Sorry, I just couldn’t resist! For some reason, that old ad “Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!” went through my head as I started to type Sunday, and I couldn’t help myself.
This is a wide-open open thread.
We do have a couple of awesome late entries to the NYT Challenge thread from last night. I was already asleep by the time they arrived, but they are too good not to be shared. You can find the original post here, complete with instructions and the original image to work with, if you’d like to play.
This one from Michael Bersin.
And this one from Tony Jay.
I knew when I put the post up last night that you guys wouldn’t let me down. Applications still being accepted!
Open thread.
comrade scott’s agenda of rage implemented Jazzman’s inspired idea!
comrade scott’s agenda of rage, with his own idea!
Most excellent!
Two more from Tony Jay:
From Ramalama
NotMax
wil
A good case for Kamala Harris being the candidate:
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/kamala-harris-biden-trump-election-rcna160078
MagdaInBlack
Did You say Sunday Sunday Sunday?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDYzidMqq4o
comrade scotts agenda of rage
The New York Times:
Just like the NY Post, only with a thesaurus.
SiubhanDuinne
Spending a few hours reviewing and tweaking and putting the final touches on my class for tomorrow (Musical Swans, in honour of next week’s Swan-Upping ceremonies in the U.K.) I’m still on a learning curve with the Mac and Apple’s versions of software, so it’s a slower process than it should be.
Kristine
Any way to spread these about online? Or are there legal issues?
TBone
Man, you’d think he’d be embarrassed waving that tiny peener around here all the time 😆🍄
You know who you are.
Villago Delenda Est
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: DING DING DING DING DING!
Tony Jay
@TBone:
I’ve heard, and by heard I mean read on the toilet wall in Trollbar Zanzibar* that from a certain angle it looks like Walter Matthau wind-surfing on the back of a pair of skeletal manta rays, so it’s no wonder it’s got all these attention-demand issues.
*Berlin’s cheapest and most raided weirdo haunt. Wifi password allhailvlad@bad1989
Michael Bersin
Heh.
Spread it far and wide. Satire/Parody is protected speech.
MagdaInBlack
@TBone: I still think a good sage smudge would help with this infestation.
wil
During the debate Biden at some point mentioned that Trump was a convicted felon.
During the interview Biden said Trump had lied ’27 or 28 times, anyway more than 20 times’ during the debate…as if that obviously coached detail matters when Trump lied more than 30,000 times in office.
It’s like Biden thinks talking up his own record is what’s important, and Trump being a liar and convicted felon…..sure, they should be mentioned, but it’s okay to kind of slip them in there when you can, if there’s time, and if he remembers, and that’s good enough.
But that’s not good enough.
Trump being a convicted felon, a rapist, a convicted fraudster, running to stay out of prison, running to end his crimes, running to pardon the Jan. 6th traitors….THOSE ARE THE MAIN POINTS.
That’s what should be front and center of every campaign appearance, interview and debate of any kind.
And Biden doesn’t seem to get that.
I think Kamala Harris would.
Barbara
@wil: Everyone: remember the phenomenon discussed in the thread last night and proceed with caution.
Villago Delenda Est
@Barbara:
Indeed! Don’t feed the energy creature.
TBone
@wil: life is like your tiny peener. Sometimes hard for no reason.
wil
@Barbara: No new ideas allowed! Verboten!
Another Scott
Meanwhile, in the further adventures of people doing it wrong on the Internet, …
[ snort! ]
Cheers,
Scott.
TBone
@Tony Jay: 😆 I’m bored to tears with the tiny penis haver but you never cease to be entertaining!
Chris T.
@Villago Delenda Est: But it has a new talking point! Aren’t we supposed to immediately shred ourselves into disarray in response?
wil
@TBone: If you’re really planning to hijack another thread with endless posts about your tiny balls and ‘peener’ then you’re the troll, not me.
LMFAO
TBone
@MagdaInBlack: 👍 I know where I would put it after waving it around, unlike the tiny peener guy.
Renie
Not sure if this has been mentioned but every year in Minneapolis, hundreds of people come to a neighbor for a ‘cat parade’. It’s not the cats walking around, it’s the people admiring cats from neighborhood houses. Cat owners have their cats at windows and sometimes outside. People walk around with signs saying “Show Us Your Cats”. This year they had 22 stops scheduled but some more people showcased their cats when the crowd came by. It started 7 years ago.
TaMara
Just a reminder, pie is good and easy to make. Just click the pie filter picture
at the top of the comments and pick a name, any name (not singling any name out here, but IYKYK) and click on it. Voila! Delicious pie. Occasional duck. Sometimes tuna.
This is your public service announcement for today. Trolls can only hijack a thread if you feed them. Gotta go mow a lawn – albiet a small lawn, but still needs to be mowed, which is why I killed most of my lawn.
TBone
@wil: you’re confusing a foot with an inch. Again.
😆
Tony Jay
Love the bewigged Eye of Sauron in Michael’s offering. Funny and accurate on all the levels.
Also, imagine having to use a needle and thread to sew your tallywacker back together every time you pee because your down below skin is the consistency of gauze. How angry would that make you with a world inhabited by billions of non-Frankensteined winkles?
Explains a lot. Not well. But a bit.
TaMara
@Renie: That is amazing. I wonder if it could be replicated as a fundraiser for animal shelters (like the holiday house tours do).
wil
The problem with President Biden’s claim that only he can do the job….the indispensable man….is that actually plenty of competent Democrats could do the same job.
sdhays
@Tony Jay: Tallywacker has always been my favorite word for the male genitalia.
TBone
@Tony Jay: 😆🤣 I’m choking! 😆
p.a.
NYT: He can’t get the trains to run on time, or succeed at anything else, but this Queens native has that post-Weimar energy!
Almost Retired
@TBone: Ok, that’s the fifth tiny penis reference in a 30 comment thread. Please give it a rest.
p.a.
“The problem with President Biden’s claim that only he can do the job….the indispensable man….is that actually plenty of competent Democrats could do the same job”… in 2028.
Fixt
TBone
@Almost Retired: snort! 😆
different-church-lady
I took a break from the internet yesterday, and missed the challenge, but mine would have read, “FUCK US SIDEWAYS”
PaulWartenberg
I keep thinking back to Kurt Eisenwald’s twitter thread about the day during his early work with the New York Times when he realized donald trump was a gaslighting liar and possible financial fraud. He goes running to his editor with his revelation and his editor dismisses it with a “dog bites man” analogy: that everyone knew trump was a liar. The problem was: that was a false assumption. People DIDN’T know trump was that bad, and the NY Times failed – even back in the 1980s – to realize they were letting trump off easy. And you can still see that blase “he’s not our problem” attitude the Times still has about trump to the point they’re actively protecting him from criticism.
wil
@p.a.: and also in 2024.
Fact.
different-church-lady
@wil: You’re still here?
Tony Jay
@sdhays:
As a very young youth I thought Porkys was the funniest film in the world. I’m still yet to be reliably convinced otherwise.
Moral terpitude!
wil
@Almost Retired:
I’m putting up comments of substance, agree with them or not.
He’s clogging the thread with penis jokes he thinks are funny. Who’s actually the troll? Who’s actually polluting these threads?
TBone
@different-church-lady: he keeps trying to rise to the occasion.
Nukular Biskits
Good (late) mornin’, y’all!
Went a little hard on neighborhood Saturday Night Drunk Meming & Music last night and moving like molasses this morning.
Pray (if so inclined) for me: I have to do yardwork.
wil
@different-church-lady: you’re still here?
Layer8Problem
@Another Scott: Dang, funny stuff. I have been taking a months long hiatus from Mastodon because I lack self-control and entire afternoons were banished to the Land of Wind and Ghosts reading interesting stuff and people. Maybe if I used a timer.
Jazzman
Moved to delurk: Has no one else thought of The New Orc Times?
Nukular Biskits
@Another Scott:
Excellent! Too cerebral for my Saturday Night Drunk Meming & Music, though.
Maybe I’ll put it up at work.
TBone
@wil: you’ll never be half the man your mother was.
wil
@TaMara: You should pie the troll who is filling up the thread with posts about his tiny penis.
different-church-lady
@wil: Yes, that’s what I asked.
CaseyL
FWIW, I’ve submitted Letters to the Editor to NYT and WaPo, as well as to my own local paper (Seattle Times), basically asking why they’re assisting in sandbagging the most successful Democratic President since FDR – with a few very polite comments indicating that I know what the reasons probably are.
I’m quite sure my letters won’t be published – but I want NYT and WaPo to know we Biden supporters are out here watching, and are pushing back.
wil
Biden’s interview with Stephanopolous was full of Biden looking like “are you really asking me that?” as he searched for words.
And this even though the campaign had come up with the questions themselves.
Another Scott
@PaulWartenberg: FTFNYT’s (and WaPo’s and the TV networks’) explicit policy in their financial statements is to grow their “engagement” and subscriptions and all the rest. They look back on the TCFFG’s time with great fondness because of people looking at the “news” all the time to see if they needed to suddenly sell everything they own and prepare to flee the country or not, etc.
Pinch/Punch and the Editorial Board and all the rest undoubtedly want to keep their richy-rich customers happy and want lower taxes themselves, but they have to keep the rest of us on edge to grow their revenue. There aren’t enough richy-rich people for them t make their quarterly numbers – for that they need schlubs like us.
Follow the money.
Don’t think that the mass media is attempting to inform us to make better decisions. That’s not their business these days.
Don’t be stampeded. Don’t be gaslighted. Don’t be railroaded.
Hang in there, everyone.
Cheers,
Scott.
wil
@different-church-lady: And I asked you the same thing.
sdhays
PSA: Feeding trolls makes them dependent so they can’t survive in the wild.
