Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

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

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

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

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Come on, man.

No one could have predicted…

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

This blog will pay for itself.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

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

I really should read my own blog.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Second rate reporter says what?

In my day, never was longer.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

You are here: Home / Politics / America / Today In Be Careful What You Wish For: Not So Strange Bedfellows Edition II

Today In Be Careful What You Wish For: Not So Strange Bedfellows Edition II

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Shortly after the election the American Jewish Congress and the Islamic Society of North America formally entered into a civil rights protection and promotion and civil society defense agreement. Today, in response to yesterday’s violence and vandalism at St. Louis’s Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery, Linda Sarsour and Tarik El-Messidi have started a fundraising campaign to help repair the damage done.

You may remember Linda Sarsour, the Executive Director of the Arab American Association of New York, as one of the co-chairs for the Women’s March. Tarik El-Messidi is the founder of Celebrate Mercy, an educational outreach program intended to inform both Muslims and non-Muslims about Islam and the life of Prophet Muhammed.

So well done currently unknown dickheads and domestic terrorists – your stupidity has just drawn Muslim and Jewish Americans closer together. Give yourselves a round of applause for achieving exactly the opposite of what you intended to achieve: to scare Americans of different faiths and ethnicities in order to drive them apart and make them easier to prey upon in the future. Morons!

 

Reader Interactions

172Comments

  1. 1.

    Mnemosyne

    I am all in favor of disparate groups getting together and forming a united front against the white supremacists trying to split us all apart.

    Stronger together.

  4. 4.

    Pogonip

    I think the desecration of the dead is one of the few things everyone has in common. We think it’s outrageous.

    Adam, have you heard any rumors about a 2019 BRAC? I have.

  6. 6.

    Spanky

    Protip for front pagers: schedule your posts for a random minute rather than at the top of the hour. I see AL pulled her 8:00 back.

  7. 7.

    Tokyokie

    It takes a really rough, tough, brave individual to desecrate the resting place of a dead person.

  9. 9.

    Brachiator

    Has anyone offered a reward to help catch the scum responsible for this desecration?

    It’s great that people are coming together over this. We will need more of this in the days to come.

  11. 11.

    Gin & Tonic

    There was a post, now there isn’t.

    If only there were some means by which the half-dozen people who currently use the keys Cole provided them could communicate with each other about their timing and intentions. Something like writing a letter, but quicker. I wonder if “electronic mail” would ever catch on.

  15. 15.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    she’s tough because castrating pigs

    Gabe OrtízVerified account‏ TUSK81 53m53 minutes ago
    Constituents erupt as Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst flees town hall after only a handful of questions.

    ‘

    ETA: Video (poor audio): Sounds like they’re chanting “Do your job!“

  18. 18.

    MomSense

    @Pogonip:

    I hadn’t heard this rumor but I wouldn’t be surprised. If it happens, I’m guessing it will be all blue states kn the list.

  20. 20.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    Thanks
    I enjoyed my time in the navy so much that I’ve tried to keep up on all the comings and goings of the military. And if you buy that I’ve got a couple of bridges with low mileage I can let you have for cheap.

  21. 21.

    Anne Laurie

    @Gin & Tonic:

    There was a post, now there isn’t.

    It’ll be back in an hour.

    Adam & I were working on our separate posts at the same time. His post wasn’t ‘published’ when I did a last proof-read on mine, but he beat me to the finish line. Nothing in my Open Thread that can’t wait, so I pulled it back for a while… no harm, no foul!

  24. 24.

    Pogonip

    @Ruckus: Oh, sorry. I was born in an Army hospital and spent my life in and around DOD: I forget not everyone speaks it! It’s Base Realignment And Closure. Rumors are flying…

  25. 25.

    Pogonip

    @Ruckus: I have a lot of friends (believe it or not) who are still working and praying for an early-retirement offer. I think it’s wishful thinking, myself. Congress can’t get anything else done, why should a BRAC be any different?

  28. 28.

    Elizabelle

    OT: PBS American Experience tonight is Maya Angelou. Treat yourself. Deep, intelligent voice and well-chosen words. Wonderful woman, as you know.

  29. 29.

    Goku

    Holy fuck, that’s horrible. It’s wonderful tho that this tragedy is bringing people together in defense of the dead, the ultimate defenseless victims. Probably why this crime’s struck such a nerve with so many.

