Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

People are weird.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

In after Baud. Damn.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

People are complicated. Love is not.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Monday Evening Open Thread: Always with the Grift, GOP

Monday Evening Open Thread: Always with the Grift, GOP

by | 149 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

Mike Huckabee is a stone Repub grifter, top-level marketing leader in the Downhome Godly Heartland Folks(tm) branch of the Party.

Tweeter Barney Keller, per the Google…

During his tenure at the Club, Barney helped lead the organization’s issue advocacy campaigns and acted as their primary spokesman. He also served as a political and communications adviser to the Club’s affiliated PAC and Super-PAC, contributing to the election of US Senators and Congressmen, including Senators Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, and Ben Sasse.

Prior to joining the Club for Growth, Barney worked for Pat Toomey’s winning Senate campaign, Rick Lazio’s campaign for Governor, as well as the Massachusetts and New Hampshire Republican Parties.

… would seem to be a high-ranking worker bee in the East Coast Wall Street Beltway Establishment Money(tm) branch.

Can we start agitating for a REPUBS IN DISARRAY meme yet?

Reader Interactions

149Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Can we start agitating for a REPUBS IN DISARRAY meme yet?

    Chuck Schumer and Rachel Maddow are doing their best right now, specifically about the Loretta Lynch block. I’m sure Scarborough will have Bob Woodward on in the morning to explain to us taht this is all because Obama hasn’t had Mitch McConnell over for milk and cookies.

  8. 8.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @lamh36: Okay…. true confession… I’m not proud of it… I watched the Tonya Harding-Paula Jones fight on Celebrity Boxing (that was a thing once). Jones came to dance, Harding came to brawl.

  9. 9.

    Botsplainer

    The Lieutenant Governor of Missouri, folks:

    http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/missouri-lt-governor-more-racism-in-the-justice-department-t?utm_term=4ldqpia&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

    The lieutenant governor of Missouri says “there is more racism in the Justice Department” than in the St. Louis area, pointing the finger at President Obama and the Justice Department who, he says, often incited “the mob” in the wake of the shooting of Michael Brown back in August of 2014.

    “The whole blow up of this protest movement was based on the lie that never happened of ‘hands up don’t shoot,'” Peter Kinder, the Lt. governor told NewsMaxTV’s Steve Malzberg Show Monday. “But it’s bad enough the protestors were behaving that way but we have a right to expect more from the attorney general, the head of the Justice Department of the United States, and the president of the United States. And instead what we got too often from them was incitement of the mob, and, uh, encouraging disorder in Ferguson and distributing the peaceable going-about of our lives in the greater St. Louis region.”

    Kinder added President Obama and Eric Holder “took one side” following the death of Michael Brown. Asked why, he said the Justice Department was “staffed with radical, hard-left radical, leftists lawyers.”

  10. 10.

    lamh36

    @Baud: oh, I’m sure it’s def staged, but still I ask? Why is Romney going in and not one of his kids?

    I mean. this puts Romney on par with Tonya Harding…vis a vis…celebrity boxing. Who is advising this dude?

  18. 18.

    Cervantes

    The WSJ reports:

    Malaysian politics are moving down a dark path. A month after the country’s highest court upheld the conviction of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on trumped-up charges of sodomy, police on Monday arrested Mr. Anwar’s daughter for violating the Sedition Act, a colonial-era law increasingly used to chill political debate.

    Nurul Izzah Anwar’s apparent offense was to criticize the judiciary last week in Parliament, where she is opposition vice president. In addition to reading a statement from her father condemning his trial as a political conspiracy, Ms. Nurul Izzah condemned Malaysia’s Federal Court for “bowing to political masters” and being “partners in a crime that contributed to the death of a free judiciary.”

  24. 24.

    JPL

    @NotMax: Has he posted on facebook. I think you are entitled to free speech but that same speech can have consequences. I want to believe that’s what family values are about. Their are consequences to your behavior

  27. 27.

    PsiFighter37

    Any doctors / folks with any medical knowledge in the house? I have a question…I passed out at work today for a couple minutes after feeling a very sharp pain in my right knee. It was weird – it just happened while I was sitting at work – but I felt extremely nauseous, and I barely made it to the wheelchair-accessible stall and sat down before having a vasovagal reaction. I can walk fine without a limp, but I can tell that something is off – in particular, when I sat on the ground and tried to an ab workout – bring my knees in and out – the left side of my right knee felt very tender and a bit sore. If anything, it feels weak when I bend the knee at all – but when I have my leg straightened out, it feels better.

