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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Israel’s 2019 National Election Part 2: Update

Israel’s 2019 National Election Part 2: Update

by Adam L Silverman|  September 17, 20195:27 pm| 313 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Israel, Politics, Silverman on Security

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The polls closed in Israel two hours ago. While we wait for actual results to be tallied, we do have exit poll results.

Television exit polls:
Netanyahu needs a coalition majority of 61 MKs.
and they're unanimous, Netanayhu is 4-7 seats short of a majority. This doesn't mean Gantz has a coalition, as the opposition won't sit together.

— Anshel Pfeffer (@AnshelPfeffer) September 17, 2019

Exit polls:
Likud v. Blue&White

Channel 11: 32-32
Channel 12: B&W lead 34-33
Channel 13: B&W lead 33-31

— Anshel Pfeffer (@AnshelPfeffer) September 17, 2019

Other important results according to the exit-polls. Labor and Democratic Union both scrape over the threshold and will be in the next Knesset. The neo-Kahanist Jewish Power is OUT.

— Anshel Pfeffer (@AnshelPfeffer) September 17, 2019

With caveats that Israel’s exit polls aren’t always correct, what does this mean? It means that Likud has not won the largest plurality and therefore Benny Gantz should be given the chance to form the next Israeli government under Israel’s electoral laws and rules. Gantz’s plurality is razor thin and Bibi has ignored this rule before. Back in 2009, Tzipi Livni’s Kadima Party won the larger plurality in that year’s election. Despite Livni being entitled to try to build a coalition and form the next government, Bibi just ignored the actual Israeli election rules, went ahead and formed a government, effectively daring anyone to do something about it. No one did. It is entirely possible that he’ll try to do the same thing again. Remember, for Bibi, it is either reelection as Prime Minister or prosecution with the possibility of prison, there is no third option for him at this point.

What happens now is that election results will be tallied, but the jockeying to form a coalition will already have begun. Bibi, despite the outcome, will be working the phones to line up more than 61 members of Knesset to form a majority regardless of how many more seats Kahol Lavon won and to try to block Gantz from being able to form a new government. Benny Gantz will be trying to do the same thing in order to ensure that his plurality can ensure Kahol Lavan having a large enough coalition to form the next government. It is important to remember that Bibi has a long history of “winning” by the time the day after the actual election results are announced regardless of what the results were. So regardless of what the exit polls indicate, or what the actual election results are, you cannot count him out. He’s cornered now. His life going forward and potentially his freedom are on the line. This isn’t about the principles of Revisionist Zionism or annexing the West Bank or defeating Iran for Bibi anymore. It is solely about Bibi not being held accountable for his crimes and not going to prison. That’s what today’s Israeli election is really all about.

Here’s Bibi’s biographer, Anshel Pfeffer’s take:

Barring an absolutely catastrophic polling mistake from all three of Israel’s main television channels, Benjamin Netanyahu will not command a majority in the 22nd Knesset and Likud is likely to be only the second largest party there. We have seen exit polls fail before, but the unanimous 10 P.M. call is unlikely to change.

It was Netanyahu who dragged Israel into an unnecessary second election in 2019. It was Netanyahu who set the bar at 61 seats for his bloc of right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties. It was Netanyahu who threw everything he had at this election, going on air for hours and hours until the polls closed. Israeli voters doubled down on their verdict of the last election and denied him victory.

Netanyahu is going nowhere. His rival, Kahol Lavan head Benny Gantz, is nowhere near reaching a majority of his own as things stand. But one thing seems certain: Unless that miraculous turnaround between the exit polls and the actual results happens – the Netanyahu magic has been broken.

The politician who made it his business to win elections, who did it better than anyone else because he worked harder and always came up with a new strategy, has run out of dirty tricks. And the Israeli electorate has run out of patience.

This isn’t a victory for the “peace camp” or the left, or even for the center-left. This victory was won together with the votes of ultranationalists supporting Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu, and Gantz’s Kahol Lavan is at best a center-right party. This is a personal defeat for Netanyahu. The winners have yet to be determined.

But with Netanyahu’s defeat comes an end to the spell he has cast on an entire political establishment. Israel is in for another period of political deadlock and while President Reuven Rivlin is now likely to give Gantz the mandate to form a government, he will struggle and Netanyahu – still in office as caretaker prime minister and still controlling a large minority in the Knesset – will fight him every step of the way and try to run down the clock on Gantz’s mandate. After all, he did the unthinkable by dissolving the Knesset six weeks after it was sworn in, and he has already spent a large part of the now-ended campaign sowing doubt as to the validity of the election result and accusing the left, and particularly Israel’s Arab citizens, of trying to “steal the election.”

Much more at the link.

Now we wait to see if Netanyahu’s spell has actually been broken. And he’ll use every tool at his disposable to not cede power to anyone else. Because today’s election presented Israelis with two electoral choices: another term for Netanyahu as prime minister or Netanyahu being prosecuted and potentially going to prison. The choice was never between Netanyahu and Gantz or Likud’s vision versus Kahol Lavan’s, it was Bibi for prime minister or Bibi for prosecution and possibly prison. Bibi really, really, really, really doesn’t want to go to prison.

I’ll be back later tonight with actual election results as they’re reported.

Open thread.

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Reader Interactions

313Comments

  1. 1.

    JPL

    September 17, 2019 at 5:35 pm

    trump hardly knew him.

  2. 2.

    Matt Smith

    September 17, 2019 at 5:38 pm

    I have two words.
    Ding.
    Dong.

  3. 3.

    cain

    September 17, 2019 at 5:39 pm

    I can’t wait for this guy to go to jail. Given all his interference in our politics and his spying – jail is a fitting response. I mean, literally, the guy is a criminal running for office just like all the Republicans are.

    Can’t wait for the outraged Trump tweets after this and suggesting it was an iranian plot.

  4. 4.

    Yutsano

    September 17, 2019 at 5:46 pm

    Nah. Bibi will skip for the US as soon as he can’t get a coalition together. We’ll see how good his “friend” the President is there. Maybe Netanyahu can learn to relax his kashrut and enjoy the shrimp and lobster at Mar-A-Lago.

  5. 5.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 5:48 pm

    It is solely about Bibi not being held accountable for his crimes and not going to prison. That’s what today’s Israeli election is really all about.

    Wasn’t this also said about the last election where he just outright ignored the result and stayed in control of the government anyway?

  6. 6.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 17, 2019 at 5:52 pm

    @TenguPhule: Not quite. Bibi had a one seat plurality, couldn’t form a 61 seat governing coalition once Lieberman pulled his support, and rather than allow Gantz to be given the chance to try to form a 61 seat governing coalition, he just vacated the election, announced the current government would remain as a caretaker until a new one could be held in five months. It would not surprise me if he doesn’t try this again. It isn’t quite the same as what he did to Livni, but it allows him to limp along as prime minister.

  7. 7.

    debbie

    September 17, 2019 at 5:53 pm

    Good God:

    Worried about voter apathy as Israelis went to the polls for the second time this year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned his supporters not to treat Tuesday’s election as just another vacation day, posting an oddly sexualized campaign ad that prompted a slew of ribald responses.

    The video, which was posted on the prime minister’s official Twitter and Instagram accounts on Monday, portrayed Israelis engaging in a variety of leisure activities such as drinking coffee at a sidewalk cafe, shopping in an open-air market, and riding scooters in Tel Aviv. It also included several lingering shots of bikini-clad women at the beach and a brief shot of two pairs of feet poking out from under a blanket in close proximity.

    “While you are planning a ‘vacation day,’ the left is ascending to power,” the video declared. “Shake off your complacency.”

    The lengths he goes to!

  8. 8.

    Rob

    September 17, 2019 at 5:54 pm

    Adam, thank you for these posts about today’s election.

    debbie, good god indeed.

    eta: I didn’t know about all these dirty tricks and illegal end-runs Netanyahu had been doing. I did know about a couple of them.

  9. 9.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 17, 2019 at 5:55 pm

    @Rob: You’re welcome.

  10. 10.

    Yutsano

    September 17, 2019 at 5:56 pm

    @TenguPhule: He had a lighter lift and much more willing coalition partners the last time. If the exit polls hold, he won’t have either this time around.

  11. 11.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 17, 2019 at 5:58 pm

    @Yutsano: That’s not the case. Right now he’s either got an electoral tie with Kahol Lavan (one of the three exit polls) or he’s down one to two seats to them. The Likud leader in Knesset has already made it clear that Likud will not dump him in order to form a unity government.

  12. 12.

    trollhattan

    September 17, 2019 at 6:00 pm

    @Yutsano:
    He can move next door to that guy Erdogan wants us to kidnap and ship to Turkey for execution or somesuch.

  13. 13.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 17, 2019 at 6:01 pm

    @Yutsano: @trollhattan: He would not flee to the US. He would flee to Russia. But I don’t think he’ll flee. He’s going to try to brazen this out. 20 years of Israeli political history has taught him that he can successfully do so.

  14. 14.

    Yutsano

    September 17, 2019 at 6:03 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: To be fair, I’m looking at this from the work computer where Twitter is blocked so I’m pretty sure I’m missing some things. One could hope the exit polls are completely wrong and Bibi gonna have a headache tomorrow.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    September 17, 2019 at 6:06 pm

    Sounds like the results were inconclusive. They should call another election.

  16. 16.

    trollhattan

    September 17, 2019 at 6:07 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I don’t doubt that he believes he deserves this and won’t go away willingly, if ever. His recent list of promised “goodies” once he won, sounded utterly Trumpian.

  17. 17.

    Patricia Kayden

    September 17, 2019 at 6:08 pm

    Netanyahu wins again. So disappointing. I assume that he can still be damaging to any peace prospects even while running a minority government.

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 17, 2019 at 6:08 pm

    @Yutsano: No worries. I’m looking at Haaretz’s election results page right now.

    The average is:
    Kahol Lavan 33
    Likud 32

    Channel 11’s exit poll:
    Kahol Lavan 32
    Likud 32

    Channel 12’s exit poll:
    Kahol Lavan 34
    Likud 33

    Channel 13’s exit poll:
    Kahol Lavan 32
    Likud 30

  19. 19.

    debbie

    September 17, 2019 at 6:10 pm

    @trollhattan:

    And Trump will be watching closely and taking notes.

  20. 20.

    SRW1

    September 17, 2019 at 6:12 pm

    Isn’t it such that Lieberman’s troop holds the critical balance of seats? If so, won’t everything come down to whether or not Netanyahu can buy Lieberman, despite Lieberman having ruled that out?

  21. 21.

    Rob

    September 17, 2019 at 6:15 pm

    Noted wit Karl Sharro just tweeted

    “This week there were elections in the only democracy in the Middle East and also in Israel.”

    https://twitter.com/KarlreMarks/status/1174083465773506561

    Tunisia being the democracy. :-)

  22. 22.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 6:17 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    he just vacated the election, announced the current government would remain as a caretaker until a new one could be held in five months.

    Why is that legal? It’s a lot like state Secretary of States here in the US overseeing the elections they’re running in. That only invites corruption and abuse. And just like the architects of US state constitutions, why didn’t the writers of the Isreali constitution/election law foresee this possibility? Unless this is a result of recent changes to the law with less than benign intent?

  23. 23.

    Miss Bianca

    September 17, 2019 at 6:17 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: So is it just that the Israeli voting population cares as little about blatant right-wing corruption in office as Americans apparently do, or is it, as with America, also a case of dirty election tricks like rampant voter suppression?

