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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Giving up is unforgivable.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

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

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / How Can I Miss You If You Won’t Go Away

How Can I Miss You If You Won’t Go Away

by John Cole|  July 19, 202111:00 pm| 99 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Just Shut the Fuck Up

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These fucking whiners honestly think they are free speech advocates:

Saturday July 2021. A month that will live in infamy. If there is such a thing as “history” in the Biden–Orwell–Soros omni-dictatorship, July 2021 will mark the month that the Constitution, the “greatest work ever thrown off by the hand and mind of man,” as Gladstone put it, was thrown into the Ministry of Truth Memory Hole.

It was put into the “History Erase” well. A bottomless pit.

In this month, actually starting with the month before, that the superpowers of the tech world, Google, YouTube, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, and Yahoo, admitted to working with the Biden/NKVD administration to suppress free speech.

If there is so much fucking censorship how come I hear every single fucking one of their bad ideas? I literally can go to youtube and search for “best way to cut a mango” and within three clicks a video from PragerU is telling me there was something to pizzagate.

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Reader Interactions

99Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    July 19, 2021 at 11:02 pm

    Ben Stein used to have an entertaining quiz show on the comedy channel. I think Jimmy Kimmel was his sidekick. That’s when he peaked.

  2. 2.

    Major Major Major Major

    July 19, 2021 at 11:06 pm

    Wow, haven’t thought about Ben Stein in ages. What a dipshit.

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    July 19, 2021 at 11:07 pm

    Almost feel left out as never have gotten any such recommendations at YouTube, only ones germane to whatever I’m watching/listening to.

    Almost.

  4. 4.

    Citizen Alan

    July 19, 2021 at 11:08 pm

    I’m genuinely surprised to learn that Ben Stein is still alive. Also slightly disappointed.

  5. 5.

    Suzanne

    July 19, 2021 at 11:13 pm

    Go gentle into that good night, Ben.

  6. 6.

    Matt McIrvin

    July 19, 2021 at 11:16 pm

    The guy made a whole movie about how academia was unfairly censoring creationists. There’s no point in listening to anything he says, even if you are Bueller and he’s calling your name.

  7. 7.

    swbarnes2

    July 19, 2021 at 11:16 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Sweetest $5k I ever earned

  8. 8.

    Morzer

    July 19, 2021 at 11:17 pm

    Sad nonsense, but that’s only to be expected from “conservatives” these days.  They literally have nothing to say worth hearing.

  9. 9.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    July 19, 2021 at 11:23 pm

    Ben Stein’s appearance in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is the only worthwhile thing he’s ever done in his life.

    Speaking of stupid things said by Republicans:

    Fox News contributor and Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen said on Monday the reason many people aren’t getting the Covid-19 vaccine is because President Joe Biden isn’t giving Donald Trump enough credit for vaccines being developed under Operation Warp Speed.

    The fact is a lot of Trump supporters are not getting vaccinated. But you know, one of the reasons for that is because Joe Biden keeps playing down Donald Trump’s role in developing the vaccines. He should be crediting President Trump for the greatest public health achievement in American history – it’s also the greatest achievement of the Trump presidency. They should be telling the vaccine hesitant Republicans, “If you trust Donald Trump, get your Trump vaccine because he’s the one who brought it to you.” Instead they’re trying to take away credit from him and downplay his role.

    h/t https://www.mediaite.com/tv/fox-news-contributor-says-trump-supporters-arent-getting-vaccinated-because-biden-is-trying-to-take-credit-away-from-him/

  10. 10.

    Viva BrisVegas

    July 19, 2021 at 11:23 pm

    The full quote from Gladstone actually goes:

    “As the British Constitution is the most subtle organism which has proceeded from progressive history, so the American Constitution is the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.”

    It is qualified by the phrase “at a given time”, i.e. the US Constitution was impressive for its time.

    Another Gladstone quote:

    “Liberalism is the trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.”

    Not one of Ben Stein’s favorites I suspect.

  11. 11.

    bbleh

    July 19, 2021 at 11:23 pm

    Oh please, they love nothing more than the sounds of their own voices whining about how unfair it all is, how they’re victims, how they’ve always played by the rules and never had any advantages while all these other people (and you know who they are) are just getting all sorts of special advantages, and really they’re almost like Jesus in their righteousness and suffering and blah blah wah wah wah.

