relieved that my belief Peter Thiel is actually just stupid is being vindicated pic.twitter.com/Le9emSG1ir
— EXILED PROPHET (@Bro_Pair) January 11, 2017
As Thiel would no doubt explain — possibly via a letter from his lawyers — someone who can plausibly style himself a ‘chess prodigy’ cannot be called stupid. (Clueless would be my term.) He simply fails to honor certain metrics popular with lesser beings, ‘soft’ terms like empathy and humor, or self-awareness.
To interview such a challenging subject, the NYTimes‘ Maureen Dowd is perhaps uniquely suited, given her long career of sucking up to those celebrities her bosses admire in combination with her natural instinct to take the mickey. As a brief interval of laughter — “Peter Thiel, Trump’s Tech Pal, Explains Himself“:
Let others tremble at the thought that Donald J. Trump may go too far. Peter Thiel worries that Mr. Trump may not go far enough.
“Everyone says Trump is going to change everything way too much,” says the famed venture capitalist, contrarian and member of the Trump transition team. “Well, maybe Trump is going to change everything way too little. That seems like the much more plausible risk to me.”
Mr. Thiel is comfortable being a walking oxymoron: He is driven to save the world from the apocalypse. Yet he helped boost the man regarded by many as a danger to the planet.
“The election had an apocalyptic feel to it,” says Mr. Thiel, wearing a gray Zegna suit and sipping white wine in a red leather booth at the Monkey Bar in Manhattan. “There was a way in which Trump was funny, so you could be apocalyptic and funny at the same time. It’s a strange combination, but it’s somehow very powerful psychologically.”…
He recalls that he went through a lot of “meta” debates about Mr. Trump in Silicon Valley. “One of my good friends said, ‘Peter, do you realize how crazy this is, how everybody thinks this is crazy?’ I was like: ‘Well, why am I wrong? What’s substantively wrong with this?’ And it all got referred back to ‘Everybody thinks Trump’s really crazy.’ So it’s like there’s a shortcut, which is: ‘I don’t need to explain it. It’s good enough that everybody thinks something. If everybody thinks this is crazy, I don’t even have to explain to you why it’s crazy. You should just change your mind.’”…
(This is the high-IQ, expensively-educated version of “How do you know it’s dangerous to drink bleach? Just because a bunch of quote-unquote scientists told you so?”)
… I ask if he’s comfortable with the idea that Vice President-elect Mike Pence, regarded in the gay community as an unreconstructed homophobe, is a heartbeat away from the presidency.
“You know, maybe I should be worried but I’m not that worried about it,” he replies. “I don’t know. People know too many gay people. There are just all these ways I think stuff has just shifted. For speaking at the Republican convention, I got attacked way more by liberal gay people than by conservative Christian people.”…
Mr. Thiel is focused on ways to prolong life. He was intrigued by parabiosis, a blood regeneration trial in which people over 35 would receive transfusions from people aged 16 to 25 — an experiment that Anne Rice gave a thumbs up to.“Out of all the crazy things in this campaign, the vampire accusations were the craziest,” he says, adding that while blood transfusions may be helpful, there may be harmful factors and “we have to be very careful.”
“I have not done anything of the sort” yet, he says about parabiosis. And because of the publicity, he says, he is now he is sifting through hundreds of proposals he has received from parabiosis ventures…
I ask him how Mr. Trump, who is still putting out a lot of wacky, childish tweets, has struck him during the transition. Isn’t he running around with his hair on fire?
“The hair seems fine,” Mr. Thiel says. “Mr. Trump seems fine.”
Your reminder that Peter Thiel is the billionaire equivalent of the college dorm "devil's advocate" who eventually got popped in the snout: pic.twitter.com/PKRTw7V5Kx
— John Scalzi (@scalzi) January 11, 2017
when you're a normal human who likes normal human things in a normal way https://t.co/e7MvAdkrjs pic.twitter.com/MiJSDgCRDb
— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) January 12, 2017
Mustang Bobby
He may be a genius but he’s still too dumb to play dead in a cowboy movie.
Matt McIrvin
He likes “Star Wars” because it takes place in a worse world. That’s possibly more conducive to fictional stories, but he seems to actually prefer that world for that reason.
trollhattan
Oh shyte, I was just going to comment on this. MoDo gold….
bystander
Oh great. Now I have to sit around and think of Law and Order plots I’d love to see Theil star in. But just the first 5 minutes.
Cermet
He got lucky by being in the right business at the right time – brilliant had zero to do with it; and like all such lucky-ducky’s, he thinks its because he was a genius.
резидент американской области Российской Федерации
Book smart but no common sense, as we said in my blue collar Catholic neighborhood in Louisville.
Eric NNY
Vile, entitled prick.
trollhattan
@bystander:
Heh. “Today’s victim has some really nice loafers!”
I totally concur.
Chris
I suppose it would be cliched at this point to remind him of the size of the Jewish population in pre-1933 Germany and the fact that most of them had many Gentile friends, and all that.
LongHairedWeirdo
Wow. Let me see.
“When I went to speak to support a bunch of conservative Christian people, a bunch of liberal gay folks – who legitimately fear those conservative Christian folks – were angry, but few of the people I was supporting were angry.”
I see why he works with Republicans. If he’s *convinced* by that, he’s dumb as a box of Ritz crackers – that’s right, not even SALTINES, see, I WENT there! Chess prodigy or not – chess isn’t actually as much a contest of brain power as you might think. Kasparov might be smarter than me, or we might be peers, or I might be smarter than he. He’s *LIGHT YEARS* better than me in chess.
Where was I? Right: if he’s CONVINCED by that, he’s stupid, if he’s thinking we must be convinced by that, he’s that special kind of Republican-leadership stupid that plays well in the media.
Thoroughly Pizzled
If the universe had split in two on election day and every deplorable idiot who voted for Trump had gotten his presidency while the rest of us had gotten Hillary’s, it would have been fine. But we got stuck with it too.
I hope Peter Thiel dies angry.
kindness
Thiel is going to be pissing in his pants with joy at the new Christian Dominion Pence plans. When it happens I wonder if Trump pays to watch?
liberal
@Cermet: Agreed. Same thing with another douchebag, Paul Graham…well, wait, he holds some douchy libertarian views, but Teh Google tells me he doesn’t like Trump. Well, that’s good.
liberal
@Thoroughly Pizzled: Heh. I have a joke theory that Sam Wang’s probability estimate was actually true; we just got stuck in one of the very, very few universes in which Trump won.
Elizabelle
Well well. WaPost, just now:
Justice Department Inspector General to investigate pre-election actions by department and FBI
That’s everything as of now.
LAO
Thiel makes sense once you understand and/or accept that he is a sociopath. Much like his choice for president.
LAO
@Elizabelle: Well, we can expect the probe to be cancelled on January 21, 2017.
Elizabelle
@liberal: I’ve always wanted to ask if we’d heard how Sam Wang is doing. Haven’t checked his blog, but not because I don’t respect him.
Wondered if he’s on suicide watch.
I’d love the DOJ to open an investigation into whether voting rights abuses led to the Electoral College outcome.
