Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Petty moves from a petty man.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

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

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

“But what about the lurkers?”

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night Horror/Farce Open Thread: “Good”, Considering the Alternative, News About the “Alt-Right”

Late Night Horror/Farce Open Thread: “Good”, Considering the Alternative, News About the “Alt-Right”

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Been too busy a news week to share this sooner — Michael Harriot’s report for The Root, “The Only Thing Missing From Georgia’s Neo-Nazi Rally Was Actual Neo-Nazis”:

When a white supremacist group planned a gathering that was supposed to surpass Charlottesville, Va.’s Unite the Right rally, the community prepared for the worst. Hundreds of police officers arrived in a small Georgia town outside Atlanta to keep the peace. Counterprotesters came out en masse to condemn the hate groups that were scheduled to show up.

But when it came to the actual neo-Nazis who were supposed to descend upon Newnan, Ga., on Saturday, they apparently responded to the National Socialist Movement’s Nazi-palooza invitation with the age-old indicator of ambivalence: “Who all gon’ be there?”

The New York Times reports that law enforcement officers greatly outnumbered the crowd at Saturday’s march organized by the National Socialist Movement, one of America’s largest white nationalist organizations, while the Atlanta Journal-Constitution estimates that “only a couple of dozen” actual white supremacists showed up…

As National Socialist Movement leader Jeff Schoep ranted about the scourge of skinny jeans and undocumented immigration, the crowd drowned out his speech about “standing on behalf of white nationalism, white patriotism and our history as American people.” City officials said that about 10 people were arrested, and the crowd was dispersed at 5 p.m…

 
Related, from the Washington Post, “‘Imploding’: Financial troubles. Lawsuits. Trailer park brawls. Has the alt-right peaked?”:

Eight months after a white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville ended in the death of a counterprotester, the loose collection of disaffected young white men known as the alt-right is in disarray.

The problems have been mounting: lawsuits and arrests, fundraising difficulties, tepid recruitment, widespread infighting, fierce counterprotests, and banishment from social media platforms. Taken together, they’ve exhausted even some of the staunchest members…

Overall, the number of neo-Nazi groups increased in the United States in 2017, from 99 to 121, according to a Southern Poverty Law Center report released this year. That number is likely to decrease this year, said Heidi Beirich, who co-wrote the report. The SPLC did not group alt-right organizations together, but some of the neo-Nazi groups were an outgrowth of the movement…

Even so, there is little doubt that white supremacy remains a potent force that is likely to emerge again as a political one — if not as the alt-right, then as something else. Racial animus remains an entrenched aspect of American life…

Chris Schiano, a reporter for Unicorn Riot, a decentralized nonprofit media organization that has leaked internal correspondence among alt-right members, called the movement “basically done.” It could resurface if it falls out of public view and organizes under newer, younger leaders, he cautions, but they haven’t “gotten much traction yet.”

“The overall level of racism in U.S. society hasn’t improved, it’s just that the organizing space for these types of networks” has largely been depleted, said Schiano, whose group rose out of Occupy Wall Street and documents social protests. “So the latent potential won’t go away unless society becomes less racist.”…

… in the same way the Internet was a boon for the alt-right, enabling rapid mobilization, fundraising and a sense of community, it also has thrown up roadblocks to the movement’s progress. After alt-right members started getting booted from Facebook and Twitter, they relocated to alternative social media platforms, such as Gab, where they weren’t likely to encounter, let alone radicalize, people they call “normies,” who use more mainstream outlets.

Participation and enthusiasm appear to have slowed since. Several street rallies have been sparsely populated by white supremacists — but overwhelmingly attended by counterprotesters — and by the time Spencer ended his college speaking tour, few supporters were coming to his speeches.

At Stormfront, a large white-supremacist online forum whose threads were read by some alt-right members, few were donating money. “It’s that time of [the] month again, when the big, scary bills hit,” site creator Don Black wrote recently. His wife, according to site members, has stopped financially supporting the forum, and his son, Derek, has rejected white supremacy. “Our contributions have once again totaled less than $2000, which is not enough to cover our basic server and radio bills, and this month we no longer have enough personal money to make up the difference.”…

 
Sunlight, the best disinfectant.

I will add, cynic that I am, that one sign the “White’s Rights” jagoffs are deluded about the significance of their cause is that the actual civil rights warriors of the 1960s didn’t accidentally kill people, get into farcical public spats, or lose heart the first time outsiders gave them some harsh looks or their funding ran low.

Reader Interactions

146Comments

  2. 2.

    SFAW

    “Has the alt-right peaked?”

    What is that, a trick question? Like “Have we reached Peak Wingnut”?

    The answer is No.

  3. 3.

    Ruckus

    Support a 1/4 mile wide and a millimeter deep. How many alt right, alt white assholes could get or keep much of a job to have much left over money?

