Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

When the time comes to make an endorsement, the pain of NYT editors will be palpable as they reluctantly whisper “Biden.”

“woke” is the new caravan.

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

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

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

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

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

People are weird.

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

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

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

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

T R E 4 5 O N

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Please don’t feed the bears.

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

Come on, man.

You are here: Home / Politics / America / Late Evening Open Thread

Late Evening Open Thread

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Looks like it’s time for some nice, clean commenting real estate. Since it’s too soon to have a political discussion of firearms, here’s Jethro Tull singing about them in a bonus track from 1982’s Broadsword and the Beast.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

112Comments

  2. 2.

    lamh36

    Alright…I’m off to bed, but I’m just reposting my comment from last thread, since it was a bit late in the last one and I wanted to make sure I thanked folks who wished me Happy Birthday today.

    Great time at a local hibachi restaurant. It was my 3 of sisters. My nephew (his birthday was Thursday), my cousin & his family along with Maddie, Zoe and Noah. Zoe was not even bothered by the flames…the smoke was most bothersome to her. Maddie was more bothered by the flames than Zoe…LOL
    https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/927365048800088065

    #GodBabyMaddie made me personalized birthday card with her and my name…and she signed my birthday card from her and her mom(my auntie)

    https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/927366934735224832

    Most of my birthday is almost done. Before I forget, I want to say THANK YOU to each and every person who wished me Happy Birthday! It was a nice lazy day followed by a nice meal and time with the family…just how I like it! Here’s hoping my 41st year is as good as the 40 years before!

    Thank you

    Good night BJ!

  4. 4.

    lamh36

    Oh…and wait…Rand Paul got beat up by a neighbor? Is it bad that I’m already wondering what Rand did?

  5. 5.

    jharp

    I saw Jethro Tull play at the Richfield Coliseum outside Cleveland circa 1978. Pretty cool for me at that time.

    And that place is now a vacant field. Never would know anything was ever there.

  9. 9.

    Ruckus

    @lamh36:
    Be Rand I’d imagine. Wouldn’t that be enough for a lot of people? But as it’s his neighbor I’d bet there is something going on. Someone suggested there might be something of a sexual nature, either verbal or physical. It’s anybodies guess though, until the man arrested tells his side. Which I’d tend to believe before I’d believe Rand.

  13. 13.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lamh36: @Ruckus: You don’t get angry enough to break five ribs because of political disagreements between neighbors who are professionals. I have a hunch we’re going to find that Aqua Buddha was putting his incense in the wrong person’s incense holder if you take my meaning…

  14. 14.

    ThresherK

    @lamh36: First, happy birthday.

    Seond, part of me wants this to be Rand Paul and his neighbor settling a property line dispute, Libertarian style. Yknow, how they would in Galt’s Gulch, if anyone there ever disagreed in anything.

  17. 17.

    PsiFighter37

    Have a third interview for a job I don’t really care all that much about at this point. Not sure why I am even agreeing to continue the process, if only because I believe in keeping all options open. Have to be downtown by 7 AM…yuck. I will be much happier when I am on a plane headed for LA on Friday night.

  18. 18.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I do and that is the drift of my comment.
    The guy that did this is a anesthesiologist. He either went crazy or he has a reasonable reason, I’d bet he has way too much to lose for this to be over politics. Although everything I’ve read stated that he is a democrat and they stated that first. You know just to get ahead of the pitch.

  19. 19.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Amir Khalid: I have not read or seen that. Paul was on a riding lawn mower just before he got assaulted. So maybe someone conflated riding lawn mower and wheel chair. The guy who beat him up is an anesthesiologist.

  20. 20.

    Gin & Tonic

    My digestive system is now pretty much clean from one end to the other in preparation for my exams tomorrow morning. And I am, of course, starving. I could really use a bacon cheeseburger right now.

  21. 21.

