Oy vey…
OMG. Joe Arpaio will keep the birther bullshit going until Obama leaves office pic.twitter.com/6Aj4ffBEWl
— Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) December 14, 2016
by Adam L Silverman| 103 Comments
This post is in: America, An Unexamined Scandal, Because of wow., Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Election 2012, Events, Open Threads, Politics, Post-racial America, Silverman on Security, General Stupidity, OLD MAN YELLS AT CLOUDS, Our Awesome Meritocracy, Our Failed Media Experiment, Our Failed Political Establishment, Outrage
Oy vey…
OMG. Joe Arpaio will keep the birther bullshit going until Obama leaves office pic.twitter.com/6Aj4ffBEWl
— Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) December 14, 2016
by John Cole| 38 Comments
This post is in: OLD MAN YELLS AT CLOUDS
We’ll file this under the joys of home ownership.
The neighboring property is a former fraternity house. The fraternity has not existed on campus for several years, and the entire place is run down and they have a diseased/distressed tree that keeps having pieces/parts fall on my property.
Dad wants me to just pay to have the damned tree removed. I want them to pay to have the damned thing removed. If the tree was healthy and fell on my property, then it would be my insurance company’s problem. But since it is distressed, they would be liable.
I just am not in the mood to fork out a grand to chop down a god damned tree that someone else owns. I might just put a couple notches in it with an ax and let the thing fall on their roof, the fuckers.
And another thing- I was on an important call doing house stuff, and Steve marched into the office and started bitching up a storm for dinner and was so loud and distracting that the person I was talking to (a lawyer, and we know how much they charge per hour) said- “Do you want to take a moment and deal with whatever issue is bothering your cat?” God damned cat.
If a Tree Falls on My House Will Anyone Hear Me ScreamPost + Comments (38)
This post is in: OLD MAN YELLS AT CLOUDS
I am tired of being broke and paying for this house. I’ll add this to the list of shit that is pissing me off in 2016.
This post is in: OLD MAN YELLS AT CLOUDS
Things have just been super hectic around here. Between work related issues and the house (which is coming along and I will have an update on Friday), it just seems like by the time I get to where I can move forward with something it’s almost nine pm. Just everything seems to be happening at 78rpm and I am still rolling along at 33 1/3.
Had to do my what seems like a daily pilgrimage to Lowes today, and on the way home I was thinking that I am still in the anger phase of this post-election, with a stunned disbelief. I just drove along thinking “I can’t believe this guy went on national tv, made fun of a disabled person, millions of people saw it, and they voted for him anyway.”
Don’t get me wrong, he’s done SOOOO many things like this, but today this is the one I was fixated on.
On top of that, I just can’t keep up with the news. I quit watching cable tv and honestly have not even TUNED to CNN, Fox, MSNBC, or even any of the broadcast news shows or Sunday programs since the election, and have basically just been reading newspapers and websites. And it’s impossible to keep up with what Trump is doing because 95% of the stuff that comes out of his campaign is just pure bullshit. And it’s by design:
Gingrich explained that Trump diverts the media with “rabbits,” or unimportant stories to throw them off from pursuing real stories. As an example, Gingrich referenced the media’s five or six day long focus on Trump’s irritation and possible internal feud with adviser Kellyanne Conway’s over her critical remarks about Mitt Romney’s potential nomination as U.S. Secretary of State.
“[The Apprentice] was a remarkably popular show,” Gingrich told Fox News host Jenna Lee during the interview. “[Trump] understands the value of tension. He understands the value of showmanship. And candidly, the news media is going to chase the rabbit. So it’s better off for him to give them a rabbit than for them to go find their own rabbit. He’s had them fixated on Mitt Romney now for five or six days. I think from his perspective, that’s terrific. It gives everyone something to talk about.”
“He does not think of this as chaos. He thinks of this as creativity,” Gingrich added.
And most of the idiots are happy to play along.
Oh, and Rosie has an eye infection, so there goes another 100+ bucks tomorrow to fix a dog that just lies around grumping at me all day and bitching when I walk by her.
Feh. I can’t wait for this god damned year to be over. I think I am just going to go play CIV 6.
by DougJ| 286 Comments
This post is in: OLD MAN YELLS AT CLOUDS, Our Awesome Meritocracy, Our Failed Media Experiment, Our Failed Political Establishment
My mother hates Nixon, my son hates Nixon, I hate Nixon, and this hatred has brought us together.
