Under the “I read these idiots so you don’t have to” rubric, Jonathan Bernstein at Bloomberg View:
The Republican presidential field just gets bigger and bigger. Three early-look lists last week — compiled by Karl Rove, by Politico’s Mike Allen and by conservative talk-show host Steve Deace — identified 26 candidates in total. Yikes!…
Early in 2015, which will be about a year away from the Iowa caucuses, candidates must start establishing campaign organizations, nationally and in the early states. Stronger candidates don’t have to declare formally too soon. But it’s already late for any candidate to begin to campaign.…
Even given the obvious beat-sweetner, count-padding candidates (George Pataki, Carly Fiorina, John Bolton, Peter King — none of them are running, but they can probably offer a reporter a nice lunch and some useful quotes), that’s a lot of bad meat on the hoof.
In the spirit of the holiday season, I’m imagining a GOP Nutcracker Ballet — plenty of marauding mice, toy soldiers, random blossoms, naughty lambies, Engelkinder, and a complete dessert buffet of exotic dancers. With Karl Rove as Herr Drosselmeyer, and the Koch brothers alternating performances as Mother Gingerbread…
jl
Only 26? I want more GOP primary candidates. If they get up to 50 for the first debate, I’ll watch the damn thing, and do it sober too.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
No Michele Bachmann? Can we have Louie Gohmert run? There’s always room for one more in the clown car.
beltane
In Fifth grade two of my friends were toy soldiers in the NYC Ballet’s Nutcracker and I got to spend a lot of time backstage with them in the costume room. After all those years I still love the Nutcracker. I don’t think I’d like to see the GOP Nutcracker. There are some parts for rats but a whole ballet featuring rats isn’t my cup of tea.
beltane
@jl: They’ll need some kind of process of elimination in the debates. Maybe it should be like The Voice where some of them are told, kindly, that this just isn’t working out for them.
KG
John Bolton is the neocon id of the GOP. It would be fun to watch him list countries to bomb. He’s like the ur-mustache of knowledge
redshirt
Their enthusiasm to run speaks to the environment in which they operate.
beltane
Here’s the “fuck CNN” clip: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2014/nov/25/ferguson-officer-darren-wilson-interview-to-screen-on-abc#block-54754671e4b0438503350376
Major Major Major Major
Playing new Smash Bros. in a gay bar with my closest anonymous internet friends! Hooray for the internet.
mai naem mobile
@beltane: The Voice? Who would be the trainers/judges? Dubbya , Dick Cheney and Dan Quayle??? The Daily Show needs to get on this idea quick.
jl
@beltane: How about a destruction derby? Used caddies. Sounds good to me. I’d watch that.
mai naem mobile
@beltane: that is awesome. I would love that to happen to FOX esp. if its during Bill Oreilly’s show.
beltane
@mai naem mobile: The trainers/judges would be Sarah Palin, Ted Nugent, Alan Keyes, and Ronald Reagan’s corpse.
Baud
@beltane:
So I was going to make a comment about how the process of elimination should be like Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. But then I looked it up on Wikipedia and learned this:
Damn.
mai naem mobile
@jl: they can afford new caddies.Create American jobs.
Omnes Omnibus
@beltane: “Zombie Reagan want BRAINZ! So hungry. So hungry! Where BRAINZ are?”
raven
@jl: Demolition. Also, I was a caddy, Cadillac’s are cars.
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus: I’d watch that show.
Hal
Can someone please explain to me how John Bolton’s name keeps showing up on these lists? Every time talk of who is going to run comes up on the GOP side, some very serious person mentions Bolton. The only thing I know of the guy is that Bush picked him to crap on the U.N. for daring to question Shrubs Iraq war plans and not unequivocally support him in every way, no questions asked. Or did I just answer my own question?
beltane
@mai naem mobile: It did happen to Fox right before the 2008 NH primary. A group of Ron Paul supporters followed Sean Hannity down the the street chanting “Fox Sucks!”. Those were the days.
Omnes Omnibus
@Hal: I think Bolton’s mustache would be a better candidate than Bolton himself, and have you seen that ‘stache?
