We are living in a renaissance period for conservative performance art. Let's savor it. https://t.co/cz7rRESrYC pic.twitter.com/f5ndgLQ4Si
— David Roth (@david_j_roth) March 11, 2016
Considering the location, has anybody seen DougJ recently?… From Syracuse.com, “Diner’s ‘Dictator Obama’ special makes national news”:
At the American Diner, you can order a “Dictator Obama/NYS Special (King Cuomo)” plate of eggs and toast for $3.59 plus tax.
But the tax is going to be $27.99, according to the menu.
Michael Tassone serves up a Conservative brand of politics and humor, along with his burgers and eggs, at the little diner in the Syracuse suburb of Liverpool.
His unusual menu – which also includes “The Anti-Michelle Obama Don’t Tell Me What To Eat Or Feed My Kids Burger” – attracted the attention Tuesday of Fox News, which published a story about him on the homepage of its website…
The outside of Tassone’s restaurant is decorated with “Repeal the SAFE Act” signs, referring to the tough gun control law that Cuomo pushed through, and “Don’t Tread on Me” and American flags. Inside, the decor includes an Uncle Sam statue, Three Stooges photos, and a “Chia Obama” box depicting the president as a chia plant.
Tassone’s menu says “We encourage legal carry on premises” and “We encourage prayer/grace.”
“I don’t like either party,” said Tassone. “People think I’m a Republican. I’m not.”
Tassone says he’s enrolled as a Conservative Party voter.
The restaurant owner ended the interview when he was asked about a 2011 arrest of a Michael P. Tassone of Liverpool on a charge of welfare fraud by Syracuse police. Police also charged Tassone, of 4342 Loveland Drive, Liverpool, and his wife, Michelle, with offering a false instrument for filing…
Tassone and his wife were accused five years ago of stealing $25,627 by obtaining Medicaid benefits that they weren’t eligible to receive because of income they had that they failed to disclose, Kasmarek said. He said the couple illegally received the benefits from May 2009 to April 2011.
The case is still pending five years later because prosecutors have been waiting for the Tassones to make restitution, which the Tassones’ lawyer has promised will happen, Kasmarek said.
The DA’s office plans to decide how to proceed with the case soon, the prosecutor said…
It’s like a law of wingnut nature — the louder they bleat about ‘government dictators’ stealing ‘our’ money, the more likely they’ve got a history of welfare dependency and/or fraud…
chopper
mah nishtana?
Baud
I can’t believe it’s legal to misrepresent the tax like that.
gex
What kills me is that they wouldn’t need to make up a scary large charge to lampoon Obama’s taxes if their complaints were tethered to reality. They’d just need to use a highlighter to highlight the taxes. That the exact same thing can be purchased for less disproves the point they are trying to make. And of course like any good conservative crybaby, that made up Obama tax is going right in their pockets (probably as undeclared income no less).
Baud
If I owned a diner, a glass of water would be called The Rubio.
debbie
I don’t know who’s stupider, the welfare cheat or the DA who can’t figure out how to proceed.
debbie
@Baud:
Limitless napkins!
Baud
The Trump would be a plate of little chicken fingers.
Baud
The Kasich would be a single piece of untoasted white bread.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
You know who can savor conservative performance art? Entitled white fucking dudebro assholes. Miss me with that unself-aware ironic privileged bullshit.
jayboat
@Baud:
This why you have my vote.
Baud
A side of Cruz would be a bowl of salmonella.
Baud
The Jeb! would be an empty plate and cost $175 million.
Baud
You really don’t want to know what’s in The Fiorina.
Johnny Coelacanth
“People think I’m a Republican and really, what’s the fucking difference anymore?”
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
This is a real thing. Packrat’s best friend got me a chia Obama for Christmas. I thought, WTF am I going to do with this? Also, it gave me a horrible earworm:
“If you like chia Obamas, and getting caught in the rain….”
John Revolta
Well, to have a renaissance of something shouldn’t there have been a you know, first time around?
“Let ’em eat cake” was kinda funny but it went by pretty quick.
SP
Is the Trump dinner plate the legendary tire irons and anthrax?
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
I’m anticipating the system blowing up and having to deal with critical asset alarms at 2am tonight.
Bill E Pilgrim
I’m assuming that at this Trump-supporting diner wine is served in the finest crystal nacht.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Luthe
@SP: It’s an overcooked yam with hair on it.
The Other Chuck
The one food picture they have makes Denny’s fare look good by comparison. Anyway, jolly good luck after chasing half your potential customers away, Tassone. My guess is he’s collecting unemployment and welfare in a year.
And what is it with the restaurant business attracting such inveterate assholes? Maybe it’s the attraction of hiring waitstaff you can treat and pay like shit.
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: Actually its a 3 inch hot dog special in Chicago. This should’ve been his campaigns first clue that something was up:
http://www.redeyechicago.com/restaurants-bars/redeye-wieners-circle-offers-trump-footlong-mini-hot-dog-20160309-story.html
Adam L Silverman
@Baud: Walker would be hot ham on rolls. Wasn’t that what he is always obsessively tweeting about?
divF
@Luthe:
Well, there goes my appetite for the next week.
Mike J
Bill E Pilgrim
@Adam L Silverman:
I think that’s Trump.
Oh wait sorry I misread that as “in a Rolls”.
Adam L Silverman
@Bill E Pilgrim: No the Trump one is at the link in my comment #23.
scottinnj
The endorsements keep coming for Trump:
Sauron, the fallen Maia best known for engulfing Middle-Earth in two apocalyptic wars, has endorsed real estate mogul and reality TV star Donald Trump for president of the United States. This comes as to shock to those who thought that Sauron was destroyed at the end of the Third Age.
When asked about Sauron on NBC’s Meet the Press, Trump seemed hesitant to distance himself from the evil necromancer. “I don’t think the American people want me to dismiss every Dark Lord before I have a chance to learn more about them,” said Trump. “I just don’t know anything about Sauron or his dark legion of orcs, trolls, and Nazgûl; I need to do more research.
http://www.reelnewsnetwork.com/sauron-endorses-donald-trump-for-president/
Aleta
@Baud: I think I’ll have The Republican Debate.
