Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

“But what about the lurkers?”

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

“woke” is the new caravan.

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

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

You are here: Home / Politics / Glibertarianism / Yo bum rush the show

Yo bum rush the show

by | 212 Comments

This post is in: 

The Washington Post just hired Megan McArdle.

Let’s review some of her greatest hits:

(1) Shooter-rushing as a way to minimized casualties in mass shootings.

(2) Not admitting she fucked up her estimates of the costs of the Iraq War as percentage of GDP by a factor of ten.

What else?

I think that, as with Stephens, her derp-fu is too weak even for the Post’s totebag-adled readers. So this is harmless. I’m disgusted but I’m also amused.

Reader Interactions

212Comments

  3. 3.

    sherparick

    Because the asshole libertarian point of view does not get enough media space to spread their stupidity. One more of the many voices on the WaPo editorial page stating “Social Security” is evil and must be destroyed.

    Also, talk about failing upward.

  5. 5.

    Barbara

    I nominate Megan McArdle for a live demonstration of her “rushing the shooter” technique, so long as she signs a full release and waiver in advance.

  7. 7.

    My Truth Hurts

    I can’t stand her opinions and I hate to say it but she is not wrong in theory about adults rushing shooters. Children doing it is insane however if adults do it it screws up their OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act) and gets inside their heads because they expect to be in control of the situation. Rushing them can cause them to panic and not know what to do next. A lot of experts recommend it.

    Having said that I’d turn and run the other way.

  14. 14.

    oldster

    Don’t forget her proposal that citizens protesting the Iraq War should be beaten with 2x4s.

    And Tom Scocca has already discussed her horrendous response to the Grenfell Towers case.

    She is a vicious ideologue, bought and paid for by the Libertarian conspiracy against America.

  16. 16.

    Brachiator

    The Washington Post just hired Megan McArdle

    To do what?

    @My Truth Hurts:

    I can’t stand her opinions and I hate to say it but she is not wrong in theory about adults rushing shooters. … A lot of experts recommend it.

    Probably not many living experts.

  18. 18.

    StringOnAStick

    So little Miss Gastritis Broke My Calculator gets a WaPo gig? That should have gone to Roy Edroso, Driftglass, or one of our kittens; all are much better qualified than McMeeeeeeeegan.

  21. 21.

    My Truth Hurts

    @Brachiator: Since you’re not an expert maybe do some research on the subject before dismissing the idea outright. You might be surprised by what you find out.

  23. 23.

    TenguPhule

    @gene108:

    Failing upwards is a skill, I wish I could master.

    No you don’t, the end result of that would turn you into Donald Trump.

  29. 29.

    opiejeanne

    Didn’t she also propose that children should have canned goods at their desks to throw at a shooter?

  34. 34.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    @Barbara: “I nominate Megan McArdle for a live demonstration of her “rushing the shooter” technique, so long as she signs a full release and waiver in advance.”

    She can show us how it works at the forthcoming Bowling Green Massacre Zeroth Anniversary event.

  36. 36.

    laura

    @StringOnAStick: I’m with you on the Driftglass deserves a prominent place in our newspapers!!!
    Also, I hope your spouse’s CLL is well under control and not causing you any agita.

  37. 37.

    TenguPhule

    @opiejeanne:

    Didn’t she also propose that children should have canned goods at their desks to throw at a shooter?

    No, I believe it was textbooks as shields.

  39. 39.

    Leto

    @My Truth Hurts: @Another Scott: Scott is correct. Literally every Active Shooter poster we have, along with all the Active Shooter training we receive, say fight as your last resort. Granted I’m in the military so take that collective knowledge with a grain of salt. But hey, if you want to rush’em, more power to you!

  40. 40.

    My Truth Hurts

    @MJS: Calm down there internet tough guy. I’m not trying to “win” anything here, just pointing out that it’s a valid tactic if necessary because this is a discussion thread and we’re supoosed to discuss different aspects of the topic above. Does your ass hurt from having your head so far up it all the time?

  42. 42.

    germy

    There used to be a wonderful blog devoted to analyzing megan’s columns. I think it was called the hunting of the snark. It doesn’t seem to have been updated lately. That blogger would have been a better choice for the WaPo than megan.

  43. 43.

    kindness

    I subscribed to the WaPo specifically because I didn’t want to give the FNYT a dime of my money and my local paper (the SF Chronicle) which I do get a dead tree version of isn’t of the same league. I am saddened that the WaPo seems to look at the NY Times and says to itself ‘Damn! I better up my game!’.

    Megan is not upping the game in a manner I can be happy with. I’m having a hard enough time liking Jennifer Rubin’s stuff after she sucked so bad during Obama’s terms.

  44. 44.

    Jeffro

    @unpopularopinion:

    “Democracy dies in darkness” and it can also be smothered in BS.

    This is a great quote for everyone to use when you email the editor in chief of the WaPo…everyone’s going to take 30 seconds to do that at some point later today, right? Couldn’t hurt.

  45. 45.

    p.a.

    D. Black:

    Democracy Dies In McArglebargling
    The Post has hired McArdle. Of course they have. Where else can we find such well-researched ideas.

