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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Open Thread: The Texans Are Revolting… Against Trump’s Wall

Open Thread: The Texans Are Revolting… Against Trump’s Wall

by Anne Laurie|  January 26, 20174:18 pm| 316 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Domestic Politics, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Republicans in Disarray!, Bring on the Brawndo!

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We asked all 38 Texas in Congress if they'd endorse a "complete" border wall.

None would. https://t.co/aVMczUePDyhttps://t.co/6ko1zOzgkn

— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) January 25, 2017

If there's one thing the Texas GOP hates more than facts & reason, it's eminent domain. https://t.co/qipazrpcdZ

— Laura Seay (@texasinafrica) January 26, 2017

Well, that didn’t take long. From the Washington Post, last night:

The Republican congressman whose district includes more miles of U.S.-Mexico border than any other came out against President Trump’s new executive action ordering the “immediate construction” of a border wall to block undocumented immigrants from entering the United States.

“Building a wall is the most expensive and least effective way to secure the border,” Rep. Will Hurd (R-Tex.) said in a statement late Wednesday.

“Each section of the border faces unique geographical, cultural, and technological challenges that would be best addressed with a flexible, sector-by-sector approach that empowers the agents on the ground with the resources they need.”

Hurd, one of 38 Texans in Congress, represents territory stretching from San Antonio to El Paso, including 800 miles of border. His 23rd District is majority-Hispanic and politically competitive: Hurd won a second term over Democrat Pete Gallego by fewer than 4,000 votes in November…

As per the top tweets, it’s become the latest Lone Star Stand — them cowboys never could stand fancy-talkin’ fellers from Noo Yark Cittay. This way the local GOPers get the benefit of ‘resisting’ an initiative that’s not gonna happen any time soon anyways.
***********

What other entertaining craziness is on the agenda for the evening?

To put cost of $14 b border wall into perspective, Obama final request for entire EPA was $8.2 b. and Congress said it was unaffordable.

— Jonathan Weisman (@jonathanweisman) January 26, 2017

When I hear cost estimates the border wall, I remember Rumsfeld predicting that Iraq would cost $50 billion. Only $1.95 trillion off!

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 26, 2017

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Reader Interactions

316Comments

  1. 1.

    Tom Levenson

    January 26, 2017 at 4:21 pm

    Wanna bet we get the tariff and not the wall? That would match up w. Trump’s general rep. for competence.

  2. 2.

    scav

    January 26, 2017 at 4:21 pm

    Ah, the sheer magnificence of ‘Merkan Business Management Expertise in leaderships, team-building and execution is blinding.

  3. 3.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 26, 2017 at 4:23 pm

    Well, to be fair, von Rumsfailed is a total idiot.

    Oh, wait, I think that’s the point.

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 26, 2017 at 4:23 pm

    @Tom Levenson: “All proceeds to be donated to the Trump Foundation”

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    January 26, 2017 at 4:26 pm

    Betcha the photo-op of the Persimmon Potentate troweling cement onto the first cinder block is already written on the calendar. In ink.

  6. 6.

    elm

    January 26, 2017 at 4:33 pm

    Spicer’s statements today make no sense (as usual).

    “We have a new tax at $50 billion at 20 percent of imports -which is, by the way, a practice that 160 other countries do right now.”

    “Our country’s policy is to tax exports and let imports flow freely in, which is ridiculous. But by doing it that way we can do $10 billion a year and easily pay for the wall. Just through that mechanism alone,”

    US imports from Mexico total $295 billion per year, not $50 billion.

  7. 7.

    darrel wright

    January 26, 2017 at 4:33 pm

    It’s a great issue to give Trump room to run into a political quagmire. In fact, it’s the only one that I can think of that doesn’t do unrepairable bigly damage.

  8. 8.

    JPL

    January 26, 2017 at 4:34 pm

    @Tom Levenson: The tariff is a way to pay for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

  9. 9.

    PST

    January 26, 2017 at 4:35 pm

    Obviously Trump has decided that he needs a screaming headline every single day.

  10. 10.

    Roger Moore

    January 26, 2017 at 4:36 pm

    @NotMax:

    Betcha the photo-op of the Persimmon Potentate troweling cement onto the first cinder block is already written on the calendar.

    I don’t think the ambulatory coprolite would want to get his tiny little hands dirty.

  11. 11.

    Ian

    January 26, 2017 at 4:36 pm

    Reality is a bitch.

  12. 12.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 26, 2017 at 4:38 pm

    @NotMax: With a sharpie.

  13. 13.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 4:38 pm

    So. I had a great dinner tonight with a man who was born in Belfast. That’s where my mom is from. Fabulous conversation. I really love it here. My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner.

  14. 14.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 26, 2017 at 4:39 pm

    @elm: Sphincter is just like his boss. Has no fuckin’ idea what the fuck he’s talking about.

  15. 15.

    Steve in the ATL

    January 26, 2017 at 4:39 pm

    As I type this I am sitting on a vortex in Sedona, Arizona. You guys are totally harshing my mellow.

  16. 16.

    bemused

    January 26, 2017 at 4:39 pm

    @PST:

    Several times a day seems more accurate.

    Was there really no one to meet Trump in Pittsburgh? I’m not finding it so far but sure hope it’s true.

  17. 17.

    NotMax

    January 26, 2017 at 4:39 pm

    @Roger Moore

    Extra long handled 24 carat gold trowel, natch.

  18. 18.

    D58826

    January 26, 2017 at 4:39 pm

    ok economists – what is the diff. between a tariff and a border adjustment tax? I have seen today’s news referred to using both terms.

  19. 19.

    darrel wright

    January 26, 2017 at 4:40 pm

    @elm: Nothing should shock me anymore, but I really am kind of shocked that at this point on their central campaign policy they don’t even have a passing familiarity with anything like ballpark numbers. A 20% tariff? That’s a trade-war nuclear bomb, it would incinerate everything. 50 billion in trade? Maybe after you put on that 20% tariff. SAD!

  20. 20.

    JPL

    January 26, 2017 at 4:41 pm

    BREAKING: Spicer tells me 20% tax on Mexican imports is NOT a policy proposal, but example of options how to pay for wall.

    I guess Mexico coming out saying they would also impose a tariff, caused them to rethink the idea.

  21. 21.

    Ian G.

    January 26, 2017 at 4:42 pm

    I’ll bet each and every one of you a bottle of Trump Vodka that you’ll still be able to throw a rock from Big Bend National Park into Mexico across the undeveloped Rio Grande come the end of Combover Caligula’s reign of error. I’m a little less sanguine on the Boquillas Port of Entry (Google it), but I like its chances better than I like New England’s odds of beating Atlanta next Sunday.

  22. 22.

    lollipopguild

    January 26, 2017 at 4:42 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Sphincter? LOL funny-also stolen.

  23. 23.

    Iowa Old Lady

    January 26, 2017 at 4:42 pm

    Wal-Mart shoppers will feel this. Where do they think those cheap goods come from? Economic distress be damned.

  24. 24.

    cosima

    January 26, 2017 at 4:43 pm

    @HeleninEire: Glad that you’ve been liberated (liberated yourself, of course). It is good for the soul to live with so many like-minded souls with an appreciation of the social contract & multi-culturalism. The moment we touched down my heart & soul said ‘aaaaahhhhh, freedom!’ People in the US keep using that word — freedom — but I don’t think they know what it means, at least a sub-set (~27%) of them, anyway.

  25. 25.

    Lizzy L

    January 26, 2017 at 4:44 pm

    @elm: Does Spicer (i.e. T) even know that he cannot impose taxes by fiat? I bet he doesn’t.

    Oh, now they’re walking it back. Not a policy proposal.

    FFS.

  26. 26.

    Roger Moore

    January 26, 2017 at 4:44 pm

    @darrel wright:

    Nothing should shock me anymore, but I really am kind of shocked that at this point on their central campaign policy they don’t even have a passing familiarity with anything like ballpark numbers.

    Of all things, this should be the least shocking. Trump just says stuff without bothering to check if there’s any connection to reality. How have you not recognized that already?

  27. 27.

    dr. bloor

    January 26, 2017 at 4:44 pm

    @NotMax: “Remember Mr. President, it’s NOT your oatmeal on the trowel. Put it on the bricks, not in your mouth.”

  28. 28.

    lollipopguild

    January 26, 2017 at 4:45 pm

    @cosima: Freedom= free to be dumb and stupid to the nth degree.

  29. 29.

    bystander

    January 26, 2017 at 4:45 pm

    I’ve wondered if this won’t just be the perfect excuse for Trumputin to blame Congress. Repubs can hide behind the Democrats’ reasoned objections and point the finger and the press can repeat their favorite mantra that has been falling into disuse: both sides.

  30. 30.

    Roger Moore

    January 26, 2017 at 4:45 pm

    @JPL:

    BREAKING: Spicer tells me 20% tax on Mexican imports is NOT a policy proposal, but example of options how to pay for wall.

    Shorter Spicer: Trump is making shit up again.

  31. 31.

    ToocanAnj

    January 26, 2017 at 4:46 pm

    Republicans are in Philly for a retreat. Both Trump*and Theresa May here also.

    Yuge queer dance party outside the hotel last night. Thousands marching in the streets all day today. A die in on the street by the hotel to support the ACA and more protests planned tonight.

    I love Philly!

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    January 26, 2017 at 4:46 pm

    Who has the hiring freeze already impacted the most? Choose one.

    a) Veterans
    b) Veterans
    c) All of the above

  33. 33.

    Roger Moore

    January 26, 2017 at 4:47 pm

    @Ian G.:

    I’ll bet each and every one of you a bottle of Trump Vodka that you’ll still be able to throw a rock from Big Bend National Park into Mexico across the undeveloped Rio Grande come the end of Combover Caligula’s reign of error.

    I’ll take that bet. I doubt anyone here has an arm good enough to throw a rock across the Rio Grande.

  34. 34.

    JPL

    January 26, 2017 at 4:47 pm

    @Roger Moore: lol This is the one I like

    Asked if the 20% import tax would be passed on to consumers, Spicer says “What it’s going to do is lift up the wages of American workers.”

    Talk about magical thinking. It must be hard to be Spicer these days. It’s well deserved though.

  35. 35.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 4:47 pm

    @cosima: Where are you?

  36. 36.

    NotMax

    January 26, 2017 at 4:48 pm

    @NotMax

    Bad linky. Fix.

  37. 37.

    Roger Moore

    January 26, 2017 at 4:48 pm

    @efgoldman:

    We donn’ need no stinkin’ vegetables in winner

    Speak for yourself. I’m betting farmers here in California would be more than happy to provide.

  38. 38.

    Mnemosyne

    January 26, 2017 at 4:51 pm

    Interesting essay from a Venezuelan on how to oppose a populist. Seems to have some good advice similar to what I’ve seen about how they got rid of Berlusconi.

  39. 39.

    Anne Laurie

    January 26, 2017 at 4:51 pm

    @efgoldman:

    We donn’ need no stinkin’ vegetables in winter

    Only vegetables Trump seems to eat are potatoes, in the form of french fries. I’m sure Guv LePage will send his idol enough to tide him over from autumn to autumn!

  40. 40.

    cosima

    January 26, 2017 at 4:52 pm

    @HeleninEire: The Highlands

  41. 41.

    NotMax

    January 26, 2017 at 4:52 pm

    @Roger Moore

    There’s only so much one can do with almonds and grapes.

    (I kid, I kid.)

  42. 42.

    Mister Forkbeard

    January 26, 2017 at 4:53 pm

    @JPL: It’s almost like no one at TrumpHQ understood what a “trade war” was. Or that tariffs can be instituted by other countries too.

    These guys can’t find their asses with both hands.

  43. 43.

    ToocanAnj

    January 26, 2017 at 4:53 pm

    @efgoldman: LOL. That’s Great!

