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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / The NYTimes, Just Trying to Be the Paper of Record for the “Best” People

The NYTimes, Just Trying to Be the Paper of Record for the “Best” People

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I have a theory (which is hardly original) that the owners of the NYTimes have never gotten over their multi-generational case of Imposter Syndrome. They have always wanted to be the news organ for the right people, the best people, while never quite feeling sure that those much-admired Best People consider the Timesmen as “top drawer” fellow plutocrats. When the paper goes badly off the rails — as when it soft-pedaled Hitler’s crimes and applauded American isolationists well after WWII was inevitable — it’s because the owners paying its reporters mistake the loudest bigots in Wall Street and Washington DC for the most important people.

So IMO, David Roberts makes an excellent point:


… and, of course, this reflexive cringing makes the NYTimes a natural (sympathetic!) target for a certain shouty “developer” out of Queens (who’s never been accepted by the best people either, for reasons)…

Reader Interactions

162Comments

  1. 1.

    TenguPhule

    “The writer of the story, Maggie Haberman, a Hillary flunky, knows nothing about me and is not given access.”

    I can’t tell who’s hand is up who’s ass to direct the puppet in the photo.

  3. 3.

    Villago Delenda Est

    A meteor can not hit the Vichy Times building a nanosecond too soon. Fortunately, Krugman isn’t there.

  5. 5.

    Corner Stone

    I’m actually not sure what Michael Schmidt thought he was proving/communicating in that tweet.

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    Ought they provide flat Earthers a berth in the Science section in the name of “intellectual diversity?” Have a Mennonite columnist as a regular in the Technology section?

  11. 11.

    ? Martin

    Ok, but that’s hardly a unique problem to the NYT. It seems to apply to nearly everyone in the media. Poe’s Law cannot be overcome.

  12. 12.

    patrick II

    Folks, now Stormys lawyer is threatening there might be a Trump sex tape. Sorry.

    For those of you who wondered why Trump settled with Stormy as opposed to calling her a liar like he did the rest of his accusers — now you know.

  24. 24.

    Johnny Gentle (famous crooner)

    Wait, so it would somehow be better of the NYT ran an opinion column or two from an actual standard-bearer of today’s misogynist, xenophobic, raving-lunatic GOP? All hell would break loose. There’d be boycotts, endless twitter outrage, letter-writing campaigns, etc., etc. The column would be canceled within a few weeks, and Maggie Haberman would scold our liberal intolerance.

    Is the point that the NYT is somehow maintain a fiction for its delicate readers by hiding the “real” GOP? C’mon. Everyone knows what the GOP now stands for. If the NYT really is committed to the bullshit “balance” thing in the editorial pages (as most newspapers are), then I’d rather some genteel and mostly irrelevant mope like Will, Brooks, Douthat, etc. At least they’ll occasionally buck their party’s extremes, or at least hearken back to the good ol’ days when conservatism was about deficits and taxes or whatever.

  26. 26.

    TenguPhule

    @Johnny Gentle (famous crooner):

    Wait, so it would somehow be better of the NYT ran an opinion column or two from an actual standard-bearer of today’s misogynist, xenophobic, raving-lunatic GOP? All hell would break loose.

    That would be an improvement over the current situation.

  27. 27.

    cope

    When this country finally pulls out of its current full-power nose dive in 30 or so years (assuming it does), it sure won’t be due to the efforts of any of the major media outlets, it will be due to the bottom-up work of countless individuals.

    I am unlikely to live that long so I will just have to take that as an item of faith. None of our previously reliable institutions (education, media, politics) will undo the vile, rancid, poisonous, hateful and willfully ignorant actions of the Trump papacy, only the actions of committed individuals are capable of delivering us from evil.

  31. 31.

    hellslittlestangel

    @TenguPhule: Nobody told him yet that we’ve signed a treaty banning the militarizing of space

    Oh brother. I can already hear him whining that that was a lousy deal.

  34. 34.

    Lyrebird

    @patrick II: Generally agreed, but I will squeak up about phrasing, calling Stormy an “accuser”. I am more troubled by the possibility of people equating consensual, maybe even paid-for, activity with harassment and assault than I am by the possibility of some private, maybe even tawdry, images coming to light.

