So basically Kimmel made Trump look bad by showing that he was more interested in showing off his ballroom than in Kirk's death and now he's banned
This is going to be a really fun country— Asha Rangappa (@asharangappa.bsky.social) September 17, 2025 at 11:12 PM
“This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he called a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish, okay?”
We don’t always get the heroes we expect, but when the need arises for heroes…
===
Also, notice Trump's complaint here – about the news, about Kimmel – IS NOT anything to do with Charlie Kirk.
It's that he was personally criticized.
He's not even hiding it! That's what this is all about. "Are you allowed to criticize the president?"— Will Stancil (@whstancil.bsky.social) September 18, 2025 at 2:43 PM
===
Republicans spent the last 24 hours trying to justify ABC pulling Kimmel based on reasons other than intimidation and threats from the Trump admin, then Trump goes full Col. Jessup & pisses all over the narrative & admits he ordered the Code Red because Kimmel hurt his feelings.
— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) September 18, 2025 at 2:28 PM
===
2. This is also what Jimmy Kimmel said the day that Charlie Kirk was assassinated:
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yasharali.bsky.social) September 17, 2025 at 10:08 PM
===
"All they do is hit Trump. They're not allowed to do that."
— America's dumbest but most special little boy— Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) September 18, 2025 at 2:26 PM
===
NEWS –> Anna Gomez, the lone Dem on the FCC, tells me the Trump admin's pressure to oust Jimmy Kimmel may be unlawful as well as unconstitutional. FCC chair Brendan Carr may be committing censorship in violation of federal law.
That and much more in my new piece:
newrepublic.com/article/2006…— Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) September 18, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Greg Sargent, at the New Republic:
… Carr is not doing much to hide the corrupt nature of what just happened. The MAGA right has been furious with Kimmel for allegedly mischaracterizing Charlie Kirk’s killer as one of them. Though the shooter’s motives remain murky, that may indeed prove false.
But it’s still speech. And on Wednesday, Carr went on a far-right podcast to directly threaten ABC News with retaliation for Kimmel’s offense. Carr flatly declared that if “these companies”—meaning ABC News and its parent, Disney—don’t “take action on Kimmel” for spreading misinformation about Kirk’s killing, there will be “additional work for the FCC ahead.” Carr added that this could mean pulling the licenses of ABC broadcast affiliates.
That’s appalling by itself. But Carr went even further, in some revealing comments to Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Wednesday night. In that appearance, Carr claimed that mainstream media outlets conspired to stop Trump’s 2024 election with their coverage of things like Joe Biden’s age and Russia’s efforts to help Trump win in 2016.
Carr was lying, of course. But then he added this:
Trump punched back. And when he did so, he was standing up for the American people that simply don’t trust those outlets anymore. We at the FCC are going to enforce the public interest obligation. There’s broadcasters out there that don’t like it—they can turn their license in to the FCC.
… To be as clear as possible about this: Carr himself essentially told Hannity straight out that he reserves the right to declare coverage inimical to the public interest—and thus subject to FCC retaliation via the revocation of licenses—if he declares it by fiat to be overly hostile to Trump.
“That makes it even more egregious and more clear,” First Amendment lawyer Ken White tells me. White notes that to win a First Amendment case here, it would be necessary to show that Carr threatened private actors—in this case, Disney and ABC—to coerce them to censor Kimmel.
“There’s a clear, obvious violation here,” White says. “Kimmel could sue Carr and other government actors to get an order telling them to stop it, though it’s doubtful they’d obey.”…
===
Haven’t seen a sneer like Carr’s since Dick Cheney was running the Bush regency…
The context here, of course, is that the “local broadcasters” Carr is egging on are actually huge conglomerates with a pending merger before his office that would give them (and him) vast control over all broadcast television stations
— nilay patel (@reckless.bsky.social) September 18, 2025 at 10:08 AM
===
reminder: Jimmy Kimmel is enough of a mensch that he devised a segment on which actors who are just short of having enough work to qualify for union healthcare come on his show and deliver a single line of dialogue
deadline.com/2024/07/jimm…— Adam Sternbergh (@sternbergh.bsky.social) September 17, 2025 at 10:24 PM
===
Please go to support.abc.com and "submit programming feedback", tell them to reinstate Kimmel. Takes about a minute. Let's flood them.
