Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

I was promised a recession.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Peak wingnut was a lie.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

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

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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

The words do not have to be perfect.

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

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

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

Bark louder, little dog.

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

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Infrastructure week. at last.

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Reader Interactions

92Comments

  3. 3.

    JPL

    As the crow flies, the high school is close enough to listen to the gun/cannon, when they score a touchdown. The game started at 7:30 and there has been five loud booms. The mutt has retired to his crate.

  5. 5.

    hovercraft

    Can I keep bitching about the SCANDAL coverage here, or are you going to give us a separate open thread?

  6. 6.

    Mary G

    I’ve been pretty blah about the whole thing, but the distraction is welcome, except for all the damn commercials about California propositions. Shut up I already voted.

  7. 7.

    Cacti

    Useless fact of the night:

    With the series at 1-1, and the World Series venues set at 2-3-2, the only way the Cubs celebrate a WS win at Wrigley is to win out.

    Related opinion: Letting the all-star game decide World Series home field advantage is moronic.

  9. 9.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    As a Red Sox fan I keep changing allegiances between wanting Theo to break two curses in his young life, and a deep fondness for Terry Francona and his managerial skills handling all these weird superstitious manbabies who only know baseball. Tonight, I’m on team Terry, and on Wednesday I was on team Theo. Both fan bases are worthy and I’m glad I’m not invested, because I know what it feels like to live and die with every pitch.

  12. 12.

    redshirt

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: I feel the same. So I go to secondary reasons. Cubs ownership is Trump supporting wingnuts. Cleveland has one of the worst mascots/team names in all sports. Chicago has a history of winning in other sports, Cleveland just won something for the first time in a long, long time.

    Chicago is the favorite, Cleveland the underdog.

    Given all that, I’m “rooting” for Cleveland.

  16. 16.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Cacti:

    Terry Francona is a true mensch. His mentorship of Jon Lester through his cancer diagnosis was a thing of beauty. It must be odd for Terry to see how his influence on these players evolve over time.

  18. 18.

    Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA

    Mingobat trivia: upon finding my biological parents when I was 24, I learned that I have tons of relatives/ancestors from northern Illinois. In honor of the version of me living in the parallel universe where I wasn’t adopted by Brooklyn Italians, go Cubs!

  20. 20.

    Cacti

    Since it’s a sports open thread:

    11-time world champion surfer Kelly Slater says 2017 will be his final year on the pro circuit.

  23. 23.

    piratedan

    @efgoldman: was just over at LGF and someone posted a tweet where the DOJ has now recived a complaint against Comey for professional misconduct in regards to interfering with a Presidential election… story over at politicsususa.com. Possible violation of the Hatch Act. Now this isn’t the DOJ itself, just that someone on the Dem side is acting on it.

  24. 24.

    Cacti

    Both teams look nervous so far (to me).

    By game 3, most of the nerves should be gone. But a lot of psychological baggage carried by both franchises.

  25. 25.

    raven

    @Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA: I was born in Urbana, my dad and his dad in Chicago. All my life it was Illinois. The I find out I have a confederate ancestor who fought with the 11th Tennessee all the way down from Chattanooga and was killed at the Battle of Atlanta at I-20 and Boulevard. My wife is going to a Halloween event at Oakland Cemetery tomorrow and, from the best I can tell, my ancestor is buried there.

  26. 26.

    Betty Cracker

    When did the extended chin protection batting helmet thingies become a thing? I don’t remember it last year.

  27. 27.

    Peale

    @Darkrose: or be played in a neutral field. They could play the series in Miller park. Conveniently it’s unused and available every year about this time.

  29. 29.

    Cacti

    @raven:

    I was born in Urbana, my dad and his dad in Chicago. All my life it was Illinois. The I find out I have a confederate ancestor who fought with the 11th Tennessee all the way down from Chattanooga and was killed at the Battle of Atlanta at I-20 and Boulevard. My wife is going to a Halloween event at Oakland Cemetery tomorrow and, from the best I can tell, my ancestor is buried there.

    Until last year, I had thought that all of my civil war ancestors fought for the bad side (Texas and North Carolina). Then I discovered a gr-gr-gr grandfather this past year who served in the 19th Missouri Union Infantry…and was also at the Battle of Atlanta, on Sherman’s side.

  30. 30.

    raven

    New York Mets pitcher Jon Niese hit Heyward in the face with a pitch on August 21, 2013 fracturing his jaw in two places.[68] He had surgery, which required the insertion of two plates, and returned on September 20. Heyward began wearing a protective shield attached to the right side of his batting helmet.[69] He struck out and walked in a 9–5 win against the Chicago Cubs
    Six days later, Heyward set career highs against Philadelphia with five hits, four extra-base hits, and matched a career-best three doubles. He also hit his third career – and second of the season – leadoff HR. In his last 31 games of the season, starting July 28, he hit at a .333 (38-for-114) clip. He batted .322 (38-for-118) with a .403 OBP in 30 games as a leadoff hitter. After two stints on the DL, Heyward appeared in 104 total games, batting .254 with 14 HR, 22 2B, 38 RBI, 67 runs scored and two stolen bases. The Braves record was 71–33 in the games in which he appeared.[70]

  33. 33.

