Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not all heroes wear capes.

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

People are complicated. Love is not.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

This blog will pay for itself.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

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

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

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

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

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

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Second rate reporter says what?

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Reader Interactions

140Comments

  3. 3.

    Mnemosyne

    I’m still wondering why Cheech Marin is there (the guy on the left) pretending to be a Saudi official. Has he been working for the CIA this whole time and now his cover has accidentally been blown?

    G is watching “Twin Peaks” in the living room while I cough in the other room. So. tired. of. this. flu.

  12. 12.

    RepubAnon

    Hail, hail fire and snow
    Call the angel – we must go.
    Far away, far to see.
    Friendly angel – come to me!

  14. 14.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I hate to be dense, but seriously, what the hell is going on in that picture?

    I’ve been otherwise occupied most of the day and have no idea what this is. All I’ve seen are a few amusing captions, but nothing that really explains it.

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    I’m not up on my DC Comics minutia; was there ever a White Lantern Corps, deriving power from large amounts of illicit money?

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    @SiubhanDuinne: It’s actually was the on switch for the power supply for Saudi’s new counterterrorism center. They built it like this so they could do this sort of ceremony for a photo op. Now the President gets to tell everyone he helped get the Saudis focused on countering terrorism.

  19. 19.

    Exurban Mom

    I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy Come on, Squishy Come on, little Squishy…

  20. 20.

    Mnemosyne

    @amk:

    Seriously, though, dude looks like Cheech Marin, and it’s not just the cold medicine talking. Look at the version of the photo that you linked to.

  22. 22.

    Lizzy L

    @Adam L Silverman: Saruman possessed the Orthanc stone, which Sauron used to ensnare him. Denethor had one and was corrupted through its use. One stone looked only west, into the land beyond the sunset. The other palantir were lost. The Nazgul had no need of one, being wraiths.

    But seriously, WTF? Can anyone imagine Barack Obama in this picture?

  25. 25.

    Origuy

    @dmsilev: There was the Sinestro Corp, founded by Green Lanterns’ archenemy. Their oath was:
    “In blackest day, in brightest night,
    Beware your fears made into light.
    Let those who try to stop what’s right
    Burn like my power Sinestro’s might!”
    But I found out one that’s even more appropriate, the Oath of the Orange Lantern Corps, which was fueled by avarice.
    “What’s mine is mine and mine and mine.
    And mine and mine and mine!
    Not yours!”

  28. 28.

    lgerard

    The Saudi guy looks really sheepish…like he can’t believe he is actually doing this

  31. 31.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Manyakitty: They’ve been showing the original and 2000 on El Rey in heavy, if I may use that term, rotation this month.

  36. 36.

    dmsilev

    @Origuy:

    But I found out one that’s even more appropriate, the Oath of the Orange Lantern Corps, which was fueled by avarice.

    Would explain the hair I guess.

  40. 40.

    amk

    my caption

    gawd, what a buncha of oldies determined to bring havoc to the world. diaf..

  41. 41.

    Adam L Silverman

    If anyone is wondering, now that CNN’s Jim Acosta has reported that one of the President’s senior aides have reported he’s exhausted one day into his trip, here’s Secretary Clinton’s travel schedule.
    https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/travels/secretary/clinton-hillary-rodham
    This is just through April 2009, much more at the link.

    Hillary Rodham Clinton
    Country Locale Remarks Date
    Japan Tokyo Met with Foreign Minister Nakasone. February 16–18, 2009
    Indonesia Jakarta Met with Foreign Minister Wirajuda and ASEAN Secretary General Pitsuwa. February 18–19, 2009
    Korea, Republic of Seoul Met with Foreign Minister Yu; gave an address at Ewha Women’s University. February 19–20, 2009
    China, People’s Republic of Beijing Met with Foreign Minister Yang. February 20–21, 2009
    Egypt Sharm el-Sheikh Attended the International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Economy for the Reconstruction of Gaza. March 2–3, 2009
    Israel Tel Aviv, Jerusalem Met with President Peres, Prime Minister Olmert, and Foreign Minister Livni. March 3–5, 2009
    Palestinian Authority Ramallah Met with President Abbas. March 4, 2009
    Belgium Brussels Attended a NATO Foreign Ministers’ meeting and met with the EU and Swiss Foreign Ministers. March 5–6, 2009
    Switzerland Geneva Met with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. March 6–7, 2009
    Turkey Ankara Met with Foreign Minister Babacan. March 7, 2009
    Mexico Mexico City, Monterrey Met with Foreign Secretary Espinosa and discussed the Merida Initiative. March 25–26, 2009
    Netherlands The Hague Attended the International Conference of Afghanistan. March 31–April 1, 2009
    United Kingdom London Attended the G-20 Economic Summit with President Obama. April 1–3, 2009
    France Strasbourg Accompanied President Obama to the NATO Summit Meeting. April 3–4, 2009
    Germany Baden-Baden Accompanied President Obama. April 3–4, 2009
    Czech Republic Prague Accompanied President Obama. April 4–5, 2009
    Haiti Port-au-Prince Met with President Preval and Prime Minister Pierre-Louis. April 16, 2009
    Dominican Republic Santo Domingo Met with President Fernandez. April 16–17, 2009
    Trinidad and Tobago Port of Spain Attended the Fifth Summit of the Americas. April 17–19, 2009
    Kuwait Kuwait City Met with Foreign Minister al-Sabah and members of the Office of Military Cooperation. April 24–25, 2009
    Iraq Baghdad Met with President Talebani, Prime Minister al-Maliki and senior officials. Visited U.S. military personnel, a Provincial Reconstruction Team, and attended a town meeting. April 25, 2009
    Lebanon Beirut Met with President Sleiman and Foreign Minister Salloukh. April 26, 2009