    Any thoughts on what might be wrong? I’m worried it’s a serious injury, but I wanted to see if anyone here had some thoughts on it before I go to see a doctor (which I am trying to figure out if I can do tomorrow somehow).

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Karen in GA:

    I mean, how crazy is that, that I’ve apparently typed his name often enough that all Autocorrect has to do is see the “IG” combination in a word (like, oh, f’rinstance “RIGHT”) and they immediately decide I mean IGGY.

  29. 29.

    Calouste

    Due to an unfortunate misunderstanding with his publisher, Mike Huckabee’s most recent book was published under the title God, Guns, Grits and Gravy, instead of the intended and more appropriate title God, Guns, Grift and the Gravy Train.

  33. 33.

    lamh36

    Very interesting…the young lady who representing Japan in Miss Universe has a Japanese mother and an African American father. She is a Japanese citizen…

    The Face Of Japan Is Changing, But Some Aren’t Ready

    Change happens slowly in Japan, but it does happen. You wake up one day, and things that weren’t possible years ago are happening today. Nowhere is that more evident than in the woman who will represent Japan in the Miss Universe pageant — but that’s to the chagrin of some who wanted a more “Japanese” winner.

    Eriana Miyamoto is 20-year-old selected to represent Japan in the upcoming Miss Universe pageant. As reported by Mainichi News, Miyamoto even expressed uneasiness as to whether or not it would be OK for a hafu [half-Japanese] like her to represent Japan.

    When introducing herself to reporters after her selection, Miyamoto said that her mother is Japanese, her father is American. She added that she was born and raised in Nagasaki and that while she doesn’t “look Japanese” on the outside, on the inside, there are many Japanese things about her.

  34. 34.

    Steeplejack

    Anybody else getting this? On the mobile version of the site (on my Android phone, Chrome browser) the links that go back to the comment to which the current one is replying no longer work. Instead, they cause the whole page to be refreshed and put you back at the very top. Annoying.

    It just started happening today, and I don’t know if it’s a change/problem in the site or something in my phone’s ecostructure.

  37. 37.

    NotMax

    Little (extremely little) pleasures, #11,872.

    First Target store on the island opened this month, and found among their display of Easter candy something all the other stores here stopped carrying years ago, namely bags of just the black jelly beans, a decidedly guilty enjoyment.

    Related, and mildly amusing, was the display seen at a local supermarket this past weekend. Picture packages of the same brand of chocolate bunny displayed vertically. That is, the same product on each shelf from topmost to the lowest.

    In front of the shelves was one of those freestanding cardboard displays with some other goods in its cubbyholes.

    Thing is that the cardboard display had been placed (whether accidentally or by impish intent) such that the packages on the shelves, rather than reading “Chocolate Rabbit” all displayed just “Chocolate Rabbi.”

  38. 38.

    PsiFighter37

    @raven: A bit generic unfortunately – has stuff like Crohn’s which is definitely not the issue. Was seeing if anyone could potentially have more insight / specificity into what might be the problem.

    On the (palely-lit) bright side, it looks like I might be able to go see a specialist directly without having to get a referral…so maybe I just see if I can get an orthopedist tomorrow instead of going to PCP. My wife definitely seems to have a better health plan than I used to.

  43. 43.

    Botsplainer

    Mentioning this again – THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF MISSOURI, sounding like a Wingnut’s wingnut on a wingnut program:

    The lieutenant governor of Missouri says “there is more racism in the Justice Department” than in the St. Louis area, pointing the finger at President Obama and the Justice Department who, he says, often incited “the mob” in the wake of the shooting of Michael Brown back in August of 2014.

    “The whole blow up of this protest movement was based on the lie that never happened of ‘hands up don’t shoot,’” Peter Kinder, the Lt. governor told NewsMaxTV’s Steve Malzberg Show Monday. “But it’s bad enough the protestors were behaving that way but we have a right to expect more from the attorney general, the head of the Justice Department of the United States, and the president of the United States. And instead what we got too often from them was incitement of the mob, and, uh, encouraging disorder in Ferguson and distributing the peaceable going-about of our lives in the greater St. Louis region.”

