Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

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

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

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

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

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

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

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

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Reader Interactions

65Comments

  1. 1.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Okay, Trump, Bowie, Prince, a mediocre Pack, and now Cohen. I hope whatever Cubs fan made the deal with Satan is happy.

  3. 3.

    SiubhanDuinne

    This year. This goddamned bloody stupid cruel year.

    2016, you can just fuck right the fuck off. We’re tired of your stupid jokes.

    Leonard, RIP and thank you. You gave joy, comfort, and thoughtfulness. You were a treasure.

  5. 5.

    JPL

    Many decades ago I met him, and let me add I dined with him. It was at the time he was writing songs for Roberta Flack, who I adored. There’s more to the story but not now. rip

  9. 9.

    Major Major Major Major

    THE FUTURE
    Leonard Cohen

    Give me back my broken night
    my mirrored room, my secret life
    it’s lonely here,
    there’s no one left to torture
    Give me absolute control
    over every living soul
    And lie beside me, baby,
    that’s an order!
    Give me crack and anal sex
    Take the only tree that’s left
    and stuff it up the hole
    in your culture
    Give me back the Berlin wall
    give me Stalin and St Paul
    I’ve seen the future, brother:
    it is murder.

    Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
    Won’t be nothing
    Nothing you can measure anymore
    The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
    has crossed the threshold
    and it has overturned
    the order of the soul
    When they said REPENT REPENT
    I wonder what they meant
    When they said REPENT REPENT
    I wonder what they meant
    When they said REPENT REPENT
    I wonder what they meant

    You don’t know me from the wind
    you never will, you never did
    I’m the little jew
    who wrote the Bible
    I’ve seen the nations rise and fall
    I’ve heard their stories, heard them all
    but love’s the only engine of survival
    Your servant here, he has been told
    to say it clear, to say it cold:
    It’s over, it ain’t going
    any further
    And now the wheels of heaven stop
    you feel the devil’s riding crop
    Get ready for the future:
    it is murder

    Things are going to slide …

    There’ll be the breaking of the ancient
    western code
    Your private life will suddenly explode
    There’ll be phantoms
    There’ll be fires on the road
    and the white man dancing
    You’ll see a woman
    hanging upside down
    her features covered by her fallen gown
    and all the lousy little poets
    coming round
    tryin’ to sound like Charlie Manson
    and the white man dancin’

    Give me back the Berlin wall
    Give me Stalin and St Paul
    Give me Christ
    or give me Hiroshima
    Destroy another fetus now
    We don’t like children anyhow
    I’ve seen the future, baby:
    it is murder

    Things are going to slide …

    When they said REPENT REPENT …

  12. 12.

    Felonius Monk

    So sad to hear this. Love his music. Always got a smile out of Chelsea Hotel #2 about his tryst with Janis. RIP Mr. Cohen knowing that your music lives on.

  15. 15.

    Drunkenhausfrau

    I’ve been saying this all year… perhaps we are really in the Rapture, but heaven only wants our artists.

  20. 20.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Rare sincerity: When family members have died, I am always the guy who can deal with everything until everyone else goes to bed and, out of sight, I break down. Better in the morning because people need me. I was getting through this week is a similar way. Numb but functioning. This news broke me. I cued cued up Suzanne, and by the second guitar note, I lost it.

  22. 22.

    bluehill

    For those interested, kcrw.com will replay an interview with him that happened a month or so ago tomorrow morning. Heard some of it and it was illuminating.

  23. 23.

    Emma

    I have been listening to his music since I found out. I am going to be counting the days until this damn year is over.

  25. 25.

    CaseyL

    I’m not familiar with his work except for Hallelujah, which I adore and am listening to right now. Have a lot of respect for him as a person and an artist.

    RIP, Leonard. You got out while the getting was good.

  26. 26.

    Cain

    Yeah, I agree, this has been a shity year.. this year, I lost my marriage, and my job all within months of each other and electing trump is icing on the cake. I’ve also had a number of deaths, and finally we have the deaths of famed artists.

  27. 27.

