Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Russia bombs Ukraine’s maternity hospitals; Republicans in the House can’t sort out supporting Ukraine.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

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

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

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

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

In my day, never was longer.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

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

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

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

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Please don’t feed the bears.

No Justins, No Peace

You are here: Home / Elections / Biden-Harris 2020 / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Begin As You Mean to Go On

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Begin As You Mean to Go On

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And one excellent read, now that we’ve stopped holding our breath…

… The concert was a triumph: a rousing call for American unity through soaring pop songs and tributes to people caring for their community.

The production? An unprecedented logistical puzzle that had to be solved in less than six weeks. The team faced a deeper challenge beyond the daunting details: how to reinvent the look and feel of a long-held national tradition — to give meaning to absence, incorporating both grief and optimism; to dazzle the 10.5 million TV viewers who watched the concert as it aired…

Every song was chosen for the story it told, says Elrod. That included Demi Lovato’s performance of Bill Withers’s “Lovely Day,” which the singer had never performed in public before, and learned only a few days before inauguration, says Elrod. And that moment where President Biden bopped along to the song with his baby grandson, Beau?

“Him holding his grandson was not planned,” says Elrod. “It was a beautiful moment because it was authentic.” (“LOVE YOU,” Lovato wrote on Instagram, with an image of the president watching her perform.)…

In normal times, only the people who shell out for pricey tickets get to attend inaugural balls — and those jaded ballgoers complain about how the food was bad and the coat check was slow, anyway. The inaugural concert was a great equalizer: Everyone got the same view of Katy Perry’s outfit. No one got blisters from hours of wearing heels. The production team hopes it will start a tradition.

“I think it’s important going forward that there be plenty of content to make people feel that no matter where they live, no matter if they can afford to travel to Washington, D.C. — do they feel like they can be a part of this?” says Elrod…

There were more than 20,000 fireworks, says Adam Biscow, whose Nashville company, Strictly FX — they do the fireworks at the Super Bowl, which explains the oomph factor — collaborated on the pyrotechnics with New Jersey’s Garden State Fireworks. They set up two launch sites — one near the Washington Monument, the other on the Tidal Basin — to accommodate the disparate camera angles for both Perry and the president. But having two locations made the show seem bigger…

The other reason the display was so grand: “As we started booking more acts, the finale compressed into just Katy’s song,” says Kirshner, but the number of fireworks remained the same.

“Typically that would be a 30- or 40-minute display, and they literally wanted to compress into four minutes,” says Biscow.

“Honestly,” says Kirshner, “we got a lot of bang for our buck.”

Reader Interactions

229Comments

  1. 1.

    Cermet

    When the person said: “we got a lot of bang for our buck.” That’s what happens when Dems are in control; thugs waste our resources and taxes so the tiny super rich prosper, dems raise all boats.

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Dogs y’all, we don’t deserve them: Patient dog waits for days outside hospital

    A devoted dog has spent days waiting outside a hospital in Turkey where her sick owner was being treated.

    The pet, Boncuk, which means bead, followed the ambulance that transported her owner, Cemal Senturk, to hospital in the Black Sea city of Trabzon on 14 January. She then made daily visits to the facility, the private news agency DHA reported. Senturk’s daughter, Aynur Egeli, said she would take Boncuk home but the dog would run back to the hospital.

    A hospital security guard, Muhammet Akdeniz, told DHA: “She comes every day around 9am and waits until nightfall. She doesn’t go in. When the door opens she pokes her head inside.”

    On Wednesday, Boncuk was finally reunited with Senturk when he was pushed outside in a wheelchair. “She’s very used to me. And I miss her too, constantly,” he told DHA. Senturk was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday and returned home with Boncuk.

    Damned wife… Cutting onions this early in the AM.

  3. 3.

    Nicole

    I think my son’s teacher might actually be okay with questions disguised as comments being declared illegal. ?

  5. 5.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Democrats caught the car. Now they’re not quite sure what to do with it.

    they’re so committed to dems in disarray that they’ll manufacture one when it doesn’t exist

  7. 7.

    mrmoshpotato

    That ‘Flood the zone’ opinion headline is garbage. You can’t flood the zone with good information.

  9. 9.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    The one thing about Biden is he knows where all the levers of power are.

  10. 10.

    eclare

    @OzarkHillbilly:  You are so right, we don’t deserve them.  I lost my Sophie in 2019, and I plan to look for another dog once I get the vaccine.  Fingers crossed for April.

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    ‘Gondor has no king’: pro-Trump lawsuit cites Lord of the Rings

    “Gondor has no king,” the lawsuit states, a footnote providing an explanation of the woeful fate of Tolkien’s entirely imaginary land populated by dragons, wizards, hobbits and elves, all threatened by a baleful Dark Lord backed up by an army of orcs and with famously little time for due democratic process.