    Kinder added President Obama and Eric Holder “took one side” following the death of Michael Brown. Asked why, he said the Justice Department was “staffed with radical, hard-left radical, leftists lawyers.”

  46. 46.

    Anne Laurie

    @PsiFighter37:

    Any thoughts on what might be wrong? I’m worried it’s a serious injury, but I wanted to see if anyone here had some thoughts on it before I go to see a doctor (which I am trying to figure out if I can do tomorrow somehow).

    You’re in Manhattan; there has to be a 24-hour ‘urgent care’ walk-in clinic somewhere in your neighborhood, right?

    I’d pay the premium to have someone with an actual medical degree give me a quick check-up, make sure it wasn’t something dire. If they can give you a name for the issue & tell you what to watch for in the future, even better.

  47. 47.

    WaterGirl

    @Steeplejack: @Baud: The IT troubleshooter in me says that’s a good thing. (Sorry, Baud!)

    Otherwise, Steeplejack might be up all night trying to fix the problem on his mobile device.

    Is it mistermix who usually resolves technical issues around at BJ?

  53. 53.

    NotMax

    @efgoldman

    (Not a doctor nor do I portray one on the ‘net.)

    Not widely known is that real black licorice can also be utilized as a gentle laxative.

  56. 56.

    another Holocene human

    I just became aware that the Arkansas Times is crowd funding an investigation into AR’s child welfare system. Sorry, can’t link but it’s on ioby. Please give if you can.

  59. 59.

    lamh36

    9 Signs You’re Not Ready To Date

    My fav, cause I’m always saying the same thing to my sisters…If you want a relationship, ok, but when you “needy” about being in a relationship for self worth or something…that’s a problem.

    YOU FEEL AS THOUGH YOU NEED TO BE IN A RELATIONSHIP
    There are certain things that you need in this life: air to breathe, food to eat, water to drink. You do not NEED a relationship, and if you feel like you NEED to be in one, then that’s a problem.

    Your life shouldn’t be predicated on the presence on someone else in it.

  60. 60.

    NotMax

    @Botsplainer

    Was (may still be) a shop in either Minneapolis or St. Paul (memory is hazy on which) which made their own candies in house. They had anise cubes that were scrumptious.

    Just curious if you also like Akvavit, a drink either savored or loathed – there is no middle ground. Crisp and best drunk only when served ice, ice cold.

  62. 62.

    beth

    @PsiFighter37: I knew someone in very good shape who came down with gout. He said it felt like someone plunged a knife in his toe. It came on quickly with no warning. You should see a doc.

  64. 64.

    Suzanne

    I am still in San Antonio for this conference and I am getting tired of socializing with people I don’t know. I am not that extroverted, and it takes me considerable effort (and alcohol) to get loose enough to talk to people I don’t know. I met the liberal from Texas, though. The one.

    I am hungry and yet all the room service food looks gross.

  65. 65.

    east is east

    This evening I got an unexpected invite to a six year old girl’s birthday party. The party is tomorrow. I want to bring her a gift but I’m not sure what a six year old would want. Any suggestions from anyone?

  66. 66.

    Botsplainer

    @NotMax:

    Just curious if you also like Akvavit, a drink either savored or loathed – there is no middle ground. Crisp and best drunk only when served

    Never had the Scandinavian version. I remember that somebody once brought something made by the same people who make Triple Sec (Triple Sec is gross, splurge on Cointreau) and it was about 40 proof. Cloying, like drinking a black twizzler.

    Stuff I like runs 80-100 proof.

  70. 70.

    beth

    @east is east: Some kind of generic craft kit to make/paint/decorate something. I’ve seen bracelet/jewelry/decorative boxes that come with everything you need to complete them. My daughter always loved those huge three foot coloring books too.

  72. 72.

    JPL

    So for all you Tebow fans, the Eagles have decided not to sign him. It’s definitely a case of religious persecution.

  74. 74.

    Suzanne

    @east is east: Nerf weaponry.

    @JPL: I went to the Alamo, and I’ve gone to the Riverwalk every day. It is beautiful. I don’t have a rental car, so I’m limited to the area around the convention center.

  77. 77.

