• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

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

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

In my day, never was longer.

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / It’s Not the Sex, It’s the Hypocrisy and Fraud

It’s Not the Sex, It’s the Hypocrisy and Fraud

by @heymistermix.com|  August 24, 20203:01 pm| 334 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

FacebookTweetEmail

Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife Becki had hotwife/cuck relationships with a series of young men, the first of whom has spilled all the beans. Via Michael Cohen, Trump probably leveraged this relationship to get an endorsement out of Falwell.

We know that Cohen struck up a relationship with Falwell as far back as 2011/2012. We know that he got involved in helping keep the couple’s secrets, including hushing up compromising photos of Becki. It was as late as 2015 when Cohen helped the Falwells deal with the photos – photos which were apparently connected to another fit young man close to the couple.

I’m sure a lot of stories will be written about the sexual details of this relationship, but the fucking disgrace of it all is that a charitable organization was flying around young men in its private jet for assignations, and large sums of money were given to these guys. This isn’t (just) a sexual scandal, it’s a fraud scandal, and Falwell should go to jail for stealing money from donors and violating the tax code. I’m just going to guess that the fraud won’t be the headline in most papers. Fuck who you want how you want, as long as its consensual and no minors are involved, but unless hotwifing is a tenet of your religion, pay your fucking taxes on the money you use to transport, house and employ your fuckbois.

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Roll Call (Open Thread)
Next Post: Celebrating Jackals: LAMH Has Some News! Celebrating Jackals: LAMH Has Some News!»

Reader Interactions

334Comments

  1. 1.

    germy

    August 24, 2020 at 3:03 pm

    “Hotwifing”

    I didn’t know there was a name for it.

  2. 2.

    download my app in the app store mistermix

    August 24, 2020 at 3:08 pm

    https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hotwife

  3. 3.

    PaulWartenberg

    August 24, 2020 at 3:08 pm

    I need to keep up, so this is the stuff Falwell Junior is accused of, isn’t Franklin Graham facing sex scandal stuff too?

  4. 4.

    Ian R

    August 24, 2020 at 3:09 pm

    @germy: For any imaginable fetish:

    • Someone is into it
    • There’s a website for it
    • There’s jargon dealing with it
  5. 5.

    Hoodie

    August 24, 2020 at 3:11 pm

     

    It’s always the grift.  We now have betrayals of the three legs of Trump’s base: (1) wrecking the “wonderful economy” (he inherited from Obama) through mismanagement of COVID; (2) ripping off xenophobic Americans (who were never going to get their wall) through allowing and even supporting Bannon’s hijinks; and (3) cover up the kinks of the fundagelicals’ leader to blackmail him for support even though Trump is a complete libertine.

  6. 6.

    Yutsano

    August 24, 2020 at 3:11 pm

    @germy: I’m actually pretty open to these things, but that’s a new term to me as well.

  7. 7.

    JPL

    August 24, 2020 at 3:12 pm

    This isn’t (just) a sexual scandal, it’s a fraud scandal, and Falwell should go to jail for stealing money from donors and violating the tax code. I’m just going to guess that the fraud won’t be the headline in most papers.

     

    yup

  8. 8.

    Betty Cracker

    August 24, 2020 at 3:13 pm

    Josh Marshall (as linked in the OP) has been all over the extortion angle for the endorsement in 2016 and points out that it was a big fucking deal at the time. He’s right.

  9. 9.

    Kay

    August 24, 2020 at 3:14 pm

    Evangelicals don’t care about hypocrisy and fraud. It’s just a really strange religion. There’s no accountability at all in it. There’s a million rules but none of them ever enforced against the members- they only apply to people who are not members. If he’s “in” and says he’s sorry that’s the end of the analysis.

    I genuinely don’t get it and never have. It’s not rigorous at all. 

  10. 10.

    MattF

    August 24, 2020 at 3:14 pm

    And, yeah, ‘cuck’ is the all-purpose RW insult. Yet another entertaining diorama for the Museum of Psychopathology.

  11. 11.

    trollhattan

    August 24, 2020 at 3:15 pm

    @Yutsano:

    Ranks right up there with “underbusing.”

  12. 12.

    Calouste

    August 24, 2020 at 3:16 pm

    @Kay: Accept jeebus as your savior and all your sins past, present, and future are forgiven. That sounds like a really good deal to some people.

  13. 13.

    Citizen Alan

    August 24, 2020 at 3:17 pm

    @download my app in the app store mistermix:

    The most amazing thing to me about all this is that one of the biggest go-to insults that Trump Trash have for Democrats is that we’re all “beta cucks.” I know we like to say that everything with Republicans is projection, but I have never heard of a Democrat paying to watch someone else have sex with his wife, and yet it’s all over the place in the GOP. Hell, arguably we only got President Obama because Jeri Ryan was so disgusted by her husband Jack Ryan pressuring her to get gangbanged in a sex club that she dragged out all his dirty laundry in the middle of the 2006 Illinois Senate campaign.

  14. 14.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 3:17 pm

    I wonder how much of Trumps evangelical support is thanks to Trump/Cohen/Pecker blackmailing Falwell over this?

  15. 15.

    Kay

    August 24, 2020 at 3:18 pm

    You think of the other fundie religions – they are forbidden to do this, or eat that, etc. but this applies to the MEMBERS.

    Not fundie Christians. The restrictions only apply to people who are not members. Just nuts. It’s as if you were in an HOA and you said “no one outside this HOA can have blue shutters!” Why belong to the HOA at all?

  16. 16.

    PJ

    August 24, 2020 at 3:19 pm

    @Kay: It doesn’t matter that Trump extorted Jr’s endorsement, Trump is still God’s instrument, and so is Jerry Jr.

  17. 17.

    lgerard

    August 24, 2020 at 3:20 pm

    Looks like this story might need a bit more investigation

  18. 18.

    CliosFanBoy

    August 24, 2020 at 3:20 pm

    @Ian R: It’s a tag on PornHub.  um, so I’m told, by a friend.

  19. 19.

    Hoodie

    August 24, 2020 at 3:20 pm

    @Martin: Initially, probably quite a bit.  Falwell was an early validator.  Now, it depends on how much they’ve fallen into the cult of personality.

  20. 20.

    Kay

    August 24, 2020 at 3:21 pm

    @Calouste:

    I get the “protection” part but wouldn’t it just be easier not to cast the first stone?

    The only people they need protection from is themselves. I was not telling them what to do and frankly I would rather not know what they do.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    August 24, 2020 at 3:21 pm

    @Kay:

    The Blue Shutterites are immoral and going straight to hell.

  22. 22.

    Spinoza Is My Co-pilot

    August 24, 2020 at 3:22 pm

    Rank hypocrisy is one of the key attributes of our Talibangicals. Maybe the most prominent one, actually.

    Damn, but I would love to see the looks on the faces of the many holier-than-thous who were at a close family member’s (well, their daughter — recent Liberty grad) wedding in Lynchburg a couple years back, when they encounter this “Revelation”.

    This needs to be weaponized as much as possible against the hordes of people who are in various intersecting versions of this incredibly-toxic form of religion, because they constitute the most important bloc of foot-soldiers for American-style fascism. Falwell and Liberty U aren’t bit players, either, but currently sit at the very top of the heap.

  23. 23.

    Kay

    August 24, 2020 at 3:22 pm

    @PJ:

    The truth is they show extremely poor judgment and that’s why they’re always having to excuse their leaders.

    They pick bad people. Consistently.

  24. 24.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 24, 2020 at 3:22 pm

    @Martin: A lot. But it goes beyond Pecker and Cohen. It has been repeatedly reported that the President has the phones at his commercial resort properties set up so he can listen in and record calls whenever he wants. Specifically, Mar a Lago. It has been repeatedly reported that he would call “friends” whose wives he wanted to have sex with, try to get them talking about women who are not their wives about having sex with them, tape those calls, and then if the “friends” he was talking with took his bait, he’d call the wives and play the recordings for them to try to manipulate them into having an affair with him to get back at their wayward husbands. It has been widely reported that he would regularly insert himself into high profile divorces for well connected and influential people, including offering his executive conference room at Trump Tower as neutral ground for the negotiations. Which he then had recorded. The reporting on this only names one notable person, Rupert Murdoch, that did this. Basically, this allowed the President to have a complete record of Rupert Murdoch’s divorce that he could later use as leverage with Murdoch and therefore with all of his news media properties. It would not surprise me it it eventually comes out that the dining rooms at Mar a Lago and his golf clubs and resorts are bugged, as well as the conference rooms and ballrooms so that everything said at meals, at events like weddings and fundraisers, etc is routinely collected for his use.

  25. 25.

    dmsilev

    August 24, 2020 at 3:24 pm

    @Citizen Alan: That was 2004. I had just moved to Illinois from Maryland, so that race gave me the rather uncomfortable feeling that Alan Keyes was following me across the country.

  26. 26.

    thalarctosMaritimus

    August 24, 2020 at 3:25 pm

    @Kay: So that you can have blue shutters, I guess.

  27. 27.

    Keith P.

    August 24, 2020 at 3:26 pm

    This story is what frustrates me about media.  The Granda story was already pretty well-known, but also well-known was the story about Falwell and his wife’s personal trainer (there was an odd pic of Jerry and the trainer during a livestream).  I haven’t seen a single story about the latest allegations that mention that Falwell later helped his personal trainer acquire some Liberty U. land to build a gym.   How many more of these guys are there?

  28. 28.

    dmsilev

    August 24, 2020 at 3:26 pm

    @Martin: Originally, a lot. Now, though, Trump is the head of the cult and it basically doesn’t matter what he or anyone does or says as far as the core supporters are concerned.

  29. 29.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 3:26 pm

    @Kay: It’s about who is in and who is out. That’s the point. That way they can take the benefits of society and deny the benefits to those who are paying for the benefits.

    It’s why they move so seamlessly in and out of racist and sexist positions – they’re just other instruments to achieve the same goal. Evangelicalism has the same moral foundation as theft. It’s just more ambitious in scope.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    August 24, 2020 at 3:28 pm

    @Baud:

    He should be shunned! That’s what the fundie religions with standards would do. Without the shunning it’s just scolding and lecturing people who aren’t even in your religion. They took all the hard parts out.

  31. 31.

    Eunicecycle

    August 24, 2020 at 3:29 pm

    @germy: I thought it had something to do with WiFi.

  32. 32.

    Winston

    August 24, 2020 at 3:30 pm

    Katie Porter was disappointing after all this time. I did like AOC though.

  33. 33.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 24, 2020 at 3:30 pm

    @lgerard: This is the other major cheating and fraud scandal that will eventually break. Though in this case, Falwell’s trainer is married. So either his wife is involved in the affair or Falwell got his husband to cheat on her.

  34. 34.

    different-church-lady

    August 24, 2020 at 3:30 pm

    The question here is: what might Falwell know about Trump?

  35. 35.

    GregMulka

    August 24, 2020 at 3:31 pm

    @Ian R:

    https://xkcd.com/305/

    XKCD is almost to Simpsons level of they did a comic for that.

  36. 36.

    PJ

    August 24, 2020 at 3:31 pm

    @Kay: That’s because the only thing that matters is that the leader publicly say the right words, defend the group, and attack anyone outside the group.  For them, that’s the function of a leader.  Actually working competently, and attaining any goals, or being, you know, a morally good person and doing good works, is irrelevant.  It’s about making the members of the group feel good about themselves.  (This isn’t just evangelicals, but many kinds of cults, and I would say racists, too.)

  37. 37.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 3:32 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: That’s my sense too.

    It seems to me there’s a zillion lessons here you could give us regarding the hazards of creating circumstances for blackmail (not in the nature of the relationship, but by lying about being a moral beacon against that kind of relationship), the consequences of being caught up in that blackmail, and what this probably tells us about Trump who probably knew he had this in his pocket when he decided to run.

    The value of this wasn’t realized today – it was realized back in 2015 when Trump knew he could build on top of Falwells lie, with Falwells help.

  38. 38.

    Just Chuck

    August 24, 2020 at 3:33 pm

    @Ian R: 
    Also known as Rule 34 of the Internet: if you can imagine it, there’s porn of it.

  39. 39.

    LuciaMia

    August 24, 2020 at 3:33 pm

    Cant Falwell blame it all on political partisanship, like Bannon?

  40. 40.

    Ken

    August 24, 2020 at 3:34 pm

    @Ian R: The strong form of Rule 34 says that if you make up some completely bizarre fetish – say, by drawing nouns at random from the scrabble dictionary – you’ll still find websites and jargon for it, because they spontaneously spring into existence at the moment you imagine the fetish, with false histories going back six years.

  41. 41.

    JaySinWA

    August 24, 2020 at 3:34 pm

    @Kay: How are they supposed to get pleasure from breaking a taboo if they don’t have a taboo in the first place? Check and Mate.

  42. 42.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 3:34 pm

    @different-church-lady: Only that Trump was blackmailing him. Which is enough.

  43. 43.

    zhena gogolia

    August 24, 2020 at 3:35 pm

    Dammit, you guys, I have to get some work done!

    I took a break from listening to Ray Liotta — I mean DeJoy, and went out to get my mail because I had seen the truck a minute before. The truck was still there. As I got closer, I saw the mail carrier leafing happily through my TV Guide, not in any big hurry to move on. I started laughing and turned to go back in the house and tell my husband, and then the truck sped off down the road.

  44. 44.

    sdhays

    August 24, 2020 at 3:36 pm

    How the hell did I forget that Dump allegedly used this to blackmail Falwell for an endorsement??

