Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

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

So many bastards, so little time.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

Republicans would impeach Biden if he bit into a whole Kit Kat rather than breaking the sections apart.

People are weird.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

White supremacy is terrorism.

We won’t go back.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Come on, man.

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

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Not all heroes wear capes.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

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

You are here: Home / Politics / Media / Sunday Morning Open Thread: Nancy Skipped #NerdProm!…

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Nancy Skipped #NerdProm!…

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She and her posse went to meet President Zelenskyy, instead:


Per the Washington Post:

… “Our commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done,” Pelosi told Zelensky in a meeting that took place Saturday evening local time.

In a video posted by Zelensky on Sunday, Pelosi was seen walking the streets of Ukraine’s capital with other House Democratic lawmakers, including Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory W. Meeks (N.Y.), Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (Mass.) and Rep. Jason Crow (Colo.). Pelosi’s office said Reps. Barbara Lee (Calif.) and William R. Keating (Mass.) were also part of the delegation…

Pelosi’s delegation subsequently left Ukraine for Poland for meetings with Polish President Andrzej Duda and senior officials, according to a statement from Pelosi’s office.

The trip had not been announced before Zelensky shared visuals on Sunday, with a caption praising the United States for being a leader in support of Ukraine…

I believe this is what the young people call ‘a flex’. Also this:

Some very good politicians — President Obama among them — find dealing with crowds of people draining. Others, like President Biden, find them energizing:

Performance theatre, from the sidelines:

Reader Interactions

195Comments

  3. 3.

    RaflW

    I still think the whole idea of the WHCD becoming this mass spectacle is dumb. But if it’s gonna happen, Noah was a fantastic choice. He’s willing to land punches with his humor. And Joe did well too.

  6. 6.

    MomSense

    Let’s just hope Douchey doesn’t decide to run for president after fox was roasted.

  7. 7.

    sab

    @debbie: Yes! Now I understand why he felt it important to speak at that potentially super-spreader event.

    My BIL is Chinese and he cares about politics but doesn’t speak up at all. It is deeply engrained in him not to do it. Read it. Follow it. But don’t say anything.

  8. 8.

    Jeffro

    I’m going to have to go and watch all of these…well ok, just Biden and Noah.

    Btw the NYT has a huge three-part piece up about how Tucker Carlson’s essentially a radical right nationalist mouthpiece.  (Others may have already mentioned this – my bad)  The first part, “How Tucker Carlson Stoked White Fear to Conquer Cable” is sooooo on-point it’s kind of unbelievable.  May our snooze media feel free now, finally, to expose all of these kkklowns for what they truly are.

  9. 9.

    oatler

    OT I guess. but the Sunday morning news shows list Fox having more Dems on their show than all the “liberal” networks combined. Really…Chris fucking Christie.

  10. 10.

    MagdaInBlack

    I’m seeing the RNC went full snowflake over Biden’s jokes

    Poor delicate flowers.

  11. 11.

    Gin & Tonic

    Zelensky thanks them first, for the “signal” – the visual message they sent by their presence.

  13. 13.

    Starfish

    @RaflW: Fallows was correct.

    I have long been a critic / skeptic of WHCA infotainment events.
    But my tragic / preposterous imagination had not expanded to allow for how they would return after the pandemic.

    I give up.

    — James Fallows (@JamesFallows) May 1, 2022

    2/2 Again let me say:

    As someone who has spent nearly 50 years as a reporter and editor, I *really* hope that not many people are watching, or will ever see, the WHCA spectacle playing out right now.
    — James Fallows (@JamesFallows) May 1, 2022

  15. 15.

    sab

    @Starfish: I thought that also until Trevor Noah’s closing comments. He grew up in an autocratic murderous police state. Its necessary to fight back.

    ETA This a good venue. This year the main speaker and the president knew that.

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    Is it wrong to wonder if it was safer to go to Ukraine than to go to the super-spreader Nerd Prom?  I don’t mean to minimize the risk in going to Ukraine.

  18. 18.

    RaflW

    @MagdaInBlack: It’s amazing how often they’re willing to embarrass themselves. “Mom! Biden said he’d be niiiice. Whaaa!

    It’s been said many times, but they just keep reenforcing it: This is the party that’s associated with tough guys? Glass-jaw Trump? Hah.

  19. 19.

    Starfish

    @sab: You get to speak truth to power once every year but power is gonna power.

    Michelle Wolf’s speech was true, but it did not change their behavior, did it?

    You guys are obsessed with Trump. Did you used to date him? Because you pretend like you hate him, but I think you love him. I think what no one in this room wants to admit is that Trump has helped all of you. He couldn’t sell steaks or vodka or water or college or ties or Eric, but he has helped you. He’s helped you sell your papers and your books and your TV. You helped create this monster, and now you’re profiting off of him. If you’re going to profit off of Trump, you should at least give him some money, because he doesn’t have any.

  20. 20.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Starfish:

    Michelle Wolf’s speech was true

    Word.  Word.  I’m still pissed-off that she got canceled, too.  Loved her show when it was on the air.  Still pissed-off.  Also though: there are a ton of little Comedy Central shorts with her (and also Amber Ruffin) on Youtube, and they’re *great* stuff!

  21. 21.

    RaflW

    @Starfish: And Ms. Wolf sure did upset a lot of tender feefees that year. I love that she said “You should have done more research before you got me to do this” early in her WHCD set.

  22. 22.

    sab

    My sister just announced that the chairs matching my ancestral table are at risk of getting dumped because she is closing on her house this month I have the matching table.. Could have told me come get them months ago, but couldn’t be bothered. We have a first communion party for two niece/nephews today so cannot possibly save those chairs that are good chairs and match our table and are in all our baby pictures.

