Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

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

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

In after Baud. Damn.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

The willow is too close to the house.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

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

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

He really is that stupid.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

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

Let there be snark.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Busy, Busy, Busy

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Busy, Busy, Busy

by | 128 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

I feel like I should be apologizing — even though none of you probably care — because it’s been a busy couple of weeks IRL for me, and I’ve got a metric fvckton of half-written posts about important news lying around. Of course, much of that work would basically involve bricolaging material under the general metric Would you look at what these numbnuts are up to?!?… so, glass half full, consider yourself lucky!


Larry Summers said it would take an entire year of 10 percent unemployment to whip inflation. Jason Furman said it would take 15 percent!! prospect.org/economy/2024…

[image or embed]

— ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper.com) Jun 13, 2024 at 12:41 PM

Looking forward to the videos, though:

Reader Interactions

128Comments

  1. 1.

    Tony Jay

     FTFNYT EDITORIAL COMMENT

    As stars and celebrities flock to Biden’s banner, studio executives express concern that Hollywood is out of step with Heartland values.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    Biden’s successful attack on Reaganomics has upset a lot of vested interests.  If they can convince US voters that Dems are bad on the economy one more time, they’re sent for the next couple of generations.

  4. 4.

    H.E.Wolf

    Happy Flag Day!

    There’s a Pride flag with the motto, “Abide No Hate” on a house we pass on our daily walk.

    I love that phrasing. And yes, one of the homeowners is Southern. :-)

  6. 6.

    Starfish

    This, from Margaret Sullivan’s Substack, matters a lot more than Astead Herndon saying Biden is old on Twitter.

    If you know anything about Sinclair Broadcasting — which owns 200 local TV stations across the country — the latest about them might not surprise you. Judd Legum and Aaron Rupar report here on Substack that Sinclair picked up on a much-criticized Wall Street Journal story about Joe Biden’s age and mental fitness, and spread it through their local networks. The story in the Murdoch-controlled paper was headlined “Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping,” but quoted only one person on the record: Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Despite interviewing lots of people who testify to the president’s competence, it quoted none of them. And McCarthy himself reportedly has said the opposite in more private settings.

    Here’s what happened next:

    “Sinclair repackaged the Wall Street Journal through its centralized news team … the story was then pushed to dozens of local news stations.”

  7. 7.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    “Larry Summers said…”

    And was predictably wrong as noted in the tweet.

    Summers and Yglesias, the first places I visit when The Revolution starts.

  13. 13.

    Kosh III

    “Larry Summers said it would take an entire year of 10 percent unemployment to whip inflation”

    fine with me. Let’s strip him of all his property and wealth and he can live on food stamps and charity for a year.

  20. 20.

    Another Scott

    @O. Felix Culpa: +1

    Summers may have been a brilliant guy, maybe 30-40 years ago, but he’s been wrong about so much stuff since then.

    I remember when the bigname economists all worried about the M1 and M2 money supply numbers.  All that mattered was the rate of change of those – especially M1.

    OMG! Look at M1 in 2020! We’re heading to Zimbabwe hyperinflation!!11ONE

    It’s stupid and wrong and the world has changed. There’s too much money out in the world doing nothing, and the US had to get money actually moving in the economy when the crisis hit. That doesn’t mean we’re going to have to use wheelbarrows to buy a dozen eggs.

    Fame and expertise can, and too often are, a curse. Even people like that don’t like to work and learn new stuff and accept new evidence when the world changes. People have to demonstrate their value as experts every day. Larry doesn’t do that.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  21. 21.

    Chris

    Pleasant morning group call at work;

    “Hello.  X and we have decided to part ways.”

    That is some quality George Orwell, right there.  The nicest euphemism I’ve ever heard for being fired.

    “We would really encourage you not to speculate amongst yourselves as to why.  It doesn’t help anybody.”

    Well, I had no real plans to.  But given how insistent you people are about us not doing that, repeating it several times during the group call, it’s starting to sound like maybe I should?  “THERE IS NOTHING TO SEE MY ROOM IS TOTALLY CLEAN YOU DON’T EVEN NEED TO LOOK NO REALLY” isn’t any less of a red flag coming from middle managers than it is from my friends’ six-year-olds.

