Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

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

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

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

He really is that stupid.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

You are here: Home / Politics / Let’s make “Trump” the new “Quisling”

Let’s make “Trump” the new “Quisling”

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A screenshot from today’s New York Times:

This story is minor, but it expresses the essential nature of Trump on literal and metaphorical levels: Trump stole another family’s crest and replaced the “Integrity” motto with his own name. The rightful owners of the crest considered suing but decided not to when they were made aware of Trump’s typical response to suits: exhausting plaintiffs in court until they drop the matter.

But there’s another family property — a surname — that is far more fitting for Trump to usurp: Quisling. Most of us here have probably heard it, but I doubt one teenager in a thousand has.

It originated with Vidkun Quisling, who was installed as the leader of occupied Norway and who collaborated with the Nazis during WW2. Here he is seated with Heinrich Himmler:

Here’s how Churchill turned Quisling’s name into a synonym for “traitor” and “collaborator” in 1941:

“A vile race of Quislings — to use a new word which will carry the scorn of mankind down the centuries — is hired to fawn upon the conqueror, to collaborate in his designs and to enforce his rule upon their fellow countrymen while grovelling low themselves.”

Fellow citizens, we’ve got our own “vile race of Quislings” abroad in the land. They fanned out on the Sunday political gabfests this weekend to make the absurd claim that it was normal for Trump’s son-in-law to seek the use of Russian technology to hide the incoming administration’s communications with Moscow.

Some of our modern-day Quislings are sitting in Congress, like Representative Brian Mast (R-FL), whose campaign consultant used stolen data provided by a Russian hacker to guide ad buys and voter outreach, thus helping a hostile foreign power rig a U.S. election and lying about it after the fact.

The “vile race of Quislings” includes almost everyone at Fox News, including folksy fraud Mike Huckabee, Sean Hannity, etc., and most Republican politicians at virtually every level. They are collaborating to obscure the fact that a foreign authoritarian conspired to install an ignorant demagogue in the White House to further the interests of Russia.

In a way, our American quislings are even more contemptible than their historic counterparts, some of whom could at least lay claim to grave national peril in the face of an overwhelming military force as an excuse for their cowardice and disloyalty. Our gang is selling out their country to a relatively weak gangster for personal enrichment and political gain.

It’s a cheap and tawdry sellout, which is why the name “Trump” is a fitting replacement for “Quisling.” Assuming that we survive this assault on our democracy and eventually face the truth of what happened so that elections without outside interference can occur in the future.

It would be a fitting fate for the Trump brand as well. My most optimistic hope is that within a generation, there won’t be a building, golf course, necktie, handbag, shoe or fancy private club that will countenance the shame of bearing the name “Trump.”

Reader Interactions

203Comments

  2. 2.

    germy

    So the NYTimes is the place where friends of Jared go to plant stories favorable to their buddy?

    Are they a newspaper or simply a delivery system for propaganda? (silly question)

  3. 3.

    Baud

    Looking forward to seeing what Baud! will eventually come to signify.

    Right on, Betty.

  4. 4.

    Eric U.

    I doubt you could successfully sue anyone over that in the U.S., much less anyone as experienced at defending the indefensible as Trump is. I feel sorry for anyone named Quisling, but do they have a family crest? There is a guy at work named “Coward,” I think I would be a coward and change my name to something else.

  6. 6.

    randy khan

    @germy:

    I don’t know how favorable this is:

    That unfailing self-regard has not endeared him to the rest of the staff. Resentful Trump staff members have long talked about “Jared Island” to describe the special status occupied by Mr. Kushner, who, in their view, is given license to exercise power and take on a vague portfolio — “Middle East peace” and “innovation” are its central components — without suffering the consequences of failure visited by the president on mere hirelings.

    Adding to the animus is Mr. Kushner’s aloof demeanor and his propensity for avoiding messy aspects of his job that he would simply rather not do — he has told associates he wants nothing to do with the legislative process, for instance. He also has a habit, they say, of disappearing during crises, such as his absence on a family ski trip when Mr. Trump’s first health care bill was crashing in March.

  7. 7.

    germy

    Perhaps future generations will use “trump” to mean cheat or deceive:

    “My weedman fucking trumped me! This is a bag of catnip!”

    “I thought I get a good deal on the car, but I got totally trumped.”

    “Stop trumpin’. I know where you were last night.”

    etc.

  8. 8.

    Walker

    The problem with trying to do this is that the word Trump already has a mainstream meaning that is not a proper name. This is easier with words like Santorum and Quisling which were previously only names.

  11. 11.

    MattF

    One of the various ways through which New Yorkers came to despise Trump was having his name plastered on a long line of apartment buildings beside the West Side Highway.

  12. 12.

    germy

    @randy khan: The NYTImes isn’t a monolith. Krugman and some reporters are doing the right thing.

    But there seems to be a group of editors who quietly report stuff certain people want reported.

    And then it gets quoted on TV and radio news, as well as local news outlets.

  13. 13.

    bemused

    Tacky Trumps never fail to deliver sleazy behavior.

    btw, did Trump/WH ever issue any statement on Erdogan thugs beating up protestors at Turkey embassy? So busy lately, I haven’t been able to keep up with the cabal.

  14. 14.

    MattF

    @germy: Op-ed columnist Charles Blow also. And I know Ms. Dowd gets the fish-eye around here, but when she’s aroused, she gets very mean.

  15. 15.

    germy

    @MattF:

    came to despise Trump was having his name plastered on a long line of apartment buildings

    New York people who care about historic preservation also despise him. He’d bulldoze the NY Public Library and dump the lions Patience and Fortitude into the Hudson river if he thought a strip mall would be more profitable.

    I think Jared wanted to mess up some beautiful old Beaux Arts building as well, but they fought him on it.

  16. 16.

    p.a.

    … Although Quisling achieved some popularity after his attacks on the political left, his party failed to win any seats in the Storting and was little more than peripheral in 1940. On 9 April 1940, with the German invasion of Norway in progress, he attempted to seize power in the world’s first radio-broadcast coup d’état, but failed after the Germans refused to support his government.

