Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

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

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

People are complicated. Love is not.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

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

When I was faster i was always behind.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / The Beauty of No Fucks Left To Give

The Beauty of No Fucks Left To Give

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Watching the video of Raskin below will take 2.5 minutes of your time, but I’m fairly sure that the joy of watching it will add years to your life.

h/t cain

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

82Comments

  6. 6.

    Grumpy Old Railroader

    I would never ever say “Bananas Republican.” That’s just not the way I roll. Maybe others would stoop to saying “Bananas Republican” but the term “Bananas Republican” is demeaning so that is why I avoid calling anyone a “Bananas Republican“.​

  8. 8.

    Highway Rob

    Until I read Raskin’s remarks just now — and I know this isn’t what he said — “Bananas Republican” had not occurred to me before.

    I’m sure I’m not the first to say it, but original or not, I’m kinda digging the hell out of it.

  9. 9.

    WaterGirl

    @Grumpy Old Railroader:

    I would never ever say “Banana Republican.” That’s just not the way I roll. Maybe others would stoop to saying “Banana Republican” but the term “Banana Republican” is demeaning so that is why I avoid saying “Banana Republican”.

    That was quite possibly the best part, in 2.5 minutes filled with best parts.  The delivery couldn’t possibly have been any better than what he pulled off.

  16. 16.

    chrisanthemama

    Rep. Raskin’s headgear is (along with his towering intelligence and integrity) his super-power.

  17. 17.

    coin operated

    Raskin pointed out that she was a fucking idiot…and she’ll wear that as a badge of honor.

    Shamelessness is their superpower.

  19. 19.

    JML

    Good for Raskin. I’m so sick of that childish, intentional mis-naming of the Democratic Party. It’s fucking annoying and moronic…but then again, so is the Republican Party.

  22. 22.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    Another open thread, another gem from manager Henry Johnson of Fred Meyer Greatest Hits:

    How to get your employees to hate you….

    Undermine them while doing their job when they politely deny a refund to a customer who wants to return an electronics item because the customer has no receipt nor even the packaging the item came in. Just the item and the customer expects a full refund. Company rules are that you can only get a refund if the item has not been opened. If it has been opened then all you can get is a like-for-like exchange, no refund. No packaging if opened? Then no trade in. These are the ironclad rules that the employee has to follow, which they do if they want to keep their job. When refused their refund the customer gives the employee the old “We’ll see about that!” and marches off to the customer information desk.

    The customer demands to speak to the boss and demands a refund from him, which Henry approves. On the way out of the building the customer walks by the employee to let them know that they got their way. Employee is pissed because they did their job and the customer now hates them and loves Henry. The customer will cop an attitude the next time they are in the store and that employee offers to help them with something else. Once again the asshole store manager has undermined them and the customer is laughing at them. Henry has done this many times and the workers are sick of it because it always ends with the customer being pissed at them and loving Henry for saving them from the evil employee who was just doing their job.

    They have to throw away items that are returned without the packaging. The item this customer returned had a picture that Henry took of the UPC attached to the item. When the employee processed the returns for that day they looked at it and tossed it in the garbage, a write off.

    Wash, rinse and repeat. Daily.

  29. 29.

    dww44

    @JML: this deliberate grammatical misuse has been going on for a couple of decades.  When someone says the “Democrat” party around me I immediately respond and refer to the “Republic” party.  Most times it flies right over their heads. Republicans are such petty, whiny, cruel, and mean political partisans.  That might be a slight over generalization.  But not much.

  31. 31.

    tobie

    @dww44: You’re too kind. I say, “If you’re going to call the Democratic Party the Democrat Party, I’ll call your party the Repugnant Party.” I wish I could say that stops them in their tracks. It doesn’t.

  32. 32.

    Jackie

    Jamie is one of my top five Representatives!♥️

    In other news, Chicago’s going to have a new mayor.

  34. 34.

    chopper

    every time i hear someone use “democrat” as an adjective i imagine them using “jew” the same way, like “my jew doctor” or “jew neighbor”

  35. 35.

    Kent

    When I lived in Waco TX the local NPR station reporters would use the Democrat Party thing to my constant annoyance.

    I would send nasty letters to the station manager asking what kind of education and editing their reporters had when they couldn’t distinguish a noun from an  adjective.  I would basically tell them:  “Are you really sure that you want your station reporters to sound like uneducated goobers?”  Because they do.

    Never got a response, but it made me feel better.

  36. 36.

    JerseyBeard

    Re-pube-licken Party. Just change up the emphasis a bit and they become the party of pube lickers.

