My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.
I've spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn't seem to do any good.
It's always darkest before the other shoe drops.
All your base are belong to Tunch.
I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don't know how.
Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.
If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!
You are here: Home / Politics / Media / 'This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you…'
'This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you…'
by Betty Cracker | November 16, 2021 12:24 pm | 191 Comments
This post is in: Media, Open Threads, Politics
The New York Times Beltway team is world-class terrible, but there might be an easy fix: put Times book reviewer Jennifer Szalai in charge. She politely makes mincemeat of Jonathan Karl's "view from nowhere" sensibilities in a review of the former ABC newsman's latest Trump book, "Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show." A few choice excerpts:
"I was taken aback by how fondly Trump remembers a day [January 6] I will always remember as one of the darkest I have ever witnessed," [Karl] writes, adding that Trump seemed to justify the death threats made against his own vice president. "It boggled my mind," Karl says.
It did? The author's expressions of surprise are so frequent and over-the-top that they are perhaps the most surprising parts of this book. "Betrayal" is less insightful about the Trump White House and more revealing of Karl's own gradual, extremely belated awareness that something in the White House might in fact be awry.
The Trump era blew a hole through all kinds of institutional norms and presuppositions, revealing vulnerabilities and blind spots. It probably speaks to Karl's decency as a person that he didn't want to contemplate anything so terrible, but for all the high-minded talk in his books about the journalistic pursuit of accuracy, he gives little indication that he had the imagination to handle the truth.
Yep. A failure of the imagination is maybe the kindest interpretation of how our elite media spun so catastrophically off course. At least someone at The Times gets it.
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I am slowly coming to the belief that the common thread among all our ills including the rot of our "news" organizations is corporatism.
"wait, you were serious about all that stuff you said publicly? We thought it was just a show."
It probably speaks to Karl's decency as a person that he didn't want to contemplate anything so terrible, but for all the high-minded talk in his books about the journalistic pursuit of accuracy, he gives little indication that he had the imagination to handle the truth.
Really? I'd imagine more that it's the dawning surprise that there might be complicity and, more importantly, potential consequences extending even to his wee sweet little self. I doubt it was the dawning recognition that there would be a book in it for him: the only coin-toss there was hagiography or not, and that was left to market forces.
It probably speaks to Karl's decency as a person that he didn't want to contemplate anything so terrible
Counterpoint:
It does not.
Sure, Trump was an unhinged psychopath who nearly destroyed the country with his patented brand of incompetent fascism, but man, did he love to shoot the shit with reporters, and his whole operation leaked like a sieve for four years. Isn't that really what it's all about? Stupid Biden won't hold press conferences. His press secretary is matter-of-fact and stays on message. His WH is staffed top to bottom with experienced professionals who don't spend hours blabbing to reporters about all the rampant corruption raging around them.
It's so….boring.
My own imagination has failed so many times over the last five years, all the times I thought, "Well, this will wake up the Lumpenmittel!", and it didn't. but to be surprised that trump thinks 1/6 was something to celebrate? In real time there were reports of The Beast's disappointment that no one in the White House shared his glee. There were so many instances of him saying flat out that he thinks violence is fun, and especially likes to see it done on his behalf. How could you still think this man has a bottom to hit?
citizen dave
I only know Karl from his "work" on ABC, but he always seemed to me the blandest man on earth. Looked and talked like a dad on a 1950s sitcom.
Decent people know how to handle the truth. Karl? Not so much.
What in the wide world of fuck?!?
Kyle Rittenhouse, in an unusual move, was allowed by the judge to draw the slips of paper that determined who would decide his fate and who would be dismissed as alternates.
That task is usually done by a courtroom clerk, not the defendant. https://t.co/ECBZf47pTe
— Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) November 16, 2021
And here I thought the thread would be about the Van Gogh immersive exhibit.
@Chris: Yeah, what a load of tripe.
My time of hubris spanned Trump's escalator ride through the first Monday of November, during which I believed his pre-teen antics, horrible fans, gaudy record of business failures, proud rapism, doomed him and the Republican party, blowing the whole thing to smithereens and requiring a rebuild.
Welp, was I ever wrong and nothing since election Tuesday has taken my eye off the awful reality that followed.
How does a journalist, this or any journalist, not see far more deeply than I just how awful and dangerous Trump and his people are?
@citizen dave: back in the nineties (yes, my brain is full of useless crap like a hoarder's attic) CNN tried to launch a Gen-X version of The Capital Gang (another show I watched) hosted by Jake Tapper. Karl was the resident libertarian, a role he played as a snarky douche that I'm guessing didn't stretch his acting muscles. I think Michelle Cottle was a 'centrist', and I forget who the house leftie was.
@Betty Cracker: Why doesn't the judge just drop down and give the kid a blowjob.
I have never seen someone on trial for murder unhandcuffed standing directly behind a judge #Rittenhouse pic.twitter.com/K8j9GPKIQJ
— Natasha ⚯͛ (@ndelriego) November 15, 2021
@Betty Cracker: ​
That judge is just…wow. 👀
Recalling how Obama noted "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon" I wonder if the judge will have a similar riff about poor little Kyle following his acquittal? "What a dreamboat of a son!"
@Betty Cracker: after the acquittal the judge will take little Kyle to Carvelle for a celebratory Fudgie The Whale cake, to make him feel better after his hard days.
@scav:
the only coin-toss there was hagiography or not, and that was left to market forces.
Rotating tag right there, that is.
Sounds like book reviewers don't get crushed by the political commissars of the NYT, at least up front.
