Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Let there be snark.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Not all heroes wear capes.

No one could have predicted…

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

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

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

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

Consistently wrong since 2002

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

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

This really is a full service blog.

The willow is too close to the house.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

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

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

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Thursday Morning Open Thread

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randy g lulu2r

randy g little-and-baby-1bw2

Many thanks to commentor Randy G. If we’re gonna look at preening and face-smooching at this hour, better cats than politicians!

***********
Happy nice story, not just for sportsball fans…


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Apart from the distant rumble of dumpster fire detonations in Cleveland, what’s on the agenda for the day?

Reader Interactions

101Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    Animal Planet should cross-program a puppy convention during the RNC like they do with the Superbowl.

  4. 4.

    Patricia Kayden

    You can’t help to have a great day when you start off with kitty pictures. Those are some gorgeous cats.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Doctor’s appointment. The good side of that is I get to avoid the 100 degree heat and the 70% humidity today. It has been killing me this week. Supposed to let up on Monday or Tuesday. WTF, it’s July in the Ozarks.

  8. 8.

    geg6

    I need an intervention. The GOPinCLE has been such a can’t look away train wreck that I had the momentary thought this morning that I wished I could watch his speech tonight instead of the Heart/Joan Jett/Cheap Trick concert I’m going to tonight. It passed quickly but it frightened me that I even thought it.

  9. 9.

    satby

    Good morning everyone (especially rikyrah)! Beautiful babies Randy G, thanks for sharing them and getting the day off to a nice start.

    Breaking down and putting the window units in was the best move I made this week, because we’re looking at 4 more days of heat dome weather before it “breaks” to only 85 on Monday. The house hunt continues today, so far the best move in ready house only had a yard that was smaller than a postage stamp. But at least it keeps me too busy to pay much attention to the crazee caucus in Cleveland. Other than what I read here.

  11. 11.

    amk

    Elizabeth Warren reached out to Joe Kennedy III about speaking Monday at the DNC — says he may be introducing her

    so, warren is going to be the october july surprise?

  13. 13.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @OzarkHillbilly: Basically the studios(or sometimes fans) pay for the stars on the Walk of Fame. It’s pay for play and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce gets the check.

  14. 14.

    Mr. Mack

    That (Tabby?) cat has some really long legs. Might just be the angle of the shot…but wow.

  15. 15.

    Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill

    So how do you debate a guy who is so malleable with the truth that when confronted with some prior statement, will say “I never said that, you’re a liar”?

    It is a HUGE problem.

  17. 17.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    That was a big surprise to me when I learned it. I always thought the CoC did it as a rourit thing but instead it is just a way to bilk people out of money. Several years ago a group of fans was trying to raise money for someone that should have been there (don’t remember who right now) just based on fame. I thought that cheapened the who thing since I could buy my own if I wanted.

    I have watched very little of the RNC, the first time since 64 that I have not invested hours in watching their show. The hate is just too much. But I did click in to see Crudz and he scared the hell out of me. Against the constant drum beat of violence, hate and bile this year he appeared normal, almost positive. They hate him now but he might have secured his place at the front of the 2020 line.

  18. 18.

    MattF

    There’s a report that Trump was told directly, Monday at the latest, that Cruz wouldn’t endorse him. How does that make any sense?

  19. 19.

    Immanentize

    Sweet kittehs! Ahhh. I can start Thursday with a smile.

    Two things to remember —
    Vote your conscience

    Scalia, J. is still dead.

  21. 21.

    p.a.

    Anyone notice the proliferation of funereal gray paint schemes on autos as the economy sank in ’07-’08 and beyond? Kind of like the ‘hemlines track the economy’ CW. My 2010 grimly gray Suzuki could make this a perception/retention issue and not an accurate observation, and car colors do run in cycles. But the first Subaru Crosstreks I saw were ALL orange, and I took them as a sign that 1) the economy has turned around and 2) that may be my next ride.

  23. 23.

    Gimlet

    I hear it will end with the audience wearing white robes of purity and Trump up on stage leading the pledge of allegiance while a large wooden “T” is burning.

  25. 25.

    Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill

    @Baud:

    Given the village’s reflexive Hillary hate, it will be deemed a win (or at best a draw), as pundits solemnly admire his skill for staying on “message” (or some stupid shit like that).

  30. 30.

    Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill

    Won’t watch MJ this AM – they appeared entirely too chipper and seemed mired in fluff for the 30 seconds I saw. Turned on local news and was pleased by a really decent Evan Bayh commercial. Guy does have a good appearance and the demeanor that indicates natural skill as a retail politician.

