales, lost the battle, he ultimately won the war. The union that organized 25 mechanics and technicians at Boch Honda in November 2010 never got a contract. It was decertified about two years later.

    The NLRB ruling, which forced Boch Honda to admit its violations in a notice to employees this month, is just the final legal chapter in a union-organizing drive that ended long ago, said Mike Vartabedian, a Boston business representative for the Machinists union District Lodge 15.

    “Ernie Boch won by breaking the union and getting us out of there,” said Vartabedian. He said the union has no plans to try to organize the store again or others owned by Boch.

  51. 51.

    Germy

    February 5, 2016 at 3:43 pm

    I went into moderation for mentioning a Peter Sellers movie??

  52. 52.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    February 5, 2016 at 3:44 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I never picked up a woman in my life. I just don’t have that in me, lack of self confidence maybe I don’t know. I have known guys that make a habit of it & never liked a one of them, but that may just be a small sample size.

  53. 53.

    Howard Beale IV

    February 5, 2016 at 3:44 pm

    I just hope that Roosh V will eventually be relegated to the Internet dustbin and be soon forgotten. To be living in his mother’s basement not only proves the archetype of the rightwing loudmouth living in his mother’s basement, but this also has to be a massive embarrassment to tho those who revered this douchecane (especially when recent pictures showed him with a blowup doll in the background!)

    And to think that folks like the resident minority hire Milo Yiannopolous and The Rage Furby would be his fellow travelers.

  54. 54.

    Mike J

    February 5, 2016 at 3:46 pm

    @Germy:

    Why has Taibbi been criticized?

    Isn’t hew the one that said TARP was going to cost $27,000,000,000,000 (trillion), when in fact the government turned a profit on it?

    It’s not that he’s not very bright, he just doesn’t care the least bit about facts. He’s going to tell the story he wants to tell, and a lot of people really want to hear that story, even if it isn’t true.

  55. 55.

    jl

    February 5, 2016 at 3:47 pm

    @Germy:

    ” Why has Taibbi been criticized? ”

    You won’t have to wait long on this blog to find out.
    Two I remember is that he is a talentless nepotism dope of a journalist. And, he committed inaccuracy crimes in attacking some of the banker masters of the universe after the financial crises, particularly Dimon, I think. Maybe.

  56. 56.

    FlyingToaster

    February 5, 2016 at 3:52 pm

    @Mustang Bobby: He counts on his wallet picking up the girls, not his appearance.

  57. 57.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 5, 2016 at 3:52 pm

    @Schlemazel (parmesan rancor): Heh. I have to be honest, the time I did go home with the woman I had known for over a year? It was at her suggestion. I just never went to bars looking for women. Like you, the pick up thing was not me.

  58. 58.

    Mike J

    February 5, 2016 at 3:55 pm

    @jl: I don’t know anything about nepotism (and frankly don’t really care), but I know one way to get hits from liberal blogs is to say “banker masters of the universe argle bargle gaaaarrrrgh banksters” over and over again and people eat that shit up with a spoon.

    What makes it really annoying is the fact that there really are huge problems and huge crimes in the American financial sector. Facts are valued less in the conversation about the economy than anger is.

  59. 59.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    February 5, 2016 at 3:57 pm

    The privilege this fuckwad thinks he has – the last girl at the bar would take one look at him and tell him that going home with such an ugly entitled douchebro would the very last thing on earth that would happen.

  60. 60.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    February 5, 2016 at 4:01 pm

    So it’s gone from who do you want to have a beer with to who do you want to fuck when you’ve had too many beers.

    I guess in a few years, we’ll be picking Republican presidents on who would you want to knock up.

  61. 61.

    oklahomo

    February 5, 2016 at 4:05 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead: I think I’ll be dead from alcohol poisoning before I fuck Donald Trump.

  62. 62.

    Germy

    February 5, 2016 at 4:08 pm

    @Mike J: @jl: wow, I didn’t know that. I haven’t read much of him, just his mocking of the GOP candidates, which I enjoy. I couldn’t get into his wall street exposés because they induced ADD in me.

