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Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

You are here: Home / Archives for Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

‘Season of Giving’ Open Thread: Spare A Thought for the Locally-Grown, Artisanal Bigots & Hypocrites

by Anne Laurie|  December 6, 20199:18 pm| 84 Comments

This post is in: Civil Rights, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, All Too Normal, Assholes, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

At a Pizza Hut. https://t.co/VfbFviFzbf

— Malarksist Revolutionary (@agraybee) December 5, 2019


The multinational big-box kleptocrats, with the Oval Office Occupant as their spokesthing, are making it impossible for the traditional regional hatemongers to get the earned media (free publicity) they rely upon to survive!

Take, for instance, newly-minted reparative-justice advocate and unindicted insurance-fraud Republican Darrel Issa:

"Are we better off spending $60,000 a year to put him behind bars or are we better off with him doing community service and going on with his life with the likelihood of him committing a crime in the future being pretty low?” https://t.co/6PSwYON1sk via @TPM

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December 6, 2019


“If the soulless legislative middle managers are gonna keep a stand-up guy like Duncan Hunter from voting with us, just because he’s pled guilty to robbing wounded veterans to pay for his golf fees, cigar bars, and at least five extramarital liaisons with lobbyists and staffers… who’s gonna be left to accuse the Democrats of immorality and lawlessness? (ME!, that’s who)”

… In August, Issa announced that he had launched an exploratory committee to consider a potential bid for Hunter’s seat, which prompted him to withdraw his nomination by Trump for a trade post.

The Union-Tribune noted that unlike other challengers running for Hunter’s seat, Issa has not criticized the embattled Republican congressman.

On Thursday, the House Ethics Committee urged Hunter to “refrain from voting on any question at a meeting of the House or of the Committee of the Whole House,” citing a House rule regarding convicted lawmakers…

Not to mention the sad status of favorite blog chewtoy Little Prince Rand, who can’t get any front-page MSM attention for the kind of puke-funnel performance that used to be worth thousands from his donors / voters…

I know we're all used to it by now but it's still pretty crazy there's no political penalty to be paid for just pretending the facts are completely different from what they are anymore. https://t.co/rhVsNbBofT

— Andrew Egger (@EggerDC) December 4, 2019

How rad is it that a GOP that's spent weeks going absolutely ballistic about the fact that the whistleblower was seemingly in brief contact with Schiff is going to care not one bit that Nunes was in contact with one of Giuliani's hilariously shady goons

— Andrew Egger (@EggerDC) December 4, 2019

https://t.co/KpqT1KyxnP

— Robert Rikard (@rgrikard) December 4, 2019

‘Season of Giving’ Open Thread: Spare A Thought for the Locally-Grown, Artisanal Bigots & HypocritesPost + Comments (84)

Late Night Open Thread: When Narwhal Tusks Are Outlawed…

by Anne Laurie|  December 2, 201910:52 pm| 69 Comments

This post is in: Gun nuts, Open Threads, United Kingdom, War on Terror, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

I’m not even mad at 2019’s screenwriters. I’m impressed. https://t.co/9v3i40rQbH

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) November 30, 2019

Bloody foreigners. Coming over here, saving lives. https://t.co/0RrjlHap6N

— Nick Harvey (@mrnickharvey) November 30, 2019

honestly this is a better argument for giving everyone narwhal tusks than it is for making it easier for the terrorist to get an ar-15 like he could in the US https://t.co/GrajCpUz23

— John Cole (@Johngcole) December 1, 2019

also, you fucking moron

— John Cole (@Johngcole) December 1, 2019

… Actually, as far as I can tell from a cursory google search, because the narwhal is a protected species, only pre-1972 narwhal tusks are legal in the U.S. (The one spontaneously repurposed in London was a pub ornament, date of its collection unspecified.) And given the legal ones are hella pricey, there’d probably be fewer stories like this…

A 65-year-old Maine man who outfitted his home with a device designed to fire a handgun at anyone opening the front door unintentionally shot and killed himself on Thanksgiving night. https://t.co/z9N1nIanKa

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) December 1, 2019


I’m not fond of unannounced drop-ins either, but jeez.

