The Nickname Campaign

First jut don't. This campaign is not going to be won on who comes up with the most High-larious (kill me) nickname for their opponent. Second, don't play Trump's game. You don't validate him, you undermine him. Third, not "Poor Donald." I have no idea how rich Donald is. The repo men might be about to pull up to his house and pull out everything, including the stuff nailed to the floor. But he's created the airs of a rich man, if a gauche one (well in the American tradition). As far as anybody knows he lives like a very rich man. If Clinton starts suggesting the Donald's lifestyle is "poor," (I know that's not the intention, but...) it doesn't say much about Clintonland's perception of what poor in America is like. Being poor sucks, but I don't think the Clinton campaign should be using it as an insult? WTF.

For now, her aides appear to be throwing ideas against a wall to see what sticks, including trying out different monikers after the Democratic National Committee’s “Dangerous Donald” flopped. An internal favorite is “Poor Donald,” with its implication that Mr. Trump, famously defensive about his net worth, is not nearly as wealthy as he lets on.

Did you hear? Hillary Clinton says Donald Trump is poor! Ya, that's gonna go over well. Glad this is what they get paid the big bucks for.

My job should be to sit quietly in the room and every 2 weeks or so get a chance to hit a buzzer and scream "ARE YOU PEOPLE FUCKING STUPID?"

Saturday Afternoon

enjoy

Apparently Prison Isn't A Holiday Camp

I'm all for improving prison conditions but it's, uh, "cute," that it never occurred to the Bundy Boys that they ain't a Club Med where the vacationers inmates get to carry their guns all the time. Well, they probably have an "only good guys" get to carry guns rule, and it's pretty easy to separate the good guys from the bad guys in the inmate population. Good guys = gun loving white people named Bundy. Bad guys = everyone else, especially the dusky ones.


And no internet porn Facebook? Better call a war crimes tribunal.

America's Worst Humans

Melissa Bailey.

Friday Night

enjoy

He Did Win The Primary

Not to throw too much cold water on the post below, but Trump did win the primary. Sure any dumbass with bit of luck can fall backwards into a seat in the House, but I've decided that people who manage to to ascend to higher offices - governor, senator, presidential nominee - must be smart enough to do something right. At the very least you have to be smart enough to fend off the several other dumbasses who wouldn't mind being senator, too. Whatever Trump's got, he's got something, and even if he has no idea what the job of president is, or how to manage (or hire the right people to manage) a campaign, he still managed to get this far. You don't need to have the Greatest Show on Earth to impress Morning Joseph. I think Joseph's level of sophistication is basically Homer Simpsonish, but you don't run for president with the media I want, you run for president with the media we have, and even if they're completely willing partcipants, Trump knows how to bully them onto the tire swing.

Afternoon Thread

As a lead in to Happy Hour, I give you Digby

It should be obvious by this time that Trump has absolutely no idea what he's doing and is making it up as he goes along. Paul Manafort is experienced at dealing with this sort of character, and seems quite comfortable doing it. But the campaign is a mess and that's because the candidate is a vainglorious buffoon who has no clue what he's doing and thinks he's a genius. I wouldn't bet on Manafort lasting through the duration.

I repeat, cause it's worth repeating and bolding: "But the campaign is a mess and that's because the candidate is a vainglorious buffoon who has no clue what he's doing and thinks he's a genius.


 That should do it for happifying the afternoon.

The Word Hipster Used to Sort of Have a Meaning

It basically meant young people who worked 2 shifts at the coffee shop and the occasional bartending shift when they were lucky enough to get one so they could afford to drink cheap beer and go see a lot of bands and/or be in one. Add a bit of a certain kind of fashion - beards, tattoos, skinny jeans - and you had hipsters. A key feature was that they worked shit jobs and didn't have any money. Then somehow it morphed into some version of "trustifarian." And, yeah, maybe some New York and Bay Area hipsters were trustifarians, but not really the ones in the rest of the country. We get it, New York, no one is really poor there anymore. Well they are in the rest of the country. Then in its final evolution it just became a synonym for "the young Yuppie in my head who has more money and more fun and more sex than I do wish he would get off my lawn." Basically, it means a fantasy version of The Kids Today who are all rich and lazy and hedonistic.

For the olds, we get it, you (#notallyou) hate the Kids Today and their regular reminders of your mortality and all of the opportunities you think you missed. But the word "hipster" has become utterly meaningless except as some weird projection onto all younger people.

