Reunited! pic.twitter.com/CvXY4qFH7h
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) April 1, 2016
I honestly don’t know if this is real or not.
Reader Interactions
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Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP
Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?
He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!
They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.
Fight them, without becoming them!
Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.
Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.
Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.
Fuck these fucking interesting times.
How are Republicans going to find someone with more charisma and personal charm than Jim Jordan?
Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL
“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.
The worst democrat is better than the best republican.
Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.
Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.
“woke” is the new caravan.
with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.
Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.
A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals
Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.
Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.
Battle won, war still ongoing.
Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.
A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.
You are here: Home / April Fools?
eemom
ew
Major Major Major Major
It appears to be real?
LAO
I assumed it was real and linked to it below. G-d willing, its just an Aprils fools joke and I’m an idiot. Which I could live with because he is the most irritating Clinton basher.
MikefromArlington
I enjoyed his commentary but whatevs. Not sure if he’s New Yorker caliber
Facebones
I would guess it’s real since jokes are supposed to be funny.
Napoleon
This appears real.
LAO
@MikefromArlington: True. That’s why he is (maybe) joining “New York” Magazine. (Which I love, but is lower brow).
Mary G
Well I have missed pointing and mocking and look forward to the insane Hillary Derangement Syndrome he exhibits. I bet he’s going to be a Trump fanboi. He can write, though.
WJS
So, the guy who left New York City and returned to Washington DC is going to write for New York Magazine?
MazeDancer
Many here on BJ have discussed – many times – how it must be killing Andrew to be sitting out this election. So, certainly would make sense for him.
dnfree
I got it via email and also on Facebook. I don’t agree with everything he says, but he had some very worthwhile posts as well. He will not be a Trump fanboi.
Benw
Anyone accidentally send a “mic-drop” email this morning?
Cacti
@Mary G:
Objection. Assumes facts not in evidence.
WarMunchkin
He’s employed? Why?
Mike in NC
How can we miss Sully if he won’t go away?
Brachiator
Andrew Sullivan shows up as a media talking head in “Batman v Superman”
Almost ruined the movie for me.
Major Major Major Major
@Cacti: Eh, his prose ain’t bad. It’s the content that’s the problem.
starscream
I really wonder who he wants to win. Can’t be any of Trump, Cruz, Clinton, or Sanders.
patroclus
He wouldn’t be for Sanders, because Bernie would remind him of British leftists, he hates all things Clinton, so he ain’t for Hillary, he really dislikes Christianists, so Cruz is out, and I just don’t see him as a fanboi for civilian targeting, waterboarding, torturing Trump, so I’m guessing Andrew is currently for Kasich, but not so passionately (because he’s smart enough to know Kasich’s drawbacks). It would have been interesting to read The Daily Dish over the course of this primary season and watch him squirm all around. The New York Magazine doesn’t really fit him, but I guess he likes money and publishing his opinions too much to stay away.
Cacti
@starscream:
Disagree.
Trump is just the sort of fascist, strongman, daddy figure he could get behind.
Jay B.
He’s human syphilis. He’s a dishonest hack who pretends he’s tortured by the big questions when he’s wrong all the fucking time and douchebag to boot. I don’t respect him, don’t believe him and think on every level he’s a fraud. The world needs another Andrew Sullivan column like we need Mickey Kaus to run another campaign. I’ll never, ever, ever forgive him for Iraq, Fifth Column, Betsy Mccaughey and all the other actively awful things he’s done and written.
sherparick
Time to order more popcorn. I will suggest to New York Magazine that they hire Driftglass or Steve M at “No More Mister Nice Blog” as a contributing editor since they both write better than Sullivan and are consistently right as opposed to be being constantly wrong in the conventional fashion, which is Andrew Sullivan’s trademark.
trollhattan
Good god, I thought I was truly rid of him. Grumble….
raven
God, I hoped we were done talking about this fucking douchebag. . . but noooooo!
Major Major Major Major
@starscream:
Paul Ryan.
@patroclus:
To be fair, who the hell don’t?
trollhattan
@starscream:
“Draft Sarah! ” is my guess.
el_gallo
Thank God we’ll now have a voice speaking for moderate, responsible racism to counteract Trump’s radical, irresponsible racism.
trollhattan
@el_gallo:
Bring back the Bell Curve!
Cacti
@Jay B.:
Or his belief that eugenicist funded studies attempting to prove that black/brown people are stupid is a legitimate science and field of academic inquiry, or that he takes a bold stand by speaking up for centuries old racist twaddle.
MattF
Whether it’s true or not, it’s April Fools.
starscream
He is a pretty huge Obama fanboy, I can’t see him supporting Trump. They are polar opposite human beings.