  24. 24.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 17, 2019 at 6:17 pm

    @SRW1: Lieberman called for a unity government shortly after the polls closed and announced that he would stay out of the government/the governing coalition if it meant Likud and Kahol Lavan could form one. He addressed this call to Israel’s president with the recommendation that Israel’s president formally make this call before the election results are even finalized.

  25. 25.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 17, 2019 at 6:18 pm

    @Rob: He is not wrong.

  26. 26.

    Cheryl Rofer

    September 17, 2019 at 6:18 pm

    FWIW –

    The buzz is that the updated Israeli exit polls, taking into account the last hours of voting, will be even more unfavorable for Netanyahu than the original polls. In past years, they've always been good for him. Now it gets interesting. https://t.co/wLKwSinnqb

    — (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) September 17, 2019

    If the revised exits are right – and we still have no idea if they are – the Arab vote in Israel may have just toppled Bibi. The revision of the exits *against* Netanyahu bucks the trend of them usually being more favorable for him and the right. So there's that.

    — (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) September 17, 2019

  27. 27.

    kindness

    September 17, 2019 at 6:19 pm

    Having grown up in the suburbs of NYC I have a sizable Jewish family/friend population. I was raised with a predisposition to give Israel the benefit of the doubt. Since Likud’s rise (starting with Menacham Begin) I’ve lost those rose colored glasses and have felt the Palestinians (who’se leadership has never been all that great) have repeatedly been given a shitty deal. It’s apartheid in Israel now, especially for those that live in the West Bank & Gaza.

    Honestly now I want all of Israel under one country (yea including the WB & Gaza) with everyone having citizenship and the right to vote. It won’t happen. Israel will never give Palestinians that kind of control in their own lives (or Israel’s government). I can only hope for better, but that hope is sparse. Still I will continue to hope.

  28. 28.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 17, 2019 at 6:19 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: He got Knesset to do it, which made it legal. And his party and coalition currently controls Knesset.

  29. 29.

    cain

    September 17, 2019 at 6:19 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:
    It would be hilarious if he fled to Russia. Just another politician escaping justice. Even better he can’t return to Israel.

  30. 30.

    Cheryl Rofer

    September 17, 2019 at 6:20 pm

    UPDATE: Joint Arab List surges to 15 seats, projected to be 3rd largest party – Likud down a seathttps://t.co/rKJ2enbn2J pic.twitter.com/ve7Pu7MXJn

    — Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) September 17, 2019

  31. 31.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 17, 2019 at 6:22 pm

    @Miss Bianca: Bibi and Likud have been ascendant for 20 years now. He has been prime minister longer than any of his predecessors. Even Ben Gurion. That means he has controlled the government and the political messaging for two decades. That’s a lot of socialization, acculturation, and indoctrination to Netanyahu’s and Likud’s political philosophy and ideology. And Bibi is an illiberal and anti-democratic actor. If he can achieve power and his goals within the rules, he will. If he can’t, he’ll find some other way outside the rules. Bibi has been doing this even before Putin, Orban, Erdogan, and Trump.

  32. 32.

    MomSense

    September 17, 2019 at 6:23 pm

    I missed all the news today and I’m not sure I have the energy to catch up now.

  33. 33.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 17, 2019 at 6:23 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: Yep.

    Not yet confirmed, but Netanyahu expected to arrive soon at Likud election night event. He hasn't conceded defeat since 2006 and I doubt he will tonight. Will be an interesting speech either way.

    — Anshel Pfeffer (@AnshelPfeffer) September 17, 2019

  34. 34.

    debbie

    September 17, 2019 at 6:25 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    And he oversaw the assassination of Israel’s last, great defender.

  35. 35.

    Jay

    September 17, 2019 at 6:31 pm

    AIPAC: "Israeli elections are free and fair"The Israeli prime minister: *breaks election law by giving two interviews on election day; appears in public to warn about high turnout among Palestinian voters* https://t.co/UiQN2k4xnA— Natasha Roth (@NatashaRoth01) September 17, 2019

  36. 36.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 6:31 pm

    @debbie:

    And Trump will be watching closely and taking notes.

    With a Sharpie. Over Alabama.

  37. 37.

    Baud

    September 17, 2019 at 6:33 pm

    All five sides are the same.

  38. 38.

    Patricia Kayden

    September 17, 2019 at 6:33 pm

    @Jay: Ugh. Netanyahu is as horrible as Trump. I hope he is still facing possible jail time for his criminal behavior.

  39. 39.

    cain

    September 17, 2019 at 6:33 pm

    @Jay:
    AIPAC needs to stop their blatant cover for the Lukud party. They are a right wing organization and after the NRA I hope they are next in the loss of influence.

  40. 40.

    cain

    September 17, 2019 at 6:34 pm

    @TenguPhule:
    Sweet Home Alabama, where the sharpie comes home to you.

  41. 41.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 6:35 pm

    @Jay:

    “Israeli elections are free and fair”

    Any country that boasts about “free and fair” these days obviously do not have them.

  42. 42.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 6:35 pm

    @Baud:

    All five sides are the same.

    Pentagon!

  43. 43.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 6:38 pm

    In a draft Department of Justice regulation obtained by BuzzFeed News, officials have proposed that immigrants pay $975 to request an appeal of an immigration judge’s ruling and $895 to request a case be reopened or reconsidered with the Board of Immigration Appeals. Proposed regulations are not immediately enacted and require a 60-day comment period.

    Currently, the fee to apply for each of these requests is $110.

    Such a jump in application prices would represent the latest attempt by the Trump administration to alter the immigration system. Experts believe, if enacted, the increases will impact certain immigrants’ very ability to obtain legal status and protections.

    almost 1000% increase in fees to appeal against injustice. Fuck this shit.

  44. 44.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 6:38 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    That means he has controlled the government and the political messaging for two decades. That’s a lot of socialization, acculturation, and indoctrination to Netanyahu’s and Likud’s political philosophy and ideology.

    That’s what I fear could happen here, most of all. Replace Likud with GOP. Hell, it’s already been going on for the last 40 years.

  45. 45.

    Adam L Silverman

    September 17, 2019 at 6:39 pm

    @debbie: Oversaw is probably the wrong word. Created the opportunity for it is what really happened.

  46. 46.

    NotMax

    September 17, 2019 at 6:40 pm

    When the made-for-Israeli-TV movie is eventually produced, it must be titled Bringing Down Bibi.

    ;)

  47. 47.

    Baud

    September 17, 2019 at 6:42 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    The GOP has not controlled the government for 40 years.

  48. 48.

    Brachiator

    September 17, 2019 at 6:44 pm

    Remember, for Bibi, it is either reelection as Prime Minister or prosecution with the possibility of prison, there is no third option for him at this point.

    We should keep this in mind for Trump. I saw something recently about someone saying that prosecuting Trump after he was out of office would not be good for the country. I would like to see Trump arrested as soon as the new Democratic Party president finished his or her inaugural address.

  49. 49.

    Bill Arnold

    September 17, 2019 at 6:44 pm

    @Jay:
    There’s also this:
    Likud tells media it installed cameras outside Arab polling stations – Footage of men setting up surveillance devices ‘capable of facial-recognition’ seepn as part of Netanyahu strategy to depress voter turnout in minority communities

    Channel 13 later clarified that the cameras, which it had described as facial-recognition-capable, were not equipped to monitor voters in real time; instead, it said Likud officials would review the footage after the election to look for evidence of voter fraud, which the party claims is rampant in Arab cities.

    Translated (to paranoid voterese), this means that this “leak” means that Likud has been threatening that employers will be encouraged to fire any identifiable Arab voters and similar retribution for voting, to suppress the Arab vote. Looks like there was a big FY from Israeli Arab voters.
    Also from that piece,

    Facebook on Tuesday reportedly removed at least 82 accounts suspected as fake that promoted a boycott of the elections among Arab Israelis, seen as a further attempt to suppress the vote in that community.
    The profiles had been sharing posts in popular Arabic-language forums encouraging a boycott of the elections, according to the Haaretz daily, which said Facebook’s action followed a complaint by the group The Democratic Bloc, which flagged more than 130 accounts it believed were unauthentic.

  50. 50.

    cain

    September 17, 2019 at 6:47 pm

    @Brachiator:
    I think that was Holder. We continue to give lawbreaker covers because we need to forgive and move on, like the same would happen under Republicans. They think we can heal the country if we forgive blatant white collar crime.

  51. 51.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 6:49 pm

    @Baud:
    No, but they’ve basically controlled the media for 30 years and their illiberal voter suppression tactics (along with the very nature of our political system that favors rural, low population states, ones that Republicans dominate) are slowly cementing them as an entrenched minority ruling party

  52. 52.

    Brachiator

    September 17, 2019 at 6:51 pm

    OT. California voters like old white men

    Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are tied for first place among Democratic primary voters in California, while home-state Sen. Kamala Harris (D) is running in a distant fifth, according to a new poll.

    The Emerson University survey released Tuesday shows Biden and Sanders leading the pack in California with 26 percent support each, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at 20 percent. No other candidate secures double-digit support in the poll.

    Tech entrepreneur and political newcomer Andrew Yang notches 7 percent support in the survey, with Harris following at 6 percent support.

    Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D) took sixth and seventh place in the poll with 5 percent and 4 percent support, respectively.

    https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/461763-poll-biden-sanders-lead-democratic-field-in-california-harris-takes-fifth

    ETA I wanted to put this up now since I will be offline for a few hours.

  53. 53.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 6:51 pm

    @NotMax:

    When the made-for-Israeli-TV movie is eventually produced, it must be titled Bringing Down Bibi.

    One flew over Bibi’s nest.

  54. 54.

    J R in WV

    September 17, 2019 at 6:51 pm

    From the refuge here in the mountains, I can’t tell if there’s any effective political difference between Bibi and the donald! They both look like used car salesmen who are really successful at selling polished crap to foolish passers-by. Like their voters…

  55. 55.

    Tony Jay

    September 17, 2019 at 6:52 pm

    So now we enter a period of phone calls and horse-trading as the two main parties try to hit 61 first? You’ve got to think that Netanyahu’s history of pissing all over the ‘proper’ way of deciding these things would have clued Gantz and Co into the need to have their coalition building moves greased up and already in motion.

    Maybe 15 seats for the combined Arab List? That’s an attractively big chunk of votes for an anti-Likud coalition to pick up that could, possibly, you’d like to think, start pulling Israel back from the brink of eventual pariah status.

    Interesting.

  56. 56.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 6:53 pm

    @J R in WV:

    From the refuge here in the mountains, I can’t tell if there’s any effective political difference between Bibi and the donald!

    One is evil the other is stupid and evil.

  57. 57.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 6:56 pm

    @Brachiator:
    That sucks for Harris. She’s won statewide office there as Attorney General and of course as a US Senator. Have CA voters soured on Harris?

  58. 58.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 7:00 pm

    @Baud:
    Ah, I see what you meant. What I was trying to say, was that the GOP has been trending towards illberalism for a while now, and that socialization that Adam was talking about has been occurring for about as long, with the GOP’s ideology becoming more extreme

  59. 59.

    cain

    September 17, 2019 at 7:01 pm

    @Tony Jay:
    The news about the Arab contigent picking up 15 seats is probably scaring the shit out of Bibi.

