Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

with the Kraken taking a plea, the Cheese stands alone.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

The lights are all blinking red.

People are complicated. Love is not.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

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

The problem people have with Biden’s age is the color of the VPs skin.

We still have time to mess this up!

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Sunday Morning Open Thread: Stuff to Watch

Sunday Morning Open Thread: Stuff to Watch

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Sunday Morning Open Thread 9

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)


And something to watch out for, if you’re in the DC area. An update on Thursday’s Late-Night post (gift link):

… Anthony, 64, a presidential historian and author, lost the most valuable thing he owns on Monday while walking from the White House to his hotel room.

“I’m trying to keep rational about this whole thing,” he said. But he’s devastated and hopes someone, somewhere in D.C. may have found it.

It doesn’t look like much, a small notecard with a black-and-white engraving of the North Portico of the White House framed by spindly, leafless branches of winter trees. But over the years, Anthony has doggedly collected the signatures of eight presidents and eight first ladies on the card — making it priceless…

He had just picked it up from the White House, where it had been locked in a safe for a year and three months after he left it with first lady Jill Biden when she promised to get President Biden to sign it. Anthony was heading home.

“His signature is really, just beautiful,” Anthony said to himself when he picked it up on Monday, so chuffed to add it to his collection and to have the card back in his hands.

It’s not just a history geek’s version of a signed, World Series baseball. This is a living, evolving souvenir, growing more valuable with each presidency, rich with the stories of every encounter that resulted in a signature. Hallways, events, dinners, a former president’s Palm Springs living room.

It had surpassed any expectations he had when, on a whim in the early 1990s, he sprung for a rare engraving — given only to high-ranking White House officials — that was signed by President Ronald Reagan. He asked Nancy Reagan to affix her signature.

A native New Yorker who now lives in California, he worked as her speechwriter and went on to write books about first families — first ladies in particular — for decades. He was just wrapping up three weeks of speeches at historical societies and readings and signings for his latest book, “Camera Girl: The Coming of Age of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy,” on the East Coast when the unthinkable happened…

Reeling, his mind clicks through the memories: the sunny day in Palm Springs he picked up autographs from Betty Ford and President Ford; when he was down to the wire as the Clintons prepared to depart the White House in 2001. He mailed it to George and Barbara Bush trusting they would sign and return it. They did, with a stern letter from the first lady scolding him for getting the signatures out of order.

The Carters signed it. So did the other Bushes. And he’ll never forget the helpful assistant who took the card from him at the White House gate and ran it up to the Obamas as they were eating dinner. They both signed it and he got it right back.

The Trumps? Anthony said he never had any connection to President Donald Trump and was never invited to their events, so that Richter-scale Sharpie scrawl was missing. (As a historian, he knew he’d work to get it — eventually. Let’s leave it at that.)

Jill Biden signed it at an event last year. And when he asked her for the president’s signature and she understood how precious the card — now bearing the signatures of three dead presidents and first ladies — had become, she promised to keep it safe for him until he could retrieve it with Biden’s signature…

Reader Interactions

177Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Should have put an airpod on it.

    ETA: I hope he finds it so I can add my signature some day.

  2. 2.

    eclare

    I have never heard of Linsey Davis, should I have?  Also the time is weird, this interview airs right before The Bachelorette?

    Oh it’s not on ABC.  It’s on prime, whatever that is.

  3. 3.

    waspuppet

    He mailed it to George and Barbara Bush trusting they would sign and return it. They did, with a stern letter from the first lady scolding him for getting the signatures out of order.

    This anecdote sounds a little charming and funny until you remember this is Barbara Bush we’re talking about, so she probably really meant it.

  4. 4.

    satby

    How much you wanna bet that if tfg had signed it he would have deliberately obliterated Obama’s signature just for spite?

  5. 5.

    MomSense

    I have a book that Nixon gave to HW Bush who then gave it to me.  Both signed it.  Is it worth anything?

  8. 8.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MomSense:

    Wow! Sounds as though it might be worth something to a collector. Have it appraised by an antiquarian.

    What’s the book?

  12. 12.

    Kathleen

    @Kathleen: Also apropos of nothing, my daughter posted this on Facebook this morning:

    I’m being subjected to Nickelback live tomorrow night.
    Someone save me

    When my SIL had an aquarium one of the fish leaped out of the tank. My brothers, daughter and I blamed it on my SIL’s love of Nickelback’s music.

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Joe Biden openly acknowledges his seventh grandchild for the first time

    “Our son Hunter and Navy’s mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward,” Biden said in a statement that was first reported by People magazine.

    “This is not a political issue, it’s a family matter,” he said. “Jill and I only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.”

    But of course…

    The president, who has made a commitment to family central to his public persona, has faced increasing criticism from political rivals and pundits for failing to acknowledge the granddaughter.

