Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

In my day, never was longer.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

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

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

He really is that stupid.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

We will not go back.

How stupid are these people?

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

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

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

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

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

You cannot shame the shameless.

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

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

People are weird.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Books are my comfort food!

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Reader Interactions

106Comments

  2. 2.

    Chet Murthy

    I love me some Grandpa Joe, but that’s not spicy: that’s just Smokey paprika.  To be spicy you need 5 minutes of bleeped out words.  At least, that’s where it starts.  Anything less is just Smokey paprika

  4. 4.

    Jay

    Lets see,

    Dolt 45 sent Covid Tests to Putin when there was a desperate shortage in the US,

    Dolt 45 ran a “catch and kill” op on I Like Beer Rapist,

    Dolt 45 colludes with Pootie Poot on Ukraine policy while out of office,

    Dolt 45 colludes with Bibi to prolong the Gaza Wars,

    And the fucker saved it all for his book, to make money, rather than reveal it as “news” when it could have made a major difference.

    In the previous thread the word “whore” was bandied about, but most sex workers have more integrity than the real whores.

  5. 5.

    prostratedragon

    That’s why “the former guy” cracked me up. Thought the euphemism quite clear, coming from Mr. Big Fucking Deal.

  10. 10.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    I just now finished listening to the Harris / Stern interview.  I enjoyed it.

  11. 11.

    Chet Murthy

    @WaterGirl: My memory of the phrase is from mobster movies, where the guy saying it is obscenely gesturing at his own genitals.  But sure, “that” works too.

  12. 12.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I’m assuming no Ukraine update tonight because Adam has been displaced by big windy thing.

  19. 19.

    VFX Lurker

    I got my vote-by-mail ballot yesterday. I filled it out tonight, and I will drop it off in a ballot drop box later this week.

    I took much satisfaction in voting for Harris/Walz.

  21. 21.

    Jay

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Grazer beats the behemoth that killed her cub to win Alaska’s Fat Bear Contest;

    https://halifax.citynews.ca/2024/10/08/grazer-beats-the-behemoth-that-killed-her-cub-to-win-alaskas-fat-bear-contest/

    Another death was captured live by the cameras just last week, delaying the release of the tournament bracket for a day. Bear 402, a female bear that was supposed to be a contestant in this year’s contest, was killed by a male brown bear the day the brackets were expected to be released.

  23. 23.

    sdhays

    @Jay: The “catch and kill” thing makes me especially angry since that’s what it transparently was, and yet the media reported it like it like, “Yeppers, the FBI checked and this guy is a-ok!

    ETA: Our “hard hitting” media that believes only they have what it takes to hold politicians’ feet to the fire. 🙄

  25. 25.

    Citizen Alan

    @WaterGirl: i genuinely wonder if woodward regrets exposing watergate in the way he did. It seems that if he just sat on all that information until after nixon left office, he could have put it in a book and made a lot more money.

  36. 36.

    HumboldtBlue

    @KatKapCC:

    No doubt! Some of the replies are classic as well. Just a great photo, and the person who posted it to Twitter is trying to track down the photog for credit.

    Let’s watch to see if the internet does its magic.

  37. 37.

    Jackie

    @lamh47:

    BREAKING: In a major upset, Democrat Grier Hopkins has defeated Republican John Coghill Jr. in the race for mayor of Fairbanks North Star Borough

    WOW! I hope this is a GREAT OMEN for Nov 5th!!! 🤞🏻🤞🏻

  42. 42.

    wjca

    @Ken: I thought Trump was in Pennsylvania tonight.

    Trump doesn’t qualify as a “big windy thing”.  Just a pathetic little man, who temporarily happens to have a bullhorn.

  43. 43.

    BR

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: ​

    I just now finished listening to the Harris / Stern interview. I enjoyed it.

    I was saying in the last thread — I said she was 4 for 4 for slam dunk interviews in totally different settings. 60 Minutes, Call Her Daddy, The View, and Howard Stern. Now 5 for 5 with Colbert.

  50. 50.

    West of the Rockies

    @Jackie:

    I hope the yutes turn out big this year so a defeated Trump might say, “And I’d have gotten away with it if it weren’t for you meddling kids!”

