Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

Let there be snark.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

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

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

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

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

No one could have predicted…

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Republicans in disarray!

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Open Thread: Palm Beach Thanksgiving Social Notes

Open Thread: Palm Beach Thanksgiving Social Notes

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In case you wanna tweak that one Trump-humping relative who can’t be left off the invite list. But who did he play with?….

Awww… just a potential getaway boat, then…

Secret Service agents, already disgruntled at having to work the holiday, calculate the odds on another “Donny Junior challenges Rebekah to arm-wrestling match, tries to persuade Daddy to nuke the Hamptons when he loses” incident…

Reader Interactions

97Comments

  3. 3.

    debbie

    It is alarming that a Russian oligarch has moored alongside Trump’s bloated carcass. The Secret Service better stay alert.

  13. 13.

    Kay

    It really can’t be said enough- these people are assholes:

    The press secretary had enlisted the reporters’ help in mocking the purpose of the briefing; no information was conveyed from the White House to the public. She had shown who was boss: she could hold journalists to an arbitrary rule by making them offer thanks before asking a question, which diminished the journalists’ ability to hold her to the task of answering their questions. She reaffirmed that both the President and she herself lie easily and blatantly—as he did when he issued a “rhetorical response” on the U.C.L.A. students, and as she did at the beginning of the briefing, when she claimed to be thankful for the reporters in the room. By making them laugh when she said that, and when she mocked April Ryan, and when she called the forced ritual a “fun exercise,” she gave them a role in debasing their profession and the job of reporting on the White House. This is how it happens: the matter was trivial, the whole spectacle lasted all of sixteen minutes, and we were all the worse for it.

    Really, to a man or woman, they are personally mean-spirited, nasty people. It must be a job requirement.

  19. 19.

    Kay

    I’m thankful for this piece, which could be titled “Mark Halperin ruined everything” :

    But I’m not here to talk about that. I want to talk about the deeper, subtler, more insidious effect Mark Halperin had on our politics — one which we’ll be paying for for years to come.

    Let’s all take a moment and be grateful his career is over. Damn shame that it took so long.

  21. 21.

    Mary G

    @Kay: Dana Millbank in the WaPo has a good column addressing Sanders, listing a large number of the people resisting the administration.

    And I’m profoundly thankful that Trump and so many of his appointees have turned out to be incompetent, unable to implement some of his most dangerous ideas.

    In short, Sarah, I am thankful that a combination of brave people, brilliant Framers and dumb luck have prevented your boss from doing much worse.

  22. 22.

    TenguPhule

    ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!

    I……I……FUCK.

    Tens of thousands of people wanted by law enforcement officials have been removed this year from the FBI criminal background check database that prohibits fugitives from justice from buying guns.

    The names were taken out after the FBI in February changed its legal interpretation of “fugitive from justice” to say it pertains only to wanted people who have crossed state lines.

    What that means is that those fugitives who were previously prohibited under federal law from purchasing firearms can now buy them, unless barred for other reasons.

    After Trump was inaugurated, the Justice Department further narrowed the definition to those who have fled across state lines to avoid prosecution for a crime or to avoid giving testimony in a criminal proceeding.

    On Feb. 15, the FBI directed its employees in the Criminal Justice Information Services Division to remove all entries of fugitives from justice from the background check database and said that “entries will not be permitted” under that category until further notice. Before the FBI memo, there were about 500,000 people identified as fugitives from justice in the database — and all of those names were removed.

    Now there are 788.

  24. 24.

    Brachiator

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Shameless self-promotion: I’m quoted on that ruthenium-106 leak by Oliver Carroll in The Independent.

    Very cool!

    Makes me feel “smart by assoication.”

  29. 29.

    Brachiator

    @TenguPhule:

    Tens of thousands of people wanted by law enforcement officials have been removed this year from the FBI criminal background check database that prohibits fugitives from justice from buying guns.

    Words fail me.

  30. 30.

    Emma

    @Betsy: Meh. It’s exquisite but as my father often says, a boat you’re afraid to slop dead fish on it’s not really a boat.

  32. 32.

    sharl

    @Cheryl Rofer: Congrats, and well deserved! Hopefully the attention you helped to bring to this will motivate Russia to clean up its act. The lives most likely impacted will be those living in areas where the airborne concentrations are highest – regular Russian folks, who have been sucking in that isotope with every breath.

  35. 35.

    chris

    Happy Thanksgiving to all. For those of you with those relatives I hope it’s peaceful too.

    My next door neighbour is a Christmas tree farmer so I can report that the first truckload of trees left here on Sunday bound for Boston. The second one left today. The trees will be on sale Friday morning so you got that to look forward to.

  39. 39.

    Baud

    @Mary G:

    She is so tough.