  42. 42.

    Aleta

    Renewable energy hoax.

    However:

    On April 30, 64 per cent of electricity consumed in Germany came from renewable sources, such as wind power and solar. At 2pm, the share of renewables was 85 per cent and between 10am and 6pm over three quarters of demand was covered by clean energy – an impressive feat in a world still dominated by coal and oil.

    German think-tank Agora Energiewende shared the data of this momentous achievement, remarking that this sort of situation will be “completely normal” by 2030.

    Easter weekend in Germany also saw the the least amount of coal the country has used “in recent history” and nuclear power plants reduce their output by up to 40 per cent.

    Germany’s recent clean energy initiative has seen €1.5 billion (£1.27 billion) being spent on researching renewable energy sources. It’s thanks to this investment that Germany hope to cut out nuclear power altogether by 2022. The country’s leaders also have their sights set on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide, methane and Nitrous Oxide, by 80 per cent.

    -from Indy100 dot com

  46. 46.

    mai naem mobile

    ‘See that’s how big my inauguration crowd was’
    ‘Oh,Abu Iva…Mr.President,that’s a yuuuge crowd. So we get the good dill on the superduper sekret weapons correct?’
    ‘Yes, we just sent the $100M donation to Ivanka’s(wink,wink)’Charity’

  47. 47.

    amk

    @Aleta: I remember during the putin’s we are all georgians and I looked into soul war germans and europeans freaked out how putin will choke off their oil supply during winter months. Guess they got smart about it.

  50. 50.

    Aleta

    Supposedly Trump cancelled giving a speech and Ivanka presented it. (Though it looks like she’d prepared to do it beforehand, because she had visuals projected behind her, which doesn’t seem like his thang. Unless it’s slides of property with his name underneath.

  55. 55.

    NotMax

    Alternate alternate caption:

    “So we’re agreed then? The one who keeps his hand on it the longest gets the oil fields.”

  56. 56.

    Aleta

    “O … wa … ta …si … lee … goo … siam … O wa .. ta si … lee goo … siam …. O wa ta si lee goo siam.”

  57. 57.

    amk

    Sec State Tillerson is holding a news conference right now in Riyadh, per WH pool, but US reporters were not invited or told about it.— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) May 21, 2017

    #maga

  58. 58.

    amk

    Weird world in which liberals trust the FBI, CIA, NSA, and Pentagon, while so-called conservatives prefer Julian Assange, Kim Dotcom & RT— David Frum (@davidfrum) May 22, 2017

  59. 59.

    Adam L Silverman

    @amk: When I wrote a report for a 2 star on the Army staff on ISIL and its doctrine/ideology back in 2010, I included this quote:

    As Moussalli interestingly asserts, the Wahhabi muwaheedun have been arguing for over 200 years that they are the true defenders of Sunni Islam, while at the same time being in direct and active opposition to 90% of Sunni Islam.14

    14 Ahmad Moussalli, Wahhabism, Salafism, and Islamism: Who is the Enemy, A Conflicts Forum Monograph, Spring 2015.

    Muwaheedun are adherents to Abdul Wahhab’s doctrine of the radical unity of the Deity (tawheed). It literally translates as unitarians, but that would be confusing, so…

  60. 60.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Trump is the only person who looks comfortable with that kind of jackass purple drama. It’s interesting that he’s doing (relatively) well in Saudi Arabia, but it’s also an excellent reminder that Trump is able to keep focus and willpower for one purpose: Lining his own pockets.