    My actual blood relatives annoy me a lot. Thank God for my in-laws.

  25. 25.

    Steeplejack

    I didn’t watch it, but it was worth it today to see the clips of Biden and Noah getting off some excellent quips at the media lapdogs’ expense. And they had to sit there and take it. Okay, I’m shallow.

    I do worry a bit about Biden’s exposure in a crowded venue.

  26. 26.

    RaflW

    Ahhh, Wolf’s WHCD transcript. She brought the fire. But she said p**sy, so that got most of the pearl-clutches.

    I’m going to try a fun new thing, okay? I’m going to say, “Trump is so broke,” and you guys go, “How broke is he?” All right.
    Trump is so broke he has to fly failed business class. …

    Trump is so broke he had to borrow money from the Russians and now he’s compromised and susceptible to blackmail and possibly responsible for the collapse of the Republic. Yay, it’s a fun game!

    I mean it’s just right there. Bloop. The utter truth.

  28. 28.

    Amir Khalid

    Muslims in Malaysia are panicking, per local media: the Keeper of the Great Seal of the Malay Rulers (i.e. their official spokesman, not a zoo employee) has announced that the 1st of Shawal — that is, Eid al-Fitri, shall fall on Monday, 2nd May. Not Tuesday, like everyone was expecting. This will be the first Eid since 2019 largely free of Covid-19 restrictions. Most were planning on Monday as their final day of Eid prep, reserved for cooking the rendang and ketupat and other delicacies that take literally all day to prepare.

  29. 29.

    apocalipstick

    @sab: Just after TFG was elected, Noah was on NPR’s Fresh Air. I will always remember his closing words to Terri Gross: “I’m from Africa. If there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s cover an autocratic clown who got elected president.” (paraphrase)

  30. 30.

    sab

    @sab: Closing this month? Closing tomorrow! Called me at 9 am today. Grrr. Stupid, disorganized, selfish bitch.

  33. 33.

    Peale

    @Amir Khalid: I hate to ask, but how can one not know in advance when a holiday is supposed to start? Like Easter moves quite a bit, but they worked out the dates for the next 10,000 years, barring a mass conversion or Orthodoxy.

    microwavable rendang it is though.

  34. 34.

    Soprano2

    @apocalipstick: I will never forget the video Noah did before TFG was elected where he showed how TFG was just like an African dictator except for the fake military uniforms. He knew what TFG aspired to be.

  36. 36.

    SFAW

    @sab:

    Not sure if this is feasible, but: maybe one of your/our fellow jackals lives nearby, and would be willing to rescue the chairs and hold them for you for a little while?

    I’m being serious. The jackal community is extremely generous and supportive — well, most of youse guys are, me not so much — and we try to look after our own when possible. That said: if she’s anywhere in Nassau County (New York), or on the path from NYC to the Worcester (MA) area, I may be available. Not sure how many chairs, but I might be able to take at least two, and possibly four.

  37. 37.

    Betsy

    How did our President vivisect Paul Ryan, as referenced in the Charlie Pierce tweet?

    I think that’s about the only thing I could take joy in any more.

  39. 39.

    sab

    @Steeplejack: Hadn’t thought of it in those terms. Still thinking it is just extremely disorganized. Not Chinese Art History? Then she does not care about it. 70 year old woman who does not even know how to boil an egg.

  40. 40.

    Betsy

    @sab: It could be worse. You could have a sister-in-law who gets rid of all your ancestral stuff and a brother who goes along with it. But I feel you

  41. 41.

    SFAW

    @Betsy:

    What was said about Paul Ryan?

    That he’s a self-absorbed, hypocritical prick, whose driving “ethos” when he wakes up every day is “What can I do to hurt the less-well-off?”

    Oh, wait, you probably meant “at the WHCD.”

    Never mind.

    ETA: Oh, sure, edit your comment so that my reply no longer works.

  42. 42.

    sab

    @SFAW: I’d be beyond fgratefulmor people in Upper Arlington, but Sis gave extemely short notice, as usual.

  43. 43.

    SFAW

    @sab:

    Upper Arlington in which state? I know of Arlingtons in MA, VA, and TX, and I bet there are others.

  44. 44.

    sab

    @Betsy: It is actually worse if it is a sister. I can uderstand an in law. My own sister who grew up with these chairs. Stupid selfish bitch. No other explanation.

  46. 46.

    sab

    @SFAW: Suburban Columbus Ohio. We have jackals there but they have lives and this is extremely short notice.

  48. 48.

    zhena gogolia

    @Jeffro: The problem is, for all Noah’s inspiring words, they are not truly free to write whatever they want. Their bosses want those tax cuts.

  49. 49.

    Amir Khalid

    @Peale:

    There is this thing Muslims have about actually observing the new moon in the night sky first. It’s how they did it in the 7th century, so it’s the only proper way even now in the 21st. Calculating everything in advance would make more sense, as you note, but it wouldn’t be Tradition.

    Besides, Saudi Arabia said Eid would be on Monday, and other Muslim countries don’t dare let their lunar calendar get out of of step.

  50. 50.

    WaterGirl

    @sab: There has to be a way. Surely she has a friend who could store the chairs at their house for a little while?  Where does she live?  Maybe a jackal who lives nearby could recuse them for the short term?

    That move seems more deliberate and less “oops, I didn’t think of it until now”.

  53. 53.

    debbie

    @sab:

    I’m housebound at the moment (health stuff) and only have a Civic, but if she can’t hold onto them for a few days until you can pick them up, tell her to have the movers drop them off in a storage locker, so you can pick them up later.

