An hour ago I wrote this:
Make no mistake, this is no “analysis” as he has it labeled. And the thing you need to realize is Cillizza KNOWS that Clinton doesn’t support rape and sexual assault, he just wants make her respond. It’s him using his forum to make her jump- he might as well be saying “Dance, mad bitch, dance,” because we all know that if she does respond, Cillizza’s next piece will be “what took her so long” and “was she sincere” and so on.
He’s nothing if not predictable:
Like I said, I’m wondering if Cillizza has a problem with women that extends beyond Clinton. And oh, yeah, let’s all mock Hillary for saying misogyny played a role in the election.
Corner Stone
Send it to Tapper. He will sometimes respond to your twits. Let’s see what he thinks.
Patricia Kayden
Why do Democratic politicians have to say anything about Weinstein? The last time I checked, he wasn’t a political player beyond giving money to Democratic candidates. The last time I checked, Republicans elected a sexual predator as their President. Let’s talk about that and the fact that Republicans support Trump despite his avowed p*ssy grabbing.
Democrats really need to figure out how to turn these stupid arguments on their heads. Republicans are in no moral position to talk about sexual predators. Period.
schrodingers_cat
California is burning, PR is underwater, WH has reneged on the DACA deal, the p grabbing President has causally threatened nuclear war but let’s obsess about Chris Fucking Chinchilla.
schrodingers_cat
@Patricia Kayden: Word my friend. I will give you a statement about HFW when every R Congress Critter gives a statement about Ailes and the sexual predator in the WH. Until then, fuck off.
Timurid
How is Weinstein dealing with North Korea?
How is Weinstein handling Puerto Rico?
Will Weinstein pivot on immigration?
Will Weinstein honor the Iran deal?
Will Weinstein sabotage Obamacare?
Did Weinstein collude with Russia?
I can’t believe the Democrats aren’t asking these hard questions about a powerful elected official supported by millions of voters and… wait, what?
PhoenixRising
I have a problem with HIM, if that helps.
/a woman
Yutsano
@Corner Stone: Even better: maybe he’ll comment over here again. If we play nice.
(Yes I’m asking a lot but we can rise to this challenge!)
LAO
@Patricia Kayden: Agreed. But there are enough people on the left who hate Hillary and think this is a reasonable question, so this shitty meme will not die. (BTW, I’M NOT ONE OF THEM).
Have you ever noticed, that white men are the only people “allowed” to fail in this country? I don’t remember Romney being forced to defend himself and his loss on a daily basis, quite like Clinton has been required to.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@schrodingers_cat:
Chris Fucking Chinchilla is emblematic of everything that is wrong today with white American mainstream media; unoriginal, clueless, and accustomed to a monocultured privledge. He’s part of the problem those issues you raised don’t get the attention they deserve.
Jonny Scrum-half
Well, to be fair, President Trump didn’t delay in his response to accusations of sexual harassment against Roger Ailes (hiring him as an advisor after he left Fox) and Bill O’Reilly (saying that he hadn’t done “anything wrong”).
PhoenixRising
@Timurid: tweeted your comment to the Twits cause they need it
schrodingers_cat
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Giving his blatherings more oxygen is not a solution to this problem.
Boatboy_srq
@schrodingers_cat: Yes, of course, All Bad News All The Time is just what we need to remain motivated and focused on helping communities in crisis now and unseating the Reichwing next year.
/s
jl
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: I have some sympathy, a cushy job where you can type stuff almost at random and get a fat paycheck. Hard not to take advantage.
I kind of agree with @schrodingers_cat:, but it is important point this out. Could play the same game with these miserable pretend journalists who do nothing but milk their sinecures, and see how they like it. That might a more pro-active approach rather than just complaining about it.
Cole posted a pic of Cillizza having fun with Weinstein. Where is the apology, renunciation, revilement, renouncement and refudiation?
schrodingers_cat
Okay can someone ask CC whether he asked T the same question when he hired Ailes, after the sexual assault allegations came out? IIRC, I didn’t hear a peep from the prestige media whores.
