Not at 30 Rock:
NBC News said Wednesday that it has fired Matt Lauer over “inappropriate sexual behavior,” making the “Today” show star the latest high-profile man to become embroiled in workplace harassment allegations.
In a staff memo, NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack said the network received “a detailed” complaint about Lauer Monday night. “It represented, after serious review, a clear violation of our company’s standards. As a result, we’ve decided to terminate his employment.”
Lack added: “While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over twenty years he’s been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.”
Lauer, 59, joined “Today” in 1994 as its news anchor. He became co-host of the morning program with Katie Couric in 1997 after Bryant Gumbel stepped down.
His current co-host, Savannah Guthrie, read Lack’s statement on the air on Wednesday’s program.
Still time for him to get residency in Alabama and primary Richard Shelby, I suppose. Just work on his bible thumping a bit.
DCrefugee
Where in the world are Matt Lauer’s hands?
schrodingers_cat
Mark Halperin, Charlie Rose and now Matt Lauer, who is going to be the next MSM shill to fall? All of them gave T fawning treatment during the campaign IIRC and were hard on HRC, coincidence? I think not.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
People who have assaulted or harassed women at this point should all just get out ahead of everything and quit on their own. Why any of them think none of this is going to come out now is bewildering to me.
Salter Wobchak
Seems to me that given how quickly NBC reacted to whatever they were shown, it must have been overwhelming. The anchors this morning were clearly reacting in real time to news they’d just heard themselves. My guess is that more than a few folks there knew Matt maybe wasn’t the most upstanding citizen in the world, to put it mildly.
The whole thing certainly puts NBC’s resistance to Farrow’s piece on Weinstein in a whole new light though. Not a good look by any stretch.
ArchTeryx
Y’know, I’ve worked with women in the workplace all my life and I never saw them as someone to make moves on just because I could. Maybe it’s because I never have had an ounce of power. I like to think it’s because I just think of them as actual humans, not chits on a scoreboard, but what the fuck do I know?
Bobby Thomson
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): because not all men but most of them. Numbers.
Amaranthine RBG
Compare this with Disney’s decision to send serial harasser Lassiter on a 6 month leave
Money talks.
Quinerly
Page 6 reporting he sexually assaulted a female staffer at the 2014 Olympics.
Rosalita
@Salter Wobchak: I read there were other news outlets that were going to break the story, so they jumped ahead of it
the Conster, la Citoyenne
NBC sat on the Access Hollywood tape, sat on the Weinstein story, is sitting on The Apprentice tapes, sat on this Lauer thing until they no longer could because the NYT and Variety were just about to come out with their stories on Lauer. Andrew Lack will be leaving next, because none of this is a coincidence. Karma’s a cold bitch who wears a pantsuit apparently.
beth
Matt’s co-hosts didn’t seem nearly as shocked or broken up as Charlie Rose’s co-hosts did. Makes you wonder if they were just waiting for this.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
If they got Lauer, how far behind can Matthews and Morning Blow be. I mean, Blow had to resign from congress cause he couldn’t keep his hands off married interns and Tweety is always making inappropriate comments about women.
WarMunchkin
Chris Matthews is a guess for who is next. Wolf Blitzer maybe.
ETA: …Alex Trebek?
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
My first thoughts, too. You just know Matthews is a groper, and probably Barnicle. I can’t wait until Mika and Nicolle and probably Willie Geist are the only ones left on that panel.
Emma
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I’m not sure about Matthews. He comes across as a passive-aggressive smarmy git, but too cowardly to actually do more than snide commentary.
Patricia Kayden
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Andrew Lack leaving NBC would be a blessing since he has been trying to move MSNBC rightward and has hired several rightwing hacks to host programs. Would be happy to see him go.
germy
@beth:
You know, I sort of noticed that. I watched Savannah Guthrie read the announcement, and while her words said “we’re sad” and she remembered to scrunch her eyes into a “sad eyes” expression, her barely concealed smile contradicted the statement.
MomSense
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
It’s so crazy but I have had so many experiences with inappropriate behavior starting with a teacher in high school. One thing that struck me about all of them is that their image of themselves was soooo different from their behavior. When you hear someone who makes advances at you in the workplace give a talk to colleagues about how he is changing womens’ lives, advocating for them, making sure they have the education and enrichment they need blah blah blah, it is so confusing and disgusting. I sat there hearing the cartoon head shake sound effect in my own head.
The federal statute of limitations (and many states as well) is 180 days to report workplace harassment. That’s not enough time. I’m glad these men are being outed but it doesn’t mean justice or economic well being for the women harmed. We have a lot of work to do.
Corner Stone
@Emma: No way. You just know that guy took it too far on many occasions. if he’ll sit across from Erin Burnett and on live TV tell her how gorgeous she is, how beautiful she is, then there is no telling what he did in the rooms backstage or at parties.
Rey
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: ” Karma’s a cold bitch who wears a pantsuit apparently.” Wish I could like this comment 25k times! Some of this karma that is being dealt has to be a gift from the universe for Hiliary- shadow Madam POTUS. Take that Orange satan…
germy
@Patricia Kayden:
If Andrew leaves, then I think Megyn Kelly’s future is uncertain. But as long as he’s in charge, I believe she’ll keep her morning show no matter how low her ratings sink. She’s there because he wants her there.
Yoda Dog
Right after the election, Lauer interviewed Elizabeth Warren and right off the bat characterized Trump’s election as “beating us at our own game.” “How does it feel to be beaten at your own game?”
I cannot descibe how much I hated Matt Lauer in that moment. Honestly, Warren could’ve said something about the absolute bullshit framing of that question, but she didn’t and that was on her.
But wow, FUCK Matt Lauer ten ways to sunday. Good riddance.
Corner Stone
I have always despised that prick Matt Lauer, and wanted to choke him out when he spent 13 minutes on HRC’s emails during the “Townhall” military debate.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
What a coincidence: the “news” personalities most hostile to Clinton were sexual criminals.
Corner Stone
I hope one day soon HRC tweets out something cryptic like, “Thrush, Rose, Lauer…”
Emma
@Corner Stone: You might be right. I just get the chickensh_t vibe from him. Mind you, I’d love to be proven wrong.
Emma
@Corner Stone: OHMYGAWD, make it so! The conspiracy theories it would unleash!
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
5 of the 10 topics currently trending on twitter are about the Lauer scandal.
HA!
Starfish
Someone linked to this 2013 New York magazine article about how Ann Curry was kicked off of the Today show. Bye, Matt.
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat: That’s exactly what I said to Ms. O upon reading the news this morning. Definitely not coincidence. Bastards.
Corner Stone
@germy: Guthrie worships at the “Both Sides of Extreme Both Sideresness” and attends Wednesday services at The Church of the Savvy along with her buddy and mentor Chuck Todd.
She did a clip not long after whatever recent promotion she got and expressed how exasperated she was that people wanted her to report the truth, when that would just not be fair to one side.
Nicole
This news literally ended an argument my husband and I were having this morning. We were squabbling (nothing serious), and then up popped the News on my iPhone and I said, “Matt Lauer’s been fired for sexual harassment!”and my better half said, “What? Really?” and that was the end of the fight.