I’ll just leave this right here … pic.twitter.com/xVpIExGGVK

— Tyff ???? ???? ???? (@mojo_girl) December 1, 2019

Late Night Open Thread: When Narwhal Tusks Are Outlawed…Post + Comments (69)

Open Thread: Revenge of the “Rockies”

by Anne Laurie|  November 29, 20199:46 pm| 86 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Post-racial America, Republican Stupidity, Trumpery, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

obviously this is ridiculous as a matter of correspondence to reality. but as a symbolic representation of what trump means to his supporters, it is kind of perfect. (thread) pic.twitter.com/iICM1zQ8Ui

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) November 27, 2019

Since Trump theoretically didn’t have access to his own twitter account when it first  appeared, it’s possible he didn’t personally retweet that ridiculous Rocky Balboa photoshop. (His diligent minions should’ve known better than to retweet it, but ‘should’ve known better’ is not a skill for which Trump minions are selected.)

Interesting riff from Jamelle Bouie on the trope:

when CREED 2 was released, my friend @adamserwer wrote on the first CREED as a subversion of the Rocky franchise. The first three Rocky movies, he notes, are the story of a working-class white man humbling the black man who dares to claim America. https://t.co/f6Vo4cni7g

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) November 27, 2019

Whoever created this meme image of Trump as Rocky just wanted to show him as a powerful man. And Trump obviously wants to present himself as such. But when you consider the racial politics of the film itself, it’s hard to imagine a more apt piece of political symbolism.

— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) November 27, 2019

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Open Thread: Revenge of the “Rockies”Post + Comments (86)

Sunday Afternoon Open Thread: The Way ‘Trump Nation’ Lives Now

by Anne Laurie|  November 24, 20193:00 pm| 71 Comments

This post is in: Election Year, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Repubs in Disarray!, Assholes, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

A MAGA gathering at Denny's tears itself apart when a rival alt-right group tries to spoil the meetup, this is a lil doc about a Sunday afternoon at Denny's

Full video here: https://t.co/xGhJJnb7VB pic.twitter.com/urYhDnl32P

— Xavier Rotnofsky (@xrotnofsky) November 21, 2019

It would be funnier, if they weren’t so damned sad…

This is just a third of the video, gotta go here for the full thing: https://t.co/xGhJJnb7VB

— Xavier Rotnofsky (@xrotnofsky) November 22, 2019

The SPLC’s take on organizer Harim Uzziel, “Hardcore American Patriot”.

Lol pic.twitter.com/oboXxAQyw5

— Xavier Rotnofsky (@xrotnofsky) November 22, 2019

Errol Webber, U.S. House candidate caught between the warring armies.

Award-winning closer on the full video!

pic.twitter.com/ZKwqKqmM8q

— Xavier Rotnofsky (@xrotnofsky) November 22, 2019

Sunday Afternoon Open Thread: The Way ‘Trump Nation’ Lives NowPost + Comments (71)

Saturday Night PopCult Nostalgia Open Thread: CYBERTRUCK!

by Anne Laurie|  November 23, 20199:32 pm| 113 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Open Threads, Popular Culture, #notintendedtobeafactualstatement, Assholes, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

I keep looking at this piece of shit thinking only part of the photo is downloaded https://t.co/g4ugbKrQLM

— kilgore trout was in the loop (@KT_So_It_Goes) November 22, 2019

Soundtrack for this post:

Tesla Truck, for when you gotta move these refrigerators. You gotta move these color TVs. pic.twitter.com/5lI7wJO9dl

— Gator MaClunkey (@Zeddary) November 22, 2019

RIP my menchies, as the kids say, but this was too good *not* to share. Bryan Feldman, at NYMag, “We May Not Want the Cybertruck, But We Deserve It”:

… The Cybertruck is a truck that Elon Musk unveiled last night. It is a Humvee-ish vehicle that looks like it was made for a direct-to-video Starship Troopers ripoff called Spaceship Soldiers. It looks like a secret car you unlock if you get a high score on every Cruisin’ USA track. It looks like one of those first-pass shots on a visual-effects highlights reel from 1992. It looks like it has a physics system completely separate from every other object on this earth and if you hit a curb at the wrong angle, the truck will glitch out and clip through an entire city block, causing untold devastation. It is the Cybertruck.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “Ah, a Cybertruck. A truck that is computer-y.” Wrong! Cybertruck should be said in the exact same way that one might pronounce the word “cyberpunk,” a sci-fi genre all about how technology will completely ruin us once we start jamming chips into our brains. Just look at the Cybertruck logo. It’s not some coder font — it’s graffiti. It’s the Official Truck of App-Catalyzed Urban Decay. This a Blade Runner-ass truck for the end times. It is not a utopian, idealistic creation — and in that sense, it is refreshing. Elon Musk is not selling us the world we want; he is selling the world we have (starting at MSRP $39,900). The Cybertruck is, in a sense, practical. Everything about this truck screams, “This is the car you will drive through overgrown suburbs full of decaying houses, searching for potable water. This is the car the next three generations of your family will be born in the trunk of. When the feral wolves attack, this truck will protect you.”

