Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

The revolution will be supervised.

“woke” is the new caravan.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

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

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Open Thread: The Real Criminals

Reader Interactions

96Comments

  1. 1.

    Corner Stone

    I’ll tell you who the real thieves are, it’s the garbage time fucking refs in this Rockets v Mavs series.

  4. 4.

    RepubAnon

    Oh, and they laugh while ripping the eyes out of Muppets. ISIS/Daesh has nothing on this band of terrorists.

  6. 6.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Right under that Wall Street pic, I’m getting an ad that says “Breaking News: Dr. Ron Paul’s #1 Step to Protecting Your Finances.” Coincidence? I think not.

  11. 11.

    Hawes

    It’s a culture of lawlessness. They grow up in boarding schools without proper parental supervision. They listen to hip-hop unironically. They engage in lacrosse-gang related activities.

    What do you expect?

  12. 12.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Baud: I have no idea what the equation on his avatar is supposed to mean either. I am guessing G is the universal gravitational constant, c is the velocity of light, so R must be radius, and M is the mass.

    ETA: It is the Schwarzchild Radius = Theoretical radius of a black hole.

  15. 15.

    germy shoemangler

    Just watched “the end of the ’60s” on pbs.

    appalling scene where hardhats attack anti-war protesters while wall street traders cheer them on.

  19. 19.

    raven

    @germy shoemangler: Oh yea, the Hard Hat Riots.
    Did you watch Dick Cavett’s Vietnam last night? Thursday is the 40th Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon and PBS is running a bunch of specials.

  21. 21.

    NotMax

    Tweets. Pfeh.

    Numerically, however, the Republicans are on the way to holding the first Twitter Debates.

    140 characters on a platform.

  24. 24.

    trollhattan

    @Iowa Old Lady:
    That has been in heavy rotation lately and it’s interesting…in an oncological sense…how it’s “Dr. Ron Paul” in some places and they skip the “Dr.” in others.

    Hasn’t that family caused enough harm?

    Also, too, the everpresent “What these five billionaires have to say about the economy will shock you.”

  25. 25.

    Tripod

    Are those guys model -slash- actors for the tourists? Because all that trading is electronic, the firms are completely mental about gaining micro speed advantages via their IT infrastructure, and floor trading is gone. Why run out a handful of schmucks in the smocks other than for the show?

  29. 29.

    lamh36

    @gwangung: yes. I follow him on twitter. I have my issues with him and other Ferguson activists, but I have no beef with his performance with Blitzer

  33. 33.

    burnspbesq

    @Corner Stone:

    Fuck you. The Rockets are garbage, and richly deserve everything bad that happens to them.

    In fact, everything about Harris County begs for the place to be nuked from orbit. The worst part of the worst state.

  37. 37.

    Cacti

    As I mentioned earlier, a mere 5-days before Rand Paul was telling the people of Baltimore how to live…

    He was bailing his 22 year old son out from his 3rd arrest.

    Now raise your hand if you think Paul sprog’s criminal record will have the slightest adverse effect on his life or prospects beyond momentary inconvenience.

  38. 38.

    Zinsky

    @lamh36: The essence of modern conservatism is that conservatives value property rights over human rights. Progressives should believe the opposite and act in accordance with that belief.

  43. 43.

    danielx

    @burnspbesq:

    In fact, everything about Harris County begs for the place to be nuked from orbit. The worst part of the worst state.

    Dude. Clearly you’ve never been to Lubbock.

  47. 47.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Cacti:

    As I mentioned earlier, a mere 5-days before Rand Paul was telling the people of Baltimore how to live…

    He was bailing his 22 year old son out from his 3rd arrest.

    I understand (did not watch or listen myself) that Senator Paul shared his parenting tips on Laura Ingraham’s show. I wonder whether she asked him about his own son’s three (that we know of) DUI incidents …..

    Naaaah. Unpossible.

  48. 48.

    Hal

    I’m a little disappointed in President Obama and Mayor Rawlings-Blake. When they go on national television and talk about thugs and criminals, they are helping to perpetuate a narrative that distracts from the real reasons rioting like this happens in the aftermath of police brutality. I see white friends of mine on Facebook using thug only when talking about black people nowadays. If there is a story about a white guy killing someone, that white guy is a piece of shit. If the murderer is a black guy, and especially if the victim is white; he’s a thug and an animal. The word has come to replace the n-word to describe black people.

