Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

You cannot shame the shameless.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Second rate reporter says what?

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

I really should read my own blog.

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

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

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

No one could have predicted…

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

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

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Friday Morning Open Thread: Spume on Troubled Political Waters

Friday Morning Open Thread: Spume on Troubled Political Waters

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As a break from the earnest / tragic business of national politics at this moment in time…

… I offer this brilliant brutal handbagging* of the worthless Chris ‘Mad Bitchin’ Cillizza:

Chris Cillizza’s job isn’t as easy as it seems, although it also isn’t nearly difficult enough to justify the salary he receives for doing it. What that job is even supposed to be is kind of a moving target, to be honest, but much of what Cillizza does in his current position as a political reporter and editor-at-large at CNN comes closer to blogging about celebrity fashion than it does conventional political writing. Fundamentally what he writes about is political style—hot new innovations in institutionalized incompetence; particularly deft or buzzy bits of toxic pettiness; what’s trending in the collapse of everything the country ever pretended to hold dear.

This feels, from one frothy burble to the next, like a very specific type of fashion writing, not of the kind that an astute critic or academic or even competent industry-facing journalist might write, but of the kind that you find on social media in the threaded comments attached to photos of Rihanna. Cillizza does not really appear to follow any policy issue at all, and evinces no real insight into electoral trends or political tactics. He just sort of notices whatever is happening and cheerfully announces that it is very exciting and that he is here for it.…

Anyway, because he is to all appearances an absolute fucking doorknob, Cillizza excels at this work. But while he makes it look easy, even an eager-beaver Politics Noticer like Cillizza must eventually notice that this fun sport that so thrills and delights him is also generally debasing everyone participating in or otherwise subject to it and leading to infinitely more suffering than any sport should…

(* I originally used ‘pig-bladdering’, but that felt like insulting Cillizza’s genetics.)

As to the serious topic enthusiastically spittled by The Mad Bitcher — don’t worry, the grownups have things in hand:

Reader Interactions

200Comments

  3. 3.

    Jeffro

    “Politics noticer” – ???

    Good morning, y’all. I’m off on an all-day-and-into-the-night field trip with mini-me, so be good.

  4. 4.

    bystander

    Bonjour, mes amis!

    Barbara Underwood is one very impressive attorney. Hard to imagine what she faced after graduation from law school in the 1960s. Many firms would not even interview a woman for an associate position in that era. We are lucky she found a path through clerkships and academia. She may have wanted it that way, but I’m struck (yet again) with the enormous amount of talent we have squandered over the years because VAGINA! (And how many other people who were not allowed to achieve their full potential because of racist/sexist institutionalized discrimination?)

  5. 5.

    Darkrose

    OT: I am very sad that Brooklyn Nine-Nine has been cancelled by Fox. Hopefully Hulu or Netflix will pick it up, because it’s one of the best shows on television. Andre Braugher not getting an Emmy is a travesty.

  6. 6.

    Gvg

    Hillary Clinton would have to recuse herself from investigating Trump I think so not her and I think Preet would also since Trump fired him.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Gvg: It would not effect any investigation whatsoever. Their job, should they decide to accept it, would be to defend the integrity of the office against trump’s attacks. Something Sessions doesn’t have the balls to do.

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    From the “You can’t make this shit up” file:

    With best friends like these, who needs enemies?

    An Iowa man says his dog inadvertently shot him while they were roughhousing Wednesday.

    Richard Remme, 51, of Fort Dodge, told police he was playing with his dog, Balew, on the couch and tossed the dog off his lap. He says when the pit bull-Labrador mix bounded back up, he must have disabled the safety on the gun in his belly band and stepped on the trigger.

    The gun fired, striking one of Remme’s legs. He was treated at a hospital and released later that day.

    Remme told the Messenger newspaper that Balew is a “big wuss” and lay down beside him and cried because he thought he had done something wrong.

  11. 11.

    Anne Laurie

    @OzarkHillbilly: I wondered about that one: Guy said he had engaged both safety latches, but ‘somehow the dog disengaged them both’. There’s little I’d put past a boisterous Lab — not a fan of their unbreakable conviction that pretending they’re lapdogs is ‘cute’ — but that seems a little… well, maybe I just don’t understand the engineering?

  13. 13.

    Cermet

    Morning Jackals. A very nice morning here out in Washington (The swamp; aka: DC.)

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Anne Laurie: Ummmm, never seen a gun with 2 safeties. Never. Not sure what he’s talking about.

    And “Lap-Labs” are too cute. And irresistibly lovable. And pettable. My hands are not my own anymore. Sometimes I tell the Woofmeister to go get his own. Next thing I know the hands that used to be mine are petting him again.

  17. 17.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: yeah, the story is probably b.s. and he’s just blaming his dog.
    And my pit-chocolate lab mix would certainly be a lap dog if he could, but he settles for pinning me down with his enormous head. 110 lbs of pure devotion (his entire self, not just his head).

  18. 18.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: The guy shot himself and blamed it on the dog.

    ETA. Regardless whether this was even possible, as others said, idiot human for having a gun tucked in his waist, seated, roughhousing with his dog. Or kid. Or himself….

  20. 20.

    Immanentize

    I seem this morning to finally be coming out of my over-a-week long cold. It was miserable and was made worse by the allergies. Ugh.

    But almost better….

  21. 21.

    satby

    As to the topic, Cillizza may be the poster boy but his reporting of style over substance in politics infects the entire news industry.