Ruckus
Who would know better about welfare/Medicaid/unemployment cheating than someone with first hand experience? Not sure how it works there but unemployment is not available to self-employed people in CA. Your business goes under, your fault or not, you be out of luck.
Gin & Tonic
A goat riding on a tortoise. You know you need to see it.
El Caganer
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Roy Edroso has repeatedly pointed out that wingnuts don’t understand art or humor – to them, art and humor are just forms of propaganda.
Isobel
The Rick Perry could be an especially tough, gristled piece of rancid meat.
Prescott Cactus
@Ruckus:
They probably get a pass on paying into the fund as an owner and don’t have anything in the kitty to draw from. They also wouldn’t have to pay themselves salary and could take profits at lower corporate rate, avoiding the double SS payments (worker & employer). RW Uncle did this forever.
Barbara
Regarding David Roth’s tweet: Even if it were meant to be art, which I doubt, it doesn’t feel like it.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
@Isobel:
Served in glasses.
SiubhanDuinne
@Isobel:
Is no one going to post their favorite Santorum recipe?
O. Felix Culpa
@SiubhanDuinne: Eeeww.
different-church-lady
The Sanders is all the eggs you can eat, for only the cost of the tax.
The Clinton is exactly the same amount of eggs as The Obama, but not cooked as well.
delk
@Adam L Silverman: Google Wiener’s Circle and check out some of the VERY NSFW videos.
This Conan one is funny and the cussing is bleeped out.
ThresherK (GPad)
@Baud: Not The Snyder?
I’d be tempted.to serve conservatives some of that Freedom Water they’re so thirsty for. No EPA, HHS, or USDA for them.
redshirt
Fair Annatar appears, as if from nowhere, bearing presents. Who are we to say no?
different-church-lady
Whatever you do, don’t order the Santorum.
Prescott Cactus
@SiubhanDuinne:
You’ve broken Godwin’s Law for the Food Network
LAO
I’m sure I’m not the first to post this but, when, oh when will Dreher retire to the monastery? http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/social-justice-warriors-will-elect-trump/
Prescott Cactus
“Sorry we ran out of the Jim Gilmore 3 months ago” Want a Rand Paul ?
celticdragonchick
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
I’m guessing you are real fun to be around at parties.
sigaba
Teasing this without having video is positively cruel…
redshirt
@Tracy Peters, Jr.: Half the country? 50% of the people on food stamps?
celticdragonchick
@Tracy Peters, Jr.:
Do you wear a bow tie, perchance, Petey Junior? I bet it looks adorable! That snazzy red and white one you select for the family excursion to Martha’s Vineyard over the summer holidays while the nanny is watching you and the twins. It makes you feel SO grown up, doesn’t it? Just like that Tucker guy your father watches on TV every Sunday morning.
El Caganer
@Tracy Peters, Jr.: Might want to recheck your figures – population of USA is about 320 million; number of people collecting SNAP is about 45 million. Fuckin’ math, how does it work?
Prescott Cactus
@Baud:
I know it’s not Menudo.
different-church-lady
@Tracy Peters, Jr.: When exactly did the country shed over 200 million people?
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Prescott Cactus: The Jim Gilmore is “free”, but you’ll have to pay $500 to get your car back after it’s towed. Oh, and it’s an empty plate that shatters in your hand, giving you tetanus.
But hey! It’s “free”!
Cheers,
Scott.
Tracy Peters, Jr.
@El Caganer:
I’m referring to adults of working age.
The facts are the facts. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Period.
Tracy Peters, Jr.
The Other Chuck
@redshirt: Surely you recognize a bog-standard troll by now. Truth is a liability to these guys,
Peale
Good AP story on the private probation industry. I know its old news around here, but any time the story resurfaces is probably good.
I know it was posted on an earlier thread, but the Washington Monthly story on the forces behind privan of the VA hospital system is worth reading for those who missed its brief mention.
Barbara
@Tracy Peters, Jr.: Half? You do realize that Congress dramatically cut the Food Stamp program last year? Or is even one person too many, such that your feveted brain has magnified the number to half however many there actually are? Something to think about. Period.
different-church-lady
@Tracy Peters, Jr.: Knock it off, Doug J.
redshirt
@The Other Chuck: Just fishin’
Prescott Cactus
@Tracy Peters, Jr.:
Neither was the Jim Gilmore plate. It attracted trolls.
Redshift
@Tracy Peters, Jr.:
No, we didn’t. His plan, to cut the car tax and insist that nothing was needed to replace it because economic growth would make up the difference, resulted in a huge budget deficit that he covered up until after the election for his successor. (He was apparently hired to avoid
redshirt
@Tracy Peters, Jr.: How do you respond to folks that say Tracy is a girl’s name?
different-church-lady
@Tracy Peters, Jr.:
According to what you just said, there is for half the country, doofus.
FlyingToaster
@Tracy Peters, Jr.: Link or you’re making it up.
different-church-lady
@redshirt: How do you know he’s not a girl? Eh? Didn’t think of that, did you wise guy?
sigaba
@Tracy Peters, Jr.: My god sir, if only we could transmute shenanigans into clean power, we could just strap you to Diablo Canyon II and Global Warming would be defeated.
different-church-lady
@sigaba: Let’s do it anyway. Just for kicks.
DesertFriar
@Isobel:
The Rick Perry could be an especially tough, gristled piece of rancid meat.
===========
I would have thought it would be boiled beef shank.
While that may not be appetizing, it does come with three sides…corn, okra but I forgot the third.
different-church-lady
@Tracy Peters, Jr.: Why did they avoid Caesar? Was he the neighborhood pedo or something?
Nate Dawg
Saw Air Force One landing yesterday and then taking off today….right outside the window.
Was an awesome experience as it was very close and just large and so slow moving for its size, and of course, the person who is in it.
We’ve been told for 8 years that Obama disrespects the office of the President for not wearing a tie, or taking a selfie, or because his daughter had messed up hair after a long flight.