  4. 4.

    trollhattan

    BBC:

    North Korea’s nuclear test site will close in May, the South Korean president’s office has said.

    A spokesman said the closure would be done in public and foreign experts from South Korea and the US would be invited to watch.

    On Friday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in agreed to work to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons.

    Their summit came after months of warlike rhetoric from the North.

    “Kim said during the summit… that he would carry out the closing of the nuclear test site in May,” Mr Moon’s spokesman told reporters, as reported by AFP news agency.

    Don’t know how Donny will spin this, but Bolton is surely grabbing at his ankles bleating, “Please sir, can we not bomb them anyway?”

  5. 5.

    Mary G

    Was that where they set fire to the giant swastika? I kept seeing pictures on twitter, but I didn’t have the stomach to read the stories.

  6. 6.

    Karen Potter

    It appears that dolt ask if there were any Hispanics in audience before pushing his wall, in Michigan, at his rally.

  7. 7.

    SFAW

    @Ruckus:

    How many alt right, alt white assholes could get or keep much of a job to have much left over money?

    All they need is enough money to buy white polo shirts, khakis, and Tiki torches, so how much can that be?

  9. 9.

    B.B.A.

    @Ruckus: Peter Thiel and Robert Mercer have enough money between them to make the alt-reich last a thousand years. At this level of support anyway.

  10. 10.

    Ruckus

    @SFAW:
    They may have peaked in their current incantation, that doesn’t mean they are gone or the same assholes won’t resurface with a slightly different spiel.

  13. 13.

    Omnes Omnibus

    cynic that I am

    I am not sure that cynicism is helpful right now – however warranted it may be. The optimism and determination of the Parkland kids is, I think, the better course. We can work toward one or the other. I prefer the positive. Others MMV.

  14. 14.

    Duane

    The alt-right are the kids you knew in grade school who didn’t work and play well with others.

  15. 15.

    Ruckus

    @B.B.A.:
    Even those assholes have their limits as to how much they are giving away. Plus how many of the asshole followers do you think have much sway with them? The leaders sure, but the rank shitheads?

  17. 17.

    Suffragettecity

    There may not have been any actual Nazis at that rally, but the police sure made the attempt to make up for it based on the pics and video I saw.

  18. 18.

    Jay S

    @Mary G: I believe the fire symbols (a swastika and some other symbol) were part of the after party out of town. ETA I think some of the group met up there but were afraid to show in town because of the counter protest. This was on private property.

  19. 19.

    Adam L Silverman

    @trollhattan: I’ve read the joint statements a couple of times. While the language is nice and flowery and ambiguous, I think that section 2 and parts of section 3 are going to be what cause the US headaches. I also think that aside from the meeting between Kim and the President, the US is now superfluous to the reality on the ground. And that Kim is manipulating the President into a diplomatic and strategic trap where Kim and the DPRK looks like the good guys here and the President, and by extension the US, look unreasonable and become the bad guys. This would also make Xi and the PRC, as well as Putin – another of Kim’s patrons – very, very happy.

  20. 20.

    Jeffro

    Sooner or later the “both sides” media are going to have to confront, internalize, and then admit that both sides are not the same (even just in sheer numbers, much less in terms of moral authority). Sooner or later. I’m betting on later, but I’m willing to drag them by their hair across broken glass to understand that sooner would be better.

  23. 23.

    Ruckus

    @Duane:
    Which is why I think the movement has a hard time being much bigger than a major pain in the ass.
    Also the Mercers and Peter Thiel seem to be awfully close to being under investigation, you think they want to be in any way connected to this much controversy and possible murder charges? They are evil but I’d bet they don’t want to be caught paying for murder. All their money might not be enough for that.

  24. 24.

    jl

    Oh goody. A post on the alt-right. On Josh Marshall’s twitter I see there is a tenured professor of economics who apparently has decided to write odd screeds and rants about the economic and social justice aspects of ‘incels’ (involuntary celibates). He says it is a form of social inequality just like debt slavery, or just plain slavery, or other forms of discrimination. Apparently he argues for social measures, like forced monogamy, to make the women go around more equitably to men. He doesn’t favor any other kind of redistribution, apparently. I don’t know for sure. I doubt I read through much of his stuff.

    I worried if this guy had anything to do with the places I’ve been associated with. But, it’s a guy named Robin Hanson at George Mason University. Huh, George Mason economics department, who wouldda thunk? They guys got his degree at CalTech, so I guess he knows something about numbers and stuff. Oh well… interesting. At least I don’t have to worry about it anymore.

    Edit:his bio says he’s married, so I hope he is not an incel himself. No link. Those interested can go find it themselves on Marshall’s twitter.

  27. 27.

    glory b

    I listened to a podcast of a Fresh Air interview with the historian Kathleen Belew about her book on modern white supremacists called Bring Home the War. She warned that while we thought we were beginning a new era of racial tolerance with Obama’s election, these people were gaining strength. She ties in the doomsday preppers, militia members and others who tend to hide their supremacist leanings.

