How our Discourse becomes “Coarsened” — as illustrated in tweets:
NEW: At yesterday’s meeting of the White House comms team, a visibly upset and furious Sarah Sanders told the group: “I am sure this conversation is going to leak, too. And that’s just disgusting." Here's what happened next, per 5 sources in the room: https://t.co/RWVqgtXqpL
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) May 12, 2018
This is widely shared, because, yeah it’s nasty fun:
“Per 5 sources in the room” is the classiest dunk https://t.co/bt5gvYp9Yd
— Dana Schwartz (@DanaSchwartzzz) May 12, 2018
The meaty pull-quote:
At one point, per a source in the room, White House strategic communications director Mercedes Schlapp interjected with a word of support for Sadler:
“You can put this on the record… I stand with Kelly Sadler.”https://t.co/cM6WZbhyJl
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) May 12, 2018
A source close to Mercedes Schlapp confirms @jonathanvswan reporting … adding that Kelly Sadler's remark "was not the best choice of words" but that White House staffers "have to stop turning on each other" and leaking remarks made in private meetings. https://t.co/tdPDpXgaDW
— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) May 12, 2018
So… one or more of Axios’ “five sources”, as Mr. Pierce would say, looked a lot like Mercedes Schlapp, and was wearing her shoes.
At least half a dozen prominent media tweeters get to point out:
Mercedes and her husband left the WHCD (10 minutes before it ended to go the NBC party) to protest that Michelle Wolf was Mean. https://t.co/mKxX3LjRFW
— andrew kaczynski?? (@KFILE) May 12, 2018
Jake Tapper, at least, is outraged (as well he might be)…
So:
* White House won’t apologize for @kellysadler45 “joking” about @SenJohnMcCain dying of brain cancer;
* Is seemingly more offended by the leak of the comment than by the comment itself;
* Is officially and affirmatively standing with @kellysadler45 https://t.co/XbdzXjwWOS— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 12, 2018
I'm starting to suspect these are bad people doing bad things, badly. https://t.co/BzMbxRdvIK
— Schooley (@Rschooley) May 12, 2018
But the Mad Bitcher, Chris Cillizza, spots a trend!!!
Cillizza cites 11 examples. 11 come from Republicans. Journalists bemoaning our "terrible new normal" should call it for what it is. Ascribing this to both sides gives the perpetrators the alibi they need to keep doing it. https://t.co/vh4SfAtt0O
— Eric Schultz (@EricSchultz) May 11, 2018
Ergo: Mercedes Schlap posturing to replace Hope Hicks — an ongoing series; savvy journalists have been mocking her desperation since the day Hicks’ resignation was announced — becomes “Our Media Is, Alas, Coarse.”
Why complain about Trump and the other Oval Office Occupants’ lewd mockery of every normal standard of governance and civility, when The Savvy Guys can tell you that everybody does it?
B.B.A.
They are who we thought they were.
Lapassionara
We used to have norms. Now we have normalizing the monstrous. To quote the great efgoldman, fuckem.
Corner Stone
But is Mercedes Schlapp’s Smokey Eye game tight, or not?
Gelfling 545
This is exactly the type of thing that leaks like a water main break. I’d wager that nearly everybody in the room told somebody. It’s not secret information and it’s a monstrous thing to say. People talk about that stuff.
Baud
As a reminder, hate trumps love.
Corner Stone
Are you fucking kidding me, Mad Bitcher?
Mnemosyne
So Schlapp called a reporter to bemoan other people leaking?
Yeah, I see that it claims that it was “a source close to … Schlapp.” I’m not as stupid as Schlapp and the reporter apparently think I am.
Mnemosyne
And since I’m ranting about these assholes anyway:
The guy squatting in the White House right now made public, recorded speeches calling Mexicans “rapists” and the “coarsening” is the fault of Democrats who pointed out that he just called an entire group of people rapists?
Get the entire fuck out of here, Cilizza. Take your shine box and go.
debbie
@Lapassionara:
It is monstrous. Not even a public apology. Trump may be an ass, but there are plenty of bigger asses backing him up.
celticdragonchick
@Corner Stone:
You know…I’ll give Cillizza that one, since his point is that we spend a lot of time saying some really fucked up stuff about the other side and maybe from our standpoint it is justified…and maybe it isn’t. I loathe Ben Shapiro with the heat of the core of a fucking blue white star…and maybe that’s a problem for me. It sure as hell doesn’t hurt him. Anyways, I insult rightwing types every day on twitter and it doesn’t actually make anything better and it doesn’t hurt them, at least not that I can see.
Mockery, well used is a potent weapon against authoritarianism…but I often end up being flippant and nasty…which is what happened with that idiot in the WH who made that crack about Senator McCain. That just makes you look petty and mean.
I don’t know. Just sort of talking through this.
sukabi
@Gelfling 545: given that the current WH isn’t on anybody’s “must work there” list, there were probably only 5 people in that meeting, including Old Smokey Eyes. So it’s more than probable that EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. of them “called a friend” to blab.
