Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

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

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

The willow is too close to the house.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

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

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

“But what about the lurkers?”

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Things done changed

Things done changed

by | 150 Comments

This post is in: 

This quote is getting a lot of play, and rightfully so (via):

“I used to spend ninety per cent of my constituent response time on people who call, e-mail, or send a letter, such as, ‘I really like this bill, H.R. 123,’ and they really believe in it because they heard about it through one of the groups that they belong to, but their view was based on actual legislation,” Nunes said. “Ten per cent were about ‘Chemtrails from airplanes are poisoning me’ to every other conspiracy theory that’s out there. And that has essentially flipped on its head.” The overwhelming majority of his constituent mail is now about the far-out ideas, and only a small portion is “based on something that is mostly true.” He added, “It’s dramatically changed politics and politicians, and what they’re doing.”

The Republican base has gone totally insane, and its methods are unsound. You wouldn’t know that from reading establishment media analyses, because both sides do it, axiomatically. A million on the right demanding to see the kerning on Obama’s birth certificate are cancelled out by a guy in Marin who writes his Congressmen about talking to trees.

But my guess is that lots of Republican Congressmen would tell you the same thing Nunes is saying. And that has no parallel on the left.

Reader Interactions

150Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Same story over and over again. If someone can figure out why the electoral process isn’t fixing the problem, and then there’ll be something to talk about.

  2. 2.

    Corner Stone

    “Things done changed” reminds me of one of the best jokes I have heard in some years.
    A man and woman are due to be married that Saturday afternoon. Even though it’s against custom, she calls him into her chambers and gives him an amazing blowjob. They then later walk down the aisle.
    The groom has the biggest smile on his face and his best man asks him what’s up.
    “I just got the best BJ of my life from the person I am going to spend the rest of my life with.”
    The bride makes her way down the aisle also with the biggest smile on her face and her bridesmaid asks what’s up.
    “I just gave the last blow job of my life.”
    Preacher man, “You are now Man and Wife and you may kiss the bride.”
    Bride, “Some things gonna change round here!”

  3. 3.

    Turgidson

    There is a parallel in the sense that liberal congress people get the same demented lunatic calls, which helps explain why Democrats often seem so ashamed of their legislative accomplishments. They probably get at least 10 teabagger dolts calling in to rant about death panels for every supportive call. Must skew their perception of public opinion sometimes.

  4. 4.

    GregB

    So things will be really going south when Chris Christie shaves his head and starts talking about snails on razor blades.

  5. 5.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    And that has no parallel on the left.

    While discussing some of the myths of the right a few days ago, St. Joe of the Morning asserted that 35-40% of Democrats believe that 9-11 was a Bush plot. Both sides indeed.

    I was going for a walk but noticed streaks of light(aka light rain) on my outdoor camera.

  7. 7.

    lamh36

    Sorry to go OT so soon, but this deserved to be heard, even if in the Trump-obsesses media it didn’t get the coverage it deserves.

    The Associated Press ‏@AP 2m2 minutes ago
    BREAKING: Former Oklahoma officer convicted of first-degree rape among charges that he abused 13 women.

    The jury deliberated for a long time, but this sonabitch is found guilty…rot in hell.

    he raped 12 women and a 17 year old child and the bastard got the nerve to be crying!

    #DanielHoltzclaw GUILTY.

    #DanielHoltzclaw verdict: multiple counts, some not guilty, multiple guilty verdicts, 5 years, 8 years, 20 years, 30 years. Still reading…

    ‏@goldietaylor 4s4 seconds ago
    #DanielHoltzclaw received mixed verdicts, sentencing recommendation +100 years. Formal sentencing to come later.

  8. 8.

    Turgidson

    @BillinGlendaleCA: good god is morning Joke a piece of shit. Given that his idea of a reasonable liberal is probably Ron “Severe Dementia” Fournier, he probably even believes it.

  12. 12.

    catclub

    @Baud: There is a figure in this (second article in pdf) that shows the responsiveness
    of congress to issues that matter to the middle class, versus the responsiveness to issues that matter to the rich. A wonderfully informative ( on many things that people know about the US that just ain’t so) and depressing article. By a very rich man.