  60. 60.

    chopper

    September 17, 2019 at 7:02 pm

    @Matt Smith:

    Ding.
    Dong.

    that is not dead that can eternal lie…

    seriously, bibi’s like the bad guy from the slasher flick. he always gets back up off the ground for the sequel.

  61. 61.

    Peale

    September 17, 2019 at 7:02 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: apparently voters want to go with the elderly this time. She’s 20 years too young.

  62. 62.

    chopper

    September 17, 2019 at 7:03 pm

    @cain:

    “obviously, we need to make it so arabs can’t vote. get kris kobach’s goyishe ass on the phone!”

  63. 63.

    Jay

    September 17, 2019 at 7:04 pm

    The MLS ban on political signs at games (namely of anti-fascist symbols) has backfired SPECTACULARLY. (Really LOLing at that "Streisand Effect" flag which includes the Iron Front symbol) https://t.co/GTOsgaGXR3— Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) September 15, 2019

  64. 64.

    Brachiator

    September 17, 2019 at 7:04 pm

    @cain:
    Yep. Holder. His remarks even angered my sister, who is not super political. It just seems like early surrender to suggest that Trump not ever be held accountable for his crimes.

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    Have CA voters soured on Harris?

    Don’t know. It’s early and Harris has spent a lot of time outside of the state. But to be honest her statewide name recognition is not as high as it might be compared to long time politicians such as Feinstein, Boxer or Jerry Brown. Or maybe even Gavin Newsome.

  65. 65.

    chopper

    September 17, 2019 at 7:05 pm

    @Baud:

    maybe, but GOP ideology sure seems to have. feh!

  66. 66.

    Cacti

    September 17, 2019 at 7:09 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    That sucks for Harris. She’s won statewide office there as Attorney General and of course as a US Senator. Have CA voters soured on Harris?

    I’ve not seen any polling to suggest that she’s losing support as a US Senator.

    Just that her presidential campaign has been a dud, so far.

  67. 67.

    rikyrah

    September 17, 2019 at 7:10 pm

    @TenguPhule:
    Evil azz Demons ? ?

  68. 68.

    rikyrah

    September 17, 2019 at 7:12 pm

    Can’t wait to read the update, Silverman

  69. 69.

    JPL

    September 17, 2019 at 7:14 pm

    @Brachiator: IMO which counts for nothing, folks want to win and are scared about some of Warren’s positions.
    I am not saying she is right or wrong, but there is fear that her radical change to health care won’t win. The repubs will spend up to 100 million against that. I like Harris. She was on Jimmy Fallon slow jammin the news and answering questions. This is her answering questions…
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfdCguhDLuE The assault weapon question is perfect.

  70. 70.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 17, 2019 at 7:14 pm

    @TenguPhule: Actually Trump is here in town(all the streets are already closed off around the Wilshire Grand* in DTLA), he’ll be at a fundraiser in the Hills. I’m sure they’ll have Big Macs for Lard Smallgloves.

    *Wonder if Trump knows they’re owned by the Koreans(the ones from the south, not the guy that writes him beautiful letters).

  71. 71.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 17, 2019 at 7:17 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: It did to some extent after Reagan and Bush I, even more so in California until Pete Wilson showed his dick with Prop 187.

  72. 72.

    John Revolta

    September 17, 2019 at 7:18 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Data was collected using both an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system of landlines only (n=498) and an online panel provided by Amazon Turk (n=332).

    Survey seems weighted toward landline users, i.e. olds.

  73. 73.

    Mary G

    September 17, 2019 at 7:19 pm

    Hopefully people will be so fed up with Bibi that whatever he tries doesn’t work.

    Holt shit. I was afraid I’d die without ever again hearing good news from Israel. And I’m now pretty confident I’m not going to die any theme soon.— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) September 17, 2019

  74. 74.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 7:20 pm

    @JPL:

    IMO which counts for nothing, folks want to win and are scared about some of Warren’s positions.

    (Not attacking you, btw) So that means supporting Sanders, the guy who pissed all over the Dem party in 2016 and since, who’s been a total gun lobby tool for his entire political career? Or Biden, who’s always flamed out every time he tried to run for president? Hoping this can still be explained as name recognition

  75. 75.

    rikyrah

    September 17, 2019 at 7:21 pm

    Dessalines (@Kiriende) Tweeted:
    The divide is not old vs. young black voters. The divide is those that trust white voters to overcome their bigotry and those that don’t. Older black voters have less trust in white voters. https://twitter.com/Kiriende/status/1173269507730825221?s=17

  76. 76.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 17, 2019 at 7:22 pm

    @Brachiator: I’d move it up to after “So help me God”.

  77. 77.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 7:26 pm

    @Brachiator:
    @Cacti:
    I just found it interesting that a presidential candidate wouldn’t enjoy popular support in their home state. But I guess that’s nothing new. It has to be a blow to Harris and her campaign staff

  78. 78.

    Tony Jay

    September 17, 2019 at 7:27 pm

    @cain:

    Good. He should be.

  79. 79.

    Jay

    September 17, 2019 at 7:28 pm

    Woah @RepMarkTakano toured the privately-run ICE detention facility Adelanto and was given access to tour the quarantine section…which he didn’t know until afterwards was quarantined for a mumps outbreak. https://t.co/EDZc3C2SS4 pic.twitter.com/hOMhlzuLhu— rebekah entralgo fernández (@rebekahentralgo) September 16, 2019

  80. 80.

    Brachiator

    September 17, 2019 at 7:28 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Actually Trump is here in town(all the streets are already closed off around the Wilshire Grand* in DTLA), he’ll be at a fundraiser in the Hills.

    The conservative talk radio hosts who complained about traffic when Obama came to town are being strangely muted about Trump.

  81. 81.

    CaseyL

    September 17, 2019 at 7:29 pm

    @Brachiator: Is Emerson considered a reliable/accurate polling outfit?

  82. 82.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 17, 2019 at 7:31 pm

    @Brachiator: Funny that.

  83. 83.

    JPL

    September 17, 2019 at 7:32 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Definitely not Bernie. IMO it’s early so we really don’t know what way the wind blows.

  84. 84.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 7:35 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    even more so in California until Pete Wilson showed his dick with Prop 187.

    That’s so weird considering what California is like now, but then again Reagan was governor there. It gives me great joy that Reagan could never win in California if he ran today

  85. 85.

    Jay

    September 17, 2019 at 7:37 pm

    Which of these two hashtags would you like to see trend for #MoscowMitch’s corrupt wife, Elaine Chao? I’ll push whichever hashtag is the top choice in this quickie poll. Vote fast!! ?— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) September 16, 2019

  86. 86.

    Brachiator

    September 17, 2019 at 7:38 pm

    @JPL:

    IMO which counts for nothing, folks want to win and are scared about some of Warren’s positions.

    Maybe. I haven’t heard too many real people out here in California say much about Warren.

    I am not saying she is right or wrong, but there is fear that her radical change to health care won’t win.

    Some Democrats seem determined to self-destruct over health care. The easy thing to do would be to promise to improve Obamacare and to offer more Medicaid expansion, and to blast Republicans for their lies and failures. Instead, some of the Democratic Party candidates are insistent on plunging into defeat and confusion over this issue.

  87. 87.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 17, 2019 at 7:38 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    Reagan could never win in California if he ran today

    Being dead helps. Here in CA, we went from Pat Brown to Reagan and then Pat’s son Jerry. Then we had 16 years of Deukmejian and Wilson.

  88. 88.

    JPL

    September 17, 2019 at 7:40 pm

    @Brachiator: I’m afraid that you are right.

  89. 89.

    Jay

    September 17, 2019 at 7:41 pm

    @CaseyL:

    Only 9% said that their minds were made up about a particular cantidate.

    Right now, the polling doesn’t mean much of anything.

  90. 90.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 7:43 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    It gives me great joy that Reagan could never win in California if he ran today

    Please don’t tempt fate.

  91. 91.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 7:44 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: And the Terminator.

  92. 92.

    WhatsMyNym

    September 17, 2019 at 7:44 pm

    From Reuters – Yemen Houthi drones, missiles defy years of Saudi air strikes

  93. 93.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 7:45 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I’m sorry to hear that.

  94. 94.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 7:45 pm

    How white supremacists try to recruit boys online

    Creepy headline of the day.

  95. 95.

    debbie

    September 17, 2019 at 7:45 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Okay, “ensured it happened,” then. ;)

  96. 96.

    cain

    September 17, 2019 at 7:45 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Yep. Holder. His remarks even angered my sister, who is not super political. It just seems like early surrender to suggest that Trump not ever be held accountable for his crimes.

    What’s his problem anyways? Why is he so afraid of putting these people in jail? It seems that we are all afraid because of what happened during Nixon? We didn’t go far enough, and we should have put his ass in jail.

  97. 97.

    Brachiator

    September 17, 2019 at 7:46 pm

    More from the Emerson California poll

    Driving support for Sanders is younger voters under the age of 50. He leads those voters with 34% of their support, followed by Warren at 18%, Biden at 16% and Yang at 11%. Sanders also has strong support from the Hispanic population of California, leading that group with 36%, followed by Biden with 23%, Warren with 19% and Buttigieg with 7%.

    Among voters age 50 or over, Biden leads with 40% support, followed by Warren with 23%, Sanders with 13% and O’Rourke with 8%.

    Among white voters, Warren leads with 29%, followed by Sanders with 20%, Biden with 18% and O’Rourke with 9%. Biden has an enormous lead among African-Americans, as he garners 59% support. No other candidate is within 40 points of Biden among that group.

    Warren’s support is also disproportionately from voters who have at least some college education, as she only receives 1% support from those who have a high school degree or less.

    Sanders and Biden supporters are both more likely to stick with their current choices as 67% and 59% of their respective supporters are planning to definitely vote for their first-choice candidate. Only 31% of Warren voters said they will definitely stick with her.

    @Jay:

    Right now, the polling doesn’t mean much of anything

    I agree that polls don’t tell you everything, but disagree that they don’t mean much of anything.

    @CaseyL:

    Emerson appears to be fairly reliable, but others may know more about them than I do.

  98. 98.

    Baud

    September 17, 2019 at 7:46 pm

    @Brachiator:

    The easy thing to do would be to promise to improve Obamacare and to offer more Medicaid expansion,

    Like this?

    Defend and expand the Affordable Care Act, which covers 20 million people.Hillary will stand up to Republican-led attacks on this landmark law—and build on its success to bring the promise of affordable health care to more people and make a “public option” possible. She will also support letting people over 55 years old buy into Medicare.
    …..
    Fight for health insurance for the lowest-income Americans in every state by incentivizing states to expand Medicaid—and make enrollment through Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act easier.

  99. 99.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 7:46 pm

    Absence of meteorologists at Trump’s Hurricane Dorian briefings may have helped lead to Alabama tweet fiasco

    /facepalm

  100. 100.

    Mary G

    September 17, 2019 at 7:47 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: She’s not good at blowing her own horn, there is hardly any news coverage of Sacramento anymore, and while the hatred of No. California by So. California isn’t nearly as strong as the other way, there’s still a bit, her answers on healthcare were all over the place, the healthcare plan she finally came up with was to put everybody in Medicare Advantage plans, which are like HMOs, and hated by olds who had them when they first appeared, because of massive overpromises of nurses coming to your house, rides to the doctor, etc. that were broken. The “she’s a cop” thing only works with Bernie Bros., but they are mad they didn’t take over the party, so they scream it a lot. She’s only in her first term of Senate and hasn’t had the ability to overcome the “it’s not your time yet” the way Obama did. Willie Brown ran over a lot of people in his day, and she’s wrongly believed to have used sleeping with him to win her first election.

