I've had the tag "NYT pushes Kamala" since December 29th, when I wrote "The NYT makes its 2020 presidential choice obvious."
There are 5 women running in the race for the Democratic Party nomination — so many that I have to stop and try to remember them all. I count on my fingers and I google to check my work. And I feel that the NYT is always there to say, Don't worry, don't be confused, there's Kamala, and there's everyone else.
And I wonder about holding back the other women. The NYT can't know Kamala Harris will wow the crowds at rallies and shine at the debates. I don't think Harris, as a presidential candidate, has been tested at all, and I don't know anything about how serious antagonists will try to take her down... other than 1. She had a sexual relationship with Willie Brown and he boosted her early career, and 2. She's too much of a prosecutor to win the love of a minority group Democrats need to turn out if they're going to beat Mr. Criminal Justice Reform Donald Trump.
The big link — the one with the smiling face — goes to "THE LONG RUN/‘Progressive Prosecutor’: Can Kamala Harris Square the Circle?/Ms. Harris seemed to try to be all things to all people as a district attorney and state attorney general. Now, as she runs for president, her record faces a chorus of critics, especially on the left." The photo reappears and fills the whole screen. I see that the article is about the second thing of the 2 things I know. Is the NYT running interference for her? If you actually read the article, you'll find lots of criticism. It's not a puff piece. Excerpts:
“She played it very careful,” said Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who served on an independent panel that investigated one of the cases of prosecutorial misconduct while Ms. Harris was attorney general. “She had her sights set on what her future might be, and she realized every day she was navigating a minefield, because she had law enforcement to deal with, she had the public to deal with, the minority community to deal with. I think she was trying to be very careful not to alienate.”...Much more at the link. This is a serious article and it deserve the front-page highlighting it gets.
Ms. Harris scorns what she calls false choices, and says her critics are imposing them on her record. Those who have worked for her call her disciplined, a characterization she prefers to “cautious.” She describes her thinking — about criminal justice, but also about the other issues animating her presidential candidacy, like health care and economic inequality — as scientific. “It’s a hypothesis; this is how we can do things better,” she said in a recent interview. “You have to inform it with: Where’s the empirical evidence? Where is the data? Where is the detail?”...
“She really was a sideline player in all the decarceration efforts,” said Robert Weisberg, a law professor and co-director of the criminal law center at Stanford. “She didn’t stake out a strong position on what to do other than, ‘Let’s promote re-entry and anti-recidivism programs.’”...
In a case in Orange County, a public defender had discovered that the district attorney’s office was strategically placing jailhouse informants, offering them leniency if they could coax confessions from fellow inmates. A judge found that the district attorney’s office had lied to him about the use of informants and withheld potentially favorable evidence from defense lawyers.
When the judge disqualified the entire office from a death penalty case, Ms. Harris appealed, accusing the judge of abusing his discretion. While she opened an inquiry into the case at hand, she rejected repeated calls for a broad investigation of the prosecutor’s office....
Frustrated by her refusal to investigate, Erwin Chemerinsky, then the law school dean at the University of California, Irvine, joined with a former attorney general to ask the Justice Department to examine what they believed was a pattern of civil rights violations in the prosecutor’s office. Their letter was signed by 25 prominent law professors, prosecutors and defense lawyers.
“Twice Kamala Harris called on my cell and said she was on top of it and looking into it,” he said. “To my knowledge, the California A.G. never did anything with regard to the scandal.... Their reaction ranged from silence to criticizing the judge who found the misconduct... Never did they attempt to be a force for reform.”
The second article, "Democrats’ 2020 Choice: Do They Want a Fighter or a Healer?" refers to Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren in the squib on the front page, but it's a fairly lightweight look at rhetoric, based on Booker's Obamaish language of healing and Warren's repetition of the word "fight." This piece deserves subordination beneath the big substantive Harris article.
Finally, "Amy Klobuchar Enters 2020 Presidential Race." Yeah, we know. That's a fact and it must have an article. It is what it needs to be, with references to the snowfall and the juiciest (most embarrassing?) quote: "Let’s stop seeing those obstacles as obstacles on our path. Let’s see those obstacles as our path." It's completely fair to subordinate this article too.
So I'm okay with the NYT here. The first look at the home page made me suspicious, but a closer look restored my (wary) trust. Be good, NYT, please. We need you.
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384 comments:
1 – 200 of 384 Newer› Newest»Harris' experience as an Atty General gives us some insight to how she will function in an executive role. The article is intended to make Harris' time as AG "old news". Early vetting is taking place here.
Perhaps Liz is right when she speaks and complains about a rigged system. That is if the Times is party to the rigging.
You have the cause and effect backwards. Kamala is pushing the NYT by distinguishing herself with toughness and intelligence miles above the field. In politics, she's the hot chick and hot chicks sell newspapers.
There should be different leagues for men and women. The structural thinkers and the feelers. As it is the men can't compete.
she had law enforcement to deal with, she had the public to deal with, the minority community to deal with
So the NYT thinks the minority community is the criminal class and not part of the public?
All the other dems are DOA
KKH hasn’t been tested until I question her in Iowa.
rh: wrong. trump is a feelings guy ladies man who thinks like a chick and acts like a Kardashian. structural guys don't go for politics. the last structural guy was Hubert Heaver.
The job of a prosecutor is to put black guys in jail, as noted in "Bonfire of the Vanities."
So, what's the problem?
Black guys could stop commiting so much crime.
If Harris is going to run against the only positive aspect of her public career... well... why vote for her?
Be suspicious. They could have chosen any photo they liked.
I’m waiting fit that picture of KKH to be made into a poster just like that iconic Obama “Hope” poster.
Ann could do it!
Booker's Obamaish language of healing and Warren's repetition of the word "fight."
They have to work against the stereotypes of angry black man and softy grandma, so who knows what they're really like? Healing might appeal more to exhausted TDS Dems if they believe Trump is done for, but the rest of us heard it from BO and know how that worked out.
Please read the article. I doubt if the first few commenters have done this. Don't just impose your preexisting template and assume that what is there is what you expect.
"The structural thinkers and the feelers."
I understand how you feel, but my impression is that what you call "structural thinking" is the imposition of a preexisting template. I doubt very much that you read the article and *thought* before commenting. I would say you should think about how emotive your own thinking is, but I'm not going to say that because I think you're just wisecracking. It could be funnier. "Feelers"... connect that to insect politics and you'd have something.
So, the Democrats are running a handful of women who are competing to be more strident about freeing black criminals to run the streets and terrorize people in our major cities.
Thank God I don't live in NYC any more.
What caught me was the sentence"Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota announced that she was running for President".
I understand the verb tense -- "announced" -- but the section "she WAS running" hit me funny: it makes it sound like her running is already a thing of the past, i.e. she is out of the race.
Maybe "seems like she announced that she IS running" would ring better.
Unless she is already written off by the NYT.
I am Laslo.
What does a state attorney general do--oversee the state police and prisons and work the higher state courts?
I’ve reached my NYT articles limit so all that I see is that picture of an incredibly beautiful woman.
You get a feeling from partial differential equations, if you want to call it a feeling. I'd call it a mechanical intuition for a system. When you change something, it matters a lot what else is allowed to change at the same time.
This comes up all over in economic plans, by way of being argued as unintentionally changing incentives in imposing a fix.
The feelers want the fix; the structural thinkers say how it can't work.
Men, at least, want structural thinkers in charge.
"The job of a prosecutor is to put black guys in jail, as noted in "Bonfire of the Vanities.""
Thanks for reminding me of that book, which I've been meaning to read.
I just finished "Lake Success" and have been wondering what to listen to next.
I've never read any of Tom Wolfe's fictions. Love his nonfiction and have read and reread much of it, but I went through a long nonfiction period before changing my ways about a year ago. I should write about how that happened. Something quite specific having to do with somebody paraphrasing John Updike.
