http://t.co/FrO24hdvcA is the #1 source of referrals to http://t.co/0r93BavlrV right now.
— Tara McGuinness (@HealthCareTara) March 11, 2014
WaPo horserace tout Chris Cillizza is mad jellous:
… Obama’s “Between Two Ferns” appearance comes on the heels of a sitdown with former NBA great Charles Barkley, an interview that ran during the All-Star game weekend last month. He’s also done a podcast with Grantland’s Bill Simmons. And a sitdown with Steve Harvey. He’s done “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart six times — including twice as president. (Hat tip to the amazing White House chronicler Mark Knoller for that info.)
Now, compare those appearances to the number of times Obama has sat down with more “traditional” media outlets. The last time the Washington Post had an interview with Obama was in December 2009. The last time the New York Times had one was July 2013…
Nah, I kid. Cillizza, of course, is genuinely admiring in his conviction that the President is so deftly working the Kewl Kidz. Nobody knows better than Chris that trying for the funny can be farkin brutal!
To quote Jon Chait, at NYMag:
… Why is it the role of the press to worry that the president is coming across too much like an equal citizen and not enough like a monarch? Washington’s dignity fetish is one of those manifestations of the cult of the presidency that expresses some really weird ideas about how democracy is supposed to work.
***********
Apart from ruffling the Media Village idiots, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
schrodinger's cat
Going for an evening walk to celebrate milder temperature in about half an hour. It is back to the ice-box later this week.
Bonus: Infamous BJ Troll, revealed.
Frankensteinbeck
Sorry, Washington does not have a dignity fetish. I offer George Bush as proof. They must have some other reason for complaining about Obama. What that reason is, I leave as an exercise for the reader.
Turgidson
George W. Bush’s cold shoulder to the same media outlets while shattering the record for most presidential vacation taken was lauded as a serious man presidentin’ seriously.
Meteor time.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I just got home to watch PBO with Zach G. I’ve never said or typed awesome sauce until now. It’s even better after last night’s Daily Show run down of the clown show at CPAC attempting jokes. Oi.
sparrow
Is anyone else obsessed with the missing Malaysian Airlines flight? I don’t know why, but I am. (Actually I do know why, it’s because I have a mild fear of flying ever since Air France 447 flew into the ocean basically because of pilot incompetence.)
But it’s amazing that in 2014, a widebody airliner carrying 240 people can disappear into thin air over a pretty heavily populated/fished/trafficed area. Really freaking weird.
ranchandsyrup
Going to pimp this up here as well: post on giving away our dog. Results are good but it has been rough on all of us.
Suffern ACE
He sat down with an interview with Bill O’Reilly. Does that count for something? You can’t say he’s only interviewing with “Friends.”
He meets wtih David Brooks regularly offline. He’s had Krauthammer over for dinner. He let that stooge Bob Woodward follow him around and write a book about it given the worst possible spin to everything he did.
Perhaps he just doesn’t like MSM folks and finds them boring.
MomSense
The Villagers really don’t like it that they suck so badly the president doesn’t mind going around them to talk directly to us.
FlyingToaster
@sparrow: The ocean is big. Planes aren’t. If the aircraft doesn’t break up in the air, it goes down in one piece and goes straight to the bottom. Like AirFrance, like AirMalaysia. And it can take forever to find, even in a relatively trafficked zone like the South China Sea.
Keith G
Yeay. A chance to inquire:
I am in the market for a flat screen computer monitor.I would like one 19-21 inches with an HDMI port. Sub $150 would be nice but not a deal breaker.
Does anyone here have experience with such a device?
Keith G
Yikes! A double post.
MomSense
@ranchandsyrup:
I think it is a great thing you did in giving your pup away. Pup is happy now and that is what we all want for the pets we love.
BGinCHI
So everyone in the country runs against Washington to get elected, but when the President tries to branch out across media they hammer him.
The Beltway media sucks donkey dicks.
/apologies to dick sucking donkeys who as far as I know have harmed no one nor cheered any nations to war
Amir Khalid
@sparrow:
You must have not seen the comments here in the past few days. I’ve been particularly interested in MH370 myself, for the obvious reason.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Maybe the “amazing Mark Knoller” (good fucking god) could go back and count up how many times his own “traditional” media outlet gave prime media real estate to the Three Neo-con Stooges of the Senate or, even more embarrassingly, Liz Cheney, or watch his own appearance with Dana Milbank, in smoking jackets, IIRC, talking about Hillary Clinton and “Bitch’s Brew”, if he’s curious as to why Obama might be skeptical of Beltway traditions
ranchandsyrup
@MomSense: thx MomSense. It’s weird to think that I thought I was doing the “right” thing by holding on. I need some recalibration. At least my wife was eventually able to set me straight.
Roger Moore
Count me among those who see jealousy as the primary motivating factor here. The White House Press Corpse is annoyed that the President is bypassing them as gatekeepers, and they’re doing every petty thing they can think of to get back at him.
dmsilev
@Keith G: I’ve had decent luck with Asus monitors in that rough price bracket. You’re not going to get any fancy features or really good color reproduction or anything like that, but they work reasonably well.
BGinCHI
@Roger Moore: Is envy beyond jealousy?
If so, that.
ranchandsyrup
How long until the inevitable Dennis Miller/Victoria Jackson knockoff “Between two bowls of jelly bellies” starts up?
schrodinger's cat
@Keith G: I have an HP flat screen monitor that I like, I have forgotten what I paid for it, since I bought it over 3 years ago.
dmsilev
So apparently the conservative movement’s epic series of trying and failing to find someone, anyone, who has been devastated by Obamacare has moved into the “mockery in the mainstream media” phase.
I found this in my local rag this morning:
smith
@Keith G: I have cheapish monitors from both Asus and Acer, and between the two I’d go for Acer, as the controls are much more rational on the Acer, IMHO.
Villago Delenda Est
Czilla is pissed that Galifianakis has utterly nailed the delivery and tone of the White House Press Corpse, not to mention their general stupidity in asking the President questions.
Villager scum need to be put up against the motherfuckin’ wall and dealt with appropriately.
bemused
@Frankensteinbeck:
Giving the WH press corps putdown nicknames was really dignified. I don’t remember them complaining about that.
Roger Moore
@BGinCHI:
The Beltway media sucks blue whale.
BGinCHI
@Roger Moore: Hyperbole, thy name is Roger Moore.
Mandalay
@FlyingToaster:
Is that really true for a plane the size of a Boeing 777? (I’m asking – I have no idea.)
I would have thought some part(s) of the plane would break off with the impact of hitting the water, regardless of the angle of entry. Whether those parts would float or sink is another matter.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
One of the great truths is that assholes expect to be praised for being assholes.
Violet
That is awesome. Glad it’s working as hoped.
Villago Delenda Est
@Suffern ACE:
Yeah, and BillO was telling us that part two of that interview would be dynamite. So far, no sign of part two. Zzzzzzzz…..
bemused
I never knew the dignity of the president was a major thing in Washington until Obama became president. I don’t know how but I must have missed all this hand wringing when Bush was in office.
Keith G
@ranchandsyrup: I admire your wisdom in recognizing when an issue has become too problematic and in knowing the best path to take to get to a happy solution. I have seen too many pet people affected by misplaced love or alpha-certainty not respond well to similar circumstances.
MomSense
@ranchandsyrup:
Relationships can be so confusing. You showed real dedication and loyalty and hopefully you will appreciate that you were doing your best to be a loving, responsible pet owner and not let that be overshadowed by your regrets. It was a hard decision for you to make–and that says good things about your character!!
schrodinger's cat
@bemused: Well Dubya did run to bring Honor and Dignity back to the White House. Starting a war on false pretenses is dignified according to our media betters.
MikeJ
This post would be a lot nicer if we were told in actual words that the #1 referer to healthcare.gov was funny or die.
Chris
Obama has dealt with the Republicans, with the Russians, and with the Iranians all for the same reason – because he had to. He doesn’t have to deal with the mainstream media. They have nothing to offer him, they’ve made it perfectly clear that they wouldn’t offer it even if they did, and fewer and fewer people listen to them every year in any event. I would venture a guess that Obama realizes all of this and figures that he has enough to deal with just humoring the assholes he does need to talk to, and there’s no reason he should put himself through the aggravation of dealing with the others.
ranchandsyrup
@Keith G: thx Keith and everyone else that commented. Man it’s difficult to focus on results when love is in the equation. I feel irrational.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Villago Delenda Est: HISTORIC!
