Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

The revolution will be supervised.

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

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

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

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

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

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

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Open Thread: He Wants to Be the Villain in A Hit Bruce Springsteen Song

Open Thread: He Wants to Be the Villain in A Hit Bruce Springsteen Song

by | 145 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

When you’re as thirsty as Crispie Christie, even negative attention is better than no attention at all…

Gov. Chris Christie joined his family at a state-owned retreat in Island Beach State Park on Saturday night, less than 24 hours after ordering the closure of all state parks and beaches because of the budget impasse in Trenton.

The governor addressed members of the Legislature about the stalemate on Saturday and then left the capital for the park, a spokesman confirmed Sunday morning.

Christie, his wife, his children and their guests have the run of the 10-mile barrier island, where police are turning away all others visitors over the long holiday weekend.

During a news conference in Trenton, Christie said it was his right to stay in the park even if no one else can visit.

“That’s because the governor has a residence at Island Beach. Others don’t,” Christie said on Saturday, the first day of the state shutdown. “It’s just the way it goes. Run for governor and then you can have the residence.”…

The property is guarded by state police, who are not subject to the shutdown order. The governor has a personal security detail that follows him everywhere he goes….

As they say in Asbury Park: Christ, what an asshole.

ETA:

Reader Interactions

145Comments

  2. 2.

    sherparick

    A big, fat middle finger, saying “You voted for me twice, suckers!!” Another lesson learned, no matter how bad the Democrat (John Corzine), the Republican will always be worse.

  5. 5.

    efgoldman

    Hasn’t Governor Mucilage shut a bunch of things down in Maine for the same reason?
    I don’t know if he shut the state parks for the holiday weekend, but it’s exactly the kind of spiteful thing he’d do.

  8. 8.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    Did he not undergo weight loss surgery of some type? Doesn’t seem to have taken. I don’t say this to fat shame. Trey Gowdy and Louis Gohmert are gaunt and are terrible people.

  10. 10.

    lurker dean

    the jackass also denied he got any sun. f-ing a-hole.

    http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/07/christie_pictured_at_island_beach_state_park_durin.html

    “At a Sunday news conference on the shutdown, Christie was asked if he got any sun today.
    “I didn’t,” he said. “… I didn’t get any sun today.”
    When later told of the photo, Brian Murray, the governor’s spokesman, said:
    “Yes, the governor was on the beach briefly today talking to his wife and family before heading into the office. He did not get any sun. He had a baseball hat on.”

  11. 11.

    Hungry Joe

    Fictional, James Bond-ish villains revel in their own villainy; real-life bad guys come up with reasons to justify, if only to themselves, their evil deeds. I wonder what story Christie has fashioned for himself this time. I bet it’s a doozy … but then, he’s had a lot of practice.

  15. 15.

    Iowa Old Lady

    I was just reading on facebook that the artist who did the cover for my middle grade novel worked on the My Little Pony movie coming out in the fall. Cool.

  16. 16.

    MomSense

    @efgoldman:

    It’s only a partial shit down so all the state parks are open. We are currently overrun with cars with Jersey plates.

  18. 18.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    I guess people in New Jersey can’t wait to see the back of this guy. What an asshole. I don’t understand why so many voters seem to be taken with the idea of electing assholes. I guess they think assholes are less likely to take any shit. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but one thing about assholes, they hand out a whole lot of shit. Maybe people will learn something this time.

  19. 19.

    Ruckus

    What gets me is that Crispy is by no means the worst of the lot. For sure he’s horrible but not even close to the worst.
    He wasn’t bad enough for drumpf. Think about that for a moment if you have the stomach.

  20. 20.

    Wag

    Sandy, that State Park I was hoping to see lost its appeal for me
    I tried to make camping reservations last week , but Christie won’t let have a fire this warm 4th of July night

  23. 23.

    SiubhanDuinne

    During a news conference in Trenton, Christie said it was his right to stay in the park even if no one else can visit.