    Cervantes

    @Suzanne:

    Tomorrow:

    Walk west on Market to El Mercado.

    Stop at Mi Tierra for actual food.

    Ask again if you want additional suggestions.

  79. 79.

    east is east

    Thank you everyone. I think I’ll go with the three foot coloring book and a playmobil set. Also, a bottle of wine. That’s for me.

  80. 80.

    Roger Moore

    @Tenar Darell:
    California’s biggest problem isn’t that we’re failing to capture enough of the water; it’s that we simply aren’t getting as much as we need. Any sensible solution has to work on the demand side, especially cutting disgustingly inefficient use for agriculture.

  81. 81.

    Jay C

    @PsiFighter37:

    Second the reccs to see a specialist about the knee (and definitely the recc for HSS – all NY sports teams’ medicos are associated, I think) – sounds like you MAY have displaced the patella, and possibly torn/slipped a tendon or ligament.
    If you haven;t already: try icing. It may help til you can get an exam/x-ray.

  82. 82.

    Karen in GA

    @east is east: I second the crafts/coloring suggestions.

    Someone in my family thought it was a good idea to buy drums for a two-year-old, and others in my family think this kid pounding away is just adorable. (There are times when I wonder if my distancing myself from my family really shows that I’m the screwed-up one and not them. This is not one of those times.)

  83. 83.

    Anne Laurie

    @east is east:

    This evening I got an unexpected invite to a six year old girl’s birthday party. The party is tomorrow. I want to bring her a gift but I’m not sure what a six year old would want

    If there isn’t a good children’s bookstore / toystore in her area, Barnes & Noble has kiddy-themed gift cards, which you can get the clerk to put in a gift bag with a either a small stuffed toy or a fancy little Godiva chocolate treat.

    In my experience, kids appreciate gift cards, because you’re saying “I may not know what you like, but I think you’re grown-up enough to have actual opinions to indulge.” Even if she’s genuinely thrilled by the fifteenth Frozen/Disney Princess/Monster High gift that “everybody likes”, having an adult judge that she’s old enough to choose for herself is empowering.

  84. 84.

    Suzanne

    @Cervantes: OK, thank you. I’ve been disappointed by the food so far, but that’s because I’m at business dinners at these places on the Riverwalk. The views are nice, but the food has sucked. The best place I’ve been to so far is Fogo de Chāo, and that is sad.

  85. 85.

    Suzanne

    I am in my hotel room listening to people on CNN debate whether or not it is OK to use “the N-word”. The pasty fat white dude is SURPRISE! being a total dick.

  86. 86.

    Steeplejack

    @WaterGirl, @beth:

    Well, I guess it’s not just me, then. Cold comfort, but comfort of a sort.

    On a related note, I had similar (but different) problems on my Nexus 7 tablet after I upgraded to Android 5.0. Chrome seemed slower and more unstable, but I could never figure out exactly what was the problem. By coincidence, just today I got a notice to upgrade to Android 5.1—which I did—so I’ll see if that improves things.

  87. 87.

    Tenar Darell

    @Roger Moore: Absolutely. But, your future planning should also include letting your beavers dam the landscape freely. The section in the article on the beavers re-introduction to Alberta shows that their spread helped agriculture (including ranchers) during the drought there in 2002.

  89. 89.

    beth

    @Suzanne: Why don’t the hosts of those debates ever ask the pasty white dicks just why they want to use the n-word? Just who do they want to call a n—r so badly and why?

  93. 93.

    Steeplejack

    @Suzanne:

    It might be a little late tonight, but, my God, San Antonio is Ground Zero for excellent Mexican food, for values of “Mexican” = “Tex-Mex.” I don’t know what’s available in the neighborhood where you are, but there’s got to be something. Even if you try it only to sneer it at from your highfalutin Calizona perspective.

  94. 94.

    Suzanne

    @Steeplejack: I eat lots of Mexican food, but I am always up for more. Usually I don’t care for Tex-Mex (not spicy enough), but I will investigate.

    I need to amend my earlier statement. The dude is big, but I shouldn’t have mentioned it in the fashion that I did, as that insinuated that his weight is related to his shitty character. He is a dick, but he would be just as much of a dick if he was skinny. Apologies.

  96. 96.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    I am way too excited that kosher Coke is back on the shelves in California. Presumably they resolved their dispute over the caramel coloring that the state thinks is carcinogenic.