  13. 13.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    The Republican base has gone totally insane, and its methods are unsound. You wouldn’t know that from reading establishment media analyses

    Dave Weigel posted this article today, and tweeted this excerpt as the “Trump voter quote of the day”:

    Frank Lanzillo, a 59-year old retired Marine, took that as a cue to explain just how anti-American the president really is.
    “When you bend down to the Saudis, take your shoes off, put your hand on a Koran and then the Bible when you’re sworn in?” Lanzillo said. “He took his flag pin off. I’m a Marine and former deputy sheriff. He took that off, he was in the toilet to me. I would not only not piss on him if he was on fire — I’d throw gas on him.”

    about an hour ago I caught him on the Hayes show arguing that this group of Trump voters did not reflect the elitist stereotype, and rather petulantly (I thought) insisting that race was not a factor in their disgust with politics. Twenty-three of Weigel’s sophisticated, non-stereotypical non-racist Trump supporters don’t believe Obama is a Xian (I’m sure they think he’s Jewish, or an Odinist). Hayes, who had apparently read the article, didn’t push back.
    I am somewhat surprised there were only three birthers in the crowd.

  18. 18.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @catclub: You’ve been hitting this theme pretty hard lately, but you should note that there is a difference between aspirational values and actual practice. One can call out actual American practices as being contrary to our aspirational values, can’t one?

  19. 19.

    Fair Economist

    Expect a serious primary challenge for Nunes. He’s going to regret his brief moment of honesty.

  21. 21.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lamh36: This is very good. Most were predicting that he would be acquitted because of 1) the women he assaulted and raped were not the right kind of women to get a conviction and 2) he’s a cop.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    @catclub:

    the responsiveness
    of congress to issues that matter to the middle class, versus the responsiveness to issues that matter to the rich.

    The middle class isn’t united. The rich are.

  26. 26.

    Mike J

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, it’s a dumb argument.

    there’s a reason why traffic signs say “reduced speed ahead” rather than “reduce speed ahead”. “Reduce” is an imperative, a command, and people don’t respond well. “Reduced” is stating a fact (or at least what they want to be a fact).It works better in getting people to do the right thing.

    Scolding doesn’t help. But you do get to feel smug.

  29. 29.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mike J: Yeah, saying “You are an asshole. Stop being an asshole, ” seldom works. Saying “You are better than that,” can. No matter how much more accurate the first statement may be.

  30. 30.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:
    The middle class isn’t united. The rich are.

    The rich actually aren’t united. Unfortunately the rich can afford to purchase pretty much whatever they want and there are more conservative rich than liberal rich. But look at the kocksucker bros and realize that they spent about 20,000 kidneys or something like that to get little boy scotty elected and where’s he at?

  31. 31.

    Baud

    @Ruckus:

    They’re pretty united about what they want from Congress. At a minimum, they usually don’t get in each other’s way. They do compete for lackeys, however.

  32. 32.

    rikyrah

    the rapist cop in Oklahoma was found guilty on some charges:

    Racialicious ‏@racialicious 22m22 minutes ago

    Verdict 1: Guilty (8 years)
    2: Not Guilty
    3: Not Guilty
    4: Guilty (5 years)
    5: Guilty (5 years)
    6: Not Guilty
    7: Not Guilty
    8: Guilty (20y)
    9: Not guilty
    10: Guilty (16 years)
    11. Guilty (30 years)
    12: Not Guilty.
    13: Guilty (8 years)
    14: Guilty (8 years)
    15: Guilty (5 years)
    16. Guilty (16 years)
    17. Not Guilty
    18. Not Guilty
    19. Not Guilty
    20. Not Guilty
    21. Not guilty
    22. Not guilty
    23. Not guilty
    25. Not guilty
    26. Not guilty
    27. Guilty (16 years)
    28. Guilty (30 years)

    don’t drop the soap, muthaphucka

  34. 34.

    rikyrah

    Black Girl Culture @blxckgirlbeauty
    A cop rapes multiple black women and girls, gets convicted on 18 charges and STILL no major media coverage. Wow. #DanielHoltzclaw

  37. 37.

    Corner Stone

    @Baud:

    They’re pretty united about what they want from Congress. At a minimum, they usually don’t get in each other’s way.

    The rich are presenting an incredibly united front, and target list. Anyone who suggests otherwise is an idiot. They have spent 40+ years getting on the same page.

  38. 38.

    lamh36

    @Adam L Silverman: he was found not guilty of some of the charges, so for those women who the jury didn’t believe, I hope seeing his jailed for all the crimes he was convicted of brings them peace and relief.

    And as someone said, even if thejury didn’t believe them, we do and wish them well.

  39. 39.

    different-church-lady

    The overwhelming majority of his constituent mail is now about the far-out ideas, and only a small portion is “based on something that is mostly true.”

