Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

The willow is too close to the house.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

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

No one could have predicted…

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

This blog will pay for itself.

In my day, never was longer.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

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

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

This fight is for everything.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

You are here: Home / Absent Friends / RIP / RIP, Gwen Ifill

RIP, Gwen Ifill

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Sad news:

It is with extremely heavy hearts that we must share that our dear friend and beloved colleague Gwen Ifill passed away this afternoon following several months of cancer treatment. She was surrounded by loving family and many friends whom we ask that you keep in your thoughts and prayers.

And Tom Friedman is healthy as a horse. 2016 is not going to end until it takes everything. EVERYTHING. Nothing is safe.

Reader Interactions

124Comments

  4. 4.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    I would choose to die now too if I was really sick. Not really interested in watching what comes next.

  6. 6.

    Peggy

    I am saddened on hearing about Gwen Ifill. Her genuine spirit was in our den every time she was on the air. She was a compassionate professional in my book. I will miss her very much.

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    And Tom Friedman is healthy as a horse.

    Say what you will about Friedman, if he’d been moderating a debate, there probably would’ve been a question about climate change.

  8. 8.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Agreed. I’ve yelled at her on TV during her predictable Villager-esque debate moderation. Not great just not as appallingly transparent as the rest of her peers.

    Didn’t wish her demise tho like others. The living dead Mrs Greenspan comes to mind.

  11. 11.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Very sad news. I met her a few years ago when she addressed the Atlanta Press Club. She was incredibly professional AND charming. Somewhere I have a signed copy of her book Breakthrough, about racial politics in the wake of electing Obama. Not sure I could bear to re-read it now, given what we’ve seen in the intervening eight years.

    R.I.P., Ms Ifill, and thank you.

    *******

    Also, FUCK CANCER. And while I’m at it, FUCK 2016.

  12. 12.

    geg6

    Not at all a fan, but she was definitely too young. I am sad for her family, friends and colleagues.

  23. 23.

    Bobby D

    RIP Gwen, you were one of the good ones, a journalist that I always held in high regard. Peace and strength to those grieving your loss.

  24. 24.

    rdldot

    Watching the press conference now and it looks like Obama can’t even say Trump’s name. Just keeps saying president-elect.

  25. 25.

    opiejeanne

    @rdldot: I can’t say it either. In lieu of coming up with something clever I may just start referring to him as NMP, Not My President.

  28. 28.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I’m enjoying this subtext– I’m leaving the country to That One in far better shape than I got it.

  30. 30.

    Felonius Monk

    @geg6:

    I refuse to accept him or any responsibility to or for him.

    A year from now we will be hard pressed to find anybody that voted for him.

    Also, too, RIP Gwen Ifill. She had her faults as a journalist/commentator, but compared to 99% of the others she was a giant.

  33. 33.

    Lizzy L

    I can say his name but I can’t/won’t join it to the word “President.” I think I can manage to say “Mr Trump.” But that’s it.

    The universe must be in an extremely pissy mood, to give us DT after President Obama.

  35. 35.

    Felonius Monk

    @Lizzy L:

    to give us DT after President Obama.

    That about sums it up. We got drunk on eight years of Barack Obama and now we got the DTs.

  36. 36.

    SenyorDave

    @Lizzy L: In public I’ll say Trump, won’t use Mr. In private? The lying, racist, sexual predator. Don’t like Pence but hoping that Pence has to take over for him at some point (and not because he steps down, but impeachment or better yet, some horrible debilitating disease). My wife has a movement disorder, so for me it has always been personal. Nothing bad that could happen to him or his two sons, Adolph or Heinrich, could ever bother me.

  38. 38.

    Gindy51

    @geg6: In any email or conversation I call him ‘ the thing’. No way will I dignify him with his name or the title he ripped off.

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne

    @SenyorDave:

    Pence is just as bad, if not worse. He’s a true believer Christianist movement conservative. Trump might be able to be talked out of ending Medicare and Social Security, but not Pence.