One of the funniest unintentionally funny things I ever saw was when Vincente Fox said something insufficiently respectful of our great War Leader, and O’Reilly, acting for all the world like a bully from a seventies sitcom, rhetorically asked, “Why don’t you in Mexico ask the French what happens in an O’Reilly boycott”. The buffoon really thinks he delivered a massive blow for freedom by getting a few morons to pour out some perfectly good wine, and getting a couple of dozen old people to cancel their Paris and Monet’s Garden junket
ETA: seems to be Colbert mocking O’Reilly’s auction of the historic interview notes that finally got Poppa Bear to understand the Colbert is laughing at him, not with him.
jl
@Villago Delenda Est: Corporate media reaction to presidential presidenting is almost like clockwork, but no one can explain it. Sort of like the tides. They come in, they go out. Why?
Anyway, only commie levelers like Theodore Roosevelt thought that presidents were merely U.S. citizens who merely and temporarily occupied an important public office. Amazing the country survived the horror of that dude.
Savvy media people, and deranged reactionaries (the rightful molders of public opinion) know that the president is a supernatural object of cult fetish worship who have magical powers.
Violet
@ranchandsyrup: John Cole gave away the little kitty he had for awhile and said she’s much happier with her new family. You did the right thing by everyone.
Mnemosyne
@Frankensteinbeck:
That’s because you misunderstand what they mean by “dignity.” What they mean is, Someone who is the Right Kind of People. And I don’t mean white people — I mean the people who went to Andover, Harvard and Yale. The people in the Social Register. Those people have automatic “dignity” no matter what they do. The rest of us non-bluebloods, not so much.
It’s what Kathleen Parker accidentally revealed in 2008 — Obama doesn’t have the right “blood” to be president. Not (only) because he’s black, but also because the white side of his family is not aristocratic. They’re dirt farmers from Kansas, fer chrissakes.
Belafon
Somebody here the other day put down Cosmos because Seth McFarlane is one of the producers. You gotta love this, though: From the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue:
and
How can you hate a guy that gets Donahue to defend the Inquisition.
From LGF.
geg6
@Villago Delenda Est:
This. He’s as pissed as he was when Colbert took them apart right to their faces. Gallifinakis (sp?) made them look stupid. And old. Again. And the coolest president on the planet played right along with him. Hahaha!
ranchandsyrup
@Violet: True. I, like a total jackass, disagreed with John’s choice at the time (didn’t comment about it, though). Life is humbling.
JPL
@ranchandsyrup: I just read your post and it sounds like you did the right thing.
Cole recognized that he couldn’t keep a cat before and like you gave it to someone who could.
WereBear
@ranchandsyrup: Sounds like a happy ending! Left a comment.
And for everyone who is stuck in a similar situation:
When you are not the right home.
srv
I thought Obama was having private weeklies with Krauthammer, Noonan and that whole crowd. Why does he have to have sit downs with their editors?
Of course, the former policy doesn’t appear to have helped much.
Roger Moore
@jl:
If the President is supposed to be a supernatural object of cult fetish worship, why isn’t the Village worshiping him no matter what he does? It’s almost as if that only applies to Presidents from one party and not the other. But that couldn’t be, since we all know about liberal media bias.
Mnemosyne
@ranchandsyrup:
And if you ever go to visit her in her new home, I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to see you and more than happy for you to give her pets and attention … but that doesn’t mean she wants to live with you again. Seriously, a (friendly) divorce is the right metaphor here. Everyone is going to be so much happier now even if there’s an adjustment period.
ranchandsyrup
@WereBear: thank you for your kind comment and wisdom. checking out yr post. :)
@JPL: doing the right thing is tough on the ol’ heartstrings sometimes…….thanks.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
What about Reagan, then? He wasn’t exactly Mr. Blueblood, but the press still worships the ground he trod on decades after he trod on it. Maybe they confused being a movie star with being an aristocrat, but I doubt it.
Violet
@Keith G: When my laptop monitor stopped working I was desperate for a monitor. Went to Micro Center and bought the cheapest monitor they had. That was three years ago and it was $100 and had an HDMI port even then. Although I finally got a new computer, we use it from time to time it’s still working great. Used it last week to get a slightly larger screen for an England soccer game.
I did no research, just asked the guys at the store. It’s not the best monitor, but it’s perfectly fine. Glad I didn’t waste any time researching because it’s worked fine for me.
Amir Khalid
@Mnemosyne:
I find that particularly amusing about Kathleen Parker. She claims to be an eighth cousin, or something like that, of President Obama (on his mother’s side, if I recall correctly). In a column she wrote early in his first term, Parker condescendingly addressed Obama as “Cousin”.
schrodinger's cat
Reaon # Elebenty Why Obama disses the MSM
Guess whose byline appears under the headline?
Chris
@Mnemosyne:
Well, we all remember when white trash Clinton came in and trashed the place, and it wasn’t his place.
(Funny how quickly the good, honest, hardworking, salt of the earth demographic became scary and unwashed when it got too close to the Beltway).
Steeplejack
@Keith G:
Take a look at this 22" ViewSonic for $135. I have had good luck with ViewSonic in the past, both for myself and clients.
Note: the 24" version is $153.
chopper
@FlyingToaster:
actually no. air france 447 hit the ocean in one piece, but didn’t go underwater in one piece. some large chunks broke off and were found floating. it took a long time to find the rest of the wreckage including the black box which was a few miles deep.
if the plane broke up at altitude smaller pieces would be floating around. if the plane hit the water intact some larger pieces would be floating around. that’s why it’s such a mystery.
Nathan
Yeah I’m confused… somehow “person you’d rather have a beer with” is an important factor when you go to select a president, but when the president actually sits down and has a [metaphorical] beer with someone… well that is simply not done, old chap.
srv
Not sure why this guy is on trial if he did nothing wrong.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Did Howard Dean have automatic dignity? John Kerry?
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
Actually, I do think it was the movie star thing, but don’t forget there were grumblings about Nancy’s designer dresses and free-spending ways even before the whole astrology thing came out. Because, you know, Nancy was trying too hard, darling. Plus they treated the real aristocrats (George Sr. and Babs) like they were hired help, which just isn’t done.
BGinCHI
TPM reporting that Obama has gotten Game of Thrones before everyone else.
Can impeachment be far behind?
Violet
@Amir Khalid: Wanted to say thank you for your Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 updates. I appreciate the summaries. They’re concise and informative. Much better than any news article.
Sure wish they could figure out what happened to the flight. A real mystery. If it did turn around like they’re now saying could have happened, why would that have happened? So many questions.
MomSense
And now they are going for the geeks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnixc0lmiQc
sparrow
@FlyingToaster: True, but AF447 went down in a pretty isolated part of the atlantic, as I recall. There’s something really bermuda triangle-ish about this one…
(and, I know any fear of flying is totally irrational… that’s why I still fly and just suck it up).
kindness
I am particularly enjoying the right wingers at those sites complaining about Obama and then the ACA. Even though they get pummeled with facts about enrollment numbers they keep repeating Foxisms like they mean something.
It is sweet and tasty this revenge.
@Violet: Aliens. Gotta be.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
If they had been elected, probably. We at least probably wouldn’t have gotten the stupid He’s in the Oval Office in his shirtsleeves! idiocy.
Think about the differing insults flung at Clinton and Obama (déclassé, don’t know their place, not dignified) vs. Kerry (too effete, too French, too highbrow and out of touch). A Kerry White House would have been portrayed as Versailles with Kerry in the role of Marie Antoinette rather than having a watermelon patch surrounding the White House.
Anoniminous
@BGinCHI:
That’s it. America is dead. Might as well go off and get my ACA funded gay abortion.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore:
He was from Hollywood! That’s practically royalty, right there.
The Villagers hated Jimmy Carter (hick from Georgia), Bill Clinton (hick from Arkansas) and they hate Barack Obama (ni*CLANG* from the south side of Chicago). The Village actively identifies Democrats ever since the 70’s, as usurpers to a Rethuglican throne. Sometime in the 60’s a changing of the guard took place in the Village, and the new Village elite, led by the vile Broder, when full metal Rethug on the Presidency. Any Democrat elected to the office is automatically inferior to any Rethuglican, and is an usurper.
The Villagers are only courtiers to Rethug Presidents, no matter how utterly incompetent they might be. They’re the disloyal opposition to any Democrat, because no Democrat can be legitimate.
Archon
Obama deserves our admiration for exposing the hypocrisy of many of our institutions. Everyone from Wall Street, to the Republicans to the beltway press has been exposed as double dealing frauds that aren’t looking out for the interests of the average American or the long-term interests of our nation in general. He even showed the hypocrisy of Academia when he feigned holding Universities accountable for our broken student loan system.
