Monday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

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Normalizing Assassinations

The normalization of the killing of so many civilians doesn't surprise me - we droned away that taboo years ago - but I do find it surprising that political leaders are so quick to erode the taboo against assassinations. It is a taboo that benefits them.

Netanyahu rides wave of euphoria over assassinations as his political fortunes turn around

Why Do You Care About This, Atrios

Some longtime readers might remember that the origin story of this very fine blog involved the unreality of the runup to the Iraq war.  I don't always focus on our foreign adventures and misadventures - mostly above my pay grade and nothing I am likely to influence anyway - but the dishonesty that is, at times, associated with them suffuses everything and is difficult to ignore.

There is always a lot of bullshit in the discourse, but it is only in very special times that the bullshit is strong that few decide it's worth bothering to point it out.

As with Iraq, the consequences are tremendous, and most people in positions of influence are just taking a pass.  "Expanding war in the Middle East" is usually an exciting hot topic!

Actual De-Escalation

With both bar brawls and armed conflicts, de-escalation is the ultimate goal no matter who you imagine is at fault, who looked at whose girlfriend first.  Since 9/11 we have been erasing that simple concept.

This is a grand failure on any terms except a desire for extreme carnage.

The Last Part Was The Important Bit

 MoDo

I wanted to believe that this moderate Democrat could root out bad cops and bring justice to Black victims while quelling crime and pushing back on defund-the-police and coddle-the-criminal rhetoric on the far left.

The job of the indicted mayor was to get the hippies to shut the fuck up and stop ruining their beautiful dipshit politics.  What she means by "Black victims" is "Black victims of black-on-black crime." The black cop was going to arrest the bad black people.

 

De-Escalation Through Escalation

I suppose we won't hear that phrase again.

Well OK Then

(click to embiggen, as always)

Morning

Well well well.

Sunday Night

Rock on.

Why The World's Biggest Power Can't Stop A Fire

Is it because it won't stop pouring kerosene onto it? Truly mysterious.

Why the World’s Biggest Powers Can’t Stop a Middle East War

... 

The United States does have enduring leverage over Israel, notably in the form of military aid that involved a $15 billion package signed this year by President Biden. But an ironclad alliance with Israel built around strategic and domestic political considerations, as well as the shared values of two democracies, means Washington will almost certainly never threaten to cut — let alone cut off — the flow of arms.

My guy you wrote a lot of words to say "because the US doesn't want to and won't let anyone else."

Hoarders

There really isn't any practical difference between having 20 billion and having 200, unless you have the mother of all gambling addictions or are hoping to purchase Andorra.

At that point you really are just keeping score.

Harris and Biden Have Said This Is Good

Hezbollah had agreed to the longstanding Israeli demand to pull back to the Litani River, but on the condition of Israel accepting a ceasefire in Gaza. That was too much for Israel, and it opted instead for war because it knew Biden would once again line up behind Netanyahu. https://t.co/tV5KsPzFnv

— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) September 28, 2024

Morning

Sunday funday

Saturday Night

Rock on.

Saturday Evening

enjoy

Eras of Unreality

The bullshit - and my feelings about it - isn't the most important thing. The slaughter is. But it is tiring being in a room where everyone is talking nonsense to each other and playing along even though they all know it is bullshit. What am I supposed to think of this political project?

Mr. President – when you came into office, you told the world that diplomacy would once again be at the center of our foreign policy.

And you charged us with taking up the leadership mantle at the UN.

I am so proud that we have done just that. pic.twitter.com/MShYjaOu0Z

— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) September 27, 2024

America's Worst Humans

Anthony Blinken

Morning

Slacker Saturday

Friday Night

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Happy Hour

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Afternoon

Busy with some IT issues.

Their Guy

It is perfectly normal for Fox to go out of their way to defend Democrats in this fashion.

Lunch

eat

The Biggest Brains Of All Who Are Incapable Of Error

There's a piece in The Atlantic from Franklin Foer which contains a lot of bullshit (it's The Atlantic, it's Franklin Foer) so I don't even want to link to it (behind a paywall, anyway). It does make clear that the country is run by the bestest, smartest, most capable Foreign Policy Guys, and, despite that, they tried nothing and they're all out of ideas.

At 8 o’clock that evening, Sullivan dialed into a secure call with Biden, Finer, Blinken, and McGurk. Phil Gordon joined on the vice president’s behalf. As a group, they reviewed the past 11 months. Could they have done anything differently? Had they overlooked any opportunities for securing the release of the hostages?

Sullivan wondered if a deal had ever been possible. Hamas had just killed six of its best bargaining chips, an act of nihilism.

Over the course of two hours, the group batted ideas back and forth. In the end, they threw up their hands. There was no magical act of diplomacy, no brilliant flourish of creative statecraft that they could suddenly deploy.

After all the trips to the region, all the suffering witnessed on those trips, all the tough conversations, all the cease-fire proposals, the conflict raged on. Three hundred thirty-one days of failure, and the single day of success was still beyond their grasp.

The entire thing as framed as a hostage rescue mission - this is what they believed they were doing (or that is the story they want to tell) and Netanyahu's indifference to the hostages and regular sabotages are minimized. That is the obvious bullshit. Still this conclusion is amazing.

In The Club

As with most club members, no one can really explain why.

By Tuesday, September 17, Darcy had reached out to Vox and Nuzzi. Initially, a rep for Vox and Nuzzi did not engage. Both appear to have been hoping that they could starve the story and prevent publication, confident the review would clear Nuzzi of any bias in her work. (Haskell would later tell staff an internal review “found no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias.”) On Wednesday Nuzzi was seen in the New York offices meeting with executive editor Genevieve Smith, Vox’s president Pam Wasserstein, and comms chief Lauren Starke. Haskell was in Milan for Fashion Week but joined the meeting via Zoom, as did Nuzzi’s editor, Jeb Reed, as the group discussed the review that was nearing completion. Around this time, Semafor received an anonymous email with a “news tip” about Nuzzi and Kennedy, its editor Ben Smith later wrote.

On Thursday the magazine’s planned response shifted several times throughout the day. The first involved Nuzzi being placed on leave with disclosures added to her work and the magazine issuing a statement. Another would have seen her request “medical leave” and there would be no statement or disclosures. Darcy kept calling. He was unequivocal he had the story and intended to publish. By Thursday evening, New York relented and provided a statement. Nuzzi was put on leave. Darcy published Thursday night. “Recently our Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi acknowledged to the magazine’s editors that she had engaged in a personal relationship with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign, a violation of the magazine’s standards around conflicts of interest and disclosures,” New York’s statement read.

