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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Monday Morning Open Thread: Building the Grift Waaaahl

Monday Morning Open Thread: Building the Grift Waaaahl

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… The now-famous border wall GoFundMe was conceived by Purple Heart recipient Brian Kolfage, who wrote at the time he was upset by “too many illegals . . . taking advantage of the United States taxpayers,” and the “political games from both parties” when it came to border security. Kolfage, a triple amputee, pressed onward despite falling short of his $1 billion goal — launching a nonprofit to build portions of the wall on private land for a “fraction of what it costs the government.”

While the majority of donors continue to believe in Kolfage’s efforts, the nonprofit’s clandestine operations and assurances of progress are insufficient for others. Some have taken to social media, seeking photos, videos — anything — for evidence they aren’t being misled…

Reporting on the apparent lack of progress on the private wall, published early Friday by the Daily Beast, drew criticism from Kolfage. The veteran called out the story’s author, Will Sommer, who indicated he’s repeatedly asked Kolfage for proof they were close to a groundbreaking.

“Omg this is PERFECT timing by the liberal rag news site. They are about to look more stupid than @hillaryclinton on election night 2016!” Kolfage wrote. “I guaranteed we would build the wall . . . and I’ll leave it at that!”

Kolfage did not respond to an email and message from The Washington Post requesting comment Friday. While the nonprofit has floated various groundbreaking dates in the past, it’s not exactly clear when, or if, construction will begin…

This might be excused as a classic example of a well-intentioned amateur getting involved with something beyond his capacity to execute, except… Kolfage’s prior record is less than reassuring. Per NYMag:

… As the Daily Beast reports, Kolfage “was a prolific operator of hoax pages on Facebook, and money he raised in the past to help veterans’ programs in hospitals never actually went to those hospitals.” The vet, who lost three of his limbs in a rocket attack in Iraq in 2004, founded sites including FreedomDaily, which ran headlines like “Obnoxious Black People Lose Their Minds When Victoria Secret Models Say This 1 Word On Live Video.” The site was shuttered after it was sued for misidentifying a Michigan resident as the driver of the car that killed a protestor in the Charlottesville riot.

To help promote his crowdfunded wall-building effort, Kolfage recruited Trump-world all stars like Steve Bannon; former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach; pitcher and the bane of Rhode Island Curt Schilling; Blackwater founder Erik Prince; and ex-Milwaukee sheriff David Clarke to join the group’s advisory board…

Boy howdy, if only we well-intentioned Democrats could show that kind of solidarity when one of our own proposes a worthy project!

On the other hand, it’s pretty clear the Usual GOP Suspects there have their own (grifting) objectives for jumping on the bandwagon before the wheels fall off..

Reader Interactions

223Comments

  4. 4.

    Baud

    I’m still kicking myself for not getting in early on the we-take-care-of-your-pets-after-the-rapture scam.

    @rikyrah: Good morning.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A high of 53 yesterday. A high of 85 on Thursday. At least the rain has stopped. Of course now we will go into a drought.

    Blech.

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    You could set up a subscription e-mail domain: @trumpisgodschosen.com.

    Of course, no one of any worth would give you the time of day afterwards.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    @NotMax:

    no one of any worth would give you the time of day afterwards.

    I’m more worried about what you guys would think of me.

  8. 8.

    SRW1

    @Baud:

    I’m more worried about what you guys would think of me.

    Oh my, you obviously lack the basics for successful grifting.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    @SRW1:

    Yeah, it’s probably why WaterGirl didn’t bring me into her “Donate to the BJ Site Redesign” scheme.

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    This line from the Stern Facts report cracks me up:

    Hundreds of thousands of Trump supporters paid Brian Kolfage millions of dollars under false pretenses, and he allied himself with some of the most well known, least successful Republican political figures.

    Trying real hard to come up with comparable DEMs and coming up blank. Surely there are some?

    (for the record I don’t think tulsi gabbard counts as she is not that well known or that much of a failure, yet)
    (can’t count wilmer either, he’s not a DEM)

  12. 12.

    Baud

    From Idaho to Pennsylvania, lawmakers in more than a dozen states have adopted resolutions declaring pornography a public health crisis. 
    ….
    While the Arizona resolution does not ban pornography production or consumption, the number of resolutions calling it a public health crisis has trended upward since 2016. 
    …..
    Several Arizona Democrats said issues such as measles, opioid addiction, homelessness and suicide deserve more action than pornography. 

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/09/pornography-public-health-crisis-states-adopt-measures-against-porn/1159001001/

  16. 16.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    South Carolina Poll — Post and Courier — May 9 (link)

    Uncle Joe……..46%
    Wilmer………….15%
    Kamala…………10%
    Pete……………….8%
    Warren…………..8%
    Booker…………..4%
    Beto……………….2%

  17. 17.

    Raven

    So this rebuild is great except I can’t use it on safari because of the gigantic attack every time I try.

  19. 19.

    Betty Cracker

    I’m sure any number of scammers would be willing to pay Kolfage huge sums for a list of the 300K dumbest, most gullible Americans with disposable income. Pure gold, that list is.

  23. 23.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: I told my class that this was a likely first outcome. I mean, he can’t really complain about extradition for a rape investigation, can he?

    Oh, of course he can.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: Harold Ford Jr who? (must be frequent participant/analyst* in “news” shows)(* analyst= someone capable of spouting absolute bullshit in response to a “question”)

    @Kay:

    Green Party election lawsuits and recounts.

    Green Party, I specifically said DEMS not leftists because while there are con artists on the left the DEM party doesn’t appear to have much tolerance for them.

  29. 29.

    debbie

    @satby:

    hope this con job finally lands him in jail as he so richly deserves

    He deserves an appointment in the Trump administration.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    National Rifle Association Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre billed the group’s ad agency $39,000 for one day of shopping at a Beverly Hills clothing boutique, $18,300 for a car and driver in Europe and had the agency cover $13,800 in rent for a summer intern, according to newly revealed NRA internal documents.

    $542,000- in addition to his salary.

  31. 31.

    danielx

    @Baud:

    I’m more worried about what you guys would think of me.

    When did you start worrying about that?

  33. 33.

    Baud

    The Internet assured me Pelosi and Schumer got played by Trump.

    Senate Republicans aren’t exactly pleased with the deal that Donald Trump is trying to make on infrastructure. Their concern? The $2 trillion price tag is just too high — even if a similar figure was nothing to blink at when it came to tax cuts.

    “$2 trillion is just, that’s off the charts. I don’t see that happening at all,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI).

    “The question is, really, where do you find the money?” added Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).

