Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

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

Second rate reporter says what?

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

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

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

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

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

This fight is for everything.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

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

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

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

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

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

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Open Thread

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I have a lot of things I want to write about right now but I am completely distracted by this:

A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a “transient anus” that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely.

The warty comb jelly, or sea walnut, looks a lot like a jellyfish, but the new finding reveals it may represent a critical stage in evolutionary history.

The phrase “transient anus” is fucking glorious.

Reader Interactions

68Comments

  2. 2.

    Ruckus

    I’ve been around a few tranrsient anuses before, but it was on a plane, train or bus.

  5. 5.

    Chip Daniels

    I have a list of people for whom “transient anus” is a perfect descriptor.

  7. 7.

    SiubhanDuinne

    The phrase “transient anus” is fucking glorious.

    It’s the name of my new band.

  9. 9.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    manafort is speaking in his hearing, which Ari Melber tells will be the last thing before sentencing

  10. 10.

    Brachiator

    A couple of my co-workers have season’s passes to Disneyland. This has got them all shook up

    Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge Opening Date Announced!

    Disneyland’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will open to the general public on May 31, 2019, while Walt Disney World’s version will debut a couple months later on August 29, 2019. However, it will open in phases, with Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run opening first, followed by Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at a later date. (As we cover in our Tons of New Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Details Emerge from Construction Tours post, Rise of the Resistance is the more complex, higher profile attraction.)

  15. 15.

    Baud

     “transient anus” that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely.

    Worst superhero idea ever.

  28. 28.

    hitchhiker

    texted that to mr hitchhiker, and he instantly claimed it as HIS band name, with Jelly McPoopbomb as his own stage name.

    then he texted a fantasy about how he would only show off his transient anus if members of the audience flung their underwear at him. (both our daughters and their husbands are on this ongoing family text … )

    yes, apparently i AM married to a 9-yr-old.

    happily.

  29. 29.

    Gin & Tonic

    As I said downstairs, I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m dying of suspense waiting for the Manafort sentencing.

  40. 40.

    hitchhiker

    Since we’re open-threading, I just remembered that today is the 18th anniversary of the day I sat in a tiny conference room off the local trauma center ER and got told by a doctor that my husband was seriously injured, and that the likelihood was that he’d never have movement or sensation below the level of his nipples again.

    I remember that he waved his two hands around in a floppy, useless way to give me the picture that mr. h would not have the use of his fingers and thumbs. I remember that he suggested mr. h might have trouble breathing on his own from now on.

    Our kids were 10 and 12, waiting out in the lounge with a friend who had come down to sit with us.

    I had to tell them.

    Fast forward, most of that was at least partially wrong, though the struggle from that day to this one was … intense.

    Anyway, here’s to surviving a broken neck on the side of a mountain! Here’s to helicopters and brilliant nurses and dedicated physical therapists and neuroscientists. Here’s to him.

  50. 50.

    Humdog

    @hitchhiker: And here is to you, hitchhiker, for being with him through every step in his recovery. That is a wonderful and remarkable story, thank you for sharing it. I’d go see his band even if it has a disgusting name!

  52. 52.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Brachiator: Yep! You also have to reserve a spot to go for the first few months.

    It looks very cool. I might go to Disneyland for the first time since I was 5.

  57. 57.

    Adam Geffen

    An open thread about anus seems as good a place as any to ask a question I’ve had for a while.

    I’ve been lurking here since about 2011 (maybe it was a little earlier). Can someone explain to me the hatred here for Glenn Greenwald? I’ve been around long enough to know a fair number of people here really really hate him but I haven’t been able to get a handle on why. Insight please?

  58. 58.

    different-church-lady

    @Adam Geffen: Short answer: he’s a professional troll.

    Long answer: He’s a professional troooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooll.

  61. 61.

    NonStopRocka

    I have been reading this blog for 10 plus years, and this might just be my favorite thing J Cole has ever posted.

  65. 65.

    Roger Moore

    @Adam Geffen:
    My basic objection to Greenwald is that he pretends to be a factual journalist when he’s actually an advocate. A factual journalist is supposed to dig up as much evidence as possible, reach a conclusion based on the evidence, and present the evidence and conclusion to their audience. An advocate takes a position, finds evidence to support it, and constructs an argument using that evidence to support their position. An advocate can try to minimize or undermine evidence that contradicts their position, which a factual journalist is not supposed to do. There is some blurry space in the middle- someone who starts out looking just for facts may find the evidence so compelling that they feel obligated to advocate for the position the facts push them toward, and a good advocate must know enough about the facts counter to their position to be able to rebut them effectively- but those are the two ideals.

    Greenwald is clearly an advocate. He comes from a background in law rather than journalism, and he has always argued like an advocate rather than a fact finder. But when he’s challenged on his conclusions, he acts as if he’s a factual journalist and anyone who contradicts him is the one ignoring the evidence, even when they’re the ones presenting evidence he’s ignored. Even worse, he has tried to do factual journalism while maintaining his basic orientation as an advocate, with really bad results. The classic example was his writing on Snowden’s document trove. He started from a position of opposition to any kind of spy program and looked through the documents for evidence that the US government was doing something wrong. He ignored evidence of internal controls to minimize the risk of domestic spying, conflated domestic and international spying, and generally twisted the facts as much as necessary to portray the US government as engaged in wrongful behavior. It was exactly what factual journalists are supposed to avoid. He went in with a conclusion and looked for facts to bolster it rather than starting with facts and working to the conclusion they supported.

  66. 66.

    Chris Johnson

    Clearly not the only one singing to myself, “enormous… mendacious… disembodied anus…” o/`

  67. 67.

    HeartlandLiberal

    The jellyfish shall inherit the earth. I just read an article in Discover Magazine (or Smithsonian, one or the other), about jellyfish. One scientist harvested a medusa adult stage, took it to the lab, got distracted and forgot to transfer it to proper salt water, left in fresh water. Came back the next day, and it was gone. In its place was a polyp. In essence it had REVERSED the life cycle, reverted to polyp stage, to save itself. Leading to new insights into fact that some jellyfish might just be immortal, those species that can do this. Unless they are eaten, of course, which tends to end the life cycle.

    P.S. this blogs is using such low contrast fonts (trendy right now but a disaster), that I can almost not see the boxes to type in my Nym and address, etc, when posting. I sincerely hope the new design (which I chipped a few bucks in for) will address this issue, and NOT go so low contrast I cannot even read the d*mend blog. Grump.

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