Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

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

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

T R E 4 5 O N

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

In my day, never was longer.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

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

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

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

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Monday Evening Open Thread: Big Screen (Small Man)

Monday Evening Open Thread: Big Screen (Small Man)

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If I had nothing better to do with my money, I’d make a list of enemies whose names deserved to be tied to this fustercluck. I’d even pay the Trump Premium for the art intern to add six-pointed exploding stars and fart trumpet noises!

Apart from enjoying the RNC spectacle, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

258Comments

  1. 1.

    Warren Terra

    Mr. Trump will see your name on the Jumbotron!

    How much for him to personally guide you into Valhalla, all shiny and chrome?

  4. 4.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    Steve “calves like watermelons” King white mansplaining western civilization to the “sub groups”, and it’s only day one.

  7. 7.

    scav

    Ahhh, he’ll see your name! It’s like the King’s Touch: Any ailment you’ll have will be magically cured! Large bills will be found under your sofa cushions!

  8. 8.

    Teddy's Person

    Serious question, what does the “Sponsored” (as opposed to @something) mean on Drumphf’s tweet? Is he selling ad space on his twitter feed?

  9. 9.

    Baud

    So Trump is proposing to reinstate Glass-Steagel, so those of you with Bros or Greens in your social networks, be ready.

  11. 11.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Baud:

    Like he knows what that is. Trump is the king of spending other people’s money.

  13. 13.

    ruemara

    Speaking as a sub-group member, Steve King from Iowa would be unworthy to be shat upon.

    Fucking just a few hours in, I’m not even watching and I detest these people.

  15. 15.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:
    The the sense of accuracy it was cantaloupes. But close enough.

    I am deeply disappointed as I was hoping for some real physical violence today as the Drumprenstein monster exerted its will on the morons trying to stop him. Sadly they just yelled and chanted when a little simple chair swinging would have made them feel so much better. Well, they still have 3 days & a hope springs eternal. I’ll be doing anything but watching that shit show.

  16. 16.

    jl

    Is Steve King at the GOP Convention? Maybe they will give him a prime time speaking slot. One can hope.

  17. 17.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    JoeMyGod
    ‏@JoeMyGod

    After thousands of N-word laden pro-Trump comments, the GOP has disabled chat on its convention live-stream.

    But it’s about economic anxiety and frustration with political elites.

  18. 18.

    Ruckus

    @The Other Chuck:
    Is it ridiculous and tacky?
    Then it most likely is true drimpf.
    Does it make you want to retch and sell your soul for it to stop?
    Then it for sure is true drumpf.

  21. 21.

    scav

    @ruemara: Yup, today’s pretty much as expected, no? All brakes and safeties are off, mouths flapping, bull-horns wired directly into amplifiers and broadcasting on all frequencies what use to be whispered sotto voce in safe spaces.

  22. 22.

    Rasputin's Evil Twin

    I’m sticking to my plan for this week of watching “Triumph of the Will” and a Three Stooges shorts marathon. It’s got to be better than the convention.

  25. 25.

    Baud

    OT, WaPo

    A proposed Mexican-American studies textbook for Texas high school students is written by authors with no expertise in Mexican-American studies, contains large sections that have little to do with Mexican-American history and includes language that depicts Mexicans as lazy, opponents of the book say.

  26. 26.

    ThresherK

    @Baud: Do you have the over/under betting line on the number of times that the Frito Bandito is in the “historia de la cucina” chapter?

  27. 27.

    JPL

    @Baud: What do you expect.. Steve King today said that the whites made everyone great and will do so again.

  29. 29.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: I thoroughly expect that Trump will get some votes from people who believe him to be to the true left of Hillary Clinton.

  30. 30.

    lgerard

    @JPL:

    And at the same time claim that the basis of civilization is the musings of a small band of unemployed Palestinians

  31. 31.

    Emma

    @Baud: Which is why, IIRC, a number of other states have put publishers on notice they will not accept any textbooks written for Texas.

  34. 34.

    Carl W

    @Teddy’s Person: I think that’s a picture of an ad on Facebook (I don’t do Facebook myself, so I’m not sure). Then the “Sponsored” and the “Not affiliated with Facebook” would be Facebook’s way of telling you it’s an ad, rather than a message from friends/family.

  35. 35.

