Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Come on, man.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

No one could have predicted…

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Bark louder, little dog.

A dilettante blog from the great progressive state of West Virginia.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

The words do not have to be perfect.

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

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

We still have time to mess this up!

Not all heroes wear capes.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Morning Open Thread: Readership Capture

Friday Morning Open Thread: Readership Capture

by | 131 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

… Mr. Obama does not intend to use his Netflix shows to directly respond to President Trump or conservative critics, according to people familiar with discussions about the programming. They said the Obamas had talked about producing shows that highlight inspirational stories.

But the Netflix deal, while not a direct answer to Fox News or Breitbart.com, would give Mr. Obama an unfiltered method of communication with the public similar to the audiences he already reaches through social media, with 101 million Twitter followers and 55 million people who have liked his Facebook page.

“President and Mrs. Obama have always believed in the power of storytelling to inspire,” Eric Schultz, a senior adviser to the former president, said Thursday. “Throughout their lives, they have lifted up stories of people whose efforts to make a difference are quietly changing the world for the better. As they consider their future personal plans, they continue to explore new ways to help others tell and share their stories.”

n one possible show idea, Mr. Obama could moderate conversations on topics that dominated his presidency — health care, voting rights, immigration, foreign policy, climate change — and that have continued to divide a polarized American electorate during President Trump’s time in office.

Another program could feature Mrs. Obama on topics, like nutrition, that she championed in the White House. The former president and first lady could also lend their brand — and their endorsement — to documentaries or fictional programming on Netflix that align with their beliefs and values…

Think that WH “cybersecurity” permits streaming content? (Oh, c’mon, the hate-watch tweets would be incandescent. Twitter could probably charge for premium content!)

Reader Interactions

131Comments

  5. 5.

    Lapassionara

    @RedDirtGirl: I’ve been thinking I need a vocabulary lesson myself. I do now what I did as a child. I guess the meaning from context. But there are lots of words I don’t really know. Like “whingeing,” which I think means “whining.” And “neo liberal,” which seems to be an epithet, or is that epitaph.

  6. 6.

    RedDirtGirl

    @OzarkHillbilly: But I read a lot of posts not designated as such! Or are you teasing me? I have seen it used for posts about BJ meet-ups, so had linked it with that in my mind.

    @Lapassionara: That is definitely used as an epithet!

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Lapassionara: Your lips are moving and you’re complaining about something, that’s whingeing. This one’s been killed six times, you don’t hear him bitching about it.

    -Sandor Clegane

    Neo liberal seems to be whatever the speaker/writer doesn’t like.

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @RedDirtGirl: Me?? Tease??? Why I never… But that is the way I understand the usage of it. Why is it applied in some circumstances and not others? shrug Your guess is as good as mine.

    You’re right, neo liberal is always an insult especially when uttered by some leftier than thou purity pony.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    In related news, MSNBC is in talks with Trump for him to host their weekend show “Lockup” after his presidency. Expected to premier in Fall 2018.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: My high tech energy efficiency guy buddy is high on them. Says that is all they use in Japan. Put them in his renovated 1880’s timber frame home. My neighbors put them into their half underground house and love them. Dog willing and no medical emergencies arise I am planning on putting them in our place in the next few years.

    What specific issues are you wondering about with an unfinished basement?

  15. 15.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: We’re starting to think about what we are going to do when my wife retires in June. My office and her “studio” are both in our upstairs space and there is no way we both can be there. Our basement is under the new addition and, right now, has my “shop” and her plants and garden tools. It’s a concrete floor but I think I’m probably going to end up there. We had the old double hung windows put in there along with a nice bay window that I bought used so it’s not an unattractive area. The one thing she said she wants changed is the big double doors that is made from two 4×8 hardi sheets.
    We have a gas HVAC unit for the main level and a heat pump in the upstairs. The HVAC is old but I keep getting told not to fool with it because the new ones suck.

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: You should be fine with one there. Should be able to handle the humidity of a damp basement just fine. I’m not sure about cost comparisons for the initial outlay but efficiency wise they are very good.

    The one thing she said she wants changed is the big double doors that is made from two 4×8 hardi sheets.

