Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

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

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

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

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Giving up is unforgivable.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

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

Fight them, without becoming them!

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Now Every Day Is Opposite Day

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Now Every Day Is Opposite Day

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Because the Trump Occupancy is the opposite of competent…

Leaders of more than a dozen countries will meet for a major summit in the Philippines in mid-November, but President Trump won’t be there. He is planning to skip it and leave the Philippines the day before. It’s a bad signal to send to the region, and it could undermine the overall goal of his Asia tour by calling American regional leadership into question…

“The President’s trip to Asia is extremely lengthy and will be his longest to date – his return to the U.S. on the evening of Nov. 13 is entirely schedule-driven,” the spokesman said. “You should not read anything into his being absent on the 14th.” The East Asia Summit opens in Angeles on Nov. 13, but the major events with world leaders occur on Nov. 14.

But the region is sure to read a lot into Trump’s absence, according to experts and former officials. By not attending the East Asia Summit his first year in office, even though he will already be nearby, Trump is signaling a lack of interest in the organization and the project it represents.

“It is a big deal. The Obama administration made a point of investing in these regional institutions in order to demonstrate we are an Asia Pacific power, a resident power in the region. This will only raise more questions about American credibility,” said Derek Mitchell, former U.S. ambassador to Burma. “Multilateralism in Asia is often just about showing up, but even that appears to be hard for him.”

Multiple administration officials told me there was a lengthy debate inside the Trump administration about the summit, but officials close to Trump were concerned the president did not want to stay in the region for so long and worried he could get cranky, leading to unpredictable or undiplomatic behavior.…

Mitchell said the hosts scheduled the summit close to other regional events, including the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings, specifically to accommodate the U.S. president. Trump will attend APEC meetings in Vietnam on Nov. 10.

“They tend to schedule [the EAS] to make it easier for the United States to attend,” he said. “It’s not necessarily convenient for others. I’m sure it’s frustrating to many of our partners.”…

The East Asia Summit is unique because it focuses on greater strategic issues, as opposed to the economic focus of APEC, said Bower. Trump’s absence is part of a pattern of his administration downgrading the importance of multilateral organizations and forums overall.

The East Asia Summit includes the 10 nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus Russia, China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, India and South Korea, along with the United States. It’s a missed opportunity for Trump to show all those countries that the United States is still committed to the strengthening regional integration and cooperation as China becomes more aggressive and expansionist, said Bower….

And whatever President Obama did, the current Oval Office occupant must do the opposite. Also, he gets so cranky when he’s away from his own gold-encrusted bed. It’s not like any of those faraway countries were important, after all!

Reader Interactions

173Comments

  1. 1.

    Это курам на смех

    I work in an 18-story federal building. In the masonry outside the entrance are engraved the words “President Barack Obama.” In the lobby just past the metal detector are two large picture frames on the wall. Both frames are empty. They are supposed to contain photographs of the Sack of Pus in Chief and his sycophantic sidekick. Also empty are all the smaller frames in the entryways of every office in the building.

    They are empty because the White House has neglected to send us any photos.

    Please don’t tell them.

  7. 7.

    NotMax

    Baby steps are still steps.

    Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pledged on Tuesday a return to a moderate past and looked forward to a technology-driven future.
    [snip]
    The crown prince addressed an audience of thousands of global investors and dignitaries who visited the Saudi capital to hear first-hand how the country’s society and economy are being transformed. He said: “Saudi Arabia was not like this before 1979. We want to go back to what we were, the moderate Islam that’s open to all religions. We want to live a normal life.”
    [snip]
    “Saudi Arabia is a modern nation; Islam is a religion of moderation. Islam is not against modernization, and we have seen the step of allowing Saudi women to drive … all these steps have restored Saudi Arabia’s standing as the leader of the moderate and proud Muslim world where there is no room for extremism,” he told Arab News. Source

    Quick takes:

    1) Being the last holdout standing to implement a positive change is all it takes to make a nation a “leader?”
    2) The position of Crown Prince in the house of Saud is not a lock.

    Addendum.

    …In an interview with the Guardian, the powerful heir to the Saudi throne said the ultra-conservative state had been “not normal” for the past 30 years, blaming rigid doctrines that have governed society in a reaction to the Iranian revolution, which successive leaders “didn’t know how to deal with”.… Source

    3) Calling out his country, its history within living memory of practically all its population and most of all the ruling elite as abnormal? See #2.

  10. 10.

    JPL

    Same Old Party

    With national attention focused Tuesday morning on a mushrooming feud between President Trump and Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., followed by a feud in the afternoon between Trump and Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., the Senate gift-wrapped the biggest present Congress has so far bestowed upon Wall Street in the Trump era.
    With a razor-thin margin, the Senate passed a resolution to nullify a signature regulation from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which banned forced arbitration provisions. Such clauses, tucked into the fine print of contracts that nobody reads, deny consumers the ability to contest claims through a class-action lawsuit, and can allow banks and other financial institutions to rip off their customers with virtual impunity.
    Both Sens. Corker and Flake, along with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., joined in the effort to give Trump a major win, even if it will hurt many of his own voters. Consumer advocates had hoped that moderate Republicans Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine would block the GOP effort. They did not.

    Ryan Grim

  16. 16.

    bystander

    @raven: Growing up in KCMo, we had NuWay Burgers. They were loose burger and chopped onion blown through some steam machine that left it all hot, gray and greasy. On a bun with a generous amount of ketchup, side of fries and a chocolate malted. Childhood naches.

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Exhaust fan broke. The owner is 82 and “not in good health”. He just sounds wore out.

    @NotMax: Never felt much need to go to NYC, but I feel like the Carnegie Deli would have made it worth the trip.

