Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Motown is Joe-Town!

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

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

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

This blog will pay for itself.

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

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Much Ado

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Much Ado

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Forget about popcorn, there’s been a YOOOGE run on squirting flowers & big floppy shoes.
*****
Apart from the same sad clowns, what’s on the agenda for the day?

Reader Interactions

152Comments

  3. 3.

    Betty Cracker

    I’m so grateful the site redesign put Cole’s Twitter feed in the sidebar. It’s a daily reminder to stay the fuck off Twitter because that way lies madness…

    What’s your secret, Anne Laurie? How do you dip your toes into the Twitter stream without being sucked into the raging rapids of cliquey sniping and lemming-stampede pile-ons? Don’t tell me it’s because you don’t have an account — you could create one for free in 30 seconds.

    I realize this is old ladyish cloud-shouting. Lord knows blogs, Facebook and meat-space water cooler conversations can be every bit as petty and stupid as the dumbest Twitter trends. But there seems to be something uniquely horrible about Twitter.

  5. 5.

    Mustang Bobby

    Posts like this should come with a trigger warning for those who have been middle school teachers and camp counselors so we can guard against flashbacks to those days, or at least stock up on booze.

    No, wait, I’ve been sober since 1992 and they’re just not fucking worth it to relapse over.

  6. 6.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    So Sanders and his fanatical supporters have been screaming on top of their lungs for 9 months for more debates, not for political reasons, they said, but for the sake of discussing issues. Now that Clinton agrees he declines.

    I’m Shocked! I’m Shocked!

    He turned out to be playing politics, all along.

    Any more disappointments like this and I may turn into a cynic.

  7. 7.

    Anne Laurie

    @Betty Cracker:

    What’s your secret, Anne Laurie? How do you dip your toes into the Twitter stream without being sucked into the raging rapids of cliquey sniping and lemming-stampede pile-ons?

    I follow a small, select number of people from whose twitter-streams I can cherry-pick. Also, reading Twitter — unlike, say, Facebook — is a perfect fit for someone with ADD and (mild) OCD; its best & worst features are mine as well.

    And finally, I edit a lot. Hard as it might be to believe, I usually accumulate three to five times as many tweets on a particular topic as I end up using here. Like I said: my specific neurological quirks fit the medium!

    If I had my own Twitter account, it’d be much harder to avoid getting “sucked in” with the haterz & personal attacks. That’s why I refuse to sign up!

  8. 8.

    Poopyman

    The Federales in the DC area are on another 3-hour delayed rush hour arrival, cuz all that snow has started to melt, and froze hard on the roads last night.

    Theoretically. I’m waiting for daylight before I venture out to see for myself.

    Anyway, another handful of forced PTO hours for us contractors.

  9. 9.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Baud: ahahahahahhahahahahhhahahh

    Nader calling Sanders “extreme”.

    I wonder how the die-hard Naderites who are part of Sanders’s base will take the insult. Will they ignore it, rationalize it, or freak out.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    @Anne Laurie:

    Hard as it might be to believe, I usually accumulate three to five times as many tweets on a particular topic as I end up using here

    Whoa.

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    @Anne Laurie: Okay, that makes sense and probably explains my aversion to Twitter since I have attention surplus and obsessive indifference traits. Thank you!

  13. 13.

    Schlemazel

    @Poopyman:
    WHAT?!?! Your contractors get PTO for snow days? Ours are forced to use their vacation, sick days or go without pay while the employees are safe & snug at home. Surprising that many contractors actually made it in to work. Those of us on the frozen tundra just commiserate with the contractors for their plight

  14. 14.

    satby

    Good morning everyone. Looking forward to an unseasonably warm weekend coming up. And a second job interview on Monday for a seasonal full-time job that looks promising but is not going to be a problem to leave when my exchange daughters are done with the school year and go home. Starting to pack up for the migration south (omigd). I hope everyone else will have a good day too.

    And since it’s an open thread, it’s the last days of a 20% off sale I’m running at my Etsy store to reduce my inventory. Shameless plug.

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    So the town of Ferguson has made a deal with the DOJ to reform their policing practices. Hooray! Happy days are here again!!

    Wait, what’s that you say? SSDD? How so?

    In Ferguson, vote to replace deceased councilman exposes racial divide

    A vote to replace a recently deceased councilman fell along racial lines — with three black council members supporting a black woman for the position and two white members backing a white man. But it doesn’t appear that either nominee will be seated anytime soon. At the meeting, Ferguson City Attorney Stephanie Karr told the audience that four council votes were necessary for a nomination to be successful, according to several people who attended. That interpretation seems to open the door for Mayor James Knowles III to make the appointment himself, but it has also been called into question by several residents claiming that the black nominee is being blocked unfairly.

