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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

This really is a full service blog.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

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Innocent people do not delay justice.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

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Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Evening Open Thread: Readership Capture

Monday Evening Open Thread: Readership Capture

by Anne Laurie|  May 18, 20157:11 pm| 111 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Readership Capture

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“Follow the tweets!” — Barack Obama on his new Twitter account #dad https://t.co/AsKqGeZUz5

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) May 18, 2015

Reminded of my fav exchange from @samsteinhp Obama interview "You're not on Twitter" #flipflop http://t.co/DmKkq8nMRw pic.twitter.com/zqcISR3XDg

— William Jordan (@williamjordann) May 18, 2015

why won't Obama show a little goodwill and fav a few Boehner tweets? it's like he doesn't even care about getting immigration reform done

— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) May 18, 2015

(Yes, this is snark)

Calls himself "Barack." So disrespectful. @POTUS: Hello, Twitter! It's Barack. Really! 6 years in, they're finally giving me my own account.

— Matt Bai (@mattbai) May 18, 2015

(But this — it’s Matt Bai, so maybe not?)

RIP Twitter pic.twitter.com/4rW08zwcb9

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) May 18, 2015

Apart from flavor-of-the-moment media platforms about which NOBODY CARES DAMMIT, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

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Previous Post: « Commando Cops
Next Post: Any Step Forward Is Bad »

Reader Interactions

111Comments

  1. 1.

    aimai

    May 18, 2015 at 7:13 pm

    Ok,I LOL’d at @billclinton “AFAF.”

  2. 2.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    May 18, 2015 at 7:15 pm

    I think the only thing worse than Twitter are these hideous mashups of twitter conversations.

  3. 3.

    Elmo

    May 18, 2015 at 7:16 pm

    First night of a weeklong biz trip to Chicago. So I’m in the hotel bar, already +2, picking stuff off the menu at random because food is my sole entertainment when I’m on the road.

    Well. Food and Amazon Prime streaming video of stuff my wife wouldn’t be interested in.

    And wine, of course.

  4. 4.

    FlyingToaster

    May 18, 2015 at 7:16 pm

    The problem comes in when President Huckleberry Graham starts tweeting.

    Nothing good comes of this.

    [the only social media I can stand is twitter; bobic is probably right.]

  5. 5.

    Elmo

    May 18, 2015 at 7:17 pm

    @aimai: Yeah, that was hashtag achievement level expert.

  6. 6.

    Corner Stone

    May 18, 2015 at 7:20 pm

    The FLOTUS poke was sick burn.

  7. 7.

    Unabogie

    May 18, 2015 at 7:22 pm

    That was classic.

  8. 8.

    Corner Stone

    May 18, 2015 at 7:22 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    these hideous mashups of twitter conversations.

    You mean they are supposed to be conversations? WTF?
    #FML #WhatAreWeGonnaDoNow #KeepRollinRollinRollin

  9. 9.

    Bonnie

    May 18, 2015 at 7:22 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead: I with you on that.

  10. 10.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    May 18, 2015 at 7:25 pm

    @Elmo:

    Sole entertainment because you don’t have time or energy for anything else, I assume? A lot of the museums and such have late hours (like 8 pm) once a week.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    May 18, 2015 at 7:26 pm

    I can’t even imagine the amount of angry spam this account is going to get.

  12. 12.

    geg6

    May 18, 2015 at 7:31 pm

    Prepping to work the polls for my friend who is running for Register of Wills in tomorrow’s primary. I don’t expect him to win, given the horrible corrupt machine our county Dems are, but we need more people to challenge these fuckers and, if they do, one of them will eventually win. Eventually.

  13. 13.

    Elmo

    May 18, 2015 at 7:32 pm

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): Correct. I have a ton of work to do on between meetings.

  14. 14.

    lamh36

    May 18, 2015 at 7:33 pm

    posted on last thread, but it’s more relevant here:

    Ok, so I see lotsa of people tweeting @POTUS, do they NOT realize that EVERY tweet to this account is being archived?

    I mean I noticed this when I saw @POTUS first tweet. It say so on the page.

    On Twitter, the White House automatically archives “tweets” from official White House accounts, “direct messages” sent to or from official White House accounts, and “mentions” (tweets from other users to official White House accounts; these tweets contain an @ and the username of an official White House account (e.g., @WhiteHouse).

    Reading this Gawker post made me LMAO at people really seem NOT to understand how the internet works sometimes.

