Emhoff on Sarah Huckabee Sanders re Harris last night:
“somehow, b/c Cole&Ella aren't Kamala’s ‘biological children,’ that she doesn't have anything in her life to keep her humble…As if keeping women humble, whether you have children or not,is something we should strive for.”
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) September 19, 2024
John Heilemann, at Puck:
Long before Doug Emhoff became our nation’s first-ever second gentleman, and even before he married a woman who now has even odds of becoming the first female president of the United States (and, yes, also the first Black and South Asian female president…), he was a superstar entertainment litigator whose nickname at his Los Angeles firm was “the Smiling Assassin.” Indeed, if the nation is still trying to figure out who, exactly, Kamala Harris is, the same is exponentially more true of Emhoff.
In this candid and lightly edited interview, which has been excerpted from today’s full episode of Impolitic With John Heilemann, we discussed his trajectory from uber-lawyer to political super-spouse, the budding somethingship between Donald Trump and Laura Loomer, the feminism of Pearl Jam and Nirvana, and much more…
John Heilemann: Tell me about your speech at the convention. You had been a political spouse, and you’ve given your fair share of speeches, but this was a whole different thing.
Doug Emhoff: I knew I had to really dig deep. Of course, prior to [Biden dropping out of the race], I was preparing to maybe speak, and maybe have some role introducing [Kamala]. Then when she got to the top of the ticket, they said, Well, now you have a bigger role. And then they told me that I was going on primetime Tuesday night with the Obamas. I was like, You mean Michelle and Barack Obama? …
Really, you’re there as a window into your wife, the nominee. And right now, if you look at the polling, people who haven’t decided say, We need to know more about her. I’m curious about the challenge that presents.We thought a lot about how to bust through the caricature of her. There was such a false view of her that was out there. So part of it is like, Here’s the Kamala Harris that I know—the joyful warrior. She’s a mother to the kids, she’s a massive part of our family, she’s always been there for us, she’s going to be there for you. She’s been in the Oval Office, she’s been on the world stage. She’s ready to lead on day one, and she’s a badass. I had to get all that out in 12 short minutes, and a little bit about myself, too…
In D.C., political perceptions are filtered through the media for good and ill. Is it gratifying to see the world catch up with what you’ve always seen?
It’s a testament to her, her character and diligence. All this chattering-class bullshit and the media never affected her. It never got her down. She just kept going, and that’s why you’re seeing her be what she is right now.
I’ve heard you talk about how you’re a “marriage of equals.” But what are the challenges for even a really evolved guy, such as yourself, given that in the history of this country, first ladies have been very much subordinate? It’s not a marriage of equals in terms of how the government or public perceives it. How do you deal with that?
Right up until she got the call from Joe Biden, I was busy as a lawyer and I was loving it. When she got that call, that was the last day I ever practiced law, even though I didn’t know it at the time. And when they won, I asked myself, how am I going to find meaning in this role as second gentlemen. I give a lot of credit to Kamala. She said, Well, this is great news. You have this opportunity to lean in on some substantive issues.
I was a very well-known, very dogged, gnarly lawyer. I like to compete, so I thought, How do I bring that Big Law mentality to what could be a ceremonial role? It’s okay to step away from your career and support someone who’s going to be the first woman vice president, and being the first Jew ever to be one of the four—I didn’t realize how big of a deal that would be. She was the one who said, Look, there’s a lot of antisemitism and hate out there, this could be something you’re almost compelled to do…
We’ve just had a second assassination attempt on Trump. No one thinks it’s anything but unacceptable, deplorable. Everyone condemns it. But there’s an idea that he has some responsibility for inciting the climate in which these kinds of things are happening. Do you agree with that?
Well, I agree with that. But there’s no room for political violence, it’s unacceptable. We need to resolve our differences at the ballot box and in the public square, and get back to the concept that we’re all Americans. It’s what Kamala said on the debate stage: that we have much more in common than what divides us. I want us to get back to a point where we’re just debating ideas, and we need to have a strong Republican Party that’s about discussing policy issues, the rule of law, democracy, and who we are as Americans…
Haven’t listened to it (I’m not good at getting information from podcasts), but there is a podcast episode, if you’re still curious.
piratedan
just wanting to recap the day for those that checked out early yesterday…
so… I’m sitting here well buzzed and lets try and sum up the day shall we?
PDiddy – charged, denied bail because he’s a flight risk and has at least 4 digits of baby oil bottles at his disposal for his personal use, which apparently involves human trafficking and may or may not include minors.
Gaetz – New charges filed that place him at a party with naked underage women. Looks like the DA has received affidavits from participants (including the underage girl) that place Gaetz at the scene with his girlfriend.