  44. 44.

    JPL

    January 26, 2017 at 4:53 pm

    Abby Phillip of the Washington Post is having trouble keeping up with Spicer today… link

  45. 45.

    Another Scott

    January 26, 2017 at 4:54 pm

    Via Cole’s Twitter feed, Spicer is this guy.

    How do Trump’s “best people” manage to brush their teeth without drowning?

    (sigh)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  46. 46.

    Mnemosyne

    January 26, 2017 at 4:55 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    Also, too, notice in that essay that the Venezuelan opposition also tried the genius move of if we withhold our votes, the government will collapse!

    That worked about as well as any rational person could have predicted.

  47. 47.

    Roger Moore

    January 26, 2017 at 4:57 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Mostly Asian countries outside of China and Japan

    Sure, but do you think the trade war would stop with China?

  48. 48.

    Elizabelle

    January 26, 2017 at 4:58 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Enjoy Sedona. Gorgeous area.

  49. 49.

    Mister Forkbeard

    January 26, 2017 at 4:58 pm

    The Trump folks never cease to amaze. These guys are literally just saying whatever they feel like at a given moment, without bothering to consider past statements, reality, feasibility, or anything else. And they know Fox and Conservative Radio/Bloggery will back them up 100%.

  50. 50.

    cosima

    January 26, 2017 at 5:00 pm

    When we lived in TX it never ceased to amaze me how stupid those shitheel entitled assholes were. It was soul-killing/crushing. Big Escalades with ‘nobummer’ & jesus bumperstickers (both, same bumper). Talking shit about Mexicans, but too damn lazy to mow their own grass, but guess who did it for them. We may have been the only people on our street who mowed our lawn. And don’t get me started about how cheap the produce was, and how did they think that was managed? I so hate Texas, and am so very glad that my husband now works for a dirty foreign oil company who will not (knock wood, please gaia, universe, who/whatever) send us back there.

  51. 51.

    darrel wright

    January 26, 2017 at 5:01 pm

    @Mnemosyne: I BEG everyone to read that. That is exactly what I’ve been trying to say here, to varying shouts of “fuck-off” and “kumbaya is for sissies!”

    Trump needs us as an enraged enemy that looks down on his army of deplorables. So far we’re doing a pretty fair job of giving him exactly what he needs.

  52. 52.

    Mnemosyne

    January 26, 2017 at 5:03 pm

    @darrel wright:

    Well, it’s not exactly what you’ve been saying. I think he explains it much better than we have to be nice to people! To me, his advice sounds more like Kay’s advice to use locals to do political organizing rather than parachuting people in.

  53. 53.

    randy khan

    January 26, 2017 at 5:05 pm

    @Tom Levenson:

    I’d take the tariff and not the wall, if it’s a choice between the two. The tariff is easier to get rid of.

  54. 54.

    Mnemosyne

    January 26, 2017 at 5:05 pm

    We’ll see how this goes, but I signed up with an org called Swing Left that’s trying to flip red House districts in blue states. I will be focusing on CA-25, which is out in the desert by Palmdale.

  55. 55.

    randy khan

    January 26, 2017 at 5:07 pm

    Just called Kaine’s and Warner’s northern Virginia offices about Sessions and DeVos. It took a while to leave a message for Kaine, since some of the mailboxes were full. I got a real person in Warner’s office and got to deliver both the message and a thank you when the staffer told me Warner had issued a statement saying he’s voting against Sessions earlier today.

    Warner has long been “I’m a reasonable guy who reaches across the aisle” guy, so his public commitment to vote against a fellow Senator is kind of a big deal for him.

  56. 56.

    kindness

    January 26, 2017 at 5:09 pm

    Pointing out hypocrisy is pointless but….This is exactly what happened when bush43 was building his wall. Texas Ranchers didn’t want a double fence with roads between and on either side separating their cattle from their cattle’s water the Rio Grande. They stopped the wall in Texas. Now why no one on their side pointed out the obvious while Trump was running – because hypocritical Republicans liked that ‘Build The Wall’ got the rubes riled up and voting Republican is obvious. Hypocrites.

    At this point I hope they build that damn wall in Texas. Fuck those assholes. They would deserve it.

  57. 57.

    Another Scott

    January 26, 2017 at 5:09 pm

    @randy khan: Excellent news. Thank you.

    Maybe Warner finally got a bit of sense after coming close to losing last time? We can hope.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  58. 58.

    darrel wright

    January 26, 2017 at 5:09 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    I think he explains it much better than we have to be nice to people!

    Would you like me to cut and paste my missives that drew the holy righteous fire? That thing is EXACTLY the spirit I’m talking about, and yes, while I never said “we have to be nice to people,” it is actually mandated and assumed within his prescriptions there.

  59. 59.

    sigaba

    January 26, 2017 at 5:10 pm

    @JPL: What I wonder is if the automakers and maquiladoras are somehow going to get an exemption.

  60. 60.

    dr. bloor

    January 26, 2017 at 5:10 pm

    @Mnemosyne: For whatever reason, DailyKos had a “proceed with caution” comment about Swing Left last week–apparently, they had some questions vetting it and the quality of the info it provided. Dunno if the ambiguity has been cleared up one way or another.

  61. 61.

    JPL

    January 26, 2017 at 5:13 pm

    @sigaba: If it is a broad tax, those on a fixed income will be screwed.

  62. 62.

    Elizabelle

    January 26, 2017 at 5:14 pm

    @randy khan: Great to know that Mark Warner is voting against Jeff Sessions.

    I shall call to thank him.

    I know Tim Kaine is voting no on Betsy DeVos, probably Sessions too. I heart our Virginia senators.

  63. 63.

    Mnemosyne

    January 26, 2017 at 5:14 pm

    @dr. bloor:

    I get automatically nervous about people who label themselves as “progressives,” so I will take their advice with a large grain of salt.

    However, it does look like CA-25 is currently represented by a Republican, so I think focusing my 2018 election efforts there will be good even if I end up going through something like ActBlue instead of Swing Left. Thanks!

  64. 64.

    Aleta

    January 26, 2017 at 5:14 pm

    @Anne Laurie:

    potatoes, in the form of french fries.

    That vile slander is beyond disrespectful. One of his top priorities the first day was to decisively order a truckload of chips.

  65. 65.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 5:15 pm

    @cosima: Scotland? please say you are in Scotland. I so want to visit there. One of my mom’s best friends is from there. She says it’s beautiful “but you can’t eat the scenery”. So she emigrated to America. That and Australia. Wanna go to Australia.

  66. 66.

    Roger Moore

    January 26, 2017 at 5:15 pm

    @randy khan:

    I’d take the tariff and not the wall, if it’s a choice between the two. The tariff is easier to get rid of.

    I think you’re wrong about that. The wall is a physical thing that will decay on its own unless we maintain it; in practice it will be knocked down even faster (ETA: than natural decay, since people will try to destroy it) if we don’t actively work to keep it up. The tariff isn’t just a tariff that can be repealed the first chance we get. It’s an attack on a global system of trade that we’ve spent the time since WWII building. Imposing the tariff risks sparking a trade war that will destroy the whole post-WWII order and cause massive disruption throughout the economy in the process.

  67. 67.

    De'Andre Grimes

    January 26, 2017 at 5:15 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Some people seem to want us to (for visceral reasons) throw bigger bombs at them than they throw at us. Put me in the camp of “Trying to defuse the bombs before we all get blown to Kingdom Come”.

  68. 68.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    January 26, 2017 at 5:16 pm

    I recall the last time arround about The Wall even the boarder Republicans thought it was silly. Don’t these twits get they tunnel right under the walls that are up right now?

  69. 69.

    Ryan

    January 26, 2017 at 5:18 pm

    He’s cracking up and becoming more deranged. Stir the pot some more, what could go wrong?

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/mexican-president-cancels-visit-to-washington-as-tensions-with-trump-administration-intensify/2017/01/26/ececc3da-e3d9-11e6-a419-eefe8eff0835_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_mexicous-1210p%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.45adbdc1f97e

  70. 70.

    Peale

    January 26, 2017 at 5:22 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Yes. Which is why we should be demanding that they dig trenches 40 feet down and make it 40 feet high. I think we need to egg Trump into starting the wall, costs be damned. If we prevent the wall from being built, it just continues to be a part of the politics in the non-border areas. If we need to ruin ourselves in the process of building it, so much the better. I know the arguement is that we could spend the resources on other things, but these are Republicans and they don’t spend money on better things. Instead, lets make building the wall as painfully obviously awful as possible.

  71. 71.

    Mnemosyne

    January 26, 2017 at 5:22 pm

    @darrel wright:

    I really don’t want to argue about it, so I’ll just say that what you thought you were saying was not coming across as clearly as what the writer of that essay says. Your message may need some adjustments for clarity.

  72. 72.

    JPL

    January 26, 2017 at 5:22 pm

    @Ryan: Trump is deranged. It’s difficult to take that to the next step without him being taken away in a straight jacket.

  73. 73.

    randy khan

    January 26, 2017 at 5:23 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Once a thing is built, maintenance is kind of automatic, in the sense that it will be part of what people do (and also in the sense that, once it’s built, there will be people who will scream bloody murder if it comes down).

    I understand what you’re saying about the tariff, but my suspicion is that what would happen immediately is that it would be challenged under GATT and NAFTA, and so probably wouldn’t go into effect.

  74. 74.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    January 26, 2017 at 5:25 pm

    @HeleninEire:

    She says it’s beautiful “but you can’t eat the scenery”. So she emigrated to America.

    As did the shitgibbon’s mother.

  75. 75.

    catclub

    January 26, 2017 at 5:25 pm

    @Ryan:

    Stir the pot some more, what could go wrong?

    You do know he has access to the nuclear launchcodes, right?

  76. 76.

    Peale

    January 26, 2017 at 5:25 pm

    @randy khan: Another advantage of spending on a wall is that if he’s focusing on that, he’s not spending money trying to get Iraq’s money. Unlike hoping that a war goes wrong to prove a point, no one is going to get killed by building a wall.

  77. 77.

    cosima

    January 26, 2017 at 5:28 pm

    @HeleninEire: Yes, Scotland. Feel free to ask a front pager for my email addy and we can sort out a visit. We are in an amazing village, have a lovely new house with a guest room, and things are pretty darn fabulous in our little socialist-village-bubble.

    As for Australia, Little Cosima & I were watching some Nat Geo show about animals in Australia (not the cute fuzzy koalas) and it freaked me out so much I said ‘I never want to go back there’ and Little C said ‘I never want to go.’ That may change, but probably not in the near future! I can 100% do without the spiders, snakes & stinging things in the water, never mind sharks. I did date a ‘famous’ sports guy there back in my salad days though, he was on cereal boxes and stuff. Those were good days — too busy having fun to be arsed about spiders.

  78. 78.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    January 26, 2017 at 5:28 pm

    @Mnemosyne: And let us not forget their excellent idea of staging a coupe against Cavez. Nothing says Democracy in South America like a US backed coup.

  79. 79.

    scav

    January 26, 2017 at 5:30 pm

    @randy khan:

    Once a thing is built, maintenance is kind of automatic

    Rather a large number of Ameican bridges and general infrastructure elements would love for this to be true.

  80. 80.

    JPL

    January 26, 2017 at 5:32 pm

    @cosima: Now I’m jealous. I hope she takes you up on your visit.

  81. 81.

    Aleta

    January 26, 2017 at 5:32 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Soon those celestial chimes and humming auras will be replaced by the awesome thunder of reopened copper mines.

  82. 82.

    cosima

    January 26, 2017 at 5:33 pm

    So how deep in the red with Russia holding the purse strings will the US be before we get rid of the shitgibbon? I’m guessing they’re our new bankers/backers for things like walls & wars?

