So much bullshit about the uncivil far left kids the last few days from James Bennet’s troll farm. Something to remember: these kids will bury us, literally and figuratively.
Let’s raise a little more money for the Balloon Juice fund that is split equally among Democratic challengers in every House district currently held by a Republican.
Jeffro
I just forwarded my wife a link to that Parkland kid’s video riffing off of Dana Loesch’s insanity. Sadly, while I like the effort, Loesch needs to be mocked much more mercilessly, the way only a fellow adult could do. Kids are just too earnest and nice.
JR
You teach the youth about Christopher Columbus, and you say he was a very good man…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
tell them I want to be hauled up to the top of a mountain and left for the carrion birds and beetles
Mnemosyne
As I’ve been saying, it amazes me to see people my age or younger claim that they grew up in a time when teens respected their elders and didn’t do all of this political protesting. The Vietnam War protests started before I was born, and I turn 50 next year, so this is clearly bullshit.
TenguPhule
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: You did remember to specify after death, right?
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
To be fair, some of them no doubt came from Utah, Oklahoma and other areas which were for the war until they no longer weren’t.
khead
@TenguPhule:
Don’t kid yourself and add another 48 states. Imaginary 60’s protests grow larger by the year.
Mary G
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne: It’s always bullshit. Socrates bitched about the unruly youth.
Villago Delenda Est
@Mary G: And this is why the meteor cannot hit the Vichy Times building a second too soon.
debbie
@Jeffro:
I’d like to see a split-screen of Loesch side by side with ol’ Adolf. No sound, just a silent demonstration of the similarity of their fury, mannerisms, and facial expressions.
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
@khead:
Yes, but they’re basically claiming that mass protests never happened anywhere. Not “it didn’t happen near me” but “ah declare, I never heard of such things happening before.”
Magda in Black
@Mnemosyne:
I’ve come to interpret “uncivil and disrespectful” to mean ” You called us on our bs, how dare you”
I’m 59. I clearly remember the Viet Nam protests, Kent State, the various assasinations, the ’68 Chicago Convention, the riots…..
I also remember the ruling class singing the same song about disrespect.
I love these kids. They give me hope.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
For many of them, its the same thing. Hell, most of Trump’s supporters have never visited another state, let alone another country.
Mike J
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I want to be sprinkled over Disneyland, but I don’t want to be cremated.
Doug R
@Mike J:
Isn’t that one of the reasons they got rid of the Skyride?
jl
Ha, these dang spoiled commie kids these days, they’ll bury me over my dead body gawdammit!
… um… wait, that didn’t come out quite right…
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: Diced then?
chris
@Jeffro: Did you see this piece by Linda Tirado? Dear Dana Loesch: How Do You Sleep at Night?
Tirado’s Twitter has been on fire all day. She takes no prisoners.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mike J:
LOL. When my father was getting on in years he occasionally forgot, or couldn’t access, normal words (there was nothing wrong — he didn’t have Alzheimer’s or anything — just the odd moment of forgetfulness, as it might happen to any of us).
Anyhow, the phone rang one night. My dad answered it. It was clear, just from my listening to one side of the conversation, that he was engaged in some kind of telemarketing conversation. He was far too nice a man to just slam the phone down or tell the caller to fuck off, so he kept nodding and saying Uh huh Uh huh, and finally said, with an apologetic air, “I’m sorry, in our family we prefer to show up in powder form.” When he hung up he turned to me and said “I couldn’t remember the word ‘cremated.'”
Ever since, “we prefer to show up in powder form” has been a go-to phrase in my family.
eclare
@Mary G: So true….
Major Major Major Major
@SiubhanDuinne: I love those little family saying stories.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Mnemosyne:
I don’t get that either. We talked about this before. Since when is political protesting bad in these people’s minds you’ve talking to? They seem like cowards who are either too lazy, too selfish, or too privlidged to protest themselves.
oldster
“Troll farm” is a brilliant encapsulation of what Bennett’s stable of morons amounts to. (Always excepting K’thugula).
