Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

I really should read my own blog.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

So many bastards, so little time.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

This fight is for everything.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it’s a trap.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

You are here: Home / TV & Movies / Television / I Want to Believe…

I Want to Believe…

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believe poster

…that the sexist knobs in Hollywood have revised their attitudes on equal pay for equal work in the period between the launch of the original X-Files series in 1993 and the reboot miniseries debuting tomorrow night after the football. But the truth is out there, thanks to Gillian Anderson:

The work Anderson put into securing equal pay back in the ’90s seemingly came undone when it came time to negotiate pay for this year’s event series. Once again, Anderson was being offered “half” of what they would pay Duchovny.

“I’m surprised that more [interviewers] haven’t brought that up because it’s the truth,” Anderson says of the pay disparity, first disclosed in the Hollywood Reporter. “Especially in this climate of women talking about the reality of [unequal pay] in this business, I think it’s important that it gets heard and voiced. It was shocking to me, given all the work that I had done in the past to get us to be paid fairly. I worked really hard toward that and finally got somewhere with it.

“Even in interviews in the last few years, people have said to me, ‘I can’t believe that happened, how did you feel about it, that is insane.’ And my response always was, ‘That was then, this is now.’ And then it happened again! I don’t even know what to say about it.”

She stammers for a moment, at a loss for words. “It is… sad,” she finally says. “It is sad.”

Anderson held out for equal pay for the series revival, and good for her. But it’s not just sad, it’s infuriating. Anderson isn’t some nobody actor who hasn’t had a hit since the X-Files fizzled in the early aughties. She’s enjoyed a recent string of high-profile, critically acclaimed successes, including her brilliant turn in “The Fall.”

It’s just outrageous insulting bullshit that she would be offered half of Duchovny’s salary for the same work. Anderson has the means and influence to tell the people who were trying to screw her out of her rightful pay to fuck off until they came around.

Unfortunately, less prominent women just get ripped off, every fucking day. It’s like there’s this big conspiracy…

Reader Interactions

178Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    I don’t know what’s more offensive: That Anderson was offered half of Duchovny’s pay or that Duchovny was offered twice Anderson’s pay.

  2. 2.

    NeenerNeener

    Based on the work they’ve both done since the original series ended, and their current name recognition, Duchovny should have been offered half of what they offered Anderson.

  3. 3.

    bystander

    Anderson is playing Blanche in a Brit production of Streetcar at Brooklyn Academy of Music pretty soon. Sounds intriguing. I can’t imagine Duchovny doing anything but contemporary angsty men. He is a much more limited actor than Anderson.

    The NYTimes review of the new X-Files was terrible. So, no inner conflict going on here.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) —

    A dress code imposed by a Kansas Senate committee chairman that prohibits women testifying on bills from wearing low-cut necklines and miniskirts is drawing bipartisan ridicule from female legislators. Sen. Mitch Holmes’ 11-point code of conduct does not include any restrictions on men, who he said needed no instruction on how to look professional, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.

    “Oh, for crying out loud, what century is this?” Sen. Laura Kelly, a Topeka Democrat, said Thursday.

    Holmes, a 53-year-old Republican from St. John who is chairman of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee, said he wrote the instruction because provocatively dressed women are a distraction. The guidelines don’t detail a minimum skirt length or a permissible neckline for blouses. “It’s one of those things that’s hard to define,” Holmes said. “Put it out there and let people know we’re really looking for you to be addressing the issue rather than trying to distract or bring eyes to yourself.” Holmes said he considered requiring men to wear suits and ties during testimony but decided males didn’t need any guidance. He expects lobbyists to understand the rules when interacting with his committee, although he acknowledged infrequent visitors to the Statehouse might be unaware.

    I have this sudden urge to testify about something in the Kansas state legislature. Something. anything.

  8. 8.

    BGinCHI

    Also, too, I love Gillian Anderson. What a smart, talented actress. Brilliant in everything she does because she chooses her projects wisely.

    Duchovny, if he had any class, would refuse to do it until his better half got equal pay.

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: Let me guess — an evangelical fundamentalist, right? More proof, as if any were needed, of their ideological kinship with the “morals police” in Saudi Arabia and Iran.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Holmes said he considered requiring men to wear suits and ties during testimony but decided males didn’t need any guidance

    Now where did I put my assless chaps?

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: I don’t have any assless chaps, but I do have a pair of ratty old jeans with the crotch ripped out and a too small wife beater with holes that show my 12 pack abs in all their glory. Or better yet, I think I’ll go in drag, wearing my best “street walker” dress and heels.

  21. 21.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Damn. Who am I going to vote for now?

    @BillinGlendaleCA: It is street walker attire. It shows every inch of my hairy legs right up to the crack of my ass and squishes my man boobs such that I have very nice hard to take your eyes off cleavage. If I’m going to be a whore, I have to advertise the goods. As a man, I know how to dress.