    She still has time to turn it all around, though.

    Mostly it’s that everyone I talk to is madly in love with Warren, even if they say they’re undecided or going with Biden due to “electibility.”

  101. 101.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 17, 2019 at 7:47 pm

    @TenguPhule: He came after Gray Davis(Jerry’s COS) was recalled. That recall was the brilliant plan of on Darrel Issa, who thought he’d recall Gray and get elected Governor, then the maid fucker made his appearance on the Tonight Show…

  102. 102.

    Frank Wilhoit

    September 17, 2019 at 7:47 pm

    @TenguPhule: The Witch of Endor would like a word.

  103. 103.

    cain

    September 17, 2019 at 7:48 pm

    Rick Wilson seems pretty pissed off about the Corey/House thing. I think he’s right that this whole thing is a show and getting the sergeant in arms to arrest his ass in the House would have made great television. But it would have also given the russian bots, and the Republican party to play victim and cry about overreach. But he was clearly in contempt and they should have cited him for it and made him pay a shit ton of money every time he refused a question.

  104. 104.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 17, 2019 at 7:48 pm

    @TenguPhule: Yeah, I”m avoiding DTLA for the next couple of days.

  105. 105.

    Cacti

    September 17, 2019 at 7:48 pm

    When Donald Trump was selected president by the FSB, the GOP held 14 Congressional seats in California.

    Thanks to Donald’s personal touch, that number is now 7.

  106. 106.

    Repatriated

    September 17, 2019 at 7:49 pm

    @cain: One concern is that it raises the stakes for 2020. See Israel’s election today for some of the implications.

  107. 107.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    September 17, 2019 at 7:49 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA: I just went to see if Trump has tweeted about his buddy Bibi and he hasn’t. He must be in transit to your fair city.

  108. 108.

    Brachiator

    September 17, 2019 at 7:50 pm

    From the Emerson poll

    Warren’s support is also disproportionately from voters who have at least some college education, as she only receives 1% support from those who have a high school degree or less.

    This is not good if this is confirmed by other polls. The Democrats have to let all voters know that they are on their side.

  109. 109.

    JPL

    September 17, 2019 at 7:51 pm

    In order to make trump’s comments sound almost empathetic Malkin spoke up

    Michelle Malkin, at Paley Center panel on media bias, says that Cokie Roberts “was one of the first guilty culprits of fake news.”

    Brian Stelter, also on the panel, responds: “Today? We’re doing this today. The body’s not even cold.”

    Michelle Malkin to Brian Stelter: “I’m old enough to remember when you were just a blogger begging me for links.”

    https://twitter.com/jeremymbarr/status/1174099341348413440

  110. 110.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 7:52 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    then the maid fucker made his appearance on the Tonight Show

    To be fair, your state could have done a lot worse.

  111. 111.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 7:53 pm

    @JPL:

    Brian Stelter, also on the panel, responds: “Today? We’re doing this today. The body’s not even cold.”

    How precious, expecting standards of decency from Nazi curious folks.

  112. 112.

    cain

    September 17, 2019 at 7:54 pm

    @Repatriated:
    I’m talking about jailing Trump after 2020. If he loses the election, all bets are off and he goes to jail – he shouldn’t get any cover by then and he would have burned his bridges. Start by going after his daughter and sons and get him more unhinged so he makes a mistake.

  113. 113.

    Cacti

    September 17, 2019 at 7:54 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    How precious, expecting standards of decency from Nazis.

    FTFY

  114. 114.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 17, 2019 at 7:54 pm

    @TenguPhule: Sure, DARREL ISSA.

  115. 115.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 17, 2019 at 7:56 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I think he’s already here(well, in LA, not Glendale).

  116. 116.

    JPL

    September 17, 2019 at 7:58 pm

    @TenguPhule: Can she be deported? hmm

  117. 117.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 7:58 pm

    Toward the end, under intense questioning from Barry Berkey, an attorney for the Democrats, and after being shown a video of an interview from February in which he said he didn’t remember Trump asking him to get involved with the former attorney general Jeff Sessions or the Department of Justice, Lewandowski admitted “perhaps I was inaccurate that time”.

    But he also said: “I have no obligation to be honest with the media because they are just as dishonest as everybody else.”

    This is truly the worst timeline.

  118. 118.

    Brachiator

    September 17, 2019 at 7:59 pm

    @Baud:

    The easy thing to do would be to promise to improve Obamacare and to offer more Medicaid expansion,

    Like this?

    Well, Clinton did win the popular vote.

    The GOP has consistently lied about health care. They have been wrong and they have failed. There is even a recent story about how a lot of crappy insurance plans have arisen under the Trump administration.

    But when more attention is being paid to Democrats arguing over health care than to the GOP legacy of failure and lies, then the Democrats are losing.

  119. 119.

    JPL

    September 17, 2019 at 7:59 pm

    @JPL: hahaha Her parents were here on a Visa. . hahahahaaha

  120. 120.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 7:59 pm

    As the hearing concluded, Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler scolded Lewandowski, telling the former Trump campaign manager: “Your behavior in this hearing room has been completely unacceptable.”

    There are deep water trenches shorter then that understatement.

  121. 121.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    September 17, 2019 at 8:00 pm

    @JPL: She sounds nice.

  122. 122.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 8:00 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Well, Clinton did win the popular vote.

    And now academics in Texas are predicting we can still lose the electoral college going forward while winning the popular vote by as much as 6%.

  123. 123.

    Repatriated

    September 17, 2019 at 8:01 pm

    @cain: This was my point: Trump and the GOP are already certain to pull every allegedly legal lever they can reach to stay in power if if the consequence of losing is just a 2-4 year setback. If losing means prison time instead, they might risk measures that aren’t even arguably legal…

  124. 124.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 8:02 pm

    @Repatriated:

    If losing means prison time instead, they might will risk measures that aren’t even arguably legal…

    FTFY.

  125. 125.

    Mary G

    September 17, 2019 at 8:03 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: The word on the street here is that Issa’s gonna move east from CA49 to CA50 to primary Duncan Hunter, and if he does, he’ll be back. Campa-Najjar is great, but no way the military voters there get over his grandfather’s being one of the Munich Olympics terrorists. It’s unfair, but it’s potent. They voted the criminal Duncan Hunter back in.

  126. 126.

    Jay

    September 17, 2019 at 8:03 pm

    Stuck in moderation.

  127. 127.

    JPL

    September 17, 2019 at 8:03 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: She’s a peeping tom and discovered a young boy without health care had granite counter tops. She might be the reason trump is against birth right citizenship for those in country born by immigrants. hahaha

  128. 128.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 17, 2019 at 8:08 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Just saw 2 choppers and 3 Ospreys fly over the cave, shitgibbon’s in town.

  129. 129.

    TriassicSands

    September 17, 2019 at 8:09 pm

    If only Bibi and Donnie could share a cell. Two fascist peas in a prison pod.

  130. 130.

    Jay

    September 17, 2019 at 8:11 pm

    Tried to view “tent courts” in Laredo where migrants are in asylum hearings. DHS employee at entrance told us NO ACCESS to media or public -even to lawyers that don’t have clients- due to the facility being located at a port of entry. He said it was a PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE. pic.twitter.com/dDqmhdLCsk— Mariana Atencio (@marianaatencio) September 16, 2019

  131. 131.

    Brachiator

    September 17, 2019 at 8:13 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    Well, Clinton did win the popular vote.

    And now academics in Texas are predicting we can still lose the electoral college going forward while winning the popular vote by as much as 6%.

    The Democrats know, or should know, all the obstacles, from voter suppression to voting districts that favor the GOP, to dirty tricks.

    Swing states will be important, and the Democrats need to understand what is important to those voters. And they need to understand who these voters are and how they relate to the larger electorate.

    For example, in the Emerson poll, I was surprised to see that Warren’s support was so low among people without a college education.

  132. 132.

    zhena gogolia

    September 17, 2019 at 8:14 pm

    Okay, trying to watch this country music documentary. They act as if we already know who all these guys are. They all look alike and sound alike.

  133. 133.

    JPL

    September 17, 2019 at 8:14 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: sorry.

  134. 134.

    cain

    September 17, 2019 at 8:16 pm

    @Repatriated:
    They are already breaking the law and breaking all norms. I don’t see how it will be any worse. The republican party have completed their journey to being a fascist party. You can’t even trust them for anything – recall in NC while Dems went to honor the fallen for 9/11 these assholes came back to the house and overruled a budget vote.

    There is no consequences for any of these things and the judiciary is being replaced with conservative shills. So, soon even teh courts will be under their influence.

  135. 135.

    rikyrah

    September 17, 2019 at 8:17 pm

    Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) Tweeted:
    White
    Warren 28%
    Biden 27%
    Sanders 14%
    Buttigieg 8%
    Harris 5%
    Klobuchar 3%
    Booker 3%
    Yang 2%

    Black
    Biden 49%
    Warren 13%
    Harris 10%
    Sanders 5%
    Yang 5%
    Buttigieg 3%
    Booker 2%
    O’Rourke2%

    Hispanic
    Warren 29%
    Sanders 25%
    Biden 23%
    Buttigieg 6%
    Yang 6%
    O’Rourke 4%
    Gabbard 2%
    Harris2% https://twitter.com/SteveKornacki/status/1174066194141405185?s=17

  136. 136.

    Brachiator

    September 17, 2019 at 8:18 pm

    A BBC News story is saying that the Israeli election is too close to call. Don’t they know that the Internets demand instantaneous conclusive results?

  137. 137.

    zhena gogolia

    September 17, 2019 at 8:19 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    Just turned it off. It’s not changing my opinion of country music!

  138. 138.

    ola azul

    September 17, 2019 at 8:20 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    All them white guys look alike to me.

  139. 139.

    Rob

    September 17, 2019 at 8:20 pm

    Bibi takes the stage
    https://twitter.com/NTarnopolsky/status/1174115417964589056
    … in an empty hall

  140. 140.

    Aleta

    September 17, 2019 at 8:21 pm

    Barry Berke questions C. Lewandowski. Doesn’t slow down for any of Lewand’s bs.
    https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4817196/house-judiciary-counsel-berke-questions-lewandowski

  141. 141.

    Rob

    September 17, 2019 at 8:22 pm

    As Netanyahu takes the stage his supporters chant they don’t want a unity government #israelelections2019
    https://twitter.com/Beltrew/status/1174116009986465792

  142. 142.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 8:23 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    just as dishonest as everybody else.”

    That “everybody else” bit is very telling.The truth doesn’t really matter, is what he’s saying. But it does. You’re either a liar or you’re not, Corey. You can’t have it both ways. You don’t get to go, “but everybody else does it!”, as a justification.

  143. 143.

    Baud

    September 17, 2019 at 8:23 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Time for Bernie to drop out so progressives can unify behind Warren.

  144. 144.

    Brachiator

    September 17, 2019 at 8:23 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    Okay, trying to watch this country music documentary. They act as if we already know who all these guys are. They all look alike and sound alike.

    Is this the Ken Burns documentary?