Oops He Did It Again

Normally the US president getting pantsed daily by a foreign leader - any foreign leader - would be portrayed as a humiliating event, but we just keep on doing this. Choose your favorite reason.

Kirby stressed that the ceasefire statement was published after consultation with Israel and added the Israelis "were aware of every word" in the statement https://t.co/eWmU6GSdgQ

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) September 26, 2024

Morning

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Thursday Night

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Oh No America's Mayor!

Poor guy.

WASHINGTON — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has been disbarred from practicing law in Washington, D.C., according to an order filed Thursday by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

The Moustache Of Understanding

Friedman:

I’ve argued from Day 1 that it was a trap, a trap I’m sorry to say the Biden administration was not firm enough in stopping Israel from falling into and not firm enough in insisting on a better road, a road not taken.

Tom can't stop writing like Tom, but that point is correct. Why did Biden choose this time NOt to listen to Tom Friedman, American's premier foreign policy columnist?

The Real Winner of Hurricane Helene? Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis

Joke, but stay safe down there! It could be bad!

Hurricane Helene is now forecast to reach catastrophic Category 4 strength by the time it makes landfall in Florida on Thursday, the National Hurricane Center says, with storm surge potentially climbing to 20 feet along some parts of the coast.

Helene could be the strongest hurricane to hit the United States in over a year – and time is running out for those in its path to prepare.

“A catastrophic and deadly storm surge is likely along portions of the Florida Big Bend coast, where inundation could reach as high as 20 feet above ground level, along with destructive waves,” the center warned. “Preparations to protect life and property should be completed by early Thursday before tropical storm conditions arrive.”

Lunch

eat

The Future Of The Democratic Party

Amazing scenes.

The FBI appears to be conducting a search of Gracie Mansion, the official home of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, on Thursday, according to video from WNBC, NBC News and multiple people familiar with the matter.

OK I know the ERIC ADAMS IS THE FUTURE boom was short, but it was very real. NYT editorial board member Mara Gay:

To many, the future mayor is still an enigma. He talks of law and order, but also Black Lives Matter. He courts Wall Street, then travels to Ghana to be spiritually cleansed. He parties late into the night alongside the rapper Ja Rule and the former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt. His talent and intellect are obvious. But he sounds nothing like Barack Obama.

...

Starting Jan. 1, he will be mayor for the entire city. His support is expansive and includes large numbers of Asian, Latino and Orthodox Jewish voters. If he can cement this coalition, he may become a formidable force nationally in a Democratic Party hungry for stars.

Mr. Adams has also shown a savvy for courting The New York Post, announcing his pick for police commissioner — Nassau County chief of detectives Keechant Sewell, a Black Queens native — in the right-wing tabloid. Better to feed the beast, Mr. Adams understands, than let it maul you.

Good Republicans

Is this one of them?

Ah, Well, Nevertheless

Maybe hug him tighter?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told Israel's military to keep fighting with "full force" and has not responded to last night's ceasefire call, his office says.

In response to the ceasefire proposal put forward by 12 international allies, Netanyahu's office says:

"The news about a ceasefire - not true. This is an American-French proposal, to which the prime minister did not even respond. The news about the supposed directive to moderate the fighting in the north is also the opposite of the truth.

I guess he's going to need more weapons.

Morning

go

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

The Future Of The Democratic Party

Lol

Eric Adams Is Indicted Following Federal Corruption Investigation

Happy Hour

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America's Worst Journalist

Jake Tapper. One reason lefties are rude on the internets about journalists is that (almost) none of them ever criticize their colleagues for this type of thing, and they certainly don't criticize a star like Jake.

Breakin' The Law

I don't have any strong opinions about this - what SHOULD happen has to be seen in the context of what NORMALLY happens, to some degree - but the general expectation was that she wouldn't get this long a sentence, or any any sentence at all.

A federal judge sentenced FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend to two years in prison, citing her extensive cooperation with prosecutors that led to the conviction of the former face of the cryptocurrency industry in one of the largest financial frauds in US history.

I met her father once, years ago!

Or You Could Have A Simple Recipe Database With A Natural Language/Keyword Query

"AI" is being applied to problems that computers are already good at. You don't need a spicy chatbot that suggests deadly things and requires a fusion reactor powered computer to make a recipe lookup program. A simple database will do! 

Many companies have advertised a feature in their newer phones that lets users utilize AI as a recipe generator assistant. In the Apple Intelligence demo, a user asks Siri for a dinner party meal plan with ingredients they have, and the AI returns a list of recipes using those ingredients. While that seems convenient, most of the press up to this point about the relationship between AI and cooking has been negative

Your 1997 computer could do this! We have all been collectively pretending these things are somehow "smart" but they aren't! A computer that tells me 2+2=4 and not 5, and one which consults a database to spit out a walnut-kale pesto recipe from a real chef instead of consulting internet sludge which suggests adding ammonia, is "smart" in the way we expect from computers!

The Five Families

Hope this guy runs for president in 2028!

Mayor Adams responded Tuesday to new reports that subpoenas issued by federal prosecutors to him, his election committee and City Hall included demands for information about interactions with five countries as part of an investigation into whether his 2021 campaign accepted illegal contributions from Turkey.

Clarifying a joke, for those who aren't 100% online:

It's probably foolish to think a NYC mayor will successfully translate into being a national political figure, but I still think Eric Adams would be in my top 5 for "who will be the next Democratic presidential nominee after Joe Biden?".

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) January 3, 2022

The brief popularity of the view that "man who wins contested 5-way democratic primary in New York City is just what swing voters in Ohio are looking for" was absolutely hilarious, and would have been absolutely hilarious no matter who that person was.

It's Over For Harris

Manchin's actually ridiculously bad at playing the role of designated Centrist Dipshit. Pundits have barely managed to keep up the charade.

New — Joe Manchin, a staunch defender of the filibuster, tells us he WON’T endorse Kamala Harris now over her vow to gut the filibuster to codify Roe.

“Shame on her," Manchin, who is retiring at year's end, said in the Capitol. "She knows the filibuster is the Holy Grail of…

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) September 24, 2024

Mister we could use a man like Evan Bayh again!