  31. 31.

    eyelessgame

    I’ve been trying to gently and compassionately warn my few remaining Trump-supporting friends about this.

    “You need to get used to the idea – if you’re going to support the people going after Muslims and Mexicans, you’re going to have to prepare yourself to support going after Jews too. Jews are going to be a problem for you. They know what happened the last time you did this, and they’re not going to just stand by and let it happen again just because you’re choosing a different initial target.”

    They just haven’t found this message welcome so far. But I’ll keep working on them, because they do need to recognize this is who they are, and if they’re going to stay on that side they’d better get themselves comfortable with it.

  32. 32.

    hovercraft

    This is all just a front, everyone knows that the pro-Palestinian liberals are responsible for all this, and Obama.

    Santorum: Anti-Semitic acts coming from Muslims
    So you seen this alliance you speak of cannot possibly be true.

    ‘This is fake news’: Rick Santorum melts down on CNN and blames Obama for anti-Semitism under Trump
    “For eight years — eight years! — the Obama administration sat by and said nothing about the increasing anti-Semitism on college campuses!”

    Santorum defended Trump’s refusal to speak out about violence in the United State by saying that he was “much more supportive of the state of Israel than Obama.”

    “Donald Trump’s base is more pro-Israel, more pro-Jewish people than anybody,” Santorum added. “If you talk to anybody in the pro-Israel movement, they will tell you the bedrock of that is the evangelical Christian community in this country. In fact, the folks who have been walking away are liberal Jews, who are walking away from Israel, not conservative Christians.”

  33. 33.

    Ruckus

    @Pogonip:
    Understand, I only was in for 4 as a young adult and enjoyed it so very little. It did provide me with VA benefits, which is a lifesaver for me, but then it also paid me about 1/8 of what I made working at the time and was just slightly riskier.

  34. 34.

    efgoldman

    @MomSense:

    I’m guessing it will be all blue states kn the list.

    I think you’re right, but except for California i don’t think there are that many big blue state bases left to close.

  36. 36.

    Mnemosyne

    @MomSense:

    Since the entire West Coast is blue, including Hawaii, I kind of wish a motherfucker would. It’s not like it would cause problems for San Diego to lose thousands of jobs, right?

  38. 38.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Pogonip: I heard one Democratic Congresswoman mention that she would oppose any increased Defense spending until a new round of BRAC (base realignment and closing) was considered/started. I haven’t heard anything beyond that.

  39. 39.

    efgoldman

    @Pogonip:

    Congress can’t get anything else done, why should a BRAC be any different?

    Isn’t there a commission? Or was it dissolved after the last round?

  43. 43.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: Actually within Judaism I think the concern is a dybbuk.
    https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/dibbuk-dybbuk

    In Jewish folklore and popular belief an evil spirit which enters into a living person, cleaves to his soul, causes mental illness, talks through his mouth, and represents a separate and alien personality is called a dibbuk. The term appears neither in talmudic literature nor in the Kabbalah, where this phenomenon is always called “evil spirit.” (In talmudic literature it is sometimes called ru’aḥ tezazit, and in the New Testament “unclean spirit.”) The term was introduced into literature only in the 17th century from the spoken language of German and Polish Jews. It is an abbreviation of dibbuk me-ru’aḥ ra’ah (“a cleavage of an evil spirit”), or dibbuk min ḥa-hiẓonim (“dibbuk from the outside”), which is found in man. The act of attachment of the spirit to the body became the name of the spirit itself. However, the verb davok (“cleave”) is found throughout kabbalistic literature where it denotes the relations between the evil spirit and the body, mitdabbeket bo (“it cleaves itself to him”).

    Stories about dibbukim are common in the time of the Second Temple and the talmudic periods, particularly in the Gospels; they are not as prominent in medieval literature. At first, the dibbuk was considered to be a devil or a demon which entered the body of a sick person. Later, an explanation common among other peoples was added, namely that some of the dibbukim are the spirits of dead persons who were not laid to rest and thus became *demons. This idea (also common in medieval Christianity) combined with the doctrine of *gilgul (“transmigration of the soul”) in the 16th century and became widespread and accepted by large segments of the Jewish population, together with the belief in dibbukim. They were generally considered to be souls which, on account of the enormity of their sins, were not even allowed to transmigrate and as “denuded spirits” they sought refuge in the bodies of living persons. The entry of a dibbuk into a person was a sign of his having committed a secret sin which opened a door for the dibbuk. A combination of beliefs current in the non-Jewish environment and popular Jewish beliefs influenced by the Kabbalah form these conceptions. The kabbalistic literature of *Luria’s disciples contains many stories and “protocols” about the exorcism of dibbukim. Numerous manuscripts present detailed instructions on how to exorcise them. The power to exorcise dibbukim was given to ba’alei shem or accomplished Ḥasidim. They exorcised the dibbuk from the body which was bound by it and simultaneously redeemed the soul by providing a tikkun (“restoration”) for him, either by transmigration or by causing the dibbuk to enter hell. Moses *Cordovero defined the dibbuk as an “evil pregnancy.”