    The suit explains how Gondor’s throne was empty and its rightful kings in exile, presumably positing the idea that Trump is the true king of America – a land happily monarch-free since 1776.

    “This analogy is applicable since there is now in Washington DC a group of individuals calling themselves the president, vice-president and Congress who have no rightful claim to govern the American people,” the case states.

    It adds: “Since only the rightful king could sit on the throne of Gondor, a steward was appointed to manage Gondor until the return of the King, known as ‘Aragorn’, occurred at the end of the story.”

    The lawsuit then suggests that America’s version of the stewards of Gondor should be selected from among – surprise, surprise – Trump’s cabinet members, who should run the country.

    The punchline?

    The case was launched in Texas, in the name of small conservative groups including Latinos for Trump and Blacks for Trump, and was filed by Paul Davis, an attorney who lost his job after posting Instagram videos of himself at the attack on the Capitol.

    Now about to lose his law license.

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    Earlyish alert for Alistair Sim fans. Hardly ever shown dramedy noir Green for Danger airing on TCM this coming Wednesday at 11:30 p.m. Eastern time. Sim an impeccable fit as an unorthodox police inspector.

  16. 16.

    Jeffro

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:they’re so committed to dems in disarray that they’ll manufacture one when it doesn’t exist

    this, always  >(

    One would think that they might – just MIGHT – consider a “GOP in disarray” narrative, since, you know, the Repubs actually are in disarray right now (to say nothing of how trumpov’s impeachment trial and upcoming various indictments will continue to split that party)

    But no…go on about the Dems, snooze media…(eyeroll)

  28. 28.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Rolling Stone seeks ‘thought leaders’ willing to pay $2,000 to write for them

    Rolling Stone magazine is offering “thought leaders” the chance to write for its website if they are willing to pay $2,000 to “shape the future of culture”.

    The storied magazine, which has published journalism by writers including Hunter S Thompson, Patti Smith and Tom Wolfe, approached would-be members of its new “Culture Council” by email, telling them that they had the chance to join “an invitation-only community for innovators, influencers and tastemakers”.

    Emails seen by the Guardian suggest that those who pass a vetting process – and pay a $1,500 annual fee plus $500 up front – will “have the opportunity to publish original content to the Rolling Stone website”. It suggests that doing so “allows members to position themselves as thought leaders and share their expertise”.

    That message is reinforced by the Council’s website, which, under the headline Get Published tells would-be members: “Being published in one of the best-known entertainment media outlets in the world sets you apart as a visionary, leader, and bold voice in your industry.”

    Publication is not guaranteed and prospective first-person pieces are vetted by Rolling Stone’s partner, The Community Company.

    The grift is strong with this one.

  29. 29.

    Matt McIrvin

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: The most trouble Democrats are having right now is… Democrats fighting with Republicans in the split Senate. But that’s not Democrats in disarray, that’s classic party vs. party stuff, Republicans trying to stop them however they can.

    I noticed the Washington Post is trying to turn Biden’s 100M vaccination goal into some kind of Biden-dishonesty story, that the current rate of vaccination implies Trump’s nonexistent plan wasn’t really nonexistent or wasn’t so bad after all. I don’t entirely get it–did Trump have any plan at all to obtain the supply to keep it going at current rates?

  30. 30.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: I did file a lawsuit to make you President! Of the Beaver Run Country Day School. But it got tossed on what I think were bogus and politically motivated grounds.  The Court said there was no standing because: you were older than 12, you aren’t actually enrolled there, and they actually don’t have class presidents in their 6th grade.

    We was robbed!

  34. 34.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Speaking of which: Courtrooms and creditors likely to loom large in Trump’s post-presidency life

    Each US president has charted a unique course after leaving the White House, taking up vocations from philanthropy to human rights to oil painting.

    Donald Trump’s post-presidency appears likely to be taken up by meetings with lawyers and creditors, possible sworn depositions about tax practices or sexual assault allegations and, in some long-tail scenarios, fines, criminal charges, bankruptcy or other legal sanction.

    With Trump gone from Washington, and now lacking the immunity protections of the presidency, prosecutors in at least three jurisdictions are either weighing or actively pursuing criminal cases against him, and a fourth prosecutor is investigating allegedly fraudulent business practices inside the Trump Organization.

    Specifically to your question:

    The New York state attorney general, Laetitia James, who is conducting a civil, as opposed to a criminal, investigation, of Trump Organization business practices, made a similar statement on national television last month.

    “President Trump cannot avoid justice in the great state of New York,” said James, whose office has previously, and successfully, pursued accusations of fraud within a Trump “university” and a Trump “charity”, leading to a $25m settlement and a $2m damages payment, respectively.