  83. 83.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 5:34 pm

    @cosima: Oh Hi. Front Pagers. Please send me cosima’s email addy. Um, while you’re at it, send me Baud’s too. Cuz; well you know. :;

  84. 84.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 5:35 pm

    @JPL: Just did.

  85. 85.

    Oatler.

    January 26, 2017 at 5:35 pm

    @Another Scott: Here’s a tweet from The Mighty Conan:

    If Trump builds the wall, isn’t that going to trap the 3 million people who voted illegally inside the US?

  86. 86.

    Chip Daniels

    January 26, 2017 at 5:35 pm

    Its also worth noting that HRC did better than expected in Texas, which is slowly trending blue.
    Plus Mexico is one of our biggest trading partners, and a tariff/ shutoff of labor woould wreak hacov on the economy.
    Wall St. and Andy Putzster will not be amused.

    There are cracks in the GOP coalition we should be exploiting.

  87. 87.

    cosima

    January 26, 2017 at 5:38 pm

    @JPL: We’re lucky here, but it was not an easy move for us, and is still tenuous in some ways (though we’ve been here many years, we’re not citizens). I’ve been communing with the forests of Scotland (with our lab, Lola, as company) to get me out of my funk — shinrin-yoku, every day, and it’s been helping. I was neck deep in the depths of political despair for the past 2 months, as we all have been. And our oldest lives in the US now, so I worry about her.

  88. 88.

    Brachiator

    January 26, 2017 at 5:40 pm

    @randy khan:

    Once a thing is built, maintenance is kind of automatic, in the sense that it will be part of what people do (and also in the sense that, once it’s built, there will be people who will scream bloody murder if it comes down).

    You’re kidding, right?

    Can you say, Washington DC Metro? From the Washington Post

    Metro’s failure-prone subway — once considered a transportation jewel — is mired in disrepair because the transit agency neglected to heed warnings that its aging equipment and poor safety culture would someday lead to chronic breakdowns and calamities.

    For nearly half a century, almost since construction of the subway system began, federal experts, civic and business groups, private transit organizations, and some Metro general managers and directors have raised red flags.

    The alarms came repeatedly, at public hearings and Metro board meetings, in crash investigations and published studies, including 14 reports reviewed for this article: The agency lacked a robust institutional safety consciousness, its maintenance regime was close to negligent, and the system desperately needed a steadier, more dependable source of financing.

    But generations of executives and government-appointed Metro board members, along with Washington-area politicians who ultimately dictated Metro’s spending and direction, steered the agency on a different course.

  89. 89.

    The Moar You Know

    January 26, 2017 at 5:40 pm

    Speak for yourself. I’m betting farmers here in California would be more than happy to provide.

    @Roger Moore: We would be very happy to but can’t. All that SoCal ag land that used to supply the entire US with veggies is now buried under tasteless and tacky suburbs. I’m from one of those old school ag towns, and the famous commodity that we used to supply the entire US with is now exclusively grown in Guatemala these days, and we couldn’t grow them here again if we wanted to. No space to do so.

    (We also, back until WWII, used to grow most of the nation’s lima beans, but most people just react in horror when told that. Never got it, I like ’em)

    Yeah, ag is still our leading export (I think) and plenty of the state grows lots of awesome things, but we can’t be the veggie basket of America any longer.

  90. 90.

    Captain C

    January 26, 2017 at 5:42 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: You’re the one reading BJ in Sedona.

  91. 91.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    January 26, 2017 at 5:44 pm

    @scav:

    Rather a large number of Ameican bridges and general infrastructure elements would love for this to be true.

    I am thinking; Large Wall + Bored People + Slow Friday Night in the Desert = Broken Wall, and that’s even before the politics, Westerners don’t like uptight East Coasters bringing their weird hair to their town and smugglers so just protecting the wall will be a logistical nightmare.

  92. 92.

    debbie

    January 26, 2017 at 5:46 pm

    Driving home listening to Trump’s ridiculous remarks and Bannon’s offensive NYT statements, I think the only thing to do is keep up the marches. They can’t ignore us if the turnouts are comparable to Saturday’s.

  93. 93.

    Captain C

    January 26, 2017 at 5:47 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Also, check out Jerome (about 1/2 hour away) if you haven’t already. Funky little art colony on the side of a mountain, on top of what used to be a big copper mine.

  94. 94.

    cmorenc

    January 26, 2017 at 5:47 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    As I type this I am sitting on a vortex in Sedona, Arizona. You guys are totally harshing my mellow.

    Surely there’s a shop there where you can buy crystals tuned to cancel out the intrusion of negative vibes, like a New Age Faraday cage does with electric fields.

  95. 95.

    geg6

    January 26, 2017 at 5:47 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Loving my governor today!

  96. 96.

    kindness

    January 26, 2017 at 5:47 pm

    @The Moar You Know: Dude….The Imperial Valley still gets everyone winter lettuce. Out on the east side of S. Cal, it isn’t all tract homes.

  97. 97.

    debbie

    January 26, 2017 at 5:49 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Ach, they should have pulled away the stairs before Trump tried to get off the plane.

  98. 98.

    Gex

    January 26, 2017 at 5:49 pm

    @Mnemosyne: We have a slight problem with this #4.

    The problem is tribal. Your challenge is to prove that you belong in the same tribe as them: that you are American in exactly the same way they are.

    There is no way brown, queer, and/or non-Christian people can behave to be considered part of their tribe. Not one thing.

  99. 99.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 5:52 pm

    @cosima: Did you move from America? And why are you not a citizen after all these years? Please know that while I would love to sleep in your extra room I am fine with getting a hotel room. I just need a guide around the safe parts of the city. Also, too, where are the good bars!!

  100. 100.

    The Moar You Know

    January 26, 2017 at 5:55 pm

    So how deep in the red with Russia holding the purse strings will the US be before we get rid of the shitgibbon? I’m guessing they’re our new bankers/backers for things like walls & wars?

    @cosima: Russia does not have enough money to do these things for themselves, never mind us.

    We won’t owe them a dime, because they have no dimes to lend.

  101. 101.

    Mike in NC

    January 26, 2017 at 5:56 pm

    Beginning to look like Trump and most of his supporters saw the movie “Machete” and thought it was a documentary.

  102. 102.

    JPL

    January 26, 2017 at 5:58 pm

    @HeleninEire: Bars are good. Last night Adam said not to panic with every thing that Trump said or did. So far today, he’s floated a 20 percent tariff and lifting sanctions on Russia. Also it appears that Russia arrested several sources the CIA has in their country. Trump has been in office for a week.
    Bars are good.

  103. 103.

    Another Scott

    January 26, 2017 at 5:58 pm

    @Brachiator: I haven’t read the story, but another big issue with the DC Metro is that people want it to run during most of the day, but that takes away time that can (and should) be used for maintenance. Plus the system is limited to a maximum (AFAIK) of 8 car trains (which are often packed). At the Women’s March last Saturday, I got on at the end of the line to go into DC and the car was instantly packed. Nobody at the next 7 stops was able to get on.

    Metro is a great system, but maintenance and issues with the system being overloaded (even while it is continuing to expand farther into the suburbs) are serious. The federal government and surrounding jurisdictions not wanting to pay what’s necessary is a big issue, too.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  104. 104.

    The Moar You Know

    January 26, 2017 at 5:59 pm

    Dude….The Imperial Valley still gets everyone winter lettuce. Out on the east side of S. Cal, it isn’t all tract homes.

    @kindness: And dates. But tomatoes, avocados, strawberries and oranges all used to be SoCal staples for America and save for a few hundred acres of avocados in Fallbrook (best avocados anywhere) they’ve all gone to other nations.

  105. 105.

    cosima

    January 26, 2017 at 6:00 pm

    @The Moar You Know: They are moving an awful lot of money through the UK, to their own bank accounts, of course. However, don’t you think that Putin would be willing to tell the shitgibbon ‘we’ll lend you the money for your wall?’ and that the shitgibbon would jump at that?

  106. 106.

    Mike in NC

    January 26, 2017 at 6:01 pm

    @Brachiator: Sounds like the people responsible for the upkeep of the DC Metro system decided priority would go to changing all the signs to include ‘Ronald Reagan National Airport’.

  107. 107.

    louc

    January 26, 2017 at 6:01 pm

    @elm:

    Spicer’s statements today make no sense (as usual).

    “We have a new tax at $50 billion at 20 percent of imports -which is, by the way, a practice that 160 other countries do right now.”

    “Our country’s policy is to tax exports and let imports flow freely in, which is ridiculous. But by doing it that way we can do $10 billion a year and easily pay for the wall. Just through that mechanism alone,”

    US imports from Mexico total $295 billion per year, not $50 billion.

    The $50 billions is the “trade deficit.” And how are they going to pick and choose which of the $250 billion in imports to levy that 20% tax on?

    Not only that, but Mexico is the 2nd biggest importer of soybeans from the U.S. Iowa is going to be in for a world of hurt if this tariff is implemented. I’m sure Mexico will choose maximum pain for its levies.

    Trumpsters are chortling about how the jobs are going to come back from Mexico. Idiots. Let’s say companies do decide (unlikely) to bring all those jobs back. The cost of a car won’t go up 20%, but considerably more because American wages are that much higher. Then Americans won’t buy the cars, and feedback loop begins. Americans make $27 an hour, Mexicans $5.

  108. 108.

    Renie

    January 26, 2017 at 6:01 pm

    ok I know we now have alternative facts but am I hearing right that Spicer said it was not a policy about the tax just an opinion?

    I can’t keep up with these lunatics

  109. 109.

    cosima

    January 26, 2017 at 6:05 pm

    @HeleninEire: We aren’t in a city, so all of it is safe, always. That’s why we moved here, in spite of it being a long commute for my husband (who counts it as a bonus when he’s able to do the commute on his motorcycle). It’s a short walk from my house to a fabulous inn with great food and a good pub (that allows dogs, of course). I’ll fill you in via email.

    We’ve got to live here 5 contiguous years to get leave to remain, then citizenship after, and with all of our oil company moves we haven’t managed 5 years in any place for a very long time. We’re nearly there this time, this is our second time round in Scotland. Crossing fingers.

  110. 110.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    January 26, 2017 at 6:05 pm

    @elm:

    US imports from Mexico total $295 billion per year, not $50 billion.

    Uh… and how many of those imports are actually produced by American corporations via their Mexican subsidiaries? Like they just won’t pass that 20% tax along to the American consumers?

    Will Mexican avocados end up costing, like, $5 a piece?

  111. 111.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    January 26, 2017 at 6:05 pm

    Been stuck in one block of downtown Philly for 15 minutes. Finally figured out why when the shouting cheering mob went up Broad Street in front of me.

    This is like a stadium crowd. Yuuuge!

  112. 112.

    Mike in NC

    January 26, 2017 at 6:06 pm

    @JPL: The week isn’t even over, and they love to pull sneaky shit on Friday afternoons.

  113. 113.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    January 26, 2017 at 6:06 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    Beginning to look like Trump and most of his supporters saw the movie “Machete” and thought it was a documentary.

    Machete would just fire a grenade launcher at the ground to propel himself over the wall on the way to his day job mowing lawns. Don’t these fools know even Don Johnson couldn’t stop Machete?

  114. 114.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    January 26, 2017 at 6:07 pm

    @Renie:

    I can’t keep up with these lunatics

    Truthfully? Neither can they…

    Less than a week into the Trump Presidency and look at the god awful mess we already have on our hands…

  115. 115.

    debbie

    January 26, 2017 at 6:07 pm

    @JPL:

    Panic aside, I think bars are about to be required.

  116. 116.

    JPL

    January 26, 2017 at 6:07 pm

    Trump is a lunatic and the repubs don’t care, since the tax cut for millionaires and billionaires is the most pressing issue. Trump wants respect from Mexico, but has no problem kissing Putin’s ass.

  117. 117.

