Earlier today Waleed Shahid, fresh off of getting dragged for posting barbered and highly edited clips of Senator Harris from her town hall on his twitter feed several weeks ago, decided it was time to set his sights on the senior senator from California. As I suspected in the comments to an earlier post, Shahid had once again posted heavily edited videos on his twitter feed to go after someone that doesn’t measure up to his purity fanaticism. Fortunately, just like the last time, someone came along to set the record straight.
Here's the @SenFeinstein video threaded #DianneFeinstein To recap: she engaged on substance, told them she might vote "yes," and OFFERED ONE OF THEM AN INTERNSHIP. pt 1 pic.twitter.com/2Qgob2CH1V
— Tommy X-TrumpIsARacist-opher (@tommyxtopher) February 23, 2019
Here's the @SenFeinstein video threaded #DianneFeinstein pt 2 pic.twitter.com/r2lDYF7RqF
— Tommy X-TrumpIsARacist-opher (@tommyxtopher) February 23, 2019
Pt 3 Here's the @SenFeinstein video threaded #DianneFeinstein pic.twitter.com/c4sjJIUlt4
— Tommy X-TrumpIsARacist-opher (@tommyxtopher) February 23, 2019
Pt 4 Here's the @SenFeinstein video threaded #DianneFeinstein pt 4 pic.twitter.com/aelAQizpef
— Tommy X-TrumpIsARacist-opher (@tommyxtopher) February 23, 2019
Pt 5 Here's the @SenFeinstein video threaded #DianneFeinstein pt 5 pic.twitter.com/RXu4ieGY8d
— Tommy X-TrumpIsARacist-opher (@tommyxtopher) February 23, 2019
Pt 6 Here's the @SenFeinstein video threaded #DianneFeinstein Pt 6 pic.twitter.com/faKk46W3AP
— Tommy X-TrumpIsARacist-opher (@tommyxtopher) February 23, 2019
Now here’s the crap Shahid posted:
Everyone needs to watch this video of @SenFeinstein disparaging literal children from @SunriseMvmt calling on her to support @AOC and @SenMarkey’s Green New Deal.pic.twitter.com/SjF8thnucQ
— Waleed Shahid (@_waleedshahid) February 22, 2019
Shahid was once again full of shit, imagine that!!!!
Unfortunately, for all too many, Shahid’s lies will have already been taken as the gospel truth. It is bad enough that Democratic candidates and Democratic officeholders, as well as the organizations and individuals who support them, are going to be subjected to influence operations from the Russians, as well as a host of other state and non-state actors as we move into the 2020 elections, they shouldn’t have to also worry about being targeted by ideological fanatics like Shahid.
And as for the Justice Democrats, apparently they are running a protection scam where they require the candidates they endorse to send them funds rather than raise funds and send them to the candidates they’re endorsing!
Consulting fees from candidates to them are much more interesting.
— Hector Morales (@HectorMoralesTX) November 6, 2017
At one point as BNC/JD candidate I had to pay a 95% commission fee from my fundraising to them.
— Hector Morales (@HectorMoralesTX) November 6, 2017
You’d be a lot more disappointed if you saw the math we saw a few months ago.
— Hector Morales (@HectorMoralesTX) November 6, 2017
Not implying anything, but when I ceased paying for consulting both endorsements were removed. A coincidence I suppose.
— Hector Morales (@HectorMoralesTX) November 6, 2017
And lining their own pockets too!
https://twitter.com/JohnnyAkzam/status/930549286097637376
https://twitter.com/JohnnyAkzam/status/930586399564292096
https://twitter.com/JohnnyAkzam/status/930911897045618695
These fanatics aren’t interested in making things better, they are interested in promoting themselves, fleecing their donors, and ultimately tearing down the people that have the only real chance of ending the current President’s reelection chances and then beginning the long, hard, slow, and frustrating work of fixing all of the messes that the President, his administration, and his Republican Party and conservative movement enablers have created. I’m all for opening up the debate and pulling the center back somewhere closer to where it should be from where the Republicans and the conservative movement have pulled it for over the past 40 years. Waleed Shahid, the Justice Democrats, his fellow travelers, and their attempt to create an ideological inflexible Tea Party and Breitbart of the left is not the solution to any of these problems.
As I’ve been writing here for almost three years, we were attacked and are still being attacked by a hostile foreign power! We are at war! But rather than everyone that isn’t supporting the domestic beneficiaries of the ongoing attacks – the President, the Republican Party, and the conservative movement that supports them – pulling together to fix our problems, Shahid and his fellow travelers would rather do the enemy’s work for them and pull us apart. With “friends” like these, Democrats, liberals, progressives, the center left to left of center Americans don’t actually need enemies.
Open thread!
Millard Filmore
“At one point as BNC/JD candidate I had to pay a 95% commission fee from my fundraising to them.”
What? No NDA?
The Midnight Lurker
This is a headline?
Adam L Silverman
@The Midnight Lurker: You don’t like it?
lamh36
I’ve been watching this unfold on twitter…
after all that’s been going on lately, you’d think folks would be tired of being burned by edited video on SM…like…dang at least be wary if you have’t seen unedited video…not clips…smh.
but folks ain’t learned shit.
So yup, I’ve been tweeted the unedited video thread of DiFi to anyone on my TL who was still spouting bullshit after falling for the edited one.
I mean there is even a 15 min one on the groups website that that Waleed guy apparently got it from
Major Major Major Major
Thanks Adam for helping give this the exposure it needs! (What? People actually read this blog.)
