Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

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

This blog will pay for itself.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Republicans do not trust women.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

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

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

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

The willow is too close to the house.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Repubs in Disarray! Open Thread: Mad King Is Mad

Repubs in Disarray! Open Thread: Mad King Is Mad

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No lie: Riveted by the sociological significance…

Poor Mr. Dale…


Trigger warning:

Reader Interactions

266Comments

  2. 2.

    Martin

    I’m pleased that we can now stereotype all grey haired white men as antifa now.

    Our ranks, they swell.

  3. 3.

    different-church-lady

    TRUMP: “Miller! I need a speech about racial unity!”

    MILLER: (Writes speech calling for the murder of all black people)

    TRUMP, A WEEK LATER: “Jared! How come I’m not winning this thing?”

  5. 5.

    SFAW

    But he mixes up the poison and drinks it himself too.

    Donnie’s in the basement

    Mixing Fucking up the government

  7. 7.

    lamh36

    @JakeSherman

    ·
    6h

    NEW. INSIDE Senate GOP lunch today,
    @TomCottonAR
    stood up & said: Young black men have a very different experience with law enforcement in this nation than white people and that’s their impression and experience and we need to be sensitive to that and do all we can to change it

    Uh huh…someone musta seen some bad polling numbers

  8. 8.

    SFAW

    As Mrs. SFAW (a nurse for 30-plus years) has often told me, balance issues are a significant problem for us old farts. And a shove, such as Brave Sir Robin the riot copper gave, can presumably increase those issues.

  9. 9.

    scav

    Well, I guess as not enough seniors volunteered to die for the Orange one’s magical economy and re-election tour,he’s called on the boys in blue to draft some deaths.

  11. 11.

    Martin

    @lamh36: Gonna assume his eyes went black and he spoke in a haunting monotone voice, and then collapsed to the floor in an unconscious heap before I buy even that explanation.

  13. 13.

    SFAW

    @lamh36:

    Shorter KKKotton: “I’m sorry if those darkies were offended by being killed for no reason other than because the cop thought he could get away with it.”

    OK, so maybe it wasn’t that much shorter.

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    I seriously cannot understand why/how these cops do not see that they are displaying exactly the behavior people are marching against.

    So do they understand and think they aren’t touchable, so they don’t give a fuck?

    Or are they unable to see that the tide is changing?

  19. 19.

    Baud

    @lamh36:

    Young black men have a very different experience with law enforcement in this nation than white people and that’s their impression and experience and we need to be sensitive to that and do all we can to change it

    Given his NYT piece, I think what he’s getting at is that America should start treating white people worse.

  21. 21.

    dmsilev

    @WaterGirl: The head of the police union in New York City was just today complaining that people were treating the cops there ‘like animals’.
    He was not immediately struck by lightning or swallowed up by the Earth, thus disproving the existence of a just and loving god.

  23. 23.

    Tony Jay

    Martin Gugino = Carla Gugino = Actress = Hollyweird Conspiracy = Crisis Acting = Suck it Libs

    That was easy.

    And isn’t that other Gugino a bit of a Lib? I know Milano is, and she’s a super-hot brunette too, so probably, and that’s all the connectivity necessary to dismiss anything associated with the name.

    Damn, it’s so simple when you substitute magical thinking for paying attention to the real world. Maybe that’s why most Conservatives are fat, lazy elbowlickers.

  24. 24.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    There is exactly zero chance that addled moronic sack of ruddy suet spelled provocateur on his own.

    I had the same thought, spelled and used correctly. Everything up to the OANN tag (is that the term?) reads like it was written by someone else, then it’s more like his usual gibberish. I’m vaguely curious about how his tweets are composed, if Kellyanne and Miller and Bingo-Bongo have his passwords, but he  always hits publish, or something

  25. 25.

    Baud

    If this keeps up, the police will be the ones asking Obama to hold a beer summit.

  26. 26.

    Martin

    @WaterGirl: It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

    The police are doing what is in their best interest, either by the city or their union, or both. That’s the way the system has always worked. We’re actively changing that at the city and state level, which is why the unions are moving to the front. Minneapolis PD makes it clear it’s fight or die time for them.

  27. 27.

    JaneE

    @lamh36: Historically, when a Republican politician says they need to equalize anything re black and white, that means they they will harm the whites rather than not harm the blacks.  Not the rich or powerful whites, mind, but….

  32. 32.

    germy

    Hannity: "Even the president himself — it's not the same thing as what happened to George Floyd, but it's horrific. He was a victim of crooked cops. Now, again, not the same circumstances, I'm not making any comparison," pic.twitter.com/QQw0MvrBKM

    — Brendan Karet ? (@bad_takes) June 10, 2020

  33. 33.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @WaterGirl:

    So do they understand and think they aren’t touchable, so they don’t give a fuck?

    One of the foundational promises Trump ran on, and a sentiment he expressed to the police early and repeatedly, is that the Trump administration will stand aside and let racist violence happen.

  35. 35.

    Tony Jay

    @Baud:

    Gentle ripple of applause swells to a general ovation that goes on  – almost – too long.

    Your stealth campaign to replace Joe is doing sterling background work, Inevitability awaits.

  47. 47.

    Tony Jay

    @germy:

    Fucking what?

    Is that like a living history example of “First they laugh at you, then they fight you, then they realise they’re totally out of the mainstream and try to leech off some credibility to victimitude the oddly-proportioned orange toilet-cloth they call Mr President”?

    When white supremacy starts shedding bits of Hannity you know it’s losing its vogue.

  48. 48.

    mrmoshpotato

    Daniel Dale also deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Biden.  That Candian is an American national treasure.

  49. 49.

    Immanentize

    @WaterGirl: leave memes to yutes?  The police try to slap a tape on the police brutality hole — using police brutality.  But the hole goes right through their police brutality hand.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    Acyn Torabi
    @Acyn
    · 1h
    Tucker: So what did Mitch McConnell do today as American society began to unravel? Mitch McConnell did not defend the country… He read talking points Nancy Pelosi could’ve written.. Many Republican Senators did that today. These people are cowards and they are liars

    Republicans are really, genuinely, in disarray.

  52. 52.

    Anne Laurie

    @lamh36: Nah, that’s Cotton playing the Media Village Idiots — again. 

    He got the NYTimes suits to fire James Bennet (who was dumb enough to solicit an op-ed from Cotton, and then — if you believe him — to not read the submitted op-ed, and *then* tooverrule the copy desk underlings who did read it and raise questions, and THEN to go on a weekend tweetstorm before the suits could call HR to have his exit papers processed).  That got the attention of all the other Very Serious Mediots.

    Now he’s pivoting!!! to a surprisingly nuanced view of black violence… and, sure enough, the dumb bastids are eating it up with a spoon.

    If Pence (or Mother Pence) hasn’t already warned the Secret Service to keep Young Cotton at arm’s length, this should be more than enough warning for them.  “Knowledgeable insiders” (or whatever Axios calls them, this week) have been talking up Cotton’s potential 2024 presidential run for some months, but I doubt the man’s got the patience to wait that long.

    Or maybe he figures the GOP won’t last through another 4-year cycle, in or out of office, so he’d better grab what he can while the grabbing is good.

  56. 56.

    mrmoshpotato

    Looks like Drudge is battling Gateway Trumptrash for SMOTI title!

    Root for injuries!

