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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Morning Open Thread: Back to the Scrum

Monday Morning Open Thread: Back to the Scrum

by Anne Laurie|  March 28, 20227:33 am| 244 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Popular Culture, War in Ukraine

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Many thing are hapening and u can never be sure pic.twitter.com/q0iDX3ulEl

— Dog Solution (@DogSolutions) March 25, 2022


Seeing conservatives say that will smith did a cancel culture and couldn’t take a joke and others saying he upheld masculine virtue; libs split between saying Will defended black women and that he did a violence, finally something that splits political blocs, thank you Will Smith

— Matthew Zeitlin (@MattZeitlin) March 28, 2022

Fun fact about Chris Rock: he made a documentary about the delicate politics of Black women's hair.

— The Substack of Boba Fett (@agraybee) March 28, 2022

The tragedy of the slap is people trying to make it about Society when it's a specific thing that happened between incredibly weird people. A GI Jane joke? A Scientologist couple? None of this is applicable or relatable beyond a single point in spacetime

— literary agent needing jerk (@rajandelman) March 28, 2022

one multimillionaire smacked another multimillionaire over a gross insult directed at a third multimillionaire who was married to the first one, this is the closest we are ever getting to medieval tourneys, enjoy it

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) March 28, 2022

Far better performances:

An emotional performance of Ukrainian figure skaters Oleksandra Nazarova and Maksym Nikitin at the world championship in France. They are from Kharkiv, Nazarov spent weeks there under Russian bombs. They had less than a month to prepare this dance and no time to make costumes pic.twitter.com/qP2efP7BXq

— Olga Tokariuk (@olgatokariuk) March 27, 2022

Downtown Kyiv, Saturday afternoon #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/UlupfCJShG

— Yalda Hakim (@BBCYaldaHakim) March 26, 2022

Never trust the monkey’s paw:

putin is dead, the one at the minnesota zoo pic.twitter.com/OHD2QuC6jV

— Seva (@SevaUT) March 25, 2022

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Previous Post: « COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Sunday / Monday, March 27-28
Next Post: Necessary but not sufficient »

Reader Interactions

244Comments

  1. 1.

    NotMax

    March 28, 2022 at 7:38 am

    No additional comment, the headline speaks volumes on its own.

    Holocaust survivors flee from Ukraine to Germany for safety

  2. 2.

    Spanky

    March 28, 2022 at 7:45 am

    A more perfect headline about the tiger would read

    following “cardiac failure” during medical procedure

  3. 3.

    lowtechcyclist

    March 28, 2022 at 7:45 am

    putin is dead, the one at the minnesota zoo

    C’mon Asssassins Guild, get the right one next time!

  4. 4.

    satby

    March 28, 2022 at 7:46 am

    So this made me teary this morning.

    Have I not reason to lament
    What man has made of man?

  5. 5.

    debbie

    March 28, 2022 at 7:50 am

    @satby:

    Wordsworth!  ?

  6. 6.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    March 28, 2022 at 7:52 am

    So wonder if Heidi Cruz has some sharp words for Ted this morning, as in “THAT’S how a man deals with insults to his wife”.

  7. 7.

    New Deal democrat

    March 28, 2022 at 7:59 am

    From my favorite UK twitter account, Russ in Cheshire, Some comedy gold.

    “Putin on the Ritz!:”

    https://mobile.twitter.com/RussInCheshire/status/1508003053680611333?cxt=HHwWisCy7bOywO0pAAAA

  8. 8.

    germy

    March 28, 2022 at 8:03 am

    “This is not about me. This is about marginalized people in Harlem that need to heal from pain.” @questlove accepts the Best Documentary Feature Oscar for 'Summer of Soul': https://t.co/DYxg12anbB pic.twitter.com/bYQW5Ptyv5
    — Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) March 28, 2022

  9. 9.

    germy

    March 28, 2022 at 8:06 am

    Spare a thought for the opinion writers now trying to decide whether Chris Rock saying mean shit onstage was a blow to Cancel Culture, or Will Smith violently rebuking him was an act of Cancel Culture, or Will Smith acting out onstage was a blow to Cancel Culture, or

    — Mollie W. O’Reilly (@MollieOReilly) March 28, 2022

    Peggy Noonan could write it up in a way that somehow took all the sides, plus she would find some racist angles to toy with, and all without ever watching an unedited clip of what happened. But not everyone can be so deft.

    — Mollie W. O’Reilly (@MollieOReilly) March 28, 2022

    .

    Dems in disarray

    — Ian Burry (@ian_burry) March 28, 2022

  10. 10.

    Raven

    March 28, 2022 at 8:08 am

    Rock is lucky he just slapped him.

  11. 11.

    JMG

    March 28, 2022 at 8:10 am

    First interesting thing to ever happen at the Academy Awards.

  12. 12.

    Raven

    March 28, 2022 at 8:10 am

    @JMG: And Jamie Lee Curtis had a doggie on the stage!

  13. 13.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 8:12 am

    @Raven:

    Oh that’s what I want to see.

  14. 14.

    germy

    March 28, 2022 at 8:14 am

    @JMG:

    I remember when Marlon Brando refused the oscar.  He sent a Native American woman to do the refusing instead of doing it himself.

  15. 15.

    Raven

    March 28, 2022 at 8:15 am

    @Baud:
    Jamie Lee Curtis and an adorable puppy pay tribute to Betty White at Oscars

  16. 16.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    March 28, 2022 at 8:15 am

    My 2C about Oscar Slap Gate is; jokes about people’s medical conditions are over the line, but then so is smacking people around.  Punching down sucks.

  17. 17.

    JPL

    March 28, 2022 at 8:16 am

    Normally an academy award advances your career.   Will Smith not only hurt his own chances, but he also took away joy for the eventual winner of Best Movie.   It’s doubtful that this is the first time he exploded, and it’s doubtful that this is the first time he used tears to excuse it.

  18. 18.

    Nicole

    March 28, 2022 at 8:17 am

    @JMG: 

    First interesting thing to ever happen at the Academy Awards.

    A naked guy running across the stage wasn’t enough for you?

  19. 19.

    JPL

    March 28, 2022 at 8:17 am

    @Raven: Sweet.

  20. 20.

    germy

    March 28, 2022 at 8:17 am

    Statement from the LAPD:

    “LAPD investigative entities are aware of an incident between two individuals during the Academy Awards program. The incident involved one individual slapping another. The individual involved has declined to file a police report. If the involved party desires a police report at a later date, LAPD will be available to complete an investigative report.”

    Stay out of it, LAPD.

  21. 21.

    Raven

    March 28, 2022 at 8:18 am

    @JPL: You’ll like this then.

     

    “Knocked Up” director Apatow was highly critical of Smith in a now-deleted tweet: “He could have killed him. That’s pure out of control rage and violence. They’ve heard a million jokes about them in the last three decades. They are not freshman in the world of Hollywood and comedy. He lost his mind.”

  22. 22.

    rikyrah

    March 28, 2022 at 8:20 am

    Good Morning Everyone ???

  23. 23.

    Suzanne

    March 28, 2022 at 8:20 am

    I cannot get too wrapped up in the slap itself, but I do think it was shitty to do it on TV. It took attention away from everything else, especially the joy of a movie focusing on Deaf lives winning Best Picture.

    Thunder-stealing is gross.

  24. 24.

    germy

    March 28, 2022 at 8:21 am

    there’s no excuses now, it’s open season on ricky gervais

    — Buying Goods at Palmira type beat (@a_plantgirl) March 28, 2022

  25. 25.

    Nicole

    March 28, 2022 at 8:22 am

    @germy:

    I remember when Marlon Brando refused the oscar.  He sent a Native American woman to do the refusing instead of doing it himself.

    And, as someone pointed out on twitter, that paragon of faux masculinity, John Wayne, wanted to go onstage to fight the woman.  He was held down in his seat.  Probably for the best. I bet she’d have kicked his ass.

  26. 26.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 8:22 am

    @Raven:

    ?

  27. 27.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 8:22 am

    @rikyrah:

    Good morning.

  28. 28.

    L85NJGT

    March 28, 2022 at 8:23 am

    This will for sure get all those abandoned multiplexes back in operation.

  29. 29.

    Raven

    March 28, 2022 at 8:23 am

    @Suzanne: Then Rock shouldn’t have made a shitty ass joke about a woman with an auto-immune condition at such an auspicious event.

  30. 30.

    Suzanne

    March 28, 2022 at 8:25 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I agree. Both things were icky.

    And the shittiest part is that no one will remember anything else from this year.

    Troy Kotsur, the Deaf actor in CODA who won the best supporting actor award, is a graduate of my high school. He is older than me, but the elder sister of one of my friends was in his year and knew him.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 8:25 am

    @Nicole:

    Why did he want to fight the woman?

  32. 32.

    germy

    March 28, 2022 at 8:25 am

    @Raven:

    Edgy male comedians, when they mock men, they usually mock what the men have done, but when they mock women, they usually mock their appearance.

