Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Optimism opens the door to great things.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Not all heroes wear capes.

He really is that stupid.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Motown is Joe-Town!

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Thursday Evening Open Thread: Collateral Damage

Thursday Evening Open Thread: Collateral Damage

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File under “Could not happen to a more deserving Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver”…

Apart from more delicious schadenfreude, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

Reader Interactions

164Comments

  2. 2.

    Roger Moore

    I don’t think Ryan wants an early election because it’s too embarrassing; he wants an early election because Trump is hurting the Republican brand and it might hurt their chances in down-ballot races like Ryan’s.

  5. 5.

    Major Major Major Major

    The weekend can’t come soon enough. Ugh. I’m not even looking forward to that though.

    I’ve narrowed down my biting insect problem to either invisible bugs from outer space that leave no traces whatsoever, or a relatively minor case of bed bugs. So either I have a fascinating piece of crytpentomology on my hands, or I’m going to burn everything I own and become a monk.

    The bedbug-sniffing dogs will be over on Wednesday, which, I should point out, is not this very second, right now.

  6. 6.

    Roger Moore

    @Chris:

    If Ryan were to lose his office, THAT would probably thrill me even more than Trump.

    Depends. If he loses his office because he’s now Minority Leader Ryan, that would be cool. But I don’t like the idea of Speaker Gohmert, not one tiny bit.

  8. 8.

    redshirt

    @Major Major Major Major: I know nothing about your home situation, but any chance you leave your windows open regularly? I do, and for a portion of the Summer these super tiny bugs can get through the screens and bite me in the dark and I can never detect them doing it.

  13. 13.

    Uncle Cosmo

    Hey Juicers, our family could use a little advice tonight.

    As many of you remember from a post earlier this week, we are in the process of laying to rest my nephew & godson, who died unexpectedly Monday night at the age of 28.

    Uncle Cosmo’s “Skyler” was an avid baseball fan & played Little League & for his HS team & after taking a job as an architect/designer in NYC he began playing in a semi-official amateur league there. We are a baseball family; his granddad was a semi-pro shortstop in the 30s & 40s & our cousin (& his namesake) played for the Bosox and then Cubs for several years in the 70s.

    We are thinking that in lieu of flowers we would ask folks to donate to a charitable organization that’s dedicated to assisting youth baseball programs for disadvantaged kids; one that operates in his home region (Baltimore City/County, Howard County MD) would be ideal.

    Unfortunately I don’t know of any org that qualifies, & haven’t been able to dig any up on the Net. (We’re all still staggering under the blow so maybe we’re a bit slow.)

    Anyone have any suggestions? We would even consider setting up a small foundation in his memory if necessary…but of course we don’t know how to do that either.

    (NB the curious can see & hear the young man in this clip re 2012’s Proyecto Paladar, probably the most notable project he worked on, at about 1:21 and again about a minute later.)

    Thanks for any help on this.

  14. 14.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I was going to suggest that they might be bedbugs, but I didn’t have a chance. It’s actually fairly uncommon for cat fleas to bite humans.

    And, yes, if it’s bedbugs, you basically have to nuke the site from orbit. We actually had to sign a rider to our apartment lease saying that we would immediately tell management if we saw any signs of bedbug infestation or we could lose our lease and be booted out immediately.

  15. 15.

    bemused

    @redshirt:

    Mosquitos and noseeums love my husband. Me, not so much. We’ll be watching tv or reading and suddenly he’ll start swearing about the noseeums. I had no idea there were any in the room.

  18. 18.

    Gvg

    My grandfather found out he had bedbugs in a hotel sometime around WWII by accidentally leaving a pan of water under the bed at night and finding some little drowned bodies in the morning. This also can catch other bugs. A way to catch fleas is to leave a pan of water under a night light. Fleas are one of the bugs attracted to lights. Quite a few bugs do that also. Try both, see what you find.

  21. 21.

    lamh36

    Open thread..cool

    ..so I’m gonna talk about this bullshit that is Ryan Lochte and the swimming team friends…smh

    on the one hand I’m like Lochte you douchebag and I am LMBAO at the draggin of him and his posse on twitter and other social media.

    But on the other hand, I’m reminded how folks dragged poor 20 year old, Gabby Douglas for not placing her hand in her heart or not showing the right emotions when she’s cheering on her teammates.

    But here you have this 32 year old..VETERAN OLYMPIAN (not his first non-US Olympics) and ya got the Rio IOC rep saying “kids just having fun and made a mistake”… So then I get made, cause I’m just imagining just how different the “outrage” and headlines would be if this was an athlete of color and I’m darn near choking with my laughter…smh

  23. 23.

    Corner Stone

    Wow! A professional pollster on Halperin’s WADR that says Trump can easily came back from this deficit.
    WHOOOCUDDAGUESSSED?!