    From 1942 to 1945 he served as Prime Minister of Norway, heading the Norwegian state administration jointly with the German civilian administrator Josef Terboven. His pro-Nazi puppet government, known as the Quisling regime, was dominated by ministers from Nasjonal Samling, the party he founded in 1933. The collaborationist government participated in Germany’s genocidal Final Solution. Quisling was put on trial during the legal purge in Norway after World War II: he was found guilty of charges including embezzlement, murder and high treason against the Norwegian state, and was sentenced to death. He was executed by firing squad at Akershus Fortress, Oslo, on 24 October 1945.

    Radio coup=fail.
    Intertube coup=success.

    The march of progress.

  17. 17.

    germy

    @MattF: Definitely Charles Blow. He’s one of the best.

    But there are some rats on that ship and they’ll print whatever their cocktail party buddies want to fit.

  18. 18.

    Corner Stone

    Fellow citizens, we’ve got our own “vile race of Quislings” abroad in the land. They fanned out on the Sunday political gabfests this weekend to make the absurd claim that it’s normal for Trump’s son-in-law to seek the use of Russian technology to hide the incoming administration’s communications with Moscow.

    We also thankfully have a few that are screaming at the top of their lungs, in their own way, that Trump is fucking dirty and everyone around him is completely dirty also. NSA Director Rogers telling his entire staff that Trump colluded. Brennan’s testimony the other day, and then Clapper this weekend saying, “my dashboard lights were all on”.
    John Kelly, McMaster are both a complete disgrace. Mattis is giving me the wobblies but I have not yet seen him surrender completely to the Dignity Wraith like Kelly and HR.

  19. 19.

    Suzanne

    @germy: I noted yesterday that I don’t remember this kind of shameless power-whoring from the NYT under Jill Abramson. But Dean Baquet seems to be exceedingly bad news.

  21. 21.

    Eric U.

    @Corner Stone: I figure Hair Gropenfuher’s reign will end the same way, but there will be a lot of destruction in the process. It doesn’t exactly make me happy.

  23. 23.

    schrodingers_cat

    Before there was Quisling, there was Mir Jaffar, who betrayed the Nawab of Bengal to Robert Clive of the East India Company. Winnie and his forefathers proceeded to bleed dry for almost 200 years. So much so that Bangladesh is now synonymous with poverty whereas it was one of India’s richest provinces before the rapacious Brits laid hands on it.
    Winston did have a talent for insults though, he called Gandhi, the naked beggar.

  24. 24.

    Chris

    I think you hit the nail on the head with why our Quislings are so much more contemptible than the originals. For the record, I never doubted that the vast majority of our conservatives WOULD turn out to be Vichy trash under the right circumstances, but I always assumed it would take an actual conquest and occupation – in other words, that it would never happen except in hypotheticals and alternate universes. The fact that it took so little for them to betray their country is somehow even more pathetic.

  25. 25.

    germy

    @bystander:

    J Kush and Lucretia live at the Puck Building, when last I knew.

    I thought this was amusing:

    In the 1980s, the Puck Building was the original home of Spy Magazine.

  27. 27.

    bystander

    @p.a.:

    He was executed by firing squad at Akershus Fortress, Oslo, on 24 October 1945.

    Akershus is the historic residence of the ruling family of Norway. What would be our analog? Execution at Monticello? Mt. Vernon?

  30. 30.

    Raoul

    David Frum’s otherwise sound and scorching review of Dump’s trip starts to call out Sen Bob Corker, but like so many, he can’t (yet?!) wrap his head around the level of betrayal happening at the elite levels of the GOP government. I hope he and others grasp the level of Quisling happening ASAP.

    The Republican chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker, went on record to declare that he could not have been more pleased with the trip. If true, that would reflect poorly on Senator Corker’s judgment. I prefer to think that the statement reflects poorly on his candor.

    … The situation is both ugly and dangerous. If it’s to be corrected, all Americans—eminent Republicans like Bob Corker above all—must at least correctly name it for what it is.

    Sure, David. Corker must. All good Republicans* must. But how long do you wait? I’d give them roughly zero seconds from right now.

    *I know, I know.

  31. 31.

    Eric U.

    I am hoping this turns out to be like the time that the Unification Church owned the Republicans. I.e., no big deal in the end. We’re really lucky that we have professionals in government that will fight. And the downfall of Fox News couldn’t have happened at a better time. Ok, a better time would have been a couple of decades ago, but this is definitely a good time.

  32. 32.

    bystander

    @MattF: now, why didn’t I think of that? Lash each of them to a column so we can have bullet holes to be proud of.

  33. 33.

    ruemara

    @bystander: They’re in that space? Dammit, I love the Puck building. Ugh. Here’s hoping they get dragged out and tossed into the street.

    @Eric U.: are you from this reality?

  34. 34.

    zhena gogolia

    Okay, obligatory Judy Canova joke (first time I heard the name Quisling). In one of her movies, she’s as always the backwoods rube, and somebody says to her, “What’s your opinion of Quisling?” She replies, “I dunno, I never quizzled.”

    I don’t get a lot of opportunities to tell that joke.

  36. 36.

    schrodingers_cat

    I just get tired of Churchill hagiographies and praise, if the man had been responsible for the death of between two and three million people of European origin during the height of WWII. I doubt that he would be considered oh so witty and such a hero. Fuck Churchill.

  37. 37.

    Baud

    @Raoul: The GOP will only do the right thing if they are forced into it by liberal pressure, after which they will take credit for doing the right thing.

  39. 39.

    J.

    Great post. I saw this piece in the NYT yesterday and thought “How appropriate that when you remove ‘Integrity,’ you are left with Trump.” A metaphor for our times indeed. Thank you, Betty, for the Quisling reminder.

  41. 41.

    germy

    ABC News‏Verified account
    @ABC

    VP Pence at Naval Academy graduation: “Character is destiny. Be men and women of integrity.”

  42. 42.

    ArchTeryx

    @Karen: I know that I put in at least one No-Trump bid in my contract auctions these days, to make damn sure everyone knows where I stand when it comes to the Party of Traitors.

  44. 44.

    Tokyokie

    Betty, Let’s not forget how things ended for Vikund Quisling: He was convicted on charges of treason, embezzlement, and murder and executed by a firing squad in October 1945. He was human garbage not fit to lick the boots of fellow Telemark native Knut Haugland.

    @Eric U.: If my last name was “Coward,” I’d happily appropriate Noël as my favorite uncle.