  145. 145.

    zhena gogolia

    September 17, 2019 at 8:24 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Yes. I turned it on solely on the strength of people here saying it was really good. I could only take 20 minutes of it. The music is just twangy and irritating.

  146. 146.

    Jay

    September 17, 2019 at 8:24 pm

    MOTHERBOARD
    Neo-Nazis Are Glorifying Osama Bin Laden
    A new wave of neo-Nazi propaganda glorifies and pulls from ISIS and al Qaeda, illustrating how the terror groups have some shared priorities.

    https://www.vice.com/amp/en_us/article/bjwv4a/neo-nazis-are-glorifying-osama-bin-laden?__twitter_impression=true

  147. 147.

    zhena gogolia

    September 17, 2019 at 8:25 pm

    @ola azul:

    These particular ones, yeah.

  148. 148.

    JPL

    September 17, 2019 at 8:25 pm

    @Aleta: That was one of the few bright spots.

  149. 149.

    rikyrah

    September 17, 2019 at 8:26 pm

    I don’t agree that Black people don’t pay attention to politics, but they are right about loyalty.

    Jay Knight (@HostedGP) Tweeted:
    @lizfones @SteveKornacki Most Black folk don’t follow or pay attention to politics. They know Biden was loyal to Obama, so they remain loyal to Biden. Loyalty is a BIG deal in the Black community – especially with older folks. They do right by those who do right by them. ? https://twitter.com/HostedGP/status/1174114345506213888?s=17

  150. 150.

    Rob

    September 17, 2019 at 8:26 pm

    Aaand Netanyahu refuses to concede, blaming the media for biased coverage.

    https://twitter.com/BarakRavid/status/1174116674225758209

  151. 151.

    zhena gogolia

    September 17, 2019 at 8:26 pm

    @ola azul:

    It’s written for people who already know the whole history. The narration will omit the person’s name and go, “a young sharecropper’s son from Tennessee who would revolutionize the use of the electric guitar” or something like that, and you’re supposed to already know who it is BECAUSE THEY DON’T SAY HIS NAME until 15 minutes later. Irritating as hell. I tuned in to see Dolly but she’s nowhere in sight.

  152. 152.

    RAVEN

    September 17, 2019 at 8:27 pm

    @zhena gogolia: There aren’t even many “guys” in the first episode.

  153. 153.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 8:28 pm

    @cain:

    I don’t see how it will be any worse.

    Famous last words.

  154. 154.

    Another Scott

    September 17, 2019 at 8:28 pm

    @WhatsMyNym: Unpossible!!1

    The Houthis have built their arsenal using local manufacturing, foreign expertise and parts smuggled in from Iran, their ally, and elsewhere. They also took over large swathes of Yemen’s conventional military, including Scud missiles, when they seized the capital in late 2014.

    The Saudi-led coalition said in June the Houthis had fired 226 ballistic missiles and 710,606 “projectiles” during the war.

    This proliferation has taken place despite a years-long air and sea blockade on Houthi-controlled parts of Yemen and years of strikes the coalition say are against weapons depots, drone manufacturing locations and military communications hubs.

    The Houthis’ reach has been getting longer.

    A new type of Houthi drone appeared in mid-2018 which the U.N. has said can fly up to 1,200-1,500 km (745 to 932 miles) – putting Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Dubai within range.

    All the press is saying that it has to be Iran because mumble-mumble-I-just-regurgitate-Donnie’s-Tweets-mumble-mumble.

    Maybe Donnie and Pompeo are actually telling the truth this time. Maybe Iran was the actual launch site, etc. Trouble is, they’ve given the entire world every reason to disbelieve them. And even if it were Iran, that doesn’t mean that D&P’s prescription of what to do about it will make any sense or be in the US national interest.

    Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  155. 155.

    JPL

    September 17, 2019 at 8:28 pm

    @Rob: I just saw that. Of course he would.

  156. 156.

    RAVEN

    September 17, 2019 at 8:28 pm

    @zhena gogolia You’re not paying attention because you don’t want to like it.

  157. 157.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 8:28 pm

    @TenguPhule:

    And now academics in Texas are predicting we can still lose the electoral college going forward while winning the popular vote by as much as 6%.

    @Brachiator:

    Winning the popular vote by as much as 6% and still losing is not sustainable, especially to someone as odious as Trump. People won’t tolerate it.

  158. 158.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 8:29 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    Okay, trying to watch this country music documentary.

    Willingly? Do you enjoy pain and boredom?

  159. 159.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 17, 2019 at 8:30 pm

    @Baud:

    Time for Bernie to drop out so progressives can unify behind WarrenBaud.

    Geez do I have to do all the work for you?

  160. 160.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 8:30 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    I turned it on solely on the strength of people here saying it was really good.

    And you trusted them?!

    What were you thinking?!

  161. 161.

    Raven

    September 17, 2019 at 8:30 pm

    @ola azul: Found your pupster, wonderful dude.

  162. 162.

    ola azul

    September 17, 2019 at 8:31 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    More srsly, heard a review of the newest KB opus on Terri Gross’ joint; and, in classic npr fashion, reviewer said on balance it sucked, in the nicest lightweight possible way.

  163. 163.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 8:32 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    People won’t tolerate it.

    I used to say this about American support for torture.

    Boy was I wrong.

  164. 164.

    zhena gogolia

    September 17, 2019 at 8:34 pm

    @RAVEN:

    I wanted to like it! I’m supposed to be working but I turned it on expecting to be entertained!

  165. 165.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 8:34 pm

    @rikyrah: Black and White come out ahead of Hispanics.

    2% for Tulsi….JFC, what’s wrong with these people.

  166. 166.

    zhena gogolia

    September 17, 2019 at 8:35 pm

    What cracks me up about Lewandowski is that somewhere he heard the phrase “Asked and answered,” which is usually said by somebody’s lawyer as a third party, but he keeps saying, “I’ve asked and answered your question, sir.” I wish somebody would yell, “I asked it, not you!”

  167. 167.

    RAVEN

    September 17, 2019 at 8:35 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Come on, not liking a country music doc because the music is twangy is like not liking ice cream because it’s cold.

  168. 168.

    Baud

    September 17, 2019 at 8:36 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I don’t think I want Bernie supporters behind me.

  169. 169.

    Rob

    September 17, 2019 at 8:36 pm

    @JPL: Yep. He’s saying lots of shit now, as I see Raf Sanchez, Bel Trew, Barak Ravid, and Noga Tarnpolsky tweet/report right now. Geezus Kryste.

  170. 170.

    ola azul

    September 17, 2019 at 8:37 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    Minnie Pearl, tho notta musician exactly but 40-plus-years a mainstay of the scene, is given short shrift as well, which chapped the ass of the reviewer as well. RE: Dolly, reviewer did have an anecdote about how Dolly told Porter Wagoner it was time to go via “I Will Always Love You” (she sang it to him), so she’s in there somewheres!

  171. 171.

    zhena gogolia

    September 17, 2019 at 8:37 pm

    @RAVEN:

    I couldn’t watch the first two episodes.

  172. 172.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 8:37 pm

    @Baud:

    I don’t think I want Bernie supporters behind me.

    Or anywhere in the immediate vicinity.

  173. 173.

    zhena gogolia

    September 17, 2019 at 8:38 pm

    @RAVEN:

    Fair enough.

  174. 174.

    zhena gogolia

    September 17, 2019 at 8:39 pm

    @ola azul:

    I don’t think it’s possible to give Minnie Pearl too short a shrift.

  175. 175.

    Baud

    September 17, 2019 at 8:40 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    “I’m a hostile witness, Congressman.”

  176. 176.

    schrodingers_cat

    September 17, 2019 at 8:40 pm

    @zhena gogolia: It is boring. I usually find Ken Burns documentaries overly long. He takes 5 hours to say what can be said in an hour. I am not a country fan in general. Do like Johnny Cash though.

  177. 177.

    JPL

    September 17, 2019 at 8:41 pm

    @Rob: That for me confirmed his loss. I hope that he is in jail before he escapes to america with open arms by trump.

  178. 178.

    Raven

    September 17, 2019 at 8:41 pm

    @ola azul: The greater problem is for them to start when they do. I was talking to Art Rosenbaum about it last week and he was pretty sure they would dig into the real roots of American music. He was right.

    his folk music field work in the South and Midwest has resulted in over 14 documentary recordings, several of which are on Smithsonian-Folkways. His boxed set, released on Dust-to-Digital, Art of Field Recording Vol. I: Fifty Years of American Traditional Music Documented by Art Rosenbaum won a Grammy for Best Documentary Recording in 2008. He wrote and illustrated Folk Visions and Voices: Traditional Music and Song in North Georgia (1983), and Shout Because You’re Free: The African American Ring Shout Tradition on the Coast of Georgia (1998), both published by the University of Georgia Press; his study, The Mary Lomax Ballad Book: America’s Great 21st Century Traditional Singer was published in 2013. A performer on a variety of folk instruments, he has appeared at numerous folk festivals both solo and with groups like the present-day Skillet Lickers, has cut three banjo/vocal LPs and CDs, and has written and illustrated three instruction books on traditional banjo styles.

  179. 179.

    Mary G

    September 17, 2019 at 8:41 pm

    Bill deBlasio’s campaign isn’t doing well:

    There’s fresh evidence, in case it was needed, of Hizzoner’s lack of presidential pizzazz, even (or particularly) among those who know him best: A new Siena College survey of the Democratic field shows him at zero percent in both New York City and New York State. Technically, I guess, he is tied for tenth in the city; three other candidates specifically mentioned in the poll also came across the line at zippo, nada, zilch in de Blasio’s town. In case you were wondering, the mayor matched that zero percent showing in the New York suburbs and upstate. And he has achieved a remarkably even level of support pretty much everywhere: Morning Consult’s large, influential tracking poll has him at the same zero percent nationally and in the early states. But this prophet’s lack of honor in his hometown really is special.

    ETA: forgot to link to Ed Killgore at NY Mag: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/09/polls-show-de-blasio-at-zero-percent-in-new-york-city-state.html

  180. 180.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 8:42 pm

    @TenguPhule:
    Well, I don’t think I am. Trump and the GOP can try to brazen it out all they want. If they go too far they’re going to quickly find out that consequences do apply to them and they’re not infallible, untouchable gods

    Also, you never did answer me from downstairs:

    More like invalidate CA’s decision making authority over their own air and water, paving the way for Trump to auction off more public land to pollute the libs.

    1. I don’t think the SC can credibly allow that to occur with literally decades of precedent backing CA’s authority to regulate car emissions and set standards.

    2. Even if they did, it would be a blatantly bullshit, partisan, rubberstamp decision flying in the face of precedent, and everybody would know it. So, again I ask, what’s Trump going to do if CA ignores a bullshit, rubberstamp SC decision and the auto manufacturers do so as well, because it makes economic sense for them to do so since foreign markets still require similar emission standards for cars?

  181. 181.

    Rob

    September 17, 2019 at 8:43 pm

    @JPL: I hope he is too.

    Noga Tarnopolsky
    @NTarnopolsky

    13m
    Netanyahu goes there: “It is impossible a government dependent on Arab parties who support terror and don’t support the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.”

    “The order of the hour is to prevent the establishment of an anti-Zionist government.”

  182. 182.

    schrodingers_cat

    September 17, 2019 at 8:43 pm

    OT: I wrote up something about Modi’s upcoming Houston rally. I have also sent it to AL and she will FP it.
    Houston, we have a problem. I know, not a terribly original heading.