@trollhattan:
Turns out it takes a certain type of person to rise in the journalism ranks to cover the WH for one of the Big Papers. Turns out that type of person isn't terribly aware or self-aware, but has a certain facility to see which side of an argument his paycheck comes from.
Per WaPo-ABC poll, Americans
• say 63-32% they support Biden's $1T infrastructure bill
• say 58-37% they support Biden's ~$2T climate and economic policy bill
• say 59-38% they're concerned about Biden doing "too much to increase the size and role of government"
https://t.co/QZvrB9q0nk pic.twitter.com/hzcUW37F0J
— Ian (@ohheckerman) November 14, 2021
A lot of the clown-judges antics have not been in the presence of the jury so they might not be completely biased. They ARE conducted in the presence of the victims families though, which is sad. They deserved better. It didn't have to be this bad for them.
There's a phenomenal number of people who support liberal policies when you actually ask them about them individually because anyone with half a brain can tell they're good and necessary things, but who cling to the narrative that Big Government is Bad and also Socialism because that's what Good Americans are supposed to believe.
dww44
@cope: yep. Too many swear allegiance at the altar of money and power and not enough of us see those same 2 issues as responsible for the fragile democracy we now are.
Like those somewhat sane voters in my sphere who voted for Trump because they told themselves he was a businessman. Too many folks will opt for the businessman over far more qualified candidates.
Since the jury isn't present for a lot of the buffoonery, I assume it's for the cameras. It's surely not for the families of the victims.
Also, how about @abcnews stops letting @jonkarl literally plug his book during his nightly news reports. That would be great.
— Matt Tullis (@matttullis) November 16, 2021
Luthiengineer
Betty, there's no artist's hand to smooth my weathered face lined in pain.
Dang it now you got that song in my head for the rest of the day.
Neither of the first degree murder trials I was on the jury for were the defendants handcuffed. Both were released on their own recognizance both before and during the trials. Both were during the same session of circuit court, one ended on October 31st and the other ended on December 27th.
Both defendants were acquitted, the first one because the deceased was a convicted murderer put away by the defendant's testimony, out after a couple of decades in prison, threatening to kill the defendant all around the neighborhood. Surprise, he got shot down instead of the defendant.
Second trial was a wife who shot her husband. Way too much like an accident, the deceased had bits of holster in his chest, the gun went off in it's holster as packing to go on a hunting trip in the morning was underway, after the gun was handled by a crowd of people early that evening.
Reasonable doubt, a ton of it. Trial because the family of the deceased really, really didn't believe their special baby, so expert with weapons, would have an accidental shooting. Ballistics expert was asked on the stand if he had ever been in a police ready room where there was no evidence of an unintended discharge? After a long pause, lots of thought "Probably not, no sir!" Pros often shoot guns by accident. That did it for many of us. Never point a gun at someone/ something you don't intend to shoot!
Was midnight by the time we got the last guy to vote to acquit.
schrodingers_cat
Karl is a Republican apparatchik. He doesn't even bother to hide his bias. He is whitewashing Republican complicity in enabling the Tangerine Tantrum.
Villageperson
I believe I remember Karl giving cover to the Bush & Cheney lies in the build-up to the Iraq war.
The tweet is a little unclear, but she's not objecting to him not being handcuffed at trial. She's talking about how close he is to the judge. Defendants just don't get that close to the judge, for obvious reasons.
Nice Polite Republican weighs in:
A complaint about the Trump books–that writers held back information they could have reported sooner–is understandable but mistaken, I think. Our most pressing need is for context, careful reporting, understanding. It's not to file stories instantly on every incremental tidbit.
— Steve Inskeep (@NPRinskeep) November 16, 2021
this terrible @NPRinskeep argument *might* hold some water if karl was not a reporter from an org that reports on the news of the day minute by minute and he was instead some sort of long-view historian. but as he was writing this book he was filing daily. malpractice.
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) November 16, 2021
@J R in WV: You don't have defendants in handcuffs or prison clothing during a trial because it is prejudicial. Inviting the guy behind the bench is odd as fuck.
Yes, he's behind the judge. It looks like they're playing a video game together.
pic.twitter.com/n628pyOOqR— 🍁K8🌈 (@katelyn__ann) November 16, 2021
Amir Khalid
Jon Karl wasn't born yesterday. He's being disingenuous. It's just that he's laying on the "I never thought he would do that!" way too thick. Like most who aren't political journos with a new book to sell, I found Trump's betrayal of Pence on 6th January outrageous but not even a little surprising.
As I've said many times, we really need to stop writing off this sort of conduct as being the result of Republicans "working the refs." It is clear to me that fascist white supremacy permeates the US Media. If Trump had stolen the 2020 election, I genuinely think that CNN and the Vichy Times would have been fine with it.
@germy: "our most pressing need is for context."!
Now Inskeep is imitating DougJ.
"Win the day" is just the name of a racehorse, see?
@jonas: I like boring, when it comes to government.
It's extremely unusual. Again- whatever you think about the judge's eventual decision this behavior is unneccesary. It's cruel. The victims families are there. Just reliving it is agonizing for them, sitting thru it. On top of that they get this ridiculous sideshow. He could have done this in a dignified, serious way. It means a lot to them. It sucks they got such a bad draw. I'm ashamed.
@Amir Khalid: ​
IDK (or care) if Karl is from New York, but New Yorkers knew better than anybody what a buffoon and crooked fool Trump is, having dealt with him for decades. Nothing about him today is a surprise.
@germy: So they're picking a new jury together? That's nice.
Mai Naem mobile
@Kay: if Rittenhouse gets acquitted i think there's a decent chance this judge doesn't get reelected because it will motivate the people who are upset at his actions way more than the folks who'll be happy with the acquittal. Ofcourse its possible this judge ends up getting a FOX gig and other wingnut welfare goodies.