    In perhaps the most threatening legal action facing Trump, the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance, is conducting what his office has described as a “complex criminal investigation” into Trump’s business dealings, including sworn allegations by the Trump lawyer-turned-enemy Michael Cohen that the Trump Organization kept separate sets of books for tax and debt purposes.

    Defending a subpoena for eight years of Trump’s tax records, in court documents Vance has cited “public reports of possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization”.

    Vance’s investigation also encompasses hush payments Trump caused to be made to the pornographic movie actor Stormy Daniels and former model Karen McDougal. Cohen, who orchestrated the payments, pleaded guilty in federal court in 2018 to campaign finance violations in the scheme and has said he was directed by Trump.

  37. 37.

    Amir Khalid

    @Baud:

    I would love to file such a lawsuit myself. But the judge would point out that I’m Malaysian, and dismiss my case because I lack locus standi.

  38. 38.

    MazeDancer

    Alas, I did not win a billion bucks last night. Almost never play the lottery, but thought, why not?

    It was fun thinking about it. A third would go to my sister, a third to charity – mostly animal rescue and the arts – and a third to me. Which, after taxes meant I would have to limp along on 80 million for life.

    Really, all I would spend that on is staff. Someone to keep the house clean. Someone to do house chores, yard stuff, upkeep. That would be heaven.

    Mostly, it was fun to have the freedom to ponder frivolous, not save Democracy,, things.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    @Immanentize:

    you were older than 12,

    Did you emphasize my mental age?

     

    you aren’t actually enrolled there,

    They need to ban the box.

    and they actually don’t have class presidents in their 6th grade.

    Are they some sort of an anarcho-syndicalist commune that take it in turns to act as sort of executive officer for the week?

  43. 43.

    Ken

    @Baud: I’m really disappointed no one here has filed a frivolous lawsuit to make me president.

    Several people have (see above comments), but the corporate-controlled media refuses to publicize their frivolity.

  50. 50.

    JPL

    @OzarkHillbilly: Long story short, trump wanted to fire the acting atty gen and replace him with Jeffrey Clark who would then toss the result of the GA election, because why not.

  51. 51.

    debbie

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    The more I hear about QAnon, the more I’ve come to think this Q guy is a grifter who used another grifter to strengthen his own grift. I wonder if Trump has discovered he was played yet.

  52. 52.

    mrmoshpotato

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Each US president has charted a unique course after leaving the White House…post-presidency appears likely to be taken up by meetings with lawyers and creditors, possible sworn depositions about tax practices or sexual assault allegations and, in some long-tail scenarios, fines, criminal charges, bankruptcy or other legal sanction. 

    Ah yes!  Remember the unique  after-White House times of all of those other Soviet shitpile mobster conmen who fell into the presidency because they screamed the racism louder and clearer than all of the other GOP trash?

  58. 58.

    Ken

    @JPL: Oh, that part of last night’s news dump.  I thought he was talking about the news-dump that some of Trump’s organizations paid some of the insurrectionists.

    Or maybe the news-dump that some of the insurrectionists were receiving facebook messages directing them inside the Capitol, and telling them where people were hiding.

    (Disclaimer: The above are my summaries of Balloon Juice commenters’ summaries. Seek primary sources.)

  61. 61.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Damned wife… Cutting onions this early in the AM.

    In a dusty room, as well, I bet. And it’s amazing that the onions are able to “work their magic” through my intertubez and into my dusty room.

  63. 63.

    debbie

    @Ken:

    some of Trump’s organizations paid some of the insurrectionists

    Paid for their rooms and travel or paid them to show up?

  65. 65.

    Immanentize

    @Baud:  The school also claimed there was a “pants definitely even on zoom” rule which was disqualifying as well.  I can’t believe their cancel culture rooolz.

  66. 66.

    Ken

    @Immanentize: What is also shocking is that Rosen held and didn’t fold.

    He did have the backing of a lot of the top-tier Justice Department lawyers, who said that they would resign if he were forced out.  Don’t know if that helped, since Trump is infamously incapable of considering consequences.

  67. 67.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    I’m really disappointed no one here has filed a frivolous lawsuit to make me president.

    I heard that someone did, but the filer was terminated with extreme prejudice by the court clerk. Yet another example of the Deep State corrupting the something something.

  69. 69.

    Nobody in particular

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Hey Matt,

    I did respond to your inquiry (about DKos) on that stale by now thread. I have a low number from 2005 but it’s like Yogi Berra said:

    I don’t go there much at all, too crowded, with young kids who know everything and nothing simultaneously – but are full of piss and vinegar, a redeeming quality.