Eyeroller
@CaseyL: Do you subscribe? There’s really nothing that will make any difference to them other than canceled subscriptions. I intend to cancel my 30-year WaPo subscription tomorrow. I don’t like the new management and their owner seems to be delusional about how many subscribers they can get, which can’t help their journalism. Edit: already canceled NYT last week.
different-church-lady
I think what a lot of people are not getting is that kneecapping Biden right now hurts Harris’ chances should they make the switch.
Unless, of course, people do get that, and they’re being disingenuous.
different-church-lady
@wil: Yeah, but you didn’t answer.
different-church-lady
@sdhays: How you gonna poison them without hiding it in some food?
wil
@different-church-lady: neither did you
Eyeroller
@different-church-lady: A significant subset of those people don’t want Harris either, for reasons.
Nukular Biskits
I can’t remember who recommended it last night, but thanks to whoever suggested enabling the pie filter.
Question, though, for olds here: Didn’t the pie filter used to replace the troll’s posts with text about how much they loved pie?
Another Scott
@Nukular Biskits: Yes. That was Cleek’s version.
WG tells us that there’s still a text option in the version here, in the pie settings. (I’ll have to try that sometime.)
Cheers,
Scott.
wil
@different-church-lady:
Except that you don’t know that. Biden stepping down for the good of the country and Kamala stepping up is not ‘kneecapping’
And you don’t know that there aren’t people out there who would not vote for Biden because he simply seems weak and wavering, who would vote for Kamala as a fresh face and a passing of the torch to a new generation.
rikyrah
Jenifer Lewis at Essence Fest
Get 👏🏾 Your 👏🏾 Ass 👏🏾 Out 👏🏾 And 👏🏾 Vote 👏🏾
It’s Me Ya’ll (@Datelinefam) posted at 10:33 PM on Sat, Jul 06, 2024:
You heard her! https://t.co/bmd40p8dyw
(https://x.com/Datelinefam/status/1809792948864725229?t=przwgrom4zuSzpEeAb6Yww&s=03)
TBone
@Jazzman: I like it!
rikyrah
The ground game in swing states by party
CARL AZ MAN🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@CFKMAN) posted at 11:19 PM on Sat, Jul 06, 2024:
Zero Ground game in any of those swing states https://t.co/2YcPdRtoYF
(https://x.com/CFKMAN/status/1809804462246228184?t=6e-_nhKv5vA2K83Rr6r8GQ&s=03)
Nukular Biskits
@different-church-lady:
IMHO, there are two groups pushing the “GET BIDEN OFF THE TICKET!!!11!!!” narrative (excluding the media asshats who, for selfish reasons, want chaos).
The first truly believes there is a Democratic candidate out there who can magically seamlessly take over and coast all the way to a November victory.
The second group is concern-trolling and know that should their “solution” come to pass, it will cripple any Democratic candidacy, particularly one with Harris at the top of the ticket. To them, that is a feature, not a bug.
Tony Jay
Keep on repeating the obvious, Biden isn’t going anywhere. He doesn’t have to. He already lives in the White House.
It’s Stench that has to move. By the time all the court cases are finished he won’t have a hotel left to shit in.
zhena gogolia
Here are two verses of the hymn we sang in church today, to the tune of “Morning Has Broken”:
Nukular Biskits
@Another Scott:
Ah, yes. Cleek’s version. I remember it now. Thanks for that wayback trip!
ETA: I think I’ll change my pie filter settings to “random quote”. If I recall, the results were often hilarious.
CaseyL
\@Eyeroller:
I am a proud ex-subscriber to both papers. Cancelled NYT years ago, and WaPo a few weeks ago, when they announced they were replacing reporters with AI.
I do subscribe to the Seattle Times.
BTW – Anyone catch Adam Schiff on the morning talk shows? I see on social media that he says, if Biden can’t win overwhelmingly, he needs to step aside. Mind. you, I like Schiff, and I know he’s a blog favorite, but that seems like a very stupid thing to say.
rikyrah
@different-church-lady:
They are being completely dishonest.
The age thing is
ALL ABOUT THE BLACK WOMAN AS VICE PRESIDENT 🤬🤬
PJ
@different-church-lady: when someone is so single-minded that they post variations on the same comment numerous times in nearly every thread over a course of days, it’s an indicator that they either have some mental issues, or are getting paid for it.
WaterGirl
@Kristine: his starts with photos taken with someone’s personal phone, so the NYT does not own the starting photos.
I’ll let the attorneys weigh in, but I don’t know what issues there could be.
So unless the attorneys say no, it seems like anyone could post these online.
rikyrah
@Renie:
That is so sweet 🥰
WaterGirl
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Hopefully someone with photoshop could make that one happen for us!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
“We are a serious, just look at our fonts. Are they not the most serious fonts you have ever seen?”
wil
@Nukular Biskits:
Nope. We simply believe that Biden is on a path to likely losing, and we have a better chance with Kamala Harris.
There is no ‘magically seamlessly coasting to victory’
Man, you people have some serious problems with straw men.
Most of you have been at this website talking only back and forth to each other and just agreeing with each other for WAAAAY TOO LONG.
TBone
Reposting from the early thread. Well worth the 15 minutes! Rebuttal extraordinnaire:
zhena gogolia
@Jazzman: Good one!
rikyrah
ICYMI
Abortion rights made it to the ballot in ARKANSAS 👊🏾
WaterGirl
@different-church-lady: It’s not too late! The challenge is still open. :-)
trollhattan
The French have decided that nazi popularity reason enough to get to the polls.
kindness
God I remember those commercials. For me it was the Sunday, Sunday, Sunday at Roosevelt Raceway in NJ. I never went but you couldn’t not hear the ads in the tri-state area.
zhena gogolia
@CaseyL: He’s been kind of a snake for a while.
TBone
@Tony Jay: 👍 just like his SS detail, he’ll be looking for Porta Potties.
Nukular Biskits
LOLOLOLOL!
Troubling Signs of Cognitive Decline as Trump Struggles to Recognize Closest Aides
WaterGirl
@Jazzman: That is most excellent, also!
I hope people with photoshop skills are listening. I would love to add more pics to the collection.
wil
@PJ:
Actually it’s an indication of neither of those things. You guys have really been here in your little box for way too long.
However, you should take your theory and apply it to the guy who posts about tiny penises all the time.
Clearly he’s got mental issues or is being paid for it, right?
LMAO
trollhattan
@wil:
“We simply believe”
King Charles, good to have you here!
“You people”
Careful, now.
TBone
@trollhattan: fingers and toes crossed for a good outcome! Vive la France!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmey95lE-98
MinuteMan
@TaMara:
Need to try harder.
WaterGirl
@Nukular Biskits: Yes. We kept Cleek’s pie filter idea and changed / expanded on it when we did the site rebuild in 2019. With Cleek’s gracious permission, of course.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Thanks for sharing that.
Nukular Biskits
@WaterGirl:
What a legacy!
Wish I’d been a more active participant earlier.
scav
@Jazzman: Perfect reason and timing for your delurking! All applause!
Layer8Problem
Satby upstairs mentioned #DownwithCNN trending and spooking them and I’ll repeat what I replied: Hell, there ought to be a full-blown Mainstream Media advertiser boycott movement, with memes and manifestos.
I don’t think I’m the one to spearhead this; my talents are postcards to voters, donations, data entry, and patiently waiting on hold at health insurance company customer service numbers. But there’s gotta be multiple someones out there who have the aptitude.
TBone
@trollhattan: he’s the Archie Bunker of Stephen Millers.
Mike E
@PJ: if you* can’t stop engaging with a known troll, you are being one too. Making this site a waste of time. Congratulations.
*Not you per se
Eyeroller
@CaseyL: In our highly polarized environment, nobody, not even a Republican, will win “overwhelmingly.” Why are these supposed professionals so stupid.
Also some polling shows D voters reject this nonsense 2 to 1.
wil
@trollhattan: Yes, both sides ‘simply believe’
Those who think Biden should stay believe that’s the best course.
Those who think Biden should go also believe that’s the best course.
WaterGirl
@Nukular Biskits: Can you send me an email this morning about stamps?
watergirl at balloon-juice.com
Nukular Biskits
Since this is an OT, just want to solicit thoughts/opinions on pruning roses during the heat of the summer.
The rose bed out front is looking much better this year, after I lowered the pH with some garden sulfur and peat moss. The initial blooms were beautiful but long gone. The bushes have a few blooms here and there but are like gangly teenagers.
I’ve read that it’s okay to lightly prune them to the first 2 or three leaves down from the blooms as this will encourage more blooms but to not prune severely (like you would prior to the spring growing season).
Anyone else have experience pruning roses in the Deep South during the most hellish parts of summer?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@PaulWartenberg: My take on the NYT and Trump is – the only thing the MSM is good for a bunch of old white guys cosplaying as teenage mean girls, Since Trump has been doing old white guy cosplaying as a teenage mean girl all his life, the MSM has nothing to use on him, they don’t know how to act like adults because their are not, most of them are just the fail sons of rich families who parents wouldn’t let them take theater, so they give up.
Meanwhile the MSM audience are Totebaggers, moderate liberals who want a balance view, and the Totebaggers are slowly getting more and more angry with the MSM’s bullshit. The MSM is in utter panic mode now that thanks to their bullshit they enabled a second Trump presidency, so they want to Biden to resign and the Democrats to be thrown into chaos, so the MSM can blame the Dems.
Layer8Problem
@trollhattan: “Careful, now.”
“Down with this sort of thing!”
kindness
One reason I’m keeping my Times & WaPo subscriptions is I enjoy the comments sections. The WaPo let’s you Ignore User in theirs. I end up knowing I used it properly and blocked out a paid troll when I see half the comments blanked out by the over-caffinated troll spewing crap. I had never used the filter here but did yesterday and by golly half the comments in this piece are now pretty pics. Again, I know I did the right thing.