  36. 36.

    lamh36

    @colvinj
    A hangar full of Marines and other military personnel in uniform just burst into laughs and cheers when POTUS dissed the “fake” news media

    4:10 PM – Mar 13, 2018

    @Acosta
    Man in Pepe the Frog shirt at Trump event at Miramar

    4:28 PM – Mar 13, 2018

    the election of Donald Trump has emboldened racist whtie folk WAYYYY more than the election of Barack Obama…but of course many in the MSM and many of GOP supporters/voters alike…don’t want to admit it and rather ignore it or speak around it rather than confront it head on…

  37. 37.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    So, have the Deplorables decided Rex Tillerson was really an Obama appointee yet?

  39. 39.

    TenguPhule

    @lamh36:

    A hangar full of Marines and other military personnel in uniform just burst into laughs and cheers when POTUS dissed the “fake” news media

    I do not like where this is going. Those marines don’t have a choice about attending.

    They do choose whether or not to become fellow Nazis with the Unclean one.

  40. 40.

    lamh36

    Apparently they included a vivid pic, so beware of clicking the link…

    I’m no dog owner, but I do know, if I were, I’d just have to get off the plane rather than let them put my damn dog in the overhead compartment…smh…

    I had flights where dogs were on the plane, and just had to stay under the front of the seat? Is that not the policy everywhere?

    @nycsouthpaw
    United confirms a dog died on a flight to LaGuardia after its employee forced its owner to stow it in an overhead compartment
    twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/973654293466308609

  44. 44.

    TenguPhule

    @lamh36:

    United confirms a dog died on a flight to LaGuardia after its employee forced its owner to stow it in an overhead compartment

    bastards.

  45. 45.

    Hoodie

    They’re just carrying on the fine tradition of Walter Duranty. The Times is like the Custer (Richard Mulligan) character in Little Big Man, who knows a muleskinner when he sees one. In a way, the wingnuts are right about the Times, they do think they’re better than anyone else, to the point of creating their own fantasy version of politics.

  48. 48.

    Brachiator

    I love this. Says so much about Trump and the NYT

    (phone rings)
    MAGGIE: hello
    TRUMP: this is trump, you have no access
    MAGGIE: this is the third time you’ve called me today
    TRUMP: so here’s why i hate jeff sessions twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/

    As much as Trump rails about “fake news” and sucks at the teat of Fox News, he craves the approval and legitimacy that he can only get from the NY Times, since it is still the newspaper of record.

    OTOH, the Times is clinging to its reputation as the Official Journal of the Establishment, even though, like most other traditional media, it is becoming slowly and inexorably irrelevant.

  50. 50.

    Baud

    @efgoldman: You’ve convinced me.

    Our big problem is that we don’t have any media that is focused on serving us. Viewed in the best light, we have one set of media focused on the general public, which includes the right, and a right-wing media that serves the right wing. There’s no real competition for our ears and eyeballs.

  52. 52.

    TenguPhule

    @Cermet: I would have thought that Kinetic energy weapons in LEO would have been an obvious bad idea to everyone. Its not like you need nukes if the mass if big and dense enough.

  55. 55.

    Corner Stone

    @lamh36: This is unforgivable, if early reporting is true. I have flown many times on flights where someone has a pet in a lap sized pooch carrier. I’m always like, “Whuh?” but it never seems to end up being a problem for anyone. Somebody should have their balls sued off.

  58. 58.

    patrick II

    @Lyrebird:

    Donald Trump has been accused of all sorts of illicit sex. Fondling genitals, pedophelia, rape, and, in Daniel’s case, consensual sex outside of marriage. You may not take the last one seriously since it was consensual, but there are many who at least pretend to. One of Stormy’s friends is on the list of people thought of as accusing Trump, so we may hear about more than just Stormy’s relationship. What they have in common is that they have had some sort of sexual relationship with Trump that would hurt him politically if it came to light, so they have been been silenced by a man with power and money.

  59. 59.

