Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

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

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Giving up is unforgivable.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Our messy unity will be our strength.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

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

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

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42Comments

  6. 6.

    Pogonip

    Cole’s been quiet lately. Someone should check to see if he’s caught in a porch again.

    But while he’s not here, has anyone read that new book about pit bulls? If so, what do you think?

  9. 9.

    Mnemosyne

    I realized over the weekend that I haven’t got any idea why the hero of my novel does what he does, and I never have. Argh. Freewriting time for me …

  12. 12.

    DanF

    I don’t comment often, but I have to say as a fellow tech guy, “Nice job Alain!” The site is quite responsive.

  14. 14.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Does anyone here know anything about hydrocephaly in adults? I read the Wikipedia article but it seems to be more about the condition in infants and children than in 66-year-old women. When I say “asking for a friend,” I mean that literally — I got word a couple of hours ago that a former colleague and one-time close friend (although we’ve been out of touch for several years, reasons) is in the hospital with a diagnosis of hydrocephaly. I’m not even going to try to call Grady’s patient info desk — either they’ll put me through to her, and I’m not really prepared to talk without knowing more, and after a multi-year hiatus — or else they’ll tell me something useless like “she is resting comfortably.”

  16. 16.

    Miss Bianca

    @Pogonip: It’s on my list – if you’re talking about “Pit Bull: The Battle Over an American Icon”. Friend of mine recommended it to me and said it was really good.

  17. 17.

    Miss Bianca

    @Mnemosyne: I had a similarly depressing realization – that two different characters were turning into the hero. Can’t decide now whether to keep them both, but separated, merge them, or get rid of one of them. Aaaargh…

  23. 23.

    Mnemosyne

    @Miss Bianca:

    Well, probably the only thing to do is keep writing and see what happens. Since readers and publishers LOVE series, I wouldn’t discard any characters who could come in handy later as the protagonists of their own books.

    I can’t figure out why my guy leaves the US to settle in England. I mean, yes, he gets offered money and property and a title, but those are all very shallow reasons, and he’s the hero. I need better motivation.

  27. 27.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    Spousal ThresherK and I saw Florence Foster Jenkins a week ago. Wonderful, touching stuff.

    At some point I wanted to know how much piano-playing Simon Helberg did, as it looked like it was real, I know he can play a bit, and the camera showed him on the keys at many scenes (rather than an actor just learning to fake their way thru one of two numbers.) Turns out it was all him.

    That relationship was as important to the movie as Grant and Streep.

  28. 28.

    Mnemosyne

    @efgoldman:

    This is all in 1816, so it’s a lot more final than it would be today with transatlantic flight and FaceTime. What if you had to leave your daughter and granddaughter behind and only receive occasional letters for the rest of your life?

  29. 29.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jeffro:

    I’m leaning towards love, as in he’s willing to trade being an American citizen for being a British subject to better provide for his family. The character who’s currently his niece may become his daughter, but I need to check my dates and make sure I’m not accidentally making him at father at 12 years old or something.

  30. 30.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    Earlier today someone was talking about social media outreach in this campaign. I don’t know how many people here are on Tumblr (it’s not everyone’s ideal platform), but there is a Hillary2016feed, in case anyone is interested in following and reblogging the posts from time to time.

  32. 32.

    Jeffro

    Oh hey wait, this is an open thread! I wanted to see what BJ folks thought of this…

    So this past weekend, my RW-dad and not-very-RW-stepmom come down to visit for a half day with me, my kids, my “libertarian” brother, and his girlfriend. We spent some time in Arlington walking and talking in various pairs and trios, had brunch, then walked and talked some more.

    On the ride home, my teenage daughter said, “Well, Grandma (my stepmom) sure is wound up about LGBT stuff.” Now, stepmom has been pretty reliably liberal, both socially and fiscally, for the two decades i’ve known her. So I asked my daughter what she meant. She said that ‘Grandma’ had been asking her what the ‘younger generation’ thought about LGBT issues…and while equality is fine, “why is it now okay for some kids to call themselves ‘queer’ when others can’t?’ ‘Grandma’ also asked if my daughter had heard about this one Army officer who wants the military – i.e., the American taxpayer – to pay for his gender reassignment surgery.

    (Nice conversation for a relaxing Sunday brunch between a grandma and her 15-year-old granddaughter, right? ANYway…)

    Long story short, I ended up having a truly GREAT conversation with my daughter (while my 11-year-old listened in) about how some people have hot-button issues…prejudices, even…where they just want to run down other folks and perhaps even feel frustrated that they can’t use slurs that they used to be able to use (not without some social disapproval, anyway).

