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Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

This really is a full service blog.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

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

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread: They Call Him “Mr. Popular”

Open Thread: They Call Him “Mr. Popular”

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Granted that mid-level professionals in every industry tend to regard the ever-changing “suits” at the top of their hierarchies as seagulls (fly in/squawk&shit/disappear):

As U.S. officials cast doubt on Donald Trump’s claim he read the “body language” of intelligence officials at a recent briefing, NBC News has learned exclusive details of what unfolded in the room — one of Trump’s advisers repeatedly interrupted the briefers until Chris Christie intervened, sources with knowledge of the briefing said…

Timothy Barrett, a spokesman for the Director of National Intelligence, declined to comment Thursday on Trump’s characterization.

However, a U.S. official pointed out that intelligence officers don’t give policy advice, so it would be inaccurate to say that Obama failed to follow the advice of the intelligence community. A second U.S. official said analysts are trained not to allow their body language to betray their thinking.

Meanwhile, four people with knowledge of the matter told NBC News that one of the advisers Trump brought to the briefing, retired general Mike Flynn, repeatedly interrupted the briefing with pointed questions.

Two sources said Christie, the New Jersey governor and Trump adviser, verbally restrained Flynn — one saying Christie said, “Shut up,” the other reporting he said, “Calm down.” Two other sources said Christie touched Flynn’s arm in an effort get him to calm down and let the officials continue. Requests for comment from Flynn and Christie were not immediately returned…

There were fewer than 10 people in the room at Trump’s briefing, and all the briefers were career intelligence officials, including both military officers and civilians, U.S. officials told NBC News. A former senior intelligence official said the briefing team is always the same for both presidential candidates. None were political appointees, and none were among the team that briefs President Obama daily. The names of the briefers have not been made public…

Current and former U.S. intelligence officials who asked that their names not be disclosed told NBC News that many members of the current intelligence community — leadership rank and file — were angered by Trump’s comments Wednesday night, and the possibility that he may have disclosed details of his intelligence briefing or attempted to politicize it.

Former CIA and NSA director Mike Hayden, who opposes Trump, told NBC News that in almost four decades in intelligence “I have never seen anything like this before.”

“A political candidate has used professional intelligence officers briefing him in a totally non-political setting as props to buttress an argument for his political campaign,” said Hayden. “And his political point was actually imputed to them, not even something they allegedly said. The `I can read body language’ line was quite remarkable. … I am confident Director Clapper sent senior professionals to this meeting and so I am equally confident that no such body language ever existed. It’s simply not what we do.” …

Shorter: “Shut the fuck up, Donny.”

Reader Interactions

155Comments

  1. 1.

    Tim C.

    But… Hillary coughed, emails. I mean that, she literally coughed Emails out of Benghazi!

    ETA: And they made stormclouds!

  2. 2.

    debbie

    I’m glad they’ve spoken up. I’d like to see a Clinton ad on Trump’s excellent reading of body language (women, disabled reporter, etc.).

  5. 5.

    Van Buren

    @Tim C.: Even if there was nothing wrong with her coughing the optics were bad and now it’s out there and it would be irresponsible not to speculate about it.

  6. 6.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I found this at Sam Wang’s joint. It is an app that will show competitive house races within up to 100 miles of your address. Check it out. Places to work on getting out the vote.

  7. 7.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    My rotating banner ad is for NFIB Massachusetts. Cos if ya can’t enjoy their booze, beefsteak and broads tonite, and vote against them tomorrow…(goes the saying).

    The MA part is because Spousal ThresherK and I are on Cape Cod. So at least there’s that.

  8. 8.

    Mike in NC

    We can pretty much assume that whatever was told to Trump in that briefing has been relayed to Putin already.

  9. 9.

    scav

    Isn’t he already getting rid of the Generals, all the rubble? He’ll decide to get rid of all the rubbled Intelligence officials too, make a clean sweep, he don’t need them. He’s the leader. With vision. Big hands. But big intelligence, all the intelligence bigly, he’s got it already. Everyone says so. Everything will be sorted in days, no rubble left. Use the rubble to build the wall. Mexico will pay for it, but we’ll have all the oil money too. Victory, Spoils. All the Victories, all the Spoils. You’ll be so spoiled you’ll be tired of spoiling. Everything spoiled. Absolutely. Believe me.

