All the righties talking about their bar fight exploits is just cracking me up, almost as much as Bart’s “how could I be an attempted rapist when I was a virgin.”
Let’s raise some more money folks. This is for 46 House seats nominated by readers. You can just give to one or two to avoid getting on too many mailing lists.
I’ll do a Senate one for all the endangered incumbents who vote against Kavanaugh after that vote.
Nicole
Did you just quote LITA FORD?
I’m so happy right now.
Uh huh. It ain’t no big thing.
Doug!
@Nicole:
I like that song
OzarkHillbilly
I blame Obama. (graph)
Aleta
Thanks Doug. What you do is outstanding.
Major Major Major Major
I have to admit I didn’t anticipate that today’s talking points would be “actually, radiation and bar fights are good for you.”
dmsilev
@Major Major Major Major: Radiation and uncontrolled rage are what gave us The Incredible Hulk. Why you hate Hulk?
Major Major Major Major
@dmsilev:
He smash :(
Doug!
@Aleta:
I was just reading an article on gentrification in the area that band is named after.
dmsilev
@Major Major Major Major: It not easy being green.
ruemara
I do not understand how prudish conservatives are now saying bar fights, drunkenness, sexual assaults, rape, and generally being criminals, is a-ok.
Corner Stone
@Major Major Major Major: Unlike Kavanaugh, who is merely always smashed.
Jeffro
@Major Major Major Major: today’s *GOP * talking points, you mean…;)
Also, apparently this “Merrick Garland” guy has disappeared down their memory hole, never to be heard from again. In the meantime, isn’t it an outrage how the Democrats are del…delayi…BWAH HA HA HA! I couldn’t even get it out without laughing. Lindsey Graham is MAAAAAAD that Dems are slowing down the whole let’s-confirm-the-nuttiest-of-wingnuts process. Is there any delay longer than ‘never’, which is what Merrick Garland got?
JPL
Gotta say that I wasn’t surprised to read that someone sent Cruz white powder. When Handel received white powder during the special election for the 6th, it did help turn out her supporters.
Nicole
@Doug!: I like that song, too. It may or may not be on our karaoke machine. I may or may not have requested it be put on our karaoke machine.
Yes, we have our own karaoke machine.
Corner Stone
@ruemara: Sometimes bar fights happen. But I’m still trying to figure out how *starting* a bar fight is an acceptable thing for this kind of nomination level. I mean, Captain of the hockey team, I get.
Nicole
Also, my brother sent me this thought:
Marvel really should plaster advertisements all over Hulk. After all, he’s just a giant Banner.
Kraux Pas
@ruemara:
Because despite all their anti-elitist posturing, they actually want to create and sustain an elite class in America. They’re neo-aristocrats.
Major Major Major Major
@ruemara: They’ve always been this hypocritical, they just used to not have to say it all out loud in defense of their leader.
@Nicole: booo
Corner Stone
@Jeffro: I thought Schumer did a pretty good job of rhetorical ju-jitsu today when he reminded the chamber that D’s control none of this process and everything that’s been asked for came from an R side person.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
They never really had a problem with criminal behavior as long as it was rich white people committing crimes. They’re just mad that they’re now being held to the same standard they try and put on everyone else.
Martin
Someone doesn’t know what ‘attempted’ means.
trollhattan
@Nicole:
Grooooooooan. :-P
Geeno
@JPL: Yeah – it’s getting to the point where I’d be surprised if a Republican in trouble DIDN’T get an envelope of white powder and attendant hoopla.
Doug R
@Kraux Pas:
FIFY
OzarkHillbilly
@ruemara: IOKIYAR.
trollhattan
@Martin:
Do some really think that leaving a bank with no money after trying to rob it means “no harm, no foul”?
Major Major Major Major
@trollhattan: I mean. Do they give a nobel prize for attempted chemistry?
Martin
@ruemara: The ends always justify the means in politics.
OzarkHillbilly
@trollhattan: They think that failure at collusion is exculpating.
WaterGirl
From my senator:
Nicole
@Major Major Major Major: @trollhattan: Hee hee hee.
JMG
It was what, like three weeks ago the Quinnipiac poll had the Democrats up 14. The professional election forecasters all said with much reason “it’s an outlier.” Today Quinnipiac has Democrats up 7. The very same people (looking at you Nate Cohn) now say, “More signs of post-Kavanaugh Republican surge.” Ron Brownstein: “non-college whites in this poll show how Democrats face uphill battle (words to that effect.” The need for takes causes people who’ve told us for a decade not to overreact to individual polls to do just that themselves.