Boatboy_srq
@Patricia Kayden: Democratic pols are required to weigh in on each and every failing amongst their supporters because a) they actually publicly state that these things are bad, and b) the Reichwing, who disagrees with the judgment of these failings, is furious that they have to condemn ANYONE on their side for doing it.
trollhattan
Why hasn’t Hillary told us Harvey Weinstein’s position on the War on Coal? ™
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ
@schrodingers_cat:
I get your point. But isn’t it a corollary to Cole’s post that the front page of CNN is focusing on Hillary yet again? And I have to be honest and say that throwing a little heat at Cillizza is like a palette cleanser before diving back into the constant stream of shite and doom we have been getting in the news.
tobie
Here’s CNN’s phone number: 1 (404) 827-1500. Call them to complain. I just did.
I left a rambling and incoherent message about this being a prurient interest story, not a political story and I’m not particularly proud that I couldn’t think of anything better to say. Then again I know the right has gotten its way because it jams the phone lines. We should do the same.
Kay
Also, I hate to bring it up but it seems like there is one government official who has some actual substantive explaining to do and that is the Manhattan District Attorney. He seems to be QUITE the scofflaw- worse than Hillary Clinton, really, and we all know she’s a criminal.
They might want to go after him since he’s still on the job, I believe.
Eljai
@schrodingers_cat:
If I were in charge of everything, I would put your eloquent talking point on a memo and distribute it to every Democrat who goes on TV today.
different-church-lady
So let me see if I got this straight: a sexual predator gives money to a woman to defeat another sexual predator, and somehow it’s the woman’s conduct that’s under the microscope?
jl
I did a search, and this crap is like a cottage industry.
I’m applying for the hypocrisy-watch job at all these corporate media news organizations. Wish me luck.
I’ll be rich off the fat paycheck for almost no work, and you can all complain to me.
George Spiggott
John, you know where this narrative is going next: The Clenis.
trollhattan
How many Harvey Weinstein emails are on Hillariy’s server? Somebody file an FOIA, stat!
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@jl: This presumes that Chinchilla ever had skills to go to waste – an assertion of facts never in evidence.
SFAW
@schrodingers_cat:
#3
#15
Count me confused
Yutsano
@different-church-lady: You left the Clinton part out. The Cintons ALWAYS have to defend everything. That nasty witch Hillary even more so.
LAO
@Kay: I hate to say it (really, really, really hate it) but Vance is running for reelection, unopposed. We’re going to be stuck with him for four (4) more years.
jl
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): I do not see that you have properlty renounced the Cleveland rusty steamer trombone joke, which is offensive. I henceforth dismiss your comments.
trollhattan
@different-church-lady:
That’s cootie money, unlike, say Koch or NRA or Adelson money.
randy khan
@LAO:
I think there are two reasons that Clinton has been forced to defend herself after losing:
1. The press hates her so much that they can’t quit her. (Some of this is misogyny; some of it is generalized Clinton hatred.)
2. Blaming her for the election results is one way of absolving themselves. If it’s her fault, it isn’t their fault. (As an aside, certain elements of the left are doing the same thing – they keep arguing about what a terrible candidate she was as a way of saying their failure to support her wasn’t important to the result.)
Miss Bianca
@different-church-lady: yep, you’ve got that straight. And for everyone’s delectation, I’ll repost Turgidson’s observation from the previous thread:
ETA: Also, too, what Yutsano said.
schrodingers_cat
@SFAW: If we are going to talk about it anyway, attack the messenger of the bullshit.
SFAW
@different-church-lady:
Another page from the Shitgibbon playbook: it was Hillary’s fault that Monica Lewinsky/Kathleen Willey/Juanita Broadrick brought down teh Clenis’s Presidency.
trollhattan
@Yutsano:
Well, she did turn me into a newt.
Kay
@LAO:
So he’s getting off scot free. It’s not like any of it makes any sense. Why weren’t the Trump accusers believed? I don’t know. Beats me. Seems to be situational? Their timing was off slightly?
jl
@Miss Bianca: Some defunct head of the KGB summarized it as “Give me the person, and I will give you the case.”
SFAW
@schrodingers_cat:
I am as guilty as anyone, but: not every comment or line thought needs to be responded to.
Miss Bianca
@trollhattan: Don’t tell me, let me guess: You got better?
trollhattan
@Miss Bianca:
Bingo! Hard to shove a mouse, much less click with those little newt fingers. But I didn’t do the nose.
rikyrah
Will Republicans Cede Their Party to the Insurgents?
by Nancy LeTourneau
October 10, 2017
Since Trump was elected, conventional wisdom has held that congressional Republicans will stick with him for two reasons: (1) they fear a backlash from his base of supporters, and (2) they need him to enact their agenda. As the 2018 midterms approach and the focus is all on the GOP’s pet issue of tax cuts, that would seem to be the case going forward.
