Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He really is that stupid.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

T R E 4 5 O N

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

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

The revolution will be supervised.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

I really should read my own blog.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Second rate reporter says what?

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

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

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

This really is a full service blog.

People are complicated. Love is not.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Open Thread: Stop Mewling, Hugh

Open Thread: Stop Mewling, Hugh

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You were right there moderating debates, and you couldn’t keep Trump from beating every other GOP candidate…

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235Comments

  3. 3.

    Adam L Silverman

    The Breitbrats are, apparently, going after Professor Nichols and trying to get the Naval War College to terminate him. They’re claiming a Hatch Act violation. So anyone on twitter, who appreciates that Professor Nichols has the courage of his convictions regardless of whether you agree with his overall political views, may want to have his back on twitter.

  4. 4.

    Chyron HR

    What makes them think Putin’s supreme court justices will give a shit about abortion?

  5. 5.

    rikyrah

    Melissa McEwan ‏@Shakestweetz 6h6 hours ago

    It’s not just that @realDonaldTrump is a deeply unkind person. It’s that he publicly rolls around in his own unkindness like a pig in a shit

  8. 8.

    SFAW

    I really wish those of Hewitt’s ilk and demographic makeup would suffer some of the same consequences that the less-advantaged have felt from Scalia-promulgated decisions. I would hope — pointless, I know — that the lesser shitgibbon would have an epiphany, and say “Oh shit, I had no idea how bad that/those decision(s) was/were.” Of course, since such an epiphany is unlikely from any right-winger, then it provides an opportunity to say to him (and those like him) “Too fucking bad for you, you amoral, hateful prick. Maybe Deadbeat Donnie will fix things for you.”

  10. 10.

    NorthLeft12

    Unfortunately, Hewitt is not unique among his fellow right wingers. They are very happy to overlook all of Trump’s incompetence and loathsome character issues, because he wears the R label.

    Its what they are.

  13. 13.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: Nichols is quite conservative, isn’t he? No fan of Obama or Clinton?

    MSNBC gave Hewitt 9 solo, unchallenged minutes today (valued commenter Hovercraft, IIRC, found the time) to dishonestly conflate Comey’s report and Benghazi and harp on a Benghazi widow who has made an anti-Clinton ad. Alex Witt either had no clue what was going on, or understands that she wasn’t supposed to notice.

  14. 14.

    Villago Delenda Est

    One has to recall that Hugh Hewitt was as much on the front lines of the war in Iraq from his office in the Empire State Building as CPT Humayun Khan was just to the north of Baghdad.

  15. 15.

    SFAW

    @Major Major Major Major:

    When you think about it, it’s kind of impressive our citizens know anything that’s true.

    It’s not the citizens that are the problem. It’s the anti-American right-wing Fox viewers that don’t know anything. If they had to take the same citizenship test that immigrants have to take, they’d likely fail.

  16. 16.

    Suzanne

    Mmmmm. I am salivating at the prospect of drinking and bathing in all the Wingnut Tears in November.

    Drink up, there’s plenty more.

  21. 21.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Mike Pence has issued a statement on Capt Khan, blaming his 2004 death on the instability of the Middle East caused by the policies of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

  23. 23.

    PhoenixRising

    Lemme see if I get this:

    Right now a beleaugered Trump, who can’t quit shooting his mouth off and hitting himself right in the junk, can’t be influenced by very serious Republicans.

    But President Trump is going to nominate whoever these same serious people tell him to…? Because…?

  25. 25.

    Adam L Silverman

    @MomSense: @rikyrah: The first tweet AL put in the post. Uses @RadioFreeTom. He’s a Professor of National Security at the Naval War College and a former Senate staffer.

  34. 34.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Here’s Mike Pence and a friend doing some shopping in the very stable pre-ISIS Middle East, three years after Capt Khan’s death and a year before Obama was elected. This is the only picture I could google up, I’m pretty sure there are others that made them look even sillier

    One of Mr. McCain’s colleagues on the visit to the Baghdad market was Rep. Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican, who marveled at the peaceful scene and compared it to a “normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime.” He, too, was mocked for those comparisons. Mr. Pence later said that he knew things were dangerous in Baghdad but he believed the United States was making some progress there.

  36. 36.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: an agreement the Iraqi president hand-picked by some guy who was in office before Obama refused to modify, which hand-picked Iraqi president refused to keep up the financial arrangements with Sunni leaders known in the Village as “The Surge”

  37. 37.

    Felonius Monk

    @Adam L Silverman: My understanding is that the Hatch Act does not preclude any employee of the Executive Branch from expressing an opinion about candidates or issues. So I think the Breitbarts are full of shit, as usual.

  40. 40.

    Peale

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: because if there was one clear message the voters were sending in 2006 and 2008, it was “please continue to spend hundreds of billions a year on Mid East stability, even if it takes 100 years”

  44. 44.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Felonius Monk: He’s not a member of the Executive Branch. He holds a Title 10 Exempted Civil Service position. He is, given that he’s a full professor, most likely on a five year fixed term appointment that is renewable under Naval War College’s Title 10 regulations provided he meets and/or exceeds the standards for the duties delineated in his Title 10 agreement.

  45. 45.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Hugh Hewitt remains chief whitewasher of Nixon’s career and legacy. Whatever Pence is doing isn’t dumb, it’s a more subtle and nasty juxtaposition of Capt. Khan and ISIL. Assume that Pence’s command of facts and consequences is lacking, but that his command of wingnut bullshit is on point. He too was a radio blowhard.

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Chelsea Manning not being treated super awesomely, part the umpteenth

    Dismantle the military justice system, part the umpteenth. Or at a minimum, make it operate by the same standards as the civilian criminal justice system, instead of some nasty throwback edition.

