Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

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

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

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

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

An almost top 10,000 blog!

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

People are complicated. Love is not.

I also would like a pony to improve my balloon juice experience.

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

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

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

This blog will pay for itself.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Evening/Early Morning Open Thread: Anne Laurie is Twitter Famous

Reader Interactions

81Comments

  1. 1.

    Steve!

    That was a fantastic story, but I sort of hate it for almost making me sympathize with a leader in the goddamn Klan.

  6. 6.

    BlueDWarrior

    Man I go and make a long post about one of my former-favorite Youtubers (JonTron) for the Steve King thread, and I missed a new OT. I’m not sure if I should move or repost all of it (it’s in a temp word document) because it’s long and I don’t like reposting anything that’s longer than 5 sentences (it seems like I’m spamming or being overly needy about having everyone see something).

  7. 7.

    Mike in NC

    @GregB: Ironic that a broken-down alcoholic like Bannon can pass himself off as a member of the so-called Master Race. Standards aren’t what they used to be.

  12. 12.

    Gemina13

    I read this to my spouse, who responded with, “Every white supremacist should experience hell on earth.”

    Best lede ever, in my opinion.

  13. 13.

    Paul Gottlieb

    I never thought I could feel sorry for a Goddamn Grand Wizard! But that was pitiful.

  14. 14.

    Aaron

    It was a great article, and I am glad it made me feel empathy toward a klan leader. It’s easy enough to build a wall of hate and loose sight of the humanity of the other side, and in doing so, in ones self.
    Christ taught us to find forgiveness in our hearts, and to not judge others.
    I am reminded that while we can oppose the klan and its supporters, we can struggle with them every day to do what is right and just, but that doesnt mean we should do so out of hatred to them, but rather because of our belief in what is right and we fight for what is right.
    If there is a god, it will judge their actions and spirits.
    We have a way of judging people before then. it is called the law of the constitution.
    And unless someone has committed murder, no one is irredeemable. (Im looking at you hillary clinton)

  17. 17.

    BlueDWarrior

    @efgoldman: then it will be left where it stands. no harm no foul.

    It just upsets me when I enjoy someone’s work at some point, and then it turns out they are insane, a creep, an asshole, or some combination of the 3.

  18. 18.

    efgoldman

    @Aaron:

    Christ taught us to find forgiveness in our hearts, and to not judge others.

    You and christ can go play in the sandbox with them. Your choice. The rest of us are better off.

  20. 20.

    randy khan

    I really only felt sorry for the cats.

    I’ve said this elsewhere, but while every death diminishes all of us, some deaths diminish us much less than others.

  24. 24.

    GregB

    @Mike in NC:

    I like the whole anti-elitist shtick and he’s running around citing some obscure French novel as the backbone of his racist ideology. French novels, soooooo anti-elite.

  25. 25.

    danielx

    @Mike in NC:

    Hey, it’s a rich fantasy life where you can look in the mirror and see Reinhard Heydrich.

    ETA: Bannon does look like one seriously dissipated individual, though. It takes years of serious abuse to acquire some of those effects. And I thought I looked questionable sometimes…

  27. 27.

    mai naem mobile

    Hopefully Anne will not be snowed out of seeing this soon. Mention by Joy Reid – does that mean she reads BJ?

  28. 28.

    Goku

    @BlueDWarrior: I read it and greatly enjoyed it. I know exactly what you went through. I used to be subscribed to the Amazing Atheist when I was 17 or so. I usually liked his content except when it came to any issue tangentially related to feminism. It’s what ultimately led me to unsubscribe from him and others like him.

    If you’re looking for a good gaming channel I recommend Rooster Teeth’s Let’s Play. They’re incredibly funny and somewhat anti-Trump. Look up their Trump Surgeon Simulator episode if you don’t believe me.

  29. 29.

    Adam L Silverman

    @mai naem mobile: I emailed this to her and cced Cole over the weekend when it was first tweeted. Reid was retweeting BadExampleMan who obviously reads Balloon Juice.

  30. 30.

    SgrAstar

    Josh Marshall is reporting on a leaked White House analysis of trumpcare. There’s so much info there- not only did the WH produce worse (!!!!) numbers than the CBO, but they’ve known about their own numbers for days, and have been lying relentlessly. Can we call up the tumbrels yet? The upside, such as it is, is that the WH continues to leak like a sieve. Good to know that people on the inside of the derp state hate Bannon and his minions as much as we do…and they’re in a position to keep on exposing them for the lying liars they are.

  31. 31.

    FlyingToaster

    @BlueDWarrior: As has already been said, don’t repost. Please.

