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Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

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

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

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This fight is for everything.

“Alexa, change the president.”

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

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

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

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

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

This blog will pay for itself.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

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You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Wise Women Open Thread

Wise Women Open Thread

by Anne Laurie|  September 3, 20159:54 pm| 56 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, KULCHA!, Open Threads

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Can't decide which of these gives off more "I have seen into your soul, and it was underwhelming" vibes. pic.twitter.com/jnyg25Yo21

— Jaime Fuller (@j_fuller) September 3, 2015

For you literary plebes, that’s Joan Didion in the second pic.

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56Comments

  1. 1.

    Betty Cracker

    September 3, 2015 at 10:02 pm

    RBG, for sure.

  2. 2.

    DivF

    September 3, 2015 at 10:05 pm

    Stunning. I know Didion the best of the three since I’ve been reading her work since the early 1970’s. All three of them have powerful intellects and humane personalities.

  3. 3.

    schrodinger's cat

    September 3, 2015 at 10:05 pm

    No human can do a look of disdain better than a kitteh. My bosscat frequently looks at me with a look of disdain that says, I am just tolerating you because you feed me.

  4. 4.

    MariedeGournay

    September 3, 2015 at 10:08 pm

    I want a bust of that image to Joan Didion to force me to write my fucking novel.

  5. 5.

    Schlemazel

    September 3, 2015 at 10:09 pm

    A pair of state legislators got busted in a rural park, she had her pants undone & down but thats just a misunderstanding they were only exchanging documents (thats right up there with hiking the Appalachian Trail!)
    citypages.com/news/minnesota-reps-tim-kelly-tara-mack-ticketed-for-making-out-in-a-car-7626244

    The woman is the wife of an Assembly of God minister but it was probably the guy that was speaking in tongues. While it should go without saying, they are both family values Republicans.

  6. 6.

    Anne Laurie

    September 3, 2015 at 10:13 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: The Spousal Unit’s cat Rocket has hair the same color as Trump’s, and both of them always seem to have that suspicious what-are-you-trying-to-pull-on-me expression. (Rocky loves the S.U., me, not so much; I’m just the maid. Even the rescue lady who pawned him off on us admitted up front that ‘he likes men better than women’, so it’s not personal, much.) I have started referring to the cat as Rocket J. Trump, especially when he performs one of his more acrobatic Oriental-Shorthair aerial stunts; it hurts my husband’s feelings but the cat of course Could.Not.Care.Less.

  7. 7.

    Cacti

    September 3, 2015 at 10:13 pm

    Per latest polling:

    The Donald’s favorable rating with Hispanic voters now stands at -67. 15% favorable, 82% unfavorable, with 68% having a “strongly unfavorable” opinion of him.

    WaPo/ABC News Poll

  8. 8.

    benw

    September 3, 2015 at 10:13 pm

    All 3 should definitely be underwhelmed by my soul, but at least Sotomayor looks cheerful about it!

  9. 9.

    SiubhanDuinne

    September 3, 2015 at 10:20 pm

    @Schlemazel:

    it was probably the guy that was speaking in tongues.

    I can’t believe you said that on a family-friendly blog like this.

  10. 10.

    Cervantes

    September 3, 2015 at 10:20 pm

    Via @Schlemazel:

    Kelly, 51, and Mack, 32, were cited for committing an act that constitutes a nuisance.

    A nuisance? To whom? Was anyone else even in the vicinity?

    Two apparently consenting adults — even if they did what we are told they did (which they deny), I don’t see that it’s any of my business.

    Both are married to other people and have children.

    That’s whose business it is — not mine.

    The opening paragraph, I will say, was fairly amusing:

    It’s hot and stuffy in a Health and Human Services Reform committee room. Some boring guy is prattling on about a bill nobody cares about. Suddenly their eyes meet. She’s sporting that conservative pantsuit that drives him wild. Him, a fairly generic tie that was on sale at Kohl’s, but brings out the fiscal restraint in his eyes.

