Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

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

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

This blog will pay for itself.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Democrats are back in array!

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

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

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

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

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

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

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Poetry

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Poetry

by | 227 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

And from our own commentor Phdesmond:
 


Elsewhere:

Reader Interactions

227Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    No wonder they thought the 10 year old rape victim was fake.  It’s what they would do.

  4. 4.

    Splitting Image

    @Mimi: 

    I’m surprised the guy spelled ‘Biden’ correctly.

    Well, he had to try and make it look convincing.

  5. 5.

    EarthWindFire

    @Mimi: Me too. Remember the McCain campaign kid who carved the B on her face backwards to fake an “Obama’s thugs” attack? Backwards because she did it using a mirror. Should have taken that as the foreshadowing it was.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    @EarthWindFire:

    I was just about to post the exact same comment.

    ETA: glad I read the comments first.

    ETA2: that woman was MAGA before MAGA was (not) cool.

  8. 8.

    lowtechcyclist

    Phdesmond: that is really, really good.  So much in just those three graceful lines.

  10. 10.

    lowtechcyclist

    @SiubhanDuinne:  Indeed. It’s impossible to imagine his immediate predecessor doing that.  Biden is a really good person, as well as being a very good President.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    To be fair, not every president can stand up again after kneeling down.  Taft, for example, would have had difficulty because of his girth.  There may have been one or two others who were similarly weak.

  12. 12.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    FDR, because of his polio-withered legs. JFK because of his bad back. TFG because of being TFG.

  14. 14.

    David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch

    @Baud: Dead give away: the graffiti has an A for anarchist symbol and they aren’t voting anyone, let alone a Dem.

  15. 15.

    germy shoemangler

    Biden has a very high EQ, something I think he has in common with Obama.

    Emotional intelligence (otherwise known as emotional quotient or EQ) is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.

  26. 26.

    raven

    @Baud:

    Suzanne
    JULY 2, 2022 AT 9:21 PM

    “Girth” is one of those words that is just inexplicably, irrationally disgusting.

    “Moist” is the worst, but “girth” is also pretty fucken gross.

     

    And, as today is the 10th Anniversary of my 130 lb Yellowfin catch on Maui if couldn’t help but post

    Fish are sometimes damaged when weighed. Using the appropriate formula for your species below, you can quickly calculate the “approximate” weight of your fish by using a ruler. You may also wish to download our trophy converter [PDF] in which we’ve done the math for you.

    Please note when using the formulas:

    • length and girth are measured in inches,
    • girth is the distance around the body of the fish at its largest point, and
    • all answers are in pounds
  27. 27.

    Baud

    @raven:

     I can’t remember the participants but someone was horrified

     

    That’s a rotating tag if ever there was one.

  28. 28.

    Ken

    @Baud: As in post-trip headlines reading “Biden fails to achieve eternal peace in Middle East”? (Which have already been written pre-trip, and are just waiting for the event, and for the pundits to explain how easy this should have been.)

  33. 33.

    JCJ

    @Ken: yeah, if he had only brought along Jared!  He was so close to solving all of the conflicts in the Middle East!

  35. 35.

    debbie

    This seems particularly timely. World in a bandbasket, so to speak. Anyone got a reading list?

  39. 39.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: Can’t wait.

    Biden is one of the most decent presidents we’ve ever had.

    But he’s old. //

  43. 43.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: I KNOW. I lived through the Carter administration, and his decency (and his prescience about the environment) were ridiculed.

  55. 55.

    Ken

    @zhena gogolia: I was going to say “always the wrong time”. On reflection, I’m sure the right answer is either “never” or “always”. Maybe we should have a poll.

  56. 56.

    mrmoshpotato

    @rikyrah:

    He is a good and decent human being. The contrast in basic humanity between him and Dolt45 is the size of the Grand Canyon 

    One side of that canyon doesn’t exist.

  63. 63.

    SFAW

    Since this AM’s semi-topic is geography-related poetry, here’s my contribution:

    The Bronx?
    No thonx!

    [Side note to SubaruDianne: Shhh!]

  71. 71.

    Nicole

    Any time the anarchy symbol (or the vague approximation above) is used, you know it’s a right-winger pretending the graffiti was done by someone on the left.   Like, these people are just dumb.  Anarchists and Joe Biden voters are two separate circles on the Venn Diagram.  You’d think at some point one of them would catch on and do a better job with their fake vandalism, but as they get their impressions of Teh Left entirely from Fox and OANN, it’s not likely.

  74. 74.

