Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

“But what about the lurkers?”

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

He really is that stupid.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

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Reader Interactions

97Comments

  5. 5.

    sigaba

    @EriktheRed: I think the absolute bend-over-backwardest thing you can say is she was not helpful to Trey Goudy but never lied to the FBI.

  6. 6.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    Both Sides Do It. Heard it a million times before. Got it.

    OK, given that, how do I vote, Ron? Toss a motherfucking penny in the air, call heads, and hope it lands the right way up to preserve civilization?

  8. 8.

    sigaba

    @CONGRATULATIONS!: The both-sides-do-it people don’t care about how you vote. They just want everybody who’s for a side to shut the fuck up and admit they’re dumber than Ron Fournier.

  9. 9.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    This reply on Fournier’s Twitter stream is pretty good:

    Alex
    ‏@IlladelphAC Alex Retweeted Ron Fournier

    HRC is wrong for jaywalking
    Donald Trump is wrong for treason

    admit it guys

    Heh.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  10. 10.

    rp

    He’s also claiming that “all hell broke loose” at the Dem convention in his most recent article.

    And his responses to the comments on his tweet are priceless.

  11. 11.

    Tom Levenson

    OMG. That’s so precious.

    Fournier blocked me on twitter some time ago – he took offence at being called a hack, IIRC. But that’s special.

  13. 13.

    Poopyman

    He’s as blind as he can be
    Just sees what he wants to see
    Nowhere Man can you see me at all?

    SATSQ. The End.

  14. 14.

    jl

    Peak Fournier: lying and misdirection by omission.

    Trump doubled down in irresponsible statements on how he would vie NATO commitments by saying he would ‘walk away’ from the whole NATO framework, until he got the ‘great $deal$’ he though sufficient for the US to observe its treaty commitments. Every responsible person (and being very generous about that in including the likes of McConnell) said, implicitly or explicitly, in way or another, that was butt stupid and irresponsible.

    Operating on those principles is a very good way to get a lot of people killed and throw the whole world back into a very very bad place (Cold War, nuclear stand offs, etc.).

    What do the Democrats or HRC have compared to that? Wrangling over priority of Syria regime change or going after ISIS? Is HRC’s flexible ‘no-fly’ zone a good idea for Syria?

    Really? They aren’t going to be able to flog the email nonsense into a real issue all the way, or even half-way, or maybe even into next week, if Trump keeps up his goof act.

    As part of his weak ass and pathetic attempts to walk back his outrageous statements yesterday, the fool Trump repeated that Putin was a better leader than Obama. Keep it up, sad sack.

  16. 16.

    Lizzy L

    Daily Show: Choosing between Clinton and Trump is like choosing between Grandma Nixon and the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse.

    *giggle*

  17. 17.

    D58826

    @CONGRATULATIONS!:

    Both Sides Do It

    but it is only a crime when its done by a democrat.

    In the meantime Jill Stein is saying the democrats are looking for a scapegoat to distract from the fact that the DNC meddled in out elections. And maybe I missed it but is it not the job of the DNC is to run primary elections for the party?

  18. 18.

    jl

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:

    Good response. Thanks, Glad Twiiter experts are on the case.

    Here’s another:
    Clinton did what previous Secty of States did and got witch hunted for it.
    Trump wants to risk war for a sleazy international security shake down scheme.

    Equivalent! Face it, guys!

  19. 19.

    kindness

    Notice what whiney little pricks the conservatives are who are ‘pundits’? If they got a quarter of what we on our side get from racist/militia/3%ers/TeaHaddists they would curl up in a fetal position and whimper themselves to death. But they know liberals aren’t going to threaten them so they keep going there. Please – DO NOT do any harm to these asshats. As much as it would be fun it would be terrible.

  20. 20.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    And maybe I missed it but is it not the job of the DNC is to run primary elections for the party?

    @D58826: In a very real sense, it’s their only job.

    ETA: and they can perform those duties in any way they see fit.

  21. 21.

    Chris

    @CONGRATULATIONS!:

    “Both sides do it. Heard it a million times before.”

    So have I, but funny enough, I only seem to hear it when it’s a right winger whose behavior needs excusing. At least from the Village.

  22. 22.

    rp

    I can’t help but go there:

    Own it, guys:

    Roosevelt wrong for putting Japanese citizens in internment camps.

    Hitler wrong for killing six million jews in death camps.

  23. 23.

    Luthe

    What I find interesting (and ironic) is wingnuts are ranting and raving about Hillary “endangering national security” by using a private server, but they also want the contents of the server hacked and made public. Wouldn’t hacking the server and posting the unredacted emails be a greater threat to national security, especially when Russia is doing the hacking?

