Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

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

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

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

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

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

Ah, the different things are different argument.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Cole, when it comes to calico cats, restraint is overrated.

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

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Everything Old Is New Again!

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Everything Old Is New Again!

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I read Steinberg’s tweet aloud to the Spousal Unit, who happily replied “Norbert the Nark returns!”

Unfortunately…

Reader Interactions

103Comments

  2. 2.

    JPL

    If the FBI infiltrated the group that planted the pipe bomb, I wish they would arrest those responsible. I’d sleep eaiser.. just sayin

  4. 4.

    Elizabelle

    From the NY Times article:

    Mr. Duong, a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnamese and Chinese heritage …(le sigh) …   and he found the undercover officer.  All the buzzwords.  Freedom and liberty loving.  Guns, of course.

    According to the complaint, the authorities first learned of Mr. [Fi] Duong on the morning of Jan. 6 when he and a man they described as Associate 1 encountered an undercover Metropolitan Police Department officer near Freedom Plaza in Washington. Mr. Duong, 27, asked the officer whether he was a “patriot,” court papers say, and the officer said he was. When asked the same question, Mr. Duong, a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnamese and Chinese heritage, told the officer that he was an “operator,” prosecutors say.
    Within a week, court papers say, the undercover police officer had introduced Mr. Duong to an undercover F.B.I. agent. Speaking freely, Mr. Duong told the agent that he was part of a “cloak and dagger” militia-style group trying to assemble a “robust network” of “freedom-loving, liberty-minded” Second Amendment supporters. He explained that his family had “spent two generations running from Communists” in China and Vietnam and then admitted he had been at the Capitol on Jan. 6 “wearing all black in an effort to look like a member of antifa.”
    By February, prosecutors say, the undercover agent had won Mr. Duong’s trust and was invited to a meeting of the militia group at Mr. Duong’s home in Alexandria — a get-together that the members referred to as “Bible study.”

  5. 5.

    Adam L Silverman

    I would just like to suggest that everyone’s rules to live by should include “Adam’s right.”

    Just saying…

  18. 18.

    featheredsprite

    It has been 50 years since I read How to Identify a Fed.

    Ah, the nostalgia!

  20. 20.

    BruceFromOhio

    I read Steinberg’s tweet aloud to the Spousal Unit, who happily replied “Norbert the Nark returns!”

    The funny papers come to life. Except these these stupid witless assholes are trying to bring down the country. Not funny.

  22. 22.

    Geminid

    Speaking of Adams, it looks like Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will be New York City’s next mayor. After a count of all but 4,000 absentee ballots, Adams leads former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia by 8,000 votes out of nearly 1 million cast.

    A former NYPD Captain, Adams is expected to beat Republican Curtis Sliwa easily in November.

  24. 24.

    Martin

    @debbie: Keep an eye on Lambda. Might spread faster than even Delta. Not yet in US, but spreading fast across the globe.

  25. 25.

    MomSense

    My dad and son went to hear Colin Woodard give a talk today.  They really enjoyed it.

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    It’s about damn time the feds started spending as much effort infiltrating right wing groups as they do infiltrating left wing ones.  Maybe if they had taken right wing groups seriously for the past 40 or 50 years, we wouldn’t be in as much trouble as a country.

  31. 31.

    eclare

    @raven:  I remember The Wire dressing someone to go undercover.  You want broken glass in the tread of your shoes.

    Assume it’s the guy in long sleeves! Or maybe the guy with the water bottle?

  36. 36.

    Buckeye

    @debbie: IIRC, the mutations are normally pretty speedy.

     

    As for Lambda, my friend was freaking out over it. But he’s not read anything from sources I take seriously. I’d pay attention to it, but some of the reporting is definitely fear mongering.

  37. 37.

    raven

    @Steeplejack: The dude against the fence with the shades on. I have a series of shots from that day and he’s all over them. That’s Nixon’s chopper on the lawn.

  38. 38.

    Martin

    @debbie: It’ll likely pick up the pace.

    Vaccinations block the variants that can’t spread due to the vaccine and allow the variants that can spread to take over. It doesn’t mean the vaccine doesn’t work, it just means the variant can spread around the vaccine or that the vaccine is just a bit less effective and it can spread a little bit through vaccinated people on its way to unvaccinated targets.