  54. 54.

    Lizzy L

    So Donald Trump gets to attack Hillary Clinton for voting FOR the Iraq war in October 2002, and Pence gets to attack Hillary Clinton and President Obama for pulling troops out of Iraq pursuant to a request by the Iraqi government in December 2008, while George Bush was still President.

    I can’t even.

  58. 58.

    Jack the Second

    … if Trump is elected, do you think there are the votes in the House and Senate to impeach him on trumped up charges and remove him from office?

  60. 60.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jack the Second: Interesting…. but I’m gonna say no. Trump is the base of the Republican party rolled up into one sack of crap. I wouldn’t be surprised if a sizable fraction of the GOP House caucus, and a few Senators (Sessions is all in, at least) think he’s the greatest thing Kim Davis.

  75. 75.

    sigaba

    @Suzanne: Frum got tired of trying to interview Trump supporters and just ended up making up a conversation with one.

    Edit- I like the numerous allusions to “you folks in the Acela corridor.” Frum does not write snappy dialogue.

  82. 82.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Suzanne: The real question is whether he’s simply created a fictional conversation that he thinks is representative of Trump’s supporters or whether he’s actually been talking to them and is now presenting what they’re telling him. I can’t quite tell which it is, but this seems to me to be a fair representation of what I’ve heard from people who support Trump. I know conservatives, whatever that term means in this context or any context anymore, who believe that Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, the Bushes, and almost every other elected or appointed conservative you’ve ever heard of are all a bunch of spineless leftist sellouts. This includes Chief Justice Roberts. They want the borders, every one of them, closed and sealed. When you explain that undocumented entry is a misdemeanor with no clearly defined penalty and that overstaying a lawful/authorized entry isn’t a crime at all, so if they want action they need to push for the law to be changed, they refuse to believe you. When they bitch about regulations crippling business, the ones they name are all municipal not Federal, but they still think its the Federal government’s fault and that’s why the Federal government needs to be dismantled.

    And these are not stupid people. They are smart, highly educated. Most of them are highly skilled. The question that has to be answered is just how many of them are out there? And how many Republicans and/or conservatives that don’t think this way will vote Trump and how many of the white supremacists and anti-Semites are also pulled into the electorate. We don’t know the answers to those questions and we won’t know them until election day.

  83. 83.

    Dave

    There’s an interesting little trick slipped into Hewitt’s article. “If he nominated a replacement for Justice Scalia who wasn’t on his list of nominees — the most frequent of imagined future outrages I hear from #NeverTrumpers — the GOP Senate should simply refuse hearings as it has to Judge Garland.” They’re already laying the groundwork to block any nominee offered by any president, for an entire term if necessary.

    Not to Chicken Little or anything, but why couldn’t we see a GOP Senate majority refuse to appoint a SCOTUS nominee for another 4 years? Their refusal to act on the Garland nomination breaks a norm. The question is, just how far has that norm been broken?

  91. 91.

    sigaba

    @Dave:

    Not to Chicken Little or anything, but why couldn’t we see a GOP Senate majority refuse to appoint a SCOTUS nominee for another 4 years? Their refusal to act on the Garland nomination breaks a norm. The question is, just how far has that norm been broken?

    Constitution doesn’t say how many justices the Supreme Court has. And Republican voters, if they send a clear signal of any kind, are clearly sending the signal that they expect their politicians to break rules, and if they do any less than that they “aren’t fighting” and are liable to be primaried.

  92. 92.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Adam L Silverman: I agree, there’s a lot of folk out there like this. I’ve heard these sort of comments, not all of the, but most of them. I’m a bit scared of the combination of the Schwarzenegger effect combined with the angry folk.

  94. 94.

    Lizzy L

    @lamh36: Empty suit. Total, complete, empty suit. Unprincipled. Wouldn’t know a principle if it came up behind him and bit him on the ass. Also: spineless coward. I think we should continue calling him Little Marco, because damn that’s who he is.

  99. 99.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: He’s the id of the GOP made physical. Much like what happened to Dr. Morbius in Forbidden Planet. Unlike Morbius, they haven’t realized the truth of the matter.

  100. 100.

    Suzanne

    @sigaba: In Frum’s defense, I would get tired of trying to interview Trump supporters, too, especially if you’re trying to suss out any sort of consistent worldview apart from “fuck everyone who isn’t me”.

  101. 101.

    Adam L Silverman

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: And they’re impervious to reasonable explanation of anything. They know what they know/believe what they believe and that’s it. And they are convinced everyone else in the country is their enemy. Not just fellow citizens that don’t agree with them on a policy or a strategy, but completely, absolutely people that have to be repudiated and destroyed. They are convinced another revolution or rebellion is coming, that they are well armed and provisioned enough, and, in some cases, they seem eager for it to happen.

  103. 103.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: But there is no law that can compel the Senate to actually hold a hearing or a vote. And as we’ve learned, McConnell’s strategic assumption is correct: no one in the US either knows that things don’t work because he’s prevented them from working or if they do, they don’t care.

  105. 105.

    lamh36

    I see Pence tried to play clean up with his latest statement on this, but Trump has called on his friends to smear Mr Khan..

    @samsteinhp

    Sam Stein Retweeted Roger Stone
    Gross as F—. But it had to come to this i guess.

    @RogerJStoneJr
    Mr. Khan more than an aggrieved father of a Muslim son- he’s Muslim Brotherhood agent helping Hillary

  106. 106.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Suzanne: A felony conviction is disqualifying for the purposes of purchasing, owning, and/or possessing a firearm.

  109. 109.

    lamh36

    Been at my granny all day, can anyone tell me what this is about?