Nuzzi – admits to an improper relationship with a source from one of her article subjects (RFK, Jr) and has been suspended by her employer. Expect this to rouse some buzzing from the punditocracy as this will cause a circling of wagons and questioning of ethics in journalism.
Rufo – had his ass outed as signing up to Ashley Madison (the noted cheaters hookup site) at roughly the same time as the birth of his first child from his illegal immigrant spouse
Robinson – the NC GOP Gov candidate – outed as a purveyor of porn involving trans peeps, while also publicly stating that they are an abomination. Also self described himself on a specific porn site as a Black Nazi. Also wrote of encounters that involved him peeping on girls when he was in Middle school and a supposed affair/fanfic of fucking his own sister-in-law. Also outed as an Ashley Madison client. Bonus! the state GOP stands behind him!
Trump – Spoke to a GOP friendly Jewish group and then told them that if he doesn’t win it’ll be their fault for not supporting him enough
Vance – ran away from further questioning about his own statements and the Robinson revelations.
also too – Harris and Walz had great interactions today, Walz in NC and Harris on Oprah.
brantl
@piratedan: Holy shit. I mean, in my wildest imagination, I couldn’t make this shit up.
John Revolta
@piratedan: Oh and the market gained 500 points to close at another record high after the Fed (finally!) announced its rate cut.
And we still have Friday coming!
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@brantl: It’s like a bad techno-thriller plot, except that they always thought it’d be the Democrats, not the Republicans who were the clueless traitorous amoral immoral reprehensible bad guys.
Mai Naem mobile
@piratedan: I missed the Gaetz story. I have to wonder if the Robinson and Gaetz stuff is internecine GOP stuff not Dem oppo stuff. Maybe the regular GOP are trying to claw back their party from the MAGats. After all it would have made more sense for the Dems to drop the Robinson stuff next week after the filing deadlines.
Betty Cracker
@piratedan: Thanks for that recap! I was checked out all day, so I missed most of it. Off to get the deets!
Shalimar
@Mai Naem mobile: I wasn’t paying attention and don’t remember which MSNBC evening show it was, but one of them had a North Carolina reporter on who said all of the regular Republican politicians in the state can’t stand Robinson and were trying to push him out. Unfortunately, he rose to power through the MAGA Trump-backed route and none of them have any real power over him.
p.a.
It’s who they are. I remember a history of last century’s teens & twenties when the Klan came to run Indiana, governorship included: fraud, rape, assault. What is today’s GOP but the Klan: racist biblethumpers, now featuring Catholics too! Paraphrasing a line that’s stuck with me from the history; “the Indiana Klan drowned in its own slime.”
Baud
@piratedan:
Via reddit, Walz has his own scandal.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
Being that we have early risers on this thread, there may be a comet visible in the early morning sky next week, it will be about 10 degrees south of due east.
Comets are really hard to predict as far as brightness, but this one has the possibility of being very bright, maybe as bright as Venus. It will disappear from the morning sky the first week of Oct. and reappear in the evening sky in second/third week of Oct.
This is BillinGlendaleCA, your resident space case.
Baud
Mai Naem mobile
@Shalimar: i hope TFG’s narcissism and destructive strategery keeps on hurting the GOP. Anybody see that TFG’s team is trying to change election rules last minute in Nebraska to make it winner take all. I really would like to see Fischer lose her seat just as some kind of karmic payback.
https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/09/18/winner-take-all-push-gets-help-of-gov-jim-pillen-sen-lindsey-graham-trump/
Matt McIrvin
Apparently Nebraska *might* go to winner-take-all presidential elections at the last minute, to deprive Kamala Harris of Omaha’s electoral vote? And they’re taking care to do it too late for Maine to retaliate:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/maine-nebraska-change-electoral-college-laws-trump-rcna171915
Can’t really fault them for it aside from faulting them for being Trump supporters in the first place.
Of course, the stories are all playing up this one electoral vote as the ballgame, because of a specific map where it leads to a 269-269 tie and a House contingent election that Trump is guaranteed to win.
Baud
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
I wish I lived in a less light polluted area.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: It may be bright enough to see even in light polluted skies as long as they’re clear. I’m going to head to one of my dark places next week and try to shoot it
ETA: When it comes back in the evening, it could be interesting since there may be a shot of it and the setting Milky Way core together.
Baud
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
How’s everything going otherwise?
Princess
I did not have Olivia Nuzzi and RFKjr on my Bingo card; don’t know about you.
Yesterday was a long week, but good for our team.
