Faithful Balloon Juice reader (and occasional commenter) cope sent the following beautiful predawn photo of Venus and the crescent moon:
Hope the appearance of a crescent moon in Cole’s Twitter feed doesn’t bring the anti-Islam hysterics down on our host’s head. He has enough to contend with, given the unruly menagerie and impending relocation.
I know we’re all dreading next week’s transfer of power from a decent and thoughtful man to a walking collection of untreated personality disorders. We’re all dealing with that in our own ways.
But though our party may be as shattered as our spirits and the barbarians on the other side are as gleeful as a pack of meth-addled skunks rolling in a dumpster of rotten citrus fruit, I believe we have hidden strengths — and that our opponents have grievous weaknesses — that will soon become apparent.
Anyhoo, the thread: it is as open as the coastal sky.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m seeing a lot of tweets like this
The House vote is this afternoon, so call your Rep and tell the poor kid answering the phone that you hope s/he’ll oppose this afternoons budget bill, and that the ACA can’t be repealed without a replacement. The more specific you are, the better, per this thread that looks persuasive to me.
Cacti
Pee pee gate just keeps getting better.
Penthouse put up a $1 million reward for anybody who has proof that Trump likes water sports. Three claimants have come forward.
hovercraft
Beautiful picture cope.
Miss Betty why are you trying to deny is the joy of having to fight off a mob of frothing racists and xenophobes? It could be just what we need to brighten our day ;-)
raven
Repost of the moonset this morning.
greengoblin
I got an encouraging e-mail from Penzy’s Spices that the number of requests for their Kindness pins for the Women’s March is greater than expected.
hovercraft
@Cacti:
LOL, “water sports”, HA !
Willie!
@Cacti: Damn!! I guess on the upside, the fall of our republic will be entertaining. We’ll all get a good chuckle before this dumster fire conflagration consumes us.
Bobby D
@Cacti: Awesome!
Can someone ask Mike Pence if prostitute pissing on you falls under the category of those “good Christian values” they bleat on about?
MattF
According to the NYT, the Golden One has served up a new tweetstorm. I’m pleased to note that I deleted my Twitter account a while ago– though I never followed the One, anyhow.
Oatler.
@raven: I wish you’d gotten a shot of the Wolf Moon I had through my bedroom window last night, winter branches clutching and all
Chuck Todd tells us subjects “the press is gonna have to adjust” to Trump’s new muscle-confusion press cons. Today Show this morning.
Major Major Major Major
Cool picture.
Elizabelle
Gorgeous photo, cope.
Why I comes here.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Beautiful!
@MattF: True; to sum up: FAKE NEWS! BLAH BLAH BLAH HILLARY! BLAH BLAH BLAH UNFAIR TO MEEEEEE! BLAH BLAH BLAH. Trump is about the same age as my dad. It just astounds me that a man that age can conduct these whiny-ass public tantrums with such frequency — even leaving aside the horrifying fact that this specimen will soon be POTUS. Even the hateful coots in newspaper comments sections are generally more self-aware, and the bar doesn’t get any lower than that…
Calouste
@MattF: I think the term you want to use there is “Number One”.
japa21
@Elizabelle: Why Betty is a national treasure.
Major Major Major Major
@hovercraft: that’s what they call it in the ‘biz.
Kay
That’s the breaking news. Trump and Cher. Tens of millions of people will lose access to vital medical care and this is what the President of the United States is spending his day doing. I would literally rather have Cher as President. She’s more serious.
A Ghost to Most
my imagination is seeing a gecko sleeping one off on that branch
nice pic.
catclub
@Oatler.:
There was an article in the Hollywood reporter that the press should ask direct/single part questions. Not the four part mishmash they love.
Trump picks one (vaguely connected) aspect and ignores all the rest. It is more blatant only if the questions are better and simpler.
Weaselone
@Betty Cracker:
I still don’t get the continued focus on Hillary. As far as I know she’s been taking hikes in the woods with Bill, spending time with her grandchild and making the occasional speaking appearance at an organization or charity. It’s not as though she’s been in the media blasting Trump.
MattF
@Betty Cracker: It’s his behavioral repertoire. ‘Limited’, as the professionals would say.
jeffreyw
What’s worse, he may be accused of being a South Carolina sympathizer.
trollhattan
@Bobby D:
“Hate the
sinpisser, not the pissee.”Kay
Didn’t you just know reality tv would have horrible repercussions? The first time I saw it I thought “oh, THIS goes no where good!” It’s just a gut thing. Like a bad smell. Brain stem. You don’t even have to think about it.
Juju
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I just called Rep. Walter B. jones, for what it’s worth.
ArchTeryx
@Weaselone: He and his entire party are sore winners.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Weaselone: a religion can survive without a god, but not without a devil, and Trump spent the last year persuading the 27% that makes up a majority of the Republican primary electorate (and thus controls the Republican party) that Hilary is the Debbil.
