That Michael Lewis piece starts badly and gets worse: Back when he was president, Barack Obama told me that only two people treated any interaction with him as a zero-sum game. One was Vladimir Putin, the other congressional Republicans. Both behaved as if there was no such thing as a win-win situation: Any gain for Obama was a loss for them, and any gain for them must also entail a loss for Obama. The moment that the Russian president or congressional Republicans saw he wanted something, they went to work trying to keep him from getting it — even if … Continue reading Zero-Sum
Slade: They’d both rather sleep on a gnarly snagged up blanket in the basement generally, but Slade sometimes condescends to use the ridiculously fancy cat bed I bought him. A. Continue reading Tuesday Fuck It Whenever Catblogging
I’m peeking my head out of the Carnival bubble because Josh nails the Insult Comedian and his creepy criminal cohort yet again: We can start with the simple fact that this President surrounds himself with men who abuse women. Abuse and predation may know no party. But abusers seek out and run together. Trump’s politics are rooted in grievance, both gendered and racial. Trump is consistent if nothing else. He is an embodiment of his politics. It’s no surprise that this isn’t theoretical or merely expressed in political terms but is interpersonal and personally violent as well. Abusers know the … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: Birds Of A Feather Edition
OK – back in the saddle. I’m going to TRY to ease back into this, but I have a horrendous backlog of bookmarks to plough through.
First up – SOROS’s FAULT!!
Holocaust Denier Likely to Represent GOP on Illinois Congressional Ballot KSBW ^ | 2/5 Posted on 2/5/2018, 4:48:13 PM by nickcarraway
A long-shot candidate with a history of anti-Semitic statements and Holocaust denial is primed to represent the Republican Party in a congressional race in Illinois.
The candidate, Arthur Jones, is running unopposed in the GOP primary for Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District,
SNIP
His website contains sections such as “Holocaust?” which features a statement that says “there is no proof such a so-called ‘Holocaust’ ever took place anywhere in Europe, against the Jews.”
SNIP
“I’m sorry I voted for the son of a b****, I really am,” Jones told the Guardian.
“LurkingLibertarian” tries to Freepsplain this one away :
To: Joe Dallas
The GOP dropped the ball on this one.
More likely, no serious candidate from the GOP wanted to run in this district; it has voted Dem in 24 of the last 25 congressional elections and all four of the last four presidential elections. Bernie Sanders won the district by 8 points in the 2016 primary.
6 posted on 2/5/2018, 5:04:09 PM by Lurking Libertarian (Non sub homine, sed sub Deo et lege)
“Joe Dallas” ain’t buying it :
To: Lurking Libertarian
Then find a somewhat serious candidate that is not a Nazi.
If the checks won’t check then nothing balances: For White House and the National Security Council staff veterans, the revelation that Porter did not have a full security clearance raises a number of real questions that must be answered. Those questions speak directly to the safety of America’s most sensitive intelligence officers and most dangerous operations. Having worked at the White House — including both at the National Security Council and alongside the staff secretary – I believe Porter-gate has all the markings either of a very high security breach or a highly unusual staff structure. It also raises real … Continue reading 2018: Anyone But An Elephant
Yes, even at the Jesus H. Christ School of Journalism Gods, people can be total dipshits: Ten women released an open letter on Wednesday accusing Northwestern University Professor Alec Klein of persistent sexual harassment and bullying since he has been at the helm of the school’s “crown jewel” investigative journalism program. Calling it the storied journalism school’s “#MeToo Moment,” the eight former students and two former staffers of the Medill Justice Project wrote that Klein’s “controlling, discriminatory, emotionally and verbally abusive behavior has to end.” Klein, who has been at Northwestern for a decade and in charge of the Justice … Continue reading Parsing the Medill #MeToo Debacle
Inter-feline relations continue to improve at Adrastos World HQ. There are still a few minor altercations between the cats but peace has broken out. Della remains jealous of her new kid brother but is willing to snuggle since it’s been … Continue reading Friday Catblogging: Progress Report
I know what you’re thinking: when in pulp fiction doubt, post a Perry Mason cover. Guilty as charged. It’s also relevant this Muses Thursday. That all chick krewe throws decorated shoes. I’ve posted a cleaned up version of the cover … Continue reading Pulp Fiction Thursday: The Case Of The Shoplifter’s Shoe
Carnival swings into high gear this evening. We live inside the parade box, which is even more intense at the beginning of the route where Adrastos World HQ is located. A highlight of every parade are the military marching bands, … Continue reading Everybody Loves A Parade
The Wild Magnolias are first and foremost a Mardi Gras Indian tribe. They’re also active when it’s not Carnival with live performances and the odd recording. This week I’m featuring the covers of their first two albums, which were released … Continue reading Album Cover Art Wednesday: The Wild Magnolias
By and large, Kick prefers her father. It’s not all that surprising. He is warm, patient and personable whereas I am prickly and exacting (look, if there’s a saving grace to living inside my head it is that I know the territory intimately). He is also around a hell of a lot more than I am, since I started a demanding job last year. His days with Kick lend themselves to routine, whereas she and I are feast or famine: An all-Mama weekend at the nearby nature center versus the regular “pop into Dad’s home office any old time to … Continue reading Tuesday Foodblogging
