Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

This really is a full service blog.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

In after Baud. Damn.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

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

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Sunday Evening Open Thread: NFL Protests & Other Stuff

Sunday Evening Open Thread: NFL Protests & Other Stuff

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General notification: I normally use a FireFox analog, Pale Moon, as my browser. As many of you already know, Balloon Juice is currently blocked for FF users, so I’ve had to resort to IE, which sucks seventeen ways, none of them enjoyable. There will be crankiness.

Latest upgrade I can find on HRClinton’s incident this morning, from the NYTimes:

… Mrs. Clinton was taken from the morning event at ground zero to the Manhattan apartment of her daughter, Chelsea. About 90 minutes after arriving there, Mrs. Clinton emerged from the apartment in New York’s Flatiron district and waved to onlookers, posing for pictures with a little girl on the sidewalk.
“I’m feeling great,” Mrs. Clinton said. “It’s a beautiful day in New York.”

Mrs. Clinton left in her motorcade without the group of reporters that is designated to travel with her in public. A campaign spokesman, Nick Merrill, indicated that she returned to her Chappaqua, N.Y., residence after 1 p.m., but did not give an exact time.

Mr. Merrill described the Democratic presidential nominee only as feeling “overheated” during the commemoration ceremony that morning…

[Rep. Peter T.] King said it was hot enough that officials working at the event offered the dignitaries bottles of water as they stood. But he noted that he did not see anybody accept a bottle.

The congressman, who served alongside Mrs. Clinton when she was in the Senate, said he could not recall Mrs. Clinton suffering any medical episodes at any of the public events he had attended with her…

***********

In other news, I had intended to post this before today’s game:

According to the Palm Beach Post [warning: autoplay], the Seahawks players modified their protest with a plan for all players to stand with their arms interlinked during the anthem. Some of the players on the opposing teams, the Dolphins, chose to protest themselves by kneeling. The usual suspects are taking this very, very seriously.

What else is on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

66Comments

  1. 1.

    Trentrunner

    Clinton has pneumonia. Her doctor examined her today and just released a statement.

    Gonna be a bumpy 60 days.

  2. 2.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    I’m here using Firefox.

    The problem is something called OCSP stapling. Disabling it in about:config allows me to bypass the fit Firefox is throwing over the security certificate here.

    Someone who knows a lot more than I do about browser security will have to dig deeper, but it looks to me like it’s a difference in how Firefox handles a problem with the certificate vs how other browsers handle the errors.

  3. 3.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Trentrunner:

    According to doctor’s statement, HRC was put on antibiotics Friday and advised to modify her schedule. She did get overheated and dehydrated this morning. Doctor says HRC is now rehydrated and “recovering nicely.”

  11. 11.

    Elie

    @WaterGirl:

    The pneumonia shot mainly deals with one type of pneumonia. She could have had a bad cold that just deteriorated to pneumonia. She is 68 and under some stress of course. Ouch… just no way not to say ouch, sorry.

  12. 12.

    West of the Cascades

    I’m surprised (sort of) that there hasn’t been an expose on Trump-sicknesses … surely with the amount of time he’s spent in front of cameras in the last 30 years, there are instances where he has said “I’m just getting over a bad cold” or “I’ve been under the weather.” or something else showing less than stupendously excellent health (i.e. something more specific than his nearly-permanent florid face).

    ETA: here’s hoping for a very speedy (i.e. by September 26th!) recovery for the Secretary …

  15. 15.

    Elie

    She can kick this pretty quickly if she does what she is told and rests a bit. Her team will have to manage the rest of the week given that they came out with the facts pretty fast. It IS gonna be a bumpy ride, but there it is….

  18. 18.

    WaterGirl

    To speak to a more concerning issue, I wish Colin Kaepernick had a name that was easier to spell. I’m really glad that others are standing up with him (metaphorically speaking) and that this is getting some traction. Dave Zirin had a column yesterday where he declared that Colin Kaepernick is winning on this issue.

    Like a lot of things, time will tell.

  20. 20.

    philadelphialawyer

    Man, I couldn’t agree more with TBogg.

    If I wanted to attend concerts of patriotic songs or memorial services to military members, police officers, fire fighters, whatever, I would do so. And same if I wanted to watch them on TV.

    But I don’t want to.

    So why do I have those things forced on me because I do like to attend sporting events and watch them on TV?

    When and who decided that these alleged displays of patriotism, these demonstrations of military hardware, these more or less coerced offering of “thanks” to military members, etc, are inescapably to be part and parcel of games?

    I like sports. I don’t much like the military or the police. Nor do I like “God Bless America.” I like to some extent the national anthem, but, when it comes to sports, I don’t see why it cannot be restricted to international and, at most, national events. Yes at the Olympics and the World Cup. OK at the Super Bowl. But not at every frickin’ game, from high school on up. Otherwise, fans of patriotic music can attend concerts, such as, for example, those presented on the Fourth of July, if they so choose. And, similarly, as far as memorial services for military veterans, the police, and so on, are concerned, these can be organized as stand alone events, at for example, military cemeteries, veterans’ and police memorials, for those so inclined as well.

