Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

“woke” is the new caravan.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

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Reader Interactions

107Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    twitter reporting double terror attack in Jakarta but I’m not seeing anything at my usual media outlets

  2. 2.

    Aleta

    In a first for Asia, Taiwan’s Constitutional Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage on Wednesday, punctuating a yearslong campaign by advocates for gay rights in one of the continent’s most liberal democracies.

    In its majority opinion, the court said a provision in the current civil code barring same-sex marriages stood in violation of two articles of the constitution safeguarding human dignity and equality under the law.

  3. 3.

    LAO

    You know why I like twitter — especially since I don’t tweet — you can watch a full blown meltdown, in real time. It’s kind of like rubbernecking at an accident, but you don’t inconvenience anyone else.

    This comment has nothing to do with Cole.

  5. 5.

    clay

    Who is this John Cole fellow that keeps posting on this Anne Laurie/Betty Cracker/national security experts/health care experts blog?

  7. 7.

    rikyrah

    Senator: GOP is writing health care bill in secret, without experts
    05/24/17 09:20 AM
    By Steve Benen
    Later today, the Congressional Budget Office will release its report on the final House Republican health care plan, which passed the lower chamber a few weeks ago. That CBO “score” will initiate a new round of policymaking in the Senate, where the chamber’s health care working group – 13 conservative white guys – have been quietly crafting their own legislation.

    In fact, “quietly” is a polite way of describing the Senate process. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has insisted on as much secrecy as he can muster, and he’s made a deliberate decision to exclude all Senate Democrats – 48% of the chamber, representing more than 50% of the country – from the deliberations. (There is some irony to the fact that Donald Trump is looking for ways to force Democrats to the negotiating table, while GOP leaders block Dems from reaching that table.)

    Making matters quite a bit worse, one Republican senator shed new light on just how ridiculous his party’s process has become. The HuffPost reported:

    Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) on Tuesday unexpectedly torched his party’s process for crafting an Obamacare repeal bill behind closed doors.

    “It’s a very awkward process, at best,” he told reporters. “There are no experts. There’s no actuarials…. Typically, in a hearing, you’d have people coming in and you’d also have the media opining about if a hearing took place, and X came in and made comments.”

    The Tennessee Republican reportedly added that a public process generally helps “shape policy.”

    Imagine that.

    By one account, the GOP’s health care working group did receive some information yesterday from actuaries, but the discussion was held behind closed doors, and only the 13 Republican members of the working group were allowed to participate in the discussion.

    Not to put too fine a point on this, but the GOP’s approach isn’t how legislating in the United States is supposed to work. What Bob Corker described is a great example of a post-policy party – trying to write a bill in the dark with little to no input from subject-matter experts, authorities, or stakeholders – but it’s a pretty ridiculous way to craft life-or-death legislation affecting one-sixth of the world’s largest economy.

  9. 9.

    Aleta

    NBC Nightly News @NBCNightlyNews
    “We stand by the numbers,” Trump budget director says of $2,000,000,000,000 error that uses same money twice.

  11. 11.

    rikyrah

    Team Trump struggles to explain its ‘egregious’ math error
    05/24/17 11:20 AM
    By Steve Benen

    One of the most glaring problems with Donald Trump’s new budget plan is that its architects are bad at arithmetic. Politico’s Michael Grunwald explained:

    Budget proposals always involve some guesswork into the unknowable, and administrations routinely massage numbers to their political advantage. But this proposal is unusually brazen in its defiance of basic math, and in its accounting discrepancies amounting to trillions-with-a-t rather than mere millions or billions. […]

    Trump critics in the budget-wonk world are pointing to another $2 trillion of red ink as a blatant math error – or, less charitably, as an Enron-style accounting fraud.

    Budget fights can admittedly get a little wonky, but this one’s pretty straightforward: Trump’s White House unveiled a budget plan that double-counts $2 trillion. The president and his right-wing budget director, House Freedom Caucus co-founder Mick Mulvaney, specifically counts on $2 trillion in revenue to eliminate the deficit that the administration also devotes to paying for Trump’s tax cuts.

    Harvard economist Lawrence Summers, the former Treasury secretary and National Economic Council director in the previous two Democratic administrations, wrote in the Washington Post that this represents “the most egregious accounting error in a presidential budget in the nearly 40 years I have been tracking them.” Summers added that the mistake is “a logical error of the kind that would justify failing a student in an introductory economics course.”

