Wednesday Night

Tomorrow is not election day!

Vote

If you claim to care about politics, it's the least you can do, assuming you haven't been purged from the voter rolls or that other obscene barriers have not been placed in front of you preventing you from doing that. That annoying guy who will spend 4 hours explaining why the purity of his essence requires that he doesn't vote is a total dick. I agree!

But lots of people don't vote. Most of them don't spend much time thinking about politics. Some of them don't see the point of voting and also don't spend 4 hours explaining this to you. They just have other things to do. Some have dumb ideas! Some think it doesn't really matter who is in charge. Maybe they have a point! For some people a half an hour (or more!) seems like a big bother. I work from home and have no kids and walk 200 feet to my polling place so it really is a zero effort thing. That isn't true for everybody.

Some people, like that dude who is a dick, are unreachable. That's fine. But everybody else... gotta convince them to vote. Go to elections with the electorate you have.

Liberals Are Supposed To Be Nice To Their Conservative Relatives

Especially around Thanksgiving.

Her dad is Steve West, 64, the Republican candidate for the Missouri General Assembly who made headlines after winning the GOP primary in August when word spread about his radio show and website through which he regularly espoused an array of bigotry including homophobia, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and outright racism.

“A lot of his views are just very out there,” Emily West said. “He’s made multiple comments that are racist and homophobic and how he doesn’t like the Jews.”

On Tuesday, her brother contacted The Star to say that he, too, was concerned about their father’s candidacy.

“My dad’s a fanatic. He must be stopped,” said Andy West, the middle of Steve West’s three children. “His ideology is pure hatred. It’s totally insane.

The Only Poll That Matters Is The One On...

I skipped the obsessive race- and poll-watching this cycle. Sports is fun to watch, but sometimes it's enough to know who won. Paying attention to the latest polls out of Nevada, or wherever, isn't going to change the outcome unless the universe operates differently than I imagine.

We'll know in a week!

The Neighborhood

So much fun.

The stench of death hung heavy along South 11th Street in 1905. The smell had grown so bad that neighbors had gone to the local police district to complain. They claimed that a crazed man and woman were guarding a dead body inside a row house near Washington Avenue. They had been barring the door for weeks and, judging by the smell, the corpse had entered a state of advanced decay. There were flies covering the shutters of a rear bedroom of the building.

But they also recounted unbelievable details. Strange rituals went on inside and the residents of the home, which they had for years referred to as “House of Mystery,” worshipped a woman who they said could grant eternal life.

A dead body was still a dead body. A patrolman summoned a doctor from the city coroner’s office to investigate. The two men had little way of knowing that they were about to bring an end to a saga that had begun nearly 50 years earlier. A story of a secret society that had once enticed the city’s wealthy and powerful. A story of miraculous visions, grave robbing, con artistry, and court battles. They had no sense of the shock and horror they would soon feel, nor that the same feeling would soon grip the entire city.

The Bubble

I imagine some of these Republicans are a bit shocked by the backlash about their Obamacare votes. I mean, everyone told them Obamacare was worse than Hitler (the bad liberal Hitler not the good conservative Hitler) and that voters hated it and that voting to get rid of it would be the most courageous thing since Churchill did... I dunno, whatever Churchill did.

No worries, though, they just get to lie about it now. Backsies.

Fox Con

The willingness of (especially but certainly not just) Republican state governments to just throw absurd amounts of cash at companies with few strings attached is incredible. Also that these sorts of things aren't always treated as "scandals."

Morning Thread

We had some fun yesterday.

Today, it's back to the grindstone.

Gotta get these bozos out of office.

GOTV.

Late Night

According to several sources Robert Mueller is a big poopyhead and he eats poop and he poops all the time and poop.

Happy Hour Thread

enjoy

Totally Normal

It's the kind of thing people think they can get away with trying to do because they think it's just a normal standard thing that people do in politics.

An alleged scheme to pay off women to fabricate sexual assault allegations against Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been referred to the FBI for further investigation, according to a spokesman for the special counsel’s office, Peter Carr. “When we learned last week of allegations that women were offered money to make false claims about the Special Counsel, we immediately referred the matter to the FBI for investigation,” Carr said in a statement on Tuesday.

Nothing Really Matters

Whatever motivates people to get into journalism, it's certainly easier to succeed with your sanity intact within the supposed norms of "objective journalism" if you just don't give a shit about anything.

America's Worst Humans

Jonathan Swan.

(okay he's actually Australian)

The Easiest Scoop

Trump's an asshole, but he's also an asshole who likes to please (or think he is pleasing - maybe "impressing" is a better word) the person sitting in front of him. The easiest way for a journalist to get a scoop is to feed some bullshit to him and have him repeat it back to them almost verbatim. Then he'll read the headlines, be impressed with his own brilliant idea, and his people will struggle (enthusiastically or not) to make it policy, at least until his brain worm brain forgets about it.

Not Just Trump

If Trump leaves office, things just don't snap back to "normal" as too many people seem to believe. The biggest mistake a Democrat will make in 2020 is running on the "let's make Washington bipartisan and good again" as if the only problem is Trump, as if bipartisanship is good, as if letting Republicans off the hook is a noble goal, as if we are a nation of West Wing fans who think Washington ever was or ever will be "good."

Morning Thread

We mustn't let facts get in the way.

We're all gonna die of small pox!  It's true! I read it on the intertubes.

Our Precious Bodily Fluids

"The other" are diseased.

Afternoon

Time is Jeremy Bearimy.

Pithy

I have tried to find a short way to express this:

It’s notable that the last moment of purported ‘unity’ was GWB and the Iraq war – when the traditional media flocked to Fox’s view of the world, rather than vice versa.

This is good and right. And not just about "unity" but about how the rest of the news didn't get how toxic Fox was until (a little bit) later in the Obama administration. Because for a time "we" were all Fox News (not me! that's why you read this sucky blog).

America's Worst Humans

Chuck Todd.

Nazis Are Good Except Liberals Are Nazis and They Are Bad

That really is the state of the discourse at the moment. Nazis have a point and should be listened to, also liberals are bad because they are the real Nazis. Especially Jewish liberals. Total Nazis.

Some People Just Want To Watch The World Burn

I don't know why this is true, but it is true.

Cut Your Mic

IF you spent your entire adult life supporting the Republican party and then wake up under Trump and decide that maybe you made a few mistakes along the way, your book and book tour should not be navel gazing. It should be "here are people you should have listened to instead of me, a really stupid guy who caused a lot of problems." That would be valuable!

Monday Morning

I dread this week and any "October Surprise" dear leader has in store for us.

Let's hope it's just bluster and nothing real.

Sunday Night

Rock on.

Adam Speak

You listen.

The apparent spark for the worst anti-Semitic massacre in American history was a racist hoax inflamed by a U.S. president seeking to help his party win a midterm election. There is no political gesture, no public statement, and no alteration in rhetoric or behavior that will change this fact. The shooter might have found a different reason to act on a different day. But he chose to act on Saturday, and he apparently chose to act in response to a political fiction that the president himself chose to spread, and that his followers chose to amplify.

As for those who aided the president in his propaganda campaign, who enabled him to prey on racist fears to fabricate a national emergency, those who said to themselves, “This is the play”? Every single one of them bears some responsibility for what followed. Their condemnations of antisemitism are meaningless. Their thoughts and prayers are worthless. Their condolences are irrelevant. They can never undo what they have done, and what they have done will never be forgotten.

The Vitriol Is Coming From Inside The Studio

A delightful interview of Chuck Todd by Hugh Hewitt about Bill "Tiller the baby Killer" O'Reilly.

CT: Look, I agree with you. He was not sort of a traditional conservative. He was, to me, he gave voice, what he did, he was the tone setter. He was sort of that anti-political correctness. That was, if he had a true north, that was it, right?

HH: Yup.

CT: If there was some way he could do that story, and if he could do that every night, right, he would find a way to do some form of that every night. But what he was, was the you know, it’s like he was the opening act that brought the crowds, but he became almost more fun to watch than the concert itself, sometimes.

HH: Yeah.

CT: But he was the entertainer, probably more entertainer than any of the others, right? And anybody else in this ecosystem is, I mean, he said it in his own statement. I thought it was incredibly self-aware that he said informed and entertained. He used the word entertained.

HH: Yeah.

CT: No real journalist would use that.

HH: Yeah, yeah.

CT: Okay, and that’s fine. I admire the self-awareness at least by saying that. But, so but he set a tone, and I think so while he was never, you cannot take an issue and say Bill O’Reilly championed that issue beyond the war, the phony war on Christmas, right? That was like a fun, that was an entertainment thing for him. But you couldn’t say championed one issue or one cause or thing like that. But what was thought, what would the conservative media ecosystem be without him?

Wow Where'd He Get A Crazy Idea Like Soros Was Paying To Import Brown People To Take Over The US

Apparently all of our cable news pundits have not been watching their own networks for a couple of weeks.

