For your enjoyment, David Roth’s musings in Vice Sports upon “The Importance Of Not Being An A-Hole“:
On Thursday, Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones made a guy disappear. He did not make him disappear entirely, and probably not nearly decisively enough for those who deal with this person steering casual workplace conversations towards “reverse racism.” But when the man high-handedly told Jones on Twitter not to sweat this #BlackLivesMatter “bullshit” and instead worry about winning “us fans” another national championship, Jones dismissed him so decisively that the dude deleted his account(s); as a state-of-the-art internet dicklord, he appears to have had an anonymized one that he used to send racialized newsgrumps at right-wing media accounts, and another that he used to bark pissy shaddups at the young athletes he thinks work for him. This man will not be missed, but he will also likely not be gone. Somewhere on the great horizon-to-horizon garbage desert of the internet, this dipshit is just emerging from a new Twitter egg, hideous and translucent and still-embryonic, and croaking something about “race hustlers.” Life finds a way, always, and people have always found ways to be assholes about sports.
This is not just a sports thing, to be fair. It’s not that we’re so exhausted after all that courteous, well-informed, good-faith discussion about politics or religion that we’ve just got nothing left in the tank when it comes to sports and so revert to tantrums and ham-headed trolling and sending “kill urself” tweets to ineffective relief pitchers. People are just sort of like that when they let themselves be, and something about being in sports’ toy department awakens, in what are otherwise chronologically adults, the toddler’s idiot urge to lick every flat surface and cram various jagged things into nostrils. Part of the appeal of sports is that it is, experientially if not politically or economically, safely outside the broader world. But that perceived lack of consequence reads, to those looking for an excuse, as an invitation to unabashedly fart themselves hoarse….
… A world in which people feel not just okay about but a certain smug pride in behaving like assholes is not a world that anyone would really want to live in, really. Because the defining trait of assholery is an unwillingness or inability to deal with the reality of a world that contains other people, an asshole-positive culture is an unworkably narcissistic one. That culture is aggrieved and fact-averse and tribal. More than that, though, it’s warped and stunted and incomplete—every insufficiently flattering or convenient perspective is filed under “Bullshit/Whatever,” every trial or tragedy or triumph is run through the filter of the self until it makes the sort of sense that the asshole-in-question wants it to make…
***********
Apart from that, what’s on the agenda for the evening?
Johnny Coelacanth
“That culture is aggrieved and fact-averse and tribal.” That culture is America.
dmsilev
Recovering from my move, and I wasn’t even the one doing all the heavy lifting in the hot weather.
Recovering from phase one of the move, that is. Phases two through four are going to be worse.
Mike J
Karen DaltonBeninato Jul 24
thruppence
Going on a Santa Cruz beach picnic with my soon to be ex wife and our joint custody doggy. Sad happy sad.
jl
I did not know anything of Cardale Jones until I saw his twitter tweet response re BLM. I thought it was a good response, and was worried he would get in trouble over it. Looks like he isn’t in trouble and it drove the person trolling him from public view. Good.
And as long as the topic is a-holes. I find it surprising that my local radio news outlet could completely clear up the confusion over the latest bogus Clinton non-scandal with two clarifications within half an hour of the original inaccurate and incriminating report, but apparently the NYT, national paper of record, still has it messed up. At this point seems to me the NYT should just retract the story and start over. Or, the House GOP has some incriminating pics of NYTers that keeps them planting partisan BS.
How Did This Happen Exactly?
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/how-did-this-happen-exactly
raven
Our contractor just left and the kitchen work stars Monday. We’re taking everything we can out and planning at least three weeks without a kitchen! That puts us in track to be done just before football starts!!!!!!!
OzarkHillbilly
@dmsilev: Helped my stepdaughter and her husband move last wkend. The amount of junk that hadn’t seen the light of day in years was unbelievable. Some of it I just thru out ’cause I knew they would never miss it. But then there was the stuff she had tried to sell at a garage sale a few weeks before, still had the price tags on them. Armloads upon armloads upon more armloads of stuff they don’t want anymore and know they don’t want anymore.