    Scratch a Republican and you’ll find a spoiled 6-year-old.  And the scratch will huurrrt!

  12. 12.

    MattF

    July 19, 2021 at 11:28 pm

    Ben Stein considering himself an economist is a bad joke. His dad was an actual economist (Herbert Stein, of ‘Stein’s Law’: “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop”) and, for a while, the NYT, in a lapse of judgement that I hope still embarasses them, employed him a couple of decades ago as a personal finance columnist. Felix Salmon used to publish items from Stein of really exceptional stupidity under the heading ‘Ben Stein Watch’ but eventually gave up. I could go on– Stein pushes my ‘Jews are good with money’ button– but I’ll stop here.

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    July 19, 2021 at 11:33 pm

    Why does the post headline make me think of Michael Bolton? Now there’s another guy I didn’t need to be reminded of.

  14. 14.

    RaflW

    July 19, 2021 at 11:39 pm

    Jebus. The “Biden–Orwell–Soros omni-dictatorship”. What a turgid pile of nonsense. Embarrassing, even for the American Spectator.

  15. 15.

    Origuy

    July 19, 2021 at 11:39 pm

    @swbarnes2: You won Ben Stein’s Money?  I used to watch that show all the time. He was pretty strong on history and politics, but outside of that he could be beaten.

  16. 16.

    Mike in NC

    July 19, 2021 at 11:42 pm

    Ben Stein used to reliably show up on CBS Sunday Morning. A reliable douchebag.

  17. 17.

    Comrade Colette

    July 19, 2021 at 11:44 pm

    I feel like 90% of the time my response to any post here is “fuck that guy.” Or occasionally, “fuck that lady-parts-haver.” Not that I’m blaming the front pagers – it’s exhausting to track and enumerate all the people who really should go fuck themselves. There are just so damned many of them.

    In other news, yesterday I got a check in the mail from Uncle Joe Sam for the advance child tax credit, and then an hour later the child in question called me to ask how to register for the selective service. (He just turned 18.). Talk about whiplash! The Fed giveth, and the Fed already maketh contingency plans to take away.

  18. 18.

    RaflW

    July 19, 2021 at 11:47 pm

    Also, holy heck, I popped over to Ben’s twitter feed. Don’t do it.*

    @BenStein1944

    Richard Nixon Savior of Israel. Please dear Lord protect your people now!

    May 15, 2021

    *Thankfully, based on his follower count, looks like not many people do.

  19. 19.

    Benw

    July 19, 2021 at 11:55 pm

    @Comrade Colette: Cosigned. Often I have nothing to add beyond fuck that guy. So here’s the dance at the end of Dirty Dancing.

    Nobody puts baby in a corner: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtZFfEy_Eyk&t=15s

  20. 20.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    July 19, 2021 at 11:55 pm

    @RaflW:

    The “Biden–Orwell–Soros omni-dictatorship”. What a turgid pile of nonsense.

    Heh. Well and concisely put.

  21. 21.

    VOR

    July 19, 2021 at 11:55 pm

    Ben Stein was hired as entertainment for a conference I attended during Obama’s first term. The conference was held at the Gaylord National Harbor outside DC, which is the regular venue for CPAC. Attendees for our conference ran about 50% international (non-US) from all over the globe.

    Stein opened with “everyday I wake up and thank god I am an American”. He attacked global warming as a hoax. He told an extended airline joke whose repeated punchline was the plane being made in Brazil. I thought about the group from Brazil whose table I shared for dinner the night before.

    After it was mercifully over I ran into the head of our team from Sweden. He was livid and felt he had to apologize to his customers over the choice of entertainment. When you’ve pissed off the Swedes, you know it went badly.

  22. 22.

    Mel

    July 19, 2021 at 11:56 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Especially since he plagiarized the Isley Brothers’ music, and managed to then make the partially stolen tune sound as sketchy as his stuff!

    Just for an extra helping of Bolton horror, wasn’t there a creepy Bolton-Trump-Marla Maples love triangle scandal at some point? <shudder>

    Off to find brain bleach to purge that image…

  23. 23.

