Do you think Chris Christie died a little inside when he saw this? I do. Open thread.
Let the Broken Heart Stand as the Price You Gotta PayPost + Comments (302)
by $8 blue check mistermix| 302 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Do you think Chris Christie died a little inside when he saw this? I do. Open thread.
Let the Broken Heart Stand as the Price You Gotta PayPost + Comments (302)
by Tim F| 169 Comments
This post is in: Media, Open Threads
Some HBO-themed noodling about pop culture.
True Blood: Has there been a worse event in vampire history than Sookie Stackhouse? Try to count how many ancient or very rare people-ish things have died because of her in some way. The woman is genocide on two legs. I will not list her full body count or even the most notable ones for spoiler reasons and because my keyboard might not take the strain, but it includes an awful lot of very significant characters in the supernatural world and even general world history*. If your every single storyline involves people a lot more important than you dying, maybe you are the problem.
Game of Thrones: I dig how G.R.R. Martin only implies key elements of the story and even buries some things so deeply in indirect allusions that a normal person like me needs to dive into obsessive discussion boards to understand why some characters do what they do. At this point I feel pretty good about the parts of the story that Martin wants us to know or infer at this point, except for one thing. It involves second season spoilers so I will toss it below the fold.
SPOILERS AVERT YOUR EYES!!
In season 2 Arya meets a super assassin named Jacquen who nicely murders some people for her and then walks off into the sunset. The guy stands out from most snakebit GoT characters as having almost no weakness: he is patient, pragmatic, intelligent, magically gifted, resourceful and clearly a prime physical specimen. TVTropes calls a character like him The Ace. OK so far, but Arya meets him on a prisoner convoy. The books set up his company as expensive but unstoppable murder outfit that can pull off any ludicrous job if you have the cash. So what I can’t figure out is who was the guy after, and how was he caught? King Robert is the obvious candidate, but it seems like someone caught trying to kill a king would face worse than hard labor. In particular anyone who knew what he is would be crazy to send him to the Night’s Watch, where a disguise master would not have too hard a time escaping. You would expect to see him back in King’s landing in about a week. Except you wouldn’t see him because he can change his face. All explanations welcome.
(*) Seriously, Sookie is involved in the death of every vampire over a thousand years, and things look pretty grim for that guy. The current apocalyptic vampire zombie plague storyline happened because of events that trace directly back to Sookie. To wit: Russell kidnaps Bill to find out why Bill was stalking Sookie, Eric found Russell while looking for Bill, Eric kills Russell’s rent boy to settle a grudge, Russell goes apeshit on national TV in the greatest single scene in TV history (WE. ARE. NOT. YOUR. EQUALS.), then tastes Sookie’s blood and commits even more atrocities because something to do with fairy blood, inspiring the LA governor to go apeshit and make the plague.
This post is in: Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat
(h/t commentor Emily 68)
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Marc Tracy at TNR has a hopeful argument on why “There is no Democratic Roger Ailes”:
… [W]hat the demographic data makes clear is that, even if a left-leaning programming genius were to emerge, it’s unlikely any network could have the same pull with Democrats. The groups that tend to vote for liberal candidates get their news from a more diffuse set of platforms—there’s cable, sure, but also social media, national papers, and a constellation of websites. While one-fifth of Republicans cited Fox News as their main source, CNN won first-place among Democrats with just one-tenth. Being on the whole younger, Democrats are less likely to go in for traditional platforms: 28 percent of those 18-29 rely solely on digital platforms, and it is only among those 50 and over that news engagement with digital platforms falls off a cliff. Black people, a prominent Democratic-leaning minority, use Twitter more than white people, according to Pew.
Maybe the lack of a liberal Ailes is a sign—and a guarantor—of vitality, though. Fox News caters to, reflects, and you might say represents a group of predominantly old white people. There are enough such people to ensure the continued success of Ailes-style management and journalism. But there are not enough to enable Fox News to change substantially the political direction of the entire country, particularly in the face of growing forces trying to push the country in the opposite direction. In fact, by presenting this group of voters an inaccurate vision of the country, Ailes is probably lulling them into a false sense of complacency (this he does, ironically, by appealing to delusions of victimhood)….