WaterGirl
Can someone tell me what I missed today? Seriously.
oldster
Conservatives need to address the culture of pathology in their own neighborhoods. With their rampant alcoholism, drug-use, and brutal violence, conservative ghettos in Bethesda and New Haven are simply breeding-grounds for the next generation of super-predators.
They cannot keep waiting for liberals to help them: they have to help themselves. Pull up their pants and stop stealing things, whether elections or supreme court seats.
Furthermore, what about conservative-on-conservative crime?
Jamey
Chris Dudley–descendent of Guilford Dudley; husband and putative consort to Lady Jane Grey and grandson of that Guilford Dudley of the Nashville Dudleys; former 7′-tall NBA career traffic cone, and failed wingnut candidate for Oregon governorship–was Kavvy’s wingman during the fracas. Duds also swore an oath that Kavvy was never an intemperate drinker. I’d get hopping mad about the coverup were it not for the rank incompetence of the dramatis personae
WaterGirl
Has anyone talked about the recent newsletter from Al Giordano? I can’t post it here because it’s subscription only — for $70 a year.
Title: “The US Senate Is Now in Play”
But I can post his follow-up email asking for funding so he can report from the battleground senate seats he believes will be in play. Doug J, would you consider front-paging this request from Al G?
Major Major Major Major
@WaterGirl: Every Republican is tweeting about all the bar fights they’ve been in, and the Trump administration thinks radiation is good for you, and something about attacking Russia that seems to just have been a miscue on the part of the NATO envoy
@WaterGirl: He blocked me on Twitter :(
MisterForkbeard
@Corner Stone: To be fair, starting a bar fight when you’re 19 or 20 should be a disqualifier for a job when you’re 50 unless something really awful happened in that fight.
But (again) lying about it or pretending it never happened and claiming that you were a choir boy who never did anything wrong when you’re 50 should be disqualifying.
The Moar You Know
I spent the 80s and 90s doing what anyone who was in their twenties who could do it should: I played music. Clubs and bars. For a living.
Nothing but nothing pisses me off more than the kind of frat boy assholes (and oddly enough, it was ONLY those kinds of people) who start bar fights. People get seriously injured or killed doing that shit, it’s not “boyish hyjinks”. I’ve seen two guns pulled. Broken bones. Cops, ambulances. This was a top-40 cover band, not some punks or metalheads (actually, both those kinds of shows, especially punk, tend to be far safer). Let me tell you, when you’re on a stage and the only thing between you and some blind drunk lunatic asshole waving a gun is your bass guitar, that doesn’t feel like a very safe place. And it’s not.
hg
Which are the best senate races to contribute to right now? The ones with best bang for the buck?
Martin
@trollhattan:
Of course. I think the evidence that people choose their religion, morals, etc. based on their politics, and not the other way around is becoming almost irrefutable. If robbing the bank furthers the political, ideological goal, then of course it’s okay.
It’s why Kavanaugh lying under oath about non-consensual sex is no big deal, but Clinton lying under oath about consensual sex, under the conditions set by Kavanaugh, was grounds for impeachment. It’s why Republicans instantly love tariffs, oppose a balanced budget, and so on.
I would further argue that the Democrats being a much broader tent have a much harder time establishing ideological goals that are damaging to others than the GOP which often seems to care only about white male christians. That diversity in the party also means that the ideological goals are in many ways softer than the GOP ones. That’s why hard and fast litmus tests aren’t as common for Dems as for the GOP.
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: SSDD.
Roger Moore
@ruemara:
Conservatives are only prudish when Those People are doing it. When one of them is doing it, it’s just youthful high jinks.
Major Major Major Major
Just got this on Jason Kander’s email list.
Good for him.
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
Direct and factual. Good letter, senator.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
And Republicans get to keep doing “youthful hijinks” until the age of 40. Black and brown people lose that privilege as soon as their age hits double digits.
Mary G
@Major Major Major Major: Just read that. He’s one of the best, and I am sorry to see he’s been hurting for so long and denying it, and glad he’s getting help. He’s withdrawn from the election to be mayor of KC.
Martin
@MisterForkbeard:
Well, when you have only 9 such positions, I think we can have extraordinarily high standards for such a position. If someone had a bar fight in their history, they need to bring something to the position above the other candidates that makes up for that experience. That said, if he brought that experience into the courtroom, that could be seen as a plus. We would be well served by someone who had seen the criminal justice system from the other side, turned their lives around, and became a judge. It’s impossible for 9 Ivy Leaguers to have any real appreciation for how 90% of the country lives. But Kavanaugh is literally the opposite of that.
gvg
@ruemara: Conservatives are not prudish. They used to be when I was young. I think the change came with Fox, but maybe that is just when the tipping point came and it was financially more profitable to go after the slutty conservatives rather than the prudish ones. At the time it seemed really through the looking glass that the “conservative” station showed the trashiest shows on TV with foul language and sexy stars. I didn’t like their shows for long. They made me uncomfortable. I think it was the mean laugh in them and degrading women more than I was used to.
