Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

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

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Consistently wrong since 2002

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

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

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

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

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

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

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

People are complicated. Love is not.

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Reader Interactions

144Comments

  4. 4.

    Elizabelle

    I would LOVE to have a screenshot of Trump’s face when he learned the news of Roger’s passing. Heh heh heh.

  7. 7.

    GregB

    More than any American, Roger Ailes is why America sits armpit deep in this constitutional crisis.

  9. 9.

    Elizabelle

    Does Trump now have to cut his European Vacation short to come home and pay tribute to dear Roger, who did more than almost anyone else (besides Uncle Rupert and Father Vladimir) to install this jackass in office?

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    My only regret is that it’s too early in the day to bust out the bottle of champers I keep chilled for just such occasions.

  12. 12.

    C. Isaac

    Welp, I need to figure out where he’s going to be buried.

    Cuz I have a grave to piss on….

  17. 17.

    Immanentize

    At the very least, Raven and I already had one hernia repair each, not that anyone is asking us to be pallbearers.

  18. 18.

    ?eric

    when in doubt, go with the classics: “I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure.”

  19. 19.

    Epicurus

    “I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction.” attributed to Clarence Darrow

  22. 22.

    Punchy

    Somehow he kicks it the same day Chris Cornell buys the farm? Emotional whiplash.

  24. 24.

    Ydobon

    I am so confused! Should I be feeling happier today than when I did when I heard the news of Scalia? Or else?

  28. 28.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    Just got a Bloomberg alert. Now Fox has other stories it can focus on instead of Mueller.

  29. 29.

    Corner Stone

    @different-church-lady: I think it’s wounded and dying now, also too. It had been ticking along, getting weaker and traveling on only the strength of the residual hate it had created. The evil, ignorant hate is still there but it’s not able to be focused or harnessed the way it was for a decade or two.

  30. 30.

    Mike in NC

    Just saw this on TV! I said, “Ailes is dead, good”. Then my wife goes, “Oh, Mike.” The only possible response: “He was an asshole”.

    Pretty decent week so far.

  33. 33.

    mistermix

    Our ad service is showing me an ad about the “#1 Snack for Alzheimers” with this thread. A fitting tribute.

  36. 36.

    Shalimar

    May he be the first of many. One downside of being the party devoted solely to billionaire kleptocrats is that so many of your most influential members are in the last years of their lives.

    This is shaping up to be the worst year for the GOP in party history.

  37. 37.

    dmsilev

    @Epicurus: “I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.”

    Generally attributed, though without much evidence to back it up, to Mark Twain.

  38. 38.

    ?eric

    cant defame the dead, so release the flood gates of “tributes” from his many many many victims. good times ahead.

  39. 39.

    Sebastian

    @MP:
    She scooped the raid, the search&seizes happening now, and the Ryan tape.

    She sure is nuts. But you might want to rethink your statement.

  41. 41.

    Bruce K

    @Ydobon: Scalia’s death opened up a possibility for better times – at least until McConnell slammed the door in Garland’s face. In Ailes’s case, the only fundamental change at this point is that he’s no longer consuming oxygen and other biological resources.

    Still and all, there are some people whose greatest contribution to improving the world is leaving it.

  42. 42.

    Geeno

    @mistermix: To get Alzheimer’s or to avoid it?
    Just let me pre-emptively toss in a hearty “Fuck you” to any concern troll who shows up to decry taking pleasure in the death of an enemy.

  44. 44.

    Nicole

    @Peale: He may have died suddenly, but I have no doubt that he spent the last months of his life angry and bitter. Stress kills. I think it caught up with him.

    1) I find pleasure in the fact that he didn’t have time to enjoy his golden parachute.
    2) I choose to hope that his financial affairs were not left in order and his family squanders a lot of it in fighting over his estate.

  47. 47.

    Ryan

    To go from Chris Cornell to this is two hours. All this crazy volatility these days. THANKS OBAMA!

  50. 50.