  22. 22.

    Nicole

    Good morning! Up early (though, thankfully, not to calls at 4:15 in the morning) and doing some work. Already this morning, I have learned that Louis XIV was 5 feet 3 inches tall.

    Also, could Jane and Ronan please turn their investigative skills to Cillizza? Anyone who’s that big of a knob has something bad hidden in his closet and it would be nice for the nation.

  25. 25.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: I can see the dog hitting the trigger, but I suspect the safety wasn’t on. I remember a time when the first thing one did upon entering a domicile was unload the weapon and store it. Now they are sitting around their homes with a gun inside their belt (which for the record, is not recommended and not very comfortable) while watching TV, eating dinner, probably even when they are showering.

    The lackadaisical attitudes these nut jobs have concerning their guns is really insane. Not much comfort I know but it is still more likely they will shoot themselves than they will anyone else.

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Black activist jailed for his Facebook posts speaks out about secret FBI surveillance

    Investigators began monitoring Balogun, whose legal name is Christopher Daniels, after he participated in an Austin, Texas, rally in March 2015 protesting law enforcement, special agent Aaron Keighley testified in court.

    The FBI, Keighley said, learned of the protest from a video on Infowars, a far-right site run by the commentator Alex Jones, known for spreading false news and conspiracy theories.

    I got nothing, just nothing.

  28. 28.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I remember a time when the first thing one did upon entering a domicile was unload the weapon and store it.

    I remember that too, watched my father do it every time he came off duty. Gun unloaded and locked in one place, bullets put away in a different room. It was such a cliche they showed Barney Miller doing it on that show.

  33. 33.

    Bruce K

    @OzarkHillbilly: I recall reading somewhere that the Colt Army Automatic had multiple safeties, including a manual switch and some sort of grip catch that disabled the gun unless someone was gripping it properly.

  34. 34.

    debbie

    The first words from my radio this morning were “Trump” and “World Peace.” I don’t know whether to thank the universe for starting off my day with a good laugh or to shake my fist at it for reminding me of that abominable person.

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: I hope everyone involved in the prosecution of this case goes to prison for a long, long time. And if wishes were horses I’d have a hundred stall stable overflowing.

    The part that gets me is this:

    Balogun, who lost his home and more while incarcerated, is believed to be the first person targeted and prosecuted under a secretive US surveillance effort to track so-called “black identity extremists”. In a leaked August 2017 report from the FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Analysis Unit, officials claimed that there had been a “resurgence in ideologically motivated, violent criminal activity” stemming from African Americans’ “perceptions of police brutality”.

    As opposed to this:

    The government’s own crime data has largely undermined the notion of a growing threat from a “black identity extremist” [BIE] movement, a term invented by law enforcement. In addition to an overall decline in police deaths, most individuals who shoot and kill officers are white men, and white supremacists have been responsible for nearly 75% of deadly extremist attacks since 2001.

    To some extent our country’s law enforcement attitudes haven’t changed a damn bit since 1960. No doubt the current administration has something to do with it.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Authorities have not publicly labeled Balogun a BIE, but their language in court resembled the warnings in the FBI’s file. German said the case also appeared to utilize a “disruption strategy” in which the FBI targets lower-level arrests and charges to interfere with suspects’ lives as the agency struggles to build terrorism cases.

    Sounds like Broken Windows to me.

    I don’t understand why his attorney (public defended) didn’t get the charges thrown out right away.

    ETA: This is why Sessions isn’t going anywhere.

  37. 37.

    MomSense

    I feel about 1/3 human today since the tree pollen levels seem to have decreased.

    Today most of the state is under a red flag warning.

  38. 38.

    Patricia Kayden

    @OzarkHillbilly: Wow. He needs to sue the FBI for false arrest. In so many ways, it feels that we’re moving backwards. Now, we’re back to harassing Civil Rights activists. Why doesn’t the FBI arrest the wankers at 4chan who foment murders (Toronto van attack, for example)?

  40. 40.

    Patricia Kayden

    @debbie: A man who literally encourages rally attendees to physically attack non-violent protesters knows zip about peace.
    A man who called an entire continent “sh*thole countries” knows zip about peace.
    A man who uses Twitter to bully, mock and threaten his perceived enemies knows zip about peace.

    But here we are again with our MSM uncritically praising Trump for the thawed relationship between the two Koreas. Sigh.

  42. 42.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Bruce K:

    some sort of grip catch

    That is a relatively recent innovation, and a good one, and one that I had not heard had been added to the Colt (I am decades behind on my gun porn reading so entirely possible) The thing about that tho is that it can not be “switched off” except by gripping the gun with the hand. Unsure how a dog could manage it (I suppose it is possible) and pull the trigger at the same time (really doubt it could manage the 2) .

    Either way, stupid is as stupid does.

  43. 43.

    Anne Laurie

    @debbie:

    Cillizza would seem to be perfect for Vanity Fair.

    Vanity Fair actually has some pretty good political reporting — Gabriel Sherman, for instance, and Bess Levin (who IMO is doing what Cillizza would if he had the brains).

  45. 45.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud:

    I don’t understand why his attorney (public defender)

    It probably took 5 months just to meet his client. One overworked and underpaid PD handles bail hearings and then the case is handed off to the clients attorney who is also overworked and underpaid. PDs who have been on the job for more than one year pretty much know what they are doing (having gone thru a 6 month crash course in govt incompetence and a 2nd on govt venality) and I suspect this one took one look at the preliminaries and just started laughing at the stupidity of it all.

