Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

In my day, never was longer.

When they say they’re pro-life, they don’t mean yours.

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

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Let there be snark.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

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

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

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

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. Do not congratulate. This is not business as usual.

You are here: Home / Popular Culture / Gamer Dork / Open Thread: Can’t Tell the Players

Open Thread: Can’t Tell the Players

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gamerz inactivity n girl avoidance get fuzzy

(Get Fuzzy via GoComics.com)
.

Satire, like the dual-blade light sabre, is a weapon best left to those with years of experience behind them. Just ask Jan Rankowski, as described by Buzzfeed‘s Joseph Bernstein:

The internet knows Jace Connors as a gun-loving YouTube personality who last month became the latest symbol of GamerGate’s escalating extremism when he released a bizarre, rambling video in which he claimed to have crashed his car while en route to the home of Brianna Wu, the game developer who has become, along with Anita Sarkeesian, the public face of GamerGate persecution.

“Jace Connors” is in fact Jan Rankowski, a 20-year-old living in Maine who is affiliated with Million Dollar Extreme, a provocative cult comedy group based in Rhode Island, and far from being the archfiend of GamerGate, Rankowski is himself now the subject of a campaign of harassment.

In an exclusive interview, Rankowski told BuzzFeed News that he intended to satirize “the over-the-top, super-hyper-macho armed GamerGater” but that harassment in recent days, as doxxing forums and GamerGate image boards have started to suspect he is behind the Connors character, has left him terrified…

After the car crash video brought a swarm of attention to the Connors character, users of obscure internet fora (4chan, 8chan, and something called Kiwi Farm), were able to trace the character to videos created by Rankowski and Sam Hyde, the comedian behind Million Dollar Extreme.

And then the phone calls started. “People have been calling my old high school calling my work,” Rankowski told BuzzFeed News, “and saying these nasty things about me. I was made to sign a contract at my job saying I wouldn’t make any of these videos again. I received a letter in the mail with a picture of me from my high school yearbook… It said I shouldn’t have fucked with 8chan.”…

Rankowski says that the situation has given him a new appreciation for the people who were most upset by his actions.

“I didn’t take this situation seriously, but I see what it means now to be in the other person’s shoes. What her life must feel like. I have this newfound respect for the people who are having to deal with GamerGate, Brianna Wu and Anita [Sarkeesian].”…


He had no idea that video was loaded, before it went off in his face! Dude, next step in the initiation is when half the internet lectures you about how what you’re experiencing isn’t actually harassment, it’s about ethics in online comedy. Also, if you didn’t want to be mobbed by starling flocks of internet idiots, why were you wandering around in that neighborhood wearing such a provocative persona, eh?

(Of course, this is when you Internet Sophisticates tell me everybody knows that ‘Jan Rankowski’ is really a cover for the next-level trolling of [insert your speculation here]…)

Reader Interactions

189Comments

  3. 3.

    TooManyJens

    a provocative cult comedy group

    I believe that’s the polite way of saying “a pack of douchebags who’ve convinced each other that being assholes makes them ‘edgy’.”

  7. 7.

    Tracy Ratcliff

    In nonpolitical news, one of the two feral kittens that took up residence in on of our outbuildings last summer has finally consented to be stroked and scritched. I’m hoping his more-skittish brother will join him here in a few weeks.

  8. 8.

    David Koch

    Putin opponent and Russian Liberal politician Boris Nemtsov was assassinated across the street from the Kremlin today. He was shot four times in the back late on Friday night.

    “Russia has my gratitude and respect for being the first to stand against human rights violations carried out by the powerful rather than the powerless.” — Edward Snowden

  9. 9.

    ruemara

    @David Koch: I’m fairly sure there’s a column at First Look that will explain how this is the NSA’s fault and also Obama, who created the security state.

  10. 10.

    David Koch

    @ruemara:

    When Ken Silverstein was hired by the Greenwald/Omidyar project First Look Media, he thought it would be his dream job; complete freedom to cover the stories he wanted to cover.

    But the dream turned into a nightmare almost immediately, with editorial incompetence, bureaucratic infighting, and an extreme libertarian/left ideological agenda that militated against telling the truth. The title of Silverstein’s article says it all: Where Journalism Goes to Die.

    problems began to emerge. Matt Taibbi, who had been brought in to start another vertical, left. The Intercept wrote a story on the departure and what had been going on inside First Look Media. The Intercept’s editor in chief, John Cook, also left. The initial promises from Omidyar had been scaled back, and the independence of the publication had come under question.

    See also: First Look Media sounds like a gigantic mess

    Now, another journalist has left First Look and published tirades against the company’s management, Ken Silverstein, a widely respected investigative reporter.

