Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

This fight is for everything.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

You cannot shame the shameless.

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

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

You are here: Home / Politics / domestic terrorists / Media Open Thread: Beyond ‘An Embarrassment of Riches’, into ‘A Disgrace of WTFs’…

Media Open Thread: Beyond ‘An Embarrassment of Riches’, into ‘A Disgrace of WTFs’…

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Decline and fall of a once-great ideal, in three arcs:


.

[*record scratch*] Fox News Dumbest Talking Head, former Bill O’Reilly hand puppet:


(If you’re unable to listen, ‘America is not a racist nation’ immediately segues to ‘Maxine Waters & Susan Rice, encouraging NK?’ and ‘[Black] guys with guns threatening President Trump over food stamps’)


.
… Aaand, for the big noisy finale, here come the ‘Conservative Intellectuals’!

Reader Interactions

217Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Maria Bartiromo finishing her career as the weekend morning host on Bill O”Reilly’s subscription only internet line up would be one of the smaller silver linings of this seven month and counting thunderstorm.

  2. 2.

    Major Major Major Major

    Good point from a friend in email. This tearing down statues is a cultural revolution of sorts & a small step from statues to actual people

    That’s not a good point at all, that’s not even a point!

    Q for my fellow non-Trump, non-Clinton voters: At what point should we regret not going Hillary?

    *facepalm*
    I mean, one should have pre-regretted it before one did it, and then not done it… but the fact that he’s asking this question as something that will happen in the FUTURE, and not something he already feels…

  3. 3.

    germy

    He screws up royally every day — sometimes two or three times a day. We can’t keep up with it. Things come out of nowhere. Every day there’s something nuts.

    But you’ve been trying to ignore it cause you don’t want to admit to these smug annoying liberals that they were right. That’s the last thing you want to do. But the truth is, deep down inside, you know you made a mistake. You know you picked the wrong guy, and it isn’t getting better, it’s getting worse.

    So you can do one of two things: You can dig in like Chris Christie at a hometown buffet, or you could treat this situation like you would if you put Star Wars wallpaper up in the kitchen: “All right, I got caught up. I was excited, I made a mistake, and now it needs to go.”

    Well, now he does need to go, so it’s time for especially you who voted for him to tell him to go.

    Jimmy Kimmel monologue.

  5. 5.

    HyperSphericalCow

    Q for my fellow non-Trump, non-Clinton voters: At what point should we regret not going Hillary?

    At about 7:01AM 11/9/2016, you ding-dong.

  8. 8.

    Pangloss

    Beginning with the Scout Jamboree about three weeks ago, you could sense the mood among Republicans with a capacity for embarrassment was… “If he does just one more stupid thing, I’m out.” Just two days later is was the transgender military ban and the Scaramucci phone call. This was followed quickly by the Priebus firing, the Scaramucci firing, the exchange of threats with North Korea, a threat against Venezuela, and the Nazi/KKK parade.

    That’s a small part of only three weeks of Trump.

  9. 9.

    A Ghost To Most

    Neo-Nazi Christopher Cantwell — who was one of the “Unite the Right” Charlottesville marchers interviewed by Vice.com — released a weepy, rambling video of himself discussing the fact that a warrant was issued for his arrest.

    “I called the Charlottesville Police Department,” Cantwell said, “and said, ‘I have been told there’s a warrant out for my arrest. They said they wouldn’t confirm it but that I could find this out I could go to a magistrate or whatever.”

    “With everything that’s happening, I don’t think it’s very wise for me to go anywhere,” he continued. “There’s a state of emergency, the National Guard is here!”

    He kept breaking off to wipe away tears, saying, “I don’t know what to do. I need guidance.”

    “Our enemies will not stop, they’ve been threatening us all over the place,” he whined before freaking out that Chelsea Manning is threatening to “curb stomp” Nazis.

    “We are trying to make this peaceful, we are trying to be law abiding,” he claimed, in spite of the fact that website the Daily Stormer called for Nazis to disrupt the funeral of Heather Heyer, 32, who was killed when a Nazi marcher plowed his car into a group of anti-racist protesters.

    Anybody seen my tiny violin?

  10. 10.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @father pussbucket: I’ve seen this around twitter, I think it means, “give apologetic, whataboutist media coverage to someone”. Even then, Wiegel’s tweet confuses me a bit.
    ETA: He thinks Fox can get trump out of this? “coverage” as in, to give cover for, makes excuses for

    @germy: that was something

  11. 11.

    Cermet

    Let me wrap my head around this – some fox news people are denouncing the orange fart cloud’s farting words about that white, right wing terrorist attack? Has someone move us to an alternate universe and not told me?

  12. 12.

    Brachiator

    . (If you’re unable to listen, ‘America is not a racist nation’ immediately segues to ‘Maxine Waters & Susan Rice, encouraging NK?’ and ‘[Black] guys with guns threatening President Trump over food stamps’).

    Damn, that was amazing. Sums up everything you need to know about Fox News.

  14. 14.

    ??‍? Martin

    First my wife and now Kimmel. Lay the fuck off the Star Wars wallpaper – it looks great in the kitchen.

  17. 17.

    TenguPhule

    @Pangloss:

    you could sense the mood among Republicans with a capacity for embarrassment was… “If he does just one more stupid thing, I’m out.”

    And yet they’re still standing by him.

    F them all.

  18. 18.

    HyperSphericalCow

    @A Ghost To Most: I made the same comment at LGM, but here’s a pro-tip: if there is a warrant out for your arrest, you probably should not post a publicly visible video that will almost certainly lead the police to your exact location.

  19. 19.

    nonynony

    @Pangloss:

    Beginning with the Scout Jamboree about three weeks ago

    Holy shit – that can’t be right! That was at the beginning of the summer, right?