  11. 11.

    Redshift

    September 3, 2015 at 10:22 pm

    @benw: Sotomayor’s look says she sees into your soul and its amusingly inadequate.

  12. 12.

    SiubhanDuinne

    September 3, 2015 at 10:23 pm

    @Cacti:

    The Donald’s favorable rating with Hispanic voters now stands at -67. 15% favorable, 82% unfavorable, with 68% having a “strongly unfavorable” opinion of him.

    And yet only this afternoon I heard him talking about how much the Hispanics loooooove him and how much he looooooves the Hispanics and how the Hispanics are all going to voooote for him because thousands of them work for him!

  13. 13.

    Schlemazel

    September 3, 2015 at 10:23 pm

    @Cervantes:
    They were having sex, or getting close, in a public park. I have been to that park with my family, my children have played in that park. Seeing 2 horny goats getting it on is not how I want them to receive their sex education thank you very much.

  14. 14.

    schrodinger's cat

    September 3, 2015 at 10:26 pm

    @Anne Laurie:You should post a photo of your kitteh!
    BTW here is a kitteh’s look of disdain.

  15. 15.

    Tommy

    September 3, 2015 at 10:31 pm

    Work with me here. I often talk about my family here. Often my father. My mother is way cooler. Dad would back me up here I am sure. Mom was a rock star. She at a much smaller sense knew what it must have been to become a SCOTUS member. Not sure if she could envision this day, women in power, but gosh darn so happy she is alive to see it..

  16. 16.

    Suzanne

    September 3, 2015 at 10:31 pm

    I can’t stop thinking about that photo of the little boy from Syria. What a heartbreak.

  17. 17.

    Cervantes

    September 3, 2015 at 10:33 pm

    @Schlemazel:

    You’re defending the “nuisance” charge, right? That’s reasonable, but I may have missed some relevant facts. They were in a car, yes? Was it parked in an isolated spot? What time of day was it? Was anyone else there? Were children milling around?

    Seeing 2 horny goats getting it on is not how I want them to receive their sex education thank you very much.

    Understandable, I guess — but there are worse ways!

  18. 18.

    Cervantes

    September 3, 2015 at 10:34 pm

    @Tommy:

    My mother is way cooler. Dad would back me up here I am sure.

    If he knows what’s good for him.

  19. 19.

    schrodinger's cat

    September 3, 2015 at 10:35 pm

    @Suzanne:Yes indeed. Did you see that family being hauled off from the railway tracks in Hungary? So awful.

  20. 20.

    mclaren

    September 3, 2015 at 10:36 pm

    The two most despairing words in the English language are “Joan Didion.”

    Seldom does lack of talent combine with clinical depression, but when it does, Joan Didion is the result. The literary equivalent of a toxic waste superfund site, the inexplicable respect accorded John Didion helps us understand why the Egyptians worshiped insects.

  21. 21.

    schrodinger's cat

    September 3, 2015 at 10:38 pm

    Open thread can always use more kitteh, and with that I am off to bed.

  22. 22.

    SiubhanDuinne

    September 3, 2015 at 10:39 pm

    @Suzanne:

    Yes. Has been haunting me for 24 hours. I don’t even know where to start with that image.

  23. 23.

    Tommy

    September 3, 2015 at 10:39 pm

    @Cervantes: Darn right! I am 46 and if mom wants to hop in and chat I am scared of what she might say or if I don’t agree. Mom is the top of the pole, shit you don’t mess with.

  24. 24.

    Tenar Darell

    September 3, 2015 at 10:41 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: That man should never eat in a restaurant ever again. His food, it now always has something in it, probably even in his own hotels. That won’t change with those numbers.

  25. 25.

    Gin & Tonic

    September 3, 2015 at 10:43 pm

    @mclaren: So you’re saying you don’t care for her writing?

  26. 26.