@Chris: I'm always depressed by the number of people who proudly claim to be socially liberal and financially conservative. It speaks to the success of specious arguments, promoted by people in the service of anti-government, that the Federal government is fiscally constrained in the same way that households are.
hueyplong
@Betty Cracker: The only scrap of positive spin I can put on letting the defendant draw the strips is that it indicates the judge isn't 100% sure he's put the case in the bag for the defense yet.
@dww44: Even before the housing bubble burst in '08, it dawned on me that commodifying housing was probably not a good thing. Now, enabled by social media and millions of apps, all our "data", our very lives have been commodified and I think to myself, again, this is probably not a good thing. Old man rant over.
True. We members of the jury weren't that close to the judge, either.
My father was an electrician and my mother was a home healthcare worker. It occurred to me recently that by the time I made enough to purchase the home they raised me in I had a doctorate, tenure and had written several books.
We've effectively turned housing into a luxury.
— jelani cobb (@jelani9) November 16, 2021
@Chris:
Counterpoint: It does not.
Exactly. Not wanting to contemplate something terrible (that's staring you in the face or not) doesn't have a damn thing to do with being a decent person.
What a load of malarkey!
O/T Just another day at the 7-11, Lake Tahoe edition. Ear tag implies history of shenanigans.
@Amir Khalid: Also a journa who sat on all this information, strategically waiting to cash in after the facts. He's not the first.
@Mai Naem mobile:
Oh, I don't know. Often judges run unopposed in smaller jurisdictions because everyone who would run against them is in front of them all the time so there's a big downside risk.
It's like when the NYTimes asks fancy lawyers to weigh in on the new SCOTUS and they say "if I may, I believe he is the smartest lawyer the world has ever seen. As an expert. In my expert opinion"
Enhanced Voting Techniques
, but for all the high-minded talk in his books about the journalistic pursuit of accuracy, he gives little indication that he had the imagination to handle the truth.
The Media Narrative(tm) says Naive Idealism(R) is for the College Kids(pat pen) always and under all circumstances, so it can't be that.
These books by Karl, et al, are nothing more than weasels and enablers getting out in front of the verdict of history and their role in it. In each case, substitute "Albert Speer" for the author's name and you get a glimpse into their mindsets and motivations.
@Mai Naem mobile: its possible this judge ends up getting a FOX gig and other wingnut welfare goodies.
He gives the impression of a man who is glued to television and other media when he's not on the bench. He joked again about lunch. This time he said he "wasn't going to talk about lunch" because of criticism he'd received the first time.
He seems vain.
senyordave
I lived in the New York metropolitan area in the 1980's. Trump was a golden boy in the media in those days. I knew he was a amoral pig, but I always figured him to be relatively harmless, a guy who just lived for being in the spotlight. But the Central Park jogger case changed that. When he took out a full page ad pushing for the death penalty, inserting himself into an already volatile situation, he started to show his true colors.
Trump ran as a white nationalist, he was exposed as completely ignorant during the campaign, and surrounded himself with dangerous people like Steve Bannon, Corey Lewandowski, and Michael Flynn. It should have been apparent to an experienced journalist like Karl just how terrible Trump was. That he was surprised is truly an indictment of Jonathon Karl.
wait…there was something wrong in the trumpov White House? No way.
You'll never get anywhere near them, either. Not with all the guns in this country. We used to hold mediations in lawyers offices. Not anymore. Everyone uses rooms at the courthouse. There's a metal detector, video monitoring and two sheriff's deputies at the door. It's the guns. We don't know who is armed.
Our most pressing need is for context, careful reporting, understanding. It's not to file stories instantly on every incremental tidbit.
A shitload of hacked emails would like a word with you!
@senyordave:
Not in the same vein, but it's interesting to me that all the way back in the eighties, his foreign policy views, such as they were, were already the same as they are now. "America and Russia should team up and rule the world and all our old democratic allies can go fuck themselves." This was when Russia was still the USSR and that sort of talk was anathema to orthodox conservatives.
He's always been what he is, in sum.
Betrayal could also be an apt description for how many of us feel about journalists withholding critical information to increase their book sales.
By not reporting it in a timely fashion they are manipulating when the public learns about it, which is a political issue. They can't pick the time. Once you do that you're possibly changing the public's perception in a particular period of time. I don't know if the public perception would have been different had they revealed this when they learned of it, but they don't know either. The only way around that is to release it upon verification. I have no idea why they wanted to open this can of worms – it's an impossible situation and they created it themselves.
Gee, ya think?
Have you ever met any judges?
@lowtechcyclist: That occurred to me too. My sister is over the moon about that experience. A dream come true for a lover of Van Gogh.
I wonder if Karl is just shallow enough that he tells himself "I'm sitting on a goldmine of information here. I can report it in real time for my regular salary, or I can put it all in a book for a big payout." And I assume his publisher is part of the same corp. as his network, so they plug his book and everyone wins.
Almost everyone.
@cope: Ancillary problem is sports gambling legalization. Billions will be lost on that. Couldn't believe my red state joined in on it ( in fact was one of the first).
Fellow old man rant: wife and I joined a local, 4 location gym on Sunday. Kid says we can get our membership card on the keychain thing or use their app. Both of us say NoApp, no way. Of course they were out of the physical card thing…
@Kay: Can a mistrial be declared because of a judge's behavior?
I don't work with them, socialize with them, and I've never been sentenced by one… so, no.
It should have been apparent to an experienced journalist like Karl just how terrible Trump was. That he was surprised is truly an indictment of Jonathon Karl.