    I wasn’t even looking for it, but there it was, smiling up at me from an endcap at Gelson’s.

    (It’s Coke made with real sugar instead of HFCS because HFCS is not kosher for Passover.)

  101. 101.

    Amir Khalid

    @Cervantes:
    This story from Free Malaysia Today has a statement from Nurul Izzah’s lawyer.

    The laws under which Nurul Izzah was arrested are part of our colonial legacy; the Brits put them in place during the Emergency to take communists out of circulation. The Alliance/Barisan Nasional government has found other uses for them.

    The Royal Malaysian Police is an agency of the Home Ministry, and and in political matters is not known for impartiality or gentleness. When Nurul Izzah’s dad was first arrested on sodomy charges, back in 1998, he was beaten up while in police custody. It only came to light because The Economist ran on its cover a picture of his battered face and the whole planet saw it. Only a cop could have beaten Anwar up, and that cop turned out to be the Inspector-General of Police — the national police chief, no less. He served a few months in jail. Anwar did six years on the trumped-up charges.

  102. 102.

    Steeplejack

    @Suzanne:

    Ácenar is right on the Riverwalk. It’s upscale Tex-Mex. I haven’t eaten there, but it’s on my list for the next time I get to San Antonio.

  103. 103.

    Suzanne

    @Violet: Hah. I’m here on my company’s dime, but I don’t feel right buying anything that spendy. Lemme see if I can get one of the GCs to buy me dinner…..l

  104. 104.

    Suzanne

    Now I’m getting to hear about some murderer dude who urinated in the candy aisle of a CVS.

  106. 106.

    Tree With Water

    “I immediately recognized The Ibogaine Effect from Muskie’s tearful breakdown on the flatbed truck in New Hampshire…There was no doubt about it: The Man From Maine had turned to massive doses of Ibogaine as a last resort”.

    Hunter Thompson
    Fear & Loathing On The Campaign Trail ’72

    People at the time took that as a serious charge by Thompson, and he was caught flat footed by that reaction. He was just joking around about the drug and the presidential candidate, and transparently, or so he thought. Muskie was long finished as a candidate by the time it was published, however, and Thompson’s reputation emerged unscathed (among his fans, anyway). Besides, many establishment journalists and politicians didn’t know quite what to make of him at that point. Was a journalist, or a fiction writer, or just a madman? Opinions varied. Be that as it may, I hadn’t heard, read, or thought about Ibogaine since that time; that is, until I read this news flash about another victim of the Kardashian clan. Those women really know how to pick ’em.

    “Scott Disick..the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star, 31, will undergo an alternative treatment, which “involves roots from a small African tree that supposedly helps people battle addiction”..
    The center uses the Iboga plant, which is credited as having anti-addictive properties. Ibogaine, a hallucinogen which is created from plant roots, is supposed to help with cravings for alcohol and drugs like heroin”.

  107. 107.

    Hal

    Rachel Maddow’s coverage of Loretta Lynch’s history is infuriating in regards to the GOP treatment of her nomination. This is someone who had to retake her aptitude tests because her school did not believe a black girl could score so high. Who had to share being valedictorian because having a black valedictorian would upset too many people.

    It’s a disgrace that someone so accomplished is getting screwed by this do nothing republican led congress.

  112. 112.

    Cervantes

    @Amir Khalid:

    Thanks.

    And I’ll take a look at the article you cited.

    One question for now: I recall from the 1970s and 1980s that opposition politicians — Lim Kit Siang, Karpal Singh, possibly others — were repeatedly arrested and jailed. Is Nurul Izzah’s arrest of a piece or something even worse?

  113. 113.

    Roger Moore

    @efgoldman:

    I don’t think the substance itself is non-kosher

    I’m pretty sure you’re wrong about that one. The kosher rules for Passover forbid mixing grain and water and letting it sit for more than a very short time before cooking, since the mixture could theoretically develop natural leavening. That’s why you have to get special Passover matzos; they’re guaranteed to be cooked within the defined interval. Since HFCS involves soaking the corn with water for a long time, it is most certainly not kosher for Passover.

