Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

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

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

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

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Republicans don’t trust women.

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

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

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

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

The willow is too close to the house.

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

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Battle won, war still ongoing.

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94Comments

  2. 2.

    dmsilev

    Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!

    Two out of three, so we’re getting close.

  3. 3.

    John Revolta

    Lunch Lady Doris Lives!

    POTTER — A school superintendent says kangaroo meat was mixed with beef in chili served to students at a junior/senior high school in the Nebraska Panhandle.

    And Potter-Dix Public Schools Superintendent Mike Williams vows it won’t happen again.

    Williams said in a Wednesday letter to parents that head cook Kevin Frei told him he’d augmented the chili’s beef on Oct. 10 with kangaroo meat because it is lean and nutritious. It’s unclear how Frei obtained the kangaroo meat.

    Lincoln NE Journal-Star

  9. 9.

    Mnemosyne

    Just got done having my hair cut and colored. Now I’m waiting for some tasty Greek chicken kabob at a nearby restaurant.

  10. 10.

    Brickley Paiste

    Following up on the expiring thread below:

    Has anyone reliable seen actual evidence of what happened to Khashoggi?

    I have seen scores of stories talking about audio/video but the only “evidence” is “according to senior Turkish officials.”

    To be clear, I don’t doubt that the Saudi’s did this – I am just trying to drill down to what the facts actually are as opposed to “sources say”.

    I could understand the Turkish government being coy if they were attempting to draw Saudi denials before dropping the tapes, but it seems kind of odd to signal that you have tapes from the outset.

  11. 11.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    Mega-millions is up to a billion dollars! I’d honestly be happy to win even the 1 million or 10,000 dollars. Good luck to anyone who’s played!

  12. 12.

    Mnemosyne

    The mall music is all hits of the 1970s and now I feel like I’m either in a K-Tel Records commercial or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

  13. 13.

    dmsilev

    @John Revolta: As with everything else, ‘buy it on the Internet’ would be the first guess. A very brief trawl of Google turned up several suppliers, although the one link I followed (to fossilfarms.com/kangaroo-meat ) had this proviso:

    ****WE CANNOT SHIP TO CALIFORNIA****
    The sale of Kangaroo meat and/or products is prohibited in the State of California.

    Oh well. Not that I was about to spend $15 for a pound of rooburger anyway.

  14. 14.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: There is no Guardians 3 because your bosses got duped by Cernovich and Posobiec.

    You all just spent a ton of money converting Tower of Terror into a Guardians of the Galaxy ride because of Gunn and now you’ve killed the franchise because a guy who pled out a rape sent a mean tweet to your CEO.

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Brickley Paiste: The shortish answer is that Erdogan doesn’t want any of this stuff spilling on him or sticking to him. That’s why the Turks were willing to burn a technical SIGINT collection method right away. Specifically that they had video and audio (eyes and ears) collection inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. They did try to spin a cover story for that, the Apple watch thing, but when it fell apart they just dropped it and went back to they had collected audio and video via technical SIGINT collection.

    What is happening now, the Turks being coy, is there way of forcing the issue. They compete with the Saudis in the quest to be the regional hegemon, especially the regional Sunni Muslim hegemon. By just dribbling out, on their own schedule and for their own reasons, the information they are able to inflict maximum damage on the Saudis and, because the President has decided to back the Saudis, the US. It is very hard to concoct a coherent cover story and stick with it when you can’t be sure what the Turks actually have, what they will reveal, and when they will reveal it.

    I’ve got a lot of issues and concerns with Erdogan, but he’s not an idiot.

  19. 19.

    Brickley Paiste

    @dmsilev:

    I thought California did away with that law.

    I was able to get pair os Adidas Copa Mundial shipped to me last year.

  21. 21.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: By the way: 1) I’m not blaming you. 2) I actually disliked both the Guardians movies. I thought the first one was, at best, okay and the second one was not even that.

  22. 22.

    Brickley Paiste

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Tracking [as you would say].

    But if this was their strategy, it seems odd to me that they announced they had audio/video almost from the outset. If you want to just string it out and embarrass the Saudis – why not start out low key with “We suspect that he has never left the building alive” … Saudi denials …”Evidence suggests he was harmed” … more Saudi denials and just keep ratcheting it up. On the other hand, the approach does make sense if the goal was to release enough damaging info in time to allow people to withdraw from the Saudi Davos, or whatever it’s called.

