we criticize hollywood for lazy tropes but our two main antagonists right now is a former kgb agent with a penchant for poisoning and an emerald mine heir who wants to live on mars. if these were bond villains they’d be dismissed as caricature
— mastodon.social/@seva1000 (@SevaUT) November 11, 2022
The work (the world) goes on:
"We immediately rejoined the Paris Agreement. We convened major climate summits and re-established–" Biden says at climate conference in Egypt, then paused for applause. “I apologize we ever pulled out of the agreement." pic.twitter.com/0nm61yx28N
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) November 11, 2022
Biden is funny cuz he’s really just an old-timey politician but everyone’s brains are so poisoned that he becomes a golden god by default.
Local man positions himself in the center of his party, implements redistributional policies which favor his voters. Experts baffled.
— Checkless Starfish Who Can Change His Name (@IRHotTakes) November 11, 2022
Overlooked this week is that this was first national election since Jan 6–an attempt by a sitting prez to overthrow American democracy backed by a huge chunk of the Republican Party.
Just as the ‘74 midterm was “the post-Watergate election,” this was “the post-Jan 6 election.” https://t.co/ZE8JS2GlKg
— Ian Bassin ???? (@ianbassin) November 12, 2022
There it is! All the election deniers running for Sec State in swing states to oversee 2024 election have lost.
As have similar gubernatorial candidates in MI/PA/WI.
If Hobbs holds on, that would mean a total sweep against Trumpists in key 2024 roles. Was unthinkable on Monday. https://t.co/93i7yb8CDj
— Ian Bassin 🇺🇦 (@ianbassin) November 12, 2022
Wouldn’t want this news to be overlooked:
The added payment brings the total judgement against Jones in a lawsuit to $1.44 billion. https://t.co/tBOFhDzFZf
— ABC4 News (@abc4utah) November 11, 2022
gonna be interesting to see how much Russian hope was pinned on GOP control. also contrast with China, which very much dgaf about the midterms.
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) November 11, 2022
Elon Musk and how being a Twitter user doesn't make you the right person to run Twitter. #BetweenTheScenes pic.twitter.com/xZIzkF6sRn
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) November 12, 2022
imagine you are the NASA person responsible for negotiating the next space x project right now
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) November 11, 2022
the ceo is about to tank a company he paid $44B less than a month ago, his largest investor is the saudi government, his satellite company may be in trouble if he opens his mouth again and he might lose his car company within a year. how do you factor this into your planning?
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) November 11, 2022
Good news: he’s not the president. https://t.co/zi3ganFrQq
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) November 12, 2022
opiejeanne
I saw earlier that with Mark Kelly, the senate is 49-49, and that even without the runoff between Warnock and Walker that we would have 52 Senate seats. I’ve totally lost track. Who are the three US Senate candidates still outstanding?
HumboldtBlue
Experts baffled.
Sums up the political commentary on the recent election very well.
Of course, experts is carrying a lot of weight.
KithKanan
@opiejeanne: Nevada, Georgia, and Alaska are the three outstanding senate races. It’s 49-49 instead of 49-48 because Alaska is a Republican vs Republican race with Murkowski the less crazy of the two options, so that seat is in the R column whichever way it goes.
opiejeanne
@KithKanan: Thanks.
Steeplejack
@opiejeanne:
If the Senate is 49-49, there are only two seats outstanding: Nevada and Georgia. So we potentially have 50 or 51. Who is saying we have 52 seats?
Steeplejack
@KithKanan:
Yes, Alaska is going R regardless of who wins.
opiejeanne
@Steeplejack: Someone on Twitter before the outcome of Kelly’s race and one of the R’s had been verified, even though I think Kelly’s was called by a couple of journalists.
I realize that’s all pretty vague. I don’t remember who posted these things.
mrmoshpotato
Excuse me while I laugh about this – again!
BWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Kay
November 4th:
Finger on the pulse of America, the purveyors of the woke panic.
Are any of them going to explain how they got this so wrong?
Damien
@Kay: I can say that, having met him personally on a couple of occasions, the nicest possible thing I can say about Bill Maher is that he’s completely genuine. He’s as much of a smug, sanctimonious prick in real life as he is on Real Time.
Shalimar
@mrmoshpotato: The details are even more hilarious. All of a decade’s delays, obfuscations, pointless motions, and outright refusal to comply with discovery and court orders has left Jones responsible for $323 million in plaintiff’s attorney fees. I have never heard of that much wasted time before, and Jones will pay for all of it.
mrmoshpotato
Watch that Daily Show clip if you haven’t. It’s hilarious.
Shalimar
@Kay: I love Burr’s interruption. “Doesn’t pay attention to” woke culture would definitely explain why no one other than Maher cared on election day.
Kay
@Damien:
This is where he speaks for “average Americans”:
lol
Bold, to predict a Walker victory so confidently. When Warnock wins he can be wrong again, not that any of the anti-woke pundits and social media influencers EVER revisit or admit error.
mrmoshpotato
Fascist orange manbaby still thinks he has the weight of the federal government to throw around.
WEAK! SAD! POOP!
Kay
@Shalimar:
It is funny.
They also predicted that “moms angry about covid restrictions in public schools” would crush Democrats. None of them use public schools or indeed have been anywhere near a public school in decades, if ever, but this “angry moms” turnout was supposed to be determinative.
Someone needs to tell them Right wing Twitter isn’t real life.
mrmoshpotato
@Kay:
Who in their right mind considers Bill Maher to be liberal and not just a whiny ass titty baby?
mrmoshpotato
@Shalimar: Delicious.
Shalimar
@mrmoshpotato: The Supreme Court should issue the shortest ruling in history: “You are not the President.”
sukabi
@mrmoshpotato: and still haven’t done the Dominion defamation suit yet…
mrmoshpotato
@sukabi: Oh stop. It’s too early for breakfast. 🥞😋
Kay
@mrmoshpotato:
They’re the sort of liberals who watched the Supreme Court gut womens autonomy and agency and decided that “angry Covid moms” were the women to watch in this election. The “angry Covid mom” vote would be determinative, guaranteeing a Republican wave. This was their analysis.
They’re the sort of liberal who take their personal cranky, middle aged resentment of younger people and paste that lack of generosity and irritable stodginess onto the entire country.
sukabi
@mrmoshpotato: lol…you have popcorn for breakfast?
NotMax
The perfect gift for the
couchchair potato on your list?:)
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
1. Zuckerberg should send a fruit and edibles basket to Musk thanking him for taking the focus off of his Meta fuckups and obsession. Also, by comparison, Zuck comes off as a more relatable, competent CEO who doesn’t fuck with core missions on a whim – which is truly remarkable.
2. We all owe Musk a debt of gratitude. If it weren’t for him, a wider part of the public would continue in the inherent belief that wealthy businessmen are smart and keep their wealth and power by always making smart decisions. He still has some defenders, but scales are falling from eyes.
3. Imagine what this election would look like if our media were issue-focused and smart, instead of lazy dullards obsessed with score-keeping by polls and hot takes. All an opinion poll is consists of a feedback loop on what their reporting reflects.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
God, what does it say about Bill Burr that he invited Maher to his podcast and agreed with his bigoted idiocy?
He’s a pretty popular comedian, judging by Reddit
Steeplejack
@Shalimar:
We yuk it up, but it’s possible that Trump has skated once again.
Amir Khalid
@Shalimar:
Pobrecito still can’t accept that the office of the President left him on 20/1/2021* and is now with Joe Biden. Or how pathetic he looks these days, styling himself as “45th President of the United States” as though he still had the job.
*International date format, you all.
Wanderer
Just added my little bit to the 4 Directions boots on the Ground.
Baud
@Kay:
I bet he eats at the same diners as the NYT goes to.
NotMax
@Baud
No blue plate special at those diners, I betcha.
//
satby
@mrmoshpotato: People like to beat on John Stewart, but the man has accomplished some good things, and one of them was bringing in Noah to the Daily Show.
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
This part he got completely right. He misses that the majority agrees with Democrats. He misses how utterly asshole this Republican attitude is, down to its core. He’s victim blaming, “I hit you because I’m angry you don’t want to be abused,” and pretending that’s a reasonable attitude. He’s missing one of the most dramatic proofs of how inexcusably, disgustingly bigoted and asshole this phenomenon is, that a black man becoming president was the trigger to make it foaming-mouth mainstream.