  34. 34.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Immanentize: There’s a pop-up ad that takes the whole (phone) screen almost immediately, and the only way out is to close that browser window/tab. It makes reading B-J on an iPhone essentially impossible.

  35. 35.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I love that he has a driver. Oliver North probably has one too. What’s amazing to me about cable “opinion” news is how much PAY it generates. They get paid so much! It’s just crazy sums. I feel like you could just cut it in half across the board and they would all still appear. It’s not like there’s somewhere else that employs hundreds of people for 5 minutes on tv. Where would they go? You don’t see them on network news.

  36. 36.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud:

    “The question is, really, where do you find the money?” added Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).

    Right where you left it asshole, in the corporate bank accounts.

    eta and the corporate board members pockets.

  43. 43.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    That anyone takes them seriously on budgets is a failure. Trump said he would spend any amount of money on the military.

    Any. Amount. They must think they died and went to heaven. No limit. Just submit any number at all.

  44. 44.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Another Whistleblower Bites the Dust as The Intercept Adds a Third Notch to Its Burn Belt

    ***

    Early Thursday morning, the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against Daniel Everette Hale — a former intelligence analyst for the U.S. Air Force and National Security Agency (NSA) and later a defense contractor working for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) — for providing a reporter with classified government information. The reporter in question, although unnamed in the indictment, is Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of and journalist for the online publication The Intercept.

    The indictment against Hale makes him the third Intercept source to be charged with leaking classified information to the outlet in less than two years. Notably, both of the government whistleblowers that have already been prosecuted and convicted by the Trump administration – Reality Winner and Terry Albury – were Intercept sources who were outed as whistleblowers by reporters working for the online publication. (link)

    What a coincidence!

  45. 45.

    plato

    @Kay: White working class folks will make the sacrifices for our military. Just like the white farming folks did. I am just awesome, believe me. / totus thug

  47. 47.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Kay:

    $18,300 for a car and driver in Europe

    that’s some bullshit.

    you can rent a high end jaguar in London for $125 a day.

  49. 49.

    plato

    Why don’t these assholes just stay home and ‘preach’ their venom to murkkkans?

    A controversial US preacher has become the first person to be banned from Ireland under a 20-year-old power.

    Steven Anderson, a pastor from Arizona, runs the Faithful Word Baptist church and openly expresses anti-gay and anti-Semitic views.

    His website claimed that he was due to preach in Dublin on 26 May.

    However, an online petition calling for Mr Anderson to be banned from Ireland was created in response, and gained 14,000 signatures.

    Mr Anderson has previously called for the death of former US President Barack Obama and praised the gunman who killed 49 people in an attack on a gay night club in Florida in 2016.

    Mr Anderson has been banned from a number of countries, including the UK.

  53. 53.

    Spanky

    Re: The NRA $$$: Makes more sense if you were to find the “summer intern” and “driver” were attractive 20-something females with certain skill sets.

  54. 54.

    rikyrah

    When I read about this this weekend, all I could do is laugh. This isn’t a case of folks finding out later that they had hooked up with a con man. I remember vividly that people brought the receipts on this guy while this was happening. In real time.??

  61. 61.

    Original Lee

    @Gin & Tonic: I got the basic AdGuard app and now I don’t have that problem anymore. Not intending this to be product placement or anything, but it was recommended about a month ago on an open thread.

  62. 62.

    Kay

    @plato:

    Republicans actually had this discussion. After Romney lost in 2012 they had two weeks where they all said there were too many grifters on the Right and their supporters were being treated like chumps.

    It’s just exploded under Trump. It’s 10X worse than it was then, because they added all the Trump people to the existing grift payroll.

  63. 63.

    plato

    I called it. Months ago. I made dozens of posts and videos explaining what he was doing, why he was doing it, and why it was illegal. I cited the specific laws he broke. I reached out to GoFundMe numerous times. Nobody cared.Everyone who donated is a total moron.— Sergio Siano (@sianoresist) May 12, 2019

  66. 66.

    Spanky

    Everyone who donated is a total moron.

    Yes, and the American Right Wing is fertile ground (he needlessly added).

  67. 67.

    jonas

    You’d think after being wounded like that in Iraq, he would have returned home with a little perspective on life and our country’s place in the world. Maybe he would have looked to someone like fellow-veteran and multiple amputee Max Cleland, who dedicated his life to public service. But no, he returned home and went “you know, I think I’ll become a huge, grifting asshole and punch down on poor refugees!”

  69. 69.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: Does Bob Menendez of NJ count? He’s as crooked as a dog’s hind leg, though since the SCOTUS made bribing politicians legal a few years back in the case of another corrupt pol named Bob (McDonnell), I’m not sure he counts.

  71. 71.

    glaukopis

    @Gin & Tonic: I was getting this on my iPad too. I had Adblock & Adblock plus , but had turned off Adblock – because ‘plus’ is better, right? Anyway, following some advice here, I turned off Adblock plus, turned Adblock back on & haven’t seen the problem since.

  72. 72.

    Michael Cain

    I’m pretty much convinced the Game of Thrones writers have done something stupid for the series ending, and everyone will be unhappy with it.

  78. 78.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Global Times
    ‏Verified account @globaltimesnews
    20m20 minutes ago

    Dow, S&P 500 and NASDAQ futures plunged after China announced counter-tariffs on Monday.

    Dow down 551 pts

    so much winning.

  80. 80.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: Menendez is certainly as crooked as a dog’s hind leg but he is not a “least successful DEM political figure” in the same vein as Kris Kobach, Rick Santorum, or David Clark as he is still in office, yet those 3 continue to get invited on TV as tho they are relevant.

    Also, I am making the distinction that straight up corruption is different from political grifting, in that one is illegal and the other, while very dubious and highly immoral, is legal. For some it may be a distinction without a difference, and if I had to argue the point I’d probably fail. It just feels like there is a whole host of snake oil salesman in the GOP, spouting off provably false bullshit on multiple TV shows and there is an infrastructure in place to support them.

    I just don’t see anything similar with DEMs. Our failed/former political figures seem to fade away. Mind you, I don’t watch cable news so maybe I am missing something, but I don’t read about them on the internet either while I have to make an effort to avoid the GOP equivalent.

  81. 81.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Michael Cain: I long ago came to the conclusion that the show was going to end with nobody being happy, I figured it would be because it was messy, not because it was stupid. People like clean endings where everything is resolved. I don’t see that happening. I’ll find out 6 months from now when I can buy the DVD.

  84. 84.

    schrodingers_cat

    Buttgieg shows his true colors agains, concern trolls about identity politics. Which is kinda funny because if he wasn’t famously gay and religious he would be an asterisk in the polls right now behind Inslee.