  45. 45.

    zhena gogolia

    August 24, 2020 at 3:36 pm

    @Martin:

    Let’s do Lindsay Graham next. Mitch McConnell might be in line as well.

  46. 46.

    Mary G

    August 24, 2020 at 3:37 pm

    I love this woman:

    Within seconds, Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) gets DeJoy to admit that he knows “very little about postage and stamps.” pic.twitter.com/s0SD57Ftze— Matt Wilstein (@mattwilstein) August 24, 2020

  47. 47.

    Kay

    August 24, 2020 at 3:37 pm

    @PJ:

    I liked a lot of the things they tell kids “bloom where you are planted”, “you’re second, other people are first” – I like aspirational standards- but now I just take inspirational quotes from Friday Night Lights and it’s basically the same ideas. These are universal ideas, can we agree on that? :)

  48. 48.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 24, 2020 at 3:37 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    As I said in the basement, I think he and Becki transitioned to full-on swaps.

  49. 49.

    MattF

    August 24, 2020 at 3:38 pm

    @Martin: However, the story doesn’t appear to have a Russian angle… Yet.

  50. 50.

    PJ

    August 24, 2020 at 3:39 pm

    @zhena gogolia: I would bet that Mitch McConnell hasn’t actually thought about having sex, let alone had it, in years.  His wife, on the other hand, may be another matter.

  51. 51.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 24, 2020 at 3:39 pm

    Breaking911 @Breaking911 ·1h
    Twitter explodes claiming Trump laughs after an audience member yells “monkey” at the mention of Obama. Others think the man yelled “Spygate”

    Another attendee shouts “Sleepy Joe” and the President says “let’s be nice. Biden.”

    We report, you decide!

    sure as hell didn’t sound like “spy gate” to me

  52. 52.

    catclub

    August 24, 2020 at 3:39 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: This suggests competence and patience in carrying out a scheme,  It also suggests some well paid technician keeping quiet.

     

    I am doubtful.

  53. 53.

    zhena gogolia

    August 24, 2020 at 3:40 pm

    @Mary G:

    She is good.

    ETA: What’s so revealing about that clip is the arrogant smirk on his face. It says, “How in hell does this woman expect me to know what the little people have to pay to mail a postcard? And why should I be expected to know anything about the business I’m supposedly in charge of?”

  54. 54.

    International Mikey

    August 24, 2020 at 3:40 pm

    @Ian R: and there’s a resort in Jamaica that will accommodate it…

  55. 55.

    JaySinWA

    August 24, 2020 at 3:41 pm

    @Ken:because they spontaneously spring into existence at the moment you imagine the fetish,

    The power of pervertative thinking?

  56. 56.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    August 24, 2020 at 3:41 pm

    Re-upped from below:

    I blogged about people being happier if they have a project. I think we’ve talked about this sort of on BJ sometimes.

  57. 57.

    PJ

    August 24, 2020 at 3:41 pm

    @Kay: There’s a reason why platitudes become platitudes.

  58. 58.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 3:41 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Throw Hannity on that pile.

    Hard to tell among conservatives who is being blackmailed and who is sufficiently motivated to do anything for the grift.

    Kind of expect to learn that they’re all blackmailing each other – like a mafia family. The only way to win is for nobody to ever talk, but everyone has something on everyone else.

  59. 59.

    PPCLI

    August 24, 2020 at 3:42 pm

    As I recall, Paul Manafort also had a taste for watching his wife with other men. In Manafort’s case his wife found it extremely distasteful and was put under major emotional pressure to do Manafort’s bidding. I suspect something similar was the case here.

  60. 60.

    catclub

    August 24, 2020 at 3:42 pm

    @zhena gogolia: I saw the mail carrier leafing happily through my TV Guide,

     

    so that’s what they are calling it nowadays.

  61. 61.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    August 24, 2020 at 3:43 pm

    @zhena gogolia: TV Guide? Wow, you are a traditionalist.

  62. 62.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 24, 2020 at 3:43 pm

    @Keith P.: There’s a picture that Falwell put out just last week on social media of him, with his trainer, doing hip thrusts where he has two teenage girls, and they were young teenage girls, clearly under 16, giggling and fawning over him, stand on each side of the bar, inside where the weights are, to add additional “weight” to the lift. He had 235 on the bar. But the whole thing was creepy and I say that as someone who has maxed out a leg machine and asked a friend who is a trainer, though she is my age, to stand on the rack because I can’t add any more weight. What Falwell was doing was not this. It was just sort of creepy. Given the religious community he’s in and grew up in and their history of grooming young girls for early marriage, I’m not surprised by this, but it is still creepy.

  63. 63.

    JaySinWA

    August 24, 2020 at 3:43 pm

    @Kay:“bloom where you are planted”, “you’re second, other people are first”

    That kind of describes what Falwell is accused of.

  64. 64.

    PJ

    August 24, 2020 at 3:44 pm

    @Martin: Bingo.

  65. 65.

    RaflW

    August 24, 2020 at 3:44 pm

    On the topic of fraud, Rep. Katie Porter has drawn blood.

    Porter: If you did not order these actions to be taken, please tell the committee who did.
    DeJoy: I do not know.

    Holy hell. He should be a smoking ruin by sundown. The Postmaster General doesn’t know who took the most consequential decision of 2020 for the USPS.
    But of course Trumpers will try to brazen it out. We shall see.

  66. 66.

    PJ

    August 24, 2020 at 3:44 pm

    @JaySinWA: Ha!

  67. 67.

    zhena gogolia

    August 24, 2020 at 3:44 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I am! They have good articles, and they alert me to things of interest coming on streaming. They also have a crossword puzzle.

  68. 68.

    hells littlest angel

    August 24, 2020 at 3:45 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: 

    Yucch. No wonder he’s never been able to find the time to do his fucking job.

  69. 69.

    cmorenc

    August 24, 2020 at 3:45 pm

    Fuck who you want how you want, as long as its consensual and no minors are involved…

    I was skim-reading too quickly through this sentence and at first misread the following portion as: “as long as it’s consensual and no mirrors are involved”… Um, what’s the problem with tha….OH! minors!  Well, never mind :=)

  70. 70.

    Ken

    August 24, 2020 at 3:45 pm

    @zhena gogolia: And not just a crossword puzzle, a Magnum PI themed crossword puzzle.

  71. 71.

    Fraud Guy

    August 24, 2020 at 3:45 pm

    @Kay: It’s a bad amalgamation of the concept of being the chosen people of god and predestination.  God knows/has chosen who will be who will be saved (the Elect), and they will be saved regardless of whether that person lives a blameless life or one full of sin (as it is the will of God, and beyond mortals).  I think it was Calvin who started this thread.

    Since they are Elect, they can do whatever they want, and God will save them in the end.

  72. 72.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    August 24, 2020 at 3:45 pm

    I’ve been busy this afternoon and just checked in. So Trump already spoke today? Is he speaking again tonight or is that it?

  73. 73.

    RaflW

    August 24, 2020 at 3:46 pm

    On this sordid* subject, I still don’t think this is the whole story. I just do not believe that Jerry sat in a chair and just watched. Nope nope nopity nope.

    *consenting adults are free to do as they wish. It is sordid because of his position as an evangelical and president of a school with a strict moral code, as the OP makes clear.

  74. 74.

    JPL

    August 24, 2020 at 3:47 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: No way that is spy gate.  If he said spy gate, trump would have started a chant, rather than just giggle and move along.

  75. 75.

    PPCLI

    August 24, 2020 at 3:48 pm

    @RaflW:

    DeJoy: I have no idea who ordered the sorting machines removed, I’m mad as hell about it, but there is no goddamned way I am going to let them be put back.

  76. 76.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 3:49 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: He’s speaking again tonight. Every night apparently.

    This is going to be the wildest run of grievances we’ve ever heard anywhere.

  77. 77.

    RedDirtGirl

    August 24, 2020 at 3:49 pm

    @Kay: It seems to me that they can sin all they want because they will be “forgiven” by their god. It is the godless lefties and democrats that are truly evil, since they don’t have a god to clean up their messes.

  78. 78.

    Ken

    August 24, 2020 at 3:50 pm

    @Fraud Guy: I think it was Calvin who started this thread.

    No, pretty sure it was mistermix.

    Seriously, though, the idea of a pre-selected elect has been around since at least the first century, and there’s a passage in Romans that’s usually cited by those who believe in it.

  79. 79.

    Kristine

    August 24, 2020 at 3:50 pm

    @Fraud Guy @Kay

    Since they are Elect, they can do whatever they want, and God will save them in the end.

    I remember a mid-80s era co-worker who said the same thing. I forget whether they called themselves evangelical or born again, but they felt that it didn’t matter what they did in this life as they would be saved in the end.

    Do I need to add that they were a really shitty person?

    :

  80. 80.

    RaflW

    August 24, 2020 at 3:51 pm

    @Betty Cracker: The NYT covered the possible endorsement-getting scandal. In 2018!

  81. 81.

    Ken

    August 24, 2020 at 3:51 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: So Trump already spoke today? Is he speaking again tonight or is that it?

    He’s speaking every night, and if today is typical he’s also going to take up as much of the day as he can.  I pity the people who have to adjust his meds.

  82. 82.

    Spinoza Is My Co-pilot

    August 24, 2020 at 3:51 pm

    @JaySinWA: Hah!

  83. 83.

    MattF

    August 24, 2020 at 3:52 pm

    @Ken: Also Revelation. Try googling on ‘144,000 saints’.

  84. 84.

    JaySinWA

    August 24, 2020 at 3:53 pm

    @JPL: What was that blue/gold dress audio thing?  Where you heard two different words? yanny/laurel? I swear the first time I listened I expected Monkey and I heard Monkey, replaying later I hear SpyGate and something inaudible.
    Of course Donny’s response doesn’t make much sense if it is SpyGate.

  85. 85.

    JPL

    August 24, 2020 at 3:53 pm

    The events of the last twenty-four hours include

    Kellyanne

    Melania  says mean things about her husband (well, duh)

    Jerry Falwell

    Eric Trump took the fifth

    DeJoy see no evil, hear no evil

    various crimes and probably no misdemeanors

    What am I missing?

  86. 86.

    MattF

    August 24, 2020 at 3:55 pm

    @JPL: It’s a day of the week ending in ‘y’.

  87. 87.

    JPL

    August 24, 2020 at 3:55 pm

    @JaySinWA: I hope you interpretation is correct, because if he did say monkey, they need to boot him from the convention.

  88. 88.

    rp

    August 24, 2020 at 3:55 pm

    @Baud: But teal is fine, right?

  89. 89.

    Ken

    August 24, 2020 at 3:56 pm

    @JPL: Trump lies over 60 times in his morning remarks at the RNC. But that’s not really news, is it?

  90. 90.

    patrick II

    August 24, 2020 at 3:56 pm

    @germy:

    My vocabulary has grown (but not necessarily improved) in the Trump years.

  91. 91.

    Aleta

    August 24, 2020 at 3:56 pm

    The biggest disgrace is the blackmail-type coercion that Trump and cohorts use to gain money and political control.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    August 24, 2020 at 3:56 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    “Sleepy Joe” didn’t take off though. Either did “China Flu”. Is there anything lamer than a derogatory nickname that no one else picks up and uses?

  93. 93.

    laura

    August 24, 2020 at 3:58 pm

    The hypocracy and the Benjamin’s. Who but men of “faith” are free to make a buck off of their pussy fever and deign to tell others how to live a life “walking their faith.”
    Same as it ever fucking was. In his name.

  94. 94.

    Kay

    August 24, 2020 at 3:59 pm

    @Aleta:

    I knew he was blackmailing people. It was the obvious reason they’re all so terrified of him.

    I don’t think GOP congresspeople want him to win. We’re the only people who can save them from their own cowardice and weakness. We’ll get rid of their fucking MONSTER for them, because they were too chickenshit to do it themselves. You’re welcome, Republicans. You spineless weasels.

  95. 95.

    JaySinWA

    August 24, 2020 at 3:59 pm

    @JPL: My interpretation is that he said something obnoxious, possibly monkey, but like the laurel/yanny thing the audio is so distorted that what you hear is based in part on expectations and the audio quality of the equipment you are playing it on.

    But nobody is getting booted from that convention for saying something racist.

  96. 96.

    Delk

    August 24, 2020 at 4:00 pm

    And yet my 21 year monogamous same-sex relationship is destroying traditional marriage.

  97. 97.

    UncleEbeneezer

    August 24, 2020 at 4:00 pm

    Yeah, I could care less if people want to watch their spouses have sex.  It’s a pretty common kink as various websites illustrate pretty clearly with the prominence of categories like HotWife, SharedWife, Swinger and other voyeuristic terms.

    “Cuckold” is a bit more problematic because it usually has some blatant racism, sexism and homophobia in the mix, which is why Republicans love to use “Cuck” as a slur.  The insinuation is that the recipient of the slur isn’t man enough, straight enough or white enough to control/please his wife and it is based on a notion that the wife is his property.  This last part is what makes it such a popular term amongst conservatives because wife-as-property is pretty much central to their worldview.

  98. 98.

    James E Powell

    August 24, 2020 at 4:01 pm

    @PJ:

    That’s because the only thing that matters is that the leader publicly say the right words, defend the group, and attack anyone outside the group.

    Most especially that last one. The fundies get a weird high when they are talking about the people they hate.

  99. 99.

    zhena gogolia

    August 24, 2020 at 4:01 pm

    @Kay:

    Hahaha

  100. 100.

    Jeffro

    August 24, 2020 at 4:01 pm

    @JPL: didn’t the stuff from trumpov’s sister (where she says he has no principles/can’t be trusted) break over the weekend?

