Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

We still have time to mess this up!

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

When I was faster i was always behind.

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Fight them, without becoming them!

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

Not all heroes wear capes.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

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

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66Comments

  7. 7.

    sab

    @Gin & Tonic: So are mine.

    My parents used to argue about Faux News. Mom would nap on the sunroom sofa every afternoon. Dad, to be companioniable, would come in and sit by her, and then switch the channel to Faux and crank up the sound because he was deaf. Mom would wake up, be outraged that it was Faux, and stomp off to the kitchen with her walker to have a cigarette in peace.

    Every afternoon this would happen, until we convinced her to nap with Univision on. Prettier women with less annoying content. And he couldn’t really hear the language anyway.

    She was physically disabled but mentally sharp. He was physically okay but with dementia.

  13. 13.

    Elizabelle

    @mrmoshpotato:  I sorta think Megyn Kelly dissed the late Pope Francis the other day, but not gonna go back and look.

    Boy, did NBC ever get taken there.

  14. 14.

    mrmoshpotato

    @rk:

    How long are conservatives going to ride the drag queen train? 

    Until all the Trump trash dies.  And the GOP is now all Trump trash.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    I just saw a tiktok of a drag queen jesus towing a giant cross complete with rhinestone stigmata.

    I’m just glad the Dems admre are finally fighting back.

  19. 19.

    Professor Bigfoot

    open thread so, I’m still in the hospital, and there’s still some hope that I’ll get out of here today but mostly I just want to thank everyone for their well wishes. 🙏🏾

    also, I screwed up a comment, which is now awaiting moderation, but anyone who can can just delete it.

  21. 21.

    Booger

    I saw Rhinestone Stigmata at the 9:30 Club back in the day, I think they opened for Fugazi.

  28. 28.

    Suzanne

    SuzMom is an old hippie, well into her old-enough-to-not-give-a-damn phase. She doesn’t watch Fox, oh hell no. (She voted for Bernie in 2016 and Biden in 2020.) She would, if allowed, watch waaaaaay too much MSNBC. During FFOTUS Round 1, she would “greet” me almost every day when I came home by screaming, “Did you see what Trump did?!?!”. While I agree….. I legit could not take it. I had to have a talk with her about how I could not come home after a day of work bullshit and instantly dive into rehashing the latest crisis. I just did not have the bandwidth. I convinced her with this go-round to stop watching so much news. She is less elevated and that makes for a saner household. Sorry not sorry.

    SuzBioDad — who is a gigantic MAGA asshole and for that among myriad other reasons, we have not spoken in over twenty years — probably lives in front of Fox News. I assure you that he makes time for frequent Facebook quizzes.

  31. 31.

    narya

    I assume everyone has seen that Durbin isn’t going to run again? Which leads me to believe that the Ds who voted for the CR were carefully chosen (not an original thought; I’ve seen it here and elsewhere). Interested to see what the field turns out to be

    ETA: glad to see Prof. BF here and hale!

  32. 32.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

     just saw a tiktok of a drag queen jesus towing a giant cross complete with rhinestone stigmata.

    As the Romans said “et clavus es eam”

  33. 33.

    JiveTurkin

    So the Treasury Secretary gave a PRIVATE CLOSED DOOR meeting with investors to brief them on a major policy announcement that had a significant impact on the stock market.  In other words, he committed a fucking crime.  If a CEO provided insider information in that fashion he/she would be facing jail time and certainly would be fired.  Did attendees personally trade based on this info?

  34. 34.

    Delicate Butterfly

    Presumably from the Hunky Jesus contest here in SF.

    That is always a great time.

  35. 35.

    AM in NC

    Visiting the FOX website today (to drop some actual news in the comments) I am just continually astounded at what they just don’t cover.

    It’s a barfstream of every police-blotter crime committed by an immigrant anywhere in the US; trans people just existing and somehow that being something to be deathly scared of; how Trump is a manly man winning everything he encounters; and strange stories speculating about why Democrats did or didn’t do something.

    NO actual news about tariffs, DODGE cuts to services, The Stock Market or Bond Market, Court cases that don’t go Trump’s way, or foreign policy.

    I mean, I know this is FOX, but to see it laid out so baldly is just gross. Rupert and Lachlan need to be some of the first people dealt with when the glorious revolution comes.

  37. 37.

    Elizabelle

    @AM in NC:

    Rupert and Lachlan need to be some of the first people dealt with drawn and quartered when the glorious revolution comes.