Obama didn’t get to be a transformational leader but he sure ripped that band-aid off of of the festering sore known as America’s powerplayers and gatekeepers that one way or another are collecting rents from our broken institutions.
Belafon
Could someone please unmoderate me?
gogol's wife
@Villago Delenda Est:
I finally had a chance to watch it — hilarious!
I am going to be so sad when Obama isn’t president any more. I loved his comparing a third term to Hangover III.
Big R
@Keith G: Wal-Mart TVs?
Jay C
@jl:
Fixt for accuracy
Frankensteinbeck
@Mnemosyne:
Let me suggest that they care very strongly about you being an aristocrat, but they have an ‘I know it when I see it’ definition of aristocracy. Obama went to Harvard, after all, but he’s black and does not respect his betters, so he can’t even have an honorary role in the club. It’s quite possible to be inducted into the club. Reagan was, partly for spitting on the poor and minorities in such a charming way, and partly because as cable became available the club was really starting to take shape at the same time. Grandfathered in, as it were. Coming from a very rich family is good, almost an automatic in, but the main thing is that you’re an aristocrat because other aristocrats accept that you’re an aristocrat.
Villago Delenda Est
@gogol’s wife: Obama is so incredibly dead-pan the entire time and has such superb timing and delivery. It’s a joy to watch.
Chris
@Villago Delenda Est:
Actually, I’m curious to know if it wasn’t even earlier than that. Republicans were the Rich White East Coasters’ party long before the 70’s too, even if it wasn’t always the same kind of Republican. Did that never bleed over into media bias in the old days as well?
ETA: of course, what it meant to belong to a party in those days was very different compared to now, so that whole line of inquiry might be misplaced.
Villago Delenda Est
@Belafon: We’re going to moderate you like you’ve never been moderated before!
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
@Omnes Omnibus:
Also, too, notice that I’m not saying that a President Kerry would have been treated with more respect than Clinton or Obama were. But he would have been criticized for being too dignified rather than for being undignified.
Still debating about Dean. He may have de-aristocratized himself by becoming a Tradesman Who Works for a Living rather than staying in finance, but I still think he would have gotten treatment closer to Kerry’s than to Obama’s and Clinton’s.
BGinCHI
@Villago Delenda Est: To the ModeratorMobile!
Mnemosyne
@Frankensteinbeck:
Isn’t that the definition of an aristocrat in the first place? I’ve been skimming Alison Weir’s The Princes in the Tower again recently and the complaint about Edward IV marrying Elizabeth Wydville (“Woodville” is an incorrect transcription, apparently) was that she wasn’t aristocratic enough to marry a king. English kings caused all kinds of trouble when they married for love (see also Henry VIII, Charles II, etc.)
Villago Delenda Est
@Chris: The coverage of JFK and LBJ was different than the coverage of Carter and Dems afterwards I think this has to do with leftovers of the FDR/HST period, who didn’t have the same partisan tilt that developed when guys like Nixon showed up on the stage. Broder’s big break was a leak from the Nixon campaign in ’68 on who Nixon’s running mate would be, and it pretty much made Broder’s career. He was eternally grateful for that opportunity, and it showed every time his byline appeared.
Kennedy was treated like an aristocrat (even though he was Irish and Catholic…the “Camelot” thing was so strong) and Johnson was “The Master of the Senate”. They got passes on a lot of things that their Democratic successors did not.
Eric U.
We are trying to find a home for my mother’s elkhound, and it’s proving nearly impossible. We can’t handle a third dog, but I took her after my mother passed away last month. The dog isn’t a particularly good fit with other dogs, and for some reason this makes the local rescue group shun her. They also haven’t had any adoptions for months, so they are overbooked.
sparrow
@Amir Khalid: Ah, sorry. Yeah I’ve been busy writing proposals. But frequently checking airliners.net… it’s become kind of an obsession. So strange. I keep hoping somehow it was hijacked and not crashed, but it seems unlikely…
shelly
Or if he puts his feet up on the Oval Office desk. Smelling salts, please!
Amir Khalid
@kindness:
They should get the FBI to send Spooky Mulder over. He investigated a mysterious air disaster once. Maybe he could help.
ranchandsyrup
@Eric U.: I’m sorry to hear about this, Eric. Are there any different groups locally (or not so local) that you can check out?
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid: It can’t possibly hurt. They seem to need all the help they can get, and it’s really bizarre that there was no clue at all from the pilots as to an emergency or anything. Just…gone.
Frankensteinbeck
@Mnemosyne:
No, the definition of an aristocrat is to be part of the economic class of money and power. Because it’s a class, there is an implication there that old money and power is better than new money and power. That’s the concept. When you get down to practical reality, human psychology breaks in and ‘Not one of us’ starts happening. There are no clear rules for that, just what the social group feels.
Calouste
Well, the American President is a monarch. An elected monarch, and one with the title of President (thanks to that commie George Washington), but a monarch none the less. Because when the constitution was written, pretty much the only examples there were were monarchs, and a combination of the built in difficulty to change the constitution and the fact that a large number of Americans think that it’s something that was on a separate set of stone tablets that Moses carried down from the mountain, means that we’re pretty much stuck with those examples from 250 years ago.
American Presidents have powers of pardon that no head of state or head of government in western Europe still has. The inauguration of an American President is far closer to, or even exceeds, the coronation of a new monarch in Western Europe (specially considering the latter only happens once every few decades rather than every 4 years), than it is to the installation of a new Prime Minister and their cabinet, which tends to be a very low key affair.
gogol's wife
@Eric U.:
Good luck. I looked up elkhounds, and they are so cute! It seems strange that it would be hard to find a home for one.
Steeplejack
@Eric U.:
You might do well to look for a breed-specific rescue group. I just got on the Google and searched for “elkhound rescue” and found several sites. Here is an apparently national group, and there are several regional organizations, e.g., D.C. area, New England, etc. You might find one in your area.
Eric U.
@ranchandsyrup: The SPCA converted over to no-kill policy, but they also have a waiting list. Being out in the middle of Pennsyltucky has its downsides sometimes
Mnemosyne
@Eric U.:
Is it something that training might help with, at least long enough for you to say s/he gets along with other dogs? A quick Wikipedia skim said that elkhounds really want to be top dog, so that may be where some of the problems are coming from.
ranchandsyrup
@Eric U.: I hear you. I think Steeplejack has some good advice re: breed specific rescue. That’s what worked for us.
Omnes Omnibus
@Calouste: No, the president is not a monarch. A president is a combination head of state/head of government. Comparisons with a prime minister who simply is a head of government are inapt.
WereBear
@Eric U.: Have you reached out to Elkhound rescue organizations? They are rather rare, and perhaps in demand.
And… I got beat to it. Which is a good thing!
Mnemosyne
@Frankensteinbeck:
Yes and no. Once the aristocracy gets established, the “money” part isn’t quite as necessary as you’d think to still be considered part of the group. Plus the group is often willing to look the other way if you have to bring new money in to keep the aristocracy going. See also the Bushes, who were parvenus until great-grandpa Samuel P. Bush married well.
ETA: See also Prince William of Great Britain, who really married down — his mother was a Spencer, but he married someone from the middle class. Whose family is not coincidentally filthy rich.
Steeplejack
@Eric U.:
Elkhound rescue in Pennsylvania.
Calouste
And in other news, free market champion Chris Christie from the free market Republican Party lets regulation pass in his state that forbids Tesla from selling cars the way they want to, i.e. direct to customers and bypassing the dealerships.
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus: Washington was offered the crown of America. He refused.
At the time, republics were very atypical, but were often still ruled by aristocrats. Venice, for example. The Netherlands was originally a republic that had, essentially, a hereditary head of state/head of government who was not called a king, but was for all practical purposes one.
The notion of a transition of power that did not involve the death or overthrow of the current ruler was just unthinkable. When Washington stepped down after his second term, it was earthshaking in its implications.
I’m sure all the monarchs of Europe were alarmed at the idea of an actual republic without a hereditary ruler, but America was too far away to do anything about, and furthermore, the Atlantic acted as a quarantine barrier to such nonsense taking hold in Europe.
Until 1789, when all hell broke loose. Even then, Louis XVI was still the king, and until he was formally deposed and the French Republic established two years later, the disease hadn’t spread.
Violet
@Eric U.: I assume you’ve looked here for any leads: http://www.elkhoundrescue.org/.
ruemara
I am drinking in the consternation of the media village like it’s fine wine. About go beg my old boss for access to our media NAS because I need access to old footage and shots for my current project (plus myself). I also have a little nursery book rhyme in my head after the time I’ve spent with my friend’s baby. I wish I was a good illustrator, I did one book and can’t illustrate it as well as it deserves and now I have another one. If things had ever worked with my ex, at least I’d have some line drawings to colour. Oh well. Maybe this time, I’ll like what I can draw.
