Michelle Obama is stepping into the 2020 election with a program to boost voter turnout https://t.co/W4ZkDaX1LG
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 22, 2020
… On Thursday, Michelle Obama took her first concrete step toward being a factor in the 2020 election. Her nonpartisan voting initiative, When We All Vote, which she founded months before the 2018 midterms, announced a coalition of 31 mayors across the country who will be brainstorming and sharing lessons and practices about how to increase voter registration and civic engagement.
“This current crisis is a clear reminder of how critical it is to have competent leadership at all levels of government,” she said in a recent Zoom call with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, announcing the launch of the program, called Civic Cities. “Voting is bigger than any one party, any one issue, any one candidate, any one election,” she added. “The point is that no matter what party, what ideology, we want everyone to participate. We need your voices in this with us.”
While thanking the mayors for all the work they’ve done in the crisis, and asking them to tell their frontline workers “how grateful we are, me and Barack,” she emphasized that they were entering a new battle.
“This pandemic will likely have a significant impact on the November election and on how voters across the country cast their ballots,” said Obama, who did not turn on her video on the Zoom call, but used a photo of herself in a purple suit as her avatar. “Already in state and local elections, we’ve seen voters forced to choose between protecting their health and making their voices heard. And that’s absolutely not acceptable.” The big thing to keep an eye on, she said, was ensuring that the health and economic crisis of the pandemic “doesn’t turn into a crisis of democracy, too.”…
Obama’s partners in the program are mostly Democrats, including Los Angeles’s Eric Garcetti, Chicago’s Lori Lightfoot, Atlanta’s Keisha Lance Bottoms, and D.C.’s Muriel E. Bowser, but there are also three Republicans and two independents in the mix.
On the Zoom call, mayors tossed around ideas like placing dropboxes for mail-in ballots all over their cities so fewer people had to wait in line at polling places. Or making voter registration automatic, with an option to opt out, when getting the new enhanced drivers licenses, which Tacoma, WA, mayor Victoria Woodards said she’d already enstated.
Obama promised them, “we are committing to supporting your efforts in the years to come.” But she also stressed that they had a lot to do, and fast: “We’ve got to get to work because we don’t have much time.”…
Bowser has had a working relationship with the Obamas since they were in office, and it’s one that’s continued as they became the rare first couple to stay in Washington after their time at the White House was done. Bowser is working on encouraging voters to request mail-in ballots but said that she got her closest look at Michelle Obama’s influence recently when the former first lady volunteered to help get out the word about safety from the coronavirus by recording a robocall with testing information for D.C. residents.
“Immediately after that call, we had three times the number of calls into our call center for testing. So people really felt it,” Bowser said…
Not so uplifting, but quite encouraging for those of us who cherish our grudges:
Opinion: Republicans are realizing the crisis is pulling them toward disaster https://t.co/PcWMrNKQY8
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) May 22, 2020
“The worst is behind us,” declared Herbert Hoover in 1930. Two years later, Franklin Roosevelt won the presidency by an 18-point margin, capturing 42 states.
Now, nearly 90 years later, at least some Republicans are starting to worry that President Trump could meet a fate similar to Hoover’s, and drag them down with him…
Baud
The first story in this post is what can make the second story in the post a reality.
Baud
California universities getting rid of SAT/ACT.
NotMax
Talk about yer unfortunate timing.
“Sorry, Fred. In light of the circumstances we’re gonna ask you to return the bonus you received for the slogan.”
:)
Baud
Our long national nightmare is over.
SiubhanDuinne
Great news!
satby
Good morning everyone (evening, Amir and Asian-Australian contingent)!
that’s all I got.
Baud
@satby:
Good morning.
geg6
@Baud:
My employer will not be using them for the recruiting year starting in August. Whether they will in the future is another story.
Matt McIrvin
It is not possible in the modern world for any Democrat to win an FDR-sized landslide–the Republican base is too calcified; even if they had the popular-vote margin, they wouldn’t get the states.
A Republican could (in different circumstances from today). If 2001 had been an election year, George W. Bush might have carried 49 or 50 states.
Geminid
After the blue waves in the 2017 and 2019 Virginia elections both Democratic and republican political commentators said Trump was a powerful get-out-the-vote force for Democrats. It also worked in the 2018 Congressional election, when Wexton, Spanberger and Luria flipped House seats. The photo with Mitch McConnell reminded me of how rough Trump looks. He’s really puffing up. And while I generally dislike aspersions as to people’s physical appearance, Pelosi’s comment regarding him being “morbidly obese” were appropriate. The health of a president is an issue of public interest and concern.
OzarkHillbilly
Unusually active hurricane season could threaten US effort to fight Covid-19
I say this at least once a week, but now there is a little more urgency in it: I want my son to come home.
SFAW
@Geminid:
Lissen up, libtard! During the campaign, his personal doctor said he would be the most excellentestly-healthy preznit EVAH. And it is physically impossible for a doctor to lie, right?
I gotta say, however, I’m amazed that he hasn’t stroked out or had a major heart attack yet.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin: Agree. We should focus on winning as many elections as we can and not worry so much about the size of each win.
Baud
@geg6:
California won’t use them before 2024, and I think they are developing a replacement test.
danielx
@Geminid:
Why yes, yes it is. He needs to go on a diet, starting with a large mug of sausage gravy for breakfast every morning.
SFAW
@Baud:
Typical manspeak/mansplain: “size doesn’t matter.”
SFAW
@danielx:
Which he uses to wash down his side of bacon. [“Side” as in “side of a hog.”]
NotMax
FYI (emphasis added).
OzarkHillbilly
Pictures show Donald Trump wearing mask after Ford factory row
NBC [email protected]·
President Trump wears a mask during his tour of the Ford Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan, where ventilators, masks and other medical supplies are being manufactured. https://nbcnews.to/2zc7FqR
Bruce K
Regarding the WaPo link, the GOP’s situation puts me in mind once again of the Titanic.
The designers had limited imagination, so they thought the worst-case scenario was an impact breaching two watertight compartments at once, and since the Titanic could remain afloat with any two compartments flooded, they thought that no matter what, the ship could remain afloat long enough to reach harbor for repairs. And that got interpreted as the ship being unsinkable, which got spread around by the marketing people, and it didn’t matter that the lifeboat regulations didn’t allow for enough lifeboat capacity for all on board, because they couldn’t conceive of an accident that would call for it.
And, well … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP7BWb1ndpA
So here’s the GOP, with five compartments open to the sea, and Trump and McConnell insisting they get underway and cruise to triumph in November.
Betty Cracker
The #PostcardsToVoters people are doing an awesome job reminding swing-state Dems to request vote-by-mail applications/register for mail-in ballots online. I received a postcard in my obscure, heavily red county, complete with a local phone number for the election supervisor’s office and a web address to request a ballot. I had already done so after the March primary but was impressed with the effort.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
I would post this in the Covid update thread but as threads die pretty quickly around here…I saw yet another mention of Remdesivir in this morning’s update. One drug that is in the same class (viral RNA disruptor) that I don’t see mentioned nearly as frequently is Avigan/favipiravir. It has been approved for use in Japan to treat flu strains that are not responsive to other treatments, and they seem like a country that could thoroughly vet the safety and effectiveness of drugs in general.
The Chinese have studied it for Covid and from what I can tell it seems to be roughly as effective as Remdesivir in shortening the course of the disease. Most crucially, it is available in an oral dose and is in production – whereas Remdesivir is only available as an intravenous dose. I have read that both India and China are ramping up production. I’ve also read things that lead me to believe it’s available as a generic, which means any pharm producer could start making it.
I think the oral dose aspect is crucial because it could be prescribed and administered at home after a quick trip to the pharmacy, as soon as someone tests positive rather than waiting until they’re so sick they need to go to the hospital. Keeping the virus from replicating earlier in the infection seems like it could stave off the worst symptoms in a lot of people. UMass General has clinical trials going on right now for Avigan, but it is rarely if ever mentioned in the news or in the Covid update thread. I hear daily mentions of Remdesivir which is ungodly expensive and not readily available, and difficult to administer. If there’s a cheaper, easy to administer drug that’s just as or nearly as effective, why is it being ignored by the US news?
danielx
@OzarkHillbilly:
I totally understand his reluctance; it’s such a pain in the ass to redo all that orange makeup after wearing a mask.
Geminid
@danielx: Seriously, there are a lot of people who struggle hard with obesity who would have loved to have the opportunity to improve their health that Trump had when he became president- personal chefs, personal trainers, a gym. That Trump did not profit by the opportunity is just another example of his egotism, and his fundamentally unserious approach to the job.
Soprano2
@Baud: I hope one side effect of the pandemic is colleges getting rid of it altogether. I think it used to help predict college success, but now it seems to mostly show who has the money to be tutored for it and take it multiple times. The real tell is that if you’re a returning adult student you don’t have to take it to enroll. Why should high school students have to take it?