Seriously we have religious political figures that clearly worship money and wouldn’t know right from wrong if it bit them and who hate the poor. Those religious figurescome from the fox and imitators producers. It has changed things gradually. I was noticing some smarter pundits pointing out how what Hatch and Grassley said 20 years ago was the opposite of now. the pundits thought that was hypocrisy and it was, but I also think those men have been changed by the closed loop they live in. 20 years is a long time. They have changed themselves, but don’t notice.
Mary G
@hg: In my completely amateur opinion, Claire McCaskill in Missouri, Joe Donnelly in Indiana, and Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota. Those races are all tied or almost tied, and media doesn’t cost that much, so even a small contribution makes a difference. Some people say they aren’t pure enough, but they are wrong.
JPL
@Major Major Major Major: I missed all that..
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major:
There’s a guy in Oregon who thinks that too, he also has folk send him their piss.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: Did you deserve it? Or was it unfair, do you think?
Sab
Voting ethical issue. I put my dad who has moderate dementia into a nursing home this spring. He is going to wonder about voting soon. Do I help him to register to vote. Legally he is entitled to if he is registered, but he is extremely clueless about everything, and will probably vote against everything he used to believe, but he does still have rights if not too sharp a mind.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: I left out my thanks for bringing me up to date.
Major Major Major Major
@WaterGirl: he accused me of being a ‘pants-pisser’ about something, I said me? you’re the one who just wrote seventeen tweets about it, he blocked me.
Mary G
Elizabelle
I just cannot believe the Republicans are all in for a judge with a credible attempted rape accusation, and clear temperament and possible alcohol-dependence problems. To own the libs.
And that there are sheep in the GOP-supporting public who are going along with this.
It’s twilight zone.
Elizabelle
@Sab: If he is not of clear mind, I don’t think he should be voting. Or, hang on to the ballot and don’t mail it if it’s clearly not what he would decide if his mind were clearer.
jl
I heard news blurb quite that Trump said it was scary time for boys in this country. I’ll just assume they didn’t have time to include the part where he added ‘for girls, and men and women, and dogs and cats and the air and water and…
Anyway. We live in weird times. Apparently Goldman Sachs has joined the corporate media as part of the Democratic Party Deep State
One of Trump’s top economic advisers said the Goldman Sachs research team looks like ‘the Democratic opposition’ because of their critiques of Trump
https://www.businessinsider.com/kevin-hassett-goldman-sachs-trump-tariff-china-trade-war-note-2018-10
Found via Pauk Krugman’s twitter
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major: I vaguely remember the 17 tweets, but not very well.
Brachiator
@Kraux Pas:
But the vast majority of conservatives will never be part of the elite, and are disdained by the elite.
How many of the nutcases at a Trump rally could afford the dues to one of Trump’s clubs, etc?
debit
@Mary G: I totally agree with all of these.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
Hillary got to them. Did she give another speech to them?
Major Major Major Major
@WaterGirl: It was stupid and I don’t actually care very much. Only annoying when I’m reminded he exists.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
Any relation to Paul Krugman?
Kraux Pas
@Brachiator:
Well, until they make it, they’re happy keeping the “wrong” sort of person down.
raven
@WaterGirl: I had an MRI and everything is as it should be so there is that!
Mnemosyne
@jl:
Yep. Because the very small percentage of men/boys who are falsely accused are WAY more important than the thousands of women/girls who are sexually assaulted every year.
They really are saying the quiet part out loud now. ?
hg
@Mary G: @Mary G: @Mary G:
Thanks!!
debit
@Sab: Honestly? If he asks for a ballot give him one and let him fill it out. Good or bad, it’s his right unless there’s a law saying otherwise.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sab: It’s not a voting ethical issue, it’s a “what is in your father’s best interests” issue. Is he going to drive himself nuts trying to figure it all out? Is he going to show up at the polls not knowing a damn thing and feel profound embarrassment at his new inadequacies? Is he going to throw a fit of anger and trash the polling machine because he doesn’t understand how it works?
My father died of Alzheimers (which I know is way beyond what your father is dealing with). I have long had a strong aversion to lying but I soon learned that with him, telling him a lie that gave peace to his mind was one of the few things I could still do for him. I stopped saying goodbye because of the terror he would feel at being abandoned again by someone who loved him (even if he could no longer remember who I was) and instead would say, “I’m going to the bathroom, I’ll be right back.” and then I would leave, content in the knowledge that long before I got to the door he would have forgotten I had even been there.