    Aleta

    January 26, 2017 at 6:07 pm

    :

    @NotMax
    Who has the hiring freeze already impacted the most? Choose one.

    a) Veterans
    b) Veterans
    c) All of the above

    Terminating EPA studies and information outreach may affect the health of

    a) Military families formerly housed on Navy bases
    b) Military families formerly housed on Marine bases
    c) Military families formerly housed on Army bases
    d) Don’t worry about it

  118. 118.

    Another Scott

    January 26, 2017 at 6:08 pm

    @Renie: It’s simple: The president refers to the fact that there is new material; therefore, this is the operative statement. The others are inoperative.

    HTH!

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  119. 119.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 6:12 pm

    @cosima: Well. Would love to visit you. What is the nearest airport from Dublin?

  120. 120.

    JerryRich

    January 26, 2017 at 6:12 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Of the entire Bush II administration, I continue to be amazed that a man of such experience (Rumsfeld was SecDef under Ford) could be so incompetent.

  121. 121.

    Roger Moore

    January 26, 2017 at 6:13 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    I am thinking; Large Wall + Bored People + Slow Friday Night in the Desert = Broken Wall

    And what I was thinking is Large Wall + No Maintenance + People Who Are Desperate To Cross = Broken Wall. And, as I pointed out previously, if you build infrastructure to make maintaining the wall easier, you also make it easier for smugglers to get to remote areas of the border to pick people up.

  122. 122.

    Quinerly

    January 26, 2017 at 6:13 pm

    @debbie:
    I can’t spend the next 4 years in a bar. My liver won’t survive it.

  123. 123.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    January 26, 2017 at 6:15 pm

    And while we’re at it, it seems like a good time to ask this question…

    And what happens when Donnie and Vlad break up, when their bromance implodes?

    Or Vlad just decides to stick a shiv in Donnie’s back, period?

    And releases whatever truly shocking material he amy or may not be holding?

  124. 124.

    les

    January 26, 2017 at 6:16 pm

    @louc:

    Spicer’s statements today make no sense (as usual).

    “Our country’s policy is to tax exports and let imports flow freely in

    This, of course, is close to exactly backward.

  125. 125.

    darrel wright

    January 26, 2017 at 6:17 pm

    @Mnemosyne: (some) people are just starting to be in a different mood now.

    I can’t resist going back to the record. This is an argument that is going to go on here for a long time in a lot of forms.

    Here’s my post that brought out the worst:

    I agree with mocking and ridiculing Trump. I don’t agree with mocking and ridiculing the Trump mob. I’m not sure if people understand that this is a big part of how we got there. Quit wishing them “what they deserve for being so stupid” because first off, they’re probably going to get it whatever you wish, and second of all, what they deserve will make them even worse.

    Here’s the responses:

    Another big part of how we got there was that LGBT people, mouthy women, people of color, public employees, college professors, etc., have been mocked and belittled for generations. Fuck the Trump mob. I DO look down on them, because they suck. They look down on me too. All we can do is win, and, when we do, fuck them up.

    What a relief we have you here to explain it for us.

    Fuck you. And fuck Trump voters. We outnumber them by than 10 million when you look at total votes cast

    Concern troll is concerned!”

    I could paste in a lot more that is very specifically “Fuck them and Fuck you for not wanting to Fuck them.”

  126. 126.

    JPL

    January 26, 2017 at 6:17 pm

    @Quinerly: The alternative might be worse. just sayin

  127. 127.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 26, 2017 at 6:17 pm

    @Gex: See, that is part of the problem. As a veteran, all those people ARE part of my tribe. And I am fiercely loyal to my tribe.

  128. 128.

    Yarrow

    January 26, 2017 at 6:19 pm

    I’m sure this will go well for us.

    Hearing Trump world has text of order floating around to ease Russia sanctions. Will they put out before Tillerson confirmed SecState?— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) January 26, 2017

    update: several sources reporting the proposed order would unilaterally lift sanctions. https://t.co/4yU9JMsdkc— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) January 26, 2017

    Unilaterally lift sanctions on Russia. Now who would benefit from that happening?

  129. 129.

    patroclus

    January 26, 2017 at 6:20 pm

    @Roger Moore: You can wade across the Rio Grande in the canyons of the Big Bend and it is only a few feet wide. My grandma could throw a rock across it. No need for a wall and it would cost billions to build it, maintain it and guard it.

  130. 130.

    Kay

    January 26, 2017 at 6:20 pm

    Presidenting is hard. Much more difficult than inheriting real estate. Turns out you can’t just sort of dabble in it and be competent. That this is surprising to anyone is surprising.

    I think about Obama reading a novel somewhere- laughing diabolically :)

    Today in Philadelphia people said this to Donald Trump “we hate you” and “go home”. It’s really not a great job.

  131. 131.

    Chip Daniels

    January 26, 2017 at 6:21 pm

    If Trump did nothing but sit quietly waiting for Ryan and McConnell to hand him tax cuts to sign, Wall St. would probably be happy.
    But chaos and trade wars are bad for shareholder value and any CEO who isn’t terrified of Trump already, should be immediately fired.

  132. 132.

    cosima

    January 26, 2017 at 6:21 pm

    @HeleninEire: Aberdeen :)

    P.S. Bedtime here. Hopefully you’ll get me email from one of the FP folk and we can sort something out. Maybe even sort out a BJ meet up on this side of the pond…

  133. 133.

    Yarrow

    January 26, 2017 at 6:23 pm

    @HeleninEire: Or you can look into taking the ferry across.

  134. 134.

    Roger Moore

    January 26, 2017 at 6:23 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    But tomatoes, avocados, strawberries and oranges all used to be SoCal staples for America and save for a few hundred acres of avocados in Fallbrook (best avocados anywhere) they’ve all gone to other nations.

    There’s still a fair bit of citrus in Riverside County, strawberries in Ventura (at least), etc. And there are huge tracts of citrus and tomatoes, at least, in the Central Valley. AFAIK, the big thing that did in Southern California avocado growers were wildfires that burned most of the orchards. I don’t know if they’ve replanted or given up.

  135. 135.

    Baud

    January 26, 2017 at 6:24 pm

    @Kay:

    Turns out you can’t just sort of dabble in it and be competent.

    Oh….

  136. 136.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 6:28 pm

    @Kay:

    I think about Obama reading a novel somewhere- laughing diabolically :)

    I’m actually thinking a lot about Obama these days (and to think that exactly a week ago, he was still our POTUS!)

    Half of me wants him to be following the news and, yes, laughing diabolically; the other half pictures him swimming and surfing, reading novels, going on “date nights” IYKWIMAITYD with the beautiful Michelle, and completely tuning out of all news coverage. Of course in the second scenario, he’s going to return feeling like Rip Van Winkle, even after just a couple of weeks away.

    I also think a lot about Hillary. I hope she’s doing okay. Someone has to.

  137. 137.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    January 26, 2017 at 6:28 pm

    @debbie:

    Yup. Keep fighting, pointing and laughing. De-legitimize the fools.

    I found the Venezuelan article above interesting, but it seemed too… Berniesta to me, or, in other words, not workable.

  138. 138.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 6:29 pm

    @Yarrow: Love the ferry. Been there done that.

  139. 139.

    Baud

    January 26, 2017 at 6:29 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I feel the same way about both of them.

  140. 140.

    debbie

    January 26, 2017 at 6:30 pm

    @Kay:

    That’s why I’m beginning to think marches are more effective than post cards, emails, or phone calls. Seeing so many people turn out is so much more impressive than full inboxes. No way to spin that into anything positive for Trump.

  141. 141.

    Baud

    January 26, 2017 at 6:30 pm

    @Chip Daniels: Trump can’t raise tariffs in violation of NAFTA without Congress. Do you really think Ryan and McConnell will pass that bill?

  142. 142.

    DesertFriar

    January 26, 2017 at 6:30 pm

    I recall the last time arround about The Wall even the boarder Republicans thought it was silly. Don’t these twits get they tunnel right under the walls that are up right now?

    The Representative that a majority of voters in my Congressional district voted for (Steve Pearce-R NM) has said nope to the dope to not build the wall.

  143. 143.

    Yarrow

    January 26, 2017 at 6:30 pm

    @Chip Daniels: So….talked to a neighbor today. This neighbor works for a global company that develops and supplies parts for various industries, including aerospace, oil, medical and so forth. Neighbor said that the Germans have cancelled trips to the US and put a halt to projects because of the political chaos over here. It’s directly impacting my neighbor’s business.

    I would guess that this kind of thing is happening all over but we haven’t quite heard about it yet. I guess this is how we make America great. Shut down business.

  144. 144.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 6:31 pm

    @cosima: Good night. And thanks.

  145. 145.

    Lizzy L

    January 26, 2017 at 6:32 pm

    @les: OMFG.

    The export clause, found in Article I, Section 9, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution, directly states “No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.” The clause represents one of the few restrictions on Congress’s otherwise broad taxing power.

    Can’t anybody here play this game?

  146. 146.

    Mike J

    January 26, 2017 at 6:33 pm

    Byron Tau Verified account ‏@ByronTau
    Trump executive order signing — reportedly on the voter fraud investigation — abruptly canceled, White House pool reports.

  147. 147.

    Brachiator

    January 26, 2017 at 6:36 pm

    @efgoldman:

    RE: Can you say, Washington DC Metro?

    The problem with Metro is that none of the political units in the transit district (MD, VA, DC, Feds) want to pay for it.

    DC Metro or San Francisco BART, the issue is that maintenance costs are not built into total project costs.

    A BART equipment problem that shut down a station and threatens to disrupt service for months has laid bare the transit agency’s big problem. The system that a booming Bay Area relies on is overwhelmed with more riders than anyone had ever predicted it would attract, and at the same time it’s struggling to replace its aging infrastructure.

    The dilemma was underscored when BART riders — including those who staggered off emergency buses, having finally made it to the closed-off Pittsburg/Bay Point Station — were met with an unusually blunt message from the transit agency’s headquarters on Twitter.

    “BART was built to transport far fewer people, and much of our system has reached the end of its useful life. This is our reality,” read the Wednesday night tweet on the @SFBART account from Taylor Huckaby, a BART spokesman and social media specialist.

    Trump’s wall, in addition to being a pointless boondoggle, is going to end up costing much more in the future as it withers and crumbles away.

  148. 148.

    Yarrow

    January 26, 2017 at 6:37 pm

    @Mike J: Hilarious. He is so effing incompetent.

  149. 149.

    Roger Moore

    January 26, 2017 at 6:38 pm

    @efgoldman:

    The problem with Metro is that none of the political units in the transit district (MD, VA, DC, Feds) want to pay for it.

    Who do you expect to be willing to pay to maintain the Yuge Wall of Trump? The biggest single problem with infrastructure in our country is that nobody wants to pay to maintain it. People just assume that once it’s built it’s good, and they don’t want to pay any more taxes after that.

  150. 150.

    Roger Moore

    January 26, 2017 at 6:39 pm

    @Lizzy L:

    The export clause, found in Article I, Section 9, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution, directly states “No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State.”

    You don’t actually expect anyone in the Trump administration to read the Constitution, do you?

  151. 151.

    Lizzy L

    January 26, 2017 at 6:40 pm

    @debbie: We don’t need to give up any of our tools. We’ll use whatever works when it works, and discard what doesn’t. The calls and communications to the senators are working.

  152. 152.

    zhena gogolia

    January 26, 2017 at 6:41 pm

    @Mike J:

    Did he drop dead? Asking for a friend.

  153. 153.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 6:42 pm

    @HeleninEire:

    Love the ferry. Been there done that.

    One of my all-time favourite memories is taking the ferry from Mallaig to the Isle of Skye after a full day of rain and gloom and grey skies and general miserableness. Just as we launched out from Mallaig and left the strong aroma of kippered herring behind, the rain ceased, the dark clouds lifted exactly like a theatre curtain going up, and by the time we docked at Armadale, everything was sunny and gorgeous. Still gives me chills to think about how magic it was.