  15. 15.

    rikyrah

    Why Does President Trump Stay Loyal to Michael Flynn?
    by Martin Longman
    May 24, 2017 11:40 AM

    It’s a sign of how long the list of particulars against Michael Flynn has become that when I wrote about his legal liabilities yesterday, I failed to mention one of the most serious things he did while serving Donald Trump.

    One of the Trump administration’s first decisions about the fight against the Islamic State was made by Michael Flynn weeks before he was fired – and it conformed to the wishes of Turkey, whose interests, unbeknownst to anyone in Washington, he’d been paid more than $500,000 to represent.

    The decision came 10 days before Donald Trump had been sworn in as president, in a conversation with President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, who had explained the Pentagon’s plan to retake the Islamic State’s de facto capital of Raqqa with Syrian Kurdish forces whom the Pentagon considered the U.S.’s most effective military partners. Obama’s national security team had decided to ask for Trump’s sign-off, since the plan would all but certainly be executed after Trump had become president.

    Flynn didn’t hesitate. According to timelines distributed by members of Congress in the weeks since, Flynn told Rice to hold off, a move that would delay the military operation for months.

    If Flynn explained his answer, that’s not recorded, and it’s not known whether he consulted anyone else on the transition team before rendering his verdict. But his position was consistent with the wishes of Turkey, which had long opposed the United States partnering with the Kurdish forces – and which was his undeclared client.

    Trump eventually would approve the Raqqa plan, but not until weeks after Flynn had been fired.

  16. 16.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I was a bit surprised that there were no protests (that I heard about) in Rome, now I’m seeing 6,000 anti-Trump protestors in Brussels. Not huge, but neither is Brussels. Someone posted below that David Ignatius, certified Beltway FP VSP and Wiseman, wrote today that “Trump seems popular abroad”, in China, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The Mossad brass were reportedly screaming at their US counterparts. He’s had to cancel his trip to the UK, and the Brits IIRC want to keep him out of London. But he seems popular in oppressive countries with tightly controlled media.

    (Protest sign in Brussels: Free Melania. Lots of rainbow flags and calls for peace)

  17. 17.

    Jeffro

    Speaking of all purpose assholery…specifically, the kind of characters that Warren Ellis is so good at writing…with so many TV shows based on comics, sci-fi, and fantasy getting green-lighted these days, where’s my PLANETARY and TRANSMETROPOLITAN shows? Or an AUTHORITY movie?

  18. 18.

    NoraLenderbee

    Knowing them, it’s not an error. It’s deliberate effrontery. They’re shoving it in our faces and saying, “Yeah, what are you going to do about it?”

    As long as we’re being generals and assholes, can I just vent: I’m so sick of my job.

  19. 19.

    rikyrah

    A Terrifying View From the President of the United States
    by Nancy LeTourneau
    May 24, 2017 10:13 AM

    Last month Donald Trump took the initiative to call Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. The reporting at the time was that it was a friendly conversation that ended with the US President extending an invitation for an Oval Office meeting.

    But now the Americas division of the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs has released a transcript of the call, which has been confirmed as accurate by the White House. It reveals a truly terrifying view from Trump. Here is how the president opened the conversation.

    “I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem,” he said. “Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that.”

    Mr. Duterte responded that drugs were “the scourge of my nation now, and I have to do something to preserve the Filipino nation.” Mr. Trump responded that “we had a previous president who did not understand that,” an apparent reference to President Barack Obama, “but I understand that.”

    You might remember that when Obama criticized Duterte for his murderous approach, the Philippine President called him the “son of a whore” and an “idiot” who “can go to hell.” Obviously Trump was totally copacetic with that.

    Reporters at the Intercept have provided some background on what the president was congratulating Duterte for doing.

  20. 20.

    germy

    Wash. Post didn’t disclose that writer who penned positive piece about Trump’s Saudi trip is paid by Saudi government

    The Washington Post allowed contributor Ed Rogers to praise Donald Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia without disclosing that he’s a lobbyist for the Saudi Royal Court. The Post has repeatedly allowed Rogers to promote his lobbying clients’ interests without disclosure.

  21. 21.

    JMG

    Security for the G-7 meeting in Rome would’ve been tight no matter how was President. Same for NATO summit. These events are held with the public kept quite a distance away, Probably why they were chosen as part of Trump’s itinerary.

  24. 24.

    Tazj

    @Aleta: So? What about Mulvaney’s unborn grandchildren and their ability to buy yachts and hire servants? Try to focus on what’s really important to this country, not honesty or competency or the general welfare of its people.