    Huh? What in the name of council comedies is going on here?

    More than two weeks ago, Councilman Brian Fletcher, a former mayor known as the city’s greatest champion, died of a heart attack. He was white.

    Things are becoming clearer now.

    The city’s charter stipulates that the remaining council members — excluding the mayor — will appoint someone in the event of a vacancy on the six-member board. If the council doesn’t appoint someone within 30 days, the decision then falls to the mayor, according to the charter.

    So why does it take 4 votes when a majority of 5 is 3?

    Resident Karl Tricamo, also a member of the Ferguson Collaborative, said Knowles told him on Tuesday that the seat vacated by Fletcher is still factored into what constitutes a majority of the council, and that’s why four votes were needed.

    Ahh, but of course, dead men can’t vote but they can still count I guess. I wonder what color Mayor Knowles is?

    “It’s completely ludicrous to suggest you have to have a four-person majority when there are only currently five members of the council,” said Dave Roland, a Mexico, Mo.-based constitutional attorney who has successfully argued two election cases before the Missouri Supreme Court. “I think that it is abundantly clear that this provision taken in context, and by its plain meaning, means that the nonvacant seats on the City Council vote and a majority of those voting get to fill the vacancy.”

    Becoming clearer all the time.

  18. 18.

    satby

    @Baud: thanks, still not till June unless something drastic happens. The new job is threatening the spring break road trip, but I can make most of that into a couple of weekend trips. Fingers crossed!

  19. 19.

    Poopyman

    @Schlemazel: “PTO” is the new (20 years ago?) HR term for the combined sick leave/vacation days we earn. So yeah, I’m burning vacation leave.

  20. 20.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Resident Karl Tricamo, also a member of the Ferguson Collaborative, said Knowles told him on Tuesday that the seat vacated by Fletcher is still factored into what constitutes a majority of the council, and that’s why four votes were needed.

    That’s not usually how it works, but it’s not unheard of to have a special rule that requires this.

  22. 22.

    Mustang Bobby

    @Anne Laurie: I tweet in fits and starts (@BobbyBBWW if you care), but it’s usually to retweet or reply to friends or the big dogs who don’t know I’m alive. But it’s like potato chips; it can be hard to stop after just one.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    I was never a heavy twitterer, but I used to be more active than I am now. Now, I mainly use it to follow general news.

  24. 24.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Whoa: Washington Post ed board says Sanders “is not a brave truth-teller.”

    They’re half right.

    He does actually believes in most of what he’s saying. Some of the positions he takes is CYA. For example, does he really believe gun corporations should have blanket immunity – nah, he just afraid the NRA’s power in his rural state. Does he really believe GITMO should remain open – nah, he’s just afraid of being painted as soft on terror. We he really rip up the Patriot act if he becomes president – of course not, cuz it would trigger hysteria that would engulf his domestic goals. On other matters I don’t know if he’s delusional or fibbing. For example, does he really think the gop, corporations, and the corporate media won’t team up to obstruct his agenda as president because of the power of his frequent 6 hour long speeches — he’s either intentionally unrealistic or he’s naive.

  25. 25.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Repeating:

    “It’s completely ludicrous to suggest you have to have a four-person majority when there are only currently five members of the council,” said Dave Roland, a Mexico, Mo.-based constitutional attorney who has successfully argued two election cases before the Missouri Supreme Court. “I think that it is abundantly clear that this provision taken in context, and by its plain meaning, means that the nonvacant seats on the City Council vote and a majority of those voting get to fill the vacancy.”

    They pulled this “special rule” right out of their asses.

  30. 30.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m so grateful the site redesign put Cole’s Twitter feed in the sidebar. It’s a daily reminder to stay the fuck off Twitter because that way lies madness…

    One of the many reasons I’ve never got on Twitter(anyway, I’m not a Twit).

  37. 37.

    Baud

    NBC News via Reddit

    NASA has confirmed reports that space officials discussed putting Big Bird on the space shuttle Challenger, before it was lost along with its entire crew in an explosion in 1986. But the space agency said the plan never got to the point of giving Caroll Spinney, the human who portrays the 8-foot-2 bird on the “Sesame Street” TV show, a spot on the passenger list.
    ……
    “I once got a letter from NASA, asking if I would be willing to join a mission to orbit the Earth as Big Bird, to encourage kids to get interested in space,” Spinney recalled last month in an essay published by The Guardian. “There wasn’t enough room for the puppet in the end, and I was replaced by a teacher.”