    The White House Is Archiving Every Tweet Begging @POTUS for Sex

  15. 15.

    M. Bouffant

    May 18, 2015 at 7:33 pm

    Your First Amendment at work: First time I checked @POTUS there were plenty of replies/tweets at him. Next time I looked they’d all disappeared, like magic.

  16. 16.

    Roger Moore

    May 18, 2015 at 7:33 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    I think the only thing worse than Twitter are these hideous mashups of twitter conversations.

    No. Even worse are the people who do a whole series of numbered tweets, so they’re effectively making a short blog post one sentence at a time. Then somebody assembles them into a slideshow. If you can’t say it in one or two tweets, you’re missing the whole point of the medium.

  17. 17.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 18, 2015 at 7:33 pm

    Anyone addicted to ancient color photos? Here is a collection from 1910s to 1930s.

  18. 18.

    Pogonip

    May 18, 2015 at 7:36 pm

    Hello shaper-uppers, sorry I did not report in yesterday. It was a horrible crappy week with very little in the way of program-sticking. I hope everyone else did better than I did–I bet you didn’t do any worse!

  19. 19.

    Baud

    May 18, 2015 at 7:36 pm

    The world went to hell when we stop using cuneiform.

  20. 20.

    BruceFromOhio

    May 18, 2015 at 7:37 pm

    bwahaha, I think this is hilarious, and I just fucking hate Twitter and everything about it. I could see the four of them (Obamas and Clintons) running dizzying rings around the rubes this way.

  21. 21.

    Corner Stone

    May 18, 2015 at 7:37 pm

    @Roger Moore: Even people I like, like Billmon, tire me the F out with that tweet storm BS.

  22. 22.

    Eric U.

    May 18, 2015 at 7:39 pm

    I have one of these new-fangled twitter accounts, but I don’t know how to use it. Which makes me feel old and pathetic. Or disinterested. Something like that

  23. 23.

    Tree With Water

    May 18, 2015 at 7:40 pm

    Maybe if the president had skinned BP alive like the corporation justly deserved, instead of looking forward and not back, its criminal negligence might yet be at the forefront of everyone’s political consciousness. The people of the United States would have cheered had that corporation been dismantled, as it damn well should have been.

  24. 24.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 18, 2015 at 7:42 pm

    @efgoldman: Yes, there’s one shot of some folks sitting by a river, and the river is a silky blur.

  25. 25.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 18, 2015 at 7:44 pm

    @efgoldman: I hope you don’t have to wait too long. Maybe someday we can 3D print new organs for ourselves. That’s what the science magazines tell me, anyway.

  26. 26.

    Elmo

    May 18, 2015 at 7:45 pm

    @Pogonip:
    I gave myself a pass today because travel and flying and packing were too much to cram into a morning even without my treadmill.
    Tomorrow without fail!!

  27. 27.

    SiubhanDuinne

    May 18, 2015 at 7:45 pm

    @efgoldman:

    I don’t twit.
    I don’t face.
    I don’t book.
    I think I’m better off for it.

    That’s all very well, but you do Juice.

  28. 28.

    Frankensteinbeck

    May 18, 2015 at 7:45 pm

    @Tree With Water:
    You… are aware that the president is not all-powerful, and that there are things like ‘laws’ and ‘courts’, right? He can’t actually just break up a company because he thinks they were naughty.

  29. 29.

    Pogonip

    May 18, 2015 at 7:48 pm

    @Elmo: You and me both! I’ll root for you!

  30. 30.

    Corner Stone

    May 18, 2015 at 7:49 pm

    @Tree With Water: Man, you are just all over the damned place. Can’t you just pick a fucking box we can put you in, then appropriately castigate you for your views?

  31. 31.

    SiubhanDuinne

    May 18, 2015 at 7:49 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Congratulations on being on the list. The first step of many, I assume, but obviously a necessary one. Please keep us as posted as you feel you want to.

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    Either 3D printing, or growing new organs from stem cells. I believe there’s some promising research going on there as well.

  32. 32.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 18, 2015 at 7:49 pm

    @efgoldman:

    For so long that I don’t remember when I started.

    I started not long ago (juicing) so I feel like the youngest in the family. I am intrigued sometimes when commenters talk about dear-departed trolls or front pagers who retired from the game. I feel like I missed a bunch of wild stuff.

    Is there a balloon-juice greatest hits link somewhere?

