Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

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

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

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

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

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

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

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

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

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

Second rate reporter says what?

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / ‘Censorship!!!’ Open Thread: Feel Free to Just STFU, Now

‘Censorship!!!’ Open Thread: Feel Free to Just STFU, Now

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And while we’re discussing social-media ‘bias’, let’s not forget Ted Cruz whining that Twitter highlighted all the rude snark about his totally 100% sincere SPACE PIRATES!!! speech this week (while somehow erasing the hundreds of YAY TED! responses he was expecting).

I’m betting this will be another one of those MAGAt-rally-pleasing Trump “announcements” to which his loyal minions respond by yelling “Jawohl, Hair Fuhrer!” and doing… absolutely fekking nothing.

Reader Interactions

95Comments

  2. 2.

    J R in WV

    deplatforming Milo is the best thing we could do to him!

    And you ROCK, Anne Laurie!!!

    ETA: DAMM, missed first post by || that much!!

    Milo is such a piece of crap, I can’t understand why he won’t actually go down the chute at the bottom of the bowl !!!

  3. 3.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I realize I’m far from the first to make this observation, but DAMN, THESE PEOPLE ARE NUCKIN’ FUTZ!

  5. 5.

    Bruuuuce

    Shorter Milo: “I despise political violence, except in my own cause. I guess I’m just another typical modern right-wing hypocrite.”

  6. 6.

    Ruckus

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    It may be a rounding error but I’d bet it’s more than 2.3 million. I go some place that has a TV playing and it’s about 50% chance that faux is on. I’d also bet it’s far less than half the country.

  8. 8.

    BlueDWarrior

    The bigger problem is that half the voting public looks at Fox News, and go “Yeah, that sounds about right”.

    But in terms of active veiwership, the audience for T.V. is so fragmented that you can legitimately be the number one cable station, and barely get past 2% of the adult population, let alone every individual.

  9. 9.

    sukabi

    Guess who’s gonna be responsible for killing twitter and facebook?

    Might be the only good thing he does.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    Trump WH asks people to share stories of political bias targeting them on FB, Google, Twitter,

    “Dear White House, there’s this asshole who keeps telling people he’s going to lock me up. I hope you can do something to stop him.–Hillary C.”

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    a WH spokesman said the collected data would “100 percent not” be shared with the president’s re-election campaign

    Not when they can rake in a mountain of mazuma selling it.

  15. 15.

    Martin

    I’ll sleep a bit better tonight knowing that General Milo is marshaling the forces on the other side.

  19. 19.

    jl

    ” A racist, sexist, brain dead rounding error. ”

    That’s not nice. They are feeble minded elderly people. As I’ve noted before on this here almost top global 100,000 blog, at some point Fox News will be sued for elder abuse. Probably a class action by their guardians, wondering where all the money went, and found that it went into worthless crap and scams flacked to feeble minded elderly people by Fox News. Like gold-backed IRAs, crypto-currency backed reverse mortgages, non-hybrid survival seeds to sock away in your Fox News endorsed commie uprising backyard survival bunker, special stink sprays to keep them dang kids these days off your lawn, special mattress that can hold all your IRA gold but stay soft on top, and massage recliners that will cure your prostatitis.

  20. 20.

    sukabi

    @NotMax:

    WH spokesman said the collected data would “100 percent not” be shared with the president’s re-election campaign

    1) they’re lying. It’s what they do
    2) the tell is in quotes, bolding mine.

  22. 22.

    Cacti

    How do I sleep knowing that Milo lost his platform?

    Like a baby on 800 thread count sheets.

  24. 24.

    sukabi

    @Major Major Major Major: twittler’s move to collect info on twitter, fb political bias. He’s basically starting a war with zuckerberg and jack…and it’s a no win for fb & twitter. If they push back against him he’ll amp up his attacks and probably encourage the doj to open investigations….if they go along with him and promote the hate merchants they’ll lose everyone else.

  25. 25.

    randy khan

    Does anybody know what these “ideas” that Crenshaw references are? I have yet to see an actual idea of any kind emerging from the right wing swamp. I mean, talking points don’t count.

  28. 28.

    jayjaybear

    Crenshaw has made a lot of hay out of being highly offended by Pete Davidson’s perfectly legitimate send-up of him. Completely undeserved hay, but hay nonetheless.

  29. 29.

    Harbison

    And, maybe I’m the right person to sketch out how that should work.

    Well, okay, lets hear what he has to say. If the fake pearl choker contingent of gay conservatives are gonna ride their war ponies, that is something I want to be prepared for. Let’s make a nice hummus dip and settle in to read Milo the First on insurgency…

    You know, maximum cell size. Encryped comms. Like I said …

    That’s it?

