Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Days Since JD Vance Insulted Women Across America: Zero

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

The willow is too close to the house.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

Consistently wrong since 2002

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

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

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

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

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Republicans in disarray!

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Readership Capture / The man in me will do nearly any task

The man in me will do nearly any task

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In addition to trying to do Moral Monday posts every Monday, I’m going to try to do a Fun Friday post every Friday. This one may be a little disjointed.

First of all, is it worth watching the movie Gaslight since everyone talks about gaslighting constantly now? I can stream the British original for free. Do I need to watch the one with Jessica Fletcher in it instead?

Also too, I thought people would like this:

Reader Interactions

115Comments

  2. 2.

    Brachiator

    Do I need to watch the one with Jessica Fletcher in it instead?

    Uh, yeah. Because Ingrid Freakin’ Bergman.

  7. 7.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Can anyone explain why Elizabeth Warren is voting for someone as demonstrably unqualified as Ben Carson?

  9. 9.

    Tom Q

    The fact that you refer to Jessica Fletcher suggests you don’t know what a minx Angela Lansbury was in her youth, and seeing this movie might start correcting that. Also, as others have said, Ingrid Bergman, not to mention Charles Boyer.

    The movie’s based on a long-running London and Broadway play, Angel Street, which I worked on in college. Odd fact: the main thing that people today reference as an example of gaslighting — when he tries to convince her she’s misremembering which night they went to the theatre — wasn’t in the play, but was invented for the film. The premise is still the same, but it was strange to do the play and have the thing people remembered most not show up.

  10. 10.

    Trentrunner

    @Brachiator: 100% agreed. Also, Angela Lansbury was, like, 18 years old when she made it. The subtext of every line she has is, “Fancy a wank, guvna?”

  16. 16.

    Cain

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Because he’s harmless? And the next pick will likely be worse? Frankly, they should just simply not vote for any of his candidates. Why would you want to be tied to a vote against Ben who could fuck things up. Better to refuse to vote.

  20. 20.

    dedc79

    True fact: Whenever I’m flipping through the channels and The Big Lebowski is on, I have to watch it through until the end.

    ETA: “Three thousand years of beautiful tradition, from Moses to Sandy Koufax, YOU’RE GODDAMN RIGHT I’M LIVING IN THE PAST!”

  27. 27.

    Michael Bersin

    Again today at noon I stood for an hour at the flag pole with the Bill of Rights plaques on the quad on campus holding up my poster board sign: Сделать Америку великой Снова (Make America Great Again). I had several nice conversations with people who were sympathetic to the cause. One said, “We can’t let them normalize all this.” That’s another important part of individual protest – you’re letting others know they’re not alone. And, of course, there were a lot of people who just passed by. Some stared, but weren’t curious enough to ask about the sign. It’s an interesting experiment. Do they know what it’s about, but don’t ask because they’re afraid of the answer?

    From long experience at this I carry a camera. I also have a small digital audio recorder on a lanyard around my neck. And, since I own one, I use a high end digital recorder (with a wind shield) which I place behind me on the flag pole base. Both recorders are started before I arrive at the flag pole.

    Towards the end of my vigil today I was approached by a barely twenty-something male, a Trump supporter, who engaged me with questions. He opened with, “Why don’t you like Trump?” I replied, “He’s a racist.” Our conversation proceeded from there. He wasn’t particularly prepared to engage someone who methodically dismantled his talking points. Those talking points were the usual pathetic ones – he ended up acknowledging many of their weaknesses. We spoke for close to a half hour. I could see the gears turning in his head. As we parted company he said, “Wait, are you recording this?” Oh, yes.

  28. 28.

    humboldtblue

    @trollhattan:

    Just gobsmacked.

    And that’s pretty much an average day up here for the Coasties. They are constantly in the air either in training or for actual emergencies and their small boat operators are simply the best. I had a former neighbor who became the latest of a handful of women to earn the Surfman’s badge, they are the folks you see handling the motor lifeboats in the roughest of seas.

