Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

You cannot shame the shameless.

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

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

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

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

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

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

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

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

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

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

People are complicated. Love is not.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

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

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

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

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Let there be snark.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Saturday Afternoon Open Thread

Saturday Afternoon Open Thread

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Here’s a church we passed during our travels this morning. We’re on our way to take the mister’s recently returned snowbird mom out to lunch.

Haven’t seen much of an uptick in the return of actual birds yet. Probably next month.

We’ve checked out a few roadside stands, but so far, no baskets suitable for packaging up deplorables for sale. Will keep looking.

Later today, there will be football to watch. What are you up to?

Reader Interactions

116Comments

  2. 2.

    Corner Stone

    Wondering if all this thunderating I am hearing is going to be another episode of “All Show and No Go”.

  4. 4.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    I am really tired of Trump. BTW his face looked really unhealthily red during the forum. Like he was going to have heatstroke.

  7. 7.

    Mustang Bobby

    Snowbird season in South Florida usually starts around the middle of October when it’s Canadian Thanksgiving and the cottage up at Lake Simcoe gets closed up. You’ll see the Ontario and Quebec plates mixed in with all the rest, especially in Naples and Hollywood.

  9. 9.

    kindness

    Early September Snowbird? Where’s she from, Alaska? My Grandparents used to go down after Thanksgiving when they were younger. After Halloween when they got older. Myrtle Beach.

  10. 10.

    The Ancient Randonnuer

    Should have invested in pearl futures last fall, but I hear the fainting couch market hasn’t taken off yet.

  12. 12.

    Origuy

    Cole may think he has problems with home maintenance, but he doesn’t live in Duart Castle on the Isle of Mull:

    Anyone who has despaired over home improvement should spare a thought for Sir Lachlan Hector Charles Maclean of Duart and Morvern.
    The Scottish lord has been repairing his home since he inherited it from his father in 1990, with no end in sight.

    His is no ordinary house. Rather, it is a crumbling 14th-century castle — with a dungeon — that has collapsed ceilings and rainwater seeping through its 16-foot-thick walls pretty much all of the time — even during summer, which can be exceedingly wet and blustery in Scotland.

    The cost of repairs? So far, 1.5 million pounds, or $1.94 million, and counting.

  14. 14.

    Manyakitty

    Hey, I’ll be in Tampa from 9/22-26 to visit my parents. Anyone local feel like a meet-up? Maybe in Ybor City or something?

  18. 18.

    raven

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Nicholls is one of the first institutions in the United States to offer bachelor’s degrees in Culinary Arts. Students gain expertise in both Cajun and French cuisine. The Chef John Folse Culinary Institute is the only American member of the prestigious Institut Paul Bocuse. Students also have the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree in Culinary Arts and then work towards earning the MBA.

  19. 19.

    Keith P.

    @Mai.naem.mobile: He looks generally unhealthy, so I’m sure the stress of campaign is wearing down his heart (along with taco bowls, McD’s, and KFC). Given how much Trump projects (and my own personal bias) I’ve suspected for a while that all his attacks on Clinton’s health are trying to divert from him feeling that he’s about to have one of those Chris-Farley-through-a-table moments. I’m guessing he’s got at least 2 organs screaming for help, and maybe 3-4.

  20. 20.

    Shell

    Hot and sticky, sticky weather up north here in Jersey. Looking forward to more September-like temps tomorrow.

    Joy Reid on MSNBCs ‘Joy In The Morning.’ is one of the few shows worth watching. It was sheer pleasure watching her calling out a Trump surrogate on his phony equivalency.
    REID: ‘You can’t say it’s a fact when it was not.’

    Her other guest was more blunt.
    EICHENWALD: ‘Several points. number one, I’ve been coming on TV for years to talk about these kinds of things and every time I’m on with a Trump Surrogate, they just get on and lie. They say what they want to be true, they say what they think is true, they say what they’re telling each other is true.’

  21. 21.

    WereBear

    @Keith P.: Seconded. It’s a tough slog for experienced politicians. I doubt Trump has any experience with any kind of work whatsoever.

