Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

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

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

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

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

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

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Bark louder, little dog.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Thursday Evening Open Thread: The Scarlet Pimpernel, in 140 Characters

Thursday Evening Open Thread: The Scarlet Pimpernel, in 140 Characters

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The Washington Post, paper of record in the company town where politics is the monopoly industry, breathlessly recounts the saga of the Beltway’s latest masked marauder:

Inside the National Security Council, most officials aren’t allowed to use or even look at Twitter, the popular social-networking service.

But that didn’t stop some of President Obama’s top advisers from trying to identify the person responsible for @natsecwonk, an anonymous Twitter account that published a steady stream of personal and sometimes offensive attacks on White House and State Department officials.

Three weeks ago, the group hatched a plan to trick the suspected NSC staffer into revealing himself. They would intentionally plant inaccurate, but harmless, information with him to see if it would pop up as a 140-character tweet, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the effort.

It is not clear whether the sting led directly to the unmasking last week of Jofi Joseph, 40, who was identified as the creative force behind @natsecwonk and was fired from his position on the administration’s Iran negotiations team. But the lengths to which White House officials went to find Joseph reveal how much of an embarrassment his Twitter feed had become inside the West Wing and across the street at the stately Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where Joseph worked alongside his NSC colleagues while secretly skewering them online.

“It was like they were hunting for bin Laden in a cave and he was right in the belly of the beast all along ,” said a former NSC official who worked with Joseph, marveling that he was able to keep his identity secret for over two years…

Although @natsecwonk did not have a large audience by Twitter standards — fewer than 1,600 followers before the account was taken offline last week — the feed was watched closely by an influential circle of foreign policy experts in Washington think tanks, on Capitol Hill, and at the NSC, the State Department and the Pentagon.

The willingness of @natsecwonk to mock and insult the administration from a clearly Democratic point of view made it a refreshingly unpredictable read in partisan Washington — at least for those who were spared Joseph’s scathing abuse. Any preening or inflation of credentials was cause for ridicule…

No mocking the preening, Joseph! Because DC is a Very Serious Town, full of Very Serious People!

Elsewhere in the media, at the same time, NYMag‘s culture blog measures the real-world value of Twitter celebrity:

To a certain group of fans, Benedict Cumberbatch is the most important person on Earth. These people — Cumberbitches, as they have named themselves on Twitter and elsewhere — have an active subreddit devoted to the Sherlock star’s exploits; they GIF and meme him on countless Tumblrs. (Have you seen the one about the otters? It’s pretty good.) The Cumberbitches have gained such notoriety that Benedict himself is quizzed about them in interviews. (“It’s flattering, though I worry about what it says about feminism,” he told InStyle. “It’s quite a pejorative term.”) When he was recently denied the American cover of Time (he remained on international editions), the Cumberbitches pilloried the magazine on Twitter.

Time presumably made this decision because a majority of its readers have no idea who Benedict Cumberbatch is. Despite a prominent if spoiler-protected role in the very profitable Star Trek Into Darkness and 3.2 million viewers for Sherlock — plus, of course, the hard work of the Cumberbitches, who tweeted about him roughly 700,000 times this year — Cumberbatch only has a 10 percent awareness rating in America, according to the market research firm E-Score, which provided data for Vulture’s Most Valuable Stars equation. Put bluntly: He is an enormous star on the Internet — outside of that, not so much…

***********

Apart from acknowledging the limits of being A Big Deal on the Internets, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

89Comments

  2. 2.

    Trollhattan

    Lacking a weapon with the sparkle of a Ted Cruz, California Republicans try to stir up the gun-fondlers with their closest thing: Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R, Packin’ heat at the nearest airport security line).

    Having failed to persuade Gov. Jerry Brown to reject a wide-ranging package of gun control bills, pro-gun advocates announced on Thursday they will seek to punish Democrats who supported the measures at the ballot box.

    “Every single assemblyman and state senator swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution,” Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, told reporters before speaking at the conference. “And when they violate that oath by trying to erase the Second Amendment, then I think we have a duty” to “remove that threat.”