Scout211
Did all the signatures get certified yet? I thought they just turned in the signatures. There’s another big step before it gets on the ballot, IIRC.
Same thing with Nebraska, the signatures were just turned in but then they have to be certified.
Hopefully, both will get on the ballot this fall. Fingers crossed.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Arkansas!
NotMax
Thread needs some pick-me-up music.
;)
Nukular Biskits
@WaterGirl:
You have mail.
BellyCat
…and some wonder why more lurkers don’t participate on this blog.
frosty
@Another Scott: Those memes were great!
Mike E
@TBone: I listened to Tracy Pearson and she nailed it. The next podcast up in my YouTube queue was an Al Franken interview with Heather Cox Richardson, she’s great, but fucking Al Franken, repeating GOP talking points and downplaying his own party’s achievements, It’s becoming clear to me why he’s no longer a senator. He just couldn’t be arsed and wow that was a disappointment coming to this realization.
Nukular Biskits
@NotMax:
How do you come across this stuff?!?!?!?
EXCELLENT!
TBone
More dick jokes 😆
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/republicans-are-running-away-from
Subject: Project 2025
“I never even met her!”
Layer8Problem
@WaterGirl: The last few days has seen a tremendous uptick in Pie Filter interest, with lots of long-term BJers giving it a shot or asking how to do it and then doing it. Thanks to Cleek and thanks to you for enhancing it for us. It truly is a full-service blog.
TBone
Did someone say Pie? My favorite kind is Jonathan!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ghr2M8mh8MA
50 shades of beige 😎
narya
@rikyrah: This one blows me away! I think the court thought they could avoid backlash by essentially kicking the can down the road with the mifepristone and EMTALA decisions, but it turns out a whole lot of people have NOT forgotten Dobbs. And they WILL come back on those two cases, and contraception, after the election.
scav
… and people somehow forget what vitriolic means . . .
TBone
@Mike E: I’m glad SOMEONE watched Dr. Pearson! She is a BADASS!
Sorry about the algorithm. Ya gotta know when to fold ’em.
TBone
@scav: 💜💙✊
Layer8Problem
@BellyCat: Heartbreaking, isn’t it? I’m sure we’re losing tens, or at least fives, of people. Whatever will happen to BJs reputation as an influencer and a thought leader? And when we’ve driven off our last advertiser, what then? It’s tragic, it is.
narya
@Layer8Problem: Yeah, me too. I normally just skip the comments or commenters that annoy me; lots of folks have particular positions with which I disagree, but I may find their other contributions interesting. But sometimes tasty tasty pie is the way to go
ETA: and I just found out that when you refresh the thread, the dessert case changes! Woo!
BarcaChicago
The New York Times has deleted their Threads account. They can’t take the heat from all the pushback. It has been heartening to see the massive pushback against corporate media and pundit panic narratives, I have to say.
Cheryl from Maryland
@SiubhanDuinne: in case you need an illustration, Swan Upping at Cookham, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/spencer-swan-upping-at-cookham-t00525, by Sir Stanley Spencer.
Nelle
@rikyrah: Hear, hear. Pretty obvious to those who open their eyes.
My opinion of her really improved after reading her book, back in 2019. I have no qualms about her taking over, if and when necessary. We had neighbor over for what we call porch wine. When I said that, two stalwart Dems sighed and said, thanks, we needed to hear that.
frosty
@Another Scott: Those memes were great!
wil
Ignore it all you like, BJers.
That doesn’t make it untrue.
frosty
@Nukular Biskits: Funny and educational both!
M31
canceled my WaPo sub back early in the Biden administration when they had an op ed whining that Biden went to too many funerals
canceled my Baltimore Sun sub when they got bought by fucking Sinclair
Baltimore Banner is pretty good, still somewhat of a start up but good local coverage, hope they continue to grow
also, fuck the fucking new york times
NotMax
@TBone
Did someone say Vive la France?
;)
Eyeroller
@Layer8Problem: I’ve never felt like I needed it before. I’d just scroll past if I didn’t want to read the comment. But this is the first time I’ve encountered one so persistent and annoying, so went ahead and pied him. As a couple of people have noted, it’s to the point that he’s either got some mental hangup or is being paid.
I’ve though about toggling on some comments and running them through an AI detector, but they’re probably too short for a reliable answer, plus if (getting conspiratorial here) if it’s somebody who is say a native Russian speaker, he could just be using the AI to smooth over grammatical issues and there is human editing behind it.
Nelle
My problem with the pie filter? I’m a sugar addict, easily triggered by the pictures….
TBone
@BarcaChicago: WOO HOO!!!
E.
I’ve pied a grand total of two people and it has improved the thread considerably. I particularly like that it pies the messages that are in response to the troll. It’s really a great service.
Also, remember people, if you must reply to a troll, talk about them, not to them. And not by replying to their message.
Eunicecycle
@Eyeroller: yeah I went through this 120+ thread pretty quickly because of all the pastries!
wil
@Eyeroller: Needing to come up with all these conspiracies is a clear sign of mental illness.
Or perhaps someone is paying you to come up with them?
Maybe you are a native Russian speaker, using an AI and then a human editor to…..comment on a blog?
Al Rennick
Adam Schiff Calls for Biden and Trump to Take Cognitive Tests: ‘They Both Should Be Willing’
https://www.mediaite.com/news/adam-schiff-calls-for-biden-and-trump-to-take-cognitive-tests-they-both-should-be-willing/
Eunicecycle
@Nelle: That’s why I am so hungry!
TBone
@NotMax: 💙
Makes me feel so ladylike.
😆
Mike E
@Nelle: click the cherry tart icon, click settings and select “hide comment”… problem solved
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@wil: Do you ever post about anything else?
Everyone seems to think you’re a troll. From reading this blog every day for the past 9-10 years, your posts sure look like some of the other troll infestations we’ve had before, so I can’t blame them.
TBone
@Al Rennick: President Biden took his four months ago. It is readily available online. I posted the relevant cognitive/neurological portion of the report here at BJ last night.
PJ
@Al Rennick: deleted
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Jazzman:
You win.
Chris T.
@TBone: Also, Trump will cry “rigged!”
Layer8Problem
Oh my god guys, the Backup Troll’s here! Now we’re really in for it.
NotMax
@TBone
Now that’s some unfiltered Pie.
:)
Jackie
@BellyCat:
You took the words out of my mouth. These last 10 days have been brutal.😟
jimmiraybob
@p.a.:
“…post-Weimar energy!”
Let’s face it, sleepy old Paul (Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg) was old.
frosty
@M31: I canceled the Baltimore Sun when they were bought by the Tribune. It took awhile but I finally wondered why all the Op Ed page was conservative stuff.
I agree about the Banner. I’m on their $1 trial subscription right now.
wil
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: I don’t really care what any of the weird insular people at this blog think.
I have been here longer than most of you, just reading the site and not in the comments. 9-10 years? I’ve been here twice as long.
The topic of the day is the crisis in the Democratic party brought on by Biden’s debate performance and the resulting situation where a significant chunk of the party and its voters think Biden should step aside.
That is the main political topic right now.
The insular groupthink that this site has decided that sticking with Biden is the only opinion allowed, and that’s fine. But recognize that well-meaning people with equally valid experience and viewpoints have a different view.
This site’s groupthink enforcers seem to have a real problem with that, and I find it amusing.
I’ve spent a lot of time on sites smacking down dumb Trumpers every day. It’s a little sad to see some of the same traits among people who should know better….meaning my fellow liberals and Democrats.
Gloria DryGarden
@Michael Bersin: wonder if you can explain that image. I’m seeing an opening, red, strongly reminiscent of female special areas, surrounded by the hair of that man, whatshisname. Um, am I see ing it wrong?
as a possessor of said special female area, I feel a tiny bit unnerved.
Tony Jay
@Jazzman:
That wins three Internets and a Global Webbie. Don’t forget to mention us in your acceptance speech.
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: I shall look, shortly. Hoping for laughs..
Tony Jay
@Gloria DryGarden:
Look up the Eye of Sauron from Lord of the Rings.
It’s very apt.
geg6
@Gloria DryGarden:
The eye of Sauron (from Lord of the Rings) with a Cheetolini wig.
TBone
@Gloria DryGarden: I thought it was his shouty red crying/whining face!
It’s RIGGED!
@Chris T.: ☝️
LadySuzy
@wil: The campaign has to be BOTH about the criminality and authoritarianism of Trump, AND the discussion about how this democratic administration has demonstrated they can work for the American people and deliver results.
People who don’t follow politics closely become irritated if a candidate is only attacking the opponent.
You have to balance the two parts of the message.
No matter who is the nominee, this will be the challenge.
Challenge for the nominee, but also for the whole campaign (surrogates, ads, grassroots work).
raven
Still engaging with this clown huh?
TBone
@NotMax: he’s an honorary Jackal!
wil
@Gloria DryGarden: I saw it that way at first too, but it’s the Eye of Sauron.
CaseyL
I would be more open to, and less enraged about, Biden stepping aside in favor of Harris if I didn’t know to my very bones that the MSM will immediately turn on Harris and attempt to burn her candidacy to the ground.
IOW, they – as the willing handmaids to the GOP – will continue to do their best to get Trump elected.
Jinchi
Agreed. Harris is already on the ticket with Biden. They’re a team that was picked by the voters twice now, and their first term has exceeded expectations.
I’m not interested in trading that because the media has gone into a feeding frenzy. Especially in exchange for a chaotic convention selection by a pack of weak kneed insiders and “strategists”.
TBone
@raven: people didn’t like my dick jokes 🙄
Jinchi
I’m sure they’d only be asking “questions”.
wil
@LadySuzy: If you say so.
Making the opponent unpalatable to voters is also a time honored strategy, and with Trump’s negatives, felony convictions, rapist, Dobbs. etc., he’s a prime candidate for such a strategy.
