Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bark louder, little dog.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

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

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Let there be snark.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: The NYTimes “Sh… ugar” Test

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: The NYTimes “Sh… ugar” Test

by | 138 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

In honor of the proverbial gently-reared lady who “wouldn’t say ‘shit’ if she had a mouthful of it.” Because the real social solecism is calling an old white man the R-word!

From Maine’s Portland Press-Herald, “In the morning Gov. LePage says he might resign; by afternoon he discounts the idea”:

… In a morning radio interview, LePage said he was totally at fault for leaving a threatening voice mail last week for a Democratic lawmaker whom he believed had called him a racist. He later invited Rep. Drew Gattine to the State House to have a face-to-face meeting on Wednesday, and Gattine accepted.

LePage also raised the possibility more than once on the radio that he may not finish his second term because of the controversy, which has stretched on for a week.

“I’m looking at all options,” the Republican governor said while appearing on WVOM, a Bangor talk radio station, Tuesday morning. “I think some things I’ve been asked to do are beyond my ability. I’m not going to say that I’m not going to finish it. I’m not saying that I am going to finish it.”

He said later in the interview: “If I’ve lost my ability to help Maine people, maybe it’s time to move on.”

Some six hours later, in a tweet posted from his Twitter account, LePage backed away from any suggestion that he was considering resignation…

The uncertainty comes after several days of sustained controversy that began last week when the governor told an audience in North Berwick that he’s been keeping a three-ring binder of drug dealers and that 90 percent of those dealers are black or Hispanic. Statistics show that the overwhelming majority of drug dealers arrested in Maine are white, and critics have said that even if the governor’s numbers were accurate, he is wrong to focus on race….

During his radio interview, LePage did apologize to the people of Maine and to Gattine’s family for leaving a threatening voice mail last week, but didn’t apologize to Gattine directly.

“When I was called a racist I just lost it, and there’s no excuse,” the governor said. “It’s unacceptable. It’s totally my fault.” LePage said being called a racist for him was, “like calling a black man the ‘N’ word or a woman the ‘C’ word. It just absolutely knocked me off my feet.”…

Incidentally… and no surprise, given LePage is a Republican…

… While LePage has repeatedly emphasized his concern about the impact of drug addiction in Maine, state spending on addiction treatment during his administration has actually declined…

He’s unfit for his current position, but maybe the RNC can offer him a replacement job as their national mascot / cheerleader? Because I sense he’d do much better as an opener for Trump ralies than that Reince Priebus guy…

Apart from deploring the Disloyal Opposition, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

138Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    The New York Times is widely perceived as a good news organization. So sometimes perceptions can be misleading.

  3. 3.

    Trentrunner

    Every American newspaper and cable news should have been screaming for the past 72 hours:

    “Maine Governor Calls People Of Color ‘the Enemy’; Says They Should Be ‘Shot'”

    This is the fucking headline. Also, racism is clearly over.

    Also also, Jerry Rice can shut the fuck up.

  4. 4.

    nutella

    How dare you insult me by calling me a racist? Just because I say racist things and do incredibly racist things with binders? That’s no reason for you to be so mean to me.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    @Trentrunner: Man, even Drew Brees walked back his criticism somewhat.

    “I’ll say one thing about it so that there’s no confusion,” said Brees, who also took to Twitter on Monday night to emphasize the point he was making in his statements to ESPN. “It does not matter who the player is. So it happened to be Colin Kaepernick, it could’ve been anybody. It could’ve been a white player, it could’ve been an African-American player, someone of any race, any color. And it could’ve been any issue. It happened to be injustices against African-Americans. It could’ve been any issue, it could’ve been health care reform, it could’ve been who’s running for president, it could’ve been anything.

    “The thing that I disagreed with was the fact that there was a person who was disrespecting the flag of the United States of America to try to make that point. So it’s not that I disagreed with the protest. In fact I agree, it’s very valid, his reasoning. But what I disagreed with was the method by which he chose to protest, which is to sit down and disrespect the flag of the United States of America.”