    But, I also sympathize with their predicaments. I tend to find that black people as a whole feel the need to make sure everyone else (read: white people) knows we don’t condone violence or rioting and looting because people of color, particularly black and Hispanic people, are held collectively for the crimes of individuals. No one blames all white men for shooting up movie theaters, blowing up federal buildings, or massacring preschoolers. When black people, Hispanic people, or Muslim folks commit a crime, every member of that group has to distance themselves.

    I also realize Obama can’t talk about race without half the country calling him the “real” racist, and I understand that as Mayor, Rawlings-Blake has a civic duty to the city of Baltimore and it’s people. I’m sure she wants to make sure she isn’t perceived as inciting or condoning violence. But those are situations that only happen to non-white Mayors or Presidents, and I wish the two of them would fight that narrative instead of giving into it.

    Talk about the real issues of police brutality and racism and how it affects the minority populations of cities like Baltimore every day. Make that the focus instead of making sure people who don’t like you, will never like you or vote for you, know for sure you don’t condone a handful of people acting out of sorts in a sea of peaceful protesters. They won’t believe you anyway, so why waste the time and end up just playing into a useful media driven narrative that ultimately demeans the victims of systematic racism and police brutality?

  50. 50.

    Corner Stone

    @burnspbesq:

    In fact, everything about Harris County begs for the place to be nuked from orbit. The worst part of the worst state.

    Goodness. What did Hispanics, lesbian mayors and Hispanic lesbians ever do to you?
    BTW, I don’t live in Harris County so you can’t use me as an excuse.

  51. 51.

    Botsplainer

    @beltane:

    Anderson may as well have Kathy Griffin and an all-star cast on for the celebration.

    My whiteness embarrasses the fuck out of me most of the time. This is no exception.

  53. 53.

    lamh36

    The curfew is in effect and while a majority of the people are off the streets there are still some people there.

    Hoping for peace and discretion on the parts of the National Guard. Especially if there is no violence

    @WesleyLowery
    As curfew passes, only violence where I’m at in Baltimore is people mad at Geraldo Rivera getting in a small shoving match with him
    https://twitter.com/WesleyLowery/status/593234342215819265

  59. 59.

    fuckwit

    That tweet is so fucking awesome it made my day.

    Exactly this. Loot billions and you get a mild case of embarassment followed by dinner with the White House and Congress and Senate, a nice retirement, and to keep all your loot. But loot a roll of toilet paper from a 7-11 and you get jail time, a conviction that doesn’t allow you to vote or to get a job, and the derision of the media to add insult to injury.

    Granted, it has ever been thus. The law in its majestic equality forbids both rich and poor from stealing bread and sleeping under bridges, during the days before the French Revolution, in the Dickens era England, and probably long before both of those.

    The case for reparations from slavery becomes ever more clear as time goes on. Massive redistribution of ill-gotten gains, land reform, the whole thing. Indeed a lot can be done and must be done to equal out the laws and provide an even playing field, but ultimately if the wealth is so skewed that those who have been cheated for generations will never be able to earn all of that back even if the system were fair and impartial, then that wealth problem needs to be solved simultaneously and directly. Also consider that the “fairness” of the justice system depends on how good a lawyer you can afford, and we’re right back to the case for cash reparations.

    Maybe that’s what freaks out the white FAUX “news” crowd, and makes them so angry and terrified, particularly those in the south and in areas of the country settled by migrants from the south. They know this. The guilt is there, it’s in their family bibles, in their history, in their culture. They are legit afraid of socialism, redistribution, and black folks. Because the ghosts of all those slaves still haunts them.

    The shocking thing to me in re-listening to MLK’s “I have a dream” speech, was that the biggest applause line was when he said the marchers came to Washington to cash a check, one that has been rejected as “insufficient funds”. That was a dogwhistle, a direct statement hiding as an analogy so that it wouldn’t freak out the white folks, and the crowd absolutely got the reference and approved wildly. Indeed it was a check, a debt, not a figurative or rhetorical one but a real dollars-and-cents debt, never repaid. Where’s that 40 acres and a mule? Their great great great great grandpas never got it, that’s where it is.

    I’m tired of white media trying to make black folks ashamed of the rioters. I see the riots and I’m ashamed for white people, as we’re the ones who did this.