    Check for the date – July 24th. Three weeks.

    It feels like months since that happened.

    Jesus – usually the presidency prematurely ages the president. This is the first presidency I’ve lived through that I feel like is prematurely aging ME. Even during W’s era of misrule it felt like I could at least count on time to pass at a normal rate.

  24. 24.

    ??‍? Martin

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: He means that if Fox defends him, he’ll keep doing this and not get out of the situation. The only voice Trump hears in his head right now is Fox and Friends. If they say it was bad, he’ll know it was bad. In fact, it’s the only way he’ll know its bad. IOW, Fox and Friends is the only moral compass the nation has. They’re his superego.

    In case anyone was wondering just how severely fucked we are.

  26. 26.

    Iowa Old Lady

    I’ve been out of town at my MIL’s memorial service so I’ve not seen much news, but I’m just floored at how this thing goes on and on and gets worse and worse. Mr IOL keeps saying this is Trump’s Katrina.

  27. 27.

    jl

    @Cermet: They seem to be conflicted. I wonder how many of the media people understand that the issue of what to do with some Jim Crow era Confederate monuments is just a cover story. The people behind this are full blown Nazi/KKK white supremacists. They are eager to preach to all the gentile whites about how the sinister Jews have come close to victory in eliminating the gentile white race. They are using the monument issue to preach and recruit. Everyone heard their chants about the Jews in the news videos, and the leaders are pretty much saying it out loud and thanking Trump for his support. Genocide, mass expulsions, ghettos for a very long list of people are what they want. Maybe even, when the time comes for some of the pseudo-white ethnics they let ride along with them at Charlottesville, in order to fill out their ranks for the news clips.

  28. 28.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    You know, I keep hearing about “antifa” and what I always hear is about “people in black masks”.

    I don’t hear about “antifa spokesperson (soandso)”. I don’t hear about “antifa rally at (x_location)”.

    And, while I hear of “Antifa counter-protesters rushing in with clubs” I don’t hear “dozens of concussions, contusions, and broken bones treated at local hospitals.” Why not? THAT is what a CLUB does to people!

    (It would be wrong if people were whacking right-wingers with a stick, causing welts, minor bruises, pain, and “you could put an eye out!” But they don’t say “there were nasty bullying jerkwads” – they say “we were rushed with clubs.”)

    I don’t want to ignore the speck in my own eye while talking about the entire-frickin’-forest in the nazi-eyes, but… what evidence do we have of this “antifa” ‘organization’? Because I hear *about* them, from rightwingers whining about them, and that’s it.

  29. 29.

    Gelfling 545

    Q for my fellow non-Trump, non-Clinton voters: At what point should we regret not going Hillary?
    A. Last November.

  30. 30.

    germy

    This is brilliant and heartbreaking:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/08/16/what-if-western-media-covered-americas-white-tribalism-the-same-way-it-covers-other-nations/?utm_term=.badc4713b5f2

    The international community is yet again sounding the alarm on ethnic violence in the United States under the new regime of President Trump. The latest flash point occurred this past weekend when the former Confederate stronghold of Charlottesville descended into chaos following rallies of white supremacist groups protesting the removal of statues celebrating leaders of the defeated Confederate states. The chaos turned deadly when Heather Heyer, a member of the white ethnic majority who attended the rally as a counterprotester, was killed when a man with neo-Nazi sympathies allegedly drove his car into a crowd.

    Trump, a former reality television host, beauty pageant organizer and businessman, rose to political prominence by publicly questioning the citizenship of the United States’ first black president, Barack Obama. Since his election, Trump has targeted Muslims, refugees, Mexicans and the media. He has also advocated for police brutality. These tactics have appealed to and emboldened white ethno-nationalist groups and domestic terrorist organizations.

    Karen Attiah is one of the greats over at WaPo.

  32. 32.

    LurkerNoLonger

    Has this Bartiromo woman always been this dopey or is she doing it for the Benjamins?

  33. 33.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Yarrow: Tucker Carlson is not unlike trump, he has a huge trust fund but no degree of humiliation– from being gently taunted by Rachel Maddow back in the day* to shimmying in a bedazzled puffyshirt on “Dancing with the the “Stars”” to being hired and fired by pretty much every cable network– is worth giving up the ultimate goal: Being On TeeVee!

    * Back when MSNBC was trying to figure out how to back out of the FoxLite lane they were in for most of the Bush years, Tucker had an early evening show that was supposed be hip and irreverent and youthful in its conservatism. It was I’m pretty sure how then Air America host Rachel Maddow got her foot in the door there, an occasional segment on Tucker during which you could tell she made him very nervous.

  34. 34.

    SFAW

    @A Ghost To Most:

    He kept breaking off to wipe away tears, saying, “I don’t know what to do. I need guidance.”

    How about strychnine, arsenic, or blowing your “brains” out? Or maybe jump in front of a speeding Kenworth? Yee-haw!

    “Our enemies will not stop, they’ve been threatening us all over the place,” he whined before freaking out that Chelsea Manning is threatening to “curb stomp” Nazis.

    Which is doubtless why you and all the other Nazi snowflakes felt a big need to whip out and display your (as Atrios calls them) external death peni$e$.

    “We are trying to make this peaceful, we are trying to be law abiding,” he claimed, in spite of the fact that website the Daily Stormer called for Nazis to disrupt the funeral of Heather Heyer, 32, who was killed when a Nazi marcher plowed his car into a group of anti-racist protesters.

    One way for all you racist, anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi motherfuckers to “make this peaceful” is to kill yourselves before any more “rallies.”

  36. 36.

    nonynony

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Mr IOL keeps saying this is Trump’s Katrina.