  45. 45.

    Laura

    And I know Ms. Dowd gets the fish-eye around here, but when she’s aroused, she gets very mean.
    MoDo gets the fish-eye because she’s a hack and the Queen of the High School girl’s bathroom. I’m not familiar with a single column that brings greater understanding to an issue of great importance. She’s merely a hack like so many -far too many that waste space on the editorial page. Just like David Fucking Brooks. Just like Krauthammer. Just like Douthat. . .
    Feh!

  46. 46.

    Eric U.

    @ruemara: I mean “no big deal” measured by the eventual effects on the country. Obviously, this is very dangerous for the country, but am hoping that all the damage lands on the Trumpistas and the Republicans in Congress that have turned out to be just as compromised as him.

  47. 47.

    ArchTeryx

    Apropro for the day, the GOS has a great Wreck List article: http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/5/29/1666937/-Remember-Perhaps-We-Should-Apologize

    We owe the fallen veterans of this country a huge apology, not just for the way they’ve been treated throughout our history, but for letting Russia virtually take over our government without a shot being fired. All on the altar of bigotry, racism and greed. At this point in our history, we’re little more then a rogue state. May that state not last long.

  48. 48.

    germy

    @Eric U.:

    And the downfall of Fox News couldn’t have happened at a better time.

    You are more optimistic than I am. I don’t see fox news experiencing a downfall. For every o’reilly who exits, there’s a thousand younger ones eager to take his place, like jesse wattters or the bowtie dude, the one who yells “nothing to see here” after every fresh outrage from the POTUS.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    @ArchTeryx: Given how many surviving vets voted for Trump, I’m having difficulty processing this sentiment. I’m going to focus my good energies on any Juicers who have lost people they care about to conflict.

  54. 54.

    JPL

    Also from the NYTimes The heroes from the vicious attack in Portland that Trump won’t mention. Micah Fletcher survived.

    Mr. Fletcher, a student at Portland State University, was expected to be hospitalized for a few more days, according to The Oregonian. His girlfriend told the newspaper that he had undergone two hours of surgery to remove bone fragments from his throat…….Mr. Fletcher won a poetry contest in 2013 when he was a junior in high school. He condemned the prejudice he saw Muslims encountering. Of the Sept. 11 attacks, he said: “We let it leave an ugly footprint on America that hasn’t disappeared in 12 years.”

    This is his poem It starts at 2:32
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H3sdScxo44

  57. 57.

    Corner Stone

    @germy: Eh, thanks. I saw the original comment about Charles Blow but must’ve glossed over the Dowd part.

    ETA, but I guess the answer to my question was “Yes”.

  58. 58.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Some of our modern-day Quislings are sitting in Congress, like Representative Brian Mast (R-FL), whose campaign consultant used stolen data provided by a Russian hacker to guide ad buys and voter outreach, thus helping a hostile foreign power rig a U.S. election and lying about it after the fact.

    I’ve seen speculation that this is where Jared might just bring the whole thing down– he played a key role in data-analysis and targeting ads, et cetera, and there’s some speculation that might be where they find the dread collusion. But I suspect collusion with wikileaks/Assange might be easier– or less difficult– to prove than with Russia

    @Laura: MoDo had, IMHO, a keen insight into the Bush family. Back in the innocent days of the 90’s I used to roll my eyes at her lines about “the WASP Corleones” with Bar as their Luca Brazzi. Once I got a good look at them through Dumbya, I think she understated the case. But from Al Gore to John Kerry to “Obambi and the Dominatrix”, she wasn’t just an asshole about Democrats, forcing her TV-watching mean-girl schtick into a Broderist both-sides conventional wisdom was not just obnoxious, it was painfully unfunny. Before giving up on her more or less completely in ’09 or so, I used to email her occasionally with the suggestion she take a sabbatical. Can’t remember if I ever went so far as to ask if no one loved her enough to tell her how worn out her schtick had gotten. In any case, she never responded. I got responses from a handful of beltway types– John Dickerson, Froma Harrop, Roger Simon– when I was constantly enraged about their soft-pedaling the incompetence of Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld and Rice. Kind of surprised me they took the time.

  61. 61.

    debbie

    The Quislings’ primary move is to accuse Obama of spying on the Trump campaign. Their chatter diverts attention and drowns out any correcting of the facts, which is that the Trump campaign’s dalliances with the Russians were so numerous and so obvious that they drew the attention of the government. Just like the government is supposed to do.

    These Quislings remind me of the pickpockets I saw on a Madison Avenue bus years ago. I saw two guys boxing in an unsuspecting tourist at the rear exit. I spoke up, telling the guy to look out. The two turned and spoke up loudly trying to drown me out. I raised my voice even louder and the tourist finally caught on.

    We gotta outchatter them.

  62. 62.

    hellslittlestangel

    The cuss words of the English language are long overdue for a makeover. “‘Ey, trump you, ya kushnering ivanka! Go bannon yourself!”

  63. 63.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Corner Stone: Churchill was no great defender of liberty and freedom, unless you define liberty and freedom as the exclusive right of his kind alone. Its not my opinion, its history. All his oratory would have amounted to nothing if not for the manpower the British Indian Army provided and the financial contribution of India. Which he repaid by letting three million Indians starve for no good reason. But yes, I am repetitive and boring for bringing this up and not kneeling down in the church of Churchill. Sorry.

  66. 66.

    Corner Stone

    @hellslittlestangel: “Kushner that shit! Don’t you try and ivanka me, you bannon. Trump me? No, trump you! Now get the trump outta here before I kellyanne you in your mulvaney.”

  67. 67.

    Laura

    Jim, I agree that Maureen did have insights into the Bush family -and was whip smart about the beltway. Why she didn’t use her talents for the greater good is a mystery. That she’s phoned it in, and always with the mean girl angle is what sucks about the FNYFT. She’s allowed intellectual laziness. She’s paid big money with so little to show for it.
    That meanness offends me deeply. How she looks in the mirror, or cashes the check is the question I’m left with when I can’t stop myself from reading a column. It’s a variation of punching down.

  71. 71.

    bemused senior

    Memorial Day reflection: I have been grateful recently that my father, a wwII fighter pilot and career Air Force officer, as well as a lifetime liberal and FDR Democrat, did not live to see these latter-day Quislings make a mockery of his life’s work.

