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You are here: Home / Politics / America / Hey @aravosis! Check This Out!

Hey @aravosis! Check This Out!

by | 160 Comments

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Earlier today John Aravosis decided to rightly tear the bark off of Waleed Shahid:

https://twitter.com/aravosis/status/1117119802399756289

https://twitter.com/aravosis/status/1117120439992639496

https://twitter.com/aravosis/status/1117122974090440706

Since I don’t tweet, I thought I’d link to and reprise some of my takedown of Shaheed’s attempt to misrepresent Senator Feinstein’s actions back in February, which was fresh on the heels of his attempt to do the same thing to Senator Harris. In both cases he barbered video footage until he got the out of context material he wanted and then weaponized it on Twitter. And I’d appreciate it if those of you who do tweet would tweet this at Aravosis.

Anyhow, as I wrote back in February:

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.

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! 

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.

Many more tweets and links exposing Shaheed’s and the Justice Democrats’ scam at the original post.

Open thread!

 

Reader Interactions

160Comments

  1. 1.

    Barbara

    Meanwhile, many Democrats did in fact condemn Trump for this latest outrage. Which means, in essence, that he doesn’t care what they do because he just exists to throw rocks.

  2. 2.

    germy

    I’m no fan of the YT. I know they get donations from far-right republicans, so I suspect they’re grifters. But some of John’s words (socialist! fellow traveler!) remind me of old John Birch tracts.

    Adam: Have you seen Shazam?

  4. 4.

    Baud

    At some point we’re going to need to learn how to tell people who hate us to talk to the hand.

  5. 5.

    Cacti

    The goal of the Bernie Sanders left is to get Donald Trump a second term.

    Imagine if they attacked the Dotard with the same vitriol they have for Joe Biden.

  7. 7.

    MazeDancer

    Most lifting, Adam.

    Especially gratifying to re-tweet as well

    Chris Hayes has Shahid on occasionally. Chris Hayes still has that Bernie problem. Possibly, he will wake up one day.

  9. 9.

    Adam L Silverman

    @germy: Call to them, call to your gods!

    I have not had a chance to see it yet. Also, if I shaved my beard and had a small white cape, I resemble the below.


    The last panel is the best:

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    Gave up on Aravosis’ AMERICAblog somewhere close to 15 years ago when he went off the deep end.

    (BTW, j***pork was a regular there before he took on that nym.)

  13. 13.

    Cacti

    The first real Dem to blast Bernie with both barrels during a debate will go a long way toward locking up my vote.

  14. 14.

    khead

    I’m having trouble convincing nice, suburban folks who actually like us to get angry. They STILL don’t get it in 2019.

  15. 15.

    Adam L Silverman

    @MazeDancer: And what’s interesting is on Hayes, Shahid is calm, reasonable, nothing like what he does in Twitter in regard to other Democrats.

  16. 16.

    NotMax

    Imagine Ben Mankiewicz is deep down grateful to TCM for luring him away from the Young Turks.

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Trivia: Elvis Presley based elements of his stage look on Captain Marvel Jr.

  29. 29.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: Yep, which is why in Alex Ross’s coauthored Kingdom Come (and yes I know I still owe a post on this), the adult Freddie Freeman is now King Marvel (as Captain Marvel has been missing for decades) and Ross patterned the character after a young, in shape Elvis (pics below). Also,CC Beck based Captain Marvel’s original face on Fred MacMurray.

  30. 30.

    germy

    @Baud: Guy who wrote “Less Than Zero” novel in the ’80s.

  35. 35.

    germy

    @khead: Cliffs notes version of interview: “Trump’s election hasn’t affected MY life, so what’s the big deal?”

  40. 40.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @germy:

    Was he begging for money back then?

    You so silly.

  42. 42.

    debbie

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Here’s a representative q/a:

    Did it bother you when people showed up at airports or said child separation was terrible?

    No, not at all. I’m not really bothered by that one way or the other.