But the truck will not protect you. In its unveiling last night, Musk tried to show off the vehicle’s “bulletproof” windows. He asked an employee to throw a rock at the window. The window fractured. They tried it again on a second window. That window also fractured. It was a pure, perfect distillation of what Elon Musk’s whole, like, deal is. He has spent years pouring his billions into projects that make science fiction into science fact, in order to sell people and governments expensive stuff that maybe half-functions. A demonstration of the dent-proof doors went off more successfully.

Many of Musk’s products are self-indulgent, but this might be the most self-indulgent. Like, you know how there are people who design their living rooms to look like the bridge of the Enterprise, or have rooms dedicated to baseball paraphernalia? The Cybertruck can then be read as Musk’s attempt to shape not just his own life, but the lives of others, to mimic the media of his youth. The whole thing resembles a low-poly model — a 3-D asset made of a limited number of polygons based on the limited computing power of older devices. Musk doesn’t just want a Cybertruck for himself, he wants to see thousands of Cybertrucks roaming the streets, sticking out like sore thumbs, parts of the world that quite literally haven’t fully rendered to the level of everything else around them. The notion might not be as far-fetched as it seems. Silicon Valley is full of newly minted millionaires with more money than they know what to do with. The Cybertruck looks very stupid, but so do AirPods…

They're taking reservation money for it, so it's both, apparently.

— Artisan Loaf (@ArtisanLoaf) November 22, 2019

The Cybertruck is literally just the parody in-game billboard for the civilian Warthog from Halo 2.

An H3 Hummer for VCs who spent their adolescence shouting racial slurs on Blood Gulch. pic.twitter.com/7k13jkeVmh

— Gator MaClunkey (@Zeddary) November 22, 2019

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Saturday Night PopCult Nostalgia Open Thread: CYBERTRUCK!Post + Comments (113)

Trump Crime Cartel Open Thread: I Learn Something New Every Day

by Anne Laurie|  November 23, 20194:55 pm| 208 Comments

This post is in: Impeachment Inquiry, Repubs in Disarray!, Russia, Trump Crime Cartel, Assholes, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

Sir, this is a Теремок. https://t.co/dkuLBCc5W4

— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) November 23, 2019

Never even heard of the Teremok chain, and now I wanna visit one…

Elsewhere, per the Hill:

President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani remarked Saturday that he has “insurance” if the president tries to turn on him while defending their relationship amid the ongoing House impeachment inquiry.

Giuliani in a wide-ranging interview on Fox News declined to say if he has spoken with Trump in recent days, saying, “You can assume that I talk to him early and often.”

He then touted what he called a “very, very good relationship” with Trump before knocking unspecified comments about him in the press, calling them “totally insulting.”

“I’ve seen things written like he’s going to throw me under the bus. When they say that, I say he isn’t, but I have insurance,” Giuliani told Fox News’s Ed Henry…

Trump on Friday defended his use of Giuliani despite scrutiny over his actions in Ukraine, calling the former New York City mayor “an iconic figure in this country” and “the greatest crime fighter probably in the last 50 years” based on his time as a federal prosecutor.

“He’s also a friend of mine. He’s a great person,” Trump added during an interview Friday on “Fox & Friends,” portraying the lawyer as focused on tackling corruption.

Pitch for the kind of “reality tv show” Trump so loves: Two former goodfellas share a cell! Wacky antics and non-stop backbiting! Which one will snap first?

Back in the USSR. pic.twitter.com/H47lEdWNjO

— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) November 23, 2019

Trump Crime Cartel Open Thread: I Learn Something New Every DayPost + Comments (208)

Late Night Open Thread: The Berlin Wall – Both Sides!

by Anne Laurie|  November 10, 201912:13 am| 74 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others place candles at the Berlin Wall memorial, marking 30 years since the wall came down. https://t.co/kFNeLjVvux pic.twitter.com/pW7X1ndKM9

— ABC News (@ABC) November 9, 2019

History has proven time & time again that freedom is not achieved by building walls.

As we celebrate #WorldFreedomDay & the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, we must remember that America is at its greatest when we tear down barriers to those fleeing oppression.

— James E. Clyburn (@WhipClyburn) November 9, 2019

On the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Berliners are sending part of the wall to Trump “to commemorate the United States’ dedication to building a world without walls.”

