Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

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

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

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

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

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

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

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Sunday Night Open Thread

Reader Interactions

127Comments

  2. 2.

    SpaceUnit

    I’ve never heard of this movie, but who the hell would name their kid Robert Roberts?

     

    Please.

  5. 5.

    Memory Pallas

    Fake assassination attempt aside, the character is more like JD Vance than Donald Trump.

  8. 8.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I remember watching this movie at the theater and left quite uncomfortable. Arlington Road is another Tim Robbins movie that left me the same way.

  9. 9.

    AddiePray

    They filmed a scene at my high school (one suburb over from Bethel Park, where yesterday’s shooter was from), and then called some of us back to be extras for the scene at the end, where we learn Bugs Raplin’s fate. I’m one of those young conservative kids cheering.
    I love telling people I was in a movie with Jack black, Alan rickman, John Cusack, Fred ward, Susan Sarandon, James spader, and Tim Robbins.

  10. 10.

    Chigail

    This is exactly what my son recommended I watch tonight. And I think I will after I eat my Bastille Day quiche. Currently destressing with Ninja Warriors and an Aperol spritz.

  11. 11.

    MomSense

    One of my childhood friends is in this movie.  We grew up dancing together.  She is in the beauty pageant scene.

  12. 12.

    Jacqueline Squid Onassis

    @SpaceUnit: An incomplete list of real names of people I have known:

    Randolph Randolph
    Crystal Clear
    Smoky Behr
    Heidi Ho
    Cleve Land

  17. 17.

    Eyeroller

    @Jacqueline Squid Onassis: I went to junior high (what we had back then) with a girl named Candy Cotton.  She was a cheerleader and one of the popular girls. I assume she married and changed her last name.

  18. 18.

    SpaceUnit

    These names, yeesh.  Must be one of those white people things I just don’t get.

     

    And I’m white.

  22. 22.

    Old School

    I went to school with a Coral Rock.

    Knew someone in college whose brother was named July August September October November.  (He went by Jason.)

  23. 23.

    Trivia Man

    In political races post-civil war it was common to, literally, “wave the bloody shirt” at rallies. Cant wait for the convention and “wave the bloody hat”

  24. 24.

    clay

    I have had students whose first and middle names were November Rain and Indiana Jones. (They were both girls.)

  27. 27.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mai Naem mobile:

    I remember watching this movie at the theater and left quite uncomfortable. Arlington Road is another Tim Robbins movie that left me the same way. 

    I remember just being pissed off at the ending of Arlington Road.

  28. 28.

    Anoniminous

    Knew an Adolf Heidler.  He was born in 1936 in Germany and yes he was named for The Leader.

  30. 30.

    Eyeroller

    @kalakal: There is a fairly well-known physicist named D’Eath (he puts the apostrophe after the D) in something related to my area of research at the time.​
    Edit: Yes, British, at Cambridge.

  31. 31.

    SpaceUnit

    Years ago there was a girl that lived in my apartment building who danced at a strip club.  She went by the name Cherry Habanero.

     

    Her real name was Janet.  I never saw her dance.  Thought it was a good name though.

  34. 34.

    Martin

    I’ve read at least 100,000 college applications. So many names. But we never poked fun at people’s names – the email addresses they choose, however…

  36. 36.

    Raoul Paste

    I just saw President Biden address the shooting
    And now here come the worthless talking heads

  37. 37.

    Joy in FL

    In a 7th grade class I taught years (decades) ago, there was a student named Noah and in the same class, a student named Jesus. I asked him if he pronounced it Hay-sus, assuming he would say yes, but he said no. Regular pronunciation.

    Another year, there was a girl whose last name was Davenport and a boy whose last name was Couch in the same class.

    Names are so interesting. I enjoyed reading the other ones people have shared in this thread.

  38. 38.

    DarbysMom

    Early 70s, I babysat 4 kids named ‘Apple’, ‘Cherry’, ‘Berry’, and ‘Peaches’.

    Why?…Just why??

  39. 39.

    Miss Bianca

    @AddiePray: oh, hey, nothing productive to add to this comment except that I love your nym. That book was one of my fave raves as a yoot.