  18. 18.

    Gin & Tonic

    Up way too early to catch a train to Boston for the day. Wonderful day for it – gusty winds and raining cats and dogs. I will get soaked.

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: I lived at Arsenal and Kingshighway for about 2 years, 3 blocks from the Courtesy Diner. (it was the original) It became my habitual late night breakfast hangout and I always ordered a Slinger: 2 eggs (over easy) hash browns, hamburger, chili on top (with shredded cheese and chopped onions liberally sprinkled on top) served with white toast. Never did get used to the white toast but Wonder was the only bread they ever had. Can’t get them out here so now I make ’em for myself when I get the hankering.

  20. 20.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: Newsman Bob Simon was captured by Iraqi forces during the first Gulf War, and when he was released 40 days later, the first thing he requested was a corned beef and pastrami sandwich from Carnegie Deli.

  22. 22.

    Amir Khalid

    From the Washington Post story:

    Multiple administration officials told me there was a lengthy debate inside the Trump administration about the summit, but officials close to Trump were concerned the president did not want to stay in the region for so long and worried he could get cranky, leading to unpredictable or undiplomatic behavior.

    Hillary working trips abroad as SoS had, as a matter of routine, itineraries way more demanding than any of Trump’s.

  25. 25.

    sm*t cl*de

    @NotMax:

    Saudi Arabia’s standing as the leader of the moderate and proud Muslim world where there is no room for extremism

    Sounds like someone is feeling threatened by the theocrats.

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    It’s the crime of the century: Pumpkin-nappers try to carve out a crime spree in Maryland Heights

    MARYLAND HEIGHTS • They call it the great pumpkin caper of suburban St. Louis.

    It all started on the midnight watch for one Maryland Heights police officer the night of Oct. 18. It was about 1:40 a.m. when the first call came in: The pumpkins were missing. First in one subdivision — Pinehurst — then more calls from another — Arrow Heights. There soon seemed to be gaping holes in fall stoop displays everywhere in the area. Sgt. Jamie White of the Maryland Heights Police Department was on the case.

    A neighbor called in a description of a compact SUV spotted around the time of the first vanishing pumpkin. In yet another subdivision — Brookside — White soon tracked down a Subaru Forester matching the description. The officer quickly suspected he’d nabbed his thief. The car held three teenage boys and 48 pumpkins.

    Plus one gourd.

    “No idea how they all fit in there,” Maryland Heights police Capt. Scott Will said. “It was top-to-bottom orange. “It wasn’t hard to put the pieces together after that.” Police stopped the car and arrested the teens on the spot. The case was cracked. Luckily the pumpkins weren’t.

    The next day, officers placed the abducted decor along a white wall at headquarters, took a picture and posted it to social media. “I have attached a picture of a pumpkin line up,” wrote Officer Erica Stough in a post seeking pumpkin owners. “If you woke up this morning to missing pumpkins, please contact me.”

    There began a dayslong pumpkin ID process. “You’d be surprised how many people showed up to identify their pumpkins,” said Will. “We were inundated.” Will said many claimed to know their pumpkin by sight.

    (“FRED! I thought we’d never see you again!” said the suburban housewife with tears running down her face.)

    “I don’t know how, but we trusted people would be honest,” he said. “And you know, a pumpkin is basically a pumpkin.”

    As of Tuesday, there were only 13 pumpkins (plus the gourd) left unclaimed.

    It was a happy ending for all except the three teens that were seemingly found orange-handed. The older two, both 18, were charged with misdemeanor stealing. The third, a 16-year-old, was referred to juvenile court. One of the teens told police he couldn’t explain what possessed the group to go on their pumpkin-nabbing spree.

    “They made a bad decision,” Will said.

    There is also, of course, a larger lesson to the story, Will said, besides the fact that it is difficult to conceal large quantities of pumpkins in a compact SUV. “It’s a great example of people not being afraid to call and report something like this,” Will said. “They saw one pumpkin missing, but they reported it not even realizing these guys were on a pumpkin rampage.

    “(Police) are here for the big stuff,” Will said. “But we’re here for smaller stuff like missing pumpkins, too.”

    Just wait for the made for TV movie.

  27. 27.

    Amir Khalid

    @NotMax:
    Quoth the prince:

    “… Saudi Arabia’s standing as the leader of the moderate and proud Muslim world where there is no room for extremism.”

    Bullshit, your Highness. Saudi Arabia is a theocratic monarchy trying to maintain a 7th-century society in the 21st century.

    “Saudi Arabia was not like this before 1979. We want to go back to what we were, the moderate Islam that’s open to all religions. We want to live a normal life.”

    How would the Crown Prince know? 1979 is before he was born.

  29. 29.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: IIRC, Sliders from White Castle became a big thing for the troops during the Gulf War. People would buy a hundred or 2, freeze them and ship ’em over to their soldier/sailor/airman/marine and the boys would have a party. They are addictive, especially at 2 o’clock in the morning when you really shouldn’t have had that last beer.

    The cops bust more DWI’s outside of White Castles than they ever did outside a bar. They didn’t even hide.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    The Dem state dinner is this week so if Cordray is running that’s where he’d announce. If he wins Ohio gov he can put in all the consumer protection regs he wants :)

  31. 31.

    HeleninEire

    Morning everyone. It’s a sparkling, beautiful day here in Dublin. I’m feeling much better after a good night’s sleep and lots of caffeine this morning.

    Thanks to everyone who responded to me last night. Your comments were invaluable.

    Conference call with my older sister and my Dad later today. We need to figure out next steps with my other sister, Mary.

    Thanks again to you all.

  39. 39.