But the thought process from that kind of bigoted asshole’s perspective? Yeah, nailed it. In doing so, he betrays just how vile a person he is.
Frankensteinbeck
@Steeplejack:
But on the least important thing. His testimony before the Jan 6th committee was never going to hurt him much. It’s the slow, inevitable grind of the file theft and tax misconduct prosecutions that will screw him.
If somehow the Jan 6th commission does get him, which I seriously doubt, it’s with already collected evidence.
different-church-lady
The world seems like a saner place than it did a week ago, that’s for sure.
Yet somehow I’m still mighty pissed off about the way it was.
Frankensteinbeck
@satby:
I will still never forgive Stewart for his jackass both-sides bashing of Obama. His interview with Obama was a travesty. He spent the whole time blaming Obama for Republican obstruction. I’m still enraged. And it went right along with Stewart’s “reasonable people accept both sides” rallies.
I acknowledge that since Trump got elected Stewart has gotten better and better. Personally, I think he’s just racist against blacks, and with Obama gone he can focus on being liberal and fight for the side of good.
Baud
Between Elon and the election, this week showed us that owning the libs is expensive.
I blame Biden for the inflation.
Brachiator
Apart from the question of whether Democrats might retain their majority in Congress, the fate of Trumpers and election deniers was one of the key outcomes I was looking for.
I am feeling very much relieved to see sanity win over crazy ass conspiracy nonsense.
And aside from Kari Lake, I think, no one is claiming that the midterm elections have been stolen. This nuttiness has simply evaporated.
Betty Cracker
Interesting data point:
Steeplejack
@Frankensteinbeck:
I’m not saying he got some kind of immunity card or won anything. It’s just another instance of him delaying and degrading the process.
Betty Cracker
@Betty Cracker: I should add that I personally had nothing to do with it because blog fundraising isn’t my jam, but driving Native turnout in the Southwest looks like a good investment for all who participated.
Frankensteinbeck
@Brachiator:
It is much harder to violate norms than people think. McConnell and Trump are special kinds of evil assholes. “Democrats cheat” is standard Republican opinion and Trump did not start the “I won’t concede” schtick, but very few can push that hard when they’re on the spot.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
WaterGirl saved America!
RL
@Frankensteinbeck: I’ll never forgive Stewart for his defense of Chappelle. (See also: Patton Oswald and John Mulaney.)
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: It looks like Latino voters also showed up for Southwesten Democratic candidates. And the elections of Gabe Vasquez (NM-2), Adrian Fontes (AZ Secretary of State) and a Latino Secretary of State in Nevada provide an important motivator for this community: representation.
Brachiator
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
I don’t think that anyone takes this as absolute gospel. Musk may view himself as a master of the universe, but many of his business decisions have been erratic. You could see his disastrous mishandling of his Twitter purchase coming from a mile away.
This has been a bad week for a number of tech people and wealthy celebrities. Consider the FTX Crypto Exchange Collapse. From the San Francisco Standard:
And the most spectacular crash involves Sam Bankman-Fried…
And now, zero.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
According to crypto Twitter, this wasn’t really a failure of crypto. Crypto can never fail, it can only be failed.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: Musk: Hold my beer!
lowtechcyclist
@mrmoshpotato:
That’s a damned good question, because there’s nothing liberal about this guy. I mean, what sort of liberal buys into these right-wing caricatures of liberals?
Yeah, I hear liberals saying stuff like that all the time. Ain’t enough rolleyes in the world.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
Here’s a neat thought on the institutional investor side – is investing a fund held in trust for others (like pensions, banks, mutual funds) in crypto a breach of fiduciary duty? I suspect we’re gonna learn.
lowtechcyclist
@Brachiator:
Well, maybe you could, and maybe a lot of other people could who pay close enough attention to that particular manbaby. But most people don’t. Most people just see Tesla and SpaceX and so forth, and the image of him in the popular media, and figure he must be rich because he’s really smart.
It really takes a public failure like this to poke a hole in that image.
Geminid
@Brachiator: FTX investor Sequoia Capital also invested in Musk’s Twitter deal. Their Christmas bonus this year might be a lump of coal.
I won’t be surprised if that $95 million loss for the Ontario teachers union results in indictments. When I try to figure out how the hell a union official risked that kind of money in cryptocurrency, one obvious answer is kickbacks, and big ones.
p.a.
Musk can certainly serve as an educational example, but anyone a fan of an NFL team should know that $$$ =/= intelligence, ESPECIALLY inherited $$$. That many don’t is a comment on NFL fans and the bankruptcy of American ideas of ‘deserving’ things.
NFL owner families are the absolute best example of the need for weighty estate & wealth taxes.
Baud
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
In the year 2022, is it prudent to assume there’s an even bigger sucker out there? Good question.
Baud
It occured to me that Liz Cheney’s stature just went up with this election. It’ll be interesting to see how she leverages it.
artem1s
@Brachiator:
And no one is screaming that the counting should be stopped or should have stopped at midnight. Maybe legitimacy of mail in ballots was the real winner in this election
Barbara
I wonder how many voters in Arizona were influenced by the sight of armed and masked creeps at drop off boxes? Voter intimidation is ugly.
lowtechcyclist
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
Maybe the rules have changed in the forty years since I was part of that world, but certainly it would have been then. The clear expectation was for a fiduciary to invest prudently, unless a fund was set up with rules that allowed for X% to be invested in higher-risk assets with the potential of higher gain.
I think that in another era, someone who invested other people’s pension money in something as inherently speculative as crypto would have gone to prison for it. I certainly wouldn’t expect that nowadays, though.
Barbara
@artem1s: Well, that’s because Kari Lake would then be the official instead of the unofficial loser. Now they are eagerly waiting for the friendlier parts of Maricopa to come through.
Layer8Problem
@lowtechcyclist: Or he must be smart because he’s really rich, cf. TFG.
The Thin Black Duke
@p.a.: No Lie Told.
There’s rumors that asshole billionaire (but I repeat myself) Dan Synder selling the Washington Commanders.
He’s asking 6 billion.
He’ll probably get it. Easily.
There go two miscreants
Good column about the twitter mania:
Twitter is cigarettes
Cameron
So has Alex Jones promised to pay off these judgements with Twitter stock?
snoey
@lowtechcyclist: 95 million out of 17.2 billion. There is a “venture arm” of the fund that is supposed to chase higher risk/reward.
Barbara
@Baud: Yes, but — you have to look at the statutory or governing instruments to figure out what’s permitted. A fund might permit investment in higher risk or non-publicly traded asset classes up to a certain percentage of its total, with no more than X percentage in a single investment. Required diversification is usually what saves a fund from being wiped out when a manager makes a bad bet.
Brachiator
@lowtechcyclist:
News stories clearly covered Musk stubbornly trying to defy SEC regulations and losing. Coverage of his acquisition of Twitter noted that he had kinda trapped himself. It would have cost him at least $1 billion to pull out of the Twitter deal, which may have been the smart move. But his ego got in the way.
Stories of Musk as a visionary inventor and Musk as a dumb businessman followed parallel tracks. The business and financial media were never overly impressed with him. This was also noted in the popular media.
Geminid
@Geminid: I was especially glad to see Gabe Vasquez flip New Mexico’s 2nd CD because he is relatively young at age 38.
Vasquez’s Twitter page describes him as “a first generation American.” He was born in El Paso and raised across the border in Juarez. Vasquez returned to El Paso in his teens, and attended an El Paso high School.
After graduating from Notre Dame in 2011, Vasquz worked on a start up company and later joined the staff of New Mexico Senator Martin Heinreich. He was a Las Cruces City Council member when he ran for Congress.
I’ve followed the NM 2nd since the 2018 Blue Wave, when Xochitl Torres-Small flipped it. In 2020 Torres-Small lost her rematch with Yvette Harrel. She is now Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Rural Development. The 2nd CD is fairly low income and it’s very big, the 5th largest congressional district by area. The four bigger ones are entire states.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Geminid: Speaking of Sequoia, Roelof Botha (major partner and chief decisionmaker) is a partner there. He also arranged a big chunk of Musk’s Twitter financing.
If the name Botha rings a bell, it should. His grandfather was Pik Botha, a major figure in the South African apartheid regime for decades.
Ironic that Musk seems to be surrounded by these types.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
Gee, I don’t know. Putting one’s principles ahead of blind faith in TFG is still a mortal sin for the GOP base. (Some in the GOP elite have courageously taken to putting ambition ahead of blind faith in TFG, especially in the wake of the recent midterms, but that’s clearly different.)
