Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says he wouldn’t rule out a re-invasion of Iraq, if elected president: http://t.co/FnZuNH7TKf – @ThisWeekABC
— ABC News (@ABC) June 7, 2015
And the election is going to come down to him and a Bush, isn't it? https://t.co/Z9oxnWXRXA
— Bob Schooley (@Rschooley) June 7, 2015
The GOP primary, at least.
What’s on the agenda as we wrap up another not-long-enough weekend?
gogol's wife
The Tonys are great this year.
Valdivia
@gogol’s wife: I walked by the tv just in time to see Mirren take her Tony and it made me smile. So deserved. Also, I would sell my soul to a genie to look that fabulously great at her age.
Iowa Old Lady
I love it when Walker talks. Keep it up, Scotty!
jharp
Weeded my garden today and it looks awesome. What fun.
And just finishing up the last pains of my week long gout attack.
Looking forward to getting to work tomorrow. I have not been able to walk since last Saturday. Only painfully hobble.
Fuck the gout. No more beer. And no more breaded crawfish Po boy’s.
ThresherK
Repeated from downstairs: We are also watching the Tony Awards.
The announcer came out and said, “From a musical set in Bangkok…” and I’m already thinking “Chess is back on Broadway? Ohgod I need tickets!” and he continues, “in the 1860s…”.
I may be the only person disappointed in The King and I.
And Fun Home wins (I think) the first award it’s nominated for. Start of a trend, or is that an Oscars(TM)-only thing?
opiejeanne
@Iowa Old Lady: Yes. He keeps up like that I can’t imagine him being popular, even with most Republicans.
Betty Cracker
I saw a snippet of one of the Sunday political shows this morning, and Lindsey Graham was on saying he’d definitely send at least 10K troops to the Middle East right away if he were elected. I hope they all try to out-butch each other with the warmongering.
Keith P.
I can’t decide if it’s going to be Walker-Rubio vs. Clinton-Castro or Walker-Fiorina vs HRC-Castro.
schrodinger's cat
@Betty Cracker: I just hope that Hillary doesn’t take the bait and try to uber hawk them all.
Baud
Can’t get too excited about this. I don’t think voters care if military action is “ruled out.”
ThresherK
Fun Home takes Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical.
opiejeanne
Had lunch with the youngest and got a look at her engagement ring. She wants to have her wedding here in our garden next July; she and her fiance have been helping us with the garden since my husband hurt his back in March, so we’ve been able to almost catch up on the weeding. Today it was too hot to work outdoors because we’ve become so acclimated that 82 Fahrenheit is intolerable when five years ago we thought that was a nice temp to be outdoors working. Now we like to work when it’s between 55 and 65 degrees.
Her fiance is leaving in a couple of weeks to spend the summer hiking the Continental Divide with his twin brother. I didn’t realize there was a trail, but he’s done the Pacific Coast Trail (I think it either includes the John Muir Trail, or he’s done that as well) and the Appalachian, so this is the last big one. He’s not my kid but it worries me a bit because he thinks he’s invincible. He’ll be gone about 3 months.
Baud
@efgoldman:
So far, she is focusing on domestic issues.
John Revolta
@Iowa Old Lady: When I saw that my first thought was “Oh, he’s just saying what he thinks they want to hear”.
Then I thought about it (and not for very long either) and I realized: he probably really means it. Oy.
JPL
@Keith P.: You do know that Castro is not fluent in Spanish so just because he’s Latino, it might not matter.
Yeah right…. lol
raven
@schrodinger’s cat: I’m telling you that if she gets elected she’ll bomb the fuck out of the first thing that moves.
Belafon
@schrodinger’s cat: Hasn’t she apologized for her vote in 2003?
JPL
My goodness, Sydney Lucas is quite talented. I hope she wins.
opiejeanne
@Betty Cracker: What are they thinking? Do they really believe that the majority of their base wants that? Do they think this will appeal to the rest of the voters, or at least enough of them to win an election?
gratuitous
@jharp: I’m not a doctor, but I have found that drinking copious amounts of cherry juice (about a quart) helps a lot with gout. Real cherry juice from one of those organic brands like R.W. Knudsen. You may have to stay away from seafood (shrimp, oysters, lobster) and fried foods, sad to say.