    But it was a great read.

    And it’s exactly what I keep telling people who say “but so-n-so is a nice person”. No, they’re a fucking asshole with nice manners.

    ***

    I am gearing up for the blizzard-in-waiting (anticipating ~15 inches here in H2Otown. WarriorGirl went to bed at 11, so I suspect she’ll wake up around 9 to her parents having already done a round with the shovels/broom*/snowblower. And, of course, the French Toast Alert.

    * Big pushbroom can push snow down the steps, or snow off the tops of the sedan and minivan. WarriorGirl is about 2 inches too short to wield it on the cars, so her job is the steps. HerrDoktor will take care of the cars. I’ll be running the snowblower (and running, and running, and running). There’s only a 50% chance of school Wednesday — or more precisely, 50% full day, 25% two hours late, 25% cancelled altogether — unless another tree/bough comes down from Mt. Auburn Cemetery across the wires.

  32. 32.

    Adam L Silverman

    @SgrAstar: Bannon is doing the leaking. Take a look at Breitbart’s front page: its all in going after Ryan and his health care plan. Bannon has been looking for a way to break Ryan and take him down for several years. He now has it. And just as he was able to bring down his potential rival for access and creating a power base within the White House/on the White House staff, LTG Flynn, now he’s going after Ryan. And it’ll be the same game plan: leaks to soften Ryan up, then proxies to finish him off. And Bannon’s fingerprints are nowhere to be seen.

  33. 33.

    hovercraft

    Nice shout out AL !
    While I’m sorry she killed him, and that his life was so pathetic, I can’t get past the fact that even with his own trials and tribulations he could not see past his hate enough to set aside his prejudices and focus on his own life.
    Why is it her problems were hers alone and not a reflection on the white race, but Mike Brown and the unrest in Ferguson were a sign that black people are out of control and uncivilized?
    People who wish me and mine harm are in my book irredeemable. If they see the light and repent, then we can talk, till then, they are beyond redemption.

  34. 34.

    Gemina13

    @randy khan: I dreaded coming to the part where the fate of the cats was revealed. Yet it seems that, despite her batshittery, Malissa Ancona took pretty good care of most of them. Doesn’t mean I would ever leave a cat in her hands (especially after she asked a young man to wring a hurt cat’s neck). But yeah, the cats were the innocents in that story, and they definitely deserve to be happy.

  35. 35.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    OT, but anyone spotted Redshirt here lately?

    Also haven’t seen Watergirl in a little while, but may have just missed her.

  36. 36.

    efgoldman

    @FlyingToaster:

    anticipating ~15 inches here in H2Otown.

    Closer to 2 feet here in the Northern RI part of the Blackstone Valley. In bad storms, our weather is usually closer to Worcester (30 miles up the Valley) than Providence (~15 miles South).

  37. 37.

    randy khan

    @SgrAstar:

    The leaked White House report is brutal. In a just world it would be the nail in the Administration’s coffin. But in a just world we’d have a different President.

  39. 39.

    Adam L Silverman

    @West of the Rockies (been a while): As in redshirt with a nym in all lower case or Redshift? Redshift has been around. redshirt disappeared right after the election. She was one of the people I tried to check up on and make sure they were okay, but she never responded. So either the email was a dummy account or one she never checks.

  40. 40.

    FlyingToaster

    @efgoldman: The 11 pm storm track prediction just moved west again, so we might be down to a foot, and you might be 18″. I just saw it in the other window, and would really like it to be true.

    OTOH, Cantore is here. We’re doomed.

    But the Worcester Hills to the Berks are getting 2 feet. Period. And they don’t have the infrastructure to deal with trees down the way we do here in town.

    This morning, on the way to school, a tree crew was out with the town Arborist and an Eversource dude, cutting a few more boughs down. I’m hopeful that they have enough cleared that we can all keep power. Because we’re not going to be able to get to a hotel in this mess (and other than the Sheraton Crowne Plaza over the Pike, I don’t think any of the local hotels are likely to keep their power if we lose ours.

  41. 41.

    hovercraft

    @Mike in NC:

    Ironic that a broken-down alcoholic like Bannon can pass himself off as a member of the so-called Master Race. Standards aren’t what they used to be.

    Point of order, Twitler fancies himself a connoisseur of beauty and class, so which one is more delusional? Master race, yeesh, as is so often asked in these parts, where the hell are the chins? Is this master race they are building breeding out the chins on purpose? Just look at the crowds at his rallies, the finest specimens of humanity they are not.

  42. 42.

