Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

The revolution will be supervised.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

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

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

We won’t go back.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Republicans in disarray!

This fight is for everything.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

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

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

I did not have this on my fuck 2024 bingo card.

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Reader Interactions

201Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Ashley Parker, whom I have generally liked over the years, is auditioning to be the new Maggie Haberman, and true to form the Beltway Press Corpse is circling the wagons, including Maggie her own self.

    Ashley Parker @AshleyRParker

    I spent four years covering the Trump WH and two years covering the Biden WH. What’s fascinating is that they both lie, albeit in v different ways. Trump team was shameless, whereas Biden team is too cute by half.

    Confused? I was too. It’s about the Bidens saying their granddaughter’s WH wedding was a private event, but Vogue took some pictures, apparently.

    Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias
    You read this and think it’s going to be about the CIA staging a coup or something but it’s actually a complaint that Vogue, rather than the White House press corps, was given access to Naomi Biden’s wedding.

  3. 3.

    lowtechcyclist

    Good Lord, the desperation of the White House Press Corpse to find something, anything, to bothsides about between Trump and Biden.

    ETA: Yanno, I don’t blame normies for believing there isn’t that much difference between the two sides’ behavior, given that the media tells them all the time that they’re equally bad.

  6. 6.

    Ken

    Anna Bower (lawfareblog.com, twitter) has some reporting on the 11th circuit hearing. The assigned three-judge panel includes two of the judges who wrote the opinion in the September ruling on the classified documents. That’s the one that said “the district court [Judge Cannon] abused its discretion in exercising equitable jurisdiction here”. Bower sees no reason today’s ruling should be any better for Trump.

  8. 8.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Bob Sampson @bobsalpha1 1h

    The right loves to attack the media to make sure their voters never take them seriously, and it’s funny how the media’s response to that is to humiliate themselves trying to both sides everything about the two party’s, I’m not sure how you even tweet something that embarrassing.

  9. 9.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud:

    I think some of the details fell out of my ears while I slept, or maybe the election erased them.

    So it’s the oral argument for the appeal that is asking the 11th circuit to ditch the special master and let the DOJ do their fucking job?

  12. 12.

    WaterGirl

    I am cleaning up some of the 200 or so open windows / tabs in my browser, and came across this gem from Nancy Pelosi’s announcement last week.  From Brian Tyler Cohen.

    Speaker Pelosi just said on the House floor, “I have enjoyed working with 3 presidents.” She served as Speaker under 4 presidents.

    If we talked about that previously, I missed it.

  14. 14.

    Geminid

    @Baud: My Atlanta friend was planning to attend the 11th Circuit oral arguments. I hope he will give me a report. Warren was a pretty shrewd civil attorney until he had to retire for health reasons.

    I think Justice Department lawyers are trying to get Trump’s whole lawsuit over the seized documents dismissed.

  15. 15.

    brendancalling

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I used to have to watch Parker on the teevee when I worked for Raw Story. She’s actually pretty awful, like most politics reporters.

    Re: Open Thread. I’ve also mainly been away from the news today. We had a half day today (well, students did) so we could do report card conferences this afternoon. I have to stay til 2:34. I have seen one parent, and it was for one of my good students. I am not entirely complaining about this. I have 11 minutes left as of this typing, and would be glad to not have an angry parent screaming at me.

    You might think I’m disappointed at the low turnout, but I’m not surprised at all. Not out of cynicism, however. I’m disappointed that our large public school, in which the majority of students are low-income, scheduled report card conferences on a weekday afternoon when parents are working. We did a meet-the-parents NIGHT back in September, so I’m not sure why they didn’t schedule it for the evening and give us some extra money for the inconvenience/overtime. OTOH, I’m not one of the galaxy-brains that have run the Philadelphia School District into one ditch after another, so what do I know?

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    @WaterGirl: That struck me during her speech — IIRC, she even conspicuously name-checked Bush II, Obama and Biden, as if Trump was never POTUS at all. Which is, of course, as it should be.

  17. 17.

    rikyrah

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

     

    Ashley Parker, whom I have generally liked over the years, is auditioning to be the new Maggie Haberman, and true to form the Beltway Press Corpse is circling the wagons, including Maggie her own self.

     

    They are clowning. Trying to BOTH SIDES this, when it’s not that.

    And, when the lowly people tell her that she’s full of shyt, here comes the whining from these incompetent muthaphuckas.

     

    The audacity of these clowns. Like we didn’t see how they cowered and didn’t do shyt during Dolt45’s term.

  20. 20.

    rikyrah

    @lowtechcyclist:

     

    Good Lord, the desperation of the White House Press Corpse to find something, anything, to bothsides about between Trump and Biden.

     

    They have been pissed ever since they were denied access to Naomi’s wedding.

    And, then, to find out that it will be in VOGUE?

    Madder than a muthaphucka.

  22. 22.

    Ken

    @WaterGirl: So it’s the oral argument for the appeal that is asking the 11th circuit to ditch the special master and let the DOJ do their fucking job?

    Yes, but with more Latin.

    I hope, though, that Trump is still on the hook for the special master fees. Especially now that he’s “announced”, and the RNC won’t be paying his legal bills. (Though of course that requires the RNC to have a spine.)

  24. 24.

    WaterGirl

    @brendancalling:

    So report card conferences are basically open office hours for any parent who wants to come in and talk about their kid / report card?

    So not parent-teacher conferences, which is the only thing I ever knew about.

  26. 26.

