Alex Pareene’s If You Truly Care About Speech, You Will Invite Me to Your Office to Personally Call You a Dipshit:
It’s not enough that I have the right to criticize Bari Weiss, James Bennet, and Bret Stephens here at the web publication I work for, or on Twitter, or really any other platform I have access to. The problem is that there is a platform I don’t have access to—the offices of the New York Times, specifically the opinion section—and, therefore, I have no way to personally and directly criticize the people I find objectionable. That is a clear-cut violation of the principle of open and lively democratic debate.
[…] How is that acceptable? How will the minds of the New York Times opinion section staff ever be expanded, how will they ever leave their ideological bubble, if they aren’t exposed to ideas that challenge them, like “all of you are charlatans”?
I know it won’t be the last word, but I wish it was. Open thread.
TenguPhule
The greatest freedom is to receive the consequences of your own behavior.
Corner Stone
Bari Weiss on Morning Joe was a revelation. I am converted to the Cult of Teh Savvy now.
MisterForkbeard
Pretty much. This is what it means when someone (the right-wing, and some lefties who don’t understand the argument) imply when they get mad about students opposing a speech at their location by Republican Nazi Asshole Flavor Of The Week – it’s not about free speech. These folks are still perfectly free to speak whenever they like on other accommodating platforms. Not getting an invite (or conversely, being cancelled when the local students and stakeholders object to offering THEIR platform to the speaker) isn’t an attack on free speech – it’s an attack on someone odious using their specific platform to move their views forward.
Raoul
NYT columnists:
8/10 male
9/10 white
Happy Women’s Day, btw.
Sab
I don’t care about what is on the editorial pages of the Wall Steet Journal. For the exact same reason I don’t care what is on the editorial pages of the New York Times.
Why are we even debating this? Who cares? Who reads?
kindness
I love it. You know what that piece reminds me of? When the Onion ran that piece on ‘Why Do All These Gay Men Keep Sucking My Dick?’
oatler.
But marketing studies have shown! Our figures indicate!
Calouste
@MisterForkbeard: Lots of people seem to miss that the first amendment starts with “Congress shall make no law…”.
The Moar You Know
@Sab: Neither do I.
Sadly, a fair number of voters and a lot of the “decisionmakers” do.
Corner Stone
@Sab: While I support your choice to inoculate yourself against the evil stupidity of both the WSJ and NYT, I am afraid their reach is a little longer than the Sab household.
raven
“I know it won’t be the last word, but I wish it was.” What I like best are the constant “you should unsubscribe” posts. I’ll subscribe to whatever the fuck I want to.
different-church-lady
@Sab: Opinion IS the news now. Nobody gives a shit about facts in reporting. It’s all entertainment, and this entertainment is driving voting.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
No one is entitled to an audience. This isn’t hard.
Steve in the SFO
@MisterForkbeard: unrelated, your story checks out. My Redwood City guy lives close to Refuge says he’s a regular and it’s great. You now have cred with regard to food in addition to your previously established beer cred.
Congratulations.
Yutsano
@MisterForkbeard: http://www.xkcd.com/1357
I’ve had to use this one so much it’s almost in my DNA at this point.
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Or this is basically wot you said.
Roger Moore
@MisterForkbeard:
The underlying problem is that there’s now an entire troll complex devoted to inviting objectionable right wing assholes to speak at colleges and then whining about the illiberal left if anyone complains. There are bonus points if Antifa (or anyone declaring themselves to be Antifa) shows up and starts a riot. The whole point is not the speech; it’s trolling the liberals and then having easy material for columns decrying liberals for getting upset about it.
Roger Moore
@Yutsano:
The alt-text on that one is even better than the main text.
Corner Stone
@Steve in the SFO: Union busting lawyer *and* an investigative journalist? Oh, Steve. Is there anything you can’t do?
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Yutsano:
When freedom of thought is somehow repressed, then right wingers can get back to me.
ruemara
I just discovered there’s a Black Panther Build a Bear and I’m thinking of making my 30 year old teddy jealous.
Also, fuck white male centered punditry.
Timurid
@kindness:
“You’re not here for the hunting, are you?”
