February 4, 2018

Uma Thurman "didn’t feel comfortable operating the car" because "she had been led to believe by a teamster, she says, that the car... might not be working that well."

I've been trying to understand Maureen Dowd's NYT article about Uma Thurman, which appears to be about sexual abuse at the hands of Harvey Weinstein but halfway through becomes an article about a car crash that took place during the shooting of "Kill Bill."

This is a separate post on one specific thing that I left out of the linked post: Uma Thurman's last-minute disinclination to drive the car because "a teamster" led her to believe something was wrong.

What nuance did Dowd mean to slip into our head with that word "teamster"? Is there a connotation of violence, a hint of deliberately sabotaging. Here's the image I got:



Yeah, I know. That's gangsters, not teamsters. Even though a "gang" and a "team" might seem like the same thing, the word "teamster" referred, originally, to someone who works with a team of horses (or oxen), and it only later got extended to truck drivers. Only "gangster" refers to a group of criminals. The seeming equivalence of these words might affect your mind, but mostly when you hear "teamster," you think of the Teamsters Union. Unions might make you think of violence. If the union guy warns you something's not right with that car, it carries some extra meaning, some warning — don't get in that car.

So why say "a teamster"? Did Dowd mean to prod that part of my mind that connects unions to violence?! Members of the Teamsters Union do many of the jobs on a film set, but in Dowd's article, the word isn't capitalized. And yet, I can't imagine why, in the present day, you'd call someone a "teamster" unless you meant he was a member of the Teamsters Union. And then you'd capitalize it, like you'd capitalize "Mason" if you meant a member of the fraternal organization as opposed to a craftsman who builds with bricks. Who would you call a "teamster," with no capital "t"? Surely, not a truck driver. And it would probably only confuse people to refer to someone working with a team of horses as a "teamster."

I search for "teamster" in the NYT archive to check my instincts about capitalization.

"Teamster" — capitalized — appeared in the NYT last September — "5 Things to Cook While Watching ‘30 Rock’ Before It Leaves Netflix":
Italian Sausage Sandwiches, paired with ‘Sandwich Day’ (Season 2, Episode 14)

We’ve all been there: Someone eats the very thing we’ve been looking forward to all day, and we can’t control our anger. It happens to Liz when a writer on the show eats her very special, once-a-year Teamster sandwich. Her response to the injustice was both perfect and terrifying: “I don’t know how, but you’re going to get me another sandwich. Or I’m going to cut your face up so bad you’ll have a chin!” It’s impossible to know if these Italian sausage sandwiches measure up to what the Teamsters bequeath on the crew of “TGS,” but they’re definitely a snack to guard closely."
So... stereotyping Italians (and maybe relying on the teamsters/gangsters conflation) — is that okay?! Or is this the kind of clueless elitism that caused Hillary Clinton to say "basket of deplorables" and lose the election?

Next, I see this horribly/gloriously fateful article from July 2016: "Donald Trump Invades Scranton, Hoping to Wrest Pennsylvania From Democrats."
One of those in the audience, George Boyce, 70, said he was glad to have several more months to make up his mind. A retired Teamster, he said the book warehouse where he had worked left for Indiana because it could pay nonunion wages. But he was not convinced that the Democratic ticket would be better for union workers. “I don’t believe that,” he said.
And I'll give you just one more, and I'll just say that all the other recent appearances of "Teamster" in the NYT had the capital T.

In November 2016, the NYT ran a short story by the famous author Michael Chabon, "The Sandmeyer Reaction":
In the mid-1930s a horse trainer from Camden, N.J., had come to Mazer with a business proposition. The horse trainer’s mother had a sister who was married to a Teamster who was married to a sister of Mazer’s...
So Mazer was the horse trainer's aunt? Man, I hope that sentence isn't an intelligence test. I had to draw a diagram. Later, that same story...
Mazer had assumed then that the horse trainer was only home for a visit, but on the other hand the Teamster father had recently run off with a cocktail waitress at the Hotel Sylvania, leaving the mother bedridden.
I haven't read this whole story, nor have I delved into the oeuvre of famous author Michael Chabon, but I'm guessing Chabon is in the NYT because language like "Teamster father," "cocktail waitress," and "bedridden" mother resonates with the sort of people the NYT envisions as its readers.

So now, tell me, why did Maureen Dowd slip us that line about "a teamster" who "led" Uma Thurman "to believe that the car... might not be working that well"?

108 comments:

Jaq said...

Whoever wrote that article about Pennsylvania must have not gone to PA or had blinders on. I drove through PA, down I 81 and US 15 a couple of weeks before the election and my thought was that Trump would win an honest election there, no problem. Of course I didn’t think that there would be any honest election.

Hagar said...

None of these people has any idea of how a car works?

Bill Peschel said...

Tim, I'm living in Hershey and we noticed Trump signs vastly outweighed Clinton signs. One of our friends who's heavily involved with the Dems had all the signs in her front yard, except Hillary's. Not sure if it was from choice or lack of supply, but that was a telling sign of what might happen.

As for the Teamster, I didn't get anything more from it than the guy was (rightfully) worried about the vehicle. In fact, that might have played a role in any lawsuit Uma may or may not have pursued. After all, she was told the car was unsafe, she described a very unsafe vehicle, and yet she chose to drive it anyway. In the pre-#metoo culture, she would have borne some of the responsibility for her stupid decision.