  10. 10.

    hovercraft

    Paul Ryan refused to comment on the Donald’s latest “words”, Obama and Hillary are right, every rethug should be asked at every appearance what they think about Donnie’s lack of discipline.

  11. 11.

    Peale

    @Major Major Major Major: I don’t either. But then I don’t remember how far back the intelligence briefing practice has gone. I don’t think we’ve had a candidate who’s boast “I know something you don’t know” after they had received one. But then I don’t recall ever having a candidate who could plausobly be accused of surrounding himself with foreign agents. Henry Wallace maybe?

  12. 12.

    Peale

    @scav: yep. I really can’t see why Russia would prefer him. I mean, I will make no comment on the state of the general class we currently have, but I’m pretty sure they’d like to have as many of them as possible forced out and replaced by nincompoops.

  13. 13.

    SFAW

    @efgoldman:

    So he and his advisors are clueless evil assholes.

    Or, as I started saying, awhile back, about the Rethug “leader”ship: Crazy/Stupid/Evil — pick three

  15. 15.

    redshirt

    I’m surprised “Shut the fuck up, Donny” hasn’t been a more popular catchphrase this election. Thanks, Anne, for helping it be so.

  16. 16.

    lamh36

    Good evening.

    Long day at work, but I’ve got a three day weekend coming up. Gonna be heading to DFW Saturday for a short trip to see the new baby Layla.

    Next week I think, Niecy Zoe might actually be meeting baby Layla, if my other sisters are able to drive up there.

    Speaking of Zoe, she’s got two new top teeth to go along with her first bottom two teeth. Low and behold, looks like I’ve got another gap-toothed twin in the family!

    Say Hey Zoe!

  17. 17.

    Keith P.

    So I’ve got these two ferals living in my back yard (or kind of living there…one shows up regularly for food, and another shows up to fight for the food periodically). It just dawned on me the last couple of days that the two cats have the same fur (white and black/white) as two indoor/outdoor cats I had that disappeared about 6 years ago. These ferals have much bigger muscles and rounder, bigger heads. I can’t find a pic of the black/white one to compare the patterns, and I need to get a look at the white one to see if it’s odd-eyed, but there’s no way they’re the same cats, right? Even going feral, a cat’s head wouldn’t go all Barry Bonds?

  19. 19.

    SFAW

    @Peale:

    replaced by nincompoops.

    “And on the Third Day, Trump created new Generals in his own image, and he saw that it was good the BEST EVER”

  20. 20.

    sinnedbackward

    How in the world did NBC find four separate sources, if only nine or fewer were in the room? Chrisco, sure, but not any of the briefers I would have thought.

  21. 21.

    Lizzy L

    This is OT but related: Donald Trump claims that in 2002, a delegation (his word) from the White House came to him to ask his advice (!!!) on whether the U.S. should invade Iraq, and he told them no, because it would de-stabilize the Middle East.

    I do not believe this for a minute. Why would George W. Bush’s administration go to Donald Trump for advice about foreign policy???? Surely it can be checked and verified. I wonder if there are any working investigative reporters out there who could chase this claim down. If the press is finally starting to call Trump out for his lies, this is a big one.

  22. 22.

    SFAW

    @lamh36:

    I’d say you need to include a “Extreme cuteness ahead” trigger warning, but we already know about Zoe.

    One beautiful kid, Auntie.

  27. 27.

    PPCLI

    I haven’t looked at all the coverage, but in what I have seen exhibits a remarkable lacuna. Even when they mention that Trump spoke of a murderous, dictatorial thug as preferable to a democratically elected president in a relatively scandal-free administration, they fail to note that less than three weeks ago, Trump’s campaign manager was a stooge of a Putin stooge. (And so by the transitive law of stoogiosity…) There is evidence that this Putin stooge stooge was getting shopping bags of cash from the Putin stooge, for heaven’s sake. And that was the guy pulling Trumps strings to weaken the Republican platform with reference to the Ukraine.

    How is this not appearing no later than the fourth sentence of every Trump-Putin story???