ETA: and the ones who were conscious in/of the 90s already had her pegged as the socialist lesbian who had her lover Vince Foster killed because he was going to expose her vast corrupt financial empire of cattle futures and whitewater
jayboat
Thanks for the shot of positivity, Betty. Beautiful image.
I’m beginning to believe that Putin has been playing Trump like a drum.
This whole thing is feeling too scripted, surreal as it is.
MazeDancer
The Senate Democrats were impressive during the GOP Vote-A-Rama demolition of the ACA budgeting. Each Dem voting no with a little GOP-shaming, not allowed speech.
If you missed seeing it in the middle of the night, Rachel Maddow had a bit of footage. It starts at 5:55 on this vid. (warning MSNBC vids are very slow loading.) But the beginning of the vid is about DiFi having surgery and getting back to grilling nominees the next day, so also worth watching. Did not know DiFi is 83. She looks 10 years younger.
jeffreyw
@Major Major Major Major: They’ve got an options menu? Not gonna click on the next option. No siree!
Miss Bianca
OK, so I have no cell phone service till my new phone comes (thanks, AT & T, for switching technology on us with no warning!) and even my office phone is dead. Aaagh! I may have to email or fax my rep just because I have no other choice. Didn’t someone post a link for e-faxing our Senators a couple days back? Same thing for House Reps anywhere?
jayboat
@MazeDancer:
It’s the California water.
Yarrow
@Oatler.:
Perhaps this is yet another example of his usual stupidity and toadying to power. Still, it does get me wondering…What do the Russians have on Chuck Todd? I feel it would be irresponsible not to speculate.
chris
@Kay: Yes! I watched one Survivor episode 20 years ago and was horrified. Still am and here we are.
NotMax
It’s the Year of the (Giant Inflatable Trump) Rooster at one Chinese factory
Juju
@Weaselone: It is because she beat him in the popular vote and he truly knows how close it was in the electoral college and that diminishes his win. So he has to do whatever he can to make her look bad. Very sad.
chris
@Miss Bianca: Here you go.
trollhattan
@MazeDancer:
Re. DiFi, rumors swirl about her future with two years left in this term. New to me, Willie Brown is floating her retiring before term is up and Jerry Brown taking her seat, with Newsom sliding into the governor’s chair. I know Willie is trolling, but it actually makes some sense. However, IDK what DiFi and Jerry’s relationship is.
Betty Cracker
@Weaselone & @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yep — totalitarians need a hate-object, an enemy to compel their followers to unite behind them. Hillary continues to be their Emmanuel Goldstein for the moment, but as soon as some ISIS loon blows up a Trump property somewhere, the real fun will begin.
Yarrow
@catclub:
I was thinking the same thing when I watched that farce of a press conference. I don’t think it’s as much him “picking one aspect,” but more that he can’t remember all the various questions.
Humboldtblue
Here is this morning’s moon taken at the weather office on a crisp and frosty 30 degree morning at 4:30
Yarrow
@Weaselone:
He’s like an aging rock star with no recent material. He’s hauling out the greatest hits. They made everyone love him once before! They get the crowd going!
Felonius Monk
@Yarrow:
Incontrovertible proof that Chuck Todd is an idiot?
Miss Bianca
@chris: thanks!
Belafon
While we’re disorganized, there are more of us than them. When we get organized, and we will, they won’t be able to stand the onslaught.
MattF
@Yarrow: More like the whole ‘answer the question’ thing is foreign to him.
trollhattan
@Yarrow:
Wait ’til you see Stonehenge lowered to the dais during the inaugural speech.
Yarrow
@Miss Bianca: For free faxing, you can try Fax Zero. The first fax or so is free. There are other online fax options that often offer a few pages for free.
I think I remember seeing someone say that faxing your reps is free through Fax Zero, but I don’t know if that’s an always thing or just part of their free couple of pages. I have used Fax Zero before and had a good experience.
Brachiator
Very nice photo.
Humboldtblue
@trollhattan: I don’t see Jerry going for that seat, he’s 78.
Yarrow
@trollhattan: I would actually watch the clip of that!
Doesn’t seem all that far fetched now. Scary.
Adrift
@Kay:
I take comfort in the fact that in some alternate timeline, she is. And I’m jealous.
Yarrow
@Felonius Monk:
Well, it’s not like we need the Russians for that! I’m wondering if there’s something else…. Like I said, it would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Bobby D
@Yarrow: Freebird!!!
I have a feeling the turnout in the midterms is going to be way above normal levels. Might even retake the house.
