Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

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

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

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

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

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

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

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

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

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

Their freedom requires your slavery.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

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

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Friday Morning Open Thread: No Sooner Than Time

Friday Morning Open Thread: No Sooner Than Time

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Happy Pride Month! Per the Washington Post, “‘Wrong, plain and simple’: 50 years after the Stonewall raid, New York City’s police commissioner apologizes”:

A half-century after the New York Police Department raided the Stonewall Inn — prompting a riot credited with sparking the modern gay rights movement — New York City Police Commissioner James O’Neill apologized…

O’Neill was speaking at a safety briefing for Pride Month events. After his apology, there was extended applause.

In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, plainclothes police raided the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village bar frequented mostly by gay men, with some lesbians and transgender people, as well.

For the patrons, raids and police harassment were nothing new. But this time, they decided to fight back. A crowd of hundreds soon gathered outside the bar and threw coins, rocks and garbage, briefly trapping the officers inside the Stonewall.

Reinforcements were called in to break up the crowd; in all, 13 people were arrested that first night. Unrest around the Stonewall continued for days…

***********
Joe Biden no longer supports the Hyde Amendment:


There will be any amount of discussion about Biden’s choices / timing, but it’s objectively good news that he’s no longer defending a bad law that hurt mostly poor and otherwise victimized women. Especially since it removes one last prop from the ‘electability’ argument — If normal guy Joe Biden supports it, we can’t reject it!

***********
Circular firing squad at the NRA:

***********
Kudos (again) to ProPublica:

***********
Still to be done: Someone needs to slap Chris ‘Mad Bitcher’ Cillizza with a dead fish, repeatedly. His entire article — TBH, his entire career — is an eczema on the body politic…

Reader Interactions

210Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    but it’s objectively good news that he’s no longer defending a bad law that hurt mostly poor and otherwise victimized women

    Agree. All of our major candidates are now speaking with one voice, and we’re not backsliding from where we were in 2016.

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Better late than never, but I suspect he lost more than a few primary votes in this process.

  5. 5.

    Lapassionara

    Good morning. Both the Blues and the Cardinals won last night. A miracle. And no rain, or at least none that I know of. Ozark was going to the Cardinal game and the forecast was dicey.

    So glad we’re done with the pomp and ceremony. Trump in formal wear — blech!

  6. 6.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Good morning BJ and… (consults phrase book for traditional greetings)… Blech!

  8. 8.

    Baud

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Samsung question. Do you have a problem with Samsung browser staying in memory? It almost always refreshes when I switch back to it from another app.

  10. 10.

    Sister Golden Bear

    After four hectic days in Tokyo, I just got into Takayama late afternoon and will be having a relaxed “vacation from my vacation” day tomorrow.

    Definitely a different pace here, even though Takayama is a major tourist destination for its mountain views (it’s in the Japanese Alps) and historic neighborhoods (similar in feel to Kyoto I’m told.) Most of the shops close by 4:30, and many of the restaurants close by 8. Not quite Tokyo hours.

    “On the Road” photos will be forthcoming when I’m back.

  12. 12.

    WereBear

    I’ve leaned Warren from the start. She’s just been going Presidential in a thrilling policy way other contenders are not as good at.

    That’s what election season is. Auditioning. At least in the Democratic party. In the Republican party, they just take the money and obey.

  15. 15.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Thanks.

    It’s been on my bucket list for years, and it’s a good distraction from the first anniversary of my mother’s death from pancreatic cancer (six weeks from diagnosis to death).

  20. 20.

    Baud

    So this came across my feed. I didn’t click for obvious reasons.

    The Democratic Party Is Trying to Downplay Climate Change. Don’t Let It.

    NYT > Top Stories / by Justin Gillis / 6min

    Maybe the opinion piece is ok, because I think authors don’t choose their headlines. But this type of framing just makes people cynical and, ironically, hurts the cause of addressing climate change.

  22. 22.

    Baud

    This is interesting. Is it too much to hope for that this will help change the politics of the state.

    Now, the northwest Arkansas metro area, which includes Bentonville, Rogers, Fayetteville and Springdale, is the one of the fastest-growing regions in the United States. Northwest Arkansas is bustling as engineers, lawyers, accountants and marketing professionals flood into the area to work at Walmart and other companies that provide services to the retailer, according to Mervin Jebaraj, executive director for the Center for Business & Economic Research at the University of Arkansas.

    In its race against Amazon (AMZN), Walmart wants to recruit top talent to keep pace with changes in retail and technology. Walmart CEO Doug McMillion has made it clear to investors that he wants Walmart to think like a tech company. Walmart has invested billions in building out an e-commerce infrastructure and is hiring for supply chain, data analytics, software engineering, product development and IT jobs in Bentonville.

    https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/07/business/walmart-shareholders-meeting-bentonville-northwest-arkansas/index.html

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Yes. NW Arkansas is funny in that are enclaves of liberals at seeemingly every turn and they are able to more or less comfortably coexist with people who wholeheartedly believe in the batshit crazy. But we are still outnumbered about 3.5-1.

  28. 28.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    Re Biden: Somebody on MSNBC last night pointed out that Biden has had two-plus years to plan this presidential run, but he’s ad-libbing policy on the spot.

    Meanwhile Elizabeth Warren has a detailed plan for everything, right down to your kids’ carpooling schedule.

    (Warren comment not from MSNBC.)

  29. 29.