  32. 32.

    rikyrah

    Listening to the radio this morning for the news and it’s as if Pence didn’t even speak. All of the news was about Rafael.
    BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

  36. 36.

    Patricia Kayden

    @rikyrah: Delicious!! He better watch his back in the Senate — not even joking about that.

    But, of course, we have Good Morning America journalists fawning over Trump and claiming that he’ll get a bump out of Cruz’ speech. Another “This is good for John McCain” moment for the “liberal” media.

  39. 39.

    Randy G

    Always better cats than politicians.

    Thanks all and thanks Anne! In order: LuLu (re long legs, it’s the angle), Baby (a.k.a. Sunshine) and Little. Our wonderful little fur babies!

  41. 41.

    Matt McIrvin

    @p.a.: What I’ve noticed ever since a friend pointed it out to me is regional: in New England, it’s difficult to buy cars that aren’t white, black, gray or a dark maroon color, except maybe for a few models like the CrossTrek. In other parts of the country, there’s more variety.

  42. 42.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Baud: True. I had to turn the channel away from GMA during George S’s fawning interview of Trump this morning. Talk about soft ball questions. I bet he doesn’t treat Secretary Clinton with such deference if he interviews her next week.

  43. 43.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: not yet. But last night on Bill.Mahr it was reported — right here at BJ — that he predicted a Trump.win.

    I really dislike.Jill.Stein but so what. She is irrelevant.

    But Johnson/Weld are at 7%…. Baud! was not included in that poll which invalidates the top line numbers.

  47. 47.

    NorthLeft12

    I just read this in a Politico article about the foreign press and their coverage of the RNC.

    “When I moved here, I had a Hollywood illusion of America,” says Gina Di Meo, a correspondent with the Italian news wire ANSA who has been based in New York for 10 years. “Now, all the bad is coming out, all these racist sentiments. Something bad is going to happen. I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/07/donald-trump-foreign-reporters-america-first-214077#ixzz4F2cy6pQv
    Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook

    Yeah, I know, its Politico, which I normally avoid like the plague. As a Canadian we hear this shite every day, I guess its a bit of an education for these other countries to hear the RWNJs and what they think of foreigners.
    BTW, I think most of those repubs have a much broader definition of “foreigner” than most sane people.

  48. 48.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: Also, too — I cannot figure out Cornell West (not that he cares.). But why act as Bernie’s delegate and policy negotiator to the Democratic convention only to abandon him when he endorses the Democrati’s nominee?

  49. 49.

    Just One More Canuck

    @geg6: Berke Breathed in Bloom County calls the RNC a “mesmerizing, soul-slaying, apocalyptic hootenanny from hell”

  51. 51.

    debbie

    @Matt McIrvin:

    In Ohio, the color is bright blue. When I leased a new car last summer, I wanted to switch from silver to green or red because there were so many other silver cars. They didn’t even offer those colors without charging extra for them. I was stuck with black, white, gray, silver, oxblood brown, and bright blue. Period.

  54. 54.

    satby

    @debbie: I wanted orange, it’s my favorite color, but my newer old car is… bright blue. Which is fine, because I drove a silver one for the last 15 years.

  57. 57.

    Matt McIrvin

    @satby: The only thing that’s wrong about Savage’s rant is that even if people did try to build up the Green Party from the bottom up, it still wouldn’t overturn the two-party system without a complete overhaul of US elections and probably the system of government. The best that could happen would be that one of the two existing parties would die and the Greens would emerge as the second party.

  60. 60.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    True. But we have a lot of effectively one-party states in this country where the Greens could emerge as a second party.

    The real problem for these folks is that it’s easier in life to critize than to do. If the Greens did emerge as a national party on par with the Democrats, they would suffer from many of the same issues that the Dems suffer from.

  66. 66.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: On the other hand, it’s entirely possible that without Jill Stein and Gary Johnson to vote for, a bunch of these lefties would instead vote for Trump on the basis of the times he sounds like an isolationist. The believe-everything-they-read-in-RT types basically don’t care about domestic policy at all, and if you squinted at Trump hard enough and absorbed enough vilification of Hillary Clinton, Warbeast you could imagine that Trump is somewhere to her left on foreign policy. You know Putin’s trolls are trying hard to plant that impression as we speak.

  68. 68.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: Naw, he’s like the old hillbilly and his mule. Before he gets into his wagon, he pulls a 2×4 from the back, walks up to the mule and smacks it right across the face. When asked why he does that he replies, “First thing you gotta do, is get his attention.”

  69. 69.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Iowa Old Lady: That’s not what I heard on GMA. Trump is trying to spin it to insinuate that he knew that Cruz wasn’t going to endorse him but magnanimously allowed him to speak anyways.

