Passover doesn’t actually begin until sunset, of course, but those who observe the holiday will be celebrating instead of reading this blog when that happens. The ritual retelling of history sung in the YouTube is, I’m told, very much a living text, open to interpretation for the current moment. In some moments, more apposite than others, per the Washington Post:
When Veronica Ades’s guests gather around the Seder table, they’ll read the list of the 10 plagues, just as Jews around the world will do on Passover.
But at Ades’s table, the plagues won’t be blood and frogs and lice. Her guests will read the first plague: “neo-Nazis.” Then “Fake news. Freedom Caucus. The electoral college. The American Healthcare Act.”
When Ades hosts a Seder, she says, “I don’t really understand not being political.”
The springtime holiday of Passover, when Jews retell the biblical story of the Exodus from Egypt at a ritual meal laden with food and symbolism, has long been a vehicle for political commentary. A story about liberation from slavery lends itself to that.
This Passover, which begins Monday night, the nation’s preoccupation with politics and the flurry of activism since President Trump’s election are inspiring a new crop of amateur writers to try their hand at updating the age-old Passover story…
The plague of frogs bit seems almost a little too easy…
Apart from that, what’s on the agenda for the start of another week?
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
rikyrah
Will they have a White House observation of Passover?
44 did every year.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@rikyrah: No, it just means that the Shitgibbon will be without adult supervision since daughter-wife and Jared will be offline.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Baud
Pshaw. Reading this blog is a celebration.
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
Apparently, yes.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-to-keep-obama-tradition-alive-with-white-house-seder-monday/
bystander
@?BillinGlendaleCA: AKA Fun with Bannon and Pepe Time!
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Of what?
Phylllis
Spring break begins today. Lots of little chores around the house, a stack of books, and a queue of goodies on the dvr await.
And good morning rikyrah.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: God’s wrath?
bystander
@Baud:
You could write pull quotes for Broadway shows.
Speaking of which, if you just want 2 hours of expertly delivered slapstick, mockery of certain styles of British acting and collapsing scenery, “The Play that Goes Wrong” delivers. Non-stop laughter for two hours was just what the doctor ordered.
Joyce H
@rikyrah:
Frankly, I would be shocked speechless if this gang managed to pull off even a marginally competent White House Easter Egg Roll.
ThresherK
@bystander: Is it like “Forbidden Broadwway” in that they really know and enjoy theater while sending it up? Haven’t heard of it but seems to be my taste.
Caught a bit of Spousal ThresherK’s cold. Combine with pollen and, 26th.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: If God was wrathful, do you think I’d still be on this planet?
Wait a minute… Maybe I am the embodiment of God’s wrath. Boy, God must really hate you guys.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: To be fair, a lot of us deserve it.
satby
@Baud: most of the people who deserve it aren’t here though.
They’re way over —>
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Speak for yourself, bud.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I kind of was.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: You definitely do.
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
For two nights, don’t forget.
satby
It’s not supposed to rain until tonight, but it’s looking like it will soon, and I need to still plant those roses. And get border fencing to keep the dogs from stomping and peeing on them.
Gardening and a bunch of dogs doesn’t coexist well.
Have to break out the garden bags and plant my fingerling blue spuds too.
Moar coffee…
bystander
@ThresherK: The Play that Goes Wrong is more like Noises Off than Forbidden Broadway, but yes, it’s a very knowing impression of a suburban theater troop. Once saw Oedipus mounted by a KC theater group. The KCStar critic was ecstatic about the production. The shock of every actor swaddled in yards and yards of tea-stained muslin like slightly soiled Michelin men gave way to barely suppressed laughter throughout the play. I finally erupted in gales of laughter in the parking lot as the flood of absurd images and bad line readings game back.