    And yet some people still have faith in the idea of “citizen’s journalism” being the tonic we need.

  40. 40.

    rikyrah

    Karen Hunter @karenhunter
    13 women were raped and sodomized by a POLICE OFFICER and this verdict wasn’t worthy of ANY mainstream coverage? #Holtzclaw

    Amanda Seales ✔ @amandaseales
    NONE OF THE NEWS CHANNELS ARE REPORTING THIS #DanielHoltzclaw VERDICT. THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT US

    MyT_AfrodyT @hi_pah
    @elonjames @insanityreport They’d rather do a walk thru of a dead terrorist’s apt. Nothing scrolling across the bottom of the screen either.

  46. 46.

    Chris

    The Republican base has gone totally insane

    This is the real story, and the reason this problem isn’t going away, IMHO. It’s not their politicians, it’s not their pundits, it’s not their preachers, it’s not even their 1%ers. It’s their voters, a million Average Joes of no particular importance individually, but collectively adding up to a huge fucking madhouse to whose tune everyone else has to walk. Not that the politicians and the pundits and the others haven’t worked whip it up into its current state, but it’s also not something they can control (as we’re seeing with Trump) – anyone who tries to bring things back to reality will be promptly kicked out and replaced by true believers.

  48. 48.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lamh36: With that many counts the jury gets to pick and chose. As @rikyrah: noted in the list of the counts, and the findings of guilt vs not guilty, and the amount of time he’s going to get on each finding of guilt it actually made it easier to convict him despite who the victims were and that he was a cop. Whether we like it or not far too many rape and sexual assault trials come down to she said vs he said (or the rarer he said vs he said). No matter how legit the accusation, and the vast, vast majority of them are, they’re still miserable cases to prosecute to conviction. With this many charges the jury was able to navigate this by deciding, or by some jurors deciding, that not every she said was as credible as he said, but overall the she saids were credible and deserving of justice. The guys going away for over 150 years, essentially he got life. Justice was done here and even more: he can’t prey on anyone else again.

  49. 49.

    redshirt

    @Chris: I think it’s more top down than you give credit. Right wingers have cultivated this audience, grown them. Shaped them. The underlying rage might be germane to each wingnut, but certainly not the co-ordination. They’re all marching to orders, now.

  50. 50.

    PurpleGirl

    @Mike J:

    Maybe they had more evidence in some cases than in others.

    Yes, this could be true. But the real problem is that there was so little (or no) reporting on the trial and the convictions. At least he will spend time in jail. Hopefully he dies in jail and never sees daylight under normal circumstances, i.e., only from a jail cell or exercise yard.

  51. 51.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @lamh36: First good news of my day, even with some acquittals. As you note:

    even if the jury didn’t believe them, we do and wish them well.

    From an all white jury in OK, I’ll call a partial verdict a winning result.

  52. 52.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    I blame Mnem.

    I see this in my email box: A Ham-azing 3 Day Sale!

    And am disappointed when I realize it’s from a local grocery.

  53. 53.

    MazeDancer

    This is the line-up of Holtzclaw’s convictions:

    6 counts sexual battery, 2 counts procuring lewd exhibition, 4 counts forcible oral sodomy, 4 1st degree rapes, 4 2nd degree rapes

    From Twitter, of course, because there is no significant media coverage, except some tweets from a few news outlets. Maybe that will change now.

  54. 54.

    Debbie

    @Baud:

    Sure it’s solvable. Get money out of politics and shorten the election system. It’ll never happen but it is the solution.

  57. 57.

    lamh36

    @PurpleGirl: exactly the point.

    I heard about this trial and his crimes via twitter (ya know the medium alot of folks like to poo-poo on).

    And the coverage of the trial came from Black journos and activists (don’t even get me started on the non-coverage from some allied groups).

    And now that the verdict is in, I see throwaway tweets from news media so they can at least say they “reported” the news that they didn’t care to even cover.

    But you best believe, if the verdict was not guilty, they would have been all over the disppointment of colored folks.

    Goldie Taylor is exactly right here:

    @goldietaylor
    #DanielHoltzclaw targeted those women b/c he banked on nobody giving a damn about them. The jury said he was wrong. http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/12/10/daniel-holtzclaw-found-guilty.html …

  61. 61.