Baud
@Barbara:
You still have to exercise due diligence as to high risk investments though, even if permitted.
Brachiator
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
I have had to work with tax preparers who have clients who invest in cryptocurrency, updating them on IRS regulations. I half jokingly tell them it is a certainty that their clients will lose all their investment in crypto crap.
Many note that their clients ignore any prudent advice and are convinced that they have struck gold.
trnc
What I find somewhat infuriating is that people like Maher are smart enough to know that “woke,” cancel culture, etc are bad faith amplifications of democratic positions, or outright lies in some cases. To the extent these are, as he puts it, “fringe left” ideas, well, they’re fringe left, not mainstream left. “Defund The Police” never had a chance in the most liberal congress we could possibly elect. Meanwhile, the republican party that he openly rooted for has absolutely embraced their fringe element to the point where it’s difficult for an old school republican to win a primary without fully embracing or tacitly buying into their fringe. Which, of course, now makes their fringe their mainstream.
Baud
@Brachiator:
Get Rich Quick scams are as American as apple pie.
trnc
I have a friend that I recently learned was an Elon fanboi, and just yesterday he said, “Well, he’s a billionaire. I wouldn’t bet against him.” I said, “He’s working mighty hard to change that.”
Sadly, billionaires have the kind of structural advantages that make it difficult to unbecome a billionaire no matter how much they fuck up, but it will be interesting to see how far down the list he slides.
Baud
@trnc:
It’s a systemic problem. All sorts of media personalities love pumping up tbe Republican viewpoint.
apocalipstick
@Brachiator: Has anyone, anywhere, ever pointed out that he was always functionally worth $0.00? ‘Wealth’ that can’t be accessed but is just a paper valuation and collateral for loans is just grift.
apocalipstick
@lowtechcyclist: But, but… Maher likes weed! And sleeping with much younger women! Classic progressive!
OzarkHillbilly
AK and WY… What are the other 2? ID and Montana? ND?
Baud
@apocalipstick:
An important plank in the Baud! 20XX! campaign. I’m running to Biden’s left!
trnc
Indeed!
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud:
Good point. It would make sense (to me) if the old-money, shitty-but-not-crazy Republicans quietly keep her fed, fit, and ready for 2024.
topclimber
@Baud: As has, unfortunately, the MAGAT who replaced her in the #3 Republican Leadership role. That would be Elise Stefanik, who is also the leader of the resurgent NY GQP House contingent.
Kay
@trnc:
“Wokeness” would have moderated and toned down inevitably and naturally. We didn’t need The Middle Aged Definers of What it Means to be Liberal rushing in with the rule book from 2003, to throw it at 22 year old social workers.
People were generous to them when they were young, allowed them to be overzealous or intemperate. Why do they have to cling so tightly in this death grip? Liberal “culture” in young people does not actually belong to the 40 to 60 year old set. It belongs to young people. They’ll manage without these cranky, hovering observers.
Geminid
@OzarkHillbilly: Don’t know. Montana now has 2 districts. I think both Dakotas are single district states, though.
Baud
@topclimber:
She’s tied herself to Trump though. Everything Trump touches dies.
trnc
@Brachiator:
Good to know. I didn’t see much MSM coverage on the deal, but I don’t tend to watch much.
I believe the $1billion escape hatch could only be used under some circumstances, such as not being able to secure financing, so it wasn’t something he could just blithely decide on his own.
Do I understand correctly that Twitter had finally in the previous year either made a profit or demonstrated that they could make a profit? That is the funniest/saddest thing to me about this whole ordeal.
Layer8Problem
@topclimber: “Resurgant?” Ok, found the Red Wave. I’d wait until those newly-minted representatives have to get themselves reelected in 2024.
frosty
@Brachiator: “ And aside from Kari Lake, I think, no one is claiming that the midterm elections have been stolen. This nuttiness has simply evaporated.”
I don’t understand this at all. I was sure Mastriano at least would be wailing about this.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Chief Oshkosh:
I don’t see GOP base voters respecting a bellweather who was proven to be blazingly right vis-a-vis their worst instincts.
She’s likely to be even less welcome than Michael Steele, Rick Wilson or Joe Scarborough.
Kay
@trnc:
I love how STODGY it is. The middle aged “liberal” who was so humiliated by women protesting wearing pink hats that he almost died of embarrassment. Cringe!
Like it’s about him. Like he should be setting the terms of what a proper “cool, hip liberal” protest looks like. They are as conventional and rigid as any midwest Rotary Club membership.
Amir Khalid
@The Thin Black Duke:
C. de F. Real Madrid has a far bigger fan base than the Washington Whatevers. Broadcasters the world over pay to screen their matches. They can fill a stadium pretty much anywhere on the planet for a preason exhibition match. Real Madrid’s team merch has a worldwide market. You can’t say any of that about the Washington NFL team. And yet Real are valued at US$1 billion less.
topclimber
@Baud: Some of it sure takes its time about it, though. Did I read here that she pre-endorsed TFG 2024?
JPL
@Baud: There is no path forward, because the gop is bat shit insane.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: And the “complicated ideas about race and sex” that he’s fuming about are just stuff like “yes, the Civil War really was about slavery” and “people can be trans, it’s fine”. Any child can understand those things, it just pisses conservatives off.
They had the same freakout over homosexuality, as if mentioning anything about it is the same thing as forcing kids to watch porn. “How do we talk to our children about homosexuality”? What, like explaining to my daughter that her grammy has a wife? She never seemed to need any explanation about that; it was just part of her world. It’s homophobia that she asked hard questions about–why the hell anyone would object to this. It’s adults who can’t understand it. And that’s exactly what they’re afraid of.
The eating-your-own dogpiles over incomprehensibly fine distinctions within progressive communities, that the phrase “cancel culture” was invented to describe, mostly live on social media with teenagers and young adults doing it to one another; the idea that Democrats want to pull your kids into it in school is bullshit.
Geminid
@apocalipstick: A CNBC article* said Musk paid $27 billion cash for his majority stake in Twitter. That included $15.5 billion from sales of Tesla stock in April and August. So Musk had a good stake of ready cash at least once.
But it was too ready. That will likely be the financial high water mark in Musk’s life.
*”Elon Musk-Twitter buyout: who is financing 44 billion deal?” October 28, 2022.
Ken
Apparently sometime yesterday the Elon Musk twitter account — the real one, I mean — posted
It’s since been deleted. People are speculating whether this was a hack, or just expected behavior from a narcissist denying their failure by rewriting reality.
(There’s also the usual fanboy contingent saying “Bankrupting twitter and losing all that money was his plan all along”, but that’s as expected.)
evodevo
@Damien:
Yeah…you can tell that from the way he reacts to his audience when they go “Oooo” at something he said…he gets all offended and fluffs up his feathers…asshole personality. I like that he’s an atheist, but he’s an asshole atheist, which I don’t like…I haven’t watched the show in a couple years because I got tired of his schtick…
Matt McIrvin
@frosty: I think maybe we underestimated the degree to which that really was about Donald Trump’s specific personality, his willingness to persist in this bullheaded bellowing way with assertions that anyone would see were false, and drag his entire cult along after the leader. Take him out of the equation and suddenly the rest of it falls apart.
Betty
@Brachiator: I don’t know much about Kara Swisher. She is apparently a business journalist so I was surprised when she told Nicolle Wallace that she would have thought Musk would do a good job running Twitter and that she had even discussed it with him beforehand. Does the NYT connection explain this?
topclimber
I have been tracking the remaining contests on CNN election center, and one thing strikes me as hard to believe. They have GQP Congressional turnout at 5 million more than Dems, roughly 53-47%. Maybe they don’t count update these figures until all races are called, but if this is accurate, maybe there was a red wavelet after all.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: This is the guy who had a show called “Politically Incorrect”! Being edgy in a hip taboo-violating way was supposed to be his brand all along! Scratch these people and they turn out to be complete fuddy-duddies.
Geminid
@evodevo: Maher proves that bigotry and prejudice are not confined to the religious.
OzarkHillbilly
@Geminid: OK, I really was expecting ID to be one of them.
eta: Wiki says you’re right: ND and SD
Ken
@Amir Khalid: That sounds like conspicuous consumption in action. The team price is at least partly driven by its utility in sending the signal “I’ve got a lot of money”.
