Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

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

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Bark louder, little dog.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

A dilettante blog from the great progressive state of West Virginia.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

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

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Usually wrong but never in doubt

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

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

Good lord, these people are nuts.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / You know what I want

Reader Interactions

132Comments

  1. 1.

    Kropadope

    I know what Doug wants, I know what he likes, I got what Doug wants, I see him looking…

  9. 9.

    hilts

    For only the third time since The Atlantic’s founding in 1857, the editors endorse a candidate for president. The case for Hillary Clinton.

    Hillary Rodham Clinton has more than earned, through her service to the country as first lady, as a senator from New York, and as secretary of state, the right to be taken seriously as a White House contender. She has flaws (some legitimately troubling, some exaggerated by her opponents), but she is among the most prepared candidates ever to seek the presidency. We are confident that she understands the role of the United States in the world; we have no doubt that she will apply herself assiduously to the problems confronting this country; and she has demonstrated an aptitude for analysis and hard work.

    Donald Trump, on the other hand, has no record of public service and no qualifications for public office. His affect is that of an infomercial huckster; he traffics in conspiracy theories and racist invective; he is appallingly sexist; he is erratic, secretive, and xenophobic; he expresses admiration for authoritarian rulers, and evinces authoritarian tendencies himself. He is easily goaded, a poor quality for someone seeking control of America’s nuclear arsenal. He is an enemy of fact-based discourse; he is ignorant of, and indifferent to, the Constitution; he appears not to read.

  13. 13.

    ? Martin

    Shit. Matthew has at least one solid model that show it brushing up against Florida, then turning southeast, hitting the Bahamas again, and then coming back and hitting Florida again next week. Man, I hope that’s wrong.

  15. 15.

    MomSense

    @Pogonip:

    I saw a woman walking two black labs today and thought of Debit with Walter and Ellie. I was tempted to yell “squirrel” out the window but thought better of it.

  16. 16.

    MomSense

    I set up recurring donations months ago but every now and then I give a little extra like last night to reward the candidate who was not the liar liar Pence on fire.

  17. 17.

    Eric U.

    Indiana raids a voter registration office and confiscates equipment and personal phones. LINK It’s virtually impossible to commit crimes in registering voters, this is straight-up voter intimidation.

    This has infuriated me. I want the FBI and Federal Marshals to raid their State Police and make mass arrests

  26. 26.

    RaflW

    There’s a little lag time, but I think I just pulled us over $38K. Lets keep it rollin’, because now would be a great time for these candidates to be spending and/or budgeting the final stretch!

    Also gonna kick a bit (more) to HRC since we’re in the strange space between the Veep debate and the town hall.

  30. 30.

    SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch

    @RaflW:

    I made a contribution last night, but just kicked in a little extra. Nice to watch the numbers creeping up. (As opposed to Pence, who creeps me out.)

  34. 34.

    Ceci n'est pas mon nym

    My Florida sister just emailed the family to let us know that my brother-in-law, her husband, has ignored the mandatory evacuation order and refuses to leave the coast.

    What does this prove exactly?

    He’s a smart guy and a great guy in many ways but a complete wingnut. I just can’t figure him out 90% of the time.

    Hope he comes through it OK. FSM protects fools and drunks, right?

  36. 36.

    SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch

    @Ceci n’est pas mon nym:
    I find myself idly wondering whether Mar-a-Lago is in the cone, and if Drumpf has all the insurance premiums paid up.

    ETA: Of course I hope for only safe outcomes for your family, up to and including the crazy BIL.

  37. 37.

    hovercraft

    @Ceci n’est pas mon nym:
    I was about to ask if he’s a stand your ground type of winger, and then I read on. Well good luck to him, is just a winger or is he fully gone all the way to being a Trumpster?
    Tell your sister that if he won’t leave, she should get herself the hell out of there. Best of luck.

  38. 38.