  24. 24.

    opiejeanne

    Trump’s foreign policy advisor is one Joseph Schmitz, formerly part of W’s administration and a holocaust denier. He is the brother of Mary Kay LeTourneau, and the son of John G. Schmitz. That name might ring a bell with Californians. The father, John G. was a congressman from Orange County, an extreme conservative nutcase, who was boosted into politics by Karl Karcher (Karls’ jr) and several other John Birchers/extremists, and he ran for president in 1972 as the American Independent Party’s candidate.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G._Schmitz

  25. 25.

    Kay

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    Oh, that’s so nice as a gift. I think poorer kids lack the experiences that better-off kids get more than the things that better-off kids get, so it’s a great idea.

    I think raven was involved in youth baseball at one time. He mentioned it once. I hope I’m remembering right.

  29. 29.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Baud: It’s nightmarish that the media isn’t exposing the fact that Breitbart.com is pretty much a White Supremacist website. That should be the headline when discussing Bannon.

  30. 30.

    MattF

    Twitter reports that the NYC Department of Parks has removed the naked Trump statue. And released a statement:

    “NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small.”

  31. 31.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Kay Eye: Minor as in a small-ish number, as opposed to “I can see them/any evidence of them”.

    @Mnemosyne: We got bites when we had fleas. The flea trap’s been catching something, but it ain’t fleas. (Or bedbugs.) A little smaller than fleas, sort of silvery.

    No evidence of bedbugs on/around the actual bed. Anyway, the dogs are coming on Wednesday, at which point I will burn down San Francisco and move somewhere that doesn’t have extradition.

    Not Ecuador, that Assange guy probably has lice.

  32. 32.

    redshirt

    @debbie: I suspect those are my bugs. I can see them from time to time as they will gather on my computer monitor. But they’re so small even after a rare kill I can’t identify. They leave huge bites though.

    It only lasts a couple of weeks though. They’re already gone.

  33. 33.

    Trollhattan

    @MattF:
    Heh. Who knows Trump! better than anybody? New Yorkers. Who hates Trump! more than anybody? New Yorkers. Item the first inevitably leads to item the twoth.

  34. 34.

    Patricia Kayden

    @lamh36: I still don’t understand why Lochte lied about being robbed in the first place. And yes, if he and his friends were not White, the coverage would be different. Will be interesting to see if the swimmers are punished for this.

  36. 36.

    debbie

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    I’ve read the late Roberto Clemente did a lot of good charitable work with kids via baseball. Here the Facebook page for Roberto’s Kids. I Googled for the direct link, but it’s saying the site might be hacked. There’s an email on the About page if you’re interested.

  37. 37.

    sigaba

    This is like the end of “Slap Shot” where Paul Newman and the Charlestown Chiefs come to the championship and Attleborough has drafted a team of ringer goons, including Tim “Dr. Hook” McCraken and Oggie Oglethorpe (“…a trying rookie season, with the arrests, his deportation to Canada, and Canada’s refusing to accept him”).

  42. 42.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Would that be all bad? The man is deeply non photogenic, uncharismatic, and eloquent as a jar of pickles pigs feet. I think he’d do further damage to an already ruined brand.

  43. 43.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Uncle Cosmo: Have you thought about contacting the city of Baltimore? I assume someone in City Hall could give you the info you’re seeking.

  45. 45.

    jl

    via Josh Marshall’s twitter feed (sorry don’t know how to link), looks like Trump people kicking out of rallies anyone who looks like a liberal college kid now.

    They will become a lunatic cult soon. If things go bad enough for them, Trump will start saying he wants to lead a group of pure and strong Trumpists and no one else is wanted, and go down to defeat with honor (as long as he has contact info for the Trump News Network startup). He only wants to associate himself with the top, the best, the classiest winner (edit: and least educated, none of those egghead HS grads) remnant that will be saved. I hope that happens soon.

  47. 47.

    lamh36

    @Patricia Kayden: well…apparently the police were told that the robbery may not have taken place by two women who said claimed they were “dating” the swimmers…cough…prostitutes…cough…

    So…

  48. 48.

    Turgidson

    @Major Major Major Major:

    “Everyone knew” it would be Kevin McCarthy last time. Until it wasn’t because a bunch of rabid teabagger jackals started yapping about it and he withdrew.

    If the Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver loses his race, I’d expect the GOP majority to go out with him. But either way, the race to take his place as top House GOPer would be a total shitshow and I have no clue who would win. Ryan only won because he still, barely, had the trust of most of the members of the braindead loon caucus while also being respectable enough to the rest of the world. I don’t know who is left in that caucus who is acceptable to enough wings of the party like he was then.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    For reason number 547,980 that Donald Trump can’t be President, remember that he knee-jerk defended this creep although every bit of evidence indicated that Ailes was a serial sexual harasser:

    But in the aftermath of Mr. Ailes’s resignation, there is hope for improvement. After Ms. Carlson filed her suit, Fox News and 21st Century Fox did what they should have done years ago when faced with similar accusations: They hired outside counsel for an investigation, and when overwhelming evidence mounted, demanded Mr. Ailes’s resignation.
    “It’s hard to overstate how important it is that even someone as powerful as Ailes was held accountable,” Professor MacKinnon said. “There have been a lot of situations where you’d come to the conclusion that the law doesn’t matter, and that what does matter is power, the rule of force. Then something like this comes along and you realize the law does matter. A lot of women are going to take heart from that.”