— Jack Brand (@jacklbrand.bsky.social) September 17, 2025 at 10:17 PM
===
I stand with PBS.
I stand with NPR.
I stand with Stephen Colbert.
I stand with Jimmy Kimmel.
I stand with the First Amendment.
PERIOD.*
*Also #ReleaseTheEPSTEIN_Files— Mark Hamill (@markhamillofficial.bsky.social) September 18, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Belafon
Following in Angela Lansbury’s steps.
Old Man Shadow
Just sent ABC a note telling them to reinstate the show or I’ll be cancelling my subscription and boycotting their company. (I haven’t gotten around to cancelling yet, so I figured I’d use it as whatever small leverage I have. Not much.)
Martin
Trump can take their licenses, but we can take their subscriptions and merchandise purchases. The US economy runs on consumerism more than any fascist country ever did – like not even close. Consumers have considerable power if we wield it. Cash rules everything around them – take it away
Edit: make sure you tell them why you are taking your money. That’s important. They’ll invent all kinds of excuses for why their revenues are off other than their own decisions.
Baud
Mark Hamill is always good. We have some good folks on our side.
Suzanne
@Baud: Mark Hamill is the first dude I remember thinking was cute. I think I was five? I had good taste and I still think he’s a looker.
To Martin’s point…. YES, CREAM. Time to boycott.
Scout211
This pivot from Kimmel being mean about Kirk to “all the press is mean to me” is just so classic Trump that it makes me sick. But blurting this out on Air Force One during a press gaggle is making it easy for the mean press to quote him directly. And that is just mean. LOL
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Belafon:
Who was following in Raymond Burr’s footsteps with his in-house production company, Paisano for the Perry Mason run.
They did the exact same thing with actors from the 30s-40s. You see *tons* of them on the old show. And they did that for the same reason Lansbury and Kimmel have been done.
My favorite was Robert Armstrong, mostly known as Carl Denham in the original ‘King Kong’. He was on Perry Mason 4 times. There are plenty of others.
cain
@Old Man Shadow:
Just cancel, you need to create momentum while all this is still in the news.
cain
@Martin:
The boycott will even fuck up their merger plans.
Besides, the economy sucks anyways, no reason not to save money at the same time.
Ishiyama
Well, Lenny Bruce was arrested in NYC for saying that Cardinal Spellman looked like Shirley Temple. Getting fired from a well-paid broadcasting position? Not so much.
Shalimar
@Scout211: Also from a press conference before the flight:
Telling the reporters that will fly with him that he wouldn’t care if they died. Classy.
Trump and Melania in Emergency Landing After Marine One Copter Scare
Old School
I would assume ABC has a legal team review the monologue before it is delivered specifically to make sure it doesn’t contain defamation or anything they might be held liable in court over.
zhena gogolia
@Shalimar: He is such, such a giant asshole. Why did any single person in the universe vote for him? Why?
Baud
@Shalimar:
The media is so in bed with Trump the reporters probably laughed.
Deputinize America
@Baud:
“SIR”, the media said, tears in their eyes, “Sir, you are the funniest and should be doing these late night shows….”
Captain C
@Shalimar:
That’ll make at least some of them want to be his ball washers even more than they already did. They really should find a good BDSM club where they can properly enjoy getting abused on their own time, rather than bringing the rest of us in via their professional work.
Baud
@Deputinize America:
Ugh. I can totally see that.
cmorenc
Now I am REALLY pissed that months ago I very grudgingly went along committing to go on a fucking four-day DISNEY cruise with my young grandkids, adult daughter and wife – the timing of which will put me at sea while the Sat Oct 18 No Kings rallies are going on. Alas, if I dropped out because…Disney, there is no way to understandably explain to my 7,5 and 3 year old grandsons why I changed my mind and refused to go with them on what to them seems an ultimate fun trip. And did I mention that the original reason (before Disney and their capitulation to Trump came forth) – why I didn’t want to go – I dislike cruises- boredom aboard a petri dish of easily communicable pathogens. Well, even then because… Disney, but now 10x over.
mappy!
Boycott? Think of it as denying grifters endorphins.
UncleEbeneezer
@zhena gogolia: Paging Professor Bigfoot, lol.