    @TheRickWilson
    I know we’re all about Khan today, but Manafort’s lie about the RNC Ukraine stuff is going to backfire very soon now.

  111. 111.

    redshirt

    @Adam L Silverman:

    And they’re impervious to reasonable explanation of anything. They know what they know/believe what they believe and that’s it. And they are convinced everyone else in the country is their enemy. Not just fellow citizens that don’t agree with them on a policy or a strategy, but completely, absolutely people that have to be repudiated and destroyed. They are convinced another revolution or rebellion is coming, that they are well armed and provisioned enough, and, in some cases, they seem eager for it to happen.

    Yes. Disturbingly so. People programmed into Ragebots, ready to blow up an assigned target.

  112. 112.

    Lizzy L

    @Adam L Silverman: Of course he has a choice. He could choose to not support Trump. He might lose the election, but it would show that he has a spine, and something that motivates him beside ambition. A sense of honor, even. Yeah, no.

  113. 113.

    Adam L Silverman

    @sigaba: I have a former boss. Great guy, smart. Excellent senior executive and before that officer. He sends me these emails about the President or Secretary Clinton or other things that other people send him. It usually takes me under five minutes with a keyword search to debunk them/disprove them.

    Of course when he has a legit question about this stuff, for instance why the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is correct as opposed to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, he also emails for the correct answer, so…

  115. 115.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Adam L Silverman: DUI #1 is not a criminal offense in WI. DUIs #2-4 are misdemeanors. Only at #5 is it a felony. Exceptions for child under 16 in the car and such apply.*

    *Yes, these laws are far too lax. And I say that as a defense oriented guy.

  117. 117.

    Matt McIrvin

    @randy khan:

    What’s amazing is that all of the blathering about ISIS is quite out of date – ISIS has been losing territory steadily for a long time. So, in other words, the strategy to suppress them is working.

    But terrorist attacks associated with them (however tenuously) keep happening, and this is what gets attention. Of course, this is a strategy of a losing movement, but to someone who reads bloody headlines about attacks in the West, it seems they’re becoming more of a menace, so we must be doing something wrong.

  118. 118.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lamh36: Rick Wilson is a professional Republican campaign and strategy guy. He’s very displeased with Trump and very concerned about his campaign and its effect on both the GOP and the US. Journalists have started pushing on the Trump campaign, both Trump himself and his surrogates, on why the only thing the campaign cared about in the GOP platform was weakening the language in regard to Ukraine. The charge is that this was done on behalf of Putin and if it wasn’t pushed by Trump, then by the people working for him, like Manafort, that are within Putin’s orbit. That’s what Wilson is talking about.

  119. 119.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Adam L Silverman:

    When they bitch about regulations crippling business, the ones they name are all municipal not Federal, but they still think its the Federal government’s fault and that’s why the Federal government needs to be dismantled.

    The one that drives me nuts is using bad experiences at the DMV as an argument against the federal government. Especially if the alternative is devolving functions to the states!

  120. 120.

    Barbara

    What kind of happy drug have they been taking to hallucinate a vision of Trump being more easily controlled once he is elected? He doesn’t care what they think even now when, ostensibly, he needs people to vote for him. It is abundantly clear that Trump is not restrained by what anyone thinks, and after being elected (God forbid!) he won’t need them at all. For all they know Trump will nominate candidates his sister tells him to — and they would so deserve it. They are idiots to think they can apply rational thinking and logic to infer the actions of an out of control narcissist.

  121. 121.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Lizzy L: If he wants to retain his seat he has no choice but to try to get to Beruff’s right. If he fails to do that he won’t make it out of the primary.

  122. 122.

    Miss Bianca

    @Adam L Silverman: You could be describing the shit I’ve been reading that my erstwhile friend has been sending me. it’s the same level of batshittery, except from the left. Clinton isn’t a liberal progressive; she’s a neoliberal monster who will pose the greatest threat the world has ever known if she’s elected. (Actual line). Obama sold us all out by not trying hard enough to get a more liberal agenda passed during that limited amount of time when he had a cooperative Congress.

    Oh, and the DNC was the most sickening display of American swagger ever, so both Obama and Clinton (and Michelle Obama, and everyone who spoke) are now more of a threat to America than Donald Trump. Cuz, sell-outs.

    I am truly frightened to think that this is logical conclusion to Bernie-or-Busterism, and I hope to hell it’s a far more limited phenomenon than it looks like.

  123. 123.

    scav

    @Lizzy L: Any god Pence worships must be a corkscrew if he blesses and approves of such weasel locutions as Pence has chattered during his lifetime.

  124. 124.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Suzanne: I’ve not heard about DUI’s specifically, but taking guns away from folk who are on meds for mental issues? I’ve heard that.

  125. 125.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’m tracking, but you’re assuming that Frum knows this or that, provided he actually spoke to a real Trump supporter, the Trump supporter knows that.

  126. 126.

    Suzanne

    @Adam L Silverman: No, I know, but it takes a lot of DUI before it’s a felony. And I haven’t heard of any push to change that or to confiscate guns from those who have had DUIs.

  127. 127.

    Gin & Tonic

    @lamh36: Paul Manafort was on MTP this morning, and lied straight into Chuckie’s face. The question was about the platform committee’s work at the RNC – the one and only matter on any policy that was related to them by the Trump campaign was to weaken the platform’s position on US aid to Ukraine. Manafort denied that the Trump campaign had anything to do with it, whereas people actually on the platform committee are already on record that it was the Trump campaign’s doing. Chuckie, of course, didn’t follow up, because he is a spineless weasel.

    Manafort is an amoral blood-soaked scumbag who wouldn’t know the truth if it chewed his dick off.

  129. 129.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Matt McIrvin: Last one I had explained to me involved a NY City municipal building and zoning code that put a community hospital out of business. Somehow this was an example of an out of control Federal government.

