.
Per the Washington Post, Trey Gowdey is not gonna give up easily, just because his prize committee has become almost as big a joke as Chris Christie’s presidential ambitions, and for approximately the same reasons:
… Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he has told Republican colleagues to “shut up talking about things that you don’t know anything about. And unless you’re on the committee, you have no idea what we have done, why we have done it and what new facts we have found.”
Clinton is slated to testify before the committee on Thursday. She called the panel “a partisan arm of the Republican National Committee” and said she did not know what to expect from Thursday’s hearing.
“I already testified about Benghazi. I testified to the best of my ability before the Senate and the House. I don’t know that I have very much to add,” Clinton said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “I will do my best to answer their questions, but I don’t really know what their objective is right now.”…
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) suggested in a recent Fox News interview that the committee was formed to drive down Clinton’s poll numbers. Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) and Bradley F. Podliska, a former Republican staffer on the committee, also called the investigation politically motivated.
Gowdy said McCarthy, Hanna and Podliska are “three people who don’t have any idea what they’re talking about.”…
Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the top Democrat on the committee, remained skeptical of Gowdy’s comments.
“It’s interesting that after 17 months, $4.7 million and counting of taxpayer money, that Chairman Gowdy is now saying he has another two dozen witnesses to interview. It’s very interesting,” Cummings said on “Face the Nation.” “I do believe that what he has tried to do — I listened to him very carefully — he’s now trying to shift back to where we should have been all along. That is looking at the Benghazi incident. And it’s clear to me.”
On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a committee member, accused Republicans on the panel of leaking information to the media to embarrass Clinton. Cummings addressed the issue in a memo released Sunday, saying the committee has attempted to attack Clinton repeatedly over her use of a private e-mail server while at the State Department. Gowdy disputed the allegation in a memo and said he cares about Clinton’s e-mails “only to the extent that they relate to Libya and Benghazi.”…
Dueling memos! Dude, you figured beating up on That Woman Everyone Mistrusts would make your bones as an effective thug for your quasi-criminal organization. But even if your associates had managed to keep their big yaps shut, wasting all that time and money just to inconvenience a great many innocent people was never gonna win you any popularity contests. And you’ve done a great job of convincing everyone who wasn’t paying much attention before your cronies blew the gaff that your “serious, hard-charging, effective prosecutor” rep was self-promotion by a cheap bully with a badge.
ETA:
Gowdy fabricated redactions on to Clinton's email to make it look like she'd outed a spy. http://t.co/zxY5v90ya2 pic.twitter.com/QV6AAHhb26
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) October 18, 2015
Cervantes
Gowdys One and Two must be proud of Gowdy Trey.
I doubt anyone else is.
max
What’s the Level Below ‘Farce’?
Adam Sandler movies.
max
[‘What?’]
A guy
Could somebody please show us the video that for a week Hillary claimed was the reason for the murder of americans
redshirt
They are all so preposterous and yet they rule our country. How is that?
A guy
It was the video! Where is it
philpm
If we’re lucky, this will finally kill Gowdy’s career completely:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/10/18/1434647/-Rep-Cummings-Gowdy-altered-documents-in-order-to-make-false-allegations-against-Clinton
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/10/18/1434655/-In-response-to-Rep-Cummings-Gowdy-confesses-he-redacted-document
In short, Cummings accused Gowdy of falsely redacting a document from the CIA to imply that Hillary had outed a spy, and Gowdy has basically confirmed that he did, despite the fact that the CIA never redacted the document in question, and that by him doing so, Gowdy has quite possibly committed a federal crime.
redshirt
@A guy: Republicans are crazy, A guy. How can you support them?
Mike J
Level below farce? Seahawks fourth quarter.
BillinGlendaleCA
@A guy: Missing something from your porn stash sparky?
Suzanne
@redshirt: It works because they have literally stopped seeing us as fellow human beings. Literally. There are two tribes, in their minds, and everyone who votes the “wrong” way, or doesn’t go to church or goes to the “wrong” church, or challenges the social status quo aka patriarchy, or is the wrong color, or is in a “low” social class, or who is “too intellectual”, is in the Other tribe. They will happily destroy lives of those in the Other tribe because they don’t think of us as people anymore.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Mike J: I take it the seaweeds are not doing well.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
more likely it will make him a shoe-in for the Senate if a seat opens up in the next few years
When Lindsey Graham threw his tantrum calling unnamed White House aides “scumbags”, it was because of the “talking points”. Remember the “talking points”? Before that it was “Obama wouldn’t call it terrorism”.
max
@A guy: It was the video! Where is it
The whitey tape?
max
[‘AHA! You could turn the white tape into a movie starring Adam Sandler! And Stephen Baldwin. And Victoria Jackson! YES!’]
GregB
I am so old I remember when the Republicans were ones who were so upset and claimed that Hillary Clinton didn’t stand up to the Arabs protesting the video that they now claim was a totally meaningless diversion.
The Daily Caller hasn’t scrubbed the original story yet.
philpm
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: You’re probably right, but a guy can dream.
Arm The Homeless
@redshirt: I heard that the Benghazi! video had used parts of Michelle Obama’s “Whitey” tape and was thus classified Above Top Secret, and kept in Cheney’s man-sized vault. I also heard the vault was painted rainbow colors, just to make everything inside extra gay and icky, and that’s why Trey Gowdy can’t touch it to show all us Real’Murkin patriots.
A guy
Beware of whitey say navin r johnson
Villago Delenda Est
This is what happens when you give Draco Malfoy membership in the Inquisitorial Squad.
redshirt
@Suzanne:
I buy that. Dehumanization is key to any violence, individually or in yuuuuuge numbers. Whatever the enemy, make them an “Other”, and it’s easy to rally “The People” to fear and hate them, and eventually attack them.
The same goes for individual violence. The attacker no longer sees the victim as a person, but rather some symbolic act.
The Sailor
@A guy: Yep, still a troll.
debbie
@philpm:
I hope Cummings doesn’t let this drop. Gowdy deserves nothing less than total humiliation.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Before McCarthy dropped out, lots of Teabaggers wanted to put Gowdy up for nomination as Speaker, but he demurred, saying he had much too much to do for Benghazi. Looks like he made the wrong choice.
Anoniminous
Hillary was a known thespian in high school and college and is frequently seen to be masticating in public. Only the BENGRAZI! committee lead by true Murken Patriots like Gowdey can save us.
max
@max: [‘AHA! You could turn the white tape into a movie starring Adam Sandler! And Stephen Baldwin. And Victoria Jackson! YES!’]