    Also, the Orange One’s sons are named Uday and Qusay. Get it right. ;-)

  42. 42.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    I am using Camacho after the president in Idiocracy. I figure it’s a twofer because Camacho wasnt smart and Trumpy is a racist pig who obviously hates Hispanics so even better to use a Hispanic name because,no doubt , he would consider it an insult. I also like Dumpy Lumpy Trumpy because he’s so vain. Yeah, it’s juvenile but whatevs.

  43. 43.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    So Trump is already screaming at the NYT for some article and contradicted himself on 60 minutes. That was all of six days.

  44. 44.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I don’t think PBO has used the T word in this whole conference, only “the president elect”

  45. 45.

    SenyorDave

    [email protected]Mnemosyne: I don’t believe anyone could be worse than Trump at this point. He’s not just amoral, he’s anti-moral. I know that Uday and Qusay are the chosen names, but I like to believe they are several notches below, deserving of Nazi names.

    And also, fuck our media, most of them should rot for what they helped to create.

    I’m guessing that maybe by the end of the year my anger will subside. On Wednesday I have to take my wife for her shots for her movement disorder that DT thinks is so humorous. Thank God hers is only a fraction of what the reporter who DT mocked has. I do think the NYT should give him the White House gig, so DT has to see him whenever he has a presser.

  46. 46.

    Mnemosyne

    Potentially interesting data point here in blue Southern California: the dude who had the giant, obnoxious Trump banner on his house has taken it down. Either the social shunning was getting to him or kids kept egging his house.

  47. 47.

    Shell

    I’m enjoying this subtext– I’m leaving the country to That One in far better shape than I got it.

    And the implication, “Lets see how much he can fuck it up in four years.”

  48. 48.

    Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)

    @Mnemosyne: nah, I like Adolf and Heinrich for his older sons. And Leni for Ivanka, since so many people fall for her and her husband’s propaganda bullshit.

  51. 51.

    J R in WV

    We rarely receive public TV signal, as we are on the very edge of their signals. But when we do receive their signal, Mrs J always enjoyed News Hour, and was disappointed to hear about Ms Ifill’s unexpected (by us out here in the boonies) death.

    Fuck Cancer, indeed, it got my Dad… and my cousin, the first of my generation in our family to die. The last words he said to us, another cousin went up after we heard he was ill to visit. He said “I don’t regret anything I’ve done. I regret the things I haven’t done!”

    Wise advice. I retired soon after, thinking even though I liked my work and my co-workers, will I regret not going to work more, or being free to do whatever… Retired! 3 days after my eligibility happened.

    2016 is sure going to be a year to ponder. Yuck!

  53. 53.

    Mnemosyne

    @SenyorDave:

    Since we have to choose between having a hand cut off or a foot cut off, I give the slight edge to Pence because he’s Competent Evil and would appear to be slightly more sane even though he’s totally insane. Trump is Chaotic Evil and totally fucking bonkers, so I’m not sure how much he can actually get done.

  54. 54.

    horse dave

    @Felonius Monk:

    Ha! I’ve take screen shots of the 5 or so wingnuts postings on my facebook feed. They will be reminded of the misery they have brought down on all of us.

  55. 55.

    SenyorDave

    @Mnemosyne: We have no evidence that Pence is intentionally evil. Agree that he would get more done, but I still think what Trump will get done will be horrible. Trump is actually malevolent, a cancer on society.

  56. 56.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Giuliani says Trump’s kids unemployable

    Washington PostVerified account
    ‏@ washingtonpost
    Giuliani says Trump can’t do a blind trust because it “would basically put his children out of work”

  57. 57.

    goblue72

    Its the Chicago Cubs fault. Little did anyone know that the 7th seal of the apocalypse was “the Cub win the World Series”.

  58. 58.

    Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)

    If 2016 is this bad, I can’t even imagine how shitty 2017 will be.

    Rest in power, Ms. Ifill.

  59. 59.

    cmorenc

    I never ever thought I would ever agree with the occasional emails my RW lifelong friend would send me during Obama’s first term with the following embedded image at the top: an overlay of the words “Do you miss me yet” atop a picture of George W Bush. I’d even take Jeb Bush over Trump in a heartbeat – not that I wouldn’t rather have Hillary or Bernie, but that’s how far we’ve fallen over the last week that I’d bet ANY of you would take the Bush v Trump choice laid out above if that’s the one swap you had the power to magically pull off.