So… thanks, Matt? On the other hand, we then had to explain to the seven-year-old what sexual harassment was. So… THANKS, MATT.
germy
@Corner Stone:
I remember that clusterfuck. NBC dishonestly advertised it as a “townhall-style debate” even though the candidates were nowhere near each other. And Lauer rushed Hillary through her segment, wasting her time rehashing discredited accusations.
Someone here later said Andrew Lack had huddled with Lauer before the townhall to give him a list of questions to pummel her with.
rikyrah
I think someone had Bill O’Reilly – $32 million dollar proof against Lauer, because of the swiftness that he was shown the door.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
On second thought, it would be so funny if chris cillizza was the next to go.
germy
@rikyrah: Yeah, it wasn’t a temporary suspension. His Halloween Lucy costume was shoved in a box with his pens, notepads and “Today” coffee mug and dumped into the trunk of his limo. There was probably evidence of other incidents involving behind the scenes staffers for him to be escorted out so quickly.
Not to mention the way he treated on-air talent.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@germy:
Andrew Lack is behind all of this. As we know, they all protect each other so look for his name to trend.
germy
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
“I’m innocent! I don’t have to rape anybody! I can pay for it!”
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@germy: but, but…. Hillary! Both sides!
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Starfish:
What a bunch of disgusting assholes purveying what they decide is “news”. What an indictment of well, everyone in the network infotainment business. No wonder America is dying.
rikyrah
The Republican Party’s big tax reform package is nothing less than a massive scandal. So where is the outrage? https://t.co/PUjndFTCqD pic.twitter.com/nQETC9cI8m
— The New Republic (@newrepublic) November 29, 2017
rikyrah
NEW: Conservative pressure on Sessions grows https://t.co/WkMeOBvrlC pic.twitter.com/VHVsW71xtQ
— The Hill (@thehill) November 29, 2017
germy
Charlie Rose’s co-hosts on the CBS Morning Show looked genuinely shaken and saddened when they read their statements about ol’ Charlie (although I find it hard to believe they didn’t suspect something all those years), but Savannah Guthrie looked almost gleeful behind her “Here’s my shocked and truly disappointed expression” statement.
Ruckus
@ArchTeryx:
Respect and humanity go a long way towards a healthy civil society. Dominance, power plays and assault do not. But then a lot of men don’t care about a civil society.
rikyrah
Remember the new Russian sanctions Trump was forced to sign under a veto override threat from Congress?
Funny story.
He’s three weeks late starting them and just eliminated the State Department office responsible for coordinating them.
Trump works directly and only for Russia.
— Patrick S. Tomlinson (@stealthygeek) November 28, 2017
rikyrah
You Can’t Wrestle With Stupid
by Martin Longman November 28, 2017
Sometimes, you see or hear a person say something so dense that it seems like it could suck all the sentience in the universe into its black hole of stupidity. This is one of those times.
In Eric Trump’s universe, stupid and evil play the same role as matter and anti-matter in ours. We need to find the portal that allows this kind of nonsense to seep into our world, and we need to destroy that portal. Perhaps it is located in a darkened Trump Tower closet where the only sound is the hum of a repurposed hotel spam server.
Surely, multitudes will explain all the ways in which Eric Trump’s tweet misses the mark, but I consider that job beneath me. I obviously don’t assume that no one needs to be edified on these points, but there’s a certain minimal level of honest thought I require before I’ll deign to try to communicate with someone or change them in their opinion.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Frankensteinbeck
@Emma:
This is exactly the situation where cowards are the worst. He has a high enough position that there are women he feels have zero recourse and his power over them is absolute. Then everything that only fear held back comes out.
NorthLeft12
@ArchTeryx: I agree. I met my wife of thirty-four plus years at our work place, but there was no wooing and very little contact between us at work.
Her favourite story about me at work was a memo she typed for me [this was around 1981 BTW] and she changed some of the punctuation, which I caught and went back to her and asked her to do it as per the original memo. She argued a bit, and I argued back, basically ending up that she agreed to type it the way I wanted….mistakes and all. We started dating a few months later and were married in early 1983.
I just don’t get guys that think a work place is an appropriate place to hit on women. But I know more than a few that do.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Like misogyny and sexist pigs like you slanting the coverage, Matt?
rikyrah
Transgenders=bad
Pedophiles=good Christians
PHUCK.OUTTA.HERE!!!
bystander
I wonder if whatever was charged was sufficient to cut Matt off his contract today, instead of many years of receiving his salary for no work. This also brings to mind how his wife had commenced divorce proceedings because of his philandering, but then changed her mind. Hope the lawyers can just change dates, add some new charges, up the monthly and refile. Pity for all that work to go for nothing. PS I don’t think of O’Reilly as a journalist, but he and Roger Ailes are due recognition for leading the pack.
Lauer’s neighbor was Bernie Madoff. That building must be haunted.
HeleninEire
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I am steaming angry at this part of it. But I can clear the “why” up for everyone. They treated Hillary like that because in their minds she wasn’t fuckable. And if you’re not fuckable you’re not worth their time.
Want proof? Look how well they treated Sarah Palin, the stupidest, least qualified woman in the world. But yeah she was fuckable.
germy
@rikyrah: This was the best reply to Eric the dumber:
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
PRICELESS
In a now deleted tweet Trump accuses Morning Blow of killing an intern:
The “unsolved mystery” is a reference to an female intern that literally died in Blow’s office.
Blow spent the entire election cycle pumping up Drumpf and savaging Clinton and this is his reward.
PS Imagine the firestorm if a Dem had accused Blow of murder.
rikyrah
Nobody can tell me that this isn’t all deliberate.
Absolutely, completely deliberate.
They are trying to kill these American Citizens.
San Juan mayor: GOP tax bill would be worse for Puerto Rico than hurricanes
BY OLIVIA BEAVERS – 11/29/17 09:55 AM EST
San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz on Tuesday said the tax legislation Republicans are pushing in Congress will have worse consequences for Puerto Rico than the hurricanes that hit the island earlier this year.
“This would be a much more devastating blow to our economy than Irma and Maria put together,” Cruz said on “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
Cruz noted that the tax proposal includes a 20 percent excise tax on goods imported from Puerto Rico to the mainland United States. That provision, she said, would destroy the island’s economy.
“[Our economy] is crippled already, this would obliterate it,” she said.
The San Juan Mayor accused President Trump’s administration of failing to protect the island state from the possibility of a humanitarian crisis enfolding, while claiming that GOP lawmakers’ have repeatedly pledged they will fix the language in the bill but have failed to do so.
“The Republican Congress has promised we’re going change the language, we’re going to change the language. But nothing happens. And that hurts the credibility of the Trump administration — if they have any credibility at all at this point — in terms of the Puerto Rican humanitarian crisis,” she continued.
Aimai
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: I love that the NYT article had a picture of Lauer interviewing HRC.
Trentrunner II - Pie Is Squared
Lauer at the Commander-in-Chief summit to HRC:
“Doesn’t your handling of emails DISQUALIFY you for the presidency?”