Use private browsing to read the NYT. It always thinks you're a first-time reader.
A judge found that the district attorney’s office had lied to him
Always a good start for "The Peoples Advocate."
I understand the verb tense -- "announced" -- but the section "she WAS running" hit me funny: it makes it sound like her running is already a thing of the past, i.e. she is out of the race.
Maybe "seems like she announced that she IS running" would ring better.
Thurber on the perfect infinitive after a past conditional
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2010/01/thurber-tonight-ladies-and-gentlemens_05.html
"We would have liked to have found you in." Reading it over, the gentleman is assailed by the suspicion that he has too many "haves," and that the whole business has somehow been put too far into the past.
Ann!!
You’ve never read Tom Wolfe’s novels? He’s the best.
Start with “Bonfire” then read “A Man in Full.” His great college novel is “I am Charlotte Simmons.” His race novel is, “Back to Blood.” All four are great.
rhhardin said...Use private browsing to read the NYT. It always thinks you're a first-time reader.
yes, BUT! we're PAYING our Professor Althouse to read the NYTs for us. I'll do reading assignments, but Not in the NYTs. That's HER job
Remember how Jeb "please clap" Bush was the anointed one?
What's he up to these days?
John Henry
"You get a feeling from partial differential equations, if you want to call it a feeling. I'd call it a mechanical intuition for a system. When you change something, it matters a lot what else is allowed to change at the same time."
No, I don't want to call it a feeling. You're the one who talks about feeling vs. thinking. I'm the one who knows that feeling and thinking are intertwined in a way that makes it unscientific to talk about them as two different things. In law, you can't get very far without an intuition about where the answer is. The word "hunch" is often used. Google Cardozo and hunch and you'll get a lot of things.
When you say "The feelers want the fix; the structural thinkers say how it can't work," I think you're noticing a psychological difference between people who lean left and people who lean right. The lefties think if there are problems, we ought to start experimenting with solutions and tweak things as we go along, and the righties tend to think any solution could be worse than the problem so it's probably better to stick with the imperfect things that we can see in front of us that are working at least as well as they are.
Both of these leanings combine thinking and feeling and it really cannot be any other way. I would just recommend being aware of which way your instinct goes and challenging yourself. You seem to assume that your leaning is superior and you have mixed it with masculine pride. That is emotional.
One can never have too many "haves." It's the double nots that tie one in knots.
Althouse
Lake Success is a minor, fun, work but Bonfire is a significant piece of 20th century fiction. Enduring. . It could have been written yesterday.
As to Kamala the Times notes she likes to follow the law when following the law suits her.
If she's the one the Times backs - and I'm assuming they do; backing technocratic, out-of touch corporatist diversity hires/identity politicians with chips on their shoulders with no political talent seems to be something of a speciality for them - then I'm assuming she'll lose.
Someone should look at the Times' record of boosting losers vs. winners. And didn't they tell their Jewish readers not to freak out in the 1930s? This Hitler guy isn't so bad.
There's something the Times wants, and it has nothing to do with what the people are demanding. Their coverage of the 2016 D primary was abysmal. Yamiche Alcindor is atrocious. They should just get out of the endorsement business and admit that their coverage reflects a complete Wall Street agenda with left-wing PC window dressing - and nothing that can win for the desperate economic agenda so desperately needed by the working classes of this country, which is all that should matter any more. And all that should have mattered for the last 20 years, TBH.
What the fuck is wrong with Tulsi Gabbard? WTF is wrong with Elizabeth Warren? At some point these rich losers should just volunteer for MRI scans or some new brain imaging technology experiment that will scientifically determine why they hate the working class and social backbone of this country so much.
Fuck them.
A woman of color from LA; the NYT will go for it and never notice its own sexism and racism.
Calm down PPT. We'd hate to see you vapor-lock.
Both of these leanings combine thinking and feeling and it really cannot be any other way. I would just recommend being aware of which way your instinct goes and challenging yourself. You seem to assume that your leaning is superior and you have mixed it with masculine pride. That is emotional.
That's a women's account of men. A man's account is that men abstract and women add complexity.
Look for repeated attempts to use Harris' time as a prosecutor to portray her as being a centrist, a moderate, or even a conservative Democrat, despite her voting record. Look for repetitious stories about how liberals and leftists aren't really comfortable with Harris. There is zero doubt that this will be a significant part of her campaign's media strategy, and the media will be willing accomplices. If she is the nominee, the left will vote for her in droves, regardless of their "doubts," and if the media campaign succeeds, a lot of people in the middle will vote for her, too.
Venezuela introduced a fix and then added fixes as problems came up.
At the Convention , from the hecatomb of D candidates , the Party Elders in a backroom deal , select Michelle Obama , then formally nominated by acclamation from the Floor. As a Great Man is want to say " Don't doubt me on this"
What is there to "calm down" about? Their paper is powerful, and its articles and editorials have been pushing our country's political economy down the drain for decades while complaining about the result. There is no mercy needed for the NYT on their horrifyingly out-of-touch (yet supremely snide and confident) political coverage. They basically are the last true vehicle left for the hard-core Hillary Clintons and Howard Schultzes. If that's ok with you, then maybe you should see if they can open a branch in St. Paul just for you. The view from Lake Wobegone could use some more gauzy-eyed Clintonizing hagiographies, right?
"I understand the verb tense -- "announced" -- but the section "she WAS running" hit me funny: it makes it sound like her running is already a thing of the past, i.e. she is out of the race."
I've noticed that error a lot. I think it happens because the announcement is in the past tense so it seems that if you use the present tense she was talking about the future and speaking about the present in the past requires the past tense.
You often see things like: She said her name was Ann. It makes you want to wisecrack, Did she change her name?
Sometimes it gets complicated: Elizabeth Warren said she was a Native American OR Elizabeth Warren said she is a Native American?
I am wintering down on the Florida Panhandle, so I can ride my bicycles without being in the snow and polar vortexes.
Look for repeated attempts to use Harris' time as a prosecutor to portray her as being a centrist, a moderate, or even a conservative Democrat, despite her voting record. Look for repetitious stories about how liberals and leftists aren't really comfortable with Harris. There is zero doubt that this will be a significant part of her campaign's media strategy, and the media will be willing accomplices.
That's it. That's exactly it. They will be here more "diversity-improved" Hillary Clinton, and the "conservative Democrat" agenda that no one wants is exactly what they're looking for.
And it will lose. It will lose big-time. It will lose like Hillary Clinton lost. And the Times and lamestream media will spend another four years complaining about the same Trump that they make millions complaining about. And the only segment of the country that needs anything and that matters any more - and that is growing by the hour - the working class, will continue to suffer.
The NYT will throw Harris under the bus the day Michelle announces her candidacy. And she will.
"You’ve never read Tom Wolfe’s novels? He’s the best. Start with “Bonfire” then read “A Man in Full.” His great college novel is “I am Charlotte Simmons.” His race novel is, “Back to Blood.” All four are great."
Oh wait! I did read "I Am Charlotte Simmons." I also read the nonfiction book that came out at the same time, "Hooking Up."
Ralph L said... It's the double nots that tie one in knots.
HEY! i don't want to live in a world that isn't full of people that are not afraid of not having enough negatives in a single sentence!
Ann Althouse said.. I understand how you feel
Oops.
Re Bonfire I lovef it.
The thing that always sticks with me is his concept of "chow".
Briefly, the criminal class exists to be "chow" for the justice system to feed judges, police, prison guards, lawyers and DAs like Harris.
I liked the first half of A Man in Full and wish he had stopped there. The second part seemed to have no connection to the first and felt like it was there because Wolfe's contract required a certain number of pages.
Read the blood sample and meh. Never felt a desire to read Charlotte Simmons.