    There is a reason most PDs only last 2 or 3 years before they burn out and get a job at some corporate law firm.

    ETA and yes, “broken windows” for black activists is a very accurate description

  47. 47.

    zhena gogolia

    @Anne Laurie:

    They seem to have banished their good investigative reporting from the print magazine since Graydon Carter retired. There’s still some stuff on the website, but the last issue was investigative-reporting-free.

  48. 48.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I started to type the same thing, but then I wondered who he could sue. US attorney who overreached? The FBI?

    Somebody has to pay for this or this kind of authoritarian crap will get more and more common.

  50. 50.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @satby:

    Evan Hurst at Wonkette also took Cillizza down both brutally and hilariously a day or two ago.

    ICYMI.

    Glad to see Cillizza finally getting pummeled as he deserves.

  52. 52.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I thought the PDs in the federal system had a bit more resources than state PDs.

    @WaterGirl: I don’t know. If there was a grand jury, they are immune. The story didn’t get into where the break down in the process actually occurred.

    ETA: US Attorney, perhaps. Not sure how reasonable his or her incorrect interpretation of the law was.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    @WaterGirl: I’m confident the NRA will be screaming in defense of this guy’s right to bear arms though. Right after Greenwald tweets about this.

  54. 54.

    sdhays

    @OzarkHillbilly: It takes quite a lot of chutzpah for a man so terrified of his own shadow that he’s lounging around his own house with a gun on his belt to say that his dog is the wuss because he demonstrated distress when Mr. Gun-Nut accidentally shoots himself.

    I’m just glad that the dog didn’t get hurt.

  55. 55.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I love it:

    A man has been charged over a scam in which he changed the corporate address of the global shipping company UPS to his own small apartment in Chicago, rerouting thousands of pieces of mail.

    Dushaun Henderson-Spruce, 24, has been charged with mail theft and fraud in an alleged scam that saw items including American Express cards in the name of the chief executive and other board members being delivered to his address in Rogers Park, the Chicago Tribune reported.

    So much mail was arriving at his seven-storey building that the carrier had to leave it in a US postal service tub because there was no room in the mail box, the Tribune said.

    I usually look upon thieves with disfavor but I have to give this guy an A+ for ingenuity and picking his victim. However his proclamation of innocence rates only a D:

    Henderson-Spruce has previously said it was a mix-up and his identity may have been stolen.

    Honestly officer, I have no idea how those $58,000 worth of checks got deposited in my bank account!

  57. 57.

    sdhays

    @SiubhanDuinne: The punishment he deserves is to no longer have a platform at a major news organization. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he professionally disgraces himself and his news organization, he can’t seem to get them to fire him.

  58. 58.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: When I am benevolent dictator of the world, there will be consequences for prosecutorial overreach.

  59. 59.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: They do but they are still overworked. A friend of mine was a PD in IL’s Southern District. I think she lasted 4 years. Not even practicing law anymore.

  63. 63.

    sdhays

    @Baud: Judging by the hiring decisions at the Atlantic and the NYT editorial page, that’s their primary target.

  64. 64.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @rikyrah: I think Amy is treating the senile old man’s *less lucid* rantings a little too seriously.

    **damn near everything that comes out of his mouth is less than lucid, so I am referring to those things on the lower half of the curve.

  66. 66.

    RedDirtGirl

    @rikyrah: “Ho Ho Ho Homicide”, is how one of the cops answered the phone on a Christmas episode of Homicide: Life on the Streets

  67. 67.

    Kay

    @akarl_smith
    Follow Follow @akarl_smith
    More Allan Smith Retweeted Sahil Kapur
    “One persistent issue has been Mr. Trump’s belief that Ms. Nielsen and other officials in the department were resisting his direction that parents should be separated from their children when families cross illegally into the United States.”Allan Smith added,

    Nasty, mean-spirited people. The Trump Administration are bragging about this because in this twisted world view nastiness = tough. These coddled, soft, pampered people are very very tough on destitute 5 year olds. Zero tolerance!

    In other news another low quality Trump hire “almost resigned”.

    Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen almost quit after President Trump slammed her for failing to secure the border during a Cabinet …

    They leak these things so they can tell themselves they’re not like the rest of the creeps in this administration, but they are. That’s why they were hired. They’re specifically chosen for a lack of character. If they were the kind of people who actually resign in protest they never would have made it past the first interview.

    Since Cohen was taking millions of dollars in bribes I think it stands to reason that he’s not the only one on Team Trump who was frantically cashing in the minute Trump got the keys. Who else? There were months there that there was virtually no oversight or substantive coverage of the new administration. How much did they all collect in that window?

  68. 68.

    Kay

    Are Kelly and Sessions deliberately broadcasting the Trump Administration policy of pulling apart families because they think their base will eat it up? This is a campaign-style roll-out. They’re promoting this in concert.

    This is what they brag about?

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    This is what they brag about?

    Well, yeah, because beating up 5 yr olds is the RWNJ tuff guy thing to do.

  71. 71.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I am honored, and I will start compiling my list now. Look for an early draft sometime next week.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    @JPL:

    They will. That’s why they’re off on a media tour bragging about it. Isn’t Kelly ashamed? This big powerful guy is now reduced to bragging about punishing immigrant children at the direction of his scumbag boss? Is this what he worked his whole life for?