Baud
@topclimber:
Maybe Texas and Florida skew the numbers.
MagdaInBlack
@Baud: I was thinking that very same thing .
Ken
@OzarkHillbilly: Two states that in the 1880s were supposed to be one because they didn’t have the population of a real state, and still don’t.
Matt McIrvin
@topclimber: Well, the Republicans did gain seats and probably took the House–those votes have to be coming from somewhere. It just underperformed expectations.
Geminid
@topclimber: That differential will probably diminish. There are a lot of uncounted ballots in California.
But it could be also that Republicans got a surge in the rural vote. I read that Youngkin got strong turnout in rural areas of Virginia last year. Maybe they are refining and extending GOTV efforts.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
He WAS edgy in a hip taboo-violating way. Its just that it was in 2001. About the year the youngest set of voters were born. Edgy and hip could be different now, which is FINE.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
With that spread, you would think they would have won more.
The Thin Black Duke
@evodevo: Great comedians evolve. Carlin, Pryor, for example. Maher isn’t “hip, slick and cool” anymore, and it pisses him off. To young people today, Maher is a cranky. Irrelevant fossil. He is as funny now as Bob Hope was a hundred years ago when he making clueless sidecracks about hippies.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ken: SD, ND, WY, and AK are the best argument I know for expanding the House. Long past time that should have been done.
Kay
@The Thin Black Duke:
Agree. The only person who is funny on cancel culture and “wokeness” is DougJ, and he’s a parody of anti cancel culture warriors.
schrodingers_cat
@Frankensteinbeck: You and me both. I also will never forgive the yukking it up with war criminals Yoo and Rumsfeld when they were on his show
Baud
@Kay:
The worst thing about Twitter going down will be losing Pitchbot.
JPL
@Betty: That surprised me also, and she thinks it’s possible that he still can. Because he fired everyone who knew how twitter operates, I doubt it.
Kay
@The Thin Black Duke:
“Take my wife, please! Oh, is that politically incorrect?”
No, it’s just not funny anymore.
topclimber
@Baud: Especially given their gerrymandering advantage.
schrodingers_cat
@Geminid: Some public atheists are just as bigoted as any religious nutjob. Dawkins, Sam Harris come to mind along with Maher.
Baud
@Kay:
Leave Henny Youngman out of this.
Kay
@Baud:
I backslid and went back to Twitter lurking for election night. I don’t read Daily Kos but Daily Kos elections twitter is great. They don’t gum it all up with foregone shit I dont care about, like Mike Huckabees daughter winning Arkansas. I can call that one myself.
Barbara
@Baud: For sure, it’s just not an automatic breach because it tanked. I am continually amazed at how so many seemingly normal people are willing to overlook the blinking red lights because they think getting into crypto currency makes them smarter or cooler. “Poorer” does not seem to factor into the equation. I mean, I get that attitude when you buy a car, but your savings account? Yeah, no.
OzarkHillbilly
From Cryptocurrency exchange FTX files for bankruptcy protection in US
My Fruede has been thoroughly Schadened.
Amir Khalid
@Betty:
Don’t assume that journalists who work a particular beat must know what they’re talking/writing about. Some do indeed have domain-specific knowledge/experience from their training or work background. But in my experience, most are just lay people, general reporters who drifted into or were assigned the beat; their knowledge is limited to what will fit in the story.
The Thin Black Duke
@Kay: As the great Terry Pratchett said, “Punching down isn’t funny. It’s bullying.”
Barbara
@Kay: Love DK election threads until the hyperbolic commentary starts showing up again and crowds out the factual updates.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
He still has a cup of Starbucks coffee left!
OzarkHillbilly
Speaking as a dyed in the wool atheist, I despise all 3. They are each every bit as holier than thou as any evangelical.
Baud
@Kay:
I’m proud of myself for getting a good night’s sleep on election night.
Kay
@Baud:
Bill Maher
@billmaher Nov 5
Democracy is like the McRib. It’s here now, and it will be around for a little bit longer, so enjoy it while you can.
Nothing as side splitting as a McRib joke. I only have my one Zoomer as a sample but I think they would stare at him with that disconcerting blank but pleasant expression where they cock their heads like dogs.
Joey Maloney
Is this where that horseshoe theory stuff comes in? The younger the women, the fringier left the men – until somewhere around junior high age it flips over to the far right?
Ken
@OzarkHillbilly: Look at the bright side. His parents are business law professors, and they’ll surely get a couple publications out of this.
lowtechcyclist
@Brachiator:
I’m not arguing that these stories didn’t exist, just to what extent and what visibility. I bet if you’d polled people about these stories three months ago, 90% of Americans would have had maybe a vague idea at best of what you were talking about.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: It’s a better investment than crypto.
Baud
https://i.redd.it/h6vyu9qn8hz91.jpg
Baud
@Kay:
You’re funnier than Bill Maher, Kay.
Ken
Not here in the socialist hellhole of Illinois, where the passage of Amendment 1 (right to collective bargaining) may send the price up by as much as seven cents, assuming the employees unionize.
(The price increase is from an ad against the amendment; I have no idea if it’s accurate, though given the source, probably not.)
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: HA!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@The Thin Black Duke: I haven’t watched Maher in years. Does he still remind people about once a week, as he approaches 70, that he went to an Ivy League school?
@Frankensteinbeck: Wyatt Cenac might agree with you
Barbara
“Repression seasoned with extreme hypocrisy” is how David Frum summed up the Republican message to voters, with Walker as the poster child, promising to outlaw all abortions that he didn’t personally coerce women into.
Layer8Problem
@schrodingers_cat:
I didn’t see Stewart and Rumsfeld, but I sure as hell saw Stewart and Yoo. That was one man you needed to do your research and bring the receipts in when interviewing, but it was another softball Stewart interview, nothing incisive in the least. “Don’t scare the conservative ‘intellectual’ nut justifying child torture. My show’s a safe space.” I don’t know or care if he ever had Kissinger on, but I bet it would have been fawning, sitting at his knee and drinking in his nuggets of realpolitik wisdom.
Brachiator
@Betty:
I saw a CNBC interview with her from 2 weeks ago where she said that Musk would need to bring in a “really good CEO” to run Twitter.
I have not seen her interview with Wallace. But so far, everything that Musk has done with Twitter is bonehead stupid.
Brit in Chicago
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: What have you got against Kaliningrad?
artem1s
Democracy Docket is recapping and keeping tabs on the vote counts in the undecided races. Their newsletter has some great info for voters who need to certify, check their vote, etc….
Democracy Docket
Eolirin
@Baud: If a lot of it was coming from FL and Texas, maybe not. NY didn’t do too well, which would keep the margin down, and CA has 4 million votes outstanding. That’s the four biggest states.
Barbara
@artem1s: Marc Elias is amazing.
Matt McIrvin
@Joey Maloney:
There’s something to that. A lot of prominent guys with progressive images seem to have made the horseshoe flip because they got called on their predatory sexual behavior and the far right is where it’s OK.
(But I’m starting to think “horseshoe” is an understatement; it’s more like a complete loop.)
Matt McIrvin
@Brit in Chicago: Adding that extra bridge to make an Euler circuit, making Russia not-simply-connected–the place is an insult to topology!
Layer8Problem
@Baud: He better set himself up on Mastodon then. We’re waiting.
Geminid
@Ken: NFL owners generally enjoy high social status in the communities their teams play in. Snyder has ruined his good name in the DC Metro area, first by his interference with team decisions that turned a proud franchise into a struggling mediocrity.
Now the stories around the way Snyder and his organization mistreated female employees just get worse. At the last owner’s meeting Colts owner Jim Irsay was candid with reporters, unusually so for an NFL owner. He basically said that the league will be better off without Snyder.
The owners and league Commissioner Goodel are waiting for a report on Snyder’s conduct by a team led by former US Attorney Mary Jo White. It won’t be pretty. I think Snyder is putting his team up for sale now because if he waits, his fellow owners will make him sell it.
Baud
@artem1s:
That’s a good outfit.
Immanentize
@Baud: someone needs to just recreate Usenet. It would actually be perfect structurally for what people want. I think Reddit tried to be that, but was undone from inside. Mastodon is also trying but their Occupy The Internet distributive server system (stolen from Club Penguin or Minecraft?) Is problematic.
Eolirin
@Immanentize: Reddit is pretty big still.