    Goku

    @hovercraft:

    “Why is it her problems were hers alone and not a reflection on the white race, but Mike Brown and the unrest in Ferguson were a sign that black people are out of control and uncivilized?”

    Probably because, like Hitler and the Nazis, white Americans (of which I am one) think they’re good people who couldn’t do any REAL wrongs and if they do its somebody elses fault, like the Jews. Racism can make people feel better about their own failings in life by both providing an other to hate and blame aso well as feel superior to. Nationalism can do the same thing pretty much.

  44. 44.

    tobie

    Congratulations, AL. To be one of Joy Reid’s faves, what a delight.

    @Adam L Silverman: I knew Bannon was devious, and your interpretation is probably right, but I still think he’s playing a dangerous game. I don’t see how hurting Ryan/Ryancare, doesn’t also hurt Trump/Trumpcare. We’ll see, I guess. In the meantime, I’ll cheer if friction emerges between the White House and the Hill because that might actually move some members of the GOP to do their job, i.e., investigate Trump, as a co-equal branch of gov’t.

  45. 45.

    BlueDWarrior

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m just wondering if Bannon has the balls to release a health care plan that could be read as “Health Care for the Chosen Ones (besides the Wealthy)”. I want to see the full breadth of his white nationalism and if he and his hangers on in the admin have the stones to put it into actual policy.

  46. 46.

    efgoldman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    As in redshirt with a nym in all lower case or Redshift?

    Redshift is a a guy in NoVa/DC. In IT, I think. I’ve met him. and yes, he’s around from time to time.
    redshirt was the one with the compound way, way up in rural Maine. She retired from the same Humongous Brokerage & Mutual Funds LLC that I did, although we never met. And she, indeed, has not been here since election nite.

  48. 48.

    Adam L Silverman

    @hovercraft: The chins are the first things to go when one parent is human and the other is a Grey alien. Apparently they Greys only like to experiment and impregnate really pale people from rural and semi-rural parts of the US.

  50. 50.

    hovercraft

    @SgrAstar:
    Why do you think they started attacking the CBO minutes after they released Tryancare, they knew their plan was shit and that the maths wouldn’t add up. Unfortunately for them the democrats and some in the media immediately started pointing out that they howled for CBO numbers and swore up and down by them when Obamacare was being passed.

  53. 53.

    Chet Murthy

    @tobie: I’m not all “Bannon is playing 11-dim chess”, but I -do- think he’s got a long game. And it is consistent with what we’ve seen so far:

    (1) he wants to destabilize & diminish America’s power

    (2) he wants to see white nationalist parties in as many countries as he can manage

    (3) and sure, he wants power here-and-now.

    But I think he believes that it’s much, much more important to foment discord in the West, and especially to promote white nationalism, than to win big here and now in the US. Because if you win big, but don’t kick down the consensus that binds together the West, you can eventually be routed. If you kick down that consensus, you’ve neutered your enemy.

    I believe this is consistent with everything he’s done to date, and with everything he’s -said- to date.

    But hey, $2.25 and that will get you a double espresso.

  54. 54.

    Adam L Silverman

    @tobie: @BlueDWarrior: I think this depends. From what I’ve read this evening in some of the reporting, the President has told the Congressional GOP he’s all in with them. Of course none of that can be squared with any of his campaign promises on health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. So I honestly don’t know what the endgame is here. I know what Ryan thinks the endgame is, but he’s so dumb his makes no sense (his privatize Social Security plan from 2005 would have, because of the magic of the stock market, ultimately resulted in every share of every stock being held in the US being held in these private Social Security accounts overseen by the Social Security Administration. In simple terms the US government, on behalf of its citizens, would by 2050, own the entire stock market, which is communism. Can you smell the Freedom?). This is why his responses to questions, as well as his powerpoint were gibberish. But I honestly don’t know what the President’s end game and objectives are here.

  56. 56.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @hovercraft: The glorious irony is that the current head of the CBO was hired by Tom Price, to replace a guy who apparently wasn’t tilting the numbers right.

  58. 58.

    amk

    Ryan: The report is greatPrice: The report is wrongWalden: It's incompleteMulvaney: We haven’t read the reporthttps://t.co/DjfAVKxLHn— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 13, 2017

    the stupid voters gave them everything they asked for and even then, the fucking inept assholes couldn’t hack it.

    also. too. twitter embed sux.

  61. 61.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @hovercraft:

    Oh, good. Thanks for the update! She’s another solid contributor whose comments I respect. We have a lot of people whose words make me think, bring smiles, etc.