  130. 130.

    bk

    @Omnes Omnibus: MADD, with some help, has been very successful in I think at least 25 states to get even requiring a first DUI conviction to get an interlock device/

  132. 132.

    Barbara

    @Adam L Silverman: Watching people who are in what I call the professional Republican support system having to figure out how to react to Trump is eye opening. Unsurprisingly, a lot are like Paul Ryan, which is they try hard to keep their heads down and maintain silence unless forced into saying or doing something. Most will not say that they are not voting for Trump, let alone that they are voting for Clinton or even a third party.

  133. 133.

    sigaba

    @Adam L Silverman @Miss Bianca:

    You could be describing the shit I’ve been reading that my erstwhile friend has been sending me. it’s the same level of batshittery, except from the left. Clinton isn’t a liberal progressive; she’s a neoliberal monster.

    Maybe we’re the sick ones. Maybe it’s sick to accept the world for what it is and then proceed to change it. Maybe normal people are the ones who decide reality is arranged to support some moral prior and the only resolution is some kind of apocalypse.

  135. 135.

    burnspbesq

    The notion that the Senate’s obligation to advise and consent can only be discharged by the affirmative vote of a majority to Senators is cow pies. Nothing in the Constitution prevents a president from sending a nomination to the Senate with the following nessage: “Unless the Senate votes by a two-thirds majority, within 48 hours, to reject Judge Garland, I will deem the Senate to have consented to his appointment.” That would be Constitutional hardball, but it’s no farther out of bounds than McConnell’s refusal to advise or consent.

  137. 137.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Suzanne: My guess is that Frum, concocting this dialogue, confused DUI with restraining orders for domestic abuse. That’s usually what the People of the Gun are complaining about. And California’s process of seeking a court order to have someone’s guns taken away if one believes they are a threat to themselves and our others.

  138. 138.

    lamh36

    @Gin & Tonic: Ah… see last I had heard, Chuck also didn’t correct Trump surrogate when they said the debates schedule was essentially engineered by HRC camp and not by, ya know, an independent body…smh

  141. 141.

    sigaba

    @burnspbesq:

    Nothing in the Constitution prevents a president from sending a nomination to the Senate with the following nessage: “Unless the Senate votes by a two-thirds majority, within 48 hours, to reject Judge Garland, I will deem the Senate to have consented to his appointment.”

    I track this and recommend Hillary simply appoint people and let the Senate veto them. I personally have no problem if she did this and I’d have no problem if President Trump tried to do this. The Senate’s Polish Parliament problem is ridiculous.

  142. 142.

    Gin & Tonic

    @lamh36: I suppose it’s difficult to interview people who feel no obligation whatsoever to answer truthfully.

  144. 144.

    Suzanne

    @Adam L Silverman: I heard a comment on NPR, don’t remember who said it, asserting that those with multiple DUIs are at much higher likelihood to commit gun violence than the mentally ill. I have no information on that data and where it came from or its quality. If that is true, then I can see how that might be a valid policy solution.

  145. 145.

    Lizzy L

    @Adam L Silverman: I know. I recognize it’s a political necessity for him. But Trump dominated him completely. If I were a right wing Floridian, his abject support of Trump now would make me spit, or laugh in his face and vote for the other guy.

  146. 146.

    lamh36

    It’s almost hilarious how Mike Pence twisted himself to somehow blame Obama and HRC…SMH

    2h2 hours ago
    This portion of @mike_pence statement stood out to me, as Capt. Khan was killed in 2004. Obama sworn in 4 yrs later.

  147. 147.

    Miss Bianca

    @sigaba: I’m starting to wonder. I mean, someone I know – someone with whom I’ve had my differences, but whose opinions I’ve always respected – is telling me that I’m ignorant of history, ignorant of theory, that Hillary supporters sound just like Trump supporters, and because I refuse to condemn current US foreign policy and use of force as being just as bad as GW Bush’s, I’m a neo-liberal tool. And I’m thinking, “wow, you’re the one who sounds like a Trump supporter, and a clear and present threat to me.”

    It scares me a little. I keep getting shocked by how deeply the Clinton Derangement Syndrome runs out there. And how much Obama Derangement Syndrome there is among the white left.

  151. 151.

    rikyrah

    @lamh36:
    This story has legs. They just didn’t take the L, apologize and shut the phuq up.
    Now, we will have Gold Star families coming out for the Khans.
    Ferret Head ‘s lies about all his “support ” for the military will be investigated and found to be bogus.

  153. 153.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Dave:

    but why couldn’t we see a GOP Senate majority refuse to appoint a SCOTUS nominee for another 4 years?

    One reason would be that there is no longer a GOP Senate majority. I think that’s the endpoint here–once the norms have been eliminated, the remaining remedy is political. If it’s impossible to swing that, tough luck.

  155. 155.

    sigaba

    @Gin & Tonic: Something notable about Frum’s, um, “colloquy,” is a total preoccupation with appearances and what other people “think” of Trump and how, what’s really important, is how he drives people crazy. When Trump lies and breaks rules, he’s really playing 11-dimensional chess to prove how totally in control of every situation he is, and when people notice he’s lying that only goes to show how totally Trump is ruling their world.

    (I am vaguely reminded about something Karl Rove once said about “creating our own reality,” which reporters and citizens in the “reality-based community” could describe, but otherwise had no influence.)

    Absent from any of this is why anyone would actually want to vote for Trump, apart from the fact that he’s a winner and knows how to defeat other Republicans. The policies and his character are beside the point.

  156. 156.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Miss Bianca:

    I’m a neo-liberal tool.

    Try pointing out that neo-liberal deals with economic policy and neo-con deals with foreign policy.

