Russian bloggers prove we've not been booted from the G7. pic.twitter.com/Tci3LGGxLo
— Vladimir Putin (@DarthPutinKGB) June 7, 2015
Open thread!
This post is in: Open Threads, Politics, Assholes
Russian bloggers prove we've not been booted from the G7. pic.twitter.com/Tci3LGGxLo
— Vladimir Putin (@DarthPutinKGB) June 7, 2015
Open thread!
Comments are closed.
Amir Khalid
The G7 countries have seven heads of government between them. There are nine people in that group. Who are the extra two? Where are David Cameron’s legs? Should Putin really be riding a pony that small?
Gindy51
Huckabee is going to have a heart attack when he sees Putin’s manboobs.
Tripod
here… have a Picasso, don’t cost nothin’….
rikyrah
Why the fate of Virginia’s congressional map matters
06/08/15 10:44 AM—UPDATED 06/08/15 11:28 AM
By Steve Benen
When voters in Virginia went to the polls in 2012, a narrow majority backed President Obama’s re-election bid, just as they’d done four years earlier. In a closely watched U.S. Senate race, the commonwealth’s voters also elected Sen. Tim Kaine (D) over former Sen. George Allen (R) by about six points.
But just a little further down on the ballot is where things get tricky. If you add up all the votes case in each of Virginia’s U.S. House races, roughly 49% of Virginians voted for Democratic candidates, while about 51% supported Republican candidates. The state has 11 congressional districts, so if there was some kind of parallel between voter preferences and partisan results, we might expect to see five Democrats head to Congress from the state, along with six Republicans.
Except that’s not what happened. Of Virginia’s 11 U.S. House seats, Democrats ended up with three victories to the GOP’s eight. Dems may have won nearly 49% of the vote, but they also won about 27% of the representation.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/why-the-fate-virginias-congressional-map-matters
srv
I’m not sure Vlad is going to be able to stop another WW at this point. It seems to be what the EU wants.
In other news, Rumsfeld provides education:
Germy Shoemangler
Putin meets Merkel, and the mind games he plays:
catclub
@srv: I just read on Pierce that GWBush gets $100k-$175k for giving speeches, and has done about 200 of them. Mostly at conventions, usually private (very few overseas, funny that).
I wonder how much Rumsfeld gets for dispensing his wisdom.
Elizabelle
@Amir Khalid: Put up a comment on Cameron Crowe’s casting re Aloha at end of last thread. I will not see the movie.
From Crowe’s website, theuncool dot com: A Comment on Allison Ng
Elizabelle
@catclub: I’d want to know what corporations are loopy enough to pay that for a GW Bush speech, and disinvest.
Seriously.
WereBear
I find that ironic, because that’s about what someone would have to pay me to sit through one without vomiting.
gelfling545
With so much horror coming out of police depts. I thought I would share one thing that made me smile re yesterday’s pride parade.
Tree With Water
@Amir Khalid: My guess has it that the two extra people in that photo must have jobs shoveling the road apples that herd leaves behind whenever they stroll together.
Betty Cracker
@Germy Shoemangler: How unsurprising that Putin is a “man-spreader.” And sick burn by Merkel at the end there…wow, does she ever have him pegged!
Elizabelle
NY Times: Obama Is Optimistic Justices Will Let Health Care Law Stand
shell
@catclub: But it’s only bad when Hillary does it.
What’s going on? Looks like we’ll be having thunderstorms for the next two days. Hope my dog will survive.
jl
@catclub: There is a piece on Bush’s speaking career at TPM blog too.Maybe Will Ferrell will put out a skit on it.
Report: George W. Bush Raked In Millions Through Speaking Gigs
‘ “Evil is real,” he said at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton, Texas.
“Bowling is fun,” he said at a get-together for the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America in Orlando. ‘
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/george-w-bush-millions-speeches
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: I wasn’t planning on seeing it anyway, but I’m surprised folks are reacting negatively to Crowe’s explanation. It sounds like he gets it and will try to do better. Isn’t that how progress is made?
jeffreyw
Listening to William Tell on Google Play, marking time until the Lone Ranger shows up to liven up the piece.
Cacti
Ted Cruz accidentally makes an argument for sensible gun regulations.
In an official campaign “shooting excursion” with Rafael himself, all participants will be required to (gasp)…pass a background check.
Candidate Cruz has an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association.
Link
jl
@Elizabelle: IANAL, but it seems to me that a reading that throws out the subsidies would be so contorted, and throw out so much established, and very long standing, precedent on how to interpret laws, that it would open a floodgate of cases to overturn pretty much any federal law that someone with enough money wants overturned. All you have to do is pick out a few words that are ambiguous when read out of context and cook some nutty alternative legislative history of the bill.
Maybe that is what the reactionary corrupt loons on the court want. Otherwise, they will have to state at the top of the opinion that it is a special one-time-only decision. Which I would not put past them.