Mnemosyne
@celticdragonchick:
I know what you’re saying, but the people spewing abuse are operating from an abuser’s mindset. If we try to respond in a reasonable way, they escalate until we capitulate.
Cheryl Rofer
@Baud: I thought it was Trump hates love.
Chet Murthy
@sukabi:
The angry Dem in me wants it to be true that that “friend” was the same person. As in: “they have no friends left, either”. But I know that’s not true — there are plenty of hangers-on.
efgoldman
@celticdragonchick:
No, his point is that he’s a Broderist asshole who spends his valuable column inches/TV seconds slagging HRC and Dems every chance he gets.
Lemieux has always been right abut this guy.
Fuckem.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@celticdragonchick: Cillizza isn’t talking about twitter, which is to Congress what sports radio is to the Super Bowl, or something. The idea that there are no Democratic moderates in Congress is straight up stupid. And this is his job.
I’d bet a hundred bucks that Cillizza wrote or opined on CNN that Conor Lamb was proof that was the Democratic base really wants is Pelosi-hating, gun-loving moderates.
RedDirtGirl
I went to the library today and picked up Grand Illusion, the book about Giuliani and September 11th, written by Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins.
Chet Murthy
@celticdragonchick: What surprises me about this, is that, aside from that Health Care vote, McCain’s been pretty solid for Putinfluffer. I mean his trumpscore is 83% and that’s overperforming by nearly 22%. You’d think that somebody would recognize that until he’s actually certain to never again cast a vote, you’d want to keep him sweet.
But no, these jokers can’t even plot competently, forget being decent human beings to a dying man.
jl
I would like to know why the crummy libs are giving Trump no credit for not necessarily delivering on the bribes that Cohen collected on major policy decisions. Did Novartis get what it wanted? Welp, looks like they got the policy they wanted to the max. But did ATT? Looks like they got squat.
I dunno the difference. Maybe telecoms just have chicken feed compared to real players like big PhRMA but who know? We really don’t know, do we? Maybe Trump is just raking in the cash and doing what the hell he wants regardless. Isn’t that how he’s always operated? Why would you think Trump pays any more consideration to the people who bribe him than anyone else he makes deals with.
Is it really bribery if the bribee doesn’t always deliver? The liberal justice Anthony Kennedy will set this straight when he pulls the divine truth out of some wild hair up his ass that it doesn’t even present the appearance of corruption, in the next 5-4 decision saying this is all A-OK.
Edut: don’t know if a snark tag is necessary for this nor not.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: Obviously AT&T didn’t pay enough, that’s why they got squat.
jl
I don’t think the new revelations will make a dent in the hard core Trumpsters, which appear to be 1/3 of the adult population.
The first Trumpster I met in the SF Bay Area was a drunk staggering out of a convenience store just after Trump announced. He walks by me in the parking lot and figured I was a Trumpster too since I am a White middle age male. So he shows me all the penny ante crap he stuffed in his coat pockets and filched off the store and he says “See, I’m just like Trump, he knows how to work the system. You for Trump, right?” And I gave him a thumbs up and walked on by since I didn’t want to deal with a drunk shoplifter right outside the store.
Corner Stone
@celticdragonchick:
I have yet to hear any D in a position of influence or power suggest that all conservatives should be killed. They are Radio Rwanda’ing liberals every fucking day to all of their audience. They aren’t making a pretense of it. While I hold no love for McCain, they aren’t apologizing for the remark. That is what they want to happen to any and all who defy their wishlist.
There is simply no way to say the D’s have gerrymandered moderates out of elected office. You can’t fucking say it with a straight face.
eemom
@jl:
The McDonnell decision was unanimous, if that’s what you’re referring to. I still haven’t gotten an answer to my WTF??
jl
@Corner Stone: If that is a short dissertation arguing the Cillizza is full of crap, as usual, then I completely agree. Cillizza is peddling laughable false balance.
Cillizza is such a hack, describing it as Tiger Beat level empty headed hack work is an insult to Tiger Beat.
Brachiator
Of course, it is not true that everyone does it.
Trump does it. He loves cruel insults. And he never backs down.
He clearly values this quality in his staff.
Also, the quisiling Republican Party, and a few others, are happy to go along. The Arizona news site notes:
Link
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2018/05/11/defending-john-mccain-after-white-house-kelly-sadler-dying-remark/604047002/
jl
@eemom: Thanks for info. I need to go back and review the recent Supreme Court decisions on money and corruption to make sure I am making fun of the correct one. But, I was making fun of Kennedy’s reasoning specifically in that comment. So I hope I can beat the rap on this on on that technicality..
Ruckus
@celticdragonchick:
Was the left the ones saying that the left was calling for FEMA camps?
Was the left calling for HRC’s head for crimes that have been investigated 12 ways from Sunday but never charged?
Was the left setting the goals of closing the country off to the entire outside world?