  33. 33.

    germy

    March 28, 2022 at 8:26 am

    @Nicole:

    And Clint Eastwood mocked her.

  34. 34.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 8:27 am

    @Raven:

    Yeah, that’s a bit over the top.

  35. 35.

    Raven

    March 28, 2022 at 8:27 am

    @germy: Don’t let your mouth write a check your ass can’t cash.

  36. 36.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    March 28, 2022 at 8:27 am

    @Nicole: As I recall, her last name was Littlefeather. I can’t imagine the cowboy/Indian jokes a fight with John Wayne would have generated.

    We didn’t watch the Oscars, so this is the first I’ve heard of the slap down. I’ll have to go watch the links.

  37. 37.

    Suzanne

    March 28, 2022 at 8:27 am

    @Raven: I agree with your statement. I also think that Men Fighting Each Other In Public To Defend Their Women is gross and toxic.

  38. 38.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 28, 2022 at 8:28 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    So wonder if Heidi Cruz has some sharp words for Ted this morning, as in “THAT’S how a man deals with insults to his wife”. 

    She should just punch Shithead Ted herself.

  39. 39.

    Raven

    March 28, 2022 at 8:29 am

    @Suzanne: life is toxic

  40. 40.

    rikyrah

    March 28, 2022 at 8:29 am

     

    Maxine Baptiste (@brownsugar7878) tweeted at 10:39 PM on Sun, Mar 27, 2022:
    Will Smith just showed Ted Cruz what a real man does when someone disrespect your wife #BlackTwitter
    (https://twitter.com/brownsugar7878/status/1508287735152394244?t=euz9uO8aMlVaadCwp2l2IA&s=03)

  41. 41.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 8:32 am

    @Suzanne:

    Agree.

    Women coming to blows over me would be hot though.

  42. 42.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 28, 2022 at 8:32 am

    @Baud:

    Why did he want to fight the woman?

    She was Native American and used her speech to complain about how Native Americans are depicted in movies.

  43. 43.

    Jinchi

    March 28, 2022 at 8:33 am

    “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power”

    Maybe I’m missing something, but I fail to see the scandal in Joe Biden’s comment. People are treating it like it’s an explicit call for assassination. This wouldn’t even be a controversial statement in a local campaign commercial.

  44. 44.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 8:33 am

    March 28, 2022. A day that will live in infamously stupid hot takes.

  45. 45.

    Betty Cracker

    March 28, 2022 at 8:33 am

    I’ve seen references to several now-deleted tweets about the Oscar smack-down. Rep. Pressley (who also has alopecia) wrote one praising Smith, then deleted it. Don’t famous people know they don’t have a delete button?

    Do y’all think it’s possible Rock didn’t know JPS has alopecia when he made the comment and thought he was just joking about a haircut? I have no idea how widely known her condition is. I didn’t know it, but I don’t follow pop culture that closely.

  46. 46.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 28, 2022 at 8:33 am

    @germy:

    If the involved party desires a police report at a later date, LAPD will be available to complete an investigative report.” 

    Suck a semi truck of unseasoned dicks, LATrumpTrash!

  47. 47.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    March 28, 2022 at 8:33 am

    @lowtechcyclist:

    putin is dead, the one at the minnesota zoo

    C’mon Asssassins Guild, get the right one next time!

    Hey, the Assassins’ Guild is known for inhuming precisely those whom they are contracted to inhume. Mistakes and collateral damage are the province of the Alchemists’ Guild.

  48. 48.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 8:33 am

    @Frankensteinbeck: Thanks.

     

    @Jinchi: It’s not like Biden slapped Putin on stage.

  49. 49.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 8:35 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    I didn’t know either, but I don’t follow Hollywood at all.  I guess this will raise awareness though. So win?

  50. 50.

    rikyrah

    March 28, 2022 at 8:36 am

     

    ?⚖️ Kenneth of House Pfizer??? 1st of His Name (@Needle_of_Arya) tweeted at 7:05 AM on Mon, Mar 28, 2022:
    This is quite quickly no longer a unified discussion about the slap, but parallel discussions about whether or not any shade of non-white people are allowed to express the same range of emotions as white people without being viewed negatively through anti-humanistic white lenses.
    (https://twitter.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1508414953585225730?t=2EZNIg0qxRvX6RNDyYkT2A&s=03)

  51. 51.

    Betty

    March 28, 2022 at 8:37 am

    You just can’t stop Ukrainians from enjoying their misic. So uplifting at this terrible moment for them.

  52. 52.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 8:39 am

    I’m not sure what you all expect the LAPD to do if Rock decides to press charges.  (Which I hope he doesn’t.)

  53. 53.

    rikyrah

    March 28, 2022 at 8:39 am

     

    ? Mr. Weeks ? (@WonderKing82) tweeted at 6:11 AM on Mon, Mar 28, 2022:
    So let me get this right … a man disrespected Will Smith wife in front of the world by mocking her health condition,… Will Smith defended his wife by slapping the hell out of the man… and y’all white people observation tell you that Will Smith is beating his wife? GTFOOH!
    (https://twitter.com/WonderKing82/status/1508401432655020036?t=MlJajcEPM94oE8x9mikK2g&s=03)

  54. 54.

    Jinchi

    March 28, 2022 at 8:40 am

    @Betty Cracker: Do y’all think it’s possible Rock didn’t know JPS has alopecia when he made the comment and thought he was just joking about a haircut?

    Nope. She’s been pretty public about it. My guess is he just thought the joke was funny. Hopefully, he thought she was comfortable enough with herself that she wouldn’t be offended by it.​

  55. 55.

    Betty

    March 28, 2022 at 8:41 am

    @Jinchi: Maybe the bottom line is that it really wasn’t funny. So, do better, Chris.

  56. 56.

    Ksmiami

    March 28, 2022 at 8:42 am

    @Baud: Stop trying to make fetch happen- it isn’t going to happen…

  57. 57.

    Raven

    March 28, 2022 at 8:43 am

    @Jinchi: did you see the look in her face?

  58. 58.

    Raven

    March 28, 2022 at 8:45 am

    @Raven: on

  59. 59.

    Ksmiami

    March 28, 2022 at 8:45 am

    @Jinchi: I feel like we are into “Don’t say Voldemort” Territory with the Putin fear- it’s ridiculous and no Putin cannot stay in power if Russia wants to re-enter the world.

  60. 60.

    rikyrah

    March 28, 2022 at 8:46 am

     

    ?? Lauren-Ashley Arts (@LaurenAshley087) tweeted at 11:26 PM on Sun, Mar 27, 2022:
    If you have ever thanked Rand Paul’s neighbor for his service, then watch how you talk about Academy Award winner Willard Carroll Smith.

    That’s it, I promise I’m done. My hot water’s gonna run out if I don’t finally get in this damn shower.
    (https://twitter.com/LaurenAshley087/status/1508299511436877825?t=gH5TG5tbrPnIMWR44Flz8Q&s=03)

  61. 61.

    rikyrah

    March 28, 2022 at 8:47 am

     

    Bloated IG Political Commentator (@coreybking) tweeted at 11:22 PM on Sun, Mar 27, 2022:
    Let Will Smith had slapped Chris Rock over Reese Witherspoon or some other “Ms. Anne”…they would renamed Philly after him!????
    (https://twitter.com/coreybking/status/1508298475192168451?t=0xkcFq1NizTTRiFyOlic2g&s=03)

  62. 62.

    rikyrah

    March 28, 2022 at 8:48 am

     

    Shay Stewart Bouley (@blackgirlinmain) tweeted at 10:50 PM on Sun, Mar 27, 2022:
    Black emotions scare white people, that is quite clear.

    Ya’ll shook because you are used to seeing your favorite Black people wear their masks.
    (https://twitter.com/blackgirlinmain/status/1508290374703497227?t=GTnl3SGRqnuAm4A3n7AsVg&s=03)

  63. 63.

    Geminid

    March 28, 2022 at 8:48 am

    @Betty Cracker: This morning Politico put up an excerpt from it’s Florida Playbook, titled: “DeSantis’ eerie silence on Russia.”

  64. 64.

    Nicole

    March 28, 2022 at 8:48 am

    What I keep being unable to wrap my head around is that Chris Rock made a documentary on the subject of black women’s hair, and touched on how oppressive society is to black women about their hair.  And, if I remember it right (it’s been a few years since I’ve seen it), mentioned his daughter and his concerns about her self-esteem being tied into whether she had “good hair.”  And he still made that joke.  What? Why? I just don’t… ugh.

    Well, in comedic terms, he punched down, and then he got literally punched.  Instant karma is a thing sometimes.

    (Yes, I know technically it was a slap)

  65. 65.

    Raven

    March 28, 2022 at 8:49 am

    @Nicole: That’s really interesting and funny movie.

  66. 66.

    Jinchi

    March 28, 2022 at 8:49 am

    @Raven: I’m not defending Chris Rock or his joke. I just hope that he wasn’t deliberately trying to humiliate her.

