Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

This really is a full service blog.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

All hail the time of the bunny!

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

When I was faster i was always behind.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

He really is that stupid.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2012 / Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

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Also worth reading, if you missed it: Shelby Knox talks about “My Roommate, Gloria Steinem“:

IF young feminists believed in fairy tales, then moving to New York City and winding up with Gloria Steinem as your roommate would definitely count as one.
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That is what happened to Shelby Knox when she came here in 2007 from Lubbock, Tex., to work at a summer program dedicated to empowering teenage girls. Then 20, Ms. Knox was already somewhat known in the feminist world: In high school she was the subject of a documentary, “The Education of Shelby Knox,” about her fight to change Lubbock’s sex education curriculum, which taught abstinence-only, and how the battle gradually distanced her from the Baptist church in which she had been raised….
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At first, “I was incredibly intimidated,” said Ms. Knox, now 25. “As a 20-year-old would, I was like, ‘I’m not smart enough to talk to her.’ ”
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But then Ms. Steinem watched the documentary, and they started talking about Ms. Knox’s experience promoting it, when she traveled around the country talking to young people about her experience coming of age as a feminist in an evangelical community.
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“She said, ‘You’re an itinerant feminist organizer,’ ” Ms. Knox said. “And I was like: ‘What? This has a name? This isn’t just me avoiding getting a job?’ ” …
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“There’s all these stories about ‘someone will give you your chance,’ and she did,” Ms. Knox said. “It’s not like she did anything magical. It’s not like she anointed me ‘feminist whatever.’ She just said, ‘I’ll give you a roof over your head while you try to learn to make it in New York.’”

Reader Interactions

37Comments

  1. 1.

    freelancer

    I didn’t dare touch the last thread out of the fear of disqualification of the Maddow contest. That said, even if I won, I’d probably buy the Kindle version anyways.

    I’m off to bed now.

    Gaze upon me, insomniacs, and despair!

  2. 2.

    Mustang Bobby

    Okay, I’ve been up since 1:30 blogging and obsessing about a Power Point presentation I have to put together at work, so I’ll be at the office an hour early — 5 AM instead of 6 — to get the damn thing done.

    Gloria Steinem is from Toledo. So am I (well, I wasn’t born there, but I grew up there).

    Welcome to the Mustang Bobby Non-Sequitur Festival.

  3. 3.

    eco2geek

    Herman Cain’s latest ad ends with a girl asking, “Any questions?”

    My question would be, “What the fuck?”

    (Warning: People who like bunnies — or, hell, just about anyone — may find it disturbing. The guy must have superpac money to burn.)

  4. 4.

    Warren Terra

    @eco2geek:
    I agree that yours is the most obvious, pressing, and salient question, but I had a couple of others:
    1) Do the ad’s makers not understand the difference (especially in acceptability) between the metaphorical violence in the ad they quote and the simulated violence they use?
    2) Did they consider hiring competent people to make their ad, so the shots wouldn’t be overexposed and saturated?
    3) Why should we discuss their ad, given that it is vile, incendiary ad utterly devoid of argument or content, and produced by an utter political nonentity – and so is in every respect no more important than Santorum’s completely reprehensible Obamaville ad, and Santorum is slightly less of a nonentity.

  5. 5.

    Warren Terra

    Here’s a pretty funny story:

    Gingrich begins charging $50 for pics at events
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    (CBS News) HOCKESSIN, Delaware – In a sign that his campaign is in need of fresh funds, Newt Gingrich on Monday began charging $50 to have a photograph taken with him following a campaign speech to Republican County groups here in the northernmost part of the state.
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    It was the first time the former House speaker has charged those attending one of his public speaking events to pose for a photograph with him. Lately, a member of his campaign staff has been snapping photographs of any interested attendee and later posting them online at the campaign’s website, newt.org.
    __
    On Monday night, those paying for a photograph were also told they could find their photos on Gingrich’s website, after they had filled out a form providing their credit card information.