I've read and enjoyed most of his non-fictio over the years.
John Henry
"The lefties think if there are problems, we ought to start experimenting with solutions and tweak things as we go along, and the righties tend to think any solution could be worse than the problem so it's probably better to stick with the imperfect things that we can see in front of us that are working at least as well as they are."
I think that brush is too broad with which to successfully paint a cafe rat.
However, it seems like your definition of "lefties" is what is really the center today: some experiments, some tweaking.
Like a minor kitchen remodel. Update the appliances.
Unfortunately, it seems like much of today's left wants to jump to burning down the house.
Which we'll then rebuild as tiny houses chock full with magical technologies that don't exist yet.
In the meantime, everyone gets a tent.
Some tents will be bigger than others.
And currently we are having tent distribution problems. Because of the wreckers.
As the song goes: No visible means of support and you have not seen nothin' yet.
I am Laslo.
The Times' goal is to wipe out progressive politics in this country so that their paper can be the sole heir of any opposition to Trump. They want to monopolize and control any opposition to Trump. And to a much lesser extent, other Republicans.
That's their agenda in a nutshell, if you need to know.
I need to re-read Bonfire of the Vanities. My memory is that it was both hilarious and prescient.
Yeah, Elizabeth Warren’s name should be “Stalking Horse” there to draw fire mostly. Of course she doesn’t know it. It will be interesting to see if the billionaire club at Google, Carlos Slime, Bezos, and the Hollywood mega-wealthy can just install a president who has so little experience and has don’t almost nothing in politics. It’s almost as if the public politics that we see are nothing but a puppet show.... naah!
The Failing New York Times says their business is booming now that they have focused on why everybody hates Trump themes. So why would they want DJT to lose?
KumLaLa is a sure loser, so that explains why they are making her their candidate. But The National Enquirer is yet to weigh in. Everybody wants to know: do they have the good pics?
TCIS, Who are you, and what have you done with Ritmo?
we ought to start experimenting with solutions and tweak things as we go along,
Yeah, like banning air travel, for example.
Also re Bonfire, I seem to be the only one in the world but I loved the movie.
John Henry
The first thing to understand is that all these people are applying for the job of figurehead. They are in no way independent actors. They are mainly trying to look pretty for the big money, which already does own them anyway, in their present positions.
The second is that the NYT is not an independent actor either. It exists to perform a function, given direction by its owners - who most certainly aren't the other figureheads in their boardroom.
The third is that K.Harris has the money locked up, and will have to make serious errors to lose it.
Briefly, the criminal class exists to be "chow" for the justice system to feed judges, police, prison guards, lawyers and DAs like Harris.
People’s need to get to work exists as “chow” for the manufacturers of cars, the plant managers, the engineers, the autoworkers.
People’s need to eat exists as “chow” for farmers, shippers, processors, distributers of food.
Bad weather exists as “chow” for the home builders....
Please read the article.
Optics matter - because a lot of people won't read the article -- and what will they take away from this today? That a pretty picture of Kamala Harris is on the NYTimes. Because she is anointed.
"Lake Success is a minor, fun, work but Bonfire is a significant piece of 20th century fiction. Enduring. . It could have been written yesterday."
I think "Lake Success" is a very deep look at people who are not neurotypical (at different levels — Shiva, Barry, and Jonah). That's not a "fun" subject, but it was written in a way that kept you from feeling dragged down at all. That's great.
I read that after "The Corrections" and "Freedom" — 2 long Jonathan Franzen novels — and "Killing Commendatore" — a really long and yet not long enough novel by Haruki Murakami. And in the middle of that, I reread half of "Moby-Dick."
I was going to go back to "Moby-Dick," but Moby's always there when you need him.
Meanwhile as they round the first turn, the great Northern Midwest White Hope closes on the Coastal Cuties. Go Amy, go Amy, go Amy, Go! She is this cycle's Road Runner with a Klub The Trump that is a win in the Wisconsin-Michigan-Pennsylvania parlay.
They will be here more "diversity-improved" Hillary Clinton, and the "conservative Democrat" agenda that no one wants is exactly what they're looking for.
Oh, there are plenty of people looking for conservative Democrat policies. Just not people like you that insist that you and your like minded fellows are our natural rulers and should be treated as a majority because you are better than us.
Yeah, Elizabeth Warren’s name should be “Stalking Horse” there to draw fire mostly.
Warren might be too sheepish and un-clever to do it, but trashing her family ancestry could turn out to be another one of Trump's (and his right-wing backers') dumber moves. The easy response to that is to accept that she doesn't hate her family ancestry as much as Drumpf did, what with his changed surname and grandfather running whorehouses in Alaska and being denied entry back at the border of Germany upon trying to enlist due to the crimes he committed there.
Of course Trump is all about bashing other people's ancestry and family history. Look at his own material.
But at least Fred made the millions that Trump took for himself. That's admirable, right?
Your public politics is indeed a puppet show, or perhaps a shadow play.
It is at best a collection of inadvertent glimpses of your actual political struggles, which take place mainly out of sight, plus scripted melodrama.
We don't know, even, who the real players of this game are, or the stakes, or what value the public positions these people are taking truly represent. We are the poor bloody infantry, or in my case, the non-combatant refugee, on a battlefield obscured by smokescreens and dust.
"I need to re-read Bonfire of the Vanities."
Let's all read "Bonfire of the Vanities."
I'm going to read it and will put up posts with some quotes I like, so if you read along with me, I'll have a place where we can talk about it.
How did this go from affirmative action fraud to “bashing ancestry” She has no Indian ancestry, Trump is using something that you have a great deal of trouble with, irony.
Of course the NYT loves Harris. She's an ignorant, power-mongering fascist who despises civil liberties and abuses her power on a dime.
She has lots of political baggage. It will come out. The Willie Brown thing is sleazy but every day in California politics is sleazy to the American public. She's ahardxore radical who freed a lot of heinous criminals.
It will just take some work to dig them out.
As to the NYT, trust but verify.
That's a nice picture of Kamala Harris.
As to "Bonfire of the Vanities", that is Tom Wolfe's version of "Vanity Fair" (the Thackery book, not the mag) in Ed Koch's New York. Bonfire appeared first in 27 installments in Rolling Stone from 1984 and was published as a book in somewhat modified form in 1987. It is about pre-Guiliani New York, clearly in decline at the bottom and rotten at the top. Tom Wolfe's description of how a street punk accidentally run over in a hit-and-run is turned into an "honor student" by the press is unforgettable, and I think about it every time I read about another south-side horror in the Chicago Tribune.
Remember when she stole her recipe for “Pow Wow Chow” from the New York Times? Is that bashing her “ancestry” to bring that up? At least one of her ancestors was a white soldier involved in The Trail of Tears. Is it bashing her ancestry to point that out? Why yes it is! I apologize.
Oh, there are plenty of people looking for conservative Democrat policies.
True. A good 30% of the people who organize themselves around protecting the wealth of America's billionaires is a substantial number. Just not a governing majority. This is the reason that your empty partisan agenda is falling apart.
Just not people like you that insist that you and your like minded fellows are our natural rulers and should be treated as a majority because you are better than us.
If you honestly think that the majority of the country feels as you do about prioritizing billionaire protectionist policies, then your country isn't America but Monaco.
Ever been there?
Of course not. You're just another dirt-poor partisan cheerleader who's been duped into thinking that Howard Schultz's billions matter more than your own thousands.
Hell, you'd give the shirt off your back for him, if you could! Maybe even get a free coffee out of it!
I love the idea of getting on board with the priorities of someone whose basic self-respect is so lacking as yours. Oh wait, no I don't. And again, neither does any majority of the country. Or of any country.
Your agenda is a suicide mission to repeat 1929. That's all the Republicans ever do. It has to do with their lingering resentment for FDR and their delusion that Chief Outsourcer Reagan was a better alternative.