  39. 39.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: I kinda thought he would wring a concession from Fox, then show up triumphantly holding Ailes’ balls aloft, but now that he’s said he’ll do a fundraiser for that shady veterans’ assistance outfit instead, he can’t show up without looking like the dick who let the vets down.

  41. 41.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    He could donate money in lieu of the fundraiser if he got his concession. I think he wants the other candidates to focus on Cruz. Maybe some people will boo Meghan Kelly so Trump will be there in spirit.

  44. 44.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Betty Cracker: Please – social media, blogs, and left sites are swamped with the meme

    Bernie Sanders isn’t a politician. He’s one of us. His fight is my fight, OUR fight. #WeStandTogether #Bernie2016

    Sanders isn’t a politician who watches the polls; he keeps his eye on the prize of social and economic justice.

    Bernie isn’t a politician. He’s simply a man who wants to change the world for the better.

    Bernie isn’t a politician. He is a leader with a vision! #Medicare4All #FeelTheBern #burnieBus #burnie2016

    Thanks, Ben & Jerry, for supporting the only candidate that isn’t bought and paid for. Bernie isn’t a politician – he’s a statesman.

    It’s not political genius. Bernie isn’t a politician — Bernie is a leader.

    it goes on and on and on and on. enough to choke a million horses.

    injecting reality occasionally won’t harsh their buzz.

  45. 45.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Jesus, can you imagine how traumatic that would have been for the kiddos? I was a sophomore in college when the Challenger blew up. (I grow old! I grow old! I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled!)

  46. 46.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    OT: I’m thinking of getting a Samsung NX300(the model that preceded my new camera) to convert into a full spectrum camera. I’m considering performing the surgery myself.

  48. 48.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Baud: The key will be if CNN & MSNBC televise Trump’s counter event scheduled for the same time. If they do, the debate’s ratings will probably crater.

  49. 49.

    Baud

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    Thanks, Ben & Jerry, for supporting the only candidate that isn’t bought and paid for. Bernie isn’t a politician – he’s a statesman.

    Hey, I’m not bought and paid for. I’m not even popular with the voters. That makes me the only candidate not tied to any interests, special or otherwise.

  60. 60.

    Gin & Tonic

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    Thanks, Ben & Jerry, for supporting the only candidate that isn’t bought and paid for.

    Pretty funny, since Ben & Jerry themselves are bought and paid for, being a wholly-owned subsidiary of Unilever Holdings (NYSE: UN).

  61. 61.

    Joel

    Trump going to the mattresses against Fox News right as the GOP crawls into bed with him.

    Nothing will come of this, but I’m rooting for lots of casualties.

  63. 63.

    Princess

    @debbie: It is not a slam to identify Bernie and Hillary as what both of them, in fact, are, which is politicians. I’m okay with that — I think the whole idea that we need to elect people who aren’t politicians to do politics is dangerously naive. But it does mean that Bernie, like Hillary has voted for a whole lot of crappy things, sometimes out of conviction (like voting against comprehensive immigration reform) and sometimes out of pure politics (keeping GITMO open, allowing gun company immunity). He’s not as pure as his supporters need him to be.

  64. 64.

    Betty Cracker

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: To resume my anti-Twitter jihad from above, I wonder how much of the tidal wave of stupid is generated through that platform? I know there are annoying pro-Sanders comments right here at Balloon Juice, and frankly, some of the pro-Clinton peeps are every bit as deceptive and irritating (in the opinion of this mostly neutral observer who likes both candidates). But there’s something about the Twitter experience that cranks the Heathers factor up to 11, IMO.

  65. 65.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: From his wiki page:

    After settling in Vermont in 1968, Sanders ran unsuccessful third-party campaigns for governor and U.S. senator in the early to mid-1970s. As an independent, he was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont’s most populous city, in 1981. He was reelected three times. In 1990, he was elected to represent Vermont’s at-large congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1991, Sanders co-founded the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He served as a congressman for 16 years before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006. In 2012, he was reelected by a large margin, capturing almost 71% of the popular vote.

    For somebody who has been involved in politics for 40 years to claim he is not a politician is either plumbing the depths of delusion or soaring to the heights of chutzpah.

  66. 66.

    NotMax

    Perhaps not the best choice for an early morning thread, but found it an interesting data presentation.

    Graphing the flexures of fatality, here.