JMG
Much cleaning, packing and errands to do today, as we leave for France tomorrow evening to 1. visit our daughter who lives in Bordeaux 2. Then spend five days in Paris. Back on the 23rd. So don’t send out search parties if you notice I haven’t commented for awhile. Only outdoor chore will be removing twigs and branches from yard. Not a hard winter as Boston goes, but all storms were windy ones, too,
satby
@JMG: Enjoy your trip and take pictures for us! Safe travels!
rikyrah
@JMG:
Sounds like a wonderful trip. Safe travels.???
Mustang Bobby
And today marks the first day of spring break for me, so in addition to being one of the token goyim at a seder tonight (complete with my Quaker hat as my yarmulke), I get to start work on my research paper to be delivered next week. The topic is the kitchen table as a dramatic set piece in modern drama going from Strindberg’s “Miss Julie” through “Death of a Salesman,” “Come Back, Little Sheba,” and “Crimes of the Heart.” I should be able to drag that one out for fifteen to twenty minutes.
daveNYC
The point of naming the plagues isn’t to just rattle of a list of nasty shit. It’s to realize that our freedom was, in part, built upon inflicting misery on other human beings. That’s why you pour out some wine for each of the plagues, so that your happiness is diminished in remembrance of the suffering inflicted in your name.
Changing the list to be items that are hurting you is just wallowing in self-pity.
MomSense
@Mustang Bobby:
That kitchen table gets a lot of use in political conversations as well.
efgoldman
@JMG:
I’ve heard they might have the intartoobz in France.
Baud
@efgoldman: Nah, let him enjoy his time away. U.S. politics is depressing.
satby
@rikyrah: I missed your greeting at the top, good morning to you!
satby
@efgoldman: @Baud: unplugging is good for the spirit.
efgoldman
@daveNYC:
You know, a couple of my uncles and their kids liked to tell people the “right” way to be Jewish, too. But the one who was president of his (conservative) congregation, and the one who was the dean of Hebrew college, never did and never would have.
Bruuuuce
@SiubhanDuinne:
Oh, to be a fly on the wall when they make Steve Bannon read the bit about the Wicked Child :-D
Mustang Bobby
@MomSense: I am planning to bring that up.
A Ghost To Most
A plague of frogs on all religions. Religion got us into this mess.
efgoldman
@Bruuuuce:
I expect, even as I type, he’s coming down with a terrible case of the Nazi flu, and won’t be able to attend.
Ohio Mom
@daveNYC: I’ve never changed the plagues but I have added some contemporary bits and pieces, mainly, I must confess, to irritate my know-it-all MIL.
manyakitty
@daveNYC: That’s how I always saw it, too.
bystander
@Mustang Bobby: Bring it all the way down to the moment withRichard Nelson’s play series about the Obama years.
OzarkHillbilly
@A Ghost To Most: Religion didn’t get us into this mess. People did and they used religion, a human construct, to justify it.
Eric S.
Good morning, all.
I’m on the El heading downtown for an abbreviated work day. I’ll be leaving mid afternoon to meet up with friends for our annual Spring celebration: Opening Day at Wrigley Field.
JMG, that sounds line a fantastic. Enjoy!
aimai
We are punting Passover this year, and so is my sister-in-law. Just too overwhelmed with work to host it or to have the time (papers!) to go to someone else’s house. But Passover is wonderfully malleable and political in its very roots and we have always customized it and brought current politics into it. I will miss doing it this year but…next year.
efgoldman
@Eric S.:
Are they raising the championship banner today, or are they saving it as a promotion for another day?
aimai
@Mustang Bobby: Would you include Raisin in the Sun? I’m wondering about The Doll’s House as well, although maybe all the action takes place in the upper rooms in the Doll’s House.
Amir Khalid
@rikyrah:
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
No Passover celebration during Trump’s term, even though he happens to have Jewish family members. I’m expecting him not to host any Iftar dinners this Ramadhan, either, breaking with the practice of the last few Presidents. As for Easter, Trump as a nominal Christian might dimly remember the secular part of the celebration, but I doubt he could give you a coherent explanation of its religious significance.