***********
Democratic cat-herding — it’s a feature, not a bug! Apart from cherishing our own probably-false sense of complacency, what’s on the agenda for the day?
This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Venality, Assholes, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All
"Mistakes were made" has its own wikipedia page. Includes a list of uses going back to Ulysses S. Grant. http://t.co/qviHEG3eqs
— Andrew Grossman (@A_Grossman) January 14, 2014
ETA: This is gonna leave a mark…
George Packer, in the New Yorker:
… [W]hy do I keep having flashbacks to 1972? Some of the parallels are weirdly exact. Whether or not he ordered the Watergate bugging, Richard Nixon ran a campaign of dirty tricks for two reasons: he wanted to run up the score going into his second term, and he was a supremely mean-spirited man. Nixon’s reëlection campaign reached out to as many Democrats as possible (not just elected officials but rank-and-file blue-collar workers and Catholics). Nixon ran not as the Republican Party’s leader but, in the words of his bumper sticker, as just “President Nixon.” His landslide win over George McGovern translated into no Republican advantage in congressional races—the Democrats more than held their own. The Washington Post’s David Broder later called it “an extraordinarily selfish victory.”
Christie’s 2013 reëlection tracks closely with this story: an all-out effort to court Democrats in order to maximize his personal power, and a landslide victory in November, with all the benefit going to the Governor, not to his fellow-Republicans in the state legislature. On Christmas, the Times published a piece about Christie’s long record of bullying and retribution. In it, the Fort Lee traffic jam was mentioned as just one of many cases (and, I have to admit, not the one that stayed with me) of vengefulness so petty that it inescapably called to mind the American President who incarnated that quality, and was brought down by it….
It took months and months for “Watergate” to explode from a ‘two-bit burglary’ to ‘what did the President know, and when did he know it?’ but of course communications technology was much more primitive back in that dead century…
This post is in: Because of wow., Women's Rights Are Human Rights
Deneen L. Brown, in the Washington Post:
Actor, singer and human rights advocate Harry Belafonte called on Phi Beta Sigma during the fraternity’s Centennial Founders’ Day Gala Saturday night in Washington to join a worldwide movement to end the violence and oppression against women
Belafonte, who is well known for his historical contributions to the civil rights movement, was keynote speaker during the gala at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington. Earlier that night, Belafonte was inducted as an honorary member into the fraternity, one of the largest men’s organizations in the world.
“My contribution as a new member of the fraternity is to sucker all of you into coming with me and man up and stand up. When the time comes, we will be in touch and you will be informed to join us in the this movement in the 21st century,” Belafonte told a crowd of more than 1,000 people. “Let us use this century to be the century where we say we started the mission to end the violence and oppression of women.”
Belafonte, 86, who for more than 70 years has fought against racial oppression, recently created an organization called Sankofa Justice & Equity Fund, a nonprofit focused on social justice and helping marginalized people throughout the world…
Activists are “gathering now to say, ‘Man up. All men who are stepping into this moment to say, ‘We will accept the responsibility for what we have done in the abuse of women and we acknowledge that abuse and we are here to declare ourselves as the tenders to the future to never, ever let our children be the abusers of women in our lifetime.’ ”
The crowd rose in applause…
Back last November, Politico reported that Mr. Belafonte was stumping for Bill deBlasio, and severely wounding the tender fee-fees of the One Percenters:
… “Already we have lost 14 states in this union to the most corrupt group of citizens I’ve ever known,” Belafonte said at the First Corinthian Baptist Church, according to Capital New York. “They make up the heart and the thinking in the minds of those who would belong to the Ku Klux Klan. They are white supremacists. They are men of evil. They have names. They are flooding our country with money.