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Offered without comment: Florida police shoot black man lying down with arms in air

    An autistic man’s therapist was shot and wounded by police in Florida while lying on the street with his hands in the air.

    Charles Kinsey, who works with people with disabilities, was trying to get his 27-year-old patient back to a facility from where he wandered, North Miami assistant police chief Neal Cuevas told the Miami Herald. Cuevas said police – who were responding to reports of a man threatening to shoot himself – ordered Kinsey and the patient, who was sitting in the street playing with a toy truck, to lie on the ground.

    Kinsey, who is black, lay down and put his hands up while trying to get his patient to comply. An officer fired three times, striking Kinsey in the leg, Cuevas said. No weapon was found on either Kinsey or his patient.
    …..
    “Sir, there’s no need for firearms,” Kinsey said he told police before he was shot, according to the paper. “It was so surprising. It was like a mosquito bite.”

  71. 71.

    gvg

    @p.a.: Fashion color schemes go in cycles. I don’t know if grey is in because of the economy. I don’t remember it being in in prior downturns. I am tile shopping for a new to us house. Because we can’t match the tile already in which is an imitation marble look we have come to the conclusion we have to go for the new “wood look” tile in a complementary color. It turns out that the current in look is grey tinged or outright grey with a preference for “distressed” or industrial. This makes it easier I think to do something that looks like old wood then a genuine show the grain brown but to me looks less realistic and also screams something that will look dated really fast which I don’t want for something as long lasting as tile.
    the tile we need to semi match was a creamy brown and about 3-5 years old but now as I said they tend grey. 3-5 years ago was a worse economy.
    My clothing shopping over the years has taught me that some years I hate all the fashionable colors and it’s best if I buy extra in years I like them so I can just not buy when I hate the choices. Fortunately there are at least 2 clothing fashion seasons a year. Designers try to bring into fashion chartreuse at least once a decade and people never go for it and it ends up on remainder racks. Designers are silly.
    We aren’t in the market for a car but the last new one was a brown one and the sister would have preferred a bright blue. 2 years ago.

  72. 72.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    It’s anecdotal, but I was at a Sherrod Brown event on Tuesday and sat at the Lefty table. There was one Stein voter at that one table. My sense was even her fellow Lefties were getting annoyed with her. It was a legislative event so Brown talks about local issues- not politics- there’s a bit of a wall there for sitting members of Congress- their Senate staff arranges events that are not campaign events- but I circulated a bit and the room was overwhelmingly for Clinton.

    Clinton won Ohio resoundingly in the ’08 Ohio primary. There were people in that room who I know enthusiastically supported her in’08 and still do. I sometimes think her strong supporters are undercounted because they’re sort of rank and file Dems- not the people who make a fuss.

  73. 73.

    gvg

    @OzarkHillbilly: that story is on the local rock radio station which is not political. Glad the injury wasn’t serious. the stories so far didn’t say that.

  75. 75.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin: Or not vote. Hard to say. Frankly, anyone who consider voting for Trump is at least as far away from me politically as libertarians are.

  77. 77.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Patricia Kayden: I don’t know how to link to a particular twitter entry, but this is where I got that notion:

    David Shuster ‎@DavidShuster

    RNC sources: @tedcruz “speech different than version he gave RNC in advance.” Officials + Cruz had to be physically separated after. #GOP

  78. 78.

    Peale

    @Baud: my guess is if he hasn’t, he will. That whole “trump is going to win” spiel is Michael trying to justify a vote for stein when there’s an obviously not fascist candidate who might win.

  79. 79.

    TS

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Cuevas said police – who were responding to reports of a man threatening to shoot himself

    Nothing like calling 911 to report a man with a toy truck.

  82. 82.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Kay:

    I sometimes think her strong supporters are undercounted because they’re sort of rank and file Dems- not the people who make a fuss.

    Which goes back to the subject that is often my personal hobbyhorse: the definition of the “Democratic base.” “People who make a fuss” see themselves as the base, figuring that if the base of the Republican Party is conservatives and evangelicals, by extension the base of the Democratic Party must be combative, loquacious activist types. And thus there’s a circular self-reinforcing story to tell about how the Democratic Party slags its own liberal base. But if the supposed liberal base isn’t the base at all but instead one part of the coalition, one group among many, then the whole story falls apart, and the problem isn’t that the Democratic Party slags its base, but that there aren’t really enough fuss-making liberals to comprise a base.

  83. 83.

    Just One More Canuck

    @LAO: I hear Pat Nixon did a kick ass version of Thank you Falettin Me Be Mice Elf Agin with Sly Stone

  85. 85.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    I sometimes think her strong supporters are undercounted because they’re sort of rank and file Dems- not the people who make a fuss.