And yet….those same people are nominating a foul-mouthed, idiotic, ridiculous old blowhard who is/was? married to a model who has posed nude, encourages violence against protestors, claims an entire religion is against us, etc. etc. etc….the list goes on.
I hope everyone knows what this is–bigotry. This isn’t about Drumpf. This is about the GOP freakout to President Obama, and the TWO need to be wed at the hip.
The intransigence in Congress: Drumpf. SCOTUS nominee being blocked: Drumpf. Medicaid expansion struck down: Drumpf.
Every awful policy needs to be tied to Drumpf and his party of Grand Ole Pissedoffguys.
Democrats, I hope, are waiting in the wings to hammer this home over and over again. If they can’t use this to take back the House and Senate, then we are completely screwed.
different-church-lady
@Nate Dawg: And his hair is messed up before a long flight.
Redshift
@Tracy Peters, Jr.:
redshirt
@different-church-lady: You can’t be a Jr. girl, silly.
FlyingToaster
@Tracy Peters, Jr.:
Liar, Liar, pants on fire.
45 million includes kids. Includes WIC (pregnant women, infants, children). In many states, includes Disaster Assistance.
Linky.
Jeebus, can’t we attract better trolls?
Prescott Cactus
@sigaba: Strap him to San Onofre, they aren’t making any juice. It wouldn’t be clean power, but seem like it wants to keep producing.
I think Diablo is awaiting license extensions.
celticdragonchick
@Tracy Peters, Jr.:
Like keeping uppity negroes and those po’ cracker whites in their place, bow-tie boy? Society works ever so much better when the ‘help’ keeps a proper sense of humility.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Tracy Peters, Jr.:
Fuck you, Tracy Peters, Jr., you sanctimonious asshole. Your contempt for half the citizens of this great country is duly noted, and you can stick your “basics” up your racist ass.
sigaba
@Prescott Cactus: “Strap him to San Onofre…”
And Detective Frank Drebin says, “Everything I see reminds me of her…”
Maybe we could tie him to the wind farm in the Cajon Pass.
CALIFORNIA UTILTIY JOKE THREAD!
different-church-lady
@redshirt: POPPYCOCK!
Redshift
I always wondered what was going through Gilmore’s mind that he thought his textbook demonstration of the failure of the conservative approach to budgets could be parlayed into a Senate seat or a presidential nomination. I mean, sure, the conservative movement is full of people who fail upwards, but usually they have something more to go on than a successful slogan about cutting one tax.
Gin & Tonic
@different-church-lady: I think the Jesus guy made a better sammich.
Prescott Cactus
@FlyingToaster:
Maybe the Sheboygan Trib’s website is down tonight.
redshirt
@different-church-lady: Never say never said
Tracy Peters Jr.
sigaba
@Tracy Peters, Jr.:
“Everybody watch me wrestle this pig!” (A few minutes pass and the pig starts winning) “Pig didn’t fight fair!”
Are you lonely? Why are you here?
Bill E Pilgrim
@SiubhanDuinne:
@different-church-lady:
The Santorum and the Rubio are combined, in the category “unable to achieve even a solid number two”.
El Caganer
@Tracy Peters, Jr.: Oh, you mean they preferred to be beggars? Hmmm. Well, chacun a son gout or grey poupon or whatever the hell it is the French say.
Gin & Tonic
@redshirt: I bet Tracy Peters, Sr. is real proud.
Prescott Cactus
@sigaba: Some of the workers and locals call S.O.N.G.S., Dolly Parton. It sure got a nice set of reactors buildings.
sigaba
@Bill E Pilgrim: it’s hardly Juvenal but I’ll sign off on that.
different-church-lady
@Tracy Peters, Jr.:
Given that condition, If he chooses to keep cussing you out, this could be a big win for everyone.
redshirt
Tracy Petey Sr.
Tracy Spiderman Esq.
FlyingToaster
@Prescott Cactus: Naw, some place in the Virginia exurbs of DC. Manassas? Leesburg? Woodbridge?
redshirt
@Tracy Peters, Jr.: And the 10 Amendments.
celticdragonchick
@Tracy Peters, Jr.:
Oh my, little Tucker got his feeling hurt.
Now dear, you know repeating those things you hear your father say while watching Fox News will make the other kids mad at you and say bad things. We talked about this, remember? Now run along…there’s my brave little man! Juanita is in the kitchen with a snack for you, and make sure you give some to the twins, now. Go get your sailor suit out for tonight afterwards. We are going on Uncle Teddy’s yacht for supper!
Steve in the ATL
@Tracy Peters, Jr.: We have a lot in common–my grandparents also grew up without food stamps! Mine, however, did not demand charity from their neighbors or churches. They pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, one set with a bunch of farmland that the government totally didn’t help with, and the other set with a bank they owned and a few thousand shares of oil company stocks that they totally didn’t inherit.
That, my friend, is how you do it.
ETA: period.
Prescott Cactus
@Gin & Tonic:
of promoting filicide.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Tracy Peters, Jr.:
When you’re comeback is about the tone, it’s because you have no good argument. I’m proud to be a liberal Democrat – the only group of people who have worked tirelessly over 80 years to secure progress for people you disdain as unworthy. This country is for everyone, and I’m glad you don’t like it. It means we’re doin’ it right.
El Caganer
@redshirt: No, only the second and tenth count fully. A little bit of the first, depending on what your religion is and what you’re trying to say.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@celticdragonchick: I’m sure Tracy means back in the good old days like the The Depression of 1873-1879. No income tax then – those were grand times. A life expectancy at birth of ~ 40 years was good enough for them, why not for us?
No crazy things like SNAP, antibiotics, unemployment insurance, the FDIC.
You see, taxes are always bad. Social insurance is always bad (except for Social Security – which Tracy is probably collecting, because after all, he paid for it). Medical insurance is always bad (except for Medicare – which Tracy is probably covered by, because after all, he paid for it).