Older
What this reminds me of is the best-ever letter-to-the-editor. Sent to the editor of Biblical Archaeology magazine, it read (approximately) “I am tired of all these readers writing in to complain about your editorial policies. Please cancel their subscriptions.”
gvg
I get the WaPo electronically. I have noticed that the morning email with links always has a lot of featured opinion writers and not many straight news reports. I read some of them but I do wonder if they are sending content based on what I have read in the past or if everyone gets about the same email. I click on some of the links….
Even the electronic page site of both WaPo and NYT’s is laid out differently than the paper copy. My parents get the NYT paper. they are in their 70’s and haven’t switched to the newer ways of getting news even though dad was actually a computer designer. I wonder though if the younger people even know “papers” are supposed to offer facts with just a few opinions somewhere. I have to hunt fact articles even on better news sites.
They still watch the news every evening and it’s not that bad. they found Maddow and Reid on their own, but I am not sure many others do.
I am a bit odd in preferring to read news because I can’t stand the noise of people yakking more than my taste.
Steve in the SFO
@Corner Stone: keep my souffle from falling. [sad face emoji]
Litlebritdifrnt
@Calouste: Exactly. The Government is not denying these people the right to speak. Period. As far as I am aware the Government hasn’t denied the right to speak since what Lincoln?
Yutsano
@Roger Moore: Che bella. I somehow forgot what that said there.
@ Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) : No one has ever told anyone in the at right that they can’t think what they think. Hell no one has ever said they can’t say it in public. They’ve even been granted public forums. It’s a great reminder of how their ideas aren’t nearly as popular as they think that these reactions happen.
Having said that: Antifa boo we gotta talk. The way you’re handling this shit ain’t working.
japa21
I will be an election judge on 3/20 for the Illinois Primary. Last year for a general election about the same time, April, we set up in a school and because school was open we were in a hallway way at the back of the school. This year, same location, but the district is closing all its schools (many are used as polling places) so it is easier for voters to get through the lines, etc.
It will also be a lot easier for us to do the set up and tear down.
ETA, Yes I know totally OT.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Raoul: I was thinking that today. I don’t read the NYT as much as I used to, but is Bob Herbert really the only full-time columnist who’s a person of color?
@The Moar You Know: Ezra Klein told the story years ago, so anecdtata, of being on an elevator in the Senate office building and one Dem gravely asked another, “Did you read Friedman today?” I don’t know if the Stache was calling for a very serious war, or for some very serious outreach from Dems to Rs, but can you imagine one of them every saying, in grave tones, “did you read Krugman today?”
Mnemosyne
Personally, I think we should all take our inspiration from Alexander Hamilton, who ran around downtown New York getting into fistfights with other speakers who disagreed with him about the Jay treaty with England. (He was for, they were against.)
Forcing Maureen O’Dowd or Thomas Friedman to publicly debate some of their critics would be win/win for everyone but them.
Yutsano
@Litlebritdifrnt: There was Schenck Vs the US in 1919 which found there were cases where the government could restrict speech. It was noted that this was a wartime restriction, which is something we should keep the Dolt45 administration blissfully unaware.
Mnemosyne
@japa21:
Thank you for your service. ??
Villago Delenda Est
He forgot to mention the dreck that is Douchehat, or Friedman Unit, or the particularly odious sack of barnyard waste that is BoBo.
Every one of these “thought leaders” needs to be taken to the cleaners, or in the case of BoBo, the back alley to be exsanguinated.
The Moar You Know
@Mnemosyne: I am a terrible debater and fundamentally not that bright but I have every confidence I could dismantle those two in any debate, any topic, any time, any place.
FlipYrWhig
@Roger Moore: I’m old enough to remember when this was called “Westboro Baptist Church.”
different-church-lady
@Villago Delenda Est: I’ve come to view the term “thought leader” to be an alternate way of spelling “bullshitter”.
Yutsano
@Villago Delenda Est:
Calling not-it on the clean-up!
Corner Stone
Ok, I need these idiots to shut up so we can get to Nicolle Wallace’s show.
Villago Delenda Est
@ruemara: White male centered punditry is a vile tumor on our polity. It should be excised aggressively and decisively.
FlyingToaster
@Yutsano:
Since there’s no such organization, good luck finding someone to talk to.