    There’s your nominee, GOP. Decades-long reign of horror there at Fox and Mr. Trump rushed to his defense. How do you think women will fare under that administration?

  53. 53.

    joel hanes

    @Major Major Major Major:

    (possible) bedbugs

    While you wait for the dogs :

    – go to store and get some Skintastic topical insect repellent and some white ammonia and an empty spray bottle

    – strip bed, wash bedding in hottest water, over-dry on highest temp

    – spray accessible edges of mattress and box spring and cracks in bed frame with ammonia. close bedroom; ventilate half an hour later

    – spray four washcloths generously with Skintastic, tie one around each leg of the bed

    – make bed with washed bedding

    – fifteen minutes before bed, spray exposed skin of legs and arms with Skintastic, particularly where limbs emerge from clothing.

    That may greatly cut down on the bites while you’re waiting. Worked for me, anyway.

    And you can stop the itching for a while by moistening a finger with ammonia, and touching each bite that you haven’t scratched raw (don’t put ammonia on broken skin unless you _like_ pain) Ammonia is the active ingredient in the commercial camping-supply product AfterBite, which works pretty well.

  55. 55.

    opiejeanne

    @Uncle Cosmo: I am so sorry to hear about your loss. I don’t know the story, I’ve been out of the loop for a couple of days, but you will be in my thoughts.

    I can ask the baseball blog I hang out on. It’s primarily a Los Angeles area group, being Angels fans, but we have members that live all over the country as well as around the world and someone may know something.
    MLB used to have a program for restoring baseball in inner city areas but I don’t know if it’s still A Thing and going through a fan blog is probably going to get a response before you hear from MLB.
    Also, many pro baseball players are pretty accessible through Twitter and Facebook, more than you’d think. I will look into that for you as well.

  57. 57.

    Mnemosyne

    @sigaba:

    If you’re saying that the next step is a Trump striptease, let me know so I can be sure to gouge my eyes out first.

  58. 58.

    NorthLeft12

    Political brawlers? How about thugs and sleaze merchants?

    Is this another example of the Republican’s deep bench? Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

  60. 60.

    piratedan

    @indycat32: @Uncle Cosmo: Indycat is correct, I am positive that each MLB franchise has a charitable arm that does community fundraising that is baseball centric. Just give them an e-mail or a call and they’ll most likely be happy to help.

  61. 61.

    Major Major Major Major

    @joel hanes: I’m sleeping on the futon.

    Of course, I’ve only been doing it for one night, but there’s no way I can (psychologically) fall asleep on the bed right now. I am completely terrified of these things and have been for YEARS.

    It could also be multiple things. I’ve gotten super itchy bites around my ankle line that I noticed a few minutes after I took my shoes off in the evening, and also I’ve gotten super itchy bites that may or may not be qualitatively different that I noticed upon waking up. OR WHATEVER the dogs are coming Wednesday and I’m getting it sprayed for ‘normal’ whatevers tomorrow.

  62. 62.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    It used to be that a 32-year-old was considered a grown-ass adult. If you’re still getting blackout drunk with your buddies at that age, you’re not a dumb kid anymore, you’re just another alcoholic.

  63. 63.

    geg6

    @debbie:

    I second this. They do great work. I’m pretty sure they are nationwide but I know they work with kids in Pittsburgh. The family is still beloved as one of our own here. Roberto is one of our greatest heroes

  64. 64.

    James E Powell

    Trump has to go with the Total Slime campaign because he’s got nothing left. He has nothing positive to say about himself and whenever he tries anything other than Attack Hillary, he makes things worse for himself and the press/media talk about it for a week.

    My sense – and this is not a chicken little thing – my sense is that the press/media have their Bad Hillary stories locked and loaded. They haven’t run them because it’s been Holy Shit! What did Trump just say?!? since the conventions. They are ready and they are eager to do something else. They will not go full Attack Hillary unless and until the Trump campaign does they don’t want to look like they are initiating the attacks. It’s got to be “some are saying. . . ” or “according to . . . ”

    I’m expecting the worse. If he wants these attacks to be part of the campaign, to be something that has to be part of the debates, he’s got to get them anchored before Labor Day.

  67. 67.