  73. 73.

    LurkerNoLonger

    I don’t think the name Trump needs to be the new Quisling when it’s already become the new Nixon.

  74. 74.

    ThresherK

    @germy: Unlike the Notre Dame graduating class, the Middies have to just shut up and listen, or it’ll be quite the dent in their careers.

  77. 77.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Corner Stone: Are you being facetious? Can’t tell. Churchill was a “great man of history” to some people. That opinion is not universally shared.

  78. 78.

    Corner Stone

    One of the channels has been running a MASH marathon for a few days. I have dropped in on a couple for a minute or two. Good God, but that was a horrible show.

  83. 83.

    Villago Delenda Est

    “Trump” is already UK slang for “fart”.

    Quisling is good, too.

  84. 84.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @Corner Stone:

    I’d suggest a few changes:

    Oh, man, I gotta take a Kushner…

    What’s that smell? Did you Trump?

    Honey, can you brush your teeth? You have Bannon breath…

    My daughter’s dentist is a rude woman. She’s such a friggin’ Conway!

  85. 85.

    opiejeanne

    @Karen: I don’t know about that but I’m having trouble when I talk about Mike Trout: I keep calling him Trump. It drives me nuts when I realize I’ve done it again; Mike Trout is nothing like Trump.

  86. 86.

    Luthe

    @OzarkHillbilly: Nah, you’d insult all those innocent guys named “Donald” out there. You wouldn’t want to give Mr. Duck a bad reputation, would you?

    I do prefer the idea of “Trump” being used in the noun form. Just imagine a little old Jewish lady with a strong NY accent, “Oy gevalt! That guy stole my camera. What a Trump!”

  87. 87.

    Mike Furlan

    Agreed.

    But.

    Most Americans didn’t care when:

    Nixon sabotaged the Paris Peace Talks.
    Reagan arranged for American hostages to be held by the Iranians longer.
    Beyond not caring, Oliver North is a hero to many for his treason in Iran Contra.
    Daddy Bush, and the lies told to sell Gulf War 1
    Baby Bush, and the lies told to sell Gulf War 2

    If they cared they would not have elected the ultimate Republican traitor. It was obvious, to anyone who cared to notice that he was a puppet of the Russians.

  88. 88.

    Achaz

    We already have:

    Trumpery (n): Attractive articles of little value or use, or, Practices or beliefs that are superficially or visually appealing but have little real value or worth.

    From Late Middle English (denoting trickery): from Old French tromperie, from tromper ‘deceive’.

  89. 89.

    Another Scott

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Dowd is weird:

    [Michelle] MARTIN
    But I just have to say that there’s a through-line of criticism that says you are somehow — you are unfairly negative toward Hillary Clinton. I assume you’ve heard that before and I wanted to ask you, you know, what do you say about that?

    DOWD
    Yeah. I don’t — I think because we’re both women, we still have this meme in this society about cat fights. So I think a woman writer who criticizes a woman can be perceived as being harder. And also I write for a newspaper that’s considered liberal. So, you know, that can be perceived as being harder. And also, as you know, because we used to be out on the campaign together, I’ve covered the Clintons for a long time. So, you know, there’s more muscle memory or whatever. But I guess what I think is, I don’t write an ideological column. So I’m not coming from the left or the right. And I know that disappoints a lot of Times readers. But I don’t know how to do it any other way.

    DOWD
    Because I was a political reporter for so long, I’m just a political reporter who’s a columnist. So I wish I did sometimes. Because then you’d have this warm group who loved you, you know, to come back to. But somebody’s always mad at me, including my family, who are conservatives. We’re not — you know, they’re mad at me when a Republican president is in. And when W was president, one of my brothers said — got mad at me at a family dinner and said, you know, if there was a hurricane, you’d blame it on W. And then there was and I did. You know, Katrina. So…

    MARTIN
    What is the frame of your column? How do you see it? What do you see as your mission?

    DOWD
    I think of it as a watchdog. Because I always think politicians, you know, have hundreds of people surrounding them that are paid a lot of money to make them look good and to spin their story. And so I just feel like I want to be the advocate for the reader, to try and get behind the veil and just say, you know, what’s really going on, if there’s something that’s wrong or, you know, something that they said they would that they’re not doing.

    MARTIN
    I have an email on this point. It’s from Brian. He says he’s — he’s in Jackson, N.H. And he asks, does Ms. Dowd feel that the type of rhetoric she likes to use is contributing to the devolution of our political discourse. And I assume by that, he means snark. Because you don’t curse. I mean, you don’t use bad words. You don’t — what do you think?

    DOWD
    I don’t like the word snarky. I like the word saucy. But maybe I’m just rationalizing. I don’t know.

    MARTIN
    But what do you think about his question? You know, do you think that you’ve…

    DOWD
    Oh, no.

    MARTIN
    …that you’ve kind of — that you’ve helped move our discourse in a direction that perhaps you’re not, at the end of it, you’re not in love with?

    DOWD
    No. I mean, in college, I studied Shakespeare. And that’s what I’m trying — I’m trying to, like, make people understand it in a way that will attract them to read about it. I mean, I wrote negative columns about the run-up to the Iraq War and the Iraq — and the handling of the Iraq War for seven years. But I wanted to do it in a way where people — I could dramatize. And then David Hare kind of used a lot of my stuff to do a play about it, “Stuff Happens.” But…

    MARTIN
    Hmm.

    DOWD
    …I wanted it to be dramatized. I want to lure the reader in so that they’ll read it and maybe get upset about it. And so I want it to be entertaining.

    Weird…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  92. 92.

    realbtl

    Just adding that Kinky Friedman in his books always speaks of “taking a Nixon” so there is literary precedence.

  96. 96.

    Mike Furlan

    @schrodingers_cat: That is how I understand it. At the very least the starvation in India should be acknowledged, even if you want to make the argument that there was no shipping available, even if there was food to send.

  97. 97.

    SFAW

    @Another Scott:
    MoDo and the Always-Clueless Joan Vennochi seem to have a (figurative) hard-on for strong and/or accomplished, especially the on the non-RWNJ side. Hillary, Elizabeth Warren, Shannon O’Brien, others — Vennochi has gone after them, even though she’s not a RWNJ herself. One of the reasons I stopped getting the Glob.