    RaflW

    @Baud: And that is how the Mexican-American sub-group can be proven to have contributed less than whites! Perfect!

  36. 36.

    Peale

    @RaflW: we have studied you Mexicans and found you wanting in every way. If you’re working hard now it’s only because your Catholic Indian culture met its match on our white Protestant work ethic.

  37. 37.

    debbie

    @Emma:

    Right. Apparently the proposal to remove all mention of Thomas Jefferson was a step too far. How Texas became the standard nationwide is beyond me.

  38. 38.

    ? Martin

    Remember, everyone. First up is a sober national security/foreign policy assessment from a man whose main skill is making things that sound like ducks.

  41. 41.

    ? Martin

    Someone should tell these gentlemen that a deathclaw is expected to be downtown later tonight. And never mind the feral ghouls, they were all invited.

    They stood in the slender bar of shade along a wing of Cleveland’s terminal tower, a dozen heavily armed, armored, and tattooed men. Most carried AR-15s; a few had pistols strapped to their belts. A small cluster of police officers from a motley assortment of law enforcement agencies stood a few feet away. Their patches read, “West Ohio Minutemen,” but they were quick to say it was only a patch.

  42. 42.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @? Martin: Well, it seems he’s quite good at the duck call thing. Which is more than the nominee can honestly claim about his businesses.

  43. 43.

    eric

    @debbie: I am in moderation for a link to the wikipedia entry for the Gablers to answer this fine woman’s question.

  45. 45.

    Emma

    @debbie: Money. They buy loads of textbooks, about 48 million a year. But it’s usually the science ones that send school book buyers from other states into gibbering fits.

  46. 46.

    Bex

    Any hackers out there who could sneak in the picture of Melania in the nude on the Jumbotron while she’s speaking?

  47. 47.

    scav

    I’m rather enjoying Steve King’s assumption that “western civilization itself that’s rooted in western Europe, eastern Europe and the United States of America, and every place where christianity settled the world” contributed everything, except of course, I suppose those sub-groups that came up with oh, Christianity. (agriculture. cities. writing. place-based numbers. astronomy. geometry. all those non-contributions they’re trying to do away with in an effort to purify their civilization.)

  48. 48.

    Mnemosyne

    We have deliberately seated ourselves at O’Hare where we can’t possibly see a single minute of the Republican convention, and we like it that way.

    Also, cheap bastards at Boingo only let you get 30 minutes of free wifi. WTF?

  49. 49.

    Pogonip

    Hey finch owners! Can they live without direct sunlight? Can you keep 2 males in the same cage? 2 females? Or will they fight over the kitchen? The pet store had zebra and society finches in the same cage; which ones make the cute twittering sound? Do both sexes twitter (if they have something that can be said in 140 characters or less) and if not, which sex twitters? I know I’ll get the straight poop from Balloon Juice pet owners. Speaking of which–do finches do an inordinate amount of pooping (like, for example, goldfish?).

    I know the goldfish would probably protest that their pooping is perfectly ordinate. They’re lying.

  51. 51.

    Aleta

    I love Trump’s foreign policy approach, so straightforward, Simply tell other countries what to do. Self-proclaimed CEO of the world, king among men.

  52. 52.

    Hal

    @Alex.S: So I’m guessing he missed the time Omarosa said white people can be mediocre and still be successful? Not that she meant Trump…It was Bethenny Frankel, but still.

  53. 53.

    Mnemosyne

    @scav:

    I also can’t hang around with you motherfuckers because I just discovered that my aunt missed her flight and was rebooked onto ours. Awkward.

  56. 56.

    Baud

    The best part of Steve King’s comments is that he is trying to share in the glory of other white people who have done positive things for civilization simply because of his race.

  57. 57.

    scav

    @Mnemosyne: Oh, so very very sorry. I lucked out exactly in O’Hare where my Reverend Aunt failed to get on the flight with us, which would indeed have been awkward. Must have used up all the aunt luck available at ORD.

  58. 58.

    Felonius Monk

    @? Martin:

    “West Ohio Minutemen,”

    I guess when you’re an overweight, out of shape shit-head you wouldn’t want to wear a patch that says “West Ohio Premature Ejaculater”.