  59. 59.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Oh Christ, The Conservative Treehouse, I’ve come across this place before. It is indeed bizarre. The article from the TCT referenced above actually takes pains to note the fact that Gugino “brags” on his blog about how many times he’s been arrested and acquitted. Like, so what? The guy’s a lifelong anti-police brutality activist and human rights campaigner. It wouldn’t surprise me if he got arrested a few times. Being arrested doesn’t mean somebody’s a bad person, but I guess that kind of moral reasoning is above the likes of the TCT.

    And who actually uses “treehouse” for the title their political website/blog and expects to be taken seriously? It’s like some weird adolescent fantasy

  60. 60.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @WaterGirl:

    how do they not see that something has changed?

    The job of reining in out of control police departments belongs to… the Department of Justice.  Their specific boss is giving them the thumbs up and suggesting they kill even more people.  It is quite hard for local governments to control the police department, so things had to go pretty far before that became something they were afraid of.  So, as far as they’ve been concerned, what’s changed is that the leash was off and public opinion was irrelevant.

  61. 61.

    WaterGirl

    @Immanentize: Leave memes to the young pups?  I guess so.

    I still don’t get the guy walking with his girlfriend, turning around to look at the hot girl in red.  And people have probably explained it to me 5 times.

    Oh well.

  62. 62.

    Immanentize

    @Anne Laurie: I still think there is an in-house Apprentice episode going on for who will be the Trump VP in November.  Cotton and Barr are clearly competitors.  I thought Esper was in it too, but he has been FIRED!

  63. 63.

    geg6

    I just wish they’d all drink the FlavorAide and get it over with.  I’ve already seen the ending.

  64. 64.

    Martin

    @WaterGirl: You have to factor the consequence of that change into the response to it. If the consequence is minor, they’re more likely to back down than if the consequence is they all get fired and replaced. And if you’ve spent every moment since 1981 accruing power to bash heads and been able to successfully threaten city leaders that you will destroy them (see NYPD) why wouldn’t you double down in that case and hope you can present a  greater threat to their re-eleection than the protesters?

    This movement is an existential threat to much of the police. It’s why this has taken so fucking long. Go look at the history of the 60s riots – most of them were police violence little different than what we see today, and yet 50 years later it’s still happening.

    This is now an existential battle. And they know they’re losing, but they don’t feel they have any better option. Some of them joined  to bash heads. Some of them wanted a job with almost complete immunity. And they have a job that pays well, with a great pension. Where else are they going to find that? They kind of have it made. They don’t want to give it up.

  65. 65.

    RSA

    @WaterGirl: Maybe they have been playing dress-up so long with their military gear the they really do think they are at war.  All the more reason to stop them.

    Indeed. They seem to think the military is all about the weapons, forgetting about (just for example) the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

    Also, I discovered just now that apparently most police officers swear an oath along these lines:

    “On my honor, I will never betray my badge, my integrity, my character or the public trust. I will always have the courage to hold myself and others accountable for our actions. I will always uphold the Constitution, my community, and the agency I serve.”

  66. 66.

    Amir Khalid

    Some surprising news from the guitar-nerd world. A renowned master builder at Fender’s Custom Shop has been sacked for posting an unsavoury image to Facebook. John Cruz, a 33-year Fender employee, was made a Master Builder in 2003. Cruz is famous among guitar fans for his relicking work and the bespoke guitars he built for some of Fender’s most famous customers. He is so much in demand as a custom builder that Fender has had to close his waiting list.

  67. 67.

    Tony Jay

    @Immanentize:

    While the new leader of the Labour Party races to explain that he totally opposes everything the slaver stood for, but also opposes doing anything about it.

    Soooooo glad the ‘adult professionals’ are back in charge. Really grasping the moment they are.

    But yes, British people rising up to topple establishment approved racist fucks must be terrifying to the current Government. Or it would be if they didn’t have a solid 4+ years of legitimate democratic Absolute Power to wave at everyone like an excited donkey.

    Grrrrrrrrr. Bed time.

  70. 70.

    EthylEster

    @WaterGirl: Maybe they have been playing dress-up so long with their military gear 

    I think there is a bit of truth in how their gear drives a certain mindset/attitude. It reminds me of an old Heinlein novel where a survival course final exam requires spending some indefinite time on another planet. The characters discuss what weapons to take, what armor, etc. A professional “warrior” suggests going almost naked because then you are maximally attuned to your surroundings. These cops are distanced from their surrounding by all that gear/weaponry. It gets in the way psychologically (and probably physically).

  71. 71.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Kay:

    Carlson seems unhinged. It’s pretty bad that he sees probably (don’t know exactly what McConnell said) pretty anodyne comments about the protests/police misconduct/Floyd’s death as comments Pelosi could’ve written, which Carlson obviously sees as a bad thing

  72. 72.

    lamh36

    @KamalaHarris

    ·
    48s

    Right now there’s no national registry of officers with a history of misconduct. The Justice in Policing Act would change that.

  75. 75.

    Martin

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: What I’ve read from the owner was that she hired Floyd specifically to get Chauvin from working the nights with a black crowd because he was constantly pepper spraying  them.

    Tell me this wasn’t premeditated.

  78. 78.

    Steeplejack

    Dunno if this has been noted here. I haven’t been keeping up today.

    New York “police boss” calms the waters:

    WATCH ? New York police boss Mike O’Meara went off on the media today: “Stop treating us like animals and thugs and start treating us with some respect … Our legislators abandoned us. The press is vilifying us. It’s disgusting.”
    pic.twitter.com/CXOPARKff7

    — August Takala (@AugustTakala) June 9, 2020

  82. 82.

    Frankensteinbeck

    I have been right the vast majority of the time during these Hellish 3 1/2 years, and I’m smug about it, but I will eat my crow when I’m wrong:  I never, ever, ever would have expected 84% of Americans to say Black Lives Matter protests were justified.  This is ground zero of the racism battle in our country.  A result like this… I don’t know what it means.

  85. 85.

    Martin

    @EthylEster: Guy walking with his girlfriend is the ‘grass is always greener on the other side’ idiom, updated for every given situation.

    The Flextape meme is ‘the beatings will continue until morale  improves’.

  87. 87.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Kay: Hmmmmm……State News finally realizing people have had enough of their Russthuglican bullshit?

  88. 88.

    lamh36

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I know that many folks have wondered if this was personal.  Something about it seemed off, for sure, especially once you find out they worked the same security job even if on diferent shifts

  92. 92.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I’d bet he also liked “you can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish.” 

    Oh, so Tuesday night is talk-shit-about-the-classics night, eh?  How dare you. :)

  96. 96.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    A result like this… I don’t know what it means.

    Hopefully it means we can begin to build a better future for everyone, take back our country from ignorant, authoritarian racists, and shore up as well as reform the liberal international order created because of the blood spilled by millions of young men during the Second World War to defeat global fascism

  99. 99.

    Chetan Murthy

    Uh, I don’t know if this has been posted before, but hey, “open thread”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o6OEyfuJU8

    This is Amber Ruffin, telling the story of four times she’s interacted with cops, where …. each time she was -this- close to death by cop.  Uh, I’m a big fan of Amber Ruffin’s comedy, so obvs. I think she’s a great, great, *great* story-teller.  So I enjoyed it, even though I had to take it one story at a time (with a break  to do other things), just b/c the material is -still- a little heavy.