    For starters, that head line really gripes me. They should know better. My wife and I went thru a situation where my eldest son and his ex spent a considerable amount of time (2 years or so) in a very contentious court fight over their daughter. I won’t go into details but I will say it was a really tough time. My wife and I were afraid to say or do anything, knowing how fragile the situation was, knowing how easily one can say the wrong thing, upsetting the applecart and putting them back to square one. Or worse.

    Each and every one of those critics need to STFU instead of trying to score points on the back of a little girl.

  18. 18.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I wonder if this, like Hunter’s drug addiction, is a situation lots and lots of normal people are familiar with and the only people who find it shocking are our rigidily conventional and stiff media people – who apparently all have  picture-perfect families from sitcoms.

    People are complicated and the more people you add to your extended family the more complicated it gets. Rewarding too! But never easy.

  20. 20.

    Ohio Mom

    @OzarkHillbilly: No doubt the *Bidens* are concerned with the girl’s privacy and well-being. Jill Biden famously turned down five marriage proposals from Joe because she wanted to be absolutely sure the marriage would last, lest the boys lose a mom for a second time.

    The girl’s mother and extended family seem mostly interested in exhorting money. They’ve already made at least a million off embarrassing the Bidens.

    For some reason, I am reminded of Bob Dylan who had a relatively short marriage and daughter with one of his back-up singers. It was all kept on the down low for the daughter’s sake for decades, until she was all grown up,

  21. 21.

    Jeff

    a bit of levity to watch:  the 1921 silent  Douglas Fairbanks “The Three Musketeers” with live music from 16th century France performed on replicas of the instruments of the time  (and yes, I had forgotten just how much farce was involved, there were lots of occasions to break out laughing)

    https://youtu.be/CeOYd4e_DNg

  22. 22.

    JWR

    I don’t know how many times it can be said before getting really really old, but Christ, what an asshole.

    Christopher J. Beale
    @realchrisjbeale 19h
    Imagine no more. This is my life now.

    I wonder if Elon keeps a link to Denis Leary’s “I’m An Asshole” around? Maybe he uses it for his ringtone? Or maybe he just loves the way the two words compound so nicely?

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: ​ I don’t know, it seems such an obvious thing to me, I find it hard to believe that these people don’t know someone who would say, “Stop, that is not something decent people do.”

    Of course, that just begs the question of how many decent people are there?

  27. 27.

    Kay

    My middle son had a several years long relationship with a woman who had a 4 year old boy. My husband and I developed a relationship with the 4 year old and honestly I think it was good for him because his father was not in the picture and his maternal grandmother was deceased. But she and my son had a bad breakup and she cut off contact. I get it and it’s her call, of course, we’re nothing to her, but it was still sad. Sometimes you can’t fix it.

  29. 29.

    Baud

    I wonder if it was in the child’s best interest to display her dad’s dick pics in a congressional hearing.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Not just (or even) decent people. Normal people. Normal people know about these things. They’ve had lived experiences. It’s the behavior of freaks, oddballs, people who are missing some crucial human element or experience.

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @MomSense: On the more serious side, I’m gonna echo @SiubhanDuinne: advice on having it appraised by someone who knows what they are doing. It might be worth a thousand or 3K, or maybe just $5.

  33. 33.

    MomSense

    @rikyrah:

    Old man definitely didn’t read it before he gave it away.  He only opened it to read the inscription and sign it himself.  The spine was pristine.

  34. 34.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: ​
    That was a very real fear we had.

    @Baud: That’s called “Sex Education” when it’s during a congressional hearing.

  36. 36.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MomSense:

    Ah! The penny drops — I hadn’t realised it was a book by Nixon.

    Yes, Beyond Peace.

    And yes, I do think there are collectors out there who would pay good money for a pair of presidential signatures.

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​ Gonna pile on here and say congrats. If you want it. Wasn’t it just a day or 2 ago you were thinking of hanging up your spurs? Or am I thinking of somebody else here?

  44. 44.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MomSense:

    Even better! Condition is important. It sounds as though the book is in near-mint condition. If it has an intact dust jacket, even moar better.

  50. 50.

    OzarkHillbilly

    MeidasTouch
    @MeidasTouch
    My god. Trump blew through more than $40 MILLION of PAC donations on legal fees and requested a $60 MILLION refund from the Super PAC supporting him as he burned through cash meant to help his campaign.
    Quote Tweet

    Maggie Haberman
    @maggieNYT
    ·
    14h
    Confirming WaPo on Trump spending more than $40 mill from his pac on legal bills this year, with bonus info – the PAC sought a contribution refund on the $60 mill it gave the Trump super PAC @ShaneGoldmacher me https://nytimes.com/2023/07/29/us/

  51. 51.

    Anne Laurie

    @OzarkHillbilly: I read the original FTFNYTimes story, the one that officially ‘outed’ a four-year-old girl, because my first reaction to its headline was Must be nice not to have one single past relationship that you would rather not discuss in public. 