Baud
@Geminid:
Q. Why do you want to be president?
A. To lose weight.
Soprano2
@SFAW: Would you be able to tell if he had?
germy
I’ll be honest: I’d rather the trump supporters didn’t participate.
Amir Khalid
@satby:
Good morning. The penultimate day of Ramadhan fasting just ended for me. Just one more day, and then I get to celebrate Eid al-Fitri by sitting at home.
NotMax
@Baud
“A carrot stick in every pot.”
;)
raven
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Google it.
Soprano2
@NotMax: My stepson in Paia says his five roommates are all out of work; he’s the only one who is still working. He works at Mana Foods as a baker. So many jobs in Maui are tied to tourism, I’m afraid it’s going to be a long slow slog for you there.
Immanentize
@Baud: I bet they are forced by the Judge to pay a little “rent on the courtroom,” with a somewhat longer sentence. For not pleading sooner — and for lying once the rowing buddy was found.
germy
Trump didn’t want to be seen wearing a mask.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly:
I saw a headline that after he appeared without one, the Michigan AG called him a “ridiculous person” and a “petulant child.”
I felt like someone had been eavesdropping on me.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: I love that picture because Trump is not looking at the demonstration but right at the guy snapping the picture. GOTCHA!
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: A different President would have long ago realized that setting an example by wearing a mask in public is a good thing.
Immanentize
@Soprano2: One of the advantages of the ACT/SAT is that they smooth out the vast differences between high schools. Getting rid of them will not decrease class status as an entry point — but increase it because private schools know their tuition is based on getting students into good colleges. They are not called “prep(eration) schools for nothing. If the standardized test disappear, other indicia of wealth and class will be strengthened — like grades at prep schools.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic:
There is an infinite number of ways to finish that opening truthfully.
OzarkHillbilly
Another one for the “Unintended Consequences” file: (NYT) As Tara Reade’s Expert Witness Credentials Are Questioned, So Are Verdicts
Lying liars gotta lie.
leeleeFL
@SFAW: It IS remarkable, isn’t it? He’s like a Zombie Trump! My ex is like that, overweight, smoking, Twinkie-eating, McDonald’s fan, and yet, he is still around, making someone else miserable, I have no doubt.
Soprano2
@Immanentize: Hadn’t thought about that. I still wish there were some way to make it faire”. In the late ’70’s when I was in high school it was different – people didn’t get tutored or take the test over and over trying to get a better score. I personally think there’s too much weight given to it.
Amir Khalid
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
In fairness, you and she are by a big margin not the only people who regard Donald Trump as a ridiculous person and a petulant child.
Anya
@OzarkHillbilly: A question to the lawyers, do these Defense attorneys in California who are trying to get convictions overturned on the basis that Tara Reade misled courts about her credentials while testifying under oath as an expert on behalf of the prosecution have a case? What did her “expert opinion” change and why would that outweigh the evidence? Why is whether she had a BA or not relevant to her testimony?
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: PS and OT. Do we have viable yogurt?
leeleeFL
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Hahahahahaha! You’re adorable!
germy
@OzarkHillbilly:
John S.
@Soprano2: I hope this ultimately results in some changes on the islands. Over-reliance on tourism is not a good thing.
I have noticed in my past few visits a shift to locally/grown raised food instead of importing everything. That trend is probably a good step in the right direction.
gratuitous
First trying to get kids to eat healthier and exercise, now she’s trying to get more people to vote! That maniac Michelle just never stops, does she?!
Look for this sentiment to be expressed soon on a conservative media outlet near you.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: Saw that story too and am wondering how she got into law school with no bachelor’s degree? Before the widespread availability of independently verifiable online transcripts, I remember being asked to produce my diploma as evidence of a degree for jobs, post-graduate classes, etc.
Anya
Katie Halper is an extremely ridiculous person. I can’t believe anyone takes her seriously. I think she’s our side’s Charlie Kirk.
Baud
Another Scott
@Matt McIrvin: And that is fundamentally unfair, of course.
I need to read up on the various alternative futures and figure out which ones are worth supporting:
I’ve heard for years that #1 is far too dangerous, but maybe if the timing is right it’s the way to go. There’s too much cruft that is endangering our society going forward (like the huge lift for wealth taxes and other non-income taxes, “money = speech”, “the federal government can only regulate things that touch on interstate commerce”), and too much that isn’t needed (e.g. 3rd Amendment).
So much to do!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@Baud: Now that restrictions are being eased in Delaware Biden ought to start taking daily walks.
Anya
@Betty Cracker: Some law schools do not require a full bachelor’s degree, only a certain number of undergraduate credit hours.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: I cannot tell you how much I love this aspect of the Reid saga — but rather because of the unmasking (heh) of another fake expert witness for prosecutors.
Back when I was representing folks on death row in Texas, there was a case, Thompson, in which an expert testified as to the defendant’s “future dangerousness” in the punishment phase of his trial. Because of the oddity of the Texas death penalty scheme, there was a small cottage industry of such experts (see the movie, The Thin Blue Line.).
In Thompson’s case the Psychologist PhD expert of course said that he was super dangerous and that the likelihood of him killing again was 100%! Amazing! But a big law firm took the case in post-conviction proceedings and investigated everything, including the woman’s credential. Ok, she was a PhD from University of Florida +- but a Dr. Not of psychology but of trombonology — a music major.
Case overturned, even in Harris County.
germy
@Anya:
Even a dummy like Michael Tracey couldn’t swallow her story.
Baud
@Another Scott:
Why do you want soldiers quartered in your home?
Some might say that the third amendment has been the only effective amendment in the Bill of Rights.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@raven: I have googled it. It turns up a lot of hits. That’s how I know about the studies, the fact that the Chinese believe in its efficacy, etc. In global print news there’s a lot about it. But my mother in law, who is staying with us for the duration, is addicted to MSNBC and I listen to NPR Morning Edition most mornings, and read WaPo, which for me is the local rag, pretty regularly, and it rarely if ever gets a mention in any of those news sources.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Geminid:
It’s hard to imagine Biden being able to take a walk while everyone flocking after him observes social distancing. Does he have Secret Service protection either as a former VP or presumptive D candidate?
MomSense
A big thank you to the jackal who shared yesterday that they are finding it tough to focus and manage tasks. I’ve been so frustrated with myself for not being as productive or focused at work (home too). Of course we are not going to be productive going through this crisis. Anyway, try to be kind to yourselves everyone.
PST
@Betty Cracker:
She’s like Jeff Winger in Community, which is what I’m binge-watching today.
Baud
@MomSense:
I’ve been having difficulty focusing too.
germy
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: The 1A program did a story about her and her accusations yesterday. It made me so furious – there were many, many facts about the situation that they didn’t bring up and seemed unaware of. I was heartened to see how many people commenting on Facebook said some variation of “She’s an opportunistic liar”, and only a few seemed to believe her. I kept saying that when she’s ready to file a police report actually naming Biden, or go under oath to testify, or be interviewed by a real reporter we can talk. The fact that Ronan Farrow passed on her story should have been a huge tell for all legitimate reporters.
zhena gogolia
@MomSense:
These days seem as if I’m always rushed, always behind.
Another Scott
@germy: That can’t be Donnie – the tie is too short. Fake News!!11
Is that a Space Force logo on the mask??
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
satby
@Amir Khalid: I’m sorry. I never realized the social dimension of Ramadan until I had my exchange daughters, who were with me at the start of it in 2016. Both were looking forward to getting home to be with family and friends for the evening. Partially because the days in June in the north are nearly 16 hours!
Betty Cracker
@Anya: I had no idea — thanks!
Another Scott
@Immanentize: Yup. Any system with so much at stake for so many will be gamed by those who have the means to do so. Unless people work very hard to minimize the gamesmanshipiness.
Humans are very, very crafty beasties.
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
Elizabelle
@germy: I hope someone has saved Dirtbag Nathan J. Robinson’s tweets.
He does not get to sanitize his output like that. People need to know what he was pushing.
Immanentize
@Soprano2: I don’t disagree with you at all. Likewise, being from semi-rural upstate NY, I took the SAT once and only leaned that prep classes existed like in my third year of college from a friend from NYC.
Still, we don’t have any good/better smoother. My son applied to a couple Cal. System school and they try to use grades plus accelerated or AP course bumps to grades to smooth. I guess that is what they will use going forward. But my son’s school offered no official AP courses because that is actually a branding scam too, as official AP courses have to use officially approved AP textbooks…. Students took tons of AP exams — but no official courses.
But in the end, California considered something like 80% of his classes to either be accelerated or AP. I think his GPA after all the bonus points was something like a 4.4 (on a 4 point schedule) — but that hardly compared well with the students who ended up with 4.8s from California schools.