At the Boston counterprotests last year, bandana’d Antifa were the ones giving out bottles of water to people on the march and on the Common.
However, at the 2017 Women’s March, there were a few Black Bloc folk calling themselves Antifa (they were wearing what looked like boy burkas, but in black). Because there’s no actual organization called “Antifa”, anyone can cover their face and call themselves that.
If I could figure out better ventilation, I’d wear a fucking V mask.
–FT, back to waiting for Neversource to remove their fucking pole
Corner Stone
@Steve in the SFO: Well…you are in the SFO…no time like the present for some executive time education!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
So if I’m understanding twitter and my muted tele screen correctly, trump just signed another meaningless executive order with a lot of blue collar people brought in as props.
cthulhu
Good to see that Pareene has a new venue. I’ve tried to keep track of him since the Salon days.
geg6
@Villago Delenda Est:
Don’t forget the ladies. Specifically, MoDo.
Peale
@Yutsano: Well, since Korean and Japanese steel poses a security threat to the US, I’m imagining that people complaining about the tariff should just shut up lest they be seen as helping the enemy..
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Cadet Bonespurs just signed his bigly tariffs. This should be lots of fun. Of course, we can be sure that anything that goes wrong here will be Obama’s fault.
ruemara
@japa21: Thank you for doing this!
@Villago Delenda Est: considering how many of them find ways to bend over backwards & excuse Nazis, I’m willing to use a flamethrower.
germy
Corner Stone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I thought he left years ago? His twit feed says until 2011 and now with Demos Org.
ETA, Charles Blow is an NYT columnist
Immanentize
@raven: Seconded
The Moar You Know
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: If it’s that goddamned tariff bullshit, that is not meaningless. It’s a fucking catastrophe.
Yutsano
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Ad Mr Mayhew is so fond of saying: There Will Be Lawyers.
@FlyingToaster: Heh. I knew I needed a sarcasm tag there. I figured that was obvious. Not to mention these idiots claiming the name are showing up in oddly regular numbers. I smell copulation of rodentia here.
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Bob Herbert is at least retired and quite possibly dead. I think the one black oped columnist is Charles Blow, who is EXCELLENT.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
The Giant Evil Corporation is doing a huge push on diversity and inclusion and how it’s not just the right thing to do, it’s the profitable thing to do. Or, as Mr. Macy says in Miracle on 34th Street:
Hey, whatever works.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Corner Stone: Damn. Been longer than I thought. At the height of the Bush years, I knew every NTY and (almost) every WaPo columnist and what days they posted new stuff on.
ETA: part of the fun of the WaPo back in the day was the live chats columnists did, even Old Man Broder. There was this guy from Rochester who used to troll him beautifully. I wonder whatever happened to that guy
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
He’s alive but retired.
Corner Stone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s even better than that:
Bold added
oatler.
Even if Trump resigned today we’d have a bloody civil war.
Brachiator
@Sab:
Apparently, NY Times columnist Farhad Manjoo reads. He went luddite and read only print newspapers for two whole months. Oh, the horror!
Basically, he learned that Twitter and FaceBook are bad for you. Next, he is going to have lunch at one of the last Applebee’s with David Brooks.
So, college students protest and get rowdy, but the invited speaker still gets to give her speech and take questions. At the end of the day, the only negative outcome is that this provides grist for Fox News to do their inevitable BS on how college campuses have become liberal “no go zones” where Jesus loving all American conservatives fear to tread.
Mnemosyne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I saw that on the TV in the cafeteria and could not figure out where the hell Mike Pence was sitting or standing because he was proportionately so much smaller than Trump. I swear to God he looked like he was a ventriloquist’s dummy sitting on Trump’s lap.
Roger Moore
@FlipYrWhig:
Westboro Baptist had a slightly different trolling system. They protested offensively at military funerals in the hopes people would physically attack them and they could sue.
Aleta
@Raoul:
On one hand, a good thread, twitter NYT. (Obituaries for notable women who never got them.)
On the other hand: It never occurred to them to do this until women’s month?
Or more likely (and kinda worse): They did think of it some time ago, and said: “Hey good idea; save this for women’s month.”
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: You know, he probably is.