    (hat tip: Bob Stanley’s comment at Rumproast)
    __
    I don’t know which is funnier: Newt charging for photos at campaign events, people paying for photos with Newt at campaign events – or Newt charging for photos that he’s also putting online for free.

  10. 10.

    Amir Khalid

    @Warren Terra:
    I think what this means is that Noot is charging people fifty bucks a pop just to stand next to him and pose for a picture. I understand that actual celebrities pose with their fans for free.

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    David Brooks’ latest — “Centralized healthcare cost management, eww!” — is getting rightly hammered in the comments. Any one of those readers could do a better job of writing a column.

  17. 17.

    Debbie(aussie)

    I need some help, please, how do I get to comments when using my itouch?
    Another query; has anyone here had the surgical proceedure
    ‘ anterior cervical disectomy’? If yes, how did it go?
    deb

  18. 18.

    WereBear

    @Egg Berry: Who are they trying to fool? Oh yeah, teens. Good luck with that she said with sarcasm.

    Back in the day, the sheer lack of other options can make a growing person sign and throw in the towel. But not anymore. The prospect of Never Having Fun is not appealing at any age, but especially not in adolescence.

    It’s my theory that the brain dysfunction that creates a Rick Santorum puts enjoyment into such a strange place… that they have to go to a strange place to get some. If you know what I mean.

  19. 19.

    the fugitive uterus

    what i posted on my FB this morning because i am sick to death of whining, screaming teabaggers on this issue. grow.the.fuck.up:

    Why would anyone choose not to buy affordable health insurance if it is available to them? It is highly irresponsible to assume that you will NEVER need health insurance throughout your life. If you do, do not expect the hospitals, doctors and/or taxpayers to absorb the cost of your intensive care, after that car accident or after that steel beam falls on your head. YOU THINK YOU’RE WHINING, NOW?

    Oh, and by the way, you’ll have to cut that tumor out with your kitchen knife, mkay?

    AIN’T LIBERTY GREAT?!

  20. 20.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Amir Khalid:

    .
    And nice to see that the very first of those comments is from the Winning Progressive, one of the most incisive, prolific, and readable commenters at the NYT. I’ve been known to slog my way through a Bobo, Chunky Bobo, or MoDo salad solely in anticipation that there may be a WP comment for dessert.
    .
    The WP used to post here pretty regularly, but I haven’t seen him/her around recently.

  24. 24.

    EIGRP

    Since it’s an open thread…

    I was listening to the POTUS channel on SiriusXM (124) on the way home this morning and Tim Farley was interviewing Gingrich. It sounded like he said SCOTUS will find the ACA unconstitutional.

    That got me thinking: do all Republicans/conservatives believe SCOTUS will find this unconstitutional? Does it even cross their minds, or do they have any plans for, the event where SCOTUS finds it all OK?

    The opposite doesn’t seem true: I think Democrats/liberals/progressives can think of a situation where SCOTUS declares some of the ACA unconstitutional. We can also see where they declare the whole thing constitutional.

    Or am I off base?

    Eric

    Edit: FYWP. What happened to all the editing controls?

  30. 30.

    Schlemizel

    Saw this on Gizmodo but thought it deserved to been seen here. I have used something similar to discuss how the tobacco companies fought for decades in much the same way.
    .
    Here’s a little story for you. Once upon a time, one of the greatest threats to the lives of American children was the common household refrigerator. This was because refrigerators closed with big honking latches that couldn’t be unlatched from the inside. Kids, being creatures with underdeveloped brains as a rule, climbed inside them to pretend to be glazed hams or something, and they couldn’t get out and suffocated.

    So people got upset about this, as Americans are wont to do when children die and are American, and the refrigerator manufacturers quickly formed a commission dedicated to informing consumers that a commission had been formed. They did not redesign the refrigerators. They resisted any government attempts to force them to redesign the refrigerators. They used a set of excuses that are so standard they should be sold on Amazon as the Corporate Excuses Starter Kit.

