Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

People are complicated. Love is not.

đŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockin’ đŸŽ”

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

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

In my day, never was longer.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

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

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

This fight is for everything.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Soft, Squishy Comic Relief Open Thread: Richard Cohen Feels Himself OPPRESSED!

Soft, Squishy Comic Relief Open Thread: Richard Cohen Feels Himself OPPRESSED!

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Give Cohen this much: Unlike the 30-something MRAs fulminating on Reddit, he’s actually old enough to remember when white men did own the world. Maybe they can adopt him as their Angry Shouty Granpa, once the current Oval Office Occupant has been carted off. Or maybe they’ll look at him, and realize how ridiculous their Very Heartfelt Grievances really are! (I kid, I kid… )

White guy BJ jackals, don’t be wounded — consider this a little Wednesday evening gift. You can look at this and remind yourself, Well, I may not be totally woke, but at least I’m not Richard Cohen.

Reader Interactions

127Comments

  2. 2.

    ruemara

    I think white men need to start organizing against white men, because they’re totally ruining white menening for all.

  3. 3.

    trollhattan

    Instructive the first Tweet is from somebody at WaPo. When your own fellow staffers are appalled….

  4. 4.

    Geeno

    I’ll probably never be woke, but I generally at least understand that I don’t understand and keep my pinheaded comments to myself.

  6. 6.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I think it was Jamelle Bouie who tweeted yesterday that he had honestly forgotten that Cohen still had a column. I suspect there’s some people who work for the Post who have thought the same thing. Let’s have a brief review

    * In 1998, Cohen was involved in a dispute with editorial aide Devon Spurgeon that was ultimately mediated by Washington Post management.[7] Cohen reportedly asked Spurgeon questions about “casual sex”, told her to “stand up and turn around”, and gave her the “silent treatment” for three weeks.[7] Cohen contended that “it was a personality dispute at an office, but it had nothing to do with sexual harassment as the term applies today”.[7] Post management concluded that Spurgeon had been subjected to a “hostile working environment” but not to “sexual harassment” and that Cohen was guilty of “inappropriate behavior”.[7]
    * Cohen wrote a column in 1986 which argued owners of jewelry stores were right to refuse to allow entry to young black men because of a fear of crime. This column led to the Washington Post’s having to apologize.[19]
    * Following the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the shooting of Trayvon Martin in July 2013, Cohen wrote “a controversial column in which he defends George Zimmerman’s suspicion of Travyon Martin and calls on politicians to acknowledge that a disproportionate amount of crimes are committed by black males”.[19] The column went on to say that Cohen “can understand why Zimmerman was suspicious and why he thought Martin was wearing a uniform we all recognize;” in any case, he also points out that “What I’m trying to deal with is, I’m trying to remove this fear from racism. I don’t think it’s racism to say, ‘this person looks like a menace,'” he explained. …Towards the end of the column, Cohen calls Trayvon Martin “a young man understandably suspected because he was black”.[20]

    Is his column still listed under the “From the Left” or some such on the WaPo’s opinion site?

  10. 10.

    sukabi

    I worked with a guy once who liked to complain about affirmative action, and how white guys couldn’t get a break, lost out on jobs to minorities and women….

    I asked him how many jobs he’d lost out on. None, he says. He couldn’t explain why exactly he was mad about it.

    He also liked to bitch about people cheating on welfare and food stamps, and then proceeded to tell me how while he was living with and supporting his soon to be wife he had her get food stamps and assistance for their baby.

    Bet you can’t guess where he lies on the political spectrum.

  11. 11.

    Ohio Mom

    I liked Nora Ephron a lot when I was in my twenties and thirties, when she was a columnist; then over the years it faded to just like. But one thing about her I found completely inexplicable was her deep and lifelong friendship with Richard Cohen. She seemed smarter than that but I guess she wasn’t.

  12. 12.

    debbie

    I remember being asked why I should be hired when I’d probably just get married and pregnant. I didn’t cry; I told him that was a stupid question. Pity HR hadn’t been invented yet.

  13. 13.

    satby

    Honestly, is sniveling the new national sport? It’s like the country is suddenly full of scaredy cat cry-babies all whining about how mistreated they are.

  14. 14.

    Frankensteinbeck

    In the 1980s, white men got to decide how much anybody else got. Now this is only mostly true. That is a giant loss of privilege, yes. Nothing rammed that fact home like a black president they then weren’t able to get rid of.