Fuck you, Matt.
Next: Al Franken. RESIGN.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 11/28/17
Facing widespread protest GOP pushes tax bill in party-line vote
Rachel Maddow reports on protests around the United States against the Republican tax bill and shares video of the Senate committee vote that passed along party lines as protesters were dragged from the room and and arrested.
germy
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
And Andrew Lack made sure Lauer was tough on Hillary. And he’s being trashed by the dolt45 as if he were running MediaMatters.org or something.
Is our media titans learning? Yet?
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 11/28/17
List of Trump campaign Russia contacts continues to grow
Rachel Maddow presents an ongoing tally of the Russians who are reported to have had contact with various members of the Donald Trump campaign ahead of the election, a list that is still growing as new interactions come to light.
Bobby Thomson
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: And so unsurprising.
Mike in NC
Fuck Lack and Lauer, who were indispensable in promoting the would-be fascist Trump.
LurkerNoLonger
Wow. First Charlie Rose at CBS This Morning, now Matt Lauer at The Today Show. If I knew who was on Good Morning America I would make a joke about someone on Good Morning America being next. Is Good Morning America still a thing?
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@HeleninEire: Bingo!
germy
rikyrah
Where is the muthaphuckin’ Governor of Puerto Rico? Why is he not in front of the cameras about the island?
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 11/28/17
PR braces for economically harmful new tax in Republican bill
Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz of San Juan, Puerto Rico, talks with Rachel Maddow about Puerto Ricans putting their lives back together despite the botched storm response, and the damage the new Republican tax will do to the Puerto Rican economy.
germy
oatler.
I remember an episode of “Dead Like Me” where a woman tells Mandy Patinkin’s character he looks “just like Matt Lauer, only older and angrier.”
MaryL
@HeleninEire: I suspect it’s more that even if she was fuckable, she clearly would never fuck them.
Amir Khalid
@rikyrah:
Puerto Rico is part of America. I am shocked to learn that its goods are considered imports.
germy
Ruckus
@HeleninEire:
Even if one drops down to that level, of a woman being “fuckable,”
No, no she isn’t.
Sab
I am a 60ish year old woman. I have seen or been subjected to sexual harassment my whole life.
It’s interesting to me that the Republican Congress only takes the issue seriously and publicly the week they are going to totally fuck the bottom two thirds of the country with their tax “reform” for their donors.
germy
Calouste
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Any bets on how long it is going to take before we hear about sexual harassment in the Sanders campaign? It isn’t like misogyny wasn’t a factor among some sections of his supporters.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
This is fratricide is just so delicious. (link)
Barbara
@ArchTeryx: I would like to report that I have been working for a bunch of men for more than 25 years and not a single one has ever done anything like this to me, and there are no rumors with regard to their doing it to someone else either. These are the people I work with directly. I do know of other people during the course of my career who have abused their authority over female employees. I only say this because there are a lot of people who seem to think that these kinds of incidents and behaviors are inevitable when men and women work together. They aren’t. Many men have figure out how to have working relationships with women, including on travel assignments and late at night.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Trentrunner II – Pie Is Squared:
Pied again.
Gin & Tonic
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Wasn’t Markos Moulitsas permanently banned from MSNBC for simply mentioning the death?
germy
Starfish
@rikyrah: Wait. Wouldn’t this drive up the cost of certain drugs?
I have seen people complain about not being given saline in hospitals because the bags for the saline are made in Puerto Rico, and we are running short on that. Someone that I know of is receiving chemo for cancer, and his chemo medication is in a glass bottle now due to the shortage of the bags that the medicine normally comes in.
germy
@LurkerNoLonger:
Didn’t Martin Short base his horndog character in the film “Mars Attacks” on George Stephanopoulos?
Betty Cracker
@Corner Stone: Yes! He was awful, as we all noted here at the time. The entire narrative of the election was shaped by sexist garbage people.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Gin & Tonic:
Yes. Now they have Hugh Hewitt hosting a show.
Corner Stone
The firing of Matt Lauer is going to be like the gift that keeps on giving, except you don’t have a rash or anything from it. A 20 year career, all the stupid shit he’s said, to all the stupid assholes he has said it to.
I guess Trump was right after all when he said mining jobs were coming back. He just didn’t know they were data mining and not coal.
Barbara
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: The degree to which these people exhibit predation against women — Lauer, Glenn Thrush, the execrable Mark Halperin, Charlie Rose — when they were in charge of shaping our views of Trump and Clinton is making me angrier and angrier as every story comes out. Anyone who says that Franken should resign should respond, “Trump first.” I am convinced Trump is now in full denial over the AH tape because he doesn’t like the trend he is seeing.
I liked this Jen Rubin column on Franken yesterday. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/11/28/the-al-franken-dilemma/?utm_term=.e250c353c18b
Nicole
@Ruckus:
An acquaintance of mine had a picture of Palin as his avatar in ’08, with “I’d Tap That” at the bottom. Just FYI.
We don’t talk anymore.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Calouste: @Gin & Tonic: yup.
Gin & Tonic
In other news, at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Slobodan Praljak stood up at his sentencing, drank poison (on camera) and subsequently died.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Calouste: I haven’t heard that. But what I have heard is that Sanders is verbally abusive, that he constantly yells and screams at his staff, creating a hostile work environment.
Trentrunner II - Pie Is Squared
Nate Silver, this morning:
Conyers and Franken must resign.
zhena gogolia
@Barbara:
You are lucky!
Barbara
@rikyrah: WTF? A 20% excise tax on goods transported from PR to the mainland? I can’t even. I don’t know whether it is the definition of lunatic or punitive but it’s both.
Mnemosyne
@Amaranthine RBG:
What a shock, ARBG spouting shit about things he knows nothing about when other people here have direct personal knowledge of that same thing and know he’s full of shit.
Mnemosyne
@Trentrunner II – Pie Is Squared:
The term for you is “useful idiot.” They feed you right-wing propaganda and you believe every single bit of it.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Trentrunner II – Pie Is Squared:
When Trump does.
Chyron HR
@Trentrunner II – Pie Is Squared:
Golly, not only do Democrats force the noble white working class to vote for Republicans, we force them to vote for Republican child molesters. Is there no end to Democratic perfidy?
O. Felix Culpa
@Trentrunner II – Pie Is Squared: 4) And most importantly, Republicans choose tribalism over decency. Every time. Even if we offered up Al Frankenstein as a burnt sacrifice, they would still vote for Moore. Count on it.
Immanentize
@Barbara: I do not know how that can be constitutional. It certainly violates the commerce clause….
O. Felix Culpa
@Trentrunner II – Pie Is Squared: 4) And most importantly, Republicans choose tribalism over decency. Every time. Even if we offered up Al Franken as a burnt sacrifice, they would still vote for Moore. Count on it.
NorthLeft12
@germy:
Exactly! They could not contain themselves in the run up to the election. HRC and a lot of what she stood for were an existential threat to their survival.
