He knows politics. Sign up to get The Point w/ @CillizzaCNN every weeknight to understand Washington politics. https://t.co/Dx7flsLEQ9 pic.twitter.com/vIujNH44Aq
— Wolf Blitzer (@wolfblitzer) June 28, 2017
Chris “Mad Bitcher” Cillizza fails upward, because what else did you expect?
(I had those glasses, circa 1963, and they were a crappy style choice even then, but I had the excuse of being an eight-year-old girl with an extremely limited range of options.)
Now every weeknight at 7pm I can do what Chris Cillizza has done his whole career: miss The Point pic.twitter.com/BwKHoeP9AV
— Robby Slowik (@RobbySlowik) June 28, 2017
Dear god Cillizza is using emojis to gauge the likelihood millions will lose their health insurance (ht @Ejones82) https://t.co/W8v6U3akN3 pic.twitter.com/kkpbWI4E9V
— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) June 27, 2017
In a remotely functional journalistic culture Chris CIllizza would be selling Hyundais right now
— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) June 28, 2017
I too am launching a brand around Chris Cillizza. pic.twitter.com/AtSx0DrhqX
— Schooley (@Rschooley) June 28, 2017
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
I love that stupid picture of Blitzer and Chinchilla pretending to be doing super serious journalism. Two losers, one computer.
Probably looking at porn
schrodingers_cat
CNN == Craven News Network.
Is it my imagination or were they much much better when Ted Turner was at the helm?
Mary G
My eye doctor refused to give me the blue ones and forced the pink ones onto me. I promptly lost them, not on purpose, but we went to another doctor and I got a slightly less stupid-looking pair.
Trentrunner
Chris Cillizza truly is a prize boob.
Today he tweeted an imaginary apology Trump should give, noting what a difference that would make.
His bothsidesism is in his DNA, he was conceived in a Racehorse Coverage test-tube, and birthed by a corporate media which runs on the Mushy Bigotry of Idiotic Expectations.
Nicole
Ugh.
On the bright side, Greta Van Sustern didn’t make it nine months at MSNBC:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/greta-van-susteren-out-at-nbc
Her being hired there, and Rachel Maddow yapping, “Greta’s great!”, finally broke me. Haven’t watched the channel since.
schrodingers_cat
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: Chinchillas are cute. We must find a non cute animal for this person.
SiubhanDuinne
See, I’d do those emoji faces exactly the opposite: smiley if it’s likely to be voted down, sad if it seems likely to pass.
I guess that’s why I don’t have a high-profile, well-paying job at CNN.
A Ghost to Most
It’s all just a horse race to Chinchilla; no humans involved
SiubhanDuinne
@Nicole:
If Greta goes, can Megyn be far behind?
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Yeah, well, whatever Blitzer might ask of me, I think I’ll skip this once in a lifetime (one can hope) shot at following this soulless dickwad.
efgoldman
For only the second time ever, I walked out of a medical professional’s office without being seen.
Fuck them. Dr Salk and the Mayo Clinic are not worth sitting in a waiting room for an hour and five minutes past the nominal appointment time.
(A doc I’ve never seen before – and won’t ever again).
I hope they were embarrassed, but I think they probably weren’t.
Turgidson
I’ve said before and will say again – I will not believe that our current failed media experiment has improved for the better until Cillizza is considered unemployable by anything with a wider reach than his personal facebook page. Where Fournier and his apprentice Matthew Dowd are the embodiment of BothSiderism gone completely, irredeemably insane, Chris Cillizza is the walking embodiment of the Elite Media’s obsession with personal drama and shiny objects over actual news and substantive issues. He’s just the f’ing worst.
bystander
Oh, but the blue frames bring out Cilizza’s dreamy eyes, haterz!
I’m especially loving watching Melania’s existential conflict about Bullies: Love Them or Hate Them? Will a Leather Bustier Help?
SatanicPanic
@? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?: With dumbass Blitzer he might very well be explaining what a computer is. “This little pointy thing… it’s called a cursor. You move it with this thing. This is called a mouse. It’s easy to remember the name for it because it looks like a mouse”
efgoldman
Well, sort of. He’d be working for the Hyundai dealer, but it would be at the far end of the used car lot, where they sell the beaters under $8k or so, with no warranty, and depend on usurious loan rates for their profit.
TaMara (HFG)
In better news:
Or what @Nicole: said
bystander
@efgoldman: I heard a ridiculous discussion of how Americans are so demanding we could never be patient like the French and you know, wait two days for an MRI. I routinely wait a minimum of 45 minutes to see my MD for a checkup appointment made 6 months in advance. Orthopedist? Bring a book.