Fresh Thread

Busy with stuff today.

Deep State

The portions of our government which consider themselves to be above oversight by Congress - and the individuals who worry not about getting in trouble for it - are growing.

At the Senate hearing, in an effort to defend the status quo, Navy Adm. James A. Winnefeld Jr., then vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, told the Senate about 93 sexual assault cases — all involving service members — in which civilian prosecutors “refused” to prosecute and commanders “insisted” on prosecuting the cases. For many of my colleagues, including former senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee at that time, it was a compelling argument, which they repeated on the floor of the Senate while successfully filibustering our reform. It was also verifiably false.

Last month, an independent investigation by the nonprofit group Protect Our Defenders, which was further investigated and substantiated by the Associated Press, found that two-thirds of the cases the Defense Department cited in the Senate hearing differed markedly from what was claimed. In a majority of cases, there was no sexual assault allegation to begin with, the military had failed to prosecute for sexual assault or civilian prosecutors did not decline to prosecute. After the news broke about the false testimony, the Defense Department told the AP that the information in the testimony came directly from military lawyers who had dealt with these cases.

Wakey, Wakey

Evening Thread

Everybody Has Their Thing

It's always weird what sets people off, especially when it takes a deliberate misreading of what I write for people to get their desired ragegasm. I suppose it's just the season, but being willfully misrepresented tends to be what sets me off.

So fuck you you fucking fucks!


I kid. Enjoy your Thursday evening.

Happy Hour Thread

enjoy

Asshole

Sure the bus driver might have done something wrong, but the cyclist obviously wasn't hit so it couldn't have been that bad.

You have the route number, the bus number, the time, and the intersection, all of which is recorded in the GPS system and is more than enough to file a complaint with the cops and the local transit authority. Or you could screw over dozens of people during rush hour for the equivalent of road rage.

It's a very busy part of town. Bikes have a right to use it and not have asshole drivers, bus or otherwise, abuse them, but if the guy wasn't even hit it's just the standard "shit happens on busy roads" that everybody deals with. People make mistakes. People who ride the bus have places to go, too.

Pennies

Infrastructure price tags always sound like huge unthinkable numbers. ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS. And it is true that it is hard for state and local governments to come up with that kind of money. For the federal government it is chump change, even leaving aside some more creative ways of paying for it.

Once upon a time the US really was ahead of basically every other country in the world. It was shiny and new. We had shiny new highways, our cities weren't bombed out by wars (though we did a pretty good job subsequently at destroying them ourselves), lower middle class people had things like refrigerator/freezers and cars, and potable water coming out of the tap was the norm. Things were clean. We had nice affordable hospitals. It was an understandable symbol of progress, of modernity.

Now much of the world has those things, along with in some cases some things are more humane and appealing. I don't think Trump is really talking about BUILD MORE SUPERTRAIN TUNNELS when he says "make America great again," but it is the case that the country isn't shiny and new like it was. The Reagan era made nice things, even fixing nice things, unpossible for going on 40 years now. Something has to change.

Get That Person A Lucrative Writing Gig At A Prestigious Publication!

Oh, wait, she's had them at basically every one of them despite being wrong about everything all the time.

At Least There's No Popup Window Forcing You To Upgrade To Windows 10

Probably best, now that Microsoft has decided that "doing work" is no longer what computers are for.

The US military’s nuclear arsenal is controlled by computers built in the 1970s that still use 8in floppy disks.

It's Morning Again

Summer is here.

Wednesday Evening

enjoy

The Most Horrible Campaign In Modern History

I'm sensible to realize this campaign isn't actually about me and me feefees and my level of entertainment and whether or not I'm enjoying. Still it's my sorta job to pay attention to all of this crap, and the next few months are going to be excruciating. Gore won or almost won in 2000. Whatever one thinks of Kerry, he doesn't get enough credit for coming pretty damn close to winning in 2004. 2008 was a bit of a nailbiter, at least until Palin was brought on board (pretty sure I saw what a catastrophe she was for McCain pretty early, even as starbursts were traveling up the legs of the media-political industrial complex). You had to unskew the polls to find a plausible path to victory for Mittens (and Paul Ryan? that was hilarious!).

In 2016, Trump probably won't win. But he can win. Don't think otherwise.