? Martin
Let’s not overlook the President’s Reddit AMA, which massively broke Reddit (5.5 billion pageviews per month) for a day.
Villago Delenda Est
@Calouste: Well, there’s an actual free market and the “free” market of Corporate America. An actual free market is fucking communist in nature, you know.
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus:
Also, some European nations have a president as head of state but not of government, such as Germany and Italy. In those nations, a prime minister is head of government. And the president may be elected by parliament rather than by the electorate.
jl
@Calouste: According to John Adams, the title of president sounded undignified because that was what captains of cricket teams were called back in those days.
I was shocked to learn that the U.S. would have chosen an undignified name, and even more shocked that people played something called cricket in the U.S. back then. Was it the same type of cricket played today? No matter, that is shocking, regardless.
We should change the name from ‘the President’ to ‘the Reagan’.
Eric U.
My wife contacted an elkhound rescue organization. Not sure if they have her listed yet.
cleek
this is what the Bully Pulpit looks like in the 21st century. it’s not standing in front of a podium: it’s talking directly to the people in ways they want to listen to.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Randall Munroe has made an entire career as an artist by drawing stick figures. Just sayin’.
Mandalay
@Calouste:
Well you offered several reasons why a president is unlike a monarch, but not a single one to support your bold claim.
Just asserting that “the American President is a monarch” does not make it so.
Litlebritdiftrnt
My mother called me this afternoon to remind me that 54 years ago today I was three hours old. She then reminded me that it took a WEEK of labour for her to give birth (and a heart attack). I just love it when she lays this guilt trip on me every birthday. Having said that though she is now 80 and seems to have managed to hang on despite my attempt to kill her in 1960.
Mike in NC
The Villagers would respect Obama a great deal more if he simply wore a big cowboy hat and drove a pickup truck.
JPL
@Litlebritdiftrnt: Happy Birthday! Any news on the job front..
Jeremy
@Villago Delenda Est: That’s true ! The Beltway press in the past is not even close to the one today. The FDR to Nixon period was considered the Liberal Era.
Amir Khalid
@Litlebritdiftrnt:
Better luck next time*, and happy birthday.
*Not meant seriously
ranchandsyrup
@Litlebritdiftrnt: Happy BD Litlebritdifrnt!
raven
@Litlebritdiftrnt: Happy birthday grasshopper.
Violet
@Litlebritdiftrnt: Happy Birthday! How’s the job hunt/potential move to UK going?
raven
Boy I am trying to give away a great 32 inch Sony tube tv and I’m getting bombe with insults and snark on my FB!
Mandalay
@Amir Khalid:
Or prime minister in the case of the United Kingdom, where citizens have no direct say in who will be head of the government (i.e. the prime minister), and absolutely no say at all in who will be the head of state (i.e. king or queen).
An interesting form of democracy they have there.
Litlebritdiftrnt
@Mandalay:
I wish they would make up their fucking minds. When I listen to the RWNJ media every day they pivot from he is a iron fisted Chicago thug dictator to a limp wristed moron who can’t handle foreign policy. Make up your minds for FSM’s sake. He is either one or the other, but according to the RWNJ media he can be both at the same time.
Tommy
@Litlebritdiftrnt: My mom calls me to the second to tell them when I was born, 10:37 PM on July 12th 1969. Always thought it was cool of mom to do this.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mandalay: The founders used the model they had for a head of state, and that was the British Monarchy. Of course, in detail there are great differences, but what we’ve got for a government in basic structure is what Britain had in 1789. The British model evolved into the “Westminster System” from that point on, but we stayed anchored to a written outline of what the Brits had at that time, with the innovation of an independent judiciary. The British Monarch still had an active role in governing at that time, and didn’t lose it until the next century.
JoyfulA
@Omnes Omnibus: Both Dean and Kerry came from “top-drawer” families, did they not?
Cervantes
@Villago Delenda Est: Would you say that the Vietnam war and Watergate should not enter into your theory of how coverage of the presidency changed in the ’70s?
Cervantes
@JoyfulA: Kerry more so than Dean, but yes.
sparrow
@Litlebritdiftrnt: Happy Bday!
Also: YOU CAN HAVE A HEART ATTACK WHILE GIVING BIRTH? really? Like I need any more disincentives to procreate…
Amir Khalid
@Litlebritdiftrnt:
He’s actually one or the other, depending on what they want him to seem like right now.
Chris
@Litlebritdiftrnt:
Well, happy birthday, despite your attempts at matricide.
Omnes Omnibus
@JoyfulA: Yes.
FlyingToaster
@Mandalay: Momentum gets the broken parts down to where they are either waterlogged or (if hollow) filled with water.
The parts that would likely shear off on impact are the lifting surfaces, not the fuselage. You’d more likely see a tail, rudder, elevator than the supposed door (which was actually trash) the VNAF thought they saw.
This looks like it went straight in. So unless we’re talking a “Millenium” scenario, those folks is gone. Since it’s not a thousand miles from land, we’ll probably find it in the next few months, unlike the AirFrance mid-Atlantic crash.
Someone want to call Jim Cameron and borrow his subs?
Litlebritdiftrnt
@JPL: @Amir Khalid: @raven: @Violet:
Thanks all, I am getting some fruit trees for my birthday from my husband (I have to go and pick them out and buy them of course), he called me today and said “how about some apple and peach tree seeds?” I told him that I didn’t think I had enough time left to see those to actually producing fruit. Mum is going into town this week to buy a bunch of teacher’s magazines that advertise job openings. I think that my DH is most likely going to get a job in the private school market seeing as there are no openings in DOD schools.
The daffodils are blooming up a storm, the weather is warm and balmy, and other than the fact that my boss is likely to fire me this week because he has been looking for an excuse since December everything is peachy.
? Martin
@Cervantes: Shit, I’d put it all on Watergate and Pentagon Papers. In both cases Nixon was spying on the media and breaking into their offices. If you need a watershed moment for when the media would turn on the presidency, that’s pretty much the whole ballgame.
But I think VDE is also noting that the media are often more willing to carry water for Republicans in spite of that incident. I think that’s more a reflection of the media being unwilling to advance narratives that they think will be unpopular with the public, so it’s easier for them to fluff Iraq lies yet dig in hard on a website not working. That has nothing to do with Nixon and everything to do with journalism turning into another entertainment industry dependent on ?iagra ad dollars.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: would you believe I suck at stick figures? I’m a shader.
Oh, Happy Birthday, litlebrit!
Cervantes
@Litlebritdiftrnt: Many happy returns.
Giving a parent a heart attack is almost a rite of passage. Tell Mum you were just precocious — give her the credit.
Villago Delenda Est
@Cervantes: I would say that the rise of television, coupled with Vietnam and Watergate, transformed the way that journalism was done, and that brings us to where we are now. The old way of doing things in the press was turned into the newfangled way of doing things in the media. Two distinct paradigms for news coverage.
At first, old line print journalists like Edward R. Murrow tried to maintain standards. Newscasts in the 60’s were quite different in tone and substance than they are today, in part because you had guys like Cronkite, Huntley, and Brinkley in charge, and definite support from senior network management for that approach. However, as television became more and more dominant as the way news was delivered, with it’s immediacy as opposed to finding out tomorrow morning what happened today, changes were being made, and it became more superficial and less substantive. Couple that with changes in management philosophy, and news was no longer a loss leader for prestige, it became a profit center, was expected to pull its weight and more of the corporate bottom line.
Now we’ve got slop.
Calouste
@Villago Delenda Est:
Good explanation, although you got your dates a bit wrong. Washington was first elected in 1788, and only stepped down in 1797, after France had already become a republic. Of course that republic was rather short lived, and France didn’t permanently become a republic until 1871.
Villago Delenda Est
@sparrow: As Nelson Rockefeller discovered, briefly, you can have a heart attack while taking the first step on the way to procreating!
Litlebritdiftrnt
@Litlebritdiftrnt:
For some reason I am in moderation. Help please.
JoyfulA
@raven: To give anything away, and I do mean anything, use your local FreeCycle.org.
Mandalay
@FlyingToaster: Thanks. So it is likely that the fuselage is intact, but flooded, on the sea bed? (Assuming that the plane did not come apart in the air, or crash on land.)
Ugh.
JPL
Well just darn, with 202 out of 225 precincts reporting, Jolly is ahead of Sink by 2000. I know it’s a republican district but I was hoping.
jl
@JoyfulA: Careful with raven. Some day he may have some more flesh eating beetles to get rid of.
