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All Too Normal

You are here: Home / Archives for All Too Normal

Late Night Open Thread: The Universal Search for A ‘Deserving’ Victim

by Anne Laurie|  March 22, 20222:32 am| 39 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, All Too Normal

Someone seems sad that the disinfo campaign they were shepherding isn’t sticking around quite like he hoped it would https://t.co/aVBoY5Vwa2 pic.twitter.com/CXi0kvbKhw

— Jared Holt (@jaredlholt) March 21, 2022

the need to cycle through lie after lie after lie until you find one that sticks, all to avoid saying “I think the strong have an inherent right to take from the weak” is the surest mark of a coward too afraid to pronounce himself a proud fascist https://t.co/FdLsMuAwev

— kilgore trout, death to putiner (@KT_So_It_Goes) March 15, 2022

The Ukrainians are all Nazis, or — even worse! — Jews. There’s no such thing as ‘Ukrainians’, only traitorous denizens of a failed Russian province. And besides, they attacked us first. Have you heard about their AmeriKKKan-sponsored biolabs?

Truly, the Russians have learned much from the GOP. Or was it the other way around?

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Late Night Open Thread: The Universal Search for A ‘Deserving’ VictimPost + Comments (39)

Education Open Thread: ‘Never Forget’ Does NOT Mean ‘Never Learn’

by Anne Laurie|  January 27, 202210:09 am| 167 Comments

This post is in: Education, Open Threads, Popular Culture, All Too Normal

Holocaust survivors and politicians have warned about the resurgence of antisemitism and denial as the world remembered Nazi atrocities and commemorated the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. https://t.co/IN4fjtu5SF

— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) January 27, 2022

Meanwhile…

Why can’t we find inoffensive ways to tell the story of the most horrific mass murder in human history? https://t.co/tvX0yMAcAZ

— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) January 27, 2022

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Education Open Thread: ‘Never Forget’ Does NOT Mean ‘Never Learn’Post + Comments (167)

Open Thread: The GOP, Party of Senescent Middle Schoolers

by Anne Laurie|  November 24, 20215:24 pm| 97 Comments

This post is in: GOP Death Cult, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, All Too Normal, Assholes

It’s amazing how being a school teacher has prepared me to understand the mindset and behaviors of the American right and its loudmouth psychotic performance artists.
In fact, istening to them gives me more flashbacks to teaching middle school than talking to my own son does… https://t.co/1YjBaL3fra

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) November 20, 2021

Jennifer Rubin, for the Washington Post, “Republicans define themselves by misogyny and violence”:

When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, Never Trumpers (now largely ex-Republicans) warned that he would corrupt the party in every way imaginable. His misogyny would morph in the party’s toxic masculinity and degradation of women, they cautioned. His infatuation with brutality and violence (boasting he would kill terrorists’ families, exhorting his supporters to slug protesters) would metastasize to the party as a whole. Boy, did those predictions pan out…

Threats and portrayals of violence against women have turned into a badge of honor for a party in which traditional notions about gender (back to the 1950s!) have become a key predictor of Republican support. Casting men (even a Supreme Court nominee) as victims of aggressive, “nasty” or unhinged women accusing them of wrongdoing has become standard fare in the Trump party…

Toxic masculinity now increasingly manifests in an infatuation with violence against both men and women. “From congressional offices to community meeting rooms, threats of violence are becoming commonplace among a significant segment of the Republican Party,” the New York Times reported this month. “Ten months after rioters attacked the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, and after four years of a president who often spoke in violent terms about his adversaries, right-wing Republicans are talking more openly and frequently about the use of force as justifiable in opposition to those who dislodged him from power.”…

We saw on Jan. 6 how MAGA fanatics took calls to “stop the steal” literally, launching a violent assault on the electoral vote-counting process. In short, if anyone thinks casual, incessant talk of violence and overt misogyny will not impact the rabid Trump base, think again. (Recall that in the wake of Trump mocking the “Asian flu” or “China flu,” we saw a spate of violent attacks on Asian Americans.) As Jones says, “Today, for an alarming number of white conservative Christians, the mark of Christian faithfulness is not a love that inspires them to lay down their lives for their friends, but a defensiveness that lures them to take the lives of their fellow citizens.”…

For example, any middle school teacher will tell you that one of the biggest challenges with controlling preteens is that they do not consider consequences as adults do.
It’s not even that they don’t understand the relationship between cause and effect. It’s that they don’t care.

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) November 20, 2021

To wit, “I know that throwing pencils at Jenni and Emma will get me into trouble. On the other hand, it will make my friends laugh and get Jenni and Emma mad. So, really, a no-brainer! Pencils go whizz-whizz!”
Delighting buddies and upsetting those you hate is Priority 1. Always.