We aren’t going to win playing defense, and Biden seems unable to go on offense.
NotMax
@Tony Jay
Alan Parsons Project, Eye in the Sky.
;)
sdhays
@rikyrah: Signatures from 50 counties and it was all grassroots because the national players were unhappy that the amendment didn’t go far enough.
Jinchi
20 posts written to a single thread?
You clearly do.
wil
@TBone:
8th grade may have been your glory years, but most people grew up even if you didn’t.
way2blue
I just started reading Terry Hayes’ new thriller, The Year of the Locust, and he includes a quote by poet Dorothy Parker that’s stuck with me. Namely:
wil
@Jinchi: Responding to people out of amusement or to instruct or correct them is not the same as caring what they think.
WaterGirl
ANNOUNCEMENT
Per John Cole, commenter “wil” has violated the comment policy.
.
wil is being given a 3-day time-out based on item #1 above, and an additional one-week time-out based on item #2 above.
If wil immediately returns to derailing threads after the 10 days, he will immediately be given a one-month time-out.
edit: Differences in opinion are welcomed; deliberate derailing of threads is not acceptable.
Gloria DryGarden
@Layer8Problem: I tried a timer on Facebook. Darn it. When it’s engrossing, it just is, and this is a much more deeply informed place, so, I hit snooze on that timer. Oh dear. Hours go by…
meanwhile, here we are today. OH, PIE!
to Lie, or not to die, to fry my brain, or to cry.. would I?
to pry such words from the page, to not say hi
to rhyme, unless I don’t have time…because I don’t like it when it changes the clime.
turn on a dime, and climb out from a pile of…
out out, damn spot
(and now I’ll have to call an English major for the exact Shakespeare reference on the “spot”)
so grateful for a BJ friend who explained it all to me by phone; grateful for the detailed clarification on pie.
BECAUSE now, to pie, or not to pie. the slings and arrows of outrageous (_____, um, insert nouns and adjectives of choice)..
happy Sunday
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@WaterGirl:
Check your inbox. ;)
sdhays
@WaterGirl: 🥳
Eyeroller
@Tony Jay: My only quibble with that image is that the NYT has been, maybe not “groupies” to fascists, but at least accommodationists, since at least 1929. They tolerated Nazi-friendly and even Nazi-adjacent correspondents all through the 1930s and even for a year or two after WWII broke out, all in order to keep their contacts open and articles arriving.
rikyrah
Matt Viser (@mviser) posted at 10:35 AM on Sun, Jul 07, 2024:
Pastor from the pulpit in Philadelphia: “I don’t know why it is that you want to make an issue of the president and his condition with stammering and not being able, at certain times, to bring forth words while another person lies fluently and you never challenged his lies.”
(https://x.com/mviser/status/1809974630360219917?t=jO1HeZf-aESFnK6cMqT-Hw&s=03)
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
Yeah 👍🏾
raven
@NotMax: This version with the Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra is nice. My understanding is that he is not very popular either here or in the UK???
prostratedragon
@NotMax:
Cute! A little from the Mozart y Mambo project: Rondo from the famous horn concerto.
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: should this get its own thread?
Ohio Mom
@wil: Um, Kamala is already the candidate. For VP. She has a platform and a megaphone.
Now, whether or not she’s reported on, and reported on accurately and fairly, is another question.
TBone
@way2blue: I absolutely adore Dorothy Parker and have been to the Algonquin. Also, Robert Benchley 💜
wil
@WaterGirl: Enforce that groupthink.
I have not derailed anything.
You’re sadly unable to handle opinions that differ from what you’ve decided is allowed.
So much for ‘open threads’
Dorothy A. Winsor
I’m staying away from any discussion of what Biden should do. The sole standard is what will give us the best chances of defeating Trump. I will accept however this comes out, but that should be the only thing we consider.
I saw a guy who uses a series of things to predict who will win the election and has been overwhelmingly successful. He says we have a better chance if Biden stays, so that’s what I think.
NotMax
@Eyeroller
Got it covered.
:)
TBone
@rikyrah: ❤️❤️❤️
wil
@WaterGirl: The funny thing is the only expert here seems to be me.
Most of you are just sad groupthinkers who don’t have much to say other than to cheerlead each other.
TBone
@Gloria DryGarden: I think so. She absolutely nails it.
As always, opinions here may vary 😆 but she did a service to the entire nation IMO.
I hope someone comes up with the transcript. She has a Substack as well, maybe it’s there. I haven’t yet checked.
Tony Jay
As long as it keeps on garnering responses to cull data for its controllers from it’ll stay around, and as long as it stays around it’s just asking for further discussion of its mockable privates, like how having a ‘middle leg’ that resembles a shiny, pulsating blancmange topped with dandelion puffs might have played a part in its journey to the Dick Side.
It’s not an excuse, but it is a more satisfying reason than “I’m not bad, I’m just coded that way.”
ETA – And it’s gone. Good. I need to save some genital-related analogies for my next work assessment.
The Thin Black Duke
Thanks, John.
Gloria DryGarden
@NotMax: love it. Goosebumps, love toccata n fugue on orchestra! And then laughing so hard. Love a good musical humor piece.
trollhattan
@WaterGirl: Huzzah!
MagdaInBlack
@WaterGirl: I knew the sage smudge would work. Thank You ❤️
TBone
@Tony Jay: 😆
You make me feel like such a crude Yank
prostratedragon
@SiubhanDuinne:
The first swan I thought of, in an interesting cabaret setting by the Noricum Group of Salzberg: “Olim lacus colueram,” Orff.
Gloria DryGarden
@rikyrah: this might go in a thread w t-bones linked thing. Wonder if watergirl agrees.
I saw someone posted about Heather V. Al Franken. Dang it I had thought well of him.
I love Heather. She has saved my life these years
Bex
@Al Rennick: I think Schiff should take a cognitive test.
Layer8Problem
Oh pooh, and I was just about to try gently reasoning with it. And listening carefully to their points trying to understand their concerns. //
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: ándale
Tony Jay
@Eyeroller:
That’s a very fair point.
Let’s compromise and shake hands on the agreement that, while fluids had been exchanged much earlier in the relationship, 2015 was when actual coitus was witnessed first hand.
WaterGirl
Two more great images just added up top!
Keep ’em coming!
TBone
@Bex: good one!
WaterGirl
comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
WaterGirl
And comrade scott’s agenda of rage, with Jazzman’s excellent idea!
scav
@Tony Jay: 🎵GIGO, GIGO, It’s off to work we go! 🎶 If it wasn’t so thread derailing, we should just saturate its data with bat-shit responses and watch them bob through the generated outflow.
Chris
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Allan Lichtman, with the keys to the White House? He’s a professor at my alma mater, but I never had him. I lean in his direction, although as you say, I’ll take what comes.
Ohio Mom
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That’s my feeling, I hired Biden to do a job and I’m not going to micromanage him. So far, that is working out just fine, no matter what the talking heads think.
On another note, I got it into my head that the family room needed brightening up and that the way to do that was spray paint the two matching lamps bright red (they are wrought iron).
The spray can handle from the last time I felt the need to paint something didn’t fit so I just used my forefinger and now there is a tendon in my arm that is screaming in pain.
Note to self, don’t ever leave hardware store again without a handle that fits the spray can you just picked out.
Next up, looking for a pair of new lampshades. That should keep me away from depressing news for a while.
Gloria DryGarden
@Eyeroller: contacts, yes, insider information, yes. But allies only to such heinous vile sorts, to give unbalance partiality to one side? Not so great.
once again saving my swear words for another time, but thinking them silently
Mousebumples
I like to feed them pie!
Jinchi
I think that’s right. Biden has a great record, which the MSM completely ignores.
They spent the first three years of his term insisting that recession was just around the corner and I think they’re really annoyed that he keeps proving them wrong.
knittingbull
that’s the first time I’ve used the pie filter. I like.
Sister Golden Bear
Thanks Cole.
My blood sugar levels were going through the roof thanks to all those tasty, tasty pies and pastries.
WaterGirl
@Chris: Yes, that’s the name of the person.
But he’s not saying Biden has a better chance than any other Dem. But with his rating system, Biden is over the top of the # of YES answers to a series of questions.
I haven’t read the source material, but that’s what I have seen about it.
NotMax
@sdhays
If you
build itfeed them they will come.;)
oldgold
The idea that the NYT is THE problem or even a significant part of the problem is silly.
I notice today that Trumplethinskin is ranting in all caps against it too.
”THE FAILING NEW YORK TIMES, WHICH AT SOME POINT WILL BE PUT TO REST IN THE GRAVEYARD OF BAD AND INACCURATE JOURNALISM.”
Gloria DryGarden
Ok, so the poem, from yesterday , (get up, there’s always a disaster, the thing to do is get up)
by niquaeli torres (sp?)
w permission from the poet, this poem needs to be set to some catchy music, and sung in the radio, and then we’re all singing it at the top of our lungs, at rallies, in the car, standing by the radio, while writing the postcards..
I really would like to sing it. Not good at writing melodies and music.
only good at words, and gardens, and healing arts, and dancing. I can sing if I have to. I need a musician composer. Please help? Is the poet ok w that?
sdhays
@Mousebumples: That’s ok. They hates the pie! Hates it!
TBone
@Gloria DryGarden: her Substack is for paid subscribers only.
I’m not transcribing the FREE video. If people want to spend the fifteen or so minutes to get the ammo we all need, it’s right there for the taking. I’m too hot today and that makes me a lazy Sunday gurl. I took dictation for thirty odd years 😆😎
Anyhoo, 15 minutes well spent:
https://youtu.be/2acbmSjSvvI
ETA important: she’s donating 50% of her Substack proceeds to the Biden Harris Campaign!