Kay
“It’s funny because he lives in San Francisco. Wink Wink. I think you know what I mean”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Matt McIrvin: In Maher’s case, you have to add extreme anti-Muslim bigotry, and from what I’ve gathered from twitter, transphobia. So his
wonown horseshoe goes from Nader to Bernie to… whatever he’s doing now. (edited)rikyrah
Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) tweeted at 8:17 PM on Thu, Nov 10, 2022:
Remarkable: this will be the first midterm the party in power hasn’t lost a *single* state legislative chamber since 1934. https://t.co/vg3kM7DVfW
(https://twitter.com/mattmfm/status/1590891474060824576?s=02)
rikyrah
Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) tweeted at 8:00 AM on Sat, Nov 12, 2022:
Voters in Illinois have approved a ballot proposal creating a constitutional right to join a union.
(https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1591430624841179141?s=02)
Immanentize
@Kay:
The Immp mastered this look when he was 14 or 15. Except when he really wants to let he know what he is thinking about that, he does not cock his head.
Baud
@rikyrah:
VOTERS ONLY CARE ABOUT INFLATION AND CRIME WHY ARE THE DEMOCRATS RUNNING SUCH LOUSY CAMPAIGNS!!!
kalakal
@OzarkHillbilly:Some religous people like to claim that atheists hate religion. Nope, the vast majority are indifferent, don’t care, which of course is even worse from their point of view. I certainly loathe the actions of some religous people and groups, eg fundamentalist grifters but that doesn’t mean I loathe the religion they purport to represent. However I’ll concede that they have a point with the likes of Dawkins, Harris, and Maher. They aren’t atheists, they’re Pharisees, smug, sanctimonious, and boy, are they ever judgemental.
As an atheist what always used to amuse me was religious people assuming that atheism is a substitute for religion, indeed even a religion in itself. That there must be an organization, hierarchy, rituals etc. I remember being rejected by an academic research group on atheism because I wasn’t part of an atheist organization
Nope, just a mysanthrope with a strong empirical bent.
Ken
Balloon Juice fills the role once provided by talk.politics.pet-photos.
rikyrah
Florida Chris (@chrislongview) tweeted at 7:29 AM on Sat, Nov 12, 2022:
Joe Biden spent the last three months warning Americans about threats to democracy.
Kamala Harris spent the last five months traveling the country to talk about abortion.
The keys our victories were threats to democracy and abortion.
Give @POTUS and @VP credit where it’s due.
(https://twitter.com/chrislongview/status/1591422887134887936?s=02)
rikyrah
Truth, Roland. Truth
rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) tweeted at 6:45 AM on Sat, Nov 12, 2022:
Georgia and America. We CANNOT allow a MAGA imbecile like Herschel Walker in the US Senate. He is grossly unqualified. We must do all we can to raise money, call, text, and door knock to get folks to turn out for @raphaelwarnock. Early voting begins Nov 26. The election is Dec. 6 https://t.co/wCGkoa8yU8
(https://twitter.com/rolandsmartin/status/1591411957365620736?s=02)
kalakal
Meanwhile on twitter, Elom continues to do his bit for Ukraine
https://images.app.goo.gl/Et3MgN5Gyifuymj86
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah, but the supposed taboos he was supposedly violating were left-of-center taboos, as ‘political correctness’ was supposedly this liberal thing where we were all supposed to believe exactly the same things or get ostracized. If that had been a real thing outside of a tiny splinter of the left, “Dems in disarray” wouldn’t have been a thing for most of my life.
(Seems like it’s alive and well on the right these days, though, as the political fate of Liz Cheney illustrates quite well. Not that I expect Maher to notice.)
It’s not particularly edgy to violate the taboos of some fringe group whose influence you have to greatly exaggerate to impress your audience that you’re edgy. So it’s no surprise that he’s just another conservative fuddy-dud. I really never saw him as anything else, other than a fraud of course.
Immanentize
@Eolirin: Reddit is huge. But it is also a mess. There is very interesting stuff there, but it is not easy to curate a useful (for me) broad feed.
ETA Also too, they have certainly gone with the platform rather than publisher model and yes, lots of the horror was pushed to 4 and 8 chan, there is still a whole world of depressingly ugly hate on Reddit.
Brachiator
@lowtechcyclist:
Many people will only read gossip and celebrity news stories about Musk. They will scan hot take social media feeds. They will read the first two paragraphs of a news story about Musk’s financial deals and skip past the detail and background information.
This is NOT a problem with the media or the visibility of news stories. You cannot force people to skip the hot, juicy sexy hot takes and pay attention to more detailed, nuanced financial stories.
Kay
@Immanentize:
Last year was my son’s first year of college and we took him and the girl who is now his GF out to breakfast. I asked if they minded wearing masks, because I was curious if they did and I was hearing so much about mask fury. They both did the Golden Retriever head tilt benign interest thing and just let it sit there. My son also squints with it, as if struggling to see the relevance of this question.
OzarkHillbilly
@kalakal: Yeah, I have no problem with people believing whatever they want, as long as they aren’t pushing it on me.
Pretty much sums it up for me.
I think of atheism as a belief, a belief that there is no sky daddy shaking his finger at me.
geg6
@frosty:
He’s not wailing but I haven’t heard of him conceding either.
Immanentize
@Ken: Ha! True!
OzarkHillbilly
duplicate comment
lowtechcyclist
@OzarkHillbilly:
And the great thing is, this could be changed by Congressional action. Capping the number of Representatives at 435 is nowhere in the Constitution: it was set by legislation, and can be changed by legislation.
Now we’ve just got to control both houses of Congress at the same time. The Senate’s gonna be a tough hold in 2024.
Geminid
@kalakal: I once was listening to a right wing radio show during War on Christmas Season. The host asked atheists to call in and justify their hostilty to Christian celebrations like creches, etc.
The first atheist who called in said, “We’re not all like that! I don’t care about creches. It’s just a dumb organization that doesn’t speak for me fighting over these things.” The host did not discuss the matter, just put on a second atheist.
This one said, “We’re not all like that! You’re talking about a few soreheads that….” The host cut that atheist off and launched into a monologue about how intolerant atheists are.
OverTwistWillie
I see Ivanka and Jared are publicly saying NFW on 2024.
I wonder if that will stick when daddy starts screaming.
hueyplong
Maher is, and has been, in the terminology of sports analylitics geeks, below Replacement Level.
Once you’ve established that, you’re pretty much done, though I’ll add that if it weren’t for Ted Cruz, Maher would be the guy with TheGermanWordForPunchableFace.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Tough map. Ironically, FL and TX might be our easiest get. The two incumbents are terrible.
rikyrah
This is Harry Reid and the machine he built.
Jacob Solis (@jacobsolisnv) tweeted at 3:46 PM on Fri, Nov 11, 2022:
Per a press release, @Culinary226 says it’s running the “largest signature cure effort statewide in Nevada” with 200 canvassers phone-banking + organizers contacting hospitality workers on lunch breaks https://t.co/8OD1FKHHJs
(https://twitter.com/jacobsolisnv/status/1591185583367671808?s=02)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: @lowtechcyclist: that’s ugly. gonna be weird to see (whatever left-twitter becomes) fund-raising for Joe Manchin, if he doesn’t decide to retire
of course, since I’m the type to look for silver linings, the combination of rogue trump and a House caucus run by Marge Greene could change
everythinga lotUncleEbeneezer
@Kay: I think people like Maher are mad that the isms/phobias that he has and enjoys are not cool anymore. He doesn’t want to give them up and resents the fact that if he doesn’t, yes it’s him who everyone will view as the asshole. It’s no different than old, racists being mad they can’t say the n-word anymore. See also: Dave Chapelle who apparently thinks treating Transgender people with basic dignity & respect and listening to decades of medical and social research on Gender, is just so unfair to comedians who like to use Trans people as punchlines.
kalakal
@hueyplong:
I think Martin Shkreli – the Pharma Bro – has a serious claim to that title
https://images.app.goo.gl/PttuwvdTyiJwKgP86
hueyplong
@kalakal: Yes, Maher is #3. Forgot about that fecal pile.
Soprano2
@Kay: His next show will definitely be interesting. He thinks they all care about his grievance (I can’t tell the jokes I like anymore because young people don’t think they’re funny) as much as he does. You know he’s a misogynist, although he denies it.