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    What is being whined about is not so much the diminishing of white privilege as it is the (long overdue) erosion of the edifice labeled white entitlement.

  18. 18.

    Jeffro

    @ruemara:

    I think white men need to start organizing against white men, because they’re totally ruining white menening for all.

    I dunno…it’s kind of cool when you’re talking politics around the office or at a social gathering and it dawns on whomever you’re talking with: this guy’s not one of those guys!

    The autographs and selfies get a little embarrassing at times, though…

  20. 20.

    Steve in the ATL

    @debbie: that gets you hired at professional services firms. Law firms and the like love to hire young women because they think they will work extra hard to prove they’re better than a man and then they will have kids and take themselves off the partner track.

  25. 25.

    J R in WV

    LGM really tore Poor Richard a new one earlier this afternoon.

    I don’t think I have ever experienced the amount of butthurt Poor Richard has had by noon, every day.

    Also too, “We needed a woman, …. [or anyone who was competent at writing, as opposed to, like, you!]”

  26. 26.

    Jeffro

    PS I guess Rand Paul came out against Pompeo and now Twitler needs a Dem to join the Repubs if he’s gonna get his way…all together now, BJ: SAY NO, DEMOCRATS!!!

    (apologies if this is old news)

  31. 31.

    NotMax

    Hm. 50% chance of rain this afternoon, 70% for the next four or five days. Better get out there and do some pre-emptive mowing.

    Now, where did I put those pants?

    :)

  34. 34.

    trollhattan

    @NotMax: This is my first lawn-free spring. Celebrated by giving away the Toro and replacing the gas trimmer with a battery model. More navel-gazing time, nao.

  42. 42.

    ruemara

    @WereBear: Maybe if we put it into an energy drink


    @Jeffro: What if we just do a wave when you walk into the room? Or a free t-shirt that says “Not that white guy.”

  43. 43.

    Baud

    If they needed a woman, it probably meant they had failed to hire enough women in the past.

  44. 44.

    satby

    @NotMax: Cute little show you might enjoy if you get Acorn TV: Good Karma Hospital. I’m also catching up on the latest season of Death in Paradise . Both just breezy, light entertainment in appealing settings.
    This endless winter has me getting sunshine vicariously.

  45. 45.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jeffro: PS I guess Rand Paul came out against Pompeo

    Interesting. I heard the Beast today saying, ‘what I’d like to say about Rand Paul…” and I was of course expecting a tantrum, but it was more “He’s never let me down”, which I thought some people, including Paul, might take as “he always settles down and does what I want after her shuts up.

    @Ladyraxterinok: I don’t remember that one, but it would fit the pattern.

  46. 46.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Cermet:
    @rikyrah:
    @Baud: The only problem with long exposures it that I can only take a few pictures(I only shot 18 shots this morning, that’s really a low count for me). I may try another place on the coast, next to Mugu Rock(for you locals) that may shield my shot from LA’s light, one thing that I need for the sky tracker is a view of the North Star to align it properly.

  48. 48.

    trollhattan

    Oh man, Republicans are panicking everywhere. You’re up, Arizona.

    Arizona Republicans appeared to back off their efforts Wednesday to rig the rules to keep Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) seat in their column, pulling from the state Senate floor a proposed change in state law that would have guaranteed a lengthy appointment from the GOP governor should the ailing senator leave office in the coming weeks.

    Statehouse Republicans seemingly tried to pull a fast one on their Democratic counterparts, quietly adding an emergency clause to a bipartisan bill to clean up special election laws in the state that would have handed Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) assurance that he’d get to appoint a replacement for McCain through 2020.

    There’s a bit of disagreement between experts on current state law. There’s general consensus that if McCain’s seat comes open before June 1, a special election will be held to fill his seat this fall — greatly improving Democrats’ chances of winning at least one Senate seat and cracking the door for them to win both. If McCain’s seat doesn’t come open until after June 1, most (but not all) experts think that means Ducey would get to appoint a replacement for more than two years.

  49. 49.

    Thoughtful David

    Of course, Richard Cohen isn’t even really “white”. Those fine Aryans he fetishizes would be very happy to give him a low number for the oven queue.
    That’s part of the reason his glorification of white men is so stupid.

  50. 50.

    Frank Wilhoit

    My father, ca. 1970, thought Richard Cohen was teetering on, or rather off, the leftmost edge of the public discourse. I merely thought him a lightweight. Probably many instances of apparent ideological evolution are really down to a breeze.

  51. 51.