Iowa Old Lady
@efgoldman: I’ve walked out if they keep me waiting half an hour past my appointment, so you are a model of patience. I tell the receptionist I have to reschedule because I have other things to do.
My only exception was my OB. Babies come when they come, so he had an excuse.
efgoldman
@Nicole:
I suspect Megyn will not be far behind. They’ll have the perfect excuse to dump her at the start of football season – they start their day in review/pregame at 700pm Eastern. No way they’re giving that up.
bystander
@Nicole: Finally some enjoyable news. Plus Ari Melber is replacing her. For a brief terrifying moment, I saw the Ambulatory Cream Cheese hovering into view…phew!
Jeffro
I guess the only thing to do, really, is boycott this ridiculous show (or perhaps CNN altogether?) and be sure to tell them why.
Other than that: not really breaking news that Cillizza sucks and Blitzer thinks he doesn’t.
pat
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yeah, after all the information about the terrible things in that bill, WHY would you have a smiley face if it passes? I don’t get it.
Mary G
CA SoS tells Kris Kobach & Twitler to go fuck themselves:
Yeah!
Turgidson
@SiubhanDuinne:
You’d think so, but I suspect NBC has poured so much time and money into the Megyn experiment that they’ll let her flail around for quite a while, and quietly demote her (if she will allow it) a few times before pulling the plug.
gene108
@efgoldman:
What was the appointment for? If you don’t mind sharing?
I’ve never had to wait that long to be seen. That’s ridiculous.
Mike in NC
@Nicole: So now there’s a very real chance Greta lands the job that Spicer and Huckabee Sanders are so miserable at. So much winning!
efgoldman
@bystander:
My docs are the best in the area (PCP and specialists) because they’re the best. I have NEVER waited longer than 1/2 hour. My GI guy is a bit on the flighty/absent minded side, but even he isn’t more than 20 minutes late. Sometimes i have to wait for my cardio guy in the exam room, but never that long.
Mike in NC
@efgoldman: Under TrumpNoCare, heart attack victims will be required to wait three days before seeking medical attention. Sad!
gene108
@bystander:
Well, if you are willing to pay cash, you could probably walk into the imaging center and get the MRI done right-away with the proper prescription from your doctor.
But for those of us, who have to get MRI’s preapproved by insurance, it’s more than two days.
But at least we have the freedom to choose!!!
efgoldman
@Mary G:
Wooo-hoooo!
I don’t know Alex Padilla from Alex Keaton, but he’d have my vote forever if I voted in CA.
Good for you, Mr SoS.
Good for you, CA!!
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
Centipedes?
gene108
@Mike in NC:
There’s no way not to be miserable at that job, if you try to take it a least bit seriously. The only way to have fun is to act like Melissa McCarthy’s impersonation of Spicer on SNL.
Q: “Can you clarify what President Trump meant by wanting to put Qatar on the terrorist list, which conflicts with earlier statements from the State Department?”
A: I could but I’m not going to. And you can’t make me. Why don’t you clarify why your Fake News Newspaper has cut 75% of its jobs in the last 20 years? Loser. Next question.
efgoldman
@Turgidson:
Actually, studio-based “news” shows (with no on the scene reports from DC or Syria or Europe) are by far the cheapest time-filler to produce.
The only reason that hour costs more, is her ridiculous salary.
Montanareddog
My wife is much less a political junkie than me. We had Blitzer on as background while we pottered in the kitchen yesterday when Snivellysnitcher came on as Blitzer’s guest. “Oh it’s that asshole! I can’t stand him”, she said. I laughed and told her “you should see what they think of him on BJ and LGM”.
efgoldman
@gene108:
Dermatology. My exoskeleton is falling off.
Major Major Major Major
I hate Chinchilla so much. I always think of The Hunger Games when I see him.
efgoldman
@Mike in NC:
Can she lie credibly, joyously, and without guilt?
gene108
@efgoldman:
Have you tried rubbing the exoskeleton against some rough tree logs? You’ll feel better, once it is off and you can grow a new one that fits you.
Growth spurts are such a pain. I just wish we could stop growing, like those vertebrates.
schrodingers_cat
@TenguPhule: Tapeworm. “Journalists” of Cilizza’s type, attach themselves to the body politic and suck it dry of sustenance.
