Heh, indeedy:
Atlantic Media Chairman David Bradley today announced to staffers that National Journal, a weekly Beltway policy mag in circulation since 1969, will be suspending its print edition at year’s end. “[N]ews in Washington now moves too quickly for a weekly publication,” writes Bradley, noting that the company will be moving resources toward its higher-frequency publications National Journal Daily, Hotline and NationalJournal.com.
IF ONLY RON FOURNIER WOULD LEAD!
There was another mass shooting today, with multiple dead, and I’m just sick to death of talking about these shootings because nothing will ever fucking change, and of course it is terrorism because the shooter was muslim, otherwise it would just be “shit happens with crazy people” like it always is when it’s a white person does the shooting. The whole thing is so god damned depressing I just want to focus on something we can all be agree on-
Baud
The market works!
schrodinger's cat
His choice of targets does lead credence to the terrorist label, as did Roof’s. Hard to see both these incidents as anything other than political acts.
cmorenc
Faux News Central Casting couldn’t have invented a better name with which to fan fear of Mooslims with the GOP base: Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez. I sometimes briefly listen to the Fox station in my car at moments like this to see how they are presenting them, and they didn’t waste so much as a minute fanning the speculative possibility of ISIS connections once the perp’s name was announced by authorities.
schrodinger's cat
@Baud: Isn’t their circulation number less than 20,000. So it probably has never made a profit. Why pull the plug now?
Baud
@schrodinger’s cat:
Maybe they lost their sugar daddy.
Politically Lost
Leave Ron Alone!!
Baud
The Colorado shooter lost on his insanity defense, but he has the crazy eye look down.
Davis X. Machina
@schrodinger’s cat: They had a for-members-only service charging in the five figures. Every Congressman’s office got it, or at least used to get it.
jl
@schrodinger’s cat: What evidence you have that makes it hard to see what else? From what I have read, besides his name, about all we know is that he was arrested for DUI a while ago, and he was not known to authorities as a potential threat. That doesn’t seem much to go on.
It’s a tragedy, and the alleged shooter was killed, so it may be hard to find a motive, but I hope that we can get some better evidence that what we have now.
MazeDancer
@cmorenc:
And, of course, they knew early.
When the US Attorney said “domestic terrorism” and the only reports of the shooter had been about a white guy in a gray Mustang convertible, I was astounded. And then tuned into Fox to see what they would say.
Shep Smith was saying “domestic terrorism” often. And an “expert” said how unusual it was for “domestic terrorism” to be the investigation. And I was so surprised. White guy in a Mustang? And Fox is fanning the flames?
Should have heard alarm bells then. They knew.
Iowa Old Lady
Dogs are good people.
schrodinger's cat
@jl: No evidence, just a guess from his choice of targets. I could be wrong, of course.
Villago Delenda Est
@Iowa Old Lady: Unlike anyone who is a rethuglican.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
With a thick, thorn covered tree branch, repeatedly.
schrodinger's cat
@Davis X. Machina: I wonder what that service was?
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Why do you hate thick, thorn covered tree branches?
JPL
Fox news already tied it to ISIS because of a fake twitter feed.
link from mediaite.
jl
Fournier is kind of a off-brand bargain basement Brooks. And not a very good knock-off, since you can see Fournier sweat strain and gasp for air in the effort to get to about the same place Brooks does at a leisurely amble through the opulent garden of a great mansion, breezily taking in the fine weather.
I believe more in the ‘bully pulpit’ than most here, and think Obama should be doing more (and maybe he is now), but even I have to admit it is a long term investment with no guarantee of any results at all in the short run.
But thanks to Fournier I know people like Teddy Roosevelt and Truman failed at parts of their progressive agenda because they just had no will power. If only Truman was really willing to speak his mind and talk straight and give ’em hell, we would have gotten health care reform and civil rights bills decades earlier. If only Teddy Roosevelt had been willing to get off his lazy ass and had guts and force of will, them trusts would have stayed busted. Dammit, all the lazy ass slacker presidents we have had to put up with! Amazing the country is still here.
Hell, if Washington had freed his slaves with more will power, all the slave owner fat cats would have done it. It would have become the fashion. No Civil War. What an sad sissy asshole Washington was.
schrodinger's cat
@jl:
Sounds unlikely, fat cats are never going to give up their slaves.
-Slave to two fat cats.
jl
@schrodinger’s cat: On second thought, that is some evidence. If somebody assassinates some random police, I admit I immediately think of right wing terrorist.
And now I see reports he ran some personal pro-Islamic radical blog. So, motives may be getting clearer.