  51. 51.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Jay: Woodward should’ve fucked off after Watergate.  At least recently, he’s shown himself to nothing but a money grubbing asshole.

    I’m so sick of this crap they’ve saved for their books.

  52. 52.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Woodward must be ancient.

    He’s younger than me. He’s younger than Joe Biden. In both instances, admittedly, by only a few months, but I was surprised. I thought he was close to 90, but he’s only 81.

  57. 57.

    strange visitor (from another planet)

    @schrodingers_cat: i kind of disagree. i think it spawned an era of “gotcha” journalism where most journos wanted to replicate the fame and success afforded by driving nixon to retire. hence the hounding of the clintons for decades, the harsh, adversarial way the media handled obama and how they’ve been collectively hunting for biden’s scalp since the withdrawal from afghanistan.

    i didn’t think they wanted access with biden, they wanted to be the ones to take him down and now that they’ve gotten him out of the way, that “gotcha” crap exudes from the mainstream coverage of kamala.

  59. 59.

    strange visitor (from another planet)

    @Chet Murthy: no, you’re right about that. they definitely didn’t lack for targets during those administrations that they failed to delve into for some reason.

    i think it was josh marshall who said that DC was wired for the gop. that obviously includes the beltway press that becomes adversarial once you get elected with a “D” after your name.

  61. 61.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Chet Murthy: They only go after Ds. Both the Beltway press and leftier-than-thous. In other words they are Republicans or Republican enablers by another name.

    Some do it for their career, and some do it because patriarchy and/or white privilege is their comfort zone.

  64. 64.

    Chet Murthy

    I just watched that clip of Harris and Colbert drinking a beer, and…. Miller?  Those poor people, having to drink Miller!  I’m sure she chose that beer because of association with Wisconsin and working class people.  Crikey!  If I’m going to pollute my body with alcohol at least I want it to taste good!  The only time Beers like Miller and Bud taste good is on really hot days with barbecue.  Not in an air-conditioned Studio.

  65. 65.

    Jay

    @Chet Murthy:

    The MAGgoTs check countertops, by taking photo’s through your windows, ice cream in the fridge, pretty sure they check beer all to feed the fauxrage,

    At least it wasn’t a Bud Light.

  66. 66.

    Argiope

    @Chet Murthy: I’m not sure beer is her drink.  Definitely related to all her microexpressions on that.  I’d have to be a similarly good sport under those conditions but would be thinking,”without a taco? You’re killing me, Stephen.”

  68. 68.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @schrodingers_cat: My take on that is that they gotcha’d a Republican and because their guiding star is BOTH SIDES they have to even it up by getting a Democrat before they can take down another Republican.

    I was only in high school at the time but I recall them going pretty hard at Regan over Iran Contra.

    They do have a soft spot for the Bush clan though. E.g. pappy was a one term loser but never got treated that way by the beltway press like Carter. I think it boils down to cultural affinity…the Bushes, even dimwit Jr., went to all the right schools like they did, hit all the same upper crusty vacation spots and such they do, etc. They couldn’t admit the Bushes could fail because that might mean they themselves might not be all that.

    The other aspect which has dominated during the Trump years is that they want to have influence. They know they have zero on Trump or, more importantly, his voters. So they cover his scandals but don’t belabor the point because nobody on that side is listening. They think the Dems still might care what they think and so they might have some influence on outcomes there so they concentrate all their scrutiny and obsess on every little thing to prove what they do still matters at least a little. But they’re losing us now too because we see a total disaster being treated with relative kid gloves while the smallest misstep from a Democrat gets blown all out of proportion.

  69. 69.

    TBone

    @lamh47: I fell out at 8:30 last night and so missed Colbert – thank you for sharing that stupendous “he’s cut over the eye – work the eye!” jab from Colbert!  Perfect start to my day today (which includes a dreaded dental appt., so I really needed this)!

  70. 70.

    TBone

    The FTFNYT just can’t get out of its own way, derping lazily along toward total annihilation like a burning dumpster on a peak storm surge beach that it simply refuses to evacuate:

    @nytopinion

    “Positive masculinity,” writes Ruth Whippman, “still draws on all the old trappings and anxieties of traditional manliness, the same belief that there is such a thing as a ‘real man’ and the same fears of falling short.”

  73. 73.