  63. 63.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    February 5, 2016 at 4:09 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: Conversely, none of them have to go home with Ernie Boch, and he’s ignoring how many of the women have already high-tailed it out of there to a voice his “last call goggles”.

    The commercial Boch runs for their dealership are animated in a very creepy style. Somebody with that money could afford better.

  64. 64.

    jl

    February 5, 2016 at 4:12 pm

    @Mike J: @Germy:

    I can’t say much about Taibbi’s reporting on the financial crisis either. I don’t rely on him as my main source of into on that, since I figure economists and financial columnists are better. Why read Taibbi to get into when you can read Krugman, or Dean Baker, or Big Picture of Shiller? I read him for his campaign reporting and snark.

  65. 65.

    Germy

    February 5, 2016 at 4:14 pm

    @efgoldman: No, he was a stoner who didn’t bother to study and didn’t give a crap about the school or his classmates.

  66. 66.

    Woodrowfan

    February 5, 2016 at 4:16 pm

    I would happy stand in the cold to hold those young women’s coats while they pounded the living crap out of those guys.

  67. 67.

    Woodrowfan

    February 5, 2016 at 4:17 pm

    @Trentrunner: definitely maybe.

  68. 68.

    retiredeng

    February 5, 2016 at 4:21 pm

    Sorry, but the entire Boch family is basically trailer trash with money.

  69. 69.

    Germy

    February 5, 2016 at 4:27 pm

    @efgoldman: Do you remember the old joke about the guy who goes in for a routine physical, and the doctor notices his pen1s is bright yellow and orange. Doctor is alarmed; asks him a bunch of questions about symptoms, trying to figure out the cause? He asks about lifestyle, and the guy admits he doesn’t do much, just likes to watch porn and eat Cheetos.

  70. 70.

    Mnemosyne

    February 5, 2016 at 4:29 pm

    I just finished watching “The Big Short.”

    Damn.

  71. 71.

    WarMunchkin

    February 5, 2016 at 4:33 pm

    @Mike J:

    Isn’t hew the one that said TARP was going to cost $27,000,000,000,000 (trillion), when in fact the government turned a profit on it?

    Heh. Not that I want to pick a fight, but do you have a source on this? Because it would be funny if that were not true and you said:

    He’s going to tell the story he wants to tell, and a lot of people really want to hear that story, even if it isn’t true.

  72. 72.

    Howard Beale IV

    February 5, 2016 at 4:34 pm

    @CONGRATULATIONS!: The article does not state that’s he’s unemployed.

  73. 73.

    Joel

    February 5, 2016 at 4:36 pm

    Ernie Boch is a billionare?! really? A billion ain’t what it used to be, I guess.

  74. 74.

    Iowa Old Lady

    February 5, 2016 at 4:38 pm

    @Mnemosyne: What was really chilling to me was that I wound up cheering for the guys who were betting on the crash.

  75. 75.

    Germy

    February 5, 2016 at 4:39 pm

    @Joel: Some of the most horrible people (and families) in the nation get filthy rich running car dealerships. Their customers get screwed buying the cars, getting the cars serviced, and trading in the cars. Even those of us who avoid their dealerships get treated to their egotistical “funny” TV commercials.

  76. 76.

    WarMunchkin

    February 5, 2016 at 4:41 pm

    @Mike J:

    Actually, found it myself:

    “They spent $75 billion on mortgage relief, but come on – look at how much they gave Wall Street,” says a leading Democratic strategist. Neil Barofsky, the inspector general charged with overseeing TARP, estimates that the total cost of the Wall Street bailouts could eventually reach $23.7 trillion.

    link

  77. 77.

    Tom Q

    February 5, 2016 at 4:42 pm

    @Germy: Taibbi was loud and proud about hoping the Affordable Care Act would crash and burn — he said if it passed it would doom Democrats for a generation, and you could hear the glee in his voice at the thought.