UncleEbeneezer
So Idiots…
Assholes…
And then there’s a third group who enables both of the others. They are the Loyal-Dem-But’s. They vote blue. They may even be involved in organizing/activism for the party. But there’s always a “but.” They always have to remind everyone that they are holding their noses and Dems are flawed and need better messaging and too old etc. Many are obsessed with Third Party fantasies and are borderline conspiracy-theorists about the DNC, big donors and the party, in general. They refuse to acknowledge that there is ever a time for us all to just support Dems. They frame doing so as some sort of horrible hive-mind suppression of debate. We must NEVER stop debating all the ways Dems are failing us…especially when those debates can actively damage our chances in elections.
They are the people who are always eyeing the exit door from our coalition and the Dem Base is well aware of their presence and considers them fair-weather allies at best. They will never vote GOP or not vote, so they are pretty much stuck with voting for the Dem. But they’ll never stop mentioning the fact that they do so only because there’s no other choice. They resent the fact that the Dem Party candidate/position isn’t as far Left/Right as they’d like but will never admit that maybe Dem voters just don’t agree with them. If/when Dems lose, they will acknowledge that there can be multiple causes, but first and foremost they will focus on whatever the Democrat did/didn’t do. They often (but not always) espouse claims that “It shouldn’t even be close” if it were the right candidate/policy/messaging strategy etc. They also don’t seem to grok that no online conversation happens in a vacuum and that bad actors (MAGA, Russian bots, Nazis, Bernie Bros etc.) are always on the lookout for the best faultiness to possibly break our coalition. They think somehow that search algorithms care whether you are making Anti-Dem statements out of good-faith love for the party, or just to bash Dems. Spoiler: they don’t. So all their “but really let’s have this important debate” may be well-intended, but it is just fueling the online effort to help Trump. But they’d rather do that then risk being accused of being a blind-follower of the Dem Party.
Mike E
@Sister Golden Bear: you can choose in the settings to have the comments hidden (or the option of inserting/replacing a comment with random text that says something about pie, so…)
sdhays
@oldgold: They’re pretty bad, and emblematic of a wider problem.
ETA: TCFG has written that several times before. Has he forgotten??
Chris
@WaterGirl:
I’m not actually sure about his ratings system, since from what I’ve seen several of them seem… ambiguous? But I do recall that one of the keys is “incumbency,” and giving that up is instantly another point against you.
(He’s also said that this is why if the party does dump Biden, the next person absolutely has to be Harris, otherwise you lose the incumbency key. I’m not actually sure that’s how incumbency works, in that I’m not sure a different presidential candidate would be seen as “incumbent” – even if she was on the same ticket, she’s still not the president. But this is what I mean when I say some of his key seem ambiguous. In any case, he does seem to think Biden staying in makes us likelier to pull it off).
NotMax
@Tbone
Isn’t dictation only on day one?
//
japa21
I’m gonna miss the little guy.
But a couple comments.
1. There are valid concerns and issues raised about whether or not Biden should or can continue.
2. Most of the people on the “He shouldn’t” side, as far as I can tell, are unable to articulate a scenario in which the Dems win in November if Biden steps down.
3. Most of the people on the “He should” side do tend to minimize the angst felt by the sincere people on the other side. The difficulty is discerning who is rally sincere (my guess is under 5% of the people).
4. In regard to one of the little guy’s statements about how VP Harris knows how to go after Trump and Biden doesn’t, cut the malarky, man. Biden has been very out there in rallies, not as much in more highly covered public appearances.
4a. It is also a well-established practice for the VP to be the hatchet person. Harris does it very well.
5. Anybody who says “We’re going to lose with Biden” or the opposite and says so with conviction, is a idiot. Way to early to tell. However, the likelihood of losing, based upon all information gathered to date, increases if Biden drops out.
6. As for me and my house, we’re going with Biden until the point he says no more, which we hope doesn’t happen.
Michael Bersin
@Gloria DryGarden:
That’s the Eye of Sauron atop the Dark Tower (Barad-dûr), from the Lord of the Rings films. Google Image search crocodile and/or lizard/reptile eyes.
JaySinWA
@Nelle: I finally set the option to hide comments, removing the image frees up space and should save a few bytes of download.
I was always an intermittent pie user, and plan to be again after the swarm.
Gloria DryGarden
@oldgold: mr bad and inaccurate himself has some nice graveyard tax haven land in nj. Why doesn’t he go start digging a grave?
oh dear, my next thought can’t be written down.
So many possibilities. TcFG is already a trollster himself, no? With already widely reported very tiny special parts, withering away?
hoist with his own…
dig his own…
(oh, have I gone too far? Dig it shallow, plant some flowers in the bed,
put it to bed)
Ruckus
@PJ:
I’m going with A.
No one is paying for that.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
In this particular case the NYT is the problem.
But, I see Trump is coming to Biden’s rescue because Trump just has to open his Trump to use his mushroom shaped Trump to Trump himself in his big fat Trump. Please proceed small hands.
delphinium
@CaseyL:
I emailed my state peeps and Senator Warner regarding the media hysteria (again!) and asked them not to fall for that. I was more straightforward with Warner and told him that if he actually thinks Trump is the better candidate, then he should say so. That would be more honest than running to the media and whispering about his “concerns”.
Gloria DryGarden
@Michael Bersin: oh! Ok. Thank you. That makes sense…
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@UncleEbeneezer:
I’m so saving this. Probably the best articulation of what I typically label “fauxgressives” that I’ve seen. More tightly defined than my usual broad-brush slur.
I’ll note than many of the Loyal-Dem-Buts also push some of the worst neoliberal, Reaganomic crap (alas, it’s been normalized on both sides of the aisle over the last 40 years) and are as racially tone-deaf (as we’ve seen with the hair-on-fire-we’re-doomed reaction from the debate) about the outcomes of what they push as anybody actually on the right.
Dave Buchen
Good article by the great rebbecca solnit
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/06/biden-trump-race-rebecca-solnit?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Michael Bersin
@Eyeroller:
Yeah, I knew that. But I chose 2015 as a reference to the escalator ride with a fake audience. June 16, 2015.
AWOL
Unsubscribe from the Failson Corporate Media. I’ve worked with these shits for thirty-five years. They’re utter morons and totally amoral.
If you want to read their feces, steal it by copying the URL of the article and pasting it in the top in the red rectangle and click SAVE.
Webpage archive
Voila! You have the complete article, sans readers’ comments.
If you’re quick, you can click on readers’ comments on the actual website and try to get in before the paywall hits.
I also have no idea why people respond to dedicated trolls.
Ruckus
@Nukular Biskits:
The statement raised more concerns about whether the former President, 78, is fit to serve.
He never was – and nothing has made him any better in the least.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
And the proper response to their concerns is “why will a replacement be better?” The MSM has outright said as far as they are concerned the entire Democratic party is equally guilt of Biden lack luster debate performance.
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: no no. I wasn’t asking for a transcript.
I just meant Ándale, like woot, woot, yay. Like way cool, wtg.
I have my own stuff to transcribe, and I don’t type well. So yeah, don’t do that!
Chris
@japa21:
It’s not that they can’t articulate it, it’s that they’re just completely delusional about what it means.
I just got off the phone with my dad. He acknowledges that dumping Biden for Harris means Harris gets all kind of taint on her and the knives come for her next, but continues to insist that an open convention that determines whether Harris or somebody else (he apparently has it in his head that Whitmer is this year’s Jenny Unbeatable) is the candidate, is the best way to go. What happens when a ton of Democratic voters get pissed off at being handed someone they never voted for and told they have to vote for them anyway? What happens when the media starts beating the drum of “party elites blackmail voters into supporting handpicked candidate?” Oh, well, that wouldn’t bother him, so apparently that means it’s not going to bother anyone else and we’re all good!
This is typical. I don’t deny that running Biden is a risk; I don’t deny that Biden’s age is a liability; I think it’s 90% a media-created liability, but I fully acknowledge that the narrative has set in enough (and had even before the debate) that it’s an electoral danger nonetheless; I don’t think most “Biden should stay in” people, at least not those I’ve seen, deny that either. But a stupendous number of the “ditch Biden” crowd seem to be operating on Underpants Gnome logic, where somehow their one weird trick doesn’t come with stupendous liabilities of its own, and maybe there are good and rational reasons why so many people, especially experienced politicians, aren’t rushing to embrace it.
Gloria DryGarden
@Gloria DryGarden:
eta, it was the redness, and slit thing… yes, I know, many biological parts and creatures have this sort of thing, I just
So, thank you again for clarifying
Tony Jay
@oldgold:
There’s not ‘a problem’. There are many problems. Interconnected. Adjacent. Cumulitive. You name it. It’s a very complicated world with lots and lots and lots of moving parts and different problems that have to be addressed and dealt with or they’ll simply get worse and worse.
The NYT are a very big part of one very big problem that feeds into, supports and intensifies a lot of other problems. It gets attention because it’s right the fuck there right in everybody’s faces all of the time demanding to be judged and scorned and basically ridiculed for the rubbish it pumps out.
So people meet that demand. Simple.
delphinium
@different-church-lady:
Would also note the very relevant fact that intentionally creating chaos in our election weakens how we are viewed across the world. Not that I expect our betters in the media to care.
stinger
@Nukular Biskits: I’m not in the Deep South, but standard advice on deadheading (pruning out spent blooms to encourage new ones) is to prune just above a 5-leaf stem. The leaves immediately below a blossom usually are in twos or threes, so cut off a little more of the branch than that. Cut just above a 5-leaf stem and in a few days you should see new growth at the joint that will later have flower buds.
Good luck!
ETA: If you want to reshape the bush (e.g., get rid of the gangly teenagers), then don’t prune just above the first 5-leaf stem below the dead flowerhead, but go down to the second or third 5-leaf stem on that branch. That will shorten the branch and reduce the gangly look, but will still promote reblooming.