  11. 11.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Tracy Ratcliff: I have a growing feral colony living out of my garage. The mother of the colony has got to the point where she will ask me for food and allow me to pat her head in return but her offspring will not have anything to do with me.

  12. 12.

    ruemara

    @David Koch: Heard about it. and GG’s last column blaming things on – guess who? I rather wish First Look had turned into the journalism source it was supposed to be.

  15. 15.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @David Koch: Ted Cruz, at CPAC, asked what he would say to “liberal birthers” who say he was born in Canada
    “some liberals say…” Name three.

    @David Koch: There are a lot of things Sarah Palin doesn’t know, a lot of things she doesn’t understand, but she knows and understand her audience.

  18. 18.

    Kevin

    I love this post-modern internet comedy. You have this clown, that “fake news” website that totally out Onions the Onion with it’s hilarious “sounds like real news” news…

    Seriously, isn’t comedy supposed to make at least 1 person laugh?

  20. 20.

    lamh36

    Also too, check out this Buzzfeed link (Via mystartrekscrapbook.blogspot.com) to the letter that Leonard Nimoy wrote to a mixed race girl, who wrote to Mr Spock about not fitting in. Leonard Nimoy wrote back to that girl, in the vein of Mr Spock and it was lovely.

    RIP Mr Nimoy…LLAP!

    Spock’s “It Gets Better” Letter

    The following appeared in a 1968 issue of a teen magazine called Fave. The magazine had apparently published a letter addressed to Spock the month before, written by a mixed-race girl who was having trouble finding her place. Leonard Nimoy was moved and penned a detailed response that didn’t just offer words of courage, but concrete advice on how to overcome. *tear*


    Spock’s Advice To A Teenage Girl Will Make You Cry

    Also too, is it weird, that one of my thoughts yesterday reminded me of Big Bang Theory and wondering how the character Sheldon would feel upon learning the news of Nimoy’s passing. I reminded me of one of my fav clips from BBT:

    Big Bang Theory – Penny’s Gift To Sheldon

  22. 22.

    shelley

    Tomorrow is March 1st. Yay! Goodby February!

    And we’re expecting another 3 inches of snow…….

  23. 23.

    rikyrah

    How an Obscure Rule Could Give Boehner a Way Out of DHS Mess (Updated)
    By Niels Lesniewski and Emma Dumain
    Posted at 4:37 p.m. Feb. 28

    Updated 5:57 p.m. | A provision tucked deep in the House rule book could provide a way out of the Homeland Security funding mess for Speaker John A. Boehner — without the Ohio Republican actually having to do anything.

    With rumblings about a full-scale revolt from within the ranks should Boehner put a funding bill on the floor that doesn’t explicitly block implementation of President Barack Obama’s immigration executive actions, there was talk Friday night from senior House Democratic aides of Republicans having found a face-saving procedural gambit that would ultimately end in full funding for Department of Homeland Security for the remainder of the fiscal year.

    The bottom line is any House Democrat could have the power next week to force a vote on a clean DHS funding measure. Here’s how:

    The Senate voted to amend the House-passed DHS funding bill — with immigration policy riders — and replace it with a “clean,” six-month spending bill. The House, in turn, voted to “disagree” with the Senate’s amendment to the House’s proposal, thereby sending the bill back across the Rotunda and requesting a conference committee (the theory being that, in that scenario, the House could negotiate with the Senate to reinsert some of the immigration riders back into a final product).

    But Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had already rejected the notion of a conference.

    Going to conference is debatable in the Senate, meaning the motion can be filibustered. Accordingly, the Senate is scheduled to hold what should be an ill-fated cloture vote Monday evening to limit debate on an agreement to go to conference with the House. If the Senate then returns the papers to the House, it could provide an opening for Democrats to test a seldom-invoked provision of the chamber’s rules.

    Clause four of House Rule XXII (not to be confused with the more-often cited Senate Rule XXII) provides: “When the stage of disagreement has been reached on a bill or resolution with House or Senate amendments, a motion to dispose of any amendment shall be privileged.”

    As the Congressional Research Service explains, “A chamber enters the stage of disagreement by formally agreeing to a motion or a unanimous consent request that it disagrees to the position of the other chamber, or that it insists on its own position.”

    In other words, any House lawmaker, arguing that a conference scenario is moot and won’t be resolved before the clock runs out on the current extension of DHS funding, could take to the floor and move that the House recedes from its previous position and concurs in the Senate amendment.

    Because such a motion is “privileged” that would then trigger a vote on sending the Senate-amended full year Homeland Security appropriations bill to Obama’s desk without any of those riders designed to block his executive actions on immigration.

    “Your vote tonight will assure that we will vote for full funding next week,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wrote in a Friday evening Dear Colleague letter to her fellow Democrats, encouraging them to support a one-week Homeland Security CR.