    How could anyone react to it all? The easiest way to recover one’s bearings was to look away from Trump for a while. The worst piece of journalism of the year — or as bad a piece as any, and a failure defining our moment — didn’t even have to do with the United States. It was a think piece by Megan McArdle for Bloomberg View, dashed off immediately after the Grenfell Tower fire.

    It didn’t really have to do with Grenfell. With less than half the eventual death toll on the books, McArdle felt the urge to warn, in abstract economist terms, against overvaluing the lost lives. “It’s possible that by allowing large residential buildings to operate without sprinkler systems,” McArdle wrote, “the British government has prevented untold thousands of people from being driven into homelessness by higher housing costs.”

    The reall issue with Grenfell was the cladding material used on the building, which was not appropriately fireproof and which is banned for such uses in communist countries like the United States. Accepted figure seems to be that the added cost of fireproof cladding would have been about $450,000, or $3750 per unit. Figure a 20 year lifespan (I am making this up) and that’s 15 bucks per month per unit (add financing, take away depreciation – I don’t know how UK taxes work on this stuff).

    Cost benefit analysis is very serious, especially when you don’t even make a half-assed attempt to do it as I just did in 5 minutes or understand any of the issues involved. But, hey, the people died because capitalism is always good.
    by Atrios at 11:01

  46. 46.

    opiejeanne

    @TenguPhule: Someone proposed the chucking of canned goods at a shooter.
    I don’t know about you, but when I was in K-2 I probably couldn’t have thrown a soupcan very far.

  49. 49.

    Inventor

    My grandma and your grandma
    sittin’ by the fire
    my grandma tells your grandma
    we’re gonna set your flag on fire!
    talkin’ ’bout
    hey now! (hey now!)
    hey now!
    aiko aiko aindee (ooohhh!)
    Jocomo fi na ai na ney!
    Jocomo fi na ney!

  50. 50.

    NCSteve

    Sweet onion relish.

    She’s back. Just when you think she’s finally sunk into well-deserved obscurity, someone feels the need to lift her higher. The Glibertarian Bill Kristol. The most infallible identifier of the wrong answer by selecting it since Colonel Klink. She’s like a nest of insecticide resistant cockroaches. A stupid opinion page editor’s idea of what a smart contrarian sounds like. You can actually sense her frustration that no good opportunity has yet arisen for her to write those columns suggesting that the phlogiston theory of combustion, the luminiferous aether of electromagnetic radiation propagation, the humoralist theory of disease, may not have been given a fair shake.

    All across America, opinion writers who are smart, articulate, have actual subject matter expertise rather than dilettantish arrogance, and who have been repeatedly been proven right are languishing on DFH dying blogs or eking out life on a red-state school teacher salary so that the chronically wrong and, often, demonstrably malevolent, can continue in their top-tier sinecures. For just a brief period, I allowed myself to believe that McMegan McArglebargle’s steady decline from prominence to ever-increasing obscurity gave cause for some tiny shred of hope that meritocracy might creep into the opinion pages of our major outlets. And now that faith is shattered. Thanks WaPo.

  52. 52.

    My Truth Hurts

    @Leto: I’ve already agreed it’s a last resort. I also agree it’s not for children. It’s still a valid tactic if necessary, that’s all I’m saying. What is everyone’s problem with that?

    Also I don’t give a fuck if you’re military. That means nothing to me. For all I know you’re clerk on a supply ship stationed in Guam.

  54. 54.

    TenguPhule

    @opiejeanne: Her idea was worse. Using textbooks as shields while charging at the shooter.

    Remember, her ideas are not merely stupid, but completely batshit insane.

  55. 55.

    MJS

    @My Truth Hurts: What an odd reaction to me pointing out that you edited your original comment to the point of completely changing it (i.e., you originally agreed with McArdle that yes, teaching children to rush a shooter was in fact a valid approach) AND that you consider something identified as “the last resort” to be “recommended by experts”. The reason your Truth Hurts is because it’s painfully stupid.

  58. 58.

    burnspbesq

    Jeezus. First voice I heard today was Orrin Hatch, lying his ass off ( he gave a 15-minute “keynote” for a Brookings webinar on the new tax law that I dialed into). And now this?

    It’s only Tuesday, but this is already a bad week to stop sniffing glue.

  59. 59.

    My Truth Hurts

    @MJS: I edited my comment and even said I edited my comment. I didn’t realize she had recommended it for children. I stand by everything else I posted but good for you for winning today. You’re super smart!

  61. 61.

    TenguPhule

    @Sab:

    But as step one of our middle-aged life change, we should be kind, although mean-ness is more natural.

    We will kindly ship Megan off to the tumbrels, which I understand can be a bit mean.

  62. 62.

    lowtechcyclist

    @germy:

    That blogger would have been a better choice for the WaPo than megan.

    Hell, most of the front-pagers here at Balloon Juice would be a better choice than McMegan. We’ve got a damned good crew of front-pagers.

  64. 64.

    narya

    JesuschristOnRollerblades. I was contemplating dropping my FYNYT sub and adding WaPo, but I really loathe McArgleBargle. Glib, entitled, and doltish, and a crappy writer on top of that.

  65. 65.

    trollhattan

    A WaPo perch gets her more talking head appearances on the political “news” shows so yeah, this is a double-bad thing. Her ability to craft a career out of nothing more than connections and the ability to match subject and verb in sentences, while sporting glasses is a thing of wonder. Sippy Cup follows closely in her footsteps.