  101. 101.

    Spanky

    August 24, 2020 at 4:01 pm

    @PPCLI:

    DeJoy: I have no idea who ordered the sorting machines removed, I’m mad as hell about it, but there is no goddamned way I am going to let them be put back.

    Congress takes a dim view of being lied to, and all it will take is one email proven to come from DeJoy. He may think he’s safe, but I doubt Trump will remember him in the long list of pardons he’ll be trying to sign on the morning of January 20.

  102. 102.

    sdhays

    August 24, 2020 at 4:01 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I haven’t listened to the audio, but I’m struck by that screenshot. “Florida – 122 delegates at stake“.

    WTF? It would have been bizarre in the DNC, which actually had a contested primary, but it’s just so absurd for the RNC, which didn’t even have an uncontested primary.

    And I knew that Dump was going to be speaking every night, but f*ck! He’s just going to be hanging out there all week? There’s no point in pretending he has other shit to do? As, you know, President of the United States?

  103. 103.

    zhena gogolia

    August 24, 2020 at 4:01 pm

    @Delk:

    inorite

  104. 104.

    Flanders' Other Neighbor

    August 24, 2020 at 4:01 pm

    Remember Ozzy vs Jimmy Swaggart?
    A devil with a crucifix
    Brimstone and fire
    He needs another carnal fix
    To take him higher and higher
    Now Jimmy, he got busted with his pants down
    Repent ye wretched sinners, self righteous clown

    Ozzy is no angel, but he also never claimed to be.

  105. 105.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 24, 2020 at 4:02 pm

    @Winston:

    I thought they were both terrific! Shame their seniority is still so low that they aren’t heard from until almost the end of the proceedings. But Katie Porter getting DeJoy to admit he had no idea of what it costs to mail a postcard — that was worth the wait :-)

  106. 106.

    laura

    August 24, 2020 at 4:03 pm

    • @Delk: yes Delk- spouse and I find ourselves returning to your Union as the source of all our woes….except we don’t.  We just hope that you are happy and your grieving your boon companion Gav may have eased a bit with the passage of time.
  107. 107.

    Kay

    August 24, 2020 at 4:03 pm

    Jeff Zeleny
    @jeffzeleny
    ·2h
    A senior GOP strategist, who is not a “Never Trumper” and often gives the president the benefit of the doubt, tells me: “If what we just heard is a preview of the President’s message for the week, he loses and we lose. We can kiss the Senate goodbye if the tone doesn’t change.”

    No one believes in Donald Trump like GOP strategists and the NYTimes political team believe in Donald Trump. The Pivot. Any day now.
    He’s not gonna change. He’s bad all the way down. He couldn’t be better if he tried. It just isn’t in him. It’s like asking a cardboard box to be a turtle.

  108. 108.

    Spanky

    August 24, 2020 at 4:04 pm

    @James E Powell: It’s not just their hate. They also have to be persecuted by those that they’re forced – FORCED, I tell you – to hate.

  109. 109.

    Jeffro

    August 24, 2020 at 4:04 pm

    .

  110. 110.

    JaySinWA

    August 24, 2020 at 4:05 pm

    @Kay: There’s an alternate explanation of the power Trump holds over most people that is not exactly extortion. It’s a form of corruption where he entices them to be part of a lie perhaps about something small, then things escalate as they try to keep hiding the lies that cascade from that. I believe Adam explained a version of that in an earlier post about how spies snare people.

  111. 111.

    Ken

    August 24, 2020 at 4:05 pm

    @Kay: Is there anything lamer than a derogatory nickname that no one else picks up and uses?

    Only trying to grant yourself a cool nickname, like “Buck,” and no one picks it up.  Sob.

  112. 112.

    Kay

    August 24, 2020 at 4:05 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I love Katie Porter but this is one where the GOP defectors matter, and there are quite a few of them.

    Ruining mail delivery turns out not to be politically popular. A stupid, clueless blunder by the Trump people.

  113. 113.

    Betty Cracker

    August 24, 2020 at 4:05 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Trump certainly didn’t think the man yelled “Spygate” because he reacted with a Northern bigot’s delight at his Southern brethren’s more forthright version of racism.

    He said, “Only in North Carolina can you get away with that,” or something to that effect. He did the same thing when some yahoo in Florida screamed “shoot them!” when he mentioned undocumented immigrants in a speech: “Only in the Panhandle,” with an identical indulgent chuckle.

  114. 114.

    Kay

    August 24, 2020 at 4:07 pm

    @Ken:

    Ha! I forgot about that. That’s a little bit endearing though. It’s not mean.

    They’re mean. Mean people. That’s why they’re unpopular.

  115. 115.

    Betty Cracker

    August 24, 2020 at 4:08 pm

    @Flanders’ Other Neighbor: FYI, for some reason, using an apostrophe in your user name on this blog gets your comment hung up in moderation. Looks like nothing can be done about that weird technical glitch, so you might want to consider losing the apostrophe, The Other Neighbor of Flanders. ;-)

  116. 116.

    sdhays

    August 24, 2020 at 4:08 pm

    @Delk: You should send Jerry an apology. How could you do this to him?

    ETA:

    // – Just in case it wasn’t completely obvious!

  117. 117.

    Jeffro

    August 24, 2020 at 4:08 pm

    @Kay: it’s like their thought processes won’t allow them to stop, just for a half-second, and ask, “Have I ever seen Donald trumpov restrain himself from acting out for more than a day, or act the part of a moderately decent human being for more than an hour?  No?  Then perhaps I should quit acting like it’s a possibility, and come out and say so.”

    Truly, a triumph of hope over experience (after experience after experience after experience)

  118. 118.

    germy

    August 24, 2020 at 4:10 pm

    In this 3-way call from 2018, “Becki [Falwell] complained about Granda describing his relationships with other people: ‘He’s like telling me every time he hooks up with people. Like I don’t have feelings or something.’ Jerry then chimed in: ‘You’re going to make her jealous.'” pic.twitter.com/OhhNcqfclP

    — Billy Corben (@BillyCorben) August 24, 2020

  119. 119.

    Kay

    August 24, 2020 at 4:11 pm

    @JaySinWA:

    I think fancy people let him into their orbit for years and they (rightfully) fear he will reveal their weaknesses. He’s like a hugely powerful, malicious gossip.

    Fuck them. Why are they so stupid that they let him in? Again- poor judges of character. They should find better quality associates.

  120. 120.

    Jeffro

    August 24, 2020 at 4:11 pm

    Minor point: if actual proof comes out that trumpov was blackmailing Falwell Jr for his initial endorsement/continued support…if Falwell cracks and throws trumpov under the bus…

    …nah, what am I thinking?  The evangelicals will just rag on Falwell Jr for trying to blame their Orange Idol.  Never mind.

  121. 121.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 24, 2020 at 4:12 pm

    @Delk: You and your partner know what you both did!//

    More seriously, it is not and may you both have 21 more happy and healthy years together!

  122. 122.

    Cheryl Rofer

    August 24, 2020 at 4:12 pm

    @Kay: I took that comment as extremely encouraging, for the very reason that he can’t change and he’s not going to.

  123. 123.

    Noncarborundum

    August 24, 2020 at 4:12 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have to say it sounds a lot more like “spygate” than “monkey” to me.  The vowel of the second syllable seems to be a long a, which wouldn’t match up with “monkey”.

  124. 124.

    Ken

    August 24, 2020 at 4:14 pm

    @germy: According to their public facade, the Falwells really should have been counseling that young man to cease his philandering ways and enter a stable monogamous relationship sanctified by marriage. Complaining that he’s making them jealous doesn’t really fit, does it?

  125. 125.

    Kent

    August 24, 2020 at 4:15 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Maybe.  But EVERY fucking evangelical leader and fundie was in the tank for Trump in 2016.  Every damn one of them. I don’t think they ALL had pool boy scandals to hide.  I highly doubt that Falwell was going to endorse Clinton except for the dirt they had on him.

  126. 126.

    Flanders Other Neighbor

    August 24, 2020 at 4:15 pm

    @Betty Cracker:  I just assumed you guys knew me well enough to keep a careful watch on me.  Flanders also moved a couple of years ago, so maybe I should update my nym.  Like crazy people other neighbor?

  127. 127.

    Kay

    August 24, 2020 at 4:15 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Is IS nice for us because it means they’ve given up on the presidency and are trying to save the senate.

  128. 128.

    Tom Levenson

    August 24, 2020 at 4:16 pm

    @Citizen Alan: Obama was likely to win that one with or without the aid of the scandal.

    I know that tastes differ, and one should not dispute, but I’m old enough to remember a general reaction of both “No, dude–don’t do that” and “Wait. Wut? You are married to 7 of 9, dude!”

  129. 129.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 24, 2020 at 4:18 pm

    @JPL:

    Melania talking trash about her husband? Missed that. Missed the bit about Eric taking the Fifth, too. Off I go to google….

  130. 130.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 4:19 pm

    The Atlantic has an article today reflecting some of my observations regarding higher ed.

    His remedy is insufficient, though, IMO.

    The first step is to abandon the business model of education. States need to be willing to reverse the endless budget cuts that have left universities so reliant on stratospheric tuition. Any new funds, however, need to be flagged for instructional budgets and conditioned on tenure-track hires, not more rock-climbing walls, further adjunctification, or empty-chair administrators.

    States should also move to cap tuition. Indexing the cap against a mix of inflation, instructional costs, and teacher pay (counted as an average per credit so that it fully reflects the pay of adjuncts and graduate instructors, not merely tenure-track faculty) might serve to tether tuition to the real cost of an education. That way, if universities do want to raise tuition, they will need to reinvest that money into their operational mission of education.

    That isn’t breaking the business model, though. It’s just shoring up the subsidization model. And he says that privates are suffering form the same problem, and shoring up state budgets won’t change their situation either.
    But if you look at what he’s pointing to as wasteful spending, it’s all spending toward reputation and not outcomes. Does Harvard provide a better education than Central Florida U? Maybe? But that’s only assumed because a washed up magazine says so and because one is harder to get into than the other. I can assure you, US News doesn’t know dick about education, even after all of these years, and  give me 5 minutes and plenty of state funding and I’ll make my mid-tier public harder to get into than Harvard. It’ll be wildly unethical, but not illegal.
    One of the biggest problems is that faculty are paid to stand in front of students for x hours over y week. That means that EVERYTHING needs to be structured to an x hours over y weeks format. So, our pandemic online teaching is x hours over y weeks. Ultimately, the university’s goal is ‘teach z students to this outcome’ but we never actually achieve that. We teach them to whatever outcome is possible in x hours over y weeks, grade them on how well they met that outcome, and then push them forward even if they only learned half of what they needed.
    Instead, the university needs to fix the outcome. Pay faculty to ‘get z students to 100% mastery’. This shifts the burden from the student to the instructor because right now, there’s not a lot of incentive for the instructor to become a better instructor if all they really need to do is survive y weeks and be willing to hand out either low grades, or grades that bear no relationship to outcomes. But by shifting the outcomes from dependent to independent, that will force faculty  to invest more in getting students to that outcome because it now becomes their time being wasted. Now you have an environment where faculty become broadly invested in improving instruction and getting some of the efficiency gains that those of us who participate in non-traditional learning enjoy to transfer to traditional learning. And it will force institutions to really consider the value of courses. We have loads of courses that exist because some instructor wanted a nice 20 student class to teach and convinced his/her colleagues to approve some fringe topic. Clearly these aren’t good value for the students because there is so little demand, but that never comes into play.
    The basic problem with the university business model is that compensation relates to how many hours you are willing to stand in front of a room, and not how many students you are educating or the quality of that education. That was an easy mechanism 40 years ago, but it doesn’t apply today. So faculty are empowered to undo any efficiency gains we might make, because it maximizes their salary/effort ratio. And that is both unsustainable and impossible to fix internally.

  131. 131.

    ballerat

    August 24, 2020 at 4:20 pm

    @Kay: Taking the hard parts out is what makes it appealing to the spiritually weak and the morally challenged.

    I’ve never seen a bunch with less actual faith than evangelicals. They need reassurance in their faith all. the. time.

    What was that admonition from jesus about not testing god? Not for these people! They make everything into a test.

    That joke about god sending a boat, that’s a perfect encapsulation of these fundies. It has to be god, intervening. directly, miraculously. They simply can’t use common sense.

    It’s why Trump’s insistence on a miracle saving them from covid resonates with them. The rest of us see it as obviously deadly foolishness. Just like in the boat joke.

  132. 132.

    sdhays

    August 24, 2020 at 4:20 pm

    @Kent: He endorsed Dump before the Iowa caucuses. That was before he was the evangelical darling.

  133. 133.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 24, 2020 at 4:22 pm

    @Kent: Money laundering, tax fraud, their own affairs usually with their congregants, etc.

  134. 134.

    Kay

    August 24, 2020 at 4:23 pm

    After the arrest of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon last week for allegedly defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors to a private organization with the stated purpose of building a wall along the southern border, We Build the Wall, administration officials have sought to distance themselves from the project. But Customs and Border Protection (CBP) leadership met with representatives of We Build the Wall to consider their offer of donating the privately constructed wall to the US government. CBP described it as “an overall positive meet and greet” and even provided the group with guidance on how to gift their wall to CBP, according to an internal CBP memo obtained exclusively by The Nation.

    If we win this needs serious reform. They’re basically armed, publicly paid Republican operatives at this point and they’re lavishly funded. I don’t want to pay for this anymore.