    Elizabelle

    @JPL: I know. Gutting consumer protections to give Trump a win on something so bad for the middle class? It’s awful. Pence was the tie-breaker.

    Anyway, new hero Jeff Flake — because there are NO Democrat heroes — has an op ed in the WaPost. One word title. “Enough.”

    Starts promisingly:

    As I contemplate the Trump presidency, I cannot help but think of Joseph Welch.

  40. 40.

    Elizabelle

    CNN discussing Trump. They’re just talking polls and politics.

    Cover gutting consumer protections, please.

    Tuned in to see how they were covering Flake, etc … but they’re reminding me why watch so little cable news. It’s aggravating.

    ETA: Ah. Saint Flake up next.

    “He gave that passionate speech ….” LOL. While their Trump apologist just gave a pretty passionate speech too.

  47. 47.

    Nelle

    @bystander: I get a NuWay almost every time I’m in Wichita. They started there and were the grand treat of childhood. In the 70’s and 80’s, I spent summers in a tiny Inupiat village just off the north coast of Alaska. One of the residents was also from Wichita and we used to muse about how much it would cost to get a NuWay delivered there….and what it would taste like when it got there. (But never with ketchup – always with mustard).

  48. 48.

    MomSense

    @HeleninEire:

    Sorry to hear about your situation. It’s so tough to balance our own well-being with the responsibility we feel when a family member needs help. Keeping you in my thoughts.

  49. 49.

    HeleninEire

    @satby:

    Thanks

    And edited to address your edit. Her entire life has been about rebalancing her meds. Sometimes they get it right sometimes they don’t. Its tough when the person on the meds can help with the process. She can’t. But yeah holding out hope that that’s all it will take.

  50. 50.

    Amir Khalid

    @Betty Cracker:
    There were White Castles in Malaysia once, nearly 30 years ago. As a young journo I went to the “soft launch” of the first Malaysian WC. Some white marketing dude from America told me, with a straight face, that Malaysian burger eaters would come to prefer his company’s teensy, soggy (but consistent in quality!) little sliders to the more heartily sized and spiced offerings from the Ramly Burger stand right outside the door. Needless to say, that didn’t happen. White Castle rolled up its rug here a couple of years later

  51. 51.

    satby

    @HeleninEire: hoping so anyway, if reducing them tracks with the origin of the problems.
    As I mentioned last night, hit your stateside friends like me up on FB if there’s anything we can do to help from this end.

  52. 52.

    aimai

    @Baud: I remember that Maureen Down wrote a really bitchy column about how tedious it was following FLOTUS Hillary on a trip to India where FLOTUS was engaged, energetic, knowledgable, and passionate about the various issues that she was there to discuss and MD was bored out of her mind and incredulous that anyone would even care about, say, women’s issues in the third world.

    I’m up early and already at a cafe getting ready for an 8 am class. Today I stay on campus until 9:30 running from class to class, then tomorrow its back to seeing patients and my internship. I really just want to have time to sit and meditate about my patients. Spent a lot of last night not sleeping and thinking about sessions and what they need. Since I spent about 20 years being a SAHM I’m not used to the ruthless real world schedules everyone around me has always kept. I am still surprised by having to be up at five and out the door, and then walking back through the door at 8 or 9. Its not that I didn’t work hard as a parent, or that I wasn’t frequently on 24 hour duty, its just that I could occasionally cat nap during the day, and that my life was bracketed by meals I cooked for everyone. Nowadays I often subsist on iced coffee and Kashi bars.

  53. 53.

    Betty Cracker

    @HeleninEire: Hope everything works out for the best for everyone involved — and that you get to stay in Ireland. Most importantly, because you sound so happy there! And for self reasons too, if I’m honest: I’ve enjoyed your adventures vicariously. :)

  55. 55.

    Betty Cracker

    @aimai: I’ve been a work-at-home mom for a decade, and now that my nest is empty, I’ve entertained the notion of doing something different, but so far, nah. I admire your bravery and commitment tremendously.

  56. 56.

    sm*t cl*de

    @Amir Khalid:

    Saudi Arabia is a theocratic monarchy trying to maintain a 7th-century society in the 21st century.

    And it is only a few months since they opened their theocracy troll-farm, in the form of the “Anti-Terrorism Center”, the one with the shiny orb to attract Trump to the official opening. The idea was to provide a sinecure hobby / job for otherwise-useless members of the upper class: they can sit down at a desk in the Anti-Terrorism Center and spend a few hours battling religious extremism in social media, by Tweeting and Facebooking messages about the approved Saudi form of religious extremism… then go home for a liquid lunch.

    Are we to believe that these recipients of wingnut Wahhabi Welfare are going to be suddenly deprived of their phoney baloney jobs? I do not think so.

  57. 57.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    Do you think he will?

    I don’t, but a lot of other people do. There’s a kind of pent-up demand for a strong Democrat, IMO. There would be no better time for him. He can beat Mary Taylor and she’s positioned herself as the Trumpster.

  58. 58.

    NotMax

    @Amir Khalid

    Back in the day they cost a thin dime (including generous amounts of fried onions) and the motto posted at each outlet was “Buy ’em by the bag!”

    The one thing no one could dispute was that each shop was kept scrupulously scrubbed and clean.

    First time ever ate any was as a way to keep warm while standing on the sidewalk in front of a White Castle for hours – in a snowstorm – waiting to see JFK’s motorcade pass by. IIRC,
    in wintertime after the election but before the inauguration The motorcade was running somewhere around 4 hours behind schedule.

  59. 59.