  67. 67.

    hitchhiker

    I have a better idea, Washington Post. You should hire Betty Cracker for your op ed page. She’s smarter, a much better writer, more human by a mile, and just generally someone people would pay to read.

    sigh. This makes me think of my reaction every time I walk past a grocery store display of novels. Are there really only a dozen people in the whole country who are designated as the ones we need to hear from over and over and over?

  68. 68.

    TenguPhule

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Hell, most of the front-pagers here at Balloon Juice would be a better choice than McMegan.

    Hell, most of the common jackals here are better choices then McMegan.

  69. 69.

    TenguPhule

    @hitchhiker:

    Are there really only a dozen people in the whole country who are designated as the ones we need to hear from over and over and over?

    Two dozen. And yes, sadly.

  70. 70.

    Sab

    Inquiring minds want know: is she worse than Ruth Marcus? I think she actually is, on a regular basis.

  71. 71.

    Mnemosyne

    @trollhattan:

    It’s easy to get hired as a libertarian woman, because there’s not much competition. The stupidity explains why she’s a libertarian in the first place.

  73. 73.

    trollhattan

    @burnspbesq:
    Hatch has really let his freak flag fly in the last year, either from tertiary Republican prion disease ( ™ Charlie Pierce) or because this is what he believed all along, but was playing “nice” to his Mormon voters. Fvck that guy.

    Now watch Utah send in somebody half his age and even worse.

  74. 74.

    TenguPhule

    @Sab:

    Inquiring minds want know: is she worse than Ruth Marcus?

    Yes. The woman compared people dying in a building fire to the evils of being homeless.

  75. 75.

    Mnemosyne

    OT, but I have to admit I laughed when I received a fundraising email from Joe Kennedy III titled, “Me Again!”

    I’m still not going to give Move On any of my money, but that was good marketing.

  76. 76.

    opiejeanne

    @TenguPhule: She misunderstood the textbook thing, which is to throw them at the shooter, not to use them as shields. Again, this will not work with the 5-6yo set. Works best with jr hi and up.

  77. 77.

    TenguPhule

    What the hell, Balloon Juice?!

    Why are there ads of scantily clad young women trying to sell me corsets?!

  80. 80.

    Leto

    @Mnemosyne: Or USAF Staff Sgt Spencer Stone, who has a Clint Eastwood movie coming out about it. Of course he and his companions were extremely lucky in that the guy’s AK47 malfunctioned because otherwise the story would have a very different ending.

    Back to McArgle: I googled “stupid shit Megan McArdle has written” and was not disappointed.

    Nice summary of stupid shit since 2001: Megan McArdle has a lot of bad ideas

    Regarding the birthday list she wrote: Privilege Avatar Megan McArdle Pulls Off the Rare “Owned Trifecta”: Original Own, Self-Own, Crowd-Own

    @lowtechcyclist: But does anyone notice a top 10k most popular blog, apart from this hive of jackals?

  81. 81.

    GregB

    I believe the official Ayn Randian position on mass shooter response is for the adult to encourage the children to rush the shooter, chanting “Long live John Galt” while the adult slips out of a back window.

  85. 85.

    Brachiator

    @My Truth Hurts:

    Since you’re not an expert maybe do some research on the subject before dismissing the idea outright. You might be surprised by what you find out.

    Bite me.

  89. 89.

    Ben Cisco

    So a plum job gets handed to one of the most aggressively stupid people on the planet because OF COURSE SHE WAS HANDED THE JOB.

    A block of pink Himalayan salt has more sentience and logic, and probably also possesses a better writing style to boot.

  93. 93.

    Amir Khalid

    @My Truth Hurts:
    What McArdle advocated would condemn an adult unarmed hostage, let alone a six-year-old, to all-but-certain death for a very low chance of success. It was barbaric and stupid to suggest it as a plausible action. No framing changes that.

  94. 94.

    Butch

    Have you ever looked at the comment section to her articles? They’re a cheering section, along with some disparaging remarks about anyone who might dare challenge her wisdom.

  95. 95.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?

    @p.a.:

    “It’s possible that by allowing large residential buildings to operate without sprinkler systems,” McArdle wrote, “the British government has prevented untold thousands of people from being driven into homelessness by higher housing costs.”

    Dead god.

  101. 101.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?

    Has it always been this bad? Where incredibly stupid people continue to fail upwards? Or is this more evidence of the decay of our civilization?

  102. 102.

    Humdog

    Although I haven’t pied it, thinking about reading pie facts from such a self important nym as My Truth Hurts gives me a giggle.

  105. 105.

    Arclite

    @p.a.: subscribe to the Guardian. Another advantage they have is no pay wall, so money you spend goes to helping others who wish to stay informed but may not be able to afford to.

  107. 107.

    Brachiator

    @? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?:

    Has it always been this bad? Where incredibly stupid people continue fail upwards?

    I think this is the way of the world. In some societies, a formal class system helped smooth the path for some people. In the world of journalism, people cultivate relationships that helps them land jobs without respect to any depth or talent (except for being able to bang out columns on demand).