  45. 45.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Realizing you are gaga for Alex Ross’ work on the Big Red Cheese, I feel a nod need be given to the died way too young Don Newton as both a bridge and an influence on transposing the look of the Marvel family into a modern comics template, a look which C.C. Beck disdained at the time.

  48. 48.

    MomSense

    @zhena gogolia:
    Nonononono. I want one of the other candidates to do it. If she does it the backlash will be neverending. I want her above the fray. Besides, Bernie needs to try and eliminate one of the other dudes. Let them at least do something constructive for all the fawning press coverage they get.

  50. 50.

    NotMax

    @germy

    You betchum, Red Ryder. Only after he changed to the JP nym, IIRC.

  52. 52.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: Newton’s art was great. I have a whole bunch of those books. Kirby’s Captain Marvel art was very good too.

  58. 58.

    🐾BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: It’s on Pacific Coast Highway, you’re going to get some man-made stuff(cars, distant city lights…).

    ETA: You did see the shot I posted earlier of the Lagoon and Trifid nebula, no man made objects in that shot.

  60. 60.

    AnotherBruce

    @Baud: But there was already a man-made object. The highway. I like the utility pole because it’s lit up below the mountain line and silhouetted above the line. YMMV.

  62. 62.

    Steve in the ATL

    @khead: ah—we are posting “songs that Steve’s college band covered”? From that band alone, add “reptile”, “just for you”, and, best of all, “into my hands”

  63. 63.

    mapaghimagsik

    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.

    Wait, isn’t that Bernie’s schtick?

  64. 64.

    West of the Rockies

    @AnotherBruce:

    You know what would have really made the shot? A forlorn dude on his knees in the sand beside a woman on a horse with a half-submerged Statue of Liberty just off-shore.

    Seriously though, BinG, another lovely photograph.

  66. 66.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Always found it interesting that no one seemed the least put off by the obvious difference between Beck’s whimsical art on Cap and Mac Raboy’s more realistic style on Junior’s title during the Golden Age.

  68. 68.

    Matt McIrvin

    Today I’ve been seeing a lot of Twitter leftists ferociously dragging Democratic presidential candidates for saying things that are unambiguously good, because they didn’t say them some number of hours sooner or they didn’t say the same thing in some other situation. Seems to be in the air.

  70. 70.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The right and the left aren’t really interested in substance. The important thing for them is to reinforce the notion that Democrats simply can’t be trusted.

  71. 71.

    laura

    @NotMax: now you’ve released the kraken.. jp will come a poor mouthing begging bowl out, just about to be evicted, tried everything but gainful employment…….

  73. 73.

    FlipYrWhig

    I tend to think that a reasonable proxy for the “Justice Democrats” or whatever they’re choosing to call themselves this cycle is people who would say that Obama was *too conservative*. How big can this number possibly be? Why do they think they’re on the verge of taking over the Democratic Party?

    (I mean, I know what they would say when asked, which is that they think everyone who voted for Sanders in the primary was a lefty — which, by the by, is an insane thing to think. And I know that they steep themselves in Twitter warfare that they think they win, by sheer force of obnoxiousness. But seriously, guys, give this two minutes’ reflection.)

  74. 74.

    Miss Bianca

    @Baud:

    The right and the left aren’t really interested in substance. The important thing for them is to reinforce the notion that Democrats simply can’t be trusted.

    Yep. Nailed it.

  77. 77.

    Matt McIrvin

    @FlipYrWhig: The ones I’ve seen lately don’t, I think, think they’re going to take over any party. They think they’re the only ones who truly see the war that’s coming, that Obama didn’t understand the lethal menace that American conservatism represents. They’re worried that elections may already be irrelevant. And they may be right.

  79. 79.

    Steve in the ATL

    @khead: lots of REM, some U2, Smithereens, Hoodoo Gurus, Drivin’ and Cryin’, Guadalcanal Diary, Let’s Active, dB’s, Plimsouls, Dumptruck, Robyn Hitchcock, and some bands I can’t even remember.

