Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

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

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

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

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

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

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

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / This I believe…

This I believe…

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I believe these two things can be true at the same time:

1) This is a racist-ass country, and the Republican Party has exploited that fact for political power since the 1960s.

2) It is unprecedented, alarming and outrageous that the president of the United States is retweeting neo-Nazi garbage people and declaring all-out war on the media today.

I understand the points Doug made in yesterday’s “Original Sin” post. They are good points and something we should keep in mind when some idiot suggests we nominate a Republican as VP at the 2020 Democratic Party convention to form a “unity ticket” for post-Trump Hellscape America.

But I still say it’s fundamentally different to have a shamelessly sexist, openly bigoted, pathologically lying, anti-1A demagogue who is beholden to a foreign autocrat and a fellow traveler with white nationalist Eurotrash in the Oval. IMO. YMMV. Etc.

Anyhoo, open thread, I guess. Jesus Christ, this just gets worse every fucking day.

Reader Interactions

266Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    Over half of public comments to FCC on net neutrality appear fake: study
    NOVEMBER 29, 2017 / 10:03 AM

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – More than half of the 21.7 million public comments submitted to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission about net neutrality this year used temporary or duplicate email addresses and appeared to include false or misleading information, the Pew Research Center said on Wednesday.

    FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican appointed by President Donald Trump, proposed in April to scrap the 2015 landmark net neutrality rules, moving to give broadband service providers sweeping power over what content consumers can access.

    Pai has said the action would remove heavy-handed internet regulations. Critics have said it would let internet service providers give preferential treatment to some sites and apps and allow them to favor their own digital content.

    From April 27 to Aug. 30 the public was able to submit comments to the FCC on the topic electronically. Of those, 57 percent used either duplicate email addresses or temporary email addresses, while many individual names appeared thousands of times in the submissions, Pew said.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-internet-pew/over-half-of-public-comments-to-fcc-on-net-neutrality-appear-fake-study-idUSKBN1DT297

  2. 2.

    rikyrah

    Matt Lauer’s salary was $28 million per year. NBC also paid for him to helicopter between his summer mansion in the Hamptons & the NYC studio, so that he could have more holiday time with his family. https://t.co/BidDMjM3fE

    — Lisa Goldman (@lisang) November 29, 2017

  3. 3.

    Brachiator

    OK, a hopefully pleasant thought. I know that some Balloon Juicers love gardens. Today’s google doodle is dedicated to Gertrude Jekyll.

    She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and wrote over 1,000 articles for magazines such as Country Life and William Robinson’s The Garden. Jekyll has been described as “a premier influence in garden design” by British and American gardening enthusiasts

    Also, too, from the news

    No 10 condemns Trump retweeting of UK far-right leader’s anti-Muslim videos

    Theresa May’s spokesperson says president was ‘wrong’ to share tweets from Jayda Fransen, who faces harassment charges

    What a day.

  4. 4.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    Garrison Keillor just got fired for allegations of inappropriate behavior. It’s a war of attrition in the media. Maybe we should shut all men down until we can figure out what’s going on.

  5. 5.

    Villago Delenda Est

    No “unity ticket” is possible with the GOP, which is morally the equivalent of the NSDAP now.

    The GOP must be consigned to oblivion. There is no other way.

  6. 6.

    patrick II

    San Juan’s mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz appeared on the Rachel Maddow show last night. During the interview she said that the new republican tax bill puts a 20% excise tax on items produced in Puerto Rico and “imported” into the U.S., and added that the tax would obliterate Puerto Rico’s economy.
    There are plenty of insane, racist, and vindictive parts to this tax bill (taxing teachers for buying classroom goods, charging grad students the value of their unpaid education, having the poorest 10% have the biggest net percentage loss in income, taking away perhaps 13 million health insurance policies, but treating the Puerto Rico’s imports, a u.s. territory, as it might treat a hostile nation and destroying its economy somehow combines the worst of racism and vindictiveness from trump and his fellow traveler republicans.

  7. 7.

    rikyrah

    I disagreed with Shrub.
    Couldn’t stand Shrub.
    Shrub was hideous.

    Dolt45 has no home training.
    Dolt45 is a TRAITOR to this country.
    Why can’t him being a TRAITOR bother me, as a citizen of this country.

    Why can’t I say this?

    The TREASON is separates Shrub and Dolt45.
    also, the level of incompetence of the people around Dolt45.

  9. 9.

    Patricia Kayden

    when some idiot suggests we nominate a Republican as VP at the 2020 Democratic Party

    Hahahahahahahahahaha!! There’s not enough laughter in the universe to respond to something so ridiculous. We need a strong President/VP to take over this country and set things in the right direction. By 2020, this country will be ready for aggressive progressives. There will be no need to compromise with the Rightwingers.

  11. 11.

    Trentrunner

    Lauer fired. Keillor fired. Weinstein fired. Spacey fired. Rose fired.

    Conyers must resign.

    Franken must resign.

  20. 20.

    Brachiator

    The Senate version of the tax bill has a little something for small craft beer lovers:

    The Senate bill, but not the House bill, includes a number of tax changes for small craft brewers. Under current law, small brewers pay a reduced tax rate of $7 per barrel on the first 60,000 barrels of beer domestically produced each year. The Senate bill calls for small brewers to be taxed at $3.50 per barrel on the first 60,000 barrels domestically produced, and $16 per barrel on any further barrels produced

  21. 21.

    MattF

    The ‘just gets worse’ aspect is worrying. My assumption is that Trump is sliding into dementia– he’s joining the nursing home bloc that watches Fox all the time. I expect that when Mueller is fired, Sean Hannity will be named head of the investigation.

  23. 23.

    Trentrunner

    @Barbara: Logic! LOL.

    “Hi, I’m Charles Manson, and I will only go to prison when you catch the Zodiac Killer first.”

    We’re Dems, we can pressure our own–and we should.

    Conyers must resign. Franken must resign.

  28. 28.

    Mike in NC

    It’s only Wednesday but so far this week Trump has against shown his utter contempt for Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Muslims. By Friday he’ll be screaming about needing to punish those “Commie G**ks” over in North Korea and casually using the N-word at his podium. Media will report that both sides do it.

  30. 30.

    TenguPhule

    @Trentrunner:

    Franken must resign.

    Franken can skullfuck Susan Collins on the Senate floor. That’s how much I don’t give a shit about it at this point.