    If the basement ceiling height is 8 ft you should have no trouble framing the opening for a standard double door unit. If the ceiling ht is less it can still be done if the existing construction is favorable.

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: I got a better laugh out of that photo than I did out of Bauds award winning quip above. Where in dog’s name are gonna put your office? in between the ficus and the wheel barrow?

  24. 24.

    Amir Khalid

    @Lapassionara:
    Whingeing is indeed a synonym for whining. It’s just not commonly used in American English.
    There’s a Wikipedia article on neoliberalism and how the term has evolved over the last 80 years or so. Bernistas like to use it as an epithet against Bill and Hillary, i.e. they call the Clintons that like it’s a bad thing. But it’s too soon to write their epitaph while they’re still alive. So fuck the Bernistas.

  25. 25.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: Well the plan is for that stuff to go. She wants a tool shed built but it’s being rethought because we were going to take out this awful bradford pear but it’s $2k fo were going to hold off on that. The plants are seasonal and she used to find places for them upstairs so I guess we’ll figure that out too.

  26. 26.

    Peale

    @RedDirtGirl: readership capture = the inmates have taken over the asylum. When an opinion site is driven by its comments section or when the writer panders to the extreme views of his or her readers, it has been captured by its readers.

  27. 27.

    Schlemazel

    @Lapassionara:
    “neo-liberal” came to us from the UK. Tony Blair wanted to indicate he was much more fiscally conservative than that darn ol Labour party (not Unlike Bill Clinton who felt the same need after 12 years of Reagan/Bush). They branded it “new liberal”. Because it lacks the social support & spending of “classic” liberal it is derided, sometimes justly, sometimes not.

  28. 28.

    Schlemazel

    @Baud:
    THAT IT! Comment of the day, shut this thread down!

    Thanks for the best laugh I have had in awhile

    EDIT: btw – I am stealing the hell out of that

  29. 29.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Peale: Aha, somebody who knows what they are talking about. We can’t have that, this is the internet!

  31. 31.

    Jeffro

    The Obama/Netflix thing is pretty savvy … Great way to cut through the traditional media and social media and reach today’s audiences

  32. 32.

    satby

    @Schlemazel: hi Schlemazel! Any thoughts on this Radinovich guy running in MN 8th district? I got a fundraising letter from him but don’t know enough about the area of players.

  33. 33.

    bystander

    @rikyrah:

    I am here for whatever 44 and Forever FLOTUS ? do on Netflix.

    Is it too much to hope for a live action Lion King? Not much of a part for Forever FLOTUS but who wouldn’t like to see Barack holding the baby lion up?

  35. 35.

    satby

    @raven: have you guys ever considered a greenhouse for the princess? Might get you more bang for the buck than a tool she’s considering what a master gardener she is.

  39. 39.

    raven

    @satby: The list of what she HASN’T thought of is a lot shorter than that! She just informed me that we would probably move my office into the guest bedroom since it will only be a year or so.

  43. 43.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    @Lapassionara: This is an interesting article on how women and particularly teenaged girls lead language innovation. The researchers looked at “6,000 letters from 1417 to 1681. They found that female letter-writers changed the way they wrote faster than male letter-writers, spearheading the adoption of new words and discarding words like “doth” and “maketh.”…Women are consistently responsible for about 90 percent of linguistic changes today”

  44. 44.

    Schlemazel

    @satby:
    I honestly have not paid any attention to the 8th other than to note that 2 time loser Stewie Mills is not running. funny stories about him, rich on daddies money zero clues. That is a good thing.

    I know Radinovich has been a State rep and ran as a strong proponent of marriage equity when his district voted heavily in favor of the hate amendment the wingnuts tried to get past the voters. The 8th is tough ground for liberals today, we could do worse, a lot worse.
    The others I know of are
    Leah Phifer – former FBI employee. Says the right stuff but no history that I know of
    Kirsten Hagen Kennedy – mayor of North Branch & a 1099 employee of some health company. Pretty much all that is known about her
    a couple of others. Not sure much though

    The 8th borders Batshit Bachmann’s old district with a rural, hard-right Catholic base. It is the iron mining region & used to be full of actual communists (Gus Hall came from there, the largest Finnish Language newspaper in the world was very very left & published in the 8th) always a reliable DFL district in the old days. When the mines closed they fell for “It was those damn liberals and their environmental rules” as the cause and have been a hot mess since. They see themselves as libertarian.