    Occasionally played a snippet of “walk like an Egyptian” for a laugh, and covered Big Star’s “September Gurls” just the Bangles and so many other bands did.

  81. 81.

    Matt McIrvin

    @FlipYrWhig: The thing is, many of these people don’t seem generally toxic or stupid at all–they’re good, passionate artists and writers, people with insight into a lot of subjects. They’re often members of marginalized groups, like trans people or ethnic/religious minorities, who haven’t been well-served by mainstream liberal Democratic politics in the past. And I think some of them regard mainstream electoral politics as kind of phony, which is an easy impression to get.

  85. 85.

    catclub

    @khead:

    where Isaac gave Bret just enough rope to hang himself.

    Mostly gave him enough rope to show how boring he is.

  86. 86.

    Steve in the ATL

    @MomSense: weren’t into Peter Gabriel, couldn’t do justice to Mr. Costello, and every other band was already playing “and she was”!

  87. 87.

    Baud

    @🐾BillinGlendaleCA: No poles in that one!

    @Matt McIrvin:

    They’re worried that elections may already be irrelevant. And they may be right.

    @Matt McIrvin:

    And I think some of them regard mainstream electoral politics as kind of phony, which is an easy impression to get.

    Bullshit. I’d respect them a little bit more if they simply dropped out due to those beliefs. When they actively trash Dems, they are participating in electoral politics just as much as we are. They’re just doing it on the wrong side.

  93. 93.

    catclub

    @Matt McIrvin:

    And I think some of them regard mainstream electoral politics as kind of phony, which is an easy impression to get.

    I suspect they think modifying your positions to appeal to a majority is phony. Better to stay pure. They should like Pope Benedict.
    Who, by the way, is not keeping his mouth shut as he promised he would. Everybody likes a little light schism.

  95. 95.

    Jay

    @Baud:

    There is a generational/class/status change happening in Democratic Party politics, as a result, some Democratic Party Politicians “get it”, some Red Staters, “get it” but have to address it in whispers, Some Red Staters don’t “get it”, and some of the Incumbents, don’t get it at all.

    All these positions are going to piss somebody off in the Big Tent.

  100. 100.

    Dan B

    @Matt McIrvin: Good hypothesis. It also seems as though there are a lot of guys who don’t like the Dems link to Wall Street. Me neither but it’s politics, not religion. I wonder if progressives will ever persuade the wealthy that money needs to be spread around. There are a few that do but the rest just have their think tanks and lobbyists do their dirty work.

  101. 101.

    David 🎅🎄Merry Christmas🎄🎅 Koch

    @FlipYrWhig:

    How big can this number possibly be?

    2%

    They got 2.2% of the vote when their hand picked candidate primaried Feinstein in deep blue California last year.

    They got 2.3% of the vote when their hand picked candidate ran for Public Advocate in deep blue NYC 6 weeks ago.

  103. 103.

    Barbara

    @Baud: Yeah, someone who didn’t think elections mattered wouldn’t spend so much effort affecting their outcome. And for God’s sake “not mattering for me” is not the same thing as not mattering at all.

  105. 105.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Dave Weigel @ daveweigel
    In Michigan, Sanders says legalizing marijuana was “really radical idea” that’s become mainstream since his campaign.
    Doesn’t mention that Michigan voters just legalized recreational marijuana with a ballot initiative. Kind of a Bernie tic; he doesn’t get into local politics.

    I’m trying to remember when California first adopted very loose medical marijuana laws. It was a IIRC a couple of years before my brother’s buddy in CO got a medical permit from a doctor who didn’t ask any questions and that, with all the edibles and all, was a good five years ago, maybe more, when Himself’s widest audience was on the freakin Thom “I wrote a book on that!” Hartmann radio show. And didn’t CA, CO and OR (maybe others?) legalize recreational marijuana before 2016

    There’s another politician who likes to take noisy credit for things he had nothing to do with. Can’t think of his name right now.