It’s too pat. 80,000 votes in 3 states, and a 2-million plus popular vote discrepancy.
The Dangerman
I’m all for going back to the 50’s (is Jetson’s 50’s?). Let’s start with Eisenhower era tax rates for pieces of shit like this asshole.
GregB
Contrarians are often just douchebags who always want the last word.
Thiel is obviously going to put in charge of the Dept. of Soylent Green.
trollhattan
@Elizabelle:
Interesting. Is the IJ an appointed position or will he keep his job under Jefferson Davi…Jeff Sessions?
Thoroughly Pizzled
@Elizabelle: I know someone who worked in his lab. Elections are a hobby for him. He’s a successful neuroscience professor, so I think he’s doing fine.
Felonius Monk
Peter Thiel is an Asshole that was looking for an Ass. And then he found Trump. Problem solved.
Chris
@Matt McIrvin:
Seriously. “The plot happened because Han owed money to Jabba.” Well, yes, part of the plot is propelled by a main character being in debt to a murderous loan shark, which I suppose is a perfect picture of capitalism as Thiel sees it. But this isn’t at any point portrayed as a good thing.
Then you’ve got the prequel era, where the whole “unregulated capitalism is bad” thing goes on steroids.
The Moar You Know
Tired of selfish queers that want nothing more than to pull the ladder up after them now that they’ve gotten what they wanted from the Dems.
And holy shit there are a lot of them out there. I am floored.
I’d love nothing more than for Mr. Thiel to have his existence as a gay human being legally revoked by Congress this year. I think there’s a pretty good chance that could actually happen.
Mnemosyne
@liberal:
I’ve been wondering which asshole stepped on a butterfly when he tried out his time machine for the first time.
Re-read the ending of the original story. Ray Bradbury was a fucking prophet.
GregB
Thiel is obviously being groomed for the newly created cabinet post: Director of Dept. of Soylent Green.
Thoroughly Pizzled
I like how every single character from The Social Network turned out to be even worse in real life than they were portrayed.
Adam L Silverman
@Chris: 505,000 Jewish Germans, both assimilated and not-assimilated, within an overall German population of 67 million or .75% of the total population in 1933. Less than 1% included the Saar, which was under League of Nations’ mandate/supervision. The number of non-German Jews in Germany, foreign nationals there for education or business or refugees, did not appreciably increase the number, the ratio to the general population, or the percentage.
Mnemosyne
I heard a great new term for the Trump regime this week: “psychopathocracy.” It’s my new go-to.
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
Log Cabin Republicans: still a thing that exists.
RSA
This is apparently what a lot of Trump supporters say about the ACA. Too many people depend on it for Trump to get rid of it. I guess we’re about to find out.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan:
https://oig.justice.gov/about/
hovercraft
He’s may be a “genius”, but he is also a sociopath.
Fuck this billionaire who thinks that the last eight years were too boring. People were scratching tooth and nail to rebuild their live after the “excitement” of the Bush years. People were given health insurance for the first time in their lives, they were able to have the peace of mind that if something happened to them they were covered. Those same people are now scared and in many cases suicidal because of the burden they are about to become on those who love them.
Miss Bianca
@Mustang Bobby: OK, *that* line made LOL. So stealing!
SatanicPanic
Peter Thiel should move to Trumpland if he loves it so much
NobodySpecial
Fuck Peter Thiel and his rape apology book.
Belafon
These Christians voted for a cheating, greedy, sexual pervert in the hopes of bring on either the Second Coming or a theocracy. They will use you, Peter, until they don’t need you, and then they’ll lock you up or execute you.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
I’m glad. It was wildly successful. They’ll do it again next election.
I can’t even figure out what the standard is that Comey set. Originally he seemed to say only NEW allegations should be released but that didn’t apply to Trump so now the distinction seems to be that Clinton WAS under investigation so that’s the reason a harsher standard was used with her. Which is it?
liberal
@Mnemosyne: Which Bradbury story?
The general trope about a branching multiverse is, I thought, pretty cliche by now. Though for all I know maybe in terms of SF Bradbury was one of the earlier ones.
Chris
@RSA:
I’m so fucking exhausted with these assholes either voting for the Trumps of the world or failing to vote against them, safe and secure (they think) in the knowledge that “someone will stop it.” “Someone” means Democrats. There’s nobody else left – the last thirty years have seen to that. If you keep piling all the responsibilities for that sort of thing on Democrats while simultaneously continuing to hobble them, you’re going to wake up one day and discover that the magic fairy that picked up your room, washed your clothes, put your food on the table, and paid for this house is no longer there to help you.
Elizabelle
And Fuck the Fucking New York Times has its breaking news up. Note the final paragraph. (Both sides!)
liberal
@SatanicPanic: No, like all libertarians, he should move to Somalia.
Cacti
He’ll still be in denial when he’s marched into a cattle car.
“Not me. Can’t happen. Trump’s my bud.”
liberal
@Belafon: I really wish we could start the meme that Fundies are themselves a bunch of fucking perverts. For that’s what they are.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
Thanks, good to know. Ten-year term?
tpherald
He seems like the perfect yin to Trump’s yang
Yarrow
It would be kind of funny if the new FDA non-oversight he’s supporting–like where they just release new drugs to market without testing and let patients be the human guinea pigs–means that the testing of the blood he’s transfusing into himself fails to catch some dangerous diseases and he dies from one of them.
liberal
@Elizabelle: Wang’s model caught a bad case of garbage-in-garbage out.
tpherald
When did we become a country that puts so little value on intellect?
Major Major Major Major
Trying again…
Thiel sez:
This is wrong. The replicators do that. The transporters transport things.
Now, this isn’t super relevant to anything except for one point. Thiel is big into AI and uploading your consciousness into a computer, and one of the ‘traditional’ thought experiments in the field is: are you still ‘you’ if you’re copied molecule-for-molecule somewhere else, and then the original copy is destroyed? If your new self experiences continuity of thought, what about your old self? What happens if there are copies? If you only exist as physical matter in your brain, why should it matter if your thread is ended when this other copy starts? Do ‘you’ die? etc.
He should know the damn difference between a replicator and a transporter!
trollhattan
@Chris: Wondering what fvcking movie he actually watched, given the whole Empire, Dark Side motif. He basically supported Donald Palpatine for EmPresident.
MAGA becomes “Because I’m not boring!”
Major Major Major Major
my excellent comment about star trek keeps being eated
Calouste
@LongHairedWeirdo: Kasparov is pretty smart. He did some tests with a magazine sometime in the 80s or 90s, and one of the things they did was have him read a book and give a summary. He not only read it very fast and gave an accurate summary, he also added his own commentary on the contents of the book.
I don’t see proof that Thiele was a chess prodigy. Yes, he was one of the top 6 kids in the country in his age group when he was 12, but 6 kids are going to be the top 6. A prodigy would be one of the top 6 kids in an age group 2 or 3 years above his age, and would be beating masters at that age. Kasparov first qualified for the senior USSR championship when he was 15 for example.