  157. 157.

    scav

    @lamh36: Time zones are tricky in Indiana (certain counties haven’t made it to the 20th C). Natives can get easily confused about temporal ordering.

  158. 158.

    lamh36

    @ddale8
    Here’s how Trump’s campaign responded when I asked about Bloomberg questioning his sanity

    Basically Trump can’t just say “he’s perfectly healthy”…naw…

    Trump’s campaign vehemently disagrees.

    “I’m sure you saw Mr. Trump’s medical report released in December of last year, which described him as perhaps the healthiest individual to ever be elected President (paraphrasing) — I refer you to that,” spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in an email.

  161. 161.

    RaflW

    @schrodinger’s cat: Because Obama was running for the US Senate in 2004, he is directly responsible for Capt Khan’s death.

    Or something. More likely Pence’s staff are just as stupid as Trump hisownself.

  163. 163.

    aimai

    @Miss Bianca: I was reading a book on manipulative people and I saw that one of the first things they try to do is figure out what will push your shame button to keep you in line. I was wondering why, so often, a certain type of commenter will say “you sound just like a republican” if I defend HRC. What they mean is that a willingness to support my own candidate, in the face of the stupid right wing/left wing attacks they are making, is inconvenient for them. And they think I can be silenced or shamed by the comparison. Its just something that, well, manipulative and covertly agressive people do. They don’t believe it. They don’t care, really. Its just something they think will work.

  164. 164.

    schrodinger's cat

    Can someone explain why wingnut heads explode when they hear another language. See for example, Sarah Palin and the part of Kaine’s speech in Spanish. Isn’t being fluent in more than one language a positive thing?

  165. 165.

    Mike J

    @scav:

    Time zones are tricky in Indiana (certain counties haven’t made it to the 20th C). Natives can get easily confused about temporal ordering.

    Made for a good ep of West Wing.

  168. 168.

    Brachiator

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Donald Trump and I believe that Captain Humayun Khan is an American hero and his family, like all Gold Star families, should be cherished by every American.

    WTF?

    These statements are deliberately crafted to be dishonest and misleading. Damn. Even with Fox News in temporary disarray, the Republican Mendacity Machine is functioning well.

  170. 170.

    Brachiator

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Can someone explain why wingnut heads explode when they hear another language. See for example, Sarah Palin and the part of Kaine’s speech in Spanish.

    Wait. I’m confused. Sarah Palin does not speak English. Her fans have no problem with this.

  171. 171.

    Brachiator

    @Suzanne:

    I heard a comment on NPR, don’t remember who said it, asserting that those with multiple DUIs are at much higher likelihood to commit gun violence than the mentally ill.

    Wow. This is some tortured bullshit. Even if true, the class or set of people with DUIs is different from the class or set of people who are mentally ill. And there is also likely an overlap between the two groups, so much so that I would suggest that the comparison is meaningless.

  172. 172.

    Cat48

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Trump may have never met Putin, but Gen Flynn, his advisor, met with Putin this year at an RT Banquet celebrating RT’s 10yrs of broadcasting. Trump may think we need to soften our policies towards Russia bc Flynn, his advisor thinks that we should. Probably not news to you but the press won’t even use google. They don’t want public to know for some reason.

  174. 174.

    Brachiator

    @lamh36:

    Ah… see last I had heard, Chuck also didn’t correct Trump surrogate when they said the debates schedule was essentially engineered by HRC camp and not by, ya know, an independent body…smh

    The insinuation is something like this: Crooked Hillary and her Democrat helpers stacked the debate schedule to hurt Bernie, and they are doing the same thing to Trump, because Little Donnie is an innocent lamb who doesn’t understand these things, and who would never try to pull a stunt that would give him an advantage.

    Lying shitgibbon. These dopes are going to be flinging shit from now until election day.

  175. 175.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Ah, so it’s the old Cheney trick of putting “Saddam Hussein” and “9/11” into the same paragraph but never actually drawing a connection between the two so there’s still deniability.

    And yet some idiot lefties will still fall for it because Hillary is Evil.

  177. 177.

    MarilyD SOregon

    My son and DIL and sister were solidly in Bernie’s camp. My son and DIL, appear to have signed on #with Her. My sister is a staunch Hillary Hater, something about Victoria Nuland at the State Dept. Can anyone clue me in? My sister worked for the State Dept. during the Nixon years, and went as an aide with Shirley Temple Black on her mission to Russia.

  179. 179.

    RaflW

    Holy mother of g—

    @MarkHalperin
    Does the RNC dare to do oppo on the Khans? They are likely to hear from donors about this already.

    We’re well beyond Chris Hayes’ Twilight of the Elites. We’re now at 3a.m. Meth Addict Convulsion of the Elites.

  181. 181.

    scav

    Hhhmmmm. So is Trump really going about proclaiming loudly and complaining that he’s less of a prime time TV draw than a mere football game? Shouldn’t his yuuuge PR aura be the superpower that attracts the fawning audience to the event wherein he can introduce the shadowy unknown figure of Hillary Clinton to the unsuspecting voting public?

  182. 182.

    Barbara

    @Brachiator: Alcohol use is associated will all kinds of antisocial behavior. A significant percentage of domestic abusers only abuse after using alcohol. So it is no mystery at all that use of alcohol would be correlated with disinhibition in the use of violence.

  183. 183.

    sm*t cl*de

    “Put down your #NeverTrump pride and start working to save the Supreme Court.”

    Ha. If there aren’t enough Republican senators to block the nominations from a hypothetical Clinton presidency, then there aren’t enough to rubber-stamp Trump’s nominations.

    This is not an argument. It’s a ball of hair shaped to look like an argument.

  184. 184.

