Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

In my day, never was longer.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

We still have time to mess this up!

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

The revolution will be supervised.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

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67Comments

  1. 1.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    “Trump has the worst spray tan in America. He likes to sue people, he should sue who ever did that to his face.” ~ Lil’ Marco.

    How presidential. What gravitas.

    So much for the “strongest Republican field in a generation” crap the media was pushing.

  6. 6.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: @efgoldman: I still think the pee joke was just astoundingly lame. I don’t have a lot of respect for Ross Douthat, but I was still surprised to see him say that half-assed Don Rickles schtick worked. think this is a better interpretation:

    Josh Barro ‏@ jbarro 11h11 hours ago Manhattan, NY
    Rubio’s aping of Donald Trump furthers the theory that he’s an empty vessel who says whatever his advisors say he should.

  8. 8.

    scav

    Well, strongest at what is carefully left unspecified. Could be that the pong would knock one down at twenty paces, and that’s at an individual level. Imagine the combined effect of a debate.

  9. 9.

    MDW

    Noone realized it was actually a typo that the original reporter was too embarrassed to correct.

    “Strangest Republican field in a generation.”

  11. 11.

    Redshift

    @efgoldman:

    Was that before or after the equally presidential pee joke and making fun of typos in twittles?

    Incorrectly trying to make fun of a typo on Twitter that actually wasn’t one. Rubio apparently thinks “choker” is spelled “chocker”, and was confident enough about it to have his own Dan Quayle moment.

  13. 13.

    TheMightyTrowel

    So I’ve just realized that adam’s contact info isn’t in the authors list to the side. Anyone know how to get in touch? He was Wrong On The Internet* and i want to complain.

    *Down below he called the oxford doctorate a worthless credential with no quality controls or coursework. The latter is true because uk unis do all their grad coursework in masters programs. The former is a die calumny and me and my 8 hour viva voce exam would like to contest it.

  14. 14.

    opiejeanne

    This evening I heard that there was a KKK rally in Anaheim, about three blocks from my previous house. It turned into a brawl before it even began, with counter-protesters beating up on the Klansmen and being stabbed by one of them using the staff of an American flag as a weapon.
    13 arrested, 3 stabbed, more than a few bruised.

    This was in Peason Park which is on Harbor about 2 miles north of Disneyland. The neighborhood is well-kept older homes, some of them historical; I’m guessing the park was chosen by these bastards because on weekends it’s full of Hispanic families with little kids.

  17. 17.

    Steeplejack

    @TheMightyTrowel:

    I feel ya! My particular area of irritation/upset/rage is grammar, usage, punctuation (subsumed under “copyediting”), but I appreciate the impulse in other fields. Whinge on!

  19. 19.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @opiejeanne:

    I’m guessing the park was chosen by these bastards because on weekends it’s full of Hispanic families with little kids.

    Based on the video that I saw on the local news, that seemed to be the case.

  21. 21.

    TriassicSands

    For people who think Trump will be easy to beat in November it is important to remember that his supporters are made up almost entirely of the woefully ignorant — the same quality that characterizes a significant slice of the Democratic Party and most Independents.

  24. 24.

    Jeffro

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    So much for the “strongest Republican field in a generation” crap the media was pushing.

    The Post has an article this morning about GOP voters here in NoVA and their deep thoughts as we approach Super Tuesday…there are at least three quotes that are variations on “not a lot of good choices” on that side.

    But hey, ‘deep bench!’, ‘deep bench!’

  29. 29.

    debbie

    @TheMightyTrowel:

    I used to edit articles for a couple journals. I was amazed at the poor grammar of really very intelligent PhDs. Education hasn’t failed only the disadvantaged.

  31. 31.

    Chris

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    How would Winston Churchill have put it? “No one pretends that Mitt Romney is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that Mitt Romney is the worst Republican candidate, except for all the other Republican candidates that have been tried from time to time.”

  32. 32.

    beltane

    Maybe if all these RW pundits had more appalled by Sarah Palin in 2008 they would not have to be so appalled by Donald Trump today.

  33. 33.

    D58826

    @gogol’s wife: Ok a bit of a rant from an angry white male 70 something who does not feel the Bern. I personally have done reasonably well since getting out of college in 1968 but my just turned 30 something nieces are being royally screwed over and that makes me angry. The baby boomers were going to make a bettor world, one not so obsessed with money like their parents generation (easy to say as Mom and Dad paid the tuition bills). Well it didn’t work out that way did it; when in 1980 they helped elect Reagan. And today the teaparty seniors who oppose Obamacare for others but want their medicare protected. Without Reagan/Buish 41 we would have been spared Kennedy, Scalia, and Thomas on the Supreme Court. I left O’Connor off the list because she was somewhat better than the other three,

    The white working class is angry because they see the American Dream passing them by. Now some of that anger is based on racial animosity but I suspect if they were sharing in the growing economic pie some of that would go away. But on the basic point the dream is passing them by. The good union jobs that their grandparents had are long gone and they are lucky to get a job as a WalMart greeter. My aunt was a union worker at a GE plant. She had a nice pension to retire on. The GE plant is now a parking lot. For many food stamps are the only way to help feed their families and yet they vote for GOPers who want to cut the program. Or the folks in eastern Kentucky who just elected a governor who promised to drop out of Obamacare. These are the same people who now have medical coverage for the first time in years under Obamacare.