  55. 55.

    SFAW

    @sab:

    Suburban Columbus Ohio. We have jackals there but they have lives and this is extremely short notice.

    Understood. But they can assess and decide; maybe some jackal is sitting around (well, duh, they’re commenting here, ain’t they?) trying to figure out what to do today.

    Ohio is a little far for me, unfortunately

    ETA: And what WaterGirl said: Just ask.

  56. 56.

    Steeplejack

    @sab:

    The whole thing sounds fishy. If she is forgetful or doesn’t care about stuff, why would she even think to mention it?

    Also, “closing” on the house? Is she selling it fully furnished? Or is she closing on her new house? Or is she saying closing as in moving day?

    In any case, my condolences. Family bullshit is the worst bullshit.

  57. 57.

    sab

    @WaterGirl: Oops until I didn’t think of it until now is how she operates.

    I live in town with my dad, who has dementia. Dad and I don’t much like each other. Sis is his favorite. She swoops in twice a year to check on him. Day to day is our amazing nurse’s aide. Sis does check on her and exchange baby pictures of grandchildren. Sounds trite but this this extremely important. So I give Sis that.

  59. 59.

    WaterGirl

    @sab: Okay, let’s give her the benefit of the doubt.  Either way, you are not helpless here.

    I see 5 options so far: 1) ask if she has a friend  who could store the chairs for a little while,

    2) ask if she has a NEIGHBOR who might be able to store the chairs for a little while.  My neighbor kept my family mirror and a few other key things in the corner of a room for 6 months during my house repairs when the huge tree fell on the house.  Sometimes, for some inexplicable reason, neighbors sometimes step in when even friends do not.

    3) ask if there’s a  jackal who could pick up the chairs and store them for a bit.  Offer to pay for gas.

    4) have your sister ask the movers to drop the chairs off at a storage place.  This is not the first time in the history of moving that the need for short-term storage has come up.

    5) if your sister refuses to ask the movers to do that, I bet there’s some mom-and-pop moving company or “two guys and a truck” who could pick these up from your sisters and store them for a few days  OR drop them off at storage.

  60. 60.

    Steeplejack

    @sab:

    “Oops, I didn’t think of it until now” as an ongoing thing is basically “Fuck you, I don’t care” with less of a hook for you to come back on. “Why are you mad? I just forgot.” ?

  62. 62.

    MazeDancer

    Loved seeing Madame Speaker in Ukraine.

    Wonder why she didn’t take a GOP member. Just to promote GOP support of all the money.

    Maybe she couldn’t find one who could be trusted to keep quiet about the trip.

  64. 64.

    Kay

    Conn Carroll
    @conncarroll
    This is exactly the type of lazy article from the Woke Class that only makes them more isolated and out of touch from the rest of America. There is zero effort to explore the reality behind Tucker’s critique of the current policy consensus.

    There is now a “woke class”. Anti-wokeism is endless. They just return to it compulsively and mine it over and over again in response to every issue.
    An elaborate 3 part NYTimes series on Tucker Carlson where they interviewed hundreds of people and reviewed 1000 of his shows?
    Dismissed as “woke”.
    They hit the “woke” lever and got a little pellet as a reward and now they can’t stop hitting it.
    It is all these people talk about and write about.
    This anti-wokist is on the Right but it doesn’t matter- Right, Center, Left- it’s all the same commentary. Indistinguishable. There is no ideology of anti -wokeness other than anti-wokeness.

  66. 66.

    Kay

    If “woke” surrendered, just threw up their hands and agreed to stop talking about “equity” or “racist history” or bias in the workplace and education, where would the anti-wokes go? Where do they land? Because they’re not “populists”- most of them are super-educated, higher income media people. I mean, some are allegedly on the Left but they do no advocacy or writing on Leftist positions- they cover The Woke.

    They land on “Mitt Romney”. They’ll just be standard moderate Republicans without this hook this gimmick, that (allegedly) makes them “interesting contrarians”.

  68. 68.

    Ruckus ??

    @MazeDancer:

    I agree with WaterGirl and add that politically there is positive both ways here but only if rethugs were willing to reach across the aisle and act human. So I say, “Which one of the rethugs would you trust?” I can’t think of one that first, would I want to travel that far with and second, I agree with you on them not being able to not screw this up.

  69. 69.

    sab

    @Steeplejack: Fuck you Idon’t care is how I take this.

    I bent over backwards when we cleaned out my parents, and she turned up at the last minute and wanted everything. Too late for that now but that was her thought process.

    I fucking hate these family property fights. To me it is not between siblings. It is beween find that chair a home and the landfill. And my sister just chose landdfill over us.

  70. 70.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    I await the day all the RWMFs who use “woke” in that manner (as GHWB used to use “L-i-i-i-i-i-i-iberal”) get the Richard Spencer treatment.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    There is zero effort to explore the reality behind Tucker’s critique of the current policy consensus.

    Tucker has no “critique of the current policy consensus”. He rants about immigrants. Every single Republican rants about immigrants. Immigrants are SUCH a popular punching bag that no one even talks about immigration legislation anymore. It’s in the “impossible” category. The immigration “policy consensus” on the Right is identical to Tucker Carlson.

  72. 72.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Biden is shit talking his political rivals and that’s not even the day’s real story from Dems. No wonder the press is so upset about him ROFL

  74. 74.

    sab

    @debbie: All of these were options and she just decided fuck that too much trouble. Even more trouble than telling me a month ago.