  183. 183.

    Brachiator

    September 17, 2019 at 8:43 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    Winning the popular vote by as much as 6% and still losing is not sustainable, especially to someone as odious as Trump.

    The electoral college is still king.

  184. 184.

    Brachiator

    September 17, 2019 at 8:45 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I wrote up something about Modi’s upcoming Houston rally. I have also sent it to AL and she will FP it.

    Houston, we have a problem. I know, not a terribly original heading.

    The heading is pretty darn good.

  185. 185.

    Steve in the ATL

    September 17, 2019 at 8:45 pm

    @Another Scott:

    Maybe Donnie and Pompeo are actually telling the truth this time.

    Aren’t you a card?

  186. 186.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 17, 2019 at 8:45 pm

    @Baud: True, knives in the back and all.

  187. 187.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    September 17, 2019 at 8:46 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Aren’t you a card?

    But not a SD-Card.

  188. 188.

    Dave W.

    September 17, 2019 at 8:47 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Some Democrats seem determined to self-destruct over health care. The easy thing to do would be to promise to improve Obamacare and to offer more Medicaid expansion, and to blast Republicans for their lies and failures. Instead, some of the Democratic Party candidates are insistent on plunging into defeat and confusion over this issue.

    Not to say that the debate over healthcare isn’t an important part of comparing candidates’ visions, but in terms of actual implementation, their respective positions are mainly starting points for negotiations over what will actually get passed by Congress, which will ultimately be determined by what the 50th Democratic Senator is willing to accept (god willing, and assuming that the filibuster can be made to be a non-issue). Presidential candidate positions are far more important for the stuff the Executive Branch can do unilaterally, which for healthcare will mostly be administrative improvements to the ACA if Congress can’t act to pass something more progressive.

  189. 189.

    ola azul

    September 17, 2019 at 8:48 pm

    @RAVEN:

    Can’t speak to it, cuz I ain’t seen it. Will say: Ken Burns can be uneven. When I think back onto the Civil War series, I remember having a bellyful of Shelby fucking Foote. But there’s also plenty that’s good innit, too! Would just say one’s reax to a KB encomium ain’t exactly the same as one’s regard for the medium.

    Contra some, I *like* country music. A lot. In the same way I like jazz and blues and rock and classical. It’s its own joint.Take it on its merits.

    But someone’s explanation of what it is and what it means may or may not be incisive and entertaining. What I took away from the reviewer guy (not that he’s the be-all, end-all, just an impression related about sumpin I ain’t seen) was that the series was overmuch reliant upon valedictory strokes from each to their own within the bidness and sorta lacking on critical insight.

    fwiw

  190. 190.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 8:48 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    I don’t think the SC can credibly allow that to occur with literally decades of precedent backing CA’s authority to regulate car emissions and set standards.

    Already been done. They ignored over 70 years of precedent to gut unions because IOKIYAR. The whole court system’s legitimacy at this point is an open question.

    Even if they did, it would be a blatantly bullshit, partisan, rubberstamp decision flying in the face of precedent, and everybody would know it.

    yes, but this will not stop them from doing it anyway.

    I ask, what’s Trump going to do if CA ignores a bullshit, rubberstamp SC decision and the auto manufacturers do so as well

    Steal Federal funding from projects in CA citing “national security because reasons.”

  191. 191.

    Gin & Tonic

    September 17, 2019 at 8:48 pm

    @Mary G: New Yorkers pretty much despise the dude.

  192. 192.

    Jay

    September 17, 2019 at 8:49 pm

    A hero of our time. When police came to independent mayoral candidate @_sergey_boyko's highrise apartment in Novosibirsk as part of 200+ raids to confiscate @navalny supporters' electronics yesterday, he flew his hard drives to a friend via drone before opening up. @romb_news pic.twitter.com/sOu1NySGX9— Alec Luhn (@ASLuhn) September 13, 2019

  193. 193.

    JPL

    September 17, 2019 at 8:49 pm

    democracy was nice but so long …
    The acting director of national intelligence will not testify before Congress this week or immediately hand over a whistle-blower complaint to lawmakers, escalating a standoff between Capitol Hill and leaders of the intelligence agencies.

  194. 194.

    Another Scott

    September 17, 2019 at 8:49 pm

    @Rob: Sounds like he’s been taking lessons from Erdogan. “Every Kurd Arab in the country supports terrorism, even those with Turkish Israeli citizenship. Etc., etc.”

    Grrr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  195. 195.

    RAVEN

    September 17, 2019 at 8:50 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: It’s really slow and Peter Coyote’s voice is just too much after all these years. They also spend way too much time giving totally irrelevant information and dates and I really don’t need a blow by blow description of Jimmy Rodgers death. That said, it’s worth it for me. In about 1972 rock and roll made a turn and the people I hung with went to music like the Dead, NRPS, Amazing Rhythm, Poco and lots of other groups that leaned toward county.

  196. 196.

    Baud

    September 17, 2019 at 8:52 pm

    @Dave W.:

    but in terms of actual implementation, their respective positions are mainly starting points for negotiations over what will actually get passed by Congress

    True, but no one is going to campaign on that theory.

  197. 197.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 8:52 pm

    @JPL:

    The acting director of national intelligence will not testify before Congress this week or immediately hand over a whistle-blower complaint to lawmakers, escalating a standoff between Capitol Hill and leaders of the intelligence agencies.

    Gonna need a lot more tumbrels.

  198. 198.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 8:53 pm

    @Baud:

    True, but no one is going to campaign on that theory.

    I thought it was your central plank.

  199. 199.

    RAVEN

    September 17, 2019 at 8:54 pm

    @ola azul: For all the hoopla I thought “Vietnam” was a bit flat too. He did ok representing anti-war vets but not so good in portraying the movement overall. The 10,000 Day War with Richard Basehart’s narration was really good as was Vietnam a Television History.

  200. 200.

    Brachiator

    September 17, 2019 at 8:55 pm

    @Dave W.:

    Not to say that the debate over healthcare isn’t an important part of comparing candidates’ visions, but in terms of actual implementation, their respective positions are mainly starting points for negotiations over what will actually get passed by Congress

    Winning election strategy, in my view, is to clearly point out GOP lies and failures and to promise to improve Obamacare. Keep it simple. And this is working, I think, for Biden.

    And even as post election strategy, it may be easier for the Democrats, if they win, to improve Obamacare than to go for a complete overhaul of the system.

  201. 201.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 8:56 pm

    @Brachiator:

    The electoral college is still king.

    For practical reasons, we have to awknowledge this and take the EC into account to win election. But it’s important to note that literally no other functioning representative democracy on the planet, to my knowledge, selects their head of government (POTUS is both HOG and head of state) this way. Can you see the US still holding it’s current position if POTUS is always selected by the EC, particularly of Trump’s caliber?

    You can’t have unqualified leaders, unaccountable to no one but 1/3 or less of the population, running your country and expect to maintain the same standard of living. You end up with greedy, authoritarian buffoons. Which is why that scenario, if it comes to pass, is unsustainable long-term. Polarization is not going to prevent an armed revolution from toppling a GOP-controlled federal government when the economy is completely in shambles and those responsible can’t be removed peacefully from power.

    That “peaceful transfer of power” thing is the greatest thing about representative democracy. People will only put up with so much for so long

  202. 202.

    JPL

    September 17, 2019 at 8:57 pm

    @TenguPhule: It’s time they leak to the Post and the NYTimes because this shit has to stop.

  203. 203.

    Amir Khalid

    September 17, 2019 at 9:00 pm

    @Mary G:
    I doubt de Blasio will quit before the primaries make it inescapably clear to him that he has no hope of gaining support.
    ETA: Given that he’s got a politician’s big ego, he might not quit even then.

  204. 204.

    Rob

    September 17, 2019 at 9:02 pm

    @Another Scott: Absolutely. I hadn’t thought about Tayyip (Erdogan) today, fortunately.

  205. 205.

    Rob

    September 17, 2019 at 9:06 pm

    We just had a Barred Owl calling for a couple of minutes kind of close to our house. It’s the first one in a few months and it stayed for three or four minutes.

  206. 206.

    Another Scott

    September 17, 2019 at 9:07 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Supposedly he hates being Mayor, and is running so that he doesn’t have to be home doing his job.

    It’s hard to explain why he continues, otherwise.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  207. 207.

    NotMax

    September 17, 2019 at 9:07 pm

    @zhena gogolia

    Okay, trying to watch this country music documentary.

    Run out of bamboo splinters to shove under your fingernails and needed an alternative form of torture?

  208. 208.

    RAVEN

    September 17, 2019 at 9:09 pm

    Boy the elitism is thick. Fucking bunch of highbrows.

  209. 209.

    zhena gogolia

    September 17, 2019 at 9:09 pm

    @Aleta:

    I never understood the people who thought Avenatti was so sexy, but I must say Barry Berke is floating my boat.

  210. 210.

    NotMax

    September 17, 2019 at 9:10 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Ah, I see the hobby horse is back from the shop.

  211. 211.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 9:11 pm

    @RAVEN:
    What’s this a reference to?

  212. 212.

    Jay

    September 17, 2019 at 9:11 pm

    The 'protect the children' group of middle-aged and elderly Hongkongers has become a fixture of the protests, especially Uncle Wong who stands right in front, in between police and protesters and tries to act like a human shield. https://t.co/WhPb9dLNd7— Lily Kuo (@lilkuo) September 14, 2019

  213. 213.

    Gin & Tonic

    September 17, 2019 at 9:12 pm

    @Rob: I hear those every day. “Who cooks for you?”

  214. 214.

    ola azul

    September 17, 2019 at 9:12 pm

    @NotMax:

    Alan Lomax wants to have a word with you ’bout ‘Murican songistry.

  215. 215.

    zhena gogolia

    September 17, 2019 at 9:12 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    The Ken Burns country music documentary.

    I don’t dislike it because I’m an elitist. I love all kinds of music. But the narrative style is boring. It’s not designed to bring anyone in who doesn’t already love the tradition.

  216. 216.

    Brachiator

    September 17, 2019 at 9:13 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
    Let me try to calm you down.

    You can’t have unqualified leaders, unaccountable to no one but 1/3 or less of the population, running your country and expect to maintain the same standard of living.

    The current UK prime minister was essentially elected by the 124,000 members of the Conservative Party. That is a fraction of the total UK population. Other countries have to cobble together coalition governments that may or may not be representative. A number of countries with hung parliaments have gone months, almost years before they could assemble a government.

    The electoral college is nuts, but hardly exceptional. And our position in the world is more about who holds the office than about how he or she got there (as long as it is by a legal method).

  217. 217.

    raven

    September 17, 2019 at 9:13 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Country music hate.

  218. 218.

    NotMax

    September 17, 2019 at 9:13 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Those people who would choose gargling with Drano over listening to country music.

  219. 219.

    Repatriated

    September 17, 2019 at 9:15 pm

    @cain:

    They are already breaking the law and breaking all norms. I don’t see how it will be any worse.

    It can be. It has been before.

  220. 220.

    Raven

    September 17, 2019 at 9:16 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Not the doc, I’m not that crazy about it either.

  221. 221.

    Mike in NC

    September 17, 2019 at 9:17 pm

    I liked the Ken Burns documentary on Prohibition. Most people would never realize how much booze the average American drank 150-20 years ago. Weren’t many alternatives back then.