  24. 24.

    TG Chicago

    He later actually claims that he wasn’t drawing an equivalence between these two things. Oof.

    My favorite recent stupid tweet was Megan McArdle complaining “The fact that every GOP nominee has been treated as a successor to George Wallace has made it impossible to say why Trump is different.”

    Someone pointed out that nobody actually said that about Romney or McCain. Her reply:

    I engage in a bit of hyperbole. That’s not literally what they said.

    In other words, I’m going to engage in hyperbole in my criticism of liberals, then accuse them of the very hyperbole I invented.

  25. 25.

    Kay

    Sherrod Brown is the lead-in to Clinton’s speech? He might be mumbly and disheveled.

    Might be :)

    Maybe she wanted a weaker lead-in? I don’t blame her. Good move.

  26. 26.

    Elizabelle

    I despise Ron Fournier.

    That tweet is evidence that he can’t think his way out of a paper bag. There are smarter, more accurate, and more ethical journalists who could fill his seat. Fire Fournier.

  29. 29.

    Kay

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    He’s not a great speaker. I once posted a live commentary (or whatever it’s called) on one of his debates with Mandel and then wished I hadn’t. It was bad enough I was thinking “what’s wrong with him?”

  31. 31.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    My favorite recent stupid tweet was Megan McArdle complaining “The fact that every GOP nominee has been treated as a successor to George Wallace has made it impossible to say why Trump is different.”

    @TG Chicago: While they’ve all embraced the “Southern Strategy” to some extent, the last Republican presidential candidate since Wallace actually ran, who genuinely went “full Wallace”, was Ronald Reagan. I can’t recall anyone who’s even come remotely close.

    That comment says a lot more about what McMegan thinks of her chosen party than she’d like, I’ll bet.

  33. 33.

    OGLiberal

    @CONGRATULATIONS!: Yeah, excluding that nobody from Alaska, while there may have been some mild dog whistles, GWB, McCain and Romney tried to be inclusive…or, at the very least, the didn’t actively try to be exclusive. GHWB had Willie Horton and Lee Atwater so while Poppy seems like a nice, moderate conservative great-grandpa who hangs with Bill C. these days, he was riding that wave….a wave that gave him the presidency.

  34. 34.

    jl

    Ha ha. Now I read in Josh Marshall’s twitter feed (sorry don’t know how to link to that social media those damn kids use these days) that Trump is pissed that his veep candidate contradicted his ‘joke’ yesterday.

    Trump is such a psychological basket case, he can’t stand to be contradicted, even if that contradiction was a good thing, something he can use to cover his ignorant dumb ass to get out of an obvious goof.

    Even someone as dim as Pence will be on booze or some bad ass drugs before this is over. Hope the GOP is getting a psych intervention team for him. Can’t feel sorry for him personally (to be honest), but on general principles and in the name of common humanity, they need to do it.

  36. 36.

    OGLiberal

    btw, the one good thing you can say about George Wallace is that he realized he was a racist fuck, changed his tone, and then got elected as governor one last time exactly because he apologized for being a racist fuck. (and I think the GOP dude he beat was a racist fuck) Today’s GOP (yes, he was a Dem…we get it!) has never done that…in fact, they used his strategy to win.

  37. 37.

    sherparick

    @Hawes: Like peak wingnut, peak Fournier Both Siderism is an infinity and can go endlessly upward.

    I will save my comments about Secretary (I hope some day President Clinton’s) E-mail while at State. One thing I find astounding now is that Clinton was sending out e-mails with h..C…@clinton.com the whole time she was Secretary of State and no one apparently noticed outside of the Administration Offices of the State Department and these folks never went to the IG. Perhaps because of the protective bubble around her or perhaps no one thought it was that big a deal, no one raised a big red flag about it with her, hence its belief that it was allowed. So I don’t think her statement here is a lie. To make this equivalent of the gross statements of Trump is just obtuse.

  38. 38.

    Mister Forkbeard

    @EriktheRed: No. She did not. If I remember right, what she said was that she never sent classified mails on her server, and that turns out to be 95% correct – the classified mails were erroneously marked classified and weren’t even marked properly. The FBI Director is on record as saying it would be very reasonable to infer that the email wasn’t classified.

  39. 39.

    Davis X. Machina

    That’s “Former McCain White House Press Secretary Ron Fournier”, bub

  40. 40.