    All I can say at this point is my sister is a stupid selfish bitch I should stop having contact with since she is only about herself. Even when she contacts my dad’s nurse’s aide all she causes is trouble. ” That ginger ale was actually wine.”( Really!)  “How dare you.?” She looks for divisive trouble.

    Have known that for years. Only accepted it now when she slapped my face in it.

  76. 76.

    Kay

    @SFAW:

    Every single issue. They crank it through the woke detection machine and it’s either “not woke” (they’re in favor) or “woke” (they oppose).

    Ben Shapiro goes to college campuses to debate not a person or a policy, but “wokeness”. He’s opposed!

    You just wonder how long they can beat this fucking thing before they have to weigh in on something real, like “immigration” or “abortion” or “labor unions”. Doesn’t the United Anti-Woke front break down when they realize it’s Ben Shapiro so it’s just going to be standard conservative Republican boilerplate without the “woke” issue overlaid on top of it?

    “Wokeness” aside (and I can’t believe I even said that, given that wokeness is the most vital issue facing our country) Ben Shapiro still intends to criminalize abortion, eradicate labor unions,  abolish public schools, and gut all regulations. Strange bedfellows indeed.

    I know how this ends. The “progressives” in the antiwoke coalition get their asses kicked by the conservatives and as soon as it is no longer convenient for the Right to have them as allies, they get kicked to the curb. Then it’s just conservatism.

  78. 78.

    debbie

    @sab:

    I can certainly relate to negative family issues, and I’m sorry she’s screwed you in this very passive aggressive way.

  79. 79.

    Mike in NC

    Assuming the Republicans are planning a delegation to go to Moscow — again! — to show solidarity with Vlad the Impaler.

  80. 80.

    WaterGirl

    @sab: I totally understand, and I’m pissed at your sister, regardless of motivation.

    But you still have choices available to you, if you’re willing to see them and take action.

  82. 82.

    debbie

    @debbie:

    ETA: Another Scott’s suggestion (Two Men and a Truck) is a good idea. They’ll do anything on very short notice.

  84. 84.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    I am so tired of the word woke.  I wish we could go back in time time and simply change it to aware. The anti-woke people are then unaware and shown as the completed ignorant assholes they are.

  86. 86.

    WaterGirl

    @sab: Your sister does not sound like someone I would want to know. It takes long to see things in the people we are closest too.

    So you can choose to have a relationship with your sister – going forward – or not.

    But there is no need for the chairs to end up in a landfill – and for all you know your sister has a friend who wants the chairs, and your sister wants to box you into a corner so the friend gets the chairs.

    But you can make decisions that will allow the chairs to be with the table and not in a landfill.  Just because she is your sister, with a history of this crap, it does not mean that the chairs go into a landfill, or to her friend or somewhere else.  Maybe she has someone who wants to buy them?

    But her reasons don’t matter. At this point what you do about it matters, and you have plenty of non-landfill options.

  87. 87.

    Kay

    @Mike in NC:

    I think it’s great they went. It matters to me that they show up. In 20 years no Republican is going to admit they were on the side of Putin and they really did have to pick a side. They don’t always, but on this one it was A or B. Either Russia should be permitted to invade and seize this country or not. Because if there had been no response it wouldn’t be at all subtle or nuanced. Russia would have invaded it and taken it. The ground and people. The country itself.

    I am amused that the “bioweapons labs” seem to have disappeared. What the heck happened to them? Tulsi Gabbard said on Tucker Carlson that they existed. Anyone found any yet?

  88. 88.

    James E Powell

    @MazeDancer:

    Wonder why she didn’t take a GOP member. Just to promote GOP support of all the money.

    Maybe she couldn’t find one who could be trusted to keep quiet about the trip.

    That’s it, for sure. Republicans cannot be trusted on anything. Their only goal, every day, is own the libs.

  89. 89.

    Chetan Murthy

    @James E Powell:

    Republicans cannot be trusted on anything. Their only goal, every day, is own the libs. betray the country.

    “The Speaker has been removed from the chambers”

  91. 91.

    Kay

    @Steeplejack:

    The Anti Woke Coalition is so broad based ideologically that it probably couldn’t have ended up anywhere else. It has no cohesion or commonality other than being anti woke, so that’s  is all it is. They hate The Woke. That’s the overlap.

    The same thing happened when “progressives” worked with Republicans against public schools. It started out that it was going to be this great coming together across Party lines, all working against the “failing” public schools. The minute the Right got some power in this coalition it ended up as “abolish public schools and all teachers are pedophiles”. They just trounced their former progressive allies. There’s no “progressive” ideas or policy  remaining in the “alliance”. The Right kicked them to the curb as soon as they were no longer politically useful. Christoper Rufo is now the spokesperson for the former “progressive and conservative alliance against public schools”. The progressives were the useful idiots who helped it along and now there’s nothing “progressive” remaining.

  93. 93.

    Geminid

    @Old Dan and Little Ann: “Woke” came out of Black American vernacular so Republicans see it as a good all-purpose dogwhistle. I suspect that like other words white people appropriate it has come out of usage among Black people. Now the word probably has been used by white conservatives ten times as much as it ever was by the people who originated it. An example is the punchline of an ad for one of last year’s candidates for Virginia Governor: “Woke liberal mobs burning down our businesses and neighborhoods? Not on my watch!”

  94. 94.

    ian

    @MomSense: 

    Let’s just hope Douchey doesn’t decide to run for president after fox was roasted.

    Would he be any worse than the current crop of candidates?

  95. 95.