    From 1560 several detailed reports in Hebrew and Yiddish on the deeds of dibbukim and their testimonies about themselves were preserved and published. A wealth of material on actual stories of dibbukim is gathered in Samuel *Vital’s Sha’ar ha-Gilgulim, in Ḥayyim *Vital’s Sefer ha-Ḥezyonot, in Nishmat Ḥayyim by *Manasseh Ben Israel (book 3, chs. 10 and 14), in Minḥat Eliyahu (chs. 4 and 5) by *Elijah ha-Kohen of Smyrna, and in Minḥat Yehudah by Judah Moses Fetya of Baghdad (1933, pp. 41–59). The latter exorcised *Shabbetai Ẓevi and his prophet *Nathan of Gaza who appeared as dibbukim in the bodies of men and women in Baghdad in 1903. Special booklets on the exorcisms of famous spirits which took place in Korets have also been published (end of 17th century in Yiddish), in Nikolsburg (1696, 1743), in Detmold (1743), and in Stolowitz (1848). The last protocol of this kind, published in Jerusalem in 1904, concerns a dibbuk which entered the body of a woman and was exorcised by Ben-Zion Ḥazzan. The phenomena connected with the beliefs in and the stories about dibbukim usually have their factual background in cases of hysteria and sometimes even in manifestations of schizophrenia.

    BIBLIOGRAPHY:

    Sha’ar ha-Gilgulim (1875), 8–17; Moses Zacuto, Iggerot ha-Remez (1780), no. 2; Moses Graff of Prague, Kunteres Ma’aseh ha-Shem ki Nora Hu (Fuerth, 1696); Moses Abraham b. Reuben Ḥayyat, Sefer Ru’ah Ḥayyim, (1785); M. Sassoon, Sippur Nora shel ha-Dibbuk (1966); Phinehas Michael, Av Bet Din of Stolowitz, Ma’aseh Nora’ah… (Yiddish, Warsaw, 1911); S.R. Mizraḥi, Ma’aseh Nora shel ha-Ru’aḥ (1904); M. Weinreich, Bilder fun der Yidisher Literatur Geshikhte (1928), 254–61; G. Scholem, in: Leshonenu, 6 (1934), 40–41.

  44. 44.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Ruckus:

    I amaze myself with how little almost useless knowledge I can’t keep track of.

    Yeah, me too. The sad thing is, I still have all that useless knowledge bouncing around in my head, but my quick recall — the finger on the buzzer — is shot, so there’s no point in even auditioning for Jeopardy!

  45. 45.

    rikyrah

    Kyle GriffinVerified account
    ‏@kylegriffin1

    Nancy Pelosi on new DHS immigration memo: “Tearing apart families and dragging parents out of their homes does not make America great.”

  47. 47.

    efgoldman

    @debbie:

    Screw Santorum.

    Also, if there’s anybody less relevant, even in his own movement, than Rih, I don’t know who it is.

  50. 50.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I think that picture is misleading. I think his problem is that skull cap he’s wearing is just tied too tight. Or it’s just holding all the loose bits in, and I can’t tell which.

  51. 51.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gin & Tonic: 1) Email between front pagers, or at least my emails to other front pagers gets answered sporadically, depending on the front pager. I do not know why. 2) I always check when I start drafting a post to see if a) someone is also drafting at the same time and b) if something is scheduled to go up around the time I’d hit publish. If so I schedule the post for a different time. Unless its a breaking news type of event.

    When I started drafting this post I checked and no one was drafting anything, nor was anything scheduled to post around the time I’d finish.

  52. 52.

    efgoldman

    @raven:

    Maxine Waters just called Tillerson and friends “scumbags”!!

    Good for her. Our congresscritters and senators are all true blue, but they’re much too nice.

  56. 56.

    efgoldman

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    there’s no point in even auditioning for Jeopardy!