    If it were to prevail, Democratic aides told CQ Roll Call that Republicans think the plan could protect Boehner from blame that he “caved” to his party’s moderates. Boehner and his allies could just point to House Rules and parliamentary procedure, however obscure and arcane, to explain what just occurred ostensibly beyond his control.

    http://blogs.rollcall.com/218/house-rule-boehner-dhs-appropriations-shutdown/?dcz=

  29. 29.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @David Koch: She knows her audience are horny old white guys who see her as a MILF. They will throw money at SARAHPAC all day long and twice on Sundays on the hope that one day they could f**k her. It is that simple.

  32. 32.

    different-church-lady

    …a 20-year-old…

    And I stopped reading right there, pretty much knowing all I need to.

  34. 34.

    different-church-lady

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Can you undork it for us?

    Spoiled kids with too much technology mock other spoiled kids with too much technology, get harassed by spoiled kids with too much technology.

  41. 41.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mike in NC:

    Sarah Palin, Madonna, I don’t care, they’re silly to wear shoes like that. As women age, they (we) really need to be cautious about wearing super-high heels. It’s pure fact that the sense of balance diminishes for many of us as we age, even in low heels or flats. Wearing six-inch stilettos is just asking for trouble, and I don’t mean that at all in the “she was dressing provocatively” way. Just an extra measure of safety and a sense of physical security.

  43. 43.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @David Koch: Exactly. But there are some around here that don’t want you to point out what she wears.

    Sarah Palin has no problem with women being reduced to sex objects. Because it’s the only thing she can do to get the attention she craves.

  47. 47.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @SiubhanDuinne: I call those stupid shoes “can’t run away from a rapist shoes”. They are stupid and unsafe. I’ll stick with my flat boots any day. I work with a lot of paralegals, the ones that wear those stupid platform six inch heel shoes take at least 15 minutes longer to walk to the courthouse than the rest of us because they are scared of falling over. It is pathetic watching them attempting to hobble over to court every day. We have steps leading to our district court. Watching them navigate the steps is hilarious.

  48. 48.

    Bobby B.

    Tonight MeTV is showing Star Trek’s “This Side of Paradise” where the inhabitants are really tripped out by spores and we get to see Mellow Spock.

  52. 52.

    jl

    Overcame my fear and weakness, and dipped into some clips of CPAC talks.

    Like TED talks for maniacal ignorant people with a sackful of chips on their shoulder.

    But Lil’ Newtie delivered. He saw multiple intersections at many levels! Run Lil’ Newtie, run!

    Edit: On other hand, I only watched clips. Probably a whole talk would seem like a cheesy infomercial you see at odd hours of day or night on obscure cable channels.

  54. 54.

    debbie

    @raven:

    Can’t imagine even pigs would like those shoes. Women stagger in them as if their feet were bound. They’re impossible to sashay in.

  55. 55.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @debbie:

    I stopped wearing heels a good twenty years ago (beyond, very occasionally, one-inchers when I really want to dress up and/or show some leg). My preference is always going to be comfort over style and safety over glam. Just can’t understand voluntarily putting oneself through agony every day like that.

  56. 56.

    Roger Moore

    @debbie:
    The problem with letting Boehner fail is twofold. First, we actually need to get shit done, and that unfortunately means saving him from the worst assholes in his own party. Second, if we leave him to hang, we’re going to get somebody even worse as a replacement. Besides, help from the Democrats is not exactly risk free on his part; it loses him credibility with the craziest wing of the party, so his job gets harder every time it happens.

  57. 57.

    jl

    @debbie: Speaking as a male with, just perhaps, some horndog tendencies in my weaker moments. I don’t see the attraction either, for 90+ percent of people who try that super high heel look.

    Edit: everything looks contorted when most women stuff themselves into super high heels. I feel like saying “Is that an orthopedic device? Are you OK? Hope it doesn’t hurt too bad.”

  60. 60.

    jl

    @Roger Moore: At this point, it is impossible to say whether the House GOP nutcases will continue, or they just need to get some demonstration votes out of their system.

    I would feel sorry for Boehner, except I think he is schmuck and a cheap two-bit political hood and low-grade wardheeler. I tried to think of a GOP House Speaker I do not remember as a schmuck, or worse. Couldn’t think of one, except Dirkson, whose House career was more than a decade before my time. Then I looked him up and found out he was never Speaker. Well, I tried. (Really G-damn tried to be fair and balanced, but what can you do with this bunch?)

  62. 62.

    debbie

    @Roger Moore:

    I don’t know. He wouldn’t hesitate to cast Pelosi overboard if the roles were reversed. But what really interests me is that McConnell totally abandoned him. Is there a single person in the GOP who has anyone else’s back? I don’t think so.

  63. 63.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @debbie:

    Is there a single person in the GOP who has anyone else’s back?