Mike J
Multi part questions aren’t asked to get an answer, they’re asked to show how clever the reporter is.
trollhattan
@Humboldtblue:
True, but Jerry’s not a typical 78YO and wouldn’t say no to an opportunity to jump to the Senate. The whole scenario seems far-fetched but the thought of Jerry alongside Liz Warren makes my heart beat a little faster.
hovercraft
@Major Major Major Major:
Thanks, eh, how do you know what the ‘biz’ calls it, do you moonlight in Waterworld?
@Weaselone:
Grandchildren, Chelsea has a boy as well as Charlotte now.
Mary G
@trollhattan: I would pay to see Gov. Moonbeam shred the tortoise from Kentucky.
trollhattan
@Mary G:
He’d begin with a challenge to a pull-up competition. Make it so!
hovercraft
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
You missed a couple of erogenous zones, Rose Law firm, travelgate, and you forgot to mention her current/former lover/capo, Sidney Blumenthal.
Humboldtblue
@trollhattan: You’re correct about that and having him in the senate would be fantastic I just don’t see him doing it. Dan Walters wrote about the situation today, I haven’t read it yet, though.
rikyrah
@Yarrow:
He’s a mediocre White man covering for another mediocre White man…not all that complicated.
rikyrah
the picture above is quite beautiful.
Brachiator
@trollhattan:
Hmm. This may spur more stories about the San Francisco mafia (Northern California Democrats) flexing their muscles again.
I guess that Jerry Brown, at 78, is a spring chicken compared to DiFi, but Jebus, can’t we get someone younger for the Senate? Gavin Newsom may have some old vulnerabilities to overcome, but he shines like new money compared to a hack like former LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is also considering a gubernatorial run.
If DIFI retired early, it would be interesting to see state treasurer John Chiang get appointed to her seat. Asian American politicians tend to get slotted into second tier state offices (secretary of state, controller, treasurer) and then get stuck.
Willie Brown is still a power broker?
Miss Bianca
@Yarrow: Wait till the dwarves in the little curly-toed shoes come out and start dancing. That’ll be some scary for ya!
hovercraft
@Oatler.:
Might I suggest that whatever Chuck Todd says be ignored, he is fully aware of what the Shitgibbon is, but is so deathly afraid of losing his status as an important villager with access to his inner circle, that he is willing to let them lie to his face, and then he has the nerve to wonder why people distrust the media. He is literally a waste of your time, do not watch him.
cope
@raven: Beautiful shot, thanks.
Betty: yes, I have taken on the attitude that the disloyal opposition is so poisoned, venal and foul that it will founder under its own weight. I just don’t relish watching that happen. To quote Jack Nicholson in “Easy Rider”, “You know…this used to be a hell of a good country.”
Major Major Major Major
@hovercraft: I get around.
rikyrah
Hmmph
Why Was Michel Flynn Talking to the Russian Ambassador?
by Nancy LeTourneau
January 13, 2017 9:40 AM
David Ignatius has an interesting tidbit in his column about the Trump/Russian connections.
What we have is a president-elect’s national security advisor talking on the phone to the Russian Ambassador several times on the day the current president announced retaliation against Russia for hacking and releasing information about the president-elect’s opponent during the election.
We also know that Flynn has strong ties to Russia via his regular appearances on Russia Today (suggesting that it’s just like CNN). In the dossier released by BuzzFeed, Flynn is listed as one of four members of the Trump campaign who were in contact with Russia during the election (in addition to Paul Manafort, Carter Page and Michael Cohen).
Of course we don’t know the content of those conversations. But remember the days when the “appearance of corruption” was enough to send the entire media into fits about the Clinton Foundation? Perhaps these phone calls will turn out to be as easily dismissed as those allegations were after a thorough investigation. Let’s find out!
There are a couple of other things that can be takeaways from this little tidbit. First of all, “a senior U.S. government official” leaked this information to Ignatius. That is important to keep in mind. It indicates that there are people within the government who want to keep this story alive.
NotMax
Upcoming breaking news from inauguration day:
“The new President is running behind schedule. Word we’ve received is he was last spotted heading for the Rockettes’ dressing room.”
raven
@cope: I have to laugh at the constant deluge of “THIS WILL BE THE MOST FANTASTIC FULL MOON EVAH!!!!”. I got some great shots in November down at the beach but I think a lot of this shit is overblown, it’s the moon.
Humboldtblue
@Brachiator: Chiang has raised a lot of money and there is talk that an Asian candidate could really drive some votes.
oklahomo
@hovercraft: Not to mention killing Ron Brown before he exposed the Mena Mafia that the Clintons controlled.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@oklahomo: wasn’t there a woman thrown into the lion enclosure at the DC zoo? I think that was one of Coulter’s bullet points
hedgehog the occasional commenter
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thanks! The Twitter thread did help. I just called Rep. DeGette’s (CO-1) office. Staffer was very friendly and said she’s long been a champion of the ACA and that he’ll pass my message along (it was “don’t vote for the budget bill.”