    TriassicSands

    @WaterGirl:

    It’s hard to imagine anyone enjoying working with Trump. His dishonesty, narcissism, and stupidity must be maddening when one is in the same room with him.

    Trump opens his mouth…. What will come out?

    An absurd lie? Laughable claims of nonexistent expertise? Predictable whining about what a victim he is?

    One thing is guaranteed, it will be exhausting to listen to and impossible to take seriously.

    And “I have had the honor to work with President ___________…

    I can’t imagine any sane person ever uttering those words about Trump. My guess is that anytime a Democrat left a meeting with Trump all they could think about was taking a shower…a very hot shower.

  28. 28.

    MazeDancer

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    The only liars are the press.

    Vogue staged a fashion shoot some days beforehand. Like they do with most weddings. Because they want to control the lighting, mood, hair, make-up, etc.

    And the results are gorgeous. (BTW, the author of that Vogue piece is the daughter of Candace Bergen and Louis Malle.)

    The “day of” pics in the layout were taken by the wedding photographer.

    Naomi Biden could have invited Anna Wintour and the entire staff of Vogue to her wedding. It was private. But she didn’t.

    And Vogue is now, and ever was, a fashion magazine. Not a news source.

    Ashley Parker has become a right winger. Or at least a Biden attacker.

  31. 31.

    different-church-lady

    @Geminid: ​
      I seriously think in the future, children are going to ask, “Mommy, why does the presidential stamp series skip over the 45 cent value?”

  32. 32.

    Steeplejack

    @rikyrah:

    There’s absolutely no modern American political equivalent to the toxic combination of incompetence, corruption, and narcissism that is Trump and any attempt to find some thread of equivalency will always look like the worst sort of impulse to normalize him.

    — [email protected] (@Rschooley) November 22, 2022

  33. 33.

    TriassicSands

    @WaterGirl:

    One of the most memorable moments (at least for me) of the Trump reign of error was watching Pelosi rip in two her copy of Trump’s SOTU speech just after he finished speaking. I think some Republicans wanted to “punish” Pelosi for destroying an official document or some such nonsense. (Stolen classified documents lying around Trump’s tacky palace in Florida, doesn’t bother them at all.)

    Pelosi, to her credit, and quite apart from the traditional norms of the federal government, never made any effort to hide her disdain for Trump.

  36. 36.

    Martin

    Supreme Court says Congress can get Trumps tax returns. Problem is it’s the House requesting it so Democrats have about 5 weeks to make hay and build a vehicle to send them over to the Senate.

  37. 37.

    CaseyL

    @WaterGirl: I don’t know if there’s any particular wedding etiquette saying you can’t change clothes between ceremony and reception, but as a practical matter the wedding pair certainly can if they wish. Receptions are rarely held where the ceremony takes place; easy peasy to change into a different outfit before heading off to the reception venue.

    (Most brides don’t, because the wedding reception is also where the bulk of photos are taken.)

  40. 40.

    TriassicSands

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I like to think she had to swallow hard to say something nice about Bush to make her point stronger.

    Not necessarily. She spoke of “historic investments in clean energy with George W. Bush…”

    But she had to mention Bush. Otherwise, her statement would have been seen as clearly partisan and without any impact.

    While she probably loathed Bush, I can imagine she appreciated making some progress with him. And his inclusion made her statement bipartisan and, by Trump’s conspicuous absence, all the more conspicuously insulting to someone no serious person could ever consider worthy of being president.

  41. 41.

    cope

    And my age shows as I remember this day as the anniversary of marching solemnly into our middle school gym to watch a small TV on a cart carrying the news that the president had been shot.

  42. 42.

    delphinium

    @WaterGirl: ​
    I used to occasionally watch the show ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ (don’t judge) and it was fairly common (for those who could afford it) to get both a wedding gown and another dress for the reception.

  44. 44.

    Martin

    @brendancalling: It’s called ‘deliberate inefficiency’. It’s a service they can show off to parents that the district never really needs to deliver on. It’s a weird thing that everyone feels like they benefit from, and yet makes the whole system worse.

    It’s a design pattern that took me a few years to recognize at work and became one of my side crusades to put an end to.

  45. 45.

    WaterGirl

    @CaseyL: @MazeDancer: @eclare:

    Thanks, I am clearly not up on bridal ettiquite.  But I guess for the royal wedding Megan did have two wedding gowns, which were both beautiful.

    edit:  good to know!  I obviously wasn’t judging, I just wondered if that was a thing.

  48. 48.

    Martin

    @WaterGirl: Yeah, pretty common now. Lets you let loose in the reception without possibly ruining the dress.

    My extraordinarily catholic cousin took it to the next level by consummating the marriage during the dress change which my aunt proudly announced to the family. Everyone thought that was super fucking weird.

  49. 49.

    Amir Khalid

    In case anybody missed it, three days after the general election Malaysia still has a hung Parliament: there is no sign of either Pakatan Harapan or Perikatan Nasional being to cobble together a working majority. His Majesty the Agong is therefore unable to appoint a PM.

  51. 51.

    lowtechcyclist

    @rikyrah:

    They have been pissed ever since they were denied access to Naomi’s wedding.

    The poor dears!  How it must sting, that they were excluded from the wedding of someone they barely knew.  I so deeply feel their pain!

  53. 53.

    Brachiator

    @cope:

    And my age shows as I remember this day as the anniversary of marching solemnly into our middle school gym to watch a small TV on a cart carrying the news that the president had been shot.

    It’s strange that John Kennedy is ancient history for many people.

    I was an elementary school student. In Dallas. It was the first time I saw adults openly cry.