    Corner Stone

    @Yarrow: Well, she certainly knows “the game” and is beating Trump at it. It does make me wonder why she settled for such a small amount of hush money? Maybe thought he couldn’t win and wanted to cash in when possible? Isn’t the risk to reward better to wait and see if you don’t absolutely need the money for something right away?

  61. 61.

    r€nato

    @Calouste: uhhhh… listen young ‘un, cellphones took pictures and some even took videos before the iPhone… not very good pictures and not HD or 4K video, for sure.

  63. 63.

    kindness

    I read down on that Twitter feed. Do you see the number of people who claim to be good conservatives who don’t like Trump yet they continue to vote for the fascism that has taken over the party?

    More like the classic ‘good Germans’.

  64. 64.

    Jager

    I wouldn’t be surprised if trump suggested to Stormy that she bring an entire Vivid crew and he and Stormy would do an entire one off porn film, a classy, big time production, costumes, the best lighting, maybe a gold ball gag, gold handled whips, it would be the best porn film ever! He could sit and watch it in the privacy of his bedroom while eating cheeseburger and fish sandwiches, large fries please.

  65. 65.

    Corner Stone

    @NotMax: I’m not really clear on the whole “pet flying with me” issue. I find it baffling, tbh. But in multiple flights now where it has happened I don’t think there’s been an issue I can recall.

    ETA, my comments on this incident are more about the open cruelty by an employee of the airline. There is no way I would have put a pet in an overhead bin. Lawsuit coming at you in 3…2…1

  66. 66.

    different-church-lady

    The people who work at NYT & the vast majority of its readers would find those sentiments … what’s the word? oh, yes … deplorable.

    The readers, perhaps. The employees? I’m not so sure anymore.

  68. 68.

    Ian G.

    I’m glad I’m not the only one who sees the endless “white guys in trucker hats in diners outside Youngstown” stories as a bunch of noble savage condescension.

    And the simple truth about Times conservatives are that they’re the kind of righties who can appear at a Manhattan cocktail party. NY high society would invite Ross Douthat to a party, but sure as fuck not Dana Loesch.

  71. 71.

    NotMax

    @r€nato

    Also webcams, security cams, intentionally set up ‘fun’ cams.

    *cough* Tommy Lee & Pamela Anderson *cough* – 1995.

  72. 72.

    Ramalama

    While I love DR Roberts’ writing – I was following him when he was writing for Grist – all this talk of the NYT makes me want to admonish everyone to watch the film “Manufacturing Consent” where Noam Chomsky makes mincemeat of the ‘all the news that’s fit to print’ organization.

  76. 76.

    Corner Stone

    @lamh36: There is nothing about JT’s ensemble and accessories that makes sense, but I’ll be damned if he doesn’t pull it off nicely.

  77. 77.

    different-church-lady

    @lamh36:

    Melania Trump will meet with tech giants including Facebook and Google to talk cyberbullying

    “I’m sorry, Mrs. Trump, but there’s very little we can do about your husband at this point.”

  78. 78.

    different-church-lady

    @Corner Stone: 1) The whole pets on a plane thing is completely out of hand.

    2) But until we fix it, someone needs to be sued for that until their fillings fall out.

  80. 80.

    Gelfling 545

    @lamh36: You’re going to want to save those gifs. You’ll be able to use th m more and more as this mess continues to boil over.

  83. 83.

    lamh36

    If this type of bullshit isn’t enough for folks who can to leave this damn administration in droves…smh…or at least an inside coup to bring Chump down…smh

  84. 84.

    NotMax

    So much winning.

    The U.S. government had a $215 billion budget shortfall in February as revenues into the government’s coffers fell and outlays increased, the Treasury Department said on Monday.
    [snip]
    The deficit for the fiscal year, which began in October, was $391 billion, compared to a deficit of $351 billion in the same period of fiscal 2017.

    When accounting for calendar adjustments, the deficit for the fiscal year to date was $448 billion, compared to an adjusted total of $390 billion for the prior fiscal year. Source

  85. 85.

    lamh36

    Does Manafort think he’ll be “safer” from Russian assassination attempts in federal prison or I guess while under house arrest?