    Jeffro

    Would not surprise me to see him rename Denali as mount McKinley despite the objections of Alaska’s elected officials. Because Obama that’s why

  61. 61.

    gene108

    @Amir Khalid:

    Some white marketing dude from America told me, with a straight face, that Malaysian burger eaters would come to prefer his company’s teensy, soggy (but consistent in quality!) little sliders

    Heh…guess it is a lesson McDonald’s took to heart. They have their restaurants in other countries cater to local tastes and habits.

    Edit: Menues are different than what you’d get in the USA.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    Michael Linden‏ @MichaelSLinden 10h10 hours ago
    More
    Credit where credit is due: Every single Democratic senator voted against the Wells Fargos and Equifaxes of the world tonight.

    That is good. Good job.

    You have to marvel at the sheer venality of it- there has been scandal after scandal, tens of millions of people brutally ripped off and robbed, and they voted to give those same companies immunity. Incredible. Mike Pence has never moved so fast in his life, rushing back to do the bidding of his masters. Just disgusting.

  66. 66.

    NotMax

    @gene108

    Not only other countries. In Hawaii, spam, teriyaki burgers and also saimin have long been on the permanent menu. Not that I would ever eat there (last time was 1971.)

  68. 68.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: Her walk in the woods in Chappaqua is more demanding than Trump can handle.

    #LowEnergyDonnie

    Has anyone seen him walk more than 50 feet at a time in the last 30 years? He drives golf carts on greens for crying out loud.

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  74. 74.

    Elizabelle

    Rob Portman is on CNN now.

    What an ass. My sympathies, Kay and other Buckeyes.

    State of the art weasel. He’s getting grilled by Cuomo; good to see that.

  75. 75.

    randy khan

    @NotMax:

    Another possibility is that this is coordinated and what he’s saying has been agreed upon in within the family. Given the recent decision on women driving, I’d give that better odds than I would have 3 months ago.

  76. 76.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay: Yeah. The financial vote should get thrown back in the Republicans’ faces.

    Even their fucking “heroes” voted for it.

  77. 77.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Well, it didn’t take long for the NH idiot to say something really stupid:

    The US ambassador to New Zealand Scott Brown has admitted he has been investigated over allegations he made inappropriate comments on his inaugural trip to Samoa, of which he is also the US representative.
    …
    Brown said the official complaints related to comments he had made at a party in the Samoan capital, Apia, where he told attendees they looked “beautiful” and could make hundreds of dollars working in the hospitality industry in the US. Brown and Huff said they had “no idea” the comments would be regarded as offensive.

    “I was told by my people that you’re not Scott Brown from New Hampshire any more, you’re an ambassador, and you have to be culturally aware of different cultures and sensitivities,” Brown said.

    Who knew some people would take offense at being told they could aspire to be whores in the US. Who knew?

  79. 79.

    chris

    Too early in the day for this shit. Thanks, America, I guess.

    The new U.S. ambassador to Canada says that when it comes to climate change she believes in “both sides of the science.”

    She looks like she can’t wait to tell us all about her friend, Jebus.

  80. 80.

    Immanentize

    @chris:
    She’s looked at science from both sides now? From up and down and still somehow, it’s climate change illusion she recalls….

  81. 81.

    Weaselone

    @chris:
    I’m going to assume that she’s not talking about the sides where one says it’s happening, we’re causing it and need to do something urgently about and the other says the first side isn’t taking it the threat seriously enough.

  82. 82.

    hueyplong

    Just last month i had a (very small) consumer fraud class action settlement approved. It had initially been dismissed on a hidden internet page’s mandatory arbitration clause. So the topic of yesterday’s passage of that act matters to me. It probably got little media play in the midst of all the Trump carnage, which is a shame because that is the kind of thing Republicans do that screws their supposed base of culturally conservative, not-very-well-off, angry white people.

    Ignorance of real world effects is what keeps the GOP in business. I had to tell a RWNJ who was fired arbitrarily that he had no case and his response was, “That can’t be so, because this is a right to work state!” Halfway through my explanation of what that really means, he got that facial expression that said he was tuning me out because it was clear I was a Bolshevik.

  87. 87.

    FlipYrWhig

    I’m still processing “officials close to Trump were concerned the president did not want to stay in the region for so long and worried he could get cranky.” He could get cranky. This is a thing we’re acting like is normal about a president now. For fuck’s sake.

  90. 90.

    clay

    @OzarkHillbilly: “Hospitality industry” = “whores”?

    Not that I’m defending what Brown said — it was condescending at best — but usually people mean restaurant hostesses or hotel workers when they talk about the hospitality industry.

    (If he meant “whores” then making saying they could make hundreds of dollars would NOT be a compliment.)

  91. 91.

    Kay

    @hueyplong:

    Banks can sue you but you can’t sue banks. Seems fair, right?

    The worst mandatory arbitration clauses I see are in nursing home contracts. They have absolutely no idea what they’re signing- they’re usually taken there from a hospital. It’s in with 40 pages of medical forms.

  93. 93.

    FlipYrWhig

    @clay: IMHO “hundreds of dollars” is a strange figure to quote _unless_ you mean per hour, and when you’re putting it in the context of beauty and exoticism, it’s hard for the implication NOT to be sexual.

  96. 96.

    d58826

    I was going to compose a long rant about Trump and the GOP but the subject is just to exhausting. So the short version is if you took every last gooper in congress you would be hard put to find enough material to construct one vertebra let along an entire spine. The problem is with the principled conservatives it is with conservative principles. The only thing missing from conservative principles is the restoration of the divine right of kings. They are upset with Der Fuhrer because his antics are making it more difficult to roll back the 21st century, the 20th century and a good bit of the 19th. The vote last night to roll back consumer protections against the banks is just the latest example.