  40. 40.

    Geminid

    @Gin & Tonic: I’ve heard that story. I expect Adams will be closely watched by reporters.

    I wonder if Garcia’s last-minute alliance with Andrew Yang helped or hurt her. Yang had gotten a pretty bad name by the time he told his supporters to rank Garcia 2nd.

  41. 41.

    featheredsprite

    @raven: I would pick the shirtless fellow, because his face shows no inner conflict.

    Good to hear from you! All is well?

  43. 43.

    Martin

    @Buckeye: I agree with a lot of overreaction out there. What I haven’t seen is a comparison between Delta and Lambda. Entirely possible that it’s no worse than Delta, just hitting different countries.

    The one preprint I read suggests it has roughly the same advantage against vaccines that Delta does – 94% efficacy with prior variants drops to ~65% with Delta/Lambda. That means jumping from a 70% vaccination target to ~90% for either Delta/Lambda.

  44. 44.

    lurker

    @raven: think people were expecting someone who looked like a marcher in the photo – a bunch of them have weird things going on, some of them potentially stand out as trying to blend in.

    The guy by the fence – my initial reaction was that he was obvious plainclothes security of some sort and not a marcher, so not who was intended.  But yeah, he is definitely a fed.

  47. 47.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    In this story about reporters grappling with the aftereffects of 1/6, John Bresnahan, late of Politico now of the spin-off “Punchbowl News” at least gets honest about where this all started and how he and his colleagues helped it grow

    He says looking back on it, he should have covered events like the early days of the Tea Party movement differently. At one early Tea Party rally he heard a protestor use the N word, but he decided against writing about it because he didn’t think it represented the broader crowd.

    “We used a lot of euphemisms. That was white rage and we should have covered it as white rage, and we didn’t, we covered it as conservative backlash. They were booing John Lewis, for god’s sake,” he said.

    yes, that should indeed have been a tip-off, but as Charlie Pierce always says, it couldn’t be about race because nothing is ever about race. They can’t see inside people’s hearts!

  48. 48.

    Another Scott

    @Geminid: So does NYC have a vice-mayor?  Who takes over when if he has to leave early??

    Just amazing.

    dick_nixon says he appeals to normal people outside the island of Manhattan. Maybe so, but it’s hard to see him being other than a continuing train-wreck for the city government.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  51. 51.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Anne Laurie: We’re as ready as can be. Unless something really weird happens between now and about 3 AM, we’re looking at some 45 to 55 mph wind gusts, heavy rain, and maybe some thunder and lightning. Nothing really changes if Elsa is a Cat 1 at 75 mph or a tropical storm at around 70 mph. We’ll be on the dirty side of the storm for an hour or two depending on whether she maintains speed or slows down again. Our power doesn’t usually go out, but we’ve got all the emergency lighting either charged or just finished recharging. We basically maintain our prep supplies year round as it’s just easier that way. Last week we had a torrential monsoon with thunder and lightning that lasted between 8 and 10 hours. We got 4 to 6 inches of rain and had wind gusts up to 50 mph. We’re not going to get anything worse than that for a couple of hours tonight. The people that will get hammered are north of me and just north of BettyC.

    Frankly, the most likely problem I’m going to have is stressed out dogs who keep me from getting a good night’s sleep. They’ve had their first CBD treat and once things pick up I’ll put their thunder shirt sports on them. Beyond that it’s just waiting for it to get her and then move through.

  52. 52.

    Another Scott

    Me: Guess what! Good news!

    Wife: [skeptical] What?

    Me: The CDC says if you're exposed to COVID and are fully vaccinated, you don't have to quarantine! The County agrees!

    Wife: Why are you bringing this up?

    Me: You know that guy I deposed today?

    Wife: . . .

    Me: So how's your day?

    — SchemeToDefraudHat (@Popehat) July 7, 2021

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  54. 54.