Well played. https://t.co/Wt3RqSK1Ep

— Chris Lu (@ChrisLu44) November 9, 2019

For the record, there was a “wall” across Europe until it came down. I know, I patrolled parts of it. It didn’t “work.” It was a symbol of tyranny & oppression. I saw a family of 4 killed by E German border guards trying to escape. Learn a bit of history before tweeting. https://t.co/azzo46SDTB

— Mark Hertling (@MarkHertling) November 9, 2019


(Crowley’s tweet, it seems, is actually four years old… part of her campaign seeking ‘promotion’ from Fox News host to Trump official.)

And @MonicaCrowley, I know the painted border wall is a nice backdrop for your photo, but here’s the rest of the “wall” system that tried to oppress freedom. What’s not shown is the minefields and attack dogs, or those who attempted to escape Russian oppression. pic.twitter.com/BpTTt3AeV9

— Mark Hertling (@MarkHertling) November 9, 2019

While the rest of us were celebrating the fall of the Berlin wall, Putin was desperately incinerating KGB files.

— X Soviet (@XSovietNews) November 9, 2019

On the ‘opposite’ pole:

They were thhiissssss close to being the DSA dream before capitalism ruined it. https://t.co/8mrxqIMLVh

— Every Chicken Sandwich Is A Policy Failure (@agraybee) November 9, 2019

It's true that many active in the DDR civil rights movements wanted to reform not reunification, but a majority of their fellow East Germans had other idea after the border fell.

— veto players stan account (@Convolutedname) November 9, 2019

What went wrong is that they made a country where you could leave without anyone tried to shoot you for it. https://t.co/JsN3r2WGZa

— Every Chicken Sandwich Is A Policy Failure (@agraybee) November 9, 2019

Late Night Open Thread: The Berlin Wall – <em>Both Sides!</em>Post + Comments (74)

Late Night After Dark Open Thread: When Horseshoe Poles Touch

by Anne Laurie|  November 4, 20191:38 am| 27 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Trumpery, #notintendedtobeafactualstatement, Bitter Despair is the New Black, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

Finally, the Pauline Kael quote about McGovern cones full circle. https://t.co/YI0GAR8pbt

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) November 4, 2019

“When the President does it, it is not a crime”:

The thing about Bill "Book of Virtues" Bennett is that, like other Trump enablers, he knows full well that what he is saying is weapons-grade bullshit. He knows it. But it's the last hurrah for the old white guys who think they're holding back the Sharia Vegan Abortionist hordes. https://t.co/26YADH3fne

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 3, 2019

On Fox, Kellyanne Conway says straight up that it's OK for a president to block military aid in order to coerce a foreign government to investigate his opponent. https://t.co/rtDHwXQDIL pic.twitter.com/rX2wsk6GiY

— Will Saletan (@saletan) November 3, 2019

“Perhaps so”https://t.co/hXwbPDKLGh

— PerhapsSoHat (@Popehat) November 4, 2019

Elsewhere…

Chants of “Lock Him Up” at tonight’s @BernieSanders rally in Minneapolis. pic.twitter.com/58NT6dQ7ZP

— Gary Grumbach (@GaryGrumbach) November 4, 2019

To clear up any confusion, these “Lock Him Up” chants were made by the crowd while Sen. @BernieSanders was calling on Pres. Trump to be impeached.

Sanders did not participate in the chants, and did nothing to stop them from occurring.

— Gary Grumbach (@GaryGrumbach) November 4, 2019

And finally…

not even gonna swing at that https://t.co/oStewIEtcT

— Zeddy (@Zeddary) November 4, 2019

Late Night After Dark Open Thread: When Horseshoe Poles TouchPost + Comments (27)

Late Night Open Thread: Canine Blogging

by Anne Laurie|  November 2, 20191:55 am| 41 Comments

This post is in: Dog Blogging, Open Threads, Russiagate, Clown car, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

Random stuff *I* found entertaining…

"Shannon– that is NOT a coyote — it's a husky!" pic.twitter.com/KqdKVtWgM1

— Best of Nextdoor (@bestofnextdoor) October 31, 2019

Opposite is happening here in Denver… pic.twitter.com/9vjXQhdDOi

— Bob Jones (@bob_j) October 31, 2019

pic.twitter.com/GTDZ6wOUQ5

— Best of Nextdoor (@bestofnextdoor) October 31, 2019


 

Maria Butina: “I think it's an American, very old saying that suggests that wolves have teeth, but not all animals with teeth are wolves” https://t.co/byHr87nOxZ

— Vera Bergengruen (@VeraMBergen) November 1, 2019

That’s my question to you Americans!

— Vera Bergengruen (@VeraMBergen) November 1, 2019

It’s an old saying from Georgia, just south of…Russia!