    Calouste

    @Adam L Silverman: Or something to do with drugs. You can just imagine Paul taking delivery of a shipment and then refusing to pay his dealer and threatening to call the police “because who do you think they are going to believe, a senator or a drug dealer?”

    ETA: I just see in the comments above that the neighbor is an anesthesiologist… the plot thickens.

  22. 22.

    Ruckus

    @Amir Khalid:
    I read that as well. Wonder if it’s true and why. Speculating of course maybe Rand backed over him with his car and cost the guy his career? Just another in a range of wild speculation.

  23. 23.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The Paul story keeps getting more interesting.

    Meanwhile, Twitter is a sewer of ammosexuals spouting off about their pathology.

  24. 24.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Ruckus: I’d buy a fight over politics if they’d been face to face having a discussion and it got out of hand. But to basically spear someone from behind with a flying tackle as they get off their riding lawn mower doesn’t really fit political disagreement gone awry. It could be, but most neighbor on neighbor violence is what we call moralistic violence. One neighbor feels wronged/has been wronged and engages in violent self help to restore the proper normative balance. The wrong could be a property dispute, something that put one’s kids at risk, an affair with one’s spouse, things like that.

  26. 26.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    Some body mentioned here last week that the CIA declassified some of the stuff of OBLs that was found during the raid when he was killed. Anyhow OBL spend quite a bit of time arguing with people on YouTube 9/11 truthers comment threads. I find that hilarious. Can you imagine how frustrated he must have been being the mastermind behind 9/11 but you can’t very well use that but of info arguing with a bunch of nutjobs. Even if you admitted to it ,the same people would come up with an even crazier conspiracy theory.

  28. 28.

    Betty Cracker

    @Adam L Silverman: Read somewhere that Baby Doc was doing yard work (with headphones on) when he was “blindsided” by the neighbor. If he was operating a leaf blower very early, that might have triggered a fit of rage. I’ve been tempted to go all ninja-freaky on neighbors for that!

  31. 31.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m wondering if it has something to do with the son who seemed like he had an alcohol problem and got off without serious penalties because he was a VIPs son.

  32. 32.

    Joey Maloney

    @jharp: Someone I know from sf conventions tells a story about going to the Pennsic Wars one year in the early 70s, being really really really high and sitting around the fire listening to an amaaaaaaazing jam session including a flautist. He found out later that Tull had been playing Pittsburgh that weekend.

  33. 33.

    NotMax

    The gunman suspected of killing 26 people at a southeast Texas church has been identified as Devin Patrick Kelley, according to U.S. media reports.
    [snip]
    …A U.S. Air Force spokesperson said Kelley was discharged from the Air Force for allegedly assaulting his wife and child.

    The spokeswoman, Ann Stefanek, said Sunday that Devin Kelley was sentenced to 12 months’ confinement after a 2012 court-martial. He ultimately received a bad conduct discharge and reduction in rank. She said Kelley served in Logistics Readiness at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico from 2010 until his discharge. Source

  35. 35.

    amygdala

    @Adam L Silverman: Five cracked ribs, with two displaced, makes me think of a crash, getting hit with a blunt object, or a fall either from height or onto a the edge of furniture or something. The first doesn’t fit with the story and the second seems unlikely if the neighbor is wheelchair-bound.

    Anesthesiologists get into it in the OR sometimes, but usually it’s with general surgeons (or their derivatives), not ophthalmologists.

  36. 36.

    Ruckus

    @Gin & Tonic:
    Isn’t that fun? First it’s don’t eat for 12 hrs then it’s take these 2 liters of what can only be described as the medical version of liquid plumber, and don’t eat for another 12 hrs. Which I’d recommend, the not eating immediately after or eating much. All of those digestive thingies have been replaced with, nothing. It’s not a pretty picture.

  39. 39.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Ruckus: Yeah, this ain’t my first rodeo. I know the drill. The only good part of this is that I will spend much of tomorrow asleep.