    And it was not just that people loved JFK. People were not looking to make America great again. They were not looking back at a glorious past. They believed that the future would be better for more of everybody.

  57. 57.

    Geminid

    @Amir Khalid: I remember you saying that Malaysia has not had such an inconclusive election before. Are there inter-party emnities that prevent a national unity government?

    I’m also curious: is there much anxiety among Malaysians about this situation?.

  64. 64.

    James E Powell

    @WaterGirl:

    How is it that no one in these “reporters” lives loves these people enough to tell them they are making fools of themselves?

    I’m inferring this from their public reactions, but I get the impression that anyone who would tell them that would no longer be in those reporters’ lives.

  69. 69.

    Cameron

    @cope: I was in junior high in Saudi Arabia at the time.  The teacher was a major JFK fan; he was called out for a few minutes and returned looking like nobody I’d ever seen. School was over for the day. We just waited till it was time to go home.

  70. 70.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @MazeDancer: Ashley Parker is also one of the reporters who wrote about Bidens “non-stop Wilmington weekends”   you know, Wilmington Delaware.  Where his wife and 2 of his children are buried.  Trying to compare it with Dumps endless golf trips.

  71. 71.

    sab

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: A wedding is a social event, and a hopefully a once in a lifetime event for the young couple. Of course they would have Vogue not the White House press corps cover it. You want folks who can be counted on to be positive and classy.

  72. 72.

    Barbara

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s even worse than that because, apparently, Vogue did not photograph the wedding — the photo shoot preceded the wedding day.  So it’s Ashley Parker not the Bidens who is telling fibs.

    Basically, she has to “both sides” it or else she has no fig leaf to cover what she is actually doing, which is whining that she didn’t get an invite to hobnob with influential people.  So, so cringeworthy it’s painful.

  74. 74.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Renie: I don’t think anyone who was past the age of reason could ever forget where s/he was when s/he heard – like Challenger or 9-11.

    I was in a scheduled session with my junior-high guidance counselor when the intercom squawkbox just outside the door started squawking. I caught enough to stop Mr C in midsentence saying, Excuse me, but this sounds like something we need to listen to. And it was. Swiftly dismissed, I stopped on the way back to class at the classroom of my teacher the year before, stuck my head in, and suggested she turn on the intercom because the President has been shot. (That nasty old Southron b*tch probably celebrated with a mint julep when she got home.)

  80. 80.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @rikyrah:

    And, then, to find out that it will be in VOGUE?

    Madder than a muthaphucka.

    If Biden had only had cocktail parties for the press corps with famous people at his Delaware home and given them a tire swing, his whole presidency would have been lavishly fawned over.

  81. 81.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Barbara: I’ve seen some criticism of Parker and some wagon-circling. I cannot believe they don’t see how petty, if not creepy, she’s making them all look

  82. 82.

    Mimi haha

    @cope: Our teacher burst into tears and sent us home. The kids on my block were sure the nukes where on the way. I’m not sure now we knew what that meant.

  87. 87.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    In which a professor of media studies has a concise lesson for Maggie Haberman (of all people, of all stories, she should take the holiday week as an excuse to lay low)

    Ted Genoways@TedGenoways 2h
    Actually, no. The press is supposed to prioritize matters of importance and allocate space accordingly to contextualize events for readers. Calling out “lies” about a wedding after years of refusing to use that word in matters of national security is a disservice to readers.

    Maggie Haberman@maggieNYT. 5h
    We cover the small lies politicians tell because they can give way to bigger ones, for folks wondering why this is news. That’s what the press is supposed to do.

    ETA: somebody should wait outside Ashley Parker’s office and yell “WHAT ABOUT YOUR GAFFE!” as she walks to her car

  88. 88.

    patrick II

    It is my mother’s 100th birthday today . She is a kind and loving person still . She is staying with my sister now. Her old friend Gloria called to get her new phone number. I remindeed Gloria that it was Mom’s 100th birthday, Gloria said ” Yes dear, I know. I’m one hundred and one.”
    I guess age gets to be a competitive thing at some point.

  89. 89.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Not sure if this has been discussed here yet but NY AG also reconsidering charges for Trump’s hush money to Stormy Daniels because Trump moving to Florida in 2019 put statute of limitations on hold and there is plenty of time left on the clock.  It would be such freaking poetic justice if moving to a deep red state in order to pay less taxes ends up resulting in criminal charges in NY (fingers crossed).

    Also, Lindsey Graham testified in Fulton County Grand Jury today, Flynn testimony on temporary stay. Fani Willis said a month ago that they believe crimes were committed and people will do jail time.

  90. 90.

    Fake Irishman

    @Amir Khalid:

    I guess you all have become Belgium then. I mean, there are worse things.

    (also, hung parliaments after elections are far better than hung parliaments after a coup)

  94. 94.

    AWOL

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Even Trump called her a “lousy reporter.” He was right. He knows a true narcissist when he sees one. She’s mentally ill; she only exists when someone is paying attention to her blather. She’s perfect for the  RepublicanAnon network, MSNBC, where I used to observe her and realize anyone dragged off the street could be a pundit.

  95. 95.

    Fake Irishman

    @Fake Irishman:

    In all seriousness, though, how long can this process go on? I know it’s not unusual in European countries to take a few days or weeks to sort things out for a coalition government when election results are murky before trying again (look at Israel too).

  97. 97.

