Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

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

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

The willow is too close to the house.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

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

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

No one could have predicted…

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Approximate Mood

Reader Interactions

164Comments

  6. 6.

    Fair Economist

    In my normal state – past mad or sad, and stewing on “what can I do”.

  12. 12.

    kindness

    We never have to wonder where John’s head is at. I’m finding I have to restrict my political and news intake as it was starting to get to me. I only hope we can survive as a Republic until January 21.

  15. 15.

    HumboldtBlue

    Fuck all of these motherfuckers for being the deranged motherfucking fuckheads they fucking are every motherfucking day of the motherfucking month.

    Motherfucking fucks.

    Oh, and I’m not gonna link to Reason but they have a story about how Jacob Wohl paid a woman to make false complaints of sexual assault against Dr. Fauci.

    The motherfucking pieces of fucking shit.

  17. 17.

    Emma

    @Emma: oh yes, forgot about the Wisconsin Supreme Court judge who likened their stay-home order to the incarceration camps for Japanese Americans and had the GALL (edit: the CAUCASITY) to bring up Korematsu v. United States. Fuck her too.

  18. 18.

    GaryK

    To quote Shelly Levene:

    Fuck you.  That’s my message for you.  Fuck you and kiss my ass.

  20. 20.

    Immanentize

    So, for my friend’s birthday, I got some cards printed at MOO.  On both cards, on one side it says,

    “IMA NEED YOU TO”

    on one set it says:

    “Step The Fuck Back”

    On the other it says:

    “Stop Talking”

    I’m thinking about expanding the collection to include:

    “Put On A Fucking Mask”

    And after John’s post, maybe:

    “Fuck Right The Fuck Off.

    Other thoughts?

  21. 21.

    low-tech cyclist

    Fuck you

    I’m low-tech cyclist, and I approve this message.

    Lord knows that’s how feel towards a vast number of people in public life these days.

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: I don’t trust Never Trumpers any further than I can throw them, but I heartily approve of them going after Trump-adjacent GOP politicians in swing states. They could have just blasted Trump and left it at that. But they’ve gone after Collins, Gardner and McSally. Bravo.

  27. 27.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    @Betty Cracker: “I don’t trust Never Trumpers any further than I can throw them”

    I think they would be very useful for trebuchet testing.

  29. 29.

    Croaker

    Fuck this too

    Between May 1-3, 2020, Change Research surveyed 1,489 likely general election voters nationally and 3,544 likely general election voters in the battleground states of Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The margin of error as traditionally calculated among the national sample is ±2.54% and among the battleground sample is ±1.65%. Change Research reaches voters via targeted online ads that point people to an online survey instrument

  32. 32.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Betty Cracker:

    I don’t trust Never Trumpers any further than I can throw them

    Yeah, they’ll be back to being deficit hawks and screaming about comity and not playing the blame-game once Democrats are back in charge. Guaran-fucking-tee it.

  33. 33.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    OT? I’ve been using uBlock Origin as my adblocker, but recently it stopped allowing me to see embedded tweets. Even when I have “large media elements” unblocked, all I see is a box with the text of the tweet, but no image. I have to completely turn off the adblocker to see the embeds, which negates the entire point of having an adblocker.

    Anyone have a suggestion for this? A different adblocker? I’ve tried twiddling with the uBlock dashboard, but I have no idea wtf I’m doing.

  34. 34.

    JPL

    Today I needed a few items and decided to purchase more meat/poultry products.  Publix limits it to two chicken items, and two beef or pork items.   There weren’t any breasts, and only a few thighs.   I was able to get two packages of thighs.   Plenty of chicken legs though.    The meat is really thinning out and bacon pretty much gone.   It’s so odd shopping when entire shelves are bare

    Both employees and customers wore masks, and followed the arrows.

  36. 36.

    H.E.Wolf

    Full moon today.

    Yes, times are bad.

    Yes, we’ll go one day/hour/minute at a time, and help each other as/when we can.

    Sending love to you all…. we’re all traveling through this together.

  38. 38.

    Zinsky

    Speaking of FU to a public figure, did you hear Arctic Hillbilly Sarah Palin escaped her polar lair to slink down to Texas to support another right-wng grifter?  Here is a link to the story about the skanky, skinny-butted publicity hog trying to get a free Glamour Shot opportunity by visiting a Dallas-Fort Worth hair salon where the owner refused to stay closed under the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.  Apparently her mustachioed, deadbeat husband is too busy cooking a fresh batch of meth or doing something productive like racing snowmobiles to join her on this gallant mission.   Maybe Sarah will find a little free time to have sex with black NBA players back in the States before returning to her criminal brood in the tundra….