    Prescott Cactus

    September 3, 2015 at 10:44 pm

    For you literary plebes, that’s Joan Didion in the second pic

    Not literary myself, but thought underwhelming and soul = Ann Rand

  27. 27.

    Tenar Darell

    September 3, 2015 at 10:44 pm

    I have been weighed, measured and found wanting. /sigh

  28. 28.

    M. Bouffant

    September 3, 2015 at 10:44 pm

    Didion fans may enjoy this:

    Out of Bethlehem
    The radicalization of Joan Didion.
    BY LOUIS MENAND

  29. 29.

    Cervantes

    September 3, 2015 at 10:44 pm

    @Tommy:

    I am 46 and if mom wants to hop in and chat I am scared of what she might say or if I don’t agree. Mom is the top of the pole, shit you don’t mess with.

    You said a mouthful.

    I hope you realize that.

    Meanwhile, have a great evening.

  30. 30.

    A Ghost To Most

    September 3, 2015 at 10:45 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Aw, he was just being a cunning linguist.

  31. 31.

    Major Major Major Major

    September 3, 2015 at 10:47 pm

    Today was all right. Just didn’t do anything at all. Figured I’d earned it.

  32. 32.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 3, 2015 at 10:50 pm

    RBG, by several lengths.

  33. 33.

    Tommy

    September 3, 2015 at 10:53 pm

    @Tenar Darell: Laughing only somewhat. I wear this fitness bracelet. Told me I was “fat.” I am a 5’4 male and on a good day 132 pounds. I would like to change a few things, but I didn’t think the app would assume I need to eat less. I think I need to eat more. Or better. Not what I am getting.

  34. 34.

    SiubhanDuinne

    September 3, 2015 at 10:54 pm

    @Tenar Darell:

    That’s exactly what I thought when I saw he was planning to get together with Geraldo Rivera at a Mexican restaurant. I thought, wow, no matter what he orders he’s going to get the piss-and-spittle soup with a garnish of friend snot.

  35. 35.

    Calouste

    September 3, 2015 at 10:58 pm

    @Cervantes: I read somewhere else that it happened at 4.30PM. So full daylight, and definitely a time when other people would be in the park. And the park ranger was initially going to cite him for double parking, so it probably wasn’t remote.

  36. 36.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 3, 2015 at 11:00 pm

    @Calouste: Who amongst us hasn’t exchanged documents in a public park?

  37. 37.

    Amir Khalid

    September 3, 2015 at 11:03 pm

    @Tenar Darell:
    They’ve probably been doing it to his food for years. The Donald didn’t start being a racist creep just in time for this presidential cycle, after all. In fact, if restaurant workers ever stopped doing it, he’d think something was wrong with the food and send it back.

  38. 38.

    SiubhanDuinne

    September 3, 2015 at 11:04 pm

    @efgoldman:

    I know, I keep thinking about how much the chambermaids and dishwashers in all the Trump hotels must just adore him, and would totes vote for him if only they had Papers.

  39. 39.

    Amir Khalid

    September 3, 2015 at 11:09 pm

    How often is a broken clock right? Rick Perry has come up with a new answer.

  40. 40.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 3, 2015 at 11:16 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Assuming the clock keeps military time, he is right. Assuming he was thinking that is insane.

  41. 41.

    rikyrah

    September 3, 2015 at 11:18 pm

    Tommy, you tickle me when you discuss your parents.

  42. 42.

    Tommy

    September 3, 2015 at 11:22 pm

    @rikyrah: I hope that is a good thing. I really hope.

  43. 43.

    Major Major Major Major

    September 3, 2015 at 11:23 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: haha that was exactly my thought as I was wondering how to give him the benefit of the doubt.

  44. 44.

    Amir Khalid

    September 3, 2015 at 11:31 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    The German name for the 24-hour clock is Bahnzeit. Fun trivia fact: the word was adopted as a war cry by their World War II allies, the Japanese.

  45. 45.