  154. 154.

    A Ghost to Most

    January 26, 2017 at 6:42 pm

    @darrel wright:
    Turn the other cheek with those fascist assholes just gets you rosy cheeks.

    Many of us are done with that shit. You go on with your bad self and try to convert one. You’d have a better chance of converting me to [insert religion here]

  155. 155.

    Roger Moore

    January 26, 2017 at 6:43 pm

    @Brachiator:

    DC Metro or San Francisco BART, the issue is that maintenance costs are not built into total project costs.

    One of the really smart things LA Metro has done is to include ongoing operating costs when they propose new taxes. We should actually be able to keep our system running even after we’ve finished our fairly ambitious construction plans.

  156. 156.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    January 26, 2017 at 6:43 pm

    @darrel wright:

    I sort of get not attacking Trump supporters, some sixty million unenlightened, wilfully ignorant people. Sort of. They implicitly endorsed his misogyny, his juvenile, insulting antics. But after eight years of “Michelle is an ape” horse shit, I find it difficult to just forgive the poor, misguided darlings.

  157. 157.

    Gvg

    January 26, 2017 at 6:45 pm

    @Roger Moore: a four year old could throw a rock across the Rio Grande at Big Bend when I was there. So much water is removed for drinking that the river wasn’t deep enou for a canoe when we were there about 10 years ago. I heard that we claim Mexico is taking too much before it gets to Texas so apparently they get it first, it starts in their mountains? And I bet they could take more and hurt Texas ranchers. It clearly is already impacting wild life. We saw Mexicans bring cattle and horses down to the river. We rode a raft down part. It is not the mighty Rio any more. I imagine it varies by time of year though.
    Cutting off access to water would be pretty serious though. That landscape seemed almost lunar to me. I like my lush green Florida. Easy to believe in water wars when you see it. Wall is stupid. Could cause wars too.

  158. 158.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 6:45 pm

    @Mike J:

    Wow.

  159. 159.

    waysel

    January 26, 2017 at 6:45 pm

    @Lizzy L: I feel like we need to march every Saturday , and do phone calls every day.

  160. 160.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    January 26, 2017 at 6:47 pm

    @Brachiator:

    And crumble that wall will, like the Ozymandias stone tribute…. “Look upon my works, ye mighty….”

  161. 161.

    darrel wright

    January 26, 2017 at 6:47 pm

    @debbie: Personally I think the mistake is thinking that “they” have a serious agenda, and hope to ignore us and just get to work and get it done. Yes, that’s true for the corporatist repubs. But it’s almost the opposite case for the populist wave that handed them power, and the maintenance of that powerbase requires angry division. That is what we can’t hand them.

    This should be a pretty easy wedge to drive when you think about how the grain runs in this rotted GOP log. It kind of looks like the ONLY way it holds together is by the external pressure of a mutually hated enemy. Trump’s job is to keep creating and recreating that enemy, and to me our job is to keep tearing that image down.

  162. 162.

    trollhattan

    January 26, 2017 at 6:48 pm

    @Roger Moore: They’re quite fond of the 2nd Amendment and can recite [half of] it at the drop of a camo and/or pointed hat.

  163. 163.

    ? Martin

    January 26, 2017 at 6:49 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Speak for yourself. I’m betting farmers here in California would be more than happy to provide.

    That cuts two ways, though. Sure, they would, but they aren’t going to stop growing more profitable crops to do so. That means that they only benefit if the price of produce goes up – a lot.

    It’s not like California farmland is terribly idle. It was 15% idle at the height of the drought and is expected to go back to about half that this year. We export $3B a year just in almonds, and about the same amount in dairy (largest dairy state). Almonds generate about 5x the revenue of tomatoes on a per acre basis, to give a sense of how much other produce prices would need to increase for California to absorb that.

    People need to understand how free trade really works. We sent the low-revenue crops to mexico and keep the high revenue ones here (just as we shift low-wage jobs out of the country and expand the high wage ones here). Why would CA farmers want to pull out high revenue crops to plant low revenue ones? They won’t, unless the price of those goods goes up to match.

  164. 164.

    ? Martin

    January 26, 2017 at 6:50 pm

    @Mike J: Apparently he can’t get back to the WH in time to do it. Will do it another day.

    Word also spreading that he has an EO to unilaterally lift all sanctions against Russia.

  165. 165.

    Gelfling 545

    January 26, 2017 at 6:50 pm

    @JPL: That clearly never occurred to them. They don’t get the reaction part of the equation.

  166. 166.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 6:51 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    You don’t actually expect anyone in the Trump administration to read the Constitution, do you?

    You say that with a certain amount of (completely understandable) snark, but in all seriousness, it doesn’t look as though anyone in the new administration — certainly not T himself, but I would include his nominee for Attorney General — is conversant with the Constitution of the United States, let alone any legislation or court rulings or international treaties or other governing agencies. It would be laughable if it weren’t both ineffably sad and totally horrifying.

  167. 167.

    Lizzy L

    January 26, 2017 at 6:51 pm

    @Roger Moore: LOL no.

  168. 168.

    scav

    January 26, 2017 at 6:54 pm

    @Roger Moore: And how many examples can we come up with in that mythical land of Business Excellence! of exactly the same behavior? Place I worked at was littered with state of digital systems all simultaneously creaking along in exactly the same state as their initial rollout (which easily spanned decades). Every year the budget for generating and loading new data into the systems was cut (Rightsized!), so where the cash or expertise to upgrade with supporting systems was to come from was eternally mysterious. On the upside, it was rather like computing time travel or a really good living museum of database design.

  169. 169.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 6:56 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: One of my funniest memories of the ferry is 30 years ago. Here I am, a backpacker in Cork getting on the ferry to England. I paid and the girl said “get in that queue” I had no idea what “queue” meant. It meant “line” in America. But I did not understand her.

    Related here right now. For 30 years I have been saying the ‘Quays” along the river Liffey KWAYS. Well, no, stupid. it is pronounced “keys” Welcome To Ireland!!

  170. 170.

    Roger Moore

    January 26, 2017 at 6:56 pm

    @? Martin:

    We export $3B a year just in almonds, and about the same amount in dairy (largest dairy state). Almonds generate about 5x the revenue of tomatoes on a per acre basis, to give a sense of how much other produce prices would need to increase for California to absorb that.

    Except that we export a fair amount of our crops ourselves. If we get into a nasty trade war- and that’s what’s going to happen if Trump gets his way- the export market for stuff like almonds and wine will dry up. If there’s a glut of almonds because we can’t export anymore, prices will crash and farmers will start thinking about tearing them out to grow something else.

  171. 171.

    vhh

    January 26, 2017 at 6:57 pm

    @efgoldman: Well, lots of Martin guitars and ukeleles come from their Mexican factories. And Martin is a superb American company.

  172. 172.

    Brachiator

    January 26, 2017 at 6:58 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    One of the really smart things LA Metro has done is to include ongoing operating costs when they propose new taxes.

    I’m not sure that this is entirely true, and Metro may run into future problems if there is a decrease in federal matching funds.

    Also, Metro has cheated by cutting back on bus service, including bus service on lines that feed Metro. And ridership (apart from the wildly successful Expo Line) is decreasing.

    Also, I frequently ride Metro, and have noticed that downtime incidents have been increasing as service has expanded, even when you take accidents and cars and trucks plowing into the tracks into consideration. This is especially true of the Gold Line, where the recently increased service to Azusa has seen an increase in wear and tear.

    I note, though, that compared to DC Metro, LA Metro’s maintenance schedule, which includes more evening off time work, is superior to what appears to be happening in DC.

  173. 173.

    darrel wright

    January 26, 2017 at 7:01 pm

    @West of the Rockies (been a while):

    But after eight years of “Michelle is an ape” horse shit, I find it difficult to just forgive the poor, misguided darlings.

    Don’t get me wrong. My zen state WRT these people is hard won. I’ve gone through being screaming-at-the-walls angry, to looking at them as essentially sub-human, to finally seeing them simply as….potential. Like angry toddlers or drug addicts. They are what they are, but it’s important to remember that there really are reasons why they are like they are, and “there but for the grace of god go I” is never a bad thought. It helps to live out here and see it up close, especially to see how the very young get treated. It has it’s analogue in the inner city.

  174. 174.

    A Ghost to Most

    January 26, 2017 at 7:02 pm

    @scav:

    On the upside, it was rather like computing time travel or a really good living museum of database design.

    After 40+ years in IT, I’m afraid I’ve become both.

  175. 175.

    trollhattan

    January 26, 2017 at 7:03 pm

    @HeleninEire:
    A GF once flew into Heathrow for a London vacation and being puzzled how to get to ground transport asked strangers where the exit was. Nobody could answer until she said “The exit, you know, the way out” upon which the person pointed to a sign that read “Way Out.”

    Two peoples separated by a common language.

  176. 176.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 7:03 pm

    @HeleninEire: @Baud:

    Oh hi.

  177. 177.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 7:03 pm

    @West of the Rockies (been a while):

    “Look upon my works, ye mighty….”

    AND DESPAIR.

  178. 178.

    waysel

    January 26, 2017 at 7:06 pm

    @darrel wright: If you were to, for example, study a bit in depth say Nelson Mandela, and some of the post apartheid methods used to rectify ill will between parties involved, and come share some specific actions or scripts that might help ‘mend the fences’ between current adversaries , I’d be more interested in listening to your ‘be nicer’ advice. Seriously, there may be something useful, but with Fox, Rush, Brietbart constantly inflaming the tribes, I don’t have much hope that we can bridge any gaps.

  179. 179.

    NotMax

    January 26, 2017 at 7:07 pm

    @HeleninEire

    It’s pronounced “keys” everywhere. In the U.S. we seem to prefer wharf to quay.

  180. 180.

    debbie

    January 26, 2017 at 7:08 pm

    @Lizzy L:

    I’m not saying calls don’t work, but I don’t think anything has poked at Trump the way the march did.

  181. 181.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 7:08 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Two peoples separated by a common language.

    I was literally (“literally” literally, not Joe Biden literally) going to comment that same exact identical thing.

  182. 182.

    trollhattan

    January 26, 2017 at 7:08 pm

    @NotMax:
    “Wharf” is better because dogs can pronounce it.

  183. 183.

    trollhattan

    January 26, 2017 at 7:10 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    GMTA! Now, time to go get some thirsty Thursday ales!

  184. 184.

    Ruviana

    January 26, 2017 at 7:11 pm

    @The Moar You Know: Wait, was it broccoli?

  185. 185.

    debbie

    January 26, 2017 at 7:11 pm

    @HeleninEire:

    You might have better luck if you pick a FP from the Quick Links drop-down at the top of the page and ask them to send you the addresses. Just saying.

  186. 186.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 7:12 pm

    @trollhattan: LOL you win.

  187. 187.

    Peale

    January 26, 2017 at 7:13 pm

    @Roger Moore: And thank god if they have to. Do you know how much water those tree nuts take?

    Anyway, I don’t think we should predict economic Armageddon in the trade war. It won’t happen right away and we’ll start to look crazy again. Mexico should ignore putting tariffs on soybeans if it consumes soybeans domestically. Then it is actually taxing its consumers in response to Trump and indirectly paying for the wall. It should not put tariffs on auto parts, that’s for sure. If goods are taxed coming and going, then the manufacturers will indeed look elsewhere.

    I think lots of people are confusing tariffs and embargoes and quotas. Its not like suddenly Mexican goods disappear from the shelves. We just have to pay more for them. And we should. We’re the ones building an expensive wall, not Mexico. Mexico should avoid punishing its citizens with unseeded tax revenue just to get back at Trump. Instead, it should actually diversify its trading partners wherever it can, because right now 90 percent of its trade is with the USA and the USA is a bad actor right now.