    If he hasn’t already been melting down off camera I will eat a hat made of Jolly Ranchers.

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    As the good book says, “Good news will stay and bad news will refuse to leave.”

    Heard from the Doc a little while ago: Torn rotator cuff and a torn biceps tendon (or something like that, bad connection-bad ear). Going to schedule the surgery on Monday, probably happen the following week as I need minimum 5 days (IIRC) off the xar3lto and on the loven0x.

    It’s what I was expecting tho the lack of news had given me hope otherwise.

  25. 25.

    PaulW

    Going to a writers group session to keep myself writing. I have to finish a novella I’m going to use to teach an epublish class in two weeks.
    Would also like to get more of my ebooks sold, but I’m terrible at marketing

  28. 28.

    PsiFighter37

    2nd year wedding anniversary coming up…going back to the location where we had it to eat dinner tonight. Otherwise, just doing some cleaning up of the apartment…it’s a bit of a mess, and we’re going to have some company over the next few weeks as a friend stays over temporarily before moving up to Beantown.

  29. 29.

    Corner Stone

    While “Basket of Deplorables” is a great band name, doesn’t it sound like something straight out of a Harry Potter novel?

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WereBear: Yes, tho to exactly what level I am unsure. Not like I was going to hang anymore drywall anyway tho. I’ll settle for relatively pain free.

  34. 34.

    opiejeanne

    Going to visit Twin Brooks* dairy, almost on the Canadian border. My older daughter has started a raclette business and the milk for the cheese she uses comes from there. They have an automated milking device that checks the cows for mastitis, sanitizes the udders, and milks the cows, and the cows decide when they need to be milked. Interesting to me that they not only want to be milked 3 times a day but they also give more milk with this method.
    Taking our passports in case we want to hop across the border for lunch.

    *Twin Brooks sounds much better than Double Ditch.

  41. 41.

    WereBear

    @opiejeanne: This spring I visited, for work purposes, a model dairy farm nearby. The cows basically run the place, which suits me :)

    Closer to the mountains, there’s lots of goat farms, similarly run with high humane standards. I welcome this development. Industrial farms are an abomination, and I see more interests in young people wanting to start their own such, small, operations.

  43. 43.

    Shell

    While “Basket of Deplorables” is a great band name, doesn’t it sound like something straight out of a Harry Potter novel?

    Or a chapter from one of the “A Series Of Unfortunate Events”, books.

  44. 44.

    Amir Khalid

    @Origuy:
    If i were Sir Lachlan, I might think hard about getting the Scottish Government to pay for a complete demolition and rebuild of the castle.

  46. 46.

    Achrachno

    “but so far, no baskets suitable for packaging up deplorables for sale” — so now we know where all these deplorables are coming from! Please stop, we have too many already.

  47. 47.

    opiejeanne

    @Cacti: Watch out for the Trumpites and the NRA idiots.

    I like the Green State Fair much better, the one in Monroe. Smaller, cleaner, seemed to not be filled with so many people my age who look so terribly old. The first time we went to the Puyallup one happened to be on Senior Citizens Day, so the entry cost a little less, and the place was jammed with OLD PEOPLE! The most hilarious moment was when we were in the commercial building with the vibrating recliners and every chair was occupied by an old fart who needed to lay off the funnel cakes. It looked like nap time at a kindergarten for the elderly. (Looking at myself now, needing to lay off the fattening stuff, and maybe dye my white hair, but it’s not the same, man: those people are OLD!)

  50. 50.

    Schlemazel

    Mowed the grass, aired out & folded the tarps used to move younger son into his new place.

    We need to buy a new car and I hate car shopping. Any recommendations? Looking for a sedan, a couple years old, less than 30k on the clock. I have been looking online & it looks like Altima, Sonata, maybe a Camry or Buick Verano (those seem to be a bit more with the Accord at the very top of the price range.)

  51. 51.

    catclub

    @Keith P.:

    He looks generally unhealthy, so I’m sure the stress of campaign is wearing down his heart (along with taco bowls, McD’s, and KFC).