    Sure, as good place bury a knife blade. Though I don’t think that’s what you meant.

  66. 66.

    jl

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I don’t know much about Dirkson, because even at the end of his career in Senate, I was a kid. But I’ve read history books that indicated he was not a schmuck. First GOP Speaker for me was Newtie, during the 90s when I decided time to pay attention to politics, and he played a very influential role in sending me down the debauched path of liberalism.

    Edit: Martin before my time too. Was not even a twinkle in not yet met parents’ eyes. Was Martin a schmuck?

  68. 68.

    WaterGirl

    @SiubhanDuinne: I was watching NCIS: New Orleans the other night and noticed the female agent was wearing spiky heels. So stupid! How is she supposed to run after the bad guys when she needs to?

    That’s one of my pet peeves with the way women are portrayed on TV. The other is all these cops and attorneys and professional women who are wearing shirts with plunging necklines and showing lots of cleavage. What professional woman dresses like that at work?

    One exception is the female cop on Forever. She’s quite attractive even without wearing ridiculous clothes.

  69. 69.

    jl

    @wasabi gasp: Those could be some orthopedic device. Probably quack thing that crippled the poor patient. There was something like that in Madam Bovary, but forgot whether the contraption crippled some poor guy’s foot or his hand.

  70. 70.

    srv

    I am passing thru Waterloo, as is Fleetwood Mac tomorrow night. How far should I go for a scalped ticket, should anyone have seen this tour?

  73. 73.

    jl

    Grim and funny. This is from Peter King:

    GOP Rep. Bashes ‘Self-Righteous, Delusional Wing Of The Party’ (VIDEO)
    TPM

    Rep. Peter King (R-NY) on Friday blasted his Republican colleagues for refusing to pass a clean bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

    “This madness has to end soon. We can’t keep doing this,” he told MSNBC.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/peter-king-republicans-dhs

    Peter King (R-Schmuck) said that.

  74. 74.

    Morzer

    Just for Betty, because it’s so Florida:

    http://gawker.com/miami-gardens-police-chief-arrested-for-soliciting-pros-1688658461

    Miami Gardens Police Chief Stephen Johnson was arrested—and immediately fired—on Friday for soliciting a prostitute in Dania Beach, NBC Miami reports. He had called the number on an ad placed by authorities.

    The ad was placed on backpage.com, according to a Broward Sheriff’s Office arrest report. Johnson called the listed number, arranging to pay $100 for a half-hour with two prostitutes.

    Johnson arrived at the designated hotel room, where he was met by two undercover detectives, NBC Miami reports. He handed over the money and was arrested.

    “We remain committed to excellence and integrity on every level,” the department said in a press release. “We will not allow Mr. Johnson’s bad judgment to reflect negatively on the hardworking officers of the City of Miami Gardens and the residents they serve on a daily basis.”

  75. 75.

    FlipYrWhig

    @David Koch: Glenn Greenwald’s project was dogmatic and disorganized and couldn’t figure out how to handle differences of opinion? Well I never.

  78. 78.

    Tree With Water

    @jl: Peter King (R-Schmuck), who looks in the mirror and sees a future POTUS staring back at him. Which begs the question: what is it about NY that produces such great comedians?

  81. 81.

    jl

    @wasabi gasp: Thanks. Funny video. the link the artist explaining what she was doing has hilarious video of the prototypes.

    Not funny, is I have seen things almost as bad in real life.

  83. 83.

    gelfling545

    @SiubhanDuinne: I wore 3 in heels to teach school. Part of that is that I’m only 5’2” & the 7th graders were bigger than me. Also, they were useful in breaking up fights as one might by accident step on the foot of one or both combatants. (Boy fights only. Never touch a girl fight.) Then, one Sept. on the first day of school when I was around 50, I looked at my shoes & realized that the days of heels were over. I had to be craftier then but I soon realized that I was less cranky at the end of the day.

  85. 85.

    jl

    @ThresherK: Cannot be sure what Putin’s involvement is, but his public announcement that he personally placed his highest associates in Russian law enforcement in charge of investigation did not inspire much confidence.

  87. 87.

    raven

    @jl: When my old man was a teacher/coach if there was a fight he’s take em to the gym and put 16oz gloves on them and make them fight till someone quit.

  88. 88.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @jl: I’m sure these, eh, associates will find that the victim tripped and his own gun shot him 4 times in the back.

  90. 90.

    Pogonip

    @debbie: They’re man-hunting shoes. The minute they’re safely married, or re-married as the case may be, the heels will drop by at least 3 inches. Watch and see.

    I am always amused that man “hunting” shoes are shoes you couldn’t catch a sleeping snail in!

  93. 93.

    Mike in NC

    @Tree With Water: We attended a funeral in King’s district (NY-2, south central Long Island) a few years ago. A pretty wingnutty area, based on interactions with the locals. Come to think of it, a bunch of them are now our neighbors.