  98. 98.

    clay

    @hueyplong:

    I had to tell a RWNJ who was fired arbitrarily that he had no case and his response was, “That can’t be so, because this is a right to work state!”

    My first thought: BWAAA-HA-HAAAAA!!! This guy thought that “right to work” means he has a right to keep his job… what a maroon.

    My second thought: This goes to show how effective the Frank Luntzes of the world are — they can take the most horrific shit and rebrand them to sound positive. Our side lacks the conscienceless imagination to compete with this.

  99. 99.

    chris

    @MomSense: She presented her credentials to the Governor General, Julie Payette. Payette, for those who don’t know, is a former astronaut. Somehow she kept a straight face…

  100. 100.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @OzarkHillbilly: I wonder if people like Scott Brown are born with no souls or is there some conservative run clinic that removes them. It seems the point about not comparing people to low statis workers is obvious enough.

  101. 101.

    d58826

    @d58826:

    The problem is with the principled conservatives it is with conservative principles.

    That should have read

    The problem is not with the principled conservatives it is with conservative principles.

  103. 103.

    Baud

    @clay: I think right to work precedes Luntz. And the big difference between our side and theirs in terms of catch phrases is that their side wants to believe bullshit.

  105. 105.

    FlipYrWhig

    @clay: My third thought is that even when hueyplong explained it, the affected guy still didn’t (a) get it, (b) understand who to blame. This is why Republicans can stay in power. They deliberately harm their own voters, and the voters think it’s just random chance, and find a black guy or a Spanish speaker or an egghead do-gooder to blame.

  106. 106.

    Immanentize

    @hueyplong: That is such a great story. I am going to steal it as an example to my students of client misunderstandings….. It goes with my client who couldn’t make bail who demanded I file a Motion for Hocus Pocus.

  107. 107.

    Elizabelle

    @Steeplejack: Thank you.

    @chris:

    The new U.S. ambassador to Canada says that when it comes to climate change she believes in “both sides of the science.”

    That’ll go over well with the Canadians. They’re quite concerned with what they’re seeing on their southern border.

    I guess she’s actually our ambassador to their coal sands and other natural resources.

  111. 111.

    gene108

    Republicans can get people thinking right-to-work means you keep your job, because they have invested billions over the last 40 years, in order to control the media.

    There are no liberal billionaires. Therefore there is no off-setting flow of money to balance out the right-wing money buying out our politics and media.

    I am surprised right-wingers are not more successful than they are considering how much they outspend their opposition.

  112. 112.

    TS

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    “I was told by my people that you’re not Scott Brown from New Hampshire any more, you’re an ambassador, and you have to be culturally aware of different cultures and sensitivities,” Brown said.

    And Donald Trump will always remain Donald Trump from New York – culturally ignorant of anything other than golf and fast food – so is it any wonder that anyone who would work for him would have not a care in the world about other folks cultures and sensitivities.

  113. 113.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @clay:

    but usually people mean restaurant hostesses or hotel workers when they talk about the hospitality industry.

    “he told attendees they looked “beautiful” and could make hundreds of dollars working in the hospitality industry in the US.” In all my life I have never said anything like this when referring to waitresses or hotel maids. I have never heard anyone say such in reference to line cooks or front desk clerks. We all know attractive people have better outcomes in any business, but looking good has never been a prerequisite in the “hospitality industry” unless one is working in the “hospitality industry”. (Hooters excepted)

  118. 118.

    rikyrah

    @GOP insists on the continued membership of Thad Cochran (79), who is demonstrably cognitively impaired. He chairs the Appropriations Cmtee

    — meta (@metaquest) October 25, 2017

  119. 119.

    rikyrah

    Credit where credit is due: Every single Democratic senator voted against the Wells Fargos and Equifaxes of the world tonight.

    — Michael Linden (@MichaelSLinden) October 25, 2017

  122. 122.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Это курам на смех: I have a photo of the entire Obama family imposed on the presidential seal in my office. This is from way back in 2008 when the girls were young and everyone is smiling. It’s beautiful and inspiring. They are the best.

  123. 123.

    rikyrah

    Raw Story‏Verified account @RawStory
    Mike Pence casts tie-breaking vote in Senate to hand Wall Street major victory over consumers

    The Hill‏Verified account @thehill
    Trump kills Obama rule aimed at protecting independent farmers from big food companies: http://hill.cm/QJIRFaf

  124. 124.

    MomSense

    @Immanentize:

    Couple more months of living in trump world and we may all be fluent in crazy.

    @chris:

    Is it wrong that I resent the embarrassment I feel at these clowns nearly as much as I hate the damage they are doing?

  125. 125.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: Frank Luntz wouldn’t have got away with his bullshit without the media letting him and the rest of the Republicans spout their lies without relentless corrections and fact checking.

  127. 127.

    Elizabelle

    Trump is a president for the incurious set that responds more to images than to words. Media does not know how to cover him (and most of them have not tried, not very hard).

    The FTF NYTimes: in between screaming about emails! emails! and the Clinton Foundation, they would put up photos of Trump, looking confident, striding along, waving at photographers with a thumb’s up.

    It’s programming directly to the visuals.

    Meanwhile, the GOP’s cashlords have funded fake news for years, and it’s made for a country full of misinformed, cynical, angry people. They don’t know where to get their facts, or how to think critically. Too many are the religious types that will sit on their asses in church and take their views from their conservative, prosperity gospel pastors. Sheeple.

    And then you have the Fox sheeple too.

    I don’t see how we improve our citizenry, make them better informed, unless you actually take Fox News etc. off the air. Have a standard for what can be called “news programming”.

    They are using the First Amendment to corrupt and destroy our democracy. How to get around that?