    ETA: Plus, cool story! (Meant unironically)

  41. 41.

    Sid

    @Mai Naem mobile: Arlington Road was one of the most frightening films I’ve ever seen. Freaked me out as much as an adult as the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers did when I was a 10 year old kid watching it on the Saturday afternoon science fiction show on the local UHF station.

  42. 42.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @AddiePray:

    Long ago my wife and I were in a crowd at the front of a Queensryche concert. During the concert they said that they would be using video from it for their new music video “Is there anybody listening”.

    They used about three seconds, if that, but we’re there…lol!

  43. 43.

    Ksmiami

    Keep Calm and Biden on… There’s no way I want the incendiary fascist orange pig back in office. He’s bad for America and the world. That hasn’t changed.

  44. 44.

    lowtechcyclist

    I had one student named April May. Another girl in one of my classes had the last name of Firesheets.

  46. 46.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Listening to Joe. He is pitch-perfect, both in substance and delivery.

    And it occurs to me that people who criticise him for using a teleprompter might just as well criticise someone with myopia for wearing glasses … criticise someone who’s a bit deaf for using a hearing aid … criticise someone who stepped wrong and twisted their ankle for wearing a boot or using crutches.

    You get the idea. Whether the “disability” (air quotes because most of these are very common afflictions) is temporary, progressive, or profound and permanent, there is often some technology available to make coping a bit easier.

    I love it when Joe delivers a well-written speech using a teleprompter. Why the RWNJs think that’s so disqualifying I truly cannot fathom.

  49. 49.

    Jackie

    TCFG’s VP choice… or red herring?

    Republican U.S. Senator J.D. Vance, one of Donald Trump’s reported top picks for his vice presidential slot in his political campaign, is the subject of a rumor mill after “three Black trucks with US government plates” arrived at his house, according to a news report.

    Shawna Mizelle, 2024 political campaign reporter for CBS News, reported on Sunday that Vance was in his yard “when three Black trucks with US government plates arrived.”

    https://www.rawstory.com/trump-jd-vance-rumors-government-plates/

    Ugh

  51. 51.

    zhena gogolia

    @Jackie: Oh, great, so they’re going to double down on evil. I had hoped for Burgum, who seems like a Pence-style zero. Vance will help with the insurrection. He won’t be calling Dan Quayle.

  52. 52.

    geg6

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I just had an incoming freshman come through summer orientation and her name is Cashmere.  I know it’s soft and all, but I would not name my child after a type of wool.

  53. 53.

    Eyeroller

    Perhaps I should not bring up The Topic but Jake Tapper is claiming
    A senior House Democrat tells Axios: “We’ve all resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency.”
    AOC responded
    If you’re a “senior Democrat” that feels this way, you should absolutely retire and make space for true leadership that refuses to resign themselves to fascism.
    This kind of leadership is functionally useless to the American people. Retire.

    I am so tired of sniveling, yellow-bellied Democrats. These are the people who have been dribbling out their lack of confidence in Biden for the past 2+ weeks. They made Jeffries go to Biden with their “concerns.” Also why are they dishing to Axios.

    AOC is the kind of Democrat we need.

  54. 54.

    Jackie

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I love it when Joe delivers a well-written speech using a teleprompter. Why the RWNJs think that’s so disqualifying I truly cannot fathom.

    TCFG uses them ALL the time. Rumor has it, one almost killed him.

  60. 60.

    Roberto el oso

    Drove thru Rice University campus after returning some library books. The drive was slowed down even more than the usual 20 mph because of crowds of what looked like tourists taking pictures of the hurricane damage. Got to hear ‘La Marseillaise’ booming from Rice Memorial Stadium, as they had the French Consular staff in attendance for a Bastille Day celebration.

  62. 62.

    hitchhiker

    I’m still pissed off at all those fawning reviewers of JD Vance’s stupid, self-serving book. He happened to publish right when every yahoo in media was rending their garments and wondering how, oh how could they have not seen the thug supporters out there in the hinterlands.

    Oh, thank jeebus, here’s an educated escapee from rural Ohio to help us understand!

