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Clap Louder!

You are here: Home / Archives for Clap Louder!

Late Night Open Thread: All We Have Learned…

by Anne Laurie|  December 16, 20191:19 am| 34 Comments

This post is in: Election 2020, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, United Kingdom, All Too Normal, Clap Louder!, Cosplay Socialists, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

I think it’s very bad punditry to draw broad lessons for one country’s elections from another country’s elections. But if you’re going to do it, be specific. I would like Sullivan to say which parts of the Democratic coalition should be sacrificed to “anti-PC nationalism.” https://t.co/hQq5vUK1GS

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) December 13, 2019

… is that Conservatives have a proud tradition of never learning anything new.

Combining Nationalism and Socialism….what could go wrong?

— ace-o-aces (@aceoaces) December 13, 2019

These ideas go together like a bundle of sticks.

— ? (@j_furm) December 13, 2019

I Knew Nothing Of British Politics Until This Morning But I Can Say Definitively That There Is One Clear Takeaway for the US Voter https://t.co/ycZRVLQfh7

— Alexandra Petri (@petridishes) December 13, 2019

… Some of the candidates who received votes were joke candidates, and I think that speaks volumes. Have we considered whether or not more of our candidates in America ought to be jokes? It is clear that the people are hungry for bad ideas that will solve nothing; I think we ought to consider whether worse ideas, more clearly labeled, might not be better…

Think we got that last part covered, for sure. They call themselves ‘dirtbag leftists‘ and they are at best a wen on the Democratic party they seek to parasitize.

leftists are gonna look themselves in the mirror, take a deep breath and tell themselves 'we gotta get more racist' pic.twitter.com/EHZ1zna7Io

— Social-Democratic Party of Galar (@weedlewobble) December 14, 2019

No I'm not gonna give a shit about the UK election results. Y'all long ago established the principle that any petty grievance you have with a politician justifies not supporting them in an election where their opponent is a literal fascist. Play stupid games win stupid prizes.

— Social-Democratic Party of Galar (@weedlewobble) December 12, 2019


“Play stupid games, win stupid prizes” is a strong contender for motto of the year. Hopefully *this* year, and not 2020!

Late Night Open Thread: All We Have Learned…Post + Comments (34)

Repubs in Disarray Open Thread: Crowdstruck

by Anne Laurie|  November 24, 201910:35 pm| 47 Comments

This post is in: Hail to the Hairpiece, Impeachment Inquiry, Open Threads, Repubs in Disarray!, Clap Louder!, Decline and Fall

MORNING: Trump calls into Fox & Friends, pushes bogus Crowdstrike theory
AFTERNOON: https://t.co/vztlM7VKOY

— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) November 22, 2019

It could be worse, you could be a Republican (assuming you could drop 40 IQ points and every moral qualm)…

With Thanksgiving coming up, Doocy and Kilmeade give a masterclass here on uncomfortable inquisitive faces when a relative is saying something widely inappropriate or awkward. https://t.co/webrJpXHg5

— andrew kaczynski? (@KFILE) November 22, 2019

I insist that you take 5 minutes and listen to every mini-clip in this thread from this morning. No, don’t read the summaries: LISTEN. 5 minutes. This is the President of the United States. https://t.co/z6jz72TLkj

— Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sifill_LDF) November 23, 2019

Dunno why people are assuming he misspoke ;) https://t.co/yEGntYMlIT

— T. Fisher King (@T_FisherKing) November 22, 2019

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Repubs in Disarray Open Thread: CrowdstruckPost + Comments (47)

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Whole Lotta “Nothing” Goin’ On

by Anne Laurie|  November 20, 20194:38 am| 92 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Impeachment Inquiry, Open Threads, Republican Venality, All Too Normal, Clap Louder!, Let A Thousand Watergates Bloom

6 close Trump advisors convicted/pleaded guilty to federal felonies. A sprawling money-laundering operation under Manafort broken up. 25 Russians indicted for election meddling.

And a serial pedophile was stopped as he was en route to Mar a Lago. https://t.co/tfo0SSUMxP

— Gator MaClunkey (@Zeddary) November 19, 2019

that's in addition to contributing to the convictions of Russian agent Maria Butina and her boyfriend the serial fraud Paul Erickson, the indictment of Army secretary candidate Stephen Calk, identity thief Richard Pinedo.

Oh and substantial evidence of Trump obstructing justice.