    Just One More Canuck

    @Lapassionara: the Broons fans in my Facebook feed were whining about the no penalty call on the second Blues goall. It definitely should have been a penalty but Bruins fans complaining about bad calls and missed calls is the height of irony

    Go Blues

  31. 31.

    Patricia Kayden

    Sounds like the NRA is in the middle of a civil war. Good! I hope it completely self destructs.

  33. 33.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @satby: Thanks. The “year of firsts” has been rough at times. But as you said, it gets better over time.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    @debbie:

    I don’t question it. I don’t think he’ll push for it, but if we have a Democratic Congress that passes it, I don’t think he’ll veto it.

  44. 44.

    Betty Cracker

    Dahlia Lithwick wrote a column on Warren that’s published at Slate. It discusses the senator’s prospects, doubts people have about whether the country is ready for a woman president, and how calling Warren a “wonk” misses her most notable quality — she’s first and foremost an educator.

    It’s a good article over all, marred by these two sentences:

    She has a big, forced window-washer wave, and as she launched into her prepared autobiography she referred to her father, over and over again, as “Daddy.” (I am not quite sure how we are supposed to be throwing off the patriarchy if we are still referring to our fathers as “daddies” into our late 60s.)

    That’s a really stupid thing to say, IMO. But otherwise, it’s a fine article.

  47. 47.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: That is the height of stupidity. I suppose she refers to her father as “Mr. Lithwick”?

    ETA which come to think of it, isn’t taking one’s father’s name the very definition of paternalistic? Yet, we all do it.

  48. 48.

    Baud

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    It’s annoying, but we collectively dropped the ball in 2016, so Biden may be our karma. (Apologies to S. Cat for misusing that term.)

    @debbie:

    I think it’s only an issue if she starts calling her husband “daddy.”. Too Pence-like.

  51. 51.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: He’s a politician “playing” politics. I really can’t blame him for that. Obama did the same with gay marriage (not coming out for it until Biden forced his hand) (which we all know he was personally in favor of it all along).As @Dorothy A. Winsor: said, he’s very much a creature of the past in a lot of ways.

  58. 58.

    MomSense

    A dear friend is visiting from switzerland. She planned this trip to be the last with our friend who died so we’ve been doing things instead. Last night we went to see Sophisticated Ladies and it was so good. The funny thing is our tickets put us right next to a couple I met on mother’s day and since then we keep bumping into each other at music events. Even weirder is that she works for someone who got her start and was mentored by my mom. I’m going to invite them over. I think it will be good for my mom.

  59. 59.

    Baud

    @NotMax:

    Sure, but he didn’t run in 2016, so he’s clearly at a point where his ambition isn’t the only thing that weighs on him.

  61. 61.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    Always had a suspicion that at some point in the run-up to 2016 Obama pulled him aside and, in so many words, told him “Fuhgeddaboutit.”

  62. 62.

    Baud

    @NotMax:

    There was some article I read a while ago suggesting that, but I don’t put a lot of stock in insidery tell-alls.

  63. 63.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: Every single person, or at least the serious candidates because some who run are just grifting, who has run for President is lusting for it, many of them for decades.

  65. 65.

    Kay

    I think Biden is wholly political. I don’t mean that in a bad way. I think he is actually running as a politician and he doesn’t see that as a bad thing. In a way, I think that’s why he gets away with it. His campaign is like “of course it’s political- we’re politicians!”
    And to some extent that’s true, right? That one could hold a position and change that position based on the opposition’s actions. He sees Hyde as a compromise to anti-abortion people. When they no longer compromise, he no longer compromises. If Hyde “kept the peace” on abortion but doesn’t anymore, there’s no reason to have it. Biden held his position- keep the peace on abortion- the far Right blew that up. So Biden moves, too.
    Honestly to me it was always ridiculous. We fund a lot of things I don’t agree with – public funding – and I never asked for or expected a special carve out. I don’t get a fucking line item veto and no one else does either, except for anti-abortion people. I think it’s contrary to how our government and system works.

  66. 66.

    Betty Cracker

    @NotMax: There’s been some reporting to that effect. Can’t recall the outlet at the moment, but it seemed credible to me when I read it. In some ways, I wish PBO had had another talk with Biden. But then Sanders would still be the frontrunner, and that would be worse (I think).

  69. 69.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    I generally agree. The problem for Biden is that his campaign people just said a few days ago that he was still for Hyde. If Biden had just come out and said he changed his view because of what the Republicans were doing, it would have gone over better.

    Still, not knocking a good thing.

  74. 74.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: It’s so nakedly cynical, though. On Wednesday, Biden said he supported the Hyde Amendment but was keeping an eye on what states did, and he said if proposed bans went into effect, he’d reconsider his position on Hyde. Then very next day, he reversed course, supposedly because he was “working through the final details” of his healthcare plan and realized it was a coverage issue. That’s such bullshit! What happened is that Warren framed the Hyde Amendment correctly — as an inequality issue — making Biden’s waffling untenable. I get that he’s a politician doing politics, but at least do it well!

  76. 76.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: @Baud: If Biden has done nothing else, he has shown that Wilmer is not the inevitable nominee and done it in a way that has really quieted the Wilmer Wags.