Was the left calling for no gun laws what so ever, in fact calling for unrestricted carry?
Was the left calling for
This could take quite a while so I stop here, you should be able to get the gist.
The left has for the most part played this rather evenly, the right has lied, bullshitted and condemned the left for wanting equality and physically attacked the left.
We are not the same. Sure some are calling for heads, is that out of line, given the last at least 20 yrs?
jl
@eemom: Did you WTF? me on some comment and I did not reply? Or was that WTF? with regard to that court decision?
sukabi
@Chet Murthy: was using ‘friend’ euphemistically. With how those people treat each other (and everyone else) you probably wouldn’t find a person who would claim friendship with any of them. But they do have the WH press corpse on speed dial.
ant
What sticks in my craw is the lack of condemnation of torture.
Torture isn’t right. This is not debatable.
The fact that republicans are losing their only credible voice on the topic is worth mentioning.
Should we retire the name GOP, and replace it with PTP (Pro Torture Party)?
NotMax
@Baud
Also too, Trump loves hate.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
Uh, why are the Democrats supposed to be defending John McCain from his own party?
Cripes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@eemom: I thought jl was referring the “Citizen’s United” decision.
Ruckus
@Chet Murthy:
A dying man on their side
Really they can’t even be decent to themselves. I think they know who and what they are, that’s who they see in the mirror ever day. That may be why they think that every one should like them and why don’t they.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: I usually mutter WTF whenever I read one of your comments.
jl
@ant: I saw a news blurb that Dick Cheney is gong around arguing that we should bring torture back anyway, because, what they heck, why not?
As far as I am concerned, no one should hold a position in federal executive unless they firmly state that torture is wrong, and it is illegal under US and international law (and both count in this country), and that it doesn’t work. For me, it is a one strike and you are out. I want people who are ethical, and law abiding and competent serving in the executive branch.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: But, you usually mutter that regardless, anyway, for everything.
Or are you not a Baudist?
Anotherlurker
@RedDirtGirl: It is a good read. Enjoy it.
satby
@Baud: @Cheryl Rofer: Trump loves hate.
Damn @NotMax, great minds and all that.
Kraux Pas
@Mnemosyne:
Should they take political refugees who greased their own path into exile? Sarah Palin says “Hi!”
Seriously, though, while privately offended on his behalf, I would tend to keep it to myself because I mind my own business. Beside, it would just be passed off as more criticzing Rs.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
Not quite the same level of distain and hate for their fellow man?
Yeah I don’t get it. We all die. Some very young, some very old, some by our own hand, some by more than normal ill health, some for no reason that can be explained, but we all go and become equal at that point, equal to nothing. I think that people who value themselves above most or everyone else can’t stand the idea that there is an equality about death. I think that scares them right down to their socks, that no matter how much money or position or privilege they think they have, one day none of that will matter.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Mnemosyne: Because on the issue of torture, he’s right.
ETA: And I can’t believe that Cheney has crawled out of the shadows and is allowed to speak again.
JPL
@jl: He campaigned specifically against AT&T. He has remained silent during the trial. Novartis gets a pass because he campaigned against all drug companies, and they got their wish.
Trump’s hatred of CNN clouds his judgment and AT&T probably refused to shut it down. imo
ant
@jl:
Yeah, I saw that too in a newspaper today at a Hardees In Iowa.
Why doesn’t that motherfucker die already?
sigh.
SRW1
Given that so many of the acting persons seem to be of the female variety, there’s a lot of stepping on one’s own dick going on in the WH PR shop.
Platonailedit
@Brachiator: That’s some bothsidesdidntdoit bs from azcentral. This is all the repugnant rethugs doing. Dems need to do jacksquat about it.
jl
@Kraux Pas: I have no problem with Democrats not being completely depraved.
If the Republican party decides to criticize McCain in good faith for spending most of his career being a hypocritical corrupt humbug only departing from SOP corruption a few times on important legislation such as McCain-Feingold, then I would not expect the Democrats to defend him. (I guess that would be a hypothetical new reformed Republican Party in some alternative history).
If the Republican party calls McCain a commie for McCain-Feingold and to make it sting also makes fun of him for dying, then I don’t mind that the Democrats call the GOP out for being assholes.
Edit: I know the policy that got McCain in trouble is torture, but I wanted to give another example.
hitchhiker
Behind the walls, they’re hanging out talking about whether their candidate for head of the CIA — who refused to say that it was wrong to torture a captive — will get confirmed.
Someone points out that McCain — probably the most famous victim of torture in the country — thinks the candidate disqualified herself with that refusal. Maybe her confirmation is in doubt!
Someone else says not to worry because he’s going to be dead soon, apparently as a joke. (?) He IS going to be dead soon. He’s got a tumor in his head, ffs.
And then 5 people call their favorite reporters to describe that callous, stupid remark.