I finally had had it and asked her, “Why didn’t you just call Goodwill? They would have sent a truck for it.”
“Well, I would’ve had to pack it.”
“So because you didn’t want to pack it, we had to pack it and move it?”
She turned into a 4 yr old, “I’m sorry.”
Schlemazel
@raven:
So you’ll have plenty of tailgate practice before the real thing?
max
There are dickheads.
They hang out with the shitheads on the weekends.
max
[‘They are always with us.’]
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: So what are you going to eat in the meanwhile? Surely not MckyD or Gag in the Bag.
gogol's wife
@dmsilev:
My sympathies. My office got moved on Wednesday. I’ve been standing among piles of books and trying to fit them onto the shelves in the best possible way. It doesn’t seem very taxing when I’m doing it, but I’m sore all over the next day!
schrodinger's cat
@dmsilev: Is only your lab moving or are you moving too?
Tree With Water
On The Flip Side Of That Guy’s Wide World Of Sports: Go Giants, Go Niners, and the republican party must be destroyed.
? Martin
@jl:
Knowing the President of Ohio State, Cardale was unlikely to get in trouble for that response.
raven
@efgoldman: With the Dish Network I get the sling which sends a really good picture of whatever is on the tv to andy device.I had TV’s all over the place and I got rid of most of them. We also have a wireless Joey that is a separate wireless networks and allows you to move the connection by simply plugging it into a TV. Finally, Dish has 3 tuners so I can watch PIP and record another program all at once!
KG
honest question, and honestly not concern trolling here… hypothetically, if it turns out that the Clinton email investigation actually turns something up that would drive Clinton out of the race, who is the next best person to run? Again, I’m not trying to concern troll on this, I really am curious. I’d assume Biden, but I’m wondering if he really wants it anymore. And on some level, part of me would love to see Jerry Brown (though I suspect he’s too old for more than one term), just to watch wingnut heads explode.
? Martin
@jl:
Where did Judith Miller work again?
You act like this is new behavior for the NYT.
jl
@? Martin: Thanks. I did not know anything about Michael V. Drake until your comment either.
@? Martin: The point was not that it was new, but that they their skill at pumping out BS is not improving with practice. Which I guess is good for the country. But apparently the leaks to the NYT are not guided by the wise and practiced hands of Cheney and his crew anymore, And hard to believe, but Gowdy may be more inept than Issa. As I said yesterday, Issa could Cheney a story for a week or more. Gowdy has not gotten one off the ground yet, and this one blew up in the NYT face. I hope the GOPers competence at public disinformation campaigns continues to decay.
BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: Josh mentions this in his piece, the NYT has had a thing about the Clintons(the WaPo as well) going back to the early 90’s. You will hear Joe Scar go on about how “even the liberal NYT” sez this or that about either Bill or Hill like they’re natural allies; they’re not. I’ve said this before, read “The Hunting of the President”; the sloppy “journalism” that the NYT is doing now is not in any way a new practice, it’s SOP over there.
? Martin
@KG: More interesting question – if were were guaranteed that Trump would be the GOP nominee, who would you rather run against him – Clinton or Sanders?
KG
@efgoldman: ah, thanks, hadn’t really seen that or much on it other than the first “criminal referral” and then “no, just a referral, not a criminal one”.
KG
@? Martin: i’m still more or less in the “Anybody But a Clinton or a Bush” camp right now, so I’m not entirely unbiased.
Mike E
@? Martin: Rand Paul as his veep? That would clog a lot of drains.
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
I lived for 2 yrs as a tenant in the house my roommate rented and when the owner died (90+ natural causes) the family sold the house. We had 60 days to find a place. We did but she had lived there 7 yrs. So 5 bedroom house with a storage area to a 2 bed apt with none. I took 2 van/trailer loads to the dump, about the same to a thrift shop and have taken another full van load to thrift since we moved. And I had already done that much for my own stuff when I moved into her house. And I had done this a yr before when I moved the time before that. It is amazing how much crap you can acquire without even trying. And how hard it is for some to unload it, be it yard sale, thrift store or dump. Not yet quite all contained in one bedroom but I’m getting there. Mostly tools I still use on the job though so not all junk. And I know people who have so much that they make me look like a hiker with everything he owns in his backpack. In fact I’ve known people who immigrated here who had everything in a couple of shopping bags.