  77. 77.

    satby

    @Kay: @Baud: I agree with both of you too. I’m not backing Biden unless he’s the nominee and I doubt he will be. But I’m sick of the idea that being a “professional” politician is a bad thing. It takes time to learn how to do anything and learning the legislative and governing process is no different. We don’t want newbie doctors doing our own surgeries or newbie lawyers handling our toughest cases, but somehow newbie “outsiders” are supposed to be superior to elect. So much so that a fraud with more than 25 years in office can somehow claim to be an outsider rather than the professional politician he is and get away with it. Insane!

  78. 78.

    rikyrah

    Maddow reported last night that the Demons in Missouri, on top of making women wait 72 hours before they get an.abortion, are also subjecting them to an invasive and medically unnecessary vaginal pelvic exam???

  80. 80.

    NotMax

    @OzarkHillbilly

    The difference, to my mind, is that Biden has long believed it is his by right, to the point that it leaves lust in the dust and becomes obsession.

  81. 81.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    We’ll see (my crackpot Joe Biden theory is still in its infancy) but I don’t think it will harm him, because people don’t perceive him as hugely ideological. He’s actually running on “I will move”. That’s part of the appeal. It’s interesting to me because so far it’s been unapologetic, which is, frankly, probably the only way to pull it off. It will infuriate some people because it’s “how does he get away with this?” but for someone who is overtly running on equilibrium, calling a kind of truce, it makes perfect sense. The abortion ceasefire held for years – skirmishes, but the basic outlines of the truce held. Now that’s no longer true. He no longer has to hold up his end of the bargain.

  84. 84.

    arrieve

    @chris: Thanks for the Stephen Fry link. It was very entertaining and ties Brexit in with the global wave of toxic populism very nicely. That anyone would think allowing American health care companies into Britain is a good idea! The mind, it boggles. But of course it would be immensely profitable for a very few and that’s the point

  85. 85.

    zhena gogolia

    @Betty Cracker:

    Reading the Mueller Report has only strengthened my opposition to BS. Seeing in black and white that the Russian troll farm “Internet Research Agency” gave explicit instructions to attack all the 2016 candidates “except SANDERS and Trump — we support them,” is very sobering and frightening.

  86. 86.

    zhena gogolia

    @Betty Cracker:

    Reading the Mueller Report has only strengthened my opposition to BS. Seeing in black and white that the Russian troll farm “Internet Research Agency” gave explicit instructions to attack all the 2016 candidates “except SANDERS and Trump — we support them,” is very sobering and frightening.

  87. 87.

    rikyrah

    Weekend Netflix recommendation

    WHEN THEY SEE US

    Ava DuVernay’s mini-series about the Central Park Five

    It’s painful and gutwrenching ???

  88. 88.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @rikyrah: I’m sorry you had to go through that. My condolences to you as well.

    The silver lining was that up until seven weeks before she died, she was still going to the theater and doing other things she loved — although I suspect she was in more pain than she let anyone, including me, know. (and up until that point everyone assumed pain was due to her osteoarthritis.) Plus, at her request, we upped the pain killers to the point that she was comatose for the last week and half. So she didn’t suffer long.

    One of the hardest things I’ve ever done was temporarily cutting back the morphine so that she would be lucid enough to give informed consent, knowing what terrible pain that was going to cause her.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    There is no way to enforce these laws without incredibly invasive meddling in every aspect of pregnancy. They throw this shit out here and they don’t do the slightest bit of thinking as to HOW. The “ban” on sex selection abortions. Tell me how that works as a law. Every woman has to undergo an “intent” analysis, or else how will they know WHY?

    We don’t even know the outlines of this yet, because Roe stands for a pretty simple idea. It stands for the idea that there is an area where laws on women may not go. That area is protected. That space is occupied by the woman’s judgement along with the medical professionals. Now they are IN that space. No telling what they’ll do.

  91. 91.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: Agree, and if the nominee had to be one of the two, I’d choose Biden over Sanders in a heartbeat, even though I’m more aligned with Sanders policy-wise — Sanders would be a disaster and could set back progressive goals for a generation, IMO. My only misgiving about Biden displacing Sanders as frontrunner is that I believe Biden is a stronger frontrunner, and it may therefore be harder to displace him with someone better, like Warren or Harris. We might actually get stuck with Biden, whereas I don’t think we would have been stuck with Sanders — he was weak out of the gate. Anyhoo, it’s months too early to fret about that, I guess. :)

  93. 93.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I haven’t been able to watch it because it kills me when it’s kids. These shows are so important though. One of the magistrates here is watching it and she was just blown away – appalled. She’s generally law n order although early in her career she did criminal defense so she’s not a nutcase and has a good, strong sense of due process which she enforces in her courtroom, but this has really affected her. She was visibly upset telling me about it. The stories need to be told, over and over and over.

  94. 94.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax:

    is that Biden has long believed it is his by right,

    People said the exact same thing about Hillary.

  95. 95.

    NotMax

    @OzarkHillbilly

    Would counter with Hillary seemingly wanting the job in order to accomplish things, while Biden has always seemingly wanted the job in order to lay claim the job. Determination vs. destiny.

  96. 96.

    Another Scott

    @Sister Golden Bear: Enjoy yourself, but be careful. I caught the flu in Nara a couple of weeks ago. The potential of catching the flu in May wasn’t on my radar…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  98. 98.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: That is a distinction I am inclined to agree with, tho the same could be said for about 95-99.8% of the people who run. I just don’t like it when people criticize politicians for being politicians.

  99. 99.

    Kay

    I’m supporting Warren but I am afraid she won’t win the general, that being female will shave off a coupla points. I hate to be so crudely practical but there it is. Not her fault but it is our problem. They can deny it all they want- I saw it with Clinton and I saw it among male and female Democrats.