    Ken

    @Scout211: I think most of my comments here are under 280 characters. For the longer ones, I suspect everyone stops reading well before hitting that point.

  75. 75.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    You mean we’re saved?

    Off-topic, but:

    This AM I received an e-mail, wherein the author, “Dr. Robert Jeffress,” claims that “America was founded as a Christian nation…here’s proof.” He went on to spout some usual false/BS talking points.

    Because I’m an asshole*, I decided to reply:

    “Thou shalt not bear false witness” is the main point of the Ninth Commandment. 
    But I guess since God gave those Commandments to Moses — that Jewish guy — you feel it’s OK to lie? Because that’s what you’re doing. “Founded as a Christian nation”? You should be ashamed of yourself, since you (presumably) call yourself a “Christian.” Or did Jesus say “sure, it’s OK to lie, as long as you’re lying to political factions you hate”?

    You liars make me sick. But you know who LOVES you for your lying? Satan.

    As a lifelong, devout atheist — someone who the RWMFs would love to do away with, as they do with Blacks, browns, LGBTQ, and other “out” group — I was more than happy to “contribute” to their political discourse.

    * Not news to you and Omnes, of course, but others might not yet know.

  76. 76.

    mrmoshpotato

    OT – DC League of Super-Pets?  (Just saw a trailer)

    Who is this psycho orange kitten?

  79. 79.

    Immanentize

    Re: Poetry

    Have I mentioned that when the Immp was post-op in the hospital and suffering from his horrible infection, I decided to read Longfellow to him. Specifically, The Song of Hiawatha. A sample (for Raven)–

    Forth upon the Gitche Gumee,
    On the shining Big-Sea-Water,
    With his fishing-line of cedar,
    Of the twisted bark of cedar,
    Forth to catch the sturgeon Nahma,
    Mishe-Nahma, King of Fishes,
    In his birch canoe exulting
    All alone went Hiawatha.

    There is current controversy about the epic poem (appropriation) and controversy when it was first published (humanized a people we want to exterminate). But to the two of us in a hospital room, with my son in tachycardia with hbr over 135 per, it was a soothing trip in a complicated rythmic meter that reduced his heart beats by at least 10/min.

    I recommend it!

  80. 80.

    SFAW

    @Baud: ​
     

    Thanks. I’ll try to remember to use fatass in the future.

    I use mine every day.
    Well, maybe not “use”; more like “sit on.”

  85. 85.

    Nicole

    @SFAW:

    “Girth” in the same category as “moist”? WTF? Buncha commies.

    I had a roommate who could not, COULD NOT, stand the sound of the word, “canasta.”  Fortunately, as none of us living together at the time were 1950s housewives, there wasn’t a lot of need to use the word in her presence.

  86. 86.

    phdesmond

    @Baud:

    now i’m definitely voting for you!   and i hope you’re planning to appoint @Anne Laurie to some high post?

    @lowtechcyclist:

    thank you so much!  it came out like an epigram.

  88. 88.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    Rhyming cedar with cedar is cheating.

    That was Longfellow’s fall-back; he originally wrote

    With his fishing line of orange

  89. 89.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I missed last nights Entitled Punks thread. I get into that argument* at least twice a year. I always look it up on the BLS website. This last year I saw one category broken out I hadn’t seen before: Crossing guards. Guess what?

    Being a crossing guard is more dangerous than being a cop.

  90. 90.

    Sure Lurkalot

     

    Why doesn’t Fucker just move to Russia?

    @Acyn

    Tucker: Is Vladimir Putin more communist than Sandy Cortez? Is Putin throwing Americans in jail for attending political rallies at the Capitol? Is he trying to confiscate the rifles from your bedroom?

  91. 91.

    Immanentize

    @SFAW:

    It was a scorching, humid day and the subway was filled with people trying not to breath in the stench. Sweating, Rikuu pressed his moist girth into the short woman holding the pole. Rikuu belched.

    See? It can be made awful

  93. 93.

    SFAW

    @phdesmond:

    By the way: I apologize for seeming to make light of your poem; I did like it. But for some bizarre reason, I glommed onto the Florida “focus,” and Ogden Nash popped into my head.

  95. 95.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: Repetition is a very big part of the soothing nature of the poem. That and the trochaic tetrameter.

  96. 96.

    Betty Cracker

    I made the mistake of reading the letters to the editor section of our local newspaper this morning, and now I’m desperately hoping that it really is just the cranks who write in and that the sentiments shared aren’t representative of the community. (Sadly, I know better.)