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I set one of my supervillain books in 1980, and felt obligated to create a heroine with a glowing sword in a ridiculously exposing costume just because if you don’t include the Heavy Metal aesthetic somewhere, you haven’t represented the period. It’s a side detail, sure, but it has to be there. It was definitely part of the zeitgeist.

  63. 63.

    Aleta

    @Adam L Silverman: This one was the Tweeps social media conference. It doesn’t quite make sense that he was going to give such a talk, so maybe the plan was he would just appear. Anyway, I looked for a reference and found one at the Palmer report, fwiw.

    We now have confirmation that Donald Trump canceled his scheduled appearance at a “Tweeps event” on short notice in Saudi Arabia, with his daughter Ivanka taking his place, according to Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg (link). We also have confirmation that Trump has already preemptively canceled his dinner meeting with the Defense Minister of Israel, according to Anna Ahronheim of Jerusalem Post (link).

    Trump has also canceled his scheduled visit to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, according to Israel and Palestine reporter Noga Tarnopolsky.

  64. 64.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    The coin of history has two sides – The Sauds and Wahhab created and expanded Diriyah on one side of the world (roughly) the same time we created America.

  65. 65.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @sukabi:
    I think it’s going to take a lot longer than that. Conservatives feel desperate. In the face of a world where a black man became a two-term president, it will take an enormous amount of humiliation and failure to make them abandon the champion of the white race. I predict he’ll get a bump back to inauguration-level approval from this Saudi trip, then start sliding again, and it will keep going like that but getting just a little worse each time. It takes only a tiny amount of reassurance to make someone that desperate cling to hope again.

  66. 66.

    Aleta

    @amk:

    Jeffrey Goldberg @JeffreyGoldberg
    I can’t remember a single time in which a U.S. secretary of state banned American reporters from a press conference:

  68. 68.

    amk

    @Aleta: In a way, I am amused that the twitler is yanking the msm chain. At least now, they will do sorta journalism? …Nah.

  71. 71.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Aleta: I have a copy of the Israel itinerary from Haaretz. I’ll be doing a post on the Israel leg of the trip late morning tomorrow. And why the cancellations and changes he’s demanded are tremendously offensive to Israelis.

    I’m not sure he’s going to make it past Israel. If he’s already exhausted, and they’re cancelling even more events in Israel already, then he’s going to be a complete wreck by Tuesday. If Israelis and/or Palestinians decide to protest him while he’s there, it’ll get even worse.

  72. 72.

    sukabi

    @Frankensteinbeck: think there’s too many dropping shoes for much of a bounce and unless his aids shoot him up with haldol and thorazine and put him in a straight jacket he’ll keep talking and twitting.

  73. 73.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Yeah, that struck me, too. I chalk it up to ‘All Trump gave a damn about on this trip was securing some deal that he personally profits from with the Saudis.’ Nobody else is paying him, so he’s going to treat them like shit. I expect the foreign trip to go downhill, fast.

  77. 77.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Frankensteinbeck: I’m pretty sure the Pope politely asking him to care for the poor will set him off. Especially if he’s physically and mentally worn out from the trip so far.

    I also expect the Pope to make Bannon wait on the plane. Bannon got himself up to his eyeballs in this bizarre plot by one of these semi-martial Catholic orders against the Pope when he was running Breitbart.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/world/europe/vatican-steve-bannon-pope-francis.html?_r=2

  78. 78.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: I think it is a combination of his staff trying to protect him from the trip: limit time in the sun, limit time in the outdoors because of the heat in the Middle East, limit his physical exertion. This explains the ongoing changes to the arrival ceremony at Ben-Gurion.

    Limit his ability to say something insensitive and stupid. This combined with the above explains turning the Yad Vashem tour into a 15 photo op.

  79. 79.

    Lizzy L

    @Aleta:
    @Adam L Silverman:
    I have a certain amount (a very small amount) of sympathy for the man. He is 70 years old, and absolutely unaccustomed to this sort of schedule, or indeed, to work at this level. He has no experience in this world. He hates travel. Whatever he thought the job was, it isn’t. Whatever his expectations were, they were wrong.

    Somewhere and when, there’s a alternate universe in which Hillary Clinton is President of the US.

  82. 82.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Adam L Silverman:
    There is a lot of truth in that article, but like most journalism – even on the liberal side – it refuses to discuss the elephant in the room. Trump did not make this cult. It was a cult looking for a leader, and he fit the specifications they wanted. Conservatives were blindly ignoring facts they didn’t want to hear long before Trump showed up. It’s been a growing process of decades, stemming from racists having to stick their fingers in their ears and chant “LA LA LA” steadily louder to shut out that white Christian men will not rule forever. FOX and right wing radio were built out of this need, and keep it fed so it can grow faster.