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@trollhattan:
I know, right?!? Those hussy Jezebels with their pee-pee parts a-showin’ and a-flowin’…
How’s a red (orange?) blooded man not supposed to get all hot and bothered?
Ryan
The juxtaposition of Cole’s move and the incoming administration is interesting. Does it portend amusing posts about unruly animals?
oklahomo
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Not to mention all the anti-government nuts crawled out to bitch about the bar codes on the backs of stop signs that would aid the UN troops prepaing to take over North America for the ZOG
Villago Delenda Est
@Oatler.: Chuckles has just moved up the tumbrel manifest. Mrs. Greenspan needs to up her game!
Yarrow
@hovercraft: I don’t watch Chuck Todd, but occasionally inadvertently see a clip or a few seconds of his show. He’s the epitome of a toadying Villager of average intelligence with a job way beyond his capabilities.
He can be what he is and also be mixed up in some questionable things. It’s possible. I’ll be interested to see which media figures recognize early that the Trump/Russia story is worth following and which of them drag their feet. Those that drag their feet deserve extra scrutiny for any ties to Russia or anywhere else.
Yarrow
@rikyrah:
Along those lines:
Larkspur
@Yarrow: Yeah, I’d have asked him if he intended to pay his attorney’s bill for that pathetic document production. I’m a paralegal, and although I have never worked for a very fine big-city law firm, never in a million years would I have let that kind of crapload of messy folders and files out of my office for the whole world to see. I don’t care if they were fake files; you can still dummy up better fake files than that. It would take a team of paralegals three full days to sort through, organize, and find anything in that mess. Sad.
Calouste
@NotMax: It may not be a smart plan to grope women who are trained to do eye-line kicks in high heels.
Brachiator
Just finished reading a NY Times article about Trump supporters, “A Table Full of Trump Voters Who Don’t Regret It One Bit.” The title of the Friday story is a clear nod to the famous “basket of deplorables.” This is a bunch of Iowa white guys who sit around a table for breakfast talking about how America should be run, and you can see how Trump, who comes across as a guy sitting in a bar bloviating about how to make America great again would resonate with these people. A few nuggets:
GregB
There is an obvious bomb about to drop. One of the reports I read said that the FBI ended up getting FISA authorization to listen in on four members of the Trump team.
I can surmise it is Flynn, Manaforte, Page and Cohen.
The entire Trump world us full of reckless and hubristic goons.
Trump told us he was always so careful knowing that he could be on video/audio but he was caught on tape not by the GRU or FSB but Access Hollywood talking about sexual assault.
Skepticat
If the media would simply do their jobs and not wait like puppy dogs for handouts from politicians, it might result in some actually journalism–and Drumpf would go out of what very little remains of his mind.
Yarrow
@Larkspur: The law firm he hired that created that mess of folders won Russian law firm of the year last year. Excellent work, guys!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I found the song for Ivanka and Donald to dance to at the Inaugural Ball!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yarrow: Flipping through the channels last night I caught Brian Williams, in the uniquely pompous tone of his, saying that the Democrats’ blue wall now consists of two names: (Fifty quatloos if you can guess without reading further) John McCain and Lindsey Graham!
I didn’t leave it there to hear on which issue(s) the Burns and Smithers of Endless War are supposed to be defending Dems on.
Juice Box
@trollhattan: Given the likely rough ride in the near future, I’d rather have the Guv in the captain’s seat of the country’s biggest state than cooling his heels as one of a hundred dilettantes in DC.
hovercraft
@oklahomo:
Remember when the UN was coming to steal our golfs, voting for the Shitgibbon was also a way to poke a finger in the eye of the UN. We will keep our golfs, no North America Superhighway, no Bilderberg one world government. He will build more golf courses, courses that we will never be allowed to play on, but hey they are there!
JordanRules
@rikyrah:
Ha! I am too tickled. So much truth.
Major Major Major Major
We had a catered breakfast this morning for some reason at the office and I tried one of those zero-everything yogurts because it was the only yogurt without infinity grams of added sugar, and oh my god it was disgusting.
Brachiator
@Humboldtblue:
It would be very good if Chiang can drive a credible campaign.
hovercraft
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
WTF is that thing on is head? I think you’ve found the perfect song for their dance, though I suspect Melania may come down for the special day, she knows that she can’t compete with Lucretia and the golden ones, but for this one day, she can pretend she still has a marriage. If nothing else the big day has given her an excuse to go on a shopping spree, gotta grab as much as she can while the goings still good.
Miss Bianca
@Skepticat:
Reminds me of something my dad used to say: “Yeah, and if we had any ham we could have ham and eggs…if we had any eggs.”