Into that mix comes the recent statements critical of Trump by Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN). Everyone with an ear to the ground in Washington says that he is simply stating out in the open what most congressional Republicans have been whispering behind closed doors.
……………………………………………
All of a sudden congressional Republicans know that Bannon and Mercer are coming after them, regardless of how they’ve voted. They also know that this is no longer simply about putting up with Trump’s insanity for a few years. It is about the insurgents wresting away control of the entire GOP. We’re at that stage in the story where the monster is trying to kill Dr. Frankenstein.
I’m not going to pretend to understand how people like McConnell, Ryan and the rest of the congressional Republicans will process what is going on. But we’re already hearing a response from conservative commentators like Jennifer Rubin. Today, Bill Kristol published what might be his ode to the Republican Party in a piece titled, “A Republican Crackup?”
rikyrah
@LAO:
The election is THIS November – as in 2017?
different-church-lady
@Miss Bianca:
LAO
@rikyrah: Yup.
rikyrah
@different-church-lady:
They’ve been going after women in Hollywood, asking THEM about Weinstein, while NOT asking male stars.
Uh huh
Uh huh
jl
@rikyrah: It”s hard to figure out. Bannon is a loon, and in his own mind, is taking credit for stuff that was well on its way before he arrived. Not clear he will have much impact. If the Bannon challenge works electorally, it will probably be mostly through effect of fear it produces in GOP Congress now. To the extent Congressional GOPers fear Bannon, may split the caucus into camp that fears crossing Trump, or what Bannon says is being with Trump (which may not be the same at all), ,and lead them further down the road into complete chaos. Another camp might fear being tied to Trump in any way. So Bannon’s big plan might help us more by creating more GOP dysfunction and confusion right now.
Grant told his generals that he was tired of hearing them fret about what Lee was going to do to them, and he wanted them to think about what they were gong to do to Lee. So, in that spirit, I’d like to think less about what the GOP will do to us, or to itself, and more about what we will do to them, in the next two elections.
rikyrah
@LAO:
DAMN
zhena gogolia
@randy khan:
Spot on.
Amir Khalid
@trollhattan:
Did you get better?
rikyrah
@randy khan:
Tis true…they’d like for this to fly. But, it doesn’t with the millions of us who voted for her, and won’t hesitate to bring receipts on them. Oh no. They will NEVER be allowed to weasel away from the professional malpractice during 2016.
The Moar You Know
Oh yeah he does. And a slew of other obvious problems that I don’t even have time to list here, plus a bunch more I could speculate on…but I’m employed and simply don’t have the time.
So, as with most of the “pundit establishment”, I’ve just started ignoring them all. They have been pretty much wrong about everything my entire life and I don’t see that changing. So I’m “quitting the news entirely”, as it were.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
My first thought was “Mad Bitch Beer”, I see you got to it below. I hope the little twerp is getting roasted over that in his replies.
IANAL or a NYer, but I would’ve thought that just what we’ve learned in the last week would trigger an investigation by the state AG?
LAO
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I am both a lawyer and a NYer — I’m not holding my breathe in anticipation of AG Schneiderman moving on Vance.
sm*t cl*de
@rikyrah:
WTF is Kristol smoking to write such a mash-up of cliches? It’s like he’s channeling his Inner Friedman.
The Moar You Know
@tobie: So, in other words, the only way that they’ll be able to tell you’re not a right winger is that you’re not screaming at the top of your lungs. And you probably didn’t use the word “Jesus”. Or threaten to shoot them all. Probably the best call they’ll have all day.
Goddamn right.
waspuppet
Remember when all the pundits wanted Hillary to shut up and go away? Suddenly she isn’t talking enough, or loudly enough.
It’s almost like anything she does is wrong by definition of her having done it. Which isn’t sexist, or any evidence of any sort of agenda, at all.
In conclusion, the mainstream media are unforgivably liberal.
Marmot
Ordinarily, I’d be all, “He’s trying to burnish his Village reputation for non-partisanship,” but after all this time with that fuckface, I’m all, “Fuck that misogynist.”
trollhattan
Hillary can rest easy now that Donna Karan has weighed in.
