Alby's Latest Posts
Dec. 29 Open Thread: All’s Fair When All’s Foul
Lots of people don’t get this, but all the lying and cheating Republicans do to gain office isn’t unique to them, and many of the techniques the Russians used on social media are perfectly legal if done by domestic actors. The only problem many Democrats had with the tactic is that Republicans beat them to […]
Dec. 28 Open Thread: Revenge of the Moderate
Did you think the progressive takeover of the Democratic Party was going to be easy? No chance, pal. Just take a look at the vitriol being spread by defeated Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill on her way out of Washington. She took her strongest shot at, of all people, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “She’s now talked about a […]
Song of the Day 12/25: John Gorka, “Christmas Bells”
As John Gorka explains, sort of, to this Dutch audience in 2013, the lyrics to “Christmas Bells” began as a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem written in 1863 — on Christmas Day, in fact, just a month after his son was gravely wounded in the Civil War. His rumination on the existence of a supreme being […]
Dec. 24 Open Thread: NBC Promotes Bernie vs. Beto
If Beto O’Rourke were black, we could blame opposition to his popularity on racism. If he were female, we could blame it on misogyny. As it is, the mainstream Democrats who loved Hillary are going to have to face the fact that the Berniecrats have no such reasons to oppose Beto O’Rourke, yet they’re against […]
Song of the Day 12/23: Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, “The Light of Christmas Day”
I thought I had heard every Christmas song worth hearing until yesterday, when a Spotify search for “Alison Krauss” and “Christmas” introduced me (eventually, well down the play list) to this duet with Robert Plant, “The Light of Christmas Day,” that I didn’t even know existed. Krauss and Plant teamed up for their album of […]
Dec. 22 Open Thread: The Building Beto-mentum
I’m sure this will upset a number of readers, but facts are facts: Beto-mentum continues to build. A straw poll from the progressive group MoveOn.org released last week revealed Beto O’Rourke is the leading Democratic contender for the 2020 presidential race, with 15.6 percent of responders supporting his candidacy. He was followed by former Biden […]
Dec. 21 Open Thread: Trump Collapse Approaches Exit Velocity
Look, I didn’t say Trump’s collapse would be pleasant. I just said it was coming, and now it’s here. Remember that story a year or two ago about the broken sewer main out in Christiana, a 7-foot-diameter pipe completely full of shit? That’s roughly how much of Trump’s output hit the fan yesterday — and […]
Why the Long Faces?
Sometimes I think progressivism and depression must be linked characteristics, carried on the same gene or something. How else to explain those poll results to your right, which show that more than half the participants think the Republican Senate will never turn on Trump? (Had it been an option, I would have picked “when it’s […]
Dec. 14 Open Thread: And the One-Man Band Plays On
Here’s a hint that Trump’s flailing mania is not an act: Even without an audience who believes a word of it, his tweets keep on rolling, asserting statements with no basis in fact, airing dubious legal theories, and proving no match for the reality. He’s the second little piggy, the one who built his house […]
Dec. 13 Open Thread: James Bond, Meet Maria Butina
A team of Australian public health officials at what must be Sherlock Holmes University issued a report that sounds like parody: After studying the cinematic evidence, they concluded that James Bond has a drinking problem. Not only does 007 consume 109 alcoholic beverages in about 52 hours of screen time, the authors also note, quite […]
Dec. 12 Open Thread: Cohen Gets 3 Years, Pelosi Pwns Trump
Donald Trump’s claim that Michael Cohen’s payoff of two paramours was a “civil” rather than a criminal offense just clanged into the iron bars of reality, as Cohen was sentenced to three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to his role in the scheme. (AMI, the corporate parent of the National Enquirer, also admitted […]
Whatever Happened to Murdertown?
I posed a question in the panhandling thread asking if anyone could figure out why Mike Purzycki gets virtually no positive press for the receding Wilmington murder rate. I flashed back to my summer of substitute teaching when nobody raised a hand. There’s a reason I asked the question in a thread about panhandlers. I’ll […]
Dec. 11 Open Thread: Plenty of Coal This Christmas
In news that will seem much more important years down the line than it does now, a global climate confab is being held in Poland, the climate-denier capital of Europe, where the U.S. pushed for increased use of coal, to outright laughter from nations without fossil fuels to peddle. Gabriel Sherman has the scoop on […]
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