I wonder if it’s because Bennett and other insiders in the legacy media are just less plugged into the internet that they don’t realize that a troll farm is what they are recreating. And that if we wanted to read 4Chan written by old people (e.g. MoDo and BoBo), then we would go to 4Chan.
They really, really do not understand where their potential market is. The right-wingers will always hate the free press. Until it knuckles under, and then they will hate it some more. They only viable market for a paper like the NYT is the reality-based community, a.k.a. liberals, progressives, Democrats, what have you. And if they don’t want to give us valuable information because they’d rather “expose us to diverse viewpoints,” i.e. right-wing bullshit, then f•ck them. I’ll go read Vox.
oatler.
There’s a short piece on my “Great American Dream Machine” DVD set titled “Replay” which has Shelley Plimpton singing over footage of flagpole sitters etc. contrasted with modern fogies complaining about horny hippies. I didn’t know at the time (1971) Plimpton’s melody would be reused in the “Annie” musical during the Reagan regime.
efgoldman
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Boat, don’t rock it. Very unfortunate but common human response.
You’re a little young to be judgemental, Skeezix. Although that’s the best time for it.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Fistful of Dollars on TCM at 6:00 p.m. EST Saturday.
zhena gogolia
We just watched the Mister Rogers special for the third time in the past week. I think it’s an antidote to Trump. I was too old to watch Mister Rogers (I mercilessly mocked him), but this special, hosted by Michael Keaton, who used to work on the show, was excellent. Commentary by people like Joyce di Donato, Yo Yo Ma, Sarah Silverman, Esperanza Spalding, etc. Anyway, it was very soothing and touching.
dancearoundinyourbones
can I comment? where’s all the buttons? NoScript is messing with my mind…..sigh.
geg6
FTFNYT! The kids are all right.
eclare
@zhena gogolia: Is PBS showing that again? I read about it after it premiered, loved Mr. Rogers growing up.
dancearoundinyourbones
never mind. new laptop, all too confusing,
Roger Moore
@oldster:
I think they understand perfectly well what they’re doing. They’ve been told the goal is to get clicks, so they’re eagerly doing whatever it takes to get as many clicks as possible. The media in general is too worried about how to get decent numbers for next quarter to worry that they’re destroying their long-term value. It’s only companies that have a sugar daddy willing to eat a bunch of losses that can afford to think ahead. I suspect that’s a big reason the Washington Post has been doing so much better than FTFNYT recently; they have a very rich sugar daddy indeed.
zhena gogolia
@eclare:
It’s been on repeatedly this week in CT and western MA for pledge drive.
efgoldman
@Roger Moore:
Aren’t the Sulzbergers very rich legacy owners (not just of the paper, but all the connected businesses)
efgoldman
@zhena gogolia:
Which is reason one through infinity not to watch PBS.
zhena gogolia
@efgoldman:
Oh, you’re so cynical! Yo Yo Ma playing “The Skaters’ Waltz” with his little son? What’s not to like?
eclare
@zhena gogolia: Showing on Sunday, set the DVR, thank you for the reminder!
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: I think Bezos might be a teensy bit richer.
Speaking of which has anybody else seen their Whole Foods seem to turn into an Amazon fulfillment center?
Mary G
Just what we need:
WaPo headline: Trump administration studies seeking the death penalty for drug dealers.
He is very impressed with Singapore and has had people from there over to help him.
Dog save us.
efgoldman
@zhena gogolia:
In my day I begged on air for both PBS and NPR stations, and at the time I meant it.
Then I worked for a prominent PBS organization, and two NPR stations. I know all their begging tricks (often not truthful), and how they treat the help.(Spoiler: not well)
I’ll watch if there’s something interesting, but not during begging weeks. Cynicism born of experience.