    MazeDancer

    Can’t edit comments, but must note a cop in jail serves very hard time. So, even if Holtzclaw is allowed to serve his 263 years as only 30 – and may that not be the case, may he get the full 263 – it is going to be a very long 30 years. As he deserves it to be.

    But he turned 29 today. He does not deserve to see 59 a free man.

  63. 63.

    danielx

    A million on the right demanding to see the kerning on Obama’s birth certificate are cancelled out by a guy in Marin who writes his Congressmen about talking to trees.

    There! See?

    All together now – Both Sides Do It!

  65. 65.

    Adam L Silverman

    @PurpleGirl: This is always the case. Back when I was an academic, I did a stint at Temple in the criminology and criminal justice program. This was back in 2004 while the Lacey Peterson case was unfolding. Temple being where and what it is, I had a lot of minority students/students of color. And this includes cops from Philadelphia PD, as well as from some of the suburbs. We had a good talk about bias in coverage and in prosecution for criminal cases. Peterson was a great exemplar because one month before she disappeared and was killed a pregnant Afro-Hispanic woman was abducted from San Francisco (don’t remember which part, but it was definitely part of the city). Witnesses reported that she was grabbed and pulled into a van and drove away. Her body eventually came up in the same part of the bay near where Peterson’s body would wash up. This indicates based on the tidal pattern that the body was dumped in the same area. It was only after Lacey Peterson was kidnapped and the press was all over the case that her mother finally got anyone in the media to pay attention. I honestly couldn’t tell you if they ever caught and/or charged anyone.

    What this tells us is significant and something we all know and most just ignore as background noise. The media, even in its “if it bleeds it leads” capacity is still wired for whiteness. It also tells us that local law enforcement, even crossing the jurisdictional boundaries of San Francisco to Alameda didn’t seem at all concerned to have two seemingly similar pattern crimes on their hands. And that they might have a serial killer operating in the area.

    The other thing that it tells us is that Scott Peterson had really inadequate council and that law enforcement in the area are out to lunch. Since the details of the missing Afro-Hispanic women were not widely covered, it is unlikely that Scott Peterson would’ve picked the same MO for the kidnapping and killing and the same disposal method and location. Too coincidental. What the jury should have heard from the defense is that this was the second crime to fit this pattern within a 60 day period and that no one seemed to be concerned that there might be a serial killer who’s fixation and target is heavily pregnant women and is driving a late model van.

  66. 66.

    Debbie

    @lamh36:

    There was plenty of coverage when he was charged, but no coverage of the trial. In my area, there have been a series of disappearances and subsequent murders of women. Plenty of coverage but no a lot of urgency because they’re prostitutes.

  68. 68.

    lamh36

    @Omnes Omnibus: Have I implied somewhere that I don’t consider it a win.

    Here is my point in all of this…

    @daniecal 8m8 minutes ago
    I really want people to think about the ‘value’ of MSM input and coverage and ask themselves why it matters

    How many folk here HONESTLY knew anything bout this trial or this dude’s crimes based solely on being told about it from online peers.

    No headline news, no coverage of a serial rapist of Black women and girls by a police officer on duty?

    Yet, some rando college girls goes missing overseas somewhere and we get YEARS upon years of coverage.

    So yeah, it’s a win, but I can still be pissed that if this dude was a serial rapist of white women, I sincerely believe it would have gotten more coverage than on twitter.

  72. 72.

    Chris

    @redshirt:
    I think it’s more top down than you give credit. Right wingers have cultivated this audience, grown them. Shaped them.

    They’ve cultivated the audience, grown it, shaped it… but they could only really shape it with messages it already agreed with. There isn’t a brake they can apply to pull it back in a more reasonable direction. Any time there starts to be a perceived weakening in their RWNJ credentials, the base will turn to someone like Trump to fill the gap.

  73. 73.

    MazeDancer

    @lamh36:

    I heard about this trial and his crimes via twitter (ya know the medium alot of folks like to poo-poo on).

    Without Twitter, I, too, would not have been aware of this monster. And am grateful to the relentless and appropriate outrage that kept Holtzclaw prominent on Twitter. People who “poo-poo” Twitter are missing a great deal of interesting conversation. With a wide variety of people, from all over the globe.

    True Twitter can be gamed by posting sensational tweets with no facts behind them, like the guy getting accused tonight of being an ISIS recruiter and arrested in Turkey for it. Total lie as Chris Hayes reported, but, of course, all the RWNJ media published it. Despite that weakness, Twitter is always ahead of the news. Even the biggest breaking news.

