Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

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

Consistently wrong since 2002

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

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

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

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

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

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

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

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

Not all heroes wear capes.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

You are here: Home / Politics / Media / Sunday Evening Open Thread: ‘Potty Mouths’

Sunday Evening Open Thread: ‘Potty Mouths’

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Joe Biden is of an age and a tradition where words had weight. Acknowledging that weight, there were some words one didn’t use around strangers, children, or (at the intersection of those classes) the press.

Our failed modern press treats words as bulk-rate trinkets from a kiddy-party goody bag, to be snatched at and discarded. Blake Hounsell has just been promoted from Politico to the NYTimes on the strength of his word-pinata game…

Of course, the pundits are *much* more sympathetic to the rightwing’s gleeful group embrace of a toddler-level attempt at shocking the grownups…

Reader Interactions

92Comments

  2. 2.

    Burnspbesq

    If you have any friends who are Manchester United fans, they could probably use a hug right about now.

  3. 3.

    Betty

    I guess I am naive because I am still amazed that people like Blake and Ashley keep getting promoted by the big media houses.

  5. 5.

    Eljai

    If I had to enter the Oval Office with a shovel to clean up after TFG, I too would be swearing a blue streak.

  7. 7.

    Ruckus

    @Burnspbesq:

    I’d bet someone having to do with the NJ governors race, possibly a journalist.

    Which you likely got because of the end of your comment…..

  11. 11.

    Anne Laurie

    @Burnspbesq: Who the fuck is (or was) Brandon? And why should I give the first flying fuck?

    IIRC, there was a race-car event where a Brandon Someone-or-Other was getting his award, when the Trump-Toddlers’ group-chant F*ck Joe Biden got picked up on the international broadcast.  Some well-meaning soul tried to convince listeners it was really Let’s go Brandon, and the Toddlers found this so funny they’ve taken it up as another clan marker.

  12. 12.

    zhena gogolia

    @Burnspbesq: I guess people were chanting Fuck Biden at some sporting event, and the commentator said, “It sounds as if they’re chanting Let’s go, Brandon,” so now the trumpanzees use “Let’s Go Brandon” as code for Fuck Biden. Yes, it’s just as stupid as you expected.

  13. 13.

    Ruckus

    @Betty:

    The big media houses need people who will write whatever, however the boss wants written. They want yessir boss folks writing for them. So that the stories promote their view point. They pay, they get no one to argue with them and write dreck.

  15. 15.

    opiejeanne

    @Ruckus: This got started when a reporter was doing a live interview with a race car driver named Brandon something. The reporter waved it off as the fans saying, “Let’s go Brandon”, and now the morons on the right think it’s cute.

  18. 18.

    Burnspbesq

    @Ruckus:

    I speak fluent Jersey; lived there from 1964-86.

    And just so we’re fucking clear, it’s called Taylor ham. Get outta here with that “pork roll” shit. Mouth-breathing, inbred South Jersey assholes …

  25. 25.

    Mallard Filmore

    so would he accurately call blake a dumbass or a dipshit?

    Is “dumbass” a potty mouth word?  It was used by Red on That 70’s Show.

  26. 26.

    Mike in NC

    @Burnspbesq:  A buddy from Hoboken took me to a diner there years ago. Everybody in NJ calls it Taylor ham. However, I have some in the fridge and it says “pork roll” on the box.

  30. 30.

    lollipopguild

    @RandomMonster: Conservatives ARE funny because they keep “owning” themselves. Bush jr spent 3 of his 8 years in office at his ranch in Texas (Sold the ranch as soon as he left office), trump could have spent all 4 years in Florida and the conservatives would have been ok with it, but Biden goes back to Delaware and he needs to resign.

  31. 31.

    NotMax

    @Mallard Filmore

    Strangely enough, it likely wouldn’t have passed muster with Standards & Practices during the actual 70s.

    Not sure about it but Hot l Baltimore in 1975 may have been the first regularly scheduled network TV show to include a “mature audiences” disclaimer. And just for kicks, a promo spot for it, because Conchata Ferrell’s laugh is positively infectious.

  32. 32.

    zhena gogolia

    Has anyone read Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen? It’s pretty funny satire of TFG. I can’t believe I’m enjoying it, since I’m so sick of TFG, but he weaves it into an engaging plot.

  35. 35.