It's The Partisans Who Are Wrong

Once conceit of "centrists" is that the reason people don't agree with them about everything (even as they are often quite vague about just what those things are) is that those other people are stupid. These days it gets framed as the fault of the internet and social media, as if the internet and social media don't make it both more possible and more likely for you to be pelted with a wide diversity of viewpoints than ever before in human history. But it's basically the same whine. Partisans to the left of me, partisans to the right, if only people were all open-minded and we just listened to Each Other (code for:shutupshutupshutup and listen to David Brooks) we would have consensus and Unity.

Sunday Afternoon

What bad things are Both Sides doing today?

Sunday Roundtable

Face the Nation:

Jamelle Bouie, Jeffrey Goldberg, Lanhee Chen, Susan Page

Jeffrey Goldberg's a bit of a tough one. I'll lump "centrists" in with neutrals for the sake of this. I'm always putting the thumb on the scale against myself a little bit here because the point is not to argue about these things.

So, 1 conservative, 1 liberal, 2 neutral. The closest thing you get to a liberal-leaning panel on these shows!

This Week:

Matthew Dowd, Donna Brazile, Mary Jordan, Reihan Salam

1 conservative, 1 liberal, 2 neutrals (Dowd is a full of shift grifter, but that's his current self-identification).

Meet the Press:

Erick Erickson, Joshua Johnson, Amy Walter, Kristen Welker

1 batshit crazy racist conservative, 3 neutrals.

Total:

3 conservatives, 2 liberals, 7 neutrals.

A surprisingly liberal week!

Sunday Morning

Echidne wraps up this past Dismal Week in American Politics.

Read it and weep.

All of that in just one week.

Saturday Night

Election day is getting closer.

Happy Hour - Have At It

I hope it lasts more than 20 minutes.

Trump's Genius

The Trump whisperer gave us this:

Really good piece. For those who always ask if anyone tells him what his behavior does, the answer is yes, but he doesn’t care >>> https://t.co/cwm2pDkV1X

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 27, 2018

Timely.

LOL

Debbie Cox, the internet will remember your name.

DODGE CITY
After the ACLU objected to Dodge City’s single, out-of-town polling place, the local official in charge of elections forwarded to the state an ACLU letter asking her to publicize a voter help line.


“LOL,” she wrote in an email to Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach’s office.

Today Is The Day He Became President

At least those takes have mostly stopped.

Saturday Morning

Rain, rain go away.

The Witching Hour Thread

President Tweets, Says Horrible Things

I could put nothing but those things on this blog and have enough material but ultimately who cares. It's Trump!

Bye Megyn

Gone from NBC.

I didn't care all that much that she was on TV. It was more just another example of "racist white mediocrities promoting and overpaying other racist white mediocrities."

Andy Lack's the problem.

To The Internets!

One thing I try to resist is the too common habit of trying to amateur sleuthing of the background of criminal suspects (social media, etc). They're just suspects. It'll all come out in a few hours or days.

What If It Is A False Flag

A suspect in custody.

The Internet Is Bad Now

I regularly complain about how horrible news sites are - take forever to load, have to play whackamole with the ads just to read anything , auto-on audio/video - because I still care and have watched news orgs completely screw up "online" since 1996. But it isn't just news sites. Even basic retail sites, which doesn't have the off-site ad excuse, have so much bloat that they take forever to load and render. No it isn't my internet connection. Do any web developers ever bother to try to load their own sites? It's weird.

As Was Foretold

Surprising nobody.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said his plan to quickly normalize the U.K.’s World Trade Organization commitments had failed, forcing the government to enter into what will likely be lengthy negotiations with other members on basic terms of trade after Brexit.

Essentially the rest of the world has some quota arrangements with the EU and the UK thought they would just divide out their allocation and proceed. Nobody else thought they could do that. Negotiations are hard, man.

Morning Thread

TGIF

Deep Thought

I put this damn treadmill together 6 years ago, so I'm sure I'll be able to replace the running belt without any problems whatsoever.

Evening Thread

Busy with annoying things

What Did He Hire The Racist White Lady For

Megyn Kelly was hired because she is a racist white lady, and she certainly was not fired because she is a racist white lady. The racism was an excuse.

The man who hired her is the one with the racism problem.

The Art of the Hissy Fit

So much daily political coverage - the kind of cable news dominating flood the zone stuff - is driven by (as Brian Beutler put it on twitter) Republicans pretending to be outraged by things and reporters pretending to believe them.

Savvy reporter: ah, yes, but why can't Democrats master the art of the hissy fit, too? Gotta get better at the game.

Normal person: I had no idea this was all a fucking game.

Even when bombs are being sent to Democrats, stuff Republicans are upset about (such snowflakes) dominate the coverage.

Back to the Trolley Problem

That people spend time on the Trolley Problem is evidence to me that people thinking about these things have too much time on their hands. The "who to kill, who to save" question is so far down the list of real world problems these things are going to face. They really aren't ever going to do much better than "try to not hit things" and they might be pretty good at that! But this "trolley problem" stuff is thinking that your computer is going to be weighing more complicated problems than humans do.

And to the extent that is an issue: they're going to kill the pedestrians, save the occupants of the car. Like every other driver.

In a reimagined version of the trolley problem—an ethical thought experiment that asks whether you would opt for the death of one person to save several others—the researchers asked participants on its viral game-like platform decide between two scenarios involving an autonomous vehicle with a sudden brake failure. In one instance, the car will opt to hit pedestrians in front of it to avoid killing those in the vehicle; in the other, the car will swerve into a concrete barrier, killing those in the vehicle but sparing those crossing the street.

Morning Thread

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

As my grandmother used to say — a hit dog will holler. pic.twitter.com/kC34Ldd0is

— Andrew Gillum (@AndrewGillum) October 25, 2018

But Her Emails

Gonna be some flood the zone coverage on this I bet (yes it's *in* the Times, but will it be for the next 3 months?).

WASHINGTON — When President Trump calls old friends on one of his iPhones to gossip, gripe or solicit their latest take on how he is doing, American intelligence reports indicate that Chinese spies are often listening — and putting to use invaluable insights into how to best work the president and affect administration policy, current and former American officials said.

Mr. Trump’s aides have repeatedly warned him that his cellphone calls are not secure, and they have told him that Russian spies are routinely eavesdropping on the calls, as well. But aides say the voluble president, who has been pressured into using his secure White House landline more often these days, has still refused to give up his iPhones. White House officials say they can only hope he refrains from discussing classified information when he is on them.

False Flag

I'll admit that when I hear about something which sounds like a domestic terrorism event or violence targeted at political figures my first assumption is that it's right wingers. Maybe that's wrong of me! But absent something as obviously ridiculous as the backwards 'B' stunt it never occurs to me that something is a "false flag" and it's a pretty standard thing for semi-respectable right wingers these days.

Sunday Roundtables

Been tuning out a bit on weekends so forgot, but for 10/21:

Face the Nation:

Susan Page (neutral), Jonah Goldberg (conservative idiot), Susan Glasser (neutral)

Meet the Press:

Eugene Robinson (liberal), Katy Tur (neutral), Peggy Noonan (conservative), David Brody (conservative):

This Week:

Mary Bruce (neutral), Kim Strassel (conservative), Juan Williams (?)

I'm labeling people by how they plausibly self-identify, personally or with their job title. Not making judgments on what I think of them. I'm honestly not sure how to classify Williams in this.

But, anyway, we have 4 conservatives, 1 liberal, 4 neutrals, and Juan Williams.

Liberal media strikes again.

America's Worst Humans

Ramesh Ponnuru.

Afternoon Thread

What a world, what a world.

The Puke Funnel

Maggie wants us to believe that Trump is a genius who Rules Their World much like Matt Drudge once world Mark Halperin's World. Not because journalists have agency, but because their powers are just so strong.

But Trump doesn't rule their world, because Trump doesn't rule Trump's world.

Fox and Friends dictates the agenda.

Fox. And. Friends.

Wingnut Debate Dictionary

Found this while looking for something. My archives are a treasure! This blog used to not suck.

example:

Cheney's Razor (n.) - A philosophic rule that the most complex explanation of an unknown phenomenon is probably correct. From Cheney, Dick. (CF)

Nothing changes.

Suspicious Devices

Sent to the Clintons and Obama.

At least their restaurant meals weren't interrupted.

Blackface is Bad

The Megyn Kelly incident is a typical example of a kind of wypipo racism, which at its best is an extreme form of ignorance (though that Kelly is a big racist has long been established so I am not let her off the hook here). You know, "I haven't really thought much about this blackface thing but I heard blackface was bad but it doesn't make any sense to me because blackface seems, like, ok?"