    He stays and anyone who wants to argue otherwise can kindly fuck off.

  32. 32.

    delk

    Heard Duran Duran’s “Ordinary World” this morning while grocery shopping…

    What has happened to it all?
    Crazy someone say
    Where is the life that I recognize?
    Gone away
    But I won’t cry for yesterday
    There’s an ordinary world
    Somehow I have to find
    And as I try to make my way
    To the ordinary world
    I will learn to survive…

  33. 33.

    TenguPhule

    @Mike in NC: At this point I’m not going to be surprised if by Friday we find out Trump really has gotten our military to start murdering the families of accused terrorists.

  34. 34.

    Archon

    @Patricia Kayden:

    President Obama offered a type of consensus government around certain principles that most Americans would and could agree on and Republicans in the country from the country club elite to the hillbilly spit in his face.

    There is no compromise with this version of the Republican Party. This is a battle for the soul of America and they must be destroyed.

  35. 35.

    Kay

    It does get worse every day. That “frog in a pot of slowly warming water” thing was just wrong. It’s markedly and dramatically worse every week.

    It’s driven me to home improvements, which I enjoy (and am quite good at!) but had lost interest in. Now all this frantic painting and shit is keeping me sane. It’s like circling the wagons. MY AREA is under control! :)

    You guys are on your own. Good luck! :)

  36. 36.

    TenguPhule

    @patrick II:

    During the interview she said that the new republican tax bill puts a 20% excise tax on items produced in Puerto Rico and “imported” into the U.S., and added that the tax would obliterate Puerto Rico’s economy.

    Someone please tell me how this does not lead to very bad things happening.

  39. 39.

    Betty Cracker

    @Patricia Kayden: Some ninny on Twitter actually suggested this the other day. And if things go the way they’re trending (i.e., we limp into 2019 as a broken, divided, fucked up nation), he won’t be the last. We’ll need to tell such morons to have a seat. Have all the motherfucking seats.

  40. 40.

    Kay

    I didn’t read the piece but I saw a headline yesterday that was like “Trump isn’t a huge liar, he’s delusional!”

    Oh. Okay. How is that better?

  43. 43.

    d58826

    @patrick II: Well if they destroy the PR economy and force most of the residents to move to the mainland then that will leave a nice tropical paradise that the 1 % can buy dirt cheap and created an island wide gated community.

  46. 46.

    Barbara

    @Trentrunner: You are the one not using logic. Politicians are elected. Voters can vote them out. That’s my position for anything that doesn’t involve a crime. Employers — media or otherwise — can do whatever they want given their determination of what is in their best interests. Sorry you don’t like living in a democracy.

  51. 51.

    aimai

    @opiejeanne: OH, I’m not shocked! It has to be obvious at this point that 75 percent of these old farts never made the transition to daddy/grandpa and realized that from the point of view of co-workers and young women they had long since passed their last fuckable day, as Amy Schumer put it.

    I mean–I know 80 year olds who still have an active sex life, but its age mate appropriate and I hope MR. Aimai and I will still be doing the deed into our 80’s. But neither of us are under the impression that we are a marketable commodity to younger people we encounter in the work force. To them we accept the role of parent/mentor/friend.

    A whole lot of these guys are either predators or suffering from some kind of emotional and mental blinders about how inappropriate persistent flirtation is in the workplace.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    NBC News poll of millennials should terrify Republicans. Only 19% identify as GOP and 71% say the Republican Party doesn’t care about people like them. Demographic crisis only getting worse

    Well they would be terrified if younger people punched their weight in voting like older people do,but they don’t so it’s safe to ignore them and treat them like shit.

    We shouldn’t have to beg them to vote. I have and do beg them but I’m sick of it.

  56. 56.

    schrodingers_cat

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:All that Minnesota nice business struck me as a bit fake. Never did like the Boring Home Companion. BTW I think Nick Kristoff* is going to be next. His goody two shooz rescuing prostitutes schtick is fake fake fake.

    * I have no evidence or anything, he just seems like a creep.

  58. 58.

    Cacti

    @Emma:

    The first time one of these men are exonerated, the backlash is going to be brutal.

    Then you have scum like James O’Keefe attempting to fabricate a false rape charge with a female accomplice to discredit real victims. I doubt this will be the only time he tries.

  60. 60.

    Brachiator

    @Miss Bianca:

    ooh, link?

    On the small craft beer thing? Here.

    The U.S. Senate’s new tax bill would give Georgia’s small craft breweries some holiday cheer months after a watershed state law provided a major economic boon to beer makers and liquor distillers.

    The would-be Christmas present comes in the form of a proposed tax decrease, which industry advocates say would put thousands of dollars into the pockets of fledgling breweries across the state.

    The Senate GOP’s tax legislation, which the chamber is expected to consider as soon as next week, would cut the tax rate in half to $3.50 per barrel for the first 60,000 barrels produced by small U.S. breweries. Industry groups have been pushing for the change for years on Capitol Hill.

    Joel Iverson, a co-founder of Monday Night Brewing in West Midtown, said the proposed change would save his company roughly $60,000 a year, the equivalent of hiring almost two employees.

    “To me, cutting an excise tax is just putting money directly back in the pockets of people that are trying to get a business going at a time when every dollar counts,” Iverson said.

    Nancy Palmer, the executive director of the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild, said she expects many local brewers to take the money saved and reinvest it into their businesses, hiring new employees and buying more space or equipment….

    The provision, which was backed by Georgia U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson as it moved through the Senate’s tax writing committee, would also benefit wine and liquor makers. There are also more modest tax benefits in store for much larger beer makers, including Atlanta’s SweetWater Brewing Co. and Anheuser-Busch.

    The language would need to pass both chambers of Congress in order to become law. And even if it is enacted, the provision would need to be renewed after two years.

  62. 62.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TenguPhule: It will increase and solidify the new Puerto Rican diaspora. The bulk of which will be coming to Florida and most likely won’t go back because of this. As the jobs won’t come back if it goes through. There are already 200,000 new members of Florida’s Puerto Rican community. This number is going to go up over the next several months. And they are pissed off at the President and the GOP. The professional GOP campaign folks in Florida are both clear eyed on what this means and scared of it. Now it is true that the Florida Democratic Party couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse if you spotted them an event planner, but it is important to remember that the President only won Florida by 119,000 votes. This has the ability to, and likely will, remake Florida politics.