  68. 68.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Princess:

    I think the whole idea that we need to elect people who aren’t politicians to do politics is dangerously naive.

    We tried that here in CA, it didn’t work out too well.

  69. 69.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: It;s the Amazing Ronko Baud! He slices! He dices! He even makes Julienne fries of all your enemies!!!

  73. 73.

    debbie

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I don’t know, it seems more a distraction than anything else. But then, there’s a beautiful, glowing sunrise outside my window right now. A much better distraction.

  74. 74.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It;s the Amazing Ronko Baud! He slices! He dices! He even makes Julienne fries of all your enemies!!!

    He crushes your enemies, has them driven before you, and lets you hear the lamentations of their women!

  77. 77.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @debbie:You mean he’s not proud of being a politician. That would make his actions cynical. But I don’t think that. I just think he’s a human being who’s job is politics.

    Six months ago I wrote on this blog that Sanders would win IA & NH, but he would have trouble winning elsewhere. Looks like I was right. Reality is the best anecdote against surprises.

  82. 82.

    NotMax

    Excerpts from Obama’s Holocaust memorial address:

    …at moments like this, as I listened to the extraordinary stories of the four that we honor, memories come rushing back of the times that I’ve encountered the history and the horror of the Shoah — growing up, hearing the stories of my great uncle who helped liberate Ohrdruf, part of Buchenwald, and who returned home so shaken by the suffering that he had seen that my grandmother would tell me he did not speak to anyone for six months, just went up in his attic, couldn’t fully absorb the horror that he had witnessed.
    [snip]
    Would we have the courage of Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds? I know your dad said he was just doing his job, but he went above and beyond the call of duty, and so did all those who joined in that line. Faced with a choice of giving up his fellow soldiers or saving his own life, Roddie looked evil in the eye and dared a Nazi to shoot. His moral compass never wavered. He was true to his faith, and he saved some 200 Jewish American soldiers as a consequence. It’s an instructive lesson, by the way, for those of us Christians. I cannot imagine a greater expression of Christianity than to say, I, too, am a Jew.
    [snip]
    … Too often, especially in times of change, especially in times of anxiety and uncertainty, we are too willing to give into a base desire to find someone else – someone different – to blame for our struggles.
    [snip]
    …For Americans, in particular, we should understand that it’s an attack on our diversity, on the very idea that people of different backgrounds can live together and thrive together. Which is why – your father was right – we are all Jews. Because anti-Semitism is a distillation, an expression of an evil that runs through so much of human history, and if we do not answer that, we do not answer any other form of evil. When any Jew anywhere is targeted just for being Jewish, we all have to respond as Roddie Edmonds did – “We are all Jews.” Source

    Come to think of it, the video of his address would make for a nice front page post, a welcome interlude from the bottomless cesspit of the Republican campaigns.

  83. 83.

    Princess

    I don’t think he’s going to win Iowa. I think his support is too concentrated in particular areas. he could win the popular vote (if they keep track of that in the caucus) but I think H is going to win more delegates.

  84. 84.

    Kay

    @Princess:

    He’s not as pure as his supporters need him to be.

    Some of them may think he’s “pure”, ideologically, but they all know he’s been an elected official his entire life. I don’t think they’re saying he’s not the dictionary definition of “politician”. I think part of what they find appealing is his bluntness and appearance of not being professionally managed. I think that’s why criticisms based on a lack of political savvy – his campaign is “amateur”, that sort of thing – don’t leave a mark.

    It IS kind of appealing, to me. People say he scowls too much and that’s probably true as a pure political observation ( I think he’s generally too negative) but I’m amused when I watch him that he’s been in public life so long and he seems genuinely unconcerned with how his face looks in repose- no one has taught him to adopt a bland expression at those debates when he isn’t speaking, or he ignored the training.

  85. 85.

    dogwood

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I actually watched a clip of one of the recent Bob Gates interviews. The one where he says the GOP views on foreign policy would embarrass a middle schooler. He also wisely said that being a non-politician is not an advantage for a leader. Professional politicians have specific skills, like other professionals, that enable them to be effective. It’s ludicrous to think that people without those skills can run government.

  87. 87.

    Betty Cracker

    Speaking of Heathers, any future flock of hens owned by me will all be named “Heather.” Much simpler that way and more descriptive of their personalities.

  89. 89.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie:

    it seems more a distraction than anything else.