MisterForkbeard
@WaterGirl: Thanks. I don’t mind a dissenting opinion, but this commenter was just a snide, overbearing assist who brought his own screaming into every thread and was condescending to everyone unless they 100% agreed with him… and then would accuse everyone else of his own behavior.
Thanks to you and the blogfather for giving him the temporary boot.
Gloria DryGarden
@Chris: good, clear, thank you. And Japas post as well. Excellent.
Might be a thread thing, that gathers up all the clearest talking points,
and listing all the news media people are choosing to cancel over this unbalanced divisive thing..
(sorry Pollyanna, for this you’ll have to click back on the antecedents, or go back where you came from. I know you’ll be lurking sometime soon)
RaflW
My unexecuted idea was close to the last photo in the OP: Just replace the word Times with the word Post, in NYT font.
The paper of old, scratchy records (I mean, “paper of record”) is throwing itself on the dung heap. Remarkable what end of empire does to institutions.
MisterForkbeard
@oldgold: They’re a pretty significant part of the problem.
They have their own agenda, pauh group think, run stupid narratives for clicks and minimize Trump and Republican misbehavior. The NYT has some good parts, but they and the media coverage they foster are a significant issue.
delphinium
@CaseyL: GEEZ, does Schiff have a crystal ball? How will he know Biden can’t win overwhelmingly until the election actually happens? Hope he isn’t relying on polls for that answer : ). Just incredible how many actual sitting House Reps and Senators are so horrible at communication.
Tony Jay
@TBone:
I just don’t know how to end a sentence, so I keep on filling that bag with words until something pops.
@scav:
That’s been my technique. If not wants to report back to its handlers that the main areas of connection between it and BJ are based around its crotch area and entirely genital based, that’s okellydokelly with me.
Jackie
@WaterGirl: Thank you, JC.
I was just about to quit BJ for the day (again.) It’s been a rough 10 days since the debate, coupled with the RW disastrous SC decisions.
JWR
@CaseyL:
I saw the last half of his interview with MTP, and I thought he gave Biden a very soft vote of something approaching support, but little else. Very disappointing. As I mentioned on an earlier thread, it was as if his Blue Dog self was poking out, like a sore f*cking thumb.
RaflW
@Chris: I briefly wrastled with an ostensibly liberal jagoff on Bsky yesterday evening who called the primaries a “coronation” and who claims he desperately wants Biden replaced, but when I pressed him on who he would have supported as a primary challenger, just resorted to attacks and goalpost moving.
None of them are serious. At least not about actually winning in the fall.
Starfish
@Nukular Biskits: I think that you can still do that. Watergirl said there are setup options. The default is pictures, but I think you can choose text instead.
TBone
@NotMax: 😁
WaterGirl
@Eyeroller: Maybe we can have yet another one with “fascists since 1929.
Paging photoshop skills.
Starfish
@wil: I was reading something that said IF Biden were to step away, they are going to be pumping up Harris and making sure that the donors will go with her. The process will be slow. I think they are already making Harris more visible. I am not saying that this should happen, but with Biden as old as he is, it is always a possibility.
This whole “Biden needs to resign his candidacy yesterday” stuff is nonsense. Either he is well enough to be President now, or he is not.
LGM was posting information about the doctor who treats early stage Parkinsons making multiple trips to the White House over the last year.
Gloria DryGarden
@CaseyL: but they Should publish your letter.
glc
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I like that one (as implemented).
I suppose when the Times and Post belong to the same hedge fund they’ll be generated by a single LLM and this will be the key element for the Times prompt. At least, if that line of business survives at all.
WaterGirl
@delphinium: Right. That issue is impossible to answer. You have to know the outcome of the election already in order to answer it.
I thought better of Adam Schiff.
Gloria DryGarden
@Starfish: Q for watergirl. Now that troll guy got a ban, and we get a break, does he still see our comments?
WaterGirl
@Jackie: It took me a few hours to reach Cole, who is a very busy guy.
I think it was my last text that got him to call me back “please don’t make me drive to WV in order to talk to you. :-) ”
Obnoxious, but I thiought warranted by the situation.
RaflW
@Al Rennick: Good lord. I generally think Schiff is a good egg, but c’mon. Trump won’t take a test, will lie that he did, and once again claim he aced the “person, woman, man, coup attempt, TV” thing.
What I find so infuriating about all this is how fucking bad at being a political party the Dems are. I have no place else to go, so I’ll keep at it. But Jebus H. LeChrist it’s all so god damned dumb.
Attack. The. Creepy. Fascist.
That’s it. That’s the playbook, Adam.
TBone
@Gloria DryGarden: 👍 slow and steady wins the race!
I wish more people would watch the video. She says it ALL. I’m not rehashing this absolute clusterfuck anymore. Just watch the damn video, it’s not THAT long! We voted. We voted. We voted!!!!
TBone
@RaflW: thank you!!!
WaterGirl
@Gloria DryGarden: Anyone anywhere who comes to the website can see the comments.
way2blue
@TBone: Why am I not surprised… ;-)
Gloria DryGarden
@way2blue: that’s gonna take a lot of thinking, for me. Thx for this interesting reference.
Eyeroller
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: 192 articles in a week on one topic. No way their readers are that interested in it. It is solely to “flood the zone” and create a background drumbeat.
However, some of the sincere hand-wringers e.g. Josh Marshall (as opposed to the many arguing in bad faith), are starting to notice a grassroots backlash. Rank and file D voters do not want this. A lot of this is due to the courtier relationships among the political press, political consultants, and some politicians. They are ignoring the rank and file and just talking to each other.
Jackie
@japa21:
That’s my stance. Also too, we elected Harris as MVP, fully trusting her to take over the presidency if ever needed. She’s fully capable now… and will be later – IF called.
JaySinWA
We know that, the media knows that. They use that as the excuse for not covering it. “Old news, everybody knows what he’s like”. Couching it as new raised concerns gives them the opportunity to report it. They wont, but at least it gives a handle to people talking to people who aren’t terminally engaged.
O. Felix Culpa
@raven: They don’t seem able to help themselves. They’d never pass the marshmallow test.
And now I see they’re in timeout. Good.
Gloria DryGarden
@WaterGirl: thank you! Then I shall not use its name.
I see I was ranting and rhyming, and writing about pie, just as you were typing in your blessed announcement of a 10 day break. My rhyming rant posted just one minute after your comment/ announcement.
I feel like I can breathe again, thx to you and JC.
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: trying not to fall down every click, are you referring to Jonathan apples? My favorite. Used to buy a bushel, make apple butter sweetened w dates.
long chain of superlatives available.
UncleEbeneezer
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I was mostly thinking about people who predominantly whine about Dem failure to adopt M4All and other Progressive policy stances. But it’s true that there are a ton that are mad that the Dem Party has gone TOO LEFT for their tastes. Both are working together on this and that’s why they really belong grouped together. Ideology aside, the connection is that both are always ready to abandon the Party or at least demand so many cookies for staying with it. They are way too enthusiastic about ditching our coalition, or defending others who choose to do so.
Chris
@MisterForkbeard:
Every time you see someone wailing “but all the polling and referendums show voters agree with Democrats on the issues, why don’t they vote for them more?” The single biggest answer is “the mainstream media.” (The first-among-equals of which is still the New York Times).
For as long as I’ve been alive and probably much longer than that, the media’s effectively approached every Democratic president or presidential candidate from the stance of “I’d vote for a DEMOCRAT just not THAT Democrat,” and manufactured some bullshit reason for why they’re just so horrible. It’s never their policies, oh heavens no. It’s always something else. Biden’s too old. Hillary Clinton has an email server. Obama has a “working class problem.” Kerry looks French and eats the wrong mustard. Gore sighs and sounds “professorial.” Bill Clinton’s too trashy. And Dukakis looked funny in a tank. (Those are just from my lifetime).
The story we’re told is that while there’s nothing wrong with Democrats, there’s something wrong with that Democrat, whoever it is, and so you should vote for Perfecter Democrat instead, or at least if you do vote for That Democrat, you should do it quietly, with some embarrassment, and with a lot of apologies. Like a bowel movement.
And since (unlike Fox News and the like) the mainstream media is actually read and paid attention to primarily by people who are either Democrats or open to voting for them, the longstanding effect of it is to depress enthusiasm and turnout.
Does anybody doubt that if we were coming off of a year of front-page headlines like “UNEMPLOYMENT AT LOWEST POINT IN FIFTY YEARS,” “INFLATION CONTINUES TO PLUMMETT,” “GOVERNMENT CAPS INSULIN PRICES AT $35.00 A MONTH,” “CRIME DROPS BACK TO PRE PANDEMIC LEVELS,” Biden would be polling five to ten points ahead of where he is now? Don’t tell me it’s not the media’s job to do this – for one thing, everything I just wrote there is completely true, and for another, they do it for Republican presidents constantly. (There’s a reason “TODAY is the day Trump became president!” turned into a running joke, and what they did for Trump doesn’t even approach the fluffing Dubya got in the war on terror).
All of which is to say that, yeah. The mainstream media is not only a significant issue, but probably the single biggest and most consistent issue for Democrats in electoral terms.
Tony G
@MagdaInBlack: Ha ha! Yes, Sunday was the day for those NITRO-BURNING FUNNY CARS!!!!
Bobby Thomson
I never trusted Schiff and Raskin. Not team players. Old white men gonna old white man.
Bobby Thomson
@RaflW: he thinks he’ll be in the running. Total asshole.
TBone
@Gloria DryGarden: no! I love apple varietals too, but that is British comedian/news anchor Jonathan Pie.
If you like British comedy, he’s a hoot! It helps if you already know a bit about UK politics, but even if you don’t, he’s hilarious.
Bonus: You will learn new cuss words!