    PsiFighter37

    Anyone think Patrick Murphy can actually pull it out against Lil’ Marco? I would really like that lazy asshole gone come next January.

  42. 42.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Ceci n’est pas mon nym:

    The last big hurricane I was in was in Mobile decades ago. It’s not just a question of “Fuck, no, my house is not going to get blown over.” It’s that damage is done all over the surrounding area.

    We had trees and power lines down all over town, which made it hard or impossible to get places, and then when you got to the grocery store, say, it was closed because their power had been out so long the food was spoiled. And plus you’re clogging up the streets while aid workers and repair crews are trying to do their thing. But, hey, rock on, rugged individualists!

  45. 45.

    dww44

    @MomSense: At 7 p.m.Christ Matthews led off his show by patting himself on the back for calling Pence as the winner of last night’s debate. Went on to say that Kaine was defensive, couldn’t handle any criticism of Hillary, interrupted lots, whereas Pence was smooth and provided a real leg up to the Trump campaign, and he said it remains to be seen if that carries through to the next debate.

    While I did not watch last night’s debate, this is why Matthews bothers me so much. For a purported liberal he’s so much into the horserace and not the issues of the election that he leads off with this crap. I switched channels.

  47. 47.

    NR

    Clinton is starting to show very narrow (1-2 point) leads in Ohio polls. Since Trump has chosen the Rust Belt as his hill to die on, he has no path without Ohio.

  49. 49.

    ThresherK

    @dww44: He’s a dishwater cocktail. I don’t care that he’s a purported liberal, what I care is that he sucks at calling the horserace.

    Could Matthews call a real horserace at Saratoga, as wrong as he gets so many things?

  50. 50.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @NR: I thought you’ve been saying for months she was the only candidate who could lose to Donald Trump, Dummy.

  51. 51.

    raven

    @Steeplejack (phone): Have you seen what the University of South Carolina is doing with the football game against Georgia Saturday night? They are evacuating upwards of a million people from the “low country” and a primary destination is Columbia. USC says they are not going to move the game even though Gov Haley has told them there will be no support from the SC State Police. They have moved a fucking volleyball game to Athens but 80,000 people for a football game is on!

  52. 52.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @dww44:

    Tweety is a blockhead. Plus last night he was criticizing Kaine for butting in, and Tweety is the king of talking over his guests!

  54. 54.

    TS

    @dww44: Pence and what he has done/is doing to Indiana is a horror story – none of this so called liberal media seems to want to talk about that.

  55. 55.

    MomSense

    @dww44:

    I don’t see how it can be considered a win if it requires multiple lied and denials. If Pence had attempted to compete based on the merits of his ideas or the actual record of the Republican ticket he would have lost.

    The other thing that really bothers me about employing lies and denials in order to win an election is that this will make it impossible to govern. Your allies and adversaries will not trust you making diplomacy impossible. You won’t have credibility with the financial markets. How are you supposed to cut deals with Congress to pass legislation if no one trusts what you tell them.

    It’s also just morally indefensible especially coming from a so called Christian.

  56. 56.

    ThresherK

    @dww44: That’s what happens when a mild-mannered fellow like me has a beer on a weeknight!

    Take it with my blessing.

  59. 59.

    SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch

    @Smiling Mortician:

    Thanks, SM! My varying nyms are only because I’m too weak to resist the blandishments of commenters who say things like “I really miss your ‘mob enforcer’ persona,” so then I feel compelled to bring “mob enforcer” back and tack it on to the already-cumbersome “liberal bitch,” which was a joke to begin with….

    I’m all in favor of “union thug and feminazi” as an integral part of your own nym.