SatanicPanic
@liberal: as long as he leaves California
Citizen_X
@Chris: I’m perfectly fine with Thiel being throttled by a feminist and hurled into a sarlacc pit.
hovercraft
@Elizabelle:
They just can’t help themselves can they. What information did anyone give to the Clinton campaign? Since they were leaking like a sieve, why would it have been necessary? The deputy director’s wife thing is bullshit, the GOP used it as a distraction, and now it’s being investigated when everyone knows it’s bullshit. I guess he thinks it will give him cover for the real investigation, I hope.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
the NYTimes should recuse themselves from anything related to this.
October 31st:
It’s crazy. It reads like propaganda. It’s like the Trumpsters in the FBI called them and said “print this exoneration of Donald Trump”
Later the FBI contradicted every word! WTF happened there? Who gave them this and why would they print it a week before the election?
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: I don’t know. I doubt it. That’s the Director of the FBI, the head of the Government Ethics Office, and maybe one or two other posts that have those extended, asynchronous appointment periods to impose apoliticality on them. I would expect that this guy will be replaced by the next AG via recommendation to the President.
Elizabelle
Timing of the DOJ announcement.
I wonder if the powers that be gave Trump a chance during the transition phase, realized he’s even worse than they’d expected, and now they’re throwing every book they can at him, in the eight (eight!) days they have left.
It’s appalling to have such a compromised individual this close to taking the oath of office.
Know it’s fantasy, but I wish to God we could throw that election out as tainted and hold a fresh one. I think a lot of people “got religion” as the returns came in.
Calouste
@tpherald: 1609?
Elizabelle
@Kay: Yeah. That stinks to high heaven.
Please let someone be on it.
Fuck the Fucking New York Times.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: Its free. Went straight to the trash folder.
schrodingers_cat
Peter Thiel can go to hell, for all I care.
Speaking of hell, Bloody Hell, from Vishal Bharadwaj ( of the Shakespeare trilogy in Hindi fame)’s latest movie Rangoon, set in 1944, India.
Queen Kangana plays a silent action movie star (modeled after RL female action stars of the silent era), Saif Ali Khan (movie producer) and Shahid Kapoor (soldier in the British Indian Army) are her flames. One movie I am looking forward to, even though war and action sequences seem a bit lame in the trailer compared to similar Hollywood fare.
Calouste
@Kay: I said yesterday, there will be three media websites the shitgibbon will stay on talking terms with: Breitbart, the National Enquirer, and the New York Times.
schrodingers_cat
@Adam L Silverman: My comment is in trash too, I think I put too many links in it.
Mnemosyne
@liberal:
“A Sound of Thunder” (crappy PDF of original magazine story).
It’s not just multiverses. It’s the specific ending to that specific story.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
I can’t find a definitive resource, only that he’s just the fourth IG in the office’s 26 years.
ETA oops, 27 years.
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat: Nope, your’s went into the Spam folder. No, I do not know why. No, I doubt there is a reasonable or even unreasonable explanation for why this stuff happens to comments.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay:I haven’t clicked on an NYT link since that spurious story appeared, not even their reviews or cooking stuff. To me they are dead.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: Hooray, now everybody can read about… that.
Elizabelle
@Calouste: Yeah, you did. And I loved it. Including the FTFNYT.
Too late to that thread, so glad you reminded us.
@Kay: Oh — and the Fuck the Fucking New York Times embedded a link to a graphic in their very short article. It’s the turd on the shit sundae.
They really, truly did.
Not linking, but I would doubt they are a compleat set of options, too.
They got a nice picture up of him looking exasperated, too.
Adam L Silverman
@trollhattan: The folks actually doing the work will be career DOJ employees. So the head of the Oversight and Review Division, which seems to be the section that will do this investigation, will be overseen by a career DOJ staffer and conducted by career DOJ staffers.
andy
It’s a whole other country- if you have cash.
rollSound
Chess prodigies who were only functional when playing chess might have been termed idiot savants.
A term that acknowledges you can be brilliant at one thing and still be an idiot.
trollhattan
Vox has a timely and lengthy piece: 4 pieces of evidence showing FBI Director James Comey cost Clinton the election
Summary graf
FlipYrWhig
@Chris:
And, so, thing about that, isn’t the whole arc of the first Star Wars that Han Solo gets involved in hopes of a reward, and gets it, but comes back because there are things more important than reward money?
oklahomo
@Chris: Some of the German Jews practiced the same self-deception as Thiel: they were sure that the Nazis were only talking about the Ghetto Jews of Eastern Europe, not the assimilated, professionals in the Jewish Communities of Western Europe.
Chris
@hovercraft:
Every time I hear one of those fucking turds waxing poetic about how “exciting!” it is to live in a free market, it reminds me of that scene at the beginning of the Hunger Games where the main character volunteers to take her sister’s place and the only thing the clueless announcer can say is “oooo! That’s your sister, isn’t it? I just love that you’re so competitive!”
Also gives me some inkling of why so many people in the developing world detest having their country and its tragedies (wars, genocides, famines, wev) treated as a backdrop for Westerners’ action/adventure fantasies.
Betty Cracker
Makes me want to hurl when some obscenely rich piece of shit minimizes the possibility that his own precious self will be harmed by retrograde policies. Of course it won’t. Even if Trump drops dead 1/21 and Pence proclaims himself head of the Republic of Gilead, rich fucks like Thiel have the resources to protect themselves. He’s not in the same boat as regular gay people; he does not share their vulnerability.
trollhattan
@rollSound:
“Paging Doctor Ben Carson.”
ruemara
Good god. He’s a fucking idiot. And I’m sure the worshipful libertarians will cream themselves at this drivel.
@FlipYrWhig: Never tell them the plot
wenchacha
@Elizabelle: This. If it’s easy enough to just keep the “wrong people” from voting, you don’t even have to bother with technology.
But is it up to states to launch investigation?
Miss Bianca
@tpherald: We’ve always had a strong anti-intellectual streak in these yere United States. Despite being as old as I am, Richard Hofstadter’s “Anti-Intellectualism in American Life” is probably still the definitive work on the subject. Someone needs to get cracking on part 2!
ThresherK
@bystander: Like William Conrad in a Police Squad!, I’d like to see his body roll out of a speeding car under the opening credit “Special guest star Peter Thiel”.
Kay
@Calouste:
It’s funny that the National Enquirer is Right wing now. It’s fitting, somehow, that those two media niches ended up meshing so well :)
Mnemosyne
@Elizabelle:
As I was saying last night, if I wrote spy thrillers, I would have Comey demand a pardon for Robert Hanssen, because they were both working for Russia the whole time.
Major Major Major Major
@ruemara:
The ones I know also think he’s an idiot.
SFAW
@bystander:
All of them, Katie.
TriassicSands
I disagree. Intelligence is not one thing. A person can be a neurosurgeon, belief all kinds of ridiculous stuff, and be utterly clueless about other things (Ben Carson).
There is a growing need to accept that there are people who qualify as stupid geniuses or intelligent idiots. They are everywhere, and some of them are very dangerous.
Suffragete City elftx
Thiel is Milo in a more expensive suit. Both are despicable.
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: Kevin Drum concurs.
From yesterday.
The Evidence is Overwhelming: James Comey Decided Who Our Next President Would Be
Commenting on the vox story.
Jack the Second
@Elizabelle: Best 2 out of 3?
