Tucker Carlson is an intellectual from certain perspectives. It's all relative.
As serious high-minded intellectuals we shouldn't be judging a thinker by his nickname or his sexual kinks.
What a fool I was to have any shame at all.
NW's tone in this post makes me think that if this business came up before an old-school High Court judge I would kill to get a seat in the public gallery.
"Members of the jury, you have heard the testimony of Mr Sponge [looks over top of spectacles] who embarked on what one might term an unorthodox business arrangement involving his wife and Mr Hogan..."
"Love Sponge" is kind of an on the nose nickname for a guy who is basically a pimp.
The only thing in journalism that could possibly surpass the sheer idiocy and malignancy of Wall Street Journal opinion pieces are Wall Street Journal editorials. Die Die Die Robert Bartley.
I missed a trick, though. He isn't Mr Hogan in real life, but Mr something else (Johnson? Hammond? Rees Mogg?) rather more unlikely.
6: Isn't Bartley rather long dead? Replaced by Paul Gigot during the W years?
8: Died in 2003!
Your wish came true NLMAM!
Hulk Hogan is Terry Bollea, but according to Esquire and Wikipedia, the man born Todd Alan Clem legally changed his name to Bubba the Love Sponge Clem about 20 years ago.
Why keep "Clem", though? Not least in this context it sounds like a slang term for something embarrassing.
12: That may be a feature not a bug. Embarrassment appears to be the man's drug of choice.
I'm guessing Fifth Commandment, plus maybe desire not to have "Sponge" as surname.
Gawker's play-by-play description of the first HH tape was terrifically funny.
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Holy Fucking Shitballs. Bercow.
One of my colleagues as swearing because an entire column must now be rewritten; the brexit leader writer is laughing hysterically instead.
I don't think anything in my lifetime has approached this for dramatic wtfery
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"Prominent conservative thinker enjoys talking about sex with noted cuckold/failed blackmailer."
I see what 16 is about but I don't quite get why it's so shocking or meaningful. I'm sure it matters for short-term tactics, but was yet another vote going to make any difference to the outcome?
18: it means that the delay to brexit will now be long (3 months or more) rather than short (a few weeks) which makes Remain more likely, I would say.
Remain being more likely is objectively good, right? So, hooray?
also prb means may w/ be gone b4 the end of brexit dlay, to be replaced by who?
19: What was the mechanism by which they delay might have been only a few weeks? They vote in May's deal with a few extra provisos?
To 18, May had still been hoping to get her deal passed before the end of the month.
I don't know the personalities and politics here, though. What is Bercow's angle? Is he a hard Brexiter, or a Remainer? Or is this just his sincere take on what the law requires? I could see any of those as being motivations.
Yes, if the deal was passed, there would be a short delay to allow for implementation (because there's only 11 days left) and then Brexit, on the terms of the deal.
21: ❤ 🤣
Seems to me various people have been talking about this for a few weeks, that may-gov't taken by surprise hilariously on-the-nose. & tho understand frustration w corbyn (wrt personality & policy) do not understand widespread failure to come to grips with reality that 1) best case scenario only 1 major party emerges from this episode intact, 2) in fptp system the still-intact party likely governs for a wodge of time, 3) why in hell should labor sacrifice itself for tory unity?
What is Bercow's angle? Is he a hard Brexiter, or a Remainer?
He's a stickler for the rules. And he's an impartial chair. And we don't know what he thinks because he doesn't vote.
It's one of the written bits of the "Unwritten Constitution". and it says, amongst much else, that you can't bring a defeated proposal back to the House of Commons unless it contains something new.
Is there something productive that can be done by stealing a ceremonial mace again? Dropping the Woolsack from a height on May? Anything?
Why didn't that rule apply to the second vote?
I'm guessing Fifth Commandment, plus maybe desire not to have "Sponge" as surname.
"Call me Bubba, Mr Sponge is my father."
He's a stickler for the rules. And he's an impartial chair. And we don't know what he thinks because he doesn't vote.
Eh. If he was a stickler for the rules, he'd have blocked the 2nd "meaningful vote". It was no more or less different than the third one. And he's certainly made a number of procedural calls in the last few months that have at least somewhat tendentiously gone against the government in a way that suggests a preferred outcome.
31.last is a good point; what exactly was the difference, if any, between the Meaningful Vote and 2 Meaningful 2 Vote?