  108. 108.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Jay:

    There is a generational/class/status change happening in Democratic Party politics

    20-somethings wanking on Twitter are an insignificant part of that change. People who are on Twitter all the time forget that, on account of being on Twitter all the time.

    By the way, I fucking hate Twitter. People I like in real life are horrible fuckfaces on Twitter: condescending, saccharine, suffocatingly earnest and pretend-angry. And the people I don’t like in real life are worse. And, since political journalists love it, it’s having absolutely dire effects on American politics.

  110. 110.

    Another Scott

    @catclub: As I understand it, the big plane is all about reducing launch costs. Slow is better, and cheaper.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  111. 111.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I was at an Albertsons the other day and they had a bargain book bin(50 cents to $2 ) with books by Hank Paulson, Megyn Kelly and Dana Perino. No lefty books. Wonder if that’s where these publishers send these supposed best seller RW books.

  115. 115.

    mrmoshpotato

    A-FUCKING-MEN! Thank you Adam!

    RANT INCOMING!

    It was dumb as hell that people voted to reelect W in 2004 because “He’s someone I’d like to have a beer with.” but I can wrap my head around that feeling.

    This “Candidate X isn’t pure enough for me so I’m going to vote third party!” is something I can’t wrap my head around. WTF does that even mean? Especially when it’s lifetime public servant vs racist misogynistic manchild fascist.

    And then there’s the childish torpedoing of anyone who rubs them the wrong way even once. “Feinstein didn’t vote how we think she should vote that one time so let’s primary her!” AaaaRrrGggHhh!

    Sorry for the rant everyone. It’s just so damn tiring to be in a two-front war with a party that wants to destroy all social safety nets to enrich the rich some more and the left flank of supposed Democrats who are all whiny because not all Dems agree that a magic wand can be waved and all life will be unicorns and rainbows.

    That sounds delightful, but change does take time and planning. Yes planning, not just yelling “Income inequality!” Raising taxes on the super rich to deal with income inequality and other social issues sounds nice, but the Executive branch doesn’t make the laws. Sorry Wilmer. And McTurtle will destroy all progressive legislation as long as he has that power.

  116. 116.

    Jay

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Never said they were.

    Here for example, some of the haves have pushed back hard against proposed policies from Warren and others that would address some of the issues of the precariate.

    Some have pushed back hard against the GND, pretending it’s not just a proposed aspirational guideline for legislation going forward.

    Some spend more time attacking others over spelling issues, because they don’t want to have to actually address valid issues.

    The 40 year decay of living standards didn’t effect all equally, and some are more than willing to dis people here, because they wern’t effected.

    As for Twitter, there’s some people I read, but I’m not on Twitter and stay out of the comments. When “We Rate Dogs” has blocked over 265,000 twitter accounts , it kinda tells what a cesspool much of social media has become.

  117. 117.

    prob50

    @Steve in the ATL:

    REM, some U2

    Wow, I really am old. Those (+ The Bangles) are the only groups from your listing whose music I know or even have any familiarity as to who they are (or “were”, as the case may be).

    Outside of the classic rock bands and singer-songwriters that everybody over 20 probably heard of my musical knowledge and interests tend towards forerunner or 60’s-early 70’s niche type groups like The Flying Burrito Brothers, Kaleidescope, It’s A Beautiful Day, Sweetwater, The Hoodoo Rhythm Devils, The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, HP Lovecraft, the early Steve Miller band line-up (while Boz Scaggs was in the group), Elvis Costello, Brewer & Shipley, plus individuals like John Stewart, Country Joe MacDonald (with & without The Fish), Gordon Lightfoot, John Gorka. Of course there were many others, too, but I left off the ones I figured most folks probably heard of . I have vinyl and many home-made cassette tapes of all the above artists.