Reporters and pundits assumed that Trump would become presidential and normalize. And many people believe in the myth of a good and decent America that their minds simply cannot accept the idea of a coup or takeover.
The GOP leadership still believe that Trump or a similar despot would be on their side.
And a sizeable chunk of the people actively yearn for a populist authoritarian.
@Chris: & @mrmoshpotato: To quote valued commenter Aimai, man, y'all don't speak bitch, do you? ;-)
patroclus
@germy: You've herd the Carly Simon song though, right?
@Betty Cracker: I think at this point the judge is shoving it in everyone's faces that he doesn't think there even should have been a trial. Did you see the picture of him sitting in the courtroom gallery with Rittenhouse behind him? Have you EVER seen a defendant get near a judge in a courtroom except when they are on the witness stand? It could not be more obvious to me that the judge wants EVERYONE to know that he considers Rittenhouse to be innocent of all the charges. He's not acting anything like the way a judge normally acts toward a defendant.
@germy: Does anyone else besides me think he resembles and sounds like Frank, the dad in Everybody Loves Raymond?
@patroclus:
Who will be the first to appear on Tucker Carlson's show? The defendant or the judge?
@Jackie:
One decided on a career of hamming it up for the cameras, and the other got cast on a TV sitcom
@germy: Trick question. They'll appear together.
@Betty Cracker: I…. don't get it.
@germy: The defendant. The judge will still be negotiating a fee.
Subsole
Yep. Everyone knows the liberal media is liberal because everyone says the liberal media is liberal.
The fact everyone says it because an odious little sweaty-handed pill popping hypocrite spent 30 some years lying about it? Well, we're just gonna have to leave it there.
God. "Just leave it there." What a set of words to come out of a reporter's mouth…
@Brachiator:And a sizeable chunk of the people actively yearn for a populist authoritarian.
They want someone to make the world comfortable for them again, and to make sure things stay that way. That's what's behind their desire for an authoritarian leader, because if we have elections things can change and they might be made uncomfortable again.
Ghost of Joe Liebling*s Dog
It probably speaks to Karl's decency as a person that he didn't want to contemplate anything so terrible, but
… here in this Ohio diner, many people are saying that views differ. It's complicated.
I can haz six- or seven-figure NYT salary now for phoning in ocqasional word-salad?
@Kay: Defendants just don't get that close to the judge, for obvious reasons.
Bang bang, Maxwell's silver hammer…
@jonas: Wow this, 100 times this. They are so bored with the Biden presidency that they'll do anything they can to make it more exciting.
@Subsole:
Stop calling Upchuck Todd a reporter. It's an insult to people like Edward R Murrow. :)
@mrmoshpotato: Sarcasm. Maybe she was sincere, but I don't think so.
@Soprano2:
They are so bored with the Biden presidency that they'll do anything they can to make it more exciting undermine it.
I suspect you office is as safe as our V rural county courthouse.
They got a little better after a woman took a few shots at a defendant in the courtroom. During the murder trials there were still marks in the courtroom where she shot holes. No one was even wounded, a terrible shot, but now you can't take a purse into the courtroom. There is a metal detector and a deputy at the only unlocked door, but still…
The reverse could be true as well. Regardless, the judge is not showing any impassivity here is he? I'm guessing that a mis-trial is going to happen. That judge is showing clear judgement issues and doing unusual things.
@trollhattan: I think a lot of it is precisely because he's from New York. He might know Trump is bad. But New York is blue. It's always been blue. The bad shit won't happen to him, because he lives somewhere safe. And if a few hundred thousand New Yorkers die…well, were they anybody Karl knew?
Basically, it's the same mentality as Nebraskans who churble into their beer about global warming not being a big deal because they don't live on the coast.
Some folks gonna be in for a REAL shock when the Roberts court nullifies the right to privacy, is what I'm saying.
It's possible maybe even likely that this judge views the victims as bad people who deserved what happened to them.
@mrmoshpotato: Please tell me that fucker is getting dragged up and down the timeline…
Black Robe Disease. There is no cure.
@trollhattan: Trevor Noah's crack about the Judge adopting Rittenhouse is coming closer to prophecy by the hour.
Interesting news on the Gaetz adjacent Florida sleazebags front:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/11/16/2064629/-The-Gaetz-adjacent-Florida-sleaze-investigation-pops-two-more-dirtbags
@mrmoshpotato:
They entertain pretensions to journalism, so that is the standard I judge them by.
@J R in WV: What? They didn't arm the jury?
@Betty Cracker: The judge's actions are right out of the Nazi playbook. Here he's showing open contempt for those weaklings who that that the norms of the system were the system. Nope, this is raw power. He's making the point that Rittenhouse should have never been detained, much less arrested and charged with crimes. And he sure as shit should not have ended up in the Nazi judge's courtroom.
Mallard Filmore
@Amir Khalid:
It's just that he's laying on the "I never thought he would do that!" way too thick.
Trump and his team are baby snatchers. THAT was not just rhetoric, it was actively carried out. Nothing that came later should be a surprise.
Eric Kleefeld
@EricKleefeld
·7m
The weekend before the 2020 election, Chris Christie said on ABC News that Trump would accept a defeat, "putting up that kind of stink in terms of peaceful transition just is not the way he wants to leave."
Guffaw. Their favorite straight- shootin information source. I will never forget cable tv's kind of dawning horror when they realized these people had no intention of leaving.
What the actual fuck? That fucking judge should lose his law license. Jesus. I didn't think anything more about this trial could possibly shock me, but I am, again, shown how wrong I can be.
tam1MI
@cain: The reverse could be true as well. Regardless, the judge is not showing any impassivity here is he? I'm guessing that a mis-trial is going to happen. That judge is showing clear judgement issues and doing unusual things.