  71. 71.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Rolling Stone seeks ‘thought leaders’ willing to pay $2,000 to write for them

    I know you’re not kidding, but … you gotta be fucking kidding.

    If I pay those grifting assholes $5,000, do I get front-page billing

    ETA: I see DAW had a similar reaction, so I know I’m in good company.

  73. 73.

    Immanentize

    @Ken: in a few months (I hope) when I can travel safely again, I will go to DC, meet my high up and long time career DOJ friends in a secure no phones location, ply them with good food and beverages and hear what happened.  It was impossible to have anything other than the most banal conversations with them the last four years as everyone assumed they were tapped.

  75. 75.

    Ken

    @debbie: The comments were in this open thread.

    For the payments, the Trump campaign paid for the rally, got the permits, etc.  Jay’s source was a tweet, which linked to an Open Secrets report. Doesn’t say anything about paying people to attend, though it does emphasize the campaign’s unusual use of shell corporations that make it difficult to tell where the money went, or where it came from.

    For the Facebook messages, Chetan Murphy’s source was the Washington Post report on the pre-planning for the attack by a number of the insurrectionists.

    Some messages, according to the FBI, included, “Tom all legislators are down in the Tunnels 3floors down,” and “Go through back house chamber doors facing N left down hallway down steps.” Another message read: “All members are in the tunnels under capital seal them in. Turn on gas,” the FBI added.

  76. 76.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I noticed the Washington Post is trying to turn Biden’s 100M vaccination goal into some kind of Biden-dishonesty story

     
    Media can’t handle that story. Many were hand wringing about how Biden would fail to meet the goal, now they’re claiming it’s not ambitious enough.

  80. 80.

    mrmoshpotato

    @debbie:

    Paid for their rooms and travel or paid them to show up? 

    Isn’t that a potayto-potahto, tomayto-tomahto, let’s punt them all into the Sun question?

  81. 81.

    SFAW

    @Immanentize:

    in a few months (I hope) when I can travel safely again

    What about your being on the no-fly list? Won’t that superseded the COVID travel ban?

  88. 88.

    debbie

    @Ken:

    Thanks, but Jesus. Especially that chart. I guess that explains why all those groups were involved. Not because of their commitment so much as being fed misspent campaign funds. This alone should get Joe to move campaign reform higher up on his to-do list.

  90. 90.

    JPL

    The democratic members need to thank President Biden and Mitch for wanting to delay the impeachment.  In fact between the Post article and Times article, they have a lot of people they might want to depose.    It might be pay back time.

  97. 97.

    NotMax

    @Ken

    Hey, there were still all those bundles of boodle laying around from the ’17 inauguration. And the moving company charges by the box.

    //

  98. 98.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: When they announced the “100 million vaccines in 100 days” I wondered if that was a reflection of their confidence in their ability to marshal the wheels of govt towards that goal or a sign of hubris considering their inability to see just exactly how fucked up the govt was in the wake of trump.

    I like that they are sticking to it and will cut them some slack if they come up short but we all know the media won’t be so forgiving.

  106. 106.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Media has their narrative set. Either Biden fails or Biden timidly set the goal too low.  It’ll be up to regular folks to spread the word of this administration’s efforts.

  107. 107.

    zhena gogolia

    @Ken:

    Does anybody know what “gas” they’re talking about? Did they score something from Vladimir Vladimirovich?

  110. 110.

    Ken

    @debbie: Not because of their commitment so much as being fed misspent campaign funds.

    Some people take “transactional loyalty” quite literally.

  111. 111.

    rikyrah

    @mrmoshpotato:

    If you can’t walk and chew gum at the same time, get into another profession. We have a lot of problems, and the President of the United States is supposed to be able to handle more than one crisis at a time.

  113. 113.

    Ken

    @zhena gogolia: Does anybody know what “gas” they’re talking about? Did they score something from Vladimir Vladimirovich?

    Like the FBI, I do not comment on an ongoing investigation. Unlike the FBI, that’s because I don’t know anything.

  115. 115.

    SFAW

    @zhena gogolia:

    Oh, they “were just joking.” [The way they were “just joking” with the noose and scaffolding, and talking about killing Speaker Pelosi. Such jokers, they are.]

  116. 116.

    Matt McIrvin

    @OzarkHillbilly: The current line is “100M in 100 days is so easy that failure is nearly impossible–Trump woulda done it anyway.” Even though the vaccination rate is only just now getting almost to that level, state supplies are clearly running low and Trump’s vaccine distribution was weirdly haphazard–I suspect it would not have been sustainable.

  117. 117.

    NotMax

    @OzarkHillbilly

    “We ask you honor’s forbearance. Counsel has at great expense made multiple trips through the wardrobe and affidavits from Narnia are forthcoming.”