  87. 87.

    Brachiator

    @Michael Cain:

    I’m pretty much convinced the Game of Thrones writers have done something stupid for the series ending, and everyone will be unhappy with it

    Well, there is a fair amount of unhappiness with this most recent episode.

  89. 89.

    Brachiator

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Buttgieg shows his true colors agains, concern trolls about identity politics. Which is kinda funny because if he wasn’t famously gay and religious he would be an asterisk in the polls right now behind Inslee.

    I haven’t paid much attention to him. Despite the press he is getting, I think he is inconsequential.

  90. 90.

    Barbara

    @plato:

    What these people should be told but will never hear:

    They sow your anger to reap your dollars, and your eyes are too clouded with fury to ask or see where the money is going. You are the perfect mark.

    From my perspective, the good thing is that now they have even less money to spend on bona fide political campaigns.

  92. 92.

    rikyrah

    Uh huh ?

    Our Governor refused to help block oil drilling in the Everglades.

    Oil drilling. In the Everglades.

    This is what happens when election year environmentalists win.https://t.co/ziN1oGs4Dw

    — Andrew Gillum (@AndrewGillum) May 13, 2019

  94. 94.

    rikyrah

    ALL LIVES MATTER!

    Rape Survivors?
    •No

    Black Lives?
    •No

    Jewish Lives?
    •No

    Muslim Lives?
    •No

    Migrant Lives?
    •No

    LGBT Lives?
    •No

    Iraqi Lives?
    •No

    Afghan Lives?
    •No

    Syrian Lives?
    •No

    Yemeni Lives?
    •No

    Asylee/Refugee Lives?
    •No

    Then Who?
    •6 week old fetuses

    ?

    — Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) May 12, 2019

  95. 95.

    Brachiator

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I long ago came to the conclusion that the show was going to end with nobody being happy, I figured it would be because it was messy, not because it was stupid. People like clean endings where everything is resolved. I don’t see that happening.

    I think you are right. I keep hearing people talk about redemption arcs and heroes journeys, and I think, “have you actually been watching this show?”

    But I guess the question is, can the writers deliver an unresolved ending in a satisfactory way?

  96. 96.

    rikyrah

    ???
    If you can’t guarantee clean, safe abortions in every state, how the fuck you gonna pass MFA?

    If you can’t stop teachers from carrying guns in schools, how you gonna break up Amazon?

    If you can’t get Medicaid expansions in every state how you gonna pass a wealth tax? pic.twitter.com/XVdc6xptsj

    — Kurt Nice (@KurtNiceHHL) May 13, 2019

  97. 97.

    rikyrah

    It’s telling that the very last line of the Mueller Report ends with “no person in this country is so high that he is above the law.” And then cites to U.S. v. Nixon. Then it ends. Methinks Mueller ending with that was not happenstance. pic.twitter.com/IK9zD4fRmz

    — Ian Bassin (@ianbassin) May 12, 2019

  98. 98.

    Citizen Alan

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I declare that white Republican men are a public health crisis.

    As a rule, I actually find that white Republican women are worse than Republican men.

  99. 99.

    Brachiator

    @rikyrah:

    Loved her in those movies with Rock Hudson :)

    Some of those movies were pure corn. And yet, very enjoyable. And she always had an engaging screen presence. And yep, she and Rock Hudson were very good together.

    My favorite quote about her:

    “I knew Doris Day before she was a virgin.” – Oscar Levant

  100. 100.

    Brachiator

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I made the mistake of thinking that about T and BS both and here we are.

    I never thought that Trump was inconsequential. Wilmer was more a pest than anything else. I don’t know how he will ultimately figure in the 2020 election.

    ETA: He is not inconsequential because Beltway Boys love him.

    Let’s see what happens in the primary elections when people actually vote.

  102. 102.

    Brachiator

    @rikyrah:

    If you can’t guarantee clean, safe abortions in every state, how the fuck you gonna pass MFA?

    If you can’t stop teachers from carrying guns in schools, how you gonna break up Amazon?

    If you can’t get Medicaid expansions in every state how you gonna pass a wealth tax?

    I don’t think that these are valid questions.

    They confuse what can be done on the state and federal level.

  103. 103.

    Betty Cracker

    @Brachiator: As always when you see Buttigieg (or any other Democrat, for that matter) dragged online, it’s a good idea to read what he or she actually said instead of interpretations. Here’s an excerpt from a USA Today article that quotes the speech:

    Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg confronted what he called a “crisis of belonging” in the country, criticizing President Donald Trump for using “white identity politics” – but also warning his fellow Democrats against elevating one group’s interests above another’s.

    “The wall I worry about the most is not the president’s fantasy wall on the Mexican border that’s never going to get built anyway,” he said Saturday in a speech to gay rights activists. “What I worry about are the very real walls being put up between us as we get divided and carved up.”

    The administration, Buttigieg said, uses what he called the most divisive form of “identity politics” – white identity politics.

    That can leave black women, immigrants, the disabled, displaced auto workers and others feeling as if they’re living in a different country, Buttigieg said at a Human Rights Campaign gala in Las Vegas.

    But Buttigieg, who is openly gay, said there is also some schismatic thinking in the Democratic Party, such as when “we’re told we need to choose between supporting an auto worker and supporting a trans women of color, without stopping to think about the fact that sometimes the auto worker is a trans woman of color and she definitely needs all the support that she can get.”

    In other words, the “working class” isn’t all straight white dudes. Kamala Harris made a similar point recently, and she was 100% right.

  104. 104.

    rikyrah

    Sunday Discussion and Open Thread-

    We have white politicians trying to connect with black voters using a racist framing of Identity Politics.

    Rather than confront White Privilege or Supremacy, they attack Identity Politics.

    This attacks OUR Civil Rights Movements.

    Discuss https://t.co/31078kQ2Wq

    — Bianca Delarosa Harris Warren Castro O’Rourke (@Bravewriting) May 12, 2019

  106. 106.

    Citizen Alan

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I still say it’s gonna end with Dany waking up to the sound of running water and finding Ned Stark in the shower. That or the whole thing was a dream for Tommy Westphall who, btw, has grown up to look like Hodor.

  108. 108.

    Barbara

    @Betty Cracker: I will give him props for that sentiment, but it is still a problem that many politicians, including some I really like, always seem to frame “working class” exclusively as workers in the manufacturing sector. The idea that we are going to bring back a manufacturing heyday is not only ridiculous, it also happens to miss perhaps the most important issues that are actually affecting today’s working class — the gig economy, conditions among health care workers at the lower rungs, and so on. Of course I support manufacturing workers’ efforts to obtain job security and fair treatment and to have their interests at least considered during trade negotiations, but that doesn’t really help the many, many millions of workers in non-manufacturing industries.