Baud
@Princess:
I don’t follow the media elite. Is Nuzzi someone who I should be happy is discredited?
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@p.a.: Yeah I just read Timothy Egan’s book about that Stephenson guy that grew and ran the Klan in Indiana and throughout the Midwest in the 1920s. He was Trump to a T. A con man with no moral compass, serial abuser of women, total hypocrite in that the rules of the Klan (temperance, protecting the sanctity of womanhood etc.) didn’t apply to him personally. Eventually it was a woman he horribly abused that brought him down.
satby
Emails reveal Georgia Election Integrity Coalition, a group of officials and election deniers, coordinating in swing state
geg6
I was too busy yesterday to pay very much attention to the news, so I’m a little stunned at how much happened in one day. I gave my last presentation to the regional high school counselors in the morning, spent the afternoon trying to spend out the remaining campus scholarship funds and starting to clean out my office and computer for my retirement on the 30th and then went to my sister’s to see an old friend in town from Hawaii. Came home and started scrolling on my phone and got so caught up in the Robinson stuff that I missed the Nuzzi/RFK, Jr. and Gaetz stories completely until just now. Holy crap! What’s left for the Friday news dump? Maybe I shouldn’t ask. 😲
Baud
@geg6:
Congratulations!
satby
Reminds me that Ozark used to share from the Guardian often. Had a nice email thanking his online friends for their support from his bride yesterday.
narya
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: oooooh, I might maybe be able to see it if it’s clear. Lots of light pollution BUT least light pollution over the lake to the east.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Work at the Orange sucks, but I got some good pics of nebula. Tonight, the weather sucked, I thought we had some clearing, set everything up and the clouds rolled in. I sent in an OTR submission this evening, so you all should see something in a week or two.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@narya: At least for the morning next week, in the evening, it’ll be in the west.
Baud
@satby: Yeah, OH is missed on the morning thread.
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Looking forward to it.
p.a.
Yesterday was one hell of a week!
different-church-lady
She’s been Vice President for four years. We know who she is. Fuck you dude for doing MAGA campaign prpoaganda in your supposedly straight reporting.
narya
@satby:
@Baud:
agree on missing OH, especially in the morning…
different-church-lady
@Princess:
Goddamn, why is everyone insane?
p.a.
He just hinted at any physical issues, but I know he often mentioned his insomnia. I’m not a doc, so I don’t know how recently the lack of sleep has been known to be a real health issue, but it is. Affects every system. And I’m not talking “I haven’t slept in 3 days”, I’m talking at least 6 hours uninterrupted per night for adults. Teens need 8+.
TS
@Baud:
What both MVP and Walz have – amazing smiles – that picture is someone to be friends with. Such a relief after the trump scowls and frowns & ridiculous circle of a mouth (yes I go low)
Citizen Dave
@piratedan: Great summary. I vote to repeat this in the later morning thread.
Who is Rufo?
Baud
This is apparently a real Nuzzi tweet, via reddit.
lowtechcyclist
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
What day next week should we start looking for the comet? I’ve got a lot of trees to the east of my house, but it’s a short drive down to the western shore of the Chesapeake where the view to the east would be uninterrupted.
lowtechcyclist
@Citizen Dave:
Christopher Rufo is a right-wing propagandist who was one of the prime movers in getting the anti-trans shit rolling two or three years ago. Wish something worse than merely being caught looking for extramarital action had fallen on him, but I’ll take what I can get.
Mai Naem mobile
@Citizen Dave: wingnut welfare guy from Heritage/Claremont etc. who was appointed by PussNBoots to some cushy gig on College of Floriduh board from which he can get some of that sweet sweet big gubmint $$$ and at the same time make sure those icky coloreds and vajayjay owners don’t get any of that same sweet sweet gubmint $$$.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
rikyrah
He didn’t drop out 🤣🤣🤣
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
@rikyrah: No one was willing to pay him.
catclub
So RFKjr is no longer running. Why does he deny?
Princess
@Baud: I don’t dislike Nuzzi as much as some do but she does seem fasc-curious and basically amoral. It’s mostly…just so weird. I don’t know how you can be with RFKjr and not be constantly thinking of whale juice and dead bears. And he’s 39 years older than her.
Weird weird weird, these people.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@lowtechcyclist: Probably after Wednesday
Binoculars may help as well.
eclare
Colbert led last night with the Robinson story. Hilarious.
Baud
@Princess:
No one should have to live in a society where this is a sensible sentence.
Mai Naem mobile
@catclub: probably because Cheryl Hines will divorce him and he’ll lose all those invitations to celebrity events. You have to wonder what his old Veep candidate Shanahan(who’s a Google co-founders ex who supposedly became an ex when she screwed around with Elon) thinks? I wonder if being a heroin addict affected RFK Jr’s brain chemistry or if he was always a d-bag.