    I completely get the people who support Biden because they think he’s the best to win. I in no way judge that. I just have the luxury of a primary so I can support Warren and not risk a lot. I admit I don’t want him dinged up too much because we might need him. I want to beat Trump and I think we can. I think Trump’s weaker than he makes out.

  101. 101.

    NotMax

    @Kay

    Dems have 17 months (a political eon) to make the case. Dolt 45 has 17 months to (continue to) sh*t in the case.

  104. 104.

    Kay

    @NotMax:

    I am very hopeful for this election. I would appreciate it if you people would not screw it up.

    Voters, I mean :)

  105. 105.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I just skimmed Trump’s twitter feed. Even though it’s mostly just retweets about how great he is and how the Mueller report is full of lies, it riled me up. I have to stop going there. I already had one heart attack.

    OTOH, I’m happy because a friend read my full book draft and sent me extensive comments. I love revising.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    We had the first big manufacturing layoff here. Now, “summer shutdowns” are ordinary for factories – it’s when they retool and do maintenance – but the experienced hands noted they didn’t get a call-back date so they are looking for work and they’re not kids, not temps or short term hires. They know it’s slowing. This not their first boom-bust cycle.

  110. 110.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I read quite a bit on it – the false confessions issue is huge, and there’s an extra element for kids because kids learn that pleasing adults mostly works. They learn that from birth. That the way to make it stop is to crack the code and give the adult what they want. So they will say anything. We looked at it wrong for a long time, for decades. We said they were “innocents” so would blurt out truthful and reliable things, but that isn’t how they are at all. They’re vulnerable people who navigate and try to avoid harm. They understand us all too well. It’s a survival skill. I say they are “diplomats”- really naive diplomats who are desperately trying to make a deal with a really savvy operator on the other side of the table. They want to go home.

  113. 113.

    Ohio Mom

    @MomSense: Kurt Vonnegut made up a word for people like this couple, people who keep showing up in your life seemingly by coincidence, so often that it is just plain weird. He said they are in your karass.

  114. 114.

    Another Scott

    Further Adventures in Lawyering:

    (((tedfrank))) Verified account @tedfrank

    Former clerk, now a GC, tells me a story:

    Atty: [asks appellate court for permission to use demonstrative exhibit]
    Easterbrook, J., presiding: You may do so on the understanding that you are harming your client’s interests.
    Atty: [uses demonstrative exhibit]

    #AppellateTwitter

    4:33 AM – 7 Jun 2019

    (via Popehat)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  115. 115.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    My youngest is watching and I couldn’t watch it with him last night. Honestly I tend to lecture if he asks a question so maybe it’s better he just processes it without legal commentary :)

    None of our grown kids are lawyers- they all went in completely different directions- but this one? This one may be. He’s interested.

  116. 116.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Another Scott: The punchline about star crossed lovers made laugh. And actually, I need to make things worse for my characters earlier in the book rather than spinning my wheels. So revision doesn’t always lead to fun times for them. I think it’s Tolkien who says good times are great to live but make bad stories.

  117. 117.

    Immanentize

    @Kay:
    Just 75K jobs is bad, very bad, for a country that really needs 200K new jobs each month to keep up with labor force entries. Like High School grads coming on line.

    This is another in a long list of reasons why traditional college educations will not disappear. They keep unemployment down.

  118. 118.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    What we found out is adults want what they want- scapegoats, an arrest to cover their ass, an opportunity to rage and strut around and point fingers on behalf of the victim in the newspaper, or on the flip side they want good things – “the truth”, they want the kid as a witness to someone else’s wrongdoing, they want to find the real killer, whatever.

    Here’s what kids in custody want- they want to go home. The two goals are completely different. They’re seeking two completely different things.

  119. 119.

    NotMax

    @Ohio Mom

    Mom recently told me she was hailed by someone at the train station with a “Mrs. [her last name back then], is that you?” Turned out to be a student of hers from some 60 years ago. She’s run into the same person twice since (they live in the same town).

  120. 120.

    schrodingers_cat

    @rikyrah: I am struck at the similarity between America’s race issues and India’s caste issues. I think caste discrimination began as racial discrimination the Sanskrit word for caste, varna means color. And it has perpetuated through thousands of years even though the superficial differences between castes have decreased. One important way in which caste propagates itself is endogamy, marrying outside caste is a strict no no and is rare even today.

  122. 122.

    WaterGirl

    @rikyrah: Remembrance. It always seems so wrong to call things anniversaries when it’s an unhappy event. Remembrance. So much better! I am going to have to remember that.

  123. 123.

    BobbyK

    If people on this web site really believe biden will reverse the hyde amendment I have 2 bridges to sell you. 1 in Brooklyn and 1 in San Francisco.

  124. 124.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @rikyrah:

    It’s painful and gutwrenching

    Yes it is. I’m not letting myself opt out from watching it though, since those boys didn’t get to opt out of the horror that was being inflicted on them.

  126. 126.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    My youngest son’s gf is a just-graduated senior. She went away to orientation at her college this week and I think it’s just hitting him that he has two more years in high school. I felt bad for him. I’m thrilled for her. She’s really bright and she got a lot of offers and took the whole process seriously and ended up at a smaller school that none of us predicted. I think she actually made her own decision, so I was pleased to see it. She needed financial aid- a lot of it- and she ended up in one of those “honors” schools within a school deals. She’s sought-after there, which is a nice thing to be :)

  127. 127.