Happy Hour Thread

Took a nap. Gotta sleep when I can. #insomniasucks

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

Some Good News

I don't care if you're a BernieBro or a Hillbot, but all right thinking people should agree that DWS is horrible. She was horrible before the presidential primary (for example, refusing to campaign against her Republican "friends" in Florida), and she didn't even try to fake not being horrible during the primary. Rumors are she threatened to go nuclear on Obama when he made some noises about replacing her, and she supports pay day lenders and generally undermining the CFPB. We all know that when Democrats lose elections it's the fault of those gross lazy voters, particular the young ones who are increasingly victims of various vote suppress schemes, but presumably it's also the fault of people with lots of power and huge budgets who don't wield those things effectively. She should have been gone years ago.

Democrats on Capitol Hill are discussing whether Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz should step down as Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairwoman before the party’s national convention in July.

Just go.

Well-Trained Good Guy With A Gun

Supposedly.

The chief of police in Portland, Ore., was placed on leave Tuesday amid investigations into whether he inadvertently shot a friend during a vacation last month and covered it up.

I Do Not Think This is a Good Measure

I was bored this morning (still can't sleep!) and was clicking through various corners of the internet and found myself at a a BMI calculator. I'm 5'11. I have a smallish frame for the most part. Certainly not a beefy muscle guy. I'm not svelte, and could stand to be in better physical shape (been lazy lately), though that means more muscle tone, not losing a bunch of weight for its own sake.

It isn't news that BMI is a silly measure. But I'm about 5 pounds away from being "overweight" given my height. Well, ok, I'll take that. Losing 10 pounds wouldn't kill me. On the other side, however, I apparently could lose 40 pounds before I would be classified as "underweight." If I lose 40 pounds, unless I'm training for and running weekly marathons (and even then) I hope my friends consider putting me in the hospital.

Morning Thread

America's Worst Humans

Ken Starr.

I remember the absurdly reverential treatment the Villagers gave him. He was going to get that nasty Clenis,

Happy Hour Thread

enjoy

America's Worst Humans

...ugh, never mind. They pulled the article.

On Trial

In no way minimizing the alleged offenses, but I do hope the Cosby criminal trial does not become a 24/7 cable news thing.

On the other hand, if it doesn't it'll be interesting, as it pretty much meets the standard for such things.

Assholes

People who "force" other people to pretend to pray anywhere other than their own homes are assholes.

My husband is agnostic, I am atheist and we do not say grace. My father-in-law always says grace and insists everyone bow their head and participate. I have always respected this in his home, but I do not want this in my own home.

If you're religious and it's you household tradition for people to grasp hands and bow their heads while someone says grace, fine. But I've had people do it to me in restaurants and in my own house. No. Bow your head and pray quietly if you want. Don't try to force me to pretend to share your religion or my shrine to satan will start being the table's centerpiece. Being religious isn't an excuse to be an asshole.

BRT Creep

Once you factor in the greater ongoing capital costs (buses must be replaced frequently, rail cars don't), ideal BRT tends not to be much cheaper than light rail. More than that, the ridership that justifies spending that much on a "real" BRT system means your shiny new BRT system will be at capacity basically right away.


Of course you almost never get "real" BRT as it's always easy to cut costs until what you're left with is just a bus. Buses are great, but they usually aren't rapid transit...

Or Maybe You Could Just Read It Online And Mouse Over It

Another cunning plan from the newspaper industry.

In an interview, Soon-Shiong, a 63-year-old surgeon and chief executive officer of NantKwest Inc., a cancer-research firm, said he wants to use “machine vision” technology he’s developed to transform the experience of reading a print newspaper. The Tribune’s portfolio of newspapers includes the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune.

For example, a reader could pan a camera across a physical newspaper and the photos could be turned into video. Focus the camera on a photo of basketball star Kevin Durant or Donald Trump and “you’d hear him speaking or Kevin Durant would be dunking,” he said.

Print is saved!

Morning Thread

Monday Night

Somebody is wrong on the internet.

Evening Thread

enjoy

Heading to the Finish Line

As is utterly predictable, Sanders will drop out or the equivalent some time after the last primary. He'll use his leverage to get something. Yes he's made some different noises at times, but so did Clinton in 2008. There are minor differences, but they aren't really differences that matter, and anyone who thinks the Clinton campaign was all roses to Obama towards the end of primary season in 2008 must have slept through it. Bernie supporters will get their chance to vote for him after putting in the time and money that some of them did. Then it will be over, except for people fighting to the death about it on Twitter until President Trump is elected.