    Maybe they’ll have a week of “old, slow and decrepit” the same way they do with the kids. Then the three of us can audition.

  58. 58.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Pogonip: A BRAC is, perhaps, the hardest and most contentious thing for any member of the House to get behind. Because it takes a facility, jobs, and dollars out of their districts. Senators have it a little easier on a BRAC, but not by much.

  63. 63.

    Baud

    Next up, the Judean’s People’s Front and the People’s Front of Judea join forces to fight Trump.

  64. 64.

    Corner Stone

    Oh my fucking God. Dave Weigel has turned into some parody of an emo hipster 40 yr old douchecanoe.
    What the fuck is that thing on my TV?

  69. 69.

    Steve in the ATL

    @raven:

    They BRAC’d the Navy Supply School that is about 500 yards from my house. I miss the bugle.

    Ah–now i know where you live. I always thought that inland Georgia was an odd place for the Navy to have a facility. Felt the same way about the Navy base in Millington, TN (hometown of Justin Timberlake!!!!OMG!!!).

  70. 70.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    If the temp in the apt gets lower than about 72 right now I start shivering violently. And I’m dressed very warmly. Ahhhh the flu is FUN. Went to the store and bought tea and honey. Haven’t had tea in decades, it was all I could drink in the navy, sailing north of the Arctic Circle in winter, as good coffee makes me sick so you can imagine what the crap they served on board ship would do.

  71. 71.

    rikyrah

    Reagan Gomez
    ✔
    @ReaganGomez

    Ya’ll watching Rep. Maxine Waters on @allinwithchris. She called DT’s folks ‘scumbags’. Twice. YES Maxine!!!!!
    7:19 PM – 21 Feb 2017

  72. 72.

    hovercraft

    @Spanky:
    CNN of course, they’ve hired him as a senior political analyst just last week. So we can expect his insightful well informed commentary going forward. You’re welcome America, make that world, since they are international.
    @The Lodger:
    You know he is fucking pissed, he’s so much more hard core than Mike Dense, and he did all the right things, and yet Dense got it.

  73. 73.

    efgoldman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    A BRAC is, perhaps, the hardest and most contentious thing for any member of the House to get behind. Because it takes a facility, jobs, and dollars out of their districts.

    Sure, but the red state RWNJs wouldn’t mind doing it to the blue states no matter what the home district Dem rep thought.

  74. 74.

    rikyrah

    Iowa Starting Line @IAStartingLine

    Joni Ernst walks in to deafening chant of “Your Last Term!” that overpowers the applause
    1:28 PM – 21 Feb 2017

  77. 77.

    raven

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Let’s go crash that party down
    In Normaltown tonight
    Then we’ll go skinny-dippin’
    In the moonlight
    We’re wild girls walkin’ down the street
    Wild girls and boys going out for a big time

    Anyway we can
    We’re gonna find something
    We’ll dance in the garden
    In torn sheets in the rain

  78. 78.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Corner Stone: not a few political commentators have used bizarre sartorial affectations to heighten their profile, from GWill’s bowtie and pretending to be flummoxed by “dungarees” to the subject of the previous post. Ann Coulter, a pre-MErcer Kellyanne Conway (once described by I forget who as a “rightwing Judy Jetson”), Cornel West, Tucker Carlson.

    But compare the NYT thumbsucker about Trump supporters to this by Weigel and his co-writer, as pointe out by Charlie Pierce today

    The regulation actually would have cost relatively few mining jobs and would have created nearly as many new jobs on the regulatory side, according to a government report — an example of the frequent distance between Trump’s rhetoric, which many of his supporters wholeheartedly believe, and verifiable facts.

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne

    @debbie:

    If Trump is going to pick fights with China, then OBVIOUSLY it’s a great idea to get rid of West Coast military bases. We can bring ships in from Texas and Florida, right?

    (Note: I’m snarking off the cuff and have no actual information.)

  82. 82.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ruckus:

    Stay bundled up! The flu is no fun, and it can kill you if you aren’t careful. Food delivery services like Eat24 and GrubHub are your friends right now.

  83. 83.

    Roger Moore

    @Adam L Silverman:

    A BRAC is, perhaps, the hardest and most contentious thing for any member of the House to get behind. Because it takes a facility, jobs, and dollars out of their districts.