“They’ve come into to New York City,” Belafonte added. “They are beginning to buy their way in to city politics. They are pouring money into Presbyterian Hospital to take over the medical care system. The Koch brothers, that’s their name. Their money is already sewn into the fabric of our daily system, and they must be stopped.”…
May this great man live a thousand years, to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable!
by DougJ| 31 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
It’s probably not fair to whiny-ass titty babies to call Politico a bunch of whiny-ass titty babies:
Politico editor-in-chief John Harris and chief executive Jim VandeHei are expected to visit The Washington Post on Wednesday to discuss the paper’s recent scrutiny of chief White House correspondent Mike Allen and his influential Playbook newsletter, according to a source familiar with the meeting who is not authorized to discuss it.
The Politico higher-ups are scheduled to sit down with both editorial page editor Fred Hiatt and media critic Erik Wemple, who has aggressively covered Allen and recently suggested the Politico star writer rewards Playbook advertisers with favorable coverage. After digging through Playbook’s archives, Wemple concluded in November that “the special interests that pay for slots in the newsletter get adoring coverage elsewhere in the playing field of Playbook.”
[….]“Erik’s posts about Playbook are false and insulting,” Allen wrote. “I haven’t responded because his obsessive, anti-Playbook agenda has been obvious for some
[….]During an December appearance on WNYC, VandeHei said he thought Wemple’s “piece was nonsense, which is why we didn’t play ball with him on it.” On Fox News, Harris described Wemple’s report as “more of a suggestion, insinuation, innuendo in a really unfair way.” Playbook, Harris said, is “totally transparent.”
Check out this awesome Wemple piece (via) on Allen’s non-stop fluffing of Roger Ailes:
Copyright considerations prevent the Erik Wemple Blog from dropping the plenary glory of “FRIENDS PUSH AILES FOR PRESIDENT” into this blog post, yet a few excerpts hint at the genius behind its formulation. The lede: “Friends and associates are encouraging Fox News chief Roger Ailes to jump into the political arena for real by running for president in 2012, top sources tell POLITICO.” The flattery: “Ailes, 69, has an aggessive, winning personality that made Fox News a huge success — and a huge target for liberal critics.” The meat: “Talk of an Ailes run, which informed sources said is based on more than mere speculation, could escalate the White House war with Fox war in wildly unpredictable – and fun – ways.”
I wonder if Hiatt will shut Wemple down. If so, I hope the Times or HuffPo hires him.
Just when I thought that things would get betterPost + Comments (31)
This post is in: Gay Rights are Human Rights, Open Threads
The Northern District of Oklahoma sits in Tulsa, OK and is in the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals. That’s two current rulings for marriage equality in the 10th circuit at this time. As I understand it (IANAL) the 10th Ct. denied Utah’s request for a stay of the Judge’s ruling. Now Utah has appealed to US Supreme Court. I don’t know how this stuff works, and I assume one of our legal eagles can clue us in, but would this ruling, stayed by the Court itself, be bundled with the Utah case at USSC, or merely wait until the ruling from the Supreme Court?
Today U.S. District Judge Terence Kern ruled that Oklahoma’s ban on marriage equality is unconstitutional. His ruling is stayed pending appeal, meaning marriages will not occur immediately in the Sooner State.
HRC President Chad Griffin issued the following statement:
“Judge Kern has come to the conclusion that so many have before him – that the fundamental equality of lesbian and gay couples is guaranteed by the United States Constitution. With last year’s historic victories at the Supreme Court guiding the way, it is clear that we are on a path to full and equal citizenship for all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. Equality is not just for the coasts anymore, and today’s news from Oklahoma shows that time has come for fairness and dignity to reach every American in all 50 states.”
Two plaintiff couples, Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin and Gay Phillips and Susan Barton, filed their case, Bishop v. Oklahoma, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma in November 2004. Lead counsel in the case are Don Holladay and James Warner of the Oklahoma City law firm Holladay & Chilton PLLC.
Link to ruling (PDF) here.
Thanks to Commenter Shortstop, here is a list of current Marriage Equality lawsuits and their various statuses. Here is another one that may be more up to date.
Open thread, and we now return you to your regular programming
Federal Judge declares OK Ban on Gay Marriage Unconstitutional (updated)Post + Comments (71)