    Sorry for taking so long. I have been having serious health issues & am working from home so I jump over here when I can

  46. 46.

    Patricia Kayden

    @OzarkHillbilly: Has the Rightwing meltdown ever stopped? See Hannity, Alex Jones, the Drudge Report, Breitbart, Tucker Carlson, etc., for your outrage of the day.

    You’d think they’d be ecstatic since they fully control our Federal government but they’re still in freak out mode.

  47. 47.

    satby

    @Schlemazel: sounds like a few bucks Radinovitch’s way might be worth it. Thanks!

    Edit: that didn’t seem long! Sorry you’re having health stuff, hope you’re on the mend. I’m still dealing with the remains of whatever virus I caught after Cambodia. An entire month down the tubes.

  51. 51.

    R-Jud

    I’d be more excited about this Obama thing if it were a variety show or a police procedural in which they solve crimes together (and she is his boss).

  52. 52.

    Anne Laurie

    @RedDirtGirl:

    What exactly does “readership capture” mean?

    A (fortunately long departed) experimental front-pager complained that Cole was allowing his commentors to decide what they did or didn’t want to discuss — and even to have opinions contrary to that of their blog host, which was NOT AT ALL the kind of behavior he thought a “good” blogmaster should permit!

    You see why I, for one, was relieved when that particular “experiment” flounced off in disgust. I was responsible for turning his hurled epithet into a category tag… and I use it for posts where I feel pretty sure most of y’all will agree with the post topic.

  56. 56.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Patricia Kayden: That’s because they can’t control the “deep state”, you know, people in govt following the law and doing their jobs anyway.

  62. 62.

    Anne Laurie

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I really don’t like keeping gas cans indoors. Just paranoid that way.

    Our garage is directly under our bedroom, and I won’t even allow the Spousal Unit to have gas-powered yard tools. He claims it’s because I grew up in a city apartment and just don’t understand how “safe” gasoline really is… but he knows when I can’t be talked out of my prejudice!

  65. 65.

    Mr. Mack

    @Raven….I know you didn’t ask my opinion, but I thought I’d share a little info. In my main home, I have geothermal heating and cooling. Love it in the summer, so so in the winter. In our cabin, I have ductless system, which has been awesome this cold winter. (The line sets were a small problem, cosmetically speaking, but I plan to hide them in a chase soon) I am looking forward to seeing how it performs in our hot and humid summers, but my old co-worker (smartest HVAC guy I ever met) is pretty adamant about which brands to trust. I opted for the more expensive Samsung units. A three ton split ran me around 5500 installed. Hope you have success with your project.

  66. 66.

    Brachiator

    @bystander:

    Is it too much to hope for a live action Lion King?

    Live action version in production, scheduled for a July 2019 release.

  68. 68.

    Immanentize

    In my house news, I have decided to go solar — roof panels and a power wall. Field team will be doing an assessment tomorrow morning.

  69. 69.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @R-Jud:

    a police procedural in which they solve crimes together

    They could remake “The Front Page” with Barack as Walter Burns and Michelle as Hildy Johnson. Wilmer could be the dim-witted, incompetent, demagoguing sheriff.

  76. 76.

    Immanentize

    @satby:
    Cash flow — I received life insurance monies. I have to tell you, I feel very odd and conflicted about life insurance money. So, I socked most of it away for the Immp and I am getting solar and having the house painted this Spring.

    We spend above 2K per year for electric. After the rebates and tax incentives, the system will be about 15 K. There are loans available instantly. The house will be net zero for electric — I actually might be selling a bit back to the grid. And the battery backup will supply power when the ever more frequent storm outages happen. And it’s the right thing to do….

  77. 77.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I am happy to share whatever I learn through this process. I suspect I will be able to chat up the installation guys and ply them with coffee all day for information. ?

  79. 79.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Lapassionara: One of the cool things about the internet age (as an old, I watched the web appear as a baby and grow up) is that you routinely find yourself in international conversations (hi, Amir). So you get exposed to a lot of UK English. English people have said it’s not exactly the same as whining, but it kind of means complaining loudly and irritatingly. But as that’s pretty much what WE mean by “whining”, that’s a useful synonym for us.