    Their organizational skills might be lacking, but the numbers of believers maintains.

    Gee, maybe we would have been well served by an investigatve report from the feds about this a few years ago //snark//.

  28. 28.

    Mary G

    Kanye’s got two albums coming out, so of course he’s gone all MAGAT. His house is creepy as hell – all beige. Today he’s posted that Emma Gonzalez is his hero, making the right wingers who were “finally, we’re cool!” very sad. She then posted a picture of James Shaw, Jr.saying he’s her hero. I just love some of those Parkland kids.

  29. 29.

    Viva BrisVegas

    Even so, there is little doubt that white supremacy remains a potent force that is likely to emerge again as a political one — if not as the alt-right, then as something else.

    Is “something else” what the kids are calling the Republican Party these days?

  31. 31.

    MisterForkbeard

    I like that these articles pretend that the Republican Party isn’t also white supremacist.

  36. 36.

    Mary G

    Mueller still on the trail, per WaPo, and AP too, I guess:

    ROSEMONT, Ill. — A Russian mixed martial arts fighter who has connections with President Donald Trump, the president’s personal attorney Michael Cohen and Russian President Vladimir Putin was questioned this week by the FBI, his manager confirmed Saturday.

    Fedor Emelianenko was questioned by agents who met him in his hotel room on Tuesday, manager Jerry Millen said before Emelianenko’s Bellator MMA heavyweight fight against Frank Mir. Millen declined to detail his client’s conversations with the agents.

    “The FBI came to the hotel looking to talk to Fedor and they were very nice, came in to speak with Fedor for a few minutes, spoke to me, very cool guys, and that’s all I can really say about it. Again, the FBI did come to the hotel, they found us, knocked on the door,” Millen said.

    “Hundred percent, kind of surprised,” Millen added. “They were very nice, very professional.”

    The agents were in attendance at Saturday’s fight, Millen said.

  39. 39.

    Yarrow

    Did anyone watch Michelle Wolf at the WH Correspondents’ Dinner? I didn’t, but Twitter seems to think she either killed it or was horrible. Women seem to think she was great. Apparently she destroyed Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

  40. 40.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Karen Potter: Seriously, I, being a trusting sort of person, thought that your jabs at me were merely personal, but I may have been wrong. I have to say that I tend not to believe fuck all that you say unless you link a reputable source. Others may differ.

  43. 43.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Yarrow: and Conway, and trump, and Pence. As to Jethrene, I don’t watch the Handmaid’s Tale, but I’m guessing, “Love you as Aunt Lydia” wasn’t a compliment

  45. 45.

    Adam L Silverman

    https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/27/yiannopoulos-business-implodes-after-death-of-crypto-billionaire-557456

    Running out of money and down on his luck, right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos laid off the small staff of Milo Entertainment Inc. earlier this month, according to three people familiar with the situation.

    Yiannopoulos’ company has fallen on hard times ever since his former patrons, Robert and Rebekah Mercer, severed their financial backing last year.

    According to the sources, Yiannopoulos had been expecting to instead receive significant financial backing from the banking heir and cryptocurrency billionaire Matthew Mellon. But those hopes were dashed with Mellon’s unexpected death from an apparent drug overdose on April 16.

    On Monday, Yiannopoulos posted a photo on Instagram of himself with Mellon. “I spent a few days and nights in Miami and LA with the incredible human being Matthew Mellon, the last of them just a day before he passed,” Yiannopoulos wrote in the caption. “He was brilliant, infectious and warm-hearted and I will never forget getting to know this remarkable person. Rest in peace now, MM. You left a giant stamp on the world.”

    With Mellon’s unexpected death, Yiannopoulos could no longer afford the staff of Milo Entertainment.

    “He fired everybody,” said one person familiar with Yiannopoulos’ operation, which had employed a handful of full-time and part-time staffers.

    Among them was the journalist Chadwick Moore, who was technically terminated several days before learning of his firing, according to two people familiar with the situation.

    Much more schadenfreudey goodness at the link.

  49. 49.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Karen Potter: You are making the claim. It is on you to support it.

    ETA: People i respect have called you out as a troll. I have expressed doubts.

  50. 50.

    Adam L Silverman

    @MisterForkbeard: Not all of them.

    Overt anti-Semites have been slowly creeping into Republican politics in the aftermath of President Trump’s successful, populist candidacy, and now one of them has a fighting chance of representing the Republican Party in a Senate race.

    The man in question is Patrick Little, an extremist with hardline anti-Semitic views who is backed by David Duke and other far-right extremists. Little will be squaring off in a top-two primary with 10 other Republicans as well as Democrats and independents on June 5 for the chance to oppose veteran Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein. According to a recent poll, released last week, he very much has a chance of winning the right to face off with the incumbent.