    Further, Democrats are not Republicans — they aren’t inclined to flock to a Fox News type news stream. Different people, different mindset, different responses.

    And people are so busy, just trying to afford their homes, kids, education of same, and healthcare. We are politics sportsfans; not the average bear.

  130. 130.

    Patricia Kayden

    @d58826:

    They are upset with Der Fuhrer because his antics are making it more difficult to roll back the 21st century, the 20th century and a good bit of the 19th.

    It doesn’t feel as if Trump is making anything difficult for Republicans, to be honest. Their incompetence is staggering but they’re moving at a good pace in destroying voting rights, reproductive rights, LGBT rights, etc. By the end of his first term, we’ll be well and properly screwed.

  132. 132.

    MomSense

    @chris:

    Sometimes I imagine putting a representative sampling of climate scientists on a see saw 99 on one side and 1 well compensated by fossil fuels guy on the other. Then all 99 get up at once and the other guy smashes to the ground.

  134. 134.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: I have said it before and will say it again: We need to play the game by the rules they set, and use those rules against them. Luntz was very good with obfuscation through the use of meaningless words. 2 can play that game.

  137. 137.

    Elizabelle

    @OzarkHillbilly: I like the CNN ad with the apple.

    Although: they need to put captions up. So much of CNN you see the screen but cannot hear the content.

    That ad needs words, slowly and big enough for people to read them.

    As it is, you could wonder “oh. Did Apple buy CNN now? Liberal media!”

  138. 138.

    schrodingers_cat

    @aimai:

    I remember that Maureen Down wrote a really bitchy column about how tedious it was following FLOTUS Hillary on a trip to India where FLOTUS was engaged, energetic, knowledgable, and passionate about the various issues that she was there to discuss and MD was bored out of her mind and incredulous that anyone would even care about, say, women’s issues in the third world.

    Fuck MoDo. India would not be third world in terms of $ and cents had burdened white men not strip mined it of its resources in the 19th century. Culturally speaking, India boasts of one the oldest continuing civilizations in the world. We don’t need no lectures about civilization from white supremacists, whose view that West is the repository of all civilization is fairly mainstream.
    /rant over

  139. 139.

    Hoodie

    @FlipYrWhig: that’s probably too generous. I’d say about 40% are simply assholes and know exactly what they’re doing. Not that many people can be that stupid.

  140. 140.

    Aleta

    @gene108:

    Republicans can get people thinking right-to-work means you keep your job

    And that losing your job or stagnant wages when you’re white means you’ve been discriminated against bc of your race.

    eta Therefore vote R to end civil rights protections — triple insanity

  141. 141.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Hoodie: They are stupid because they think that voting for Rs will not personally hurt them, despite all evidence to the contrary.*
    *People who voted for JS represent the same clueless cohort on the left.

  142. 142.

    chris

    @MomSense:

    Is it wrong that I resent the embarrassment I feel at these clowns nearly as much as I hate the damage they are doing?

    It’s not wrong and you’re far from the only one. From leader of the free world to frightful laughingstock in one year is cause for more than embarrassment. I hope it’s enough to GOTV.

  145. 145.

    Elizabelle

    Why Americans are ignorant of current events, example 3577:

    LA Times headline: Senate votes to kill new rule allowing class-action lawsuits against banks after Pence casts deciding vote

    The Senate voted Tuesday night to kill a controversial rule that would have allowed Americans to file class-action suits against banks instead of being forced in many cases into private arbitration.

    The move by the Senate followed a similar action by the House in July to rescind the rule. President Trump is expected to sign the repeal legislation, providing a major victory for the financial industry.

    Vice President Mike Pence cast the deciding vote after the Senate tied 50-50. All but two Republicans — John Kennedy of Louisiana and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — voted to repeal the rule. No Democrats or independents supported the move.

    It’s REPUBLICANS in the Senate, fuckers.

    I am calling the LA Times on the phone about this one.

    “Congress” and “Senate” often comes down to Republicans, and media headlines don’t inform citizens appropriately. Makes it look like GOP legislation has a lot more support than it does. It’s the whole institution that voted that way.

    No, it was not.

  147. 147.

    Elizabelle

    @schrodingers_cat: Yes. It’s insidious.

    I don’t watch the Snooze Hour much. Get bored, and they purvey a bit too much conventional wisdom, although props for some good cultural reporting. (Which I miss, since it’s the Snooze Hour.)

  149. 149.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Elizabelle: You are totally right. References to Congress rather than Republicans also fuel the bipartisan dumbfuckery about “elites” and “establishment” and “status quo.”

  150. 150.

    Elizabelle

    @schrodingers_cat: I am so happy and proud that you are a citizen, and I am so glad that I hold a passport so that I can go somewhere else.

    After this election, I think I will leave Virginia. I can’t take the perils of a GOP governor, when we already have a heavily gerrymandered GOP legislature.

    I cannot afford the fucking health insurance. And I am a healthy woman. But no longer in my 20s or 30s, or in a corporate job.

  151. 151.

    condorcet runner-up

    @OzarkHillbilly: I used to live about a mile straight north on Kingshighway, closer to the park – though I preferred pancakes at Uncle Bill’s, many a late nights ended up with slingers at Courtesy Diner.

  152. 152.

    But her emails!!!

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    OK, I’ll bite. What exactly do Democrats need to obfuscate through the use of Orwellian or misleading language? If we name our policies and proposals the opposite of what they actually do, they would sound bad. Republicans have shitty policies so they try to conceal that fact with misleading language. Democratic policies are generally good, so Republicans develop misleading language to smear them. The problem is that the battlefield favors Republicans because they are the ones passing shitty bills.