And the whitey tape is stolen! So Adam goes to Benghazi to try to find the tape and accidentally tells the Al-Qeada there’s a secret CIA surveillance facility in the embassy so they can help him bust inside and get the tape (Victoria Jackson in a burqa is the big deal here) so Al-Qeada burns the embassy to the ground. Oops.
max
[‘Yes, that’s the ticket.’]
Cacti
Will the Wine Club meet before or after Clinton’s testimony?
Probably both.
Before, to help with their courage, and after to drown their sorrows.
Mike in NC
Trey Gowdy looks like a guy who’d be perfectly pleased to be addressed as SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer.
Baud
She’ll destroy them.
Gimlet
Why are Democrats participating on this Committee and giving it legitimacy?
Villago Delenda Est
@Anoniminous: I understand she was seen perambulating her infant daughter on a public sidewalk, too.
schrodinger's cat
Level below farce: I don’t care. Except for wingnuts who really cares about these hearings.
Steeplejack (phone)
@max:
Also accepted: David Spade sitcom.
Villago Delenda Est
@Gimlet: Someone has to monitor the activities of the vermin and blow the whistle on them (as Cummings has done) when they try to pull shit.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think the statements and ‘questions” from the Dems are going to be more directed at Gowdy than Clinton. I think tempers might get short
patrick II
The Christian Science Monitor has as nice a summary piece about the strategy and politics behind the Iran deal as I have read. Essentially, if you want a stable middle east one should stabilize governments rather that destabilize them. How the Iran deal might change the Middle East
Villago Delenda Est
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Good. I hope some Rethug takes the bait and attempts to get physical.
schrodinger's cat
If you are going to watch Indian Summers, here are my reviews for episodes 1 and episode 2. Its slowly growing on me. I liked episode 3. I personally wanted to punch Cynthia Coffin’s smug mug.
philpm
@debbie: No way Cummings is letting this go, especially since Gowdy has confirmed his suspicions on this and appears unrepentant about it, and will remain that away until the DOJ comes calling.
max
@Steeplejack (phone): Also accepted: David Spade sitcom.
{high five}
max
[‘Take the braindead bowling…take them bowling!’]
Gimlet
@efgoldman:
Can they hold a hearing with only Republicans on the Committee?
Emma
@Gimlet: Because they can counteract the lies. We would not have known about the redacted memo if Schiff hadn’t been there.
Oops. Others got there first.
Anne Laurie
@schrodinger’s cat:
I was trying for the “first time as tragedy, second as farce, third/trey as ??? “ joke
debbie
@philpm:
Gowdy’s really developing a Ken Starr complex. His downfall can’t come soon enough.
max
@A guy: Beware of whitey say navin r johnson
B1FF? Is that you B1FF? Did you FINALLY get a 80-column card for your C64?!?!
max
[‘He paid for it with UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH.’]
Steeplejack (phone)
@max:
I was going to add “on the WB,” but that felt like overkill. Plus, is the WB still around?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Villago Delenda Est: looking over the GOP members, I think Jordan’s the one most likely to provide some inter tube worthy moments of emoting, nobody who jumps out to me as likely to provide a Goehmert or King level performance
I just watched a clip of Howdy Gowdy on CBS, and his buzzword apparently is “Sidney Blumenthal”, just in time for everybody’s loudmouth uncles and BIL’s to have a hobby horse for Thanksgiving. He also pointedly referred to “the seven members of my committee”, ignoring the five who aren’t Republicans, telling little slip.
Schlemazel
@A doop:
Actually it was Navin’s dad and the quote is “never, ever trust whitey.”
Rarely is the question asked, “Is our trolls learning?”
Cacti
@philpm:
And the latter seems a strong possibility, since Brad Podliska’s lawyers are saying Gowdy violated the Congressional Accountability Act in trying to shut up the former’s whistle blowing.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
No mention of asparagus or cantelope? Too bad.
raven
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Westmoreland is a real fucking moron. Kind of like this jackass that everyone keeps alive by talking to it.
Betty Cracker
@schrodinger’s cat: I’ve never seen it, but I’ll be watching IS (along with the entire PBS line-up) tonight because MIL is visiting and forgot to set her TV to record! Well, I’ll read a book or goof off on the net while she watches…
trollhattan
@philpm:
Whoa, can he put himself in contempt of congress? What a hump.
Schlemazel
@efgoldman:
too nice, I think a shock collar would more fit their needs and desires.
Gimlet
Benghazi occurred in 2012.
“Hillary has kept us safe…”
Baud
@Anne Laurie:
Does this work?
Steeplejack
DVR Alert
TCM is running The Grim Game (1919) at 8:00 p.m. and again at 11:45 p.m. EDT tonight. It stars the legendary magician and escape artist Harry Houdini.
Also from the IMDB page:
GregB
There really was a video and there were widespread and violent protests.
There were riots in many countries, people were killed. Protesters attacked numerous embassies.
The initial Republican outcry was about President Obama not standing up for an American film maker and for freedom of speech.
From Romney on the night of the attacks:
“It’s disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.
That was Romney referring to the Obama administration and their efforts to distance themselves from the makers of the video that the wingnuts now believe never existed because they believe the truth is what is politically beneficial to them moment to moment.
Then it was that Obama didn’t call the attacks terrorism. That was Romney fell on his face in the debate.
So you bet there was a video and I still think it was a campaign ratfuck by the Republicans and it is partly why they have attempted to vanish the existence of the video from the pages of history.
Link.
Schlemazel
@Steeplejack (phone):
How about this:
Still a Sandler farce but Spade plays the plucky GOP committee chair who is diddling his aides and can never remember what his committee is supposed to do next?
srv
Man of the people:
The Trumpmentum Train is going to be filled with Berniebros once Hillary’s superdelegates are done with him.
Steeplejack
@Schlemazel:
If we can work in Rob Schneider, perhaps as a hapless GOP staff investigator, I think we can get this greenlighted by the end of the week.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@GregB: one of the leaders of the attack also said it was in response to the video.
Initially, it was reported by the media the Benghazi attack was a spontaneous protest triggered by an anti-Muslim video, Innocence
Gowdy claims they have new information, including Stephens’ emails asking for increased security in the months running up to the attack. We’ve known he was asking for more security since right after 9/11/12, but apparently now we know he sent emails, as opposed to phone calls, I guess, or memos, or pneumatics. So that’s why we needed a seventh inquiry.
Davis X. Machina
@redshirt: Representative government is, above all else, representative.
divF
@Anne Laurie:
Third time as Tonight Show opening monologue?
(Is there still an opening monologue?)
Gimlet
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Didn’t he get the memo from Mitch? “We’re broke.” The budget was cut.
Schlemazel
@Steeplejack:
Can we work Joe Piscapo in here someplace?