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator: for sci-fi book club we just did Ted Chiang’s collection and as I read your thread I keep thinking, that guy should run for office.
hovercraft
@Major Major Major Major:
My Mom cooked some organic uber healthy brown rice last night, she said it was gross, but I said it couldn’t be that bad, it’s just brown rice. At first as I said it was just brown rice, a little nutty, then as I chewed it turned slimy, like it had okra in it or something, it was so gross. I told her to stick with the brown rice we get from the Asian market, I’m not eating slimy rice, in my mind slime like that means it’s rotten.
Yarrow
@Major Major Major Major: I really don’t understand why motel buffets and catered breakfasts and all don’t provide plain yogurt. At least some plain yogurt along with the flavored stuff. Let people put their own fruit, granola, honey, whatever in it if they want. That way you can control the amount of sugar yourself.
But no…you see the bowl of ice with cups of yogurt in it and you go look and it’s all blueberry and strawberry and maybe peach. It’s like a sugar bomb in the morning. And they’re all low fat so there’s nothing to slow down the absorption of the carbs. Blood sugar spike city.
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca:
Ha! My mother used to say that!
She also taught me:
FUNEX?
SVFX.
FUNEM?
SVFM.
OKLFMNX!
cosima
@Major Major Major Major: I usually can’t be bothered to have plain greek yogurt and add my own fruit etc. to it. So I mix one of the nicer tons-of-sugar-tiny-bit-of-fruit to a large tub of plain greek yogurt and it is perfect — tart enough, but not too tart. Add additional sweetened if you’re not into tart.
J R in WV
All the moony photos are nice. I like Raven’s best, I’ve never used a Canon, but obviously they are quality equipment by and large.
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Without Hillary-Hate to hold them together, the GOP falls apart – exactly right.
Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: OK, I may just be A Idiot (a possibility of non-trivial proportions), but the second thing? I no get he!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@hovercraft:
It is vaguely romantic, and sets a lovely tone after he comes in to the Russian National Anthem, wearing a Russian Flag pin and a couple of Soviet era medals on his suit coat.
Yarrow
Realized this morning that today is Friday the 13th. Wonder what extra special document dump is planned for today.
Brachiator
@hovercraft:
Basmati?
MomSense
@Major Major Major Major:
I had one last week and almost puked. WTF is with that artificial sweetener taste? Nasty.
cosima
Have any other juicers looked through the FEC document re: the illegal donations? I read it to see if a few of my TX acquaintances with far more money than sense were on it.
Anyway, I have never had enough money to throw those sorts of amounts at any candidate, but perhaps someone more savvy than me can answer this question: What is the benefit to donating $250 every other day for weeks? There was a lot of that going on (and larger amounts, of course, but same process). Or donating twice in the same day. Why not donate $1000/wk?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Weaselone
@Brachiator:
It really is amazing how deliberately clueless these people are. Terrorists are not going to leap out of there closets at night and these people are the undeserving to whom our hard earned money is redistributed.
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major:
Is this the collection that includes “Arrival?” I should check it out.
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca:
Say the letters out loud. Don’t try to make words of them.
Jeffro
Government By Spite, no matter what the consequences: Commanding general of DC National Guard removed from his post just hours before inauguration begins.
As Matt Yglesias is asking: why? And the most benevolent answer to that question is, “out of sheer spite”. The other possible answers are much darker…
Trump replacing the 50-year traditional inaugural parade announcer, Trump firing the head of the National Guard, RT beeping in on C-SPAN for a test run…it’s getting a little weird here, folks.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: I’ve stopped reading the many articles of that type on the grounds that it’s probably unhealthy for me to wish swarming bedbug infestations, severe gum disease and acute crotch rot on complete strangers.
sharl
Hoooo-boy, I wonder what transpired in those last 15 minutes?
h/t Maggie K-B
MJS
For whatever reason, I became more optimistic yesterday, watching the President award Joe Biden the Presidential Medal of Freedom (hope I have the award right). I believe Joe Biden is an exceptional human being, and I believe there are at least a few more exceptional human beings who are ready to step up to the plate to do whatever they can to thwart the Shitgibbon for as long as it takes. Representative Barbara Lee and Senator Warren come to mind. I recognize their power is limited, and some damage will be done, but I have to believe that at some point, a combination of principled stands and Republican desire to cut their losses will derail this nightmare.
Miss Bianca
So, apropos of nothing except to join the chorus of “gee, I’m gonna miss this guy”, the Book of Faces reminds me that I posted this photo of POTUS this date 5 years ago.
Calouste
@cosima: Candidates are supposed to reject or refund contributions that bring that person’s total contribution over the allowed amount. It is well possible that the software the shitgibbon used was only checking when the individual donation was say $1000 or more.