    But after the first few paragraphs, it was clear that Baby Mama’s ‘loving’ family just wanted the chance to flaunt their impeccable ‘Christian’ values in rescuing their soiled dove from whoring around in the sinful city of DC, and bringing her and her bastard get back ‘home’ to the family compound, where the little mite could grow up inculcated with True Patriotic Values… (Not like those filthy heathen Democrat Bidens, who’d probably have aborted their own flesh & blood, after all.  Or worse.)

    I sincerely hope that young Whats-Her-Name, if not her momma, can get away from that side of their family and never see their history exploited again.  Odds are against that, at least until Joe Biden is no longer President.

  53. 53.

    Kathleen

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: A friend of mine is having her first book released on August 8th. It’s a murder mystery and she has drafts of books 2 and 3 but I don’t know if she has contracts yet. I’m so excited for her. She moved to Las Vegas with her husband and is returning to Cincinnati to visit family and friends. Another friend is hosting a book party while she’s here.

  56. 56.

    sab

    @OzarkHillbilly: The key word in that headline is “openly”. I think “publicly” would be better, but whatever.  Just because they haven’t publicly acknowledged her doesn’t mean that they haven’t acknowledged her.  Another reason to admire Joe and Jill Biden. Solid moral compasses in those two.

  58. 58.

    gene108

    @Kay:

    I wonder if this, like Hunter’s drug addiction, is a situation lots and lots of normal people are familiar with and the only people who find it shocking are our rigidily conventional and stiff media people – who apparently all have picture-perfect families from sitcoms.

    When Biden’s texts to Hunter got leaked, I read through the comments on a Twitter thread that posted the texts. Almost all the comments were from people who had either been addicts or family members who are/were addicts and President Biden’s texts to Hunter absolutely resonated with them.

    I think leaking those texts made people struggling with addiction, either with themselves or with a family member, not feel so alone.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    @gene108:

    It’s so funny that there can be this whole discussion about addiction in the context of the opiate crisis but that just doesn’t touch political media, who are behaving as if addiction is a rare ailment of the decadent.

    They’re in a kind of weird silo. Fetterman, I think, is another example. People get sick at inopportune times and they also get depressed even if they’re very outwardly successful. Who knew!?! They are SHOCKED by this.

  61. 61.

    sab

    @Kay: I think successful media types are themselves damaged people. Successfully moved on to the next trophy spouse, ignoring the emotional baggage they left behind. They cannot understand that the rest of us don’t do that.

  62. 62.

    Baud

    @Kay: I don’t know. I think it all starts from their premise that Dems are low class, degenerate people. They have a Republican mindset in that respect.

  65. 65.

    Kristine

    @Kay:

    They are SHOCKED by this.

    I sometimes wonder if they’re truly shocked or professionally shocked. Are they that naive or is it more a cold-blooded assessment, pretending to be shocked in order to mine a story they think has legs, like they’re writing for CONFIDENTIAL magazine.

  67. 67.

    delphinium

    @Kay: I am so glad that Fetterman had the courage to be open about his depression, much like Jason Kandar opened up about his PTSD. Hopefully that will encourage more folks to seek help when needed. If the sheltered media don’t actually know anyone with these types of issues (including addiction), they should consider themselves fortunate, as it can be incredibly devastating, and maybe consider showing some grace when covering these types of stories instead.

  70. 70.

    MomSense

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Small town – parents divorced.  Dad minister stayed at his church. Mom music director was hired by another church. HW and Babs went to that church (their Episocpal chapel was closed in the off season). HW found out I was studying political science and traveling and liked to talk to me about those things at coffee hour.  After many years of talking politics he gave me the book.
    He and my dad had a long-standing adversarial relationship, but HW was ok with it.

  71. 71.

    Brachiator

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The president, who has made a commitment to family central to his public persona, has faced increasing criticism from political rivals and pundits for failing to acknowledge the granddaughter.

    “Political rivals and pundits.” A bunch of hypocrites playing at being moral scolds.

  74. 74.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Meet John Pierce, attorney to the MAGAs:

    In late August, Pierce failed to show up to court for one of those clients, and prosecutors said they had lost contact with him. The reasons for Pierce’s absence were initially tough to pin down.

    Pierce’s associates said at different points that he was hospitalized with COVID-19 and on a ventilator, that he was in an “accident,” and that he had “dehydration and exhaustion.” The phone at his legal office appeared to be disconnected, and calls to his cellphone went straight to voicemail. The Justice Department said that the confusion had effectively brought all of his cases to a halt.

    Then, on Sept. 7, Pierce reappeared. He said he had been released from a hospital in the Los Angeles area after a 12-day stay but declined to discuss exactly what led to his hospitalization.