Cameron
@Geminid: The health of the public should also be the President’s interest and concern. But it isn’t.
geg6
@Baud:
We all use placement tests anyway. Just chuck the pre-enrollment testing and use weighted high school GPA and use the placement tests for advising once enrolled. They are a waste of time and money, they aren’t an accurate assessment for most students and we already only count them for 1/3 of our decision for admittance as we consider the GPA a better measure of actual performance.
Elizabelle
@germy: More likely than not Lying Tara Reade loses that Seattle U law degree. To Seattle U’s great relief, I think.
A reader commenter on the NY Times story today wondered if Reade ever actually applied for a law license. The licensing board would likely have uncovered the missing bachelor’s degree.
mali muso
@Amir Khalid: Here in our non-practicing but nominally mixed-faith household, we have plans for a Zoom celebration with friends whilst everyone eats their grilled meat at home. And then my husband will do the obligatory phone calls to every far flung relative back in the homeland to exchange blessings. Ramadan Kareem!
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: There was a famous professor at UChicago who never got his bachelor’s degree because he didn’t/refused to satisfy the PE requirement. Went on to get his PhD though.
There are, and always should be, IMHO, corner cases where people can get higher degrees without necessarily having a HS or college degree.
It’s not clear to me that Tara should be in that category though…
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
I’ll probably get flamed for this, but I have seen some BS Protection from
Abuse cases and some victims’ advocates who make the situation worse. People sometimes use PFAs for “leverage” in family matter cases with custody battles. It doesn’t take many bullshit PFA cases to make everyone in the system more skeptical and unresponsive to the 99% that are legit.
Anya
I think this the cleverest tweet about the recent Tara Reade development:
https://twitter.com/piperdewn/status/1263726011146858496?s=21
germy
@Betty Cracker: She testified under oath that she had a BA.
Since it’s apparently not a requirement, I don’t know why she misrepresented her credentials.
Geminid
@Baud: Now that restrictions are being eased in Delaware Biden ought to start taking daily walks. It would be good contrast.
Buckeye
@germy:
When Michael Tracey sounds sensible we really are in the upside down world.
Grim, Halper and Robinson just wanted Biden to drop out so Bernie would got the nom. No actual investigation of Reade’s claims, so once that started happening everything is blowing up in their faces.
OzarkHillbilly
I have no idea either, but people have been faking degrees forever and a day. One would think a law school would be especially certain of these things, but I have yet to see a system that couldn’t be beaten or one that didn’t have holes that let’s things slip thru.
Immanentize
@Anya: I’ll take this one! Reid would not have been able to testify in those cases period if her real credentials were known. One cannot just go into court and say, I’d like to say something about this case! She perpetrated a fraud on the Court and may well be prosecuted for it.
Experts — unlike any other witness — get to testify about intimate issues of fact. They can say things like, the victim in this case was acting out of a reasonable fear response to previous abusive acts by the defendant when s/he hit the defendant first with the 2×4.
No other witness, except an expert, can testify to either the conclusion (fear response) or the prior bad acts (other abusive acts by the D).
The presumption is that expert testimony is prejudicial. So fake experting is very bad. It undermines the whole evidentiary structure of reliability.
raven
Immanentize
@Another Scott: NO NO NO to your number 1 — the Constitutional Convention (or “Con Con” as we call it). The document as a whole is fine. It’s judges that need to change.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Not to speak of the phony-ass “proprietary” schools and their bullshit “degrees”.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: I loved how all the bite mark testimony was shown to utter quackery. Same for burn patterns and blood spatter analysis. I have come to the point where I realize their is very little actual science in forensics.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone 😊😊😊
raven
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Well it sounds pretty iffy to me.
rikyrah
Another Scott
@Baud: Touché. Still, if it were a big problem wouldn’t it show up in the states? Does every state constitution have a similar provision?
It still seems like a strange provision to need in the highest law of the land, given all the modern problems we have.
Dunno.
I’m reminded of Virginia’s constitution. For the state to give tax breaks to veterans’s surviving spouses required a specific amendment to the state constitution. That’s just nuts. Legislatures should have tax and spend authority simply via the nature of their jobs – it shouldn’t require constitutional amendments. Similarly for Proposition 13 in CA and similar provisions around the country.
When I’m king, there are going to be changes around here!!1
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
@Immanentize: Reade, not Reid.
Tara Reid is a working actress (who probably wishes the other Tara had used a different alias)
Tara Reade is a liar with many aliases and a history of fraud.
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor: He has secret service as former VP. The candidate SS really kicks in after the nomination, although there was talk of expanding it to “finalists.”
Citizen Alan
@Anya: There are too many women named Katie active in American politics right now. I was about to get offended by your comment when I realized Katie Porter was someone else. Then, I thought you meant Katie Hill and got even more confused.
@Anya:
Immanentize
@germy: Isn’t Reamde a book by Neil Stephenson? Or is it Stevenson.?
Omnes Omnibus
@Anya: They potentially do have a case. If Reade was presented as an expert and part of her qualification as an expert was having a relevant degree, then she was who she presented as. Second, and in my mind more importantly, lying about her credentials goes to her credibility as a witness.
@germy: You don’t have to have attended law school to be an expert witness in a trial.
Buckeye
@Elizabelle:
She apparently did get the JD but failed the bar twice, according to one of her multiple blogs.
It’s hard to keep track of all her lies. She apparently can’t. I know people who really still want to believe because most victims are telling some sort of truth. But she’s not one of those.
ETA: Not only did she lie about her education she also claimed that she’d been a legislative assistant to Biden when she was a staff assistant in the mail room.
Cameron
@Citizen Alan: All of them, Katie.
Geminid
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Well, there would certainly be a big gaggle of reporters following Biden if he walked, but in at least some White House briefings I’ve seen the reporters wear masks and stand apart. I don’t know about the security, but if walks could be done safely they would be a good look.
Anya
@Immanentize: I can understand how damaging a fake expert can be but she really doesn’t need a BA to testify about the fear response. She can testify if she’d worked with victims of abuse or from a loved experience. I just want to be clear that I am not defending TR but I just want to know what chances those defenders have for an appeal based on TR’s fake credentials alone.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: Bite mark bullshit evidence was the only reason Ted Bundy could be convicted. That is such a weird case. After his conviction, police came from all over the country to get him to confess to murders that he obviously could not have committed (like he was never in that State) just to clear old cases. Bundy complied and rather enjoyed the attention. There are dozens of murderers walking free today because police just wanted to clear old cases.
PST
@rikyrah: Good morning. It’s probably too late, but I have an X idea for last night’s Little Women project: “I hope Jo didn’t xerox her manuscript,” thought Amy, as she fed the pages to the flames.
OzarkHillbilly
Because she is incapable of telling an unadulterated truth? My ex is a pathological liar. No matter how innocently truthful a fact might be , she could not tell it without embellishing it, making it better.
Immanentize
@Anya:
Not in any court I’ve ever worked in. There is a very narrow exception for specialized technical knowledge — not psychology. To see how that works, watch My Cousin Vinny and the credentialing on Mona Lisa.
ETA The chances that the defendants will prevail, if she gave any opinion testimony at all, is excellent. Prosecutors need to vet their friggin witnesses. This is not Judge Judy for goodness’ sake.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Yep.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly: Those of us who had Tara Reades in our lives (in my case, two different co-workers at two different jobs) recognized her type immediately.
hells littlest angel
May it be all the way down to the ninth circle of hell.
germy
@Anya:
I agree, but then she shouldn’t have testified under oath that she had one. And now she’s making up a new story about being “fast tracked” that’s also being disproved.
Immanentize
@PST: Ooo. That’s good!
germy
@Geminid: I’d rather he buy a home treadmill.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: That is so damned common, I have read of other cases just like that, most recently was one in TX (iirc).
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor: He does. I just (literally, just this minute) finished watching his 50-minute interview on Colbert last night, and he mentioned at the outset that he has several SS agents protecting him (I think in his role as former VP rather than as presumptive nominee for POTUS, although in his case I suppose it’s a moot point).
The long conversation is worth watching. During the crowded primary season, Biden was far from my top choice. But now, I am actively supporting him — not merely accepting him as the survivor, and not as merely the anti-Trump. I’ve watched a number of his FB Town Halls, I’ve given him money and volunteered for his campaign, and if he ends up governing even half as well as he’s campaigning, I’ll be satisfied.
Anya
@Immanentize: I should have phrased it as a question rather than assertion so thanks for clarifying. IsMy Cousin Vinny a real representation of expert testimony?
germy
To be clear, they never accused me of assault. Instead, they almost got me fired by blaming me for their mistakes. In the one job, my boss knew immediately what was going on, and told me not to worry about it.
In the other job, the boss was mostly absent, and actually believed the mistakes were mine, until I retrieved paperwork to prove myself.
Immanentize
@germy:
Hmmm, who does that sound like? I love that Reade’s proponents are deleting stuff — hiding their involvement, shamefully altering the historic records.