    Not all of them. Some of them can probably be confident it won’t hurt their district because their local base is too important. It’s hard to imagine closing Pearl Harbor, for instance. Others- especially in some big city blue districts- might not be too worried because there aren’t any bases left.

  86. 86.

    Another Scott

    @Pogonip: MilitaryTimes from April 2016:

    The Pentagon is threatening to start closing down unneeded military bases unilaterally if Congress continues to refuse to launch a new Base Closure and Realignment Commission.

    The defiant move would raise a host of legal questions and set the stage for a first-of-its-kind political showdown between the Defense Department and Capitol Hill, which historically have coordinated closely on such controversial issues.

    Military leaders are eager to save money by shuttering some underused bases. But the move is extremely unpopular on Capitol Hill, where many lawmakers fear the process would jeopardize government jobs in their districts.

    For years Congress has refused the Defense Department’s repeated requests to create a bi-partisan commission, known as a BRAC, that would — with help from military officials — identify the bases most appropriate for closure and present lawmakers with a single, comprehensive plan for an up-or-down vote.

    Last week, the Pentagon dialed up its pressure on Capitol Hill, sending a report to Congress showing that the military currently maintains about 22 percent more installation space and infrastructure than the current force requires. The report was careful to avoid mention of any specific bases, but indicates the Army and the Air Force have the most glut.

    […]

    It’s extremely difficult for a functional Congress to do a sensible BRAC. It’s hard to believe a Teabagger Congress is going to even attempt it.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  88. 88.

    rikyrah

    WHO thought that this was ‘natural causes’?

    NYC medical examiner says more study needed in death of Russian diplomat
    February 21, 2017

    The cause and manner of death of Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations needs to be studied further, the city medical examiner said Tuesday, a day after the diplomat fell ill at his office at Russia’s U.N. mission and died at a hospital.

    Further study usually includes toxicology and other screenings, which can take weeks. The case was referred to the medical examiner’s office by the hospital.

  90. 90.

    Randy Khan

    @efgoldman:

    Virginia. Blue in the last 3 Presidential elections, Dems as governor, both Senators, and House members in the districts most likely to be affected.

  91. 91.

    Adam L Silverman

    @rikyrah: Apparently a significant number of Iowans stripped a fair amount of bark off of Senator Grassley today as well based on the video I saw.

  92. 92.

    Mnemosyne

    @rikyrah:

    Isn’t he the second Russian diplomat to die in New York? IIRC, another one died mysteriously pretty soon after the election.

  93. 93.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I think it’s working…

    Andrew Lawrencee ‏@ ndrew_lawrence 2h2 hours ago
    Fox News runs segment at 6:15 about protestors organizing against Trump

    Trump tweets at 6:23

    Donald J. TrumpVerified account
    The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists. Sad!

  95. 95.

    Corner Stone

    @Adam L Silverman: No, he added 30 pounds and that horrible mustache a year or so ago. But that emo curly hair flip is new.
    He looks even more ridiculous than I could remember. He looks like a character from Hansel und Gretel or maybe one of the sons of the rich Russian oligarch in the movie 2012.

  96. 96.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Adam L Silverman: I can’t believe I”m saying something almost sorta kinda supportive of Grassley, whom I despise, but this was interesting

    Dave WeigelVerified account‏ @ daveweigel 3h3 hours ago
    Town hall questioner asks about impeachment; Grassley says it would start in the House and he can’t prejudice it by giving his take now.

  97. 97.

    raven

    @Steve in the ATL: Have you been over here lately? Normaltown has come alive with a Mexican eatery and grocery store, a cool pizza place where Papa John’s was, and several hipster bars. Downtown is a pain in the ass. Allen’s was torn down and it’s been a hole in the ground for over two years.

  98. 98.

    rikyrah

    Luvvie is back…and commenting on Milo..

    About Milo Yiannopoulos Being Trash and Lines Not to Cross
    Awesomely Luvvie — February 21, 2017

    Let me start this off by saying that Milo Yiannopoulos is trash. You might be asking “who the hell is this Milo dude?” He is garbage in human form. He is a retch and walking, talking upchuck. In fact, here’s a portrait:

    Milo is a vile, racist, sexist, transphobic, DECENCYphobic dudebro who writes for Breitbart. And he makes more than enough anti-gay statements, even though he’s gay himself. Uncle Ruckus face ass. Self-hate is a summagoat. He is Darth Chad (word to Very Smart Brothas). He is so awful that he’s been banned from Twitter (the land where trolls go to get air). One of his crimes? Leading the charge and inciting the drudge of the internet to torment Leslie Jones when the remake of Ghostbusters came out. He’s just a terrible human being and he deserves nothing good.