Geminid
@Mai Naem mobile: Kraven McCarthy hates Matt Gaetz because he was the instigator behind McCarthy’s ouster as Speaker. McCarthy set up his own PAC to oust the 8 Republicans who voted him down. The primary challenger McCarthy backed against Gaetz lost, but there’s more than one way to skin a cat and McCarthy may have found a good one here.
He already has Bob Good’s primary defeat to savor, although McCarthy is willing to let Jeffro take credit because he’s a generous guy.
And I have to wonder about Matt Rosendale, who was also on McCarthy’s shit-list. Earlier this year, Rosendale announced he would enter the Montana Senate primary. People expected this, but no one expected Rosendale to drop out of of the Senate race the next week, or announce his retirement from the House the week after that. The reason: a sex scandal.
It seems like McCarthy hired a very thorough oppo-research team. I can just see him saying to Marjorie Green: “Tell the Matts I want them to know it was me.”
Baud
@Mai Naem mobile:
I blame the worm.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
He’s wiping his feet on the Matts, like you’re supposed to.
MagdaInBlack
@catclub: It’s just what they do. Automatic reaction: deny, deny, deny.
Dorothy A. Winsor
This is my DIL’s school district. The board has engaged in shockingly bad negotiation and it looks like they’ll be on strike. So now the board is paying big money to an outside recruiting firm to hire scab teachers at 4 times the average salary.
Also, on a lighter note, for the Pod Save America/Survivor fans, Lovett was first to be voted off the island.
TS
Just heard Senator Warnock on MJ – explaining that the vote suppression in Georgia is the attempt by the GOP to get people to give up – but he tells everyone do not give up – they are doing it because they know the democrats can win.
He spoke extremely well, with confidence.
MagdaInBlack
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That area is kinda MAGA heavy. I wonder how much that has to do with this.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: The cloud that McCarthy seems to have put the Matts under might have a silver lining for Democrats. Earlier this year, I read a Politico article about California’s endangered Republican House members. The writer noted that McCarthy had always used his clout as Minority Leader and Speaker to bolster his state’s Republican Reps, but now they would have to sink or swim on their own. Some of them might look at all the PAC resources McCarthy spent prosecuting his vendetta and say,”Dammit, I could have used that money!”
Betty
@Baud: Isn’t it grand that Maggie got to write another book? I am afraid she won’t have many more opportunities. Sad.
Matt McIrvin
@TS: There are a lot of “All is lost–the fix is in!” articles going around in left or anti-Trump outlets that are just relaying stuff that Republicans outright announce about their plans to fix or steal the election, monologuing like Bond villains who have 007 strapped to a table with a laser moving toward his crotch.
And the articles often seem much more credulous than they should be about the effectiveness and legal validity of the tactics. Of course, it’s scary to have so many wingnut or corrupt judges in place, but they also have an incentive to play up the drama.
I think it is a vote-suppression campaign by these Republican sources–they’re trying to convince people their vote won’t count.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
100%.
Chris Johnson
@Baud: She was pushing Kenyan memes about Obama as far back as 2015. Near as I can tell she’s about as legit as Tim Pool. Hell yes you should delight in her discrediting. I’d like to see her caught red-handed being even more guilty: the stuff she has been caught doing is mighty suggestive. You only need to ask ‘why do these particular things?’
Geminid
@Chris Johnson: I wonder if you’ve ever checked out security maven Jackie Singh. She seems like someone who you might appreciate. Singh’s on Twitter, and also puts out longer form analysis through Substack or some similar platform.
Kay
@Chris Johnson:
Bloomberg was set to launch a political show hosted by Nuzzi and two weeks ago they “delayed” it – probably due to Nuzzi’s behavior with RFK Jr.
Nuzzi blamed “the Left” – wah, wah, wah I’m being cancelled. Another insufferable “journalist” who takes no responsibility for her own work or actions.
TS
@Matt McIrvin:
Basically what the Senator was saying – and he and his team are going to make sure people do not think like this – and they all vote. Using Kamala’s messaging as well – mentioned she is in Atlanta – today? or tomorrow?
Kathleen
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Give FTFNYT about 3 hours and they’ll figure out how to demonize Democrats in the face of Rethuglican perfidy.
Ken
Patience. You don’t imagine cheating on his wife is all he’s done? It doesn’t even meet the “every accusation is a confession” standard which has become mandatory for all Republicans.