    Brachiator

    July 19, 2021 at 11:57 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Ben Stein used to have an entertaining quiz show on the comedy channel. I think Jimmy Kimmel was his sidekick. That’s when he peaked.

    Win Ben Stein’s Money. Fun show.

  24. 24.

    Major Major Major Major

    July 20, 2021 at 12:02 am

    @swbarnes2: ha, nice!

  25. 25.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    July 20, 2021 at 12:03 am

    First Bill O’Rielly now Ben Stein, there some “Conservative Super Stars of ’00s” Re-union tour going on?

  26. 26.

    NotMax

    July 20, 2021 at 12:08 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Zombie Phyllis Schlafly warming up in the stage right wing.

    :)

  27. 27.

    Ruckus

    July 20, 2021 at 12:09 am

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    As if fucking SFB had anything to do with the entire torrid vaccine deal, other than fucking it up and getting a few hundred thousand people killed because of his bullshit and incompetence.

    Maybe if we wrote about what SFB really did(n’t) do and what he actually did do, do you think that would make them happy when it shows exactly how bad he fucked up, instead of the endless trucks full of BS that they barf all over the truth?

  28. 28.

    Mel

    July 20, 2021 at 12:11 am

    @Major Major Major Major: I think the last time he crossed my radar, he was doing some very unfunny “comedic”commercials peddling eye drops.

    What a shame that he didn’t slink away and stay gone…

  29. 29.

    Ruckus

    July 20, 2021 at 12:12 am

    @bbleh:

    You give them way, way too much credit.

    Think about this, They seem like they all want to be SFB.

    Think how bad the world is with one of him, now think of the world with a few million of him.

  30. 30.

    Amir Khalid

    July 20, 2021 at 12:12 am

    @Mel:

    Bolton-Trump-Marla Maples love triangle

    Eew. Ewww!

  31. 31.

    eclare

    July 20, 2021 at 12:15 am

    @Ruckus:  What is SFB?

  32. 32.

    2liberal

    July 20, 2021 at 12:18 am

    @eclare:  What is SFB?

     

    Shit  for Brains

    pardon the language please

  33. 33.

    Zilch

    July 20, 2021 at 12:22 am

    @Amir Khalid: youtube.com/watch?v=rW9-FOLG-iA

  34. 34.

    Mel

    July 20, 2021 at 12:23 am

    @NotMax: Possibly worth the resurrection it if she could be then be turned into a convenient zombie carry-all, Michonne style, and used to tote around masks, Lysol, and hand sanitizer in the halls of the Capitol.

  35. 35.

    Zilch

    July 20, 2021 at 12:26 am

    @Amir Khalid: ​
     @Amir Khalid: youtube.com/watch?v=rW9-FOLG-iA

  36. 36.

    eclare

    July 20, 2021 at 12:32 am

    @2liberal:  Thanks!

  37. 37.

    Ruckus

    July 20, 2021 at 12:37 am

    @eclare:

    Shit For Brains

    I believe that explains it.

  38. 38.

    Ruckus

    July 20, 2021 at 12:39 am

    @2liberal:

    pardon the language

    Are you saying that I’m being too nice to him?

  39. 39.

    OldDave

    July 20, 2021 at 12:43 am

    I’d like to thank Cole for reminding me of this glorious old Dan Hicks earwig.

  40. 40.

    Lucidamente

    July 20, 2021 at 12:52 am

    Ben Stein is the James Woods of David Horowitzes.

  41. 41.

    smike

    July 20, 2021 at 12:52 am

    @eclare: What is SFB?
    Shit for Brains

    I was gonna go with Sonofabitching Fucking Bastard…
    pardon the language please​

  42. 42.

    Brachiator

    July 20, 2021 at 12:56 am

    @Wyatt Salamanca:

    Fox News contributor and Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen said on Monday the reason many people aren’t getting the Covid-19 vaccine is because President Joe Biden isn’t giving Donald Trump enough credit for vaccines being developed under Operation Warp Speed.

    This is so stupid that there might be some Republicans who actually believe it.

    But otherwise, nah. Just some lame ass rationalizing.

  43. 43.

    Ruckus

    July 20, 2021 at 12:56 am

    @OldDave:

    I like this one for the visual alone.

    OK the music is OK as well, IMO.

  44. 44.