    It’s time for a new and much improved Silent Majority.

  86. 86.

    Punchy

    @TS: Nothing like responding to a concern about a man about to shoot himself, ostensibly to prevent him from shooting himself, by shooting said man himself.

    And where do I bet my house that the body cams all “malfunctioned”?

  87. 87.

    Kay

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Okay, and I know you know this because you and I have talked about it- I don’t see any upside to either side defining the other out of “the base”. A lot of Lefties don’t identify as Democrats, let alone “the base”. I don’t care how they define themselves, anymore than Republicans care how people who identify as libertarians but always vote GOP define themselves. I don’t mean this in a touchy-feely “I love you all!” way – I think it is impractical to do this categorizing.

    I did get a better understanding of some of the anger from Clinton supporters I’ve seen online- they weren’t angry at this lunch I attended, but I “get” the online anger better. In my area of Ohio older Democratic women, 50+,do most of the scut-work. They do the canvassing and phone calls – they’re not the people who opine on national strategy. They are under-appreciated and I’ve been vocal about this locally- I got one appointed to the central committee. It’s sexism to me. Older women stuff envelopes while men plot strategy. It bugs me. I got the feeling at this meeting it is happening again. They seem reluctant to enthusiastically support Clinton because they’ll get a lecture from some know-it-all and that makes me sad. It is time for us to support their candidate because Obama was not (primarily, here) “their” candidate and they came thru.

  88. 88.

    Punchy

    @Punchy: On second take, I see Gawker has video. Holy Jesus on meth, that is just incredible. There is literally nothing more the guy on the ground could do to express his defenselessness and non-aggression and he still gets capped.

    This, despite the fact he lived, is way worse than the Baton Rouge video. This is cops shooting black men for shits and giggles.

  89. 89.

    JosieJ (not Josie)

    Sigh, I tried to post a comment with a link that got eaten by my iPad. So I’ll try to repost it sans link:

    I get the schadenfreude but not the surprise around Cruz’s speech. When he agreed to speak, a bunch of news outlets referred to a deal he’d struck with Trump: he’d speak at the convention, but would not endorse Trump. It seemed like common knowledge at the time.

    Cruz did exactly what he said he would do. Trump has no one to blame but himself for a) letting Cruz speak under that kind of deal and b) not having his people sign off on the speech. But then, everybody but Trump could have predicted that Cruz would have been clever enough to find a sneaky way to stick a shiv in him–whatever else Cruz is, he’s not stupid.

    I linked to an NBC news report that spelled out the terms of the deal, but my iPad choked on it, for some reason. It’s easily Googled–it probably would have sent me straight to moderation anyway, with my luck!

  91. 91.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    My middle son is threatening third party, but he might just be teasing me. He’s in the IBEW which had a reputation as a Lefty union at one time- I think they didn’t endorse Gore- so maybe that’s it. Or maybe he’s just an instigator who wants to bug his older brother who is a proud Clinton supporter :)

  92. 92.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Punchy: I saw an interview with him and he says he asked the cop “Why’d you shoot me?”

    “I don’t know.” was the reply.

  93. 93.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    The head of my son’s local was actually at this lunch so I’ll tell him that. Of course he may dislike the head of his local, so maybe not. I’m obsessing a little on the one son because he just happens to live and vote in the swingiest county in Ohio. Figures the strong Clinton supporter lives in Chicago, where he’s all but useless :)

  94. 94.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @LAO:

    here’s Michelle Obama’s carpool karaoke with James Corden.

    OMG. That was wonderful. I don’t usually watch those things, but Michelle is amazing. Classy and down-to-earth at the same time. We are so fortunate to have her and Prez O in the White House.

  95. 95.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Kay:

    In my area of Ohio older Democratic women, 50+,do most of the scut-work.

    This. In my area of New Mexico too. It was ever thus. And yes, the sexism too. There are the posers and there are the people (women, mainly) who get things done.

  97. 97.

    Shalimar

    @Iowa Old Lady: Josh Marshall and the TPM staff compared the speech as given with the copy released to the press 2 hours earlier. and said they were identical. You would think Shuster would have the same embargoed copy to check, so he has no excuse for repeating bullshit from the RNC.

    Hell, Trump himself even tweeted afterwards that he had seen it 2 hours before Cruz went onstage.

  100. 100.

    WaterGirl

    @Randy G: Your LuLu looks just like my Willow! I had to check just now and she is still on my bed, so I know you haven’t absconded with her. Miss Willow just loves to stretch out her front paws like that, too.

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