"Let's all read "Bonfire of the Vanities."
Sounds great, but will there be damp snake underwear?
I am Laslo.
We'll see how tough Harris is when Amy Klobuchar starts throwing objects like binders at her.
The key question is: did Kamala let Willie grab her by the pussy?
I am Laslo.
How did this go from affirmative action fraud to “bashing ancestry” She has no Indian ancestry,
She has as much ancestry as Paul Ryan's is Jewish. Watch Finding Your Roots, this Tuesday.
What's going on here? Don't you rednecks know that genealogy has become quite the past-time for Americans? Or do you have too much inbred Confederate blood in you to find anything worth being interested or proud about? I guess white skin alone is less of an asset when you can't find any interesting or honorable stories in your bloodline.
Trump is using something that you have a great deal of trouble with, irony.
Trump is using racism, ignorance and the fact that his own family history is so boring and scandalous.
Bill Maher made him wither and shrivel by insinuating the orange-haired baboon was his father. I guess that's where birtherism gets you.
I reread half of "Moby-Dick."
If you're going to get all the way through it, you really have to step on it.
I must be the only person who didn't find much of Bonfire funny. Perhaps I should try again.
Just to be clear, two of my ancestors were involved in the Sullivan campaign in the Revolutionary war which consisted of driving the Iroquois out of New York State by burning their villages and destroying their crops. That’s not a point of pride with me. But for me to claim Iroquois ancestry in order to take a slot at Harvard that was there for survivors of that horrific campaign would be a little rich, don’t you think?
Althouse--you are on. I'll dig out my copy. Disguised versions of John Gutfreund, Al Sharpton, Anthony Haden-Guest, and the Social X-Rays all await our attention.
I'm down with re-reading "Bonfire."
You know when you have Ritmo in a corner. He just turns on the blowtorch that is his breath. Whatever.
Chemerinski is a complicated man, but at the end of the day he's knee-jerk on criminal justice, the knee jerking towards the criminals.
The narrarive that Harris didn't get behind criminal justice mass leniency (not reform, leniency) is a lie by her opponents. She was very active legislatively and took a leadership role in the federal government's imposition of these sleazy leniencies that illegally overruled state sentencing policies. Just look at the committees and taskforces she participated in.
This stuff isn't rocket science. The narrative is a lie. She has as much blood of crime victims on her hands as does every other Democrat and Republican and libertarian hug-a-thug dirtbag out there.
She didn't claim Iroquois ancestry anyway, but Cherokee. And it wasn't "to take a slot at Harvard" but because her family histories were a bit more muddled than yours were and she wasn't aware of how significant that ancestry was. That happens. There's nothing wrong with her claim of descent from a relative of hers in the mid-1800s if you can claim a couple of yours from the 1780s. Geez.
I've always thought that the lawyer who represented Travyon Martin's parents had read Bonfire. He followed it to a T. And I never heard a media person make that observation. It was obvious.
No need for Warren to run and hide with embarrassment from her descent from a great-great-great grandparent just because Trump's so embarrassed about his own scoundrel of a grandfather.
Trump and his supporters should try to find something a little more honorable in their own family trees, instead. But perhaps they can't and that is why they try so hard to defame Warren.
I'm in. Just bought a kindle version of Bonfire via the portal
John Henry
I would love to do a Bonfire of the Vanities read-along with Althouse while she posts about certain sentences like she did with Gatsby.
Second the Bonfire project, but we don't all read with the speed of AA.
I don't care for hyphenated dicks. We are ALL dicks.
Tim in Vermont@7:53AM At least there will be a lot of construction jobs available for the illegal aliens once renovations and rebuilding starts on EVERY SINGLE BUILDING IN THE COUNTRY. Super Duper Stimulus!!!!11!!!
What did you think of the baz luhrmann take on Gatsby, I think making it into nick carroways journal was an interesting twist although DiCaprio was a poor representation of ths protagonists.
Well doggone it! Althouse posted the idea while I was typing mine.
Blogger Ann Althouse said..."Let's all read "Bonfire of the Vanities."
I don't generally read fiction, but some of the comments here trend in that direction.
It says something about Kamala that her thread was hijacked by Bonfire.
Wasn't the drunk journalist Hitchens?
In law, you can't get very far without an intuition about where the answer is.
That's why judges (etc) are wrong so often (e.g. it's not unusual for 44% of Supreme Court judges to be wrong). They don't have enough information or the ability to make an rational decision, so they make some other type of decision. There's nothing subtle or deeply philosophical about any of it - they're just pulling words out of their asses.
"Cardozo hunched his shoulders. He had been watching the girl carefully, fascinated by her flowing hair and startling green eyes and firm breasts " -- The Blond Baboon
The follow up novel about Atlanta real estate was kind of disappointing. His last work was covering the many communities in Miami with his trademark x ray vision. His sherpas was a disgraced herald reporter and an ailing fmr police spokesman, what were the city fathers thiniking.
Blogger MadisonMan said...
Optics matter - because a lot of people won't read the article -- and what will they take away from this today? That a pretty picture of Kamala Harris is on the NYTimes. Because she is anointed.
Plus 1.
"Bonfire" and "Man in Full" are good, "Charlotte Simmons" and especially "Blood" seemed like the author was doing a poor imitation of his former self.
Aherman McCoy was a second generation arriviste southerner think Josh Lucas as the investment banker not Tom Hanks in the least imagination.
She’s “of color”, a Democrat and a woman. That sews up three of the near-monolithic voting blocs: blacks, progressives and genitalia voters.
Her time on Willie’s willy and as a prosecutor will count for nothing among the useful idiots just as her anti-Christian bias and stupidity while showboating count for nothing among NYT mediaswine.
I couldn’t finish the article. It was a long and boring puff piece. They at least mentioned that she had dated Willie Browm, skipping over that he was married at the time, and not emphasizing that he paid her for the sex with appointments to do-nothing boards. I do wonder how a prosecutor squared that with prosecuting poor blacks for prostitution.
But I think that Ann is correct that they are making their choice obvious. On paper, she does look to be the best of the female candidates. The rest of them can pretty much, so far, be lumped together. I am still trying to figure out what Amy whatshername thinks her hook is. Another whitebread female Senator with little in redeeming qualities? At least Fauxhauntis had the distinction of pulling off one of the great affirmative action scams of all time, leveraging her fake Indian heritage into a gig at Harvard, probably comparable to Obama probably sliding through school as a foreign student, except that his handlers have managed to keep his records sealed even a decade after first running for President.
Powerline is pushing Booker. He has the right ethnicity, and is apparently a happy warrior, as contrasted to all those screeching harridans he is running against. I don’t think that it will help their cause that the face of their party for the next two years will be their viciously vindictive screeching harridan Speaker, so visible during Trump’s SOTU speech last week. Just imagine any of these female Senators paired with Palsi Pelosi in the minds of the American people. Sure, Boomer women, maybe even including Ann, will rejoice. But I suspect that combination is not going to do as well in much of the country. One is bad, but two of them are far worse. I, for one, don’t relish being lectured by them for the next four years.
I read The Right Stuff. That's my only Wolfe-read.
For every quote from Bonfire of the Vanities, I'll find something from Ecclesiastes. Or Machiavelli (one c, two ls).
Here's Machiavelli on Savonarola:
If Moses, Cyrus, Theseus, and Romulus had been unarmed they could not have enforced their constitutions for long—as happened in our time to Fra Girolamo Savonarola, who was ruined with his new order of things immediately the multitude believed in him no longer, and he had no means of keeping steadfast those who believed or of making the unbelievers to believe.
TICS: Why are you babbling about Trump being too “embarrassed” to change the surname he has had his entire life, to one his grandfather had over a hundred years ago? Especially when your hero Obama considered it racist to ever use his legal middle name or the casual first name he used until he was in his 20s.