@The Midnight Lurker: what isn’t these days?
Odie Hugh Manatee
Daily Bernie, I mean Kos, has a Wreck List diary on this shit and the morons over there are rolling in it like it’s perfume. A few sane voices were wondering if the video was selectively edited and were shouted down as conspiracy theorists.
Who needs ratfuckers when there’s Kos.
Manyakitty
@lamh36: It’s been a pleasure spreading the truth with you, fellow fact lover!!
lamh36
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: I’m not in a mood to play. Senator Feinstein is more than capable of defending herself, but we are at war and the sooner we get our heads out of our tuchases and recognize what is going on and what has to be done at the ballot box and then legislatively, the better. Bozos like Shahid don’t get it, don’t want to get it, and if you actually gave it to them with an explanation, would give it back to you. At this moment in time we need serious people, not inexperienced self-righteous fanatics.
MobiusKlein
I biked by that demonstration this morning (brr), and wondered.
There are regular demonstrations there, in front of DiFi’s office. Wed 5+ pm is the Anti Drone protest, for example.
This one was at a glance, smallish, but normal looking.
Goblue72
I watched the unedited video and she didn’t come off much better. Once they started taking GND, she was dismissive as shit.
You do you Military Industrial Complex Man.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Hopefully, those same sane individuals showed them all the evidence that the videos were selectively edited. This is the downside of improving special effects and editing software. We’re going to get to the point very soon where video will be convincing faked from whole cloth
dmsilev
Sigh. Grifters and ideological fanatics aren’t any better on the left than on the right. Besides, if you feel the need to attack Feinstein about something, choose something like her hawkish foreign policy views; won’t be hard to find people who agree.
But I guess that doesn’t jibe with the self-image of the Lone Brave Truth-Teller.
Adam L Silverman
@Goblue72: Fuck you!
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Goblue72:
Oh go fuck yourself asswipe. You never did answer my question from last week, where you asserted that basically only “old” people believe in Russian meddling. (Assuming 72 is the year you were born, you’re no spring chicken yourself; you’re pushing the big 5-0.) I’m 23. How do you explain me? What box are you going to shove me into, you worthless POS?
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: Exactly. I’m probably more hawkish than just about anyone at Balloon Juice, and certainly the other front pagers, and there are plenty of things to criticize about Senator Feinstein’s foreign policy record.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
also, old school trolls are popping up in these very threads with increasing frequency
@Goblue72: Hiya Dwight!
debbie
I guess I haven’t been keeping up. Is this guy Wilmer’s own O’Keefe?
Jay
@Goblue72:
Troll shows up on time, 7am St. Petersburg time.
Adam L Silverman
@debbie: He’s one of the Bernie dead enders. He doesn’t take his own videos, he just edits others to fit the attack framing he wants to promote.
kd bart
So people on the Left can also be taken in by grifters and purveyors of heavily edited fake news that plays to their biases. Hardly surprising. Grifters come in all shapes and sizes.
plato
Who is the most easy to manipulate, the know-it-all left or the know-nothing-right?
Adam L Silverman
@kd bart: Yep, that’s how this fraud wound up being put on the DNC’s Unity Commission by Senator Sanders:
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2019/02/21/who-is-nomiki-konst-865219
Jay
@dmsilev:
PAC’s were always a grift, but Citizens United opened them up for the big money.
Read a piece today about the eXile swamp,
Adam L Silverman
Tune in tomorrow night as I’m going to go off on the Blue Footed Boobie of Budapest’s call for civil war.
The Midnight Lurker
@Adam L Silverman: No offense, Dr. Silverman. But the Justice Democrats are nothing but an extortion racket. This is an open secret in the party. Everyone pays them, they all hate it, nobody wants to do anything about it. I love that you’re shining a light on it, but I don’t expect anyone to do anything about these assholes. That’s the reason for my comment. I need to learn that ‘snark’ thing: ///
I only learned about Shahid after his ‘attack’ on Harris, and I only got word of the Feinstein tape a few hours ago, and haven’t had a chance to review it. My inbox is overflowing though. Inquiring minds…
My question is why is this guy doctoring tape to make Feinstein look bad. She just won re-election by a landslide. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. Like I said, I haven’t seen the Feinstein tape. I have seen his ‘Harris’ tape and it’s nothing but a hit job.
I reserving judgement until I do the workup, but I think Shahid may have objectives other than ‘purity’.
Apologies again.
debbie
@Adam L Silverman:
Thanks, Adam.
ETA: I just hate that our side of the aisle has comparable idiots.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Adam L Silverman:
Wait, PressSec? As in SHS? Oh if only I could be in the next WH press briefing. I’d hound her over this.
Major Major Major Major
@plato: well, the ones on the right are much more numerous, but as for which one is easier…
How much money did Jill Stein’s “recount” fund raise?
Omnes Omnibus
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: No one can explain you. That was an unfair challenge for the troll.
Manyakitty
@The Midnight Lurker: I’ve seen takes asserting this hit job was indirectly aimed at Harris again. Dunno.
Major Major Major Major
@The Midnight Lurker:
Ritual Feinstein hate is absolutely a thing for that crowd.
Adam L Silverman
@The Midnight Lurker: I was teasing. I could go back to change it to:
Would that be better?//
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
OT:
Remember “It’s a Good Life”, that Twilight Zone episode, and Anthony’s godlike powers? Which do you think would be more terrifying: a kid possessing such abilities like in the episode or an adult who never had them before, suddenly possessing them?