Turgidson
@efgoldman:
Yep, I was never prouder to live in this state than after the 2010 Red Wave of Death was completely stopped by the California’s mighty blue wall. And it’s mostly only gotten better since then. I think every statewide officeholder has been a Democrat since then, and most of them are pretty good. I’m not a Gavin Newsom fan and wish he’d kept his big yap shut about how he’d torpedo high speed rail if he was governor, but he’s still a solid liberal on all the major stuff, so he’s minimally acceptable, I guess. I’m hoping someone I like better emerges to fight him for the governorship, though.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
She worked for Fox News, duh.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@TenguPhule: Losers on r/the_Donald actually call themselves ‘pedes as some kind of badge of honor. No, I have no idea why.
debbie
@efgoldman:
I’ve had the same experience a couple times, for comparable lengths of time. Believe me, I was ticked off and they caught plenty from me about that. I know how infuriating it is to wait like that, but I stuck it out anyway. If it happens again, make them give you an estimate of the waiting time and then take a walk.
Turgidson
@efgoldman:
She was employed with Faux News for plenty long enough to have mastered that skill.
Not sure she’ll meet Hair Furor’s “central casting” requirement, though it’s not as if Spicey and Sarah are…particularly….attractive, themselves.
TomatoQueen
@efgoldman: yep. Polished that up during the Simpson trial.
Shalimar
@Nicole: I caught a few minutes of Greta’s show I think Monday before changing the channel. She was telling a Republican congressman that she was rooting for them to get healthcare reform finished. Mostly her show was just incredibly boring, but she occasionally let her true horribleness shine through.
efgoldman
@Turgidson:
Unfortunately old senators never die, and it looks as if nothing can persuade DiFi to retire.
On the good side, don’t we expect to knock off a few of the current RWNJ congresscritters?
Steeplejack
@Nicole:
Ari Melber will be an upgrade.
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: He looks nothing like J Law.
jl
This post ends with the implication that Chris Cillizza should be pitching new products at car shows. But i don’t think he would look good in a bikini at all. Potential customers would run away.
I’m not sure, but I think this is the guy who wrote a column on good Democratic presidential candidates for 2020, and whose only criterion seemed to be how much corporate and rich person big money they could raise and attract for PACs and Super PACs. I don’t think you have to be progressive purity pony to see some limitations to that approach.
Whoever wrote it also included Michelle Obama on the list, based on surmise that she would attract lots of money. That forgot the fact that from all indications, as I said at the time, Michelle Obama would rather cut three of her own limbs off with a rusty saw than live in the WH again, or maybe even get within a mile of the place. (Edit: just three, since I am sure Michelle would insist on threatening to do it herself to totally prove she ain’t going back.)
If Cillizza didn’t write that piece, he thinks just like whoever did, and that is a problem.
SiubhanDuinne
@Shalimar:
I would occasionally catch audio of her show on the car radio. Apart from any content-related awfulness, which was abundant, her speaking voice is hideous.
efgoldman
@Steeplejack:
Zombie Horace Greeley would be an upgrade.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
WSJ, so paywalled from me
Turgidson
@efgoldman:
Yes. I talk as much shit about the OC and its historically very-GOP lean as anyone, but that is exactly the kind of place where Hair Furor’s classless asshattery makes his spineless GOP bootlickers vulnerable. We almost got Issa last time and he should be vulnerable again. There’s a few others in purplish seats that would have trouble surviving a wave election. Hopefully we find decent challengers up and down the state, regardless of how red a seat has been. I mean, Devin Nunes is probably safe, but his spectacular dipshittery should at least draw a decent challenger.
Kay
@Mary G:
Does a “President’s Commission” have authority to demand that states turn over voter info? I don’t think they do.
Shalimar
@efgoldman: Megyn’s ridiculous salary is why they will have to reassign her rather than fire her. There has to be some 3am time slot at MSNBC they can have her anchor until she quits.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: I believe the treasurer is mounting a run.
jl
Off topic, but I think important. As soon as health care mess is resolved in Congress, we have to start contacting our respective Secretaries of State to stop this enormity:
Christopher Ingraham
@_cingraham
Wow: Trump’s “Election Integrity” commission is requesting full voter rolls, including names and party affiliations, from every single state
https://twitter.com/_cingraham/status/880483686289817600
Edit: oops. I missed news on same topic from some commenters above, including Kay. Democratically controlled states probably won’t comply, GOP states where Deep State Enemies of Trump have influence, like Ohio might not. But a lot of GOP states would be dumb enough to send the info. Which they should definitely not do. Otherwise, authoritarian Hungary, here we come!
trollhattan
@efgoldman: @gene108:
Eat more chitin!
Barney
Cillizza has got all the in-depth judgement and seriousness of the News Bunny:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4p-4B1Qr6g
Think that’s a fake? No, it really happened:
Steeplejack
@efgoldman:
An hour’s wait in dermatology? Weird. There are no emergencies in dermatology.
Westyny
@schrodingers_cat: yes.
GxB
@TenguPhule: Geoduck
Nicole
@SiubhanDuinne: From your mouth to the FSM’s noodly ear(s).