    “I will not be elaborating further on my personal medical issues,” he told NPR in an email. (He did say in his statement, “I have not taken any vaccination for COVID-19, nor do I plan to do so.”)
    …………………….
    There were already questions about Pierce — a civil litigator who has never tried a criminal case before.

    Pierce’s career, in his own words, recently “imploded,” leaving him with a large amount of debt and fending off multiple lawsuits. Court records from his divorce show that he has dealt with substance abuse and mental health problems for several years. His ex-wife has previously obtained two domestic violence restraining orders against him. Pierce disclosed in court this summer that he received a “letter of inquiry” from the California State Bar, a step the State Bar takes if it is considering disciplinary charges against an attorney. (Pierce declined to comment on that letter.)

    Pierce’s critics question whether he’s taking on so many cases to raise his own profile and argue his story underscores the potential pitfalls of mixing political rhetoric, culture wars and fundraising on the internet with the unforgiving realities of criminal defense in court.

    And that just the start of it. Much much more in the article. Then we add this cherry to top it all off:

    Kyle Cheney
    @kyledcheney
    Prosecutors tonight alerted a federal judge to Twitter posts from Jan. 6 defense lawyer John Pierce that they characterized “apparent threats” against DOJ personnel.

    He’s a real winner, just like his hero.

  77. 77.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Kristine:

    Are they that naive or is it more a cold-blooded assessment, pretending to be shocked in order to mine a story they think has legs

    There are plenty of professional awards in journalism they could aspire to and work towards but that’s hitting a bulls eye when they can miss the dart board all together and have their awful lazy take “go viral”.

  78. 78.

    Kathleen

    @sab: I agree. I also like Kay’s characterization of “not normal”, which carries over into their “reporting” about disputes between Administration officials, Congress, etc. They obviously have not been exposed to real jobs where people have good faith disagreements about how things should be done so they blow everything up into major Dems In Disarray drama.

    Regards to them being damaged, I, too, wonder what kind of homes these lazy, shallow, entitled, cruel people came from. Their political “reporting” is comprised of repeated enactments of their Mommy (Democrats)/Daddy (Republicans) psycho dramas. Their love for their Rethuglican Bully Daddies is palpable as is their contempt for a loving father like Joe Biden.

  79. 79.

    Kathleen

    @Baud: They have that mind set because Black people wield immense power and influence as voters and party/government officials. It all goes back to racism. They hate the Democrats because of that. Just hate them.

  80. 80.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: no one on our side.

    Liar liar pants… wait a minute, you don’t wear pants. You should be more careful.

  81. 81.

    sab

    @Kathleen: Our former Republican Lieutenant Governor had a press conference to publicly reveal that all two of her children were drug addicts. She wanted to beat the press to the story so she trotted out her family problem for public display. Her kids were in their early twenties. If they beat their addiction it will still be their on Google forever. Their dad has a big successful company. Good luck getting those kids slipped into management there now.

    Who the fuck would do that, especially for a very forlorn hope of unseating DeWine? Aside from being a delusional idiot, who would do that to her own children?

  86. 86.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Michael Hariott rips apart Florida’s racist, white-washing bullshit. Read the whole thing. It’s that good.

    But when theGrio examined the FDOE’s full “African American History Strand,” we discovered that the “trade-school-for-enslaved people” narrative wasn’t even the most egregious part of Florida’s new academic curriculum standards. The state guidelines include multiple examples of historical fiction, including some that perpetuate misconceptions, conservative ideology and long-held white falsehoods about Black history. Many of the requirements simply reflect ahistorical conservative talking points that often are regurgitated whenever someone brings up inequality.

    The individual discrepancies are too numerous to list. To shine a light on the most glaring probably-not-intentional errors, theGrio decided to list the top ten parts of Florida’s miseducation of the white man.
    …

    5. But slavery existed in every society

    Florida’s white history mandate: According to the standards, students will “Examine the condition of slavery as it existed in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe prior to 1619…Instruction includes how trading in slaves developed in African lands (e.g., Benin, Dahomey). Instruction includes the practice of the Barbary Pirates in kidnapping Europeans and selling them into slavery in Muslim countries (i.e., Muslim slave markets in North Africa, West Africa, Swahili Coast, Horn of Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Indian Ocean slave trade). Instruction includes how slavery was utilized in Asian cultures (e.g., Sumerian law code, Indian caste system). Instruction includes the similarities between serfdom and slavery and emergence of the term “slave” in the experience of Slavs. Instruction includes how slavery among indigenous peoples of the Americas was utilized prior to and after European colonization.”

    Why it’s wrong: Every Black person has heard a not-so-smart white person use the Caucastic version of this argument. Depending on the person’s ignorance of actual history, they will equate Irish indentured servants, Roman prisoners of war and even debt peonage with America’s race-based, intergenerational, constitutionally enshrined human trafficking system that uses violence or the threat of violence to reduce humans to chattel.

    To be fair, it’s much easier to just call it “slavery.”