  60. 60.

    dmsilev

    @? Martin:

    Remember, everyone. First up is a sober national security/foreign policy assessment from a man whose main skill is making things that sound like ducks

    Followed by a woman who got elected to the Senate on the strength of her hog-castrating skills.

  63. 63.

    Bupalos

    @Pogonip: I so wished they had followed that whole discussion out. People like Steve king just assume how that accounting plays out based on their preconceptions. Asians and Arabs and mediterraneans and Africans probably have greater foundational claims than the euros that put the cherry on top.

  64. 64.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Alex.S:

    I have never watched The Apprentice and have never heard of Omarosa, so am not quite sure what the outrage and LULZ are about. Enlighten me, please.

  66. 66.

    Aleta

    @rikyrah:

    An email sent from top Trump ally Carl Paladino to Utah Republican delegate Stefani Williams tells her she deserves to be hung if she tries to overthrow Trump at the RNC.

    “You should be hung for treason, Stefani,” Paladino wrote. “There will not be a Republican Party if you attempt to replace Trump. I’ll be in your face in Cleveland.”

    (from Raw Story)

  67. 67.

    Mary G

    I thought I was imagining it, but an officer led the flags in and out holding a large axe, as if they might have to chop through a tree. WTF?

  68. 68.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    So Steve King has already humiliated us.

    “Us” presumably meaning Iowans? My condolences.

    Actually, this event is a humiliation for all sentient beings. Even my little floofy dog can’t bear to watch and is hiding under my desk.

  71. 71.

    Emma

    @debbie: But California concentrates on lower grades. So they don’t have as much influence in the high school texts.

  72. 72.

    Kathleen

    @jl: Or hire him as Chris Hayes’ co-host. They had a kind of giggly but bromantic mojo that could be ratings gold.

  73. 73.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @rikyrah:

    I believe that’s a parody account. Although I wouldn’t put the sentiments past the real Donny Junior.

  74. 74.

    Aleta

    Our family believes in saying a prayer at the dinner table and wearing the American flag on our heads.

  76. 76.

    phoebes from highland park

    @Mnemosyne: I don’t care about the convention. I want to know about the aunt and why it’s awkward to be on the same place with her.

  79. 79.

    Jeffro

    I wouldn’t put it past the Cruz ratf___k camp to have bought some space on that Jumbotron…”FRAUD”…”TRUMP U”…”RELEASE THE TAX RETURNS”, that sort of thing.

    Do it, Ted – make history, and earn the thanks of a grateful nation

  80. 80.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @debbie:
    Because the state buys all the textbooks so they are by far the largest single buyer. As such the publishers have the choice of printing 2 different versions, which costs them money, or just cram that POS into every school district.

  82. 82.

    Mike J

    A Utah delegate was reportedly threatened inside a bathroom at Quicken Loans Arena during the Republican National Convention Monday.

    According to NBC, Utah delegate Kera Birkeland was on the floor during the Rules vote as one of the delegates calling for a roll call vote.

    Birkeland reportedly went to the women’s restroom and when she emerged from a stall, a group of Trump supporters surrounded her and threatened to kill her, urging her to leave the party and the state.

  84. 84.

    debbie

    @Emma:

    Guess that makes sense; I sold children’s books when I was in publishing.

    Google was telling me Texas’s influence was waning, and then I saw this. Same old same old.

  87. 87.

    Gelfling 545

    For Jumbotron purposes, what might be the chances of convincing someone that one’s name is F.U. Donald?

  89. 89.

    Hal

    I like Chris Hayes, but the fuck? A little more back bone. Also, someone remind Steve King where civilization got it’s start…

    http://gawker.com/gop-congressman-non-white-sub-groups-have-contribute-1783878469

    During a discussion of the Republican party’s overwhelmingly white leadership on MSNBC, birther congressman Steve King chimed in on Monday to remind everyone that white people are very good (perhaps even better??) compared to “other sub-groups of people.”

    “This whole ‘white people’ business does get a little tired,” said King. “I’d ask you to go back through history and figure out where these contributions that have been made by these categories of people that you’re talking about—where did any other sub-group of people contribute more to civilization?”

    After other panelists objected to King’s obviously suspect generalization, host Chris Hayes quickly tried to move on, saying, “On cable news, we are not going to resolve the relative strengths of various strands of civilizational prowess.” Which is a shame, really, because it’d be interesting to see where King was going with that.