    “That’s because the governor has a residence at Island Beach. Others don’t,” Christie said on Saturday, the first day of the state shutdown. “It’s just the way it goes. Run for governor and then you can have the residence.”…

    The utter and contemptible arrogance of this guy.

    @MomSense:

    It’s only a partial shit down

    I saw what you did there.

  25. 25.

    p.a.

    Kansas successfully exiled its head vampire (leaving the sub vamps in the state lege of course). Landing spots for Crispy? St. Helena have a consulate?

  32. 32.

    CZanne

    @West of the Rockies (been a while): He’s lost about 100 pounds — that’s clearly visible. But 1) I’m going to assume that his microbiome is fubar’ed. It often is, with his history and high stress. Getting down from a BMI in the upper 40s to 50s to the thirties is absolutely success, and for that, he deserves praise. It’s hard work, it’s painful, and it’s not magic.

    2) surgery doesn’t fix obsessive, emotional or compulsive eating. It just makes it more difficult. That takes a commitment to cognitive therapy work, and that is something people like him won’t take on.

  36. 36.

    Lurking Canadian

    @Ruckus: That’s what I was thinking, too. You can’t just refer to “That overweight, thin-skinned, Republican loudmouth who abuses reporters in public”. You have to specify which one.

    I do not understand people who vote for Republicans. How do you grow to adulthood having completely missed the fundamental “Dos” and “Don’ts” of living in a society? Were none of them Boy Scouts? Did they never watch Sesame Street?

  42. 42.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Until voters stop voting for these assholes, they’re going to get buggered repeatedly with no reach-around.

    When will they ever learn?

  44. 44.

    Barbara

    How many ways can you give the middle finger to your constituents? As if the GW bridge stunt wasn’t sufficiently contemptuous, he needed to screw them as they were trying to get to work and then again when they were trying to get a few days away.

  45. 45.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Hungry Joe:
    Real life assholes justify their actions by blaming the victim. Most likely he believes those signs.

    @Ruckus:
    As per above, it is very, very hard to learn from your mistakes if you always blame someone else for them. Conservatives will endure incredible suffering before doing anything except digging in, because their suffering just proves how important it is to make Those People pay.

  47. 47.

    efgoldman

    @Barbara:

    How many ways can you give the middle finger to your constituents? As if the GW bridge stunt wasn’t sufficiently contemptuous, he needed to screw them as they were trying to get to work

    Term limited as noted above; couldn’t get elected county dog officer now, and he knows it. Why should he give a shit, really?

  48. 48.

    Mnemosyne

    Also, a message for the Juicers who are also writers: there is still room in our Balloon-Juice Camp NaNoWriMo cabin. So far there’s me, Miss Bianca, R-Jud, stinger, and a lurker. If you’d also like to join up for some writing support this month, send me a Gmail at Mnemosyne dot muse.

  51. 51.

    NotMax

    @Mnemosyne

    Totally. Balsamic vinegar is an abomination. Tastes like liquified moth flakes. Will not suffer having it in the larder.

  53. 53.

    Calming Influence

    “State Parks” are just the thin edge of the wedge to Socialism anyway. We obviously don’t want that, so we should judge Christie’s behavior in the context of how we want our future overlords to behave. I would vote for less hubris, but there probably won’t be a vote.

  54. 54.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @NotMax: I made the mistake of clicking your link. A cup of sugar??? Thanks so fucking much for the insulin spike. Don’t you arseholes here know any diabetics, or do y’all consider killing us off part of the charm of your cuisine??

  55. 55.

    Ladyraxterinok

    The contempt our so-called leaders have for us is so brazen and ‘out there’ now. They no longer feel there is any need to pretend. They think ‘So what? What can you poor slobs do about it?’

  58. 58.

    Ruckus

    @Frankensteinbeck:
    All true but how badly are they suffering? A great number of the people that voted for drumpf don’t seem to be in all that bad of shape, other than maybe in their minds. Their suffering is an awful lot of bullshit and not much else. OK maybe ingesting all that bullshit has given them …… stupid.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    Christie’s another one. He’s mad all the time. Why? My God, what else does he need? He just took a helicopter to the beach. Why is he snarling at people?