    I also haven’t included 90’s onward artists that I like either.

    Of course I never played in a band, so my list isn’t limited to stuff I could handle vocally or instrumentally.

    Someday my heirs will find themselves with a massive shitload of all this stuff to sort through. Hey, a thought…anybody here who might be interested in any of the above, particularly the vinyl since my turntable no longer functions properly (a weak channel) can put a note in this thread and perhaps we could make contact. Outside of a couple albums I promised my niece’s boyfriend I would be pleased to pass them among for free as long as you handle the actual shipping cost or otherwise

    I hope it’s Ok to say this here, I know BJ is not designed to be a bazaar or transaction accommodation site. If it’s not ok I’ll understand if the site mgr or whoever deletes the post. If so I will just repost it without the offending portions about passing them along.

  118. 118.

    jl

    Trump apparently duped by fake news about something that he said was definitely not his plan:

    @joshtpm
    Time to for you to start following the law.

    ” @realDonaldTrump
    Just out: The USA has the absolute legal right to have apprehended illegal immigrants transferred to Sanctuary Cities. We hereby demand that they be taken care of at the highest level, especially by the State of California, which is well known or its poor management & high taxes!

    6:47 PM – 13 Apr 2019 ”

    twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1117252655166963714

    So, Trump is going to do this? Wonder where he’ll get the money for the buses? Dock ICE and Border Patrol officials’ pay? Maybe under his bogus emergency, he’ll take some more money for military base maintenance and repair, or enlisted families’ housing allowances? Make Amtrak haul them for free? I dunno.
    Anyway, better Trump obsess over this BS than other stuff. Or maybe now that House Dems say they’ll pursue their very plain and lawful request for Trump taxes, he’ll obsess over that next week and forget about this daffy scheme. Who knows?

  120. 120.

    Adam L Silverman

    @jl:

    We hereby demand

    I see that someone got into the extra caffeine diet coke.

  121. 121.

    Steve in the ATL

    @prob50: you skew a bit older, but even though we listened to lots of older music, our band focused on 80’s college alternative rock and a few originals in that same vein

  122. 122.

    prob50

    In case anybody noticed, talking about music will draw me off-topic just about every time. Fortunately my above lengthy post becomes fairly obvious in that regard early on, so those not interested should have no trouble skipping past it.

  123. 123.

    Jay

    @jl:

    They will be a lot better off in Sanctuary Cities than in Kirsten’s ICE Rape Slavery Concentration Camps and the privately operated Human Trafficing Warehouses.

  125. 125.

    jl

    @Jay: If Trump can get away with this, they’ll stay in the sanctuary cities about an hour or so. We got huge demand for construction jobs in wildfire burned over areas. They’ll love the wine country, and Chico area will welcome them with open arms. I wonder from how far ag labor contractors will come in to offer them jobs.

    The very idea that San Francisco or Los Angeles will be bothered by this is laughable, unless Trump rings the city with federal cops shoulder to shoulder. If we can get the families up to burned out areas, it would be great to have them in any jobs they will take.

    This is a very bad thing because Trump will get away with breaking the law, and despite Trumpster lies, absolutely no one in the Democratic party is advocating for open borders. We need a working lawful asylum system. But it’s just fucking nuts.

  126. 126.

    prob50

    @Steve in the ATL: That makes sense. I graduated high school in ’68, so my earliest significant listening experiences mostly start around then and a few years earlier from listening to my older brother’s records. When the 80’s hit my listening habits and preferences were pretty much totally locked into my earlier years. I never really plugged into the 80’s and when equipment for reliable and affordable audio cassette recording became available I spent a lot of time creating vinyl to cassette mix tapes. Looking back I’m blown away at how much time and energy I used doing that, but I also remember what a huge charge I got out of the process of selecting the individual tracks, ordering them to create certain energy flows, timing them to fit on 90-minute tapes and then painstakingly laying the tone arm/stylus down and releasing the “Pause” button on time. I loved doing it and take a certain proprietary pride that almost all those tapes are still intact and playable. There’s no way I could handle all that today.