    Gravenstone

    @Uncle Cosmo: Uncle Cosmo, first my deepest condolences on your and your family’s loss. I’ve been thinking a great deal about you since first seeing your post, albeit late to that thread. We lost my younger sister at 34 to uncontrollable brain swelling, so I have some small sense of the shock and pain your family is facing right now. The days ahead will be difficult, as you know all too well. But it will become easier to face, if not truly accept with time.

    I have several friends in the metro DC area and will put out feelers to them regarding your request here. Although I don’t know that I’ll hear anything back before tomorrow at earliest.

  68. 68.

    OGLiberal

    I didn’t think anybody could top Hope Solo as the top American douchebag in these Olympics but Lochte ran with it like Usain Bolt.

    And apparently he was the worst of the bunch. And he’s the one who opened his mouth and lied for no reason. Yet somebody made sure he got out of the country while the other dudes have to answer to tje cops.

    Way to represent Team USA, Lochte.

  72. 72.

    redshirt

    @piratedan: I don’t know anything about other baseball teams, but I can say the Red Sox organization is a remarkably in touch group. When I lived next to Fenway years ago I had to deal with them on a couple of different occasions and I was shocked at how great they were. I second (fourth?) the advice to reach out to the Orioles (or Nationals) and see what they can do.

  75. 75.

    Schlemazel

    @Major Major Major Major:
    I went through a very nasty set of bug bites last fall. I was worried about bedbugs & tore the place apart looking. What I finally discovered was a spider had raised her family in my closet & left dozens of offspring in my clothes. The bites didn’t hut right away but became really itchy & painful later. I plan on spraying my closet this year!

    Hope it is not bedbugs in your case & good luck on figuring out what it is

  76. 76.

    Pogonip

    @Uncle Cosmo: I missed the original post. I am sorry to hear about your nephew.

    Is the Police Athletic League (PAL) still around? They do what you’re looking for, although I don’t know if they confine themselves to baseball.

  80. 80.

    hovercraft

    Tweety is just loving him some Kellyanne, and she’s such a pro with a message that he’s hearing. And he wants her and Trump to jump on top of the 400 million for hostages, there’s a link.

  84. 84.

    Schlemazel

    @Trollhattan:
    I have told this story before but it still makes me smile so I’ll tell it again. Back in the ’80s the NYTimes reported that bridge workers were pissing off the bridges when Trump’s boat was passing under. Yeah, they have known & hated him longer than the rest of us.

  88. 88.

    Calouste

    @lamh36: You must be a Gold medal level asshole if you are an Olympic swimmer and you can’t find a woman who is willing to fuck you for free.

  89. 89.

    hovercraft

    @raven:
    And now Tweety and Mitchell are so excited that they’ve found linkage. Even though it’s not ransom there is linkage so it will be a PR disaster.

  90. 90.

    Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA

    Has anyone mentioned here yet that Celebrity Rehab’s own Dr. Drew Pinsky has weighed in on Hillary Clinton’s health care? Evidently he has concerns.

    I’ll withhold judgment until Dr. Phil, Dr. House, and Dr. Pepper weigh in.

  91. 91.

    Corner Stone

    @hovercraft:

    And he wants her and Trump to jump on top of the 400 million for hostages, there’s a link.

    God damn but he is Scrooge McDuck swim bathing in that $400M. It is everything to him and Andrea Mitchell.

  95. 95.

    Adam L Silverman

    @opiejeanne: Senator Schmitz wrote the forward to Gary Allen’s (that’s Politico’s John Allen’s father) John Birch Society published: None Dare Call it Conspiracy.
    http://www.jta.org/1972/06/16/archive/congressman-wont-comment-on-endorsement-of-anti-semitic-book

    Congressman Won’t Comment on Endorsement of Anti-semitic Book

    June 16, 1972
    WASHINGTON (Jun. 15)

    The administrative assistant to Rep. John G, Schmitz. (R. Calif.) told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency yesterday that for the time being the Congressman would not comment on a request he had from the B’nai B’rith’s Anti-Defamation League to repudiate his endorsement of an anti-Semitic book. The aide, Robert Greier, told the JTA that the ADL’s letter reached Schmitz Tuesday.

    Harvey B. Schecter, the ADL’s Western states fact-finding director. said Schmitz wrote the foreword to and commended “None Dare Call It Conspiracy,” a book by Gary Allen which. according to Schecter, “revives the anti-Jewish propaganda campaigns of the 1920s, carried out by agents of the late Henry Ford Sr. through the Dearborn Independent, which were revived in the 1930s by Father Charles E. Couglin, the notorious radio priest.” Schecter’s charges were published in the California Jewish Voice, a Jewish weekly of Los Angeles. The paper quoted Schecter as saying that Allen is “a long time John Birch Society pamphleteer and speaker,” and that his book is “currently being distributed free on a massive scale by the John Birch Society.”