? Martin
@jl: Drake is a good guy, especially on issues like this. He’s got his flaws, but he’d get this one right.
And now I see your point wrt to the NYT. I guess Judy wasn’t such a bad reference in this context either. But the NYT doesn’t need to be bulletproof on this point, they just need to serve as a viable relay to Fox News (“The liberal NYT today has a scathing new report on the Clinton email scandal…”) where it can forever bounce around inside the frictionless bullshit bubble. That the NYT piece gets deconstructed and retracted only serves as evidence that Hillary is all powerful and was able to bully the paper into submission.
Lather, reince, repeat.
Gimlet
While I’ve been waiting for a big story on Police killers around the nation, I should have figured.
The Department of Homeland Security has been monitoring the Black Lives Matter movement since anti-police protests erupted in Ferguson, Missouri last summer, according to hundreds of documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ruckus:
When I was a much younger man, I moved once every year or 2 at most. I got very good at throwing stuff away and even better at never buying it to begin with. When I got divorced I lost butt loads of stuff all over again.
Long story short, I don’t get emotionally attached to junk. It’s just stuff. Which is great for me. Unfortunately for those around me, I tend to not be too empathetic about their attachments.
I am their cross to bear.
Mwangangi
I shot a nine at Taylor Mountain! Yes, I’ve just started playing disc golf a month or so ago.
? Martin
@Mike E: It’d be Cruz.
Kropadope
Perhaps Mr. Gustafson chose to take his equivalent of his own advice and stick to drinking beers on the couch and throwing the empties as the TV.
Ajabu
@dmsilev:
I know the feeling. We just completed Step 1 in a cross country move back to California and I’m back in Atlanta packing up the house in preparation of hauling all the furniture 2500 miles away.
If only I had gotten rich & famous instead of just being a good musician I could afford the luxury of having others move me.
Oh, well…
As my Grandfather would say, “It Be’s That Way Sometimes.”
Mike E
@? Martin: Trump/Paul…Trump/Cruz…Bush/Walker
You just can’t write this shit.
Kropadope
@? Martin: You’re right, Trump seems very much a war hawk; anti-Iran, pro Netanyahu, wants us back in Iraq etc. against ISIS.
ETA: That’ll ruin Paul Jr.’s already-strained cred with the kiddies.
lamh36
Whutt!!! Coolest President EVAH!
Reminds me of my dad…lol\
President Obama turning it up in Kenya!
President Obama Dances in Kenya!
http://t.co/6OSJyXISd7
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Nah, I’m pretty good at field expediency. We’ve god a nice Weber gas grill and a nuker so we’ll get by. In addition, White Tiger is right here and they’ll help.
gogol's wife
@lamh36:
Love it!
Pogonip
@Johnny Coelacanth: Yes, that’s what I thought–and it’s rapidly crumbling. I hope whatever replaces it is better, not worse.
Mandalay
Since this is an Assholes thread…little Mario’s minders have taught him a new trick: he has learned how to play the dog whistle:
But give him credit, I suppose, for not just calling our president a ****ing **gg*.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
In the last 21 yrs I’ve moved cross country twice, SF to LA once and twice across the LA basin. And I still don’t know where I’ll end up or even if it will be one place. But there is some small glimmer that it will be Oregon with a couple of friends.
And that doesn’t cover business moves nor the times I moved before. I should have learned decades ago.
? Martin
@Kropadope: Paul wouldn’t deliver anything. The GOP needs a Jesus Warrior on the ticket, and I suspect that guys like Walker wouldn’t put up with Trump. Cruz would, though. Plus they think the Cuban thing would get them somewhere. It won’t, but they would think it would. I wonder how many billionaires would give to the Trump campaign though? I doubt any of them trust the guy.