  25. 25.

    rikyrah

    THEY ALL NEED TO BURN.
    ALL OF THEM!!!!

    At what point does the Russia scandal become too hot for the GOP?
    05/24/17 01:03 PM
    By Steve Benen
    The investigation into Donald Trump’s Russia scandal is ongoing, but what we already know is rather breathtaking.

    A foreign adversary attacked our election and helped elect its favored candidate. The president’s claims that no one from his team was in contact with Russia during its attack have been discredited. The president fired the director of the FBI because of his dissatisfaction with the ongoing investigation. Before the firing, the president reportedly urged the FBI director to go easy on his disgraced former national security advisor, who remains at the center of the controversy, and who’s already pleaded the Fifth.

    This week, we learned Trump also reportedly urged the director of national intelligence and the director the National Security Administration to publicly comment on the ongoing federal investigation, while White House officials “sounded out top intelligence officials about the possibility of intervening directly” with the then-FBI director in order to “encourage the FBI to drop its probe of Michael Flynn.” Yesterday, the former director of the CIA pointed to “contacts and interactions” between Russia and the Trump campaign that he found alarming, despite Trump’s assurances that no such communications occurred.

    To borrow a cliché, we’ve worked our way through the smoke and arrived at some fire. Standing above the flame is a sitting president who seems eager to boast, “Look at this yuge fire I set. Isn’t it tremendous?”

    Under the circumstances, the question isn’t whether Trump is put his presidency in jeopardy; it’s what more congressional Republicans need to see before they agree it’s time for Trump’s term to meet a premature end. As of yesterday, GOP lawmakers, who are well aware of each of the aforementioned details, effectively said they’re not yet close to the threshold. Mother Jones’ David Corn reported:

    The Republicans still are not serious about investigating the Trump-Russia scandal. That message came through resoundingly when the House Intelligence Committee held a public hearing on Tuesday morning with former CIA chief John Brennan. […]

    Yet once again Republicans did not focus on the main elements of the story. When the Republicans on the committee had the chance to question Brennan, they did not press him for more details on Russia’s information warfare against the United States. Instead, they fixated on protecting Trump.

  26. 26.

    hovercraft

    Will they all deny knowledge of him three times before Mueller is done?

    Giuliani Now Claims He Had No Official Role In Crafting Trump’s Travel Ban

    Former New York Mayor and Trump ally Rudy Giuliani denied on Monday that he had any official role in writing President Donald Trump’s executive order barring travelers from majority-Muslim countries.

    “I have not served on any Trump administration Commission ‘relating to the so-called Muslim Ban Executive Orders,’” Giuliani wrote in an affidavit filed as part of an unrelated case. “For clarity, I have not participating in writing any of the Executive Orders on that subject issued by the Trump Administration.”

    Giuliani and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey both submitted court papers as part of a case where they are representing a Turkish businessman charged with helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions.

    U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman questioned both to determine whether their involvement with the case is a conflict of interest, according to the New York Law Journal.

    Giuliani’s effort to distance himself from Trump’s travel ban appears at odds with his claim in January that Trump asked him to find a way to “legally” enact the ban on Muslim immigration Trump repeatedly touted on the campaign trail.

    “When he first announced it, he said Muslim ban,” Giuliani told Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro. “He called me up, he said ‘Put a commission together, show me the right way to do it legally.’”

    Liars gonna lie. lie, lie, lie, lie.

  27. 27.

    Mike in DC

    @Jeffro:

    Just don’t make it a Mark Millar Authority film. I would bring actual bags of manure to throw at the screen.

  28. 28.

    sherparick

    @rikyrah: But it is not about health policy, it is about creating space for a permanent tax cut using “Reconciliation procedures” where they will only need 50 Republican votes + Pence to pass it. After the gift to Kochs, Waltons, Hendricks, Mercers, Adelson, etc. and the rest of the ultra rich families in the Republican Donor Class, then the deluge. Who cares about the consequences to the moochers in the other 99% of the population, as long the Galtian Heroes get their tax cuts?