    I view Taibbi as what I call a To Kill a Mockingbird liberal — Atticus loses his case and his client gets killed, but he has the moral high ground, and that’s all such liberals want out of life. That the ACA gave umpteen million people access to health care is meaningless to him, because it didn’t create health care utopia.

    That’s why I criticize Taibbi.

  78. 78.

    Brachiator

    February 5, 2016 at 4:44 pm

    When they heard that Roosh and his followers were planning to meet up in Toronto, the women of the Toronto Newsgirls boxing club decided they’d attend the meet-up, too.

    Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

    Love it. Absolutely love it.

  79. 79.

    singfoom

    February 5, 2016 at 4:56 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Remember that movie the next time someone says “It was all legal.”

    Uhuh.

    And how we couldn’t just couldn’t prosecute any of the poor dears on Wall Street, they didn’t know anything. Read the book years ago and the movie still makes my blood boil. Remember the best part, “bespoke tranche opportunities” are currently being offered by the big funds.

  80. 80.

    Germy

    February 5, 2016 at 5:07 pm

    @Tom Q: Jesus, after hearing stories like this I’m liking Taibbi less and less.

  81. 81.

    singfoom

    February 5, 2016 at 5:10 pm

    @Tom Q: I don’t really care or not whether people like Taibbi and I’ve definitely heard he can be a jerk, but his book The Divide definitely makes him look like he really cares about other people and justice in general.

  82. 82.

    Germy

    February 5, 2016 at 5:13 pm

    Trump’s dad had the honor of being featured in a Woody Guthrie song. That’s classy!

  83. 83.

    Bobby Thomson

    February 5, 2016 at 5:14 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: they do tend to be more educated, but usually in the dark arts.

  84. 84.

    trollhattan

    February 5, 2016 at 5:17 pm

    The hits keep on coming. January Arctic sea ice extent hit a historic low in 2016. Surprising no-one and emphasizing yet another reason no Republican can ever occupy the White House.

    January Arctic sea ice extent was the lowest in the satellite record, attended by unusually high air temperatures over the Arctic Ocean and a strong negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation (AO) for the first three weeks of the month. Meanwhile in the Antarctic, this year’s extent was lower than average for January, in contrast to the record high extents in January 2015.

    The trend graphs are especially depressing {best read in a Marvin the paranoid android voice}.

  85. 85.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 5, 2016 at 5:18 pm

    @Mnemosyne: The book is awesome. Michael Lewis is another of my heroes. Go read Liar’s Poker.

  86. 86.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 5, 2016 at 5:22 pm

    @Iowa Old Lady: I read the Big Short and the Greatest Trade Ever and all I can say is fuck John Paulson, the others not so much.

  87. 87.

    Germy

    February 5, 2016 at 5:22 pm

    Triumph the Insult Comic kicked out of GOP event for New Hampshire primary:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnoEYjn7EYo

  88. 88.

    Iowa Old Lady

    February 5, 2016 at 5:26 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: They made money by the fistful, and our system lets them keep it.

  89. 89.

    Brachiator

    February 5, 2016 at 5:26 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    I just finished watching “The Big Short.”

    I did a movie double feature a while back and saw both “The Big Short” and “Spotlight.’

    I had a “D’oh!” moment when I realized that the films were connected thematically. One of the reasons that the banks or the arch bishop got away with horrible deeds was because almost everyone took their position and authority for granted.

    And even with its over simplifications, “The Big Short” was Big Fun. Sad. Crazy making big fun.

    The tv mini-series about Madoff (good job from Richard Dreyfuss) made it a Trifecta of Malfeasance.

  90. 90.

    p.a.

    February 5, 2016 at 5:27 pm

    @srv: Didn’t seem to be an issue 1981-1993, 2001-2009.

  91. 91.