SiubhanDuinne
@jl:
Jesus Edgar Hoover, it just gets worse and worse with every passing day.
It’s like every person in the Trump Maladministration answered want ads under the “Ratfuckers Wanted” heading.
jl
@Barney: They asked for a custom made bunny suit for each reporter? Sounds like warren of bunny furries infested the station, and who were looking for a costume slush fund.
cope
That first picture is just SCREAMING to be used in a caption contest.
My entry: “…and if you just click on this little X up in the corner…”.
ThresherK
@efgoldman:
Steeplejack
@efgoldman:
What I meant was that he’s actually pretty good. I’m glad to see him get a regular spot. Joy Reid would be better, but he should do okay.
? ?? Goku (aka Junior G-Man) ? ?
@cope: It could become the next big meme. Actually, on second thought, most people probably wouldn’t recognize either of them.
Kay
And what is Kobach’s role, anyway? What are his responsibilities? How can he be held accountable if he takes this information and misuses it?
It isn’t like the DOJ asking for it. This is some phony “commission” without real duties and with no oversight.
SatanicPanic
@Turgidson: Issa is going to lose and I know it’s a lot to hope for, but I would love to see Duncan Hunter Jr tossed on his vaping butt. The kid running against him- Anmar Campa (?) is pretty great. Saw him at a protest a couple weeks ago. I say kid because I think he’s like 27. Seems really dedicated.
SiubhanDuinne
@Nicole:
Ah, another Juicer who can’t spell “orecchiette.” ?
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@schrodingers_cat:
Chris Cicada?
Major Major Major Major
@jl: props for traditionally correct use of ‘enormity’.
Turgidson
@jl:
Most of the sane world would absolutely love for Michelle to run for, well, anything she wants, president included. By the 2016 convention, she was almost as much of a star draw as her husband and might even be better at speaking in a way that connects than he was at this point. But I agree. She doesn’t get the thrill from politics that most politicians do and Barack did to a sufficient extent to motivate him to run. She’d rather swallow five razor blades at once and chase it with sulfuric acid than deal with that nonstop bullshit again for even a day, much less 4-8 years. And who can blame her.
Karen
@efgoldman: they expect you to be there on time, but then you have to wait; I was 10 minutes late and was told the doctor wouldn’t see me
GxB
@efgoldman:
Ah, going soft on us, huh?
Kay
And if the information they’re seeking is “publicly available” why doesn’t Trump’s phony voting commission go get it themselves? Why do states have to collect it and send it to them?
Tell Kobach to Google “secretary of state” and then go the website and look for the files. State election officials don’t work for him- he’s a fake official heading a sham commission.
Kay
Yay. Don’t give them anything. For one thing it’s not secure. The Trumpsters are probably passing it directly to the Russians.
Major Major Major Major
@Karen: I just got whisked through a doctor’s appointment five minutes early, so YMMV.
LurkerNoLonger
@Kay: If it’s a phony commission they don’t have any real power to compel the states to turn over the information. It’s probably something along the lines of putting out a press release to look like they’re doing something.
Kay
Starting to look a little like colluding. Approaching colluding!
JMG
As I understand it, Michelle Obama has been whitewater rafting in Bali with her family. Hard to see going back from that to start hitting Iowa county fairs.
Major Major Major Major
@Kay: just some light treason.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Turns out Greta was literally unwatchable
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCOOOOOOOOOOOOOONODE?!
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: And Nigerian princes.
randy khan
@Kay:
One more reason to love Terry Mac.
ruckus
@efgoldman:
With that attitude you’d have a difficult time at the VA. Once went to the VA to make an appointment with the temp replacement for my PCP, who was on maternity leave, and was told that she went into labor that morning. So I can’t even make an appointment. Also, I very rarely see the same resident at a clinic 2 appointments in a row and often their attending is someone I’ve never seen. Care is fine, I just have to explain my history most appointments.
Uncle Cosmo
@efgoldman: Maybe you’re (gasp) molting … into efmothman.
lamh36
Goodbye work week hello 5 days OFF!!!
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: In the olden days, stuff like that mattered.
lamh36
Dark Towers, Official Character Poster The Gunslinger
Idris Elba in leather pants…
efgoldman
@Major Major Major Major:
Mine may run a little late, but not an hour+.
SiubhanDuinne
@JMG:
But the corndogs!
schrodingers_cat
@SiubhanDuinne: Not nutritious or delicious.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: I was mostly just bragging.
@JMG:
Harder still once you factor in that she’s repeatedly said she has no interest in running for office.
efgoldman
@ruckus:
I’m not eligible (as a reservist I had to sign a waiver). 40 years ago, before we were married and had insurance, we used to go to clinics. We learned that they made all the appointments for 830am, then took patients first come first served until everybody was seen. The care was great (leading Boston hospital) but the atmospherics really, really sucked.