    NotMax

    @WaterGirl

    As you’re part of the rebuild trinity, a question.

    Do you have access to (and are able to pass along) a rough number of how many unique visits this place gets on an average day? Always been curious as to how may lurkers there might be.

  128. 128.

    James E Powell

    @Kay:

    They can deny it all they want- I saw it with Clinton and I saw it among male and female Democrats.

    I saw & heard the same. For some female Democrats of my acquaintance the hatred – there is no other word for it – of Hillary goes back to 1992. I never understood it. All my attempts to probe to discover the cause are met with an angry “You don’t get it. Women know” response, often coupled with the kind of things you hear from RWers.

    But I have to point out that I’ve never heard anything like that expressed toward Warren. I’m hearing a lot of “She’s great, but she can’t win” opinions, but nothing like the deeply felt emotions that Hillary provoked.

  129. 129.

    Immanentize

    @Kay:
    Police know — are trained — to understand that juveniles just want to go home. In juvie false confession cases, the police almost always tell the kids, “Just tell me what you did and you can go home.” The kid says, “I didn’t do anything!”. The officer tells the kid (lying) “your friend said you were there with him. And if you were only just there, tell us and you can go home.”

  130. 130.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Trump talking about the queen in his Laura Ingram interview

    “I think I can say I really got to know her because I sat with her many times and we had automatic chemistry, you understand that feeling, it’s a good feeling,” he continued.
    Trump later royally ramped up his hyperbole when he claimed toward the end of the interview that “there are those that say they have never seen the queen have a better time, a more animated time” than when she was with him.
    “We had a period where we were talking solid, straight, I didn’t even know who the other people at the table were, never spoke to them,” Trump claimed. “We just had a great time together.”

  132. 132.

    SFAW

    @Old Dan and Little Ann:

    Bruins fans can go piss up a rope.

    Careful. That’s my daughter you’re talking about.

    I’m an Isles, Rangers, and Devils (less so with Brodeur gone) fan, but we live in central MA, so it’s natural for her to support the Bs. (Although she’s also a Mets fan, thank FSM.)

  133. 133.

    Immanentize

    @BobbyK:
    The Hyde Amendment is law. Presidents (contra Trump) cannot just reverse laws. But if Congress reversed the Hyde Amendment I have Zero doubt that Biden would not veto — but would sign — that new law.

  134. 134.

    Betty Cracker

    @BobbyK: I don’t think Biden (or anyone else) could “reverse” Hyde by fiat if president. The question is whether the candidates support its repeal or not, and it’s an important question, IMO.

  135. 135.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker:
    People all over this country (real Americans?) Both men and women call their fathers “Daddy” all their hopefully long lives.

  138. 138.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Mrearl: Wave to my Arkie U buddy Matt for me will ya? I was in Mountainview right after trump got elected. Had breakfast every morn at a friends restaurant, me and 17 trumplestiltskins. It was very entertaining listening to them argue with Brad as he refilled their cups. He’d tear ’em up one side and down the other and they’d just keep coming back for more.

  139. 139.

    Betty Cracker

    @Immanentize: I thought it was mostly a Southern thing. I once got into an argument about it with a friend who said it was creepy for adult women to call their fathers “daddy.” I pointed out (as you did) that men do it too and that it’s no more patriarchal than calling your father “dad” or “pops” or “père” or whatever. Really pissed me off, that insinuation! I hope someone gives Lithwick hell about it, though I do like her. :)

  143. 143.

    Immanentize

    @Another Scott:
    But that means that if Congress renewed it, what? Biden would veto a huge bill of which the Hyde Amendment was in the bowels?

    It still is up to Congress, not the President, no?

    ETA Or what Baud said better.

  144. 144.

    OzarkHillbilly

    If you want a good laugh at the stupid, I give you Mr Moore on Twitter. I almost wish I was on twitter just so I can tell this meathead that Alex Jones is to journalism what used cat litter is to a rib-eye steak.

  145. 145.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: Never’s a very long time. ;-)

    Yeah, it would be a heavy lift. But Senator Professor Warren certainly sounded like she would be on the barricades to get rid of it (in her recent interview with Chris Hayes).

    [I]t won’t happen unless people demand it. But an awful lot of politics is “gradually, then suddenly”.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  148. 148.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker:
    Yes, I guess it is mostly southern, but also those States that are sorta southern(?) Like TN, OK, KS and I’ve heard it in Montana too, but those might have been transplants. Also, black friends of mine up here in the north use it. But again, southern migration effects.

  153. 153.

    chris

    @Betty Cracker:

    I thought it was mostly a Southern thing.

    Me too, then I moved to Nova Scotia. Daddy and Mama are common. Worse, I know two couples my age who call each other Daddy and Mother. Makes me cringe every time.

  154. 154.

    trollhattan

    @Immanentize: @Betty Cracker:
    Kiddo calls me “daddy” in two circumstances: she’ really happy or wants something. I find it a valuable tell. Rest of the time it’s mostly “father” in a drawn-out faux Brit accent.

  156. 156.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    The abortion ceasefire held for years – skirmishes, but the basic outlines of the truce held. Now that’s no longer true. He no longer has to hold up his end of the bargain.