  9. 9.

    SFAW

    Has anyone sought out Eliot Cutler for a sage-like comment? I’m keen to read/hear whatever pearls he might cast before my swinelike eyes/ears.

  10. 10.

    Trentrunner

    @Baud: Not to be a pedant, but Brees should know that

    failing to show respect

    and

    showing disrespect

    are not the same thing.

    Just like passive resistance and active resistance are the not same thing.

  12. 12.

    SFAW

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    In Trump’s America, being called a racist is worse than being a racist.

    Well, of course — in Trump’s America, being a racist is not a bad thing. Unless you’re a black racist, trying to keep those poor white men from getting … whatever it is they want.

  14. 14.

    jl

    Good to know that I can swear and yell at people that they are cocksuckers and can only be accused of being ‘perceived’ as ‘otherwise offensive’. I’m pretty angry at some people around work and will try that out.

    I’m glad there is NYT around to teach me decorum. Thank you gray decorous lady. I am in your debt.

  15. 15.

    schrodinger's cat

    From the last thread:
    Ashutosh Gowarikar’s, Jodha Akbar, a lavishly mounted number, even by Hindi movie standards. Plus, Hrithik Roshan as Akbar is the hawt.

    BTW, Akbar was a RL anti-Trump if there ever was. The greatest of the Mughal emperors, tried to bridge the divide between Hindus and Muslims. Militarily formed allegiances with the Hindu Rajputs in northern India. Had many Hindus serving in prominent positions in his court. Later in life he tried to synthesize the great religions of the world in Din-e-Illahi. This was in the late 16th century.

  17. 17.

    the pause that depresses

    Surely he’s had ample opportunity to get used to being called a racist, what with his long history of saying explicitly racist stuff?

  20. 20.

    singfoom

    So Le Page’s defense is :”I launched into this unhinged racist rant because I was called a racist. Being called a racist was just like experiencing racism.”

    Wat? I don’t even. How the fuck does he put on his clothes in the morning? Is he dressed? How does he not implode like a blackhole of fucking stupidity? Just vanish up his own asshole. PIP

  21. 21.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “When I was called a racist I just lost it, ….. It just absolutely knocked me off my feet.”…

    Gov LePage, you are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist. You are a PoS racist.

    You getting tired of landing on your ass yet Guv? I can keep this up all night.

  22. 22.

    ? Martin

    @Baud: This is an ongoing problem with the Times. They famously refused to call anything torture during the Bush administration. They are exceedingly resistant to any charged wording, no matter how accurate it may be.

  23. 23.

    scav

    Because if there is one single thing that defines day to day normal, acceptable all-‘mercan discourse it is black men leaving insult-ridden phone messages and threatening to drill people in duels every time they are called the N-word. If they’re drowned out, it’s only because women are responding in a similar manner every time they’re called the C-word and they somehow faster at dialing.

  24. 24.

    ? Martin

    @Trentrunner: Americans should better understand that nationalism and patriotism are different things. A refusal to honor your country when you believe it has failed to live up to its own ideals is patriotic. An insistence that your country deserves to be honored even when it has failed to live up to its own ideals is nationalistic.

  28. 28.

    Roger Moore

    @? Martin:

    They are exceedingly resistant to any charged wording, no matter how accurate it may be.

    When it applies to a Republican or something a Republican has done. They don’t seem so reticent when it comes to the Democrats.

  29. 29.

    D58826

    @Trollhattan: I would not put the champagne on ice just yet. It was a Russian radio telescope that was sampling a rather wide band of the radio spectrum. They did pick up an odd signal but given the search width it could just have easily been the microwave in the break room. They have to narrow the band width quite a bit before any one really gets excited.

  30. 30.

    rikyrah

    Here is what RG3 had to say about Kaepernick.