    Let’s do some deficit reduction! Elizabeth can put on her eyeshade and start lining thru :)

  135. 135.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 24, 2020 at 4:25 pm

    @Betty Cracker: @Flanders’ Other Neighbor: Or Flandersesesez Other Neighbor, to put it in Homer-eze

  136. 136.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 24, 2020 at 4:26 pm

    @Kay:

    I don’t disagree with you at all.

  137. 137.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 24, 2020 at 4:27 pm

    Richard M. Nixon @dick_nixon ·36m
    You do understand Falwell and the wife and the kid were up to far worse? I sure as hell don’t want to know about it, I hope I don’t know, but they are getting in front of something.

  138. 138.

    Calouste

    August 24, 2020 at 4:28 pm

    @Martin: The whole university ranking is a farce, and heavily biased towards English- speaking countries. Germany and Japan have one university between them in the top 50, and Australia has three? Yeah, right.

  139. 139.

    Sebastian

    August 24, 2020 at 4:28 pm

    @JaySinWA:

    That is indeed possible, or a combination thereof.

    But something got me thinking the other day when it was revealed that Trump is indeed a complete blustering idiot. It was also speculated a few times that Trump is The Devil, in its true mythical meaning. Hear me out.

    I grew up in Europe with tons of legends, fables, stories, and fairy tales from the Middle Ages woven into the cultural fabric and the stories about pacts with the devil all follow the same plot:

    Protagonist wants something really badly, meets devil who promises coveted thing in exchange for soul, protagonist is being tricked/devil does not deliver, eternal damnation ensues.

    What if those are actual warnings about giving up integrity in exchange for a selfish goal? What if all those folks saw Trump being a gullible idiot they thought they could manipulate to get what they wanted and then their dignity and integrity vaporized (Dignity Wraith per Josh Marshal and ETTD by Rick Wilson)?

  140. 140.

    Brachiator

    August 24, 2020 at 4:28 pm

    I’m sure a lot of stories will be written about the sexual details of this relationship, but the fucking disgrace of it all is that a charitable organization was flying around young men in its private jet for assignations, and large sums of money were given to these guys. This isn’t (just) a sexual scandal, it’s a fraud scandal, and Falwell should go to jail for stealing money from donors and violating the tax code.

    Yawn. If you give money to a church and don’t presume that the money is being misused, then you are doing it wrong.

    Every now and then on a bored Sunday I would pop the channel to one of the evangelical programs being broadcast. It would always amaze me when the congregation would shout its approval and at minister brazenly bragging about the big house, big cars and private airplanes that the suckers’ money bought him. A very neat con to depict a pastor’s personal prosperity as proof of the prosperity of his or her ministry.

    And it often looked as though mistresses and fuckboys, and soon to be mistresses and fuckboys, got preferential seating in the first row.

    ETA: Another minister inserted a video of the family’s European vacation, with an obligatory side trip to the Holy Land into the televised program. The crowd ate it up.

    Of course, every now and then a flock would get riled: “Hey, motherfucker, we agreed to buy you two cars, but not a whole goddam fleet. And we are paying for your house, but not your girl friend’s house as well.” But religious grift in America is some of the sweetest grift there ever was.

  141. 141.

    Geo Wilcox

    August 24, 2020 at 4:29 pm

    Manafort did the same thing with his wife but she was not into it like Mrs. Falwell.

  142. 142.

    JaySinWA

    August 24, 2020 at 4:29 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Dick, whatever happened to the truth shall set you free?

  143. 143.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 24, 2020 at 4:30 pm

    @Martin: As I tell everyone from the military I work with, when they ask about universities, my answer is always:

    If your kid gets into Harvard or Yale, send your kid to Harvard or Yale. They’re not going to get a better education. What they are going to get is that their roommates our suitemates parents are likely to be CEOs or ambassadors or other highly connected elite and notable people. The point of Harvard or Yale for everyone who isn’t already part of these groups is to get your kids into these groups because they become friends with the kids of the people in these groups. People that will open doors for them. Hire them. Give them funding for their start up. That’s the point of Harvard and Yale.

  144. 144.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 4:31 pm

    @Kent: They didn’t need to all have scandals. Only a few did, and those signaled to the rest and were motivated to recruit them.

    Given that the scandal existed in the first place, these were individuals proven to be willing to sell out. So they could then be trusted to lie to their colleagues regarding Trump, to sell out their followers, and so on. And if you have a community of people that are almost as well defined by their ongoing gullibility than by their own self-identification, and a group of leaders willing to exploit that, well, yeah.

  145. 145.

    catclub

    August 24, 2020 at 4:31 pm

    @Aleta: The biggest disgrace is the blackmail-type coercion that Trump and cohorts use to gain money and political control.

     

    The wierdest thing is that Falwell contacted Micheal Cohen in 2011-2012 – since he was the guy who got you out of jams. How does that become known?

  146. 146.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 4:32 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Yep. You’re buying access. Everyone needs to be clear about that.

  147. 147.

    Baud

    August 24, 2020 at 4:34 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I did not get into Harvard or Yale.  Thus, I ended up here.

  148. 148.

    Chris Johnson

    August 24, 2020 at 4:34 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: How can this not be in line with Russians accumulating kompromat? It sounds like that was Trump’s main role, and that he loved his work. I’m sure Epstein loved his work too.

    I’ve been saying it was exactly like this for months and there you go literally confirming it all like it ain’t no thing. Damn.

  149. 149.

    JaySinWA

    August 24, 2020 at 4:35 pm

    @Baud: We are your safety school.

  150. 150.

    Ken

    August 24, 2020 at 4:35 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: You do understand Falwell and the wife and the kid were up to far worse?

    I must admit that the combined pizzagate / qanon child trafficking claims have had me worried, because of the general principle of “every accusation is a confession.”

  151. 151.

    RaflW

    August 24, 2020 at 4:35 pm

    @PJ: I have assumed, throughout this Admin, that his wife has been a conduit of unrecorded, undisclosed communication between the Trump Admin and the Senate leader.

    What Adam has said here today, I wonder now if it was also unrecorded, as I had very much assumed as a way to avoid consequences. But Trump may eventually have a Nixonian problem? One could hope!!

  152. 152.

    catclub

    August 24, 2020 at 4:36 pm

    @Sebastian: What if those are actual warnings about giving up integrity in exchange for a selfish goal?

     

    next thing you will be saying it is a selfish goal to play amazing blues guitar. …something something crossroads, midnight

  153. 153.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 4:37 pm

    @catclub: David Pecker. I’m guessing that now that Pecker is out at Natl Enquirer and guys like Cohen are out of the biz, there’s nobody left to protect and monetize the secrets. This might just be the first domino to fall.

    It was basically an industry designed to turn shame into cash, held together by a bunch of different people, which the scrutiny of Trump as President has slowly but steadily exposed and destroyed. And it’s clear Trump was a big part of that empire. He was always willing to sell his affairs to the tabloids for a favor.

  154. 154.

    Baud

    August 24, 2020 at 4:39 pm

    I just thank God we avoided having to deal with Clinton Fatigue.

  155. 155.

    Jay

    August 24, 2020 at 4:39 pm

    @Geo Wilcox:

    was Mrs. Fawell “into it”?

    in a religion that preaches Male Dominion,?

  156. 156.

    Baud

    August 24, 2020 at 4:39 pm

    @JaySinWA:

    BJU! Go Fightin’ Jackals!

  157. 157.

    Roger Moore

    August 24, 2020 at 4:42 pm

    @Kay:

    Evangelicals don’t care about hypocrisy and fraud. It’s just a really strange religion.

    I think the core of it is that the fundangelicals are mostly an identity movement that wraps itself up in religious trappings.  They really care about defining who is an insider and who is an outsider, and the religious stuff is just a bunch of shibboleths that serve to tell the two apart.

    This is not to say that there aren’t true believers.  I’m sure a lot of people genuinely believe everything their religious leader tells them and do their best to adhere to all the rules.  But the people who don’t really care about all that stuff can still stay in the church while ignoring the rules as long as A) they don’t flaunt their disobedience and B) they make a public show of repentance if they’re caught.

  158. 158.

    zhena gogolia

    August 24, 2020 at 4:43 pm

    The GOP decided not to have a platform this year because Trump was scared to walk down from it— J-L Cauvin (@JLCauvin) August 24, 2020

  159. 159.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 4:43 pm

    @Ken: I’ve heard it suggested that it’s a bit more abstract than that. That it’s conservatives broadly that seek to control women and others. The border separation program is perilously close to a human trafficking operation as it is. So the conspiracies put Dems on defense where it would be fairly easy for them to be on offense.

  160. 160.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    August 24, 2020 at 4:44 pm

    @Jay:

    Yeah, there’s an audio clip of a conversation. She acts like a lovesick high school sophomore, jealous of his other hookups.

  161. 161.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 4:45 pm

    @Jay: Sure. They don’t give a shit about the religion other than its ability to enrich them.

  162. 162.

    pamelabrown53

    August 24, 2020 at 4:47 pm

    @Martin:

    Yes!!! Which is why I think we need an updated blockbuster version of “Elmer Gantry” which I said below. Same story but way toxic.

  163. 163.

    catclub

    August 24, 2020 at 4:49 pm

    An audience member shouted during Trump’s rant. On Twitter, many accounts, including the Lincoln Project and VoteVets, initially interpreted the audience member as shouting “monkey,” referring to Obama. Others later clarified that it seemed the audience-member was shouting “SpyGate,” a reference to the false conspiracy theory that the Obama administration spied on Trump’s campaign.

    Trump paused for a few seconds, then pointed and said “Let’s be nice.”

     

    It totally does not follow that Trump objects to using the term ‘spygate’ , so he says  ‘lets be nice’

    yeah, right.

  164. 164.

    Ken

    August 24, 2020 at 4:49 pm

    @Baud: I just thank God we avoided having to deal with Clinton Fatigue.

    She was always so overprepared.

  165. 165.

    Brachiator

    August 24, 2020 at 4:49 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    This is not to say that there aren’t true believers. I’m sure a lot of people genuinely believe everything their religious leader tells them and do their best to adhere to all the rules. But the people who don’t really care about all that stuff can still stay in the church while ignoring the rules as long as A) they don’t flaunt their disobedience and B) they make a public show of repentance if they’re caught.

    Are we talking about a church or the Republican Party?

  166. 166.

    zhena gogolia

    August 24, 2020 at 4:50 pm

    @Ken:

    And I hear the New Yorker thinks the DNC went too smoothly.

    God forbid we get any competence into our government.

  167. 167.

    Subsole

    August 24, 2020 at 4:53 pm

    @Kay: As someone who spent a fair bit of time in those churches, it is not a faith in any strict sense.

    Mostly it’s an excuse. Look at it as nothing but an excuse for people terrified to face themselves to indulge their worst selves and it makes sense.

    The pluperfect hell of it is there are a great many decent and good people who fall into that shit and get twisted entirely sideways because there are NO OTHER SOCIAL NETS in their community.

  168. 168.

    zhena gogolia

    August 24, 2020 at 4:54 pm

    Oh my God. The play-off music as Pence joins Trump is "YMCA."I…cannot make this up.— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 24, 2020

  169. 169.

    Jay

    August 24, 2020 at 4:54 pm

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    In BDSM there are high standards regarding “informed consent”.

    The structural power inequality in an Evangelical marriage, violates the BDSM Informed Consent rules, and that’s with out all the Gaslighting.

    In kink relationships that involve cuckolding, it’s the cuck who has the fetish of their partner having sex with other people, and often they are highly manipulative about getting their kink satisfied, and Manifort’s case, he was violent about it.

    The cuck is never the victim, but that’s what Jerry is claiming he is.

  170. 170.

    Aleta

    August 24, 2020 at 4:54 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:  “Falwell’s trainer is married. So either his wife is involved in the affair or Falwell got his husband to cheat on her.”

    Simpler explanation is that Falwell was in a relationship with the trainer between 2011-2016.  In love, lust or was keeping Crosswhite quiet about something that happened when he was a Liberty student.   No reason to assume that the only options have to involve either man’s wife.

    Likewise the ‘racy photos.’  Falwell’s wife being involved doesn’t mean that’s the main thing that’s been hidden.

  171. 171.

    trollhattan

    August 24, 2020 at 4:55 pm

    Miami Herald headline: “Pool service companies ‘inundated’ by flood of job applications”

  172. 172.

    Subsole

    August 24, 2020 at 4:55 pm

    169 comments.

     

     

     

    Nice.

  173. 173.

    zhena gogolia

    August 24, 2020 at 4:55 pm

    Why does the RNC have to be this week? I’m not watching it, but all the fallout + Falwell + USPS + Kellyanne C. + there’s something about Ivanka?

    I need to work, dammit! I keep saying that.

  174. 174.

    BruceFromOhio

    August 24, 2020 at 4:56 pm

    @Brachiator: 

    Are we talking about a church or the Republican Party?

    A church is a building. The Republican Party is a cult. There’s a difference.

  175. 175.

    Baud

    August 24, 2020 at 4:56 pm

    @zhena gogolia: 

    Ha!

  176. 176.

    Another Scott

    August 24, 2020 at 4:56 pm

    A few thoughts:

    1. I’ll bet part of the excitement is the “verboten-ness” of it, and the danger in getting caught.  A guy I went to HS with was a preacher’s son and he would often “hook up” with his girlfriend/future wife in the church (but not in the sanctuary!  ;-)
    2. Liberty University is a huge part of Lynchburg, VA.  There’s even a new airport named after Pater Falwell.  It’s big business, and consequently the family (and the institution(s) have too much power with too little oversight.  Falwell got started in the education business by starting a segregated school – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Falwell_Sr.
    3. This is yet another example of the dangers of religion being allowed / permitted / encouraged to get directly involved in politics.