    I have not seen him so I cannot comment, but I will note that I thought he would not be able to take the extensive travel of a campaign and he has done that, so far, – more than I expected.

    We shall see.

  54. 54.

    NotMax

    Sittin’ in NY on mom’s terrace, catching up with online stuff via tablet.

    Flight time, including hanging around airports and flight delays, 17½ hours.

  56. 56.

    Gelfling 545

    Baking bread today, which means fall has arrived, at least in my mind. I rushed to get the grass cut this am ahead of the predicted heavy thunderstorms. Now the sun is beaming down. Predictions of rain here (Buffalo) this summer have been wildly misleading.

  59. 59.

    NotMax

    Sat next to someone who said she was one of the founders of vox.com. She had a Vox-branded laptop. Some interesting conversation, when she could tear herself away from furious typing on the Vox site.

  60. 60.

    bystander

    @Shell: We watched and were amazed by Reid and her unwillingness to allow people to lie without challenge. How long before the MSNBC honchos fire her?

  61. 61.

    Lizzy L

    @OzarkHillbilly: Good luck with the surgery — keep us posted!

    Not sure what I’m going to do today. It’s chilly and overcast, not a fun day to hang out outside, so it’ll be something indoors.

  62. 62.

    sigaba

    @NotMax: I was at Soho House about a year ago (don’t ask) and me and a friend ran into the founder of Vice Media, I managed not to punch him in the face. Charming guy, central casting bro-libertarian.

  64. 64.

    Central Planning

    Sitting around drinking sidecars. Anyone have recommendations for the best cognac or orange liqueur? Our last batch was armagnac instead of cognac, and grand marnier. Off to squeeze some more lemons…

  66. 66.

    laura

    I’m packing up the bathroom because we’re remodeling for our glorious moulding in place future. I’ve scrubbed my very last tub. Open shower with an overhead that Dave doesn’t have to duck under and a handheld halfway down the wall for seated bathing.

    Then I’m getting a one month gym membership so I have a place to bath until it’s done. Otherwise, it’s blue room in the driveway.

    Also, the Giants won and the Dogers lost, so shaping up for a productive weekend of toil and baseball.

  68. 68.

    CaseyL

    Glass class this morning; carpet cleaning this afternoon.

    I’m leaving the rug cleaning to the professionals: My rugs should have been replaced a decade ago but I never want(ed) to spend the money. Got too much furniture, not to mention the 6 totally-full bookcases – it’s not the rug installation that’ll be expensive, it’s the moving-everything-around that’ll drive up the cost.

  70. 70.

    brendancalling

    Today?

    Well, currently I’m at my local cafe, because my housemate had, ahem, a lady visitor this morning. Our house is pretty small, and I can take a hint.

    Later today, I shall eat tacos at my favorite taqueria, where I practice my Spanish in advance of the Taco Truck Takeover that Hitlery is going to unleash. Earlier this week I re-learned that the word for tip (as in “gratuity”) is “propino” and when you order to go it’s “para llevar”.

    After supplicating myself before the Dominant Imposing Problem-Causing Culture of Mexicans that Sell Tacos, I’ll head home and play some music with a friend (as long as the lovemaking is over and done, in which case we’ll find a park to play music). Then it’s pork loin for dinner and two-stepping at Roberts.

  73. 73.

    ? Martin

    @srv: I think you have an incorrect perception of how much overlap there is between the deplorable club and the $50M asset group. DJT would fit in quite naturally.

  76. 76.

    MattF

    @Schlemazel: Accord is really a two-tier brand– the higher trim models poke up into the lower end of the luxe sedans, but aren’t all that different from the standard 4-cyl, no leather trim. May be hard to find cheaper ones, though.

  78. 78.

    SenyorDave

    Wii next step be for Clinton to identify Trump as a racist, sexist bigot? I hope so, I want that to be part of the conversation. Let HRC and her surrogates go on Sunday shows and call out Trump’s history of racism in his businesses, his statements about Mexicans and Judge Curiel, his lies about American Muslim communities celebrating 9/11, his re-tweeting phony statistics about black crime, his non-repudiation of David Duke until he tested the waters. Call him out for what he is.