Of course, as a woke feminist, Thurmond can now claim that, being a woman, she has no ability to resist the importunings of the patriarchy, and hence not liable for her own actions.

Sebastian said...

Teamster = big burly union guy.

tcrosse said...

The Motion Picture and Theatrical Trade Division of the Teamsters Union represents workers in the motion picture industry. They manage the fleet of vehicles used in the production, including those used on-camera. Impossible to tell whether Uma pronounced it capitalized.

tcrosse said...

Carville characterized PA as being Philly on one end, Pittsburgh on the other, and Alabama in the middle.

Narayanan said...

Movie set cars are contrived contraptions, not often production models.

There is mentioned filming from the back seat ... remote operation else Who else was injured?

Jim Gust said...

There is no significance to the lack of a capital T on teamster. The NYTimes has cut way back on proofreading, as you can see every day.

Triangle Man said...

This is an amusingly conspiratorial post. Teamsters work on movie sets. She doesn't remember his name, but recalls that he was a Teamster. God knows he was probably wearing a shirt that let her know it, and maybe a hat too. He's there in an official capacity. He's "crew". What else is she going to call him?

Narayanan said...

Or contrived for mayhem to front only!!

PJ said...

At a guess, Thurman picked up “teamster” from her lawyers, who fancied it not because it connoted violence but because it connoted “knows about vehicles.” However, Thurman didn’t know whether the person in question was actually a Teamster, and the layers of fact checkers at Dowd’s disposal couldn’t confirm it either, perhaps because Thurman and/or her lawyers prefers not to identify the person at this time.

TiV: I was with you 100%, and as a native Keystoner I was stunned when Philly failed to deliver however many votes were required.

Ann Althouse said...

"This is an amusingly conspiratorial post."

I think Dowd wrote an amusingly conspiratorial article.

I'm just trying to shine some light on its weirdness.

I think "Teamsters" should have been capitalized or not used at all. Not capitalizing it seems like something you'd do if you wanted to make whatever the guy said seem especially ominous but were pusillanimous about impugning a known and (presumably) vigilant organization.

Hagar said...

At that, the movie's insurance company should have had words to say about making the star herself drive an unfamiliar Karmann-Ghia without seatbelts at speed down a narrow gravel road.

Michael K said...

" They manage the fleet of vehicles used in the production, including those used on-camera. "

Yes, movies are totally unionized and have been for 70 years. The lack of a capital T was probably proof reading absence.

donald said...

I traveled extensively do work in 2016. We were working in warehouses. The support for Trump was overwhelming in Portland, Columbus, Rancho Cucamonga, Evanston, Gulf Shores, Miami and Sebring. I thought it was cute. I admired their spunk (Not being a hateful communist, I like spunk). I was polite when I would say it wasn’t gonna happen.

I just returned from a similar job and all I can tell you is in Utah, the working man loves them some Trump now more than ever. I’ll be in Chicago and Cincinnati next. I don’t anticipate any changes.

Hagar said...

Steve McQueen she is not.

donald said...

To work. Fer crissakes.

Shouting Thomas said...

My late Filipino wife considered Kill Bill a deliberate attempt to flatter soft feminist white women like Althouse.

The flattery part is pretending that a soft American woman could somehow defeat a hardened female Asian martial arts master.

The other part of the flattery is aimed at relieving American white women of the real fear that Asian women outflank them on two fronts, being more feminine and sexually attractive and being tougher and harder.

"Soft on the outside, hard on the inside," is a phrase you will hear often from Asian women.

My wife considered the movie a propaganda bit intended to alleviate white American women's fears at having to compete with Asian women for white men.

Freeman Hunt said...

I assumed teamster was specified as someone who drives all the time, had driven the car, and would know what he was talking about.

Bob Boyd said...

Tarantino made her an offer she couldn't refuse.

MathMom said...

I'm with Freeman Hunt. I'm sure movie sets have union employees out the wazoo, and saying teamster for a person who drives would be the same as saying electrician for a person who plugs stuff in.

Bay Area Guy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

The flattery part is pretending that a soft American woman could somehow defeat a hardened female Asian martial arts master.

It was a cartoon, dumbass

Bay Area Guy said...

An aside on The Teamsters:

In the 1950s, there were no government employee unions, there were only private sector employee unions, the biggest and baddest of which was The Teamsters, led by Jimmy Hoffa.

Bobby Kennedy hated Hoffa, picked an epic fight with him, which led to The Teamsters supporting Nixon will millions of dollars of campaign funds in 3 presidential elections, and 2 victories.

Unknown said...

"Teamster" is a common showbiz term of art that just means "guys who are in charge of the vehicles and driving on set." It is widely used by anyone working on a movie set.

Shouting Thomas said...

Althouse has wandered into the shithole of Soviet realism. Marxist feminism will take you there.

Remember, a date is dinner and a movie. Movies are a sexual arousal aid. Always have been. Always will be. That’s what the audience wants.

We want to see actors and actresses up on the screen who we want to fuck. That’s the purpose of the dramatic movie.