  33. 33.

    Gravenstone

    May 18, 2015 at 7:50 pm

    @efgoldman: You comment on this rathole. Are you really that much better off? =P

  34. 34.

    Roger Moore

    May 18, 2015 at 7:50 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Didn’t they have to do multiple-second exposures in those days?

    As I understand it, they were operating at an ISO speed somewhere around 1, which would let you do use an exposure shorter than a second in direct sunlight- which most of those pictures seem to be. That’s still very slow by modern standards, and they mention that a tripod would be absolutely required, but the multi-second stuff was mostly the early technology in the 19th Century.

  35. 35.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 18, 2015 at 7:51 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: From what I understood, the frame is 3D printed, and then the stem cells attach to the frame. Then the frame is discarded or dissolved?

  36. 36.

    Debbie(aussie)

    May 18, 2015 at 7:52 pm

    @efgoldman: In anticipation of a future gift, I wish you all the very best.

  37. 37.

    Pogonip

    May 18, 2015 at 7:52 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler: There should be. The mustard, the mopping, some incident where Cole was trapped on the roof, or maybe it was a tree, the Best of Tunch. I hope Cole sees this and starts a Classics category.

  38. 38.

    Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)

    May 18, 2015 at 7:52 pm

    This dude is NUTS. http://jezebel.com/the-new-mad-max-film-is-so-feminist-my-scrotum-killed-i-1705273679

  39. 39.

    chopper

    May 18, 2015 at 7:54 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    Is there a balloon-juice greatest hits link somewhere?

    god i hope not.

  40. 40.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 18, 2015 at 7:54 pm

    @Pogonip: Sometimes someone will mention some old troll by name, and others will chuckle and nod in a sardonic way. It all goes over my head, but I find it entertaining nevertheless.

    Are there many front pagers who no longer… page?

  41. 41.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    May 18, 2015 at 7:54 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    FYI: In an exchange with Valdivia I discovered that FYWP doesn’t even like Cato. Go figure.

  42. 42.

    sharl

    May 18, 2015 at 7:54 pm

    @efgoldman:

    I got the official word today that I have been approved for the kidney transplant list. Now it’s a waiting game. Nothing’s going to happen very soon.

    Congrats! Like someone already said, hope you don’t have to wait too long.

  43. 43.

    Gravenstone

    May 18, 2015 at 7:55 pm

    @Tree With Water: You do realize that the president, as an individual or as an official role cannot flay corporations, regardless of how “deserving” they might be? Or does the concept of “due process” completely escape your monomaniacal worldview?

    I swear, you don’t just want a unicorn, you want the whole fucking enchanted forest.

  44. 44.

    jl

    May 18, 2015 at 7:55 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler: Thanks. Beautiful pics. Things were in color back then? I thought everything was in black and white, just like the photographs! :).

  45. 45.

    Baud

    May 18, 2015 at 7:56 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Hope you get a good one!

  46. 46.

    Frankensteinbeck

    May 18, 2015 at 7:57 pm

    @Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
    I can’t tell if you’re being snarky! This is a satirical article poking fun at the MRAs who are so angry at the new Mad Max movie. I just saw that movie, and it’s awesome, and yes after Max, the next six most badass people are grannies. Furiosa might be more badass than Max. It’s kind of hard to tell. They’re both pretty amazing. Also, the movie specifically says several times that women are not objects. So, you know, the MRAs are having hysterics.

  47. 47.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 18, 2015 at 7:57 pm

    @jl:

    Things were in color back then? I thought everything was in black and white, just like the photographs!

    I’m convinced people in the future will think we lived in a flat universe because our photos and videos were not 3D (except for a few action and sci-fi films).

    EDIT: Looking at one of the old photos from 1930 of young ladies on the beach, I find myself falling in love with a young woman in the far right of the frame. She looks contemporary to me, like a time-traveler who wandered into the shoot.

  48. 48.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 18, 2015 at 7:58 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: What amazes and gladdens me is that this film that is generating so much excitement was written and directed by a 70-year-old.

  49. 49.

    Roger Moore

    May 18, 2015 at 7:59 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Either 3D printing, or growing new organs from stem cells.

    I think you’d probably wind up with a mix of the two. The 3-D printer would create a matrix that could then be seeded with stem cells that would grow into the organ. That would give you results much faster than trying to grow from a small cluster of cells.

  50. 50.