    Personally, I don’t have a generic problem with politicians. I recognize their necessity in a modern functioning society. I do have problems with certain particular politicians, but that is another discussion. (Bernie is not among them) But when people make this ludicrous claim and put it at the center of a particular campaign, it is no longer a mere distraction. It is becoming the main selling point. And it is no more in the realm of reality than “global climate change is a hoax.”

  90. 90.

    Kay

    @Princess:

    I do too. We’ll see but I can’t tell the difference anymore between a media-fed “surge” to make it a horserace which supporters then latch onto because they want it to be true and something real.

    I read his campaign people on Twitter and they sound to me like they’re down a little and hoping to close a gap.

  91. 91.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Betty Cracker: I watched it blow up from just outside the cafeteria at Jesuit High School in Tampa. A bunch of us were having lunch on a free period and we decided to sit at the outside table to watch as it was a clear day and you could see the rocket exhaust all the way across the state. We immediately headed to the library where they always had the launches on TV and saw the replay. Within an hour they called a hasty memorial service in the chapel.

  92. 92.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: I’m certain it did. I went to school with a horde of Heathers, and several of my kid’s friends’ mothers are named Heather, but none of the kids. Ironically, I’ve never personally known a mean Heather. If I had been the writer on that movie project, it might have been called “Kimberlies” or “Jennifers” instead (though I know many a nice Kim and Jen too!).

  93. 93.

    Princess

    @Kay: I agree it is appealing. There is lots to like about him. And I should have said “not as pure as some of his supporters need him to be.” Like the supporter in this thread who I was responding to who thought calling him a politician is slander.

  94. 94.

    Patricia Kayden

    @OzarkHillbilly: Perhaps he meant to say that he’s not a regular politician, i.e., out for self aggrandizement versus helping the little people. He seems like a nice guy but he’s very naive to think that somehow Republicans will work with him in Congress should he win the Presidency. That’s never going to happen.

  96. 96.

    Baud

    @Patricia Kayden: I assume every Democrat who says that is lying. Unfortunately for us, and we don’t want to admit this, Democratic rank and file are not political fighters.

  97. 97.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Betty Cracker: I never saw the sense in Twitter, for me, until recently. It often seems like old modem line noise in too many cases, invites misunderstanding, etc., etc.

    But with this Bundy thing, I’ve found that I’ve had several Twitter tabs open in my browser: Amanda Peacher at OPB, Cole, JJ MacNab, Dick Nixon, LOLGOP. Spending a few minutes scanning them maybe twice a day is occasionally worthwhile.

    But every time I think, hey maybe I should get an account after all, I think – “What would I do with the rest of my day if those things were scrolling at me continuously, demanding my attention??” It seems like yet another time pit that I can’t afford.

    I’ll re-evaluate my decision to stay off it once they roll out the 10,000 character limit. But I still will probably be just a lurker.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  98. 98.

    Betty Cracker

    @Adam L Silverman: Could you see it clearly enough to immediately realize something was wrong? I used to watch the launches outside too (still do, though no space shuttles anymore), but that day I didn’t venture outside because it was unusually cold. I saw it on TV like the rest of the world, after the fact.

  99. 99.

    NotMax

    BTW, re: Iowa caucus on the R side:

    [The communications director for the Republican Party of Iowa] said, “We have partnered with Microsoft and they have built us a special app that allows our precinct captains to report data quickly. They can do that right there on their smart phones or tablets or computers and they can do it very accurately because you can see the number you are typing in. Let’s say you’re reporting the results for Carly Fiorina. When you get to Fiorina’s name, you will see the number of votes that you enter next to her name. Then you hit a button and that will be sent.”

    He added that at the central collection point there will be special algorithms to flag any data that doesn’t match up to expectations, so unusual numbers will generate contact with the precinct for confirmation or correction. Source

    Wonder how much real world testing of the app (and its stability and security) has been done in Iowa? Would hazard a guess the answer is little to none.

  101. 101.

    Kay

    @Princess:

    I watched part of the town hall with him, the part where he was asked about his brother saying he was a “great” athlete and his taking that apart analytically (I was good but not great, then specific examples) made me smile.

    He doesn’t like talking about himself. Of course that’s part of his thing- we spend too much time on personalities- but it was so clear he has accepted that he must do it but he doesn’t have to like it! :)

    He’s stubborn.