    “My job isn’t to judge what another man feels about anything, so that’s where I stand with that,” Griffin said Tuesday before Browns practice.

    “I think you definitely have to bring a spotlight to issues that you feel are pertinent to society,” Griffin said. “Colin Kaepernick’s stance on the American flag, I can’t judge him for that. My stance is that for me, I’m a military brat. My parents both served. My dad did 21 [years]. My mom did 13. So that represents something totally different for me. So I can’t judge him on what his stance is or what his beliefs are. I can only just go about it the way I know how to.”

    “It’s not my place to judge what he wants to do or what he doesn’t want to do. So I’m focused on playing football, and if there’s any social issues that I feel like I need to address, then I’ll address them in my own way. But I’m not going to judge another man for addressing it how he wants to address it.”

  36. 36.

    Renie

    Just finished reading the newest book, Blood in the Water, about the 1971 Attica riot. Words can’t describe how fascinating it is and how deplorable it was how NYS acted. You think you know what the phrase “a cover up” means but until you read the endless details and the multiple acts by the state, you really have no idea. Starting from the horrific prison conditions to the day of the riot, then the cover-up of how people died, the barbaric treatment by guards to the inmates afterwards, the court proceedings to falsely convict inmates, court delays to grant justice to inmates and families of the hostages who were killed. And of course, so much, due to Nelson Rockefeller wanting to look like a tough law and order guy while going through confirmation to be Ford’s VP. If this story interests you at all, I highly recommend the book.

  39. 39.

    redshirt

    That’s our Governor!

    He’s not going to resign. That said, if he gets more pushback from his Republican colleagues, he’s guaranteed to blow up at least a half dozen more times by the end of the year.

    Thanks Eliot!

    There’s still Cutler bumper stickers on Volvos up here. I think I dislike them more than the LePage stickers. They should know better!

  40. 40.

    Mike in NC

    So LePage keeps a binder full of drug dealers in his desk, and Mitt Romney kept binders full of women. Is this a thing with Republican governors? If so, then Chris Christie must have a binder full of donuts within easy reach.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    @lamh36:

    1 week old, but if life begins at conception…she’s about 51 weeks…

    My math sucks, but does that means she was in the womb for almost a year?

  46. 46.

    MomSense

    @redshirt

    I too share you dislike of Cutler stickers. First time around I understood people voting for Cutler when it looked (the last 10 days or so)like he was the best chance to beat LePage. But the second time?? His peak polling numbers were about 18%. I have never wanted to throw my phone more than after some of the calls to Cutler supporters in Falmouth Foreside. They will survive LePage but couldn’t imagine how others might not fare so well.

  48. 48.

    redshirt

    @MomSense: I think of them as the perfect example of DougJ’s “Totebaggers”. Rich, “liberal”, and wholly disconnected with what’s actually going on, because why should they care? They’re at the beach house this weekend.

  49. 49.

    Aleta

    Also in NYT today:

    A white nationalist group called White Lives Matter, which calls itself an opponent of the Black Lives Matter movement, has been declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that tracks extremist groups in the United States.

  50. 50.

    Gin & Tonic

    So, as I try to stay awake as long as I can to counteract the jet lag, here’s a musical link for you, honoring the area I just left. This is the Lemko Bluegrass Band. Lemkos are an ethnic sub-group in southwestern Ukraine, southeastern Poland and eastern Slovakia. Their language is a mix of Ukrainian, Polish, Ruthenian and Slovakian.

  51. 51.

    Hal

    Today is Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s reckoning. Will her evil plan to instill queen Hillary be rewarded? Or will she fall to the might of Bernie Sanders? Also, can my other comment be taken out of moderation?

  52. 52.

    maya

    @Roger Moore:

    When it applies to a Republican or something a Republican has done. They don’t seem so reticent when it comes to the Democrats.