    Prescott Cactus

    September 3, 2015 at 11:36 pm

    @Tommy: Buy a different fitness bracelet.

  46. 46.

    Ruckus

    September 3, 2015 at 11:36 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:
    With Perry I think you are supposed to give yourself the benefit of doubting.

  47. 47.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 3, 2015 at 11:41 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    Fun trivia fact: the word was adopted as a war cry by their World War II allies, the Japanese.

    Nice try.

  48. 48.

    Tommy

    September 3, 2015 at 11:48 pm

    @Prescott Cactus: Yes. I would like to gain weight. Stunned it tells me I am fat or I need to lose weight. But that is what it tells me. My program tells me I should lose 14 pounds.

  49. 49.

    benw

    September 3, 2015 at 11:49 pm

    @M. Bouffant: Hey, thanks for the link! I hadn’t seen that and “Slouching Toward Bethlehem” is my jam. I’m reading the article now, but I thought I’d click back and say thanks!

  50. 50.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 4, 2015 at 12:02 am

    @Tommy: Dude, don’t ever believe stock opinions about weight. By common standards, NFL running backs with six-packs are obese.

  51. 51.

    Major Major Major Major

    September 4, 2015 at 12:04 am

    @Tommy: It’s probably using BMI calculations which are kind of a very blunt instrument. By those standards I’m obese at 6’4 and 200, but that’s mostly muscle.

  52. 52.

    Anne Laurie

    September 4, 2015 at 12:59 am

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Today was all right. Just didn’t do anything at all. Figured I’d earned it.

    Welcome back!

  53. 53.

    groucho48

    September 4, 2015 at 3:21 am

    The Notorious RBG definitely has the look, but, luckily, she directs it to folks who deserve it. Sotomayor is a sweetheart. Didion doesn’t have the moral standing to weigh anyone’s soul.

    newyorker.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/ginsburg-gambit.jpg

  54. 54.

    AxelFoley

    September 4, 2015 at 7:40 am

    @Schlemazel:

    A pair of state legislators got busted in a rural park, she had her pants undone & down but thats just a misunderstanding they were only exchanging documents (thats right up there with hiking the Appalachian Trail!)
    citypages.com/news/…..ar-7626244

    The woman is the wife of an Assembly of God minister but it was probably the guy that was speaking in tongues. While it should go without saying, they are both family values Republicans.

    I see what you did there.

  55. 55.

    J R in WV

    September 4, 2015 at 10:29 am

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Good for you.

    And you don’t need to do very much on Friday, either!

    Resting is good for you, ask any well-informed Doctor.

  56. 56.

    Lynn Dee

    September 4, 2015 at 12:45 pm

    I used to like Joan Didion. I guess I still like some of her stuff: Run, River and Salvador leap immediately to mind. But I got a little tired of (or maybe she became increasingly reliant on?) certain empty, meaningless literary tricks and devices.

    And let’s face it: The Year of Magical Thinking was just weird. Yes, yes, I know: It was widely acclaimed. But IMO, it could only be written by someone who’d trafficked in intellectual boredom and emotional detachment her entire (writing) life and had somehow managed to make it to old age before suffering the loss of a loved one. Very little she wrote was new to anyone who’s actually had a loved one die, but she seemed to think she was the first to experience what she was feeling. (Really, Joan? After a loved one dies you find yourself waiting for them to return and then crushed each time you realize what you’re doing?)

    Oh wait. This was new: While visiting her daughter at the UCLA medical center, because she hadn’t brought appropriate clothes weather-wise to Southern California, she elected to wear scrubs she purchased at a shop at the hospital. She seemed to think it showed how uninterested she was in the daily trappings of life. I suppose. I thought it showed something deeper, something she seemed to have no insight whatsoever into.

    But I do remember when I loved her writing, and I still go back to Run, River and Salvador to relive that feeling. It was like lying on a beach and letting the sun bake the impurities right out of you.

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