  110. 110.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Barbara: Yeah but what was the word salad about identity politics? He is trying to both-sides the statement, a yes-but

    Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg confronted what he called a “crisis of belonging” in the country, criticizing President Donald Trump for using “white identity politics” – but also warning his fellow Democrats against elevating one group’s interests above another’s.

  111. 111.

    Frankensteinbeck

    if only we well-intentioned Democrats could show that kind of solidarity when one of our own proposes a worthy project!

    The ACLU might be able to tell you about that. Also several organizations to elect women. Times have changed, even if the Narrative remains eternal.

    @Spanky:

    Makes more sense if you were to find the “summer intern” and “driver” were attractive 20-something females

    Given the modern GOP, what makes you think the females were even 20 years old?

    @schrodingers_cat:

    BS was a significant factor in HRC’s defeat.

    In a race Trump won by a hair’s breadth, any of a dozen things would have changed the outcome. Sanders is certainly one of them. I personally think he did a lot rather than a little damage, but he sure as Hell did enough with his ‘We were robbed’ conspiracy theories to tip the balance.

  112. 112.

    Brachiator

    @schrodingers_cat:

    BS was a significant factor in HRC’s defeat.

    Or it was Comey or the Russians or voter suppression or or Wilmer not getting his people out or Clinton not campaigning hard enough in battleground states or the weather on election day.

    A couple of factoids. About 12 percent of Sanders primary voters voted for Trump. And a piece of another voter survey.

    From the data above, I don’t think you can make a convincing case that Sanders cost Clinton the election based on how his own voters behaved. A higher percentage of his voters backed Clinton than her voters backed Obama in 2008 or Rubio and Kasich voters backed Trump in 2016. Assuming that his voters cost her the election ignores the fact that, if he had not run, in all likelihood there would have been another credible Democrat that ran against Clinton.

    I agree that Wilmer had an impact. But significant?

    Not sure about that one.

    Link to voting results story.

    http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/did-bernie-sanders-cost-hillary-clinton-the-presidency/

  114. 114.

    Betty Cracker

    @Barbara: Agree with you there. Kay made a great point about that recently. She said when Republicans yammer endlessly about coal miners, auto workers, etc., Democrats should talk about home health aides, retail employees, etc. All working class! And in fact more numerous than people in traditional “working class” jobs. More people work at Arby’s than in coal mines.

    ETA: I also wish our candidates would talk more about the gig economy and how workers get screwed. It’s nothing new to me; I’ve been a gig worker for ages, but my circumstances are unique enough that it works for me (example: I can get health insurance through my spouse’s employer). Lots of folks who are scraping by as Uber drivers, Task Rabbit contractors, etc., are really getting screwed.

  115. 115.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @jonas:

    But no, he returned home and went “my life sucks, & someone’s going to pay for that – so I think I’ll become a huge, grifting asshole and punch down on poor refugees!”

    FTFY. I had an asshole for a boss once – a card-carrying sociopath – & once I found out some details about his past, I realized that was exactly his attitude – & the easiest “someones” to make pay were his employees.

  116. 116.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Brachiator: T won singing from the BS hymnal

    Rigged elections
    Corrupt Hillary
    Corrupt DNC
    Warmonger
    Wall street speeches
    etc etc etc
    Both covered Putin provided syllabus faithfully.

    ETA: JS voters exceeded the margin of T’s victory in more than one of the narrowly won states.

    ETA2: 12% is statistically significant.
    T’s win was a EC victory. He did not win the popular vote. So yes even the numbers prove that BS had a significant impact in electing T.

  117. 117.

    Chyron HR

    @Brachiator:

    About 12 percent of Sanders primary voters voted for Trump.

    And yet his supporters claimed that Black votes for Clinton shouldn’t count because AAs aren’t progressive enough.

  118. 118.

    satby

    @Betty Cracker: context and understanding is for … not jackals, evidently.
    And the hostile atmosphere that comes up here when the primary candidates are discussed has been mentioned in another online place. << Edited to explain that as a result people asserted they don't comment on that topic any more.

  119. 119.

    tobie

    @Betty Cracker:

    But Buttigieg, who is openly gay, said there is also some schismatic thinking in the Democratic Party, such as when “we’re told we need to choose between supporting an auto worker and supporting a trans women of color

    I don’t want to jump on a story that’s going to be beaten to death but I really don’t get Buttigieg’s frequent digs at the party whose nomination he seeks. I can think of countless policies put forth by Democrats that are for the common good (the fight for $15, the fight for universal healthcare, the fight for worker protections and environmental protections, etc.). But I would add one more policy that is for the common good, even if Buttigieg says otherwise. It’s the fight for EQUALITY in all aspects of public life. Why criticize the party for this?

  121. 121.

    Barbara

    @schrodingers_cat: I know. The problem with Buttigieg’s framing (and that of Sanders as well) is that for many people, maybe including them, even raising an issue that disproportionately affects minorities is considered to be “elevating” one group’s interests above another’s. So if you highlight the problem of disproportionate law enforcement resources directed at low level marijuana infractions among African Americans, somehow that gets translated into “elevating” the interests of African-Americans above white people’s.

    It’s not that I want to elevate one group’s welfare above that of another, it’s that I want to highlight some issues because they disproportionately affect one group’s welfare over another. That’s a totally different thing, and it’s maddening when politicians pretend like it’s the same thing.

    ETA: Just as an example, is it elevating the interests of gay people, clearly in the minority, to work so hard to eliminate the DADT policy or to actively pursue equality measures including permitting gay marriage?

  122. 122.

    Ohio Mom

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: If you put Warren and Harris’s poll numbers together, they are in front ofSanders, in the number two spot.

    I continue to believe both of them running is not good. They appeal to the same sort of voter and they are splitting that vote.

    I don’t know what could be done about this, other than havd the two of them do that “The odd finger is it” hand game, on TV with the public watching.

  123. 123.

    schrodingers_cat

    @satby: Who are the democrats he is talking about and whose interests are they promoting.

    but also warning his fellow Democrats against elevating one group’s interests above another’s

    .

  124. 124.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Barbara: He made some condescending references to SJWs in an earlier speech. But his clean up squad will come and condescendingly tell us how we don’t get the context of the great one’s utterings.
    He is like a fucking Holy book, like the Bible or the Koran or the Geetha where we need to understand the “context” of how all the obnoxious things he manages to say are not really obnoxious given the context. He is just misunderstood the poor dear.