  94. 94.

    HinTN

    @rikyrah: Fine, the adults keep the thing betwixt the ditches and the republicans get not stink in them. Who really wins that? At some point we’ve got to quit saving their assess and let the chips fall. The voting public don’t give a tinker’s damn about the elements of responsible governance. Meh

  95. 95.

    Applejinx

    But what if the hunting of Jace Connors by vengeful gamergaters is just another level of the satire? Huh?

    Somewhere, the ghost of Andy Kaufman is going ‘dang’…

  100. 100.

    Suzanne

    @David Koch: Her clothes are irrelevant. Can we keep the fashion police on the red carpet and hate her for her “ideas”? There’s plenty to hate.

  101. 101.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @gelfling545:

    Then, one Sept. on the first day of school when I was around 50, I looked at my shoes & realized that the days of heels were over. I had to be craftier then but I soon realized that I was less cranky at the end of the day.

    Few things can put me in a horrible mood faster than sore feet. Even with flat shoes, I have occasionally been cursed with a shoe that brought up a blister, or pinched a toe just wrong, or rubbed a bunion to supernova status. Now, at age almost 73, I live in Sketchers Go Walks (have them in four different colors). They may be “old lady” shoes, but by god, my feet don’t hurt!

  103. 103.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Suzanne: The woman consciously and deliberately substitutes implied sluttiness without any appeal to intellect.

    It’s all she’s got. Her head may have held some ideas at one time, but they’re long gone as she works the grift on schmucks like Rich Lowery.

  104. 104.

    bemused

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    Amen! Just begging for a broken ankle or both and no matter how long I look at women wearing these stilts, I just don’t see the sexiness or even stylishness at all. Maybe it’s the walk wearing those heels produce but that takes practice. Most women wearing these look awkward to me. If women want a sexy walk, they could just as easily practice that in flats. The fad is a total mystery to me.

    Images of the skits with Carol Burnett walking in a tight skirt now pop into my head.

  106. 106.

    PurpleGirl

    Star Trek Alert: This Side of Paradise, the episode wherein Spock falls in love with Jill Ireland. MeTV at 9 p.m.

    ETA: Seems appropriate for tonight.

  108. 108.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @bemused: High heels tilt a woman forward, so in order to balance, she has to arch her back, which means she winds up with her breasts and butt thrust out. The higher the heel, the greater the effect. Thus the sexy.

    IMHO, you might at well practice foot binding.

  109. 109.

    Suzanne

    @Villago Delenda Est: Sure she does. But we’re better than stooping to her level, or at least we should be. Talking about the appearance of women in politics makes it okay to talk about this sort of stupid shit. It supports the patriarchy, and almost all women feel the need to participate in it to some extent. It is not the problem. It is part of slut-shaming.

  110. 110.

    Mike J

    @Suzanne: I’m with you. There are a jillion reasons to dislike Palin without worrying about her clothes. If she starts complaining about the way somebody else dresses, game on.

  111. 111.

    JordanRules

    @Suzanne: Pulled up more pics of the outfit and from the front at the podium level up you can’t read anything controversial into it. Not gonna lie, I think the outfit and Loubou’s are fly. I obviously think she is the waste that flies gravitate towards but hey at least folks get to see the fruits of the grift.

    Wonder what the male equivalent of that outfit would be…LOL

  112. 112.

    rikyrah

    A nice profile of Chuy Garcia

    ………………….

    Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia’s journey from a village in Mexico to the race against Mayor Emanuel

    Rahm Emanuel is a heavy favorite, but Garcia offers voters a compelling personal history.

    Last Labor Day, Jesus “Chuy” Garcia spent four hours at Karen Lewis’s house, discussing her plan to run against Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Garcia, 58, is a Cook County Board commissioner and a former alderman and state senator; Lewis, 61, is the fiery president of the Chicago Teachers Union. He’s Mexican-American; she’s African-American and Jewish. “We were strategizing her victory path,” Garcia told me recently. “We talked plenty about conditions in the Latino community.”

    Lewis hadn’t formally announced that she was running, but she’d begun raising money for the race and was considered a potent challenger to Emanuel. All that changed in early October; she experienced light-headedness and strokelike symptoms, and was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor. On October 8, she had emergency surgery, and a spokesman announced she wouldn’t be running for mayor after all.

    Soon after Lewis got home from the hospital, she invited Garcia over again. “I went as a well-wisher,” he said. But he quickly learned Lewis had an agenda: she wanted him to run against Emanuel.

    Garcia told me he was stunned. “What else did they do to you when you had your surgery?” he asked Lewis. She laughed and gave him a high five. But she persisted: “She said, ‘Seriously, you need to think about this. The communities of Chicago need someone to be their standard-bearer.'”