    I don’t know I feel like I might be missing something here – as I often am.

  25. 25.

    WaterGirl

    On a lighter note that the previous thread, Pod Save America is on HBO tonight, and it looks like Beto O’Rourke is part of tonight’s show. It’s on right now — 11 PM Eastern and will apparently be on HBO Go, etc tomorrow.

  27. 27.

    Mnemosyne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I really loved the Guardians movies, and I liked the second one more than the first.

    I’m pretty pissed that they knuckled under to the likes of Cernovich, but it’s also an object lesson to the dudebros who insist that they can joke about any subject. Sure, you can but don’t whine when it inevitably comes back to bite you in the ass years later.

  28. 28.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Brickley Paiste: They actually did start with that in their official announcements. Then quickly moved to we have audio and video when the Saudis claimed he left the consulate and clearly whatever bad thing happened to him happened on Turkish, not Saudi, soil and was done to him by Turks. My take is that was the original/intended cover story. It didn’t work because the Saudis didn’t account for, because they probably couldn’t account for, Khashoggi bringing his fiancee with him, having her wait outside, and giving her specific instructions on who to call and what to tell them if he didn’t come out. That was the loose end. They had probably planned for what to do if she accompanied him all the way into the consulate – they’d have both been killed. And they had probably planned for her not accompanying him at all.

  31. 31.

    eemom

    @Mnemosyne:

    Greeks don’t actually eat chicken kabob.

    OTOH, that’s a relatively harmless perversion of actual Greek food. Some of those so called “Greek salads”, however, are true abominations.

  34. 34.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Did you like Thor: Ragnarok? I saw it and loved it. I actually didn’t think the Guardians movies were that bad. I remember little of them but what I do remember is good.

    I wish DC could make the same caliber of movies as Marvel does. Rebirth gives them a chance to ditch emo Superman. Do you think they’ll adapt the Rebirth storyline at all?

  35. 35.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: Everyone has different takes. Part of the issue for me is I can’t stand Chris Pratt. And I really dislike how both the Peter Quill character was conceptualized and written and how Pratt portrayed that conceptualization and writing.

    As for Gunn, my take is that had this been the first time it had been brought up and had he not previously apologized for it while explaining it was from when he was trying to make it as a stand up comedian and had he not done this specifically to make sure there wouldn’t have been any issues with Disney, then fair enough. But this was the Mandrill Mentality and Lieutenant Pissboy specifically trying to get Disney to punish Gunn because he’d gone after one of their fellow travelers on twitter.

  36. 36.

    Amir Khalid

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Yes, but menu changes have to have prior approval from upstairs. Besides, what if there were kids at the school observing a religious taboo on eating kangaroo? //

  37. 37.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Brickley Paiste: I bought my ostrich skins in Texas. The first ones I ordered and had delivered. The second I had ordered and picked up while I was on temporary duty at FT Hood.

  40. 40.

    Mnemosyne

    @eemom:

    Technically, they say they sell “Mediterranean” food. And I don’t think their kabob is true kabob since there are no vegetables. Their marinade did include lemon juice, which usually says “Greek” to me.

    Plus the owners are most likely Armenian anyway given the neighborhood I’m in.

  42. 42.

    Matt McIrvin

    @B.B.A.: There’s a line of Chinese markets around here called Super 88, because 88 is a lucky number in Chinese culture. But it always disconcerts me a little because “88” to Americans is more likely to be a Nazi shout-out (88=HH=”Heil Hitler”). It sounds as if in Korea it’s neither, but 1988 is a fondly remembered year.

  44. 44.

    Matt McIrvin

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: The Guardians movies were cleverly marketed as, essentially, superhero jukebox musicals. In hindsight I think they’re the kind of movie that is really entertaining while you’re seeing it and seems worse on further reflection, though some of the character humor was good. I liked Thor: Ragnarok much more.

  45. 45.

    Amir Khalid

    And 4 is to Chinese culture what 13 is in the West. Some buildings in Asia have a 13M floor, a 23M, etc., rather than a 13th or 23rd.

  46. 46.

    Adam L Silverman

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: I enjoyed Thor Ragnarok. Parts were a bit too cute, but overall it was very good and Waititi did a good job adapting the Planet Hulk storyline into the overall movie.