    What is doubly sad is that as newspapers and magazines die, the mediocrities keep rising up. I know of some great veteran journalists who were laid off from various California papers who tried to found a web site. Unfortunately, they couldn’t make it work.

  110. 110.

    Immanentize

    Eat an entire back of deep fried dicks.

    Just got back from lunch — went to the newish BBQ place around the corner, had a half-rack of baby back ribs. Yummy

  111. 111.

    bemused

    @NCSteve:

    So many of these rightwingers get reborn over and over. Just when you think they are permanently irrelevant, it’s “liberal” media who revives them! I was just wondering whatever happened to Dick Armey. He was a huge player in the tea party/freedom movement.

  112. 112.

    LAO

    @Immanentize: Hey there — I have a weird evidentary issue, can I run it by you? I’m not sure it’s even a problem, but it’s bugging the shit out of me.

  113. 113.

    Immanentize

    @Sab: I’ve got Annie Liebovitz teaching photography on Master Class web site….
    I like some of her work, but she is not one of those kind persons you seek.

  116. 116.

    Tenar Arha

    @Mnemosyne: It’s like, I get it, column writing as it is currently done, is hot takes that are repetitive & always a combination of instinct & ignorance. I tend to agree with driftglass, it is designed to tell a chunk of people reading these papers that the status quo is okay or unsolvable. Who would want that gig, if they had to do it this way? So McMegan is perfect for this job.

    I really wouldn’t wish my worst enemy a regular columnist gig if this is the point of 1/2 or more of the editorial page. Plus I also vaguely remember when TNC turned down the FTFNYT. Didn’t he say something about how it would have probably at some point required him to talk about something he didn’t know anything about and how he didn’t want that?

    However I do wonder if, for example, Digby is available, would she be able to define the gig where she’s the designated squeaky wheel, like Krugman? She’d probably have to spend 2-3 times longer working on her biweekly columns compared to her moronic colleagues who do “they say” because she refuses to stoop that low. I’m now I’m intrigued by how it’d play out if she got such a platform & wondering what she’d think….

    I dunno. Just spitballing a dream I guess.

    ETA Wishing for the future when the editorial pages of major newspapers actually reflect the liberal ideals of their readership. [chuckles]

  117. 117.

    danielx

    @TenguPhule:

    Why are there ads of scantily clad young women trying to sell me corsets?!

    What, you have a problem with it? Could be worse, it isn’t pharmaceuticals or firearms.

  118. 118.

    ThresherK

    @dmsilev: I’m a user of my Kitchen Aid mixer, and I think Betty Cracker has shown one in her photos. Mine has flour, batter and icing “scars” worn with pride.

    McArdle’s sin is not using hers. Mine isn’t overpriced, because I use it. And it’s now 23 years old–which is cheap if you think of it.

  120. 120.

    patrick II

    “The 15:17 to Paris” is movie out now about successfully rushing a shooter. But that was about three young men, two in the military. So in the right circumstances, and part of that circumstance being brave, athletic service members in close quarterrs, rushing the shooter might work. In the context of Sandy Hook, where six and seven year olds were the majority of the victims, in a more open space, it was a ridiculous suggestion.

  121. 121.

    jl

    @danielx: Why is Jesse Ventura always yelling at me on this blog?

    If the WaPo gig doesn’t work out, Megan could do spots like that selling various moderately upscale kitchen gadgets. I wouldn’t buy a salt grinder specially designed for pink Himalayan salt, but it would be fun to watch her start the pitch before I turned to sound off.

  122. 122.

    LAO

    @Immanentize: OK — Here it is:

    Defendant is on trial for, among other things, a drug conspiracy. A cooperator is on the stand saying that he sold drugs to the defendant and knows the defendant sold drugs to other people. AUSA then asks if the witness sees anyone in the courtroom who defendant sold drugs to, and the witness identifies a guy in the audience by name. Later the government argues that the guy in the audience was a conspirator (an unindicted co-conspirator) and reminds the jury that he was in the courtroom.

    Of course, defense counsel doesn’t object, so good luck to me. I think, because the random guy in the audience wasn’t indicted — I can argue the summation was improper witness bolstering; I mean there is no evidence he was a co-conspirator other than the AUSA’s claim.

    I don’t know. The whole trial was fucked up, so there is plenty to argue but this really irritates me for some reason.

  123. 123.

    Immanentize

    @SiubhanDuinne: I like the joke by the artist I formally respected named Woody Allen —
    “Modern Men and Women are those born between the time when Nietzche declared God is Dead and when the Beatles came out with their first hit single.

  125. 125.

    danielx

    @jl:

    If the WaPo gig doesn’t work out, Megan could do spots like that selling various moderately upscale kitchen gadgets.

    I’m sure there are a few Ron Popeil spots she could use for pointers. Why not learn from the best where possible?

  128. 128.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    Herm. Nitpick: the “bum’s rush” is a method of grabbing someone so you can keep their center of mass below their hips so their feet can get no purchase, pursuant to pitching them flat on their face. The bum is being “rushed” (hurried) out of the establishment. Yes, language evolves, etc., but BUMS DO NOT RUSH AT THINGS! They’re survivors; if they “rush” it might be to (as Miracle Max might put it) search the pockets for loose change, but not to be a scary mass (or scary single person).