  120. 120.

    Immanentize

    @Mary G: As someone pointed out, the footnote in the pleading explaining the quote really ignored all the history and complicated politics of Gondor, as well as the fact that when Boromir said that iconic line, it was a self serving slap at the true heir in an attempt to preserve his own future power which was illegitimate.

  121. 121.

    Ken

    BTW I am vaguely disturbed by the number of people who seem to have missed my “Elvis in a Burger Lord” Good Omens reference. Please tell me you all really did get it, and are just riffing in other directions. Otherwise my faith in the literacy and culture of the Balloon Juice comments section will take a nosedive.

  124. 124.

    Baud

    @SFAW:

    Andrew Sullivan (via Outside the Beltway)

    If Biden’s team meaningfully accelerates the pace of vaccination, he will be rewarded handily, as he should be. (He’s already lowering expectations, to maximize any political pay-off.)

     
    I hope and expect that the Trump years have taught us who we can and cannot trust.

  126. 126.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Ken: I failed. Sorry =-(

    Eta: I have read “Neverwhere” and ” The Ocean at the End of the Lane”

    Points ?

  130. 130.

    Ken

    @mrmoshpotato: You can flood the zone with good information?

    Hercules, Augean Stables, etc.  Though it’s a lot harder than filling it with manure, which is just a matter of ignoring the problem.

    (When I first read about the Labors, that one stuck out.  Definite “One of these things is not like the others” vibe to it.)

  131. 131.

    SFAW

    @Ken:

    Quit whining. Not all of us has/have read all/most of Pratchett. When I finally read Good Omens, I’ll chuckle, retroactively, at your attempted humor.  You don’t see me whining about people not getting my references to Brutha or Vorbis, do you?

    Friggin’ kids with your weird humor. And get offa my lawn!

  133. 133.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: Sullivan and David Frum have been bellyaching about Biden opening the doors wide to let in the wrong kind of immigrants (that is, unlike themselves). I expected it fully from Sullivan but I’m disappointed that Frum is still in that headspace. I suppose there are things you can’t change.

  134. 134.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    It’s so fucking stupid because it’s not like Biden is going to stop once we hit 100 million.  The only relevance to the story is to set up future stories about how Biden doesn’t deserve credit for his actions.

  135. 135.

    Chief Oshkosh

    Anybody have thoughts on the two-week delay for the Senate impeachment trial? I’m ambivalent, and of course, don’t know any of the considerations that Schumer is managing. However, it does give McConnell a perceived “win” in the press. I’d prefer that he be treated with open contempt for harboring insurrectionists in his caucus. Respond to any communication from McConnell with “We will take your concerns into consideration in due course. In the meantime, please provide your plan for how you will punish your insurrectionist members.” (E.g., Hawley, Cruz, Johnson, others.) And following McConnell balking on that, announce that a formal Senate process has begun into investigating them. Keep McConnell and the press off balance.

  136. 136.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    I can’t believe you’re still reading Sullivan. My figurative hat is (literally) doffed to you, I am not hardy enough to read him.

  140. 140.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Matt McIrvin: I forgot that Frum is Canadian.  Trying to give Rafael a run for his money, I guess.

    As for Sullivan, how about some merry ol’ Brexit?

  142. 142.

    Cermet

    @Amir Khalid: Not neccessarily so; remember, it was the winners that wrote the histories. First, remember the Riders had driven out the orgianl people from the land they were “given” by Gondor (and these orginal people were barely surviving in the mountains.) Second, there are even hints in some of Tolkien’s works that paint the elves in a very bad light.

  144. 144.

    SFAW

    @Cermet:

    Second, there are even hints in some of Tolkien’s works that paint the elves in a very bad light.

    Thank FSM Tolkien resisted the urge to paint the Jews Dwarves in a bad light.

  145. 145.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: That is going to be a long-term project.  Although a quick path to citizenship for DACA families would help.

    Or buy them off with a UBI

  148. 148.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: which one? I’ve lost track.  This is mostly snark but really, many of these seditionists seem to be surprised that committing federal crimes has consequences. Who coulda knowed ??

  153. 153.

    SFAW

    @Immanentize:

    I didn’t and don’t see the orcs that way, but the parallel(s) between Jews and Dwarves — primarily the whole money-grubbing thing — was/were palpable.

  154. 154.

    Wapiti

    @Nobody in particular: I read the article on Cotton and thought, why has that not been published before? There’s a huge difference between going through the Ranger course, and actually serving in the Ranger regiment. But… who knows that? Not the majority of journalists covering political campaigns.

  155. 155.

    NotMax

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    Would almost want to hear* their response to something like this:

    “Suppose ACORN had invaded and vandalized the White House. Should they get off scot free?”