    This should be significantly worse than Trump’s Katrina. With Katrina W didn’t cause the hurricane, he just was a useless dumbfuck whose incompetence and corruption led to the disastrous emergency response in the aftermath. Here Trump’s pandering and stroking of Nazis led to the tragedy in the first place.

    Unfortunately even Katrina didn’t get W out of office. We still had to put up with him until the end of that second term.

  37. 37.

    germy

    Newt Gingrich: Mayors who take down Confederate statues are just pandering to a black audience

    John Rogers‏Verified account @jonrog1 Aug 15

    Newt, people’s feelings change. One day everybody loves a statue, then suddenly they just want a new younger statue that doesn’t have cancer

  38. 38.

    Major Major Major Major

    @LongHairedWeirdo: it’s a self-identifying loose ‘movement’, I believe. I have friends who ‘belong’. Inspired by the ‘antifa’ in other countries who got/get into street skirmishes with fascists. I have friends on FB who self identify and go to meetings and such.

  42. 42.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @germy: i don’t foresee any possible trouble in a loudmouth racist rightwing demagogue being the husband of the US Ambassador to the Vatican (Has that insult to Catholics the wold over been confirmed by the Senate yet?)

  44. 44.

    Adam L Silverman

    @A Ghost To Most: Chelsea Manning weighs maybe 130 lbs soaking wet. And from every report was completely ate up in basic training and unable to actually cause physical harm to anyone or anything.

  45. 45.

    Yarrow

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I remember he had a show on MSNBC. I didn’t watch it, but…

    Tucker had an early evening show that was supposed be hip and irreverent and youthful in its conservatism.

    That’s hilarious. He’s always seemed middle-aged to me. How in the world would he appeal to a young demographic? At best he’d be grandma’s favorite.

  47. 47.

    jl

    @LongHairedWeirdo: ” but… what evidence do we have of this “antifa” ‘organization’? Because I hear *about* them, from rightwingers whining about them, and that’s it. ”

    i think we know that they weren’t a significant factor at Charlottesville. The anarchists (called black bloc and some of antifa) have shown up to riot with the Trumpsters in the SF Bay Area recently. And when that has happened both have been roundly condemned. I suppose those groups are what Trump maybe thinks he is talking about with his mysterious ‘alt-left’ blather. But I haven’t seen any evidence that antifa or black bloc had much at all to do with the demonstrations in VA.

    I think one of the reasons that so many people are disturbed by Trump’s BS, is that he is describing something that everyone can see just did not happen last weekend. What he says is just not true.

  48. 48.

    nonynony

    @LongHairedWeirdo:

    It would be wrong if people were whacking right-wingers with a stick, causing welts, minor bruises, pain, and “you could put an eye out!” But they don’t say “there were nasty bullying jerkwads” – they say “we were rushed with clubs.”

    I am a non-violent man, and I will agree with this as a general approach to right-wing jerkwads of the typical variety. You should not be beating the crap out of people who are chanting that Taxation is Theft or Abortion is Murder or even Build A Wall. Discourse is appropriate here and letting them have their say is important.

    On the other hand – if someone is advocating that you and yours should be sent to the ovens because of your race, I think they should count themselves lucky that they get out of there with just some bruises and some broken bones. I’m a tolerant man, but you will never get me to tolerate Nazis.

  49. 49.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Iowa Old Lady: Depends. Is Katrina white or is she Jewish? Or African American? Or Latina? Or Asian? Or mixed ethnicity? Or LGBTQ? Or all of the above? Or some of the above?

  54. 54.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Roger Moore: I keep thinking of the way the French right sucked it up and asked their followers to vote for Macron– who as I understand was pretty much in line with their economic agenda anyway, but whatever. I think one prominent right-of-center pol lined up with LePen, and he’s kind of done. I’d bet that the majority of R Senators and Governors voted for Clinton (Kasich, Portman, certainly Collins, not sure if McCain came to believe his own silliness about Benghazi, he and HRC were said to be very friendly in the Senate– trump probably got LePage and Ron Johnson) ,

  55. 55.

    Adam L Silverman

    @LurkerNoLonger: Bartiromo’s nickname is “The Money Honey”. She has her job because she was a Fox News Barbie before there was a Fox News. This is footage from the Archdiocese of New York’s Al Smith Charity Dinner:

    Her husband is also Jewish.

  57. 57.

    The Moar You Know

    The chaos turned deadly when Heather Heyer, a member of the white ethnic majority who attended the rally as a counterprotester, was killed when a man with neo-Nazi sympathies allegedly drove his car into a crowd.

    @germy: Brilliant, but I’d change one thing in what I blockquoted, because it’s important:

    “The chaos turned deadly when Heather Heyer, a member of the white ethnic majority who attended the rally as a counterprotester, was killed when a Nazi party member allegedly drove his car into a crowd.”

    There is no “neo-Nazi”. These people are Nazis, straight up, and need to be universally referred to as such.

  62. 62.

    TenguPhule

    @nonynony:

    You should not be beating the crap out of people who are chanting that Taxation is Theft or Abortion is Murder or even Build A Wall. Discourse is appropriate here and letting them have their say is important.

    An ounce of prevention would have alleviated the need to cure the disease by pounding them for being Nazis.

  64. 64.

    HyperSphericalCow

    Tucker had an early evening show that was supposed be hip and irreverent and youthful in its conservatism

    Because nothing says “hip and youthful” like a bow tie.

  65. 65.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Brian Beutler‏Verified account @ brianbeutler 5m5 minutes ago
    Three of Paul Ryan’s last five tweets, and four of his last six, have been about tax cuts.

    He abandoned Ayn Rand for Jesus, you know.