    Gravenstone

    May 18, 2015 at 7:59 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler: Take a dive through the archives some day. You’ll return wiser, scarred mentally and emotionally, but wiser.

    ETA: and check the dropdown of front pager contacts. Then contrast it to the number of actual active front pagers.

  51. 51.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    May 18, 2015 at 8:01 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    It’s the name of a departed troll who was banhammered. I suspect a lot of the mysterious vanishing posts are due to forgotten troll nyms.

  52. 52.

    Mandalay

    May 18, 2015 at 8:03 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    Anyone addicted to ancient color photos?

    Not quite ancient, but here are some great colorized photos from WW2:
    http://www.vintag.es/2015/05/50-breathtaking-wwii-photos-look-like.html

    Warning: That web site can suck hours out of your life.

  53. 53.

    Roger Moore

    May 18, 2015 at 8:04 pm

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    I suspect a lot of the mysterious vanishing posts are due to forgotten troll nyms.

    Maybe it’s time to clean out the file, then.

  54. 54.

    JPL

    May 18, 2015 at 8:06 pm

    @efgoldman: Many decades ago, a friend had a kidney transplant and she is still doing great. Hopefully, the time comes soon because life gets so much easier.

  55. 55.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 18, 2015 at 8:06 pm

    @efgoldman: Congrats.

  56. 56.

    satby

    May 18, 2015 at 8:10 pm

    @Elmo: Hey! I’m in Chicago on Wednesday, how about a Chicago meet-up ? Anyone else in? I’m only an hour away, so if another night works better that’s ok too.

  57. 57.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    May 18, 2015 at 8:11 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    Is there a balloon-juice greatest hits link somewhere?

    Don’t bother. We peaked with that first live album.

  58. 58.

    chopper

    May 18, 2015 at 8:11 pm

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    hence my plan to come up with a troll named “the”. get banned and watch the fun fly.

  59. 59.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 18, 2015 at 8:15 pm

    @chopper: “The,” then “an”, then “a”, and finish up with “of.”

  60. 60.

    satby

    May 18, 2015 at 8:16 pm

    @efgoldman: Wishing you the best on that and that you get it soonish, if possible.

  61. 61.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 18, 2015 at 8:18 pm

    @Steeplejack (phone): I took a peek into the archives and found something from 2002. Cole complaining about insomnia. Comments were turned off.

  62. 62.

    Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)

    May 18, 2015 at 8:18 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: I meant in a good way.
    Guess my snark fu is not strong tonight.

  63. 63.

    satby

    May 18, 2015 at 8:19 pm

    It was a beautiful day, I puttered around the house getting some long deferred stuff done and hearing from friends all over the world. Now sitting on my deck with a nice merlot watching the hummingbirds bicker and feed at the two feeders and the dogs try to catch frogs in the pond.
    Life is good!

  64. 64.

    chopper

    May 18, 2015 at 8:20 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    then add “john” and watch cole lose it.

  65. 65.

    chopper

    May 18, 2015 at 8:22 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    that’s probably the best post and comments we’ve ever had here.

  66. 66.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 18, 2015 at 8:24 pm

    @chopper: Even better than the credenza one.

  67. 67.

    Roger Moore

    May 18, 2015 at 8:26 pm

    @chopper:
    I would suggest naming yourself “fuck”, which gets used a lot more frequently around here.

  68. 68.

    Roger Moore

    May 18, 2015 at 8:27 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Even better than the credenza one.

    But were the helicopters laughing?

  69. 69.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    May 18, 2015 at 8:27 pm

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    Ah, that explains it.

  70. 70.

    different-church-lady

    May 18, 2015 at 8:30 pm

    Igor Bobic
    ✔ @igorbobic

    RIP Twitter

    THANKS OBAMA!

  71. 71.

    Starfish

    May 18, 2015 at 8:30 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    Read some entries in the Lexicon including the one on peak wingnut.

    I was surprised that crazification factor is not in the Balloon Juice Lexicon.

  72. 72.

    different-church-lady

    May 18, 2015 at 8:31 pm

    @Roger Moore: “Clinton”

  73. 73.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 18, 2015 at 8:32 pm

    @Roger Moore: They never laugh, the humorless fuckers.

  74. 74.

    Elizabelle

    May 18, 2015 at 8:32 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler: Thank you. Look forward to the color pics.

    @efgoldman: Great about the list. Fingers crossed for you.

    And you do facechat with the darling granddaughter, so you are not a total Luddite.