Uma Thurman’s great skill is that she emanates fuckability. That’s it. There are, literally, thousands of young women striving for her position, and hundreds who are just as skilled actresses. Also that separates Thurman from the rest is her fuckability.

You can rail at Weinstein all you want, but he was doing a job the audience wanted him to do, which is to sort out of the most fuckable actress.

Soviet realism demands that the arts work in the moral service of creating the New Man and the New Woman. Althouse fell into this idiot shithole because she’s a Marxist feminist.

The audience’s demand won’t change because of Althouse’s demands for Soviet Realism. Weinstein has been deposed. Somebody else will take his place to do the job the audience demands be done.

Mark said...

What nuance did Dowd mean to slip into our head with that word "teamster"? Is there a connotation of violence, a hint of deliberately sabotaging. Here's the image I got: [video clip from The Godfather]. Yeah, I know. That's gangsters, not teamsters. . . . Only "gangster" refers to a group of criminals. The seeming equivalence of these words might affect your mind, but mostly when you hear "teamster," you think of the Teamsters Union.

If we are going to go Godfather on this --

Tom Hagen: Right now we have the unions and we have the gambling and those are the best things to have . . .

----

Jack Woltz: And what favors does this friend promise in exchange for giving Johnny the part?
Tom Hagen: You've got some labor trouble coming up. My client promises to make that trouble disappear.


The Teamsters have long been mobbed up.

Ann Althouse said...

The full sentence without the ellipsis is: "But she had been led to believe by a teamster, she says, that the car, which had been reconfigured from a stick shift to an automatic, might not be working that well."

That makes it sound as though the main problem is they installed an automatic transmission, not that the seat wasn't screwed in right (which is something that appears later in the article).

I wonder why they reconfigured the car. Was it because Uma was scheduled to drive it? I'd like to know the background there, because I'm suspecting that she agreed, fully informed, that she'd drive the car but it had to have an automatic transmission.

So they took this classic, vintage car and made it automatic, and the guy on the set thought it was a worse car now that they'd changed it, and anyone who loves a car like this would want the manual transmission, and now she doesn't want to drive it even after it was reconfigured for her.

I'm guessing it's cheaper to hire a stuntperson than to reconfigure the car (and mess up its value), but here they reconfigure the care and THEN she says she doesn't want to drive it. And they're all set up to film it. Of course, Tarantino is mad, in that case, and it would seem to have nothing to do with her being a female.

I suspect QT would have been even more demonstrably angry at a male actor who pulled this switcheroo.

Then Uma drives it and crashes it. Of course, you have to feel bad about her since she is injured, but the footage has to be redone on another day with another car (I'd guess) and you have to go hire a stuntperson. And what do you do about the need for Uma for the rest of the shoot and for the publicity? So many people work on a film. It's such a mess for everyone.

Of course, QT would be horribly angry and in retrospect, of course he should have replaced Uma as the driver when she showed her anxiety about driving, but he doesn't deserve to be lumped together with Weinstein in this article.

He was given a chance to respond and he said no, so I guess that's all the ethics you need, and everyone's reading the article. It's #1 on the NYT "most emailed" and "most viewed" lists.

Sally327 said...

I hear teamster I think Jimmy Hoffa. Who disappeared. But only after getting a pardon from Richard Nixon. So I think it's pretty obvious what's going on here.

Pettifogger said...

Shouting Thomas said: "My wife considered the movie a propaganda bit intended to alleviate white American women's fears at having to compete with Asian women for white men."

I doubt the Kill Bill movies were aimed at women of any color.

Narayanan said...

@sally 327 ... Pardon take him off FBI list? To search and recover?

AimHighHitLow said...

As a younger man, I was in the Teamsters Union, but my job was sweeping floors in a mill. In vernacular, a teamster is generally a truck driver. A movie set would have plenty of those types around and they would know a thing or 2 about unsafe vehicles. I was not troubled by this word usage. That said, AA has done a nice job sifting thru the Dowd article and I agree a law suit tactic is floating around in that piece. Don’t expect any new Tarentino films soon. I also concur with those who noted the heavy Trump signage in Pennsylvania just before the election. Any Democrat national Politico that missed this leading indicator needs to find a different line of work. Sect. Clinton is now writing books and now reading them on TV. An appropriate new career.

James Graham said...

""Teamster" is a common showbiz term of art that just means "guys who are in charge of the vehicles and driving on set." It is widely used by anyone working on a movie set."

That was my thought too. Them movie people have strange job descriptions like best boy, grip, gaffer, etc." I'll check the end-credits for the next movie I watch.

As for the car, a Karmann Ghia is simply a Volkswagen beetle with a flossy body. So I was informed by the honest Munich salesman who sold me one in the late 1950s. He probably was burned by dumb Americans who thought they were getting sports car at a low price.

Ann Althouse said...

Men who do a “my wife says” routine as if they know how women feel don’t impress me, especially when they do it to justify not listening to what women are saying now.

Hagar said...