    Don’t think it will happen, but I do like seeing a sitting MoC mention it

    Jackie Speier‏Verified account @ RepSpeier 19h19 hours ago
    POTUS is showing signs of erratic behavior and mental instability that place the country in grave danger. Time to invoke the 25th Amendment.

    and, of course, she’s right, it should happen, I just don’t think it will

    ETA: this is interesting, I went to check because I thought the 25th A required a unanimous vote of the Cabinet

    Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

    “or other body as Congress may by law provide”? What does that mean? They can appoint a commission to vote on his fitness? They could designate, say, the gang of eight? that doesn’t seem plausible. It’d work for me, but I can’t imagine the bar for removal is that low

  66. 66.

    Adam L Silverman

    @LongHairedWeirdo: @Major Major Major Major: It originally began as part of the punk movement in Europe. Specifically to shelter and shield those who just wanted to be part of the music scene without anything political from the racist skinhead offshoot that had developed within the punk rock community. Some of these would go on to become formalized anti-racist skinheads. Here in the US it is loosely organized and often conflated with the Black Bloc anarchists and other anarchist groups on the extreme left. More recently some of the white nationalists have begun impersonating antifa both online/social media and in real life at events and rallies to make it look like antifa is instigating violence and so the white nationalist can claim they are being targeted and victimized by an organized, violent leftist movement. I did a post about this a few months back. You can find it under my Silverman on Security tag.

  67. 67.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    @father pussbucket:
    Caping for someone means to stand up for someone, often in spite of knowing they’re in the wrong and need to sit down and shut up (at the very least). Sometimes this is done in a dramatic, if illogical fashion, perhaps intended to give the caper either the maximum exposure or to convince the capee that this person is really, truly on their side when no one else is.
    The theory of derivation from superhero capes (where is Edna Mode when we need her?) is as good as anything. It’s a thing The Youngs say, and I feel myself it really suits some situations. Newt Gingrich, for example, is a reliable caper, because boy, does he live for an audience.

  68. 68.

    Shalimar

    @LongHairedWeirdo: Google “black bloc”. That is who the white supremacists are actually afraid of.

    Antifa is just an ad-hoc collection of various people who arise to counter neo-nazis when they organize in public.

    The black bloc are organized anarchists who like to fight and riot, and take any opportunity they can find to start violence. Since they usually cover their faces, it is unknown how many of them are even leftists at all.

  69. 69.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m going to laugh my ass off if the Holy See refuses to accept her credentials because of her and his past infidelities, her adultery with him, and the somewhat less than sacramentally okay status of their marriage as a result.

  70. 70.

    germy

    PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The mayor of Philadelphia says the city should discuss the future of a statue of one of his predecessors after reports of possible vandalism and a city councilwoman’s call for its removal.

    Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney said Tuesday now is the “right time” for a conversation about the statue of Frank Rizzo, a former mayor and police commissioner who critics say reigned over the city when police brutality was the accepted norm.

    The talk comes days after a violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that was sparked by the planned removal of a Confederate statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee, and as cities and institutions across the country are tackling how to handle monuments linked to racism and other emotionally charged issues.

    Philadelphia has long tried to reconcile the complicated legacy of Rizzo, who served as mayor from 1972 to 1980 and who died of a heart attack in 1991. His friends, family and fans remember him as a devoted public servant unafraid to speak his mind. His detractors saw his police force as corrupt and brutal and said Rizzo alienated minorities both as police commissioner and mayor.

  72. 72.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: I believe I’ve read he converted, had his past marriages annulled and they’ve both received absolution– spread a little cash to the exes and The Timmy Dolan Roast Beef and Claret Fund and surprising things can happen, I expect. I snark as a lapsed Catholic who still has a lot of admiration for Catholics I know who are not like Timmy Dolan and the Gingriches

  74. 74.

    Mike in DC

    @father pussbucket:
    “Cape” –defend reflexively and dutifully, as a superhero putting on a cape.

    The first i saw the term was in the African-American online community, so perhaps it more properly might be slang from AAVE(African American Vernacular English).

    I’m white and might be mistaken, tho.

    I just learned what “thot” means yesterday. :(

  77. 77.

    JPL

    This morning Trump mentioned Amazon’s unfair advantage over other retailers. At times, he has done that before the Post has written an explosive story about him, or his campaign. If they have something, I hope they don’t wait until Friday. The President and VP will be gathering at Camp David then. Cell Phone service is not great there, and we won’t be able to read his tweets.

  78. 78.

    germy

    @Adam L Silverman: from wikipedia:

    Joey Ramone, of The Ramones, developed a crush on Bartiromo after his band broke up in the late 1990s. He subsequently wrote a song titled “Maria Bartiromo” that appeared on the Don’t Worry About Me album released posthumously in 2002

  81. 81.

    A Ghost To Most

    @NotMax: I’ve seen antifada used as a slur by the alt-human cretins on WaPo.
    They think it clever to invoke the Intifada as a perjorative for liberals.

  82. 82.

    The Moar You Know

    More recently some of the white nationalists have begun impersonating antifa both online/social media and in real life at events and rallies to make it look like antifa is instigating violence and so the white nationalist can claim they are being targeted and victimized by an organized, violent leftist movement. I did a post about this a few months back. You can find it under my Silverman on Security tag.

    @Adam L Silverman: Taking a page from the Oakland and SF police, I see. It was always kind of laughable to see a street protest there over something relatively peaceful, and then watch all these 6-2, 215 pound masked muscleheads with buzzcuts show up and start breaking windows and setting cars on fire, while all the real protesters would be screaming “stop!”

    They finally got caught at it a few years back (literally unmasked after throwing rocks through windows, and one pulled his service weapon and flashed his badge) but they still do it. It works.

  85. 85.

    different-church-lady

    @Adam L Silverman: At this point we can pretty much take it as guaranteed that every single conspiracy theory that trends on the alt-right internet will eventually come out of Trump’s mouth (and/or Twitter feed).