The Moar You Know
@Mnemosyne: It’s the weight. They’re just about the same height.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
again
Yutsano
@ruemara: That means that Dolt45 has his small hand up his butt and…Eww. Just…Eww.
FlyingToaster
@Yutsano: Sorry, I couldn’t tell you were in Comic Sans.
Aleta
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Or are low-cost actors easier and more obedient?
Major Major Major Major
@Corner Stone:
Cool. I hear markets love that sort of shit.
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Stormy knows all about trump not signing stuff…
Aleta
@Mnemosyne:
Really wish a cartoonist or clip artist would make this image, to scale.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Major Major Major Major: for all we talk about Russia– and we should probably be talking about it more– seems to me China is the big winner of the trump presidency.
Roger Moore
@Corner Stone:
Shorter Trump:bribes to lower your tariffs gratefully accepted.
Chyron HR
@Corner Stone:
Don’t miss tomorrow’s exciting episode: “Tariff No-Go” or “25 or 10 to Fair”.
Major Major Major Major
@FlyingToaster: can we agree that the people who believe that violence is the appropriate response to, say, a speech by Milo, should maybe …not do that? (I have friends who believe this. It’s a fringe position but not a straw man.)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: incidental though, it seems to me. They’re ascendant regardless, Trump is just creating even more vacuum for them to fill.
Corner Stone
@Major Major Major Major: Sure thing! Businesses LOVE making investment decisions for capital intensive projects not knowing if some rate will be jacked or some other one lowered. They love not knowing if their HQ country will get the whammy on any moments whim. It’s a real win-win, when you think about it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Fuck Mr. Macy and his fun house and lobotomy clinic. Am I still bitter about him laying off madame? Maybe.
rikyrah
They do not want ‘ freedom of speech.’
They want ‘freedom of consequences from said speech.’
Corner Stone
@Roger Moore: Shorter CEO who flatters Trump and has his ear: You know, that’s a nice little business they have going. Be a shame if anything happened to it. I mean, I am sure they didn’t mean to disrespect your manly authority or anything…
germy
Corner Stone
To be fair, it’s not like a President Oprah would be any better: “You get a tariff! And you get a tariff! Everybody gets a tariff!!”
Yutsano
@germy: Ball. In your court Yertle.
rikyrah
Just dust….
Tybre Faw traveled 7 hours to see his hero, Rep. John Lewis, who was in Selma, Alabama, to commemorate the anniversary of Bloody Sunday. The boy became emotional when they met, and Lewis invited him to march with him toward the Edmund Pettus Bridge https://t.co/VGMmKKUJ3F pic.twitter.com/XhZ2Yd8sdt
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 8, 2018
Mnemosyne
@The Moar You Know:
It’s not just that. Pence was somehow seated lower on the right side of the screen and was a smaller size than Trump in the middle of the screen. At first I thought he was a still image pasted in because the press conference was about him or something, but then he moved and blinked.
It was super creepy, even for Pence.
Major Major Major Major
@Yutsano: Yertle whose state’s economy will be affected by a retaliatory tariff on bourbon…
schrodingers_cat
@germy:New CNN headline: Having solved the DACA stalemate, Jeff Flake is taking his resolute leadership to another pressing matter,
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
FWIW, Mr. Macy is a fictional character — by the time the movie was made, no member of the Macy family was still involved with the store, as far as I know.
Macy’s has basically managed to kill their own company, so it may ultimately be for the best that Madame got out before the whole thing collapses, even though her departure was involuntary.
FlyingToaster
@Major Major Major Major: Sure.
But claiming that “Antifa” is violent is like claiming that food is Jello. Some food or foodlike substances might be, but the Venn diagram goes the opposite way.
Antifa is a label that anyone who wants to try to defeat facial recognition systems uses. Some of them are violent nazi-punching antifascists; some are gentle, water-bottle-distributing antifascists.
Like most of the jackals here, I run to the less-violence end of the spectrum. Even if we have sympathy for nazi-punching, we’re unlikely to endorse it unless the nazi starts vandalizing our shit. At which point, all Batman KA-POW!!! on the nazi’s stupid ass.