    James E Powell

    I don’t think I ever heard of Taylor Ham or pork roll till I read this thread. So I looked it up and according to wikipedia, which is never wrong, old Mr Taylor had to drop the ham from the name in 1906. So it’s one of those things that got lodged in the language and won’t come out.

    Like tinfoil.

  36. 36.

    RevRick

    My response whenever I see a dumbass meme on Facebook that amounts to little more than insults is to ask the poster, “What are you, like eight?”

    Since they were expecting outrage, that usually effectively shuts them up.

  38. 38.

    There go two miscreants

    @Burnspbesq: I read the article at your link, and one statement that jumped out at me was: “It has even popped up in Pennsylvania and Maryland. ”

    More than “popped up”. I am 71 and I grew up in Baltimore eating Taylor’s Pork Roll. We had it often when we were kids!

  40. 40.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I’ve mentioned in a couple of other threads the extraordinary opera I saw yesterday, Fire Shut Up in My Bones. I hadn’t really anticipated ever hearing the words “motherfucker” or even “shit” from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House, but in context the terms were appropriate, and no one batted an eye. In fact, any language less earthy would have come across as inauthentic.

  44. 44.

    Ken

    @Anne Laurie: the Toddlers found this so funny they’ve taken it up as another clan marker.

    Ah, like that scene in Brave New World where they visit the Savage Reservation and see their rituals, except in this version the savages are wearing red billed headdresses, painting their faces with ivermectin, and chanting “Locker locker lockeroop, Leggo Leggo Leggo branding.”

  45. 45.

    NotMax

    Sitting here half-watching a 70-year-old amateur detectives TV series, which is (and was) decidedly average*. Still and all has not aged irredeemably badly and today provides a sharp focus snapshot of what defined gender roles were then. Mr. and Mrs. North, on Tubi.

    *Certainly as compared to the radio series from which it sprang.

  53. 53.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    “I didn’t fire MacArthur because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that’s not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail.”

    ~ Harry S. Truman

  54. 54.

    gene108

    @Mike in NC:

    A buddy from Hoboken took me to a diner there years ago. Everybody in NJ calls it Taylor ham. However, I have some in the fridge and it says “pork roll” on the box.

    That’s because you went to North Jersey, where everyone’s a wannabe New Yorker, without the guts to move to NYC.

    In South Jersey, where people are happy being from NJ, it’s called a pork roll.

    North Jersey just does things wrong.

  57. 57.

    schrodingers_cat

    FB and its promotion of hate speech in India is the subject of 3 cover stories on WashPost, NYT and WSJ.
    I have been observing from afar tracking state, local and national news from India since Modi was reelected and things have been getting steadily worse for minorities and those who dare to speak the truth.
    Also, India has slid on all the major economic indicators and quality of life indexes in the last 7 years. But the cult of personality is still thriving.

  58. 58.

    Ruckus

    @Burnspbesq:

    How do you really feel?

    I leaned to swear about 60 yrs ago, when I started working in my dad’s new business as an apprentice/know nothing. Best language class ever.

  60. 60.

    trollhattan

    Stormchat. The water year begins October 1 and so far today in the Sacramento metroplex, we have received more than half the total rain we got in W.Y. 2020-2021. If it doesn’t slow down tonight we may possibly match last year’s total.

    In a day.

    Climate change has brought us many new phenomena, weather extremes being one, so is this extreme or just how it’s going to be?

  65. 65.

    asiargrrlMN

    Hello, Balloon Juicers! *waves vigorously*

    I wanted to stop in and thank everyone who sent good vibes, positive thoughts, and prayers my way while I was in the hospital. I read the posts about me after I was home from the hospital a few weeks (which is a strange experience, believe you me).

    I firmly believe that I made it through the dark times with the aid of three things (in addition to my kickass medical team): luck, Taiji, and love. Y’all were a big part of the last and I can’t tell you how touched I was when I realized how many Juicers helped carry me through the darkness.

    I’m still recovering from my ordeal and I’m finding my way to a new normal. It’s not been easy, but it’s been quite the journey, let me tell you. I thank all of you for the reams of positivity you sent whizzing my way. I needed it as I fought my way  back to life.

    I raise my rusty pitchfork in tribute to you all and thank you from the bottom of my heart (which is doing great, by the way!) I will never forget the outpouring of love I received from y’all.