  29. 29.

    chris

    @humboldtblue: C’mon, it’s just water…Holy..!
    We lose a few here every year. At one of the attractions there are actual warning signs. Sometimes they find the bodies.

  31. 31.

    trollhattan

    @humboldtblue: You’re yugely lucky to have them. CG Hercs fly out of McClellan Park in Sac but that’s my sole routine exposure to them.

    Used to be hooked on “Deadliest Catch” where they did utterly impossible things routinely. I suppose deadbeat Donny will send them all to patrol the Rio Grande now.

  34. 34.

    Percysowner

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Kevin Drum at Mother Jones gave and explanation here. I’m not sure I buy it 100%, but some of it makes sense, especially the part where he notes that if the Democrats vote against every nominee, then the Republicans will vote for on every nominee. So when the really bad ones come up they have no good argument to make the Republicans give that nominee a harder look and possibly not pass them through.

  35. 35.

    hovercraft

    @humboldtblue:
    Sometimes I just want them to let nature take it’s course. Ther should be a cost for doing something that stupid, the waves tried to warn you, go back, but he just kept going.

    In other Darwin award contender news:

    Two Burned, One Severely, While Trying To Start Fire In Ocean Township

    Ocean Township Police Release

    Published: January 26, 2017

    OCEAN TOWNSHIP: The following is a press release from the Ocean Township Police Department:

    On January 26, 2017 at approximately 6:22 p.m., police were called to the area of Fairway Lane for a reported fire in a wooded area between Fairway lane and Weston Ave.

    When Officers Trevor Dickerson and Steven Walker arrived in the area they learned that the fire originated from a fire pit located in the rear of a Weston Ave residence. Officers then found two 18 year old males at the residence on Weston Ave who both had been burned from flames from the fire pit. One of the male burn victims had significant burns to his face, chest and hands. He was treated at the scene by the Wanamassa First Aid and subsequently airlifted to the Burn Center at Saint Barnabas in Livingston, New Jersey.

    The other male burn victim received lesser injuries from the burns and was transported to Jersey Shore University Medical Center for further treatment.

    Further investigation by Detective Jesse Orbach revealed that the two injured males were in the process of starting the fire in the fire pit. It was learned that one of the injured males was using gasoline to start the fire. The gasoline ignited in an explosive manner subsequently burning both male victims.

    Ocean Township Fire District #2 Fire Marshall’s Office along with the Monmouth County Fire Marshall’s Office also responded to the scene to assist in the investigation.

  36. 36.

    Calouste

    @chris: There’s a waterfall in Washington State that you can only have a really good look at if you climb over a fence and onto a dangerous slope.

    There is a sign next to it that:
    1) Tells you where you can buy professionally taken photographs of the waterfall.
    2) Lists the people who were dumb enough to ignore the warning signs and fell to their death. A few dozen of them.

  37. 37.

    hovercraft

    @debbie:

    Love it, wasn’t it just a couple of days ago he was bragging about all his TIME covers, and now he is deposed by a P u s s y hat.

  38. 38.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @debbie: That counter argument also doesn’t work.

    first, she’s already voted for other nominees like Mattis and Haley. second, people who make that argument were never going to vote for her anyways.

  40. 40.

    Cain

    @debbie:

    Trump is going to be pissed because he isn’t going to be Time’s Man of the Year on the cover or President on the cover. The man is going to rail against this.

  42. 42.

    Cain

    @Percysowner:

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Kevin Drum at Mother Jones gave and explanation here. I’m not sure I buy it 100%, but some of it makes sense, especially the part where he notes that if the Democrats vote against every nominee, then the Republicans will vote for on every nominee. So when the really bad ones come up they have no good argument to make the Republicans give that nominee a harder look and possibly not pass them through.

    I think this is a bullshit argument. This is the argument of an establishment politician who still believes the political world is sane. That is not what is happening here, this is still the same old political calculations. Let me ask you, did that ever stop Republicans for voting no on every Democratic bill that Obama wanted? How many positions in the federal govt did the Republicans stonewall? What political fallout happened? Nothing. Stop playing the same damn game.