Gravenstone
@ranchandsyrup: Look at it like what Cole did with rehoming Zsa Zsa. He lamented parting with her, but realized it was better for the animal and in the end that was the important thing.
TS
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Which I could have written that – the alternative is simply to repost it
PsiFighter37
Finally got a chance to see the Funny or Die skit – that was hilarious. Not sure if the White House wrote any of the retorts themselves, but that was fine stuff.
Mnemosyne
@JPL:
Don’t give up hope yet — Obenshain was 1,200 votes ahead of Herring for on election night for VA attorney general last year, but Herring pulled it out.
Villago Delenda Est
@Calouste: Republic fever swept the continent in its wake. One of Napoleon’s problems is that he was an arriviste, not a “true” aristocrat, even though he sought to fix that by marrying a Hapsburg, and he did after he took over The Directory basically bring back a monarchical structure to French governance.
But yeah, you’re right on the dates thing. The notion of the head of state being elected was not terribly radical (see the Papacy, the Holy Roman Empire, etc) but the idea of a head of state being replaced in such a process was revolutionary. When Adams was replaced by Jefferson, after losing to him in an election, it was earthshattering.
WereBear
@Litlebritdiftrnt: Happy Birthday!
And your mother’s birthday present: now that’s guilt!
The Thin Black Duke
@raven: How ’bout throwing in the VCR as a bonus?
PsiFighter37
And it looks like Alex Sink is proving she can’t win any kind of close race worth a damn. Losing to Rick Scott and this clown Jolly is pretty pathetic.
JoyfulA
@jl: I gave away 100 used socks, a prom gown from 1963 (which my parents had been saving), a screen door, and on and on. Flesh-eating beetles I’m sure there’s a taker for.
Amir Khalid
@FlyingToaster:
If it’s to search the Gulf of Thailand, Cameron’s deep deep sea subs wouldn’t really be needed. That’s part of the continental shelf where, as a commenter here pointed out, the water is shallower than a Boeing 777 is long. I’d send them subs to where the Royal Malaysian Navy is looking, in the waters off the northern end of the Melaka Strait.
raven
@The Thin Black Duke: Funny, one of the people that said no said, “I have my vcr right next to it”. I have to use a vcr as a channel changer on my PIP so I still use it.
raven
@JoyfulA: I hit the site, no go here.
The Thin Black Duke
@raven: Hey, it’s hard for me to throw away stuff that still works. I have a prehistoric LG flip cellphone that compels kids to point their fingers at me and laugh. (But it never runs out of charge either)
Chris
@Villago Delenda Est:
Worse than that, IIRC, was that Napoleon actually tried to start his own aristocracy out of the ranks of the Grand Army’s generals, which would’ve meant supplanting and cutting out the “rightful” nobles altogether. Can’t have that.
raven
@The Thin Black Duke: I hear you. This tube has a special place for me because of when I bought it. On the other hand it is a beast and I really don’t need to be moving it around. Someone gave us a Sony flat screen so I need to let it go. I think I’ll call Habitat.
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
@Keith G: Late to the party, but I’ll say Mrs. Pantload and I have had an Acer 24″ w/HDMI for many years, and it’s still bright and crisp. (We use it as our “television,” since we stream much, much, much more than watch one of the cable channels.)
Can’t recall their prices, though.
MomSense
@Cervantes:
Actually Obama has a very aristocratic family tree. Here is one link but there are more detailed maps of his family available.
http://genealogyofpresidents.blogspot.com/
Amir Khalid
@Mandalay:
It doesn’t really matter who a ceremonial head of state is, as long as they can remember their lines and don’t piss in the punchbowl at state dinners. So I’m fine with letting the Malay rulers, representing only nine of Malaysia’s 13 states, rotate the federal throne among themselves. And I totally get the Brits being okay with a hereditary monarch; the one they’ve for 60-some years has actually done a pretty decent job.
Mnemosyne
@raven:
When we needed to get rid of our old 30″ tube TV, G put it out on the curb on top of a couple of boards (so it wouldn’t get wet on the grass) and taped the remote control to the top of it. It was gone by morning.
So if you can get it out to the curb, put it out Friday night and you won’t have to worry about it again.
? Martin
I’ll toss out another defense for Obama’s outreach channels. My daughter set two programs to record on the Tivo last night, that she said people were eagerly awaiting/raving about. I hadn’t heard of either one (nor do I remember the names). My son never heard of either one. He almost never watches TV. I pretty much only watch sports now, and not even much of that.
TV and traditional media used to be a good cultural conduit. For most people it still is, but for a growing number of people, it’s useless. The 2012 campaign should have taught that lesson to everyone, but Obama clearly learned it.
Cervantes
@MomSense: Sure — but as far as I know, I said nothing here about Obama’s family tree.
Villago Delenda Est
@Chris: Well, the idea of actual merit being a basis for a ruling class vs. just falling out of the right womb was pretty radical.
We’re trying to undo that entire bizarre notion here…our “meritocracy” is such a fucking joke. All one needs to do is look at clowns like Chris Wallace and Luke Russert to see how badly it’s going. Actual guys who got there by merit (Clinton, Obama) are despised by the Village.
Cervantes
@Violet: One might even go so far as to say “Mission Accomplished.”
(Obama is too clever to make that mistake.)
The Thin Black Duke
@raven: When you do, would you tell ’em to pick up my Toshiba 32-inch tube? It won’t die. When our basement flooded, it still worked. It would survive Godzilla. Still, I mostly watch movies these days on my Apple desktop. Sad. It was a loyal soldier.
Mnemosyne
@MomSense:
I have a veteran of the American Revolution on one side of the family and am reputedly descended from William Bradford, so I’m probably related to the president in some way, too.
On the other side, we’re sheepherders from Italy (Lombardia, IIRC). So that keeps me humble. ;-)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@PsiFighter37: Nothing fucks up an election like voters. Looking at Bill Young’s wiki page, it looks like turn out is pretty consistent with a midterm election, which since 2000 has run just over half of presidential years. Obama narrowly carried the district in 2012, when Young was re-elected. I think Mark Halperin just said that absentee ballots/early ballots aren’t a factor in the numbers we’re seeing, but I was only half listening, because it was Mark Halperin
raven
@Mnemosyne: That’s certainly an option. I have a hand truck.
Bobby Thomson
The conclusion? Cillizza either doesn’t know what “number of times” means, or is deliberately and dishonestly comparing apples to Weimeraners. Given his track record, I know what my conclusion is.
Bobby Thomson
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Cillizza misspelled Mark Knopfler. Happens to the best of us, and to Chris Cillizza.
MikeJ
@Mnemosyne: My DAR mother would probably like to rope you in. (I’m in the middle of moving one of their websites right now.)
Chris
@Villago Delenda Est:
The funny thing (well, the thing that makes it all so surreal) is that while we’re doing everything we can to undo the fact of meritocracy, we’re chanting its merits louder than ever. The reason we’re supposed to revere the 1%, we’re told, is that they’re Risk Takers with Skin In The Game, who’re where they are because they’re so smart and hard working and good at what they do. And the only problem with our society are all the people who don’t want to earn their way and expect the government to take care of them. Because if only we were as smart and hard working as them, we’d be among them.
(Though that last one is especially nasty, because even if it’s true, it counts on you to focus on the “you could be one of them” part and not ask yourself “wait, what happens to those who can’t?” But that’s another argument. A complete hypothetical since, as you point out, we don’t have a real meritocracy).
ETA: The best analogy for modern America might actually be the Soviet Union of thirty years ago. Just as they had an unequal society ruled by an unelected elite in the name of Equality and Democracy, we have an anti-meritocratic society that justifies itself by using the language of meritocracy.
dexwood
@Mnemosyne: This is what I do, sometimes, with certain, salvageable objects, appliances, and equipment. I tape a sign to whatever it is in bold letters spelling out Free. I do, however, wonder about the eventual disposition of the Whatever. Will it be recycled in a Green way? Will it be dumped in an arroyo? In the end, I just want it gone, and hope for the best. I have trouble with tossing “still good” things.
SiubhanDuinne
@sparrow:
Makes your handle especially interesting.
Gex
@ranchandsyrup: Lots of hugs. The heart just wants to make it work out even if that’s impossible. makes doing the right thing hard. I commend you on doing it anyhow and letting yourself feel all these painful, crazy feelings while you adjust to the new situation.
pluege
the washington “dignity fetish” only applies to Democrats and Progressives – another manufactured reason to knock them. Certainly republican/conservatives are the most inept embarrassing stooges on Earth, but they don’t get dinged for it by the corporate media elite.