  129. 129.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Another Scott: The speed of the aircraft is almost immaterial. What’s an extra 600 mph when orbital velocity is ~18,000 mph? The point is to launch the rocket bearing the satellite above most of the atmosphere so that it doesn’t waste fuel fighting drag. Three-fourths of the atmosphere lies below 36,000 feet, which is about where Stratolaunch aims to launch.

  130. 130.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Mai Naem mobile: FWIW, ratio of RWNJ tomes to left-of-centrish books at the local Ollie’s Discount Outlets is about 10 to 1. Someone needs to sic the Earth Liberation Front on Regnery Publications for murdering whole forests to print party favors for Far Wrong convention-goers.

  131. 131.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Jay aka Knucklehead Of The Frozen North:

    Some spend more time attacking others over spelling issues, because they don’t want to have to actually address valid issues.

    And some “shit all over” certain Knuckleheads Of The Frozen North for bloviating when they don’t know WTF they’re babbling about;

    (Just including that for completeness. Not that the KnOTFN will ever see it, since he's got me pied.)

  133. 133.

    Mnemosyne

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I enjoy pointing out to the purity ponies that they fucked over Iraq and the rest of the Middle East when they decided to punish John Kerry for his pro-war vote and thereby extend the war by an additional four years.

    Hundreds of thousands of people have died in Iraq and the Middle East so those assholes could pat themselves on the back for “standing on principle” rather than taking practical action to end the war they claimed to hate. They care more about their “principles” than the actual people they claimed to be so fucking worried about.

  134. 134.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Uncle Cosmo: It’s also to fight “gravity drag”, the fuel wasted just getting a rocket to lift its own weight vertically off of its launch platform. If it gets dropped horizontally from an aircraft, it’s free to fall for some distance while it speeds up, and I think they can also do things like generate lift with an airfoil to mitigate that.

  135. 135.

    Mnemosyne

    @jl:

    unless Trump rings the city with federal cops shoulder to shoulder

    Stand back, I’m about to attenpt some math:

    The perimeter of the city of Los Angeles is 342 miles.

    Assuming that they gave each federal cop 2 feet of room, they would need 902,880 cops in order to physically surround Los Angeles.

  136. 136.

    Jay

    @Mnemosyne:

    Pretty sure the war would have continued, as the Iraqi Civil War had already started, along with the Insurrection against Occupation.

    Also pretty sure it would have probably been managed better with fewer Iraqi Casualties and maybe no ISIS.

    It’s hard to say. The College ReThugs broke Iraq politically, but the Generals ran the Wars. Pretty sure that waterboarding didn’t come from Cheney,

  139. 139.

    Jay

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Pretty sure it came out of the “empowered” CIA Paramilitary. The School of America’s had been teaching it for years to other Militaries.

    They ran it up the flagpole and Yoo and Cheney saluted.

  140. 140.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Jay: So, not the generals then?

  141. 141.

    Another Scott

    @Uncle Cosmo: The speed of the aircraft has a great deal to do with how much fuel it needs to lift its payload and how much it will cost to do so.

    E.g.:

    But if Rutan grew to prominence for his custom kit planes, the Rutan Model 76 Voyager thrust him into a new level of national attention after the Voyager, co-piloted by his brother Dick and Jeana Yeager, became the first aircraft to fly around the world without stopping or refueling on December 23, 1986. This multi-record-breaking flight covering 26,358 miles and took nine days, three minutes and 44 seconds to complete. In order to do so, Rutan and Yeager flew Voyager painfully slowly—at an average ground speed of 116 mph in order to maintain the utmost fuel efficiency. As the days passed and the craft’s fuel load lightened, fuel efficiency increased from a mere 9 mpg at the start to nearly 50 mpg by the end of the flight.