    Steeplejack

    July 20, 2021 at 12:59 am

    @Ruckus:

    And you keep having to explain it. Maybe stop trying to make it a thing. Y0u’re retired: you’ve got time to type out “Trump” or even the universally recognized “TFG.”

  45. 45.

    Stuart Frasier

    July 20, 2021 at 12:59 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I was on Win Ben Stein’s Money.  They told us in the green room, “If you are a pretty woman, Ben will make a pass at you.  Ignore him.”  Another friend who was on the show confirmed that they got the same warning.

  46. 46.

    Ruckus

    July 20, 2021 at 1:08 am

    @Steeplejack:

    Actually I don’t, others do it for me. I just do out of curtesy. And I got tired of typing out shitforbrains. I also like to be reasonably descriptive when discussing people who have killed thousands of people by using  the vast array of intelligence and human qualities that they seem to have hidden some where, or possibly never possessed.

  47. 47.

    Omnes Omnibus

    July 20, 2021 at 1:10 am

    @Steeplejack: SFB is fetch.

  48. 48.

    Chetan Murthy

    July 20, 2021 at 1:11 am

    @Ruckus: The entire time he was in office, I couldn’t call him Trump.  And TFG is far too benign.  So I used a changing set of epithets/slurs for the imbecile.  I think we all process our anger, fear, hatred, etc differently, and I don’t see what’s wrong with calling him “SFB” — it seems pretty obvious from context whom you mean, after all.

  49. 49.

    swbarnes2

    July 20, 2021 at 1:12 am

    @Stuart Frasier: I did not get that warning.  I was told he’d be cross if he lost, especially to someone like me, and he was.  Co-host and crew were pleased I won.

  50. 50.

    HumboldtBlue

    July 20, 2021 at 1:12 am

    I really like this energy. T-Pain

    If nothing else, if we ever figure out how to fund universal music education again we will be much more melodically better off for it as a species.

  51. 51.

    Ruckus

    July 20, 2021 at 1:20 am

    @Chetan Murthy:

    One could call him FAt. Fucking Asshole trump.

    I could make up many of these, I have nothing but contempt for him. And he’s earned far worse. How much better would humanity be if it wasn’t for him?

    And the concept that he had anything whatsoever to do with the vaccine? No one can stretch reality that far without breaking it into a billion pieces.

  52. 52.

    Chetan Murthy

    July 20, 2021 at 1:30 am

    @Ruckus:

    I could make up many of these, I have nothing but contempt for him.

    With you.  I have a seemingly boundless reservoir of anger and hatred towards him, to process.  As a friend put it, he’s taken up a rent-free dwelling in our heads, all of us.  It’s big and spacious.  Sigh.  I really do wish we could get past it, do we could get on with our lives.  But the anger …. the anger …. I know that if I had the chance, I’d do some truly abominable things to him ….. [ok, enough torture porn]

  53. 53.

    eclare

    July 20, 2021 at 1:36 am

    @HumboldtBlue:  Epic rant!

  54. 54.

    Ruckus

    July 20, 2021 at 1:38 am

    I’m sorry but after 4 yrs of this fucking moron as president and his decades of racist, misogynistic bullshit, of watching him parade around like he thinks he has some actual decent human qualities I’m supposed to be polite and watch my language? Really? My language or description of him is the offensive part? Of course it is, he is one of the most offensive humans for so many reasons. Sure he hasn’t actually chopped off any heads, or even had it done, but look at the damage to our country, to our politics, to our lives. Or loss thereof. Why aren’t some even more pissed off? I enlisted in the US military during war, with no concept of where I’d end up or what I’d be doing when I got there, and sure I wasn’t overjoyed about it but I did serve and I did my best to be a citizen doing it. This SFB ass paid to avoid that, not that the military wasn’t better off. But at least no one had to shiv him or toss him over the side. No, he’s lived a life of relative luxury, with all the class, grace and stench of a lanced boil.

  55. 55.

    Mallard Filmore

    July 20, 2021 at 1:46 am

    @Ruckus: Hear hear.  I’m with you.  TFG is more widely known, but SFB is a better way to say it.

  56. 56.

    patrick Il

    July 20, 2021 at 1:47 am

    @Amir Khalid: ​ Michael Bolton once took Opera lessons and thought he was so good that he booked himself on Letterman to sing a duet with Pavarotti. Unbelievable ego, terrible voice. Dave watched in disbelief.