It's Not A Crime If You're A Cop

There's an account on Elon's site, @placardabuse, which tracks the widespread practice of people using completely fake "official" car placards, or using official ones for inappropriate and illegal uses.

Basically anyone who is a cop, knows a cop, knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a cop, puts one of these in his/her car and parks wherever the fuck they want to - including on sidewalks, blocking accessibility - knowing they will never get a ticket or towed.

If you use the city system to report them, the reports get closed out without action, and there are cases of people getting harassed by cops for trying.

If there's any merit to the concept of "broken windows" policing, it certainly should apply to this practice by the cops themselves.  Free parking sounds like a small thing, but it's created a class of cop and cop-adjacent people who think they can do whatever the fuck they want in the city.

New York City Sheriff Anthony Miranda is under investigation over an allegation he solicited donations for a law enforcement organization he leads in exchange for looking the other way on subjects of enforcement, sources told The Post.

And it isn't really a small thing when they're blocking hydrants, crosswalks, and sidewalks.

Also they have guns and generally don't get in trouble for killing people. 

Morning

go

Tuesday Night

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Happy Hour

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What Is Wrong With These People

Something is.

The man behind Project 2025, the rightwing policy manifesto that includes calls for a sharp increase in immigrant deportations if Donald Trump is elected, told university colleagues about two decades ago that he had killed a neighborhood dog with a shovel because it was barking and disturbing his family, according to former colleagues who spoke to the Guardian.

Kevin Roberts, now the president of the Heritage Foundation, is alleged to have told colleagues and dinner guests that he killed a neighbor’s pit bull around 2004 while he was working as a still relatively unknown history professor at New Mexico State University.

Both the doing and the boasting.

How's He Doing

Judging Biden on his own stated terms - forget my criteria - he has completely fucked up everything possible related to Israel and Gaza and now Lebanon. He was supposed to get a ceasefire, stop a major incursion into Rafah, and prevent an expanding war with Lebanon.

It is quite weird just how quiet everybody is about it, except of course to libel anyone who objects.

Is this good? Was this supposed to happen? What are they supposed to do?

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is sending a small number of additional troops to the Middle East in response to a sharp spike in violence between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon that has raised the risk of a greater regional war, the Pentagon said Monday.

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, would not say how many more forces would be deployed or what they would be tasked to do. The U.S. now has about 40,000 troops in the region.

Coo Coo Ca Choo

How many eggs is in a dozen, Michael? 24?

Lunch

eat

Let's Talk About The Weather

It's a bit odd how little punditry there is about Israel/Gaza/Lebanon. It's been on the front page (news) for months, but most columnists avoid the topic almost entirely. Sure there has been a lot of meta-level commentary about antisemitism and nasty college protesters, but not very much about what is actually happening, given its prominence as a news story and that it's an expanding catastrophe.

I just went [as of typing] to the home page The New New Republic, which is better than The Old New Republic, but less good than it was for awhile, and there isn't a single hit on [ctrl-f Israel] or [ctrl-f Gaza]. As for even the meta-story, they published this but it isn't on their website home page. There are no columns in the NYT on the subject today, at least none that are being currently promoted on their home page.

There are no columns promoted on the home page of the WaPo, either.

Courage!

The Bipartisan Conensus

It's pretty scandalous - should be a resigning offense or worse - but unless somebody who matters cares, there is no scandal.

The U.S. Agency for International Development delivered its assessment to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the State Department’s refugees bureau made its stance known to top diplomats in late April. Their conclusion was explosive because U.S. law requires the government to cut off weapons shipments to countries that prevent the delivery of U.S.-backed humanitarian aid. Israel has been largely dependent on American bombs and other weapons in Gaza since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.

But Blinken and the administration of President Joe Biden did not accept either finding. Days later, on May 10, Blinken delivered a carefully worded statement to Congress that said, “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.”

Prior to his report, USAID had sent Blinken a detailed 17-page memo on Israel’s conduct. The memo described instances of Israeli interference with aid efforts, including killing aid workers, razing agricultural structures, bombing ambulances and hospitals, sitting on supply depots and routinely turning away trucks full of food and medicine.

I don't just mean Blinken.

Single Issue Voters

Gross, obviously, but also for a long term anti-abortion voters have been the archetypal "single issue voters."

“You know, the left has a lot of single issue voters,” Moreno said. “Sadly, by the way, there’s a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban women that are like, ‘Listen, abortion is it. If I can’t have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for anybody else.’ … OK. It’s a little crazy by the way, but — especially for women that are like past 50 — I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think that’s an issue for you.'”

Jake Tapper Sends Demure Nudes

Josh Kraushaar fabricated a quote from Rashida Tlaib, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash ran with it, the governor of Michigan was bullied into condemning her, and it's now one of those "truthy" things that everyone is just pretending happened even though it didn't. Sure she did't say it, but what if we imagine she did?

This is a lie. You're referring to a story I wrote for @metrotimes, and U.S. Rep. Tlaib never said what you're saying she said. Never. Here's a fact check: https://t.co/oArrZXsd3Z.

— Steve Neavling (@MCmuckraker) September 23, 2024

And now @GovWhitmer is adding to the lie. pic.twitter.com/ZsELzQxXW4

— Steve Neavling (@MCmuckraker) September 23, 2024

I dunno, man, when Dems repeatedly can't even stand up for one of their own when she faces a barrage of lies and bigotry as her people are being slaughtered...

This kind of thing was common in the post-9/11 era. Just outright fabricate a quote, then  argue that's what the person really meant, and everyone would proceed as if the fake quote was real.

When you're a star, they let you do it, Jake. 

Morning

Get your morning on.

Monday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Once again.

It's All So Complicated

No it really isn't.

Coates’s friends, I noticed, were eager to attest to the extraordinary amount of research that went into The Message, undoubtedly anticipating that Coates’s relatively recent interest in the subject may become a point of criticism. “It’s not a book that reads like someone who just parachuted in, read one or two things, and started making a lot of sweeping statements,” Beinart told me. But, of course, Coates did parachute in, and one could argue that this provides the book’s greatest asset — its sense of revelation, its portrait of the new in all its shameful splendor. The point he is trying to make is that anybody can see the moral injustice of the occupation. “What is the experience that justifies total rule over a group of people since 1967?” he asked me. “My mother knows that’s wrong.”

Time Keeps On Ticking

I would say that you shouldn't announce deadlines that you no plans to enforce, but no one who matters will remember so it's all good.