— Gator MaClunkey (@Zeddary) November 19, 2019

The special f'ing envoy to Ukraine says Trump's claims about Biden and the DNC are "conspiracy theories that have been circulated by the Ukrainians" and "not things we should be pursuing" https://t.co/kz36mSCboZ

— Justin Miller (@justinjm1) November 20, 2019

Worth noting this is a witness requested by the Republicans https://t.co/ZP7DO2mNFi

— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) November 19, 2019

"This is problematic for the White House because before today Republicans and the president were making the case that these were not people coming before Congress that were actually on the call that had concerns, today changed that."

— @Yamiche on the public impeachment hearings pic.twitter.com/tLwP48sJ8W

— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) November 19, 2019

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Whole Lotta “Nothing” Goin’ OnPost + Comments (92)

Late Night Open Thread: Rich ‘Sparklepants’ Lowry Throws A Public Snit

by Anne Laurie|  November 11, 20192:20 am| 44 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, All Too Normal, Clap Louder!, Decline and Fall, Just Shut the Fuck Up

rich lowry is not mad, he actually thinks its funny https://t.co/TO8jHmucdD

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) November 8, 2019

Not that I normally read anything by, or if I can help it about, the National Review editor who wrote the first public paean to Sarah Palin’s charms. But Mr. Boie’s tweet sent me in search of explication…

Ouch. @RichLowry's new book defending nationalism is a "tendentious, organicist view of history reminiscent of Italian and German philosophers of the 1920s and 1930s: semi-factual, over-confident, mythologized, and utterly self-serving." https://t.co/ojesb2wZnC

— Jerry Taylor (@jerry_jtaylor) November 8, 2019

“You know what I am?” U.S. President Donald J. Trump said at a rally in October 2018. “I’m a nationalist.” Rich Lowry’s The Case for Nationalism can be seen as a way of working through, and defending, what the president meant. As the editor of National Review, the prominent conservative magazine, Lowry is an intellectual gatekeeper on the American right. He was one of the speakers at the National Conservatism conference in July 2019, an event that brought together such thinkers as J. D. Vance and Patrick Deneen, with keynotes by the billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel and the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, along with a notorious intervention on the perils of immigration by University of Pennsylvania law professor Amy Wax.

Lowry’s central claim is that Americans are, and have been from their country’s founding, a nation and not a community of universal ideas. Although intellectuals and left-wing pundits are openly hostile to expressions of national sentiment, the United States has a unique national tradition that is today obscured by fissiparous identity politics. If Americans reacquaint themselves with their true national heritage, they will be better equipped to overcome dangerous tribalism, protect their borders, and make their country great again. To the degree that the United States has a global role, it should be as “vindicator of the prerogatives of other democratic nation-states”—in other words, a defender of the idea that a world of culturally defined nations is humanity’s state of nature…

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Late Night Open Thread: Rich ‘Sparklepants’ Lowry Throws A Public SnitPost + Comments (44)

Repubs in Disarray!… Open Thread: Nikki Haley’s Delicate Balancing Act

by Anne Laurie|  November 10, 20198:33 pm| 40 Comments

This post is in: Impeachment Inquiry, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Repubs in Disarray!, Trumpery, Clap Louder!, Let A Thousand Watergates Bloom

Nikki Haley claims that former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson & former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly sought to recruit her to work around and subvert Trump to save the country.

She chose Trump instead of the country. Not interested in her book.https://t.co/xEpPHfgjdN

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) November 10, 2019

New: Nikki Haley is running for president in 2024. https://t.co/uYYM2PlMWv

— Jim Antle (@jimantle) November 10, 2019

Conventional wisdom, any time over the last forty years, has been that the first female president would be a Republican. (Or, we should amend, the first female winner of the popular vote allowed to take her earned seat in the Oval Office.) Nikki Haley has been working to be that woman for most of her adult life, but her best shot — and her new memoir — arrive at a tricksy point in the current electoral cycle: She can’t afford to denounce the sitting Republican president, for fear of angering his (Deplorable) base. But she can’t risk applauding too publicly someone who might be impeached, or worse, before her book tour is well under way.

Solution: Embrace the Oval Office Occupant; blame any ‘mistakes’ on the people around him. Even better, on the people who were around him, but have since been dismissed!

But Haley wanted nothing to do with saving the country pic.twitter.com/xofmX5mOJV

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 10, 2019

I like how in the Haley article there’s no mention of her and any other Trump staffer or appointee having a good relationship.

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 10, 2019

… In the book, which was obtained by The Washington Post ahead of its release Tuesday, Haley offers only glancing critiques of her former boss, saying she and others who worked for Trump had an obligation to carry out his wishes since he was the one elected by voters.