    Manafort could face ‘rest of life in prison,’ judge says
    politi.co/2pe7qCe via @politico

  87. 87.

    trollhattan

    Because you can’t possibly keep track without a bracket, here’s another.

    The president’s long-time personal aide John McEntee has been fired by the White House, according to US media.

    Mr McEntee, who served as an aide since early in the campaign, was reportedly escorted by security and was not permitted to collect his belongings.

    John McEntee was one of the early Trump campaign true believers who followed the long-shot candidate to the White House – along with Hope Hicks and Dan Scavino. Now, only social media director Mr Scavino remains. Details of Mr McEntee’s dismissal have been scarce, with only a foreboding report that he was under investigation for “serious financial crimes” – ones not tied to any current Trump controversies.

    At the very least, it appears Mr McEntee did not have a permanent security clearance and, with the ongoing criminal investigation, was unlikely to every be granted one.

    Mr McEntee’s firing – which reportedly concluded with his being escorted from White House grounds – will likely renew scrutiny of the administration’s background check process that first began after the termination of Rob Porter, another close Trump aide, because of his own clearance issues.

    “John who? Never heard of the guy.”

  88. 88.

    Gelfling 545

    @Yarrow: The one saving grace is that it won’t be visible to the unaided eye, debate remarks not withstanding. I had hoped, however that suffering humanity could be spared the sight of Trump in a state of nature.

  91. 91.

    Obvious Russian Troll

    @NotMax: Not all Mennonites reject technology. Some sects do, yes (like the Old Order Mennonites), but certainly not all of them.

    I personally have had a Mennonite boss when I worked for a technology company. He’d been a programmer and systems administrator and could be pretty prickly when it came to religion, but overall was a good boss.

  93. 93.

    Corner Stone

    @Gelfling 545: Don’t worry about it. The video will only last about 15 seconds or so. A gallon of bleach mixed in a mop bucket should wash out your eyes after.

  94. 94.

    debbie

    I’m to the point where I almost go into a rage whenever I see that fucking thumbs-up gesture.

  95. 95.

    SFAW

    @Yarrow:

    You know we’re not going to get out of this without some #TrumpDickPics being made public.

    Unless she had zoom capability on the camera, it will be “nothing to see here, folks.”

  96. 96.

    NotMax

    WSJ:

    President Donald Trump’s personal assistant, John McEntee, was escorted out of the White House on Monday, two senior administration officials said. The cause of the firing was an unspecified security issue, said a third White House official with knowledge of the situation.…

    Marched out forcibly, straight into a cushy position in the re-election cabal, per other reporting.

  97. 97.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    So…. I gather this is a thing he said, this is not a parody?

    @ christinawilkie
    Trump: “We should have a new force called the Space Force. It’s like the Army and the Navy, but for space, because we’re spending a lot of money on space.”

    Matt Oswald @ MattOswaltVA
    this sounds like dialogue from a movie starring Doug McClure and Cathy Lee Crosby you’d see on MST3K

  99. 99.

    FlyingToaster

    @different-church-lady@Gin & Tonic: You two stop that right now or I’ll turn this car around.

    Jeebus, we’ve got ~14 inches, with 4 to go. I DO NOT NEED MORE SNOW.

    I just finished dinner and as soon as HerrDoktor finishes his shift, I’ll go do round 3 with the snowblower.

    WarriorGirl has done two rounds of shoveling a path to the front. One of my lovely neighbors, avoiding the broken pole between my sidewalk and the street, had done the sidewalk.

    At 5 tomorrow morning we’ll get up and break through the wall at the end of the driveway; there’s no point in doing so until the last plow, and that will be after the last flake (currently projected at 4am).

  100. 100.

    Corner Stone

    @bystander:

    Anthony Weiner must be spinning in his grave.

    ME: But he’s not dead!
    HRC: *PEW* *PEW* *PEW*
    HRC: You were saying?

  101. 101.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @SFAW: that’s what I was thinking, if he’s not hung like a butterfly, he’d be leaking that tape the way he leaked that selective portion of his tax return

  102. 102.