  31. 31.

    Elizabelle

    Numbers, oh comment numbers, how we miss thee.

    Anyhoo, on the snow front: about 14-15 inches on the back deck; still lightly falling. Very pretty. Was blowing and swirling snow last night. Got together with the neighbors for a wonderful pot luck. Lovely evening.

    And: a friend gave me a Stetson! Was not expecting that, and absolutely love it. It’s perfect. Think I might go put it on now. I asked, and it does not make me look too much like Dick Cheney.

  37. 37.

    Gimlet

    @Baud:

    In case you didn’t read all the way to the bottom.

    Indeed, the Democrats should worry about their attachment to big government, which, in America, has come to mean more unaccountable bureaucracy, like the Department of Veterans Affairs; more inefficiency, like the weird tangle of federal job-training programs, each more irrelevant than the last; and more perverse incentives, like welfare programs that ask for nothing–no personal responsibility–in return from their recipients.

    Big government is the way I was treated at the post office this afternoon.

  39. 39.

    Elizabelle

    @@ Baud re Will Ferrell: tis unforgettable.

    WRT to Gillian Anderson pay issue: I am glad that news about crap like that is getting out. It’s ridiculous, and a spotlight is useful.

    I missed 90% of the original X Files episodes (too scary). Time to binge watch some this year.

  40. 40.

    satby

    @Elizabelle:

    Numbers, oh comment numbers, how we miss thee.

    This is why I only read and comment from my Kindle now. Mobile version has comment numbers, the comments are the whole screen (not squooshed into 1/3 of the real estate) and the links look like links. The desktop site even with all of OtherChuck’s many fixes is still a huge meh to me.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    @Gimlet:

    Big government is the way I was treated at the post office this afternoon.

    Someone tip those postal workers. They deserve it.

  43. 43.

    satby

    @Baud: And most people think they get pretty good service at their post offices… poor Jokeline must have had to wait in line for a whole minute or something.

  44. 44.

    Ken

    @Gimlet:

    Big government is the way I was treated at the post office this afternoon.

    What, forced to take a number and get in line with the peons, instead of being invited into the manager’s office for a charming little tête-à-tête over tea while his personal secretary got your package posted?

  46. 46.

    Duke of Clay

    @NeenerNeener: It’s just stunning. I am well aware of the great work Gillian Anderson has done since 2002. I just had to look up Duchovny to find out what he has been doing. (It’s definitely not as impressive.)

  47. 47.

    Botsplainer

    I was thinking this am about the general dissatisfaction in life experience offered to white males of the lower middle and middle middle classes. Once they realize that bullshit award dinners at the Masonic lodge, uniform adornments for scout masters and local scout executives, rotary events and accolades for running church committees are total jokes foisted on them as totems designed to fake giving their lives wider meaning, they come to miss the white privilege that provides sinecures of security that mask the mundane mediocrity they survive.

    As a result, they turn to demagoguery, and the beneficiaries of that rage are all too happy to provide.

  50. 50.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Botsplainer:

    Once they realize that bullshit award dinners at the Masonic lodge, uniform adornments for scout masters and local scout executives, rotary events and accolades for running church committees are total jokes foisted on them as totems designed to fake giving their lives wider meaning,

    So just exactly what is the meaning of life? What makes your existence worthwhile?

  51. 51.

    WereBear

    @bystander: I saw it, a filmed version she did in Great Britain. Wonderful!

    And yes, the next whiner who tells me women “just don’t want” to be paid as much as men, because stupidreasons, I will shoot flames out of my eyes.

    It’s useless on the phone with corporate customer service, but in person, it is effective.

  52. 52.

    Gimlet

    Hard to plumb the depth of right-wing craziness

    the New Apostolic Reformation, a collection of self-proclaimed modern day apostles and prophets who believe that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, they are capable of performing greater miracles than even Jesus himself.

    One of the key leaders in the NAR movement is Mike Bickle. Bickle is the founder of the International House of Prayer, a controversial missionary organization in Kansas City, Missouri, that some critics have labeled a cult and which is best known for engaging in nonstop 24-hour-a-day prayer in preparation for the End Times and for its anti-gay activism in Uganda.

    Bickle, unsurprisingly is a demon-fighting radical who believes that gay marriage is “rooted in the depths of hell,” that homosexuality “opens the door to the demonic realm” and that Oprah Winfrey is a forerunner of the Antichrist:

    Back in 2004, Bickle declared that as the End Times approach, all Jews will be given a chance to accept Jesus, warning that if they do not accept “the grace” of Christ, God will then “raise up a hunter” who will kill two-thirds of them

    Yesterday, Ted Cruz proudly announced that Bickle had endorsed his presidential campaign.

  54. 54.