    And, if he argued this, I could understand it. But, he doesn’t get to do this…AND pretend that Dolt45 is an anomaly….
    He doesn’t get to pretend that the ENTIRE GOP ISN’T THE PROBLEM.
    THAT is my biggest thing with Biden – him pretending that Dolt45 is somehow outside of the GOP mainstream.
    No, the ENTIRE PHUCKING GOP IS THE PROBLEM.
    THE ENTIRE GOP IS THE ONE WALKING AWAY FROM THE BARGAIN.

  157. 157.

    rikyrah

    @Immanentize:

    Also, black friends of mine up here in the north use it. But again, southern migration effects.

    Definitely the Southern roots. Came with us when our family’s did the great migration.

  158. 158.

    rikyrah

    @Betty Cracker:

    @Immanentize: I thought it was mostly a Southern thing. I once got into an argument about it with a friend who said it was creepy for adult women to call their fathers “daddy.” I pointed out (as you did) that men do it too

    Gotta bring pop culture into this. One of the things that always cracked me up about Dallas, was that JR, Bobby and Gary Ewing ALL called big, strapping Jock Ewing…
    ‘Daddy’.
    And, did it with no apologies.
    First time that I had seen White people do it on television.
    …………

    Cat on a Hot Tin Roof…
    It was Big Daddy….
    LOL

    Definitely a Southern thing.

  159. 159.

    rikyrah

    @schrodingers_cat:

    And it has perpetuated through thousands of years even though the superficial differences between castes have decreased. One important way in which caste propagates itself is endogamy, marrying outside caste is a strict no no and is rare even today.

    When it comes to immigrants to America, do certain castes dominate? Do the lower castes migrate at the level of other castes?

  160. 160.

    rikyrah

    This is absolutely ridiculous ?? ?

    This is so fucked up

    Cleveland police are trying to put the cop who murdered 12-year-old Tamir Rice back on the forcepic.twitter.com/fnU2w5t5Fw

    — jordan (@JordanUhl) June 7, 2019

  162. 162.

    rikyrah

    ???
    Yet another example of racist police terror.

    Syracuse cops brutally arrested a Black man during a traffic stop. They dragged him out of his car, pinned to the ground & struck him in the head several times. All for playing loud music.

    Retweet & help hold these cops accountable. pic.twitter.com/eEzplHhWOf

    — Helen Karen (@helenkaren94) June 5, 2019

  163. 163.

    tobie

    Greetings to all of you from Germany. Just checking in to say I like the look and feel of the new site!

  164. 164.

    Amir Khalid

    I come from down in the valley, where mister, when you’re young
    They bring you up to do like your daddy done
    — Bruce Springsteen, The River
    Do working-class people in New Jersey call their fathers Daddy?

  165. 165.

    Kathleen

    @zhena gogolia: I still want to know why Sanders didn’t report this to FBI. He seemed like he just waved it off. Unless I missed something. I seem to constantly confuse the Russian related Rodent Procreation with his reaction to staffer hacking DNC

  166. 166.

    Kay

    Did Trump’s father serve in the military? I don’t think it’s a requirement but I think most families have at least one veteran. My father is a veteran- I don’t take any particular credit for that and he was drafted and never left Texas for his entire tour and he says he was a horrible soldier- he doesn’t like people and he must have suffered with all that close quarters and teamwork- ugh, he hates that- but shouldn’t there be “a” Trump who served, as long as they’ve been here- in the US I mean?

  167. 167.

    germy

    @Kay: I don’t believe anyone in the trump family ever served in the military. Not the father, not the grandfather… certainly not PEETUS or his sons.

  168. 168.

    Kay

    @germy:

    That’s a little odd. Given that it in some periods military service was much more widely shared as an experience. My father’s whole peer group are veterans. I won’t call them “friends” because, well, HIM, but his .. the people he speaks to sometimes, if they seek him out.

  169. 169.

    Cacti

    @Kay:

    Despite being 36 years old, draft eligible, and not engaged in a vital occupation when the US entered World War II, Fred Trump, Sr. never served in the armed forces.

    I suspect a few palms were greased in the process.

  172. 172.

    Steve in the ATL

    I have a very Southern friend who is a 50-something year old judge. It’s funny to hear him call his 80-something year old retired federal judge father “Daddy”.

    Southerners….

  173. 173.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Kay: Fred Trump was born in 1905, so when the WWII-era draft began in 1940, he would have had to register, but according to my cursory research only about 20% of those who registered were actually conscripted.

  174. 174.

    Sab

    @rikyrah: My Daddy was Daddy until he got dementia. Now he is just Dad and I am the driver of his car pool.

    I had never heard of Dan Gasby until this week, and now he is my hero.

  175. 175.

    zhena gogolia

    @satby:

    Some of us are getting a radically different-looking site in Chrome. The post titles are huge (which I actually don’t mind) and the blockquotes are on a gray background. It’s weird.

  178. 178.

    Doug R

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Another Milky Way pic, same framing as yesterday; but yesterday’s was 20 shots stacked with a foreground shot earlier. This one is 35 shots stacked and the foreground is from the stacked photos.

    35 stacked shots? You could work for NatGeo!

  180. 180.

    Fair Economist

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    If Biden has done nothing else, he has shown that Wilmer is not the inevitable nominee and done it in a way that has really quieted the Wilmer Wags.

    IMO the Wilmer Wags are mostly acting in bad faith and they’ve realized Sanders isn’t going to beat Biden. Further, talking up Sander’s leftiness won’t help when so many have passed him in quality leftist proposals (Warren by a mile, but also Harris, and even Inslee, Booker, and O’Rourke). They’re quiet because their taskmasters haven’t yet figured out a way to mess up the Democratic nomination process.