    The anti-Semitic cannards of the Dearborn Independent were taken from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-Semitic forgery of the 19th century. They were subsequently repudiated by Ford. Rep. Schmitz, whose home is in Santa Ana, is listed in the Congressional Directory as a member of the John Birch Society and as a Lt. Col. in the US Marine Corps Reserves. He teaches political science at Santa Ana College.

  97. 97.

    Fair Economist

    @Turgidson:

    If the Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver loses his race, I’d expect the GOP majority to go out with him. But either way, the race to take his place as top House GOPer would be a total shitshow and I have no clue who would win.

    The biggest mess is if the Republicans have a thin majority. The speakership requires an absolute majority of the House and if a number of teabaggers larger than that refuses to vote for a “mainstream” speaker the Republicans can’t elect one. They almost blocked Boehner who had a pretty large majority. It’s possible the House would not be able to elect anybody Speaker and not be able to transact business.

  98. 98.

    Corner Stone

    Chris Matthews is the absolute worst TV show host interviewer ever. Can he allow any guest to actually answer in an 8 second sound byte without fucking interrupting him?

  99. 99.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Mnemosyne: Not yet, I keep forgetting to make an appointment. The exterminator people I talked to said “nope, not us, you want the bed bugs people” so I called them first. Now that I think about it, they also mentioned seeing a dermo, but sort of in passing & after I started freaking out.

    I’m in full-blown shut up and take my money mode right now though, and I think I’ve freaked out enough that I’ll need a negative from the bed bug dogs before I can relax. I’ll see where to find a dermatologist ’round these parts though.

    Sam came back negative for fleas over the weekend. I mean, not “negative”, right? But definitely not positive. No evidence.

  100. 100.

    lamh36

    @Calouste: Right…I mean celebrity alone can be enough…but Lochte AIN’T Phelps and name dropping his name aint’ likely gon get you shit…lol

  101. 101.

    Mike in NC

    @opiejeanne:

    Trump’s foreign policy advisor is one Joseph Schmitz, formerly part of W’s administration and a holocaust denier.

    Jesus. Trump is like some deranged villain from a “Batman” movie who’s surrounded himself with thugs and creeps.

  103. 103.

    catclub

    @Patricia Kayden:

    nightmarish that the media isn’t exposing the fact that Breitbart.com is pretty much a White Supremacist website

    They are not today, but they are already close to saying that in explaining alt-right, and white ethno-nationalist. I think they will get there.

  104. 104.

    Patricia Kayden

    @James E Powell:

    my sense is that the press/media have their Bad Hillary stories locked and loaded.

    It’s hard to believe that there are any more Clinton stories to tell since we’ve known her for well over 30 years. She has been in the public eye for decades beginning with her stint as Governor Clinton’s wife. Not sure what “scandals” haven’t been revealed and not sure how those scandals would harm her since her opponent is so deranged and dangerous. We’ll see.

  105. 105.

    lamh36

    Man…Ryan Lochte is at least 10 years old than the 3 other swimmers…smh

    Who is dumb enough to follow along with Ryan Lochte’s dudebro ass.. a bunch of 20 year olds (20-23) of course…smh

  107. 107.

    Lizzy L

    @Major Major Major Major: Bites on ankles are often fleas. I recently had to deal with a super bad horrible flea infestation in a friend’s house. If you have cats or dogs, get them treated for fleas with something like Advantage — whatever your vet recommends. For the house, apply food-grade diatomaceous earth to rugs, bare floors, and baseboards. It’s a non-toxic powder. Make sure it’s food grade. You can get it at Amazon. Check the Fleabuster website for how to use it. It may take more than one application over a few months if your infestation is bad. Pick up a few sticky rollers and refills, the things that you use to take lint and pet hair off your clothing, and use them on your shoes and socks and pants. If you’ve got fleas they’ll stick to the roller. VACUUM. That will pick up both live fleas, larvae, and flea eggs. If it’s not fleas, good luck!

  108. 108.

    Calouste

    @lamh36: Lochte still has the body of an Olympic swimmer. And there are reasons that there are a few hundred thousand free condoms available in the Olympic Village.

  109. 109.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Uncle Cosmo: I think you want the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation:
    http://ripkenfoundation.org/

    The Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation helps to build character and teach critical life lessons to at-risk young people living in America’s most distressed communities through sports-themed programs.

  110. 110.

    Hal

    @hovercraft:

    Tweety is just loving him some Kellyanne, and she’s such a pro with a message that he’s hearing.

    I’ve mentioned this a couple of times before, that Halperin and Donnie Douche were doing the same when she appeared on Halperin’s show. To the point where Conway said Omar Fateem was in the audience of a Clinton rally and all they did was gently correct her that it was the father. Donnie wanted Trump to stop saying stupid shit so we can concentrate on the emails, which he and Conway thought were the important issue, amongst other nefarious Clinton goings-on, and if only Trump had 20 of her he would be 20 points ahead in the polls.

    As my old coworker used to say, Conway is so full of shit her eyes are brown, but people like Chris Matthews and Halperin love this type of show.