Mousebumples
Re bachelor’s degree being required for graduate degrees –
I have a Doctorate (PharmD), without an undergrad degree. 6 year program at my college (Drake University), with the last 4 years being the graduate program.
And I had a classmate that was studying for his JD when we graduated over a decade ago. To my knowledge, he didn’t have an undergrad degree either.
Elizabelle
@Immanentize: The idea of Ms. Reade’s housing situation being resolved for a few years sounds good to me. I wish some involuntary confinement were in her future.
I wonder if her ex-husband ever wants to raise his head? Because she wrote some pretty interesting victim p0rn about him, in the day. Not saying there was not domestic abuse, because Tara did convince a court of it, and was granted custody of their young daughter.
Under her alias, Alexandra McCabe. In this article, she mentions Joe Biden in the first paragraph, and only there. Not as a predator, but to establish her own bona fides.
Fiction or memoir? You decide. From an online pub, the WIP.
But in this, um, writing, she recounts her terrible taste in men (she was warned about one, married him anyway … she calls him “Tate”) …
And there she attended Seattle U and earned a law degree. As Alexandra McCabe.
Here’s a PDF of Seattle U’s 2009 alumni magazine. Full page story on Alexandra McCabe on page 34, as a survivor of abuse. Again, she namedrops having worked for Joe Biden. And for Leon Panetta.
I feel so badly for Tara’s daughter. And for Joe and Jill Biden, and everyone else who got dragged through this saga.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: I purposely avoided the early news stories of her accusations because the timing was just too convenient. I haven’t read much at all since it all fell apart either, and have yet to see a clip of her speaking. Hence my speculative question mark above. If I had actually had the stomach to watch her, I would most likely speak with a great deal more certainty.
It’s been 30 years and I still can’t stand to be in my ex’s presence.
zhena gogolia
@PST:
Oh, yes, great!!!!!
debbie
@Matt McIrvin:
If the situation was dire enough, I think it would be possible, but who wants that? I’d happily settle for smaller margins.
Frankensteinbeck
@MomSense:
You won’t get flamed by me. Nothing attracts lying, cheating the system, and sadistic unfairness like legal actions involving custody. The unspeakable horrors abusers are willing to commit to keep a victim under their thumb are difficult for anyone who hasn’t been there to believe. Divorces are often thick with hate even for otherwise decent people, and become wars of spite for assholes. I’ve seen in passing the divorce version, and had a close look at the psychiatry angle and things abusive family members try to use the profession to do. Ugh.
zhena gogolia
@Citizen Alan:
When the Katie Hill story broke, I thought it was Katie Porter and I was really confused, it seemed out of character for her because she’s so common-sensical.
Immanentize
@Anya: No, My Cousin Vinnie is not a representation of real expert testimony. But it is accurate, right down to the prosecutor’s voir dire on the expert’s credentialing.
The expert in question, Mona Lisa Vito, is played by Marisa Tomei. It IS a damn funny movie fer sure.
debbie
@germy:
Now there’s a version of The Handmaid’s Tale I’d happily see over and over and over!
Anya
@Omnes Omnibus: that makes a lot of sense. I don’t understand how the prosecutors didn’t do any vetting of their “expert witness”. She probably used the whole “I was a legislative assistant to Senator Biden and I worked on the violence against women law” lie but still…
OzarkHillbilly
I read where he admitted that there had been an incident where he allowed things to escalate and lost his temper. He may have stated she hit him first, can’t remember for certain about that part.
At any rate, it is probably a part of his life he just wants to put as far in the rearview mirror as he can, so can get on with his life.
debbie
@MomSense:
I have the highest quality marks at work (BFD, to be honest, though I tend to be a perfectionist). The last couple of weeks, I’ve made a couple of errors I can’t believe I’ve made. I’m not sure if it’s lack of focus or just not giving a shit about anything anymore. I’ve never not cared about performance-related stuff ever before.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Soprano2:
I thought the host was doing a terrible job, and the NPR reporter she opened the program with was trying– too gently– to push back with facts, but the host wanted to get to Rebecca Traister so Herself could do her “talk really fast and blow past the question of whether this story is true or not”. I had to turn it off. I sent an email, I don’t expect to hear back. I’m glad there was pushback on Facebook, I hope they acknowledge it.
A month ago I was a big fan of Traister and Chris Hayes. I’ll sit over here quietly and wait for either of them to acknowledge their gross lapses in professionalism on this story.
OzarkHillbilly
@Anya: A lot of times the only vetting they do is to see if someone has been an expert witness previously. The assumption is that somebody else already did the vetting.
debbie
@Immanentize:
Were you down there when they were railroading Cameron Todd Willingham?
Immanentize
@Anya: ETA. Here is a link to the voir dire of Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny
Geminid
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Well, there would certainly be a big gaggle of reporters following Biden if he walked, but in at least some White House briefings I’ve seen the reporters wear masks and stand apart. I don’t know about the Secret Service protection- Biden may not get it till the convention- but if walks could be done safely they would be a good look.
Immanentize
@debbie: Yes. He wasn’t my client, but my coworkers did most of the post-conviction work on that case.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: Yes, it appears so. Chilling right now, will taste later.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@germy:
I don’t get people like Reade (and Trump) who make up stories and think no one is going to check them.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: This is how people get away with being fake experts — were they certified as one before? So all a fake needs is one such credential, and always best to move to another state after you get it .
germy
screenshots
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: It is possible that he has been talking to people about her, on the down low.
Baud
@Immanentize:
“That’s a bullshit question.”
debbie
@Immanentize:
Twenty years later and I’m still outraged. Most of what I’ve learned about the case was from a New Yorker article. When the forensics investigator (probably not the actual job title) insisted that forensics was more of an art than a science, the magazine almost went out the window.
germy
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
Excellent! Well worth watching.
Elizabelle
In putting this up, I do not doubt that Alexandra McCabe/Tara Reade may be a survivor of domestic abuse. I have trouble, though, with all the other fabrications, and the damage she has done to Joe Biden and a lot of other people in her life, with her lying and opportunism. Including, we now learn, people who have gone to prison, possibly partially on the strength of her “expert witness” testimony.
Her lying may make it harder individuals who have been abused; an example of a woman who lied (if not about domestic abuse, about a lot of other things). She undercuts women’s credibility. Along the lines of that discredited Rolling Stone article on rape at a UVa. frat house and rape culture at the school (which may have existed, but with a first person account that could not be corroborated, who can say??) …
This is a feel good story about Ms. McCabe, a shout-out to programs that assist abused women, and how her law degree helped turn her life around.
From the Seattle U Law alum magazine article: Summer, 2009
Escaping abuse: Law school helped domestic violence survivor start new life
Alexandra McCabe arrived in Seattle with a new name, a young daughter and $40.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: I never heard of Nathan Robinson before all this blew up, but there were a lot of bigger names whose reputations should not recover. I don’t know how much credibility Matt Taibbi * still had, but between him and Katie Halper, Rolling Stone needs to seriously rethink its political outfit. I’ve been taking the Intercept with a large grain of salt for a long time, but I thought Greenwald was the only out-and-out crank (to put it mildly) there; at the same time Ryan Grim was hawking this story, Jeremy Scahill was having a week-long twitter meltdown about Nancy Pelosi’s ice cream, and I think it was after that they hired (back?) Briahna Joy Grey. The Breunigs will probably still be taken seriously in some quarters, especially since Elizabeth got that sweet NYT sinecure (for the people!
ETA: Lucy Flores, the NV state rep whose column about Biden inspired Reade’s initial would-be revelations, still has this as her pinned tweet:
She’s a former board member of “Our Revolution
ETA, A: forgot my * about Taibbi: Remember “vampire squid”? Has anyone ever mined so much out of two words?
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly: I have all too close acquaintance with pathological liars too. I have a similar visceral response. Tara Reade rang all the bells as soon as I read about her.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: No one ever loses credibility by attacking Democrats.
Salty Sam
Thanks for the reminder, and good point. I still cycle from seething rage, to despondency, and back to hope for change to come from this. Last night was a bad one, couldn’t sleep after watching a mashup of assholes behaving badly (about wearing masks in stores). I’ll be SO glad to move on to a different reality than this one.
Compassion to all, especially to our own selves…
Geminid
@germy: I expect Biden has a treadmill. I’m not suggesting Biden walk to get in shape, but to show that he is in shape. Unlike a certain other guy. It would get him on the evening news, in a good way.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I saw Nathan Robinson as someone who tore Biden down everytime he could. And the other candidates. Didn’t he go after Pete Butitgeg (sp?) too? Checking that now.
The Guardian gave him, and at least one other person, a forum to spread the Reade rumors and wonder why the story was being deepsixed. [There was a guest column by some woman asking why the media was deep sixing the Biden rumors.]
It was also obvious that he, and a lot of the Guardian, were Bernie Sanders supporters. For all the good reporting they often do, they seem to have no realistic view of political life as it exists in the United States.