GregB
There really was a video and there were widespread and violent protests.
There were riots in many countries, people were killed. Protesters attacked numerous embassies.
The initial Republican outcry was about President Obama not standing up for an American film maker and for freedom of speech.
From Romney on the night of the attacks:
“It’s disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.
That was Romney referring to the Obama administration and their efforts to distance themselves from the makers of the video that the wingnuts now believe never existed because they believe the truth is what is politically beneficial to them moment to moment.
Then it was that Obama didn’t call the attacks terrorism. That was when Romney fell on his face in the debate.
So you bet there was a video and I still think it was a campaign ratfuck by the Republicans and it is partly why they have attempted to vanish the existence of the video from the pages of history.
Link.
Villago Delenda Est
@GregB: At the time, my impression of events was that an organized group of radicals took advantage of the protests over the video as cover for their attacks. They had a situation that gave them a chance to achieve their aims, and they took it. Stephens was probably aware that there were groups out there looking to attack the consulate, and thus he sent emails asking for increased security, knowing the overall situation was unstable and that groups were poised to attack, just biding their time waiting for opportunity to do so.
This seems to me to be a pretty reasonable theory as to what went down, but of course one has to take the clues one has and try to form some coherent narrative out of it. The disadvantage of mine is that it doesn’t engage in a blame game, and of course the Rethug aim is to blame someone, anyone, with a -D after their name for this.
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: Its no Jewel in the Crown, for sure but it is getting to be interesting now. I am eagerly awaiting the return of The Americans. I think they will probably have to bump off Pastor Tim, in short order.
Gimlet
@Villago Delenda Est:
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/04/real-benghazi-story.html
A highly classified annex to the report, not made public, described a secret agreement reached in early 2012 between the Obama and Erdoğan administrations. It pertained to the rat line. By the terms of the agreement, funding came from Turkey, as well as Saudi Arabia and Qatar; the CIA, with the support of MI6, was responsible for getting arms from Gaddafi’s arsenals into Syria.
The annex didn’t tell the whole story of what happened in Benghazi before the attack, nor did it explain why the American consulate was attacked. ‘The consulate’s only mission was to provide cover for the moving of arms,’ the former intelligence official, who has read the annex, said. ‘It had no real political role.’
Steeplejack
Also, at 9:30 p.m. EDT TCM is showing another rarity once thought lost: Sherlock Holmes (1916), starring William Gillette in the film adaptation of his famous play, first staged in 1899.
Finally, at 3:45 a.m EDT TCM is running No End (1985), from Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski (Three Colors).
WereBear
I have waited in vain for Republican malfeasance to trigger outrage. When Cheney outed an American CIA agent, he let Scooter Libby take the fall, and then got mad at W for not pardoning him. (Yet another grudging instance of W being better than I expected.)
WIll this trigger actual consequences? I dare hope.
max
@Steeplejack (phone): I was going to add “on the WB,” but that felt like overkill. Plus, is the WB still around?
It’s not but they moved a bunch of stuff to UPN. So it’s UPN now. (What network is Supernatural on?)
@Steeplejack: If we can work in Rob Schneider, perhaps as a hapless GOP staff investigator, I think we can get this greenlighted by the end of the week.
OOO. Yeah, OK.
@efgoldman: He can’t “remember” what he never knew.
It’s Veep if Veep was performed by terrible comedians and written by Ed Wood, Jr.
max
[‘Trey or Treya?’]
Steeplejack
@Schlemazel:
Maybe in the sequel, which will be a total hack job done just to cash in on the popularity of the first one (and which even Sandler, Spade and Schneider will refuse to be in).
Schlemazel
@Steeplejack:
thats OK, it was more of a pity part anyway.
lol
@srv:
“once the base of the Democratic party is done with him” you mean.
Baud
@Steeplejack:
Yeah, right.
max
@Anne Laurie: I was trying for the “first time as tragedy, second as farce, third/trey as ??? “ joke
8th time as a bad comedy that ran for five minutes that was pulled without running the remaining episodes and then was eventually sold off to Bolivian TV where it was redubbed in Spanish in entirely unrelated telenova dialogue that becomes an eternal hit on late nite Bolivian TV.
max
[‘Los norteamericanos son tan estúpidos!’]
benw
What a catch by Granderson! Go Mets!
NotMax
Meant to post the link to the Sunlight Foundation’s summation of presidential campaign cash per third quarter FEC filings. (note: campaigns only, not SuperPac(s) ).
Tracking presidential campaign cash, Sunlight recaps third quarter finance reports
max
@max: 8th time as a bad comedy that ran for five minutes that was pulled without running the remaining episodes and then was eventually sold off to Bolivian TV where it was redubbed in Spanish in entirely unrelated telenova dialogue that becomes an eternal hit on late nite Bolivian TV.
There’s a fantastic Pedro Aldomavar movie in there somewhere, trying to get out.
max
[‘All my heroes have been weird Spaniards.’]
Schlemazel
@benw:
what quarter is it?
Tomtofa
@A guy:
Read all about it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innocence_of_Muslims
benw
@Schlemazel: Bottom of the 2nd now. Great leaping catch to rob the Cubbies of a goal!
benw
@Schlemazel: Bottom of the 2nd now. Great leaping catch to rob the Cubbies of a goal!
MomSense
@schrodinger’s cat:
I agree with your excellent reviews of the series. And yet, I’m a sucker for a British drama with gorgeous costumes.
benw
@Schlemazel: Bottom of the 2nd now. Great leaping catch to rob the Cubbies of a goal!
benw
@Schlemazel: Bottom of the 2nd now. Great leaping catch to rob the Cubbies of a goal!
benw
@Schlemazel: Bottom of the 2nd now. Great leaping catch to rob the Cubbies of a goal!
benw
@benw: wow, a wild x5 post and no edit or erase options. I rule!
Chris
I will give the Republicans this much: Hillary Clinton was DEFINITELY lying when she said that. She knows exactly what their objective is. And so does everyone else.
Steeplejack
@max:
God, funny that you mention Supernatural! In one of those potentially lethal “Forget which channel the TV is on in the background” incidents, I got hooked on a block of Supernatural reruns on TNT last week. I had a vague memory of having seen the first few episodes at some time in the past, so I knew the rough concept, but the in-show universe seemed to have been really amped up, so I looked on IMDB and discovered to my horror that there are like 220 episodes. Apparently it’s been on for ten years! (I originally intended that as a joke, but, seriously, it has been on for ten years.)
ETA: New season premiering on the CW this week!
schrodinger's cat
@MomSense: I am glad you like the reviews. Thanks!