  181. 181.

    mrmoshpotato

    Still to be done: Someone needs to slap Chris ‘Mad Bitcher’ Cillizza with a dead fish, repeatedly.

    Oh that poor fish.

  183. 183.

    Brachiator

    @Kay:

    I’m supporting Warren but I am afraid she won’t win the general, that being female will shave off a coupla points. I hate to be so crudely practical but there it is. Not her fault but it is our problem. They can deny it all they want- I saw it with Clinton and I saw it among male and female Democrats

    Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by a significant amount, despite all the baggage of being hated. And the electoral vote outcome was complicated by all the various things that people have railed about.

    I simply do not see that Biden is inherently more “electable” than Warren or other Democratic Party candidates.

  184. 184.

    Kay

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Thanks. One would think someone would have, though. Father, grandfather, someone. That might be a good next question when Trump explains why he dodged, because he says Vietnam wasn’t the “winners” kind of war he would engage in, hinting that if he found a war worthy he might have served. If the NYTimes is crowning them the new Kennedy’s that probably requires some sacrifice on the part of the Trump family, given that Mrs. Kennedy lost three sons in service to the country. Three.

  186. 186.

    WaterGirl

    @NotMax: i do. Our stats have dropped quite a bit this past year, starting around the time that two things were happening: we had to start typing in our nyms every time and the ads got out of hand. Very much hoping that will start to move in the right direction again after the site rebuild.

    At this point, it’s about 2,500 per day.

  187. 187.

    Matt McIrvin

    @James E Powell: I’ve heard some really visceral dislike of Warren expressed over the Native American business. Some from Native Americans, some from racist white people calling her some sort of affirmative-action faker, and some from people who just decided it meant she was untrustworthy. It may be stronger in Massachusetts (where she’s less popular than you’d expect from the state’s partisan lean) than elsewhere.

  188. 188.

    leeleeFL

    Glad for the admission about StoneWall finally. Not enough, but something! Not sure Biden’s change matters, but better than sticking to something so STUPID!
    I had something sliver across my Book of Faces this AM about 2 former State GOP senators being shot to death(Arkansas and Oklahoma). Somehow, Hillary is starting her assassination squad again because Barr said he would investigate Russia/Democratic connections. Anyone else?
    Just a note, I know this person personally and am seriously creeped the f out!

  189. 189.

    Immanentize

    @Amir Khalid:
    I’ve heard Springsteen — quoting T-Bone Burnett — as saying all rock n roll is just, “WWAAAAAAHH! Daddy!?”

    So, Springsteen uses “Daddy”

  191. 191.

    rikyrah

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I would guess that the lower the caste, the less available for them to immigrate, because they have less access to education.
    PS-once in America, do the rules of caste lessen? is there more intermarriage between castes?

  192. 192.

    James E Powell

    @Matt McIrvin:

    It may be stronger in Massachusetts (where she’s less popular than you’d expect from the state’s partisan lean) than elsewhere.

    Maybe it’s just a distorted view from the other side of the country, but I get the feeling that Massachusetts Democrats have a problem with women. Or maybe they just miss all the great things that Scott Brown brought to the state.

  193. 193.

    J R in WV

    @zhena gogolia:

    Reading the Mueller Report has only strengthened my opposition to BS. Seeing in black and white that the Russian troll farm “Internet Research Agency” gave explicit instructions to attack all the 2016 candidates “except SANDERS and Trump — we support them,” is very sobering and frightening.

    I believed Sanders was a Russian Stooge all his life long before the Mueller report was released. Before he was a Russian Stooge, he was a Soviet Stooge, [evidenced by spending a honeymoon there in the Soviet Paradise] which may be even worse, not certain about that. They were pretty formally an enemy state back then, were less so for some years but seem to be picking that back up again today.

  194. 194.

    Cacti

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I know this is blasphemy to Warren’s fans, but her popularity in Massachusetts has always been a red flag to me about her potential as national candidate. She covers the PVI spread but that’s about it. She underperformed Obama in her first election when they were on the same ticket. The danger is hiding in plain sight.

  195. 195.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @germy: John Trump, Fred’s brother an asshole’s uncle, worked for the government as a civilian scientist during WWII. I don’t know about you, but I say that counts.

    Also, as far as I can tell, the ages of the various older people in his family would not have placed them in prime draft age for WWI or WWII. If someone in their 30s or 40s volunteered, I would find that somewhat admirable, but I don’t think poorly of someone who didn’t.

    There are enough reasons to despise Trump that we don’t need to go out of our way to shit on his family. Besides, the idea that one must serve on the military to be considered a good citizen or whatever is pernicious.

  196. 196.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Cacti: I *am* a Warren fan–I think that I want her to be President far more than anyone else in the race– but for that very reason I doubt she can even win the primary. Candidates who strongly appeal to me are rarely widely popular. Really the only one I can think of was Obama.

    But I also know that electability is something I don’t understand, so I’m refraining from using it as a major criterion. I do suspect that if Warren has a major electability problem it’ll come out in the primary, it won’t be a case of her being appealing to most Democrats but unelectable.

  197. 197.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I do suspect that if Warren has a major electability problem it’ll come out in the primary,

    not necessarily.

    repukes and the corporate media will savage a nominee in a way that other Dems won’t during a primary. Whether it’s swiftboating or lee atwater or donald segretti, the primary process is not a full running of the gauntlet .