Princess
@zhena gogolia: People are just awful, aren’t they.
Princess
@Captain C: That was my reaction. “So manly,” they’ll think. “Just like Reagan.”
Jackie
@cain:
Tell ABC they’re being canceled because Trump’s economy sucks and one needs to save money for rising grocery prices, rising utilities, and rent.
Might as well vent while canceling ;-)
zhena gogolia
@cmorenc: It’s okay. Your grandkids are more important. Just grin and bear it.
zhena gogolia
@UncleEbeneezer: I know. I agree with him. But I still don’t understand it.
@Princess: I woke up at 3 AM because I mistakenly looked at a picture of him yesterday posing in tails with his disgusting mailorder wife and grinning like a death’s head. What did they inject him with? On 9/11 he looked moribund.
Suzanne
@cmorenc: Please go and have a great time with your grandkids. I share your opinion about cruises, but they will have so much fun and remember it for years.
Heidi Mom
In her new book, Kamala says that Pete was her first choice for the VP slot, but she concluded that adding a gay guy to the ticket was too big a risk. I’m too angry to comment further.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/kamala-harris-pete-buttigieg-top-running-mate-pick/story?id=125698319
Jackie
@Shalimar:
Wasn’t there also a near collision with another airplane when they first flew into London?
Gretchen
Swallwell told Brendan Carr that he’d better keep his documents and get his lawyers lined up because as soon as Democrats retake the House next year investigations into his actions will start.
JML
That Orange Asshole really does think he’s a goddamn King from centuries ago. No wonder he loves Kim Jong Il and Putin so much: damn fool thinks he’s entitled to live in a world where no one is ever allowed to say anything critical of him or anything he doesn’t find acceptable forever.
It’s never been about free speech, it’s all about the pathetic narcissist’s desperate need for more attention that he can pretend is because they “love” him.
Man, he’s the worst
Gretchen
@Heidi Mom: Yes, if she’d picked him he and being gay would share the blame for losing. People would conclude that it’s not safe to try again with a woman or a gay person. This way Pete is still viable next time.
PaulWartenberg
Okay seriously how do I add a robots.txt block on my blog to stop AI bots from raiding my articles?
rikyrah
When I heard the news, I did keep on reading, waiting for people to tell me the offensive thing Kimmel said.
When I watched a video from a lawyer that I watch on TikTok, she read the transcript of what he said…and, I sat there , watching the video, waiting to hear the offense from Kimmel. She finished her video and I was like, WTF did he just get fired for?
bbleh
The Administration’s actions certainly are unlawful and amount to Fascism, but:
— It probably won’t even get to court, because Disney/ABC clearly took a knee willingly.
— If it did get to court, the Supremes probably would allow it.
— Even if it were shot down by the courts, it would have achieved its primary purpose, ie grandstanding for the rubes, and they would take the defeat in court as a WRONG to be AVENGED.
Hammer on ABC and your reps, and meanwhile do state and local level stuff. Soldier on!
Melancholy Jaques
@rikyrah:
I had the same reaction. I thought it must have been something he said on a previous night.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@zhena gogolia: It made them feel important. Superior. Seen.
Now the high’s worn off, and it’s coming back that they’re still the same assholes that they were before he showed up, and they’re going to be the same assholes when he checks out.
They want that high again. And I think people here are smart enough to know what happens to those who go chasing things like that.
Belafon
@cmorenc: Buy a No Kings t-shirt and wear it while you’re on board.
Belafon
@PaulWartenberg: Put it at the root and pray the robots respect it.
They Call Me Noni
@cmorenc: Go and have a good time with the family. Enjoy your grandkids. Don’t let the fuckers steal your joy. Protest with a vengeance when you get back home.
Baud
@Gretchen:
I’m livid she didn’t reject for his connection to McKinsey.
Belafon
@Heidi Mom: Walz was about as good a sidekick pick as we were going to get in 2024. Pete would have been good, but I don’t think it would have helped. We were screwed the moment the party couldn’t stand up and back Biden after the first debate, and probably before then given how so many elected officials were losing in the west prior to Trump’s election (you have to mark that because other countries realized their protest vote was about to destroy their country).
Kent
Six months ago liberals were bemoaning that there wasn’t any liberal counterpart to Joe Rogan.