    If it wanted to get back at the US, it should tax specific items that can be substituted by other imports from other countries to make US goods uncompetitive with goods from elsewhere..

  188. 188.

    NotMax

    January 26, 2017 at 7:13 pm

    @debbie

    Cue the universe’s tiniest violin.

    The bad press over the weekend has not allowed Trump to “enjoy” the White House as he feels he deserves, according to one person who has spoken with him. Source

  189. 189.

    Doug R

    January 26, 2017 at 7:14 pm

    @The Moar You Know: We get strawberries from Salinas and Watsonville at Costco ALL year. Sometimes from San Diego county.

  190. 190.

    debbie

    January 26, 2017 at 7:15 pm

    @NotMax:

    I know! The one bright spot in all of this! (Why is why I think the more marches, the more misery for that bastard.

  191. 191.

    NotMax

    January 26, 2017 at 7:17 pm

    @HeleninEire

    One time one of my grandmothers was trying to demonstrate how erudite she was by calling something gauche.

    Except she pronounced it gowchee.

  192. 192.

    Chet Murthy

    January 26, 2017 at 7:18 pm

    @darrel wright: Yeah, uh, sorry no. Chavez had lots of problems. Maduro has lots more. But they actually were opposed by oligarchs and the rich, not just by “the intelligentsia. We, who work hard and know how to do business.” It’s rather rich for Chavez’ opponents to talk about facism, when that is *exactly* what their intellectual fellow-travelers created, all over South America, with the US’ help.

    So, no.

    The more I read and re-read that article, the more disappointed I am. There *is* a difference between the poor of Venezuela, and Trump’s supporters in the US. For starters, Trump’s supporters aren’t poor. They’re just poorer than they thought they deserved to be. And the fact that many, many ni-clangs were and are poorer than them, doesn’t matter ttwo shits to them.

    I could go on and on.

    P.S. none of which is an excusing of Chavez/Maduro’s misgovernment. But when it started, it was trying to address -real- problems in Venezuela.

  193. 193.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 26, 2017 at 7:19 pm

    Please ignore the concern troll.

  194. 194.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    January 26, 2017 at 7:21 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Honestly, that poem gives me shivers every damn time I read it. In the year 2525, if man is still alive, it’ll still be relevant.

  195. 195.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 7:22 pm

    @NotMax:

    One time one of my grandmothers was trying to demonstrate how erudite she was by calling something gauche. Except she pronounced it gowchee.

    I’ve never told you the embarrassing story about me and “Beefeaters,” have I?

  196. 196.

    NotMax

    January 26, 2017 at 7:24 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne

    (adjusts tenterhooks) All ears.

  197. 197.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 26, 2017 at 7:24 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Do tell..

  198. 198.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 7:26 pm

    @debbie: Or you can read upthread where Cosima asked the front pagers to send them my email. And then about me and Baud..well.. whateves.

  199. 199.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 7:26 pm

    @West of the Rockies (been a while):

    Honestly, that poem gives me shivers every damn time I read it. In the year 2525, if man is still alive, it’ll still be relevant.

    Yup. I studied it in high school, probably somewhere around 1957-58, but until the last few months it was always fairly abstract to me. Today, it is like reading the news. A great poem.

  200. 200.

    debbie

    January 26, 2017 at 7:27 pm

    @West of the Rockies (been a while):

    If you haven’t heard Bryan Cranston’s reading of it, it’s worth finding it on YouTube.

  201. 201.

    Shana

    January 26, 2017 at 7:28 pm

    @Mike in NC: The major problem, which no one can do anything about now, is that when it was built they didn’t build any extra track so that maintenance could be done on one section while routing trains around that track. Large sections are underground and there’s no way that the money will ever exist to build out.

  202. 202.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 7:30 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Spill it.

  203. 203.

    Lizzy L

    January 26, 2017 at 7:31 pm

    Article in The Atlantic discusses why T’s people are going hard after the press and the intelligence community.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/why-the-president-is-feuding-with-the-media-and-the-intelligence-community/514484/?utm_source=atltw

  204. 204.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 7:33 pm

    @NotMax:
    @schrodingers_cat:

    Yeah, so when I was quite young I learned about the Yeomen of the Guard and knew that they were called “Beefeaters.” But, in the way you do when you see a word but have never heard it read aloud, I pronounced it (in my head) as “bee-FEA-ters.” And I came up with a backstory (in my head, the way you do) that had all England fighting a plague of bees, and the Yeomen of the Guard fought them off, and became “Bee Defeaters,” or “Beefeaters.”

    I seriously believed this until I was well into my 30s. Never occurred to me that there might be a somewhat more carnivorous origin to the name.

    I am looking at 75 on my next birthday, and I still have to remind myself every time I see the word that the accent is on the first, not the second, syllable.

  205. 205.

    rikyrah

    January 26, 2017 at 7:33 pm

    Karen Tumulty Verified account
    ‏@ktumulty

    EXCLUSIVE: Trump pressured Park Service to back up his claims about inauguration crowd with @eilperin

  206. 206.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 7:34 pm

    @HeleninEire:

    Done, see #215.

  207. 207.

    rikyrah

    January 26, 2017 at 7:35 pm

    On the morning after Donald Trump’s inauguration, acting National Park Service director Michael T. Reynolds received an extraordinary summons: The new president wanted to talk to him.

    In a Saturday phone call, Trump personally ordered Reynolds to produce additional photographs of the previous day’s crowds on the National Mall, according to three individuals who have knowledge of the conversation. The president believed that they might prove that the media had lied in reporting that attendance had been no better than average.

    Trump also expressed anger over a retweet sent from the agency’s account, in which side-by-side photographs showed far fewer people at his swearing-in than had shown up to see Barack Obama’s inaugural in 2009.

    According to one account, Reynolds had been contacted by the White House and given a phone number to call. When he dialed it, he was told to hold for the president.

    For Trump, who sees himself and his achievements in superlative terms, the inauguration’s crowd size has been a source of grievance that he appears unable to put behind him. It is a measure of his fixation on the issue that he would devote part of his first morning in office to it — and that he would take out his frustrations on an acting Park Service director.
    Word rapidly spread through the agency and Washington. The individuals who informed The Washington Post about the call declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the conversation.

    Neither Reynolds nor the Park Service would talk about it.

  208. 208.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    January 26, 2017 at 7:36 pm

    Pivot

  209. 209.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    January 26, 2017 at 7:37 pm

    @efgoldman:

    I feel for you… it’s vile.

    Have you pondered electrolysis for that hairy keister?

  210. 210.

    Baud

    January 26, 2017 at 7:37 pm

    @HeleninEire: Hello, lassie.

  211. 211.

    Peale

    January 26, 2017 at 7:39 pm

    The tax is actually better than I expected. I was going to assume that they would go after remittances and tax those instead, which is way more cruel and targeted than a general tax.

  212. 212.

    darrel wright

    January 26, 2017 at 7:40 pm

    @Chet Murthy: Maybe what I’m not being clear on is that I am offering this not as some moral corrective (maybe it has some of that, maybe it doesn’t) but rather as almost purely pragmatic.

    We lost that election for a host of reasons, but “basket of deplorables,” which made us all feel good and was righteous and true, is one of them. A big one. The signs blossomed like mushrooms out here the next day and week. It inoculated him against the p##ssygrabing or anything of the other 10 things that could have sunk him around the margins of that base.

    Of course there are huge differences between the Venezuelan lower classes and ours, the whole set up is completely different. The question of the article though is how does a populist tyrant (right or left or anywhere in between) operate. That is the practical question, and he’s giving what I think is great advice that we will learn one way or the other. I feel like a lot of people are getting hung up on “but you don’t understand, these people really are bad and stupid and undeserving, unlike the venezuelan poor, so it’s different…” Yes. Fine. That’s simply not the point though.

  213. 213.

    Van Buren

    January 26, 2017 at 7:40 pm

    @randy khan: @Roger Moore: I think I once read a poem about some grand edifice built in the desert that slowly decays away.

  214. 214.

    rikyrah

    January 26, 2017 at 7:40 pm

    lowdown muthaphuckas

    Trump White House abruptly halts Obamacare ads
    01/26/17 06:05 PM EST

    The Trump administration has pulled the plug on all Obamacare outreach and advertising in the crucial final days of the 2017 enrollment season, according to sources at Health and Human Services and on Capitol Hill.

    Even ads that had already been placed and paid for have been pulled, the sources told POLITICO.

    The decision sends the clearest signal yet that President Donald Trump is determined to fulfill his campaign pledge to repeal Obamacare. Hours after being sworn in, Trump issued his first executive order allowing federal officials to start unwinding parts of the law.

    “President Trump is signaling he’s the new sheriff,” said Rep. Chris Collins, (R-N.Y.), the president’s top congressional ally. “He’s been elected with a mandate. He’s not going to tolerate his employees contradicting and undermining his mandate to get this country going in another direction.”

    Individuals may still sign up for Obamacare plans until the Jan. 31 deadline — but the Trump administration isn’t advertising that fact any longer.

  215. 215.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 7:41 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I can’t stop Laughing. Please come to Dublin and stay here. You and I would get along fabulously.

  216. 216.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 7:43 pm

    @HeleninEire:

    Please come to Dublin and stay here. You and I would get along fabulously.

    You’re on! Have always longed to visit Dublin. And I know from your comments on BJ that we would, indeed, get along like billy-o!

  217. 217.

    Mike J

    January 26, 2017 at 7:44 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Nobody could answer until she said “The exit, you know, the way out” upon which the person pointed to a sign that read “Way Out.”

    Was taking an American to a client site in Stockholm on the subway. When we get there he’s freaking out. “You got out at the wrong stop! This is some place called utgång!”

  218. 218.

    satby

    January 26, 2017 at 7:44 pm

    @cosima: @cosima: hey, at some point I’m in for a meetup too!

  219. 219.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 7:46 pm

    @rikyrah:

    You know what? Just PHUCKEM. PHUCKEM EVERY LAST ONE.

  220. 220.

    rawhide rawlins

    January 26, 2017 at 7:47 pm

    I only got as far as: “texans are revolting”.

  221. 221.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 7:48 pm

    @Baud: When you left us, were you in Europe? You know that the whole blog FREAKED OUT. Right?

  222. 222.

    Cacti

    January 26, 2017 at 7:48 pm

    Tohono O’odam chief in southern AZ/northern Mexico says “over my dead body” will he permit a wall to be built across the tribe’s land.

  223. 223.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 7:51 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Well. Waste no time. Lemme know when I can pick you up at the airport.

  224. 224.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 7:51 pm

    @efgoldman:

    It is for sure really terrible. I have a vague memory of hearing that. Repressed/suppressed it as soon as I could.

  225. 225.

    Baud

    January 26, 2017 at 7:52 pm

    @HeleninEire: I was in Europe. And I’m pretty sure the blog had more important things to worry about last September.

  226. 226.

    rikyrah

    January 26, 2017 at 7:53 pm

    Luvvie’s at it again. If you need a laugh,not only the post is funny, but the entire thread on Facebook is full of gems.

    Can We Drunk Text Our Bae, Barack, That We Miss Him?

    The New Yorker published an imaginary text conversation between Barack Obama and someone who represents all of us still in our feelings about him leaving the White House. Here’s a snippet:

    Barack: You knew this would be tough at first. Transitions are never simple.

    Me: I miss you so bad

    Me: Things without you really really suck

    Barack: Does someone else have your car keys?

    Me: Yes

    Barack: Good.

    This is basically all of us, wading in a pool of our feelings. Six days after he left and we’re watching the world crumble because a Walking Cheeto is blowing everything to hell. I just wanna send President Obama voicemail recordings of Toni Braxton heartbreak songs. “It’s just another sad love song racking my brain like crazy.”