    Caphilldcne

    Honestly I wish people would stop calling this event nerd prom. The nerds in washington are the thousands of experts of every arcane detail about policy, so Hill staff, agency personnel and nonprofit staffers. Reporters are glib, superficial purveyors if this data at a non-expert and often poorly explained manner who pretend they know a lot more than the actual experts. Also I hate panels where they interview other reporters. NPR is a major offender.

  96. 96.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Geminid:

    “Woke” came out of Black American vernacular so Republicans see it as a good all-purpose dogwhistle.

    And at the end of the day, it’s about denying Black Americans their humanity and equality.  I know for myself, I remember when I woke up to the oppression of my fellow Americans got “woke” — reading the writings of Ta-Nehisi Coates at The Atlantic.

  97. 97.

    oldgold

    The Dems need to relentlessly run a KKK Kampaign against the disloyal opposition party : Krazy, Kreepy, Kowards!

    So easy to do because it is so manifestly true.

  98. 98.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: They hit the “woke” lever and got a little pellet as a reward and now they can’t stop hitting it.

    Boy is that the truth!

  99. 99.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: I think the bio weapons are parked next to the “CARAVANZZZ!!!!1!!”, in the Parking Lot of Tired Right-Wing Trope

    except eclare got there first, I see ?

  100. 100.

    Soprano2

    @Geminid: They are all using the line about “woke liberal mobs burning down cities, not on my watch!”. You know, the cities they also hate because they’re full of woke liberals.

  101. 101.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Soprano2:

    woke liberal mobs burning down cities

    San Francisco is definitely a burnt-out shell, and the rents are still so damn high!

  103. 103.

    Jeffro

    @Soprano2: right??

    ”Why do you care, RWNJs?  Just leave us to scrounge through the ruins of DC, NY, etc, and stick to your all-American heartland (please)”

    That would actually be a fun, satirical blog to write once a week: “Dispatches From the Burnt-Out Shell of A Formerly Great American City, Until Woke”

  104. 104.

    opiejeanne

    @Chetan Murthy: Same with Seattle on both counts.

    My cousin in Evanston, Wyoming asked if my daughters were safe and if their abodes had survived or been burned down. She was very surprised when I explained that the only fire was one in a trash can in the street where the protesters were camped out. And they put it out before the fire department got there.

  105. 105.

    eclare

    @opiejeanne:   I think my relatives way out in exturban Memphis think the same of me in Midtown.  I’m sure they wonder how I get my garbage can to the street amidst the urban war

    Right now just watching TV with the door open, hearing birds through the screen door.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    As an avid reader of the Anti Woke Coalition musings on wokeness, it’s now much, much broader than AA wokeness. A huge part of it is blowback from “me too” – the sexual harrassment/assault cases against famous and powerful men.

    When the NYTimes did their most recent focus group with conservative men they all expressed sympathy for Andrew Cuomo. The Woke got Cuomo. Don’t underestimate the blowback on that front. BLM freaked them the hell out but wildly powerful and/or rich men losing their jobs due to workplace behavior towards women also contributes to this.

    There’s almost no discussion of this aspect, because there’s almost no discussion of “women’s issues” in US politics, but it’s a big piece.

  108. 108.

    Benw

    @Caphilldcne:

    Honestly I wish people would stop calling this event nerd prom

    Seriously this. If you want to call something nerd prom, start with the American Physical Society’s annual meeting for Theoretical Nuclear and Particle Physics. Even other physicists think those dorks are serious nerds!

  109. 109.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Kay:

    There’s almost no discussion of this aspect, because there’s almost no discussion of “women’s issues” in US politics, but it’s a big piece.

    100% agree.

  111. 111.

    SFAW

    @Chetan Murthy:

    San Francisco is definitely a burnt-out shell, and the rents are still so damn high!

    A “woke” version of “That restaurant’s food is terrible” “I know, and the portions are so SMALL!” ?

  113. 113.

    Kay

    Here you can clearly see their committment to free speech and open debate on the issues:

    Nick Confessore
    @nickconfessore
    · 1h
    When a low-ranking Fox producer tweeted that “white supremacy is real, as evidenced by fact” — after Carlson called it a “hoax” — she got a call from an unlisted number. It was Carlson, who screamed at her to “shut your mouth.” He later denied it was him on the phone.

    She didn’t even use his name. Big Boss Man called and shrieked at her to “shut your mouth” for daring to express an opinion.
    Then, just to add the icing to the cake, he’s such a coward he denied it was him.

  114. 114.

    Kay

    And how gross it is that they’re all monitoring each other? Someone at Fox ratted her out.

    “Sir, Jenna expressed an opinion on social media you disagree with. Just FYI”.

  116. 116.

    dm

    @Kay: They hit the “woke” lever and got a little pellet as a reward and now they can’t stop hitting it.

    I think you’re giving them too much credit — that is, you’re crediting them with self-delusion instead of dishonesty.

    “Woke”, “Cancel Culture”, “PC”, “{Bush,Trump} derangement syndrome”, these are all ways for them say, “Nothing to see here, move along, move along”.

    They’re simple ad-hominem fallacies, but they work because the Right has engaged for at least fifty years in a concerted program to break the ability of people to think.

  117. 117.

    Kirk Spencer

    One thing about the WHCD is that it’s a great way to get the DC Press corps distracted. They’re so busy prepping for it they don’t see a hunt for bin Laden or how several key house legislators are slipping into a war zone. I mean, the latter could have been a coup for some reporter – find out, and “take me with and I’ll not be able to report till we get back.”

    Instead, it’s a social gala for the chicken coop.

  119. 119.