    Keith G

    @Elizabelle: Please take pictures and send them to a front pager. Maybe when convenient for all there can be a post of pictures and commentary from our friends who live in the “danger zone”.

    I am getting just a wee bit weary of rehashing the same political discussions day after day. Distractions are needed.

    Edited repeatedly. ..damn voice recognition

  57. 57.

    Baud

    @Gimlet:

    Bickle is the founder of the International House of Prayer

    The International House of Pancakes needs to sue them for trademark infringement.

  61. 61.

    Amir Khalid

    Not that it’s any justification, then or now, but back in the day Duchovny was paid more than Anderson. Only in the later seasons did she approach parity in pay. One part of the reason was that the Fox Network suits considered Mulder the starring role in the show. Another was that Duchovny’s profile was a bit higher at the time they were cast, from his having been on Twin Peaks. Anderson was then very new to television acting.

  63. 63.

    WereBear

    @Elizabelle: I asked, and it does not make me look too much like Dick Cheney.

    Well, that’s a relief.

    I adore hats. Just got a new one last week, for only a dollar. Which means I can affect a careless air with it. Can’t do that with my “good” hats.

  64. 64.

    satby

    @WereBear: I would love to be able to affect any other air than “old dork” in a hat, because hats are cool. I look terrible in them. So I rock the scarf and shawl look, which has been handy lately. Valentina likes borrowing some of my scarves to mix up her hijab look.

  65. 65.

    gene108

    I poked my head out my front door to see what the snowfall looked like. I looked down my walkway to the parking lot and some super kind soul cleaned the snow off my car.

    I now feel like I owe someone something, but I am not sure who did it and who to thank.

    Feeling guilty.

  67. 67.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Some brave man wearing assless chaps needs to testify on something, anything, in Kansas, and do it very soon.

    With your presidential campaign starting to pick up steam, we’ll have to discuss whether this would be a good choice for you. Do you want people talking about getting a tingle up their leg, or do you want people to be talking about what you stand for? Unless what you stand for is assless chaps…

    (Boy, autocorrect does not want me typing assless!)

  68. 68.

    Betty Cracker

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I hear you, brother. I started a new exercise regimen this week and tweaked tendons I didn’t know I had in all four extremities. My clinician sister said I should elevate the affected areas, but I don’t think that’s possible without trussing myself to a horizontal tree branch. Getting old sucks so bad.

  69. 69.

    Just One More Canuck

    @satby: No, she was tabby except for a snow white belly – my then girlfriend and I were just huge fans of the show

  70. 70.

    Poopyman

    @gene108: Heh! Two of my immediate neighbors have Kabota tractors with front end loaders, another has a Ford. They’ve all been licking their chops since this was predicted. I suspect there’s going to be a race to clean out the neighborhood’s driveways.

    Not gonna feel guilty at all.

    BTW, we’ve got between 10 and 15 inches here in balmy Southern Md. Hard to tell a true total with all the blowing and drifting. Forecasters say we’re about halfway through.

    It was sleeting when I was out shoveling at 5:30, so there’s that, too.

  71. 71.

    Baud

    @WaterGirl:

    Do you want people talking about getting a tingle up their leg, or do you want people to be talking about what you stand for?

    I stand for leg tingles, so it’s a win-win.

  72. 72.

    Poopyman

    @Poopyman: Oh, and with a northeast wind we’re in the lee of the spine of the county, so winds are light/moderate. Power’s holding just fine, so far.

  75. 75.

    Poopyman

    OK everybody, “assless chaps” is redundant. If chaps had asses they’d be “pants”.

    Yes, I’m compulsively pedantic. So sue me.

  76. 76.

    Amir Khalid

    Sports news: Liverpool FC have come from 3-1 down at Norwich City to lead 3-4 with 15 minutes to go. Hang on, please. Hang on and get the three points.

  79. 79.

    NotMax

    @WereBear

    “To deliver a 100,000 volt shock through the phone, please press 6 now.”

    @Ken

    The post office within walking distance of the abode is very, very small. Gotta say, though, that the people working the counter are unfailingly chipper, polite and helpful. Can’t recall ever seeing any of them not smiling.

    Only post office I’ve ever seen which goes to the trouble of putting out a display board showing all the varieties of stamps they currently have for sale.

    Now if only they closed later than 3:15 on weekdays and were open for more than 90 minutes (10:30 – Noon) on Saturdays….

  80. 80.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    A question is being asked, mostly by Republicans, but also by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews: What is the difference between a Democrat and a Socialist?

    I heard Tweety ask DWS. I haven’t heard the question being asked (a more tortured version of “people are saying”) by anyone else, Republican or otherwise, not even by Tweety, since.

    @Ken: @Ken:Big government is the way I was treated at the post office this afternoon.

    Good god. Privatize the Post Office, Joe Klein had to stand in line! Not even an imperious “Do you know who I am?” could stimulate those knaves to hop to!