    Mnemosyne

    @Suzanne:

    I guess I’m wondering about the definition of “gun violence.” As I understand it, the major reason for denying guns to people with mental health issues is to prevent them from committing suicide, not homicide.

  185. 185.

    Brachiator

    @Miss Bianca:

    I’m starting to wonder. I mean, someone I know – someone with whom I’ve had my differences, but whose opinions I’ve always respected – is telling me that I’m ignorant of history, ignorant of theory, that Hillary supporters sound just like Trump supporters, and because I refuse to condemn current US foreign policy and use of force as being just as bad as GW Bush’s, I’m a neo-liberal tool.

    I listened to Cornell West unpack this bullshit on the podcast version of Real Time with Bill Maher. Barney Frank deftly deflated most of West’s posturings. But the Bernie diehards and Jill Stein maniacs will not be pulled from their purity trees.

  187. 187.

    BR

    @Brachiator:

    I sometimes think the best thing is to convince the Stein-inclined that Stein is not ideologically pure enough (she supports our current economy existing, or whatever) and that she curbs what she says so that she can get interviews on Fox News (where she’s happy to get airtime), etc. Push the Stein-inclined even further left, so they are attacking Stein from the left, and you’ll have done a day’s work.

  188. 188.

    Feathers

    @schrodinger’s cat: No.

    People who speak more than one language come in two basic varieties. Foreigners, who are bad. People who are more educated than they are, also bad. There also is the fixation that people who are not speaking English must be doing it so that they can badmouth you without you understanding what they are saying. Yes, this is a thing. I’ve seen it show up on reality shows and Youtube videos. I also know a person or two who does it. They are all highly strung, overly moralistic, and really racist.

  191. 191.

    Tom Q

    @Matt McIrvin: I happened to be in, of all things, a summer theatre workshop with Roger Stone back in high school. I can testify, he was a jerk even that far back. I’m proud to say none of the rest of us could stand him.

  194. 194.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Tom Q: I believe that Roger either invented the term ratfucking or the it was coined to describe his activities.

  195. 195.

    Suzanne

    @Brachiator: I know nothing about it other than hearing the comment on NPR that one time, so I have no opinion on the validity of the data. I just thought of it when I read Frum’s comment about DUI and guns in his weird little fantasy exercise. On first blush, it doesn’t seem ridiculous—if you get multiple DUIs, you probably have a problem with self-control, which also seems a likely risk factor for violent behavior—but IANAC or P (criminologist or psychologist).

  197. 197.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Feathers: Another manifestation of the paranoia that grips the wingtards. Why Alex Jones and chemtrails are so popular among them.

  199. 199.

    Brachiator

    @Barbara:

    Alcohol use is associated will all kinds of antisocial behavior.

    I don’t disagree with this. It’s the comparison with the mentally ill that is problematic.

    A significant percentage of domestic abusers only abuse after using alcohol.

    I suppose this is true. But how significant is significant? And “only after using alcohol?” This is too much of an absolute for me to think it reasonable.

    And it also sounds like blaming the alcohol rather than looking at other reasons why an abuser hurts his or her victims.

    Other things being equal does an alcoholic who abuses always stop the abuse if they stop drinking, without some other therapy or intervention?

  200. 200.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Brachiator:

    does an alcoholic who abuses always stop the abuse if they stop drinking,

    Oh, heavens no. But they’re more likely to abuse while intoxicated. At least violently. I think, obviously don’t have the stats handy.

    @Mnemosyne: “Information architecture” is the umbrella field.

  202. 202.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Major Major Major Major: And your degree/s are in the same field?

    There is a side where words matter as much as numbers: law, history, public policy, etc. Our attempts at precision with words have a reason. To switch to your world being careless about a word is like saying the answer is 327 x 3 or 4. And then when people complain, saying, “oh well, close enough.”

  203. 203.

    Suzanne

    @Mnemosyne: Well, I think educated people who propose to keep guns from “the mentally ill” (scare quoting because this is so vaguely defined as to be meaningless) would say that it’s to cut down on suicides. But IME, there’s a shit-ton of ignoramuses who think that all of the people who commit gun violence are CRRRRRRRRAZY (again, not defined) and that we need to keep them from killing us. It’s an othering technique, of course.

    Again, I know nothing about this data and I certainly don’t have any position on the issue—I just mentioned it due to the Frum crazy, and was wondering if this is a thing going around with the ammosexuals.

  204. 204.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Omnes Omnibus: I know, you’ll notice that my comments about affect/effect kept including the caveat unless you’re a lawyer, which was also meant as a reference to those other fields.

    Frankly, you can get math ‘close enough’ on a restaurant bill when doing the tip, or use ‘decimate’ wrong in a movie review, and they will bother me equally, which is to say, not at all.

    If you’re designing a data system ontology and try to put our entity for “french” under the “grape” classification, I’ll get quite upset because “french” is not a kind of grape. That would break the database. But in casual usage, if you pivot mid-sentence to switch from talking about kinds of grape to talking about french wines, I’ll just go along for the ride because it’s quite clear what you meant, and that’s the point of 99% of linguistic usage.

  205. 205.

    Brachiator

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Shitgibbon seems to be sticking here for some reason. Not complaining.

    I like great apes (part of my science nerd background). And gibbons are brachiators. So the idea of gibbons flying through the trees flinging poo appeals to me greatly.

    I also think that Trump was given this appellation when he made a fool of himself about BREXIT when he visited Scotland. So I always hear shitgibbon applied to him in a strong Scottish accent.

  206. 206.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Brachiator: Aye. “Tiny-fingered, Cheeto-faced, ferret-wearing shitgibbon” is the term that was on a list of the various ways the Scots addressed Trump that weekend. His tweet really set them off, given that Scotland voted overwhelmingly “stay”.