As to Gov. Walker and his plans to re-invade Iraq, I hope no one in the crowd or the media contingent was so churlish as to ask the governor how he would pay for this contemplated war crime.
raven
@JPL: So is Steph Curry.
Valdivia
At this point I feel I do not understand how this is going to work for the GOP. The positions they are carving out for themselves are totally untenable in the general election. I don’t want to sound naive or over confident but how does someone like Walker win a general with these kind of statements?
schrodinger's cat
When was the last time we had a bald President? Not since Eisenhower, right?
srv
The Beeb finally calls out the obvious: Is the Pope a communist?
thruppence
Constantly swabbing my sweating face in the hot ‘n’ humid laundromat after binge watching Netflix’s Sense8. Kind of fun if you can put up with all the layered Wachowski self indulgences, but I enjoyed the interweaving of all the global locations.
muddy
@gratuitous: My pharmacist told me about the cherry juice. Drinking a little every day is supposed to keep the gout from coming back also. I haven’t had an attack in years now, as to whether that is the cherry juice or not, who’s to say. It’s tasty, it’s no hardship. Black cherry is supposed to be as good, I don’t care for it because it tastes like cough medicine. Knudsen, as you say, is a good one.
Gene108
@schrodinger’s cat:
Look at who Repiblican foreign policy aspdvisots are; they are all N&O-cons, who planned the invasion of Iraq.
Look at who Democratic foreign policy people are; these are the folks, who by the end of Bill’s second term felt Al-Qaeda was the biggest threat to American security, and who are now trying work out international deals, such as to combat Global Warming (they could not get the Republicans in the Senate to ratify the Kyoto Protocols, in the 1990’s), working out a non-proliferation deal with Iran, etc.
The quality of foreign policy talent between the two parties is stark.
srv
@efgoldman: It will be interesting what you people say when Obama surges in Iraq.
raven
@srv: Surge this shit troll.
schrodinger's cat
@Gene108: I agree about the talent differential between the two parties. I just hope that Hillary doesn’t feel that a war is the best means to demonstrate her toughness.
gogol's wife
@JPL:
Yes, she’s incredible.
Marc
@raven: Yea, why people respond to the guy under the bridge as if he’s honest is beyond me.
HinTN
@jharp: Gluten free has made a real difference for us and it turns out to be not that difficult. Good luck!
Chris
@srv:
LMAO.
By American definitions of communist (e.g. “anything to the left of Ayn Rand”), Catholic doctrine is firmly communist and has been since long before Pope Francis.
Baud
According to this WaPo article, Britain, New Zealand, and Israel are the only westernized democracies without a written constitution.
Betty Cracker
@jharp: My hubby has gout. He controls it pretty well with diet and still drinks beer. The thing that seems to trigger an attack for him quicker than anything is shellfish, particularly if he has two or three meals of it in a relatively short time.
Tree With Water
“..It was confirmed that the prison’s inventory of tools was intact and the focus was on outside contractors doing refurbishment work at the prison, which houses 3,000 inmates in the village of Dannemora, and was built in 1865..”.
If those two weren’t stone cold killers, I could almost root for them. The people in the region must be as appalled as the people in the immediate vicinity are furious. However, these things do happen. Thirty odd years ago a few prisoners busted out of San Quentin sailing away on a home made kayak. On its side they spelled out the name of a local yacht club, plus the phrase “rub-a-dub-dub”. .
ThresherK
Wait, Judy Kuhn is playing as Alison Bechdel’s mom in Fun Home? How did I not know this?
I gotta see this play.
Valdivia
@Baud: If I remember correctly the lack of a written constitution was at the outset a Ben Gurion decision (and I would guess it had to do with the religion issue). The Basic Law though operates as an uncodified constitution.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@raven:
That’s my concern as well. She may not discuss much now, but she’s gonna want to outbutch them when elected, and it’s worrisome.
Tangentially related, has anyone else watched this powerful video?
Baud
@Valdivia:
You know more than I do about that (and many other things). I find it interesting because I’m so used to constitutionalism in the U.S.
