Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Everybody saw this coming.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Books are my comfort food!

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

The lights are all blinking red.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

I’m just a talker, trying to find a channel!

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Come on, man.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

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Archives for August 2015

Show Me a Zero

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I’ve been watching Show Me a Hero on HBO the past few weeks, and you should too. They are showing two episodes a week, and the final episodes will be aired this upcoming Sunday, so if you want to watch them live you have ample time to catch up on the last four. The true story focuses on young mayor in Yonkers attempting to put public housing in predominately white neighborhoods. Here’s the official trailer:

It’s all the old racial ugliness brought up again, and man is it timely. Or timeless (and yes, I am aware that this is the third post to link this- it’s just so terrifying):

The group said Trump has their best interests in mind, while other Republicans are looking out for themselves. “We’ve got to show the Republicans that we’ve had it with them, that we will not be there every single time. They treat us like crap and they lie to us and promise us things and then they expect us to vote again,” said a Republican woman. “That’s why we want Trump.”

The crowd in the room was angriest about national security. Nearly all of them, it appeared, had an unshakeable feeling that U.S. border was porous as a sieve and that the very things that once defined the nation: army, border and national pride—were fading. They complained of America’s reduced standing in the world, and Obama’s apparent ineptitude in challenging Russia, Syria and ISIS.

When the group listened to a clip of Trump claiming that as president “the military is going to be so strong” that “nobody is going to mess around with the United States,” nearly everyone registered approval on their dial meters of 100—a seldom occurrence among focus groups.

“We love our country and we love what our country stands for,” said a woman who added she comes from a military family. “I look at where we are now as a country where entitlements are just totally out of control. Our borders have completely dissolved. We’re not what we used to be. I want to people to represent my interest.”

Trump’s unapologetic focus on strengthening the border—he wants to build a wall and deport all 11 million immigrants before letting many back into the country—excites many conservatives, as well as some who don’t traditionally vote Republican. Though he has announced scant specific plans, Trump has said he will expand the military, commit to veterans, and take a tough line on dealing with China and Iran.

“He’s not afraid,” said a woman who voted twice for Obama. “He keeps prodding on even if people give him negative press. He doesn’t change and apologize.”

A couple years back, I thought the Republican base would be clamoring for a bully-boy asshole like Christie. I just didn’t realize they wanted a xenophobic fascist, but I probably should have.

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Open Thread: Just Like Every Other Repub Stunt, Then?

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There was an old anti-Communist trope when I was growing up during the Cold War: A Russian factory hand tells a foreign correspondent, They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work. The current GOP is re-writing it: We pretend we’re actually interested in legislating, and the media pretends they believe us.

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Ur Doin It…. RITE!

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Many of you heard this story over the weekend:

Eleven African American women were kicked off a Napa Valley Wine Train on Saturday for allegedly laughing and talking too loudly in an incident that has sparked widespread anger and the hashtag #LaughingWhileBlack.

The women, one of whom was 83, were members of a book club, the Sisters on the Reading Edge, and were taking part in their annual trip through wine country, wearing matching shirts, drinking wine and enjoying appetizers.

The Napa Valley Wine Train is a restaurant on board a train that travels for 25 miles through the heart of Napa Valley while passengers eat and drink from an award-winning wine list.

The staff on board received several noise complaints from other parties on the train, according to a Napa Valley Wine Train spokesman, Sam Singer. They asked the group to quieten down three times and, following the third attempt, they gave the group the choice of “reducing their noise level or departing the train”, Singer said. One woman on the train told the group that it was “not a bar”, according to one member of the group, Lisa Renee Johnson’s Facebook page.

“The train is set up to be with your friends, to drink wine and have a good time,” Johnson told the San Francisco Chronicle. “We were thinking, ‘Who are we offending?’”

A Yelp review by a woman giving her name as Danielle S, published on Sunday, said: “I watched in disbelief as staff harassed a group of people who were merely drinking wine and laughing. I’d like to think it wasn’t a racially motivated act, but given the fact that other, non-black guests were behaving in the same way and not removed, I can only conclude that it was discrimination.”

Once the train reached the St Helena stop, the group was escorted off. They “paraded us through six cars and none of us are even drunk”, Johnson wrote on Facebook.

The outrage was immediate, spurring a well-deserved social media shitstorm for the company. #LAUGHINGWHILEBLACK trended on twitter, Yelp reviews were brutal, and their facebook page was, well, a trainwreck:

trainwreck

Fortunately, the Wine Train CEO is not a moron, and immediately dealt with this issue:

“The Napa Valley Wine Train was 100 percent wrong in its handling of this issue,” said wine train chief executive officer Anthony “Tony” Giaccio. “We accept full responsibility for our failures and for the chain of events that led to this regrettable treatment of our guests.”

***

Giaccio wrote an apology letter to the club saying: “I want to apologize for your experience on the Napa Valley Wine Train on Saturday, Aug. 22. We accept full responsibility for our failures and the entire chain of unfortunate events you experienced.”

The letter to the group continued:

“Clearly, we knew in advance when we booked your party that you would be loud, fun-loving and boisterous—because you told us during the booking process that you wanted a place where your Club could enjoy each other’s company. Somehow that vital information never made it to the appropriate channels and we failed to seat your group where you could enjoy yourself properly and alert our train’s staff that they should expect a particularly vibrant group.

“We were insensitive when we asked you to depart our train by marching you down the aisle past all the other passengers. While that was the safest route for disembarking, it showed a lack of sensitivity on our part that I did not fully conceive of until you explained the humiliation of the experience and how it impacted you and your fellow Book Club members.