    But she’s so great, that it’s worth watching, and it feels like entertainment even though it’s education.

     

    And the idea that wee Amber Ruffin, twee and cute as she is, could possibly be viewed as a threat by anything other than a chihuahua, well, that just adds to the impact.

  102. 102.

    Feathers

    @WaterGirl: The issue is that they truly believe that what they are doing is morally proper and necessary. They probably believe that seeing the police beat, spray, and taze the protestors will rally the nation to a new level of adoration of their protectors in uniform and lead to an uprising in favor of doing away with the courts so that the godly and ordained will of the police cannot be thwarted. I wish I were kidding.

    One of the reasons the protests have been so widespread is that people are just feckin sick of this attitude. They see inept and worse cops, but know that there is this bullshit aura of invincibility around them. The videos did shock people into an awareness of how bad they really are, but I also think there is a silent majority who thought they were incompetent assholes and are jumping at the chance to break free of their sadistic swagger.

  103. 103.

    Jeffro

    @WaterGirl: 20+ years of gradually militarizing them, +5 years of the little orange man’s racist statements lead them to believe this was the new norm.

    surprise, cops!  The country is not with you on this, just as it is not with trumpov

  104. 104.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Amir Khalid:

    It’s sad. The banner at the top of the blog has art of Andrew Breitbart dressed up as Uncle Sam like on the “I Want You! poster, saying, “I want you to be Andrew Breitbart!”

  106. 106.

    Kay

    @mrmoshpotato:

    It’s a mess. Fox news has been promoting antifa conspiracy theories for days and today Republicans in the senate did an abrupt, coordinated 180 degree pivot to supporting police reform.

    He’s right to be confused. I don’t know what happened either. They went from editorials advocating that the military put down protests to supporting the protesters, in a space of about 12 hours.

  108. 108.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @WaterGirl:

    I’m beginning to wonder if those cops dedicated to a brutal style of policing do see their consequence-free policing is becoming ever more difficult, and they want to get ‘some more action’ before it becomes too difficult.

  109. 109.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: they are only ‘saying’ they support police reform, just as they have ‘said’ that they will protect people with pre-existing conditions and look out for American workers.

    its the Hawley way: just say the same things as Democrats even though it means you are completely lying

  111. 111.

    Eolirin

    @Jeffro: Well of course, but it also means there’s a recognition that they’re on the wrong side of the issue. That’s new with this one. That feels significant somehow.

  112. 112.

    Amir Khalid

    @Martin:

    If prosecutors can make a case that Chauvin held a personal grudge against George Floyd, could that persuade AG Ellison to bump the charge up again to murder one?

  116. 116.

    burnspbesq

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Unfortunately for them, the pursuit that started in Williamson County ended in Austin, and the Travis County DA is a take-no-prisoners lefty type. I’ll be surprised if obstruction of justice or interfering with an investigation type charges aren’t forthcoming.

  119. 119.

    rp

    Murder 1 requires premeditation. Seems highly unlikely that the prosecutors could establish that he showed up planning to kill Floyd. But the backstory definitely puts murder 2 in play.

  120. 120.

    Brachiator

    @Chetan Murthy:

    This is Amber Ruffin, telling the story of four times she’s interacted with cops, where …. each time she was -this- close to death by cop.

    Definitely worth viewing. I’m surprised it has not already been posted.

    She is such a sweetheart. And she relates her experiences so well.

    Kudos to Seth Myers for smartly giving her the space to talk about her encounters with the police.

  121. 121.

    Feathers

    Can’t find the article, but there is a bill in the Mass Statehouse saying that police can’t accept from the Feds or buy any new equipment or technology without the approval of the town board of selectmen. It turns out that local police departments are moving funds around to buy Stingrays or other high tech surveillance equipment. They are also applying to get tanks and such without anyone in the town government knowing about it.

    Can’t find the article again, but needless to say there are complaints that this would leave the Commonwealth (God save her) defenseless against the hordes, etc.

  123. 123.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    Oh, I was driving most of the afternoon and Michigan radio had them on. It’s an abrupt shift.

    They’re just shameless people. Last week they wanted this insurrection crushed by the military, this week they’re supporting the protesters.

    I don’t know what Fox does now. I don’t think they can switch off the antifa lie machine that quickly.

  124. 124.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: Tucker: “Are we getting IN THE LIBS’ FACES TODAY or are we LYING AND COPYING THEIR PLATFORM WHOLESALE BUT NOT REALLY GONNA DO A DAMN THING?  It’s so confusing!!  I miss the days when we were all on message and running like a well-oiled Republican Noise MachineTM”

  126. 126.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Martin:

    It must be particularly distressing for him to see practically the entire country against him

  127. 127.

    lamh36

    @mviser

    Kamala Harris tonight with Biden: “This election is going to be…rough and tumble. There are very powerful forces that thrive off of the hate and division that Donald Trump has been sowing. This is not going to be easy. And we have about just a few months to get this thing done”

    196
    7:59 PM – Jun 9, 2020

  128. 128.

    Feathers

    @Patricia Kayden: It is banned by the Geneva Convention. However, the Geneva Convention does not bind a nation’s internal dealings. Might be fun to pass a law saying that the nation’s police forces have to follow the Geneva Convention.

  132. 132.

    Immanentize

    @rp: In practice, premeditation can be formed in the blink of an eye.  If you can prove an intentional killing, a good DA can always also argue it turned from intentional to premeditated killing during the event.  Or in this case, maybe around minute 7.

  133. 133.

    Steeplejack

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    And who actually uses “treehouse” for the title [of] their political website/blog and expects to be taken seriously?

    LOL. Yeah, they should use a serious title like, say, “Balloon Air” or “Talking Juice” or something classy like that.

  135. 135.

    Another Scott

    I lasted six days with Andrew Sulivan unblocked. But a man’s got to know his limitations.

    — AntifaProvocateurHat (@Popehat) June 10, 2020

    Hehe.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  136. 136.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: I think what Fox does now is, they wear out their viewers.

    As you noted, one day they’re all for beating up every peaceful protestor, just for breathing; the next, they’re for ‘police reform’ and ‘coming together as a nation’.

    Hallmarks of a party with a) absolutely no principles other than remaining in power, and b) a clear minority, in terms of popular support.

    They’re in transformation just like the rest of us.  Their old gimmicks no longer apply.  The old orange thing in the WH can rail all he wants, but a very clear majority of the country has had enough of the GOP’s withered and racist plutocrat state.

  137. 137.

    Wapiti

    @dmsilev: If the police union or police leadership wanted us to distinguish between good and bad cops, they could insist that all cops wear 6″ high white numbers clearly visible against their black riot gear.

    The bad cops want anonymity and the resulting lack of consequences. The union and leadership are fine with the bad cops.

  139. 139.

    Raoul

    @Martin: MPD’s Federation (I try to never call it a union, though I guess it is) has had outsized power and influence since at least 1972. So it really, really is time for a change. 48 damn years.

  142. 142.

    joel hanes

    @WaterGirl:

    I seriously cannot understand why/how these cops

    1.  They really believe that black (and brown) people deserve to be oppressed.
    2. They really think that they are entitled to the kind of cringing, fearful servility that used to be called “knowing your place” but now goes by “respect my authority”.

    Really.

  143. 143.