  67. 67.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 8:50 am

    @Geminid:

    Maybe he went to Russia to get his apology.

  68. 68.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 28, 2022 at 8:50 am

    @rikyrah:

    I’m pretty anti-violence, but good grief.  When you mock someone for their embarrassing medical condition on a major worldwide television event, A) you are a complete punching-down asshole, and B) a loving spouse of any gender is going to be furious.  I really can’t blame Smith for wanting to make an equally public and dramatic rejoinder that will convince the world audience.  I really can’t blame Smith for being so angry that there is no strategy to his actions, he just wants to do something.  Jesus fucking Christ, Rock insulted Smith’s spouse in the most public way possible!  Isn’t this the definition of fucking around and finding out?

  69. 69.

    Raven

    March 28, 2022 at 8:51 am

    @Nicole: Technically. It reminds me of when I was in a jury pool of 30 people and they asked if anyone had ever been in a fight. I was the only one who raised their hand. If you’ve been punched and slapped you know the difference.

  70. 70.

    rikyrah

    March 28, 2022 at 8:52 am

    ???

     

    Robert Welch II (@RobertBWelchII) tweeted at 4:08 PM on Sun, Mar 27, 2022:
    The Media is treating Biden like a black guy when they treated Trump like a white guy. The hate directed toward Biden is at the black voters who put him in office much like Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.
    (https://twitter.com/RobertBWelchII/status/1508189206216019968?t=ayfnN4swjhI242mypgLCGg&s=03)

  71. 71.

    jonas

    March 28, 2022 at 8:55 am

    Since everyone’s offering their $.02 on l’affaire Smith-Rock this morning, has anyone suggested that it might have been a stunt or setup? It’s been done…

  72. 72.

    Kay

    March 28, 2022 at 8:55 am

    @Jinchi:

    I didn’t interpret it as a call for “regime change” either. He won’t do a no fly zone but he’s calling for Putin’s forced removal? It doesn’t make any sense. Silly me, I put in the context of “all Joe Biden’s actions since he was elected” instead of in some insane context where he’s preparing to invade Russia or assassinate someone. I still think I’m right.

  73. 73.

    wenchacha

    March 28, 2022 at 8:57 am

    @Betty Cracker: Haven’t seen it, but apparently Jada also referred to GI Jane when she showed her shaved head on her show. And at first, Will laughs at Rock’s joke.

    Twitter shows a clip of WS making light of a musician’s bald head, saying the man waxes it every day.  “Aww, joking,” he tells the audience. Fresh Prince era.

    Chris Rock has been diagnosed with a syndrome similar to autism: unable to read social cues being one of the symptoms.

    I have always liked Chris Rock for his SNL stuff, the Daily Show bits and other stuff. Never really liked Will or Jada as much. I’m white, and maybe none of it is anything to me. Punching down sucks, and is also quite possible Chris Rock knows nothing of alopecia. I think Will Smith was out of line; there I said it.

  74. 74.

    Raven

    March 28, 2022 at 8:57 am

    @jonas: At first I thought it was.

  75. 75.

    Nicole

    March 28, 2022 at 8:58 am

    @Raven:

    If you’ve been punched and slapped you know the difference.

    Ha!  I hope I never learn the difference.

  76. 76.

    Raven

    March 28, 2022 at 8:59 am

    @wenchacha: Oh right, it was Rock’s medical condition that caused it!!

  77. 77.

    Betty Cracker

    March 28, 2022 at 8:59 am

    @Geminid: Hmmm. DeSantis was eerily silent about Nazis marching and harassing people in Orlando too until the press made an issue of it, then he got all defensive.

  78. 78.

    jonas

    March 28, 2022 at 9:00 am

    @Jinchi: ​
      It seems to suggest that the US is looking not simply to defend Ukraine, but to topple Putin himself, which is 1. not a US policy objective (as far as we know) and 2. simply gives Putin more justification to double down because now it’s a war for his own survival.

    It wasn’t the worst gaffe ever, but Biden should also know that during a hot war with the risk of a nuclear accident, you shouldn’t be going off script. Plus, it gives the media at least a week’s worth of masturbatory wank material, which is also not good.

  79. 79.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 28, 2022 at 9:04 am

    @jonas:
    Smith would have to be even more an asshole than Chris Rock to let his wife be publicly insulted like that as a deliberate stunt, and with her sitting next to him?  Possible, but I doubt it.
    @rikyrah:
    That never occurred to me.  I figured it was because the national press is absolutely obsessed with both-sides-but-Democrats-are-worse, and after Trump being such a scandal-ridden monster they had to take Biden down a peg or twelve.  I know Clinton got plenty of animosity for his being seen as a president for blacks.  The national press has been very, very clear that every voting block but white men is a ‘special interest’ that is only obtained through ‘pandering’.  That they might feel like this slimes Biden with illegitimacy just didn’t occur to me at all, but it does make sense.​

    EDIT – I really don’t think Hillary’s problem with the press was an association with blacks. #MeToo revealed (if it wasn’t obvious already) that the national press was thick with sexual assaulting men and a culture that propelled them to high positions and defended them. You don’t need anything else to explain why Hillary would be treated with obsessive hate.

  80. 80.

    Nicole

    March 28, 2022 at 9:04 am

    Maybe someone should pass along to Chris Rock the excellent rule about making comments about other people’s appearance- if they chose it, it’s fair game.  If it is not a choice, keep your thoughts to yourself.

  81. 81.

    wenchacha

    March 28, 2022 at 9:04 am

    @Raven: I mentioned his condition. Because part of the argument has been that Jada has a condition. One is more visible than the other. They both affect the person who has them.

  82. 82.

    Kay

    March 28, 2022 at 9:06 am

    Rachel Cohen is a really good reporter who covers public schools a lot – she didn’t just jump on the bandwagon to oppose vaccines or masks or “CRT”.

    This is a good article about the cancel culture going on that the New York Times doesn’t cover.

    For teachers, one of the most concerning aspects of the bills is their vagueness. Oklahoma’s law, for example, bans teaching the concept that one race or sex is inherently superior to another, but lawmakers declined to clarify how educators can teach about individuals who subscribed to these supremacist views. Texas’s law says any controversial issue must be taught “in a manner free from political bias” but doesn’t define what counts as controversial. Violating the new rules can bring about steep consequences: Teachers may be fired or lose their licensure; schools’ funding may be cut. Doubtless because the bills offer scant clarity about how one might comply, teachers have already begun self-censoring their lessons out of fear.

  83. 83.

    MisterDancer

    March 28, 2022 at 9:12 am

    (sigh) On The Slap: Our reactions help it take oxygen away from everything else, and given how many people in prior threads basically said they didn’t care at all about the Oscars, or only care due to personal connections, I’m struggling to grasp how this slap suddenly makes things matter.

    I will say this, though. Chris Rock has real damn history with using women — and their lived experiences — as poorly-chosen targets for his work. And not just his jokes; since so many are mentioning Rock’s documentary Good Hair as some kind of shield against his bad intentions:

    Good Hair lawsuit
    On Monday October 5, 2009, Kimbell filed a lawsuit in a Los Angeles court against Chris Rock Productions, HBO Films, and his 2009 documentary Good Hair, as well as the film’s American and international distributors. Kimbell charged that Rock’s film was an illegal infringement of My Nappy Roots, which she claims to have screened for Rock in 2007 (before its release).[1][2] While Kimbell sought to stop the wide release of Good Hair, a federal judge allowed Rock’s film to be released as scheduled.[3]

    So yeah, there’s a long-standing rumor that Rock just swiped the idea for Good Hair from My Nappy Roots, shoved in some jokes, and released it. Not illegal, but once again, in real poor taste.

  84. 84.

    Betty Cracker

    March 28, 2022 at 9:12 am

    Trump’s Georgia rally was a low-energy affair:

    People keep leaving during Trump speech. It’s cold and windy and there’s not much enthusiasm.

    Photos are from 8:50, 8:20, 7:20 from least to most crowds. pic.twitter.com/IMgCpfCF9H

    — stephen fowler (@stphnfwlr) March 27, 2022


    The same reporter included a bunch of quotes in which Trump says if Kemp wins the gubernatorial primary, the elections won’t be fair, so Walker won’t win the Senate race, etc. In light of that, I kind of wish more GA Republicans were paying attention It would be awesome if tens of thousands of disappointed Trumpers stay home in the general…

  85. 85.

    Kay

    March 28, 2022 at 9:16 am

    A federal tax investigation into Hunter Biden is gaining momentum as prosecutors gather information from several of his associates about the sources of his foreign income, including from Ukraine, and examine President Biden’s son’s relationship with a company that handled some of his finances, according to people familiar with the matter.
    In recent weeks, prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware have sought information and grand-jury testimony about the money Mr. Biden received several years ago from Ukrainian natural-gas company Burisma Holdings Ltd., and how he used that money to pay some obligations, one of those people said.