Bruuuuce
@efgoldman: Oh, I don’t doubt it. But the image is too good to resist.
lollipopguild
God loved us so much that he sent John Cole to create this blog and give us a place to talk, share our wisdom and bitch.
OzarkHillbilly
@lollipopguild: And then the Devil sent me here to ruin it for everybody. I’m not very good at my job.
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid:
Check my link at #6 (SiubhanDuinne). It’s certainly being reported that Trump is continuing the Passover Seder tradition at the White House. Agree with you about Iftar, although I wouldn’t put it past him to do so just so he could tweet out something about “My enemies say Trump hates Muslims!! NOT TRUE!”
lollipopguild
@Amir Khalid: Trump: Easter? Why it’s about me right? I am President and I won the election with the yuggest margin ever. I will celebrate Easter buy holding a Rally. It will be the Best Rally evah!
MomSense
@Mustang Bobby:
Sounds like a fascinating topic.
MomSense
@Bruuuuce:
I bet he did nazi this coming.
Bruuuuce
@MomSense: :-)
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid:
I doubt many Americans could. You know, somehow Santa Claus doesn’t bother me much, as I can see the St Nick lineage, and the tradition of giving gifts has some reason. But the Easter bunny drives me up the fucking wall. And giving gifts? “Easter shopping?” WTF?
Spanky
@OzarkHillbilly: I thought that was Baud’s job?
Spanky
Hey, don’t forget that Spicey is an experienced Easter Bunny, and I’m sure he’s just itching to get back in the suit.
Steeplejack (phone)
@lollipopguild:
Well, two out of three isn’t bad.
satby
@Gin & Tonic: Corporate greed and the tendency to turn every holiday into a need to shop for “gifts” has driven this country insane.
And the first rose ? was out of the bag but the hole for it wasn’t dug before the rain started. So I propped it up to drink in the rain and went inside for another cuppa and to see what else you lot are talking about.
Spanky
@Spanky: Oh sorry. Wrong pic. Here ya go.
Marcopolo
@Baud: Compared to French politics? Not so sure about that though I wish them a much better final result! I would like to believe anyone in France who has been looking our way lately might have learned something.
Eric S.
@efgoldman: Banner raising at 6:15. About an hour before game time. If course ut is dosed to be raining at that point.
Ring ceremony should be game 2 in Wednesday.
Mustang Bobby
@aimai: I have “Raisin in the Sun” in my stack of research material, too.
SiubhanDuinne
@aimai:
ISWYDT.
MattF
@Spanky: He already is.
OzarkHillbilly
@Spanky: He’s not very good at it either.
zhena gogolia
@Spanky:
Oh, Gawd, don’t tell me what that’s all about.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mustang Bobby:
@aimai:
Was going to mention “Raisin,” but Aimai got there first. What about “Shirley Valentine”?
In opera, Jules Massenet’s “Manon” has an entire aria given over to a kitchen table (Adieu, notre petite table) in which Manon Lescaut bids a sentimental farewell to the domesticity she has shared with her lover.
Mike in DC
Thor Ragnarok trailer out. I have a nerd boner now.
Corner Stone
Ahhh, wisdom. I haz soaking in it.
Take that, Steeplejack!
rikyrah
Democrats moving senior staffers to Orange County in an effort to flip Republican House seats
Source: LA Times
The arm of the Democratic Party in charge of winning control of Congress is moving senior staffers from Washington, D.C., to Orange County in hopes of flipping Republican-held House seats out west during the 2018 midterm elections.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is aiming to defeat seven California Republicans who represent congressional districts where Hillary Clinton beat President Donald Trump — including a cluster of seats in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties.The committee will send staffers in charge of overseeing House races in California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington to work out of an Irvine office in an effort to make inroads in Republican strongholds that have traditionally been sure bets for the GOP.