    Geminid

    @Another Scott: On June 24, New York City magazine Gothamist had an informative analysis of the primary results, titled “A Tale of Three Cities.” It describes Garcia’s strength in more affluent Manhattan and Brooklyn areas, Maya Wiley’s strength in gentrified portions of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, and Adams’ strength in working class Black and Latino areas of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

    Adams made public safety a top campaign issue. In one poll taken a month before the primary, 56% of New Yorkers listed rising crime as their top concern.

    Two heavy hitting New York Congressmen, Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn and Greg Meeks of Queens, endorsed Wiley as first choice, Adams as second.

  55. 55.

    Brachiator

    @Geminid:

    A former NYPD Captain, Adams is expected to beat Republican Curtis Sliwa easily in November.

    I don’t know squat about New York City politics, but does Adams have anything to recommend him besides being a former NYPD captain? Have New Yorkers lost their minds?

  60. 60.

    Brachiator

    @Buckeye:

    As for Lambda, my friend was freaking out over it. But he’s not read anything from sources I take seriously. I’d pay attention to it, but some of the reporting is definitely fear mongering.

    Every time I see Lambda, I keep thinking of a Latin dance.

  66. 66.

    brendancalling

    @debbie:  I am so so so so f’ing sick of these people and their bullshit.

    ”some humans ain’t human/some people ain’t kind…”

  67. 67.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Adam L Silverman: I had missed it.  Just saw it now.  I don’t see why Greenfield had a problem with it.  Maybe Whitefish Bay or Shorewood, but not Greenfield.

  68. 68.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Ksmiami: I’ve got a pair of lab mixes. They weigh between 45 and 50 lbs. If it starts to thunder and lightning I can be sound asleep, which is about as calm as I can get, and they still freak out. Nothing like being woken up from a sound sleep by one lab mix sitting on your head and the other whining, shaking, and pawing at you.

  70. 70.

    Amir Khalid

    I didn’t know this: kids in Britain are using cola, fruit juice, and other soft drinkss to spoof Covid-19 tests into giving false positive results so that they can cut school. BBC link.

  71. 71.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: Well, Adams is Brooklyn Borough President. I know little about his record in that post. There is a ton of local reporting on Adams and the other candidates for those interested in a fuller picture than will be had from national media.

    I lack the base of knowledge to evaluate Adams’ potential as Mayor. But my impression of New Yorkers is that they are levelheaded and knowledgable about their city and its politics. And my own personal biases make me think that people in the City’s working class neighborhoods know as much about their city’s needs as do Brooklyn hipsters and Manhattan liberals, probably more.

    In any event, Adams will be a change from the current Mayor, who seems to have everyone mad at him.

  75. 75.

    Andrya

    Brings back fond memories of the anti-Vietnam war movement of the late 1960s- early 1970s.   Guys in crew cuts would show up saying “we should plant bombs!   It would be groovy!”.  Everyone assumed that they were FBI.

  77. 77.

    James E Powell

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    People all over the internet, including here I think, were documenting the racism at the core of the “tea party” movement – with supporting photographs and pointing out that it was being financed by right-wing money.

    They said we were shrill, out of touch, etc.

  79. 79.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman: Nothing like being woken up from a sound sleep by one lab mix sitting on your head

    Our late lamented rescue Zevon used to do this during thunderstorms; I referred to it as waking up ‘suddenly wearing a hat made of elbows’.

    But Zeev weighed under 20lbs — wouldn’t want to endure that with a bigger doggo!

    Zevon came to live with us when he was five (the people who turned him over to the breed rescue group included his medical records, so we had an actual DOB for him).  He was unbothered by thunder for at least five years *after* that… and then he decided to be deeply phobic about it, beyond the help of CBD / thundershirts / et al… but after a few years of Panic At the Barometric Pressure, he decided it was no longer an issue.

    We could never figure out what triggered his terror, or why it suddenly stopped.

    (Emergency substitute rescue Sydney briefly tried being thunder-phobic when Zevon gave it up, but it was definitely an attention-seeking attempt; he gave it up when he didn’t get a reaction from us.)

  80. 80.

    Adam L Silverman

    I just switched to the local cable weather. And the storm appears to have fallen apart. The meteorologist just said the same and he wants to see what the 11 PM update looks like.

  82. 82.