    Vennochi is not as (obviously) stupid as Jeff Jacoby, but it’s not for lack of trying.

  98. 98.

    SFAW

    @Mike J:

    Throwing babies out of the incubators.

    Didn’t recall that one. On the other hand, it’s not as if it was a tough sell in the first place, unlike Shrub’s Excellent Quagmire Adventure.

  99. 99.

    Elizabelle

    Great column, Betty. Quislings it is.

    @West of the Rockies (been a while): Your suggestions work for me. Taking a Trump. How hard is that to remember. Bannon breath and Bannon gut.

    @bemused senior:

    Memorial Day reflection: I have been grateful recently that my father, a wwII fighter pilot and career Air Force officer, as well as a lifetime liberal and FDR Democrat, did not live to see these latter-day Quislings make a mockery of his life’s work.

    This. I am glad my parents were spared, too. And getting rid of these Quislings, and restoring our democracy (which is now a plutocracy): our life’s work.

  100. 100.

    The Lodger

    @Another Scott: I’m trying to imagine the kind of person who would start to investigate a topic because Maureen Dowd wrote a column about it. It’s not working.

  101. 101.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Another Scott: good lord, I went to the transcript to see if she ever got to a point about name dropping Shakespeare. She didn’t. It’s not even coherent enough to be grandiose.

    I shouldn’t have read the transcript, but I was wondering if she would address this

    DOWD
    But that’s what I was trying to bring out, that the Barry side was — to me was kind of the wonky side, the guy who stays up until midnight in the White House studying and who wears mom jeans and, you know, who likes to arugula at Whole Foods, that’s the Barry side. The Barack side is the majestic, you know, the amazing speech giver and, like, the guy who can go to Argentina and dance the tango, you know. So I was just trying to bring out different sides.

    Mom jeans, arugula and the tango. What the fuck?

    ETA: @SFAW: when HRC teared up in New Hampshire in ’08, MoDo wrote that while watching it on TV, a woman in her office said something like “If she’s crying on the campaign trail, how’s she going to stand up to Al Qaeda”. Not an exact quote, but close enough. I’ve always thought that woman was MoDo herself.

  102. 102.

    CarolDuhart2

    @schrodingers_cat: It’s notable that you always talk about Churchill whenever we bring up World War II. As bad as Churchill was in the East-there were people like Quisling who actively and willingly oppressed their own people. Open cooperation that sent people to the death camps, if they didn’t do their own share of killing. At least Britain was a haven for fleeing Jews.

    And Churchill at least inspired enough people to hold out against Hitler long enough to actually reverse the tide. And a triumphant Hitler would have been far worse than Churchill on his worst day, actively killing as opposed to letting people die.

    There is no hagiography here. We are all aware that Churchill was just another colonialist and would have happily kept India for England for another generation. There’s no nostalgia for the Empire and its days of glory here. But there was one good thing he did.

    He got America behind the war effort and the resistance to Hitler thereby got the needed resources to win the war.

  104. 104.

    GregB

    The next time I play cards and I have the ability to block someone else, I will play my Obama card.

  105. 105.

    Another Scott

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: She’s a non-political political watchdog who wants to give readers the saucy drama.

    Or something.

    If you listen to the audio of interviews with her, she sounds (to me) genuinely hurt that people don’t understand that she’s not being mean and that she’s “not political”.

    It’s baffling to me.

    I guess she sees herself as a frustrated playwright or screen play author who is trapped at the Times because nothing else would ever pay as well. Or something. It’s curious the way her brain works (or at least the way she expresses how her brain_works).

    ¯_(ツ)_/¯

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  106. 106.

    trollhattan

    @bemused senior:
    What a great photo collection! History comes alive looking at those young men, scooped up and thrown into a war half-way around the globe. I hope Raven sees the cocker portrait.

  108. 108.

    trollhattan

    @Corner Stone:
    His roles in defeating the Axis and managing the Soviets were pivotal and I guess we can be left to our imaginations as to what other PM might have been able to navigate those crises to the same level of success.

  111. 111.

    germy

    Stephen Blackmoore @sblackmoore

    First a sinkhole in front of Mar-A-Lago and now flashing red lights inside the White House?

    What part of Revelations is that in again?

  112. 112.

    germy

    According to the Independent Journal Review, Sean Hannity has gone “underground” while he decides whether or not he wants to return to Fox News next week.

  113. 113.

    J R in WV

    @Corner Stone:

    A whole lot of “Great Men of History” have two sides to their greatness, Churchill more than most. He was involved in the invention of the Concentration Camps during the Boer War in South Africa, and as S. Cat has stated before, had a horrific record on “British” India, along with so many other famous British military heros.

    Lord this and Baron that were sent out to make sure the Indians were properly under the British thumb, with no chance of wriggling out. They did a great job, from the British perspective, which is why they became famous and historic. From the Indian perspective, they were vicious killers of women and children, far worse than Quisling who was a puppet, a happy willing puppet, but still just a puppet.

    Still, Quisling got what he had coming in the end.

  114. 114.

    Amir Khalid

    @Corner Stone:
    You know the saying about where a great fortune comes from, don’t you? Sometimes, something similar lies behind a great man’s greatness. Winston Churchill was, after all, not just an English aristocrat born in the 19th century, with all the prejudices of any person of that time and that social class, but also a lifelong servant of the British Empire.

    ETA: JR in WV in the comment above has all the details.

  115. 115.

    Immanentize

    @Laura: I know Im late to the MoDo discussion, but I think she broke her brain in the anthrax moment. Watching/reading that in real time was disturbing. She threw over all her abilities because of crazy fear. Her selfishness grew 100 times that day(s). Reverse Grinch. Go into the archives and check it out. She has been very small since.

  117. 117.

    Gelfling 545

    Aw, think of the children…or at least my sweet, social-activist grandscild who is saddled with that unfotunate surname. She has suffered.

  118. 118.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @germy: and now flashing red lights inside the White House?

    I saw a couple of tweets on that. Did anybody ever find out what it was? The tanning beds on the blink?

  119. 119.