    Trump spent the day tweeting and golfing. He’s mad too.

  62. 62.

    NotMax

    @Uncle Cosmo

    Sweet and sour requires sweet. (It’s a very old Pennsy Dutch recipe, cadged and slightly adjusted from a pamphlet of recipes printed in the 1930s.) Sugar substitute (Stevia or whatever) would probably work as well*.

    Too, it makes a lot of potato salad, so 1 cup for the amount of end product isn’t all that much. One batch lasts me more than a week.

    *although am unfamiliar with cooking using those products, so possible some sort of thickener might have to be added as well to achieve the thick creaminess of the dressing. A soupçon of arrowroot or cornstarch, I suppose.

  63. 63.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:
    They are mad because they don’t have everything.
    OK crispy is probably mad because no one likes him, and he couldn’t even get a job with drumpf.
    drumpf is mad because…… OK he’s just fucking nuts. OK he’s probably mad because life hasn’t worked out exactly the way he pictured it in nursery school. Which for him was last week.

  64. 64.

    Calming Influence

    Republicans think taxes are evil. To show their patriotism, Democrats should stop paying taxes. Since Republicans hold the House, the Senate, and the White House, they can now easily demonstrate how well a tax-free government works.

  66. 66.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Ladyraxterinok:

    The contempt our so-called leaders have for us is so brazen and ‘out there’ now. They no longer feel there is any need to pretend. They think ‘So what? What can you poor slobs do about it?’

    I know. It’s all “Hahaha, I’m President and you’re not, nyah nyah nyah!” Or “I’m Governor so I get a nice beach house, you might get one too if you were governor!” It’s a finger to the eye and “Go ahead and do something about it, I dare you!” Classic bullying behaviour.

  67. 67.

    Gretchen

    That potato salad sounds good. I’m making the Cook’s Illustrated one for a bbq tomorrow. They recommend sprinkling a little white vinegar over the potatoes while they’re still warm. It soaks in and seasons the potatoes for a little extra zing. I wonder if the vermouth serves the same function. I may try that.

  69. 69.

    Anne Laurie

    @MomSense:

    It’s only a partial shit down so all the state parks are open.

    What an extraordinarily… appropriate typo!

    (With Gov. Mucilage as the ‘shit’ in question, of course.)

  70. 70.

    NotoriousJRT

    An asshole who “tells it like it is” is still at hie core an asshole.

  72. 72.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Lurking Canadian: Probably thought Big Bird was a wimp because he didn’t beat up everybody. But probably did not watch because there are no gun fights and explosions. Boring.

  73. 73.

    Gretchen

    @Woodrowfan: I forgot he was under consideration for veep. I would feel better thinking he’s next in line than Christian zealot Dense. It’s a really good thing to have smart people in charge.

  74. 74.

    randy khan

    @PsiFighter37:

    Kim Guadagno probably isn’t a fan of this move. Lulz

    It only would be better if he had invited her to the park for the weekend.

    The amazing thing is that, if the stories I’ve seen are right, this fight isn’t really over the budget. Christie wants legislation bundled with the budget to seize excess surpluses from the biggest insurer in the state (which is state owned, strangely enough), and the speaker of the Assembly won’t include that in the budget package.

  76. 76.

    Gretchen

    @Frankensteinbeck: I think you’re right about child abuse in America. My husband is marveling that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is enabling Trump’s bad behavior, and wondering how she would react if her children behaved that way. I pointed out that her brother got kicked out of the Boy Scouts for killing a dog, and said that abused people abuse others, including animals. If dad abused one child, he probably abused them all. Evangelicals especially feel that everyone being religious is very important, because why would anyone behave if they weren’t afraid of eternal damnation? The idea of just being kind to others because that’s the right way to behave is foreign to them.

  77. 77.

    NobodySpecial

    Well, at least one good piece of news in a place with a Republican governor: Illinois Republicans finally blinked.