    But because he’s a white man, all he gets is flourish. The dude gets all types of press, gets paid hella money to speak, and even got a book deal for $250,000 from Simon & Schuster. That very book deal made Roxane Gay pull her book from her S&S imprint, having been a target of one of Milo’s harassment. He’s been getting rewarded for being a vile piece of shit for a long time. Soooooo: white history in a sentence.

    ……………..

    Today, audio of a podcast that he recorded came out. There, he talked about how sexual relationships between young boys and older men might provide them with love and safety and security. Basically, HIGH FIVE PEDOPHILIA. And then all hell broke loose for Milo. The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) took back their invitation for him to keynote their conference. ANDDDDDD Simon & Schuster dropped his book, rescinding his deal.

    That parasite got his beloved book deal snatched! YAY. It’s just a shame that it took pedophilia for Milo to lose his deal. Like… bruh. This dude BEEN on boolsheet. Only NOW is he outta line? NOW is when he’s done too much? NOW is when people can no longer stand with him? Pedophilia should not be the only line folks need to cross before they start losing at life and losing their livelihood. There’s a lot in between “good person” and “sexual desire in an adult for a child” that should warrant someone being punished in society. Maybe there is, but if you’re a white man, you have more leeway.

  105. 105.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @rikyrah: Tonight I also saw the first online interview of a D gubernatorial candidate. Current gov Branstad is going to China as ambassador and Lt Gov will act in his place. The election is not until 2018.

  108. 108.

    SFAW

    @Another Scott:

    It’s extremely difficult for a functional Congress to do a sensible BRAC. It’s hard to believe a Teabagger Congress is going to even attempt it.

    You seem to be assuming that the RWNJs in Congress care about “sensible.” Any excuse to get their hate on is A-OK by them.

    I hadn’t really thought of you as being naive, until now.

  110. 110.

    rikyrah

    Luvvie cracks me up..

    I’m YoungOld and So Are You
    Awesomely Luvvie — February 20, 2017

    One of my favorite people, Samantha Irby, always talks about how old she is. Last week was her birthday, so in honor of the day the world got slightly less shitty, I had to tell people how old I am. I’m “If I wear heels out in public, I got a pair of flats in my bag” years old. I don’t have time for discomfort and the way my don’t give a fuck is set up, I’ll switch to those flats in a hot second.

    I’m “Golden Girls is now on Hulu and that news made me squeal” years old.

    Anywho, I dropped this on my Awesomely Luvvie FB page, and LuvvNation showed out talmbout how old they are too.

    …………………….
    Some of the funniest ones:

    LaQuita: I’m “once I take this bra off, I’m not going back out” years old.

    Erin: I’m “WHY is the music so loud in this bar?!” years old.

    Amber: I feel you. I’m the “Why is the music so loud in Target?” old.

    Ebony: I am “peering out the blinds with the stank eye at the neighborhood kids walking on my grass” years old. I’m about 6 months away from standing in the doorway shaking my fist

    Dee: I’m “cut the fan on by my side the bed because I can’t sleep when I’m hot, I got everything in my purse from a bottle of honey, tweezers, flashlight, to a sewing kit, plus a notepad to jot down stuff I might forget, keep my drivers license and insurance card in my pocket in case my purse is stolen” years old.

    Sarah: Old enough to give a woman an honest answer if she asks me if she looks fat. NOT PLAYING WITH YOUR FEELINGS, JESSICA.

    Donna: I’m if it starts after 7:30 I can’t make it years old. Bedtime is 8 pm. No weekend exceptions. No emergency exceptions. So even if you’re in the ER make it before 7:30 or I can’t make it.

    LOL…..

    Only a sample of the comments….

  111. 111.

    burnspbesq

    @debbie:

    Rohrbacher is our problem here in OC. The big facility in his district is Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, which is widely rumored to house nukes.

    Cleaned up and zoned residential, that land is probably worth well over a billion. Wanna bet it gets auctioned off and sold to The Trump Organization for $17.5 million?

  112. 112.

    dm

    @Mnemosyne: That would be Krivov. Check out the Buzzfeed link mentioned below.