    “This is not a reflection on X, we just decided he doesn’t fit what we’re trying to do in the company…”

    For fuck’s sake, he was a worker drone on the digital assembly line that you’re now going to have to scramble to replace with another warm body.  Don’t try to make it sound like you “just had different visions for the company” of whatever.  Either he fucked up big time or you guys are being assholes.

  23. 23.

    lowtechcyclist

    I feel like I should be apologizing — even though none of you probably care

    AYFKM?! This place would pretty much collapse without you and WaterGirl. You have nothing to apologize for, hell, the thought shouldn’t even cross your mind. We deeply appreciate what you do.

  24. 24.

    rikyrah

    @Baud:

    You are correct

    If we can get back the House and keep the Senate,

    Then all the stuff that those phuckers Manchin and Sinema blocked….we can do

     

    No more tax cuts for billionaires

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Never apologize when you’re winning, Anne.

    Which, you’re always winning.

  28. 28.

    Leto

    Would you look at what these numbnuts are up to?!?

    Nominated, if it isn’t already.

  29. 29.

    Ken

    @Chris: About the only missing red flag is “If you are contacted by the police or reporters about X, refer them to the HR department.”

  30. 30.

    Baud

    @Chris:

    Pleasant morning group call at work;

    “Hello.  X and we have decided to part ways.”

     

    I initially thought your work has decided to get off Twitter.

  31. 31.

    moonbat

    Never fear, AL, you’re the best. I always appreciate whenever and whatever you post, because you curate the best information from “Things I should know and am too lazy to research” to “Things I would have never thought about knowing.” And you have an unerring feel for what this site needs. Can’t say how many times lately your posts have lifted my spirits from the news anxiety/malaise that MSM seems to delight in. Thank you!

  32. 32.

    Chris

    @Ken:

    I have literally walked past communist protesters who had fewer red flags than this.

    (No, really.  It was AU.  Communist protesters were a thing).

  33. 33.

    Soprano2

    So, my new dog has to wear the “Cone of Shame” for seven days because she cut the bottom of her paw when she broke our dining room window on Wednesday (I think she got excited when she saw our cat in the yard outside the dining room window). She seems to be getting used to it, although of course she’s not happy with it. I was glad they were able to put two staples in the cut, because it was pretty big. I worry that this is going to make it harder for her to adjust to us, but there’s nothing to be done about it because if she doesn’t wear the cone she’ll probably pull the staples out, and the vet said that would lead to bad things. I’ve never had a dog do anything like that before! Maybe it’ll make the cat feel safer, because it’s a lot harder for the dog to navigate and go fast in the house with that thing on.

  36. 36.

    FastEdD

    How do you get a Little Old Lady to say “Fuck” ?    Sit next to her and yell BINGO.

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @narya: Works for me. I like.

    And of course, she is “getting all sorts of hate on the bird app and Fbook.”

  38. 38.

    Jackie

    Morning Joe opened their show this morning discussing TCFG’s “Milwaukee is a horrible city,” by cracking open a pair of tall boys of the beast aka Milwaukee’s Best Ice, and toasting to the great city! 😂

  40. 40.

    smith

    Rep Gwen Moore:

    I don’t know many people in Milwaukee who have 34 felony counts against them. So our crime rate is going to go up when he joins us in Milwaukee.

  41. 41.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Jackie: ​a pair of tall boys of the beast aka Milwaukee’s Best Ice

    So much good beer in Milwaukee and they do that? Ugh!

  42. 42.

    RaflW

    A bit weedy poli sci at times, Julia Azari did an interesting write up of where Biden’s presidency may line up in terms of types of presidential legacies and impacts.

    Two parts:

    [T]he idea of perpetual preemption seems to explain some of what we see in American politics generally – hope for a new direction in the country that reflects the policies favored by the majority, replacement of stale institutions, and renewed party politics. But this vision just doesn’t achieve liftoff.