  81. 81.

    PaulW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Which is, of course, absolute bullsh-t.

    There are a ton of 40-something and younger men who do not dress to the tens at work, such as shined shoes, pressed shirt, necktie, cufflinks, etc.

    What’s to stop an IT guy from testifying in torn blue jeans and mustard-stained polo shirt he wears every Thursday night during his backup server shifts?

    There is an understanding “to dress professional and presentable” regardless of gender that the law could affirm without going into the tall grass chasing after hemlines and exposed ankles.

  86. 86.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Betty Cracker: I had to hike the steepest part of the trail twice, since once I’d nearly got to Amir’s Garden, I realized I didn’t have my cellphone. I had to hike back down to find my cellphone in the passenger seat and the removable faceplate for my car radio still inserted. Then back up the hill again to Amir’s Garden(where were you Amir). Good thing I went back down and got the phone since the wife called on my return hike and was wondering where I was.

  88. 88.

    WaterGirl

    @gene108: After our overnight snow earlier this week, I woke up to realize that someone had shoveled my driveway. I don’t feel guilty at all – what a lovely thing for someone to do! I just haven’t been able to find out who did it so I can thank them.

    I am declaring today as a guilt-free day. Just enjoy the kindness!

  90. 90.

    Botsplainer

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Do things that you love, whether you get recognition or not, and quit thinking about networking as being a career or social life boost if you’re in the lower tranches of the middle class. Insist on fulfillment of your material requirements from the work that you do, and be aware of the fact that the folks who most frequently work as the”face” of enterprises (cashiers, fast food workers, restaurant. Waiters, line cooks, construction laborers, etc) carry an incredible amount of responsibility in terms of material, repetition, timing and scheduling.

    Those totems I complain of? They’re substitutes for career recognition and advancement.

  93. 93.

    Elizabelle

    WaPost paywall is down this weekend, so read away.

    Kathleen Parker unloads both barrels on Palin and Trump. She even slaps the National Review for their “Against Trump” issue. (“Into a blizzard of irony gallops National Review … And now suddenly, the editors, one of whom all but telepathically dated Palin, are blind to the former governor’s charms …”)

    It is a thing of beauty. In fairness to Parker, she saw through Palin’s mean girl act early, and warned her readers in 2008.

    That said, KParker has denigrated President Obama and Democrats at every turn, and enabled Republicans whenever she could. So her hands are hardly clean. She’s a slightly brighter David Brooks, who seems to take herself less seriously.

    WaPost: With Trump and Palin, Republicans get what they deserve

    Like previously conjoined twins who had shared a brain before Ben Carson separated them, these two anti-everything, post-lamestream media instigators presented themselves as political doppelgangers, a he/she, yin-yang, sis-boom-bah political marriage of the carnival barker and the bearded lady.

    Step right up! Get your tickets! Bring the whole family! Bring your anger, bring your spleen, don’t let logic intervene!

    The challenge for those of us in the observation business [so that’s what it is] is to illuminate what’s plainly obvious without offending those who prefer not to see.

    …. Meanwhile, it looks as though Republicans may get what they deserve — a bombastic, bellicose, self-aggrandizing, mean-streaked, golf-cheating, bullying narcissist without plans or policies beyond his own, no doubt fickle, fantasies.

    But for the “golf-cheating”, that’s a spot on description of Sarah Palin, and — but for the “no policies”– Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, and Chris Christie too. It’s the flavor 2016 GOP candidates come in. They’re all living in a fantasy world, but you will not hear that from “observer” Kathleen Parker.

    And, being Kathleen Parker, she is still kind of slimy:

    Once Republicans forced the party to take the governor of Alaska seriously as a vice presidential candidate, they opened a populist door that they’ll not easily shut.

    She and Joe Klein and the establishment mediots are quite concerned about a populist wildfire, in either party.

    Populism is a reasonable response, when the “elite establishment” has failed you so badly.

  94. 94.

    Baud

    @Elizabelle:

    Populism is a reasonable response,

    I can’t agree with that blanket statement. Historically, lots of populism has been quite unreasonable.

  95. 95.

    Elizabelle

    @Keith G:

    Please take pictures and send them to a front pager. Maybe when convenient for all there can be a post of pictures and commentary from our friends who live in the “danger zone”.

    Will do. Hope others do as well.

    Steeplejack? eemom? Shana? Poopyman? All DC area pals: To your smartphones and digital cameras. You know what you must do.

  96. 96.

    Amir Khalid

    And what do you know? Liverpool throw the lead away, for the second time in the match. 4-4.

  97. 97.

    Amir Khalid

    Dafuq is going on at Carrow Road? Adam Lallana makes it 4-5 to Liverpool.
    ETA: And the ref blows the final whistle on that scoreline. Phew.