    Geminid

    @schrodingers_cat: per Wikipedia, Woodward attended Yale on a ROTC scholarship and then served as a Navy officer 1966-70. He seems to have been on the Intelligence side and was posted to the USS Wright for part of his service. The Wright was 14,000 ton WWII-era aircraft carrier that had been converted to an signal intelligence gathering ship that doubled as a national floating command post.

    The Wright carried no nuclear weapons but still had two officers physically entrusted with nuclear launch codes because apparently it served in an alternate chain of command in case of nuclear war. Woodward was one of them.

    Woodward has said little about his Navy service, and much of his work is still classified so he can’t talk about most of what he did. But he was part of an elite, and in his last year was posted to the Pentagon where he supervised a communications section and according to at least two journalists, regularly briefed government officials including Alexander Haig. Woodward has denied that last story though.

    This raises some interesting questions: what was the Washington Post getting when it hired Woodward in 1971? Did he come already equipped with good sources? And did Ben Bradlee know the sources before he hired Woodward?

    I realize I’m being kind of Deep Statey here but I am a sceptical person, especially when it comes to Cold War-era Intelligence operations. And for all I know, it was just a  coincidence that a former Navy intelligence officer-turned rookie reporter busted an operation orchestrated by a former CIA officer.

    Anyway, I sometimes wonder if Bob Woodward is still working for the people he was working for when the Washington Post hired him. Except now he’s one of them.

  76. 76.

    EarthWindFire

    @Argiope: MVP strikes me as a tequila drinker. I think she’d want a taco with a good margarita or Patron with lots of lime. But point taken.

  82. 82.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @TBone: “Positive masculinity,” writes Ruth Whippman, “still draws on all the old trappings and anxieties of traditional manliness, the same belief that there is such a thing as a ‘real man’ and the same fears of falling short.”

    I think she swapped a “toxic” for her “positive.” She literally identified the core toxic belief that all others flow from and held it up as good.

  83. 83.

    JML

    @Geminid: Woodward was a great reporter for a long time. And he was still a great reporter for quite a while after Watergate, even after he started writing books, getting paid big bucks, and becoming part of the DC firmament.

    But we should have seen that the wheels were coming off the wagon with his Gulf War 1 book (The Commanders), which is where the pattern of discovery and holding it in to package up for a later book really started. (His earlier book The Brethren about the Supreme Court is excellent, but also shows how Woodward can get controlled by a source to write them favorably)

    But he hasn’t been a reporter in the classic since in 30 years, which sucks. Because he still has access and people talk to him, and rather than report crucial information, he holds it for the book, which comes out far too late to have the impact it should…but lets him do the rounds and big shot on DC tv shows and so forth. I like to think that Watergate-era Bob Woodward would have a lot of contempt for modern day Bob Woodward for not publishing.

  85. 85.

    Kay

    Sherrod’s campaign needs a rural electric c0operative member to appear on camera and thank him for protecting cooperatives. I lived out in the country long enough for me to still get (tiny) coop capital credits checks but I’m on the county Dem board so it would be a NYTimes article situation, where I would be impersonating a normie :)

    Scandal!

  86. 86.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Kay: I’ve been bolstering my normie cred but I’m in Massachusetts. We might as well not even exist on Presidential election years.

  87. 87.

    Matt McIrvin

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: It’s a lot of things.

    First, there are some reporters who, even if they have liberal cultural preferences, have this really extreme commitment to political neutrality–some old-school ones make a point of refusing to support anyone or even vote, and believe this is ethically important! So this false balance viewpoint positioned midway between the parties, wherever they are, is the official default stance.

    Second, yeah, the money people holding the purse strings are usually right-wingers to some degree, regardless of what the reporters believe.

    Third, conservatives go way harder than liberals at “working the refs” and insisting the media are biased against them. Obviously, you see liberals doing it all over these blogs. But conservatives have been blowing their horn hard about “liberal media bias” ever since at least the 1980s and they still do it; they’ve made it a mainstream perception that everyone but Fox and Newsmax is liberally biased. So newspapers and TV networks are going to get way more shit for it if they bash Republicans than if they bash Democrats.

  89. 89.