And THEN Sarah Effing Sanders loses her temper because SHE wanted a positive news cycle for her corrupt and stupid boss, and instead she’s stuck talking about what makes it funny to mention that a guy is dying of cancer.
Madness.
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
This is true. But I wonder if he hadn’t been tortured himself would he be against it? Is he a typical conservative, it’s not OK for me but is OK for thee.
I have no idea BTW I’m just asking the question.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
Baud Be Best!
B.B.A.
@eemom: The reasoning behind the McDonnell decision is straightforward seeing as we don’t actually have a law against corruption. Normally it’s prosecuted as “wire fraud” under a strained interpretation of a vague statute. The Court unanimously ruled that, absent proof of direct bribery, that interpretation is a little too strained.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Great slogan for 2020!
I hire the best people.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: WTF.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Ruckus: That actually occurred to me after I posted because you’re right, that’s the usual. But I decided it didn’t matter. We’re talking about torture. Torture, for god’s sake.
jl
@Baud:
Bribes for the common man!
Baud 2020! takes two bit bribes from two bit bums. Everybody can play in the Baud administration!
SRW1
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Baud: 2020 – Best Be Baud
Baud
@jl: By charging less than my competition, I democratize graft.
Ruckus
@hitchhiker:
And you pointed out a problem with conservatives.
McCain is a known victim of torture. What about all the other vets who got tortured in Vietnam? Was that OK because they might be liberal? Was it OK because we can do it too? This is a classic difference between the two sides. Conservatives think anything that might move their objectives forward is OK, lying, theft, corruption, torture, bombing innocents, starting wars, not healing the sick, not supporting the general welfare, etc. Liberals think the opposite. That doesn’t mean that some liberals don’t fall off the wagon on some point(s) but in general they want better for all rather than only themselves.
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
But that’s the point with conservatives. It matters because they are willing to do all the shit they don’t like others doing to them, if they think it will make them winners. And it doesn’t. They have to win at any and all costs. We know that making the world better means compromise on some issues for the sake of not being wrong all the time.
ETA What’s that old saying, “They’ll like us when we win.”
Doug R
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
@jl:
AT&T got a PRIVATE dinner with the head of the FCC.
Then the FCC cut Net Neutrality.
jl
@Doug R: Good point. Trump had to be stern with ATT and told them they couldn’t have everything. If you think about it that way, Trump is a pillar of integrity. Draining the swamp!
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Ruckus: God. I think what I’m saying is Be Best. I need to go lie down.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
Uh, I never said that Democrats had a duty to defend McCain.
NotMax
@Doug R
re: net neutrality, keep an eye on this, restoring it under the CRA (Congressional Review Act). Big (and small) tech pushing for it ought to help.
Yarrow
When I was at the gym today I saw a chyron on CNN teasing an upcoming segment that said, “Blue wave slowing to a trickle.” They will do any damn thing for a horse race. I hate all these people.
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
Sleep tight.
J R in WV
CNN is just like Faux News.
The small difference is that CNN is just in it for the money, Faux rakes the money too, but really is in it for the propaganda leadership.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
Here’s how Toby Ziegler talked to his junior staff after a leak. I don’t hear “disgusting” in there anywhere.
Amir Khalid
@Mnemosyne:
One can (ETA: and should) defend the common decency that would keep a normal person from mocking John McCain’s terminal illness without defending McCain’s indefensible record as a member of Congress.
Baud
@Yarrow:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/dont-mess-with-this-muslim-from-texashe-just-got-elected
Corner Stone
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): West Wing needs to burn in an eternal fire.
Corner Stone
@Baud: It says “north Texas city”, and that’s true. But it’s really a sleeper community of Dallas and mostly DFW. Which, despite public belief, actually vote blue most of the time. So, still good to see but not cray to imagine.
Corner Stone
I just don’t give a shit what Steve Schmidt has to say. You own this result, fuckface.
rikyrah
I love this. Maxine Waters’ resistance set to music
https://twitter.com/BroderickGreer/status/995428480354578432?s=19
The Lodger
@jl: I’ve always considered him more of a Baudhisattva.
Om mani padma wtf
Om mani padma wtf…
Amir Khalid
Open thread: Reports that the cops raided a luxury condo rented by relatives of Najib in search of hidden documents incriminating the former PM have been denied by the KL chief of police.
jl
@The Lodger: One of the famous discourses of Baud, which would have been written down if everyone was not drunk or stoned.
‘My Baudists, all is WTF. What is WTF? The eye is WTF, and what we see is WTF. The ears are WTF and what we hear is WTF.. The nose is WTF, and all the stanks are WTF… ”
So much WTF in the discourses of Baud.
brendancalling
I try my best to shit all over Cillizza’s posts with his own words. I hope to someday meet him, introduce myself, and cause him to fly into a spittle-flecked rage.
randy khan
@Doug R:
I am not remotely a fan of AT&T – or the Administration! – but the current chair of the FCC hates hates hates network neutrality and voted against it when he was in the minority during the Obama Administration. He was determined to kill it from the moment Trump was elected. And AT&T knew that, so they wouldn’t have believed they needed to pay anyone off to get it done.