Culture of Truth
John Bolton? OMG please please please
beltane
@Omnes Omnibus: A GOP debate is the last place anyone, even Zombie Reagan, should be looking for brains.
satby
GOP field for 2016? I can’t even…
Costa Rica is starting to look really good as a refuge.
Baud
@Hal:
He’s occupies a place in the GOP pantheon because he’s the “foreign policy” guy. Each GOPer has a unique niche for the Village worshipers.
jl
@raven: I stand corrected. But thanks for getting my point.
I’ll write the GOP and tell them to DO IT, dammitall! Demolition Derby’s in used Cadillac automobiles.
They should do that for every GOP primary for every office, anyway. DO IT, DO IT NOW!
Could combine it with voter registration and fundraising drives, just like PBS does.
lamh36
Don Lemon, proving once again that Don Lemon is an idiot!
Jesse Jackson Explains Civil Rights History To Confused Don Lemon (VIDEO) @TPM
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus:
I used to see it on Wilford Brimley.
Omnes Omnibus
@beltane: Hence the hunger.
lamh36
Hmmm, I think this looks more like Anonymous’ doing. Still, I did get a little satisfaction, but still..
WATCH: Ferguson Protester Smashes Fox News Camera On Live TV @TPM
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
IIRC, old Wilf campaigned for McCain.
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid: That was before the moths got at it.
@lamh36: Don Lemon is 48 fucking years old. Has he never spoken to someone his parents’ age?
Mike J
Sunday’s Times referred to the Republicans “deep bench” of candidates.
Deep is not the word I would choose.
Baud
@Mike J:
Another thing I’ve noticed is that every new Republican to make the news in some way is a “rising star.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: It is a wide bench.
BTW: VH1 Classic is showing an Elvis Costello recorded at the Hi-Tone in Memphis.
Anne Laurie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Oh, they were probably speaking, but you expect Lemon to listen?
ruemara
@satby: It’s why Randi Rhodes retired and left the country before the midterms. She just wanted to be done with this place.
Kay
Some Republicans here are fighting mad about the immigration rule change. I first heard about it today. It’s never been a huge rage-inducer locally, immigration, so I think it’s national outrage that they’re catching.
I told them they have Congress so impeach, pass a law against the rule change, do something. They have more than enough power to do all kinds of things.
I think that’s what they’re mad about, really, they know that’s not going to happen.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anne Laurie: Point taken.
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: I’ve tried ten times to watch it, but I keep looking in the crowd for people I know/have boned. Too distracting. I have recorded and just listened and it’s great show.
GregB
I saw an article that alleged that the Democratic bench was destroyed by this last election.
Funny, losing by 20 points didn’t seem to take Santorum out of quadrennial running of the bullshit.
Baud
@Kay:
I wish Republicans would catch the I’m-disappointed-and-won’t-vote disease.
Joey Maloney
Bolton would be the ultimate GOP Daddy. The press would lick his face then roll over and show their belly for the entire campaign.
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus: Don Lemon is 48? Good Lord. He looks like a chiild. And I don’t mean in a good skincare regimen kind of way, I mean in his demeanor. He seems so childlike and naive, like he’s never heard anything before. I had no idea he was that old.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@lamh36: I’ve not forgotten the ballots or bullets speech.
The media and the pols would have us all believe it was all “I have a dream” and “Free at last, free at last!” It wasn’t.
Baud
@Violet:
That was my reaction also.
glaukopis
@Mike J: Thick?
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: I am more listening than watching.
Omnes Omnibus
@Violet: Wikipedia said that he was born in March of 1966.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
@jl:
And if you drink every time they DON’T invoke Reagan, you’ll still be sober at the end.
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus: I believe you but I can hardly believe it, if that makes sense. Personality-wise he seems about 17, although he looks older. So I figured he must be kind of late 20’s/early 30’s.
lamh36
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh, Don Lemon knows exactly what game he is playing.
When CNN got rid of the likes of Soledad O’Brien, TJ Holmes, and other analysts of color, Don Lemon was the last negro standing, and he milks it for all it’s worth.
He looks like a fool a majority of the time and even gets side-eyed looks from a majority of the people in the Black community.
Baud
@lamh36:
I kind of liked Soledad. I wonder where she ended up.