US President Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone conversation last week that he will not support a year-long war in Gaza, according to an Axios report Friday.

Citing two anonymous US officials, the report said Biden asked Netanyahu to speed up the transition to low-intensity fighting against Hamas that would reduce harm to civilians, warned that “he is not in it for a year of war,” and pressed him on an “end state.”

That was from January 27.

Year is almost up!

No Biden can't control Netanyahu. Yes he can cut off arms shipments and the other support they are certainly providing.

All People Of Strong Principle

That principle being "oh shit this might be bad for my future income stream."

Several senior staff members have resigned from Republican Mark Robinson’s campaign for North Carolina governor as old posts he allegedly wrote on a porn site upend his campaign and threaten the GOP’s prospects in a key battleground state.

Lunch

eat

Cucked

I don't see things in these terms, generally, but don't "we" normally think it's important for the President of the United states to be listened to?

Second, Netanyahu will not engage in any cease-fire and hostage talks in the next 45 days, nor will he accept any diplomatic ideas concerning Lebanon.

He has a vested interest in prolonging the war for his political survival and in making it an election issue that could potentially harm Vice President Kamala Harris. It seems that the U.S. finally and very belatedly realized it last week, which is why, however unfortunate, there is little the U.S. will do until the election, unless it's forced to act in the case of a major escalation.

Oh well, apparently it's too late now!

Are they this stupid or pretending to be this stupid? I can believe either.

"Reportedly"

This is not the greatest of the headline sins of the New York Times, but when in journalism school is it taught that you should use your precious headline space to make the story less clear and suggest that what your reporter is reporting, or at least relaying, is actually unconfirmed?

Headline:

Story:

A period that began when Mr. Trump pushed baseless claims from the debate stage that immigrants in Ohio were stealing and eating household pets ended with him facing attacks over his support of the Republican candidate for governor in North Carolina, who referred to himself as a “black Nazi” on the message board of a pornographic website.

Reportedly reported in The New York Fucking Times!

Red Lines

I suppose it's good, in a way, that Biden's people stopped pretending there might be any.

Presenting the scheme to the committee last week, retired Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland argued that the plan, which is not backed by the United States, would “change the reality” on the ground in Gaza.

“We have to tell the residents of north Gaza that they have one week to evacuate the territory, which then becomes a military zone, [a zone] in which every figure is a target and, most importantly, no supplies enter this territory.

Do we prefer that this is how Biden wants things to go, or that he imagines himself to be so powerless that there's nothing he can do about it?

Morning

Go

Sunday Night

Rock on.

Sunday Happy Hour

Enjoy

Moving On Now

Every US foreign policy disaster ends the same way: lots of death and destruction and then everyone who matters agrees they were all heroes in error, wrong for the right reasons.

Maybe She Can Chain Herself To Trump's Plane

Weekend amusement.

Loomer, too, has been a source of much frustration within Trump’s orbit. She accompanied him to the presidential debate in Philadelphia, and she also joined him the following day at events commemorating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, despite previously pushing the false conspiracy theory that the attacks were an “inside job.”

Some outside advisers and donors called Trump to express their concern that her unofficial role is detrimental to the campaign. Trump finally distanced himself from her in milquetoast public remarks describing her as “a supporter” and a “free spirit.” He also promised advisers he would not regularly invite her to travel with him on his plane, and last weekend he privately referred to her as “crazy” to several people, according to someone familiar with comments.

Escalate to De-Escalate

Early on, someone online I used to respect argued earnestly that Hamas had genocide in their hearts, so by committing genocide Israel was really stopping genocide, and I suppose that was similar to this.

The big picture: Israeli officials said their increasing attacks against Hezbollah are not intended to lead to war but are an attempt to reach "de-escalation through escalation."

If they destroy enough and kill enough people that will lead to a type of de-escalation.

The biggest failures of American policy are the ones with bipartisan/elite DC support and so there is no scandal, no sense that someone has fucked it completely.

New Evidence Reveals Netanyahu's Relentless Efforts to Block Hostage Deal, Report Shows

'Torpedo the Deal': Israel's Channel 12 News exclusive report features new documents and previously unheard conversations showing Netanyahu's efforts to sabotage any hostage deal

Biden spent 7 or so months claiming Netanyahu had agreed to a deal that only awaited Hamas's agreement. And the slaughter continued.

Ah, well, we'll know better next time.

oops

U.S. officials told me they recognize Israel's "de-escalation through escalation" rational and agree with it, but stress this is an "extremely difficult calibration" that could easily go out of control and lead to an all-out war https://t.co/UDGMEAx7tb

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) September 21, 2024

Morning

Sunday funday.

Saturday Night

Rock on.

In The Club

A mystery that no one can explain is just how Olivia Nuzzi became a member of the elite club of "journalists" who can only fail upwards, who seemingly exist outside any normal rules of journalism, and who one expects to recover from even this scandal.

Most journalists - especially women, *especially* women of color - are one bad tweet away from working in low level retail.

And "bad tweet" can be objecting a bit too unobjectively to, say, racism, or predatory bosses.

"New York magazine on Thursday said its Washington correspondent, Olivia Nuzzi, is on leave after learning the star journalist had allegedly engaged in a romantic relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.," @OliverDarcy reports for STATUS https://t.co/Cu6z7l123K

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 20, 2024

When you're a star they let you do it, but why do her peers call her a star?

Wishcasting

Every election, reporters write pieces about how Jewish voters are really surely truly going to abandon the Republican party this time. That there is deep and widespread antisemitism on The Left is asserted without much elaboration, and even if we accept that this is actually true, this imagined Left doesn't have much to do with the Democratic Party.

Meanwhile the Republicans go a bit more full Nazi every year and most of our great and wise influential pundits and political journalists pretend not to notice.

Ah, Well, Nevertheless

I wonder if anyone feels bad. They spent their whole lives working to become Top Foreign Policy Guys and this is what they did with it.

WASHINGTON—After months of saying a cease-fire and a hostage-release deal was close at hand, senior U.S. officials are now privately acknowledging they don’t expect Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement before the end of President Biden’s term.

Incompetent or evil? I guess we'll have to wait for the book. 

Morning

A very demure morning.

Friday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy

Another Good Republican

There are so many.

The Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina

You know I don't think there were ever "good Repulicans," but the only people who have even made any effort to maintain this myth recently are nostalgic Democrats.