Yutsano
@Major Major Major Major: There’s fairly large IRS processing campus in Covington, which is just a burb of Cincinnati really. Still it’s south of the river, so there’s that.
You also forgot horses. Apparently they’re still a thing there.
Corner Stone
@schrodingers_cat: Right after he gives an impassioned speech denouncing Trump.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
I still love that Rep. Lewis went to ComiCon with his graphic novel and cosplayed as himself from the Selma march. ?
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Remember your theory about DHS secretary Nielsen? Apparently got her job despite being unqualified is because she is super loyal to T.
Brachiator
@Corner Stone:
The country is being held hostage by an emotionally stunted bonehead with a massive chip on his shoulder.
He keeps bleating about “fairness” and how all the presidents and politicians before him were either weak or suckers, and that he is the only one who can right these wrongs and make sure that no one will ever fuck with the US of A again. There is no philosophy or ideology at the bottom of this. No conservative principles. Or the Randian drivel the Paul Ryan laps up. Just the massive sense of grievance of the Whiny Ass Titty Baby in Chief.
woodrowfan
@ruemara: disappointed. I thought it’d have a beret and a “Free Huey” shirt…
different-church-lady
@Brachiator:
That’s funny: I would have thought being on Twitter and Facebook would be the thing that would convince a sane person they’re bad for you.
Major Major Major Major
@FlyingToaster: “Antifa” (and most of the black bloc idiots) is mostly people trying to be cool by importing radical leftism from other countries. And then the people who glom on to them. There’s no there there, you’re right. But it’s frustrating nonetheless how insanely easy it is to troll (some of!) them, in sufficient numbers to set the VIOLENT RIOTS IN BERKELEY LOL narrative.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
Yeah, but she’s fucking Kelly, too:
WaterGirl
@kindness: That might have been the greatest Onion piece of all time!
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@zhena gogolia:
Bob Herbert is retired, but happily, not dead. He’s only 72.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Most savvy pundits avoid me like the plague because I’m a raging prick (shut up, Corner Stone), but I’ve had two who actually were willing to engage me in Twit-land – McArglebargle and Carl Quintanilla. Both were OK with the abuse – cheerful, even. They took the lashing.
Griftwald periodically blocks me. Chuck Todd always blocks me.
MisterForkbeard
@Calouste: True, though I think there’s a decent argument about following the spirit of “freedom of speech” rather than the explicit law. Opposing viewpoints are valuable and shouldn’t be silenced, but that presupposes a few things that aren’t evident there: That the viewpoints are sincerely held (they’re not), that the university is the only place these views can be aired (they’re not), and that the students themselves aren’t exercising their OWN free speech in protesting against malicious bad actors (they are!).
@Steve in the SFO: Rad. There’s also a pretty decent german beer garden in downtown Redwood City if you feel the need – they basically do “german” bar food, which means you can get fantastic brats, pretzels, and other things in addition to your german beer.
I also get a lot of international alcohol from my workmates – I have friends in Manila and in the Czech Republic that regularly bring me local varieties. You ever get too bored in the area, lemme know and I’ll dig out whatever’s currently under my desk.
Cheryl Rofer
I just can’t
Shana
@MisterForkbeard: Which is why a very large group of University of Chicago alumni are complaining that the university has invited Steve Bannon.
OldDave
@The Moar You Know:
“Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.”
― George Carlin
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Certainly plausible.
different-church-lady
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: McArglebargle was probably too dumb to realize you were abusing her.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I know this is a bold claim, but I think Chuck Todd may be the dumbest parishioner in the Church of the Savvy. I’ll never forget him bringing MSNBC’s debate coverage to a halt to assure his viewers that Kellyanne Conway was a “good person”.
MisterForkbeard
@ruemara: Oh my god. I might need to get this, and I haven’t even watched Black Panther yet.
@Corner Stone: So basically, Trump STILL hasn’t figured out what the fuck he’s doing? He signed an EO stating he could enact a tariff or something?
Yutsano
@Cheryl Rofer: The Doctor needs to be getting on fixing this timeline NOW.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Major Major Major Major:
I usually defend Antifa on principle (They hate fascists? They’re probably good). It’s normally the neo-Nazis, as in Charlottesville, who start the violent fights. Like you said, if its California, the Black Bloc is probably to blame. I’ll never forget when Richard Spencer got punched in the face; it was amazing. However, violence is a last resort, imo.