  114. 114.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @Amir Khalid:

    This website says that corn is in a category of foods that could be mistaken for one of the five grains you can’t have during Passover, so you’re supposed to avoid it:

    http://www.yoyenta.com/kosher-for-passover-coke-confusion/

    As I understand it, Coke with HFCS is kosher for everyday life, just not for the stricter rules of Passover, but I’m going by what I can glean on the Internet and don’t have any actual inside knowledge. HFCS has a weird aftertaste to me, so I prefer my soda sweetened with sucrose.

  115. 115.

    WaterGirl

    @muddy: thank you !!! maybe i’ll just pass on the european licorice!

    i love panda licorice, and two of the ingredients are licorice extract and anise. i wonder if the licorice extract is a problem.

  117. 117.

    catclub

    @Tenar Darell: Amusing. I remember someone describing what it would be like to have elephants in a region the size of California. I think it suggested that in California, the Californians would not put up with what they do. If you have a big piece of land, you might not mind a beaver dam on your property, but if you have a smaller area and the beaver picks yours for its dam, opinions might differ.

  122. 122.

    Amir Khalid

    @Cervantes:
    It’s essentially of an ilk with those other detentions. There’s more than one law they can use; it’s usually either the Sedition Act or the Internal Security Act. The latter lets the Man detain you for up to two years, without legal process beyond a detention order signed by the Home Minister.

    That nice man Najib promised before the 2013 general election that he’d think hard about abolishing these laws. Then, a year after he won by the narrowest margin in our history, he said he’d made an “executive decision” not to.

  123. 123.

    NotMax

    @east is east

    I think I’ll go with the three foot coloring book and a playmobil set. Also, a bottle of wine. That’s for me.

    Aw, and here was beginning to contemplate someone marketing a My First Hangover set.

  125. 125.

    Mike E

    Kimmel is in Austin, for sxsw I s’pose, and did 3 TV spots for a local video store (with vhs, natch) and got an assist from a ‘local’ actor… Matthew McConaughey. Very funny.

  126. 126.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Prior to joining the Club for Growth, Barney worked for Pat Toomey’s winning Senate campaign, Rick Lazio’s campaign for Governor, as well as the Massachusetts and New Hampshire Republican Parties.

    “Wall Street grifter accuses redneck grifter of grifting.”

    If the 2016 Kloun Kar consists of the different strains of GOP grifter picking fights with each other, then there is not enough popcorn in the world.

  127. 127.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Violet: Pesach Coke is better than Mexican Coke (to me) because it’s made with the American formula proportion of phosphoric acid. Mexican Coke – with actual sugar – isn’t as sharp due to less phosphoric acid. Not that I’m obsessive about Coke, of course.

  130. 130.

    Tenar Darell

    @catclub: Yeah, if you read the article I linked to, they are considered pests in residential areas here in Massachusetts. But like mangroves in Florida, or shifting, grassy dunes and marshes on the Cape, or wolves in Yellowstone we probably have to learn to live and build with them rather than against them. I don’t know how we do this with our current laws around property. Perhaps we protect houses, but let go of some of the golf courses? Later, we warn people who live in low lying areas that they will have to plan for beavers? I really don’t know. But any species that actually can hold water in what would be more arid landscapes the way beavers can, cannot be ignored, can they?

  131. 131.

    trollhattan

    Oh FFS. Just. Go. Away,

    The California Legislature’s debate over whether to make childhood vaccines mandatory has attracted another high-profile personality: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of the late U.S. senator and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy.

    In a call Monday to The Sacramento Bee, Kennedy Jr. – a longtime skeptic of the safety of some vaccine ingredients – said he’s hoping to organize a Sacramento screening of a film that he wants legislators to see before they vote on Senate Bill 277. The measure, by Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, would eliminate the ability of parents to opt out of having their children vaccinated based on their personal beliefs. It has touched off an impassioned debate among California parents pitting arguments of personal freedom against public health.

    “I believe everybody should get vaccinated, but I also understand it’s a nuanced issue. It’s not as simple as they make it,” Kennedy Jr. said. “I don’t feel that my children were damaged by vaccines, but I know that other children have been.”

    Kennedy Jr. calls himself “pro-vaccine” and said he has vaccinated all six of his children. Yet he has become a loud voice in the movement that questions the safety of vaccines. He promotes the idea that vaccines can cause autism – an idea not supported by mainstream science – and says pharmaceutical companies that make vaccines have too much political clout. He recently wrote a book about thimerosal, a preservative that health authorities have removed from most vaccines. A Washington Post profile of Kennedy Jr. last year described his struggle to gain acceptance for his vaccine views in health and political circles.