Well, now we have two of the best interview hosts in the country in the form of Colbert and Kimmel who are freed up to do whatever they want. They both have 100x the talent as Joe Rogan.
I gotta think that one or both of them could become massively huge by doing the same longer-form video podcast interview show that Rogan does. Not only would they be better at it. But all kinds of prominent guests would be tripping all over themselves to be on with Colbert or Kimmel. I don’t know anyone under 40 who watches late night TV anyway. My kids get all their screen time via streaming and on their phones.
Tucker Carlson sort of tried to do that when he left Fox. But Colbert and Kimmel are far more appealing hosts than Carlson who is just shrill and unappealing. And they would basically own the entire non-MAGA audience for this kind of thing. And then they would have a good editing staff who could spin off fun clips for TikTok and other short format arenas. I don’t see how that wouldn’t be huge.
Bill Arnold
A history-blast, via Digby:
Goebbels Ends Careers of Five ‘Aryan’ Actors Who Made Witticisms About the Nazi Regime (THE NEW YORK TIMES., Feb. 4, 1939)
Princess
@Heidi Mom: I do not know what Harris, or we, gain by her putting this out there in public. If I were him, I’d be livid. I don’t get it.
They Call Me Noni
@Kent: I like the way you think.
Jackie
Just saw this:
And Mike Johnson will also attend.
Sooo if every republican congressperson “has to attend,” or be shunned… who will be the Designated Survivor? A Democrat?
rikyrah
Breaking News
@BreakingNews
NEW: Pentagon leaders are considering a new recruiting campaign that would encourage young people to honor the legacy of Charlie Kirk by joining the military, according to two officials familiar with the planning.
x.com/BreakingNews/status/1968724228816990455
Captain C
@Bill Arnold: Sounds like the FTFNYT at least tacitly approved of this. The more things change…
Heidi Mom
@Princess: Yes, it creates the kind of attention he doesn’t need. And what an insult to Governor Walz!
Elizabelle
Personally, I think this is going to shake out badly for Disney and ABC. Normies are watching, and the mask is off, and the corruption is undeniable.
Do recall, Target had a very bad quarter or two after publicly dropping their DEI initiatives, although they quietly apparently kept their DEI hiring practices.
Bex
@Gretchen: 100%.
Elizabelle
@Heidi Mom: Jebus. Who was advising Kamala on writing her book? Prince Harry??
Baud
@Heidi Mom:
How is it an insult to Walz? It’s not a marriage.
Marc
@rikyrah: Pentagon leaders are considering a new recruiting campaign that would encourage
peopleyoung white Christian men to honor the legacy of Charlie Kirk, a man who never bothered to join the military, by joining the military, according to two officials familiar with the planning.Fixed it for you ;)
They Call Me Noni
@Elizabelle: I giggled out loud.
Belafon
@Marc: They’ll have to lower boot camp standards to “Mostly held their arm in the correct position when saluting.”
Old School
Yes, yes. You were disappointed in a rally held 20 years ago. We know.
They Call Me Noni
@rikyrah: Like all those lily white gaming bros are gonna line up to sign up. Good grief. Hegseth musta thought that up.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
Maybe she’s decided she’s not going to run again. From the excerpts, it sounds like she is being candid about her thoughts.
Jackie
@Marc:
The Air Force is gonna be swamped… ;-)
Scout211
All I can say to that news is I love Desi Lydic.
Martin
@rikyrah: Defeat the bugs. Do your part!
Bex
@Jackie: Did you see the “invitation” to the memorial in Arizona? There are pictures of Trump, Kirk’s widow, and somebody else (don’t remember who). No picture of Kirk. Did somebody forget about him?
Interesting Name Goes Here
@Baud: My Spidey sense is tingling, and lately when that happens, what follows is usually way more offensive than was expected.
Something tells me the answer to this question is just going to raise more questions.
Marc
@Jackie: USAFA was already a swamp of white evangelicals when I was looking for college in the early 70s. This has been their thing pretty much since Curt LeMay.
Heidi Mom
@Baud: True. Maybe I’ve never been as coldly realistic about politics as I should be. (Note my use of first names for candidates I’ve never met.)