  129. 129.

    TenguPhule

    @danielx:

    What, you have a problem with it? Could be worse, it isn’t pharmaceuticals or firearms.

    I object to the corsets. Although its not nearly as disturbing as the scantily clad women on this site now trying to sell me the other two you mentioned.

  130. 130.

    dnfree

    @Butch: Yeah, that’s what I just saw when I looked for the 45th birthday article. Apparently some people love her and feel sorry about all the hate she encounters.

  132. 132.

    jl

    @trollhattan: I keep getting baldness cures. I’m not balding. Why does the ad placement algorithm think I’m balding?
    Wsy my healthful slimming diet and exercise program is going, i may need a corset soon. I never get an ad for those.

    Is this the first sign AI is total BS and will crash human civilization in a mire of automated incompetence?

    Edit: humanity has been able to defeat human incompetence for untold thousands of years, because the attention that incompetent humans can give to being competence flags, and they wander off for a while. Human incompetence is inconsistently and incompetently incompetent, and thus can be defeated sometimes. AI incompetence will be relentless, nothing will stop it.

  133. 133.

    TenguPhule

    @jl:

    Is this the first sign AI is total BS and will crash human civilization in a mire of automated incompetence?

    I think Skynet is trying to drive us insane, then kill us.

  135. 135.

    Ohio Mom

    I am skipping to the end of the comments but I’m pretty sure no one else has this favorite.

    Back on the days she was the anonymous Jane Galt, she wrote about going with a friend on an impromptu outing to bar, and hanging out on the smokey patio, without her asthma rescue inhaler.

    Lucky for her (perhaps unluckily for the rest of us), a kind stranger who had obviously never heard of Ayn Rand lent her his abuterol when he saw her frantically wheezing and gasping for air. Somewhere, he is owed four puffs.

    The moral she drew from this incident was that it is too hard to keep oneself stocked with abuterol because regulations force you to go to the doctor once a year to get your prescription renewed, instead of letting abuterol be readily available over the counter.

    It has nothing whatsoever to do with taking personal responsibility for your own health.

    Sign me,
    One rescue inhaler in the house, another in my purse

  136. 136.

    trollhattan

    @dnfree:
    With all that spare time she probably sockpuppets the holy hell out of herself.

    “My dear Megan, I can’t possibly envision how you continue to stand so strongly against those who would denigrate your invaluable work and by extension break down the very country they live in. Please keep the light of liberty and free markets lit.”

    Rinse and repeat.

  137. 137.

    Citizen Alan

    @dnfree:

    The one with no kids?

    Why would anyone expect Jane Galt to have kids? They don’t appear anywhere in any of Ayn Rand’s works, so I doubt McIdiot knows what kids are. I certainly wouldn’t expect her to produce on unless a doctor told her that she was at risk of needing a bone marrow transplant someday so she decided to breed a possible donor.

  138. 138.

    TenguPhule

    @JPL:

    sean-hannitys-blog-speculates-that-obama-portrait-has-hidden-secret-sperm/

    smh.

    Make it stop. Just make it stop!

  139. 139.

    Kay

    They all get promoted and have jobs for life- no one knows why. A lot of attention gets paid to the peons but our elites are very low quality. Someone should write a contrarian column about how the problem isn’t the rank and file public- it’s the elites. They’re bad.

    This is a good piece on the scam that is “bonuses”:

    If given a choice, most workers would take a raise. When Aon Hewitt asked 2,079 American workers in a second, newly completed survey what they would like to see their employers do with their tax-cut windfall, 65 percent chose a pay raise — twice as many as any other option, including a bonus or a 401(k) contribution.

  140. 140.

    trollhattan

    @JPL:
    Those hands, did you see THOSE HANDS?!?

    I honestly think the artist is trolling the crap out of Trump, but maybe it’s just me. :-)

  142. 142.

    Kay

    Workers chose a pay raise over a bonus because they’re not dumb. They know a pay raise over time is worth more than a bonus. Given a choice between the sugar high of a bonus and the steady gains of a raise, they chose “raise”, which is smart.

    The people who don’t know that? The elites who promoted the bonus system.

  143. 143.

    Immanentize

    @LAO: Wow! It is kinda like a Bruton problem too — the other guy, by sitting there “testified” to the conspiracy. But, no objection either at the time or at the summation?
    OK — plain error analysis; highly prejudicial, uncorroborated, maybe slip in a 404(b) argument (that it would be inappropriate even under other bad acts?), ask the appellate court to remand for an evidentiary hearing regarding whether that was planned by the prosecutor and witness before, and argue prosecutorial misconduct in both the evidence/testimony and the argument? If the prosecutor asked the question, it was pre-arranged.

    But no preservation? harumph.

  144. 144.

    ThresherK

    @danielx: Somewhat cleaned, yes. Showroom clean? Not gonna happen.

    I have lubricated the gears inside, though. Priorities, I haz them.

  146. 146.

    opiejeanne

    @ThresherK: I bought mine at 40% discount with another $50 off sale when I worked at Williams Sonoma for Christmas in 2002. I use it pretty often; it replaced the one that I wore out the motor making bread after 20 years.
    McMegan bought some high-priced blender thingie, $600+ at the time and bragged that it made a perfect bechamel. I don’t think she uses that thing any more either.