Another interesting question – who is Clinton’s VP? Is it Bernie? Would Bernie do it? Or Mallory? I think Julian Castro would be a very interesting choice and a good fit for Clinton. Do we go Girl Squad and put any of the countless strong women on the ticket?
lamh36
@lamh36: The video reminds me of when my NOLA family gets together for a party/gathering.
We gonna be doing either The Electric Slide or The Wobble before the end of the night.
Actually, we’ll more than likely do both at some time in the night…lol.
Pogonip
@efgoldman: Oddly enough, my mom was an Army wife AND a packrat. When she died my father went on a frenzy of dejunking, which accidentally included the Shadowline nightgown I kept at their house. I was not amused. Shadowline is not an inexpensive brand. But he had been waiting 60 years to get rid of all that stuff, so I didn’t say anything.
debbie
@? Martin:
I don’t think Urban Meyer would have had a problem with it either. The Trustees, however, are another story.
BillinGlendaleCA
@? Martin: If Hill wins the nom, it’ll be someone younger. Bernie’s too old.
ETA: I’m thinking Castro.
Suzanne
@? Martin: Hillary’s VP has to be younger, male, and from the south or west. A minority would also be a plus. Julián Castro is a great pick.
Ajabu
@efgoldman:
You’re right. I just threw in the “Famous” because in this culture of mediocrity the country currently embraces many people are famous simply for being famous (Kardashians, etc.)
and the Rich definitely follows. And with no discernible skill set.
I would have gladly passed on the Famous & gone straight to Rich but it’s not the common outcome of the working musician. I can barely afford to pay attention.
Hal
Your children are so clean. Would you like to be my maid?
the Conster
@lamh36:
I’m not afraid to admit how much I love this president, and how proud I am. Pete Souza’s pix of him in 50 different countries, at the center of all the attention surrounded by nothing but smiling, awestruck faces, makes me the proudest I’ve ever been as an American.
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: Hey, Press the Meat’s having our old friend Pat on.
Belafon
@KG: Can you imagine if we’d done an “anything but a Roosevelt” in 1933, or we’d really cared about lineage:
http://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-roosevelts
Gian
@efgoldman:
Everything old is new. Too bad Ken Lay can’t loan the Enron plane to Marco so he can call it integrity one and campaign to restore honor and dignity
Iowa Old Lady
@Suzanne: I would love to see Julian Castro on the ticket. As a plus, he’s a good politician.
BillinGlendaleCA
@the Conster: My favorite was the one in Rio.
lamh36
@Hal: ugh..as much as I love the Color Purple, I really have to be in the right frame of mind to watch it,and I absolutley CANNOT be going to work the same day. I need a day to decompress.
See also: Rosewood, Glory, Mississippi Burning, Malcolm X, Roots, Miss Jane Pittman, MLK tv movie, add Selma to that now too…ya get the thrift.
? Martin
@lamh36: Seriously, you know all that credit goes to Michelle and the girls. All of it.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Belafon: And Eleanor was his cousin(not first cousin).
Pogonip
@lamh36: Another point in Louisiana’s favor! I say “another” because Rod Dreher reports that the Westboro Baptist fiends are plotting to disrupt the funerals of the two ladies killed at the theatre, and apparently the local Cajuns are planning to administer well-deserved beatdowns if the fiends do show up. Rod makes it sound like Cajuns have an admirably low tolerance for bullshit.
If there were a movement called Decent Folk Matter I’d join in a heartbeat. The motto could be “Decent folk do not tolerate [insert asshole-caused problem of your choice].”
Are there any Cajuns, or anyone who knows any Cajuns, reading this? Do you agree with Rod’s prediction, or not?
Anne Laurie
@efgoldman:
If you can baby-sit the granddaughter, would one or both of your kids be able to come up for a few days & help with the physical end of the “pre-packing”?
“Goodwill… Goodwill… trash… keep… ohmigodtrashquickly… Goodwill… “
Having someone with a stronger back (& maybe less sentimental bias) lift the boxes & shift the furniture as you start the process of turning many years’ now-“invisible” encrustment of goods into a fresh new vista where at least you can estimate how much you really want to move is always a good idea… and a mitzvah!