  43. 43.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I agree about the unlikelyness of this being something simple. It’s too drastic an assault.
    I know people in wheelchairs who can walk but not for much distance nor well. They can stand and wobble around and maybe could muster up an attack but one of this magnitude? And no where did I see that it said he was confined to a chair. But we are as I said speculating at best.

  50. 50.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Felonius Monk: I don’t feel like fighting over the spelling. I started with flautist and FYWP objected; it said okay to flutist, so I went with the flow.

  51. 51.

    NotMax

    Among those arrested in Saudi Arabia –

    Waleed Ibrahim is the chairman of the media group Middle Eastern Broadcasting Company (MBC).

    He founded MBC, considered to be the largest private media company in the Middle East and North Africa region, in 1991.
    [snip]
    Bakr bin Laden, 69, is the brother of the late al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden.

    He is the owner and largest shareholder of the Jeddah-based construction company Saudi Binladin Group (SBG). Source

  52. 52.

    Ruckus

    @Gin & Tonic:
    From your description I figured that you might be an old hand at this. It has gotten better though, I’ve been through this 4 times in the last 2-3 yrs and the last was the best because the new stuff I had to drink didn’t taste like antifreeze and lighter fluid.

  53. 53.

    Felonius Monk

    @Omnes Omnibus: I wasn’t trying to provoke a fight. Either spelling is correct. I was just pulling your chain and being a wise-ass. It’s part of my mission as an elder of society. :)

  54. 54.

    lgerard

    I cannot understand where the wheelchair thing came from, it obviously isn’t true. A good flying tackle can cause a lot of damage, particularly if he bounced him off the lawnmower, which would account for his bleeding.from the mouth.

    A few weeks ago trump was complaining about how the new rules ruined the NFL because there are no longer enough permanent brain damaging hits anymore. Perhaps we could schedule an exhibition of constituents tackling Senators for his amusement.

  58. 58.

    Ruckus

    @PsiFighter37:
    I bring up BJ on my phone on an incognito page. I have to fill in the name and email sections to comment, but no ads. I tried to use an ad blocker and that just kept getting deleted. I had considered not using my phone because the ads on the phone are so annoying and time consuming to load. I tried chrome (android phone) and that was just as bad with the ad issue so I went back to firefox and use incognito or a private page.

  61. 61.

    J R in WV

    I saw Jethro Tull, and Ian Anderson doing his amazing imitation of a flautist stork, probably late summer of 1970 in Chicago at the Aragon Ballroom. It was supposed to be a big lineup of bands ending with the Grateful Dead, but they got busted crossing the border back from touring in Canada. I imagine they just got held up as the border folks went through every nook and cranny. I was surprised to enjoy Jethro Tull’s music as much as I did. I dunno how he plays the flute jumping up and down on one leg, but he does it very well. Or did back then. Laird of an estate in Scotland? Really? That’s kinda cool…

    I just went to look up the USS McCain and USS Fitzgerald collision report, and found a good summary at a site called Task and Purpose, a military news site. After surfing around a little, I found an article about the American Legion and Disabled Veterans and other groups, all fighting for medicinal marijuana. They had a photo of some Colorado-quality bud, too. The numbers of people in favor of legalization were kind of astounding.

    And the reports on the USN accidents, in which I believe 17 sailors died, were really embarrassing. I served on an old WW II sub tender which may have been the subject of a book by a retired Admiral entitled “The Wackiest Ship in the Navy.” I stood bridge watches, and by god everyone was paying attention, the helmsman knew how to steer and signal the engines, and the watch-standers knew to point out items of interest, like huge commercial ships, to the Officer of the Deck. My role was to fetch coffee and wake up officers who were needed on the bridge, which was a little intimidating for an E-2.

    I understand on one of the ships (The Fitz? I think) sailors were working multiple shifts a day, missing sleep to an alarming degree. You can’t perform without enough rest, just like you need food and water.