    I read part of the Kelly interview, BTW. He might want to resist slamming people who have 6th grade educations. He’s no rocket scientist. He operates at a fairly low level. Not a lot of deep analysis going on there. I’d put any of the Mexican immigrants who work here up against him on “smart”.

  77. 77.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:
    THIS is who they are.
    And those who would approve this?
    Don’t ask me to ‘ understand’ them.
    Phuck those muthaphuckas ?
    They are NOT misunderstood voters.
    They are hateful people and should be treated as such.

  78. 78.

    Leto

    @rikyrah: @Darkrose: B99 is one of our absolute favorite shows. The greater potential travesty is the fact that it, The Last Man on Earth, and The Mick are all being canceled while Tim Allen’s shitshow, “The Last Man Standing” might be brought back at Fox. Honestly, give me another reason to stop watching that channel (only reason moving forward is Bob’s Burgers).

    @bystander: Her story is pretty similar to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s story. I read an autobiography of RBGs, The Notorious RBG (same women who run the website wrote the book), and it only made me even more impressed with the woman. Wishing the best of luck to AG Underwood with the continuing investigation.

  79. 79.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    This is the start of GOP midterm campaign. This is a point of pride for these people. They rolled it out first.

    Trump does that silly thing where he misspells people’s names to indicate disrespect. It’s a common low quality asshole petty thing to do and I was amused that he does it. When I see it at work I always think “7th grader”

  81. 81.

    SgrAstar

    @satby: ooooh! Satby, can you share a pic of that incredible beast! My giant black lab died recently, and I miss him so much.

  82. 82.

    mad citizen

    OT Was just riding up in my work elevator. 20 something woman was on her phone. I heard her say something about Pence and Twitler spending the night here. Now I’m getting it, there was a rally in Elkhart and am hearing a story two offices away about a motorcade encounter. Anyway, as young woman gets off elevator she is saying “I liked Ainsley’s dress this morning.” Not how I wanted to start my day.

  83. 83.

    JPL

    @Kay: Kelly was raised in an Irish family in Boston. He reminds me of the type of person who would throw rocks at buses when they tried to integrate the local schools.

  84. 84.

    Yarrow

    Thanks for linking that Deadspin takedown of Cillizza. Brutally hilarious and so accurate.

  87. 87.

    NotMax

    Pair of offbeat Japanese flicks, if that floats yer wasen, on TCM this weekend.

    Saturday, 2:00 a.m. – Funeral Parade of Roses. The Japanese transvestite and gay underground of 1970.

    Saturday, 4:00 a.m. – Crazed Fruit. Racy by any standard for its time (1956!) tale of hormone addled young sun worshippers. English title could just as well have been Beach Blanket Banging (although it predated the squeaky clean American beach movie crazelet).

    Oh, and happy birthday to (he mumbled shyly and modestly) me!

  89. 89.

    Kay

    @JPL:

    Maybe we can retroactively deport him. We accept only high quality immigrants.

    The gratuitous meanness of Team Trump depresses me. I hate that this is admired, considered “brave”.

    It’s bad that they’re in the public eye. They’re bad role models- for adults, I mean.

  90. 90.

    rikyrah

    “I just panicked. I felt like my heart exploded”: Shocking dashcam footage shows police dragging a 65-year-old woman out of her car at a traffic stop in Alpharetta, Georgia. https://t.co/JT86WK8Q7N pic.twitter.com/I55ixRI7Ay

    — ABC News (@ABC) May 11, 2018

  92. 92.

    Kay

    It’s prom weekend here, which is a big deal. My son is going although he’s a freshman because we’re trying this thing at his school where grade levels are much more fluid, so there will be quite a few freshman and sophomores there as the guests of juniors and seniors. We didn’t really think thru the social implications of mixing up grades like this and I have my doubts about the wisdom of it. I usually resist trendy ideas at the public school but they persuaded me on this one and the longer it goes on the more I think we didn’t put enough thought into it.

    Anyway- he’s not wearing a tux or suit although he is wearing a tie. He has long hair so I showed him how to do a low ponytail in the hope it would look neater. We fought about his hair for a long time and I gave in. It’s just not a hill to die on.

  95. 95.

    Yarrow

    @Kay: Someone should look into his immigrant background and see if the first to arrive was “illegal.” If so, then according to the rules preferred by this administration, any children and grandchildren would also be “illegal,” which would probably make Kelly himself not a citizen. Sounds like a fun project!

  97. 97.

    Kay

    @Yarrow:

    It’s just gross. Especially since we clearly had a huge white collar crime problem. Let’s devote some resources to that. Cohen was apparently acting with impunity for 20 years and Trump ran his crime ring for 50. Where are all the prosecutors we’re paying? I don’t know why Stormy Daniels lawyer has to do all the work.

  98. 98.

    Gin & Tonic

    Good afternoon from me and good morning to most of you, as I wait to board the train from Oslo to Bergen.

  100. 100.

    NotMax

    @Yarrow

    Plans … fluid.

    Did splurge yesterday while doing the monthly shopping on some lobster tails for din-din today. Broke the budget, but what the hey. Planning to chill a bottle of prosecco, too. That’s about it.

    @satby

    Mucho mahalo.

  101. 101.

    Kay

    @Yarrow:

    I’m sympathetic to illegal border crossers because I know I would be one. Absolutely. I feel like there’s a human right to get the hell out out of there, wherever “there” is.

  104. 104.