Chris
@RaflW:
An antiwar blogger I used to read in the 2000s, channeling Karl Marx, once observed that “the Democrats are clearly a party of themselves, but there is little evidence that they’re a party for themselves.”
Why has that line come back to me quite a bit over the last week? Oh, no reason.
NutmegAgain
Nitro Burning Funny Cars!!
Sorry I had to follow up the Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!
TBone
@Bobby Thomson: I totally trusted them both!
I’m waiting for them to re-earn that trust.
Gloria DryGarden
@geg6: yeah, I got the cheetolini wig thingy. I’ve read about the eye of Sauron, it’s been years, is it the volcano where they dropped the ring, or was it that far-seeing superpower he had? Connected to his riders, or,…Oh fuck, I forgot. Crap, that would be bad.
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: I must go there, then, because, truly, I need more cuss words! Thx for recommendation
ill figure out the beige reference eventually
Bindweed grow up around the clematis of all trump voting gardeners!
UncleEbeneezer
@JWR: Schiff likes attention and implied (but not overt) criticism of Biden (and the Dem Party) will get him a lot of clicks and TV invitations. If he said “Biden is great, let’s re-elect him” he wouldn’t be invited back.
Starfish
@Gloria DryGarden:
I see you are not familiar with Lord of the Rings, especially “The Eye of Sauron.” If you do an image search for that term on Google, you will see the inspiration.
trollhattan
@NutmegAgain:
Right? “Methamphetamine Speedway—BE THERRRE!”
Suzanne
Looks like good news coming out of France.
trollhattan
@UncleEbeneezer:
Did not watch; ain’t gonna watch.
Frame anything Schiff does within his senate run. It will explain much.
trollhattan
@Suzanne: Does it rhyme with “underpants”? :-)
But yeah, big turnout triggered to some extent by finally remembering what nazis did the last time. Fingers and baguettes crossed the projections prove out.
Starfish
@Gloria DryGarden: I think so. I would imagine the comment feature is blocked for him. I don’t think the whole website is blocked for him. John really doesn’t like to put people in timeout.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
From what I read it takes a will of iron to for a reporter stand firm in the face of Media group think. The whole situation with Mark Summer were he was the sole voice pointing in the media pointing out the obvious before the Russian invasion is a good example.
And the fact that someone like Marshall gets worn down should be warning to the rest of us.
Starfish
@WaterGirl: That man was probably in his happy place, mowing extremely large patches of grass.
There is a whole section of YouTube devoted to guerilla lawn mowing.
I felt so much better about politics when I watched a man mow a crazy overgrown yard in a very long video. It was just so satisfying.
And the neighbors and commenters all loved him.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Well it’s now “I’d vote for a Democrat, just not any Democrats anyone can mention”, so times be a changing.
CaseyL
Tentative celebrations are in order for France: the New Popular Front looks, so far, to have fended off the National Front!
Projection from Elabe, who I assume is a French pollster:
Left-green New Popular Front: 175-205 seats
Macron’s allies: 150-175 seats
Far right National Front and allies: 115-150
From Ifop:
Nouveau Front Pop. : 180-215
Ensemble (Majo. Pres.) : 150-180
RN et alliés : 120-150
…I don’t know these pollsters’ accuracy record, nor what percentage of votes have been counted so far.
Jazzman
@WaterGirl: (Elvis voice): Thankyou, thankyou verymuch. Preciate it.
Suzanne
@trollhattan: I have been thinking about this, in light of what happened in the UK on Thursday, and France now, and all of the chaos going on here….…
….maybe candidates don’t really matter anymore.
Like, “negative partisanship” might just be such a big wave that it overwhelms everything else. Like, maybe none of our imperfect historical precedents track at all. It’s just about one side being halfway normal, in a political sense, and the other side being completely crazy and fascist. And so no other factors move the needle.
Eyeroller
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Some guy whose twitter/x bio identifies him as a “political columnist in Milwaukee” says about the recent Wisconsin rally that all the speakers were hitting Trump, Project 2025, policy issues. “But that isn’t the story and can’t be.” When some naive peasant (in their view) asks why it can’t be the story, the guy replies “Because much of the Trump criticism is nothing new and what’s happening with Biden is a bigger story, because there needs to be somebody capable of defeating Trump and right now that’s an open question.”
They’ve all gotta sing from the same hymnal. Though I question that all of them want there to be “somebody capable of defeating Trump.” I presume he means it in the lofty, objective sense of “that’s what the Democrats think.”
Ruckus
@sdhays:
It is difficult to tell if he has forgotten or that he never knew in the first place. It’s one of his “charms.”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@RaflW: I am going the cup is half full with Schiff, he’s at lest getting the conversation back to it is Trump that’s clearly bug eyed nuts. Perhaps not perfect political judo in turning the Media Narrative back on itself, but getting there.
Remember the MSM admitted after Friday’s interview it’s clear Biden isn’t mentally impaired, just , Biden lacks sufficient virility for their tastes.
Nukular Biskits
Back from outside, taking a well-deserved hydration break.
What did I miss?
Eyeroller
@Suzanne: It’s a little different in Parliamentary systems where one more explicitly votes for a party rather than the candidate. France does have a strong President system, with both a President and a PM. But it appears the PM is appointed by the President so the latter has more power. Commenter Chris may be able to explain better.
Anyway they were not voting for President in this election.
cain
@Al Rennick: lol – only one will take the test – the other will simply blather and there will be no accountability.
Just playing by the same dumb rules. GTFO here, Adam.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
ROFL, Biden suddenly got old when he wasn’t looking? But of course the story is “The Media Freak out over the Biden’s age” We are truly into a MSM circle jerk now.
Suzanne
@Eyeroller: No, I understand. My point is that every election in recent years is kind of around an overarching theme of normal vs. psycho, and the specific players are dramatically less important to voters.
Eyeroller
@Suzanne: We may focus on candidates so much because we have to make our coalitions before the election.
scav
@trollhattan: They did it before in 2002 as well. Play around with the protest vote in round 1 and then, whop!, it’s all serious on round 2. They do startle themselves sometimes.
Soprano2
@rikyrah: It’ll probably be on the ballot in MO, although they’ll try to invalidate as many signatures as they can. They got over 380,000 sigs, which is more than twice what they needed.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
And why should it be, this is about policy, not personality.
Suzanne
@Eyeroller: We also may focus on candidates because we’re used to doing so, and so much of our political science and media narrative draws on that. The parties used to be closer together ideologically, and so specific details around the candidates may have been used as differentiators.
But, like, I wonder if that’s no longer true. I mean, at this point, any Democrat on the ticket could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose my vote.
RaflW
@Suzanne: “any Democrat on the ticket could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose my vote.“
I’d need some specifics about target selection.
/S
Soprano2
@BellyCat: Well, when they’re completely unknown, come in promoting something most of us are against, admit they’re trolling us as a diversion at work, and then proceed to insult everyone who pushes back or doesn’t agree with them, it’s hard to blame people for being suspicious. (Not a fan of the penis jokes, either.) The latest claim seems to be that we don’t see any news other than what we read here, which is nonsensical.
trollhattan
@scav:
Just grateful the spark did not take. I hope the new government remains supportive of Ukraine to the same extent. NR would not have. And speaking of, get a load of this “concession” speech. Where have I heard this approach before?
MisterForkbeard
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: My read on Josh Marshall wasn’t even that he thought Biden was incompetent – it seemed more like he thought the media stampede was too much to overcome and Biden would get forced out. He’d noted that the narrative was actively being pushed against evidence and that reporters were going with dubious reporting and getting argumentative and accusatory in order to get their own names in the papers.
That also means he’s more likely to see the other side of things. And some reporters ARE starting to notice that grassroots dems and actual voters don’t seem to care about this all that much.
Suzanne
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Agree.
But, like, Dems talk about it in terms of character, too. Like TFG, and Matt Gaetz, and Newt Gingrich, etc….. we talk about them being criminals and hypocrites and fake Christians and cheaters etc etc etc….. and maybe, just, none of it matters anymore. It only matters what team you’re on.
RaflW
@Soprano2: Yep. Mocking and laughing at a troll is fine. Using anatomy (even just imagined attributes) as the basis, not so great.
Chris
@Eyeroller:
English Wikipedia sums this up pretty well:
I’ve always found the existence of a strong President and Prime Minister in the French system to be extremely bizarre, and as much a formula for messy government as anything in the U.S. constitution. Since the current republic was designed by De Gaulle, who knew perfectly well he’d be its first president, I somewhat cynically assume that the reason he did this was that he wanted someone onto whom he could pawn off all the executive responsibilities that he didn’t want, so he could focus on what he actually cared about (foreign policy especially).
scav
@trollhattan: Quelle horreur! People cooperating. In Public!
JWR
@UncleEbeneezer: I was hoping that after his performance on the first impeachment, followed by his work on the January 6 committee, his days as a Blue Dog were maybe gone, never to return. And then today, someone on MTP asked him whether Joe should go and I expected him to give a resounding “Hell no!”
But he had to think for just a bit too long, in that eye searching sort of way, before offering up his soft, not-at-all-ringing endorsement. It was almost as if you could see him thinking about how his answer would play, poll-wise. Hell, not even almost. It was as if you could actually hear the gears grinding away. ;)
Ruckus
@MisterForkbeard:
The NYT does not actually speak to the commoner among all the rest of the commoners. Their audience is the wealthy and above. Sure they like that many of us commoners within their service area buy what they are selling and they do a bit of coverage of other than the monied because it sells newspapers, but that is not it’s base. Money is it’s base and yes, they have their own agenda, which is true of many newspapers, just as it is with most any public directed organizations. Take the WSJ, they are only focused upon the monied side of humanity.
frosty
@trollhattan: See Timothy Leary, super blown head!!!
Sunday!!!