    Seconded. Shame to see so many Dems pandering to Hillary hate right now. Makes me think they won’t be able to stand up to real pressure.

  40. 40.

    Felony Govt (formerly Old Broad in California)

    I hope all you Jackals have a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. Don’t let any Trump supporting relatives raise your blood pressure TOO much.

  43. 43.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    That is incredibly awesome. Proud to know you, however virtually.

    (Autocorrect insisted that I meant “virtuously.” I insisted I did not. There’s very little of my BJ activity that can be categorised as “virtuous.”)

  44. 44.

    sharl

    Yeah, that could be.

    Matthew Yglesias‏ @mattyglesias

    People don’t realize it but Republicans are legitimately on the verge of passing this bill.

    Seung Min Kim‏ @seungminkim

    News: Murkowski says she supports repealing Obamacare’s individual mandate (h/t @TopherSpiro) http://www.newsminer.com/opinion/community_perspectives/alaskan-senator-supports-free-choice-for-health-care/article_fb6235da-ce98-11e7-951c-db26231e7ffb.html

    People do realize it. They're exhausted. https://t.co/MMWRTuAtsL— #LeaveMeAlone (@prisonculture) November 22, 2017

  47. 47.

    trollhattan

    What’s the name of those Iranian shore-to-ship missiles everybody worries about? We’d like half a dozen, please, C.O.D. South Florida.

  53. 53.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    So gross. The smug sanctimony – like anyone needs a “gratitude” lecture from this pack of lying thieves. She’s a bully too- they all are. With any luck someone will figure out a way to indict her for something- seems like there’s enough criminality in that administration to go around.

  56. 56.

    Betsy

    @Emma: Yeah. I like boats you can turn over and push your cousins and siblings off of.

    Boats so big that you don’t know you’re on water? Dad and I have no use for ’em.

  58. 58.

    chris

    @debbie: Insane isn’t it? One guy in town has been selling since Hallowe’en. I used to sell trees when I worked at the garden centre and learned that there are people who do a tree in October and get a fresh one in December.

    ( A reasonably fresh balsam fir that is properly cared for will last six weeks or more. A friend keeps hers going for two months.)

  59. 59.

    Ohio Mom

    What happened with efg? He announced he was in rehab and coming back to comment and then..I haven’t seen him since.

    I’ve been very busy and I’m not getting to every thread. I just hope he hasn’t had a setback of some kind.

  60. 60.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Origuy: Thanks for pointing out the comments. I never read comments except here and at Nuclear Diner. Maybe a few other blogs. That comment chain is not too bad, but yeah it’s infested with Russian deniers.

  66. 66.

    MisterForkbeard

    @rikyrah: Remember guys, Trump is Strong On Crime. Also, Doug Jones is Weak. Though apparently only one of these people thinks wanted fugitives should be able to buy guns.

    @sharl: This is legitimately my own response. I’m really tired of being threatened on a daily basis by the Republicans, and I’m really really tired of the media being complicit and trying to make it sound like Republicans are making reasonable proposals that actually benefit the country, instead of taking Republican’s words at face value that it will help the poor and the economy.

    I’m really tired of having the health care of my friends and family threatened. And the internet getting threatened. And my immigrant friends being afraid they’ll be thrown out of the country. It’s exhausting and I don’t have the energy to fight these fuckers literally every day and still do my day job.

    That’s where big chunks of the rest of the country are as well.

  68. 68.

    dexwood

    @Waratah:
    This place has such an interesting and diverse group of front pagers. Let me take this opportunity to say thanks to all (commenters included) and Merry Thanksgiving. Off to make dinner.

  70. 70.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Cheryl Rofer: Congrats!

    @sharl: I think we have done all we can do by contacting our Reps — especially Republican ones. Not sure what else we can do to resist. Republicans are going to do all they can to destroy this country for as long as Trump is in power. Sigh.

  72. 72.

    Mary G

    The New Yorker has a great interview with Mavis Staples, who has a record coming out. It covers all kinds of things.

    Prince’s love for the Staple Singers, the legendary gospel group, was genuine and deep. He opened his last concert, a week before he died, with “When Will We Be Paid,” a gorgeous, denunciatory song off the family’s 1970 album, “We’ll Get Over.” The lyrics catalogue the labor of black Americans (“We have worked this country from shore to shore / Our women cooked all your food and washed all your clothes”). When Pops Staples performed it, he would recall his grandfather, who had been a slave in Mississippi. Prince recorded “When Will We Be Paid” in October of 1999. He sent the track to Mavis, and she took the song to her father. Pops, who would be dead in a year, asked excitedly if Prince had really recorded it. “Yes, sir,” she said.

    and

    Any other regrets? “Regrets of my love life,” she said. Like Bob Dylan? In 1963, Dylan proposed marriage and she declined. “Well, wait a minute!” she said. “I’ve been married and I’ve been divorced. I had quite a love life when I was a young lady.”