    If Hunter Biden broke the law he should be prosecuted but it is just tough to watch this and not compare it to the complete lack of investigations or prosecutions re: Donald Trump and his grown children. Hunter Biden is going to be the only tax case? Good Lord.

  86. 86.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 9:18 am

    @Kay:

    Gorsuch has been wailing against vague regulations. I wonder if he’ll make an exception when the first anti-CRT case reaches the Supreme Court.

  87. 87.

    Nicole

    March 28, 2022 at 9:18 am

    @wenchacha: And if Jada Pinkett Smith was making mean jokes about Rock’s inability to read social cues then maybe that would be applicable.  But she’s never, to my knowledge, done that.

    Just because she has poked fun at her alopecia does not make it okay for Chris Rock to.  It’s the punching up/punching sideways/punching down rule.  Punching up, great comedy!  Punching sideways, also great comedy!  John Oliver is a master at both.

    Punching down is not comedy; it’s bullying.

    Jada Pinkett Smith using a GI Jane reference for herself is her employing self-deprecating humor to deal with a pretty emotional circumstance.  A lot of stuff we thought of as humor decades ago, when you look at it now, was actually just bullying.  It’s good we’re calling it out now.  I don’t think anyone, other than possibly a particular subset of white men, miss, “Take my wife… please!”

  88. 88.

    MisterDancer

    March 28, 2022 at 9:18 am

    @Kay: Thanks for this. I’ve been trying to find time to write here on all the threads of this I’m compiling from news reports and the like, as well as at least one grassroots efforts I know of fighting back.

    I fear a lot of this gets lost because we’re all too busy, and society has always treated compulsory schooling more as a place to dump kids so adults can go “be productive” than anything else. All this sounds great in that way that so many Right-built ideas do; it’s all sugar and sweetness and happy fun times until the system breaks down…and even then, you just get to blame the Blacks or the Loud Women or the Trans People or the Immigration or whomever can be used to deflect the real problem.

  89. 89.

    Raven

    March 28, 2022 at 9:18 am

    @wenchacha: got it

  90. 90.

    Geminid

    March 28, 2022 at 9:19 am

    @Betty Cracker: I only skimmed the story, but I noticed that one element was investment of Florida state money in Russian assets.

  91. 91.

    Kay

    March 28, 2022 at 9:19 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Trump did successfully take over the GOP base and the Republican Party though. They’re all Trumps now. They don’t need him anymore.

    He’ll still be horribly bitter but he can absolutely claim that as a win. There’s no daylight between “Trump” and “Republicans”.

  92. 92.

    NobodySpecial

    March 28, 2022 at 9:20 am

    Concerning Slapgate, all I can say is it’s not the first or even the second time Rock has taken public shots at the couple. I’m sure that played into Smith’s response, as bad as it was.

    I’ll also note that prior to his career as a mega millionaire, Will Smith was another young rapper with a troubled childhood who grew up as a teen in 80’s Philadelphia. Not exactly the breeding ground for pushovers, even if he has taken excellent care of his reputation.

  93. 93.

    Betty Cracker

    March 28, 2022 at 9:21 am

    @Kay: The vigilante component is huge too. Schools are overburdened enough without inviting all the busybodies in the district who have massive chips on their shoulders to make trouble for attention and political gain. I don’t know about TX, but the teacher shortage was already a crisis in Florida before this bullshit. I suspect it’s about to get a whole lot worse. 

  94. 94.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 28, 2022 at 9:23 am

    @Baud:

    I wonder if he’ll make an exception when the first anti-CRT case reaches the Supreme Court.

    He voted in favor of transgender rights (and wrote the ruling!), because his judicial philosophy is absolutist enough that ‘if it makes a difference what sex someone is, it’s sexual discrimination.’  He does have principles, even if they’re asshole principles.  How reliable is he about them?  We’ll have to see.

  95. 95.

    Kay

    March 28, 2022 at 9:23 am

    @MisterDancer:

    She was the first reporter to note that there was a difference between AA parents and white parents on covid mitigations- AA parents were much more cautious. It’s important because US public schools are “majority minority” now- that’s the reality of public schools but one would have to know something about them to look for that.

  96. 96.

    Barbara

    March 28, 2022 at 9:25 am

    You shouldn’t generate sympathy by upping the ante in retaliation for an insult. It was crass — although probably average for Chris Rock. Slapping him? No, sorry. Never cool. Now, if Smith had grabbed the mic and had something snappy or profound to add, he would have all my respect. What if Rock had been a woman?

  97. 97.

    Ancient Atheist

    March 28, 2022 at 9:26 am

    Re Chris Rock and Will Smith. Why do I feel that at a different venue guns would have been drawn?

  98. 98.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 9:26 am

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Yes, agree. If so, this should be an easy case.

  99. 99.

    Geminid

    March 28, 2022 at 9:26 am

    @Betty Cracker: That seems to have happened in the Georgia Senate runoff. Republican turnout dropped from November by 200,000, while the Democrats’ dropoff was close to 100,000. This differed from the “historic” pattern of a greater Democratic decline.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    March 28, 2022 at 9:27 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    One of the things I enjoyed about the new SCOTUS justice were her ordinary “government nerd” high school pictures :)

    She was running that joint!

  101. 101.

    lowtechcyclist

    March 28, 2022 at 9:30 am

    @Kay: Trump did successfully take over the GOP base and the Republican Party though. They’re all Trumps now. They don’t need him anymore.

    This. Trumpism has moved on past Trump himself.

  102. 102.

    bluegirlfromwyo

    March 28, 2022 at 9:31 am

    @Betty Cracker: Chris Rock makes his living spoofing our culture and celebrities. Knowing something like this is part of his job description IMO.

  103. 103.

    Kay

    March 28, 2022 at 9:31 am

    @Barbara:

    I don’t like it because it weirdly elevates the importance of how women look. If it had been like “your wife is a pedophile” or “your wife is a horrible entertainer” I could maybe see it. I don’t know- thorny. It’s always appearance.

  104. 104.

    lowtechcyclist

    March 28, 2022 at 9:32 am

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.” – Groucho

  105. 105.

    Kay

    March 28, 2022 at 9:33 am

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Daily. The entire Ohio GOP senate primary is pure Trumpism. There’s at least some diversity of thought on the D side, not that idiot “swing voters” can be trusted to notice anything at all. I’ve canvassed. They’re morons.

  106. 106.

    Spanky

    March 28, 2022 at 9:34 am

    @Ancient Atheist: Because you’re an asshole?

  107. 107.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    March 28, 2022 at 9:35 am

    @Raven:

    Don’t let your mouth write a check your ass can’t cash.

    Advice for the ages.

  108. 108.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 9:39 am

    @Spanky:

    Nah, he’s probably attended a BJ meet up.

  109. 109.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    March 28, 2022 at 9:42 am

    @Baud:

    Apropos of nothing whatsoever, I was sitting in a motion docket a few years ago, chatting amiably with a woman I’d dated during law school.  Another woman who I had gone to school with walks past and gives her a sneer.  I looked over at Lori and said “what’s up with her?”  She says “Catherine is just a [c-word] and hates me, always has”.

    Stupidly, I respond “what brought that on in the first place?”  I get a cold stare back, and suddenly recalled a drunken squabble that centered around me about 35 years before.  I quietly exited, realizing that some people’s memories about me are better than my own…..

  110. 110.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 9:43 am

    An underappreciated facet of the Chris Rock controversy is that people still remember the movie GI Jane.

  111. 111.

    zhena gogolia

    March 28, 2022 at 9:45 am

    @Suzanne: Yes. It’s ugly.

  112. 112.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 9:46 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Ha! Thank the gods you didn’t grow up in an age of ubiquitous camera phones and social media.

  113. 113.

    zhena gogolia

    March 28, 2022 at 9:49 am

     

    @rikyrah: I disagree. I have never seen one person violently strike another in the middle of the Oscars. It would be scandalous no matter who did it or for what reason.

    He could have yelled at him without the physical violence.

  114. 114.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 28, 2022 at 9:49 am

    @Raven: Or as a guy I worked with liked to say, “I don’t want my alligator mouth getting my hummingbird ass into trouble.”

  115. 115.

    zhena gogolia

    March 28, 2022 at 9:52 am

    @zhena gogolia: Emotions are fine. Scream at him all you want, curse all you want. But don’t hit.

  116. 116.

    jonas

    March 28, 2022 at 9:55 am

    @Kay: Biden should throw a fit and threaten to fire the prosecutors and Merrick Garland if the case isn’t dropped immediately. That’s apparently what amazing presidents do.

  117. 117.

    The Thin Black Duke

    March 28, 2022 at 9:57 am

    Maybe it’s because I’m old enough to remember when I used to be a “negro”, but I still get uncomfortable when I see black people act like assholes in public. It’s not shuckin’ and jivin’ to be adults and handle this bullshit in private. Everybody was a clown in this stupid-ass circus.

  118. 118.