    The recall effort, trumpeted during a press conference on the west steps of the state Capitol building, comes after Second Amendment stalwarts successfully recalled two Colorado legislators last month over their votes for tough new gun control measures. Tim Knight, who launched the Colorado effort, spoke in Sacramento on Thursday about a groundswell of popular anger against California’s gun control package, as did Sam Paredes of Gun Owners of California. “Since the governor’s action in signing the bills and vetoing bills, we have been inundated with calls and emails, communications with people all over the state of California asking us, what are we going to do about this?” Paredes said, adding that “the recall is one way to send a message: if you continue to do this, we’re going to continue to fight.”

    Targeting the governor himself would have been prohibitively expensive and required a massive amount of signatures, said Jennifer Kerns, who is working on the recall effort and for Donnelly’s gubernatorial campaign. But she cited a number of vulnerable Democratic lawmakers the recall campaign will focus on: Senators Norma Torres and Ben Hueso, in addition to Assemblywomen Lorena Gonzalez, Sharon Quirk-Silva and Speaker John A. Pérez. That list could grow, Kerns said, brandishing a spreadsheet laying out how lawmakers voted on various gun bills and assessing voter registration splits in their respective districts

    .

    Recall economics–who knew? I can actually feel the ground swelling.

    http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/##storylink=cpy

  5. 5.

    maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor

    No mocking the preening, Joseph! Because DC is a Very Serious Town, full of Very Serious People!

    In fairness, shitting where you eat will get you canned from just about any job, anywhere.

  6. 6.

    Cacti

    In fairness, shitting where you eat will get you canned from just about any job, anywhere

    But that totes gets in the way of AL’s PUMA shtick.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    “It was like they were hunting for bin Laden in a cave and he was right in the belly of the beast all along ,” said a former NSC official who worked with Joseph, marveling that he was able to keep his identity secret for over two years…

    Take that, Snowden.

  11. 11.

    Corner Stone

    The willingness of @natsecwonk to mock and insult the administration from a clearly Democratic point of view

    These words…together…they can’t exist. It’s like light escaping a large circling gravitational type thing.

  13. 13.

    Frankensteinbeck

    “It was like they were hunting for bin Laden in a cave and he was right in the belly of the beast all along.”

    Wow. Just… wow. What do they call those, a Hoekstroika? Does there need to be a new name for this kind of pretentious belief that you’re important and exciting when you’re just being an annoying little shit?

  15. 15.

    Corner Stone

    He certainly doesn’t look 40 in the pictures I’ve seen of him. I wonder what kind of moisturizer he uses.

  17. 17.

    SiubhanDuinne

    They seek him here, they seek him there,
    The NSC seeks everywhere.
    Is he in heaven, or someplace sweeter?
    That demned elusive Twitter tweeter?

  18. 18.

    Cacti

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I am also willing to bet he knew that confidentiality was a job requirement.

    You with all your fancy lawyer talk.

    This guy is a persecuted hero.

    Also, did you hear that Obama is going to make Larry Summers the new Fed chair?

  22. 22.

    Amir Khalid

    Jofi Joseph? That’s an unusual first name. “Benedict Cumberbatch” sounds like a minor character from a Chuck Dickens novel — maybe the guy at the second desk to the right from Bob Cratchit. Cumberbatch is catching some grief from Julian Assange over that movie, or so I hear. Maybe that’s worth a Balloon Juice comment thread.

  24. 24.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Speaking of twitter, I stumbled in to this

    Tom Matzzie ‏@ tommatzzie 32m
    On Acela listening to former NSA spy boss Michael Hayden give “off record” interviews. I feel like I’m in the NSA. Except I’m in public.
    Tom Matzzie ‏@ tommatzzie 37m
    On Acela: former NSA spy boss Michael Hayden just ended last of handful of interviews bashing admin.
    Tom Matzzie ‏@ tommatzzie 39m
    On Acela: Michael Hayden was talking to Massimo Calabresi at TIME I am pretty sure. Does he tweet?
    Tom Matzzie ‏@ tommatzzie 40m
    Michael Hayden on Acela giving reporters disparaging quotes about admin. “Remember, just refer as former senior admin” #exNSAneedsadayjob

  28. 28.

    Cacti

    @Amir Khalid:

    Cumberbatch is catching some grief from Julian Assange over that movie, or so I hear. Maybe that’s worth a Balloon Juice comment thread.

    If there’s ever a Glenn Greenwald biopic, there will be dueling posts from Cole and Mistermix about whether 10 or 20 oscars is enough, or maybe how the leading man wasn’t dashing or handsome enough.

  29. 29.