    Except it was Vance, a dishonest & pretentious creep. I can’t even.

  65. 65.

    ArchTeryx

    @hitchhiker: Like I said in the previous dead thread, anyone that didn’t think Vance was completely evil didn’t read any part of Hillbilly Elegy.

  66. 66.

    Lyrebird

    @geg6: I agree, though I would more likely name kids after a fiber than after a virtue.  Most of the people I know named Joy are the biggest cynics, and who could name their child “Honor” or “Chastity”?  Lovely names and all, but that’s putting a lot on the kid.

  69. 69.

    geg6

    @hitchhiker:

    I used to love Amy Adams and Glen Close but my respect for them dropped a lot seeing them take parts in the streaming movie made from that shitty book.

  71. 71.

    Lyrebird

    @Eyeroller: AOC responded
    If you’re a “senior Democrat” that feels this way, you should absolutely retire and make space for true leadership that refuses to resign themselves to fascism.

    Thank you for putting that here for some of us less in the loop people.

    And hear, hear to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez!

    They need to be out there standing with Joey Jobs not feeding the press trolls.  And POTUS probably can’t actively campaign for a few days while the other guy recuperates, bc he (POTUS) is honorable and busy.

  72. 72.

    eversor

    @Jackie:

    Hey now.  Talking smack about Vance is anti Christian bigotry.  And he actually does believe in all the patriarchy and all that which fashionable people ignore because it sounds bad at brunch.  So he’s the real Christian deal!

  73. 73.

    geg6

    @Lyrebird:

    I like old fashioned names like Sarah and Claire or ethnic names like Michelle or Angelina.  I like the names my niece chose for her kids: Amora, Holden and Ronan.  A fiber name is way the hell out for me.

  74. 74.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jackie:

    Ugh

    You are right, of course. But isn’t it the case that you’d have the identical reaction to anyone TCFFG might choose? They’re all dreadful.

  75. 75.

    lowtechcyclist

    @eversor:

    Q: What do you get when you take the sun and divide its circumference by its diameter?
    A: Pi in the sky.

    I’m starting to like these even better than the pie/pastry/candy pix.

  77. 77.

    eversor

    @lowtechcyclist:

    #notallchristians is just as stupid as #notallwhitemen

    We have a Christian issue and are in a religious civil war.  Either you are against Christianity completely or you are helping project 2025.

    You just outed yourself as pro 2025.  I blame Dobbs and each death on  you now.

  79. 79.

    Eyeroller

    @lowtechcyclist: Is that what you get from the “witticisms” pie filter? Because it’s funny but it’s not correct since the Sun isn’t a sphere :-) so its projection on the sky isn’t a circle.  (It is a flattened spheroid.)

  81. 81.

    realbtl

    My friend and I are 77 and 76, names Barney and Winniford (Winnie).  I think we’re in the wrong century.​

  83. 83.

    Jay

    I always thought that every Company and Org needed a Hellen Hunt on staff.

    That way, almost all the employee’s could respond to the stupid with, “sorry, I can’t help you, you have to go to Hellen Hunt for that.”

  85. 85.

    Trivia Man

    @geg6: My chinese language students had interesting names they selected. Some of the memorable ones … Plastic, Mercury, Docile.

    In one class i had 2 charleys. So i gave them a second  name… Charlie Brown and Charlie Watts. Two years later my friend came home from teaching a new class. “I have a student named charlie watts!” Apparently he really dug the second name.

  87. 87.

    Eric S.

    @Martin: The company I work for has a large customer base and I come across all kinds of names. We don’t make fun of them but was an an occasional Name Of the Week nomination. My favorite of all time is simple, See Thor.

  89. 89.

    Trivia Man

    @Kristine: Unqualified? Hates the right people, penis-american, white, presents as ‘smart’, proven suckup willing to disavow every past insult to TCFG, TV ready, shorter and duller than TCFG. What’s not to love?

  90. 90.

    japa21

    HS classmate: Reginald McNutt III
    College classmate: Jack Hauff
    Bridesmaid at our wedding: Holly Winter (and we were married in December)

  91. 91.

    wjca

    @moonbat:  I knew a kids once named Emery Emery Emery. Parents can be cruel.