    Soprano2

    March 28, 2022 at 9:58 am

    @Suzanne: This, 1,000%.

  119. 119.

    JMG

    March 28, 2022 at 10:00 am

    If Smith had slapped Rock at one of the many Oscar after parties, we’d have heard about it from TMZ and that’d be it. Seventy years ago, such a beef would’ve happened at the Brown Derby or Romanoff’s and it would have been diligently covered up by EVERYBODY in LA. I just can’t get into this story aside from a little snide laughter. When celebrities show their human sides, it often gets weird.

  120. 120.

    Scout211

    March 28, 2022 at 10:01 am

    The “people’s convoy” is calling it quits and returning to California.

    Ha ha ha ha.

    HAGERSTOWN, MD   (WMAL)  After spending more than three weeks camped out at the Hagerstown Speedway, the remaining drivers of the Peoples’ Convoy are going back where they came from.

    Co-organizer Mike Landis told the crowd in a Sunday night meeting that there is pending legislation in the California legislature that would further restrict citizens’ rights to make their own choices about health decisions, and that he believed it was more pressing than the group’s stated mission to end the existing federal state of emergency on COVID.  “That’s already in place,” Landis told the drivers, “and we need to stop stuff like these bills from getting in place, otherwise the rest of us who don’t live in California are going to end up being subjected to the same situation.”

  121. 121.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 10:02 am

    @Scout211:

    ?

    ETA

    pending legislation in the California legislature that would further restrict citizens’ rights to make their own choices about health decisions

     

    Wait till they find out what Texas is doing to women!

  122. 122.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    March 28, 2022 at 10:02 am

    @Baud:

    That would have been very, very bad. My career would have topped out as either slumlord, used car lot owner, pawn shop operator, strip club owner or marital aid distributor.

  123. 123.

    PaulB

    March 28, 2022 at 10:02 am

    Seen on Twitter: “Will Smith was provoked by NATO expansion.”

  124. 124.

    OzarkHillbilly

    March 28, 2022 at 10:03 am

    Russian cosmonauts board ISS wearing colours of Ukraine flag – video

    “It became our turn to pick a colour. But, in fact, we had accumulated a lot of yellow material so we needed to use it,” he said. “So that’s why we had to wear yellow.”

  125. 125.

    Betty Cracker

    March 28, 2022 at 10:03 am

    @zhena gogolia: Well, yeah. And it’s utterly unsurprising that it attracted the attention of lots of people who otherwise DGAF about the Oscars. In TMZ Nation, when one celebrity hits another in the face during an awards ceremony, it’s a BFD.

  126. 126.

    Brachiator

    March 28, 2022 at 10:04 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    Do y’all think it’s possible Rock didn’t know JPS has alopecia when he made the comment and thought he was just joking about a haircut?

    He knows now.

    The whole thing is sad. The craziest thing is the confirmation of the adage “the show must go on.”

  127. 127.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 10:04 am

    @PaulB:

    Win!

  128. 128.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 10:06 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Must…resist… obvious…lawyer joke.

  129. 129.

    Benw

    March 28, 2022 at 10:06 am

    That dog is me this morning.

  130. 130.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    March 28, 2022 at 10:06 am

    @Scout211:

    Huh. I’m a little surprised. They were looking silly because mandates had largely been lifted around the country long before they even arrived in the DC area, but with inflation and fuel prices going higher they probably could’ve tried to martyr themselves with that. Potentially to better success

  131. 131.

    lowtechcyclist

    March 28, 2022 at 10:07 am

    @Baud: Women coming to blows over me would be hot though.

    If that ever happens to me, it’ll be 85 year old women in the old-age home, and it’ll be because most of the other would-be 85 year old men in their cohort are already six feet under.

  132. 132.

    Miss Bianca

    March 28, 2022 at 10:09 am

    @rikyrah: Good grief. There’s an insight for you.  : /

  133. 133.

    Another Scott

    March 28, 2022 at 10:10 am

    Punching down over medical conditions is bad.

    Violence is bad.

    Jokes are often tasteless.

    Everyone is human.

    But, …

    No. Rock told a joke in poor taste. Smith walked up and hit him in the face. Rock did not hit him back. Both sides journalism poisons your fucking mind. https://t.co/BFuuRKHxZy

    — southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) March 28, 2022

    +1

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  134. 134.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    March 28, 2022 at 10:10 am

    @Baud:

    As in “those are more honest, socially useful occupations…”  ?

  135. 135.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 10:11 am

    @lowtechcyclist:

    There’s a reason old folks home have high rates of STDs.

  136. 136.

    Edmund Dantes

    March 28, 2022 at 10:14 am

    @germy: and John Wayne had 6 security guards keeping him from going after her.

  137. 137.

    zhena gogolia

    March 28, 2022 at 10:17 am

    @Edmund Dantes: If Bruce Dern had been there, he could have taken care of Duke.

  138. 138.

    Ken

    March 28, 2022 at 10:17 am

    @Geminid: one element was investment of Florida state money in Russian assets.

    And the Kentucky teacher’s pension fund was also invested in Russia. There’s a definite pattern here…

    Though I’m sure it comes down to the fund managers seeking the best return on their investment, and choosing the high-performing Russian economy.

  139. 139.

    Ken

    March 28, 2022 at 10:18 am

    @Kay: idiot “swing voters” can be trusted to notice anything at all. I’ve canvassed. They’re morons.

    The preferred term is “people of the land, the common clay of the (mid)West.”

  140. 140.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 28, 2022 at 10:19 am

    @Ksmiami: Lord Moldibutt!

  141. 141.

    WaterGirl

    March 28, 2022 at 10:19 am

    @Ancient Atheist: Seriously?

    I am hoping I’m wrong, but I can’t see any way to take your comment as meaning anything other than two black guys are thugs who would shoot each other in a heartbeat, because that’s what black men do.

    Please tell me that I have that wrong and that you intended nothing of the kind.

  142. 142.

    Darkrose

    March 28, 2022 at 10:19 am

    @germy: And John Wayne had to be held back from attacking her.

  143. 143.

    Ken

    March 28, 2022 at 10:20 am

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I get a cold stare back, and suddenly recalled a drunken squabble that centered around me about 35 years before.

    So you are living Baud‘s dream. Probably not quite how he pictured it, though.

  144. 144.

    mrmoshpotato

    March 28, 2022 at 10:21 am

    @Ken: They preferred to be called “Trump trash!” or “Putin’s bitches!” (by the transitive property.

  145. 145.

    Brachiator

    March 28, 2022 at 10:25 am

    @Kay:

    Teachers may be fired or lose their licensure; schools’ funding may be cut. Doubtless because the bills offer scant clarity about how one might comply, teachers have already begun self-censoring their lessons out of fear.

    This is the ultimate point of the law.

  146. 146.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 28, 2022 at 10:25 am

    @Ancient Atheist:  Possibly the worst hot take of all. Well done, you.

  147. 147.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    March 28, 2022 at 10:26 am

    @lowtechcyclist: I have this happen, what, three times now? The hilarious bit was all three women who were the aggressors and decided the other woman  was stealing me from her had made it clear to me that they totally despised me. Apparently I was supposed to sit there and pine for them.

  148. 148.

    Suzanne

    March 28, 2022 at 10:29 am

    @Soprano2: Honor/shame culture is bullshit and I’m never going to stick up for it. I think it’s gross and reprehensible. Having said that, Chris Rock was obnoxious and I don’t feel bad for him.

    The losers in this situation are the rest of the “King Richard” team, including Venus and Serena Williams, and the other winners. For all the talk about Jada Pinkett-Smith having an illness…. the best picture winner was about the Deaf experience and the event should have been remembered to call more attention to their movie and the reality of their lives. And now the focus is on rich famous people, including an insult to the appearance of a lady who is a movie star wearing a designer gown looking more beautiful than most of us ever will. I’m sorry that I can’t get worked up about it.

  149. 149.

    Ksmiami

    March 28, 2022 at 10:30 am

    @jonas: maybe Garland could actually go after the January 6 traitorous slime instead of cowering

  150. 150.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    March 28, 2022 at 10:30 am

    @Ken: I assume there is a lot of “Those notoriously corrupt face eating Russian snow leopards would never eat my face in this scam” going on there.

  151. 151.

    Ksmiami

    March 28, 2022 at 10:32 am

    @mrmoshpotato: lol.. Screw him. Seriously

  152. 152.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 28, 2022 at 10:32 am

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Trumpism has moved on past Trump himself.

    Trumpism is saying out loud the gross, hateful, cruel, paranoid, whiny, delusional shit that Republicans were circulating in chain emails, telling each other in bars, and chatting about in their kitchens when they believed everyone there was one of them.  Only the call to arms of the moment changes.  Among other things, they have told each other for decades absolutely wild-ass conspiracy stories about armies of brown people being bussed from polling place to polling place.  They’ve been passing voter suppression laws since the civil war, and saying it’s because Democrats cheat.  Does getting it out in the open and letting their freak flag fly make things worse?  I don’t know.  It definitely created passion and brought in white supremacists who weren’t interested if they couldn’t let their freak flag fly.