Elizabelle
The Supreme Court did the right thing on US passports for those Americans born in Jerusalem:
Supreme Court Backs White House on Jerusalem Passport Dispute
GW Bush supported Obama’s position on this too. Scalia’s fees fees are hurt. He wrote about the President usurping Congress’s power.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: My guess is that Emma Stone was chosen to assure financing for the movie.
PS: I agree re progress. In the future, directors/producers might be more sensitive in their casting decisions.
Elizabelle
@jl:
Bingo. Camel’s nose, meet tent.
Amir Khalid
@jl:
I’ll give W this: he does tell the truth in his speeches. Evil is real. There are people who do indeed enjoy bowling. History is judging him, and so far it has found him deeply inadequate.
gwangung
@Betty Cracker: Not sure Crowe understands the issue. Basically, he took one of the most interesting and dynamic characters and made her story the B-story. And continued a long standing practice of whitewashing characters (which is currently not acknowledged).
Bobby B.
Those bloggers look like Potemkin Villagers
Gindy51
@Elizabelle: Homeless shelter in McKinney TX was one. You know McKinney, TX, home of the racist cop bullies who push teen aged black girls to the ground and sit on them?
Calouste
@Amir Khalid: Juncker and Tusk of the EU.
RaflW
Governor Rauner is threatening to close the Illinois State Museums. Because budget problems mean citizens and tourists should be deprived of history and art. I just get so fed up with this bullshit.
Please like the Save the Illinois Museum FB page if you can.
The job you help save could be my friend Wolfe. Thank you.
peach flavored shampoo
Oh my. My rusty SCOTUS calculus says this only means that Thomas voted with the Libs. Those f#ckin libs!
The apothecary is nigh.
Betty Cracker
@gwangung: I don’t know enough about the story on which the movie is based to make a judgment, but Crowe did say this at the end of the statement linked above:
It’s not an admission that he screwed up, but it sounds like he gained a greater understanding of the issue and will keep that in mind going forward. I guess we’ll see if he follows through.
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
I think Crowe’s limited in what he can say about this. By all accounts Emma Stone worked hard to research the role and understand whom she was playing. It’s not really her fault that she was cast over a local actress with a family history more like the character’s. Was Crowe supposed to insult her work after it was done by saying he should have picked someone else? Should he publicly blame the studio for making the business decision to insist on a bankable actress like Stone?
RaflW
@srv:
Here’s a known known, Rummy: you were an incompetent hack then, and you are one now. Don’t try to weasel your way out of shared responsibility for Dubya’s bad instincts and worse execution.
Punchy
Fixed for the realistic incompleteness of your comment.
sharl
@catclub: If my one close proximity encounter with a GWB speech is any indication – vacation lodging next to a conference center in eastern TN several years ago – he remains hugely popular with the right-wing evangelical christian crowd, if the overflowing parking lots and large crowds we saw were any indication. They may well fall below the 50% mark of the U.S. adult population, but collectively these evangelicals seem to have a lot of disposable income, and don’t seem to have many qualms about spending it on their churches and religious leaders who organize these kind of conferences/retreats to which folks like Dubya are invited to speak.
Face
@jl: I’ll say it again. IMO, they would not have plucked this case out from under the nose of the 2nd CC if they planned on simply reaffirming what was certain to be the Circuit Court’s judgement that the case had no merit.
Obamacare subs are toast, unless Kennedy has Soros-sponsored hookers n’ blow moment and decides that perhaps he doesn’t cherish centuries of urine deposited on his gravesite.
Betty Cracker
@Amir Khalid: Agreed on all counts. There’s really nothing he can say about the process now that wouldn’t devalue Stone’s work or implicate the studio, which wouldn’t be a great career move. Under the circumstances, the conciliatory statement he did make is probably the best that can be realistically expected.
When I first heard about this controversy, I read that Stone’s character is based on a real person who spends a lot of time explaining her ethnic background because people assume she’s white from her appearance. It was just a snippet I read in the context of the controversy — I have no idea how accurate it is.
I also have no idea how central the character’s heritage is to the overall story line. I think that makes a difference in determining whether or not casting Stone was an egregious insult or merely a bit tone deaf. If her ethnic identity is central to the character, yeah, casting Stone does seem like a truly boneheaded move.
Either way, it’s true that Asian / non-white actors in general get a raw deal in US-produced TV and movies. As gwangung pointed out earlier, they are rarely cast UNLESS their identity is central, and that’s not right (I’d personally like to see A LOT more of Steven Yeun).
jl
@Gindy51: Is that a joke?
The McKinney incident is sick. Apparently the story is that some black residents had a graduation party, and some black kids tried to crash it. So a few racist neighbors decided to handle the situation not by talking with the adults in charge, but by yelling racist slurs at the kids, and by the account of one kid, assaulting them. Cops come and assault under color of law any kid not lily white and anyone, lily white or not, who tries to explain what happened.
Post racial America, obviously Obama’s fault for not fixing it.
Why McKinney Happened
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2015/06/why-mckinney-happened
jl
Girls assaulted by cop at McKinney incident claims she was an invited guest and was trying to obey orders when she was assaulted.