Food stamps breed dependency, you see. Because it’s unheard of for a working person to lose their job and need temporary assistance (that they paid for with their taxes). People should depend on charity because nothing builds community like all of your friends and neighbors roaming the streets begging, crawling into trash cans, and selling blood plasma.
I say we “get back to basics” when those who want to end SNAP agree to give up their Social Security and their Medicare and their Property Tax Exemptions and donate their homes to the State. It’s only fair, right? They’re not working and paying their fair share. Back in the good old days, we didn’t have those things and we did just fine with our periodic banking panics, depressions, mass epidemics and so forth.
Ah, good times.
/snark
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
Steve in the ATL
@El Caganer:
In this case, the French would say “va-te faire foutre”–Omnes will back me up on this.
sigaba
@Tracy Peters, Jr.: As I have told people over and over again, undesirable and illegal immigrants are literally the ONLY thing that makes America great. Without immigrants America is just Russia with Open Carry.
Individual liberty and Protestant Christianity are, at best, the pipe, not the water.
RaflW
Been out traveling today, so just now catching up. The item from this morning was just awesome. I love this late-term President Barack F. Obama (the F stands for, uhh, ‘bucket’). “Now, suddenly, we’re shocked that there’s gambling going on in this establishment” is just such excellent trolling.
celticdragonchick
@Tracy Peters, Jr.:
Isn’t that so precious? Teddy, you have got to come here and see this! Little Tracey has been working on his “What Made America Great” project for Sunday School and he is going to perform it next week!
Gin & Tonic
Somebody seems to be furiously sweeping up the mess.
celticdragonchick
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Heh!
Adam L Silverman
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
Took one minute on Google: worked for the City of Greensboro, now retired. Did his degree at a public state university. So subsidized education at taxpayers’ expense. Entire career’s salary and benefits at taxpayers’ expense. Pension at taxpayers’ expense. Claims to hate government and government spending, while existing solely off of government and government spending.
Unless he’s stolen someone else’s online identity. But based on the LinkedIn and Facebook profile, and how they’re written, I’d wager its the same guy.
Steve in the ATL
@Adam L Silverman: Oh SNAP
scav
Despite the Miss Manners meets sneering Tucker Carlson, it’s a pretty thin characterization.
ETA: or, apparently, a pretty thin approximation of an actual personality.
celticdragonchick
@Gin & Tonic:
Alas, poor Tracy! We scarcely knew ye, bow-tie boy!
sigaba
@Adam L Silverman: People resent what they need.
LAO
@Steve in the ATL: the googlefu is strong with that one.
Mnemosyne
@Tracy Peters, Jr.:
Hey, speaking of that guy Jesus, remember what he said about the sheep and the goats?
It always amazes me how many purported Christians read those words and can’t figure out for the life of them what they mean. It’s a mystery, that is.
Tracy Peters, Jr. — Goat
Nate Dawg
Did anyone else catch Josh Marshall’s discussion of Trump’s rise:
Read the whole thing, well worth it.
The point not stated is the close parallel to Adolf the Crazy. I know Godwin forbids any comparisons, but seriously, the way in which Hitler’s *personal* resentment enabled him to tap into a national resentment is strikingly similar.
I would like to think that we have enough protections baked into our democracy such that a man couldn’t rise to such ignominious power, but it simply isn’t true. Hitler’s game plan was methodic and long. Upon ascension to the Chancellorship, he asked German people for four years to pull the country out of poverty and address the unemployment. During that time, he positioned his people throughout the government. Judges, police, military officers, you name it. He slowly built up the military, but also purposefully wooed Europe into a false sense of security (we know this from a memo Hitler wrote after British elder statesman David Lloyd George visited the Berghof and assured the world that Hitler had no desire to inflame war. The memo, of course, declared the need for a German military escalation.)
Anyway, Hitler’s rise to power was a combination of his determined will, deep sense of personal resentment, and just sheer luck that circumstances allowed him to ascend. It was most certainly aided by a public unwilling to resist early on, when it would have been useful, and a world community that preferred the comfort of denial, with its inevitable payday, to reckoning with the truth before their eyes.
Prescott Cactus
@Adam L Silverman:
and he might have got kin who own a diner in Syracuse named Michael and Michelle Tassone.
That would about close the circle. . . .
Technocrat
@LAO:
I’ve remarked on Adam’s Google-Fu before. 5th Dan black belt stuff.
LAC
@Tracy Peters, Jr.: what does your dating life have to do with anything?
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Adam L Silverman:
Yeah, the old “I pulled myself up by the bootstraps the government gave me and my family” conservative hypocritical bullshit. Well done.
Redshift
@Tracy Peters, Jr.: Classic wingnut – when caught in a lie, insist that it would have been true if not for something that can be blamed, however ludicrously, on the nearest Democrat, skipping over the fact that “it would have been true” isn’t the same as being true, so it’s still a lie.
Gilmore left office in January 2002. 9/11 didn’t crash the Virginia economy and turn a massive surplus into a massive deficit in four months. The recession didn’t hit until 2002.
In reality, Gilmore got elected by lying to voters, telling them he could cut their taxes and not cut any programs they cared about, and balance the budget by magic. Free ponies! Mark Warner (and a bipartisan legislature) set taxes at a level that would pay for the government services people wanted. That’s not “picking the pockets of taxpayers”, that’s civilization. If you don’t like it, move to Somalia.
And since you’ve now repeatedly demonstrated that your style of argument is “make shit up that is so obviously false that only wingnuts would believe it”, I’m done.
(Actually, I suspect that you’re not bright enough to make this stuff up, and you’re just parroting obviously and provably false stuff that you’re stupid enough to believe.)
celticdragonchick
@Adam L Silverman:
Bow-tie boy lives right here with me in Greensboro, NC? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Hey Tracey, drop in on one of my EC (exceptional children) classes I’m teaching next week, maybe at Guilford Middle School or Northeast High and learn something about working for…I dunno…the common good of the people? yeah…that about covers it.
Peale
@FlyingToaster: and that’s set to go down to 33 million on its own. Then of that, 12 million are eligible through SSI/SSDI. Another 4 million are retired.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve in the ATL: See what you did there.