  149. 149.

    Yutsano

    @Immanentize: GDI…I jus got paid, I’m an hour and a half from lunch, and I just read this. Would hate but damn if that isn’t a tempting dinner possibility.

  151. 151.

    Roger Moore

    @Mike in NC:

    How did this idiot not get hired to replace Sean Spicer or Seb Gorka?

    Lack of a Y chromosome. Also, too, insufficient hatred of non-white people.

  152. 152.

    jl

    @JPL: I dunno, That Gerald Ford is wielding some pretty upfront pipe action in his portrait, if you know what I mean. The Ford painting screams “Hey, you want some of my pipe? I got some damn fine pipe right here.”

  153. 153.

    Yutsano

    @opiejeanne: The thing that really gets me about this is béchamel is…not that hard to make. It just takes a bit of attention to details, which is half of cooking. I honestly don’t want a machine that does something for me that I can probably do better myself. And yes this might just be my inner French snob but seriously. If you’re THAT lazy in the kitchen get out.

  154. 154.

    trollhattan

    @Roger Moore:
    She’d turn into a puddle the first time Trump yelled at her and noted to the gathered sycophants she wasn’t nearly the “piece of tail” that Hope is.

  155. 155.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?

    @Sab:
    Fine, thank you for asking. My grandfather had been suffering from dementia for a long time and the last 3 years he became much worse until he had to be put in a nursing home the last year of his life. We’re relieved that he’s no longer suffering, but miss him greatly.

  156. 156.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Immanentize:

    It’s really tragic that he turned out to be such a terrible human being, because he was wise, funny, insightful, and unexpected. But I can’t bring myself to watch his films now, knowing what I know about his sordid private life. Cannot summon respect, and that really saddens me.

  158. 158.

    Brachiator

    @Ohio Mom:

    The moral she drew from this incident was that it is too hard to keep oneself stocked with abuterol because regulations force you to go to the doctor once a year to get your prescription renewed, instead of letting abuterol be readily available over the counter.

    She missed the even more obvious moral that the altruism of a stranger saved her ass, not being a self-sufficient, selfish libertarian.

  159. 159.

    Leto

    @patrick II: Regarding “15:17”.: (Italics mine)

    At approximately 17:45 CEST on 21 August 2015, Thalys train 9364,[14] traveling from Amsterdam to Paris, had just crossed the border from Belgium into France[15] when a 25-year-old Moroccan man, Ayoub El Khazzani,[16][17][18][19][20] exited the toilets on car No. 12.[21] He was shirtless[22] and armed with an AKM assault rifle,[2] for which he had nine magazines and a total of 270 rounds of ammunition. He was also carrying a pistol and a bottle of petrol.[4][20][23]

    A 28-year-old Frenchman identified only as “Damien A.”, who was heading to the toilet as El Khazzani was exiting,[17] attempted to restrain El Khazzani but fell to the floor in the struggle. An American-born Frenchman, 51-year-old Mark Moogalian,[17] intervened and successfully wrestled the rifle from El Khazzani,[24] but as he turned to move his nearby wife out of harm’s way was shot through the back with a semi-automatic 9mm Luger pistol the gunman had been concealing; Moogalian then played dead and the gunman retrieved the rifle.[24] [1][2][25][17][19][26][27][28]

    One of the passangers attempted just that; still got shot and almost died were it not for Stone’s (medic) intervention. Fight should be the absolute last option for when there’s literally no other way out, including barricading yourself in. And that’s for adults. Any talk about “oh, some type of advantage/throwing their OODA loop in a loop (lol, wut?)”, those people can take one for the team and go investigate what’s happening.

    Back to Argleblargle mocking.

  161. 161.

    Amaranthine RBG

    @p.a.:

    Yeah this is all pretty ridiculous. There are scores of talented, insightful reporters working at the NYT and WaPo but *some* people lose their shit because there are a handful of reporters/opinion writers who fail to brush the pretty, pretty mane of the purity pony.

    Some people need to get a little perspective.

  162. 162.

    Leto

    @opiejeanne:

    bragged that it made a perfect bechamel

    I do this with a pot, whisk, and spatula. I don’t understand how a machine even comes into play =/

  163. 163.

    Zach

    I can’t be mad at these little dweebs. I’m too busy laughing. And I think some in New York are going to laugh even harder when they try to unleash some civil disobedience, Lenin style, and some New Yorker who understands the horrors of war all too well picks up a two-by-four and teaches them how very effective violence can be when it’s applied in a firm, pre-emptive manner.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/10/violent-rhetoric-then-and-now/65122/

  164. 164.

    Jamey

    Of course those of us who have studied, practiced, and taught journalism for dozens of years are quite amused…

  165. 165.

    WaterGirl

    New BJ Rule: All Megan Mc Crap links must be clearly marked as such.

    P.S. Wonder how much her previous employer paid the Washington Post to take her?

  167. 167.

    Sab

    @Leto: You have a point, spurtle is easier to wash than the Kitchenaid and works as well. But it isn’t taking up half my kitchen counter, so I don’t have to use it to justify its existence in my kitchen.