Unfortunately for them they did not realize that HRC’s defeat probably accelerated their judgment day. The response of women in the US has been pretty amazing to the election of Deadbeat Donald , Predator in Chief.
O. Felix Culpa
@O. Felix Culpa: Oops. Weird posting glitch and autofill. Make that Al Franken. :)
TriassicSands
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Some may not believe they’ve done anything wrong. When Franken was an active comedian, I’d bet he thought all of his behavior was just good fun. Many of these cases are being judged at a different time when different standards prevail.
I never saw the Dana Carvey show during its brief run, but recently I watched two of the shows after they were pointed out to me, and in both shows Carvey exhibited what could easily be seen today as inappropriate contact with a fellow performer or a female audience member. Carvey was just being a 90s male comedian. His behavior was, to my eyes, inappropriate, but I have no doubt he viewed it as harmless.
The problem with Carvey’s actions was not that they violated norms of behavior at that time, but that those norms were seen as acceptable.
TriassicSands
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Some may not believe they’ve done anything wrong. When Franken was an active comedian, I’d bet he thought all of his behavior was just good fun. Many of these cases are being judged at a different time when different standards prevail.
I never saw the Dana Carvey show during its brief run, but recently I watched two of the shows after they were pointed out to me, and in both shows Carvey exhibited what could easily be seen today as inappropriate contact with a female performer or a female audience member. Carvey was just being a 90s male comedian. His behavior was, to my eyes, inappropriate, but I have no doubt he viewed it as harmless.
The problem with Carvey’s actions was not that they violated norms of behavior at that time, but that those norms were seen as acceptable.
BC in Illinois
@Gin & Tonic:
Wow. The way things are going, I had to look it up for confirmation that this was the truth. It’s true.
I’m sorry for my initial skepticism.
Barbara
@Immanentize: I don’t know whether it violates the commerce clause. The problem for Puerto Rico is that it is a territory. Were it a state, it would certainly violate all kinds of constitutional clauses (e.g., equal protection, commerce). It’s a live question to what degree Congress can differentiate between territories and states. For instance, people in Puerto Rico do not pay income tax. But they are also disadvantaged in a variety of ways when it comes to certain programs, including SSI and Medicare reimbursement of hospitals. In other words, there are many provisions of the U.S. Code that distinguish between states and territories, sometimes to the advantage of states and sometimes to the advantage of territories, or their residents. I think in some cases provisions that affect individuals directly (e.g., the taxation issue) could be teed up as equal protection arguments. Why should two U.S. citizens whose income or disability status are identical be subject to completely different rules depending on whether they live in a U.S. territory or a state? OTOH, territories are not provided for in the Constitution. They are U.S. possessions, with autonomy basically determined by the federal government.
schrodingers_cat
@Calouste: Shouty old man is a racist and a misogynist in addition to being a Putin stooge or a true believer.
TriassicSands
Sorry about the duplicate post. When I tried to delete one, I didn’t have access.
Barbara
@TriassicSands: I read a DK analysis of the Franken/Tweeden situation, and one thing that I learned is that this particular skit in some form or another has been a staple of USO performances for more than 60 years. They had a video embed of Bob Hope and an actress doing it. The gist of it is that male troops who have been deprived of female company for a long time are suddenly confronted with a really pretty girl who they just have to kiss, whether she agrees or not. That skit should have been retired a long time ago, if for no other reason than there are a fair number of female troops. So yes, standards have changed.
rikyrah
Trump’s alternate reality includes lingering birther beliefs
11/29/17 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
………………………………………
A separate New York Times piece this morning noted that people close to the president concede “he continues to privately harbor a handful of conspiracy theories that have no grounding in fact,” including questions about Barack Obama’s birth certificate, which Trump apparently brought up in a recent meeting with a U.S. senator.
The article added, “Mr. Trump’s journeys into the realm of manufactured facts have been frequent enough that his own staff has sought to nudge friendly lawmakers to ask questions of Mr. Trump in meetings that will steer him toward safer terrain.”
In other words, the president’s strained relationship with reality is so problematic, White House aides have to take deliberate steps to accommodate his embrace of wild-eyed nonsense.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Today would be a good day to open up the vault on the Apprentice outtakes and hot mics.
Peale
@Barbara: You have to admit, having Spanish speaking people seen going to work every day kind of goes against the notion that they are lazy and joining gangs and deserving as a group of second class citizenship status. I think the GOP now is just goading Puerto Rico to demand independence so that the who issue of “will they ever be a state” become moot. It honestly looks like it would be cheaper for the PR factories to ship their goods through Mexico or Canada
germy
Tenar Arha
Today, even more than usual lately, I am this
d58826
@TriassicSands: Any one want to go back and look at the image that Sam Malone in Cheers presented or even Hawkeye in MASH
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Listened to Matthews on SiriusXM going home last night. If you’re not distracted by looking at his facial expressions, he comes off as a major goddamned idiot, stumbling over sentences and repeating himself.
Ruhle, on the other hand, is always on point, as is Maddow.
d58826
at this point I am out of outrage
I am out of anger
I have NMFTG
I’m just tired
Emma
@TriassicSands: Over the years I have been accused by friends of not having a sense of humor because I find most American sitcoms and most American comedians truly unfunny. It wasn’t until these things began to become political issues that I realized that my dislike was rooted on the ridiculous amount of casual sexism and misogyny in those supposedly funny skits and routines. But at the same time I recognize that, as you say, that sort of behavior was considered acceptable. To me, Franken was a complete idiot but within the mores of his time and he has apologized for his behavior. Moore on the other hand, has been accused at least once of trying to restrain a girl from leaving his car and once of pursuing an underage girl. Those are criminal offenses. And on top of that he has doubled down on attacking his accusers.
I know. Nuance is not valued much these days. Sorry.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@rikyrah:
Impeachment. Please do it GOP, before he kills us all. Yes I know it won’t happen.
And isn’t it funny how that works? All negative news about himself must be fake. How can you live like that? Thinking you can never do any wrong. Never make mistakes. It’s crazy and really sad.
d58826
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: The thing about Tweetie is he asks a question and then never shuts up to let the guest answer.
germy
rikyrah
@Starfish:
Lot of drug companies are in Puerto Rico.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@d58826:
Now we know how the word “womanizer” actually capes for sexual assault, and has done a lot of heavy lifting over the years for the woman hating boys club.
James E. Powell
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
If memory serves, the mere mention of the death in Scarborough’s office caused MSNBC to ban Markos Moulitsas for life.
Amaranthine RBG
@WarMunchkin:
I’ve heard stories from two different women of being hit on by Trebek in a skeezy way in bars of hotels. I suppose it is _possible_ that he behaves differently around female co-workers.
d58826
@Emma:
Go back and look at some of the old MASH episodes. The doc’s driving while drunk. I seem to remember any anti-gay joke or two popping up. Col Potter and his cigars even though the rest of the cast didn’t smoke. Of course there was no profanity then. Times do change
Sab
@Gin & Tonic: Yes he was.
rikyrah
President Obama did everything to try and warn us about Trump and to try and warn the press to do their job. https://t.co/TLjHc6NbcT
— meta (@metaquest) November 29, 2017
rikyrah
Photos: The woman who fabricated the Roy Moore rape & abortion story, Jaime Phillips, is a big Donald Trump supporter. #NoMoore pic.twitter.com/9r8bh9K1br
— Scott Dworkin (@funder) November 29, 2017
d58826
@rikyrah: I’m shocked!!! Shocked!!!!!