  39. 39.

    trollhattan

    @JPL:

    Got in and out of Costco today with my most important haul of the last two months: Kirkland TP! I feel like a cro-magnon who bagged a mammoth.

  40. 40.

    Gravenstone

    @Emma: That didn’t just materialize from thin air. Some “bright” spark in wingnut legal circles wanted that decision brought back into the light for a reason. The question is, why?

  44. 44.

    pamelabrown53

    @H.E.Wolf:

    Not only a full moon but a super moon, which appears both larger and brighter. Next super moon won’t be until April 2021.

  46. 46.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @Zinsky:

    have sex with black NBA players

    I’m shamefully curious about what the hell this reference means, but terrified to google it. I’ve ignored La Palin for so long I don’t know anything about her life or anything she may have squawked about in the past 15 years.

  48. 48.

    Starfish

    @Emma: The killer was also Asian so it was not an anti-Asian conspiracy nut. Here is what they wrote in a Vietnamese newspaper about this.

  49. 49.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @trollhattan:

    Kirkland TP! I feel like a cro-magnon who bagged a mammoth.

    Great, now you’ll have to spend the next week carving it up before it rots.

  54. 54.

    trollhattan

    @Immanentize:

    Kirkland’s the Good Stuff. I’d be toast if I brought home sandpaper like they have in office buildings. Ladies of the house are particular, and fond of sharing their opinions and such.

  55. 55.

    Brachiator

    @JPL:

    When you don’t need an answer, there’ll be days like this.

    When you don’t meet a chancer, there’ll be days like this.

    When all the parts of the puzzle start to look like they fit,

    then I must remember, there’ll be days like this.

    — Van Morrison

  57. 57.

    eemom

    I’d agree, except I’m in a parked car on a sunny day with the Tom Petty channel on. As good as it gets these days.

    That man was a freakin GOD.

  59. 59.

    PaulWartenberg

     

    Fuck You

    I’m gonna be 50 years old tomorrow and I wouldn’t know how.

  63. 63.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @HumboldtBlue: Um. Thanks? Not clicking on any link with “Palin” and “coitus” in the hover text.  [shudder]

  64. 64.

    cain

    @Emma: 
    Or a more disturbing trend of researchers being targeted by the right wing? You can imagine that there is some of that going on and that they don’t want these researchers giving out data counter to what they are saying and believing in.

  69. 69.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    Just installed Adblock Plus, turned off uBlock. So far, so good:  +tweets, -ads. Thanks all.

  70. 70.

    cain

    @Betty Cracker:

    On the other hand, there are things to learn on how to go after our Republican colleagues. These folks are showing it. It might be because they are apostate conservatives but there is definitely a viciousness to go after them that we seem to lack.

  72. 72.

    germy

    She Said Anthony Fauci Sexually Assaulted Her. Now She Says Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman Paid Her to Lie.

    The cloaks and daggers might have been discomfiting, but ultimately were a distraction from what Andrade wanted on tape. She proposes she give back the cash and instead receive a wire transfer (thus creating a trace), a proposition Burkman shoots down. (“Cash is best,” he tells her. “We don’t want any records of this nonsense.”) She wants the men to admit they are trying to bring down a person who in no part deserves it.

    “Let me tell you something, Diana,” says Burkman. “This guy shut the country down. He put 40 million people out of work. In a situation like that, you have to make up whatever you have to make up to stop that train and that’s the way life works, OK? That’s the way it goes.”

    Andrade counters that he and Wohl are not taking COVID-19 seriously. “It’s not just any virus. I mean, it’s a huge deal….I think you guys think it’s something made up, and it’s not.”

    “Mother Nature has to clean the barn every so often,” Burkman counters. “How real is it? Who knows? So what if 1 percent of the population goes? So what if you lose 400,000 people? Two hundred thousand were elderly, the other 200,000 are the bottom of society. You got to clean out the barn. If it’s real, it’s a positive thing, for God’s sake.”

    “So, what? Survival of the fittest?” Andrade asks, a bit more pique in her voice. (The sense you are dealing with people who have an enthusiasm for eugenics can do that.) But Wohl’s not having it.

    “Diana, look, can you just do this for me?” he says. “Can you just keep your mouth shut and just…just do it for me.”

  74. 74.

    cain

    @HumboldtBlue: Yeah, they’ll be back to being deficit hawks and screaming about comity and not playing the blame-game once Democrats are back in charge. Guaran-fucking-tee it.

    I don’t think so. I think they want to see the party turn into a smoking ruin. They want to burn it and salt the earth. They might want to create a new party – but I think they know that this party is dead it has gone too far and it must be destroyed.