    Elizabelle

    RE the news of a much better man who has just died:

    Police in Detroit tell Billboard that they are investigating Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell’s death as a possible suicide, though it is too early in the investigation to determine the grunge icon’s cause of death. The 52-year-old singer’s body was found unresponsive in his Detroit hotel room at midnight on Thursday (May 18). Director Michael Woody of the Detroit Police Department’s media relations said on Thursday morning that officers received a 911 call at midnight from an unnamed person at the MGM Grand Casino in downtown Detroit requesting assistance.

    “When the units arrived they were met by a gentleman who indicated that Chris Cornell had been found in his room,” Woody said. “When officers went to the room they found Chris Cornell laying in his bathroom, unresponsive and he had passed away. We are investigating it as a possible suicide but we need to wait on the medical examiner to determine the cause and manner of death.”

    Detroit’s WXYZ reported that police said Cornell’s wife called a family friend and asked him to check on the singer’s well-being and when the friend forced opened the hotel room door he found Cornell on the bathroom floor.

    Cornell performed a concert with Soundgarden at the Fox Theatre on Wednesday night (May 17). Woody said that police are unable to discuss what was found in Cornell’s hotel room at the time of his death. “We are at the beginning stages of the investigation and we can’t say anything about the scene,” he said.

    Spokesperson Brian Bumbery called the death “sudden and unexpected” and said Cornell’s wife and family were shocked by it. In a statement, he said the family would be working closely with the medical examiner to determine the cause and asked for privacy.

    Oh, please, no.

  51. 51.

    MP

    @Sebastian: Yeah, but she also said Andrew Breitbart was killed by Putin so I’m thinking she leaves the reservation with some frequency.

  52. 52.

    ?eric

    @Nicole: speaking of golden things, the only thing that could EVER rival the blue dress in presidential lore is a golden shower video…….the question we must all ask ourselves, how many burnt offerings must we make……

  54. 54.

    Ian G.

    This weirdly makes up for Chris Cornell, sort of like how Kim Jong Il kicked the bucket shortly after we lost Vaclav Havel.

    I wonder who I’d be willing to lose to see Trump also kick the bucket. Robert De Niro? Eddie Vedder?

  57. 57.

    Comrade Nimrod Humperdink

    I guess this balances out losing Cornell. Not as satisfying as the day Rupert Murdoch’s sarcophogus finally stops opening, but I’ll take it.

  58. 58.

    Elizabelle

    In news of a far better man, who passed far too early:

    Billboard: Chris Cornell In Seemingly High Spirits During Soundgarden’s Final Show Before Death: Review

    At no point during Wednesday night’s Soundgarden concert could anyone at Detroit’s Fox Theatre have guessed that lead singer Chris Cornell would be dead just a few hours later.

    Cornell, 52, was in fine form and spirits as the Seattle quartet tore through the two-hour show. Though there’s now a macabre irony in the frontman’s choice to slip a bit of Led Zeppelin’s “In My Time of Dying” into the closing “Slaves & Bulldozers,” Cornell was nothing less than ebullient through the night, in good voice — hitting all the expected screams — and fist-bumping with fans in the pit in front of the stage.

    He was also clearly pleased to be in Detroit. After tweeting “Finally back in Detroit Rock City” with a picture of the venue earlier in the day, Cornell’s praise for the local fans was frequent and thick. “Detroit Rock City! It’s great to be back here, honestly,” Cornell said after the group started the show with “Ugly Truth.” “I have bragged about Detroit crowds for 30 years… There’s no other crowd that never, ever disappoints.” During the encore, Cornell added that, “Detroit, you guys…show up! I feel sorry for the next place we play… but we don’t have the same expectations.”

    Veteran music photographer Ken Settle, who was on assignment at Wednesday’s show, notes that, “I shot Chris with Soundgarden back in the early ’90s, and sometimes he could seem fairly sullen onstage. But last night, during what I shot, he seemed very upbeat, engaging the audience much more than I remember in the past.”