WaterGirl
@JPL: Speaking of ISIS, on my way into early morning swim this morning I saw a beach towel with a funny shape on it that reminded me of the “ISIS” flag at the gay pride parade. I laughed out loud at the thought and several of the young swim team members looked at me like I was crazy since I was laughing (at apparently nothing) as I walked.
I had the same thought as I passed the towel on my way into the locker room when I was done swimming, but this time I managed to laugh with my inside voice.
jl
@schrodinger’s cat: With sissy men it is impossible, but to real men with Willpower all things are possible. That is from the Triumph of the Will, a famous book that praises the wisdom of Willpower Ron.
LWA
My thoughts are pretty much like John’s- yeah, this guy probably had some twisted political motive, as did Roof, but there are so many mass crazed shootings here in America another 4 dead just doesn’t provide the terror that a terrorist wants to achieve.
I don’t feel terror, I just feel disgust that in today’s America this sort of thing is routine and we believe ourselves incapable of changing that.
ruemara
Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.
@jl:
What the heck do you even think a bully pulpit is? Where do you see it doing something? Sanders has great bully pulpit. Somehow, his legislative achievements are not quite as great. I’ll take some progressive gains over some great speeches. All Obama is doing is saying, I am out of fucks to give and I don’t have to worry about my re-election or these backstabbing motherfuckers that make up most of these idiot dems. “Maybe he is now”, Jesus. Bully pulpit don’t give you much but a lot sore throats.
KG
@jl:
the other slave owners would have called him a traitor to the revolution (that was the “unAmerican!” of the time) and spit on his grave. he apparently considered it immoral and economically unsustainable, but he also knew that to speak out on the issue would have likely killed the American Experiment before it even got started.
David Koch
somebody needs to change the batteries in Bernie’s sundial
jl
@ruemara: To each his own, and you are entitled to your opinion. I think very proactive attempts at public persuasion are important, even if there is no sure payoff.
I think what Obama is doing now is more than acting out. I think Obama is quite carefully using his chance to do some bully pulpiting in his own way (which may not seem like it at all if you think it means just big loud speeches) to maximize chances of next election going in way that will preserve his achievements and further some of his longer term policy vision.
Whatever Obama is doing now, I like it, and I think it is bully pulpit enough, so maybe it depends on how you want to define it.
jl
Maybe hobby horses would be a more interesting topic.
Bernie Sanders On Gun Control
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq86YXlQ4d0
jl
Bernie Sanders defends gun control record
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohLGRnfCd50
Edit: I don’t post this to endorse Sander’s ideas on gun control. He is so vague about what his initiatives would be, not much to discuss. But I think silly to say that he doesn’t or won’t talk about it.
Cervantes
@schrodinger’s cat:
Just a memo (“Need to Know”).
Anyhow, here’s Group Editor-in-Chief Ron Fournier excited about the last shake-up five years ago:
And here’s Chairman David Bradley today:
Pogonip
Cole, this has nothing to do with the topic, but I would like to thank you for not using that stupid Captcha.
Mike J
Doug Sovern @SovernNation 4h4 hours ago
Political hazards of taking @Uber: the car @JebBush left @Thumbtack in today had a license plate holder that read “Fresh As F*ck”
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
How do fucking losers like Fournier still have jobs? I mean, really, how is that? Nobody reads these assholes other than to laugh at them and point out their dumbfuckery. Do newspapers and other news outlets really think that trotting out dumbfucks who don’t have any readers aside from those who laugh at them is a good way to keep in business? No wonder newspapers are having a hard time keeping afloat.
beltane
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Ron Fournier is a serious person. Serious people always land lucrative gigs. End of story.
WaterGirl
@ruemara: Have you considered applying to be the understudy for Luther, Obama’s anger translator? :-)
How are you feeling today? Throat any better?
David Koch
@jl: it’s been 28 days since he said he would talk about guns at length. how much longer do we have to wait? how many more massacres have to occur?
The President didn’t wait like some grandstanding dilettante.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): My Tweety watching is down to days when i’m feeling incredibly lazy, and even then only when he has a guest I like, but a couple of weeks ago he was teasing an appearance by Fournier for the next day, “one of the smartest guys in Washington!”
We point and laugh at Fournier, as do a number of his VSP peers (Chait, Grunwald, a few others– Fournier is apparently quick with a block on twitter), but like Sullivan, Brooks and Friedman, he seems to have an outsized following among powerful people. Ezra Klein I think it was told the story of being on an elevator in the Senate office building with two Dem senators and he overheard one ask the other in a tone of concern, “Did you read Friedman today?”, on a day Friedman had published something concern troll-y. I wouldn’t want to see the results of a poll that asked elected Dems if they preferred Friedman or Krugman.