    A poll conducted by local ABC News affiliates along with the polling company Survey USA, suggested that Little is polling at 18 percent of the vote on the Republican ticket, a full 10 points ahead of his next strongest opponent. The 84-year-old Feinstein, who first entered office way back in 1992, at the start of Bill Clinton’s first term, remains a solid favorite to win the state—polling at 39 percent.

    It’s unclear how predictive the poll will prove to be, or whether many Californians are intimately familiar with Little’s views, but the notion that he has any viability at all in the state is likely to raise alarm. Little has said he believes Jews should have no say over white non-Jews and wants to see them removed from the country altogether. On Gab, a social media site with large swaths of extremist users, he argues that the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, whose proprietors praise Adolf Hitler and have appeared to call for acts of violence against Jewish people, is too Jewish.

    “I propose a government that makes counter-semitism central to all aims of the state,” he wrote on that website, referring to a white nationalist euphemism for a hatred of Jews. He argued for forbidding “all immigration except of biological kin, where no person of Jewish origin may live, vacation or traverse.”

    He also wrote that he wanted to keep Americans “free from Jews.”

    Matt Barreto, a Professor of Political Sciences at UCLA, told Newsweek that while the poll is concerning due to Little’s views, it isn’t a strong indicator that he will ever become Senator.

    “There’s been no campaign to speak of. All the discussion has been between Feinstein and [Democratic challenger] Kevin de León,” Barreto said. “I don’t believe that this candidate has much outreach.”

    He noted that many people may have no idea who Little is, and are simply responding to the fact that his name was grouped with the Republicans. He said that if his views became more widely known, it would likely sink his candidacy.

    “This is the whole reason Trump won the election,” he said. “Republicans voted for a Republican even if they didn’t think they would vote for Trump.”

    Barreto noted that Democrats dominate California politics and that the state party is focused on issues of taxation. He described them as being more open-minded than the national party on issues like immigration, gay marriage and marijuana legalization, even if there are pockets of overtly white supremacist voters in places like Orange County.

    Little did not respond to a request for comment on this story. His overtly anti-Semitic posts in the runup to an election follow the candidacy of Wisconsin-based Republican congressional candidate Paul Nehlen, who has veered so far to the right that he has been disavowed by some prominent white nationalists.

    White Supremacist Richard Spencer wrote on Twitter this month that Nehlen “needs to just go away,” suggesting that he had embarrassed their cause of building a state for only whites by being too openly prejudiced. Most recently, Nehlen appeared on an extremist podcast inspired by racist mass murderer Dylann Roof. It’s unclear whether or not Little, whose political ambitions have so far received less scrutiny than Nehlen’s, will be similarly disavowed.

    Little is a vocal fan of Christopher Cantwell, an anti-Semitic podcast host and one of the white nationalists who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August of 2017. Cantwell is an outspoken supporter of Adolf Hitler has made a hatred of Jews the crux of his political argument when he speaks to his audience. He told Newsweek Friday that Little has a slim chance of winning, even if they share the same prejudices.

    “I cannot claim to have familiarized myself with the mechanics of that race well enough to say,” Cantwell said. “However, I have my doubts that Holocaust revisionism polls well amongst Californians of any party.”

  51. 51.

    Mnemosyne

    @jl:

    Apparently he argues for social measures, like forced monogamy, to make the women go around more equitably to men.

    Yes, because that totally worked for the previous several millennia of human civilization when monogamy was socially forced on everyone.

  53. 53.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Mary G: Thanks. I’m really curious about that show– I’ve heard a lot of good things– but I can’t quite bring myself to pay for more TV. Because I would probably watch more if it were available

  54. 54.

    Adam L Silverman

    Oopsie!

  58. 58.

    Adam L Silverman

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I’m not particularly worried he’s going to have any success. But, as is the case with Nehlen in Wisconsin, it is another data point to be noted.

  61. 61.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Yarrow: Depends. Some of their events are gun free zones, as the 2nd Amendment absolutists like to call them, some of their events aren’t. Since I’m neither an NRA member, nor someone who has ever attended one of their events, I cannot tell you which are which.

  67. 67.

    Mary G

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I got the free one week trial to watch it, planning to cancel, but still have the service. It’s not something really to binge-watch; it’s really disturbing and you kind of have to sit and digest it. But it is excellent, if horrifying.

  68. 68.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Adam L Silverman: I was going to add it to my previous comment, but FYWP won’t let me…
    The SUSA poll that they’re citing in that piece has a really small sample size(under 600) and I’m a bit surprised about de León only polling at 8%, though his support seems to be slipping.

  73. 73.

    Karen Potter

    @Sab: Yes, but somehow I don’t think they pass the color test to be allowed in at a rally; though that guy with “Blacks for trump” shirt always seems to be at every rally.