Adam L Silverman
@The Midnight Lurker: He wants to remake the Democratic Party in the image of his Lord and Savior Bernie of Burlington. He isn’t interested in doing the hard work and taking as much as one can get at any time out of the legislative process or, if necessary, through executive regulation or through the courts. He wants a revolution. Of course if he ever found himself in a real one, he’d piss himself.
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
Recommend a hammer in one hand and an axe in the other. Whack-a-mole for grow’d ups.
Gorka’s grift was short-lived but like a hungary(heh) rat he keeps trying.
Gravenstone
@Goblue72: Don’t know how your ignorant ass keeps sneaking out if Pietown, but back you go, purity boy.
rikyrah
I keep on telling you:
Lay waste to these muthaphuckas ??
plato
Hey god, chance to prove you exist?
Adam L Silverman
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Yep. There’s not a single person involved in that broadcast, including Seb, that knows anything about civil war.
Major Major Major Major
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
Well, we’re living through the latter, and it’s not amazing.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Omnes Omnibus:
I remember when I was being nice to you and wished you well when you were dealing with your problem a few months back. Do you remember, Perry-I mean Omnes?
rikyrah
@Goblue72:
?????
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Hey, that’s my line!
dmsilev
My laugh for the day: “Leaked George Lucas Sex Tape Includes Digitally Inserted Footage Of Jabba The Hutt”
(The Onion of course)
Manyakitty
@plato: oooh, I just got a special tingle. Thanks!
smedley the uncertain
WTF!!! BJ pushing a Fu*k ton of videos followed by a horrendous pile of twitter…
If I want Twitter I’d sign up. As for the videos I’m on BJ to avoid them. And now! A fire hose of crap.
Been a long time lurker and occasional commenter and have never seen such an avalanche.
Links please.
Bill Arnold
@Adam L Silverman:
Word. War, yes. Not ordinary politics, but with the addition of other means.
(To be clear, the other means are not violence; more psychological manipulations and etc.)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Thank you.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Decided I couldn’t wait for supporting fires from the Red Legs.
Major Major Major Major
Open thread? ?
Jay
@plato:
Wrong question. The know nothing Reich always votes.
The know everything Left is too purity pony to vote.
The question is who’s more dangerous?
The Midnight Lurker
@Adam L Silverman: I wonder if ol’ Wall-eed has a few rubles rattling around in his pocket?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Major Major Major Major:
I suspect were about as close to that scenario in real life as we’re going to get. Thanks Putin for gambling with the lives of everyone on Earth. Did he ever think the risks through of putting Trump in the Oval Office?
I got another one:
The 1920s bathroom scene in The Shining where Delbert Grady/the Hotel uses the N-word. I could see a funny sketch where Jack reacts by trying to call out Grady/the Hotel for his/it’s racism. How do you think Grady/the House would react to 2010’s progressive call out culture?
Think I should write a letter to Stephen King and ask him? ? That was in the original book, anyone who’s read it?
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: Actually it’s political warfare full stop. Which includes the influence operations, the psychological operations, the disinformation operations, the provocations, the targeted assassinations, etc.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Omnes Omnibus:
You know you’re my favorite, right?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Adam L Silverman:
They do know a lot about pretending to be victims though, so I guess that’s applicable?
Major Major Major Major
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: I like King but I’ve never read it.
lamh36
Here’s the videos threaded for twitter!
https://twitter.com/tommyxtopher/status/1099137889043140609
Jay
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
You know what happens to you if you bother Steven King, ( the author)?
Misery, the Shining and mucho other bad stuff.
Bill Arnold
@Adam L Silverman:
Yes, entirely agree, though do you see targeted assassinations yet? Hoping we don’t go there at least not in a highly visible way. Too many guns in America, many rifles with scopes.
The Midnight Lurker
@Major Major Major Major:
$7.3 million. And yes, she kept every cent.
frosty
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Nicely said!
Villago Delenda Est
AOC needs to fire this dickhead.
The Midnight Lurker
@debbie:
Get in line, sister.
?BillinGlendaleCA
OT: It’s been really cold(for us) here in LA, parts of LA got snow yesterday(LA Times piece with pics).
lamh36
I love folks talking about the unedited version of the DiFi video “isn’t much better”…ok…then why didn’t ole boy just release the entire unedited vid then? Would the unedited version if released first have cause the same over the top outrage as the edited one?
Major Major Major Major
@Jay: Stephen King is super mad at Steve King for being named Steve King (among other better reasons).
Immanentize
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Hey! I’m hurt.
Omnes Omnibus
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: Slow hanging curveball right over the plate and you expect that no one will take a swing at it?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: I like Omnes too, even though he said he hated me(it had something to do with a concert I saw).
Bobby Thomson
Bog standard Mafia thug or Russian asset?
Yes!
Omnes Omnibus
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: I shall lord it over Steve in the [insert shithole here] accordingly.
The Midnight Lurker
@Bill Arnold:
Uhhh… yeah.
https://heavy.com/news/2019/02/christopher-hasson-hit-list-targets-democrats-media/
Immanentize
@lamh36: perfect comment.
NotMax
Repeating for the moonlit crowd.
Part fiction, part fact, part an indictment of the deleterious effect on an indigenous culture by white men, TCM will be showing Eskimo, produced during the early 1930s, at 2 a.m. on Monday (11 p.m. Sunday Pacific time). Enough of it is documentary in nature to today provide an informative and engrossing visual record of a way of life since vanished.
