I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign

“The Self-Indulgence of It All”

by Betty Cracker| February 1, 201810:08 am| 133 Comments

This post is in: I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign, Open Threads, Politics, Assholes, General Stupidity, Our Failed Media Experiment

Shortly before Trump took the stage for his solo teleprompter recital this week (a performance watched by “the highest number in history,” he assures us this morning via Twitter, lying as usual), Hillary Clinton posted thoughts on Facebook about the way she handled a sexual harassment incident among staffers during her 2008 campaign. It’s worth a read.

To sum up, Clinton says if she had it to do over again, she’d fire the harasser. She describes the measures she took at the time and the thought processes behind them. She expresses support for the woman who came forward then and all the women who are standing up against sexual harassment today. She notes that the actions she took 10 years ago are similar to those taken by The Times in the Glenn Thrush case (i.e., consequences, not termination).

I found Clinton’s musings on the topic interesting because they were genuinely thoughtful, and also because of her long and complicated history and significance to millions of women in the US and around the world. Her post could serve as an excellent starting point for a debate about what we owe women who are harassed in the workplace, how to deal with offenders, what our goals should be as new social norms emerge, etc.

Because of who Hillary Clinton is, critiquing her actions then and now is fair game. Thoughtful analysis of these topics is welcome in comments and would be a service to readers of a major daily like The Post. This piece, published in yesterday’s Post about Clinton’s statement, ain’t that:

[Clinton] released a tepid response via Twitter the day the story broke and a more thorough one via Facebook days later. But it’s not clear whether either said enough. Does Clinton’s handling of this latest story exemplify a fatal flaw?
Opinion writers Christine Emba, Ruth Marcus, and Alyssa Rosenberg discuss.

It’s a 9th grade slam book that merits display in the Heathers Hall of Shame. Some excerpts below the fold, annotated in bold font:

show full post on front page

Christine Emba: Was it really a statement, or more of a rambling letter to herself? It came across my screen this morning, and my first instinct was to roll my eyes at the self-indulgence of it all. [Emba would be a smoking ember if there were a God of Irony with smiting powers.]
Alyssa Rosenberg: Yes, there is SO MUCH going on there.
Christine Emba: When I read it, the first thing I noticed was that so much of it was about her — excusing herself, talking about how hard the decision was for her, bringing us into her personal debates about forgiveness and second chances. There was that hoary first line: “The most important work of my life has been to support and empower women,” but very little was about the woman in question. In the entire statement, “I” appears 37 times, and “Sorry” not even once… [The lazy-ass word search “I” trope again — shades of hack reviews of President Obama’s speeches. And FTR, Clinton’s Facebook post makes it clear there was “very little about the woman in question” because that woman wishes to remain in the background and not become the center of a media circus.]
Alyssa Rosenberg: And parts of it felt so inevitable, most notably the turn to blame the media. [Note: Clinton did NOT “blame the media,” but rather cited a contemporary case as an example of how sexual harassment issues are handled today. If she got some satisfaction from bringing up a recent scandal The Times would rather we all forget, well, for fuck’s sake, can anyone blame her?]
Christine Emba: The media has long been her scapegoat, and not without reason. [Understatement of the goddamned millennium!] But in this case, it was frustrating to see. because ultimately, this wasn’t about whether the media did something wrong — which they didn’t! — it was about what Hillary did (or, as it were, didn’t). And for all her discussion of her feelings and thought processes, she never fully owned up to it. Still!
Ruth Marcus: More important, reading the statement, I felt like: Haven’t I watched this movie before? The delay in responding — why oh why can’t she ever get it right the first time. The “in retrospect, I would have handled it differently” — definitely having some PTSD flashbacks to e-mails there.
Christine Emba: Completely true.
Alyssa Rosenberg: Right, Ruth! I’m burned out, and I don’t feel like I’m getting anywhere. [? actual size]
Ruth Marcus: For the record: Trump is terrible. He has done some terrible things where women are involved. I try to call him out all the time although, confession, some stuff slips through the cracks — e.g., the porn star thing I haven’t gotten around to writing about. But I write about Hillary and my frustrations with her — going back to the campaign — not because I hate her but because — like Alyssa before the Big Breakup — I like her so much and I am so disappointed by her seeming inability to change some drawbacks in the way she approaches things.
Alyssa Rosenberg: I hate that you even have to issue that disclaimer about Trump, Ruth! [? again, actual size]
Christine Emba: Yes. We can all agree on Trump’s manifold flaws, to the point that they become less worth discussing. Because there’s nothing to argue! Truly nothing new there. [This right here is why Trump is president, you criminally irresponsible fucking numpties!]
Christine Emba: But with Hillary, there is a sense of some sort of promise being thwarted. Although I personally wonder if that promise was ever truly there.
Alyssa Rosenberg: Well, and that’s kind of the big question, isn’t it?
Ruth Marcus: Everything now is seen through the lens of whether it’s good or bad for the Resistance. That’s not the way I think about things, and if I started to I would quit. I think it’s really important for writers, even opinion writers, to call out the people they agree with, maybe even especially.
Christine Emba: Holding those people accountable could make them better. ::cough:: HILLARY ::cough:: [How’d that work out in 2016, you worthless fucking hacks? Choke, don’t cough!]

If you suspect I’m cherry-picking to make The Posties’ conversation look like vapid, self-referential drivel from privileged, conceited twits, I invite you to read the whole thing. It’s all like that. And this trio of carping nitwits are among the least offensive crafters of our Beltway media narrative — much more often, it’s created by predatory, dickhead men. It’s infuriating.