    Scenario 1:
    Republicans craft shitty policy: Democrats: This is a shitty bill. It hurts people. Republicans: The Awesome Law to Guarantee American Awesomeness is the best bill ever. Media: New bill, Republicans say it’s awesome, Democrats say it’s bad. Here’s a panel of 3 Republican Operatives and 1 Democratic Leaning policy expert to debate it. Who can tell whether this bill is good or bad?

    Scenario 2:
    Democrats craft a good policy: Democrats: This is a great bill. It helps people. Republicans: The Awful Law to Make America Awful takes away our freedom and liberty, demeans or troops and poops in mom’s apple pie. Media: New bill, Republicans say it’s terrible, Democrats say it’s good. Here’s a panel of 3 Republican Operatives and 1 Democratic Leaning policy expert to debate it. Who can tell whether this bill is good or bad?

    The problem is that regardless of whether a bill is good or bad, it gets essentially the same hearing in the media. In other words shitty bills and good bills look essentially the same unless you’re really paying attention. That favors shitty bills and the party promoting the shitty bills and there’s no real way to fix that unless the media itself starts to hire/consult actual policy experts and evaluates these bills on their actual merits. It’s the political equivalent of crap driving out quality in the market place. The media is just presenting us the commercials for the competing products and asking us to decide instead of actually assessing the products.

  153. 153.

    HeleninEire

    @Aleta: Yes. They are thinking that may be it. They just stopped her b/c pills that she was taking for menorrhagia because she didn’t need them anymore. I think that the previous med balancing included the b/c pills so now she’s all out of whack. I hope it is as simple as that.

  154. 154.

    Elizabelle

    @FlipYrWhig: I think we need to scream at them about that. It’s an editorial decision, and it needs to stop.

    Does not matter if you inform your “readers” 5 paragraphs down if all that most “readers” ever see is the insufficient headline.

    Caught the end of CNN talking about this vote. The woman anchor said something about the Republicans thought it went too far. She absolved them. I don’t know what was said earlier. (CNN rapidly becomes background noise, and current events are so depressing I don’t watch the news much.)

  155. 155.

    Elizabelle

    @HeleninEire: Aleta made a great point, and women’s response to drugs, during and after menopause, is not well studied.

    Medicine being an art as well as a science, I hope they can improve your sister’s health.

    Is she in New York State?

    And I can see going back for a visit (Norwegian has cheap, cheap, cheap fares to NY, especially Stewart, $20 bus ride down to Manhattan) — but hope you can stay in Ireland. It’s where you are meant to be, and the US is a shit show right now.

  156. 156.

    HeleninEire

    @Elizabelle: Yes she is in NY. She is in the care of a wonderful nonprofit that manages group homes. She has been there for 30 years and my family is thrilled with the care she is receiving.

  157. 157.

    rikyrah

    “Empty barrel”: The real meaning of John Kelly’s slurs against Frederica Wilson
    So much for military honor. Kelly’s attack on Wilson was not just false but redolent of racism and sexism
    CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
    10.24.2017•4:00 AM

    …………………………..

    In response to this debacle, Trump apparently instructed White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, to appear in person at last Thursday’s White House press briefing. Kelly’s mission? To be a human shield for his boss. How? By enabling Trump’s malignant narcissism, sociopathy, lies and cruel treatment towards a grieving war widow, her family and other loved ones. Despite claims about how “honorable” Kelly is, at least for that day he was Trump’s water carrier and stooge.
    Kelly insisted that Trump is being treated unfairly and that Myeshia Johnson and Rep. Wilson were the offenders against propriety and good taste, violating some imaginary “sacred” rule where no one should listen to a phone call between a president and the family members of a killed soldier. This norm apparently does not apply to Kelly himself, or other members of Trump’s inner circle.

    Kelly’s finale in aiding and abetting Trump’s war on black women was a rhetorical killshot in which the former general said that Wilson was “in a long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise.” He claimed he had heard her brag about her role in making a new FBI building in South Florida possible. Wilson, according to Kelly, spoke at the opening ceremony “about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that building, and how she took care of her constituents because she got the money, and she just called up President Obama, and on that phone call, he gave the money, the $20 million, to build the building. . . . And we were stunned, stunned that she’d done it. Even for someone that is that empty a barrel, we were stunned.”
    Translated: Kelly publicly defamed Wilson — and, by implication, Myeshia Johnson — as being a loud, stupid, ignorant person. But words can also mean more than a superficial reading would suggest.

    Language derives power from the social, political and historical context in which it is used. The meaning of language is also a function of the relationship between the individuals and groups in question.

    Kelly is one of the most powerful men in the world. He is also one of the most powerful white men in America. Black women and girls are undervalued and dehumanized in American society. White supremacy endures as one of the most powerful forces in all of American political and social life. It works through and not apart from sexism and misogyny.

    For centuries, black women and girls in America have been stereotyped as being loud, aggressive, hypersexual, lazy and violent. Simultaneously, black women and girls have also been viewed by the white gaze as being natural caregivers, unselfish and possessed of unique emotional and physical strength which makes them immune (unlike white women) to pain and suffering. In total, these stereotypes transform the complex and diverse life experiences and humanity of black women and girls into caricatures such as “the mammy,” the “black harpy” or the “Sapphire.”

    At the website for the Jim Crow Museum, sociologist David Pilgrim explains the “Sapphire” stereotype in the following way: “The Sapphire Caricature portrays black women as rude, loud, malicious, stubborn, and overbearing. The Sapphire Caricature is a harsh portrayal of African American women, but it is more than that; it is a social control mechanism that is employed to punish black women who violate the societal norms that encourage them to be passive, servile, non-threatening, and unseen.”
    Wilson immediately decoded the racist and sexist invective in Trump’s and Kelly’s attacks on her character.