    It is kind of mind boggling that Trump, Mulvaney, Ryan, and McConnell are proposing not only the repeal of the ACA, but cutting Medicaid by 50% over the next 10 years, in the teeth of aging Baby Boomer cohort, which means of course every year there will more people suffering from Parkinson’s, Alzheimer Dementia, all the forms of non-Alzheimer Dementia, strokes, accidental falls, etc. and ending up in nursing home (a/k/a assisted living facilities). Already this is 40% of the Medicaid budget. Because it will impact so many families, and financial interests, obviously, this will not happen in the end, unless the Republicans have the intent to ride a Ayn Rand suicide pact into oblivion.

    I remember reading about one Trump voters who worked in a health clinic in Kentucky. She spoke about how frustrated with all the people coming into the clinic using Medicaid who she thought should be working but intead were “Meth heads” or Oxy addicts. I expect that she will be in for a surprise where her clinic closes because there are no more Medicaid patients coming into the clinic. A hard lesson to learn that someone’s spending is also someone’s income, and when the spending stops, so does the income.

  31. 31.

    hovercraft

    @germy:
    I’m still aghast at Wilber Ross’s ignorant comments about the lack of protests in Saudi Arabia. These people are all older successful adults who I assume have traveled extensively, and yet every time they open their mouths they sound like the most ignorant hick how’s never been out of their home town and has never heard or bother to learn anything about what happens outside the five square miles they live in.

  32. 32.

    hovercraft

    @schrodingers_cat:
    Well he has followers who worship him, his word is gospel, he can do no wrong……….

    If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck? He’s their Messiah, come to save them from the scary black thug and the evil bitch.

  35. 35.

    mai naem mobile

    @sherparick: let’s not forget the increase in payroll taxes and other changes to SS pushed by Greenspan in the late 80s because we needed to get ready for the Boomers. When we finally see s surplus in the late 90s, Greenspan gives his blessing to Bush II’s tax cuts with most going to upper income earners. That surplus was supposed to be part of the lockbox money. Fuck these people.

  37. 37.

    rikyrah

    “At least one million people will die”

    Liberal Librarian
    May 24, 2017

    Now that Adolf Eichmann, I mean Mick Mulvaney, has released the Trump regime’s budget proposal, we know the depths of depravity to which this cabal will sink. The budget is nothing less than a war on the poor—many of them people who voted for Trump in the delusion that the only people who would get it in the neck were “those” people.

    The budget is so full of vileness and depravity that it’s hard to wrap one’s head around its dark enormity.

    Then I saw this story from the New York Times, and it suddenly clicked.

    At least one million people will die in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere, researchers and advocates said on Tuesday, if funding cuts proposed by the Trump administration to global public health programs are enacted.
    The United States currently spends more than $6 billion annually on programs that buy antiretroviral drugs for about 11.5 million people worldwide who are infected with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. The Trump administration has proposed slashing those programs by at least $1.1 billion — nearly a fifth of their current funding, said Jen Kates, a vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
    “These are lifesaving interventions, and these levels of reductions will significantly curtail service delivery,” Ms. Kates said.
    Are these people the ones Mulvaney says have to be weaned off of government handouts? The sick, the poor, the benighted?

    Think about this: In order to increase the military budget and save the rich a few pennies on the dollar of taxes, the Trump regime is willing to consign possibly millions to an early, preventable death. And these are the same people who are so apoplexed over the “sanctity of life” that they’re slashing funding for family planning all over the developing world.

  39. 39.

    rikyrah

    McConnell on why no Ds in healthcare talks: “We’re not going to waste our time talking to people who have no interest in fixing the problem”

    — Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) May 23, 2017

    @frankthorp Reminder: Democrats allowed over 160 amendments from Republicans when they passed the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) in 2009.

    — Arlen Parsa (@arlenparsa) May 23, 2017

    @frankthorp Reminder #2: Zero Republicans voted for the final A.C.A. bill, despite helping to write the bill with hundreds of their amendments.

    — Arlen Parsa (@arlenparsa) May 23, 2017

  41. 41.

    Roger Moore

    @rikyrah:

    The Tennessee Republican reportedly added that a public process generally helps “shape policy.”

    I’ve said it before: all the arcane procedural stuff surrounding legislation is there as a QA/QC mechanism to make sure we get the best legislation we can. Writing the bill in secret without input from experts, scoring from CBO, or a chance for the Democrats to say anything about it is just going to guarantee the thing is a steaming pile of shit.

  42. 42.

    The Moar You Know

    Stay out of the fucking thread below.

    NOBODY TELLS ME WHAT TO DO COLE.

    @rikyrah: OK, I’ve had enough. I like you, but damn, you are clogging threads. I can read Washington Monthly myself (and often do).