  222. 222.

    Jay

    September 17, 2019 at 9:17 pm

    I note, without comment, that 4 of our most prominent Brexiteers are called Boris Johnson, Dick Braine, Paul Staines and Dominic Cummings. https://t.co/H66zJdKafR— Hugh Grant (@HackedOffHugh) September 17, 2019

  223. 223.

    NotMax

    September 17, 2019 at 9:18 pm

    @raven

    Well, I could go on about ballet dislike, but that wasn’t under discussion. When lived in NYC I used to attend the ballet once a year solely to confirm I still couldn’t abide it.

  224. 224.

    johnnybuck

    September 17, 2019 at 9:18 pm

    @RAVEN: It is slow, and I want to like it, but it feels like He’s trying to too hard to make country music a lot more important than it actually ever was. I mean, Jazz actually deserved this treatment because it was such a cultural phenomena for America. It had a huge impact on society. I mean, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash were immortals, but Louie Armstrong’s impact on America arguably dwarfs both of them. I love the music, and being from the south, it’s just part of the fabric of growing up here. I just don’t know that as a cultural impact it really matters all that much.

  225. 225.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 9:19 pm

    @NotMax:
    Look, I don’t want to see that happen anymore than you do, but I have to believe that at some point the GOP will be stopped, that they’ll face consequences for their lawbreaking, because Corey Lewandowski’s performance in front of the House today, the refusal of the DNI to release the whistleblower’s info to Congress, Trump’s talk of rounding up the homeless, and the possibility that we could lose and still win by 6% next year is scaring me.

    All of that tells me is that they see no real limits to their power. And you know what else is scary? That I could just disappear someday. That the government could do anything to me and face no repercussions. I’m a white guy, I know. But that might not protect me if I express contrary political views sometime in the not-so-distant future

  226. 226.

    johnnybuck

    September 17, 2019 at 9:20 pm

    @RAVEN: seconded

  227. 227.

    JPL

    September 17, 2019 at 9:20 pm

    @Mike in NC: His series on The Dust Bowl was amazing. Even though I knew the history or thought I did he enlightened me. That was one of my favorites.

  228. 228.

    RAVEN

    September 17, 2019 at 9:21 pm

    Return of the Grievous Angel, Lucinda and David Crosby.

  229. 229.

    zhena gogolia

    September 17, 2019 at 9:21 pm

    @Raven:

    I adore Dolly Parton and Glen Campbell and Patsy Cline and bluegrass. I don’t know much about the rest.

  230. 230.

    schrodingers_cat

    September 17, 2019 at 9:23 pm

    @Brachiator: [email protected]RAVEN: That makes sense.

  231. 231.

    RAVEN

    September 17, 2019 at 9:23 pm

    @johnnybuck: I don’t think being from the South is all that crucial. I’m from East Central Illinois and have been into it for years.

  232. 232.

    Another Scott

    September 17, 2019 at 9:24 pm

    @Mike in NC: One of the things they talk about at Monticello was about him growing grapes for wine and trying to get the country to drink wine rather than whiskey. Because too many of our good citizens were stinkin’ drunk all the time…

    A 1986 letter to the editor of FTFNYT has more.

    The WCTU and Prohibition, and all the good and bad parts of it, didn’t arise out of nothing.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  233. 233.

    NotMax

    September 17, 2019 at 9:24 pm

    @Mike in NC

    That was a good one. Burns was forced to rein in his proclivity for being ponderous and keep it to a spare three parts (although even so without padding and repetition it could have been done in a trim two).

  234. 234.

    johnnybuck

    September 17, 2019 at 9:25 pm

    @RAVEN: Just relaying my experience, you’re right of course.

  235. 235.

    RAVEN

    September 17, 2019 at 9:26 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Johnny Rodriquez, Dave Dudley, Mumblin Mel Tillis, Brenda Lee, Willie, Waylon and the Boys. Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys???

  236. 236.

    Amir Khalid

    September 17, 2019 at 9:26 pm

    @Another Scott:
    Funny, two years ago he liked being mayor enough to run for a second term.

  237. 237.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 9:28 pm

    @NotMax::@raven:
    Thanks. Tbh, most country music isn’t that good. Some of the old stuff is alright, like Johnny Cash. Though if I remember right, didn’t he “joke” about murdering flag burners?
    @zhena gogolia:
    I’ve never heard good things about Ken Burns documentaries

  238. 238.

    Yarrow

    September 17, 2019 at 9:29 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: There is a protest rally as well.

  239. 239.

    divF

    September 17, 2019 at 9:29 pm

    @RAVEN: Hmpf. Downstate – practically Kentucky. /Chicago snark.

    Seriously, I had the same trajectory as you did in the 1970s – prog rock was uninteresting. I had already been listening to Commander Cody and Asleep at the Wheel, from there went to Bob Wills, Old and in the Way, Emmylou, David Grisman, … .

  240. 240.

    Raven

    September 17, 2019 at 9:30 pm

    @johnnybuck: Jerry Jeff Walker, the Texas Troubadour is from Buffalo, NY! Actually that part of the doc was interesting. The highbrows in Nashville wanted nothing to do with it. My mom was a coal miners daughter from Southern Illinois. When I moved down here she came to visit and we went to see a bluegrass band and I asked her if she liked that kind of music coming up. She was horrified,

  241. 241.

    RAVEN

    September 17, 2019 at 9:31 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: You don’t have a clue.

  242. 242.

    divF

    September 17, 2019 at 9:31 pm

    @RAVEN: Hmpf. Downstate – practically Kentucky. /Chicago snark.

    Seriously, I had the same trajectory as you did in the 1970s – prog rock was uninteresting. I had already been listening to Commander Cody and Asleep at the Wheel, from there went to Bob Wills, Old and in the Way, Emmylou, David Grisman, … .

  243. 243.

    Amir Khalid

    September 17, 2019 at 9:31 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
    “90% of everything is crud.” — Theodore Sturgeon.

  244. 244.

    Raven

    September 17, 2019 at 9:32 pm

    In the 1990s the term alternative country, paralleling alternative rock, began to be used to describe a diverse group of musicians and singers operating outside the traditions and industry of mainstream country music.[4] Many eschewed the increasingly polished production values and pop sensibilities of the Nashville-dominated industry for a more lo-fi sound, frequently infused with a strong punk and rock and roll aesthetic.[5] Lyrics may be bleak or socially aware, but also more heartfelt and less likely to use the clichés sometimes used by mainstream country musicians. In other respects, the musical styles of artists that fall within this genre often have little in common, ranging from traditional American folk music and bluegrass, through rockabilly and honky-tonk, to music that is indistinguishable from mainstream rock or country.[6] This already broad labeling has been further confused by alternative country artists disavowing the movement, mainstream artists declaring they are part of it, and retroactive claims that past or veteran musicians are alternative country. No Depression, the best-known magazine dedicated to the genre, declared that it covered “alternative-country music (whatever that is)”.[7]

  245. 245.

    joel hanes

    September 17, 2019 at 9:32 pm

    This is a country song:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txX-kPn3h6s

    This is a country song:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wut4Tn7GcBY

  246. 246.

    raven

    September 17, 2019 at 9:33 pm

    @divF: There it is. . .

  247. 247.

    Raven

    September 17, 2019 at 9:34 pm

    @divF: Little Egypt. . .remember Pork and the Havana Ducks?

  248. 248.

    johnnybuck

    September 17, 2019 at 9:35 pm

    @Raven: Hadn’t got that far yet, glad Jerry Jeff is getting some props, hopefully GP will as well. I have the album “Jerry Jeff” framed on my wall in my office. Nobody has any idea who he is!

  249. 249.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 9:36 pm

    @Brachiator:

    The electoral college is nuts, but hardly exceptional. And our position in the world is more about who holds the office than about how he or she got there (as long as it is by a legal method).

    I understand what you’re saying. However, since the EC is undemocratic and because of how enough of a combination of states vote overwhelmingly red, that gives the GOP candidate, who is always a terrible person, an EC majority. So it does matter how the president is selected, because the EC ensures nothing will ever change. An electoral dictatorship, basically. Unless we win enough at the margins in the states Trump won last time, which I think is doable

  250. 250.

    Raven

    September 17, 2019 at 9:36 pm

    @johnnybuck: Hi Buckaroos

  251. 251.

    Another Scott

    September 17, 2019 at 9:36 pm

    @Amir Khalid: It’s easier to get the next job while you still have an existing one.

    Seriously, I tried to find a story like I was thinking of, but Google’s mainly showing me stuff the other way – NYC hates him.

    Oh well.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  252. 252.

    divF

    September 17, 2019 at 9:37 pm

    @Raven: Nope, I just had a lot of friends from Illinois. Looks interesting, though.

  253. 253.

    Steve in the ATL

    September 17, 2019 at 9:37 pm

    @RAVEN: some of us are busy reading Red, Hot, and Blue,, the new Stanley Booth book about Memphis music, in which he continues his long history of taking liberties with facts in his anecdotes about my family. A fun read, though!

  254. 254.

    NotMax

    September 17, 2019 at 9:37 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Burns is quite good at what he does except has never grasped the concept of applying the writing tenets of Strunk & White to film making. Just because research has unearthed 10,000 photos or film clips does not mean each and every one must be included.

  255. 255.

    Raven

    September 17, 2019 at 9:38 pm

    @johnnybuck: And all them other outlaw dudes and Nanci Griffith! Prine, Iris, Townes Van Zandt

  256. 256.

    Elizabelle

    September 17, 2019 at 9:39 pm

    Elizabeth Warren on Rachel Maddow right now. You probably mentioned it upstream, but I just checked in now.

    Will catch it again at the midnight broadcast. For those without cable: https://livenewschat.eu/politics/

    Find Rockin Rooster link if you must; it’s the MSNBC feed.

  257. 257.

    schrodingers_cat

    September 17, 2019 at 9:39 pm

    @Yarrow: Yeah I saw that.

  258. 258.

    Steve in the ATL

    September 17, 2019 at 9:39 pm

    @johnnybuck: love JJW! And he probably isn’t as well known as he should be. Don’t people wonder to whom the lyric “Jerry Jeff’s train songs” refers?

  259. 259.

    TenguPhule

    September 17, 2019 at 9:40 pm

    @RAVEN:

    Boy the elitism is thick. Fucking bunch of highbrows.

    Country music is simply terrible.

    Jpop is where its at.

  260. 260.

    dr. luba

    September 17, 2019 at 9:40 pm

    @joel hanes:

    This is the sort of country song I like:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkdjbk_G6pw

    Plus Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash’s American recordings (hell, most of his stuff), and lots of other stuff. Just not the crappy pop music that passes for much of modern “country.”

  261. 261.

    Marcopolo

    September 17, 2019 at 9:41 pm

    @Elizabelle: Senator Professor Warren is on Fire! And Rachel was nervous about this interview :).

  262. 262.

    RAVEN

    September 17, 2019 at 9:42 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: oooo

  263. 263.

    Steve in the ATL

    September 17, 2019 at 9:42 pm

    @Raven: Tompall Glaser, Jessi Colter….

  264. 264.

    Another Scott

    September 17, 2019 at 9:42 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Red, Hot, and Blue is a restaurant in Arlington, VA started by Lee Atwater.

    We have been there a handful of times over the decades, it was Ok.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  265. 265.