    However, this isn’t really a great explanation of the Biden presidency. Biden is a creature of parties and institutions, not a popular general or a governor with a reputation for challenging party orthodoxy. He is party orthodoxy. Preemptive presidents in the media age have the advantage that they can define themselves. Arguably, definition has been one of Biden’s most persistent challenges: explaining the meaning and significance of his signature legislation, reactive legislation like the 2022 gun bill, and debates over what has been achieved economically and what work is left to do. Biden has been able to do quite a bit, but he’s been unable to define much of it politically.

    And the nugget (italics added):

    This distinction points to a larger truth about the Biden presidency: it has largely been driven and defined by what’s come before. Whether it’s protecting Obama’s Affordable Care Act, exiting from Bush’s war in Afghanistan, or reacting to (even partially co-opting) Trump’s immigration and trade approach, Biden has been largely defined by the politics and choice of his predecessors. It’s not just that his majorities have been narrow; his ability to define the results has been as well.

    In other words, because while what Biden has done has been tremendously successful (my words), it’s been based on amplifying existing policies and implementing them efficiently and smoothly, none of it looks transformative, and thus as anything exceptional for voters to really notice.

    For example, I look at Biden-Harris lifting the burden of student loans from 4.2 million borrowers, and that’s huge. But because the fucking supreme court made Biden do it piecemeal, dribs and drabs over years, there’s not just no bang for the buck (except of course for the transformed lives of those freed from debt), there’s ongoing grumbling and misinfo that Biden “isn’t” doing loan relief.

    Lather, rinse, repeat, unfortunately, for this disjunctive-period presidency.

  43. 43.

    Jackie

    @Omnes Omnibus: I think it more for the name than the taste. Poor Mika isn’t fond of beer, but she was a good sport!

    MJ knows TCFG hate-watches them, so it was a def poke in his eye. Opening music was Laverne and Shirley’ theme song; Milwaukee’s mayor and Charlie Sykes also piled on. It was a good segment.

  45. 45.

    Sure Lurkalot

    Have to disagree with Hakeem Jeffries here. Yesterday’s Trump visit wasn’t a pep rally, it was a group worship session, a show of solid willingness to bow before their god who has a lifelong stench, not limited to an odor from (reportedly and allegedly) shitting himself in a diaper.

  46. 46.

    Baud

    @RaflW: No offense, but that sounds like excuse making. But that’s because I’m of the (admittedly minority) view that people with vested interests in the status quo are terrified about what Biden has shown can be achieved.

  47. 47.

    Josie

    Anne Laurie: You should never feel the need to apologize. My morning would not start correctly without your early post. Your choices are great and lift my spirits. I have given up the WaPo and switched to AP for straight news. You give us the best of the social media type news. Thanks for all your work.

  48. 48.

    Ken

    @smith: Rep. Moore:  So our crime rate is going to go up when he joins us in Milwaukee.

    In one of yesterday’s threads, we were speculating that Trump will not join them in Milwaukee. My expectation is that all his speeches will be supposedly televised “live from Mar-a-Lago”, but in fact pre-recorded and heavily edited.

    Even if he can’t recognize it in himself, his campaign staff is well aware that his brain is porridge, and that they daren’t risk him going off on one of his rambles during the convention.

  50. 50.

    TBone

    Only uteruses can be regulated.  Guns cannot.  Supremacists are tryna kill us all.  New ruling just dropped.

    My uterus needs a bumpstock.

  54. 54.

    Ken

    @TBone: New [gun] ruling just dropped.

    Is that the one related to the Hunter Biden charges?

    EDIT: I see it’s not. I thought I’d heard that the restrictions on gun ownership by former drug addicts were also before the court.

  57. 57.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Not a great day at the Sup Ct. Three opinions. The first from Jackson was a rather technical one on bankruptcy (6-3). The second, from Alito, was on immigration (5-4). In the third, Thomas wrote an opinion overturning the federal ban of bump stocks (6-3).​

  60. 60.

    TBone

    @WereBear:  I wanted to make a joke about catching enough moths for a smoothie but my sense of humor has been temporarily interrupted.

    The word spray is involved.