    One woman writes in to share that the fall of Roe is really a great opportunity for women! She says women should carry a contract around with them and make men sign it before they have sex so there’s an understanding about child support, etc. I’m sure that’ll work and that the teen pregnancy rate here will plummet. In her world, just as in the abortion restrictions bill the governor recently signed, there’s no such thing as rape and incest.

    A man writes in to rebut a letter published earlier from citizen who urged the county to ban fireworks:

    If we ban a lot for what these veterans fought for such as fireworks, freedom of speech, the right to bear arms if necessary, America would not be a free democracy and these veterans would go off to a Third World country fighting for a democracy which would not be here.

    I have a feeling the pregnant teens who work the Dunkin Donuts drive-thru hear from this guy a lot.

  101. 101.

    SFAW

    @Immanentize: ​
     
    It’s apparent that the “author” of that masterpiece either has the same literary skills as Dan Brown*, or was trying for the Bulwer-Lytton Prize.

    By the way: I’m really happy to hear that Immp is OK. My “attendance” here has been spotty, so I didn’t know (until now) how he was/is doing.

    *He has some interesting plots, but he’s a shitty writer (in my opinion).

  105. 105.

    Immanentize

    @SFAW: Well, as you guessed, I just whipped that up in an instant. But comparison to Dan Brown still feels insulting :-)

  106. 106.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     

    I made the mistake of reading the letters to the editor section of our local newspaper this morning,

    Do we need to send someone to your place, for a wellness check?

  108. 108.

    SFAW

    @Immanentize: ​
     
    Humblest apologies; I thought you were quoting someone else.
    I would never knowingly make a comparison like that, regarding you.

  109. 109.

    Baud

    @Leto:

    She says that the whole basis for Missouri putting the pause on a divorce proceeding until a child is born is because Missouri divorce law “does not see fetuses as humans.”

     
    That’s rich.

  110. 110.

    Betty Cracker

    @Immanentize: Weird how that works with “adult” children (scare quotes on mine; I don’t presume to apply them to yours). One can crave their presence and long for an empty nest at the same time. I think family compounds are a great idea. ;-)

  111. 111.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Betty Cracker:

    If we ban a lot for what these veterans fought for such as fireworks, freedom of speech, the right to bear arms if necessary 

    Who can forget the amendment protecting our rights to bottle rockets, Saturn missiles, etc?

  112. 112.

    Immanentize

    @O. Felix Culpa: It seems one literary critic (in the NYTimes IIRC) SAVAGED the meter because, he reported, everyone in society was talking in that form. Ha! Now that is a pop culture work that had reach!*

    My Grandmother (b 1891) had a beautiful small book of the poem with a patterned cloth cover. I have it now, but the G kids got ahold of it at sometime — crayons on some pages and one page ripped out. SAD.

    (*Why yes, I have read too much about the poem, why do you ask?)

  114. 114.

    SFAW

    @mrmoshpotato: ​
     

    Of the twisted bark of sporange.

    Nice try, but that word is actually pronounced spo-RAHN-geh
    As SubaruDianne and phdesmond could tell you.

  115. 115.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    They’re doxxing, threatening and endangering the doctor who aborted a 10 year old’s rapist’s spawn. They really think forcing a rape victim to carry a child to term is a winning issue? 

    Well, when you don’t see women and girls as people…

  116. 116.

    Leto

    @Baud: Oh yeah, saw that and had a sad chuckle. They can’t pick which lane they want to oppress from, so they’re just riding in the middle fucking everyone over.

  118. 118.

    Montanareddog

    Tony Jay bait – Revealed: Queen’s sweeping immunity from more than 160 laws

    The shocking not surprising part :

    The most controversial exemptions ban the Queen’s employees from pursuing sexual and racial discrimination complaints. Even the most modern piece of anti-discrimination law, the Equality Act 2010, is designed not to protect those employed by the Queen.

    Other laws contain carve-outs exempting the Queen as a private employer from having to observe various workers’ rights, health and safety, or pensions laws. She is fully or partly exempt from at least four different laws on workers’ pensions, and is not required to comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

    The practice of preventing the Queen’s employees from bringing discrimination claims against her household dates back to the late 1960s, when courtiers told ministers that “it was not, in fact, the practice to appoint coloured immigrants or foreigners” to clerical roles in the royal household.

    Perhaps out of concern that such exemptions might be controversial or unacceptable to the British public, the Queen’s immunity from anti-discrimination law has typically been opaquely drafted.

    While other clauses bluntly state that the law “does not affect Her Majesty in her private capacity” or does not apply to her private estates, her exemption from the Equality Act 2010 is apparent only through a one-line statement in an accompanying explanatory document.