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Ugh. That’s a longer reach than Wilt Chamberlain’s.
Omnes Omnibus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: That was just an excuse.
rikyrah
Pragmatic Obots (@PragmaticObot) Tweeted:
Too many people falling for the Justice Democrat/Sunshine bullshit. They are editing clips and running to destroy Democrats but never have a minute for Republicans. Why is that? https://twitter.com/PragmaticObot/status/1099105493174374400?s=17
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Jay:
The Shining wasn’t bad imo. The movies based on his work tend to be. Ever see the Langoliers tv movie? I really liked the core concept that time travel is pointless because you end up in a barren, used up world with nobody in it that eventually gets eaten by Lovecraftian monsters. It was alright up until the Langoliers actually appeared. Really bad mid-90s CGI was to blame. But the idea that we might only be a few moments ahead of monsters like that is actually creepy.
Dean Stockwell was in it and he was real treat. His “This is the Past” speech was one of the best bits.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Heh.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Immanentize: Please don’t be. I had a couple cocktails earlier; I meant along with Immanentize and raven!
Adam L Silverman
@The Midnight Lurker: Most likely he’s just a true believer.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
He does that with everybody over something or other. We all know he feels differently deep down.
@NotMax:
Meaning?
Jay
@Villago Delenda Est:
Shaheed isn’t on her staff. Other current and former JD’s are.
Immanentize
@NotMax:
I love that ducudramamentary.
“When Quinn the Eskimo gets here, everybody’s gonna dose”. (Doze?)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: He was really tall and had long arms, he also claimed to have slept with 10,000 women(not all at the same time).
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Immanentize: Probably dose, it was the 60’s.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I got the reference. I just didn’t know how I was reaching
Immanentize
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Now I’m really hurt you didn’t offer me a cocktail!!?
You know, it is very nice to bump into you here, twin. But evening threads is odd. I am retiring to meet the sunrisers and insomniacs tomorrow (looking at you, NotMax.)
MisterForkbeard
Can we do a thing where we have a series of posts along the lines if “X is a lying shitbird”? Because I would subscribe to that newsletter
jl
Running political consultant protection rackets is pretty common for political party establishments. I guess that is the only thing that can be said in defense of Justice Democrats, if this is what it looks like. But, I thought their whole point was to not do that.
Better to give directly to candidates, and avoid these groups, from Justice Democrats to the bunch that runs the Dem House elections, the DCCC? I avoid them and give directly to candidates, so I might have the acronym wrong.
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: Well you had one guy try to take out the GOP congressional softball team, you had that Sayoc dude with the mail bombs directed at Democrats, members of the news media, and George Soros, and you had the Coastie that got arrested with a similar targeting list. And, since everyone in news land seems to forget about her, Heather Hayer was murdered by one of these MAGA dopes.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@MisterForkbeard:
That would be a neverending series though. Like the Energizer Bunny, it would go on and on and on.
Adam L Silverman
@Villago Delenda Est: He doesn’t work for her right now, he works for the Justice Democrats. Though I expect he’ll be back for her reelection campaign.
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Insane Clown Posse?
Immanentize
@Adam L Silverman: It started with anthrax. Still a mystery down the memory hole.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Somewhat old hat. See: The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1937!), Almighty Bruce, The Brand New Testament, Absolutely Anything, etc., etc., etc.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Adam L Silverman:
Titanic: the Musical? Yes, it exists and even has won Tonys I believe
Adam L Silverman
@Jay: The only JD on her staff is her
spokesmanchief of staff, who is interviewed in that last tweet I posted. Her other two staffers were hired specifically for their current jobs, they had not previously been affiliated with her or her campaign. One previously worked for Senator Harris.Bill Arnold
@The Midnight Lurker:
Didn’t happen, though. (Yes, we’ve been lucky (not 100%) so far. Fervently hoping that it doesn’t escalate.)
Kayla Rudbek
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: and if he is a 1972 baby, he’s around _my_ generation (stone cold GenX here), and I grew up with my military dad (Boomer) cursing people as Commies, and reading Heinlein who was also anti-Communist. Hell, Red Dawn and Top Gun came out before I graduated from college. I smell a nyehkulturny troll.
Adam L Silverman
@Immanentize: True.
Jay
@The Midnight Lurker:
There’s a group of Social Justice Warriors and “Democratic Activists”, that with the advent of Social Media, there was a lot of money and “standing” to be made standing outside the Big Tent, pissing in.
lamh36
and just in time…Russia Today globs onto the story…
https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1099158851654479872
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: All the attacks at abortion clinics. The Las Vegas shooter.
NotMax
@Immanentize
(waves)
Don’t let the bedbugs bite. Oh, and if you can sneak it in, please drop a hint to Morpheus that the door here is open for him. He seems to have misplaced this address.
Bill Arnold
@Adam L Silverman:
True, but no death squads or snipers. AFAIK.
Jay
@Adam L Silverman:
He’s described as her Chief of Staff.
debbie
@Villago Delenda Est:
Now that I know he works for AOC, she won’t have my support if she doesn’t fire him. (I know, heartbreaking.)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: The Clash.
Jay
@Adam L Silverman:
As far as I know, the Vegas Shooter wasn’t political, he was Corporate.
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: The guy on the overpass in Nevada near the Bundy Ranch.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jay: his twitter bio says “former” AOC, Nixon (Cynthia) and the Old Shouter Himself
Bill Arnold
@Adam L Silverman:
There was that doctor who did abortions, killed with scoped hunting rifle. Forgot about that one. That was full-up assassination for a (narrow) political purpose.