BritinChicago
@Matt McIrvin: ” the stories are all playing up this one electoral vote as the ballgame, because of a specific map where it leads to a 269-269 tie and a House contingent election that Trump is guaranteed to win.”
I think they’re right to play it up, because that’s a pretty plausible map.
Baud
@Chris Johnson:
@Kay:
Thanks.
When people show you who they are, believe them.
Falling Diphthong
… I… I thought the Ashley Madison ad in the Onion was a joke. And that it was now defunct. How is “C’mon… What’re the odds we leak all your secret affair data again?” actually a successful marketing campaign with these people?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@MagdaInBlack: The district runs a surplus. The board prides itself on the money they have saved up. It’s probably what they’re using to pay the recruiting company.
Falling Diphthong
In all fairness to RFK, he did respond to questions about sexually assaulting the nanny by pointing out that there were tons of skeletons in his closet that hadn’t dropped yet.
Soprano2
@rikyrah: You want odds on whether the NC Lege will try to change the law to allow him to drop out next week? In NE they’re talking about changing how they distribute their electoral votes to winner-take-all because they want to help TCFG. It’s seven weeks until the election, and they’re talking about trying to change it!
Matt McIrvin
@BritinChicago: It’s a plausible map but it’s probably not a large part of the probability space, if you get my drift. The Bulwark ran an article implying that it’s going to be vastly harder for Harris to win without that one electoral vote, as if her hopes for getting elected were riding on that 270-268 scenario, and all I can say is, no presidential candidate should ever be relying on something like that.
lowtechcyclist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
What I want to know is, where are they going to find these temporary teachers? There’s a pretty serious shortage of K-12 teachers in this country. (And hell yeah, qualified teachers ought to be taking advantage of this to demand higher pay, all over the country.)
So the scabs are likely to be little more than warm bodies to babysit the kids. So their kids are going to lose another chunk of educational time, on top of whatever they lost back in 2020-2021 due to Covid.
Soprano2
@Baud: Oh man, that’s probably the biggest laugh I’ll have all day! And you’re absolutely right, that sentence shouldn’t make sense but it does.
Kathleen
@Chris Johnson: She’s also married to Ryan Lizza so there’s that.
hueyplong
@Matt McIrvin: We can probably agree that the Bulwark calculated a scenario in which NE-1 would actually matter, and then trumpeted its “importance” for the clickbait titles on everyone’s homepage.
I think the Dude would say, “That’s current Journalism 101, man.”
Falling Diphthong
@Matt McIrvin: I admit, I believe Democrats are perfectly capable of spiraling down “Well there’s no point all is lost might as well not bother trying” with no outside help. (It’s very annoying.)
I did note one story re Georgia that said the attempted ratfuckery is sad and stupid. Reminds me of Vance saying in an interview that he would have refused to certify the election, vs Pence saying in an interview that that’s stupid because it is both illegal and unconstitutional, and anyone else who knows the law saying that.
The media’s obsession with the narrative “Two sides, equally sincere, equally in possession of facts, equally inclined to shade the truth” is really not serving us.
Soprano2
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Why does that not surprise me at all! Favreau’s wife said she’d heard him complain about the service at a five-star hotel, she couldn’t believe he was on Survivor. He’s a funny guy, but I can see how he could wear on your nerves.
Soprano2
@Kay: Did she think no one was going to find out she was having an affair with RFK Jr? Sheesh, some of these people are so dumb.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@lowtechcyclist: That sounds likely to me, but the board is going to do whatever it takes to “win.” Can’t let those peon teachers think they know best!
Matt McIrvin
@Falling Diphthong: I’ve been seeing a lot of scary talk implying that the Republicans are more likely to succeed at overturning a loss than in 2020, and I just don’t see it. The reason they’ve gone to all the scenarios about county officials refusing to certify the election is just that in most of the swing states, the 2020-style “sovereign state legislature” nonsense won’t work any more, and it got smacked down in the courts anyway.
But these scenarios basically imply that the losing party in *any* past presidential election in history could have simply have made an evidence-free assertion of fraud and had the result thrown out. With corrupt judges anything is possible, but I have a tough time swallowing that it would fly.
Falling Diphthong
@piratedan: Trump – Spoke to a GOP friendly Jewish group and then told them that if he doesn’t win it’ll be their fault for not supporting him enough.
(Thanks for this summary, because: whew.)
I remember afprustrated post from a normal Jewish voter when there was a frenzy of “What if Jews won’t support Harris?”
• In these stories normal voters like herself were never asked how they felt, it was all vibes reporting between Big Thinkers.
• Jews are 2% of the population, and pretending that they control the outcome of the election is NOT GOOD.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Thanks for the piece on Emhoff. Didn’t know squat about him.