    IIRC the Admiral commanding the 7th fleet was relieved as well as most of the top officers and Master Chiefs on the ships involved with the collisions. And back at BuPers, they need to get their act together staffing those ships adequately, and training the sailors to be able to do the jobs they’re assigned to do.

    The people on the bridge did not know how to steer their Ship!! They didn’t understand how the control consoles to run the shafts and rudders were to be properly operated!! That’s nearly insane, and certainly near criminal, and led to the deaths of those sailors, who drowned in their berthing compartment. Our old pig was under control when we were under weigh, and we managed to get up the Mississippi to New Orleans every year, which was a pretty good trick in that old boat.

    Can you tell I’m pissed?

    I hope Rand Paul’s ribs hurt a whole lot, I expect he has deserved a beating like that many times. One thing we can all be sure of, that anesthesiologist didn’t come over to Rand’s house and beat his ass just because the Redskins won their football game.

    There was a damn good reason, probably connected to Rand Paul’s arrogance and contempt for regular people. I can’t wait to hear what it was. Perhaps it will be embarrassing enough for Paul to offer to drop the charges if the reason for the meeting is kept secret. I would take that offer, and then go to a famed journalist and spill the beans. But that’s me, if I’m pissed.

    Going to bed now. Good night all!

  63. 63.

    Ruckus

    @lgerard:
    It is possible to be true that the man uses a wheelchair. He may need one but not be confined to it. If he tackled Rand, pushed him into the ridding mower and landed on top of him, it is possible for this amount of damage.
    Or you could be 100% correct, the wheelchair angle is bullshit. I’m leaving all options open.

  65. 65.

    Frankensteinbeck

    I finished outlining the last chapter of the last Penny Akk book today. It’s a long chapter, so it will take many days to write. I am entering a state of obsessive madness, and trying not to binge and make myself sick like last book.

  66. 66.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    Had a photoshoot tonight, I’d already shot there, but wanted to try some things. Afterwards I stopped by a place I’ve always wanted to shoot at, and overpass over the Pasadena Freeway as it goes into Downtown LA. Here’s the shot. It’s a single shot, no blending.

  71. 71.

    Betty Cracker

    Ugh. Trump is so bad at this presidenting thing. He sucks at all aspects of the job, of course, but I’m commenting in particular about the remarks he made on the latest mass shooting. He can’t fake empathy or credibly pull off the “uniter” role. It’s like watching a toad try to pirouette.

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Ruckus: I’ve done a keyword search. Not one single article that mentions Boucher says anything about a wheelchair. Several mention he invented a pain relieving vest for people with back problems. And they also mention Paul mowing his lawn.

  76. 76.

    danielx

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I am shocked, shocked at your insinuations…well, no, actually not. If that is indeed the case, it will lend additional evidence to my theory about how – generally speaking – Democratic pols get in trouble over money while Republicans, again generally speaking, get in trouble over sex.

    I’m sensing a market for training videos showing Democrats how to steal without getting caught.

  77. 77.

    Ruckus

    @J R in WV:
    As I understand it today’s ships are even more undermanned than when we were in. We were short about 30 people on the DDG I was stationed on and some rates were standing 6 on 6 off. BTW one of those collisions, had it been the ship I was on, hit right about where my bunk was, which was about 2 ft below the water line. The other one hit about where my work space was. 45 yrs ago I would probably have been one of those 17.
    I made a point one time that during Vietnam we were attempting to have a 600 ship navy and it was obviously not working. We are now trying to have a navy with less than half that many, and it still isn’t working. 11 carriers is about/nearly 60,000 people, we are building 2 more and have 322,421 people serving in the navy. on 241 commissioned warships plus supply ships. A navy requires training, retraining, practice…… Training will suffer, retention will suffer, preparedness will suffer, Or they all may already have. I’d go with already.

  78. 78.

    Another Scott

    @Adam L Silverman: BG Daily News seems to be the canonical story. Looks like he’s got a nice spread. Paul supposedly shares a property line, but I dunno which way. There’s nothing obvious to me, but the funky “3D” trees make it hard for me to tell. (No Street View, either.)