  125. 125.

    MomSense

    @Betty Cracker:

    Who in the Democratic Party is saying we need to choose between an auto worker and a trans woman of color?

    The way Harris defended identity politics is not at all the same – starting with she defended identity politics.

  126. 126.

    Barbara

    @Ohio Mom: Probably. For instance, I give monthly donations to both, but at this point I would say that I would probably vote for Harris in the primary, but that is definitely not set in stone. I think that Harris needs to be able to show that she can peel off support from Biden, and Warren needs to continue peeling off support from Sanders. I like Biden, I would vote for him willingly, but I view him mostly as a caretaker who does not really have the creativity or willingness to address the real and pressing problems that Trump voters have tried to imagine away.

  127. 127.

    tobie

    Stock market indices are stumbling now that China has announced retaliatory tariffs in response to Trump’s trade war. Trump’s supporters don’t give a damn about his lawlessness but when things start to hit their pocketbooks they might care. We’ll see.

  130. 130.

    Barbara

    @schrodingers_cat: I believe that Buttigieg’s support has a low ceiling that he might already have hit. It is not clear to me that he can attract the full gamut of actual Democratic voters. Yes, he has that awful whiff of “third way” about him.

  132. 132.

    Barbara

    @Mart: The reality is that singers like Day were basically forced out of jazz by recording and movie studios because of racism — their’s and that of their audience. Not that she had to go along with it, but the stuff that she is best known for is mostly awful.

  134. 134.

    Brachiator

    @Mart:

    I have a best of collection of Doris Day singing jazz tunes as a youngster. Amazing pipes.

    Interesting. I always thought that she had a pleasant singing voice, but I didn’t know much about the extent of her singing career.

  136. 136.

    japa21

    @schrodingers_cat: I don’t see where he made that warning. That is the writer’s phrasing not his. I think he said we have to trelize that when we talk about differentiating between two groups that we have to realize there is crossover and that the groups are not automatically exclusive of each other.

    @Brachiator: I think there are a couple ways of looking at BS’s impact. The first is voters, but that is relatively a minor aspect. Rather I think he solidified the thinking that Clinton was a corporatist whore who was also probably pretty corrupt. This provided Trump the ability to make himself appear to be the person who cared about the working class. Plus, a lot of Trump’s arguments against Clinton were just repetitions of BS’s. Personally, that, to me, was always the worst aspect. And when he “campaigned” for her, he was really just campaigning against Trump. He never talked about reasons to vote for Clinton, just reasons to vote against Trump. Contrast that with Clinton’s campaigning for Obama.

  137. 137.

    tobie

    @MomSense:

    Who in the Democratic Party is saying we need to choose between an auto worker and a trans woman of color?

    That’s the crux of the matter for me too. The fight for equity in all aspects of public life is a fight for the common good. I hope some Democrat underscores that point soon.

  138. 138.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Ohio Mom:

    I continue to believe both of them running is not good. They appeal to the same sort of voter and they are splitting that vote.

    So were Hillary, Obama and (so I thought till he imploded) Edwards. It was a very tough primary battle between Hillary and Obama and I had an extremely hard time deciding who to vote for when our primary came around, as I would have been ecstatic with either one. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a good position to be in. They showed us how to have that kind of primary fight and still come out as a unified party, or as unified as the Democrats ever get.

    I guess I’m saying I’m not worried about Harris and Warren.

    But Biden and Wilmer worry me deeply, because their strategy is to destroy the party.

  139. 139.

    Barbara

    @Brachiator: I don’t have an exhaustive knowledge, but when talented female singers, both black and white, met recording studios, they were pushed in a direction that appealed exclusively to older white audiences. This was true even of Aretha Franklin, the queen of soul! If you watch the documentary Muscle Shoals, it explains how CBS records tried to use her big voice in a way that erased its soulfulness. Think Whitney Houston.

  141. 141.

    Betty Cracker

    @MomSense: No Democrat acting in a political capacity as a candidate or a strategist would say “fuck auto workers, let’s focus on civil rights issues” because it would be dumb to say that out loud. But tons of folks — including me — have noted that Democrats’ constituency has shifted away from traditional blue collar labor groups like auto workers in the Midwest (which tend to be more white and male than the general population, though not exclusively so) and toward people in cities with non-union jobs, which tend to be more diverse but which include plenty of straight white men too, of course.

    I get why people like Biden, Klobuchar and Buttigieg make their traditional Midwestern blue collar worker appeal a centerpiece of their campaigns; in all three cases, that’s their political roots. And I think they’re right to point out that even traditional blue collar jobs aren’t held exclusively by straight white men anymore. They’re trying to walk a line and avoid alienating groups that may have competing interests. Whoever the eventual nominee is will also do that, as did Clinton and Obama, etc.

  143. 143.

    plato

    Mariana Trench: Deepest-ever sub dive finds plastic bag

    An American explorer has found plastic waste on the seafloor while breaking the record for the deepest ever dive.

    Victor Vescovo descended nearly 11km (seven miles) to the deepest place in the ocean – the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench.

    He spent four hours exploring the bottom of the trench in his submersible, built to withstand the immense pressure of the deep.

    He found sea creatures, but also found a plastic bag and sweet wrappers.

    It is the third time humans have reached the ocean’s extreme depths.

  145. 145.

    Barbara

    @plato: The family of hockey’s Esposito brothers had the same “problem,” although I don’t know that Phil and Tony ever faced each other in a post-season match up. I remember as a kid seeing an interview of them explaining how conflicted their mother was when they played each other.

    ETA: And just imagine how the Williams’ Sisters parents feel when they play each other. Apparently, the sisters both hate it.

  147. 147.

    Barbara

    @Betty Cracker: I don’t think these groups have competing interests in the sense that helping one hurts the other. If their interests are competing, it’s because they are competing for attention.

  151. 151.

    Ohio Mom

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: I don’t think the comparison is apt at all. When it was finally Hillary v. Obama, there wasn’t anyone else who was worse and ahead of both of them. We would have been fine no matter which one finally triumphed.

    Can you say that with confidence about the two current frontrunners? We don’t just have to defeat Trump, we need someone who can start righting things, and I don’t think that describes Biden or Sanders.

  152. 152.

    germy

    Elizabeth Warren releases a new plan every week like old-school rappers used to release mixtapes. I wish the media would focus more on the women with fresh ideas, and focus less on the old guys who have been regurgitating the same ramblefuckery for decades.

    — Christopher Bouzy (@cbouzy) May 12, 2019

  153. 153.