    This discreet approach can be seen in laws dating back to the 1970s, when the Queen was exempted from legislation including the Sex Discrimination Act 1975. At the time, a Whitehall mandarin described in a letter to Martin Charteris, the Queen’s then private secretary, how the phrasing of one exemption had “the substantial merit that it does not draw attention to the position of the sovereign”.

  120. 120.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: please tell me it is. Yesterday’s trending was Biden OMG shaking hands with the Israelis by mistake instead of fist bumping and what was he going to do with MBS? Would a fist bump be offensive to MBS? Jeezus. Maybe Biden should kiss him like Dubbya kissed the Saudi king.

  122. 122.

    Joe Falco

    Biden knows how to charm his way in Israel. I heard on the radio earlier Biden was making the usual US speech to the Israelis: Special relationship with Israel, must prevent Iran from making a nuclear bomb, etc.

    I’m more interested in his upcoming visit to the Saudis. I wish Biden could tell Crown Prince Bonesaw that the US will not forget nor forgive MBS for having Khashoggi murdered. At best, I hope Biden can hold the Saudis’ feet to the fire about purchasing stolen Ukrainian wheat from Russia.

  123. 123.

    sdhays

    @Betty Cracker: In her world, just as in the abortion restrictions bill the governor recently signed, there’s no such thing as rape and incest.

    Well, Greg Abbott said that he’s going to end rape in Texass now that they’ve banned those pesky abortions, so once he shows the way, I’m sure DeSantis will follow.

    It’s too bad Abbott’s been distracted by Uvalde. I assume that’s why he and the Texass legislature haven’t gotten around to ending rape just yet.

  124. 124.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker: Too true.

    And probably all adults remain somewhat children forever to their parents. The Immp is definitely in that category to me. Plus, paying for his college….

  125. 125.

    Betty Cracker

    @mrmoshpotato: Right? When I first moved back to the ancestral county and subscribed to its thoroughly wretched paper of record, I’d write in to rebut some of the more egregious nonsense. But it was a full-time job, and I already have one of those.

  129. 129.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     

    But it was a full-time job, and I already have one of those.

    I didn’t realize taking care of Badger and not-Badger took so much time.

  131. 131.

    mrmoshpotato

    @SFAW:

    Nice try, but that word is actually pronounced spo-RAHN-geh 

    As SubaruDianne and phdesmond could tell you.

    Can’t a guy have breakfast before you destroy his life’s foundation?

  132. 132.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: It’s hard getting used to that empty seat in the car, but it is inevitable. My eldest calls me 2 or 3 times a week. The youngest, once a week if I’m lucky. Sometimes he’ll go 3 or 4 weeks. By then, I’ll call him.

    In a couple weeks my eldest and I are gonna spend 4 or 5 days on a river, just him and me, maybe his eldest daughter too. We were hoping his brother could make it up for the float but, not to be. His job is in the summer doldrums and he can’t afford to miss any shifts.

    C’est la vie.

  135. 135.

    Weapon X

    @Nicole:

    There’s a Bugs Bunny cartoon with a character named Nasty Canasta. You should have played that on a loop (with peace and love, of course).

  136. 136.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Btw, if you’re looking for something funny to watch, Mr DAW and I have been watching Derry Girls on Netflix. It’s hard to imagine comedy in the middle of the Troubles, but there it is. We have to have the captioning on though. We can’t understand the accents

  137. 137.

    mrmoshpotato

    @eclare:

    Twitter was down for me about thirty minutes ago. Just checked, back up. 

    And all is not well in the world again.

  138. 138.

    Betty Cracker

    Speaking of TV shows, I appreciate the earlier recs for The Afterparty on Apple TV. Enjoying it so far!

  141. 141.

    SFAW

    @mrmoshpotato: ​
     

    Can’t a guy have breakfast before you destroy his life’s foundation?

    Where TF do you live? Most of us have been up for HOURS.

  142. 142.

    eclare

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:   Have you watched Abbott Elementary?  I hesitated, because network, but it is very funny and charming.  It received, I think, seven Emmy nominations, well deserved.  Streaming on Hulu now, originally shown on ABC

    And yeah, I’ve given up on some shows because of British/Scottish/Irish accents.  My ears just do not work that way!

  145. 145.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: No //, exactly. People get behind the wheel and become the biggest assholes in the world. “How dare you interfere with me and my life.” Road rage expresses itself in many ways.

  146. 146.

    sab

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: You should keep an eye out for Abbott Elementary. It’s funny and sweet. Young idealistic Black teacher in an inner city school learning the ropes from her more jaded elders. And the children are delightful.