Dr. Barnett Slepian – https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/25/nyregion/abortion-doctor-in-buffalo-slain-sniper-attack-fits-violent-pattern.html
Jay
@debbie:
He doesn’t work for AOC, he’s a freelance Dirtbag.
debbie
@Jay:
He lists himself as having worked for her on his Twitter page.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman:
Are paid not to get it.
Who’s funding the Justice Democrats? Their filings don’t add up to their total. Have to be lots of small donors. Easy to launder money that way.
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: Congressman Gianforte attack on Ben Jacobs.
Adam L Silverman
@Jay: You’re right, I got the position wrong. I’ll fix it.
The Midnight Lurker
Okay… I just watched both versions. Here’s my take-a-ways:
1. Feinstein was tired. Clearly she had that, “Kids in the office. Oh, great.” thing going on. I think she could have handled it better, but she wasn’t out-of-line.
2. Waleed Shahid edited the tape to make Feinstein look bad. End of story.
3. The real heroes of this story are the kids!!! WOW! I’m impressed by their questions and demeanor. I think this might have thrown Feinstein off. She might have been expecting more along the lines of, “Do you own a dog?”
Who put this little field trip together anyway?
Adam L Silverman
@Jay: 2nd Amendment absolutist, MAGA dope, conspiracist.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/19/stephen-paddock-las-vegas-shooter-conspiracy-theories-documents-explained
https://www.newsweek.com/las-vegas-gunman-was-trump-supporter-happy-stock-market-701597
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/05/witnesses-vegas-shooter-ranted-about-govt-gun-grabbing-plot.html
Jay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Campaigns. When you are young and idealistic, some Social Justice warriors are attractive. When you are old and cynical, you realize some are just snakes and grifters. When you are wise, some bridges you don’t burn, you just never use them again.
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: I wrote part of my doctoral dissertation on anti-abortion terrorism. Partially because it was the only data I could get on terrorism to use as an outcome variable to test my empirical theory.
The Midnight Lurker
@Adam L Silverman:
Most likely you are right. But I’m going to look up his dress anyway!
Omnes Omnibus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: You bastard!
Adam L Silverman
@The Midnight Lurker: Also, while she’s got 7 grandkids, and certainly lots of time talking with them, I doubt she’s trying to explain policy and the legislative process to them.
Adam L Silverman
@The Midnight Lurker: Ewww!
Mary G
I had to get off Twitter when this started going around. DiFi is old, and a centrist to her bones, and very attached to the idea of a “collegial Senate” that is deader than the dodo, but she is still the only person to get an assault weapon ban passed for 10 years, loophole ridden that it was, and she got Christine Blasey Ford to tell her story on the record so everyone knows what Brett Kavanaugh is.
I’m with Adam. These “Justice” Democrats are Russian stooges, useful idiots, grifters, all of the above, whatever, but of no use and anyone who donates to them is an idiot. No one who really wants to get Democrats elected should be bothsiding this shit. Same with Amy K. eating a salad with a comb. Who.The.Fuck.Cares.
It’s so hard, because there is so much to be outraged about, but being outraged all the time doesn’t get any work done.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Heh. But it was the Kingdome and the acoustics were really bad.
tobie
@Villago Delenda Est: Why do you assume there’s any daylight between her and her Chief of Staff Saikat Chakrabarti (former head of Justice Dems) and Waleed Shahid (new head of Justice Dems). Since the freshman orientation I’ve been saying that there’s something very fishy about the Sunrise Movt which in the environmental arena came out of nowhere and suddenly had an army of followers. I can’t prove it but I have a strong suspicion Russian bots helped bolt the group to fame. Anyway the GND remains a pretty unimpressive non-binding resolution with some general benchmarks and no plans on how to make them into a reality; Amazon has abandoned NY, and while the tax breaks may have been too generous the loss of 25-40,000 jobs is a blow to the city; and, as many have noted, a 70% marginal tax rate won’t affect the taxes of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies because they’re compensated in ways that don’t appear as income. What has AOC done but divide the party? Don’t forget: she and Saikat also wanted to find a primary challenger to Hakeem Jeffries.
lamh36
lgerard
If you missed the rest of the story
A white Alabama newspaper editor who advocated for the revival of the Ku Klux Klan is turning over control of the small weekly to a black woman.
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: This administration is like a full employment act for the ACLU’s attorneys.
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: OT, but you all need to get out of Florida’s lane!
Jay
@debbie:
He worked on her campaign, before he outed himself as a douche bro.
Lot’s of people worked on her campaign, a bunch of whom have since outed themselves as toxic people.
I’m not going to burn someone like AOC who ran a Cinderella Story campaign, on the basis of who campaigned for her. She ran a New Left Campaign, and so attracted a bunch of New Lefter’s.
Some of the New Lefter’s attained “fame, fortune and power”, and have since exposed themselves as amoral grifting dirtbags.
Some of the New Lefter’s have achieved “fame, fortune and power”, and have proved themselves to be worthy human beans.
Some never achieved.
lamh36
I’m one of the folks who put my conspiracy hat on and methinks this is more about Kamala Harris than DiFi.
My money says they were trying to tie DiFi’s “reaction” for Kamala Harris to answer to…
Gravenstone
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
The Shining was two hours of sheer boredom capped by 20 minutes of stark terror.