PST
Those are the same emojis Walter Lippmann used to use.
efgoldman
@Major Major Major Major:
But she’d make a hell of an appeals court judge (as would he).
Imagine Janice Rogers Brown if Ms Obama was appointed to the 5th CA.
(Not gonna’ happen, of course)
MomSense
@lamh36:
I’ll fight ya for him.
?
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodingers_cat:
True, but political necessities.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@PST: before emojis, H. L. Mencken used to use this ASC-II art (text)
efgoldman
@PST:
Not true!! I read Lippman, both Alsops, Jack Germond and Drew Pearson when I was in high school. Only Art Buchwald used the same emojis; the others were completely different.
trollhattan
The Hill has a “media reporter” who lurves him some Greta.
“Impressive legacy”? Will shinny out on this limb and predict he’s either a Trump voter or half his net wages go directly to $cientology for all that auditing.
Patricia Kayden
@Nicole: I had given up MSNBC for a while but recently broke down and started watching O’Donnell, Joy Reid and Rev Al. They’ve recently given Hugh Hewitt a show. SIGH.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
So far, California and my own commonwealth of Virginia have told the creeps from Czar Manbaby’s fake-ass “voter integrity” fraud to go fuck themselves. McAuliffe said that Kobach was asking for Virginia voters’ names, addresses, voting history, burthdays and the last four numbers of our Social Security numbers. I wouldn’t trust anybody who has anything to do with Dear Leader not to sell my Social Security number to some Nigerian prince.
Miss Bianca
@lamh36: good on ya! )
rikyrah
@Mary G:
Preach!!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
\yup, sandwiched between those progressive bastions Chuck Todd and Tweety
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: Wow. Yet Greenwald and some on the left would have us believe that the Russian interference story is a hoax. I hope Mueller is doing due diligence with his investigation. The sooner Trump gets kicked out of office, the better.
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne:
I have contacts there.Can’t get you a job, but I can get you a tour. PM me!
Patricia Kayden
@Mary G: This should be the response of every blue state SoS. We shouldn’t be cooperating with and thus normalizing bigots.
sharl
Apparently there’s no love here for the co-creator – along with Dana “Dick Whisperer” Milbank – of the long-cancelled feature Mouthpiece Theater.
For any hardcore masochists out there, here’s video (3m37s) of the cringe-inducing episode that finally did them in.
Karen
@Major Major Major Major: I once had to wait two hours to see oncologist, only to be told he wouldn’t even talk to me until I had a living will filled out. By the time I did see him, two months later he wanted me to have some tests; none of which had anything to do with thyroid cancer and start chemo immediately. I don’t remember what I said, but he said he was doctor and knew more than I did. That was it; I told him “he was practicing medicine and I wasn’t a guinea pig” Talked to pcp and he found another doctor who would see me; the next one had me in and out in no time, we agreed to small surgery and tests to see what cancer load was. I really HATE doctors who are convinced they are gods
Keith P.
I was just thinking about this today. I’m watching Cillizza instinctively wanting to hate him (“That damn Merrill Hodge tie! Those Gloria Vanderbilt Collection glasses! Get off my screen!”)…and I don’t like his articles. But for television, I’m finding him one of the most watchable of the regular contributors on CNN (and anchors….Wolf Blitzer and Erin Burnett are tough to get through) A lot of them are just reruns (Gloria Berger, Dana Bash…SNL parodied them for a reason), and others contort too much (Jack Kingston, who oozes, as well) Cillizza actually speaks like he’s really, REALLY into politics, and it contrasts well with some of the regular panel of face.
Karen
Some where along line in one of past threads the Roman empire was mentioned; we keep talking about government problems as if they are all the result of last 40 or 50 years. I think started when some white men committed genocide to “discover” all this open land, then some of the first people were religious nuts who treated women like animals, then some rich white slave owners didn’t want to give up their slaves. Then to form a government they stole ideas from Iroquois Nations without the checks and balances that counsel of women and counsel of elders provide. From what I have read the Warriors and War Chief couldn’t go to war without the permission of grandmothers; just think how few wars US would have been involved in if the grandmothers had the final say.
efgoldman
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
I expect MA and NY (at least) will follow suit if they’re asked, and probably HI, OR and WA, too.
There are actually some Republiklown election officials who believe very strongly in the integrity of elections, too. They’re not all complete hacks from hackdom like the asshole Kobach or Katherine Harris.
trollhattan
Been puttering with the CalISO energy tracker and am very impressed that as I type this we (California) are getting 45% of our load from renewables, much of that solar but also wind, small hydro (large hydro is not considered renewable), biofuels, geothermal. 45% serving nearly 50 million.