  65. 65.

    Barbara

    @Kay: They made a significant difference in the outcome of the recent Virginia election, especially in the races for the General Assembly. There were reports of people stating that they were going to vote against any Republican, no matter what the office.

  69. 69.

    Barbara

    @Trentrunner: I am not arguing with you. Principles are principles they aren’t shackles. If you can’t understand the difference between criminal acts and highly ambiguous comedy skits you are an idiot.

  70. 70.

    aimai

    @Bobby Thomson: No, there’s more. He wrote an essay about how Trump is Trump because all those New YorkJews wouldn’t accept him into their hoity toity world. It essentially reads like a nazi propaganda piece even though it was notionally written to “explain” trump and his ambition. Vdare reprinted it so they thought it was right up their alley.

  71. 71.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Same. And while the current shit-storm gives me some hope that we might break through the apathy in 2018, too many seem to perceive it as evidence that “politics sucks, why bother?”

  73. 73.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I’m am convinced that we’re at the stage where Donald Trump is above criticism because he’s a master swordsman, Roy Moore is above criticism because King David (ditto David Vitter and Blake Farenthold), and we’re excoriating liberals because they clumsily asked somebody out or leered at an ass while not looking like Chris Pratt or one of the shirtless Hemsworth brothers.

  74. 74.

    Fair Economist

    @Emma:

    The first time one of these men are exonerated, the backlash is going to be brutal.

    Not if we can clear enough of them out. It’s becoming clear that the “backlash” against sexual harassment allegations has been driven by these important harassing media figures protecting their own.

    I suspect the key is actually at the very top, with the executives. At least some of them must have been in on this. If some of those come down, things will change.

  76. 76.

    danielx

    @hellslittlestangel:

    I think governments are the cancer of civilization. And the minute that we see seven or eight women get in a circle and start a war, I’ll be shocked like a motherfucker.

    – Chuck D

  78. 78.

    Emma

    @Cacti: Yeah. Well, you know, Republicans get away with it with the full support of their party. Democrats must commit seppuku with the party wailing and covering their heads with ashes.

  79. 79.

    TenguPhule

    @Brachiator:

    Nancy Palmer, the executive director of the Georgia Craft Brewers Guild, said she expects many local brewers to take the money saved and reinvest it into their businesses, hiring new employees and buying more space or equipment

    Lying liars lie.

  81. 81.

    Miss Bianca

    @Brachiator: hey, wow, first I’d heard about it – thanks!

    ETA: this is the first I’ve heard of anyone but the super-rich actually benefitting from this abortion of a tax bill.

  82. 82.

    The Dangerman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    By Friday he’ll be back at Mar a Lago golfing.

    Remember the good ol’ days, not that long ago, when the Right was appalled by how much Obama golfed and gave a shit about deficits?

    Whomever said it above almost nailed it; assholes all the way down, but there will be a bottom and it’s gonna be staggering. Air Trump seems to be sending out a lot of chaff into the air so maybe it’s sooner rather than later…

  83. 83.

    ruemara

    We’re going to have to learn to walk, chew gum, traverse a tight rope over boiling cauldrons of acid, juggle chainsaws and keep our eyes on the ball — all at the same time.

    I just wanted to welcome you to minorityness. We have seasoned food and the good music

    @schrodingers_cat: No. Really. And that’s half of why they’re so abusive and disgusting. This is ugly guy revenge. And they don’t have to be that bad looking to feel ugly and resentful. I’ve worked with models & actors. Some very handsome men have the worst ego issues built around how handsome or masculine they don’t think they look.

  84. 84.

    japa21

    Regarding the PR excise tax. IIRC, one of the major exports of PR is pharmaceuticals. Wouldn’t this just drive up the cost of medications? It’s not just PR that would be hit with this.

  85. 85.

    Betty Cracker

    @aimai: Wow, I missed that. I quit reading his dumb, disjointed columns in WaPo a while back, assumed he’d stripped a few gears. What an asshole!

  87. 87.

    TenguPhule

    @Fair Economist:

    Not if we can clear enough of them out.

    Say what?

    Any woman caught lying about sexual misconduct allegations against a man with money/power is going to validate every old stereotype about the “greedy lying slut”. Its going to be used as a cudgel endlessly against any future accusations.

    And its going to happen sooner or later. The Republicans see no downsides to making it happen.

  89. 89.

    ArchTeryx

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: Its easy to figure out what’s going on. It’s a war for scalps, and the right wants to have the biggest trophy room.

    That’s been mixed up hopelessly with an actual coming-out of victims of this shit, forcing everyone to evaluate each claim for the political angle.

    Fuck the right and their puke funnel.

  90. 90.

    ruemara

    @Patricia Kayden: This country will be ready for progressives? I hope you’re right. I’ve never seen a bunch so dedicated to their own destruction in the name “you can’t tell me what to do”. And I am including the progressives (males, in particular) in that.

  91. 91.

    TenguPhule

    @danielx:

    And the minute that we see seven or eight women get in a circle and start a war, I’ll be shocked like a motherfucker.

    Obviously hasn’t spent time around Republican & evangelical women.

  92. 92.

    Jeffro

    I refuse to stop being outraged, no matter how long it takes for Orangemandias to stroke out or otherwise depart the office for good. No normalizing or accepting any of this – not now, not ever.

  93. 93.

    Brachiator

    @aimai:

    I mean–I know 80 year olds who still have an active sex life, but its age mate appropriate

    One thing I love about listening to the Savage Love podcast is so many people having “inappropriate” consensual sex, the way God intended.

    And I don’t remember much media criticism about, for example, movie director Sam Taylor, now 50, whose spouse was 18 when they met on a movie set in 2009. They have two kids, so they have clearly been enjoying each other.

  94. 94.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Emma:

    Yup. The Zero Tolerance Reign of Error has been claiming scalps at a rate that would make Andrea Dworkin or Catherine MacKinnon proud. No sex or discussion attractions for men unless it is specifically woman approved (MacKinnon argued once in a bullshit law review article that gay male sex acts were inherently antifeminist, as the acts excluded women from both participation and approval).

  95. 95.

    Humboldtblue

    @Emma:

    They don’t even have to be exonerated, look at the what they are doing to Corfman in Alabama. And the vicious backlash against all of Moore’s accusers is being led by the same white women who support Trump.

  99. 99.