    Hmmm….

  32. 32.

    MattF

    @sukabi: One should bear in mind that, apparently, a lot of the hot quotes from the WH come from the chief liar himself. The Washington press corps has been hooked and filleted by Trump for some years now– but now the stupid little secrets are coming out.

  33. 33.

    NotMax

    FYI:

    Percentage of Americans who bother with Twitter? About 25%. (a href=”https://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/social-media/”>Source – dataset from 2018)

  34. 34.

    MattF

    @NotMax: Also, what’s Twitter usage like? I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that most of it is just reading a few posters– and few, if any, actual new postings.

  35. 35.

    NotMax

    Whoopsie. Post-nap bleariness. Link fix.

    FYI:

    Percentage of Americans who bother with Twitter? About 25%. (Source – dataset from 2018)

  37. 37.

    NotMax

    @MattF

    You’ll find some possibly informative nuggets here: 40+ Twitter Statistics & Facts For 2019. Also this piece, as well as a graph of U.S. data here.

    And, from this past February,

    Twitter’s monthly user count has fallen for three quarters in a row, so to address the issue, Twitter has decided to stop announcing how many users it keeps losing.

    The change, which begins after next quarter, was announced in Twitter’s latest earnings release, where the company disclosed that it had lost another 5 million monthly users during the final few months of 2018. That brings Twitter to 321 million monthly users, down from 326 million the prior quarter. It’s Twitter’s lowest user figure in two years. Source

  38. 38.

    Kay

    I love that the only possible way to reach Republicans is to go on Fox news. No one says this about MSNBC and liberals. No one says “you’re not going on CNN? Well, now half the country won’t ever be able to see or hear you!”

    Conservatives are LIMITED to watching Fox news apparently. They may not read or view anything else, ever. Why would they willingly portray themselves like this? This is a plus? We all have to go to this one cable channel ?

    No. We don’t want to. Broaden your watching habits. It’s not my fault you’re not allowed to watch anything else.

  39. 39.

    Kay

    GMA’s 4.09M average audience was No. 1 in total viewers for the week, besting Today’s 3.743M and CBS This Morning’s 3.013M. GMA basked in the halo of Monday and Thursday playoffs, which may have boosted morning viewing on ABC, particularly in East Coast markets.
    Today’s 1.256M viewers in the key 25-54 age bracket bested GMA‘s 1.204M, as well as CBS This Morning’s 767K. In the news demo, Today is delivering its longest winning streak in nearly six years.

    Sadly, Republicans are not allowed to view these non-Republican programs or a candidate could go on them and reach Republicans.

    I mean, Jesus. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Do these people think about what they say at all?

  41. 41.

    joel hanes

    Got email from Mayor Pete explaining that he was going to appear on Fox News, and why.
    unsubscribed. scratch another from the field.

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne

    Repeating my bad pet news from this afternoon:

    Well, since this is a thread about Republicans, I will share my unfortunate news: our kitty Annie has not responded to her feline lymphoma treatment and we have made the difficult decision to switch to comfort care until she’s ready to go.

    She still wants to be around us and is interested in food to the point of trying to steal it off our plates, but we’re probably talking about a week at most. She’s only about 12, so this really sucks. ?

  46. 46.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Dilemmas, dilemmas… St. Vincent on Austin City Limits or Sheila E on The Kate?

  55. 55.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The projection in Crenshaw’s tweet could illuminate every showing of Avengers: Endgame for the next year.

  58. 58.

    Suzanne

    “Deplatforming” sounds like a real thing, but it’s not. It’s just “right to refuse service for any reason”.

    Having said that, I just LOOOOOVE that Milo has some serious sadz. I also love that he’s broke AF.

  59. 59.

    Harbison

    Reading through Dan Crenshaws choc full of nuts twitter feed to see this:

    Greg Abbott
    Verified account
    @GregAbbott_TX
    8h8 hours ago
    More Greg Abbott Retweeted Sandee Wichkoski
    Texas tells Nancy Pelosi & her Congressional Committees to pound sand. Texas has not subjugated its sovereign status to Congress. Congress doesn’t have oversight over states like Texas.

    Hmmm… that sounds vaguely familiar …

  61. 61.

    Anne Laurie

    @Mnemosyne: I’m so sorry. It’s never easy to let them go, but you’ll have the ‘comfort’ of knowing you did the best you could for her…

  65. 65.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @NotMax: They were both on PBS channels. Sure, I can watch them later, but my dilemma was who do I watch NOW? St. Vincent won out in the end.