    Wednesday’s show was a typically wide-ranging stroll through Soundgarden’s six-album catalog, with plenty of expected favorites such as “Black Hole Sun,” “Spoonman,” “Burden In My Hand,” “My Wave” and more. But the group also dug in for material such as “Hunted Down” from its first Sub Pop EP, 1990’s Screaming Life/Fopp, and even deeper Superunknown tracks such as “Mailman” and “Kickstand.” Interestingly there was nothing from 1988’s Ultramega OK, which Soundgarden reissued in an expanded, remastered form earlier this year.

    The show will now, of course, be remembered for its tragic aftermath. But Cornell and Soundgarden made his last performance one that will only embellish his legacy as one of rock’s truly great frontmen. Police in Detroit told Billboard that they are investigating Cornell’s death as a possible suicide, though at press time it was too early in the investigation to determine the grunge icon’s cause of death. Cornell’s body was found unresponsive in his Detroit hotel room at midnight on Thursday (May 18), shortly after the conclusion of the night’s concert.

  59. 59.

    ?eric

    @Ian G.: we dont need to him to kick the bucket. he is dangerously close to going into EVERY american history book as the worst president ever, and potentially a traitor. I want him to live a long life after that!

  61. 61.

    BBA

    Ailes founded MSNBC. Yes, really. It was called “America’s Talking” the first few years while he was there.

  63. 63.

    Cermet

    So Goebbel’s twin has finally ended his miserable (for anyone who is intelligent) existence. The sun is brighter and the world a bit cleaner.

  64. 64.

    Spanky

    Already late to the thread (and haven’t read comments), but just wanted to thumbs-up the title.

    And to paraphrase EFG: fuck’im

    (BTW, did it involve a bathtub or a window? Or both?)

  65. 65.

    Elizabelle

    Comments already released. Thank you.

    RIP, Chris Cornell.

    Rot in Pieces, Roger Ailes.

  66. 66.

    Nicole

    @?eric: Heh. Isn’t it ridiculous that sex scandals continue to be the only effective means of getting someone out of a job in Washington? Sell out the nation to Russia, fine, but don’t do something odd with your pee pee part.

  67. 67.

    SWMBO

    My husband just told me. “Good. Hell just got a new butt boy. I hope all the women in Hell make him pay for what he did in this life. For eternity.” He chuckled. This is why we’re still together. Now if Satan would see fit to collect the Kochs and Mercers, we could truly celebrate. Maybe even the Waltons. Dear God is it wrong to feel this happy over someone’s death?

  70. 70.

    Frankensteinbeck

    He had already lost his power, so this is not a huge deal for me, but it does remove the possibility of Ailes hurting more people. In both individual and public life, he seemed Hell-bent on that.

  72. 72.

    Kay

    Fox News says it will update its inaccurate story on Seth Rich “when the situation warrants”

    A horrible person who hired other horrible people. They’re just bad and he was too.

    Conservatives worry so much about political correctness but they don’t seem to be able to recognize and call out terrible, sleazy behavior. What won’t they do at FOX? Is there a line they won’t cross?

  73. 73.

    Corner Stone

    @Peale:

    Sadly, it looks like he went peacefully.

    The only thing that could make this news better is if he had a massive heart attack and fell on top of Hannity or Tucker and took one of them with him.

  74. 74.

    Chris

    “I did not attend the funeral, but I sent some flowers and a nice note saying that I approved of it.”

    “He’s in a better world. And so are all the rest of us.”

    “A dead asshole is still an asshole.”

  78. 78.

    Ian G.

    @Elizabelle:

    I saw them on the King Animal tour. Great set, mixed in a lot of obscure stuff (“Beyond the Wheel”, “Flower”) with their bigger hits. They even spotted a guy in the crowd with a sign asking to play guitar on “Outshined”, and they brought him up on stage and he played!

    It sucks.

  79. 79.

    Kay

    @different-church-lady:

    It really must suck for the sentient Trump supporters, though. Imagine if Obama had crashed and burned in 3 months. They barely swept up the confetti and he was sinking like a stone.