  153. 153.

    PaulB

    March 28, 2022 at 10:33 am

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    Everybody was a clown in this stupid-ass circus.

    Personally, I think that’s all that needs to be said here and I fully intend to ignore last night’s episode going forward, lest I be tempted to start throwing things at my computer screen due to the stupidity of all of the “hot takes” on it.

  154. 154.

    Barbara

    March 28, 2022 at 10:33 am

    @Suzanne: There is never any need to feel bad for Chris Rock, but escalating the way Smith did is so wrong and stupid — for one thing, Chris Rock has my respect for not reciprocating in kind.  He understood that it was a joke — an unkind and hurtful joke but still, just words.​

  155. 155.

    Suzanne

    March 28, 2022 at 10:37 am

    @Barbara: I agree. The Thin Black Duke has the best take on it: this whole thing was dumb, nobody acquitted themselves well. And I just cannot get too worked up about it either way. I’ll still watch Chris Rock’s specials and Will Smith’s movies.

    Deal with your drama in private instead of making the event All About You.

  156. 156.

    tam1MI

    March 28, 2022 at 10:38 am

    Maybe someone should pass along to Chris Rock the excellent rule about making comments about other people’s appearance

    Maybe someone should pass along to Will Smith that assault and battery is a crime.

  157. 157.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 28, 2022 at 10:39 am

    I think we found the answer to the Rock/Smith fracas.  It is older than either of them.

  158. 158.

    zhena gogolia

    March 28, 2022 at 10:39 am

    Not on topic, but it’s really just hitting me that Putin was going to attack Ukraine no matter who became president. If it had been TFG, it all would have been over very quickly, because we wouldn’t be giving them any support and there would be no sanctions.

    I truly didn’t understand that he was planning this all along. I really should have.

  159. 159.

    zhena gogolia

    March 28, 2022 at 10:40 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: RIP Bancho Banchevsky.

  160. 160.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    March 28, 2022 at 10:43 am

    @Ken:

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Maybe the pension funds were invested in broad EM index funds? A lot of growth in international stocks is driven by emerging markets like China etc I think. Or were the state pension funds irresponsibly investing in the Russian stock market?

  161. 161.

    Ken

    March 28, 2022 at 10:43 am

    @zhena gogolia: If it had been TFG, it all would have been over very quickly, because we wouldn’t be giving them any support

    Nonsense. We would have been coordinating closely with them, providing intelligence, funds, and possibly even weapons.

    Or wait — by “them”, did you mean Ukraine?

  162. 162.

    A Good Woman

    March 28, 2022 at 10:44 am

    @WaterGirl:

    That isn’t how I took it. I immediately had visions of a gunfight a la The Old West as envisioned by Hollywood.  In medieval times; a duel a la The Last Duel, although different trigger.

    I haven’t bothered to watch the clips. Just another episode of Men (so-called) Behaving Badly, which is just plain annoying.

  163. 163.

    debbie

    March 28, 2022 at 10:45 am

    @Raven:

    Now those are words to live by!

  164. 164.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    March 28, 2022 at 10:50 am

    Meh. W. Smith shouldn’t have slapped him, but it isn’t the worst act in the world. No one will make a joke about J. Smith’s hair again, and I have a hard time thinking that is a terrible outcome. I mean, maybe these ‘edgy’ comedians should think a little harder about being so mean to people.

  165. 165.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    March 28, 2022 at 10:51 am

    @Ken:

    The addition of alcohol makes every public romantic triangle argument among early 20-somethings so much better, at least insofar as amused spectators are concerned.

  166. 166.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 28, 2022 at 10:52 am

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: An armed society is a polite society?

  167. 167.

    debbie

    March 28, 2022 at 10:52 am

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    Agreed. Why not just punch him out backstage? The f’bombs when he sat back down also were a bit much.

  168. 168.

    tam1MI

    March 28, 2022 at 10:53 am

    Don’t let your mouth write a check your ass can’t cash.

    Poor guy storms a stage where a comedian is doing his act and commits a crime in front of numerous witnesses, he lands his ass in jail.

    Rich guy does it and he gets an award.

    Privilege in action.

  169. 169.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    March 28, 2022 at 10:53 am

    @zhena gogolia:

    This. I think Putin would’ve preferred Trump as you mention, but he was going to invade hell or high water. He thought he had better trained and equipped forces that he had in reality. Probably figured that Ukraine would fall within a few days and the West would just shrug their shoulders in response. He probably also underestimated the magnitude of western sanctions as well. Trying to invade all of Ukraine was simply a step too far

    The question I have is did Putin himself buy into his own propaganda that Ukrianinan civilians would welcome Russian forces as liberators like their conscripts had been led to believe?

  170. 170.

    debbie

    March 28, 2022 at 10:55 am

    @zhena gogolia:

    And it wouldn’t have mattered how many sanctions were imposed either.

  171. 171.

    MomSense

    March 28, 2022 at 10:55 am

    @Raven:
    Thank you.  Joking about someone’s auto immune disease is not funny.

  172. 172.

    tam1MI

    March 28, 2022 at 10:59 am

    @MomSense: Joking about someone’s auto immune disease is not funny.

    Assault and battery is a crime. I thought us Dems respected the rule of law… apparently not.

  173. 173.

    Suzanne

    March 28, 2022 at 11:00 am

    The other thing this is distracting from is that Jada Pinkett-Smith had an A M A Z I N G look last night. A great fashion moment for her. That dress looked fabulous on her, the color was beautiful, her head styling was gorgeous, the jewelry was perfect. Seriously.

  174. 174.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 28, 2022 at 11:01 am

    @tam1MI: Assault and battery are actually two separate crimes.

  175. 175.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 11:04 am

    @tam1MI:

    Interesting how you went straight for the collective responsibility attack the way Republicans always do.

  176. 176.

    Baud

    March 28, 2022 at 11:04 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Like breaking and entering.

  177. 177.

    Winston

    March 28, 2022 at 11:05 am

    @tam1MI: I could tell you about assault and battery. That was not.  That was a slap in the face. A warning.

  178. 178.

    geg6

    March 28, 2022 at 11:05 am

    @Suzanne:

    This.

    I just chalk it up to the fragile ego of a Scientologist feeling dissed and having to go all David Miscavage on Rock (whose joke was in bad taste, granted).  Rock would have better been served by making a Scientology joke.  He’d have probably gotten the same reaction from Smith but I would have laughed at it.

  179. 179.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    March 28, 2022 at 11:06 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: That isn’t what I’m saying. He didn’t try to shoot him. Slaps hurt, but they aren’t deadly. He shouldn’t have done it, but people ARE human. The more someone is in the public eye the more they are EXPECTED to calmly endure constant verbal abuse. From social media, from pundits, from comedians, from every corner. Every one of those people making mean, belittling comments feels invincible. They know there will be zero negative consequences for their actions and plenty of ‘yuck yucks’. Maybe those folks need to understand that some people will calmly take it, until they can’t.

  180. 180.

    Uncle Cosmo

    March 28, 2022 at 11:09 am

    @jonas: It seems to suggest –

    No it doesn’t, IMHO.

    As others on this blog have noted, it’s the Serbian model writ large: The US (and other nations) made it crystal-clear that they considered Slobodan Milošević a war criminal, that until & unless the Serbian nation repudiated him they’d remain international pariahs. (And, mirabile dictu, Slobo succumbed to a heart attack in custody at The Hague during his trial for war crimes.)

    But wait, there’s more! The Russians most able to remove Ptui!n are the ones closest to him and the levers of power. Sending out the clear message that your country can’t regain its standing in the world until Putin is gone can only ratchet up Vova’s paranoia – and the more paranoid he acts, the greater the likelihood that someone with sufficient access to manage the job will see fit to act in response.

  181. 181.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    March 28, 2022 at 11:10 am

    @Baud:

    And like, I don’t know, you can still empathize with why Smith did what he did and still think he shouldn’t have done it

  182. 182.

    delk

    March 28, 2022 at 11:12 am

    I thought Jada looked stunning.

  183. 183.

    delk

    March 28, 2022 at 11:14 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: and Robbery, Assault, and Battery is a Genesis song. ?

  184. 184.

    Spanky

    March 28, 2022 at 11:15 am

    @Baud: Like paisley and polka dots.

  185. 185.

    artem1s

    March 28, 2022 at 11:16 am

    A pox on all their houses. Maybe it’s time the Oscars stop with trying to make this into suspenseful entertainment that has to be topped by something weirder/outrageous/funnier every year just for ratings sake. How many years of down punching did viewers have to endure during the Gervais years?  And those of us who thought it was awful and tedious were told we couldn’t take a joke. Get over it. There is no way to make these hours of presentations not boring. It’s was out of hand decades ago. Time to stop broadcasting it altogether.

  186. 186.