  148. 148.

    eclare

    @OzarkHillbilly:   I don’t doubt that statistic for crossing guards at all.  I read in our paper that according to some survey, Memphis ranks third in the nation for pedestrian deaths.

  149. 149.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: I doubt it. He just did his annual birthday float there. He’s been talking up the Eleven Point while leaving open the possibility of something closer. I love the 11 Point but we never floated it all that much because it’s almost a 5 hr drive.

  150. 150.

    oatler

    It’s 2022 and Thomas Pynchon’s “sado-anarchism” has been lying fallow since 1973. Now there’s some sod that needs bustin’!

  151. 151.

    Kay

    ErikWemple
    @ErikWemple
    16h
    Fitting that perhaps the biggest abortion story since the SCOTUS overturning of Roe v. Wade stems from regional/local newspapers, because that’s where the reporting on this issue will be playing out for months and years. A brand-new test for a hollowed-out American media sector.

    But why was the national reporting of the story so bad though? The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post have lavish resources- why would they try to discredit the local reporting rather than doing the work themselves?

    If all the post-Roe stories are going to be local (and probably ignored) then the least national media could do is not jump in and do a lousy, sloppy job. Just don’t cover post-Roe at all if you’re going to churn out Right wing garbage.

    No one at the WSJ or the Washington Post knows that Job and Family Services actions are not criminal investigations and only become criminal investigations after a referral to a prosecutor? Couldn’t they have asked someone in Ohio how the basic child abuse system works?

  152. 152.

    sab

    It is impossible for a pregnant ten year old to be lying about rape. Age of consent and all that. If she is ten and pregnant then she was indeed raped.

    What is wrong with these people?!

  154. 154.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Immanentize:

    Also in trochaic tetrameter, here’s some Finnish fishin’ from the Kalevala:

    Wainamoinen, wise and ancient,
    With the aid of Ilmarinen,
    Weaves with skill a mighty fish-net
    From the juniper and sea-grass;
    Dyes the net with alder-water,
    Ties it well with thongs of willow.
    Straightway ancient Wainamoinen
    Called the maidens to the fish-net,
    And the sisters came as bidden.
    With the netting rowed they onward,
    Rowed they to the hundred islands,
    To the grottoes of the salmon,
    To the caverns of the whiting,
    To the reeds of sable color,
    Where the gray-pike rests and watches.
    On they hasten to the fishing,
    Drag the net in all directions,
    Drag it lengthwise, sidewise, crosswise,
    And diagonally zigzag;
    But they did not catch the Fire-fish.
    Then the brothers went a-fishing,
    Dragged the net in all directions,
    Backwards, forwards, lengthwise, sidewise,
    Through the homes of ocean-dwellers,
    Through the grottoes of the salmon,
    Through the dwellings of the whiting,
    Through the reed-beds of the lake-trout,
    Where the gray-pike lies in ambush;
    But the fated Fire-fish came not,
    Came not from the lake’s abysses,
    Came not from the Alue-waters.
    Little fish could not be captured
    In the large nets of the masters;
    Murmured then the deep-sea-dwellers,
    Spake the salmon to the lake-trout,
    And the lake-trout to the whiting,
    And the whiting to the gray-pike:
    Have the heroes of Wainola
    Died, or have they all departed
    From these fertile shores and waters?
    Where then are the ancient weavers,
    Weavers of the nets of flax-thread,
    Those that frighten us with fish-poles,
    Drag us from our homes unwilling?”
    Hearing this wise Wainamoinen
    Answered thus the deep-sea-dwellers:
    “Neither have Wainola’s heroes
    Died, nor have they all departed
    From these fertile shores and waters,
    Two are born where one has perished;
    Longer poles and finer fish-nets
    Have the sons of Kalevala!”

    I may be mistaken, but I have a faint memory that Longfellow deliberately modelled The Song of Hiawatha on the Finnish epic.

  158. 158.

    sab

    @Kay: I would have hoped that Yost our Ohio Attorney General would understand how the Ohio child abuse system works. Seems like he is showing a lack of basic competence for his job.

    DeWine, also a former AG,  didn’t make the mistake of denying the whole story as Yost did. He merely ignored the trauma to the pregnant child.

  160. 160.

    Geminid

    @sab: The thoughtful Magdi Semrau has a good twitter series analysing Glenn Kessler’s “fact checking” of this story, @magi_jay.

  162. 162.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I watched it play out in amazement. They know nothing about this story. These child abuse stories are complicated because of the two interlocking civil/criminal systems and privacy protections for minors.