    Cacti

    @Anne Laurie:

    While we’re on the topic of obscure literary references, have you ever run across the phrase “King Charle’s head“?

    I agree AL. It’s been 5 years since Obama beat your girl Hillary.

    Time to let go.

  34. 34.

    Corner Stone

    @Omnes Omnibus: If those are actually representative of natsecwonk’s tweets, then why would anyone spend 2 seconds trying to find him?
    He sounds like an understudy for The Devil Wears Prada sequel.
    I find it hard to believe he had 1600 followers.

  38. 38.

    C.S.

    But the lengths to which White House officials went to find Joseph . . .

    Is it just me, or do these “lengths” seem pretty basic, quick, and just a bog-standard spy novel plot point? I mean, in order to accomplish this, you just need a couple of hours from a couple of people. In The Human Factor, if I remember correctly, the same thing is accomplished in a fairly off-hand way by one guy.

    Of course, for various reasons he gets the wrong guy, but still . . .

  42. 42.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Corner Stone: They were rather puerile. Since the account has been taken down that was the best I could find quickly. I presume some of the other tweets were better/more interesting, but maybe not.

  43. 43.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Anne Laurie:

    While we’re on the topic of obscure literary references, have you ever run across the phrase “King Charle’s head“?

    Wait, David Copperfield is obscure now? I haz a sad.

  45. 45.

    Trollhattan

    @Cacti:

    Only Peter Jackson may tackle such an epic, and no fewer than three installments in order to properly reflect a single GG post.

  47. 47.

    ruemara

    @Amir Khalid: I think the problem is this is only interesting to a very small segment of the population. Very, very small. 1.6 mil opening box office small.

  50. 50.

    Corner Stone

    @Trollhattan:

    Only Peter Jackson may tackle such an epic, and no fewer than three installments in order to properly reflect a single GG post.

    I don’t think even Peter Jackson could get two updates…errr sequels to the hollywood epic:
    GG: Copecabana for Me, but Not for Thee

  51. 51.

    BGinCHI

    Can we have more threads for mocking Ron Fournier?

    Unless we are going to get together and beat the shit out of him I think we need to savage him in virtual print.

  52. 52.

    Corner Stone

    @Omnes Omnibus: I hope to Christ there were more somewhere, because I’m having a hell of a time figuring out how those were used:
    “to mock and insult the administration from a clearly Democratic point of view”

  54. 54.

    Amir Khalid

    @Gin & Tonic:
    @ruemara:

    Merit and commercial success don’t usually go hand-in-hand when it comes to movies. Reviews do suggest that Cummerbund Bandersnatch was pretty much spot-on in his portrayal of Assange in The Fifth Estate, so I’m curious about how much else the movie got right. Maybe this discussion needs to wait for the DVD release.

  55. 55.

    schrodinger's cat

    @SiubhanDuinne: David Copperfield is my favorite Dickens.
    I also like Cumberbatch. His Sherlock is great. I also liked him in Tinker, Tailor and more recently in Parade’s end. Good actor, great voice and not too shabby to look at, what’s not to like. He actually comes across as an intelligent person in his TV interviews that I have seen. I don’t get the hate.

  56. 56.

    RP

    sending juvenile tweets making fun of your colleagues while working at NSC on the Iran negotiations team is just astoundingly bad judgment.

  60. 60.

    Hal

    Why is John Stewart an unlikely conservative hero, according to Newsmax?

    Also, I saw Joan Walsh and Ezra Klein on Chris Hayes last night discussing Walsh’s criticism of Klein and other Liberal’s reaction to the healthcare.gov website issues. One thing that stuck out for me was at one point Ezra says to some extent he really doesn’t care about Liberal of Conservative, he’s just talking facts. Which is fine I guess, but why go on Morning Joe when you know they are going to spin that into some sort of “even the Liberal Ezra Klein says” type nonsense?

    I’m just kind of amazed that website problems are suddenly the equivalent of the Iraq War or Katrina. It is a big deal and should be fixed asap, but some folks like Klein are going down the same road we saw with the IRS “scandal” in which Obama was about to be impeached, and was the new Nixon and then, nothing.

  61. 61.

    Southern Beale

    Tom Matzzie, formerly of MoveOn’s D.C. office, just live-tweeted former NSA and CIA head Michael Hayden’s interview he gave on “deep background” about NSA spying. Stupidly, Hayden gave the interview on the Acela train. Matzzie was sitting in front of him.