ETA: According to the tubes: She is the chairman of Starfish Media Group, a 360-media production company and distributor.
lamh36
@Violet: Black really don’t crack…lol. The melanin tends to taper off the effect of the sun, particularly if you take good care of your skin
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: She always seemed to be trying to fight against the bullshit.
lamh36
@Baud: She still does independent documentaries and reporting, sometimes for CNN too.
SarahT
@Beltane: NYC protestors tonight were yelling “Fuck CNN” live on CNN. Would love to see a clip of that.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
Exactly.
@lamh36:
I simply don’t watch CNN voluntarily anymore.
Mnemosyne
We are currently watching this. Because we love it and watch it every year.
“Should I get accessories?”
Comrade Scrutinizer
@Baud: Heard she was doing some features for al Jazeera America, but I know nothing else.
Violet
@lamh36: Yeah, it’s not that, though. He just looks like an overgrown kid. Personality-wise. He’s got those wide eyes and just soaks up whatever crap people are spewing and churns it right back out again. Black hole swallowing the Malaysian Airlines plane? Hey, people are talking about it! It’s the kind of thing a young, inexperienced reporter might do before they realized they were being played and better developed their skepticism.
Omnes Omnibus
As I mentioned above, I was am watching the end of an Elvis Costello concert on TV; it brings to mind three songs that have been going through my head since the no bill announcement last night. This from EC. This from Marvin. And something completely different.
Redshift
One of the few moments of hilarity around Election Night was Rience Priebus talking about how the Dems didn’t have a very deep bench, because Republicans have so many more candidates for 2016.
Quantity, not quality, that’s the secret!
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus: That last one is the one that’s been going through my head.
Violet
@Redshift: Well, you can laugh, but we’ve had similar discussions here and the conclusions aren’t that different.
El Caganer
Re-programmed, re-booted, and ready to run: Willard Romney ’16
Mnemosyne
@Baud:
The casual use of “nigger” and other slurs in unexpected places when reading pre-Civil Rights books came up on Slacktivist a few days ago. Short version seems to be that the N-word didn’t have the same association with vicious white supremacists in Great Britain that it had here and was used casually a lot longer there than it was here.
Thank You, Jeeves, by PG Wodehouse, is one of my favorite books, but there is a group of minstrels in it and a lot of the British editions don’t bother to censor the N-word out of it. It’s a little startling to run across it if you’re not ready for it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Violet: I am trying to be good. I really am. Last night, I was shocked and horrified, not so much the no bill itself – although that was fucked up – but the “performance” by McCulloch. I am as ashamed to share a profession with him as I am with sharing it with John Yoo. He had a job to do and, if because of personal considerations, he couldn’t do it, he had an obligation to recuse himself. Well, simply fuck him.
Mike J
@Mnemosyne: Is it Dambusters I’m thinking of? One of those movies they show every Boxing Day like Escape From Colditz. Anyway, the thing that always stood out from the first time I saw it was the CO’s dog was named “nigger.”
Found it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger_%28dog%29
Emma
@Baud: One of the most startling things about reading some of my favorite authors ( I love the “classic” detective novels) is coming face to face with the casual racism of the time. My stomach jumps every time, even though I know it’s coming. However, each time I remember the words of one of my favorite history teachers: You will never understand history if you only look at it through a modern lens.
Still not as startling to find out that H.G.Wells was that scientific monstrosity, an eugenicist.
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus: That performance by McCullouch was shocking. Except not. Hell, it’ll probably enhance his career. Didn’t he just win re-election and was unopposed?
Omnes Omnibus
@Emma: Ilsa referring to Sam as a boy in Casablanca is always jarring. It takes me out of the moment.
Omnes Omnibus
@Violet: If someone primaries him next time, I’ll donate.
Mike E
@Baud:
I don’t have cable so it’s not hard for me to avoid it. However, CNN suuuuucks. Really really.
Fox News is honest by comparison because they aren’t trying to be anything other than what their audience wants then to be; CNN comes from legitimacy and then puts the screws to their audience, who apparently don’t know what’s hitting them.
People who watch that shit need an intervention. Sadly.
lamh36
@Violet: If at the very least it comes to pass that the DOJ goes after McCullough, I’d be a happy camper.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
I love Preston Sturges’s films, I really do, but goddamn does he have some of the most embarrassing racial stereotypes ever in his films. The Palm Beach Story probably bothers me the most at this point, and I haven’t even watched it since this recent spate of police shootings. Because drunk white guys using two black bartenders for target practice is funny!