    Captain C

    September 17, 2019 at 9:42 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Every second he’s on the campaign trail is a second he doesn’t have to go to his day job, which he’s bored with and sick of.

  266. 266.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 17, 2019 at 9:42 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Sturgeon’s Law: 90% of everything is crap.

  267. 267.

    Captain C

    September 17, 2019 at 9:43 pm

    @Another Scott: Beat me to it.

  268. 268.

    johnnybuck

    September 17, 2019 at 9:44 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: You assume they actually have heard “luckenbach Texas” or even know who the hell Waylon Jennings is.

  269. 269.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 9:44 pm

    @RAVEN:
    I was referring more to the Blake Shelton-style of country music.

    Or Kenny Chesney.

    Plowing these fields in the hot summer sun
    Over by the gate, yonder here she comes
    With a basket full of chicken
    And a big cold jug of sweet tea
    I make a little room and she climbs on up
    I open up the throttle and stir a little dust
    Look at her face, she ain’t a foolin’ me

    She thinks my tractor’s sexy
    It really turns her on
    She’s always starin’ at me
    While I’m chuggin’ along
    She likes the way it’s pulling
    While it’s tillin’ up the land
    She’s even kinda crazy ?bout my farmers tan

    She’s the only one who really
    Understands what gets me
    She thinks my tractor’s sexy
    We ride back and forth till we run out of light

    Take it to the barn, put it up for the night
    Climb up in the loft, sit and talk with the radio on
    She says she’s got a dream and I ask what it is
    She wants a little farm and a yard full of kids
    And one more teeny weenie ride before I take her home

    *shudder*

  270. 270.

    divF

    September 17, 2019 at 9:44 pm

    @Raven: I once interviewed Joe Ely on the campus radio station in the late 1970s. “I keep my fingernails long so they click when I play the piano”.

    Guy Clark.
    Lyle Lovett.

  271. 271.

    NotMax

    September 17, 2019 at 9:46 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus

    Country music is an exception to the rule. 98% is crap.

    :)

  272. 272.

    ola azul

    September 17, 2019 at 9:46 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    A pregnant comment. Be innerested in the delivery.

  273. 273.

    Raven

    September 17, 2019 at 9:46 pm

    @divF: The light of LA county, shine like diamonds in the sky. . .

  274. 274.

    johnnybuck

    September 17, 2019 at 9:46 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: yeah, nobody is talking about that…

  275. 275.

    Raven

    September 17, 2019 at 9:47 pm

    Desperados Waiting for a Train is the bomb

  276. 276.

    Another Scott

    September 17, 2019 at 9:49 pm

    Just FYI, the Haaretz.com home page has a creepy cartoon of Bibi winking, along with the exit poll results.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  277. 277.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 17, 2019 at 9:50 pm

    @Another Scott: Red Hot + Blue is a compilation album of Cole Porter songs used as a AIDS fundraiser. Some interesting artists and some really interesting takes on the songs.

  278. 278.

    ola azul

    September 17, 2019 at 9:51 pm

    @NotMax:

    Like puns that way.

  279. 279.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 9:53 pm

    @NotMax:
    Yup. A lot of reactionary Youtubers have that same problem. They’ll literally make a 3hr rant video on a 1.5 hr Star Wars movie that was released two years ago
    @Omnes Omnibus:
    True. But I just don’t like most country music, particularly Bro-country

    @TenguPhule:
    Here’s a treat. A compilation video of 80s J-Pop

  280. 280.

    realbtl

    September 17, 2019 at 9:53 pm

    Guy Clark, Buck and Merle.

  281. 281.

    johnnybuck

    September 17, 2019 at 9:53 pm

    @Raven: Oh hell yeah!

  282. 282.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    September 17, 2019 at 9:56 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Some interesting artists and some really interesting takes on the songs.

    That there are. I’d have bought it for the fundraiser but it’s got some tremendous music on it. I had a very late but slightly witty reply to you in a (much) earlier thread.

    @divF: Guy Clark and his acrylic nails!

  283. 283.

    Mike in NC

    September 17, 2019 at 9:57 pm

    @Another Scott: It’s a franchise with a number of locations.

  284. 284.

    Steve in the ATL

    September 17, 2019 at 9:58 pm

    @Another Scott: the full name of the book is Red, Hot, and Blue: Fifty Years of Writing about Music, Memphis, and Motherf**kers, so I suppose Lee Atwater is covered!

  285. 285.

    joel hanes

    September 17, 2019 at 9:59 pm

    @Jay:

    A hero of our time.

    Literary reference, the title of a famous (in Russia) novel by Lermontov.
    https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/A_Hero_of_Our_Time

  286. 286.

    Steve in the ATL

    September 17, 2019 at 10:00 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Aztec Camera was big enough to be on that? Huh.

  287. 287.

    J R in WV

    September 17, 2019 at 10:03 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    @schrodingers_cat:

    There is good Country music and bad, just like there is bad Rock and Roll and good. And whether a musician is famous or not isn’t directly related to whether they are also good or not.

    I love much of Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Willy Nelson and all the wild boys of country Texas. But the Grand Ole Opry too sweet for dessert types give me a pain in my sit down. I won’t list them, there are hundreds of them

    I’m not too crazy about Ken Burns’ documentaries, either. He doesn’t wait until he understands a topic in reality before he starts building his shows. Civil War for first big example!

    Lewendosky should be in jail right now! Right beside Bibi and Trump!!

  288. 288.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 17, 2019 at 10:03 pm

    @Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Where?

    @Steve in the ATL: Yep.

  289. 289.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    September 17, 2019 at 10:03 pm

    @Raven: Imma be pedantic here and note that Jerry Jeff is from Oneonta NY, which is sorta the other side of the state from Buffalo. Or is pedantry permitted before 10:15?

    Ronald Crosby from New York state is a native Texan named Jerry Jeff Walker

  290. 290.

    ola azul

    September 17, 2019 at 10:05 pm

    @RAVEN:

    Some peeps don’t know what they don’t know.

    Which, a-course, never stoppt ’em from betraying it, loudly n proudly..

  291. 291.

    Brachiator

    September 17, 2019 at 10:08 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    So it does matter how the president is selected, because the EC ensures nothing will ever change.

    Did you miss where that Obama guy got elected? Twice.

  292. 292.

    Frankensteinbeck

    September 17, 2019 at 10:10 pm

    @TenguPhule:
    My god, have none of you people heard of Nightcore? Synthwave? Since when am I the least Out Of Touch Old Far in any conversation?!

  293. 293.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    September 17, 2019 at 10:10 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: If you’d gotten Red, Hot & Blue, you’d know that already.

    @Omnes Omnibus: No one reads the classics anymore. But how they all love to speak that line from Part 2 (my reply to “Add Hotspur to your search.”)

  294. 294.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 10:12 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck:
    Aren’t Nightcore and Synthwave very Youtube-centric? I’ve never heard it literally any place else

  295. 295.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 10:13 pm

    @ola azul:
    Thanks

  296. 296.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 10:16 pm

    @Brachiator:
    Maybe I’m being too pessimistic about this. GOP lawlessness and Netanyahu’s example of refusing to concede an election, and succeeding, are making me anxious I guess

  297. 297.

    ola azul

    September 17, 2019 at 10:21 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    Welcome.

  298. 298.

    cain

    September 17, 2019 at 10:25 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
    To concede is to go to prison, so of course the guy has nothing to lose by not conceding.

  299. 299.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    September 17, 2019 at 10:25 pm

    @ola azul:
    Is that really called for? What did I ever do to you?

  300. 300.

    ola azul

    September 17, 2019 at 10:32 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    I could *pretend* I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I won’t.

    You said, “Thanks.” I said, “Welcome.” You got chippy about that. Why?

    Well, you were slagging on country music, as were several in this thread. I disagreed with your assessment, and I said so.

    Now, the question you prolly need to answer is: Why did some a the commentariat get chippy with me?

    Once you’ve arrived at that equable estimation, you will be long on your way to answering your own question.

    Speaking frankly, which is my wont..

  301. 301.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 17, 2019 at 10:34 pm

    @Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Got it.

  302. 302.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    September 17, 2019 at 10:43 pm

    @ola azul: To be a pedantic editor (unrequested, of course), as is my wont, I think “shirty” would have worked a wee bit better than “chippy” in terms of strict technical meaning. Though I totally respect the choice of chippy for its color within the tonal ambience.

  303. 303.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 17, 2019 at 10:47 pm

    All of you deserve this one way or another: A ska-punk band covering Billie Eilish.

  304. 304.

    ola azul

    September 17, 2019 at 10:50 pm

    @Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho:

    Innneresting. Hadnt never heard of “shirty”. New to me. Happy to be enlightened.

  305. 305.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    September 17, 2019 at 10:57 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: You’re quite right, we all do – for rather different reasons, don’t we?

    Don’t mind me, music is making me nostalgic; my local guitar player pal is having a big birthday this month and I ordered him a monogrammed Elliott capo which will be shipped directly to him. It has a small image engraved on the yoke that will reveal who got it. And it will be hilarious if he doesn’t notice that.

    @ola azul: It’s in some ways more of a Brit thing, but folks in the hollers of Appalachia used it also. Thanks for not taking offense at the editorial commentary.

  306. 306.

    TomatoQueen

    September 17, 2019 at 10:59 pm

    @zhena gogolia: This is an 8 part series, and around here, with 5 public television stations, there are lots of repeats. Tonight is part 3, repeated back to back. Bless them for a full hearing of Foggy Mountain Breakdown. Ken & co have taken on this story chronologically, and it’s full of incredible stories–and much is left out for time constraints. I’m watching the repeat now & so far am most impressed, showing the linkages, the risks, the coincidences–and a fair treatment of Hank Williams.

  307. 307.

    TomatoQueen

    September 17, 2019 at 11:01 pm

    “Shirty”, btw, is British usage, not at all American.

  308. 308.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    September 17, 2019 at 11:08 pm

    @TomatoQueen: While my father was a first generation American with a British father, I learned it from my mother’s family from Appalachia. Her sister still says “don’t you get shirty with me, Bella Q.” So I’ll submit that it some regions it’s quite American.

    “Who is ‘she,’ the cat’s mother?” does not seem in wide use here, though my father used it all the time and I picked it up.

  309. 309.

    Omnes Omnibus

    September 17, 2019 at 11:10 pm

    @Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Don’t care didn’t care,
    Don’t care was wild:
    Don’t care stole plum and pear
    Like any beggar’s child.

    Don’t care was made to care,
    Don’t care was hung:
    Don’t care was put in a pot
    And boiled till he was done.

  310. 310.

    TomatoQueen

    September 17, 2019 at 11:15 pm

    @Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: I wouldn’t–American English is no longer what it was. The latter expression is half-familiar–the construction rings a bell though not the phrase specifically.

  311. 311.

    Amir Khalid

    September 17, 2019 at 11:21 pm

    @TomatoQueen:
    It’s one of those regional things: which expressions from British English survive in American English, and which don’t.

  312. 312.

    TomatoQueen

    September 17, 2019 at 11:33 pm

    @Amir Khalid: or are adopted. No one will take enough of the blame for the modern idiom.

  313. 313.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    September 17, 2019 at 11:45 pm

    @Amir Khalid: It is quite regional. Rural areas being among the places many survived. I was unaware that shirty was an idiom of British English until long after both my parents were gone.
    @TomatoQueen: All too true. Nobody wants the blame.

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