    I shared the article on my Awesomely Luvvie Facebook page and asked my followers: Can we all drunk text President Obama and pathetically ask why he left us??

    The responses had me laughing and crying all at the same time.

    RC: “Was it me? I can change, if you come back I can show you that I can be the constituent you need me to be ?” #BabyComeBack #YouCanBlameItAllOnMe

    Aeisha: I want to drive by his house reeeeeaaalll slow so I know he sees me see him see me in so much pain.

    Lana: I’m with you but Secret Service ?

    Aeisha: I’d risk secret service to get the ache to go away…

    Necee: Make sure you turn down the radio right before you get to his house.

    Amy: Girl… I already drunk tweeted his ass at 3:30 in the A.M. He’s trying to act like he doesn’t know we were so good together…

    Milla: I’m a wypepo, so I think I’m supposed to stand sadly outside his window in a ratty khaki trenchcoat while power-lifting a boombox the size of a VW Bug over my head. The boombox must be playing Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” for maximum wangst

  227. 227.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 7:53 pm

    @HeleninEire:

    @Baud: When you left us, were you in Europe? You know that the whole blog FREAKED OUT. Right?

    Those were the dark days. I can’t even think of that period without …

    No, I can’t even say it.

  228. 228.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 7:53 pm

    @efgoldman: Irish pubs. REAL Irish pubs (not the touristy kind) rock.

  229. 229.

    Mary G

    January 26, 2017 at 7:54 pm

    @Cacti: Joe Arpaio has probably already volunteered to arrange that, since he’s out of a job.

  230. 230.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 7:55 pm

    @HeleninEire:

    Not sure if the exchequer is up to it, but I’m thinking I might like to come over for my 75th b/d in early August. Will look at bank balances and stuff.

  231. 231.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 26, 2017 at 7:55 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: What is the story behind those furry helmets? Wouldn’t the bees hide there?

  232. 232.

    Peale

    January 26, 2017 at 7:56 pm

    @Cacti: Good. Gives us someone to rally around who actually wants a rally. I want this wall to be a destructive to our own politics as possible.

  233. 233.

    Mike J

    January 26, 2017 at 7:56 pm

    For the Rhode Islanders here, Louisa Chafee got a 3rd, a 4th, and a 1st today in the Nacra at the Sailing World Cup.

  234. 234.

    Brachiator

    January 26, 2017 at 7:57 pm

    @rikyrah:

    The Trump administration has pulled the plug on all Obamacare outreach and advertising in the crucial final days of the 2017 enrollment season, according to sources at Health and Human Services and on Capitol Hill.

    Someone needs to file a lawsuit to halt this, like immediately. If Obamacare is still in place, it is criminal to confuse people who can still sign up for it.

  235. 235.

    TriassicSands

    January 26, 2017 at 7:58 pm

    “Each section of the border faces unique geographical, cultural, and technological challenges that would be best addressed with a flexible, sector-by-sector approach that empowers the agents on the ground with the resources they need.”

    I was shocked by that statement. It sounds reasonable. It couldn’t have been written by a Republican (not wasted on a brain-enhancing drug of some sort).

    Rep. Hurd, what the hell have you been smokin’?

  236. 236.

    Brachiator

    January 26, 2017 at 7:59 pm

    @darrel wright:

    We lost that election for a host of reasons, but “basket of deplorables,” which made us all feel good and was righteous and true, is one of them. A big one. The signs blossomed like mushrooms out here the next day and week. It inoculated him against the p##ssygrabing or anything of the other 10 things that could have sunk him around the margins of that base.

    In America, it is considered bad form to call a racist a racist.

    In America, it is considered bad form to call willfully ignorant assholes stupid.

    Clinton could have dealt with this better, but “Basket of Deplorables” was too kind.

  237. 237.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 7:59 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Exchange rates are crazy now. Just moved lots of dollars. The rate was .92 CRAZY. But stay here with me. All you need to do is by me drinks. Happy Happy Birthday.

  238. 238.

    rikyrah

    January 26, 2017 at 8:01 pm

    Lawd have mercy

    Emily Roslin v Praze Verified account
    ‏@EmilyGorcenski

    Here’s an updated State Department Org Chart.

    Blue X’s are unfilled appointee positions. Red X’s are resignations.

  239. 239.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 8:04 pm

    @Baud: Oh HI

  240. 240.

    rikyrah

    January 26, 2017 at 8:06 pm

    A Former Side Piece to the Holy See?

    The balls on these clowns.

    Michael Tackett Verified account
    ‏@tackettdc

    Callista Gingrich, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s wife, is being considered to be ambassador to the Vatican.

  241. 241.

    Peale

    January 26, 2017 at 8:06 pm

    @TriassicSands: Which is why we should encourage a top down, uniform, very expensive, unpopular wall to be built. For the most part it is unnecessary as it is replacing barriers that are already there.

  242. 242.

    TriassicSands

    January 26, 2017 at 8:07 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Individuals may still sign up for Obamacare plans until the Jan. 31 deadline — but the Trump administration isn’t advertising that fact any longer.

    If you can’t kill the program altogether immediately, then maybe you can prevent at least some people from getting health care coverage. That’s good, right?@efgoldman:

  243. 243.

    Peale

    January 26, 2017 at 8:07 pm

    @rikyrah: Oh, I had forgotten that he converted to Catholicism. I’m fine with giving her a foreign post if it means hubby is out of the country with her.

  244. 244.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 8:08 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    those furry helmets?

    Bearskin shakos (shakoes? Not sure of plural spelling.) Or busby/busbies.

    But that’s not the YotG/Beefeaters. That’s the various Grenadier Guards (Scots, Irish, Welsh, etc.) The Yeomen wear a smushy Tudor-style velvet cap. Fifty years ago I was pretty good at knowing the distinctions among all the headgear and insignia, but I haven’t paid much attention recently.

  245. 245.

    Roger Moore

    January 26, 2017 at 8:08 pm

    @darrel wright:

    We lost that election for a host of reasons, but “basket of deplorables,” which made us all feel good and was righteous and true, is one of them.

    And a bullshit one. What Hillary was actually saying in that speech was that while there were some Trump supporters who were just a bunch of bigots, there were also plenty of them who were feeling legitimately left out who deserve our sympathy and help. But her main point was distorted, and Trump’s supporters proudly proclaimed themselves to be deplorables. I’m inclined to take them at their word.

  246. 246.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 8:10 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Callista Gingrich, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s wife, is being considered to be ambassador to the Vatican.

    One more round, please, bartender!

  247. 247.

    Brachiator

    January 26, 2017 at 8:10 pm

    UK Prime Minister Theresa May meets with Trump tomorrow.

    The poor dear is looking forward to it. From the Guardian

    Theresa May said she can strike up a strong working relationship with Donald Trump because “opposites attract”, as she prepares to become the first world leader to meet the new US president.

    Amid concerns in the UK about whether she was “grovelling” to Trump, who sparked fresh outrage on Wednesday when he suggested torture was effective, May told reporters on a plane to the US on Thursday that the two would get on.

    Asked about the contrast between the brash, outspoken billionaire and the vicar’s daughter, May replied: “Haven’t you ever noticed, sometimes opposites attract?”

    I guess she will have to make up for the president of Mexico backing out of meeting Trump.

  248. 248.

    rikyrah

    January 26, 2017 at 8:10 pm

    Touré
    ✔
    @Toure

    Trump’s 1st prime time network interview with ABC News on Wednesday night got 7.5m viewers. Obama’s 1st got 17m viewers. Trumpy lose again.
    1:24 PM – 26 Jan 2017

  249. 249.

    TriassicSands

    January 26, 2017 at 8:11 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Not unless Medicare pays for it.

    If Medicare won’t, maybe Mexico will.

  250. 250.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    January 26, 2017 at 8:14 pm

    @darrel wright:

    I think, Darrel, emotions are still crazy raw and the idea of finding the humanity in Trump supporters is challenging for a lot of us. You know this, of course. I do maintain a ludicrous Star Trekkian hope that we can one day overcome our baser instincts and work together. However, as Eomer said, “But it is not this day.”

  251. 251.

    ? Martin

    January 26, 2017 at 8:14 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Shakos. 4 years as a marching band dad taught me some pretty useless information.

  252. 252.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    January 26, 2017 at 8:15 pm

    @TriassicSands:

    And it will be a beautiful shorn keister, the best….

  253. 253.

    Spanky

    January 26, 2017 at 8:16 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Great American Solar Eclipse on August 21. Might want to stay on this side of the pond for that day.

  254. 254.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    January 26, 2017 at 8:16 pm

    @HeleninEire: I told Baud that this morning.

  255. 255.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 8:16 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Callista Gingrich, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s wife, is being considered to be ambassador to the Vatican.

    On reflection, though, if it was good enough for Cokie Roberts’ mother ….

  256. 256.

    Renie

    January 26, 2017 at 8:17 pm

    @Another Scott: LOL Not surprised that was a NIxon/Ziegler tactic.

  257. 257.

    ? Martin

    January 26, 2017 at 8:18 pm

    @rikyrah: California is still advertising our exchange. Just saw an ad yesterday. We’re past open enrollment, but they’re happy to remind you that if you change your job, get married, etc that you are still eligible to sign up.

  258. 258.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 8:18 pm

    @Spanky:

    Yeah, that is definitely in my calendar. If I were to go to Ireland, I’d be back in time for the eclipse.

  259. 259.

    scav

    January 26, 2017 at 8:20 pm

    @Brachiator:

    May replied: “Haven’t you ever noticed, sometimes opposites attract?”

    Luffly little weasel is trying to have it both ways. “Little ol’ me? UTT-erly the opposite! {eyelash flutter} But we’re soooo going to be BFFs in our special special relationship way.” Queen Poodle the Second.

  260. 260.

    debbie

    January 26, 2017 at 8:20 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Would the Vatican accept a home wrecker?

  261. 261.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 8:20 pm

    @? Martin:

    Thank you. That looks right.

  262. 262.

    Roger Moore

    January 26, 2017 at 8:21 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Bearskin shakos (shakoes? Not sure of plural spelling.) Or busby/busbies.

    Shakoes are cylindrical with a short brim and a plume at the front. Busbies are the big bearskin ones. I only know this because I was in marching band in high school, and we changed from busbies to shakoes while I was there.

  263. 263.

    NotMax

    January 26, 2017 at 8:21 pm

    @Brachiator

    Memo to the P.M.:

    More like birds of a feather flock together (emphasis added).

    You like big-budget rom-coms, so you know the drill: Opposites attract. Those two characters who can’t stand each other in act one? Chasing each other through an airport by act three. Well…apparently science does not go to the movies. In fact, according to a new study, genetic similarity may determine who’s going to partner with whom—especially if the similarity is in what kind of psychiatric disorder you have. Source

  264. 264.

    Elizabelle

    January 26, 2017 at 8:22 pm

    Texans have been revolting for a while now.

    Are we abandoned?

    Are there no pet blogposts out there?

  265. 265.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 8:23 pm

    @debbie:

    Would the Vatican accept a home wrecker?

    No offense, but do you know anything about Catholicism?

  266. 266.

    Thoughtful David

    January 26, 2017 at 8:23 pm

    @darrel wright:
    Wait–you actually think those deplorables who put up “Deplorable and Proud of It” signs would have voted for any Democrat if only Clinton hadn’t called them that? Well, there’s some alternate reality thinking.
    You’re buying into the WaPo’s “poor, misunderstood, economically disadvantaged folks are supporting Trump” line. The MSM has pushed that for a year, and it has never been anywhere near true. Those deplorables mostly weren’t poor or economically left behind.
    Call them what they are: racists, bigots, and haters. The big issues getting the deplorables out to vote were imagined terrists, imagined Muslin infiltrators, imagined BLM cop-killers, and Obamacare giving money to the inner cities.
    And you think being nice to those folks is going to convince them? You live in an alternate reality.
    Fuck ’em. They’re lost forever.