Hal
The last time I saw a ViewSonic monitor was in the CompUsa in San Francisco.
hedgehog mobile
@efgoldman: Hope CO does as well..our SoS is a Rthug but our gov is a Dem.
efgoldman
@Keith P.:
Your cocker spaniel probably “speaks”, too, when you order it to, but neither it nor Chinchilla make any sense.
d58826
(sigh) It seems that our China policy has made another 180. listening to msnbc and in the past few days he has ok’ed a sale of weapons to Taiwan. Which isn’t really that unusual.
But he also placed the worst level of sanctions on a major Chinese bank in retaliation for China not delivering the goods on N. Korea.
So what it boils down to is if you don’t do the deal that he wants he will make major policy changes just because well just because……..
And Katy Tur is reporting that the WH is fine with Der Fuhrers tweets because they just want to level the playing field with the MSM. This guy has the biggest loudest most important bully pulpit in the world and they don’t think they have a level playing field?
Gelfling 545
@bystander: Two days? It takes about 3 weeks just to get insurance approval – if you get it. If not it takes longer because your doctor has to call & fight with them.
Villago Delenda Est
@bystander: I have NEVER waited for more than 10 minutes at the VA for my appointment to get started. Ever. Often I’m taken back to see the doc before the scheduled time.
Steve in the ATL
@bystander:
When I “fell” off a train in Paris (I can neither confirm nor deny that alcohol was involved), le medecin came to my house and stitched up my leg. Out of pocket cost? Zero francs (it was pre-euro). Travel and waiting room time? Zero minutes. Insurance hassle? Zero David Andersons.
Yeah, those poor French.
d58826
OH GOD and you all throught that the day had hit rock bottom –
http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/curt-schilling-blasts-espn-hints-at-presidential-run-in-interview/ar-BBDsOAg?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp
Hungry Joe
Wolfie was on “Celebrity Jeopardy” — aka “Dumbed-down Jeopardy for Famous Dolts” — and he still managed to get just about everything wrong. I think he ended up at about $ -877,000,000.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steve in the ATL:
No need, thanks. I worked for years and years at CNN Center*, accompanied visiting Canadian dignitaries on the VIP tour many times, watched Ted Turner write a last-minute Valentine card to Jane one February 14th while the rest of us were waiting in line to buy our cigarettes, chatted with him often in the elevator lobby outside my office (which was also the bank of elevators that took him to his penthouse), and knew — at least by sight and a smile of reciprocal recognition — lots of the well-known CNN anchors and reporters. The 1992 World Series in-building rivalry between my beloved Atlanta Braves (then owned by Ted Turner) and the Toronto Blue Jays (obviously, my employer’s home team) was Divided Loyalties with a hey-nonny-nonny!
*ETA: To be clear, I didn’t work for CNN. I worked for the Canadian Consulate General, which rented space from Turner for years, until 1996 when he decided to cancel our lease and expand CNN en Español.
Steeplejack
@trollhattan:
Joe Concha was formerly a reporter and producer at Fox News. He was at Mediaite immediately before going to The Hill.
d58826
And Katy Tur is talking about how Der Fuhrer has been beating up women for the entire campaign and yet she observed that they still voted for him
Hungry Joe
@d58826: Schilling, too, did a turn on “Celebrity Jeopardy.” He was even dumber than Wolfie.
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne: Joe Carter can rot in helll!!!!
ETA: along with Kent Hrbek and Jack Morris
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Keith P.: Cillizza is into politics, he just doesn’t understand it.
All in all, while Chinchilla is an unbelievable douchenozzle he probably wouldn’t be higher than #2 – though no lower than #5 – on my 2017 Hack List. (Zucker, Sulzberger, Greenwald and possibly Shafer* may have him beat).
*Depending on whether Politico lets him off the “Week #” beat in favor of Z-list #slatepitches.
efgoldman
@d58826:
He was as good a pitcher as he is bad a political asshole.
What happened to his sure thing of running against and beating Liz Warren for senate? Could it be that what’s left of the MA Republiklown party told him he’d likely get 10% of the primary vote?
Christ what an asshole.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steve in the ATL:
Ah, you remember.
SatanicPanic
@Hungry Joe: That is one of my all time favorite videos on Youtube. At one point he literally answers a question based on “what’s another word for ____” with the SAME WORD.
SiubhanDuinne
@Hungry Joe:
Unpossible!
trollhattan
@d58826:
Here’s how to know we need to take it seriously–he announces his candidacy after descending an escalator. #NotMakingThatMistakeTwice
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Hungry Joe: Schilling seems bankrupt of ideas.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Hungry Joe: Pareene called him the dumbest man on cable news and referenced that performance, although this was 4-5 years before Chinchilla was hired.