  62. 62.

    efgoldman

    @tobie:

    I knew Bannon was devious

    President Bannonazi is indeed evil and devious, not like his subordinate, Papya Piggy, who is evil but too stupid and ignorant to be devious.
    But Bannonazi knows fucking jack shit about politics, or elections, or congress. And he thinks he knows everything. Hubris and ignorance are a very dangerous combination.
    Granny Starver may be the first to fall, probably slagged by the kkkrazy kkkaukus just as Weeping Cheetoh was. But since the assistant president takes the blame for nothing, the real president (who can be fired without impeachment) will eventually be shown the door and kicked out on his ass.

  66. 66.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @amk: Cripes Walden is a fucking idiot. “It’s incomplete” because this is a three phase plan that we’ve only bothered to write up the first phase of! And we won’t show you more until phase one is complete!

    Therefore it is, by their own admission, impossible to assess their entire plan. This makes it not only a no-go, but a demonstration of their incompetence.

  67. 67.

    hovercraft

    @Chet Murthy:

    he wants to destabilize & diminish America’s power

    Not our power, but our obligations, he doesn’t believe in international organizations. Entities like the UN rob us of our sovereignty, and force us to do things we don’t want to do. Like helping re-settle refugees, and they drain our coffers. We should stick to helping other white nations maintain their whiteness, it’s okay to trade with or exploit the black and brown people, but keep them over there, the west is for white people.

  68. 68.

    danielx

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Yes, it usually takes at least a year – well, six months – for an administration to plumb the depths of mendacity this one has already reached.

    With ease.

  70. 70.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:

    But I honestly don’t know what the President’s end game and objectives are here.

    I’d bet pretty good money that he doesn’t either. Actually on this or any other matter, except how people perceive him.

  71. 71.

    Chet Murthy

    @hovercraft: Sorry, I should have been clearer. Yes, I should have said “America’s soft power”. Our deep embedding in and leadership of the vast web of institutions that constitute the Western Order, and from which we benefit immensely.

    ETA: everything else you wrote is spot-on, I think. Blow it all up, and then afterwards construct whatever relationships are useful and expedient, with “the right sort” of partners (== white nationalists).

  73. 73.

    hovercraft

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    That’s not what they regret, they regret the fact that they had to make us citizens and give us rights. That’s the problem with the Mexican’s as well, it was fine when they just came across and picked our produce and went back home, but then they had to go and decide to stay and breed here in this country producing way too many brown people, that’s the problem. Of course this all ignores that for years migrant laborers came and went with the growing season, and most people were fine with that. The workers got to come here to earn money for their families, the farmers got their produce harvested, and the families got to stay where they were in familiar surroundings, I’m not saying it was ideal but it was a system that worked for decades. Then they started bitching about border security, and building walls and fences, they made crossing back and forth difficult and dangerous, so many of the workers brought their families, and others stayed and married here. Their intolerance exacerbated their complaint. So while they do want the wall, it is only a first step at this point, the brass ring now is repealing the 14th amendment.

  74. 74.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman: Since I only highlighted someone else’s impeccable lede here, the real satisfaction for me is that it establishes the worth of my keep-the-quips-circulating bricolage posts. (Or, as some commentors have said, treating BJ like the break room’s refrigerator door.)

    I could write one or two long, original, thoughtful posts every week. Or I could do what I’ve got the gifts for — pick out & aggregate useful links, quips & memes from the firehose of internet info. Somebody’s gotta keep the pixel-roads rolling… especially during the third shift hours. :)

  75. 75.

    hovercraft

    @Ruckus:
    His end game is to win.
    He doesn’t have to actually win, no matter the outcome he’ll call it a win. Delusional and a pathological liar, I doubt he knows what a win is till he sees the media coverage, and if it’s bad, that’s just because they are jealous of his success. At which point he yells at them, his fans love it, see WIN !

  77. 77.

    Gretchen

    I’m enjoying an unexpected, blizzard-related visit from my daughter. She was in Austin for South-by-Southwest, scheduled to fly home to Boston tomorrow. Most of the flights to Boston are cancelled, all of the hotel rooms in Austin are rented. So she decided to wait out the storm in Kansas City with mom and dad. It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, or something like that.

  81. 81.

    The Moar You Know

    I never thought I could feel sorry for a Goddamn Grand Wizard! But that was pitiful.

    @Paul Gottlieb: No shit. By the time I was done reading, all I could think was “wow, that guy was broken, probably more broken than any person I’ve ever met in my life”. His wife was going to murder him, he knew it, and he stayed and tried to get people to take care of her. That’s fucked up.

    That, and of course “I hope they got all the cats” but it sounds like some people put themselves at risk to make sure they did.

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