  76. 76.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lamh36: There is a tendency among those who are left of center to look for the negative in anything. I was seeking to counter that. Also, while it may not have gotten MSM attention, you can bet that every cop in the country knows about it. Think about it – every cop in the country just saw a fellow cop get at least 30 years and up to his life in prison for violating the law. Change starts somewhere; maybe it’s here.

  78. 78.

    Baud

    OT: This is hilarious.

    Republican Donald Trump has scrapped a planned trip to Israel, saying he will reschedule “at a later date after I become President of the U.S.”

    Trump tweeted Thursday that he is postponing the trip, which had become problematic for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Viewed as a Republican Party supporter, Netanyahu faced calls to cancel the visit, planned for Dec. 28, after Trump called for keeping Muslims from entering the U.S. and made controversial comments to a Jewish group.

  79. 79.

    PhoenixRising

    @lamh36: You know what’s even uglier?

    The only reason I’d even heard about the trial–which I didn’t have high hopes for, and happy to be wrong about 12 white OKC jurors–was that the rapist/cop is mixed race and AngryAsianMan covered this case like it was his problem to emphasize that the bad guy wasn’t ‘white’ as such.

  80. 80.

    p.a.

    @Mike J: Our company trucks originally had a DO NOT TAILGATE sticker across the rear. People complained; we changed to PLEASE DO NOT…

    They were the nice plasticized stickers, removable without tearing. We had fun editing/splicing stickers to say GO EAT TAIL, PLEASE EAT TAIL. One said NOTAL. WTF was that? It really meant NOT AL. Al was a steward and got a lot of harassing management drive-bys and visits. Another guy in the crew just wanted to advertise he wasn’t Al.

  81. 81.

    ? Martin

    @lamh36:

    No headline news, no coverage of a serial rapist of Black women and girls by a police officer on duty?

    I was shocked one day to watch a documentary about the Grim Sleeper – serial killer about half an hour from where I live that I had never heard of. Never heard of him because he killed black women.

    But yeah, I never heard of the guy from Oklahoma either.

    People really have no idea what ‘Black Lives Matter’ means, do they?

  83. 83.

    lamh36

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    There is a tendency among those who are left of center to look for the negative in anything.

    That is a bit of a luxury that alot of folks of color just dont’ have. Sorry, but for alot of POC, the system does NOT work for us. And just because it works 1 every decade or so, does nothing to negate the 200 years of ongoing disappointment and bias inherent in the US system as seen by many of us.

    So yeah, we are happy for a “victory”, but doesn’t mean we forget the majority of the times when we get nothing…

    I feel like we’ve had this discussion before…and I don’t suspect we’ll ever see eye to eye on it… in all those times, this in the first time there was a “win”…right?

    But we’ll wait…let’s see what happens with Tamir Rice, LaQuan and Baltimore, cause I supsect you and I will be here again…and

  84. 84.

    MazeDancer

    @efgoldman:

    The asshole is going in the slam, likely for the rest of his miserable life. Seems to me that was the desired result.

    Yes, of course, that is justice served.

    But a cop attacking 13 women should be big news. Especially, because women don’t report rape because they feel no one cares. And that they will be put on trial. And it won’t matter. Especially if the rapist is a cop.

    No coverage feels like a support of “no one cares”. And all the people relentlessly following this case for some time and reporting about it on Twitter cared deeply. And without them, few of us would know what was going on tonight.

    Hoping for big coverage of this outcome so that more women will feel they have a right to seek justice. And that justice will result from their courage. Also hoping more predators in positions that rarely get punished – cops, sports stars, “big men on campus” – take note: you can’t just do what you want and assume nothing will happen.

  85. 85.

    Howard Beale IV

    @rikyrah: He’ll probably be in solitary/isolation for the rest of his life. Raping a grandma is almost equal to being a pedo in the prison hierarchy-and him being an ex-officer, doubly-so.

  86. 86.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lamh36: Fair enough. My view point cannot be yours. I think that what happened today was a win for justice. A win dealing with the media is a different thing. We don’t have that tonight.

  89. 89.

    p.a.

    @redshirt: Yes. They’ve always been there, it’s just that conditions have allowed the pig people (h/t driftglass) to be up front and public (WITHOUT GETTING KICKED BACK UNDER THEIR ROCKS) in ways they haven’t been since maybe the 50’s 60’s.

  96. 96.

    p.a.

    @PhoenixRising: All white jury? Prosecution couldn’t do better than that? I’m assuming if black citizens were the victims therefore not a lilly white jury pool.