At various times, I’ve found something to admire in things written by each of these women. But put all three in a room and drop the name “Hillary Clinton,” and they display all the judgment and insight of a pack of meth-addled spider monkeys. If this phenomenon were localized to Clinton, okay, maybe we can just take one fascist buffoon in the White House for the team and hope that all will be well in the future.

Sadly, I don’t think we’ll find it works that way.

“The Self-Indulgence of It All”Post + Comments (133)

Shush, Thrush, She’s With Us

by Betty Cracker| May 2, 20173:41 pm| 407 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign, Open Threads, Assholes, General Stupidity, Our Failed Media Experiment

If you are even a teensy bit skeptical about the extent of Clinton Derangement Syndrome or the mainstream media’s refusal to hold Hillary Clinton to a normal standard such as “when she speaks, commonly accepted word definitions aren’t suspended and replaced with more sinister meanings,” well, take a look at Twitter right now.

The occasion? Clinton spoke to Christiane Amanpour at a Women for Women event today. Excerpts of CNN coverage:

Hillary Clinton delivered her most forceful critique of President Donald Trump’s 2016 victory on Tuesday, taking personal responsibility for her failed campaign but also pointed to the timing of a letter from FBI Director James Comey and Russian interference as factors.
“If the election had been on October 27, I would be your president,” she told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour at a Women for Women event in New York.
“I take absolute personal responsibility. I was the candidate, I was the person who was on the ballot. I am very aware of the challenges, the problems, the shortfalls that we had,” Clinton said, before adding that she was “on the way to winning until a combination of Jim Comey’s letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me and got scared off.”
“The reason I believe we lost were the intervening events in the last 10 days.”
The event marks the latest where Clinton, in a stinging rebuke to Trump, both blames herself for the 2016 loss but also casts the current President as someone aided by outside factors, including the Russian government.
After Clinton noted the 3 million more votes she won than Trump, Amanpour joked that the President would soon tweet about the comment.
“Fine. Better than the interfering in foreign affairs,” Clinton said. “If he wants to tweet about me than I am happy to be the diversion because we have lot of things to worry about. He should worry less about the election and my winning the popular vote than doing some other things that would be important for the country.”
Clinton, aides and friends say, has grown more at peace with her loss in recent months, but is still focused on the interference by the Russian government, especially the fact that WikiLeaks began releasing John Podesta’s hacked emails hours after the damaging “Access Hollywood” Trump tape was released.
Clinton, as she has done in the past, also hung part of her 2016 loss on misogyny.
“Yes, I do think it played a role. I think other things did as well,” Clinton said.
But repeatedly, Clinton came back to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s role in the 2016 election and how he was able to tilt the scale in favor of Trump and against her.
Clinton, aides say, sees her role during the Trump years as a political activist who speaks out when issue she cares about are threatened. And on Tuesday, it was clear Clinton was ready to settle into that role.
“I am now back to being an activist citizen and part of the resistance,” Clinton said…

That’s what she said. Here’s what Glenn Thrush of the NYT heard:

Hillary takeaways 1) Loathes Trump 2) blames Comey/Putin 3) the 'real' Hillary-funny, hard-edged, unguarded 4) blames everyone but self
— Glenn Thrush (@GlennThrush) May 2, 2017

Fucking fuck. And when Thrush got pushback, such as direct quotes in which Clinton acknowledged screw-ups and took responsibility for the loss, the MSM Heathers scurried to Thrush’s defense because that’s not what Clinton reeeeeally meant.

See, this is how it works, guys: Everything is always Clinton’s fault — and her fault alone. It can’t be a combination of factors, including Clinton’s missteps.

And God knows, the media coverage had nothing to do with the election outcome. Nope, it’s all on Clinton.

Good gravy, what a bunch of arrogant fuck-sticks. I regret that I had but one NYT subscription to cancel for its abysmally shitty election coverage and persistent refusal to engage in introspection. The end.

Shush, Thrush, She’s With UsPost + Comments (407)

Empowerful

by Betty Cracker| April 26, 201712:57 pm| 151 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign, Open Threads, Politics, Trump Crime Cartel, Assholes, General Stupidity, Our Failed Media Experiment

Via TPM, Axios, the landing pad for Politico rejects, transcribed Ivanka Trump’s latest women’s empowerment scheme:

I’m sure this is fine. It’s not like a fund that leverages political connections at the highest levels to buttonhole the rich and powerful worldwide would be seen as problematic during a political campaign — much less when operated from the White House by the president’s daughter, business partner and official adviser.

Crispy Cajun-fried Jeebus, I sure hope Hillary Clinton has a well-developed capacity for ironic amusement.

EmpowerfulPost + Comments (151)

Alright You Unsympathetic Jackals…

by Tom Levenson| November 5, 20161:20 pm| 135 Comments

This post is in: Cat Blogging, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign, Readership Capture

Y’all want me to quit kvetching about something on the internet? That’s practically active sympathy for Putin in my book, but Bqhatevwr.

Y’all want something a little more inspiring? Well, intercourse yourselves sideways with an oxidized agricultural implement, but here you go anyway, because I love you folks.

This is Tikka 2016, getting ready for his next campaign speech.

And here he is unwinding after a demanding five minutes or so on the campaign trail:

So drink these in until you’re catatonic.