    Cain

    Personally, I’m not interested in this year being over that soon.. next year is Trumpland, and I want to be in the warm confines of the Obama land as long as possible.

  28. 28.

    fuckwit

    Speaking of Prince, what just came on a random shuffle is an amazing extended remix of Erotic City. Very likely mixed by The Purple One himself. He was a hell of a DJ, as well as a composer, producer, singer, guitar player, keyboard player, drum programmer, dancer, and entertainer.

    And now Cohen too.

  29. 29.

    Sherparick

    Read his interview in Esquire last week. He was very at ease with his passing, his health was gone and he was apparently in considerable pain, but still writing and enjoying being with his family & talking to friends. He seemed pretty happy with the way the song was ending.

  30. 30.

    AnotherBruce

    @Omnes Omnibus: That was me, but I asked God not Satan sincerely not to choose Trump over a Cubs world series win. But did the fucker listen. Fuck no! Don’t blame me, after all God created Satan too.

  33. 33.

    Miss Bianca

    @Omnes Omnibus: Ouch.

    ETA: I’m in a funny position in my family – the almost youngest of my mom’s kids, the elder of my father’s. I had the oldest/youngest split going on big time. I cry easily but try to hide it when I think things are going into the shitter and everyone else is freaking out. I’m so numb right now, tho’…it’s almost like, “of course Leonard Cohen decided to check out right now. He’s no fool.”

  37. 37.

    maeve

    I just asked Alexa to play Leonard Cohen (The Essential Leonard Cohen is on Prime streaming – that’s mostly what I use Alexa for) and it chose to play this

    Who by Fire

    And who by fire, who by water,
    Who in the sunshine, who in the night time,
    Who by high ordeal, who by common trial,
    Who in your merry merry month of may,
    Who by very slow decay,
    And who shall I say is calling?

    And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate,
    Who in these realms of love, who by something blunt,
    And who by avalanche, who by powder,
    Who for his greed, who for his hunger,
    And who shall I say is calling?

    And who by brave assent, who by accident,
    Who in solitude, who in this mirror,
    Who by his lady’s command, who by his own hand,
    Who in mortal chains, who in power,
    And who shall I say is calling?

  40. 40.

    Lizzy L

    Ring the bells that still can ring
    Forget your perfect offering
    There is a crack in everything
    That’s how the light gets in.

    Thank you for the songs, dear Leonard. We are so blessed to have known you.

  42. 42.

    Major Major Major Major

    GOING HOME
    Leonard Cohen

    I love to speak with Leonard
    He’s a sportsman and a shepherd
    He’s a lazy bastard
    Living in a suit

    But he does say what I tell him
    Even though it isn’t welcome
    He just doesn’t have the freedom
    To refuse

    He will speak these words of wisdom
    Like a sage, a man of vision
    Though he knows he’s really nothing
    But the brief elaboration of a tube

    Going home
    Without my sorrow
    Going home
    Sometime tomorrow
    Going home
    To where it’s better
    Than before

    Going home
    Without my burden
    Going home
    Behind the curtain
    Going home
    Without the costume
    That I wore

    He wants to write a love song
    An anthem of forgiving
    A manual for living with defeat

    A cry above the suffering
    A sacrifice recovering
    But that isn’t what I need him
    To complete

    I want him to be certain
    That he doesn’t have a burden
    That he doesn’t need a vision
    That he only has permission
    To do my instant bidding
    Which is to say what I have told him
    To repeat

    Going home
    Without my sorrow
    Going home
    Sometime tomorrow
    Going home
    To where it’s better
    Than before

    Going home
    Without my burden
    Going home
    Behind the curtain
    Going home
    Without this costume
    That I wore

    Going home
    Without the sorrow
    Going home
    Sometime tomorrow
    Going home
    To where it’s better
    Than before

    Going home
    Without the burden
    Going home
    Behind the curtain
    Going home
    Without this costume
    That I wore

    I love to speak with Leonard
    He’s a sportsman and a shepherd
    He’s a lazy bastard
    Living in a suit

  47. 47.

    dance around in your bones

    @SiubhanDuinne: Thanks, Siubhan! I’m a past master at maintaining as you so nicely absorbed from a previous comment of mine (I’m always amazed that anyone actually reads my comments let alone retains them!). So, I’m in the zone, though sorely tested these last few days. He who will not be named by me is our President?!
    For shame.