    CaseyL

    On the day JFK was murdered, I was just barely old enough to comprehend that Something Really Bad had happened. I was 8, which would have put me in 2nd Grade, but I don’t remember what happened at school, whether we were sent home.  We probably were: this was a neighborhood school, and we all walked to and from, and Moms were 99.9% stay-at-home Moms. So there wouldn’t have been a logistical mess sending us all home.

    I don’t have any clear memory of the day itself, but do remember being at my grandmother’s house, with as many family members as would fit in there, watching the funeral.  Ii remember this because one of the TV announcers kept repeating that Mrs. Kennedy had taken off her wedding ring and put it in the casket with her husband.   (I also remember thinking the President should stop being dead, since everyone was so upset about it.)

  98. 98.

    geg6

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    It wasn’t even the wedding.  Vogue did a pre-wedding photo shoot.  That’s it.  No press, including Vogue, at the actual wedding.
    And who believes any one of the WHPC could pick the bride out of a lineup?  What gives them the unmitigated gall to think they should be there?  Gawd, I despise these people.

  99. 99.

    sab

    @patrick II: That’s lovely that she still has old friends around with everyone’s memory intact. My dad is 98, moderatly happy even with dementia, but he has no one surviving from when he was younger. Just his kids.

  100. 100.

    eclare

    @JoyceH:   I remember decades ago I was a bridesmaid, and the wedding gown had discreet hooks in the back so that after the wedding you could “bustle” the dress for the reception.

  102. 102.

    geg6

    @WaterGirl:

    Yes, it happens all the time.  Have you ever tried to dance in some super fancy, long trained wedding gown?  Sometimes they go short for the reception dress.

  103. 103.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Scout211:

    You’re welcome, and yes, excellent thread.

    @sab:

    but he has no one surviving from when he was younger. Just his kids.

    My dad is 91, no dementia thank goodness, and that’s been the hardest thing, knowing that all his contemporaries are gone.

  104. 104.

    Geminid

    @geg6:

    From the sarcastic Ragnarok Lobster:

         The GOP squeaks to victory to recapture leadership and immediately promises to resurrect the Salem Witch Trials and access journalism’s response is “OH MY GOD, WE DIDN’T GET AN INVITE TO NAOMI BIDEN’S WEDDING”

    @eclecticbrotha

    I actually kind of like this controversy. I think it makes the press look stupid to regular people, and makes Biden’s decision to keep them away a look like a sound one.

  105. 105.

    Gretchen

    @delphinium: we went to the Say Yes To theDress store in NY as kind of a joke but the older lady assigned to us immediately brought the perfect dress. My daughter tried others, but that was the one. Unfortunately the big wedding in July 2020 was canceled for covid and only the 14 people at the backyard wedding saw it, but it was gorgeous.

  107. 107.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    mini-thread, with screenshots of Parker and another hack trying to justify their poutrage

    Josh Marshall @joshtpm 
    file under, elite national political press is broken

    2/ For clarity, I’m not sure what the even technical white lie was here.
    read below is what it was referring to. But the “lie” in question was basically trying to waive press off biden’s granddaugther’s wedding. so, you know, lying to the press.

  110. 110.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Uncle Cosmo: My mom still speaks of the assassination of JFK as the moment everything in the culture changed, mostly for the worse. I think everyone of her generation has that feeling, though for me I just appeared in the aftermath, like my daughter must feel about 9/11/2001.

    I read an essay once that said that America’s soul died when Kennedy was shot. So I guess I never experienced a society that had a soul.

  111. 111.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @Gravenstone:People who keep so many tabs open frighten me.

    That was my phone last year. I’m down to about 30. The phone works a lot better now.

  112. 112.

    MisterDancer

    In politically-related Twitter news, Musk is agreeing with Convicted Felon Dinesh D’Souza, and in this way we get a direct view into the future of the service for people like us. I’ll transcribe for those who don’t need to give clicks to either wanker:

    Convicted Felon D’Souza:

    We don’t hear much about Democrats and leftists being let back onto Twitter. Why? Because they were never kicked off in the first place. Their lies and misinformation simply escaped all scrutiny. Censorship has been deployed as a one-way operation against conservatives @elonmusk

    Richest Insecure Wanker Musk:

    Correct

    I’m working on the piece I promised about tools to work around issues with Twitter, er you stay, go, or never used. You can find the above captured via one of those tools here.

  114. 114.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @Matt McIrvin: My mom still speaks of the assassination of JFK as the moment everything in the culture changed, mostly for the worse. I think everyone of her generation has that feeling, though for me I just appeared in the aftermath, like my daughter must feel about 9/11/2001.

    I definitely think of 9/11 that way. Also Reagan’s election even though it was three years before I was born.

  116. 116.

    sdhays

    @hw3: Also via TPM (but not a TPM link):

    A Chandler Republican recently elected to the Arizona House of Representatives says that she will not cast her vote on any bill unless the 2022 election is redone.

    Liz Harris, recently elected to represent Legislative District 13 which encompasses much of Chandler, issued the statement on Instagram and her campaign website saying in part “it has become obvious that we need to hold a new election immediately.”

    She’s going to coerce her colleagues into completely redoing the previous election by (checks notes) simply refusing to do her job and sabotaging her own party’s slim majority in the Arizona House.

    I have to applaud her decision since it means she’ll actually be more useful than most of her Republican colleagues.

  119. 119.

    delphinium

    @Gretchen: ​Yeah, I didn’t care for some of the family drama on the show but it was cool when a bride would come in thinking she wanted a certain type of dress only to have the employees choose a completely different style that looked amazing and was actually the right one for that bride.​

    Also, sorry that your daughter’s wedding got cancelled due to Covid.

  120. 120.