    End of rant.

  60. 60.

    lamh36

    @beltane: I should feel bad, but then I’m reminded that the media is there to see how the “natives” react to the presence of the military and they are NOT hoping for non-conflict.

    Once again, the media becomes the story…news at 11

  61. 61.

    Hal

    @Mike E:

    “Frankly it didn’t get that much attention,” Obama said of the peaceful movement sparked by the death of black man Freddie Gray, who died in police custody. “One burning building will be looped on television over and over and over again. The thousands of demonstrators who did it the right way, I think, have been lost in the discussion.”

    This is part of my point. Don’t even go down the thug and criminal route, and talk about the media narrative that catches national attention; the rioting, instead of the protests that were happening last week without any issues. The problem is that Obama using the term thug validates that term for everyone out there who wants to see Baltimore as nothing but criminals using any excuse for a free tv.

  62. 62.

    danielx

    @beltane:

    Actually, it’s been done on an increasing number of occasions, such as the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis.

  67. 67.

    beltane

    @lamh36: I’m not sure if they’re wannabe war reporters or auditioning for a role in a Hollywood blockbuster. It’s all show business and narcissism with these people.

  71. 71.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lamh36:

    Officers relatively restrained, given how much thrown at them.

    That is, of course, part of their damned job. Or, at least, it sure should be.

  72. 72.

    James E Powell

    I feel like we’ve seen this scene before, with the same people saying the same things. The blowhards and the Very Serious People get their time on cable news, then some chase this one off the news and everybody forgets about it.

    I would like this time or one of these times to be different but I worry that if anything will different it will be that things will get worse.

    America’s ruling class is adamant that they will do nothing to ease poverty or unemployment. They are equally determined to keep the racial/ethnic tensions alive and cooking.

  73. 73.

    fuckwit

    @Hal: It seems to me that both Obama and the Mayor have realized that using that term was a mistake: it gave cover to the corporate and right-wing media to start using it. Now they’re going to try to retire it.

    I love Obama’s assessment of the situation during that presser; it seems spot-on perfect. The media ignored the peaceful protests, ignored the injustice, until they got a sensationalist conflagration clip to use endlessly. Because the media is in the entertainment business, not the business of education or public policy or speaking truth to power or righting injustices or serving the public good.

    I also love how he shamed the press at the end of the WHPC dinner, by honoring the journalists who have been killed or jailed for doing their work, and reminding the TV entertainment hacks what real journalists do, and how far they are from that.

  75. 75.

    Cacti

    @fuckwit:

    I love Obama’s assessment of the situation during that presser; it seems spot-on perfect. The media ignored the peaceful protests, ignored the injustice, until they got a sensationalist conflagration to use in their endless clips. Because the media is in the entertainment business, not the business of education or public policy or speaking truth to power or serving the public good. I also love how he shamed the press at the end of the WHPC dinner, by honoring the journalists who have been killed or jailed for doing their work, and reminding the TV entertainment hacks what real journalists do, and how far they are from that.

    The media wants Baltimore to burn.

    It gives them a splashy story, plus the opportunity to feel righteous over tut-tutting violence from the oppressed group.

    Violence is never the answer for the oppressed. Just ask the power structure with its boot on their neck.

  76. 76.

    Corner Stone

    @burnspbesq:

    Fuck you. The Rockets are garbage, and richly deserve everything bad that happens to them.

    You mean like advancing to the second round? Yes. Yes they do deserve that.
    GFY, you gaping asshole of assholishness.

  77. 77.

    Mike E

    The mom who turned her teenager around and dragged him from the Baltimore melee will be on CBS News This Morning @ 7a (check your local listings).

    I like what she did regardless of however the conservative media framed it…it gives me some confidence in that community’s ability to get a handle on the situation and disappoint a lot of right wing assholes.

    My local teevee news is now showing calm conditions…and a story about victims of police mistreatment demanding our state assembly end racial profiling.

  80. 80.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @James E Powell:

    America’s ruling class is adamant that they will do nothing to ease poverty or unemployment. They are equally determined to keep the racial/ethnic tensions alive and cooking.

    By ‘America’s ruling class’, I assume you mean GOP voters? Because we do live in a democracy, and if rich people actually ruled Obama would not be president. Those racial/ethnic tensions keep themselves alive and cooking, and the racists are the ones who care more about punishing the poor than fixing the economy. Sure, there’s a giant pile of corruption and narcissism in the 1%, but they didn’t create this monster. They’re just hitching a ride because they like where it’s going.