  44. 44.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Percysowner: I’m not asking them to vote against every nominee. I’m not. I don’t feel that way.

    But Carson is obviously an unqualified kook (Pyramids were grain elevators/Chinese combat divisions in Syria) .

  45. 45.

    zhena gogolia

    Gaslight is fab, if a little too stagy. Ingrid and Angela are fantastic, and I love to say “Paula” in Charles Boyer’s accent.

    I tried to watch the British one because I ADORE Anton Walbrook, but he was just too scary. I couldn’t get through it.

  46. 46.

    maeve

    Just google “gaslight movie” – it will tell you the places you canwatch it from 2.99 – and it will be the charles boyer / ingrid bergman one because why would you want to watch another (also joseph cotton but forget which role – and directed by george cukor0

    appologies for small caps but i have a dog in my lap so i;m working on my lab-top computer

  48. 48.

    trollhattan

    @Calouste: Yosemite has similar measures at Vernal Falls and nevertheless, every couple years one or two folks go into the river then over the edge. Here it is two summers ago at about minimum possible flow. As I type this that entire ledge surely has water pouring over it and when it’s like that, the spray soaks everything making it super slippery.

  52. 52.

    Spanky

    @debbie:

    The cover, complete with the headline “The Resistance Rises,” features a striking image of the now-infamous pink “pussy hat.”

    ‘Scuse me?

  55. 55.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @Shell:

    That’s Julianne Moore in the role of Maude Lebowski, artist/​provocateur.

    God, hard to believe that movie is 19 years old!

  56. 56.

    dedc79

    Pretty sure the Trump motorcade just passed by my office (I work a few blocks from the White House). For eight years I could deal with the hassle and noise because it was President Obama. Now it just makes me want to vomit.

  58. 58.

    zhena gogolia

    @dedc79:

    I have that reaction when I see the synecdoche “White House” as the subject of a NYT headline. I used to have a benign feeling when I saw it. Now it’s a retching reflex.

  60. 60.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @burnspbesq: but Sessions, DeVos, and Pruitt wont’ go down.

    if that’s your standard, start excommunicating.

    myself, I’m not asking for her excommunication, rather just a simple reason for her vote.

    the fact that no one can find any plausible reason just shows this is a really bad vote.

  65. 65.

    gbear

    I was hoping that the title was in reference to Rodney Crowell’s The Man In Me from the ‘Fate’s Right Hand’ album. (I’m at work so no link)

  67. 67.

    Peale

    October 2016
    Democrats: “Trump and the Republicans are going to do bad things”
    Democratic Voters: “So. I think she’ll be worse.”

    January 2017
    Democrats: “OMG: Trump and the Republicans have started to do bad things.”
    Democratic Voters: “Democrats suck.”

  68. 68.

    rikyrah

    @Cain:

    I think this is a bullshit argument. This is the argument of an establishment politician who still believes the political world is sane. That is not what is happening here, this is still the same old political calculations.

    They truly act as if they don’t understand that the world has been turned on its head.

  70. 70.

    Aleta

    @humboldtblue: Reminds me of a friend who was so excited by his new motorcycle he drove straight to the coast and rode through the surf along a flat beach that night. The next morning all he had left was a seized up piece of metal parked outside his motel room.

  71. 71.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    @RoonieRoo: No…

    It was originally a stage play and then filmed in GB… the American version came in 1944 and was the 2nd one…

  72. 72.

    Alain the site fixer

    Doug, don’t know if you was my video post but if you don’t know it, check out album King of Kings by Desmond Dekker with the Specials. It’s truly great stuff that I suspect you’ll appreciate more than most. Keep up the good work and great post titles!

  75. 75.

    catclub

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Sessions, though, that would be a huge win.