    OzarkHillbilly

    February 5, 2016 at 5:52 pm

    @Iowa Old Lady: When I was reading the Greatest Trade Ever (it was a vehicle for making John Paulson out to be a genius) all I could think was “And this helped out the country, or Wall Street, or anyone other than themselves, how?” Who ever it was that said “economic weapons of mass destruction” was absolutely right, and all for the enrichment of a select few. The Big Short was a much more balanced piece and honest to a fault. There was one guy working out of his apartment writing a financial blog who knew, just f’n knew, it was all a big house of cards. And nobody would listen to him. He made some money, but he could not find the investors he needed to make a big play. That guy, I kind of felt sorry for.

  92. 92.

    The Republic, Blah Blah Blah...

    February 5, 2016 at 6:06 pm

    Douchecanoe Flotilla

    Whoa… what a great name for a rock band…

  93. 93.

    The Republic, Blah Blah Blah...

    February 5, 2016 at 6:08 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: Right…

    Paulson knew he was screwing people…

    The others just guessed right and got lucky…

  94. 94.

    WereBear

    February 5, 2016 at 6:32 pm

    The Chasing Madoff documentary drove one analyst out of finance and into the SEC because “I wanted to sleep at night.”

  95. 95.

    moderateindy

    February 5, 2016 at 6:56 pm

    @catclub:

    No, Donald is like the least unattractive of the few unattractive girls left at the bar at 2am

    Exactly. Give this guy a break. It was basically a backhanded compliment to Trump. He was saying that Trump was the best option out of a group of not particularly attractive options. The “last girls left at the bar” analogy was him making a joke. A fairly standard joke at that. So how about some of us that are looking to be offended dial down the fake outrage, and leave that to the right wingers. They’re way better at it. Besides, the RWNJ say enough actually offensive things that you really don’t need to manufacture something out of a fairly innocuous joke

  96. 96.

    Mnemosyne

    February 5, 2016 at 7:37 pm

    @efgoldman:

    They won’t let me listen to Hamilton at work. Something something “bleeding ears,” I can’t remember.

  97. 97.

    Mnemosyne

    February 5, 2016 at 7:40 pm

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    I think the attitude of the film was that at least those guys knew something was wrong, even if they wanted to profit from that wrongness. You’ll notice that the people who were conflicted about profiting from it got most of the screen time, not the douchebag who just wanted the money. The screenwriter and director were definitely walking a very thin line, though.

  98. 98.

    catclub

    February 5, 2016 at 8:18 pm

    @trollhattan:

    best read in a Marvin the paranoid android voice

    I like the bit at the Rest. end. univ. where martin calls from the car park, and zaphod says “he is threatening to wash his head at me.” [Shall I stick my head in a bucket of water?]

  99. 99.

    catclub

    February 5, 2016 at 8:23 pm

    @singfoom: Well, except form the document signing (forging)
    lawbreaking, and the MERS? (mortgage registration system) they came up with to illegally sidestep county registrars of deeds. [The registrars were inconvenient] Those only BECAME legal because they had more and better paid lawyers.

  100. 100.

    Mnemosyne

    February 5, 2016 at 8:44 pm

    @catclub:

    What really came across in the movie is that basically nobody has any fucking idea what these financial instruments are or what they do, but breaking up Big Finance will have to be done very, very carefully, because letting investment banks just go under could cause a whirlpool that brings the whole damn house of cards down *worldwide,* not just in the US.

    Basically, Big Finance (not just Wall Street — this shit is worldwide) is a three-year-old holding a nuclear bomb: if we’re not careful about how we get that nuke away from them, they’re going to glass everything in a hundred-mile radius without ever realizing it.

  101. 101.

    father pussbucket

    February 5, 2016 at 9:44 pm

    @kc:

    I hate to be looksist, but that dude is extremely unattractive.

    No need to apologize; he clearly looks exactly the way he wants to look.

  102. 102.

    Exurban Mom

    February 6, 2016 at 12:09 am

    @Trentrunner: No. It wasn’t the war vote as much as campaign malpractice by her team that doomed her.

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