  44. 44.

    Brachiator

    @rikyrah:

    Senator: GOP is writing health care bill in secret, without experts

    Seems like only yesterday when the GOP was complaining, falsely, about Democrats writing the health care bill in secret.

    I hope that people are posting about this to their conservative FaceBook buddies. Ya know, “Do you really expect honest repeal and replace to be done in secret?”

    Obviously, the results will help the insurance industry at the expense of citizens. Some people never learn.

  45. 45.

    hovercraft

    Ooh, ooh, ooh, I’m rooting for blood, sorry TenguPhule

    Mike Pence is now actively auditioning for President. Just wait til Donald Trump turns on him for it.
    By Bill Palmer

    Here’s the thing about Mike Pence: he ostensibly only signed onto the Donald Trump campaign because he figured that if Trump won and then predictably imploded while on the job, he might get to inherit the presidency. Now that Trump’s scandals are exploding and his behavior is more erratic than ever, Pence has begun taking actions that make clear he’s begun auditioning for the job. But just wait til Trump figures it out.

    Consider the steps Mike Pence has taken thus far this month: he’s formed a fundraising PAC that’s independent from Trump (link). He’s been scheduling speaking gigs at graduations and other events that he thinks will allow him to look presidential (which backfired when students at Notre Dame) walked out on him). He’s campaigning for Republican candidates in special elections. And then there’s this bizarre nugget about Pence scheduling a rally in Louisiana for no apparent reason link), along with a leadership roundtable meeting…………….

    it appears Pence is planning for a presidential run in 2020 under the assumption that he’ll already be president by then. But while Trump isn’t the sharpest when it comes to these things, he is paranoid. And if he hasn’t already, he’ll figure out soon that Pence is actively plotting for a post-Trump future.

    That moment is going to be popcorn-worthy. Once Donald Trump decides that Mike Pence is at fault for everything that’s spiraling out of control with his own presidency, he’ll turn on him – and it won’t be pretty. For those who don’t want Trump or Pence to be president, we might get to see them destroy each other before it’s all over.

    This is probably wishful thinking, but it does make one smile.

  46. 46.

    TenguPhule

    @rikyrah:

    In order to increase the military budget and save the rich a few pennies on the dollar of taxes, the Trump regime is willing to consign possibly millions to an early, preventable death.

    Feature, not a bug.

    They can’t enjoy being rich unless they know someone is suffering and dying because of it.

  47. 47.

    TenguPhule

    @rikyrah:

    THEY ALL NEED TO BURN.
    ALL OF THEM!!!!

    Fun Fact, Flamethrowers are legal to acquire and use in all fifty states.

  48. 48.

    chopper

    @Aleta:

    so these guys are literally doubling down on trickle-down economics; not only do tax cuts raise revenue, they do it twice.

  49. 49.

    TenguPhule

    @rikyrah:

    Trump’s White House unveiled a budget plan that double-counts $2 trillion.

    They took Trump university’s budget and added a few extra zeros to it.

  51. 51.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @LAO:

    This comment has nothing to do with Cole.

    It’s not like Cole ever tweets Cole fell down the stairs of his house after Steve clawed Cole for not feeding Steve his premium cat food because Cole’s car was broken. So yes, nothing to do with Cole.

  52. 52.

    Heywood J.

    Here’s a fun one:

    Trump told Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Washington had “a lot of firepower over there”, according to the New York Times, which quoted a transcript of an April 29 call between the two.

    “We have two submarines — the best in the world. We have two nuclear submarines, not that we want to use them at all,” the newspaper quoted Trump as telling Duterte, based on the transcript.

    The report was based on a Philippine transcript of the call that was circulated on Tuesday under a “confidential” cover sheet by the Americas division of the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.

    Durrr….I’m duh pweznident. Jesus, what a maroon he is.

  54. 54.

    Roger Moore

    @hovercraft:
    The real wishful thinking part is that trump can actually do anything about Pence. Unlike everyone else in the administration, Pence is elected, so trump has no power to fire him. And a lot of the people within the administration are really Pence’s appointments, not trump’s, since he was in charge of the transition. Meanwhile if enough of those appointees go along, Pence can go 25th Amendment on trump.

  58. 58.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Heywood J.: I’m wondering, with the way he phrased that… he must think the ‘nuclear’ in ‘nuclear submarine’ refers to something other than the power source. On the other hand, at least he didn’t demand we retrofit them with steam.

  59. 59.