Humph.

Alright You Unsympathetic Jackals…Post + Comments (135)

Stamina! (And Tactical Thinking)

by Tom Levenson| November 4, 201610:11 am| 285 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Hail to the Hairpiece, Hillary Clinton 2016, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign

I’ve reached the point where my sleep patterns and the kindness I’m able to show my family both demand that I step away from the election noise machine — staying off Twitter as near totally as possible, for example — but I haven’t yet given up one habit: checking the official campaign schedule pages for both Trump and Clinton.

At this stage of the race, the only absolutely equal resource the two sides have is time, and without having any deep insight into how professionals think about deploying their stock of hours and minutes, I still find it interesting to see what each side is doing. Right now, there’s quite a contrast.

The Republican ticket lists only its two principals’ travels. On a quick glance Donald Trump and Mike Pence have eighteen events on their docket between now and Monday evening. That’s deceptive, however, as the schedule includes two events at which both appear. So that’s sixteen headlined campaign rallies over the next four days.*

The Clinton/Kaine campaign is doing it differently. Hillary’s campaign lists not just the ticket’s events, but those of her top surrogates. Including those gives Clinton/Kaine sixteen events just today. Two by the candidate (compared to four Trump rallies today, btw), one Kaine-led farrago — to which add appearances by Obama, Biden, Bernie Sanders, Bill C., Chelsea C., and a Cleveland, OH concert headlined by Jay Z. (Props to Bernie, doing four events today, three in IA and one in Nebraska, and then two more tomorrow, in IA and CO. Not leaving it on the table is our Senator from VT.) Twelve tomorrow, without POTUS and Bill, but adding Katy Perry, Stevie Wonder and Jon Bon Jovi appearing in two concerts in PA (Perry and Wonder) and FL (Bon Jovi). Sunday and Monday see fewer events, but with similar star power — Obama back on the trail, with Michelle joining him and Clinton, Bill and Chelsea for an election-eve rally in Philadelphia.

In all, and not counting some Cher-led fundraisers, the Democratic campaign has thirty eight events between now and election day.

In terms of geography, the two campaigns basically agree on what’s left to fight about. Both show up in all the usual suspects: FL, NC, OH, PA, MI, IA, CO, and NH. Trump, somewhat oddly, heads to NV for the rally that is half his Saturday schedule. (Odd, because early voting ends today in NV, so he’s missing a chance to give a boost to that process, which will finish with half, perhaps as much of 70% of all ballots cast.)

Clinton, Kaine and their surrogates will skip Nevada but add stops in Nebraska’s one gettable electoral vote (with a Sanders visit), in Colorado on (four rallies on two different days — three led by Bill Clinton, one by Sanders), and one Joe Biden visit to Wisconsin.

So there you have it: broad agreement on where this election will be settled (if it isn’t already), and very different deployment of publicly visible resources to fight those battles. None of this speaks to the ground game or any of the secret sauce which we believe (and I deeply hope) favors the more organized and technically skilled Democratic operation.

Make of it what you will. For me, this kind of thing helps me detox from election madness. YMMV. The effect won’t last that long, but I’ll get myself some help by heading to NH to GOTV on Sunday, and probably again on election day.

Open thread!

*An bit of strangeness: while Trump is indeed making good on his promise to fill a heavy campaign schedule, Pence only has three solo appearances slated. I’m not sure what that means, if anything — could be Trump doesn’t see the point of spending money on his number two; could be that Pence is dialing it back; could be what the goat’s entrails told someone.

Image: William Hogarth, Canvassing for Votes, from the Humours of an Election series, 1754-55.

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Kitten Tikka Masala Weighs In

by Tom Levenson| October 19, 20164:25 pm| 89 Comments

This post is in: Cat Blogging, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign, Open Threads, Woman in the Whitehouse 2016

Tikka has decided to make his views on this election absolutely clear:

I don’t know about y’all, but I can’t take another debate. My spouse and son will be glued to the set while I’ll be at a bar with a friend in the science museum business. We’ll talk shop, mostly ignore the baseball game, and, for my part, try to weigh the pros and cons between bourbon and rye. (Cue the inevitable soundtrack.)

Tikka’s done my thinking for me, and I don’t need any more exposure the Cheeto-Faced Ferret-Heddit ShitGibbon, thank you very much.

Your plans?

PS: An alternate view: Tikka knows (as many Democratic candidates seem not to) how to engage the camera:

Kitten Tikka Masala Weighs InPost + Comments (89)

Which Of These Is Not Like The Others?

by Tom Levenson| July 21, 20166:19 pm| 259 Comments

This post is in: I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign, Proud to Be A Democrat, Our Failed Media Experiment

Andrew Sullivan — yes, I know, and I’ll get back to that in a moment — is live blogging the RNC for New York Magazine. His reaction on Day 2 to the Christie-led witch trial “lock her up” frenzy was as it should have been: it was vile and the mark of a neo-fascist campaign. That evoked a response from a reader Sullivan then posted to the blog, which argued, reasonably enough, that errors in office are not criminal offences. For example, that reader wrote and Sullivan published:

Politicians and presidents make serious ethical mistakes. Reagan/Bush 41 on Iran-Contra, Bush 43 on WMD intelligence/torture, Bill Clinton on perjury.

Let’s review.

Iran -Contra: trading with a reviled adversary to fund an illegal covert war that killed thousands of the most vulnerable, least powerful people in our hemisphere.