MomSense
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
Ha! What is happening to us?!?!
Another Scott
@?BillinGlendaleCA: AT&T can’t pay enough because Donnie hates CNN and thus the AT&T + TimeWarner (+CNN) deal won’t go through. It doesn’t matter how much AT&T pays.
(Unless something happens to make Donnie love CNN all of a sudden…)
Cheers,
Scott.
(“We have always been at war with Oceania…”)
Platonailedit
@randy khan:
And yet they paid ‘the fixer’ a five figure retainer. Every month.
lynn
No matter how many leave or get fired…..the clown car remains full.
Villago Delenda Est
Cillizza is even more reason for my nym.
Wipe them out. All of them.
TaMara (HFG)
I literally said the other morning when they were touting the release of the NK prisoners that the Orange One or his team would blow the news cycle before the day as out. I should find a way to make money on this shit.
Corner Stone
I’m not sure why people keep saying Trump “hates” CNN? He hates CNN like I hate chocolate ice cream. That is all a facade. No network served him better during the election season, or since, than CNN. Fox kept his knuckleheads on the same page. CNN put his messaging, speeches, rallies and everyything else in the living rooms of people who may not watch much FNC. It’s crazy to think he really hates CNN. He loves all press/media, no matter what they are saying about him.
Platonailedit
Whatever happened to all those occupy wallstreet warriors of Obama era? #ratfuckers
Another Scott
@Corner Stone: Of course.
But he’s still demanding that the merger be stopped. So he’s not just winking and nodding at AT&T and TW.
He is making an example of them. Temporarily? Maybe. We’ll see.
Cheers,
Scott.
piratedan
@Mnemosyne: here’s the thing, at least imho…. the GOP is of the firm belief that because they’ve been rewarded in the press and the ballot box over and over again for their bad behavior and the Dems have been the adults in the legislative room for the last three decades that they should just be given a pass on this behavior. And why shouldn’t they feel this way? They have their own media empire out there spinning furiously, they have Uncle Vlad kicking money into their bank accounts and they are IN CHARGE. So why shouldn’t they expect that the Dems should also apologize for their boorish behavior because you can always play the suckers who empathize and have compassion for those less fortunate. They’re suckers. They’re sheep to be shorn. The GOP are winners, fuck human decency, where the fuck is mine and if I don’t feel like I have enough, I’m gonna take some of yours too and fuck you.
Now while I will admit to fantasies of taking my frustration of how things are political to violent extremes, I also understand that doesn’t play well politically or socially. I will readily admit that I have absolutely no issue with Dems being silent on John McCain’s deathbed… after the behavior that went down with Senator Byrd and Senator Kennedy and not one GOP Senator raising their hand/words/eyebrows about “decorum” and the understated fact that we had GOP senators wishing their political opponents to die so they could delay the vote about providing health care to people I seriously have no fucks left to give. There used to be a mutual grudging respect for the other side, they were STILL Americans, believed in the country and the ethos and there was agreement on core values.
I don’t believe that anymore.
While I have a good job and a good life, I don’t mind paying taxes for things, roads, schools, clean water, safe food, breathable air, opportunities for those less fortunate and the idea that we are all equal, no matter who we’re attracted to or how they choose to worship. I don’t think the GOP believes in those ideas, concepts, foundations anymore, if they ever did.
jl
@Corner Stone: I hate chocolate ice cream because I love it so much it makes me fat. Except for vanilla frozen custard which I hate even more, for the same reason.
The Lodger
@jl: Everything I know about Buddhist wisdom I have learned in the past 10 minutes trying to top this quote. In the spirit of the Master, I am letting go.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Corner Stone: Fake News!
rikyrah
ICE needs to be disbanded ??
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/995273131240517632?s=19
randy khan
@Platonailedit:
That almost certainly was for Time Warner, not network neutrality. Seriously. I work in the business, in Washington; everyone knew that Pai was going to kill network neutrality if he got the chance.
What happened with network neutrality was just one of hundreds of different examples of natural consequences of any Republican winning the Presidential election.
Patricia Kayden
@B.B.A.: Feels like they’re much worse!
Humdog
@Amir Khalid: Maybe it wasn’t the police, but a group hired for covering up?
Does your populace still care about corruption in leadership? I wish mine seemed to.
lgerard
@Corner Stone:
That’s why he hates them. He “made” zillions of dollars for them and they aren’t sharing it with him. He hates when other people profit “off him”, particularly when he believes that he is responsible for Zucker getting the head job for some reason
Another Scott
@lgerard: +1
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@piratedan:
I don’t believe that conservatives ever believed in them. Ever. Now that doesn’t mean that everyone that voted conservative a while ago didn’t believe in them but I think it does now. There has just been too much propaganda spread by Fox, all the conservative “think” tanks, web sites, the NRA and all the conservative assholes that have been elected over the last 50 years. They have so polluted the political airspace that they have alienated the general conservative public that wasn’t in the bag for them already to any discourse about any political issues. IOW they have swung the conservative side well away from anything resembling center. It’s been a long while that we’ve had anything like a just off center to the right segment of the population. The entire conservative side sees the world as told to them by the lying far right. If they had blinders on it might be possible for them to see but they have on blindfolds, with little fox monitors going 24 hrs a day. It’s Blade Runner meets Soylent Green meets the communist party leftovers.
oldgold
Our discourse here has also become “coarsened.”