America's Worst Humans

The NFL

I Kinda Doubt It

Predictions are hard, especially about the future, but "rock music" came into existence simultaneously with the birth of pervasive mass popular culture and mass communications. Sure even The Kids Today don't have the encyclopedic knowledge of music of the 60s and 70s the way that many of my generation did, but they know a hell of a lot more about popular music from 40-50 years ago than I knew about popular (or any) music from 40-50 years before my day (roughly 30s-40s) about which I knew essentially nothing.

Which Rock Star
Will Historians of the
Future Remember?

The most important musical form of the 20th century will
be nearly forgotten one day. People will probably learn
about the genre through one figure — so who might that be?

yah, yah, in 300 years we might as a species be ashes or uploaded into robot bodies, but I expect some ancient histories will be more present than others. Not a comment on the merits, just the phenomenon.

Assholes

Microsoft decided to automatically install Windows 10 on one of the Atrios household computers. Fortunately I knew how to roll it back right away. Asshole company is well aware of all of the problems this can cause for people, even aside from just not wanting a new operating system. If you run a small business and it nukes your payroll and accounting program (this kind of thing happens) you're pretty screwed.

I gather 10 isn't as bad as 8, in which Microsoft decided that what everyone wanted from their desktop computer was a tablet they couldn't carry with them and couldn't do any work on, but don't do this shit without my permission.

And don't get my started on Apple "we make it shittier every 6 months and planned obsolescence is our business model" products... At least Microsoft users complain about their products. Go to an unofficial Apple support forum and responses to problems are usually either "it's supposed to work that way" (oh, as a doorstop!) or "you must have done something wrong!" That Apple has to regularly release bug fixes (usually after much complaining) should clue these people into the fact that sometimes things are actually Apple's fault...

Morning Thread

Sunday Night

Tomorrow is...

The Answer Is Pretty Obvious

Our local real estate writer.

One of the things that has always baffled me about Philadelphia is why visitors appear to like the city more than its residents do.

Some of this is just the basic culture of negadelphia, a hangover from the days when the city was somewhat less than awesome. But the city expends a lot of effort (and money) to attract visitors, who often just drive in for an event and then drive out, and has let quality of life issues for people who live here go by the wayside. Residents to a great degree aren't a priority. We're the nuisance.

When I moved here in 1980, Steve Poses' Frog restaurant and the Commissary - both a few years old - were inspiring the city's Restaurant Renaissance, but I cannot remember frequenting a single sidewalk café.

Um, because they were illegal until 1995?

Let's Have A Happy Hour

Before the doom and gloom of tomorrow being Monday becomes a reality.

There Are Protests At Every Convention

The media usually doesn't pay much attention, and given the rise in "first amendment zones" they're usually easy to ignore. The police/municipality settlements with mistreated protesters a few years later usually get ignored, too, even though they can be quite expensive. More fun to focus on how best to take away pensions.

There will be protests this year, too, unless Don Lemon's black hole whisks them all away. The only real question is how much attention they (and which protesters specifically) get.

Lunch Thread

I am stifling your free speech.

Do You Really Believe This Shit?

It's my fault for reading too much of the internet, but I read so many stupid arguments on behalf of Your Favorite Candidate that I can't believe that a) people are stupid enough to make them and b) people are stupid enough to think that they'll persuade anybody.

Especially when this primary has been over for more than a month. Yes Sanders is still in it, as Clinton stayed in it in 2008, and I don't think that latter fact means that either he or his campaign are off limits for criticism (any more than I think Clinton's inevitable nomination implies that she or her campaign are off limits). But mostly I don't get what people are arguing about anymore. Clinton won. It's over. I'd say stop trying to persuade people to vote for Your Favorite Candidate (whoever that is), except nobody is much interested in doing that anyway. They're just interested in being right on the internet, even though people are mostly embarrassingly stupid about the whole thing. Butthurt and derp don't win elections. Butthurt and derp aren't going to help you persuade people when it might actually help.

Engaged people, the type that spend time blathering about politics on the internet, know why they made their choice. You aren't going to change their minds. More than that, there's no point in trying. Can someone send out that batsignal or something and let people know the primary is over? We have a winner.

Morning Thread