  76. 76.

    Barbara

    My barre class has a live schedule that is about half of the classes they used to have.  It’s more geared to relax and yoga, but it’s nice to see the same teachers.

  81. 81.

    Roger Moore

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:

    I haven’t technically been using an ad blocker.  Instead, I’ve been using Privacy Badger from EFF, which automatically recognizes and blocks attempts to track you.  That has the nice side effect of blocking most ads, but it also blocks things like Facebook’s attempts to track you through like and share buttons.  It also allows you to fine-tune your preferences and allow through cookies that you need to improve your browsing.  I find that enabling cookies from platform.twitter.com and syndication.twitter.com lets me see the full tweet rather than just the text.

  82. 82.

    senyorDave

    We have a rapist in the WH and Biden is having problems because of Tara Reade.  WTF???  What is the solution?  Maybe have some ads starring Jean Carroll and the other two dozen plus women Trump has sexually assaulted going into full detail.  It’s stunning to me that the Democrats will end playing defense on this issue.  I

  83. 83.

    Jay C

    @germy:

    “Mother Nature has to clean the barn every so often,”

     

    And of course, they’d never think that that big rake is going to be coming for THEM…..

  87. 87.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    @cain: the problem is the media has always given republicans a free pass to be vicious, while they come down like a house of bricks on Dems for anything similar.

  89. 89.

    Roger Moore

    @germy:

    Does anyone outside the right wing fever swamps pay attention to anything Jacob Wohl says?  The guy has somehow managed to wind up with less credibility than James O’Keefe.

  90. 90.

    FelonyGovt

    Is it really bad that I hope Trump’s valet who tested positive for COVID (probably pissed off at being treated like shit) sneezed all over everything in the White House and on Air Force 1?

  91. 91.

    Gin & Tonic

    NYPD and JetBlue want to know what “ratio” means, I guess.

    Tonight, at 7 P.M. three @JetBlue aircrafts will conduct a flyover over Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx to salute frontline first responders & health care workers. The aircrafts will fly at approximately 2,000 ft. Please follow social distancing guidelines if viewing in public. pic.twitter.com/YdDdq37p4z
    — NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) May 7, 2020

  93. 93.

    senyorDave

    @germy: Fauci should sue Burkman civilly over this.  People like her should be ruined financially.  Too often people say well, she was just the pawn.  She did it, let her pay the price.

  94. 94.

    JPL

    Apparently herr trump didn’t want anyone to know about the valet, because it ruins his everything is fine image.  Because of his paralysis, I would think Abbott is compromised.   If he keeps his date with trump, good luck.

  97. 97.

    hueyplong

    We rightly complain about the servile GOPers who do Trump’s bidding.  I’ve decided not to complain about the ones who actually attack him with some vigor.

    This week they’ve shown they know how to play the game.  The brilliance isn’t in the “Mourning in America” video itself, it’s how they’ve taken the inevitable Trump attack post and launched a propaganda counter-response that says “SEE? WE’RE IN HIS HEAD AND HE’S DOOMED NOW.”  ‘

    Let them do their thing.  It can’t hurt, and it’s Biden campaign work that doesn’t cost our side a dime.

    We don’t “owe” them anything and aren’t going to put Rubin/Wilson/Kristol in the cabinet or in agency positions.  So I’m cheering them on, enjoying both their tweets and the fuse-blowing attacks they’re incurring from Trumpsters who clearly hate them more than (or at least as much as) they do us.

    When your current view is the one expressed by Cole above, go check out their twitter accounts.  They’re good for what ails your morale.  It’s like the Bloomberg anti-Trump attack ads without the fear that one of the ads’ creators might become the Democratic nominee.

  100. 100.

    JPL

    @Gin & Tonic:  This is from Kevin Kruse

    Nothing soothes the nerves of New Yorkers more than the sight of commercial jets flying low over Manhattan.

  101. 101.

    Roger Moore

    @senyorDave:

    We have a rapist in the WH and Biden is having problems because of Tara Reade.

    Biden isn’t having problems because of Tara Reade.  Purity ponies who were never going to vote for Biden are using her as their public excuse not to vote for him, but they were going to find some excuse no matter what he did or didn’t do.

  103. 103.

    JPL

    In continuing with news that sucks..   Justice dropped the charges against Flynn.

  105. 105.

    Baud

    @Roger Moore:

    True, but the media noise is something we will need to steel ourselves and others against. The other side wins not only by persuasion by also by distraction.

  109. 109.