    Cacti

    @raven:

    He did.

    Survived the war and lived to be an old man. Fortunate for his family, because he had a wife and 3 kids when he volunteered.

  34. 34.

    Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA

    @raven: My ancestors on my biological mother’s side are the Midwesterners. They worked they way from the East Coast starting in the 1600s — I’m a direct descendant of a Revolutionary War veteran.

    I don’t know if you ever heard of the Moews Seed Company near Rockford — I’m related to them somehow. I think I’m descended from the founder.

  35. 35.

    Joel

    I’m fairly ambivalent. If it weren’t for the racist mascot and the knuckle draggers that embrace it, I’d pull for Cleveland. Terry Francona was unfairly run out of town in Boston. Epstein left on his own accord.

  40. 40.

    Cacti

    @raven:

    I got the number wrong. It was the 18th Missouri. He joined at the beginning of 1864, so he saw action in Georgia, but missed Shiloh.

  42. 42.

    jk

    @Cacti:

    Letting the all-star game decide World Series home field advantage is moronic.

    Agreed. Tying the winner of the All-Star game to home field advantage for the World Series is indefensible and Rob Manfred is an asshole if he does not rectify this insane bullshit.

    My proposal for determining home field advantage for the World Series:

    1. Give home field advantage to the team that wins the most games during the regular season.
    2. If both teams finish the season with the same number of wins, give home field advantage to the team that has won the most games on the road.
    3. If both teams finish the season with the same number of total wins and road wins, give home field advantage to the team that spent the most days of the season occupying 1st place in their division.
    4. If both teams spent the same number of days occupying 1st place, give home field advantage to the team that finished the season the greater number of games ahead of their 2nd place rival.
    5. In the unlikely event, both teams finish the regular season tied with respect to the 4 previously mentioned metrics, flip a coin to determine home field advantage.

    Another issue, Manfred should address is the DH rule. It’s time for the National League to adopt it. Having 2 leagues play the game under 2 separate set of rules is just as crazy as tying WS home field advantage to the winner of the All Star game.

  43. 43.

    Darkrose

    Is anyone here watching “Pitch”? I did a mini-binge on the first four episodes last night and have mixed feelings. I love the concept, and I think the casting was well-done. I’m just terrified that they’re going to try to force a romance between the pitcher and her catcher, which would be awful on many levels. I do think it’s interesting that MLB has clearly put their stamp of approval on the concept; I wonder if this means that at some point, we may indeed see a woman in MLB.

  44. 44.

    raven

    @Cacti: Have you seen And Lee’s “Ride With the Devil” about the Missouri Bushwhackers, a Confederate irregular outfit? I thought it was really good but it didn’t get great reviews.

  46. 46.

    patroclus

    Scoreless into the 4th. Go Cubbies!

    Ride with the Devil is one of my all-time favorite movies. Pitt Mackeson is a great villain. Dem Yankees had no sense of propriety or station.

  51. 51.

    raven

    @Betty Cracker: Giancarlo Stanton’s mask not a first

    But he’s far from the first to wear a face-guard attachment on his helmet, and he’s not even the first to wear a football-style mask. With that in mind, let’s take a trip down memory lane and revisit a few of the ballplayers who’ve commingled the gridiron and the diamond by putting football-style face masks on their batting helmets:

  54. 54.

    Kathleen

    Because I live in Ohio and have family roots in Cleveland (my grandfather and his 2 brothers ended up there after arriving from Ireland via Baltimore), I’m rooting for Cleveland, though I wouldn’t mind seeing Cubs win either. It’s nice to have an all midwest series. I think it drives the national sportscasters/media bonkers when one of the teams aren’t from either coast. I’ll probably be dead before the Reds go over 500 much less play in a World Series again (thank you, St. Louis Cardinals secret Reds saboteur Walt Jocketty. Brian Price? Really?)

  55. 55.

    different-church-lady

    @Cacti:

    Letting the all-star game decide World Series home field advantage is moronic.

    WORD. The rotting corpse of Bud Selig completely over-reacted and now the All-Star Game is a grim, joyless exercise.

  56. 56.

    jk

    @Peale:

    That’s an interesting idea. The sad thing about this WS home field advantage being tied to the All Star game winner is that it was done as a gimmick to boost the Nielsen ratings for the All Star game.

  59. 59.

    different-church-lady

    I’m listening, not watching, and the radio guys are making it sound like the home plate ump is having a very rough night.

  64. 64.

    Betty Cracker

    @raven: I’m going to a fancy party in Miami tomorrow, so I doubt I’ll see anything more than clips of the WS and FSU-Clemson. But I told them I was watching Fl-Ga if hell freezes over!