  61. 61.

    gene108

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    Have to disagree with Hakeem Jeffries here. Yesterday’s Trump visit wasn’t a pep rally, it was a group worship session,

    I’m guessing there was also a meeting of the next insurrection planning committee.

  63. 63.

    Scout211

    @TBone: Sotomayor had a “Vigorous dissent.”

    Writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas said that the accessory does not mean that a firearm equipped with it meets the definition of “machinegun” under federal law.

    The ruling prompted a vigorous dissent from liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

    “When I see a bird that walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck,” she wrote. Sotomayor also took the rare step of reading a summary of her dissent in court.

    Even with the federal ban out of the picture, bump stocks will still not be readily available nationwide. Eighteen states have already banned them, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit gun-control group. Congress could also act.

  64. 64.

    TBone

    @Scout211: somehow that is cold comfort.  Thugs don’t care, all they hear is machine guns are cool, and the profits will continue to flow.

    Bump fire (or bump firing) is a technique used with a semi-automatic firearm to replicate full-automatic fire. This is accomplished by using the recoil and weight of the firearm to engage the trigger. This can be done with any semi-automatic firearm by affixing the trigger with a stationary object and pulling the handguard forward to fire a round.

    A bump-fire stock (or bump stock) is an aftermarket product designed to make a semi-automatic rifle fire faster. It is used to replace the rifle’s stock — the part held against the shoulder — freeing it to slide back and forth rapidly and harness the recoil energy.

    Bump stocks came under scrutiny due to the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas as a dozen of the rifles used by the shooter were modified with bump stocks allowing the shooter to reportedly fire more than 1,100 rounds in 11 minutes. However, bump-fire stocks have been available for many years in the U.S.

    My own college town township is a Second Amendment Sanctuary township.  Bearded chuds won.

  65. 65.

    O. Felix Culpa

    So I gather bump stocks are exactly what the Founding Fathers envisioned, per our venal and corrupt SC majority

    ETA: I am corrected on the basis of their decision by Baud below. Thanks for the info!

  68. 68.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Baud: Thanks.  Can you please explain the difference? If it’s statutory, can whatever problems they diagnosed be fixed to restore the law?

  69. 69.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud: Yes, this is an easy fix with a functioning Congress.  More reason to work for a win in November.

  70. 70.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    Mayor Johnson of Milwaukee is wrong in one respect when he comments that “all of us lived through his presidency”: over 440,000 people in the US had died of COVID between its inception and the inauguration of Joe Biden, a number nearly as large as the entire population of Milwaukee.

    Those of us who survived, yes, we lived through it, and we want no part of a repeat performance, but I can never forget that hundreds of thousands of people didn’t live to see the end of his term, and I wonder how many people won’t live through the next one.

  72. 72.

    NotMax

    Mentioned the current downward spiral of DJT stock. On top of it being down 6;6% at closing Wednesday, dropped a further 7.25% at closing Thursday.

    Chickens. Home. Roost.

  78. 78.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @O. Felix Culpa: Thomas is saying that Congress used a particular description of what what constitutes a machine gun and bump stocks do not fit that description.  Therefore they cannot be banned under the current law.  Change the description, change the result.*  If it was Constitutional, they effectively would be saying that one cannot write any law to do this.

    *Unless Thomas comes up with a new rationale for the next one.

  79. 79.

    different-church-lady

    AP: “Will their support matter in November?”

    The AP… that’s the same news organization that couldn’t find any question marks lying around regarding Trump’s “triumphant” return to congress was, correct?

  81. 81.

    CaseyL

    @Bruce K in ATH-GR:

    Do you remember when, fairly early in the pandemic, the Trump Administration abruptly ordered everyone traveling abroad to come back to the US?

    Hundreds of thousands of people flew back to the US from elsewhere.  All at once.

    No provisions had been made for so many people traveling at once from so many other parts of the world.  No additional flights,  no organized intake, no one even checking to see if anyone had Covid, much less making any preparations for those who did.

    People stood cheek-by-jowl in lines for hours.  Hundreds, thousands, of them.  In airport concourses.  No masks, no increased ventilation, and certainly no social distancing.