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator: it is. “Stories of Your Life And Others” it’s called. “Story of your life” is what arrival is based on. Not the best in the collection, even! He’s good.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: Saw that on Twitter, along with someone’s speculation that Trump wants a new commander in place to deal more harshly with demonstrators, including the Women’s March the next day, which I’ll be attending with my sister, daughter and friend. My money’s on spite, though. Plus, the current commander is a black man, right? Maybe that’s reason enough.
oklahomo
@hovercraft: It’s like new covers of all the greatest 90s hits, with some birtherism and troofersism to bump up the beat…
schrodingers_cat
@Weaselone: Yep, that’s what my ex-friend who lives in Idaho for crying out loud, is afraid of. Terrorism. When did the home of the brave, become a nation of pant-shitters and bed-wetters?
cosima
@Calouste: If the allowed amount is $1000/month, $250 every day or every other day for weeks would bring it well above that cap.
There were many donations like that, and then there were some that were such strange numbers that I wondered if they were actually paying their bills (for whatever dubious service was provided by shitgibbon or his serfs) through contributing to his campaign.
It’s an interesting document in that there is a lot on it that looks suspicious (which is, of course, why the names were flagged). A little bit of research on those donors would likely bring up some interesting information.
Yarrow
@Jeffro: Okay, that’s creepy. Is another commander going to be in place? Or is it to allow Trump to have direct command of the DC Guard right away? I know he’ll be Commander-in-Chief, but he’d still have to go through generals.
John M. Burt
I’ll tell you this, Betty Cracker, about the Morning Star:
Years ago, I had an impulse to call my wife “my Brightly Shining”.
Much later, it occurred to me that, although I don’t remember where I saw it, I somehow thought of the phrase “the Brightly Shining” as being associated with the Morning Star. Well, all well and good: my wife is my Venus.
Much later than that, I realized that the Morning Star is special because it is not a star. It shines by the reflected light of the Sun, which means that it is a sign that even though you can’t see the Sun, you can still tell that it’s there.
Much later than that,* I realized that my wife is exactly that: when my depression is at its worst and it feels as though there is no light and no love in the world, her love for me is a sign and a surety in the worst darkness that there is light, there is love, and someone thinks I am worthy of being loved.
She is my Brightly Shining.
Hey, you said it was an open thread.
*Yes, that’s a lot of “much later”s, but I’m old.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jeffro:
raven’s and cope’s and Humboldtblue’s beautiful photos notwithstanding, the phrase that keeps going through my mind is “bad moon rising.”
jake the antisoshul soshulist
@Yarrow:
It is possible that Chuck Todd and Mickey Kaus share proclivities and possibly the same partner.
Inquiring minds want to know. And it would certainly be irresponsible nor to speculate.
SiubhanDuinne
@John M. Burt:
That is beautiful. Thank you.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker:
Madness. I don’t even want to think about how Trump/Bannon want the National Guard to treat 1200 busloads of mostly female peaceful protestors…although at a minimum, I’m certain they will find all kinds of inconveniences if not outright barriers and blockades.
I want everyone to be safe down there, but if Trump thinks he’s going to have 1200 buses re-routed to some far-away section of DC (or turned back at the city limits), the blowback’s going to be tremendous.
Jeffro
@Yarrow: I believe there will be an interim commander until the current one is replaced. Who knows what the interim guy’s going to be told to do (per #130 above)
hovercraft
@Brachiator:
Nah, the short grain Chinese rice, sushi rice. I always wonder why the Chinese rice all has Japanese names. We usually buy the Nishiki. The kids are so used to it, they refuse to eat any of the long grain American rice.
Yarrow
@schrodingers_cat: Well, to be fair, Idaho is probably at greater risk from terrorism than some other states. Of course it’s white terrorism, so….
artem1s
@Weaselone:
Twitler thought the job was winning. He thinks he won. He can’t comprehend that there is actually work that has to be done. He can’t comprehend why everyone doesn’t love him now. He can’t comprehend that more people actually preferred Her and fervently wish he was gone. He can’t comprehend why everyone was in tears yesterday over a black man awarding a medal to a white man. A medal he will never be awarded unless he gives it to himself. He fully understands that Hillary is likely to be voted the most admired woman in the world again this year, for the 25th+ time in her life, and he is never, ever going to be as admired as she is.
He can’t comprehend that he is the very definition of a clueless loser.
If a Tree Falls
My pick for Trump’s inaugural ball song would be “Were You Born an Asshole” by David Alan Cole.
Betty Cracker
@John M. Burt: That is very sweet! I’m glad you found each other!
hovercraft
@Weaselone:
It’s always the people in places that are the least likely to be hit who are the most terrified. Here in the godless lands we just go on with our lives, we know it’s possible, but so is getting run over by a cab.
ruemara
@Belafon: Oh. They’ll be in power forever then.
Mel
@Yarrow:
Agreed. I can see it turning into a nightmarish blend of low-rent Cirque du Soleil, cheesy early 80s rock video, and over the top Renaissance Faire. Mimes in Uncle Sam costumes? Sure. Fifteen foot wide Disco balls, and cannons shooting gold confetti?