    Who knows. There is precedent for voting down Sessions. OTOH, I suspected that he is not that popular in the Senate, so getting him out of the Senate would be popular.

    I am completely fatalistic on those votes. Do whatever seems right. Maybe get a future favor/chit.

    if somebody goes down, trump will nominate someone worse.

  77. 77.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @dedc79:

    Might have been Theresa May on her way back to the British Embassy. Are you more or less on the route between the WH and Embassy Row?

  78. 78.

    zhena gogolia

    @Thru the Looking Glass…:

    It’s confusing because they had to change the name of the 1940 original to something like The Murder in Thornton Square so as not to compete with the 1944 (Bergman) one. It’s even darker than the Bergman one — Walbrook is a convincingly abusive husband right from the start. It was too depressingly convincing for me. The Bergman version is more romanticized and palatable.

  79. 79.

    Mary G

    @rikyrah: That’s what I wrote to Dianne Feinstein today.

    You are acting like this is business as usual and if you are as obstructive as the Republicans were over the last eight years, the media “both sides do it” will cause you harm. This is, if true, just too bad. Trump is off the charts crazy, and the Republicans in Congress are following him right off the cliff. You owe it to to your country to resist to the maximum. Do your duty. History will remember who stood up and who didn’t.

    Also, get more phone lines and interns in your California offices. Many, many more.

  80. 80.

    Hal

    Just wondering how many more “We talked to these Trump supporters and they are beyond thrilled!!!” storied the NY Times is going to do? This is always going to be the reaction from a certain number of these people. Trump could make Putin his VP and they would think that’s the most awesomest thing any president has ever done ever.

  81. 81.

    geg6

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    She apparently tried to explain on FB. I was not impressed. Basically, we have to cave on something/someone and show how bipartisan we can be! Kind of like Chuck Schumer’s brilliant plan to work with Putin’s Circus Peanut on infrastructure, get him to sign on to their plan and split the Congress from the Executive. It’s sure to work!

    Ugh. I’m pretty much done with all the progressive ponies. Except Al Franken. I still like Al.

  84. 84.

    geg6

    Oh, and Doug? I can’t imagine there is another version of the film is better than the Angela Lansbury version. She’s amazing in it. Blew me away.

  86. 86.

    gbear

    @geg6:

    Ugh. I’m pretty much done with all the progressive ponies. Except Al Franken. I still like Al.

    Send him an email telling him how mad you are at all of the not-like-him ‘progressive ponies’. I think Al would pretty much tell you to stuff your displeasure.

  91. 91.

    MaryRC

    @geg6: It’s hard to find (supposedly MGM tried to get the negative destroyed) but the British version with Anton Walbrook and Diana Wynyard from 1940 turns up on TCM from time to time and it’s good too. I am a huge fan of Anton Walbrook so I may be prejudiced but I found him to be more frightening and less hammy than Boyer (was anyone less hammy than Boyer)?

    The MGM Boyer-Bergman version is worth seeing just for Lansbury as the sassy maid, though. It was her first movie role, I think.

  93. 93.

    hellslittlestangel

    Angela Lansbury was hot stuff in her day. Nancy the maid has often been the subject of my more quaint sex fantasies.

  94. 94.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @geg6:Really, there are people thrilled with Trump? We are they? I’ve yet to meet anyone on or off line with any enthusiasm for him. The only time I’ve heard pro-Trump talking on line in any game it’s clear trolling.

    I noticed the news turned positive today for Trump for no reason, so is the press that insipid and cowardly they bought the Rassumn poll?

    Steely eyed editor “Look this outlier poll from a pro-Republican pollsters says Americas in love with Trump, stop the presses!”

    Pulitzer Prize Reporter “But sir, this an outlier and just look at the crowd sizes”

    Steely eyed editor “Damn it man, it’s a poll!”

    The news media really needs something traumatic.

  97. 97.

    catclub

    @efgoldman: My point was that if he is unpopular, he is more likely to be confirmed to get him out of the senate.