Kozlowski
…And all the other pundits will ask why won’t she just go away already
Aleta
Another serious sexual harassment case (this one in the science community– glaciologists, geologists) that some have been aware of, but has taken years to publicize. Part of the reason is also familiar–the women involved had good reason to believe they had to choose between their careers (after years of study, research and difficult data collection) and speaking publicly. If forced out, they would also lose credibility and the hope of impeding the harasser from repeating with other women students.
The good part is that the publication now willing to print the stories is Science.
The scientists involved have had to consider very carefully how to proceed to expose the harasser for the last few years. (He has been highly respected, influential and well-funded for years.) It has mattered a LOT that some men were willing to work with them and put their names out in support of their stories.
Disturbing allegations of sexual harassment in Antarctica leveled at noted scientist http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/10/disturbing-allegations-sexual-harassment-antarctica-leveled-noted-scientist?utm_campaign=news_weekly_2017-10-06&et_rid=34809115&et_cid=1590436
schrodingers_cat
IIRC, Georgina Chapman, HW’s wife, who also owns Marchesa, is a good friend of Wendy Deng’s. They were both involved in some movie project. So has Murdoch given a statement on HW?
ETA: Something else the useless bots of MSM can do.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
from Cole’s twitter stream
El Caganer
@rikyrah: I hope Kristol isn’t suggesting an attempt by the neocons to take over the Democratic Party. I don’t think they’d succeed, but I’d rather they didn’t try.
VeniceRiley
Brian Selter is about to go on Tapper. So I RT’s a picture of Cillizza’s where he took a shot of Dana Bash’s sexy pumps and ankles an tweeted it out. Tagged him and asked him to comment on Cillizza’s penchant for taking shots of colleague’s body parts and opining on them on twitter. Let’s see what happens.
Lyrebird
@tobie: Thanks. I might call and ask why this crap and not any investigation of the hypocrisy of every R Rep & Senator gleefully letting CHIP (HRC’s work) get taken away from sick kids, then going for photo ops with sick kids.
This Hollywood predator story? Someone already tweeted most of what we need to know re: political parties – Celeb donor is discovered to be an abuser/harasser of women – DNC sends $$ to women’s organizations. Same thing happens on the R side – RNC chooses him for their prez candidate. UGH.
Mike J
@Patricia Kayden:
Democrats care about sexual harassment. Republicans don’t.
jl
@Lyrebird: If CNN has not pointed out that the GOP wants to hold Medicaid and Medicare hostage to get CHIP renewed, maybe ask them why they are spending so much time on stupid gotcha stories like how many seconds elapsed before this or that time it took somebody to say what they were expected to say, if they can’t perform their basic function of providing important news.
Edit: this is the bunch of jokers that broke away from news to show Trump’s empty lectern, is that right? You could point out that Onion does satire better.
Ruckus
@waspuppet:
She’s guilty, having done something or nothing. It doesn’t matter which or what, she’s guilty. They have been saying this for what, 25+ years. Haven’t been right once and they don’t want to break that unbroken record, so they won’t stop any time soon.
Johnny Gentle (famous crooner)
By attacking Democrats, I’m sure that any moment Trump and the wingnuts will realize Cillizza is an honest and fair broker and that his journalistic outlet is deserving of their respect, not scorn. Annny moment…
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
They can’t let Clinton go even though she’s not running again. They’re wishing they could have more Benghazi hearings.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
could someone ask Cillizza what his count is on Roy Moore and this shithead?
Cacti
Every answer that Hillary gives is the wrong one.
That’s been the liburl media’s position for a quarter century.
And it was the singular, overarching issue on which deplorables and Bernie bros agreed.
david
Weinstein has been on top of Memeorandum now longer than the Las Vegas shootings.
It’s still, by far, the most trending topic on Worldwide twitter.
Almost as if this isn’t some organic groundswell of interest…
Steeplejack (phone)
@trollhattan:
“You don’t look like a newt.”
“I got better.”
@Miss Bianca:
Darn you to heck!
rikyrah
Mia Love Blasts Michelle Obama’s ‘Hypocritical’ Identity Politics: Dems Recruited White Male to Take My Seat
Rep. Mia Love (R-UT) lambasted Michelle Obama for her charge that people do not trust politics because the GOP is “all men, all white.”