Amir Khalid
“He is a major (deep and elegant) thinker …”
No, he ain’t. He tended towards self-parody in his later years as a blogger, with his self-consciously bookish conservatism. I also wonder if a guy with that creepy mummy-fixation on Maggie Thatcher, and the even creepier fixation on Sarah Palin pregnancy trutherism, should be taken seriously as a pundit on anything.
Immanentize
@Cacti: Cacti, c’mon. That is a disturbing image so close to lunch!
PST
It’s real. He wrote to let me know. As to whom Sullivan will support, I put my money on Clinton. I know, I know. But it’s a new world, and some of objections that even sensible people used to have seem quaint now in the Citizens United age. In the end, he turned into a bit of an Obama fan, mostly. He’ll go for the third term.
dedc79
Sully and LCD Soundsystem, both retired prematurely, and both couldn’t manage to stay retired. I’m happy about one of them being back, try and guess which.
piratedan
@el_gallo: aye, he’s like vanilla bean to David Brooks’ vanilla. Surprised that anyone still thinks there’s a need to give him bandwidth at all.
patroclus
His “blacks are stupid” shtick was his all-time low because he just kept at it and at it and at it. But his “Fifth Column” crap ranks close. And his utterly nonsensical Clinton hatred, for me, would be third. I still enjoy reading his stuff though and he was really a good pro-Obama guy for the last years of the Dish.
Keith P.
Expect a significant increase in articles about how awesome foreskins and beards are.
geg6
It’s real. I emailed him several times back in the day and even got quoted on the site once. Maybe twice. Can’t quite remember. But I get emails that he must send out to a list he’s kept every now and again. And I got one from him today announcing this and a couple of book deals. Says he’s staying away from full-time blogging, going back to long-form and will dip his toe back into blogging for the two conventions.
I knew he’d have trouble staying out of this. He hates Hillary, so I have no idea what he’s going to have to say about the state of the race at this point. I’m sure it will be very, very Andrew.
Ken
I’m not going to ask for money to run a site I plan to cancel one week after I get your money, but if you could my books it would be greatly appreciated.
Tractarian
No way Sully will get on the Trump bandwagon.
Mark my words – despite his undeniable burning hatred for All Things Clinton, he will support Hillary as the lesser of two (or three or four) evils.
After all, Sully is nothing if not an O-Bot(TM) and Hillary is the only candidate running on Obama’s legacy.
Mandarama
@Keith P.:
I straight up LOL’ed at this. Thank you.
patroclus
@geg6: I used to e-mail him too. He once announced a contest whereby the best e-mail about how unfair D.C. (and its residents) is being treated unfairly in our voting system would be published. I wrote him a really long one about how Sam Rayburn got the D.C. Voting Right Amendment passed in 1960-61 and how it was supposed to be merely the first step towards a more fair system and then I included a whole bunch about Home Rule and the Statehood initiative and how actual representation in Congress would be so much more beneficial and fair. And then, he totally reversed course and published some blather from some asshole Republican about how appropriate it was to totally discriminate against D.C. (and its residents) because of “federalism” blah blah blah. Bleah…
dedc79
@geg6: I could see him supporting Gary Johnson
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@PST: He’ll be playing the “Why does Hillary make it so hard for me to support her?” schtick from the right that…. certain other persons will be playing from the left, is my bet
He and Chait are a pretty good fit, actually> I suspect they’ll tag team each other on hysterical posts about POLITICAL CORRECTNESS on college campuses.
Villago Delenda Est
@LAO: It’s not The New Yorker, that’s for sure.
NonyNony
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think I just threw up a little bit in my mouth.
hueyplong
It was time to review and reduce the bookmark list anyway.
Villago Delenda Est
@piratedan: The two of them should be dropped on some deserted island in the South Pacific and never be heard from again.
Mandarama
I have a personal vendetta against Sullivan, because his tortured pseudointellectual act affected my husband’s judgment during the run up to the Iraq war. We had some truly horrendous arguments in our home, exacerbated by having recently become parents. Fortunately, my husband is quick to see his mistakes and apt to learn from them. Can’t say the same for Andrew.
patroclus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, he really goes “full Horowitz” on political correctness on college campuses. To paraphrase Tropic Thunder, “Never go full Horowitz!”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@piratedan: Sully and his Oakeshott, Brooks and his Great Books Curriculum, the two wisest fools in punditdom.
Peale
In happier April Fool’s News, Berkleley Breathed buying the rights to Calvin and Hobbes yesterday was a sweet idea.
bystander
@trollhattan:
Agreed. But I’m still feeling confident about Scalia.
Mike J
@WJS:
Edroso writes for the Village Voice from DC.
Calouste
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: And the underlying, but never explicitly stated, idea will be “Why does Hillary make it so hard for me to support her by being a woman and by talking about women’s issues as if they are important?”
gvg
I kind of liked the pictures of peoples views out windows.