Mike in NC
Oh, just read the morning paper which speculates if Tillerson quits or is fired, his replacement as SOS would most likely be Nikki Haley. Her replacement at the UN? Airhead Ivanka!
Baud
@rikyrah: As did Hillary. Nothing should come as a surprise.
rikyrah
GOP refuses to learn the lessons of Kansas’ failed tax experiment
11/29/17 10:46 AM
By Steve Benen
Shortly after the 2012 elections, with Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s (R) radical economic experiment already underway, then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said of his former colleague’s plan, “This is exactly the sort of thing we want to do here, in Washington, but can’t, at least for now.”
At the time, McConnell’s ambitions were largely irrelevant. Barack Obama was in the White House, a Democratic majority controlled the Senate, and there was simply no way Democrats would consider “the sort of thing” Brownback created in Kansas.
But five years later, McConnell and his GOP allies have all the power they need to impose a Kansas-style experiment on the nation. Many who saw Kansas’ failures first hand have some advice to Republican policymakers: Stop.
The Kansas City Star published a piece over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend from Steve Rose, who described himself as a “Bob Dole Republican,” and who lamented the fact that Kansas’ failed tax plan and the current GOP tax plan “are twins.”
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
So what it all comes down to is that I could have been gropey and awful for the last 30 years (particularly my sexual prime) and gotten away with it. Goddammit! I’ve missed out!!
the Conster, la Citoyenne
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Nothing matters, Comte. He’s on tape admitting he obstructed justice and committed treason with the Russians.
Frankensteinbeck
@Ruckus:
I found Palin to be hideous. She looks like a peat bog mummy trying to be a prostitute. Hate hardened her features long before she reached the national stage. Despite my opinion, tens of millions of men thought A) she was seriously hot, and B) this was politically relevant. My best guess is that she looked like she would at least consider it if a stranger asked her to have sex. That is tied closely into the American conventional sense of beauty.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Only if you’re wealthy and have a cult of personality
rikyrah
@Mike in NC:
The Secretary of Exxon is outta there. Get a calendar. Count 366 days from the day he began, and that’s when his resignation letter, effective immediately, will be submitted.
He’d have gotten his $ 71 million dollar tax break by then.
Amaranthine RBG
@Mnemosyne: Disney is a shitty company that employs shitty people and sweeps sexual harassment under the rug
I don’t know why you have such a hard for such a crappy company. Did you read about their attempt to ban reporters from a paper that had dared to commit journalism?
Emma
@d58826: Exactly. And that is why I am willing to give Franken a pass unless an if actual evidence of a criminal case arises — as I am willing to give a provisional pass to any guy who acted like a moron and is willing to apologize for his stupidity and behave as he should from now on. Before the usual suspects start screaming at me, please note that I am excluding any man accused of actual assault or other crimes. If an act carries a criminal penalty, the person committing it should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, as they say in lawyer shows.
(in addition) And I am not including social penalties. If Franken’s constituents decide he should be fired, let them do so. That’s why recalls and primaries were invented.
James E. Powell
@Trentrunner II – Pie Is Squared:
Sure, but that won’t do anything to help defeat Moore.
Amaranthine RBG
@Emma:
Ah yes way back in the 2007 when it was totally cool to grope and kiss women without their consent
No question that Moore was far worse, but Seriously?
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@rikyrah:
Steve Rose is a libtard, end of story. The free market, like the rest of conservative ideology, cannot fail. It can only be failed.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
I find his behavior – particularly his tweets – consistent with a man who kept a book of Hitler speeches bedside.
Masha Gessen warned of all the unraveling as the country moves headlong to the Great Collapse.
With this asshole, it isn’t even by design – it is just a relentless juggernaut of stupid and expression of the worst aspects of the national ID.
With every moment, new divisions are forming in American and Global civic life. The only positive thing I’m seeing is that China’s Belt and Road initiative is a positive expansion of its soft power, and we have to rely on that government (with its throttled Internet) for widespread order and goodwill.
The thing I want to know today is who fed the Brit fascist stuff to Trump. My money is on Gorka or Bannon, with Miller as a side bet.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@germy: Imagine the firestorm if a Dem decided to exclude fox news
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@WarMunchkin:
Is Blitzer capable of human emotions like lust? The mind trembles at the thought of what he would be like; most likely cornering his victim and asking her an escalating serious of questions about her personal life.
Sab
Does anybody here read VOX? That used to be one of my go to sites, but they have been nuts (and not in a good way) on sexual harrassment. Last week was an article that Democrats need to dump Franken because of Bill Clinton. This week an article about sexually harrasment in the workplace morphed into an article about whether married women ever fake orgasms. WTF!!!??? How is that even the same subject matter. How did an editor let that pass?
Gin & Tonic
@BC in Illinois: I try not to post news items that I have not taken steps to verify.
SenyorDave
I like Franken but I think he should resign. He said recently that he wasn’t sure whether more allegations would come out. That indicates to me that he they are out there. He’s a US senator, and other than the initial one, they’ve all come out when he was in a position of extreme power. Politically, he is now a liability. Next time he runs the whole campaign is about character, his. Resign and get your own house in order. The “he resigns when Trump resigns” is meaningless. Trump’s pussy grabbing appeals to his base.
And Conyers? Sad that he was known as a groper for years and it was tolerated, he has to go. They should strip him of every ounce of power he has and strongly encourage him to resign.
These are the people that help to run the country. In our current environment most companies would fire a senior executive who had this in their past, especially since they did it on the job. I know my company would fire them as soon as the allegations were found to be credible.
Emma
@Amaranthine RBG: You are either an idiot or a troll. Please go back and read. You might have missed the last paragraph. You’re also eliding the differences between the first accuser and the others. Yep. Troll. Pie for you.
schrodingers_cat
@Frankensteinbeck: She was physically fit, I think she was a college athlete, Runner’s world had featured her I remember. So clothes looked good on her*. I am no Palin fan but even she had some redeeming qualities other than her father’s bank balance.
ETA: When Nicole Wallace was dressing her.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Amaranthine RBG:
What credibility do you have? You defended the NYT doing a “Nazis are people too, guys!” piece that even the author admitted was a failure. It told us nothing about how seemingly normal people become nazis.
Ridnik Chrome
@d58826:
Jamie Farr’s cross-dressing character (blanking on the name) would never fly now.
Steeplejack
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Matthews fades in and out, and he’s having more and more off nights. Last night was one of the bad ones. He didn’t really seem to focus on the issues and just came across as your stupid blowhard uncle after one too many Crown Royal and Cokes.
The low point was when he angrily asked the panel why the Democrats hadn’t “bazooka’d” the tax bill. Didn’t bother to point out exactly how they could do that.