Do that which will make your father happiest, at that moment, because that is all that matters at that moment.
jl
@jl: Forgot to add that ‘top’ economic adviser is Keven Hassett who wrote the hilariously wrong and incompetent ‘Dow36,000’, currently chair of the council of economic advisers.
If anyone interested, if you go to Paul Krugman’s twitter page, over weekend and Monday he had some good links to the new NAFTA, or USMCA, or whatever it is. Looks like pretty much same as old NAFTA except US dairy gets more access to Canadian markets. And increased North American content required to qualify for lower tariffs. And requirement for higher wages in for Mexican content. But there is a problem that the thing was slapped together pretty sloppily, and some conflicts with remaining provisions of old NAFTA. As Trump would say, ‘it’s a mess’. and may provide incentive for world auto industry (which includes companies like Ford) to just divert more production to Asia and Europe and avoid NAFTA countries altogether. You can get links at Krugman’s twitter page for links to detailed analysis.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Now we know why she refused to publish her speech to them.
tobie
@Major Major Major Major: I’ll miss Jason Kander over the next few months and years. I remember the day after Ossoff’s defeat when he did a youtube video to remind us not to give up the fight even if we had suffered a short-term loss. Who knew how much pain he was dealing with at the time? I hope he gets the treatment he needs and returns invigorated and healthy to the public sphere.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: WHOOOHOOOO!
Elizabelle
@debit: But does she mail it, if it’s clearly not what he would have chosen with a sound mind?
Filling it out — absolutely! Treating it as a valid vote: that is a problem for me, ethically.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Sorry, I mean Paul Krugman. Pauk Krugman is GillinBlendale’s third cousin twice removed.
I regret the error.
Elizabelle
@OzarkHillbilly: Great advice.
FlipYrWhig
@gvg: This is the part where they pretend to be Red Blooded American Males, who like titties and beer and punching people and resent how us Nanny State Libs won’t let them do these very fun things anymore. Sometimes they pretend to be The Moral Conscience Of A Nation, who want everything to be decent and staid and orderly and resent how us If It Feels Good Do It Libs stick our hedonism down their throats. They swing between these virtually at random.
sab
@Elizabelle: I am thinking I will help him change his address, send for an absentee ballot, and then let him forget it. I have been doing that for years, so he has already been purged from the rolls ( yay Husted you purged a moderate Republican.)
I agree that he shouldn’t be voting, but there is no legal prohibition. I have been an advocate of voting rights. How do I participate in disenfranchising my own dad because he now watches fox news ( pretty women in skimpy clothes yelling loud enough that he can hear them.)
oatler.
Here’s Trump live at Philly rally, opening words: “I’ve given you so much money…”
debit
@Elizabelle: I understand what you and others are saying. I’m just really uncomfortable with denying someone the right to cast their ballot. Period. It seems just a short step to, “Here, honey, let me tell you who we’re voting for this election while I stand over your shoulder and make sure you pick the candidates I want.”
Elizabelle
@sab: I guess the other way to handle it is “Dad, we took care of that last week. It’s already in the mail.”
My dad died way too young, but I am glad I never had to find out if he would have turned into a Fox News watcher. They weren’t even on the air yet. He was such a decent man. It is quite sad to hear how Fox plays on the elderly’s vulnerabilities, and turns them against their families and other people.
Poison.
jl
@Mnemosyne: I am a do-gooder liberal. So I worry about how we raise both boys and girls. There are some arguments, not sure how good they are, that recent social developments might produce some problems for little boys, who may not function well in way schools are run now. Would be nice to find a way so that both boys and girls can get an equal chance and at the same time get whatever opportunities each individual needs to express and be themselves and achieve their potential.
So, I have read some about the complexities of gender equality in schooling. But I dunno, somehow, I haven’t seen encouraging little boys to be entitled aggressive black-out drunks who assault women and start fights with other boys for trivial reasons mentioned a serious suggestion, except for Trump.
ruemara
@WaterGirl: Um, Al has had a number of MeToo charges leveled against him. And he elected to drop out of sight. Just saying.
I read through some of the judiciary pdf that was released today, I think. Kavanaugh has some really horrible allegations against him that go beyond what Ford is testifying about. This is right in full bore rape and good lord, he shouldn’t even be near a girls team at all.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@oatler.: OK, Trump; WHERE’S MY FUCKING MONEY?
OzarkHillbilly
@sab: Tell him, “You already voted, Dad. Remember?” and he will and he’ll feel happy at his accomplishment. Then later on he will bring the subject up again. You will tell him, “You already voted, Dad. Remember?” and he will and he’ll feel happy at his accomplishment.