    Every time I encounter someone with one of these “cute” names, my immediate reaction is that the parents should arrested for child abuse.

  95. 95.

    Trivia Man

    @Starfish: $$ is why my early pick was ND Gov, but no matter how rich he just had his own bank. JD brings Vampire Pete and HE brings other crackpot billionaires. Odds on favorite now I  think.

  96. 96.

    eversor

    @moonbat:

    I had a butch lesbian French teacher who would give any nun a run for her money who’s name was Prudence.

    The best teachers I ever had were all women.  The worst teachers I ever had were all women.  The dumbest teachers I had were all men.  Except for that one crazy chemistry teacher who managed to make that fun by blowing shit up and starting fires.  Which makes chemistry AWESOME!

  97. 97.

    eversor

    @Trivia Man:

    Fun fact.  Vance didn’t give a flying fuck about Christianity till he ran for office.  Then he converted into a Catholic with Rod Drehers help and won office.

    Again.  It’s Christianity.

  98. 98.

    Trivia Man

    @Harrison Wesley: Saving that for the convention reveal!!! Imagine the amazement and SKY HIGH RATINGS when noted beard-haver JD Vance appears OUT OF NOWHERE WITH A CLEAN FACE!

    By Gawd, is that the music from Barber of Saville I hear??

  103. 103.

    cain

    @Eyeroller:

    Exactly .. GTFO.

    The next 3 years we need to start pushing these people to retire. Every house and senate person who asked Biden to step down needs a primary challenger.

    Let them explain themselves.

  104. 104.

    Scout211

    @Trivia Man: $$ is why my early pick was ND Gov, but no matter how rich he just had his own bank. JD brings Vampire Pete and HE brings other crackpot billionaires. Odds on favorite now I  think.

    And in contrast, I had JD Vance from the beginning but I now think it will be Burgum. Burgum has plenty of money and he will never try to outshine Trump.  Plus, Rupert Murdoch has been lobbying ”every day” to urge Trump to pick Burgum.  (From a news story I read with anonymous sources). And the report stated that Murdoch was sometimes calling several times a day. He also told Trump that if he doesn’t pick Burgum, to pick anyone other than JD Vance.

    Anonymous sources, they know everything. LOL

  106. 106.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Eyeroller:

    Is that what you get from the “witticisms” pie filter?

    Yes, it was, at least in that particular case, and until I refresh the page.

    Because it’s funny but it’s not correct since the Sun isn’t a sphere :-) so its projection on the sky isn’t a circle.

    Of course your proof isn’t correct either – many non-spherical objects can appear circular from the right vantage point. Coins, for instance.

    (Hey, if you’re gonna nitpick… ;-)

  108. 108.

    Trivia Man

    @Jackie: 100%. And it won’t even be close. He doesn’t do unhinged as well as others, he tries to couch things in logic and “cool intellectualism” but that is perfect for her skills. Bring. It. On.

  109. 109.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Trivia Man:

    By Gawd, is that the music from Barber of Saville I hear??

    “Yes, you’re next! You’re so next!”

    Wait, that’s the Rabbit of Seville. Wouldn’t mind seeing JD get shaved by Bugs Bunny.

  110. 110.

    Harrison Wesley

    Odd question for any yinzers out there: is it known which hospital Trump was taken to?  I heard it was Allegheny General, which gave me a really weird feeling since that’s where I went for heart surgery in 2015.

  111. 111.

    Trivia Man

    @Scout211: Very compelling reasons. Agree on the “won’t outshine” … quiet milquetoast has an attraction for toddler in chief, the JD schtick of I AM SMART will totally work on T and that makes him feel dumb. Can’t have that!

    Con: Bergum has too much a Pence vibe from where I am sitting.

  113. 113.

    Harrison Wesley

    @Princess: And he has to do it publicly, kneeling in front of Trump while Your Favorite President is perched on his golden toilet.

  115. 115.

    SomeRandomGuy

    @dexwood: Dusty Rhoades is the name of a famous wrestler – that made it more common than the mere pun would accomplish, I imagine.