    The NY Times has always been a republican rag. My father was a life long republican and we had the Sunday Times every week. Damn thing was of elongated phone book proportions. It had all the info, including business news, that any repub could wallow in joyfully for hours upon hours.
    I never liked it because it didn’t have any funny pages. If it did I probably would be commenting on Red State or Breitbart now instead of here.

  53. 53.

    Major Major Major Major

    @? Martin: My bernie-or-bust-curious buddy who I complain about here sometimes posted a thing today saying that he’s just “against” the national anthem (whatever that means). He’d previously said that patriotism is inherently bad. I think he’s an anti-nationalist but doing it wrong.

  54. 54.

    redshirt

    @MomSense: Another thing about that 2014 election I never see mentioned or recall being that big a deal was the Democrat, Mike Michaud, was outed as gay before the election. This is a man who served honorably in congress for years without that ever coming out. I bet that cost him 5% overall in the state, concentrated in Eastern/Northern Maine.

  56. 56.

    rikyrah

    Trump Ally: No Voting Rights For Women Using Free Birth Control & Welfare Recipients
    Tuesday, 8/30/2016 12:13 pm

    Wayne Allyn Root, a Donald Trump admirer who often claims to be in frequent contact with the GOP candidate and has led campaign rallies for him in Nevada, said yesterday that people who receive federal benefits such as Medicaid, welfare and food stamps should lose their right to vote, as should women who use “free contraception” under the Affordable Care Act.

    Root’s plan would cut a large swath of Americans from the voter rolls: Roughly one in five Americans benefit from means-tested benefit programs, while 67 percent of women with private health insurance use copay-free contraception through the Affordable Care Act (which, by the way, is paid for by insurance companies, not by the federal government).

    Root told Virginia radio host Rob Schilling yesterday that much of the energy behind Trump’s campaign, as he discusses in his new book “Angry White Male,” is that the country is “evenly divided between the makers and the takers,” so “the middle class is basically paying, paying, paying and the poor get everything free, and it’s a disaster.”

    Root said that he had recently seen a map on the internet showing that if only “taxpayers” had been allowed to vote, the 2012 election would have been “a Republican sweep.”

  57. 57.

    MomSense

    @redshirt

    I still can’t believe that happened. Same with the insinuations that Michaud was inferior because he was without a college degree. I asked a particularly obnoxious Cutler supporter who made that argument why she had something against autodidacts. From her facial expression, I don’t think she knew what the word meant. Was very tempted to ask if she thought she paid too much for her degree but chose to excuse myself instead.

  58. 58.

    Baud

    @MomSense:

    From her facial expression, I don’t think she knew what the word meant.

    Jeez, what an idiot. I mean, everyone knows what that means. I certainly didn’t just have to look up online. Stupid idiot.

  59. 59.

    rikyrah

    KY Legislator: Voicemail shows Bevin threatened him
    12:30 p.m. EDT August 30, 2016

    A Democratic state legislator alleges Gov. Matt Bevin left a message threatening him and his district on his voicemail one day after he refused to change parties.

    In the message, a copy of which was obtained late Monday by the Courier-Journal, Bevin told state Rep. Russ Meyer that he disagreed with his “decisions” and said he needed to understand how they will impact “you, your seat, your district.”

    A month and a half after Bevin made the phone call, Meyer said he learned that the administration had canceled an $11.2 million transportation project that he said is crucial to his district – a move Meyer said is “absolutely” payback for his refusal to change parties.

  61. 61.

    scav

    @rikyrah: Any talk about all those farmers being paid not to farm by their generous Uncle Sam? They getting their voting id grabbed from their mooching little hands as well? (ETA: Won’t even pretend to believe they’d go after that govt-provided free blue pill.)

  62. 62.

    rikyrah

    How Michelle Obama got the job of being first lady so right
    JOSEPHINE TOVEY
    Last updated 18:47, August 28 2016

    When Michelle Obama took to the stage at the recent Democratic National Convention, she reminded millions of people in America and around the world that when the Obamas leave the White House in January, we will not just be losing a respected leader in the president, but in the first lady as well.