Jeffro
@Chris:
It’s like the (Bill) Clinton impeachment all over again. In their paranoid little minds, they can’t just accept that there’s no ‘there’ there, and move on.
Republicans quit accepting the results of elections, moving ahead, compromising and governing, back around 1992 was it?
max
@Steeplejack: God, funny that you mention Supernatural! In one of those potentially lethal “Forget which channel the TV is on in the background” incidents, I got hooked on a block of Supernatural reruns on TNT last week. I had a vague memory of having seen the first few episodes at some time in the past, so I knew the rough concept, but the in-show universe seemed to have been really amped up, so I looked on IMDB and discovered to my horror that there are like 220 episodes. Apparently it’s been on for ten years! (I originally intended that as a joke, but seriously, it has been on for ten years.)
Its not a bad show, at all, but it does seem to go on for a bit.
max
[‘Those demon dudes are a busy busy crew.’]
gf120581
@max: Here’s how long it’s gone on; the original overreaching series story arc as planned by creator Eric Kripke concluded after Season 5. We’re now in Season 11.
max
@gf120581: Here’s how long it’s gone on; the original overreaching series story arc as planned by creator Eric Kripke concluded after Season 5. We’re now in Season 11.
I’ve seen 2-6. Not sure I want to get into the other stuff.
max
[‘Hrrmmmm.’]
Jeffro
More reason for worry here: a weak and crazy GOparty means that someone like Greg Stillson the Second (aka Ted Cruz) has a lot of opportunity ahead
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/ted-cruz-ted-cruz-ted-cruz/
He’s in touch with the base, he’s perfectly positioned should Carson and/or Trump drop out, and he has tons of $$$
What was really scary was the graph showing a straight-line rise in how conservative Republicans have come to be since the 70s…no wonder we joke about Peak Wingnut…
WereBear
@gf120581: This is what “ruins” series. Beating on the concept until even the fans cry Uncle.
Kay
@Jeffro:
Well, they maybe can accept it but they can’t admit it, because they have been riling up their base with accusations about Benghazi for a very long time and a lot of Republicans (now) believe there was a crime and then a cover-up. They’ll look ineffectual and weak if nothing happens, if no one is made to pay, and they’re already vulnerable with their base for not going after the Obama Administration. Base Republicans believe that Obama got a pass from the GOP Congress.
Schlemazel
@benw:
I thought they were all updates & the game was stuck like Groundhogs Day.
Baud
@Jeffro: If Trump and Carson bow out, I think an establishment candidate gets it.
Schlemazel
@Baud:
If Teddy Crud can consolidate the loons that Trump and Carson have gathered then no, the establishment can’t win. But if they scatter the relative weakness gives right to retch the opening it needs
Chris
@GregB:
I really did not understand why Republicans were obsessed with the idea that it was a planned terrorist attack rather than an unruly, spontaneous mob. From their point of view, given how balls-to-the-wall crazy Islamophobic they’ve gotten, it’s better that it was an unruly mob – it confirms that These People Are All Savages Anyway, who’ll never be able to understand and adapt to our freedom of speech, and the solution is to just keep exterminating the brutes until they’re been cowed enough to stop.
Then I realized I was giving the Republicans credit for waaaaay too much of this “thinking it through” shit.
chopper
the goopers on this committee need to open each session with a rousing chorus of “it’s Gowdey Doody time”.
WereBear
@Baud: I figured an establishment candidate would get it all along… it’s the only way to explain Romney.
benw
@Schlemazel: Excellent flick.
Baud
@efgoldman:
I’m neither establishment nor a Republican.
Chris
@Jeffro:
@efgoldman:
Yeah, I think so. For all that Jimmy Carter is History’s Greatest Monster, he didn’t have to deal with this level of madness, not like Clinton and not like Obama.
You can probably explain it by the 1980 election marking the moment when the right wing of the Republican Party definitively took over from the moderate, Eastern Establishment wing (as late as 1976 their candidate, Ford, was still the winner). In other words, from that moment onwards the GOP was dominated by people who simply didn’t accept the right of anyone but themselves to rule.
Baud
@Schlemazel:
I don’t know why Trump or Carson would bow out, but even Fiorina is ahead of Cruz right now. Anything is possible, but I don’t see enough of the wingnuts settling for Cruz at the end of the day. I think they just give up and go with whoever the money guys pick.
Cervantes
@Baud:
Another excellent campaign slogan.
Schlemazel
@WereBear:
That is to be expected but this year has been nuts so far. If only Obama had a dirty tricks division like Nixon that would scuttle the campaigns of the establishment candidates and leave the field to the people who couldn’t win even with all the vote suppression the GOP is trying to get away with
Frankensteinbeck
@Gimlet:
That’s an interesting story. To sum up for those who didn’t read it, a CIA base a mile away from the consulate, but which the consulate was the excuse to build, was helping Britain steal the weapons from Qaddafi’s abandoned armories as part of the ‘arming the Syrian rebels’ thing. The murdered ambassador may or may not have known about the program, but was not actively part of it.
I can see some people strongly disapproving of this program, but I’m not sure it counts as the ‘major scandal’ the article’s author thinks it is.
@Villago Delenda Est:
Following up your comment and Gimlet’s together, I don’t see anything there that suggests those who attacked the consulate knew about the program, and the people they killed weren’t part of it.
Baud
@Schlemazel:
Isn’t that what Bill Clinton did in encouraging Trump to run?
Schlemazel
@benw:
about the only Bill Murray movie I can stand to watch.
Steeplejack
@max:
It’s not awful, which is why I got sucked in. It’s almost like a dudebro version of Charmed.
@gf120581, @max:
TNT is showing four-episode blocks at 9:00 a.m. EDT on weekdays. Episode 90 (Season 5, Episode 8) tomorrow morning.
After seeing the story arc last week, I was thinking, “Hmm, maybe this is worth binge-watching from the beginning.” But then I saw
220229 episodes! Hell, I have trouble with that level of commitment in real life.Cervantes
@Chris:
If you’re comparing what these Democratic presidents have had to deal with, the watershed moment was the mid-term election in 1994, which empowered the right-wing of the Republican Party as it had not been empowered for five decades. Once Gingrich and company took the House, civic government was no longer the top priority, all bets were off, and they haven’t really looked back since.
Schlemazel
@Baud:
If you buy that story it could be viewed that way. The big difference being was Nixons team actively lied, cheated and stole to destroy candidates were as all Bill might have done was stroke a badly inflated ego.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Don’t ever change, Politico. Or rather, I know you won’t change, so fuck you
Bet he still reads Politico!
“one of the more recognizable people in the world”. I know who H.A., is, but I don’t think I could identify a picture
Good Lord.