Fair Economist
@germy: Lauer sticking up for O’Reilly publicly? I’m starting to think all these abusers were working together – exchanging tips, supporting each other in their careers, etc.
Villago Delenda Est
It really is a shame that they finally got Lauer on being a sexual harrassing pig and not for being at truly shitty “journalist” and interviewer. Or that badgering of Hillary last year.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Frankensteinbeck:
I found her not unattractive, with the exception of her voice (and what’s in her brain). She’s in my personal desirability demographic on a physical and age basis, depending on whether she has adequate ink and stuck in bits of metal here and there (yeah, I’m pervy-I know).
Sab
@schrodingers_cat: My main issue with Palin, other than her politics, was her screeching voice. If you turned the sound off she was presentable, but if you turned it on then fingernails on blackboard all the way.
Frankensteinbeck
@schrodingers_cat:
I can’t think of any. She was mean, petty, greedy, and stupid. This was someone who stole from a green room – brought her family in to strip it bare – stuff that she would have been given if she’d waited two hours.
I mean, she looks like a goddess next to Trump, yes, but she was a terrible person and I found her physically repulsive even while I knew that a lot of other men didn’t. You could see the hate. It carves people, makes them ugly. Living in Kentucky, that was a look I got used to.
d58826
@Ridnik Chrome: klinger
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Since by all accounts Trump doesn’t read the only reasonable possibility of what Trump is doing with that book is polluting himself to the cover art.
Shana
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): No, they need to be exposed first so they can’t just slither off somewhere else without everyone knowing about their behavior.
Frankensteinbeck
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Like the difficulty he has lying about whether he disapproves of Nazis, think of it as ‘What does it mean that he makes exceptions for this particular thing?’
Brachiator
@Mike in NC:
What paper was this, The Onion?
Villago Delenda Est
@Ridnik Chrome: Corporal Klinger.
Emma
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: UGH UGH UGH. Did I need that image in my poor sinus-pain addled brain?
HeleninEire
@rikyrah: I’m hoping Trump fires him on day 364 just for spite. And shits and giggles.
d58826
@Emma: This is never going to get ‘resolved’. It is to deeply embed it our biology and sexual reproduction. Now the Weinsteins are easy to fix. It’s all of those grey area that involve flirting and dating. It wasn’t that long ago that Lucille Ball having her real life pregnancy on TV was a scandal. Bill Cosby (yea I know) as a black lead character in I Spy was ground breaking. If I remember correctly Rob and Laurie Petrie had to have separate beds. The alternative to a single bed was one of the spouses had to keep a foot on the floor, There are always going to be those grey areas and what is grey today may well be off limits tomorrow.
I’m old enough to remember when co-ed dorms was cutting edge scandalous.
Amir Khalid
@Ridnik Chrome:
@d58826:
Corporal (later Sergeant) Klinger was Lebanese-American, like Farr, and occasionally spoke in Arabic. I’m not sure if that would fly today, either.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Scarborough is currently trending on twitter
Love it.
Pivot!
catclub
@germy:
Matt lauer apparently had the biggest salary at NBC, so now they will be competing to get more of it.
d58826
@Brachiator: Given Der Fuhrer it might well be true. I’m not sure how the Onion can keep ahead of all this
catclub
@Frankensteinbeck:
Praise from the praiseworthy.
Amaranthine RBG
@HeleninEire:
I’ve seen other mentions here of firing him at day 36X, maybe by you.
Is there some significance of firing him at slightly less than a year? Does he get something if he hangs in a full year?
catclub
@Fair Economist:
The training always gets called sexual harassment training, not sexual harassment prevention training.
schrodingers_cat
@Frankensteinbeck:
I should have added that qualifier. Her redeeming quality, whatever she was, she was self made and not born to millions.
Stan
@Starfish:
Nope, just creates an opportunity for someone not in Puerto Rico. This is not accidental.
schrodingers_cat
@Sab: Agreed about the voice. T is worse though.
TriassicSands
@Steeplejack:
With a bazooka, of course.
Stan
@Immanentize:
Isn’t that for trade between states?
MaryL
@TriassicSands:
I think it’s true, but I don’t think the time period has that much to do with it. There are PLENTY of people who think nothing of this kind of thing, which is the primary issue, imo. The essence of rape culture is that people assume abuse behavior is not abusive, simply because it’s so widespread and people who engage in it don’t necessarily mean it “that way.” It’s the same with racism – racists/sexual harassers are bad people; I’m not a bad person; ergo, that thing I did or said wasn’t racist/harassment.
NorthLeft12
@Frankensteinbeck: I agree with your Palin comment 100%.
No matter how attractive a person is, there is nothing after you find out enough about them to basically wipe that advantage out. And besides, her voice was absolutely grating. Just an awful human being IMO.
d58826
@Amir Khalid: Probably not. The sad thing is the character was in no way disrespectful of Arab American culture. Sure there were some jokes about the salami but then we will have to eliminate jokes about chicken soup being Jewish penicillin. As far as the cross-dressing the whole guy movement was so far off the radar it wasn’t even on the plant. But even there it wasn’t aimed at real cross dressers it was a con to get out of the army and everyone was in on the joke.
There was a stage show – ‘do patient leather shoes reflect up’ . You had to have gone to Catholic schools and experienced the nuns to get the joke. Is that out of bounds now also. We can get TO sensitive.
And don’t even think about Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck and the rest of the loony toons. To my way of thinking they rank right up there with Shakespeare as classics
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
Well, they never have been imports in historical time. But these are Republicans, and we know that nowhere that speaks Spanish can be American, right? Right? So Genocide is the only answer, right? RIGHT?
Of course, major Pharma corporations have plants there manufacturing the most modern medicines, so this would boost health care costs, JUST LIKE OBAMA DID! //s
Emma
@d58826: @d58826: And it’s a terrible minefield to negotiate. I had the same problem when I was studying history. So many people behaved in ways that would have them ostracized today, yet, in order to evaluate their lives, you had to take the morality of the time into consideration. Which is easier said than done, even by professionals. And don’t get me started on the moral scolds.
No Drought No More
O’Reilly, Rose, and Lauer can already form a bowling team, and after the next head falls they’ll be able to play poker together once a week, too. By the time spring training rolls around again, they might well have enough candidates to field a softball team. They could name that team the Slaughtered Pigs.
catclub
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Tom Ashbrook on NPR is my most annoying interviewer for interrupting, or just answering his own questions rather than listening. Not exactly Terri Gross of Fresh Air.
HeleninEire
@Amaranthine RBG: Yes. As a member of the cabinet he was required to sell any stock or holdings in companies that could possibly pose a conflict of interest with his job. He did so. To compensate for that requirement, he will not have to pay taxes on his gains. But only if he works for the government for a minimum of a year. If he leaves at day 364 he owes taxes. Estimates for him are at 70+ million.