    Mary

    Give Cohen this much: Unlike the 30-something MRAs fulminating on Reddit, he’s actually old enough to remember when white men did own the world.

    Do they not still more or less own the world? I mean, we’ve progress on the margins, but the vast majority of the world’s wealth and power still resides with white men. I’m

  52. 52.

    MisterForkbeard

    #NotAllRichardCohens, amirite? How can we possibly blame Richard Cohen for the actions of Richard Cohen?

  53. 53.

    ruemara

    @Mary: They own about 5% less and THEY ARE LOSING THEIR SHIT.

    @rikyrah: There is something about black people excelling that mentally fractures these people. I do not get it.

  54. 54.

    efgoldman

    Fucing Cohen and his utter lack of self-awareness gives the rest of us grumpy old white guys a bad name.
    And his editors over the years should give back their paychecks.
    But then, this is the same paper that let a major columnist work directly on a presidential campaign without disclosing it.
    [For those who don’t know/remember, it was George Fucking Will for Sanctus Ronaldus Magnus in ’84]

  57. 57.

    J R in WV

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Were you really waiting for a special open thread to link to your great photo?

    Cause, really, all the Balloon Juice threads are open, really…

    Now you gotta use your phone to take a photo of your astrophotography setup to make me and alla the photographers jealous !!!

    How many shots did you have to take to get one without a single meteorite, nor any airplanes either? I kid. Great job.

  60. 60.

    J R in WV

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):

    OK, be that way…I didn’t actually look at the date.

    Back in ’13 or so I was in an auto accident, and the EMT asked me what date it was, and I told him “I’m retired, I don’t care what date it is!” and everyone laughed. I still had a concussion, even tho I’m retired.

    I’ve always been date-disabled, though.

  62. 62.

    hitchhiker

    I saw that Cohen column soon after it went up at the WaPo site … spent a little time composing a dopeslap and then lost heart.

    What’s the point of responding, when it just means they know I read the stupid thing? There’s a line in there where he says something about being glad he didn’t have to compete against some of the women around now, because boy howdy, that woulda been trouble!

    What does he think women who were not allowed to compete back then should make of that comment? To me it’s like 900 times uglier than the one quoted above.

  64. 64.

    clay

    I just heard Trump say that the Olympics were successful because of him, and now I just want to lapse into a coma for the next 7 months.

    It’s like… Bush was horrible in big ways, but Trump is horrible in ALL ways, big AND small.

  65. 65.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Question: What’s the relationship between your “start tracker gizmo” & what the ancients referred to as a clock drive? Cuz I’m older than most rocks & a whole passle of isotopes & as a longtime astronomy buff (& failed astrophysics grad student) that’s sure what it sounds like to me.

  66. 66.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Mary G: Close, about a mile south of Point Mugu State Park’s Sycamore Canyon campground. Teh Google maps calls the rocks there “Twin Bush”. If you zoom in there you can see the square slab of concrete I was shooting on.?

  67. 67.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    OT-Turns our that you can’t call McConnell a “closeted piece of shit” on his twitter feed without drawing a time out. Who could figure?

  69. 69.

    B

    OT for bj lawyers. If the taint team processing Cohen’s stuff finds evidence of new crimes not covered under scope (subpoena for example) of any current investigation, what are they allowed to do?

  70. 70.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Uncle Cosmo: It is a clock drive. You allign it with the North Star and it rotates. So the stars turn out without any trails with a long exposure, however the foreground gets the movement. That’s why you have to shoot two shots and then combine them in Photoshop.

  75. 75.

    lowtechcyclist

    “Help, help, I’m being repressed, come see the violence inherent in the system!”
    -Dennis the Peasant, and Richard Cohen

  77. 77.

    tobie

    @clay: What did he even have to do with the Olympics? And, in terms of the medal count, didn’t the US fare rather poorly this time? (Didn’t watch so can’t say.)

  80. 80.

    PVDMichael

    So apparently Republicans in the Arizona legislature are trying to back-date McCain’s must-die-by date to March… allowing the Republican Governor to appoint a replacement until 2020 instead of until a fall special election.

  81. 81.

    Roger Moore

    @trollhattan:
    I guess this explains why McCain has refused to retire; he’s putting the desires of his party ahead of the interests of his constituents. No real surprise; it’s just interesting to see the details of exactly why and how he’s fucking over the Arizona public.

  82. 82.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Uncle Cosmo: The foreground makes or breaks a Milky Way shot.