    Roger Moore

    @Kay:

    It does get worse every day. That “frog in a pot of slowly warming water” thing was just wrong. It’s markedly and dramatically worse every week.

    They’re just turning up the heat too fast because they’re afraid they’re running out of time. They had been doing the “boiling the frog” thing very well for the previous 40 years.

  100. 100.

    SFAW

    @Barbara:

    I am not arguing with you. Principles are principles they aren’t shackles. If you can’t understand the difference between criminal acts and highly ambiguous comedy skits you are an idiot.

    I don’t know how busy you are, but you could have saved yourself some time by eliminating all but the last four words, without loss of truth.

  101. 101.

    gene108

    For people worried about Conyers and Franken, keep in mind Ted Kennedy flat out murdered a girl, drowned her in his car, staggered home after doing the deed, and spent several days formulating excuses he’d tell the police, before reporting the incident and got away with it because he’s a Kennedy.

    I know the accident he got into in 1969 that killed a woman may not have gone down exactly like the above, that’s pretty much how right-wingers think about Ted Kennedy.

    His battle with brain-cancer, right when Obamacare was being designed in the Senate, hurt us. Instead of Kennedy knuckling down and getting his dream of universal healthcare passed, we were stuck with Max Baucus, who dithered. We mourned the loss of Kennedy. He became a Liberal Lion in the Senate and an elder statesmen in the Democratic Party.

    His early endorsement of President Obama in 2008 was not rebuffed, because of what happened in 1968, but rather was seen as a signal that other prominent Democrats can support him.

    Just pointing out something regarding another prominent Democrat, who had something bad happen, but did not let it end his career and did some good later on.

  102. 102.

    H.E.Wolf

    75-year-old Garrison Keillor’s current (younger) wife is his third. So his Nice Minnesotan Guy persona has rung a bit false to me for quite some time.
    /meow

  104. 104.

    SFAW

    @Mart:

    Right after Trump and Moore resign…

    Fuck that shit: child molesters belong in jail, not “unemployed.” And with any luck, they’ll get to re-enact a Miguel Pinero play.

  106. 106.

    TenguPhule

    At Mar-a-Lago, where he spent the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump again and again received congratulations from wealthy club members for the work of his administration, according to several people who spoke with him. They assured him he was doing great things and simply wasn’t being appreciated by the media — a view he was glad others shared.

    The United States can’t survive 3 more years of this.

  107. 107.

    JanieM

    @opiejeanne: @aimai:

    I was never a fan of Garrison Keillor to begin with — I guess I just didn’t find his stupid midwestern schtick entertaining. (Maybe because I grew up in the midwest.)

    Then I saw this column, where he trashes Cambridge, Unitarians, Jewish songwriters, and who knows what-all else. Representative passage:

    And all those lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys that trash up the malls every year, Rudolph and the chestnuts and the rest of that dreck. Did one of our guys write “Grab your loafers, come along if you wanna, and we’ll blow that shofar for Rosh Hashanah”? No, we didn’t.

    Christmas is a Christian holiday – if you’re not in the club, then buzz off.

    Asshole.

  108. 108.

    The Dangerman

    @Roger Moore:

    They’re just turning up the heat too fast because they’re afraid they’re running out of time.

    Roy Moore winning (and I think it’s a lock, I mean, it’s fucking Alabama) should be interesting; if the Republicans sack up and expel him (which they should, but almost surely won’t), the Right splits.

  109. 109.

    Kathleen

    @Adam L Silverman: Back in early 2000 thousands he wrote a column in Salon supporting torture. It was not a Swiftian proposal. I’ve been giving him the side eye ever since. If I weren’t on my phone I’d try to find a link.
    ETA won’t take edit

  112. 112.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Trentrunner:Laur was fired and companies don’t do that on one incident unless an actual crime was involved, like say raping a fellow staff member in an hotel room at the Olympics. So pray tell, how does a comedy skit gone bad rise to that level?

  113. 113.

    Mart

    @Brachiator: Only fitting that GA gets the craft brew break. After all it was GA’s own President Jimmy Carter that signed legislation allowing craft brews when we were down to less than a handful of national shitty breweries; along with a few bad to OK regional brewers. Also brought back home brewing. Probably the greatest legislation in the past 40 years.

  114. 114.

    Roger Moore

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Does Corker brew beer in his basement?

    I would guess that’s where he keeps his kidnapped sex slaves and buries their bodies when he’s done with them.

  115. 115.

    Betty Cracker

    @gene108:

    Just pointing out something regarding another prominent Democrat, who had something bad happen, but did not let it end his career and did some good later on.

    Emphasis mine, and fuck that noise. I don’t see any sense in relitigating the past (our founders were fucking slave-holders, FFS!), but I damn sure hope if any Democrat did that today, we’d all have the good sense to shun that motherfucker.

  117. 117.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Bobby Thomson: @aimai: Yep.
    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-donald-trump-losing-garrison-keillor-20160831-story.html

    And The New York Times treats you like the village idiot. This is painful for a Queens boy trying to win respect in Manhattan where the Times is the Supreme Liberal Jewish Anglican Arbiter of Who Has The Smarts and What Goes Where. When you came to Manhattan 40 years ago, you discovered that in entertainment, the press, politics, finance, everywhere you went, you ran into Jews, and they are not like you: Jews didn’t go in for big yachts and a fleet of aircraft — they showed off by way of philanthropy or by raising brilliant offspring. They sympathized with the civil rights movement.

  123. 123.

    aimai

    @Brachiator: Not sure what you are arguing. The guys who are being defenestrated aren’t engaging in consensual sexual relations, they are being accused of pestering, harassing, or physically attacking women (and some men) who are not interested in being their sexual partners. When called on it some of them have basically said “I thought it was consensual.” The old farts have to be deaf dumb and blind to think that, for the most part, younger women are sincerely turned on by them, wattles and warts and all. Power is an aphrodisiac but it doesn’t, in fact, effect everyone. People in the workplace want sex from some co-workers, and mentoring, tutoring, and support from most of the senior staff. Any senior person, media/politics or anything else, who thinks that they are actually attractive enough to gain consensual sex from subordinates is delusional.

  125. 125.

    Adam L Silverman

    @danielx: Margaret Thatcher, Indira Ghandi, Golda Meir, and Aun San Suu Kyii. All women leaders. All involved in wars and/or brutal counterinsurgencies/counter-terrorism campaigns and/or ethnic cleansing.