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh36: After that presser, I think he painted a big target on his back for Holder to shoot at. I know that you were disgusted by what happened, but you were not surprised. I think a lot of lawyers were shocked at how casually half-assed he was about things. I know I was. I hope that the DoJ comes down on him and everyone around him like a ton of bricks.
Comrade Luke
I’m really shocked at how many people are either a) convinced Darren Wilson is completely justified in his actions/Brown is 100% guilty and b) more outraged over “looters” than anything else that has happened.
I don’t even know how to have a discussion with these people.
divF
@Omnes Omnibus: Can you give us a hint as to what grounds DOJ might have? I’d like to see some glimmer of hope for justice being done.
NotMax
Nutcracker? Un-American (Think of the children!). And ballet, to boot (Gay!).
Tchaikovsky? Russian (Commie!).
Hoffman? Germanic (Nazi!)
/Republican base
The former died before the Revolution and the latter well before either Bismarck welded together Germany or Adolf H. was born, but that’s the type of reality-based stuff Republican candidates and the tea party nutballs tend to dismiss.
Omnes Omnibus
@Comrade Luke: We had “looter concern” here already last night. As for the rest, an unarmed person was shot multiple times at a distance of at least 35′. if a prosecutor can’t get probable cause for some felony out of that, the prosecutor wasn’t trying. End of story, in my mind.
divF
@NotMax:
Also gay – a twofer.
Comrade Luke
@Omnes Omnibus: That doesn’t fly against the “the grand jury didn’t think it had enough evidence to indict, so what’s the problem?” argument. Also used: You weren’t on the grand jury, how can you possibly know more than them?
It just seems hopeless sometimes. And Thanksgiving is just going to be awesome – not.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: IANAL, but even I could tell that McCulloch was entirely, ENTIRELY full of shit in that press conference. Such epic CYA attempts. Such brazen lying.
beltane
@Comrade Luke: You don’t have a discussion with those people. All you can do is keep track of who they are and shove their evil back in their face at a later time. preferably when they are bitching about some injustice life has meted out to them.
Omnes Omnibus
@divF: The basic charge is violating his civil rights while acting under color of law. Basically using his status as a law enforcement official to kill someone without justification. This is not my area of expertise, so I don’t want to go deeper. However, the DoJ could and probably will take a deeper look at the police practices in the area and it will threaten a lawsuit unless the folks enter into a consent decree to fix their shit.
divF
@Omnes Omnibus: Thank you. Hope you’re right.
Suzanne
I watched CNN for under five minutes, and it pissed me off. I think it was Toobin who said something along the lines of “They couldn’t indict, because there was reasonable doubt! You only indict if you know you can get a conviction!”. And someone else pointed out, “That’s not the standard.”.
You know, if I was wrong this often at work, I’D GET FIRED.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne:
He said a big fuck you to everyone who cared about this. Unfortunately for him, one of the people who cares is Eric Holder. A quick “The grand jury found no true bill. The evidence presented to the grand jury is being released as we speak,” would have served him better.
lamh36
Ok, much neeed change of topic …the New Jurassic Park teaser trailer!
OMG! It might just be epic….
https://twitter.com/JurassicPark/status/537289751150092288
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
And yet they keep forgetting to include the feathers …
beltane
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s what made me so angry about all this. Cops get away with murder all the time, but I’ve never seen a situation where a prosecutor went to such great lengths to insult the people he is supposed to serve. (He is, after all, a public servant). McCulloch’s behavior undermines the legitimacy of government itself.
Omnes Omnibus
@Comrade Luke: I will be spending T-day weekend with a bunch of liberals. Oddly, since on criminal matters I tend toward the defense; this will actually make conversations with my s-i-l easier.
There was probable cause; whether a conviction could be obtained, is another question – one that should have been resolved at a trial.
NotMax
@Mike J
The Dam Busters, yes. Peter Jackson had been working on pre-production of a remake (delayed because of some fantasy movies), but do recall discussion when it was announced about whether to maintain the historical accuracy of the pooch’s name or not.