My point being that if there's some notion that something is racist, if you (as Kelly obviously does) have some notion that black people generally think something is racist, maybe your default position should be... this is probably racist? What I mean is that you don't have to spend any time obtaining a sophisticated understanding of the history of blackface in America to think that maybe you should just... listen to black people a bit. Maybe you don't know why blackface is bad, but it isn't as if "do not dress in blackface" is some major assault on your individual freedom, unless you get weepy every year when people say mean things about the inevitable racist Halloween frat parties. It's pretty easy to just accept "ok this thing I don't understand and don't want to bother understanding is probably racist" and move on.

Unless, of course, the thing that pisses you off is that black people (in your mind) are telling you what to do. And that trumps (so to speak) everything.

Genius

The New York Times is powerless to do anything but put whatever Trump wants on the front page, and Maggie tells us this is because of Trump's genius which apparently involves this:

Trump: I made a poopy.

NEW YORK TIMES: TRUMP MAKES POOPY (17 articles)


Although the reality is sadder:

Trump: I did a racism, and it's all lies.

NEW YORK TIMES: WHAT WILL DEMOCRATS (WHO DO NOT CONTROL ANYTHING) DO TO STOP THE CARAVAN OF DOOM

Good Wednesday Morning

Happy Hour Thread

enjoy

Disbelief

Maybe Brexit is good, but the process has underscored how just about every Tory is a blithering idiot who couldn't put together the simplest Ikea bookcase even if he had to in order to keep mummy's inheritance.

Britain is drawing up plans to charter ships to bring in emergency food and medicines in the event of a “no-deal” Brexit next March, in a move greeted with disbelief at a stormy meeting of Theresa May’s cabinet on Tuesday.

The cabinet was told that the heavily used Dover-Calais route could quickly become blocked by new customs controls on the French side, forcing Britain to seek alternative ways of bringing in “critical supplies”.

That they don't have the infrastructure to even begin handling customs controls has been known all along by anyone who wanted to know anything.

Blackface Good, Black Santa Bad

Your liberal media.

The Caravan Of Doom

Republicans kick the ball, the press chases the ball. Dems almost never pull this off. Savvy reporters will tell you the Dems just aren't as good at the game. Enlightened news consumers will wonder why reporters see it as a game they are playing.

It Isn't The Lies, It's The Lying

Everybody lies, some. I'm not going to debate the ethics of dishonesty. But Trump lies all the time. The question isn't whether a particular declaration is true, or partially true, or exaggeration, or hyperbole, or a bit wrong. It doesn't even matter most of the time. The specifics don't matter. The point is that his utter disregard for the truth means that nothing that comes out of his mouth should be evaluated on some truth-fiction scale. It's all a lie, because he's indifferent to whether what comes out of his mouth is true or not. If it's true it's only an accident.

I don't think this is some big challenge the reporters make it out to be. This idea of deference to the office of the presidency is a made up notion that only applies sometimes. It's stupid and it's fake. He's just a man. If someone lies to all you all the time, even if they're a newsworthy figure you treat them accordingly. You know, as if they are liars. The UK press (which has its own problems so I am not being envious overall) has no trouble dealing with lying politicians. They're people. They work for us. If they're full of shit, discount everything they say and ignore them most of the time.

Whatever You Do,

Don't forget to vote.

If your state has early voting, vote today.

Not tomorrow.

Today.

Happy Hour Thread

Wake me up when our new Caravan Overlords have arrived.

Courting

I've never quite figured out if journalists realize that while they imagine they are courting sources, sources rightfully understand that they are courting journalists. Most readers don't, at least. I saw enough of the sausage factory in my limited visits to DC to know that it's pretty standard for "ground rules" of providing "scoops" (which often aren't) to journalists ensure that at least initial coverage of things is slanted in certain ways. And most of the time "scoops" are really just "which journalist gets the info that the source wants to get out there no matter what first." Source has story, wants to get it out there in the best favorable light, at least initially, and finds the journalist willing to agree to that. Make it a running agreement and suddenly your journalist job got a bit easier. Take the press release, print the press release. You know the drill.

And it isn't as if this is always an indefensible practice, but in the aggregate...

He's Just Doing What He Promised

I come back to this occasionally, but one of the worst narratives of the Trump press coverage (and from some liberals, too) is Trump is just giving the country what he promised during the campaign. This just isn't true. He's giving the country half of what he promised during the campaign, roughly, or maybe a better way to put it is that he's giving one side of the coin. He promised a lot of stuff! Some of it was good or at least not so bad! Of course the good betting money was on "Trump is full of shit about that stuff" but given how Trump was covered during the campaign I think you can forgive some people for believing him even if you don't forgive them for fact that they voted for him despite the really bad stuff he promised.

He was gonna be the best of pals to the LGBT community. There's even a tweet (there's always a tweet).

Sure

One of the easiest places to drive and navigate in the world. Good place to start.

A fleet of autonomous taxis could roll onto the streets of the U.K. capital within three years, after one of London’s biggest private-hire taxi companies struck a deal with a maker of autonomous vehicle software.

I could win that lottery thingy soon, too.

For awhile I was putting these absurd claims on a calendar like I used to do with Friedmanesque Iraq war statements but I just stopped because they're almost always ludicrous.

It's Monday

Enough said.

Sunday Night

Tomorrow is...

Nothing Really Matters, Anyone Can See

The question of whether Jim VandeHei's children belong in cages isn't about policy; it is about both sides making a cultural argument to turn out their base voters.

The War On America

It's not completely true, of course, but I suppose a big difference between Trump and Bush is the latter declared war abroad and the former is declaring it a home.

Again, not completely true.

Sunday Sunday

Actually slept in. That hasn't happened in awhile.

Sunday Morning

Saturday Night Revels Thread

No fighting

Cool That Sounds Interesting

Running fixed route self-driving vehicles (with a driver and "chaperone" in the car just in case) sounds like a great idea. I mean, with 3 vehicles (later 5) you'll be able to carry 15 (25) people at a time with just 6 (10) employees.

Today, startup Drive.ai is launching a self-driving car service in Arlington, Texas, which sits halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth and is home to the Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium. The service will run several routes in multiple parts of the city, bustling to and from big venues including that stadium, Globe Life Park (where baseball’s Texas Rangers play), and the Arlington Convention Center.

I mean it's cool that this company is gonna provide this service for free while doing their rese..(record scratch):

Drive.ai is set to run these routes for a year, and while it’s not charging riders anything, it’s being paid $434,952 for the service. A federal Congestion Mitigation Air Quality Improvement Grant will provide $343,000; the rest comes Arlington’s coffers.

Who knows? Maybe this kind of research is a great use of public money. But Arlington basically doesn't any public transit. The willingness of places to throw money at things like this which at best have a miniscule capacity...

AT&T Stadium holds 100,000 people.

Saturday Morning

Political

So much of the way the press covers things is impacted by which issues are seen as political, where there are two sides in the political debate. Sometimes I see people being proud of their own or another reporter's work that does something like get a wrongly convicted person freed from prison. We all agree it's bad that people go to prison for crimes they didn't commit, right? So it's good when they're freed! Good job, journalism!

But what about when one major political party decides well, no, locking up people (some people, anyway) who didn't commit crimes is actually good, that it provides a good deterrent effect that outweighs the injustice, and these dogooder "journalists" who are getting innocent people released are causing a lot of problems in society. At the very least the reporting didn't *prove* innocence, and undermining the actions of those fine members of the jury and of our wonderful boys in blue is actually a very bad thing to do. Mistakes are made, and that's a necessary part of the sanctity of our justice system (conservative judges basically make this argument sometimes).

Maybe those journalists would still do those stories, but they'd stop short of feeling like they could congratulate themselves for what the story led to... the release of an innocent person. It might still be news, but "objectivity" would require not having an opinion about the highly controversial consequence of that news.

So I chuckle a little bit whenever I see journalists patting themselves on the back for some "supposed" injustice that their reporting helped to correct. Because next week the rules might change, and then will need to hear both sides of the "are Nazis good?" question, and properly ethical journalists won't have an opinion on that.

Gotta Get Down On

Apparently it's Friday again. Time has no meaning anymore.

Cruz

Houston Chronicle:

Ted Cruz — a candidate the Chronicle endorsed in 2012, by the way — is the junior senator from Texas in name only. Exhibiting little interest in addressing the needs of his fellow Texans during his six years in office, he has kept his eyes on a higher prize. He's been running for president since he took the oath of office — more likely since he picked up his class schedule as a 15-year-old ninth-grader at Houston's Second Baptist High School more than three decades ago. For Cruz, public office is a private quest; the needs of his constituents are secondary.

It was the rookie Cruz, riding high after a double-digit win in 2012, who brazenly took the lead in a 2013 federal government shutdown, an exercise in self-aggrandizement that he hoped would lead to the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Cruz, instead, undercut the economy, cost taxpayers an estimated $2 billion (and inflicted his reading of Dr. Seuss's "Green Eggs and Ham" on an unamused nation). Maybe the senator succeeded in cementing in his obstructionist tea party bona fides, but we don't recall Texans clamoring for such an ill-considered, self-serving stunt.