Adam L Silverman
@Steve in the ATL: Drives me nuts. I’ve got grad degrees from two state universities and was employed by three different ones post-doc. Even why I’ve been a contractor/consultant, ultimately the funds paying my salary come from the DOD. I wouldn’t be able to do what I do and be as successful as I have been without taxpayer funded programs. And no matter how hard I’ve worked or how naturally talented I might be, I’m also only as good as the people that have taught me, mentored me, and taken a chance on me.
You want to argue over what should be done at which level of government? Not a problem. What should be a private good and what should be a public good? Not a problem. Exist solely because your entire education, career, and earned retirement were taxpayer funded and then rant about government spending? Problem.
Peale
Not exactly comfortable with the publishing the personal information, even if someone uses actual name, though. We’re not worried that he’s a missing person.
celticdragonchick
@Adam L Silverman:
You are my new hero.
Steve in the ATL
@BillinGlendaleCA: I’m studying under the master, efgoldman. In a conversation the other night about the fines owed by the Bundy ranch, he casually dropped in “payment in kine.” It was a top ten BJ moment.
sigaba
@Nate Dawg: Godwins Law does not forbid comparisons, it only predicts their inevitability.
El Caganer
@Redshift: And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for that meddling Adam Silverman!
Adam L Silverman
@celticdragonchick: According to the online profiles, unless he’s stolen someone else’s online ID to troll here, he lives in the DC area. Worked for the Greensboro Public Works department until retirement.
NotMax
As businesses pass the tax collected along to the government, the tax office will no doubt be tickled pink to receive the extra dough from Tassone’s greasy spoon.
David Fud
@redshirt: my wife is, for what it is worth.
Gin & Tonic
@Peale: All of that is, literally, on the first page of Google results when you enter nothing but the name. It’s not like anybody is doxxing the dude.
Steve in the ATL
@Adam L Silverman:
Indeed. Every one of these idiots I’ve had the misfortune to engage in conversation with has been suckling at the public teat his whole life. It’s always public schools followed by military then government job or just straight to government job.
Is there a DSM 5 entry for this?
Adam L Silverman
@Peale: I understand your concern. All I did was a keyword search in google using “Tracy Peters Jr”. Got a LinkedIn and Facebook profile – both matched each other. I didn’t post his email address, his phone number, nor his address. That would be beyond the pale. But his own description of his education and career that he’s put out where anyone can find it is a different thing and clearly off limits.
redshirt
@David Fud: Really? How does that work? Is it a southern thing?
Adam L Silverman
@Steve in the ATL: Narcissistic economic ideology disorder?
Nate Dawg
@sigaba: Okay so Godwin’s law is the probability of Nazi approaches 1?
what is the law where you automatically lose argument? That’s not part of it?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve in the ATL: A few Christmases ago our guest was ranting about government. Same pattern, his dad was military, he went to a public university(didn’t graduate), went into the military and then a job at a defense contractor(where he’s still employed).
sigaba
@LAO:
I feel kinda sad reading that, I used to comment on his blog a lot and I’d get into arguments with him specifically about how the stuff he wanted competely dovetailed with what Trumpers wanted politically. And he was in such denial, and his concerns were elevated and serene and totally superior, but look where we are? He wanted President Alisdair Macintyre, but Trump was what was on offer.
AND HE HATES TRUMP, but he can’t bear to admit that his ideals have lead to this. So he’s joined the Trump-is-a-liberal-conspiracy bandwagon.
Technocrat
@Steve in the ATL:
My current contract is with a defense contractor. 100% government paid. They’re all deeply conservative “government can’t do anything right” types.
When the healthcare.gov fiasco happened, most of them jumped on the “government programmers suck” train. I reminded them that they were government programmers, and suddenly that shit was much less funny.
Cacti
Is Tracy Peters, Jr. trying to become the next George Tierney of Greenville, South Carolina?
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: You just want pictures.
davebo
Waking up to the sound of a Turkish Airlines ad on BJ. WTF?
Steve in the ATL
@BillinGlendaleCA: He should get tested for Narcissistic economic ideology disorder. I hear it’s in the DSM 5 now.
Adam L Silverman
@davebo: You never know when you have to get away, all of a sudden, to Istanbul.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Speaking entirely from conjecture, rest assured that nude Baud photos will not be forthcoming.
redshirt
@Cacti: Southerners have that natural inclination. Let’s let them sort it out.
Steve in the ATL
@Technocrat: Sounds like an epidemic of Narcissistic economic ideology disorder!
Peale
@NotMax: oh there’s plenty out there…I heard that the younger Baud made beer money as a life model for art students after college.
ruemara
I can’t help being worried about what will happen next. We have a lot of angry white people who this marginal taste of not being on top has thrown them into a frenzy.
It’s also not helpful that our side seems to be in a purity schism.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@BillinGlendaleCA:
How can anyone who works for a defense contractor be a free market conservative? How do you square that circle? You can’t. No wonder they’ve all gone batshit crazy.
Cacti
@redshirt:
It seems to be particularly prominent in homo sapiens confederatus carolinius.
NotMax
@efgoldman
True story.
Back before the recession 86’d my little shop, there was one time when I kept receiving notices from the state tax office that I owed them money.
It was a paltry sum ($16) but I also knew it was neither owed nor due.
After months and months, finally got through to someone on the phone who had authority to look into it properly and deal with it. Patiently explained yet again the whole thing and was put on hold.
About six minutes later was told that I was correct and did not owe the $16, in fact it was a credit the state owed me!
Quoth the supervisor on the other end of the line (not making this up, I swear): “Just ignore the letters. We often confuse credits and debits.”
Prescott Cactus
@Steve in the ATL:
It’d be like picking gym socks out of a white load of full clothes basket.
Think how many douce canoes like him are out there. With a pulse and a voters card.
Technocrat
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Other people are leeches if they work for the government. It’s OK if you’re one of us.
hamletta
@davebo: They’re doing a big promotional push with the new Batman movie. I saw an ad the other day: “Visit Gotham City on Turkish Airlines!” Had a whole fictional travelogue.