    Brachiator

    @Jeffro:

    As you noted, one day they’re all for beating up every peaceful protestor, just for breathing; the next, they’re for ‘police reform’ and ‘coming together as a nation’.

    I wonder if Fox viewers even notice the violent shifts in position.

    Sadly, I imagine that some of them simply take the stance that they will believe whatever their favorite Fox host believes.

  144. 144.

    Brachiator

    @WaterGirl:

    D’oh. Sorry. I got you mixed up with another commenter who had asked about Chromebooks the other day. And I’ve been looking at iPad and Chromebook reviews. Looking for a new secondary device.

  147. 147.

    dmsilev

    Via Josh Marshall’s Twitter feed, Sean Hannity makes the comparison that we all knew was coming:

    Hannity: “Even the president himself — it’s not the same thing as what happened to George Floyd, but it’s horrific. He was a victim of crooked cops. Now, again, not the same circumstances, I’m not making any comparison,”

  149. 149.

    Jeffro

    Just in case anyone’s in the mood for having a stroke, Hugh Hewitt has an op-ed snit-fit up in the WaPo about how (cue preteen sneer voice) “No, Colin Powell, trumpov hasn’t drifted away from the Constitution”.

    Naturally, it is Democrats who have done so by insisting upon a national plan to deal with the pandemic, dontcha know, among other things.  Hughie rails against a number of “anti-democratic” (translated: actually democratic) measures that are underway, like abolishing the Electoral College and ratifying the ERA.  Also ‘Beltway elites’, the FBI, and of course ‘the generals’.

    I truly hope this smug, evil hack ends up getting what he deserves, both in the here and now and the afterlife.

  151. 151.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @Brachiator:As you noted, one day they’re all for beating up every peaceful protestor, just for breathing; the next, they’re for ‘police reform’ and ‘coming together as a nation’.

    When I incidentally picked up some of both Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham’s broadcasts from tonight, all both of them were talking about was the “defund the police” business.

  152. 152.

    Jeffro

    @Brachiator: I think some small number of them must crash through the Cognitive Dissonance Barrier with every broadcast.  I’ll take it.

  156. 156.

    dmsilev

    @Jeffro: It’s always amusing to skip to the comments in those columns. The Post has a very light touch on their moderation, so all sorts of ‘Hugh, you ignorant slut’ type comments show up very quickly.

  157. 157.

    Fair Economist

    @lamh36:

    Uh huh…someone musta seen some bad polling numbers

    I’m thinking it’s not so much the polling as the fact that BLM seems to be gaining control of the situation. Protests are going strong, but with little and decreasing violence or property damage, making the ongoing over-reaction by many police departments look worse and worse. Attempts by anarchists and white supremacists to hijack the protests seems to be flagging and failing. Plus there is a big push into political action, with sympathizers swarming municipal meetings in Minneapolis and LA that I know of.

    It’s looking like BLM could keep on this course indefinitely, with the public likely to look on them ever more favorably while sympathizers become increasingly radicalized by police over-reaction and the nonsense spewing from RW media. That could produce a big and permanent shift on opinion on lawnorder and the Republican party. I think a lot of Republican officeholders are now thinking in terms of cutting their losses because their usual “demonize protesters” playbook is failing and they’re afraid of a “summer of humiliation”.

  159. 159.

    Ken

    @Immanentize: I thought Esper was in it too, but he has been FIRED!

    I saw the CNN headline “White House says Trump remains confident in Esper”, which means he’s on the way out, but a quick news search says it hasn’t happened yet.

  160. 160.

    hueyplong

    Generally, FoxNews can turn on a dime and lead their viewers in the other direction.  McConnell assigns the janitorial cleanup job to the junior senator from SC, they pretend to support reform, but then are aghast at the radical nature of whateverthehell the Dems actually draft.  They’ve gone too far!  And we’re back to the status quo ante.

    But what if Trump, being Trump, doesn’t play the game, stays super racist, and has OANN carry the ball for him?

    What do the deplorables/bad people do?

    And what does FoxNews do in response?

    Injuries.  Serious injuries.  Life-threatening injuries.  That’s what I’m rooting for.

  161. 161.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @Subsole:

    Yep.

    Too late, motherfuckers.

    Too.

    Late.

    Too late for anyone paying attention.

    But what are the odds that Republicans and our media (redundant I know) manage to convince a not-insignificant portion of white people who are just figuring out about our policing issues that it has been the Rs who wanted to fix this all along

    ETA: Something like “Argle bargle, small government, yadda yadda.”

    And I didn’t just make that up. That’s a direct quote from Megan McArdle.

  162. 162.

    Jeffro

    @dmsilev: Sometimes I think the Post tees up its TCNJ columnists as clickbait, to be mocked and (electronically) beaten up.  Which is second best, really: they shouldn’t even give such obvious hacks a platform.

    ah well.

  163. 163.

    Punchy

    @dmsilev: what does this mean?  What crooked cop hurt Trump?  When?  Or is this just a bastardized ref to the Mueller Report?

  164. 164.

    Luciamia

    @Whereaway: I’ve been pronouncing it Auntie-fah. But on the news they say it, An-TEE-fa. Which makes it sound like a Caribbean island.

  166. 166.

    burnspbesq

    @rp: 

    “It only takes a split second to premeditate,” I remember my first year Crim Law prof telling the class.

  167. 167.

    Jeffro

    OT but I am trying to think of what the Biden/______ Administration will have to try and focus on getting done in its first year or so.

    In no particular order:

    1. Raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations
    2. Reverse all of the trumpov-era destruction when it comes to environmental/labor/other regulations
    3. Put its Covid-19 mitigation/elimination plan into action, including aid to state budgets, massive amounts of federally-funded testing and PPE, etc.
    4. Set up a new Cabinet-level department…the Department of Voter Protection (or something!) that sets national standards for voting machines (# of machines per 1,000 voters as well as quality), voter ID laws, registration, etc etc.  Everything that increases access and makes it hard for the GOP to keep doing what they do.
    5. Truth and Reconciliation Commission, with at least two important subcommittees: a) where did all the caged kids go? and b) where did all the stolen money/contracts to trumpov loyalists go?
    6. Higher Standards Commission: how do we legislatively/Constitutionally enact higher standards for federal office in the future?  Bar candidates for president from running unless they’ve already served in Congress or as a Governor…tax disclosures…full divestment prior to running (or at least, prior to assuming office)…jump on this early while the memory of The Abuser is still fresh in the country’s collective mind.

    I’m sure there’s more but whew, they are going to need to put the entire Democratic Justice League to work and then some.

  169. 169.

    Ken

    @Kay: I don’t know what happened either.

    As Matt Rogers quipped (quoted in the previous post by Anne Laurie), you can’t get 84% of Americans to agree that water is wet.  Yet that’s where the polls stand, and even Republican Senators can work that math.  I agree with those who say it’s all lip service, and they’ll find some reason to claim the Democrats have gone too far.

  170. 170.

    Subsole

     

     

    @WaterGirl:

    Conservatism hasn’t been anything since Obama got elected except a shrieking primal tantrum. There is nothing else. Just lashing out mindlessly at suddenly hearing the word ‘no’.

    Go back and look at Kavanaugh during his confirmation. You’ll see the face of every snot-nosed frat brat discovering for the first time in his life that some folks genuinely do not care that your daddy owns a dealership. Look at Candace Owens when Sen. Lieu played audio of her contradicting herself live on camera. Same pinch-faced fury.