Those mean Democrats, and all their attacking and barraging and broadsiding!
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/10/trey-gowdy-benghazi-214911#ixzz3oyOCWORb
Baud
@Cervantes:
Thanks, but too many negatives. I prefer to project a positive message.
James E Powell
@Chris:
Carter had to deal with a rebellion from his own party, motivated primarily by personal animus that pre-dated his inauguration. The Kennedy wing hated him and worked very hard to destroy his presidency. This was long before Iraq, the hostages, and all that went along with that.
Steeplejack
@Schlemazel:
Lost in Translation?
Cervantes
@Baud:
Let’s see how long that lasts.
Hobbes
@Cervantes: Carter had a slightly different version of crazy working against him.
Frankensteinbeck
@Chris:
Because the point wasn’t what happened at the base. The point was that they believe Obama agrees with Muslim terrorists, and is helping them attack America either through laxity or active sabotage. So, if Obama does not call a terrorist attack ‘terrorism’, he is trying to downplay the evil of those who would destroy America, proving that he hates America and likes seeing it attacked.
benw
@Schlemazel: Murray’s been in so many movies from all different genres, it’s strange that you can’t find more to like.
Steeplejack
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Projecting like an IMAX theater.
benw
@Cervantes: now THERE’S a slogan!
Baud 2016! Let’s see how long that lasts.
Chris
@Cervantes:
Sounds like Gingrich and the rest were the change at the legislative level that Reagan was at the executive branch, then.
@James E Powell:
Right, I knew about that. I meant in terms of challenges from the right.
Schlemazel
@Steeplejack:
Well, he was not obnoxious in that one but I was not moved by the story.
Ghostbusters because he only has part of the lead, too much but at least its not all.
The Life Aquatiic was trying so hard to be kookie that his usual levels of obnoxious somehow didn’t seem so bad. But after seeing The Grand Budapest I realized how much better TLA would have been without Murray.
Chris
@Frankensteinbeck:
Doesn’t it achieve the same basic effect to say, as they were initially doing, “Muslim mobs are killing out people because of a video and all Obama can do is criticize the video? Sounds like he agrees with the Muslim mobs!”?
Baud
@benw:
More than 4 hours!
Schlemazel
@benw:
the problem is he plays the same damn character no matter the movie (with a couple of exceptions) so that it spoils the movie for me. But then I probably also have not seen everything he has done because of that feeling.
rikyrah
The Battle For The Soul Of Oakland
How A Brutal Beating Became The Symbol Of Oakland’s Gentrification Struggle
In a city wrestling with fast-rising housing costs and demographic change, a security guard’s attack of a poor black man at Whole Foods has come to represent what many black residents fear: Oakland wants them out.
Oct. 17, 2015, at 12:02 p.m.
OAKLAND — On the night of Sept. 3, sisters Zoe and Julia Marks were waiting in line to buy coffee and ice cream at the Whole Foods Market a few blocks away from home. This was supposed to be a quick post-dinner stop. Few customers were left, most of the registers were unmanned, and only one entrance to the store remained open. The day — and the store — was coming to a close.
A dispute a few aisles away punctured the quiet hum of the supermarket: A customer was arguing with a couple of Whole Foods employees about a problem with his welfare benefits card, more commonly known as an EBT card. The employees wanted the man to go to the customer service counter and let others through. The shopper kept arguing and wouldn’t budge. One of the store’s armed security guards moved in and tried to escort him away, the sisters said.
That’s when the confrontation turned violent. The security guard twice swung the man into the concrete wall, pinched his nose, and put him in a headlock, the sisters said. “It’s like the security guard was re-enacting a Mortal Kombat scene,” Zoe said.
In only a few seconds, the shopper — a 27-year-old black male who hasn’t been identified — was left sprawled on the pavement outside the store, unconscious and bleeding from the head and face. The security guard quickly closed the doors to the store, casting the man out into the darkness. The sisters watched in bewilderment, almost absentmindedly paying for their items.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/joelanderson/how-a-brutal-beating-became-the-symbol-of-oaklands-gentrific?utm_term=.fgQ7YEXRL#.ogGX0qyJR
Schlemazel
@Baud:
If it lasts longer than 4 hours you should call
your friends and brag!
Frankensteinbeck
@Cervantes:
It has been a process. Nixon’s embrace of the Southern Strategy was one major step. Reagan’s election was another, because he created the Republican coalition of the rich riding on the backs of the racist fundies. Newt was another, when the Republicans decided they would piss all over the idea of ‘loyal opposition.’ 9/11 was another, validating the more racist and paranoid sections of the GOP, with Bush’s Iraq obsession encouraging them. 2008 was one, when Sarah Palin becoming a VP candidate convinced the inbred crazy dumbass hate freaks that they could have one of their own in power, rather than putting up with so-called moderates. 2009 was yet another, when the election of a black president sent them into apeshit panic and they embraced a scorched earth policy.
EDIT – @Chris:
FOX news said exactly that. They see no reason to not include every angle of attack.
Steeplejack
@Schlemazel:
I’m not trying to convince you to like Murray. I threw that one out there because it seemed like one that would be un-Murray-esque to Murray-phobes.
Just ran through his vita on IMDB. In the Wes Anderson zone, I thought he was really good in Rushmore.
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck:
Don’t leave out 2010 and 2014, which proved to them that there’s nothing they can do that keep them out of power for an extended period of time.
Brendan in Charlotte
@Anne Laurie: Leave it to our good friend John Stewart – It’s a travesty, a sham, and a mockery – It’s a travishamockery!!!!!
Schlemazel
@Steeplejack:
I have not seen that one, would a Murray hater enjoy it?
Frankensteinbeck
@Baud:
Actually, I don’t think those were turning points in the crazy. While important to us and important in the sense of their power to damage the country, they see the past three elections as setbacks. Obama is still president and Obamacare is the law of the land, and none of their supposed victories changed that.
Steeplejack
@Schlemazel:
Yeah, I think so. The Murraytude is dialed back a good bit. And it is one of the less, uh, mannered of Wes Anderson’s movies (if you’ve got some coexisting Anderson-phobia).
Cervantes
@benw:
Sometimes one has to be cruel to be kind.
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck:
I think it was in this sense: Those victories empowered the crazies vis-a-vis the money people, eliminating the only internal sanity check the GOP had. That explains what we’re seeing in Congress and in the presidential race. Had the Democrats been rewarded in 2010 and given an opportunity to continue, I think the wingnuts would have taken a back seat in the party structure.
gogol's wife
@Steeplejack:
I don’t know, it seems like these days TCM just shows recent movies (to me Alice Doesn’t Live Here Any More is recent) or silents. I want 1930s movies with Warren William, dammit!