@Steeplejack: Someone tweeted to Atrios that The Hill is Politico for people who can’t read, which is funny as all hell and fairly accurate.
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’m not as stupid as people say!
SiubhanDuinne
@d58826:
I’d laugh and say “No way!,” but then I remember I laughed and said “No way!” when Trump announced his run.
SatanicPanic
@d58826: I hate to say this, but in a country with Donald Trump as president, I don’t want to get too down on his prospects. He’s basically Donald Trump with an actual accomplishment.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steve in the ATL:
It would never occur to me either to call you stupid or to pay any attention to people who did!
Steve in the ATL
@SiubhanDuinne: oh, you’re drunk, too? Cool!
SiubhanDuinne
@Steve in the ATL:
I’m not as drunk as some thinkle peep.
bemused
I’m roaming through twitter and see that Fox has a clock running down when travel ban takes effect. Why? Rightwing media is weird along with stupid and disgusting. No wonder so many people who watch it all the time are nutty around the bend and rageaholics.
Major Major Major Major
@Karen: Yikes. Yeah, many doctors are assholes. I have good insurance so I get to (window) shop around as it were, I’m lucky.
SiubhanDuinne
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
He’s a lock for the nomination, then.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
on Monday, Comey’s close confidant Benjamin Wittes signaled a major story on collusion would be breaking.
tick…tock tick…tock tick…tock tick…tock tick…tock tick…tock
Major Major Major Major
@Hungry Joe: The best Celebrity Jeopardy was Lynn Redgrave, Stephen King, and David Duchovny.
Roger Moore
@bystander:
I would love to be able to schedule a MRI that quickly. IIRC, the last one took about 2 weeks. Of course that’s Kaiser, so it’s the closest thing you’ll find to British-style NHS here in the US.
efgoldman
@bemused:
I happened to find out yesterday that our PCP we’ve been seeing for 15 years since we moved here, is Syrian, went to U of Aleppo Med School. (We knew he was vaguely Middle Eastern).
He is by far the best doc we’ve ever had; the best listener, and the best diagnostician – not so important for me, but mrs efg has strange autoimmune problems. He has taught diagnostics and emergency medicine at Brown. Wouldn’t trade him for anyone we’ve ever seen.
Fuck “president” man baby and all his sycophants and enablers, including every single person who voted for him.
Aleta
To read the WSJ article (mentioned by Jim, Foolish Literalist and others), the WSJ headline at this link works w/o a sub:
https://twitter.com/DrDenaGrayson/status/880546810976239616
RobNYNY
@SatanicPanic: Blitzer had the lowest score ever achieved (Celebrity or otherwise) on Jeopardy! Negative $4800. He responded to only a handful of clues correctly, and many incorrectly.
Josie
@Mary G: Oh, wow, I think I love Mr. Padilla, and, although I am way too old, would not mind having his children. I wish more people in state and federal government would tell the truth like this, Maybe he will inspire others.
SiubhanDuinne
deleted for stupid.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trollhattan: On my drive out to shoot the Milky Way at Joshua Tree, I went though the Banning pass where they have hundreds of those windmills. The wind was buffering my Prius back and forth.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@d58826:
They report stuff that isn’t flattering about him, ya know ‘Fake News’. If they’d only report on all of his accomplishments and how we’re WINNING!
schrodingers_cat
@efgoldman: We have a Republican governor, who is much more sane than the national ones but he is an R all the same.
SatanicPanic
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: great, now I’m going to spend all evening hitting refresh on their site.
Spanky
@SiubhanDuinne:
Doh! I was disappointed that we didn’t see a Friday bombshell today, until I just realized what day it is. Hope rekindled.
(Life sucks when the internet at work is down.)
efgoldman
@schrodingers_cat:
I think it’s Bill Galvin, Secretary of State for Life and Beyond’s call.
polyorchnid octopunch
I’m reading all the comments about the Election Integrity request to the states and noting that not too many people are discussing this:
https://www.upguard.com/breaches/the-rnc-files
Seems to me that getting even partial SSNs would be a major addition to this dataset.
There are a couple of possibilities here, however given that this fell off the radar almost immediately from the MSM, nobody’s talking about it, which is a shame. Given that Amazon VMs are by default password protected, it seems stretching incredulity that this wasn’t actually intentional. I wonder if giving away that much personal data on Americans wasn’t a bit of quid pro quo to hackers for services rendered.