    If this dumpster fire helps the scales to fall from the eyes of people who pay attention to him – fine.  Otherwise, I’ll probably do my best to ignore it.

    Eyes on the prizes.

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (“… let’s tax religion!!” – Jello Biafra)

  177. 177.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    August 24, 2020 at 4:56 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Yup.

  178. 178.

    Subsole

    August 24, 2020 at 4:57 pm

    @Spinoza Is My Co-pilot: This.

    I know a lot of pastors who are gonna be mighty shocked when that millstone goes ’round their necks.

  179. 179.

    Ken

    August 24, 2020 at 4:58 pm

    @zhena gogolia: And they’re all singing along, with no masks. If any one of their tests was a false negative, they are in a world of trouble.

  180. 180.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    August 24, 2020 at 4:59 pm

    @Baud:

    I did not get into Harvard or Yale.

    Neither did Joe Biden.

  181. 181.

    Baud

    August 24, 2020 at 5:00 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: What do you think Joe’s nym is?

  182. 182.

    Subsole

    August 24, 2020 at 5:01 pm

    @PJ: This is also a big part of it.

    Evangelicalism is the toxic distillate of sola fide boiled down to jagged crystalized poison.

  183. 183.

    JPL

    August 24, 2020 at 5:01 pm

    Jerry Falwell Jr. resigned from Liberty University.   Wow, I didn’t expect that.

  184. 184.

    BruceFromOhio

    August 24, 2020 at 5:02 pm

    @GregMulka: http://www.wetriffs.com is still available.

  185. 185.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    August 24, 2020 at 5:02 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Yeah, there’d probably be a ramp involved.

  186. 186.

    taumaturgo

    August 24, 2020 at 5:03 pm

    • @Calouste: it’s the pinnacle of unaccountability.
  187. 187.

    catclub

    August 24, 2020 at 5:04 pm

    @Brachiator: Are we talking about a church or the Republican Party?

     

    There was a time when the Episcopal Church was referred to as ‘the Republican party at prayer’.   Now, not so much. waaaay too liberal.

  188. 188.

    Another Scott

    August 24, 2020 at 5:05 pm

    @JPL: He took an “indefinite leave of absence” on August 7, so them kicking him out was the next logical step.

    It’s the first step in his rehabilitation, also too.  And one has to expect that’s in the cards…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  189. 189.

    Roger Moore

    August 24, 2020 at 5:05 pm

    @JaySinWA:

    It’s a form of corruption where he entices them to be part of a lie perhaps about something small, then things escalate as they try to keep hiding the lies that cascade from that.

    I think there’s something else closely tied up with this: Trump gives people license to their inner corruption.  Trump himself lacks a normal capacity for shame* and guilt, and that’s an incredible draw to people who are inwardly corrupt but are blocked from acting by their own shame and guilt.  He shows them they can do as they’ve always wanted without negative consequences, and that’s hugely liberating.  They fall in love with freedom from guilt, and they don’t want to give it up.

    *Trump lacks an inner capacity for shame but can be made to feel bad by other people’s disapproval.

  190. 190.

    Ken

    August 24, 2020 at 5:06 pm

    @JPL: What am I missing?

    Michael Steele just joined the Lincoln Project.

    I wonder if every day of the RNC will be packed with this much news?

  191. 191.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 5:06 pm

    It’s funny that one of the main motivations for the Protestant reformation was the expression that the   individuals who held the control of the Catholic church were too often charlatans – that they were effectively actors playing the role the congregation wanted when they were looking, and doing what they wanted when they  weren’t. And now the Evangelicals create the very same system for themselves, led by these actors that know what lines to say to appease the masses and grow their congregations, but then run off and do the exact opposite.

    I think that’s the GOPs big objection to Hollywood. Real actors get to leave the set and be their real selves.  Nobody expects Jack Gleeson IRL to be the piece of shit that he portrayed on screen, but the GOP never get to do that themselves. There are consequences if they don’t stay in character.

  192. 192.

    catclub

    August 24, 2020 at 5:07 pm

    @Another Scott: He took an “indefinite leave of absence” on August 7, so them kicking him out was the next logical step.

     

    But I bet they are still paying him. And his severance payment will be large, too.

  193. 193.

    Subsole

    August 24, 2020 at 5:07 pm

    @RedDirtGirl:  Yep. They call it being “under the Blood”, as in the precious blood of Jesus Christ who died for your sins. As long as you accept Him, he will intercede on your behalf at the Judgement, basically. No matter what you do.

    It basically is just taking the incredibly toxic idea that only the next world matters to its logical (?) conclusion.

  194. 194.

    Ken

    August 24, 2020 at 5:08 pm

    @catclub: There was a time when the Episcopal Church was referred to as ‘the Republican party at prayer’. Now, not so much.

    Gassing one of its pastors for a photo-op was also a misstep.

  195. 195.

    lgerard

    August 24, 2020 at 5:09 pm

    @Kay:

    Sleepy Joe” didn’t take off though. Either did “China Flu”. Is there anything lamer than a derogatory nickname that no one else picks up and uses?

    This reminds me of trump’s eary rallies. Whenever the crowd started chanting USA USA USA! he tried to get them to change it by telling them to chant trump trump trump!.

    Nobody bought it and he eventually gave up.

  196. 196.

    A Ghost to Most

    August 24, 2020 at 5:09 pm

    Forget it, Jake. It’s christians.

  197. 197.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 5:10 pm

    @catclub: Depends on where the liability falls. If they keep paying him when it becomes increasingly clear that he embezzled from the institution, then they will get caught up as well.

    The big stick for institutional behavior is access to federal financial aid. A Biden/Harris administration is not going to allow a university to hide wrongdoing by its president and still retain that access.

    Falwell better have a lot on the university for them to risk that.

  198. 198.

    MattF

    August 24, 2020 at 5:12 pm

    @catclub: Possibly, but possibly not. Severance payment contract could well have a ‘moral turpitude’ clause.

  199. 199.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 5:13 pm

    @Ken: Only if they had already made most of that journey beforehand. Pretty sure Trump could have killed Falwell Jr in an airstrike and the evangelicals would have bent over backward defending Trump arguing someone screwed up, or deep state, or some bullshit.

  200. 200.

    James E Powell

    August 24, 2020 at 5:16 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Some years ago I had a talk using almost your exact words with a student. I talked him into going to Duke over UCLA. It wasn’t Harvard or Yale, but it pretty much worked out the same.

  201. 201.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 24, 2020 at 5:17 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: It really does depend on what one thinks a college education should provide.  Is it mastery of a set of knowledge and thinking skills within a broadly defined academic discipline?  Or is it learning the skills necessary to be a good citizen and be a good guest at cocktail parties?  J. D. Vance and his whole schtick about showing up at Yale Law and not being able to function has some validity.  I can say I left my undergrad a far more cosmopolitan and sophisticated person than I was when I began.  A lot of that came from interactions with classmates, etc., that would not have happened at a different type of school.

  202. 202.

    sdhays

    August 24, 2020 at 5:17 pm

    Why is the plan for Dump to violate the Hatch Act like it’s an American flag by giving his speech(es?) from the Rose Garden when he has no problem speaking live at the convention? And he would obviously prefer being in front of all the people. Are they worried that by Thursday it’s going to be COVID central?

  203. 203.

    catclub

    August 24, 2020 at 5:18 pm

    @Ken: Because the Episcopal church is old and owns the best real estate – like across from the white house.

  204. 204.

    Ken

    August 24, 2020 at 5:20 pm

    @sdhays: “Plan”? Assumes facts not in evidence.  I will not be surprised if, having got his fix of delegates yelling random slurs, he decides to keep everyone in NC and give all his speeches there.

  205. 205.

    Sister Golden Bear

    August 24, 2020 at 5:20 pm

    @JaySinWA: Practice makes pervert.

  206. 206.

    Morzer

    August 24, 2020 at 5:21 pm

    @Fraud Guy: Calvin’s theology on this point ultimately goes back to a reading of Augustine of Hippo (who may, whisper it softly, just possibly have been influenced by his time as a Manichee…).

  207. 207.

    sdhays

    August 24, 2020 at 5:22 pm

    @Ken: The Episcopal Church also went through a split, with the more conservative factions becoming the Anglican Church. This happened over the Episcopal Church’s welcoming stand towards gay marriage.

    So Episcopal now means “the liberal part” of the old Episcopal church.

  208. 208.

    KenK

    August 24, 2020 at 5:24 pm

    @CliosFanBoy: I may need to trust, but verify

  209. 209.

    sdhays

    August 24, 2020 at 5:24 pm

    @Ken: They’ve stated that that’s what they’re going to do, so it is “the plan”, but you’re absolutely right that it’s not going to happen that way until it actually happens. I just don’t understand why they’ve bothered when he’d clearly be happier in Charlotte and he’s going there anyway.

  210. 210.

    Morzer

    August 24, 2020 at 5:25 pm

    @JaySinWA:  Jackalwarts

  211. 211.

    japa21

    August 24, 2020 at 5:25 pm

    @sdhays: It occurs to me that by broadcasting his speech(es) from the WH grounds that the networks would be aiding and abetting a crime.

  212. 212.

    dmsilev

    August 24, 2020 at 5:27 pm

    @sdhays: It’s to prove that he can. No “Hatch Act” is going to constrain him. He does what he wants.

  213. 213.

    Ken

    August 24, 2020 at 5:27 pm

    Huh. Derek Lowe has turned off comments for his post on convalescent plasma.  He has had problems with covid articles – people still pushing hydroxychloroquine (“plus zinc!”) show up regularly – but I think this is the first time he’s ever disabled comments.

    (Spoiler: Plasma is likely to have some benefits, but there hasn’t been nearly enough study to determine how much, or the best way to use it. And monoclonal antibodies already in development would be superior in every way, since they’re the pure form of what you want from the plasma.)

  214. 214.

    sdhays

    August 24, 2020 at 5:28 pm

    @japa21: They most definitely are.

    @dmsilev: That’s the only explanation I can come up with too.

  215. 215.

    StringOnAStick

    August 24, 2020 at 5:29 pm

    @Jay:  The transgressiveness of what they’ve been doing adds to the hotness, especially for this type of God botherer.

  216. 216.

    PJ

    August 24, 2020 at 5:30 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: As they say, why not both?  I am sure I would have learned more, as in book learnin’, in college had I gone later in life and been more focused on studies instead of extracurricular activities, but college was also an important part of my becoming a (semi-)functioning adult.

  217. 217.

    Kay

    August 24, 2020 at 5:31 pm

    Lis Power
    @LisPower1
    ·3h
    “ON THURSDAY HE MAY APPEAR MORE PRESIDENTIAL”
    MSNBC correspondent after Trump just spewed lies for nearly an hour: “On Thursday he may appear more presidential. I think that’s the contrast we may see later in the week.”
    HOW ARE WE STILL DOING THIS

    Check back Thursday for the presidential President. The contrast.

  218. 218.

    patroclus

    August 24, 2020 at 5:32 pm

    The Hatch Act, by its very terms, does not apply to Trump (or Pence).  It does, however, apply to everyone else who works at the WH.

    I’m sorry, but my gaydar is way up after looking at pics of Granda and the Miami Beach Hostel he runs has been described as “very gay-friendly.”  I think more happened between Falwell and Granda than just Falwell watching.  Maybe it’s because I’m gay and have an imagination (or maybe, as someone said above, it’s just because a “friend” told me this).

  219. 219.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    August 24, 2020 at 5:34 pm

    @sdhays: The President isn’t covered by the Hatch Act.

  220. 220.

    Taken4Granite

    August 24, 2020 at 5:34 pm

    209 comments in and nobody has posted this?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-rfCnW5VlE

    God will take good care of you

    Just do as I say, don’t do as I do

    Just as fitting today as when they recorded the song a couple of decades ago.

  221. 221.

    Baud

    August 24, 2020 at 5:35 pm

    @Kay: Called it.

  222. 222.

    trnc

    August 24, 2020 at 5:36 pm

    @Ian R:

    @germy: For any imaginable fetish:

    • Evangelicals and republicans Someone is are into it
    • There’s a website for it
    • There’s jargon dealing with it
  223. 223.

    MattF

    August 24, 2020 at 5:37 pm

    @Ken: I suspect trolls found his blog. He had a post on the Russian vaccine that attracted some trolling, so he’s gotten wiser. He has an actual job after all, and can’t spend all day cleaning up.

  224. 224.

    Steeplejack

    August 24, 2020 at 5:38 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    Weirdest things about this story:

    • You subscribe to TV Guide?
    • TV Guide still exists?

    Do you live in Brigadoon, CT, by any chance?

  225. 225.

    Morzer

    August 24, 2020 at 5:41 pm

    @Kay: So Thursday is going to be Sedated Moron Bumbles Through Unconvincing Teleprompted Speech Day?

  226. 226.

    Geminid

    August 24, 2020 at 5:43 pm

    @catclub: A couple month’s ago Liberty University “re-opened” it’s student residences, and students and parents complained the this was a pretext for refusing to rebate room and board charges. I looked up Falwell’s net worth. One estimate was $100 million.

  227. 227.

    sdhays

    August 24, 2020 at 5:43 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Somehow I think they’ll find a way to violate it up and down and round and round regardless of the carveouts for Dump and Dense.

    Either way, it’s deeply inappropriate and the only reason they’re doing it is for deeply inappropriate reasons. They’re not even pretending like it’s to keep Dump himself safe.