  207. 207.

    Mike in NC

    Never heard of this Hugh Hewitt idiot until Andrew Sullivan blogged about going on his radio show, where apparently he would grill guests about their religious identity (him being an extremist Evangelical Christian).

  208. 208.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Major Major Major Major: When you say “unless you are a lawyer” you are necessarily excluding other academic fields. One can write them in by saying “unless one is in law or some other profession where precision of language matters.” But that would sort of defeat your point.

    If you can use affect and effect for the same purpose in academic writing in your field, your field needs more education on the English language.

  209. 209.

    magurakurin

    @Feathers: Using another language to hide your comments is not always racist. On a subway in Paris my uncle got cornered by a very, very suspicious character that seemed obviously to be a pick-pocket. My uncle, being a kind a trusting soul, didn’t pick up on the danger and was chatting with the man. We were sitting just in front of them and I told my wife in Japanese, “that guy is a thief” It was quite safe we felt to speak about it in front of him since the odds that he could understand our heavily dialected Japanese was basically zero. Even people from Tokyo have a bit of trouble with it. We discussed trying to alert my uncle but we afraid to say to him in English, as the thief obviously spoke English. If we shouted, “Uncle, that guy looks like a thief,” we weren’t sure what the reaction might be. Perhaps the man has a knife for such situations. In the end, my uncle was pickpocketed as the thief slipped off the train at the next stop. The 5 of us together on the trip had a pow-wow after that. We agreed that shouting out in English might have had risks so we decided on a plan. If anyone saw someone or something suspicious they were to shout out to the others the name of my brother-in-law (no particular reason why him) This would be the signal that something was up to the others. So, we would occasionaly shout out my brother-in-laws name as would be pick pocketers wandered by in the subway. And they really are legion in Paris.

  210. 210.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Omnes Omnibus: You can’t. Were we talking about academic writing? Perhaps my miseducation in the field of linguistics made me miss that the thread was specifically about that kind of writing. If how Chris Matthews pronounces ‘nuclear’ is of particular interest to your academic field, something something sarcasm blah blah.

  211. 211.

    median

    @magurakurin: I think you’re right about Paris and pickpockets. My pocket was dipped into went I went there in high school. A friend of mine had her iphone lifted in Paris. Another friend got scammed out of his luggage on the way out of the airport … baguettes, mimes, and pickpockets.

  213. 213.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Major Major Major Major: When you bring the learned professions into it, I assume you aren’t talking about casual conversation. Okay. I will state my proposition: Words matter. Your suggestion that affect=effect is simply wrong. That is it.

  214. 214.

    Brachiator

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Our attempts at precision with words have a reason.

    I sympathize with your views, but words are chameleons. They are changelings. They are tricksters that easily slip away from their old contexts and take on entirely new and legitimate meanings as time and circumstance change.

    Boondocks is a great word for the sticks,the bad part of town. Do you know the Gene Pitney song, Down in the boondocks?

    But it derives from Tagalog bundok mountain, or rough country with dense brush. Maybe brought to the US by Army personnel serving over in Asia in the 1930s.

    Words are not like arithmetic, but higher level maths.

    ETA But I agree that affect does not equal effect. Never.

  216. 216.

    magurakurin

    @median: About two years ago there was actually a strike in the Louvre by the workers. They were striking because of the pickpockets. They pickpockets INSIDE the Louvre had gotten so brazen that they were actually threatening the workers not to say anything or alert the unsuspecting. There are definitely some major hot spots in Paris. The subway stop outside the Eiffel Tower is one. My uncle got hit there a second time…but his wallet was already gone! He got double teamed by two young girls. One stopped in front of him at the turnstyle locking him in and the other grabbed for his wallet. She wasn’t very skilled because he felt her grab his butt. He was a little bit happy about…most action he’d seen a while he said. The funicular that goes up to Sacre-Coeur is really bad. Signs all over the place and “petition takers” in the square….a distraction. But they hop on the crowded funicular car and take adavantage of the crowd of tourists.

  217. 217.

    magurakurin

    @Major Major Major Major: My wife had her back packed opened while she was walking in the Barcelona subway. I always kept mine in front like a paratrooper, but she said I was being overly cautious….doh. Luckily nothing was missing, but the person was able to look through without her even knowing. Her passport and wallet were around her neck, so she was safe there. I never ever put a passport in a bag. It is always in a belt pouch right next to the family jewels.

  218. 218.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Omnes Omnibus: I said unless you’re a lawyer. Excluding the learned professions.

    Words do matter! More importantly though, when we’re talking about languages, context matters. That’s how meaning is derived, when there’s a conflict, 99% of the time. Since the purpose of most language is communication, this is indeed ‘good enough’. So, when in doubt, spell it ‘effect’. At the very least you’ve saved yourself the potential embarrassment of looking like you know how to use ‘affect’ and being wrong about it.

    When you seek to remove language from its context is where things get interesting. Law is a particularly fascinating field in this regard. You create a rigid formal structure in which, as is the very point, there can (or should) be no linguistic ambiguity, because you’re trying to pass down consistency. Legal language is a lot like the formal grammar of a programming language in this regard. If I had to pigeon-hole it I’d put it as a context-sensitive grammar–but then we’re using a different form of the word ‘context’! What a great example.

    But I don’t consider this to be the type of language we’re talking about when we talk about language unless it’s specified as such. Language wasn’t meant to pass on rigid structures through the ages, it was meant for talking. Most written language reflects this and changes quite a bit as time goes by. So, when in doubt, type ‘effect’. Nobody’s going to care in 30 years except the lawyers.