    I want my sports straight. I don’t want politics, either of the conventional, actual “PC” hoo ray for the troops, the cops, and the US of A, kind, or even of the allegedly PC, liberal kind. I don’t want to hear about charities, either. There are times and places to discuss political issues, and for charitable giving. But the game shouldn’t have to be one of those.

  21. 21.

    Elie

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Truly — and she should be able to kick it quick. Its a relatively concrete thing to have and glad that they are handling it matter of factly — Stonewalling was not their strategy and I admire that, though I was more wishy washy about the wisdom of revealing anything…

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    @Elie: That sounds about right. I’ve had pneumonia, and I’m one of those stubborn folks who thinks you can power through anything if you just keep plugging away. Well, you can’t fuck around with pneumonia; you will get worse if you do.

  23. 23.

    pea

    living in weeki wachi (betty cracker!!!), the youngest person under 80 in this ‘hood,
    i know what it’s like melting into a puddle while my ears are being twisted off twisted off,
    feeling you’re going to throw up/faint if you stand still 5 more minutes.

  24. 24.

    PsiFighter37

    I hope Hillary simply rests before the debate (which is 2 weeks away), then comes out and kicks Donald’s ass. Have Kaine hit all the places she was supposed to be at, and roll out the surrogates earlier than you may have wanted. Get PBO out there stat…

  25. 25.

    JMG

    @PsiFighter37: Can’t do that. It’d be reported like she was at death’s door. All she (or any other presidential candidate) needs is one event a day which provides one soundbite a day in time for 6 o’clock news broadcasts. Not that tough.

  26. 26.

    Aleta

    Trump said he would take $20 billion in federal funding — though he didn’t make clear where he would get it from — to establish block grants that states can use to help children in low-income families enroll at private and charter schools. In a somewhat mixed message, he said that although states would be able to use the money as they saw fit, he would push them to use it for school choice.

    Trump employ(ed) the language of Republicans who refuse to call public schools public schools and instead refer to them as “government-run education monopolies.” (…Let’s ignore the irony of Trump using the same language as Bush, whom Trump mocked during the GOP primaries.)

    Donald Trump made a renewed pitch here Thursday for the school choice movement — at a charter school that has received failing grades from the Ohio Department of Education for its students’ performance and progress on state math and reading tests.

    Trump’s plan to add “an additional federal investment of $20 billion towards school choice” would be accomplished by “reprioritizing existing federal dollars,” he and his campaign said. But they did not say specifically where in the budget the money would come from.

  27. 27.

    Hal

    I’m really and truly amazed by the freak out over this little episode. I expect the media to report on it, it’s valid in a presidential election. But that doesn’t mean anyone outside of people who think Clinton killed Vince Foster are going to think twice about this. The election is not going to be decided by Hillary Clinton being a little over heated. I’m not even going to worry about it.

  28. 28.

    Wapiti

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Pneumonia’s obviously no joke, but it’s far from the dire diagnosis it used to be.

    Or what it may be in the future, if we lose effective antibiotics.

  29. 29.

    JPL

    The newsies are upset that they were not notified Friday..
    cuz transparency is important for her but not him, I guess.

  30. 30.

    raven

    No college football thread yesterday (but we got soccer), no NFL thread today and all we get is some bitching an moaning about some shit that isn’t going to change. Fucking commies.

  31. 31.

    hovercraft

    @WaterGirl:
    Flu and pneumonia shots only cover certain strains of the infections. It’s always hit or miss whether you will be exposed to other strains of the infections and therefore be infected. CNN is going blanket health scare, with the focus now being on whether she should have disclosed that she had pneumonia on Friday when she was diagnosed. Why didn’t she disclose, why didn’t she follow doctors orders. Why is she so secretive, why is she playing into the Trump campaigns meme that she is unwell. So now the question what to do, follow doctors orders, and she is sick unwell, if she travels, why isn’t she modifiying her schedule?

  35. 35.

    raven

    Timely Masterpiece tonight:

    “The story of Winston Churchill’s 1953 stroke and recovery, which occurred during his second stint as prime minister. In order to remain in office, he shields his condition from the world and, with the aid of a nurse, relearns to speak, stand and walk.”

  39. 39.

    Elie

    @hovercraft:

    Well, you knew this was gonna be the case. They will wear it out in a few days if she is back on her feet and back at it. Actually, I do not know why she didn’t just come late to the festivities this morning and leave it at that… got some rest, etc but its always simple from the outside.

  41. 41.

    ruckus

    @philadelphialawyer:
    Went to a talk/old military airplane demonstration a couple of weeks ago and there was a color guard, they were kids in uniform, and then everyone was asked to stand and pledge allegiance. It actually pissed me off, I was in the military and we didn’t pledge allegiance, we did pledge to uphold the constitution when we were sworn in. However, no one said a thing when I stood there silently with my hand at my side.