    Leto

    Not sure if this has been covered in an earlier thread but just putting it here so it has a few more eyes on it:CDC Hasn’t ‘Reduced’ COVID-19 Death Toll

    Gist of it: Dinesh D’Souza (worthless skin sack) is misrepresenting data (BIG FUCKING SURPRISE) and rightwingers are clammering on it like flies to shit. Just in case you have friends/relatives peddling this bullshit.

  110. 110.

    Bruce K

    I can’t quite reciprocate our gracious host’s feeling.

    On the one hand, it feels like America is dying and I’m lucky to be in Greece where they actually seem to have some common sense.

    On the other hand, my family and loved ones are all in the US, and I’m seven time zones, an ocean, and a continent away from the people who mean the most to me, and I’m afraid I’ll never be able to return home and I’ll die alone in exile.

    I’m in a bad mood and angry, so I’ll voice the ugliness that this crisis has awakened within me: I hope Donald John Trump and Addison Mitchell McConnell both come down with COVID-19. I hope Trump recovers from it eventually, so that I can make that pilgrimage to the prison cell where he died. I don’t give a flying goddamn whether McConnell recovers.

    I apologize to the jackals here for crossing the line.

  111. 111.

    cckids

    @JPL:Tara Reade hired a lawyer cuz of course she did.

    Apparently she’s been trying to hire a reputable firm for months, but for some reason, after looking into her story, they keep turning her down. What bottom-feeder agreed to represent her?

  112. 112.

    Gravenstone

    @germy: How the fuck have Wohl and Burkman avoided being tossed in jail for various flavors of fraud? Barring that, how have they avoided being beaten to within and inch of their misbegotten existences after pissing off the wrong would be mark?

  113. 113.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Leto: I’m 99% sure that, by July, Trump will order the CDC to redefine “COVID-19 death” and make up a number so he can declare victory. This will be mishandled by the media and it will be used to deny aid to blue states.

  114. 114.

    Gin & Tonic

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: I’d take “permanent” with a grain of salt. I was “permanently deferred” from donating blood. Permanent was about four years, they’re happy to see me again.

  115. 115.

    Baud

    The Justice Department said it had concluded that Flynn’s interview by the FBI was “untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn” and that the interview on January 24, 2017 was “conducted without any legitimate investigative basis.”
    The U.S. attorney reviewing the Flynn case, Jeff Jensen, recommended the move to Attorney General William Barr last week and formalized the recommendation in a document this week.
    “Through the course of my review of General Flynn’s case, I concluded the proper and just course was to dismiss the case,” Jensen said in a statement. “I briefed Attorney General Barr on my findings, advised him on these conclusions, and he agreed.”

  116. 116.

    Leto

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone: WHELP, people wanted the military budget slashed so I guess this’ll do it. Considering how most people probably have/had it, this is one way to make sure nobody fucking enlists and they’ll just continue to mule drive everyone already in.

     

    “During the medical history interview or examination, a history of COVID-19, confirmed by either a laboratory test or a clinician diagnosis, is permanently disqualifying …” the memo reads.

    Considering the lack of testing, I guess this is the work around: “I’ve never been tested, so…” – potential recruit

  118. 118.

    cain

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:

    Then Rick and others are doing us a favor and being our cats paw. Let them pound away. It will drive Republicans crazy.

    Very soon the rich folks are also gonna join in because they know that what’s happening is going to fuck them over soon enough.

  120. 120.

    GeriUpNorth

    @senyorDave: For what it’s worth, I haven’t seen anything about Tara Reade from my RWNJ relatives on Facebook. There was a bit of “Biden is senile” posting, but it’s all Covid conspiracy theories now. I don’t know if the wingers can push the Tara Reade thing too far without opening up attack angles on the twenty-some accusations against Trump.

  123. 123.

    different-church-lady

    @GeriUpNorth:

    I don’t know if the wingers can push the Tara Reade thing too far without opening up attack angles on the twenty-some accusations against Trump.

    Like that would stop them?

  125. 125.

    hueyplong

    @Baud: You’ve got to hand it to Barr’s DOJ, the way they have consistently avoided even the appearance of propriety.

  127. 127.

    cain

    @Gravenstone:

    O’Keefe and all these others have had multiple felonies and for some reason they escape any kind of sentence regardless of administration. They skated during the Obama administration as well. Something is really wrong with our justice system.

  130. 130.

    Leto

    @Major Major Major Major: I was doing ok today, and now the rage meter is at 8 and climbing.

    @Baud: how the fuck is that going to look to the judge? I’m trying to remember if he’s already been sentenced, or if this is just the end-around to justify a Trumpov pardon? I guess I’ll continue to wait for whatever states bar, where all of these shit bags are licensed, to disbar these worthless sacks of shit. Just infuriating.