    ETA: This gizmo does have a 1/2 setting so you trade off a bit of star trails for a better foreground, it might work if you’re just doubling or tripling a fixed shot. Doesn’t work for a long/low ISO exposure. Yes, I tried that this morning.

    @Magda in Black: Thanks, I think it’s my best so far.

  83. 83.

    Wild Cat

    Haven’t read this entire thread, but a good discussion on Jews, Cohen. and the Concept of Whiteness on LGM this a.m.

  84. 84.

    Kathleen

    First they came for rich white male columnist in a national publication and I did nothing.

  85. 85.

    AnotherBruce

    @J R in WV: I kind like LGM, It’s kind of a cousin to BJ. I don’t get the annoyance that some of the posters here have toward them. They are very much not into political purity. And a lot of their posters are really good. Like the best political sites, they have a good sense of humor.

  86. 86.

    Roger Moore

    @ruemara:

    There is something about black people excelling that mentally fractures these people. I do not get it.

    It’s because they’re such losers they can only claim any kind of greatness from their group. Anything that challenges the status of their group challenges their own self worth.

  88. 88.

    Kathleen

    @AnotherBruce: I run hot and cold with LGM. I love Scott, Shakezula and Vacuum Slayer and like Erik, especially because he is one of the very few anywhere who writes on labor history. Some days I think the threads are brilliant and some days I click out after 2 seconds.

  91. 91.

    AnotherBruce

    @Kathleen: @Kathleen: I like the LGM community, but I like BJ’s gang of jackals better. But then again, I like threaded comments, so please don’t shoot me. It’s a pain in the ass to find a response and having to remember what number the original response. But I put up with it, I have to considering the cost of the the entertainment.

  94. 94.

    efgoldman

    @AnotherBruce:

    I don’t get the annoyance that some of the posters here have toward them.

    Many BJ regulars are Disqus-phobic and allergic to threaded comments.

  95. 95.

    gene108

    @Baud:

    In the same article Cohen says he worked for an insurance company, prior to WaPi, that didn’t hire blacks or Hispanics as part of company policy.

    My first real job was with the New York office of a national insurance company. Sexual harassment was a problem, for sure. But the term did not yet exist and the problem was not formally recognized.

    We had no acknowledged diversity problem, either. In fact, we simply had no diversity. African Americans, Hispanics — you name it: None. Our office was exclusively white and not by accident. When I asked my boss why we had no black employees, he told me directly that it was his policy not to hire any.

  98. 98.

    Steeplejack

    @Roger Moore:

    I think it’s pure personal ego with all of them. Strom Thurmond, Ted Kennedy, Robert Byrd, etc. When was the last time any senior senator or representative retired gracefully, rather than being the victim of a scandal or facing an impossible reĂ«lection battle? I mean just did a regular gold-watch, “Thanks for your service” retirement. Not carried out feet first or at death’s door.

  99. 99.

    Citizen_X

    The woman was qualified

    That line negates every other word in the column. Shoulda shut up right there, Dick.

  100. 100.

    Kathleen

    @AnotherBruce: Oh, yes! I like BJ much better also, though it is fun to see the “crossover” posters! Like when Lenny Briscoe on L&O does guest appearance on L&O SVU.

  102. 102.

    Aleta

    When I consider every thing that grows
    Holds in perfection but a little moment
    That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows
    Whereon the stars in secret influence comment

  103. 103.

    Ruckus

    @ruemara:
    Conservatives don’t do any math past 1-1=0.
    Zero Sum.
    Everything in the universe always adds up to x=white men have to own it all. Any deviation from that doesn’t make any sense to conservatives, because they have no logic, no subtleties, no possibility of actual thought. (It might lead them to understanding reality instead of trying to beat the world into submission) It’s why they are bad at governing, well that and the racism thing.

  105. 105.

    Steeplejack

    @AnotherBruce:

    It’s a pain in the ass to find a response and having to remember what number the original response.

    But you don’t really have to do that. If I click your nym in this comment, it takes me to your comment at 91 above. And if I click Kathleen’s nym in that comment, it takes me to her comment at 88. And so on for a whole subthread. And I can come back down through that subthread in order just by clicking the back button. It’s different from Disqus, yes, but arguably not worse.

  106. 106.

    Jeffro

    @ruemara: I like the wave idea! Or if someone – could be anyone in the room, I’m not picky – could pop a flashbulb? Kind of that “wow, I actually have my own paparazzi!” vibe?