SiubhanDuinne
@Gin & Tonic:
Easter incorporates traditions from the pagan spring festival Ostara, which occurred around the vernal equinox. The coming of spring was and is a visual representation of life and regeneration, and few things in nature symbolize fertility better than rabbits and eggs.
Miss Bianca
@Mustang Bobby: what, Bobby! No love for the kitchen sink? They didn’t call it “kitchen table drama”, after all! ;-)
rikyrah
With Gorsuch confirmed, McConnell gets away with stealing a seat
04/07/17 01:01 PM—UPDATED 04/08/17 01:33 PM
By Steve Benen
In the wake of Senate Republicans changing the chamber’s rules yesterday through the nuclear option, the outcome of today’s floor vote was a foregone conclusion, but it nevertheless marked the end of dejecting process.
Shortly before this morning’s vote, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters, “As I look back on my career, I think the most consequential decision I’ve ever been involved in was the decision to let the president being elected last year pick the Supreme Court nominee.”
I’m very much inclined to agree. After Justice Antonin Scalia died, President Obama nominated Merrick Garland, a center-left, compromise jurist to fill the vacancy, which opened the door to a historic opportunity, unseen in a generation: the Supreme Court could finally stop drifting towards the right. McConnell instead decided to impose an unprecedented high-court blockade, gambling that Americans may elect a Republican president and Republican Congress.
The gamble was very “consequential,” indeed. McConnell stole a Supreme Court seat from one administration and handed it to another. Instead of a center-left judge working alongside a conservative minority on the court, we’ll have yet another conservative majority – this time with Neil Gorsuch, who is only 49, and who’s likely to serve as many as four decades.
Last year, McConnell declared, “One of my proudest moments was when I told Obama, ‘You will not fill this Supreme Court vacancy.’” It’s the kind of pride one feels when they steal something and know they’ve gotten away with it.
rikyrah
In a legal fight against Twitter, the Trump administration blinked
04/07/17 04:23 PM—UPDATED 04/08/17 01:33 PM
By Steve Benen
Donald Trump’s presidency has generated all kinds of notable developments, including an important one through social media: career officials at various agencies, unhappy with the executive branch’s new direction, claim to have created various “alt” and “rogue” Twitter accounts to voice their dissatisfaction, publicly but anonymously.
There are plenty of questions about the legitimacy of these accounts, and it’s difficult to say with confidence whether they’re actually controlled by frustrated administration officials – as opposed to people pretending to be associated with the agencies. That said, accounts like @Alt_Labor and @Alt_CDC are active and popular feeds, which may offer a meaningful peek behind the scenes.
And then there’s the @ALT_USCIS account, which as the New York Times reported, has become the basis for a bizarre controversy.
Corner Stone
@MomSense:
And setting the US Govt budget also, too.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 4/7/17
GOP sets new partisan precedent with Gorsuch confirmation
Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor and legal correspondent for Slate, talks with Rachel Maddow about the future of Supreme Court nominations now that Republicans have set a precedent of blocking a nominee because of the nominating president’s party.
OzarkHillbilly
@SiubhanDuinne: Not to mention the strong egg lobby.
rikyrah
Why Trump keeps doing the opposite of what he said he’d do
04/10/17 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
When describing his vision on health care policy, Donald Trump, before the election and after, made a series of fairly explicit commitments. The Republican wouldn’t just repeal the Affordable Care Act, he said, he’d replace it with a system that brought insurance to all Americans, while also lowering premiums and deductibles.
In practice, Trump abandoned every promise he made, embracing legislation that would’ve delivered the exact opposite results. The president radically changed direction without explanation, largely because House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told him the House Republican plan had merit, and Trump, indifferent towards policy details, accepted the assurances at face value.
Trump didn’t have any working understanding of the GOP legislation – by all appearances, he hadn’t even read it – but the president didn’t think it mattered. The Speaker told the White House it was the best available option, and Trump eagerly went along, promises to the public be damned.
