Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Infrastructure week. at last.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

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

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Consistently wrong since 2002

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

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

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Bark louder, little dog.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

T R E 4 5 O N

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

I really should read my own blog.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

The words do not have to be perfect.

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

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Late Night Open Thread: Vulgarian Whale

Late Night Open Thread: Vulgarian Whale

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moby trump sheneman

(Drew Sheneman via GoComics.com)
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Reader Interactions

63Comments

  1. 1.

    Big R

    I am desperately hoping that my teaching assignment in the fall is NOT Introduction to American Politics, and is NOT meeting MWF. The last thing I want is to have to talk to a batch of freshmen about why Trump lost.

  2. 2.

    redshirt

    A violence filled Republican convention is one of my secret fantasies, and look how close we are! SO CLOSE!

    1968 upside down.

  4. 4.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Gonna be tricky for a bunch of Republican pussies to mass sucker punch each other. Hopefully someone is working that out.

  7. 7.

    scav

    They’ll just have to work out a system of gang-signs in order to recognize those of the appropriate tribe. Or maybe an elaborate code using pocket hankies.

  9. 9.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Imagine what October is going to look like.
    Imagine what the Day after the Election is going to look like.
    And pray for the country.

    I understand the concern, but any violence will be rare and small scale. Racists need to feel like they have an overwhelming advantage. They must feel absolutely free to vent their hate knowing they cannot be punished for it, and preferably that a lot of others will pile on with them. This both causes them to get bilious when they think there’s any chance they might lose that power, and it makes them too scared to be violent unless they feel the odds are heavily, heavily in their favor. So, Trump rallies are very dangerous. The spread out American landscape, not so much.

    EDIT – The big GOP convention might turn violent, because I could see an illusionary effect where everybody thinks that everybody else is on their side.

  10. 10.

    redshirt

    @MomSense: Auntie Entity was the rightful ruler of Bartertown; the revanchist forces of Master/Blaster and the chaos of Max upended a noble attempt to reclaim civilization from the ashes of destruction.

  12. 12.

    Tenar Darell

    I had recently had a horrible day-mare about what the convention floor might be like if you’re African American or Latino, and started preemptively worrying about anyone who is going to be there in a few months.

  13. 13.

    benw

    @redshirt: remembering the characters from Beyond the Thunderdome and applying them to the current political climate? Well done!

  15. 15.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @redshirt:
    That… pretty much was how I interpreted it, although it’s been years.

    EDIT – @Tenar Darell:
    It is very hard to be sympathetic to anyone brown at the Republican Convention, but that is my failure. They do deserve compassion for the Hell there’s a good chance they’ll be put through.

  17. 17.

    redshirt

    @benw: I’m something of a Mad Max scholar around these parts.

    Thunderdome is the worst because Max destroys two functioning post-apocalyptic societies. The kids seemed to be doing OK until he showed up.

  19. 19.

    Anne Laurie

    @scav: Different colored trucker caps. Trump’s already trademarked the red MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN gimme caps. Cruz can go for Godly white, blazoned with something like TED IS THE CHOSEN ONE. And Reince Preibus’s RNC team gets the blue ones, with CAN’T WE ALL GET ALONG FOLKS?… in Comic Sans, probably.

    Great optics — a swirling panorama of red, white, and blue on the convention floor!

  21. 21.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @efgoldman: Isn’t the idea of violence at a contested convention predicated on the notion that Captain Consumption will have to face off against his own kind next time?

  24. 24.

    redshirt

    @benw: Yeah, my thesis was on “The changeability of personhood: A tale of two pilots” covering the pilot from The Road Warrior and the pilot from Thunderdome who were both played by the same actor yet were listed as different characters and certainly have a different arc from one another.

    What was Miller trying to say by this, do you think? That all Australian pilots are creepy MF’ers?

  25. 25.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    I worry the Cruz supporters can’t fight. They’ll run away with that high pitched squeal laugh, deer legs all akimbo. The Romney supporters will fall on them, administering a much needed haircut and hazing. Rubio supporters will be locked into fierce argument with Jeb supporters about who jeopardized the friendship first.