Eyeroller
@Chris: That’s where I got my info (Wikipedia) so you are confirming it’s correct. It is a rather strange system, sort of a bastard child of Westminster and the US. I am sure you are right that DeGaulle was only interested in the “strong President” insofar as he would occupy that spot, and I doubt he cared much about what might happen after him.
Chris
@MisterForkbeard:
The self-fulfilling nature of the event is the whole problem.
As I’ve said elsewhere, it’s not that I’m not open to the possibility of dumping Biden. If party leaders as experienced and skilled as Pelosi, Obama, Jeffries, etc come to the conclusion that the least dangerous road to victory involves dumping Biden, and then convince him to step down, then fine. They do this for a living.
My concern is the idea of dumping Biden, not because of a clear-eyed strategy of “we’ve looked long and hard at this and talked it over, and we really think this is our best shot,” but because our hand was essentially forced by those Democrats who haven’t stopped screaming in ten days, who refuse to stop screaming or take anything other than “Biden is senile” and “Biden must step down” as an answer, and who are effectively trying to blackmail the party with “either you drop Biden, or we’re going to continue screaming for his head all the way to November, and you’ll go into the elections with that ball and chain around your neck on top of everything else.”
And the latter is very much the outcome the media is trying to stampede us into, which is only more reason why we should be skeptical of it.
Jinchi
@WaterGirl: Actually he does predict that Biden has a better chance than any other Dem, based on his “keys”
Gloria DryGarden
@Starfish: I just forgot, I was more the book than the movie. But yes, thank you.
Gloria DryGarden
@WaterGirl: thank you goddess!
Soprano2
@TBone: You can’t post TCFG’s because he won’t release his medical records. It’s crazy that the press assumes the man who lies about everything wouldn’t lie about this.
charon
@wil:
Even if Kamala would be a better candidate (theoretically), perhaps she would (she well might not), so what, that is really irrelevant, something you seem to just not get.
The downsides to making a switch are too great, prohibitively great.
First it would be divisive, something for the pols to wrangle over – fun for the media though. No way could it go smoothly. The friction and time delay cost would be too much
Second, a lot of loyal Democrats would get very pissed off at doing that to someone they have confidence in, Biden. They like how he does his real job, want more of it.
Third that would play into the GOP’s desperation to keep the focus on Biden and not Trump, the press would talk about nothing else. Biden is the best shot at getting some attention paid to Scotus, abortion, Project 2025, Trump’s definite and advanced dementia, etc. etc.
Soprano2
@raven: Not anymore, but I didn’t pie him either.
Soprano2
@Ohio Mom: That was another thought I had, she can already forcefully advocate as the VP!
kalakal
What will be interesting is the feedback our friend who has been sent back to toll collecting at his bridge in Omsk for a week will be giving to his bosses.
My bet is one of our major newspaper’s ‘reporters’ will suddenly unite around the theme of the way to discourage dems is to disparage their genitalia
Ruckus
@RaflW:
It isn’t that Dems are a bad political party it is that it is a big world out there and we really do not all walk and talk the same, or see the world in the same 54 colors. (just a wild guess at the number of colors….) But we have massively better communications than we did not all that long ago, in an overall human context. Like what we are doing at the moment. If you are an old fart, such as myself, it is easier to understand that communications has increased exponentially over the last 60 yrs of humanity. Life is more open, more visible, noisier. Like what we are doing at the moment. It is also better because of that visibility. And the inclusion of more people.
Soprano2
@Layer8Problem: I tried that, it didn’t get me much.
O. Felix Culpa
@Chris:
Agreed. The debate was bad for both candidates in different ways, and the one-sided furore over Biden is the creation of the press. They are manufacturing and driving the story. Thankfully there are enough of us who are resisting. Loudly.
I am not open to that possibility. We had primary elections, and the Democratic voters overwhelmingly chose Biden. I do not agree to having my vote and the votes of millions of other Democrats nullified by press hysteria. I do not agree to having the eminences grises of NYT, WaPo, etc. choose my candidates for me.
Biden says he is running and I take him at his word. The only thing left for us to discuss is how we are going to support the Biden-Harris ticket.
LanceThruster
@wil: and the stacking of the SCOTUS. It’s as if it took this long for the coup attempt Smedley Butler foiled to finally be realized.
Considering my own issues with corporate Dems, I was surprised myself realizing that I would join the K-hive for this. I think the positives far outweigh the negatives at this juncture, particularly in regards to any other Dem waiting in the wings. And the longer they wait, the less effective her stepping up would be (like a vote of no confidence. She was Joe’s pick after all). They’re sticking with Joe to the bitter end it seems. Just be sure to point him in the direction of the right windmill.
Bless his heart.
Ruckus
@RaflW:
Attack. The. Creepy. Fascist.
That’s it. That’s the playbook, Adam.
Attack in what way?
My take is that we all need to grow up at least a bit (some humans a hell of a lot more than just a bit), to understand that there are a lot of us humans involved now and we do not all believe the same or act the same or want to live the same. Humans are a messy group, we actually do more than eat, shit, sleep – repeat as long as possible. Some do a lot more and are lot more positive and a lot are the exact opposite. Will it ever change? Sure, life looks a lot different than it did when I was a child and it is different and I mean besides point of view of a child. And yet, it is still just life. But with a hell of a lot more humans on the planet life is different.
LanceThruster
@O. Felix Culpa: the conversation morphed from “he ‘s not addled” to “We must support him even if he is addled… which he is most definitely not. Fake news!”
Half-truths and gaslighting are two sides of the same coin.
I think Biden’s ultimate downfall will be self-immolation.
When George S asked him if he watched his debate performance, his answer was, “No, I don’t think I did.”
How do the BJ VSP parse that one? Of all the question that a yes or no should be a “no-brainer” for, why on earth would that one need any obfuscation? He can remember (incorrectly) the photos he saw of Oct 7 atrocities, but not this?
Yes, yes… Orange Man bad, I agree, but… WTF?
WaterGirl
@Jinchi: Oh, glad to hear that. I didn’t realize he had done that!
Ruckus
@Chris:
Look who owns and runs the major newspapers in this country. It is not some poor slob in his garage with a printing press who sells 46 copies of his daily 3 page paper to a few of his neighbors. It is big business, this major daily newspaper industry. And in any big business (and small ones as well…) it is only good business when whatever they are selling, sells well and at a profit. To do that a newspaper has to be a good read for its paying audience. That does not mean it is a good/decent newspaper it means they sell enough copies to make a profit.
Ruckus
@RaflW:
The democrat party is not all in lockstep nor do we just blindly follow whatever. I mean sure some in the D party will blindly lockstep their way through politics, that’s just human nature. But in total dems over my lifetime (not all that less of one than Pres Biden) seem to actually think, work and complain when it isn’t what they want. But they ALSO seem to very much want better for all than the other side of this country and are willing to adjust/allow/believe in what is possible – and what isn’t.
WaterGirl
Several more NYT photos added up top!
Layer8Problem
@LanceThruster: “Yes, yes… Orange Man bad, I agree, but…”
You know, somehow, strangely, I don’t think you really do.
Ruckus
@Dave Buchen:
Part of the Joe Biden issue is his age. As someone not a whole lot younger than him I really do understand this. But. He is not standing on a ladder in the sun hammering nails, or sitting behind the wheel of a double semi truck for 10-12 hrs a day, or working in a factory making steel, or any other highly physical jobs. Likely the most physical part of his job is standing behind a podium or holding a mike for a while. And he knows the job, he’s been directly involved with it for a while as both the next in line behind a guy who was also pretty damn good at it and as the person doing it, also doing pretty damn well.
Ruckus
@delphinium:
Do remember that this is not all that small of a population, with a lot of humans that very much remember the concept that this country once had, which was freedom for all but the female half of the population and anyone with skin darker than a 15 minute tan, no matter what it said in all the official documents. This is a country that has grown but like all human growth, there are growing pains. We and very likely most every other nation on the planet have similar or worse growing pains. And the cause of that is that we are humans, with all the positive and negative sides/effects/actions/ideals/likes/hates and some are far worse or better than average.
Tony Jay
@kalakal:
The work. It was done.
BellyCat
@Jackie: My position as well.
To support Joe/Kamala seems the best path toward victory, absent compelling evidence to the contrary.
To completely dismiss the reality that a non-zero percentage of people (more than we here might think) felt this way prior to the debate —but are now less sure due to their own observations and/or the MSM drubbing — seems wildly optimistic. What to do to bring these people back to the fold is *critical* given the possibly small margins for victory in Roevember which may be at stake.
Josh Marshall seems to get this. I’ll bet Kamala gets this, too. Joe? While I’ll crawl over broken glass to vote for him, even if on life support, I’m not entirely sure he is fully aware of the post-debate landscape. He hasn’t reviewed the debate footage that spurred doubt among some previously ardent supporters?!?! I mean, woah…. Joe is a good person and has been one of the best presidents of the past century (if not of all time) for democratic values. But that’s not the question at present. The existential question in Roevember is: Who has the best chance of beating Trump? Seems like Joe is still the answer. In four months, this might instead be Kamala (or Whitmer or Newsom or … ), but if the answer turns out to be “a ham sandwich”, that’s the lever that needs to be pulled by an electoral majority if democracy as we know it is to survive.
The artful answer by any Democratic leader today on this topic is simple: “We firmly support both democratic values and the candidate who will defeat Trump and his fascistic vision of America.” Zero speculation on who that candidate will be in four months.
The storm may blow over in four months. But it’s equally possible the intensity increases.
evodevo
@Gloria DryGarden: It’s a play on the Eye of Sauron…for those not familiar with the Tolkien movies, see this:
https://panoplyofancientkings.wordpress.com/2015/04/22/tolkien-fact-50-the-eye-of-sauron/
Gloria DryGarden
@MagdaInBlack: did you smudge stick some sage? Brilliant!