    PaulWartenberg

    @Heywood J.:

    I’m seeing reports in the media that the US Navy is all “JESUS CHRIST” and scrambling to clean up this mess.

    telling people where our submarines are is NOT a smart thing to do. And if it were any other person blurting this out, the Navy would be arresting them for revealing secrets about our fleet deployments.

  60. 60.

    hovercraft

    @lamh36:

    PM Trudeau and the little girl who got to be “Prime Minister for a Day” built a fort in his office. OMG ❤?????

    What, you’re saying that Twitler wouldn’t spend they day building a guillotine in his office with a kid, to rid himself of the pesky media that keeps harshing his mellow? I can totally see him and a little boy totally getting into that. Of course he would need to pick a kid from the “right type” of family.

  61. 61.

    PaulWartenberg

    @sherparick:

    I’m hearing stories – still mostly rumor – that Ryan has been compromised by “the Russia thing” (he and McConnell apparently may have colluded with the coverup), and that the intel people have been giving Sen. Hatch (who is 4th in line as Senate Pro Tem) daily briefings just in case.

  66. 66.

    Humboldtblue

    Phrase of the day (and one wholly new to me) — ablaut reduplication.

    The two properties that characterize Ablaut reduplication in English (chit-chat, dilly-dally) are: (1) identical vowel quantity in the stressed syllabic peaks, (2) maximally distinct vowel qualities in the two halves, with [i] appearing most commonly to the left and a low vowel to the right. In addition, Ablaut reduplicatives are described as having a trochaic contour, yet there is a great deal of uncertainty regarding the stress on the second part of the formation. Historically, Ablaut reduplication appeared long after Copy reduplication (boo-boo, yo-yo) and flourished during the Renaissance; its productivity declined sharply in the twentieth century.

  67. 67.

    Heywood J.

    @Major Major Major Major: Lol, I’m surprised he hasn’t gold-plated them yet. He is remarkably consistent and surprising in at least one area — just when you think he can’t do anything stupider, he basically says, “Hold my beer.”

  69. 69.

    hovercraft

    While these numbers aren’t great, I feel they would be much worse if TRussia and the associated scandals weren’t taking up so much oxygen, people would be more aware of just how bad this shitburger they’re trying to pass is.

    ………according to the latest Monmouth University Poll . Only one-third of the public feels the president gives enough attention to bread and butter issues important to American families. On the congressional front, many believe that the House passed the Affordable Health Care Act (AHCA) primarily to give Republicans a political win rather than fix the health care system…………

    ……….Just over one-third (35%) of the public says President Trump’s agenda so far has focused a lot on issues that are important to average Americans – which is down from 42% who said the same in March. Another 30% say he has focused a little on these issues and 32% say he has not focused at all on issues important to average Americans.

    Only 34% of Americans say Trump gives enough attention to issues that are most important to their own families, while a majority of 62% wish the president would give those issues more attention. Two months ago, 36% said Trump was giving these issues enough attention and 57% said they wish he would do more.

    The shift in these results comes mainly from political independents. Just 33% of independents say Trump is focused a lot on issues of importance to average Americans, which is down from 44% two months ago. And just 31% of independents say he gives enough attention to the issues that affect their families, down from 37% in March……………….

    Just 32% approve of the latest AHCA incarnation and a majority of 55% disapprove. While 71% of Republicans approve of the new bill, only 29% of independents and 6% of Democrats feel the same.

    Nearly half of the public (46%) feels the House passed AHCA largely to give Republicans a political win. Just 21% say it was primarily a genuine attempt to fix the health care system. Another 27% say the bill’s passage came down to both reasons – politics and genuine policy – equally.

    While the fate of this bill in the Senate is uncertain, nearly half (44%) of the public expects their own health care costs to go up if it becomes law. Another 36% expect their costs to stay about the same, and just 13% expect their costs to go down. There is a predictable partisan split on expectations that their health care costs will go up – ranging from 68% of Democrats to 42% of independents and 17% of Republicans.

  71. 71.

    Aleta

    @Tazj:

    So? Try to focus on what’s really important to this country.

    OK.

    The Deep Meaning Behind Ivanka Trump’s Hat in Israel

    Why is Ivanka Trump’s little hat so significant? (Yahoo)

    Ivanka Trump’s Hat is in the Ring to be the First Woman President. (Dec 2016 Huffp)

    Shop this range of women’s Ivanka Trump hats for styles that will see you through the morning commute just as well as any special occasion. (Lyst)

    Confound it, all roads lead to corruption.