    Rauner, a former private equity specialist from Winnetka, had spent tens of millions of dollars on legislative campaigns and TV ads to prop up the Illinois Republican Party as a counterweight to Madigan and his labor union allies. And Republican lawmakers largely had stuck by their governor — until Sunday.

    The fissure emerged, and a pair Downstate Republicans summed up the split.

    “For me right here today, this is the sword that I’m willing to die on,” said Rep. Michael Unes, a Republican from East Peoria. “And if it costs me my seat, so be it.”

    Rep. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, said while she hated taxes, as a fiscal conservative she could not stand by while the state can not pay billions of dollars in bills owed to small businesses.

    Bryant teared up when explaining that she must do what is best for her district, which includes Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

    “I hope you will help me bring my university back,” said Bryant, who added that she expected to face a primary challenge because of her vote.

  80. 80.

    d58826

    @Baud: I blame her e-mails.

    Seriously he would have been a perfect fit in the nest of vipers that we used to call the White House.

  81. 81.

    Mike J

    @NobodySpecial: In Washington, we finally got a budget deal that had something for everyone. Democrats got more money for schools, Republicans got the property tax hike they demanded.

  88. 88.

    nightranger

    Remember that wrong way Cole used to openly say that this guy was totally awesome. I believe he still thinks that but knows better than to say it openly now. Same with Griftwald. He even posted a link from the intercept not too long ago so he definitely still reads what that grifter writes.

  90. 90.

    NotMax

    In other news, Gulf tensions set to ratchet up another notch (emphasis added).

    The Gulf crisis that pits Saudi Arabia and the UAE against Qatar is set to escalate with Doha certain to ignore Monday’s deadline that it complies with demands that would undermine Qatari sovereignty and humiliate Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at a time that he is riding high on a wave of Qatari nationalism sparked by the Gulf crisis.

    Four weeks into the crisis, the demands appear to have been crafted for what is becoming a longer battle that the two Gulf states hope will end with Qatar, with or without Sheikh Tamim, adopting policies crafted in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have declared the demands to be non-negotiable, offered Qatar no face-saving way out of the crisis, and appear to have designed them to be deliberately insulting.

    The Saudi-UAE-led coalition against Qatar is likely to further tighten the boycott of Qatar once the Monday deadline passes.…
    [snip]
    Despite denials, Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s take-it-or-leave-it approach appears to include the option of fostering an environment conducive to regime change if Qatar proves capable of circumventing the boycott for an extended period of time.

    State-controlled media in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE also contributed to undermine Sheikh Tamim’s position, parallel to the Gulf states’ almost unprecedented attacks on Qatar’s ruling Al Thani clan, through interviews of little known dissident family members and military officers opposed to the emir’s policies. Source

  93. 93.

    NotMax

    Watching a movie about the plot to assassinate Trotsky, The Chosen. Pretty good, although the pacing is uneven.

  94. 94.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Gretchen:
    American Fundamentalism is built on such toxic stew of hypocritical, hate-based codes, I would be astonished to find that more than a tiny sliver of their families aren’t seriously abusive. There are whole swathes and movements within Fundamentalism built around child abuse as their central concept. Every time you hear them talk about schools on the subjects of liberal indoctrination, prayer, or abstinence only sex-ed, they out themselves as child abusers whose strategy of child rearing is forced ignorance to lock their child into their own mold. That’s the LOW end of their abuse spectrum.

  95. 95.

    Another Scott

    @NotMax: 48 hours more:

    Saudi Arabia and three allies boycotting Qatar have agreed to a request by Kuwait to extend by 48 hours Sunday’s deadline for Doha to comply to a set of demands, according to a joint statement on Saudi state news agency SPA.

    Kuwait had received a response by Qatar to list of 13 demands imposed on it by a Saudi-led bloc of Arab countries, state news agency KUNA said on Monday.

    Without stating whether Qatar had rejected the ultimatum as was widely expected, KUNA said Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah asked Saudi Arabia and three other countries that have boycotted Qatar to grant it a 48 hour extension. Kuwait is mediating in the crisis.