    Reposting from the comments in Adam’s “Resources” post last night (now with correct spelling for Malanin’s name):

    Erovinkin — former FSB agent, Rosneft official. Found dead in the back of his car (in Moscow, I think?), said to be of a heart attack.

    Krivov (blunt force trauma to head, or maybe a heart attack?) found in the Russian consulate in New York on Election Day — this seems to be a pretty bizarre story: https://www.buzzfeed.com/alimwatkins/the-strange-case-of-the-russian-diplomat-who-got-his-head-sm

    Karlov is the Russian ambassador to Turkey, shot by a Turkish
    policeman at a reception a couple of months ago.

    Malanin: found dead in his residence in the Russian embassy in Athens in early January.
    …
    Polshikov was shot dead at his Moscow home (hours before
    Karlov was assassinated).

    Churkin (UN ambassador, died 20 Feb).

    (This was in response to a tweet that also mentioned Yves Chandelon, a Belgian, not a Russian. NATO Auditor General, possibly a suicide, but Chandelon had mentioned to his colleagues that he thought he had been followed; despite owning three registered guns, the gun that killed him was unregistered. It’s not clear to me why people think this case is associated to “the dossier”. He was in charge of counterterrorism funding. Died 24 December.)

    Since there was speculation that these deaths were all associated with “the dossier”:

    The dossier was revealed to the public on 11 January.

    Erovinkin died on 26 December
    Krivov on 8 November
    Karlov and Polshikov 19 December
    Melanin 9 January
    Churkin 20 February

    Chandelon 24 December

    Christopher Steele, the author of “the dossier” fled into hiding a few days after the dossier became public. I tend to assume that he would have fled sooner if his informants were all dying.

  113. 113.

    Steve in the ATL

    @raven:

    Have you been over here lately?

    obviously not, or I would have shown up at your house for a cookout. And a dog parade organizing committee meeting.

  118. 118.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @GregB: I know he wrote and is about to release a book on prog rock. I don’t know if the new look is related, cause I’m not entirely sure what “prog rock” is. Yes? ELP? Rush?

  119. 119.

    Steve in the ATL

    @MP: I wish they would close the base down at Warner Robins. That area would suddenly be much, much bluer.

  121. 121.

    SFAW

    @dm:

    As Ian Fleming said: “Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, seven (and counting) times is enemy action.”

  123. 123.

    efgoldman

    @rikyrah:

    And then all hell broke loose for Milo

    According to CBS, even not-too-Breitshit fired him, too.
    Glad to know some fucking thing – anything – is a bridge too far even for the world’s worst assholes.

  124. 124.

    efgoldman

    @burnspbesq:

    Joint Base Dix McGuire, NJ

    Dix was half-abandoned when my reserve unit went there for our two weeks, in the early 70s. Did they revive it?

  125. 125.

    Another Scott

    @SFAW: If BRAC is to be bi-partisan (as it was in the past), then it’s hard to see this Congress attempting it.

    The last BRAC was in 2005.

    The 2005 Commission recommended that Congress authorize another BRAC round in 2015, and then every 8 years thereafter.[21] On May 10, 2012, the House Armed Services Committee rejected Pentagon calls for base closures outside of 2015 round by a 44 to 18 vote.[22] Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had called for two rounds of base closures, while at the same time arguing that the alternative of the sequester would be a “meat-ax” approach to cuts which would “hollow out” military forces.[23]

    The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014 specifically prohibits authorization of future BRAC rounds: No future Base Realignment and Closure round for military installations within the United States, its commonwealths, territories, and possessions for realignment or closure shall be authorized until, at the very earliest, the Department of Defense has completed and submitted to Congress a formal review of the overseas military facility structure, which incorporates overseas basing consolidations, an assessment of the need for bases to support overseas contingency operations, and the Department of Defense’s Strategic Choices and Management Review.[24]

    In May 2014, it was attempted to fund another round of BRAC, although funding was not approved in a vote in May of that year.[25]

    In March 2015, the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations and Environment addressed the possibility of a future BRAC, indicating that the DOD, Defense secretary Ash Carter was requesting authority to conduct another BRAC.[26] In September 2015, at the tenth anniversary of the end of the most recent BRAC commission report, its former chairman Anthony J. Principi wrote the time for a new BRAC was “now”, and that “Spending dollars on infrastructure that does not serve [our men and women in uniform] needs is inexcusable.”[27]

    Donnie talking about sending troops to Syria and who knows where else means that any talk about reducing bases overseas is a pipe-dream as well.