  62. 62.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @cmorenc: Bill Maher last week was playing along with the right wing meme of “Democrats cried wolf, and now there’s a wolf”> more or less apologized to David Frum for suggesting that GWB was “the end of the world”. I wish one of the ‘liberals’ on that panel had pointed out that for 100,000s of people in Iraq, and now Syria, Bush was, quite literally, the end of the world.

  65. 65.

    Mnemosyne

    @SenyorDave:

    Pence ended needle exchange programs in Indiana because it was “enabling” drug addicts, and now they have an AIDS crisis. And after that, he signed an anti-gay law that got his state boycotted by pretty much every major organization in the US, including the NCAA.

    Oh, and he thinks “restorative therapy” will fix GLBTQ people, especially if it includes a few electric shocks.

    Trust me. Pence is evil.

  67. 67.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @SiubhanDuinne: seemed a very deliberate avoidance to me. Twenty bucks says Tweety’s gonna be all over that, if he didn’t have a T that I missed.

    ETA: oops, he did “Donald Trump” will be the next president of the United States”

  68. 68.

    cmorenc

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    @cmorenc: Bill Maher last week was playing along with the right wing meme of “Democrats cried wolf, and now there’s a wolf”> more or less apologized to David Frum for suggesting that GWB was “the end of the world”. I wish one of the ‘liberals’ on that panel had pointed out that for 100,000s of people in Iraq, and now Syria, Bush was, quite literally, the end of the world.

    I’m fully aware of that in saying that right now, if we only had a one-time magic power to swap out GWB for Trump, the power didn’t extend to choosing anyone else, I’d take GWB in a heartbeat. The possible event horizon with Trump is vastly worse and more dangerous than GWB ever considered in the days when he was most under the thrall of Cheney and his cabal of neocons.

  69. 69.

    schrodinger's cat

    I just emailed my independent friend, the Hillary hater who listens to Limbaugh and reads Banon’s site for ” balance” who I have been telling you guys about.

    Congratulations! The witch got trounced. I did not reply to your last email because your continual embrace of sexist, racist and xenophobic propaganda, is more than I can stomach. And really, are we friends anymore? Since the last two years, after the 2014 mid-term elections you have avoided my calls. What do you call someone who doesn’t take your calls and never calls you, I don’t think a friend fits that definition. For old times sake, I tried to keep the conversation open via email. I can’t do it anymore.

    I wish you the best. I have nothing more to say, so I will sign off now.

  70. 70.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I would make book that POTUS never uttered the man’s name.

    And yes, of course! Tweety is the one who would be counting and will probably be spluttering with indignation (as distinct from his normal everyday garden-variety spluttering). Nice observation, JFL.

  71. 71.

    The Moar You Know

    No way will I dignify him with his name or the title he ripped off.

    @Gindy51: Can’t go there. Six million Dems who thought it would be neat to watch reruns on the History Channel or something instead of voting put him there, legally, fair and square. WE DIDN’T SHOW UP.

    Until you (personally and collectively) can deal with that, you’re not even beginning to fix the problem that put this monster in office in the first place.

    We fucking did this to ourselves. I wake up with that in my head every day, and it’s like an aneurysm that you can’t get out and can’t fix. Just sits there and builds. WE DID THIS TO OURSELVES.

  73. 73.

    Mnemosyne

    @The Moar You Know:

    And by “we” you mean “white liberals,” of course. Because a lot of voters of color did show up, and there was deliberate voter suppression in Wisconsin and Michigan, plus under the radar suppression in PA and OH.

    My fellow white people, we have to face up to the fact that we did this. We stood by while our friends and family voted for Trump, or third party, or didn’t vote at all. That is the plain, hard truth.

  75. 75.

    Betty Cracker

    @schrodinger’s cat: Anyone who reads Breitbart and listens to that anal cyst Limbaugh isn’t worth keeping as a friend, particularly if they expose you to that toxic sludge, so good move.