WMD intelligence/torture: launch a war on false pretexts that left thousands of Americans, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead, many more wounded, millions displaced, an ongoing conflict that has spawned attacks on innocents all over the world, and that has led the United States government at its highest level to countenance war crimes.

Perjury: lying about a blow job.

That one could write that sentence without a hint of irony is a measure of the damage done to US politics by the Republican party made as far back as 1968 to put power at all costs before all else. That Andrew Sullivan could disseminate it without comment reminds us of his own Clinton Derangement Syndrome, and his unreliability as any kind of moral arbiter.

Sullivan is a clever man, a fast and fluid writer, and does get some things right; certainly, for all his CDS, he’s got no illusions about Trump as anything more than a Mussolini wannabe.

But for all that, he’s a terrible thinker. Through the live blog (I’ve gotten through day 1 and most of day 2 so far) he talks repeatedly about the GOP’s focus on feeling at the expense of facts and reason — and he’s right of course. But when the issue strikes one or another of his standing emotional chords, he’s no better. I hope tomorrow to have the time to write up his stuff on Black Lives Matter. It is everything you’d expect, and the current debacle turns on his unwillingness to do the intellectual work needed to test his own assumptions.

OK — it’s over to you, and back to the problem of figuring out 17th century share prices from one end of a coffee shop to another for me.

Images: Fra Angelico, The Massacre of the Innocents, 1450.

James Sowerby, Coloured Figures of English Fungi or Mushrooms, plate 43, 1798.

Ito Jakuchu, Elephant and Whale Screens, 1797.

Which Of These Is Not Like The Others?Post + Comments (259)

Further Airing of the Grievances

by Betty Cracker| June 17, 201612:31 pm| 465 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Sanders Campaign, Open Threads, Politics, General Stupidity, Get off my grass you damned kids

So, Bernie Sanders gave a speech last night. We’ve been talking about it. I’m sure some of y’all are sick of the entire discussion, which is fine — lots of other interesting threads below, or, if your scroll is sticky, there’s sure to be another up top soon.

But I’m one of those annoying assholes who believe the only way to work through a conflict is to get everything on the table. (The four scariest words in my family are “we need to talk…”)

It’s not that I enjoy picking at scabs (well, maybe a little). It’s that only in this way can we come together and move forward. Or decide that each other are irredeemable morons upon whom we should not bother to waste another pixel and look for other allies instead. Either outcome is progress!

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So, I’ve got the talking stick: I’ll start. My reaction to Sanders’ speech was closer to John’s than Anne Laurie’s, but it has elements of both. Valued commenter Barbara said something that resonated with me in the thread below:

I don’t think anyone would disagree that Sanders has been a reliable progressive ally of Democrats in Congress on most issues. But he has also been an intentional outsider — which is his choice and one that never bothered me much. But it’s just a bridge too far to be an intentional outsider and then, when it no longer seems advantageous, to assume insider status with the right to direct the party’s apparatus even as he still refuses to endorse the party’s candidate. What this speech shows is that he is still too openly conflicted to claim that authority. In the case of a voluntary organization like a political party, credibility is the result of some amount of reciprocal loyalty, which, even now, he is refusing to show. My disdain at this point is not personal to Bernie Sanders or his wife, or his supporters, it’s his apparent unwillingness to truly be part of the organization he wants to direct.

Yep. I have additional concerns as well, such as the suspicion that Sanders doesn’t take the possibility of the Trumpocalypse as seriously as he ought (he says the right words on this, but his actions don’t match, IMO). And as someone whose preferences are generally to the left of the party mainstream, I’m pissed off that Sanders now appears to be squandering what could have been greater influence for the Warren wing. Could be I’m reading it wrong. But that’s how it looks to me right now.

But the thing that makes me angriest about both Sanders and his followers is their seeming belief that they alone can save the party from its corporatist tendencies and bend the arc toward justice. Excuse me, I happen to have President Obama right here — you know, the guy who orchestrated the largest top-down transfer of wealth in American history via the ACA and the man who presided over the greatest expansion of civil rights since the 1960s?

Oh, and look here — I also happen to have the first woman ever nominated by a major party in the U.S., who also happens to be one of the most accomplished, knowledgeable and influential women on the goddamned planet.

Chopped liver much, Berniacs? So pardon the fuck outta me if I’m not quite ready to hand the keys to our party platform over to the double-digit loser of the primary contest who has been a Democrat for all of one year. There. I feel better already.

Now for the mollifying part: Kudos to Sanders for telling people to get involved at the local level. And to the extent that he was able to get young folks excited about politics — and more importantly, to the extent that this actually translates into them getting involved in the party — huzzah for that.

While I think it’s not only essential, realistic and good manners to pay respect to and promise to protect PBO’s accomplishments, it’s also important to acknowledge that everything is not okay. Wages have been stagnant for decades. Working people are getting screwed. Minorities are getting killed, literally. Too much wealth continues to accumulate in too few hands. Millions more have access to the shitty healthcare coverage we middle class folks have had all along, but it’s still shitty. We need to address this.

You can’t blame millennials for looking at 2016 as square one. It is, to them. I’m actually super-hopeful about millennials – not because of the ones I’ve met online or anything to do with the Sanders campaign but due to the younger folks I know in real life, including my 30-something brother and teenage daughter. In my experience, they don’t embody the shallow, self-centered, participation-trophy traits their elders complain about.