    For the record, I never said ‘affect’ and ‘effect’ were the same word.
    ETA: One final clarification. “As a rule, spell it with an e” is a great rule. The vast majority of usage is either 1) effect or 2) people using affect when they should use effect.

  220. 220.

    Anne Laurie

    @Suzanne:

    Have y’all read this bit of weirdness from Frum? This shit is bananas.

    Never forget, Frum’s career was made writing speeches for Preznit Dubya. He took great pride in coming up with the phrase ‘axis of evil’. Sure, he’s embarrassed by the current GOP candidate, but occasionally his inner RepubRatfvcker emerges, once more slavering for the raw rush of triumphantly channelling hatred & bigotry!… err, other peoples’ hatred and bigotry, of course. Because David Frum personally is not like that, he’ll be the first to tell you.

  224. 224.

    Brachiator

    @Suzanne:

    I know nothing about it other than hearing the comment on NPR that one time, so I have no opinion on the validity of the data.

    I didn’t intend to give you a hard time about it. And I understand the common sense aspects of this, and the political side.

    I just thought of it when I read Frum’s comment about DUI and guns in his weird little fantasy exercise.

    Yep.

  225. 225.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Major Major Major Major: My god, you just said that careful use of language doesn’t matter except where it does.

    If your point is that fiction, which you write, is different, then fine. Otherwise, you are wrong and words and grammar matter.

  226. 226.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    careful use of language doesn’t matter except where it does.

    fiction[…] is different[…] fine.

    Glad we agree!
    Law is different from journalism is different from radio is different from restaurant receipts is different from blog comments, also too. So stop saying everybody has/ought to use ‘decimate’ (or whatever) like it said in the dictionary you grew up with, everywhere.

  227. 227.

    Brachiator

    @magurakurin:

    There are definitely some major hot spots in Paris.

    The boyfriend of a co-worker ran down and confronted a pickpocket while on vacation in Paris. A team used a teen girl as a “bumping” distraction. He managed to get his wallet back. I used to travel with a giveaway wallet in some countries.

    Travelers to Rio are strongly advised not to wear jewelry or watches and to carry a small amount of cash to give to muggers.

    Also, a smartphone scam. Guys come up to a person in a cafe with their smartphone on the table. They chat or have some charity or event they want to talk about. They have papers or brochures that they put down on the table. When they collect their papers, they also scoop up the smartphone.

  228. 228.

    Mnemosyne

    @magurakurin:

    I think it was Rick Steves who said you should always keep your passport and wallet under your clothes with maybe a small amount of cash in an accessible pocket so that getting pickpocketed is an interesting cultural experience and not a trip-ruining disaster.

  230. 230.

    Steeplejack

    @Brachiator:

    Total fail.

    1. “Down in the Boondocks,” a great song written by Joe South, was a hit for Billy Joe Royal, not Gene Pitney. It was covered several times, but not by Pitney (according to Wikipedia).

    2. Words taking on “entirely new and legitimate meanings as time and circumstance change” is a completely different thing from a word (say, boondocks) entering English from another language. So your example of the latter to say something about the former is flawed. Once boondocks arrived in English, its meaning has been stable, i.e., “rough country with dense brush” or “a rural area, ‘the sticks.’”

    There are words that “easily slip away from their old contexts and take on entirely new and legitimate meanings as time and circumstance change,” but your example of boondocks has fuck-all to do with it.

    Please report to pedant detention after blog this week.

  231. 231.

    Steeplejack

    @Major Major Major Major:

    “As a rule, spell it with an e” is a great rule. The vast majority of usage is either 1) effect or 2) people using affect when they should use effect.

    Poppycock. Your rule is going to break down because, although people usually do mean effect when the word in question is a noun, they almost always mean affect when the word is a verb. “How does this affect the process?” “How does this affect the time line?” (*As opposed to “What is the effect on the time line?”)

    Yes, there is the case of, for example, “He wanted to effect change in the government,” but that is probably a very small percentage—just like the small percentage of noun affects. (“His affect seemed a little off after reading the blog for so long.”)

  233. 233.

    Barbara

    @Brachiator: I am following up even though this is mostly a dead thread. Regarding alcohol and abuse: I am not excusing abusers but simply pointing out that it is unsurprising that people who are primed to use violence of all kinds will disproportionately do so after using alcohol because alcohol has a disinhibiting effect on a wide array of behaviors. To take a very safe example, people who drink alcohol in a restaurant are more likely to order dessert. And it is also true that mentally ill people may be more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol if for no other reason than as a form of self-medication. I don’t know how many abusers fit the pattern I identified, but I used to counsel domestic abuse victims and a fair number told me that their abusers could keep it together when sober but frequently lost control when drunk.

  234. 234.

    Brachiator

    @Steeplejack: Ha! Thanks for the correction. I had a total brain fart in which I conjoined Down in the Boondocks with Town Without Pity. I knew the singers. But I never knew that Joe South wrote the song. When I was a yoot, I didn’t know from songwriters, and didn’t always backfill my knowledge once I learned better. Also, I sometimes mix the song up with Johnny Rivers’ Poor Side of Town.

    But the word’s origins does prove my point. English has a shitload of foreign words, and meanings shifted as the word travelled and knocked around. And in English usage, there is a big contextual difference between it’s use to describe an uninhabited woody area and the poor and especially unsophisticated part of town.

  235. 235.

    Brachiator

    @Barbara: I totally take your point about alcohol use and abuse. I mainly objected to the original author (Frum?) using fuzzy statistics to try to compare abusers who drink, the mentally ill and gun use.

    I like what you say about the mentally ill sometimes using alcohol to self medicate.

    But I wonder if some abusers knowingly and deliberately (even if unconsciously) use alcohol to help work themselves up into using violence. And almost to give themselves permission.

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