    HumboldtBlue

    Sweet Jesus fucking up a clean breakaway! What the fuck was that Argentina!​

  85. 85.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Brachiator:

    I don’t know squat about New York City politics, but does Adams have anything to recommend him besides being a former NYPD captain? Have New Yorkers lost their minds?

    You don’t know squat about him, but you assume that people who voted for him have lost their minds?

  86. 86.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Anne Laurie: My dogs never had a problem when they were younger. My vet has explained that their sensitivity increases as they get older. Regardless, I found a good source for CBD oil for them – they get a few ml with their dinners each day – and for CBD treats to supplement them when the storms rolled in. TaMara recommended them. They’re a Colorado company called Lichin Living. Here’s the link:

    https://lichenlivin.com

  87. 87.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Kathleen: So the meteorologist was back on with updated radar and it definitely doesn’t even look like a tropical storm anymore. He’s pretty sure that either wind shear or a column of cooler, dryer air or a combination basically just took it apart as it moved past Sarasota. All the reds and oranges on the radar are gone. Right now it doesn’t even look like a bad summer monsoon/thunder storm on the radar.

  88. 88.

    HumboldtBlue

    Colombia is hanging on by their shoelaces, Argentina with the heavy pressure with 10 minutes left.

  90. 90.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Kathleen: The 11 PM advisory is still listing ti as a hurricane, but the meteorologist is saying flat out “right now it is nowhere remotely looking like a hurricane or winds that are even close to hurricane strength”.

  92. 92.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @raven:  “Things are pretty good as I recover from spine surgery.”

    May they continue to be pretty good as you get better while you heal and return to being OK.

    I just had to do that… ;)

  93. 93.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Geminid:

    and Adams’ strength in working class Black and Latino areas of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

    A demographic that a certain kind of very on-line white liberal often swears they’re going to pay attention to in politics, but one which often disappoints said VOLWLs by picking the wrong candidates.

  98. 98.

    Another Scott

    So I’m catching up on JD. He apparently has ties to Peter Thiel who is (still, AFAIK) on FB’s board. OpenSecrets.org says that in 2020 Theil gave at least $2M to “Free Forever PAC”. OS tells me that FFPAC is a single-candidate “Carey Committee” that only supported Kris Kobach and that raised and spent $2.13M.

    Carey Committee: A Carey committee is a hybrid political action committee that is not affiliated with a candidate and has the ability to operate both as a traditional PAC, contributing funds to a candidate’s committee, and as a super PAC, which makes independent expenditures. To do so, Carey committees must have a separate bank account for each purpose. The committee can collect unlimited contributions from almost any source for its independent expenditure account, but may not use those funds for its traditional PAC contributions. See also: Super PAC, Independent Expenditures, Political Action Committee

    Yeah, not-affiliated, separate, independent. My wife, Morgan Fairchild, says that I’ve got the same body I had at 25, also too.

    This is yet another illustration that campaign contribution rules are meaningless for most of us.

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  100. 100.

    Another Scott

    @Another Scott: This is supposed to be upstairs.

    (sigh)

    Stay safe BC and AS and everyone else – I saw some report of 15 foot waves out at sea from what’s left of the storm…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  101. 101.

    Brachiator

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: 

    You don’t know squat about him, but you assume that people who voted for him have lost their minds?

    My musings got some thoughtful responses, so I am okay with how I posed it. Often, it seems as though police officials and big city mayors have very divergent visions of their cities. And there was a lot of Yang bashing on the grounds that he was a neophyte looking to become mayor of a city with an economy larger than that of many states, and probably larger than some countries. So I don’t think it odd to wonder, in emphatic terms, whether New Yorkers thought the probable winner was up to the task.

  102. 102.

    Brachiator

     

    @Amir Khalid:

    I didn’t know this: kids in Britain are using cola, fruit juice, and other soft drinkss to spoof Covid-19 tests into giving false positive results so that they can cut school.

    There may be hope yet for the future of Great Britain.

    The kids are alright.

  103. 103.

    montanareddog

    @Adam L Silverman:

     

    I would just like to suggest that everyone’s rules to live by should include “Adam’s right.”

    Thread is probably dead but, since Adam is also my kid brother’s given name, I strongly beg to differ.

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