Mike J
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
If you click, it doesn’t really matter why.
jl
@David Koch: You mean in Obama’s eulogy for Pinckney? That was very moving, but nothing more specific than what Sander’s has said in terms of specific policy proposals. Sanders is not one tenth the orator that Obama is, so if you are waiting for Sanders to match that, then fine go ahead and hate on Sanders forever, since Sanders never can and therefore never will. At this point you are just trolling on the topic.
RSA
To reiterate the obvious: We live in a screwed-up society when, in the event of a horrific mass murder, we have to wait to find out if it was committed by a terrorist, a criminal, or a crazy person, because it doesn’t take much money or time or skill to kill a lot of people. We make it easy. Founding fathers, you pretty much screwed up here, underestimating how stupid people are.
ruemara
@jl: Spoken like someone not even aware of what bully pulpit means. Acting out isn’t the same thing as fully aware that the consequences are no longer something you have to deal with. And a lack of payoff means your bully pulpit is simply a more respectable form of public masturbation.
@WaterGirl: Throat is betterish, since I lost my voice. It’s the ears that are making me insane. They were mostly clear all DAMN DAY and around 3pm, started to fill up again. At least it’s just uncomfortable and not insanely painful. I just hope to sleep more than 4 hours tonight. This has been a very frustrating week.
JPL
The Guardian has the most understated headline ever
Donald Trump may have overstated his appeal among Hispanic voters, poll finds
duh
Joel
I think it was pretty telling when Peter Beinart and Norm Ornstein, among others, suddenly started making front page appearances at the Atlantic, without the cursory “National Journal” link or affiliation.
Ninedragonspot
Good news, it seems. The EEOC has issued a ruling that protection from employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is already covered by the Civil Rights Act. In theory, the ruling covers all 50 states. Now on to the courts.
jl
@ruemara: I don’t understand what you are saying. You said
” All Obama is doing is saying, I am out of fucks to give and I don’t have to worry about my re-election or these backstabbing motherfuckers that make up most of these idiot dems. “. If you are asserting that Obama is talking and acting in accordance with him feeling like he is ‘out of fucks to give’ that seems to me like you are saying Obama is acting out.
I don’t think he is acting out at all. I think he is dong a great job at helping the Democratic party prepare for the next election. I wish Gore and Bill Clinton had their acts together back in the day as much as Obama does now.
TaMara (BHF)
Hmmm. WP eated my comment. Was it something I said?
David Koch
@jl: clap louder. you can stick your head in the sand all you want, but a 75 year old gun nut won’t win a national election.
Tell that to the mothers and fathers of the 20 kindergartners and 8 teachers massacred by 154 bullets fired from an assault weapon.
ruemara
@jl: That’s not acting out. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/acting+out
Mike in NC
As a gun owner, I just want to say fuck Bernie Sanders and his BFF Wayne LaPierre.
Anne Laurie
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Once you’ve got their attention, there’s always a market for telling rich people that they are the flower of humanity, the apex of civilization, also good-looking & nice-smelling & above-average vocal stylists too.
Fournier’s lost his “editiorial” perch, but he’ll still make bank with speeches, op-eds, vanity-press book-like objects, and other media that don’t leach as much incidental anti-profits as a full-bore magazine.
The only people who’ll suffer are the low-level staffers who actually ran the damned thing, and it’s not as if they shouldn’t have expected to be outsourced to cheaper competitors at any time.
chopper
@David Koch:
seriously? that has to be a joke.
David Koch
@chopper:
I know.
If he can’t stand up to the gun lobby then how he is going to stand up to the bankers (who are far more powerful then a bunch of kooks living in shacks).
Davis X. Machina
@schrodinger’s cat: Inside information to which we, the proles, are not privy… This is/was a common model. Charlie Cook’s rag did the same thing… It’s the Mother of all Paywalls.
RaflW
@Baud:
If it really worked, Fournier would be out of a job.
gmc
This is a WAG, but let’s see where it goes…..I’m betting that guy who shot and killed the 4 Marines was stopped by the police and I guess he was ticketed. He was probably so overwhelmed by the confrontation with Ameri-Nazis that he flipped, hatred and overwhelming power have terrible effects, and went full ISIS and did what he did…..just a guess…I’ll be curious to see. The day of the friendly cops is over.