    SFAW

    @bystander:

    Anthony Weiner must be spinning in his grave.

    Pseudolus: “Anthony Weiner is alive.”
    bystander: “This will kill him.”

  103. 103.

    trollhattan

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    Guessing he came up with that last year after the SecDef told him about our boats that drive underwater.

    “Underwater boats? That’s GREAT! We should have boats that go into space. SPACE BOATS, YEAH!!!”

  106. 106.

    lamh36

    With Chump taking all the oxygen out of the news at the top…is it just me, or have things like this shit…been happening more than ever underneath…in the past year, there seems to have been more domestic/homegrown terrorism against people of color in the first year of Chump than in the first 4 years of Obama?

    @AP
    56m56 minutes ago
    More
    BREAKING: U.S. Attorney: 3 men arrested on gun charges suspected in bombing of Minnesota mosque.

  108. 108.

    Corner Stone

    @Elizabelle:

    But one does wonder what is in Melania’s prenup.

    I don’t think it’s strong enough. Because if it had any enforcement clauses favorable to her, wouldn’t she have invoked it by now?

  109. 109.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @efgoldman:

    AK-47s?

    Well there is physics, shoot an AK47 in micro gravity and that cosmonaut is likely to flying back against the wall.

    I gather the reason for no war in space is it’s not as fun as killing down here on earth.

  111. 111.

    SFAW

    @debbie:

    Did you read the comments? Someone’s depicted the PDB as a kiddie’s menu!

    Yeah, I saw that. It was awesome.

  114. 114.

    Bill Arnold

    Since open thread,
    this NYMag piece Tillerson’s Firing Brings America Closer to War With North Korea amped up my fears about possible impending war, including nuclear war. Praise due to Eric Levitz for generous linkage, though would be nice to see some primary source links.
    Not easy to TL;DR. Here are a few snips:

    But the former Exxon CEO was also one of the administration’s staunchest defenders of the Iran nuclear agreement – and among its most ardent opponents of a belligerent approach to North Korea. By contrast, Tillerson’s replacement – outgoing CIA director Mike Pompeo – was the only senior White House official who encouraged Trump to decertify the Iran deal, even as his colleagues in the intelligence agencies affirmed Tehran’s compliance with the agreement.

    Bolton further suggested that unless Kim Jong-un agrees to tell Trump “what ports American ships should sail into, what airports American cargo planes can land at” so that the United States can load his “nuclear weapons program onto those as soon as beginning next week” – and, also, to step down as leader of North Korea, and “go live in a villa on the seashore of China for the rest of [his] life” – Trump should reject any deal Pyongyang puts on the table.
    If rumors are true, this man will be the highest ranking national security adviser in the White House come May.

  115. 115.

    Yarrow

    @Gelfling 545: @SFAW: He’s probably terrified that smallness of his member will be confirmed via photos or videos. He’ll do whatever it takes to keep that from happening.

  116. 116.

    NotMax

    @lamh 36

    As per usual, Sarah what’s her face intoning “The president has full confidence in [insert name]” translates to “Better pack yer bags, bub. Stat.”

  117. 117.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Josh Marshall @ joshtpm
    Gowdy: ‘Russia Had Disdain’ For Clinton, Wanted To ‘Harm’ Candidacy

    Off the record, Gowdy continued, “he told me about at a meeting of the He-Man Woman-Haters’ Club. I told him about the Benghazi hearings, and showed him how I say Ssssid-Kneee BLOOM-en-thawll. We laughed and laughed…”

  119. 119.

    Fair Economist

    @lamh36:

    in the past year, there seems to have been more domestic/homegrown terrorism against people of color in the first year of Chump than in the first 4 years of Obama?

    It’s not just you. I don’t remember the exact numbers but white supremacist terrorism is way up under Trump.

  120. 120.

    Steve in the ATL

    Apropos of nothing, props to whoever came up with this for the pie filter:

    Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to pie.

  121. 121.

    geg6

    I’m as nervous as if I lived in the district and not next door but I can’t wait another hour and a half for the polls to close. Please, please, please let Lamb pull this out! I need some sign of sanity at this point.