Mnemosyne
@Calouste:
It’s like when conservatives insist that they’ll only respect women as the intellectual equals of men when there are female chess grandmasters, and then completely ignore that there have been female chess grandmasters since the 1980s at least.
SFAW
@Mnemosyne:
I picture Comey as Bill Haydon (except not one-quarter as smart as Haydon) and ANYONE as Jim Prideaux.
Jeffro
@Belafon:
Re: Thiel’s quote ->
Well, Thiel, you dick, that’s because you’re supporting politicians and policies that will cause real harm to real people (which liberals – gay or not – care about a great deal, unlike conservative so-called Christians). If you were standing up for what’s right, those “Christians” would knife you in the back sure as shootin’.
PsiFighter37
I was a stronger chess player than Peter Thiel was and personally knew of several true chess prodigies (partially because I was considered one, albeit when I was much younger – like under 10 years old). Being a good chess player does not mean you are smarter than anyone else. Kasparov is a great example of this – he is a huge neocon. Chess players also tend to exhibit a higher-than-average amount of arrogance as well, even on topics they don’t know that well.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
IMO, there’s an ongoing effort to protect institutional credibility.. It’s a like a warm blankie- the institutions will survive!
I’m not at all convinced they will. Looks to me like they were sorta weak going into this and toppled over pretty easy.
SFAW
@Major Major Major Major:
Don’t you think WE should be the judges of that?
ETA: Or were you channeling Thiel (or TEFA)?
trollhattan
@Jeffro:
Also too, “If we don’t yell at the queer, will he donate to our megachurch?”
rikyrah
‘The Meaning of Michelle’: Writers Pen Love Letters to the First Lady
by ANDREA KING COLLIER
On Tuesday night, Barack Obama gave his final address as President of the United States. It was emotional and powerful, and it bears noting that his thank you to his wife of 25 years was the “not-a-dry-eye-in-the-house” moment.
As many Americans begin the long tearful goodbye to the Obamas, a new book of essays puts what the First Lady has meant to so many over the last eight years into words.
The book, The Meaning of Michelle seems to be just what the doctor ordered for those who want to bask in her Black Girl Magic a little while longer. NBCBLK spoke to the editor, award-winning journalist and author Veronica Chambers, who brought 15 writers to the page to weigh in on the impact of Michelle Obama.
How did the book come about?
Elisabeth Dyssegaard, who is an old friend suggested it one day when we were having lunch. It has kind of been our thing over the last 8 years. We have lunch and at some point in the lunch, we have a Michelle Obama appreciation moment. Then about a year ago, she suggested we channel all this admiration and appreciation into a book project.
hovercraft
America’s cybersecurity defense plans will now be headed up by … Rudy Giuliani
By Hunter
Thursday Jan 12, 2017 · 12:58 PM EST
President-elect Trump is very pleased to announce former Mayor Rudy Giuliani will be sharing his expertise and insight as a trusted friend concerning private sector cyber security problems and emergency solutions developing in the private sector. […]
Mr. Giuliani was asked to initiate this process because of his long and very successful government career in law enforcement and his now sixteen years of work providing security solutions in the private sector.
Miss Bianca
@Elizabelle: You know, when I hear about how both Putin *and* Comey had it in for HRC, and when I observed – and continue to observe – the pile-on from our so-called “allies”, whether they identify as Democrats or no, it becomes harder and harder for me to avoid the conclusion that the one thing that seems to unite men of a certain stripe, across political/ideological divides, is fear and loathing of a woman in power.
Particularly a liberal/left-leaning woman in power – Margaret Thatcher did just fine for herself by making herself “one of the boys”, but even she suffered the fate of her sex by being vilified in such gleeful, specifically-gendered ways after she was dead – the whole “Ding Dong The Witch is Dead” meme that went round just sickened me when it was spread by people I knew and liked, because it was so obviously aimed at denigrating not just a powerful politician, but a powerful woman, period.
Chris
@FlipYrWhig:
Yes. It’s also a quiet deconstruction of the alpha male cowboy gunfighter rugged individualist stereotype, as Han looks, talks, and shoots the part, but actually spends the entire trilogy being pushed around and rescued by forces stronger than himself. When you meet him, he’s a cog in the Jabba machine, one that’s in deep shit because he just pissed off the boss. The machine eventually catches up to him, because of course it does, and what saves him then isn’t his lone ranger act but the fact that he’s made close friends who’d risk their lives for him.
The entire plot of the Empire Strikes Back also feeds into this, as you watch Han pulling every crazy stunt he can think of in a gloriously awesome chase sequence, only to get caught in the end because when you’re one man against the system, of course that’s what happens.
This goes over the heads of many viewers, who remember him only for shooting first in the cantina.
SFAW
@PsiFighter37:
Maybe, but I’ve heard Thiel say he was perhaps the best practitioner (or whatever) of the Ruy Diaz de Vivar Opening in the world. Something about defeating moor challengers, which was why TEFA likes him.
hovercraft
@rikyrah:
Did you see her on The Tonight Show surprising people who were telling her portrait what she meant to them? I t was too cut, but the end I was in tears. I’m finding myself to be very emotional these days.
Michelle Obama Surprises People Recording Goodbye Messages to Her
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: Ask and ye shall receive. Seek and ye shall find.
https://www.amazon.com/Death-Expertise-Campaign-Established-Knowledge/dp/0190469412/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446038305&sr=8-1&keywords=death+of+expertise
GregB
One of the points that I have seen to throw water on the ‘Comey changed the election’ concept was that Hillary was trending downward stongly before the actial Comey bomb was dropped. That fails to incorporate the buzz and chatter prior to the bomb dropping which I am sure was reaching fever pitch. I just remember the giddy Giuliani and his we have tricks up our sleeve morning show appearance.
It was a vast rightwing conspiracy.
Kay
@rikyrah:
i’m really curious what she does after this. Something to do with education would be a safe bet – that’s been her focus although she doesn’t get a huge amount of press for it- but I almost wish she’d do something completely different than what she did as First Lady. I DON’T think she’ll run for office although a lot of people want her too. I think she has a really healthy wariness about politics.
Adam L Silverman
@PsiFighter37: Kasparov is also correct in his analysis of what has and is happening to Russia and the threat it poses.
trollhattan
Shameless copy of Kilgore re. Senator Liz Warren trapping sleepy Ben Carson bigly:
We need to start talking about daddy Trump’s glorious slumlord days.
Major Major Major Major
@SFAW: Ironic self-deprecation, but I guess that probably doesn’t really come across on a blog comment.
@GregB:
Similar to Obama’s first 2012 debate performance, then. Polls tightening anyway and then the event contributed significantly.
Aimai
@Mnemosyne: love that story!
Steve in the ATL
@LAO:
I know a couple of amazing litigators who are sociopaths. And that is why they are amazing litigators. While I, nice guy that I am, was merely very good.
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: Oh, *great*, Adam – one more book to toss onto the tottering pile of Mt.To-Be-Read! If you all never hear from me again, it’s because I’ve been pinned beneath an avalanche of books and died!
Seriously, tho’, thanks – looks like a worthy read.