Adam L Silverman
Speaking of the overlap with the alt-right asshats:
lamh36
@Adam L Silverman: its carnival time…so…uh…
I got nothing…LOL
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@NotMax:
Oh. I didn’t know what you were talking about. I think you linked to the wrong comment in the original.
Another Scott
@Mary G: +1.
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@tobie: And I suspect that some Democrats feel so burned by Sanders and his Bros that they are preemptively dismissing anyone and anything outside of the center to center-left party establishment
Adam L Silverman
@Bill Arnold: And then, of course, there’s this:
Darkrose
@lamh36: I didn’t see it on Twitter initially; I saw the story on the Guardian with the video from the Sunrise Movement, not Waleed.
The thing about Feinstein is that certainly since I’ve lived in CA, she’s been to the right of the Democratic party in this state. She hasn’t been great on environmental issues–I remembere her getting into it with Boxer before the latter retired from the Senate over environmental and water issues. And having attempted to communicate with her office in the past, the “I know better than you” attitude is kind of off-putting when she uses it to dismiss her constituents’ concerns.
Adam L Silverman
And here you have the shitbirds at the Young Turks, who founded the Justice Democrats, retweeting Ben Shapiro about Feinstein. The circle of douchey derp is complete!
West of the Rockies
I think Buzzfeed has this story up on their site, selling it as “DiFi was a big, ol’ meanie to some poor, little kids.”
tobie
@Jay: This is how Cinderella’s talking now:
Classy…”we’re in charge” and you’re in the “cheap seats.” Sounds like someone’s drunk on power. Regarding the GND, it’s not radical to propose decarbonization by 2030. What’s radical is to figure out the mechanisms to make that happen.
Omnes Omnibus
@debbie: Worked for is past tense, isn’t?
Jay
@Adam L Silverman:
Thanks, missed that. Last I heard it was a debt grudge with the Casino.
@tobie:
“What has AOC done but divide the party? “
Funny thing, the Party’s not divided and it was the 5 Old White Guys who took a run at Nancy Smash and are now grumbling about the Democratic Party adopting Democratic values, not AOC.
Amazon died because they refused to allow NYC workers to have rights, funny that. Some Cities have started to wise up to the fact that giving Corporations tax breaks to gentrify an area, and pay a wage that ensures their “employee’s” can only afford to live in the City if they live in their cars, is not a good economic model.
Vancouver’s starting to realize that a City without cooks, wait staff, maids, janitors, couriers, drivers, the list goes on and on, isn’t much of a City.
When I worked in North Vancouver, Dubya Dubya Me Too, cost us all of our support staff, because the gas prices made it not worth commuting in from Surrey and Maple Ridge when the local Starbucks was hiring.
Yutsano
@Adam L Silverman: Since I almost never get a chance to play Yiddish pedant, the actual correct plural form of tuchas is tuchim. However, since Yiddish is a mishmash of German, Hebrew, Russian, and Polish, there aren’t necessarily a loy of standard rules. Basically:
איר טאָן איר גוט האר!
The Midnight Lurker
@Gravenstone:
Second that.
Although I must have fallen asleep during the 20 minutes.
Jay
@Gravenstone:
Not if you live/lived out in the woods. The Shining was a great example of the “shack nasty’s” taking hold, bit by bit.
lamh36
@Darkrose: heres the thing…let’s talk about the video. the guy who posted the edited video…the point was the garner outrage…because the 15 min video showed more nuance than the outrage that they wanted to cause. A perso’s reaction to that 15 min clip reaction would have likely been different based on your own feelings bout the subject and on DiFi.
The viral clip got the big outrage they wanted but so heavily edited, that when seeing the unedited version folks, rightly, feel like they’ve been manipulated…how does THAT help their cause?
tobie
@Omnes Omnibus: Point taken. But to get my respect a member of Congress has to offer more than brilliant tweets and appealing slogans. Time will tell who in the freshman class is a good legislator.
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: I didn’t correct someone misspelling mamzer earlier, so…
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: And he accomplished his objective!
Jay
@tobie:
The GND is a huge target on the right. Read the comments to AOC’s twitter feed, she’s living rent free in the Reichwing’s brains.
That comment is not aimed at the Democratic Party. AOC sit’s on the Commitee that’s going to turn some of the GND’s ambitions, into proposed legislation.
There was a post by a Canadian blogger trashing Pelosi and the Climate Change Commitee, because “she” didn’t give them subpena power. I pointed out to him, ( of course it was a him), that the Commitee didn’t need it. They wern’t going to be asking anybody for recommendations, input or testimony, that didn’t agree to the GND and want to be heard.
Yarrow
@Adam L Silverman: Mission accomplished.
@Adam L Silverman: There are some real weird things about that Vegas shooting, beginning with just how far down the memory hole it’s gone. Massive shooting of people at a country concert and it seems to have been forgotten.
One of the oddities is that weird Instagram “star” guy Dan Bilzerian was there. He loves to show off his arsenal of guns on his Insta page but in a real shooting he ran away. Oh, and of course he’s a Trump supporter.
I ended up down a rabbit hole about that shooting and all the weird connections on some Twitter thread one time. Real conspiracy theory stuff, but there are Russian connections and so forth. It’s odd.
Adam L Silverman
@Yarrow: Yep, the Vegas shooting has too many unanswered questions. Bilzerian being a chicken shit isn’t one of them.
tobie
@Jay: The proposed Amazon facility in NY was not a fulfillment center. It was an east coast corporate headquarters with high paying jobs. So, no, employees of that proposed corporate project would not be living in their cars.