WaterGirl
@Citizen Alan:
Be careful what you wish for! Fifteen years ago I uttered the words “There are too many Steves!” My best friend Steve, my (now) -ex, and a fellow who worked for me. Uttered in a friendly way, of course, after a confusing conversation about one of the Steves.
Fast forward 6 months, and the only Steve that was left was my best friend.
Roger Moore
@OzarkHillbilly:
Even fingerprints, which are considered to be the gold standard to the point that other forms of supposedly unique identification are called fingerprints turn out not to be nearly as well researched as you’d like. And even in very scientific areas, like DNA testing, there are issues with the statistical analyses of results that can make them much less certain than experts make them appear.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: So you are the one who got rid of Steve in the WTF?
ETA: Also, obligatory
Baud
@WaterGirl:
What you meant?
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: One doubts it.
Roger Moore
@Immanentize:
I suspect the underlying problem is that once someone has managed to beat the vetting once, it’s much easier for them to do it a second and subsequent time. Lawyer 2 will assume Lawyer 1 did their work before letting someone testify for them, so a superficial check of their credentials is all that’s needed. So it just takes a few lazy lawyers to wreck the system.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Salty Sam:
I had to set a nighttime cutoff point after which I don’t watch any political news. Otherwise I can’t sleep.
Elizabelle
Yep. The Guardian gave Nathan J. Robinson a forum to attack Bernie’s opponents.
Buttigieg is the Democrats’ flavour of the month. Just don’t ask what he stands for
April 16, 2019
Nathan Robinson
Pete Buttigieg is a man with a lot of ‘gold stars’ on his résumé, but why should anybody actually trust him to be on their side?
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: I read that Reade’s ex-husband admitted in court to abusing Reade but denied abusing their child, so I think we can safely assume Reade is an abuse survivor. That makes your main point — that her fabrications undercut women’s credibility and make addressing abuse and harassment that much harder — all the more despicable, IMO.
[Editing after the fact to clarify my shittily worded sentence: READE’S actions are despicable given her status as a survivor, not Elizabelle’s point!]
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Taibbi is capable of investigative journalism when it suits his purposes, so I blame him more than people like Halper, who’s never been a serious journalist but rather a jumped-up podcaster with an obvious agenda.
As for The Intercept, the eBay guy who funds it should pull the plug and underwrite ProPublica or some other respectable outfit. The last thing the world needs right now is an OANN clone, and that’s what it’s turning into with Greenwald at the helm. He seems to actively degrade the capabilities of underlings.
Elizabelle
And Nathan Robinson takes down Elizabeth Warren, in between Bernie-promoting and Biden-bashing:
Progressives, trust your gut: Elizabeth Warren is not one of us
November 24, 2019
Nathan Robinson
Warren loves to antagonize the super-rich – but her campaign seems suspiciously designed to stave off revolution
Gravenstone
@Baud: Those gym fees really add up, man! And have you ever tried to cancel a membership? Total hassle.
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle:
Oh, what a horrible thing, staving off revolution. Revolutions are so much fun.
https://stevehely.com/2017/11/16/the-revolution-eats-its-children/
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: I qualified that very carefully, in saying she had convinced a court and that she might very well be an abuse survivor.
Please read it again. My comment was more about the other stuff she’s said
I am surprised at your tone. “Despicable.” Really?
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker:
Excuse me? Have you not noticed all the conservatives and trolls comparing and conflating Reade’s and Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations?
Yes. Reade’s lying, on topics other than, perhaps, the extent of the abuse she suffered, has made it difficult for other women. Although trolls are going to grab at anything they can. (Many, many attempts to take down Dr. Blasey Ford.)
It’s on display in the reader comments on today’s FTF NY Times story about Reade and her “expert witness” testimony.
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: I didn’t read that as an attack on you. I thought that BC was saying that Reade’s actions were despicable because she was an abuse survivor and was making it harder for other victims of abuse to be taken seriously.
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle:
I don’t think she meant your comment was despicable. There’s a grammar slippage. The fact that it’s making it harder for abuse victims is despicable.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Funny, but I certainly hope not! I wish he would come back.
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle:
I’m proofreading a 300-page book right now so am directing a laser beam on grammatical constructions. I see OO agrees with me.
laura
@Amir Khalid: Ramadan Mubarak Amir Khalid.
Subsole
@PST: I loved that show. Hilarious cast. The d&d episode had me rolling.
Just One More Canuck
@Anya: it calls into question her ability to reach valid conclusions
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: @zhena gogolia: @Elizabelle:
Just Chuck
I don’t want T to be the next Herbert Hoover. I want him to be the next Millard Fillmore, head of a party that ceased to exist after him.
Roger Moore
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
They assume they’re going to be able to lie and bluster their way through because they’ve succeeded in lying and blustering their way through so many times in the past.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: Every once in a while, I think it becomes necessary to remind ourselves that most of the commenters here are decent people and that most of the time we don’t mean to be horrible to one another. If something from a long-term inmate reads as a personal attack, we should reread to make sure, think of the possible other interpretations of the comment, and verify before we take offense. It’s tough enough out there without unnecessary fights.
Elizabelle
More love letters from Nathan J. Robinson, in The Guardian. I bring these up because The Guardian has no paywall, and thus its articles are far easier to disseminate than those from other major papers.
November 3, 2019
Goodbye, Beto O’Rourke. What a sad end to a pointless campaign
There was no reason for Beto O’Rourke to run for president. But he was convinced we needed him
Even taking a slap at those who previously defeated Saint Bernie:
22 October 2019
Hillary Clinton’s attacks on Tulsi Gabbard are embarrassing
It’s sad that instead of doing something useful with her post-political career, Clinton has decided to lob ludicrous accusations at younger Democrats
And in January 2019:
Kamala Harris laughed about jailing parents over truancy. But it’s not funny
Recently resurfaced videos of Harris defending her decision to lock up parents over truancy are disturbing
Kamala’s a cop! Or in cahoots with them! Good way to despoil her work as an attorney general — “when all you have is the ability to bring criminal charges, everything looks like a crime.” Really??
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus:
Ha!
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus: @zhena gogolia:
Thank you. Maybe so.
“The” main point rather than “Your” main point would have gone a long way here.
ETA: No, when you read the whole comment, it’s pretty clear.
Subsole
@zhena gogolia:
This is what happens when your revolution is captained by people who talk about the revolution like they aren’t gonna be the ones getting shot in it.
Sab
@Immanentize: Yep. My stepgrandaughter grew up in inner city Cleveland, mostly home( i.e. not-) schooled until she got to high school. She had no interest in college because she didn’t think she was up to it. She tested in the top 1% on the ACT, without any tutoring. Big surprise to everyone (except her stepgrandparents.)
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Immanentize:
Any lawyer who has ever conducted a trial recognizes that segment when Fred Gwynn compliments Pesci on the solid nature of his objection – and then loudly says “OVERRULED”.
Its happened to me countless times.
The Moar You Know
@Soprano2: I did the community college (CA community colleges are a pet cause of mine BTW) to UC transfer thing and never had to take the SAT – and at that time the SAT was an unquestioned religion among college admittance people.
At the time I thought it was really weird that I, who was only four years older than the freshman class, didn’t have to take it. Only a few years later did I realize what that meant.
Elizabelle
@zhena gogolia:
Goya’s painting above. Wikipedia tells me Goya had this painting in his dining room.
LOL. I know someone who had that painting in his bedroom. No chance for that romance!
Tony Jay
@Elizabelle:
The Guardian didn’t (and doesn’t) actually ‘support’ Bernie Sanders. The Guardian masquerades as a ‘left wing’ broadsheet and ostentatiously promoting Sanders and his cheerleaders gives it credibility with its readership while having zero impact on the tax paid by its owners.
They had a chance to support an actual left wing leader in Britain, but preferred to spend four years engaged in a coordinated campaign of character assassination and disinformation instead. Having Tories in power is better for their sales anyway.
Fair Economist
@Another Scott: A Constitutional Convention would produce, at best, nothing good, because anything has to be ratified by 38 states. We are not going to get anything decent ratified by Missouri, Indiana, *and* Mississippi (16, 17, and 18th most Republican states by Cook partisan lean). OTOH, we might get something catastrophic like a balanced budget amendment where many Dem voters are still hoodwinked by antigovernment propaganda.
CaseyL
@Betty Cracker: Does Reade actually have a legal degree from an accredited law school? (I haven’t seen her resume, and am not about to go looking or it.).
There are many “institutions” where you can get something that looks like a law degree. There’s even a scamming cottage industry that will issue a law degree from a defunct law school – very handy! No one can confirm or deny its legitimacy!
Also – this doesn’t apply to the diploma, but to passing the Bar – some states offer an alternative to attending Law School. You can essentially apprentice yourself to a practicing law firm for X number of years – but by all accounts that takes a lot longer than attending school and is a lot more difficult (you still have to take the Bar Exam). Once again, all it takes is a law firm with very relaxed ethical standards, willing (for money) to take on an unqualified, unsuitable candidate and then coach that person through the Bar Exam.