But, being young, one thing many of them do lack is perspective, and here’s how that’s playing out in this election, IMO: The youngest of them seem to think it’s normal to have a Democratic president of Barack Obama’s stature and achievements in the White House. Whereas to folks like me, who are old enough to have voted for BILL Clinton twice, it’s near miraculous.

We’ve been here before. I remember rolling my eyes at my parents’ generation’s fixation on the politics surrounding the Vietnam War when that seemed like ancient history to me. Absurdly, one of the reasons I first supported PBO in 2008 was a desire to move past that dynamic. But I quickly learned that, as Faulkner said, the past isn’t dead; it isn’t even past.

Speaking of the past, guys, this fellow on the other ticket, he makes Richard Nixon seem like a responsible, transparent, non-paranoid and un-self-interested actor. So can we move on now?

And with that, I relinquish the talking stick to you…

Further Airing of the GrievancesPost + Comments (465)

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Yes We Can – Again!

by Anne Laurie| June 8, 20165:39 am| 241 Comments

This post is in: Because of wow., Election 2016, Hillary Clinton 2016, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Women's Rights Are Human Rights

To every little girl who dreams big: Yes, you can be anything you want—even president. Tonight is for you. -H pic.twitter.com/jq7fKlfwGV
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 8, 2016

Now *that* is how you give a victory speech, Mr. Trump.

The daughter of the first black president is gonna cast her first vote for a woman. Holy shit.
— A.C. in D.C. (@ArykanotErika) June 8, 2016

Confession: Thought woman thing wouldn't mean much to me, but yes, feel something I can't quite articulate seeing 1st woman nominee #History
— Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) June 8, 2016

Apart from rejoicing — and buckling down to the general — what’s on the agenda for the day?

I have been waiting to tweet this for months. pic.twitter.com/O51cDdLXji
— Laurie Voss (@seldo) June 8, 2016

Eight years ago vs. tonight: pic.twitter.com/gIEXH9BhQh
— Scott Bixby (@scottbix) June 8, 2016

Tonight will go down in history. A woman is a nominee and it's the last time we will have to listen Donald Trump deliver a victory speech
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) June 8, 2016

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Yes We Can – Again!Post + Comments (241)

Pretty Amusing

by John Cole| May 18, 20168:47 pm| 610 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Sanders Campaign

In case there are a few Sanders supporters I haven’t alienated yet, this from Alexandra Petri is pretty funny:

If Sanders supporters complained about other things the way they complain about election results
CHESS:
This game is rigged. The pawns get to move almost NOWHERE, whereas the QUEEN (DETECT ANY RESEMBLANCE HERE???) can just move wherever she likes with no apparent rhyme or reason. She’s not a bishop or a rook. Why does she move like one? Also, the black pieces have to move second, which is TOTALLY unfair and needs to be looked into, unless I am playing with the white pieces today.
SCRABBLE:
I played exactly the same word as my opponent, using exactly the same letters, and received fewer points for it — just because I wasn’t on some pink square, which my opponent claimed gave you DOUBLE the points. Pretty sure that’s the definition of rigged. Why would you just randomly have squares all over the board that counted for MORE or FEWER points when it’s just the same words? Also my opponent had two BLANK tiles, which just got to be WHATEVER letters she wanted. This seems made-up. Milton Bradley are shills who are trying to prevent the revolution. Also, “BERN” is totally a word.
TENNIS:
Sometimes when the ball lands it is worth 10 points and sometimes it is worth 15 points? This is not consistent. Also, sometimes you only need to win, like, 18 games? But other times you need to win maybe 30? The rules should not be like this. I hear that this game was invented by kings, and now I know why: BECAUSE IT SILENCES THE POINTS OF THE LITTLE GUY. Plus, to win you need ads, and you know who pays for ads.
HEARTS:
THIS GAME IS EVEN MORE RIGGED THAN THE ECONOMY. Hear me out. Usually when you get a heart or the queen of spades, it is an obvious negative, but somehow if you get ALL of the hearts and the queen of spades, you win? This is a blatant lie meant to disenfranchise voters, except for the time when it happened to me by mistake, then it was good.

I chuckled.

Pretty AmusingPost + Comments (610)

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

by Betty Cracker| May 3, 20168:17 am| 434 Comments

This post is in: Bernie Sanders 2016, Election 2016, Hillary Clinton 2016, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Sanders Campaign, Open Threads, Politics, Fools! Overton Window!

As an early morning chew toy, consider the following excerpts from a New York Times editorial board op-ed published today, which serves as a counterpoint to Cole’s “Pissing It All Away” post from last night:

Bernie Sanders’s Gift to His Party
The Democratic Party and Mrs. Clinton are better off for Mr. Sanders’s presence in this race. His criticism, as Winston Churchill might say, was not agreeable. But it called necessary attention to unhealthy developments in the Democratic Party, including its at times obliviousness to the lingering economic pain of the middle class and the young, and its drift toward political caution over aspiration.
[snip]
Mr. Sanders’s unwillingness to compromise has contributed to a thin record of accomplishment over his decades in Congress. While Mrs. Clinton outflanks him on both knowledge and practice of foreign policy, on domestic policy he has forced her to address the impact of trade deals and globalization, spell out her stances on clean energy and oil and gas exploration, and put more meat on her plans for college affordability. He’s exposed her failure to support $15 an hour as a federal minimum wage, and rightly called her out on the Wall Street speeches that earned her millions and her refusal to make the transcripts public.
Mr. Sanders has exposed a broad vein of discontent that Democrats cannot ignore. Predictions that Mr. Sanders’s supporters could migrate to Donald Trump in the fall are overstated, despite Mr. Trump’s cynical efforts to woo them. It’s more likely that some simply won’t vote. Mrs. Clinton is betting that many Democrats will be motivated to get to the polls if Mr. Trump is the Republican nominee. But to truly unify the party, Mrs. Clinton and party leaders must work to incorporate Mr. Sanders and what he stands for in the party’s approach to the general election. It would also help to acknowledge that the party has strayed at times from its more aspirational path.
Unlike the voices on the Republican side, Mr. Sanders’s has elevated this campaign. The Democratic Party should listen.