  79. 79.

    goblue72

    @The Moar You Know: We’ve been doing this to ourselves for many elections. Democrats for the most part still don’t have an effective answer to what happened in 1994. And a lot of Dems got lulled by the “Coming Democratic Majority” talk based on demographics a la Ruy Teixeria and John Judis (who’ve since admitted they were wrong).

    If Trump gets his road-building money (which is mainly what Republicans mean when they say infrastructure – it means highway spending, with maybe some dollops for bridges, which is really just the same thing), expect the construction trades, which are filled with culturally conservative men, to line up behind him too.

    Roughly 70% of working age adults do not have a college degree in a world in which all they hear (and know) is that without a college degree, they aren’t ever going to get ahead and are more likely than not to fall behind. And nobody is giving them any answers they trust.

    That’s a populace – and voting block – RIPE for a strongman blaming “others” for the problems. Fear, anxiety, un-ending nervousness about falling down the proverbial well.

    Berating people doesn’t work. Telling them they HAVE to adapt to cultural change doesn’t work. Hectoring them that “x” group has it worse off so they shouldn’t be so angry doesn’t work.

    We have to get rid of the fear and do it from a position of trust.

  83. 83.

    catclub

    @goblue72:

    If Trump gets his road-building money (which is mainly what Republicans mean when they say infrastructure – it means highway spending, with maybe some dollops for bridges, which is really just the same thing), expect the construction trades, which are filled with culturally conservative men, to line up behind him too.

    So I figure Davis Bacon gets repealed as part of this. Also, any Executive orders on Federal contractors paying better than minimum wage.
    There is another bad side to everything! I also thought that one hobbyhorse Trump did mention frequently was the ‘Johnson Amendment’ on politics from the Pulpit. Also gone. But with a GOP only slant, no doubt. Black Lives Matter need not apply.

  84. 84.

    Citizen Alan

    I used to feel sad at all the people I liked who were dying in 2016. Now I just envy them for getting out while the getting was good.

  85. 85.

    Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class

    Whenever I hear Tweety talk, I’m reminded of a lisping, slurry Sylvester or Daffy more.

    The guy was always ripe for swirlies in high school, I’d wager.

  86. 86.

    goblue72

    @catclub: I have a hard time seeing Trump repeal Davis-Bacon. Its not his money, so there’s little upside to getting rid of it, and mostly downside.

  88. 88.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class: nah, he was following the swirly-giving bully around, egging him on and laughing hysterically.

    Giuliani is the one who reminds me of Sylvester, you’d think since he’s vampired $30 million , according to 2008 estimates, from the corpses of 9/11, Judi could unclench on enough cash for him to get a decent set of teeth

  89. 89.

    Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class

    @goblue72:

    I’m all in for telling them that they are a bunch of trembling, panty-wetting candy asses whose ancestors were a bunch of labor thieving hypocritical fucks in thrall to a sick and perverted Bronze Age cult that cheaply excuses the worst behavior without encouraging personal accountability.

  93. 93.

    ChrisGrrr

    @Robin G.: It is hard to come up with a sensible argument…

    Last night a bar band covered “Fast Lane” and I had that mix of longing and relief for Glenn Frey.

  98. 98.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    @goblue72:

    If Trump gets his road-building money

    McTurtle in the Senate vetoed that the day after the election. Not going to happen.

  99. 99.

    mai naem mobile

    Well, SEC Chair Mary Jo White is stepping down at the end of Obamas term, 2 years before her term is over. Oh,jeezus christ, can I just hibernate for 3.75 years and wake up. Obviously ,White doesn’t want any responsibility for the shit show that the Camacho presidency will be.

  101. 101.

    Peale

    @Enhanced Voting Techinques: And we’ll find out as quickly as anyone that Road Building isn’t actually done by gangs of men with shovels in work camps like it was done in the recession. Now, the TPP, that we’ll gladly build. Probably build it and give it away to a pipeline company.

  102. 102.

    enplaned

    Reminds me of Will Ferrell’s Mark Twain award ceremony — he apparently shadowed her in preparation for his role in Anchorman, and she helped induct him. And he paid her back by making her part of his hilarious speech, which is worth watching if you haven’t before:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guc-8R1bYVg

    “If, after the show, I want to go on a bender, with Gwen Ifill, and, uh, buy a couple of spear guns and try to scale the Washington Monument, I’m gonna do it, OK?”