Does anybody remember the case many years ago of the little British Nanny that was accused of killing a baby by shaking it too hard? In that trial, the jury came in with a guilty verdict, and the judge set it aside and freed her. I will not be at all surprised if the same thing happens in The Rittenhouse case.
@Kay: I keep saying, this guy damn near died after contracting Covid from sheer stupidity, politically inspired stupidity, and his life was saved because the POTUS forced doctors to give him a still-experimental drug treatment. Why is he treated as a sage and a wise elder ?
@Geminid: Hi, I hope you are still around this thread. I keep on missing you.
A few threads ago, you described as a canard concerns that BIF jobs will go overwhelmingly to white workers. We had battling anecdotes– me finding highway workers in the many parts of NY that I travel to be 90% white guys, you that maybe half of them in your area were black or Latino.
I tried several times to post the nationwide numbers: Male highway workers are about 77% white and 10-12% each black and Hispanic. It's been that way since at least 2010.
Maybe because Watergirl is your secret twin, or my ad-blocker is to blame, or WTF, neither my comment nor my link ever posted.
In case it is hyperlinking that is the problem, I will provide it in cut and paste format.
https://www.zippia.com/highway-worker-jobs/demographics/
Considering that the biggest dollars in BIF will probably be spent in urban areas, 23% POC does not seem representative of the local labor pool. Crucial as fixing up our crappy infrastructure is, it would also be nice if more of our likely voters got a chance to do the job.
FelonyGovt
@zhena gogolia: Oh yes. I'm working right now with a prominent retired judge. He definitely thinks he is all that. And of course expects others to do everything for him. And is too important to learn anything about technology.
They treat the victims of Right wing shooters like shit. It's true in all these cases. They kill the victims so the only person we hear from is the shooter. On and on and on boo hoo, I've been victimized.
Why don't they leave people alone? Who asked these people to patrol neighborhoods and chase people and bother them? They always fuck it all up anyway. "I wanted to HELP". Yeah, well, once again people are dead after you show up so maybe stop helping us. Get a different hobby. One that doesn't involve butting into every situation and making it 10X worse.
bluegirlfromwyo
@Betty Cracker: I think he's aiming for a mistrial so he can get a professional whining gig a la Judge Jeanine.
@Betty:
My wife and I saw it last Friday. It was dazzling.
Mike in NC
Donald Trump was the Joe Stalin of American presidents. Evil and mendacious. Millions of us knew he had no intention of ever leaving 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
@Brachiator: And a sizeable chunk of the people actively yearn for a populist authoritarian.
As long as the leopards eat Those People's faces, they won't even notice when their own faces get bit. And if they do, they'll still feel it was worth it.
@FelonyGovt: I had a friend who spent her career working with judges. It was not an easy row to hoe.
It's really across the entire Right now, the assumption of some kind of power over other people. They're the abortion police and the school police and the protest police- sometime they just randomly patrol neighborhoods and people then end up dead. It's all demand for compliance. We're supposed to take orders from them. "Why did he throw garbage at me? I had to shoot him!"
I won't. I don't recognize their authority over me. No. I'm not obligated to stop and answer questions from them, or explain my presence, or try to determine if they they consider me a threat. They can stay away from me. If they're pissing their pants over some real or imagined threat they can call the police.
@topclimber: ​
That is about the same as the national racial divide. Note that hispanic also gets counted as white depending on how a census is done, so I can't say it is exactly average. There is no way, to make it more targeted to minorities without killing the yes votes just enough to tank a bill that was hard fought for and has failed to get through for decades of talk about the need. I would not bother to worry about it. The jobs will go to the ones who do the work.
Bill Richardson deserves a Nobel Peace Prize as far as I'm concerned. For those who aren't aware, an American journalist in Myanmar named Danny Fenster was convicted last week of spreading false or inflammatory information and sentenced to 11 years at hard labor. Today Fenster and Richardson landed at JFK on Fenster's way home to Detroit.
I don't know how Richardson does this over and over, and have no idea who pays him, but the guy has worked magic like this numerous times.
There's a fabulous section of one of @lincolnsbible's podcasts where she's talking to an ex KGB member who basically said that TFG was EXACTLY the kind of person they'd try to recruit–kinda dumb but believes he's smart, etc. That episode also lays out the timeline of TFG going there and coming back and taking out full-page ads in the Times, Post, and Globe, all essentially parroting their talking points. The whole series ("The World Beneath") is really great–and not just because I learned about Elizabeth Friedman.
@Kay: welp now that vigilantism is ok, these families can take care of Rittenhouse once the judge lets him off… I mean do it mob style and leave no evidence
@Gin & Tonic: Wow, good news.
brendancalling
The fact that Chris Cillizza has a job is evidence enough that our elite media is a total fucking joke. The dude isn't just wrong all the time, he writes worse than any of my tenth graders.
And don't get me started on the garbage they pump out daily on NPR. Utter horseshit. I learn more from reading half an Adam Silverman post here or one by LGM's Cheryl Rofer than I could ever learn listening to HOURS of NPR.
@Kay: that judge needs to be forcibly removed, stripped of his pension and his law license. Judges really are out of control in terms of the power they wield
@lowtechcyclist
Being properly lubricated helps. After all, absinthe makes the art show fonder.
@Gin & Tonic: I saw that, amazing. I was surprised a few days ago when he only got eleven years. And now he's free!
@topclimber: Most highway mileage is rural so it doesn't surprise me that a large percentage of highway workers are white. Someone has to build all those thousands of miles of roads in Nebraska and Wyoming. But in more urban areas I would guess that most of the highway and construction workers are not white but Hispanic Black.