Cacti
@? Martin:
I don’t see Bernie as a VP pick primarily because of his age. Hillary is already on the cusp of maximum age that voters are comfortable with in a first time POTUS.
Josie
I would love to see Julian Castro on the ticket. He is smart and capable and a very good politician. The Clintons are fairly popular here in Texas, and the addition of Castro might be the magic bullet that would energize Latino voters to finally use their power.
dmsilev
@schrodinger’s cat:
Both.
The lab move is at the end of August, so I’m in temp space here until then. Then (nicer) temp space at the other end for a few months until I can locate a permanent place to live. This is going to be an irritating summer/fall…
Suzanne
@the Conster: Word. I loved looking at those pictures. It feels great for many reasons to have Barack Obama as our POTUS, but sometimes, the fact that he is JUST NOT EMBARRASSING is enough. God. The Republican presidents are all sooooo embarrassing. Senile, dumb, and observably paranoid.
Cacti
@Suzanne:
Word.
Any time one of our GOPer Presidents visited abroad, it felt like we were sending a semi-literate country cousin to an important business meeting.
dmsilev
@Cacti: As far as we know, Barack Obama has never once tried to give a Chancellor a back rub nor has he vomited in the lap of a Prime Minister.
Suzanne
@Cacti: I KNOW.
Did you see the video that was going around on Book of Faces yesterday that featured a woman talking to a reporter about a house fire? She says in the video that her cousin burned her house down because she wouldn’t “get with him”. It is literally the trashiest thing I have ever seen. Except for our last President.
BillinGlendaleCA
@dmsilev: He’s also able to find a functional door.
J R in WV
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Bill in Glendale, it isn’t sloppy journalism at all. It’s deliberate propaganda being planted in an attempt to manipulate elections. If it was at the behest of a foreign agency it would be treason. Since it is at the behest of wealthy criminals it is “just politics” rather than treason, according to the legal and constitutional definition of treason.
Because it is at the behest of wealthy criminals, if those criminals were to be arrested, tried and convicted, then a following RICO prosecution against the NY Times would probably be successful. Oh Happy Day!!
Once upon a time I believed that the NY Times and the WAPO were both honest brokers of news and information. Maybe once upon a time that was true. But it isn’t now, and hasn’t been for at least 3 decades.
They’re propaganda tools, of the same use as Faux News it, to the same tool handlers. Sad to say, but too true.
? Martin
@BillinGlendaleCA: Or make one as needed.
BillinGlendaleCA
@J R in WV: As I said, I’ve read “The Hunting of the President” recently.
the Conster
@BillinGlendaleCA:
That was an amazing photo. Like epic. I have several favorites, but I love the ones where he’s surrounded by regs people, wherever, and every single face is lit up with… something. Like they’ve been in a presence. It’s mind blowing really how lucky we got with him, and of all the things I’m grateful for in my life, and there are so many, it was to have witnessed this presidency.
J R in WV
@Gimlet:
When all this time they should have been investigating police departments and white supremacists who are killing people for fun. No, instead they decide to investigate the people trying to fix the murderous police / white supremacist problems. While Mr. Obama is President.
What would they be doing if Mitt Romney was president? They would be killing people during 3 am raids, that’s what they would be doing. Surprised they aren’t doing that right now.
So sad. And the N Y Times is turned to Faus news on paper. Wow. Just wow. Sad.
Chris
@Belafon:
In fact, arguably the fact that Roosevelt was the scion of a big, East Coast, political dynasty was key to his success – he knew “the malefactors of great wealth” inside and out, which put him in a great position when it came to challenging them.
(Same story a generation later with LBJ, a man who rose to power through the politics of the segregationist South, which was probably a big help when the time came to kick the segregationists in the ass).
Another Holocene Human
@dmsilev: ain’t that the truth
Kathleen
@Ajabu: Moving is hell. I feel for all of you, though I understand that it’s probably for good reasons for everyone. But it’s still hell while you’re going through it.