  77. 77.

    Karen Potter

    @Sab: Or maybe, just maybe if they were at rally they didn’t want to speak up. I not sure I would want that kind of attention focused on me.

  78. 78.

    Suzanne

    Financial troubles. Lawsuits. Trailer park brawls.

    I know they hate being called “white trash”, but COME TF ON.

  80. 80.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Suzanne: Matthew Heimbach, who upped stakes from Maryland and moved into a trailer park in Indiana if I’m recalling correctly, got into a fight with his father in law because he was having an affair with his mother in law.

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/matthew-heimbachs-traditional-workers-party-implodes-over-love-triangle-turned-trailer-brawl

    One of America’s highest-profile neo-Nazi parties is “no more” after a bizarre love triangle saw its leader locked up for assault, the party’s former spokesperson, who described the incident as a “white trash circus” told The Daily Beast.

    The Traditionalist Worker Party gained national attention after its involvement at the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last August. Its leader, Matthew Heimbach was arrested Tuesday for allegedly assaulting his wife and his spokesman after Heimbach was caught cheating on his wife with the spokesman’s wife.

    David “Matt” Parrott was the party’s spokesperson until Tuesday, when he quit in a statement to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Parrott told The Daily Beast the incident might be the end for the white nationalist group. “People have lost faith in the party on every level,” he said.

    Parrott scrapped the TWP’s website after quitting because he believes the party to be dead, he said.

    The implosion began at a TWP compound in Paoli, Indiana, where Parrott’s wife, Jessica, was allegedly having an affair with Heimbach—who is married to Parrott’s stepdaughter from a previous marriage.

    Heimbach and Jessica told Parrott they’d ended the relationship, but Parrott and Heimbach’s wife were skeptical. They arranged to “set up” Heimbach and Jessica in a trailer on Parrott’s property to catch them having sex.

    Parrott stood on a box outside the trailer and watched Heimbach and Jessica have sex inside, according to a police report. When the box broke under Parrott’s weight, he entered the trailer to confront them. Heimbach allegedly choked him and chased him into a house, where Parrott threw a chair at him. Heimbach hit back, choking him into unconsciousness, according to the police report.

    Parrott fled to a Walmart near his home and called police around 1 a.m. Tuesday morning.

    After interviewing Parrott, police went to Heimbach’s home, where they met him outside with Jessica who said she was just a neighbor and left. Heimbach went inside and sent his own wife out instead, telling her “to send the police away and tell them everything was fine,” the police report reads. Heimbach “began to raise his voice at her and I heard scuffling and [Heimbach’s wife] yelling,” an officer wrote.

    Heimbach’s wife accused him of becoming violent when she refused to dismiss the police. “He kicked the wall, and then grabbed my cheeks, making them bleed, and threw me with the and on my face onto the bed,” she wrote to police. “I have a recording of this.”

    Police arrested Heimbach on the spot and charged him with battery, intimidation, strangulation, and domestic battery committed in the physical presence of a child. (The Heimbachs’ two young children were present when he allegedly assaulted his wife.) The police report lists Heimbach’s occupation as “white nationalist.”

    Parrott, who quit his post as the TWP’s spokesperson Tuesday, claimed the incident was the end of the white nationalist group. After he announced his resignation to the SPLC on Tuesday, the TWP website went offline. Parrott claimed he’d pulled the site in order to destroy TWP membership data in anticipation of people leaving the group en masse.

    “I guaranteed that all our membership data was destroyed because of lot of concern with people’s information being caught in this white trash circus,” he told The Daily Beast. “All the information is destroyed and everybody’s personal information is protected.”

    He claimed Heimbach’s arrest had dealt a serious blow to the white nationalist group’s credibility.

    “Obviously due to the events that transpired, people have lost faith in the party on every level. I totally respect that and it’s my job to protect that information.”

    Did he expect mass resignations from the party?

    “There is no more party ma’am,” Parrott said. “Goodbye.”

    Inbreeding the master race. Or something…

  81. 81.

    Mary G

    This is the same take I was trying to describe, but much better:

    I agree. I took the Aunt Lydia joke more as a reference to how severe SHS is. And, yes, that's a gendered take. But it's not one based on appearances. Michelle isn't saying SHS is unfuckable because she looks like an old matron. She's likening SHS to a screaming angry tyrant.— SporkenWord (@SporkenWord) April 29, 2018

    And of course, the teacher’s pet chimes in:

    That @PressSec sat and absorbed intense criticism of her physical appearance, her job performance, and so forth, instead of walking out, on national television, was impressive.— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) April 29, 2018

    I’m pretty sure Twitler will chime in, too.

  84. 84.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Karen Potter: I didn’t have an issue with the link. I know that she, along with a wack job former Navy intel weenie from Tampa named Frank Wuco, destroyed that very effective program.