I'm puzzled how people like Ted Cruz, including specifically Ted Cruz, manage to become a senator. By accounts nobody likes him. He is not charismatic. I get that any asshole with a bit of luck can fall backwards into a House seat, but Texas senator is a pretty big prize. You don't just have to convince a bunch of other assholes to vote for you in the general. That's easy! You have to beat out all of the other people trying to be a Republican senator from Texas. The primary's the thing. How did he get all the way there? I'm sure this could all be explained to me. But I don't care so much about Ted Cruz specifically, just how so many horrible people somehow manage to become US senators. Not just horrible to me, but seemingly just... horrible.

Gonna Go National

I don't know how fair this story was to de Blasio overall, but he has long struck me as a mayor who doesn't really want to be mayor. And I get that "local" jobs are often just thankless stepping stones to "bigger" things, but the Mayor of New York City is one of the top jobs in the country! You're essentially the governor of a region with the population of Virginia! With more power in some ways.

Remember When You Could Be Too Racist?

I don't think there was some past golden era when The Discourse did not sanction a lot of racism, and to some degree I think there's been an improvement in the way there is public acknowledgment that racism is more than just using a racial slur or being caught obviously discriminating against an individual because of their race. Like in the past you could advocate and support horribly racist policies - which many eventheliberals did - but if your racism was a bit worse than dogwhistle there would be a backlash. We didn't get the loving profiles of actual white supremacists and Nazis- who, by the way, don't like Jews much! - and while there were racist political ads we still remember some of them today. They weren't just part of the background noise, they were, for better or worse, kind of a big deal.

Vaporware

Two years ago, we had this:

ELON MUSK WANTS you to take your hands off the wheel, foot off the gas, and let him do the driving. Rather, let his cars take over. Tonight, at a press conference, he announced that every new Tesla will be fully capable of driving itself. After being upgraded with a suite of cameras and sensors, Musk says this means his cars will have the potential for level 5 autonomy—the highest level, which requires zero interaction from the driver.

...

Tesla hopes its ghost in the machine will be fully ready by the end of next year, and the proof will be a cross country road trip. Musk said he could have a Tesla pick someone up from their home in LA and drop them off in the bright lights of Times Square, New York—then park itself. “It will do this without the need for a single touch, including the charger,” says Musk.

Basically he said the hardware was ready, and a software update would arrive...soon... and magic! Needless to say, that hasn't happened, and since then they've changed the hardware.

Now:

The Full Self Driving option, previously listed below Enhanced Autopilot, has been removed on the Tesla Model S and Model X design studio as well. At the time the original article was published, the option had only been removed from the Model 3. According to Elon Musk, the option will still be available for about a week “off the menu”.

The FSD "option" was basically a "pay now and when it's ready you'll get it" option. Still not ready!

I occasionally read the Tesla fanboy forums and a lot of them truly believe that very soon, not only will a genuine "full self driving" software update arrive, but that it will include a system that will let their robot cars uber strangers around for major cash while they work or sleep or whatever.

Good Enough For Susan Collins

Or, if not, they'll decide on another story. It is funny how out in the open it is..."well, how about this idea? No, maybe this one."

ISTANBUL — The rulers of Saudi Arabia are considering blaming a top intelligence official close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, three people with knowledge of the Saudi plans said Thursday.

The plan to assign blame to Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, a high-ranking adviser to the crown prince, would be an extraordinary recognition of the magnitude of international backlash to hit the kingdom since the disappearance of Mr. Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi dissident. A resident of Virginia and contributor to The Washington Post, Mr. Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

"The plan to assign blame."

Morning Freshness

Overnight Thread

Enjoy

They Just Lie

Democrats are going to kill Medicare and Republicans love the pre-existing conditions protections in ACA.

Every campaign (yes even Demorats) has some spin and hyperbole and shading of the truth, but these are just straight up lies about a rather important bit of policy. And you can't hide this stuff anymore like you used to. You can't stick it in sneaky mailers or run ads you think the press might not notice because anything can show up on the internet. But they just do it anyway. It's really quite astounding.

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

But President Democrat Wore A Tan Suit

Assuming we ever manage that again, we're gonna go from "lol Trump raped a teenager on the White House lawn nothing matters" to "TAN SUITS THREATEN THE PURITY OF THE OFFICE" in about 5 seconds.

Do People Know What "Pre-Existing Conditions" Are?

I woke up too early and turned on local news so I saw some political ads. I am sure some people do, but I also think this is a bit wonk talk that normies don't understand. Correct me?

Morning Bridge Post

Happy Hour Thread

enjoy

Extend

The end game is either "no deal" or just keep extending until everyone forgets about the whole thing. I'm not sure which is more likely.

The European parliament president Antonio Tajani also confirmed that an extension to the Brexit transition period was discussed by EU leaders as part of efforts to resolve the Irish border backstop disagreement.

I Would Like To Announce That This Blog Is Pivoting To Video

It was such a weird trend. Like everybody who had ever tried to use the internet knew it was dumb. Certain kinds of videos are popular and go "viral" or whatever (cats and hippos being friends, that kind of thing) but basically people use the internet at work and on their phones and neither is particularly good for video. Also trying to force me to watch their damn videos ruined a bunch of sites (competing with the already intrusive ads for screen space, following me around as I try to scroll away from it). Low production quality "news" videos aren't interesting and they are intrusive and they take time, especially when wrapped in ads that are longer than the videos themselves.

Well Then

Not even seeing the New York Times defense force defending this one.

Gavin McInnes has set himself apart from the current crop of professionally outraged right-wing pundits, not only for being able to spout aggressive rhetoric, but also for being willing to get physical at times. https://t.co/VUKGukCKGc

— NYT Metro (@NYTMetro) October 17, 2018

Dumb Politics Elsewhere

I continue to be fascinated by people in the UK who demand "extreme Brexit" and then say, effectively, "what do you mean leaving the customs union and ending freedom of movement means leaving the customs union and ending freedom of movement?"

Like the realization that they won't just be able to go work in France anymore is making them mad.

How are people so dumb.

Morning Thread

If I Did It

I'm pretty fascinated by the Saudi Arabia issue. Could one bad act reshape official Washington? Saudi money runs that town.

Afternoon Thread

I got nothin'.

Marks

It's always good news for Republicans.

This is why Republicans who were excited about the post-Kav bump were still tempered in their assessments: You just never know when Trump is going to pivot to, say, calling the porn star he once had an extra-marital affair with “Horseface”https://t.co/GGVmCCtneQ

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) October 16, 2018

I Was Dumb

I used to naively think that at least they couldn't cut Social Security. And, hey, we did win the privatization war in 2005. Yay blogs! We helped do that (really we did). I thought, well, hey, old people vote, so don't fuck with them. But they'll go after it by cutting it for people under 55 or whatever. Boomers get very mad when you blame them, but really, Boomers, you're gonna do this. #notallboomers

Tech Bros

A bunch of people sent me this, because of course.

One day in 2011, a Google executive named Isaac Taylor learned that, while he was on paternity leave, Levandowski had modified the cars’ software so that he could take them on otherwise forbidden routes. A Google executive recalls witnessing Taylor and Levandowski shouting at each other. Levandowski told Taylor that the only way to show him why his approach was necessary was to take a ride together. The men, both still furious, jumped into a self-driving Prius and headed off.

The car went onto a freeway, where it travelled past an on-ramp. According to people with knowledge of events that day, the Prius accidentally boxed in another vehicle, a Camry. A human driver could easily have handled the situation by slowing down and letting the Camry merge into traffic, but Google’s software wasn’t prepared for this scenario. The cars continued speeding down the freeway side by side. The Camry’s driver jerked his car onto the right shoulder. Then, apparently trying to avoid a guardrail, he veered to the left; the Camry pinwheeled across the freeway and into the median. Levandowski, who was acting as the safety driver, swerved hard to avoid colliding with the Camry, causing Taylor to injure his spine so severely that he eventually required multiple surgeries.

The Prius regained control and turned a corner on the freeway, leaving the Camry behind. Levandowski and Taylor didn’t know how badly damaged the Camry was. They didn’t go back to check on the other driver or to see if anyone else had been hurt. Neither they nor other Google executives made inquiries with the authorities. The police were not informed that a self-driving algorithm had contributed to the accident.

Morning Thread

Late Night Thread

have at it

Happy Hour Thread

enjoy

My Good Friend, MBS

Tom Friedman's column is gonna be lit.

BREAKING — 2 sources tell @clarissaward and @TimListerCNN that the Saudis are preparing a report that will acknowledge Jamal Khashoggi's death was the result of an interrogation that went wrong, one that was intended to lead to his abduction from Turkey.

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 15, 2018

Trumpism Sure...but Trump?

One thing I never get about conservatives is that their heroes are so disgusting. Trump is repulsive. Love the politics, sure, I get that, but the man? I do not get.

This Video Wasn't Even Controversial At The Time

I often marvel at that.

The DMV

Except when I failed my first driving test, I've never had any problems with the DMV. Certainly better than the local office of Kabletown. But the DMV looms large in the mythology of scary government.