    Mister Forkbeard

    @D58826: In addition, the DNC demonstrably did not meddle in the election. There’s literally no evidence of this happening to tilt it towards Hillary, despite the stolen e-mails that were released.

    I mean, maybe Russia/Wikileaks still has this shit up their sleeves, but according to current information: No. And Stein should be ashamed for propagating it.

  41. 41.

    Hify

    What is “DL :TR” (from previous post)? Neither Urban Dictionary nor Dictionary of Acronyms shows it.

  43. 43.

    Mnemosyne

    @srv:

    At least one of the candidates made money the old fashioned way.

    Well, technically it is true that conning people out of their money is one of the oldest tricks in the book. World’s third oldest profession, shall we say.

    Or, as actual billionaire Michael Bloomberg said last night, “Trump says he wants to run the nation like he’s run his business. God help us.”

  44. 44.

    Redshift

    I made the mistake of turning on the panel discussion on NPR on my way to work this morning. In response to a listener question about Trump’s Putin appeal, they discussed for at least five minutes straight:

    – What Trump might have been thinking about the exact technical means the Russians could use to steal Hillary’s “missing” emails
    – Speculating that he might have meant that the server was already “hacked” and the emails were therefore available somewhere else
    – Never once mentioning that both the “missing emails” and “the server was hacked” were right-wing conspiracy theories that have no basis in reality, and “thousands of missing emails” is a pure McCarthyite tactic
    – No one ever responding that of course Trump just pulled the whole thing out of his ass and never gave the slightest thought to whether his “hacking” suggestion had any basis in reality

    I knew from many long years of experience that the press is really bad at dealing with bullshit. Various journalists are better or worse with lying, but they at least have a general practice of trying to call that out. But bullshit, the idea that the person they’re reporting on doesn’t believe anything and is just saying whatever works at the moment, and will turn on a dime the moment it doesn’t, seems to completely baffle them. I wish I could force each of them to read and re-read Harry Frankfurt until they can write a cogent essay on it.

    The only sane way to report on Trump at this point would be to quote him with a preface of “he lies constantly, so until these statements are substantiated you should probably assume they’re lies, too.”

  45. 45.

    D58826

    Here we go again. Jane Sanders is saying that Bernie will hold Hillary accountable given his endorsement. Now I have no problem holding the President accountable but these are the folks who wanted to primary Obama in 2012 because he wasn’t progressive enough. Appaarntly he lectured Obama again tyhis week on his failings as a progressive.

    There is another point that Jane seems to overlook. It’s called GOP obstructionism. It iis unbfair to hold President HRC or Obama responsible for not getting progressive legislation passed when the GOP would not support the Easter egg roll on the White House lawn because it was hosted by the Obamas/Clintons.

  47. 47.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    @D58826: Actually, I’m pretty sure that’s not the case. Actually running each of the elections is the job of the SoS in each of the states in which primaries are held.

  48. 48.

    Cluttered Mind

    I’m pretty sure this is why Driftglass always calls him Ron “Severe Dementia” Fournier.

  49. 49.

    Roger Moore

    @slag:
    That just proves that the liberal media is covering for her. If they were willing to point out all her lies, she’d be 100% pants on fire./wingnut

  50. 50.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Mister Forkbeard: I think it’s a bit like this. Say there’s a policy at your office that only one person is supposed to have the master key, and a second person asked for a copy of the master key and got one. That would be a violation of the policy, yes. But if the second person only ever used the master key to get into her own office on the weekend, that doesn’t sound like much of a problem anymore, even though it’s still a violation of the policy, and even though someone with a master key and bad intentions could rifle through a lot of people’s desks.

  51. 51.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay: weaker orator but somebody who would get a lot of loud sympathy from the room? a good set-up> And I’m sure Connie Schultz is helping him rehearse

  52. 52.

    ? Martin

    @srv:

    At least one of the candidates made money the old fashioned way.

    Prostituting yourself to Putin isn’t really something to be proud of, you know.

    Hillary’s comrades fail to derail:

    A WaPo reporter was banned but Milo Yiannopoulos got a question through and answered. Best North Korean moderators money can buy.

  53. 53.

    jl

    @Redshift: That is why the media seems to be avoiding (at least from what I have read and heard so far) Trump’s NATO BS. It is much harder to BS your way into saying nothing about it in order too preserve an intellectually dishonest both-sides-do-it-ism narrative.

    It would be cheaper and better for the country if they just put on white noise or elevator music.

  54. 54.

    Mike J

    Brad Mielke Verified account@TheBradMielke
    Just heard a (white) Sanders delegate accuse a (black) Clinton delegate of “sending us to the back of the bus.”

