Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Second rate reporter says what?

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

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

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

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Reader Interactions

42Comments

  1. 1.

    Steeplejack

    I just watched the end of the NFL game. The league’s overtime rule is bullshit: each team should get one possession, then sudden death. As it stands now, if the first team scores a touchdown on its first possession, game over. That gives too much value to the coin toss. And is not much better than the old rules.

  4. 4.

    patrick II

    @Steeplejack:

    The NFL has had 325 overtime games since the rule was adopted in 1974. The results:Both teams have had possession 235 times (72.3%).The team that has won the toss has won 169 times (52.0%).The team that has lost the toss has won 141 times (43.4%).223 games were decided by a field goal (68.6%).86 games were decided by a TD (26.5%).One game was decided by a safety (0.3%).There have been 15 ties (4.6%).

    52 to 43.4 is not as bad as it seems and these stats date from 1974. The rule was amended in 2010 to require the first team to possess the ball to score a touchdown as KC did tonight. I think the main reason they keep the rule as is they want the game to end as quickly as possible within reasonable bounds of fairness. Tired football players get hurt.​​

  11. 11.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    I saw, hours after you asked in a thread a couple of days ago, how the Instant Pot and I are getting on. I’ve really only cooked two major meals in it: traditional pot roast with fingerling potatoes, carrots, and onions; and lemon-ginger chicken breasts. I still find it a bit intimidating, but I’m sure I’ll get more comfortable with it the more I use it. Certainly not sorry I took advantage of Good Black Friday pricing to acquire it.

    Edited. Where did that come from!?

  15. 15.

    Kalakal

    FWIW my guess is a contest between 2 equally horrible people.

    Michael Gove has Uncle Rupes backing, has the charisma of damp lint

    Liz Truss a remarkably stupid person even amongst a group of very stupid people

    Rishi Sunak will fail not because of his inadequacies but because he needs to persuede a bunch of racists to vote for him

  16. 16.

    Leto

    @Steeplejack: The teams had 60 mins to determine a winner. The Chargers then had the opportunity to actually have a defensive plan that included: just tackle Kelsey. The rules aren’t bullshit, the Chargers suck at tackling. No rules will fix that. Also as Patrick II said, tired players are more prone to injury. It was a good game, it went back and forth, now we get to go to bed.

    Edit: 3 non-converts in the red zone? 2 fumbles and an int? Again, self inflicted wounds. Don’t want to go to overtime? Fix your shit.

  18. 18.

    brendancalling

    Up late, hitting the sack soon.
    there’s a good chance Canada’s new travel advisories may mean my kid can’t come for Xmas. They’ve certainly worried his mom, and it might mean he can’t make it. I totally get where she’s coming from, and we have about a week to make a decision. But this would make two years w/o seeing family.

    we’re struggling with what to do.

  20. 20.

    Pharniel

    @Leto:

    Additionally, the TV partners would like games to end in a timely fashion.

    There was a prior rule that did not have the coin flip, but instead gave the ball to the team that last held the lead.

    I’m tempted to just say end it in a tie, but OT is super exciting.

  21. 21.

    BlueGuitarist

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    a few days ago you posted about the most 2021 sentence:

    Former US Senate candidate and first Maine resident to catch COVID Max Linn found dead in hot tub after being sued for pulling gun on former aide during cryptocurrency disagreement

    Wait, there’s more! Linn was:

    Jan 6 participant

    “sought to buy drugs falsely touted as COVID-19 cures”

    Visited Wuhan in December 2019, where he got covid

    In 2018, disqualified from Maine ballot for nominating petitions “marred by fraudulent and dead-voter signatures”

    after that his useless campaign signs kept “popping up at busy intersections” in New Hampshire.

  23. 23.

    Leto

    @Pharniel: there’s still the possibility of a tie! It happens at least once per season. Idk, it’s the same grousing that soccer fans have with penalty kicks. You had 90 mins, plus stoppage time, plus two 10 min overtimes… the teams had plenty of time to resolve this. Let’s get this over with and move on with our lives.

  26. 26.

    Kalakal

    @Yarrow: Gove is really popular with a lot of Tories. It’s one of life’s great mysteries like “Why is a raven like of writing desk?” or The Giant Rat of Sumatra. He has absolutely no redeeming characteristics, has the appearance of a newt that not even its mother could love, and the charm of a dyspeptic warthog. He is however a loyal flunkey of R Murdoch

  29. 29.

    Kalakal

    A few months ago Gove turned up off his face at a nightclub in Aberdeen. Here god help us is a man who has a serious chance of becoming the next pm of the UK.

    Viewers of a sensitive disposition may want to look away now

    youtu.be/toYL4jjl4q4

  31. 31.

    Another Scott

    Andrew Yang sends me words. Words I didn’t ask for.

    It’s also true that Democrats were lucky to have even 50 senators – they came within 15,000 Georgia voters of having only 49 and Mitch McConnell as speaker.

    Of course, he closes asking for money. I think I’ll pass. I hope you do as well.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  32. 32.

    danielx

    Note: there should be a microsoft diagnostic message that says:

    Cat walked, sat or lay upon keyboard and engaged airplane mode, you’re screwed.

  38. 38.

    raven

    @Steeplejack:  I’m glad I saw the first words and closed the page! I DVR games and watch in the morning and I didn’t want to know the outcome. The Chargers had plenty of chances to win!

  42. 42.

    Zelma

    @Kalakal:

    Late to this thread, but I’ve been reviewing in my head the PMs since Pitt the Younger.  (And yes, I know them all.  Taught British history for 40 years.).  Seems to me that in “awfulness,” Boris’s only competitors are Bonar Law and the Tory leader after the Napoleonic wars, whose name escapes me.  (It wasn’t Castlereagh; he wasn’t PM). I mean I disagreed with the policies of many Tory PMs, but they weren’t assholes.  Boris is.

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