    Meanwhile Trump supporters will be sucker punching anyone that turns their back on them. Except the freaky Paul Ryan goths who no one gets near.

  27. 27.

    benw

    @redshirt: Aussies are the WORST, obviously. They got the Irish criminals, while the US got the religious fanatics. Actually, I think the Aussies are doing ok!

    Are you talking about the ‘copter pilot? It’s funny, I remember him very clearly from Road Warrior, but not at all in Thunderdome. He was definitely a weirdo in Road Warrior, but didn’t he have a romance with the pretty girl? That seemed to humanize him.

  28. 28.

    mclaren

    @redshirt:

    A violence filled Republican convention is one of my secret fantasies, and look how close we are! SO CLOSE!

    1968 upside down.

    Bingo.

    As I’ve said before, 2016 is 1968 turned inside out.

    Look for the Republican party to fracture, collapse, and spend another 30 years in the wilderness…if it even survives.

    Another parallel? The fracture of the Republican party after Teddy Roosevelt’s 1912 Bull Moore Party run that left the Democrats in control of all three branches of government for 30 years.

  30. 30.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Oh and here’s a thought I had about Christie I haven’t seen printed anywhere. He’s latched onto Trump because it makes him the insider favorite for a unity candidate if Trump fails on first ballot voting. Weds the establishment with Trump.

  32. 32.

    mclaren

    @redshirt:

    What was Miller trying to say by this, do you think?

    Miller just came across an actor he liked and stuck with him, continuity be damned. Same deal with Sergio Leone and Lee Van Cleef in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE and THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY. Totally different characters, same actors.

  33. 33.

    mclaren

    Someone needs to put out baseball caps with pics of Trump on them and the logo

    MAKE AMERICA GRATE AGAIN

  34. 34.

    Kropadope

    @mclaren

    Another parallel? The fracture of the Republican party after Teddy Roosevelt’s 1912 Bull Moore Party run that left the Democrats in control of all three branches of government for 30 years.

    I’m not much of a Congressional historian before the 1990s, but Coolidge? Hoover?

  35. 35.

    Yutsano

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Nah. Christie was the choice of virtually no one and has too many lingering skeletons from Joisey to get much of anywhere. To be honest, if they don’t just let Trump have it they blow up almost everything and if they take it away from him his supporters go meschugnah. I’m investing in popcorn and Band-Aids now.

  37. 37.

    mclaren

    @Kropadope:

    Most of the New Dealers were former Republicans who bolted the party in 1912 when the Republican party stiffed Teddy Roosevelt and forced him to run as an independent. The 1920s boom years witnessed the temporary rise of Republicans only to see the Republican brand crushed when it all collapsed.

    The analogy is the 2009 crash and the ruination of the Republican brand after the Iraq 2003 debacle and global financial meltdown, only this time the Republican party is fracturing after the big financial crash instead of before it.

  38. 38.

    GregB

    I am old enough to remember when protesters preventing politicians finishing their town hall events by jeering and screaming was considered the height of patriotism.

  39. 39.

    mclaren

    @GregB:

    I am old enough to remember when American politicians urging parents to kill their own children was considered the height of patriotism.

    Viz., Ronald Reagan’s infamous statement in May 1970 on the antiwar protests: “If it takes a blood bath, let’s get it over with.”

  40. 40.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @mclaren:

    The fracture of the Republican party after Teddy Roosevelt’s 1912 Bull Moore Party run that left the Democrats in control of all three branches of government for 30 years.

    Sure if you don’t count the years 1921-1933.

  42. 42.

    Steeplejack

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Can you shoot B&W infrared with your hot-rodded camera?

    My photographer friend who did a lot of infrared stuff worked mostly in B&W, and it was awesome. Your stuff is great too, just asking about B&W capabilities (and interest).

    Today I just accidentally found the charger for one of my cameras, which I had been looking for on and off for over a month. (Don’t use that camera often.) Have now dedicated a credenza drawer for all camera chargers, cables and software CDs, even if I swear that I will never use/need them.