  56. 56.

    Quinerly

    Don Jr. is accusing Pres Obama of plagiarizing a line from his speech last week. Seems he is miffed that the press hasn’t noticed that both he and Obama said, “This is not the America I know,” but Jr. said it first. Press has noted that GWB has used that same line and Obama has used the line and variations of it many times. Both sides do it, though.

  57. 57.

    D58826

    @Mike J: The degree of lack of self awareness/history/and how the political system works amoung many of the Bernie Bros/Jill Stein supporters is amazing

  60. 60.

    Kay

    @Redshift:

    Speculating that he might have meant that the server was already “hacked” and the emails were therefore available somewhere else

    Because they refuse to consider that he might be just an asshole moron. The whole “might have meant” double half twist gives him way too much credit. He meant what he said.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    @Quinerly:

    Don Jr is so obviously thrilled at finding a new career it’s appalling to watch. Whatever happens to Don Sr we’re stuck with Jr forever.

  63. 63.

    Redshift

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    ‘covert”?

    Yeah, that jumped out at me, too. I was surprised to find out that I have run “covert” servers in the past (since “private” and “covert” apparently mean the same thing, per Fournier.)

  66. 66.

    Mnemosyne

    @? Martin:

    It’s not much of a townhall if there’s a velvet rope at the entrance, is it?

    Much less an “Ask Me Anything.”

  70. 70.

    Roger Moore

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Say there’s a policy at your office that only one person is supposed to have the master key, and a second person asked for a copy of the master key and got one. That would be a violation of the policy, yes.

    And while both the people distributing the keys and the one receiving them violated the policy, it’s the person distributing the keys who is more responsible for enforcing the policy than the one receiving them. How is it that Hillary is getting raked over the coals, but the people at State who are responsible for commsec aren’t?

  71. 71.

    Redshift

    @jl: A couple of months ago I heard a political journalist say the reason they were hardly reporting on Hillary’s policy speeches is that Trump wasn’t talking about policy at all, so they couldn’t report on both campaigns in that area. No disagreement from the others on the panel. It was just jaw-dropping. The tone was one of explanation; it wasn’t a criticism, or an examination of how insane it is to decide it’s unfair to report on one candidate displaying how much more qualified she is because the other one isn’t, because “both sides” is apparently a higher principle.

  74. 74.

    Redshift

    @Kay:

    Whatever happens to Don Sr we’re stuck with Jr forever.

    Maybe not, if we’re lucky. If Trump gets stomped hard enough he may have trouble finding any outlet that wants to put him on the air, even in wingnut world.

  76. 76.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    @D58826: So, when one’s talking about “missing ballots” (which is something I’ve seen noised over and over again on Facebook and the like) you’re talking about the states in question, not the DNC.

    In short, a nothingburger, basically. So far everything I’ve seen adds up to jackshit, and only exposes the utter inexperience and naivete of the people whining about how party politics and elections work: “Oh look, someone with a preference wanted to do something and got told they weren’t allowed! We wuz robbed!”

    I was quite sure that Sanders himself was going to do what he did, and I’m not surprised by it in any way whatsoever. I also fully expect to see him out there pounding the pavement over the coming months.

    I’ve been here before talking about the need to not alienate the Bernie supporters, but when it comes to the ones that are freaking out about the outcome, they are not an asset to anyone. I think the best approach to shanking them is to point out a few key items:

    1. Bernie doesn’t agree with you. He wants his people in the party, not out. It’s not an accident that a page in his Facebook presence is called “Occupy Democrats!” and you should consider what the implications of that are.

    2. Chomsky has penned an article addressing this, called An Eight Point Brief for LEV (Lesser Evil Voting). Read it and absorb it, esp. point number six, because

    3. Claiming that Clinton is just as bad as Trump is strictly a white privilege. If you’re brown, lgbtq etc, not Christian, or poor (and esp. a poor woman) it’s quite apparent there’s a huge gulf between the two candidates. Why are you so willing to lay brown people across the plow as they’ll be the ones taking the brunt of the suffering Trump will inflict while you yourself will be largely able to avoid most of it?

    When you’re faced with the choice of an American neo-liberal and and American nazi*, you don’t do things to help the nazi win.

    * please note the lower n. The point is alienation, scapegoating, encouraging political and promising state violence against the scapegoats, internal and external threats, etc. The fact that the scapegoats in question aren’t the same ones that Hitler used is besides the point. See: Eternal Fascism: fourteen ways of looking at a blackshirt, by Umberto Eco.