WaterGirl
@Baud: I hope that’s snark, otherwise I might have to smack you! :-)
WaterGirl
@Princess: @Heidi Mom: Yeah, I thought that was pretty tacky, not necessary. She could have even said that they were both strong contenders for the top spot, but to say that Pete was her first pick?
I am pissed for Tim Walz.
Baud
@Heidi Mom:
I think we want our politicians to make cold hard political calculations, but we want to pretend they ignore voters’ prejudices because it goes against the liberal ideal.
My 2¢ on why the revelation is troubling.
Jeffro
OT but off to see ‘Operation Mincemeat’ in a bit…should be lots of fun! (And then it’s back to fighting the good fight =)
ETA but note that the theme – fighting Nazis – is still the same!
JML
@Elizabelle: well, you got loads of Insider DC types who keep demanding that the Democratic Party somehow do a mea culpa or otherwise reckon with Biden’s, I don’t know, being old or something as the only possible way they can ever be trusted to lead again by anyone…it’s all a little incoherent, as expected from wealthy and pampered DC media & political insider types who expect the Democratic Party to listen to them and only them about What To Do.
Maybe Harris got suckered by some of those fools.
Maybe she really thinks the only way forward for her is to clear the decks now.
Maybe she’s done with elected office.
I dunno. I guess I’m glad it’s coming out now rather than next year? But I’d rather have politicians write their book 10 years later with a) a little historical perspective, but 2) to have to prove they were actually relevant enough to matter. But I guess I don’t care that much about almost anyone’s campaign memoir at this point.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I am not particularly troubled by that revelation. I didn’t see it because I was in India but I heard that Walz bombed the VP debate. She is allowed to have second thoughts/regrets.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
It doesn’t sound like she’s saying she preferred Walz early but changed her mind. Sounds like she’s saying that she always preferred Pete
ETA: I assume her book will explain why she liked Pete best.
gene108
@Elizabelle:
Nobody will notice or care about the book. Trump sucks up all the attention.
Might have some clues as to what went wrong in 2024, besides people didn’t clap hard enough for Biden.
Fair Economist
@Heidi Mom:
Why? She was probably right. There’s a lot of prejudice against gay men. I’d be angry at all the homophobes, but after a lifetime of it I’m pretty worn out.
The Unmitigated Gaul
@Kent:
BRILLIANT suggestion!
Geminid
@Jeffro: My friend Debbie was out a few days ago to work.on her bees, and she told me something I had not known: New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie lives in Charlottesville.
Debbie had not known either until one day when she and her wife Diana were out walking. After they passed a Black man walking the other way, Diana said, “That was Jamelle Bouie.” Diana, who keeps up with these things, told Debbie that Bouie’s wife teaches in the public schools there.
So I looked up Bouie’s Wikipedia biography and sure enough, it said Bouie lives in Charlottesville; a UVA grad who came back.
Princess
@Baud: Walz was only the second best guy and Buttigeig, the best guy, is as unelectable as many now think a Black woman is. Both are likely to run in 28 and Harris has just told us she thinks neither of them has the goods.
The Unmitigated Gaul
@WaterGirl:
Me too. I look forward to his account of the campaign.
If Kamala’s Colbert’s interview is anything to go on, there’s not much to her.
zhena gogolia
@gene108: Sorry I wanted to “clap hard” for the one person standing between us and the disaster we are now experiencing.
Baud
@Princess:
Did she say that Pete was unelectable or that a black woman and a gay man together would be too much?
Walz coming up second in her preference in a field of excellent candidate doesn’t say anything about whether or not he has the goods.
Princess
@WaterGirl: yeah — if she’d said something like: I had so many equally great people to choose from yadda yadda — totally different message.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Nothing to be ashamed of. Obviously a lot of voters didn’t agree with us about either Biden or Harris. I don’t know if they feel ashamed, but that’s their decision to make.
OGliberal
@Baud: “
Did she say that Pete was unelectable or that ablackwomanand a gay man togetherwould be too much?”This is pretty much where we were and are at with many voters in this country, including many women.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@zhena gogolia: I must say, I find it bitterly amusing how this thread suddenly went from “Rah rah fuck ABC and Disney” to “People are wondering if Kamala Harris may be a piece of shit”.
Baud
@OGliberal:
Yep. The people who practice identity politics the most are the people opposed to the identities that make up our party.
japa21
Oh the little things we gnash our teeth about.
chemiclord
@Interesting Name Goes Here:
If there is one group that the political left loves to fight with more than fascists, it’s the political left.