He has real problems understanding women. Just clueless. I always wondered if he actually had a mother. I suspect he will be forced to support Hillary and backslide into hysteria about little nothings rather frequently, much more often and stupider than John does. I think I will try to not read him. Lets all try not to link him. Problem always was he could make sense so you would read him, and the next post was totally illogical so we got mad. I think, he didn’t actually fit any type perfectly. Oh well, nothing we can do about it.
The Golux
@geg6:
As did I. And got Rick-rolled, though to be fair, the purported link was about Trump, which seemed appropriate.
LAO
@Calouste: And that just made me laugh out loud. Mostly because its true.
Just One More Canuck
No mention of Sullivan on NY Mag’s website (at least in my admittedly quick look) but there was a related story
“In Defense of Pretentiousness”
Punchy
He’s a gay man and a gay journalist.
LAO
@Villago Delenda Est: True but I really like Ed Kilgore, I was surprised he joined New York Mag.
Cacti
@Calouste:
No less than the #2 Democratic candidate informed Rachel Maddow that woman things were a distraction from an important national conversation we need to have. You could tell she was pretty steamed about it.
StellaB
Toward the end of The Dish, he developed a sort of grudging admiration for Hilz, although not for her spouse.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@gvg: I suspect he will be forced to support Hillary and backslide into hysteria about little nothings rather frequently,
Yeah, Cruz and Rubio were both full on retrograde on gay rights (though Li’l Marco started to hem and haw about retiring the issue to the states when David Brooks and Bill Kristol told him he would be the Choice of the Establishment). I’m not sure about Kasich but he strikes me as one of those who will say what he thinks he has to about an issue he fundamentally doesn’t care about, like most R’s on abortion. I haven’t ever heard Trump talk about marriage equality or any other LGBT issue. We know his “pro-life” stance is a complete fraud, and I don’t pay much attention to his stump speech– I get more than enough from the endless clips on MSNBC– but I’ve never seen him say much. I think he’ll follow the same path as Kasich would, but being Trump he’ll somehow manage to offend all sides except the nativists, who I don’t think he could lose except by coming out for “Amnesty”.
Gin & Tonic
@Mike J: Does anybody still read the Voice?
Trentrunner
It’s always worth remembering:
During the 1990s, HIV+ Andrew Sullivan, while publicly scolding for gay men for their risky sexual behavior, was actively soliciting unsafe sex himself online.
For evidence, google “Andrew Sullivan” + “milky loads”. (Sorry.)
Fifth Column. Bell Curve. Betsy McCaughey. Margaret Thatcher. Milky loads.
He’s an awful, awful person.
MattF
I think it’s unlikely that Sullivan will manage unambiguous support for Hillary Clinton. Expect lots of ifs, buts, howevers, and so forth. He appears to feel a gut-level revulsion towards her– perhaps analogous to the feeling that many people here have towards Ted Cruz. Hillary is not Maggie Thatcher, and Sullivan will never forgive her for that.
bystander
@Keith P.:
If only we could securitize and trade them on the futures market. Damned Dodd-Frank!
Peale
@Mike J: Yes. But Sullivan’s GBCW exit from New York (All the upper middle class and wealthy people who hang out at the high-end bars I go to are obnoxious gay bores who only care about are their jobs and real estate prices! I’m going back to DC where people talk about their jobs and gossip about politics) was meant to burn the bridges.
glory b
@Amir Khalid: I forgot about the Sarah Palin thing! At first, it was funny, but then started to be uncomfortable.
And yeah, as a black person, REALLY didn’t care for his insistence on trying to make the “black=stupid” thing happen.
Calouste
@gvg: Wikipedia doesn’t mention anything about Sullivan’s mom, but he did go to a boys school (where it looks he was classmates with Norman Cook AKA Fatboy Slim, their birthdays are two weeks apart(totally irrelevant trivia)).
eemom
@raven:
Well, it was a nice break, anyway.
@Jay B.:
This. In all seriousness, fuck this overgrown British schoolboy.
scavn
If only the fools would limit themselves to the traditional First of April, but noooo, now they want jobs in journalism and a political party all of their very own.
Major Major Major Major
@Trentrunner:
You mean the ad that says, in part,
Enough with the BS about his barebacking ‘hypocrisy’. He was scolding people who engaged in unsafe behavior because it is a vector for HIV transmission. When the horse is already out of the barn, it’s irrelevant.
I don’t agree with him on much but for the love of god stop bringing that up.
glory b
@Keith P.: Lol and ewww simultaneously. And I like beards!