  80. 80.

    LurkerNoLonger

    As Bill Maher said when Jerry Falwell died: sometimes death isn’t sad.

  82. 82.

    Shantanu Saha

    Ailes dies just the day after a special counsel is appointed in the Russiagate case.

    Did he truly die of “natural causes?” It would be a shame not to speculate!

  84. 84.

    artem1s

    speaking of misogynistic pigs… I’ve been thinking that if the wingnutverse can bully the FCC into investigating Colbert over his monologue, I think it would be a good idea for all decent minded citizens to start filing complaints against Fox News and their parade of crotch shots that they subject America’s youth to during prime time every night. If Fox has finally started dealing with their serial sexual harassment issues, they should end the practice of making their female hosts bare their private parts for all the world to see. It is part of the serial sexual harassment that Ailes instituted and should be ended with him. Yes, they have dropped the ban on pants… but let’s be real, the up-skirting is still going on.
    http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f92/RetSignman/crotch%20shot_zpsnbpuhnqe.jpg

  85. 85.

    Elizabelle

    @Uncle Cosmo: OMGosh. A Straight Dope Message Board.

    And it’s still active. They’re discussing Dead Ailes right now. One of the comments.

    My thoughts and prayers are with his family at this time.

    And with his victims.

  86. 86.

    hueyplong

    The effective date for Ailes to have exited was long ago. Today’s news feels like a footnote, interesting only for the reactions of his blonde targets.

    I’m probably not going to waste good alcohol on him, but the day is young, so who knows?

  90. 90.

    Immanentize

    My guess is that there will now be a huge amount of Ailes’ secrets in the news.

  91. 91.

    Shantanu Saha

    @BBA: Not true. MSNBC took over the cable slot of America’s Talking, but it was a fundamentally different venture. AT was supposed to be a video version of (mostly conservative) talkradio, but MSNBC (which was originally a joint venture with Microsoft) was supposed to become NBC’s 24-hour news service, in direct competition with CNN and Fox, and leveraging the presence of MSN on all Windows desktops (this was before the anti-trust suit against Microsoft for borking all browsers that competed with Internet Explorer).

  94. 94.

    Elizabelle

    A tale of two frontpage blurbs:

    WaPost: with pic of Ailes behind a podium:

    Roger Ailes, architect of conservative TV juggernaut Fox News, is dead at 77
    The chairman and CEO of the Fox News Channel was recently ousted over sexual harassment charges.

    The Vichy NY Times: pic is Ailes with his wife

    Roger Ailes, Who Made Fox News Voice of the Right, Dies at 77
    Mr. Ailes built Fox News into a conservative empire before he was ousted from the network last year.

  101. 101.

    hovercraft

    Obama is working overtime, first Andrew then Scalia, who is still dead even though that only begat us Gorsuck, and now Roger. I hope they are all roasting away.
    Thanks Obama.

  102. 102.

    Boatboy_srq

    You should never say bad things about the dead, only good. Roger’s dead. Good.

  108. 108.

    bystander

    @mick mcDick:

    CIVILITY in this case means PRETEND SADS. altogether now: PRETEND SADS!

    Then can we haz ululating and celebratory gunfire in the streets of New Jersey?

  109. 109.

    SatanicPanic

    Aww that sucks about Chris Cornell. Man our generation couldn’t keep anything nice.

    Ailes though… good.

  110. 110.

    GregB

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Well, hes getting swept up in an Israeli political scandal.

    I assume he’ll be seen walking into court with a nasal cannula and telling the judge, gosh darn it, he’s just to ill testify. In true mob fashion.

  111. 111.

    JosieJ (not Josie)

    @Mike in NC:

    “Speak nothing but good of the dead. He’s dead. Good.” I think it was Twain who said that, so you’re in good company!

  112. 112.

    amk

    another slap in the puppet’s face from his master (and the chinese).

    First N Korea-Russia ferry service opens despite UN sanctions.