Frankensteinbeck
@Baud:
You do make a good point. It certainly elevated Boehner, and now people think the Hastert Rule is normal rather than Boehner’s unprecedented obstructionism.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I like Joe Biden, and I guess it’s too his credit that he inspires what, in this case, can only be described as fanatical loyalty. But if this “source” is one of the people he’s taking advice from, this will end worse than I already thought it would
max
@Steeplejack: It’s not awful, which is why I got sucked in. It’s almost like a dudebro version of Charmed.
Me, I’d call it ‘good’ because there is so much crap TV on.
Oh, I wouldn’t even go as far as ‘dudebro’. Just normal guys with fucked up lives.
But then I saw 229 episodes! Hell, I have trouble with that level of commitment in real life.
Gonna need some meth to binge watch that. I managed to watch almost all of Castle on the TNT reruns so just keep plugging.
max
[‘That show is running out of time.’]
gogol's wife
@MomSense:
I’m enjoying Home Fires.
Schlemazel
@Frankensteinbeck:
I think it is deeper than what has been mentioned up to here. The real base on which the assholes have built is outrage. Outrage, like heroin, is both addictive and produces a tolerance. The outraged want another fix but they need a stronger fix all the time. So the GOP machine has to constantly turn the outrage up to 11 and eventually it will eat them because they will run out of outsiders to be outraged against and somehow powerless to stop the outrages (because they need those outrages to maintain the high, man)
Schlemazel
@Steeplejack:
Anderson is an acquired taste I guess, he is hit or miss with me. I loved the Grand Budapest Hotel for instance but I can’t tell you why. Other times its like he is trying too hard to be kookie.
catclub
@gogol’s wife: Speaking of British TV. I am watching the playoffs on ESPN via BT and I just saw an ad for a payday lender there. They advertise 1509% interest rates. Wonga.
And I thought, wow.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
No kidding.
How unpresidential.
gogol's wife
@catclub:
I think that’s one of the story lines on Home Fires.
benw
@Steeplejack: I like sad-but-kooky Murray in the WA films about the least of Murray’s acting, but Rushmore‘s definitely the least annoying to me. Monuments Men is another flick like Lost in Translation where all of the acting, including Murray’s, is great but the story is somehow just ok. Classic Murray will always be Stripes, Ghostbusters, and Groundhog’s Day, for me.
Roger Moore
@Cacti:
I think the whine club has been meeting more or less continuously since the attacks.
Steeplejack
@gogol’s wife:
Aw, c’mon! I agree that I get startled a bit when I see some ’70s or ’80s movie that I remember seeing in the theater “not that long ago,” but the silents are mostly quarantined to late Sunday night, with occasional outbreaks in prime time, e.g., there was an inexplicable rash of Lillian Gish this past week.
My beef is that there is a set of ’30s and ’40s classics that are in the rotation way too often. I want the deep cuts!
Glad to hear you appreciate Warren William, America’s pre-Code horn dog. He was just on last week in Gold Diggers of 1933 (still available on TCM On Demand).
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m a Murray fan boy, so I have no idea what Murray-phobes would think of it, but I think Quick Change is underrated and a lot of fun
Cervantes
@efgoldman:
Sorry, I hadn’t seen that comment of yours nor understood that Chris had already agreed.
The only thing I’d add, in that case, is that not only did the sociopaths take the House and Senate in ’94, they also got themselves a majority of the governorships.
If I had to pick which was the worst of these three results, I’d still say it was Gingrich taking the House because (a) it was Gingrich; and (b) the Senate had been controlled by Republicans quite recently whereas the House hadn’t been for a long time — and with their historic conquest and much less concern for comity, they felt they could simply throw out the rules, maybe even conflagrate the rule-book, and an effigy of the “Democrat Party,” and Bill Clinton’s prospects, out on the grounds of the Capitol.
The Sailor
“Colts are gonna be a smear between the hash marks. ”
Colts lead 21-20 at the 1/2.
Steeplejack
@max:
Yeah, it’s better than I’m giving it credit for. I’m still a little sheepish about getting sucked into it last week. I did not see that coming.
I sort of gave up on Castle at the beginning of last season. The whole “fiery crash on the way to the wedding, followed by disappearance and amnesia” thing would have gotten bounced by any telenovela with marginal self-esteem, and after gnawing on that for a few episodes they went back to “case of the week, nothing to see here, move along.” So I did move along. Someone here said I should give it another chance, but I dunno.
Schlemazel
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t think I know that movie at all.
I understand that comedy is subjective. I know I don’t understand some people not thinking, say, Blazing Saddles is funny but I get that some don’t and am OK with that. No matter how much Murray makes my skin crawl I get that some people find him funny and thats OK too. We’re all different.
Roger Moore
@Chris:
I don’t know. I can’t figure out if they’re dumb enough to believe they’ll turn up any decent dirt, or if they’re just hoping to keep stretching the thing out to avoid admitting there’s nothing there.
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Or worse than that, it’ll be a 1-week stumble par excellence: announcement, flak, dumb recalibration, confusion, media pile-on, and out. A very inglorious end to a distinguished career. Ted K and the rest of Biden’s inner circle really ought to know better – there are other ways to serve, and other honors to be awarded here.
Steeplejack
@Schlemazel:
Then I really recommend Rushmore. It’s his second movie, hits just the right balance, I think. (I do loves me some Royal Tenenbaums, though—the perfect J.D. Salinger movie).
Schlemazel
@Cervantes:
Don’t forget the K Street project. Lobbyists were bluntly told if the donated a dime to Dems or ever hired a Dem congressman or former aide they would get shafted by the GOP majority. They had to be 100% GOP or suffer the consequences.
tazj
@Chris: I think that Republicans were more invested in calling it terrorism because they wanted the chance to claim that the Obama administration was negligent and careless with American lives. If the attack was found to have been caused by terrorists and not by a spontaneous mob then the attack was somehow more foreseeable and therefore the administration was more responsible.
In the months before the attack the President had made remarks stating that we had weakened al-Qaeda. The Republicans wanted it to be a terrorist attack so that they could claim that Obama didn’t take terrorism seriously enough.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Schlemazel: Yeah, and I like Murray but I can see why people wouldn’t (also, too, Letterman). With the ads for his new one, Rock the Kasbah, I find myself thinkning, “Oh, I hope that bit of Vic the Lounge Singer is all of the Vic the Lounge Singer in the movie…” That’s why I found the term Murray-phone kind of funny, I don’t share the feeling, but I think I get it.