    I was just making fun of Seb.

  88. 88.

    Jay S

    @Jay S: And a quick Google search shows that the NRA annual meeting gun restriction stories are a bit exaggerated, They had certain halls that banned guns but much of the convention areas had some form of legal carry for the last 3 conventions. Texas law allows legal carry in all the NRA venues and they will allow it, but for the VP event.

  90. 90.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’d like to ask if the critics are upset that Trump mocked a disabled reporter and has mocked people’s looks. Remember what he said about Cruz’s wife? Or when he called that Latino beauty pageant contestant fat?
    SHS is ugly inside and out. I don’t care what anyone says to her face about anything. I hope her feelings were hurt. I’m hurt that Trump is President so to hell with her. I’m sure she will be back to lying her face off on Monday.

  94. 94.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    White elephant on fire. Twice.

    Although it’s a bit disingenuous to report as if it is currently a Trump property.

    Two fires strike Azerbaijan highrise once planned to be Trump hotel
    [snip]
    The Trump Organization cancelled its licensing deal for the planned hotel in December 2016, one month after Trump was elected. Letters spelling out the Trump name were removed from the building. Source

  95. 95.

    efgoldman

    @Jeffro:

    Sooner or later the “both sides” media are going to have to confront, internalize, and then admit that both sides are not the same

    Why the hell would you think so?

  96. 96.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Adam L Silverman: Even that article (good as it is) pretends that this is a relatively new phenomenon.

    It’s not – even the overtness of the racism has only changed marginally.

  98. 98.

    Yarrow

    @Adam L Silverman: Interesting. Wonder how that happened. I’ve thought Trump properties around the world were vulnerable to attacks. I’m kind of surprised we haven’t seen that kind of thing.

  101. 101.

    Fair Economist

    @jl:

    decided to write odd screeds and rants about the economic and social justice aspects of ‘incels’ (involuntary celibates). He says it is a form of social inequality just like debt slavery, or just plain slavery, or other forms of discrimination. Apparently he argues for social measures, like forced monogamy, to make the women go around more equitably to men.

    I think it’s more of an attack on wealth redistribution on the grounds of “if we don’t do *this*, why do we do *that*”. It isn’t so much arguing for “sex redistribution” as saying it’s roughly similar to wealth distribution.

    It’s an odd complaint because although we don’t “force” monogamy, the cultural push to it is very strong. There’s a theorem that shows no matter what the preference order of the boys and girls, with monogamy there is one stable arrangement of pairings, and everybody gets paired. Reality doesn’t match up perfectly to the math, but in our society pretty much everybody who wants to be in a relationship, doesn’t have unreasonable expectations, and doesn’t have serious personality problems can get matched up.

    Now in a polygamous society obviously there’s going to be an excess of males and it is frequently a major problem for society, because young men with no hope of marriage or children have a high tendency to be troublemakers.

    My impressions of “incels” is that generally they have unreasonable expectations *and* personality problems. Society is already “enforcing” monogamy, largely to their benefit, and they are just unwilling or unable to take advantage of it.

  103. 103.

    Eljai

    @jl: I thought this might be about the incel guy that wrote that women should not be allowed to wear make-up so that they can’t “bang guys above their league”, but it’s a different one. Can’t imagine why these assholes can’t get laid. Anyhoo, as a woman, I’m with Ashley:

    Ashley Nicole Black Panther @ashley1cole
    I’m going to start a subreddit for women who can’t get laid. We’ll probably just talk about hobbies, and tv shows we like, and then not kill anyone.

  104. 104.

    Jay S

    @Adam L Silverman: That Snopes article is far too accepting of the editor’s non response with the sheriff’s statement. Not redacting contact information makes it an ad whether it was an editorial mistake or deliberate.

  105. 105.

    Mnemosyne

    @Fair Economist:

    It isn’t so much arguing for “sex redistribution” as saying it’s roughly similar to wealth distribution.

    Except, of course, that “wealth” is at best a collection of inanimate objects and women are actual people. But not to the “incels,” apparently. To them, women are just commodities, and they can’t figure out why they can’t just buy the one they want like a car or a computer.

  107. 107.

    Peale

    Probably should write AVENGERS SPOILERS here, although I spoil nothing.

    Thanos is a very well conceived villain. I’m haven’t been much of a comic book reader since age 13, so if things aren’t explained in these movies, I will miss the inferences. I thought after reading his Wikipedia entry, that we’d get some kind of religious death cult extremist…another Ronan the Accuser as villain. Instead, he reminds me of a moderate New York Times oped writer or Atlantic Monthly editor. That’s all I’ll say.

  117. 117.

    hervevillechaizelounge

    Am I the only one worried about the current incarnation of Nazism failing?

    At least these buffoons were easy to spot; the next generation will learn from the predecessors’ mistakes.