  267. 267.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 8:24 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Thank you! That is very helpful. I knew there was a difference but I couldn’t be arsed to look up what it was.

  268. 268.

    PPCLI

    January 26, 2017 at 8:24 pm

    These last six days have really been a Gish gallop of horrors. In the last 24 hours Trump has given an interview to ABC that was horrifying beyond description. By mid day we were talking about some new lunacy, and then a new one at 1PM, and… and by now the interview seems like it took place years ago.

  269. 269.

    cynthia ackerman

    January 26, 2017 at 8:25 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    It’s about fifty feet wide through most of Big Bend, in the dry season.

  270. 270.

    sharl

    January 26, 2017 at 8:25 pm

    OT, more stuff has been dribbling out about Silicon Valley billionaire and libertarian sociopath Peter Thiel quietly becoming a New Zealand citizen in 2011 (he’s a German-born dual NZ-US citizen now, for the record).

    Opposition Labour party in NZ Parliament is demanding answers, while their PM is saying he’s OK with Thiel being a citizen. And the reporter who broke this was expecting a document dump sometime in their afternoon.

  271. 271.

    rikyrah

    January 26, 2017 at 8:26 pm

    In Photos: 35 Amazing Places Barack Obama Traveled During His Presidency

  272. 272.

    NotMax

    January 26, 2017 at 8:27 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Not to mention one can cache a bigger bottle of gin beneath the busby.

    :)

  273. 273.

    Roger Moore

    January 26, 2017 at 8:28 pm

    @PPCLI:

    These last six days have really been a Gish gallop of horrors.

    Get ready for the four year Gish marathon.

  274. 274.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 8:28 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Trump’s 1st prime time network interview with ABC News on Wednesday night got 7.5m viewers. Obama’s 1st got 17m viewers. Trumpy lose again.

    Laughing. So. Hard.

  275. 275.

    Baud

    January 26, 2017 at 8:28 pm

    @rikyrah: Nice.

  276. 276.

    debbie

    January 26, 2017 at 8:29 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    That wasn’t a serious question, which I thought was obvious.

  277. 277.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 8:30 pm

    @NotMax:

    I like a man who knows his priorities.

  278. 278.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 26, 2017 at 8:30 pm

    @Roger Moore: Did you learn this in the Bond training school?
    /lame_joke

  279. 279.

    Quinerly

    January 26, 2017 at 8:30 pm

    @PPCLI:
    If if makes you feel any better, CNN and MSNBC have been showing portions of that interview all day…yes, the crazy portions. MSNBC shows tonight hammering him. CNN tough earlier.

  280. 280.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 8:31 pm

    @debbie:

    That wasn’t a serious question, which I thought was obvious.

    Nor was my reply!

  281. 281.

    NotMax

    January 26, 2017 at 8:31 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Spicer tomorrow: Largest audience ever. Bigger than the final episode of M*A*S*H. Ratings are rigged.

  282. 282.

    Shana

    January 26, 2017 at 8:31 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I LOVE that story. We all have our things, mine aren’t nearly as interesting.

  283. 283.

    Jeffro

    January 26, 2017 at 8:32 pm

    I’m not saying they stole my idea from last month, buuuuuuutttttt:

    Speaking of revolting in a good way here’s Madeleine Albright and Mayim Bialik vowing that if Trump institutes a Muslim registry, they’re signing up.

    PS They’re not Muslim, they’re just patriots ;)

  284. 284.

    JMiotke

    January 26, 2017 at 8:33 pm

    @Roger Moore: Except they are gunning for California, too. We will need the CA veggies to feed those of us in CA! All those “illegal” voters who harvest them will be sent to jail.

  285. 285.

    Quinerly

    January 26, 2017 at 8:34 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    I get it. But more people should have watched that train wreck. Impossible to explain if you didn’t watch it.

  286. 286.

    debit

    January 26, 2017 at 8:34 pm

    @PPCLI: I have nothing left in me but a hearty Nelson Muntz “HAH HAH!” for every unforced error the shitstain makes.

  287. 287.

    debbie

    January 26, 2017 at 8:34 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Doh!

  288. 288.

    Roger Moore

    January 26, 2017 at 8:35 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Did you learn this in the Bond training school?

    I think, perhaps, you are thinking of Daniel Craig.

  289. 289.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 8:37 pm

    OK so it is 1:30am here. Time for me to go to sleep. We will talk later.

    SuibanDuinne: please come visit.

    Baud you too, but for other reasons. Wait, what?

    Cosima, thanks for the invite. For sure I will get to the highlands this year.

    Debbie: STFU until you know the facts.

  290. 290.

    Mike in NC

    January 26, 2017 at 8:43 pm

    @scav: Who will be the first foreign leader that Trump tries to grope?

  291. 291.

    Mnemosyne

    January 26, 2017 at 8:43 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Plus she wasn’t saying that the voters were deplorables. She was talking about the people like Bannon who were behind Trump, and she was 100 percent right.

  292. 292.

    NotMax

    January 26, 2017 at 8:45 pm

    @Mike in NC

    Smart money is on Vlad.

  293. 293.

    waysel

    January 26, 2017 at 8:46 pm

    @Thoughtful David: Thank you. That’s what I meant to say.

  294. 294.

    Mnemosyne

    January 26, 2017 at 8:46 pm

    @Brachiator:

    Asked about the contrast between the brash, outspoken billionaire and the vicar’s daughter, May replied: “Haven’t you ever noticed, sometimes opposites attract?”

    Can you be the U.K. Prime Minister and First Lady at the same time? Sounds like May is willing to give it a shot.

  295. 295.

    Sab

    January 26, 2017 at 8:46 pm

    @NotMax: I have always pronounced it “kay”, and tonight I just realized I have never heard it spoken in English. I had only heard it used in French, in an Edith Piaf song we heard in French class forty years ago. Wow. Live and learn.

  296. 296.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 8:46 pm

    @HeleninEire:

    SuibanDuinne: please come visit.

    Baud you too, but for other reasons. Wait, what?

    Maybe Baud and I could visit at the same time?

  297. 297.

    scav

    January 26, 2017 at 8:48 pm

    @Mike in NC: Have to admit, it would be rather funny if it was the Pope. (Which level of the Vatican hierarchy might possibly be said to wear the shortest dresses?)

  298. 298.

    NotMax

    January 26, 2017 at 8:49 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne</a.

    Even taking turns at the wheel it's gonna be a lo-o-o-ong drive.

    ;)

  299. 299.

    magurakurin

    January 26, 2017 at 8:51 pm

    @darrel wright:

    Maybe what I’m not being clear on is that I am offering this not as some moral corrective durp durp durp

    whatever, chief. It sounds like a good topic of discussion for us all in the gulag. maybe you can lead the talk circle around the gruel pot.

  300. 300.

    debbie

    January 26, 2017 at 9:01 pm

    @HeleninEire:

    Fuck you. Reread her post:

    “Yes, Scotland. Feel free to ask a front pager for my email addy and we can sort out a visit.”

  301. 301.

    Shana

    January 26, 2017 at 9:05 pm

    @Spanky: We’re going to Nashville to see the eclipse. Should be fun, we’ve never been. Ideas on what else to do while we’re in town. Not country music fans.

  302. 302.

    A Ghost to Most

    January 26, 2017 at 9:07 pm

    @Brachiator:
    Hey, Clinton was being charitable when she said half the GOP was deplorable; she didn’t say the other half was despicable.

  303. 303.

    HeleninEire

    January 26, 2017 at 9:17 pm

    @debbie: Awe are your feelings hurt? I feel bad!!!!

  304. 304.

    Villago Delenda Est

    January 26, 2017 at 9:18 pm

    @Roger Moore: This stupidity started with the malasstration of the shitty grade Z movie star, because tax cuts for the parasite 1% are more important than maintaining the infrastructure that makes their fortunes possible in the first place.

  305. 305.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 26, 2017 at 9:29 pm

    @HeleninEire:

    All you need to do is by me drinks.

    Oh, I’m good at that.

    Happy Happy Birthday.

    Thanks in advance. One week from today I will be at my half-birthday, as close to 75 as to 74. But we have a ways to go until The Day.

  306. 306.

    Another Scott

    January 26, 2017 at 9:33 pm

    @rikyrah: I just saw one of those ads tonight (on Comedy Central, I think). I thought it was interesting, given recent history.

    :-(

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  307. 307.

    TriassicSands

    January 26, 2017 at 9:41 pm

    @Peale:

    Man, I’ll bet graffiti artists on both sides of the border are salivating…

    Note: no one ever uses the word graffito, which is singular.

  308. 308.

    NotMax

    January 26, 2017 at 9:46 pm

    @Triassic Sands

    Not no one.

    Look, there’s a paparazzo over there snapping a picture of the graffito.    ;)

    (Hell, I still say stadia and datum.)

  309. 309.

    randy khan

    January 26, 2017 at 9:51 pm

    @Van Buren:

    I get what all of you have been saying, but the wall would be an institutional commitment. The existing border walls didn’t stop getting maintained during the Obama Administration, for instance. Sure, money is required, but it becomes part of what the border patrol people do and gets stuck into their budget. Frankly, even in maintenance stopped entirely, a wall like the one Trump wants to build would last for another ten years, but that wouldn’t happen for a while.

  310. 310.

    magurakurin

    January 26, 2017 at 9:58 pm

    @NotMax: I dropped a spaghetto on the floor.

  311. 311.

    philadelphialawyer

    January 26, 2017 at 10:12 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Seems like content-free, meaningless, hipsteroni drivel to me.

  312. 312.

    Shalimar

    January 26, 2017 at 10:27 pm

    @elm: From your link:

    The U.S. goods and services trade deficit with Mexico was -$49.2 billion in 2015.

    Which is suspiciously close to the $50 billion they think we import from Mexico. Trump is so ignorant, he’s proposing a tax on our trade deficit with Mexico rather than Mexican imports.

  313. 313.

    J R in WV

    January 26, 2017 at 11:09 pm

    @Aleta:

    Yeah. We have a winter camp with a cabin at 5500 feet in SE Arizona. Just before Christmas we got a letter from AngloAmerican mining about prospecting for copper in the area around our camp.

    We are just past an abandoned silver mine, and only 25 or 30 miles north of Bisbee, AZ – which was a famous copper lode mining camp back in the 1890s-1950 or so. Huge wealthy mines, giant open pit called the Lavender Pit.

    The whole city was a superfund site, they took away people’s yards and replaced them with new non-contaminated dirt. Processed the dirt from people’s yards to remove the copper and gold and silver lost into the atmosphere during the glory days of mining there.

    Hoping they don’t find potentially valuable copper deposits in our neighborhood!

  314. 314.

    Schmend

    January 26, 2017 at 11:29 pm

    @West of the Rockies (been a while): I love the quote, but in the interest of accuracy I believe you meant Aragorn, not Eomer, in his speech at the black gate: “A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day.”

  315. 315.

    Peale

    January 26, 2017 at 11:41 pm

    @Shalimar: which, if that’s what they think, is about as overreacty as you can be. If he had only $50 b I. Imports into our 17T economy, we would not even notice it.

  316. 316.

    cosima

    January 27, 2017 at 4:16 am

    @satby: Come on over! Notes about casa Cosima: We do not live in or near a big city, we’re in a proper village well outside (1 hr) the nearest ‘big’ city. So if you come to Scotland to walk the forests, lochs, etc., it’s all here or easily got to by car/bus (we even have a stone circle a 10 minute walk away). We have pubs/shops but not much else. Depends on what you want from a Scotland holiday. I’m flexible (not working, apart from my volunteer gigs, which are up & down in their busy phases). Feel free to ask a FP for my email addy. Maybe we can get a BJ meet-up planned on this side of the pond someday. I know there are others here that are this side.

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