The “oldmold” is fine and funny, but the rest seems over the line to me.
Cosmo
May 12, 2018 at 4:03 pm
@oldmold: You sound like a troll in dire need of having its corpse found in a backalley dumpster mutilated beyond recognition.
jl
@Ruckus:
Bonikers is as bonkers does. Who is the new Ezra and Nehemiah? Is Javanka or Rudy the Darius to come?
Trump Compared to Cyrus the Great
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-compared-to-cyrus-the-great
Edit: I think the new US Embassy in Jerusalem is supposed to be the the third temple. One morning I’ll hear Pampeo blow his horn and Armageddon will be ON!! suckers! Then 1000 years of peace and prosperity, with Trump sitting over a lamb and lion laying down in peace, and lo, the eagle will not bite him, nor tear at him, and Trump will not be afeared.
Corner Stone
@lgerard: Eh, they are doing everything he wants them to do, still. If they stopped covering his insane rallies or did not send a camera crew to get his inane bullshit answers then he might actually start to hate them. As it is, he’s making them millions and they made him into the Oval Office. Trump gets away with answering four questions on the lawn while he’s making his way to Marine One or sitting in a briefing room. CNN et al fill the rest of their coverage with his crazy uncle rants.
No Drought No More
So much for “look forward, not back”. Good riddance, too.
jl
Pence will qualify as the new Herod, at least when he takes off his girdle. Which he allows himself to do, alone with his wife, if his mother is there.
Edit: I wish Pence no ill will. I don’t want the worms to eat him, until he goes the way of all flesh.
lgerard
@Corner Stone:
He provides them with programing and viewers, they are not paying him in the coin he values most…nonstop flattery. They are ungrateful!, thus he resents them.
(see Fox News)
James Powell
@Corner Stone:
Same with the NYT. Trump couldn’t have won without them.
Mike J
@jl:
Or some people will realise that the populist ruler from that cheesy book was the anti Christ.
eemom
@jl:
The court decision. Sorry for confusion.
@B.B.A.:
Been a while since I looked at it, but I’m pretty sure it went beyond that. Being a Virginian, I followed the trial rather closely, and my recollection of what the SCT did was to raise the standard of corruption to a level where you’d have to be caught on tape signing a Bribe Contract to get convicted. They seemed to be overly worried about prosecuting corruption being misused as a political weapon. Considering what we’ve got doing on today, it’s a good thing irony is already long dead, buried, mummified, etc.
Duane
@The Lodger: Melania says Be Best Baud!
Villago Delenda Est
@jl: I wish dominionists plenty of ill will.
jl
@Mike J: OMG, the bald spot is from a head wound!
I think we’ve found a message the Xtianist Trumpsters will respond to.
Won’t make them vote sensibly, that is too much to hope for. But they’ll stay home in terrified confusion, the natural state of authoritarians who don’t know who is the authority.
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
Channel surfing in a Gaffney, SC hotel, stopped on TBN, oh look, it’s Mike Huckabee’s talk show, and Jay Sekulow’s band is performing, and WTFingF did I just watch?
If you’re wondering, they’re like if Def Leppard came from Branson, Missouri, but worse.
PRW
@jl:
That could end up very badly, as H. P. Lovecraft warns us:
Suzanne
@piratedan:
The GOP doesn’t believe in anything. Their voters were fine with racial and religious minorities, and women, as long as they stayed in their place. But now they are pushing for more social power, and are in many ways doing “better” than lots of white Protestants, who (to quote Mr. Perlstein), felt entitled to a petty lordship by virtue of being born a member of the dominant culture.
I cannot emphasize this enough: the Right hated Obama not just because he is black, but because he is COOL. He is smart and educated and has style and is worldly and sophisticated and he has a beautiful wife and he speaks really well and he moves seamlessly between cultures and celebrities and trendy young people love him. And he still is an incredibly potent cultural force and this makes the GOP CRAZY.
Major Major Major Major
@jl: OT: Just wanted to leave one last comment re: ‘classical liberalism’ from far downstairs. You said
And I agree! And we call it ‘liberalism.’ Which is why people who believe in civil rights, but also still believe in Hoover’s economic policies, have to exhume ‘classical liberalism’ to come up with a nice feel-good term.
efgoldman
@brendancalling:
a punch in the ‘nads would do.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
“Classical liberalism” another name for what used to be called “Bourbon Democrats.”