Frankensteinbeck
@starscream:
Trump is misogynist and racist, and occasionally says something that sounds reasonable if you ignore that he says the opposite five minutes later. Andrew has a big ‘my Republican daddy is a good man and he loves me and will stop beating me any minute now, you’ll see’ thing. I could see him going Trump. I admit, I am far, far from a close Sullivan watcher.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Okay, this I could really see. Passive-aggressive, ratfucking concern troll? Says he supports the Democrat but bitches constantly to drag support away from her? That matches everything I’ve seen of him.
LAO
@Peale: Its funny, I grew up in the NY suburbs and have lived in NYC for 20+ years, New York’s a big place; it has awesome things and shitty things, so criticism of NYC rarely really bothers me. Sullivan’s constant whining and complaining, managed to piss me off. A LOT.
Paul in KY
@Tractarian: You might find yourself surprised.
Immanentize
@dedc79: I am a HUGE LCD Soundsystem fan. Mostly because I am losing me edge to the kids in London.
Miss Bianca
@Cacti:
And yet, I remember some commenters on this very blog getting mad at me for saying that Sen. Sanders reminded me of the shouty socialist dudes of my college days who flat-out told me that I should be willing to put my silly little feminist activism on hold in the interests of bringing about the Glorious General Revolution! I am shocked, SHOCKED to discover that gambling has been going on in this establishment.
patroclus
Kasich has addressed marriage equality a time or two. His take is that he was “always in favor of traditional marriage” but that the Supreme Court has ruled and he’s not going to question it. This, while being anti-gay, is about as pro-gay as a Republican will get. In reality, he (obviously) just doesn’t care. It’s not a hill he’s going to die on. Andrew, being Andrew, will likely accept this as full-throated support when, in reality, it’s not. Kasich would not be very good on LBGT issues; inevitably, he would say whatever is necessary to maintain his bona fides with the bigots and he would take very few affirmative steps, if any. On the other hand, unlike Cruz, there is no discernible animus with Kasich. Which is one of the reasons why he is considered to be a “moderate.”
jl
No pics showing views from reader’s windows from around the world, then no me reading anything he writes. That was only feature that ever got me to even glance at his blog towards the end.
Pogonip
@Jay B.: I was going to ask why anyone would care. Now I know!
jl
@patroclus: For social and economic justice issues, and civil rights issues, the fake moderate Kasich will be all earnestly sorry about bad stuff that happens, and appeal to people to act nice. That is about the best any sane person would hope for from him.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Noooooo. If G*d loves me, it’s a 4/1 attempt at humor.
Pogonip
@jl: Oh, that I remember! I liked that! Used to start to read the orher stuff but never finished; his topics of interest were rarely my topics of interest.
LAO
@patroclus: I agree, I think he’ll be a Kasich supporter. But — why would that be surprising? I understand he has “divorced” himself from the Republican Party but he remains a Thatcherite conservative. He is not a liberal. He will only grudgingly support Clinton as a “best bad choice”
Miss Bianca
@MattF:
But she is, SHE IS, didn’t you (and Sullivan) know that? She’s a war-hawk Goldwater Girl who is working to keep down the masses AND hold back the cause of feminism by getting expensive hair-cuts! I read it all on the Internet somewhere, so it must be true!
dedc79
@Immanentize: I’m a fan too. Was skeptical about the reunion (especially given the big deal that was made about their farewell tour and final shows), but they’re releasing a new album and everything.
Immanentize
If Sully is returning to the world, I hope he will write a book about his version of the gay marriage movement (which will prominently feature Himself) rather than continuing his whine about how the lawyers at the end grabbed all the glory. The latter part is true although there were some amazingly courageous lawyers (especially Mary Bonauto who argued both the Mass. case and the US case). But Sully could not let it go — I emailed him occasionally too and suggested that, as he is a writer, he should write a damn book about the ‘real’ (his) version of the history. That could be an interesting read.
Immanentize
@dedc79: I know — waiting! One thing I like is that they never went in for the rock star thing at all.
Paul in KY
@Immanentize: they are going to be at Bonnaroo & Lollapalooza, among other fests, this year. Seem to be doing a tour sort of like what OutKast did a couple of years ago.
Trentrunner
@Major Major Major Major: Well, fuck you and your misinformation and disinformation. The horse is very much NOT out of the fucking barn when you’re HIV positive; you can obviously infect others and make yourself sicker and more prone to illness with reinfection.
Moreover, in that profile (at a BAREBACK sex site), Sullivan could have CLEARLY said that he would NOT have sex with anyone EXCEPT other HIV+ men. He did not.
But the real question: Are you Andrew Sullivan? Cuz with your lying, equivocating, cherry-picking, and self-serving hysteria, you sure as shit sound like him.
WJS
@Mike J: No, sorry–New York Magazine mocked him when he moved back to DC. That was my point.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Thanks. Anybody know if the Dumpster has a position?