    They did absolutely no work on it. Yet these national newspapers are out declaring it a fraud.

    This is the cheap junk national coverage we’re going to get post-Roe. The events will either be ignored or they’ll churn out sloppy Right wing garbage. They don’t care enough about it to put any resources toward it.

  164. 164.

    WaterGirl

    @Gin & Tonic: I imagine that having them fly off it tougher after the year they just had than it would ordinarily be.

    edit: I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.

  165. 165.

    Kristine

    @Baud:

    It’s a little ironic that there’s all this newfound respect for Jimmy Carter, but. Biden is being taken for granted.

    Don’t it always seem to go
    That you don’t know what you got till it’s gone

  167. 167.

    Scout211

    @Kay: The right wing media will likely not change anytime soon but the MSM had better learn a different way to write these stories. I posted this commentary yesterday and AL front paged it. It is worth a read. Unimaginable abortion stories will become more common. Is American journalism ready?

    The mostly right wing media was insisting that a “one source” news story was bad journalism and therefore not factual (ignoring privacy, age, victim of crime, etc.) That was laughable because when does the right wing media need more than “some people are saying” or breathlessly repeating the words of an unnamed “source?”

    The right wing disinformation network will likely not change, it works too well for them. But the mainstream media had better change how they report these abortion stories from the states that have banned them. These stories must be told. And told well.

  169. 169.

    Steeplejack

    Good thread (with informed comments from others) about the fiasco surrounding the 10-year-old rape victim. Hat tip to Kay, who predicted that these abortion laws were not thought out at all and are leading to chaos.

    Has anyone seen a citation to a specific section of Ohio law on which the Right is relying to assert that it would have been legal to perform an abortion on a 10-year-old?

    I’m not seeing it.

    — ImpressionableChildHat (@Popehat) July 14, 2022

  171. 171.

    Betty Cracker

    This is from a Reason hack who jumped all over the Ohio story, but it’s typical of the genre:


    “How is this being ratioed?” she asks. My gawd. Just shut the fuck up and review every goddamn life choice that led you to this moment, Ms. Wolfe.

  172. 172.

    Scout211

    CNN  has more information about the staffer who was contacted by a trump.

    (CNN)Former President Donald Trump tried to call a member of the White House support staff who was talking to the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.
    The support staffer was not someone who routinely communicated with the former President and was concerned about the contact, according to the sources, and informed their attorney.

    Rep. Pete Aguilar, a California Democrat who serves on the committee, told CNN on Tuesday that the individual Trump tried to call has been speaking with the panel.

    “Trump himself had called someone who has been talking with us,” Aguilar said.

    A source familiar with the panel’s investigation added that the committee has spoken to the person Trump tried to call, but not as part of a deposition.

  174. 174.

    frosty

    @Immanentize: “I will miss him something awful while enjoying my solitude.”

    Our youngest has just received his AA degree after several years and will be moving out this fall to finish a BA. This describes exactly how we feel about it

  175. 175.

    Super Dave

    It’s always projection. That’s why they believe all the false flag bullshit. They’re false flag masters.

  177. 177.

    schrodingers_cat

    @zhena gogolia: So is Nancy Pelosi, boomer. //

    (channeling “progressives” who yearn for young blood in the form of the 80 year old Vt senator who is an outsider despite being in the Congress since before I came to the US)

    How did I do?

  178. 178.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Scout211: The mostly right wing media was insisting that a “one source” news story was bad journalism

    I just started a writing course and this very story was brought up, and the fact that it was “one source”. The reasons why a journalism teacher would teach this are at heart good ones. We all know the stories that WERE made up and had to be retracted. You want to make sure your story is not one of those. There has to be some attempt to make sure you’re talking about real facts so you don’t get burned as Dan Rather by George W’s campaign back in the day.

    The WaPo story the teacher linked to implied that no single aspect of this story could be confirmed. No doctor who had performed such a procedure, no record they could find of law enforcement dealing with such a case, etc.

    Best case scenario is that the original reported had made an attempt at due diligence and verified enough facts to go with the story. I don’t know where the original was published, it was already viral by the time I heard the story. But enough was being kept secret (for good and valid privacy reasons, the alternative would be to open up everybody to the snarling right-wing mob) that it sounds like other reporters weren’t able to do a normal amount of due diligence.

    Or maybe they were, and it was the WaPo distorting that process. I don’t know.

    But I do know we still need a mechanism to make sure that the horrifying realities we’re about to see reported in anti-abortion states are in fact verifiable reality.