  63. 63.

    piratedan

    @TS: not just how Pence has actually governed but what the actual “policy” proposals of what the GOP have put forth could actually do…

    I want to be clear here, the GOP does have a lot of well defined goals…

    Roe vs Wade.. gone with perhaps a few extreme exceptions
    privatize social security
    dump Medicare/Medicaid for anyone who can’t be quantified as one of their supporters
    “Take The Oil” from anyone they can easily bully
    Business should be able to do what they want
    Churches should be given exemptions to act like businesses (at least the Christian ones)
    Cops replace the justice system with themselves

    granted, a lot of this is painted in some awesome language that sounds like the epitome of freedom, but naturally the fine print says otherwise and we can have a pretty good idea on who wrote the fine print.

    The media, gives it all a pass, because their mandate now is to make money for their shareholders in infotainment and outrage sells and drives clicks.

    Its pretty fucking sad that its come to this.

  66. 66.

    SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch

    @debbie:

    No! Shall go in search of it. Does he tweet under “Soonergrunt,” or his own name (which I have via FB), or what?

  68. 68.

    hovercraft

    @dww44:
    Tweety really hates Clinton, and he feels strongly that Trump has a very strong case, and if only he would stick to his three points of strength:
    1) Bad trade deals
    2) Open borders
    3) Stupid wars
    Tweety agrees with Trump that these three things are the countries biggest problems. Never mind that Trump has no actual solutions, but the fact that he’s named them gives Tweety something to support. Now if only Trump will just keep pounding on these he will win, enough with the beauty queens and all that other stuff. Apparently he’s like a Trumpeter, he likes the message and finds Trump charming, so as long as he keeps his nature hidden, everything is good, and since he also knows and likes Pence, he’s sure everything will be alright. That’s the other thing, he’s smart enough to never come out and say it outright, but he basically wants abortion reduced to the life of the mother.

  70. 70.

    guachi

    @NR:

    Clinton is starting to show very narrow (1-2 point) leads in Ohio polls. Since Trump has chosen the Rust Belt as his hill to die on, he has no path without Ohio.

    It’s not a bad strategy. If you look at the states that make up the Big 10 Conference (back when it was 11 teams in 1990 when Penn State was added) that basically covers much of the Rust Belt/Midwest the states. All, excepting two, are remarkably close at a Presidential level.

    The average PVI at the presidential level for each state since 2000:
    Illinois: +13.8%
    Michigan: +6.3%
    Minnesota: +3.7%
    Pennsylvania: +3.3%
    Wisconsin: +3.1%
    Iowa: +1.4%
    Ohio: -1.8%
    Indiana: -13.7%

    That’s 80 electoral votes in one spot (if you stretch to include Michigan).

    VA/NC is 28.
    CO/NM/NV is 20.
    FL is all on its own at 29.
    NH is also alone and even smaller at 4.

  71. 71.

    SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch

    @hovercraft:

    Tweety really hates Clinton

    I continue to be mystified by this idea that MSNBC is so pro-Clinton. Tweety hates her, Mrs. Greenspan obviously despises her, Rachel doesn’t seem to have much use for her, Lawrence who can tell but I think not, forget Halperin and his sidekick, obviously forget Tuck Choad — maybe Joy? My listening patterns are erratic and brief enough that I don’t have a good sense of all the anchors, but I certainly never come away with a lefty-liberal vibe.

  74. 74.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch: Hayes, O”Donnell and Maddow were all pretty pro-Bernie, IMHO Maddow got over it first, O’Donnell has a personal grudge against Clinton going back to some perceived slights against his surrogate daddy Moynihan, but he hates Trump more. Hayes in the opening segment on his show tonight was ready to plots at Sanders die hard Katrina Vanden Heuvel who was celebrating Donald Trump’s revolt against the neocon, neoliberal establishment around Hillary Clinton (even though KVH doesn’t want him to be president). I’m still reeling from her hot house orchid, precious stupidity.

  75. 75.

    NR

    @guachi: Trump is getting to the point where he has to sweep all those states (except Illinois and maybe Minnesota) to win, though. It’s possible, but it’s a tough path. We’ll see if he can manage it.

  76. 76.