    I would think of it as affected if an American used it though.

    Same with “whilst”, which they say in conversation but sounds Shakespearean to us.

    I still haven’t quite figured out what “taking the piss” is. Kidding someone? Pranking them? Mocking them?

    Like you, I try to remember those old skills of learning from context. I try to apply them in other languages I’m working on. Sometimes it works but often I’m guessing wrong.

  80. 80.

    Schlemazel

    @Baud:
    Just read the first of those & it is funny & well written but more importantly it does a nice job of laying out the details of the legal arguments.

    It should come as a surprise to no one that Dump’s lawyer is sloppy and not very bright.

  81. 81.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Immanentize:

    We spend above 2K per year for electric.

    Wow, that’s cheep. I spend more than that for my cave.

    ETA: Forgot, it a bill for 2 months; but it’s not that far below 2k. That’s for a one bedroom cave.

  83. 83.

    Schlemazel

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:
    Taking a piss was another shocker to me when I was a shy teenager. It means to make someone look silly or make them the joke.

    The worst one though was when a particularly cute Scottish lass (with an accent I find irresistible to this day) asked me to come by and “knock her up ” in the morning”. They knew something was weird because I turned fire truck red.

  84. 84.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Schlemazel: I kind of like that, if you updated them, particularly Nora. It was way too easy for Nick to outwit her, which he frequently did when trying to keep her out of trouble.

  85. 85.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Anne Laurie: Dominating the news headlines here a few days back was an explosion in a terraced street that demolished a house and killed five people. My first thought was gas, it turned out to be an arson attempt (for as-yet unrevealed reasons) with petrol. The fumes filled a basement and instead of creating a nice constrained fire the fuel-air mixture blew up the building.

  88. 88.

    Immanentize

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: my heat is natural gas, as is my stove. So my electric is lights plus summer air conditioning. I just checked, it closer to 3k per year. So, I get my investment back sooner!!

    ETA and computers. Lots of computer time for the Immp.

  90. 90.

    Immanentize

    @WereBear:
    Yes it is about our son. And we lost 1/2 our family income…. Still it just feels somehow so clearly cold and calculated to get a check for a life. But of course, I instantly increased my own life insurance ….

  92. 92.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Schlemazel: “Taking the piss” is always used in an accusations, as in “Are you taking the piss?” or “You’re taking the piss, aren’t you?” No-one would say “I’m taking the piss.”

    It usually means someone has said something egregiously stupid or unlikely and the respondent doesn’t believe it to be true (although they may suspect the instigator of being sincere, from long experience).

  94. 94.

    Immanentize

    @WereBear:
    I should add — and our cat! The most important part of the recovery team. He got a new moving water dish.

  96. 96.

    germy

    tonight on NBC:

    Confronting Putin
    ALL NEW

    Megyn Kelly talks to Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of the country’s elections.

  99. 99.

    germy

    My local sinclair tv news station features Boris Russianlastname as a regular commentor. The station also has a news tip line. I was tempted to call in and tell them Boris was being questioned by Mueller, but I was too lazy.

    Sinclair actually owns a bunch of stations. One that plays only shitty, 4th-rate sci fi films, another one that’s intended for young people that consists of young people juggling and skateboarding (remarkably content-free), another one that plays ’70s action films, another one that’s all sports. And there’s a “CW” one that’s playing reruns of Tim Allen’s cancelled show… This is all in addition to their news channel. It’s quite a monopoly in my town.

  100. 100.

    rikyrah

    The White House is refusing to comply with a request from the House Oversight Committee for info on how Rob Porter was allowed to work with an interim security clearance in spite of accusations of domestic abuse, TPM reports: https://t.co/43o1InFMv3 pic.twitter.com/NjiKCHEEV4

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 9, 2018

  102. 102.

    germy

    I’m seeing news reports this morning that George Nader was busted a few years back for child pron. But the only places I’m seeing this news is at the intercept and boingboing (which linked to the intercept) which makes me wonder if this is just a “he’s a prevert; you can’t believe anything he testifies!” attempt.

  103. 103.