    It takes much more than having the majority to make BRAC happen, and it’s about much more than “punishing Democrats” as appealing as that reasoning might be. Congressmen and women, on both sides of the aisle, really don’t like cutting DoD facilities in their states and districts.

    Congress has made it much more difficult than it should be going forward. I don’t see it happening anytime soon, and that’s a bad thing.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  126. 126.

    Adam L Silverman

    @efgoldman: He claims he’s here on an O1B Visa. If he doesn’t get hired by another American company he has to go home to Britain.

  128. 128.

    Adam L Silverman

    @efgoldman: Yes. Among other things it is used as a smaller, East Coast Continental Redeployment Center. The primary is at Benning, but Dix-McGuire is also used for this too.

  131. 131.

    joel hanes

    @Ruckus:

    paid me about 1/8 of what I made working at the time

    IIRC, I made $115/month as an E1 in 1972, and about $300/month as an Army SP4 in 1974.

    Of course, there was all that free food in the mess hall …

  139. 139.

    Seth Owen

    @efgoldman: Hardly much left in blue states now, except navy installations (that whole ‘coastal’ thing) and the Navy says ‘we’re good.’ I think the Army and Air Force said they have some over capacity though.

  140. 140.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: I can’t figure out how he qualified for an O1B. That said, I am in complete agreement. His Visa is a work visa. He is now unemployed. He has admitted being in the vicinity of sexual assaults against minors. He is clearly a danger to the public and should be rounded up and deported forthwith.

  142. 142.

    joel hanes

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Branstad is going to China as ambassador

    Talk about being in over your head !
    Branstad is such a lightweight that he makes Ernst look thoughtful by comparison.

  143. 143.

    joel hanes

    @raven:

    Yeah, my Army pay was a considerable boost from that prevailing just a few years earlier.

    In my summer job before getting drafted (heavy labor at a cement plant), I made $5/hour, so about $825 / month.
    And the Army wasn’t exactly a job with 40-hour workweeks.

  144. 144.

    raven

    @joel hanes: It’s like the GI Bill, when I got out in 69 I got the same amount as my old man did after WW2. Two years later it was a good bit more.

  145. 145.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    The only active duty installation in California represented by a Democrat that I know of off the top of my head is the Presidio of Monterey (where I spent some time). Lets see how much CA GOP reps bitch about this.

    Also Fairchild AFB in Spokane is, (I presume) represented by a Republican.

  146. 146.

    joel hanes

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I mustered out at Dix in 1975.
    Spent my last duty day in the Army, at Dix, in fatigues, digging deep postholes, by hand, with that double-handled torture device called a posthole-digger — apparently the fort needed a really bombproof backstop for the baseball diamond.

  147. 147.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @raven: I got $350 a month on the Montgomery GI Bill while I was in law school in the ’90s. It did pay the rent at my POS apartment, but nothing more.

  149. 149.

    raven

    @Omnes Omnibus: Did you get tuition help? I got free tuition from the State of Illinois on account of saving them from Charlie.

    eta

    Oh, Montgomery, that was matching, right?

  152. 152.

    hovercraft

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Why do you hate gay people Adam? You people are all hypocrites, always preaching tolerance and yet you are the most intolerant people ever. Poor was just exercising his free speech rights.

  153. 153.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @raven: I paid in $100 a month and got $350 a month back. No tuition help. If I were to go back to school a UW school, I would get free tuition under the WI GI Bill. It didn’t exist when I was in law school.

  154. 154.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Amanda in the South Bay: It won’t be closed. Among other things the Naval Postgrad School and the Defense Language Institute are part of the Presidio Garrison at Monterrey. Also, for full disclosure: the garrison commander is my former student.

  157. 157.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Adam L Silverman: I got offered DLI to learn Turkish, if I would volunteer to go to a Pershing base in Turkey. They would not offer it in writing, so I stayed with cannons and Germany.

  160. 160.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Adam L Silverman: Mmmmmm…. Doner kebabs.

    Since they wouldn’t give me DLI in writing, I had strong suspicions that I would be sent to the middle of nowhere Turkey win no ability to communicate with local goatherders’ daughters.

  171. 171.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    In the 70s I got $180/month but if I remember correctly there was a limit on the duration, I think it was 4 yrs. And yes that paid for my apt. So really I only had to work for food and books. My neighbor, who put himself through college and law school did it by playing the ponies. He made more than I did.

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