UncleEbeneezer
@kalakal: I used to be a pretty obnoxious atheist and loved people like Hitchens, Dawkins, Harris etc. Then I bailed when I saw all the toxic misogyny, LGBTQphobia, Islamophobia in that world and among many of those supposedly liberal people.
Now I’m at the point that when Dawkins showed up on a Portrait Artist of the Year episode we were watching the other night, I almost had to turn it off because I find Dawkins so repulsive now.
Baud
@Soprano2:
SteverinoCT
@Amir Khalid: International date format: 2021-01-20
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601
Kay
@Soprano2:
He can tell bad jokes though. His freedom to tell bad jokes is wholly intact. He just won’t have anyone under 30 willing to pay for them.
geg6
@Ken:
That’s nothing. The GOP House campaign committee was running ads here in Western PA that my new House rep (Deluzio) being elected would costs every PA family $70K per year in energy cost increases. I’m like, what idiot believes this bullshit? Most PA families don’t even make $70K a year.
Geminid
@Baud: My hunch is that Ted Cruz will avoid tough primary and general election races by running for President instead of Senator.
Cruz won’t win nomination, but he’ll be able to attribute his loss to a forthright stand for conservative principles, instead of the fact that Texans know he’s an asshole.
Soprano2
@Kay: Maher thinks he knows “Middle America” because he does comedy shows there and he “talks to those people”. He says we shouldn’t hate TFG voters. I don’t hate them, I just think their candidates are bad for the country! You and I “know” TFG voters better than Maher ever will, but no one will ever interview us about them!
Immanentize
Hmmm BJ went into a coma for a while for me.
@Kay:
It is amazing how effective that face is. It’s like they have figured out we cannot stand gaps in conversation so they just mobilize silence to defeat us.
Who’s to say if they are wrong?
Joey Maloney
Stolen from FIDONet back in the day of the dialup BBS.
Kay
Gretchen Whitmer is launching an iniative to offer incentives for Ohio and Indiana young adults to move to Michigan.
Promising they’ll have a full set of rights- lol
Gretch says heartbeat law is a “Buckeye brain drain”
frosty
@geg6: I read that he’s waiting for all the votes to be counted. Ms. F had a good reason he’s been quiet. He got shellacked. It’s harder to cry foul if the race isn’t remotely close.
Hell, he even lost York County!!!
different-church-lady
@There go two miscreants: But almost nobody smokes anymore. Heck, even the vaping thing has faded out.
The Thin Black Duke
@Soprano2: Great comedians step outside their comfort zones. Chapelle did a Cask of Amontillado instead and walled himself in.
rikyrah
Dash Dobrofsky (@DashDobrofsky) tweeted at 8:33 AM on Sat, Nov 12, 2022:
President Biden was attacked by CNN when he called the MAGA faction of the GOP “Semi-Fascists.” CNN claimed it was “divisive.” But CNN was wrong with their analysis, once again. Many independents, and Gen Z voters, understood the threat to Democracy — because Biden called it out.
(https://twitter.com/DashDobrofsky/status/1591439073935515648?s=02)
Eolirin
@Immanentize: I feel like you may have too rosy a remembrance of Usenet, as I’m pretty sure all of those issues exist (it never really went away) there as well.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Chicago area jackals: I’ll be in the Schamburg library from 12-3 today, selling books at the local author fair. Come chat! No book buying required.
Tomorrow, I’ll be at WindyCon, which is in the Westin hotel in Lombard. I’m reading at 12 and on a panel at 1.
Busy weekend
Tdjr
@Kay: I love that idea!
Layer8Problem
@Brachiator: Let no one, NO ONE, suggest a reality teevee show that, through careful and considerate editing, shows him being Tony Stark at work and home.
Cheryl from Maryland
@OzarkHillbilly: THIS. In this age of Zoom, there is no reason to have House districts in California represent more people than the representatives for AK, WY, ND and SD.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
the saddest case of that for me has been John Cleese
Kirk Spencer
I think of Maher as a modern libertarian. Agrees with Republicans mostly but wants his weed to be legal.
BlueGuitarist
@Betty Cracker:
Excellent! Thanks!
Miss Bianca
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
You say “ironic”, I say “completely predictable.” PotAto, PotAHto…
geg6
@frosty:
I know! I laughed at that. How the hell did he lose York County?
BlueGuitarist
@Baud: 👍
Immanentize
@Joey Maloney: I admit I forgot FIDO, but you are right.
@Kay: I am such a fan of Big Gretch. She is now free to troll and she is good at it. “That Woman from Michigan” indeed. She should offer in-state tuition for Ohio asylum seekers.
“Got her Buffs on her face….”Big Gretch totally excellent rap song.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Brit in Chicago:
The non cognoscenti wouldn’t get it as quickly otherwise.
Immanentize
@frosty: I read that the only county Oz won was one that — wait for it — borders New Jersey.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I was happy to see Katie Porter has pulled ahead. I know that was predicted, but it was comforting to see anyway
Immanentize
@Eolirin: I know — it’s my version of you kids get off my lawn. It is a joke about which I am willing to take the comic risk.
And it is not punching down.
OzarkHillbilly
My eldest granddaughter is very quiet. One time I picked her up at her mother’s house, other than “Hello” or Good morning”, we never said a word to each other for the whole hour it took to get to our house.
As I was pulling up to the driveway, I looked at her and said, “Anybody ever tell you, you talk too much?”
She giggled.
I said, “Don’t ever let anyone tell you that being quiet is wrong.”
different-church-lady
@rikyrah: Another set of vital firewalls for democracy survived!
danielx
Snow. I am so not ready for this. Three days ago it was 75 degrees, yesterday in the 50s, today….three seasons in three days.
rikyrah
MSNBC (@MSNBC) tweeted at 8:00 AM on Sat, Nov 12, 2022:
Nicolle Wallace: “As many times as we invoke Ron DeSantis’ victory we should invoke Josh Shapiro’s. He ran on Democracy and choice. And Gretchen Whitmer ran as the target of a kidnapping and assassination plot in a really tough state and had a sizable victory.” https://t.co/WJhucSYLAK
(https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1591430696077344769?s=02)
Miss Bianca
@Baud: OK, you made me look. I’m just glad I had finished swallowing my coffee first.
Ken
Well, you were wishing for a return to the days of Usen
^[xwG Z%wI^[9c ^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@ NO CARRIER....
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s so great.
My version of that is: I often miss excellent opportunities to say nothing.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I know this is niche but holy cow:
“for manuscripts received from November 2022 onwards, the peer review files will be published alongside every published Nature Communications research article”
Immanentize
@Ken: At least I got a notification! 😉
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Wow. That is going to clean up a lot of bullshit peer reviews.
Miss Bianca
@kalakal: What does it say about me that relentless Musk/Tesla dragging just seems to be my jam these days? I can’t stop laughing.
OzarkHillbilly
@danielx: Same here. I am hopeful for a real winter.
kalakal
@UncleEbeneezer: I’ve always just been indifferent. If someone’s religous – fine. If they’re not fine. It just doesn’t matter to me either way unless they use it as a club.
An example here would be the pie magnet who’s constantly urging extermination of Christians.
I’ve known a few of these, awful people. In many cases I’m sure the atheism was just a socially acceptable mask to cover their bigotry.
dm
@Geminid: plus, two of the undecided California seats are Democrat vs Democrat, so you can mentally add two to three Blue House count.
kalakal
@Miss Bianca: That you have an excellent eye for the ridiculous
OzarkHillbilly
Heh, a problem I hardly ever have. One of the advantages of getting deaf is it is easier to pretend nobody is talking to me.
Kay
@Immanentize:
She’s 5’8 so not small but also not “big”. Bigger than Ron DeSantis though.
Miss Bianca
@Kay: HA, good for her. At this rate, if I ever decided to move away from the Mountain West, it might well be back to my old home state!
They certainly have plenty of water, something that’s an increasingly scarce commodity out here…
kalakal
@Geminid: Yeah, it’s the same way that the GQP converts the dribblings of some tankie into official Democrat policy
Another Scott
@Steeplejack: His testimony before Congress was going to be worthless anyway.
TFG and his minions are in extreme legal danger in a variety of cases that aren’t going away.
Something something slowly but exceedingly fine.
We’ll see.
Cheers,
Scott.
Fair Economist
@Brachiator:
Oh, we’re way past “may” on that one.
Mousebumples
Late to the thread this morning, but just wanted to leave a reminder that we’re doing a blog music/Postcarding Party for Senator Warnock tonight at 7pm central (8pm blog time).