Were the tax breaks promised to Amazon too high? Probably. If so try to renegotiate. Sticking it to the man and losing 25,000 jobs sounds like cutting of your nose to spite your face to me.
One interesting tidbit is that Amazon had a string of environmental requirements for any location for this facility including rail service, renewable energy sources and the like. It was actually quite impressive.
tobie
@Jay:
On that point I agree with you 100%. Fossil fuel, guns, banning abortion, and no taxes on billionaires are the only things the Republican Party cares about.
Adam L Silverman
I’m to bed before someone else pisses me off and I have to write another post!
Bill Arnold
@Adam L Silverman:
Yeah, that shit is pretty blatantly threatening. Also, it’s explicitly protected by the First Amendment. First Amendment > Second Amendment. :-)
FWIW, mayhem at range is not a skill dominated by right wing loons.
The Midnight Lurker
@Adam L Silverman: RE: Vegas. I noticed that the coroner noted that he was on prescription medication, but failed to mention what medications and for what. He was a drinker too.
You run across this a lot with the berserkers – pharmaceuticals. Mood changers are powerful stuff. You mix that with a little alcohol and I’ve seen otherwise ‘normal’ people orbit the moon.
I absolutely agree with you on radicalization, but I wonder if more than a couple of these shootings are the product of bad brain chemistry.
Curious as to your take.
Jay
@tobie:
NYC City laws required that Amazon employees, in State, be allowed to unionize. Amazon said no to locating in the City, because that would have allowed their “Fullfilment Centers” to Unionize, even the robots.
NYC doesn’t suffer from a lack of jobs or Corporations moving in. They don’t need to pull a Foxcon. The area targetted for Amazon is a middle class/living wage neighborhood. Most of the employee’s wern’t going to be from New York, instead, imported, and would wind up pricing life long New Yorkers out of their homes and neighborhoods.
I left Vancouver over a decade ago, and while I would love to move back, for a job, I can’t afford to, with out living in my truck, and that’s on a $60k plus salary and benifits.
Corporate tax breaks to locate or relocate are a con. Capitalism consuming itself.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Yarrow:
Maybe nationally, but not here in LA. Quite a few of the victims were local folk and add to that the Borderline(a Country Music club) shooting in TO.
Bill Arnold
Or considerably worse, whether they were maliciously nudged by targeted social media efforts and the like (or directly F2F, but social media is considerably more deniable.) Lots of unstable people out there to be manipulated; e.g. somebody with a bunch of sock puppets could work 10-20 unstable victims in parallel. Mass media is another approach. (The current POTUS does this. One of the many reasons to hate him.)
I’m not familiar with the social sciences research in this area, TBH.
Kayla Rudbek
@tobie: turn the engineers and scientists loose, that’s what you need to do to start decarbonization.
Steve in the ATL
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: you are DEAD to me!
@Omnes Omnibus: as are you, clown boy! And St. Simons is not a shithole, though I will be going to Houston next week….
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
And you are on final warning!
RedDirtGirl
@Mary G: After watching the whole thing I was most struck by how the two sides are talking past each other. I thought DiFi was quite condescending and dismissive. And I understand why. She IS a centrist, who knows procedure, and the importance of realism. But I also understand the frustration her constituents expressed at her pragmatic approach.
I was Hillary all the way, and never felt drawn to Bernie. I’m not a burn it all down kind of person. But I still see the value in the aspirational politics of AOC.
Darkrose
@lamh36: I’m just confused right now, which I think is the point of the ratfucking. The Guardian had the whole video from the people involved, but the article was heavily slanted to the “DiFi was mean to some kids” angle. Since that tracked with my experience with DiFi–that she can be condescending and dismissive toward her constituents–and my existing opinions that she’s overly centrist and emphasizes Senate collegiality too much, I was wiling to take that at face value. It wasn’t until I saw Adam’s piece that I realized there was rodent copulation going on, and worse, that it’s not just social media.
nativeprof
Thank you so much for this post. I’m ashamed to say, I was totally unaware of the Justice Democrats. I’m particularly shocked by this 95% consulting fee that gobbled up donations. I don’t understand why this isn’t a bigger deal in the news. Sanders is clearly a bad actor, but I had no idea this infrastructure had emerged around him. Someone needs to make it relentlessly legible for people who don’t have time, like how emptywheel provides one-stop shopping on Mueller.
RedDirtGirl
@tobie: Who is Cinderella here?
Hob
@Adam L Silverman: I don’t know much about Shahid specifically, but in general I don’t think most of the people spreading things like this video are actually trying to accomplish any kind of change in the Democratic Party, neither constructive nor destructive nor even “they should make me the boss.” I think it is entirely aimed at building up their own image as anti-establishment crusaders, and gaining a following of gullible people who are looking for such. And maybe this can eventually be turned toward some lucrative endeavor, or maybe it’ll just be an ego boost, but either way, providing what those followers are looking for requires regular doses of outrage; reasonable critiques will not do.
Several people have asked: didn’t he know that people would eventually figure it out? Yeah, but for this kind of grift, it doesn’t have to be credible. Some people will get tired of the bullshit and stop following you, but that means the ones who stick with you are really gullible and will follow you off a cliff. If the goal is not to actually accomplish any political action, then making sense is secondary to pushing people’s buttons.
Hob
@Darkrose: The Guardian’s US coverage has gotten pretty weird in recent years. I don’t know if it’s just due to the particular people they happened to hire for the US desk, or if this is really how they all see us from over there, but there is a very strong “Democrats are sell-outs, Bernie woulda won” vibe in a lot of their stuff now. Not all of it by any means—but it’s still weird to come across it in a foreign outlet.