    Cameron

    March 28, 2022 at 11:16 am

    Feeling helpless?  Don’t know how you can do your part?  Drink – for Freedom!

    https://www.winemag.com/2022/03/26/beer-ukraine/

  187. 187.

    Another Scott

    March 28, 2022 at 11:16 am

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: OTOH…

    Let me tell you something, it’s a very bad practice to walk up on stage and physically assault a Comedian.

    Now we all have to worry about who wants to be the next Will Smith in comedy clubs and theaters.

    — Kathy Griffin (@kathygriffin) March 28, 2022

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  188. 188.

    Winston

    March 28, 2022 at 11:19 am

    I think NATO et all should lend/lease Ukraine a couple of DDG and a CMG stationed in the Baltic with about 500 Tomahawks.

    And no doubt this will give OO the opportunity to fear it would cause WWIII

    Putin might consider that a slap in the face.

  189. 189.

    Brachiator

    March 28, 2022 at 11:20 am

    I saw the incident as it happened and at first thought it was a deliberate gag. And Rock’s initial reaction was edited and censored so I still wasn’t sure what was happening when he continued, but I noticed the huge change in his demeanor. And as I noted earlier, the old adage that “the show must go on” was never more oddly applicable to this event.

    I read later that Denzel Washington and Tyler Perry came forward to counsel Smith. This was very compassionate.

    Other than that I have no hot take, other than wishing that it had been a gag.​

     

    ETA: I probably would not mind if someone slapped on of the jerk Republican senators at the Supreme Court hearings.

  190. 190.

    Suzanne

    March 28, 2022 at 11:20 am

    @delk: Me too. Best look of the night, I think.

  191. 191.

    tam1MI

    March 28, 2022 at 11:21 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Assault and battery are actually two separate crimes.

    You are absolutely right.

    From Barron’s Law Dictionary, 3rd edition:

    ASSAULT: An attempt or threat, with unlawful force, to inflict bodily injury on another, accompanied by the apparent present ability to give effect to the attempt if not prevented.

    BATTERY: The unlawful application of force to the person of another, the touching of another’s person willfully, or in anger.

    It was literally textbook assault and battery.

  192. 192.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    March 28, 2022 at 11:22 am

    @Another Scott: Sure. Some people build their careers on mean and belittling comedy, including making fun of the appearance of people in the audience. They’ve felt safe being able to do that. Now some of them will be worried. I have a hard time believing that people who do comedy that isn’t mean and belittling will need to have the same concern. I also have a hard time believing that there haven’t been plenty of incidences of people getting thrown out of a comedy club because they couldn’t take a joke.

  193. 193.

    tam1MI

    March 28, 2022 at 11:28 am

    @Baud: Interesting how you went straight for the collective responsibility attack the way Republicans always do.

    I had really thought better of the Balloon Juice folks. I guess I was wrong. ☹☹☹

  194. 194.

    Winston

    March 28, 2022 at 11:30 am

    @tam1MI: So you think bodily injury was the intent? You probably would sue your cat.

  195. 195.

    tam1MI

    March 28, 2022 at 11:34 am

    So you think bodily injury was the intent?

    Smith wasn’t charging the stage to adjust Rock’s mic. Hitting someone is primary facie evidence of intent to harm.

  196. 196.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 28, 2022 at 11:35 am

    @Winston: Drinking at breakfast isn’t a good look for you.

  197. 197.

    jonas

    March 28, 2022 at 11:35 am

    @Uncle Cosmo: Unless there’s some huge coup and revolution in Russia in the near future that topples and replaces him with a liberal democracy eager to make amends with the world, Putin is never coming anywhere near the Hague. *Of course* driving Putin out of power is something much to be desired, which is why Biden was riffing on it. But portraying the Americans as arrogant regime-changers who have spent the last 80 years throwing their unearned weight around the globe to the disadvantage of Russia and its allies (e.g. Serbia) is a big part of Putin’s all-resentment propaganda program, and why the remark wasn’t in the official transcript of the speech that I’m sure Biden and his advisers and speech writers spent a long time on.

  198. 198.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    March 28, 2022 at 11:35 am

    @Another Scott:

    If that means that the downward punches stop, good.

  199. 199.

    Miss Bianca

    March 28, 2022 at 11:38 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: Methinks you’re on to something here! Although how Denzel W was to be congratulated without invoking The Name is unclear. References to “The Scottish Play” would not have flown…”The Scottish Movie”, perchance?

  200. 200.

    Winston

    March 28, 2022 at 11:40 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: If we are all pacifist and apologetic to our persecutors we are lost.

  201. 201.

    Kay

    March 28, 2022 at 11:40 am

    @jonas:

    I just think it’s interesting that we have this elaborate, years long investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes and nothing on Trump or his children.

    It’s ridiculous. The cure isn’t to let them both off. The cure is some consistency and rationality in how these issues are approached.

  202. 202.

    Brachiator

    March 28, 2022 at 11:42 am

    @tam1MI:

    Hitting someone is primary facie evidence of intent to harm.

    Primary facie?

    I get your point, but you might want to consult that law dictionary again.

  203. 203.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 28, 2022 at 11:43 am

    WSJ: Russian Oligarch Roman Abramovich, Ukrainian Peace Negotiators Suffer Symptoms of Suspected Poisoning— Vincent Lee (@Rover829) March 28, 2022

  204. 204.

    tam1MI

    March 28, 2022 at 11:44 am

    @Brachiator: Aaargh! Stupid autocorrect! ???

  205. 205.

    Miss Bianca

    March 28, 2022 at 11:44 am

    @Gin & Tonic: Da fuq – !

  206. 206.

    Another Scott

    March 28, 2022 at 11:51 am

    @jonas: Biden’s remark is in the WH.gov transcript of the as-delivered Warsaw speech.

    (It might have been ad-libbed, dunno, but they’re not hiding that he said it (even as some walk it back).)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  207. 207.

    Cameron

    March 28, 2022 at 11:56 am

    @Gin & Tonic: That’s nuts – neither side benefits from something like that.  Wonder what sort of third party would try such an act, and for what purpose.  Symptoms sound kind of squirrelly, too, from what I saw in The Guardian.

  208. 208.

    geg6

    March 28, 2022 at 11:59 am

    @rikyrah:

    I think Rock shouldn’t have made the joke and Smith was an ass for doing what he did.  I think Smith was more in the wrong here, but I don’t understand why we can’t condemn them both.  If my guy had done what he did, I’d kill him if he was very lucky.  I don’t need some damn man to defend my ass and I certainly don’t want one to.

  209. 209.

    geg6

    March 28, 2022 at 12:04 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Speaking as a woman?  This:

    Smith would have to be even more an asshole than Chris Rock to let his wife be publicly insulted like that as a deliberate stunt, and with her sitting next to him? Possible, but I doubt it.

    is toxic masculinity in its most stupid.  And Jada should be pissed at both of them.  Who knows if she is, but I would kill my guy if he pulled the shit Smith pulled.  A smart, strong woman doesn’t need that garbage.

  210. 210.

    Tony Jay

    March 28, 2022 at 12:05 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I have an alibi!

    But seriously, I wonder if someone, somewhere, was paranoid about Roman reinventing himself as “The Man Who Spilled The Beans To Save His Billions”?

  211. 211.

    Brachiator

    March 28, 2022 at 12:18 pm

    I have to applaud Chris Rock for maintaining and going ahead with his segment.

    The comedian looked stunned in the immediate aftermath of the incident, but told the audience: “That was the greatest night in the history of television.”

    Next Oscars, maybe they will have the nominees fight to determine the winner. That will get some ratings.

  212. 212.

    opiejeanne

    March 28, 2022 at 12:20 pm

    I’m going to say this now: I don’t give a fuck about what happened between Smith and Rock last night. It’s between them, and it’s none of my damned business.

  213. 213.

    opiejeanne

    March 28, 2022 at 12:21 pm

    @Tony Jay: I think you’re onto something, in regards to fear of him spilling the beans.

  214. 214.

    geg6

    March 28, 2022 at 12:21 pm

    @Suzanne: ​
     
    OMG, I couldn’t disagree more. She looked like a space alligator in that horrible dress. And it had nothing to do with her hair, just that awful dress.

  215. 215.

    geg6

    March 28, 2022 at 12:24 pm

    @artem1s: ​

    Ricky Gervais never mc’d the Oscars. He was Golden Globes all the way, where bad behavior is not only tolerated, but expected. Plus, I think Ricky Gervais is one of the funniest people on the planet. Way funnier than almost any contemporary American comedian you can name.

  216. 216.

    Betty Cracker

    March 28, 2022 at 12:25 pm

    @geg6: LOL! I agree about the dress, which I also thought was hideous. Regarding Smith reaction to Rock’s tasteless joke, would you object on the same grounds if he’d responded verbally rather than physically? For example, if he’d just said what he said, “Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth” without slapping Rock?

  217. 217.

    geg6

    March 28, 2022 at 12:30 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    I have no problem with that.  I would prefer it if he would have let his wife fight her own battles, though.  My John knows better than to try to step between me and some random asshole who needs told off.