  66. 66.

    different-church-lady

    @efgoldman: Thank goodness it was Gasper — I was very worried there for a moment that Shaughnessy might have said something sensible.

  68. 68.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    @Cacti: I’m an Expos fan, so I am pretty near the front of the line for “Who hates Bud Selig more”.

    That said, this WS home field advantage is another one of his brilliant ideas, right?

    The obvious stakes for the All Star game should be, Winner’s league hosts it four years from now.

  69. 69.

    Kropadope

    I just read some of the most backhanded ref working I’ve ever seen, courtesy of McArgleBargle,

    Yes, liberal journalists, I’m saying that the media is biased, and I know you don’t see any evidence of that, because that’s how bias works: You don’t notice it when you share the bias. No, my loonier Republican readers, I am not confirming your belief that journalists deliberately slant their coverage to achieve political ends or even just to provoke you.
    Rather, the bias operates in what topics people choose to cover, how strenuously they interrogate facts, how skeptical they are of various claims about the future. As social psychologist Jonathan Haidt says, when we see a fact or a claim that comports with our ideological beliefs, we ask: “Can I believe this?” When we see one that conflicts with it, we ask: “Must I believe this?”
    The process mostly operates subconsciously; it is entirely possible to believe that you are being strenuously fair while setting the bar higher for believing “conservative” stories and liking conservative politicians than for “liberal” ones. An unlikeable liberal politician will still be disliked; an irrefutable “conservative” fact will still be accepted. But in the mushy middle, the ground will tilt toward liberalism.

    My takeaway from the article is that since “conservative” media personalities can’t argue their own it’s the job of the rest of the media to do it for them. Simple undue credulity from the “liberal” media isn’t enough I guess.

  71. 71.

    different-church-lady

    On the radio broadcast, Wells Fargo is repeating a “We’re going to atone, we’re going to do better, please forgive us” commercial over and over and over again.

  72. 72.

    Kropadope

    So why should we believe that the new Hillary e-mails found on Anthony Weiner’s computer will be any more incriminating than the thousands of others they already found? Are they afraid he used classified information as a backdrop for his dick?

    Comey’s probably just pissed he didn’t find anything to pin on Hillary so he made a political play.

  74. 74.

    PaulWartenberg2016

    Am watching the Bulls/Navy game instead.

    USF’s offense is beating Navy at its own game of running the damn ball like madmen, close to 400 yards plus on the ground. Still a close game though with Bulls up 52-33 with 7 minutes to go.

  77. 77.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    So glad I don’t have a rooting interest in the outcome, because this game is NERVEWRACKING.

  81. 81.

    Steve in the ATL

    @jk:

    Another issue, Manfred should address is the DH rule. It’s time for the National League to adopt it.

    You were doing so well up until this point…

  82. 82.

    jk

    @efgoldman:

    I heard some sportswriters on WFAN say that sinking tv ratings for the All Star game was a factor in the decision to tie the outcome of this game to home field advantage for the WS.

  86. 86.

    jk

    The Cubs have lost a World Series game 1-0 once before- in 1918 when they lost to the Red Sox. The winning pitcher that day: Babe Ruth.

    h/t ESPN

  87. 87.

    burnspbesq

    @jk:

    Another issue, Manfred should address is the DH rule. It’s time for the National League to adopt it.

    You got that exactly backwards, my friend. The only thing worse than the DH is Original Sin.

  88. 88.

    burnspbesq

    @jk: ”

    Nuke the Fan and WOR. it is profoundly offensive for the Mets’ flagship station to also carry Limbaugh and Hannity. The Fan has never not sucked, even for one day.

  89. 89.

    frosty

    @efgoldman:

    I don’t know which is more obnoxious in the seventh:

    Well, in Baltimore we get “Thank God I’m a Country Boy”. Dunno why, maybe all the WWI workers from WV still here? On Fridays, Woody Guthrie “This Land Is Your Land” (so I’ve read), since the owners kind of dislike the faux patriotism.

  90. 90.

    Cacti

    @raven:

    Have you seen And Lee’s “Ride With the Devil” about the Missouri Bushwhackers, a Confederate irregular outfit? I thought it was really good but it didn’t get great reviews.

    I have not, but I’ve heard about it. Will have to check it out sometime. The Bushwacker-Jayhawker wars get surprisingly little attention in the popular culture, considering Bleeding Kansas was the prelude to Ft. Sumter.

  91. 91.

    janelle

    @jk: I would make Tiebreaker #3 whichever team had the best interleague record for the season, and then go to “most days in first place” as the next tiebreaker.

    FWIW, had Selig never created the idiotic All-Star Game rule and the World Series home field advantage was still on the previous system, the Cubs still wouldn’t have HFA in this series. The NL had it in odd years and the AL had it in even years from 1995-2002 (the year of the tied All-Star Game). Prior to the 1994 strike and World Series cancellation, the years were flipped, with NL having HFA in even years and AL in odd years.

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