Volkswagen Autostick http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autostick
Officially called the Volkswagen Automatic Stickshift, this transmission was a three speed manual transmission connected to a vacuum-operated automatic clutch. When the driver put their hand on the gearshift the clutch would disengage by a 12volt solenoid operating the vacuum clutch, allowing shifting between gears, once they removed their hand the clutch would re-engage automatically. The transmission was also equipped with a torque converter, allowing the car to idle in gear, like an automatic. This transmission was first available on the 1968 Volkswagen Beetle, and was made available on the Karmann Ghia in 1969. VW dropped the transmission option altogether in 1976.

So it was not strictly speaking an "automatic" transmission, but a VW option that would bolt right in replacing the original manual transmission. This would not have been a problem.

Shouting Thomas said...

That one bit your ass, didn’t it, Althouse?

I can see why.

Shouting Thomas said...

My wife was not a representative of “women.”

She rejected totally your feminist Marxist class grievance.

Your suggestion that you represent a class of women because of your Marxist feminism is a lie you’ve been repeating for 60 years.

Some women agree with you. A whole lot don’t.

Ann Althouse said...

It’s especially bad when these men can’t talk about all those things the wife said without festooning it with assertions about her physical beauty and her sexual service to them.

But I’m sorry for anyone who has lost a loved one. I just wonder at the idea that a woman wanted to be continually used as a mouthpiece for the disparagement of other women. And men who leverage female antagonism toward other females by using a female who’s not able to speak for herself strike me as sad and untrustworthy.

Shouting Thomas said...

The impression I’m making on you is telling you that your lifelong ideology is a lie.

You’re hearing it.

I’m not trying to ingratiate you to me. I’m calling you a liar.

Your Marxist feminist claim to a class grievance against men is a lie and it is a dangerously immoral lie.

You’ve been lying for 60 years now that you can claim a class grievance against men.

Triangle Man said...

There must be a style guide entry for it. A generic reference when not referring specifically to the Teamsters Union or the members of the Union would not be capitalized. As noted above, it's guys who wrangle vehicles on movie sets who are called teamsters who may or may not be members of the Teamsters Union.

Shouting Thomas said...

I’m not disparaging women, Althouse.

I’m disparaging you.

You’re a liar.

The lie is that you represent women as a class with a grievance against men.

You’re a liar.

rhhardin said...

Men who do a “my wife says” routine as if they know how women feel don’t impress me, especially when they do it to justify not listening to what women are saying now.

It's women's left-brain right-brain excess connections. Men have to work around it all the time.

It would be nice if each side could start from there being women's reasoning and men's reasoning and they don't work in the same places. Neighborhoods vs countries, roughly.

Making women's reasoning national policy will lead to a massive fail, no matter what it feels like. Ask any man. Ask your husband.

Hagar said...

Basically, having driven Porsche/VW's for 30+ years, I would love to push it on a curvy gravel road. Uma Thurman, not so much.

JAORE said...

Tarantino is mad, in that case, and it would seem to have nothing to do with her being a female.

I suspect QT would have been even more demonstrably angry at a male actor who pulled this switcheroo.

So being mad has nothing to do with Uma is a woman. Yet, had it been a man he'd have been even more demonstrably angry?

Seems either there is a clear gender issue with the anger or it's OK to rail at a man and chide a woman over the same incident....

William said...

The best part of Uma's performance with Maureen was left on the cutting room floor. I'd love to see the outtakes, those quotes that didn't make it to the finished article.

Michael K said...

Movie's rent cars all the time. I would really wonder why they had to, or were even allowed to, make a transmission switch.

I know people in LA that have huge stables of cars for movies. Obviously, if the car is going to be destroyed or damaged that is different from a routine rental but it still seems odd they did a transmission switch. How did they even find an auto trans that fit ?

VW never made an auto transmission Karmann Ghia.

A conventional automatic transmission, as found in Volkswagen's Type 3 Fastback and Squareback, was never offered in the Sedan or Karmann Ghia, the closest option being the "Automatic Stick Shift," a clutchless three-speed manual with a torque converter.

Maybe they used one from a squareback.

Hagar said...

Geez, the car they found in a dealer's yard just happened to be one the previous owner had done the switch on. And a Karman-Ghia is just a beetle with a different body on the same floorpan.

Shouting Thomas said...

"I just wonder at the idea that a woman wanted to be continually used as a mouthpiece for the disparagement of other women."

Here's the answer.

Myrna loathed your Marxist feminist ideology. She had zero use for your Marxist class identity. She was entirely an individual, a rare find among women. Myrna understood your Marxist feminism. She was indoctrinated in it just like we all are. She hated it, and considered it immoral and vile.

She wasn't disparaging all women. She was disparaging women like you who try to pretend that you represent all women with your Marxist class grievance against men.

Myrna wanted your ideology to be defeated and demolished.

cronus titan said...

Two posts from Althouse objecting to someone noting what his wife said. Pretty angry posts too. I thought it was a silly comment and did not advance the discussion but apparently, it hit too close to home. Maybe there is more truth to it that I initially gave it credit fr.

In any case, the "teamster" reference foes make you think about a Mafia hit. Not sure it was that melodramatic -- Uma Thurman comes across as a rather eccentric character. I've little doubt about the sexual assault allegations but hard to believe Tarantino and Weinstein ordered a hit. That was not their MO. THey destroyed careers and reputations. Disgusting and they need to be held to account but hard to believe they would torch a multi-million dollar production to murder someone.