  218. 218.

    WaterGirl

    March 28, 2022 at 12:39 pm

    @Another Scott: All you have to do is watch the last 45 seconds of Biden’s speech to see that the comment about Putin was NOT ad-libbed.

    The end of the speech very deliberately built toward that line.

    In the post I put up for Biden’s speech I even listed the exact time stamp to start watching that last 45 seconds.

    See comment #173 on that post.

  219. 219.

    Tony Jay

    March 28, 2022 at 12:52 pm

    @geg6:

    At this very moment Gervais is sitting in a glass-walled room atop the northernmost Tower of his Springtime Chateau idly stroking a rare Olmec cat called “Me So Bloody Rich” while pondering how many references to “scratching beards” and “The Grumble in the Jungle” he can cram into his next GG hosting.

    Of course he is. Poking fun at everyone else’s Hollywood pretention for shock value is what he does.

  220. 220.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    March 28, 2022 at 12:56 pm

    I saw the stage for the Oscars, that looks like the Thunderdome from Mad Max. Small wonder a fight broke out.

  221. 221.

    Tony Jay

    March 28, 2022 at 12:59 pm

    @opiejeanne:

    Roman was very, very, very comfortable being one of the richest supporters of extremist causes the Establishments of the West ever hugged to their collective bosom. He doesn’t want to be the richest exile in the eastern Mediterranean, he wants to be living the life of an Imperial potentate in cities like London, Paris and New York.

    If getting back to where he was means swapping sides, he’ll jump faster than a sleeping bulldog with a firecracker up its arse.

    Unless, you know, he’s not feeling up to it. And that’s always assuming this wasn’t a staged ‘poisoning’ to give him some ‘targeted dissident’ cred before he makes the offer.

  222. 222.

    raven

    March 28, 2022 at 1:02 pm

    @geg6: What would you do, slap John if he intervened?

  223. 223.

    zhena gogolia

    March 28, 2022 at 1:04 pm

    @debbie: It matters very much in the longer term.

  224. 224.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    March 28, 2022 at 1:08 pm

    Now I saw the slap, I am call bullshit. That was staged; Smith was relaxed and smiling at the joke and then a bit later Smith is walking on to the stage and the camera shot was well framed with Smith going down the center of the runway. Smith was relaxed the whole time and then walked back to his seat the same way. Rock was clearly expecting Smith, maybe the slap was harder than Rock expected, but there was none of chaos of some dude in rage running on stage.

    Bullshit, total bullshit. A guy who got into a fight because he lost control of his temper just doesn’t walk from it like it’s no biggie. That was some kind of weird ass, Andy Kaufman level nonsense.

  225. 225.

    Another Scott

    March 28, 2022 at 1:14 pm

    @WaterGirl: ?

    Biden, as he often reminds us, has been around foreign policy a  very long time.  He has met VVP multiple times.  He’s not always right, but he knows how these things work.

    He knew what he was doing.

    Whether it was on the official script for the speech, I dunno.  It doesn’t really matter when it comes to conveying the message, IMHO.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  226. 226.

    Geminid

    March 28, 2022 at 1:15 pm

    @Tony Jay: I was interested to see reporting that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy requested that the U.S. not sanction Abramovich because of his value as a”mediator.”

  227. 227.

    Ella in New Mexico

    March 28, 2022 at 1:21 pm

    @mrmoshpotato:

    She should just punch Shithead Ted herself.

    I’m pretty sure this has happened on more than one Vodka infused occasion

  228. 228.

    Tony Jay

    March 28, 2022 at 1:24 pm

    @Geminid:

    I noticed that too. But then, there’s always the question of whether that’s a double or triple bluff to put more pressure on Abramovich to jump ship with whatever he knows/who he has suborned by putting him under Moscow’s Great Red Eye of paranoid suspicion.

    Really, we won’t know shit about a lot of this for a long time. All the journalists who have the scoops will be saving them for next Christmas’ bestsellers.

  229. 229.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 28, 2022 at 1:25 pm

    @Geminid: There are reports that Abramovich wants to provide a ton of funding to the UA armed forces and has floated the idea of moving his businesses as well.

  230. 230.

    evodevo

    March 28, 2022 at 1:25 pm

    @Ken:  the financial “counselors” KY hires are usually know-nothings, who drink the Wall St. koolaid by the gallon, so not at all surprised. I’m just wondering what role Moscow Mitch and his oligarch friend played…

  231. 231.

    Gin & Tonic

    March 28, 2022 at 1:37 pm

    I can do penance later (maybe) but for now I can watch these all day long.

    Навіть швидка втеча з поля бою російським окупантам не допомогла. Черга в пекло трохи збільшилась.
    Разом переможемо! pic.twitter.com/BbbLZPoR8M
    — ??Armed Forces (@ArmedForcesUkr) March 28, 2022

    Oh, it says, roughly, “Even a swift retreat from the battlefield didn’t help the Russian occupiers. The queue to Hell has grown.”

  232. 232.

    Suzanne

    March 28, 2022 at 1:39 pm

    @geg6: I get bored with all the sequins and strategically-placed cutouts on dresses in recent seasons, and I like when they go bold. Gaultier is always weird. I like it, even when I don’t. And I was annoyed by all the dumb ill-fitting boob cutout things on last night’s dresses.

  233. 233.

    evodevo

    March 28, 2022 at 1:47 pm

    @Cameron:  Yeah…sounds more like when I handle hot peppers and then forget and wipe my face with my hands lol (or other parts…) – maybe on the napkins they used at a meal?

  234. 234.

    geg6

    March 28, 2022 at 2:27 pm

    @raven:

    No need to slap him.  I don’t need to get violent to make my point.  Believe me, no man wants to tangle with me, including my John.  My tongue is sharper than any knife you own.

  235. 235.

    geg6

    March 28, 2022 at 2:30 pm

    @Suzanne: ​
     
    Totally agree on the boobfest. It was just awful, too. I liked Jessica Chastain’s dress. It was festive, sexy (without showing too much) and pretty.

  236. 236.

    Brachiator

    March 28, 2022 at 2:36 pm

    @geg6:

    I enjoy a good boobfest, but feared that Tracee Ellis Ross was going to over-spill during one of the presentation segments.

  237. 237.

    Darkrose

    March 28, 2022 at 3:21 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Jada has been open about her condition, and how hard its been, for a while now. Even more than that, though: Chris Rock made a whole movie about Black women and our hair. He knows damn well how much is tied up in that, even if he doesn’t know that Black women are disproportionately affected by alopecia, in part because of all the things we have to do in order to make our hair “acceptable”.

    The House just passed the CROWN Act to ban discriminating against Black people wearing natural hairstyles because so many people, mostly women, have been told that unless we burn our hair straight, it’s “unprofessional”. No, Will Smith should not have slapped Chris Rock on national television. And maybe Chris Rock should keep Jada’s name out of his mouth.

  238. 238.

    Raven

    March 28, 2022 at 3:55 pm

    @geg6: pfffft

  239. 239.

    Dopey-o

    March 28, 2022 at 4:06 pm

    @rikyrah: The Media is treating Biden like a black guy when they treated Trump like a white guy. The hate directed toward Biden is at the black voters who put him in office….

    Womp! You just got me, right between the eyes. The best, clearest 2 sentences i have read this year.
    Thank you.

  240. 240.

    Felanius Kootea

    March 28, 2022 at 5:58 pm

    @The Thin Black Duke: Thank you!

  241. 241.

    Darkrose

    March 28, 2022 at 7:06 pm

    @geg6: Black women are always praised for being strong and resilient. It often feels like adding insult to injury; we have to be strong because we can’t count on anyone else being able or willing to stand up for us. Jada is a strong, competent woman who looked like she was genuinely hurt by Rock’s “joke”, especially coming from a guy who has mocked her in the past.

    Speaking only for myself, it was wrong for Will Smith to hit Chris Rock, but I will not lie: it was cathartic as hell, especially after last week, to see someone face consequences for insulting a Black woman.

  242. 242.

    Jim Appleton

    March 28, 2022 at 8:25 pm

    @Raven: Years ago Russ Meyer’s ex Edy Williams used to crash the Oscars, often topless, always with a pet (dog, cheetah, …).

    Late 80s or so, a relative of mine accompanied Edy as her … pet? … at her side wearing a paper bag over his head.

  243. 243.

    sab

    March 29, 2022 at 3:47 am

    @Tony Jay: You are so cynical on your side of the Atlantic. We primatives are just shocked! Who knew that could happen! Yet again!

  244. 244.

    sab

    March 29, 2022 at 3:53 am

    @Darkrose: This has actually been a point of discord in my life. I am white and I expect my spouse to protect me if a large guy is actually attacking me, but point of honor stuff is on me.

    My guy totally disagrees. He feels he needs to protect my honor.

    I think Jada  made Will look like an idiot. And I think she meant to do that.

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