If you want to postcard, all you’ll need are postcarding supplies (postcards, stamps, pens/markers/etc.). #PostcardsToVoters already has addresses and messaging ready to go. Text JOIN to 484-275-2229 or email [email protected] to get started.
I think Maze Dancer may also be coordinating something for postcarding to Georgia if you’d rather go through her site. I just like #PostcardsToVoters telling me what to write, so I just need to do the handwriting part. 😅
Let’s #GOTV and make one of Manchin/Sinema irrelevant!
danielx
This is going to be my man Boris’ THIRD appearance in a BJ calendar! We’re not telling him, his head doesn’t need to be any bigger than it is already.
First when he and Natasha were small….
Then when he, Natasha and Zoey were totally fixated on the process of making a roast beef sandwich.
Bonus shot of Zoey and Natasha reclining on a bed of stuffed animals.
Brachiator
@Fair Economist:
Ha!
True enough.
Barbara
@Baud:
In all seriousness, this probably felt like back to the future for a lot of people, but particularly people who were voting for Reagan/Bush 1 between 1980 and 1992. In other words, a comfortable groove in the road that let them overlook what was happening in the other lanes. This demographic group disproportionately occupies positions in traditional media, but even Democrats (like Hillary Rosen) seem to have been in the same place.
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid: I actually think some of the hostility makes sense since it’s not about a nativity scene appearing somewhere, it’s about government bodies going out of their way to establish that this is a Christian town and other religious identities are not welcome. The push to display the Ten Commandments on courthouse grounds was the same kind of thing–it was not a benign expression of universal values.
Fair Economist
@frosty:
I think the bat-signal went out to not say that because it was discrediting Republicans.
mrmoshpotato
@danielx:
I don’t blame them.
kalakal
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oh yes. I saw him on a tour about 10 years ago and it was awful. He just whined about how terrible everything was these days and that he was only there because he owed so much in alimony to all his ex wives. 2,000 people had paid to a comedy god and they got a bitter old man moaning about how women had done him wrong.
Another Scott
@p.a.: When Warren was proposing a Wealth Tax, all the savvy men were tutu-tutting that the little former Commercial Law professor from UPenn and Harvard Law didn’t understand that it was impossible.
I was looking around for FDR’s income tax return yesterday and found this:
To be clear, the 1935 law wasn’t really a Wealth Tax, and Congress did cut back many of the provisions. But Congress has the power to change the laws (and the name doesn’t have to match the effect) – that’s what they do.
Cheers,
Scott.
UncleEbeneezer
@kalakal: They were good at a time when America seemed to be really leaning into Christian Supremacy in a disturbing way (W administration, which now looks quaint by comparison to today) and but when Islamophobia started ramping up and they simply embraced it and cheered it on, I was pretty disgusted. Then Trans issues started becoming more prominent in the US and they all really showed their bigoted asses. Sad, because I do think there is a need for people pushing back against the harms of US Christianity, but they need to be better voices who also don’t deny Systemic Oppression and laugh at marginalized groups. There are some out there (many used to write at FreeThoughtBlogs) but they aren’t nearly as prominent.
Gin & Tonic
In the department of Loser Stink Gets the Knives Out, Alexander Dugin is essentially calling for Putin’s execution. So it’s not just in the US that one can stand around and watch for injuries.
UncleEbeneezer
@The Thin Black Duke: Chapelle’s descent into Transphobic madness is just sad. One of the GOAT comedians but boy has he gone off the rails.
Cameron
@Kay: Now that’s really cool. Sort of the opposite of Florida, where the patron saint of Eighth-Day Adventists put out a welcome mat (and some $$ incentives) to bring in LEOs from other states who had been canned for violating COVID regulations.
OverTwistWillie
@geg6:
Oprah is all powerful.
Another Scott
@Brachiator: (IANAL) As I understand it, the agreement was such that as soon as Elmo lined up the financing there was no way for him to back out – even by paying $1B – unless Twitter agreed. And why would they agree when they were getting a huge premium over any fair valuation? They would have been sued by the shareholders if they had backed out. And if he tried to drag things out, then Twitter’s lawsuit was going to go ahead and then all the discovery stuff would come out and he’d be ruined anyway. That’s why it closed when it did.
chancery_daily has all the details.
Mars-brained Elmo got exactly what he wanted, good and hard.
Cheers,
Scott.
Gin & Tonic
In the meantime, President Zelensky faces unprecedented danger:
Another Scott
@Amir Khalid: The Washington Football Team also owns their own stadium that cost ~ $500M in current dollars with lots of help from Maryland taxpayers (road improvements, etc.).
It’s hard to say how much it is worth now – there have been noises about the team moving back to DC or VA if they can squeeze enough money out of the local taxpayers. :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
JanieM
@Steeplejack: Just woke up, haven’t read the whole thread, but I think maybe they’re counting Bernie and Angus King.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@lowtechcyclist: Yup. Maher was never a liberal and never identified as one. He always called himself a libertarian…no use for religious piety and wants to be able to smoke pot. Maybe less of a fan of the military/police state than most conservatives, but still mostly a fuck you I got mine conservative.
kalakal
@UncleEbeneezer: Thanks, that explains a lot. In the UK* a lot of their railings against the evils of religion made zero sense as the CofE (Church of England) about as much power as a solar panel in a mine shaft. What did come across was the Islamaphobia ( they didn’t target Hindus, Jews, Sikhs, Buddhists etc etc).
* excepting Northern Ireland, that is a very different case and anyway it’s about a lot more than just religion
Another Scott
@Ken: That’s a meme. I assume that he’s throwing it out there as a “joke” to feed his narcissism. It’s what he does.
Oooh. See, my haters can’t take a joke. I remain a master strategist**.
** – ™ DarthPutinKGB
Cheers,
Scott.
Soprano2
@trnc: You’ve got to understand where his resentment comes from. He’s mad at liberals because they won’t laugh at his 30-year-old jokes anymore, and “the kids” won’t laugh at them either. He also bitches a lot about how long it took him to get solar panels on his house approved. It’s all about him projecting his personal grievances onto people.
BlueGuitarist
@Matt McIrvin:
On his old show, Stephen Colbert had this excellent moment demonstrating that the people leading the effort to post the 10 commandments don’t know what they are:
https://www.cc.com/video/tlf8t3/the-colbert-report-better-know-a-district-georgia-s-8th-lynn-westmoreland
Immanentize
@UncleEbeneezer: I wonder if Chapelle had a Lola or Crying Game experience he was not prepared for emotionally.
Subsole
@Kay:
God, this nonsense again.
You know what grabs my eyes by the optic nerve and starts swinging them about in that excerpt? How utterly, predictably DULL it all is. We’ve heard it all before. It’s all they ever say. The same weary whining, laid down line by line. Formulaic. Almost rote at this point.
That’s what gets me: for “entertainers” who pride themselves on pushing the envelope of thought and propriety, they are all so crushingly, drearily tedious.
Counterwokism is just a bunch of Southpark-Brained 50-somethings throwing a tantrum because they told a joke and the audience, instead of laughing, exercised their Constitutionally-protected right to get up and walk out on the show. And then used another of their Constitutionally-protected rights to tell everyone that these comedians were, on balance, just a bunch of spoiled, insulting, unfunny little ambulatory orifices whose routine was worth missing if it was ever worth anything at all.
TLDR;
Counterwokes are crying – again – over the fact they cannot FORCE us all to laugh approvingly at their humor.
To which I say: Grow the fuck up, Bill. Get over yourself. No one owes you a laugh, duderino.
Subsole
@Kay:
Those aren’t liberals, though.
Those are confused Libertarians.
Miss Bianca
@Gin & Tonic: Oh, man, you got me all panicky!
Subsole
@lowtechcyclist:
Know who Maher actually reminds me a lot of? That whole Chapo Faphouse orbit. Bri-Bri, Weigel, Sirota, that crew.
Another Scott
@Geminid: I learned long ago that talk radio will do anything to get engagement. A couple of stories (I’ve probably related before):
It’s all about “engagement” and has been for 50 years or more. “Professional Wrestling” on TV is the same thing. Humans need to be smarter about this manipulation.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Yeah, a lot of short-sighted, adolescent edge-lord, vanguardism, etc. Weigel’s politics are… a journey.
Kay
@Soprano2:
Fascinating stuff. I understand now why he has a cable program and makes millions of dollars a year.