    […]

    The foreign ministers of the four countries will meet on Wednesday in Egypt’s capital, Cairo, to discuss their next steps, according to a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry.

    The UAE ambassador to Russia, Omar Ghobash, has previously said that Qatar could face fresh sanctions if it does not comply with the demands.

    The G20 meeting starts on Friday July 7.

    It’s gonna be a “fun” week…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  96. 96.

    Mike J

    @Lurking Canadian:

    How do you grow to adulthood having completely missed the fundamental “Dos” and “Don’ts” of living in a society? Were none of them Boy Scouts? Did they never watch Sesame Street?

    Goofus voted for Trump
    Gallant voted for the continuing survival of humanity.

  100. 100.

    OGLiberal

    The folks in NJ who voted for Trump soured on Christie before his re-election. They’ve hated him for years. They liked him yelling at teachers but that’s about it. Christie got re-elected because the Dems conceded the election without even trying and I think some Dems voted for him because of Sandy and because the Dem candidate was literally nobody. Everybody regretted it soon after. The crazy Trump folks in NJ hate Christie. Doesn’t make them good people but they do not like him at all. My friend, who was a teacher and is now a school administrator hated Christie because of his attacks on education but loves him some Trump because of something about personal responsibility and competition, never mind that DeVos is worse on education than Christie, and that’s hard to achieve. Actually, it’s easy….just be a bigger asshole.

  101. 101.

    Jeffro

    At this point, the parties have sorted themselves into the Party of Spite and the Party of Normal Human Progress. The POS seems to think that their whole reason for living is to spite other people, hold them back, take shots at them, undermine them, treat them as the other, even if it means committing acts of treason with a hostile foreign power bent on bringing the whole country down.

    It’s important that in every way possible, the POS (collectively and individually) feels the impact of its bad choices. Ballot box or brickbat, or both, they need to understand that no one’s going to take this lying down.

  104. 104.

    Another Scott

    @Villago Delenda Est: Maybe, maybe not. VF:

    In private, according to one person who said Christie recounted his conversation with Kushner, Christie is said to have cautioned that the president “better lawyer up and keep his mouth shut,” this person told me. (Brian Murray, a spokesman for Christie, said that “a phone conversation taking place regarding retention of counsel is categorically false. The conversation did not happen.”)

    That Kushner would seek Christie’s legal advice on a matter pertaining to a family member raises eyebrows. Christie, after all, prosecuted a case against Kushner’s father, Charles, more than a decade ago. The elder Kushner ended up pleading guilty to 18 counts of tax evasion, witness tampering, and illegal campaign donations. Jared Kushner, who visited his father in an Alabama prison most weekends while he was serving out his sentence, initially had a harder time accepting Christie into the campaign inner-circle once the New Jersey governor dropped his own presidential bid and threw his weight behind Trump. He reportedly balked at Christie as a vice-presidential nominee, and once Trump won the election in November, played an influential role in removing him from his post as head of the transition team. As sources explained to me last year, Kushner believed Christie was responsible for his father not getting out of prison 28 days early, as the family had expected him to.

    But a White House official told me earlier this year that the two buried the hatchet months ago in order to serve the administration together. When the White House announced that Kushner would helm a sweeping Office of American Innovation within the White House, they appointed Christie to head its opioid task force—allowing the two to work closely together under Kushner’s purview. Sources confirmed to me last week that they now talk often.

    FWIW.

    Christie is looking for something to do after he leaves office in NJ. He will do anything not to burn bridges with Donnie, even if it means being Jared’s butler.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  105. 105.

    Mike in NC

    I can remember being in New Jersey back when Whitman was governor and taxes had been slashed so much that they sent agents to every weekend flea market and yard sale to make sure people were kicking in every possible penny to the state coffers. It was pathetic but emblematic of Republicanism.

  108. 108.

    Aleta

    Is a vote coming soon, now that (if this is true) the Repubs have sent their plan to the CBO to compare the monetary effects of Cruz’s addition? Is it nuts to wonder if Christie might be doing his part to change the subject?