Belafon
@Josie:
I hope so. I keep trying to think of a polite way to grab my Latino friends by the shoulders, shake them a little, and say “Why aren’t you voting? You’d own the politics in this state if you would just vote!”
Kathleen
@Mandalay: David Brooks loves him some Rubio. Every time I hear on on NPR he’s babbling about him.
Josie
@Belafon: So true.
Another Holocene Human
@OzarkHillbilly: My MIL never wants to give anything to charity and it’s rubbed off somewhat on my wife. I keep trying to convince her that it’s okay to give away lightly used goods–and the recipient will enjoy them more.
Kathleen
@efgoldman: Chuck Todd is hosting Pat Buchanan on MTP so there’s that. Because his views coincide with Donald Trump’s in many ways. Chuck is so “edgy” and “stick it to the Liberal Man”.
Kathleen
@BillinGlendaleCA: There I go again.Committed Internet Sin of Commenting Before Scrolling. I think I’ve done that 5 times today. I blame “Geezer Posting”. And Obama.
Another Holocene Human
@efgoldman: You know twenty years ago or there abouts that guy wrote a bleeding heart column about the suffering of the trout caused by catch and release sort fishing, but humans?
Go fuck yourselves.
J R in WV
@BillinGlendaleCA:
And I wasn’t preaching against you, just trying to relieve some of my stress that these monsters cause by perverting the Fourth Estate.
I grew up in a newsroom my Dad ran, and he tried to spread truth around as much as he could.
So now to see the news media in general just throw their status as Fourth Estate of the nation away in search of a little more money is really, really sad for me. I have good friends who are losing their jobs and / or pensions as newspapers fail because of institutional changes in information flow. Really sad.
Take care and have a good rest of the weekend. And happy summer, all!
Kathleen
@? Martin: I think PBO looked good out there! I’d love to know if he passed his daughters’ “Teen Test”.
Belafon
@Kathleen: If he did, he’s failed as a parent.
Kathleen
@BillinGlendaleCA: I’ve had that book for years and I’ve not read it yet. Will pick it up as soon as I finish my Baldacci thriller.
Pogonip
@J R in WV: And if we can figure out how to get decent folk to band together and refuse to tolerate this, we can put the mendacious stenographers out of business.
Pogonip
@lamh36: In related news, today’s goodmorningkitten.com is called Blue Bayou, and he’s a cutie!
Kathleen
@Belafon: Yes. The Law of Parents of Teens states very clearly that parental attempts at dancing in public are automatically deemed “cringe inducing”.
JenJen
I love Cardale so much OH! IO!!!
BillinGlendaleCA
@Kathleen: No worries, it sounded better in the original German.
KG
@Belafon: in fairness, there is a slight difference between fifth cousins and two children/siblings or a spouse. there was also a 24 year gap between the two Roosevelts, as opposed to 8 for the Bushes (possibly twice) and 16 for the Clintons.
There’s also this… I’m 37 years old (born in 1978), in my life time, the 2012 election was the first time that neither a Bush nor a Clinton were running for president or vice president. It’d be nice to give a few other families a try, I think.
ETA: nor am I particularly surprised that when it comes to the unofficial aristocracy in this country, that the bloodlines are “narrow”
Kathleen
@BillinGlendaleCA: Ha!
? Martin
@efgoldman: Indeed. The moment you might pass the test, the rules change retroactively to ensure that you fail. My kids are exactly the same age as BHOs kids. Been there many times.
J R in WV
@efgoldman:
Well, yes. True. But a guy can dream that things that have gone bad in his lifetime can get better again, maybe even better than they were back in the day, long ago, when I was young and strong.
Like Faux could become a huge money loser, and real news could become actually true facts that matter to the decisions we need to be making right away. A dream, but it’s a good one. A big one.
Again, happy weekend in the summertime, all! Ripe tomatoes at dinner time, just in a few minutes…
Tom Q
I’m also fond of Julian Castro, both for his positions and his political appeal. But do people really think a party that until 2008 had only once run a ticket that wasn’t two white guys is going to leap all the way over to no white guys? Just as Obama had to “balance” his ticket, I think there’ll be pressure for Hillary to do the same.