R-Jud
@NotMax: Wow.
@Chris: She wanted to pan the book but keep her job. Give her some credit.
How could you still think this man has a bottom to hit?
The only way is that he keeps going lower. Because it's the only direction he knows. And the problem with that is that he started at the bottom, unless you count the money his father made by screwing everyone, that he stole from his siblings. He's been a walking disaster to the planet his entire life. That and his ego is a supersized garbage truck, full of the worst garbage, that he tries to drive and keeps crashing into everything and all the while he keeps believing that it's a stretched Caddy limo and he's Mario Andretti.
@gvg: The link actually pegs black highway workers at 8% of the total, vs. about 14% of the entire population.
Of course, there probably are a lot of black men in prisons working on highways for basically nothing. That would bring up the numbers. But I gotta go with the data I got.
@VeniceRiley: More complicated than the family tree charts Henry Louis Gates hands out at the end of Finding Your Roots episodes.
Gaetz is connected!
Danielx
@Ghost of Joe Liebling*s Dog:
Why not? David Brooks has been doing it for years.
Rep. Jackie Speier is retiring from Congress.
@germy: I actually bought and read Steve Inskeep's book on John Ross (Cherokee with a Scottish father) and Andrew Jackson. He is wildly worshipful of Jackson. Read it to the end. Since then I turn off Inskeep whenever he is on NPR, which is most mornings.
@Kent: The rural population, especially in the South, has got way more than 8% black folks.
ETA: I do not consider your objection a canard.
@gvg: Note that hispanic also gets counted as white depending on how a census is done
For Federal statistical surveys (I work on one) and the Census, race (White, Black, Asian, etc.) and ethnicity (Hispanic or non-Hispanic) are separate and independent variables. You can be a Hispanic and be White or Black or whatever.
If you're doing a minority v. non-minority breakdown, the latter category is non-Hispanic White; the former is everything else.
@Kristine: The judge is the guy that declares the mistrial.
Because they are like him, unable to see faults in their personal lives or beliefs. Those beliefs being that the color of skin is important. Important over reality and every human effort. Their world is white and black. Good and bad. There are no shades of either, one is good, one is bad. They have told themselves this for their entire lives. They've had this reenforced by others that believe the same. The real world is far more complex, but they are incapable of complex. And any history that gives any concept of acceptance of this view, is more reenforcement of that simplicity. The clan, nazis, a deranged racist twit that lives better than them, all of this is of a piece. Not everyone is as deep into the denial of reality that TFG is but it takes effort to break with the pack that has existed for the existence of humans. It takes a desire for better than war, hate and depravity. It takes recognition, desire and effort to understand that war, hate and depravity have been here forever, will always be here, but don't have to overrule the humanity, the capability to be better.
@cain: Is it even possible to get a mistrial is due to errors by a judge that benefit the defendant and lead to an acquittal? I'm pretty sure that if the jury acquits even if it's 100% due to the conduct of this asshat judge, double jeopardy attaches.
@J R in WV: Shit. I used to do divorce law in western Michigan. I went to pro cons (the final hearing in an uncontested divorce) where my client had every expectation that her soon to be ex would turn up and shoot the both of us, and there was absolutely no protection except for one elderly bailiff in the corner. No screening when people came in. No metal detectors. Nothing. Even after some nut for some unknown reason shot a younger bailiff for no reason and almost killed her.
@James E Powell: The First amendment is a travesty against public order. How dare they protest.
@sab: Metal detectors were installed in the Franklin County Domestic Court long before the the rest of the county got them.
@topclimber: From your data link:
11.3% of all Highway Workers are women, while 84.8% are men.
That's a problem, especially considering that women bore the brunt of the jobs impact of the pandemic.
John Revolta
@sab:This has to be stressed over and over again because most people seem to not know it. One more time
THE JUDGE IS THE GUY WHO DECLARES A MISTRIAL
@John Revolta: I know I didn't. That's why I come here. Everyday I learn something new.
Ben Cisco
The whole thing just disgusts me to my core.
Not much more to say other than that.
@John Revolta: Yep. If Rittenhouse gets off on these charges then he is off on these charges forever. Double Jeopardy is a thing that I do very much believe in.Of course there might be different federal charges.
Steeplejack (phone)
Careful, we're not supposed to call them victims.
@Cameron: Read the article. There were 20 jurors in the pool who heard the trial, 2 were released earlier, so 18 were left. Usually it's the clerk who chooses the jury through random elimination of the extras, in this case 6. That leaves 12.
I was born, raised and lived in the LA area for the vast majority of my life. I have also read, with skepticism, the countries leading financial publications, because I owned a business, a corporation to be specific, was an employer, signed checks, etc. TFG was in them because he had money. To those publications, having the money is more important than how one got said money. And many people with money do not like to shout about having it, it brings on those who'd like to share in your money, with or without your permission. Those who do shout about it, often do not actually have all that much of it, which seems like one reason they shout about it. TFG is one of those folks, shouts far louder than his financial vocal cords call for, because for him there really is not much concern for reality, there is far more for the impression of reality. Because that impression is far closer to what he wants than he had, has or will ever have.
Brendan Gutenschwager @BGOnTheScene
Mark and Patricia McCloskey are here outside the Kenosha County Courthouse (they're known for the firearm-bearing photo from the St. Louis protests last summer) #Kenosha
I think Mark is wearing lifts. As I recall from the pictures from last summer, his wife was noticeably taller
@sab: Yeah, I can't seem to find anything out but I'm hoping the Feds have got some plans of their own for this little shit AND his mother.