And again…
and again…
and again…
and again…
Elizabelle
@debit: We’ll have to agree to disagree.
Work so hard, for months and months, and you’re up against someone not of sound mind? Why not just let our pets vote?
Omnes Omnibus
@Sab: If he is legally competent, he has a right to vote. You, however, do not have an obligation to help him do it.
Sab
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks. That is sort of what we are doing. He thinks he is there because we have contractors repairing the house (contractors take FOREVER) and meanwhile he has forgotten where the house is. He thinks he lives where his parents used to live 70 years ago.
Elizabelle
@Sab: Have to smile at all the older folks I met in nursing homes, who seemed so with it, and then they tell me “I have to go home now. My parents expect me.”
Major Major Major Major
@raven: Hooray!
Brain MRI’s suck.
FlipYrWhig
@jl: I’m not a parent but I’ve been hearing this for a long time. It seems WILDLY retrograde to me, based on the notion that boys want to be dirty and in motion while girls want to be clean and still, which, if it’s true (and I doubt it; it seems very Jordan Peterson-bad-evo-psych), has been true for the entire history of education, most of which produced boys and men who learned how to sit quietly, read books, learn, and do fine.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
What they really want is a social hierarchy. That necessarily implies having an elite that most of them won’t be allowed to join. They’re OK with that as long as there are people below them who they’re allowed to lord it over. That’s the practical definition of a social conservative.
debit
@Elizabelle: When did I miss the law granting our pets that right? (Can you imagine the chaos? Every household with have a candidate for President.)
Seriously, I don’t want to argue. @Omnes Omnibus: has a good answer.
Sab
@Omnes Omnibus:He is not competent to vote but I have not put us through the trauma of having him declared legally incompetent. He trusted me enough to turn all his affairs over to me and then I stuck him in a nursing home and sold his house. Needless to say I am feeling moral qualms about depriving him of his last legal right.
Sab
@Elizabelle: My two dogs and five cats have no right to vote. My demented dad does. Constitution and all that.
jl
One criticism I have of Obama administration was his economic policy that I felt was to timid and centrist, too influenced by large incumbent financial interests.
But, when i updated my handy-dandy macro dashboard in July and August, one great success of the Obama administration was to get real private net investment some close to average compared to 1947 to 1980. The US has suffered from seriously below average real public and private net investment since 1980 compared to previous post-WWII recessions.
And also, expert financial management, given subpar fiscal policy (due to GOP). that could easily have produced longest expansion, going through 2020, that produced some substantial and noticeable real wage gains towards the end. The only Trump economic innovation I see is his reckless BS nonsense policies that will probably stop that from happening. So, I figured with the Trumpeconomy, > 50 percent chance expansion will end before 2020.
Now I’m hearing various Democratic Deep State subversives, like Goldman Sachs saying pretty much the same thing. OMG, Kevin Hassett is right!!
Corner Stone
On another T, it looks like Avenatti may have screwed the proverbial pooch with his latest legal endeavor.
Omnes Omnibus
@Sab: I think you have your answer.
raven
@Major Major Major Major: Yea it was interesting. The hour went by fairly quickly with the break to shoot me up with dye. The best I do in those situations is to know it doesn’t having a lasting impact. . .if the news is good anyway!
TenguPhule
Trump reportedly picks handbag designer as ambassador to South Africa
Is it a day ending in day again?
First thing that came to mind is bribery.
Sab
@Omnes Omnibus: Me too. Get him registered, get him the absentee ballot and let him follow through, which he won’t.
debit
@Corner Stone: I’m not seeing any articles. Link?
TenguPhule
@Elizabelle:
Not just to own the libs. They want to rape, kill and burn them too. And not necessarily in that order.
jl
@FlipYrWhig: I don’t know enough about it to judge. I just read a research article that said traditional way of treating kids in school is actually just the opposite of how we traditionally think about it in the US. It said girls need to be treated more like boys than we traditionally do, and boys needed to be treated more like girls. Girls need to be given self confidence, chance to stand up and express themselves and then given support to do it again, even when things don’t go well. Boys actually need more emotional nurturing that this society typically gives girls. Interesting, and don’t know enough to have an opinion. My main personal interest in it is as a teacher.
Anyway, what I do know is that what Trump said was disgusting, and sends the worst message to the worst kind of people.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@ruemara:
Because liberals are against it and Kavanaugh needs to be on the Court to save Trump
Mnemosyne
@sab:
I think your solution sounds sensible. Would you want to consider removing Fox News from his list of cable choices? I remember Betty Cracker did that with her grandmother and it made everyone a lot happier. That, I feel, would probably be good enough for his mental health and state of mind that it would not be unethical to remove it and tell him the cable company did it.