  179. 179.

    Betty Cracker

    @Scout211: I bet Trump personally engaged in witness tampering not to squirm off the hook for one of the many serious crimes in which he’s implicated but instead something dumb and relatively inconsequential, like the plate-throwing story or the tantrum in the limo. He rightly perceives that it makes him look like a weak and petulant baby.

  182. 182.

    Scout211

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    The story broke first in the IndyStar on July 1st.

    On Monday three days after the Supreme Court issued its groundbreaking decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, took a call from a colleague, a child abuse doctor in Ohio.
    Hours after the Supreme Court action, the Buckeye state had outlawed any abortion after six weeks. Now this doctor had a 10-year-old patient in the office who was six weeks and three days pregnant.
    Could Bernard help?
    Indiana lawmakers are poised to further restrict or ban abortion in mere weeks. The Indiana General Assembly will convene in a special session July 25 when it will discuss restrictions to abortion policy along with inflation relief
    But for now, the procedure still is legal here. And so the girl soon was on her way to Indiana to Bernard’s care.

  183. 183.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Scout211: Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, took a call from a colleague, a child abuse doctor in Ohio.

    That alone certainly looks like enough for other reporters to be able to make a phone call and verify.

    So the WaPo “it can’t be verified” story is… odd. I guess Elizabelle at #181 has the explanation.

  184. 184.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Part of the problem is that by passing sufficiently draconian laws, they can MAKE most of these stories one-source stories by making any information a knowledgeable person could provide about the case self-incriminating. The reporters could make as many calls as they want but who would talk to them? They’d be risking prison.

  187. 187.

    Amir Khalid

    Here in Malaysia, the Cabinet has approved draft legislation to ban the sale of tobacco products to anyone born in 2005 (this age cohort turns 18 next year) or later. It’s undeniably well-intentioned, but I’m not entirely sure how they’re going to enforce it.

  189. 189.

    Immanentize

    @SiubhanDuinne: You are correct!

    Some say Longfellow stole from the Finnish poem. He admits he read it, but it is clear most of his source material came from a rather then-famous ethno sociologist, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, who Longfellow knew. Or so I’ve read. It is amazing to me how many knives were out for Longfellow when this came out. A lot of jealousy, no doubt, but some real fervent scholarly detractors too. Not that the two are mutually exclusive….

    ETA can you imagine translating from Finnish to English to keep the meter?!

  192. 192.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Apparently the national media role will be as professional critics of local reporting, post- Roe.

    It’s not important enough to cover as news.

    They still don’t know shit, BTW. The vast majority of child abuse perpetrators are relatives of the victim, so their whole new sloppy, careless narrative about the “illegal alien” stranger rapist is probably also wrong or they have fucked it up or twisted it somehow.

    But who cares? It’s just girls and women.

  193. 193.

    Immanentize

    My favorite response to all the hair on fire journalism about “one source reporting”

    Just wait until they hear about reporting on police actions.

  194. 194.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    In light of how the “one source” story evolved, I think next week’s writing class is going to be very lively.

    It’s a course in feature writing. My particular interest is in science writing so not so much on news or political stories, but the teacher considers that she’s teaching us journalism and keeps returning to that word. Other people in the course are very much hoping to be journalists of one flavor or another.

    So this story, how it was verified or not, @Matt McIrvin’s point about how future stories by necessity will be one-source, all are right in line with the course.

    Going to be an interesting class.

  195. 195.

    Immanentize

    Here is that excellent Magdi Semrau thread mentioned above on fact checking and sexual assault:

    My initial reaction to this piece was that it was "ok" to fact-check the story, but that the article was poorly executed, particularly in its exclusion of known facts about sexual assault. But then I wondered: how common is it to fact-check another newspaper's work like this? https://t.co/w7GNOGKgv1— Magdi Semrau (@magi_jay) July 14, 2022

  197. 197.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    Theyre doing it because they don’t want these stories reported.

    Theyre hoping to shut down any real coverage of the post – Roe country and how it affects women and girls.

    The girls and women will just quietly disappear from the national narrative.

  199. 199.

    Captain C

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    They really think forcing a rape victim to carry a child to term is a winning issue?

    To the hard core, it allows them to show that they are so moral that they’re happy to make someone else suffer horribly for their beliefs.

    To the cynical, it gets support (especially financial) from the hard core.

    For both, it gives them an acceptable* way to indulge their sadism.

    *=Acceptable to those inside their bubble.  Either they don’t give a fuck about how horrible they seem, or that’s a feature.

  200. 200.