If you really want scary government bureaucracy, try dealing with immigration! I don't even mean ICE, I just mean the form filling out part. And not just in this crazy country... any country!

Monday Morning Thread

With everything else going on, no one seems to be paying any attention to the Mueller investigation. It's like it's not happening.

Sunday Night

Tomorrow is...

Wow Beto Raised Lots Of Money

Ever since the internet small donor phenomenon became a thing, the very important people keep getting very mad that stupid people are giving 20 bucks to the very WRONG UNWINNABLE RACES as opposed to giving millions to safe seat incumbents which is just business as usual.


I am being pithy but I hope you get the point.

It's Cold Now

So much for "at least here in the Mid-Atlantic we have a great Fall!"

Sunday Morning

A Terrible Breach In Protocol

Stay civil, people.

Saturday, Saturday

Enjoy

Freedom

I grew up in the suburbs. That period between about 12 and 16 when you can't drive is hell. I wish I had a nice subway.

Saturday Morning

Fall has arrived. Nice.

People Have Died And I'm Not Happy

The best country.

Say The Magic Words, Fat Gandalf

I am old so Friday night means early bed.

Happy Hour Thread

Friday get happy.

Depends

Oh Simon, you went for the obvious joke.

To America

Men and Babies

Given the context of the impending effective overturning of Roe and the creepy online misogynists obsessed with women's "fertility" and babymaking powers that are everywhere these days... I have a question. Do you really know men who a) want children b) want children in the sense of wanting to honestly handle 50%+ of the childrearing duties c) could possibly handle being a single parent if circumstances required?


a) is easy of course. I would like progeny, take care of it my woman! b) is I think much more rare even in an aspirational sense and c) hahahahaha.

But life is complicated and weird and tragic and if you really want children, c) is always going to be a possible outcome of your 18 year commitment.

Spread The Benjamins Around

Some highly ethical PR firm in DC is currently concocting the comeback strategy for Mohammad bin Salman, which will culminate in a weepy Tom Friedman column about how his good friend temporarily lost his way, but has shown proper remorse to Tom Friedman and all is good now.

We Feel A Bit Bad About The Gulags, But The Cons Left Us With Little Choice

The reasonable "overreach" argument is something like "oh wow George Bush wanted to privatize Social Security and the backlash to that brought voters to the polls and elected a bunch of Democrats."

The conservative version - which is taken very seriously - is more like "oh wow the liberals disrespected us on Twitter so we really had no choice but to start putting babies in cages. Their fault, really, the baby cages."

Good Guys, Bad Guys

There are reasons - probably usually gross but maybe occasionally not - that we have to be jolly old pals with some bad countries. Even gross reasons are reasons. But the degree to which the press - and no, not just the opinion pages - falls in line with official government policy about Whoever Is Good And Bad Today - is always pretty fascinating. One would think the press (and I mean the elite press like the Times and the especially the NoVa mouthpiece the Post) could at least explain these things to us. The State Department might not be able to come out and say "sure, he's a bastard, but he's our bastard" but journalists can. Instead we tend to get a good dictator/bad dictator split coverage. The good ones are our good pals, the bad ones do truly horrible and despicable human rights violations just like the good ones.

Morning Thread

It's Friday.

Tucker's White Power Hour

I admit I got one wrong with Tucker Carlson. For some reason (not that it really a mattered) I thought he mostly played a jerk on TV but he wasn't that much of a jerk. Sure he was a conservative asshole - I'm not pretending he was Good - but not, you know, Nazi level bad. Better than your typical conservative asshole even before they all embraced Nazis, even.

Who knows or cares what's in his heart but wow he's bad.

Thursday Evening

Tomorrow is...

Vote

I'm lucky. My polling place is about 200 feet away and I don't think I've ever had to wait more than 5 minutes to vote. It's easy. I doubt anyone in Philly is more than a quarter mile from their polling place, if that. We have lots of them! The stories you hear every election cycle about people lined up for an hour or more to vote are insane. There is zero reason for it to be that way. Zero good reason anyway. You can just add more polling places, more machines, whatever (I'm not going to get into the absurdity of our voting systems). I think when I lived in California I voted in someone's garage. This is not a problem without solutions, and the solutions cost negligble amounts of money.

Afternoon Thread

Fuck the Celebrities, They Don't Vote For Us Anyway

One thing about being old but also extremely online is that I'm always fascinated by things that I manage to miss. The internet is piped directly into my head yet somehow I managed to miss a meme! It's oddly satisfying. It isn't that I take pride in being a clueless oldster, it's that I rarely miss any of this nonsense so when I do it's a relief.

Along those lines, I can identify one Taylor Swift song. This is not bragging. It's fascinating to me! But she's popular and the
Nazis thought she was one of them and now they are mad and conservatives feel the need to condemn her. This is funny.

Voter Fraud

I just received notice from Orange County, CA that they suspect I have moved and should let them know.

This is the type of thing Republicans have been pushing as "voter fraud" for years. Nobody (almost) bothers to tell their local election board that they moved unless wherever they re-register provides an option to do that.

Fox News Always Was

I would say it's basically conventional wisdom among the DC set that Fox News is just a propaganda outlet now. But the thing is that it always was. It was less obvious before Obama because insanely critical coverage of Clinton (barely anyone watched then) and obsequious coverage of Bush was pretty much the norm. Fox took it up to 11, but it was already at 10 elsewhere. Coverage of Obama elsewhere in the media was more...normal. It was good and bad in complicated ways but not insanely one sided. But the sharp contrast with how Fox covered things made the differences impossible to ignore. Fox didn't change, though, everybody else did.

Great Moments In Foreign Policy Punditry

"When I see someone having the balls to take on the religious component, to take on the economic component, to take on the polit- with all of his flaws, ok. And with all due respect to his cousins, not a one of them would have had the balls to do that. Then I wanna invest just a little. I just wanna to stick my head up and say 'God I hope you succeed.' And when you do that the holy hell comes down on you. Okay, well, fuck that is my view." - Thomas Friedman, adviser to the world.

Suddenly It Occurs To Me That Maybe The Saudi State Is Bad?

Be the darling of the US elite foreign policy establishment and then you have to go and slaughter someone Tom Friedman knows...

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

How did I miss this yesterday?

Morning Thread

Wednesday Night

Actually thought it was Thursday. Time has no meaning anymore.

Happy Hour Thread

get happy

Maggiano's Little Italy

Life is not a chain restaurant in a made up neighborhood, Maggie.

Last Chance To Get Your Tote Bag!!!

OK no totebags are on offer, but final fundraising day!

Barbacoa

I enjoyed this Chef's Table episode in part (of course) because it's in my neighborhood.

Martinez left Mexico eight years ago, fleeing an abusive husband. She hasn’t been back, or seen her family, since. Despite having married an American, she has been denied a green card, and is officially undocumented. In the process of applying for that green card, she lost her restaurant job. So she opened her own restaurant, South Philly Barbacoa, and has become an advocate for immigrants and undocumented workers. Finding home in South Philly, in sharing the lamb barbacoa her family has made for generations, is no throwaway sentiment.

What Are Newspapers For

USA Today has proudly published a piece carefully written by MY PRESIDENT which is of course full of shit. It's long been the case that in general (I cannot speak for the standards of all publications) the fact checking bar for opinion pieces is lower (in theory) than that of the news pages, and the fact checking bar for top politicians submitting pieces to those pages is lower still. In practice I would say that generally the fact checking bar for conservatives is lower than that for liberals and the fact checking bar for LEFTISTS on the rare occasion they are published requires a 30 person review committee from Britannica, Snopes, Nobel, and the National Review, but that's just me being unbalanced.

Why do this?

Morning Thread

Holy crap! Michael looks bad. Real bad. Stay safe. Then there's Leslie and Nadine.

Sorry Everybody

People were mean to Susan Collins, the most popular woman in America, and now the Democrats are going to lose in November. Those are the rules.

Happy Hour Thread

get happy

LALALALALALALALA I Can't Hear You

You don't have to drive across country (like Larry) to grasp the idea that maybe people have some attachment to the communities where their families are (maybe even only because their families are there!), even if there isn't an Apple store nearby. And "broadened opportunities" to most hu-mans doesn't mean "MOVE TO BOSTON OR NEW YORK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE."

Usually I mock the whole COASTAL ELITISTS DON'T GET FLYOVER COUNTRY stuff because most people I know (correction: all people I know) have ventured out into the provinces once or twice. And then along comes Larry...

America's Dumbest Humans

Larry Summers.

It's The Enthusiasm That's Scary

Even I was surprised when miserable failure George W. Bush's polls dropped down to the magic 27% level. Absent economic catastrophe, I don't really expect any president's approval numbers to fall below 35% ever again. Similarly, absent some rally around the flag event, I don't expect them to go above 55%. Republicans are going to like Republicans and Democrats are going to like Democrats, and while there's a bit of wiggle room, we're basically not going to get a super popular or super unpopular president.