Corner Stone
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: What? I would just say you are a raging asshole with interesting sex fetishi.
Shana
@japa21: Nice. Here in Virginia we have elections every year, so the Monday and Tuesday in November are always scheduled for Teacher Work Days or some such and the students have those days off since so many polling places are schools.
Corner Stone
Trump called Cohn a Jew a few times then called him a weak pussy.
Yutsano
@ Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) :
To be fair, that had nothing to do with Antifa. That was just a random guy frustrated with his neo-Nazi bullshite. I don’t endorse that violence but did I smirk over it? Bear shit in woods much?
Cheryl Rofer
@Yutsano: Chris Hayes tweeted something the other day about how the screenwriters have gone off the rails, introducing too many characters from too many countries too quickly.
MisterForkbeard
@Cheryl Rofer: Well, the Daily Caller never claimed to be smart, right? Or an actual journalistic outfit?
Yutsano
@Cheryl Rofer: Ha. Already sounds like Moffat! All we need now is some poorly written Daleks and we’re good.
MisterForkbeard
@Yutsano: Yeah. My own response to this was “The puncher should be arrested for what’s clearly minor assault, but Spencer totally deserved it and I applaud the puncher’s conviction to perform this act knowing he’d be caught and sentenced. He still shouldn’t have done it.”
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Yutsano:
Trump has the sports almanac.
“Marty!”
Corner Stone
@MisterForkbeard:
No, he signed an EO and stated he could fuck with any country or industry or both at no moments notice. He’s acting like a 6 year old who has been made a mafia don.
Patricia Kayden
From the link:
Says it all about the hypocrisy of the Rightwing free speech brigade. They’re not about free speech. They’re about promoting fascism and silencing their political opponents.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
Normally I would be more reticent about thinking that’s how an attractive woman got her job, but when she’s an incompetent and unqualified attractive woman who seems to be joined at the hip to the more powerful man who hired her, the implications are too strong to ignore.
They apparently still travel together even though he’s now the Chief of Staff. He’s fucking her.
rikyrah
“I believe that just like the civil rights movement, it was the young people who said we’ve had enough…I believe that we’re on the verge of something really, really big” says @Oprah on Parkland students pic.twitter.com/jBMco5JSva
— ryan kadro (@RyanKadro) March 6, 2018
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Yutsano:
Was that guy ever caught?
rikyrah
@Cheryl Rofer:
UH HUH
UH HUH
Corner Stone
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Chuck Todd is definitely the most dedicated to Both Siderism on MSNBC. If you combine him on NBC along with his former running buddy Savannah Guthrie you have the foundational duo of the Cult of teh Savvy Both Siders.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Patricia Kayden: Spot on.
Even if she did, Weiss would just dismiss what she said. I mean for fuck’s sake, Weiss used “Social Justice Warriors” unironically. She’s a stupid person who has no business writing for the NYT, shitty as it is.
The Lodger
@Aleta: A cartoonist could do that with Jeff Sessions, without the bother of having to resize him.
Yutsano
@MisterForkbeard: Mine was more, “Dude I get the feeling but why did you make him an easy martyr like that?” Was sti kinda proud of the puncher. And I saw the guy: Spencer got off easily.
@ Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) : I figure you know by now Biff was partially modeled after Dolt45. Even in his younger days he was a joke.
@Mnemosyne:
Indubitably. Is she married?
Yutsano
@ Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) : I want to say he was (it was an AA guy as I recall) but I don’t know what became of the case after that.
Corner Stone
We are going to have to impeach and indict Trump or he will win again in 2020.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Corner Stone:
I’ll bite: how’s he going to win again?
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: Why do you say that?
different-church-lady
The inimitable Mr. Charles Pierce (via LG&M):
different-church-lady
@Corner Stone: We are going to have to impeach and indict Trump because it’s the right thing to do.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Yutsano:
When Marty Realizes Trump is President
I figured that out. Biff should have totally been POTUS in BTTF 2.
FlyingToaster
@Yutsano: He wasn’t; various people were accused but all were not in DC at the time.