  66. 66.

    NorthLeft12

    Funny, the former guy never tried to hide his racism and stupidity in public, but I don’t have a doubt that he was even worse in private. I guess that was not worth noting.

  68. 68.

    Obdurodon

    You all would not *believe* how excited my wife (childhood summers on LBI) and her parents (MIL from Metuchen via Douglass) were when I started finding pork roll up here in MA. It’s one of those things that really comes to represent a treasured place and time for many people.

    And no, never heard anyone call it Taylor ham. Definitely a sub-regional thing.

  70. 70.

    bmoak

    @Burnspbesq: Got me some John Taylor’s Pork Roll in the freezer right now.  In the burlap sack/wrapper.  Accept no substitutes.  And I’m from North Jersey.

    Although the PRODUCT was called pork roll, we always referred to it as Taylor Ham when eating it (ie. Taylor ham, egg & cheese on a roll.)

  71. 71.

    laura

    I roasted a Boston butt low and slow overnight – garlic shived in, S&P, a display of rosemary, sage and bay leaves held down by slices of not yet ripe orange- and a squeeze of sour juice. We just had dinner with pan fried zucchini and sliced garlic and risotto milanese and a piece of french bread for pushing/mopping. It’s been lashing rain all day as Trollhattan has reported and our house smells like a combo of wet dirt, warm food and dogs/cats/spouse. My cup runneth over. I’m sure I’ll be back to potty mouth cussy in the am because too many reasons but for now, I’m wallowing in abundance and gratitude.

  72. 72.

    Procopius

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:

    Oh, I had completely forgotten that quote. It’s so true, and the people idolizing the military as “heroes” don’t understand it. You would think the stories coming out of Afghanistan for twenty years would have alerted people. The poor schlubs in the ranks get blown up because some colonel or brigadier, angling for promotion, orders them to set up a forward operating post in a valley instead of on the surrounding mountains. Because “counterinsurgency” demands they be “close to the people.” This stuff was reported on and totally ignored for twenty years. Heartbreaking.

  73. 73.

    sdhays

    @NorthLeft12: “Republican is a horrible, horrible human being, especially in private” is a dog bites man story. The press is bored by it. They just assume “everyone knows”.

    At least that’s what they tell themselves. I think that’s more of the frame they use to justify what they want to do for other reasons.

  75. 75.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Anne Laurie: It makes perfect sense that a woman who was born 60 years or so too late to be the Bitch of Buchenwald would be pushing the meme.

  76. 76.

    smedley the uncertain

    @Burnspbesq: You must be from Northern Jersey, a wana be suburb of NYC. I spent my yoot growing up in West Trenton. And to me its Pork Roll not the hoi polloi Taylor Ham. Provided many a supper for me.

  77. 77.

    Zelma

    @Obdurodon:

    When I was a child in the 50s, there was a Taylor Pork Roll store on the boardwalk in Cape May.  I am from South Jersey, have always spent summers here, and now live in Cape May County.  It is definitely Pork Roll and I have never tried it.  I think I’ll go to Wawa tomorrow and have a Pork Roll on bagel breakfast sandwich. I am intrigued.

  79. 79.

    Peale

    @Jackie: it’s more like a smokier Oscar Meyer spiced ham. I’ve lived here for 25 years and have never taken to it. There’s at least 5 maybe six breakfast meats ahead of it.

  80. 80.

    Jackie

    @Peale: I’m not a smoked ham, or Spam eater. Way too much sodium and processing. Just was curious after googling it. Thanks for satisfying my curiosity!

  84. 84.

    evodevo

    @Procopius: yes.  this.  when I first heard about that incident, I just was furious (many family members in the military).  That kind of crap has been recognized as tactically stoopid for hundreds of years. WFT?  It’s no wonder we failed in the field so badly…

  85. 85.

    Geo Wilcox

    This is about as edgy as when the Mormon radio hosts say “flippin heck” instead of fucking hell. For fuck’s sake we all know what you mean, sin in thought, so why not just say it?

  86. 86.

    leeleeFL

    @Baud: I work with a kid named Brandon, who is honestly a sweet person, but he makes rocks look like geniuses.  He laughs along with me when I point out something he needs to stop doing, so as to not get canned.  He always says thank you. Polite. He just passed a major test, so I expect he’ll be moving along soon …

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