    These people are profoundly unprepared to live in the world they have built.

  172. 172.

    bluehill

    @Frankensteinbeck: maybe that winter is starting to end. I think this partly a middle finger to Trump and his supporters that the silent majority has had enough. Maybe it’s a there but for the grace of god go I moment and George Floyd catalyzed the underlying concerns of the 60% that US was sliding down the slippery slope towards autocracy. I think social media actually helped this time in spreading the video which left no doubt of how little those officers valued the life of a black man.

    Whatever it is, it’s a hopeful sign. It’s encouraging that more people are becoming aware of the subtle racism that exists. People like Drew Brees who don’t think of themselves as racists in the KKK way, but whose acceptance of policies support and enforce more explicitly discriminatory practices, seem to have become woke as they say.

  174. 174.

    Another Scott

    @Anathema Device:

    WARNING – TIME SINK ALERT!!  TVTropes:

    […]

    The figure of speech derives from legends about conquerors who supposedly, upon landing their army in enemy country, ordered the invasion fleet to be burnt. Most people today have heard this tale about Hernán Cortés, but it is in fact centuries older than Cortez.

    The assumed benefit of such an act is that everyone on the team — whether it be an actual army intent on conquest, or any party pursuing a risky undertaking will show maximum commitment if they know that retreat is impossible. There isn’t any use in holding back or playing it safe when there is no exit option to fall back on. Desertion or mutiny is futile if there is no hope of escape. Dissenters are silenced when there are no choices left to argue over, and everyone’s best hope of survival lies in cooperating for the common success. Once the Ships are Burnt, it’s do or die for everyone — succeed, or face death or captivity.

    Or that is the theory.

    […]

    HTH!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  177. 177.

    Another Scott

    @Another Scott: Whoops.  It looks like I might have picked the wrong trope.

    After destroying or disabling a vehicle, a particularly ruthless (and dishonorable) enemy may decide he wants no one to live to tell the tale. He may blast the life boats, shoot down an Ejection Seat or two, blast the Escape Pods to ions, seal off all exits, etc. Obviously, this is usually a pretty low thing to do, and in Real Life wars, may (rightly) be considered a war crime, especially if the craft in question was a civilian craft.

    It generally shows just how evil a villain is, and can be a very quick means of making the villain irredeemable in the eyes of the audience, in addition to having the audience cheer louder when the guy who did this finally bites the dust.

    Subtrope of Leave No Survivors. If the lifeboats are carrying wounded, overlaps with Kick Them While They Are Down. Frequently treated as a Moral Event Horizon. Shares some similarities in terms of the moral blackness of the act with Shoot the Medic First, though the latter can be arguably be justified for pragmatic reasons, this trope is almost always For the Evulz.

    For cases of sinking your own lifeboats (Break the kettles and sink the boats) to prevent holding back, see Burning the Ships. Compare: We Have Reserves.

    (See the original for embedded links, but beware! The site is a huge time sink.)

    I think we should burn our own lifeboats, myself. ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  178. 178.

    danielx

    @Anne Laurie:

    Or maybe he figures the GOP won’t last through another 4-year cycle, in or out of office, so he’d better grab what he can while the grabbing is good.

    Point. We have reached the point where a good many Republican pols have decided that it might be best to grab what they can on the way out the door. Just in the event they fail to manipulate or cheat elections to a sufficient degree, you understand, best to work on feathering those nests before getting thrown out.

  182. 182.

    Amir Khalid

    @Subsole:

    Just the five: The Girl (Squier Tele, Keefed), Sister (Epiphone Les Paul Studio), Lady (Squier Strat), Missy (Yamaha acoustic), and Queen (Squier Tele). Right now, I have no plans for a sixth, but who knows, maybe someday a decent made-in-China ES-335 copy in cherry red?

  183. 183.

    bluehill

    @Jeffro: I think there may be more things that need fixing than when Obama took office. If the dems have both the house and senate, then I would push for #6 but more broadly thinking about what needs to be changed to ensure that there are real checks and balances between the branches of government. If we get out of this with a functioning democracy, it will only be because Trump was a self absorbed idiot. The next guy, and there will be a next guy, will have Reagan’s charisma and Cottons malevolence. I don’t think our current system could withstand that.

  184. 184.

    joel hanes

    @Jeffro:

    I try not to do looksist snark, but in this case I’ll remind that back when blogs  flourished, the standard styling was “ambulatory cream cheese sculpture Hugh Hewitt”

    That is one _white_ white man.

  185. 185.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    I had never heard of Conservative Treehouse until now.  I’ll have to add that to my daily check-ins.  Redstate doesn’t do much for me anymore.

  186. 186.

    Jeffro

    @Another Scott: It’s ‘burn our ships’ (not necessarily lifeboats) and I think the first example I heard of it was in The Iliad.

    It’s a way to get across to one’s own troops that this is it, there will be no retreat.

    I’m good with this whether it applies to the GOP or the Dems at this point: I hope the GOP decides to (figuratively) die on these hills of racism and Randism, and I hope we respond in kind to wipe them out (electorally and socially, of course)

  189. 189.

    Brachiator

    @Jeffro:

    Just in case anyone’s in the mood for having a stroke, Hugh Hewitt has an op-ed snit-fit up in the WaPo about how (cue preteen sneer voice) “No, Colin Powell, trumpov hasn’t drifted away from the Constitution”.

    It’s been interesting watching Hewitt’s career. He used to appear on public affairs programs on Southern California public television. He was always a mediocrity whose only claim to fame was the ability to show up on short notice and fill air time without stumbling. TV and radio has always had a fear of dead air.

    Hewitt turned familiarity and an ability to be camera ready at a moment’s notice into a lucrative career. But he has never written or said anything worth paying attention to.

  190. 190.

    joel hanes

    @Krope, the Formerly Dope:

    the “defund the police” business

    I peeked into Rep. Ilhan Omar’s twitter stream, and a significant fraction of the hate-replying wingnuts were certain that “defund police”  is simply the next step toward “sharia law”.

    Those are some seriously decomposed mangoes.  I wonder how she deals with that.

  191. 191.

    Amir Khalid

    @NotMax:

    To relic a guitar is to intentionally damage a new guitar’s finish to simulate real-life wear&tear. It can be quite an art; Cruz is famous  because his relicking is very convincing. Some people like guitars done this way, especially replicas of iconic instruments like Stevie Ray Vaughan’s SRV Strat. Others disapprove of the fakery, and say every guitar should live its own life and acquire its own real nicks and dings.

  193. 193.

    debbie

    @rp:

    I believe they were bouncers at the same club at some point and that the cop knew who Floyd was.

  196. 196.

    danielx

    @lamh36:

    Um….right. I’ve had trust issues regarding Republican pronunciamentos since well before I could vote, which is longer ago than I care to think about. But even if I hadn’t, the solemn declarations from the likes of Cotton and McConnell might have a bit more weight if their speakers hadn’t had their lips so firmly affixed to Trump’s ass for the last three and a half years.

  198. 198.

    Subsole

     

     

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Remember that photo a couple years back of like 20 MAGA chuds stranded on a gazebo, completely encircled by an ansolute wall of counterprotestors? I imagine it feels like that.