  104. 104.

    Peale

    @mai naem mobile: I think that’s a good thing. She can’t actually read all the phony 10-Ks and filings that will be coming down the pike and she’ll just be vilified when whatever disclosures the Hedge Fund industry finds burdensome are taken away.

  105. 105.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    @Peale: What ever it is it will cost money and lots of it. Not spending money is one thing all Republicans agree on. Not spending money on jobs for the union workers they hate so much only makes it sweeter to them.

  107. 107.

    Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)

    If folks can’t get on board with cultural change, then even if we address their concerns, they will still be willing to put their boots on the necks of minorities, women, Muslims, and LGBTQ. Which leaves societies most vulnerable up shit creek without a paddle.

    So what’s the solution?

  108. 108.

    trollhattan

    @mai naem mobile:
    I’m already girding for him crashing our economy, hard and Bushlike. Seriously considering moving all my retirement stuff out of the markets entirely–certificates, bonds(?), nice mattress..

    People have no idea.

  109. 109.

    Mike in Pasadena

    @Felonius Monk: I have asked nearly a thousand people from red states and blue states whether they voted for George Bush. Nobody has ever admitted doing so. Your prediction about Trump voters is probably accurate.

  112. 112.

    ms_canadada

    @SenyorDave: Please watch freespeechtv.org Thom Hartmann, Amy Goodman, Stephanie Miller, and so much more. The MSM is poison (except for JoyAnnReid!!!)

  113. 113.

    Mnemosyne

    @Felonius Monk:
    @Mike in Pasadena:

    I doubt anyone but the neo-Nazis is going to be willing to admit a Trump vote well prior to Inauguration Day.

    Oh, shit. You just know the KKK is going to show up dressed for the occasion. Why wouldn’t they? This is going to be a total fiasco.

  114. 114.

    ms_canadada

    @Mnemosyne: I play the clarinet, if that helps. (And I have a spare room if anyone wants respite, located in Hamilton, ON, between Niagara Falls and Toronto – and a dog, and a peaceful community with no guns – this is Canada!) BTW Niagara Falls in the winter is AMAZING!

  115. 115.

    jk

    RIP Gwen Ifill

    She was one of the few mainstream broadcast journalists I found worthy of respect.

    Upon hearing the news of her death, my first memory of her was the time she challenged her colleagues on Meet the Press for pretending not to know of Don Imus’ bigotry after the firestorm erupted over his comments about the Rutgers Univ women’s basketball team that led to his suspension. One of Imus’ bigoted remarks included a reference to Ifill as a cleaning lady. Unfortunately, that scumbag Imus is still with us and still hosts a radio show.

    Too many talented people have left us in 2016 and I can’t wait to say good riddance to this rotten fucking year.

  116. 116.

    SenyorDave

    @jk: Just like the Trump family is still with us, including the warped pieces of trash he call sons (I’ll exclude Barron who hasn’t had time to develop into the neo-nazi he sure will be).

    I’ve decided to wait until 2017 to stop wishing serious misfortune to Trump and his brain trust (x Steve Bannon who can do an Andrew Breitbart right now, can someone take him for a jog please).

  117. 117.

    jk

    @Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class:

    Chris Matthews is pure, unadulterated, grade A scum. Throughout this campaign season, he complained about politicians not speaking out against stupid wars but this is the same guy who masturbated on air when Bush landed on the aircraft carrier that bore the Mission Accomplished banner.

    Matthews can go fuck himself and I only wish he could burn in Hell for eternity.

  120. 120.

    Ruckus

    @ms_canadada:
    If that room isn’t full in the next hour, I’ll be amazed.
    Also, I have considered moving to Canada, a bit cold but otherwise quite nice. I have a quite possibly insecure income (SS), don’t smoke or drink. Have been known to swear a bit. OK a lot.

  124. 124.

    Sab

    I am sad but not surprised about how nasty the comments have been about the demise ong this amazing woman

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