ETA: Oh, wow – looks like it’s brand- brand-new as well! Hot off the proverbial presses!
SFAW
@Major Major Major Major:
Yeah, tone is tough in pixels. I guess I shoulda figured it out on my own, however. Sorry. (And I was just busting your stones in a non-malicious manner.)
Major Major Major Major
@SFAW: I figured out that last bit on my own :)
Chris
@TriassicSands:
I think what’s really important here is an acknowledgment that being gifted and accomplished in one field doesn’t mean you’re gifted and accomplished in another. I think of myself as fairly well read and well informed when it comes to international relations and politics, but that doesn’t mean I know the first thing about the work done by surgeons, car mechanics, patent attorneys, or janitors, to take four completely random examples.
To use the Ben Carson example, I’d be an idiot if I didn’t defer to him on the matter of brain surgery, but he, in turn, isn’t smart enough to do the same for people in other fields. (Climate scientists, evolutionary biologists. Egyptologists). And that’s why despite our education accomplishments and SAT scores and God knows what else, he’s an idiot and I’m not.
SFAW
@Miss Bianca:
Jesus Mary and Joseph, what a whiner you are.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: I am nowhere as well versed in movie history as you are but what you say about Hollywood seems to be true about Hindi movies too. When I compare the female action stars of the silent era to the Milquetoast all sacrificing martyrs of the 50s and 60s in Indian cinema.
Elizabelle
@Kay: A fantasy, and unprecedented (unpresidented), but I wish Obama could request the Supreme Court — all eight of them — stay the inauguration pending a full investigation of the election, which could take a while, and keep the existing administration in place.
This one was so tainted. I think Kennedy and maybe even Roberts are horrified at what we’re learning about Trump’s unsuitability and Russian (and other) interference.
Remember, Roberts is vilified as a squish by BreitbartWorld.
Might be our last chance for a reset.
We don’t have to steer fullspeed towards that iceberg.
rikyrah
The Leaked Dossier Shows Just How Close Trump Is to Russia
by Martin Longman
January 12, 2017 11:50 AM
……………………..
That didn’t keep Page (and former congressman Jack Kingston) from traveling to Moscow in mid-December to recommend that the sanctions on Russia be lifted and to praise the nomination of Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State.
“Trump can look at sanctions. They’ve been in place long enough,” Kingston told NPR in Moscow. “Has the desired result been reached? He doesn’t have to abide by the Obama foreign policy. That gives him a fresh start.”
…By chance, Kingston’s Moscow trip coincided with the visit of another Trump disciple, Carter Page, who once claimed to advise the Republican candidate on energy and Russia policy. The Trump campaign later distanced itself from Page after he came under scrutiny for his ties to Russia.
On Monday, Page held a news conference at the headquarters of Sputnik, a Russian state-run news agency, where he complained about the proliferation of fake news.
Page lamented the “Cold War mindset” in the U.S. and sang the praises of Rex Tillerson, the Exxon Mobil CEO who expanded his company’s footprint in Russia and whom Trump now wants to be his secretary of state.
There’s no question that Tillerson’s Exxon/Mobil would like to see the sanctions lifted, as Rachel Maddow ably demonstrated on her show last night (go to minute 12:30 of the video). Exxon has the right to drill on more acres of Russia than the rest of the world combined, but they are precluded from doing so by the post-Crimea sanctions.
Is it any wonder that Russia would seek to influence the presidential campaign or that they would seek to cultivate a candidate who would end the sanctions? Is it in the least hard to understand how Tillerson’s appointment represents a staggering success in this regard from the Kremlin?
Miss Bianca
@SFAW: Yeah, and yer an asshole. So, what else is new?//
SFAW
@Elizabelle:
Interesting idea, but what legal justification could/would they be able to use?
And there would probably be only about four of them to hear the case, because TEFA’s psycho-minions would go after the four non-wingnut Justices.
rikyrah
@hovercraft:
I did see it and cried.
Kay
I don’t think they can order people to “respect” Trump anymore than they can order people to like him but this is apparently very frustrating to them:
Ideally I think one wouldn’t want to have a President where you have to keep screaming that he’s President.
People should be persuaded of that by now, kelly! You’re working awfully hard just to get to “I accept he’s President”
SFAW
@Miss Bianca:
Careful, people will be telling us to “get a room.”
I believe the proper phrasing is “So was neues?“
Thoroughly Pizzled
@hovercraft: Lovely. What’s the cybersecurity equivalent of putting the terrorism response center in the most prominent and obvious target for terrorist attacks?
Major Major Major Major
@SFAW:
“If the president does it, that makes it legal”?
SFAW
@Thoroughly Pizzled:
Asking/begging the Russians to hack the opponent?
manyakitty
@Major Major Major Major: I was going to say pretty much that, so go you!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
What is tarnation is that Theil fellow going on about? It sounds like Trump likes people who can talk for hours without saying anything. I mean can we rule out the first Trump cabinet meeting won’t be a passionate debate over does the light stay on when the refrigerator door is closed?
And that quote from Star Wars, Han Solo’s debt is illegal over drug smuggling to a crime boss who is literally giant space slug. So that’s this clowns idea of how to do things? No wonder he works for Trump. And I see missed Trek’s point of high tech devaluing material goods.
Anne Laurie
@Miss Bianca: The author, Tom Nichols, has a very interesting twitter feed. He’s quite conservative, and I don’t agree with many of his positions, but I count on him to have smart opinions about fact-based stuff.
ETA: He is a #NeverTrump-er who takes great glee in smacking around the Trumplodytes who are too dumb not to keep coming after him, which is also fun to watch.
manyakitty
@Citizen_X: Or just encase him in carbonite
SFAW
@Major Major Major Major:
Wrong justification. I’m looking for the one to address Elizabelle’s hope/fantasy that SCOTUS prevents TEFA from taking the oath of office.
I’d love to see it happen, too, but outside of “because we say so!” what reason could they give?
Sibelius
@Steve in the ATL: I once but a lowly paralegal also worked with some amazing litigators, and almost to a person they were all sociopaths. I much preferred working with the merely very good ones who had souls.
SFAW
@manyakitty:
For 12 parsecs, maybe longer.
Kay
This is her job. Trump needs one whole person to go out every day and insist that, yes, he is really the President.
Not a good President, not an effective President, he’s struggling just to reach ‘oh OKAY, I SUPPOSE you’re right- you are ‘the president’ TECHNICALLY”
Chris
@Kay:
1) No, he’s not, not for another week. That’s a technicality, but such things are important, especially if his title is the whole basis for your claim that he deserves respect.
2) Yes. And that president (elect) has spent the past two and a half months getting into Twitter slapfights with pundits and actors. You can hardly complain if he’s treated accordingly.
Miss Bianca
@Anne Laurie: Oh, lightbulb just went off – is this the same Tom Nichols that Adam occasionally cites on security stuff? Now wonder he knew about it before anyone else! Book is so new it ain’t even available yet in my library system!
rikyrah
@Chris:
EXACTLY!!!
They took 50 votes to repeal Obamacare….and, now, that they have complete control, your dumb ass doesn’t think that the GOP is going to repeal Obamacare?
Really?
Seriously?
