Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

This blog will pay for itself.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

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

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

This fight is for everything.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

I was promised a recession.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / If You’ve Got a Blacklist I Want To Be on It.

If You’ve Got a Blacklist I Want To Be on It.

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I’ve only been thinkfluencing here at the ranch for a few months, so I might not make the grade.

 

Meanwhile, the United States government, traditionally one of the bastions of press freedom, is about to compile a list of professional journalists and “top media influencers,” which would seem to include bloggers and podcasters, and monitor what they’re putting out to the public.

Great! Nothing nefarious to see here. Move along, folks.

If you would like to see more robust congressional oversight of these agencies, I think you know how to get it. It’s with the fund that’s split between all eventual Democratic nominees in House districts currently held by Republicans.

Goal Thermometer

Update: Echo is feeling better.

“I don’t know what came over me, man.”
“Let’s try to put the whole sordid affair behind us.”

Reader Interactions

132Comments

  1. 1.

    Wag

    Revolution is just a t-shirt away.

    I can’t say how many times I’ve listened to that song since the election.

  2. 2.

    Eljai

    I guess Masha Gessen and Sarah Kendzior were not being hyperbolic. Okay then, I’ll go contribute now. Let’s win this November!

  3. 3.

    RSA

    I don’t really get it. This kind of information doesn’t sound unusual, hard to access or compile; further, it’s the kind of analysis you’d expect that the CIA and NSA were already doing internationally.

  4. 4.

    Yutsano

    Paper ballots. Every machine. Let’s do this!

    Also: still pushing for mail-in ballots. It really does work well.

  5. 5.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @RSA:
    It makes the Toddler-In-Chief feel like he can punish people for speaking against him. That he is not universally praised for being an asshole is torturing him. He keeps trying to hurt people who don’t give him enough respect, and like Amazon, they either ignore it or end up better off for it. He’s trying to be a dictator and failing. Pathetic, isn’t it?

  7. 7.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    But Obama oversaw NSA programs that had supervised retention, as Snowjob and his buddy asshat said. So Both Sides!

  9. 9.

    Jeffro

    “Monitor”…why, Trumpov? Let’s ask him at his next press conference – remember those? I mean he hasn’t had one in over 18 months but whatever.

  10. 10.

    xjmuellerlurks

    It would be interesting if this does happen and then down the road they have to start identifying some of the more “conservative” influencers as batshit crazy and outright fabulists. I don’t expect it, but one can dream.

  12. 12.

    Eljai

    @Jeffro: But didn’t our media overlords tell us that Trump is more accessible than Obama? Apparently, the definition of accessibility is inviting a reporter to Mar-a-lagofuckyourself and then having that reporter type up your lies verbatim.

  13. 13.

    Elizabelle

    Echo’s gorgeous. So is Cisco.

    On an internet break, but might have it installed next week. Trying to rebuild my attention span. Cheers.

  14. 14.

    bystander

    Is there a word for the inverse of an axiom? For example, to the same extent that everyone who gets willfully involved with Sh*t Midas is turned into a heaping pile of manure, actively resisting and calling b/s is somehow a self-improvement.

  15. 15.

    rikyrah

    Brandon Friedman
    ‏Verified account @BFriedmanDC

    I’m told that Trump political appointees at VA headquarters have now *removed* all career executives from the 10th floor (where the Office of the Secretary is). The only remaining non-political staff are administrative. More changes expected in this “realignment.”
    1:06 PM – 7 Apr 2018

  20. 20.

    bluefish

    I think we’ve seen where all this is going for awhile now. At some point, I’m ready to see Batman emerge and give em all the old rockem sockem. Heaven help us. They’re going full on fascist and hoping for what exactly? That we won’t notice or won’t care or something? Perhaps the tip they left us on the greasy pizza table is meant to keep us placated. This guy dreams of golden epaulets and plumed horses. In the meantime, largely Republican crickets amidst some expressions of startled, wide-eyed concern. Yeah, okay.