Adam L Silverman
@Nate Dawg: I have remarked on that before. If you also recall, at the first GOP House retreat after President Obama was inaugurated in 2009, they GOP invited him to attend. They even asked him to speak, but only after they had then Congressman Mike Pence – chair of the Republican Study Committee – present the GOP’s plans for the budget, health care, tax reform, etc that they wanted him to work with them to enact. This was despite the fact that they were minorities in both chambers at the time. Of course the plans were actually a 14 bullet list. When the President spoke, and this was carried lived on C-SPAN and then replayed all over cable news that night and the next day, he made them look like idiots. Governor Pence has never been credited as being very smart, but he looked small and stunned and confused by the President’s remarks. As did a Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan. I’ve always felt that this contributed to how the House GOP has interacted with him. They had convinced themselves he was an empty suit, token elected to assuage the Nation’s and Democrat’s guilt. What they got was someone far smarter than they were. And far better prepared.
Cacti
@ruemara:
The angry white people on our side are afflicted with the same problem. They just manifest it through high brow paternalistic racism, rather than low brow vulgar bigotry.
different-church-lady
@sigaba:
Rotating tag line
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@ruemara:
I’m with you sister. White people are starting to grok the contours of a future without automatic privilege, and they’re lashing out. I’m a white woman with daughters who are both married to black men, and I’m truly scared like I haven’t been before.
SFAW
OK, so I’m late to the game, having missed most of TP Junior’s comments (I was going to say something about a shitty outlook, but figured that was a little much) before he yanked them. (Prolly not the only yanking he’s doing, IYKWIMAITYD) But where does the bow-tie commentary come from?
I have obviously missed something, yet again. Thanks, Obama.
mclaren
@Nate Dawg:
Several insightful twitter sets by David Frum about Trump’s rise and the decay of the Republican party:
https://storify.com/DemFromCT/david-frum-on-the-repucan-party-s-dilemma
https://storify.com/DemFromCT/david-frum-on-the-state-of-the-republican-party
The first analysis sounds right. They’re desperately looking for a “true conservative” alternative to Trump, but there isn’t one because the Republican party has systematically purged itself of moderates. This leaves a Hobson’s Choice: either vote for Hillary, or stay home from the polls this November.
If Republican voters stay home, it impacts the senate and house races badly for Republicans. So the logical policy would be to urge voters to vote for Hillary at the top of the ticket and Republicans the rest of the way down. Trouble is, Republican voters are likely to be so disgusted at that prospect that they either won’t be able to stomach voting at all, or will register their disgust with protest votes.
Either way, this analysis suggests a Democratic president + senate in 2016, and if the disgusted Republicans continue to stay home from the polls in 2018, a Democratic house in 2018.
As Frum points out, these kind of splits tend to become permanent. Disaffected Republican voters for vote Democratic in the 2016 presidential election may well never return to the Republican party.
Good times.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Technocrat:
There’s only so much cognitive dissonance you can sustain, though, before your brain breaks with the strain of it. It feels like we’re there now, where the whole conservative Republican identity has devolved into a kind of mental illness. None of the GOP pundits or candidates have any coherent ideas. They’re wandering around, lost, and dangerous.
mclaren
@Adam L Silverman:
Whenever Obama has interacted with the Republican-controlled House of representatives, he always looks like the only adult in the room.
redshirt
Good to know there’s no limit to the faces you can punch in the name of Justice.
SFAW
@Adam L Silverman:
Who clearly didn’t know his place.
On the plus side, they resisted the urge to address him as “boy.” I think.
Ruckus
Tracy Peters JR.
Your vulgar, juvenile language is typical of a Democrat. Perhaps when you choose to speak on a civilized manner we can debate
Been away for dinner and just saw this. My reply.
Hey asshole, you come into someplace you obviously don’t fit, spouting things that you can’t back up, math that doesn’t add up, and in general just plain bullshit and you want us to be civil? Well here goes, Go fuck yourself with a rusty farm tractor. You’ll have to pull your head out of your fucking ass to drive it but then you should do that anyway. By the way if you get sick or start bleeding from the size of the implement or the rust you could ask us for assistance if you think the government shouldn’t be in the health care business. Not saying the math we might work out for the donations sent your way might be enough, but we’ll be sure to use your methods. I’m not sure $1.50 would go very far in pulling a tractor out of your ass but that’s the breaks.
BillinGlendaleCA
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: From what I’ve observed, it really common.
mclaren
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
As I’ve pointed out before, this time it really is different. The Republican party is in the middle of breaking up. What comes after, no one can predict. But a split this big with concomitant unity in the Democratic ranks suggests Democratic dominance in national elections (congressional as well as presidential) as far as the eye can see.
When a political party splits, the split-off faction tends to wander from the original ideology of the party. Many of the New Deal Democrats were former Republicans who split off from the Republican party when Teddy Roosevelt ran on the Bull Moose ticket in 1912.
Are we seeing another Bull-Moose-type split in 2016?
Time will tell.
But things are looking good for progressives when the major split in the Democratic party is that Bernie keeps winning states we was expected to lose and Hillary keeps getting forced to the left.
ruemara
@Cacti: I finally had to block someone for being that way today. I don’t even discuss politics with my political friends any more.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
I think a certain new poster down thread needs a ban hammer tout de suite!
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
mclaren
@efgoldman:
Democrats suffer from white guilt, Republicans suffer from white gilt.
SFAW
@mclaren:
That’s because he is.
Just because they’re out of diapers — well, except for certain Senators from LA, of course — doesn’t mean they’re adults. They just disguise it by using slightly different phrasing from their natural inclination to say “You’re a doody-head, Obama!”
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Cacti:
BINGO. The other side of white America’s racist coin. The true revolutionary act in this racist as fuck country is to embrace Obama and the AA community, and to re-form the winning Obama coalition to defeat the fascists in our midst. President Obama gave us the blueprint.