Why are you babbling about Trump being too “embarrassed” to change the surname he has had his entire life, to one his grandfather had over a hundred years ago?
Same reason your own chumps here are babbling about your hatred for Elizabeth Warren's ancestors.
I think you can lose on this one. Family pride vs. family shame. Trump doesn't like his skeletons now, does he? And neither do you.
Let's all read "Bonfire of the Vanities."
In 1995 I testified in a med mal case in The Bronx Supreme Court. It was exactly like the description in
"Bonfire." Halfway through jury deliberations, the jury sent a bailiff out to ask the judge to make one juror bathe. He smelled so bad they could not stand to be in the jury room with him,.
“This stuff isn't rocket science. The narrative is a lie. She has as much blood of crime victims on her hands as does every other Democrat and Republican and libertarian hug-a-thug dirtbag out there.”
That is, of course, until you look at the core causes for black violence and lawlessness, and much of that can be attributed to fatherless child rearing, and that, in turn to Dem policies, esp starting with LBJ’s War on Poverty. When you subsidize a behavior, you get more of it, and the Democrats have subsidized fatherless child rearing for nearing 50 years now, and with AOC’s Green New Deal, seem poised to up the ante even more.
I think making it into nick carroways journal was an interesting twist although DiCaprio was a poor representation of ths protagonists.
I disagree about DiCaprio, he was way better than Robert Redford, who, IMHO, only really struck me as any good when he was around horses.
The Great Gatsby was written in the second person, which is pretty hard for Hollywood to handle. But then again, some people say that Indiana Jones had nothing to do with the plot of Raiders of the Lost Ark But I say Indiana was like Nick Carroway, he was telling the story from the point of view of a close observer, rather than a participant in it. Carroway introduced Gatsby to Daisy, and Indiana Jones introduced the Nazis to the Ark of the Covenant.
I like we've adopted the term leftie...
I'm also on board for a Bonfire re-read...
Howard: “Kamala is pushing the NYT by distinguishing herself with toughness and intelligence miles above the field. In politics, she's the hot chick and hot chicks sell newspapers.”
I don’t know that nastiness translates as toughness. Even in a field with a bar as low as the current Democrat prospects - Warren possibly excepted (he said grudgingly) - Harris does not occur as bright. She is a looker. Willie and I will give you that.
Intelligent? Krikey!
Althouse
The characters in Lake Success were sympathetically but superficially drawn. As I think of it, so are Wolfe's. Both author's hit the larger themes of social castes, racial stereotypes, shallowness. Will be very interested in your reading of Bonfire.
Wow, she's attractive. That should get the job done.
DiCaprio did a fine job portraying Jay Gatsby. And would've done as fine a job portraying TR. What a shame that that movie never got made; America could have used it.
I'm in the middle of Bonfire, so I'm up for going ahead and finishing it.
"Wasn't the drunk journalist Hitchens?"
Yes. And the Reverend Bacon was Al Sharpton.
Bonfire - greatest, funniest novel ever written. The "Catch-22" of the 80s.
I read and enjoyed Bonfire of the Vanities, but, when it comes to the narrative exposition of spite, envy, and malice, Vanity Fair is still the go to novel. Becky Sharpe is not quite the heroine, but you keep rooting for her to become one. None of the main characters in Bonfire, iirc, are even borderline heroic. There's not much pity and terror or, for thar matter, relish in contemplating their fall.
The Times' goal is to wipe out progressive politics in this country so that their paper can be the sole heir of any opposition to Trump. They want to monopolize and control any opposition to Trump. And to a much lesser extent, other Republicans.
That's an interesting angle. I'm not a NYT reader; my exposure to them is normally limited to reactions by Althouse (and a few other blogs I read) to their articles, so I don't see a full enough picture of what they're doing to have an opinion with respect to your theory. What do you see as the mechanisms by which they're trying to destroy progressive politics -- their choices of which lefty politicians to promote vs. hold back, which stories to run vs. bury, etc.? Is the end game just financial -- to increase their share of the progressive news audience and gain subscribers and advertisers? Finally, how realistic do you think this agenda is for them -- is it just a kind of generic "mission statement" type of thing (even if not explicitly stated), or do they actually have (or believe they have) the amount of influence it would take to succeed at it? Sorry for all the questions, I just would never have thought of what you posted, and if you had the time and inclination to expand on it, I'd be interested to read it.
Repeating the Criticism from the Left that she's "Too Tough on Crime"
Hello Kamala meet Sister Soljah
PS - Vanity Fair is on the Greatest novels ever. I like Barry Lyndon too.
Unlike the republicans the Democrats all believe the same thing. And they will all act the same way in office. Therefore, for the D's its all about Identity and elect ability. Blacks make up 20% of D voters, and usually vote as a bloc. Who wins them, wins the nomination.
Howard thinks that Kamala is “ballsy” I think she is everything they accuse Trump of being but isn’t, she’s reckless and she’s corrupt and I don’t think she can be trusted near power. Look what Obama did coming out of the Chicago machine. He turned the FBI, CIA, and NSA into operative wings of the Democrat Party.
Mueller is an Eric Holder protoge, so was Comey.
Brothers In Arms (WaPo)
"Man in Full" started out well, but declined in interest toward the end.
still good but no bonfire.
K. Harris is not tough. She is an abusive, hard-headed prosecutor who isn't intelligent enough to let the answers she fishes for speak for themselves or an effective and quick response to them, while fighting back the constant tears she's on the verge of breaking apart with over her own self-righteous sadness at the situation. She is horrible. A joke. Her senate hearings performances are cringeworthy pieces of political abomination. She will lose. The NYT is about as stupid a rag as they come on their political pieces. They're much better at tearing apart Trump than coming up with anything people will actually vote for. The sooner they get out of the prognostication and political boosterism business, the better. Maybe even better when they told the Jews that Hitler was no big deal.
"Especially when your hero Obama considered it racist to ever use his legal middle name"
Yeah, In 2008, I can remember Sen McCrazy attacking his own supporters for saying Barrack Hussein Obama.
NYT's attacks Harris for being too tough on crooks.
Yeah, that will hurt Kamala on the campaign trail. Yeah.
Maybe even better when they told the Jews that Hitler was no big deal.
Or when their take on Stalin was “If you’re going to make an omelette, you have to break a few eggs."
Well the Los Angeles Times anointed Kamala Harris as "the one" three weeks ago--so the NYT is playing catchup ball here.
And Ms. Harris is definitely not "from LA". She's a Bay Area product all the way.
But with Kamala at least she get someone who is 1/2 Indian--not 1/1024 Indian. True it's Indian subcontinent instead of Cherokee--but it is real Indian.
Maybe even better when they told the Jews that Hitler was no big deal.
Or when their take on Stalin was “If you’re going to make an omelette, you have to break a few eggs."
What do you see as the mechanisms by which they're trying to destroy progressive politics -- their choices of which lefty politicians to promote vs. hold back, which stories to run vs. bury, etc.?
You request a lot to follow after this sentence (may come back to it) but this question is good enough. All you have to do is review their 2016 coverage to realize how idiotically, blindly and doggedly they pushed for the H. Clinton nomination in the primary. They had nothing to say, and nothing to say in response to 9:1 comments in response (with equally lopsided like/dislike ratios) that were pro-Bernie Sanders. The person doing much of the coverage was this moron named Yamiche Alcindor who actually interrupted a succession of other reporters at a Sanders press conference to demand why his interest in continuing to run his own campaign wasn't some unique exercise in being a woman-hater, or whatever they call it. They're just atrociously out-of-touch PC elitists through-and-through to the core. Every article as about how Bernie stood no chance and didn't seem to stand for anything they could identify or relate to. I think at one point the ombudsman even had to step in to address huge concern among their readership about why they hated Sanders and loved Clinton so much. It was woefully inadequate to say the least.