    In addition to the issues women face in a rape case and prosecution, most people are rightly fearful of filing criminal complaints against cops in their residence jurisdictions. They’re vindictive, and their ‘brothers’ are usually more interested in protecting each other than in cleaning out trash.

  97. 97.

    lamh36

    Ok, not gonna harp on this…cause I do consider the guilty plea a win.

    But lest we forget, we got wall to wall coverage LIVE from Australia, on nearly every network, when Oscar Pistorius, was arrested for shooting and killing his girlfriend. We got almost daily updates on his trial.

    When a verdict came in, there was breaking news on nearly every network…when the verdict was read.

    Yet a police officer right here in the U.S. of A rapes and assaults 13 Black women and girls, and it was NOT worthy of 1/1000th of the coverage of a Australian athlete who killed his Australian girlfriend

    Please don’t me wrong and think I am disregarding what Pistorius did, I’m just saying…think about it.

    Now back to the regularly scheduled, Trump is a racist bigot asshole news…

  102. 102.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @lamh36: I certainly don’t disagree that coverage of crime is biased. i also recognize that institutional racism continues in the US, and (among other things) results in the criminal justice system favoring white folks over POC (an understatement) and it also favors higher income folks over poor people.

    I did however, know of the case from online news. I may be an outlier, and as I noted above, I consider the verdicts a win given the demographics in play.

  103. 103.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lamh36: It is in your hands. My opinions have been discounted and it is not unreasonable that they were. OTOH, I can’t be expected to offer further opinions on this Oui?

  107. 107.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Debbie: I was reading about the Saxons. The historian was moaning about inequality in their world. Apparently the wergild for the nobility was eight times that for the lowest commoner. The equivalent to wergild in our world would be civil liability for causing someone’s death.

    Funny, in the US if you are found liable in someone’s death the award is based on future earnings potential, and CEOs may make 100s of times more than an entry level worker (and of course those are worker to worker comparisons, as we have a desperately poor underclass that have incomes far below minimum wage).

    Eight times! Can we bring that system here?

  108. 108.

    lamh36

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):

    Last time I plan on saying this again.

    Did I imply that I don’t consider this a win?

    Can one not consider this a win and still be able to express disappointment at the situations and conditions and attitudes that came up to this point?

    The win in this case does not negate the issues that arose as a result.

    I guess I should just shut up and take the win eh…is that the point…?

  110. 110.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @lamh36:

    Here’s my cynical take — if his victims had been white, he wouldn’t have gotten to 13 before being caught and convicted. He probably wouldn’t have gotten to double digits.

    It’s like the girl who got beaten up by that cop when she wouldn’t get out of her desk at school. The difference wasn’t that a white cop wouldn’t have hit a white student — the difference was that the cop never would have been called in the first place if it had been a white student doing the same thing.

  111. 111.

    lamh36

    @Amir Khalid: yeas Omnes already notified me of my mistake.

    too bad for that mistake though, I thought my point was sound, but I guess the mistake fucks up what my point was then…

  113. 113.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Baud: Rahm’s done. On top of the calls to resign, and the very public discussion that if he hadn’t had his people sit on this until forced by the courts that he would have lost the runoff, a bill for his recall has already been submitted in the state legislature in Springfield. He can be smart, which he won’t be, and go now under his own terms or he can be forced to go, but go he will. There’s no Chicago Machine that can save him.

  114. 114.

    Adam L Silverman

    @? Martin: One of the major problem is that every major city has several serial killers at any one time. They don’t make headlines because the area is so large, they often cross jurisdictions, and they usually target/prey on people no one knows is missing or cares is missing. And that’s not counting the travelers. The ones that take their show on the road and so the pattern to the serial killing is so geographically spread out and its across so many different jurisdictions that even if someone wanted to connect the crimes it is very difficult to do so.

  115. 115.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @lamh36:

    Our current news media exists to scare white people and convince them that the crime rate has never been higher when, in fact, the opposite is true. Most white people won’t feel threatened if a rapist or serial killer is targeting women of other races, so those stories are useless to the media.

    The Oscar Pistorius thing was slightly different — that was just this year’s model of the Celebrity Trial of the Century. The media loses their minds when the media is on trial.

    The media is going nuts over the San Bernardino murders because they make white people feel threatened. The Colorado Springs murders are already forgotten, because they don’t scare white people.

  116. 116.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @lamh36:
    Last time I plan on saying this again.