  122. 122.

    p.a.

    I have to get on the ball and claim my Italian citizenship so I can sleep better: once I’m Italian the current US gvt dysfunction will not seem so out of the ordinary. Cheaper than psychotropic drugs… ??‍♂️

  125. 125.

    Mary G

    @lamh36: I was just reading a twitter thread on that:

    Just to translate @abdulkhaleq_uae's tweet: "History will remember that a small Gulf country managed to remove the state secretary of a superpower". They're practically gloating.— İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي (@iyad_elbaghdadi) March 13, 2018

  127. 127.

    rikyrah

    @lamh36:

    Does Manafort think he’ll be “safer” from Russian assassination attempts in federal prison or I guess while under house arrest?

    SUPERMAX , maybe

  131. 131.

    SFAW

    @Yarrow:

    He’s probably terrified that smallness of his member will be confirmed via photos or videos. He’ll do whatever it takes to keep that from happening.

    I had kind of assumed that from the beginning.

    Dick Tock, Motherfucker?

  134. 134.

    Cermet

    @TenguPhule: If only one had cheap enough lift capability, then mass drivers would be an issue. Currently, only nukes have that level of striking power so people have a treaty on stationary orbits of these weapons. Maybe when people do go to Mars (and lose their marbles in the trip there due to cosmic radiation) AK-47’s can be used against each other; surely these will be provided by Musk in case there are Martians (he and Gates seem to worry about such ‘highly probable” types of events …lol.)

  135. 135.

    SFAW

    @WaterGirl:

    Would love to see their faces as they pretend to engage with her on this. She is a joke.

    Didn’t she get in here on a so-called “Einstein” visa? Answer me THAT, libtard!

  136. 136.

    Bill Arnold

    @debbie:
    Bolton still has his mustache, or did on Mar 10, 2018. It was rumored that that was what kept him from getting such a White-house job in 2017. He’s the essence of anti-diplomacy, IMO. And very or partly wrong about some important things. (Probably I should write it up in supported detail.)
    Also, wikipedia on Mike Pompeo is also sobering. As usual with high profile subject in the news, if something seems off View History.

    If there is a nuclear war, it will be partly the fault of Fox News. They are much of what is fed into the maw of the chaos that is Donald Trump’s mind.[1] It would be nice if some of their personalities (including perhaps R.Murdoch) started experiencing some realistic fears.
    [1] Hyperbolic yes, but that is his mind style (intuition-driven). Served him well in real estate/branding when he was younger, along with competent underlings who could instantiate his desires. All three of which he is lacking now. (He’s older, the US presidency is not real estate, and his direct underlings are largely not competent. There are a few exceptions yes.)

  137. 137.

    WaterGirl

    @lamh36: If Connor Lamb doesn’t win tonight, I may have to dig out your gif of the lawn chair guy and watch it over and over as I rock in the corner.

  138. 138.

    p.a.

    @SFAW: The one Married…with Children that wasn’t shown originally was censored because the plot had Al and Peg at a honeymoon hotel that was surreptitiously filming its guests. Marcy and whoever she was married to that season, and Al and Peg sued the owners. Al’s lawsuit was dismissed because the tape was so brief there was no evidence of consummation…

  140. 140.

    Aleta

    As a journalism and accuracy thing, I wondered last week why Josh Marshall jumped from the word “photos” to publish “pn-s pics” in his TPM headline and his tweets. The only source he mentioned in that story is the legal document, so it seems at odds with the image of the site he’s gone after.

    Seems like he’s worked overtime to expand and be regarded as one of the most reputable web news sources. So why drop those stricter standards — Is it just because ‘prn star’ makes him giggly?

    Now he turns “video” into “sex tape.” I guess it’s for the clicks. Or maybe he’s so frazzled he’s letting off steam.

    I can think of lots of other videos or photos that T would still be desperate to conceal. (The two of them in robes in a Hollywood bungalow. Or his wig lying in the twisted sheets next to a shark toy she’s squeaking at him, etc.)