I have no idea precisely why the press does all the tautological "people who like Trump like Trump" stories, but it isn't surprising that his approval numbers are around 40%. My point is in this era basically any president can have approval numbers around 40%. It didn't make Obama particularly unpopular (as he was portrayed) and it certainly doesn't make Trump particularly popular (as the focus on his fans portrays him).

That Trump is inspiring the worst people to be emboldened, and that the mainstream press helps to embolden them, is what's scary. Not that 40% approve.

FALL FUNDRAISING FUNSTRAVAGNZA CONTINUES

Nearing its end. Help keep my blogs mighty and strong!

Thanks to all.

BREAKING MUST CREDIT ATRIOS

Actually I think it was Axios but in any case: bye bye Nikki Haley.

The Dumb Of All Fears

If you're rich you can install whatever dumb security system you want with your couch quarters and not have it affect your life much, but things like "panic rooms" and sleeping with weapons under your pillow betray a degree of genuine anxiety. What must it be like to be stupid rich and feel unsafe in your little resort enclave? I'd say find a new place for your weekend/summer home, but I don't think money can buy you peace, anywhere, if you see life this way. Europe's out, of course, because of all the no go zones.

I live in an urban hellhole and I find safety concerns hilarious. Stranger danger just isn't that common.

Clock Is Ticking

Promised milestones come and go regularly, but a big one in the self-driving car universe has been that Waymo is going to actually set up real, if limited, taxi service by the end of this year.

Waymo, Google's self-driving car project, is planning to launch a driverless taxi service in the Phoenix area in the next three months. It won't be a pilot project or a publicity stunt, either. Waymo is planning to launch a public, commercial service—without anyone in the driver's seat.

I don't believe it will happen, but I could be wrong!

I really don't get how people don't see the autonomous vehicles aren't some hard puzzle to be solved, but instead a "if we can do that we can await skynet's activation" level thing. Sure the technology works surprisingly well. It's neat! But to be actually useful...And self-driving cabs are the hardest version of that!

Morning Thread

Monday Night

Tomorrow is...

Happy Hour Thread

Enjoy

The Smart Thing To Do Is Vote For The Child Molester

What would it take for you to vote for a Republican for, say, senator? Or be so disgusted with the alternative that you just wouldn't vote?

Probably the answer to that question depends on how likely it is that a single race can impact control, but these days the House, at least, is almost always up for grabs and obviously at the moment the Senate is too.

But really does it matter how "bad" a congressional candidate is as long as he mostly votes the "right" way? Sure it feels gross to reward bad people, but is that more important than whatever policy agenda they'll help to implement?

With realignment and Dems basically being Dems and Republicans basically being Republicans, at least in national offices, the so-called character issues, which drive much news coverage of elections, really don't matter all that much. Frankly, only sucker voters are swayed by them in most cases. I don't blame people for voting for Roy Moore, over and above blaming them for being conservative assholes generally. If you're a Republican you want Republicans to control the Senate.

This is much less true of executive positions than legislative ones, but not entirely untrue of them either.

The press prefers to cover "character" issues, even if they don't cover them well, because it's somehow less partisan, but, really, policy's the thing.

I'd hope the bad guys don't make it through the primary and the really bad guys somehow get removed from the ballot by the party if possible, but what would make me vote for Pat Toomey, really?

Lots of People Don't Vote

And most of them aren't that annoying person you argue with on the internet who is very interested in telling you all his reasons for not voting. They just don't see a reason and/or have better things to do with their time.

Fall Fundraising Notsofunstravaganza!

Got a bit interrupted by the rather unpleasant events of the weekend. Along those lines, I'd like to think this blog will save the world but likely it won't. Your activist money is best spent elsewhere, for candidates you support, for organizations that help victims, and for more effective dogooders than I will ever be. This is your fun money, because we have so much fun here! Hours of entertainment for pennies!

Thanks to all who have contributed so far.

Roundtable Project

The Sunday Show guest imbalance used to be one of my weird obsessions. I sort of gave up when the response to Media Matters after they did a couple of comprehensive studies was basically "suck it." They can always justify their main guests - the current news of the week warrants it, the majority in power of course has a bigger voice, the minority not in power deserves a bigger voice (weird how this excuse flips depending on well you know), they can't help it if every Democrat turns them down, where are all the white wimmin at, etc.

But aside from the particular news guests (senators, Cabinet members...) there is also the "news roundtable." You know, 3 or 4 guests plus the moderator chat about the week. I've long had trouble with this format, even aside from the ideological makeup of the guests, because it's never made any sense to me how supposedly "straight" journalists (objective, neutral, unbiased, whatever we call them this week) are paired up with ideological actors. Often not genuine opinion journalists, but real ideological activists.

There is also the ideological makeup of the guests. You never ever find one of these panels leaning liberally. When I write "never" I am almost not exaggerating. If you want to prove "never" is not accurate you can spend your day finding an example. You might succeed but your labors will have proven my point. A typical panel is moderator, 3 journalists, one conservative. Sometimes they mix that up with 2 journalists, one liberal, one conservative. And sometimes they surprise you with 2 journalists and 2 conservatives! More common than you think! What you never see is, say, three journalists and 1 liberal. If 2 liberals are in the same green room the streams have been crossed.

There's always a problem IDing guests. I don't want to argue about whether a supposed "straight" journalist is really a secret conservative, or similarly whether that "presidential historian" is liberal or conservative in his heart. I go by how they self-ID or what is implied by their job title. If they don't self-ID as ideological (or can't avoid it because of their job title) I'll stick them in the "neutral" category.

So, 10/7:

This Week roundtable:

ABC News Political Analyst Matthew Dowd, former New Jersey Governor and ABC News Contributor Chris Christie, Politico Congressional Reporter Rachael Bade, and Vice News Washington Bureau Chief Shawna Thomas.

2 "straight journalists," 1 former Bush republican who spends all day tweeting about the two parties have failed us, and 1` former republican governor. Given Dowd's supposed job, I'll score it 3-1-0.

Meet the Press roundtable:

Michael Beschloss, NBC News presidential historian, Danielle Pletka, of the American Enterprise Institute; Kasie Hunt, Capitol Hill correspondent, and Republican strategist Al Cardenas.

1 "straight journalist," 1 neutral historian, 2 conservative activists. Score 2-2-0.

Face the Nation:

Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post. John Harris, editor-in-chief of Politico. Nancy Cordes, the chief congressional correspondent at CBS.

3 journalists, Score 3-0-0.

Score 8 neutrals, 3 conservatives, and 0 unicorns.

If it's Sunday...

Monday Morning Thread

That Last Post Was Too Cheery

So have another one.

The authors found that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, the atmosphere will warm up by as much as 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above preindustrial levels by 2040, inundating coastlines and intensifying droughts and poverty. Previous work had focused on estimating the damage if average temperatures were to rise by a larger number, 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius), because that was the threshold scientists previously considered for the most severe effects of climate change.

The new report, however, shows that many of those effects will come much sooner, at the 2.7-degree mark.

Sunday Night

Walked around a bit. Went to the not fancy opera. It's like not everything is horrible! Easy to pretend for a bit.

Afternoon Thread

enjoy.

With Great Power Comes Some Minor Inconveniences

I'm not entirely sure why people choose the spotlight of politics, especially when they don't seem to be all that interested in governing (for good or evil). I don't think being in Congress - even in the Senate - is all that great a job for someone relatively wealthy who could have other jobs where people kiss your ass. But despite their best efforts - and also efforts by lickspittles in the elite press - being a public figure has its downsides, whether you are a senator or Brad Pitt. And if Brad Pitt makes a shitty movie it doesn't really impact me all that much. It'd probably be rude for me to yell at him for his subpar voice work in Megamind, but it comes with the territory.

Not precisely who I have in mind, but it's a good example.

“I’m in the middle of doing my workout: Sorry, I can’t do this now,” Mr. de Blasio says. As a member of his security detail steps in, Mr. de Blasio gets up to leave. “I’m not doing this here,” the mayor says as he walks out with his phone in hand. “I’m in the middle of a workout.”

Mr. Mayor has a convoy SUV escort to his gym in Brooklyn, daily, so he can be a man of the people by not talking to any of them.

Was Always Going To Be Bad

Is it better to stop pretending the Court is some sort of sacred institution of sacredness? I think maybe!

Sunday Morning

Saturday Night

Everything is still horrible I see.

Late Happy Hour

Enjoy!

Gah!

It feels like this day is never going to end.

Brett Kavanaugh, Susan Collins, George W. Bush, ...

...The Aristocrats!

Democrat Laws Are Unconstitutional

Gonna be fun.

Morning Thread

Evening Thread In Honor of Brett Kavanaugh

Overheard

Neighbor (it's a rental building and he's new and I have not met him) shouting "Susan Collins is a despicable person!"