TenguPhule
We could use a fresh open thread.
Oregon Man has taken Florida Man’s Crown.
TenguPhule
@ruemara:
Republicans just want traditional values to be upheld.
Norse Viking values.
Major Major Major Major
@raven:
Unless you have red tattoos!
The imaging injection/IV they give you is literally chilling, it’s… creepy as hell.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sab: During my mother’s last 3 months (in ICU) my father took to asking: “Where’s Mother?” to which I always replied to with, “She’s at the grocery, she’ll be home soon.” and it would make him happy for about a half hour or so and then rinse/repeat. One morning he came into the kitchen and asked and before I could answer my little sister said, “She’s at the hospital, Dad.” and he became completely unglued: “Why didn’t somebody tell me???!!!!” almost violent. If looks could have killed I would have seen my sister’s blood covering the walls, the floor, the ceiling. Up to that point I had always felt a little guilt with every lie I told. After that I felt no guilt whatsoever.
And I also had a conversation with my little Sis.
It only took about a week after we put him in a home for him to forget who my mother was. Every time I’d go see him he would beg me to take him home but like your father, I think home was with his father and mother. There was a period of time where he knew I was important to him even if he did not know who I was. Eventually I became my cousin Brunch with whom he had grown up.
It’s hard. Good luck.
Roger Moore
@TenguPhule:
The US has a long bipartisan history of appointing politically connected people with no diplomatic experience as ambassadors. As I understand it, we can usually get away with it because the US is so important that all the really critical diplomacy happens in Washington rather than the other countries. As long as the ambassador is capable of showing a modicum of tact and lets the civil servants to the work, everything generally works out OK.
raven
@Major Major Major Major: I do feel a bit weird.
rikyrah
@ruemara:
Boys will be boys…as long as they are WHITE..
they can be 40, and it’s just ‘ youthful indiscretions’.
But, a 12 year old Tamir Rice, is a hulking, scary brute.
Martin
@TenguPhule: That is unpossible. Remember when Bubba Kavanaugh went on a beer run in Florida?
The Moar You Know
@Sab: If he needs help to navigate registering, I say no.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
Not even that long. Its revoked as soon as they can walk and talk.
HeleninEire
So the Presidential campaign just started here. Bear in mind that the President is different than the Taoiseach (prime minister) because this is a parliamentary system.
Big story in the Irish Independent. The current President, Michael S. Higgins has raised a whopping €8,000 ($ 9,200) from the public. The public goal is €50,000.($ 57,000l for a campaign that is estimated to cost €394,000 ($455,000). Curious to find out how much is spent on the Taoiaseach campaign.
TenguPhule
@Martin:
Not probable.
FBI agent dodges killer hot tub but is shot by booby-trapped wheelchair
I assume beer was involved at some point in the process.
Mnemosyne
@jl:
Well, we could go back to the good old days of rote learning and corporal punishment in front of the whole class. Strangely, no one used to complain that those methods were unfair to boys, probably because girls were barred from those same schools and received a much worse education, if they received one at all.
Sorry, but I don’t have a lot of patience with the “schools are unfair to boys!” arguments. There’s a lot wrong with the way we teach our kids and how education gets distributed throughout our society, but you only seem to get people wringing their hands over suburban white boys not getting their due while black and brown boys drop out of subpar urban schools.
Sab
@Mnemosyne:Good advice. He can’t figure out the remote anymore. His nurses aides are sports fans, so its SPN all the way.
FlipYrWhig
@jl: OK, that’s much better than I feared.
@TenguPhule: First thing that comes to MY mind is “Ivanka.”
OzarkHillbilly
@Corner Stone: Predictable.
Sab
@Sab: SPN meant to be ESPN. Proofreading aint hard but I rarely do it . Edit button.
TenguPhule
@Roger Moore:
You were saying?
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne:
They might be the only ones you see, but I know there’s been a lot of work done on this specifically in Oakland.
Corner Stone
@debit: No links ATM. But his client Ms. Swetnick is in some trouble with her allegations against Kavvy. I have now seen several segments of her interview with NBC’s Kate Snow, and while I think (weirdly) that NBC has set their sights targeting Avenatti (no proof just what I’ve observed), the fact that of four named witnesses one is deceased, one says he never heard of Swetnick and two have failed to respond. It’s also notable that Ms. Swetnick’s mom was named as a resource and she is also now deceased.
I am just having a hard time following the allegation right now.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Trust me, you are a bit weird.
Elizabelle
@sab: My sympathies for being in that situation. I don’t mean to make light of it, which I did with the “pets” comment.
I guess the other ethical issue is, do you assist, or let some staff caregiver or person off the street “help” with the ballot?