    Emma

    @Corner Stone: Speaking as a once-time historian, ain’t no such thing (which I know you know). All Great anythings have feet (and sometimes ankles and knees) of clay. Often they are simply the right (wo)man at the right time and hagiography takes care of the rest.

  120. 120.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Amir Khalid: @J R in WV: Let’s also not forget Gallipoli when we discuss Churchill’s greatness or the lack thereof. Most Americans think that the British Empire was a genteel affair, wherein they taught savages to drink tea, play cricket and speak English. Apologists of the Empire like Niall Ferguson like to take credit for independent India’s successes too.

  121. 121.

    germy

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Did anybody ever find out what it was? The tanning beds on the blink?

    I’ve seen various explanations from the humorists: Melanoma distress signal? Coke machine button on the fritz? The summoning of HellBoy?

  122. 122.

    Immanentize

    As a defense attorney, I have always been interested in this great discussion between to great lawyers/educators that I have had the pleasure to hang with, Michael Tigar and Monroe Freedman. It goes like this — If you were an attorney in Vichy France, could/would you represent someone by arguing that there was insufficient proof that they were “legally” Jewish to prevent his or her deportation?

  124. 124.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    And to all of you going to a Memorial Day event in your hometown, do as Ivanka sez, and don’t forget to get your champagne Popsicles. Make that visit to the National Cemetery a first class affair.

  127. 127.

    J R in WV

    @SFAW:

    Bush’s Ambassador to Kuwait as much as told Hussein we wouldn’t care if he “annexed” Kuwait, which had been a province of Iraq in the pre-war history of the region. Then we were so shocked when it happened, and allowed lies to be told about the brutality of the occupation, which was exactly as brutal as his rule over the rest of Iraq.

    So, yeah. Lies about both wars! Both Bush specialties. And of course, there was the Iraqi plot to kill Bush the First when he visited Kuwait after the war, which inspired Bush the Lessor to, in his own mind or what passes for his mind, to remove Saddam Hussein from power at any cost, to prove that Bush the Lessor was as great a war leader as Bush the First. Which appeared to be true, no more and no less.

    Remember when Bush the First encouraged the Arabs of the south to rise up against Saddam? And they were all killed, exterminated by Hussein’s Royal Guard? Same same as the aftermath of the Second Gulf War, still underway three presidents later on. Millions dead by now.

  128. 128.

    Aleta

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: It was suggested that it was a reflection from flashing lights, such as police cars, located fairly far down the road. (Closer ones would have also shown on the walls, but that didn’t happen, so thought to be farther off. )

  132. 132.

    Woodrowfan

    @SFAW: there is a better case for the excuses for Panama that Gulf War I although Bush I fucked up a lot before the war, and after, dealing with Iraq. At least he didn’t make the same stupid mistakes his son made.

  134. 134.

    Lapassionara

    @Immanentize: when I get depressed about the current mal-administration, I remind myself how fortunate we are that MoDo doesn’t have anything to write about, now that Hillary is not president.

  136. 136.

    CarolDuhart2

    @schrodingers_cat: Most Americans? Maybe some white people do, but the Empire was first financed by the proceeds of the international slave trade and the cotton grown by it. And the Founding Fathers liked the Empire so much that they rebelled against it.

    And don’t take the American interest in 19th century costume dramas for thinking that the Empire was a civilizing force. If anything, it inhibited the process considerably. What India/Africa/Asia and parts between might have become if they had the ability to learn from the lessons of the industrial revolution and the social revolutions of the 19th century is lost potential.

  139. 139.

    Another Scott

    @CarolDuhart2: Don’t forget sugar, also too.

    Concurrent with the rise of sugar came large-scale and intensive exploitation of slave labor, and here too Drax was a notorious pioneer. Prior to 1640, the primary source of labor in Barbados had been European indentured servants. Although there were African slaves in Barbados before this point, it was only after 1640, and frequently in tandem with the cultivation of sugar, that slave labor began to supplant indentured servitude as the chief mode of production. Drax was deeply involved in this transition, acquiring 22 slaves in early 1642, just as he was getting involved in sugar.[6] In 1644, he purchased another 34 slaves.[7] By the early 1650s, his huge estate was manned by some 200 slaves of African descent.[8] The model of intensive slave labor, organized into work gangs, and disciplined through ubiquitous violence, also quickly spread through the Caribbean, going hand-in-hand with sugar production.

    The NMAAHC brings out the importance of sugar in the evils of slavery, also too.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  142. 142.

    scav

    Trump’s very coat of arms is wrestled without permission off the back of another family. (Well, his own arms have hands that are far too small for public display).

  143. 143.

    bemused senior

    @Another Scott: Also visit the Whitney Plantation near New Orleans. Restored as a monument to the slaves that worked and died there. A wall of names includes many children who died stirring the boiling kettles that reduced the sugar cane to syrup.

  144. 144.

    Roger Moore

    @CarolDuhart2:
    FWIW, Churchill’s willingness to sacrifice colonials for the good of Britain was hardly limited to ones with the wrong skin color. Look at what he did at Galipoli, for instance. He never admitted that the attack there was a terrible mistake and he threw away thousands of ANZAC lives to no purpose.

  145. 145.

    Suzanne

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    How’s about, “Doing the donald” for taking a dump on the toilet?

    My mother used to refer to taking the dogs out to do their business as “droppin’ a Nixon”.

  147. 147.

    Roger Moore

    @Amir Khalid:

    Winston Churchill was, after all, not just an English aristocrat born in the 19th century, with all the prejudices of any person of that time and that social class, but also a lifelong servant of the British Empire.

    And a firm believer that he had inherited military genius from his illustrious ancestor, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. I recently finished reading his hagiography biography of Marlborough, and it gives as much insight into its author’s view of Britain as it gives about its nominal subject.

  149. 149.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    looks like trump is becoming a campaign issue in Germany

    Richard Chambers‏Verified account @ newschambers
    Remarkable attack on Trump’s treatment of Merkel by her chief rival Martin Schulz.

    “The way this man takes it upon himself to treat the elected head of our government is unacceptable.”
    a short video, with subtitles, at the link. I heard a Republican on the Joy Reid show yesterday say “Republicanland” is pretty happy with trump’s trip– I’m guessing “He showed them furrinners who’s boss!”.