The peroration "You have sat here too long for any good you may be doing. In the name of God, go!" has already been reused once (quite effectively- it got rid of Neville Chamberlain), but I think it would lose its its power if it was used more than once every 100 years or so. The Woolsack is in the House of Lords, where May can't go as an MP. I'm not sure that stealing the mace would help, either. If the majority of MPs who actually want a soft Brexit or to remain in the EU were to caucus in the lobby and say, "Fuck the parties, this is too important, we'll take over", they could, techically. But they won't, because they're zombified partisan hacks who care more about re-election than the good of the country. I think yoou have some of those, too.
Is there something productive that can be done by stealing a ceremonial mace again?/
"Is there nothing to be said for having another Mass?"
Why didn't that rule apply to the second vote?
Actually, I suspect that Bercow wasn't aware of the rule until somebody pointed it out. As he said, it hasn't come up for over 100 years, because people have observed it.
If the majority of MPs who actually want a soft Brexit or to remain in the EU were to caucus in the lobby and say, "Fuck the parties, this is too important, we'll take over", they could, techically.
Or they could just call a vote of no confidence in the government. That is the point; the job description for prime minister is "can command the support of the Commons" and a VONC is the way that the Commons can show that actually she can't.
35 looks right; Bercow said that " it "could credibly argued it was a different proposition" to that rejected on 15 January because of changes the government considered to be legally binding". Also I think Angela Eagle brought up the rule and asked about it last week, and so quite possibly he hadn't considered it before then.
those in need of light relief, look here:
https://twitter.com/ABC_COMEDY/status/1106072466391252992
Somehow, the pivot from taking about conservatives with perversions to talking about the British government doesn't even seem to be a change of topic.
38: they got the voice and music just right.
Or they could just call a vote of no confidence in the government.
That would be the next order of business, but they'd have to see who was in first. After that they would need to:
1. Call a vote of no confidence;
2. Instruct the Speaker to go and have tea with the old lady and ask her to make Ken Clarke PM;
3. Put together a Cabinet consisting of PM, Foreign Secretary; Chancellor; Brexit Secretary; Lord High Everything Else (whose job would be to pat the Civil Service on the head and tell them to keep up the good work;.
4. Hold a vote of confidence;
5. Call Barnier and ask for a 6 month extension to work out a meaningful negotiating position and agree it with the EU;
6. After six months, sign the agreement and formally leave the EU;
7. Ask for a dissolution.
40: yes! so good.
at the risk of summoning evil spirits, seems to me the next plot twist is for brenda to expire, putting chuck in place for a request to dismiss this parliament and seat [another] [aka the exact same one] and all holy hell to break loose bc request clearly in bad faith.
Honestly, I'll understand cricket before I understand Brexit.
I especially like that those positions look near-guaranteed to cause injury.
Bercow said that " it "could credibly argued it was a different proposition" to that rejected on 15 January because of changes the government considered to be legally binding".
A position rather undermined by the attorney general's legal opinion.
And while I can't say for certain Bercow knew about it, plenty of people did, and if they did, surely the Speaker of the House would. Long before the second vote it was raised as an argument against my proposition that May would just keep bringing the deal up for a vote until enough people caved. If some random message board punter knows about it, it doesn't seem reasonable that the person actually in charge of order in the Commons didn't.
47: So what conclusion should we draw? Incompetence? Ulterior motive? If the latter, what's the motive?
Also the Clerk of the House of Commons mentioned this rule in this context last October.
8 & 9 Yes I know that he's long dead. Once was not nearly enough.
A position rather undermined by the attorney general's legal opinion.
Just possibly, Bercow has the same opinion of Geoffrey Cox as I do.
I don't think there was any doubt Bercow was shafting May and the ERG.
If Remain does come to pass, expect Bercow, and his many ties, to figure strongly in the Dolchstosslegende.
Maybe they'll be portmaneaued into Bercox.
Re Bercow's tie, among the first image search results for "Bercow" are this, this and this. I like to think they were taken within a 5-minute period.
Someone who shall remain nameless is currently suspended between sobs and giggles because the translation she's doing mandates the use of the (well, sort of) English phrase
"The environment-friendly and the living fun on foot are made important with a person by healthiness"
So there is not only Brexit to fear. You, too, might be trying to earn a crust as a translator
52, 53: This is what makes Brexit so much fun. You can simultaneously stab in the back the two competing factions in the governing party, and still have a substantial constituency, even in the governing party.