Kkkamala is the hollywood check box candidate. Pretty, female, brown.
Kamala definitely checks the most boxes: woman, Asian, black. I think perhaps a proud admission of a past lesbian fling would also increase her viability. A past fling with Hillary would increase her standing with the Clinton wing of the party, but the timing of this announcement is very important. I have this image of her winning the nomination and Hillary rushing up to the podium to embrace her. The crowd goes wild as confetti falls and another huge step is taken in the liberation of humanity.
Intelligent? Krikey!
That didn't stop the rise of Obama.
Or when their take on Stalin was “If you’re going to make an omelette, you have to break a few eggs."
Stalin was the inevitable consequence of our Soviet alliance, which was the inevitable consequence of having to oppose the same Hitler that the Great Depression made possible, courtesy of Republican roaring 20's feed-the-rich economic policies.
Feeding the rich is a dangerous policy course for a nation's history.
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to provide you with this needed and very important history lesson.
Machiavelli is good except when you consider who his boss. The younger borgia who was a real sociopath, it was his traits that he recommended to Cosimo de medici.
Charlotte Simmons is accurate, or at least true to life.
I’ve had my own “Charlotte Simmons” until quite recently, and so I have had a most reliable fact checker.
If anything can be said about it it’s that Wolfe’s reports are dated, in a fast-changing milieu.
He made just one glaring error, but that may be up to fashions changing faster than his writing process.
In a few decades that error won’t matter.
Althouse: “Please read the article.” Seriously? Okay, but I thought you did that so we didn’t have to.
BTW, it is unethical and a violation of the oath of office for an elected prosecutor to decline to seek the death penalty because of her personal predilections.
Indeed - clips of KKKamala's senate hearings should be played over and over in campaign ads. She is a disaster.
Same with Booker. He's a moron.
Had kerensky not second guessed kornilov the latter would have dispatched Lenin tritsky and company and there wouldn't be a bloody ledger of 100 million plus dead, weimar would likely have been more stable the nazis would have had little purchase.
Biff- does Kamala have a voting record?
Check out this example of one of the TIme's brightest and best posing a very relevant, important and probing question.
Need I say more?
The NYT simply has no relevant political coverage about the country. Sure, they can smear a politician like the best of them. But their inability to identify what any actually successful candidates or votes stand for is atrociously incompetent. These people are elitists by virtue of their condescending incompetence, or something. I simply have no words for how idiotic they are at understanding the important trends and relevant factors in American political life.
Stalin was the inevitable consequence of our Soviet alliance, which was the inevitable consequence of having to oppose the same Hitler that the Great Depression made possible, courtesy of Republican roaring 20's feed-the-rich economic policies.
Wow. Just wow. Did you ever hear of the Treaty of Versailles? Woodrow Wilson is the one who went along with that one. Stalin came to power in the mid 1920s. FDR and the Democrats controlled the economy for a decade of economic depression before the alliance with Stalin even began.
You “know” an awful lot of stuff that is wrong. But if you didn’t believe it, you might have to re-examine your beliefs...
Tim,
Except that, to some extent the justice system is juiced up to artificially provide the chow.
That was Wolfe's point.
Wolfe didn't mention it in Bonfires but asset forfeiture would be an example. Arresting parents for letting their 10 year old kids walk to the park by themselves. Red light cameras with short light cycles. Speed traps. And on and on
Lots of other examples of things that might be wrong but should not normally involve the justice system.
John Henry
John Henry
K.Harris never struck me as someone who was ever over-significant to the posts she held. She was always a seat-warmer and a schmoozer, not a leader. I doubt she ever did much prosecuting (this was an issue when she ran for SF DA as I recall). Her positions were more titles than functions. Quite Obama-like actually.
Cray-cray.
Wow. Just wow. Did you ever hear of the Treaty of Versailles? Woodrow Wilson is the one who went along with that one. Stalin came to power in the mid 1920s. FDR and the Democrats controlled the economy for a decade of economic depression before the alliance with Stalin even began.
Stalin was in power but I misspoke in describing him as a consequence of HItler. But his huge growth in strength and power and that of his global communist movement would not have been possible had it not been for a big huge great awesome war to strengthen him with. The kind of war that only Republican economic policies made possible. No historian believes that someone as ambitious and chatty and emotive and nationalistic as Hitler would have risen to his heights without the Republican Great Depression to put him there. Versailles didn't help at all, but The Great Republican Depression sealed his and our and Stalin and global communism's fate. Thanks for that, Tim!
tim in vermont said...
Oh, there are plenty of people looking for conservative Democrat policies.
Unfortunately there is no one to deliver them since mainstream Dems have been marginalized in their institutions.
Amusing about PB&J and Stalin.
Creative too. There is a large apologetic literature on the Soviet Union, so it takes some doing.
I’ve heard many silly apologia but not those, quite.
Weimar Republic "Golden Age": 1924 - 1929.
Weimar Republic "Decline": 1930 - 1933.
Looks like the global Depression was pivotal in ending that thing.
How many depressions do corporatist Republicans want to put the world through? One-and-a-half was enough, no?
If Lenin had not allowed the Reichswehr to train in Russia, had stalin not used that connection to purge half of the officer corps ironically part of a tip that abwehr provided.
"How many depressions do corporatist Republicans want to put the world through?"
The only depressing news today is that you haven't bought a gun and shot yourself in the face yet.
Extreme wealth divides can have two outcomes: Class war or race war.
If you tell the working class (who have less income mobility now than most European nations) that it is their destiny and their fate to have government pass over their needs while it devotes more and more attention to the "needs" of the hedge fund traders and whomever else Trump's tax bill and other bills were designed to benefit, then their frustrations will be shifted to rupturing the nation along ethnic fault lines.
I guess either of these outcomes are preferable to most Republican elites (and the tims) over simply having a progressive agenda.
It's like they think we should take Theodore Roosevelt's face off of Mount Rushmore, or something.
Jim Daniels provides the Republican response to how angrily and violently they personally react to the news of how murderous their policies are. That really resolves the issue and gives them tons of credibility on it!
Ritmo. "Stalin was the inevitable consequence of our Soviet alliance, which was the inevitable consequence of having to oppose the same Hitler that the Great Depression made possible, courtesy of Republican roaring 20's feed-the-rich economic policies."
Now that is some really stupid typing. Jaw dropping.
"Jim Daniels provides the Republican response to how angrily and violently they personally react to the news of how murderous their policies are. That really resolves the issue and gives them tons of credibility on it!"
No I just think you should give serious consideration to buying a gun and shooting yourself in the face and ridding the world of the cancer that is your existence, you human turd.
Living is fun, when I can see douchebag dummies like "HipsterVacuum" vote more and more of his income away and shift it to people who could buy his ass out for pennies on the dollar. It's almost like he bought a gun and shot his wallet and his bank account up with it! Hahaha!
Yes, Vacuum. Blame all that on whichever Democrats you haven't gotten around to trying to gun down yet. Too funny.
We all know your jaw is dropping, Michael.
The only question is, whose penis you're readying yourself to insert into it?
That's how guys like you roll.
Our progressive pols of the 20s and 30s all thought stalin ("uncle Joe" really?) Mussolini (he made the trains run on time!!) and Hitler were the greatest thing since blueberry muffins.
Roosevelt modeled the New Deal on Mussolini's Fascism.
There was no significant ideological difference between Stalin's communism, Mussolini's Facism, Hitler's socialism, and American Progressivism.
There still isn't.
John Henry
Ritmo
"Stalin was in power but I misspoke in describing him as a consequence of HItler. But his huge growth in strength and power and that of his global communist movement would not have been possible had it not been for a big huge great awesome war to strengthen him with. The kind of war that only Republican economic policies made possible. No historian believes that someone as ambitious and chatty and emotive and nationalistic as Hitler would have risen to his heights without the Republican Great Depression to put him there. Versailles didn't help at all, but The Great Republican Depression sealed his and our and Stalin and global communism's fate. Thanks for that, Tim!"