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: I maintain that at this point in time it just describes regular readers of Reason. Semantic drift and whatnot. Yes, they’re interested in civil rights in the abstract, but not enough to compromise on their bedrock principle of maintaining their own privilege.
NotMax
@NotMax
And is also a 19th century holdover as being distinct from “social liberalism” which is what is implied by the general term “liberal” today.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: Let’s not forget that Google Bro self-describes as a “classical liberal.”
ETA actually feel free to forget that. but it’s relevant
kattails
@Ruckus: “In the end the King and the pawn go back in the same box.” –Spanish proverb, if i recollect rightly from my calligrapher days.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
so, this is happening
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
In other words, classically Wilsonian.
BTW, Wikipedia page on Boubon Democrats.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
OT. Talked to step-brother today. Your skills are outside his bailiwick. He did say he’d ask around and get back to me if he knew anyone who dealt in your field.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: Thanks for asking! Not an unexpected result.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Any plans on where you’ll be residing? Manhattan proper? Brooklyn? Queens? L.I.? NJ?
Feel free to say it’s none of my business.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: Queens seems likely.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
Sorry, that wasn’t clear — the “uh” was for the morons at the AZ Republic.
Steve in the ATL
@Major Major Major Major: dude, that was too easy
Major Major Major Major
@Steve in the ATL: What was?
Steve in the ATL
@Major Major Major Major: you. Queens.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
YMMV, of course (and it’s not really my place to give advice on it), but if had to live in Queens my choices would be out beyond where the subways go, close to the Nassau county line, where it is still quietly suburban-like (no or few high rises) and occasionally reminiscently rural (i.e., lots of big, old trees). Places like Little Neck or Douglaston. Only 20 minutes to Manhattan on the LIRR.
Yutsano
@Steve in the ATL: A) I can’t believe you went there.
B) I was thinking the same thing.
seaboogie
@jl: That someone (Cheney) receives a heart transplant and still surfaces to advocate for torture says so much about the current GOP authoritarian, punitive mindset.
I know we all have darker elements in our psyches, but the GOP seems to be composed wholly of dark matter.
Yutsano
@Major Major Major Major: Just from a foodie perspective, there’s lots of really good eats over in Brooklyn that rival anything in Manhattan. Specifically a lot of the Asian food options there. Granted you won’t be too far away in Queens but it’s a possible consideration.
divF
@NotMax:
@Major Major Major Major:
I’m thinking that the initial exchange was the real coded message, everything else being to throw the CI folks monitoring this channel off the trail.
NotMax
Have an old B movie running in background, with Ruth Hussey as the female lead. It’s spooky because my back is to the screen while am on the computer and her voice is exactly like Myrna Loy’s. Same timbre, tone and cadence. Keep expecting to see Loy when I turn around.
Major Major Major Major
@Steve in the ATL: @Yutsano: boooo
NotMax
Where have all the
flowersjackals gone?:)
LosGatosCA
@Cheryl Rofer:
Hate loves Trump
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: I’ll bet the next thread will be poppin’.
efgoldman
@NotMax:
Too much seriosity
divF
@NotMax: I was end-gaming a cheesecake.
Major Major Major Major
@divF: Who won?
ETA I’m giving the next draft of my story one last smoothing-over. Man, this story’s weird.
Anotherlurker
@Yutsano: Flushing is an Asian food hotspot.
Amir Khalid
@Humdog:
Of course we still care. Najib lost all his credibility when the billions squatting in his bank account came to light — which incidentally explained his and his wife’s curiously highrolling lifestyle.
Amir Khalid
@Amir Khalid:
The denial of the raid could be the cops trying to cover up an operation the Royal Malaysian Police considers still politically sensitive. I wonder what The Star‘s crime guys are hearing from their police sources about the denial.
Amir Khalid
@seaboogie:
If you don’t have a heart, you don’t have a heart — even when somebody gives you one.
firusan
Baud by Jake….
magurakurin
@rikyrah: awesome.
West of the Rockies
@oldgold:
I can see why you’d be offended. That was uncalled for, rude, and ignorant.
divF
@Major Major Major Major: I did. It is now cooled off and in the fridge, destined to be dessert tomorrow night for Madame’s cast party (community theater).
Major Major Major Major
@divF: Congratulations.
Bonnie
The leaks come because the staff is a very unhappy staff. The working conditions are bad and stressful making for very unhappy stressed out staff.
NotMax
@divF
If anything at all like some of the community theater groups have been involved with, it’ll vanish in under ten minutes.
;)
Cat48
I miss Hope Hicks. She never said anything.
Amir Khalid
@Humdog:
Forgot to respond to this, sorry.
So Najib hired actors to impersonate cops and stage a phony raid? I dunno, man. It would have been simpler and cheaper to load up a minivan in the middle of the night and drive away.
Sab
Happy Mothers Day. ICE has lost 1500 children separated from their mothers by ICE.. Proud to be an American, not. I am glad my mother didn’t live to see this.