If We Go By The Book, Years Would Seem Like Weeks

V9 moving to wide release now. Holding back Autopilot drive on navigation for a few more weeks of validation. Extremely difficult to achieve a general solution for self-driving that works well everywhere.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 5, 2018

Just a few more weeks... apparently this problem is a bit hard? I mean, everywhere is a lot of places! Who knew?

The Man Gets Paid The Big Bucks

Chris Cillizza yesterday: "If Kavanaugh makes it, the Court would clearly shift rightward — maybe for decades to come."

Chris Cillizza today: "Brett Kavanaugh just took a MAJOR step toward the Supreme Court"

Chris Cillizza on game day, probably: "Scoring points is how you win games."

Chris Cillizza on election day, probably: "To win elections you need to get the votes."

What's Your Job

There are the political reporters who are more in the investigative reporting class, and of course I am not talking about them. But the politics-as-politics reporters are often the most naive bumpkins on the planet, or pretend to be. Wow that senator gave a heroic speech which he will for the millionth time follow up by doing absolutely nothing else. Charlie Brown is a hard headed realist compared to this gang.

If the level of your analysis is limited to that, just point the damn camera, print the damn transcript, and go home early.

The Internet Asshole Full Employment Act

Advertisers prefer Chris Cillizza so I must rely on you, dear readers.

The Rot Comes From The Top

There is a class of people who for reasons too obvious to bother explaining are greatly invested in the idea that what is really important is that The People continue to Respect Our Grand Institutions. It is more important that The People have faith in the gooditude of the Supreme Court than it is that the Supreme Court is actually Good, for example.

After Bush v. Gore only crazy weirdos on the internet suggested that maybe this was a bit of a legitimacy crisis for that grand institution. Hell, only assholes on the internet bothered to point out that it was BUSH v. Gore as the alternative myth took hold. And we looked forward. I could go on.

This will be the impulse if Kavanaugh is confirmed. For the good of the country, we must respect the majesty of the Senate and the glory of our constitution and most of all the supreme respectability and nonpartisanitude of the Supreme Court and the majest of the LAW. Whatever the reality.

Pressures to conform will be high. Pointing out that the club is maggot infested garbage is the quickest way to get yourself kicked out of the club.

It will still fall to assholes like me* on the internet.

*not necessarily me, of course.

The Libs Made Me Do It

One thing about our glorious objective* press is that conservatives make arguments that are so impossibly stupid and the press is forced** to take them seriously for reasons of balance***.


*not really
**not really
***not really

Morning Thread

Dear Daddy,

I'm sorry I threw a tantrum and embarrassed you in front of all your friends.

Now, I can haz a lollipop and a seat on the SCOTUS?

Love, B

Thursday Night

Tomorrow is...

Trapped Inside This Cage For Ages

Thanks for all the contributions!

Centrism Is Good

Of course for all the talk about "bias" in journalism which prevents journalists from having "opinions" (about certain things), nothing stops them from blathering on about how wonderful the latest dipshit centrist It Congressperson is. What is weird is how content free such praises generally are. Not just free of content, but free of even the hint that there is content beyond some version of Trump's own "straight from central casting." As with Ben Sasse, what, actually, are they good for?

Even with The Maverick, beyond tributes to his Vietnam days, the praise was remarkably vacuous. And if ever anyone did push - um...why exactly do you think he is the most honorable person in the land? - they would retreat right back to Vietnam. Whatever the merits of that, it had little to do with The Senator.

I know John McCain wasn't really a centrist, but that's because nobody is really a centrist. Dipshit centrism is about appealing to the Morning Joe crowd aesthetically, and shoveling money to rich people substantially, neither of which is meaningfully "centrism." For Republicans it also means being not being quite as racist and homophobic as the rest of them or as interested in punishing poor people (for a time, Paul Ryan, deeply concerned with The Poors, was a centrist), and for Democrats it means being a bit more racist and homophobic than the rest of them and a bit more interested in punishing poor people.

Marks

Often I can't figure out if our great political reporters are idiots or if they just play them on TV (or in the funny papers). What has Ben Sasse done to deserve this?

PK Christmas Wish List 2018: For Sasse to commit to a decades-long tenure in Senate. America needs interesting senators committed to the institution. CC: @brianschatz https://t.co/syMWZzCCL4

— Paul Kane (@pkcapitol) October 4, 2018

I don't mean what has Ben Sasse done that I like (nothing). I mean, literally, what has Sasse done from a liberal, conservative or dipshit centrist perspective? I suppose he's done some dipshit centrist stuff - the white people version of "kids today gotta pull their pants up" and occasionally explained, very sadly, that he is powerless to do anything except explain, very sadly, that he is powerless to do anything. But that stuff is stupid! So transparently stupid! I don't like dipshit centrism - either the D or "Republican moderate" kinds - but the press at least used to make them work for it a bit. Every 6 years or so The Maverick actually did a Mavericky thing.


Also, too, I hope no senator can commit to this because we still pretend to have elections in this country.

(Kane is the Post's senior congressional correspondent, not some rando)

FALL FUNDRAISING FUNSTRAVAGANZA!

Fall already? Still seems kinda hot.

The usual pitch. This site increasingly relies on the kindness of strangers as the internet advertising world falls apart. My traffic is remarkably constant so it's not that no one reads this sucky blog anymore.

I do my best to keep bad ads off this site. Increasingly sites are basically unreadable and people wonder why "no one clicks the link." No auto-on audio or popovers or popunders or overlays or scrolling when you're trying to read or inability to scroll when you are trying to read or.... well, you know what I'm talking about. Actually I don't even know. These innovative annoying ads always have exciting new names! Cool innovation, tech bros!

This isn't charity. This is your magazine money or your NPR money or your avocado toast money or cocktail money. If this place (either my mighty blogs or just the comments section I lovingly manage) provides you with some entertainment, consider a small contribution! If I needed money I would set up a gofundme for my new kidney like the rest of America. What a country!

Thanks in advance. As always, don't feel bad if you don't feel able to contribute. Put food on your family first.

Silver Linings

At least Elite Law, one of the few reminaing priesthoods in America, has revealed itself to be a bunch of corrupt bullshit.

These people think Respect For Our Institutions is so important that if we stop clapping for them for 5 seconds then Tinker Bell dies. Then they burn them down from the inside and demand still clap for them.

"Supreme Court Justice" will make me laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh (and cry) forever.

Morning Thread

Late Night

Rock on.

The Hero We Deserve

Gritty

Happy Hour Thread

Get happy.

But Bill Clinton

I don't want to re-litigate whole impeachment thing or even get into Why The Bill Clinton and Brett Kavanaugh Situations Are Not Really The Same except to say that trying to unseat a democratically elected president through undemocratic if constitutional means is not quite the same thing is suggesting maybe somebody shouldn't get an up vote from 51 senators for a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court. But aside from that, what point are conservatives trying to make?

Are they saying impeachment was wrong? Are they just saying, well, "Democrats" let a scumbag through despite our best efforts so they have to let a Republican scumbag through? And it was 20 years ago. To a great degree the "democrats" are not even the same democrats as 20 years ago, so the incoherent "yeargh hypocrites" doesn't make any sense.

While Lindsey Graham and Brett Kavanaugh, two of the leading impeachment crusaders, are precisely the same people as they were 20 years ago.

They Mean It

You can have some respect (some) for the game, even when played by vicious evil liars. But what's happened with Trump (it started with Bush) is that you've basically put the dumbass people who were right wing bloggers in charge of everything. And they're so dumb they believe the stupid shit they say and write.

How About A Thicker Phone?

One mystery to me is that phone (funny that within about 20 years the word "phone" will have completely lost its original meaning) producers don't produce a "here's a thicker one with 3x the battery life" option. Especially when people buy that sexy Jobs-inspired paper thin phone and then put a brick case around it to keep it from breaking. Annoyingly, there are fewer and fewer options with swappable batteries too, but at least there's a (not justified, to me) non-aesthetic argument for that.

Extremists

On one side we have people who want everyone to have health care, on the other side we have people who cheer on putting toddlers in cages.

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right. Vote Bloomberg.

Morning Thread

I'm going to repeat Atrios' link to the NY Times article detailing how the Tax Cheat in Chief  acquired his fortune.

Important to remember that only the little people pay taxes.

The Real American Dream

Trump's father:

Much of his giving was structured to sidestep gift and inheritance taxes using methods tax experts described to The Times as improper or possibly illegal. Although Fred Trump became wealthy with help from federal housing subsidies, he insisted that it was manifestly unfair for the government to tax his fortune as it passed to his children. When he was in his 80s and beginning to slide into dementia, evading gift and estate taxes became a family affair, with Donald Trump playing a crucial role, interviews and newly obtained documents show.