    Further, once Democrats regain the Executive Branch: Fox News Channel comes OFF of US military programming options. It is Channel 1 on one US base in Germany. Ridiculous.

    Fox News is poison. Its purpose is to polarize and radicalize our country, with disinformation, and it is succeeding wildly. Should not be hiding behind the First Amendment.

  40. 40.

    NaijaGal

    I don’t know how I missed this in March, but the Atlantic created a search tool that lists the pirated work from LibGen used by Meta to train its generative AI tool, Llama.

    theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/search-libgen-data-set/682094/

    I found my book published by Amistad, four of my published short stories and poems from literary journals, and seven of my biomedical informatics papers published in different informatics journals. Also found several of Tom Levenson’s books.

    If you have any published work (papers, books, etc.), check for your work

  41. 41.

    JiveTurkin

    @Doc Sardonic: I wouldn’t want to say anything that could get me in trouble.  The billionaire class is chock full of people who have a very strong moral compass.  Of course, Charles Manson probably as a very strong moral compass.

  44. 44.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @rk: How long are conservatives going to ride the drag queen train?

    Until everyone is fully satisfied, less likely, or sore, more likely.

    N ain’t nothing conservative about those word-appropriating frauds.

  49. 49.

    PatrickG

    @Professor Bigfoot: glad you’re back to posting already!

    really enjoying Twice as Dead, hits that sweet spot of silly but serious. Perfect for me right now while work and the world consume all higher brain function. Only 50% through so no spoilers!!!

  53. 53.

    Professor Bigfoot

    @cain: I had a frickin’ heart attack last Monday.

    This after a LIFETIME of good cholesterol numbers— but arteries got clogged anyway.

    Anyway, today I had a second stent installed today; and TBH, I feel pretty damn good. My wrist aches, it’ll be bruised out the wazoo tomorrow, but… my lifelong streak of good luck continues. 😁

  59. 59.

    frosty

    @NaijaGal: ​
     I have one ASCE published paper and one monograph (with a dozen other authors) in my whole career. Both are there. Bastards!

  60. 60.

    Jackie

    Hegseth did say “more fake news” was forthcoming…

    “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the installation of Signal, a commercially available messaging app, on a desktop computer in his Pentagon office, illustrating the extent to which he has integrated use of the unclassified communications platform,” the Washington Post reports.

    Hegseth’s decision earlier this year to install Signal on a desktop computer in the Pentagon was a work-around that enabled him to use Signal in a classified space, where his cellphone and other personal electronics are not permitted, and communicate with ease with anyone — other government officials or his family — who is outside of the imposing military headquarters.

    Other aides, including Joe Kasper, Hegseth’s chief of staff at the time, also voiced interest in using Signal on Pentagon computers, but it is unclear how widely the app’s use proliferated, said those familiar with the matter. It’s also unclear whether Hegseth and his team of political advisers has adhered to U.S. law that would require them to preserve such messages.

     

  62. 62.

    trollhattan

    @Professor Bigfoot: ​
     
    Damn fine news. Fight the good fight and show the fuckers you have another thirty or so year fight in ya!

    My neighbor had the widowmaker on Christmas. Yelp review -5.

  64. 64.

    NaijaGal

    @frosty:

    @Glidwrith:

    You too! I don’t know why I’m stunned – so many people I know had their work used. I knew that Meta briefly discussed licensing copyrighted work and quickly made the decision to just go ahead and steal people’s work, but I never stopped to think about whether they stole my work.

    I actually don’t mind my informatics work being freely available – I try to pay for journals to make an accepted article open access when there are grant funds for that, and my NIH funded work is freely available through PubMedCentral. I understand that researchers in developing countries often have no way to pay hefty journal subscription fees, so I support their being able to access a variety of scientific articles.

    I do mind my fiction and poetry being stolen in this way. And I mind a multi-billion dollar plus company monetizing that theft. The really big authors (Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, et al) have sued. Under Biden, I’d be hopeful that something would come of it.  Not with this administration.

  65. 65.

    Ruckus

    I don’t recall what news my parents watched but I don’t ever remember seeing fox on the TV.

    Now it’s only been 13 and 21 years since they could watch TV but still. This getting old shit can get old. I was the youngest in my immediate family. Now I’m the only one. 2004 till 2017 it was one every so often – gone, parents and siblings. Now the oldest in the extended family and one cousin, the middle of 3 kids  in his family is gone. Everyone else lives somewhat to rather far away. It’s life, it must be, shitforbrains is still here.

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