Paddy O said...


"the closest option being the "Automatic Stick Shift," a clutchless three-speed manual with a torque converter."

This is what I had. It was mostly automatic, but did require shifting. Not really at all like a regular stick shift. More like the options in a lot of cars these days to control shifting with the lever.

I thought it was a four speed, though.

Wonder of technology when it worked, but it caused all manner of associated problems.

Those VWs were extremely easy to switch things in and out, using parts from each other. By the time I had mine, in the early 90s, auto-sticks were commonly getting replaced.

I certainly would have done so if not for the very bad body damage that stopped my upkeep goals.

Bay Area Guy said...

ST writes:

I'm not disparaging women, Althouse.

I’m disparaging you.

You’re a liar.


But doesn't this detract from your otherwise powerful and interesting lifetime observations re feminism?

Even if Althouse is wrong (hypothetically), so what? She's just one person with a viewpoint, who happens to be our gracious host. She's never purported to be a leader of the feminist movement.

Why disparage her when you could persuade folks of your GENERAL critiques of the women's movement on the whole? To me, it seems misplaced.

Paddy O said...

Althouse is a marxist feminist? I've known a number of Marxist feminists and if she is one, she's the least Marxisty I've run across. I could be wrong, but that's not something I've seen.

Her support of Walker doesn't seem to fit that category.

Shouting Thomas said...

All feminism is Marxist.

The notion that women form a class with a grievance against men is Marxism. Classic Marxism

Granted, she is other things as well, but she is a Marxist feminist.

Shouting Thomas said...

@Bay Area Guy

Your criticism is a good one and one I’ve often thought of, but we are what we are.

I’m something of a battering ram for new ideas, and have been all my life.

This is not a particularly flattering or remunerative role, I will admit.

It paves the way for others with greater political skills to follow.

MacMacConnell said...

Growing up in Kansas City when I hear the word "teamster" what comes to mind is Democrats, the Mafia , Hoffa, Las Vegas, bodies in trunks of cars at the old airport, bars and cars blowing up, construction equipment being vandalizes, fixed elections and assassinations at the old Kansas City Democrat Club. Oh and truck drivers. So yes if a teamster tells me something might be wrong with the car I'm about to drive in a political or work environment, I'll call Uber.

Paddy O said...

My Karmann Ghia was a wonder of a first car to have. Had a lot of 'adjustments' before I got it, and that made some fun experiences. My brakes would sometimes entirely go out, and so I got good at using the emergency brake and sliding along curbs (it was a very light car, so would stop nicely). Occasionally the electronics would get their own mind. I pulled into a Carls Jr. one evening, and turned the ignition off. The car stayed on. Pulled the key out. Put it back in. Turned it. Car wouldn't go off. I turned the lights off. Car shut off. Turned back on fine, and never did that again.

When my windows fogged up, I had to drive with my head out the window for a bit.

Great car to learn auto repair too. Everything is accessible. Did all sorts of repairs on that which helped me get a feel for how cars worked.

But, I could see how someone used to modern expensive cars would find it unsafe. And then finding it unsafe would drive more nervously.

William said...

Remember the Woody Allen film, Crimes and Misdemeanors. Maybe the underlying theme of that movie is not some elaborate metaphor about the moral vacuity of the universe, but rather how easy it is to get rid of a troublesome woman if you know the right people. That certainly hasn't happened in the case Woody Allen and Harvey Weinstein. Just another porno fantasy, like the wife catching you with the babysitter and suggesting a threesome....... Troublesome women are not so easy to be rid of. They are a more potent force than the moral vacuity at the center of the universe.

Sally327 said...

"Even if Althouse is wrong (hypothetically), so what? She's just one person with a viewpoint, who happens to be our gracious host. She's never purported to be a leader of the feminist movement.

Why disparage her when you could persuade folks of your GENERAL critiques of the women's movement on the whole? To me, it seems misplaced."

I guess we'll have to wait and see if he knows any women with an opinion about courteous behavior.

Inga...Allie Oop said...


“Soviet realism demands that the arts work in the moral service of creating the New Man and the New Woman. Althouse fell into this idiot shithole because she’s a Marxist feminist.”

“All feminism is Marxist.

The notion that women form a class with a grievance against men is Marxism. Classic Marxism

Granted, she is other things as well, but she is a Marxist feminist.”
———————————————-

Then why does she have so many Trumpists here as regular commenters? Obviously things she chooses to blog about resonates with them. You are overstating and misconstruing what feminism is.

Narayanan said...

@ST ... Are you saying for feminists want the new Man is to be made in the image of a woman ... Hence their railing battle against biology?

Shouting Thomas said...

No, I’m not overstating and misconstruing feminism. It is Marxism, pure and simple.

What does Trump have to do with that?

Trump employs plenty of women. His campaign was headed by a woman. Trump publicly declared this week that he’s not a femninist.

You’re now employing (as is Althouse) the conceit that rejecting feminism implies some sort of animus against women as a class. (You see you just stated the Marxist class thesis of feminism.) Al Sharpton employs the same conceit in re blacks to achieve his political goals, i.e., extortion and quotas.

Rejecting feminism has nothing to do with bearing an animus toward women. The animus is against Marxist feminist ideology.