    *Not that have any kind of burning interest in anything they have to say.

  158. 158.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax:

    “Suppose ACORN had invaded and vandalized the White House. Should they get off scot free?” 

    The ghost of ACORN!  Spooky!

  163. 163.

    Geminid

    @Wapiti: By overstating his Ranger creds, Cotton is playing to the romanticizing of “elite” military formations on the part of right wing wannabes, especially since the 9/11 attack. I always thought this mystique reflected a certain disregard for the vast majority of service members who serve in regular units.

  166. 166.

    germy

    Younger brother of the insurrectionist life coach:

    People often ask me why I haven’t spoken to my estranged sister in 12 years. I used to give them a recount of how she forced me out of the closet by inviting my parents to stage an intervention at her home.

    Now, I just tell them to turn on the TV. https://t.co/SOZwyHunOH

    — (@jaredforfilth) January 17, 2021

  168. 168.

    germy

    @MagdaInBlack:

    That last part, when she turns and looks directly and imploringly into the camera…. priceless.

    She’s asking to speak to the biggest manager of them all:  Mr. Trump!

  169. 169.

    WaterGirl

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    *Note from John Cole:

    To the 10 people who submitted essays in response to my invitation:

    I forgot to ask each of you to send in your $2,000 before I posted your essays.  What was I thinking?

    Please send the required money post-haste.

    Signed, John G. Cole

    *fictional, of course

  173. 173.

    zhena gogolia

    @WaterGirl:

    At any lecture or theater talkback, there will be someone who, instead of asking a brief question and letting the “expert” answer it, will say “This is a question that’s really more of a comment” and will then talk for 10 minutes, thus using up the Q&A time completely.

    ETA: Edgar Wright retweeted a hilarious Brit comic doing an example of it, but I just cannot find it.

  175. 175.

    germy

    @zhena gogolia:

    But it’s so unfair!

    Just FYI, I have been with PayPal for 16 years and they banned me for raising $200 for my legal defense. Then they called the news to let the news know that they banned me. No privacy with PayPal. https://t.co/s1tdh0uzw9

    — Jenna Ryan (@dotjenna) January 23, 2021

    Why is the media hounding me, a Christian real estate agent? Shouldn't they be asking Hunter Biden a few questions???? Yo CNN. Why did you contact me today? I think you have better work to do.

    — Jenna Ryan (@dotjenna) January 23, 2021

  179. 179.

    germy

    @MagdaInBlack:

    One of the replies was “You’re going to lose your job!”
    So she answers “How can I lose my job when I own my own business?”

    I think she’s about to find out.  Losing paying customers is sort of like losing a job, right?

    We just stormed the Capital. It was one of the best days of my life.

    — Jenna Ryan (@dotjenna) January 6, 2021

  180. 180.

    debbie

    @WaterGirl:

    Next time you are watching a press conference, at whatever level of government, listen to the questioners. They will spend a couple of paragraphs setting up their brief question. Odds are everyone already knows the context (because the questions are so mundane), so those lengthy lead-ins waste valuable time for other questions to be asked.

  181. 181.

    Quinerly

    @zhena gogolia: and to think… Al Watkins also represented the McCloskeys of St. Louis and actually had her gun in his law office when the later search warrant was served. I’m surprised that none of the national/foreign press is mentioning that.

  182. 182.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @germy:

    Why is the media hounding me, a Christian real estate agent?

    Which part of that do you think she thinks makes her immune from legal accountability?

  184. 184.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Nobody in particular:  @Wapiti:  The article, by saying that ranger school is open to anyone in the army, is being more than a little disingenuous.  It has a limited number of slots and entrance is very competitive, even among officers in combat branches.  It is one of the army’s most grueling courses and most people who go enter in fantastic shape and finish having lost ton of weight and at the edge of total physical and mental exhaustion.   And, fwiw, referring to a ranger qualified person, as a Ranger is not uncommon as a shorthand.

    Full disclosure:  I have my Airborne wings but never served in an Airborne unit, so I was parachute qualified but not a paratrooper.  Whatever I need to prove to myself was satisfied by the Airborne course and I did not try for the Ranger course.

  185. 185.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WaterGirl: It was only $5 worth of gold, $1,995 for the labor. I know it sounds extravagant, but my belly button lint was so close to me, and now I can wear it around my neck forever.

  188. 188.

    zhena gogolia

    @WaterGirl:

    He’s signing all these great EOs that everyone’s been waiting for, so why can’t he also outlaw “comment instead of a question” while he’s at it?

    It’s not a well-framed joke, but I’m in sympathy with it.

  189. 189.