Bikini-clad girl thrown to ground by McKinney officer speaks out
http://news.yahoo.com/mckinney-police-pool-party-girl-speaks-121117251.html
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
It seems to be central to the character that her very white appearance misleads people about her ethnic identity, which makes her feel insecure.
catclub
@Elizabelle:
Don’t like the sound of THAT at all.
catclub
@Face: only takes 4 to pluck it out. They may have been assuming a fifth. Hope springs infernal.
catclub
@peach flavored shampoo: Thomas was asserting the Dick Cheney unitary executive theory, not quite agreeing with others in the majority.
jl
@catclub: TPM blog reported last week that two state governments, PA and DE, don’t share Obama’s confidence and are setting up contingency plans to set up something that will quality as a state exchange in case the SCOTUS decides to dive deeper into the cesspool malfeasance, incompetence and political corruption the reactionaries and dithering confused old farts (Kennedy) have been making of themselves.
Belafon
@catclub: Saying this places the onus for solving it on the Republicans, where it belongs. If he’d said there was any way to cover the people about to be kicked off, Republicans in Congress and on the SCOTUS would be off the hook.
Belafon
@jl: It took the SCOTUS threatening to destroy everything in order to get those states to do the right thing?
trollhattan
Must admit, the folks concerned about the militarization of the nation’s police forces might be on to something.
Either 1. top brass was under orders to limit overtime or 2. the SWAT boys were running out of meth and needed to get ‘er done before they all got too sleepy.
One guy with a pistol; they couldn’t simply wait out one guy? Where was he going to go? WTF?
Omnes Omnibus
@Face: The collateral damage from that would be massive. I don’t see Roberts wanting to go down in history as the Chief Justice who broke the federal court system.
Roger Moore
@jl:
Sounds like exactly what the Republicans are hoping for.
rikyrah
@Face:
you only need 4 to bring a case forth.
and we know which 4 brought it forth.
catclub
@trollhattan:
ATF
jl
@Face:
” Obamacare subs are toast, unless Kennedy has Soros-sponsored hookers n’ blow moment and decides that perhaps he doesn’t cherish centuries of urine deposited on his gravesite. ”
Urine? I guess you are being polite because Balloon-Juice is such a family-friendly mommy and kids blog?
gwangung
@Betty Cracker: He’s not. His next project is casting another white actress as a character that was originally written to be Korean American.
sharl
Hmm…
I wonder if Money magazine will be adjusting their rating algorithm after this? I’m gonna guess that in the future they’ll at least have their interns do some more careful background research before going to press; or maybe not – probably will depend on who they think is buying their magazine.
OzarkHillbilly
Fox News contributor: Hillary Clinton’s call to expand early voting is just ‘bogus race baiting’
On the bright side, at least FOX is no longer denying what all the voting restrictions were really about.
Betty Cracker
@gwangung: In that case, his statement was bullshit, and he hasn’t learned a thing. That sucks!
catclub
@OzarkHillbilly: Their ‘bogus race baiting’ is our ‘civil rights laws’.
potato, potahto
BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker: Well, it’s not like there are any Korean-American actresses in the US.
jl
@catclub: Pretty soon, anything a Democrat candidate says will be ‘race baiting’, somehow, however indirect and however many bank shots are needed to get there. Sanders will be campaigning to some lily white audience in NH, and he will be ‘race baiting’.
At least it will solidity the increasingly one issue (white racism forever) GOP primary base.
shell
In that prison escape in upstate New York, everybody, from the media to Gov. Cuomo keep saying it’s ‘just like a Hollywood movie.’ Why can’t they just come out and say ‘Shawshank Redemption’ ? Some copyright thing?
The Thin Black Duke
Thing is, Cameron Crowe has been coasting on the artistic and commercial success of Almost Famous for years now. Other than the overrated Say Anything (redeemed by a heroic John Cusack performance), Crowe’s other films really haven’t had much to say.
WereBear
@shell: The account I read did say Shawshank Redemption.
But you know… it wasn’t a tunnel crafted for years with superhuman patience. It was the result of construction tools not being properly secured, and it happened in one night.
Betty Cracker
@The Thin Black Duke: I’ve always had a soft spot for “Singles.”
Roger Moore
@jl:
What do you mean “pretty soon”? That’s already the case.
Mike J
@Betty Cracker: Citizen Dick released a 7″ this year.
pete
@Amir Khalid: The chick’s there to make coffee, right? And the dusky dude will serve it. Math problem solved!
gene108
@Belafon:
In 2010, PA elected a bunch of right-wing loons into office. They did what all the other states with overwhelming Republican majorities and a Republican governor did and not bother to build an exchange.
In 2014, PA corrected part of their mistake and elected a Democrat as governor.
DE is the sort of state the Federal Exchange was originally envisioned to help. A small state, where it may not be as cost effective to maintain their own exchange, so the Fed’s would pick up the effort.
Tree With Water
@BillinGlendaleCA: That’s more or less what a furious Pat Morita purportedly said to Mickey Rooney after losing the role of the Japanese neighbor in the movie Breakfast At Tiffany’s.