    FWIW.

    Cheer,
    Scott.

  80. 80.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Another Scott: Given there’s a picture of a vet in a wheelchair directly under the story on the BG Daily News’s front page, perhaps that’s where it came from.

  82. 82.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I saw it mentioned once, in a link in BJ, I don’t remember whose.
    It does seem to be a stretch to imagine but I’ve seen people in chairs be able to do some things I’d never expect. Adrenaline is a fairly potent pain reliever. And I have first hand experience with this.

  85. 85.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Mike J:

    The worst thing about the 90s was the yearly magazine story about the imminent return of the commercial airship. That and Kid Rock.

    One’s a slow, hard-to-control, puffed-up throwback, and the other’s a blimp.

  87. 87.

    Joe Miller

    A word of encouragement: Virginia Democrats knocked on 587,000 doors this weekend. Democratic volunteers have sent 200,000 hand-written postcards to people in the state urging them to vote. Early voting and absentee voting in northern Virginia are up sharply over 2013. I don’t know if it will all be enough to get Northam across the finish line, but they’re fighting hard.

  88. 88.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I think we could all learn a thing or two from Samwise right now.

    Kitteh! I might have mentioned it before, but your Samwise (great name!) is the spitting image of my Peter (who was named for a fictional mouse). Actually, it might be the other way about, since I think Samwise is a youngish cat and Peter is getting on in cat years.

  89. 89.

    Mike J

    @Joe Miller: Hope it works. Also, if you have any friends in WA, particularly the 45th or 31st, make sure they’ve mailed their ballots, or are prepared to drop them off on Tuesday.

  102. 102.

    Amir Khalid

    I went shopping and got this fascinating multi-tool doohickey: A combo of clawhammer, pliers, plain 7.5cm knife blade, serrated 7.5cm knife blade, file, can/bottle opener, and Philips-head screwdriver. All for just RM15 (about US$3.50). Oh, and it comes in a pouch too. ETA: Don’t know yet if I need it, but I do hope so

  103. 103.

    Calming Influence

    @jharp: I saw Jethro Tull in Rome in 1973; still have the ticket stub. (I must have been about 2 years old at the time…)

  104. 104.

    Origuy

    According to Wikipedia, Ian Anderson sold his estate, called Strathaird, on the Isle of Skye to the John Muir Trust in 1994. It’s apparently like the Wilderness Trust here in the States. I’ll bet if he shows up, though, they still treat him like a laird.

  106. 106.

    Booger

    @Ruckus: FWIW I recall reading that our hero was wheelchair-bound due to a recent injury, not a chronic condition. So he may be quasi-mobile. Do you suppose he is one of the noble, Ayn-Randian anesthesiologists, who carved his own path into the profession ala Baby Doc, or is he one of the boot-licking toadies certitied by The Man and Big Gas?

  107. 107.

    Booger

    @BretH ok: I saw Tull at the Capitol Centre in 1974, when I was a young teen, with my big brother. Dude next to me passed me a joint, I looked at my bro (panicked) and he said nothing. Took a quick hit and passed it to him, then back to the dude. Weird.

    Also, Ian Anderson is actor Andrew Lincoln’s father-in-law. Holiday get togethers must be interesting.

  111. 111.

    Uncle Cosmo

    See if you can find a clip of Ian Anderson discussing the amazing coincidence that the chord progression of “Hotel California” is exactly the same as that of “We Used To Know” – a song off Jethro Tull’s first album that they performed regularly on a West Coast tour ca. 1970, when the band that opened for them was a then-obscure group known as the Eagles.

    Anderson is dismissive of the plagiarism claim in an arch British fashion that fairly screams out Fuckin’ A they stole it, the mofos!

  112. 112.

    BretH

    “It’s a bit of a tribute really, like this “tribute” Rolex that I’m wearing…”

    Lovely polite way of saying they absolutely ripped it off.

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