    Princess

    @SFAW: I’ve never bought that parallel. The dwarves aren’t money grubbing. They make beautiful things out of gold and gems and they get too attached to them. (Jew are likewise not money-grubbing obvs…) There’s a lot to talk about with respect to race and Tolkien but it’s predominantly to do with how he describes Men, not the “other races” and the Jew/dwarf thing seems especially forced to me.

  191. 191.

    burnspbesq

    @mrmoshpotato:

    If you take the lump sum option, you get the present value of a billion dollars in annual payments over (IIRC) 26 years. It works out to roughly half, and it’s ordinary income for tax purposes, so scrape roughly a third off the top.

    Still, I’d rather have it than not have it.

  192. 192.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud:

    Tom Brokow is retiring.

    How can they tell?

    I remember from 2012 a segment on the Lawrence O’Donnell, show with Brokaw, Joy Reid and Jonathan Capeheart ostensibly to discuss charges of “racially tinged” aspects of the Romney campaign. After O’Donnell spent a solid couple of minutes star-fucking Brokaw, which excessive praise Himself received with the smug and complacent half-smile of a small god accepting prayers and incense, he drawled a lot stuff about how one simply couldn’t say such things about a fine man like Governor Romney. I thought Joy Reid was gonna go after him, but it was Capeheart, who at the time was still a reporter at the Washington Post, who tried to point out that flirting with birtherism and making vague “not one of us” accusations was actually rooted in racism. Brokaw basically said, “Now, tut tut, young man”, and O’Donnell spent the remainder of the segment returning to his embarrassing fawning. And we cut to commercial.

  193. 193.

    taumatugo

    If ACORN had invaded the Capitol, cowardly conservative Democrats would have jumped over neoconservative Republicans to be the first in line to bring law and order and banished the subversive groups out of existence, which is what actually happened to the organization as Democrats scurried around hiding their support for ACORN. The Democrat’s default position is classic when it comes to race issues, no matter how clear cut they may be as in secretary Vilsak asking Shirley Sherrod to resign w/o offering her the benefit of the doubt. The more things change the more they remain the same.

  198. 198.

    Steeplejack

    @burnspbesq:

    The stated cash option total on the website was about $740 million, so scrape 35-40% off that and you’re left with a paltry $450 million or so.

  199. 199.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: I wouldn’t count on non-white immigrants being automatic Democratic voters, but it’s true that if Republicans want to get and keep their votes over the long haul, they need to be less racist against those people in particular, and that helps.

  200. 200.

    Quinerly

    @LurkerNoLonger: hard to keep up, I know. As for Watkins.. I have mentioned in the past here that I am in St. Louis and graduated law school with him. He’s on our local news quite often now with his exploits. (He was very colorful in school, too). He was the first atty out the gate representing the St. Louis McCloskeys. Then had to withdraw because he was essentially hiding her little pistol that everyone was saying was a prop. At some point, Lin Wood (of wanting to execute Pence and CJ Roberts  and co counsel on the Kraken releasing suits with Sidney Powell fame) represented the St. Louis McCloskeys after Watkins had to withdraw. Watkins was “famous” here in St Louis a few years back for North Face vs South Butt. He represented South Butt.

  201. 201.

    Lyrebird

    @Nicole: I like your son’s teacher!

     

    I’m embarrassed to admit that if I hadn’t watched clips of that hack, is his name Neal?, from the NYT doing that BS to the new Press Secretary, I would not have gotten Haywood’s joke at all.

  204. 204.

    Mandarama

    @Ken: ::raises hand::

    “He was the happiest man in the whole world and he was singing, very softly.”

    Good Omens is practically my family’s Bible. I haven’t even watched the miniseries yet because I’m too afraid it won’t live up to my dreams of it.

  205. 205.

    WaterGirl

    @debbie: I totally get that part.  What I don’t understand is the tweet above that says Joe Biden signed something to make that illegal.

    Was that just a joke?  If so, it wasn’t obvious.

  206. 206.

    Quinerly

    @LurkerNoLonger: it’s kinda interesting case. Gotta go walk JoJo las Orejas. There’s a local indy paper that did at least 2-3 write ups on Al. Google him and Riverfront Times if you want a deeper dive in South Butt. ?

  207. 207.

    WaterGirl

    @MagdaInBlack: Okay, glad it’s not just me, at least.

    It’s hard with tweets, with no context, especially when I have no idea who the tweeter is, and where they are coming from.  One of the good guys?   Crazy leftist with no perspective?  An anti-vaccer?  Hard-core republican?  Serial murderer?

  210. 210.

    WaterGirl

    @zhena gogolia:  thanks

    We have lived through a terrible, horrible no-good very bad crazy time when half of what we saw and heard every day was totally absurd, but still true.  How hard would it be for the guy to have tweeted something like this?