  22. 22.

    rikyrah

    A Muslim woman in Houston stabbed by man yelling “It’s an fucking raghead,” “sand nigger”

    HOUSTON, Texas
    (KTRK) — A $5,000 reward is being offered to help catch the attacker who stabbed a Houston Muslim woman during a hate-filled attack.

    According to the Houston chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Houston), the 25-year-old victim, who is white and wears an Islamic head scarf (hijab), says she was driving home early Thursday morning from her job as a nurse when her vehicle was almost sideswiped
    by a red SUV in northwest Harris County.

    When the victim pulled over and got out of her vehicle to check for
    damage after the near accident, the attacker made a U-turn and pulled up behind the victim’s vehicle.

    The driver reportedly got out of his SUV and began shouting
    obscenities and racial and religious slurs such as, “Oh my God, it’s a r**head,” “It’s an f***ing r**head,” “sand n*****” and other derogatory terms.

    She believes it was because she was wearing a hijab.

  23. 23.

    lumpkin

    @rikyrah:

    Looks like they’re going to take a serious run at privatizing the VA
    health system. On the one hand I hope they do because I think it will cause a huge backlash – this seems almost as politically toxic as cutting current social security benefits.

    But on the other they might succeed.

  25. 25.

    Corner Stone

    The Masters intro/exo music is an orchestral version of the band Skillet. I wonder if they know?

  27. 27.

    DissidentFish

    @lumpkin:

    Looks like they’re going to take a serious run at privatizing the VA

    Bush and his crew always wanted to create a permanent Republican majority. This crew is much more of a cash and grab, oligarchs-take-the-spoils, kind of thing.

  28. 28.

    Another Scott

    Twitler in the last hour:

    Donald J. Trump Verified account @realDonaldTrump
    48 minutes ago

    Lawmakers of the House Judiciary Committee are angrily accusing the Department of Justice of missing the Thursday Deadline for turning over UNREDACTED Documents relating to FISA abuse, FBI, Comey, Lynch, McCabe, Clinton Emails and much more. Slow walking – what is going on? BAD!

    Donald J. Trump Verified account @realDonaldTrump
    40 minutes ago

    What does the Department of Justice and FBI have to hide? Why aren’t they giving the strongly requested documents (unredacted) to the HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE? Stalling, but for what reason? Not looking good!

    How is him tweeting like this not Obstruction of Justice?? He’s attempting – at the very least – to interfere with the impartiality of a federal investigation.

    The Committee – part of a separate (co-equal) branch of government – has ways of enforcing its demands for information. Why is he interfering in public like this?

    Grrr.

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (“No need to answer – he’s either totally uninformed as to how this stuff should work, or he doesn’t care. Either way, he’s got no business acting this way.”)

  29. 29.

    GregB

    I have been told the biggest threat to our freedom of speech is left leaning college students.

  30. 30.

    efgoldman

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    It makes the Toddler-In-Chief feel like he can punish people for speaking against him.

    Is this really something that they want to put into effect, or just more bloviating in the Weasel Face manner? If the former, I’d expect multiple lawsuits to be filed first thing Monday morning.
    Half-assed is this maladministration’s first, last and middle names

  31. 31.

    Corner Stone

    @Yutsano: Not the biggest fan. But in case one does not know, South Loop and Wayside and Mo City are not the best places one may find themselves in the Greater Houston Metro Area.

  34. 34.

    Corner Stone

    @BillinGlendaleCA: The leaderboard this year is quite the international gaggle. I am sure they are mostly libertarian type assholes, but it’s a global sense of assholdom.

  36. 36.

    Roger Moore

    @RSA:
    It seems to me like a bigger version of the kind of thing every government agency’s media affairs department ought to be doing already: monitoring the media to see what people are saying. The problem is the same information can be used for nefarious purposes, and the Trump Administration doesn’t have the goodwill for us to trust they’re only going to use it for legitimate purposes.