    Cheryl Rofer


    There are no male spouses, either.

    ETA: This is rikyrah’s link, but I thought it worthwhile to have the photo show up.

  105. 105.

    Kay

    @jpodhoretz
    May 10
    More
    Everyone professing shock at the Michael Cohen contracts has literally been living under a rock for the past 40 years. WHAT DO YOU THINK K STREET IS.

    I think this ultra-savvy take is so damaging. Someone should ask these people “okay, super-sophisticate, but where does it end? What’s the limit here? At what point are we allowed to think this is venal and corrupt and disgusting?”

    They will be saying this until it’s so rotten it collapses and it will, eventually, collapse. The thing about systemically corrupt systems is they fail and the US is not unique. It will fail like all the others. When it does it will be the fault of the “nothingburger” crowd who scolded anyone who objected until it was so riddled with rot it collapsed.

  106. 106.

    tobie

    @rikyrah: Thanks for the link to Joy’s twitter feed. I liked this post from Keith Boykin in her twitter feed:

    When 11 American prisoners in North Korea were released during the Obama administration, the President didn’t make it into a spectacle about himself

    I continue to be stunned not at how Kim Jong-Un has played Trump–that’s easy to do with a narcissist–but how he’s played the US press.

  108. 108.

    rikyrah

    This is the response to #BBQingWhileBlack in Oakland.
    Sometimes, you march. Sometime you get creative ??

    How Oakland says fuck gentrification ? pic.twitter.com/VO6gAQo3LN

    — Philip Bank$? (@PhilDeezNuts) May 11, 2018

  109. 109.

    Kay

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I read this internal GOP doc from the 1984 national convention someone posted on Twitter and it’s just amazing how far Right they’ve gone.

    The doc had “placeholders” for speakers- some named speakers but then placeholders for speakers they needed to fill in- it was like “woman” or “Hispanic” so at one point it was important to these [people that they at least be perceived as diverse.

    No more. Now whites-only is an overt selling point. Maybe it’s better. Truth in advertising.

  110. 110.

    Yarrow

    @NotMax: Lobster tails…yum! Sometimes low key birthdays are the best. Just enjoy where you are and enjoy the day.

    @Kay: I’m sympathetic to them too. But since Kelly and his ilk are not, they for sure should play by the rules they want to force others to play by. Lead by example!

  113. 113.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Kay: The GOP used to be a real political party, willing to have a big tent and interested in governing. They were willing to discuss their policies, not toss a bucket of bad faith over those who disagreed.

    I’m concerned about how we will proceed when we get them out of power – and we will! To some degree, the followers will turn to more sense once the insane leaders shut up. There is a hard core of true believers who are really dangerous, though. But you can trace a similar hard core back to the 1950s. They were kept under control then, and we’ll be able to deal with them in the future too.

  114. 114.

    Kay

    @Yarrow:

    I have sort of wacko ideas on immigration. I’m not the mainstream. I have trouble with the whole concept of borders trumping what I consider base human rights- the fundamental right TO MOVE, TO GO, which I invented :)

    I get it- I can read the immigration code and follow it but my heart’s not in it. I’m like a sovereign citizen on this. A little baffled at what all the fuss is about, not accepting the basic premise.

  116. 116.

    Kay

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Our LOCAL GOP is much more mainstream than the national party, which is amusing because they’re rural and probably not as “educated” as far as formal elite credentials. They should be the hicks, and instead the NYC President is a dumb-ass reactionary.

    They can still do local government. Ours is Right wing but it functions and they’re not really ideological. It’s the grifters and the bullshitters and the big shots at the top who are destroying that Party.

  119. 119.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Kay: James Fallows has a book out about how many things are working much better at the local level than at the national. I haven’t followed his Twitter stream closely because I am following too many other things, but what you are saying is consistent with that. I think we have to keep things working well, improve them, and eventually we (including your local reasonable Republicans) will take back the country.

  121. 121.

    Kay

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    The Republicans who follow the national Party are more extreme. We have two judges who used to be normal Right wingers who are now crazed Fox spouters- that’s the influence of the NATIONAL political campaigns. One of them is an out and proud member of the “I hate Latinos” club and this is gonna bite him. His jurisdiction is probably 20% or better Latino and courthouses are gossipy. This shit he’s spouting is gonna leave that building, if it hasn’t already. He can’t do this as a judge. He can’t proudly announce his bias against 20% of the people who live where he works because they come in front of him.

  122. 122.

    bystander

    I just tried to read Karen Tumulty’s soul baring op/ed, How We Underestimated Michael Cohen. She ends with classic bothsiderist b/s by comparing Cohen’s secret funnelling of millions of dollars to David Plouffe getting a $50,000 speaking fee in Azerbaijian after leaving the Obama administration. How do they print this crap? Why do I read it? Is there some Andrea Mitchell Prize for hackery?

  123. 123.

    WaterGirl

    @rikyrah: I’m beginning to think that every existing law enforcement officer should be fired and have the ability to apply for their old jobs. After serious screening of applicants.

  124. 124.

    Yarrow

    @rikyrah: LOLOLOLOL. So good, I had to post the whole tweet here.

    You know you are crushing them when surrogates like @tuckercarlson resort to name calling and claim your “eyes are too close together." What are you, 6 yrs old? And you expect to be taken seriously as a journalist? When you have that mop hair? #So1980s #pathetic #basta— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) May 11, 2018

    That mop hair! Bwahahahaha!