JoyfulA
@raven: Hard to believe. I FreeCycled TWO supermarket encyclopedias, a huge floor-model TV set circa 1975, a weight-lifting bench. You must have rich people down there. Or no hoarders, maybe. (DH has maybe a dozen floor-model tube radios from yard sales and FreeCycle).
Mnemosyne
@Chris:
I still wish Hayes would use scare quotes when he talks about “meritocracy.” It’s not bad to have smart people rise to the top — the problem is that the people currently on the top have hijacked the whole idea to claim that their idiot children (Chris Wallace, Luke Russert, etc.) worked their way into their positions. It’s so transparently fake that it drives me nuts to see Hayes give them even the smallest bit of credence by leaving those scare quotes off.
Mnemosyne
@MikeJ:
I’m not sure the DAR accepts people whose names end in a vowel. ;-) And I’m not sure where along the way my family turned away from Protestantism and became Papists, but I’m sure William Bradford is rolling in his grave at the thought.
Bobby Thomson
@kindness: Or a Bond villain.
raven
@JoyfulA: Well I googled what you gave me, used my zip and it came back empty.
SiubhanDuinne
@Litlebritdiftrnt: Happy 54th, Litlebrit!
MikeJ
@Mnemosyne: I used to tease my mom about it, but they really do accept people who aren’t rich WASPs these days. The DC chapter has a fair percentage of African Americans. Your individual local chapter may vary, but from what I’ve seen they’re mostly in at least the semi-modern era.
lamh36
Ya know you are a geek when you’re sitting at home watching a public access mathematics show where the teacher is answering a math problem on her blackboard and you are attempting to solve the problem before she does…lol.
something fabulous
@Eric U.: Try not to give up hope! I have some friends who only ever want Corgis, and only get them from breed-specific rescues. Their most recent one was schlepped to them all the way from very Northern California down to LA. He certainly has his, um, personality quirks, but they love him like crazy; have had him 4 years now. I think they were his 3rd try at a permanent home. Matches get made in the oddest ways, and sometimes it takes time, but if she’s a breed people like, chances are probably really good!
Calouste
@Chris:
Napoleon actually had quite some success with that, considering one of his generals became the king of Sweden.
JoyfulA
@MikeJ: I’m quadruple qualified for DAR. My mother initiated the process of joining to “prove” the fourth ancestor, but she quit when she learned a genealogist friend had already submitted him. In other words, she wanted the ancestor to be listed by the DAR, but didn’t particularly want to join DAR. They’re not serious genealogists!
(But I’m not in the lineage of anyone notable. The Pennsylvania Dutch pretty much stayed to themselves—aka, inbreeding—until my generation. Lineage before 1700 is spotty to nonexistent due to time and war, lots of wars.)
Howard Beale IV
It’s time to being back the guillotine.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Janet Reno is a member. FWIW they started to change after Eleanor Roosevelt very publicly resigned her membership over the Marian Anderson/Constitution Hall fiasco. The process has been slow.
danielx
The Very Serious People worship gravitas, and it’s absolutely required from black people.
Pogonip
@ranchandsyrup: I’m impressed. I’d have fallen out of love with the dog when she started using the floor as a toilet to let me know the thrill was gone for her. I am impressed with your loyalty and Mrs. Syrup’s patience, and am pleased to know there was a happy ending for all.
I guess the cliche about “no bad dogs, only bad owners” needs to be revised to “no bad dogs, only bad situations.”.
MikeJ
@JoyfulA: Same here. Several different qualifiers, all farmer-soldiers. Not related to any generals or presidents or anything.
lamh36
lamh36
SiubhanDuinne
@JoyfulA:
On my mother’s side of the family, I can prove American Revolutionary descent — and thus, DAR eligibility — through seven separate lines. I never wanted membership, but I have to admit the work that was done on my mom’s behalf some 90 years ago has made my own genealogical researches a lot easier.
On my father’s side? I can’t even prove I had a grandfather.
Mnemosyne
Of course, any talk of “dignity” reminds me of this classic movie sequence (sorry for the subtitles, but the narration is still Gene Kelly).
JoyfulA
@raven: Your local Freecycle doesn’t seem at all busy: https://groups.freecycle.org/group/AthensGA/posts/all Sorry for the no help.
So I’d follow the others’ advice: put it curbside with a “Free. It works” sign on it.
Bex
@Villago Delenda Est: Raptured?
Cervantes
@Mnemosyne:
He doesn’t, for a reason: he argues that meritocracy as we conceive it, without scare quotes, is part of the problem.
Mnemosyne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Heh. We know my paternal grandmother’s father came here from Ireland, but not exactly what year, and there were thousands of guys by his (very common) name departing from Cork every year. My aunt was basically told she would need to hire an expert to try and figure it out.
One of the things that makes tracing Irish genealogy so tough is that people usually listed the departure port (like Cork) as their place of origin rather than where they lived before they left, so you have thousands more people “from Cork” than ever lived in the city.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: I have qualifiers on both mom’s and dad’s side but everyone has sort viewed it way my grandfather stated it about the VFW, “Being eligible matters, but I don’t really want to be around those guys all that much.”
raven
@JoyfulA: Huh, when I hit it’s front page and put my zip in it came up empty. Thanks.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
My family would dispute that. Of course ours is a silent vowel, so maybe it doesn’t count.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cervantes: Michael Young, when he coined the term, was not being complimentary.
scav
@JoyfulA: “serious” requires a DAR desire? harumph. Similarly, revolutionarily descended (although I think he only essentially played a pick-up game at King’s Mt and then wandered) with no desire to enlist self amidst among same. Have enough relatives at the right time and place to pick up more, but was more fun to find early Mennonites in the mix to bookend the Hussites on the other side. Always fun to have tradition of long-established religious contrarianism in back pocket to shut down dull attempts at proselytization. And a few Prussians if I’m feeling grumpy and wish to frighten people, although, honestly, the defenestration habit is far more fun.
Mnemosyne
@Cervantes:
So what is Hayes’ argument? That equality is impossible, so we never should have desegregated and given people the foolish notion that they could be judged on their own merits?
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: You gramps was Groucho!!!
JoyfulA
@MikeJ: I can’t figure out why all these farmers hopped up as soon as the Declaration of Independence was read and marched to join Washington in New York. Most of them didn’t even understand English, I’d guess.
I suggested the Stamp Act to my mother as a precipitating factor. The stamp tax was doubled for foreign-language newspapers. She said paper was so dear in those days that she found wills written on the backs of other wills and on sundry scraps of paper, and she doubted these poor farmers had newspaper subscriptions they worried about.
When I retire, maybe I’ll figure it out.
SiubhanDuinne
Looks like Sink has sunk.
Now I feel guilty, because I steeled my heart (and my Visa) against the financial begathons that have been showing up in my inbox for the past month from the DNC and DNCC, etc.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
I believe I’ll just steal that line, if you don’t mind.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
I believe I’ll just steal that line, if you don’t mind.
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: No, Gramps thought the post-WWII VFW was a bunch of right wing douchebags talking about how great the war was and bitching about the government. Groucho wouldn’t join any club that would have him as member – my grandfather joined a country club.
@SiubhanDuinne: Feel free.
I also pull Pequot War and and King William’s War veterans out of my back pocket if someone wants to get snooty about the DAR.
Anne Laurie
@Litlebritdiftrnt: Happy birthday… and many happy returns, whichever side of the pond you celebrate them on!
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: it wuz a funny.
Citizen_X
@Litlebritdiftrnt:
On the bad side, holy cow, your poor mom! On the good side, you get a week long birthday! Hooray!
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: I don’t know about Hayes, but Michael Young, the British Labour politician and scholar who coined the phrase in 1958, saw the concept of merit as it was then conceived as too limited. The idea then, as now, was really that IQ + effort = merit.
MikeJ
@Mnemosyne:
Meritocracy and aristocracy both mean exactly the same thing, “rule of the best”, just different root languages (Latin and Greek.) Inevitably, the already powerful are going to redefine “best” to whatever suits them.
Cervantes
Shorter Chris Cillizza: “That bully pulpit may be bully for you, Mr. Obama, but it isn’t for me and mine.”
And as for (quoting Jon Chait) “Washington’s dignity fetish,” where was it when Bush caressed and stroked his pet “journalists”? The NYT’s Frank Bruni alone was osculated with four nicknames (Pancho, Panchito, Frankie Boy, and Brunai). And again, where was “Washington’s dignity fetish” when McCain’s tire swing was pendulously swaying back and forth? And yet again, where was “Washington’s dignity fetish” when various Villagers wrote paeans to various anatomical features of various Republican presidents?