  41. 41.

    satby

    @rikyrah: honestly, when my exchange daughters were here, I always was on the alert for any random asshole who might start some shit because they wore hijab.
    And that was before the hate got weaponized by the Asshole-in-Chief.

  46. 46.

    Jay

    @Roger Moore:

    Not just that, but drawing a nexus lexus between players.

    Friedman’s ,(not that one) involvement in the Gate/Manifort Black Bag ops, while pretending to be a “journalist”, when he was actually an “Agent of a Foreign Government” and Lobbiest is something that would have been “nice” to know at the time.

  48. 48.

    satby

    @schrodingers_cat: there were a couple of times I caught people staring and gave them a hard look back. If the girls had negative reactions in school they never admitted it to me. But a lot of times I was prepped for hostility that never came, so that was good.

    Beached whale kitty will be heading to the vet if she doesn’t have kittens by Monday, but she hasn’t even gone into labor yet. She’s freaking huge, and we’re a little worried that she’s carrying a big litter.

  50. 50.

    gene108

    @Eljai:

    But didn’t our media overlords tell us that Trump is more accessible than Obama? Apparently, the definition of accessibility is inviting a reporter to Mar-a-lagofuckyourself and then having that reporter type up your lies verbatim.

    Inviting reporters to parties seems to be the definition of accessible. There’s McCain and the cookout / tire-swing from 2008 or so. I am sure Bush, Jr. showed them a good time at the Crawford ranch.

    Bill Clinton, on the other hand, tried to weed out fraud, waste, and abuse in the White House Travel Office and was pilloried for it.

    Obama tried to point out Fox News is more a right-wing propaganda outfit than a real news organization and had a little rebellion on his hands from folks like Tapper and WHPC.

  54. 54.

    The Dangerman

    @efgoldman:

    Fire breathing dragons on the 13th tee?

    Too expensive; they had to settle for Conor McGregor and a folding chair.

  62. 62.

    Mnemosyne

    I’m liking the playlist at this Peet’s store. First it was Elvis Costello, then Bowie. I can’t quite tell what the next song is, but it sounds like soul — “Tears On My Pillow,” maybe?

  65. 65.

    gene108

    @lumpkin:

    I don’t think you can transform something like the VA “overnight”, if the people in charge are thinking through how to privatize services.

    So the effects may not be felt until after 2020.

    But with Trump’s crew, I bet they try to do so fast people will get whiplash.

  66. 66.

    RSA

    @Roger Moore:

    It seems to me like a bigger version of the kind of thing every government agency’s media affairs department ought to be doing already: monitoring the media to see what people are saying.

    This is a good point, along with the caveats you mention. Something less arbitrary than, say, petitions.whitehouse.gov.

  71. 71.

    Schlemazel

    @DissidentFish:
    The mod calls it a “bust out” you take over a legitimate business then borrow as much as possible on the asset, but a ton of quickly fenced goods on credit & disappear. The real owner is stuck with a ruined business and huge debts while the mob has turned a tidy profit.

  72. 72.

    Bill Arnold

    @lumpkin:

    Looks like they’re going to take a serious run at privatizing the VA
    health system.

    My guess too. This is a clearly a case where journalists, and bloggers like our David Anderson need to be doing preemptive cui bono analyses..

  73. 73.

    suezboo

    Who would you reckon are the most influential lefty bloggers in the USA now ? Not ex-newspapers and magazines like Washpost etc., but individuals. Much as I admire Our Beloved Host, driftglass, digby, axios, edroso, Kos and many more, I put my money on Charlie Pierce at Esquire. You?

  77. 77.

    Bill Arnold

    @Another Scott:

    He’s attempting – at the very least – to interfere with the impartiality of a federal investigation.

    Is the FBI entirely convinced that the Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee are not compromised?

  78. 78.

    Corner Stone

    Am I the only one who can not discern a word Bane says? It all sounds like a low bass Charlie Brown teacher voice to me.
    Mwah muh muh. Muh Muh. Mwah muh.