    Did I imply that I don’t consider this a win?

    Absolutely not; you explicitly noted that it was a win.

    Can one not consider this a win and still be able to express disappointment at the situations and conditions and attitudes that came up to this point?

    Of course, and I tried to explain my understanding of the same, and agreement with it.

    The win in this case does not negate the issues that arose as a result.

    I guess I should just shut up and take the win eh…is that the point…?

    NO.

    I’ve really tried, without success, to write that I share your frustration, despite having no experience as a POC.

  117. 117.

    lamh36

    @BuzzFeedNews 3m3 minutes ago
    The victims of Daniel Holtzclaw will speak to the media at 11 a.m. CST Friday morning

  118. 118.

    sukabi

    @Amir Khalid: I think what matters, and is the most important fact is that a (famous*) white foreigner who murdered who murdered his significant other got endless media coverage over here, and the impact of that person and his crime has ZERO relevance to life in this country, but a cop raping his way thru his community gets next to no coverage even though the impact and relevance to the community is enormous.

    * I actually think it’s the fame factor that drove the media coverage…media seems to think they’re entertainment / celebrity spokespersons.

  120. 120.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
    I sereously fucked up the formatting; my apologies. FYWP.

    @lamh36:

    Last time I plan on saying this again.

    Did I imply that I don’t consider this a win? [Bella Q: Absolutely not; you explicitly noted that it was a win.]

    Can one not consider this a win and still be able to express disappointment at the situations and conditions and attitudes that came up to this point? [Bella Q:Of course, and I tried to explain my understanding of the same, and agreement with it.]

    The win in this case does not negate the issues that arose as a result. [Bella Q: Absolutely correct.]

    I guess I should just shut up and take the win eh…is that the point…? [Bella Q: NO]

    I’ve really tried, without success, to write that I share your frustration, despite having no experience as a POC.

  121. 121.

    beltane

    @Mnemosyne (tablet): Oscar Pretorius was also a one-legged Olympic athlete. A two-legged member of the South African Olympic team accused of murder would not have received much, if any, attention from the American media

  122. 122.

    Amir Khalid

    @lamh36:
    You didn’t fuck up your point. I get that the frustration is that this cop thought he could get away with serial rape because society didn’t value his victims, disadvantaged black women. That he was basically betting the right way.

  125. 125.

    Amir Khalid

    @beltane:
    Not precisely. Per Wikipedia:

    Pistorius was born with fibular hemimelia (congenital absence of the fibula) in both legs. When he was 11 months old, his legs were amputated halfway between his knees and ankles

    Pistorius got famous for being the first disabled track athlete to compete in top-level events for able-bodied athletes.

  126. 126.

    redshirt

    This world – our world – could have been good.

    We were heading on a great path in the 1990’s.

    Neo-hippie society and a golden age of peace and prosperity.

    But then 9/11 happened. Then Darth Cheney happened. The dark times.

    And I fear we’ll now never recover. We’re doomed on a right wing militaristic path of death and tragedy. Insanity and guns. No vaccinations, global warming, society gone mad, and no one really knows why (it’s right wing propaganda).

    Given this, why bother voting, right?

  132. 132.

    xenos

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I took a pretty advanced political theory class grounded in 20th century Arab politics with Mike B as a fellow student. I think Dan Drezner was in the class too… He is not as clear in my memory as she is, for some reason.

    She is no dummy.

    She comes, however, from a relatively conservative family dominated by strong male authority figures. She transferred in to our college mainly to be with her older brother, a notorious glibertarian ass hole.

    She had a lot of potential, but has suffered from a lack of self esteem, I guess. Giving cover and support and a touch of class to the unspeakable seems to be a role she was groomed for.

  133. 133.

    redshirt

    @beltane: Yes, it was a HUGE part. THE part, obviously. Because a Gore Presidency in 2000 means everything today is pretty radically different.

    We’d probably already have mass fusion power, Mars colonies, and hoverboards.

  134. 134.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @PJ:

    Ongoing coverage of the trial in progress would have been nice, yes? The fact that the media is now playing catch-up after their neglect was pointed out doesn’t negate the original neglect.

  136. 136.

    redshirt

    Specifically, it was the 9/11/01 to circa 12/31/2004 period that entrenched(imprinted) a way of thinking on many minds, and since imprinted these people grow crazier by the year, and we’ll all be dealing with this for many, many years to come.