–Hunter S. Thompson
I think Donald Trump is going to be bad president, worse than Reagan and possibly as bad as W. He could even be worse than W, though I’m holding out hope he won’t. I’m hoping that the mostly liberal asshole that he once was hasn’t been entirely subsumed by the frightening right-wing asshole that he now seems to be, and that he manages to surprised us by only being bad, rather that terrible.
But if he is terrible, that can bring us together. Remember how we used to all get together and hate George W. Bush as one? Before we divided into PUMAs and Obots, Bernie Bros and neoliberal shills, we just a ragtag team of misfits who banded together to laugh at a president who, to that point, had been the worst president of most of our lifetimes.
Remember how good that felt? We can have it again. But this time let’s try to do it without cheering on clowns like Anthony Weiner and Alan Grayson.
Sometimes you get what you want and you lose what you hadPost + Comments (286)
This post is in: Election 2016, I'm With Her, Just Shut the Fuck Up, OLD MAN YELLS AT CLOUDS
…Who keeps on sending me begging email, even (or especially) five minutes after I’ve dropped a few more bucks.
I care about politics. By all the noodly appendages of the FSM, y’all know that, right?
I genuinely believe this is an existential election, one in which it’s not enough (though vital) to take the presidency. We need the Senate, and we pretty close to need the House, which we are unlikely to get, alas. It takes dollars to do all that, I know. I understand that you don’t get if you don’t ask, which means the campaigns gotta try.
But I hit the breaking point yesterday. My wife and I had decided to drop our last contributions in a flurry of mixed support and magical thinking (this $10 bucks to whoever will propitiate the electoral gods…or this one…or this on…). I allowed all the emails from all the campaigns we’ve given to over the last year, plus all the campaigns and PACs folks who bought my info from someone I actually support, to accumulate over a few hours.
There were more than 200. I ended up sending off a cash to Hillary, the DSCC, the DCCC, and the top Senate races I’ve been following — PA, NC, NH, MO, NV. YMMV, but that’s where I completely unscientifically decided to put what final $s my wife and I figured we could spare. Deleted all the emails. Exhaled.
Within a few minutes — really — more rolled in. No surprise; why should the folks I didn’t give to stop — how could they know I’m tapped out? But still, I was getting tired of the whole thing when I noticed within not that long yet more email from some of the folks I’d just given to. I snapped.
I don’t want much. Maybe a three hour window between last contribution and next ask? (I’d prefer 24 hours, actually, but I’ll take what I can get.) And perhaps a little less agony in the subject lines? Every now and then, maybe a positive note — even something like “let me tell you how we’re going to put each new dollar to use”?
Anyway. Just ranting. Good news out of Nevada, and seemingly so out of Florida, which has me off the ledge. And I’ll further calm myself by getting out and doing something — GOTV tomorrow and Tuesday in New Hamster.*
But sweet Jeebus on a corndog, it’s not just the sheer awfulness of the campaign on the other side, nor the grotesque reality of racism, sexism and misogyny, anti-Semitism, the power of post-truth ideology, the failure of the elite media, and all the rest of the horrors the Trump freak show has dragged up from the shadows. I’m ready for this to be over so that all my first-name email friends quiet down. Just a bit.
Please. I’m begging.
Rant away below; this is an open thread, especially for complaints, dyspepsia, and general fuckwuttery.
*Yeah. I’m a Masshole. I wear it proudly.
Image: Edvard Munch, The Scream, undated drawing.
PS: Ain’t that a grand variation on a truly clichéd piece of art?
by John Cole| 73 Comments
This post is in: Clown Shoes, OLD MAN YELLS AT CLOUDS
Florida bringing their A game to the 2016 shitshow:
A dispute on a Florida shuffleboard court turned violent yesterday when an 81-year-old man allegedly punched a fellow pensioner and struck him with his shuffleboard cue, according to court records.
The confrontation Wednesday afternoon occurred at the Pinellas Park Senior Center, which includes an open-air pavilion with 16 shuffleboard courts (as seen below).
Police charge that octogenarian Herbert Hayden “had a verbal argument that escalated into a physical altercation.” Hayden allegedly punched the victim, James Sutton, in the face and “hit him with his shuffleboard cue causing damage to both cues.”
Don’t ever change, Florida.