LOL.
Seriously, Ritmo, you should do the world a favor and shoot yourself in the face. The human race would improve exponentially. Everyone would have cause to celebrate in a festivity of joy and celebration.
HipsterVacuum doubles down on whether Republicans can get more violent and economically destructive than they already are, and have been since they gave the world their great gifts of outsourcing, de-industrialization, and one-and-a-half global depressions.
Plus a world war, genocide, and the strengthening of Stalin as a result.
Great stuff, guys. Any more?
Oh yeah. But you can get personally violent, too. Goes well with all your political violence, destruction and neglect.
> The job of a prosecutor is to put black guys in jail, as noted in "Bonfire of the Vanities."
... innocent or not
The machine works like this
Pile up charges on whoever you select
Defense lawyer says anything can happen, you might lose (very true.. in rape cases can't bring up woman's history, even if wife)
defendant takes a plea bargain on lesser charges
prosecutor gets conviction, defendant is screwed less but happy not to get the work
lather, rinse, repeat
There are exceptions, says you can spend $1000 / hr for 3 $300/hr crim lawyers to win the judges favor and scare the prosecutors
if you are really poor, go directly to jail and never get out.
"Great stuff, guys. Any more?"
Yeah, buy a gun and shoot yourself in the face.
Seriously, Ritmo, you should do the world a favor and shoot yourself in the face. The human race would improve exponentially. Everyone would have cause to celebrate in a festivity of joy and celebration.
Awww. What's the matter? Your Republican economic policies have not given you anything about which to engage in "a festivity of joy and celebration?"
Hey! You voted for them! Shoot yourself instead, Mr. Scalise.
Or a synagogue. I heard your guys derive much pleasure from that sort of thing. And a hefty jail sentence.
Either way, I hereby nominate Vacuum Daniels as the spokesperson for how angry and violent and stupid you have to be to vote right-wing - at least if you're not a billionaire.
Hey Ritmo, given that everyone in the universe hates you and knows what a socially retarded human shit stain you are, wouldn't you be doing the world a favor by shooting yourself in face?
HipsterVacuum's anti-impotence pills have stopped working.
But other than that, he holds great promise for all mass murderers looking to start a political movement.
You mad, bro?
Awwww.
Haven't Republicans given Hipster Vacuum Jim Daniels enough reason (and means with which) to overdose himself on Oxy-Contin?
His comment reflect the violence and stupidity of their base.
Too many overdoses and then he starts entertaining violent self-harm fantasies to anyone telling the truth.
How sad. You can tell he has nothing to live for.
Don't worry, Vacuum Daniels. Some place, somewhere out there - there's a Republican who cares about you. Far far away. In a galaxy long, long ago.
LOL!
It appears Ritmo is now unemployed.
Take the dick out of your mouth Michael and accept that you're not the only one who can leisurely coast by with days off when they want to.
It's not like your non-work time was written into Trump's tax bill or anything. Was it?
Oh Shitmo, please come say any of your bullshit in person.
I only say things in person to actual people. Not to phony "tough-guy" internet avatar resentful losers who want to hide how many of their family members I can read about overdosing on Oxy-Contin every day of the week, when they're not talking to shit to everyone else around them.
Nope. I leave losers like that to wallow in their own self-imposed loserdom.
Nope. I leave losers like that to wallow in their own self-imposed loserdom.*
*And so does the Republican Party.
Here is how Marianna Sotomayor at NBCNews reported it on Twitter:
"For the first time in history there is more than one female politician running for president. Sen. Klobuchar became the fifth woman to announce today."
Neither Hillary Clinton, Carly Fiorina nor Jill Stein could be reached for comment.
It is always fun to watch Ritmo show everyone how stupid and ignorant he is.
I love how Republicans were really behind Stalin and the reason he murdered millions of people.
That was after he blamed Stalin on hitler and was called out for being an idiot.
He probably thinks the Green New Deal is a smart piece of business too.
You can’t make this shit up. You can’t make a parody more laughably stupid.
Trump International Crime Syndicate said...
K. Harris is not tough. She is an abusive, hard-headed prosecutor who isn't intelligent enough to let the answers she fishes for speak for themselves or an effective and quick response to them, while fighting back the constant tears she's on the verge of breaking apart with over her own self-righteous sadness at the situation. She is horrible. A joke. Her senate hearings performances are cringeworthy pieces of political abomination. She will lose. The NYT is about as stupid a rag as they come on their political pieces. They're much better at tearing apart Trump than coming up with anything people will actually vote for. The sooner they get out of the prognostication and political boosterism business, the better. Maybe even better when they told the Jews that Hitler was no big deal.
I agree with Ritmo. He was spot on about Hillary as well.
Role model Kamala's advice to young women beginning their career: "Find a powerful man and begin sleeping with him. Preferably, he should be married and a politician. You can always rely on this type to be more circumspect."
I love how Republicans were really behind Stalin and the reason he murdered millions of people.
Did the Great Depression your Republican taskmasters gave us allow for Weimar to disintegrate and Hitler to come to power - a power he used to make his pact with Stalin - or did it not?
You can call anything whatever you want, roid-rager. But answer that. Stop being slimy and tell us your thoughts on how your Republican Depression was good for world peace, stopping fascism in Europe, and keeping Stalin and FDR out of a war that only greatly strengthened their countries in the ensuing decades.
He probably thinks the Green New Deal is a smart piece of business too.
I'll let you speak for the billionaire "businessmen" crony capitalist colluders who want to stop the development of new technologies that threaten their schemes and how smart you think they are. After all, they really do seem to own you, and your opinions.
You can’t make this shit up. You can’t make a parody more laughably stupid.
Getting off the steroids and psychedelics will greatly improve your humor. The sooner the better.
Also, getting a job in which you're not massively out-earned by your wife might help you, also.
But we all know you're not capable of that.
Just keep the white t-shirt on and make videos no one watches all day long.
the Great Depression made possible, courtesy of Republican roaring 20's feed-the-rich economic policies.
This is easily verifiable as partisan nonsense. The '29 crash was a changing of the previously presumed new baseline for financial growth driven by expectations of complete re-engineering of society. This was largely driven by over-exuberant expectations in how new engineering would make production vastly cheaper leading to much greater markets. In fact it is very similar to at least two other events closer to our time: the 90s internet boom/crash and globalization.
Revealingly Leftists / Dems never blame Clinton for the exuberant internet buildup, in fact they credit him for a strong economy effectively denying any link between the buildup and crash. Nor do they recognize their "experimentation" as prolonging the recovery.
Since leftists dominate the education system and ignore evidence contrary to their mythology they are functionally economically illiterate.
Ritmo
What "new technologies" are being thwarted? The subsidized wind industry? The subsidized solar industry? Curious.
This is easily verifiable as partisan nonsense. The '29 crash was a changing of the previously presumed new baseline for financial growth driven by expectations of complete re-engineering of society. This was largely driven by over-exuberant expectations in how new engineering would make production vastly cheaper leading to much greater markets. In fact it is very similar to at least two other events closer to our time: the 90s internet boom/crash and globalization.
IN one paragraph and many unnecessary words Rick the Moron proves that he can't figure out what kept the 2000 tech bubble from being anywhere near as disastrous as the 1929 Republican Depression: The very regulations and progressive policies that we enacted in between.
What a dumbass.
Just like the Republicans who then spent eight years trying to dismantle those things root and branch before scratching their heads and wondering how 2008 got to be so bad.
I didn't notice their donor class complaining, though. Funny, that.