  103. 103.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Betty Cracker: we could only really see the rocket exhaust, which from Tampa looks like white smoke/vapor. The minute it stopped arcing upwards and started moving in a funny way, and then stopped, we knew something was wrong. I don’t recall/think we saw a huge fireball or anything, just the exhaust trail doing something screwy. One of the saddest bits of fallout is that one of my class mate’s father’s was one of the engineers on the shuttle. If you recall they turned the investigation into finding the cause of the problem into sort of a hunt to hold someone accountable as if it was the result of malicious actions by one or two specific people like sabotage. As a result his father was one of the engineers terminated along the way, which if I’m remembering pretty much ruined his career. I don’t think my classmate ever got past the belief that his dad and several of his colleagues were hung out to dry because someone had to take the blame.

  104. 104.

    Betty Cracker

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: I’ll admit I looked at JJ MacNab’s feed a couple of times yesterday for the latest on the militia kooks. Twitter definitely has its purpose, including real-time info on unfolding events. I find Cole’s Twitter feed highly amusing, just watching his reaction to events that are in the news. But I find when something puzzles me and I try to dig down deeper by checking out a tweet that the Twitterer I’m reading is reacting to, then the one he or she was reacting to, etc., it generally unravels into a giant ball of stupid.

  105. 105.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Patricia Kayden: Possibly… shrug… I am none too concerned one way or the other. I like Bernie, in a way I will never like Hillary. But I am still leaning towards Hillary because I think she is better able to handle the scorched earth Republicans than Bernie. Don’t know. I have time yet to decide.

  115. 115.

    Baud

    @Iowa Old Lady: I tried following the Malheur arrests on Twitter, but it was all the same information repeated and retweeted about a thousand times before any new bit of info came through.

  117. 117.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: I suspected as much. When I got mine I got birds that were “flighty” and “foragers”. I kept the handling down to an absolute minimum because I wanted them as wild as possible and picked out one of the more aggressive roosters to protect them, because I needed them to be able to take care of themselves. I also didn’t want to get attached to them. 11 months on, I still haven’t lost any birds (really surprising) and so far I have avoided attachments.

    Especially that rooster, he is just flat out plain and simple a royal d!ck. If I were to name him, I’d call him Ted Cruz.

  118. 118.

    Punchy

    @OzarkHillbilly: So if 3 councilmembers all die in a car wreck all at once, those positions can never be filled, except by the mayor (since 4 votes would be impossible)? Someone’s cutting brake lines….

  119. 119.

    magurakurin

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    Looks like you were. But I think he’s going to lose Iowa. And I also think the internal polling for both camps must show strength for Clinton. Clinton has softened her tone against Sanders while Sanders is now considering attack ads that aren’t negative…whatever the hell that would be, and they are also floating the idea that Microsoft might be doing something hinky with the vote counts in Iowa.

    And the latest poll from SC is Clinton 64 Sanders 27. ruh roh.

  126. 126.

    David *Rafael* Koch

    @Baud: No. Obama’s victory has been mythologized. Momentum played one factor, but there were many others.

    In August 2007 PPP had Obama and Clinton tied in South Carolina (33 to 36). He always had footing and foundation in SC & it only grew during the fall. In contract, in September 2015 Clinton was beating Sanders 54-9.

    Blacks were naturally going to flock to Obama, the same way Irish & Catholics flocked to Kennedy. This allowed Obama to sweep 8 of 10 southern states (Florida’s vote was set aside).

    Similar conditions don’t exist for Sanders.

    Additionally 2008 was a 3 person race btwn Clinton and 2 ABCs (Obama and Edwards). Edwards got 17% of the vote in NH and SC. When he dropped out most of it went to Obama. Sanders doesn’t stand to inherit a big chunk of voters when O’Malley drops out.

    Obama had Ted Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy and a large chunk of Dems supporting him (Holder, Rice, Power, Zbigniew, Kerry, Carter), plus a shit load of former military. And he had Oprahpalooza.

    Sanders doesn’t have that well to draw on.

    Obama had an ingenuous guerrilla campaign and top notch operatives in Axelrod & Plouffe & Anita Dunn.

    Sanders’s campaign manager Jeff Weaver runs a comic book store.

    So Sanders will get a ton of positive coverage after IA & NH but the foundation, conditions, and demographics are not there to build victories in southern and non-populist states..

  127. 127.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    She’s done a great job, but she was perfect for it because she also followed the emergency manager law.

    Did you see the NYTimes public editor take them to task?

    After all, enough Times firepower somehow has been found to document Hillary Clinton’s every sneeze, Donald Trump’s latest bombast, and Marco Rubio’s shiny boots. There seem to be plenty of Times resources for such hit-seeking missives as “breadfacing,” or for the Magazine’s thorough exploration of buffalo plaid and “lumbersexuals.” And staff was available to produce this week’s dare-you-not-to-click video on the rising social movement known as “Free the Nipple.”
    If The Times had kept the pressure on the Flint story, the resulting journalism might not have made the “trending” list — but it would have made a real difference to the people of Flint, who were in serious need of a powerful ally.