Major Major's father:

Major Major’s father was a sober God-fearing man whose idea of a good joke was to lie about his age. He was a longlimbed farmer, a God-fearing, freedom-loving, law-abiding rugged individualist who held that federal aid to anyone but farmers was creeping socialism. He advocated thrift and hard work and disapproved of loose women who turned him down. His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any. The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa he did not grow. The more alfalfa he did not grow, the more money the government gave him, and he spent every penny he didn’t earn on new land to increase the amount of alfalfa he did not produce. Major Major’s father worked without rest at not growing alfalfa. On long winter evenings he remained indoors and did not mend harness, and he sprang out of bed at the crack of noon every day just to make certain that the chores would not be done. He invested in land wisely and soon was not growing more alfalfa than any other man in the county. Neighbors sought him out for advice on all subjects, for he had made much money and was therefore wise. “As ye sow, so shall ye reap,” he counseled one and all, and everyone said, “Amen.”

Major Major’s father was an outspoken champion of economy in government, provided it did not interfere with the sacred duty of government to pay farmers as much as they could get for all the alfalfa they produced that no one else wanted or for not producing any alfalfa at all. He was a proud and independent man who was opposed to unemployment insurance and never hesitated to whine, whimper, wheedle and extort for as much as he could get from whomever he could.

Trump Cash

I've long said that whatever legal issues Trump should be worried about, he isn't really worried about legal issues, and he certainly isn't worried about "Russian collusion" (I think he means this!). He isn't even worried about being found out to be a crook. He knows he's a crook, but to him that just means he's a good businessman. He's worried about being found out as a fraud. Not as a man who commits fraud - he's proud of that! - but as a fraud of a person. He's not the man whose Daddy "only" lent him a million bucks, or the man who got rich being Mr. Deals. He's not the man with the Midas Touch, aside from his toilet, but actually a man who was given all his money illegally and lit most of it on fire, turning everything around him to shit.

I don't have time to go through this in detail right now, but have fun!

Real Men Get In Lots Of Bar Fights

I was "bar fight" adjacent a couple of times, which meant one of my few assholes friends who liked to get in bar fights had, indeed, gotten into a barfight.

"Hey, J, why are you mad at that guy?"

"He looked at me funny."

That's a verbatim conversation, at least to the extent that memory can provide, that I had while trying to diffuse one of those fights.

Not sure if it was generation lead, or too many movies with cool guys getting into bar fights, or both, but while bar fights were once a thing (and rampant fighting at sporting events especially in certain cities), they don't seem to be anymore.

Just On Twitter For The Quality Dunks

Thank you for the retweet but you're still complicit in mass murder. https://t.co/U2GaDh849B

— Nathan J Robinson (@NathanJRobinson) October 2, 2018

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

MMT

TL;DR: The way "we" talk about what the government or the taxpayers can "afford" and how we really do pay for things is wrong, government debt and deficit are neither intrinsically good or bad (though likely, to some degree, generally good!), inflation is the only real constraint on increasing government expenditure, the threat of inflation is exaggerated as it is actually easy to stop, mainstream beliefs about the level of the "natural" or minimum non-inflation causing level of unemployment are made up and almost certainly empirically wrong (too high), and all these things are essentially true if you are the United States of America in 2018, control the dollar printing machine, and all your debt is denominated in dollars.

I sort of ranked these in order of things that are close to being objectively true to things that liberals believe (which are probably also true!). The explicitly political element is that conservatives and the mainstream media which incorporates basically incorrect beliefs use deficit and inflation fears to implement their agendas. It is true that they hate inflation but they exaggerate these fears to make sure they win on the issue, and as we know, nobody really cares about the deficit.

America's Worst Humans

Amy Wax.

Billionaires for the Same Old Bullshit

I know "democrats" on Mike Allen's contact list aren't representative, but neither the Starbucks guy nor Bloomberg are gonna go anywhere in a Democratic primary.

The buzz: Democrats doubt there's room in the party's presidential race for two corporate celebrities to the right of Bernie.

So watch whether Michael Bloomberg beats Schultz into the race.

Still I will happily work for either of their campaigns for the traditional 8 figure salary campaign workers receive.

Morning Thread

Monday Evening

Never Go The Full Asshole

Not the entire issue in this post (read it for the other reasons, too!) but I haven't seen anyone suggest my particular theory about why Kavanaugh did, in fact, go the full asshole. One reason is that he is one! That's obvious. It was an "act" he could manage. But I don't think it was for red meat for the base purposes. Even he has to realize that such a performance would follow him around for the rest of his career, and not really in a good way. Sure it's the fault of the libs that he was such an asshole - it always is the fault of the libs when we force conservatives to be assholes (back in the day we had a word for this I think involving something instapundit wrote along the lines of "it sure will be a shame when the liberals force us to kill them all.") But I'm not entirely sure being the Morton Downey Jr. of the Supreme Court is really the best thing for your lifelong reputation.

No I think he was told he had to impress one man or his nomination would be in jeopardy. That man was not Jeff Flake, but a man who understands the world through the logic (or illogic) of professional wrestling and who happens to be the president of the United States. He did it to impress Trump.

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

Maybe Own Up To It

Political reporters really should own up to the fact that they were harder on Obama than Trump during their presidencies. I know the basic reporter belief is that if the other party raises a shitstorm about something they're obligated to cover it, and some will suggest that, well, Republicans are just better than Democrats at raising shitstorms so whatchagonnado.

But really guys... tan suit? You let that be a thing. Come on.

Imagine How Bad Everyone Else Must Be!

The other point I meant to make here is that of course people who go to elite schools (prep or even just the best rich public schools, college, grad school, etc.) are aware that some of their classmates are, well, less than perfect human beings in many ways. But these are the best people! So imagine just how horrible people at lesser schools must be!

I saw this growing up with kids in private high schools who had never been to public school. They really thought public school kids spent their days drinking paint before inevitably heading off to juvenile hall for an extended stay. This is a slight exaggeration, of course, but if the base assumption is that your private school is better, and some of your classmates aren't exactly perfect, then Those Other Kids must be soooooo bad.

Smelling Their Own Farts

In some ways it isn't the most important thing in this situation, but in others it's representative of the entitlement that certain elites feel by virtue of their backgrounds and institutional affiliations. Sure attending an elite school represents genuine achievement for some and confers genuine benefits to most, though more of the networking and credentialing kind than the education kind, but the belief by some (many? most?) of the people who attended college in "Boston" that their classmates are truly the cream of the crop, and not just in average sense but in an almost universal sense, as if the worst Harvard grad is superior to the top grad of the next best school, would be hilarious if it wasn't so damning of the whole lot of them.

I doubt anyone actually quite would say they believe that, if pressed, but the way that academic hierarchies are so ingrained in the people who benefit from them, there's a tendency to act as if they do. You know, the Harvard job/grad school applications go to the top of the pile. And whatever relative "quality" of the median Harvard grad in certain ways (recognizing how we think about this stuff is very limited in scope), or the top quintile, or whatever, there are a hell of a lot of lazy dumbasses running around Harvard (and every university). One way to understand this is knowing that at elite private schools the gentleman's C (which is really a gentlemen's B- at most these days) is the gentleman's F at a typical state university. There might be some majors where this is not quite true - you can probably only get so far behind as a math major without at least being encouraged to pursue other interests - but in general if you at least show some modest interest in fixing your failures, that semester you blew off will turn into an incomplete which will turn into that gentleman's C. At my state school, people just failed out.

Anyway, the idea that attending any of these schools is proof of much of anything other than doing the right thing (often with significant help from your prep school) at one particular moment in your life (ages 15-16) is ridiculous, and that's before we get to legacy bonus points.

Jeff Flake, American Hero

Of course.

A Yale classmate attempting to corroborate Deborah Ramirez’s account that, during her freshman year at Yale, Kavanaugh thrust his penis in her face at a drunken party, said that he, too, has struggled unsuccessfully to reach the F.B.I. The classmate, who asked to remain anonymous, recalled hearing about Ramirez’s allegation either the night it happened or during the following two days. The classmate said that he was “one-hundred-per-cent certain” that he had heard an account that was practically identical to Ramirez’s, thirty-five years ago, but the two had never spoken about it. He had hoped to convey this to the F.B.I., but, when he reached out to a Bureau official in Washington, D.C., he was told to contact the F.B.I. field office nearest his home. When he tried that, he was referred to a recording. After several attempts to reach a live person at the field office, he finally reached an official who he said had no idea what he was talking about. At this point, he went back to the official at the F.B.I.’s D.C. headquarters, who then referred him, too, to an 800-number tip line. (He eventually left a tip through an online portal.)

“I thought it was going to be an investigation,” the Yale classmate said, “but instead it seems it’s just an alibi for Republicans to vote for Kavanaugh.” He said that he had been in touch with other classmates who also wanted to provide information corroborating Ramirez’s account, but that they had not done so.

Every Republican senator is bad. Once upon a time the liberal fantasy was that maybe they'd occasionally do something kinda sorta liberal, to earn that "moderate" badge the press was too willing to bestow on them. Now it's just that maybe they'll occasionally do something kinda sorta not entirely evil. It isn't going to happen.