To a very real extent, the president got played, and his ignorance made it easy. As Vox’s Ezra Klein put it a few weeks ago, “This is the problem with not knowing or caring much about the details of policy – it’s easy to get spun by people who do know and care.” It’s an often overlooked detail: Trump abandoned the course he promised voters he’d pursue because the president listened to allies who cared vastly more about the substance of the debate than he did.
If this dynamic sounds familiar, it’s because there’s ample reason to believe something similar happened last week – except, this time, Trump wasn’t ignoring his own promises and instincts on health care, he was ignoring his own promises and instincts on national security policy as applied in the Middle East.
rikyrah
Trump’s Syria attack brings uncomfortable truths into focus
04/10/17 09:20 AM
By Steve Benen
It’s been about four days since Donald Trump launched a military offensive against Syria’s Assad regime. What have we learned about the administration and the broader political/policy dynamic? Several uncomfortable truths.
1. There’s no reason to believe the attack was effective. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson explained yesterday that the purpose of Thursday night’s attack “was to target the air base from which these chemical attacks were launched and to render that air base, certainly its infrastructure, no longer usable.” If that the goal of the operation, there’s very little that suggests it was a success – since the Assad government was using that same air base soon after.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), an enthusiastic proponent of a vastly increased U.S. presence in Syria, said on “Face the Nation” yesterday that the fact that Syrian jets were taking off from the same base less than 36 hours later “is not a good signal.” McCain added that U.S. forces could have “cratered the runways,” but Trump has already publicly declared that he chose not to.
2. The Trump administration hasn’t yet settled on its own talking points. The top two voices on foreign policy in the Trump administration, aside from the president and members of his family, are Tillerson and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. On the Sunday shows yesterday, Haley said the administration will work towards toppling Assad in Syria, while Tillerson argued it’d be up to Syrians to oust their own dictator. This seems like the sort of thing the administration probably should’ve worked out ahead of time.
Complicating matters, Haley’s and Tillerson’s rhetoric last week contradicted the rhetoric they used the week before.
3. No one has any idea what, if anything, will follow Thursday night’s attack. A senior administration official told the Washington Post, “We don’t yet know if this is a one-time effort or not. We can’t predict what may or may not happen.”
The near future, in other words, is almost impossible to predict, since no one seems to have any idea what Trump wants or expects.
rikyrah
Republicans scramble to hold on to seat in ruby-red Kansas
04/10/17 10:00 AM
By Steve Benen
When Donald Trump tapped Mike Pompeo to lead the CIA, the Republican had to give up his seat in Congress, though his party didn’t much mind. Pompeo represented a very Republican district in a very Republican state, so keeping his seat “red” wouldn’t pose much of a challenge.
At least, that was the idea. The reality, as the Wichita Eagle reported the other day, is a very different story.
In case this isn’t obvious, these are the steps a party takes when it’s panicking. Republican officials expected to win Kansas’ congressional special election without lifting a finger, and the fact that party leaders are scrambling to this degree suggests GOP officials are genuinely afraid of a Democratic upset.
And that would be extraordinary under the circumstances. This is, after all, a district Donald Trump won by 27 points.
A local GOP consultant told Politico the other day, “Kansas should not be in play, but Kansas is in play.”
rikyrah
Syria and North Korea Are Not Impressed
by David Atkins April 9, 2017 4:18 AM
Yesterday I pointed out the shoddy thinking behind the notion that Trump’s airstrikes in Syria were an effective “message” to either Assad or other adversarial states. The airstrikes themselves were wildly ineffective. America’s options against the Syrian regime remain limited. A ground war would be stupid, air strikes alone accomplish very little, and there is no military solution to a brutal civil war with bad actors on all sides.
But it’s not just Syria for whom Trump is posturing. He is also fronting against North Korea, sending carriers into the waters off the coast of the country. He is even considering placing nuclear weapons in South Korea for some reason. To hear pundits tell it, Trump’s actions are supposed to show resolve that intimidates North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un into submission.