  75. 75.

    different-church-lady

    May 18, 2015 at 8:33 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler: I [heart] you!

  76. 76.

    Elizabelle

    May 18, 2015 at 8:33 pm

    Just noticed the first lightning bug of the summer. Out on deck, thinking we might get rain, but it seems to have blown over. Again.

    It’s cooler, though.

  77. 77.

    Kay

    May 18, 2015 at 8:34 pm

    I like Twitter. If you’re interested in one specific thing you can find an expert (or obessive) on that specific topic and that person then interacts with other obsessives and they all link to what they’re reading on that subject.

    I don’t even have an account and I follow certain people all the time. It’s weirdly efficient and focused. You’re not really reading what they say. You’re reading what they link to.

  78. 78.

    Shana

    May 18, 2015 at 8:36 pm

    @Elmo: Check out Heaven on Seven. They have a location just off Michigan Ave. near the Marriott, but it may be closed for renovation. The original location, on the 7th floor of an office building in the Loop (hence the name) is open for dinner during the renovation I believe. Great cajun food. The chef/owner trained with Paul Prudhomme.

  79. 79.

    Germy Shoemangler

    May 18, 2015 at 8:42 pm

    @different-church-lady: A window into a lost world. I love them.

  80. 80.

    Elmo

    May 18, 2015 at 8:43 pm

    @Shana: THANKS!!!

  81. 81.

    Chris

    May 18, 2015 at 8:44 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    No. Even worse are the people who do a whole series of numbered tweets, so they’re effectively making a short blog post one sentence at a time. Then somebody assembles them into a slideshow. If you can’t say it in one or two tweets, you’re missing the whole point of the medium.

    THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

  82. 82.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 18, 2015 at 8:48 pm

    @Starfish: Look up “27 Percenters.”

  83. 83.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    May 18, 2015 at 8:57 pm

    @Roger Moore: Also I bemoan the proliferation of picture memes. I have a theory that Egypt started with an alphabet and the full-on written word but eventually devolved into tweets, then picture memes then finally hieroglyphs.

  84. 84.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    May 18, 2015 at 8:59 pm

    @Kay: Now go spend your Twitter cash, you filthy propagandist.

  85. 85.

    Roger Moore

    May 18, 2015 at 9:02 pm

    @Chris:
    I feel as if everyone on Twitter should remember Pascal’s Apology for writing a long letter because he didn’t have time to write a short one. Tweeters should focus on pith rather than immediacy.

  86. 86.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 18, 2015 at 9:04 pm

    @Roger Moore: Pith like with frogs?

  87. 87.

    Linnaeus

    May 18, 2015 at 9:07 pm

    @efgoldman:

    I’m glad to hear the news nonetheless. Here’s hoping you don’t have to wait too long.

  88. 88.

    Roger Moore

    May 18, 2015 at 9:08 pm

    @efgoldman:

    We old men focuth on pith a lot.

    Especially the ones who need replacement kidneys.

  89. 89.

    danielx

    May 18, 2015 at 9:08 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    If there’s not, there ought to be, just like there ought to be a list of TBogg’s greatest hits.

  90. 90.

    danielx

    May 18, 2015 at 9:10 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Got that right. Can you tell me anything about cystoscopy, other than it’s a pain?

  91. 91.

    tybee

    May 18, 2015 at 9:15 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    very cool. thanks.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    May 18, 2015 at 9:20 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    I like mildy “famous” people (in a specific area) because they’re all business. I don’t want to hear about the airport you’re sitting in or what the weather is or what you’re eating or (worse) planning on eating. If I’m not mistaken all that belongs on Facebook, which I don’t read.

  93. 93.

    the Conster

    May 18, 2015 at 9:26 pm

    Twitter has tomorrow’s news today, and it goes around and through the gatekeepers. It’s conversation and information sharing that goes on without any filtering from the MSM, which is universally reviled. I like the immediacy of it. It’s truly the hive mind.

  94. 94.

    different-church-lady

    May 18, 2015 at 9:27 pm

    @the Conster: Right — because the hive mind is so much more trustworthy…

  95. 95.

    the Conster

    May 18, 2015 at 9:30 pm

    @different-church-lady:

    compared to what?

  96. 96.

    FlipYrWhig

    May 18, 2015 at 9:30 pm

    @efgoldman: FWIW, I laughed at that.

  97. 97.