    The Mercers were happy to shower money on the Milos of the world; how much will they donate to a racist smart enough to keep his swastika armband under wraps while disempowering POC?

    Reminds me of the famous Atwater quote; now they know the can’t run around screaming the N-word so they’ll target social services in the name of equality.

  118. 118.

    magurakurin

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Trump International Tower in Baku, Azerbaijan is on fire.

    And then finally, when there’s nothing left, when you can’t borrow another buck from the bank or buy another case of booze, you bust the joint out. You light a match.

  120. 120.

    Jay S

    We needed an Obama PSA warning about eating romaine lettuce or Caesar salads. It would have bolstered the lettuce markets as that stuff flew off the shelves. Solve a lot of problems. Is it too late now? I mean really, he should do all food/recall warnings as a public service.

  121. 121.

    Chet Murthy

    @magurakurin:

    it’s pretty amazing. Stephen Colbert level stuff. Gutsy.

    That’s exactly what I thought, too! She really let everybody in the room have it, including the media. And it was funny, too! And Lo! the way she went after Elmira Gantry! What a sight! And this:

    “Trump isn’t here, if you haven’t noticed, and I know I would’ve dragged him here myself, but it turns out the President of the United States is the only pussy you’re not allowed to grab.”

    Damn!

  122. 122.

    Felanius Kootea

    I enjoyed Michelle Wolf’s bits on the Daily Show with Trevor Noah and knew she was a writer on that show but I had no idea just how fearless she was until tonight. My husband and I were howling with a mixture of delight and shock/awe. I particularly liked the larger point about the media secretly liking 45 because they profit from him and focus on him almost to the exclusion of everything else. And Flint Michigan still doesn’t have clean drinking water

  123. 123.

    jl

    @Fair Economist: Good points, and thanks for reminding me about the stable matching theorem.
    I’m not sure he is making such a foolish argument as you think he is. But I don’t have time to read his stuff all the way through to find out.

    Anyway, my first thought was George Mason econ when I read about it, and started reading excerpts. Then I went to the blog post, but it was too long and confusing to me to read all the way through.

  124. 124.

    Brachiator

    Politico is claiming that there were some walkouts during the White House Correspondents Dinner.

    Members of the Trump administration walked out of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Saturday night after comedian Michelle Wolf ripped into White House staffers including press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in the absence of the president himself.

    A year after the White House boycotted the annual dinner — and with President Donald Trump holding a competing campaign-style rally in Michigan — director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp and her husband, conservative activist Matt Schlapp, were among those who marched out of the ballroom at the Washington Hilton long before Wolf’s keynote routine was over.

    Also, some claims that the jokes we’re not well received.

    It was a risque and uneven routine at first met with laughs but often greeted by awkward silence. Wolf laced into the president and repeatedly brought up his comments from the “Access Hollywood” tape. …

    But much of the room went silent with Wolf’s personalized attacks — and an abortion joke that wasn’t well received — and after the Comedy Central comedian joked that she wished a tree would fall on Conway, adding that she did not hope that the White House aide would get hurt, but only “that she would get stuck.”

    Some Republicans are already ginning up their standard crap about how the humor was disrespectful and out of touch with “real American values.”

    I thought the worst of it was that the NY Times Maggie Haberman won an award for her fawning, ass kissing White House coverage. Or, if you like her work, “nuanced, contextual and multi-dimensional.”

    Link to Politico story.

    https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/28/white-house-correspondents-dinner-2018-trump-sarah-huckabee-sanders-559190

  125. 125.

    karen marie

    @Jeffro: I’ve been waiting my entire adult life (I’m 61) for that to happen. I’m not going to hold my breath.

  128. 128.

    Brachiator

    @Fair Economist:

    Now in a polygamous society obviously there’s going to be an excess of males and it is frequently a major problem for society, because young men with no hope of marriage or children have a high tendency to be troublemakers.

    Human beings tend to be mildly polygynous, and human societies have accommodated this.

    I suppose that all this recent stuff about incel boneheads will result in a flurry of articles about how, over time, societies have dealt with men with little apparent hope of getting married.

  130. 130.

    MomSense

    @Patricia Kayden:

    What makes me furious is that they respect Paul Ryan even though he wants to end school lunch programs for kids but Wolf went too far in telling jokes. Kids hungry quietly is fine. Woman making us uncomfortable is disgraceful.

  131. 131.

    Vhh

    @trollhattan: The real cause of this is the collapse of the mountain where the tunnels for testing are located. Kim is playing Trump like a harmonica.

  132. 132.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Republicans are such lazy, cowardly chickenshits. Trump truly does represent the movement. When they thought they could finally strut their stuff and harass minorities without pushback they bought tiki torches and restarted their marches. When they found out the counter protestors outnumber them and the cops won’t beat up their enemies, all the cockroaches ran and hid.