  128. 128.

    bemused

    I gotta wonder how many high profile predator guys have been profusely sweating out the last six weeks or so since Weinstein finally got outed.

  132. 132.

    Brachiator

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Nice and genteel it was

    Wow. This stuff is so over the top that I wanted to see it as an attempt at humor gone wrong. But if he never backed off, clarified or apologized, then it just sits there as just nasty BS.

  133. 133.

    Adam L Silverman

    @The Dangerman: Once the tax cut bill passes they’ll be screaming about deficits in order to make a final push to get rid of social security, medicare, and medicaid, as well as WIC. Why do you think they can’t be bothered to do anything CHIP? Because they have no intention of doing so. They just need the tax bill to pass, then they can pivot and say: “all the estimates are that the deficit is going up $1.5 trillion, we have no choice but to tighten our belts and cut ‘welfare’.” What they’re doing is the political and budgetary equivalent of killing their parents and then asking the court for mercy because they’re orphans. They’ve set the conditions to balloon the deficit so they can use the ballooning deficit to gut the safety net and any/every Federal program that is actually beneficial aside from military and law enforcement functions.

  137. 137.

    lamh36

    here’s the thing…ALOT of guys (and yes some gals) have done things that if they really thought back on it would be considered inappropriate.

    There is a fine line with harmless flirting and what so many guys, esp those in powerful positions, have crossed that line on.

    Back in the day, it was just accepted behaviour…I have older coworkers who talk about the things that happened among coworkers and I’ll admit, I just SMH…cause there is NO WAY that it would be acceptable behavior…

    It’s why so many guys, are feeling the heat w/all these firings and allegations going around…cause they gotta be thinking…wait…have I done something like this before..

  139. 139.

    SFAW

    @The Dangerman:

    if the Republicans sack up and expel him (which they should, but almost surely won’t), the Right splits.

    And if I grow to 6’7″ and train my ass off, and become 30 years younger, I’ll win the Olympic gold in single sculls. In other words: why speculate about something that will never happen?

    Ron Fucking Johnson and Bob Fucking Corker voted the way we all thought they would re: sending Tax Scam ’17 to the floor, even after saying they wouldn’t. (Or strongly implying, since they probably used weasel-words.) There is less chance Moore will be expelled than Trump NOT tweeting something assholish in the next 48 hours.

  144. 144.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @danielx:

    I think governments are the cancer of civilization. And the minute that we see seven or eight women get in a circle and start a war, I’ll be shocked like a motherfucker.

    Then explain Margret Thatcher.

  146. 146.

    The Dangerman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Once the tax cut bill passes they’ll be screaming about deficits in order to make a final push to get rid of social security, medicare, and medicaid, as well as WIC.

    Yup. Then we get to see if there is anything such as free and fair elections any longer, because doing so should get the Olds good and plenty riled.

  149. 149.

    TenguPhule

    @Adam L Silverman:

    What they’re doing is the political and budgetary equivalent of killing their parents and then asking the court for mercy because they’re orphans.

    What’s the political and budgetary equivalent of sending them to the chair to fry?

  150. 150.

    Brachiator

    @aimai:

    Not sure what you are arguing.

    I thought I was pretty clear. I see “age appropriate” as puritanical BS when it applies to consensual relationships. That was why I mentioned Sam Taylor and spouse. And I certainly don’t understand how this applies to Sam Taylor and spouse:

    The old farts have to be deaf dumb and blind to think that, for the most part, younger women are sincerely turned on by them, wattles and warts and all.

    In their case 42 and 18 was no problem at all, nor an impediment to marital and sexual bliss. So, how does your purported standard about “age appropriate” apply? Also, I’m having a bit of fun with this because, as I said, no one, especially culture critics said much against this match, even when dumping on others for “cradle robbing.”

    However, I have no arguments, none, nada, zip, with dealing with people who harass, attempt to coerce, bother, assault or otherwise impose themselves on people who do not want, welcome or desire their attentions.

  151. 151.

    d58826

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Golda Mier and Indera Ghandi could be pretty bloody minded.

    In the meantime the ‘women of principle’ in the obamacare repeal debate look like they will go along with the tax bill that will gut Obamacare. I really doubt that, given a critical mass of women in power that they will behave any better than the men. Given biology they may not become sexual harassers but they will behave with equal lack of principle in how they exercise power in all other aspects of their public life.

    And sometimes they are quite willing to go along with the game. 60 year old man with 25 year old eye candy trophy wife. She didn’t have to say yes to the proposal.

    Which does not excuse the Weinsteins, etc.

  152. 152.

    Yutsano

    @The Dangerman: They want to eliminate those programs? Fine. I get my contributions back. If they think they can just take that money and expect us to suck it up, that would be the end of Republican rule. Because I will become a secessionist.

    Not to mention the biggest national debt holder right now is Social Security. Reagan initiated that little scam fr borrowing against it.

  153. 153.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I’m thinking not just withholding sex, but an actual ban on men from all public life. Like they can all stay home and take care of the “honey-do” projects, walk the dogs, do the grocery shopping, pick the kids up from school and make the beds, that kind of thing, while women take the country back.

  154. 154.

    TenguPhule

    @Yutsano:

    If they think they can just take that money and expect us to suck it up, that would be the end of Republican rule. Because I will become a secessionist.

    I have a modest proposal for what to do with the Republicans in this event.

  155. 155.

    Adam L Silverman

    @schrodingers_cat: I’m trying out a variant spelling to see if it will catch on.

    She was one tough cookie. And I’m not arguing that what she did was right or wrong, that might be for another day. Rather anyone who thinks that female senior leaders cannot and will not make decisions to utilize military and law enforcement force is delusional. With that said I still believe the smartest thing the Democratic Party could do at all levels is identify the women, women of color, women who are religious minorities, and men of color and men who are religious minorities who are willing to run for office – from local special district offices to President – and get them lined up in the chute, set them up with support, and promote them to success. The most loyal elements within the party deserve to finally be given priority by the party.

  161. 161.

    Another Scott

    @lamh36: That reminds me… My mom worked for an office supply place in Atlanta in the late ’60s. Sometimes she had to work weekends and would take me and my brother in with her (when she couldn’t find a sitter). The company conference room was off the showroom. It had a really nice big table, comfy chairs, and … several framed Playboy centerfolds on the wall.