    Nora

    @Qrop Non Sequitur: ​
      Reagan’s election was the first Presidential election I was able to vote in. I still remember standing in line at the Student Union in Madison, Wisconsin, waiting to vote and hearing that the press had already called it for Reagan. I remember that feeling of deep dread — sort of like 2016.

    I, too, believe that Reagan’s election was one of those turning points for the country, and not in a good direction.

  121. 121.

    eachother

    Ashley Parker has been an antagonist since I can remember.  A mostly bitter, not sweet person.  Predictably partisan and offering ‘the other side’ on otherwise decent TV segments not trending nasty until it’s her turn.  IMO.

  122. 122.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @sdhays: So the election she won is fraudulent? I thought Republicans only stole elections through technically legal means, Trump notwithstanding.

    She must know that this was conducted by professionals with observers et c. et c.

  123. 123.

    Soprano2

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I guess she can’t understand why Naomi Biden didn’t want her wedding day ruined by reporters trying to yell questions at her dad and grandfather, and trying to take embarrassing pictures of everyone. Does the press corp not understand the difference between doing a days before photo shoot and interview and actually being at the event? I guess they can’t tell that the day-of pictures were taken by her wedding photographer. I swear, they are super-bored if this is what they think is a scandal.

  124. 124.

    Martin

    @WaterGirl: I haven’t had many moments in my life where everyone was at a legitimate loss for words, but that was one of them. She told us like this was a perfectly normal thing – understanding that she’s surrounded by 4 siblings who all had perfectly ‘what the fuck!’ expressions on their faces.

    So I have no goddamn idea where she got that idea from, but she was the first PhD in the family, so I blame grad school.

  125. 125.

    sab

    @Steeplejack: Well they all had Press at their weddings, because their co-workers and friends are all Press.

    OTOH re Bidens: Actually, it would be kind of cool to have nice grand-parents living in a house so big that you could just move into a spare room until after the wedding you move into more permanent housing.

  126. 126.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: ​

    I think it was the poet Peter Townsend who said, “meet the new boss, same as the old boss”

    This is Biden’s Katrina! Tan Suit!

    The fuckers spent eight years desperately trying to create a false equivalency btwn anything Obama did, including eating a cheeseburger with mustard, and Dubya’ fuck up:

    The idiocy of the media’s “Obama’s Katrina” trope
    By Sun-Times Wire Nov 15, 2013

    The mainstream press has, in the last few years, shown a tendency to latch on to any sort of governing or natural disaster under the Obama Administration and refer to it as “Obama’s Katrina.”​​​

  127. 127.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @Nora: hearing that the press had already called it for Reagan. I remember that feeling of deep dread — sort of like 2016.

    That was 2004 for me. I remember being at work just knowing “we’re doomed.” Still yet to be seen  but, if so, my timetable was way too short.

  128. 128.

    CarolPW

    @Matt McIrvin: ​
     It wasn’t just JFK – it was also Bobby, Martin, and Malcolm. Big names talking about America’s soul, heart and mind were murdered in a pretty short span of time, and it was devastating.

  129. 129.

    sab

    @Martin: Every family is weird in its own way. Your’s sounds kind of happy family weird. Or working too hard to announce they held off until marriage.

  134. 134.

    sab

    @Nora: I volunteered for and worked for McGovern. Years later I learned Nixon bent and broke every rule to get him nominated as his opponent.

    I still loved the man. One of my hugest regrets as one of his volunteeers is that I didn’t send him a fan letter right away, saying how sad I was for him and us, and how much he had inspired me. He thought his failure broke our hearts. It didn’t break mine. Still voting. Still a Dem.

  135. 135.

    Martin

    @sab: It’s happy weird. We mostly ignore all cultural conventions anyway. My grandmother wasn’t ever grandma – she was Maria. Birthday cards weren’t a thing. Events happened if we felt like it.

    With the exception of my aunt and her kids, Catholic as a practicing thing died out with my grandmother. She got screwed over pretty hard by the church, so from there out we had the normal kind of recovering catholic behavior and expectations but my aunt went back in pretty hard. I think moments like that were reassuring to her siblings that they made the right decision.

    Did make dancing with the bride really fucking awkward though. I mean, she was really having a big moment right there and I did not feel like I should be a part of that.

  136. 136.

    HumboldtBlue

    @sab: ​ 

    I’m 7th of 8 (9 actually, he died after three days a few years before I came along) and we have lost two since the turn of the century. My mother gave birth to nine children in 10 years, I’m an Irish twin with my next oldest sister.

  138. 138.

    sab

    @sdhays: Well her constiuents who voted for her certainly wasted their votes. I’ll chortle away until she rethinks her position. Which she will.

  140. 140.

    Martin

    @sab: It was kind of to be expected. He had been a priest but apparently being a priest involves a hell of a lot of hustle to get established and that wasn’t really his bag so it didn’t work out for him. She was working for a catholic charity. So we’re talking like 18 months (tops) after he took off the collar we’re all in a ballroom.

    His brother shot off to NYC to live with his girlfriend at first opportunity and work at an NGO. He established himself on team ‘rest of the family’ pretty early on. The Prince William/Harry dynamic feels *very* familiar.

  145. 145.

    eachother

    JFK – RIP

    I was in 5th grade.  No authority had the decency to tell us what had happened.  The adults were clearly in distress.  We finished the full day.  Arriving home, my Grandmother and Mother were crying.  I found out why.  Then saw Oswald shot on Sunday TV.

    Kennedy got deep into the emotional flesh.  Many years later, I would still see his picture hung on walls in homes in many places outside the US.