    Kay

    Jordan Zakarin
    @jordanzakarin
    ·2h
    lol Joe Manchin brags about sinking Build Back Better in an ad he just cut for a Republican candidate for Congress.
    Democrats were never going to get this guy on board for any part of their agenda.

    I’m still waiting for the electoral reform act he and Susan Collins promised to much fanfair in media. Manchin can’t even get a minor tweak of a single statute accomplished.

  120. 120.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Benw:

    Seriously this. If you want to call something nerd prom, start with the American Physical Society’s annual meeting for Theoretical Nuclear and Particle Physics. Even other physicists think those dorks are serious nerds!

    Thirded.  I’d add the American Mathematical Society/Mathematical Association of America joint meetings, and the Joint Statistical Meetings.

    It really galls me that the White House Press Corpse seems to know less about actual policy than I do, and it’s not my fucking day job.  I guess they don’t think it’s theirs either, that it’s all about who dunked on whom.

  121. 121.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Amanda Marcotte talks about this a lot on Twitter and in Salon. She has keen insights on how misogyny drives a lot of this under the radar.

  122. 122.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kay: Yeah, just a day or two ago Manchin was pontificating about how important voting rights are to him.  He’s right up there with Collins in the Meaningless Concern department.

  123. 123.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    I don’t know why it doesn’t get more attention. A large group of powerful men suffered real repercussions from their workplace behavior – people who had gotten away with it for decades. And that was just the high profile ones- sexual harrassment and assault in the workplace results in lawsuits, with damages, so tens of millions of men were told by their employers that they had to change how the behaved at work. Not because their employers give a shit about “equity” but because their employers recognize the behavior is occuring and can be litigated.

    There was, predictably, blowback, which was quietly rolled into the ever-expanding “woke” category.

    I think Cuomo could win on a GOP ticket in NY as another vicitim of The Woke. His god-given right to grope the women he works with has been infringed. It’s really a liberty issue, if you think about it.

  124. 124.

    Suzanne

    @Kay: There’s so much misogyny in anti-wokeness that it’s terrifying. They swung from “women should quit their jobs if they’re harassed” to “a man losing his job is one of the worst things that can happen to him, it destabilizes the entire family”. And the current talking point of college-is-stupid-go-to-trade-school is also wrapped up in that, as women are now outnumbering dudes on college campuses, and making more money than many tradesmen.

  125. 125.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Some of the same men say they would be enraged if a man treated their female relatives that way. I’ve never understood how they don’t know every woman is someone’s daughter.

  128. 128.

    James E Powell

    @dm:

    Has anyone every gone broke – or lost an election – by agitating white people’s anxieties about non-whites?

  130. 130.

    debbie

    @debbie:

    Also, Squirrel Head implying Ukraine was already part of Russia disqualifies the entire fucking party.

  131. 131.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @James E Powell: I think The Two Pats hurt Poppy Bush in ’92, but arguably not as much as Ross Perot or “Saddam Hussein still has his job. Do you?”

  132. 132.

    Geminid

    @Kay: “Woke” is an elastic term. I expect we’ll hear soon about “woke” progressive income taxation. After all, it’s “progressive.”

  136. 136.

    Martin

    Nancy needed to do that slow-mo shoulder to shoulder stride intro with the caucus and Ukrainian leadership, like in ensemble cop shows.

  137. 137.

    Brachiator

    Coming late to the thread. Lazy California time.

    I actually watched the correspondents dinner, for the first time. I enjoyed it, even though I still think it is an odd and unnecessary event.

    I thought Biden and Trevor Noah were great.

    I did not read the Tucker Carlson piece in the NY Times. I keep forgetting how to get around pay walls.

    Anyway, Tucker only gets away with his crap because he is a creature of Fox News. Does the story get into why Fox News and Rupert Murdoch love and endorse white supremacy?

  140. 140.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    I don’t really buy that, to be honest with you. I used to, but I wonder about that inability to take it from the personal to the whole group and I suspect that’s more about ownership than womens autonomy or agency.

    When I started practicing juvenile defense a much more experienced (and weary) lawyer told me “what you need to understand about half these parents is their kids are their property. They have title to them. That’s the mindset”.

  141. 141.

    Geminid

    @James E Powell: Some people attribute George Allen’s narrow loss to Jim Webb in the 2006 Virginia Senate election to his “Macacca moment,” when he threw a racial slur at an Indian American man filming him for the Webb campaign. But if this did hurt Allen, it would be an exception tending to prove a rule.

    At the time I read that “Macacca” was a derogatory term French Algerians called native Algerians. George Allen’s mother was French Algerian. When he got a lot of questions about this controversial incident. Allen wouldn’t say he learned the slur from his mom. Instead, he said he’d made it up on the spot.

  143. 143.

    Kay

    And, of course, a lot of anti wokism is just middle aged and late middle aged former “cutting edge” people getting mad at younger people for… existing and supplanting them as cultural markers.

    Bill Maher says he’d much rather have Elon Musk in charge of Twitter than “some 23 year old”

    Ugh. Twenty three year olds. We hate them. How dare they have a culture that departs from what was accepted practice in 1993 to 2001.

  144. 144.

    Geminid

    @MazeDancer: Peter Meijar is grandstanding. He knows why no Republicans were invited. And no one’s stopping him from going himself. Republican Congresswoman Spartz of Indiana went to Ukraine a week ago. She was born in Ukraine, but Meijar might be welcomed if he at least tried.

    Meijar is one of two Republican Impeachers from Michigan. The other is Fred Upton, and Upton is retiring. Meijar has a $1.5 million war chest for his 3rd Michigan CD reelection campaign. His primary challenger is a former Trump administration official with only $81,000 on hand.