    Kropadope

    @hovercraft: He thinks Trump has a point on “stupid wars” while his entire ME policy is “bomb the shit out of them and take the oil” ?!?!?!?!?!?

    Head -> Desk

  77. 77.

    Roger Moore

    @MomSense:

    It’s also just morally indefensible especially coming from a so called Christian.

    I’m sure he would rationalize it as doing what is necessary to win the election and govern the country as a true Christian. Just as he rationalizes punishing the poor as genuinely kind by teaching them self-reliance instead of dependence. This is how people actually sell their souls to the devil: a little piece at a time. They justify each step down the path to Hell as a necessary compromise that will ultimately get them to Heaven.

  78. 78.

    hovercraft

    @SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch:
    Rachel is more liberal than her, but is on board.
    Chris Hayes is on board, never struck me as a Bernie or buster
    Lawrence is on board but not in love with her
    Joy is all in
    Steve Kornacki apparently hates both Clintons, because of Paul Tsongas
    The rest are all “neutral reporters” if you can believe that. So basically the primetime lineup is made up of liberals who are with her but not enthusiastically.

  80. 80.

    J R in WV

    @Eric U.:

    This!! Those guys should have their phone records and email gone over with a fine-tooth comb, while they cool their heels in jail, in Arizona. No way this isn’t right-wing treason.

    ETA: I gave the first day this was up. Going to phone bank into Ohio tomorrow, going to Ohio to go door to door the 2 weekends before the election.

    GOTV people!!!

  81. 81.

    hovercraft

    @Kropadope:
    Well he thinks Trump has a point when he says we never should have gone into Iraq and Libya, he thinks Hillary is too hawkish. And yes I know that Trump was never against those wars, and yes as a journalist Tweety knows this. But just as with his bullshit about liking Trump when he sticks to the issues, Tweety simply elides past the fact that Trump is lying because he agrees with what he is saying now. The fact that he lies constantly and is inconsistent about everthing doesn’t seem to bother him.
    So still head desk.

  82. 82.

    Kropadope

    @Shana: So far we have mostly focused on history and haven’t actually seen or listened to many shows asides from short clips. A lot of the discussion has been on how musical theatre developed as a medium, how it differed from European opera, social impacts, who the major composers were, things of that nature. There were short clips of Showboat, Avenue Q, and Les Miserables.

  83. 83.

    J R in WV

    @Ceci n’est pas mon nym:

    Hope your sister and everyone else in the family has hit the road already !!

    If Bro-in-law wants to see the Cat 3 or 4 storm first hand, he can go for it. But he shouldn’t keep anyone who wants to be safer from heading NW ASAP.

    How do you spel dumb-ass!

  84. 84.

    Kropadope

    @hovercraft:

    Well he thinks Trump has a point when he says we never should have gone into Iraq and Libya, he thinks Hillary is too hawkish. And yes I know that Trump was never against those wars

    Those wars were great ideas until there were difficulties then they were always obviously bad ideas from the start.

  85. 85.

    raven

    Donald Trump, on the other hand, has no record of public service and no qualifications for public office. His affect is that of an infomercial huckster; he traffics in conspiracy theories and racist invective; he is appallingly sexist; he is erratic, secretive, and xenophobic; he expresses admiration for authoritarian rulers, and evinces authoritarian tendencies himself. He is easily goaded, a poor quality for someone seeking control of America’s nuclear arsenal. He is an enemy of fact-based discourse; he is ignorant of, and indifferent to, the Constitution; he appears not to read.

    Part of what Rachel just read from Atlantic.

  86. 86.

    satby

    kicking in on Friday when I get paid.

    OT,but a little splurge I allowed myself when I started working was to resubscribe to Direct TV because I really missed TCM and there was a sale. And since then TCM has only run crap at times I could watch. The kicker was tonight, where they had Jonah Goldberg bloviating about A Face in the Crowd “from a conservative perspective” (WTF??)
    I’d cancel my subscription, but it’s a two year contract.