  126. 126.

    Another Scott

    @rikyrah: +1

    He was great on, what was it, “Homicide – Life on the Streets”? Yup.

    YouTube (9:51) – warning – a bit intense.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  127. 127.

    WaterGirl

    @Cheryl Rofer: After clicking on several links from BJ this morning and then seeing this photo, I am officially declaring today a Day of Rage.

  129. 129.

    germy

    Sounds like a plan.

    So many people are now telling me that because of my very low poll number – which are very unfair to me, given all my achievements (TAX CUTS!) – I should cancel 2020 election until my numbers improve. I will make a decision on June 6th! #MAGA— DonaId J. Trump (@realDenaldTrump) May 10, 2018

  131. 131.

    Kay

    @WaterGirl:

    Thanks! You get better at picking battles. He plays the guitar and I so remember that – how one needed an identity as a kind of protective shell and I think long hair is part of his. The school has sort of cleverly coopted his band- they brought them into the official orchestra program as “electric strings” which so made me laugh because now they’re not rebels :)

    Sell outs. They’re basically sell outs.

  134. 134.

    debit

    @germy: Wait, what? Cancel the election or his participation in it? I have to ask, because we all live in Crazytown now, where laws are more of a gentle suggestion.

  136. 136.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    He gets appealed a lot now which unless I miss my guess is the process response to what lawyers see as him going off the rails. They’re looking for irrational or unsupported opinions, and finding them, or they wouldn’t bother appealing. Reputation matters and it tends to snowball, where if you’re looking for something it jumps out at you. If they know he has this bias they’ll be on notice to look for it and it’s adversarial- they want to win.

  141. 141.

    The Other Chuck

    @OzarkHillbilly: I held a revolver with a grip safety nearly 30 years ago. Hated it, had to squeeze the bejeezuz out of it to disengage it. No idea what make (it was my housemate’s gun) but my guess is Smith & Wesson

  142. 142.

    Kay

    I listen to local Right wing radio in the car and this week they had a whole segment defending Trump on higher gas prices.

    They presented it as a discussion on why gas prices are going up but it quickly became a defense of what they must see as a vulnerability for Trump- a lot of blather on how it’s “markets” so not attributable to any decisions Dear Leader made.

    I’m interested in the fact that they are doing this preemptively- they must think it’s a threat. It is a threat. Middle and working class rural people are very sensitive to gas prices, because they buy a lot of gas.

  144. 144.

    Yarrow

    @Kay: Gas prices can affect elections. The local rightwing radio guys know that even if Trump and his idiots don’t.

  145. 145.

    Manyakitty

    @NotMax: Happy birthday! This is the week for them. Mine was Monday, and Major^4’s was Wednesday (I think).

  146. 146.

    germy

    If you ever wonder what kind of knee-jerk stupidity we're up against, just remember 41% of Trump supporters polled said they were in favor of bombing Agrabah.

    That's the fictional country from Aladdin.

    pic.twitter.com/QugIhvQZu6— Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) May 10, 2018

  149. 149.

    Miss Bianca

    @satby: good morning! Completely o/t, but I am looking for a shampoo that will lather up nicely in my hard well water – do you have anything in your stable of shampoo bars you would recommend? Tried to cruise your site this am, but it crashed my dumbphone browser…

  150. 150.

    germy

    Looking forward to her first column for The Atlantic…

    "‘I Love Hate Speech’: Sarah Braasch, the white woman who called police on Black Yale grad student for napping in dorm, defends slavery and supports burqa ban in writings" https://t.co/DMzXt6rnlY— Joshua Holland (@JoshuaHol) May 10, 2018

  151. 151.

    Yarrow

    @rikyrah: Quote from your link:

    The Washington Post reports that money paid by AT&T to Michael Cohen was meant to help them gain approval for a multi-billion dollar merger with Time Warner.

    Ya think???? How could anyone think otherwise?

  153. 153.

    Manyakitty

    @Miss Bianca: I strongly recommend Satby’s shampoo bars (just used one this morning!). My water is softened but still hard-ish, and I get tons of lovely lather with an easy rinse.

  156. 156.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    We didn’t really think thru the social implications of mixing up grades like this and I have my doubts about the wisdom of it. I usually resist trendy ideas at the public school but they persuaded me on this one and the longer it goes on the more I think we didn’t put enough thought into it.

    You are wise, Kay. And, you are right to have concerns.

  157. 157.

    Kay

    Does the NYTimes have any problem with the fact that yet another NYTimes “journalist” used covering the Clinton’s as a personal journey and ultimately a very lucrative career?

    Maybe we should know this ahead of time, that they go into these assignments with a wholly self-serving agenda for them personally. Because they have to decide. They can either be reporters or they can be something else but they can’t do both at the same time. We were really disserved by this person’s coverage of Hillary Clinton. To find out afterwards that it was driven by her goal to sell her fucking book is really too much to bear.

    If they’re honestly looking for a reason why Hillary Clinton holds them in contempt maybe they should consider that Hillary Clinton is well aware that they’re all making a ton of money off the Clintons, and have for decades. Let’s be clear about this relationship- with all their sneering at the Clintons they have based entire lucrative careers on savaging them. It’s a transaction. Which Hillary Clinton knows.

  158. 158.

    germy

    @Manyakitty:

    That’s a parody account, but apparently he mentioned it for real at his IN event.

    If Obama had merely joked about suspending elections, a million James Earl Rays would have appeared on every corner.