If it were a movie, “Washington’s dignity fetish” might even be rated X.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
I had a Revolutionary ancestor (who rejoiced in the name Eliphalet Follett, which is euphonious if nothing else) who was killed in the Wyoming Valley (PA) massacre of July 3, 1778.
Villago Delenda Est
@Chris: It’s amazing how many members of the Soviet elite were from families that were also in the Tsarist elite. They just switched ideologies when it became necessary, and moved on.
SiubhanDuinne
@raven:
I laughed.
Anne Laurie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yep, that’s why I linked to Cillizza’s ‘brewskis’ sketch… which is as funny as watching a couple middle-aged pudgy guys in their bathrobes, bringing the flop-sweat.
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: I know.
? Martin
@Mnemosyne: His argument is that the rewards that define a meritocracy (reward you for your hard work, even proportional to your hard work) perverts the system because it’s not reversible. The people that we elevate to high status then get the levers of power to preserve that status. His point is that meritocracy is supposed to work both ways, that not only do you reward those that earn it, but you punish those that don’t by taking that status, income, wealth, power away and giving it to someone that has earned it. But once the power is granted, they change the rules so it can’t be taken away, and that everybody does it. There’s no shortage of minorities that have worked hard and risen up to power and then abused it, no more and no less than whites that have done the same. I mean, if you worked up to be a powerful banker, what’s your incentive to not fuck over everyone below you? It’s not like anyone is going to take away your wealth or freedom if you fuck up and hand it to someone who got it right.
His point is that we need to make sure that the rewards of the meritocracy don’t include the power over the system, and that the punitive side of a meritocracy works as efficiently as the reward side – and that we’ve very badly failed that test – pretty much everywhere.
JoyfulA
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s odd, but my mother researched my father’s line, not hers, but books were already out on her mother’s mother’s line, and there’s a “reunion” every year at the homestead the original immigrants built, so maybe she was more interested in new ground. My father is not at all interested. She spent countless hours in the state archives and beyond, finding all this stuff. In fact, I have her printed-out manuscript with her “very last” author’s changes for me to make, after which I’m sending it to Amazon to print books for her to take to my father’s “reunion” in August.
It’s a shame she’s old to the point of being not able and/or willing to join the online world. So much information is now relatively easy to find online that was immensely hard when she was doing it.
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus:
Indeed. The Rise of the Meritocracy 1870-2033 was a satire — and it made some of the same points in 1958 that Chris Hayes is making (again) now.
jharp
Sucks that Sink lost.
Oh well. Fuck it. We’re a long way from taking back the House.
PaulW
I am very angry at my fellow Floridians right now, voting a bleeping Republican into office in the FL-13 special election.
Jolly basically campaigned entirely against ObamaCare and eked out (at barely 2 percent) a win. But this is gonna embolden the rest of the GOP into thinking that they can spend the next 7 months body-slamming ObamaCare as negatively and inaccurately as possible, and force the Democrats to go on the defensive all over again…
dammit, dammit and DAMMIT. I might have to disown all of Pinellas County right now. DAMMIT.
PaulW
@jharp:
It shouldn’t be this hard. With the GOP lying about ObamaCare at nearly every turn, with them refusing to fund aid for veterans or for the hungry children, with them dissing minorities and women voters with every gaffe… good Lord, in a sane world these turkeys shouldn’t be getting 27 percent of ANY election. DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT…
SiubhanDuinne
@JoyfulA:
It’s true, a lot of genealogical information is online. So, in my experience, is a great deal of misinformation. Even though much of my ancestry appears to have been vetted six ways from Sunday, I like to do my own research where- and whenever possible. I expect that quite a lot of my upcoming “Grand Tour” (as efgoldman calls it) will be spent in small-town New England libraries and courthouses, just double-checking original documents.
Omnes Omnibus
@JoyfulA: My dad inherited a genealogy project from his father 22 years ago and has fleshed it out into some thing huge stretching back on some lines to the Middle Ages. I actually dread what will be handed to me as the elder son (and only one to really take an interest). It is interesting to find that one has ancestors who some thing interesting. As a general rule though, my family descended from the less distinguished branches of the various families. For example, this guy is a great….great uncle.
ETA: @SiubhanDuinne: I would trust very little of what is online unless it links to the primary documents. That being said, Dad is using a lot of scanned records from the 17th century as his sources rather than going to some vicarage in England to look up a birth record.
Hill Dweller
@Anne Laurie: I remember Cillizza accusing Obama of crying wolf when he was correctly warning about the economic harm resulting from the sequester. He didn’t even attempt to argue it wouldn’t hurt the economy; instead he tried to blatantly undermine PO.
All the while, people were bring hurt by the sequester.
Hill Dweller
@PaulW: You probably know better than I, but from afar it seemed like Sink was running as an Republican-lite.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@PaulW: Chris Hayes quoted this seventy-eight year old retired schoolteacher (public school? doesn’t say) and GOP activist interviewed by Dave Weigel. It was such a head spinner I had to go read the original. This is what we’re up against
Hayes didn’t quote her friend, who jumped in to tell Weigel she thinks Obama is a secret Muslim and not a citizen, among other choice observations. These two vote in every election.
JoyfulA
@scav: No, I’m sorry. She feels the DARs aren’t serious genealogists, so she wouldn’t want to hang out with them like she does with the Palatinates and the like.
As far as I’ve seen, all my ancestors were from along the Rhine, where Penn’s people were recruiting.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: A 50 state strategy is a good idea, but we also have to be realistic about what can be accomplished in the near future in certain areas.
raven
Wanna see my video of the owl in the tree in my backyard?
JoyfulA
@Omnes Omnibus: Wow, all I’ve got is the French and Indian Wars, mostly via ancestors fleeing back down to safety in Lancaster. And one collateral ancestor in a shotgun wedding with an Indian woman.
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: Did that bird get attacked a year so ago?
Pogonip
Happy birthday to Little Brit Different, and many happy returns! Too bad she can’t get together with my parents to throw a big old birthday-in-March bash.
Also on birthdays, my son is Bruce Springsteen’s birthday twin. I, however, am birthday TRIPLETS with (drum roll) BILBO AND FRODO BAGGINS. I have always felt that should have got me an invitation to play a hobbit in one of those movies, but since they were filmed in New Zealand perhaps I ran afoul of the International Date Line.
Lord Baldrick
@sparrow: Fascinating theory of what might have happened:
http://www.lowyat.net/2014/03/was-there-a-problem-with-the-mh370-boeing-777-200-aircraft/
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: Definitely original docs, and what’s popping up online (esp. foreign) scanned is v. handy. It’s also a lot of fun to borrow families to get to different places and histories. One stumbles across Union Polkas (U-nee Man) plus the earlier version (Union Man). Would have missed those without borrowing, too many farmers and not enough miners in my set.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Yea and a neighbor got a great video of it flying and it sent me back to my files. I had forgotten that I had video. Here’s a still of a Bluejay going after him.
Omnes Omnibus
@JoyfulA: If you can connect to one person who came in through Salem in 1629-40, you can connect to a metric shit ton of them. Hell, that group in my family didn’t marry anyone who wasn’t one of them until my great grandmother married someone whose ancestry came through Connecticut Puritans. This was in Wisconsin after 1900. Our branch is buried in a different part of the cemetery. The fuckers are clannish.
schrodinger's cat
Where have all the front pagers gone?
JoyfulA
@SiubhanDuinne: As Omnes said, the scanned records are what’s valuable. Otherwise, the stories online can give suggestive hints and tell you what to prove or disprove, but they aren’t factual.
Mom disproved quite a few taken-for-fact genealogical stories in her research.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Have you looked at Fold3 for military records? I have a “premium” ($79) membership and I’ve gotten some good civil was stuff about family.
Baud
So this is how Balloon Juice ends, eh? Ah well, it’s been a good run.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well, all of my maternal lines were researched and documented long before there was such a thing as the Internet. I just like to see what’s online in case any other (collateral) lines have pointers. And I am truly looking forward to visiting the half-dozen or so Vermont towns where my ancestors were born and grew up — just for the sake of landscape and atmosphere.
Don’t worry, I would never trust an online source without verification.
And unlike your dad, I would personally leap at the opportunity to visit “some vicarage in England” any chance I got!
scav
@JoyfulA: Ahhh. Although I might confuse the Palitinates with the Illuminati for all I know. I’m entirely lacking that secret handshake! I think I’m off being non-serious with the polkas and veal birds.
raven
@schrodinger’s cat:
I will raise the children
If you pay all the bills
Where is my John Wayne
Where is my prairie song
Where is my happy ending
Where have all the cowboys gone
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’ve got a shitload of Salem ancestors, too — including some who were around, and active, in 1692!!