  111. 111.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Mnemosyne: Wow. Never took him for a Rightwinger but I’ve also read that Dr. Oz is Republican.

    @Adam L Silverman: We soon will need a chart to document how all of Trump’s advisors are entrenched in various extremist organizations/movements. There is no doubt what kind of people will run this country should Trump win.

  112. 112.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Lizzy L: The Daleks are coming tomorrow to give the place a once-over on fleas. I’ve had them before. I’m also moving in a month, otherwise I’d buy 50 gallons of DDT on the internet and a shop-vac, set it to blow, and walk away.

  113. 113.

    Hal

    @lamh36: A blogger on an entertainment blog recently referred to Lochte as a perpetually confused labradoodle and I will never look at him the same again.

  114. 114.

    Adam L Silverman

    @raven: There’s no there there. Unfortunately its going to make a great soundbite. And Tweety’s already cued up making it the equivalent of Iran-Contra.

    What you’ve really got is a diplomatically negotiated settlement of an almost 40 year old dispute over a military sale where Iran paid, but we never delivered because of the 1979 revolution. No competent administration should have/would have released the first tranche of repayment until the separately negotiated release of Americans being held at prisoners were reported in the air, on an air carrier not under Iranian control, and clear of Iranian air space. As for it being cash, US law prohibits the US from doing any form of conventional banking with Iran and also forbids the use of dollars. So no wire transfers, no electronic funds deposited, and it has to be foreign currency.

  115. 115.

    Mike in NC

    I’m guessing — without a Google search — that Chris Matthews took his style from the recently-deceased John McLaughlin.

  117. 117.

    MD Rackham

    @Adam L Silverman: I have a copy of None Dare Call it Conspiracy on my bookshelf, next to its progenitor None Dare Call It Treason and The Hollow Earth. The last of those is pretty hilarious actually.

    All were given to me by a neighbor who also arranged for John Schmitz to speak at my high school.

    Ah, the joys of growing up in Orange County.

  118. 118.

    Jeffro

    @efgoldman:

    AND YELLING!!
    Apparently no-one ever told him that microphones exist.

    That’s just his way of paying homage to the original yeller, John McLaughlin. Does Tweety have on a black armband?

  119. 119.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    Story about knee jerk racism.

    So standing at lunch at the break truck waiting for my order, up drives this Cadillac and out hops this big black guy. I think “Oh, great, here we go, even lunch has to be a fight. Just what I need.” and just do the neutral face thing. The big black guy very politely asks if I am done ’cause he doesn’t want to cut in front me, I can hear the fear in his voice.

    The guy was as scared of me as I was of him.

  123. 123.

    The Pale Scot

    @redshirt: You can spray the screens with insecticide. That’s what we did before AC in Bayonne NJ, realm of mutant mosquitos that dwelled in the salt marshes surrounding the refineries

  124. 124.

    opiejeanne

    @Adam L Silverman: John G Schmitz is quite dead now, and after his disgrace of being found to have two children by a mistress, Mr Family Values retired to Wisconsin and bought a desk that belonged to his hero, Joe McCarthy.
    I attended Santa Ana Community College for a couple of years, taking pottery classes, and I can tell you that Schmitz’s spirit lives on in that place where he taught.

  128. 128.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    I know the guy who runs the Bethesda Big Train semi-pro team. He’s really connected in all things baseball. I’ll e-mail him and see what he says.

  131. 131.

    catclub

    @Adam L Silverman: I do not see the problem. The reporting is getting better quickly, from a week ago (or less) that WSJ is saying we paid $400M ransom, to media reporting now that the Iranians got their own money back AFTER handing over the prisoners.

    It is a nothing burger.

  134. 134.

    Kathleen

    Uncle Cosmo: Uncle Cosmo, my deepest condolences to you and your family. I have a suggestion. The Cincinnati Reds may be a lousy team on the field, but its Community Fund has tirelessly promoted opportunities for kids in the urban core to play baseball by refurbishing ball fields (Brandon Phillips donated his own money in one cleanup effort) and sponsoring teams comprised of kids from the city with kids from the suburbs. Here is a link if you’re interested in reading more.

    Argh. I can’t get link to work.

  135. 135.

    Adam L Silverman

    @catclub: It is. Trump, however, has already hit on it and the President and linked it to Clinton in his rally that is currently ongoing. He stated that we paid ransom, that the President lied, just like he lied about Obamacare, that the President’s Iran policy was set and dictated by Secretary Clinton, and the money probably went right into Iran funding terrorism. FOX News and talk radio and the NY Post will be all over it and will make sure to blur and elide it into cash for hostages. Even though they were actually prisoners. And the cash is the first tranche of a $1.7 billion dollar settlement we have to repay.

  136. 136.