    EDIT – @Adam L Silverman:
    Yeah, I’ve been looking forward to Trump meeting Francis. It will be the true test of how many fucks Francis has left to give.

  83. 83.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Lizzy L: No arguments here. He’s a self deluding, declasse (or as our new Russian friends say nekulturny) moron who has survived this long on inherited wealth, privilege, and attorneys. This will not end well.

    If he actually meant well and was an amicable buffoon, I’d have some empathy/sympathy. But he doesn’t and he isn’t. I’m reserving my empathy and sympathy for his victims.

  84. 84.

    Another Scott

    @Adam L Silverman: I think that’s a more disturbing picture than the orb, myself.

    It looks like some sort of lecture hall for college students. How on Earth is serious work supposed to be done there?

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  86. 86.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Snark meter off at the shop for tuning?

    Limit his ability to say something insensitive and stupid.

    “I don’t give a goddam, I want a BLT and I want it now!”

  87. 87.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Raoul: I have no idea. I’m sure that’s part of it, but I haven’t dug into what that center is supposed to do.

  88. 88.

    Aleta

    The man arrested in the deadly stabbing on the University of Maryland College Park campus Saturday morning belonged to a Facebook group called “Alt-Reich.”

    “It shows extreme bias against women, Latinos, members of the Jewish faith and especially African Americans,” said UMCP Police Chief David Mitchell.

    Federal officials will now help determine if Urbanski’s motive was indeed hate based.
    …
    University of Maryland Police revealed the new information about 22-year-old Sean Urbanski during a news conference Sunday evening. They said they are now looking at race as a possible motive in the murder of Richard Collins, a black student from Bowie State University.

    -ABC

    Collins had just been commissioned into the army as a lieutenant and was due to graduate from Bowie State University on Tuesday.

  89. 89.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Frankensteinbeck: No argument here. It is the piece that is all too often neglected and/or ignored in the reporting on this: that this has been building/being built for over 40 years. The President simply walked right in and stole it out from under its creators. If we’re lucky the monster will only eat him and them.

  91. 91.

    Aleta

    Brian Klaas‏ @brianklaas
    If Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama were in this photo, Fox News and InfoWars would have their programming for years.

  92. 92.

    GregB

    @Aleta:

    Tillerson isn’t the US Secretery of State, he’s the global oil cartel’s Secretery of Quaker State.

    He is playing the part of Ned Beatty in Network.

  94. 94.

    Raoul

    @Frankensteinbeck: Yup. Decades of claiming that tax cuts pay for themselves is all you really need to know about this cult. Sprinkle in insane levels of climate disruption denialism, and you have a doomsday cult.

    Trump is the apex of their aims. And so far we don’t have enough people able to see that, though I think it is growing a bit.

  95. 95.

    Aleta

    Wajahat Ali‏  @WajahatAli
    Trump’s speech was only good for Gulf countries and big defense business. Not for Islam, fighting extremism or repairing relations w Muslims

    Wajahat Ali‏  @WajahatAli 

    Do not let commentators fawning over it make you forget Saudi is smiling ear to ear. They get everything and then some…



    Wajahat Ali‏  @WajahatAli
    
Trump gives them Sunni legitimacy they desperately crave. Arms and weapons for sectarian wars. Business opportunities. Target on Iran…

  96. 96.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Raoul:
    My feeling is that they are not going to change. The stakes are too high, for them. What we have to hope and work for is getting everyone else as motivated as they are. Maybe that’s happening. The recent protests have no modern precedent, and the special elections have been brutal for the GOP. We’ll see.

  97. 97.

    Raoul

    @Adam L Silverman: As Another Scott suggests, it looks to me like a giant room full of study carrels in rows, with terminals. So my first thought was humans acting similarly to Russian trolls, but to oppose extremist ideology in Arab and/or Islamic social and chat sites.

    Truly spitballing that, tho.

  98. 98.

    Aleta

    Wajahat Ali‏ @WajahatAli
    If you praise Trump, shower him with bling, treat him well, he will literally become your pawn. Amazing. Well played, Saudi Arabia.

  99. 99.

    scav

    “Mirror Mirror in the ball,
    Who’s the yuugest of them all?”

    (with a dash of The Judgement of Paris thrown in for good measure.)

  101. 101.

    Doug R

    I keep thinking it looks like This
    http/theoaklandjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/simpsons_nsa_caught.jpg

  103. 103.