  91. 91.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @Mnemosyne:
    At MSP you can get additional 30 minute just by watching another stupid ad. Try reconnecting I bet it works!

  93. 93.

    Roger Moore

    @Teddy’s Person:

    Serious question, what does the “Sponsored” (as opposed to @something) mean on Drumphf’s tweet? Is he selling ad space on his twitter feed?

    The opposite. It means he’s paying to put his tweets on the feeds of people who don’t subscribe to his feed. That’s a big way that Twitter makes money.

  95. 95.

    Major Major Major Major

    Let America be America again.
    Let it be the dream it used to be.
    Let it be the pioneer on the plain
    Seeking a home where he himself is free.

    (America never was America to me.)

    Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
    Let it be that great strong land of love
    Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
    That any man be crushed by one above.

    (It never was America to me.)

    O, let my land be a land where Liberty
    Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
    But opportunity is real, and life is free,
    Equality is in the air we breathe.

    (There’s never been equality for me,
    Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)

    Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
    And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

    I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
    I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
    I am the red man driven from the land,
    I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
    And finding only the same old stupid plan
    Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

    I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
    Tangled in that ancient endless chain
    Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
    Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
    Of work the men! Of take the pay!
    Of owning everything for one’s own greed!

    I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
    I am the worker sold to the machine.
    I am the Negro, servant to you all.
    I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
    Hungry yet today despite the dream.
    Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
    I am the man who never got ahead,
    The poorest worker bartered through the years.

    Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
    In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
    Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
    That even yet its mighty daring sings
    In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
    That’s made America the land it has become.
    O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
    In search of what I meant to be my home—
    For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
    And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
    And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
    To build a “homeland of the free.”

    The free?

    Who said the free? Not me?
    Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
    The millions shot down when we strike?
    The millions who have nothing for our pay?
    For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
    And all the songs we’ve sung
    And all the hopes we’ve held
    And all the flags we’ve hung,
    The millions who have nothing for our pay—
    Except the dream that’s almost dead today.

    O, let America be America again—
    The land that never has been yet—
    And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
    The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—
    Who made America,
    Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
    Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
    Must bring back our mighty dream again.

    Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
    The steel of freedom does not stain.
    From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
    We must take back our land again,
    America!

    O, yes,
    I say it plain,
    America never was America to me,
    And yet I swear this oath—
    America will be!

    Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
    The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
    We, the people, must redeem
    The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
    The mountains and the endless plain—
    All, all the stretch of these great green states—
    And make America again!

    Langston Hughes

  97. 97.

    raven

    And “the Vietnam Vets” were treated terribly makes its first appearance at the convention.

  102. 102.

    hovercraft

    @Hal:
    Chris actually pointed out that Hitler and Stalin were white, and then he wrapped up the segment as they all laughed at King.

  103. 103.

    Bupalos

    @SiubhanDuinne: OK because of balloon juices stupid format, (f-in just use disqus, this community will be 10x better for it) I can’t tell immediately if anyone has responded. So I will. Wifey and I got into apprentice because we were like OMG look at this clown they’re trying to pretend knows everything about e erything when he clearly is a fraud and knows nothing about nothing. And I don’t mean that in a bhudist way.

    Omarosa was one of the show’s multiple attempts to show black people in a negative light, She was depicted as narcissistic, manipulative, scheming to take advantage of “reverse racism” and caught up in anything other than the supposed value-neutral meritorious struggle depicted by The Apprentice’s libertarian challenges.

    Total villain on the show, such that it was uncomfortable to watch knowing that “reality” shows are highly edited bullcrap Trump using the amarosa character now would be an attempt to signal to white people that he gives charity to shiftless blacks even though they clearly don’t deserve it. When he loses with 0% of the “minority” vote, it will be because amarosa betrayed him.

  107. 107.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Bupalos:

    OK because of balloon juices stupid format,

    The people here like it. Most importantly, the proprietor likes it.

  109. 109.

    happylisk

    Breaking news: all of the doors at the Cleveland convention hall have been sealed. A dagger-wielding David Plouffe calmly informs Donald of the House of Trump that the Clintons send their regards.

  110. 110.

    hovercraft

    @schrodinger’s cat:
    The guy is crazy, I know he is a retired seal but my God, WTF. He’ll “die for any woman and fight alongside any man”, I’m sorry but that’s bullshit.