Now, just to be clear, this a candidate for a major, statewide office from one of the two major national political parties calling for extrajudicial killings. One also might venture to say that this was sounded just a teensy weensy bit…fascist? But according to both some left-wing academics and J.D. Vance such rhetoric is out of bounds: it’s grossly propagandistic if not contributing to violence itself. Well, okay, let’s see what Mark Robinson he thinks of himself… “I’m a black NAZI!” he wrote on an online forum according to a CNN report that also turned some other choice comments, some of them on porn sites. And you know what, good for him! This is America! You can be whatever you want. This is the land of the free, the land of opportunity. Don’t let anybody tell you can’t be black and a Nazi. Before you shake your head at what Donald Trump has turned the Republicans into consider for a moment his contribution to civil rights here: who else could have integrated National Socialism. Sounds impossible, right? They said it couldn’t be done. But he did it. This must be what he means when he says, “Make America Great Again!”

Robinson also might seem a little too…eccentric for a presidential candidate to want to get close to. Of course, that’s unless you’re a political genius like Trump. He praised Robinson to high heaven, calling him, “Martin Luther King on steroids” and “Martin Luther King times two.” But Robinson might not have taken that as a compliment. He called MLK Jr. a “fucking commie bastard” and regretted that he could not join the KKK as a black man or he “would have called him Martin Lucifer Koon!”

“Wow, this guy sounds really nuts!” Yes, and these are the Republicans today. This is it. For the billionth time, this who they are. They are lunatics who post racist stuff on porn sites. This is not a fringe, these are not lone whackos: This is the essence of the party; they are the Porn site Nazi guys. When Tim Walz just called them “weird” he was being extremely kind, or, at least, Midwest nice.

Civility

I wonder why Maggie isn't bothered by the violence Trump has stoked against journalists, too. I guess she hasn't spent too much time in the Trump rally media pens.

But there is only one man who has placed violence at the center of his movement. Only one man who is running for president on a promise of “retribution.” Only one man who has promised that if he is elected again, he will unleash the state against a wide array of disfavored groups.

Of course, Trump is not responsible for the attempts on his life, but if American politics is more violent than it has been, it’s hard not to notice that he tilled the soil that helped make it so.

Lunch

Fish Friday.

Mag Habs

I don't have time, but have at it:

HABERMAN: I think that the media does a very good job covering Trump. There are always going to be specific stories that could have been better, should have been better, that are written on deadline, and people are not being as precise as they should be. I think there is an industry, bluntly, Dave, that is dedicated toward attacking the media, especially as it relates to covering Donald Trump and all coverage of Trump. And I think that Trump is a really difficult figure to cover because he challenges news media process every day, has for years. The systems are just fundamentally - they were not built to deal with somebody who says things that are not true as often as he does or speaks as incoherently as he often does. I think the media has actually done a very good job showing people who he is, what he says, what he does. I think most of the information that the public has about Trump is because of reporting by the media. And I guess I don't really understand how this industry that literally exists to attack the press broadly - and the media is not a monolith. It's not a league. But this industry that exists to do that - I don't see how they think they are a solution by undermining faith in what we do. That's been very confusing to me.

DAVIES: Yeah. Well, I mean, part of the attacks are clearly are partisan. I mean, Republicans and Trump supporters are going to attack.

HABERMAN: I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about...

DAVIES: Yeah, well, who is the industry you're talking about? Yeah.

HABERMAN: I'm talking about criticism on the left. I'm talking about a lot of that Trump has used the language of despots to undermine the press is very well established, and it's very dangerous. And I've talked about that. The publisher of The New York Times has been incredibly clear about that. He published an Op-Ed recently in The Washington Post actually talking about that. So I don't think that anybody is - in - at The New York Times is trying to sanitize Trump's language. Do I think that there are occasional pieces at my paper, at other papers that probably should have been done differently? That's absolutely true. And that's - but that - what happens with this industry on the left that attacks the press is that it gets described as a grand conspiracy to try to help Trump somehow, as opposed to people doing their job on daily deadlines and not always hitting the mark because we are humans. And we are doing our best under a very challenging set of circumstances. But I actually think the media has done a very good job of covering Trump.

I think that what is frustrating to those people making those claims is that there is not the result they want to see, which is Trump melts or Trump no longer has, you know popularity. I mean, you were saying - I think your question was treat him with credibility. He's the Republican nominee. So there's a substantial voting bloc in this country - almost half - that take seriously what he's saying. And it's not because The New York Times wrote a certain story. And so to not understand that, I think, is problematic for folks leveling the charge.

Minor Progress

Not sure what this will ultimately mean in practice, but "maybe car safety should consider the people outisde the vehicle" is sadly a radical idea!

“We have a crisis of roadway deaths, and it’s even worse among vulnerable road users like pedestrians,” said Sophie Shulman, NHTSA’s deputy administrator, in a statement announcing the proposed regulation. “This proposed rule will ensure that vehicles will be designed to protect those inside and outside from serious injury or death.”

Regulators say their proposal would establish new test procedures that simulate a head-to-hood impact, along with performance requirements to minimize the risk of head injury. The agency estimates that could save 67 lives each year.

The Ones You Most Suspect

Travel day for me so no time to add anything but llololololol.

Morning

Fabulous Friday.

Thursday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy.

Expiration Date

The "funny" thing the market cap (as of the moment I typed this) of Trump Media and Technology Group is still $3.1 billion!

Ruse

I suppose I have many possible comments, but one is that any hope of airline security ever getting better just disappeared.

Lunch

eat

No One Left To Like

I get that hating immigrants and minorities has a lot more political appeal than I would like, but once the setting for "other" is a bit to broad then I assume you starting hitting some of your own voters. IVF users? Parents who have adopted? Women without kids generally?

There are a lot of people in those categories.

The Most Horrific Act Of Political Violence In America's History

I'm referring, of course, to the time Sarah Sanders was politely asked to leave a restaurant.

“My kids keep me humble,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders preened, thereby disproving her own claim. “Unfortunately, Kamala Harris” — and at this point Sanders mispronounced the vice president’s name — “doesn’t have anything keeping her humble.”

Certainly humility is a defining characteristic of Sanders.

Beshear

I don't think I'm incorrect in observing the Dems somewhat backtracked from "wokeness" as demanded by a screeching consultant class, so it's good that Beshear is still keeping with it.