  78. 78.

    D58826

    @polyorchnid octopunch: Of course it’s a nothing burger. My point was the total lack of political awarness. The DNC is involved in the electoral/political process. Tha’s why it exists. Its not a crime

  79. 79.

    The Ancient Randonnuer

    @Mike J:

    “The March on Washington was an example of a movement at a high point, and I’d say this is one of those,” Shyla Nelson, a Sanders delegate from Vermont, told BuzzFeed News in an interview

    Yeah, you know all those poor oppressed white folks in Vermont better rise up and demand at seat at the front of the bus.

  80. 80.

    japa21

    @polyorchnid octopunch: Even if you are white, if you are not the exact type of white, i.e. white supremacist, there is a huge gulf between the two.

    Anybody that says there is no difference is, quite simply,, an idiot.

  81. 81.

    Lifelibertyguy

    @Mnemosyne:

    Coming from Bloomberg, a man who made HIS money the old fashioned way…and honestly, I would think the frothing masses who support Donnie T would wake up and realize Donald Trump is a lying shill for his own greed.

    Mark Cuban has called Trump out as not even being a billionaire. I believe Mark Cuban, a man who made his money honestly and through a lot of hard work, before I would ever believe Don Trump. Wish these people would look around and learn perspective. why are the Cubans (not a frothing liberal – not that I think that is a good thing mind you, but he’s supposedly a libertarian, LOL) and Bloombergs so anti-Trump?

  82. 82.

    msdc

    If the last eight years have taught us anything, it’s that the madness will only get worse now that you’ve said it’s peaked.

  83. 83.

    The Ancient Randonnuer

    @polyorchnid octopunch: If you have to explain yourself you will never convince them. At least if you have to use facts. Even progressives are subject to that sort of bias once they’ve made up their mind about something. It’s just human nature.

  84. 84.

    Lifelibertyguy

    @japa21:

    If the supremacist jerks ever get their race war, a red head of Scottish decent like me would be a target. I am an outspoken progressive. They see that as being a race traitor. I also married a half-Jewish girl. Yep…white folks like me are in for trouble if the KKK and neo-Nazi scum ever get real power.

  85. 85.

    Lifelibertyguy

    @polyorchnid octopunch: I agree 100% but keep in mind we ALL suffer when the Trump Buffoon show starts doing things that help only the super rich in this country. When he goes off half cocked, and he will do it and it will be scary, I can see the economy and markets grounding to a halt.

    We can’t have that. Small business owner here. I also want to ask these Bernie Bots (and I voted for Bernie, FYI) do you even understand the implications of what Trump can do to the Supreme Court? Bernie gets it. Best to get over it and get involved.

  86. 86.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    OT but speaking of a point of view, anyone who reads Charlie Pierce’s sublime poetic ode to last night will need to be in private with a supply of tissues. Might be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever read about a moment.

  87. 87.

    nominus

    now he’s quoting responses and just saying “OWN IT”

    “Here, acknowledge and argue this stupid thing I said, so it legitimizes it and we’re arguing it on MY terms.”

  88. 88.

    Mnemosyne

    @The Ancient Randonnuer:

    I see somebody missed the history classes that should have told her that it took 8 years to get from the Montgomery Bus Boycott to the March on Washington, and Selma happened two years after the March on Washington.

    Maybe she should try talking to one or two (at least) people at the DNC who ACTUALLY FUCKING MARCHED ON FUCKING WASHINGTON.

  92. 92.

    grandpa john

    @Redshift: Which is then a prime example of why the death of democracy in America will come not from the GOP but from the extreme failure of our so called Media.
    The only requirement needed now to become a national news reader is to be able to say or write both sides do it

  93. 93.

    James E Powell

    @CONGRATULATIONS!:

    Actually that’s not true. Each state with a primary runs the primary in the ordinary way it runs every other election. Eligibility is a matter of state law not DNC rule and it varies from state to state. The DNC did set the rules of allocation of delegates.

  95. 95.

    john fremont

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: This! The FBI, the cop, let Hillary Clinton off with a warning and drive home and have one o

    Trump OTOH is encouraging people to drink and drive and have one of your friends be the Designated Decoy.

  96. 96.

    JMG

    @Mike J: No Sanders delegate should have been allowed in the hall tonight. Unfair to a lot of decent folks, but lie down with dogs, etc., etc. Clinton could probably win a lot of votes tonight when after the first chant/boo/whathaveyou she looks down and says, “I’m going to be elected President, and when I am, you loudmouths are going to be on the outside looking in.”

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