    America’s unique form of forced labor was different. While the African participants in the slave trade cannot be held blameless, a system like the one that evolved in and built this country had never existed in the history of the world. The victims were not enemy combatants, debtors or the spoils of war – all of which existed in societies since time immemorial. American-style “slavery” was racially homogenous. It was permanent and perpetually inheritable. And most importantly, it did not exist in Africa or anywhere on the planet until white people showed up.

    Slavery is not even part of African American history; it is part of white history.

  92. 92.

    oatler

    McConaughy ‘s on ABC now, finishes with Jonathan commenting “A fresh perpective!”

  93. 93.

    mrmoshpotato

    @MomSense:

    I have a book that Nixon gave to HW Bush who then gave it to me. Both signed it. Is it worth anything? 

    Paper is good for starting a nice campfire.

  94. 94.

    Cain

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It looks like MAGA and the GOP are just collecting money to pay for Trump legal fees.

    There won’t be a lot of money for any of the races as Trump sucks up all the money to pay for a multitude of legal fees.

    Never has there been a time where so much wealth has transferred from the masses to lawyers.

  95. 95.

    Cain

    @gene108:

    Revealing all that is only showing human vulnerability and compassion to your family members.

    It’s not the pwn that the GOP thinks it is. If they think this will play well with independents.. I don’t think it well.

  96. 96.

    Josie

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​
     Great news! I know your enthusiasm for writing was waning at one point. This will surely get you going again.
    OT: Thanks for the kind review. I appreciate your taking the time to do that.

  99. 99.

    Kay

    @Kathleen:

    That’s an interesting take in the context of Ohio because I’ve always wondered why AA political power in the state doesn’t get more attention – they’re 99% Democrats and primarily powerful both in government and in the Party in urban areas,but urban areas are where all the action is in Ohio. If they do a story on Ohio it is ALWAYS sad sack white auto worker bitterly backing Republicans or angry Dem county chair calling Democrats elitists.

    Just the Obama campaign was fascinating in Ohio. Remember how Obama had this effective network of AA mayors, city council members, Party bigwigs, etc and it was completely invisible to white people until you saw it and then you SAW it? That’s political power.

  102. 102.

    Spanky

    @delphinium:

    If the sheltered media don’t actually know anyone with these types of issues (including addiction), they should consider themselves fortunate failures at journalism

    Period.

  105. 105.

    TriassicSands

    Latest entry in the Scum of the Year Award contest:

    Tricia Cotham, a Democrat who supported abortion rights, was encouraged to run for a state House seat by powerful Republicans. After she was elected, she joined them and delivered a G.O.P. supermajority.

    Governor Cooper vetoed the 12-week abortion ban before it was overidden by the GOP supermajority, Cotham voted for it.

  109. 109.

    dww44

    @Kay: I actually think that the right and the media  at large are so desperate to find something/anything to disparage and smear  Joe Biden that they demean themselves.

    This effort to take Biden down to Trump’s low level is the only way that the right (which demands and gets more than their fair of MSM political coverage because the latter is AFRAID of the right’s vitriol) has been able to convince themselves that he’s incompetent and his Presidency is a failed one.

  112. 112.

    Eunicecycle

    My son and his wife went to see it; he was not thrilled ahead of time but ended up liking it quite a bit.

  113. 113.

    JPL

    @MomSense: Nice story!   I think that Sr was the last true republican.   They are no longer fiscally conservative.     When I saw your comment earlier, I instantly thought that one of the twins might like it, along with your memories.

  114. 114.

    JPL

    @dww44: Sununu said that the nominee won’t be Joe, and today on one of the Sunday shows, someone suggested the same thing.  The person said that if Joe can’t sell his economic message the democrats will look to someone else.   I don’t know who it was because I just had it on for background noise.

    It might be time for MSM to ask why republicans are spreading that message, since there is no truth to it.      hahaha

  115. 115.

    StringOnAStick

    @Kathleen: I have an elderly aunt who was a political beat reporter in the capital of one of the western states.  A more emotionally messed up, alcoholic, vindictive trainwreck of a person would be hard to find, so your suspicion about political reporters rings true to me.

  118. 118.

    FastEdD

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3233418/

    I saw the film Spare Parts last night and enjoyed it immensely. It was a lot like what I went through, kids from rotten backgrounds doing miraculous things and turning their lives around. I was that teacher in a way, except in real life teachers have 200 kids to deal with instead of just the 4 on your academic team. Every teacher movie is unrealistic, even Stand And Deliver, because audiences can’t be expected to keep 200 characters in their heads. Real teachers do.

  119. 119.

    Alison Rose

    @WereBear: I’m generally pretty lukewarm about it (kind of tired of the ‘making movies out of toys or games’ genre) but seeing how badly it has upset a lot of shitty men, now I’m gonna watch it if/when it’s available on a streaming service I have access to.