    Botsplainer

    May 18, 2015 at 9:37 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler:

    EDIT: Looking at one of the old photos from 1930 of young ladies on the beach, I find myself falling in love with a young woman in the far right of the frame. She looks contemporary to me, like a time-traveler who wandered into the shoot.

    She doesn’t quite belong, does she?

  98. 98.

    Anne Laurie

    May 18, 2015 at 9:38 pm

    @efgoldman: Congratulations, and I sincerely hope you’re wrong about the ‘nothing’s going to happen very soon’ part!

  99. 99.

    Kay

    May 18, 2015 at 10:03 pm

    @the Conster:

    I like that about it too. It’s egalitarian. If media people go on it they have to respond to the angry mob because they’re just like everyone else. :)

  100. 100.

    Renie

    May 18, 2015 at 10:09 pm

    @Germy Shoemangler: After checking out old posts don’t forget to email John in CAPITAL LETTERS, he loves that!!!!

    /snark

  101. 101.

    the Conster

    May 18, 2015 at 10:13 pm

    @Kay:

    Yup. I had a back and forth with Jay Rosen today, and the feedback around CNNs report that Lindsay Graham was going to announce a run for president by announcing a 10,000 troop “surge” to quickly train the Iraq army to fight ISIS was gratifying to see. I don’t need to wait to hear what the Morning Joe sock puppets tell me about Lindsay’s serious plan for the Middle East.

  102. 102.

    Kay

    May 18, 2015 at 10:13 pm

    This is why Twitter is good- I give you David Frum:

    Soaring salaries for CEOs indicates desperate shortage of executive talent. Stagnant wages below indicates labor glut for lower 99.9%. So ..

    He goes on to call for importing “super elite” people.

    I feel like he would be less true to himself in a more thoughtful, measured medium and then we wouldn’t know how horrible he is ! :)

  103. 103.

    Zinsky

    May 18, 2015 at 10:19 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Amen, JSF.

  104. 104.

    danielx

    May 18, 2015 at 10:21 pm

    @the Conster:

    …CNNs report that Lindsay Graham was going to announce a run for president by announcing a 10,000 troop “surge” to quickly train the Iraq army to fight ISIS…

    Yeah, that’ll work. We’ve been training those guys for ten years, and what they seem to be best at is donating their equipment (paid for by you and me) to the bad guys. Yet another Huckleberry brainstorm…on the other hand, you can’t really blame him for looking at the current crop of Republican possibles and thinking “why not me, I look as good or better than these assholes..”.

  105. 105.

    Kay

    May 18, 2015 at 10:21 pm

    @the Conster:

    Did he write the thing about how media are horribly compromised and conflicted on Iraq and “access journalism” and they can’t get past it? I think there’s truth to that.

    In a weird way I think “data journalism” is an over-correction, maybe a response. “We can’t trust any of the things powerful people tell us because we keep getting bamboozled so we’ll just analyze these charts!”

  106. 106.

    the Conster

    May 18, 2015 at 10:27 pm

    @Kay:

    It was about what I felt was his misplaced concern that ABC wouldn’t let Stephanapolous report on any of Clinton’s campaign. I said who cares – anyone who asks about flag pins is not going to be missed.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    May 18, 2015 at 10:32 pm

    @the Conster:

    It would be a horrible distraction anyway because they’d just end up talking about him for 6 months. It’s a bad idea.

    Ultimately I think they have to decide whether they’re media personalities or reporters.

  108. 108.

    the Conster

    May 18, 2015 at 10:34 pm

    @efgoldman:

    That was my point. There is no value to Stephanopolous, when there are any number of useless hacks who can ask that kind of question.

  109. 109.

    the Conster

    May 18, 2015 at 10:38 pm

    @Kay:

    There are no reporters on national broadcasts any more – there are talking hairdos without a thought in their heads, or there are corporate hacks like Jonathan Karl, Sheryl Atkinsson, Andrea Mitchell. That’s why I like Twitter – I follow reporters, who will never be seen on your TV.

  110. 110.

    tomtofa

    May 19, 2015 at 1:29 am

    @Germy Shoemangler:
    I felt the same way about this young lady from 1913.

  111. 111.

    PaulW

    May 19, 2015 at 10:42 am

    It’s not that he tweets. It’s a question if he retweets your sh-t forward, ’cause THAT will matter.

    Answer back, dammit. I’ve sent five tweets to ya, boss.

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