    • The problem is not really a problem.
    • To the extent that the problem is a problem, the problem is not our problem.
    • You know who we blame? The victims. If they weren’t so dumb, they wouldn’t have been victimized.
    • The problem cannot be solved.
    • To the extent that the problem can be solved, it can’t be solved by us.
    • To the extent the problem can be solved by us, it can’t be solved by us without destroying the United States economy and plunging us into a despotic nightmare of government mandates and low-quality products.

    While Big Refrigerator was a powerful lobby, it was nowhere near as powerful as Big Oil is today, so these excuses were seen as a pathetic attempt to maintain the status quo, rather than a wise pronouncement from those able to see past the greed and power-lust of a monolithic conspiracy of, um, research scientists, and the Refrigerator Safety Act was passed.

    Fridge makers were required to do what they claimed was impossible: create a refrigerator that does not kill children.

    They put their best minds to the task, because they had to, and came up with an incredible invention called a “magnet.” Turns out if you line the doors with magnets, then the door stays closed and dumb little kids can get out if they need to. Go fig.

    By the way, no child in the U.S. has died from suffocating in a fridge designed after the Refrigerator Safety Act was passed. Not bad for impossible.

  32. 32.

    Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor

    @Schlemizel:

    And yet, we’re still supposed to take the door(s) off when leaving it on the sidewalk for disposal.

    Just another case of Big Gubbmint violating our freedoms.

  33. 33.

    Brachiator

    @the fugitive uterus:

    Why would anyone choose not to buy affordable health insurance if it is available to them? It is highly irresponsible to assume that you will NEVER need health insurance throughout your life. If you do, do not expect the hospitals, doctors and/or taxpayers to absorb the cost of your intensive care, after that car accident or after that steel beam falls on your head

    Baoney. It’s not like it’s raining steel beams. You cannot assume hyperbole to make a case for buying insurance.
    __
    I support universal health care, but am not sure that the individual mandate can be fully justified. Obviously, you need it to guarantee broad participation, but this does not necessarily benefit an individual who decides to forego heatlh insurance.
    __
    And irresponsible? A company I used to work for laid everybody off, and although we had COBRA health insurance extension, it was pretty expensive. At one point, I decided that I could not afford it and went without health insurance for several months. I knew that I was in pretty good health, and probably would not have any significant illness. It was a calculated risk that turned out OK for me.
    __
    People need to be able to make these decisions for themselves.
    __
    .

  34. 34.

    slag

    That was an excellent video. I’m really impressed with the effort the campaign is making to speak directly to women. It’s going well, I think…oddly unpatronizing. We can probably thank Ms. Steinem for that, in this case. And nice reminder of the Lilly Ledbetter Act!

  35. 35.

    Brachiator

    @Schlemizel: Here’s a little story for you. Great story. It is fleshed out on the Straight Dope site. A few tidbits.
    __

    The door seal prevented air from getting in and the kids’ screams from getting out, and in a short time they’d suffocate. In 1956 the New York Times reported that during the previous decade 115 children had died in this way….
    __
    Manufacturers balked, saying the technology wasn’t available, it’d cost too much, blah blah blah. Congress finally said screw it, you guys figure something out, and in 1956 passed the Refrigerator Safety Act, which required that the doors on all fridges sold after October 30, 1958, be capable of being opened with a 15-pound push from inside. Miraculously, a practical, inexpensive technology immediately appeared–a magnetic door seal. Truth was, the new seal had been developed some time earlier by General Electric, which offered to license the system to other manufacturers, but industry experts caviled that it still needed work. Faced with a deadline, however, pretty much everybody adopted magnetic seals, which in the event worked just fine, and we still use them today.

    I used to refer to the invention of the catalytic converter as an example of “impossible” may simple and inexpensive. But I am going to steal this story as well. Thanks.
    __
    .

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