  159. 159.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    I think this ultra-savvy take is so damaging. Someone should ask these people “okay, super-sophisticate, but where does it end? What’s the limit here? At what point are we allowed to think this is venal and corrupt and disgusting?”

    trying to be too cute by half, Kay.

    We know instinctively why it’s wrong. Why it’s disgusting.

    Just a further attempt to try and normalize these muthaphuckas.

  161. 161.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    The school has sort of cleverly coopted his band- they brought them into the official orchestra program as “electric strings” which so made me laugh because now they’re not rebels :)

    Sell outs. They’re basically sell outs.

    BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

  162. 162.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    I’m interested in the fact that they are doing this preemptively- they must think it’s a threat. It is a threat. Middle and working class rural people are very sensitive to gas prices, because they buy a lot of gas.

    Yep.

    So, already trying to get the lie straight.

    Uh huh
    Uh huh

  165. 165.

    Miss Bianca

    @germy: Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ, she’s a grad student at *Yale*? And letting her white supremacy freak flag fly so proudly? Not sure why that should surprise me…proof once again that book-learning basically has nothing to do with either intelligence or decency…sigh.

  166. 166.

    Yarrow

    Sarah Palin could see Russia inside her email and maybe inside her office!

    Documents Reveal How Russian Official Courted Conservatives In U.S. Since 2009

    Kremlin-linked Russian politician Alexander Torshin traveled frequently between Moscow and various destinations in the United States to build relationships with figures on the American right starting as early as 2009, beyond his previously known contacts with the National Rifle Association.
    …

    Torshin’s earliest known visit to the United States was in 2009, when he requested a meeting with former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin — a request that has never before been reported.

    An email from the former Alaska governor’s archives, released due to a public records request from activist Andree McLeod and posted online en masse by then-Alaska Dispatch News reporter Richard Mauer, shows how Torshin made the approach through the Russian ambassador to the U.S., who was then Amb. Sergey Kislyak.

    An aide wrote to Palin in May of 2009: “You had received a request to call the Russian Ambassador regarding a proposed visit by Mr. Alexander Torshin… Torshin will be visiting Alaska on June 6, 2009 and we have asked the Lt. Governor to meet with him.” Neither the Russian embassy nor Palin responded to a request for comment.

    Link.

  168. 168.

    bystander

    @Gelfling 545: Encore un jour completement ensoleille a Paris. Vous allez bien aussi? (I’m not going to ever figure out where the accent marks are on this iPad.)

  170. 170.

    J R in WV

    @Bruce K:

    Yes, a grip safety, my newer Kimber .45 has one just like that. You also have to cock the hammer before it will fire, so 3 safety mechanisms. And of course if you don’t have a round chambered you have to work the slide to load a round before anything can happen, so 4 total, which is how I keep mine.

    Some people keep it cocked and chambered, trusting in the switch safety and the grip safety, but I’m not that insecure. Or secure – maybe?

  171. 171.

    Yarrow

    @rikyrah: Yep. The closing paragraph from the article:

    For years, Torshin built relationships with governors, NRA bigwigs and conservative activists — making a point of traveling to the United States repeatedly to expand those ties. But with Torshin’s designation as a target of U.S. sanctions last month, that door has been closed.

    They’re all traitors. Torshin has been sanctioned but there are plenty of others in line behind him to keep the treason rolling. Traitors must pay.

  173. 173.

    rikyrah

    I admit, the 12/13 year old me never understood why Jo and Laurie didn’t get married. Always thought it was hanky when he married her little sister. Never sat well with me.

    ‘Little Women’ a big break for daughter of Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman

    Lynn Elber | Associated Press

    Little readers have long embraced “Little Women” and found inspiration in the character of Jo March, a headstrong young writer out to conquer the world.

    Maya Hawke counts herself among the latest generation of fans of Louisa May Alcott’s 19th-century novel. But the lucky Hawke takes it one step further: She stars as Jo in a new version of “Little Women,” airing at 7 p.m. on consecutive Sundays, May 13 and May 20, on WTTW-Channel 11.

    Lucky viewers, as well. The 19-year-old Hawke plays Jo with a coltish vibrancy that suits the role, and with an easy confidence that belies her resume: This “Masterpiece” drama is her first screen credit, with a part in the next season of “Stranger Things” following close behind.

    “Little Women” held such appeal for Hawke that she left New York’s Juilliard School for it, a move that runs in the family: Her parents, Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, both interrupted their studies when the professional world beckoned.

    “I love novels, and the script was really well-written, because the book is well-written, and I wanted to get to speak those words,” Maya Hawke said in an interview. “I didn’t know if I was going to get to play it again, if ever, so I had to jump on it.”

    The project was a draw for another reason. Jo’s literary passion helped Hawke in her struggle with dyslexia.

    “Her drive and her love of language and storytelling really sparked my interest, and really inspired me to overcome the obstacles that were in my way, which were much more personal and less societal than hers, and follow my dreams and pursue what I love,” Hawke said.

  177. 177.

    Gelfling 545

    @SgrAstar: I am so sorry for your loss. These dear fuzzy friends leave an empty place in the heart that is hard to fill.

  179. 179.

    rikyrah

    AN ULTRASOUND?

    DA PHUQ?