    The precedent was that Sessions was turned down before – by the senate – for a federal judgeship.
    I know The likelihood of cabinet noms not getting confirmed is low.

  99. 99.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    I will point out another problem we are up against; Trump is running the country like a business and yes, my experience most managerial staffs are this useless. Surround yourself with inept toadies, shout down any dissent, then whine at your employees about how rough you have it. Yep, that’s American business. I suspect like most of the news media is incapable of understand what’s wrong.

    Media Mogul #1 “That young Trump fellow, people are questioning his staffing choices, I don’t get it”

    Media Mogul #2 “Well his spokesman did have to be resuscitated by the paramedics after a brutal dental hygiene accident”

    Media Mongol #1 “Harrumph I say. Remember when our Human Resources director died using the toilet? This is communism!”

    Media Mongol #2 “Harrumph, and he went to our Frat, top man, one of the best. I agree”

  102. 102.

    Pogonip

    @Brachiator: That was the first Ingrid Bergman movie my mom saw (it was in theatres at the time), and she always said Ingrid whimpered her way to stardom. I have not seen the remake.

  103. 103.

    Immanentize

    @Major Major Major Major: I think the purity ponies are the ones demanding that Warren act like their fantasy Bernie. Who is also voting for candidates. I recommend all those who think Warren is a sell out go out, pay the fee for running for Senate, win, and vote a straight up purity line.

    Being a Senator is a process, not a candlelight vigil with a catchy slogan.

  105. 105.

    Immanentize

    @debbie: I remember it too. Tower got nailed on three things, the Tower Report Iran/contra whitewash, sexual harassment, and his chronic boozing all the time. People said he was not a nice drunk.

  106. 106.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    @Immanentize: yeah, asking why Warren is voting for Meatloaf for Secretary of Agriculture and for Curt Schilling for Secretary of Bankruptcy is purity.

  107. 107.

    geg6

    @gbear:

    Probably because I don’t live in MN, so he can say that with impunity. My own Dem senator, however, doesn’t mind much when I bitch at him though. Of course, he isn’t one of my progressive betters, so he feels no need to condescend to me. And really, from what I have seen from Senator Franken, I very much doubt that you have characterized what he’d say properly.

  110. 110.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @geg6: On line, know a lot of Trump supporters in the games. None of then are like the Bush supporters were with the praise. When they do talk it’s about how awful Hillary is.

  112. 112.

    joel hanes

    @Aleta:

    I dig a pony.

    “I Dig A Pygmy”, by Charles Hawdry on the deaf-aids.
    Phase one, in which Doris gets her oats:

  114. 114.

    waysel

    @gbear: Prolly too late, but ‘The Man in Me’ is a Dylan song from the album ‘New Morning.’ And the line is from that song. I assume Crowell covered it.

  115. 115.

    Another Scott

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Meh. Her comments reproduced at Gin & Tacos (link in this thread) seem reasonable enough to me, as does Drum’s comment.

    While it’s true that “People are Policy”, the Senate doesn’t pick the Cabinet positions. Trump does. Call them up for hearings, grill them, show America how incompetent and over-their-head they are. Show how they’re brainwashed ideologues. Embarrass Trump and his party for nominating such bad choices. Do what you can to defeat the dangerous ones like DeVos and Sessions who will gut their departments and the law.

    But these picks are on Trump, not on Warren or the rest of the Democrats.

    And we don’t want the Senate turned into a battle of partisan voting blocks on everything. It undercuts the Senate’s power, for one thing. It means that there is no longer any need to even try to come up with persuasive arguments, or engage in horse trading, etc., to try to make the winning margin larger.

    Yes, it would be satisfying to win these battles with a unified Democratic block. But it won’t help win the war. Trump is going to have a cabinet and most votes aren’t going to be close. Yes, damage them in the eyes of the public and make them grovel and contradict the Dear Leader. But leave open the option to use different tactics to win battles down the road, and if that means being “reasonable” and letting Donnie surround himself with incompetents of his choice, then so be it.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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