  101. 101.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: Yeah, maybe too blanket a statement.

    And the “elite establishment” that has failed is primarily Congress, some horrible Supreme Court decisions, the military-industrial complex, the banksters and predatory capitalists who thwart regulation — President Obama has put out a lot of conflagrations.

    It’s like a hydra, though. Worst I have ever seen it.

    Maybe this is simplistic, but I lay a lot of the blame at Fox News and Limbaugh and other people who get paid to make Americans hate each other. They have made this country ungovernable. They’ve benefited the plutocrats and weakened small d democratic institutions. On purpose.

    We could, and must, change this.

  103. 103.

    Poopyman

    @Elizabelle:

    Steeplejack? eemom? Shana? Poopyman? All DC area pals: To your smartphones and digital cameras. You know what you must do.

    Yeah, I do, since I’m now hearing tractors in stereo.

    I ain’t doin’ nuthin’.

  106. 106.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Elizabelle: The first time I became aware of Kathleen Parker, I think pre-9/11, she wrote a whole column about how Dumbya was a “good man*” based almost entirely of a TV clip she had seen of the Lil Fella in his pickup truck down on the Lazy Potemkin Ranch. I can’t find that column, but KP had that magic pick up truck on the brain

    Measuring the success of American diplomacy these days seems to come down to a single question: Did Bush get him in the truck? For George W. Bush so far, it’s three for three. In the past several months, the leader of the Free World and the most powerful nation on Earth (two descriptive phrases that are not coincidental) has met minds with three key world leaders via a white Ford F250 pickup truck – Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and, recently, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah. Of the three, Putin seemed happiest amid the Bush bush. In photographs of the November 2001 visit, Putin was like a Labrador puppy in the shotgun seat of Bush’s truck. You got the feeling the Russian leader had just discovered his inner frat boy. From KGB to SAE in a single afternoon, Bush-style.

    *there was a brief vogue when wingers, led by the dolt himself, convinced themselves those two words were invested with enormous poetic resonance, a Gary Cooperish understatement that implied a Gary Cooperish character When Bush told Bernie Kerik he was a “good man” at a WH ceremony, everyone knew he was destined to move up. Till he was indicted.

  107. 107.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Botsplainer:

    Do things that you love, whether you get recognition or not, and quit thinking about networking as being a career or social life boost if you’re in the lower tranches of the middle class.

    I can assure you, people don’t get involved in Boy Scouts for awards, they do it to mentor boys through their teenage years because they care. People join church committees because their churches are important to them and they care. As far as Masons go, my impression of them has always been it’s a way for like minded people to get together, and maybe work together on some project that they care about. Never been to a Masonic lodge, so don’t really know.

    Those totems I complain of? They’re substitutes for career recognition and advancement.

    You could not be more wrong. If “career recognition and advancement” is the sum total of one’s life, that is a pretty shallow existence. The only thing I got out of my “career” was a paycheck, health insurance, and a pension. Every now and again I got to work on a pretty good crew too. For my ownself, work was what I did in between living. And every now and again people recognized that what I did while living was a worthwhile contribution to the human race and it’s knowledge of the world in which we live.

    And there is nothing wrong with that.

  108. 108.

    Betty Cracker

    @NotMax: The postmistress in my little village is an absolute gorgon, but I don’t blame the gubmint for it. She’d be just as much of an asshole if she worked at Dairy Queen.

    @WaterGirl: I lived in Boston for four years, the only extended time I’ve lived outside of FL. One time after a heavy snow, I shoveled out a car I thought was mine until I spotted a Ford emblem on it…I drove a Honda back then. That very day, I decided to move back home.

  109. 109.

    Elizabelle

    Holy shit.

    NY Times news alert:

    Galled by Donald J. Trump’s dominance of the Republican field, and troubled by Hillary Clinton’s stumbles and the rise of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont on the Democratic side, Michael R. Bloomberg has instructed advisers to draw up plans for an independent campaign in this year’s presidential race.

  110. 110.

    Steeplejack

    @Amir Khalid:

    Quite a finish. And I thought the ref blew the whistle a little soon, after Liverpool’s extended celebration of that final goal. But kudos for escaping by the skin of their teeth.

  111. 111.

    Steeplejack

    So it looks like we got our (first) foot of snow, and then some, here in NoVa. I haven’t been outside to measure it this morning, but from my window I can see that the snow is approaching the top of the wheel wells on the curb side of the parked cars. The snow plow went by again a while ago and added to the tasteful ridge of snow along the street side of the cars; it’s up to a few inches below the side windows. Which is why I’m glad I parked my car in the auxiliary lot behind a neighboring building. It’s angle-in parking, and if the lot gets plowed at all, the snow won’t get pushed up against my car, so it will be easier to dig out.