I just hope Mitch McConnell is bullying women and Democrats into running up an insurmountable lead for Democrats in the midterms.
Major Major Major Major
@raven: it’s almost certainly benign.
Roger Moore
@jl:
This makes sense and goes along with my general impression of the way we treat gender in the US (and in the West more generally): we behave in ways that tend to exaggerate gender differences rather than narrow them. So if boys are naturally a bit more restless and rambunctious than girls, we excuse and even encourage their rambunctiousness while punishing girls who behave the same way. If girls are naturally more nurturing, we encourage them when they show nurturing behavior and discourage boys who do the same. We would probably get healthier, more well rounded people if we worked harder to encourage kids in areas where they’re naturally weak.
Aleta
Brave Sir Rubio updated his deep thoughts this afternoon.
jl
@FlipYrWhig: I should have expected a misunderstanding. I’ll have to go look for the article, but IIRC the conservative ‘Hey, let boys be boys” ends up with boys learning how to handle heir self esteem problems in the wrong way, and acting out anger and frustration that comes from unsolved self-esteem problems rather than actually dealing with their self-esteem problems. So, no, I am not talking about that conservative ‘let boys be boys’ BS at all.
But we have a president who thinks indulging rich white boy problems, that in Kavanaugh’s case seem to reach into adulthood, is really the only fair thing to do.
Mary G
Haven’t read it, but looks like the FTFNYT has finally gotten up from the fainting couch to do some actual Fahrenthold-style investigative reporting into Twitler’s financials:
(Full disclosure: I took out a bunch of hashtags from reporters who worked on the story so the tweet wouldn’t get tossed into moderation.)
They said “fraud” out loud, so it must be ironclad.
Marcopolo
@WaterGirl: Please do not frontpage this request. I’ve been aware of and read Al’s reporting since I was a Howard Dean supporter in 2004. He’s always had an outsidery POV towards political reporting which was refreshing; however, his Narco Journalism School always struck me as a bit of a scam and then this past spring he had his #metoo moment. It wasn’t pretty & I would not recommend supporting him any further. Links:
Former Boston journalist accused of harassment at program in Mexico
Famed Liberal Journalist Al Giordano Accused of Sexual Misconduct
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Corner Stone: she’s a good witness for the notion that Kavanaugh’s high school circle wallowed in alcohol-fueled misogyny and probably sexual assault and abuse. That’s not was Avenatti spent a week promising.
Sab
@HeleninEire: Am I allowed to interact with you since I was so horrible last summer? Is taoisach pronounced ” teeshock” or “tayshock”?
Martin
@TenguPhule: Ok, that’s pretty solid. But Florida has multiple cases of people eating other people’s faces.
I think we have a divergence of approaches here. Oregon is more survivors from Walking Dead where Florida is more zombies from Walking Dead.
Mnemosyne
@OzarkHillbilly:
My paternal grandmother did not have Alzheimer’s, but she did get some dementia and sundowning as she entered her 90s.
She would occasionally ask where my grandfather (her husband) was, but he had died 20 years before. My aunts stopped telling her that, because she would break down and react as though he had just died because, in her mind, he had. Rather than putting her through that fresh pain every time, they started telling her that he was on a fishing trip, and she accepted that.
Well, one day we were over at my aunt’s house and my grandma asked where her husband was. My aunt said he was on a fishing trip.
And my grandma said, “Well, he might as well be dead, he’s been on that fishing trip for so long!” ?
Sab
@Elizabelle: zIt will be me.
Aleta
@Aleta: Correction: The above source is the Washington Examiner. I did a bracketed slash /slash to cross out the word Rectum (I don’t know what autocorrect was thinking! ), but it didn’t take. Also in the first box, the last sentence should end with quotation marks.
TenguPhule
@Martin:
This compromise is acceptable.
debit
@Corner Stone: Thanks for the clarification. I am no Avenatti fan but I had faith that, if nothing else, he wouldn’t risk his reputation. On the other hand, he has made some baffling choices in the recent past (appearing on Fox News) that haven’t shown him to advantage. So I guess I wouldn’t be surprised if he fucked this one up.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mnemosyne: Ha!
My father was at the kitchen sink when he started singing a song:
Old MacDonald had a farm
Eee i eee i ohhhh.
And on this farm he had….
Oh hell, he had a whole lot of crap!
Sab
@Mnemosyne: @Mnemosyne: OMG! Laugh with hysterical tears. Welcome to the eldercare vortex.
Gravenstone
@Major Major Major Major:
Exactly what type of radiation are we talking here? While none of it is particularly good, the degrees of damage are highly dependent on the source and intensity of radiation involved.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
I assume that they’re also focusing at least some attention on preventing Oakland’s girls from dropping out, too?