Lookit this. BIG news today: we’re bringing back neighborhood news – but we need your help. become a member of Block Club Chicago y’allhttps://t.co/rFkIQ959ah — Mina Bloom (@mina_bloom_) February 6, 2018 Ain’t nobody saving journalism but journalism. Certainly not the corporate disaster artists who’ve gutted and skullfucked newspaper companies for the last 30 years while complaining about the Internet and blaming “market forces” for them not being able to get a paper on a porch before 7 a.m. Ain’t nobody coming, and it’s long past time we stopped waiting and feeling shitty about the way things are going, and picked … Continue reading Nobody’s Coming But Us
I spent the weekend in the Carnival bubble, which is a good place. I stayed there even when two of the leading resistance activists in my area came over for a parade party yesterday. We didn’t feel like dissecting the … Continue reading Exhuming McCarthy
As the kittens grow we’re seeing more and more of their personalities. Slade is basically a dog. He’ll play fetch for HOURS. He’s vocal and tells us when he wants attention and when something’s wrong. The other day he wouldn’t shut up and I figured he was just bitching about his food, but his bowl was full and he’d already snarfed half a can of his disgusting wet food. I tried ignoring him but after a while he started nipping at my ankles so I did a quick round of the house to see if anything was the matter and … Continue reading Sunday Catblogging: Ada Byron Lovelace
I love how he’s a victim of those mean women, and not, you know, a CASUALTY OF HIS SHITTY CHOICES AND BEHAVIOR: HARRISBURG — Marcel Groen, chairman of Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party, has resigned at the request of Gov. Wolf, he said in a letter released Friday morning, an apparent casualty of the #metoo movement. The linked article has been updated to remove this language but … da fuq were you thinking in the first place? How is the #MeToo “movement” (if women not wanting to have dicks shoved at them in the workplace is a movement and not just, you know, … Continue reading ‘An Apparent Casualty of the #MeToo Movement’
This is an honest-to-tits headline in the Washington Post, labeled “analysis.” This is the week that the GOP truly became the party of Trump Silly me. I thought a party became someone’s party when it NOMINATES HIM AND ELECTS HIM PRESIDENT. I guess Republicans got a pass for 12 months to figure their shit out. This was the week when the Republican Party finally went all in with President Trump. What once seemed unlikely is now reality. The Republican establishment — there are a few dissenting voices, of course — has succumbed to the power of the presidency, and this … Continue reading Oh, NOW It’s Trump’s Party
Carnival kicks into full swing this weekend. We’re about to have parades and company up the wazoo. I remain uncertain as to what the wazoo is but I think it’s first cousin to the ying-yang or the place where the moon don’t shine.
One downside of Carnival are the creeps who try to appropriate the public green as their own private space. We call them the Krewe of Chad or Chads for short. For the first time in years, the city decided to enforce the existing ordinances against ladders, couches and such being left on the sidewalks and neutral grounds. The Chads were outraged. They’re always either outraged or entitled hence the 2016 Krewe of Spank theme, Clash of the Entitled.
You may recall the mishigas over the Forever Lee Circle beads. In a fit of hashtag activism, someone decided to do something about it:
We're coordinating with other groups condemning the throwing of "Forever Lee Circle" beads. In any parade IF YOU SEE A LEE BEAD tweet: Parade Name, Float #, & Rider (ex 3rd from end, sidewalk side) & use the hashtags #racistmardigras#nola300th#hoodsoff Feel free to copy & paste pic.twitter.com/7VOwbf9pQT
Since we have both night and day parades, I picked a classic for this week’s theme song, Night and Day. It doesn’t get more classic than Cole Porter, y’all. We have two versions for your listening pleasure, Ella Fitzgerald followed by a swell 1995 version by the Temptations.
Now that we’ve heard the boom, boom of the tom-toms, let’s jump to the break. See you on the other side.
On occasion, the law doesn’t do what we want it to do. It’s a byproduct of our attempt to remain civilized in the face of uncivilized behavior. It’s a byproduct of being “the more powerful force” or “the better person” when we are forced to confront something truly horrific. Without this level of decorum and rule of law, we would be no better than animals and tyrants, we are told. And all of those things are right. All of those things are true. We can’t just attack people for what we perceive to be inappropriate or illegal actions that wrong … Continue reading The law and justice in the life of a parent in the Larry Nassar case
It comes from former Justice Department spokesman, Matthew Miller on the damage done by GOP attacks on reality: The first one they went after, starting decades ago, was the media. Now Republicans don’t believe what they hear on any channel other than Fox News. Then they moved to scientists … and now you see in polls Republicans who just don’t believe in scientists. They’ve turned on universities, and you see this rising discontent among conservatives about university. They are now turning on federal law enforcement. And if a significant percentage of the population — 35, 40 per cent — believes … Continue reading Quote Of The Day: GOP Fantasy Camp Edition