    #RentingWhileBlack: Mother of 3 Loses Apartment Because She Didn’t Provide Her Landlord an Ultrasound Photo

    Anne Branigin
    Today 10:22am

    A single, working mother of three is taking on a Florida housing complex after a property manager refused to renew her lease because she hadn’t provided her landlord an ultrasound of the child she was carrying.

    As the Miami Herald reports, Tiesha Davis signed a rental agreement with Sorrento Rental Community in Miramar in September 2017. At the time, Davis was four months’ pregnant, a fact that was clearly visible to assistant property manager Jose Galindo, according to Davis’ lawsuit.

    “During such time Ms. Davis was noticeably pregnant, to the extent that Mr. Galindo insisted that she sit in the front seat of the golf cart when he was driving her through the property,” the complaint reads.

    But Galindo refused to renew Davis’ 12-month lease in January, when Davis was eight months’ pregnant, after finding baby goods in her closet during a routine inspection of the apartment.

    Galindo asked Davis if she was pregnant, then told her that she should have let the property know she was pregnant in her application. According to the suit, Galindo told the 26-year-old that she was required to show him both a letter from her doctor and an ultrasound at the time of her tenancy.

  180. 180.

    NotMax

    Thanks to all the above for the birthday wishes.

    @Yarrow

    Traditionally broil them but this time I think I’m going to try using the Instant Pot (maybe slather with lemon butter and finish them off for 30 seconds under the broiler afterwards).

  181. 181.

    VeniceRiley

    @Miss Bianca:

    165

    Miss Bianca
    says:

    May 11, 2018 at 11:13 am

    @germy: Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ, she’s a grad student at *Yale*? And letting her white supremacy freak flag fly so proudly? Not sure why that should surprise me…proof once again that book-learning basically has nothing to do with either intelligence or decency…sigh.

    One day, if they don’t already, admissions departments are going to start coimbing through every qualified applicant’s social media in advance of acceptance as if they were a potential freak, disruptor, supremacist, or unbalanced shooter. it’s a safety issue.

  183. 183.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    OT – I’ve been enjoying the story about the Arizona woman who went on a single date with some poor slob she met online, and followed up with sending him 65,000 text messages telling him things such as “I want to wear your fascia” and breaking into his house to take a bath. Also offering to wear other body parts and showing up to his office while claiming to be his wife.

    Single peeps, she’s available!

  184. 184.

    J R in WV

    @Kay:

    When I was in high school, my cousin in the same grade, with dark and curly hair, decided to grow it long, like the Beatles, only less coiffed. They suspended him, even tho he had a 4.0 GPA. Told him to come back when he had a crew cut!

    His dad, my uncle, was not fond of authority, and came to school with his son the next morning, and a lawyer. This would have been around 1967 or so. Maybe ’66. Obviously they admitted cousin that day and subject was not raised again.

  185. 185.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @bystander:

    If you’re on an iPad, accent marks are the easiest thing in the world. Just hold down the letter that needs the accent, and a whole menu of them will appear for you to make your selection.

    For instance, if you hold down e, you can choose among è é ê ë ē ė ę.

  187. 187.

    Barbara

    @germy: It would be a lot easier to accept provocative arguments about hate speech, hate crimes, etc. as being a topic of legitimate debate if she weren’t engaging in hate based actions against specific people. I don’t know anything about Yale common rooms but I would bet a lot of money that a lot of exhausted students have fallen asleep while studying in a common room. And there she is, a member of the “you don’t really belong here goon squad” making sure another set of unspoken heretofore unenforced rules of conduct are squarely imposed on minorities, because in this case, the rule of law is actually just a means to reinforce your superior position in life.

    For the record, I have problems with the concept of hate crimes, although I think legislation could be drafted in a way that would address my objections.

  188. 188.

    Barbara

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: A part of me giggles that it’s about time guys found out what it feels like to get unwanted attention from a persistent suitor. But really, I have known guys who have been subjected to unwanted “chasing,” the difference is that it rarely if ever rises to the level of fear inducing threats.

  189. 189.

    Immanentize

    @VeniceRiley: Many, if not most, grad departments are already searching on-line presence. This has also reached the undergrad admissions process. And don’t get me started on “demonstrated interest.”

  194. 194.

    Gelfling 545

    @rikyrah: Actually, it can work very well. My granddaughter’s school ( she graduated last spring) did this and it was a good thing for her and the majority of her classmates. First it is the Arts Academy so there is a high proportion of odd duck loner types and drama queens. They can have trouble relating but breaking down some of the social barriers made it easier for them to interact and find their niche. The student body was, on the whole, surprisingly unified and calm which is something you don’t always see in an urban, resource starved school district. It also gave the students a good basis for unified action against some blatantly ham-handed policies which was probably an unintended consequence.

  196. 196.

    Manyakitty

    @satby: Seriously. I meant to find you this morning to say how much I like the shampoo bars, anyway. Serendipity!

  197. 197.

    Gelfling 545

    @bystander: je vais assez bien sauf que je dois baigner le chat. Ce qui sera terrible. Je préférerais être à Paris Amusez-vous bien!
    * on the iPad, hold the letter key down. A choice of accents will appear.

  198. 198.

    burnspbesq

    @Patricia Kayden:

    He needs to sue the FBI for false arrest.

    The fact that he was convicted makes that notion a bit far-fetched. The next Dem Preznit should pardon him.

  200. 200.

    Mnemosyne

    @rikyrah:

    One of my few brushes with fame: riding in a parking garage elevator with Thurman, Hawke, and their two small kids. One of them must have grown into this actress. ?

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