Peale
@Amir Khalid: given the shamelessness of that clan, I suspect that if they hired actors to stage a raid, it would involve an international cast of Uwe Setiwas, Tony Jaa and Donnie Yen. And would be filmed as part of an “investment” scheme.
Kay
This is the “conduit” campaign finance illegality I’m constantly babbling about re: Trump/Cohen. It’s not the first time it’s been a major scandal in Ohio. This is exactly what got state Republicans in trouble in ’06. You can’t launder campaign funds thru straw donors- “conduits”. They prosecute it by pulling in the straw donors and asking where the money they donated came from. That panics the straw donors because then they’re looking at the straw donors finances rather than the Party or candidate and no one is willing to undergo that kind of scrutiny to protect a political candidate or Party.
It goes like this- candidate, candidate’s collector (the person who sets up the conduit channel) and then conduit.
People keep saying Cohen is Trump’s “bagman” but that’s not how the Trump deal is set up. Trump is Trump’s bagman. Trump’s is even worse because Trump is both the candidate and the candidate’s collector. Cohen is the conduit.
There’s either a person missing between Trump (beneficiary) and Cohen (conduit)- someone we don’t know about- or Trump OR Cohen are playing dual roles.
Kay
So in the ECOT case they’ll go the “donors” and they’ll ask about the donation. They’ll find employees who never made a campaign contribution before donating the max to some state representative – people who make 30k a year suddenly writing a check for 1000 dollars, and the conduit will then tell them someone approached them to write the check and guaranteed they would be reimbursed. Then they’ll follow that back and find that the funds originated with ECOT.
In the ECOT case it’s even worse than the ’06 GOP conduit prosecutions because all the money ECOT has came from tax dollars- they have no revenue other than what they collect from public school funding so they’re laundering state funding and returning it to GOP lawmakers in the form of “donations”.
germy
germy
germy
germy
Brachiator
@germy:
Fox News often says it outright. They cover Trump and White House staff who say that non-whites are dangerous. They cover cabinet officials who say that non-whites are dangerous.
Fox personalities like Tucker Carlson say that non-whites are dangerous, interview guests that say that non-whites are dangerous, and talk about their “fear” and “discomfort” at the mere presence of non-whites.
These are some great quotes about Fox News as the official ministry of hate for the Trump administration, but they underestimate the degree to which they push bigotry and fear mongering.
ETA. Fox News coverage of ICE also amps up fear and loathing of immigrants.
B.B.A.
@germy:
If only. It’s closer to having been a redundancy, like “white supremacist.”
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Holy shit! Someone is actually comparing Trump to a Persian king? Wow!
This kind of thing must thrill evangelicals to their bones.
burnspbesq
@B.B.A.:
So your theory is that the only way to deal with McDonnell’s shenanigans (and, by extension, Trump’s) is via the voting booth?
Kathleen
@rikyrah: “I do not yield” will become my new mantra.
B.B.A.
@burnspbesq: Not the only way, but vastly preferable to the way the Romanians dealt with Ceausescu.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Amir Khalid:
Brilliant
Villago Delenda Est
@burnspbesq: There are other ways, but they are potentially as bad as the disease itself. That’s how bad things have become.
Aardvark Cheeselog
Like that’s gonna happen. 1. She’s married and 2. Have you seen a picture of her?
If she thinks she could replace Hicks, she’s even more delusional than she seems.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I know he’s a tease, and he’s overpraised before but…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: over promised
damn
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: rebuilding the temple is a dog-whistle for apocalyptic evangelicals who haven’t figured out which side of the prophecies they and their boy “Cyrus” are truly on.
D58826
Ah somewhat OT but why is Der Fuhrer ‘working hard’ to save jobs at the Chinese electronic giant ZTE???
I realize it begs the question of when Der Fuhrer has ever worked hard at anything other than lining his own pocket
Ruckus
@D58826:
If he had “worked” hard at lining his own pocket, might he not have a bit to show for it, and not have failed at so many things?
To answer your first question…… Because there might be something in it for him? Or better yet….. What has he been promised by some other sleaze to get him to do that?
Origuy
ICYMI: Fox local anchors criticize kid who got accepted into 20 schools.
One guess on his skin color.
Mike in DC
I sincerely hope that when Trump dies, every public urinal in a 5 mile radius will feed into a tributary pouring out directly upon his grave.
Ruckus
@Mike in DC:
Can you imagine the lines?
Can you imagine how much money could be made? DT would finally be able to be considered a person who could create wealth. Of course as a public service it would have to be free. But even with just donations that would make more in a year than he has in his entire life. Trips could be sold around the world to allow people to come and piss on him. Airlines, hotels, beer companies……
celticdragonchick
@Chet Murthy:
Exactly.
celticdragonchick
@Corner Stone:
The ‘we’ was Americans collectively as a whole…not just us on the progressive side. I’m sorry I didn’t make that more explicit.