Anne Laurie
@Gin & Tonic: More than three wingnut-talking-points, totally-off-topic comments on my post constitutes spam. Even if the spambot is self-aware enough to throw in a few personal attacks on other commentors.
scav
sigaba
@Adam L Silverman: Hey thanks for linking to the Thucyidies YouTube the other day- I found the whole program and have enjoyed it immensely. (I’m an old fan of Andrew Keir from the Hammer movies so that helps. All the actors are stellar, Brit actors seem to have a sense of national duty when it comes to BBC educational films.)
Adam L Silverman
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: I’ve just read that three times and I’m not sure what it means at all. Pretty sure its not good, but its also not very coherent either.
SFAW
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
As Dean Wormer might say, “Stupid and vile is no way to go through life.”
His vileness is better suited to RedStoat and Freeperville. I agree with Scott, ban the sick fuck.
Mike J
@Adam L Silverman:
I think this is it.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Anne Laurie: Thank you!
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@Anne Laurie:
As I said I’ve been away from the site for a while. Did I miss a ban hammer? And comment towards someone no longer here?
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
He misspelled “Charles” as “Chales”. He’s a moran.
SFAW
@Ruckus:
Gee, Ruckus, you shouldn’t do ‘Ludes with your wine, it makes a little TOO mellow.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Adam L Silverman: The last few lines were over the line – way over the line – to these eyes.
The rest of it seemed to be MRA nonsense.
Cheers,
Scott.
mclaren
The Thucydides excerpt that seems most apposite to our current era comes from the section on the revolt at Corcyra:
redshirt
*Does superhero leap…
Adam L Silverman
@sigaba: You are quite welcome. I recommend these as well too:
https://www.youtube.com/user/sphinxriddles
Was one of the better productions I’ve seen.
Adam L Silverman
@Mike J: That’s it. I thought it was the year before, but that’s definitely it.
mclaren
@Adam L Silverman:
Plain English translation: “Women scare me.”
Ruckus
@SFAW:
They’d have to be leftovers from decades ago. Anything is possible.
Yeah I get a touch defensive when someone tells me how I’m supposed to talk/act/think. I can make my own mistakes. Besides I had a sister who used to do the same. I was much less pleasant with her the last time she tried that.
Adam L Silverman
@sigaba: I also highly recommend these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq1T-y0SIno
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPnUK176AR0
scav
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: Are they always that incoherent and whiney? I’ll take it as a yes, and the whiney comes as no surprise, but that first bit, whew. Male Rhetorical Absence.
Gravenstone
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker: I. hate. you.
SFAW
@Ruckus:
You realize I wasn’t complaining, right? It was not unlike having The Rude Pundit delivered to my figurative doorstep, which is OK by me.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@scav: That’s the first one I’ve seen in the wild, I think.* AL said (in that thread) he apparently was one of JC’s Twitter stalkers.
:-(
* – to be clear, that’s the first banable troll I’ve seen here. I’d seen mention of MRAs at other places (Pharyngula probably), but I don’t usually encounter them.
Cheers,
Scott.
SFAW
@SP:
Tire RIMS, not irons.
Mike J
@Adam L Silverman: Obama is one of the few presidents of recent time that could handle PMQs. If Obama volunteered to do it, the Republicans would turn him down. He would mop the floor with them.
Anne Laurie
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: That wasn’t a new troll, from the specific insults I recognized Cole’s personal stalker. Must’ve scrounged a new IP address.
Technocrat
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
I think a lot of the cognitive dissonance is sloughing away, to be honest. It’s like that scene in Angel Heart where the detective realizes he’s been the murderer all along. Except in the GOP’s case, Trump supporters are going “Well…OK…murderer it is! I’m good with that.”. They’re not horrified that their political identity has been exposed for a lie, they’re just rejecting the parts that were a lie – the genteel justifications – and going full on nativist. I suspect it’s a relief for many.
I don’t know how the Paul Ryans and Ted Cruzes of the world are dealing with it though. Probably just upset that the rubes aren’t playing along anymore.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@mclaren:
I just want to remind you that Obama lost Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York and California to Hillary. How’d that work out for him?
mclaren
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Oh, at this point it’s likely that Hillary will be the Democratic nominee. The point is that Hillary is getting forced to the left, which makes a pleasant change from the 80s and 90s when Democratic candidates found themselves getting forced to the right in order to get votes.
Ruckus
@SFAW:
Being compared to the Rude Pundit!
I’ve made the big time, how will I get my head through the door? I guess I could just open it.
Didn’t take it as a complaint. I had a bad taste in my mouth from before I went to cook dinner. I feel better now that I’ve fed my stomach and you’ve fed my ego.
BillinGlendaleCA
@SFAW: True, but tire irons would make a nice appetizer.
Matt McIrvin
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
We are not. People like him in power are already dragging us down, squeezing us into begging in parking lots like the lady I just met yesterday. But it’s never enough; he wants more.
BillinGlendaleCA
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: What ever happened to that Obama guy, he showed such promise.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@mclaren:
Things change, people change. Hillary so far has exhibited more ability to pivot than Bernie has, or can. I would say that Bernie’s left flank has been exposed by Hillary when it comes to the changing country.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Anne Laurie: Thank you again!
Cheers,
Scott.
mclaren
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
That’s fair. I’m good with either Hillary or Bernie as the next president.
Patricia Kayden
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: O-o. Your daughters are part of that “white genocide” which racists are always going on about.
Good for them.
Anne Laurie
@Adam L Silverman: TL;DR — Cole has a particularly obsessed stalker with a distinct form of insult. Every so often, dude gets his hands on a new IP address, or a bad batch of mushrooms; since I’m not on twitter & John doesn’t read his email, I just mark it as ‘spam’.
Just sent you an email (to the last addy you sent me a message at) with one short link.
different-church-lady
@Anne Laurie:
Those are NOT the same thing at all.
mclaren
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
If you want to see the most toxic form of MRA in its natural habitat, read the comments section at the website Chateau Heartiste.