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) November 20, 2021

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Open Thread: The GOP, Party of Senescent Middle SchoolersPost + Comments (97)

Saturday Night Soft Targets Open Thread: Kevin McCarthy’s Increasingly Narrow Niche

by Anne Laurie|  November 20, 20216:46 pm| 73 Comments

This post is in: GOP Death Cult, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Stupidity, All Too Normal

On which side? https://t.co/Nur9lUSJ9W

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) November 19, 2021

When even Chris Cillizza tells the world Kevin is angling to get back in TFG’s good graces…

Also employment rate was lower, GDP was lower, wages were lower, the stock market was lower…but hey, at least inflation was a few points lower!

— Bubba Karras (@MichaelDKarras) November 19, 2021

The irony here – and say this with complete seriousness – is that Kevin McCarthy is angling to become Speaker if R’s regain control of tbe House but his colleagues are going to remember the unending torment of this speech and be like “Yeah, Speaking is not his thing.” https://t.co/lawBjc2C8y

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) November 19, 2021

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Saturday Night Soft Targets Open Thread: Kevin McCarthy’s Increasingly Narrow NichePost + Comments (73)

Open Thread: Astroworld, A Tragedy Waiting to Happen

by Anne Laurie|  November 13, 20217:01 pm| 75 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Music, Science & Technology, All Too Normal, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

A raging crowd, their high-voltage idol, then disaster. Revelers describe the moments when Travis Scott's Astroworld festival turned into a deadly wave of humanity. https://t.co/FyiurEehh5 pic.twitter.com/44RSOK6WJz

— The Associated Press (@AP) November 12, 2021

There’s always a point, in hindsight, where a tragedy seems both predictable and preventable. Fifty thousand mostly under-30 participants, at a poorly structured general-admission venue, after almost two years of social isolation, with a headliner notorious for calling his fans ‘ragers’ and encouraging them to rush the stage… well, if it had only turned out to be a coronavirus superspreader event…

Crowd management is key, but no one has more power than the artist onstage. @awalkerinLA reports on how we already know how to prevent disasters like the one at Astroworld https://t.co/F3Rx4gAGgj

— New York Magazine (@NYMag) November 12, 2021

… Keeping people in enormous venues safe is a combination of designing a space’s pedestrian flow and monitoring the crowd’s dynamics — priorities that may have been pushed aside in Astroworld’s planning. The biggest issue is keeping the crowd divided into sections and ensuring that each section allows enough space for people to stay on their feet, says Keith Still, a crowd-science expert who consults with organizers on large events. Still spent ten years working with the Saudi government to prevent fatalities during what might be the largest gathering on earth, the hajj, when 2 million pilgrims make their way to several sites across Mecca and Mina… Although the predictable paths of an annual pilgrimage seem somewhat easier to plan for than a raucous concert, the principles are similar, says Still, particularly when you are able to analyze the history of the performer and the venue: “You still need to match the design to an understanding of the size of the crowd and to accommodate demand, which inadvertently creates pressure points.”

That might require a deeper examination of the changing tastes of festival attendees. Music festivals have long marketed themselves as counterculture utopias, except now the allure comes not from TV coverage or documentaries but the images generated by the crowd itself, says Gina Arnold, a professor at the University of San Francisco and author of Half a Million Strong: Crowds and Power From Woodstock to Coachella. “Young people are still thinking of attending festivals as important,” she says. “Now, however, what they care about is not so much the music but showing that they were there.” Some experts have blamed the Astroworld tragedy on the yearning to return to public life after a year of pandemic lockdowns; the urge to get up close and get it all uploaded to TikTok. But festivals have always attracted a very particular crowd, says Arnold, as they’re generally attended by people who have already accepted a certain level of risk. “These are 50,000 people who are risk-takers,” she says. “You wouldn’t buy a ticket, especially during a pandemic, if you weren’t okay with risk.” To Astroworld’s attendees, Arnold says, the potential for chaos, behavior that Scott had encouraged in previous shows, is actually extremely good marketing. But the balance between spectacle and safety is also making festivals more precarious to produce, says Arnold…

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Open Thread: Astroworld, A Tragedy Waiting to HappenPost + Comments (75)

Late Night Open Thread: Sinemysteries

by Anne Laurie|  October 26, 202111:23 pm| 39 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Show Us on the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You, All Too Normal

CLIP: Denim vest presiding in the U.S. Senate. pic.twitter.com/4Yx02nOlCg

— Jeremy Art (@cspanJeremy) October 26, 2021

Credit where due, she did (barely) avoid taking a selfie.

This is the best attempt at explaining Sen. Sparkles I’ve seen (and, yes, there are too many people like that in my ‘friend’ circle):

my unifying theory of kyrsten sinema is that she's a particular type of very intelligent person who feels like their unconventional path to success was exclusively the rest of their own work, and who reacts very badly to even the mere suggestion that this might not be accurate.