  73. 73.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    So here’s something fun…I work for a federal government agency, and even though my job doesn’t involve dealing with classified or sensitive material, every year we have to take a short training on counterintelligence awareness – it’s basically a series of power point slides on warning signs that indicate someone might be a asset working for a foreign adversary. Half the West Wing and the guy in the Oval Office himself check ALL THE BOXES. Not just a couple, but all of them. And I’m not someone who ever interacts with those guys and has first hand or even second hand knowledge, all this is apparent just from following the daily news. So I’m supposed to be vigilant while a dozen Russian assets sit in the White House selling us out? It’s enough to make you laugh, or cry.

  74. 74.

    sharl

    @Patricia Kayden: I don’t really disagree with you on that, but I am surprised (and a bit worried) that @PrisonCulture is voicing a sense of exhaustion. As far as I can tell, she is a dynamo both online and in real life, not only in her main efforts to reform prison conditions and the lives of prisoners (hence her account ID), but on urgent matters that come up, like health care.

    I’m just hoping she’s only temporarily feeling a bit down, and that some holiday time off will rejuvenate her spirits, since she’s one of those folks who usually provides the encouragement for others.

  80. 80.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    Merry Christmas? You’re worse than Bush, you sold us out!

    I thought you were our leader in the War on Christmas!!!

  82. 82.

    Mary G

    @germy: The lyrics they quote make me sure to get her album when it comes out.

    This life surrounds you
    The guns are loaded
    This a kind of tension
    Hard not to notice . . .
    Poor kid they caught him
    Without his license
    That ain’t why they shot him
    They say he was fighting
    So
    That’s what we were told
    But we all know
    That ain’t how the story goes.

    She’s not too keen on Twitler.

    “He has brought so much hurt on us,” she said. “It seems that this man has brought a rebirth; the bigotry and hate has resurfaced through him.”

    What Trump and his Administration have wrought is reminiscent of the turbulence of her youth, Staples said: “We’ve gone all the way back to the fifties and the sixties. This is the President of the United States! He’s supposed to bring joy and light and love to the world. It’s all backwards, it’s backwards.”

  83. 83.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mary G:

    I wish I could remember the story I heard her tell on NPR about the time she got pulled over by a racist cop in the 1960s and was very worried until Pops showed up and it turned out that the cop and his supervisor were HUGE fans.

  85. 85.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Kay:

    I blame a supine press corps for not shouting “not in this lifetime, you fucking pig – no access is worth this”, and stomping out.

  86. 86.

    tobie

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Yes, the saddest thing was that the press didn’t protest. It’s funny…I remember when the Obama administration in 2009 offered some vague criticism of FOX and the press stood united in their outrage. Ruth Marcus labeled the administration’s comments as a “hissy fit.” Susan Page complained that the Obama administration represented the greatest threat to the freedom of the press. And I can’t count the rest.

    By the way: why is Susan Page always treated as the dean of the DC press corp and a non-partisan journalist? In the past few days I’ve heard her lament that Hillary Clinton won’t shut up and erroneously declare that Trump won the popular vote; I’ve heard her excuse Roy Moore saying that he can get a pass like the President did. This evening she said that Mitch McConnell shouldn’t get involved in the AL senate race, as the decision belongs legitimately and exclusively to Alabama voters. What is wrong with this woman? Ideologically she’s the same as Hugh Hewitt with maybe a little less fire-breathing.

  87. 87.

    germy

    Christmas is about believing what a woman said about her sex life.

    Christmas is about a family finding safety as refugees.

    Christmas is about a child in need receiving support from the wealthy.

    Christmas is about God identifying himself with the marginalized not the powerful.

    — Carlos A. Rodríguez (@HappySonship) November 21, 2017

  91. 91.

    MattF

    Happy almost turkey day. I’m on vacation, so posting a comment is a chore but I’ll be back next week probably

  92. 92.

    woodrowfan

    all those assholes’ yachts at anchor in one place. Where’s a group of Japanese aircraft carriers when you really need them??

  94. 94.

    Amir Khalid

    Roman Abramovich is actually quite famous to sportsball fans the world over — he owns the London club Chelsea FC, which thanks to his lavish financial support has risen to the European elite alongside Real Madrid and Bayern München. Indeed, the lavishness of his financial support has led to accusations that he bought Chelsea’s success for it, and to much stricter regulation by UEFA of clubs’ finances to prevent what is called “financial doping”.

  95. 95.

    Bill Arnold

    @Cheryl Rofer:
    Very deserved congratulations on that.
    I’m especially impressed that the Chernobyl/Gorbachev thought got cleanly inserted into the newspaper article. (In my very limited experience, the most interesting comment often gets the last sentence.)

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