Elizabelle
@Tony Jay: Interesting. They sure make me wince at some of their headlines and topics. Stops me from giving them any money, because I do like to support good journalism. They do a wonderful job on climate change.
Amir Khalid
@laura:
Thank you.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus:
Fuck you.
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: That is a very useful quote for my class. Thank you!
zhena gogolia
@Subsole:
Yeah. I guess I know too many Russians to be able to swoon at the word “revolution,” even metaphorically.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: Apologies; badly worded on my part. What I meant was Reade’s status as a survivor makes her lies — which as you note undermine women who are abused and/or harassed — that much more despicable. SHE is the despicable party here, not you.
zhena gogolia
@Tony Jay:
They have articles on a lot of things that interest me, but thanks to your comments and my own reactions to their political reporting, I’m not tempted to subscribe again.
PST
@WaterGirl:
Good example of why I like the Oxford comma. This could be a ticklish domestic/HR situation without it.
different-church-lady
@Just Chuck: I want him to be the next Louis XVI.
Fortunately for him what I want seldom comes to pass.
Elizabelle
@germy: LOL. Meanwhile, we have already seen Trump in a mask.
The remarkable New Yorker cover. Artist is Brian Stauffer.
trollhattan
@OzarkHillbilly:
Not just a liar, but a scammer with I suspect a long list of victims.
different-church-lady
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, well that’s just like something a person like you would say…
trollhattan
@Baud:
Narrator: “Nobody could have predicted.”
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: This is true, but the fault is 100% mine in this case for the piss-poor sentence. Sorry again, Elizabelle!
Immanentize
@different-church-lady: Charles I is a good historic precedent — chaos followed by Justice.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Thank you, Betty. Appreciated. You’re one of my faves, so that one would have smarted!
FWIW, I got the links to the McCabe/Reade material (Seattle Law U magazine and WIP articles by McCabe) from a reader’s comment in a central California newspaper, San Jose’s Mercury News. Thinking it was someone who had experience with the bad side of Ms. Tara Reade, or knew of someone who did.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: Go blow a goat.
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus: and zhena: To quote Lilly Wachowski, Fuck Both of You.
I think that was one of this week’s top tweets. It still makes me smile. Deadline.
I like Balloon Juice’s internet traditions.
H.E.Wolf
That’s so exciting! The FL Democratic Party has an ongoing project with http://PostcardsToVoters.org to write to every registered Democrat in FL, going county by county, urging them to enroll in FL’s Vote By Mail option.
I’ve written to 15 FL counties in the past year, and wrote my 1,000th postcard to FL earlier this week. I’d been hoping that you would get one of the postcards I wrote… though with thousands of writers, the odds were low. :)
PToV is considering a 2nd pass to reach FL Democrats who registered recently, after their counties were written to. So if anyone would like to sign up, there’s plenty of room for more volunteers! See link above.
ETA: PostcardsToVoters also writes in behalf of many Democratic candidates across the country, and they don’t shy away from writing to voters in (currently) deep-red areas. They’re thinking long-term, to 2022, 2024, and onward.
Tony Jay
@Elizabelle:
@zhena gogolia:
There’s a place in the British Media market for a ‘serious broadsheet catering to comfortably off metropolitan liberals’, totebaggers, as Doug J calls them, that the Guardian fills. It can play that part even while weaning its readership away from difficult discussions about the viability of Britain’s socio-economic status-quo and talking massive tons of libelous shit about the only mainstream political party capable of changing it.
Hence its deep interest in promoting foreign individuals with left-wing/progressive/environmentalist credentials. It’s performative virtue-signalling and stops dead at the UK border.
I’m not a fan. It dreams of being a British version of the NYT and is most of the way there.
PenAndKey
I’m the first person in my family to ever go to college. I also had a horrible advisor who presumed I knew the system because I was in my mid twenties while attending, while I was really just floundering trying to even ask the right questions for lack of procedural knowledge. I’ll freely admit, I was always taught as a kid that the only path fora graduate degree was Bachelors> Masters> Doctorate. Only finding out that wasn’t the case during my senior recap course four years into my Bachelors was a bit of a kick in the teeth. Given my age when I entered college I presumed a graduate degree was off the table (lack of ROI time, basically). I’d have done things far different if I’d known I could have applied to the graduate program on my campus two years into my major.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus:
Outside, I guess, since the 1st of May has passed.
Emma from FL
@Tony Jay: That was my impression. Thank you for confirming it. The bloody Financial Times is more honest.
Jeffro
LOL. I actually once thought about getting my supervisor and I doctorates from some diploma mill in the Caribbean a la Zonker/Uncle Duke from Doonesbury (would have related to some inside jokes at the office).
Caught myself at the last minute because while I never would have tried to display it or list it as a credential, I didn’t want to turn up on a list or ever be known as someone who bought a phony degree. Even the honest denial/explaining the joke would sound lame.
But…maybe just before I retire! =)
The Moar You Know
@Anya: I’m an expert witness (digital forensics). Not a lawyer. Take that how you will.
Your credibility is everything as an expert witness. You get caught in one lie, or get shown to be wrong once, and you and your case are done. Possibly your entire “expert witness” career if the case is in any way high profile. And there’s good reasons for that; you’ve been declared an expert, by the court, based on your qualifications. The court says “you can take this guy’s word for it, because he has an educational, work history and skill set that enables us to declare him an expert on the subject at hand”.
As to your questions:
If you’re really interested, I cannot recommend enough “How to Become a Dangerous Expert Witness” (Amazon link). Replete with examples of successes and inexcusable failures. Covers qualifications and the consequences of falsification thereof. I read the entire thing every time before I testify.
And I don’t like the work so I don’t take on much of it anymore. It’s stressful as hell.
Anya
@germy: Give him credit for knowing when to cut his loses. Katie Halper is still in the bunker. She will be the last to jump.
Jeffro
Hope everyone continues to recognize that trumpov’s latest campaign student is a bust.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Tara Reade’s lawyer, the six-figure trump donor, not the former counsel to RT, has dropped her as a client.
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: Indeed.
Subsole
@zhena gogolia: Yeah. You see it alot on the alt-right. For all his loud talk, getting shot storming the White House is so not Gavin McInnes’s job…
What kind of Russians? Like 90s Muscovites or Refuseniks or old school SSR or what?
The Moar You Know
@Immanentize: or, what the actual lawyer said. Better than I did, and in fewer words.
zhena gogolia
@Subsole:
All sorts. I used to go there a lot.
Betty Cracker
@H.E.Wolf: Excellent strategy! My postcard has a Boston postmark.
Miss Bianca
@Tony Jay: Sad, really. Back in the 80s, when I was in my impressionable 20s, I indexed the Guardian and I actually loved doing it. Their coverage of the first intifada was amazing, as I recall. Even the leftiest American media at the time seemed reflexively pro-Israel by contrast, so it was a real eye-opener to me to read a pro-Palestinian – or at least, not anti- Palestinian POV.
How the mighty have fallen. Meanwhile, somehow the NYT has managed to convince local RWNJs in my deep-red Colorado county that it is a front for the DNC, a charge I find so mind-boggling that I literally sputtered when I read it.
rp
@Anya: Those clips were used in a class I took on direct and cross-examination. Lawyers love the movie and the presentation of the testimony.
Anya
@Immanentize: Thank you! I am putting it on my “must watch” list. I am working my way to 90s movies.
jl
Michelle Obama is very smart, and I think she knows best what role she can play to have maximum impact.
But, I do keep thinking that for quite a while now, a person can make a good argument things would have gone much better for the country if the first ladies were the official president. Laura Bush would have certainly been better than W. More arguable about Hillary and Michelle, but I think you could make a good argument.
And Melania Trump would be miles better than DJ Trump. But that is a special case, since a lot of bright high school kids, and some brilliant border collies would be better too.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That is HUGE. Douglas Wigdor, top-rated attorney and Trump supporter who represented several of Harvey Weinstein’s victims, drops Tara Reade as a client.
mad citizen
@Just Chuck: “I don’t want T to be the next Herbert Hoover. I want him to be the next Millard Fillmore, head of a party that ceased to exist after him.”
Excellent comment, Just Chuck! I’m using this aspiration. We also can’t forget about living long enough to see his name removed from all buildings (well except, you know, sewage treatment plants. They never went through with the one aimed at W, but it’s so much on point with this guy.)
germy
Ruckus
@Bruce K:
One of those “compartments” has looked like it was taking on water a long time ago, but now looks like it’s bulging from all the pressure.
PsiFighter37
So any thoughts on Biden’s somewhat inartful comments around what being black is this morning?
Miss Bianca
@PsiFighter37: Nope. I got no “thoughts” on any Biden remarks at all, if by “thoughts” you mean “ginned-up outrage about…SOMETHING!!”