“I don’t know if she noticed, but I am not white and I am not a male,” the Utah congresswoman said on “Fox & Friends” Saturday.
Obama said she noticed the difference particularly when she attended State of the Union addresses and had a view of both sides of the House of Representatives.
“Physically, there’s a difference in color, in the tone. Because one side: all men, all white. On the other side: some women, some people of color,” the former first lady said Tuesday at the Pennsylvania Conference for Women in Philadelphia.
“I look at that and I go no wonder, no wonder we struggle, no wonder people don’t trust politics.”
Citizen Alan
At this point, I am convinced that Chris cillizza has a secret history of sexually harassing women that he has managed to conceal. Is it irresponsible to speculate? Etc etc etc.
rikyrah
Virginia Is for Haters
Paul Krugman OCT. 10, 2017
Why is America the only wealthy nation that doesn’t guarantee essential health care for all? (We’ve made a lot of progress under Obamacare, but not enough, and the Trump administration is doing its best to kill it.) Why do we have much higher poverty than our economic peers, especially among children, and much higher infant mortality despite the sophistication of our medical system?
The answer, of course, comes down to politics: We are uniquely unwilling to take care of our fellow citizens. And behind that political difference lies one overwhelming fact: the legacy of slavery. All too often, white Americans think of the social safety net not as something for people like themselves fallen on hard times, but as a giveaway to Those People.
This isn’t idle speculation. If you want to understand why policies toward the poor are so different at the state level, why some states offer so much less support to troubled families with children, one predictor stands out: the African-American share of the population. The more blacks, the less compassion white voters feel.
The story gets even clearer if you look at the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, which allows states to expand Medicaid coverage at federal expense — that is, to provide health insurance to a large fraction of the population at no cost. You might think that this was a no-brainer, and so far 31 states and the District of Columbia have taken advantage of this opportunity. But only two of those states are among the 11 that seceded in 1861 to form the Confederacy.
Which brings me to Virginia, which is holding crucial state elections in just four weeks.
Until recently, Virginia seemed to be emerging from some of the darker shadows of its history. The state is becoming more ethnically diverse, more culturally open; it is, you might say, becoming more like America. For the “real America” is more than small towns and rural areas; it’s a place of vast variety, unified — or so we like to think — by a shared commitment to universal values of democracy and human rights.
SFAW
@rikyrah:
But you ARE a moron, which makes you a member in good standing of the GOPoTs.
ThresherK
@rikyrah: I am not clicking on the link (force of habit).
I thought the last line was Michelle Obama saying “No wonder people (of color) don’t trust police“.
I stand by my misread; it’d be a perfectly cromulent thing for her to say.
stinger
@SFAW: Bill Clinton served as many years as the (amended) Constitution allows, and ended with 40% approval — by REPUBLICANS. (65% overall) In what world was his presidency “brought down”?
ThresherK
@SFAW: Congresswoman Love is just one “Do you know who I am, officer? DWB traffic stop” from being a punchline.
And if she’s of color, and lives in Utah, I’m guessing that moment will come sooner, rather than later.
jl
Are any scientists following the dynamics of the overall gotchacycle system?
Any maps of the whataboutism flows and hypocrisy currents?
Edit: Specifically, does the Cillizza eddy drive anything, or it a derivative flow? What happens so stuff that gets caught in the Great Trump Gyre (GTG)?
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Boatboy_srq:
Maybe HRC should have taken a page from the Republican playbook and, a la Ryan or McConnell, expressed concern, furrowed her brow and compressed her lips meaningfully.
jl
@jl: I think the bothsidesdoitism mechanism is related to a stationary front, but I think the idea of a front is outdated. I need to study up on this stuff.
Tazj
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): What did Hillary know and when did she know it ?
Meanwhile once president Trump was elected the women who accused him of abuse were never heard from again. They asked him about Weinstein and all he can say is he’s “not surprised” and that’s the end of the story.
germy
@Citizen Alan:
“I don’t need to rape anyone! I can pay for it!”
jl
@West of the Rockies (been a while): HRC needs to use it as an opportunity to punch them in the face (rhetorically),, to ostentatious ignore it after it becomes ridiculous and use it as a pretext to yell about whatever it is she wants to yell about at the moment, or shrug it off and make sly fun and/or ridicule.