  86. 86.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @Gelfling 545: There are two really reliable things about Krauthammer–he’s always angry, and he’s vehemently opposed to toleration of anything antisemitic–even if that turns out to be only antisemitic in his eyes. Hand him actual swastika-flag-waving Nazis on a silver platter and he will have the reaction we’re seeing–no matter how much he had agreed with these people on other issues in the past. Apologizing, defending, or making excuses for said Nazis will put you in the hot seat with them, as far as he’s concerned.

  87. 87.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: One aspect of Gingrich’s journey that Rossi will not discuss is whether one or both of Gingrich’s previous marriages were annulled; though Gingrich’s second wife, Marianne Gingrich, told Esquire last year, “I got a notice that they wanted to nullify my marriage,” it’s not clear that a second marriage would have been recognized by the church in the first place under canon law.
    “His [current] marriage is valid,’’ Rossi said, “so everything else is okay.”

    If this happened under Ratzinger, I wouldn’t be surprised by any paperwork Dolan, Chaput or someone like them was able to get. There were rumors that Bart Stupak threw a wrench into Obamacare late in the process cause he was promised some kind of papal knighthood. Rossi is a priest who acted as Gingrich’s purchasing agent I mean spiritual mentor in his conversion.
    Of course, if his first wife is dead, I guess they could claim he’s a widower.

  91. 91.

    NotMax

    Still urge people to call their Congresscritters and and ask them to put pressure on their compatriots from states which have placed Confederates in statuary hall to replace them.

    And if you’re in one of those states – AL, MS, NC, SC, VA – call and apply direct pressure. In FL, urge them to speed up the replacement, which was approved last year but not yet undertaken.

  92. 92.

    Kraux Pas

    Another gem from young, up-and-coming Faux News douche nozzle; Jessie Watters; those criticizing Trump for not calling out white supremacy by name are hypocrites because those same people don’t want him to say “radical Islam.”

    He says we should name names. I agree, but last I checked no one committing any of these acts were called radical Islam. So let’s name names; Hamas, the KKK, Osama Bin Laden, James Alex fields, Stormfront, and ISIL. Reciting “radical Islam” like a magical incantation doesn’t shed light on anything, it casts a religion as an enemy. Stop trying to drum up sympathy for America’s bigots with a squid cloud of othering.

  93. 93.

    Ksmiami

    @TenguPhule:@TenguPhule: first disrupt their funding, then isolate them from the “decent” Republicans (as much as it pains me to say this) then obliterate them. despite their weapons they are no match for military drones

  94. 94.

    Adam L Silverman

    @a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio): This is all you need to know about Krauthammer:
    http://washingtonmonthly.com/2006/08/09/a-personal-moment-with-charles-krauthammer/

    A PERSONAL MOMENT WITH CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER….M.J. Rosenberg shares a Charles Krauthammer moment:

    About three years ago, I saw Krauthammer flip out in synagogue on Yom Kippur. The rabbi had offered some timid endorsement of peace ? peace essentially on Israel’s terms ? but peace anyway. Krauthammer went nuts. He actually started bellowing at the rabbi, from his wheel chair in the aisle. People tried to “shush” him. It was, after all, the holiest day of the year. But Krauthammer kept howling until the rabbi apologized. The man is as arrogant as he is thuggish. Who screams at the rabbi at services? For advocating peace?

  95. 95.

    Shalimar

    @Adam L Silverman: If it were any administration other than Trump’s, all those hurdles would have been cleared in private negotiations before nominating her. I assume they still were, there were several weeks between floating her name and the actual nomination, but given the incompetence everywhere, it wouldn’t shock me to find out the White House checked public media for blowback but never bothered to actually ask the Vatican.

  96. 96.

    LurkerNoLonger

    @germy: I have that album and I remember that song. It amazes me what people like Bartiromo will say and do for a paycheck.

  97. 97.

    ET

    Fox looks like it is bit schizophrenic between the tweeters above versus all of the other tweeters and Tucker (based on what I saw yesterday). That would be an interesting cage match.

  98. 98.

    Miss Bianca

    @nonynony:

    Jesus – usually the presidency prematurely ages the president. This is the first presidency I’ve lived through that I feel like is prematurely aging ME. Even during W’s era of misrule it felt like I could at least count on time to pass at a normal rate.

    I feel you.

  100. 100.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @A Ghost To Most:

    released a weepy, rambling video of himself

    And this is why I’m not afraid of widespread violence. They’re chickenshits. They’re so used to white privilege they can’t imagine facing real opposition. They are miniature versions of their god, Trump. An increase in hate crimes and the occasional small-scale domestic terrorism act, sure, but none of that is new, and it’s multiple orders of magnitude below waves of terror or ethnic cleansings.

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Good for her. Large, muscular transwomen can suffer so much self-esteem pain because it’s hard to look feminine during and after transition. Any who can go through the process and look pretty is lucky, and I applaud her. Hell, I don’t even like Manning, but I’m glad she has the figure for transition.

  104. 104.

    Mike J

    @Mike in DC:

    The first i saw the term was in the African-American online community, so perhaps it more properly might be slang from AAVE(African American Vernacular English).

    You mostly see “cape” used when gamer gaters are attacking a woman. Any man that speaks up in her defense is said to being caping for her, and the implication is that he doesn’t really mean any of it, he’s just trying to get laid by defending her.

  107. 107.

    Miss Bianca

    @SFAW: this guy is afraid of *Chelsea Manning* coming to “curb stomp” him?

    Well, at least he didn’t say he was afraid of being p*ssy-whipped.

  110. 110.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @??‍? Martin:

    Can’t tell you how pleased I am with my velvet Wookie Jesus print! Got it scotchtaped to my big wall in the living room near my Jabba cookie jar!