    I enjoy petty and childish.

  37. 37.

    cmoren

    @dww44:

    When someone says the “Democrat” party around me I immediately respond and refer to the “Republic” party.

    Except “republic” is exactly the spin on government the Republicans actually do stand for, rather than a full democracy.  They want to use the concept that the USA is a republic of states with far more autonomy from a far more limited federal government of states in federation only for a very limited set of purposes like defense, with states free (once GOP wins control in any state election) to gerrymander themselves into indefinite control, including the federal government via congressional districting (such as there is of it).  And bc they have gerrymandered so many state legislatures in swingy states, reversion to state legislatues to choose US Senators is on their ultimate wish-list.  And recent GOP SCOTUS nominees are all-in for constitutional partying like it’s 1789, not 2023.

    So the Republicans are much less likely to take offense at being called the “Republic” party than the Dems are over similarly abbreviating the respecive party names.

  39. 39.

    HumboldtBlue

    Would it work better as the Banana Republic party, or the member of the Banana Republic party?

    Also, the irony of our continued use of the term Banana Republic to righteously insult political opponents never ceases to amaze.

  42. 42.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    More Raskin, bringing it to James “Gomer” Comer

    Acyn @Acyn 10h

    Raskin: If we’re going to confront this problem of people using their public office to intimidate then let’s do it. Over the weekend, you appeared on Newsmax and you boasted that you told AT&T that they needed to restore Newsmax or face the consequences

    I wonder how Uncle Rupert and his merry band feel about their stooges running interference for a rival

  46. 46.

    Joey Maloney

    With all that Rep. Raskin has gone through in the past months, it’s clear that his fuckometer is permanently stuck on 0.

  49. 49.

    Redshift

    @dww44:

    this deliberate grammatical misuse has been going on for a couple of decades.

    Longer than that — it came out of the Gingrich era (a Frank Luntz thing, I think, though I’m not completely sure.) The effect they claimed was that it sounding harsher and having the emphasis on “RAT” supposedly made people feel more negatively. (I think it’s more likely they were just trying to separate the party from the concept of democratic, which people tend to like.)

    There isn’t a really good equivalent for the GOP — it’s easy to be really insulting but harder to just kind of hint at being insulting. And I don’t think it would do any good anyway. I’d rather stick with “why should I take anything you say seriously if you’re too dumb to even get my party’s name right?”

    (Biden’s “MAGA Republicans” is pretty good, though — they know it’s an insult, but it’s something they’re proud of so they have to pretend it isn’t.)

  50. 50.

    RaflW

    @coin operated: She barely squeaked out a win in a very Banana Republican district. In less than two years, her diminishing ‘superpower’ could be gone. Frisch is running again, which I hope is a good thing (I’d welcome any CO locals insights).

  52. 52.

    danielx

    @RaflW:

    Not to mention Boebert is no longer a “well known local business owner”, since her former restaurant closed and the premises are now occupied by a Mexican establishment (yes, I know). Hard to run a restaurant when you have to spend so much time in DC, getting your face on television, uttering whatever inane bullshit is running through your head at any given moment. Not to mention that I would bet a twenty against a stale doughnut that what she’s getting now in salary, bennies and perks of various sorts is worth several multiples of whatever she was clearing as owner of that rat smorgasbord.

  54. 54.

    Edmund dantes

    @danielx: also it’s a lot easier to pull in no show lobbying jobs from the oil and gas people for her husband. What were the reports? He was pulling 600-800K?

  55. 55.

    NotMax

    Brr. Gonna be the second space heater night this week. 8:30 p.m. and already dropped into the 50s outside. Icy below freezing temps expected at the highest elevations (thankfully I reside several thousand feet below those levels).

  56. 56.

    HumboldtBlue

    @NotMax:

    Oh my, let’s hope Pa has strung a rope tied tightly to the back door of the hovel to the outhouse and small barn so youse don’t get lost in the maelstrom of a mild winter’s day.

  57. 57.

    oatler

    Exhibit A  from Q Anon site Ricochet:

    “More accurately, the Bulwark will be endorsing the Democrat candidate no matter who the Republican candidate is. The Bulwark is not conservative or Republican in any sense. Those labels are merely a costume they wear to fool the donor class. They are a Democrat blog.”

    Do you know how carefully the poster had to arrange that vomitous phrase to work in the contempt, what thought went into that contempt? Let them use their energy crafting hate-valentines to the Democrat Party; Dark Brandon will embrace the craft.