    :-/

    Yeah, many things were different back then. But it wasn’t “fine” and harmless. Too many people think it was, or are jealous that they weren’t able to take advantage of those times and want to go back to those days. We can’t let them drag us back.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  164. 164.

    pamelabrown53

    @Kay: @#40.

    Here’s what I don’t grok, Kay. Is there a reason Trump can’t be a delusional liar? I have a mental health background and I don’t think it’s an either or classification.

  165. 165.

    SFAW

    @JanieM:

    If I’m misreading him, I have plenty of company, here (@aimai) and elsewhere.

    Yes, you do, unfortunately.

    He’s “donning the aspect” (or whatever the correct term is) of a curmudgeon, one who does NOT feel the Christmas spirit in any way, shape, or form, and is ranting about all sorts of things which don’t comport with the curmudgeon’s exceedingly narrow view of a “proper” Christmas. Perhaps he needed to write “Bah, humbug!” to make it more obvious? (Not that Scrooge had any affection for any type of Christmas “traditions.”)

    Have you read “A Modest Proposal”? If so, did you come away thinking Swift really wanted to have the Irish sell their children as food sources?

    Keillor could have made it more obvious that it was satire, however.

  167. 167.

    Brachiator

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Ahilyabai Holkar was an example of a good and just, woman ruler, well liked by her subjects and feared by her enemies.

    What an interesting historical figure.

    She reminds me a bit of Zenobia of the Palmyrene Empire, who also was favorably regarded.

  169. 169.

    Schlemazel

    @opiejeanne:
    Ilove Garrison’s work but having met him a couple times what he exuded most was arrogance. I had to separate that from his work in order to keep enjoying the work.

    It is disappointing though.

  170. 170.

    The Dangerman

    @Yutsano:

    Because I will become a secessionist.

    Hell, I’d go for having CA, OR, and WA split off right now (and give the Red States the Baker Mayfield salute as we’re setting up the fences on the border). We’d want Vegas, too, though (speaking of which, I’m thinking about crossing off a bucket list thing and doing Vegas for New Year’s Eve, just not sure where the best party would be).

  172. 172.

    lamh36

    @Another Scott: Right…when I say it was “acceptable” behavior what I mean is the folk I know who share the stories of days gone by…just seem to put it in a nostalgic sort of way rather than as PREDATORY behavior. And when I spoke up and said, ‘OMG, that’s disgusting that happened to you”…to a person, they say, “oh, no , it was just how it was back then”..

    and again, I just SMH

  173. 173.

    Adria McDowell

    Puerto Ricans are the new native Hawaiians (or maybe we were all along).

    Guess I should look up topo maps of states bordering Canada to hike into the country- I doubt they will have me any other way.

    I have ZERO confidence in enough of my fellow Americans to think we are going to be able to get out of this. People care more for their racism and guns to care about anything else.

  175. 175.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Emma: We have significant empirical evidence that when women are added to decision making groups the decision making process gets more deliberate and the courses of actions proposed and chosen are better. I’m a big fan of women as senior leaders, but it doesn’t mean they’re perfect.

  177. 177.

    Princess

    I’ve been waiting to hear Keillor named ever since this round of #MeToo first started. I *like* PHC, but in recent years the way he talked to his female guests and the way they would giggle and edge away started creeping me out. I was relieved when he retired, and I am not a bit surprised about today’s news.

  179. 179.

    Yutsano

    @The Dangerman: I’m starting to lean more and more about the creation of Pacifica. It seems like DC is dragging us into muck that we don’t need to be involved in and we still have the vast majority of tech and agricultural jobs to make it work. Of course when the rest of the US pays a higher price for vegetables and apples (people really have no idea how many apples come from Washington) then maybe things will start to change. I’m not there yet. But it’s starting.

  184. 184.

    slag

    The worst part of this will be when, after Trump expends his usefulness to establishment Republicans, Paul Ryan and ilk get welcomed back into polite society after just a few post-impeachment/succession news cycles.

    And then, even-the-liberal New Republic will wax poetic on that wonky, soulful Paul Ryan and how he just couldn’t stomach Trump offending his wonky, soulful sensibilities any longer (le sigh).

  186. 186.

    ruemara

    @Amaranthine RBG: I am very certain you are a satire.

    @lamh36: This is true. And there are lots of degrees of harassment and inappropriate behaviour. But, yeah, folks would be shocked and should be. I don’t know how women haven’t burnt down the world a few times.

  189. 189.

    AnonPhenom

    @Adam L Silverman:
    You’ve an interesting, if literal, take on that piece. I remember reading that at the time it was written and thinking “Shit, Keillor has that whole QUEENS BOY TALKING TO HIMSELF IN HIS OWN HEAD thing down pat”
    .

  195. 195.

    Amaranthine RBG

    @ruemara:

    Yes, you’re right: Garrison Keillor totally believes that “In Queens, blacks were a threat to property values — they belonged in the Bronx, not down the street”

    He’s really as bad as David Duke, if you think about it.

    —

    Have you people lost your fucking minds?

  196. 196.

    Schlemazel

    @JanieM:
    You obviously don’t get Minnesota humor. That whole piece was a joke. I see how you could miss that but he was not serious.

    He was long past his best work by then. In the late 80s and early 90s his ” Letters From Lake Wobegon where the best Americana since Twain.

    He really hit the skids when he left his first wife for a woman he knew in high school and ran off to Denmark to marry her. He seemed to really ratchet up the ego then, the self involvement pegged and the quality suffered.

  197. 197.

    woodrowfan

    @aimai: as I heard somewhere, atsome point when a man sees a pretty 18 year old he should think “wow, I t bet her mom/grandma is hot…. “

  198. 198.

    Mart

    I first heard PHC in the car with my dad in the 70’s – That is so long ago I had to Google to make sure that is right. Would tune in now and again over the years for the music. Liked the movie too. So sad.

  201. 201.

    Amaranthine RBG

    @SFAW:

    I wonder if this is all some kind of reaction to the psychological damage that Trump has done? Trump’s m.o. is Say Something Offensive, Then Say It Was a Joke.

    Keillor was saying offensive things that were obviously satire (at least to anyone mildly sentient) but now people have seized on some of those things as indisputable that he is a racist and an anti-semite.

    Some said the 9/11 killed Irony. Maybe Trump actually has.
    I

  202. 202.