  117. 117.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gelfling 545: I remember posting the live feed of that event here because both candidates made remarks and making several comments about the camera person’s seeming inability to not have Bartiromo’s chest in every shot.

  121. 121.

    NotMax

    As it’s an Open Thread, one step forward in the Middle East.

    Today, the Parliament of Lebanon finally abolished Article 522 of the penal code, which is also known as the “marry the rapist” law.

    Basically, this law allows rapists to marry their victims in order to avoid prison.

    After many years of conducting protests and staging sit-ins, rape victims are finally protected by the law. Source

    Also (unrelated), FYI:

    ‘A really good clue’: Scientists think they’ve narrowed down missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 to three spots

    The new analysis is based on French military satellite images gathered on March 23, 2014 that were taken near the original underwater search zone     Source

  123. 123.

    trollhattan

    @Adam L Silverman:
    One imagines it was Obama’s fault. Krauthammer seems to have limitless Obama animosity, and he was probably just having a Yom Kippur snap triggered by the then president.

  125. 125.

    Shalimar

    @Yarrow: I remember Tucker’s show on MSNBC. Willie Geist was his newsreader, and they tried to out-fratboy each other even though Carlson was approaching 40. It was the smarmiest, cringe-inducing thing I can ever recall watching.

  127. 127.

    Mnemosyne

    I honestly don’t know how we deprogram the morons who watched MOTHERFUCKNG NAZIS MARCHING IN THE STREET WITH TORCHES WHILE CHANTING “JEWS WILL NOT REPLACE US” and continue bleating … but her emails …

    I saw one of them on Facebook yesterday. She claimed to have been “anti-fascist her whole life,” but when she saw an actual, real-life fascist, she said to herself, This is fine.

  129. 129.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: I think Jordan scrapped their version of this a couple of weeks ago. Or there working on it. Just kind of caught the article in passing.

  132. 132.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I got you. I just wanted to state how happy I am for her.

    Rest assured, nobody is more contemptuously aware of what chickenshits these guys are than me. Like their god Trump, they abuse others only when they think the odds are not merely heavily stacked in their favor, but they will face absolutely no danger or repercussions whatsoever. Yes, I think if Chelsea Manning came after them, they would wet their pants and run away sobbing and looking for a place to hide.

  134. 134.

    TenguPhule

    @Mnemosyne:

    I honestly don’t know how we deprogram the morons who watched MOTHERFUCKNG NAZIS MARCHING IN THE STREET WITH TORCHES WHILE CHANTING “JEWS WILL NOT REPLACE US” and continue bleating … but her emails …

    20 years hard labor on federal farms overseen by imported Mexican overseers. With actual whips and quotas.

    They’ll learn or they won’t.

    Either way, cheap fresh fruits and veggies!

  136. 136.

    Betty Cracker

    @nonynony:

    Jesus – usually the presidency prematurely ages the president. This is the first presidency I’ve lived through that I feel like is prematurely aging ME. Even during W’s era of misrule it felt like I could at least count on time to pass at a normal rate.

    A little too long to immortalize in needlepoint on a pillow, but damn, I’m tempted. So. True.

  138. 138.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Shalimar:
    Coming from a family with two of them and a third who considered the field, I can tell you that’s not far from the truth. The field overwhelmingly attracts people with mild mental illness problems, both because they want to learn how to treat themselves, and because their first-hand experience makes the subject interesting.

  139. 139.

    Yarrow

    Holy shit. Just saw a promo on CNN for a Live Town Hall with Paul Ryan. Monday at 9 p.m. That is going to be an epic train wreck. “Why won’t you allow articles of impeachment of Donald Trump to go forward?

  142. 142.

    TenguPhule

    @Yarrow:

    That is going to be an epic train wreck. “Why won’t you allow articles of impeachment of Donald Trump to go forward?

    Sorry, Yarrow, there is no Fitzmas in August.

  143. 143.

    germy

    A high-ranking FBI official who was tapped to assist Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller in his probe in President Donald Trump, the Trump 2016 campaign and White House transition team’s connections to Russia has abruptly left the investigation, the Hill reported Wednesday.

    ABC News identified the departing agent as Peter Strzok and said he has been reassigned to the bureau’s human resources division.

    Strzok is known as a veteran investigator and was one of the leaders of the FBI probe into former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as U.S. Secretary of State. He reportedly went straight from that investigation into the Russia probe.

    No reason has been offered for Strzok’s departure.

  144. 144.

    Spanky

    Hmmmm.

    Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Wednesday that the Charlottesville car attack could be prosecuted as a hate crime, saying that federal authorities “intensely” probing the case could ultimately decide to prosecute the driver in a number of different ways.

    Sessions cautioned that no federal charges were imminent as officials are still conducting an investigation into the deadly attack that killed one woman Saturday and injured 19 others.

    “It doesn’t have to be done immediately,” he told NBC News in an interview. “We will be working with the state to see how they will proceed with their charges. We could bring charges whenever the investigation justifies them. But I don’t think we should just feel like we’ve got to do it in a matter of hours or days.”

    “No hurry, folks. No need to rush.”

  145. 145.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Just got an email from a friend/former colleague/former car-pool passenger:

    FYI, J [his wife] has a friend named M who used to live in Atlanta but moved to Virginia a few years ago to be closer to her daughter. A mutual friend of theirs sent J a text yesterday saying: “M’s daughter C was one of the injured in Charlottesville. She has a broken pelvis and facial injuries and scrapes all over. Long recovery ahead. So thankful it wasn’t fatal.”

    This is a few degrees of separation from me, but still brings it close to home.

  146. 146.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Also too, in Lebanon I strongly doubt this would have passed without Hamas signing off on it, which makes it of some additional interest to foreign affairs tea leaf readers.

  149. 149.