Keith G
Sullivan’s id first, ask questions later style of writing can have some interesting and even valuable outcomes, but in the end it is too hit or miss to sustain any usefulness.
He wrote some stirring defenses of Obama (some of the best I have read), but his willful blindness/rejection to/of certain truths (combined with arch imperious faggotry used in the service of putting down others) make it very easy to love not having to encounter his work.
Paul in KY
@Miss Bianca: I don’t see why she couldn’t have the expensive haircut at an undisclosed location, for an undisclosed price. She should know the optics/BS Republican screeching are bad on this.
GregB
No one does the anti-women Clinton Derangement Syndrome better than Sully.
Napoleon
@Peale:
Really!
Edit – no, April Fools
Peale
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Dumptsters position was that it has caused too much strain on the the fee fees of the polity and should be overturned because it upsets people. Yep. Trump is concerned about tone and hurt feelings.
scav
Fools fools everywhere, only they used to be more amusing and less power-hungry.
Immanentize
@Paul in KY: Yes — a festival tour. I am not so good at festivals anymore…. I would love to see them. Maybe they will add some dates around the festivals later. Hoping….
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Paul in KY: I had the same thought, but then it would just be “Hillary Antionette makes her coiffeur come to her!”
Peale
@Napoleon: Yep. Sorry for the Facebook Link.. Either Berkely or Bill penned a new calvin and hobbes today to celebrate the “sale.”
patroclus
@Immanentize: Exactly. Sully, like Churchill, would inevitably write “The World Crisis; Starring Andrew Sullivan.” I’d read it, but I’d have to discount all the stuff about Sullivan…
Gin & Tonic
@Paul in KY: But the price was not disclosed, just what that stylist is known to charge *other* customers. Maybe he did her hair for free, we don’t know (and I don’t give a shit, frankly.)
jl
@GregB: OK, Sully might produce some fun self-satire there. As HRC gets closer to power, Matthews is getting wobbly in his HRC derangement syndrome. The Matthews kiss-up-to-power impulse will soon provide a miraculous cure the HRC fear and hate. Even if HRC did threaten to magically dissolve the poor man’s balls several times.
Major Major Major Major
@Trentrunner: Yes, I’m obviously Andrew Sullivan for thinking that somebody who’s knowingly having sex with an openly HIV+ man is committing a willful act and that the consequences aren’t the poz guy’s fault. I was also operating under the assumption that an Oxbridge fellow would have the presence of mind to get regularly tested for the other nasty little (treatable!) bugs you can get from barebacking.
I also happen to think it’s none of my business as long as he’s being honest about his status, just like I think that new court ruling saying the state has a compelling interest outlawing BDSM because of public health concerns is total bullshit, but what do I know?
Does it make me Andrew Sullivan if I point to Dan Savage sharing Sully’s opinion on things like bathhouses? Does it make me Andrew Sullivan if I link you to Dan Savage saying it’s OK for poz guys to bareback as long as everything is on the up-and-up?
Iowa Old Lady
Do you think today is the day that Trump calls a press conference and says “April Fool! I was never really running. I can’t believe you all fell for it!”
I have to get ready to go to a friend’s retirement reception. He’s retiring from the History Dept at the local university so parking will be a pain.
Keith G
@Trentrunner: I am trying to unpack where your anger is coming from regarding that solicitation. It looks like an attempt to establish contact between consenting adults.
dedc79
@Immanentize: I think they added a few shows at Red Rocks, but so far that’s it for the U.S. other than the festival circuit. Ideally they’d do some smaller club shows. Won’t happen, but would be great if it did.
From a few years ago, Stereogum breaks down All My Friends.
Immanentize
@patroclus: ‘zackly
Paul in KY
@Immanentize: Some of the fest will have 1 day tics, so you could just go that day & see some other bands too.
Hope you get to see them!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@jl: it’s only gossip, so, FWIW: But one of the stories about Tweety and the Clintons is that he lobbied hard to be WH Press Secretary in the second term and they pretty much laughed at the feelers eh put out. I think of that moment the last go round when she teased him about his “obsession” during a Q&A, and then in the meet-and-greet after words the man actually reached out and pinched her cheek. I think if she had hauled off and clocked him she’s have won the nomination.
Cacti
@srv:
But the wingers aren’t even sure who they’re with.
They’re legitimately torn between the fascist (Trump) and the evangelical theocrat (Cruz).
Major Major Major Major
@Keith G: Yeah, it’s weird. Maybe he’s Andrew Sullivan!
Paul in KY
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Can’t they keep it a bit lower key in that situation? Also, the holding up traffic thing is not good either. Understand that place is always busy & if you are driving in downtown NYC, you are a nut to begin with, but people who don’t know that & think of their own piddly city will not like that.