    Now maybe these angry young whites should ask their grandparents why they abandoned the democratic party in 1980 and became Reagan democrats? A lot of rust belt union members went for Reagan and see how well that worked out for them. Trump and the GOP are turning immigrants, legal and otherwise, into the scapegoats for the economic plight of white America. It wasn’t Mexicans in this country illegally or Reagan’s strapping young bucks buying steaks with food stamps who decided to move that Carrier a/c plant from Indiana to Mexico. In 2012 the same angry whites voted overwhelmingly for Romney, yet it is Romany’s vulture capitalist business model that has sent so many working class whites to the unemployment line. Not that they would get an unemployment check in Romney world. They are undeserving takers after all.

    end of rant.

  37. 37.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Molly Ball has a good article on the behind the scenes in SC Primary and on how Obama has changed the direction of the country.

    Even conservative Kathleen Parker was on MSNBC conceding he set the country on a new liberal course.

    Obama won by mobilizing a coalition of white liberals, minorities, and young voters. By energizing these constituencies and increasing their turnout, he no longer needed Bill Clinton’s appeals to gun-toting Appalachians or status-quo-oriented centrists.

    People talk about the African American community as Hillary’s firewall, but it’s really Barack Obama that is her firewall,” Axelrod said. “How ironic it is, as we contemplate the impending South Carolina primary, that that should be the case.”

    And you know what — the direction will only get better.

  38. 38.

    debbie

    @beltane:

    Exactly! They made a conscious choice to stand behind Palin, even though they knew her death panel theatrics were lies, because they were sure the enemy of their enemy would be their friend. And all they’ve done since then is dig themselves in deeper and now can’t get out.

  39. 39.

    D58826

    @ Another Holocene Human: rant-part ii. My middle niece just got married. She is in the process of adopting her husband’s five year old. She has a college degree and a good job at a bank. He works for an auto dealership. In order to afford the rent on the small house they are living in, one of Mark’s buddies is renting the spare bedroom.

    My youngest niece finally has a good job with the government in DC.. For the first 4 years after graduating from college she worked 3 nothing burger jobs to make ends meet and pay off her student loans. It took an MBA and more student loans before she landed that job. Many of her undergraduate friends are still working nothing burger jobs.

    And my oldest niece works for the State department.

    The irony is their parents are ardent cut taxes/government spending Reagan and maybe teaparty republicans.
    They are also retired military with two government pensions and access to Tricare. Their Dad never worked a day in the private sector. He did work for the local school board for a few years after retiring from the military. Last year he turned 65 and is now eligible for that socialist Medicare. My sister could retire at 64 because she has Tricare as a backup. .

    It isn’t just the white working class that is being screwed and is angry.

    What is happening just isn’t right. But these are the policies that people voted for. I would like to say you made your bed now sleep in but that isn’t right either.

  42. 42.

    D58826

    Now why don’t I feel the Bern? As I’ve said on other threads I thin k this is very much an electron to defendthe progressive progress of the last 100+ years. A GOP victory will result in a legislative/executive return to the 1870’s and a judicial return to the Lochner era.

    It’s true that Hillary has high unfavorable compared to Bernie. On the other hand the GOP slime machine has been working for 30 years to enhance those unfavorables. If Bernie is the nominee, the GOP will do its usual swiftboat/Willie Horton act and Bernie’s unfavorables will move up accordingly. The GOP is already starting tro hit Bernie on being a socialist and in many parts of the country that term is still radioactive

    As to his plan for a grassroots revolution I just don’t see it happening, esp. in 4 years. I’ve seen several articles where the plan is to have million person marches to pressure Congress to act or to have a national voter initiative to bypass Congress completely Well the GOP can sponsor million person marches also and the initiative first has to pass the Congress. Even if it does the GOP can use the same tool to bypass a Bernie veto or pass the national equivalent of Prop 13.

    In 1998 Hillary talked about a vast right wing conspiracy to get Bill and it turns out she was only half right. It wasn’t just something that came into being to get Bill. There is a vast right wing infrastructure sitting in plain sight and it’s goal is to undo the new deal. Kthug refers to it as the wingnut welfare system of well funded think thanks, lobby groups, etc It is well funded by the likes of the Koch brothers and addelson. It has deep roots in corporate America so it will out live any one of the current members. E.J. Dionne’s latest book about how the right went wrong traces the long history of this movement.

    Does that mean the left is powerless. No it doesn’t but it better be careful in the battles it chooses to fight. It will take a generation to build the kind of infrastructure that the right wing has now. A lose in 2016 means that the fight will have to start all over again from 1870 and not build on the progress thru 2016. To use one example – medical care. Obamacare might not be perfect. Maybe single payer is orders of magnitude better but a GOP victory means we go back to no national healthcare plan. So a win in 2016 is essential and I’m not sure at this time the Bernie can do it.