Baud
@PsiFighter37:
Didn’t see it, but Biden being “somewhat inartful” is not worth our time.
Gvg
@Anya: liars lie. People who are proven liars, especially if they lie for money, should not be believed.
Elizabelle
The FTF NY Times just updated yesterday’s story about Reade’s expert witness credentials coming under fire.
[And I wish they would not do the digital updating. Leave the original story and link the new one. They might say it’s to be more convenient for their readers, but it also makes you wonder if they’re occasionally sanitizing their original take. Anyway:] Their new headline and lede:
Tara Reade Is Dropped as Client by a Leading #MeToo Lawyer
The Moar You Know
@PsiFighter37: Don’t care.
He is still not Donald Trump.
Who has made some comments about black folks that the word “inartful” doesn’t begin to cover.
Eyes on reality, people.
Gravenstone
@Omnes Omnibus: Is there any need to drag Mickey Kaus into this?
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: You are welcome. I find that quote to be all too true, in many spheres, both personal and professional.
eric
@rp: watch the Verdict if you want to learn about the best evidence rule. ;)
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: Well done!
germy
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@eric: I can’t speak to the accuracy of the lawyering, but I think that movie is an underrated classic.
Tony Jay
@Miss Bianca:
Exactly. In fact its coverage of Israel/Palestine has been one of the bellwethers for the Guardian’s change in editorial stance. You’d be hard pressed to find any criticism of the Occupation these days, and for the last few years it has operated as a deliberately one-sided funnel for ‘Jewish opinion’ coming entirely from the hard, pro-Likud Right, all of it aimed at smearing the left-wing of the Labour Party as being more of a danger to Britain’s Jews than the neo-Nazi thugs scrawling swastikas on the walls of synagogues and chanting “We Love Boris Johnson” for the TV News.
Though try to question their editorial stance on their comment boards and you’ll be censored so quickly your head will spin.
Fuckem. They chose their side.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Nothing unclear about that!
PsiFighter37
@The Moar You Know: I get it – not changing my view. Just been a while since a gaffe that is pretty groan-inducing came around. Basically told Charlamagne Tha God that if he couldn’t figure out whether or not to vote for him and Trump, then he wasn’t black.
The point he’s making is pretty clear, but just a poor way of putting it.
Elizabelle
@PsiFighter37: No. But I have thoughts on how well Biden handled this allegation by Tara Reade.
He flat out denied that it happened. He did not personally smear her. His staff was circumspect as well, initially. Jill Biden did not say anything about it at all, as far as I’ve seen.
Little by little, Reade’s fabrications increased, and a 1993 Biden staffer went on record that Reade was fired for incompetence, and outlined her actual duties.
And — the Bernie-fluffing people who pushed the story are badly discredited. There was a paper trail and a real reason the major publications and news outlets would not touch this story. Vox even published a story on how much they would have loved to break this news, but they couldn’t. Because they could never verify the Reade story. So: MSM comes out looking pretty good, and the Tara Reade crusade people … not.
While it looked like the smear came mostly from the Bernie Sanders side, I wonder if it had multiple parents.
And then, the FTF NY Times delivers the death blow with their story about Reade’s “expert witness” credentials, or lack thereof. They had run an early April story saying flat out that they could not verify Reade’s story on the Biden assault — like 7 or 8 paragraphs down as they listed the allegations. But then they updated their story a few weeks later and made that less certain … and COVID has made accessing a paper copy of the Times in a library impossible, for now.
And their newly hired media critic — Ben Smith of Buzzfeed — ran an article whingeing about “why were broadcast outlets not booking Tara Reade?” Why not, indeed.
Ben Smith this week attempted to take some shine off Ronan Farrow’s halo. I have not read that opus, at all.
Ben Smith would seem to be a FTF NY Times disaster hire. Along the lines of Liz Spayd, their “ombudsman.” Who could rarely see any issue that did not dovetail with the publisher’s view. The FTF NY Times did away with ombudsman after her tenure.
It’s a shame, because the previous media column people were really good. The late David Carr. Most recently, Jim Rutenberg. I trusted their take, or at least did not scoff at the outset.
Anyway — Biden comes through looking good, and professional, and did not dive into the mud when he was invited to do so.
Attorney Wigdor’s huffing about “victim shaming” does not belong WRT this set of facts.
eric
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: it is one of my favorite law movies, which should not be surprising given that Sidney Lumet directed a David Mamet screenplay. Jack Warden is great. And James Mason is “the Prince of Fucking Darkness.”
catclub
@WaterGirl: of course, there is also the lesson of the babelfish. Which caused more galactic wars BECAUSE beings understood other beings, and hated them even sooner.
Elizabelle
@germy: The Kavanaugh aggrieved weasel face. (Also seen on defender Lindsey Graham.) Love it!
I really like Virginia Heffernan. She’s wonderful.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
Between Hunter Biden, Tara Reade, and Obamagate, I’m happy to see we’ve learned the lessons of 2016. We’re not putting up with anything.
Elizabelle
@The Moar You Know: They’re going to have to update that book, maybe?
Very interesting. Thank you for the information.
PST
Speaking of artful, I was pleased to see a twitter announcement that Karine Jean-Pierre is joining the Biden campaign. She is always a welcome voice on MSNBC and elsewhere. This may be old news, but what struck me as artful is the photograph, which I don’t know how to embed, but it is part of the tweet. It shows Biden with his arm around Jean-Pierre’s shoulder. I think it is meant to convey the message that sure, Old Joe can be pretty tactile, but in a warm, avuncular way most people don’t mind, not in a predatory way. It also echoes a similar picture with PBO back in the day.
Baud
@germy:
Also, Biden doesn’t like beer.
Elizabelle
@Baud: It is trial by fire, but is forging resolve on our side.
I am always happy to see the bad actors outed and discredited.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Trump’s sure to feel betrayed. //
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Pearls clutched so tightly, they crumble.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@PST: helluva day for her to announce that
Big gap between hot sauce and this, but… maybe Karine can have that long overdue talk with Joe. “Just… don’t!
germy
With Karl Rove joining the trump campaign, we’ll have a lot not to put up with.
Quinerly
Didn’t read all comments so might have been mentioned. Axios reporting that Reade’s atty has withdrawn.
The Moar You Know
@Elizabelle: You’re welcome. Update for Reade? Not really needed. There’s enough in there already about people who thought they could bullshit a court on their qualifications. It never ends well.
Matt
@Bruce K:
Disagree; the GOP are not the captain here, they’re the White Star Line executives and they’re holding massive short positions on their own company.
They are not merely “god damn the torpedoes full steam ahead”, they are “hell yeah the torpedoes”. They want to see the country destroyed because they think they’ll come out the other side rich.
PST
@eric: There is a lot about The Verdict that is terribly unrealistic. That doesn’t usually ruin a movie for me. And usually I know nothing about the subject anyway, so if mistakes are made about the business of building a chain of newspapers or operating a nightclub in Morocco, I won’t know or care. But The Verdict gets the sociology of personal injury law all wrong. Insurance companies don’t hire white shoe firms who mobilize armies of associates with no concern for cost. They hire cost-effective specialists and impose rules like no first class travel, only one lawyer at a deposition, all expert fee schedules must be approved in advance, etc. The whole David v. Goliath picture is simply wrong. It’s usually a pretty fair fight. And the decision by Newman’s character to reject a settlement without telling his client is just inexcusable. No one would be that reckless. The family of the woman in the coma just wants to provide for her care for life. The offered settlement would more than cover that. Gambling on a verdict for some kind of vindication puts the lawyer’s interest above that of his clients.
germy
Ruckus
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
The studies haven’t be all positive and wonderful. So it’s not the one thing, the big story, the promised land….. And it is already generic so there’s not BIG money to be made. That it may be effective in at least reducing the severity of this disease, even for some, just isn’t the blockbuster story that an outright cure would be. Plus it’s science, not what color someone important, like an actor wears.
Baud
@germy:
“Biden is a failed businessman.”
raven
@germy:
rp
@eric: Amazing movie.
eric
@PST: that is not correct. the Defense was not insurance counsel because one of the defendants was the Archdiocese, with limitless funds.
Ruckus
@MomSense:
It is amazing that we are all as different as we are. I like not going to work but I have been when we are real busy and I have to say that it allows me to take my mind off of this mess we are all in, maybe it’s because I have to concentrate to ensure that I don’t get hurt at work – being a machinist and all. It’s something I can do to stay safe, which is hard otherwise these days. And I accomplish something, which sitting at home, not so much……
VeniceRiley
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: In re your comment at #22…….
1) I think the media felt burnt by the hydrocloroquine promotion. The effects of which are still playing out.
2) Not first out of the concluded study gate, as is the case with remdesivir.
3) Given 1&2, I think you’ll be seeing stories when the current trials are concluded and published. It will be good to know as I assume it is being studied in mild to medium symptom cases and in multi-drug cocktails, and it will be good to know which combo with Avigan is most effective.