57: For real? That is, there's no one at the client she can appeal to for mercy? They can't want to be a laughingstock.
59: I'll try, of course. But when bureaucrats have already used a particular translation in other published official documents, it's hard to persuade them that they've got it wrong. I'll probably succeed with this one, but there are other phrases, like DO YOU KYOTO?, that will just have to stay.
61: Convince them that MWHSWWWHRSWHH (Men who have sex with women who have recorded sex with Hulk Hogan) is a common acronym in the English-language medical literature.
57: maybe it's a deliberate branding decision - they want to attract the sort of visitor to whom cutely-incorrect Engrish slogans and marketing copy appeal.
Something tells me this relates to a certain country where English education is universal in the schools, conducive to in my experience a significant subset of people highly and unfoundedly confident in their own skills.
68, 69: I WAS A GOOD STUDENT AT THE BEST SCHOOL. I WENT TO WHARTON SCHOOL OF FINANCE. TRUST ME, I'M, LIKE, A SMART PERSON. I AM A VERY STABLE GENIUS. I HAVE A VERY, VERY LARGE BRAIN. MY IQ IS ONE OF THE HIGHEST. I HAVE THE WORLD'S GREATEST MEMORY.
I do wonder if Penn recruiting isn't suffering a bit. Not enough to google it, but still some wondering.
71: Appears not to be happening
Penn received a total of 44,482 applications for admission to the Class of 2022, a drastic increase from last year's 40,413 applications and the most in Penn's history
https://www.thedp.com/article/2018/02/applicant-total-upenn-admissions-penn-class-2022-philadelphia
What if they are all shitheads with red hats and low SAT scores, like having to bribe Wake Forest low?
UPenn Admissions Scorecard
•Philadelphia, PA
•Private
•Undergraduate students: 10,468
•Estimated average unweighted GPA of admitted students (unofficial): 4
•Average SAT Score of admitted students: 1475
•Average ACT Score of admitted students: 34
•Subject tests required: Yes
•SAT Scoring policy: Superscore
•ACT Scoring policy: Superscore
•Scholarships based on test scores: UPenn only offers need-based financial aid.
But then again, this is just the ones that get in. And maybe they are all cheating anyway.
https://www.testive.com/upenn-sat-scores-act-scores/
Penn received a total of 44,482 applications for admission to the Class of 2022
I'm long past ready for a campaign to name and shame higher education institutions for trying to gin up the number of applications so they can brag about* their "selectivity." Applying for college costs money, which many students can't easily afford. Colleges shouldn't encourage people to do it unless they have a real shot at making it in. So-called elite institutions will always have plenty-enough applicants without beating the bushes for more.**
*be rated by that odious US News and World Report
**Not suggesting that they skeep out on inviting low-income students in general, just that they shouldn't abuse their privilege by tricking naive students into thinking they have a real shot
6, 8, 9:
Mrs. Bartley (spouse of the WSJ's Robert Bartley) was my brownie troop leader. I was aghast when I, in adulthood, realized who she was married to.
Insofar as the Girl Scouts teach little children how to be good capitalists and salesmen (have a cookie?) maybe this should not have been too surprising.
Seriously, WHY is such a major feature of Girl Scouts about selling? I've never understood it, not since childhood.
Also we sewed and made potholders.
OT: someone put up a petition yesterday on Parliament's site saying "revoke Article 50 and stay in". The law is that any petition that gets 10,000 signatures within six months has to get an official response from HMG. Any petition that gets 100,000 signatures within six months triggers a debate in the house.
It has attracted 689,140 signatures in the first 24 hours...
It would have got more but it has basically DDOSed Parliament.
Sorry, it has been up longer than that but suddenly went viral last night.
76.last: We called them "roach clips" and they were metal.
Did Trump hire a prostitute who asked him to wear a John McCain mask?
I think Girl Scouts were about selling because traditionally Boy Scouts got supported by philanthropists at a much higher level than Girl Scouts, so the money had to come from somewhere.
This reminds me I should buy some of the peanut butter/chocolate kind. Also, the coconut ones. Thin Mints are for kids.
It's good to teach kids about ruthless capitalism or else they'll grow up and be unable to work for an airplane manufacturer that puts features necessary to prevent a crash in its luxury options package.
IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE VALUE OF A LIFE WHAT DO YOU KNOW
77: In possibly one of the most Unfogged-appropriate occurrences of Brexit so far, a Twitter bot that normally retweets penis jokes (@UltraButt) has been repurposed to tweet out the latest number of signatories of the petition every five minutes, so people anxiously waiting for it to hit a million don't have to constantly refresh it, crashing the site in the process. (It's currently at 982825 signatures).
Per the Attorney General's guidance the entire process is in fact a cock joke, yes?
84:
***Spoiler ahead if you haven't seen "The Third Man"***
Holly Martins: [on the ferris wheel] Have you ever seen any of your victims?
Harry Lime: You know, I never feel comfortable on these sort of things. Victims? Don't be melodramatic. [gestures to people far below] Tell me. Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever? If I offered you twenty thousand pounds for every dot that stopped, would you really, old man, tell me to keep my money, or would you calculate how many dots you could afford to spare? Free of income tax, old man. Free of income tax - the only way you can save money nowadays.
I just checked @UltraButt - it now says 1,272,294.
Have other people heard of Orson Wells? He can make a pretty good movie.
89 & 91:
Agreed. Although The Third Man was directed by Carroll Reed, a Brit, and written by Graham Greene.
I used to feel vaguely like I should read something by Graham Greene, but now I know I've seen something he wrote so I'm good.
So have folks watched The Widow on Amazon?
2.3m signatures recorded before the site blocked ultrabutt.
96 just admiring the beauty of that sentence
Looks like the petition site is broken again this morning. It's been stuck on the same number of signatories for at least five hours.
It's back up, and well over 2.6 million now. There should be over a million of us on the streets tomorrow, too. Not that either will have much, if any, effect, but at least it feels that we're laying down a "Not in my name" marker.
2.75 million. The sysadmin for Parliament deserves a CBE when all this is over. And I'd hope for UltraButt getting at least an invitation to a Royal garden party or something.
Question. Have the queen and UltraButt ever been seen together?
Royal garden parties aren't all they're cracked up to be. You get all dressed up and hang around on the lawn of Buck House making polite conversation with strangers while juggling a cup of tea and a plate of inferior sandwiches and dried-up lemon drizzle cake, watching the distant figure of the Queen wandering here and there. Eventually she gets close enough for you to bob your head at her, before she heads off to exchange pleasantries with people more interesting than you. Then you finish up your tea, wander over to the lake, think "OK garden, but St James' Park is nicer," and decide it's time to go home. UltraBott deserves better.
Wait. Is it "UltraButt" or "UltraBott"?
UltraB*u*tt. Remembering the Queen, I must have been subconsciously self-censoring.
I think in the 70s I saw her on a Roller Derby team called The UltraButts.
94. You should read Greene, he was a fine writer. Try The Power and the Glory or The Comedians if you want heavyweight, or Our Man in Havana or Travels with my Aunt for an easy read.
The quiet American is usually a serial killer.
This is the wrongest headline I've seen in the NYT in awhile:
America Deserves a Leader as Good as Jacinda Ardern
Does the petitions site validate that the signers are real UK residents? Or is it on the honor system?
It validates real email addresses and it is possible to input more data, like your constituency. Not all the voters have UK addresses/IPs, but the majority who don't are in France where you would expect a lot of expats to live. So it is kosher-ish.
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Do any of the scientist/statistician types here have a view on the American Statistical Association denouncing the use of p values? This seems an improbable development to me.
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can uk citizens who've lived abroad long enough to no longer have the right to vote in uk elections sign the petition?
113: The odds of it happening were less than one in twenty, so it couldn't have happened.
Anyway, I saw the headline but I didn't read the details and probably won't unless I can figure a way to bill the time.
To bill the time without reading it while pooping. I need that time for me.
114: I didn't even know that was a thing. Shouldn't citizens always be allowed to vote?
114: Yes. Any UK citizen living anywhere in the world can sign it, even children (there's no age limit).
Anyway, it just says "British citizen or UK resident."
118: Different countries have different cutoff periods. For the UK it's 15 years. For Canada I think it's five?
British citizen, not UK citizen! Lest we indulge in erasure of Channel Islanders.
No, I'm wrong about Canada. Apparently that's just been struck down by the Supreme Court.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_expatriates_to_vote_in_their_country_of_origin
I don't even know how it works for America. You need to vote in a certain place.
I guess I missed a primary election when I was living in England. Maybe I voted, but used my parents' address.