  82. 82.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Corner Stone: After a while the Tom Hardy Bane started to sound like some kind of twisted jolly Santa Claus to me. “People of Gotham! You have been VERY NAUGHTY this year!”

    But: @bluefish: I wouldn’t assume Batman is on the good guys’ side.

  84. 84.

    Ohio Mom

    @suezboo: I think our problem is that none of the bloggers on our side is particularly influential. Except for Cole, because his blog changed his politics.

    @Corner Stone: It is simpler just refer to firemen (and women) as firefighters, but I suppose that is too sophisticated for the likes of Trump.

  85. 85.

    efgoldman

    @Ohio Mom:

    none of the bloggers on our side is particularly influential.

    We don’t have an echo chamber. A mixed blessing.

  88. 88.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    among other things…

    Donald J. Trump @ realDonaldTrump
    While Security spending was somewhat more than his predecessor, Scott Pruitt has received death threats because of his bold actions at EPA. Record clean Air & Water while saving USA Billions of Dollars. Rent was about market rate, travel expenses OK. Scott is doing a great job!

    Mr Real Estate over here

  90. 90.

    Chet Murthy

    OT (but not really): I wonder if the Harry Potter books are enjoying a resurgence of interest. I read ’em back in …. 2015? 14? Before the election. And I finally broke down and started re-reading, b/c I need some comfort food, to at least somewhat erode the mounting existential dread.

  92. 92.

    efgoldman

    @Calouste:

    I’d watch the fire-breathing dragons, I still wouldn’t watch the golf

    The dragons are way more interesting; a lot more action.

  96. 96.

    Chet Murthy

    @Chet Murthy: maybe shoulda added “b/c the books chronicle a world in which all the institutions of the state have been taken over by a genocidal totalitarian dictator, and he ends up losing”. [but probably most people around here read ’em long before I did.]

  97. 97.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I know he lies about how tall it is, I didn’t know this

    Erin Burr, sir @ erinscafe
    Reminder: the 50th floor of Trump Tower is actually the 40th floor, because Trump inflated the numbers.

    That’s not a joke, that’s real.

  100. 100.

    Steeplejack

    ** DVR Alert (Reboot) **

    Somebody’s got some ’splainin to do at Adult Swim on Cartoon Network. Their overnight schedule last Saturday-​Sunday was totally verpfuscht, nuking my previous suggestion to watch the first two episodes of Cowboy Bebop.

    They are (re)running the first episode, “Asteroid Blues,” at 3:00 a.m. EDT Sunday (that is, tonight) and presumably will be running one episode per week going forward (26 total).

    Apologies to anyone who recorded incomplete pieces of other anime series last week.

  101. 101.

    Corner Stone

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I want someone to ask him if he would rent a place in DC for $50 a night, only on the nights it was used.

    ETA, If he says Yes then ask why he charges $450+ for his hotel in DC. If he says No then ask him why this asshole got a “market rate”.

  104. 104.

    RedDirtGirl

    Cool! I found where everyone is! Open thread/Dog Blogging: I have always said “My next cat will be a dog.” I think when Alice shuffles off this mortal coil (she’s a scraggly 17 yo), I will dip my toes in the water by fostering a dog.

  105. 105.

    RedDirtGirl

    @Eljai: “Mar-a-lagofuckyourself”…
    Wow! I love that! Thank you. A little too long for a button, but maybe stickers!

  110. 110.

    GregB

    Germany has just excoriated US leadership under Trump and states the two nations will never share the same relationship again.

    Trump is setting the world alight.

  111. 111.

    RedDirtGirl

    @PaulWartenberg: And here’s his tweet:
    “Fire at Trump Tower is out. Very confined (well built building). Firemen (and women) did a great job. THANK YOU!”

  112. 112.

    J R in WV

    @Schlemazel:

    That is the business strategy of Mitt Romney’s firm, also, too! Buy a company, use all the assets of that company to create immediate profit for you the new owner, borrow a lot and use THAT borrowed money as profit for the new owner, cash in the pension ownership of the newly bought company, use THAT money for profit, then run away.