  111. 111.

    Ian

    @Baud:
    I’m afraid of sharing a locker room or restroom with republicans. NOTE: This is not what bathrooms are for people. They are going number 1, number 2, or cocaine off the diaper changing station. That is it.

  118. 118.

    TS

    Do they ever think about how many Americans died under the Bush Presidency – the GOP has NOTHING except their hatred. May Trump and his followers be so far behind in November even the US media has to accept that they have NO mandate. Zero and ziltch.

  120. 120.

    Renie

    I find it disgraceful they have these grieving people speaking at the convention. It is so emotional and these people are being exploited.

  121. 121.

    gene108

    Ex-SEAL said world outside America is scary…cripes…the other 6.7 billion people on the planet are some brave-ass mofos

  127. 127.

    gene108

    @TS:

    Do they ever think about how many Americans died under the Bush Presidency

    Why bother? No one in the media is going to notify anybody with facts.

  128. 128.

    gf120581

    I keep expecting Rod Serling to step into view, start to narrate, pause, look around at the place, go “Fuck, I got nothing,” and bug out.

  129. 129.

    Mike J

    @gene108:

    Ex-SEAL said world outside America is scary…cripes…the other 6.7 billion people on the planet are some brave-ass mofos

    The certainly aren’t as cowardly as USians.

  131. 131.

    hovercraft

    @Quinerly:
    The Benghazi mom is entitled to believe what she wants to but her version of events is the Hillary lied my son died version, she should be in prison, and I hold her personally responsible for his death. Brings down the room.

  133. 133.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @Gin & Tonic:
    I got talked into going to the freak show at the state fair when I was a teen. It made me very uncomfortable, I didn’t enjoy staring at deformed people and felt bad that they would put themselves on display like that. I understand many of them became millionaires at a time when they had few if any options but I can’t enjoy it. The freaks in Cleveland are like that for me

  135. 135.

    Peale

    @gene108: Canadian’s tuning in suddenly have a perceptive awakening about the utter hell scape of a country they live in.

  136. 136.

    Bupalos

    @Gin & Tonic: its dumb. Why is it good not to know if there are responses to a post? This is a format appropriate for topics that receive 20-30 posts. It’s why this is the only intelligent forum that has the term “bigfooting” because the threads are un-unentanglable. Someone help me with the proper word there. I’ll try to find it 39 posts down the thread.

  137. 137.

    Betty Cracker

    @Omnes Omnibus: First they had an obviously mentally disturbed ex-SEAL, then a Benghazi victim’s mom. I’ve never seen anything so exploitive and gross in the service of politics. Ever.

  142. 142.

    Corner Stone

    Why won’t someone tell Steve Schmidt to STFU and this is not a result of both sides of the political parties.

  143. 143.

    TS

    And MSNBC is still saying “both sides do it”. They can call Hillary names because she says Trump is unfit.

    And then Tweetie – has suddenly found his democratic roots.

  145. 145.

    Aleta

    @hovercraft:
    “Hillary … should be in prison, and I hold her personally responsible for his death. Brings down the room.”

    They probably also support trying Bush and Cheney for war crimes, right?

  146. 146.

    Quinerly

    @hovercraft:
    It’s basically what the mom has said the entire time. She testified. Yes, she’s grieving but I do think she was drunk and/or on pills tonight. She went off script, too.

  147. 147.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @? Martin:

    Someone should tell these gentlemen that a deathclaw is expected to be downtown later tonight. And never mind the feral ghouls, they were all invited.

    They look underequipped. Not long out of the Vault, I reckon.

  150. 150.

    dmsilev

    So, what I’m getting from this is that Hillary Clinton personally killed a bunch of Americans at Benghazi. Or maybe she tasked the same ninja force that took out Vince Foster back in the day.

  151. 151.

    Mary G

    @raven I know and I didn’t believe her, but I think she does and it’s despicable to use her like this.

  154. 154.

    dmsilev

    If you want the insanity straight-up, no talking heads, the RNC’s live stream is on YouTube.

    Unsurprisingly, comments are disabled.

  166. 166.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Corner Stone: Fuck you Nicole Wallace. Fuck you.

    Sarah Paulson made her look both much smarter and a much better person than she is. I didn’t realize how truly stupid she was until I saw her on Letterman.