Kay
@Soprano2:
Falling Diphthong
@Matt McIrvin: Dems often remind me of a line from a Vorkosigan novel about what Aral could do with this army if he could ever get all their guns pointed in the same direction.
If one is trying to actually get something done, aligning with people who will show up to vote because it’s the Tuesday after the first Monday in November is a lot easier.
Princess
@Kay: I do (mildly — I don’t really care; do you?) wonder who ratted her out and why — if their relationship was all online as they both claim, how would anyone else have found out?
Leto
@Citizen Dave: @lowtechcyclist: @Mai Naem mobile: Rufo is also the dirtbag who started up the “critical race theory is being taught to school children” bs panic, which has assisted with all the book bans and FL college take overs. He wrote about his plans to use it as a smear, essentially an updated Atwater plan, and divisive wedge on Shitter. And he kept repeating the same play, but with new words, to keep that sweet conservative grievance complex going.
UncleEbeneezer
I had no idea that Nirvana and Pearl Jam were Feminist bands. I don’t remember any lyrics that were particularly overt, but I always knew that those guys were very much repelled by the misogyny of 80’s Hair Metal. Likewise, Soundgarden’s front-man, Chris Cornell penned a song titled Big Dumb Sex which was a satire of said misogyny, with a chorus of “Yeah I know what to do. I’m gonna fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck you.” Of course, we were young, clueless and pretty damned misogynist at the time so we had no idea. My old band covered it because we thought it was serious and we were young, dumb and horny. Also it had a really killer riff. It was seriously like a Spinal Tap moment that I can only laugh at now. We were literally the Beavis and Butthead’s loving something because it rocked (and it does) with absolutely zero self-awareness that the song’s intended meaning was to ridicule guys like us. When I learned (only recently) the real meaning/intention of Cornell’s lyrics, all I could do is admire the fact that these bands, especially Soundgarden who may be my all-time favorite band, were so ahead of their time and cool, in a Feminist way. I do remember Eddie Vedder writing a Pro-Choice slogan on his arm during Pearl Jam’s MTV Unplugged performance, and obviously he was pretty openly Left-leaning and politically vocal, but overall, I don’t think the feminism of 90’s grunge bands really got as much attention as it should have.
Kay
@Soprano2:
What kills me is the sanctimony and scolding:
There’s more – she goes on to extoll her own bravery, the usual.
At the time she wrote this (and all her media friends rushed to defend her) she knew she was conducting an unprofessional relationship with RFJ Jr. But she decided to lecture liberals about ethics anyway.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Falling Diphthong: Now I want to reread the Vorkosigan books.
UncleEbeneezer
@p.a.: Yup. Sprinkle in some Nazi and Alt-Right and Incel seasonings, but yeah, the GOP is basically the Klan. J.D. Vance being from Ohio (one of the big areas of the Klan’s second wave) is just too spot on. If possible, he is even more “Klan” than Trump.
Ken
Like “Nigerian prince” email scams, it has a built-in mechanism to select people dumb enough to fall for it.
People say the same thing about Trump — that his donor list is a gold mine for anyone wanting to set up their own scam.
Leto
@Kay:
Explain it to me. Explain to me why that tweet was “funny”.*
* h/t to all the women on here who taught me that. Make the douche bags explain it. Gah.
Matt McIrvin
@Falling Diphthong: I mean, I get it, part of it is us being driven nuts by the antidemocratic elements of our Constitution and the Republicans’ increasing willingness to simply embrace and legitimize them, because they see themselves as True Kings anointed to rule and they figure we won’t actually fight a civil war.
But we don’t have to bend over backwards to buy into it.
Kay
@Princess:
Well, we know it wasn’t her fellow journalists. It’s a freaking cabal. They never break ranks. They all happily colluded to hide the Trump campaign emails from the public. Media isn’t a real market.
RFK Jr is a seriously fucked up individual. He has issues. He probably bragged about it.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Kathleen: Yeah, but the techno-thrillers almost always had courageous conservatives and perfidous liberals. Which turns out to be a mirror-universe reflection of 21st-century America.
schrodingers_cat
At Heathrow waiting for my next connection. *Waves
schrodingers_cat
Deleted double comment.
Matt McIrvin
@Leto: Rufo is one of these guys who publicly monologues about everything he does before he does it, to alert the media to pay attention.
Kay
@Leto:
They’re never funny. The whining is because they believe they are extremely clever and if you don’t validate that they get mad.
different-church-lady
@Princess:
Especially considering there’s a good chance the dead bear is right there in the bed with you.