    The 52-year-old’s speech was a genuine show-stopper – forceful, authentic, dignified and full of heart, just like her. “Our motto is, when they go low, we go high,” she said of her husband’s critics, staring down the camera.

    The speech came during a period of bitter partisan division in America. But instead of responding in kind to the ugly and juvenile rhetoric of Republican candidate Donald Trump, she elevated the tone by expressing an enduring optimism about the American dream – in a way that only a woman with her extraordinary life story could have.

  68. 68.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Baud: In the book The Prehistory of The Far Side, Gary Larson spends a section writing about his favorite cartoons. One of them has a gun in a trenchcoat leaning out of an alleyway and saying “psst, hey buddy, wanna buy a hoofed mammal?” Behind him you can see giraffes, gazelles, etc. sticking their necks out too.

    In his little write-up Larson says the original caption was “psst, hey buddy, wanna buy an ungulate?” and that “everybody knows” an ungulate is a hoofed mammal–“but why risk confusion among a handful of illiterates?”

  69. 69.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Several Democrats in Congress are asking the FBI to investigate whether there is a link between Donald Trump’s campaign and a cyber-attack on Democratic Party institutions suspected to have been carried out by Russia.

    The ranking members of the House committees on oversight and government reform, judiciary, foreign affairs, and homeland security sent a letter to FBI Director James Comey Tuesday asking for the investigation.

    “Serious questions have been raised about overt and covert actions by Trump campaign officials on behalf of Russian interests,” they wrote. “It is critical for the American public to know whether those actions may have directly caused or indirectly motivated attacks against Democratic institutions and our fundamental election process.”

    From msnbc

  71. 71.

    Adam L Silverman

    So I’m flipping channels. I know Tweety’s on vacation this week and I’m hoping Joy Ann Reid is covering Hardball for him. Nope, its Steve Kornacki. There is no one I’ve seen on TV, with the possible exception of most of the people on Morning Joe (including Joe), less hardball or capable of seeming as if he could play hardball as Steve Kornacki. Curling up and pissing himself if spoken to in a loud and belligerent manner? Definitely. Doing something hardballish? Not even on performance enhancers, bath salts, and flacka (sp?).

  74. 74.

    Adam L Silverman

    @rikyrah: I like the guy who called him out and then had to apologize when he found out Kaepernick was African American.

  75. 75.

    rikyrah

    WHAT THE PHUCK?!!!!

    HE hits her…and then, KILLS HER?

    A TOTAL STRANGER???!!?

    ………………………

    Ohio Man Fatally Shoots Black Woman With Assault Rifle After Hitting Her Car

    A 53-year-old Ohio woman was brutally murdered by a man who caused a car accident with her vehicle in the Cleveland area Saturday, according to multiple reports.

    Deborah Pearl, a mother and employee of a Cleveland Area Harley Davidson diner, was reportedly shot by Matthew Ryan Desha, a 29-year-old man toting a high-powered assault rifle, who police say killed her after hitting her with his jeep.

    Shortly after 7:20 a.m., Pearl was headed to work when Desha reportedly ran a red light at an intersection and hit her car, flipping his vehicle multiple times in the process. Afterward, Pearl is said to have stepped out of her car to assess the damage, at which time, he grabbed his rifle and shot at her at least 12 times, reports say.

    According to the New York Daily News, she could be heard screaming on 911 call tapes. Witness testimony revealed she had her hands up in the air as the man approached her before killing her.

  76. 76.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lamh36: According to Congressman JC Watts, who gave the game away on a Sunday talking head show a few years back, life begins at dinner and a movie. So please adjust your calculations accordingly.