    I can’t picture the paranoid, secretive, never-honest T emailing photos of his pns to anyone. Wrong generation.

  141. 141.

    trollhattan

    @Feebog:
    That’s one tour I’d just as soon pass on.

    The way you get to an inmate is through a corrupt guard. In the Trump Era everything’s for sale.

  142. 142.

    Elizabelle

    @Aleta: Yeah. I tire of purported sex tapes, and any “golden” news of the sort.

    It’s a distraction, and possibly not true, and eyes on the more important stuff. Besides, if it blows up as untrue, it’s more evidence of libtard gullibility.

    The abuse of nondisclosure agreements, and Trump’s extremely clumsy lawyering up, is more provable and interesting in the long run.

  143. 143.

    Aleta

    Re Manafort: by Rachel Weiner at Wapo around March 8 I think

    If convicted of bank fraud in Virginia, Manafort faces up to 270 years in prison, but prosecutors say federal sentencing guidelines call for much less time: four to five years. He faces up to 15 years on the charges of filing false tax returns and up to 20 years on the charges of failing to report foreign bank accounts. Guidelines call for about eight to 10 years.

  144. 144.

    Mnemosyne

    @Yarrow:

    True fact: the Nazis actually had a minor propaganda campaign assuring party members that having a small, er, member was the sign of being intellectually superior, unlike those untermenschen with their big dicks.

    If you look at the surviving nude statues that were created by Nazi artists, they all have teeny tiny peni$es. ?

  145. 145.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Aleta: @Elizabelle: I suspect this is one of those cases where trump is shooting himself in the foot by letting the secret stay, officially, a secret. He had a fling with a porn star, and she may have a few titillating or embarrassing details, but nothing much worse than what we already know.

  146. 146.

    rikyrah

    USED TO BE ON THE GOP PAYROLL

    I may not like Tester, but he votes more with us than against us…

    Just more GOP ratphucking.

    Timothy Adams filed as a challenger Monday against Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, who faces a tough re-election campaign, in a race where a Green Party candidate could siphon votes from the Democrat.

    The Green Party qualified as a political party in Montana on Monday, which was also the state’s deadline for candidates to file for office. Green Party officials blasted an email that morning to solicit candidates who could register by the day’s end.

  147. 147.

    Aleta

    @NotMax: Everyone who’s left the administration is probably headed for much bigger money, which seems to be a win for them, not the opposition. Maybe they always planned to make some powerful-sounding connections (that they could claim on paper at least) and leave after that.

  150. 150.

    Corner Stone

    This asshole RWNJ on Tweety’s show is destroying any attempt at conversation or analysis. I don’t know why they keep doing this.

  152. 152.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    BRD Polling
    ‏ @brd_polling
    1m1 minute ago

    BRD #ExitPolls for #PA18!

    Lamb – 52 (+5)
    Saccone – 47
    Miller – 1

    Trump Approval
    Approve – 48
    Disapprove – 48
    Unsure – 4

  159. 159.

    Elizabelle

    Polls closed in Pennsylvania, unless a site has a line.

    Wonder how quickly the results will arrive.

  160. 160.

    The Golux

    @Yarrow:

    …we’re not going to get out of this without some #TrumpDickPics being made public.

    Weird that Stormy Daniels had an electron microscope handy.

  161. 161.

    The Simp in the Suit

    @Johnny Gentle (famous crooner): The sheer awfulness and stupidity of modern conservative “thought” can be be presented in print without resorting to the unicorns farting rainbows like what the NYT does. For instance, WaPo features that idiot Ohioan newspaper editor, Gary Fucknozzle, who at least writes about what he sees outside his storefront windows. It’s not pretty, as you say, but it’s much closer to the vapid reality of the right than any of the bilge barfed out onto the pages of the Gray Dismal Lady.

  162. 162.

    enplaned

    I think the right adjective for the NYTimes is “plutographic”. So, when quoting the NYTimes, use that characterization. “The plutographic NYTimes stated…”

    This is the newspaper of record for the wealthy of NYC. They may have vaguely liberal social opinions, but there’s a limit when you have enough wealth to afford a multimillion co-op apartment.

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