KG
When (and it’ll be when, not if) they start agitating to invade Iraq again, the argument will be “well, we had to go back to Germany 20 years later, and we got it right that second time, we’ll get it right the second time in Iraq too!” They’ll ignore every other point of comparison between the two situations. You can ink that, I wouldn’t even take odds on it, it’s that much of a lock.
@Keith P.: I’d say Rubio, better chance of him putting Florida in play than of Forinia putting California in play.
Suzanne
Just got home from buying my new car. I feel like never spending another dime. It’s beautiful, though. My first new car.
JPL
@Suzanne: Nice. What did you buy?
Baud
@Suzanne: Congrats! Enjoy the smell.
ThresherK
Best Choreography and Best Orchestration to An American in Paris.
Shana
@ThresherK: Yes you do. Fun Home is amazing. We just bought two tickets for our daughter and BF as a graduation present.
BTW, Chenoweth and Cumming are horrible. And did you know, the Tonys are on CBS?
Snarki, child of Loki
I’m just hoping that someone asks Walker whether the USA should teach those Godless Commies a lesson, and re-invade Vietnam.
Tree With Water
[White House aide]: “Mr. President, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing in Texas after it was struck by gunfire from the Mexican side of the border”.
[Obama]: “Get me Senator Ernst immediately. Graham, too”.
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
I had gout when I was in my 20s. (They always called it a “rich old man’s disease.” I could never identify with that, as I was poor, young, and female.) The main thing I remember is that they advised against taking any of the B-complex vitamins. Quite a nuisance (and expense), as I had to forgo my daily multi-vitamin pill in favour of half a dozen separate letter vitamins. But it (or something) seemed to do the trick and I haven’t really been troubled since.
Fifty years later, I do have occasional twinges, but they are minor and not even worth consulting a doctor (and I’m not at all sure they’re even gout — I’m inclined to blame a bunion that flares up now and then). Still — has anyone heard that about the B vitamins? Is that still part of the gout treatment protocol?
Suzanne
@JPL: Honda CR-V EX, 2015, black. Traded in a Honda CR-V EX, 2000, silver. I got a touch of nostalgia, because I had the previous car for eleven years. So much of my life—becoming a mom, getting through graduate school, getting married—happened with that car. And this car will be the one that the Spawn learns to drive in. (Ergo, we got the extended warranty. Hah.) the new car is so cool, though.
gogol's wife
@Shana:
Wow, I was thinking that compared to Hugh Jackman they were brilliant.
KG
@Baud: I have a buddy that has a hot rod shop, he told me the secret to the new car smell, so I know what to do if/when I buy an old car. There aren’t many smells better.
@Suzanne: congrats.
ThresherK
@Shana: Thanks for the firsthand recommendation.
BTW, that’s not just any old Tonys, but the American Theater Wing Tonys.
I’m okay with the hosting, but I’m not sure if that’s becuase this show keeps looking better than the Oscars* which it compares itself to.
My wife and I think Alan Cumming has a bet with Cher over who can make the most costume changes.
(No, AMPAS, I’m not saying [TM]. Sue me.)
Baud
@KG: I hope it doesn’t involve ox urine.
PurpleGirl
@Suzanne: Congratulations on the new NEW car.
Valdivia
@Baud: :)
I have a very hazy memory of why Ben Gurion was so adamant about sticking with a Basic Law. My guess (purely speculative) is that part of it had to do with inheriting British government institutions after independence and modelling what came next on that. But the other element was how to square the circle of a democracy with a religious element. The Basic Laws and the cases decided still form the basis for an informal constitution though. Someone here might know more, specially about how it works in the UK, and can explain more.
@Suzanne: mazal tov!
Baud
@efgoldman:
Yeah, the 2016 campaign is going to be all ISIS all the time.
KG
@efgoldman: I’ve been doing my damnedest to avoid paying too much attention to politics lately, but I guess it doesn’t surprise me that they are agitating, since it’s not too far from “we never should have left”, it’s just not full throated advocacy… yet.
Suzanne
@KG: What’s the secret?
Iowa Old Lady
@efgoldman: I’ve decided I don’t like the “boots on the ground” phrase. I want them to say “our soldiers.” I want them to be faced with the fact that there are, as you say, GIs in those boots.