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: Dad actually has been requesting pension records from the DoD. People were required to provide a narrative of their service in order to substantiate it. One ancestor’s records indicate that he was a witness to a fight between Arnold and another senior officer during the campaign in Canada. Interesting stuff.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: We are probably related – distantly (fwiw Bar Bush and Howard Dean are also distant cousins of mine). I have a couple of convicted witches, including famous ones, a judge, and an opponent of the trials or two in the tree.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: It might be worth a shot to check this out. As you can see they have Revolutionary, 1812, Mexican American and Civil War as well as modern stuff. I located 50 pictures of my unit in VN. The Nam stuff is actually free now. If you are interested in me looking or shooting you my credentials let me know. nighty night.
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: Thanks. I will pass the info on to my dad. It is his project right now. I take over when he passes it on. Fucking primogeniture.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
It makes sense that we are related, given that we share a birthday. And if anyone needs further proof of witchcraft than that, well, I’m sorry for you.
SiubhanDuinne
@PaulW:
<a href="@SiubhanDuinne: “>It’s my fault :-(
WaterGirl
@Baud: Slackers.
Kerry Reid
@Chris: A comment courtesy of that classy family-values gal Sally Quinn.
SiubhanDuinne
@PaulW:
@SiubhanDuinne:
Well, that link was ugly. Just see my #213.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Fair enough.
David Koch
@schrodinger’s cat:
Rapture.
Omnes Omnibus
@David Koch: Be pure.
Baud
All right, guys. The log in for Balloon Juice is at the bottom of the right hand column. We just have to guess the login and password for one of the front pagers and then we can take over this joint. Any ideas?
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat:
On a plane from Malaysia to Beijing.
(Too soon?)
schrodinger's cat
@Baud: May be some went to Crimea?
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Well, SoonerGrunt was in the infantry so Password or Password1 might work for him. OTOH, given the whole infantry thing, he may have misspelled it.
Ian
@bemused:
Its a democratic preznit thing. There was a lot of overblown (and largely false) noise when Clinton was leaving office that some interns had stolen the W’s off of keyboards.
Then there was the hole “Washington is a village and it’ts not HIS place to trash”
David Koch
Same thing is happening with de Blasio. The “liberal” NYC media has been attacking him left and right, dying to proclaim him a failure after 2 months.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: Mustard? nakedmopper123? goddammitrosie? mycommentersareassholes?
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat:
So they took John McCain literally?
@Omnes Omnibus:
Damn.
scav
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: If it’s a pet’s name, we may be in trouble — although it is at least a finite, if large, set.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
mycarisinthemiddleofafield
Ash Can
Hey, even the owners have given up on this blog.
jl
Things will be fun if Cruz is the nominee. But somebody will have to tell him that Obama is not running again and explain the political implications of that fact for his campaign.
Cruz On CIA Hacking Claims: This Is Totally Something Obama Would Do
” Feinstein accused the CIA of spying on Senate Intelligence committee computers while staffers were investigating the agency’s interrogation practices under the Bush administration. ”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/cruz-obama-cia-hacking
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: I spent more time than I would like at Ft. Benning.
Baud
@Ash Can:
I don’t blame them. The commenters are shit.
Cassidy
@Ash Can: Would be funny if the first Tbogg happens due to inattentiveness.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
Doesn’t everybody?
Cassidy
@Baud: Start with names of pets.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: I don’t think Cole was there.
Cassidy
@Cassidy: Most go to Jackson and Knox.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cassidy: If Cole hasn’t update since his conversion, we may have troubles.
Baud
@Cassidy:
There’s a part of me that’s afraid of what I would do if I figured it out.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
password: anncoulterisababe
gian
So. Bridget Kelly has a lawyer who at once denies an email is from her.
And claims a 5th ammendment exception for same email and others like it.
Um if the email isn’t yours… how do you have a privilege?
David Koch
These people and organizations didn’t wonder about the dignity of the presidency when Bush wore a flight suit.
Baud
@David Koch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFEhmF-cSi8
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: See, this is the kind of thing it could be. How can one get inside that kind of mind? Or it could be “Clorox.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: Condoleezawillleadus
(a music video by the Right Brothers from ’04ish that has vanished from the tubes and I never did find out if it was a parody or not)
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The who now?
Cassidy
@Baud: GIFs. Lots and lots of GIFs. I’d plaster this place with so many GIF’s, people would have MySpace flashbacks. Or I’d pass it along to M_C. It doesn’t take much to amuse me.
David Koch
@Baud: rumpelstiltskin
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
The more important question is, how does one get out?
Anne Laurie
After the last FYWP ‘meltdown’, MisterMix gave us all random-character passwords, so you can stop trying to guess your way onto the dashboard (not that it ain’t entertaining).
TomL has a draft up I’ve been waiting for him to post, any time over the last several hours. Now that I’ve got a new thread up, any bets on how long it will take before it’s stomped?
Baud
@Cassidy:
Same here, except I would pronounce it JIFs. :-P
Cassidy
@Baud: I do it just to drive people crazy. I would also occasionally say me-me until I met someone who used it seriously. I was too polite to correct them, but it ruined the fun.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@David Koch:
Oh, Clintonites… is that really a conversation you kids want to have? If you can’t help, shut the fuck up.
@Omnes Omnibus: you asked, I found. Somebody dug it up.
ETA if I get unmoderated: That is not the original video, which was a lot of shots of Condi looking commanding, lots of those boots.
David Koch
@Baud: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: They are real? I haven’t clicked.
Tom Levenson
@Anne Laurie: not until tomorrow a.m. Father-son visit to the high school sprout’ll be entering next fall pushed all possible posting out of my head.
ETA: I cannot tell you how impressed by my town’s local high school. A student run restaurant, w. chicken fingers to die for. Sushi, handrolled daily. A curling club. This is not what HS was like in my day, and gettoffa my lawn you kids!
Omnes Omnibus
@Tom Levenson: Come on, high schools in Wisconsin have had varsity curling teams for yonks. No sushi though.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Regarding the Malaysian Airlines flight that went in. Our fixed wing attack squadron had an aircraft go into the drink a few miles off the coast of Vietnam. It went down within less than four hundred yards of a US destroyer that was there on a shore bombardment mission. The destroyer didn’t have divers aboard and the pilots had gone down with the aircraft so they placed a marker buoy and radioed in the crash. Darkness fell before anyone could get any assets to the scene and the destroyer was ordered on to its next station. That night a storm swept away the marker buoy but the exact position of the aircraft was known. The next day vessels and helos were on scene to recover the aircraft and the bodies of its crew -only they couldn’t find it.
While it was no airliner, the missing aircraft had a wingspan of forty feet and it was forty feet in length. The search was called off after a few days. Turns out that bottom off the Vietnamese coast is mostly shoals and fairly shallow for several miles out to sea. The storm had caused the plentiful sand to cover our missing aircraft. We did recover it and what was left of the two pilots a few months later when another aircraft spotted it on the bottom and radioed in the sighting.
It is entirely possible that the missing Malaysian Airlines aircraft hit the water in such a way that it either sank intact and was covered by the sand or simply augured into the bottom. God bless all aboard.
Joel
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: he’s known since day one, and if he didn’t, the day where they appeared on each other’s shows drove it home. Colbert concluded his appearance on the O’Reilly factor by saying (paraphrasing):
Thanks for not discussing the thing that we were contractually obligated not to discuss before the show.
This was a not so subtle reference to O’Reilly’s loofah related sexual harrassment suit.
joel hanes
@Litlebritdiftrnt:
how about some apple and peach tree seeds?
Apples, I know for sure, don’t run true to type.
If you plant the seeds from a wonderful SugarCrisp variety, or from a Macintosh, or it doesn’t matter what, the fruit borne by the tree grown from those seeds will almost always be “wild type” — runty, mis-shapen, sour, and good only for cider.
Apple varieties can only be propagated by clone-grafting. All the SugarCrisp apple trees in the world have been produced by cutting a scion from a tree that bears SugarCrisp apples and grafting it onto a disease-resistant rootstock sapling.
Violet
@Anne Laurie: Took Cole just under half an hour to stomp on your post.
Ruckus
@Tommy:
Within minutes of being exactly 20 yrs younger than me. I also grew up 2 doors down from a Japanese girl born in Tokyo on the same date as us also within less than an hour.
Sondra
@Chris:
I agree but I think there is more to it. He knows that there is a big difference in how people get their news and satire like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are where a whole generation or 2 get their updates.
Not to mention that Clinton and his Saxophone were very popular and helped him get a boost with the younger folks.