    Waiting in the wings is Democrat Hilary Scholten, who lost Meijer by 6 points in 2020. Scholten has $470,000 in the bank.

  146. 146.

    Ruckus ??

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I guess they don’t think it’s theirs either, that it’s all about who dunked on whom.

    Their job is what their bosses tell them it is.

    Just like everywhere else in the world. Now it may be the job they like – or not, it’s still the one they get paid to do. If you aren’t the boss it is extremely unusual that you don’t get told what to do and very often how to do it. It has been that way everywhere I’ve worked. Even when I owned the business and was the boss. I was the one who’s name was on the door and the one that signed the checks and the one the customers complained to or thanked for the great job – here’s another. My livelihood depended upon my employees doing their jobs, just like their livelihoods depended on me doing mine. That’s why it’s call a job, not happy good time fun.

  147. 147.

    Anyway

    How long before it becomes Received Truth that Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, that Praire Home Companion host etc were all “cancelled” by the woke mob?

  150. 150.

    JoyceH

    You know what? I’m starting to think I’m willing to go to the mattresses on ‘woke’. The right did the same thing a generation ago to ‘politically correct’, took a term that the left used as a positive and turned it into a slur. I didn’t mind so much then, because ‘politically correct’ always had a rather smug and judgy tone to it. But ‘woke’ is a short and simple way to say ‘compassionate and inclusive, and understanding that our society hasn’t always lived up to its own ideals in compassion and inclusion’, and dammit, that’s a GOOD thing! I’m not going to let them slurrify ‘woke’! I’m woke! Probably everyone here is woke! We’re the Woke Mob!

  151. 151.

    Suzanne

    @Kay:

    And, of course, a lot of anti wokism is just middle aged and late middle aged former “cutting edge” people getting mad at younger people for… existing and supplanting them as cultural markers. 

    Hell, this is a lot of the white working class revolt, too… the sense that your life is not aspirational, that other ways of living are equally or more esteemed.

    None of this resentment is really measurable nor is it really actionable, but it is there, and it is potent.

  152. 152.

    dww44

    @JoyceH:  I’m with you.  So how do we go about making this a reality for the country. Turning it into altogether positive good.

  153. 153.

    Suzanne

    @Ruckus ??:

    My livelihood depended upon my employees doing their jobs, just like their livelihoods depended on me doing mine. That’s why it’s call a job, not happy good time fun. 

    SuzEx used to say, “It’s work, not blowjobs and chocolate chip cookies”. And “if it was fun, they’d call it ‘orgasm'”.

  154. 154.

    zhena gogolia

    @JoyceH: I would never use “politically correct” because it was Stalin’s term. I never use “woke” because I think of it as belonging to the Black community. But you are right about what the definition of “woke” really is.

  155. 155.

    Dopey-o

    @Ruckus ??:

    I guess they don’t think it’s theirs either, that it’s all about who dunked on whom.

    Their job is what their bosses tell them it is.

    “I’m not always right, but I’m always the boss.” A former boss whom i greatly miss.

  156. 156.

    JoyceH

    @dww44: Every time someone uses the term ‘woke’ negatively, stop them and ask, “What do you have against compassion and inclusion?”

  157. 157.

    JoyceH

    @zhena gogolia: ​
     

    I hadn’t known that ‘woke’ was originally a term from the black community, but the time I really saw it in use, maybe the first time I noticed the term, was during those huge demonstrations after the George Floyd killing, and how multi-racial and multi-generational they were. It was the moment when thousands, maybe millions, of white people suddenly said, “Hey, when the black folks have been saying all this time that the police treat them differently than they do us – turns out they’re right!”

  158. 158.

    SFAW

    @JoyceH:

    Every time someone uses the term ‘woke’ negatively, stop them and ask, “What do you have against compassion and inclusion?”

    You’re too nice. I would ask something along the lines of “Why do you think it’s OK to shit on groups that historically or currently get treated as second-class citizens? Is it because you just don’t like the color of their skin? Or their sex? No? Then what IS it that makes you think being an asshole to those people is a good thing?”

    Or words to that effect.

  159. 159.

    Geminid

    @Dopey-o: The Harrisonburg, Virginia radio station I like to listen to has a small town, rural flavor and they sometimes serve up corny aphorisms. One was:

         When you are having a conflict with your boss, you should think of both sides: the boss’s side, and the outside.

  160. 160.

    PST

    @Betsy:

    How did our President vivisect Paul Ryan, as referenced in the Charlie Pierce tweet?

    I think that’s about the only thing I could take joy in any more.

    Me too. Unless, of course, it was merely verbal.

  161. 161.

    Martin

    @Ruckus ??:  Their job is what their bosses tell them it is.

    Guaranteed any of these folks writing books think of the WH press corps as their second job. Sitting in the briefing room is the ticket to the thing that actually pays the bills.

    Not sure how you solve that one.

  162. 162.

    lowtechcyclist

    @James E Powell: Has anyone every gone broke – or lost an election – by agitating white people’s anxieties about non-whites?

    Guy named Mahoney, running for governor of Maryland in 1966, came to mind. He was against fair housing laws, “Your home is your castle – protect it” was his slogan.

    Bonus points if you remember or can guess the name of the not-exactly-enlightened guy he lost to.

  165. 165.

    lowtechcyclist

    @zhena gogolia: ​
     

    I would never use “politically correct” because it was Stalin’s term.

    I would use it about Republicans. It applies far better to them than to anyone else. There’s a reason why ‘Dems in disarray’ is a thing, we’re a fractious lot and disagree with each other all the time. But their side tolerates next to no disagreement on anything.