    A North Korean passenger ferry has docked in Russia’s far-eastern port of Vladivostok for the first time.

    The vessel, called the Mangyongbong, will sail once a week to the port city and will also carry cargo. North Korea is under wide-ranging UN sanctions.

    The ferry service comes amid heightened tension between North Korea and the US over Pyongyang’s missile tests and efforts to develop a nuclear arsenal.

    A Chinese tour operator sent some staff on the inaugural voyage.

    The ferry has a restaurant, bars and a karaoke room. Chinese tourists are expected to use the service to visit communist North Korea and Russia.

  113. 113.

    Miss Bianca

    @Elizabelle: Wouldn’t have been able to pick out Chris Cornell in a line-up, even tho’ Soundgarden was kind of on my radar screen from “Black Hole Sun”, so I’m afraid my first thought was, “wow, the Fox Theater is back in action?” Cuz it was shuttered for many, many years.

    But, sad news for his friends, family and fans. Roger Ailes, on the other hand…if there’s anyone who honestly mourns his passing, I’d be surprised.

  116. 116.

    Elizabelle

    @Miss Bianca: I am guessing Sean Hannity might be genuinely sad. And there’s another eventual occupant for the “fuck the hearse you ride out in” contingent.

  118. 118.

    ET

    I don’t wish people dead but I am not going to feign having a sad about this one.

  119. 119.

    Brachiator

    Just getting my morning started, and I see the news about Roger Ailes.

    So far, so good.

  122. 122.

    SFAW

    RIH* Roger Ailes

    *RIH = Rot In Hell.

    Although, I guess technically, it should be RIHYM

    I’m waiting to see if Turtle gets someone to fill AIles’s SCOTUS position.

  124. 124.

    hovercraft

    @Elizabelle:

    Any statement yet from Twitler? Or does he have the vapors?

    Oh he’s having vapors alright, he’s thinking that if only Hillary had won he and his pal Roger could have started their own network, be rolling in dough and constantly hectoring Hillary, instead he’s now in the WH, alone and everyone hates him, no one appreciates him, or is grateful to him for saving them from Hillary. Why doesn’t he get the respect that is his god given right, dammit.

  128. 128.

    Elizabelle

    @frosty: There is nothing wrong with multiple rounds of mimosas to celebrate this news, the dread Dead Ailes, and this week. The worm is turning.

  131. 131.

    LurkerNoLonger

    What is this died peacefully stuff? Being strangled to death by Princess Leia doesn’t sound peaceful to me.

  133. 133.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mike J:

    He’s not even scheduled to see the Queen until October. That meeting was never part of this itinerary, or at least it was moved to the fall — at Trump’s request — a long time ago.

  134. 134.

    Elizabelle

    @SiubhanDuinne: QE2 should delegate the meeting to Prince Philip and — what’s that? He’s retired? No more public engagements?

    Donald. Will a corgi do?

  135. 135.

    Corner Stone

    @Elizabelle:

    Donald. Will a corgi do?

    Trump is so un-knowledgable about every topic he probably does not know that’s a breed of dog.

    Trump: “Uh, is that like an escort? Trump likes British hospitality! Bigly!”

  137. 137.

    Yoda Dog

    WOOHHOO!!! Fuck you, Roger Ailes. Burn in hell.

    Anybody else remember how Fox Spews treated Kurt Vonnegut after he died? I never forgave them for that and it makes all this shadenfreude extra succulent right now.

  138. 138.

    Felonius Monk

    The questions now in front of us are: Will the earth accept him? And, if it doesn’t, will they put him on permanent display in the lobby of Faux Nuze?

  143. 143.

    TenguPhule

    @?eric:

    I want him to live a long life after that!

    But why? Think of all the people who want to piss on his grave before its too late.

  144. 144.

    EthylEster

    Pardon if someone has already mentioned this…. I just read an article at National Interest (eesh!) that stated that Fox News announced last night that not one Republican congress critter would come on to discuss/defend Trump. Maybe Ailes read that and it caused him to croak.

    I’d like to think that.

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