Amaranthine RBG
@HeleninEire:
Oh my
Thank you for the info
bemused
@Mnemosyne:
This trent person has a creepy Franken obsession, acts like a would be lover spurned.
gratuitous
I remember Lauer “interviewing” Candidate Trump back in 2016. Trump was on the rampage about something or other, and Lauer was dancing as if Trump was firing a six-shooter at his feet. Trump said he wanted to send a very definite message to Hillary Clinton, and Lauer couldn’t toady basely enough in saying that any message Trump wanted to send to Clinton, Lauer would personally make sure it was delivered. He all but put on a Western Union messenger boy cap.
It was nauseating.
d58826
@Emma: Jefferson owned slaves and his ‘mistress’ was black. I put the word in quotes because mistress implies some agency in the relationship. Sally Hemmings had none no matter what level of affection Jefferson may have had for her.
Chyron HR
@bemused:
Trent’s probably a little sore after his crushing defeat in the VA elections a few weeks ago.
Amaranthine RBG
@Stan:
It reaches just about anything the Supremes say. Famous case held that it could be used as basis to regulate grain a farmer grew on his own land to feed his own livestock. I believe that was Wickard v, Filburn or something close to that.
NorthLeft12
@Amaranthine RBG:
Please clarify. Was he physical or threatening or over the top persistent? I don’t believe we are at a point in time where unwelcome advances are considered criminal behavior.
J R in WV
@Barbara:
Pretty sure that won’t stand up in court, you can’t interfere with interstate commerce, how would this be different? It’s part of the US, it isn’t a foreign producer. No matter how much the Rs hate that, all the PR people are Americans. That’s why they can flee their island and come to live in FL – where they will take that state away from the Republicans for two generations. Hahahaha!
bemused
@Barbara:
I like Rubin’s oped too. When she came out as a conservative realist, she went all in. No holding back, tells it like she sees it. “Really the GOP has no clue what to do about women” is also great.
prostratedragon
Something to get the water boiling for tea time:
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Frankensteinbeck:
Trump literally maybe so dumb and incurious he doesn’t know what Nazi is beyond they wear cool uniforms so he wants one himself and Nazis upset people Trump wants to upset. He really has a teenage boy’s understanding of the world.
catclub
@Calouste
the ONLY place I hear about the NPR news exec who was fired is on NPR! I think nobody else cares. [NPR reports it as if to say: “we are relevant,too”]
similar for the Sanders campaign, now.
Barbara
@Sab: I like Vox’s health care coverage. They have been stalwart and exceptionally lucid on the various ACA repeal initiatives, as well as the opioid crisis. They have also had go to articles on the emergence of white supremacy, and in particular, a shocking and depressing article about how misogyny has become the gateway bias for grooming certain kinds of men to accept neo-Nazi views. Occasionally they have good human interest stories or interviews. Matt Yglesias can be a good writer but he is overrated.
Cckids
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Matthews has always struck me (as a woman), more of the type who’d call women “Sweetie”, or doubt their professional capabilities when they have kids, etc. Dismissive rather than grope-y.
Though very little would surprise me when it comes to men in power.
Cacti
The 2016 election was like an episode of the Little Rascals.
Hillary was Darla and Trump and the librul media were the “He-Man Woman Haters Club”.
Amaranthine RBG
@NorthLeft12: Creepy and shockingly vulgar. One woman said he was so gross that she thought he was making a joke she didn’t understand at first. No physical force.
Not saying it is criminal in this context. And, like I said, it’s possible he turned this behavior off at work.
Barbara
@J R in WV: My only point is that it could be a closer call than you think, depending on how one interprets “commerce among the states.” The fact that it singles out a specific territory (assuming that it does that) would be a point against it. The Jones Act, for instance, does not single out any specific territory but it hurts island territories and states like Hawaii much harder than it does the continental U.S.
Robin Gittelman
@Frankensteinbeck: Ouch! Come sit by me . . .
Barbara
@Amaranthine RBG: It is also possible that it is behavior that comes out when he is under the influence of alcohol — an underrated trigger for gross and derelict conduct of all kinds. It wouldn’t surprise me if the same were true of Lauer and others. It’s not an excuse.
d58826
@NorthLeft12:
Seems like a slap on the face,. knee to family jewels or a shot of mace would have been the proper response. No matter how much progress we make there will always be some people on on the boorish male chaventist pig side of the bell shaped curve. Goal is to shrink that left tail to the absolute minimum
Emma
@d58826:Most of the southern Founding Fathers owned slaves. Some of them really, really understood the terrible rift the institution imposed on the new nation, but after political calculations believed it was the lesser of many evils.Others simply did not believe black people could be equal to whites. It did not negate what they did in creating this nation, but it tainted their work. We’re still paying for their weakness. But did the motivation matter in the end?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@NorthLeft12:
To read Jessica Valenti, we’re at the
stage…
Ben burn
Maybe liberals are more degenerate than conservatives.
tracy ratclif
The only reason I’d miss Matt Lauer: he graduated from Ohio University and says nice things about Athens, Ohio and makes sure the Ohio University Marching 110 get featured in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. As a “journalist” he’s a waste of time.
d58826
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Or ‘I wore a clingy see thru blouse with no bra and he is staring at my boobs and he bears no resemblance to Robert Redford’.
rikyrah
Former Massey Energy chief executive officer Don Blankenship (R) plans to run for U.S. Senate seat held by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), WCHS reports.
Blankenship served a one-year sentence in prison for “conspiring to willfully violate mine safety standards.”
Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship to run for U.S. Senate
http://wchstv.com/news/local/former-massey-energy-ceo-don-blankenship-to-run-for-us-senate
zhena gogolia
@Tenar Arha:
Madeline Kahn FTW!
d58826
Heck I guess you can question my Mom’s sensitivity (definitely pre-feminist born 1920) since she said on more that one occasion about a male actor – ‘he can put his shoes under my bed anytime’
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Garrison Keillor just got fired for allegations. Lake Woebegone will never recover.
Gin & Tonic
Reportedly Garrison Keillor fired for inappropriate behavior.
ETA: too slow, dammit.
d58826
@rikyrah: well if you can have a child molster why not a murderer
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@rikyrah:
West Virginia may elect him. He’s not a politician, he’s “authentic” and speaks his mind.
SFAW
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
Why are you even responding to Argle Bargle? He’s a known troll, just (usually) less of a dick than “some guy.” and a couple of others whose nyms/noms I (thankfully) can’t recall at the moment. But being less dickish does not mean he’s not a troll.
SFAW
@rikyrah:
Probably the only person who could make Cole give his strong support for Manchin.
ETA: Blankenship will run on a platform of providing more mining jobs. Because, after all, miners killed due to the mine owner’s negligence need to be replaced from time to time.
Stan
@Emma:
OMG. ALL of the slaveowning class in the founding era knew damned well what they were doing. That is the same era in which all the northern states abolished slavery. There was a wave of abolition from 1775-1800….that ground to a halt right where the border states would someday be.
The “standards of the time” was that slavery was evil and should be ended. Washington was implored to free his slaves and he did, but only in his will, not while it cost him anything personally.
Any notion that slavery was OK by the “standards of the time” is wrong for the founding era. Thus these slaveowners CAN be judged.