    Journalists: Face the fact that Trump is not only a Putin mark, but less than three weeks ago he was even a Putin stooge stooge stooge!

  30. 30.

    PPCLI

    @Lizzy L: Well, the first question a student in a high-school journalism class would ask after hearing Trump say this would be: “And, um, who was in this delegation?”

  31. 31.

    SFAW

    @PPCLI:

    but less than three weeks ago he was even a Putin stooge stooge stooge!

    Did he also make a trip to Uz-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan?

  34. 34.

    John Revolta

    Christ, it’s not bad enough that Trump is getting these briefings, but Chris fucking Christie is in on them too?!!?!?

    And best of all- HE’S the voice of reason in there!! Yowzah.

  36. 36.

    NorthLeft12

    My wife and I were talking about this. We were trying to imagine the reaction of the poor schlubs who got stuck with “briefing” Deadbeat Donald. To hear what he had to say about Obama and what the briefers told him………yikes. I am sure Thursday morning was spent explaining to the boss, and his boss, and probably his boss, that no I said no such thing about President Obama, and yes I am very happy in my present job, except for the part where I have to spend time with a full time liar and idiot.

    Just effing crazy. I was about to say unbelievable, but that ship has sailed a long time ago.

  39. 39.

    Jeffro

    @Lizzy L:

    This is OT but related: Donald Trump claims that in 2002, a delegation (his word) from the White House came to him to ask his advice (!!!) on whether the U.S. should invade Iraq, and he told them no, because it would de-stabilize the Middle East.

    I do not believe this for a minute. Why would George W. Bush’s administration go to Donald Trump for advice about foreign policy????

    They wouldn’t, and so we shouldn’t ponder it for a nanosecond – that’s more than it deserves. At this point the default for anything that comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth should be, “Prove it – you’re a complete liar. Sources, dates, evidence.” As I mentioned in an earlier thread, he’s also claiming that he not just could, but would, have stopped Bin Laden before 9/11.

    He is The Superman.

  42. 42.

    Peale

    @Lizzy L: well that would blow the roof off the conventional liberal wisdom that the Bush administration had plan action on Iraq before even September 11. Apparently, they were divided?

  48. 48.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    Well, I will not save my pixels. My very best wishes to Mrs. EFG and hopes that it is Nothing. If it is Something, I hope it’s minor and easily fixable. You, dear man, are probably going to worry more than she will, so please take care of yourself. And let us know as soon as there’s anything to report. Big hugs to you both.

  50. 50.

    germy

    John Fugelsang ‏@JohnFugelsang 3h3 hours ago
    #LaueringTheBar The bar got lowered so much Cheney tripped over it in the underground bunker.

  51. 51.

    Trentrunner

    Anyone know of any snap/instapolls for the CiC forum last night?

    All I’m seeing are questionable polls in Trump’s Twitter feed that show Trump having won it by yuge margins.

  52. 52.

    hovercraft

    @efgoldman:
    Thinking positive thoughts.

    NBC heading into the forum, he was right where RMoney was last time. As Col. Jack Jacobs pointed out, the military tends to be very conservative when it comes to national defense and fiscal issues, which is why they’ve always skewed republican.

  54. 54.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jeffro:

    Donald Trump claims that in 2002, a delegation (his word) from the White House came to him to ask his advice (!!!) on whether the U.S. should invade Iraq, and he told them no, because it would de-stabilize the Middle East.

    Was that before or after he told Howard Stern in 2002 that, yeah, he probably would invade Iraq?

    #alsorhetoricalquestion

  56. 56.

    germy

    John Fugelsang ‏@JohnFugelsang 23h23 hours ago

    My drinking game word for #NBCNewsForum was Trump saying ‘plan.’
    My meth game was Trump not explaining any plan.
    Spiders on my ceiling

  59. 59.

    Cat48

    Obama fired Flynn so that might be why he was jumping around. They didnt agree on much which I found out by googling. Flynn wants to work with Putin but Obama tried, not productive. Putin killed a group of Kurds working with us

  60. 60.

    Mandalay

    @Brachiator:

    And wasn’t his man Flynn a paid for Russian advisor?

    He was. And he was also fired by Obama.

    He craves attention and respect even more than Trump, and deserves it even less. He’s a worthless, self-serving piece of piece of shit.