In reality, the North Korean regime isn’t impressed, because it knows Trump’s military threats are empty. China has no intention of reigning in their buffer against an open and democratic society in South Korea. North Korea’s deterrent threat of strikes against Seoul remain in place no matter what military action the United States might take.
There is a reason that the North Korea problem has plagued both Republican and Democratic administrations in an intractable way: it’s almost impossible to solve by military means or with military threats.
Percysowner
United Airlines overbooked a flight and then assaulted and dragged an already seated passenger off the plane to provide seating for the standby crew. They had asked for volunteers, but no one wanted to leave. The man refused to leave because he was a doctor who had patients he needed to see in the morning. To no one’s surprise, he is NOT white. He’s Asian.
Jesus! They couldn’t ask for volunteers by offering money to get the seat. At some point it would have been worth someone’s time to delay. That’s what they did years ago during a friend’s flight. It wasn’t until they hit $350 that people stepped up, but at least they weren’t dragging people off the plane.
Also, too, they couldn’t freaking COUNT how many people were on the plane BEFORE they seated too many!
rikyrah
Kushner, Cohn and Their Wall Street Friends Are Not Moderates or Centrists
by David Atkins April 9, 2017 3:51 PM
………………………………..
Of all the narratives in media, this is probably the one that frustrates me the most. Super-rich men in real estate and finance who are vaguely socially accepting, interventionist in foreign policy, and insistent on tax cuts are not “centrists.” They are just as deeply ideological as Bernie Sanders or Steve Bannon, and in fact their ideology is less popular among voters than either of the “extremes.”
Broadly speaking, no one is more unpopular than Wall Street types and landlords. Few policies are more unpopular than tax cuts for the rich. Americans are tired of foreign wars. Opposition to job offshoring and trade policy that hurts American workers is strong in both parties.
Bannon and his coterie of open racists are fond of calling Goldman tycoon Gary Cohn “Globalist Gary”–an attack that is dismissed in many quarters as thinly veiled anti-Semitism. It almost certainly is, but there is also no question that globalist neoliberalism is an incredibly unpopular ideology right now on both the right and the left. The Trumpist alt-right and the progressive left both despise the hegemony of corporate power and crony capitalism that has decimated low-skill labor and hollowed out the economy in developed countries. The biggest difference is that the alt-right wants to preserve the hegemony of white males, while the progressive left wants a universal socialism.
But the ideology universally rejected by voters in America and around the world is one in which rootless wealthy financiers predate on their own societies for maximum profit under the veneer of global, color- and gender-blind meritocracy. A world in which the only permissible distinction between “right” and “left” is not about the fundamental structures of the economy, but the degree to which those left furthest behind in the glorious new world of instability may or may not be partially subsidized with sops to their dignity like paid child leave.
Yet that very ideology is the only one legitimized by mainstream media as “centrist” and normal, which in turn has led to political revolt on both the right and the left. But make no mistake: Kushner, Cohn and friends are neither normal nor centrist in any way. David Roberts expressed this most ably in his seminal piece on how politics works in the modern era:
……………………………………..
Bannon and his alt-right allies are terrible, bigoted people who endanger the lives and welfare of millions. But they’re not more extremist than their toxic, neoliberal corporate-friendly opponents in the White House. In fact, they have more legitimacy in the eyes of the public, and their policies are the more popular.
rikyrah
The Fourth Estate Has an Obligation to Question Trump’s Motives in Syria
by D.R. Tucker April 10, 2017 5:00 AM
Last week, after the Washington Post published a bizarre story suggesting that the Trump administration had come around to supporting both a federal value-added tax and a carbon tax, Kevin Drum labeled the story bullpucky:
rikyrah
@rikyrah:
More from Tucker:
hedgehog the occasional commenter
Good morning, jackals! Two big projects at work this week so things will be cray-cray. Miss Bianca, evinfuilt and I had a lovely mini-meetup in Salida on Saturday–pic will be on its way to Alain for On the Road when I can get a break.
daveNYC
@efgoldman: A passive aggressive appeal to authority? 15 points to Gryffindor!