    Betty Cracker

    @Barbara: Agreed — it’s not a zero-sum situation, and it’s about attention, but attention is really important politically, IMO. In some ways, I think it’s easier for a politician who is a woman, a person of color, gay, etc., to address all the constituencies in the party because it’s not as hard to prove to women, POC, gay folks, etc., that a politician who reflects their demographic sees them and gets their struggle. Of course, that’s balanced out (and sadly, sometimes outweighed) by the latent misogyny and bigotry in the electorate. It takes a lot of skill to deflect that. Obama did it with uncommon grace.

  154. 154.

    Barbara

    @khead: I suppose I needed a boost to my motivation to keep working. It’s been flagging recently. Ugh. But almost certainly overdue . . .

  155. 155.

    Barbara

    @germy: That would require mental engagement, something that only a few media types seem inclined to aspire to.

  156. 156.

    catclub

    Reporting on the apparent lack of progress on the private wall,

    I bet the private wall is also a secret wall, possibly double secret. So they cannot tell their donors where it is.

  157. 157.

    germy

    @Barbara:

    That would require mental engagement, something that only a few media types seem inclined to aspire to.

    I go back and forth between believing it’s mental laziness or them simply following orders.

  158. 158.

    germy

    What an exchange here. Booker on Warren’s calls to break up Facebook etc:

    “That sounds more like a Donald Trump thing to say, like, ‘I’m going to break up you guys, I’m going to—‘ no.”

    When @jonkarl points out he just compared Warren to Trump:

    “I most certainly did not.” https://t.co/ux3OdPQBER

    — Will Steakin (@wsteaks) May 12, 2019

  160. 160.

    Spanky

    @khead: Two percent loss is hardly a market correction. But, it’s early in the tariff war game, and we’ve yet to see how it plays out.

    Maybe it’s just my pessimistic nature, but I had expected a stronger, steeper drop this morning after China’s announcement. But again, still early in the game.

  161. 161.

    Gravenstone

    @schrodingers_cat: Targeted tariffs are just a tool of trade. They are not in and of themselves evil. Indiscriminate and over broad tariffs implemented by a moron are more like tools of mayhem. That’s the situation we find ourselves in at the moment.

  163. 163.

    Spanky

    Attention Walmart shoppers! Is there anything at Walmart not made in China?

    Could this be where Trump voters stop and think “wait a minute …”?

    HAAAAAhahahahahahaah!!!! This is somehow Nancy Pelosi’s fault, with a heapin’ helpin’ of Hillary Clinton.

  164. 164.

    rp

    @germy: I’m amazed at the number of (mostly male) politicians who seem to be caught off guard by the simplest, most obvious questions. It’s like Wilmer with the question about white supremacy at that recent event. And I know the answer is in part that Booker doesn’t want to piss off FB just as Wilmer doesn’t want to piss off the WWC, but they’ve had PLENTY of time to come up with some BS response to those questions. It’s not that hard.

  165. 165.

    Brachiator

    @Barbara:

    I don’t have an exhaustive knowledge, but when talented female singers, both black and white, met recording studios, they were pushed in a direction that appealed exclusively to older white audiences. This was true even of Aretha Franklin, the queen of soul! If you watch the documentary Muscle Shoals, it explains how CBS records tried to use her big voice in a way that erased its soulfulness. Think Whitney Houston.

    I don’t know very much about the deep history of the music industry, and appreciate your insights.

    However, I was very very good friends with a woman whose father arranged Aretha’s first album for Columbia, and wrote six songs for the album. He was an African American composer and arranger, John McFarland, who also wrote songs for Elvis, Lou Rawls and even Bill Haley and the Comets. I agree that ultimately, his talents were not a good match for Franklin, and he erased her soulfulness. But he was trying to make her a more jazzy singer, not just trying to sell her to older white audiences.

    ETA: I have got to watch the documentary Muscle Shoals. I have seen clips of a documentary about the Wrecking Crew. Just wonderful stuff.

  166. 166.

    khead

    @Spanky:

    4-5% in the last week with no signs of stopping. We’ll see.

    TBH, I’d rather talk about how Dell Curry never got enough credit.

  167. 167.

    Barbara

    @Brachiator: You could be right. They might have exaggerated a bit in the documentary, but Doris Day was like the anti-jazz singer by the time Hollywood got done with her. She practically embodied white bread as a musical style.

  168. 168.

    Gin & Tonic

    @rp: Aren’t Booker and Zuck good buds? Didn’t Zuck pledge some big $ to “fix” Newark schools, or am I mis-remembering something?

  169. 169.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @rikyrah:

    Chinese exporters to the US do not pay one penny of Trumps tariffs. US importers pay all tariffs which are then paid for by US consumers.

    That’s even assuming the Thought Masters of the Trump administration were able to implement their tariffs. At work we get a lot of the basic stuff done in China and little talk about the tariff impacting us. Makes me suspect one of Trump’s Only the Best Hires didn’t know how file the paper work.

  170. 170.

    mrmoshpotato

    @catclub: Private wall, eh? So only a select group of people can sit on it, or what?

    Also,

    Some have taken to social media, seeking photos, videos — anything — for evidence they aren’t being misled… racist morons who gave their money to an obvious conman.

    Fixed.

  172. 172.

    Brachiator

    @Bex:

    Concern troll Frank Luntz says Wilmer will be the Democratic nominee.

    I don’t care.

    At this point, I am not obsessing over polls or punditry. I am just waiting for the primaries. I expect for Democratic Party candidates to make the case to Democratic Party voters as to which of them should be the nominee. And then, on the outside, there is Sanders, doing the weird shit that he does. If he is successful and wins primaries, then we will have to deal with him.

    @schrodingers_cat:

    T won singing from the BS hymnal

    What can I say. We disagree, and I think that at best you can say that Sanders was just one of many factors that affected the election. I can understand that you might want to stress Sanders’ impact, but that is not the only way to read the data.

    But even so, I think it too early to compare Mayor Pete to Wilmer. But as always, your mileage may vary.

  173. 173.

    Ruckus

    @jonas:
    Being wounded doesn’t make people better, it makes them wounded. The person can take from that what they see, and that’s not always some great theory of life. He may have been an ass before he was wounded, he may not have been. Some will feel they are lucky to be alive and do whatever they can to reward that luck. Some will be bitter that they are wounded so badly while others are not wounded at all. There is an old saying, “It takes all kinds” and it’s true. For all the Tammy Duckworths of the world there will be the opposites. Both groups may rebuild their shattered lives in far different ways, both good and bad. He’s a rabid Trump supporter, you think his wounds made him that?