    Geminid

    This morning’s Politico Playbook tells me that Governor Walz will appear with Rep. Ruben Gallego at an event in Chandler, Arizona today. Jim McCain, Senator McCain’s son will also attend. Walz will then speak at a rally in Tucson.

  90. 90.

    Quinerly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    And while he (Trump) is pressuring Republican members of Congress to shoot down any aid for Ukraine.

    I have no words to describe how I am feeling about the Woodward reveals and the misinformation about FEMA (and what is being done in Western NC). Thankfully I have this kitchen cabinet update project to take my mind off of my rage.

  91. 91.

    TBone

    @Quinerly: wait till you see today’s Wall Street Journal.  It’s uncritically parroting the lies about the federal storm response.

    On second thought, just concentrate on the remodel!

  92. 92.

    Quinerly

    @Chet Murthy:

    Don’t knock “my” Miller.😉 Another of my favorite yard beers.😎

    I was very sad when Miller Coors closed its Eden, NC plant almost 10 years ago.

  94. 94.

    Quinerly

    @TBone:

    Refrigerator arrives today. I went with Bosch. The search for one has been a struggle I didn’t anticipate. The space is an odd size, old refrigerator is short, needed counter depth. I wanted dispensers on the inside. I hadn’t bought a refrigerator in years. Did not know that the new Samsungs and LGs are crap. Class action suits.

    In really good news, I highly recommend NHance if you don’t want the expense of gutting a kitchen and expense of new cabinets. The Santa Fe franchise has been FANTASTIC in price, work ethic, dedication, quality. My faith in customer service has been restored. I kept the cabinet boxes and they made all new panel doors and drawer faces. We added crown to the top of the dated cabinets. Extensive no dust sanding process on the old cabinet boxes. All will be stained to match the wood vigas in the house. NHance also does painted cabinets too. I’m so impressed if I were younger, I would love to have a NHance franchise. I should do commercials.😎

  95. 95.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Woodward is the Norma Desmond of Punditry:

    “I’m still big, everything else got small.”

  96. 96.

    Quinerly

    I was in a bit of a rage last night re Woodward….”why didn’t he speak up sooner?”

    With that said, I’m going to calm down and be glad that his book is out. Honestly, re the public’s short term memory where Trump is concerned, maybe it’s better that it has come out in October and not 2 plus years ago.

    So much gets lost in the firehose of Trump scandals, lying, misdeeds, and illegal acts. I’m pretty sure many have forgotten he was even impeached twice.

  98. 98.

    Anyway

    Israel’s bombing of Lebanon has me scared for Lebanese-American voters in MI – whether they will show up to vote.

    Same with Helene and Milton – how will this affect the ability of people in the regions to vote.

    I have turned into the awful person looking at everything through the lens of the nov elections :-/

  99. 99.

    Quinerly

    @NotMax:

    I really didn’t know. Last refrigerator I bought was a LG French Door, 2 freezer drawers about 10 years ago. It was rather expensive I thought at the time. Obviously, it stayed with the St. Louis house. I really loved it. I originally was going to go with something like that here but couldn’t find what I wanted in counter depth. Plus, I read up on the problems with the new ones. Initially, I was thinking a Bosch would be cost prohibitive but caught this one on sale at a non big box store that actually would deal on the sale price. And a rebate. Turns out this Bosch is not a lot more than what I paid for that LG 10 years ago, not a lot more than the KitchenAid I looked at, and less than 2 GEs I had considered.

  100. 100.

    Geminid

    @Anyway: Hezbollah is a very contorovesial organization among Lebanese citizens, and Lebanese Americans may have mixed feelings about this war.

    Some Palestinians took time out from denouncing Israeli attacks on Gaza to celebrate Nasrallah’s death. Hezbollah helped Syria’s Bashir Assad slaughter and starve out thousands of Palestinians in the course of putting down his opposition in Syria.

  101. 101.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Geminid: I family-in-law over in Lebanon. I haven’t heard from my uncle since this started. I’m curious what he’d have to say.  I’m seeing him at his daughter’s wedding next week.

  102. 102.

    Geminid

    @The Audacity of Krope: I’d be interested in what your uncle has to say. I’ve mainly gotten my info from war correspondent Oz Katerji and the Lebanese he reposts. Katerji is based in Kiev now but stays in touch with news from his native Lebanon.

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