  72. 72.

    Karen

    @rikyrah: rich white men deciding what is best for women it is enough to make me want to introduce them to Madame Guillotine

  74. 74.

    TenguPhule

    @Roger Moore:

    The real wishful thinking part is that trump can actually do anything about Pence. Unlike everyone else in the administration, Pence is elected, so trump has no power to fire him.

    You think laws will stop Trump from getting rid of Pence? What has he done so far to give you that impression?

    If Pence was smart, he’d avoid offers of tea from Trump or any Trump associates.

  75. 75.

    clay

    @Roger Moore:

    The real wishful thinking part is that trump can actually do anything about Pence. Unlike everyone else in the administration, Pence is elected, so trump has no power to fire him.

    True. Trump could try to undercut Pence and start leaking stuff that damages Pence’s rep, or implicates him in the Russia cover-up. Of course, knowing how competently Trump does stuff, I imagine that he would end up incriminating himself in the process.

  76. 76.

    Peale

    @Aleta: I do hope this stands. There needed to be a first one. The belief is that some kind of recognition for same sex couples needed to go in either Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore or Vietnam, where they appear to be getting close. If one goes, then the thought was that the others would follow. The Philippines, Korea and Japan are probably a bit out of reach at the moment. Of those three, I’m guessing the Philippines and Japan are closer. China is a bit of a mystery. On the one hand, there is recognition there that there is a population and official recognition of it. For example, China is allowing a group of athletes to participate in the gay games for the first time. On the other hand, last year, all gay and lesbian media was heavily censored, much of it outright banned, and it is not possible to produce a series or movie with a happy ending for gay characters, even fictional ones.

    Its good that there may finally be a first, though. I’ll place my money on Thailand next.

  77. 77.

    TenguPhule

    @hovercraft:

    Ooh, ooh, ooh, I’m rooting for blood, sorry TenguPhule

    Plenty of room on this bench. Pass the popcorn and order a pizza.

  78. 78.

    Roger Moore

    @clay:
    I think the biggest thing trump could do to Pence would be to take back whatever authority he’s granted him. The VP has very little authority of his own. He’s the non-voting president of the Senate, he takes over if the President dies, and he has the power to invoke Article IV of the 25th Amendment.

    But apart from that, he can only do what the President specifically asks him to do. So far, that’s been a lot. He was in charge of the transition, which means he’s had a huge say in appointments (which leads to real 25th Amendment worries for trump). But all that authority is trump’s to revoke any time he feels like it. One snap of the [ETA: tiny, little] fingers, and Pence goes back to being the government’s spare tire.

  79. 79.

    Brachiator

    @PaulWartenberg:

    to anyone here who’s in Chicago and likes the blues: which are the good blues clubs to visit?

    All of them. :)

    It’s been a while, but when I last visited Chicago (combination work and mini vacation), I looked at the newspapers and I think Chicago magazine to see who was playing. A lot of blues fans, we hit various clubs over a couple of nights. One thing that was fun. At one club we stayed for one set, and there were a lot of tourists. Then, a racially mixed crowd of people who lived nearby started coming in for the late set. Some of the musicians seemed to know some of the people coming in. On a hunch, we stayed. Same bands playing, but looser and feeling the vibe of a loving and knowledgeable audience. One of the best concerts I’ve attended.

    It’s been a while. Sorry I can’t recall the name of the club. A small place, that did not charge an additional cover for staying for another set.

    You might want to see what’s happening at Kingston Mines and B.L.U.E.S. I’m not big on House of Blues, but here your mileage may vary.

  81. 81.

    Peale

    @rikyrah: Yes. but they are worried about dependency! Which is a problem black people all over the world are prone to. Can’t be dependent if you’re dead.

  84. 84.

    TenguPhule

    @PaulWartenberg:

    I’m seeing reports in the media that the US Navy is all “JESUS CHRIST” and scrambling to clean up this mess.

    If Russian hunter killer subs were not tracking our subs there before, they are now.

  87. 87.

    sukabi

    @hovercraft: he likely is well aware of WHY there weren’t protests in Saudi Arabia, he’s making his opinion of a functioning democracy public.

    Approves oppression, disapproves of democracy.

  88. 88.

    efgoldman

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    David Ignatius, certified Beltway FP VSP and Wiseman, wrote today that “Trump seems popular abroad”

    Ignatius is an idiot, an asshole, and the perfect Fred Hiatt hire.