  62. 62.

    germy

    @Peale:

    So conservatves about fiscal issues, as long as we spend like drunken sailors on defense.

    And the more we spend, the more paranoid we get. Like a man who fills his house with weapons, and then lays awake all night waiting for burglars: “They’re coming! Where are they?!”

  63. 63.

    Gin & Tonic

    Since this is an open thread – while I am not what you’d call the “target demo” and haven’t watched any previous episodes, I’ve watched Viceland’s current Gaycation with Ellen Page and Ian Daniel. In episode 1 of the new season they travel to Ukraine, a country I know, and explore the difficulties and challenges of being gay there. It is a well-balanced and sensitive treatment of a painful issue and at the same time good coverage of the last 2.5 years of revolution and war. Highly recommended. Vice has done a lot of good work in Ukraine and Russia over the last few years, but I was really unaware of how they’d raised the bar on their productions.

  67. 67.

    hovercraft

    @Peale:
    Isn’t that the mark of a conservative, cut spending on you and increase it on me. Several in the pre forum interviews said that was what they liked about Trump, that he is “tough” and will increase the defense budget. Today I saw a gold star mother who had been undecided, her son died in Iraq, three members of his unit who made it back home have since committed suicide, and she is now with Trump because he knew the number of suicides per day.
    Sigh.

  70. 70.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    On a personal note, when I talk about my RWNJ brother in Las Vegas, you should picture John Goodman in The Big Lebowski. There’s even a physical resemblance.

    Speaking of, he is scheduling another motorcycle trip to South America in January, so I’ll be going out to dog- and mom-sit for three weeks. Looking forward to it.

  71. 71.

    Renie

    Don’t know if it’s already been mentioned but there’s a full page ad in NYT today listing all the military guys who support Trump. Sad to see anyone in our military who believes this idiot is qualified; I guess they hate Hillary alot.

  73. 73.

    The Dangerman

    I wonder if future briefings will come with the professional equivalent of “you don’t fucking talk about anything you hear in here or see in here or we’re gonna perp walk your ass, you got it, Motherfucker?” (that would be the Samuel L. Jackson version).

    ETA: Best wishes, EFG!

  75. 75.

    Feathers

    When I read that article, my immediate guess was that whatever Trump was reading was the briefer’s disgust with Flynn. Second guess was that Flynn told Trump about the body language signaling Obama hatred.

    This really is the sort of thing that the media needs to put into context. I grew up in DC, I’ve heard rumors about what roles various kids I babysat for have played in the War on Terror, but you never, ever, ever go saying anything that could be tied to a specific person. This level of secrecy is both good and bad. It lets people have intel jobs, but still live normal lives. It also can let all sorts of wild rumors run wild, because “a friend of a friend” is also the way the truth gets spread.

  76. 76.

    quakerinabasement

    Chris Christie stepping in and saying you’re being a rude, overbearing jackass is kind of like Stephen Hawking telling you you’re nerdy.

  77. 77.

    Mary G

    The NYT public editor responded to my complaint about the changing stories about the town hall last night, not very helpfully:

    We’ve had a several inquiries about this. The reason for two different stories is that one writer was assigned to the print edition and one was assigned to the web edition. This is done routinely in big newsrooms with the resources to do it — it enables the web story to be updated more quickly and constantly through the night without the author worrying about print deadlines. Then, at the end of the night, the print story replaces the web story, usually because the print story is considered to be the more finished product, since its author had more time to focus on it.

    I can say only that to the degree that the two versions differ on content and emphasis, it reflects the news judgment of the writer.

    I hope that at least helps some.

    Liz

  78. 78.

    Gin & Tonic

    @germy: Yes, I’ve read that piece. Of course I’ve known about both of them for some time, and I’ve met Leshchenko. I’ve also used them as examples in some postings here, when the group laments the parlous state of journalism in the US – there are plenty of journalists in plenty of countries (not just former Soviet-bloc, either) who are doing courageous and valiant work.

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    Ded from the cute, as always with Miss Zoe. And, of course, I approve the t-shirt as well. ?

    @efgoldman:

    I’ll think good thoughts for both of you. Don’t forget to update us if/when you can.