Subsole
@kalakal:
I don’t even think it was that.
I think for Maher et al, it was just another expression of their perpetual adolescence. A desire to shock you into acknowledging their existence.
It’s less than nothing – it’s a fash(curious)ion statement.
Weapon X
@geg6: he didn’t lose York county, but he only got like 53%, which is really bad. What made me laugh is that he represents a Senate district that spans Adams and Franklin counties and he ran behind Oz in both. His campaign was garbage. My fear is that since he slightly won Election Day voting, he will sue to try and have all the mail-ins tossed in a futile attempt to keep his “unstoppable movement” alive.
kalakal
@Subsole: never thought of it that way, you’ve definitely got a point there
Another Scott
@Barbara: The post-Dobbs political reporting was really, really bad. And I couldn’t help but notice that the vast majority of political reporting that I heard was by men reporting what other men were saying. Even women reporters on NPR were almost invariably reporting what men were saying.
One of dsquareddigest’s 1 Minute MBA rules talks about “the vital importance of audit”. I would like to think that sensible news organizations will do an audit of their coverage and figure out what they got right and what they didn’t and will make changes. But I’m not expecting it.
I’m here because I’m smart and I’m good – don’t tell me how to do my job!!1
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
LiminalOwl
@Brachiator: The Qusband of a former friend is posting many such claims, so I’m assuming that his favorite pols and media are making the claims. (I don’t want to spend time tracking down his sources. I shouldn’t even be checking his page, but morbid curiosity spurs me on.)
I think Mastriano is probably saying that, although perhaps not yet where the rest of us can hear. And have his anti-Semitic dog whistles been mentioned here? I saw retweets, can’t find the originals now.
Kathleen
@RL: And Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Michelle Obama. He also has a problem with women who are Democrats. Blech
The Thin Black Duke
@Kathleen: And Katie Porter. Go look up the time when she was a guest on Maher’s show. There was a moment where he looked like he wanted to punch Porter because she committed the unforgivable sin of putting a brake on his bullshit. It was not a good look.
Jinchi
@Kay: Bill Maher’s “Politically Incorrect” program was literally canceled because of right-wing outrage ( he was incorrect about the wrong thing, apparently).
Why he thinks ‘cancel culture’ is a left wing thing is beyond me.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
that list could go on and on. I started sort-of following the comedy world via Marc Maron’s podcast, and twitter, and one thing that’s just been weird is just how seriously some of them (not Maron so much) take themselves, and circle the wagons like NYT reporters with Maggie H at any comic who catches shit. ‘we are the lamplighters, the truth-seekers, the first philosophers! the rules cannot apply to us!”
Whitney Cummings, who graced the world such truth-telling, insightful hilarity as Two Broke Girls and pro-trump reboot of Roseanne. whipped herself into a bullshit tornado of pretentious sanctimony defending Joe Rogan
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I remember Rosanne went nuts, but I didn’t know the show was pro -Trump.
I never saw Two Broke Girls. Looked dumb.
ETA: Holy crap. Autocorrect is having a rough day.
frosty
@Weapon X: Last I saw Mastriano lost York by 670 votes; I thought it was final. Maybe not?
Kathleen
@schrodingers_cat: That too.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: my recollection is Cummings was one of the prime-movers in the idea that family from the original show would be prime trump supporters, which was true, and it was important to understand blah-blah-blah. The whole trump supporters as Noble (and totally not racist cause there are no racists anymore!) Savages thing. So we saw how that worked out. I think they dropped that political angle pretty quick
TBG was heavily advertised on a terrestrial radio station I listen to. Even the 30 second commercials were painful.
The Thin Black Duke
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: In History of the World, Part I, Mel Brooks referred to comedians as ” stand-up philosophers”. Mel meant it as a joke. Too many contemporary jokesters these days take themselves way too seriously, unfortunately.
cain
@Geminid:
Sort of wish Putin had some money into it.
frosty
@frosty: Rats you’re right. Mastriano won York, 53%.
Kathleen
@artem1s: I donate monthly. Least I can do. I think Elias and Co are still engaged defending election laws in all the states.
Whomever
@Subsole: I’m reminded of a time back in the 90s when I was walking through the Village in NYC and REALLY needed a bathroom. Happened to walk pas a comedy club there with no cover so I dropped in to use theirs. I stayed around to watch the show a bit and this guy…he makes some bad joke referencing rape and a woman in the audience yells “That’s not funny!” He just deflates and tries again with “Date rape. Now THAT’s funny?” The audience just glares at him. Watching this guy fall apart completely was on it’s own level actually really funny in a sort of schadenfreude way…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@The Thin Black Duke: I love that scene!
and Bea Arthur’s deadpan response: “So you’re a bullshitter?”
Did you bullshit last week?
Did you try to bullshit last week?
Citizen Alan
@lowtechcyclist: And in the end, that show was canceled not due to wokeness or political correctness but because he challenged Republican orthodoxy in an incredibly minor way at a time of Republican ascendance. Specifically, he made the perfectly reasonable comment that you could not characterize a suicide bomber as a coward because by definition they were people willing to die for their beliefs. But that was less than a year after 911, and the bushies completely lost their minds over it.
Citizen Alan
@UncleEbeneezer: I think Richard Dawkins is an incredible jackass. But I will always give him mad props for landing Lalla Ward (best Doctor Who companion) as a wife.
The Thin Black Duke
@Citizen Alan: And that’s why Maher got a second chance. Nowadays, Maher attacks the targets that his right-wing masters tells him to. Louis C.K. is getting a second chance too. Bill Hicks never did. I wonder why.
Kathleen
@UncleEbeneezer: IMHO comedians whining about “woke” and “cancel culture” are pissed because they get push back for punching down on women, LGBTQ, people of different races, etc. If you’re not losing your audience or livelihood why do you have to play victim? If it’s affecting, your livelihood dig deeper for your material. Stand up comics are like cops though. From what I’ve observed the will go the wall for each other.
Kathleen
@artem1s: I donate monthly. Least I can do. I think Elias and Co are still engaged defending election laws in all the states.
Geminid
@cain: I expect the Russians were too smart to put money into FTX. They know how easy cryptocurrency investments are to steal because they’re doing a lot of the stealing.
Kathleen
@Kay: I’m also afraid we’re going to lose too many doctors. I read story from a source I’ve forgotten (Ohio News?) about doctors detailing what they have to go through serve pregnant women and younger. It was horrible. I can’t see why they would want to stay or how Ohio can attract new doctors.
Kathleen
@Immanentize: She appeared on a Zoom Fundraiser for either Shontel Brown or Emelia Sykes a couple of years ago . I just love her.
Eunicecycle
@Kathleen: and from what Husted has said, the legislature is going to go for MORE restrictions.
Soprano2
@lowtechcyclist: He doesn’t notice book banning, either. When that was brought up on his show his response was that he didn’t care because it doesn’t affect him. He’s greatly offended that a movie some comedian directed that has an offensive stereotypical Mexican American character has been put on ice by the production company, though.
Kathleen
@The Thin Black Duke: TBH I thought Maher could be brilliant about 15-20 years ago. I saw him live in Cincy and noted the audience was the most diverse at s Cincinnati event (this was about 2006). I also enjoyed Real Time and New Rules for many years. Then I found his routine and tropes tiring sometime during Obama’s presidency and I quit watching. So many comics (Stewart, Maher) revealed their racism and I’ve never forgotten or forgiven.
Weapon X
@frosty: still, that is about 10% lower than he should have expected given that he represents an area in Central PA. His campaign was anemic. I don’t know how he thought he could win with that strategy, except maybe he would be appointed directly by God.
Kathleen
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Totally agree.
Kathleen
Deleted
Kathleen
Texas and Florida are bad but Ohio Rethuglicans have their own brand of unique Midwest evil.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Citizen Alan: (from Guys and Dolls)
Soprano2
@danielx: Same here except for the snow, which may be coming on Monday.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Two Broke Girls is amazing in that not even the constant presence of Kat Dennings can make it watchable. It’s one of those shows like The Big Bang Theory where all the jokes are one character saying something mean to another one for no well-motivated reason, pause for laugh.
tybee
@OzarkHillbilly:
fuck winter
J R in WV
@frosty:
I heard that election evening, Mastriano and his wife were publically and loudly praying for and proclaiming that GAWD was going to make the vote come out in his favor. Clearly a well balanced and normal person!