  91. 91.

    catclub

    @sherparick:

    it is about creating space for a permanent tax cut using “Reconciliation procedures” where they will only need 50 Republican votes + Pence to pass it.

    reconciliation is only possible if no budget deficit effects after ten years, so ten years, not permanent. I don’t understand why they don’t just take the ten years – most of Bush’s 2001 tax cuts were changed to permanent in 2011.

  93. 93.

    efgoldman

    @Major Major Major Major:

    On the other hand, at least he didn’t demand we retrofit them with steam.

    He probably thinks they have big black guys, on the John Henry model, shoveling coal into the boilers.

  94. 94.

    Gravenstone

    @PaulWartenberg: I should think it rather obvious that Ryan and McConnell are involved to some extent. Whether they are stonewalling as an active cover up, or simply to retain their current grip on power remains to be fully understood. But time will tell …

  96. 96.

    gratuitous

    Looks like the Penguins lost last night . . .

    However, I will commiserate with the lovely and talented John Cole about offloading one’s CD library to an external hard drive. I do a few CDs, then lose interest. It’s been a hella long time (think: years) and I’m still less than halfway through my CDs. While I have what I think are a lot of CDs, I know folks who have considerably more. I can’t imagine how discouraging it would be to have finished my work only to find out that some external program had “helped” me by deleting 90% of my efforts.

  97. 97.

    bemused

    @rikyrah:

    Malcolm Nance was interviewed by Randi Rhodes on Monday and said GOP has gamed out that they don’t have to turn against Trump until Trump’s approval rating drops to 31% with Trump voters/supporters. GOP are betting they can go right up to the very edge of the cliff, teetering there in pursuit of those damned tax cuts. Nance says this about min 3l but the whole interview on Randi’s you tube is interesting.

  98. 98.

    LurkerNoLonger

    @rikyrah: To McConnell: FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU YOU FUCKING MOTHERFUCKER! YOU FUCKING UGLY MOTHERFUCKER! FUCK YOU YOU FUCK! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! FUCKER!

    eta: I feel a little better now.

  99. 99.

    Captain C

    @rikyrah:

    Trump’s White House unveiled a budget plan that double-counts $2 trillion

    I wouldn’t be surprised if all the Trump Org finances had flummery like this.

  100. 100.

    bemused

    @lamh36:

    I could totally see Obama doing this when Prez.

    You just know there is something wonderful and real about a leader of a country who really enjoys kids and can join in play with them.

  103. 103.

    Scotian

    @lamh36:

    Weeeeeelllllllllllll, we *DID have to endure 9 years of the Closet Commando aka PM Stephen Harper and his Harperium before we were saved by Justin, he truly was the Liberals, and our, only hope as it turned out (i mean really, Mulcair as Kenobi or Skywalker? Blech).

    I will freely admit though one thing I wake up daily since last Nov 9 thinking is thank whatever powers than may be that we have Justin Trudeau as PM in the rise of Trump and not more PM Harper. His base is alas like Trumps and the GOP more broadly, unshakable, more interested in defeating the other side than anything else, and driven by anger and rage.

    So yes, it is nice to have Justin Trudeau as PM in these dark times. It is even nicer to have been on his bandwagon from the ground floor, voted for him first as party leader, then for his party and the local candidate in 2015, it brings such a warm tingle to the heart to counter the agony of watching what is happening on my nations southern border and the ripples it sends out beyond. Justin will at least try to protect us and shares Canadian values, Harper shared the values of CPAC (yes, your version, not our Parliamentary channel), and what he would have been willing to go along with Trump ith and over, makes me violently ill thinking about it.

  104. 104.

    Wyatt Derp

    One thing that has been on my mind lately. We keep hearing how Trump has unwavering support from 90% (or whatever it is) of his base but is it really that unusual that 90% of the people who voted for you still support you 4 months into your term? Put another way, is’t it kind of odd that 10% of your voters have changed their minds already? I’d be interested to know what comparable approval ratings from their voters @ 4 months were for Obama, Bush, Clinton, etc.

  106. 106.

    Morzer

    @Wyatt Derp:

    That loss of support overall isn’t so unusual in the short term. What might matter more is that Trump now seems to be losing his strong supporters. If you lose a significant chunk of those, it’s going to be very difficult to recover them, especially when the GOP has made it clear that they aren’t interested in any part of Trump’s alleged “populism”.

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