    Caphilldcne

    @Adam L Silverman: Thanks. I read these on the bus so apparently missed your comment from when I first tuned in. Also I like to call them Goundation’s because spell check won’t help capitalized names. I lived across the street from orioles park when Cal got his record for perfect attendance. It’s a truly Baltimore kind of record. Three years earlier I could sit on my porch and people would hand me free tickets.

  137. 137.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @lamh36:
    Dear lord, she is PRETTY. Good choice, since Mary Jane is supposed to be a model.

    @Turgidson:
    Oh, yeah, choosing the next Speaker will be crazy. People need to remember, Boehner was only able to leave because he talked Ryan into being his replacement. And the dysfunction we’ve seen since Boehner took over wasn’t because the Crazy Caucus can vote down everything, it’s because Boehner refused to bring to a vote anything they didn’t like until actual disaster was sitting on his head. Throw in that it requires a majority of Reps who vote, and things get weird. Even with a Dem minority, it doesn’t require many Republican abstentions to make Nancy speaker again. Still, best odds are Ryan keeps his seat, House narrows but doesn’t flip, he remains speaker because there’s no replacement, and Ryan continues Boehner’s previously unprecedented obstructionism.

  139. 139.

    opiejeanne

    @Mike in NC: There is no bottom. Of this I am now convinced, having spotted that last name and dived deep into the slime to find out the relationship.
    Seven kids by his wife. Two illegitimate raised as orphans when his mistress died (and then Jeane Dixon who had been raising them died) because he refused to support them.
    And, dear Lord, how fucked up his legitimate children continue to be.
    Our previous house was about 3 blocks from Carl Karcher’s, and he and Voit (sporting goods) and some idiot rancher are responsible for the political rise of the father of this crew. i’ll never eat at Carl’s jr again.

  140. 140.

    Adam L Silverman

    @raven: I agree with you. There’s no there there, but Fox and talk radio and the NY Post and Breitbart, Hoft, etc and the Trump campaign will try to spin it into gold.

  141. 141.

    opiejeanne

    @Patricia Kayden: Apparently Hillary was supposed to invite all of Bill’s “girlfriends” over for cookies that she baked with her own hands. People actually accuse her of treating these women in a cold manner as if that’s not to be expected.

  142. 142.

    Mary G

    @MD Rackham: My mom always swore that the Orange County JBS made her have a miscarriage. She opened a thrift store with six other local women, all Republicans, and they sent a delegation to our house because it was a communist front. They told my dad to order her to close it and when he refused tried to do it themselves. She got so mad it was funny until it wasn’t.

  143. 143.

    redshirt

    Kathleen,

    I can’t click on your post because you turned the reply button into a link to the charity you’re trying to highlight.

    Try again, and do the following:

    Type out a brand new post. Then highlight the words in that post you think would work best as a link to the website you want to link to. Then click the link button, and paste in the link to the website. Save and close.

    You should be good to go.
    WP hates bare links these days and won’t accept them.

  144. 144.

    Turgidson

    @Hal:

    Halperin said just the other day that Trump is the 2nd best political talent he’s ever seen (behind just Slick Willy). Obviously this is a pretty idiotic opinion for anyone to have, even Halperin. So now he’ll spend the rest of the election looking for justifications.

    Since Halperin is possibly the very worst example of in-sess-tuous (professionally) Villager pond scum “pundit” on the planet, I assume he and all his important friends were true believers in the “Deep Bench” theory of the GOP primary (“look at all those current and former governors, and Marco Rubio and Rand Paul too! WOW! It’s a shame only one of them can be president at a time! The Dems shouldn’t even bother contesting the election against whoever wins that primary!” – “centrists” like Halperin and Fournier said with awe and wonder, no doubt)

    Because he’s a useless piece of shit, he didn’t bother to notice that every single one of those candidates (Kasich a very mild exception) was a lightweight, a charlatan, an insufferable asshole, a Bush, or some combination thereof. He also does not realize or will not admit or accept that the GOP as a party is a bottomless pit of stupidity and fail right now. So to him, the fact that Trump vanquished all of those pathetic clowns was all the evidence he needed that Trump is a one-of-a-kind political talent. That, and the helicopter rides.

    And also because he’s a useless piece of shit, Halperin attributes Obama’s political success to the smart white men he surrounded himself with. Because of course he does.

  146. 146.

    Adam L Silverman

    @efgoldman: The news media is desperate for horse race at this point. Tonight’s rally speech, by teleprompter, where he stated that he’s recognized that he’s misspoken and that he regrets it when its caused pain is going to be eaten up as Conway righting the ship. And we were wrong about Bannon and the alt-right taking over. And because Conway has been a paid contributor on almost every cable news network for a long time, and she’s friendly with the anchors and reporters and other contributors on the political shows and on the news shows, they’re going to be very, very gentle. Because they think they need to be. As I think, Franklin Foer, wrote last week: this week was going to feature either a pivot by the media back to the horserace based on any inkling that Trump was getting turned around or a full burn on how he was self destructing. Trump’s campaign gave them something to hang the former on and abandon the latter. So that’s what they’re going to do.