  228. 228.

    StringOnAStick

    August 24, 2020 at 5:43 pm

    @Ken: There’s also the issue of lung damage caused by receiving plasma; it was a doctor’s tweet that was in this morning’s Covid summary post.  Too many people think medicine is exactly like TV shows.

    I checked into my spam folder yesterday and somehow I was on some RW nutter’s newsletter subscription list from Superior, CO.  I scanned the titles; the first was how the FDA was murdering people by not allowing unfettered use of hydrodynamic blah blah blah, others were all deep state this and that.  When my husband laments that he just can’t understand these people I always point out that they have their own closed media and thought universe that is extremely reinforced and redundant.

  229. 229.

    Steeplejack

    August 24, 2020 at 5:45 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    It sounded like “Spygate” to me.

  230. 230.

    cain

    August 24, 2020 at 5:46 pm

    @JPL:

    He’ll be back – repentence and all that – then he’ll be back in full form. I understand that everyone was afraid of his wife more than him.

  231. 231.

    Morzer

    August 24, 2020 at 5:46 pm

    Interesting little bit of news involving Covidia, latest WINO of Donald:

    https://yashar.substack.com/p/scoop-melania-trumps-comments-about

    Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former friend of Melania Trump who helped produce the 2017 presidential inauguration, taped the first lady making disparaging remarks about the president and his adult children, according to two sources. Wolkoff plans on sharing the first lady’s comments about the Trump family in her forthcoming book, “Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady,” which will be published by Simon & Schuster’s Gallery Books on Sept. 1.

  232. 232.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 24, 2020 at 5:47 pm

    @PJ: All colleges need to do the first.  The question is, in my mind, is that it?

  233. 233.

    trnc

    August 24, 2020 at 5:48 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Did anyone ask him to explain how he expects the removal of mail sorting machines would help achieve the goal of on-time mail truck departure? That would seem to be a pretty basic question, but I haven’t yet seen any mention of a question like that.

  234. 234.

    Kent

    August 24, 2020 at 5:48 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: We really need some more threads about the future of higher education.  There are so many folks here with inside knowledge and a bunch of the rest of is around the fringes with kids in or going to college, or teaching.

    The fundamental problem in my mind is that colleges are even searching for a business model in the first place.  That is the main fallacy.   I teach at a public HS.  No one talks about business models for public K-12 education unless they are in the tank fraudster charter school types.

  235. 235.

    cain

    August 24, 2020 at 5:48 pm

    @Another Scott:

    The separation of church and state is primarily to protect religion. Religion is all about your soul and metaphysical aspects – politics is the complete opposite – it is matters of Man, money, and of course power. Affairs of men will definitely corrupt religion.

    It’s why you should probably have a vow of poverty if you want to be any kind of spiritual leader. That will draw off these assholes who want to use religion as a grift.

  236. 236.

    Tim C.

    August 24, 2020 at 5:49 pm

    @catclub: ELCA Lutherans too.

  237. 237.

    Ruckus

    August 24, 2020 at 5:52 pm

    @Spanky:

    If he gets beaten, and he should, like a rented mule as the old saying goes, all the people that were supposed to help him, keep him in office, keep him from being arrested, tried and convicted, all of them will have failed him. And he will give them no help whatsoever. His attention span, his “thought process,” only goes one way, his way. It’s why so many are totally behind him, everything in shitforbrains world only go one way, to him. He gives nothing away, he sells everything he does for someone. And if he’s thrown out on his ass, it of course won’t be his fault, it’s the fault of everyone that didn’t support him 12000%. 11999% isn’t enough, which is a small problem for all his supporters who expect quid pro quo. In shitforbrains world, everyone else is all on their own. He’s managed his entire life to grift at a high level without being arrested, he’s not stopping giving up everyone/anyone else to save his ass now.

  238. 238.

    Subsole

    August 24, 2020 at 5:52 pm

    @Baud: I’m sure they rue their hidebound “Pants are not a fashion accessory, Baud” stance even today.

  239. 239.

    Roger Moore

    August 24, 2020 at 5:52 pm

    @Martin:

    But that’s only assumed because a washed up magazine says so and because one is harder to get into than the other.

    I can’t say how much I despise those US News rankings, not just for schools but for other institutions.  They’re just throwing some meansurments together with no real justification for why they chose the ones they did or weighted them the way they did. Worst of all, they put way too much weight on reputation, both explicitly with their reputation scores and implicitly with things like student rejection rate.  The net result is that they usually tell people what they already believed rather than finding unheralded innovators.  And their scores are influential enough that the institutions they’re rating change their policies to try to boost their scores regardless of whether it is a useful investment outside of the desire to look good in the US News rankings.  It’s just a terrible way of doing things.

  240. 240.

    Subsole

    August 24, 2020 at 5:53 pm

    @Ken:  We are going to be  nauseated by what falls out of Betsy DeVos’s closets.

  241. 241.

    lgerard

    August 24, 2020 at 5:55 pm

    @patroclus:

    Falwell’s son “Trey” was part of that puzzle as well, though I don’t really want to look too closely at how the pieces fit together

  242. 242.

    Jay

    August 24, 2020 at 5:55 pm

    @StringOnAStick:

    Kinks and Fetishes are usually formed in early childhood in a prepuberty sexual experience. Usually nothing more than an early experience of arousal. For many, they are concealed out of shame.

    A very common Dan Savage letter is a “straight vanilla” trying to deal with their partner, several years into the relationship, revealing their kink, manipulating the partner into participating, then becoming obsessive about it.

    People with kinks, fetishes, BDSM, etc, need to have partners who are open, adventurous, joyful, open to experimentation and loving.

    Probably not a wife your Dad arranged for you at Liberty U.

  243. 243.

    Subsole

    August 24, 2020 at 5:56 pm

    @catclub:

    “You done sold yer ‘mortal soul to play gittar?”

    “I weren’t usin’ it fer nuthin’ else.”

  244. 244.

    Roger Moore

    August 24, 2020 at 5:56 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Are we talking about a church or the Republican Party?

    Yes.

  245. 245.

    Searcher

    August 24, 2020 at 5:57 pm

    @lgerard:

    This reminds me of trump’s eary rallies. Whenever the crowd started chanting USA USA USA! he tried to get them to change it by telling them to chant trump trump trump!.

    Nobody bought it and he eventually gave up.

    Well that’s just pitiful.  Everyone knows that a good chant needs three* syllables to be chantable, and “Don!ald! Trump!” is right there.

    * You can sometimes work with more but less is much harder.

  246. 246.

    Geminid

    August 24, 2020 at 5:57 pm

    @Geminid: I am hoping that some of the Fallwell scandal will wash into the contest for the 5th Va Congressional seat. The republican candidate, self-described “Biblical Conservative” Bob Good, worked as a fundraising official for Liberty University until a few months ago. Ironically, his campaign fundraising lags well behind that of Democratic opponent Cameron Webb. In 2018 the sitting Congressman, Denver Riggleman, beat a lacklustre Democrat by seven points. But Good knocked Riggleman out in a district convention held in the parking lot of Good’s megachurch. Riggleman wasn’t conservative enough.

  247. 247.

    Kilgore Trout

    August 24, 2020 at 5:57 pm

    @Kent: I think the endorsement in question right now was for the primaries – apparently Ted Cruz thought he had it in the bag right up to the time of the announcement.

  248. 248.

    Chyron HR

    August 24, 2020 at 5:58 pm

    @Kay:

    “I will gladly be president Thursday for a hamberder today.”

  249. 249.

    Roger Moore

    August 24, 2020 at 5:59 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Neither did Joe Biden.

    Nor Kamala Harris.

  250. 250.

    Subsole

    August 24, 2020 at 5:59 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    “Vice-president Buchanan, why were you never married?”

  251. 251.

    Another Scott

    August 24, 2020 at 5:59 pm

    @Kent: Made me look… https://www.educationnext.org/the-business-model/

    Consider what is likely to continue to happen in education without high-stakes value-added assessment. Unless productivity is measured, however imperfectly, it is not possible to reward teachers, administrators, and schools that contribute most to student learning. If we do not reward productivity, we are unlikely to encourage it. If we do not encourage it, we should not expect more of it.

    In fact, this is precisely what has been happening in U.S. education during the past few decades. Between 1961 and 2000, spending on education tripled after adjusting for inflation, from $2,360 to $7,086 per pupil. During that time, student performance, as measured by scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and high-school graduation rates, has remained basically unchanged. Whenever spending triples without any significant improvement in outcomes, there is a serious productivity crisis. Yet U.S. public schools just keep chugging along, resisting serious attempts at reform.

    Meanwhile, private firms in the United States have been able to achieve steady gains in productivity because the discipline of competition has forced them to adopt systems for measuring and rewarding productivity. Firms that fail to measure and reward productivity lose out to their competitors who do.

    We have a Grade School Productivity Gap!!11ONE

    :-/

    I think Manhattan Institute Senior Fellows have a bit of a constructing a logical argument gap, myself.

    As Kay (I believe) has mentioned, government services, and goods and services provided for public benefit like schools, are not businesses. That’s not their job. Trying to shoe-horn them into business boxes is a category error. (For one thing, businesses do not and cannot serve everyone.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  252. 252.

    cain

    August 24, 2020 at 6:01 pm

    @Jeffro:

    …nah, what am I thinking?  The evangelicals will just rag on Falwell Jr for trying to blame their Orange Idol.  Never mind.

    Full waterworks – and then claim that Trump is really the devil – and how the man lead him down a dark path. These assholes will protect their own because I’m sure Falwell knows secrets too.

    He will take them down with him – or they will pay him off, or they will let him come back in after a period of being contrite.

  253. 253.

    Ken

    August 24, 2020 at 6:01 pm

    @Subsole: I’m sure they rue their hidebound “Pants are not a fashion accessory, Baud” stance even today.

    Coco Chanel said before leaving the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off. She didn’t limit it to accessories.

  254. 254.

    WaterGirl

    August 24, 2020 at 6:02 pm

    Subaru Diane:

    Two ways to color text.

    #1

    Type your words or letters that you want in color.

    Highlight want you in colored text.

    Hit the down arrow next to the A with a line under it. 

    Click on your color.

    #2

    Start by hitting the down arrow to select your color.

    You can hit another color after that if you want to.  Choose another color if you want.

    If you hit return the color stops.  Or you could type in your color and then click on the A with the underline and then hit black in the upper left.

  255. 255.

    Ruckus

    August 24, 2020 at 6:04 pm

    @Baud:

    I did not even apply to Harvard or Yale and I’m here.

    I was tangentially related to someone who taught at CalTech and MIT though, if that gets me anything……

  256. 256.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 6:04 pm

    @Kent: Universities are tasked with a wide array of often competing things. Most public hospitals are run by universities for instance, so we’re navigating all of the politics around healthcare, and we can’t allow the hospital to bankrupt the rest of the institution. Should it be this way? Maybe not.

    We are also the nations research engine. That’s compatible with part of the educational task, and incompatible with other parts.

    We also do a LOT of for-fee service. We run transportation systems for our county, and stuff like that. That’s supporting the educational mission financially, but it’s not necessarily efficient in terms of overlap with other efforts.

    And none of that considers sports and other economic activities.

    If society insists on delegating these things to us, we can’t exactly turn them away when they are the only reliable income stream we have. I think the average UC gets 11% revenue from the state. 89% is generated elsewhere.

  257. 257.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 24, 2020 at 6:05 pm

    @WaterGirl: Working on it. I’ll post something in colour in a later thread. Thanks very much.

  258. 258.

    Barbara

    August 24, 2020 at 6:06 pm

    @Jay:  You think people not open to (or just not really feeling the need to try) those things are not joyful and loving? That seems like quite the leap in judgment.

  259. 259.

    RaflW

    August 24, 2020 at 6:06 pm

    @zhena gogolia: And I hear the New Yorker thinks the DNC went too smoothly.

    I mean, you can see now that they kinda have a point: The DNC didn’t produce nearly the page views or titillation-clicks of Bannon, Kellyanne and Jerry.

  260. 260.

    Immanentize

    August 24, 2020 at 6:07 pm

    @Geminid:
    Bob Good is a jackass.
    That is my comment.

  261. 261.

    zhena gogolia

    August 24, 2020 at 6:08 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    lol

    I can’t believe I admitted on BJ that I subscribe to TV Guide.

    But the really exciting news is that my copy of Penny Press Variety Puzzles arrived today too. True story.

  262. 262.

    cain

    August 24, 2020 at 6:08 pm

    @Brachiator: But religious grift in America is some of the sweetest grift there ever was.

    it’s all about blind faith – so focused on making sure you can get into the after life – you’re willing to compromise everything by following leaders who lead you to perdition instead.

  263. 263.

    Kent

    August 24, 2020 at 6:10 pm

    @Kilgore Trout: Maybe so.  I just don’t buy the notion that Falwell was in any way instrumental in Trumps rise or success.  He basically lead the field from beginning to end in the primaries.  My people, for example, who are conservative Mennonites so fundamentalist but not evangelical, were behind Trump early on and they have nothing to do with Falwell and that world.  I have a ton of Mennonite relatives who were big MAGA folk.  Your basic rural farmer types from PA, MI, IN, etc.  The like the alpha male thing and Cruz just didn’t have it.  Neither did Walker or some of the other evangelical candidates like Santorum.   GWB had it though.

  264. 264.