Emma
@Keith G: IIRC, at the same time Mr. Sullivan was placing those ads he was condemning the gay culture as “pathological.” There was an article in the Village Voice (and others) about it.
Gin & Tonic
@Iowa Old Lady: That’s an odd last sentence. Would parking be easier if he were retiring from the Chemistry Dept.?
Paul in KY
@Major Major Major Major: What’s a ‘poz guy’?
Edit: Now assuming it is someone who is HIV Positive.
Iowa Old Lady
@Gin & Tonic: LOL. No, but it would be easier if he were retiring say from John Deere.
Sometimes the dept matters because the building it’s in might be easier or harder to access. This one is actually pretty easy. I can park a few blocks away on the street.
Emma
@Paul in KY: You know what? I have always found you a most moderate and thoughtful commenter, but screw this. No matter what Hillary Clinton does, some Villager with an axe will screech about it. Why the hell should be be forced to constantly tiptoe around catering to their foolishness?
(added) if Hillary had tried to be discreet and flown the hairdresser out to see her wherever she wasm the bitching would have been about her “frivolous expenses” “plutocratic habits” etc. etc.
Tractarian
@Paul in KY:
Do you suggest she do all further campaigning via YouTube from her basement in Chappaqua?
Amir Khalid
@Paul in KY:
I can assure you that New York City is world-famous for its congested traffic.
Major Major Major Major
@Paul in KY: You would be correct. It’s hookup slang.
Doug R
@patroclus: I think DC will be the 53rd state, after Puerto Rico and Cuba.
Paul in KY
@Emma: Thank you for the compliment. You (Hillary) are in a US Presidential race. You have some experience how these things go, especially when your last name is ‘Clinton’. To me, everything must be mapped out like you are doing an invasion. If you want it bad enough, you must dot every I and cross every T.
If you (your campaign team) can’t figure out a way to get a haircut in a way that doesn’t make a story for the nattering nabobs, then maybe you aren’t ready for the Presidency.
goblue72
@Paul in KY: I’d be happy if she just stopped lying about her oil money connections.
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: I know that & you know that, etc. etc. problem is, a lot of low info doofuses you would like to vote for you don’t really know that.
Technocrat
@Paul in KY:
I kind of understand where you’re coming from, but this is the sort of “defensive crouch” that the media always puts us in. The Republican frontrunner flies around in a 757 with his name on it. “Working Class” folks like him just fine. The Democratic frontrunner is imperious because she gets an expensive haircut. It’s just farcical when you step back and look at it.
Iowa Old Lady
@goblue72: Oh hey, I literally just finished reading Steve Benen’s analysis of oil and gas money donations to the candidates.
Major Major Major Major
@Paul in KY:
1. Get no haircut (unserious! ugly! NOTE: works if you’re Bernie Sanders)
2. Fly somebody in privately (out of touch plutocrat!)
3. Go to a salon (blocking traffic! she thinks she’s better than us! and $600, wow, what a stuck-up bitch!)
4. Do it yourself (I don’t even know what criticism they’d level… hippie? cheap?)
5. SuperCuts (panderer!)
6. Do it in secret (what is she hiding? #haircutgate #releasethehaircuts NOTE: works if you’re Donald Trump)
Peale
@Tractarian: Just like those times when Michelle and the Queen of Jordan closed down Prince Street in SoHo to go shopping (which didn’t really happen, but gosh it was complained about like it did), I very much doubt the impact of a haircut on traffic in the City, which is often stopped by cranes, loading trucks, double-parked cars, police activities, heavy pedestrian traffic, people trying to make left-hand turns before 7pm, fender benders where people just sit in their cars thinking that the police are going to run some kind of Judge Wapner forensic examination to determine who was at fault so they just sit there rather than moving off the road, garbage pick up, ConEdison repairs, mystery steam vents, roving pothole repairs, unrepaired potholes, Yankee Games, Mets Games, ambulances…
Seriously, I very much doubt all of these stories of New York Traffic Coming to A Stop by people who weren’t there.
Paul in KY
Leaving for weekend. Like Mrs. Clinton a lot & sure look forward to voting for her!
Major Major Major Major
@goblue72: These ones? http://www.factcheck.org/2015/12/clinton-and-fossil-fuel-money/
@Paul in KY: You’re taking the weekend off? You out-of-touch elitist. Those Pennsylvanians fracking the Marcellus shale don’t get weekends off. Tell us again how you don’t take fossil fuel money?
Paul in KY
@Major Major Major Major: I like Option 6 :-)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Only a scholar like St Bernard can tell us where the line of corruption is between .04% and .15%. Then His Blessedness will address the angels dancing on the head of a pin thing. Truly we are graced by His Presence.
Keith G
@Emma: Well, that was not the argument being made, if indeed one was being made at all.