Think that would be the RWNJ; B***** S******/Elizabeth Warren; and Obama/Biden approaches, respectively.
Edit: I think what HRC needs to understand is that most of the vorporate press are abject cowardly corporate hacks, and they fold quickly if you don’t play their game. Props to HRC for taking things seriously, but we don’t live in an HRC world. Not that rational.
Tom Q
@LAO: But doesn’t it seem like the one-two punch of having ignored the Jared/Ivanka story AND the Weinstein thing would cause journalistic pressure? I agree, there’s not much to be done between now and Election Day, but afterward I think there might be enough pressure brought that Vance might have to resign in disgrace, leading to a special election.
Kay
I know he’s shrill now but I guffawed, because my phone is telling me Clinton waited too long to issue a statement.
That’s the top news. How horrible she is. Tardy! Tardy demerits!
germy
Our progressive betters at BoingBoing are all over the story.
“Weinstein, who has donated heavily to the Democratic Party, has had ties with the Clintons since Bill Clinton’s presidency.”
etc.
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
Yep. Speaking too slowly to condemn someone else’s sexual harassment is now worse than actually harassing someone.
But thinking there are Clinton Rules that apply only to her is a sign that I’m irrational and paranoid. Riiiiight.
Baud
Given this recent exposé about white reporters feeding Breitbart stories, I’m not sure why this behavior is surprising to anyone.
Baud
@Kay: She should have emailed her statement.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m not a math guy, but I’m pretty sure Mia Love represents not quite .5% of Republican House caucus, and 100% of the House African-American Republican caucus. And she would have been at two of Obama’s eight SOTUs
Baud
BJ made Wonkette!
germy
@Baud: I’d go see, but wonkette always freezes my computer.
(As does thinkprogress)
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Link to Cole’s moment of fame.
Miss Bianca
@Steeplejack (phone): Hard to stay on top of the jokes with this crowd, ain’t it? ; )
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I wonder whether anyone has discovered the nexus between T’s campaign and now WH and the Vichy Times? The so called liberal media doesn’t need Milo when they have NYT to do the most damage.
SFAW
@stinger:
[Gets face into “you’re shittin’ me, right?” look]
In Real ‘Murica, home to economically anxious WWC voters — the only people who should be allowed to vote.
Steeplejack
@Miss Bianca:
The curse of “late to thread” syndrome.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
Again, borrowing from the Republican playbook, first, let’s agree that now is not the time to be discussing this issue. Secondly, in the vaguest and most banal way possible, let’s agree that we disagree with Weinstein over what is acceptable behavior. Finally, let’s get back to the work of doing the American public’s business and move on, because we refuse to get involved in this thing about which we really haven’t heard anything anyway.
Thank you, Mr. Ryan, for the assist.
germy
@West of the Rockies (been a while):
If we borrowed from the republican playbook, we’d be vehemently denying he did anything wrong. We’d call it a witch hunt.
Zelma
@Steeplejack:
They called us “the nice Balloon Juice website.” Do they really know us?
japa21
@germy: Actually it wouldn’t be a full denial. It would be more like “we really shouldn’t discuss this without knowing all the facts and until such time as this is settled through a court of law.” Oh, and something about a 65 year old man’s youthful indiscretion.
ETA: and also something about not judging all penis owners because of the actions of one lone wolf penis owner.
Aleta
Hey Cillizza: Clinton also said
Evan Hurst
@germy: Hopefully Wonkette won’t freeze yr shit now that we are ad-free! Come say hello!
Yutsano
@Aleta: Now how is he supposed to get his He Man Clinton Woman hate on over a boring process? Clicks, baby, all about the CLICKS!
japa21
@japa21: Okay, an edit I did to this comment is in moderation and I know why. A bad, bad word was used.
ETA: Boy that was a quick release.
Steeplejack
@Zelma:
It’s that Wonkette snarky fake-polite thing.
Chyron HR
@Aleta:
SHUT UP LOSER LADY! Do you hear John McCain telling us what HE THINKS?!
JMG
The Democrats would be daft not to campaign on passing a law mandating a la carte cable TV purchasing. 1. It’d be super popular. All Americans hate their cable companies. 2. It’d put all three cable news networks out of business about 24 hours after being enacted, as even the highest rated cable news show ever, O’Reilly’s, had like two million viewers. The price to just break even would be like $50 or more a month, and no one would pay.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
haha, that is hilarious!