  89. 89.

    SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch

    Take this for what it’s worth: a friend of a friend in a FB (liberal, progressive) group. I cannot in any way testify as to the veracity. But I’d be interested to know if anyone else has heard of similar shenanigans:

    Odd happenings in Clermont County, Ohio. My wife’s friend recently lost her father. A few days after the funeral, the young lady and her siblings each received a sympathy card from the Trump campaign. The card stated that the deceased was a great supporter of Trump and asked each of the siblings to vote for Trump IN MEMORY OF THE DECEASED. The man didn’t support Trump. I’ve never heard of such a thing. Has anyone else?

    Haven’t looked up Clermont County yet, don’t know where it is or what its demographic profile is. But I know we have a number of Ohioans here who could possibly weigh in on this.

  91. 91.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @efgoldman: I don’t mean to pick on old people, particularly since I am one, but watching a number of old people in public life (all men as it happens) has made me think that they’re slipping with age. I first started thinking that with Scalia, but look now at Matthews, Giuliani, and Trump. They’re like exaggerated versions of themselves, like self-parodies. It put the fear of god in me because maybe that’s happening to me too. How would I know?

  92. 92.

    RaflW

    I just updated my spreadsheet, I’ve contributed to 21 different Democratic candidates this year. And I’ve given more this year than I ever have. And I feel good about it. I hope I will in November, but whatever happens in each race, I’ll feel like I didn’t sit this out and let good candidates hang out to dry.

    I think many of these have a good chance even though I know the CW is starting to harden that Dems can’t take the Senate, we have to try and we still might. And any closing of the margin of crazy in the House is worth chasing, IMO.

    And, I’m backing one total longshot because I also believe that we should field a legit candidate in every race possible, particularly for statewide seats, even if the incumbent is +30 in the (limited, for obvious reasons) polls. Because a Democrat should be out stumping for our policy positions, and pointing out how wrong the GOPer is. And every once in a while, a GOPer has a sudden zipper problem or drops dead. Ya never know!

  93. 93.

    Mnemosyne

    @satby:

    You should be able to get WatchTCM for your laptop or tablet, enter your DirecTV information, and then fast-forward through those bumpers. They usually have movies up for about 7 to 10 days after they air.

  97. 97.

    Baud

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    They’re like exaggerated versions of themselves, like self-parodies. It put the fear of god in me because maybe that’s happening to me too. How would I know?

    Since you’re here, it may already be too late.

  98. 98.

    SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    It put the fear of god in me because maybe that’s happening to me too. How would I know?

    No worries, efg and I will tell you.

  100. 100.

    FlipYrWhig

    @hovercraft: Chris Matthews is one of these idiots who thinks he relates to populism and the working class… even though he’s a multimillionaire.

  103. 103.

    Hal

    @hovercraft: I gave up on Chris Matthews after watching his literal, foam at the mouth freak out over Obama’s first debate against Mitt Romney. Dude was convinced that debate could amount to President Romney. His reaction was so over the top I was done.

  107. 107.

    Mnemosyne

    @raven:

    True — sometimes it’s better to treat the bumpers like a commercial and wander away to the fridge for a minute until the bloviator stops bloviating.

    But WatchTCM is also great because if a movie aired and you missed it, you usually have almost 2 weeks to watch it on the site (though there are a few that can’t be streamed or have much shorter windows for contractual reasons).

  108. 108.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Kropadope: Trump thinks we do war half-assed and politically correct. It’s just a version of the old story that Real Men Go To Baghdad. He’s not antiwar or anti-imperialist in the slightest. It’s entirely the opposite.

  112. 112.

    redshirt

    I got a Trump flyer in the mail. I guess it’s cause I’m in Maine district 2 and he seems to be targeting it heavily. He’s coming back to Maine for crying out loud, but to Portland again, which is district 1, and will vote against him 60-40.