  57. 57.

    Steeplejack

    July 20, 2021 at 1:50 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    ?

  58. 58.

    mrmoshpotato

    July 20, 2021 at 2:17 am

    All of these Dump-humping Soviet shitpiles are tremendous bigly being “sensored!”.  Of course.  Naturally.  And fuck ’em!

  59. 59.

    Ivan X

    July 20, 2021 at 2:20 am

    I just assumed SFB stood for Stupid Fucking Bastard. Why not?

  60. 60.

    NotMax

    July 20, 2021 at 2:28 am

    @patrick Il

    “We managed to snag Rocco Pavarotti. He’s in ladies’ underwear at Macy’s.”

  61. 61.

    JWR

    July 20, 2021 at 2:47 am

    Is this the same Ben Stein who ruined a few episodes of Married … with Children?

  62. 62.

    Ruckus

    July 20, 2021 at 2:53 am

    @Ivan X:

    No reason, that’s a perfectly good interpretation.

  63. 63.

    NotMax

    July 20, 2021 at 2:57 am

    Presumably y’all have seen something about this.

    With COVID-19 hitting more than 10% of the Texas Democrats who fled Austin to stymie a GOP elections bill, the runaways spent Monday strategizing ways to prod Congress for new voting rights protections without being able to lobby in person.

    A sixth member of the Texas House tested positive on Monday, according to state Rep. Rhetta Bowers of Dallas, adding that she and others have brought food to those quarantining in their rooms.

    “It definitely is not stopping our work,” she said. “We’re just having to be a whole lot more careful.” Source

  64. 64.

    2liberal

    July 20, 2021 at 3:02 am

    https://www.emptywheel.net/2021/07/19/paul-hodgkins-sentenced-to-eight-months-sentence

     

    As noted, I think this is a reasonable sentence for Hodgkins. And the way Moss got to the sentence leaves himself and other judges plenty of room to impose harsher sentences to defendants who did more to threaten democracy.

  65. 65.

    Chetan Murthy

    July 20, 2021 at 3:05 am

    @NotMax: Oh lordy, I hope they’re all fully-vaccinated.  Courage, these people had.  I wish they’d taken more precautions, but …. well, water under the bridge.  Brave folks.

  66. 66.

    Chetan Murthy

    July 20, 2021 at 3:07 am

    @2liberal: OTOH, Tommy Chong noted that he got 9mos for selling bongs (that traitor Hodgkins got 8mos for trying to destroy our country).  https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-tommy-chong-prison-sentence-paul-alan-hodgkins-20210720-s57xrtn5gjdhrademgbzlkoxia-story.html

  67. 67.

    The Pale Scot

    July 20, 2021 at 3:09 am

    @Viva BrisVegas:

    The full quote from Gladstone actually goes:

    Then he’s a bloody idiot, Britain doesn’t have written constitution, they have patchwork set of procedures and customs that are totally inadequate for today’s media market. 200,00 due paying Tories get to choose the government. Under the terms of the new EU treaty, the UK isn’t able to rejoin because their government does not meet the definition of a democracy. Except for decade a decade ago, the Tories have been in power for 60 years

  68. 68.

    AlaskaReader

    July 20, 2021 at 3:12 am

    Those Texas Democrats should have been vaccinated months ago.

  69. 69.

    John Griffone

    July 20, 2021 at 3:14 am

    Freedom means being able to lie with impunity on someone else’s platform.

  70. 70.

    opiejeanne

    July 20, 2021 at 3:24 am

    @AlaskaReader:  My understanding is that they were all vaccinated. Just like the Yankees players who tested positive just before their game with the Red Sox.

  71. 71.

    eclare

    July 20, 2021 at 3:25 am

    @opiejeanne:  The gymnast at the Olympics was too.  Haven’t seen anything on Coco Gauff.

  72. 72.

    Chetan Murthy

    July 20, 2021 at 3:27 am

    @opiejeanne: That’s a comfort.  Thanks.

  73. 73.

    Patricia Kayden

    July 20, 2021 at 3:35 am

    Hey everyone, @seanhannity is finally whispring "Iceberg!" a year after the Titanic hit the ocean floor. pic.twitter.com/08A8LVi49V— John Pavlovitz (@johnpavlovitz) July 20, 2021

  74. 74.