The order, which takes effect immediately, will prohibit the use of state and federal dollars to pay for conversion therapy. Kentucky joins at least 23 other states and the District of Columbia in restricting or banning the practice. It does not amount to a total ban on private practice of conversion therapy, though it encourages certain professional boards to penalize or ban it.

I remember when our glorious liberal media loved to promote the "ex-gay" movement.

Morning

Thirsty Thursday

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy

Ah, Well, Nevertheless

Whoopsy-doodle. 

A Vance spokesperson on Tuesday provided The Wall Street Journal with a police report in which a resident had claimed her pet might have been taken by Haitian neighbors. But when a reporter went to Anna Kilgore’s house Tuesday evening, she said her cat Miss Sassy, which went missing in late August, had actually returned a few days later—found safe in her own basement. 

 

Kilgore, wearing a Trump shirt and hat, said she apologized to her Haitian neighbors with the help of her daughter and a mobile-phone translation app.

Lunch

eat

Just Another Day At The Office

They'll probably find a way to charge him for making them look bad.

When Gregory Delpeche boarded the L train in Brooklyn to head to the public hospital job he has worked at for more than two decades, he didn’t know he would end up clinging to life in an emergency room.

Before his Sunday subway ride from his home in Canarsie was over, he was hit in the head by a stray bullet fired by NYPD cops clashing with a knife-wielding fare-beater in another car. Now Delpeche, 49, is unconscious with brain damage and an uncertain prognosis.

The Great Conspiracy

We laugh, but Ackman was also the Harvard/Claudine Gay assignment editor for the New York Timesseveral months, which is also funny but perhaps not "ha ha funny."

America's Worst University

Columbia University.

Gun Brain

You start firing your gun in a crowded area if a) you don't care about killing people and b) you know there will be no consequences if you do.

“Greg wasn’t even in the same train car when he was shot,” Nicholas Liakas, an attorney representing Delpeche, told The Post Tuesday. “He was one train car over when he was shot. You wonder, were the officers just spraying bullets?

“If the individual had a knife and was so close that officers feared for their lives, if he was close enough to be an immediate threat, how did you miss him so many times and shoot people in the next train car?

“He clearly wasn’t right on top of them based on the pattern of the ballistics,” Liakas said. “An innocent bystander on his way to work was shot in the head.”

Main subway "threat" is cops.

Morning

go

Tuesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Is everyone looking forward to election day and then the traditional post-election legal battles?

Car Brain

Amazing stuff.

Most afternoons, Paisley Brodie calls her mother when she gets to the public library four blocks from her middle school on Capitol Hill. On Sept. 9, the call came when Deirdre Allen expected it, but her 12-year-old daughter was crying. “Mommy,” she said, “I just got hit by a car.”

...

Allen never saw the man who hit her daughter with a black Land Rover. A witness told police, and later The Washington Post, that the driver did not stop in time for the red light. After he hit Paisley, witnesses said, the man berated her for being in the crosswalk, claiming she had a red signal. Paisley, unable to walk, was taken to Children’s National Hospital. The driver left with a citation for colliding with a pedestrian, which can lead to up to 30 days in jail.

...

The driver, Earl Darryl Curtis, of District Heights, Md., said in an interview that he stopped in the crosswalk once he realized the light was red and that it was Paisley who collided with his car, not the other way around.

“If I had ran the light, I would have run her over,” he said. “She damaged my car.” He went on to say, “I didn’t even see the girl. … The only thing they got me on is the crosswalk.”

He didn't fully run the light, you see, he just drove into the crosswalk when the light was red, and she shouldn't have been there.

Also he has 94 unpaid tickets.

Maybe He Should Have A Chat With Vance

Maybe send the troopers to arrest him, even.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is deploying the Ohio State Highway Patrol to monitor schools in the city of Springfield after they received 33 bomb threats since late last week, he said at a news conference Monday.

Also, 30 years ago, my first response to hearing about cops being deployed to schools would not have been, "I hope they don't shoot any kids." Should it have been? I don't know!

Just The Way Things Are

I can't quantify this - just vibes - but I do think 30 years ago if cops shot bystanders and even another cop, the slant of all the stories would be "wow someone fucked up" because quite obviously someone fucked up!

Now it's just a normal part of their jobs.

Lunch

eat

The Greatest Of All Law Enforcement

I admit decades of TV/movie propaganda worked on me and I assumed these guys were a bit better than Keystone Cops.

The Secret Service did not search the perimeter of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Sunday before former President Donald J. Trump began his round, an acknowledgment that has put the besieged agency under renewed scrutiny two months after a similar episode in Pennsylvania.

I Guess Hysterical Pro-Abortion Extremists Were Correct

We really did have decades of centrist dipshits smugly dismissing the obvious inevitabilities of anti-abortion laws. People saying "abortion is health care" would send them into a rage and inspire them to pen missives about how expressing such radical thoughts was causing Democrats to lose elections (no polling cited).

Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable.

At least two women in Georgia died after they couldn’t access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state, ProPublica has found. This is one of their stories.

Keystone

Good thing we give these guys guns and encourage them to shoot people.

The police said on Monday that they were searching for a man who allegedly removed a knife from the scene of a shooting at a Brooklyn subway station on Sunday, when officers shot and injured four people while confronting a fare evasion suspect.

The development contradicted an earlier claim from the department that authorities had recovered the weapon from the scene, which officers later said was a different knife.

Toddlers have better stories for what happened to the cookies:

On Sunday, the NYPD initially said the knife was recovered from the scene and posted a photo of it on social media. But police changed course on Monday afternoon and said an unknown man was being sought for allegedly removing the knife from the station and fleeing the station around 3:30 p.m.

Morning

Taco Tuesday.

Late Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy

Occasional Reminder

Laura Igraham's 3 adopted children were international adoptions.

Lock'em Up!

I hope they don't have any incriminating things to say about the future of the Democratic party, top cop Eric Adams.

Two retired New York City Fire Department fire chiefs were arrested by the feds early Monday for allegedly accepting more than $190,000 in bribes to allegedly help fast-track safety inspections and reviews, officials said.

Freeze Peach

JD Vance:

But Mr. Vance expressed no regret about any of his statements and responded testily to mentions of the bomb threats.

“I want whoever made these threats to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” he told Margaret Brennan of CBS. “But we don’t believe, Margaret, in a heckler’s veto in this country.” He added: “I think that we should ignore these ridiculous psychopaths who are threatening violence on a small Ohio town and focus on the fact that we have a vice president who’s not doing her job in protecting that small Ohio town.”