Comrade Dread
Well, if you believe that the Iraq War went swimmingly, that “THE SURGE” fixed all problems, and that it was all the Muslim Kenyan usurper undermining our victory by pulling out too early, then sure, it only makes sense to reinvade Iraq and restore victory for no matter how long it takes or how many bodies it requires sacrificing to Ares.
JPL
@Suzanne: Nice. I have a Honda Accord and love the CR-V. I tend to haul a lot of mulch and stuff back and forth from H.D
KG
@Baud: no, just bison urine. In all seriousness, the new car smell is from new carpets and/or upholstery.
goblue72
@Valdivia: It doesn’t. Any halfway decent Democratic candidate will carve up a “I’d re-invade Iraq” GOP candidate like a Thanksgiving turkey. And though she’s not a natural pol like Bill or Obama, Hillary is a work twice as hard as the other guy striver and is way better than a halfway decent Democratic candidate.
And I’m sure her staff will be prepping her for that sort of question during the debates. For which she will undoubtedly have a solid right hook answer that could be summed up as “Of course I changed my mind based on what we know. I’m not an effing moron.”
At which point, whomever GOP voters nominate to go against her has to stand there at the podium wearing the proverbial dunce cap.
Sure, they’ll bloviate about “TERRAH!!!!”, but one well timed eyeroll intimating “stop soiling your pants, junior” and its over. It’ll be the BENGHAZI!!!!! hearing all over – they’ll be full of sturm & drang, and she’ll come out looking like the only adult in the asylum.
JPL
@KG: Homeland had an episode where Brody leaves his car to be cleaned. There were several options about the inside and one was the new car smell. Since I wash my own car, I wondered if it was true.
Shana
@gogol’s wife: Can’t say, I missed the year Jackman hosted.
A little disappointed that Hand to God hasn’t done better. I thought it was a lot of fun, and creepy.
rikyrah
And people want to make me afraid of Scott Walker. Like he could actually explain why troops should be sent back into the Middle East.
KG
anyone use appleTV? I’ve been contemplating dumping directv, but can’t get a good handle on what the actual monthly costs would be for AppleTV, like which apps have monthly costs associated with them and what they are.
Baud
@rikyrah: What part of “freedom” is difficult to explain?
John Revolta
@efgoldman: Once she’s in office, what would she be trying/have to prove?
Oh, that she’s Tough. You know, Got a Real Set of Stones On Her.
Or some such shit. Frankly, it all sounds like a bunch of sexist crap to me.
KG
@JPL: a lot of car washes have a “new car smell” scent, but it’s not really the same at all.
Valdivia
@goblue72: That is what I hope so. I am sure they are going to run with ISIS is going to kill us all panic and the media will oblige (I remember last fall between that and Ebola) but I think screaming like your hair’s on fire vs a vs Hillary will look indeed stupid.
JPL
@KG: lol I need to get out more often.
Southern Beale
@gogol’s wife:
Concur about the Tonys. We saw “Curious Incident” and “Fun Home” back in the spring. Both great shows — I’m glad “Curious” won best play.
Chris
@Comrade Dread:
Good Lord, I’ve come to hate THE SURGE narrative. Full credit to the various soldiers, spooks and diplomats who made the best of a shittastic situation in 2006/2007, but the fact that it’s been simplified as “all we needed was a few MOAR TROOPS!” – ugh. And one of the most incredible things about this is that it’s sold as a visionary act on the part of George W. Bush, when – as far as “moar troops” was concerned – all it was was finally acceding to the wisdom of what his own generals and a ton of his critics had pointed out to him all the way back in 2002/2003, when his response was basically “why do you hate America?” – and sticking his head in the sand for three disastrous years.
gogol's wife
@Shana:
This Dog in the Night Time looks really boring to me. But I haven’t seen any of them.
I have to go to bed now. I hope Kelli O’Hara wins.
goblue72
@KG: Well, Fiorina or any other GOP candidate has negative 1,000 chance of putting California into play, so anybody is better than Fiorina for them. Jesus Christ himself could rise from the grave, and if he ran with an “R” after his name, he’s not taking California in the Presidential election.
ThresherK
@Shana: If you think “creepy” describes Hand to God, I’d like to introduce you to The Visit, now with music. That is seriously messed up.