    “Why me?” he asked her.

    Lewis told him his years as a community activist and his stellar political career made him an attractive candidate. She conceded that many black Chicagoans weren’t aware of him, but she said they’d support him when they learned his history. She stressed his long-standing ties with labor and with gay and lesbian leaders, Jews and Muslims, and the city’s leading liberals.

    Garcia was flattered but uncertain. Lewis asked him to think it over and discuss it with his wife.

    He and his wife, Evelyn, talked about it for a week. Evelyn has multiple sclerosis. Because her health had declined, she’d just taken early retirement from her job as a teacher’s assistant in the Chicago Public Schools. Garcia had pledged to spend more time with her “to make sure she’s taking care of herself, to go for walks with her as part of her therapy.” Their three children are grown, but their three grandchildren visit often. The campaign would devour their family time and diminish their privacy, he told Evelyn.

    But Evelyn thought he should run. “That’s when I knew I was in trouble,” he told me.

    http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/jesus-chuy-garcia-rahm-emanuel-chicago-mayor-race-karen-lewis/Content?oid=16255514

  114. 114.

    Suzanne

    @Mike J: I wear heels and short skirts sometimes. I am still really fucking smart and competent and good at my job. I’m not asking to be treated like an idiot or a joke. In fact, I expect to be treated with respect. And it lowers the discourse. She dresses like that because it gets people talking about her. SO STOP TALKING ABOUT HER.

  116. 116.

    danielx

    One definition of a truly miserable experience: trying to refit a cotter pin while kneeling on cold concrete and your fingers are so cold you can’t hold on to anything, let alone small parts. Snow blowing in with garage door open so you can have enough light from car headlights…teh suxx0r, as the kids say. Or maybe they say something else now, I can’t keep up with slang these days…

  117. 117.

    David Koch

    “Demonized as pro-Putin propaganda, claims about the fascist and even neo-Nazi thugs leading the fight for the Kiev government are actually true.” ~ Greenwald

    I guess Bob in Portland was in realty one of Griftwald’s famed sock puppets.

  118. 118.

    sharl

    @PurpleGirl: Earlier tonight I listened to Arun Rath, host of Weekend All Things Considered on NPR, talk about What Nimoy’s character Spock – the first bi-racial character he had encountered in popular media – meant to him as an Anglo-Indian kid growing up in America. That ‘Paradise’ episode you cited came up during Rath’s piece.

    There’s no transcript – at least not yet – but the audio of Rath’s piece “Mr. Spock Was A Biracial Role Model of Notable Cool” can be listened to here (duration=3m12s).

    Here’s some partial, half-assed transcription:

    As a kid growing up in the American suburbs of the 70s, being half-Indian really did feel like being half-alien. In the presence of my white friends, my Indian culture came across to them as being from another planet. We had gods with animal heads and too many arms. Our food was weird. You only have to look at Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom to see how our cuisine came across. ‘Chilled monkey brains and eyeball soup’; and that garbage was in the 80s!

    Then, referring to the fictional “progressive 23rd century” when the ST:TOS stories took place, Rath noted that the Spock character received plenty of racial barbs, and specifically referred to the episode This Side of Paradise in which Kirk has to get Spock angry to get him back to normal, and does so by calling him a bunch of names including “half-breed”; brief bit of video showing that is here. Rath again:

    I didn’t get taunted a lot as a kid, but still, that term “half-breed” summons raw childhood emotions. But here [was] Spock on how to respond to hate with dignity…

    …I promised myself long ago that if I ever met or interviewed Mr. Nimoy, I would thank him for what [his portrayal of Spock] meant to me as a boy. I never had that opportunity, but it feels wrong to let that gratitude go unexpressed. So… thank you, Leonard Nimoy.

  119. 119.

    jl

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    ‘ High heels tilt a woman forward, so in order to balance, she has to arch her back, which means she winds up with her breasts and butt thrust out. The higher the heel, the greater the effect. Thus the sexy.

    IMHO, you might at well practice foot binding. ‘

    Going from ‘The higher the heel’ to ‘the greater the effect’ might be OK.

    Inference from ‘the greater the effect’ to ‘Thus the sexy’ is the problem, at least for this male. Unless you think live people contorted into cartoons is sexy.

    IMHO, most women in super high heels need to take it to a lower level, and would look much sexier, if that is their goal.

    And what the hell is wrong with just looking pretty, anyway? Hey, call me a crazy romantic, maybe.

  120. 120.

    gelfling545

    @jl: they totally lose their minds, generally, in a fight. In many years in education I have never seen boys fight as viciously or do as much damage as the girls. Pulling hair is the least of it.