    That’s partly why Remington is bankrupt, along with their sales of a hunting rifle that unpredictably fires a round when the safety is moved. People were convicted of murder because of accidental discharges that killed people. That will cause a drop in sales as well. Between the new debt and the drop in sales, BOOM.

  116. 116.

    JPL

    @debbie: Trump won’t even mention the person that died and the firefighters injured saving his precious building.

  119. 119.

    debbie

    @JPL:

    Huh. I was sure he would fly up there and rush into the building with no protective clothing just to save his tenant.

  120. 120.

    Steeplejack

    @dopey-o:

    From the linked article:

    “We hope that anyone who has information about this potentially deadly and apparently bias-motivated attack will immediately contact law enforcement authorities,” said CAIR-Houston Executive Director Mustafaa Carroll.

    Officials with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the case.

    Harris County (TX) Sheriff’s Office: 713-221-6000.

    If you get the reward, let me know, and I’ll tell you where to donate $100 to cover the 60 seconds it took me to get you the information.

  121. 121.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Anyone involved in privatizing ANY aspect of the VA should be subject to…bad things. Very bad things. Like being drawn and quartered.

  122. 122.

    J R in WV

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    One thing I learned from reading about today’s fire at Trump Tower NYC – there are no fire alarms to warn residential tenants to flee the building when a fire is detected.

    People were warned via tweets and texts from friends and other tenants, not by a huge, HUGELY loud alarm ringing, buzzing, blaring into their ears, nor flashing lights for deaf people – NADA, that’s how Trump Tower alerts their tenants about a fire in their building.

    Trump is lucky 500 people didn’t die in the absence of alarms!!! ‘Cause that would be MURDER in my book. Actually, the one death is murder, in my book.

  123. 123.

    Ohio Mom

    @GregB: If we could get along with Germany after the Third Reich, they can get along with us after Trump. I get why they are unhappy but geez Louise, a lot of us here aren’t happy either.

  125. 125.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: trump: While Security spending was somewhat more than his predecessor, Scott Pruitt has received death threats because of his bold actions at EPA.

    Jason Leopold Retweeted Donald J. Trump
    I had filed a #FOIA with EPA for any records of death threats made against Scott Pruitt.

    EPA said it had zero records.

  126. 126.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @J R in WV: there are no fire alarms to warn residential tenants to flee the building when a fire is detected.

    sounds like something that may get more attention….

  127. 127.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Scott Pruitt may have received zero death threats, but he’s got enough of a guilty conscience to know that his actions as EPA head are deserving of death threats.

  129. 129.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:
    I like that the shitgibbon is fucking up the VA. What kind of an asshole would he be if he didn’t fuck over everyone equally?

  130. 130.

    Ruckus

    @efgoldman:
    I’d use all assed as a description rather than half assed. Hell they’re going for the lifetime all asshole all the time award. They are trying to make the republican party seem tame in comparison. It isn’t working of course because the republican party is in on the game and have been trying to win this award for years.

  131. 131.

    pat

    @Ten Bears:

    I just took a quick look at your blog, and noticed a big mistake: There is about 1-3% Neanderthal DNA in modern humans, NOT 40%! I don’t know where the 40% came from, because the abstract of the paper clearly states, in the first sentence:

    Anatomically modern humans overlapped and mated with Neandertals such that non-African humans inherit ~1 to 3% of their genomes from Neandertal ancestors.

  132. 132.

    Leto

    @Villago Delenda Est: I know this is a dead thread, and it’s basically shouting into the void at this point, but Republicans changed the military retirement system from a defined pension to a 401k and nobody (here) said a fucking word. They’ve also continued to cut/erode basic benefits to military people and nobody (here) says a fucking word about it. While I appreciate people at least recognizing the problem that will happen to VA privatization, I don’t really expect much coverage from front pagers on this issue, nor really any issue pertaining to military benefits. I guess it’s just the continued, inevitable/expected erosion of all public sector benefits.

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