AllenS said...

Changing a car from automatic to stick shift, or vice versa will not have anything to do with the handling. Nothing.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Talking car wrecks:

Government set to borrow nearly $1 trillion this year, an 84 percent jump from last year

Bay Area Guy said...

ST,

Good words.

I can't remember if you were commenting here during the 2016 campaign (but glad you're back!), but I give a huge amount of credit to Althouse on how she evaluated Trump's "grab 'em by the pussy" video. The Feminist/Marxist/Media Left freaked out, called Trump a sexual predator, and thought (prayed?) that they had sunk Trump once and for all, handing the election to Hillary.

Alrhouse carefully read the transcript of the video, calmly evaluated the context and said, in effect, No, Trump's not advocating that men go around sexually assaulting women, he's saying that once you reach stardom, women are throwing themselves at you, and ALLOWING said pussies to be grabbed.

Yes, I thought Trump was toast too. But he rebounded, and pulled off the epic upset of the century.

When it mattered, Althouse, to her eternal credit, chose the pursuit of truth, when she could have simply joined the "Get Trump" lynch mob, were she blindly committed to the feminist Marxist push to elect Hillary.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Trey Gowdy said...
'And the fact that someone disagrees with me, does not make me challenge their love of the country. It doesn't make me believe that they're corrupt ... I don't think the end justifies the means.

I think the manner in which we get places matters, and in politics too often winning is the only thing that matters.'



Powerful words, my friend. Powerful words.

RigelDog said...

Our gracious host mentioned that Teamsters originally referred to men who drove teams of horses or oxen. My great-grandfather was a Teamster who drove a team of mules in the mines of western Pennsylvania. He died of sepsis after being kicked by a mule.

Sebastian said...

"All feminism is Marxist."

To someone who doesn't have a clue about Marxism, sure.

"to justify not listening to what women are saying now."

But we listen very closely, in this case guided by pretty devastating posts that lay out the omissions and inconsistencies and feminine game-playing for all to hear. What "women are saying now," women like MoDo and Uma, doesn't "make sense," not in the way we'd like things to make sense, like, you know with logic and evidence and arguments made in good faith, by people who take full responsibility for their own actions.

Listening very closely, we hear a lot of crazy women, the kind Peterson told us we can't control (though I disagree slightly).

We don't live in an Althousian world.

Robert Cook said...

I see Thomas is back, shouting.

Oy vey!

Sebastian said...

"'And the fact that someone disagrees with me, does not make me challenge their love of the country."

But when someone sits in the pews of a guy who routinely fulminates against racist AmeriKKKA, and hangs out with terrorists who think they didn't do enough, that does make me challenge their love of country.

When a Bernie Bro's "disagreement" with me takes the form of joining "Terminate the Republican Party," and shooting my fellow politicians, that does make me question their love of country.

When an administration weaponizes the IRS against people I agree with, or when a cabal of Deep State officials undertakes to undermine the duly elected president, or when Dems propose to impeach him just because, their "disagreement" with me does make me challenge their love of country.

"It doesn't make me believe that they're corrupt ... I don't think the end justifies the means." Think, Trey, think: might progs' fervor to achieve their ends possibly, by chance, justify a tiny bit of "corruption"?

"I think the manner in which we get places matters, and in politics too often winning is the only thing that matters.'" See, these GOPers are so nice. So very nice. Meanwhile, the left fights, niceness be damned.

I wish this were a Gowdyan world. But it isn't. Hence Trump.

Shouting Thomas said...

There has always been, since the Russian Revolution, a split among Marxists... the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks.

The Mensheviks believed that Marxism could somehow co-exist with democracy and freedom of speech. The Bolsheviks, of course, despised both.

Althouse is a Menshevik among Marxist feminists.

And like all Mensheviks she refuses to acknowledge the inevitability of the Bolsheviks winning.

That’s the great flaw in her ideology. She continues to believe that she can reason with the Bolsheviks in her ranks.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“I can't remember if you were commenting here during the 2016 campaign (but glad you're back!), but I give a huge amount of credit to Althouse on how she evaluated Trump's "grab 'em by the pussy" video. The Feminist/Marxist/Media Left freaked out, called Trump a sexual predator, and thought (prayed?) that they had sunk Trump once and for all, handing the election to Hillary.

Alrhouse carefully read the transcript of the video, calmly evaluated the context and said, in effect, No, Trump's not advocating that men go around sexually assaulting women, he's saying that once you reach stardom, women are throwing themselves at you, and ALLOWING said pussies to be grabbed.”
——————————————————-

Not exactly true, here is what she said from her blogpost of October 7th, 2016, on the subject of pussy grabbing and Trump...

“This was locker room banter, a private conversation that took place many years ago. Bill Clinton has said far worse to me on the golf course - not even close. I apologize if anyone was offended.

AA said...If anyone was offended. Is there any chance that no one was offended?!

Hillary Clinton immediately tweeted: "This is horrific. We cannot allow this man to become president." And Tim Kaine said:
"I don't like to say the words that he's used in the past when he calls women, 'pigs, dogs and slobs' ... but this is behavior that's just outrageous and so that there would be a news story that would have more statements like this of this kind, I mean, gosh, I'm sad to say that I'm not surprised. I should be surprised and shocked. I'm sad to say that I'm not."