    TenguPhule

    @germy:

    ABC News identified the departing agent as Peter Strzok and said he has been reassigned to the bureau’s human resources division.

    Strzok is known as a veteran investigator and was one of the leaders of the FBI probe into former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as U.S. Secretary of State. He reportedly went straight from that investigation into the Russia probe.

    No reason has been offered for Strzok’s departure.

    Other then he’s obviously not trusted by the investigating team.

  153. 153.

    john carter

    Meanwhile, as we put up with Donald’s Kampf…

    While People are being fired, leaks happening, Nutzies getting presidential vetting, golfing vacations, race relations enjoying the best times since the 50s and 60s (/s), healthcare getting nixed (as we all probably knew it would), America’s National Parks are being sold to the highest bidder, we’re going to drill in the cold north waters (screw the polar bears), Westinghouse may be making coal-fired stoves and furnaces again, regulations on building safe structures are being ripped to shreds, the ICE ICE (say it together fast) is deporting a few bad illegals and lots of Catholics (while putting an “M” on their forearms – just kidding…I think ), and Carl Sagan;s Nuclear Winter is a REAL possibility…am I going too fast?

    Business seems to be laughing all the way to Wall Street.

    By the way, I’m tired of the term Climate Change. It’s Global Warming for goodness sake! Climate changes all the time. But the wording makes it so much innocently yuppier.

    Global Warming…coming to a planet near you!

  154. 154.

    JPL

    @john carter: Those were the good old days.
    After yesterday’s press conference, I doubt the media will say he’s growing with the job, or he’s turned the corner.

  157. 157.

    efgoldman

    @A Ghost To Most:

    He kept breaking off to wipe away tears, saying, “I don’t know what to do. I need guidance.”

    ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES you reeking pile of nazi pigshit. Deal with it.

  158. 158.

    Miss Bianca

    @germy: I particularly liked this detail:

    “Culturally, Americans are a curious lot,” said Andrew Darcy Morthington, an United Kingdom-based commentator who once embarked on a two-year mission trip to teach rural American children and therefore qualifies as an expert on U.S. affairs.

    LOLsob

  159. 159.

    jacy

    @Adam L Silverman: on the contrary, non-catholic matriages are very easily annulled. I had my first marriage annulled on the grounds that neither of us were Catholic and it was immediately granted.v

  160. 160.

    trollhattan

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    Wow. Based on a friend’s experience, broken pelvis is profoundly dangerous and very challenging for even a young person to recover from, depending on severity. My buddy, a cyclist and the epitome of health had one a couple years ago and his doc cautiously advises perhaps 80% of its former strength if everything goes perfectly.

    I hope she does well and gets out of hospital soon.

  163. 163.

    SFAW

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Sorry, Adam, but these Nazis (and RWNJs in general) are the biggest set of whiners and snowflakes this side of a three-year-old. I thought a “helpful” suggestion was in order, but I’ll try to ease up. Although, in fairness, I was not advocating that others do harm to those whiners. (Not that it isn’t tempting to do so.)

    The thing that bothers me the most is that they carry around (presumably) loaded weapons, intending to make others (i.e., those not like them) afraid — as we saw with the synagogue story posted earlier — and are clearly scared little boys if they don’t have an AR-15 (or whatever) to fondle. The NRA having successfully (for the most part) emasculated the gun-control laws means that those sick bastards have pretty much free run.

  165. 165.

    Tilda Swintons Bald Cap

    Hmmm… re Pence returning early.

    @Rednuria
    Replying to @DashTheHabbery @Shakestweetz
    I’ve thought about this as well. European media outlets are reporting there is a “conspiracy” brewing in the WH to remove Trump ASAP.
    1:59 PM – Aug 16, 2017

  166. 166.

    efgoldman

    @jl:

    I think one of the reasons that so many people are disturbed by Trump’s BS, is that he is describing something that everyone can see just did not happen last weekend.

    Sure it did..
    Just like the thousands of Muslims he saw cheering and dancing in Jersey City when the towers came down,
    Christ what an asshole.

  169. 169.

    TenguPhule

    @SFAW:

    and are clearly scared little boys if they don’t have an AR-15 (or whatever) to fondle.

    They’re not scared. They want to scare and hurt others. They’re not little boys, they’re fucking Nazis.

    No more giving them any white privilege for their behavior. They want to act as Terrorists and Fascists, treat them as such. Its long past time for the rightwingers get demonized into the greatest threat the world has ever seen. Because they actually are.

  172. 172.

    jl

    @efgoldman: The Trump lies are closer to home for a lot of white folk now, close enough for at least some of the m to take the implications seriously.
    Aka the “ You can like about the other guy,
    Don’t lie about you and I.” crowd.

  173. 173.

    low-tech cyclist

    So: when I call up my Congresscritters, WHAT’S MY ASK?

    Cole says, “They Won’t Do a Fucking Thing About Him” and maybe they won’t. But they damn sure won’t do anything if nobody’s leaning on them to do something.

    So what’s the ask? Short of impeachment (which they’re really not going to do), what do we want Congress to do here? What’s the frickin’ ASK??

    I’m on vacation this week and next. I can call my Congresscritters every day, since I don’t have to work around my work schedule. What should I be asking for??

  175. 175.

    TenguPhule

    @low-tech cyclist:

    I can call my Congresscritters every day, since I don’t have to work around my work schedule. What should I be asking for??

    Holding a vote on a clean debt ceiling hike would be nice.

  177. 177.

    Это курам на смех

    @Shalimar:

    The black bloc are organized anarchists who like to fight and riot, and take any opportunity they can find to start violence. Since they usually cover their faces, it is unknown how many of them are even leftists at all.

    No, Donnie, these men are not leftists. They are nihilists.

  179. 179.

    A Ghost to Most

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    And this is why I’m not afraid of widespread violence. They’re chickenshits. They’re so used to white privilege they can’t imagine facing real opposition.