    NotMax

    July 20, 2021 at 3:38 am

    @Chetan Murthy

    All reporting I’ve seen states the entire group has been fully vaccinated.

  75. 75.

    Sloane Ranger

    July 20, 2021 at 4:46 am

    @The Pale Scot:

     

     

    Then he’s a bloody idiot, Britain doesn’t have written constitution, they have patchwork set of procedures and customs that are totally inadequate for today’s media market. 200,00 due paying Tories get to choose the government. Under the terms of the new EU treaty, the UK isn’t able to rejoin because their government does not meet the definition of a democracy. Except for decade a decade ago, the Tories have been in power for 60 years

    And we’ve all seen how a written constitution is so much better by looking at how its been working in the US. Oh wait, the Republican Party has spent decades exploiting loopholes and appointing judges whose interpretation of the clear wording of that written Constitution stretches the normal usage of the English language beyond breaking point. Democracies survive not by words on paper, but by the willingness of the players to follow norms and customs.

    The British electoral system, at least in theory, allows voters to select their government and hold them to account against their manifesto commitmens. Other systems usually lead to coalitions, followed by horse trading, leading to a government with policies which even the people who voted for one of the coalition partners oppose.

    As for the Tories being in power so long, look to a Tory supporting media, Labour infighting and the increase in small and secessionist parties plus a willingness to appeal to white working voters worse instincts.

  76. 76.

    Patricia Kayden

    July 20, 2021 at 5:41 am

    People who test positive for the coronavirus should distance themselves from not only humans, but pet cats and dogs as well. “You cannot cuddle them,” one scientist said. https://t.co/cvaQie7dBr— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 20, 2021

  77. 77.

    Patricia Kayden

    July 20, 2021 at 5:51 am

    @Wyatt Salamanca: Trump downplayed the seriousness of the Coronavirus so no, he doesn’t get credit for the vaccination. He does, however, get full credit for the unnecessary Covid-19 deaths during his horrendous presidency.
    Keep in mind that he didn’t even let the public know that he took the vaccine in January. That info was leaked months later.

  78. 78.

    brantl

    July 20, 2021 at 6:51 am

    @Chetan Murthy: TFG also conveniently stands for “That fucking Guy” as well; I think that whenever I see it, it was the first thing that hit me when I first saw it, and it stuck.

  79. 79.

    r€nato

    July 20, 2021 at 6:51 am

    I’m old enough to remember when conservatives lustily cheered on a president who believed he had unlimited powers, but that was way back in 2020. Probably unfair to remind them of something from so long ago.

  80. 80.

    r€nato

    July 20, 2021 at 6:55 am

    @Wyatt Salamanca: Now that it is thoroughly proven that the various vaccines confer a high degree of protection (greatly reducing the problem of ‘collateral damage’), I have no problem at all with conservatives refusing to get their jabs in order to stick it to the libs because their messiah is not getting the credit they hilariously think he deserves for them.

  81. 81.

    Chris Johnson

    July 20, 2021 at 7:00 am

    Because it’s always projection. They’re telling you what they’re fixing to do. You’re welcome.

  82. 82.

    Rob

    July 20, 2021 at 7:06 am

    @Ivan X: ​
    In my not completely awake state I parsed SFB as Savage Feral Beast

  83. 83.

    Dave P

    July 20, 2021 at 7:11 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    Why does the post headline make me think of Michael Bolton?

    Because the term “no-talent ass clown” applies to both Michael Bolton and Ben Stein

  84. 84.

    ThresherK

    July 20, 2021 at 7:23 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: ​
      “Win Ben Stein’s Money” was fun. “The Man Show” (co-starring Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla) was funnier than it had any right to be.

    I don’t watch late-night TV any longer–I don’t stay up that late now. But at some point it occurred to me that Jimmy Kimmel has some charm to him, and he maybe was the key to making these shows work.

  85. 85.

    Barry

    July 20, 2021 at 7:29 am

    @MattF: ​
     

    “…in a lapse of judgement that I hope still embarasses them,…”

    Unpossible. They are incapable of that emotion.

  86. 86.