    This led to two very funny sidebars about a) asking conservatives straight up: “Just be honest about who it is you want to slur here…what bad words are you just. so. frustrated. that you can’t use anymore? Let it all out!” and b) how it actually used to be common ‘knowledge’ amongst many folks, not just conservatives, that people ‘chose’ to be gay. For the latter, I really had them rolling with the absurdity of it all (although I think I stole most of the material!)

    BUT

    Here’s what still mystified us: my stepmom/their grandma has been, as I mentioned, a pretty middle-of-the-road liberal type. What happened here? Why so unsympathetic (at best) to LGBT folks?

    Well, we (even my kids) know my RW-dad watches tons of Fox News. Between it always being on and him likely venting/ranting about whatever “BREAKING! NEWS!!1!” they’re spewing every 15 minutes, no doubt there have been segments about the Chelsea Manning case, the transgender bathroom faux controversies, Caitlin Jenner, and so on. So our best guess – and yes, the three of us talked about even these nuances – is that in all that Fox-poo flying around, Ailes & Co managed to find something that was beyond stepmom’s usual ability to tolerate or process.

    WHICH – big picture moment here – IS WHAT THEY DO. If you keep putting enough things out there, eventually you’re going to outrage all but the most progressive, self-aware, change-capable, reflective individuals. And ESPECIALLY if you can tie it in to “I shouldn’t have to pay for that with my tax dollars”. Never mind that a $500 hammer, or $500 in food stamps, is peanuts compared to the size of the contracts that are awarded to defense contractors, or even just compared to the size of stepmom’s Medicare expenses. It’s all. about. the. outrage.

    Anyway, brunch was great (go Liberty Tavern!) and in the end, my kids learned multiple lessons here. But it’s scary to think about how Fox indoctrinates its viewers and drags others into the Outrage Machine as well, to say nothing of the spillover effects on other news organizations.

    And next time, I’ll be sure I sit next to my stepmom at brunch! ;)

  33. 33.

    Mnemosyne

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    He does have a black former slave half-brother who’s going to follow him to England after wrangling the rest of the family. Maybe I should take MikeJ’s advice from the other night and have him shipbuilding in South Carolina instead of Philadelphia after all.

    (But Philadelphia still makes more sense for French refugees. Maybe Baltimore?)

  34. 34.

    Jeffro

    @Mnemosyne: Sounds great! If it can be love + revenge (or perhaps someone has some leverage on him? Love + duress??) then so much the better. Eventually those two forces will come into conflict and then…who knows where that goes?

  37. 37.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jeffro:

    He finds out once he gets there that he’s the focus of a treasonous plot against the Prince Regent and has to figure out how to foil it without losing everything he just gained.

    Plus his new bride is (unwillingly) in on the plot and he has to save her, too.

  39. 39.

    Jeffro

    @RaflW: Amazing how a ridiculous amount of great food can bring folks together! Biscuits and sausage gravy, grits, on and on and on…(drool)…

  40. 40.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NoraLenderbee #22 (sorry, reply button is all caught up in your article link):

    Thanks for that. A mutual friend is going to visit in the hospital tomorrow and should have more information to share then. In the meantime, I’ve heard anecdotally about a couple of people with hydrocephaly who simply had holes drilled in their skulls, listened to the fluid drain out, and lived to be nearly 100 y.o.

  41. 41.

    J R in WV

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Just like for kids, they put in a “shunt” to divert the excess fluids down into the abdomen where they can be harmlessly absorbed. The only problems happen if/when the shunt gets dislodged or clogs for some reason.

    A friend of mine’s mother had this after surgery for a brain tumor – non-malignant. But she wouldn’t wear the helmet she was provided to prevent self harm when falling. So she fell often, dislodged the shunt a couple of times, etc. Sad

    But she was an adult, and you couldn’t make her wear a “stupid looking” helmet when she wasn’t in bed. Couldn’t Make Her! So there you go, all I know. Hoping your friend either won’t need a shunt after treatment, or has some common sense to outweigh her fashion sense.

    Mrs. Magursky (not a real name, nor even the right ethnicity) wasn’t even a fashion plate, she was a country small town housewife, but stubborn. Way stubborn!

  42. 42.

    brendancalling

    @Miss Bianca:
    Too late, already did. They may put on an amazing show, but their music isn’t my cup of tea. Kind of like wheat beer: it could be the best wheat beer on the face of the earth served in a glorious golden chalice, but I still wouldn’t like it all that much because wheat beer doesn’t appeal to me.

    Joan Jett was killer though.

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