  120. 120.

    opiejeanne

    @MomSense: Nixon’s autograph is pretty rare. Somewhere I have Pat’s from my mom attending a tea in her honor in Baldwin Park, CA, in 1960.  It’s not rare at all.

  121. 121.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @JPL: Sununu said that the nominee won’t be Joe, and today on one of the Sunday shows, someone suggested the same thing.  The person said that if Joe can’t sell his economic message the democrats will look to someone else.

    Despite the media’s best efforts, people are noticing the strengths in the economy and providing some latitude on certain weaknesses, given our recent national health crisis.

    The only ones not buying it are the MSM.

  122. 122.

    Baud

    @JPL:

    I get the strategy. Get it “out there” that Joe might not be the nominee, pique a normie’s curiosity, and use that as a vehicle to downplay the economy.  It’s a back door way to get people to pay attention to a message that they might tune out if a direct approach were used.

    But still seems like a stupid strategy.

  123. 123.

    StringOnAStick

    @StringOnAStick: Oh, and the worst gossip I have ever met in my entire life, she simply reveled in obtaining dirt to spill, and did so widely and aggressively.  To her, that’s what the job was and she loved every bit of it.

  124. 124.

    JPL

    @Alison Rose: What amazed me was that Greta Gerwig was able to make a movie about a doll, and now will probably top a billion in sales.   Ryan Gosling was the perfect Ken, but that shouldn’t have surprised me but it did.   His performance in Lars and the Real Girl was award worthy.

  125. 125.

    Geminid

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Congratulations! This is a real accomplishment.

    I have a half-serious suggestion: maybe you could write a prequel to Glass Girl, set in the environs of the ca. 350 BCE glass shop archeologists are unearthing in the Alps. They are finding examples of the swirly patterns characteristic of La Tene Period Celtic art. The protagonist might be an innovative apprentice who invents the motif.

    You could title it Swirl Girl.

  127. 127.

    Baud

    @JPL:

    I wonder if the NYT will now “report” on this “debate” that “Democrats are having.”

    ETA: Biden clearly has no choice now but to debate RFK, Jr.

  128. 128.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @JPL: They really do have nothing. So they make it up.

    @Baud: I wonder if the NYT will now “report” on this “debate” that Democrats are having.

    Interlocutor 1: They’re crazy.

    Interlocutor 2: No, they’re fucking crazy.

    1: Just nuke em all from orbit.

    Such powerfully distinct points of view…

  130. 130.

    Brachiator

    @JPL:

    Sununu said that the nominee won’t be Joe, and today on one of the Sunday shows, someone suggested the same thing.  The person said that if Joe can’t sell his economic message the democrats will look to someone else.

    Sununu isn’t a journalist, so who cares what his opinion might be. Hell, even if he were a journalist, who cares what he thinks?

    And it is typical political BS that they don’t talk about the success of Biden’s actual economic policies, but about how the “message” isn’t selling.

    This sums up why I hate these shows and have mostly stopped watching them. It’s just a bunch of inside-the-Beltway political in-fighting and blatant attempts to undermine the Democrats.

  134. 134.

    cain

    @TriassicSands: She will go down in infamy – and her new friends only see her as a tool to be used.

    I’m sure she lost all her friends as wel – as that was a pretty dastardly act of betrayal – not only to the party but to women in the state.

  135. 135.

    Steeplejack

    The electricity is still on at Sighthound Hall. Came back on a little after 3:00 a.m. after being out for 10 hours. Now the problem is that there is still an Xfinity outage in the area. So I can get on the Internet only via LTE on my phone. No such luck on the notebook computer. Supposed to be fixed “soon,” in the technical parlance

    ETA: No TV either!

  136. 136.

    cain

    @Brachiator: Like church attendance – I think these shows are also going down in attendance. I mean the only people who watch them are probably older generations.

    I get all my poiltics either on twitter, mastodon or this site. i don’t really need their stupid commentary especially when it’s the same shit cycle repeated. There is nothing surprising in the questions or the content.

  138. 138.

    BeautifulPlumage

    @Alison Rose: I didn’t expect to love it but it was very funny and clever. The mashup of Barbie land & the real world is so well done and the casting was perfect (Michael Cera & Kate McKinnon!)

  139. 139.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @cain: Like church attendance – I think these shows are also going down in attendance. 

    For not entirely dissimilar reasons.

    Simply stated, people are starting to know better.