    Gin & Tonic

    @woodrowfan: When a good friend began assistant coaching his daughter’s HS volleyball team I told him to remember that to those girls, a guy his age is practically invisible.

  204. 204.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @aimai:

    The old farts have to be deaf dumb and blind to think that, for the most part, younger women are sincerely turned on by them, wattles and warts and all

    Christ, were did you go to collage? I recall a lot of women my age when I was in collage chasing 50 something married guys because of the experience. I also recall getting rejected by a lot of women in my twenties because I didn’t have the experience of a man married for thirty years.

  205. 205.

    Amaranthine RBG

    @Schlemazel:

    Yes, up next week – a compilation of all the vicious, zenophobic, bigoted things Keillor has been saying about Lutherans and Norwegians for decades !!!

  206. 206.

    'Niques

    @Trentrunner: OMG . . . an adult male entertainer pretending to fondle an adult female entertainer for a cheezy publicity photo is NOT THE SAME as a grown man lusting after 14 year old little girls to the point that the local police are tasked with keeping him away from high school cheerleader practices! Moore sympathizers are just fucking amazing! BOTH SITUATIONS ARE NOT THE SAME . . . and fuck you for insisting they are!

  209. 209.

    J R in WV

    @Trentrunner:

    Cherry fired. Apple fired. Chocolate Creme fired. Lemon fired. Rose fired.

    Pecan must resign.

    Maple-Walnut must resign.

    Trump first, you pie-eating monster!

    Right in your pie-hole with a chainsaw!!!

  211. 211.

    Yutsano

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Used to be a joke where if a woman wants to attract a man outside of marriage, she takes her ring off. If a man wants to attract a woman, he puts his ring on.

    @Mnemosyne:

    And you can’t ramp up production of pharmaceuticals very quickly, because there are a ton of safety regulations that manufacturers have to meet.

    A solution is to increase imports from India, which all run at or pretty close to FDA standards.

  212. 212.

    Mnemosyne

    @japa21:

    Regarding the PR excise tax. IIRC, one of the major exports of PR is pharmaceuticals. Wouldn’t this just drive up the cost of medications?

    There are already major issues with sterile saline because PR was a major producer of that. And you can’t ramp up production of pharmaceuticals very quickly, because there are a ton of safety regulations that manufacturers have to meet.

    But given that this is the Republicans we’re talking about, I’m guessing they’re okay with having a few thousand Americans die from tainted pharmaceuticals as long as they get to stick it to Puerto Rico.

  213. 213.

    Emma

    @Adam L Silverman: Groups, yes. I can see that. A long while ago I remember reading about a Native American tribe where the men could choose to go to war but could only do it if the women approved? Probably another legend.

  216. 216.

    SFAW

    @bemused:

    Easily recognizable to most Minnesotans but I can see how others wouldn’t get it.

    “Do you know Minnesotans have no sense of humor?”
    “No, but if you hum a few bars, I can fake it.”

    [The above was old before efgoldman was born, by the way.]

  217. 217.

    TenguPhule

    A new Emerson poll finds Roy Moore leading Doug Jones in Alabama by 53-47. And a new JMC poll finds Moore up by 48-43. The polling averages now have Moore up by one point, after Jones had held a small lead.

    Fucking Alabama.

  221. 221.

    Betty Cracker

    Okay, I read the Keillor columns in question (damn you all!), and it’s clearly satire. Trafficking in ugly stereotypes is risky shit for good reason.

  223. 223.

    Mnemosyne

    @JanieM:

    WTFF? I’d love someone to name a single classic Christmas song that’s not an actual carol that was written by a Christian. There might be a few gospel songs, but I have a feeling those wouldn’t count either since they would have been written by non-white Christians.

  224. 224.

    J R in WV

    @Trentrunner:

    Trump shoud resign because:

    1) he is owned by Russian mobster-controlled banks
    2) he violates the law and constitution regarding profiting from his office
    3) he confessed to sexual predation on the air
    4) he confessed to barging into dressing rooms with young girls naked because he could
    5) he screws his workers out of their earned wage
    .
    .
    .
    He is a treasonous lying pig. Like you.

  225. 225.

    Betty Cracker

    @SFAW: It’s not a sure thing, since our state party could fuck up a wet dream, but it’s not far-fetched either. It’s an opportunity for sure, at least on a state-wide level. The interior red zones will overwhelmingly remain red, though; Florida is a microcosm of the United States in that sense.

  226. 226.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @TenguPhule:

    Not to mention being able to pay without flinching to take them somewhere nice for dinner and going out.

    Actually, that wasn’t true with these guys. The were just as broke as the rest of us. It really was about the experience and the since the guys were married they wouldn’t stick around. Fast trackers going places and all that.

  227. 227.

    Mnemosyne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I’m assuming he was trying to be tongue in cheek and/or get into the head of a Trump supporter, but that’s a MAJOR fail if it was. When white supremacists read your work and assume you’re on their side, you need to look at your own life and see where you went wrong.

  230. 230.

    Fair Economist

    @Betty Cracker:

    Okay, I read the Keillor columns in question (damn you all!), and it’s clearly satire. Trafficking in ugly stereotypes is risky shit for good reason.

    Poe’s law has expanded to all media.

  231. 231.

    rikyrah

    @Archon:

    There is no compromise with this version of the Republican Party. This is a battle for the soul of America and they must be destroyed

    .

    no doubt about it

  232. 232.

    J R in WV

    @JanieM:

    So, no chance that was humor that fell flat with some? No way?

    I never cared that much for the show, especially once someone convinced him he could sing with the really great singers coming on the show. He couldn’t carry a tune in a barrel!

    But some of it was pretty funny. Thin skins some people have. There are some really bad great hillbilly jokes.

    You know how we know the toothbrush was invented in Boone county? Otherwise it would be the teethbrush!!! Better because my wife was born in Boone county….

  233. 233.

    Silent no more

    Mr. Silent and I saw “an evening with” Garrison Keillor a few years ago. He was sufficiently off-color throughout the evening to make me quite uncomfortable, and I began to wonder whether he was starting to lose it. He left PHC a year or two afterwards.

  234. 234.

    Mnemosyne

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    It really was about the experience and the since the guys were married they wouldn’t stick around.

    Okay, reading between the lines, I have some bad news for you: the older professors were better in bed and had an actual clue that women should have orgasms, too.