    Who shot Kennedy?  I think they painted our National House as told in the book I Heard You Paint Houses by  Charles Brandt.

    I have saved the newspapers and magazines from that tragedy for 59 years.  And for the same 59 years, the knowledge of who and why have been withheld from the American People.  Why  is the information in those federal files still not released 60 years later?

  146. 146.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @CarolPW:

    Agreed. JFK’s assassination was a shock unlike any other, of course; but the murders of MLK and RFK just took the stuffing right out of me. The “homegrown” horrors — the assassinations of the ‘60s, OKC, January 6 — distress me in a kind of visceral way that 9/11 and Pearl Harbor* don’t, as awful as they both obviously were.

    *I wasn’t yet born, although I was on the way, but 12/7/41 was such a solemn public and family commemoration when I was a kid that it always feels to me as though I actually remember it.

  149. 149.

    Martin

    @sab: Education. Pretty highly regarded teacher. Which I can totally see. I mean, she’s great, don’t get me wrong. I would walk through fire for her. She’s the catalyst for my my branch of the family is totally disowned from the rest because she had the audacity to fall for a black guy and get pregnant which the extended family was not fucking okay which cause my grandmother to pack everyone up and run to California to literally get as far away from them as possible. The relationship didn’t work, she put my cousin up for adoption, and around the time I got married I learned the whole story *and* met my new cousin after they sought each other out.

    And because life is fucking weird, this is the cousin that went to high school with a good friend of my wife and I, so to this day he knows her better than I do. We’re all the same age.

    My family is fucking filled with stories like this.

  151. 151.

    Martin

    @WaterGirl: Her son, actually. He was the priest.

    I know it’s hard to keep up, but this is like 100% normal for us. You just gotta roll with it sometimes.

  152. 152.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    The 2017 film “The Post” recounts how the Washington Post acquired The Pentagon Papers and the publisher’s decisions to print them at the risk of her financial peril, transforming the daily from a shitty local to a leading national.

    The movie begins showing the Post as laughingly insignificant as they carp and whine over lack of access to a White House wedding.

    It’s hilarious and tragic how they can’t see themselves.

  153. 153.

    trnc

    @WaterGirl:

    Speaker Pelosi just said on the House floor, “I have enjoyed working with 3 presidents.” She served as Speaker under 4 presidents.

    …

    If we talked about that previously, I missed it.

    I saw it discussed a bit, but I don’t remember where. At any rate, I expect it to be a timeless another classic from Madame Speaker.

  154. 154.

    trollhattan

    “Too cute!”
    “No, you’re too cute!”
    “Am not.”
    “So are!”​
    This “Mean Girls II” is lit.

  157. 157.

    Suzanne

    @rikyrah:

    They have been pissed ever since they were denied access to Naomi’s wedding.

    And, then, to find out that it will be in VOGUE?

     

    The Trumps are apparently salty at Vogue, because Melania wasn’t asked to be on the cover during the TFG Maladministration. Because she is a fashion victim and looks cheap.

  158. 158.

    Martin

    @sab: Don’t get me wrong – the family holds together because we’ve pretty much lurched from one form of tragedy to another. There’s really not a lot of familial loyalty – you get invited to Thanksgiving if we like you and for no other reason. So nobody can really afford to abuse the relationship because we will drop you from the chat group in a hot second. The family holds together because everyone has to work at it, and we have no expectation that anyone is coming to help us because the church, family, community have all at one point or another turned on us. So fuck any obligation we feel to any of them. You gotta earn it with us.

  159. 159.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    Donald’s no good very bad day:

    Lindsey Graham testified for 2 hours to the GA Grand Jury

    SCOTUS voted 9-0 to send his tax returns to the House

    Jim Trusty got his clock cleaned by the 11th circuit in the docs case

    I’ll cover it all with @DGComedy on tomorrow’s @dailybeanspod!

    — Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) November 22, 2022

    Between that 11th C beatdown and the SCOTUS denial, that may have been the worst 40 minutes of Trump’s legal life.

    — emptywheel (@emptywheel) November 22, 2022​

     
    Roll tide, roll

  160. 160.

    wenchacha

    @WaterGirl: Forty-three years ago, I didn’t. I did change into a wool tweed suit (why?) when we made our exit after the reception. Reception was at a German supper club, which was not unlike the reception hall for “,The Deer Hunter.”

    I have since seen new dresses for post-wedding. Times do change!

  161. 161.

    sab

    OT I just got an ad in the mail ” Imagine your home is this organized” then photos of a very  big walk in closet, just for clothes.

    Imagine if my home was so big that my imaginary closet was bigger than my current living room.

    I can imagine that that would make organizing for Turkey Day a whole lot easier.

  162. 162.

    Suzanne

    @Martin:

    My extraordinarily catholic cousin took it to the next level by consummating the marriage during the dress change which my aunt proudly announced to the family. Everyone thought that was super fucking weird. 

    The first part of that is normal. The second part of that is fucking weird as shit.

    And the glossed-over step of informing Mom is terrifying.

  164. 164.

    JimBob

    @sab:  My old man went to the last mondale rally before the  election ,stood around for hours in the rain in Boston in November. That putz Mondale came out said a few words and left , I watched on TV, could tell he did not give a crap about that crowd, just blew them off. Also, a while before he was caught on camera telling a bunch of farmer types how he was going to screw over coastal liberals for them. sometimes voting Democrat feels like colonoscopy prep.