Quick Change, co-starring Geena Davis (whatever happened to her?) and Randy Quaid (we know what happened to him).
Schlemazel
@Steeplejack:
Thanks, I’ll try to give it a look-see.
NotMax
@Chris
Now, now, let’s not go overboard on softsoaping things.
It was a confluence of occurrences. “Unruly mobs” don’t bring (and use) rocket propelled grenade launchers, and most of those associated with the “planned” part of what happened were readily identified and run out of town by the locals in short order.
That said, the select committee serves no purpose other than as a political cloud-making machine and non-germane sideshow. Previous investigations have provided what is known and what needs to be known, and found nary a wisp of actionable evidence.
Schlemazel
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yeah, I saw the ad for Rock and thought THATS exactly what I hate most, thanks for letting me know not to see the movie.
ThresherK (GPad)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Not underrated in our home.
max
@Steeplejack: I sort of gave up on Castle at the beginning of last season. The whole “fiery crash on the way to the wedding, followed by disappearance and amnesia” thing would have gotten bounced by any telenovela with marginal self-esteem, and after gnawing on that for a few episodes they went back to “case of the week, nothing to see here, move along.” So I did move along. Someone here said I should give it another chance, but I dunno.
Once they got the ‘whole fiery ball of fire on the way to the wedding’ thing out of the 3XK episodes were good, and they’re off in another direction this season.
max
[‘Vastle is not great but its good enough. Better than most of the cop shows.’]
Schlemazel
@NotMax:
Not sure I agree about that “no rocket launcher” part.
My son talks about being awakened in Afghanistan by the sounds of rocket explosions. He knew they were not incoming & was trying to go back to sleep when one of his guys came in yelling about how he HAD to see this. They went and looked, it was two neighbors having a dispute & settling it by firing RPGs into each others compounds. Like America, lots of crazies with way too much firepower (because unlike America even RPGs are cheap – but wait, we are getting there). It would not surprise me at all to see an angry mob show up with machine guns, flame throwers and bazookas.
Villago Delenda Est
@Chris: Well, she doesn’t KNOW with 100% metaphysical certitude what their objective is.
But she, like you and I, can take a pretty good guess based on all we know now, and yeah, it leans precisely the way we’re thinking…that it’s all about “getting” Hillary with something, anything. They’re flailing about trying to find a blue dress with a stain. That’s pretty much it right now.
Roger Moore
@Frankensteinbeck:
Plenty of people even believe that Boehner has just been following the Hastert rule, when he’s been going much further. The Hastert rule said that something needed to get a majority of Republicans to support it before it would go to the floor, i.e. he could block something that could pass with primarily Democratic support because it couldn’t get 50% of the Republicans to vote for it. That was obstructionist, but it wasn’t absolutely crazy. Boehner has adopted the absurd rule that things have to be able to pass with exclusively Republican votes, i.e. that a small minority of the Republican caucus can block something that has support from all the Democrats and a large majority of the Republicans. That’s truly insane.
philpm
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I dunno, I can see Pompeo trying to match that level. He’s turning into a world class ass.
NotMax
@Schlemazel
We must have been separated at birth. I’ve always found everything about Bill Murray unentertaining and repellent.
@gogol’s wife
Well, they’re doing a twice weekly look at female directors this month, hosted by the fawning, soporific Ileana Douglas, so almost by definition the bulk of those movies will be more recent, other than by Arzner and Lupino.
TCM apparently doesn’t have the cojones (or perhaps the broadcast rights) to mention or show any of Doris Wishman’s filmic output, though. Ignoring her entirely (thus far) is a deliberate (and IMHO, biased) omission.
max
Fred Hiatt writes insanely weird column:
Uh…
Whether Freedom House (doubtful) is a useful metric, 42 versus 51, given the economic collapse, ain’t bad at all.
LEADERSHIP!
Would that be… the Republican party?
YOU CANNOT ELECT TRUMP HE WILL NOT GIVES US THE WARS WE WANT
IF YOU NOMINATE TRUMP WE WILL HAVE TO BACK HITLERY!
max
[‘OMG. My tax cuts.’]
OldVet
My suggestion for a drinking game for anyone who watches Hillary’s testimony before this
committeewitch hunt:Take 1 sip of a drink every time a repub calls the two separate facilities that were attacked (one a consulate and the other a separately located CIA listening station) an ‘Embassy’. ie. Like Little George’s brother Jeb! does…
Take a gun out and shoot yourself in the foot if a democratic member of the panel calls the Consolate an Embassy.
Make a bet with your spouse. When the corporately owned media ‘discuss’ Hillary’s testimony give your spouse a $100 gift card for every time a ‘journalist’ calls out the lie of one of their fellow reporters, commentators, ‘experts’, or guests that it was an Embassy attacked and make your spouse give you a $10 gift card for time a ‘journalist’ allows the lie to go unchallenged.
Note: Getting that drunk early during the inquisition will make the rest of it more bearable. Also, enjoy your shopping spree.
Cervantes
@Schlemazel:
You make a good point, thanks.
Trentrunner
@gogol’s wife: Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is hardly “recent.”
It’s 40 years old.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack:
That was me, and I still think you should pick up where you left off and give it another chance.
benw
Mets hanging on to a 4-1 lead at the end of the 7th.
Schlemazel
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Oh my gosh, I had forgotten I had seen Quick Change, it’s not terrible! So I guess thats another Murray movie that does not make me ill.
There was an actual German bank heist Quick Change reminded me of. The gang took control of the bank & the cops called the negotiators. Gang stalled & made difficult demands. Cops did the expected thing & kept talking. Eventually the gang stopped talking so after everything was in place they stormed the bank. The gang had tunneled under the bank before the job so all they had to do was break through the floor and take the loot out while the cops negotiated. I believe they got away with it.
KS in MA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Murray was really lovely in “Olive Kittredge”–in a non-comic role. I’d love to see him do more of that (I’m also not a big fan of his “comic” roles).
Schlemazel
@efgoldman:
Yup, I never found him as funny as the rest of the cast. Although I laughed at the teenaged dork thing he did with Gilda Radner (lisa Loopner but I don’t remember his char name)
gogol's wife
@Steeplejack:
“Peabody, you’re disgusting.”
My favorite line of all time.
gogol's wife
@Steeplejack:
I did enjoy seeing gorgeous young Ronald Colman in The White Sister.
(have to go to bed now)
gogol's wife
@Trentrunner:
I said “to me”
gogol's wife
@Schlemazel:
Todd something
The Sailor
@efgoldman: That was the craziest play I’ve ever seen in the NFL.
benw
Every once in awhile you get to watch a baseball player really dig around in their nose, armpit, or groin when the broadcast team doesn’t have anything better to do.