So who is right about the Sanders effect, Cole or the NYT editorial board? That depends on how this all winds down.

I still have a Pollyanna-ish hope that it will end well — that BernieBros and Hilldebeasts will join forces to crush Trump, restock Congress with sane people and continue President Obama’s work of dragging this nation out of the cold, dead clutches of Reaganism.

Discuss this or anything else — open thread!

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Shit Happens and Things Change

by John Cole| April 29, 20164:17 pm| 158 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign

About fifteen years ago when I was a budding young fascist and started this blog, I never figured I would one day be voting for Hillary Clinton for President. But shit happens, and people change, and so I just got home from early voting where I happily cast my vote for Hillary and also chose to vote for Jeff Kessler.

I don’t think she is going to do very well here, and the polling indicates that Bernie will win and Trump is going to take the state in the fall anyways, as her great performance in 2008 in West Virginia was basically because then new Sheriff Obama was a… community organizer. Regardless, I always like to vote because I think it is so important, so I went and got a haircut, went to the courthouse and voted, and then went and treated myself to a fish sandwich and coleslaw for lunch.

And no, it wasn’t even remotely difficult to “pull the lever” for Hillary as a reformed Republican. I’ve talked to a lot of people who say shit like “I can’t believe I am going to have to vote for her,” and that’s just stupid nonsense talking. In a two party system, you vote for the person who will do a better job. It’s just that simple. You aren’t voting for pope or choosing your spouse. And there is no question that of all the remaining candidates and all who have run in 2016, Hillary is, by a wide margin, the best option. So sack up and go do your duty to the country and stop wanking about as it is all about you.

BTW- 15 blog years is like 175 human years. I’d wager there are not too many blogs that have been around this long.

Shit Happens and Things ChangePost + Comments (158)

Everything that Worries Me about a Hillary Presidency in One Story

by John Cole| April 21, 20167:39 pm| 204 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign

It’s the militarism, stupid.

Everything that Worries Me about a Hillary Presidency in One StoryPost + Comments (204)

She Learns From Her Mistakes

by John Cole| April 7, 201612:36 pm| 382 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign

Clinton, 2008:

As the Democratic presidential campaign has intensified in recent weeks, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and her supporters have said that Senator Barack Obama has not crossed the “threshold” to serve as commander in chief.
So does Mr. Obama believe that Mrs. Clinton is qualified?
“Yes,” Mr. Obama said. “As I believe Senator McCain is and as I believe I am. Keep in mind though, I think it is fair to say Senator Clinton has deployed this as a political strategy.”
In a news conference with reporters here today, Mr. Obama was flanked by 10 former generals and admirals who are supporting his candidacy. It is the latest in a series of dueling flag-draped events between the Clinton and Obama campaigns as they seek to demonstrate their national security credentials.
Mr. Obama said he was surprised by Mrs. Clinton’s assertion that he is not qualified to lead the military or protect the nation. Calling it a “last-minute gambit prior to Texas and Ohio,” Mr. Obama dismissed the criticism as an act of desperation. (He lost both states, but did not say whether he attributed his defeats to this.)

Clinton, 2016, was asked the following questions:

1. Do you believe, this morning, that Bernie Sanders is qualified and ready to be president of the United States?
2. So the question, and I’m serious, if you weren’t running today and you looked at Bernie Sanders, would you say this guy is ready to be president of the United States?
3. But do you think he is qualified?

Every single time, she refused to call him unqualified.

That’s why, even though I have a lot of problems with some of her past stances and positions, I am comfortable supporting her. She learns.

And again, this just seems like such a big deal because the campaign has been so nice this year. But when you look at 2008 and 2016, there were two campaigns flailing and hatching bizarre delegate schemes. Hillary 2008, Sanders 2016.

This is not hard.

She Learns From Her MistakesPost + Comments (382)

I’ve Kind of Made My Decision

by John Cole| March 7, 20168:42 pm| 420 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss The Clinton Campaign

First things first- This is going to be a long post but I do not want it to go below the fold. Also, this website is not going to go the Daily Kos route. You’ll be free to say whatever you want (within some basic rules of civility, and if you know this place, I mean very basic rules), and there is no editorial direction of this website to begin with, so don’t freak out and claim this website is changing in any meaningful way. This is just my personal opinion, and the commenting policy will remain the same- say what you want, because not only is it just as easier to say “fuck you” to someone than it is to say “shut up” and then block them, but because I like the comment to be a fun place where everyone can be rude to everyone else. I will note that while I disagree on the policy, there is a great deal in that Markos post that I agree with and people should read.

Having said that, I initially thought I would just sit out and wait until November and then support the Democrat, but I think at this point I have seen enough and I have decided that to my surprise I am choosing to support Hillary. I’m not going to go into all the reasons I have problems with her, but I will go into some detail into why I have chosen to support her.