    “Shiny boots”. Ouch.

  128. 128.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    rising social movement known as “Free the Nipple.”

    I’m intrigued. Maybe I should get more active in Twitter.

  131. 131.

    FlipYrWhig

    @David *Rafael* Koch: I think Team Bernie’s theory is that, like John Kerry ’04, he can win Iowa and New Hampshire and then surf (get it?) “momentum” the rest of the way. I have a feeling that Bernie ’16 might end up more like Tsongas ’92.

  132. 132.

    MomSense

    @Mustang Bobby:

    Only the middle schoolers were better behaved and more fun. This is like being a middle school substitute teacher for phys Ed and study hall.

  138. 138.

    Applejinx

    Pretty sure the reason Bernie opposed closing Gitmo is that the offered plan was to re-make Gitmo, exactly the same, on US soil. That’s a non-starter, it’s the POLICIES of Gitmo that are the problem, not the location.

    Very curious why he’s rejecting a debate, if that’s true. There must be some catch to it. It’s his job to be more on top of this stuff than me (ever thus for politicians, and easily forgotten)

  139. 139.

    glaukopis

    @Adam L Silverman: My son was in elementary school when the first shuttle disaster happened and an undergrad in aerospace when the second happened. When I asked him about it he said, “We all know precisely how dangerous it is, but if there were a call for the first manned trip to Mars, we’d all be in line for it”.

  140. 140.

    ruemara

    @Kay: you need to meet more supporters, then. They believe things about Bernie Sanders that even the barest familiarity with his record would say different. He’s no outsider. He’s an individualist who has used a balance of politicking and curmudgeonlyness to carve a career in office.

  141. 141.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Applejinx: Right, when Bernie doesn’t vote for something you otherwise would like it’s because he has REAL AND EXCELLENT REASONS, but when Hillary doesn’t it’s because TOOL OF GOLDMAN SACHS. You’re ridiculous.

  142. 142.

    Original Lee

    @Adam L Silverman: Have you read Richard Feynman’s account of the investigation? It’s in, I think, “What Do You Care What Other People Think?” IIRC, Feynman perceived that the engineers who knew what they were doing were overruled by more senior folk in the hierarchy, many of whom did not know what they were doing. And that the decision to launch was purely political. I think this supports the idea that your friend’s dad was hung out to dry.

  145. 145.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Betty Cracker: I don’t yet tweet myself but I find it particularly useful to keep abreast of the news and politics in India. I check the twitter feed of Nikhil Wagle, who is a Mumbai based journalist I have great respect for, at least every other day. His tweets and retweets include articles from all sides of the political spectrum and I click on them if I want to know more. I find that much more informative than WSJ ‘s India blog or the now defunct NYT IndiaInk.

    I share your opinion about Twitter regarding our lolitics. I use Balloon Juice, NYT and WSJ to keep abreast of what’s happening here.

  147. 147.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Adam L Silverman: That may be true but it’s not the whole truth. If those were the only considerations, anywhere on the Texas coast south of Galveston would have been just as good.

    To take maximum advantage of the earth’s rotational speed at whatever latitude the launch complex is located requires a launch directly eastward. In fact launches from Canaveral are to the southeast, about a 30 degree angle to the direction of rotation, & only get ~85% of the rotational velocity vector as a boost.

    The reason they don’t launch straight east from Canaveral is, as NotMax noted above, land under the flight path–Africa gets in the way.. The offset provides a window thousands of miles long & hundreds of miles wide flight track along a mostly empty ocean that expended lower stages (on or somewhat off course) can fall into without doing much more than scaring the crap out of the local aquatic life. Launch from (e.g.) Brownsville & Yucatan, Cuba & Florida are sitting there like sandtraps guarding the green.

    (NB this is also the reason why missions destined for circumpolar orbits tend to fly from Vandenberg AFB WNW of LA: a launch directly south has nothing under its track but the Galapagos until it reaches the Antarctic.)

  148. 148.

    Sherparick

    @Adam L Silverman: It appears that going back to the Vietnam War, America’s elite who rise to the top of institutions often do so as sociopaths and with great talent for evading responsibility, flattering their superiors, and finding appropriate scapegoats to be subordinates.