  168. 168.

    sharl

    @germy: There used to be a wonderful blog devoted to analyzing megan’s columns. I think it was called the hunting of the snark. It doesn’t seem to have been updated lately. That blogger would have been a better choice for the WaPo than megan.

    That would be the most excellent Susan of Texas. She has seen this news and her twitter response has been on fire today.

    Susan of Texas @SusanofTexas

    It’s the strangest thing. I keep seeing a WaPo announcement that they hired a person who lied about data to rat-fuck the ACA and who lied about her connections to the Koches to rat-fuck the ACA.

    And that’s not even getting into the fact that she’s as dumb as a stump. That she has poor reading comprehension and routinely embarrasses her owners by misinterpreting everything according her preconceived prejudices. That’s she’s racist, anti-gay marriage, and arrogant.

    I spent 9 years taking her apart brick by brick like a Lego. I know her work backwards and forwards. I don’t believe in self-promotion because I am too proud (and work for free anyway) but I’ll link to some of her greatest works today, by way of my blog.

    Don’t forget McArdle’s entire reason for existence is to kill national healthcare. By hiring McArdle, the Post is notifying the world that they will go all-out to kill Medicare for All.

    As you noted, her Hunting of the Snark blog hasn’t been updated for awhile. For her McMegan stuff it would probably be most efficient to scroll through today’s tweets from her, where she is linking to specific archival blog posts that document just some of McMegan’s atrocities against logical thinking and her general lack of human decency.

    ETA – I can’t help but wonder if this hire was the result of a directive from Bezos himself, e.g., “hey minions, hire a healthcare-for-all skeptic for the op-ed page.” If this is the case, she’s a bit of a curious choice, unless WaPo wants the hate clicks. (Maybe Avik Roy’s price was too high?)

  171. 171.

    TenguPhule

    @sharl:

    McMegan’s atrocities against logical thinking and her general lack of human decency.

    General? Don’t you mean complete?

  172. 172.

    patrick II

    @Leto:

    . Fight should be the absolute last option for when there’s literally no other way out,

    On a train there not a lot of places to hide. And the wounded man you are referring to would have most likely been shot whether he fought back or not. Although luck and circumstance were involved, rushing the shooter that day saved lives.

  175. 175.

    LAO

    @Immanentize: harumph indeed. Thanks for your thoughts. I’ve always argued every appellate lawyer should try at least one case and every trial lawyers should draft one appeal. Preservation, preservation, preservation!

  178. 178.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @ThresherK: For what it can be used to do, and the durability of the appliance itself, Kitchen Aid mixers are pretty reasonably priced, if you’re serious about using them.

    Of course, if you’re buying one because your kitchen should have one, yet you’re going to subsist on the fruits of your take-out menus, that’s another thing altogether, as you note.

  179. 179.

    LAO

    @Immanentize: Yes, but … only if clear from the the record, which is neigh on impossible. Best route in NY state court is a CPL 440.40 motion to the trial court –> appellate division –> Court of Appeals.

    ETA: if not clear enough, the appellate court will usually withhold a finding so as to permit the appellate to file the motion at the trial court. So, there is very little downside to pursuing the claim in a direct appeal.

    CPL 440.

  180. 180.

    LAO

    @WaterGirl: Making an evidentary objection in real time, so that the trial court can make a ruling on the record. When trial counsel fails to do that, most appellate courts will not address the error on appeal.

  181. 181.

    Immanentize

    @WaterGirl: In order to “preserve” an issue for consideration on appeal, the trial attorney must make:
    1) A timely
    2) Objection
    3) That is overruled by the trial court Judge.

    If you don’t, then the issue is considered “waived” (not preserved for appeal) and the Appellate Court will only consider the issue if it creates “plain error” (called different thing sin different States). But plain error is near impossible to demonstrate — It means that the unpreserved, waived evidence/action complained of was so prejudicial to the defendant that it rendered the entire trial unfair. That is a very high burden. So, every appellate attorney wants every trial attorney to object to everything that happens in trial that is wrong. Object, and get the trial Judge to deny the objection….

    Does that help?

  183. 183.

    WaterGirl

    @LAO: Thanks. That hardly seems fair, but I suppose your view of it depends on whether you are with the prosecution or the defense.

  185. 185.

    Leto

    @patrick II:

    Although luck and circumstance were involved, rushing the shooter that day saved lives

    Because it was literally their only option, hence: “Fight should be the absolute last option for when there’s literally no other way out”

  190. 190.

    Immanentize

    @LAO: Too true. Working atthe Supreme Court level is mostly nice because there is very little client involvement in cases at that point AND one need only deeal with kibitzing peers. But come to think of it, they annoy the hell out of me too!

    I see a pattern emerging. My friend once gave me a card (still hanging on my wall) that says: “Remember — the only common factor in all your failed relationships is you.” OK, I accept that condemnation….

  191. 191.

    Mart

    @My Truth Hurts: I want no part of this pissing match… but – from the ads for Clints new “Murica fuck yea” movie; it looks like rushing the shooter is what the actual US of A heroes on the train in France did to overcome the terrorist shooter. I forget details, but recall one of them was shot up pretty good – but lived. Overall, rushing seems to have been their only option, and worked pretty well in the confines of a passenger rail car.

    As for me, would be trying to figure how to jump out the window to die before I get shot to death.

  193. 193.