Who.will.stop.them?
I just can’t with these idiots.
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: You asked…
Adam L Silverman
@SFAW: Its okay, I’ll send her something about clowns later by direct message… ?
Major Major Major Major
@rikyrah: Slate has a very shareable piece about how we need to stop fucking underestimating Trump: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_good_fight/2017/01/stop_underestimating_donald_trump.html
@manyakitty: This makes me very happy!
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman: @SFAW: y’all are both sick, twisted freaks…which is why I’m proud to know you…
Anne Laurie
@Miss Bianca: Yep! — but you can read his twitter feed right now, and in short increments, too. (Don’t talk to me about unread-books-piles, I gave up keeping track when mine approached the 500 mark some years ago… )
Adam L Silverman
@Kay: That’s okay, Carl Bernstein decided to stick the shiv in:
http://forward.com/fast-forward/359785/watch-carl-bernstein-blasts-kellyanne-conway-as-propaganda-minister-for-don/
Video at the link.
Adam L Silverman
@Thoroughly Pizzled: I believe using “password” as your password.
Gin & Tonic
@hovercraft:
I’ve been working in this field at least as long as Giuliani purportedly has, and I have yet to hear of any enterprise of any size that has partaken of his “expertise and insight.” It’s a pretty insular business, most denizens of which very clearly know who the experts (both firms and individuals) are and who the charlatans are.
SFAW
@Miss Bianca:
Likewise, m’dear.
Miss Bianca
@Anne Laurie: It’s so seldom these days that I feel like I can combine the words “intelligent” and “conservative” that I probably will dip into that Twitter feed, for the sheer novelty of it!
SatanicPanic
@Major Major Major Major: Since the election I’ve been giving a lot of things some thought. Does mocking the right really do anything? It’s taken as an article of faith that it does, but we mocked Bush relentlessly but he got reelected. Mocking = good? is almost in my “what’s the point of giant puppets?” bucket.
PsiFighter37
@SFAW: Probably the Ruy Lopez, also known as the Spanish. Kasparov was by far the best player in that opening in chess history, when it was still an exciting one to play (computer analysis has taken a lot of the fun out of it nowadays).
@Adam L Silverman: Sure, but a broken clock is right twice a day. In the pre-Trump GOP, he was quite at home showing up on Fox News and writing editorials in the WSJ. He is no saint and is anti-Russian from a neoconservative perspective on foreign policy.
manyakitty
@Major Major Major Major: All the best people agree.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
Yep, it was a worldwide thing. Hollywood switched, and the rest of the world switched in imitation, because that’s what Hollywood movies had trained them to expect to see.
japa21
@Kay: The response should be to ask her if she would be happy if Trump got the same level of respect as, say, the GOP and her boss gave the current President.
Major Major Major Major
@SatanicPanic: We shouldn’t make a political strategy of mockery, but I see no problem with it on a personal level.
@manyakitty: I concur. Do best people concur, as well?
opiejeanne
@Cacti: Tea With Mussolini.
SatanicPanic
@Major Major Major Major: Yeah, I’m not saying don’t mock him if you want to, I just don’t know if there’s a point to it. It might not be helpful. Maybe we need to portray him as a deeply serious threat.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: When did Hollywood switch? In India I see a marked difference before and after 1947 ( when India got its independence).
ETA: Post-independence movies tended to be uber idealistic. 70s era movies show increasing disenchantment with the status-quo. The hero is an outlaw.
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
The more he demands respect, the more he sounds like Fredo in Godfather Part 2.
japa21
I haven’t watched all the hearings, but did catch parts of Mattis, Tillerson and Kelly. Of those three, 2 were willing to paint Putin in a very negative light but, in terms of dealing with Putin, the most important, Tillerson, was not. For that reason alone, he should be disqualified.
Major Major Major Major
@SatanicPanic: The Berlusconi theorem would say that you just portray him as somebody with shitty policies.
Shell
What the fuck does that even mean? You can say the most destructive and awful things as long as you can give some CNN anchors a chuckle once in a while?
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
It was mid-1934 when the heavy hand of the Production Code came down. It loosened up a bit post-war and eventually collapsed in the late 1960s. It’s possible that there was a post-colonial reaction in India where conservatives decided to reject “Western decadence,” which always seems to mean clamping down on women, but I don’t actually know for sure.
Miss Bianca
@SatanicPanic: @Major Major Major Major: As far as mockery goes, specifically mockery of Donald Trump, I’m trying to limit it to certain fora like this one. In other words, I’m taking Jim Wright’s “Resolutions” to heart, little tho’ I may like to.
Brachiator
@Adam L Silverman:
Wow. I agree with so much of this, and am going to have to check this book out.
I would add that the Internet has added to a surprising paradox. Truth, or verifiable information is so readily available, that it has led to a pushback in an active assertion of ignorance. One of the things that brought me to Balloon Juice years ago was discussions of the Terry Schiavo case. I was struck by the fact that people would lie about the facts of the case and information from one of the judge’s rulings, even though one could easily go to a case web site and read the judge’s rulings. Instead, people who believed that Terry Schiavo was alive and fully functional would run to Fox News, Sean Hannity and others and deliberately ignore easily accessible information.
This has only accelerated since then. There is an ideological and intellectual balkanization, and increasingly some people are proud to be stupid (although they would say that they were using “common sense.”
Citizen Alan
@Steve in the ATL:
Since becoming a lawyer, I have increasingly come to believe that if only I were a sociopath I probably be a millionaire right now. Possibly in prison or dead, but most likely a millionaire.
hovercraft
@Kay:
Yesterday I read somewhere, that some reporter was leaving the WSJ for Breitbart, they are going to try to normalize them like they did with FOX. We cannot allow that to happen.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Conway has some version of that complaint every time she appears on-air that I’ve seen, and I wish someone would tell her why Trump gets no respect: He hasn’t earned it, nor has his team, foremost among them, Kellyanne Conway. They’re still running around slagging on Hillary Clinton and doing victory laps — Trump did it again yesterday!
Even the most odious, horrible Republican presidents that preceded Trump went though the pro forma “I’m going to serve you even if you didn’t vote for me / I want to unite the country / blah blah blah” thing. They may have been lying, but they went through the motions, because they understood that it’s important to maintain people’s sense of respect for the office.
Not Trump. He’s all victory laps and “suck it, losers!” — and most people DIDN’T vote for him! He labeled political opponents “enemies” in a holiday greetings tweet, FFS! Nope, no respect from me. Not now. Not January 20. Not ever.
rk
I know how life can be less boring. Let’s put Peter and his fellow billionaires on tumbrils and start sharpening the guillotines.
Steve in the ATL
@Citizen Alan: I know, right? Stupid lack of mental illness!
Brachiator
@SFAW:
Cool Smiley reference. Quite agree.
David Evans
@Mnemosyne: Somewhere there must be another butterfly we could step on to reverse the effect of the first one.
Chris
@Betty Cracker:
Yeah. I mean, despite what you said in your first sentence, the fact is that the bar for “earning” the basic respect of a president-elect is really really low. All you have to do is mouthe a few of the usual platitudes you describe. Trump had to dig deep to go below that bar.
sigaba
@Shell:
Everybody likes Loki.