  66. 66.

    gene108

    I saw 2 new to me things this week. Took short stroll from my new job just to see what is around. There were a couple of Canadian geese, who had not gone back for the summer, with a couple of baby geese.

    As I was walking past, one looked menacingly at me and hissed. Opening its mouth wide, suggesting it would run me down and naw my ankle off, with its powerful beak, if I took one step closer. Being fat and out of shape, I am not sure of my chances to out run the goose, so I turned back; heeding the goose’s warning.

    The second thing I saw for the first time was a teenage boy riding his bike, while looking at his phone the whole time. I was on a fairly busy street, though it mostly 2 lanes, but widens to 4-5 lanes where I was. There’s a pretty good shoulder, so you aren’t competing with cars for road space, but this kid was going against the flow of traffic, and having mastered the skill of cycling without needing to hold the handle bars, had his feet pedaling, with both hands firmly on his phone, head down, and fingers typing.

    Cell phone use while driving is dangerous, while riding a bicycle must be exponentially more dangerous. And the one thing I did not appreciate, until I started driving, is how often drivers really aren’t paying attention to their surroundings. Made me rethink how much attention to the road I need to pay on my bicycle

  68. 68.

    JGabriel

    @Ruckus:

    It may be a rounding error but I’d bet it’s more than 2.3 million. I go some place that has a TV playing and it’s about 50% chance that faux is on. I’d also bet it’s far less than half the country.

    Yep, just under 63 million people voted for Trump. I’d guess a majority of them watch Fox at least semi-regularly, let’s say 55-60%, or roughly 37 million.

    Which would be roughly 27% of the 137 million people who voted, or 11% of the whole US population.

    Of course, this is all just wild ass speculation, but it feels right.

    I don’t know where the 2.3 million figure is coming from. Does anyone? I’m guessing it’s the max viewership at some specific moment, but I don’t know it.

  69. 69.

    Major Major Major Major

    @JGabriel:

    Fox News averaged a network record 2.4 million total viewers in primetime during the period of Jan. 1 to Dec. 30, led by network news show Hannity, which averaged a cable news series-high 3.2 million viewers for the year.

    FNC’s win marks the third consecutive year the network has topped the primetime charts among total viewers, according to Nielsen.

    ESPN finished second with 1.9 million viewers, followed MSNBC’s 1.8 million viewers and HGTV’s 1.3 million watchers, according to Nielsen.

    https://www.multichannel.com/news/fox-news-ends-2018-as-most-watched-cable-network

  70. 70.

    JGabriel

    via Major Major Major Major:

    Fox News averaged a network record 2.4 million total viewers in primetime during the period of Jan. 1 to Dec. 30, led by network news show Hannity, which averaged a cable news series-high 3.2 million viewers for the year.

    So it’s the average number of viewers during prime time.

    That’s way less than the total number of people who watch Fox, since few of them are watching Fox 24/7.

  71. 71.

    Anne Laurie

    @gene108:

    There’s a pretty good shoulder, so you aren’t competing with cars for road space, but this kid was going against the flow of traffic, and having mastered the skill of cycling without needing to hold the handle bars, had his feet pedaling, with both hands firmly on his phone, head down, and fingers typing.

    Please tell me the kid was wearing a helmet!

  75. 75.

    SectionH

    @Amir Khalid: Pete Downunder was on it in real time, warning it was looking bad. I think I’ve deleted at least two Grauniad Toady Australia editions unread since then. (I get “tomorrow’s” news at 7pm here.)

  77. 77.

    JWR

    The first time I heard about Dan Crenshaw was when he appeared along with Pete Davidson on SNL’s Weekend Update after the latter made an off-color joke about the former. I never found out what PD said that was so offensive, but it may have been about DC’s eye patch.

    Anyway, the next time I happened across one of the Sunday shows, there was Crenshaw, having a snit about the other panelists using the word “attacked” in describing Trump’s assault on our country. He said something about being offended because he’d been under actual attack, (Gawdammit!), and so watch your words,

    Creepy dude, that one.

  78. 78.

    Nicole

    @Mnemosyne: I’m so sorry. She’s lucky to have you as her people to do what’s best for her the whole way through and to see her through the transition. Sending hugs.

  81. 81.

    debbie

    When you’re in a group with racists and haters, and you do nothing, then, you are a racist and hater.

  82. 82.

    RAM

    …a WH spokesman said the collected data would “100 percent not” be shared with the president’s re-election campaign.