    Exciting times, just having principles and compassion and all. My melanin-deficient brethren don’t know what they’re missing!

  108. 108.

    clay

    @tobie: I don’t think he was talking about the U.S.’s performance. I think he was taking credit for the overall event being successful.

    President Moon of South Korea was very generous when he said ‘If it weren’t for Donald Trump, the Olympics would have been a total failure.’ It was my involvement, and the involvement of our great country, that made the Olympics a very successful Olympics. If you look at ticket sales prior to what took place with respect to North Korea, it was going to be a big problem. And it turned out to be a very successful Olympics.

    Urgh. a) I doubt very much that Moon said that. b) I’m so sure that the Olympics weren’t selling any tickets. //s

  109. 109.

    clay

    @AnotherBruce: LGM and BJ are pretty simpatico on most issues. Except for, it seems, the Al Franken issue. The consensus here is that he got a raw deal, while over they they think he was a monster who deserved to be drummed out of the Senate.

  111. 111.

    Ruckus

    @Steeplejack:
    This is why I like REASONABLE LENGTH term limits for all national offices, including USSC. Has to be long enough to allow a career in any of the branches but it shouldn’t effectively end up a lifetime sinecure or be a lifetime appointment. A lifetime appointment might have been OK when we didn’t have a lot of qualified judges and a lifespan was on average, shorter. Putting some one on the court at 40 and having them server 45 or more years is not in the best interest of a democracy. Look up how long some have serve in congress. It means that a lot of decisions are made by old farts. And as an old fart I’ve seen too many of my fellow members become extremely selfish as they age or at least more open about it than they were.
    Think about this President Obama was 47 when sworn in, President Clinton was 46 and President Kennedy was 43. The best presidents in my lifetime were in their 40s, the absolute worst is the oldest at swearing (and yes I did plenty of that!) in is the current squatter, drumpf.

  112. 112.

    debbie

    @clay:

    What would happen if all of the reporters began rolling their eyes whenever Trump went all stupid? Do you think he would even notice?

  114. 114.

    TenguPhule

    @efgoldman:

    Fucing Cohen and his utter lack of self-awareness gives the rest of us grumpy old white guys a bad name.

    By the onions you wear is how we shall judge you.

  115. 115.

    Ruckus

    @debbie:
    Maybe if they did that fake cough or sneeze thing while saying the word bullshit every time he speaks. It really is bullshit when it leaves his mouth so it wouldn’t even have to be all that faked.

  118. 118.

    Adam L Silverman

    I know I’m late to this post, but I just want to make a point: for the first 30 years or so of Richard Cohen’s life he wasn’t considered white because he’s Jewish. And in the US Jewish is as much an ethno-national category as it is a religious one. And white has nothing to do with one’s skin color or even ethno-national origins, it’s a socio-cultural signifier. So it’s only been since the early 1970s when Jews finally crossed the threshold into being white. And Cohen needs to understand that the people that graciously extended that courtesy can just as easily take it away tomorrow.

  119. 119.

    Bill Arnold

    Without comment except a smile:
    Trump’s Lawyer Forgets to Pretend He’s Innocent, Also Compares Him to Mobster

    Not all of Trump’s supporters feel so confident that Cohen will respect the omerta. In a conversation with Trump last Friday, Jay Goldberg, one of Trump’s lawyers, warned the president, “Michael will never stand up [for you]” if charged by the government, according to the Wall Street Journal. But why would Trump have anything to worry about, unless
 Trump committed a crime that Cohen knows about?
    In an interview with the Journal, Goldberg elucidated his concerns about Cohen’s loyalty and the devastating impact it would have if he cooperated with the government. “The mob was broken by Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano caving in out of the prospect of a jail sentence,” Goldberg explained.

  120. 120.

    Chris

    @Adam L Silverman:

    What happened in the early seventies?

    I’d heard that the 1967 and 1973 wars cemented Israel as Our Loyal Cold War Ally In The Middle East and that that was a major factor – is that what you’re thinking of?

  121. 121.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Chris: Nothing really specific. It was basically a culmination of something that had been happening for a while throughout the post WW II period. Similar to the pathway for a lot of ethnic Catholics like Italian-Americans, Spanish-Americans, and Portuguese-Americans, as well as non Catholic ethnics like Greek Americans to be considered white.

  123. 123.

    jayjaybear

    Wasn’t Richard Cohen the guy who got shivers down his leg when Sarah Palin spoke way back in 2008?

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