Figuring out how to improve Oakland’s schools is not the same as white suburban parents whining that the only reason their little Tyler is failing in school is because schools are rigged against boys.
Ladyraxterinok
@JMG: Poll changes are setting us up for vote tampering. They are there to claim the polls of a blue wave were wrong. GOPers are sure they (with help from various friends) can keep their control. With control of SCOTUS and states (gerrymandering, voter ID and other restrictive laws) they can gain near permanent rule by white supremacy.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: no, they’re focusing specifically on educating African American boys in Oakland.
ETA obviously there are other people doing other things as well. I was providing an example.
https://www.ousd.org/Page/12804
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2010/09/03/east-bay-school-for-boys-takes-a-different-approach-to-learning/
Elizabelle
@Sab: You’re a good daughter. As is debit. And Ozark is a terrific son.
HeleninEire
@Sab: Yes you are. We are all friends here. In fact we are a family and families always argue and then make up.
The Taoiseach question is interesting because it is still a question here. Irish is such an old language the pronunciation is argued here to this day. I say “tayshock” because it is the most common but enough people here say “teeshock.” It is so argued that there was a move in the Parliament a few years ago to just change it to prime minister and get rid of Taoiseach.
The whole country came together to say “ag fuck tu’.” Yeah you can figure out that Gaelic.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
They have a separate girls’ program as well:
https://www.ousd.org/Domain/4434
So both genders are getting extra attention in Oakland. You’re probably hearing more about the boys’ program because of that lovely intersection of sexism and racism (see, Black boys need extra help!)
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: I don’t believe I said I was hearing more about the boys’ program. I was giving an example of a program focusing on the unique educational difficulties facing African American boys. A parallel one for girls is not a counterexample.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
This is the ur-article — anti-feminist Christina Hoff Summers talking about a “war against boys” in 2000:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/05/the-war-against-boys/304659/
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: I’m much more familiar with that entire school of thought than I’d like to be. I agree that the popularity of the suburban white boy angle is an example of classism, racism, and sexism. However, some of the grievances are legitimate even if the actors and proposed remedies are bullshit. And well-intentioned people in places like Oakland are working on addressing them in minority communities.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Okay, I’m going to do a little playlet to show where we went wrong.
ME: Claiming that our schools are structured in a way that’s unfair to boys is bullshit.
YOU: But Oakland has a program for African-American boys that is designed to help overcome historical inequities in American education, so clearly schools are unfair to boys.
ME: They have one for girls, too, because they’re trying to overcome historical inequities, not gender inequities.
YOU: But they have one for boys, so
your point is disproven and schools are unfair to boys.
ME: (Rage. Rising.)
Again: schools developing programs to overcome historical race-based inequities in education are not the same as people like Christina Hoff Summers claiming that schools are discriminating against all boys as a gender and forcing them to fail. It. Just. Isn’t.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: that wasn’t your original claim. I was addressing you saying “you only seem to get people wringing their hands over suburban white boys not getting their due while black and brown boys drop out of subpar urban schools“
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Tell you what: when we get boys to stop sexually harassing girls in the classroom to the point that those girls fail classes because they can’t concentrate on what the teachers are saying, then I’ll worry about why the poor suburban white boys just can’t catch a break in school. Deal?
And, yes, I’m speaking from personal experience, so pardon me if I don’t weep for the suburban white boys who just can’t be expected to behave themselves and keep their fucking hands to themselves at school.
The end.
Ladyraxterinok
@Gravenstone: jNixon ‘Sunshine Units’. We’ve been down this road before!!
Sab
@HeleninEire: Thank you ma’am that you accepted my much deserved apology (that I never offered because that’s hard to do online). I was so upset about this because you are always so gracious and I was so out of line in that thread. I can explain what I was thinking at the time, but looking back later at my thinking I have known garden snails with more sense.
Sab
@HeleninEire: Thank you ma’am that you accepted my much deserved apology (that I never offered because that’s hard to do online). I was so upset about this because you are always so gracious and I was so out of line in that thread. I can explain what I was thinking at the time, but looking back later at my thinking I have known garden snails with more sense.@Elizabelle: As was Ruckes in his day.
WaterGirl
@raven: I saw that earlier and was thrilled at the news. Hope you saw my reply at the time.
Elizabelle
@Sab: Ruckes??
Elizabelle
@Sab: Oh, you mean Ruckus from California?
Love him. Hope he is back soonest. Very humane man. Come back, Ruckus.
Mnemosyne
@Elizabelle:
He’s around — I think I saw him in the thread above. We’re on Pacific time, so I think he’s doing more evening/late night posting right now.