  174. 174.

    Aleta

    SCOTUSblog @SCOTUSblog

    In Franchise Tax Bd. v. Hyatt, #SCOTUS rules that a state cannot be sued in the courts of another state without its consent, overruling 40-year-old precedent, Nevada v. Hall
    7:12 AM – 13 May 2019

    Kristen Clarke @KristenClarkeJD

    The Supreme Court is on a perilous path.

    We have 5 Justices who will abandon precedent and not be faithful to the principle of stare decisis.

    Justice Breyer issued a dissent that makes clear the jeopardy that we are now in. He asks “which cases the Court will overrule next”?

    Kristen Clarke @KristenClarkeJD

    This is a big deal. Justices Thomas, Roberts, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Alito just overturned precedent that had been in place for 40 years.

    This case makes clear that other precedents set by the Court (ie. Roe, affirmative action, etc) are fair game in the eyes of these justices.

  179. 179.

    Brachiator

    @Barbara:

    You could be right. They might have exaggerated a bit in the documentary, but Doris Day was like the anti-jazz singer by the time Hollywood got done with her. She practically embodied white bread as a musical style.

    Ha! I think you are right on the money here.

  180. 180.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:
    Might it be that he is getting the press because they think he is inconsequential as well?
    Drive the story to be about him so that people won’t hear the story of the real candidates? Think about 2016 and HRC. BS continues to be an ass long after losing, gets constant press, all that HRC seems to get is negative press.

  181. 181.

    Barbara

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    That’s even assuming the Thought Masters of the Trump administration were able to implement their tariffs. At work we get a lot of the basic stuff done in China and little talk about the tariff impacting us. Makes me suspect one of Trump’s Only the Best Hires didn’t know how file the paper work.

    Well, I have heard that some companies have moved production out of China to other available places if it is feasible. Obviously, this is not feasible on a grand scale. And that would be one way China might be hurt, but this effect, like others, is basically, at the margins, compared to the impact on U.S. consumers as well as manufacturers relying on parts from China.

  182. 182.

    satby

    @Barbara: @Betty Cracker: I think what’s being called out is the either or thinking, the idea that supporting one elevated it over the other. And in reading the excerpt quoted it sounds more like talking about the schismatic Democratic party members than the actual Democratic party officials.
    As evidenced in discussions on this blog for example.

  183. 183.

    tobie

    @Aleta: I’m just catching up on the news that the Supreme Court cavalierly dismissed a 40 year precedent today. I now wonder if the 1974 decision in US v Nixon, forcing Nixon to hand over subpoenaed material will hold. The 5 conservatives seem quite comfortable legislating from the bench.

  185. 185.

    satby

    @schrodingers_cat: and you have become a hectoring, bullying scold every time you weigh in on the primary candidates or anything that pisses you off (like constantly bugging Adam about “the generals” or front pagers who quote people you don’t like).
    So I’m not going to engage with you on this.

  186. 186.

    J R in WV

    @germy:

    Booker is a personable and likable guy, but I don’t think he is the brightest bulb in the lamp. This demonstrates that perfectly!

    Should go home and be quiet til after the election next year. Or pick another candidate to push.

  188. 188.

    Barbara

    @J R in WV: Booker really has done nothing to make himself stand out. The answer to that wasn’t to say it sounded like Trump (somehow I think that is going to be a go to for more than a few people) but to say that it’s not clear what breaking up Facebook would even mean or how it would protect people from privacy incursions or trolling by bots in other social networking venues or whatever remains of Facebook. It reflects lazy thinking on both Warren’s and Booker’s part, IMHO.

  192. 192.

    Ruckus

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:
    I don’t think Biden’s role is to destroy the Dem party. I don’t think he believes or thinks that at all. I’m not sure he sees the Dem party the same way most of us see it but him destroy it? I don’t see that at all, what I see is him thinking he can save what he thinks the Dem party is and should be. I think he’s a liberal politician. That his liberalness isn’t the same as yours or mine isn’t the point, because yours and mine may be different, it’s not like there aren’t wide differences between all liberal positions, we are an inclusive lot of people and ideals, while conservatives are the exclusion party, all for one and one for self, outsiders need not apply.

  193. 193.

    schrodingers_cat

    @satby: Model minority no longer model after presuming to speak up for herself and questioning the conventional wisdom, and that of some frontpagers. Why don’t you call me uppity while you are at it.

  195. 195.

    Aleta

    @germy:
    (Ark. Times in Jan.)

    Sens. Tom Cotton and John Boozman are dishonestly touting a proposal to cut the estate tax even further than it was cut in 2017 as a benefit for farmers when it’s an enormous windfall for superwealthy and would affect precious few farmers. It would be worth billions, for example, to heirs of the Walmart fortune.

    Cotton and Boozman have joined Sen. Roy Blunt in legislation to cut the top estate tax rate from 40 percent to 20 percent.

    The estate tax already totally exempts the first $11.4 million in net assets for an individual and $22.8 million for a married couple.

    Among the tax breaks extended to the wealthy in 2017 legislation in addition to the higher exemption were: Preservation of the stepped-up basis of capital assets for heirs (that Walmart stock acquired for pennies passes to heirs at the greatly increased value today); provisions for gifts to trusts; leveraging gifts to pay for life insurance to offset taxes; enabling philanthropic gifts.

    Only about 2,000 estates nationwide owed estate taxes in 2018, according to the Tax Policy Center. No more than a couple dozen owed estate taxes in Arkansas, which also has no state estate tax. Cotton touted his legislation on Twitter this way:

    This week I introduced a bill with ⁦‪@JohnBoozman‬⁩ and ⁦‪@RoyBlunt‬⁩ to reduce the estate tax by 20%, helping Arkansas farmers preserve their family legacies and way of life.

    He also recently joined a bipartisan group proposing a tax benefit to Gold Star families.

    No word on any personal sacrifice he intends.

  196. 196.

    Ruckus

    @Aleta:
    What kind of a politician are you if you can’t help your friends, especially if it helps them not pay as much tax?
    (Nothing says he has to be friends with the people who voted for him…..)

  198. 198.

    Barbara

    @schrodingers_cat: As definitely not a member of a minority, I am irked by many of the same things you are with Buttigieg. But what irks me most is that symbiosis between him and the press corps that allows each of them to ignore that they are supremely more comfortable and laudatory when it comes to keeping a white man in the quarterback slot. The fact that SO MANY of the men covering the Clinton campaign — Lauer, Halperin, Charlie Rose, Glenn Thrush — have been shown to be misogynist hacks with a firm ulterior agenda in being able to stomp all over women of their choosing makes everything the press does now subject to the presumption that they are as self-serving as any politician who ever lived.