  137. 137.

    beltane

    @redshirt: No, but there’s a good chance 9/11 wouldn’t have happened in the first place. The fact that the American public was passive and docile in the face of a stolen election indicates they were ripe for being played by any player who was cynical enough to play them.

  138. 138.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @burnspbesq:

    As several of his commenters pointed out, that guy really, really misunderstands Ta-Nehisi Coates’ writing.

    He also glides way too quickly over his own point that “Whig” optimism can easily be turned to blocking further progress. After all, if African-Americans aren’t being held as chattel slaves anymore, what do they have to complain about, amirite?

    Yes, it’s good that a cop can be successfully convicted of raping black women when that wasn’t even a crime 150 years ago, but we don’t want to stop progress there, yes?

  139. 139.

    redshirt

    @efgoldman: 9/11 allowed Darth Cheney to operate openly, and to be encouraged. All the media was for Darth Cheney. Rah Rah, the MSM said.

    He’s since spawned a thousand mini-Darths who try to be as evil as they can be, as the American way.

  140. 140.

    Felanius Kootea

    @lamh36: I’m relieved to see that the UK Guardian covered this story. They have a quote from the Oklahoma PD saying that they firmly believe justice was served.

    @Amir Khalid: BTW Pistorius’ manslaughter conviction was overturned on appeal and he was instead found guilty of murder (minimum 15 year sentence) last week. He is now appealing the murder conviction to SA’s highest court.

  143. 143.

    Calliope Jane

    @lamh36: oh thank god. I don’t understand why there wasn’t wall to wall coverage on this (or, I do understand and it makes me very sad). Those brave women and 17yo girl.

  146. 146.

    J R in WV

    I get my national and world news primarily from Google News. Their news reports are driven by clicks, not by editors with biases. This does mean that sometimes crazy fads or panics get highly posted on Google News, but mostly this is a pretty good balanced news source.

    I was completely aware of the OK rapist cop – somewhat stunned that he managed to keep after it the way he did, too.

    I’m a little surprised that they allowed an all white jury to be seated in a case where ALL the victims appear to be of color. I’m really glad he got convicted on enough counts to put his sick and brutal ass away more or less forever.

    As Adam pointed out, there are serial killers running around all over the place. The ones who cruise the road probably have little risk of being caught unless something goes wrong while they’re engaged in one of their actual crimes. Hard to explain the blood dripping from your trunk if you get pulled over at the wrong moment.

    At times I have spent a lot of time crossing the continent on I-40 mostly, although sometimes on other roads. I often pick up a local newspaper when I stop for the night, and once there was a story in the back of the paper about a suspected serial killer roaming I-40 and dropping victims into the brush way off the end of big parking lots at truck centers, freight yards, rest stops, etc.

    Mrs J has a theory (after 35 years experience in news biz) that many of the most important stories in print media are one column short stories in the back of the paper, usually with a one column head in 18 point type. Copy editors, who make up the pages, can identify important stories and run them there, even if their management doesn’t want to cover that particular kind of story.

    The back of sections get filled to make up the space left after the ads are sold. Something has to go in there in the back to fill it up. So a sharp copy editor, with no real influence over his publication’s editorial policies, can make use of that need to fill space with small stories to see that important stuff actually gets published.

    Like a serial killer in an area dependent upon tourists for economic survival. Not gonna be on the front page. But if we’re all lucky, it will be in there somewhere. And if people click on it, Google will put it on their news pages. The more clicks, the more highly placed the news becomes.

    Also, on a completely different story:

    The President who Kissed Prince Bandar ibn-Saud was NOT President Obama – it was President G W Bush, who not only kissed the Prince, he then held hands with him as they walked up to the ranch house in Crawford. This was after 17 Saudi terrorists did their dirty deed on September 11th, too.

    I don’t know why President Obama showing proper and normal respect for other national leaders can be so twisted into lies when it was President G W Bush who kissed the Saudi Prince on national TV. Maybe… could it be his name? Not being Smith or Jones or Bush? Maybe. I guess.

  148. 148.

    ezra abrams

    @Baud:
    it is actually quite simple
    stop wasting time on this blog, and go out and work to retake congress and your local elected slots
    go work on getting people to vote
    ain’t that hard

  149. 149.

    Matt

    @Baud:

    Short answer: because electing crazy persons to Congress hasn’t had any negative consequences for the people doing it. They send wild-eyed frothing-at-the-mouth budget arsonists, and the grown-ups make sure that those folks don’t break *everything* so the highway $$$ and Social Security checks keep flowing.

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