  44. 44.

    Nutella

    @D58826:

    I know a lot of people who have lived off federal taxes their entire lives (due to their own and their parents’ jobs) who rant endlessly about reducing federal expenditures and vote right wing.

    They never offer to give back any of their federal pay/handouts, though.

  48. 48.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @D58826: Well said. To me, when Sanders says he’d accomplish his goals by telling Mitch McConnell to look out the window and see the million demonstrators there, that’s just wishful thinking. It would require people rebelling somewhere other than online and that’s rare.

  49. 49.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Iowa Old Lady: I was part of a historic protest against Iraq War and guess what, GWB invaded Iraq anyway. Showing up after the votes are tallied and the winners announced IS TOO FUCKING LATE FOR FUCK’S SAKE!

    The only time GWB ever changed course was when HIS voters rebelled. Okay? So get in a Dem lege and you have leverage over them. Slop up and let the GOP keep it and they actually get more points the more you complain. Power. How does it work.

  50. 50.

    D58826

    @Nutella: Only time Chuck pushed for a tax increase was when the his kids school district was threatened with a major cut in programs due to a shortfall in tax revenues. They were knocking on the doors of folks who had no kids in the schools and asking that they vote to raise taxes. (sigh).

    I’ve given this rant/sermon to my nieces (we never had any kids) on several occasions so it isn’t something that is new with this election cycle.

  51. 51.

    Shana

    @TheMightyTrowel: My husband and I keep telling our daughter, who’s applying for grad programs in Art History, that good, quality writing will get her as far if not farther than someone with crap writing skills. I think she believes us.

  52. 52.

    Nutella

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    How will anyone know that a million people marched? The press does not cover left wing protests. I have seen them ignore very large anti war and pro immigrants marches.

    But coverage for a small crowd of poor black teens filling sidewalks in a rich neighborhood and frightening the tourists got huge press play ( and huge police presence ).

    Tiny Tea Party demonstrations get major press , too. They have a narrative that they are required to present.

  54. 54.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    If a million people march on Washington, it will be covered.

    Ok, sure. But what is going to get a million people to march in DC? And how often? And is this really an efficient way to govern?

  58. 58.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Steve in the ATL: Logistics… A million people over and above the regular resident, worker and tourist load in DC means more than thousand tonnes of (speaking euphemistically) solid waste a day to be handled somehow, probably by portapotties and similar. Liquid waste, in the same region. Food to top up the loss of precious bodily fluids, another thousand tonnes a day minimum as well as supplying drinking water.

    Where are these people going to sleep at night, how will they get around, how will they get to DC and then back home again? Who will organise all this stuff, who will pay for it? Bernie? Bueller?

    There are good documentaries on Youtube about events like the Glastonbury pop festival and the organising that goes on to get 150,000 people together in a farmer’s fields over a long weekend, keep them fed and watered, pump their shit away and send them home with minimum fatalities. It’s a year-long process for a large team of people funded by ticket sales and other events. Bernie says “turn up in your millions and…”

    It’s the thing that has always impressed me about President Obama since he came to notice, he’s always thinking, “what happens next?” and planning for it. I think Secretary Clinton has picked up on that ever since her losing nomination battle in 2008. Senator Sanders, not so much.

  59. 59.

    eldorado

    hopefully sanders inspires some of the younger crowd carry his economic critique into politics on their own.

  60. 60.

    Mandarama

    Since this is the morning open thread too…we are taking our boys to hear Hillary Clinton speak this afternoon! And by we I mean me and my used-to-be-Republican husband. Truly, we live in interesting times!

    Hope we’ll be able to get a spot.

  62. 62.

    john fremont

    @Nutella: Agreed. I see my old USMC buddies on my Facebook feed posting conservative memes all the time. Most of them are retired military with pensions and benefits now working for defense contractors or some federal agency. Sure, they earned they’ll tell you and I don’t dispute that. At the same time, don’t lecture me about the need health insurance reform in the private sector when you’ve been covered by military, Tricare, or FEHBP for your whole adult working life, you have no idea what it has been like.

  63. 63.

    Nutella

    @john fremont:

    Another example of how people have worked for the government a long time have no idea what it’s like out in private business: A relative who is a longterm civil servant simply refused to believe that my job provided only thirteen days of combined sick and vacation.

  64. 64.

    Bill_D

    @Shana: “…good, quality writing will get her as far if not farther than someone with crap writing skills.”

    Were you trying to say more, or did you really mean that good writing skills would merely equal or *maybe* exceed the value of poor writing skills?

  66. 66.

    jonas

    @Iowa Old Lady: He thinks McConnell would give a shit about that? Those people don’t write McConnell’s meal ticket. 20 million people could descend on Washington, and unless that 20 million include the top lobbyists for the defense and energy industries, the GOP leadership could not give less of a crap.

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