Jay C
Mets take their 4-1 lead into the ninth.
SiubhanDuinne
@gogol’s wife:
Todd DiLaMuca
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: You might want to see a doctor about that.
benw
@efgoldman: You’re welcome. Also, football players have so much armor on it’s harder to reach the itchy bits.
benw
@Jay C: one on, two down.
Jay C
Game over!!
Familia comes across again!
Let’s go Mets!!!!
ETA: according to the commentators, Jake Arrieta hadn’t lost a road game since May 7!
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
For a completely off the path Murray role, try The Razor’s Edge.
benw
@Jay C: Happy Mets fans. Post-game interview with Granderson: “Curtis, how awesome were you?”
Karen
Mets win game 2, 4-1!
*coughs*
I think there’s a reason why the NRA is pushing that everyone stock up on guns, the reason Fox keeps talking up on how EVIL Obama and his family are.
I really believe that the GOP has reached a point where unless the candidate for Speaker and the Presidency wants to off the President and his family, he’s too liberal.
Calliope Jane
@WereBear: oh, no, Bush wasn’t better than you expected. If he had pardoned Libby, he could have then testified before Congress, was my understanding. W just commuted the sentence instead. (Why do I think that W was following his father’s example in this?)
Karen
@Jay C:
I heard the Mets were considering trading Murphy when he became a free agent. They want to sign Cespedes but I think Murphy has done tons more than Cespedes in the proseason.
Steeplejack (phone)
@WaterGirl:
Okay, okay! Will give it another chance.
Chris
@NotMax:
Sorry, I should’ve said “it’s best IF it was an unruly mob.” As in, that interpretation would fit better with the GOP’s worldview (regardless of whether it’s true, which isn’t the kind of detail that’s ever bothered them too much in any case), or so I thought at first.
AnotherBruce
@Chris: @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Poor Gowdy is so sensitive, his feelings have been hurt to the point where he is pleading for his fellow committee members to “shut up”. Does not anyone understand how he has labored to get to the bottom of Benghazi?
Truly I think that this honorable man will definitely get to the bottom of Benghazi, and then keep digging until he reaches the further bottom of Benghazi.
Cervantes
@Hobbes:
Good point also, thanks.
But quite apart from what the Reagan gang might have done, and quite apart from the history of our own brutality in Iran 1953-1976, none of which was Carter’s fault, I still think some of his misery was self-inflicted.
On New Year’s Eve, 1977, Carter gave a speech at a state dinner in Teheran. It was broadcast to the Iranian people, or to those of them who could find a television screen. Here are excerpts:
Then:
Chuckling with the Iranian elite about the Shah’s
2737-year reign of absolute terror was not a great idea, especially not in the face of the watching Iranian masses.And then this, about human beings and pain and solidarity:
This, while CIA/SAVAK types were raping and torturing Iranian human-rights activists not 800 yards from where this delicious state dinner was being served.
Meanwhile:
Yes, it was — exactly so — but not a harbinger of good things to come.
The last straw, of course, came two years later, when, despite his own better judgment (“I don’t have any feelings that the Shah or we would be better off with him playing tennis several hours a day in California instead of Acapulco, with Americans in Tehran being killed or kidnapped”), Carter, during a visit to Boston, finally bowed to pressure from the likes of Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, John McCloy, and his own National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski (Mika’s dad) to allow the fleeing “King of Kings” into this country — a ridiculously stupid mistake he was warned against — with awful consequences for Americans and even worse consequences for Iranians.
Only now, 35 years later, is there a glimmer of hope for recovery and reconciliation.
Jay C
@Karen:
While – supposedly – the Mets’ financial troubles have eased up from their post-Madoff nadir (and getting to, if not winning the WS will certainly help) most of the
idle gossipchat I’ve heard about next season’s roster is that while having both Murphy and Cespedes might be nice, they really can only afford one of them: since they will be looking at, one imagines, an [exorbitantly] expensive multi-year deal for either guy.Something to jaw about over the winter…..
Jay C
@AnotherBruce:
And after that, no doubt, keep digging some more…
sm*t cl*de
@Villago Delenda Est:
It is as if a Giaocometti painting came to life.
Anne Laurie
@max:
That’s the last TV show the Spousal Unit & I watch ‘live’ (as broadcast). It’s really being going downhill since the Big Proposal issue, and IMO part of the problem is that the network is letting the most fanatical fans on social media dictate the story arcs now — for instance, that perfectly lovely in-character wedding dress was heinously destroyed & replaced by the cheezoid 80s model “because the Facebook fans hated the original”. CASTLE is a fun show when it’s played as a semi-satire of the Nikki Heat genre; turning it into fanfic homage pushes away the intelligent watchers, all 15% of us.
Anne Laurie
@Roger Moore:
It’s like the old parable about the philosopher who gets a year’s reprieve from a death sentence because he convinces the king that, given a year, he can teach the king’s favorite horse to talk. When a friend of the philosopher asks how he could make such an irrational choice, he says “A lot can happen in a year. I could die naturally. Or the king could die. Or maybe the horse will talk.”
Trey Gowdy has convinced himself, and Politico, that given enough time & publicity he can convince the horse to talk.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Cervantes:
There was another glimmer in 2001 when Iran made their first official diplomatic overture since 1979 and sent formal condolences for 9/11. Of course, the Bushies decided to spit in Iran’s face and announce that we considered them part of the “axis of evil,” so the recent negotiators had to deal with the fallout from that craptastic decision as well.
Anne Laurie
@efgoldman: The only movie in which I have found Bill Murray tolerable is TOOTSIE, and I hated TOOTSIE. But in that misogynist cheesefest, Murray’s perennial one-note “too cool for this crowd” affect was at least not as deliberately overdrawn and craptastic as the rest of the cast.
redshirt
@Anne Laurie: Have you seen Zombieland?
SinnedBackwards
@Chris: Sir, I believe the phrase you need is “being disingenuous”.
The English language has several ways to suggest that someone has, for various reasons, said something imprecise, in order to utter a more complete truth.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Anne Laurie:
You just reminded me that one of my favorite episodes was the one where Laura Prepon was the actress who was going to play Nikki Heat and she spent some time “doubling” Beckett and flirting with Castle. Sharply written and well played, especially by Prepon. She really nailed a lot of Beckett’s mannerisms.
More like that, please.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack (phone): Sounds like I went too far. Do we need a safe word?
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
No, not at all. I realize I seem to have an extra dose of animus about Castle because they took a show that was running along fine and sort of needlessly screwed it up. And it’s hard for me to see how it gets back on track after that. But I’ll take your word that it does and give it another chance.