  82. 82.

    gogol's wife

    @Mary G:

    She’s totally worthless. She began her tenure by complaining that the Times was too liberal. I haven’t bothered to read her since that.

  85. 85.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    “Why I’ll Never Date a Feminist”? Judging by the picture, that guy will never have to worry about dating at all.

    I see a Laotian mail-order bride in his future. Maybe.

  86. 86.

    RoonieRoo

    @Keith P.: If a male cat is not neutered they get a giant head once they mature. It’s how you recognize an intact male cat or rather one that was not neutered before it went though cat puberty.

  88. 88.

    ChrisGrrr

    @Mike in NC: Yup, and I thought the subject matter would be way too hush-hush to have advisors in the room too.

    Blessings to Mrs EG and our comment colleague.

  93. 93.

    Mnemosyne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    You know, sometimes a guy with looks like that can overcome a woman’s initial revulsion by having a winning personality. If he’s funny, smart, and compassionate, he could find a woman to date him even though he’s no George Clooney.

    He obviously decided not to go that route.

  94. 94.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Felonius Monk: I am not Dave Hon. I was just introducing Mr. Hon’s viewpoint to the blog so all the feminists can know what they are losing due to their beliefs. Because I care.

  101. 101.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @lamh36:

    Zoe is, as always, even more adorable than she was the last time.

    I expect we can count on many, equally cute, pictures of little Layla during the course of the weekend?

  103. 103.

    sigaba

    @Peale:

    I can’t recall a race in which the security briefings even merited a second thought, but then again, I’m young by blog commenter standards.

    There’s a legend that Nixon wanted to accuse Kennedy of breaching national security during the first debate, because Kennedy disclosed details about the US missile gap that weren’t supposed to be public knowledge. But in that case Kennedy was supposed to have heard this information in closed session of a senate committee, not the nominee briefings.

  104. 104.

    Feathers

    @Omnes Omnibus: Oh, yeah. All those women refused to date you and/or dumped your as because they are “more loyal to their gender.” Keep telling yourself that, bub.

  106. 106.

    Felonius Monk

    @Omnes Omnibus: There was never any doubt in my mind that you are not Dave Hon.

    I now understand the public service that you’ve provided. We all thank you, I think. But that dude is one sad pile of shit.

  110. 110.

    Felonius Monk

    @raven: I left a comment for you in the early morning post with a link to the obit of Robert Timberg — don’t know if you saw it or not.

  111. 111.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Omnes Omnibus: The comment section is hilarious. He shouldn’t have included his photo as that appears to be the target for many commenters. He won’t have any problems sticking to his promise not to date any feminists.

  114. 114.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    You know, there has been so much pushback on Matt Lauer for the past 24 hours — much of it highly critical of his devoting the first third of the HRC segment to emails — that I wonder whether some of the rest of the press corpse are a bit scared off today. Still seems like an odd headline and lede, but when even Andrea Fucking Mitchell Greenspan opts to ask a different question, you have to think there’s something in the air.

  115. 115.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @Mike in NC:

    We can pretty much assume that whatever was told to Trump in that briefing has been relayed to Putin already

    I am betting I that built in disinformation that is innocuous yet can be traced back to those briefed might be a intelligence SOP? We have ears everywhere-we’d be able to know if A Trumpster passed any info plus the dummy info on in like two seconds.

  119. 119.

    Miss Bianca

    @Omnes Omnibus: LOL! “Your candour, Mr. Bingley, must disarm reproof.”

    Besides, it does fit right in with AL’s headline theme, don’t it? I bet “Mr. Popular” is what *all* the girls called him in high school!

  120. 120.

    Felonius Monk

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I don’t think that Miss Bianca and Emma feel that way.

    Probably not. Still, exposing chauvinists is Gods’ work, even if not immediately appreciated.

  121. 121.

    Splitting Image

    @Mary G:

    We’ve had a several inquiries about this. The reason for two different stories is that one writer was assigned to the print edition and one was assigned to the web edition. This is done routinely in big newsrooms with the resources to do it — it enables the web story to be updated more quickly and constantly through the night without the author worrying about print deadlines. Then, at the end of the night, the print story replaces the web story, usually because the print story is considered to be the more finished product, since its author had more time to focus on it.