  140. 140.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @JPL: ***Mild Barbie Spoiler Warning (for anyone reading along)!!!***

    I’ve seen a couple Feminist critiques on Twitter complaining that the film focussed too much on Ken(s) and it would’ve been way more Feminist if it had made the focus almost entirely on Barbie(s), but I think Gerwig’s choice to use the Kens to such great effect:

    1.) was, frankly, brilliant, and one of the things that made the movie so great

    2.) shows that a film can include great messages for boys/men while still being Feminist AF and can even let male actors shine in the effort too

    When I read the critiques suggesting that Gerwig somehow let Feminists/Women down by not making the film ONLY about Barbie(s) it makes me think of America Ferrera’s amazing rant in the film about how no matter what women do, it’s never enough and they inevitably get shit, not just from bitter men but even from other women.  It feels like the Feminist critics want to put Gerwig (and the concept of what makes a Feminist film) into a box of their own, contrary to the point that Gerwig made so brilliantly that real freedom for Girls/Women (and really everyone) means NO BOXES!  I don’t think the movie was focussed on Ken or Barbie, but really on Patriarchy, which is one of the reasons I think it was incredible.  I never thought a movie about Patriarchy could be so damn fun (and effective).

  141. 141.

    dww44

    @JPL: I saw this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt just a couple of days ago: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; and small minds discuss people.”

    Our for profit media almost never focuses on #1. Mostly because it’s not profitable and it can often be necessarily dull.

  142. 142.

    Geminid

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Swirl Girl could be like The Hunger Games, but with the Katness Everdean character a glass artist, and Rome filling in for The Capitol.

    I have big plans for you! Just don’t forget the little people at Balloon Juice when you find fame and fortune

  145. 145.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @JPL: Can’t remember if we had actual applause but there was definitely a ton of positive feedback in our audience for it, too.

  148. 148.

    Anyway

    @Alison Rose:

    Ha ha, nicely done,  Malala! I missed the Barbie memes and enjoyed this one.

    I saw the movie yesterday – never had a Barbie and no doubt missed the in-jokes. It was a mix of serious, silly and uneven. Some bits were charming others heavy-handed.I went mainly bcos friends were going and I had FOMO plus it was a great way to beat the heat! Afternoon well spent, I say.

  149. 149.

    Geminid

    @dww44: I came across another quotation the other day, from Eric Hoffer in The True Believer, that describes much of what conservatives are showing with their stupid and intrusive “culture war” battles:

       A man is likely to mind his own business when it’s worth minding.

    When it’s not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people’s business.

  153. 153.

    Soprano2

    @Brachiator: As usual, the press acts like they have no agency. “We don’t report the good economic news, I wonder why Joe can’t convince people the economy is good? The Democrats must have bad messaging.”

  154. 154.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    picture-perfect families from sitcoms

    I’m trying to recall how many sitcoms had picture-perfect families. The only one I can remember was The Donna Reed Show. And while sure the problems were extremely minimal, picture-perfect? Picture-perfect would have been 100% boring and given humanity, 100% unrealistic. And Donna Reed was only 90% unrealistic.

  156. 156.

    Ruckus

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Sometimes you just need a break.

    Yes you do. I worked for my dad, then he worked for me and I owned and ran the business he started longer than he did and got earthquaked out of business. I completely stopped doing work in that field for 19 yrs but needed a job and my cousin was offered a job he didn’t want but I needed. I took it. And worked there, back doing the same basic work for 7 1/2 yrs, till I retired 2 yrs ago. At 72. One never really knows how life is going to go because no one can read the future. You make the most of it and it can still go to shit. If you are lucky most of it can be pretty good. I’ve had good people in my life and not one of them had a TV lifestyle of either all good/great or all crap.

    Life just doesn’t work that way.

    It’s one reason that people like stories that are all perfect or all crap. It shows that somehow someone has a perfect life – it’s possible, or it’s all crap, and someone has it worse than me.

  157. 157.

    Geminid

    I made a grocery run to Stanardsville last night, and was hoping to grab a Washington Post. But, no Post, no Richmond Times-Dispatch, just the Greene County Record. So I got a copy of the Record, and found it had some good articles.

    One was about Charlottesville’s statue of Robert E. Lee that was taken down a while ago. The two outfits suing to obtain possession of it have thrown in the towel, and now the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center can proceed with its plan to melt the statue down and recast it into a more inclusive work of art.

    Another article was by George Mason U. professor Mark Rozell. He described a recent appearance by Gov. Glenn “Foungkin” Youngkin, where he talked up early voting in this fall’s legislative elections. Rozell observed that in his 2021 race for Governor, Youngkin often held campaign rallies near early polling stations to encourage supporters to go inside and vote- a reminder that Youngkin wasn’t just a slick-talking salesman who charmed the media, but was an assiduous retail campaigner as well.

    A third story reported an announcement by Senators Kaine and Warner that the Shenandoah Regional Airport over in the Valley had received a $7.5 million grant to rehabilitate its runway, courtesy of the Infrastructure bill. The runway was last worked on in 2006.

  158. 158.

    Yarrow

    @cain:  I’ve felt for awhile that there is an opening for a channel that does hard news, no commentary. The current cable “news” channels have so much commentary they shouldn’t even be called news channels anymore. They’re infotainment and commentary channels.

    @Geminid: Local news is so important. If a billionaire wanted to do something good with their money they could fund a bunch of local newspapers.