    I don’t think anyone did any followup, how many of them got sick, wound up in ICU, or died.  But I figure the deaths from that alone must count in the tens of thousands.

  83. 83.

    smith

    @NotMax: When is the embargo on the Felon selling his shares lifted? That’s when the real crash comes. That’s when all the Goobers who thought they they had a sure thing will FO.

  87. 87.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Baud:

    Gaah on the filibuster.

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Heh. I think we can count on Clarence (or Alito) to come up with reasons to support their predetermined outcome. They have a pretty good– and by good, I mean bad–track record so far.

  88. 88.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    *Unless Thomas comes up with a new rationale for the next one.

    *When* Uncle Clarence comes with with a new rationale for the next one.

  90. 90.

    TS

    @smith:

    That’s when the real crash comes.

    Instant sell from trump, everyone else loses, company is bankrupt. never know how they could list, let alone not be investigated because of the price. Zero value to back said price.

  91. 91.

    NotMax

    @@smith

    Some time in September. Dunno if that applies to all his shares or just to the ones he held when it went public.

  92. 92.

    smith

    @TS: Zero value to back said price.

    But they did have true believers who thought the stable genius would never steer them wrong, as well as shady characters from various countries taking advantage of a legal way to commit bribery.

  93. 93.

    WereBear

    @smith: MAGA man lost half a million of retirement savings with that stock. “Now my family won’t talk to me.”

    Look at the itty bitty violin on this tiny table I have placed between parentheses: (.)

  94. 94.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Ken:

    My expectation is that all his speeches will be supposedly televised “live from Mar-a-Lago”, but in fact pre-recorded and heavily edited.

    Reminiscent of TOS’ John Gill (h/t Fandom):

    In the 2260s Gill was sent to Ekos as a cultural observer for the Federation. Arriving there Gill saw the planet in a state of anarchy, and decided to violate the Prime Directive. Drawing on his knowledge of Earth history, Gill decided to implement a Nazi state on Ekos, feeling that such a state without the racial or religious persecution would be beneficial to Ekos. Following the establishment of the state Gill became the Ekosian Führer.

    At first Gill’s plans worked. However he was drugged by his Deputy Führer Melakon, who then took actual power. The Nazi state on Ekos started to head down the same dark path that the original Nazis on Earth had, persecuting their neighbors the Zeon. The Ekosian SS became the brutal enforcers of Melakon’s will.

    Losing contact with Gill, Starfleet dispatched Captain Kirk and the Enterprise to Ekos. Kirk and Spock soon discovered what had happened. Confronting Gill, they realized he was heavily drugged, and by then just a powerless figurehead.

  101. 101.

    O. Felix Culpa

    What are the odds of the Felon showing up for the debate on the 27th? It’s now less than two weeks away.

  102. 102.

    smith

    Apparently that’s all we will get from SCOTUS this week. Clearly, the Dirty Six will wait until the last possible minute to issue the immunity decision. Their nakedly political strategy is infuriating, but I’m hoping that their reluctance to issue it means it will go our way. Or is that too much to hope?

  104. 104.

    JPL

    @O. Felix Culpa:  trump mentioned that he might intentionally tank it.  CSPAN reported today that many CEO’s were shocked at trump’s meandering talk when he met with them.    I think he is a no show, because his team can’t take the chance.

  107. 107.

    mrmoshpotato

    Hollywood’s A-listers are lining up behind Joe Biden. Will their support matter in November?

    The AP should just write a headline screaming “Horserace!  Horserace!” and then go fuck themselves.

  109. 109.

    mrmoshpotato

    JB Pritzker

    @JBPritzker

    Donald Trump is a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist, and a congenital liar. He’s a racist, sexist, misogynistic narcissist who wants to use the levers of power to enrich himself and punish anyone who dares speak a word against him.

    I love my gov.

  110. 110.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @JPL: Good points.  I imagine the decision will be a tussle between the Felon’s handlers not wanting to expose his porridge brain to the masses and his overweening ego. We’ll see which one prevails.