    Oh well. Comedowns’re a bitch.

     

    @Krope, the Formerly Dope:

    Yeah. I dunno. I was born in 81. I have had “Republican = Cop, Democrat = sob-sister” drummed into my head for 4 decades. I expect I am not alone. Plus the GOP all but planted a fucking flag in every badge’s asshole post 9-11, and made damn sure everyone knew it. They have worked HARD to make cops-can-do-no-wrong their exclusive property. I don’t think they’re going to have an easy time reversing.

    Though as you indicate, with enough media bullfuckery, anything is possible.

    Though I do think all the video of cops beating the everliving shit out of people – even white people – has taken some of the oomph outta that. The thin blue line also didn’t do itself any favors when it started beating tv crews like they were mere taxpayers, either.

    Also, as mentioned upthread, a lot of people, even the totally zoned-out people, see cops as swaggering assholes who think we all owe them a blowjob for getting up and going to an office they volunteered to work at. Because a lot of them ARE.

    Not saying they can’t pull it off, but it might be a surprisingly heavy lift. Made much heavier by the fact these people haven’t actually had to exert themselves in a looooong time.

  200. 200.

    James E Powell

    @Amir Khalid:

    Pro & con on relics is such a contentious topic that the guitar discussion website I frequent bans posts on the subject because they get out of hand. I never understood the heat that these arguments generate. I’m not a relic guy, but if it makes them happy, why would that bother me?

  202. 202.

    Kent

    @Frankensteinbeck:I have been right the vast majority of the time during these Hellish 3 1/2 years, and I’m smug about it, but I will eat my crow when I’m wrong:  I never, ever, ever would have expected 84% of Americans to say Black Lives Matter protests were justified.  This is ground zero of the racism battle in our country.  A result like this… I don’t know what it means.

    It’s kind of like how the gay marriage thing flipped virtually overnight too.  Although I’m still skeptical how much long term change is going to come out of this.  Gay marriage was much easier in a way because that was mostly just attitudes and some laws.  Plus gay marriage was mostly about middle class white people.  Racist policing is far deeper institutionalized.

  204. 204.

    JWR

    @Chetan Murthy: I’m a big fan of Amber Ruffin’s comedy, so obvs

    Same here! And her stories have been told as only Amber Ruffin could tell them. For me, they’ve been a highlight of Meyers’ show.

  205. 205.

    Redshift

    @bluehill:

    The next guy, and there will be a next guy, will have Reagan’s charisma and Cottons malevolence. 

    And courts stacked with wingnut ideologues who don’t give a rat’s ass about precedent or the rule of law.

  206. 206.

    Subsole

    @Amir Khalid:

    Nice collection. My friends who play swore on Les Paul. I can’t play a lick; I was a drummer. I do love looking at guitars just for their own sake, though. Some of them are just art, y’know?

    Now you just need an amp that goes to 11, and you’re sorted!

  207. 207.

    Redshift

    @Subsole:

    Also, as mentioned upthread, a lot of people, even the totally zoned-out people, see cops as swaggering assholes who think we all owe them a blowjob for getting up and going to an office they volunteered to work at. Because a lot of them ARE. 

    This. I am near the peak of white male privilege, and living in a community where the police don’t have a bad reputation, and I hope to never call the police other than the state police to help after a traffic accident, because there’s a 99% chance they would make things worse, and small chance they would accomplish anything useful.

    That tells me policing really doesn’t serve its supposed purpose, and I’m just fortunate enough that I can ignore it, so there must be a better way.

  208. 208.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @dmsilev: The head of the police union in New York City was just today complaining that people were treating the cops there ‘like animals’.

    Apparently “animals” is what the NYPD considered the rest of the population of NYC.

  209. 209.

    cain

    @WaterGirl:

    The initial photo triggered a lot of women because of the inherent disrespect – clearly they have partners that do this and to be clear men do, we do. Not as crass as the guy, but we do.

  210. 210.

    Subsole

    @Jeffro:

    So… what stopped people from just butchering the assholes who stranded them there and surrendering anyway???

     

    @Redshift:  Which is why Priority Zero is packing every court we can reach. And I mean three of ours to one of theirs. Otherwise they’ll just frivolously sue to get our hard work into court, tie it up in legal tape, appeal to the supremes, and game-over. For decades.

    Court packing is step 1. Nothing else is possible or sustainable without that.

    We are going to have to rebuild EVERYTHING. Figure one year of labor for every month this assmouth has been in office.

  214. 214.

    cain

    @Jeffro:

    Dont worry, we’ll put all the bills in place and the lone Republican, Rand Paul will put a hold on it. Hell he can single handedly stop all the bills – we’ll just ask McConnell if whether he is majority leader or if Rand Paul is?

  215. 215.

    JWR

    @Amir Khalid:

    Others disapprove of the fakery, and say every guitar should live its own life and acquire its own real nicks and dings.

    An excellent summation! Count me as one of those who see “Relicing” not as an art form, but as an affront to all that is holy. (Also too, Polyurethane finishes. ;) )

  216. 216.

    frosty

    @Another Scott: OMG!!! I clicked over to the Tropes website. a) It would take me the rest of my life to go through these … and I want to. b) Who on earth found the time to catalog and describe all of these??????

    c) This is awesome, I will now try to forget I ever heard of it.

  217. 217.

    Craigie

    @dmsilev:

    The head of the police union in New York City was just today complaining that people were treating the cops there ‘like animals’.

    If the collar fits.

  218. 218.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Subsole:  God damn it! We are supposed to be encouraging his sickness, not telling him that he has a nice collection. What about a Gretsch à la Eddie Cochran? Has he ever considered a lap steel guitar? Be creative.

  219. 219.

    frosty

    @JWR: How about avoiding relicking? I love my National Style O, but jeez, trying to keep the nickel from tarnishing??? Lots of wiping it down when I’m done, some metal polishing – but not too much or the palm trees start to fade.

    Sounds great though!

  220. 220.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @JWR: Jeans should be purchased dark and pristine.  Holes, scuffs, and fading should come from living.  Also, guys should not try to dye gray away.*

    *I will not tell women what they should or should not do with their hair.

  221. 221.

    cain

    @hueyplong:

    But also don’t forget that these protests are going on indefinitely. The pandemic has given everyone a reason to keep doing this because unemployment is an all time high – they got nothing better to do.

    As people continue to start hitting the cities and the local areas – that is going to make a big push. This country is finally getting its feet underneath it – unfortunately, it took a sad set of tragedies to do galvanize it – the best we can do is honor them going forward.

  222. 222.

    cain

    @Jeffro:

    You forgot vote by mail and adding D.C. and Puerto Rico as states increasing the Democratic majorities.

    We need to consolidate our power and make sure that we don’t get punked by the EC and by polling center shenanigans and expand voting rights. In Oregon, you are already registered to vote by registering with the DMV.

    Ultimately, we need to do civil war 2: electric boogaloo – and end the southern state bullshit – it’s time for them finally come into the fold, 200 years is enough coddling.

  223. 223.

    NotMax

    @cain

    A hold doesn’t necessarily stop a bill. A hold can be overridden by the time-consuming process of a petition for cloture and the thus invoked regular procedures of cloture.

  226. 226.

    frosty

    @Omnes Omnibus: No, a lap steel is a step to far since Valued Commenter Amir is still working on chords and the fretboard. It’s a little early to change tunings.