Re the clip of Michael Cera starring in This is Our Youth: “Him?”
gogol's wife
@gogol’s wife: @Southern Beale:
I wrote my comment before I saw your comment. I guess I shouldn’t judge based on 30 seconds!
Southern Beale
@gogol’s wife:
Noo! It was amazing! And I wasn’t even that jazzed to see it because I’d read the book — twice, we did it in a book club once — but I was told the performances and staging were amazing. And it really was. It was a great show.
Shana
@Southern Beale: Haven’t seen it, but everything I’ve heard about Curious Incident” makes me happy it’s doing well.
Southern Beale
@gogol’s wife:
That Chita Rivera show looks awful to me. So does Finding Neverland, now that I’m watching this 30 second bit.
Shana
@ThresherK: Yeah, “I’ll save your town if you kill the man who jilted me” isn’t exactly warm and fuzzy.
Valdivia
I can’t type a coherent sentence for the life of me tonight. Bad bad typos.
Southern Beale
@ThresherK:
The Visit looked terrible.
We also saw Hand To God when we were in NYC a few months back, it was pretty good too. It didn’t feel like a Broadway show to me. Funny, though.
KG
@goblue72: if Jesus Christ rose and ran as a Republican, he wouldn’t make it out of the primary. Between the Birthers demanding a valid birth certificate, and his whole hippie “feed the poor, clothe the naked, house the homeless” world view (not to mention “render unto Caesar that which is his” taxation policy), there’s no way.
Mike in NC
Game of Thrones featured some badass dragon moves tonight.
ThresherK
@Southern Beale: You saw Fun Home? Somehow I missed that blurb in your blog.
(Confessional time: I’ve had a little crush on Judy Kuhn since Chess. My wife is okay with it, since that was before we met, and since in return she gets to crush on Johnny Depp.)
@Southern Beale: If you mean the one song from The Visit, I don’t know.
The Tonycast too often show “the wrong song” from new musicals; I specifically remember a number from The Scottsboro Boys leaving me with absolutely no idea what the play was about, or any of the drama inherent in the plot.
Likewise with Memphis several years ago: Crummy song on the Tonys, which I never imagined was such a riveting show.
goblue72
@Valdivia: That Ebola stuff worked for mid-terms. No national debates, media only half pays attention, and the electorate is composed mostly of old white people who watch too much Fox News.
The ISIS stuff is just not gonna sell. They’ll be several weeks of the GOP trying to make an issue of it and the media obliging them because RATINGS, but at end of day, she’ll pants them on national TV.
KG
@Mike in NC: this season has been weird for me as a book reader. i know, as a writer, that there have to be divergences between mediums, but this season has just been strange in that regard.
Southern Beale
@ThresherK:
I don’t think I blogged about it, LOL.
It was good but all of the stuff we read about it before going — including a NYT article — just talked about how amazing it was, but nothing mentioned that it was about this girl’s coming out story. Which we would have totally been fine with, but I just kind of wished I’d known ahead of time that that’s what the story was. Everything we’d read said it was a “coming of age” story or some such.
KG
@JPL: don’t feel bad, the car wash scent is probably as close to the real thing as artificial fruit flavors are to real fruit flavors.
Valdivia
@goblue72: yeah important to remember that the midterms media environment is always different.
the Conster
Republicans have nothing. There is no conservative policy success stories to point to, to run on. All the states with the most conservative governors are in financial trouble, trying to cut their way to balanced budgets, not growing. If conservatism worked, the middle class would be swimming in jobs, wages would be rising, and there would be Pax American spreading throughout the ME. Instead, it’s just failure, misery, falling revenues, shutting down of public commonwealth and chaos being sown wherever conservatives controlled the levers. I know that’s a feature for them because their constituents aren’t the middle class, but, the conservative lab experiments conducted in the states all show abject failure. There is not one policy they have promoted that has worked, so they have to keep going back to what does work – creating an atmosphere of fear, and creating “the other” to blame. It’s been the tactic of fascists since the beginning.
rikyrah
Alycee @jazziz2
Kalief Browder, 1993–2015 http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/kalief-browder-1993-2015 … via @newyorker | Succumbed to the after effects of 3 years of NY state sponsored tourture
7:21 PM – 7 Jun 2015
…………………………….