    ETA: Listening to Pharoah Sanders, “Astral Traveling.” Good late-night music.

  43. 43.

    Bjacques

    The GOP convention would be a great time for the party to show its commitment to RKBA, by allowing Open Carry.

  45. 45.

    Amir Khalid

    @Yutsano:
    I’m quite at a loss to work out whom the Republican party will pick if they somehow manage to keep the nomination away from the Donald. Donald is plainly unfit to be president. The strongest not-Donald left is Ted Cruz, the most unpopular man in the party. Anyone else from this cycle’s Klown Kar, (ETA:) Christie included, is doomed to end up as roadkill against Hillary. The party is simply out of choices, it seems to me.

  48. 48.

    PurpleGirl

    @Big R: I was a Political Science – American Government major at NYU. My department adviser was Professor Rita Cooley. She was a fantastic teacher. She assigned textbooks and readings but her lectures were mostly based on the NY Times headlines of that day. She could talk on her feet about what was happening and the meanings, etc. Even after I graduated I’d go back to sit in on her Intro class just to hear her lecture. I’d love to hear her now.

  52. 52.

    hkedi [Kang T.Q.]

    @Amir Khalid: Plus undemocratic “democratic” results are supposed to happen to “those” people, not Real Americans. I don’t think their base will take that very well, even with their authoritarian mindset.

    If as 3rd/4th pick gets nominated (or even worse, somebody who never ran), I think the Republican party detonates in ways that all the Koch money in the world won’t be able to put back together.

  53. 53.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Steeplejack: I’m planning of doing some walk/drives around town.

    ETA: What I did was buy a used NX300(my main camera is a NX500 so ALL my lens are compatible) and had it converted to full spectrum(had the hot mirror filter removed).

  55. 55.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    @Amir Khalid: my crackpot conspiracy theory is they give the Donald the nomination and have an establishment guy as Veep as a compromise. I was thinking Kasich originally but the Donald has started going after Kasich so somebody else. Okla Gov Mary Fallin, Gov Rick Scott,Tom Ridge etc. Get the Donald onto his helicopter. Crash the helicopter. Ride into the WH on the sympathy with the Veep.

  56. 56.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    So, Trump rallies are very dangerous. The spread out American landscape, not so much.

    I wonder how many cops nationwide are Trump supporters, and how it’ll affect the situation on Election Day?

  57. 57.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Amir Khalid: I’ve been assuming that if they actually managed to do it, either Mitt Romney would ride in on his white horse and take over, or they’d install Kasich.

    And we think disappointed Trump fans are going to screw everything up for them in these scenarios, but if I were on Hillary’s team I’d be sweating them. A lot of people just don’t like Hillary Clinton but would vote for her over Trump or Ted Cruz. If Romney ends up as the nominee, I definitely know people who would see him as a lifeline, and vote Republican out of combined distaste for Hillary and relief that he’s not Trump.

  58. 58.

    FridayNext

    Trump has boasted about the people he has brought into the Party. The people he brought in are going to wreck the party & steal the keg.

    I’d say the people he brought into the party are the type who bring their own cheap ass beer and put it in the cooler and then drink other people’s expensive beer while whining about lazy ass free loaders who didn’t bring any beer. Then leaves and takes the his own cheap ass beer home with him complaining if anyone drank one of his beers and convinced he is a generous person for brining beer to the party.

  59. 59.

    Cermet

    tRump takes Florida, and a few other states and the issue is mostly decided. Zero chance the thug’s in charge allow a brokered convention that guarantee’s that a third party splinters off taking the heart of their voter base. Anyone that they would allow a brokered convention believes that also believes in unicorns.

  60. 60.

    No One You Know

    I think there’s quite a bit of mileage to be had from banning guns from the Republican convention. It’s prima facie proof that the intent of open carry is to menace the public anywhere.

  61. 61.

    Chris

    @benw:

    Aussies are the WORST, obviously. They got the Irish criminals, while the US got the religious fanatics. Actually, I think the Aussies are doing ok!

    Yeah, I’m pretty sure us Yanks got the short end of that stick.

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