    Starfish

    July 20, 2021 at 8:37 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pubd-spHN-0

  87. 87.

    Starfish

    July 20, 2021 at 8:48 am

    @Ruckus: The problem for others was not the language but that you have just invented an acronym, and no one else understands what you are talking about.

    If I am going to critique what it stands for, it lacks the creativity that the best people put in their invectives.

    As far as the rest of it goes, I agree that That Tub of Macaroni and Cheese Ice Cream is offensive as all hell, but I am not going to start shortening it to TTMCIC because no one is going to know what I am talking about.

  88. 88.

    Matt

    July 20, 2021 at 9:04 am

    @RaflW:

    Meanwhile he’s invoking Soros as a boogeyman.

    TFW Jews get such a fascist boner from the occupation that they forget that they’re nodding along to the arguments of actual Nazis.

  89. 89.

    zifnab25

    July 20, 2021 at 10:24 am

    Can’t wait until “vaccines are fake and Trump’s genius created them” just flow like water, uninterrupted, as a singular dogmatic belief.

  90. 90.

    sherparick

    July 20, 2021 at 10:29 am

    Ben Stein is an example of arrested development that started afflicting American male teens in the 1960s when, as John Rodgers pointed out we would read two books. “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”

    Ben Stein is more evidence of the harm “Atlas Shrugged” has had on the world. He has never moved beyond the cruel and vapid ideas of Galt’s Gulch. Nor his belief that every woman he meets wants him to play the leading role in rape fantasy.

  91. 91.

    Mike in NC

    July 20, 2021 at 11:30 am

    Fuck Benny Stein and the American Sphincter magazine.

  92. 92.

    Ruckus

    July 20, 2021 at 11:43 am

    @Starfish:

    I invented an acronym is the problem.

    OK then, that’s the problem.

    Clarity is the issue, perfection is the issue.

    Sorry I’m not perfect enough for you.

    I’ll fucking try to do better in the future.

  93. 93.

    Audrey

    July 20, 2021 at 12:52 pm

    @The Pale Scot:

    You can grant him a little slack as he’s been dead for over 120 years :)

  94. 94.

    Brantl

    July 20, 2021 at 1:05 pm

    @zifnab25:  THAT should be a rotating tag line!

  95. 95.

    Brantl

    July 20, 2021 at 1:08 pm

    @Ruckus: SFB as an acronym for Shit For Brains has been around “since god was a boy”.

  96. 96.

    J R in WV

    July 20, 2021 at 1:08 pm

    @AlaskaReader: 
     

    Those Texas Democrats should have been vaccinated months ago.

    They are vaccinated — they are being exposed because they aren’t sheltering in their homes in TX, they’re in DC eating in restaurants and living in hotel rooms.

    In an area with a pretty high vaccination rate, also too!

    Where did you get the spurious idea that these Texas Democratic Patriots are not all vaccinated? Why are you attempting to spread false, misleading, mis-information right here in Balloon-juice?

    That starts with B, which rhymes with T which doesn’t stand for TFG, SFB.

    You are the problem right here and now, thanks to all the software guys who invented the Pie Filter which can solve the problem of your existence right here and now.

  97. 97.

    Ruckus

    July 20, 2021 at 3:11 pm

    @Brantl:

    I know.

    In 7 decades, I’ve invented nothing.

    Oh well, another day, another day

    I really wasn’t dissing you here, please understand. It’s just another day in blogland.

    Oh damn I made up another word. What will I do…….

  98. 98.

    The Truffle

    July 20, 2021 at 3:20 pm

    Ben Stein’s whining appears alongside headlines about Hunter Biden and the dangers of immigration.
    Can we safely say his article is one big self-own? I mean, Stein and his ilk seem more pissed that their ravings are confined to wingnut-welfare outlets.

  99. 99.

    Richard

    July 20, 2021 at 9:29 pm

    @bbleh: Yes. It is FUBAR, the way go on crying about their conspiracies and stupid pseudointellectual justifications.

    They called people who disagree with them “snowflakes”. They informed the world that they “drink liberal tears “. Now the shoe is on the other foot. They are not happy.

    I don’t even know who Ben Stein was. Sounds like he will not be missed.

    Not to even mention that golden calf they have been worshipping all these years. And they dare to call it religion? Eff them.

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