VFX Lurker
Based on 2016 and 2024, she wasn’t wrong.
As someone else mentioned up thread, she gave Pete a clean slate if he wants to run for President again.
Plus, his kids will be older and closer to Sasha Obama’s age when her father campaigned in 2008. I don’t know if he would have wanted to run in 2024 while still parenting two young children.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@chemiclord: Don’t I know it. Again, it’s just all bitterly amusing now.
chemiclord
@Interesting Name Goes Here:
Best way I’ve ever heard the group dynamics of the Democratic Party explained is kinda like this:
Think of how hard it can be to get five of your friends to agree on pizza toppings, and you LIKE these people.
Now try threading the needle of far more important issues with millions of people, many of which you can barely stand.
Harrison Wesley
@rikyrah: That’ll great! They can all request to join the same branch of the services he was in!
Geminid
@Interesting Name Goes Here: I have been reminded countless times these past few months of the dictum:
I thought that was a close election. Donald Trump was in many ways a crappy candidate, but he had powerful, well-run campaign operation. Harris and the Democrats did a good job considering the circumstances.
But instead of Democrats getting up, dusting themselves off and preparing for the next battle, many of us have engaged in a ten month-long pity party. A lot of that involves beating ourselves up, and our candidates too. I’m pretty sick of it myself.
MagdaInBlack
@Baud: She said:
But Harris said her “first choice” for the job would have been Buttigieg, Joe Biden’s transportation secretary at the time.
“He would have been an ideal partner – if I were a straight white man. But we were already asking a lot of America: to accept a woman, a Black woman, a Black woman married to a Jewish man. Part of me wanted to say, Screw it, let’s just do it. But knowing what was at stake, it was too big of a risk.
“And I think Pete also knew that – to our mutual sadness.”
Baud
@MagdaInBlack:
Thanks. That pretty squarely answers my question.
zhena gogolia
@Interesting Name Goes Here: Seems to happen a lot.
Baud
@Geminid:
The pity party has been going on for a decade. Not as pronounced during Biden, but it was there.
chemiclord
Really not sure why Walz (who has already committed to running for Minn governor again) is supposed to be pissed about that.
LAC
@Interesting Name Goes Here: that’s unfortunately the achilles heel here. As if Harris’s calculation was wrong…puleease. But let’s get mad!!!
Interesting Name Goes Here
@Geminid: Thing is, introspection needs to be done, lest you discover what the definition of insanity is over and over again. But the people who need to be subject to that introspection keep running away from it and distracting from it so that they don’t have to do it. We’ve been at this for months because the people who contributed to this the most are refusing to acknowledge their own responsibility for it. Instead, they latch on to whatever person or cause they can find that will keep them ahead of it. That’s happening here, in this very thread. Two weeks ago, it was Gavin Newsom. Two hours ago, it was Jimmy Kimmel. Now, it’s Pete Buttigieg and Tim Walz.
Eyeroller
@Geminid: Trump mostly had a huge amount of money, a media advantage, and a very strong tailwind due to externalities. Inflation was a factor around the world and incumbent parties were nuked all over the globe after Covid. Add in the strong racism and misogyny of American culture. Susie Wiles is not some political supergenius.
And I sadly agree with Ms. Harris that a woman (especially a woman, much less a mixed-race woman with a Jewish husband) was already at a disadvantage in this very racist and sexist country. Adding homophobia to that would have been very problematic. And I suspect Gov. Walz understood the political calculation involved.
chemiclord
@Interesting Name Goes Here:
Because that would require a lot of people examining their priors and being willing to budge off them for a ‘greater good.’
I don’t even think a significant minority of the established Democrats are willing to do that, much less anyone on the periphery of the tent.
Abnormal Hiker
@cmorenc: I presume you agree with Samuel Johnson that being on a ship is like being in prison, with the added possibility of drowning.
Geminid
@Eyeroller: Trump also had a couple of shrewd and proficient campaign managers in Susan Wiles and Chris LaCivita.