    A resonator, now, he needs one of those!

  227. 227.

    cain

    @NotMax:

    But it’s just needless stop energy – and time waste. I dont recall seeing a Democratic senator using it in the past 30 years. I wonder why they haven’t?

  228. 228.

    frosty

    @Omnes Omnibus: If only I had enough left to dye.

    Absolutely right about the jeans. 501s and 505s used to be so stiff when they were new that they were almost unwearable. My California friends would wear them into the Pacific to break them in.

    Softer now but still not stonewashed or any of that crap.

  229. 229.

    JWR

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Between electrics and acoustics, I probably have more than 10, (but not more than 15), guitars, but I only regularly play 3 or 4. The rest are either fixer uppers for myself, or as great gift ideas.

  230. 230.

    NotMax

    @cain

    I dont recall seeing a Democratic senator using it in the past 30 years

    From 2010 (emphasis added):

    Democrats also use the tactic. Labor lawyer John Sullivan has seen his confirmation to the Federal Election Commission delayed for eight months because of concerns from Sens. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and John McCain, R-Ariz., who want Obama to fill two other vacant FEC slots dedicated to tough enforcement of campaign finance laws. Source

  231. 231.

    Ruckus

    @WaterGirl:

    Or are they unable to see that the tide is changing?

    They like shitforbrains. First, they aren’t real bright. Second, they like beating and harming people, black people specifically but really any victim will do. Third, they know, in all their wisdom, that they are 100% right about who should be running the world and what power they have to make that true. Fourth, their definition of democracy is never found in any dictionary, only in a book called Mein Kampf.

  232. 232.

    Amir Khalid

    @Subsole:

    4 is the highest I’ve ever dared go on my Fender Champion 100. It’s a budget solid-state amp with 16 onboard effects and 16 amp voicings, and if you crank it, it’s very loud.

  233. 233.

    frosty

    @JWR: I’m down to 2 electrics, 3 resonators, and a bass. I play 2 1/2 of them regularly. I should sell the baritone tricone but every time I play it it sounds  //chef’s kiss//.

    I wish I played well enough to deserve it.

  235. 235.

    Amir Khalid

    @JWR:

    I’m sorry, but I have to disagree about poly finishes, which I prefer to nitrocellulose any day.

  238. 238.

    JWR

    @Amir Khalid: But you lose that lovely old Nitrocellulose smell, not to mention the wear on an old maple Fender neck, which is to die for! ;)

    And to all the guitar geeks here right now, I used a small part of my big gubmint stimulation moolah for a new recording amp! So yay, me!

  239. 239.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @NotMax: Democrats also use the tactic. Labor lawyer John Sullivan has seen his confirmation to the Federal Election Commission delayed for eight months because of concerns from Sens. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and John McCain, R-Ariz., who want Obama to fill two other vacant FEC slots dedicated to tough enforcement of campaign finance laws.

    Well, I don’t know if this was the only instance in the time frame described but, if so, it suggests the Ds use these procedural motions only for legitimate governing purposes and not simply de rigeur to gum up the works.

  240. 240.

    Ruckus

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    You are so young.

    Which BTW means do not give up the battle. Good government takes every moment. There will always be someone trying to take advantage. Eternal vigilance is mandatory. I think some people my age seemed to forget that.

  241. 241.

    The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion

    @Kent: Dude. I don’t normally see you generalize like this.  Being gay has no correlation whatsoever to being white and middle class.  If you’re trying to say that that’s the imagery you personally associate with gay marriage, that’s your experience, but I have a problem with the idea that gay rights=white middle class.  Gay rights (including the right to marry) are human rights.  Fucking period.

  242. 242.

    Krope, the Formerly Dope

    @The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion: Dude. I don’t normally see you generalize like this.  Being gay has no correlation whatsoever to being white and middle class.  If you’re trying to say that that’s the imagery you personally associate with gay marriage, that’s your experience, but I have a problem with the idea that gay rights=white middle class.

    To help him clean it up a little, I’ll point out that gay marriage does personally affect way more white middle class people than police brutality.

  244. 244.

    JWR

    @Amir Khalid: Thank you! I think I’m gonna like it. S/B here tomorrow, so we shall see. I’ll let you know on a future late night open thread.

  245. 245.

    frosty

    @Amir Khalid: Egad, I have no idea what most of that modeling stuff means. I settled on a Silverface Deluxe Reverb. It’s the only sound I want and it’s pretty good with an SG. Well, OK, maybe I shouldn’t have sold the ’65 Vox Pathfinder (tube). It had a different sound to it.

    I’m really not a complicated guitar player.

    ETA: It’s times like this I miss SteveintheATL.

  246. 246.

    Bill Arnold

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    A result like this… I don’t know what it means.

    The pandemic, more precisely national (and local) responses to it, have stirred up polities such that many political rules-of-thumb no longer apply. This makes politics akin to e.g. Fischer random chess, where the pieces are randomly placed (with constraints); political expertise developed through long experience with the norm is much less useful. This means that activists with limited experience but with political talent are having more effect. Mistakes are being made (“#defundthepolice”?) but it’s pretty exciting; the powers that be are making piles of blunders too.

    For instance, some pandemic influences on protests in the US:
    – Tens of millions of unemployed, many of them using their free time to start paying serious attention politically, and to get involved in physical street protests.
    – Protests are all over the place, with many of them local in smaller towns and cities, because travel is effectively restricted because of danger of infection.
    – Protesters are wearing masks which is a new dynamic; e.g. masks break the face recognition that we know the government would like to use to make lists of protesters. Masks mean that people are slightly less worried about being doxed and then fired by a RWNJ employer, or physically threatened, etc.

    Not saying it’s a predictive framework; the increased level of chaos means that prediction is harder. We all need to be working to reduce the probability of bad outcomes.

    Loki is smiling. :-)
    (Not the Marvel Loki.)

  247. 247.

    JWR

    @frosty: In my heart, I’m a valve person all the way, but when it comes to recording, and not having the luxury of a soundproofed room, where tubes can really breathe, I finally took the step of going solid state  And while my good ol’ original SansAmp stompbox does a good imitation of a tube-like sound, I’m growing tired of hooking up all my effects, so transistors it is.

  248. 248.

    akryan

    @dmsilev: I’m not sure where it’s at now, but I saw a great mashup video of his speech mixed with clips of NYC cops beating up people

  249. 249.

    frosty

    @JWR: Since I don’t record and I haven’t played out electric in ages, I don’t have your constraints. I bought a Weber Mini-Mass awhile back so I can crank it without bringing on even more tinnitus. It does the job, and as another guitar friend said “You can use it to reheat your coffee, too!”

    ETA: My take on stompboxes: “I’m a guitar player, not a tap dancer!”

    ETA2: I’m kind of a Luddite. The last open mic I played, when I told the sound guy to mic the resonator, he said “There’s these things called pickups.” Right, dude, and they suck for resonators. Set up the mic, dammit.

  251. 251.

    JWR

    @frosty: “I’m a guitar player, not a tap dancer!”

    Hah, me too! Back in my performing days, all I ever used between my guitar and my ’72 Bassman 50 was an old Electro Harmonix LPB-1. (Didn’t even use my Cry Baby Wah.) But for recording, it’s hard to beat a miced up cab, (but these modeling thingies are coming pretty darn close.) Same for your Resonator. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those decked out with a pickup.