— ?? ?? GHOSTLIKEHELLMACHINE ?? ???? (@golikehellmachi) October 21, 2021

in other words, she's basically a small business tyrant who went into government instead of business. on earth-2, she's running a successful realty business with uniformly nightmarish employee reviews.

— ?? ?? GHOSTLIKEHELLMACHINE ?? ???? (@golikehellmachi) October 21, 2021

notably (and depressingly) these types of people are absolutely immune to pressure and criticism, and the more of it you attempt to apply to them, the more hostile, stubborn and reactionary they become.

— ?? ?? GHOSTLIKEHELLMACHINE ?? ???? (@golikehellmachi) October 21, 2021

the democratic party (by it's nature as a coalition party) doesn't normally elevate people like this to this level, unless they get through in a fluke, and, welp

— ?? ?? GHOSTLIKEHELLMACHINE ?? ???? (@golikehellmachi) October 21, 2021

this also kind of explains why she's been so enthusiastic about meeting with lobbyists, who are singularly gifted at flattering people who are enraging and exhausting.

— ?? ?? GHOSTLIKEHELLMACHINE ?? ???? (@golikehellmachi) October 21, 2021

if you didn't come from money and you're suddenly presented with lots of opportunities to grab it, it's very, very easy to convince yourself that you deserve it, and that it's being offered to you *because* you deserve it

— ?? ?? GHOSTLIKEHELLMACHINE ?? ???? (@golikehellmachi) October 21, 2021

Late Night Open Thread: SinemysteriesPost + Comments (39)

Late Night Open Thread: The Man Who Would Be King (of the Hill)

by Anne Laurie|  August 31, 202110:16 pm| 122 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, All Too Normal

A wild scoop: A GOP lawmaker has been trying to travel to *Taliban-controlled Afghanistan* in a rogue evacuation mission despite efforts by the Pentagon & State Dept to discourage him. Officials are unsure of his current whereabouts. From @tylerpager & me https://t.co/MpieNxGNTU

— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) August 31, 2021

Somebody tell the Erroll Flynn Twins (Reps. Moulton / Meijer) what they’ve inspired:

The call to the U.S. ambassador to Tajikistan came in Monday. On the line, two U.S. officials said, was Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) with an unusual and urgent request: He needed assistance in transporting a huge amount of cash into the country, saying he was going to neighboring Afghanistan to rescue five American citizens, a woman and her four children, stuck in the country. They planned to hire a helicopter for the effort.

Mullin told the embassy that he planned to fly from Tblisi, Georgia, into Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe, in the next few hours and needed the top diplomat’s help, according to the two U.S. officials familiar with the incident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private conversations about a sensitive matter.

The answer was no. Embassy officials told Mullin they could not assist him in skirting Tajikistan’s laws on cash limits on his way to visiting one of the most dangerous places on earth.

Mullin was outraged by the response, the officials said — threatening U.S. ambassador John Mark Pommersheim and embassy staff and demanding to know the name of staff members he was speaking with.

The episode marked Mullin’s second attempt to travel to Afghanistan in as many weeks for an unauthorized evacuation effort despite the perilous security environment. Last week, Mullin traveled to Greece and asked the Department of Defense for permission to visit Kabul. The Pentagon denied Mullin’s request, an administration official said.

Mullin’s behavior has alarmed top U.S. officials who say he has gone to extraordinary lengths to defy U.S. warnings. The attempt follows an unauthorized trip to Afghanistan by Reps. Seth Moulton (D-Mass) and Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) last week, which Pentagon and State Department officials criticized as a public relations stunt that sapped government resources during a national-security crisis.

As of late Tuesday, U.S. officials said they were unsure of Mullin’s location. Mullin’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment…

Mullin, 44, grew up in Stilwell, Okla., where he was a standout wrestler and earned a scholarship to Missouri Valley College. Injuries derailed his athletic career, and at age 20, he took over his father’s plumbing business. He was also briefly a professional mixed martial arts fighter, and after being elected to Congress in 2012, he became known on the Hill for leading intense workout classes. A member of the conservative Republican Study Committee, Mullin voted against the certification of the 2020 election results.

Unlike Moulton and Meijer, Mullin did not serve in the U.S. military. He has been an outspoken critic of the Biden administration’s exit from Afghanistan…

CD and Senior Advisor for [Dem] Jim Himes:

Markwayne used to constantly wander into our legislative office because the door was next to his personal office and he got confused. Not the guy I would choose for this particular op.

— Patrick Malone (@patrickmorland) September 1, 2021

Dunno, Mr. Malone — Mullin might not be the most useful choice, but he’s certainly representative of his particular party’s stance here…

Late Night Open Thread: The Man Who Would Be King (of the Hill)Post + Comments (122)

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