The notion that slavery was a positive good was propaganda from decades later.
socraticsilence
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Ehhhhh…. there’s s good portion of West Virginia that would love to see him dead that might be an impediment.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@SFAW:
Hell, looking for Cole to max out a donation to Manchin if BLANKENSHIP is the opponent.
zhena gogolia
@Amir Khalid:
Boy, if you remember that Klinger got a promotion, you must be a fan.
SFAW
Vis-a-vis Orange Elephant’s tweets about JoeScar: I think someone should do a little investigative research into all the persons who mysteriously disappeared after they refused an offer from Orange Elephant. “Wait!,” you say, “I haven’t heard anything about that!”
Nor have I — yet. But it would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Fair Economist
@J R in WV:
Puerto Rico isn’t a state, so that doesn’t apply. It’s morally and functionally wrong (because it will accelerate the collapse of PR) but it doesn’t violate that particular section of the constitution.
Fair Economist
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
Keillor can start a new show, “Lake Woeisme”.
SFAW
@socraticsilence:
And that’s why we have President Hillary Clinton, right?
Davebo
Seems the Olympics make Matt a little Randy.
Another Scott
@Emma: US Grant owned a slave, also too (as did his wife). Twelve of the first 18 Presidents owned slaves at some point. He was the last US President to have owned someone.
It was a toxic institution, in so many ways…
Cheers,
Scott.
Kathleen
@SFAW: A Rethuglican wet dream. A guy who actually killed people.
SFAW
@Cacti:
Alfalfa’s hair was better than Lying Littledick’s
SFAW
@Kathleen:
Mass murderer, I would say.
The only problem (in Rethugs’ eyes) was that he didn’t use a gun.
J R in WV
Regarding some of these folks being accused of improper behavior…
Remember that part of the role of comedians – clowns – is to break conventions. Throwing water on members of the audience, which usually turns out to be confetti, kissing people inappropriately and sitting on their laps across societal barriers. Franken’s kiss routine was evidently a 60 year old USO standard and Ringling Bros Barnum and Bailey’s Circus clowns use exactly the same routines.
Jesters and clowns were and are intended to break norms, to tell the King he is ugly and fat, to tell the President that he wouldn’t get the time of day from any woman on the face of the earth if he wasn’t a wealthy and powerful man. That’s what they do. Comedians ARE clowns, and their role in society is to break norms and make people laugh doing it. This is talking about their public role, not their behavior in private with those same people they can and do mug on stage.
These other guys – politicians and businessmen, producers, executives and network personalities – they don’t have that excuse. Their role in society is to enforce norms, NOT to break them, especially in secret. They should be busted, just as they are being busted right now.
And Senator Franken has transitioned from his career as a clown, who was hired specifically to break norms, into a Senator, one of the most important enforcer of societal norms. Maybe he has had problems making that transition, maybe not.
We don’t know yet, we may never know for sure. But as the Senator is doing a great job at enforcing norms as a Senator, so much so that people are uncomfortable under his questioning, I think we owe it to society to let him continue enforcing the laws and norms until evidence of his inability to adhere to norms in private shows up.
d58826
Well if they destroy the PR economy and force most of the residents to move to the mainland then that will leave a nice tropical paradise that the 1 % can buy dirt cheap and created an island wide gated community.
Suzanne
I have been anti-prominent public firings w/r/t #metoo, as I think it’s a disservice to the movement to take a few scalps and then just move on as if nothing has changed, which is what I predict will happen. We need to make real cultural change by having more women in leadership and places of prominence in every industry, at every level. Having said that, I hate Matt Lauer. He’s the worst kind of smug bastard. Glad he’s gone.
I am horrified to see that convicted felon Don Blankenship will be running for Senate in West by God Virginia.
Stan
@Another Scott: U
Yes, for a very short time. He freed him. He freed him while being pretty damned poor himself, unlike , say, Jefferson who just couldn’t give up all that wealth and sexy time.
As a general and president he did more to end slavery and postwar neoslavery than probably anyone not named Lincoln.
The Lodger
@Gin & Tonic: Dear President Obama,
Could you please ask Republicans not to do what Slobodan Praljak did?
Mnemosyne
@d58826:
I dunno, Bugs always seemed really into the cross-dressing IYKWIM (AITYD). He was like the precursor to Eddie Izzard.
Mnemosyne
@Ben burn:
I guess Dennis Hastert, who went to jail for molesting boys when he was a wrestling coach, was secretly a liberal the whole time.
Oh, and that Louisiana Republican who liked to wear diapers when he was seeing prostitutes — I guess he was a secret liberal too, amirite?
J R in WV
@Suzanne:
Not half so horrified as I am! But I must correct you. Killing all those guys via total failure to follow safety standards we have know will save lives for 100 years wasn’t a felony, just a misdemeanor, which is why he only served a year in prison. The felonies he was tried for were involving stock market deception, of which the mining community jury found him innocent. They were not informed about which charges were felonies and which charges were misdemeanors before deliberating.
I am certain that the jury THOUGHT they were convicting Donald B of a felony, failing to follow safety standards leading to the deaths of 29 men. And that stock market stuff had to be a misdemeanor, just paper work bullshit, right? Right!
He may need to be careful making personal appearances, as I am sure many of those who lost loved ones are quite good long range shots. Since he can afford to buy all the TV stations in the state, maybe he plans to run an all-commercial no personal-appearances campaign?
He’s been running commercials about how honest he is and how rotten Joe Manchin is for months now. Everything that went wrong at his mine was the fault of the government, as controlled by Joe Manchin!! Just ask the miners…oh wait, you can’t! They’re all DEAD and it’s Unca Joe’s fault!!
Gravenstone
@Stan: Those manufacture and packaging plants just don’t pop up overnight. We’re putting a new chemical manufacturing building on my site here at work, and that’s an 18-20 month endeavor – from ground breaking. Not including the funding approvals, planning, quoting, zoning approvals, resource acquisition … then finally the build.
BC in Illinois
@Stan:
@Another Scott:
And as Joan Waugh (Prof of History, UCLA) points out in “Grant: Life before the Presidency“:
Robert Sneddon
@BC in Illinois: I was reading recently about a slave that George Washington owned. She ran off when she was with the family in a non-Slave state and he spent a certain amount of time and effort to get her back, including using his status as Founding Father to pressure the local authorities to help track her down and posting a reward for her return in the newspapers. Fortunately for her she managed to remain free.
The Simp in the Suit
@Trentrunner II – Pie Is Squared:
Will.Not.Matter.
The Simp in the Suit
@rikyrah:
And the miners will line up to vote for him.
WaterGirl
@bemused:
Yes, yes he does.
terry chay
Can the blog runners permaban trentrunner? I mean the guy is using differnt nyms to get around the pie filter. :(
WaterGirl
@J R in WV: I wholeheartedly agree with every word of your comment.
No One You Know
@catclub: The interview with the exec on NPR was reasonably good, I thought, on content. But, yeah, the whole thing read as virtue signaling, and then Nice Polite Republicans went back to doing what they do: softball for right wing, overtalk and leading questions for liberal guests. It’s getting very, very old.
No One You Know
@J R in WV: Co-sign!