It’s interesting that in addition to be a misogynist, the heartiste guy is also a raging racist and reactionary neoConfederate-style conservative.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Yeah, that guy. President Black Ninja. He beat the Clinton Democratic machine in 2008 in a huge wave election blowout, the Bush GOP Establishment in 2012 in a popular and electoral blowout, and presided over the implosion of Republican conservatism since then, just by presidentin’ with wit and grace and success, while black.
Gravenstone
@Prescott Cactus: Actually, it’s the Sheboygan Press.
SFAW
@Ruckus:
I live To Serve .. Man.
@BillinGlendaleCA:
No, you use the tire iron as a toothpick. I think it would work better on wingnut teeth, by the way.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
Yes, I understand, but SP was making a (or for you grammar snobs, “an”) historical refermints, and I was just helpfully guiding SP onto the proper path. Or something.
different-church-lady
@SFAW: IT’S A COOK BOOK!
SFAW
@different-church-lady:
Bingo
BillinGlendaleCA
@different-church-lady: …AND AN AUTO REPAIR BOOK!
Adam L Silverman
@Anne Laurie: Got it, tracking, have replied.
Technocrat
@mclaren:
I get the impression that most of the posters are single males. They probably wonder why they’re single.
Also, too, that was enough Internet for me. I’m going to hug my dogs and listen to some Jazz.
ETA: My Beagle looked at me like “Dude, your face. What the fuck did you just read?”. Beagles get it.
SFAW
@mclaren:
While, on an intellectual level, I appreciate the link and summary, I gotta say: unless one is, or works for, Morris Dees, life is too fucking short to subject yourself to (presumed) vileness like that. You don’t need to read that (what I assume is) shit to “know your enemy.”
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@redshirt:
to where?
SFAW
@Technocrat:
Yeah, but if you ask them, they’ll (all) tell you that they (all) have a very satisfying relationship with their girlfriend, Rosie Palmer.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
Before my time.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@mclaren:
This.
Anne Laurie
New post up top, for lulz.
Peale
“To me, pancakes happen at a spiritual level,” he explains, “sometimes expressing themselves as eroticism.”
Yeah. That’s the quote of the day. From Jezebel. Makes me wish we could have a reasonable debate about the nature of pancakes, but in the current cycle, there too muck at stack for that kind of thing.
mclaren
@SFAW:
Oh, come on, surely you’ve seen that TWILIGHT ZONE episode in reruns!
GregB
@efgoldman:
The Ted Cruz smoothie is made with vinegar, water and bitters. Self serving with a side of sanctimony. Put leftovers in Massengill bag.
SFAW
@mclaren:
Yeah, I was just giving ef a little bit of a hard time. (Not that I’m that much younger than he.)
SFAW
@efgoldman:
Damn, now I can’t use the “before my time” gambit.
The one that scared me the most was “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” (And, no, not because of Shatner’s acting.)
We’re talking not-looking-out-of-my-bedroom-window-at-night-for-two-years scared.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
Maybe so, but I can’t see a written version of Shatner ripping back the curtain being scarier than the TV version.
Anne Laurie
@SFAW: Or as the Brits say, Mrs. Palm and her five lovely daughters.
In Terry Pratchett’s Ankh-Morpork, guess the name of the leader of the
Ladies of Negotiable AffectionsSeamstresses’ Guild…Nate Dawg
@Adam L Silverman: wow. I totally missed that. Thanks for bringing it up. It’s kind of like the guy who believes affirmative action means all minorities in higher Ed are stupid so acts accordingly…and is shocked when he is found sorely mistaken.
sigaba
@Nate Dawg:
No, that is not a part of the original formulation.
That said, this is the Internet and the Information Age, where the central dogma is that any predictable outcome is automatically of no value, by dint of its predictability, thus all appeals to a predictable argument (comparison to Hitler) are an automatic loser.
I do not hold to the central dogma, though, nor should anyone else.
Eric
@Baud: Wouldn’t the glass have to be empty?
John Revolta
@SFAW: Oh, crap. I saw that one first run. I was alone in the house, 7 or 8 years old, and I had started watching it but I got too scared and changed the channel. After maybe 10 or 15 minutes I got bored with what I was watching and I started flipping around………………….and I landed on Twilight Zone AT THE VERY INSTANT that Shatner ripped the curtain back and saw that FUCKING FACE!1!11!!1!!!1!11 AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH
This is no shit. I still get scared when I think of it. Serling probably would be pleased as Punch if he had heard about it, the bastard.
Villago Delenda Est
@Steve in the ATL: The DSM does not, it appear, cover “assholes”.
MomSense
It’s like a very slow mouse wanderered into a house full of bored cats. That was hysterical.
sm*t cl*de
@NotMax:
I am given to understand that the nude Hillary Clinton photographs from Sheldon’s body-type project are no longer extant.
SFAW
@John Revolta:
That was revoltingly (in honor of your nym, sorry) similar to my own experience. Yeah, it was pretty bad.
john fremont
@Prescott Cactus: The Rand Paul is not available to every customer, it depends on the customer’s race or ethnicity.
Uncle Cosmo
@SFAW: Slightly o/t, but many years ago, perusing the International Dictionary of Obscenities (a slim tome I purchased even longer ago in Cambridge MA at Schoenhof’s), I was amused to discover that her Russki equivalent was Dun’ka Kulakova, i.e., Auntie Fist…
Lurking Canadian
@Gin & Tonic: this is from way back, but everybody else just left it lying there:
What was the tortoise riding?
Matt
Tassone had to discontinue the “George W Bush Special”, which was a soup made of blood and oil served en flambe. It was listed on the menu as “will pay for itself”, but when it comes out and you’re distracted by the flaming blood the chef picks your pocket.
Turns out nobody was gullible enough to order *that*…
Gemina13
@Adam L Silverman:
Dammit! I kinda-sorta remember going to a place on Clark Street with my mom for Chicago dogs that may have been The Wiener’s Circle. Or at least close to it. And now I also want a Chicago dog and fries. **sighs** The only thing that could make me regret moving to the PNW.
Chris T.
@Redshift:
War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Deficit is Surplus!