  168. 168.

    zhena gogolia

    @sab: Did you seriously think I was criticizing the Ukrainians on that thread? Seriously?

  171. 171.

    Ruckus ??

    @Martin:

    I don’t think it can be solved.

    We all take what we learn on one job to the next one. It may be positive, it may be negative. We call it experience, they call it a ticket to a fuller bank account. Or opening their own business – which often isn’t the same thing.

    If we are real lucky we get a good job that the boss listens to us when we are right and rewards us for that.

  172. 172.

    James E Powell

    @Geminid:

    I forgot about that one. Webb was no picnic, but we dodged a bullet there. Wasn’t George Allen one of Tweety’s big man crushes?

  179. 179.

    NutmegAgain

    @sab: I feel that.  I have a sister who wants (and hoards) all the *stuff*. But will dispose of things if she feels like it, without checking around if somebody else in the family might want… it’s bizarre and aggravating entitlement

  180. 180.

    evodevo

    @opiejeanne: Yes. This. That’s all I hear from the wingers I interact with…”whut about all those cities BLM burned down!!11!!” – when you dare to rebut them with the fact that it didn’t happen, that all there was, was a dumpster fire, they change the subject and start talking about the immigrant crisis or trans kids in schools.  Their brains are full to the brim with this crap, and that’s the way they want it…

  181. 181.

    Subsole

    @Kay:

    Deadthread probably, but their use of “woke” makes sense if you read it as “race-traitor”. Which is what they are actually saying.

    “This person is a self-hating white – by which we mean they have a conscience and therefore cannot be trusted to mainatin the omerta that keeps us in privilege. We hereby revoke their Whiteness. You are free to ignore them. And all of their hysterical screeching about some church full of blacks getting firebombed. Allegedly.”

    That’s it. That’s why the deathgrip on that word.

  182. 182.

    Geminid

    @James E Powell: I’ve always thought that if George Allen had been reelected Senator he would have beaten out John McCain for the 2008 Presidential nomination. I think Barack Obama would have beaten Allen, but it would have been a nasty campaign. Allen was a bully and Republicans would have responded to him better than they did to McCain.

    Allen lost to Webb in 2006 by less than 9,000 votes. Allen’s bullying nature was his undoing. His “Macaca moment” occurred in Southwest Virginia in front of a white audience. He called the videographer the slur, then asked the crowd to “welcome Macaca to America.”

    Ironically, Mr. Sidarth had been born and raised in Fairfax County, and Allen was college age when his father moved to Virginia to manage Washington’s football team. Allen glommed right onto the state’s  worse traditions though, and was already trying to live down his notorious display of the Confederate flag while in collge when he stepped in it at the campaign rally.

  184. 184.

    Subsole

    @Kay: But Matty Y got some sweet numbers out of it.

    Which pretty much guarantees the brilliant dumbass is going to keep falling for it.

  185. 185.

    Subsole

    @Kay:

    The antiwokes are basically people who thought Americans were protesting the cold-blooded murder of their fellow citizens by the police for the express purpose of annoying them…

    Just complete and utter South Park brain, basically.

  187. 187.

    columbusqueen

    @sab: Or if you get Two Men & a Truck to grab the chairs, I could store them til you fetch them. How many are there?

  188. 188.

    Another Scott

    @Geminid: Counterfactuals are fun.  But Allen was doomed.  Not least because he was a notorious racist, and open about it. He was also a bald-faced liar, and bad at it.FTFNYT from 2006:

    The first occurred at a campaign appearance where Mr. Allen called a young Democratic operative of Indian descent “macaca” and welcomed him “to America.” Liberals called the term a racist slur derived from the name of a type of monkey. Mr. Allen apologized for any offense and said he had simply made up the word.

    A few weeks later Mr. Allen, who is Presbyterian, grew angry at a reporter’s question about whether his mother had been born Jewish. Mr. Allen later said that after the question came up, his mother told him for the first time that her family was indeed Jewish. His subsequent statements about the matter — attesting that he still ate ham sandwiches, for example — appeared awkward, even to fellow Republicans.

    “His mishandling of a name-calling incident, and his ham-handed denial and subsequent revelation that his mother was raised Jewish, have almost eliminated him from the field of serious presidential candidates and even jeopardized his Senate seat,” Matthew Continetti of the conservative Weekly Standard wrote in the magazine’s current cover story, “George Allen Monkeys Around.”

    “ham-handed” – [ golf clap ]

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  189. 189.

    Geminid

    @Another Scott: Well, if I disagree here with the New York Times it wouldn’t be the first time. Allen lost to Webb by less than 9,000 votes. His Presidential campaign would have been well financed if he had just eked out his reelection.

    Allen would have appealed to the many Republicans who were lukewarm about McCain and Romney but enthusiastic about Trump. I think Obama still would have beaten Allen but the campaign would have been nasty.

  191. 191.

    patrick II

    @JoyceH:

    For those who don’t want to be woke, it seems being asleep is the desirable state.  That has more truth to it than they recognize.

  192. 192.

    No One You Know

    @Caphilldcne: I couldn’t agree more. NPR retreats in good order from any risk of exposing right wing hypocrisy. Tired old- jock mockery of people who study sounds strange from people who went to college, and sometimes grad school, to learn critical thinking.

  193. 193.

    Elizabelle

    @Caphilldcne:

    I think the press corpse dubbed itself “the nerd prom.”

    And they are not nerds.  They are the mean girls and cool kids, who hang out in cliques.  Any actual “nerds” among them probably wouldn’t be caught dead at that dog and pony show.  (No offense to dogs and ponies.)

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