    Stacey Plaskett, the U.S. Virgin Islands’ delegate to Congress, also understood the deeper meaning of Trump’s and Kelly’s slurs against Rep. Wilson. Plaskett told The New York Times, “He continually called that fallen soldier ‘your guy’ to his wife. That was his wife. . . . It was almost as if he doesn’t believe that we have husbands and wives as black people. And that I find very disturbing, that he would not give her the respect of calling that soldier her husband. . . . I think he challenges anybody who goes after him and corrects him, whether they are black or white or male or female,” she continued. “I think the attack is more stark when it is a woman of color.”

    Ultimately, John Kelly, who served the United States as a four-star Marine general, and is now White House chief of staff, basically called a congresswoman a loud, stupid black bitch.

    It does not matter to Kelly, Trump, the right-wing media or Trump’s deplorable foot soldiers that Wilson has a graduate degree in education and worked for decades as a school principal.

    It does not matter to Kelly, Trump, the right-wing media or Trump’s human deplorable foot soldiers that everything Wilson said was correct and that Trump and Kelly’s accounts have proven to be lies.

    For Trump and his cabal, all that matters is the political power that comes from slurring a black woman, and how such an action inflames and arouses the racist voters who installed him in the White House.

  158. 158.

    Boatboy_srq

    @Baud: IYAM AA has a pattern of disturbing incidents regardless of the ethnicity of the passenger. They’ve become experts in customer disservice.

  159. 159.

    schrodingers_cat

    @rikyrah: Many of our esteemed commenters had to reach for their smelling salts when I hypothesized that CoS. Kelly’s stance on DACA being unconstitutional as opposed to T’s EOs was because his animosity towards the black President. This was before this whole saga of Sgt Johnson and Congresswoman Wilson.

  160. 160.

    Elizabelle

    @Boatboy_srq: American giving United competition in the bad treatment of passengers category.

    I won’t fly the big US carriers. Just JetBlue, Southwest, and the good international airlines. Realize most people don’t get the choice; UAL or AA might be the major carriers into an airport.

  161. 161.

    Elizabelle

    @HeleninEire: My fingers are crossed they will get it right. Good to hear there are excellent care homes out there; we usually hear about the bad ones.

    And you are a quick flight across the pond. With a quick flight back.

  165. 165.

    rikyrah

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I have a photo of the entire Obama family imposed on the presidential seal in my office. This is from way back in 2008 when the girls were young and everyone is smiling. It’s beautiful and inspiring. They are the best.

    I have that on a t-shirt :)

  166. 166.

    Elizabelle

    @rikyrah:

    Stacey Plaskett, the U.S. Virgin Islands’ delegate to Congress, also understood the deeper meaning of Trump’s and Kelly’s slurs against Rep. Wilson. Plaskett told The New York Times, “He continually called that fallen soldier ‘your guy’ to his wife. That was his wife. . . . It was almost as if he doesn’t believe that we have husbands and wives as black people. And that I find very disturbing, that he would not give her the respect of calling that soldier her husband. . . .

    Whoa. Totally missed that one. The “your guy” sounded jocular and overly familiar; I didn’t realize Trump couldn’t manage “your husband.” Jeebus.

    And cool that Fredericka Wilson was a school principal for many years. I wonder how many of her rightwing detractors know that? I

  167. 167.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @hueyplong: Fundamental misreading of the intent IMHO. The target is not John (or Jane) Q. Citizen, who (because the class is typically large) rarely gets enough out of the eventual settlement to treat the kids at Mickey D’s. (Disclaimer: I’ve gotten 1 or 2 class-action awards in my many years to this effect.) This is aimed at the lawyers & law firms that conduct class-action litigation & collect significant fees, mostly in negotiated settlements (that leave JQC with bupkis). Along with “tort reform,” the goal is to starve out a profession that the Greedy Old Plutocrats identify as one of the Democratic Party’s prime sources of $$$. Suck up as much cash as possible from Putin & the Kochroaches, dry up the Dems’ funding, bamboozle low-info voters via Faux Noise & the like, suppress the votes of minorities who refuse to be bamboozled – it’s a formula for holding onto untrammeled power long enough to strip the financial flesh of the US down to the skeleton & then crack the bones for marrow. (All that value that the Plutos had to concede to the plebs post-WW2 to forestall a renewed Great Depression &/or Comm’nist revolution? They want it back. All of it. With interest. NOW.)

  168. 168.

    Captain C

    @OzarkHillbilly: “Snowflakes!!! Can’t they take a compliment?!? How dare ANYONE criticize me for anything, don’t they know how it makes me feel?!?” /Ambassador Brown

  169. 169.

    Miss Bianca

    @HeleninEire: Yeah, I was late to the thread so I didn’t have any words of counsel, wise or otherwise, to offer in real time, but don’t give way to despair! There’s got to be a way to handle the situation that doesn’t entail a permanent move back to the States. And please don’t abandon the jackals – we need the occasional reminder that there are sane pockets of civilization in the world!

  171. 171.

    J R in WV

    @Betty Cracker:

    There was a White Castle in Key West while I was home ported there 1970-1973. I will confess I didn’t see it there 2 or 3 years ago when we revisited for the first time in 30 years. Maybe the Touristification of the Keys rendered space too expensive for a joint like that.

    But at 3 am, it was the place to go when you needed to eat cheap.

  172. 172.

    Ohio Mom

    @Kay: This thread is long dead but from your lips to God’s ears. What I see of the Democratic selection for Ohio governor is not inspiring.

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