    But I’m not going anywhere any time soon. It’s 26°, with an 18mph wind from the north, and it is still snowing quite vigorously—small flakes coming down fast. For some reason that makes me think the power will be less likely to go out; the big, fat, wet flakes have to be heavier, right? We’ll see.

    Other than that, normal Saturday morning. Listening to Bill Evans and watching the EPL matches. Housecat dozing at her workstation. All is calm.

  112. 112.

    Granite

    There was supposed to be an anti global warming protest on Capital Hill Monday and it’s been snowed out! Too funny, Warmists have the worst timing lol.

  115. 115.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Not only is it sexists, it’s stupid. Mulder can’t be Mulder without Scully. Hollywood is a pretty amazing place were one can be doing the arts professionally and not even get the most basics of story telling.

  116. 116.

    Elizabelle

    From the NY Times story:

    Bloomberg, Sensing an Opening, Revisits a Potential White House Run

    If Republicans were to nominate Mr. Trump or Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a hard-line conservative, and Democrats were to pick Mr. Sanders, Mr. Bloomberg — who changed his party affiliation to independent in 2007 — has told allies he would be likely to run.

    Edward G. Rendell, the former governor of Pennsylvania and a past Democratic National Committee chairman, said he believed Mr. Bloomberg could compete in the race if activist candidates on the left and right prevailed in the party primaries.

    “Mike Bloomberg for president rests on the not-impossible but somewhat unlikely circumstance of either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz versus Bernie Sanders,” said Mr. Rendell, a close ally of Mrs. Clinton’s who is also a friend of Mr. Bloomberg’s. “If Hillary wins the nomination, Hillary is mainstream enough that Mike would have no chance, and Mike’s not going to go on a suicide mission.”

    Rendell says he might support Bloomberg, if Sanders is the nominee.

    [Bloomberg’s] associates said, he has grown more frustrated with what he sees a race gone haywire. A longtime critic of partisan primary elections, Mr. Bloomberg has lamented what he considers Mrs. Clinton’s lurch to the left in her contest against Mr. Sanders, especially her criticism of charter schools and other education reforms that he pushed as mayor and has continued to support since leaving office.

    I’ve been so thrilled Sanders is in the race, pushing Hillary to the left.

    Now we have Bloomberg, saying “not too far.”

    The oligarchy will not be denied.

    I

  117. 117.

    Betty Cracker

    @Elizabelle: Wow. If Bloomy wasn’t so pro-gun control, I’d assume he’d peel more Republican votes away from the nominee than Democratic votes. But maybe his gun control politics balance it out. What do you think?

    ETA: Fuck Rendell.

  124. 124.

    WereBear

    @Gimlet:

    Big government is the way I was treated at the post office this afternoon.

    Idiot. I’ve been treated far worse by corporate, and that is who is clamoring for the rendered fat of our souls.

  125. 125.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    How popular was Bloomberg at the end of his run? I guess it doesn’t matter since absence tends to make the heart grow fonder.

    A three way race between R (Trump or not), Bloomberg and Sanders would be hard to predict, I think. Especially if Santorum decides Trump isn’t jesussy enough and makes it four

  126. 126.

    Glidwrith

    @Botsplainer: “Masonic lodge, uniform adornments for scout masters and local scout executives, rotary events and accolades for running church committees are total jokes foisted on them as totems designed to fake giving their lives wider meaning, they come to miss the white privilege that provides sinecures of security that mask the mundane mediocrity they survive.”

    I know you were talking about men, but just substitute ‘women’ all up and down the social and economic scale. What those men are experiencing are the same kind of tokens many women have dealt with and are still dealing with – only change it to male privilege instead of white.

    To bring this full circle – just look at Gillian. Women are not paid equal to men because we are not recognized economically as being worthwhile and those jobs where women are the majority are notorious for being underpaid.

    I won’t even get into the dichotomy between the supposed ‘respect’ given to women being housewives and family makers and basically being the equivalent of unpaid servants. Apparently being patted on the head in recognition is enough.

    /end of rant

    Apologies if I’m a bit incoherent – need my first cup of tea.

  127. 127.

    Botsplainer

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I’ll add that at one time or another, I was part of each of those kinds of groups because I thought I was supposed to be. As time progressed, I ditched them because I wasn’t that interested and felt like little was being achieved. The other thing I noticed was the number of folks who seemed to join due to a personal agenda.

  128. 128.

    ThresherK

    @OzarkHillbilly: Just as long as you remember that everybody in the “Burgerverse” is pretty damn cool with Marshmallow. But I wouldn’t count on that reception in Kansas.

    (Actually, Bob himself is pretty damn cool with attention from non-cis men, to the point of being non-plussed.)

  131. 131.

    WaterGirl

    @Betty Cracker: oh, no, shoveling out the wrong car, that would be awful!