  198. 198.

    jk

    Joe Biden no longer supports the Hyde Amendment

    Nice to see that someone woke up Uncle Joe and let me know that this is 2019.

    One more piece of evidence that Biden is a bumbling, out of step buffoon.

    # Just Say No to Clueless Joe

  199. 199.

    jk

    @<a href="#commen@Matt McIrvin: t-7306698″>Cacti:

    Elizabeth Warren is head and shoulders above Joe Biden in terms of intellect and gravitas. Warren is a serious, thoughtful deliberative individual whereas Biden is a loudmouth, inarticulate dope.

  201. 201.

    schrodingers_cat

    @rikyrah: Your guess is right. As for the immigrants here, I have no data about immigrants here but if I were to guess I would say that marriages across caste are still not common. However marriages across regions are becoming common here and in urban India too. Husband kitteh and I are from Mumbai, but his family is originally from southern India, but both of us are from a similar caste. Ours was not an arranged marriage and since it was across regional lines it engendered substantial opposition especially from husband kitteh’s side of the family.

  203. 203.

    karen marie

    @Baud: That he’s the best person to beat Trump is rank bullshit you’ve mainlined from the Villagers.

  204. 204.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @karen marie: Baud did not say that he thinks that Biden is the best choice to beat Trump (I would think that would assign that spot to BAUD2020). He said Biden may well believe that.

  205. 205.

    sdhays

    @James E Powell: I suspect that part of it was very successful RW smearing way back then. My own mother is a liberal (who voted for Hillary – and Bill back in the 90’s), but she has never liked Hillary, and she often cites the “baking cookies” comment as an indication of Hillary’s contempt for stay-at-home moms. I’ve pointed out that the statement was almost certainly in response to the suggestion that she didn’t belong as political advisor/career woman/whatever, not as an attack on stay-at-home moms. But after all these years, my mom is still bought into the right-wing frame.

  206. 206.

    J R in WV

    @karen marie:

    @Baud: That he’s the best person to beat Trump is rank bullshit you’ve mainlined from the Villagers.

    I thot Baud supported the

    Baud!2020 Campaign~!!~

    What happened to all that??

  207. 207.

    Another Scott

    @sdhays: Henry Louis Gates in the NewYorker in 1996:

    It was in the 1992 primaries that the Jerry Brown campaign first raised the question about a possible conflict of interest posed by Hillary Clinton’s having represented Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan before a state agency. You’ll recall that it prompted her most notorious comment of the campaign: “I suppose I could have stayed home, baked cookies, and had teas, but what I decided was to fulfill my profession.” (With some asperity, Marilyn Quayle tells me, “If the press had done its job when Jerry Brown first brought it up, we wouldn’t be in this position.”) And yet you might argue that from the perspective of modern feminism a practicing attorney married to a governor is in something of a double bind. On the one hand, Mickey Kaus, writing in The New Republic, has accused Bill Clinton’s wife of being a “false feminst” for hitching her star to his. On the other hand, if you are an attorney and you continue your professional career in a poor Southern state where your husband is the chief executive (and where the prospects of patronage are, let us say, loosely bounded), you will have a difficult time avoiding, at the least, the appearance of impropriety. Political candidates and officeholders can be expected to accentuate the positive and minimize the unseemly; but was a line crossed? It would be one thing if Hillary were found guilty of criminal misconduct. The findings, however, are likely to be far more equivocal. We are, alas, all fallen creatures, and politicians are more fallen than most. (It would be hard to explain to a Martian why what pacs do, for instance, isn’t just a form of legalized bribery.) So at the end of the day you need to decide not only how much of the opposition’s case is true but also how much it matters. “Follow the money,” the old muckraker’s shibboleth has it. But one place the money trail leads is to right-wing millionaires like Richard Scaife, who have lavishly funded “investigative journalism” into the Clintons’ finances, Vin cent Foster’s death, and the like.

    If it wasn’t the “cookies” comment, it would have been something else. It was obvious that the Clintons were crooked – I mean he was elected governor 4 times as a Democrat – what more evidence do you need??!!!?!1ONE.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  208. 208.

    WaterGirl

    @WaterGirl: I should have answered by month instead of by day.

    These days, about 75,000 unique visitors are on BJ per month.

  209. 209.

    Brachiator

    @sdhays:

    I suspect that part of it was very successful RW smearing way back then. My own mother is a liberal (who voted for Hillary – and Bill back in the 90’s), but she has never liked Hillary, and she often cites the “baking cookies” comment as an indication of Hillary’s contempt for stay-at-home moms. I’ve pointed out that the statement was almost certainly in response to the suggestion that she didn’t belong as political advisor/career woman/whatever, not as an attack on stay-at-home moms. But after all these years, my mom is still bought into the right-wing frame.

    It wasn’t just buying into the right-wing frame. Some people were offended. Some women did see this as disparaging “traditional” values. I think that these people are wrong, and their beliefs are exploited by Clinton haters. But I remember women co-workers who watched the clip of Clinton saying this on 60 Minutes, express feeling insulted.

  210. 210.

    Dan B

    @chris: Fantastic explanation of the Brexit monstrosity. Making Britain fair game for tax dodges, raiding the NHS, opening it to contaminated anerican foodsticks, and more! Stephen Fry describes specific details in a clear, and horrifyig, narrative.

    Thanks for this link!

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