    Joe Biden should make it illegal to ask a question that is really a statement.

  213. 213.

    Steeplejack

    @WaterGirl:

    The comments to the tweet, which apparently you didn’t look at, make it apparent that it’s a joke. That’s the thread I was referring to.

  214. 214.

    WaterGirl

    @Lyrebird: Got it!  I watched that press conference.  The reporter should be shot from a cannon for that,   I am hoping Jen learns to shut them down and humiliate them when they do shit like that, shivving them with a smile like Barack could sometimes do.

    I find it frustrating that so many tweets are like the “in jokes” where you have to know the background and all the players in order to understand them.  If a tweet is riffing off of some other tweet or some other thing, that should be included, too.

    Not directing that toward you in any way – I very much appreciate the explanation and the background info!

  215. 215.

    WaterGirl

    @Steeplejack: No, I had looked at the comments, and the first one was someone asking whether that was a joke.  I shouldn’t have to do research in order to understand a fucking tweet.

    And yes, I am feeling a bit cranky about this, why do you ask?

  216. 216.

    Lyrebird

    @WaterGirl: I am hoping Jen learns to shut them down and humiliate them when they do shit like that, shivving them with a smile like Barack could sometimes do.

    Hear, hear!

    And I totally agree with this, too:

    @WaterGirl: I find it frustrating that so many tweets are like the “in jokes” where you have to know the background and all the players in order to understand them. If a tweet is riffing off of some other tweet or some other thing, that should be included, too.

    It’s comforting to hear someone as Internet-savvy as yourself say exactly what I was thinking.

    :-)

  217. 217.

    stinger

    @WaterGirl: I read that tweet in the OP, and even before expanding to read the rest of the post I went to Twitter and read comments, and still didn’t understand it. Every word you’ve written in this comment thread about that tweet I could have written, too.

  218. 218.

    patrick II

    @Baud:

    I would like to see the guest posts from commentators here become a biannual or quarterly event.  There were different voices and some very good posts.  And I have to say this about OzarkHillbilly — eloquent and to the point.

  220. 220.

    Rand Careaga

    @germy:

    We just stormed the Capital. It was one of the best days of my life.

    — Jenna Ryan (@dotjenna) January 6, 2021

    This puts me in mind of a scene from The West Wing in which a couple of senior White House staffers are reluctantly babysitting the President’s daughter at a DC bar when a couple of rowdies attempt to pick her up, and become obstreperous when advised to lay off. “You’re having the worst night of your life,” one of the staffers tells them, as the daughter’s Secret Service detail closes at a brisk clip. “You just don’t realize it yet.”

  221. 221.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Mandarama: The miniseries is a pretty good adaptation, but the main difference from the book is that the miniseries very, very much emphasizes Aziraphale and Crowley and their relationship, despite their somewhat peripheral role in the plot. I think it’s responding to the preoccupations of decades of fandom.

  222. 222.

    waynel140

    Trump led the Neo-Nazi Party, right? Even the anti-Semitism was the same. They followed a leader who lied to them. They tried to take control of the government and make their leader president-for-life. They hate me. What difference is there?

  223. 223.

    Ken

    @WaterGirl: I find it frustrating that so many tweets are like the “in jokes” where you have to know the background and all the players in order to understand them.

    Sadly, it’s no longer possible to be aware of all Internet traditions.

    Perhaps someday historians will identify the Internet equivalent of Athanasius Kircher, called the “last Renaissance man” because he knew everything (for a 17th century value of “everything”).

  224. 224.

    VFX Lurker

    @Mandarama:

    “He was the happiest man in the whole world and he was singing, very softly.”

    Good Omens is practically my family’s Bible. I haven’t even watched the miniseries yet because I’m too afraid it won’t live up to my dreams of it.

    I’ve listened to the full audiobook, the four-hour BBC Radio play, and the Amazon miniseries which had co-writer Neil Gaiman as showrunner. All wonderful, though the narrator’s accent for the voice of the Wasabi made me wince in the audiobook. The BBC radio play put the voice of the Wasabi in the background, and I think the miniseries thankfully omitted it altogether. Crowley’s beautiful Bentley looked better on-screen, anyway.

    Such a good story. ❤

  226. 226.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Nobody in particular: [Great Orange Satan is] too crowded, with young kids who know everything and nothing simultaneously…

    IOW just like here, but no senior discounts or Geritol, amirite? :^p

  229. 229.

    J R in WV

    Darn!  I wanted to make another investment in the pension fund, and now some other worthless person has won the whole mess! Terrible !

    You all should be aware that if I had won that lotto prize, we would all have shared it equally!!

    Really !!!! No question about that. Note that I didn’t make any representation about future awards and prizes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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