    Random thought: is it really strange that I could see a young Republican, realizing that HE must be the patriot who waters the tree of liberty, hopefully including the blood of the dictator-to-be? Like, “if the RPUSA won’t reject Trump, someone has to do something!”

    I retain the faint hope that Trump causes the Republican Party to implode before this November. If I were a former-Republican, I would be fanning that hope and feeding it all the fuel I could, because it’s clear, with him, there will be no return to sanity, and without him, well… most people ain’t that cray-cray. So, if he choked on his next KFC order, and I were a young Republican, I would be horrified, but exceedingly grateful. (I’d have to be awfully young. That SCROTUS decision is like a loud+toxic fart that should clear the room, but we’re paralyzed by the sheer stench that feels like the physical force of dirt pressing down on the corpse of Democracy. With it, I can only hypothetically imagine staying Republican as a young man.)

  116. 116.

    Origuy

    I worked with a guy named Nicholas Nicholas Nicholas, and yes, he was of Greek ancestry.

    I also worked with a guy named Woodrow Wilson Rehling and he did go by Wood.

    Parents do strange things.

  118. 118.

    opiejeanne

    I met a woman whose married name was Truly Boring. Her maiden name was Truly Golden. She said her husband was not actually boring at all.
    went to school with a Penny Money, knew a college teacher named Harry Kreuper and pronounced his last name as Creeper.

  119. 119.

    Captain C

    There was an usher named George George  at the church we went to when I was a kid.

    My grandparents knew a couple last name of Leer who named their daughter Shanda (possibly spelled Chanda).

  120. 120.

    opiejeanne

    @Captain C: There was an older couple at my church who were raising their identical twin granddaughters because the parents of these girls had died of overdoses. The girls’ names were Bambi and Angel. I don’t know why the grandparents didn’t give them new first names that didn’t make them sound like a double centerfold.

  121. 121.

    billcoop4

    A guy two years behind me had the family name of Fallis.

     

    He was Richard Fallis.

     

    Junior.

     

    BC

  123. 123.

    LanceThruster

    Right now it’s being debated if it’s defensible to take glee at someone else’s misfortune. I can hold competing views. An attitude of a generic, “I wish them well in as much as I don’t wish them any specific harm” and also acknowledge that I’d not be experiencing any particular anguish over powerful individuals merging with the infinite when they’ve already been directly responsible for the unjustifiable deaths of countless others, or on record that that is part of the actions they hope to take. That happens and I’m thinking we sure dodged a bullet. No empathy for those who themselves show none. C’mon man, give me a break!

    It’s as simple as that. Don’t condone the methods nor the crime committed against them, but at the same time they will not be missed by me. The problem with our government to a great extent is just how thoroughly they’re insulated from the consequences of their actions and the death destruction and misery they inflict so callously on others. Aged warmongers are mourned when they give up the ghost, but *they* had a good run and actual justice would require they face their countless victims, so many of whom had their lives cut tragically and unbearably short because of their misfortune to be in the wrong place on the bloody chessboard as these fiends vie for power.

    All their foreign policy speeches should be an admission that, “We contend that having others die in horrible brutal ways in great numbers destroying everything near and dear to them is a good thing because [reasons].”

    Fuggum. Seriously.

  124. 124.

    LanceThruster

    But Tim Robbins was a Berner!?! That makes him the lowest form of human scum! All our problems are largely due to him and his ilk. You, my friend are far too forgiving.

    Good day.

    I said good day!

  127. 127.

    Matt McIrvin

    The thing about Bob Roberts is, it’s got a basically conspiracist view of the world: the satire of cornpone fascism and the way it feeds off politics-as-entertainment is great, but the assassination attempt really is a staged false flag in that, and there’s the strange B-plot where the reporter starts earnestly lecturing to the audience about how the CIA runs the global drug trade, an idea which regardless of its merits has little to do with the rest of the movie.

    I get the impression that Tim Robbins got off the train to crazytown that Susan Sarandon stayed on–even in 2016 he was urging support for Hillary Clinton, and I see that yesterday he was denouncing people likening the Trump shooting to the fake assassination in Bob Roberts. But I think the film would be hard for me to watch now.

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