“I’m gay, but I’m also rich. So I’m all good.” Thiel fully expects, with good reason, that as long as he says the right things he’ll be able to buy his way out of the progrom. And he pretty much seems sold on the idea that this isn’t just a sad necessity, but that it’s a positive good and the way the world SHOULD work.
He’d certainly rather buy his way out of gay prejudice than even countenance paying higher taxes. That’d just be wrong. Taxes are the evilest evil ever; homophobia is just a regrettable situation that only afflicts little people in flyover country.
Kay
@japa21:
I wouldn’t though because Obama didn’t have whole employees devoted to whining about he wasn’t treated with respect by Republicans, because Obama isn’t a big entitled baby.
I just don’t think things are going well on the “Trump is Presidential” front if she has to keep saying this.
I love how they’ve turned this around- Trump doesn’t have to start acting Presidential, instead everyone else has to lower their standards. No! I refuse! He should have to get better. The problem isn’t my refusing to get worse!
TriassicSands
@<a href="#[email protected]Chris: t-6194577″>Chris:
Yep.
And it is quite common for people with high test scores and great success in one field or another to believe that they are universally gifted.
Trump claims to have high SAT scores and he’s rich, but every time he opens his mouth it’s like he’s trying to prove that he’s the stupidest person alive. Only, he thinks he’s showering us (no reference to recent news intended) with pure wisdom. Trump is clearly one of the biggest idiots alive today, which is what makes him so dangerous as president. Trump believes what he wants to believe, and the fact that he believes something makes it true to him. Since Trump’s beliefs are dependent on his mood (which he has claimed also affects his wealth), his beliefs can change at any time. And since what he says (or tweets) also depends on his mood, everything he says has an expiration date. The fact that Trump is so volatile makes things so much worse.
Major Major Major Major
@sigaba: I found his RNC speech to be essentially “Can’t we all set aside our differences and agree that I, Peter Thiel, should be richer?”
hovercraft
@Kay:
This should be the democrats response to him and his minions.
(Our) My Offer is Nothing
You get respect by showing and giving respect, these assholes have shown nothing but contempt for everyone and everything, so fuck them. I’ll show him the same deference he showed my president, none.
Kay
Cordray is really smart and competent and ethical so of course Trump will fire him. However. Your loss is my gain because we all want Cordray to come home and run for governor, so it’s a silver lining.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Not denying the influence of Hollywood, but I think Indian movie ecosystem is large enough that it had its own evolutionary trajectory and in my opinion has been a pretty good reflection of societal mores.
rikyrah
@Chris:
He wants to bring the Hunger Games to America.
Chris
@sigaba:
What was the name of Samuel L. Jackson’s character in Django again?
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
Or Rodney Dangerfield! (whose shoes DJT is not worthy to tie)
hovercraft
@Gin & Tonic:
This is shocking, every time the TV bobbleheads need an “expert” on terrorism, they wheel out Rudy, who then spews nonsense and hatred, oh and spittle.
TriassicSands
That is from Trump the Businessman. I wonder if that will continue to be true when he’s president? If so, I guess we’ll all have to hire our own couriers to get messages to him. The traffic coming in and out of the White House’s front gate is going to be amazing.
Chris
@TriassicSands:
To be fair, this is basically the worldview of all Republicans in a nutshell.
Shalimar
@PsiFighter37: Garry Kasparov is a huge Neocon? Do you have any evidence for this? His wikipedia page paints him as an anti-Putin moderate peacenik.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Said it before…
will continue to say it…
We will give him the same amount of respect that the GOP gave Barack Hussein Obama II.
We will give him the same amount of respect that was given as he was Birther-In-Chief for 3 years.
We have 8 years of receipts.
We will pull ALL of them.
They really thought that because we didn’t speak up against the insults, that we didn’t SEE ALL THE INSULTS thrown towards this President. His wife and ENTIRE FAMILY.
They believed that we lived on Mars for the previous 43 White Presidents, and wouldn’t notice the difference between how the OFFICE of the President was treated once Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States.
We warned them that there would be consequences for THEIR DENIGRATION of the Office of the Presidency while Barack Obama was President.
They poo-pooed us.
Then, they went and chose this cretin.
This piece of human garbage that OFFENDS US AS HUMAN BEINGS.
Not just his policies.
But HIM.
#NotMyPresident
Major Major Major Major
@TriassicSands: I knew a businessman/writer like that. One of those Ph.D.’s who insists on being called Doctor. One of the worst people I’ve ever known well.
@rikyrah:
Mrs. Dangerfield over here.
Kay
And then after Cordray is governor he could run for President.
So maybe Trump will keep him to destroy his career :)
Major Major Major Major
@Kay: So they aren’t going to find a way to get rid of the CFPB then, that’s good.
Ruviana
@Chris: Also Tutsi/Hutu. Also Serbs/Croats. I can probably come up with more if I think a bit longer.
GregB
President Dangerfield gets no respect.
rikyrah
@Major Major Major Major:
I do not know how many times I have to say this.
But, I will continue to say it..
As a Non-White, I ALWAYS TOOK THE MAN AT HIS WORD.
ALWAYS.
I know exactly what he’s up to.
LOOK at the people he’s surrounded himself with.
WELCOME.TO.THE.HUNGER.GAMES.
I am NOT the idiots who voted for him.
Calouste
@Brachiator:
Those “ill-informed and angry citizens who denounce intellectual achievement” always existed, I certainly had a few in my family growing up. They just didn’t have a way to get heard outside of the family gatherings and pubs.
hovercraft
@Major Major Major Major:
For now they will content themselves with appointing a head who will begin the work of making it as ineffectual as possible. They have a lot of things on their plate right now, you can’t dismantle all the safe guards Obama put in place in one day, so for now it’s all about infiltration and sabotage.
Bobby D
@rikyrah: “We will give him the same amount of respect that the GOP gave Barack Hussein Obama II.”
Uh huh!
They get zero respect from me, they get silence or ridicule, both accompanied by the middle finger salute.
rp
I interpret his comment as “Star Trek represents a utopian, classless, non-capitalist, diverse society that I hate. Therefore I need to say I prefer Star Wars for reasons related to why I don’t like Star Trek. Since Han’s debt to Jabba is one of the only times money is mentioned in the entire eight movie franchise, I’ll focus on that. (especially since the next best choice is the trade negotiation in TPM. and my third choice is the fact that Qui-gon needs to find a way to get Anakin and his mother out of slavery, but that’s probably a bad example for someone already viewed as something of a free market sociopath.) ). Bazinga!”
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
Yeah, that’s why I’m thinking it was more of a post-colonial rejection of Western ideas and mores than a reaction to anything Hollywood was doing. Nothing wrong with rejecting Western ideas, except that “returning to traditional ways” almost always comes down hardest on women (see also the Taliban, the Saudis, etc.)
Another factor that may have been in play is that you see stronger women during wartime and other social unrest, and a reversion to weaker women characters when that dies down. So there were a lot of strong women characters Hollywood during the two World Wars and the Depression, but they got weaker immediately afterwards. Since India was coming out of their revolutionary period, that could be another explanation.