AA said...Yes, Tim Kaine is right. Trump's statement — which is itself only words — is a confession to behavior.

AA said...Criminal behavior. Sexual assault.”

https://althouse.blogspot.com/2016/10/what-donald-trump-said-into-hot.html

Michael K said...

I pulled into a Carls Jr. one evening, and turned the ignition off. The car stayed on. Pulled the key out. Put it back in. Turned it. Car wouldn't go off. I turned the lights off. Car shut off. Turned back on fine, and never did that again.

Could be dieseling from low octane fuel, too.

The lights thing is something else.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Ah, The Godfather. Watched it again last week for the billionth time as it popped up on Netflix and still find it evergreen. Along with The Conversation, probably the only ‘70’s movies you could release in a theater today (with a little technical fine tuning) and audiences wouldn’t bat an eyelash at the quality or the script.

Quaestor said...

Michael K. wrote: Maybe they used one from a squareback.

All kinds of hot rodding are done on the VW platform, especially the Karmann. Since it looks fast, why not make it genuinely fast? Various engine swaps have been successful, including some high-output mills that require hybrid cooling, collectively known as wasserboxers. While Volkswagen is out of the air-cooled business there are a number of specialty engine shops building high-output versions of the Types I through IV with displacements up to 2400 cc. that are mostly used in light aircraft, but hot rodders drop them in cars, as well.

Engine swapping on the VW platform isn't limited to VW designs. A childhood friend of mine has an older brother who did an engine swap on a blown-out 356SC using a GM mill from a Corvair Monza. The result was a dangerous fast sports coupé. In the standing quarter, it could smoke any stock 356. On a curvey track, well... nuts!.

What I find amusing in all this is the evident fact that Uma Thurmond can't manage a clutch.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Inga is right for once. Althouse did initially freak out about the pussy tape. Which surprised me at the time. Not because I thought she was pro-Trump, but because it was such a blatantly cynical and empty attempt at low-rent political gotchaism. Apparently saner heads (probably Meade’s) prevailed, though.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Oh, dear. Odd and vulgar behavior. Never seen that from a politician. Inga makes my point about cynical and empty gotchaism.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Althouse did initially freak out about the pussy tape. Which surprised me at the time.”

Her first instinct was the correct one. Too bad she convinced herself to accept and apologize for Trump’s many instances of odd and vulgar behavior. Trump is his own worst enemy. It’s not gotchaism. No one forces him to do and say what he does.

Quaestor said...

The lights thing is something else.

Ignition keys don't work like they used to. I would suspect your EMC.

BudBrown said...

Peculiar article. How did the director know Uma needed to reach 40 mph so her hair
would blow just right?

Earnest Prole said...

Your constant media-bias vigilance is admirable, but teamster is a show business term-of-art for a person who performs a particular function on a movie set. In show business the distinctions between various functions (and their unions) is a deadly serious matter, and those distinctions are honored by the words used on set. Dowd is not slipping nuance into our head; she's repeating verbatim what Thurman told her.

Mary Beth said...

had a sister who was married to a Teamster who was married to a sister of Mazer’s.

The Teamster had two wives?

Bay Area Guy said...

My memory is that Althouse handled the "pussy" tape with perfect equipoise.

Even if my memory is off, so what? - Trumped handled it sufficiently to win a stunning victory.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

“It’s not gotchaism. No one forces him to do and say what he does.”

No one forces Democrats to vote for the Clintons. And yet they do, thereby surrendering all credibility on judging anyone’s behavior. But, my God, I love to watch them beat their heads against the wall.

Shouting Thomas said...

The evangelical fervor of feminists like Althouse is amazing, isn’t it?

The existence of women who reject her evangelical fervor seems impossible to her. She clearly thinks she’s engaged in this crusade on behalf of every woman, and that all women owe her a debt of gratitude for her service.

That individual women might simply loathe her feminism seems to be unthinkable. That they might consider her belief that she’s crusading on their behalf asshole arrogance... how can that be?

Women who do not consider themselves to have some sort of class allegiance to Althouse’s Marxist feminism do, indeed, exist.

Humperdink said...

Inga said: "“It’s not gotchaism."

Of course not. Video tape was sat on until the appropriate moment in the campaign. No gotchaism to see here, move along.

Jim at said...

That's gangsters, not teamsters.

A distinction without a difference.

Trumpit said...

Is Trey Gowdy related to the late baseball announcer Curt Gowdy? Trey Gowdy recently stated that he was NOT running for reelection. Is he cashing in on his notoriety in the private sector? I'm always happy to hear when a Republican resigns, doesn't seek another term, or is indicted. I'm happiest when they are impeached and sent to jail. I would gladly pay a surtax to cover the construction of new prisons to house them all. Let them argue 2nd Amendment rights and anti-abortion screed from behind bars.

Shouting Thomas said...

Professor, I’m a practicing Catholic and I sincerely believe that every person would improve his or her life by embracing Catholicism. I think, just as you do about feminism, that practicing my faith would solve most social problems.