    Really? Who’s going to stop them? There’s nobody at the Justice Department or the Federal Elections Commission who thinks they have a duty to uphold the law. The brave Dems in the House? Give me a break…

  86. 86.

    low-tech cyclist

    Re Milo’s stupidity:

    You want to know something, bub? In a fair number of state legislatures (MI, WI, and NC come to mind), districts are so gerrymandered that even a solid Dem voting majority still results in solid GOP control. And of course in our national legislature, once again a solid nationwide Dem popular majority still leaves the Senate in firm GOP control. And the GOP backs up its control via gerrymandering by throwing up multiple obstacles to make it harder for people without spare time and resources to vote.

    And control of the WH and Senate has enabled the GOP to stack the judiciary so that it will stand behind these GOP strategies to maintain working control of the government while having the support of only a minority of the citizenry.

    So you know who actually has a case for taking up arms against the government? That’s right, we Dems do.

    But few of us would remotely consider doing such an abhorrent thing.

    Yet Milo thinks this is an appropriate response to a few extremists being bumped off Facebook and Twitter, even though the far right has an entire cable network, Fox News, devoted to spreading the right’s message.

    What a dick.

  87. 87.

    Scamp Dog

    @Mnemosyne: I’m so sorry to hear that. They’re so good for us, which makes us miss them so much when their time is up. {hugs}

  88. 88.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    If Milo is so upset about oppression, then why doesn’t he just take his fake swishy ass back to England were he came from?

    One of conservative friends pointed out to me that a big difference between Americans and lot of other societies is we Americans expect to have agency in our affairs, thus the “political violence” that Milo’s fee fees are hurt over. Milo wanted a elegant debate he should have stayed at Eton, but you can’t just blather on about destroying somone’s life to their face and not expect to get punched in the face here.

  90. 90.

    laura

    @Mnemosyne: this is very sad news. I wish her many days of stealing your food, purrs and cuddles. Please have this
    {{{{{{{{{{HUG}}}}}}}}}}.

  91. 91.

    StringOnAStick

    FOX people live in their own world, and so many of them behave in such an entitled fashion.

    We’re currently looking at another place as a potential retirement destination since the Denver area is becoming so crowded, so I’ve been scanning a real estate website for months now. One For Sale by Owner house showed up that has a significantly higher price per square foot and truly has nothing outstanding or even interesting about it plus a boring location. The photos show a place packed to the gills so you can’t get a good look at the rooms but there are 3 different TV’s on and you can see that each one is tuned to Hannity’s show. The latter fact explained the price quite well: living in an entitled dream world apparently causes you to over price your home by 20%, try to sell it yourself so you can grab every penny, and I’ll bet complain that the real estate cartel is quashing your info because ‘damned liberals’ since that’s the standard excuse for anything with FOX borg members.

  93. 93.

    r€nato

    @low-tech cyclist:when the fascists take away and hollow out all the legal means of settling political differences peacefully, I don’t see what’s left other than shooting the fucking fascists in the face.

  94. 94.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @Mnemosyne: I’m so sorry to hear your kitty Annie is sick. I do have some advice for you.

    Our 19 year-old male kitty Jeter began having seizures last year and was diagnosed with lymphoma. As his appetite and chronic diarrhea began to take it’s toll, we deferred euthanasia and decided to put him on CBD oil (without THC–apparently cats do not tolerate it well and it causes them anxiety).

    We began with a low dose of 1-2 mg with each meal gradually working up to 10mg daily and his seizures went from one every 2 days to 6 weeks in between. His appetite picked up and his bowels calmed down. He’d been lethargic and losing weight for months but seemed to perk up once the seizure activity calmed down.

    Even though the disease clearly continued to progress (we joked that he would say “I’m literally just a hairy sack of bones tied together with rubber bands but Goddamn I’m gonna live forever!! ). He seemed to be happy and enjoying his life, loved to sit with us on the couch and be petted for hours. He even started going outside to our backyard this spring like he’d always done, sniffing the air and cuddling on his outdoor kitty bed in the sunshine.

    When he passed in March after a particularly massive seizure he’d already gotten at least 7-8 months of quality of life I absolutely know he’d not have had without the CBD. I urge you to try it.

    During my nurse practitioner program, I’ve had to learn a lot about CBD and medical marijuana because so many of my patients here use it. There are some good resources for advice on the web to learn about it’s use and benefits:

    Boulder Holistic Vet
    https://boulderholisticvet.com/cannabis-101-cbd-cat/
    and https://boulderholisticvet.com/cannabis-pets-beyond-basics/

    Also, Project CBD has a broad range of educational articles and guidelines for using both Hemp based and Marijuana based CBD and you can research its use on pets here
    https://www.projectcbd.org/cbd-101/cbd-for-pets

    I wish you and Sweet Annie Kitty lots of loving time together in her twilight days…

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