The former South Carolina governor, widely viewed by Republicans as a top potential presidential candidate in 2024, has repeatedly sought to minimize differences with Trump while distancing herself from his excesses. Haley, 47, writes that she backed most of the foreign policy decisions by Trump that others tried to block or slow down, including withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate accord and the relocation of the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

In a New York City interview with The Post coinciding with the book release, Haley also dismissed efforts by House Democrats to impeach Trump. She said she opposes Trump’s efforts to seek foreign help for political investigations in a call with Ukraine’s president, but that the actions are not impeachable.

“There was no heavy demand insisting that something had to happen. So it’s hard for me to understand where the whole impeachment situation is coming from, because what everybody’s up in arms about didn’t happen,” Haley said…

No, the death penalty is like the death penalty. Impeachment is like getting fired. https://t.co/bBEHqimWXe

— Seth Masket (@smotus) November 9, 2019

Maybe Nikki Haley would be more comfortable if instead of thinking of impeachment as the death penalty she viewed it as just another failed Trump business endeavor.

— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 9, 2019

I mean, come on, if he succeeded at this it would be an outlier.

— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 9, 2019

<em>Repubs in Disarray!…</em> Open Thread: Nikki Haley’s Delicate Balancing ActPost + Comments (40)

So make sure when you say you’re in it but not of it

by DougJ|  November 5, 20199:19 am| 95 Comments

This post is in: Clap Louder!, Meth Laboratories of Democracy

Don’t forget to vote in your local elections today if you have them. Where I live, in Monroe County, the Republicans have dominated county politics for years, but there’s been a big shift in registration in the past three years, amounting to a 3-4% net gain for Democrats. I asked a friend if Dems have a chance this year and he said no because they don’t turn out for county elections.

Commenter MikeJ once said that too many liberals were

too cool to actually approve of anything. The whole thing smacks of effort, man. Democrats are also famous for only liking the first album (or better yet, the unreleased demos.)

Don’t be that guy. Go out and vote Democrat today no matter how uninspiring your candidates are.

So make sure when you say you’re in it but not of itPost + Comments (95)

“Bring Me the Head of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi”: Early Reviews, Not Promising

by Anne Laurie|  October 27, 20194:22 pm| 90 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Hail to the Hairpiece, Military, Open Threads, Republican Venality, War on Terror, #notintendedtobeafactualstatement, Clap Louder!, Decline and Fall

Huh. Is Trump going to announce that the ISIS fighters he set free now plan to lead quiet lives as accountants, the Turks will un-kill the Kurds, the Russians will go home, and Assad will turn himself in to the Hague? I ask because, if not, I'm going to sleep in tomorrow.

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) October 27, 2019

Curious how this 2012 sentiment will match up with tomorrow morning’s statement https://t.co/bLMUZzPTng

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) October 27, 2019

Publicity-grab sequels seldom match the success of the originals. Title of this post from a Christopher Dickey article in the Daily Beast, “Trump Turns Baghdadi’s Killing Into a Reality Show”:

PARIS—President Donald J. Trump wants you to see his new movie: “Bring Me the Head of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.”

At a special Sunday morning press conference in Washington D.C., Trump described the way U.S. Special Operations Forces attacked Baghdadi’s compound and killed him in such graphic and explicit detail that some intelligence professionals worried he may have revealed, again, too much about sources and methods.

But Trump knows great television when he sees it, and he was enthusiastic about the images he was watching from the White House situation room Saturday night. “It was absolutely perfect, as though you were watching a movie,” he said…

The reasons such a video of the 2011 Osama operation was not released are the same ones that the intelligence community will use to argue against dissemination of the Baghdadi death: because such images could compromise so much about the operation.

But quite apart from Trump’s worthy desire to undermine the messaging of the still virulent ISIS organization, there is also his unworthy inclination to gloat. Remember when Trump tweeted a highly classified high-resolution image of a failed Iranian missile launch earlier this year for little more reason, it would seem, that smug self-satisfaction?

Trump hates it when the fast-turning news cycle that he uses effectively to obscure his failings also works to push his accomplishments into oblivion…

He’ll be tweeting obscenities — not dirty words, but actual graphic images & descriptions — no later than tomorrow morning. And that’s only if the Fox News prime-time lineup lathers sufficient Kim-Jong-un – style propaganda all this evening.

Trump was away from the White House for a round of golf until 4:18 pm yesterday. It appears this photo was staged. https://t.co/1K5TA6xwDQ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 27, 2019

Turkey gave up the leader of a group Trump swore he had already defeated as repayment for paving the way for genocide. https://t.co/VOoXD1Vg6P

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) October 27, 2019

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“Bring Me the Head of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi”: Early Reviews, Not PromisingPost + Comments (90)

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