  147. 147.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @Uncle Cosmo: Dear Uncle Cosmo: Oh, what a shock to you and Skyler’s family! I’m so sorry for this tragic loss. My family is from Richmond, VA, where Jeff McNelly got his start as an editorial cartoonist, and your nym has always given me a smile and brought me back to my younger days. Adam’s suggestion of the Ripken Foundation seems very appropriate and also the RBI Program for the MLB. But, whatever you and Skyler’s family choose will be perfect. Take care of yourself.

  152. 152.

    philadelphialawyer

    gofundme.com/baseball project

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    Condolences on your loss…

    “My name is Michael Rosenband, and I coach baseball at George Washington Carver Vocational-Technical High School in West Baltimore.

    “Our team does not have a home field where we can practice and play. We must travel nearly two miles to play at Leon Day Park and the school district only provides transportation for games, not for practices. Other West Baltimore schools (including Coppin State University, home to Baltimore’s only NCAA Division I baseball team) face similar obstacles.”

  153. 153.

    LibraryGuy

    @Uncle Cosmo: Hi, Major League Baseball created the RBI program years ago (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities), and the Orioles run a program locally. The link is here . I hope this helps at this difficult time.

  154. 154.

    opiejeanne

    @Rand Careaga: Mary Kay LeTourneau? I mentioned her, but didn’t go into details about her statutory rape of her 12 yo student, two pregnancies by him, and time served in prison. They are now married. The whole thing is so bizarre, so horrible, so disgusting, that it’s beyond comprehension. A 12 year old boy???? He must have been a little… precocious?

  155. 155.

    Gretchen

    @lamh36: But they said they didn’t tell the police because they didn’t want to “get in trouble.” Since when does telling your mom count as “reporting a crime” that’s subject to charges of false reporting.

  156. 156.

    Lizzy L

    @efgoldman: Yes. We’ve still got a little more than two months to go, and Trump is gonna be Trump. At some point, he’s going to get nasty and nuts, he’ll say something insane, you know he will. But the media is going to pump Trump’s bullshit attacks — “ransom” — as much as they can, even though they KNOW it’s all bullshit, because they loathe Hillary Clinton and all they care about is the dogfight, the horse race, whatever you want to call it.

  158. 158.

    Uncle Cosmo

    The Juicetariat is awesome when it puts its mind to helping. Thanks for all the excellent suggestions while my brain has been spinning its wheels.

    I am going to gather up all these possibilities & lay them out in front of the family in the next day or two. Right now the RBI program & the Ripken Foundation sound good to me…although the idea of rainmaking for the Carver and Coppin teams (& perhaps raising enough cash for a common field) sounds intriguing.

    We’ll sort this out. Thanks again!

    (And my sympathies to M^4. My folks used to tuck us in with “Nighty night, & don’t let the cingi bite.” At least that’s what it sounded like–dialect &/or slurring for cimici or bedbugs. FTR we never had bedbugs, it was just an expression…)

  159. 159.

    Gretchen

    @Major Major Major Major: have you been outside? Chiggers like to hang out under the borders of clothing, like the edges of socks and underwear, and the bites are intensely itchy. I got some inside my underwear, while hanging out in the sandbox with my grandson, while he didn’t get any. I suffered the intense itching for a week. But if it’s chiggers, they’re not in the house.

  160. 160.

    No One You Know

    @Uncle Cosmo: A former Seattle Mariner / Baltimore Oriole named Johnson had a program called “Pass it on” I met him in 1993 on a plane. He thought of himself a minister, was degrees as an electrical engineer, and played ball as a profession.

    I’m sorry to say I don’t know where he is now.

  161. 161.

    NoraLenderbee

    @redshirt: Thank you for the link instructions! I couldn’t figure out what a “naked link” meant.

  162. 162.

    Anne Laurie

    @efgoldman:

    Well look at all the RWNJ TeaHadi doctors in congress – many of them obgyns who clearly hate women.

    Back in the 1970s, medical students graduating near the bottom of their class were advised to become dermatologists or gynecologists, “because you’re not likely to kill anyone in those specialties.”

    I’d hope things have improved since then, but the Teahadist ob/gyns in Congress would’ve been going to medical school at least a couple decades ago…

  163. 163.

    J R in WV

    @debbie:

    Ooh, Ooh, That’s smart!!!

    But that Link button works well too. I always have to look up the proper spelling of the actual HTML command, since I don’t know HTML as a language. So I figured out how to make that Linky button work.

  164. 164.

    debbie

    @J R in WV:

    I have trouble using the link button on my iPad because it’s so close to the commenting box and the “bubble” with copy and paste options usually covers it. If that makes any sense.

Comments are closed.