  123. 123.

    danielx

    @Pogonip:

    A female friend of mine identified those things as “fuck me shoes” when we saw another woman wearing a bright red pair…which sort of raised my eyebrows since she was/is a relatively enlightened feminist person. I said really, what would you call them if you were asking to try on a pair in a shoe store? She said, well, assuming I felt the need to own a pair, I’d have to just point and say bring me a pair of those in size x…

  127. 127.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @danielx:

    A female friend of mine identified those things as “fuck me shoes”

    I’ve referred to them since the mid-’70s as JCFMPs (Joan Crawford Fuck-Me Pumps), alternatively CMFMPs (Catch-Me Fuck-Me Pumps).

  129. 129.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @jl:

    IMHO, most women in super high heels need to take it to a lower level, and would look much sexier, if that is their goal.

    And what the hell is wrong with just looking pretty, anyway? Hey, call me a crazy romantic, maybe.

    Thank you. And, exactly. Why would any self-respecting man want to look across the table at/spend time with a woman who was in such pain it brought out new lines on her forehead and made her cranky? (And maybe crippled her for life, but we won’t go there tonight.)

  130. 130.

    Fair Economist

    @srv: I saw Stevie Nicks several years ago, and she had almost totally lost her voice. She still had the mind and heart of a great entertainer, but that just made me wish I’d seen her when she could still sing, rather than enjoy the concert.

  133. 133.

    jl

    @SiubhanDuinne: I didn’t intend to project any noble impression of myself as a male.

    The sad truth is, I don’t like the look of most women in super high heels mostly because I think it makes them look really weird and funny, and it is unappealing. If they are hurting themselves, that is sad and I do not like that. But, it is s free country, and I didn’t ask them to.

    It does look good on a few lanky supple types. I suppose they don’t do too much damage if the women have enough sense to wear healthy shoes most of the day, and wear the goofy shoes only for a couple of hours at the party, or dinner, or red carpet or whatever.

    Hey, now let’s talk about guys who look goofy because they do the shaved head thing, but is just because they are going bald and think that is a good way to hide it. Problem is they let it grow out and it looks like a balding guy with a crew cut that is way too short.

    Then there are the fat old dudes who cinch up their belts to try to hide the three spare tires, and they look like a balloon trick tied up by some clown.

    I’m not sure men do anything really unhealthy for looks, though.

    Edit: Thing I have meaning to ask is, what is Trump doing with his hair exactly? Is he bald? Is it his version of comb-over? That makes no sense, because if that is the problem, no way it should look THAT bad. I know it is something disgusting to think about, but I have developed a morbid curiosity about it.

  134. 134.

    Stillwater

    Great post AL. Very clever the way you tied the whole thing together into a tight little not. Err…. knot.

    Well done.

  136. 136.

    danielx

    @jl:

    Edit: Thing I have meaning to ask is, what is Trump doing with his hair exactly. I know it is something disgusting to think about, but I have developed a morbid curiosity about it.

    Are you referring to that dead animal he wears on his head?

  137. 137.

    jl

    @danielx:

    ‘ Are you referring to that dead animal he wears on his head? ‘

    If that thing on his head is an animal, then why are scientists still looking for alien life forms?

  139. 139.

    WaterGirl

    @Pogonip: I suspect that if you’re someone who wears “fuck me” shoes then you know they are called that and you could easily (and laughingly) refer to them as fuck me shoes at the store.

  142. 142.

    David Koch

    Hashtag #CPACQ (“CPAC Questions”) is hilarious

    ‏@Clarknt67 Feb 26

    The homosexuals next door got married. Can my fourth traditional marriage survive? #CPACQ

    @benjammin8711 4h4 hours ago

    Which is more important to conservatives, ousting undocumented immigrants or suppressing rights of minorities? #CPACQ #CPAC2015 #GOPFail

    @DarynGuarino

    #cpacq A black, a gay, and a Mexican walk into a bar, in which order do I refuse to offer them service?

  143. 143.

    gogol's wife

    @jl:

    What I find so chilling is that Nemtsov gave an interview a couple of weeks ago, and he said that his mother was really worried that Putin was going to kill him. So after the murder, Putin didn’t just make a general statement condemning the assassination — he “sent condolences to Nemtsov’s mother.”

    ETA: make that 87-year-old mother

  144. 144.

    Suzanne

    @WaterGirl: I have worn, and continue to wear on occasion, fuck me shoes. When shopping, I just ask for these (holds up sample) in a size 8.5.

    Seriously. they’re just shoes, people.

  148. 148.

    WaterGirl

    @Suzanne: Fuck me shoes are like hats and skimpy bathing suits. If you can pull it off, by all means wear them, and more power to you.

    Just don’t wear them if you’re going to be fussing with your hat and pulling at your suit and walking clumsily because you’re not comfortable in the shoes.

    I have no doubt that you can pull of the shoes when you wear them.