  113. 113.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Omnes Omnibus: ​
     

    blockquote>In the third, Thomas wrote an opinion overturning the federal ban of bump stocks (6-3).​

    They used to tell us that an armed society is a polite society. (I think Heinlein originated that, but they took it and ran with it.) Maybe we just haven’t been armed enough, but now all the gun nuts will get real polite. //

  116. 116.

    Another Scott

    Mark Joseph Stern
    @mjs_DC
    55m

    Correct. The only way to carve out a loophole for bumpstocks under the federal ban is to torture the words of the statute until they mean something different from the plain text. Which is exactly what the Supreme Court just did.

    Aaron Fritschner
    @Fritschner
    1h

    I don’t know how the plain text of the law could possibly have been made clearer to ban a bump stock or any other device that does precisely what a bump stock does. 26 U.S. Code § 5845:

    [ image ]

    Jun 14, 2024 · 2:37 PM UTC

    This is my shocked, shocked face.

    There’s already legislation proposed to “close the loophole” (H.R.396).

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  117. 117.

    SoupCatcher

    @Baud:  But that’s because I’m of the (admittedly minority) view that people with vested interests in the status quo are terrified about what Biden has shown can be achieved.

    Yes, Biden offends the other side at a very foundational level because he is a lived example that public service can produce better results for more people in our country than private enterprise.

  118. 118.

    Soprano2

    @Ken: I disagree, TCFG won’t give up the chance to be in front of tens of thousands of his adoring followers live and broadcast to millions more on TV. They won’t be able to convince him to forego it.

  119. 119.

    Soprano2

    @JPL:  CSPAN reported today that many CEO’s were shocked at trump’s meandering talk when he met with them.

    If this is true then dementia is back on the table as a possibility, because someone with dementia could definitely be this way. I think a lot of people don’t understand that it doesn’t happen all at once, it happens in phases and differently to different people. There are many things my husband still understands and can talk about, but he can’t remember much of what happened yesterday and I wouldn’t let him try to fix anything on a bet.

  120. 120.

    rikyrah

    @JPL:

     

    they don’t give a shyt. They’d sell their mothers for those tax cuts.

    Not surprised, but, still pissed, that the story of him asking for a BILLION dollar bribe directly from Oil and Gas was barely a two day story in the MSM.

  121. 121.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Hakeem Jeffries tweet:

    House Democrats are focused on delivering real results for everyday Americans.

    Extreme MAGA Republicans are holding a pep rally for Trump on Capitol Hill.

    Big difference between us and them.

    Ralph Nader still can’t figure this out.

  122. 122.

    gvg

    @lowtechcyclist: Bully’s are not polite. This premise is based on might makes right AND a naive bias assuming that the righteous are always the winner here on earth. Sometimes that means they assume they are always right personally and sometimes just a faith that the universe rewards the good people only. Evidence is ignored.

    No understanding that the best shot in the world cannot stay alert and all seeing all the time his whole life nor that everyone gets old and declines physically and mentally.

  123. 123.

    wjca

    @gene108: I’m guessing there was also a meeting of the next insurrection planning committee.

    Seems wildly unlikely that actual insurrection planners would want TIFG anywhere near where the work was getting done.

  124. 124.

    dirge

    @gvg: Bully’s are not polite.

    Sure, but it’s extremely impolite to point that out to the bully, and in the proverbial armed society, perhaps fatally impolite. There’s nothing naive about it:  the whole point is consciously and deliberately reinforcing “might makes right” as some sort of “natural order.”  It’s affirmative action for Cluster B personality disorders.

  126. 126.

    Tony G

    The support of the Hollywood stars probably can’t hurt — but, unfortunately, I don’t think that it will help much.  Most Americans (including me!) tend to think of celebrities of any kind as being greedy, narcissistic jerks.  Sad but true.

  127. 127.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Tony G: actually I’ve worked on set and back stage, and I find the crew and actors, even the famous ones, to have been kind, warm, generous and caring. Of course, there are jerks and bad people, and good people, everywhere. At churches, in different countries.
    working w actors and script coordinators, they all seemed to be into personal growth, being their best selves.
    so I disagree w your generalization.

    a cool thing about actors, is they have $, visibility, influence and know how to present and communicate effectively.

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