@Mnemosyne
Don’t want to get into a whole megillah, but Sturges certainly populated his films with a multitude of cartoonish white stereotypes (of the time) as well.
Oh, and only one African-American steward was in the scene with the Ale & Quail club, and he wasn’t targeted per se. The gist of the scene is that the shooting was at soda crackers thrown into the air, and shots would have been in that same direction regardless of the skin color of the steward.
Omnes Omnibus
@beltane: I agree. He is completely clueless about his community. He should not be the DA. It is that simple.
lamh36
One last Ferguson tweet:
Omnes Omnibus
@lamh36: Fucking Aye.
Suzanne
@lamh36: I really respect Eric Holder.
beltane
Ugh, after reading the NYT piece about Eric Holder I made the mistake of clicking David Brook’s latest nonsense “A Unifying Leader”. Please don’t make the same mistake I made.
Jordan Rules
@Suzanne: co-sign
JoyfulA
@Emma: In my early days in the book business, I proofread a new edition of a Grace Livingston Hill romance with the racism cut out of it. It was still floridly classist (and, of course, sexist).
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@NotMax:
Sorry, but after taking all of Sturges’ horrific racial stereotypes in totality (have you SEEN “Sullivan’s Travels” lately?) I can make no more excuses for Sturges. And I’m someone who’s willing to forgive Keaton’s blackface scene in “College.”
(My defense of Keaton in blackface: he’s deliberately in disguise/concealing his identity in the scene, he doesn’t act in a stereotyped manner until he thinks that someone he knows may have recognized him, and none of the black actors around him in the scene acts in a stereotyped way. I still wince a little, though.)
BlueDWarrior
It has been about a day or so, at least by the calendar, and I still can’t get over the fact that apparently Ofc. Wilson thought Michael Brown had suddenly turned into one of those “super-predators” that are akin to flesh-and-blood terminators.
Also Rachel had a nice segment on the absolutely insane genesis of the whole ‘super-predator’ theory, and how, even though there has been no evidence to support it in the intervening years, still grips a certain segment of our population like the whole ‘welfare queen’ political meme.
Jordan Rules
11K protested in DC tonight, many other cities had smaller groups. Lots of freeways shut down temporarily. It will be interesting to see if that strategy becomes a major one for activism in 21st century America. Lots of symbolism there, that’s for sure.
Tennessee law enforcement reaction seems a world away from Ferguson and many other places:
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2014/11/25/nashville-residents-protest-ferguson-decision/70113228/
Morzer
Am I the only person to think Sugarplum Fairy and imagine Lindsay Graham as premiere danseuse, while Joni Ernst fulfils the same role for the Nutcracker?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Morzer: You’ve either ingested some brown acid or some bad galbi.
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Or I could be having a sober vision of the modern GOP. After all, no less an intellectual titan than Luke Russert thought Joni Ernst might be a potential VP candidate. Frightening, isn’t it?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Morzer: Luke Russert, intellectual titan? You’ve ingested brown acid.
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Copper is to coppery as iron is to…?
BillinGlendaleCA
@Morzer: Magneticy?
BillinGlendaleCA
@BillinGlendaleCA: Though the young potato may have a point considering who the Republican nominee for vp was in 2008.
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
I’ll have you know I am a reasonably middle-aged potato.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Morzer: I didn’t realize that you were related to young Luke.
I spent several hours this evening making curry puffs(that contains potatoes) and now smell like curry and clove. A not altogether unpleasant odor.
Morzer
@BillinGlendaleCA:
No, no. The russert small potato is an entirely inferior variety and in no way related to my own noble species.
Barney
Fiorina is doing her best to look like a real candidate – the Washington Post has taken the bait:
So that’s how you run a campaign – despite being worth several million, you make sure your loan gets repaid when the election bid goes down in flames, but leave the ‘little guys’ hanging for years. And start a new PAC which doesn’t lift a finger to get those debts repaid. Just imagine what this bold ethical stance could do for the country if she was president!
Amir Khalid
@Barney:
From The Washington Post:
I think this is what they call damning with faint praise.
Morzer
@Amir Khalid:
Carly Fiorina has just as good a coloring book as anyone else in the GOP and don’t let the media tell you different!