    With all of that, I still think we are mostly better off not overly personalizing the conflict with respect to candidates. It’s so frustrating.

  199. 199.

    mrmoshpotato

    @germy: WTF?

    These tariffs might fuck you over, but other people made bigger sacrifices, so stop complaining. SOLDIERS DIED SO YOU COULD GET ECONOMICALLY FUCKED BY THE REPUBLICANS!
    -Senator Tom Cotton

    Gotta hand it to him for the military-humping non sequitur, and by hand, I mean the back of my hand.

  200. 200.

    catclub

    @Spanky:

    Attention Walmart shoppers! Is there anything at Walmart not made in China?

    IN the grocery section! Mexico!

  203. 203.

    Aleta

    A group of iPhone owners accusing Apple of violating US antitrust rules because of its App Store monopoly can sue the company, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.
    …
    The Supreme Court opinion notably does not accuse Apple of violating antitrust law: It holds that consumers have the right to sue the company for monopolistic behavior, because they purchase apps directly from Apple.

    The ruling could have wide implications for other tech companies that operate similarly walled-off online storefronts, said Gene Kimmelman, president of the consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge and a former Justice Department antitrust official. (CNN)

  204. 204.

    Brachiator

    @Aleta:

    Sens. Tom Cotton and John Boozman are dishonestly touting a proposal to cut the estate tax even further than it was cut in 2017 as a benefit for farmers when it’s an enormous windfall for superwealthy and would affect precious few farmers.

    Wow. The GOP is returning to their Big Lie Playbook. Family farms have never, never, never been hit hard by the estate tax. But the Walton family would get extra gravy from estate tax reform, even though they already get huge benefits from how their family trusts are structured. Goddam these GOP ass wipes. They know that Trump’s supporters are absolute suckers. They not only believe the bullshit, they are totally immune to reality. When the suckers are biting this hard, you just have to reel them in.

  208. 208.

    Kay

    In a new email, Warren makes pledge about the education secretary under her administration: “In my administration, the Secretary of Education will be a former public school teacher who is committed to public education.”

    I’m to the point where I think Warren sends these emails to me, personally and specifically :)

    At 3 bucks a donation we’re going to be hitting double digits here shortly.

  209. 209.

    Kay

    We had prom this past weekend and I took a quick visual survey of the room, boys, and about 1/4 of them are rejecting Big Prom and wearing ordinary (dressy) clothes instead of rented tuxedos. I think this is good. Sensible.

    The end of the prom industrial complex? Perhaps. The tuxedos were horrible anyway.

  213. 213.

    schrodingers_cat

    @zhena gogolia: I never said she called me that, that’s your interpretation. I have been commenting on Balloon Juice since Obama’s first election. I only started getting nasty comments when I expressed my frustrations, yes sometimes in anger and exasperation as an immigrant not too happy about T’s ascension. That’s what I was referring to.

  214. 214.

    schrodingers_cat

    Since I have worn out my welcome on this blog. I will take break. Better for my health too.
    Wish T had never been elected so we could all still be friends.

  215. 215.

    Jerzy Russian

    @Kay: There was an organization in San Diego (whose name escapes me at the moment) that gave out prom dresses for free to anyone who needed one, no questions asked. I am not sure if that contributes to the breaking apart of “Big Prom”, but at least families of the girls did not have to spend a lot of money. I don’t have a son, so I don’t know if there are similar organizations for the boys.

  217. 217.

    Bill Arnold

    I got one of these popups today browsing this site using Chrome on iOS. (Annoying waste of time while at work, because I’m paranoid.)
    Mobile VPNs Promoted by ‘You Are Infected’ or ‘Hacked’ Ads. Basically the VPN company has an affiliate program and some affiliates abuse it. (That one used cloudflare for anonymity; grr – some people actually need it for something other than fraud.)
    Ad blockers for iOS (iPhone) are pretty much nonexistent as far as I can tell (AdBlock doesn’t have any apparent effect on Chrome), but looking around found that Firefox for iOS has ad blocking built it; just make sure “Tracking Protection” is enabled in settings. (And send John money if it’s a habit.)

  218. 218.

    Brachiator

    @Ruckus:

    Might it be that he is getting the press because they think he is inconsequential as well?
    Drive the story to be about him so that people won’t hear the story of the real candidates?

    I don’t know. Maybe some of the media want to be kind to Mayor Pete because he is gay.

    And some people want to complain constantly because the MSM they love to hate don’t spoon feed them the stories they think they are supposed to be getting. I just don’t hear a lot about Mayor Pete in my small bubble of acquaintances. I don’t see that he is a big fund raiser. And I can easily get news about candidates that I am more interested in learning about. And frankly, right now, none of the Democratic candidates seem more than tepid. This is not to say that they are not good, don’t have good policies, etc, but they are all kinda bland, and don’t seem to know how best to attack Trump or to stir up the party. But your mileage may vary on this. And looking back, I can’t remember when I decided that Obama was my guy.

    Think about 2016 and HRC. BS continues to be an ass long after losing, gets constant press, all that HRC seems to get is negative press.

    HRC was going to get negative press no matter what.

  219. 219.

    Kay

    @Jerzy Russian:

    I was glad to see it. One of the boys had black pants and a black turtleneck and a lot of them were commenting on it- like they wished they had done it. It would be funny of they just quietly ended that tradition. There’s no dress code. They can really wear anything they want.

  220. 220.

    satby

    @schrodingers_cat: you haven’t confined your comments to Trump’s election and have gotten snotty and personal with people, including that “model minority” crack which was directed at me as if it was my reaction. People can certainly have legitimate issues with any of the candidates (Buttigieg’s lack of experience is one example). Those haven’t been the arguments you’ve made. And to pretend that those of us who prefer to go deeper than a Twitter meme are misogynist or Trumper racist apologists has gone beyond the pale. So get off the cross.

  221. 221.

    Kay

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Well, I hope you come back when you’re ready. Primaries are always tense and this one is just getting started.

    A lot of them will be out fairly quickly. They have to get some early wins. I’m imagine Bernie stays in until the bitter end but the rest will drop out if they can’t show strong support.

  223. 223.

    Matt

    @Baud: TBH porn is related to a real public health crisis, just not in any way those folks would recognize.

    Freaking out about kids seeing porn while ignoring all the actual bad shit going down is a symptom of the delusional insanity currently afflicting huge swaths of the US population. We’re going to have to treat this soon or it’s going to literally kill us all.

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