    I agree, for most of them. Some of them are hard cases, and may try to coerce the the sympathizers, or just cause mayhem by themselves

    I’ve been thinking over my family and their friends, trying to sort them into cowards and hard cases.
    Yep, mostly cowards.

  182. 182.

    Mike in Pasadena

    @germy: Newt and McConnell along with Fox are three things most responsible for the sad state of our country. Anytime Newt opens his mouth, his depraved morals should be shoved right down his throat. That was a great reply tweet. Thanks for sharing it. I would not otherwise have seen it because I seldom look at Twitter, it turns my stomach, especially because Hair Twitter uses it.

  184. 184.

    Yarrow

    @low-tech cyclist:

    I’m on vacation this week and next. I can call my Congresscritters every day, since I don’t have to work around my work schedule. What should I be asking for??

    Clean debt ceiling vote.

    With regards to Trump, tell them that he’s not fit to be President. If you want, you could ask them to support the article of impeachment brought by Reps. Al Green and Brad Sherman and push for it to go forward.

  188. 188.

    efgoldman

    @A Ghost to Most:

    Some of them are hard cases

    Any of them that show up in Boston this weekend with firearms are going to be surprised when the weapons are confiscated and they get arrested and charged.

  189. 189.

    Ksmiami

    @TenguPhule: Yes and as a gentle reminder, one cannot claim to be a patriotic American while carrying the banner of the Confederacy, or wearing a swastika. These maggots have shown us who they are- they deserve no sympathy or aid

  191. 191.

    A Ghost to Most

    @TenguPhule: I’ve seen a couple of articles about Night of the Long Tiki Torches parade participants who were only there for the lulz, and to be assholes. Lotsa cosplay Nazis there

  195. 195.

    lgerard

    @A Ghost to Most:

    I’ve seen a couple of articles about Night of the Long Tiki Torches parade participants who were only there for the lulz, and to be assholes. Lotsa cosplay Nazis there

    Broflakes discover there are no lulz in eliminationist rhetoric when it is aimed at them

  201. 201.

    Mnemosyne

    @Yarrow:

    No. There’s a problem with the website that they’re working on. ?

    The really annoying part is that my farm box arrived today, so I have fresh produce that needs to be dealt with, and no recipes.

  202. 202.

    Mnemosyne

    @A Ghost to Most:

    Turns out that when you get tear-gassed or pepper-sprayed in real life, you can’t just quit the game and go back a level. ?

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    You’d think, but apparently guys carrying swastikas while dressed as Donald Trump isn’t triggering some people’s “fascist” alarm because Hillary Would Have Been Even Worse For Reasons.

  203. 203.

    Yarrow

    @Mnemosyne: Oh, that sucks. Sorry to hear that. Could you contact them and get them to send you something via email maybe? Just to get started.

  205. 205.

    SFAW

    @TenguPhule:

    They’re not scared. They want to scare and hurt others.

    The two are not mutually exclusive.

    They’re not little boys, they’re fucking Nazis.

    I meant developmentally, not unlike the Whiner/Snowflake/Cokehead-in-Chief.

  206. 206.

    sukabi

    @The Moar You Know: scratch the “alledgedly”. It’s recorded on multiple sources for everyone to see…as is the Nazi participating in the protest with torches and screaming Nazi slogans.

    Yea, I know it’s allegedly a point of law. And it is a FACT that the asshole is guilty of murder.

  209. 209.

    low-tech cyclist

    @Yarrow:

    Clean debt ceiling vote.

    Sure, I can make some of the same calls I might’ve made if Charlottesville hadn’t happened. But we want to use this moment of GOP vulnerability in some meaningful way, right?

    With regards to Trump, tell them that he’s not fit to be President. If you want, you could ask them to support the article of impeachment brought by Reps. Al Green and Brad Sherman and push for it to go forward.

    I’ve already called my Representative to support impeachment. An unrealistic near-term goal, perhaps, but I’ve always been of the mindset to say what you really want, before you start talking about what you’re willing to try to get right now.

    So yeah, what are we trying to get in the short run? And specifically, what should we be asking our Senators for with respect to Charlottesville, since they’re not involved with impeachment until the House votes for it?

  211. 211.

    Patricia Kayden

    DeAndre Harris’ severe, videotaped beating at the hands of Nazis has resulted in zero arrests by the police.

    I don’t understand why the police haven’t made any arrests given that the video tape clearly shows the perpetrators of violence against this man who will live with the physical and psychological harm from this attack for the rest of his life. He needs to sue the organizers of the rally along with the three other women who have done so.

  212. 212.

    Kathleen

    @A Ghost to Most: OMG. I’m so old when I went to The Googullzzz to find what “onion on my belt” meant because I’ve been seeing it a lot lately, just like I’ve been seeing a lot of white vans on the street which remind me of L&O SVU plot lines (have you ever notice how “Hudson University” is like a running gag in all of the L&O franchises) in fact a guy in a white van at 5:00 yesterday morning asked me if I wanted a piece of pizza while I was jogging then he told me it was breakfast pizza and was thankful for all the L&O episodes that featured people in white vans who invariably were up to no good. What was I talking about again? Oh, yeah. I was going to say I think I resemble that remark about the onions on the belt The End.

  214. 214.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Adam L Silverman: Why not directly go after Trump? Why such a mealy mouth comment which even Trump would agree with? The issue is not just that White Supremacists are running amuck, it’s why they’re running amuck. They feel empowered by the Bigot-in-Chief. All statements about Charlottesville must point this out.

  215. 215.

    Mike Furlan

    @Patricia Kayden: I think it is probable that the folks who tore down the Durham CSA shrine will server more jail time than the murderous Nazi mob in Charlottesville.

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