@Chief Oshkosh:
He's making the point that Rittenhouse should have never been detained, much less arrested and charged with crimes.
The jurors were watching some of the judge's behavior. Could go either way; if I were a juror, the judge's obviously-biased behavior would have pissed me off, a lot.
greenergood
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2021/11/john-roberts-took-live-saving-insurance-away-from-people-based-on-an-argument-he-didnt-believe-to-inflict-political-damage-on-barack-obama
I am continually astonished at how much the rich people in America absolutely hate anyone who isn't as rich as them, and will continue to legislate to punish the poor, because the rich think the poor are poor because they're feckless, and it's all their own fault. 'Compassion' and 'empathy' are swear words to most members of the Supreme Court.
@Kay: In happier news, maybe this is a sign that you are right that defending education could be a winning issue for Dems.
@matt: Wondering how that works myself. Since by definition The Paper can do no wrong I suppose she's covered.
MisterForkbeard
@germy: You would think that this (and a few other things) might be grounds for a mistrial. The Judge has been giving tons of "this guy is innocent and pretty great but I'm not going to say it out loud" vibes to the Jury for the whole court.
It looks a lot like thumbs on the scale to anyone paying attention at all.
Jackie Speier, one of my most-respected politicians (and you should add her to your list, too) won't seek another term in the House. I'm sure Politico et al will shriek "Dems on the run" but have no fear, her district is blue as a blue thing. But her replacement has a tough act to follow.
More good news (I guess. I don't know. I never typed the words "supply chain" till a month ago)
Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla
(Bloomberg) – The number of containers sitting on docks at the port of Los Angeles has declined 29%, CEO Gene Seroka says.
I don't know exactly how ratings work, but MSNBC will know how many TeeVees got turned off just now when Nicolle Wallace said, "And here's Chris Christie…", right?
I can't stomach the smug fucknozzle, but I was tempted to watch cause Wallace is more likely to ask uncomfortable questions than most MSNBC hosts, in spite of what I think is a long-standing friendly relationship. Whenever NW said, I've been talking to my contacts in trumpworld, I always thought she was talking about Christie half the time.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: She's pushing him pretty hard.
@MisterForkbeard: See above: @John Revolta:
C Stars
@MisterForkbeard: It's cringingly transparent. No one, nowhere, no how, is going to think this was a fair trial, no matter which side they're on.
@raven: you made me look– I turned it back on just in time to hear her tease the question about him supporting a man who almost killed him.
I figured she'd be a tougher interview for him than Mitchell or Williams, cause she hates trump
OT : Getting into silly "grrr-rrr-rr arguments with the sort of pittbull☆. She adores me but she is a turfy pitbull. Pitbulls are mild!-mannered beyond belief with their families but very ferociuos outside. My girl too, but resident cats are her family, even if they claw her in the face when frustrated.
@Betty Cracker: Shouldn't that be grounds for removing the judge?
OT : Getting into silly "grrr-rrr-rr arguments with some sort of pittbull☆. She adores me but she is a turfy pitbull. Pitbulls are mild!-mannered beyond belief with their families but very ferociuos outside. My girl too, but resident cats are her family, even if they claw her in the face when frustrated.
Right now she is bored and absolitely shredding her nylabone. Few dogs can shred their nylabone. That takes serious teeth and jaws, and detrmination.
@opiejeanne: When I saw the comment about the judge and little Kyle looking like they were playing a video game, I thought they might be picking a virtual jury.
@sab: FYI: I quit giving my pitty Nylabones because I heard the sharp little bits they chew off can be harmful to the digestive tract. I went with a Kong (the black ones) because they can chew on 'em and not tear 'em up (well, not for a long time anyway).
@John Revolta: My girl spits them out, which means they are underfoot everywhere. But I see your point. She isn't just chewing. She is eating stuff she shouldn't.
JMG
Karl's alleged naivete is a pose he strikes in the book to justify himself. He's not a chump. He knew Trump was unfit every day he covered him in the White House. But if ABC's White House correspondent was to say "the President is unfit for office" on the air or even in private, he's immediately the FORMER ABC White House correspondent. Can't have a worker bee jeopardize the financial interests of Walt Disney Co. He's just another access whore. You either start that way as a White House reporter or that's what the job turns you into.
@sab: Yeah, they say the sharp little bits can even lodge in the intestines and such and attract even more sharp little bits………. ?
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: There was a problem finding containers because in an attempt to get threw the backlog they were loading the empty containers on ships heading back to Asia.
@sab: Our GSP's vocabulary includes types of growls that are mostly, but not exclusively him being goofy. Having had him from puppy age we're very versed. Translating is a challenge with new, adult dogs.
Speaking of, I had to bring him in from the backyard on our first sunny day in several because he came []this close to catching a squirrel just now. He's become a ratter this year and I do not wish to find out the results of a squirrel entanglement.
Stupid squirrel, stay off the damn ground.
@sab: My German Shepherd chewed Nylabones with enthusiasm. She could shred them but she did not want to. The pitbull wants to.
@sab: We played with Nylabones with my German Shepherd. She crunched through a Galileo ,months after we teased her. She just thought it was the power of her jaws. She wasn't an aggressive dog.
Dogs have whopping jaws. German shepherds a lot. Any sort of pitbull or pitbul mix, so much more. Great jaws.
WaterGirl
@sab: I had to stop with nylabones for that very reason.