“We also erred by placing an inaccurate post on our Facebook site that was not reflective of what actually occurred. In the haste to respond to criticism and news inquires, we made a bad situation worse by rushing to answer questions on social media. We quickly removed the inaccurate post, but the harm was done by our erroneous post.

“In summary, we were acutely insensitive to you and the members of the Book Club. Please accept my apologies for our many mistakes and failures. We pride ourselves on our hospitality and our desire to please our guests on the Napa Valley Wine Train. In this instance, we failed in every measure of the meaning of good service, respect and hospitality.

“I appreciate your recommendation that our staff, which I believe to be among the best, could use additional cultural diversity and sensitivity training. I pledge to make sure that occurs and I plan to participate myself.

“As I offered in my conversation with you today, please accept my personal apologies for your experience and the experience of the Book Club members. I would like to invite you and other members to return plus 39 other guests (you can fill an entire car of 50) as my personal guests in a reserved car where you can enjoy yourselves as loudly as you desire.

“I want to conclude again by offering my apologies for your terrible experience.”

Businesspeople- that is how it is done. It would be nice if this shit didn’t keep happening, but this is the best possible outcome and handling of the situation.

For the record- were I still a drinker, these are PRECISELY the kind of people I would want in my car on a boring ass ride through NAPA valley. When I was on the bottle and traveling, I would always gravitate to the people having the most fun. I bet they would be a hoot.

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Don’t you know the crime rate’s going up up up up up?

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I thought that article Tim F linked to on Trump supporters was quite interesting. It’s just a strange list of grievances that Trump supporters have. Many things about “things have gotten better/things have gotten worse” are hard to quantify. But the massive drop in the crime rate over the last 25 years is not. Nevertheless:

“I used to sleep on my front porch with the door wide open, and now everyone has deadbolts,” one man said. “I believe the best days of the country are behind us.”

There’s been an amazing number of crime scares started by conservatives the past few years. Not just the knockout game, but the claim that the Chicago murder rate skyrocketed under Rahm and in New York under de Blasio (it didn’t, it stayed at historic lows).

But it’s part of the right-wing narrative, numbers be damned.

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Pick Up The Damn Phone — The Phonening

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Yup — that time again, the time when I get to nag  y’all about calling your representatives about the Iran deal.

Champinjoner._Julius_Kronberg_1908._Olja_på_duk_-_Hallwylska_museet_-_47489

Here’s the menu:  if they’ve already said they support the deal, thank them.  I’m just about to do that for Senator Markey.

If they’ve already declared against the deal, tell them, politely, that you disagree, and that you’ll remember this at the next relevant November.  Even if your senators and/or congressperson are utterly safe seat types, they and their staffs hate hearing from a constituent directly that they’re doing a bad job.  Think of it as a long game:  they’re on the wrong side of this one.  But it doesn’t take many calls — shockingly few — to make them just a touch gunshy, which softens them up next time.  That matters, articularly on matters that you may care deeply about, but that haven’t risen to the level of automatic partisan division.

Most important:  if they are still undeclared, tell ’em what you think and emphasize how much this means to you.  I told my peeps that everyone has a make or break issue, and this one is mine.  YMMV — but make sure your representatives know you care. Joe Kennedy is about to hear — again — from me.

Speaking of which — it’s OK to call a second time if your folks are still in play.  That shows you mean it — and that’s what your representatives need to hear.

It really does make a difference.  They keep records of these calls.  The anti-deal folks are funded, out in numbers, and very, very dangerous. This is your chance to punch back.

House of Representatives numbers.

Senate numbers.

You know what to do.

ETA: A reminder — please be polite to the twenty-somethings you’ll be speaking to.  Even if they’re totally on the wrong side.  The message will come through louder and clearer — and they’re kids. Partly — you’re socializing them.

Image: Julius Kronberg, Mushrooms, 1908

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Daily Trump dump

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Hispanics loathe the guy.

Since Gallup began surveying Hispanics in early July, just 14 percent viewed Trump favorably while 65 percent viewed him unfavorably, leaving the real estate mogul with a net -51 percent favorability rating with Hispanics.

Frank Luntz is terrified of him.

The focus group watched taped instances on a television of Trump’s apparent misogyny, political flip flops and awe-inspiring braggadocio […] They saw that Trump once supported a single-payer health system […]

At the end of the session, the vast majority said they liked Trump more than when they walked in.

“You guys understand how significant this is?” Luntz asked the press breathlessly when he came back into the room behind the glass. “This is real. I’m having trouble processing it. Like, my legs are shaking.”

“I want to put the Republican leadership behind this mirror and let them see. They need to wake up. They don’t realize how the grassroots have abandoned them,” Luntz continued.

Outreach to women is going well. In a nutshell, he stayed up to watch Megyn Kelly’s first show after the unplanned, eleven-weekday vacation she took when Roger Ailes tossed her under the bus* to get back on The Donald’s good side. Some staffer apparently forgot to inactivate Donald’s Twitter account and, well, just click through.

Sleep well, Reince.

(*) I know, this hackneyed phrase has become almost meaningless from overuse. In this case I genuinely cannot think of better way to describe how Roger Ailes turned on Kelly and discarded her when he realized the attack lines she delivered, which he unquestionably had personally approved, caused FOX more trouble than Trump.

***Update***

Roger Ailes has demanded that Trump apologize for harassing Megyn Kelly (thanks OzarkHillbilly). It would make Kelly’s position at FOX untenable if he did not defend her, but even so it seems like a bold move for a guy who has been courting Trump pretty desperately. When you fall off the tiger, it’s so damn hard to get back on again.

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