Rick, you're not a billionaire and you'll never be one. Stop pretending to speak for them, you fucking puppet. Leave that shit to Howard Schultz and Sheldon Adelson and the Kochs and Hillary Clinton.
Blogger AllenS said...
We'll see how tough Harris is when Amy Klobuchar starts throwing objects like binders at her.
Oakland don't play
The Lorax speaks for the trees and Rick speaks for the billionaires and Republican donor class. Because they could really use his representation.
He's doing such a good job speaking for them, on their behalf. Perhaps they'll invite him to give the next keynote address at the Hoover Institution!
LOL!
Republican Identity Crisis: When your voters stop confusing themselves with the donors who fund your party.
Scott Adams today on Amy Klobuchar, "I've never seen a worse first impression."
Kamala Harris gives new meaning to that old saying “suck up, kick down”
Unknown @ 9:40 offers cliche, stupid, erroneous thumbnail sketch of fantasy criminal justice system.
Another piece of shit billionaire who can't figure out if he's running to help his own pocketbook and balance sheet or for the plight of average Americans.
Awesome.
So transparent. Only the GOP elite wanna-be's don't see it.
Back in the twenties, Bertrand Russell was asked who were the smartest three men alive. Russell replied that the smartest men alive were Einstein and Lenin and that there were no other smart men alive.......Lenin wrote sixty books that were over six hundred pages long. He wasn't afraid of analyzing statistics and no one ever accused him of plagiarism. He was much smarter than his contemporary Warren Harding and, moreover, he had a vision for the future. We can learn so much not just from visionary leaders like Lenin but from great thinkers like Russell who bring these visionary leaders to our attention.
So Im standing in the forevet line at the Post Office and open up Bonfires of The Vanities. Right ou of the box, 3rd paragraph
Chuck! The insolent—he’s right there, right there in the front—he just called him a Charlie! Chuck is short for Charlie, and Charlie is the old code name for a down-home white bigot. The insolence of it! The impudence!
Seems like a connection there.
I wonder if this is what Anne had in mind when she suggested we read the novel.
That Chuck is a Charlie.
John Henry
William
That Lenin!! What a planner. Guess how many starved under his smart agricultural policies? Take a wild guess.
Herbert Hoover was one of our most intetesting presidents. Orphan, dropout, 1st graduate of Stanford, successful mining engineer, terrific author, Chinese Ministet of mines and more.
In 1914 he quit working and dedicated himself to feeding Belgians as a private citizen against the wishes of both sides. Continued on behalh of the US govt when Wilson dragged us in. Contiued after the war getting food into Europe.
Credited with saving 20,000,000 European civilians from death by starvation.
Vernon Kellogg wrote a great bio in about 1922. Hoover's memoirs in 3 volumes are also great.
His 1912 book on mine valuation is also a fascinating for anyone interested in finance. It is still pretty fresh and still used in mine engineering schools.
His wife was also very interesting and successful in her own right.
John Henry
Rick, you're not a billionaire and you'll never be one. Stop pretending to speak for them, you fucking puppet
We already know you're incapable of understanding reality beyond your interest. Don't presume to project your own ignorance onto others.
The very first comment in the thread nailed it- this is pre-vetting designed to turn any negatives Harris' opponents might try to use against her into "old news". A similar thing happened with the spate of Willie Brown stories from a couple of weeks ago.
I will be interested to see what the media do once Harris' primary opponents start trying use these items against her- I suspect we will see a spate of editorials written about how so-and-so is behaving badly for attacking Harris for this or that because "Orange Man Bad!", or because "Racism!".
As I wrote in the original thread, the person/people to watch are the Clintons. I just assume they have the real dirt on Harris and will deploy it when Hillary! needs it to knock her out of the race.
That Lenin!! What a planner. Guess how many starved under his smart agricultural policies? Take a wild guess.
Don't worry, Michael! There are enough dirt people in Trump's Republican America who will keep voting to keep your money safe. Don't you worry about a thing! Just tell them it's about them, not you!
Although you might have to pay them off a bit better, though. Do something about their opioid overdose epidemic, maybe.
Take your limo out to visit them or take them on a tour of your yacht. You know, something to let them know that they have "skin in the game," as their party likes to say.
Skin in the game. Like kissing up to you. It's what all the Dirt People live for.
And you do, too.
What a guy.
"Rick, you're not a billionaire and you'll never be one. Stop pretending to speak for them, you fucking puppet"
We already know you're incapable of understanding reality beyond your interest. Don't presume to project your own ignorance onto others.
Ricky want a cracker! Aaaack! Ricky a good parrot for his billionaires? Aaaaack!
Ricky mistake their interests with reality!
Good parrot, Ricky. Good parrot.
Like I said, Ricky. Wake me up when you're invited to give that keynote speech for the Hoover Institution!
What you do is advocacy, not reality. And you know it. It's just that it's for someone else.
How pathetic. I don't have conversations with puppets or muppets.
One cool story about Hoover in Kelloggs book is about his conduct in the legation quarter in one of the Chinese rebellions maybe the Boxer Rebellion?
He was a quaker and a pacifist so would never have shot anyone. I forget why but he had to ride out among the bandits. He carried a rifle and brandished it.
Since the bandits didn't know he was a pacifist, he was able to back them down.
Perhaps a crappy president. Perhaps. But one hell of an interesting and accomplished guy.
John Henry
Which is the new incarnation of the Ritmo bot? Howard or TICS or both?
The language similarities could support an argument for either or both.
Watch for self-declarations of total victory over an obviously vanquished foe. That's a tip-off.
I am greatly heartened that so much of the Commentariat has read "Bonfire of the Vanities." It literally changed my world view. My family is mostly New Yorkers, including several NYPD cops, so I had a taste of what Manhattan was like in the 80s, but only from a afar through family visits. We migrated West when I was a tot.
I eagerly await the thoughtful explication of this epic novel by our beloved Hostess.
p.s. the movie was too weak to do justice to the book. Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis couldn't quite cut it.
Another novel that rivals "Bonfire of the Vanities" is "Confederacy of the Dunces" set in New Orleans circa 1965. Outloud hilarity. Totally captures the over-educated dunces, before they took over the universities.
Howard is brief in expression, so not Ritmo.
"How pathetic. I don't have conversations with puppets or muppets."
You should buy a gun and shoot yourself in the face.
Did Ricky the Muppet just admit that his political advocacy is antithetical to his own interests?
True, dat. And only a matter of time before they admit it.
No one excels better than the right at stepping in it and explaining why they shouldn't be listened to.
I just want my nation to survive and prosper. That's my interest. And repeating the 1929 debacle ain't the way to do it. Neither is repeating the 2008 debacle.
Ricky the puppet can't identify a single conservative policy that ever helped America - from Reagan's outsourcing America for Wall Street's benefit agenda to Trump's hodgepodge of nonsense.
Here's what the right-wing agenda has done for America. Name me a single developed country in which that's worked to do anything for that country.
He can't. He's a puppet and it's not within his talking points to answer that one.
Just pull the drawstring on his neck and shake hands with the billionaire whose hand is up the puppet's ass, making its mouth move.
Watch for self-declarations of total victory over an obviously vanquished foe. That's a tip-off.
Watch for the right-wing foe to sputter and avoid responding with anything other than resentment, violence or silence.
That's a tip-off, too. A big tip off.
Hoover also organized and managed a relief project in the Soviet Union that saved millions of lives. Hoover did not have a successful Presidency but I would hope that someday historians take account of his success in relief projects. It seems to me that saving millions of lives outweighs dispersing the Bonus Army by force......Hoover was definitely a smart guy, but it's better to be right than smart. Being smart is a risk factor in hubris. Hoover and Lenin had some things in common. Harding would probably have managed the Depression better.
"Watch for the right-wing foe to sputter and avoid responding with anything other than resentment, violence or silence."
You should buy a gun and shoot yourself in the face.
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