  160. 160.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:

    They are SHOCKED by this.

    They are shocked by it because they want to be shocked. They want, believe in the possibility of a perfect life. They may even have a picture of that in their minds. But as we know perfect doesn’t exist and even if it did it wouldn’t be anything that humans have anything to do with. Because we are human. All of us are flawed, it’s the nature of nature. I’ve seen some of natures amazing things, say like the Grand Canyon. It is amazing, stunningly so. Is it perfect? It depends on your point of view. It is the GRAND CANYON! Or, it is this big rift in the earth caused by eons of erosion? (Yes I have stood on the rim – more than once – and it is stunningly beautiful) It can be both……

  166. 166.

    rikyrah

    @gene108:

    I still remember Hannity playing 46’s voicemail to Hunter.

    He thought, in his depraved mind that this was a Biden “gotcha” moment….

     

    Most Americans heard a President loving on his son

  168. 168.

    Kathleen

    @sab: Rethuglicans. I remember how shocked people were when Chuck Colson said he’d run over his grandmother in his driveway it it meant Richard Nixon would be reelected. Media actually expressed shock and horror. This is who they have always been.

  170. 170.

    Kathleen

    @Kay: Good point. Cincy’s AA mayor Mark Mallory was the first party official to endorse Obama over Hillary in 2008. I don’t recall what the local media’s reaction was to that.

  171. 171.

    Brachiator

    @gene108:

    I wonder if this, like Hunter’s drug addiction, is a situation lots and lots of normal people are familiar with and the only people who find it shocking are our rigidily conventional and stiff media people – who apparently all have picture-perfect families from sitcoms.

    There are a lot of media people who know about the addiction problems of politicians and their families, and often choose to respect privacy and not disclose this information.

    There are also a lot of media people who have had their own serious addiction problems.

    But much of the press is also deeply cynical and hypocritical. And they like their jobs. If their editors and publishers want simplistic stories about addiction, they will happily provide them.

    And of course there is this concerted effort by the GOP and right wing media to try to hurt Joe Biden and the Democrats for daring to go after Trump.

    When Biden’s texts to Hunter got leaked, I read through the comments on a Twitter thread that posted the texts. Almost all the comments were from people who had either been addicts or family members who are/were addicts and President Biden’s texts to Hunter absolutely resonated with them.

    Very interesting point here. The media attacks on the Bidens may be failing because people who don’t blindly accept what they see on Fox News can relate to Biden and his son. Ironically, Donald Trump would probably insist that he and his family are too perfect to ever be affected by addiction problems.

  172. 172.

    Geminid

    @Kathleen: That reminds me of Dusty Baker’s story of the first time he faced pitcher Bob Gibson. Baker was a rookie, so his Atlanta Braves teammate Hank Aaron gave him some advice:

    “If you hit a home run, don’t run the bases too fast, and don’t run them too slowly.” (Gibson had a practice of hitting players who in any way celebrated a home run with a 98 mph fast ball the next time they came up to bat).

    “And don’t dig in! Gibson would knock his own grandmother down if she dug in on him.”

    Baker said he was left wondering what was going to happen to his 21 game hitting streak. It ended that night.

  173. 173.

    Citizen Alan

    @sab: Republicans. There are no Republicans who truly love their children in the sense that they would suffer even minimal discomfort on their behalf, let alone take any sort of action in support of them that would hurt their political or business careers. Soulless people.

    Case in point: My RWNJ sister is a retired elementary school teacher who has two children who have just begun careers in elementary education in Mississippi. She refuses to acknowledge the extent to which the people she votes for despise public education and the teachers who work in it. Just as she refuses to acknowledge the fact that the people she votes for in Washington want to steal her Social Security and her Medicare and the people she votes for in Jackson want to steal her state retirement.

    Oh well. Good thing she married well, I guess.

  175. 175.

    RaflW

    @Kathleen: That’s excellent. I hope Cox’s column gets others (beyond her sizeable subscriber base) to understand what a good leader Joe is.

    He doesn’t always look like what folks expect a far-sighted and tuned-in head of state to be. But his long service has informed, rather than entrenched, his vision.

    In an era of memes and smackdown (asymmetric) partisanship, his is a rare form of Presidency. Sadly this confounds our facile press.

  176. 176.

    RaflW

    @Brachiator: There’s a parallel. Republican politicians seemed to know (or chose not to know) very many gay or lesbian people, many of whom wanted to be married a decade or two ago.

    Yes, they made transitory electoral gains fighting to “defend” marriage, but that just got a ton of LGBTQ people to come out more publicly and reach into their families to say, “Hold on, it’s nothing like what Republicans say.”

    If anything, addiction is far more prevalent than being not-straight is. A metric f-ton of people know someone in recovery, or struggling to keep/get on track while wrestling with drugs and/or alcohol.

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