— GoodWitchHunting (@roxknox0608) November 1, 2019

It’s part of a question from an old American test, the LSAT.

— Will Portello (@WillPortello) November 1, 2019

As an American who researches wolf-human discourse and lore, I'm not familiar with that proverb. Kind of sounds like a version of this one, though:
"Not everything that is grey is a wolf"
However, that's a Russian proverb, not an American one. Sure it's just an honest mistake.

— Michael Lukas, Interdisciplinary Ph.D. (@JoyfulSisyphean) November 1, 2019


 

Conan is a female dog. Trump is just a little b****. https://t.co/Dn4d4GCjkc

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) November 2, 2019

Late Night Open Thread: Canine BloggingPost + Comments (41)

Late Night Open Thread: Au Revoir, Little Red Sparrow

by Anne Laurie|  October 28, 201912:36 am| 33 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Guns, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Russia, #notintendedtobeafactualstatement, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Both Sides Do It!, Nobody could have predicted, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

At the airport, Butina tells a group of journos that “Russians don’t surrender,” apparently forgetting that she pleaded guilty to a felony in the US and testified against Alexander Torshin, which got him booted out of Russia’s Central Bank. pic.twitter.com/O8a3SfdZdE

— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) October 26, 2019

NEW: Maria Butina Receives Hero’s Welcome in Moscow https://t.co/6ZjkYPQ6Fv

My latest for @thedailybeast

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) October 26, 2019

One day you’re the NRA’s top pin-up girl, the next you’re (allegedly) fighting for food in an American prison:

… Eagerly anticipating Butina’s impending liberation, Russian state media outlets expected to live-stream her release, but U.S. authorities had other plans. Having traveled to the Tallahassee Federal Correctional Institution from Atlanta, Georgia and Jacksonville, Florida, Russian state TV stringers were stranded for hours filming traffic, building exits and geese on the lawn. Meanwhile, Butina was quietly whisked out of the facility and transferred to the custody of ICE for a speedy deportation back to Russia…

Appearing on 60 Minutes—the most popular news talk show in Russia—the correspondent of Russia’s state-TV channel Rossiya-24 Valentin Bogdanov pointed out that the Western media no longer dares to call Butina a spy. “They’re being careful,” Bogdanov said, speculating that media outlets are afraid of being sued for using the wrong language. In the Kremlin-controlled Russian media, Butina is being described mainly in glowing terms…

Working at the direction of a Russian government official, Alexander Torshin, Butina infiltrated Republican political circles and the National Rifle Association around the time of the 2016 election in order to promote Russian interests. In September of 2019, an investigation by Senate Democrats determined that the NRA has acted as a “foreign asset” in providing Russian officials access to US political organizations.

In court documents, prosecutors argued that Butina’s efforts had the hallmarks of a Russian espionage operation, suggesting that she was acting as a “spotter” by identifying people who have the ability to influence policy in Russia’s favor, as a set of targets Russian spies could potentially cultivate. Investigators from special counsel Robert Mueller’s team questioned Butina on only one occasion for approximately an hour. Her name was left out of the final version of the Special Counsel’s redacted report. Many questions about the full scope of Maria Butina’s activities in the United States remain unanswered…

There is little doubt that Maria Butina will be actively used by Russian state media for anti-American propaganda. Butina also has other plans. In April, she told CNN that she might start tutoring Russian students who want to study in America.

Maria Butina says she has no plans to return to the US at the moment for personal safety reasons. She has been deported for committing a felony and would never be allowed back. https://t.co/SIWzvRsdtu

— X Soviet (@XSovietNews) October 26, 2019

On the surface, but historically Russia has always assumed that those jailed abroad may have been recruited while in custody, and they have met unpleasant fates on their return. https://t.co/6Gf0SdIS5r

— X Soviet (@XSovietNews) October 26, 2019

Putin expects others to be like him and keep someone in prison until an exchange is agreed. Maria Butina was released even before the end of her sentence, so Putin has no need to offer Paul Whelan in return. For him people are just bargaining chips. https://t.co/vo6YQtb8HI

— X Soviet (@XSovietNews) October 26, 2019

Why would Alexander Malkevich (left), the editor of one of the Internet Research Agency’s disinformation websites aimed at the United States be meeting Maria Butina with flowers at the Moscow airport? Sure looks like him. https://t.co/12P70I5u05

— Mike Walker (@New_Narrative) October 26, 2019

Late Night Open Thread: <em>Au Revoir</em>, Little Red SparrowPost + Comments (33)