    J R in WV

    @TenguPhule:

    Why are there ads of scantily clad young women trying to sell me corsets?!

    Obviously an Artificial Intelligence unit (aka artificial stupid) decided you need a corset stat, because you are off the Weight Watchers Diet plan.

    ;-)

  195. 195.

    Mnemosyne

    @patrick II:

    I think you guys agree with each other. “On a speeding train” seems to fit the criteria for being a place with very few options other than fighting.

    But it’s also notable that the people who successfully fought had some actual military training, which helped a lot.

  197. 197.

    Ruckus

    Why would someone hire this moron to write a column? Well first off she writes a lot on how bad national healthcare is or would be. Think about national healthcare from the standpoint of a rwnj newspaper owner. Healthcare is something they have to provide to get people to work for them. A perk. Taking that away from them to provide and control is taking away a piece of their largess, their magnificence, making them like all other bosses. It’s not that they like paying for the healthcare, they just really, really like that control. National healthcare is just one more step to ripping control away from them.

  198. 198.

    The Moar You Know

    As for me, would be trying to figure how to jump out the window to die before I get shot to death.

    @Mart: Something most people don’t know about trains but should: you can’t break the windows. There are exit windows, but those have a special gasket so you can just yank the whole thing out. They’re built to take the impact of large rocks (people throw shit at trains, who knew?) at a speed (in the US) of 100 mph. A train like that one in France, the windows are probably close to bulletproof.

    Like an airplane, when you get on a train figure out where the emergency exits are. Unlike an airplane, each train is different, no standardization, and they’re not marked well.

  199. 199.

    WaterGirl

    @Immanentize:

    “Remember — the only common factor in all your failed relationships is you.”

    Not exactly chipper, but I love that because it’s a good reminder. Plus, it made me laugh.

  200. 200.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    They don’t teach most people in the military to rush an active shooter. Doing that is Medal of Honor stuff. Usually awarded postumiously.

  202. 202.

    Jake the antisoshul soshulist

    I think the WaPo has one up on FTFNYT.
    FTFNYT does not have an equivalent to
    our lady of the gastritic calculator.

  204. 204.

    Brachiator

    @The Moar You Know:

    Something most people don’t know about trains but should: you can’t break the windows. There are exit windows, but those have a special gasket so you can just yank the whole thing out. They’re built to take the impact of large rocks (people throw shit at trains, who knew?) at a speed (in the US) of 100 mph.

    True dat. On my train commute, I sit next to or near the windows with the special latches. These windows are clearly marked. They also weigh 70 pounds each.

  205. 205.

    Mart

    @The Moar You Know: In my youth I commuted on Chicago’s West Suburban BNSF downtown and back. The windows opened. Express trains ran over 60 MPH. An acquaintances high school son, showing off after a free concert and a few drinks, stuck his head out the window. He was decapitated. Found a reference on the Google:

    Metra’s latest crackdown on rowdy revelers comes two years after a drunken passenger was decapitated when he stuck his head outside the window of a speeding train and hit a signal post. “That’s no way to celebrate Independence Day. We can’t ever have that happen again,” Knapton said.

  207. 207.

    Ruckus

    @Mart:
    People feel safe in their modern cars. Seatbelts, crumple zones, disc brakes, airbags….. And they are safer. Most don’t realize that a good part of the reason for this is government. Most in the US don’t travel to places that still aren’t as safe as here. The air is much cleaner, most of our water is as well. Of course our current maladministration wants to fuck that up. Fortunately they aren’t very good at even that. But they are giving it the good old stupid try.
    If most of the morons understood what it really was like 50 yrs ago, they really wouldn’t want to go back to the shitty old days.

  208. 208.

    Caphilldcne

    Wow. Just seeing all this. I am so pissed. I’m going to take a day to Chill before I act. I unsubscribed once before because of the hiring of Marc Thiessen (torture supporter) which lasted a decade before I missed Gene Weingarten so much that I finally decided to give in. This is such BS. Also I like being an old coot that actually gets the paper OMB weekends.

  209. 209.

    The Pale Scot

    And this why I cut the cable, both TV and internet, 6 months ago.
    I bike to the library to DL BJ and a couple of other things (Mike the Mad Biologist, LGM, Safari DLs pages as a single document, makes it easy) every couple of days.

    Trump has turned the necessity of the media’s flaming circuses to always get past 11. Everything is on course for the 6th major extinction event.

    Yeepee we’re all gonna DIE!

  210. 210.

    opiejeanne

    @The Pale Scot: Been trying to figure out where to move that’s safer than the PNW, 20 miles from Puget Sound and so far I haven’t seen any place that would be unaffected if Trump gets his wish.

  211. 211.

    burnspbesq

    @Immanentize:

    But no preservation? harumph.

    That may not rise to the level of ineffective assistance, but the overworked, underpaid PD done fucked up.

  212. 212.

    Xenos

    Someone on twitter had a graphic explaining this appointment – the second largest news aggregator sending clicks to WaPo is Drudge, and the largest advertiser on WaPo in terms of click-through to purchase is Amazon.

    In short, this helps put money into Bezos’ pocket, first at WaPo, then at Amazon. And people with disposable income an who like distant, efficient market relationships are exactly the sort who like to read McArdle.

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