  78. 78.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Aleta: The problem with this is that it has become an article of faith among conservatives that both the SPLC and the ADL are actually hate groups. That they’ve set themselves up as arbiters of what is and is not appropriate and allowable, they are statists, anti-Liberty, and are the real extremists. Mentioning or referring to the SPLC or ADL in a discussion with many self identified conservatives, let alone members of the extreme right/alt-right basically doesn’t get anyone anywhere.

  79. 79.

    bmoak

    @SFAW: Cutler would just say that this proves that our political system is broken, which is why he is going to run for Governor for a third time so he can fix it.

  81. 81.

    hovercraft

    I just watched Pastor Mark Burns who informed me that there is no such thing as the black vote, we are all just Americans. Trump is damned if he doesn’t speak to African Americans, which don’t exist, and he has been warning those people who don’t exist that their neighborhoods are dangerous because of the problems there, and then when you get yourself killed ‘walking’ your baby, this group of people attack Donald for exploiting the death. If warned about a dangerous situation, and you ignore the warning, then the person who warned you has the right to say I told you so.
    I don’t know where to even begin with this bullshit, Was Nykea Aldridge supposed to move, not go register her children for school? If she had publicly voiced support for Donald Trump, would she still be alive. If we are all the same with the same interests then why have evangelical outreach, or talk about the “poorly educated” who support Donald? Is it okay to have outreach to these groups but not for black people? Someone at Trump Tower needs to get the hook and keep this joker off TV, he is not helping.
    Oh and he regrets tweeting the cartoon because people were offended, but he stands by the message contained in it, the cartoon did get his point across.

  83. 83.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Hal: Since Senator Sanders provided almost no financial support, never showed up to campaign for the challenger, and the challenger has since called him out on it and distanced himself from Senator Sanders, if Congresswoman Wasserman-Schultz looses it will have absolutely nothing to do with Senator Sanders.

  84. 84.

    rikyrah

    DL Hughley destroys Kaepernick critics: Blacks don’t get a ‘Sunday off’ from racist reality
    BRAD REED
    30 AUG 2016 AT 09:34 ET

    D.L. Hughley has had enough of Americans who get more upset by 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sitting during the national anthem than by police brutality against black Americans.

    While being interviewed by Chris Cuomo on CNN Tuesday, Hughley said that people are free to criticize Kaepernick, but he asked why they don’t speak up more when they see stories about police shooting unarmed black men.

    “You’ll see people come out and say… they are opposed to what Kaepernick is doing,” he said. “None of those people come out and say anything when people are being brutalized.”

    Hughley went on to say that many people are upset at Kaepernick because football is an escape from reality, and they don’t want to have that escape interrupted by serious political issues.

    “Football is an escape, and black people oftentimes don’t get an escape from reality,” he said. “Reality confronts us all the time, there’s no Sunday off.”

  88. 88.

    Jeffro

    @D58826:

    They have to narrow the band width quite a bit before any one really gets excited.

    Too late, I’m already excited. This and the news about that (relatively) close-by Proxima B (Earth-size, in the habitable zone around Proxima Centauri) have me all in a bunch.

    Hey kids! Dad has cut ANOTHER article out of the newspaper for you (instead of your usual comic books) to read over your breakfast cereal!! lol

  92. 92.

    Chris T.

    @rikyrah:

    if only “taxpayers” had been allowed to vote

    Dumb question time: does this guy you quoted mean:
    – Federal income taxes?
    – State income taxes?
    – Sales taxes?
    – Gasoline taxes?
    – Stamp taxes?
    – Real estate taxes?
    – Inheritance taxes?
    (etc)

    Which taxes should allow one to vote?

    (Edit to add) Since the guy is reported as working in Nevada, let’s agree with him and choose “state income tax” as the key, so that he gives up his right to vote.

  93. 93.

    Davis X. Machina

    @bmoak: How to fix our broken politics:

    Step 1 — get the parties out of politics.
    Step 2 — get the politicians out of politics.
    Step 3 — get the politics out of politics.