1.) Since the 2008 Obama campaign, I began, through various forums, including fb, twitter, and the wealth of new websites and online journals, to expose myself to a lot more voices that include women and (I hate this term) people of color. I’ve seen and learned a lot of things that I never knew before, and have experienced vicariously what many of them have had happen to them, and it’s changed how I look at things and it has changed how I looked at Hillary.

In my opinion as a white single male with a degree of financial stability, beyond agita and heartburn, I have very little at stake in this election. I’m not going to be drafted, my insurance won’t be lost if ACA is repealed, I won’t have to worry about losing my ability to get pap smears or mammograms or basic health services if PP is closed down, I won’t have to worry about feeding my children, I won’t have to worry about the right to control my body, I won’t have to worry about getting shot in the street for walking while white or be found dead in a jail cell after failing to signal a lane change. These are not and will not be concerns for me, ever.

For women and minorities, these are things they worry about EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

And what I have seen from the women and black people I follow closely, speak with, and respect, is that they are almost to a person supporting Hillary over Bernie, and this has been borne out in the primary elections to date. Hillary is just clobbering Bernie with women and minorities. In one election, one ~~substrata (right word?)~~ substratum of African-American voters chose Hillary over Bernie by something like 95-5. To borrow one of my favorite phrases a pundit uttered years ago, Bernie’s numbers with the African American community are “Alfonsian,” a reference to the utterly reviled Alfons D’Amato.

I don’t want to get into the shameless race-baiting and attacks on Bernie by some of Hillary’s most vocal surrogates on twitter and elsewhere, which has been disgusting in some cases, and I do think that Bernie has not gotten credit for being as good on matters of race as he should be, which is regrettable (as were the remarks by John lewis, I think), but that doesn’t change the basic facts. The people who have the most to lose in this election and who are the absolute bedrock base of this party overwhelmingly support Hillary. When I was an asshole Republican, African Americans and women were overwhelmingly supporting the Democrats then, because they knew what was best for them and the party. I thought otherwise. They were right. I was not. Despite the fact that I was Bernie curious, I think that I should probably shut up and follow the lead of the people who were right all along.

And that’s one reason I am choosing to vote for Hillary in the primary in West Virginia.

***

2.) While I loathe the Super Delegate idea, the simple fact of the matter is that her peers and the establishment, meaning the people who have worked with her for the past few decades at various levels, are almost unanimously endorsing her. While I will always think there is corruption and closing the ranks at the national level, I also think that when that many people have worked with you in the past and liked what they have seen choose you over someone else, it means something. That tells me that despite what you read in the media and despite all the distortions you read over crap like Benghazi, she actually does make good choices as a leader. These people like her, and want to work with her again.

Remember, on the Republican side, not one Senator wants to work with Cruz, and we say it means something about him. On the Democratic side, the overwhelming number of Senators have chosen to support Hillary. That should also say something to you.

A quick sidepoint- I maintain that having the email server was a stupid idea that caused more trouble while it was worth, but the biggest thing it did for me, a loser with no social life, was give me the opportunity to read a metric ton of Hillary’s emails. And, because, as previously noted, I am a loser with no social life, I did just that. You can too! And you know what shocking news I discovered?

She’s actually really nice with her staff and friends and seems like a pretty cool person to have as your boss.

That monster! What kind of inhuman scum doesn’t know how to get their email set up right on their iPad? Oh, me.

And think about it- it kind of makes sense. You all remember Terry McAullife and the rest of the 2008 clown car doing their best Baghdad Bob immitations, and you’ve seen her surrogates willingly, for free, debase themselves in support of her on twitter and elsewhere. She doesn’t have naked pictures of all of them, ffs. Something about her must engender that kind of loyalty and support. Maybe it’s because she’s nice, she’s smart, they trust her, and they would do anything for her because of that? Say what you want, but those are the kind of traits a President and a Presidential candidate will need, especially in this election.

It also says to me that she is going to be better able to work with Congress to get some things done. yes, there will be compromises and the dreaded triangulation. Until Democrats get off their asses and start voting on off year elections, we are going to have to deal with these bible-thumping backwoods hicks and their crony capitalist buddies in Congress. I think Hillary is far more likely to be able to negotiate with them than Sanders.

***

3.) This isn’t a single issue country, this won’t be a single issue Presidency, and we don’t need a single issue President.

Sweet Flying Spaghetti Monster, I love the fire and passion of Bernie Sanders. I really do. People make fun of him because he is shouty- last night at the debate people were mocking him shouting answers to the Flint residents asking him questions, and asking why is he shouting at her. He isn’t shouting at her, he’s shouting with her, because I guarantee that woman on the stand with two kids with lead poisoning wants to do more than shout at Rick Snyder. When Bernie is shouting about inequality and Wall Street I don’t hear him shouting because my internal monologue when I think about those things is shoutier and louder and angrier. I’m amazed he hasn’t called them mother fuckers yet, because it would have been the second and third words out of my mouth.

But it’s not the only issue we need to think about. Income equality wouldn’t save Sandra Bland. Income equality isn’t going to stop global warming. Income equality isn’t going to end racism. Income equality isn’t going to restore a woman’s right to choose back to Roe v. Wade levels.