New York Times editorial board:

For all the tolerance and enlightenment that modern society claims, Americans are losing hold of a fundamental right as citizens of a free country: the right to speak their minds and voice their opinions in public without fear of being shamed or shunned.

This social silencing, this depluralizing of America, has been evident for years, but dealing with it stirs yet more fear. It feels like a third rail, dangerous. For a strong nation and open society, that is dangerous.

dril:

Lunch

eat

Red Lines

A thing about American Tough Foreign Policy Guy is that their self-identity is that they bark and the world listens.

March:

"[We] cannot have another 30,000 more Palestinians dead," Biden said in an interview with MSNBC on Saturday. Asked whether an invasion of Rafah, in the south of Gaza on the border with Egypt, was a red line, Biden replied in the affirmative: "It is a red line."

May:

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett in an exclusive interview on “Erin Burnett OutFront,” referring to 2,000-pound bombs that Biden paused shipments of last week.

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem,” Biden said.

June:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Acknowledging only “an uptick” in Israeli military activity, the United States has gone to lengths to avoid any suggestion that Israeli forces have crossed a red line set by President Joe Biden in the deepening offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

September:

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — It was once home to an estimated 1.4 million people, over half of the population of Gaza, many of them displaced from the north of the enclave after Israel launched its military offensive following Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attacks.

Today, Rafah is uninhabitable, its buildings crumbled and blackened. Mounds of concrete and bent metal are all that remain. The destruction is absolute.

Good job to everyone who has been helping to perpetuate the Biden administration's "extend and pretend" strategy for genocide PR. The topics on which there is bipartisan agreement in elite Washington are the ones that get completely ignored by the political press. A big failure on Biden's own terms, and yet...

Context

Was It Our Guy Or Their Guy

I do hate the contemporary ritual of trying to assign team responsibility to any act of violence.

Morning

Go

Sunday Night

Rock on.

Shake It Off

The Future Of The Democratic Party

Cop mayor is doing great, still.

NEW YORK -- New York City Mayor Eric Adams' Chief Counsel Lisa Zornberg announced her resignation late Saturday night.

It comes after federal agents raided some of the mayor's top officials earlier this month, including NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, who resigned last week, as well as Schools Chancellor David Banks.

Not many details have been provided about Zornberg's sudden resignation just before 11 p.m. Saturday.

Blood and Soil

Bouie:

In waging rhetorical war on the Haitian immigrants of Springfield, Ohio, Vance has clarified the meaning of his convention speech. It does not matter, to Vance, that these Haitian newcomers came here legally, under the Temporary Protected Status program. It does not matter that they filled a valuable need. It does not matter that they reversed a slow collapse that has already sapped the life from so many former industrial towns. It does not matter that they work hard and seem eager, by all accounts, to establish themselves as productive members of the community.

What matters to Vance is who they are, where they come from and what they look like. They don’t belong to this soil, he might say, and therefore they don’t belong. Right now, the most Vance can do to wage this war is use his words. I shudder to think what might be possible if he had the authority of the state to wield as well.

Why Not Two Years Ago?

I get some complaints about posts like this in the "HOW DARE YOU NOT SUPPORT UKRAINE" genre and, I dunno, it wasn't me who decided that there was a good reason NOT to launch US missiles into Russia. Was that the wrong choice? I mean, if you're changing your mind now then obviously you think it was?

The thing about "foreign policy" generally is that it's the area of political decisions that The Left is furthest from - our guys aren't running State and the Pentagon and the CIA - so even if there's some grumbling from the sidelines that annoys you, "we" aren't responsible for what is happening! Ever! Not even a tiny bit! Not unless you believe "articles in The Nation convinced Saddam Hussein that the US's resolve was limited" type reasoning beloved of neoconservatives.

Maybe those missiles should've been launched into Russia from the beginning! Maybe not! If not, why is it a better idea now?

Morning

Sunday funday.

Saturday Night

Rock on.

Saturday Evening

Keep on slackin'

Is This A Good Life

I'm sure some of this is just down to Musk's increasing paranoia, and not really necessary, but generally it is the life that our glorious billionaires aren't just having to accept but are actively attempting to hasten. 

Mr. Musk, 53, has long cultivated a devil-may-care persona, traveling the world, hanging out with moguls, world leaders and celebrities, and smoking weed in public. But in private, he has increasingly barricaded himself behind a growing phalanx of armed bodyguards as he has become more wealthy, more famous and more outspoken — and as the threats against him have evolved.

Creating a neofeudal hellscape with you at the top might come with some perks - like those child slaves - but always worrying that someone's going to kill you and take your crown can't be that great of an existence.

Finally, the CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system, and asked: “How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?” The event. That was their euphemism for the environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion, solar storm, unstoppable virus, or malicious computer hack that takes everything down.

This single question occupied us for the rest of the hour. They knew armed guards would be required to protect their compounds from raiders as well as angry mobs. One had already secured a dozen Navy Seals to make their way to his compound if he gave them the right cue. But how would he pay the guards once even his crypto was worthless? What would stop the guards from eventually choosing their own leader?

The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers – if that technology could be developed “in time”.

I tried to reason with them. I made pro-social arguments for partnership and solidarity as the best approaches to our collective, long-term challenges. The way to get your guards to exhibit loyalty in the future was to treat them like friends right now, I explained. Don’t just invest in ammo and electric fences, invest in people and relationships. They rolled their eyes at what must have sounded to them like hippy philosophy.

Money and fame have their benefits, of course, even if you don't the child slaves, but feeling like you could never safely get on a city bus* would be quite the price to pay.

*Yes if I had a ton of money I'd still ride the bus.  I actually don't understand people who live in cities with good public transportation who still get around primarily by car.

Toothless Regulators

I suspect it would've been better for Boar's Head - to say nothing of its Listeria victims - if the FDA had actually pushed through some enforcement two years ago.

It certainly would've been better for fans of liverwurst.

Nothing Ever Lasts Forever

Matt Drudge doesn't rule their (political journalists) world anymore, but lots of normies still go to it for news links.

Morning

Slacker Saturday.

Friday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy

OK, I'll Bite, What's 9/11?

I'm certainly not defending Loomer generally, but Loomer was 8 in 2001. 9/11 is something that happened in the Before Time for her, mostly. It's like me having wacky (or possibly correct) ideas about  something that happened in 1980, when I was 8. 