    So in other words, the Times assigns one writer to come up with something fast, and another writer to take his time. The logic for doing this is that the writer who has to come up with something fast doesn’t have to worry about print deadlines, and the writer who takes his time is considered to have produced the more finished product, even though he doesn’t have to update it as the story evolves.

    Have I got that right?

    And I presume that the Times’ decision to remove one story rather than leaving them both on the website is accounted for by the chronic shortage of pixels on the internet since Obama became President, right?

  125. 125.

    Iowa Old Lady

    I have a comment in moderation quoting a tweet from David Fahrenthold to the effect that so far he’s found five charities who say the never got the donation the Trump Foundation told the IRS it gave them.

  127. 127.

    amk

    @Mary G: shorter nyt – we don’t have a fucking editorial oversight policy, ok? we just let the kids run around and wreck the house.

  129. 129.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Richard M. Nixon ‏@dick_nixon 5m5 minutes ago

    The fellow who wrote he won’t go on a date with a women’s libber? His first language is not English, correct?
    1 retweet 6 likes

    If you’ve lost Nixon…

  130. 130.

    raven

    Savannah lost another icon and hearts are heavy among the widespread community The Lady Chablis embraced and entertained for so many years.

    The Lady Chablis, made famous in John Berendt’s best-selling book, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” passed away Thursday morning at Candler Hospital at the age of 59.

  132. 132.

    randy khan

    @Seth Owen:

    I’m not sure I believe that I’m saying something sort of nice about Christie, but he’s a two-term governor and used to be a U.S. Attorney (where I’m sure he got some access to classified information). He actually probably appreciates the seriousness of the briefing much more than Trump and gets that a briefing isn’t a place to show off, unlike Flynn.

  134. 134.

    Brachiator

    @Mandalay:

    He craves attention and respect even more than Trump, and deserves it even less. He’s a worthless, self-serving piece of piece of shit.

    Trump always prattles about surrounding himself with the best people, and yet he invariably ends up selecting scum and shitgibibbons to be his yes men and attack dogs.

  138. 138.

    SFAW

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    I have a comment in moderation quoting a tweet from David Fahrenthold to the effect that so far he’s found five charities who say the never got the donation the Trump Foundation told the IRS it gave them.

    Too bad Fahrenthold is such a shitty reporter. Imagine! Questioning the veracity of Mr. Trump in any way, shape, or form! De noive o’ dat guy!

  139. 139.

    laura

    @lamh36: Layla? Isn’t she the lovely new, sweet babe in your family?
    What a happy trip and enjoy the new, sweet promise to the future that babies bring.

  141. 141.

    SFAW

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I saw that lede from The Hill in my inbox, went over there to see if The Hill had suddenly become non-wingnutty.

    I don’t often use the term “cesspool” to refer to things outside of the waste-disposal realm, but the comment section at The Hill is about three outhouses below a cesspool. If only evolution worked faster …

  146. 146.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    Bad decision on his part. Of course it may have been an unconscious decision, seeing as how it would seem to be mindlessly stupid. Then again he wrote about it so……..

  150. 150.

    Aleta

    @Keith P.: How old were the ones who disappeared? There are some cats who mature slowly and don’t reach full size until 2 1/2- even 3 years old. So if yours were lost at 1-2, and then it took time for them to make their way home, it could be. Probably coincidence, but.

  152. 152.

    Taylor

    @sigaba:

    There’s a legend that Nixon wanted to accuse Kennedy of breaching national security during the first debate, because Kennedy disclosed details about the US missile gap that weren’t supposed to be public knowledge. But in that case Kennedy was supposed to have heard this information in closed session of a senate committee, not the nominee briefings.

    Nixon wanted to call Kennedy’s BS on the missile gap, because K knew very well from confidential intelligence briefings that there was no such thing.

  153. 153.

    Applejinx

    @randy khan: No, I’ll buy that. Christie’s a corrupt, vindictive sonofabitch, but he’s a working (as in functioning) politician. He’s hanging around with sub-politicians and has to be pretty embarrassed, which is very much his cross to bear.

    Seppuku would be more honorable. He’d need a very long sword.

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