Late Night Open Thread: Good for Luke Skywalker

by Anne Laurie|  September 30, 201912:23 am| 68 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Popular Culture, Trump Crime Cartel, Both Sides Do It!, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

You misspelled "Fraud."#GoForceYourself https://t.co/ORY6eeyGgj

— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) September 29, 2019

The whistleblower’s under federal protection because of rabid MAGAts, but Daddy’s Liddle’ Pwincess wants the world to know how very normal’n’basic her life is…

Mark Hamill gets heat for slamming Ivanka Trump's photo of her son in 'Star Wars' costume: 'You s… https://t.co/pgbuoMsTzS via @YahooLifestyle

— hardknoxfirst (@hardknoxfirst) September 30, 2019

and how about the Kids who can't have à nice Sunday because of her family ?

— Supernad (@NightwingNad) September 29, 2019

Mommy, why does Luke Skywalker hate us?
Because we are terrible, terrible people, son.

— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) September 29, 2019

Gotta agree, I personally can’t wait until Jarvanka and all their adult kin are in prison or in exile, may the Goddess of Consequences permit.

Late Night Open Thread: Good for Luke SkywalkerPost + Comments (68)

(Semi) Respite Open Thread: Area 51 Storms Back

by Anne Laurie|  September 20, 20193:54 pm| 157 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Popular Culture, #notintendedtobeafactualstatement, Clap Louder!, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

2 million people said they would "storm Area 51"⁠—but only 150 showed up https://t.co/pTbXWyGhC5 by @lisettevoytko pic.twitter.com/XR2tKOWabI

— Forbes (@Forbes) September 20, 2019

These are the brave souls on the frontline of the #Area51storm . Remember their faces and appreciate the sacrifice they are about to make in pursuit of Alien Booty & Freedom! #StormingArea51 pic.twitter.com/3944Un5n78

— OldDirtyBrett (@OldDirtyBrett) September 20, 2019

One the one hand, it’s sad we’ve got so much overtly political idiocy that there’s not enough space to mock mere ‘viral’ stupidity. On the other hand, Facebook ‘pranksters’ don’t need any more encouragement. Per Kotaku:

… “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” began as a joke Facebook event earlier this year. “If we naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. Lets see them aliens,” the post read. Two million people hit “Going.” There were plans for a music fest called “Alienstock.” But in the intervening months, the Facebook event’s creator has condemned the initiative, citing a lack of infrastructure and safety issues, and the event has been removed. A spokesperson for the U.S. Air Force told the Washington Post that Area 51 “is an open training range for the U.S. Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces.”

Today is the planned date of the event, and according to 13 Action News, Rachel, Nevada, is still preparing for an onslaught of alien truthers and Naruto fans…

Keep checking back for more updates from the raid! 👽 #stormarea51 #area51storm https://t.co/ZaXaOjI8ML

— Popular Mechanics (@PopMech) September 20, 2019

Original ‘organizer’ Matty Roberts actually disowned the event some days ago, per the Washington Post (Sept. 10)…

… Dueling accusations of dishonesty and sabotage have derailed “Alienstock” — a Woodstock for alien watchers — which creator Matty Roberts promoted as alternative programming to any plans to storm the base on Sept. 20 despite officials’ warnings.

With just over a week to go until the event, Roberts and the host town’s website are both comparing Alienstock to the Fyre Festival, which was supposed to be held in April and May of 2017 in the Bahamas but became synonymous with “epic failure” and led to a fraud conviction. Roberts has pulled his name and support from the three-day gathering in Rachel, Nev., but the owner of a motel in the town who had signed up as a partner plans to go ahead…

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(Semi) Respite Open Thread: Area 51 Storms BackPost + Comments (157)

Open Thread: Oh Joy, A New ‘Demonic Drug’ to Abuse… Politically

by Anne Laurie|  September 11, 20197:09 pm| 154 Comments

This post is in: Election Year, Free Markets Solve Everything, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Trumpery, All Too Normal, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

Here's video of Trump telling reporters today that "innocent children" are "coming home and they're saying, 'mom, I want to vape!'" pic.twitter.com/XwSrYboavZ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 11, 2019

Mandatory disclaimer: I don’t vape, and I certainly wouldn’t encourage anyone to start vaping. But whenever the Repubs start ginning up a new WON’T SOMEBODY THINK ABOUT THE CHILDREN!!! scare, I assume it’s an electioneering tactic…

I feel like sending kids onto the black market to buy bootleg vape cut with fentanyl or whatever might backfire