    Plus, if you still lived in Boston I’m not at all sure that MomSense and I would be planning to move in next door to you. I mean, really, there would be no tiki bar if you lived in Boston, or at least not enough good weather to hang out there much.

  136. 136.

    Elizabelle

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Bloomberg left open the door to running against Hillary Clinton too.

    At a dinner party late last fall at the home of Roger C. Altman, an investment banker and former deputy Treasury secretary, Mr. Bloomberg delivered a piquant assessment of Mrs. Clinton as a presidential candidate.

    In the presence of Mr. Altman, a longtime supporter of Mrs. Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, Mr. Bloomberg described her as a flawed politician, shadowed by questions about her honesty and the continuing investigation into her email practices as secretary of state, according to two people in attendance.

    The outcome of that investigation, Mr. Bloomberg said, was anyone’s guess.

    [And who owns a major news organization?]

    Setting a March deadline for making a decision allows Mr. Bloomberg to see how Mrs. Clinton and the more mainstream Republican candidates fare in the early primaries. And because of his vast wealth, there is no downside in laying the groundwork for a possible campaign, even if he ultimately decides against it.

    Even a victory by Mrs. Clinton in the Democratic primaries might not preclude a bid by Mr. Bloomberg, his associates said, if he believed she had been gravely weakened by the contest.

    Or, IMHO, if Bloomberg himself decides Clinton has strayed too far to the left.

    I wonder what Obama thinks about this.

    Bloomberg is basically stepping in to save the Republicans. And the status quo. He can see this could be a change election, with momentum on the Democratic side.

  137. 137.

    Iowa Old Lady

    How hard would it be to do a third party run at this point? I suppose he doesn’t have to worry about the primary schedule or delegates. It’s just him and his money and Rendell.

    No one in Iowa will have any idea who this man is.

  139. 139.

    Glidwrith

    @OzarkHillbilly: Ran out of time before I could add in to my bit above:

    I very much like your response about how the different organizations named matter to people because they care about mentoring and other things that matter to them.

    What I notice, though, is that many of these activities have no means of being perpetuated unless one gives both money and time. Why shouldn’t we be able to merge the things we care about as a means to make ones living?

    Yeah, I know – and the Unicorn Fairy is about to show up on my doorstep.

    Tea and Family now – STAT

  140. 140.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Elizabelle: I haven’t followed his political career, but I get the sense Bloomberg doesn’t have much taste for retail politics, debates, financial disclosures… he would want to be drafted into a front porch campaign (or veranda, or east terrace overlooking the Park, or…), but there would be a lot of sycophants appealing to his ego, many of them from Planet Clinton. Rendell is a Bubba-fanatic, and Howard WOlfson, a second rate Mark Penn, was one of his deputy mayors. I don’t think he would run against Clinton, but he could be persuaded to run against Sanders/Trump.
    Pure, half-informed speculation on my part.

  141. 141.

    Princess

    As I said in an earlier thread, I’ve been thinking since last autumn that if it is Trump vs. Sanders, Bloomberg would run. And I think he could win. He’ll peel off tons of corporate money and all the Christie/Bush/Kasich/ voters from Trump and many of the Hillary voters from Bernie, especially those who care a lot about gun control. Bernie is lousy on immigration, so he could make inroads into the Hispanic vote. The big question mark would be the AA vote.

  142. 142.

    JMG

    Bloomberg might get two percent of the vote, with luck. Who supports him besides the Beltway green room regulars? What is the appeal of a pro-rich people platform minus the racism and xenophobia offered by the regular GOP candidates?

  144. 144.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: Perot had a different… let’s say accent. And Bloomberg doesn’t even have nutty folksy charm.

    He would appeal I think to tote-baggers, people whose version of “he’s a billionaire, he must know how to fix the economy” is dressed up to “I’m a social liberal and a fiscal conservative”. I could imagine, not predict, Bloomberg winning a three way race in NY, NJ and CT, maybe MA, FL and IL.

  145. 145.

    Princess

    Bloomberg also already has a built-in basis for a grassroots network across the country thanks to all the money he’s been putting into anti-gun groups. I am peripherally involved with one in Illinois and those women (because they are mostly women) are active, engaged, and know how to organize. He may not be deeply known across the country, but he is widely known.

  147. 147.

    Baud

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have no idea. If it’s Sanders/Bloomberg/Trump, there are no recent historical parallels to compare it to, so who knows how American voters will react. As I noted in the earlier thread, Bloomberg would be an immediate Village favorite in that scenario.

  148. 148.

    MomSense

    @Elizabelle:

    Was just going to post this. If ever there were a year for Democrats to vote pragmatically, this is it. If you have any doubts, just look at what we are enduring in Maine.

  150. 150.

    Botsplainer

    @Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:

    It’s pretty accurate, and illustrates how useful the organization is in general.