  166. 166.

    sab

    @Martin: This is why I love my husband and his family so much. They are nutzo Catholic but kind of roll with everyone’s crises of faith, which they expect. They even accept lapsing and all that.

    My family expects you to adhere to the social norms of life in the country club. I can’t describe it, other than a weird oppressive ” this is how it is done.” They aren’t even trying to impress their own community, just some weird transnational WASP figment of their  immagination.

    We girls married out into other cultures. My brother hasn’t and is still waiting for the perfect WASP girl. ( They don’t exist. Have you not noticed your three sisters? All of us.?)

  169. 169.

    Philbert

    My late sweetheart was from Texas. When JFK was killed her father said ‘Its just as well, he’s a Communist and a Catholic anyway”. Sigh.

  170. 170.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:

    And it was not just that people loved JFK. People were not looking to make America great again. They were not looking back at a glorious past. They believed that the future would be better for more of everybody.

    I was a sophomore in HS. They assembled us in the auditorium and told us about it. My first thought was why? Why would someone do this. What could possibly compel them? I’ve never heard the answer to that question.

  171. 171.

    WaterGirl

    @Martin: yeah, I just now got to the part about him being a priest. In the crazy family department, I have an aunt that was married seven times although I believe that one, three and seven were all the same person.

  172. 172.

    WaterGirl

    @Suzanne: there’s actually more to that story and I think it was Melania who was at fault because something she did with Vogue but again they’re always the victim so the facts don’t matter. And I could give a flying fuck about Melania at this point, so it’s not even worth googling.

  174. 174.

    cain

    @hw3: ​
     
    The powers that be on both sides are now looking to get their revenge on him. Everyone who supported him including probably Cannon is going to get real nervous.

  175. 175.

    Geminid

    @cope: The oil processing facilities at Abqaiq were targeted by Iran in their first notable drone strikes. They launched 40 attack drones at Abqaiq and Khuraish(sp?) in September, 2019.

    I remember when, back in July, national security advisor Jake Sullivan said Iran planned to provide Russia with several hundred attack drones. Some people pooh-poohed Iranian drones, but I looked up the Abqaiq attack and saw that those suckers hit what they were aimed at.

  176. 176.

    Martin

    @Calouste: You know, I can’t confirm or deny either way on that one and I’m *not* going to ask for detail which would clarify things. I will note that when my aunt was informing us of this (while the wardrobe change was still under way) my uncle was nowhere to be seen.

  177. 177.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @James E Powell:

    Supremes will stall the DOJ on the docs.

    The Supremes haven’t been real friendly to Donald so far, and less as time goes on.

    @Gravenstone:

    boy, her constituents must love to hear that. “So we elected you to disenfranchise us? Did I get that right?”

    They elected her to fight for their belief that Democrats are an evil fringe that can only win by cheating, and that conservatives are the definition of America.  Sounds like she’s doing what they wanted.

  180. 180.

    J R in WV

    I was in Jr High when Kennedy was shot. Where I grew up, many people had three pictures on their living wall, FDR, Jesus, and JFK. I was in a science class with Mr Pugh, Emmet Pugh. I don’t know exactly why, but it was obvious that Mr Pugh was delighted that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. He was nearly chortling.

    I was pretty upset, along with most of the kids. Then the next day, or two, I was in the living room playing the piano when mom in the next room with the TV screamed… That was when Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey down live on TV. I got to see the replay just after mom stopped screaming. She was a Republican, but not crazy, and was horrified that JFK was killed.

    On her deathbed years later on, suffering with COPD from Phillip Morris Pall Malls, she told me she had been voting for Democrats for years, ever since Republicans had gone crazy over abortion. “Don’t tell your father!” so I didn’t, ever. I’m pretty sure mom lost a dearly beloved friend or cousin to an illegal abortion many years before. My grandma’s marriage was just a few months before my aunt Kitty was born, so horny is a family thing.

    Between JFK in Jr High and Bobby and Martin as a freshman in college, those murders really put me down as far as voting, though I was in the Navy and away from voting for years. By the time the voting age was 18, I was 21…

    I wish I had told Mr Pugh that he might want to think about the fact that most home in our town had three pictures on the living room wall, FDR, Jesus, and JFK, before he got too obviously happy about the murder of our president. But I was so young, and he was so big and mean. I mean, he had to already know he was a piece of shit, right?

  181. 181.

    Martin

    @sab: We adhere to no refined social norms (I mean, we wear pants, we’re not that rebellous). Further, we embrace the toppling of them. We’re the ones that show up at Thanksgiving with a tray of ribs and when told that it’s not really an appropriate thanksgiving food we reply ‘well now it fucking is!’.

    My grandmother was the one who invited all of the exchange students to stay with her over holidays. Family was always outnumbered by a dozen students from a dozen different countries all contributing their culture to the table. That’s just how we rolled and it was great. You never knew what you were walking into, and nobody argued because there was too much to experience. (I think a lot of holiday arguing is because nobody has anything better to talk about).

    My wife, I, and kids have a tradition of each year adding to the holiday must-watch content. None of it is normal. It’s just weird stuff that makes us happy, has nothing to do with Christmas, and it’s our tradition. Hallmark channel can go fuck themselves.

  182. 182.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Fake Irishman: ​I mean, there are worse things.

    Worse things than mayo on pommes frites and wildly overhyped and overpriced wheat “beer”? To apply the classic example of a double positive morphing into a negative: Yeah, right.

  184. 184.

    Scout211

    Georgia Republicans are asking the Georgia Supreme Court for an emergency stay of the lower court order that allowed Saturday voting. Link

    Their argument? Only Democratic-leaning counties plan to open on Saturday, therefore it is not equal. Huh?