    Makes sense. All for an electoral vote, I guess.

  114. 114.

    Kropadope

    @Anoniminous: It was mentioned briefly in my book by its English name. A lot of these older shows are getting breezed over, I assume because getting audio/video of them is difficult. The longest bit I could find of Lady, Be Good was 12 minutes.

  115. 115.

    Baud

    There are millions of us. I still can’t believe we can’t have decent media that markets to our outlook.

  116. 116.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @FlipYrWhig: reading between the lines of the Russert reminiscences, it became pretty clear that Tweety and Pumpkinhead did not much care for each other, which is a bit surprising given that they were both so deeply committed to a romantic, bowdlerized view of the white ethnic, and Catholic, working class they grew up in, even while both own(ed) summer homes on Cape Cod, think of Maureen Dowd as their brilliantly witty baby sister by another mother, and were, along with Tom Brokaw, the chief promoters of John McCain as a modest war hero of unquestionable character, some say to give them some vicarious military (macho) cred and assuage their guilt for having had other priorities during Vietnam.

  117. 117.

    Kropadope

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Trump thinks we do war half-assed and politically correct.

    Exhibit A that Republicans don’t understand that concept beyond “things I don’t like.”

    It’s just a version of the old story that Real Men Go To Baghdad.

    Yup, that’s what we need, more of that.

  119. 119.

    Lizzy L

    I just gave another $25 to Hillary. That’ll be it until next week. I don’t have much extra to give the down ballot races, but I do plan to give Douglas Applegate some money — he’s Darrell Issa’s opponent. Meanwhile, I’m phone banking.

  123. 123.

    Kropadope

    @Anoniminous: My book places it at “The Governor’s Son.” Though, again, the class is American musical theatre, so the focus has been pretty uniformly domestic.

    @Shana: It’s great fun; we do a short weekly reading, talk about it in class, watch some videos, then write an occasional paper. Plus it covers two of my prerequisites, it’s fucking brilliant.

  124. 124.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Kropadope: There is so much odd wishful thinking around Trump and what he stands for. He stands for “fuck you.” Nothing good, positive, or whatnot, on any level, about anything.

  126. 126.

    SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch

    @Lizzy L:

    I think that’s really the thing. In 2004, 2008, and 2012, I was in a position to contribute the maximum allowable, but I was working so I couldn’t give more than a couple of weekends of volunteer time. Now that I’m retired, I’m extremely constrained as to the money I can donate to the cause, but have a pretty fair amount of volunteer time for HRC and down-ballots. It all works out.

  128. 128.

    hilts

    @hovercraft:

    “Tweety really hates Clinton, and he feels strongly that Trump has a very strong case, and if only he would stick to his three points of strength”

    Over the summer, Chris Matthews went on Morning Joe to plug his Trump documentary and lamented the fact that Trump had not run any TV ads promoting his ability to cut thru NY city govt red tape to erect all of his beautiful skyscrapers. Matthews is a stone cold stupid scumbag who needs to be put out to pasture as soon as this election is over.

  131. 131.

    RaflW

    @Baud: Many of us watch close to zero TV now. Even if an amazing liberal, wonky, just sarcastic enough network with great funding and only commercials I could tolerate were to get going, I’d probably never really go back to watching TV except for my very occasional forays to PBS and HGTV.

    Things I read say I’m far, far from alone on dumping the box. Our 295 unit HOA, on whose board I serve, started talking about dumping bulk cable when our next renewal is up in 4 years. Right now too many older residents would freak. But for us not-quite-olds, we’ll figure out how to do HBOgo, and all that other web-based newfangled stuff! And in the process maybe kill cable nooz (not our one HOA, but the demographic wave that is coming).

  132. 132.

    PIGL

    @Iowa Old Lady: I think I’d like an exaggerated version of you just fine. But you’re right it sure don’t work for some people… The ones you mentioned were no rays of sunshine to begin with.

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