    Yes, getting the rocket above most of the atmosphere is a big part of the point, but so is doing it cheaply.

    HTH.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  143. 143.

    Jay

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Pretty sure it came out of the CIA’s Rendition Program and Black Site Programs.

    “If we can do it there, why can’t we do it here?”

    As far as we know, in every instance of waterboarding, it was the CIA doing it, not the FBI or Military, (other than SEALs).

    The SERE’s program, still torture, also came out of the CIA.

  144. 144.

    karen marie

    @Matt McIrvin: It’s the fucking world we live in. They’d best get used to it. Change is slow. Everything settled after the Civil War? Nope. Everything settled after the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts? Nope. Everything settled after Roe v. Wade? Nope.

    It’s a long slog changing society. It simply will not be rushed.

  145. 145.

    SFAW

    @germy:

    Guy who wrote “Less Than Zero” novel in the ’80s.

    Not to be confused with Declan Patrick McManus, who wrote the song almost 10 years before that.

  146. 146.

    karen marie

    @FlipYrWhig: You should check out sheep twitter. It’s brilliant, especially because it’s now lambing season, lots of little baaaaaaaahs. Try @ZwartblesIE to start.

  154. 154.

    James E Powell

    @Steve in the ATL:

    One of my bands was named after the Hoodoo Gurus album Stone Age Romeos. Your playlist is a lot like that band, though we played no U2. We also did Cure, Smiths, Morrissey. God, how I miss those nights sometimes.

  155. 155.

    Miss Bianca

    @prob50: OMG…dead thread, but, just gotta say anyway…that now I’m flashing back to my favorite defunct Internet radio station, the Technicolor Web of Sound…you would have loved it, all obscure 60s acid/psychedelic rock. It’s where I found out about a lot of the bands you named.

    @Mnemosyne: I love pointing that fact out to Assange fans as well…”you’re so in love with this guy for exposing “Iraq War crimes”? Well, about the fact that his decision to print unredacted, unfiltered classified info *got more people killed*?”

  156. 156.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Matt McIrvin: Why drop it vertically? Put the carrier plane into as steep a climb as manageable & let fly near the top of the trajectory. For at least 50 years that’s been doctrine for smallish fighter-bombers delivering nuclear gravity bombs: Lob the sucker into a parabolic trajectory, peel off & skedaddle, At least Spacelaunch doesn’t have to worry about getting far enough away that the shockwave doesn’t knock them out of the sky.

  157. 157.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Another Scott:

    Getting the rocket above most of the atmosphere is a big part of the point, but so is doing it cheaply.

    I’m not disagreeing with you, but I wonder what it would cost to lift a launch rocket to 36,000 feet beneath a Skyhook-style balloon. Probably couldn’t re-use the balloon, so might as well launch it right through the envelope without dropping it. (Of course you could probably rig a multiple-balloon structure to launch through a gap in the middle & then bring it back down.) Helium’s in short supply at the moment, but when new sources come on line in a few years…

  158. 158.

    Captain C

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: California first passed medical cannabis in 1996 (as did Arizona, incidentally, though it took over a decade and 2 more referenda to really get it going there). Numerous other states passed it well before 2016. IIRC several states had passed full legalization by 2016. As someone involved in this movement, I don’t recall Wilmer having anything significant to do with it. Maybe he paid some lip service from Vermont, which would mean he did as much as millions of people who otherwise didn’t do anything active to help.

  159. 159.

    Lit3Bolt

    The Young Turks, the Jacobin, and Chapo have really made strides in closing the #GriftGap Democrats have with Republicans.

    Of course let’s not forget GG, the original “So libertarian he’s leftist” horseshoe grifter of “he’s a gay man, he CAN’T be evil” fame.

  160. 160.

    The Truffle

    @Barbara: Not only that, but Pelosi told Trump to remove the tweet and has spoken to Capitol police to ensure Rep. Omar’s safety.

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