    As for DC, I don’t know what they’re going to do. They hired Gunn to work on an unnamed DC movie project. The problem they have is that Warner Brothers seems to interfere with the DC film group and while I enjoyed Geoff Johns runs as the writer on Justice Society and Green Lantern, he clearly shouldn’t be DC’s equivalent to Feige. I thought Wonder Woman was well done. What I’ve seen of the Aquaman trailers looks like Wan did a good job. Same thing with the Shazam trailers. If it were me, at this point, I’d do a soft reboot and let Jenkins or Jenkins and Wan or Jenkins, Wan, and Gunn coordinate that.

    DC has a lot of material it can work with. I’m not sure they really need to do a bunch of origin reboots for Batman and Superman, etc. At this point they just need to get several well done, enjoyable movies completed. There are stories they can adapt. They could do a period piece adapting Darwyn Cooke’s New Frontier set in the 1960s. They could do another one set 30 years into the future with Kingdom Come. They could do a three part Green Lantern Corps arc that covers Blackest Night. They could adapt the Legion of Superheroes Great Darkness Saga. They could do the Superman: Braniac story from the comics from about eight or nine years or so ago. Similarly, a good Batman story. They could adapt a three story arc with Demon’s Quest, Bride of the Demon, and then Son of the Demon with Ras al Ghul as the primary antagonist. Or the Long Halloween. That would also be a good one. All the while Jenkins, Wan, and Sandberg tend to Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam. Then, once they’ve had some success, they can start pulling things together for Justice League.

    And, By the Source!, I’m looking forward to Ava Devurnay’s New Gods movie.

  47. 47.

    oldgold

    Do our intelligence services know what happened?

    To what degree of certainty?

    When did they know?

    Did the intelligence services communicate this to POTUS? If so, when?

    What legitimate recourse, if any, do the intelligence services have if POTUS disregards what they ‘know’ and aids and abets the KSA’s naked lie? Do they have duty to set the record straight?

  52. 52.

    randy khan

    Just did our last round of contributions for this cycle – heavy concentration on local and localish races here in Virginia, plus Rosen, Synema, and a skoosh to the BJ more more more fund. Fingers crossed for all of the races.

  53. 53.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Adam L Silverman: The Aquaman trailers are really good-looking, but from the latest super-long one I saw, it looks like it has a lot of that thing I’m coming to hate in which a wisecracking doofus hero gets trained up by a more competent woman who is taking all of this much more seriously, but of course she can’t be the main hero because he’s the Chosen One.

    Great thing about Wonder Woman: not a perfect movie but at least it did not do that.

  57. 57.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I remember you recommending The New Frontier to me to read and I enjoyed it. I loved the art style the most and it corresponded with that time period well, which I suspect was the point. It did a great job of going into the influence that super-powered beings would have on real life events and how governments would seek to use them for it’s own ends.

    It illustrated the dividing line between Golden Age heroes and the younger Silver Age ones like the Flash, Green Lantern etc. The former with the exception of Batman tended to be fine with being government pawns but IIRC the latter weren’t.

    I also liked that it had Lovecraftian undertones with the the cosmic monster which apparently was supposed to be a metaphor for communism or something.

    Anyway, for the movies, I just hope they do better than “Your mother’s name is Martha too? Let’s be friends!” that BvS gave us. Stellar characterization and character development, guys.

    ETA: Have you heard that the Watchmen crossing over with the main DC continuity? No spoilers since I haven’t read it yet.

  60. 60.

    ljt

    OT, but I know i’ve read that the RNC was hacked at same time as DNC. Can someone provide link? Need for argument with on-the-fence voter.

  61. 61.

    M. Bouffant

    @oldgold: If the intel services don’t have that duty (& they may well be required to defer to whoever’s occupying the Executive Mansion) Congress certainly has investigative power.

  63. 63.

    Adam L Silverman

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: In this case she is. The female character, Meera, eventually marries Arthur Curry/Aquaman and becomes Queen of Atlantis. If you want to get an idea of the story, you can either watch the DC animated movie Justice League: Throne of Atlantis or read the the comic it is adapted from:
    https://www.amazon.com/Aquaman-Vol-Throne-Atlantis-New/dp/1401246958/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1540008547&sr=8-3&keywords=throne+of+atlantis

  67. 67.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Matt McIrvin:
    Is that necessarily a bad thing? I mean, as long as they get meaningful character development and screentime, does it really matter?

  72. 72.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    With you on that. Tried watching it (was being shown on an airplane, IIRC) and gave up. Not only cookie cutter characters but, worst of all, by the numbers predictable.

  73. 73.