  79. 79.

    germy

    9/11 tapes reveal raw and emotional hillary clinton

    The Clinton who emerges from the WNYC tapes is passionate, raw and unrestrained. Above all, she is livid. She had just learned that the Bush administration instructed officials of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reassure New Yorkers after 9/11 that the air over Ground Zero was safe. In fact, they had a pretty good idea that it was a toxic pall of asbestos, cement, glass dust, heavy metals, fuels and PCBs.

    “I am outraged,” Clinton went on. “In the immediate aftermath, the first couple of days, nobody could know. But a week later? Two weeks later? Two months later? Six months later? Give me a break!”

  82. 82.

    BruceFromOhio

    Cleaning, eating, and drinking. Did I mention eating and drinking? Waiting on thunderstorms to cool it the hell off a bit, then later grilling up grub for guests – can’t let a clean house go to waste now, can we.

  83. 83.

    Helen

    Hillary has issued a statement. She apologized for generalizing but doubled down on “deplorable”. Good. Here it is in its entirety:

    “Last night, I was “grossly generalistic,” and that’s never a good idea. I regret saying “half”—that was wrong. But let’s be clear, what’s really “deplorable” is that Donald Trump hired a major advocate for the so-called “alt-right” movement to run his campaign and that David Duke and other white supremacists see him as a champion of their values. It’s deplorable that Trump has built his campaign largely on prejudice and paranoia and given a national platform to hateful views and voices, including by retweeting fringe bigots with a few dozen followers and spreading their message to 11 million people. It’s deplorable that he’s attacked a federal judge for his “Mexican heritage,” bullied a Gold Star family because of their Muslim faith, and promoted the lie that our first black President is not a true American. So I won’t stop calling out bigotry and racist rhetoric in this campaign. I also meant what I said last night about empathy, and the very real challenges we face as a country where so many people have been left out and left behind. As I said, many of Trump’s supporters are hard-working Americans who just don’t feel like the economy or our political system are working for them. I’m determined to bring our country together and make our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top. Because we really are “stronger together.””

  84. 84.

    Raven

    @SiubhanDuinne: pushover, easy win

    “A term used to describe an easy or ‘gimme’ type of situation. Became prevelant in bars describing girls who were easy to take home, and grew into sports circles. A ‘bunny’ is a 5 foot jumper, a 20 yard field goal, an open net wrister, or an infield fly ball. Easily made plays.
    “We lost the game because Mike missed a bunny at the end. That dude sucks, I ain’t playing with him no more…”

  85. 85.

    Les Bonnes Femmes

    Gotta a new job! Going to be the Wine Steward at one of our newest stores, which opens six days before the election. Doing laundry, working round the house with the Wife, drinking Mimosas, and listening to the new Beatles Hollywood Bowl cd. Great great day!

  86. 86.

    PsiFighter37

    @Helen: Strikes the right balance. I wouldn’t have apologized for anything, but that’s just me. The fact that she highlights Bannon’s record and everything else Trump has said is important.

  87. 87.

    germy

    @Les Bonnes Femmes:

    listening to the new Beatles Hollywood Bowl cd.

    I remember I had the vinyl album back in the ’70s. I’m wondering if this new release has different versions, because they played several times there.

    Also, Ron Howard’s documentary about their touring years will be coming out in Sept.

  88. 88.

    leeleeFL

    @Mai.naem.mobile: I hate myself for even thinking this, but I think the nonsense about Hillary’s health is pure projection. He probably is not well and hoping to redirect attention. Somehow it will be Hillary’s fault if he does stroke out.

  90. 90.

    Central Planning

    @Schlemazel: I love my Acura TLX. I had a 2005 (TL back then) that had 200k miles on it – was a champ. My new one (2015) gets over 40 mpg (6 cylinder) on the highway around here. One of the biggest reasons I got the Acura instead of the top-end Honda was the quiteness in the cabin. The Accord just doesn’t seem as quiet to me.

  91. 91.