    Then comity, good government, efficiency and above all tastefulness will reign.

  98. 98.

    SFAW

    @MomSense:

    Same with the insinuations that Michaud was inferior because he was without a college degree.

    Well, it’s so much more civilized and cultured to use that “reason” than saying “because he’s gay.” And Foreside is nothing if not civilized. And cultured.

  99. 99.

    SiubhanDuinne

    A bit O/T, but are the various primary elections today worth following? Are there plans to put up a dedicated thread? (I’m not asking for one, because I’m not within reach of a radio or TV, but would be interested in Rubio, Grayson, Wasserman Schultz, and McCain.)

    Aaand, before I finished typing that sentence, got a breaking news pop up from CNN saying that Rubio won the GOP primary.

  102. 102.

    Major Major Major Major

    The California assembly just unanimously passed a law mandating a minimum sentence for raping an unconscious person. Apparently liberals who bemoan mandatory minimum sentences have forgotten that moral outrage is exactly how you end up with them on the books.

  104. 104.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Chris T.:
    He means federal income taxes. This is a specific and longstanding right-wing meme. They take the proportion of US citizens who do not pay federal income tax, including children and military, and convince themselves that is the percentage of moochers who pay no taxes at all, freeloading off of the actual taxpayers. This is specifically what they mean by ‘makers’ and ‘takers.’ Because they know they themselves pay taxes and don’t pay attention to whether it’s federal income tax, they get to feel they’re on the righteous side.

  105. 105.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    now Governor LePage is going to call and leave a threatening voice mail for Cole…

    O Holy and Beloved FSM, if you truly love us, please to make it so. Ramen.

  106. 106.

    Adam L Silverman

    @rikyrah: Marine with Post Traumatic Stress. That, self medicating (as reported in the Cleveland.com writeup), and a rifle is not a good combination. Those three things combined with a high stress situation can be, and in this case were, deadly. This Marine should have been in in patient treatment if his PTS was this bad, especially once he was picked up for both previous weapons’ charges and drug paraphernalia charges.
    http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/08/twinsburg_woman_fatally_shot_a.html

  107. 107.

    sigaba

    Somebody here linked to an editorial in the Times magazine where they made the point that since the 1960s the word “racist” has effectively become a synonym for “evil.” This redefinition is partly due to civil rights campaigns, for obvious reasons. But the redefinition also serves the purposes of bigots and people who want to ignore institutional racism, because if “racism” is tantamount to evil, it makes it impossible for anyone to state objectively that something is racist.

  108. 108.

    Adam L Silverman

    @hovercraft: Part of the real problem here is that Trump seems to think that every city in the US is New York in the late 1970s/early 1980s. Even with the increase in this year’s violent crime rate, the violent crime rate (homicide, armed robbery, assault and battery – pretty sure sexual assault and rape are coded differently, but its been a while since I’ve messed with this stuff) is still down over 80% compared to 30 years ago.

  109. 109.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jeffro:

    Too late, I’m already excited. This and the news about that (relatively) close-by Proxima B (Earth-size, in the habitable zone around Proxima Centauri) have me all in a bunch.

    You’re going to be insufferable next August 21, aren’t you?

  111. 111.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Gin & Tonic: Neat!

    That’s a funky looking fiddle! Like something out of Dr. Seuss!

    Thanks for the link. I hope you rest easy.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  114. 114.

    Anne Laurie

    @Renie: I was in high school in NYC when the Attica riots happened. From what I read & saw at the time, it’s only a surprise that Megan Marshack didn’t get a special award for ending Nelson Rockefeller’s presidential ambitions!

  119. 119.

    Anne Laurie

    @Major Major Major Major:

    he’s just “against” the national anthem (whatever that means). He’d previously said that patriotism is inherently bad.