Seriously, if you haven’t heard about the RNC data exposure, you should go read it. It’s got more than enough information on 198 million Americans to make identity theft a breeze.
efgoldman
@SiubhanDuinne:
Aww, come on. What fun is that?
SiubhanDuinne
@Spanky:
I deleted my comment (from which you quoted) because I suddenly realized that it’s the White House that does Friday news dumps, and this story wouldn’t be at all in the WH’s interest, and therefore my comment made no sense.
But it will be … interesting … to see the story, whenever it is released.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
@Aleta: quite a coincidence, Smith dies 10 days after talking.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman:
No worries, @Spanky blew the whistle on me.
schrodingers_cat
@efgoldman: Has he told KK to go fuck himself?
Gvg
@efgoldman: it’s late in the thread but did you ask why the delay? It is probably incompetence as you assume but might just be something happened. The longest most aggravating Doctor wait I had turned out to be a doctor’s child was injured and he had to leave, so the other doctors were trying to take their own appointments and the missing ones.
My sister is a doctor, and sometimes their days can be unexpectedly adventurous in ways that probably make other appointments late. Say someone brings themselves bleeding to the regular doc’s who then has to call a life flight, or the day my sister found out she is now allergic to shellfish and had to get the shot so she could breath. Luckily coworkers recognized the symptoms. It wasn’t mentioned when she told the story, but I don’t think she finished her appointments that day. Sometimes things just happen. A good office though will tell you. If they won’t, that’s when you walk.
efgoldman
@Gvg:
Dermatologists (not plastic surgeons) don’t have those kinds of emergencies. That’s a big reason for choosing the specialty.
The other time I walked out was on a dentist. He had an actual emergency he had to fix – fine. But then he and his office assistant fucked around with their laser printer for 40 minutes. That’s when I left almost two hours after my appointment time.
Roger Moore
@Gvg:
That sounds as if it was at least as much a communication problem as a staffing problem. If one of the doctors can’t treat patients for some reason, the office staff should let the patients know, not just leave them hanging. Some of the patients may decide their appointment can be rescheduled, which would take some of the load off the doctors and help to reduce the extended waiting times for the ones whose appointments were really urgent. And everyone will handle a delay better if they at least know what’s going on than if they’re left completely in the dark.
frosty
@Karen:
Saw an oncologist with a relative 20-odd years ago. I suggested we might want to get a second opinion. His response: “To what end?”
That line will stick with me forever.
J R in WV
@debbie:
I’ve been seeing the same guy, family practice/ board cert gerontologist, for 40 years. He takes his time with everyone who needs it. I bring a big fat book (or tablet – BJ reading) to every appointment, because I know up front that it is going to take all day to get out.
He has his own lab, takes blood samples and analyses them on site – some before you leave – others the nurses call you with results a few days later. If you don’t know your doctor, I can see being ready to leave after a while. But I know that Bill is going to take as long as each patient takes.
He used to deliver babies, and sometimes you would hear that he was across the street for a delivery. But the insurance got too high for a family doctor, so he dropped that part of his practice. But he still pays attention to every patient. If you don’t want to wait, don’t.
Another Scott
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: “They were traitors: honourable men!”
Cheers,
Scott.
The Lodger
@efgoldman: We’ve got a R SoS in this very blue state. I wish he would tell Kobach to fuck off but he probably won’t.
smintheus
@efgoldman: The former head of the Brown medical school is a family friend. I remember him saying years ago that Brown was putting special effort into training med students how to become better at listening to patients.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Oh, Bill… you’re just asking for a Rolling Coal assault: you appreciate science and nature and drive a Prius?
Anne Laurie
@sharl: Why’d you think I refer to him as ‘Mad Bitcher’ Cillizza?
He was a terrible influence on Dana Milbank, who can be an intelligent reporter, but seems to be far too easily led astray by bad companions.
Anne Laurie
@d58826: Curt Shilling promises all kinds of winning, but since giving up baseball it’s mostly been in the ‘wasting other peoples’ money‘ area.
He’s too lazy to actually run for office, I suspect, and if he did, the state of Rhode Island would probably appoint a team of volunteers to follow him around with nasty ‘Studio 38’ signs.
Anne Laurie
@schrodingers_cat:
Chickenshit Charlie Baker goes where the winds of popularity blow. He won’t turn over MA voting records to Kobach unless there’s a plebiscite demanding he do so, which is unlikely to happen in time for Kobach’s 2018 deadline.
And William Galvin not only won’t turn them over, he’ll probably cut a series of tv ads bragging on why he didn’t. (I wouldn’t mind if Galvin stayed our Sec-of-State for the indefinite future, but he *does* know how to keep himself in the news.)
matt
@SatanicPanic: maybe, but way worse at making/hanging on to money.