    And Bob Corker put out a statement almost as North Korean in its praise of trump as the one trump (Bannon? Priebus? Jared?) put out himself. Someone said it’s Corker’s audition to replace Tillerson, I think it’s more likely there are whispers, or at least fears, of a primary challenge is he doesn’t toe the MAGA line. See also, Lindsey Graham coming snarkily to the defense of Jared, splitting with Old Man McCain, just re-elected for six years, and recently turned 80.

  151. 151.

    smintheus

    “Trumplings” might be a more evocative term.

    Has the media recognized that it’s already considered legitimate to debate whether a presidential administration is full of traitors selling the country out? Maybe someone needs to remind them that the Republicans made it acceptable way back in the 1940s when they began accusing Harry Truman’s administration of communist infiltration because rightwingers’ fantasy foreign policy had not been imposed upon the world.

    If it’s ok to spend years defaming a patriotic administration with baseless allegations, then it’s certainly ok to discuss whether the Trumplings are traitorous based upon very real evidence. And the media doesn’t need to be afraid to go one inch farther than discussing whether the campaign “coordinated” with Putin. This isn’t just about electoral politics. The media damn well ought to be asking by now whether Trump is helping Putin to enact his foreign policy. The US president just chose not to endorse Article 5 of the NATO charter, for chrisakes.

  154. 154.

    tobie

    As this thread has become one about the ambivalent legacies of so-called great men, I thought I’d add another item to the mix. There were many elements in the Indian National Congress that were sympathetic to the Germans in WWII because they thought the Germans would stick it to England. The “Quit India” campaign of the INC was spearheaded by Mohandas K. Gandhi, who fled to Germany in 1941 because of his sympathy for the axis powers. It’s not a proud moment in the history of the INC. Ressentiment as a political strategy can lead to some terrible associations. I’m thinking of the US support for the Taliban in the 1980s, for instance.

  157. 157.

    Another Scott

    @Keith P.: He’s too old (61). No sensible President who wants to leave a long-lasting impression on the SCOTUS would pick someone that old.

    Oh.

    Strike that…

    (Still, if he’s not on the Federalist/Heritage list, he’s not getting on.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  158. 158.

    schrodingers_cat

    @tobie: Your ignorance of Indian history is showing, you mixed up Gandhi with Bose. Gandhi was in India in 1941, AFAIK he was never in Germany. Your neat little precis of Quit India Movement is bullshit too. What’s your source?

  160. 160.

    Chris

    @J R in WV:

    April Glaspie told Saddam “we have no opinion on Arab Arab conflicts like your border dispute with Kuwait.” I suppose it’s possible that he was trying to trick Saddam into invading, but it seems more likely to me that they were simply trying to remain neutral in a dispute between two Arab nations they wanted friendly relations with. Iraqi-Kuwaiti border disputes had flared up in the past and never amounted to more than pass and wind, and with eight years of grueling war only recently ended, it wouldn’t be surprising if they thought Saddam wasn’t about to start some shit.

    On the other hand Bush deserves plenty of shit for inciting the Shi’a in southern Iraq to rebel against Saddam and then failing to support them. And for covering for Saddam in 1989 when he gassed the Kurds, and the Bush administration tried to pin the blame on Iran.

  162. 162.

    tobie

    @schrodingers_cat: Oops…I was thinking about something else when I was typing. Of course I meant Subhas Chandra Bose. I’m not that ignorant and I’ve never stooped to calling anyone else ignorant on this blog.

    As to source: various books, family conversations over the decades in US and in Chennai and Hyderabad.

  163. 163.

    schrodingers_cat

    @tobie: Bose had left the Indian National Congress by 1941 because of disagreements with Gandhi. You accused Gandhi of something he did not do and then conflated Bose’s Indian National Army with Indian National Congress. If you know what you are talking about this comment did not reflect it.

    There were many elements in the Indian National Congress that were sympathetic to the Germans in WWII because they thought the Germans would stick it to England. The “Quit India” campaign of the INC was spearheaded by Mohandas K. Gandhi, who fled to Germany in 1941 because of his sympathy for the axis powers. It’s not a proud moment in the history of the INC.

  166. 166.

    CarolDuhart2

    I’m sure there were a few Indians/Colonials who sided with Germany hoping that they would break the chains. Desperation makes for bad alliances-advocacy at times.

  167. 167.

    Montanareddog

    @Roger Moore: I have a vague memory of a quotation from the Duchess of Marlborough’s diary: “His Grace came home from the wars today and pleasured me twice in his topboots”

  168. 168.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: he was bobbing up and down to the national anthem, sort of mouthing the words, as people in the responses said, somewhere between a bored kid in church and a half-drunk guy at a baseball game.

  169. 169.

    Another Scott

    @Betty Cracker: It works here. “drstef” and James Fallows and many others have it. Donnie’s singing at Arlington, with a stupid grin on his face.

    :-/

    It’s worse than when W was dancing at that Dallas Police memorial service.

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  170. 170.

    aimai

    @CarolDuhart2: Yes, there were indians who allied with Japan, although it was not a good idea for them long term. People often ally themselves with the enemy of their enemy but since there is no real shared goal for other than defeating the enemy the weaker party often ends up doing the stronger party’s dirty work/hard fighting and still not getting its nationalist goals met. As between Japan and its greater prosperity zone/torture (i.e. torture, murder, and rape of China) and Great Britain its not like there was much to choose from.

  171. 171.

    Kathleen

    @JPL: Caught tail end of The Toady Show’s recounting of the tragedy. In the very last sentence the reader mentioned as an aside that the alleged suspect expressed extremist views on social media (paraphrasing). Now, had the alleged suspect been Muslim or African American I would bet that every tweet, or Facebook post would be parsed ad nauseam, along with detailed family histories. Oh, I think I misspelled Today Show. Snap.

  172. 172.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist @Another Scott: Thanks — I was able to see it the second time I clicked. He’s doing a deranged narcissist’s imitation of what they think a super-patriotic person would do. I saw him do something similar at a rally here in Florida during the campaign when he turned to one of the flags on the stage and hugged it in such a weird way that he almost appeared to hump it! I wish I was joking.

  174. 174.

    jefft452

    @CarolDuhart2: “And Churchill at least inspired enough people to hold out against Hitler”
    Any evidence of that? Clement Attlee and the Labour Party would have surrendered without Winnie to “inspire” them? The Maquis were OK with the Vichy regime until the heard a speech by the great man?