    PS. Just went out to check my snail mail, and my new wamplifier is here!

  252. 252.

    Achrachno

    @Subsole: ” Court packing is step 1. Nothing else is possible or sustainable without that.

    We are going to have to rebuild EVERYTHING. Figure one year of labor for every month this assmouth has been in office.”

     

    Agree but unpacking the courts should a high priority too.  There are criminals among the Trump appointees and we need to get them tried and convicted of their various offenses so that they’ll be evicted. Kavanaugh for perjury would be at the top my list.

  253. 253.

    JWR

    @frosty: One more PS, I just looked at the Weber Mini-Mas, (very nice!), and boy, is there too much equipment out there or what? ;)

  254. 254.

    JWR

    @Achrachno: Kavanaugh for perjury would be at the top my list.

    Oh hell yes! And I think expanding the SC (11? 13? More?) should be right up there alongside everything else.

  256. 256.

    Kent

    @The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion:@Kent: Dude. I don’t normally see you generalize like this.  Being gay has no correlation whatsoever to being white and middle class.  If you’re trying to say that that’s the imagery you personally associate with gay marriage, that’s your experience, but I have a problem with the idea that gay rights=white middle class.  Gay rights (including the right to marry) are human rights.  Fucking period.

    No, you missed my point.  A whole lot of white middle class families were directly affected by gay marriage because so many white middle class families have someone who is gay.  It is harder to ignore and dismiss when the rights involved are your brother or uncle or cousin or sister or whoever.  That’s why I think the issue flipped relatively quickly in the US. Not that gay marriage is an exclusively white middle class issue, but that it directly affected the lives of millions of white middle class people across the political spectrum.

    Police misconduct and police brutality against people of color typically never comes close to touching most middle class white families so it is a much more theoretical issue.  I’m surprised at how much traction this is all getting across America (and the world).  Basically until the past two weeks, much of white middle class America has been in denial about the issue, or at least in denial about the extent of the problem.  Especially on the GOP-leaning side.

    That’s all I was really saying.

  258. 258.

    artem1s

    @Achrachno:

    Kavanaugh for perjury would be at the top my list.

    I think you could get Kavanaugh on much, much worse than perjury.  I want him and Kennedy on whatever deal was made to keep Kennedy’s son out of jail and clear up Boof’s gambling debts.  Show the world how the insider country club set works.

  259. 259.

    Exregis

    He fell harder than was pushed.

    So what? Making fun of the physics here is irrelevant. Simple antecedents can have disastrous consequences, as any two-year old knows.

    If I gently push someone from a twenty-story building, that’s OK? If I gently squeeze a trigger, that’s OK?

    The police started an action that they knew might have disastrous consequences. They didn’t care.

  261. 261.

    J R in WV

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    What I can’t get over is how indifferent they are to being filmed. They must feel invulnerable.

    I think they hate being on video, and the presence of a video camera upsets them to the point of often leaving their first target alone to attack the person holding the camera.

    In the case of Eric Garner, his neighbor who videoed his murder has been framed and in jail since right after that crime, and there has been at least one serious attempt to poison him with rat killer in prison.

    But currently they can’t really deal with it like that because there are hundreds of cameras all on all the time. Even if there are just 2 or 3 it puts a serious damper on their violence, if they aren’t already in an out-of-control rage, which appears to frequently be the case.

    Although the murder of George Floyd appeared to be a coldly calculated crime that was enjoyed completely by a man who felt invulnerable and took his time with his goal of murder.

    I think that after the first couple of minutes kneeling there with one hand in his pocket (probably holding a weapon) it was a premeditated killing, because he could have stopped any time in the next couple of minutes and it would just have been assault and battery with intent. Don’t forget that Floyd was in custody for some time before he was thrown to the ground and killed, handcuffed already, in custody already.

    But IANAL, so many some BJ lawyers don’t want me to have an opinion like that.

  262. 262.

    J R in WV

    @burnspbesq:

    Speaking of black men dying in police custody, can you believe this shit?

    The TV production company that was riding along with Williamson County sheriff’s deputies the night they killed Javier Ambler says it destroyed all its footage.

    https://today.statesman.com/express/tuesday–june-9–2020/1?utm_source=express-edition&utm_medium=email

    Isn’t destroying evidence of a crime in itself a crime also, too??? Doesn’t it make one an accomplice after the fact? Do you think the TV production folks gave a single thought to that?

  263. 263.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @different-church-lady: They have been told that they are at war for ages.  They are given the tools of war and taught they are going in “hostile territory”, they are also convinced that anyone (specifically any black person, any street person, poor person, etc) who does not show the proper deference and who does not answer their questions, deserves to be harassed, arrested, etc.

    How may times have cops gotten in someone face or harassed/arrested a young, black person simply for existing while black.  This is not new.

    For example:

     
    “In March 2018, a group of black and Hispanic boys aged 8 to 14 were walking home, talking and laughing. Some of them played with sticks picked up from the ground, the CCRB report states.
    While on the sidewalk, multiple police cars approached. The officers exited their cars, one with his gun drawn, and told the boys to get against the wall. They complied and were all frisked by the officers, and no weapons were found, the report states. In all, eight to 10 police cars and 10 to 16 officers responded to the scene, the report states.
    The lieutenant on scene decided to take the 8-year-old and 14-year-old to the station and processed them for disorderly conduct after officers reported seeing the children running with sticks, the report states. The two boys were transported there while handcuffed and in tears, the report says.”

    8 year old handcuffed for carrying a stick

    “The CCRB report released Monday examines 112 fully investigated complaints involving young New Yorkers between January 2018 and June 2019.”

     

    8 to 10 police cars showed up to harass a group of kids. Let that sink in for a minute.

  264. 264.

    J R in WV

    @Eolirin:

    Well of course, but it also means there’s a recognition that they’re on the wrong side of the issue. That’s new with this one. That feels significant somehow.

    Except you completely ignore the very high odds that they are lying in their teeth about supporting police reform.

    They want to take charge of police reform so that they can ensure that any bill passed and signed will be meaningless blather that does nothing to protect the average person being confronted by a violent cop in a rage for no reason, or any reason.

    ETA: Are you that gullible, or are you part of the Republican Senatorial staff?

  265. 265.

    J R in WV

    @Luciamia:

    Well of course, but it also means there’s a recognition that they’re on the wrong side of the issue. That’s new with this one. That feels significant somehow.

    It stands for Ant-Fascist, which the media wants to conceal and confuse.

    Why would a tropical island be involved in our politics?

    Versus why would anyone oppose fighting Fascists? Our parents were anti-fascists, dropped bombs on them, shot them with combat rifles and machine guns and tanks, etc, etc.

    FDR was Anti-Fa! Kennedy was too… And Republicans, well not so much. Henry Ford loved him some fascism, for example, as did IBM.

  266. 266.

    J R in WV

    @NotMax:

    Consider white or khaki jeans an offense to FSM and Man?

    Like some others have commented, my office had a strict policy against wearing “blue jeans” to work in the office. Ignoring the fact that “jeans” come in at least 6 or 8 colors.

    Many coworkers who were in the field a lot (biologists. geologists, inspectors) wore uniform shirts with blue jeans nearly all the time. I just wore polo shirts with the departmental logo and brown/khaki/pale green jeans mostly.

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