    Aleta

    I wonder who staged this, told everyone where to stand. Was the PM of Malaysia supposed to get his hands on the ball too but Tr took up too much room, so he’s left standing politely to the side?

  104. 104.

    NotMax

    @Aleta

    No pictures of the undoubted scene of Dolt 45 furiously using hand wipes after the shutter clicked.

  105. 105.

    Aleta

    If I were a New World Order kind of guy I’d be disappearing into my bunker now, or loading supplies into my homemade tank or whatever the plan is.

  106. 106.

    TenguPhule

    Receiving orders from the Mothership.

    Trump: Kill all Humans!

    Saudi: Anal Probe the Cows.

  110. 110.

    Aleta

    Moments after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi complimented President Donald Trump on his “unique personality that is capable of doing the impossible,” Trump exchanged pleasantries back, praising el Sisi’s shoes.

    “Love your shoes. Boy, those shoes. Man … ,” Trump said, as reporters were being escorted out of the room.

    -cnn

  115. 115.

    Viva Brisvegas

    “Are you sure my hands are supposed to go all the way around this orb? Guys? Oh, you guys … stop laughing.”

  116. 116.

    Aleta

    “O spirit, keeper of the gate to the other realm, we summon you, we ask of you: Is Wilson there? Can we talk to Wilson?”

  117. 117.

    Amir Khalid

    @Aleta:
    Huh? That guy at Trump’s side doesn’t look anything like Najib. He’s way too short (Najib is almost as tall as Trump), has regular-length grey hair rather Najib’s close-cropped salt-and-pepper, and is wearing glasses.

  120. 120.

    Amir Khalid

    @Aleta:
    I guess I was remembering a slightly younger Najib. They do look a bit alike, I’ll concede that; but this guy is short and a lot pudgier in the face.

  123. 123.

    sm*t cl*de

    @Another Scott:

    It looks like some sort of lecture hall for college students. How on Earth is serious work supposed to be done there?

    Job creation scheme, where the well-connected can make an appearance one day a week.

  124. 124.

    Barney

    @NotMax: Not a renamed Heritage Foundation – a worldwide development of the “Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice” . Really:

    Dammam, Asharq Al-Awsat – Director of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice [CPVPV] Dr. Abdul Aziz al-Humain has announced that the CPVPV has begun to implement a strategic plan which incorporates a number of objectives, most notably combating deviant extremist and hard-line ideology.
    …
    Following this meeting, Dr. al-Humain confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that “the CPVPV as a government apparatus, has played a significant role in combating extremist and deviant ideology” in a reference to combating the Al Qaeda organization and its ideology.

    http://english.aawsat.com/theaawsat/features/saudi-religious-police-launch-strategic-plan-to-combat-extremist-ideology

    The CPVPV are those nice people who push naked girls fleeing a burning building back into it to die, because nudity is that wrong.

    You can be sure Trump won’t be letting US government reports like this out again:

    During the reporting period, systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of
    religious freedom continued in Saudi Arabia despite improvements. More than 10 years since the
    September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the Saudi government has failed to implement a
    number of promised reforms related to promoting freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or
    belief. The Saudi government persists in banning all forms of public religious expression other than
    that of the government’s own interpretation of one school of Sunni Islam; prohibits churches,
    synagogues, temples, and other non-Muslim places of worship; uses in its schools and posts online
    state textbooks that continue to espouse intolerance and incite violence; and periodically interferes
    with private religious practice. There have been numerous arrests and detentions of Shi’a Muslim
    dissidents, partly as a result of increasing protests and demonstrations related to 2011 uprisings in
    the region, and Ismaili Shi’a Muslims continue to suffer repression on account of their religious
    identity. Members of the Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice (CPVPV) continue to
    commit abuses, although their public presence has diminished slightly and the number of reported
    incidents of abuse has decreased in some parts of the country. In addition, the government
    continues to be involved in supporting activities globally that promote an extremist ideology, and in
    some cases, violence toward non-Muslims and disfavored Muslims.

    https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/resources/2012ARChapters/saudi%20arabia%202012.pdf

  138. 138.

    No One You Know

    Got a question. Am I the only one who’s having problems actually reading the site because there are now so many links and Twitter references that any semblance of narrative is breaking up?

    It’s almost as if we are now inside Trump’s mind.

    ETA: I’m 100% mobile, so smartphone screen size is driving the lament.

  140. 140.

    Steeplejack

    @No One You Know:

    Are you using the desktop or mobile version of the site? The former is awful on my phone screen. Mobile version is somewhat better.

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