    Sheesh, I could even solve that legal dilemma—open the Republican-leaning counties for early voting.

    Presto, chango! You’ve got equality.

  185. 185.

    Anyway

    Dinesh D’Souza is simply awful – an egregious liar — making a point of letting him back underscores Musk’s poor judgement. D’Souza is one of the worst RWers out there and that’s saying something given the competition.

  186. 186.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @CarolPW: ​ It wasn’t just JFK – it was also Bobby, Martin, and Malcolm. Big names talking about America’s soul, heart and mind were murdered in a pretty short span of time, and it was devastating.

    I have a copy of SF author Gordon Eklund’s novel The Eclipse of Dawn (1971), set in a 1988 when one last assassination (victim unnamed IIRC) has tumbled the USA into civil war, chaos and devastation. A suspect Presidential candidate espousing “regeneration” becomes fascinated with a psychic girl who claims to receive messages from a race of Octaurians living on Jupiter who, as a Japanese spaceship approaches the planet, she says will reveal themselves with a plan for saving mankind…

    I reread it a couple of years ago – it’s deeply depressing. Some of the whackadoodle conspiracy-theory nutjobs of today seem ripe for an Octaurian salvation story – just next door in a timeline of an infuriated and feral USA if John Hinckley had had a bigger gun and better aim. (YMMV)

  187. 187.

    sab

    Balloon juice hadn’t accepted my comments for the last hour. Claims invalid e-mail. I susbscribe. I have been commenting for at least ten years. Cancelling my Patreon subscription tomorrow.

  190. 190.

    Geminid

    @cope: Fortunately no one was killed in the September, 2019 drones strike near your former home of Abqaiq. It did disrupt production enough to cause a temporary spike in oil prices.

    The drones flew out of Houthi-controlled Yemen, and the Houthi government claimed responsibility. I am among the sceptical, though. I’m sure the Houthis are an intelligent and industrious people, but I think a more experienced party built and launched those drones.

     

     

    @Geminid:

  191. 191.

    Another Scott

    @sab: I see this one.  I assume it was a glitch of some sort.

    Hang in there.  You’re important here.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  192. 192.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @zhena gogolia: Fish and chips in Ireland with malt vinegar is 2dye4. (NB a major component of ketchup is vinegar.)

    (FTR I don’t really have a problem with mayo on frites so long as it’s decent mayo. I mean geez, potato salad and all that… I do have a problem with the Belgian whites – never found one with a taste I much liked, def prefer Czech pilsners. But hey, de gustibus usw. What you stuff in your piehole is your own bidniz & fine by me so long as you don’t get snobby about it.)

  194. 194.

    Amir Khalid

    To all the questions:

    These are the main obstacles to forming a majority coalition: Barisan Nasional, which ruled from independence in 1957 until Najib’s shenanigans were exposed in 2018, has reacted to the people’s stinging rejection by refusing to be the junior partner in any alliance with Pakatan Harapan or Perikatan Nasional; “We’d rather be in opposition,” they decided. Holy roller party PAS, whose leader recently blamed corruption on non-Muslims and thinks they shouldn’t have civil rights, has put off parties with a substantial non-Muslim base; they don’t want to be in any alliance with PAS.

    So Malaysia is now in uncharted territory. The caretaker Barisan government’s mandate has expired. The Agong can’t appoint a government on his own. I suppose we could muddle through until someone comes to their senses, but who knows how long that will take?

  195. 195.

    WaterGirl

    @sab:

    Balloon juice hadn’t accepted my comments for the last hour. Claims invalid e-mail. I susbscribe. I have been commenting for at least ten years. Cancelling my Patreon subscription tomorrow.

    I just checked and you are not in moderation, not in spam, and not in the trash.

    I do see that this comment has a different email address from the one you normally use.   Did you change the email address to see if that would allow you to comment, and then this one came through?

    The weird thing is, I have never seen an “invalid email” message from WordPress.  There are no logins on WordPress, so if there was a typo in your email address, for instance, it wouldn’t give you a message like that, your comment would show up, it would just be in moderation.  It’s not in moderation now, but maybe another front-pager freed it

    If you see this, please send me an email message.  my nym at balloon-juice.com

    thanks

  197. 197.

    Geminid

    @Amir Khalid: Will the ministers in the previous government keep their posts in the interim?

    That’s how it is done in Israel. For instance, Benny Gantz is still Minister of Defense even though his governing coalition “fell” last June. Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to work out his coalition’s new government, and Gantz will hold his post until Netanyahu does.

  198. 198.

    Cameron

    @Geminid: I thought the deal was that Houthis got the drones from Iran. Considering all the US equipment looking at Iran, it would have been pretty tough to launch across the Gulf undetected.

  199. 199.

    Geminid

    @Cameron: The Houthis more likely allowed Iranians to smuggle the drones in, most likely by ship, and then launch them. And maybe aybe give some training.

    That’s what tbe Russians seem to be doing with their drone attacks on Ukraine, except the drones don’t need to be smuggled. Iran can ship them by cargo plane or by ship across the Caspian sea to Astrakhan.

    I can’t blame the Houthis much, though. The Saudis were doing far worse to their people with indiscriminate bombing, and wrecking Saudi infrastructure was justifiable retaliation I think.

  200. 200.

    Jacel

    @zhena gogolia: Belgian pommes frites are especially good served with steamed mussels. I miss a small group of restaurants in San Francisco that served that combination with a wide variety of sauces.

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