  83. 83.

    El Caganer

    @danielx: Back in 2004, when the goobers were busy destroying the pagan idol Windy Man, I asked my brother what the deal was in Lubbock. He thought for a few seconds, then replied, “Lubbock is…primitive.”

  87. 87.

    NorthLeft12

    @germy shoemangler:

    appalling scene where hardhats attack anti-war protesters while wall street traders cheer them on.

    This, has been happening for decades now. The rich have been using blue collar workers [including cops] like this forever. Part of the reason that they hate unions so much. Although the rich love unions that they can control and manipulate.

  88. 88.

    brantl

    @Hal:

    I’m a little disappointed in President Obama and Mayor Rawlings-Blake. When they go on national television and talk about thugs and criminals,

    If they are looting, their criminals. Read the definition of criminal, for Christ’s sake. If they started the rioting, without police/anti-protester provocation, ditto. What’s the ground story on police provocation/anti-protester provocation?

  89. 89.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @fuckwit:

    The media ignored the peaceful protests, ignored the injustice, until they got a sensationalist conflagration clip to use endlessly. Because the media is in the entertainment business, not the business of education or public policy or speaking truth to power or righting injustices or serving the public good.

    It’s been that way a long, long time – unfortunately.

    It’s not the same, of course, but what’s going on in the reporting about Baltimore reminds me…

    J and I attended a small march/rally at the SCOTUS on one of the anniversaries of Roe v Wade in the early ’90s. There were maybe 10 of us there and maybe a half-dozen Operation Rescue types. Nothing much was happening for 30 minutes or more; there were a couple of TV crews there and we talked briefly with a woman reporter during a lull. We eventually started marching in a circle chanting “we won’t go back / we will fight back” and similar things. Everything was calm and reasonably respectful. That went on for a few minutes more. Suddenly there was some yelling and instantly the TV lights went on and the cameras and reporters rushed and formed a scrum at an argument between a couple of people on the two sides. It didn’t last for more than a couple of minutes.

    Guess what was on the news? Yup, excerpts of those 2 minutes out of an hour or more of the demonstrations.

    :-/

    TV’s mania for “compelling video” is only getting worse, and it continues to distort reality.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  90. 90.

    NorthLeft12

    I had a long discussion with my wife about Baltimore. She understood my position to be that I condoned the actions of the rioters. She felt that the rioting had completely undermined the position of the peaceful protestors, and was horrified that I felt the rioting was necessary.

    After some thoughtful reflection, I agreed with her……..I did condone the actions of the rioters.

    But I disagreed with her that the riot undermined the focus of the peaceful protest. I would argue that it was necessary to highlight the consequences of continued inaction on the problem of excessive police force and harassment.

    Part of her argument was that the rioters should have been angry with the six officers who committed the murder, not the innocent cops who were being struck by rocks. My response was that she was naïve to believe that only those six cops were the problem. Perhaps if the cops being hit by rocks actually cared about their safety, city, and department, they might decide that they would no longer risk being struck by rocks to protect violent and abusive cops, and actually do something about the root cause of the problem? She called me naïve.

  91. 91.

    NorthLeft12

    @brantl:

    If they started the rioting, without police/anti-protester provocation

    I guess my personal position [and apparently some of the rioters] is that the police provocation has occurred over a number of years now. I think it is incredibly simplistic to just point at the recent events and wonder “Why now?”

    I am old enough to remember the riots in the sixties, and most of those started over much more minor incidents that quickly escalated.

    What is that famous quote about those who ignore/fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it?

  94. 94.

    jayjaybear

    @NorthLeft12: We really do hold minorities, especially African-Americans, to standards that we would never condone for ourselves. There is CONSTANT provocation, from authority, from police, from the media, from random goobers on the street, and we demand a level of patience and forebearance that most of us in the white majority would never be able to sustain.

  96. 96.

    Paul in KY

    @NorthLeft12: I do feel that rioting & smashing shit in your own poor neighborhood (where the cops will let you smash stuff & laugh at you) is on the same arc as the Palestinians going after school buses, rather than IDF military sites.

    Be a man & go riot in Whiteytown. Be a man & go attack the IDF at one of their bases.

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