Obviously, these explanations are always multi-faceted and there will be multiple factors at play, but these are the ones specifically related to mass media and popular culture and how it’s affected by other events.
(And, in case it needed to be said for our wider audience here, I’m using “post-colonial” as a descriptor, not a pejorative. India was a colony of Great Britain, and then they fought for and won their freedom, and then they had a post-colonial period of sorting those things out.)
opiejeanne
@SFAW: I’m sorry, but what is TEFA?
rikyrah
@Chris:
Stephen
hovercraft
I’ll just leave this right here for your enjoyment?
Marine Le Pen Turns Up At Trump Tower
Transition pool reporters first spotted Le Pen, the leader of the French political party National Front, on Trump Tower’s ground floor. A subsequent pool report identified the man sitting to Le Pen’s right as Guido “George” Lombardi, who the Citizens for Trump website describes as “Co-Founder, National Liaison, Press Correspondent.” Citizens for Trump later confirmed on its Facebook page that Lombardi had met with Le Pen.
Trump transition spokeswoman Hope Hicks told a pool reporter Le Pan was “not meeting with anyone from our team.” Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer also told CNN’s Noah Gray that Le Pen was not scheduled to meet with Trump or anyone on his transition team.
“Trump Tower is open to the public,” he added, according to Gray.
Le Pen’s chief of staff told Bloomberg Politics that she had traveling in a private capacity to New York City. Lombardi lives in Trump Tower, and was described in a Politico Europe article last year as “Trump’s European fixer.”
Le Pen is an enthusiastic supporter of Trump’s, saying in September, “We are similar because we are not part of the establishment, we are not part of the system, and we do not depend on anybody and we don’t take orders from anyone.”
In November, she sent congratulations to Trump “and to the free American people!” on his electoral victory.
Kay
@Major Major Major Major:
Cordray was a consumer advocate AG. He started this method where people could register complaints about products and services online, and the AG’s office would actually respond. people loved it. That’s what they think the AG’s office should be doing. They were shocked anyone cared when they got ripped off.
SFAW
@opiejeanne:
That Evil Fucking Asshole.
Because I refuse to use his name nor the title of the office Vladi Vladimirovich and the Rethugs stole for him, and because I am not as creative as efgoldman is with color-ful nicknames.
Glennis
Privileged rich white dude wants to “shake things up” for all the people who don’t have his privilege.
hovercraft
Carson’s Prepared Testimony For HUD Hearing Contained Plagiarism
The opening testimony that Ben Carson, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, prepared for his Thursday confirmation hearing contained word-for-word plagiarism, according to the Washington Post.
The Senate Banking Committee never heard the plagiarized text, however, because Carson resorted to his characteristic off-the-cuff style in his oral testimony, departing almost entirely from his prepared remarks.
The two paragraphs in question focused on the health problems caused by lead exposure in young children. According to the Post, they were taken verbatim from “Where We Live Matters For Our Health,” a 2008 report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
A Trump transition spokeswoman told the newspaper that the plagiarized text was mistakenly included, and that Carson never intended to read it at his hearing.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Did you see the link I posted above? What do you think, is it period accurate?
TriassicSands
@Chris:
True, but I thought that was already accepted fact.
Ian
@hovercraft:
We are so fucked.
TriassicSands
And you deserve none. Why should anyone respect people who lie about everything and say incredibly stupid shit the rest of the time?
Chris
@hovercraft:
I remember when that repellent piece of shit visited America a few years ago, and even Ron Paul refused to meet with her. (He actually had a meeting scheduled, and then backed out of it when a few waves were made).
The erosion of standards continues.
Lurking Canadian
I…can’t wrap my head around him complaining that the lack of scandal in the Obama administration was a bad thing because boring. What kind of fucking people are these?
NCSteve
He just never stops trying to elbow his way in front of the marketing department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation in line . . .
Iowa Old Lady
@Kay:
First, he’s not the president until January 20, although he seems to think he is.
Second, if you want respect, behave in a way that deserves it.
Third, fuck your feelings, Kellyanne.
Barbara
When you spend relentless and fruitless energy trying to make the future a reprise of the past, you will end up with a far worse future than the one you could have had. My brother lost his house when he broke up with his girlfriend because the title was in her name only (for complex financial and personal reasons). For all the anger and sorrow he has poured out over losing that house he probably could have figured out some way to buy another one by now. The idea that we would go back to a place 40 years in the past so we can pretend the Jetsons are still in the future is like me wanting to go back to my childhood so I can still pretend I might grow up to be a doctor. I will never be a doctor. Nearly any other future that Peter Thiel might have had would likely have been worse than the reality he is now living. What he wants is the happy present he inhabits without being encumbered by the unhappy present inhabited by so many others. Life doesn’t work that way. The past might have been better (and yes, there are some things that are worse even in the rosy glow of memory) but the future is what we have. Instead of his meager cartoon vision for these people he might want to consider an alternative, in which they are capable of growing and changing and grasping the future — and actually trying to cultivate a political vision that helps instead of hinders their progress.
Mnemosyne
@Iowa Old Lady:
You gotta love (for certain values of “love”) how whiny the “fuck your feelings” crowd is when they feel like it’s their feelings being trampled on.
Though, of course, they would argue that we trampled on their feelings first, which is a rhetorical maneuver most of us outgrew in kindergarten.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m on my phone at work. ? I’ll try to remember to come back and watch it later tonight when I get home, unless I get too involved in DISNEYWORLD PLANNING! Poor G had to wait for his dinner until almost 9 pm last night because I was too busy texting ideas to my older niece.
Chris
@Mnemosyne:
Remember Trump unironically demanding a “safe space” for poor precious little Mike Pence when he went to the theater?
J R in WV
@Miss Bianca:
While I often agree with you about things and stuff in general… Margaret Thatcher was scorned as a woman in power because she used her power for EVIL almost exclusively.
The fact that she was a woman, yes, OK, some people hated her for that.
But I can’t get past the EVIL part of her career, which seemed so much more momentous than her femaleness. As in “Ding, Dong, the wicked Witch is Dead!”
LongHairedWeirdo
@Calouste: Nod. You can’t be *stupid* and be a chess genius – but chess is really a very limited game. I mean, sure, there are up to 16 pieces that can move, PER SIDE, and those moves can be to multiple different squares, and so forth, but only certain moves make any sense.
I’m not taking anything away from Kasparov – when I say “we may be peers, I may be smarter” it’s more a measure of *my* arrogance :-).
Miss Bianca
@J R in WV: I will simply, respectfully point out that the fact that she *was* female added an extra element to the hatred. Men who act evilly are one thing – but women are quite another. Because, you see, we have this idea that women are supposed to be “nice” – and if they’re not, they’re witches.
john fremont
@Kay: Exactly, Trump talked shit about career civil servants lIke fire marshalls because his campaign staff fucked up and yet demands respect because he won the Presidency. Like Jim Wright at Stonekettle Station, as a military vet I’ll respect the office but I don’t respect the person wearing the rank.
mapaghimagsik
@Adam L Silverman: More accurately, the threat Putin and his cronies pose. Kasparov loves Russia, just the government, like ours, is in the crapper.