ThresherK
@Southern Beale: Wow, nothing about Alison Bechdel? Or an allusion to her famous comic strip, even though the name (Dykes to Watch Out For) probably can’t be printed in the NYT? Just “some girl’s coming of age”?
By that standard, The Visit is just like Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion.
@efgoldman: I only read it in English, for fun. Seriously, for pleasure.
My least favorite revival, The King and I, won. On The Town I’ll drag my wife to see anywhere, and Twentieth Century is a hoot. (And both havy books and lyrics by Comden and Green.)
El Caganer
@jharp: I was taking celery seed extract daily in capsule form, and hadn’t had an attack in a couple of years. Then the doctor started me on warfarin, which really doesn’t mix with anything, and I had to stop. So now I suffer instead, which pretty much sucks.
Southern Beale
@ThresherK:
I don’t read comics or what’s the word the kewl kids use today, “graphic novels.” I don’t do that stuff. I’d never heard of her. And the NYT story didn’t mention that “Fun Home” was for “funeral home” either.
Anyway, like I said, it was good but I probably wouldn’t have picked it for my one musical. When we go to NYC the deal is I can drag my husband to ONE musical and one musical only. So this probably wouldn’t have been the one. I probably would have picked American In Paris instead.
Southern Beale
Alex Sharp got the Tony for best actor for “Curious.” That kid was fucking AMAZING. Probably the most physically demanding performance I’d ever seen.
ThresherK
@Southern Beale: That’s the thing, when it comes to alt-comics, she’s a classic, almost a founding mother: DTWOF started in 1986! Bechdel is a couple or few years older than I am, and I think older than you also.
I can’t disagree about American In Paris for the one musical to bring a non-musical fan to.
Zinsky
I know 80% of Americans are dumber than a stump, but this dullard? Really? This guy is really, really, really fucking dumb. I mean, his IQ has to be lower than room temperature. I guess Dubya pretty much eliminated any residual qualms about electing a moron to the highest office in the land.
mai naem mobile
I think it’s going to be Kasich. Walker’s making too many rookie mistakes and he looks like a dork.
Suzanne – congrats on the new car. I had a coworker who had a CRV who loved the car.
Peale
@Southern Beale: Agreed. It was like 20,000 lines delivered while doing jumping jacks on a trapeeze. And if you weren’t crying about that math test…glad he won.
ThresherK
Leading Actor in a Musical, Michael Cerveris, another for Fun Home.
Hey, NPH is here!
Leading Actress in a Musical, Kelli O’Hara, and I had a personal (fan’s) stake in each of the other nominees? Guess I picked the right year to stop making book on the Tonys.
Elizabelle
@mai naem mobile: Concur. And worry that Kasich is the most mediagenic and likely to sound non-lunatic.
ThresherK
Musical, Fun Home!
The wife and I may take this in when it gets on tour. We live in a market where shows like this draw enough.
I guess it’s what the teevee demands: The re-re-singing of a bowdlerized version of a Four Seasons song to close out the broadcast.
Elizabelle
@efgoldman: I hope you are right, ef.
cokane
i think R’s know Jeb is unelectable in a general, he wont get the nom. Walker has a shot, but I’m still thinking it’s Santorum. He hits the right parts of the base to win Iowa, S. Carolina and maybe even the Nevada Repubs. We’ll see tho
Omnes Omnibus
@cokane: Rick is also the next guy in line based on the results of the last GOP primary.
opiejeanne
@Suzanne: I had a tire in the backseat of my car for a couple of days, can’t remember why, but I noticed that having it there gave the car the actual new car smell that I remember from the 50s and 60s.
debbie
@efgoldman:
You guys don’t know John Kasich! He won’t be able to control his mouth (or his ego) and will be sure to say something unbelievably stupid, like calling the cop who’d stopped him for speeding “an idiot” and using that to call for reforming laws so they’re more “sensible.”
Tripod
Unforced error. He should have probably stuck to touting his domestic agenda – Fuck America!
Unsympathetic
He and his Koch puppetmasters are blood-gargling psychopaths.
Who’s surprised?