From the video, there’s no way of telling what race the puncher was.
mike in dc
God Bless Alex Pareene for this. He used to compile an annual Hack list of the worst, most schlocky political pundits, people like Halperin, Cilizza, et al. It’s nice (and very necessary) to have lefty writers who bluntly call out the various kinds of bs spewed out by both the rightwing noise machine and the hacky beltway media/VSP. We need a lot more like him.
Mary G
Tablet won’t let me embed tweets, but Sen. Kamala has one https://twitter.com/SenKamalaHarris/status/971860609494126594
Tomorrow is the last day to comment on opening up offshore drilling, see her tweet for the link.
trollhattan
@The Lodger:
Jack Ohman had lots of fun with the li’l tyrant after yesterday’s threatdown of California, while in California.
Corner Stone
@schrodingers_cat: This tariff nonsense has snowed all the WWC people that it was intended to bowl over. They are not going to pay attention to porn stars, Russia probes, Kushner playing footsie, none of that shit. They are all going to remember someone “fought” for them and forget everything else. I just listened to Trumka with AFL-CIO earlier and Leo Gerard of USW. They both have put on the knee pads for Trump on this issue.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: That was the best moment! I mean, I had to run backwards to try and get a shot, but it was worth it.
@Corner Stone: Saw Trumpka say that a few days ago. He got a lot of pushback, but I fear the stupid damage is already done.
schrodingers_cat
@Corner Stone: Its still early March. A trade war with the entire world is not going to end well. Besides, many of them were going to vote R anyway.
ruemara
@Cheryl Rofer: Hayes needs to shut up and focus on growing another chest hair.
Kayla Rudbek
@Mnemosyne: and did you see that Mattel is making a Barbie doll of Katherine Johnson of Hidden Figures fame?
Matt McIrvin
@Corner Stone: Wonder how the UAW feels about the USW’s win.
Roger Moore
@schrodingers_cat:
This is hardly news. Trump promotes loyalty above competence in all things.
Aleta
@The Lodger: Sessions could dance across the laps of Reconstruction era lawmakers, judges and wardens, and the plantation owners and corporations who bought leases on enslaved black convicts from at least 1844. For almost the next 100 years, at least. He speaks and works for those fiends and monsters.
tobie
@Corner Stone: Sorry to hear this. Don’t see how a trade war will create more jobs for AFL-CIO and USW members.
Roger Moore
@WaterGirl:
It’s hard to top “Bush: ‘Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over’“.
Corner Stone
@tobie: They believe it will lead to investment in steel mill industry. Too bad for them that investment will be in automation. Which I think they are lying to their members about.
Aleta
@Aleta:
tobie
This is probably a stupid question but is Trump claiming that Canada and Mexico put tariffs on US goods and that’s why he wants punitive tariffs? I didn’t think it was possible for Canada and Mexico to tax US imports because of NAFTA. Isn’t the US the one now violating the agreement? Is there some history I’m missing here?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G: We mere mortals cannot embed tweets.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Corner Stone:
Swear to god, I’m at the point of wanting the sainted WWC (Peace Be Unto Them) to wither and starve. I want their three bedroom tract homes with carport a and detached garages to collapse from deferred maintenance, their ATVs and bass boats to fall into disuse and disrepair, their only value being scrap. I want their precious Emotional Support Rifle collections to rust, and the holsters for their Emotional Support Sidearms to get so bound down with lard from eating processed foods and cheese whiz while drinking Big Red and Bud Light that they can’t pull it out. I want their badly socialized pit bulls to destroy their furniture while eating the TV remote. I want their pickups repoed, and their Lee Greenwood CDs scratched….
different-church-lady
@Roger Moore: Hell, that was the greatest prediction of all time.
The Lodger
@trollhattan: I miss Jack Ohman. He was the cartoonist at my local paper for years and years. Glad he is still working, considering the state of the newspaper business.
debbie
@Corner Stone:
In all fairness, I hope the bill Flake’s introducing to repeal tariffs wins by a voice vote.
catclub
@Brachiator:
Not really fair. What he learned was that there are a LOT of opinions on the internet, but (relatively) more facts in the newspapers.
catclub
@Corner Stone: 1.I think he won’t get re-elected.