    Kennedy Jr. said he showed “Trace Amounts,” the movie he wants to screen in Sacramento, to members of Oregon’s legislature before they recently decided to back away from a bill to require more vaccines. The movie raises questions about the safety of vaccines by telling the story of a man who believes he was damaged by a shot containing thimerosal.

  134. 134.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Mike E: If you refer to Pesach Coke, you must grab it now! Mexican Coke is available year round (in glass!!) and is far superior to regular Coke Classic, even with the slight formula difference. But for my taste, Kosher for Passover is the best. I’ve only found it in 2 liters, and it’s designated by a yellow cap, on which is the official rabbinical approval is printed.

    @Amir Khalid:It is slightly bizarre, I agree. But everybody has to be good at something. At Coke headquarters, on the factory/museum tour, I’m told you can taste all the various national formulas. The alarming part is that I’ve not been on that tour.

  135. 135.

    ruemara

    @PsiFighter37: You’re in NYC. Get thee the fuck to a doctor. It’s not the knee pain that I’d be concerned about. It’s the passing out. That’s a problem. Don’t fuck with things. Get an emergency appointment.

    Stay well.

  137. 137.

    cmorenc

    @PsiFighter37:

    Any doctors / folks with any medical knowledge in the house?

    Well, we do have some spin doctors in-house.

    More seriously, I concur with advice to go see an internist about the nauseous light-headedness that almost caused you to pass out. And secondarily (if you can) an orthopedist about that knee.

  138. 138.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Hillary Clinton changes the subject

    @ HillaryClinton 9h9 hours ago
    Congressional trifecta against women today: 1) Blocking great nominee, 1st African American woman AG, for longer than any AG in 30 years…
    Hillary Clinton ‏@ HillaryClinton 9h9 hours ago
    …2) Playing politics with trafficking victims… 3) Threatening women’s health & rights.

    and I say good on her

  141. 141.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Violet: It is available in areas with a Jewish community, but it’s seasonal, and produced in finite quantities for the Passover holiday.

  143. 143.

    SWMBO

    OT AL I emailed you about Mary G and Ginger. I realize it could be a couple of days before you get a response from Mary but give it a try, would you? Please and thank you.

    I emailed JC too.

  144. 144.

    Origuy

    @east is east: It’s not a last minute gift, but for future use, think about a magazine subscription to a kid’s magazine. There are a lot of them around. Kids think it’s a big deal to get mail addressed to them, and it’s a gift they get once a month.

  146. 146.

    Zinsky

    As nearly as I can tell, no one on this thread bothered to address the hucksterism that Mike Huckabee is using to fund his moronic presidential campaign. To me, this is emblematic of the stupidity and gullibility of the average GOP voter. The only good aspect of these scams and snake oil remedies is that if these right-wing knuckleheads spend all of their money on bogus diabetes cures, they will have less money to spend on real political campaigns or advertising to defeat Democratic candidates!

  147. 147.

    Sherparick

    This is a long time vendetta between the Club of Growth folks and Huckabee’s populist rooted white Theocons and the root of it was Huckabee violating Norquist’s and CoG prime directive to Republicans while Governor of Arkansas from 1997-2007: “You will cut taxes whenever possible, but you will never, ever, raise any taxes for any Governmental purpose.” Particularly unforgivable were increases in the corporate income tax, gas tax, and cigarette tax. http://www.arkansasleader.com/2007/11/editorialswhos-biggest-tax-raiser.html. Huckabee is of course engage in a huge money making grift disguised as Presidential campaign, but that model was already created by Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachman, and Herman Cain in the last campaign. Nor is he the only one this time around (see Santorum, Rick and Carson, Ben). Still, that does not mean he and his folks don’t hate Norquist and the CoG, who in turn hate him.

  149. 149.

    Cervantes

    @Amir Khalid:

    This story from Free Malaysia Today has a statement from Nurul Izzah’s lawyer.

    Thanks.

    Am I missing something or is her arrest plainly and incontrovertibly illegal?

    Also: Who runs Free Malaysia Today and how long can it survive?

Comments are closed.