    Mnemosyne

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    I haven’t been there in a while — I probably need to go. This was just a little hole in the wall place across from the Galleria and — most importantly — right next to the hair salon.

  75. 75.

    Mnemosyne

    @Yutsano:

    I liked “Volume 2.” It’s a very well-structured film, story-wise, and I liked where they took the characters.

    Some people rolled their eyes because there was a major theme about family, but there’s always a thin line between archetype and cliche.

  76. 76.

    Steeplejack

    @ljt:

    The Wikipedia article is pretty good. It says that multiple U.S. intelligence agencies “concluded Russia hacked the Republican National Committee (RNC) as well as the DNC—and chose not to leak information obtained from the RNC.”

    In January 2017 James Comey testified to Congress that the RNC had been hacked, though mostly “old domains,” whatever that means.

    It strikes me that there was a lot of “Nothing to see here, move along” from the Republicans, aided by the fact that none of their stuff was aired by the Russian hackers. There was at least one case where a GOP lawmaker said, “Oh, yeah, we got hacked,” and then a few days later said that he “misspoke.” Make of that what you will.

    For myself, the idea that the GOP had way better cybersecurity than the Democrats is ludicrous. I assume the Russians hacked the shit out of the GOP and are holding that information in reserve.

  77. 77.

    MobiusKlein

    @Brickley Paiste: If the actual tapes are released, it exposes more about how the Turk’s taps are made.

    Placement, technology, effectiveness, etc. Why give the Saudis (and everybody else) clues about how you work.

  78. 78.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Brickley Paiste: Oh please. How many times have you read -about- leaks from our intelligence agencies, without getting a chance to see the source material? Uh, like, *every* time? You really expect other countries’ ICs to be different?

  79. 79.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Matt McIrvin:
    Funny you should mention The Lego Movie. The trailers for the sequel actually were pretty self-aware about that problem. I think at one point some character actually asked why the female character wasn’t the MC.

  80. 80.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Chetan Murthy: It’s actually really simple. You either believe the intelligence agency, or you don’t. Either way, the source material is coming out 50 years from now, so don’t wait up. If you don’t believe the Turks, cool. If you don’t believe our own IC [about shit where if anything, the interest of the govt is to downplay], well, maybe think about moving to another country.

  81. 81.

    Brickley Paiste

    @Chetan Murthy:
    I don’t like it when our reporters use those methods either, especially when they don’t disclose what sort of relationship the source has with the reporter.

    Can’t do much about that either.

  82. 82.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @B.B.A.: At same link there’s an article about how Sears catalogs enabled blacks in the south to evade the Jim Crow blocks on what they could buy where they lived. Article also discusses how buying from Sears catalogs enabled blacks to avoid further debt to the local general store.

  83. 83.

    Brickley Paiste

    @MobiusKlein: That makes perfect sense.

    I wonder why the Turks didn’t just quote the exact language used by people, so that the Saudi’s would know that they had recordings – or that someone in the room was snitching.

  87. 87.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Fair Economist:
    Do you mean the one introduced in Man of Steel or the current incarnation in the comics? If it’s the former I agree with you

  89. 89.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman: Back in the 60s (when I was young enough to ‘ship her + Namor, although the concept of ‘shipping’ had yet to be codified), the Queen of Atlantis’ name was spelled Mera…

  91. 91.

    Greg Ferguson

    Last Monday morning, I think, I posted an appeal for my friend Darrin’s GoFundMe. Never had done anything like, and I was pretty sure I had fked it up, but, no.
    In just a few very short days, this man – with help from nameless benefactors – has hope and a future he could not have expected a week ago. He has also, finally, achieved some coordination between the VA & other agencies to get a job, to get basic life support, and above all to have hope restored to his life. To anyone who participated here, you have been miraculous. You have brought a man back from the brink.
    Thank you, so very, very much. It was a shot in the dark, and light came streaming through.

  92. 92.

    J R in WV

    @Greg Ferguson:

    Greg, I kicked in a little, if you comment during the daylight hours this weekend you make get more response than you do at 4 am… just sayin there’s more water in the well when people are awake.

    He seems like a good guy who had a wild series of terrible luck, and you should mention the gofundme with link again.

    B-J has the capacity to be of assistance, even tho most may be nearly tapped out by the upcoming election. It won’t hurt to mention the fund raising progress over the next few weeks, even. As in after the election!

    Best of luck to Darrin going forward!

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