    I’m a Master Mason, haven’t been to lodge for years, nor have I paid dues in years. In the balance, the organization accomplishes nothing and its few good works are easily duplicated by appropriate government funding, as the efforts are spotty at best. I think I had a couple of epiphanies. The first was when I was talking to an older man of color at my church. Super nice guy, knew my grandfather well. I think I spotted his Masonic ring and I said he should come stand in lodge with us sometime because several guys from church had been newly recruited in (I was one of them). His expression was priceless, as he’d never ever received an invitation to stand lodge in a white lodge before – it just isn’t done. That’s when I undertook a sad excursion into researching racial history in Freemasonry. The second was at an award dinner attended by the lodge, spouses and family members. Each speech was pointless to most of the attendees and only of marginal interest to lodge members, and was mostly about perpetuation of the order.

    I quit going.

  151. 151.

    gene108

    @Elizabelle:

    Maybe this is simplistic, but I lay a lot of the blame at Fox News and Limbaugh and other people who get paid to make Americans hate each other. They have made this country ungovernable. They’ve benefited the plutocrats and weakened small d democratic institutions. On purpose.

    It’s a Murdoch Empire calling card.

    Murdoch got to Britain well before he decamped in the USA, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie had their take on this, in the early 1990’s, What if Rupert Mudoch had never been born.

  152. 152.

    MomSense

    @WaterGirl:

    I’m trying to move near Boston now- but my fantasy move is definitely next door to you, Betty, and Satby. If you mix the drinks, I promise to bring the food to the tiki bar.

    Do people still use lawn chairs to reserve their parking spaces in Boston?

  157. 157.

    Sibelius

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’ve been wanting to ask that question here for quite awhile. I think it would be a great “open thread”. My life has changed far from what I ever envisioned and several times. Now I’m a little lost. I wonder what it is that drives people.

  158. 158.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @gene108: Heh. I knew there was at least one Berlin in the northeast, but I was too lazy to look.

    I think it was somebody here who posted a link to Seth Meyers’ fake movie trailer, Boston Accent? The recitation of Boston suburbs sounded like getting lost in the roundabouts of southern England.

  160. 160.

    Princess

    @MomSense: I am inclined to agree. There is a case he could make that would make it not so, but since he hasn’t made that case well against Clinton, I don’t know that he is capable of making it against anyone.

    I suspect all this is moot and that Clinton will win the primary and Bloomberg consequently won’t run.

  161. 161.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Botsplainer: I first learned just what my parents thought of the Masons when I was invited to join the Rainbow Girls by a childhood friend. “The Masonic Lodge is nothing but a place to get drunk where they don’t have to share with the blacks. You can ask your Uncle Bert if you don’t believe me.”

    My uncle was Scottish Rite. If you asked my parents, the Shriners also drank too much (have I mentioned we were Southern Baptists?), but they did have their charity work to balance it out a little.

  164. 164.

    Anoniminous

    @Gimlet:

    Big government is the way I was treated at the post office this afternoon.

    And that is Joe Klein in one sentence. Say no more, read no more, put it on endless repeat, and save bandwidth

  168. 168.

    Betty Cracker

    @Steeplejack: May I use it in an open thread later? With appropriate attribution, of course?

    @MomSense: It’s 52 and sunny but windy here at the moment — parka weather! Supposed to be back in the 70s on Monday.

  169. 169.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense: Definitely warmer, but it’s “only” 66 in key west (not exactly sure where Betty lives). I’d want it to be at least 70 before I would wear that outfit.

    Full disclosure: I would never wear that outfit. But I wouldn’t even fantasy wear it unless it was at 70 degrees.

    I have not forgotten about the audio files. Will they be on the way this week?

  170. 170.

    WaterGirl

    Elizabelle, I just this minute remembered your cryptic comments about moving and putting most of your stuff in storage and either starting a grand adventure (or not).

    Have you filled us in on what you’re up to, and I have just missed it?

  171. 171.

    J R in WV

    @efgoldman:

    The bastards do have wives, daughters, granddaughters, and as part of the vasty conspiracy of Republican theocratic fascists, they intend to keep their daughters, sisters, nieces etc down just as hard as all the other women they want to keep down.

    Monsters are as monsters do.

  173. 173.

    Heliopause

    It’s just outrageous insulting bullshit that she would be offered half of Duchovny’s salary for the same work

    Capitalism, baby. You offer what you think they’ll take.

    One problem with the liberal approach to this is that they get on board with Gillian Anderson or Jennifer Lawrence when they make a stink about it, but the broader problem is never going to go away as long as the current economic system is the default. The “Hollywood star complains about it” model of social justice is never going to help more than a handful of people at a time.

  176. 176.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    One problem with the liberal approach to this is that they get on board with Gillian Anderson or Jennifer Lawrence when they make a stink about it

    Yeah, nobody mentioned this issue till Lily Ledbetter won her Oscar.

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