Jay
@tobie:
I understand really,
a multi billion dollar corporation,
that pays no US taxes,
and makes it’s bank off of minimum wage workers and temporary workers,
that it kills with out consequence,
that walks away from a deal because the City won’t give them the skittles farting flying rainbow unicorns they demanded,
is the Real Victim here.
America is so fucked.
tam1MI
I’ve been tracking the whole video controversy on Daily Kos and Twitter, and it’s amazing watching this whole stunt blow up in the Justice Dems faces in real time.
opiejeanne
@Goblue72: I saw your first sentence, word for word, several times on Twitter today. Fuck you, have some moose shit pie.
Kathleen
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Also, too, “pooping up”.
low-tech cyclist
@Darkrose:
I was trying just now to work back through the Twitter feeds of Waleed and Sunrise to see which one originated it.
As best as I can tell, it’s Sunrise at 2:36pm yesterday, followed immediately by Waleed at 2:39pm yesterday.
Looks like they get to share the credit for this hack job.
There’s plenty of legit reasons to be unhappy with Sen. Feinstein. But anyone who feels the need to create bullshit attacks like this needs to be exposed as the frauds they are. So a hearty fuck-you to the Sunrise Movement.
debbie
@Omnes Omnibus:
Even so, she could speak up. Maybe take a principled stand.
Matt McIrvin
Oh God the stupidity going on there. Right now the line on Twitter is that the people exposing Shahid are paranoids who think the kids are Russian spies.
I’d been getting back on Twitter because, frankly, it’s the one big social network these days where interesting public activity seems to be going on, but it’s just impossible to have any kind of political discussion that contains nuance there. You can break up an argument into a thread of tweets, but they’ll be jumped on at an atomic level by people who can’t or won’t read the context and are on some bandwagon. And the effect sucks in even well-intentioned, thoughtful people. It’s just a broken medium.
jon
Ragnarok Lobster: “This Dianne Feinstein dustup is a fine reminder of why ACORN no longer exists.”
Adam Geffen
@Adam L Silverman:
“serious people, not inexperienced self-righteous fanatics.”
And yet, you sound pretty self-righteous and fanatical about this.
I watched all the videos. She sure seemed pretty smug in one of those clips. She’s not my senator so I can’t get that worked up. If she were, I’d probably be pissed at her comments.
Adam L Silverman
@Adam Geffen: The Self-righteous Fanatics was the name of my Norwegian Death Klezmer cover band in college.
Omnes Omnibus
@debbie: Should HRC publicly condemn everything that Mark Penn has said and done since 2008?
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: I think a very public, classically Greek ostracism for Mark Penn would be appropriate. Could also include having him wearing a distinctively colored capital letter on his clothing at all times as well. A large bright red A for asshat.
dimmsdale
@Jay: I know it’s a stone-cold thread, but I just want to thank you for your comments re: NYC and Amazon. I’ve had friends summarily evicted from their (market-rent) apartment in the vicinity of the proposed Amazon site, in anticipation of the big real estate boom that would have followed it. The advertised jobs were all in the $150k range, which, while NOT a lot of money to raise a family on in NYC, would have devastated the area (if you believe lower and middle income people gotta live someplace besides some outer planet that they can afford to pay rent in). Also, the spectacle of our elected officials panting after Bezos, throwing taxpayer dollars at him like confetti, was repulsive. I wish DeBlasio and Cuomo were so excited about throwing taxpayer dollars at the hungry and the homeless.
Gretchen
If only the Democratic Senator from California were on board with fighting climate change!
debbie
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m with Adam. Ostracism seems appropriate for both Penn and Shahid. It wouldn’t hurt Hillary to say something rather than remaining silent.
J R in WV
@Goblue72:
And you do pie, little Russian troll guy, until I want to let you out of the pie safe, if ever!
Marc McKenzie
@Adam L Silverman: Beat me to it.
Marc McKenzie
@plato: Both.
J R in WV
@Steve in the ATL:
At least Houston has good eats, nearly everywhere. Even in little strip mall joints, really great ethnic foods from every ethnicity.
BrianM
I watched the whole series of videos. I think the edited one was a hit job, but the full one still shows Feinstein being really obnoxiously condescending. I also think her resolution is weak sauce. We’ve lost eight years because of a Republican Senate, we’ve got two more years of that ahead of us, and it’s getting too late to risk a cautious incremental approach where the goal is to pass a resolution rather than fire up the populace.
P.S. Please don’t call me a bot of either the Bernie or Russian variety. I’ve been here since before Cole was a Democrat. You can look it up. I usually just lurk.
low-tech cyclist
@Matt McIrvin: Message boards are incredibly passé these days, but I’ve been a member of one for ~20 years now, and IMHO it’s the easiest, most natural way to have a conversation/debate/argument online involving a largish group of people. To the extent that the medium has a problem, it’s that because it’s been bypassed by newer social media for many years now, the one I’m on skews old: median age of participants is probably pushing 50. But at least for me, the conversations work in a much better way there than on Twitter, in blog comments, or anywhere else I’ve been online.
tam1MI
@BrianM: The question to ask is, if the full video was so damning, why did the Justice Dems/Sunrise Movement feel the need to do a Project Veritas-style edit on it?
BrianM
@tam1MI: Because they wanted to make something bad look worse. Like I said: a hit job.