— Allahpundit (@allahpundit) September 11, 2019

Counting down the days until the THC angle is confirmed by the FDA and then there’s a misguided crackdown against states where weed is legal https://t.co/igOQ06V0w7

— Brandon Wall (@Walldo) September 11, 2019

The replies to Tolentino’s tweet are, so far, astonishingly sensible:

yeah, I assume some lying, but also it seems to me the places where shady nicotine vapes are potentially very harmful (the heating coil, the substances in the liquid) are just clearly going to get so much worse with a ban

— Jia Tolentino (@jiatolentino) September 11, 2019

I just quit last week after vaping for the last 10 years (pack/day before that). It helped me quit, definitely. But after teaching high school for a couple of years I can say that legitimately a shitload of young people now consume incredible amounts of nicotine on a daily basis.

— Tetsuo Sakurai fanpage / Mac DeMarco hate page (@ShigeoSekito) September 11, 2019

LMAO you built this 8chan https://t.co/3WmBanAJcM

— Zeddy (@Zeddary) September 11, 2019

INCELEBRATION1469: 'in the summer & fall of 2016 I was producing 350 Killary memes a week. But my efforts are rewarded as my chosen God Emperor triggers the libs and makes america great again.

Now to take a big draw off this gamer girl bathwater flavored e-cig and check twi-' https://t.co/3WmBanAJcM

— Zeddy (@Zeddary) September 11, 2019

Is Vaping the new excuse why he won't touch gun control?

— Stealthgirl (@stealthgirl21) September 11, 2019

He’s going to vape onstage then win the Libertarian nomination https://t.co/EX0VvXPtZ2

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) September 11, 2019

Open Thread: Oh Joy, A New ‘Demonic Drug’ to Abuse… PoliticallyPost + Comments (154)

Interesting Read: “The Real Donald Trump Is a Character on TV”

by Anne Laurie|  September 10, 20198:30 pm| 132 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Hail to the Hairpiece, Television, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

"The institution of the office is not changing Donald Trump, because he is already in the sway of another institution." That other institution is TV. https://t.co/OwImP85c9V Recommended.

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) September 6, 2019

Not sure I could bear to read a whole book on this topic, but NYTimes TV critic James Poniewozik makes a good argument here:

… Try to understand Donald Trump as a person with psychology and strategy and motivation, and you will inevitably spiral into confusion and covfefe. The key is to remember that Donald Trump is not a person. He’s a TV character.

I mean, O.K., there is an actual person named Donald John Trump, with a human body and a childhood and formative experiences that theoretically a biographer or therapist might usefully delve into someday… But that Donald Trump is of limited significance to America and the world. The “Donald Trump” who got elected president, who has strutted and fretted across the small screen since the 1980s, is a decades-long media performance. To understand him, you need to approach him less like a psychologist and more like a TV critic.

He was born in 1946, at the same time that American broadcast TV was being born. He grew up with it. His father, Fred, had one of the first color TV sets in Jamaica Estates… TV was his soul mate. It was like him. It was packed with the razzle-dazzle and action and violence that captivated him. He dreamed of going to Hollywood, then he shelved those dreams in favor of his father’s business and vowed, according to the book “TrumpNation” by Timothy O’Brien, to “put show business into real estate.”

As TV evolved from the homogeneous three-network mass medium of the mid-20th century to the polarized zillion-channel era of cable-news fisticuffs and reality shocker-tainment, he evolved with it. In the 1980s, he built a media profile as an insouciant, high-living apex predator. In 1990, he described his yacht and gilded buildings to Playboy as “Props for the show … The show is ‘Trump’ and it is sold-out performances everywhere.”

He syndicated that show to Oprah, Letterman, NBC, WrestleMania and Fox News. Everything he achieved, he achieved by using TV as a magnifying glass, to make himself appear bigger than he was.

He was able to do this because he thought like a TV camera. He knew what TV wanted, what stimulated its nerve endings. In his campaign rallies, he would tell The Washington Post, he knew just what to say “to keep the red light on”: that is, the light on a TV camera that showed that it was running, that you mattered. Bomb the [redacted] out of them! I’d like to punch him in the face! The red light radiated its approval. Cable news aired the rallies start to finish. For all practical purposes, he and the camera shared the same brain…

If you want to understand what President Trump will do in any situation, then, it’s more helpful to ask: What would TV do? What does TV want?