  134. 134.

    cain

    @cain:

    ETA – just remember that when we get back in charge there will be a lot of pressure, from the media to let everyone skate as well to heal the country and help unite. They’ve pulled this shit since the Civil War and we fall for it every time.

    So yeah – once we are back, we better do the witch hunt thing because otherwise I think primary challengers are going to happen.

  136. 136.

    senyorDave

    @Roger Moore: I disagree strongly, there are people on the fence, and even if it makes a half percent difference it matters.  For some reason Trump’s sexual assaults have never been adequately weaponized.  No excuse for playing defense.  Then go after Tara Reade, so many parts of her explanation sounds like BS.  But to have this thing twisting in the wind does not bode well.

  141. 141.

    Geoduck

    @Betty Cracker:  Yeah, Rick Wilson can sure turn a phrase, but you know the instant the Shiatgibbon is gone, he’ll be right back wittily slagging Democrats.

    EDIT: I see it’s already been covered, but bears repeating.

  144. 144.

    germy

    How did Tara do in her interview with White Santa?  Did it go well?

    EDIT:

    Investigative journalist Rich McHugh produced the interview between Kelly and Reade, Variety has learned. McHugh has been one of the few reporters aggressively covering Reade’s allegations over the past month.

    “Basically, Tara Reade had asked Megyn to interview her. And Megyn asked me to produce it,” McHugh said. “Megyn asked her all the tough questions, but she did it in a respectful tone. She was tough but fair. Megyn was the perfect person to interview Tara.”

    https://variety.com/2020/biz/news/megyn-kelly-tara-reade-interview-joe-biden-sexual-assault-allegations-1234600823/

  145. 145.

    senyorDave

    @Bruce K:  I hope Donald John Trump and Addison Mitchell McConnell both come down with COVID-19

    I want Trump to be on a faulty ventilator procured by one of Javanka’s shell companies.  Maybe he’ll end up as vegetable and once a day the kids will draw to lots to see who has to “clean up the Donald”.  McConnell?  A long, drawn out, agonizing death, wheezing and turning blue for a few weeks

    I’m a liberal, but I’m not one of those nice liberals.

  150. 150.

    Emma

    @Starfish: That is honestly good to know that it wasn’t a white supremacist with a manifesto. There’ve been lots of older Asian folk that have been terrified of going in public because of racist assholes that may beat them for the crime of breathing while Asian.

    Still though, goddammit.

  155. 155.

    opiejeanne

    @HumboldtBlue:  Yeah, they’ll be back to being deficit hawks and screaming about comity and not playing the blame-game once Democrats are back in charge. Guaran-fucking-tee it.

    At which point we should just point and laugh at them.

  156. 156.

    WaterGirl

    @germy: Is that what they used to call the “body man”?  That’s what Charlie was on West Wing.

    Barack Obama only had one, some athlete, right?  When he left after a couple of years, Obama had a different one.  One person.

  157. 157.

    Mohagan

    @JPL: I only cook with chicken thighs, never breasts.  Breasts are so easy to overcook and become dry; thighs never do. Plus they are more flavorful. Must be the extra oil in them.  Anyway, they are perfect for baking, stir frys, anything actually.  Try them, you’ll like them!

  160. 160.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @germy: Too many motherfuckers like Jacob Asswhol and that smarmy prick O’Keefe are getting away with crap like this & barely getting a slap on the wrist. Same fucking thing that happened back in the 1920s & 30s in Germany and Japan (some of the young Japanese officers actually killed people in their half-arsed military coup attempts). Let them off light & they’ll just stir up nastier shit.

    The chickenshit Weimar Republic could have done millions of people a yooooge favor by having that former böhmischer Gefreite who led a beer-hall putsch taken out & shot.

  161. 161.

    Zinsky

    Apologies that I wasn’t aware that Arctic Barbie had dumped Todd and was now free to breed freely with whatever lost soul she might encounter.  I’m sure her moose hunting will suffer as a result.  I miss the stories of her inbred family punching each other out as here or her holier-than-thou daughter getting knocked up twice by different degenerate losers while preaching chastity as here

  162. 162.

    The Lodger

    @Bruce K: As long as you don’t specify the caliber of weapons to be used on those two, I don’t think you have to worry about the front pagers taking action.

  164. 164.

    Another Scott

    trump and jared are arguing the pandemic is behind us and we should move forward while they are increasing their own personal testing from a weekly schedule to a daily schedule https://t.co/aF5EU6ljGJ

    — darth™ (@darth) May 7, 2020

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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