Sure Lurkalot
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Wouldn't know it from the WaPo article on the jump in retail sales and how the peeps are buying up goods. The article was just shy of 1000 words and these tidbits are scattered throughout:
Americans might say they're upset about rising prices and losing confidence in the economy
And despite new data showing that consumer confidence is at a 10-year low
And though consumers are grumbling about higher prices
Consumers are very concerned about inflation
At the same time, Americans say they're increasingly skittish about the economy's long-term prospects
The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index found that Americans are increasingly wary of "an escalating inflation rate and the growing belief … that no effective policies have yet been developed to reduce the damage from surging inflation." The report said 1 in 4 consumers said inflation had eroded their living standards in November
Consumer sentiment is being hit hard by the sharp rise in inflation
The concern is that rising inflation and souring sentiment could hamper consumer activity later in the year
Maybe the media are moving on from CRT (the good news). They're still hacks (the bad news).
@sab:
Brandwise, West Paw's toys for tough chewers have been the best for our destroyer. Kong Extreme is no match for him.
@WaterGirl: My german shepherd ate rawhide Worked for her. She died yeaes ago. Now they can't eat nylaabones. So what do rhey eat. Chompy dog breeds need to chomp. its are much more chompy than pit bull breeds.
My pit is the sweettest girl i have ever had. She just is not bright. Dumb as a rock.
@trollhattan: Thanks. Pit needs info.
@trollhattan: Saw it . Thanks.
@schrodingers_cat:
Seriously? I listened to Karl's interview with Inskeep this morning. Karl couldn't get over how bitter Trump was. Really? That's the man's primary emotion, Jon. And Steverino couldn't stop marveling long enough to call him out on it. Hell with the two of them.
Inskeep's promotion for the show features his staccato, Shatner-like delivery. Hard pass on him.
Unrelated, but NPR just reported 90% fewer immigrants are showing up at the border. Maybe this Joe guy does understand how to fix things.
I heard her say January 6 forced her to rearrange her priorities. 😢
I found Trump's betrayal of Pence on 6th January outrageous but not even a little surprising.
Are you more surprised to hear Pence is now downplaying the danger he was in and is now being very conciliatory to TFG?
Is that grounds for a mistrial?
@debbie: ​
Watching the capitol overrun by armed fundamentalists must have been the most PTSD-triggering experience of her life.
"Forty-three years ago this week, I was lying on an airstrip in the jungles of Guyana with five bullet holes in my body. I vowed that if I survived, I would dedicate my life to public service. I lived, and I survived," she said in her announcement video Tuesday.
Losing her husband to a car crash while pregnant with her second child occurred in the interim. Tough, tough lady.
@debbie: ​Is Mike even sure he was there? That was so long ago and he's always so busy.
Wow, I'd forgotten about Jonesville. Yes, she needs to get out of public life ASAP.
Mother told him he was, so he was. //
@topclimber: Finally got back and read your comment. I would just say that the patterns of employment in construction are changing, and the major investments we will make are an opportunity to accelerate this change. I expect the Biden administration will emphasize and enforce equal employment opportunity law for companies receiving money.
That includes employment of women. Maybe there won't be many woman form carpenters, but I already see flag women and a few women driving dump trucks. Woman can operate most heavy equipment, and they are already running a lot of construction businesses as staff, managers and owners.
Women have made real progress in education, the professions, and business. Why leave non-college educated women out of advancing in well-paid infrastructure work? There are plenty of women strong enough to run a paint chipper or a welding rig. They may well be better welders than men.
I got a little testy with you, but that is because I have heard this "red bill for red people" framing a lot and I'm pretty sick of it. I accept the the validity of using the Infrastructure bill as leverage to pass the BBB bill. But the process has led to a lot of misleading propaganda against the infrastructure bill on its own merits. And I think this in part reflects an indifference many of the college educated have towards working class people.
And maybe disdain as well. I think some people have heard "white working class" so much they think that the working class is white. So, they may think that this infrastructure bill is casting pearls before swine.
@Sure Lurkalot:
I am undoubtedly spending more this winter than I have in the past–on household needs, consumer goods, and, now that the kids have had their first jab, some travel for the family. We have a little extra saved up from just not going out to eat for a year and a half, and, more recently, not paying for childcare (not that I wouldn't LOVE to pay for childcare, but there simply isn't childcare available). End of September all the appliances we'd been overusing crapped out, so we had to buy washer/dryer, dishwasher, and paid a fair price, and had them delivered/installed by the end of the week. The only empty shelf I noticed at Target the other day was the one where the big plastic tubs of cheese puffs used to be (my 8-year-old was dismayed). My mother's having a house renovation done and though the contractors are blaming supply chain for their delayed finish date, she's pretty convinced it's the actual labor that's slowing the thing down, because they had a bunch of lumber delivered/stored in the backyard long before they started. (FWIW her GM is a Democrat. Yes, my mom found a Democratic GM and construction crew in AZ.)
The point is, I do not deny it's happening, but I simply haven't seen any ramifications of the "supply chain/inflation crisis" in terms of my day to day life. What I'm reading in the papers is just not what I am seeing in the world. I don't even see a difference in the freaking price of milk at our local TJs in Oakland! And at this point I wouldn't be surprised if 85% of the issue is fabricated/perpetuated by a media addicted to TFG-style chaos and upheaval. Oh, and also, AZ is very definitely a purple state now.
No. It is well known that Pence lacks a spine. That's why Trump picked him for running mate/VP in the first place.
@trollhattan: Jackie Speier's devotion to public service deserves the respect of every American. She has more than earned her rest and she deserves to leave a much better Congress than the one she finds herself in. There isn't a republican congress creature fit to carry her trash to the curb and I suspect more than a few know it.
What in the actual ass?
WaterGirl on What Is Going Down My Friends? (Jan 20, 2022 @ 1:55pm)
Betty Cracker on What Is Going Down My Friends? (Jan 20, 2022 @ 1:50pm)