I’m anxious for that to happen as you are, because that will mean less death and misery for the world before a vax is found, and flying becomes doable again; and only when that happens will I be able to get married and move to the UK.
PST
@eric:
That is part of what is so unrealistic. I have represented insurance companies in connection with their coverage of Catholic hospitals in Boston. The Archdiocese doesn’t own hospitals outright and it isn’t named as a defendant in malpractice cases. Even religiously-oriented non-profit hospitals are owned by entities, usually corporations or charitable trusts, and the defense of malpractice cases is handled in a businesslike fashion. Archbishops don’t get involved. James Mason and his band of underlings handle antitrust cases or class actions, not garden-variety malpractice.
Barbara
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Do you have a link to anything more formal about the trial? You can send it to various news agencies. Someone will pick it up.
Omnes Omnibus
@eric: Be that as it may, turning down the settlement offer without consulting the client she is such a huge ethical lapse that it just kills the movie for me.
Amir Khalid
@raven:
Clearly, Trump and his people have loser stink on them, and Karl Rove doesn’t want any of it to rub off on him.
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think it has been pretty well regarded. It’s turned up on a number of AFI “best this, that or the other lists.” It also got a lot of critical praise when it was released.
Along with “Prince of the City,” this is one of my favorite of Lumet’s later works. I have always been knocked out by the acting, direction and camera work.
ETA: I took a peek at the Wiki and was surprised to see that Robert Redford had been attached to the project at one point. And it was very interesting to see that the original Mamet screenplay was re-written or discarded a number of times, and that Lumet ultimately decided to go back to it.
opiejeanne
@Roger Moore:
I recognize the type, and there is always shock among the victims when they realize that it’s not them, it’s the sociopath. I observed this with several women who realized that someone they had trusted had been stealing from them, and she went to prison for stealing even more from her employers. They were practically in shock, couldn’t grasp how this person could have done these things to them and acted like their close friend the whole time. And worse, there is always a group that refuse to believe that the person in question has done anything wrong, in that case because Terry had “bought” their friendship by giving them presents of things they collected, took them to dinner so many times, done something kind for them, etc. There’s one of these non-believers in the Tara Reade story, some woman who boarded her horse in exchange for work.
It happened to me. I bent over backwards thinking I just wasn’t trying hard enough to get along with one, that the friction between us was mostly my fault, and it was a shock when I realized how bad the other person really was and I was being a soft-headed idiot for trying to behave in a Christian manner, forgiving him repeatedly for stuff he said and did.
The choir director at my church many years ago. The lies he told were really stupid about stuff that didn’t matter: he had forgotten to put away the tables after a reception and just lied and said he did, after I’d already seen the tables still set up but even worse was leaving the silver coffee service out of its locked cupboard in an unlocked building. I put it away and left the tables for him (and God help him if the ladies on the coffee committee found that out), and larger stuff that actually did matter: a budget meeting where he didn’t have quite enough votes for an illicit change in how we used the budget and claimed that someone had given him their proxy so that he had enough votes to get his way. The associate pastor threw out the results, and later found out the proxy vote was a lie. He didn’t like me but I didn’t realize it at first, until he made it too unpleasant for me to remain in choir, no direct criticism of my singing (I was ok and had a good ear and a BA in music) just made remarks about me that got back to me. Later it became obvious that he was jealous/threatened by every other musician after he tried to get rid of our organist, and ran off the director and pianist of the children’s choir and our unpaid bell choir director thinking he’d get a raise if he took on those responsibilities. He was sorely disappointed and took it out on the old ladies in that choir, and they all eventually quit.
When he started referring to himself as a Minister of Music the Pastor and Associate Pastor took notice and had a few gentle words in his ear. The Methodist church requires more education for that title than he had.
By the time he left things were heating up for him because of his verbal abusive behavior toward choir members and other musicians (he absolutely hated the organist), and even the kids in the childrens’ choir were going home and telling on him. He decided the children’s choir robes weren’t fancy enough and bragged to the church music board that he intended to squeeze the grandparents for donations for some expensive replacements.
A month after he was asked to leave, I got a call from the Baptist church in the next town over. He had given them MY name as a reference. I was reluctant to tell on him but the pastor there urged me to tell him everything, and I did. I told them about the affair with a young married woman in the choir that broke up her marriage. Her husband had a terrible heart condition and was driven to despair, and died soon after. Then he jilted her as soon as her divorce was final and became engaged to a pretty young single woman.
There were rumors and one accusation of sex with minors at the HS, one girls’ family moved away rather than expose their pregnant daughter to the tender mercies of the courts in the 70s. This was after the school “investigated” and did nothing.
Blah blah blah. He got the job and that church allowed him to call himself Minister of Music. I still don’t know why he gave them my name and why they didn’t listen to me. They figured him out after a few years, but it took longer than it had with my church because he had become much better at manipulation and lying.
laura
@raven: Ask Kim Kardashian. I thinks she plans to sit for the Cal Bar Exam in the future….
Elizabelle
@opiejeanne: Cannot believe they hired the guy, after hearing your story. Maybe that is less likely to happen today. I hope so.
And I am sorry that you and the rest of the choir/parish had to go through all that pain and ugliness.
WRT Tara Reade: the Vox journalist wrote about how engaging Tara was. That she really wanted to believe her story, but just could not verify. Reade sounds like someone with advanced people skills, over a narcissistic and manipulative core.
J R in WV
@Anya:
Because if she lied about her credentials while on the stand, she is probably guilty of perjury during the trials she testified in.
If she lied before taking the stand, while perhaps not technically guilty of perjury, she still lied, making her testimony unreliable to an extreme.
IANAL, but I’ve been on a lot of juries… seen a lot of expert testimony, worked with lawyers as a software developer, etc.
Sebastian
@germy:
Jake Tapper had no problem swallowing it
sgrAstar
@Tony Jay: oh BS, Tony. Corbyn took himself down, and he didn’t need the Guardian’s help to do it. One of the worst politicians I’ve ever seen.
🌑
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
Amir, everyone here wishes you a great Eid al-Fitri to end your fast tomorrow, later today, now, I guess. At least Wife and I do, for sure.
I’m sorry you can’t be with a crowd of family and friends and socialize in person. I’m a hermit by nature, as is my wife, and even I am pretty tired of no social interaction with the neighbors. So I can imagine very well how you feel. I’m just glad you understand that just because Eid is here, you shouldn’t go out because it could kill you to do so.
So many Americans seem to feel social distancing and self quarantine is designed to piss them off, rather than save perhaps hundreds of thousands of lives. Or even more, if this stuff runs wild.
The beach scenes and bar scenes are just dumbfounding to me~!!~
We have dentist appointments next week, and I plan to wear my industrial respirator until I’m in the chair and they’re ready to reach into my mouth !!
Tony Jay
@sgrAstar:
Thanks for your opinion chum, but I’ll base mine on the actual verifiable facts as they occured.
opiejeanne
@Elizabelle: He could be very charming when he wanted to be, so I don’t think they really believed what I was telling them, and thought I was just repeating gossip.
If you ever played the card game “Authors”, this guy was nearly a dead-ringer for Nathaniel Hawthorne as a young man, complete with the curly hair worn down to the neckline. The teenage girls fell in love with him and he was so charming to the older ladies in the church that they did too. I was never a fan of that look, and his eyes looked like the half-closed eyes of a fox.
I do have a hilarious story: the church did a live creche scene every Christmas Eve complete with donkeys and sheep out on the patio, with a real baby to play Jesus, and one year there was no baby among the congregation except for my youngest. She was just a year old and the pastors recruited her to play the baby Jesus. Meanwhile, this dick, appropriately named Dick, had appointed me to track down the animals because he didn’t know who had gotten them in previous years, and I finally figured out who had the animals we needed, when Dick called and said they didn’t need Katie because ‘Linda’s” new grandson was going to play the part because he wanted a younger baby (I had declined for my youngest the previous year because she was 14 days old and it was cold).
I had to go see “Linda” because she had the sheep, and when I congratulated her on the grandchild she looked at me like I was nuts. Her grandson was about 10. She asked where I had heard such nonsense and she blew up. She adored Dick but did NOT appreciate him lying using her name and called him and told him off. The bloom was off the rose at that point.
So Katie was the Baby Jesus (which meant I was Mary which I did not want to do because I had to ride side-saddle on a donkey and I kept slipping) , and much to Dick’s annoyance, right in the middle of the carols and solemn readings, at a pause when it was quiet, Katie pulled her bottle out of her mouth with a very loud POP! and held it straight up in the air, and everyone laughed. He was far too serious about himself and his image, and thought she (meaning me) had ruined the party.
Elizabelle
@opiejeanne: Great story. What a dick.
evodevo
@opiejeanne: they were Baptists lol – they didn’t care…ask anyone who spent any time in the tender clutches of the SBC about that…