  44. 44.

    hovercraft

    Sanjay Gupta need to go fuck himself with a rusty pitchfork. “The statement is useful but incomplete, because first we heard about allergies, and now we are hearing about pneumonia, which you need a chest x-ray to diagnose, when did this happen and why wasn’t it disclosed? Both can be true but we need to know more, the doctor should come forward and hold a press conference and answer questions so we can get a full picture of what happened here.”
    For fucks sake she has a allergies, she was coughing and assumed she was suffering from said allergies, she feels like crap, goes to see her doctor, she is diagnosed with pneumonia, she goes to an event feels like crap and or faint, she rehydrates and goes home where her doctor is waiting for her, another examination, the doctors says she is now rehydrated and is resting comfortably. What other fucking questions do you have. These fuckers asking why she didn’t cancel everything on Friday after the diagnosis should STFU. She is an adult and can make her own decisions about her health.

  45. 45.

    WaterGirl

    @hovercraft: I always figure that if you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t, that gives you the luxury of doing what you think is right.

  48. 48.

    ruckus

    @hovercraft:
    She’s a woman. She has no self autonomy, that’s why no woman can be president, or make their own health decisions.
    Haven’t you been paying attention? Women, minorities, anyone under 21, a skin tone that can be in any way described darker than pure white, they are not capable of any decisions more serious than what to eat for dinner.

  50. 50.

    hovercraft

    @WaterGirl:
    There have been several reports that this is Hillary’s assessment too. No matter what she does the “questions” never go away. Everything somehow always raises more questions no matter what.

  52. 52.

    Juju

    @Betty Cracker: I had pneumonia in 1999 for approximately six weeks before I knew I had it. I felt tired and ragged but it never occurred to me it was anything but getting over a really bad flu virus. Fortunately I have a doctor brother who I saw when I drove my mom to visit him in a neighboring town. He noticed I was very pale and had a hacking cough. He listened to my lungs and said I have pneumonia. I got some antibiotic samples until I could get a prescription filled and I was fine in 10 days. Modern medicine is quite the thing. I now have to be aware every time I get the flu or a bad virus because my likelihood of getting pneumonia after a virus is higher than someone who has never had pneumonia.

  53. 53.

    WaterGirl

    @Pogonip: The guy whose name is hard to spell – Colin Kaepernick – stopped standing for the national anthem as a protest about all the murders of black people by the police. It caused a ruckus. Oh sure, it’s an important thing, but you’re doing it wrong. Sure black lives matter, but do they have to matter right now? I mean this is football and it’s inconvenient. (My paraphrasing, taking license, pretty sure you can figure out where I stand.)

    Players here or there have supported him, but today an entire football team came out in support.

    Other people quoted Martin Luther King from his letters from the Birmingham Jail, and this seems completely on point:

    First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

  57. 57.

    philadelphialawyer

    @ruckus: I am sincerely glad you were able to register your feelings without incident. I have personally witnessed folks being bullied at sporting events for trying to opt out of the national anthem, GBA, a mandatory “thank you,” or other military hoo ha. It stinks.

  58. 58.

    debbie

    @WaterGirl:

    I am not a Hillary clone, but I’ve had a persistent cough for 16 months. In the middle of it, I came down with walking pneumonia (that sneaky bacteria always finds the weak spots in a person!). I’ve often coughed to the point of light-headedness and I’m surprised I never stroked. After spending more money than I wanted to to find out I’m allergic to everything, the allergist found a regimen that seems to be working (two different inhalers, nasal spray, and two different pills for GERD). It sucks, but my coughing’s way down.

    I know RWNJs won’t believe pneumonia or allergies, but it happens. And the first of my Trump-loving brothers or nephew to mock her for this on Facbook will get his ass handed to him very publicly.

  59. 59.

    WaterGirl

    @debbie: My sister is going through something similar, but it’s not been nearly that long. Sometimes you get the cough thing started and it’s like the coughing makes you cough and it doesn’t know how to stop. Glad they are helping, but it doesn’t sound like fun. Glad you will be on Facebook patrol for this issue.

  60. 60.

    sukabi

    @hovercraft: has he been pounding drumpf to come in for a full checkup or is he taking the quacker Jack’s letter as proof of drumpfs health? Cause if he isn’t demanding daily donald be examined by an actual, competent dr., then he needs to STFU.

  62. 62.

    grandpa john

    @redshirt: truly amazing, we got 24 hour news channels so they could give more comprehensive news coverage, but they spend the 24 hours covering one topic

  63. 63.

    way2blue

    Hat’s off to the NFL players whose eloquent call for social justice during the national anthem today brought a tear to my eye…

  64. 64.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @ruckus: Not even that, sometimes. Ask any woman who has ever ordered dessert in a restaurant, or an entree that wasn’t a salad.
    Ask any pregnant woman about being pregnant in public.

  65. 65.

    Procopius

    @Aleta: I haven’t even done a back of the envelope estimate, but $20 billion sounds like too little to help even families at 150% of the poverty line or below pay for private schools near their homes. That, of course, ignores the fact that the private schools might not wish to enroll students whom they perceive as having excessive melanin levels. IIRC, private schools are not considered the same as lunch counters. They can always find some reason other than race for denying students.

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