The problem is, it’s hard to find a white guy who fits. You want someone youngish, to set up a natural succession should Hillary get two terms. But you don’t want to drain even a single seat from the Senate, especially since so many states have GOP governors who would instantly replace a winning VP with a Republican. That same fact — lack of Dem governors — makes it hard to find a candidate in that direction, either.
I think Martin O’Malley was kind of the right guy to solve this dilemma — I suspect he was running partly on that premise — but his campaign has been desultory, and completely obliterated by Bernie.
Mark Dayton? Somebody from the House? It’s not easy to come up with a logical pick, which may be why the Castro idea has gained such currency.
henqiguai
@KG (#101):
This is so tiresome. If ‘some other family(ies)’ want to run, friggin’ let them get their asses organized and run. Nobody’s keeping anyone, for the most part, from running a campaign.
Ruckus
@henqiguai:
Nobody’s keeping anyone, for the most part, from running a campaign.
Lots of proof of that. Just look at the republicans. All 16 of them. Of course all of them would fuck up any job they were elected to, including dog catcher. But still, they are running for the office of president. I think I may have had another heart attack typing that.
? Martin
@Tom Q:
I don’t.
I think the Dems learned one important lesson with BHO – identity politics matters, but not as much as everyone feared. Remember, BHOs first primary win was fucking Iowa. He did not win on a surge of black voters. Sure, it hurt him in places [cough]West Virginia[cough], but it didn’t hurt him in the places where it ultimately mattered, and it did help him win over young voters that were tired of old white men fucking the place up.
And a Clinton/Castro ticket is just like having Obama out there, but on steroids. Women are the majority of voters, and they’ve been skewing Dem anyway, and Clinton only needs to hold the women vote that Obama got – she doesn’t need to increase it. If she wins that vote, she wins. Done. If we can pull latinos out to vote, we get states like Texas to be a hell of a lot more competitive, not just for the president, but all of those downticket races. California gets a lot more competitive downticket. Arizona becomes more interesting.
The only downside to having Clinton at the top of the ticket is that the anti-Hillary vote is pretty solid. She doesn’t have as much headroom to swing voters over as almost any other female candidate would. I don’t see how Castro hurts the ticket at all.
Keith G
Go Bucks!
This is not Cardale Jones’ first notable Tweet.
Some of you may recall that a few years back, a very wet behind the ears freshman football player at OSU Tweeted his view of the real reason he was on campus. There were howls of outrage across the land, including some here. That was our Cardale.
He was “spoke to” and faded from the public into the background until last January when he started his first game in the National Championship.
satby
@henqiguai: Seriously, this totally. Anyone else can run given sufficient backing, as the Keystone Kops of the opposition demonstrate. That hardly anyone bothers to says a lot about the political apathy of most Americans.
Keith G
@Tom Q:
Tom Q
@Keith G: Let’s say both.
Anne Laurie
@Tom Q:
Well, Joe Biden was a multiple presidential-run loser when candidate Obama picked him as a VP candidate. If you look at it in that light, the fact that the Sandernistas have trampled O’Malley’s campaign is a net positive for Marty. His people and HRClinton’s haven’t had to develop any strong professional/personal animosities, and the voters favoring either one haven’t hardened into Anybody-But-THAT-Guy opinions either.
Joel
@raven: Heading into three months without a kitchen over here. Getting close, though.
Joel
@? Martin: Clinton, as I have no faith in Sanders’ capacity for national governance.
redshirt
@the Conster:
WITNESS
the Conster
@redshirt:
I feel like a witness. Can I Get a Witness
redshirt
@the Conster: Did you see the new Mad Max movie? If not, it’s probably too late to see it in the theaters – the best place to see it.
BUT! There’s always home theater. However you define that.
the Conster
@redshirt:
Haven’t seen it, but want to – will watch it at home with all the lights off, sound up. IT’S AN ALL CAPS LOCK MOVIE.
redshirt
@the Conster: “WITNESS” is a line from the new Mad Max movie and once you see it you’ll understand.