  52. 52.

    dance around in your bones

    @Omnes Omnibus: Hola, amigo! I left you a longer prolly embarrassing-to-me post that was chewed up and horked out by my combination weak wireless signal/total browser fail. Oversharing can be a failing…

  54. 54.

    Aleta

    My friend was helped by him in her 20s, says he died Tuesday, had been in pain for a long while.
    Slow
    Such a writer. Dylan a great writer, yet nowhere near Cohen.

  57. 57.

    seaboogie

    I wrote this letter to Leonard Cohen a couple of years ago, and it feels like it might be okay to share the whole thing. I sent it to his manager, who assured me that Leonard would indeed recieve it and read it:

    Dear Leonard,
    Thank you for your voice – that you have put out far enough into the world to reach me, in times when I needed to hear your voice.
    When I was in Grade 13 English (when they still had that) in a very small town in SW Ontario, we were assigned to write a report on any book that we wished. I chose “The Favorite Game”. My teacher (who was also Sunday school teacher) queried as to whether that was an appropriate choice, to which I replied “well, it’s in our library, so yes”.
    Your writing, your voice, have touched me sometimes since then – in important moments in my life that were sometimes very deeply fraught and I was near to lost. I am listening to your recording of “Anthem” right now, which is so perfect in its truth.
    I came to this urge to write to you because the song “Hallelujah” was beckoning to me tonight (no, I’m not a Christianist), but the music and the lyrics were tickling my subconscious. I had no notion that this was your song, but when I learned that it was, and also heard kd lang’s interpretation, I realized that of course it is. Jewish Buddhist monk with an ear for Christian notes that you can translate into poetry and music – you have and are – a singular gift to this world.
    You are kind of an old fellow now, and I just want to thank you for persisting in doing what you still do in the public forum – and it bites, why you still have to do it, and you show so much grace around that – or perhaps you still enjoy it, I don’t know – I am not a performer.
    So – before you shuffle off this mortal coil – I want you to know that you have done a few perfect things, and touched me in ways that I did not seek, but that did find me when I was in need, and I doff my cap to your talents, to your journey, and offer to you my deep gratitude. You’ve made my life better.
    Fondly,

    Beth

  59. 59.

    Ruckus

    @seaboogie:
    That’s amazing.
    I’ll admit, I’ve tried a few times over the years to listen to Mr. Cohen and while the words are grand, the voice just doesn’t work for me. But he was and is a treasure for this world that is for sure. His work will live on to console and impress.

  61. 61.

    seaboogie

    @Ruckus: Timing and resonance cannot be called up on demand – they either happen or they don’t, and each of us are such individually tuned intruments in the great orchestra. Is why when I go to a museum with someone, I’m all like “I’ll meet you back here in an hour…”. Don’t want to share my rhapsody over a work of art to have a companion go “Mmmmm…meh.” Kinda takes the wind out of your sails, and I don’t want to do that to anyone else, either.

  62. 62.

    dance around in your bones

    @Ruckus: Aw, shucks! Thanks for the kind words.
    Yours always strike me as having a similar ooze of goodness – wise, as well.

  63. 63.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @maeve:

    Who by Fire

    For the past couple of years, our synagogue has had a boy soprano from our congregation sing this as part of our Yom Kippur service. Chills. I suspect this was his last year of performing it that way.

  64. 64.

    Ruckus

    @seaboogie:
    Exactly. I get why people like him. A lot. A very worthy person and a great, I’m going to say poet but that doesn’t go far enough. I’ve spent a fair time in museums and almost always enjoyed them alone, unless I was showing someone who hadn’t had their eyes opened about what was actually being said. I think my favorite was Rubens house in Antwerp. Or the Guggenheim. Or the Huntington. OK I think I see a problem.

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