Eyeroller
@Geminid: I know you believe that, but while I would agree they were competent, I do not believe they were that much better than the Democratic managers. Harris ran what would usually be considered an excellent campaign.
geg6
@Old School:
He’s done and said many egregious things besides his stupid rally. Just one instance would be his John Yoo interview. But that was then, this is now. We need all the voices while we still have them.
David Collier-Brown
@PaulWartenberg: Alas, all the problematic scrapers ignore the robots file.
You might ask your web service operator to create a link loop: A -> B -> C -> B. It causes the scraper to get stuck in the loop, is easy to cache, but doesn’t reduce the load on the web server.
Interesting Name Goes Here
@Eyeroller: And that brings us back to the voters, particularly the ones who decided their principles and conscience were far more important than preventing the current situation. Some of those voters are now screaming at the very people they boisterously rejected to save them from their mistakes, even as they continue to make new mistakes for others to clean up.
Geminid
@Eyeroller: I’m not saying Wiles was some sort of supergenius. She’s a seasoned professional who developed a reputation during Ronald Reagans campaigns as an advance team member who could “make the trains run on time.” That’s what she did last year.
But Wiles needed to be more than a technocrat; she also had to be a psychologist. Wiles had to keep her squirrely candidate on the rails as much as was possible, and it turned out to be just enough.
When Trump hired Wiles in 2021, a lot of people figured she wouldn’t last because no one else had. But she kept his confidence and still has it. That took skill.
I was impressed by Laura Chaves Rodriguez(?), the Biden/Harris campaign manager, and her chief deputy Quentin Fulks. They were there as technicians though; strategy and messaging were devised at a higher level and I thought that’s where the Democratic campaigns fell short.
For instance, I think Rodriguez and Fulks might have argued against the early debate if they had been asked. That was political own-goal if there ever was one. Wiles and LaCivita must have been grinning when the Biden campaign accepted their challenge.
Soprano2
@Jackie: Where’s a meteor when you need one? 😅😅
Mai Naem mobile
@Jackie: the state GOP.are talking about naming part of a freeway after ck. Even John McCain doesn’t have a freeway named after him. IiRC Barry Goldwater does have one but it’s a short one that’s not got a high traffic count. The last time I remember a freeway name being renamed was Piestewa which was after the first woman killed during the Iraq war who happened to be native american, and it was renaming it from Squaw Peak so you kind of killed 2 birds with one stone.
Mai Naem mobile
@Geminid: I’m frankly reaching the conclusion that you’ll only get a female POTUS here if as a Veep they take over from a POTUS leaving the position for whatever reason or a GOP female candidate running against a crap Dem male candidate. There’s a just a lot of guys who can’t accept female leadership for a variety of reasons. BTW, it’s not necessarily just sexist 90 yr olds who never had to deal with female bosses.
Kim Walker
This is probably a dead thread, but the story regarding FFopus flight from UK and his “I don’t care about your safety”. Is there rapid response sending this out to reporter’s associations (whatever those are), flight attendant and pilots unions and any other demographic who might be offended? It would a small thing – actions like that – but maybe it would help.
Nix Besser
@Kent: After cursing and spitting over the Kimmel firing, that was my next thought. Kimmel and Colbert surely both have fuck-you money that they can put into their own platform. Just imagine the guests they could book and the invective they could hurl without cowardly network interference.
Kayla Rudbek
@PaulWartenberg: adding that probably won’t work because the robot crawlers will ignore it. Register your blog with the US Copyright Office and start sending out cease and desist letters for copyright infringement, and/or check into this: theregister.com/2025/09/11/rsl_content_grabbing_ai_digital_licensing/
Jeffro
@Geminid: Yup! He refers to it from time to time in his posts.
I saw him going into Wegman’s one day as I was heading out, and by the time it ‘clicked’…it would have been weird to turn around and say something!
Kayla Rudbek
@They Call Me Noni:
@Belafon: first time that they run into a Black drill sergeant, they will go crying for their mommies
Kayla Rudbek
@PaulWartenberg: oh, yeah, I forgot about the various labyrinth trapping programs/techniques being put out (Cloudflare has one, the name Anubis is also sticking in my head with respect to this)
Paul in KY
@rikyrah: He actually got fired for slagging TACO and his minions. Remember: Everything They Say Is A Lie.
Paul in KY
@Abnormal Hiker: Mr. Johnson said a stint in prison was better and safer than going to sea.