    Steve Schmidt was playing the both sides card, and everyone just nodded along.

  168. 168.

    hovercraft

    @Betty Cracker:
    Tweety thinks that the ex-SEAL’s remarks were fabulous, he saw the movie and he thinks the guy was fabulous. He thinks that the mother was a mistake because she accused Hillary of murder, taking away from the fabulous SEAL.

  170. 170.

    Corner Stone

    @schrodinger’s cat: NW: But they do believe that lies were told to them afterward (the families). And the tone has now been set. It also reveals the deep division in this country.

  171. 171.

    Jeffro

    @raven: would love to see some of these right-leaning pundits explain how they’d feel if the GOP candidate were female, and Dems were selling “Life’s a bitch…don’t vote for one” buttons at the D convention.

    Or wearing Purple Heart band-aids for that matter

  175. 175.

    Bupalos

    @Gin & Tonic: oh I know…. Frankly I think its kind of ridiculous that these are “his” readers when betty cracker is the undisputed heavyweight champ here. Here, ill throw out a topic- Its only Cole’s sexist and atavistic republican tendencies that prop up the glass ceiling of balloon-juices wretched format. Discuss. Or should I say… Disqus??

  177. 177.

    Aleta

    Almost time to move on to ‘the terrorists are coming’ and ‘the murderous immigrants are here.’

  181. 181.

    hovercraft

    @schrodinger’s cat:
    The room was enthralled and even if you say it’s been investigated, many people believe what the mother believes so it was a powerful presentation. Hillary says Trump is not fit/qualified and this is the Trump rebuttal she’s a liar, and lied about Benghazi.

    Edit- this is Nicole’s view of the mothers speech.

  184. 184.

    Betty Cracker

    @hovercraft: Yeah, saw that. Not surprised since Tweety is a squeeing fanboy for anyone in a uniform or hardhat. I thought the guy sounded deranged, but maybe it’s just me.

  186. 186.

    Renie

    Trump is talking on O’Reilly bashing Kasich. He can’t even shut up during his own convention. Has to be the spotlight.

  188. 188.

    Betty Cracker

    @Corner Stone: She’s a loathsome piece of shit. I’d rather hear Nicolle Wallace. She’s a lying skunk too, but at least she doesn’t pretend to be neutral.

  190. 190.

    schrodinger's cat

    Has there been a patently more unqualified candidate running to be the head of state in democracy than Trump? Even a legacy candidate like Rajiv Gandhi was an MP before his ascension to Prime Minister.

  191. 191.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Rachel Maddow: Fox cut away from Smtih’s mother to take a phone call from Trump.

  192. 192.

    D58826

    @Betty Cracker: at the rate the GOP is digging into the slime pit, they will be poping out in China before long. I was going to watch it for a bit and then listened to the Benghazi hit piece and the both sides do it. Schmidt/Wallace are supposedly reasonable republicans but if they can’t or won’t call foul on this type of garbage then they are as bad as Trump. At some point these pieces of S**T have to either be Americans or slime. I think we know what their choice is

  193. 193.

    dmsilev

    Apparently, the GOP convention is so disorganized, they can’t even get a U-S-A chant going.

    Edit: EVIL IMMIGRANTS coming up next. Scary music playing.

  200. 200.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @D58826: besides the fact that Wallace is a moron and Schmidt’s droning could be marketed as a sleep aid, is there really a justification for having two professional, if perhaps underemployed these days, Republican hacks on at the same time?

  201. 201.

    Corner Stone

    @EriktheRed: Because she is insane with grief, loss and pain. And has to have someone or something to focus on to externalize it all.

  202. 202.

    hovercraft

    @Betty Cracker:
    She’s especially loathsome about Clinton. But her supposed neutrality is bullshit. All these assholes on tv have to say is that Chris Stevens was in charge and calling the shots, he made a judgement call and it turned out it was a bad call. He paid for it with his life it was a tragedy, Steven’s own sister says that he knew the risks and chose to go. As O’Donnell says if any one of the eleventy billion investigations could have found even a scintilla of evidence they would have nailed her to the wall, and they couldn’t. So now they are relying on emotion.

  204. 204.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Bupalos: your concern is noted, but threaded comments mostly suck, always have mostly sucked, and will continue to mostly suck into eternity.

  205. 205.