  133. 133.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    They loathed Stephen Colbert’s routine, too. The MSM hates it when someone actually reminds them how shallow and image-obsessed they are.

    I guess, although outrage would take an incredible lack of self-awareness. An easy joke would be: “Dude, a White House Correspondents Dinner is by definition, shallow and image obsessed. If you are a reporter, and not a politician or a celebrity, you are automatically the least important person in the room.”

    I’m curious to see some of Michelle Wolf’s routine. Was the full event streamed anywhere? I guess I will look for some YouTube clips.

    ETA. There are some UK satirical shows that regularly tear into politicians. “Have I Got News For You,” is one of the most acerbic, and sometimes has current political figures and reporters as guest panelists. So I guess there is an Anglo-American tradition of this kind of roasting of politicians and of the MSM.

  134. 134.

    dopey-o

    @Fair Economist:

    My impressions of “incels” is that generally they have unreasonable expectations *and* personality problems. Society is already “enforcing” monogamy, largely to their benefit, and they are just unwilling or unable to take advantage of it.

    No, it is much more basic than “Society”. It is call Natural Selection.

    I can see the headline now: ALT-RIGHT INCELS PROVE THEORY OF EVOLUTION

  135. 135.

    Brachiator

    Wow. Michelle Wolf was tearing it up at the WHC. From Deadline.

    “I think what no one in this room wants to admit is that Trump has helped all of you,” she continued to scold. “He couldn’t sell steaks, or vodka, or water, or college, or ties, or Eric. But he has helped you sell your papers, and books, and TV,” she said, as some of the more uncomfortable attendees were maybe thinking Trump got it right when he decided to give this a miss.

    “You helped create this monster and now you’re profiting off of him. And if you’re going to profit off Trump you should at least be giving him some money, because he doesn’t have any. Trump is so broke he grabs pussies because he thinks there might be loose change in them.”

    Wolf targeted Democrats, saying it was crazy that Trump’s campaign was in contact with Russia during the election “when Hillary’s campaign wasn’t even in contact with Michigan.”

    Al Franken’s #MeToo ouster hurt liberals, she said, “but it was the great Ted Kennedy who said, ‘Wow! That’s crazy! I murdered a woman! Chappaquiddick – in theaters now.”

    It’s harder to make fun of Democrats, she admitted, “because you guys don’t do anything. People think you might flip the House and Senate, but you guys always find a way to mess it up.” She forecast the Dems would lose by 12 points “to a guy named Joe Pedophile Nazi Doctor.”

    Republicans took incoming too. Trump’s cabinet, she described as exiting quicker “than Starbucks throws out black people.”

    “You guys got to stop putting Kellyanne [Conway] on your shows. She lies. If you don’t give her a platform she has nowhere to lie. It’s like that old saying: if a tree falls in the woods, how do you get Kellyanne under that tree? I’m not suggesting she gets hurt, just stuck. Incidentally, ‘tree falls in woods’ is Scott Pruitt’s definition of porn.”

    Ouch.

  136. 136.

    Brachiator

    @dopey-o:

    No, it is much more basic than “Society”. It is call Natural Selection.

    More complicated than that. Earlier in the week, I listened to a clip of a therapist trying to provide an evolutionary psychology explanation of why these incel morons are such losers. I don’t think she made a good case at all.

    Some of these guys don’t seem to be able to establish any kind of friendship or other relationship, so getting women is the least of their problems.

  138. 138.

    Anne Laurie

    @Yarrow:

    I thought the NRA always banned guns of any sort at their conferences. Did I have that wrong?

    Yeah, but it’s nice when the bastids are forced to admit it, in public!

  139. 139.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Vhh: There’s a point in nuclear weapons development when testing actual devices is not necessary, especially in today’s world of hand-held supercomputers available for a hundred bucks off Ebay. After the basic physics is understood the process of designing and making effective nuclear weapons involves computation, not rivets and earth-shaking kabooms in underground chambers.

    The primary reason these days to test nukes is to show the world that your weapons programme has succeeded in at least causing a nuclear explosion (see, for example the duelling series of tests by India and Pakistan back in the 1990s) and North Korea has already done just that. They have (they claim) deliverable nuclear weapons, they have a nuclear materials production pipeline and the engineering nous to make and maintain a small stockpile. Testing is not necessary any more but ceasing testing can be turned to their political advantage.

  141. 141.

    zhena gogolia

    @rikyrah:

    Thanks. I ran a conference all day yesterday, I am totally exhausted, so I’m going to start my day by watching that routine. I think she out-Colbert’d Colbert, but then DJT is an even bigger monster than GWB. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

  145. 145.

    The Other Chuck

    @Timurid:

    The President shows up for a speech blackout drunk and it’s not even news anymore…

    When was this? From all accounts even now, Trump doesn’t drink, though he has been popping amphetamines for _decades_ now.

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