    “He got America behind the war effort and the resistance to Hitler”
    Nope, the Fall of France did that

  175. 175.

    CarolDuhart2

    It was the Americans he affected. Britain would have continued to fight as long as possible. It was the isolationist Amercans who were moved to help first through Lend-Lease and other efforts, to resupply a starving, beaten nation.

  176. 176.

    dogwood

    @Another Scott:
    It’s not even comparable to W in Dallas. W was responding to gospel music which motivates a physical and joyous response. Nobody at Emmanuel AME stood in silent reverence while Obama sang Amazing Grace either. That’s the problem with any type of derangement syndrome; people lose their integrity in order to make some cheap, petty political point. Trump’s performance at Arlington is embarrassingly disrespectful. If you want to compare him to W, then compare him to W on Memorial Day.

  178. 178.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Also patting his chest (more or less in rhythm), swaying back and forth, mouthing some (but not all) of the words, and at the end turning to Mattis and the military guy with that big smug shit-eating grin he always gets on his face when he thinks he’s been clever.

  180. 180.

    Kathleen

    @Immanentize: What amazes me to this day is the frenzy of fear media breathlessly invoke about the anthrax scare because 30 Rock and Tom Brokaw. These same reporters never memorialize the African American postal workers who actually died because they handled it as part of their real jobs, or the National Enquirer reporter in Florida. They can’t be bothered to mention the “great unwashed”.

  181. 181.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Betty Cracker:

    He’s doing a deranged narcissist’s imitation of what they think a super-patriotic person would do.

    And once again: “If Obama had done this….!”

  183. 183.

    NorthLeft12

    Is there anything connected to Deadbeat Donald that does not reek of scammery, ignorance, entitlement, and obnoxiousness?

    The longer his Presidency continues the lower the US will sink in influence and prestige. Is that possibly a good thing for you and the rest of the world? Discuss.

  184. 184.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @dogwood:

    And say what you will about W, but he gave us the greatest possible all-purpose descriptor of the Trump years: “That was some weird shit.”

  187. 187.

    Sloane Ranger

    @jefft452: The Labour Party wasn’t the Government. If Churchill hadn’t become PM the other option was Lord Halifax, one of the architects of appeasement. After the fall of France he suggested a negotiated peace but was over ruled by Churchill.

    Churchill was a ruthless bloody minded bastard. He sent troops to the town of Tonnypandy in Wales to break a strike and urged the Government to do the same during the General Strike but his ruthless bloodymindedness was what was needed at the time.

    Someone up thread implied that Japanese rule of India would have been indistinguishable from British rule. Sorry but this is wrong. Japanese rule would have been a whole order of magnitude worse. See Rape of Nankin!

  188. 188.

    hitchhiker

    @Karen:

    We play a game called Euchre at our house that also has “trump” cards. We’ve started calling it “obama.”

    e.g.
    What’s obama?
    Clubs.

  190. 190.

    Mnemosyne

    @Sloane Ranger:

    Churchill was a good leader for Europe under the very specific circumstances of fighting European fascism, but there’s a reason he got tossed out on his ear after peace came. He was a one-trick pony with a really useful trick right when it was needed.

  191. 191.

    The Pale Scot

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    flashing red lights inside the White House

    Probably the Reptilian’s multi-dimensional transport system returning the creature known as Drump to his station. One of the stooges forgot to throw the sheet back over it after using it to stabilize his DNA deterioration.

    Or it was a warning light indicating that the Pleiadians are still trying to insert a shadow of empathy in the Drump creature using their 5-D upgrade technology, which seems doomed to failure due to the single minded determination of Reptilians to exterminate other species that have the potential to ascend the Spiritual Hierarchy.

  193. 193.

    Aleta

    The mad king Donald’s courtiers throughout Congress and the WH are determined to keep pretending. It makes me think that the effort itself is not new or shocking for them, even though he may be pushing it to extremes. Perhaps they’re so used to political insider trading extending even to friends in the FBI or Justice (Wall St. or Defense) that handling it out in the open is just a big step down a familiar road instead of a line they won’t cross.

    And possibly DT’s past experiences with police, DA’s, judges or FBI contacts convinced him to risk asking Comey or the NSF head for favors. A difference being that he had to do it himself instead of through his lawyers or campaign help.

  196. 196.

    J R in WV

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I remembered that, but was hazy on the speling (sic ;-) and too lazy to look it up. One more detail on a long and famous career of fucking up by the numbers, except for rallying the English in 1940 until D-Day – four very long years of daily/nightly bombing raids and horror in Africa, Eastern Europe, etc…

  197. 197.

    momus

    Its for his golf resorts? He could have at least changed the spear to a golf iron (or maybe a putter).

  198. 198.

    J R in WV

    @nightranger:

    That was crazy. Just like George W Bush in Dallas, at a funeral. But I confess, who on anyone’s staff would think to tell them to be still during the national anthem at Arlington???

    We visited Arlington when I was a little boy, and Mt Vernon. I barely remember it. And some museums in DC… I remember that better than Mt Vernon, which in 1960s days was boring, and I liked old stuff.

  199. 199.

    Mnemosyne

    @J R in WV:

    You’d probably like Mount Vernon a lot more now — they’ve added some really interesting exhibits about the lives of Washington’s slaves. I haven’t visited since the mid-1980s, but I remember that they had restored the slaves’ graveyard by then.

  200. 200.

    J R in WV

    @bemused senior:

    The pictures you have scanned and posted are wonderful. I was clicking through and saw the letter General Quesada wrote with regard to awards for meritorious combat duty, and was quite moved. “Speedy” did a good job, obviously. You must be very proud.

    I noticed the picture of the plane outside the factory was the only time it loooked clean and new, after that all the aircraft looked the part.

    Thanks for sharing family history with everyone! I got dust in my eyes again…

  201. 201.

    Zinsky

    I absolutely agree, Betty. You are always spot on in your analysis and action statements. Let’s hang this mango-colored pile of shit (Trump) around the Republican’s collective neck for the next 100 years. Like Hooverville, any poor, shitass little town should be dubbed “Trumpville” and the residents reminded over and over again what a worthless pervert he was…

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