    Corner Stone

    Someone please push back against Steve Schmidt’s bullshit equivalence on 9/11 widows and this Benghazi mother.

  207. 207.

    John D.

    @Bupalos:

    Here, ill throw out a topic- Its only Cole’s sexist and atavistic republican tendencies that prop up the glass ceiling of balloon-juices wretched format.

    Yawn.

    “I don’t like this, therefore nobody should like this” is an argument unworthy of a fucking five year old, let alone a presumed adult. Grow the fuck up.

  208. 208.

    hovercraft

    @raven:
    Steve Schmidt thinks that it will be effective for the convention hall and the party faithful but will not work for the general audience, yes people will feel sorry for her but her speech does not rely on facts only emotion.

  210. 210.

    D58826

    @Aleta: GOP seems to be rally big on threatening to kill people. The truly frightening thing is, even if Hillary wins in November these people and these ideas have been let out of the deep dark recesses of the national ID. Millions of people and huge amounts of billionaire dollars will continue to push this stuff for the next generation. There is no putting this back in the bottle.

  211. 211.

    Baud

    Chuck Todd is trying to help out the GOP with some advice on how to handle Benghazi.

  214. 214.

    Bupalos

    @raven: yes I think youre one of the “questionably irascible ones” but thanks to the format it’s hard to suss out. Someone tell me (again, 30 comments down) whether ranen tends to have problems with people?

  216. 216.

    Mary G

    @EriktheRed: Hillary lied to her about the cause of the attack, blaming the video instead of Radical Islam. Why that would keep her son alive, who knows.

  217. 217.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @D58826:

    The truly frightening thing is, even if Hillary wins in November these people and these ideas have been let out of the deep dark recesses of the national ID.

    That’s the GOP establishment meta-strategy, I think: even if the Obama coalition holds up, there are going to be four bitter years of bitter white people to set the table for 2020 and census year and Ted Cruz. Even if Trump is crushed and his businesses are ruined, Trumpism will persist as an open sore.

  218. 218.

    dmsilev

    So, what I’m getting here is that all traffic accidents are caused by undocumented immigrants.

  219. 219.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Bupalos: First, I must note that “charm” is hard to explain. This set up allows people to have multiple conversations at once inside one thread. That also leads to opportunities for blog fun with witticisms and such.

  225. 225.

    hovercraft

    @Baud:
    Both him and Tweety are actually being helpful, telling them that between Hillary lied, Obama supports cop killers and ISIL they are entering the conspiracy theory zone, and are not helping themselves.

  226. 226.

    Bupalos

    @Omnes Omnibus: I think that happens without the separation between responses. To me It really takes too long to figure out “what is this in response to?” To talk about wit.

  229. 229.

    D58826

    @Mary G:

    Hillary lied to her about the cause of the attack

    That is the Mother’s characterization of the meeting. Other family members that Hillary talked to recall the meeting differently. But even under the best of circumstances and giving this woman the benefit of the doubt she may have heard wrong or only remembers part of what Hillary said. It would be interesting to know what her views of Hillary and Obama were before the attack. My sister blames Hillary at a personnel level also but then she has hated Hillary and Obama for years. Somehow she doesn’t blame Reagan for the Marines and diplomats that died in Beirut

  230. 230.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Bupalos: I disagree. And I personally find it reasonably easy to follow conversational threads in this format. As you may or may not have noticed, a number of people spoke up regarding threaded comments. I would guess that this blog has attracted the crowd it has (for better or worse) because it does not have threaded comments.

  232. 232.

    Keith P.

    @PaulWartenberg2016: I called this result about seconds after the Carlson lawsuit broke. It was something like “Easiest prediction in the world – Ailes abruptly “retires”, and Carlson becomes very rich after a settlement.” In other words, given her profile and intelligence, she wasn’t filing that lawsuit unless she had him dead-to-rights, and no way would News Corp. sink with Ailes.

  233. 233.

    hovercraft

    @Mary G:
    This has always been the crux, and the source of “what difference does it make”, the cause of the attack does not change the response or the reaction, they still would have died. It only matters in terms of what future embassy and consulate security will be. The media lets the gop pretend that whether it was a video or a protest was the cause of the attack would have saved the four lives. This claim of a lie is irrelevant.