And despite my misgivings about Hillary’s hawkishness and past mistakes and overall willingness to intervene militarily or otherwise, I think that on balance, she is better on many of the issues and more likely to maintain and advance the gains of the Obama years. We have to make choices when we are adults, and no one gets their perfect candidate. Even though I would love to have Obama for another eight years, I have real issues with him on some things.

***

4.) I think Hillary is better positioned to win. People like to point to her negatives, but those are not going to get worse. If anything, especially if the Republicans nominate Cruz or Drumpf the Insult Comic Hairpiece, I bet her negatives improve. This election is going to be a street fight. It is going to be ugly. I think we can throw the old conventional wisdom of negatives and how they play out in elections out the window. Regardless, if anyone’s negatives are going to go down, I think it is going to be Bernie’s. Our media will fuck up things again and never inform their voters that “democratic socialism” is basically all the things even Republican voters like about government, the Republicans will turn him into the lovechild of Stalin, and that will be that.

Combined with her team’s better ground game, experience with the ground rules, and the enthusiastic support of the base of the party (said women and minorities), I think Hillary is better positioned to win, and really, that is all that matters at this point. I guess I am a single issue voter, too:

Also worth mentioning is that I’m not concerned that were he the nominee, Bernie would bring a knife to a gunfight, but I know damned well that team Clinton will bring a automatic shotgun, grenades, mace, stun guns, and everything else they have at their disposal. Again, it’s irritating as hell most of the time, but there is no denying that Hillary has at her side a large armory filled with weapons grade assholes. Exhibit A- Phillipe Reines:

From: Reines, Philippe (Clinton)
Sent: Tue 12/30/2008 12:0S PM
To: Ben Smith
Subject: DOES ANYBODY
Do their own reporting anymore?
Page Six is wrong
And now you are because you can’t even bother to email and say “Hey, is this true?”
Unreal
Smith (in response):
I checked opensecrets!
so why’d she return caroline’s money?
Reines:
BECAUSE IT WAS A GENERAL ELECTION CONTRIBUTION YOU MORON
It was returned along with EIGHT THOUSAND other people on 8/28 the day it legally HAD TO
Her primary contribution went nowhere
Jezus
You’re the fourth person today doing a correction (I hope). Daily News is doing one, LA Times doing one.
I mean, come on people

Just google Phillipe+Reines+email if you are as much of a loser as I am and enjoy reading this shit. It’s really awesome.

At any rate, that is the kind of thing we need to win this cycle. I seriously believe this is going to be the ugliest general election in generations, and I want the indefatigable assholes on my side.

***

5.) I know this is going to piss people off, and I know some of you are going to scream ageism, but watching Bernie last night, he just seemed old and tired and wearing down. I was initially leaning Bernie at the beginning of this primary (because of course I was), and every time I look at him he just looks less energetic and a little more beat down. His response latency seems to be increasing as he collects his thoughts, and last night I saw him lashing out angrily about “your Wall Street friends,” and those are just not things that can happen in the general.

I’m not trying to be ageist- I don’t think people his age can’t or shouldn’t be President, it’s just that as I have watched this primary election go on, Clinton seems to be getting stronger and more confident and more ready for the election, while I feel the opposite is true about Sanders. In my mind’s eye, she looks younger to me than she did at the beginning of this primary. Clinton seems to really becoming a happy warrior, despite all the heaps of bullshit the Republicans have thrown at her.

Maybe you don’t see it that way. But I do. I look at Hillary these days and think there is no doubt she could serve eight years right now, while some days I wonder if Bernie is going to make it to November. The Vice President is a backup plan for when things go horribly wrong, not a plan. Again, I’m sorry if my elders think I am bashing them by stating this, but I’m really not trying to- Bernie has more energy on a bad day than I do on a great day, but he just is really starting to look worn down. The contrast for me last night was palpable.

***

I’m sure there are more reasons I could offer up, but that is where I am now. I’m not going to debase myself and go all pro-Hillary and make up bullshit about Bernie like I have seen, because I have to sleep at night and because I think there are enough reasons to support her without having to trash Bernie. Plus, I want to keep my powder dry for whatever viscous green sputum Cthulhu coughs up from his sulfurous chest to run as the Republican. But for right now, I think Hillary is the best choice and I think it is time to get in the game personally. This would be so much easier if one of them just sucked.

Have at it in the comments.

I’ve Kind of Made My DecisionPost + Comments (420)

Also, too.

Screw the Judean People’s Front. Splitters.

Reality always wins in the end.

Verified, but limited!

I showered with Rahm and all I got was this shitty blog.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Nevertheless, she persisted

No one could have predicted…

Militantly superior in their own minds…

Good luck with your asparagus.

We Survived Breitbartpocalypse!

Women: They Get Shit Done

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

This blog will pay for itself.

Word salad with all caps

Mission Accomplished!

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

An army of rabid, anonymous commenters

What fresh hell is this?

We have all the best words.

Just a few bad apples.

I thought we were promised Infrastructure Week

Gastritis Broke My Calculator

“The Self-Indulgence of It All”

Shush, Thrush, She’s With Us

Empowerful

Alright You Unsympathetic Jackals…

Stamina! (And Tactical Thinking)

Kitten Tikka Masala Weighs In

Which Of These Is Not Like The Others?

Further Airing of the Grievances

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Yes We Can – Again!

Pretty Amusing

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Shit Happens and Things Change

Everything that Worries Me about a Hillary Presidency in One Story

She Learns From Her Mistakes

I’ve Kind of Made My Decision