And, yet, you know, I’m not an evangelist, and I’m not doing a damned thing to attract and convert people. A lot of people tell me Christ said that I should be doing that, but I think evangelism is arrogant asshole behavior. I leave people alone about my most cherished beliefs about what would improve their lives. Saving their souls and solving their problems is their business, not mine.

Have you ever considered doing the same?

I really don’t see how your compulsive evangelical pleading for feminism is a good thing. Seems to me something you should mostly keep to yourself, just as I mostly keep my Catholicism to myself.

Michael K said...

"I'm happiest when they are impeached and sent to jail."

Oh, come on. Be honest. You like to see them shot like that Bernie bro whose emails with Durbin are still secret.

Mark said...

When my windows fogged up, I had to drive with my head out the window for a bit

And be sure to keep an ice scraper in hand during the winter so that you can scrape the inside windshield while you are driving.

Meade said...

"I think evangelism is arrogant asshole behavior. I leave people alone about my most cherished beliefs about what would improve their lives."

And yet, for years, you have used the comment section here to evangelize your cherished anti-feminism beliefs. As you say — "arrogant asshole behavior."

cubanbob said...

Trumpit said...
Is Trey Gowdy related to the late baseball announcer Curt Gowdy? Trey Gowdy recently stated that he was NOT running for reelection. Is he cashing in on his notoriety in the private sector? I'm always happy to hear when a Republican resigns, doesn't seek another term, or is indicted. I'm happiest when they are impeached and sent to jail. I would gladly pay a surtax to cover the construction of new prisons to house them all. Let them argue 2nd Amendment rights and anti-abortion screed from behind bars."

I'm sure you'll enjoy seeing the Clinton's sharing a conjugal prison cell. It will be in the wing of the federal prison that will be dedicated to housing all of the convicted Democrats.

Shouting Thomas said...

Well, your wife is a godawful public nuisance with the constant pleading for ever more favorable benefits for rich white women, Meade, and you make things a lot worse with your dumb white knight behavior.

Tell your wife she’s got plenty, that life is great for you, and that she needs to stop bitching.

Our fathers were right, Meade. Women bitch because they can. No matter how much you give them

Your wife is Exhibit A.

Tell your wife to stop bitching.

southcentralpa said...

I get where you're going with that (Q:"You know why the Teamsters logo has two horse-heads on it?" A: "Bcs if you duck with the Teamsters, you get TWO horse's heads in your bed!" *badumbum*), but the Teamsters on a movie set are the most 'regular' guys and the likeliest to be car guys ...

readering said...

Never imagined this post would lead to Comment on history of Bolsheviks and Mensheviks. To the Finland Station!

Meade said...

"Our fathers were right, Meade. Women bitch because they can. No matter how much you give them"

My fathers were not your fathers, Shouting. Mine never bitched about women. Sorry.

Ann Althouse said...

Back around 1970, I drove a Super Beetle with “Automatic Stick Shift.” It gave some of the fun of shifting, but you didn’t need the skill of using a clutch. You just lifted your foot off the accelerator and maybe had to push down on the stick. People who had the skill to drive a real stick shift loved to express contempt for the device.

Anyway, it was my parents’ car. When I bought my first car, it had a manual transmission, as have all my other cars except this last one I bought with Meade, the SUV.

I tought both my sons to drive using a stick shift. That made it so much harder! Can’t believe I didn’t buy a usef car with automatic to get through that.

Meade said...

"Meade, and you make things a lot worse with your dumb white knight behavior"

Born that way, Shouty. I come from a long line of knights. White knights, black knights, rainbow knights.

We love and respect and enjoy women, ST, we don't bitch about them.

Meade said...

Oh, hello. I didn't see you there.

Ann Althouse said...

Hello.

Meade said...

Wanna ditch this place, go back to my place, and look at my collection of knightly art?

Meade said...

Or we could play some chess.

Or we could watch my NCAA Championship videos. Indiana University. Coached by Bob Knight.

Mark said...

The Godfather . . . probably the only ‘70’s movies you could release in a theater today (with a little technical fine tuning) and audiences wouldn’t bat an eyelash at the quality or the script.

Last year, TCM actually did show it in theaters.

langford peel said...

Godfather 2 was the better movie. By a mile.

Paul Snively said...

I grew up in an industrial Indiana town. Our next door neighbor was middle management at a local trucking company, a union shop. At one point, when the non-middle-management employees were striking, one of them decided to send a message by putting a stick of dynamite under my neighbor's car. I don't know what damage it did to the car, but there was a perfect stick-of-dynamite-shaped trough in the asphalt for many years after, until the street was repaved.

Decades later, I enjoyed Jack Nicholson in "Hoffa." While what happened to him in the film is speculation, the facts that he and the Teamsters were mob-connected and he disappeared from the face of the earth are not.

So when anyone says "teamster," capital-T or no, absolutely, it translates in my head to "mob thug." The idea that it might not, frankly, strikes me as bizarrely naĂŻve.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Meade, you are truly a gem, I mean that sincerely.

Earnest Prole said...

there was a perfect stick-of-dynamite-shaped trough in the asphalt for many years after, until the street was repaved.

The one time I witnessed the aftermath of a stick of dynamite exploding on asphalt, it left a crater four feet wide and deep.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Miznay-Shardin? Or bubbemeise?