  234. 234.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @debbie: For many years, school districts had two choices: the Texas textbook or the California textbook. Unless the publisher managed to find a way to publish one textbook that would satisfy both.

    The set-up costs were high enough that the publishers didn’t want to make any more versions than they had to, and only California and Texas had the population to make demands.

    The set-up costs have dropped dramatically over the last couple of decades; it’s much easier to customize textbooks to the smaller states. They’d still rather not.

  237. 237.

    Mary G

    @Bupalos: John told us that Disqus and other party systems use our info and would hand it over to cops , etc. He’s keeping our privacy intact and I appreciate that.

  238. 238.

    hovercraft

    @Baud:
    Well if they continue on with this wake for all the people who ever died while a black man is president all they’ll accomplish is depressing the nation. I mean for gods sake this is depressing. I’m sorry your loved ones died but how is that Obama/Clintons fault. They want a race to cover, this is following the triumphant script they want to write about night one.

  239. 239.

    D58826

    @hovercraft: There is something else here. The ambassador and his aide were killed at the diplomatic site. It happened so fast that even the starship Enterprise could not have gotten there in time. As to the two CIA guys, not meaning to sound callous, but it was the fortunes of war. The terrorists got a lucky mortar shot in. The entire US Air Force circling overhead could not have stopped that.

  242. 242.

    Davey C

    I now feel ashamed to admit that I was pulling for Trump in the GOP primary (though I voted for Hillary) because I thought he would be the easiest to beat. I still don’t think he’ll win, but now the full realization of the monstrous catastrophe his presidency would be is starting to sink in. Give me Cruz, please! He may be evil, but at least he is capable of rational thought!

  245. 245.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Bupalos: Because Disqus and its competitors take control of the comments away from the site owner. John has no interest in having part of the site’s content on someone else’s servers, busily building profiles of everyone who posts here. Might as well require Facebook logins to comment.

  246. 246.

    Betty Cracker

    @Davey C: Don’t be so hard on yourself — Cruz would be worse! He’s a religious megalomaniac, which is worse than a regular old psychotic narcissist.

  247. 247.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Bupalos: Oh, and if you want to find responses to you, there’s a feature on most modern browsers that’s usually invoked by ctrl-F.

    Still can’t fucking edit. What javascript dependency does that routine have that I have to allow through?

    Hmm. Maybe it’s the “open popups in a new tab”. I’ll test later.

  248. 248.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    FWIW, I detest sites with threaded comments. This place is like a great party. You can eavesdrop on, or participate in, several conversations at once — or none, if that is your preference. There’s something wonderfully natural and organic about the way the threads evolve here, sometimes entangling themselves in complicated braids, sometimes separating into distinct strands. And it’s simple enough to track back to grasp context of a given comment. I wouldn’t want it any other way.

  252. 252.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SiubhanDuinne: And if everyone is talking about gardens or something else that holds no interest for me, I can grab my drink and wander into another room where the conversation has more appeal. It’s an eccentric place – in a good way.

  253. 253.

    Betty Cracker

    I was gonna try to stick around for Melanoma’s speech, but listening to ambulatory cream cheese sculpture Hugh Hewitt’s blather…and now Tom Cotton? Fuck it, comrades…I’m off to catch up on The Great British Bake-Off. Toodles.

  254. 254.

    FlyingToaster

    @Bupalos: In case you check back :)

    To check for responses to your comment, type ⌘-F on Mac, CTRL-F on Windoze, and type in your name.

    To keep looking down the thread, hit ⌘-G on Mac, and I hope CTRL-G on Windows (apologies; haven’t had a current Windows install in 3 years, so I’m a bit rusty).

    This is standard non-threaded comment behavior; where have you been hanging out, Salon?

  256. 256.

    catclub

    Ken Cuccinelli, a prominent stop-Trumper, told reporters tonight that the Trump campaign went as far as to threaten to take away Iowa’s first in the nation caucus if they didn’t back don’t on the rules vote on the convention floor.

    Such a good idea, too.

  257. 257.

    J R in WV

    @raven:

    Over-edumacated dolt, but yeah!

    And Bupalos (?) can’t even spell spel. New old troll. The stupid one who can’t type.

  258. 258.

    Wilson Heath

    How much would Suq Madiq and his mother, Munchma Quchi, have to contribute to go up on the big board?

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