Can’t hurt! Rockettes clad in Red Sonja outfits augmented with flamethrower bullet bras? Why the hell not?
A witch ducking booth? Always a crowd pleaser!! Keeps the kiddies busy! Just $5 a throw, folks!!
I laugh because otherwise I’d weep endlessly…
Jeffro
@artem1s: re: Trump
I do think on some level he wishes he had lost in the primaries and was now back being a reality-show idiot with all its perks instead of…well…people hearing about his golden fetishes.
I’m sure in his mind, it was just one Dem clown giving it to another clown. Wouldn’t surprise me if he gave Pence one a week into the administration, just for spite.
Well her, and Obama, and everyone & everything that’s good (and gets recognized for it). He decided a long time ago that he must not be worthy of adulation and set out to prove it.
rikyrah
Commanding general of D.C. National Guard to be removed from post
By Peter Hermann and Aaron C. Davis
January 13 at 11:08 AM
The head of the D.C. National Guard, Maj. Gen. Errol R. Schwartz, said Friday that he has been ordered removed from his command effective Jan. 20, 12:01 p.m., just as Donald Trump is sworn in as president.
Schwartz’s forced departure will come in the midst of the presidential inauguration that he has spent months helping plan alongside D.C. police, the U.S. Secret Service and other top District officials. He will turn over command to an interim as power transfers from one president to the next, and just before the inaugural parade marches down Pennsylvania Avenue.
“The timing is extremely unusual,” Schwartz said in an interview Friday morning, confirming a memo announcing his ouster that was obtained by The Washington Post. During the inauguration, Schwartz would command not only the members of the D.C. guard but also an additional 5,000 unarmed troops sent in from across the country to help. He also would oversee military air support protecting the nation’s capital during the inauguration.
“My troops will be on the street,” Schwartz, 65, said. “I’ll see them off but I won’t be able to welcome them back to the armory.” He said that he would “never plan to leave a mission in the middle of a battle.”
Schwartz said he would oversee duties in a command center and then depart at 12:01 p.m., retiring from the Army.
Schwartz said that he has been swamped with inauguration duties and packing up four decades’ worth of papers and accumulated items, and has not yet been able to inform District officials, including the mayor and the chair of the D.C. Council. Unlike in states, where the governor appoints the National Guard commander, in the District that duty falls to the president.
hovercraft
@schrodingers_cat:
They’ve always been susceptible to fear, “reds under the bed” played much better in the hinterlands than it did in the cities. People in the cities knew communists, they were just people in the neighborhood who saw the world differently than you did, no big deal. After 9/11 the people of NY and DC pulled together and got on with their lives, red America crawled under the covers and they keep crawling back under every time someone says boo!
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Oh, the visuals of that will be brilliant…beating up on women.
3Jane Tessier-Ashpool (a/k/a Lorinda Pike)
@cosima: ‘Muricans don’t want yogurt, they want pudding. Personally I like the plain, unflavored Icelandic stuff – skyr – which I add whatever I want to it. (It’s kind of pricey, but I’ve learned to make a decent imitation.) To say it’s “tangy” is putting it mildly, but it tastes the way yogurt should taste. Not puddingly at all.
But I also like 85% cacao chocolate…
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
KLAVR!
catclub
I just read a quiz in The Week that said Trump has at least $1B in debts. Why have I never read that before?
NotMax
@If a Tree Falls
Runners-up:
Henry Rollins’ I’m A Liar
The Knickerbockers’ Lies.
The Castaways’ Liar, Liar
The Thompson Twins’ Lies
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Understandable.
I run across Trump supporters now and then, some of whom are eager to discuss their support for him. And I am still willing to engage them, and to listen to their rationale for voting for Trump. I also have no problem with bursting some of their ideological bubbles.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: The Trumpsters whose acquaintance I can’t escape (relatives, neighbors, etc.) seem strangely eager to justify their vote to me too, as if they can regain my respect. They can’t — not unless they admit their mistake.
Weaselone
@schrodingers_cat:
Except it’s not all Americans. As noted in a couple of responses below, fear of terrorism appears to be inversely related to one’s risk of actually being the victim of a terrorist attack. It’s not Bostonians, New Yorkers and the residents of Dearborn, MI who are collectively pissing their pants over Syrian immigrants and Muslims.
Yarrow
@Betty Cracker: If they’re explaining and want your approval that means they know they’ve made a mistake. They want you to absolve them of their mistake. Good for you for holding the line.
I keep hearing, seeing or reading anecdotes like this that indicate that Trump voters know they made a mistake. Iowa Old Lady had one last night with two guys in Barnes & Noble saying the Russia stuff “didn’t sound like Trump.” it’s a good sign in two ways – the “Russia stuff” has filtered down to regular people and they’re working hard to convince themselves and each other that it isn’t true. At some level they know they’ve been conned, that they’ve made a mistake. And eventually some of them will recognize that at a conscious level. Not all but some. And we can work on those people to vote for Dems.