I do consider Sullivan to be an flaming hypocrite and still I have been quite moved by some of the things that this pompous ass (or maybe it’s a different orifice) has written.
Emma
@Paul in KY: The people you would be trying to convince WILL NOT be. I would say 90% of American voters already think they know everything there is to know about Hillary Clinton and nothing she says or does will change their minds.
Msb
Oh.
I enjoyed Andrew’s writing about religion, but his obsessive need to have one woman (first Hillary and then Palin) embody All Evil is really tiresome. This seems like the center of the blind spot that’s just the size of the > 3.5 billion female people in the world. With the exception of the series on late term abortion, where he actually accepted new information from women who’d been there, His writing about women is based on such deep ignorance as to be worthless. Ta-Nehisi Coates can write, and has written, rings around him, and without the sides of misogyny and racism.
Emma
@Keith G: I think a large number of the gay people who lived through that storm will not forgive Mr. Sullivan. As for me, I find him shallow and self-centered. And his obvious contempt for all women not named Margaret Thatcher puts him on my enemies list.
Mnemosyne
@gvg:
Sullivan has Mommy Issues almost as bad as George W Bush’s. I have no idea what the origin of them is, but they’re really obvious. His weird Sarah Palin obsession was part and parcel of that — it clearly was much more comforting for him to construct an elaborate conspiracy theory about Palin secretly adopting her daughter’s son than accept the more obvious conclusion that Palin tried and failed to miscarry to avoid having to choose to abort a child with Down Syndrome.
Technocrat
@Iowa Old Lady:
The whole “pledge” thing is bullshit, as long as employee contributions are counted. One of the most liberal people I know (far to my left) works for one of the largest power companies in the country. I guess his contributions are dirty money?
If we want to track lobbyists, fine. But leave Alice in HR alone.
kindness
There have been times I’ve missed Andrew’s commentaries. Of course there have been times I haven’t too.
qwerty42
C’mon. How could Sullivan sit out the weirdest election in several lifetimes? Besides, I am grateful to Sully for introducing me to Balloon-Juice and John’s rants. I’ll be PO’d if he returns to eeeevul Clinton(s) though.
Gravenstone
@Peale: I’d completely missed that. But the end result is outstanding!
Miss Bianca
@Paul in KY:
Really? An “undisclosed location”? If you can let us all know how she’s supposed to do that, on the campaign trail, surrounded by Secret Service, and flanked by the ever-present, ever-loving media, I bet that same Secret Service would be very interested to hear it.
ETA: @Emma: I can see someone beat me to the point.
Immanentize
@dedc79: That was a great read, thanks!
Mnemosyne
@Paul in KY:
Does anyone here have any doubt that Trump spent at least twice that amount of money on every suit he owns?
It’s the double standard that’s driving me (and a lot of other women) nuts here. Like it’s frivolous for an older woman who (gasp! DYES HER HAIR) to spend a chunk of money on it while no one says “boo” about any of the male candidates’ appearance expenditures. Because women’s appearances are always up for public critique and debate while men get a free pass.
Also, let’s face it, “Clinton’s expensive haircut” was so easy to write, a bot probably did it.
gwangung
@goblue72: I’m not convinced you know what the hell you’re talking about. You do know that contributions from employees are aggregated into company totals? The admin who gave to Clinton is counted as part of the industry total? It’s a sloppiness (from lack of knowledge) that is common in political debates.
Is there something more substantive here?
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
I have about as much right to judge Sully as he has to judge women who’ve had abortions, but if he’s up-front with his partners about being HIV+, it seems the only charge against him is hypocrisy for complaining publicly about all of those promiscuous gay men. He’s not responsible for checking the other person’s status as long as he’s honest about his own.
Germy
@Mnemosyne:
I thought Jeb was the one with mommy issues. George W always had the swagger and self confidence of an archetypal “mom’s favorite”
Also, have you seen this? Quad paper with your name on it?
http://boingboing.net/2016/04/01/lovely-quad-ruled-paper-in-a-n.html
The Lodger
@Paul in KY: Sorry, but these nabobs are gonna natter about any freaking thing they can. If you can imagine a tactic to forestall that, please feel free to mention it.
Peale
@gwangung: Yes. But you see working for a corporation. especially one that’s in an industry, any industry, is problematic. People who work for corporations have suspect morals. For instance, they probably think that working in a job at a company that has money to pay them is better than working for a company that doesn’t have money. That’s just nonsense and sensible people know that corporations need to be smashed because they distort power relations from their natural state. Sure, you may think that your soul-crushing corporate job is a good way to make a living, but once we destroy those corporations, you’ll see that it is better not to be paid.