    Elizabelle

    @Schlemazel: I hope you are feeling spiffier, soonest.

    Good morning, jackals. Friday. Hope we get some quality Mueller time today.

  104. 104.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    Sinclair actually owns a bunch of stations

    Sinclair is amassing a huge number of media properties. They are also becoming a shamelessly explicit right wing propaganda channel.

    Sinclair Broadcasting Corp., a right-wing propaganda machine that has become the largest broadcast company in the U.S., is now forcing local TV anchors to read something the company has termed “anchor delivered journalistic responsibility messages”—messages that deride the “false news” in the “national media” and frame Sinclair-owned TV stations as unbiased guardians of the truth.

    https://theslot.jezebel.com/sure-sounds-like-sinclair-broadcasting-just-gave-local-1823613787

  105. 105.

    Elizabelle

    @Brachiator: This level of media consolidation should not be legal. It is dangerous to democracy. I wish we could do something about Fox News, too. Fear-mongering propaganda, meant to tear us apart. Wasn’t watching what Goebbels and his ilk brought about enough?

  107. 107.

    rikyrah

    We don’t have an Ambassador to South Korea…
    And, the most experienced person in the government that dealt with North Korea has quit….

    But, Dolt45’s gonna have a sit down with North Korea?

    Um, ok. Good luck with that.

  109. 109.

    WereBear

    @Immanentize: Still it just feels somehow so clearly cold and calculated to get a check for a life.

    It would be. But that is not what you did. You didn’t choose this, and you didn’t want this. So there is nothing to feel guilty about, except to understand that you and your wife made a good decision in case the worst happened… and then the worst happened.

    Which no one wanted.

    I have given this considerable thought in rescue, when “putting the pet to sleep” causes people to delay and then there’s more pain to go around: and it’s a misconception. They don’t want to do this. That realization can make them realize what the right thing is.

    Don’t give yourself avoidable problems when you have plenty you can’t avoid. Peace and compassion to you and your son.

  113. 113.

    No Drought No More

    I challenge the former president to revisit recent history, say, of the run up to the War in Iraq, to best understand what went wrong, and why. Most importantly, I would challenge him to name names. I’m heartily sick of kumbaya preaching that distracts the democratic party from the mortal threat the republicn party represents to American democracy and the planet. And not necessarily in that order, either.

  115. 115.

    Fair Economist

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Without ever having heard a definition of this, in my mind “whining” and “whingeing” are both American English words with different connotations. “Whining”, to me, implies a more emotional/childlike complaint (“It’s not FAIR!”) while “whingeing” implies excessive complaints without a surface emotional aspect (like mentioning all the faults of the restaurant you’re at.)

  116. 116.

    RedDirtGirl

    @Schlemazel: My english aunt told me to “keep my pecker up”! Apparently, it’s similar to the american “keep your chin up”.

  117. 117.

    Fair Economist

    @charluckles:

    Wait, what? Donald has illegitimate children out there?

    Nah, he paid for the abortions.

    That’s actually not just a joke, it’s a serious rumor. The followup joke is “it’s the one time he actually pays what he owes.”

  119. 119.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @Patricia Kayden: They may be in control but they aren’t universally loved and admired and all us ungrateful people keep complaining and making fun of them. Given their levels of anxiety and insecurity (and the very real risk that their general incompetence and the destructive nature of their “ideas” will be revealed), that’s not enough.
    A friend of my who was a serious athlete as a teenager commented that he was never not hungry at that point in his life, no matter how much he ate. The same thing is true for these people, spiritually and emotionally. It doesn’t matter what they have; they must have all that there is.

  120. 120.

    charluckles

    @Fair Economist:

    Oh, I am a believer that the Trump family has paid for more than a few abortions. But that analysis Baud linked reflects a mention of unacknowledged children.

  125. 125.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @rikyrah: We don’t need Americans at those meetings. This administration has already shown that they like to conduct foreign business without any American-supplied translator, and preferably nobody from “our” side but a Trump family member. Who is not, of course, actually acting for us or in the interests of our country.

  131. 131.

    tybee

    @WereBear:

    straw bales in a mild climate like Georgia

    yeah, straw bales in the termite capital of north america. one summer. maybe 2.

Comments are closed.