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Interesting Read: “The Real Donald Trump Is a Character on TV”Post + Comments (132)

Late Night Open Thread: Space Crime!

by Anne Laurie|  August 27, 20192:18 am| 13 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Space, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

In retrospect it's insane that we ever thought 'space crime' would be cool s*** like starship piracy and comet smuggling. Turns out it's just a new frontier for financial crime and that's why Musk, Bezos et al are all desperate to get there first. https://t.co/3RMPqtPu1T

— Zeddy (@Zeddary) August 25, 2019

Good quip, but of course it’s not really about money. Where there are primates, there are sexual relationships; and where there are sexual relationships, there are messy breakups, with the related financial complications. This is certainly not the first relationship to be broken by the rigors of astronautical travel, and I personally suspect it’s not even the first one involving accusations of related financial impropriety:

… Astronaut Anne McClain is accused of identity theft and improperly accessing her estranged wife’s private financial records while on a sixth-month mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), the Times said.

The astronaut’s spouse Summer Worden filed a complaint earlier this year with the Federal Trade Commission after learning McClain had accessed her bank account without permission, while Worden’s family filed another with NASA’s Office of Inspector General, according to the newspaper.

McClain’s lawyer said the astronaut had done nothing wrong and accessed the bank records while aboard the ISS in order to monitor the couple’s combined finances — something she had done over the course of their relationship, the Times reported…

McClain, who returned to Earth in June, gained fame for being one of two women picked for a historic all-female spacewalk, but NASA scrapped the planned walk in March due to a lack of well-fitting spacesuits, sparking accusations of sexism…

Of course, IMO the Musk / Bezos et al rocketeering isn’t really about finance, either: Those guys are the tech-advantaged version of Jane Goodall’s Gombe Mike, the chimp who discovered he could compensate for his relatively puny physique by banging around empty oil drums to make a REALLY BIG NOISE…

Late Night Open Thread: <em>Space Crime!</em>Post + Comments (13)

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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
44m 1205880173113102338

Manhattan DA Releases New List of NYPD Officers Whose Honesty Has Been Challenged By Judges via @gothamist

Manhattan DA Releases New List of NYPD Officers Whose Honesty Has Been Challenged By Judges

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has become the fourth DA in New York City to release a list of police officers with potential credibility prob...

gothamist.com

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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
2h 1205865100336418821

New Post added at Balloon Juice - Holiday Prep Open Thread -https://www.balloon-juice.com/2019/12/14/holiday-prep-open-thread/

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6h 1205795190830772224

New Post added at Balloon Juice - Saturday Morning Open Thread: Plan Your Calendar -

Balloon Juice | Saturday Morning Open Thread: Plan Your Calendar

MAJOR UPDATE: Demonstrations called for TUESDAY NIGHT! The vote on Articles of Impeachment is imminent. Join one of nearly 500 demonstrations nationwi...

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tressiemcphd avatarTressie McMillan Cottom@tressiemcphd·
11h 1205728637477179392

This is glorious. Glorious. https://twitter.com/yorkwhitaker/status/1205726859939303425

This is glorious. Glorious. https://t.co/rEQBKDN4Na
York Whitaker@YorkWhitaker

I love this app.

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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
13h 1205689726155591680

imagine caring what cenk uygar thinks... about anything

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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
13h 1205687690873724928

so just act normally?

Boing Boing@BoingBoing

Top Florida Cop instructed officer to act like a “white supremacist” when engaging Black suspect https://boingboing.net/2019/12/13/top-florida-cop-instructed-off.html

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AllieGoertz avatarAllie Goertz@AllieGoertz·
15h 1205658316933750785

Now promise you’ll never drive your dad’s car drunk again, Matt. https://twitter.com/mattgaetz/status/1205644969513537542

Matt Gaetz@mattgaetz

If it’s any comfort...I can promise you’ll never have my last name. https://twitter.com/alliegoertz/status/1205627060258926592

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NicoleHockley avatarNicole Hockley@NicoleHockley·
13 Dec 1205524335873671169

Seven years ago started as a normal Friday morning.
After getting Dylan and Jake on the bus, I did chores until I left for an exercise class. While driving to class, I felt a sharp pain in my stomach, so bad that I almost pulled over to the side of the road, convinced I was...

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14h 1205682458034917377

New Post added at Balloon Juice - Do The Right Thing -

Balloon Juice | Do The Right Thing

I said this earlier on the twitter thing, and I want to say it here: Even if he is not convicted in the Senate and even if Dems pay a political price,...

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Johngcole avatarJohn Cole@Johngcole·
23h 1205551193977708545

Even if he is not convicted in the Senate and even if Dems pay a political price, impeaching Trump is the right thing to do because he’s a criminal who broke the laws. When everything is as broken as it is now, all you can do is do the right thing and hope for the best.

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