People can celebrate how they like, but that still doesn’t change the fact that by modifying that section they are messing about with a core element of the story of Passover, that our freedom came with a cost, and even our enemies deserve sympathy. Hell, just double up the plague count, the old ones that hit Egypt and the modern ones afflicting people today. Focus the modern ones on those that target the various ‘other’ groups and you can tie the whole package up linking the past and present with LGBT/immigrants/minorities being the modern day equivalent of the ancient Israelites.
Storytelling is a powerful tool and doing a shit job of it needs to be called out, because crap like this is how we ended up with four Transformers movies.
Neldob
@SiubhanDuinne: I like Easter for that. We had a hen that would start laying blue eggs about Easter. A the bunnies are out and about, as well as the raptors.
Gin & Tonic
@SiubhanDuinne: I know that. Still bugs the shit out of me. “Your Savior was brutally executed and then ascended bodily into Heaven. Have a Reese’s peanut butter egg.”
Gin & Tonic
@Percysowner: They offered $800 plus a free hotel room and didn’t have any volunteers. Not justifying their actions, but that is a fact you ignored.
Mnemosyne
@Percysowner:
And now instead of spending a few hundred dollars at most, United gets to spend millions of dollars defending themselves from the subsequent lawsuits, plus they get to lose business. Great job, United.
Bruuuuce
@Percysowner: According to Gizmodo, they did offer money ($400, then later $800, plus a hotel room for the night). The doctor was supposedly chosen randomly by computer when not enough folks stepped up to take their bait, and then the goons were sent in.
Kay Eye
@bystander: saw Lorca’s House of Bernarda Alba in Dublin years ago. Not well received. At the end of the play, the “dramatic” offstage suicide – one of the audience jumped up and snarled, “if she hadn’t pulled the trigger I’d have done it myself.”
SiubhanDuinne
@Gin & Tonic:
::sympathetically:: Sounds like your wrist hurts.
Gin & Tonic
@SiubhanDuinne: Bugged the shit out of me long before I broke my arm.
Miss Bianca
@hedgehog the occasional commenter: good morning, jackal Hedgehog! : )
Percysowner
@Gin & Tonic: @Bruuuuce: All that proves is United is cheap Consumerist just reported One Family Earned $11,000 By Not Flying Delta During Delay-Filled Weekend Apparently the going rate for giving up a seat is $1300 cash on the barrel head. United just didn’t want to go up more than the $800, so yeah, I have no sympathy. You don’t assault a passenger because he has been randomly chosen to be kicked off. Yes, it was random selection, but I have trouble believing they would hit and drag a nice white business man off that plane the way they did with this doctor.
Bill Arnold
@Percysowner:
They deserve to lose a lot of business over this. (They’re not getting mine for a long while.)
rikyrah
@Percysowner:
sue sue and more sue
Monala
@Percysowner: Didn’t United just have a round of bad publicity for kicking off two tween girls for wearing leggings? Delta Airlines made hay about that, mocking them on Twitter and ensuring passengers that you can always be comfortable on Delta. This is many times worse, so I bet Delta will capitalize on this, too.
Shana
@bystander: Sounds like a piece from the first episode of This American Life I ever heard. All about a terrible production of Peter Pan as I recall. We were driving home from a weekend trip and were crying in the car we were laughing so hard.
AArrgghh, I’m never going to get everything ready for tonight. I just know I’m not. I always forget something. WHAT IS IT I’VE FORGOTTEN?
Shana
@lollipopguild: Dayenu.
SiubhanDuinne
@Shana:
@lollipopguild:
Shana, you owe me a new iPad. Still laughing.