Friday Evening Semi-Respite Open Thread: Just Another Jeebus-Humpin’ Repub…

by 5:49 pm. It has 78 Comments.

… You understand, I have this horrible condition. I have had it for years. I am incapable of seeing women as people. It used to be possible to get by in political life in this country with this condition. You would just move around a smoky room, speaking only to men, and you could have a nice career. But now, oh, these things, these things are everywhere. Holding elected office, performing jobs, playing soccer! You must understand my agony when I behold this. So much good meat, delicious meat, wonderful meat —

It is with difficulty that I shamble into the company of people every day. It is with difficulty that I convince people that I am, after all, a human being, not a wild animal, the mad, helpless victim of an uncontrollable lust. I cannot, I dare not — oh, it is with difficulty that I write these words now, knowing a woman may read them. The mere thought of my words moving before her unprotected eyes sends me into a frenzy. Ffffffft rrrrrrrrr graaarrrfll rrrrrr…

Do not let me out of the house! Or if I am so honored to be elected by you the people, the governor’s mansion!

But. Seriously. Petri’s Washington Post colleague, Alyssa Rosenberg:

… Foster’s quickness to condemn the discussion of his decision as a communist plot to bring down America lends the merest hint that his intentions here were less about preserving the sanctity of his marriage and more about ginning up the sort of culture war controversy that could be a boon to his campaign fundraising…

Part of what made Foster’s request to Campbell seem disingenuous is that it would be somewhat unusual for any candidate to be alone with any reporter under any circumstances, much less a whole day that includes a long ride… Fortunately for Foster, he has a male campaign director, Colton Robison, who would presumably be going on this day-long trip anyway to keep an eye on things…

And yet I’ll bet there are internet mischief-lovers already scouring Foster’s browser history for… clues. Two wetsuits and a dildo? Farm animal abuse? Murphy the Trickster God is the patron of Rule 34…





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Holiday Saturday Evening Open Thread

by 8:34 pm. It has 71 Comments.

I love the way otter dude whips out his clam, like a man in a suit jacket pulling out his cigarette case. (Doesn’t offer to share his clams, you’ll notice.)

Also, the tweet text is a sneaky snarky feminist riff… as anyone who’s tried to find a dress that’ll let you carry your wallet & phone already knows.





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Election 2020 Open Thread: Biden’s Women Problem

by 4:09 pm. It has 104 Comments.

Silver lining argument: It’s a good thing we’ve advanced enough that — for Democratic politicians, at least — it’s a problem when someone’s been ‘merely’ disrespectful / dismissive of women, without being actual rapists or pathological horndogs. Kinda like it was a problem for a certain long-term politician who praised then-candidate Barack Obama as “clean and articulate” back in 2007. Obama forgave Biden then; will voters (especially women voters, and voters of color) be as understanding today?

Jane Mayer, who was there for the hearings, at the New Yorker:

… Predictably, Biden was asked if he should have given Hill a fuller and more personal apology. Biden again stopped short of blaming himself, saying, “I did everything in my power to do what I thought was within the rules.” He then added, “I don’t think I treated her badly.”

Biden failed to acknowledge that, as the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991, he set many of “the rules” that damaged Hill and determined the over-all fairness of the process. As Jill Abramson and I reported in our 1994 book about the Thomas confirmation fight, “Strange Justice,” several of Biden’s Democratic colleagues in the Senate later acknowledged that, in his eagerness to be impeccably fair to all sides, Biden got outmaneuvered by the Republicans. That left Hill and, ultimately, the truth undefended. As Howard Metzenbaum, a crusty Democrat from Ohio, later admitted, “Joe bent over too far backwards to accommodate the Republicans, who were going to get Thomas on the Court come hell or high water.” An adviser to Ted Kennedy, the Massachusetts liberal whose own womanizing eroded his credibility, was more critical still, saying, “Biden agreed to the terms of the people who were out to disembowel Hill.”
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Wednesday Morning Open Thread: “Frolicking”

by 5:00 am. It has 133 Comments.

Looks to me like Chewbacca is pondering the evanescence of beauty… and the perky cluenessness of the human animal. (Also, as the Spousal Unit pointed out, those are magnolia petals… )
 
Speaking of the deliberately obtuse:





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Sci/Tech Open Thread: “Make Another Suit”

by 6:22 pm. It has 102 Comments.

At the same time, in another sterling example of the GOP ‘Billions for bullshit, but not one cent for science’ offensive…


 
Serious explanation, from someone who’s not a moron:


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