  109. 109.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    I guess they think assholes are less likely to take any shit.

    Christie is a good example of how the asshole status ranking works.

    He gets to be alpha male until a bigger asshole enters the room, in which case he submits as a beta male and seeks to be dominated.

    The case in point being Christie’s behaviour around Trump.

  110. 110.

    Brachiator

    Wow. Christie could teach a master class in assholery.

    Meanwhile, a little further up into New York…

    Jezebel has an interesting article on a holiday party in the Hamptons attended by Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. The party attendees are, of course, almost exclusively white. The guests include a former owner of the Washington Post and other blue bloods who look down on Trump. A good number of these people probably voted for Clinton, and some are Democratic politicians. But for this crowd, the only thing worse than their phony snobbery is their craven hypocrisy.

    http://jezebel.com/heres-everyone-whos-partying-with-jared-and-ivanka-in-t-1796590925

  111. 111.

    cain

    I am a huge fan of Mark Hamill, more that, Mark Hamill IS the voice of The Joker. He’s famous for his voice acting as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series. (which all of you should watch) Anyhoo, Mark started reading recent tweets from Trump as the Joker. So completely awesome. See it here

  113. 113.

    Brachiator

    @cain:

    .Anyhoo, Mark started reading recent tweets from Trump as the Joker. So completely awesome. See it here.

    Great stuff. Thanks.

  114. 114.

    Raven

    Wrapping up the visit to LA, went to the grammy hall of fame in the middle of a massive Anamie convention. Shit was weird.

  123. 123.

    cain

    @Raven:

    Yeah, Anime is an interesting genre. I watch anime with friends every Monday. I specalize in geekiness. Although, I’m not at all what you would call a regular watcher. In fact, indians never watch this stuff, which solidifies the whole “he’s only indian on the outside, but he’s really a white midwest geek”. Coconut perhaps? This is why I drive my fellow south indian friends crazy. ;-)

  124. 124.

    Another Scott

    @Raven: Ooh. Frolicking in the Pacific. We’re supposed to feel sorry for you about that?

    :-)

    Sleep well, everyone.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  125. 125.

    Mnemosyne

    @Raven:

    Um, yeah, I’m not sure I would have advised that particular train trip. But at least it sounds like you made it through with your wallets intact.

  126. 126.

    Peale

    @Timurid: I wonder who the keynote speaker at the anomie convention could be. It’s both the easiest and most difficult gig on the public speaking circuit, I’d imagine.

  129. 129.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Mnemosyne: We rode the Blue Line to our Long Beach office when it first opened, it was quite nice. The trip took too long and our manager told us to take our cars(actually my car).

    ETA: That, of course was 25 years ago, the trip last year was, eh, different.

  130. 130.

    Brachiator

    @Raven:

    .the grammy joint was cool, actually both were.

    Actually, I kid. I know people who do the anime convention and always have big fun.

    We took the train from LAX to downtown and THAT was interesting!.

    The train. Didn’t that involve multiple transfers? People, if you do public transportation from LAX to downtown LA, the modest priced direct route is the LAX shuttle bus from the airport to Union Station.

    ..

  131. 131.

    Peale

    @NotMax: yeah. Do you go for broke trying to find the most inspirational speaker in history? Or the least. Or just pick the cheapest because no one will bother to pay attention anyway.

  133. 133.

    Brachiator

    I’m so glad that there are no international hot spots to draw Trump away from his Twitter fights with MSNBC. Nothing like this recent BBC story:

    Saudi Arabia and three other Arab states have extended the deadline for Qatar to accept a list of demands or face further sanctions by 48 hours.

    The initial deadline for Qatar to agree to the group’s 13 demands, including the shutting down of the Al Jazeera news network, expired on Sunday.

    The Gulf state has said that it will submit its formal response in a letter delivered to Kuwait on Monday.

    Qatar denies accusations from its neighbours that it funds extremism.