  59. 59.

    lowtechcyclist

    I’m in the ‘just let it go’ camp on this one.

    The whole purpose of their use of ‘Democrat Party’ and the like was to get under the skin of people on our side, and get us riled up about something that would look trivial and unimportant to most people.

    No point in giving them the satisfaction.

  60. 60.

    Brachiator

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    The customer demands to speak to the boss and demands a refund from him, which Henry approves. On the way out of the building the customer walks by the employee to let them know that they got their way. Employee is pissed because they did their job and the customer now hates them and loves Henry. The customer will cop an attitude the next time they are in the store and that employee offers to help them with something else.

    A good customer service operation not only has clear rules, but also allows increasing authority to handle exceptions.

    I once worked in customer service for a big newspaper. A customer called to get credit for a month of missed papers. This was far above the powers of the front line rep, so the call got escalated. The manager, a friend, called the delivery agent who admitted that he had problems with staff calling in sick and missed a number of deliveries.

    My manager friend took the request to accounting because the amount was above her automatic approval level. A new accounting supervisor denied the request and said policy is policy and the amount was too high for approval even though the delivery agent had admitted problems.

    My manager friend took it to this person’s boss. He noted, we are in the business of delivering newspapers to readers. We failed here. The customer service manager investigated and it doesn’t appear that the customer is just trying to get a hot refund. One of the reasons we have rules is so that we can accommodate exceptions.

    In the case you mentioned I would praise the employee for doing their job right and note that the higher staff are there to take the heat.

  61. 61.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Brachiator:

    I understand how that all works and it all makes sense. In the case of this customer (as with too many others too) they refused assistance with picking what they needed. They took it home and came right back to demand a refund without the receipt or packaging. Yes, the employee did the right thing and I would say that the manager did not. The customer was a dick.

    Now the customer doesn’t like the employee and remembers it every time they come in. Our daughter has had to go through this again and again so I advised her to tell the a-hole customer that she has to say what she is saying because those are the rules. BUT….. if the customer goes to the customer information desk and asks for “Henry” then he might be able to do something for them. Dump it on him.

    This was recent and she has only done it once, but for the first time ever a customer that she denied a refund to left her in a good mood and went looking for the manager. Word has been spread to the other employees and they are doing the same. Happiness for all!! Fortunately, most customers find out the rules and roll with them even though they don’t like them. It’s the snowflakes, as usual.

    It will be interesting to see if the Christian families that ‘rent’ their kids clothing for Easter services from Fred Meyer get their refund this year…lol!

  63. 63.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    One other detail is that the woman our daughter told to find Henry was in a similar situation with a similar item; no packaging, no receipt and wanting a refund. She talked to Henry and was denied a refund.

    The only difference between the two is one was a man who got a refund and the other was a woman who did not. Oh, and the woman was pleasant and the man was an asshole.

  64. 64.

    Brachiator

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    Yes, the employee did the right thing and I would say that the manager did not. The customer was a dick.

    The manager could handle things better. I don’t care that the customer was a dick. I don’t believe that the customer is always right but it is up to store managers to set the tone.

    At another job a customer was screaming on the phone to a rep. I took the call and told the customer he would have to apologize or I would hang up on him. He insisted that it was his right to yell to get his problem resolved. I hung up on him.

    I called him back to see what his problem was. It was actually easy to solve. I told him that he could not be rude to reps. He grumbled, but offered a half ass apology. Compromise accepted. He never called again using raging asshole mode.

  71. 71.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Brachiator:

    I dunno, I felt more embarrassed on his behalf than anything.  Letting them know he does have fucks left to give about ‘Democrat’ was a mistake, and then trying to hit back with this Nerf club of attempted mockery doubled it, AFAIAC.

    There will be many opportunities to mock the Rethugs in more effective ways.  We’ll never have to bide our time for very long.

  74. 74.

    trnc

    @danielx: Not to mention Boebert is no longer a “well known local business owner”, since her former restaurant closed and the premises are now occupied by a Mexican establishment (yes, I know).

    I don’t have too big an issue with trying to hold onto a pre-congress reputation. I just think she’d want to reconsider because what her business is well known for is giving a lot of people projectile diarrhea.

  75. 75.

    trnc

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: Why doesn’t the employee just tell every customer like this to ask for the manager? Then the employee gets the credit for helping resolve the situation and the manager is on the hook if he decides to adhere to store policy.

  82. 82.

    H-Bob

    Next time, Raskin can tell her that he knows she didn’t learn grammar in her GED cram course, so she should understand that the difference between nouns and adjectives is  ….!

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