    Paul in KY

    @Nicole: I will say that I think ‘anarchists’ are even stupider than Libertarians. I hate them about as much as I hate the various right wing douchewads.

     

    If we ever achieved true ‘Anarchy’, they’d be the first ones killed for sport.

  201. 201.

    pat

    I’ve been reading the comments and can’t help thinking about this:

    How is a 10 year old girl even big enough to carry a fetus to term?

    These people are psychopaths.

  204. 204.

    Captain C

    @sab:

    It is impossible for a pregnant ten year old to be lying about rape. Age of consent and all that. If she is ten and pregnant then she was indeed raped.

    What is wrong with these people?!

    I suspect in some cases that is a rock we may not really want to turn over, one better left to the proper legal authorities.

  206. 206.

    Paul in KY

    @Nicole: For some people, mostly female, I think, it is the look your face makes when you are pronouncing the word that they do not like.

    Just anecdata from me!

  207. 207.

    Immanentize

    @Captain C: There is not a state or territory in the country that does not consider sex with a ten year old a sexual assault or rape.

    Is that sufficient legal authority for you?

  209. 209.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: By the way, ​I’ve been meaning to thank you for that NM Blue Hole link you sent me.

    Funny coincidence: On Saturday our appliance repairman fixed our washing machine and as always he and I got to talking. The subject of caving in NM came up and I mentioned I had done more than a little of it. He pulls out his smart phone and beep beep beep he pulls up a picture of the blue hole. Turns out he had gone to NM just a couple months previous and had stopped at there on his way back to MO.

  210. 210.

    Paul in KY

    @Betty Cracker: It’s all about punishing the ‘sluts’ who have the temerity (and fun) of having sex outside a marriage!

    Some of these prudes were never afforded that opportunity and they are damned sure gonna stick kit to those desirable biches!!!

  213. 213.

    Ohio Mom

    Re: Holocaust durvivors: the last one in my extended family recently died at 99.

    She was my mother’s cousin, their moms were sisters. They lived in Hungary, near the Ukraine border. The cousin’s mom married a dentist, which was a big deal and commanded a dowry to match.

    The family story is that there was no money left to marry my grandmother off to anybody worth considering so at age 15 or 16 (she lied about her age) she left them all behind and got on a boat to New York, to be a nanny to a relative’s family there. They turned out to be abusive. Somehow she struck out on her own.

    It was a twist of fate, the bad luck of being priced out of the marriage market saved my grandmother’s life. Her sister and dentist husband did not survive.

    Anyway, whenever I read about unaccompanied minors lying about their age when arriving at our southern border, I think, Yup, there goes someone’s future grandma (or grandpa).

  215. 215.

    Captain C

    @Immanentize: More than enough; I’m just not recommending we ourselves probe too deeply into their severely fucked-up psychology; saying they are a bunch of child rape-enabling (or worse) assholes who should be shunned and watched carefully (and busted when necessary) is all I need.

  216. 216.

    Geminid

    @OzarkHillbilly: When I drive to New Mexico, Santa Rosa is usually my first stop. I’m no diver, but I always look in on Blue Hole because it’s such a pretty spot. Then I grab some takeout chile verde from the Comet II restaurent and head for Santa Rosa Lake State Park to set up camp.

  219. 219.

    Paul in KY

    @Betty Cracker: ‘Weird Timing’!!!! Poor 10 year old girls get abused all the damned time. This poor girl just happened to get pregnant from being raped! Jeezus fuck!!!!

  220. 220.

    schrodingers_cat

    @SFAW: OMG yes. I picked up Da Vinci Code after the hype. It was such drivel. It is the one and only book I  have ever returned after buying it. I didn’t even finish it, it was so bad.

  221. 221.

    SFAW

    @schrodingers_cat: ​
     
    I made the mistake of reading an early opus of his (Digital Fortress, I think). Writing-wise, a piece of crap.
    I have similar feelings about the Eragon series, but I cut Paolini a lot of slack because he was only 19 +/- when Eragon was published. Brown has no such excuse.

  223. 223.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​

    Ah yes, Schoolcraft, a man of many talents.

    I’m still amazed that, with all the other stuff he did, he had time to write things like The Call of Cthulu and Nyarlathotep (which was the basis for … well, I’ll leave that to the advanced student).

    ETA: Thanks for the link. If I had ever heard/learned of Schoolcraft, I had forgotten him. Seems like an interesting guy.

  227. 227.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: I love the Current for this time of year because it’s spring-fed so it’s always high enough to float. It’s an easy, beautiful float too any time of the year.

Comments are closed.