    It’s a very militaristic anthem — lots of otherwise ‘patriotic’ Americans would be happier without all the ‘rocket’s red glare’ bombast. And some people confuse ‘pacificism’ with ‘anti-jingoism’ (the Venn diagram circles overlap, but are not congruent).

  122. 122.

    Anne Laurie

    @Renie: Yep, that’s why I included her Wikipedia link… Nelson was ‘discussing policy papers’ at her personal apartment, for which he was paying the rent. The tabloids also quoted paramedics saying he died with his pants off, but maybe he just anticipated ‘casual dress for offsite workers’ by forty years.

  123. 123.

    NotoriousJRT

    I say this as someone who was born in Maine, lived in Maine to early adulthood, and still has family and friends there: I think talk of forcing / cajoling LePage to resign is foolish. You elected him twice (majority votes: How do they work?). Let him serve his term in the kind of infamy many of you detest but also many of you love. In 2018 maybe you can keep the ego-Maineiacs out of the process and elect someone you won’t wish would resign every day. If you go around the vote with a resignation, you let him off the hook and his fans will never forget and never forgive. I love Maine, but I don’t believe in the “Resign, LePage!” talk. I am surprised that people continue to feel outrage at what he pukes up. He is a coarse SOB – no surprise that he acts the part. I would just make it clear he does not speak for me (or ME) and work to relegate him to the dustbin of history beginning in 2019.

  127. 127.

    redshirt

    @NotoriousJRT: Hey, if he want’s to resign, more power to him. If his fellow Republicans want to support impeachment, I’m all for it.

    I just think neither is likely. But it’s fun to entertain.

  128. 128.

    catclub

    @Trollhattan:

    If We Dare.

    One of the theories of why no (or difficult to find) ET life is that anyone who pipes up and says
    “here I am, I figured out maxwell’s equations”, gets annihilated.
    Anything big enough to annihilate anything in a galaxy size chunk of space is kind of scary/

  129. 129.

    redshirt

    @catclub: Well, we’ve been broadcasting our presence since the mid 1930’s, inadvertently for most of that.

    And to your point, I read an article that summed that any advanced biology in some way related to us (for instance, made of matter like us and not an energy being or something) will have evolved in similar ways to us. They’d be products of their world, and their technology. This would shape their sensory inputs, their means of movement, their means of conception, etc, but because of evolution, if they are in a similar environment to us, with similar timelines, then they won’t look that strange to us. They’ll have eyes, ears, sensation, taste, maybe smell or maybe something similar.

    Point being, they’ll be omnivores and most likely hostile and we should do everything we can to hide from them instead of seek them out.

  130. 130.

    Miss Bianca

    @MomSense: @redshirt: So, my favorite sis moved from New Mexico to Maine, and we’ve been emailing back and forth and I asked her, “How are you even dealing with the national embarrassment that is your governor?” We’ve been having some fun kicking *that* one around. ; )

  134. 134.

    JR in WV

    @Anne Laurie:

    I went on vacation years ago wearing a tee that had an American flag on it, and said “Born in the USA…” and down at the bottom it said “a long, long time ago!”

    The French host asked why I was wearing such a jingoistic shirt. I answered that it was a joke, also a Xmas present, and I didn’t think it was jingoistic at all. He obviously decided to agree that we disagreed and dropped the subject. I didn’t wear it again.

    So, no anticipating when some people will decide this or that is jingo. I really wouldn’t have worn it had I anticipated anyone would have thought it jingo – I was truly dismayed; also too, New Jersey Bruce isn’t typically thought of as jingo, except perhaps by Chrispy Christy.

  138. 138.

    Applejinx

    @Adam L Silverman: If Bernie threw the guy under the bus in order to get cooperation for pretty much anything out of Hillary Clinton, I’m down with that. I gave money to Tim Canova once, but not for many months. We are not going the ‘throw all of the buggers out!’ route any more. We are working with the buggers we got.

    Interested to see how much of a nothingburger DWS’s victory is presented as.

Comments are closed.