Leto
@Matt McIrvin:
– Syndrome, The Incredibles
Caroline
Some exciting news from yesterday, Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers got his 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases yesterday! First player ever to do so. And then got 51/51 in the same game, going 6 for 6! with 3 home runs!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Baud: and Nuzzi is saying that with a glamor pic that makes her look like a model rather than a reporter for her profile.
UncleEbeneezer
RFK Jr apologizes to Cheryl Hines (JL Cauvin impersonation)
NotMax
@different-church-lady
Grin and bear it.
//
UncleEbeneezer
@Caroline: Jesus. Wow! I remember what a big deal 40-40 was when Canseco and Ricky Henderson did that.
AWOL
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Nah. Richard Condon was onto them in the1950s. Read his morbid satire, “The Manchurian Candidate.” First film’s OK, but the role of the GOP psychosis is softened; Demme’s version is pure junk.
eclare
@schrodingers_cat:
Good luck with your flights!
Leto
@Kay: and an attempt to cover their racism with, “Oh it was a joke!” Someone spoke about jokes like that are testing the waters, and attempting to create a permission structure, to go further with racist speech/thought. If you laugh at this then the next “joke” will just be slightly more. And at any time they face pushback they can just claim, “It was a joke! Don’t you have a sense of humor?” And try to put the onus back on you. And that’s all her whining is. She can go on the wingnut welfare circuit and make a tidy living claiming how liberals are so “intolerant” of… whatever.
Kathleen
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Yup! Interesting that so called “reality” mirrors fiction in that wholesale lying is considered “something that deserves consideration”.
Kathleen
@schrodingers_cat: Hope your journey is free of delays and complications!
Fair Economist
@schrodingers_cat: *Waves back* Hope your flight continues to go well.
UncleEbeneezer
@schrodingers_cat: Safe travels!
Geminid
@Caroline: Ohtani is the first ballplayer to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases, but he likely won’t be the last now that Major League Baseball has restricted pick-off throws. I think they increased the size if the bags too.
Still, this is a signal accomplishment by an exceptional player.
NotMax
@AWOL
Tinsel town trivia:
1) Sinatra headlined in not one but two presidential assassination films. The other was Suddenly.
2) Frank Sinatra was the first choice for the lead in Dirty Harry.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
👋
Ivan X
Shohei Ohtani not only becomes the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season, he does so in a game where he goes 6 for 6, five of those for extra bases, with three home runs, two stolen bases, 10 RBI, and 4 runs scored. As the article notes, forget the record, this might also be the single best performance by a single player in any game, ever. His talent is simply incomprehensible.
I am an Angels fan, unfortunately, but I am glad he’s now on a team (Dodgers) that deserves him, and where he can win.
Oh, and he’s an excellent pitcher, too (though currently injured in that regard).
Article is worth a read even if you’re not a sports fan. It’s a historic moment!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/09/20/ohtani-50-50/
sdhays
@piratedan: I feel like we’re burying the lead with Trump’s comments to Jewish supporters. I think it should be more like:
ETA: Thanks for the round-up! I hadn’t even seen the news about Gaetz.
brantl
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Entirely because they weren’t paying any fucking attention.
lowtechcyclist
@Caroline:
I admit I haven’t followed baseball for years, so this is pretty much the first I’ve heard of him. But one of the reasons that combo is impressive is, think of what a bite that many HRs takes away from his steal opportunities!
Say he bats .300 in 600 ABs and gets another 70 walks. That’s 180 + 70 = 250 times on base, but with 50 of them being 4-baggers, that’s only 200 times that he’s actually on base when the next guy comes to the plate. And a lot of those times aren’t going to be good steal opportunities (like if he hit a double or a triple) or steal opportunities at all (like if he walked with a man already on first). So this is a particularly impressive combination.
geg6
@Baud:
Thanks! I’m very excited.
Soprano2
@schrodingers_cat: Hi. How are you doing?
SFAW
@piratedan:
A little surprised/amazed he didn’t (literally) say they’d be stabbing him in the back.
Soprano2
@Geminid: That’s an unusual combination; there aren’t that many power hitters who are also good base stealers. I feel privileged that I was able to watch Lou Brock, Ozzie Smith, and Albert Pujols as a Cardinal fan. I’m not old enough to really remember Bob Gibson.
geg6
@catclub:
Probably because his wife will go apeshit on him. She was already not very happy for his Trump endorsement and now this? Plus, she may, at this point, be the wealthier one in their marriage. Hope she had a prenup!