    The state’s foreign minister will travel to Kuwait on Monday morning to deliver the letter, sent from the emir of Qatar to the emir of Kuwait, who is the main mediator in the Gulf crisis….

    Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain have accused Qatar of harbouring their opponents – including political Islamists such as the Muslim Brotherhood, which is viewed as a particular threat by the absolute monarchies – and giving them a platform on the Al Jazeera satellite channel, which is funded by the Qatari state.

  134. 134.

    Brachiator

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    . .It would involve only one transfer from the Green Line to the Blue Line. Depending on traffic, it could be faster.

    You have to take a shuttle from LAX to the Green Line Station. Then you have to move from the Green Line to the Blue Line. This is a pain in the butt if you have luggage. I would not even want to do it with a single backpack. The LAX bus cruises along the dedicated bus lane on the 110 from the 105 freeway. Travel time is usually pretty good. And the seats are more comfortable than the Metro trains.

  135. 135.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Brachiator: Forgot about the shuttle from the airport to the Green Line, you are correct there. The transfer from the Green to Blue line is trivial, I did that last year with camera bags. The shuttle uses the HOV lanes on the 110 and 105 so they could be impacted by traffic.

  137. 137.

    Aleta

    One of the Justice Department’s top corporate crime watchdogs has resigned, declaring that she cannot enforce ethics laws against companies while, she asserts, her own bosses in the Trump administration have been engaging in conduct that she said she would never tolerate in corporations.

    Hui Chen — a former Pfizer and Microsoft lawyer who also was a federal prosecutor — had been the department’s compliance counsel. She left the department in June and broke her silence about her move in a recent LinkedIn post that sounded an alarm about the Trump administration’s behavior. (from IBTimes)

    Hui Chen: Trying to hold companies to standards that our current administration is not living up to was creating a cognitive dissonance that I could not overcome. To sit across the table from companies and question how committed they were to ethics and compliance felt not only hypocritical, but very much like shuffling the deck chair on the Titanic.

    Even as I engaged in those questioning and evaluations, on my mind were the numerous lawsuits pending against the President of the United States for everything from violations of the Constitution to conflict of interest, the ongoing investigations of potentially treasonous conducts, and the investigators and prosecutors fired for their pursuits of principles and facts. Those are conducts I would not tolerate seeing in a company, yet I worked under an administration that engaged in exactly those conduct. I wanted no more part in it.

    The management of the Criminal Division, of which the Fraud Section is a part, has persistently prohibited me from public speaking. (snip)

    I have come to realize that nothing matters to me more than working to restore the notions of integrity, decency, and intellect back into our government. I yearn to be a part of that effort more directly than volunteering for and attending protests: I want to help elect candidates who stand for those values, and I cannot do that while under contract with the Criminal Division due to Hatch Act restrictions.”

  138. 138.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brachiator:

    I once took the Big Blue Bus from Westwood to LAX. The only transfer was to the bus that took me from the transit depot to the terminals, but it was kind of a pain in the ass.

  139. 139.

    Elizabelle

    @Mnemosyne: Sent you an email re NatNoWriMo. I will be the designated slacker in the group. Someone has to make the rest of you look insanely productive.

  142. 142.

    sherparick

    @efgoldman: Again, a plurality of Maine voters voted for the guy twice, apparently because the considered being an asshole was a feature, not a bug. Currently, LePage has shutdown the Maine Government so that he can increase the tax on and eliminate lands in conservation trust and easements (apparently a goal of Linda Bean, a big Trumpista).

  143. 143.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @NotMax: Except that there is now another museum in Lost Wagers: the National Atomic Testing Museum, which I visited shortly after it opened on my only trip there. Not sure if it’s worth the rather pricey ticket, but the gift shop is a hoot & it’s free – that’s where I got my Albert Einstein Action Figure (complete with sweat shirt & chalk in one hand). I’m waiting to collect Action Figures of the other big names in physics, Isaac Newton & Stephen Hawking (although a Stephen Hawking Action Figure would be something of a cruel joke – unless he comes sitting on his scooter…)

Comments are closed.