    Patricia Kayden

    August 24, 2020 at 6:10 pm

    I just spoke to Jacob’s cousin @PaulyG103 in the hospital. He said they need your prayers and not condolences. He is out of surgery and in the ICU. He can make it through this. He is fighting for his life. Please please please pray for Jacob Blake. #Kenosha #PrayForJacobBlake pic.twitter.com/vJnXQwg2Pd— Daniel Poneman (@DanielPoneman) August 24, 2020

  265. 265.

    WaterGirl

    August 24, 2020 at 6:11 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I always type my thing first and then color, so if my instructions in #2 aren’t clear, it’s because I will have left out a step. :-)

    To test stuff, i usually go back to a thread from the previous day where no one else is around.

  266. 266.

    Anya

    August 24, 2020 at 6:12 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Trump is so loathsome. Is there any moral and ethical line he didn’t obliterate?

  267. 267.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 6:18 pm

    @Another Scott: It’s not that we have a grade school productivity gap. It’s that we have an ill-defined set of goals for grade school, and therefore an ill-defined set of goals for teachers and administrators. And because of this, there’s no way for teachers to push for improvements to teaching because there’s really no accepted standard for results.

    What’s the most important activity in any elementary school? It’s attendance. Because that’s what money is attached to and principals can’t hire teachers and pay for resources without money. What’s the most important activity in high schools? Standardized testing for the same reasons.

    We are admitting students that are better and better at standardized testing and worse and worse at critical thinking because Goodhart’s Law is universal. So it looks like our students are more and more qualified while our experience is that they aren’t.

    Designing policies that don’t reward the wrong thing is hard because people take their own interests into account when interpreting the policy. You have to assume that the interpreters of the policy will be more clever in achieving their goals than you are as policymaker in steering them toward yours.

  268. 268.

    cain

    August 24, 2020 at 6:19 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    A good way to get people to notice you too!

  269. 269.

    cain

    August 24, 2020 at 6:20 pm

    @Anya:

    He can do whatever he wants as long as it outrages the liberals.

  270. 270.

    zhena gogolia

    August 24, 2020 at 6:20 pm

    I know I’m like a broken record with this guy, but he is turning out the best comedy for the moment:

    Donald Trump addresses the Jerry Falwell Jr poolboy situation and explains why someone yelled "Monkey" at his speech #RNCauvin #RNCConvention2020 #RNC2020 pic.twitter.com/8oN3Y3vhA9— J-L Cauvin (@JLCauvin) August 24, 2020

  271. 271.

    gwangung

    August 24, 2020 at 6:21 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: That’s precisely the use of an Ivy League education, or quasi-Ivy. Speaking from experience.

  272. 272.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    August 24, 2020 at 6:22 pm

    @WaterGirl: I work without a net!

  273. 273.

    Juju

    August 24, 2020 at 6:24 pm

    @germy: Oh. Hotwifing, not hotwifiing. That makes mores sense.

  274. 274.

    Aleta

    August 24, 2020 at 6:28 pm

    @patroclus:  Oh absolutely.  Shifting the attention to the wife is shifty.   In at least some fundamentalist churches, a gay husband is defined as  a “homosexual struggle in the marriage” and the wife is told she’s responsible.  Pastoral counseling instructs her to stay in the marriage and make changes in herself (it’s the same if he’s beating her or abusing children or stealing money).  His assignment is intensive prayer sessions with church heads.  She must continue to obey the husband in all things.

  275. 275.

    Barry

    August 24, 2020 at 6:29 pm

    @MattF: “And, yeah, ‘cuck’ is the all-purpose RW insult. Yet another entertaining diorama for the Museum of Psychopathology.”

     

    If you assume Freudian Projection on the right, you will rarely be wrong.

  276. 276.

    Brachiator

    August 24, 2020 at 6:31 pm

    @cain:

    But religious grift in America is some of the sweetest grift there ever was.

    it’s all about blind faith – so focused on making sure you can get into the after life – you’re willing to compromise everything by following leaders who lead you to perdition instead.

    No, this is about stupidity. It is ridiculous that followers of any group think it OK that their “leader” live fabulously better than they do.

  277. 277.

    Calouste

    August 24, 2020 at 6:38 pm

    So Falwell said he lost 80 pounds because he was worrying about his wife’s affair. Or it could be that he hit the diet pills because he didn’t get a lot of swinging action being 80 pounds overweight.

  278. 278.

    Another Scott

    August 24, 2020 at 6:39 pm

    @Martin: I think that, in general, the over-arching goals for public schools are well articulated and well understood and have been for a long time (going back to Jefferson).

    The problems with public education are mostly problems of the communities they serve, unequal funding depending on the zip code, and lack of funding in general.  Kids pick up on what the community thinks is important by looking around their schools.  E.g. when they see they’re in crumbling buildings built in the 1930s, they don’t take comments about things like a world class education for everyone seriously.

    It’s not a problem of “productivity” or “funding per pupil has gone up X times compared to 1960 but scores haven’t changed” and the like.

    I agree that metrics are an important part of figuring out how well any system is doing.  But bad metrics aren’t just bad and a waste of time, they’re dangerous.  As you say, people end up working to improve the metrics even if that doesn’t improve education.  We’ve all heard the stories of teachers changing scores on standardized tests and the like.  America has been pretty good at avoiding the tragedies of “5 Year Plans” and “Great Leap Forward” and the like…

    I don’t know the answers.  I admire your efforts to try to make things better in your part of the huge system.  And every system can and must be improved and change as the world changes.  And change is hard.  (“If it were easy, it would have been done already.”)  But I’d be much happier listening to education reformers like Diane Ravitch and maybe the late Sir Ken Robinson than old white guys from business schools and think tanks who apparently think that Chainsaw Al Dunlap is the leader to emulate.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  279. 279.

    WaterGirl

    August 24, 2020 at 6:40 pm

    @trnc: With less sorting there is less mail, so they can take the truck out on time – because they aren’t delivering a lot of the mail.

  280. 280.

    MoxieM

    August 24, 2020 at 6:41 pm

    @sdhays: So, no more God’s Frozen People? (What do I know, I’m a lifetime UU. No kinks please, it’s all out in the open.)  Actually, I learned there is a thing, even in the U-U establishment, called an “after Pastor”. It’s the clean up minister you bring in after a scandal (sexual scandal being implied.)  So really it’s built in to the system that it’s gonna happen.

  281. 281.

    James E Powell

    August 24, 2020 at 6:41 pm

    @Kay:

    I really need someone from our side to bring this up on the air.  Just ask, “Why do you do that? Trump has never been presidential. Why do you promote the idea that he is going to be anything different or anything better than he has been?”

  282. 282.

    WaterGirl

    August 24, 2020 at 6:44 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I love that hot pink is your color.

  283. 283.

    James E Powell

    August 24, 2020 at 6:47 pm

    Chris Paul in his post-game didn’t want to talk about anything except Jacob Blake, the man shot by police in Kenosha. The reporter kept trying to steer him back to the game his team had just won, but he came right back with (paraphrase) Sports is fine but there’s things going on that are more important. Everybody vote. I’m calling on everyone to vote.

  284. 284.

    Roger Moore

    August 24, 2020 at 6:49 pm

    @Barbara:

    You think people not open to (or just not really feeling the need to try) those things are not joyful and loving?

    I think you’re misreading him.  He’s saying that people who have non-standard sexual interests need support from partners who are going to be supportive of their sexual needs, and they’re unlikely to get that if their partner was raised in a prudish religious background.

  285. 285.

    Geminid

    August 24, 2020 at 6:51 pm

    @cain: Baptists used to have a fairly strong tradition of separation of Chuch and State. But they traded that birthright for so much political pottage.

  286. 286.

    zhena gogolia

    August 24, 2020 at 6:55 pm

    .@POTUS @realDonaldTrump, I have a message for you that will be hitting the airwaves shortly. Good luck tonight at the @GOPconvention! @American_Bridge pic.twitter.com/8hyiFr8RXI— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) August 24, 2020

  287. 287.

    Barbara

    August 24, 2020 at 6:56 pm

    @Roger Moore: He said:

    People with kinks, fetishes, BDSM, etc, need to have partners who are open, adventurous, joyful, open to experimentation and loving.

    It’s just a blog, and I am sure it was typed in haste, but it speaks for itself, and I don’t think I was misreading the implication.

  288. 288.

    patrick II

    August 24, 2020 at 6:57 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Fundamentalism gives an unearned authority to people who have not earned it.

  289. 289.

    zhena gogolia

    August 24, 2020 at 6:58 pm

    Paul Rudnick is having a field day with today’s pool boy news.

  290. 290.

    zhena gogolia

    August 24, 2020 at 6:59 pm

    @Barbara:

    I don’t think that quotation means that other people can’t also be adventurous and loving.

  291. 291.

    Barbara

    August 24, 2020 at 7:01 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Let’s hope not. I guess my point is that wherever you fall on the spectrum of expression in this arena, it almost always helps to have a joyful and loving partner.

  292. 292.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    August 24, 2020 at 7:02 pm

    @WaterGirl: Blue is my color(Go Bruins!), hot pink just stands out.

  293. 293.

    Steeplejack

    August 24, 2020 at 7:05 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    C’mon,y0u’ve got to be trolling us now! The crossword is like a 10-by-10 grid with clues like “Furry alien” (ALF).

  294. 294.

    Roger Moore

    August 24, 2020 at 7:05 pm

    @Another Scott:

    One important thing to realize is that there is apparently a huge placebo effect (or whatever you call the equivalent in this kind of thing) in studies of effective teaching. It seems as if it’s the training, and possibly the idea the teachers are doing something innovative and exciting, that makes the difference rather than the specifics of the teaching strategy.  If you come up with almost any halfway reasonable educational reform and train a group of teachers in it, they’ll have better outcomes than an equivalent group of teachers who didn’t get the same training.

    This makes it really hard to figure out what works, because all kinds of things work in studies.  Maybe this means teachers get bored teaching the same stuff year after year and need a shakeup once in a while to get out of a rut.  Maybe it means teachers just need more training and support.  It almost certainly means we need to change the way we study educational reforms.

  295. 295.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    August 24, 2020 at 7:10 pm

    @Steeplejack: I used to work in a building* whose internal company designation was ALF.

    *The building would be familiar to anyone who watched “LA Law”.

  296. 296.

    Brachiator

    August 24, 2020 at 7:11 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    @Barbara:

    You think people not open to (or just not really feeling the need to try) those things are not joyful and loving?

    I think you’re misreading him.  He’s saying that people who have non-standard sexual interests need support from partners who are going to be supportive of their sexual needs, and they’re unlikely to get that if their partner was raised in a prudish religious background.

    I tend to have a very poor opinion of organized religion (probably disorganized religion as well). But desire is very volatile and often reactions are not related in any single or simple way to how “prudish” a person’s religious background might be.

    And ministers and congregations are often as freaky as it is possible to be.  The issue is how best to actualize the freaky with care and respect.

     

  297. 297.

    Jay

    August 24, 2020 at 7:12 pm

    @Barbara:

    it’s Dan’s terms, you have to be all of those things, not just two.

    It’s not a judgement, it’s a list of qualities a Fetishist or someone into Kink, needs at a minimum, in a partner, to have a chance at a successful relationship, and it’s a list they also have to have themselves.

    Someone who has a kink or a fetish, needs to have a partner willing to “go there” some of the time with them or approve of them going outside the relationship for fulfilment some of the time.

    At the same time the person with the kink or fetish, either has to be wholeheartedly be willing to not “go there” all the time, unless their partner is fully onboard with the kink or fetish.

    Because many people find their kink or fetish shameful or abnormal, they often go for relationships with the most “vanilla” partners they can find, as a means of “staying closeted”.

    Even today, with the Internet, finding a “perfect” kink or fetish match online, is like finding Sasquatch. I know people who travelled the world to find their perfect kink or fetish partner, only to have the relationship blow up, because it wasn’t “perfect”.

  298. 298.

    Brachiator

    August 24, 2020 at 7:15 pm

    @patrick II:

    Fundamentalism gives an unearned authority to people who have not earned it.

    Good point. And from the beginning there were branches of radical Protestantism that asserted that no single human being could ever be an authority over other believers.

  299. 299.

    The Moar You Know

    August 24, 2020 at 7:15 pm

    There’s going to be more and it’s going to be horrifying.  Think about it.

    The hotwife/beta cuck action is what they are willing to admit to with virtually no prompting.  They coulda litigated poolboy until Doomsday and used the courts to keep his mouth shut.  They didn’t.  And they’re not going to litigate the inevitable (within a week) story about the personal trainer and Jerry, either.

    Because this is just the cover for something way, way worse.  I don’t know what.  But I do know that rich people don’t immediately confess to shit that will ruin their lives, and more important, their income stream, unless they’re doing so to cover up something even worse.

  300. 300.

    Aleta

    August 24, 2020 at 7:17 pm

    @Martin:  It’s true that a famous school isn’t automatically the best choice, might be  the wrong choice, and that other schools offer great opportunities;  but false to reduce any school to ‘paying for connections’ and nothing more.  Not everyone who goes to an Ivy ends up with connections and open doors, by a long shot.  Many of the students who leave with that arrived with it, though in simpler form.  And you can’t generalize a universal truth about what students receive  from an education at Yale or Harvard;  as with anywhere, much depends on the department and all kinds of other things, including luck.  There’s luck in meeting someone who inspires or helps you and in chance opportunities you engage with or don’t.  Relationships with individual professors or classmates are affected by race, gender, class, group behavior, charisma …. .

  301. 301.

    Barbara

    August 24, 2020 at 7:19 pm

    @Jay: Most people want love and joy, but not everyone wants adventure.  Love and joy also help you through boredom and other not so perfect things that arise during the course of a relationship.  Their correlation with BDSM proclivities is no more and no less likely than with any other proclivities.  My only point.