    Keith G

    @germy: It has one or two (or a couple) songs left out of your edit. It also has been remastered to lessen the shrill screams of several thousand females. I listened to a side by side, and the difference is amazing.

  92. 92.

    Jeffro

    It’s 91° here in Fairfax ( 98° with the heat index) and my RW-leaning father is asking if he can meet me halfway: he will admit climate change is a real problem just as long as he doesn’t have to admit Al Gore was right.

    So much of what right-wingers believe is just their bratty oppositional reflex kicking in …

  93. 93.

    dmsilev

    @Helen: Pretty decent. Backs off on ‘half’, but uses ‘deplorable’ over and over again and pounds the point about the outsized role that bigots have in the Trump campaign.

  94. 94.

    Les Bonnes Femmes

    @Keith G: Thanks. You’re correct. The real stand out track to me is Things We Said Today. Those boys understood song dynamics on par with our greatest Classical masters.

  95. 95.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Raven:

    Oh, I knew what it meant! (Although I appreciate the comprehensive definition). I was just laughing a little because in an earlier thread you said UGA was playing a bunny today, and then you posted here that Nicholls was ahead. I posted my snark before I saw your other post about two touchdowns, hence my “never mind” edit.

  98. 98.

    germy

    @Les Bonnes Femmes: Bob Dylan did a kick-ass version of “Things We Said Today” on a Paul tribute album recently.

    Bob Dylan on the Beatles:

    “We were driving through Colorado, we had the radio on, and eight of the Top 10 songs were Beatles songs…’I Wanna Hold Your Hand,’ all those early ones. They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid… I knew they were pointing the direction of where music had to go.”

  99. 99.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @dmsilev:

    Pretty decent. Backs off on ‘half’, but uses ‘deplorable’ over and over again and pounds the point about the outsized role that bigots have in the Trump campaign.

    It’s also effective in that she identified and immediately apologised for the inaccurate “half,” demonstrating that taking responsibility and making necessary corrections is the decent and grown-up thing to do — something we’ve never seen from her opponent.

  101. 101.

    Luthe

    Adulting update: supplemental insurance bought, Roth IRA established, and the dentist says my mouth is 95% fine.

    Now I’m off to a Taste of the Town event.

  102. 102.

    D58826

    @Helen: I always the the ‘half’ part as a figure of speech rather than a precise math term. How many times have we used the phrase ‘half the time…..’ ? No one takes that as a precise unit of measure.

  104. 104.

    sigaba

    @Helen: I was hoping for the double-down, or if she was going to temper the remark, she’d at least figure out a way of doing it in less than ten words. Even if what she said was true it was totally unnecessary.

    But no, she gives us two paragraphs that no reporter will even try to summarize and will simply boil down to “Hillary Apologizes.” She could have at least saved her retrenchment for the end of the statement or said something about “everyone’s” overheated rhetoric. But no; story of the day: Trump demanded apology, got one.

  105. 105.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Hillary Rettig: The photo reminds me of the sculpture on the cover of They Might Be Giants’ “Lincoln”, which was evoking New England, among other things (the album was named after the town in Massachusetts).

  106. 106.

    germy

    @efgoldman: Is everything ok in your family, healthwise? I haven’t read too many threads lately, but I remember you said there was an ER visit. I hope everyone is fine.

  108. 108.

    germy

    @efgoldman: I’m a part-timer, unfortunately. Not in the union, and I don’t get benefits. I’m never here in the wee hours (when most of the fun happens, they say) and sometimes miss entire daytime threads because I’m in the yard wrestling trumpet vines.

  110. 110.

    Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)

    Watching Bama vs. Western Kentucky, which is more entertaining than I expected. Getting an MRI on Friday to see if my back is causing my sciatica. If surgery is needed, it’ll be round two for me (last one was in ’02). Not feeling enthusiastic about the prospect, especially given recent events. Either way, it’ll be better to get an answer…

  111. 111.

    Dog Dawg Damn

    She buried the lede. Should have doubled down first. Tripled down even. Then buried a mild apology for “half” down under it. This press release is pure crap and Clinton campaign needs to get better at controlling narrative.

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