  62. 62.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Hal: Why is John Stewart an unlikely conservative hero, according to Newsmax?

    He’s been concern trolling the O-care roll out with all his might

  63. 63.

    ruemara

    @Amir Khalid: You should note, I did say interest, not merit. A great many good things die an ignoble box office death. I can only assume Assange saw himself in the portrayal and was Not Pleased.

  64. 64.

    Corner Stone

    @BGinCHI:

    Can we have more threads for mocking Ron Fournier?

    It’s almost like he doesn’t realize people really died in Katrina and the Iraq War. Or something.

  66. 66.

    Warren Terra

    RE Cumberbatch, he also has a starring role in John Finnemore’s Cabin Pressure, a BBC serial radio sitcom that is simply wonderful (and sometimes available on YouTube, between takedowns).

    RE Josi Jofeph, when it was initially announced that a loose-lipped tweeter inside the NSC had been exposed, I think everyone immediately hoped he’d been an outraged and principled truth-seeker taking to the internet because his sense of moral justice could be quieted no longer. Sadly, the tweets I’ve seen in the stories about him suggest he was just a massive douchenozzle, and somewhat bored.

  69. 69.

    Humanities Grad

    @Corner Stone:

    He’s in his early 40s. I’m pretty sure I know this guy–well, knew him. He’s from my hometown, and we graduated in the same year.

  71. 71.

    Culture of Truth

    He still seems like a jerk, and an idiot. I don’t care where you work, you don’t bash your boss or co workers and expect nothing to happen, much less when you do Iran negotiations for the NSC.

  72. 72.

    Mnemosyne

    I was pretty sure this story was a massive zero because it turned up in the 10-second news segment they play on KROQ at about :15 minutes past the hour every morning. The guy who does it is one of the few firebaggers that can be spotted in the wild, so he’s always slipping something like this into what he decided is “news.”

    (Doc on the Roq is who I’m talking about, for the locals.)

  73. 73.

    StringOnAStick

    I read some of his tweets earlier today (somewhere; can’t recall where). I came away thinking he must be quite the special snowflake to think he wouldn’t be found out, and that those he worked with wouldn’t really, really like to shut his bitchy little mean girl mouth.

    As for Mr. Cumberbatch: excellent intelligent actor, and now I like him even more for thinking the whole “Cumberbitches” think is rather retrograde. I can’t wait for another season of Sherlock, no matter how long it takes!

  77. 77.

    geg6

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    I don’t get why people say he’s good looking. I find him repellant looking. Not plain or quirky or even interesting looking. Just gross and I can’t imagine what other women see in him. He reminds me of a salamander. Creepy and slimy. But to each their own, I guess. I’ll keep George Clooney, TYVM. ;-)

  78. 78.

    scav

    @Warren Terra: Cabin Pressure, the Angel Islington in the recent Neverwhere with John Mcavoy. . . If only all such mere twitter phenomena were so worthwhile. Got some damn fine audiobooks, and the younger Horace Rumpole — haunting bbc4 radio has turned up any number of fine nothings.

  82. 82.

    MaryRC

    @schrodinger’s cat: Speaking of someone who’s liked all of Cumberbatch’s performances that I’ve seen, I suspect that the Cumberbitches themselves aren’t doing his image any favors. It’s hard to find a forum that discusses the guy’s work without it being taken over by cries of “OMG MY OVARIES JUST EXPLODED”. And he’s odd-looking, to me anyway. Those tiny eyes, that long face, those little tufts of hair — he’s a Don Martin cartoon come to life.

  83. 83.

    scav

    @MaryRC: That seems to be a default no-brain expression of pleasure anymore. Hiddleston seems to elicit similar boilerplate. I rather enjoy it being a face, not a boy band facade, and a face that for all its essential oddness, can manage to be all over the place including goofy, bored, stunning, reserved and what was that. More a question of presence than simple looks. Jolie laide for des filles. His creature in Frankenstein, for example.

  88. 88.

    kindness

    Jeez. C’mon now of course any administration is going to shit bricks and do anything they can to find and stop someone who is tweeting smack about them from the inside.

    Acting like any administration wouldn’t is the brain dead position. Do I like it? Eh. There are better things they could do with their time but I’ll give them the rooting out and stopping the guy. Hell, bush43 & Darth would have disappeared the guy (Baghram airbase prison? Guantanamo?).

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