  302. 302.

    Steeplejack

    August 24, 2020 at 7:31 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Or use “Flanders*s Other Neighbor,” which is what it should be anyway, since “Flanders” is not a plural. Hmmph.

    The “glitch” comes in because of the way that FYWP’s underlying database, SQL, handles text strings. The strings can be delimited by single or double quotes. So dealing with an apostrophe (possible single quote) within a nym requires some special handling, which, as usual, FYWP is not up to.

    Also as usual, XKCD has a (somewhat) relevant cartoon.

  303. 303.

    Another Scott

    August 24, 2020 at 7:35 pm

    @Steeplejack: Relatedly, …

    https://www.wired.com/story/null-license-plate-landed-one-hacker-ticket-hell/

    Being too clever by half is often a bad thing.  ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  304. 304.

    Brachiator

    August 24, 2020 at 7:36 pm

    @Martin:

    Man, this is a hot topic!

    What’s the most important activity in any elementary school? It’s attendance. Because that’s what money is attached to and principals can’t hire teachers and pay for resources without money. What’s the most important activity in high schools? Standardized testing for the same reasons.

    Excellent focus on two issues which are important to the educational establishment, but irrelevant to the actual education of students.

    And yet, I have seen teachers (mainly in California) rightly resist standardized testing but also refuse to co-operate in any attempt to gauge teacher effectiveness and to devise methods to improve education, especially in schools where students are failing.

    And worse, at times education can be a racket where good teachers and administrators refuse to hold poor teachers accountable. Worst of all are teachers and administrators who hold parents in contempt and yet expect parents to come to their support.

    Also, I note that there are aspects of great education that cannot be easily quantified or reduced to a number or a score.

    We are admitting students that are better and better at standardized testing and worse and worse at critical thinking because Goodhart’s Law is universal.

    Much standardized testing measures nothing significant. And there are teachers who probably should just stick to teaching their subjects well, rather than trying to develop critical thinking in their students, a task which is sometimes beyond their talents.

  305. 305.

    Jinchi

    August 24, 2020 at 7:43 pm

    @Kay: It’s as if you were in an HOA and you said “no one outside this HOA can have blue shutters!” Why belong to the HOA at all?

    Because you want blue shutters, of course.

    But actually, I don’t think you guys have this quite right. It’s the elite that are exempted from the rules. The lower rank members are all subject to severe repurcussions for violating them.

  306. 306.

    prostratedragon

    August 24, 2020 at 7:48 pm

    Niccolò Paganini – Caprice for Solo Violin, Op. 1 No. 24

  307. 307.

    Another Scott

    August 24, 2020 at 7:56 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Much standardized testing measures nothing significant.

    It mostly measures a student’s ability to take standardized tests.

    Seriously.

    If it measured intrinsic knowledge and understanding, then people wouldn’t do things like take the SAT multiple times to improve their scores.

    My brilliant J has a favorite story about her time in grade school in one of those “experimental” schools where kids pretty much did what they wanted and they all had a great time with no grades, no tests, etc., yet they still learned a lot. Later, her twin sister was valedictorian of their high school (J got one “B” on purpose so that she wouldn’t have to compete with her over it), so they did well in traditional classes as well.

    How many high-stakes multiple choice tests do we take after we get out of formal schooling? Maybe it’s not really that important a skill, but instead has been built-up because “we” don’t trust teachers enough to evaluate student performance?

    We already know there are better ways.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  308. 308.

    Citizen Alan

    August 24, 2020 at 8:00 pm

    @Tom Levenson:  Maybe, but I know it was a lot easier for Obama to beat deranged lunatic Alan Keyes compared to pre sex scandal Jack Ryan.

  309. 309.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 8:01 pm

    @Aleta: And you can’t generalize a universal truth about what students receive  from an education at Yale or Harvard

    The burden is on Harvard or Yale or anyone else to demonstrate the value of the service they are offering. None do that. In fact, we go out of our way to never do that. Our focus is entirely on our reputation, not on what a student will necessarily learn.

    That means students don’t actually know what they’re buying. It is the best educational experience? Very possibly. But Harvard has no interest in actually demonstrating that. What they do demonstrate that cannot be denied is access. Can every student benefit from that? Well, no, but does anyone think that Central Florida University offers remotely the same kind of access as Harvard? One of my early contracting jobs was at a small firm that it turns out was made up of USC grads. They were hiring a new permanent employee and they started by throwing every non-USC resume in the garbage. They understood that the value of their degree relied on raising the reputation of the school by hiring future graduates.

    Every student experience is unique, but some provide more opportunities and others fewer. You’re buying the likelihood of opportunity.

    You think Kavanaugh would have been sitting in front of the Senate if his parents hadn’t gotten him into Georgetown? Why do you think Ted Cruz refused to study with students who went to lesser reputation schools? Everyone knows this game. Everyone plays it, and nobody wants to admit to it.

    Go to any top 50 university and see if you can find a faculty member that will admit having  gone to a community college. You won’t. Lots did, but none will admit to it, because it undermines their reputation by suggesting they couldn’t get into a ‘better’ school.

  310. 310.

    geg6

    August 24, 2020 at 8:06 pm

    @Martin:

    We get a whopping 8% of our budget from PA.

  311. 311.

    zhena gogolia

    August 24, 2020 at 8:12 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    I even do the People crossword.

  312. 312.

    Martin

    August 24, 2020 at 8:15 pm

    @Another Scott: Somewhat. More than that it either tests the teachers ability to prepare students for standardized tests, or the students ability to hire people to help him/her take the standardized test.

    Standardized tests correlate better with income than with anything else.

  313. 313.

    WaterGirl

    August 24, 2020 at 8:17 pm

    @James E Powell: That’s heartening!

  314. 314.

    Bex

    August 24, 2020 at 8:17 pm

    @sdhays: The largest group of splitters became the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).  The Anglican Church usually refers to the Church of England.

  315. 315.

    WaterGirl

    August 24, 2020 at 8:19 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Whoa!

    Let’s see how the Dumpster Fire likes threats – he certainly liked issuing them in relation to the ambassador who was going to have some bad things happening to he.

    I hope she reads that quote from Michael Cohen and experiences at least a moment of satisfaction.

  316. 316.

    WaterGirl

    August 24, 2020 at 8:21 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: “I suppose having the intro to your next OTR  in hot pink would be too much”, she pondered deviously.

  317. 317.

    WaterGirl

    August 24, 2020 at 8:24 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Have I ever told you the story of when I worked the University?  We had an open office arrangement because we did IT support and nobody wanted cubicles anyway

    Someone stopped by our office and was chatting, and asked what my favorite color was.  I paused and said, you know, I’m not sure.

    Every single person who worked for me and was in the office at that moment shouted BLUE! simultaneously.  YOUR FAVORITE COLOR IS BLUE.  How can you not know that?  Look at the color we painted the office, the colors on the walls of your house, the color that’s in all the artwork on the walls…

    Maybe you had to be there, but it was pretty funny.

  318. 318.

    Another Scott

    August 24, 2020 at 8:26 pm

    @WaterGirl: :-D

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  319. 319.

    Roger Moore

    August 24, 2020 at 8:28 pm

    @Another Scott:

    Maybe it’s not really that important a skill, but instead has been built-up because “we” don’t trust teachers enough to evaluate student performance?

    There’s more to it than not trusting teachers to evaluate their students.  The big benefit of standardized testing is that it’s standardized, so at least in theory you can compare the scores of students from anywhere.  That generality has real value, even if it comes with major drawbacks.

  320. 320.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    August 24, 2020 at 8:28 pm

    @WaterGirl: I don’t think hot pink would reflect the subject matter.  It’s a volcano and foo dogs.

  321. 321.

    germy

    August 24, 2020 at 8:28 pm

    This may make some people angry, but Jerry Falwell, Jr.'s sex life is really none of our business. That's between him, his wife, their former pool boy, an undisclosed number of younger women, all their lawyers, any videographers, and the Board of Trustees of Liberty University.

    — Charlotte Clymer ?️‍? (@cmclymer) August 24, 2020

  322. 322.

    Steeplejack

    August 24, 2020 at 8:32 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    I have been working my way through the entire back catalogue of NYT crosswords (going back to November 1993). I am up to October 2010 and am already dreading the day when I catch up to “real time” and face rationing.

  323. 323.

    Ken

    August 24, 2020 at 8:34 pm

    @Steeplejack: Unless your memory is a hell of lot better than mine, just start over with the 1993 puzzles.

  324. 324.

    Another Scott

    August 24, 2020 at 8:35 pm

    New: Jerry Falwell Jr. tells me he is NOT leaving his post, despite indications from Liberty that he will do so. "I have not resigned," Falwell says.

    — Maggie Severns (@MaggieSeverns) August 24, 2020

    Tune in tomorrow for the next exciting episode of …

    (via nycsouthpaw)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  325. 325.

    Calouste

    August 24, 2020 at 8:35 pm

    @The Moar You Know: The only thing Falwell has admitted to so far is that his wife had an affair with the pool boy. He hasn’t admitted to anything regarding himself. The pool boy has some other allegations with receipts, but Falwell denies them. So far.

  326. 326.

    Immanentize

    August 24, 2020 at 8:36 pm

    @Aleta: +1

  327. 327.

    Yutsano

    August 24, 2020 at 8:38 pm

    @Calouste:  There’s some bisexuality in there. That would be the one thing Falwell would definitely want to hide more than anything.

  328. 328.

    PJ

    August 24, 2020 at 8:54 pm

    @Calouste: The pool boy apparently released video.  It’s gonna be hard for Falwell to hide that.

  329. 329.

    zhena gogolia

    August 24, 2020 at 8:56 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    Wow. How do you access those? I would love to do some vintage NYT.

  330. 330.

    James E Powell

    August 24, 2020 at 9:00 pm

    @Citizen Alan:

    Hell, arguably we only got President Obama because Jeri Ryan was so disgusted by her husband Jack Ryan pressuring her to get gangbanged in a sex club that she dragged out all his dirty laundry in the middle of the 2006 Illinois Senate campaign.

    Both Jack and Jeri Ryan opposed the unsealing of their divorce file. It was the Chicago Tribune and Chicago TV station that sued.

  331. 331.

    Another Scott

    August 24, 2020 at 9:02 pm

    @Roger Moore: Agreed that in theory it has value.  I think that we’re coming to see that the serious issues with the tests outweigh that value in lots of cases.

    To be clear, I’m a big fan of basic national standards – in principle.  I think it’s probably more important for public schools to challenge students to do well, to learn how to learn, and find ways to help them do well.  I see the value in testing, but the recent mania for high-stakes testing is misguided.

    https://dianeravitch.net/2020/08/22/biden-and-harris-may-forge-a-new-path-on-education/

    By contrast, Biden called for a scale-back of standardized testing at a 2019 MSNBC education forum, and he criticized their use in teacher evaluations, a key policy goal of the Obama administration. Under the leadership of Biden’s campaign, Democrats formally introduced a party platform this week that criticizes high-stakes testing and calls for new restrictions on charter schools.

    It’ll be interesting to see who Biden picks for Secretary of Education and what they end up pushing.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  332. 332.

    Another Scott

    August 24, 2020 at 10:54 pm

    Hey @JerryFalwellJr they’re basically saying you went back on your word! That’s an insult! Are you just going to sit back and watch while they oh https://t.co/YqY0tOkuK5

    — MadAtTheFDAHat (@Popehat) August 25, 2020

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  333. 333.

    ballerat

    August 24, 2020 at 11:45 pm

     

    @Roger Moore: He really is like Old Scratch, isn’t he?

    I’m intrigued by the idea of the Antichrist as an idiot stupid dotard. It’s like the power of the demons/spirits in Bird Box;  they don’t actually kill anyone, their effect is to cause people to kill themselves.

    Their downfall in other words is within themselves.

  334. 334.

    dopey-o

    August 25, 2020 at 1:20 am

    @ballerat: I’m intrigued by the idea of the Antichrist as an idiot stupid dotard.

    I have been interested in the idea that Trump is the Anti-Christ,  but none of his followers can see it. He has embraced all of the 7 deadly sins, and his followers embrace him for the audacity of his belligerence.

    Of course the unchurched Trump has no idea of his role. Christ said “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Hatred, neo-nazis marching in the streets, children stolen and locked in cages, 177,000 excess deaths, 30 million jobs lost, 100,000 small businesses gone forever, and it’s late and i can’t remember what else.

    People ask “What would he do differently if he really was a Russian asset?” What if he really was the Anti-Christ?

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - Albatrossity - Serengeti Day 2, Round 3 9
Image by Albatrossity (6/12/25)

PA Supreme Court At Risk

We did it!

We raised the 25,000 for The Civics Center, and with the external matches, that gives them $60,000 for this Spring effort!

You guys rock!

Recent Comments

  • Jay on War for Ukraine Day 1,204: Off the Looking Glass & Through the Map (Jun 13, 2025 @ 3:48am)
  • way2blue on War for Ukraine Day 1,204: Off the Looking Glass & Through the Map (Jun 13, 2025 @ 3:41am)
  • Odie Hugh Manatee on Well, This is Fucking Horrifying (Jun 13, 2025 @ 3:04am)
  • Bruce K in ATH-GR on Well, This is Fucking Horrifying (Jun 13, 2025 @ 2:59am)
  • prostratedragon on Well, This is Fucking Horrifying (Jun 13, 2025 @ 2:24am)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
War in Ukraine
Donate to Razom for Ukraine

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!