    From Wikipedia on the Challenger Disaster: “…NASA managers had known since 1977 that contractor Morton Thiokol’s design of the SRBs contained a potentially catastrophic flaw in the O-rings, but they had failed to address this problem properly. They also disregarded warnings (an example of “go fever”) from engineers about the dangers of launching posed by the low temperatures of that morning, and failed to adequately report these technical concerns to their superiors.

    What the Rogers Commission report did not highlight was that the vehicle was never certified to operate in temperatures that low. The O-rings, as well as many other critical components, had no test data to support any expectation of a successful launch in such conditions. Bob Ebeling from Thiokol delivered a biting analysis: “[W]e’re only qualified to 40 degrees …’what business does anyone even have thinking about 18 degrees, we’re in no man’s land.'”[2] Ken Iliff, a former NASA Chief Scientist who had worked the Space Shuttle Program since its first mission (and the X-15 program before that) stated in an official 2004 NASA publication, “Violating a couple of mission rules was the primary cause of the Challenger accident.”[3]..”

    As Original Lee states, Richard Feynman was probably the most important person on the Rogers’ Commission as far as discovering what the real problem was and piercing the bullshit. Of course Rogers hated him for it since he made the Reagan Administration, its NASA Administrators, and Morton Thikol, whose CEO and major stockholders were all important Republicans look bad. He also goes to all the BS of the Republican and Conservative Movement of the last 40 years of putting PR, of “creating our own reality” when he wrote this: “For a successful technology,” he concluded, “reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.”[58] Feynman wrote that while other members of the Commission met with NASA and supplier top management he sought out the engineers and technicians. That is how he became aware of the O-ring problem. He also noted that one of the Commission’s main worries concerned the type of leather binding in which to present the report to the President.[15]” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster#Plume

    Also, I am reading that NASA changed as the result of Challenger, but the sad fact is that the priority of PR and the “mission” over safety, remain embedded in NASA upper management culture, which of course led to the “Columbia” disaster almost 17 years later to the date. It is also no coincidence that both disasters occurred in Conservative Republican Administrations, which put “free market” goals ahead of safety and technological considerations. http://pirate.shu.edu/~mckenndo/pdfs/The%20Space%20Shuttle%20Challenger%20Disaster.pdf

    P.S. The Shuttle itself goes back to a strange decision by Richard Nixon. In 1970, after the man moon landing, he had decided to kill NASA’s plans for permanent space station, a moon base, and preparation for a man mission to Mars, but to keep the project of the Space Truck that was to supply the logistical support for these missions. Hence he created the Shuttle which had no place to go. Why he did it (given Nixon’s dislike for the Space Program it would have made more sense for him to just ended the Man Space program as “Mission Accomplished”) I will have to research.)

  149. 149.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Sherparick: The development of the SLS seems to be following almost the same script. There’s nothing concrete and certainly no funding for the crewed Mars mission that this is supposed to be the genesis of. There’s the strange explore-a-bagged-rock mission which is sort of the remnant of a proposal for astronauts to visit a near-earth asteroid.

  150. 150.

    The Other Chuck

    @Betty Cracker: Twitter is moving from a 140 character maximum to a 10,000 character max. No more bumper sticker brainfarts, at least not as required by the format. Then again, becoming a Facebook clone probably isn’t going to help them much either.

    I made the “mistake” of turning on two-factor auth for my Twitter account, then switching phones and carriers. Now I’m locked out of my Twitter account. Still can’t say I’ve gotten around to missing it.

  151. 151.

    J R in WV

    @Amir Khalid:

    Money and jobs for Houston TX. To make 2 senators and however many representatives happy to vote for NASA stuff. Just like military contracting, they spread things out as far as they can to gain more support in the various legislatures. Grimy, isn’t it?

  152. 152.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Poopyman: Can’t you work even though the Federal Government is closed for part of the day? I’m a Fed and we can choose to telework or burn leave on snow days (provided we have a telework arrangement). Even if the government status is “closed” we still telework or burn leave. So, a lot of Feds actually work a full day on snow days or partial snow days – I just assumed contractors did the same. Besides which with the loaded rate we pay contractors it seems like your boss should be able to afford to pay you admin leave for a few snow days. The job I do at the level I do it is worth about $160 an hour – at least that’s what the contractor I managed billed. That’s more than three times my hourly rate, which leaves plenty left over for overhead and profits.

    Had I gone into the office today I basically would have worked a 5 rather than 8 hour day but I’m teleworking, which means I’m working my normal hours. Unless you’re on site, if you have work to do I don’t see why you couldn’t work those three hours rather than burn leave.

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