Geminid
@Soprano2: Did you ever get to see Bob Gibson pitch?
geg6
@Princess:
You should read the profile she wrote about him last fall, I think, in NYMag. She rides in his van and her description is disgusting. And yet, she decides he’s apparently sexy and is willing to cheat on her fiance with him after seeing and smelling that.
hueyplong
@Soprano2: I’m old enough to remember Bob Gibson and, as a Giants fan, never wanted to see him on the mound. He was intimidating in a way that no pitcher today is (or is even allowed to be).
You can see some of his famous 1968 World Series Game 1 footage on youtube, and by the late innings the Tiger hitters were in kind of a “let’s just take a swing at that unhittable pitch and then sit down” mode.
As a Cards fan, you’ve probably already seen that stuff.
geg6
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yeah, that was bummer. And they kept the drama queen guy over the smart, hard working (if a little non-physically threatening) guy. That tribe is going to get Pagonged (any Survivor fans know what that is).
Ivan X
@Caroline: oops, didn’t mean to bigfoot you!
Soprano2
@Geminid: Not in person, no. I was born in 1961, I think by the time we went to a game he had retired. We have season tickets to the Cardinals AA farm team here in Springfield, so I get to see some of them before they make it with the big team. It’s kind of cool; I saw right away that Kolten Wong was going to be a good player. The AA team is in their league playoffs right now; even though the St. Louis team didn’t have a great season, this team did.
Ivan X
@geg6: I mean, I’ve enjoyed some of her snarky hit pieces against people I don’t like, but her opportunism and lack of compass has always been there to see.
geg6
@Kathleen:
I thought they were only engaged.
Ivan X
@SFAW: I mean, Trump’s superpower is pushing people’s buttons, and as an MOT, I can tell you Jewish Guilt is real.
AWOL
@NotMax: Great trivia. I remember being dazzled when I first saw the film in restoration/revival about 30 years ago and saw he may have also introduced the martial arts into Hollywood films. Janet Leigh’s role was awful. Harvey and Lansbury being only four years apart was also a kicker.
First film I saw him in was when I was 10—the homophobic “The Detective,” paired with “The Wild Bunch.”
As a side note, I once lived a block away from where he grew up in Hoboken. Back then, the street was all rubble. I’m sure it’s all “gentrified” [racially purified] now . . .
geg6
@Soprano2:
He was actually pretty hard working from what they showed. What the other tribe members were afraid of was his smarts, speaking ability and his background in politics. So they guy they kept instead was nothing but a big whiner, crying all the time about how nobody liked him. But in fact, the only person that did like him was Lovett, who he promptly threw under the bus in front of all the tribes.
AWOL
@Ivan X: Manufactured hype. Don’t take SB stats seriously. Manfred destroyed that by handicapping the ability of pitchers to hold runners on and the larger bases. Plus baseball wants it both ways: SBs are useless via advanced stats; SBs are useful if we can hype a $70M guy who may not be the person we thought he was.
The game was an early blowout. How many hits did he get off of position players instead of actual pitchers?
geg6
@schrodingers_cat:
Safe travels! Will be thinking of you and your family.
Chief Oshkosh
@Baud: The comments there are both fun and wholesome. That is a first in my experience of Reddit.
sab
@Leto: That is such an accurate description of their playbook. Thank you.
Mark’s Bubbie
@sdhays: I would be so happy, in the most Semitic way possible, for Trump’s loss. He has plenty of support among Jews, unfortunately, especially Orthodox. Abortion, homophobia, Israel.
kalakal
@schrodingers_cat: Waves back. Safe travels
Geminid
@Soprano2: Dusty Baker told a story about Bob Gibson. Baker was having a good rookie year with the Atlanta Braves, and he had a 23 game hitting streak going when the Cardinals came to town. The day Baker was going to face Bob Gibson for the first time, Hank Aaron gave him some advice.
“If you hit a home run,” Aaron said, “don’t run the bases too fast, and don’t run them too slow. And don’t dig in on him! Gibson would knock his own grandmother down if she dug in on him.”
Baker was left wondering what was gonna happen to his hitting streak. It ended that night.
@hueyplong:
Soprano2
@geg6: Oh, I forgot that this is a show where they get rid of the best people first, because everyone is threatened by them. LOL
fancycwabs
“Not humble” is the new vernacular for “uppity.”
UncleEbeneezer
@Mark’s Bubbie: Any support for Trump sucks. But at only 25% or so supporting Trump, I think your demographic is pretty damn solidly Dem. I believe that after Black voters, y’all are the next most loyal group to the Dem Party (along with AAPI voters). It’s really Latinx, and especially White (non-Jewish) voters (especially Men) who are the main groups keeping the GOP viable.
Manyakitty
@schrodingers_cat: safe travels!