  151. 151.

    TS

    @Mike J: Go looking and you will find – criticism of what the President does/does not wear. Palin is defined by her clothes – it is who she is – she knows it – so why should it be hidden.

  156. 156.

    Anne Laurie

    @gelfling545:

    In many years in education I have never seen boys fight as viciously or do as much damage as the girls.

    It crosses species. In dog training classes, when two male dogs took offense, there would be a lot of huffing & threat-displays & general hold me back! behavior, so the human handlers would have a good chance to drag their partners to opposite sides of the room.

    When two bitches decided they didn’t like each other, it would escalate from ‘hint of raised hackles’ to ‘drawing blood, on each other & anybody dumb enough to interfere’ so fast it took real attention to see things developing (hopefully in time to avoid bringing out the first aid kit).

  163. 163.

    sharl

    @Morzer, @TerryC:

    I knew “Miami Gardens” sounded familiar; a couple weeks ago, This American Life had a harrowing account of just how nasty policing had become in that Florida city. The Gawker post that Morzer linked provides links to the original reporting upon which TAL based that radio episode.

    And now the new police chief is gone? Sheesh, that town has some issues…

  164. 164.

    Little Boots

    I think that I upset someone elsewhere. people get that I’m kidding about a lot of things, right?

  165. 165.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Little Boots: I’m good with dates. My wife tested this. When we met, she didn’t know what day, in the Western calendar, that she was born. The day her father registered her birth was the date used on official documents. At the start of each year she would tell me her birthday that year. After about 5 years of this I got a device that could figure out the date.

  172. 172.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @efgoldman: Much like a Lexus, too rich for my blood.

    ETA: You much keep in mind that I drive an older automobile than some commenters on this here site.

  180. 180.

    Suzanne

    @Debbie: The amount of truly odious-looking people in politics…..and yet it’s cool, even among those who say they support women achieving full equality in society, to discuss this woman’s Louboutins.

    Women’s looks and bodies are policed to a higher degree than men’s. Palin, like all women, is damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t—she, like all of us, is using what advantages she has to further her self-interest. I submit that the sooner we as a society JUST FUCKING STOP WORRYING ABOUT WHAT WOMEN WEAR, the sooner that all women will feel less pressure to capitalize on their appearances as a business advantage, and equality will be closer at hand.

  183. 183.

    Suzanne

    @efgoldman: But if all she has to offer is her appearance, and we decide that appearances don’t matter, then she has to compete on ideas. Which she can’t.

  185. 185.

    Gex

    “Rankowski says that the situation has given him a new appreciation for the people who were most upset by his actions.”

    Amazing how it is always totally okay for the oppressed to have to put up with bullshit, AND ironic “funny” bullshit, but the non-oppressed realize how unfunny it is when it happens to them.

    I’ve always wondered what the hell “allies” who make racist jokes or use gay/fag as pejoratives think they are making better for the rest of us. A world filled with the same hateful behavior that is performed by people who “totally don’t mean it” doesn’t actually FEEL better to the people on the receiving end.

  186. 186.

    moonbat

    @Suzanne: I’ve read this entire thread and to me as an ex-journalist, a rabid feminist, and a present day political junkie, I see no reason not to discuss how Palin uses her sexuality to get attention. It’s what convinced McCain that she was a high risk, high reward running mate and it’s basically they only reason people on the right still pay attention to her. She is a public figure and she is asking for attention — in that way. Pointing and laughing is not sexism. It highlights the fact that that is all she has to offer. Seriously, who thinks her personal TV channel experiment went belly up because of the ideas she was putting out? They were basically the same stuff she is spouting at CPAC to roaring crowds. It was because there wasn’t the MILF strutting to accompany her ideas. Pointing that out isn’t sexism. I’d point it out in the same way I’d point out that Scott Brown used his male model posing looks to get attention during his Senate run. Just another symptom of how Republicans are out of ideas, period, and this is all they have to fall back on: identity politics and sex sells.

  187. 187.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I’ve personally been involved in groups mocking Mall Nijas and 4Chan/8Chan and never seen the kind of harassment is Rankowski claiming. The few times one of the 4channers tried the rally the rest of 4Chan against us the only reply was “They’re a joke, you idiot. I want more porn posts”. It makes me think there is more to the story that Rankowski is letting on.

  188. 188.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Suzanne:

    Her clothes are irrelevant. Can we keep the fashion police on the red carpet and hate her for her “ideas”? There’s plenty to hate.

    I think a black leather and lace mini skirt is part of her ‘ideas’.

  189. 189.

    lawguy

    @ruemara: Fairly silly statement, but on the other hand where are you going to go and hide out when you’ve got the most powerful government in the world after you. Hell apparently even Sweden will help us catch a guy who has pissed us off.

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