ETA: My daughter (then small) and i had the pleasure of meeting Yo Yo Ma several times. He is exactly how he seems. Very like the Obamas with small children – takes obvious delight meeting them.
Mnemosyne
@oldster:
The New York Times just happened to get a big influx of digital-only subscriptions after the election that is keeping them afloat.
I’m sure it’s just a co-inkydink, though, and not money laundering from Russia.
Shana
@Major Major Major Major: Me too. We have a few in our family.
1. When our younger daughter was about 2 we went to the beach with some in-laws for a week. After about 4 days we asked if everyone wanted to go to the beach that morning. Our daughter didn’t want to go. When asked why she said “sandy, yucky” which has become the family’s go-to response for saying why they don’t want to do something.
2. Our SIL who was for many years a preschool teacher, once took her group for an outing which included lunch at a restaurant. One of the kids, who had some developmental issues, said she wanted bleu cheese dressing on her salad. SIL asked her if she knew what that was and if she really wanted it. She said she did. When the salads arrived she took a bite and said with great disdain “it is of glue” about the dressing, which has become another one of our family’s phrases.
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
They did the story of Mr. Rogers saving PBS on “Drunk History” and Colin Hanks played him. He really got into it, too.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: well, no, it’s probably from the very well-publicized flood of people publicly subscribing and publicly encouraging other people to subscribe.
ETA unless you think it was russians too when *the exact same thing happened to the WaPo*
Gretchen
@SiubhanDuinne: thank you for this!
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
There have also been a lot of people publicly canceling their subscriptions and urging others to do so, which is why I found the fact that they had a big surge last quarter to be a little suspicious.
efgoldman
@Shana:
“Not tired” – What a toddler is when she’s so overtired that she can’t stop crying. “I am NOT tired!” Passed on now to granddaughter. Followed shortly by crashing, not to be wakened by an explosion next to the bed.
Many others, but they require too much explanation.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: the simplest explanation is that the people canceling their subscriptions were loud on twitter but not actually that numerous; the NYT opinion page sucks under its own power (as it has for decades); and many people are stupid and/or also suck.
Major Major Major Major
@Shana:
Omg I love that
efgoldman
@Major Major Major Major:
Or just can’t/won’t/don’t change the habits of decades.
Mary G
@Mnemosyne: @Major Major Major Major: I cancelled mine again a couple of weeks ago, and they keep offering renewal at half price, so maybe people just like a bargain.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: that too, of course. Inertia has kept many papers alive.
@Mary G: clearly half-priced renewals are a nefarious plot by Putin, just like when the cable company does it.
efgoldman
@Major Major Major Major:
Cable? Half price? We have two competing companies, and they don’t do that here. Special offers for HBO and premiums that you forget to cancel and end up paying for? That’s what we get.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
We shall see. A sudden and unexpected surge in digital subscriptions at a very convenient time is one of those things that makes me go, “Hmmm.” ?
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: again, there was a huge full-court press to get people to subscribe to the NYT and WaPo and donate to the ACLU.
We made fun of the NYT part here even!
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
You have your conspiracy theories, I have mine.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: evidently.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Mnemosyne:
Sometimes coincidences are just coincidences.
Roger Moore
@efgoldman:
The Sulzbergers are rich because they own FTFNYT and associated companies, but AFAIK they don’t have great wealth outside that company. Anything that threatens the company threatens everything they have. Jeff Bezos was able to find enough money to buy the Washington Post by shaking the couch cushions. He could eat all their losses until he dies and not really miss the money.
Kayla Rudbek
@Major Major Major Major: yes, I have. The disconcerting thing is the advertising for the Amazon Visa card, even when you login to the store WiFi
WaterGirl
@eclare: @zhena gogolia: I had not heard of that before. Just checked Tivo, and the last showing here in IL is today at 12:30, just after lunch. I have set it to record.
If anyone else is in the same boat, check your listings in case this is the last showing in your neck of the woods, too.