Foreign Policy Guy

It has long been part of Biden's identity, that he is Foreign Policy Supergenius, and I suspect he imagined big "wins" in Ukraine and Gaza and whatever fault you want to assign for either of those things, those are not happening.

Is this a good idea?

President Joe Biden is signaling new openness in allowing Ukraine to fire missiles provided by the West on targets deep inside Russia, and plans to discuss the matter with his new British counterpart at the White House on Friday.

I have no idea. Do I trust the judgment of Biden and the Blob on such things? Of course not.

He did the right thing with Afghanistan, but it should be understood that "the right thing" there was "doing the obvious thing, but in opposition to the entire absurd warmongering culture of DC."

Why Not

It is Friday and Trump's bestie is having a real one.

ok

Lunch

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Nothing Like The Violence Directed At Sarah Sanders When She Was Politely Asked To Leave A Restaurant

It was a very telling moment when Maggie and friends freaked out at the mild social approbrium experienced by One Of Their Own (but Sanders wasn't even a journalist, just a source, you sputter), in stark contrast to their general incomprehension of any concern about the impacts of actual violence regularly unleased by these people.

The mayor of Springfield, Ohio, said a bomb threat Thursday that led to the evacuation of City Hall and numerous buildings “used hateful language towards immigrants and Haitians in our community.”

“Springfield is a community that needs help,” Mayor Rob Rue said in an interview with The Washington Post. The mayor added that national leaders should provide that help and not “hurt a community like, unfortunately, we have seen over the last couple of days.”

What Do You Get For A Man Who Has Everything

My spicy view about just why some billionaires - people who seemingly have everything they could possibly want and are almost entirely unaffected by anything that actually happens to the rest of us - are so into converting the country into a neo-feudal hellscape is that there are a couple of things that, despite their unimaginable wealth, they would have a hard time getting away with anywhere in the world.

Specifically, they want literal slaves, including child slaves, with all that implies.

But It's Just The Opinion Section, Jamison

That doesn't really count because it's just like, uh, their opinions, man. 

If you read yesterday’s New York Times, you likely came across a feature headlined “‘Trump Brought Darkness; Harris Brought Light’: 14 Writers on Who Won the Presidential Debate.” If you read it closely, you might have noticed that of the 14 writers in question, eight work directly for The New York Times and six are outside contributors. The eight Times employees include a relatively even mix of liberals and conservatives.1 The six outside contributors, on the other hand, are 100 percent conservative.

Also headlines don't count. Criticisms of the top 5 paragraphs don't count unless you acknowledge paragraph 37. Style section pieces are just fun and they don't count, even if they are promoted on the front page.

This is a bit of a tangential comment to the linked piece , but my point is one regular response to media criticism over the years is that most of the newspaper isn't actually the newspaper, somehow.

This began (reasonably) with journalists being annoyed that their neutrality was called into question because of what some columnist wrote (news and editorial are separate!!!), but somehow evolved into a general view that the newspaper as a whole entity does not exist, but is rather made up of individual pieces that have nothing to do with each other. There is no such thing as The New York Times!

There is also the related concept that people who run the newspaper - editors, publisher - have no power and exercise no judgment, making it unclear precisely what their jobs are. The newspaper isn't real, and no one is responsible for what goes in it. That's just objective science!!!

Also, we have no influence so nothing we do no matters!!!

Morning

Once again, it is Friday.

Thursday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy.

The Future Of The Democratic Party

This is fun!

“The feds are telling us they can get to anybody, anytime, anywhere,” one source said of last week’s raids. “And that is unprecedented.”

The mayor himself — who’s had several different phone numbers and is known for using the encrypted messaging app Signal — has kept up his practice, with one City Council source saying the last number they had for Hizzoner was “two phones ago.”

More coverage at Slate.

The feds themselves have not lodged any formal charges against these folks, and they’ve all denied any wrongdoing. But the very fact that the FBI executed warrants to seize their phones and computers portends something very serious.

Ex-CNNer John Roberts

I think I am the only one who regularly (if occasionally) points out that the Fox lineup is filled with people who used to be prominent on CNN.
 
The proliferation of weird right wing media outlets has pushed this discourse to the back burner, a bit, but back in the day it was accepted by all (including people who knew better but pretended not to) that CNN was on The Left just like Fox was on The Right, with the existence of the former justifying the existence of the latter.

How did all those lefties so easily transition into their new jobs, welcomed warmly by their new colleagues?  Mystery.

Is That How Things Are Supposed To Work

 Well I'm glad we shut up those stupid lefties with that "defund" nonsense.

The New York Police Department has tossed out hundreds of civilian complaints about police misconduct this year without looking at the evidence.

Lunch

Shop while you eat! (Ad, I get a commission).

Welp

 

Bonfire

A pretty good encapsulation of the responses of political journalists (Semafor guy here) to criticism since I've been doing this.  Basically: our critics are only concerned with narrow partisan electoral goals, and also nothing we do matters so why do they care???

These fools think what we do is important! 

He never actually addresses the basic question, of course: should outlets have been calling him a liar for years, or not? You see, no matter what they do, it's correct, and you're a stupid partisan if you disagree!

It's All So Confusing

Fog of war and all that.

But a Washington Post investigation has found that Eygi was shot more than a half-hour after the height of confrontations in Beita, and some 20 minutes after protesters had moved down the main road — more than 200 yards away from Israeli forces. A Palestinian teenager, who witnesses say was standing about 20 yards from Eygi, was wounded by Israeli fire; the IDF would not say if he was a target.

Citing an ongoing investigation, the IDF also declined to answer questions from The Post about why its forces fired toward the demonstrators so long after they had retreated, and from a distance where they posed no apparent threat.

Morning

Start again.

Wednesday Night

Rock on.

Happy Hour

Get happy

He Likes To Watch

Great stuff

DAVID MUIR: I just want to clarify here, you bring up Springfield, Ohio. And ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community --

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I've seen people on television

Better Fact Checking

They came prepared!

Correcting minor errors of fact "live" is neither possible nor desirable, but a willingness to say "no, that's not true" to ridiculous lies that you can predict in advance instead of just letting them go by is good!

Journalists often act as if there isn't a meaningful difference between a minor exaggeration or flubbed fact and the nonsense Trump (and other politicians) often spews , or that this difference isn't important, but they're just pretending not to understand things they do understand.

That Boy Ain't Right