2. I do not think either impeachment or felony conviction are a bar to being elected President.
smintheus
@Roger Moore: That’s the game for some. For many, it’s about power. They don’t like that conservatives’ ideas no longer predominate among students and many faculty, so their solution is to leverage right-wing money to highjack campus venues to inculcate people with their own views. If by some miracle they were to succeed, they wouldn’t reverse course and try to inject more liberal viewpoints on campus. So it’s about taking over campus discourse.
I’m so old I remember when faculties were dominated by conservatives on most campuses; they did not welcome liberal viewpoints. In fact, the only professors of mine who injected their political views into the classroom were arch-conservatives. I never once heard a liberal political view expressed in class, even though I attended what was already then regarded as a notoriously liberal university.
mad citizen
@different-church-lady: “I’ve come to view the term “thought leader” to be an alternate way of spelling “bullshitter”.” Yes! A thousand times yes! I’m using this at work next time I get a chance.
KithKanan
@catclub:
— U.S. Constitution – Article 1 Section 3
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
Please apologize to boneheads everywhere.
debbie
@Mary G:
Here you go:
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
Whelp, so much for eating ever again today.
Mnemosyne
@Kayla Rudbek:
I posted it on Facebook yesterday! I have the national March for Science page on my feed and they posted about it.
Trying to figure out if my (soon to be) 13-year-old mixed-race niece is too old for Barbies … ?
matt
@raven: Well go on ahead and take the cash out of your ‘bad motherfucker’ wallet and pay the people at NYT then, you rebel you.
trollhattan
@The Lodger:
We’re happy to
stealhave him, and McClatchy is probably as good a home as he could have found. He replaced the brilliant Rex Babin who was stolen at 49 from us all by cancer.Steve in the SFO
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
You, sir, are a fucking poet.
Steve in the SFO
@MisterForkbeard: a very generous offer, thank you. There is not a lot of free time during bargaining, but I may have to build some in so I can sample some exotic booze!
Brachiator
@catclub:
More than fair. It would be as if he only read the op-ed section of newspapers and then complained that print media had a LOT of opinions, but relatively few facts.
tobie
@Steve in the SFO:
I second this regarding @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:’s comment.
I feel like today is one of the most consequential days of the Trump presidency. He just overturned the entire post-WWII economic order by introducing a broad-based tariff, as opposed to one meant to either (a) punish a particular country for dumping a particular good or (b) retaliate against a country that has imposed tariffs on the US. What’s happened today is the economic equivalent of destroying NATO. What will happen next–the decision will be appealed to the WTO. If the WTO objects to the “national security” rationale for the tariffs, the US withdraws from the WTO and becomes a pariah nation. If, alternatively, the WTO allows for the national security justification for tariffs, then every other nation follows suit and the WTO also becomes meaningless. I really don’t see any solution to what has just happened outside of impeachment, and that also feels unlikely now that Richard Trumka has decided to back this absurd policy. Sorry for being so bleak.
schrodingers_cat
@Roger Moore: Yes, but its good to have one’s suspicions corroborated by independent reporting.
randy khan
@KithKanan:
For what it’s worth, disqualification from office is a possible penalty for conviction in an impeachment trial, but the Senate has to decide to impose it. At least one person who’s been impeached – Alcee Hastings, who was impeached and convicted when he was a federal judge – has become a member of Congress.
KithKanan
@randy khan: Fair. I have difficulty imagining a scenario where Trump is convicted and removed from office but NOT barred from holding further office, but I guess it could happen as a compromise position to get votes for conviction?
Felanius Kootea
@ruemara: Ooh – I just ordered one.
Brachiator
@KithKanan:
The only office that Trump would ever want is the office of the presidency. He ain’t a politician. He has no interest in contributing to the general welfare. He uses the presidency as the best place to work his con. After he’s done here, he will just move back into the private sector.
SgrAstar
@Roger Moore: My all time favorite Onion piece is
Bush finds error in Fermilab calculations Cheryl probably remembers that it was posted on doors all around Los Alamos.
Roger Moore
@SgrAstar:
My brother, a theoretical physics professor, loved that one. He especially liked the part about Bush being too modest by an order of magnitude.