Patricia Kayden
@Timurid: You need to run for office. Except for Auntie Maxine, Democratic Congress Folk are way too weak and timid for my liking. They need to go for the dang jugular when going after the MSM and Conservatives.
Kay
@Baud:
I cannot believe they’re taking a perfectly good expose of a powerful sleazebag and making it about Hillary Clinton.
How does this even serve the story? It’s ruined. They ruin everything, Baud.
randy khan
@JMG:
I would guess that this is something that people say they want but don’t. For a while, the satellite TV companies experimented with a la carte and essentially nobody bought service that way. It turns out people actually like bundles, particularly when they’re cheaper on a per-channel basis than picking channels in onesies and twosies.
This is a long-term, multi-industry trend – car companies used to sell options separately, rather than having specific packages and phone companies used to sell all the pieces of service individually, and don’t do that any more. I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that people actually would behave differently in any meaningful numbers if a la carte were available. (I’d add that, actually, the biggest constraint on offering a la carte services is that programmers like NBC, Fox, Disney and Viacom pretty much refuse to allow it – if you want ESPN, you have to take everything and put nearly all of it on the basic tier of service, and many other programmers do the same thing for their channels. Cable operators actually would like the leverage that a la carte would give them in dealing with programmers, even if they wouldn’t necessarily like to offer channels individually.)
Patricia Kayden
@schrodingers_cat: Your comment needs to be tweeted out along with a reminder that Trump hired Ailes after he was fired from Fox News for sexual harassment.
Baud
@Steeplejack:
We’ll be a top 4-digit blog in no time!
@Kay:
Up to and including the country.
schrodingers_cat
@Patricia Kayden: Thanks! I am not active on the Twitters but if some FPer or you wants to tweet it, go ahead.
@Eljai: Thanks!
I think Ds need to go on the offensive, there is no need to be so fucking apologetic all the time.
Patricia Kayden
@SFAW: President Clinton left office with high ratings so he was never brought down. Can’t say the same for Trump given that his ratings are already in the tank and Mueller is breathing down his orange neck.
SatanicPanic
I didn’t vote for Weinstein, unlike all those fuckers who voted for Trump.
Frankensteinbeck
@jl:
Unfortunately, this is not true. Remember when Obama called out Fox, and the other networks gathered round to defend them? Remember how they harped on Hillary and Obama not giving them enough respect? The media owns the game and makes up the rules. They’ve decided those rules will help Republicans and fuck Democrats. There is not one single thing we can do about that. Whatever strategies Democrats pursue, we must assume the national press will always be our enemy.
JMG
@randy khan: Vigorous antitrust action in the media sector obviously should also be part of the agenda.
Baud
Sometimes I wonder if this is our karma for not sticking up for Hillary when we should have.
Gin & Tonic
@Zelma: I suspect they haven’t wandered into the comment section.
schrodingers_cat
@Frankensteinbeck:
100% true.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: What’s this “we” shit, paleface?
gbbalto
@Lyrebird: Not sure whether this would have any impact. Repubs may well respond that the Dems put the “sexual abuser/accused rapist” Bill Clinton in the White House so “what’s the big deal”? We know the difference, they will deny it…
Kryptik
@Frankensteinbeck:
Something has to give eventually. Something has to change. Otherwise, we’re going to be irreparably fucked forever, because we’ve seen how this double standard continues to help tank anything left of Limbaugh electorally, regardless of how much effort is put forth
I just wish I knew what, rather than feeling fucking impotently helpless.
Kay
My husband was watching this boring political analysis on CSPAN about how Breitbart dominated election readership on the Right (online) and they had one of those word cloud graphics to illustrate influence/readers. Balloon Juice was on there. Teeny tiny, but there. Some of you are not working hard enough, obviously.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic: Collectively. Some were obviously better than others.
Baud
@Kay: We were in Breitbart’s word cloud?
Kay
@Baud:
It was Left/Right. You were on the Left side, just barely. BREITBART dominated the Right side. Trumpsters. And Putin of course- goes without saying.
Lyrebird
@jl: Good point. At least people like Jake Tapper and Don Lemon appear to have reached their Can’t Normalize This Any More limits. And of course, GO AM JOY!