Germy
Andrew was very good in “Batman V Superman”
Keith G
@Emma:
Some gay folk who lived through that storm and who read blogs might just feel that way. I would bet that to the vast majority of gay folk who lived through that storm, Sully is an unknown (which probably destroys him).
I am older than Sullivan and, given from what I have gleaned from his bio, I have been living with an AIDS diagnosis longer than he has. I do not have to forgive people like him since I do not take offence at things that do not intimately intrude upon my “space” – and even then…..
I have learned…Life is just to freaking short.
Mnemosyne
@Germy:
Holy crap! I’m not a big quad paper user, but I may just have to buy that.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Paul in KY: I swear to G*d I first read that as
and I thought that’s some snark that covers lots of pieces of discussion in this thread. Have a dandy weekend,
Hope
Well, he certainly writes better than he thinks
Mnemosyne
@Peale:
Is Mr. Watterson supposed to be looking like Bill the Cat in that picture? Because I’m sorry, he does.
NonyNony
@goblue72:
You do realize that that money is individual donations from people who work in the industry, right? That the accountant who works for BP donating $50 is counted in that total, right?
That’s why Sanders also has donations from the oil and gas industry. Because those dollars are from people who work in that industry. All people who work in that industry.
Years ago when I found out that was how those numbers were calculated – and that it isn’t about big donations from industry groups but all donations from everyone who worked in those industries – I about hit the roof. I’d been lied to, you see, by well-meaning activists who were concerned about money in politics but didn’t know a goddamn thing about how money in politics is reported. And so now I’m very careful about people using those figures because unless they have carefully parsed out the small dollar donations from actual influence-peddling, all it really means is that those industries employ Democrats. Shock and horror, some Democrats work for oil companies. Imagine that.
Miss Bianca
OK, just saw the headline for the “Wet Mountain Tribune”, our local paper today, and it made me LOL at the convenience store:
CLINTON FOUNDATION TIED TO CLIFF MARIJUANA PROPOSAL
Other GOP Candidates Livid; Trump Proposes to Build Wall Around Silver Cliff
Quick background facts: No. 1: The town of Silver Cliff has a proposal on the ballot this spring to allow selling cannabis within the town limits. The conservatives have worked themselves up into a fine old bout of frothery over this, despite all the evidence coming out in town hearings from other municipalities that crime rates, rather than going up, have actually been going down in towns where cannabis is sold, and that the town could make a killing on sales tax – estimates run as high as $300,000 per annum; No.2, the Tribune has a history of really inspired April Fool’s headlines. This one has got to be my favorite so far.
Peale
@Mnemosyne: I doubt that that is Bill, since Bill is only 58 years old and that guy looks to be closer to 85.
Mnemosyne
@Peale:
I haz a confused, but I’m on the iPad, so it was hard to figure out how the picture and announcement related.
Has everyone seen the “Force Awakens”/”Calvin & Hobbes” mash-up cartoons? Because they’re truly adorbz. Drawn by a story artist at Disney.
Duke
@kindness: I’ve never posted on this site but I just want to say that this is the truest thing I’ve read in this thread
Cacti
@Germy:
Yep. Dubya’s issues were daddy issues. The old man was a comparative mensch who was Phi Beta Kappa, Captain of the Yale baseball team, a WWII bomber pilot, and a former POTUS. Georgie was a cheerleader, got gentleman’s C’s at college, and washed out of the Texas Air National Guard.
He was desperate to one up his Pops in some way, and we ended up with the Iraq invasion.
Just One More Canuck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Only yesterday goblue was telling us that $300 was okay for a haircut but $600 was far too excessive.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Just One More Canuck: He’s a highly successful grass roots activist and organizer, we know this because he told us, and it’s totally believable from his eloquent and persuasive posts. So I’m sure he’s had lots of conversations with Real Americans about the appropriate price for a haircut.
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne:
Waaaay cute!
@Cacti: But don’t forget that we invaded Iraq because, as W blurted out one day, “Saddam threatened to kill my dad!” Make of that what thou wilt.
Mnemosyne
@Germy:
Sorry, I got so excited about the quad paper that I forgot to respond. W has both — remember the weird story about him being drunk and following his mother veeeery slowly in his car while she walked along ignoring him?
Technocrat
@Mnemosyne:
It freaked me out for a moment when I saw your blogname on that notebook. I spent more time than I should have looking for the “personalize” button.
burnspbesq
Wow. Two years worth of Two Minutes Hate. Happy now?
Mnemosyne
@Technocrat:
My nym is the name of a minor Greek goddess, so it shows up in odd places sometimes. Plus I’m not the only one who uses it, though I’m the only one on this website.
Smalla
@PST: Yes, I agree, he sees Obama as a successful president, which he predicted, and will see Hillary as the third term. I think he will write about how Palin helped bring about Trump.