Just like your family that want you to absolve their guilt. Don’t do it. Make them own it. Fastest way for them to learn.
trollhattan
@NotMax:
Medley, as sung by Joe Wilson.
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
Trump has this fetish for wanting to remove as much of the previous government as he can when he takes office.
To the greatest degree possible, he wants to create a new America. A Trump America. And it starts promptly after he becomes president.
Seven days until the new order.
hovercraft
@Brachiator: @Betty Cracker:
I give the few I’ve encountered about a minute before I try to see if they are reachable, or too far gone to bother with. As @Yarrow: says, if they are trying to justify, they know they fucked up, and they are now trying to pre-but his awfulness.
catclub
From the Atlantic:
catclub
@Betty Cracker:
Barney Frank, in his autobiography, says that the last thing X wants to hear, when you have voted against his bill, is why
you are right about the bill and X is wrong to have supported the bill in the first place.
Especially if X is usually an ally. They (we) do not want to hear any justifications.
1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)
@Weaselone: You don’t have HairForce One’s preoccupations with status and recognition–or even simple attention form an audience, willing or otherwise, so you’re disadvantaged in comprehending the main reason he keeps yelping about Hillary and others–people he considers competition, people he feels have publically disrespected him, people who have failed to give him the positive reinforcement he craves.
Just as my dog is a bottomless pit for beef trimmings, this man is a bottomless pit for attention, personal or public, and his ability to obtain it without making a complete ass of himself (never a really strong point for him anyway) is deteriorating as he ages.
Mel
@John M. Burt:
It’s this that makes the fight worth it even when things get so very, very difficult. Fifteen years into an awful chronic illness and the harsh side effects of the steroids and chemo type meds used to try to control it, sometimes I can hardly recognize myself. But my dearest one still looks at me and sees the me inside, not the broken down parts. He is the strongest, gentlest, kindest person I have ever known.
Be sure to tell your sweetheart those beautiful thiings that you feel about her. Tell her everyday. And truly hear her when she tells you that you are the very same light to her that she is to you. She means it.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Fortunately, I don’t have any relatives who are Trump supporters, and even my immediate neighbors are sane.
But I suspect that people will not admit their mistake until Trump actually starts governing, if then. And there are still plenty of people I run across who just can’t wait for the new and improved Trump Nation to get running. And what they most love about Trump is how he has thrown out the rules on ethics, transparency, precedent and tradition. More than racial resentment or economic discomfort, some people tingle at the idea that Trump will exercise power absent any restraint. These people have an infantile fantasy that there can be a benign despot, a patriotic demagogue, that rules are for suckers when you need to roll up your sleeves and get the job done. They still don’t see that Trump is playing them.
bemused
@Brachiator:
Not to lump all those ubiquitous coffee klatch crews into one deplorable basket but the table of Trump voters from the excerpt sound typical from what I’ve observed locally. They’re older, white crotchety men, many retired, “hazy on the details” but think they know everything. I’m sick of hearing about the old coots and their opinions. Once they make their mind up about something without spending even an ounce of energy researching facts and details of an issue supposedly very important to them, they’ll stick with it come hell or high water. Sheer cussedness.
Alce_e_ardilla
@Weaselone: Hillary hate is what drives his base. He will fall back on it until it no longer works, and maybe not even then
.
satby
@John M. Burt: That’s a beautiful tribute to your wife!
satby
@Mel: and that’s so beautiful too!
So happy to know there are couples like you all in the world.
Brachiator
@bemused:
Actually, Iowa has been surprisingly volatile as far as presidential elections are concerned.
2004: Bush barely edged out Kerry, 49.9 percent to 49.2 percent
2008 and 2012. Obama won comfortably over Republican challengers, winning by more than 50 percent in both elections.
2016. Trump won substantially over Clinton, 51.1 percent to 41.7 percent.
There was also evident gender resentment against Clinton. 64 percent of white men voted for Trump vs only 31 percent for Clinton. A plurality of white women voted for Clinton, 49 percent vs 46 percent. In 2012, 42 per cent of white men and 58 percent of white women voted for Obama.
I also don’t think the Table gang tells the whole story, not by a long shot.
cope
@raven: Yeah, as an astronomy teacher, I get a lot of questions from my students about “super moons” and “blood moons” and such. It gets tedious to be answering the same old questions over and over again but I hope (I hope) they are learning something in the process. Sometimes, the most beautiful opportunities for a good moon picture are totally unrelated to what phase it is or how close it is.
Lizzy L
NYT:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/13/us/politics/affordable-care-act-senate-budget.html?emc=edit_na_20170113&nlid=20900995&ref=cta