Archon
@Frankensteinbeck:
The Obama administration calling out Fox for what it is but the rest of the media coming to Fox’s defense is, I believe one of the most important events of Obama’s Presidency. The media decided they would rather defend their own, even if it was propaganda, then defend the truth.
Lyrebird
@gbbalto:
Yeah as one of Pat Toomey’s constituents, I am used to having no impact… Grimace.
One of the best things to come out of the last year or so was that bit where the right-wing noise machine was all, “Liberals! Obsessed with this CONSENT thing!” and liberals stood up and said, “Heck, YEAH! We are!!!!”
Baud
@Kay: Cool that we made it at all. Was anyone on the left dominant?
eemom
@schrodingers_cat:
Zactly. Nice to see that Cole took our concerns to heart.
OTOH a lot of normally rational people seem to be fixating on this bullshit. WTF??
Baud
@Kay:
I think I found it.
https://cdn.cjr.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Twitter-Image-1.jpg
Here’s the article
https://www.cjr.org/analysis/breitbart-media-trump-harvard-study.php
Kay
@Archon:
I suppose “truth” is important but I thought that was a bad political decision. I really disliked Obama’s 1st press secretary though – I felt like he was one of those people who has useless fights- ineffectual. Robert Gibbs. Something too slick about him. I wanted fewer “smackdowns” and more salesmanship. I get tired of how clever they all are. Just talk like a normal person.
SFAW
@Patricia Kayden:
It was a joke, sort of. Although Shitgibbon apparently did think that having Clenis’s alleged harassees/rape victims in the debate hall would throw Hillary off her game.
Not that her debate performance mattered, as we now know.
japa21
@Archon: And of course, Fox has come out and condemned Trump’s calling all the non-Fox type media Fake News…
Oh,
Kay
@Baud:
That looks like it! I can'[t read the itty bitty names though. I’m shocked people read Huffington Post, frankly. It’s so screamy and crowded.
Heidi Mom
@The Moar You Know: When CC had a Friday Q&A column in the Washington Post, I read it because he could be funny. But he said that not only did he not vote, he didn’t have strong political opinions about anything, he was just fascinated by the process of politics. I’ve never understood how that is possible.
Baud
@Kay: The image on their website is poor quality.
I was surprised at the influence of The Hill.
Corner Stone
@Baud: That is HIGH-larious. HRC got slagged on this very liberal blogsite when she said the Bible was one of her favorite books. That’s a pander! She’s just saying what a politician says! She is so phony and I just hate, hate, hate every word that comes out of her mouth!
Baud
@Corner Stone: I don’t recall that kerfuffle. Given what I now about her, I believe that statement was actually true!
Kathleen
@Kay: If only Cole had gone to Wisconsin.
Corner Stone
@Baud: You should, as you were right there.
Baud
@Corner Stone: Like I remember every thread. Especially from 2014!
For the record, I didn’t know how religious she was back then.
Bobby Thomson
Nice shout out from Evan Hurst at Wonkette
Mnemosyne
@gbbalto:
And we already have a Sanders bro in the thread below saying that exact same thing. But he’s not just echoing right-wing propaganda, nuh-uh! You’re the puppet!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Josh Marshall called that, IIRC, Cokie Roberts Syndrome (or maybe he called pundit syndrome and I attached Cokie’s name to it because I think it nails her), they see politics as something like professional sports or celebrity gossip, and the idea that people actually care about the outcomes, and believe they affect people’s real lives in meaningful ways, is confusing, even vaguely embarrassing, a bit gauche.
Patricia Kayden
@Bobby Thomson: It’s great.
ruemara
@rikyrah: Mia Love can go take several stadiums of seats.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Baud: Hell Baud, even I remembered that because I literally slapped myself in the head and exclaimed, “Jesus, Baud.” And that made me remember I hadn’t done my devotions so I logged off and went to have Bible study.
J R in WV
@rikyrah:
Vance who? Some of us aren’t aware of every election contestant in every election in the nation!
Another Scott
@Just Some Fuckhead: Dead thread, but – good to see you again JSF. You’ve been missed. I hope things are going well.
Cheers,
Scott.
jonas
It’s funny how conservatives are trying to hang Weinstein around Democrats’ necks like he was some huge macher in Democratic politics while Ailes and O’Reilly were practically the de facto heads of the GOP. *And* everyone ran around defending them to the death until the Murdochs had decided they had had enough and shitcanned them.