  235. 235.

    Suzanne

    @lamh36:

    Back in the day, it was just accepted behaviour…I have older coworkers who talk about the things that happened among coworkers and I’ll admit, I just SMH…cause there is NO WAY that it would be acceptable behavior…

    Shit. I am not THAT old. I think back to my first job. I was sixteen, and I worked at a new McDonald’s that had opened up in my neighborhood. I am not exaggerating when I say that sexual harassment happened at least hourly amongst the employees, or between employees and customers. And that was during Clinton II. This is in every industry, every level, every social class.

  236. 236.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @woodrowfan:

    Absolutely. When it comes down to it, I like a woman who knows her way around a dick, to be crude.

  237. 237.

    Kay

    Another embarrassing NYTimes article:

    President Trump urged senators this month to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that most Americans have health insurance and use the proceeds to slash the top tax rate paid by the richest Americans, a suggestion that pitted him against his daughter and Republican senators intent on helping the middle class.
    In the end, the president accepted only a partial victory. He got the repeal of the health law’s individual mandate, but gave up on an income tax rate cut that would have directly benefited him personally. Instead, Ivanka Trump and her allies in the Senate prevailed in their push to include an expanded child tax credit.

    When the history of this is written the NYTimes deserves a starring role. They’re a fucking parody of media sucking up to the rich.

    Ivanka rescued the peons from an even more plutocrat-benefiting tax plan! Be grateful!

    Boy- it must be nice to be a well-connected NY’er and get this kind of coverage. Their relationship with this family is disgusting

  238. 238.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Mnemosyne:Did I say others wise? I was pointing out why younger women like older men. warts and all. But it was kind of a chicken and the egg thing, isn’t it Mnem? I was inexperienced because I was inexperienced.

  239. 239.

    mike in dc

    re Trentrunner’s one-note Johnny argument, paraphrased: For the sake of optics and political expediency, we should throw due process/fairness and any sense of proportionality aside and force Franken* to resign. (*Conyers offense seems to be more serious so I have less issue with this.)

    Last I checked, fairness and proportionality were liberal/progressive values/principles. What other liberal/progressive values and principles should we shitcan for the sake of optics and political expediency? Aggressive defense/advocacy of civil rights(to woo the WWC)? Environmental concerns(too woo coal miners and oil workers)? Etc.

  240. 240.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s not a sure thing, since our state party could fuck up a wet dream, but it’s not far-fetched either.

    I don’t think it’s a far-fetched idea, nor do I think it was unreasonable for Retr2327 to come to that conclusion.

    But having seen more fucking “IT’S A FUCKING SLAM DUNK THAT THE DEM WILL WIN!!!!!!” statements — including in this joint — than one would think possible, only to end up with Governor Rick Scott, Senator Mitch McConnell (2014), Senator Ron Johnson (2016), not to mention Orange Elephant and a host of others, I’m just getting a little fucking tired of people counting their wins before they’re hatched, so to speak. So I get a little cranky about statements like the one to which I responded.

    I know — me, cranky? Hoocoodanode?

    I truly hope the Puerto Rican diaspora change Florida the way Retr2327 also hopes, but as with the Tax Scam 2017 bill, I’ll wait to see how things actually turn out.

  241. 241.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Mnemosyne:

    Okay, reading between the lines, I have some bad news for you: the older professors were better in bed and had an actual clue that women should have orgasms, too.

    Not a sprint, but a marathon.

  242. 242.

    Schlemazel

    @SFAW:
    The Swedes have a great sense of humor but it can be a little odd if you are not familiar. The Kensington Runestone is a practical joke for instance.

  243. 243.

    The Lodger

    @JanieM: Sounds like you’ve run the column through the DeHumorizer. Surprising, I thought Al Franken’s office had mothballed it after the last campaign.

  245. 245.

    Cckids

    @lamh36: Yeah. I remember Helen Gurley Brown writing that when she was an “ office girl”, on Fridays after three-martini lunches, the guys would come back to the office & choose one of the girls. They’d take her panties & she’d have to run a gauntlet / get chased around the office to get them back. Supposedly hilarity reigned, and the only sads were had by those girls “too unattractive” to be chosen.

    I remember reading this in the mid 80’s. Quite possibly in response to the Thomas/Anita Hill hearings. I was appalled then and I still am.

  246. 246.

    Gravenstone

    @Yutsano: You clearly haven’t had much experience purchasing chemicals from Indian manufacturers, have you? Barely better than China. I can provide horror stories of the sht we’ve found in supposedly “high purity” goods. For existing pharma houses, they might be able to bridge the gap somewhat readily, but take nothing for granted.

  247. 247.

    mike in dc

    @SFAW: I think it’s better to just go with “this will be helpful for us, most likely” than “This time for sure!” type statements. Everything is helpful…if you put in the work.

  248. 248.

    SFAW

    @mike in dc:

    I think it’s better to just go with “this will be helpful for us, most likely” than “This time for sure!” type statements.

    I’m assuming you’re aiming that at the statement that set me off, not at my response. If so, then: yes, I absolutely agree.

  249. 249.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Oh for fuck’s sake, seriously? I regret that I had but one NYT subscription to cancel in a fucking huff.

    ETA: Sent a scathing tweet instead. Gah, this shit drives me nuts.

  251. 251.

    d58826

    @SFAW:

    Lutefisk

    Only thing its good for is to strip paper off of walls. Only thing my Norwegian MIL and I agreed on – unfit for man nor beast. On the other hand my wife and her Irish Dad loved the stuff.

  252. 252.

    Another Scott

    @Kay: Stories like that one infuriate me. Trump doesn’t care about the tax rate that he pays. He cares about the AMT and the deductions and exclusions and what counts as income and losses. Does nobody at the Times remember all the way back to March?

    The pages come from a part of the return that doesn’t break down Trump’s specific sources of income. In broader terms, the pages reveal that Trump reported about $152 million in income — $67 million of it in rental income, about 60 percent more than he reported from his general business interests.

    The White House said the $152 million in income was derived after accounting for “a large-scale depreciation.” The pages show a writedown of $103.2 million. He paid the Alternative Minimum Tax of about $38 million [sic].

    Actually, looking at the images, the AMT was $31.3M of his total tax liability of $38.4M.

    That’s where all the money for the 1% is going. Not in tweaking the top tax rate.

    Sheesh.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  253. 253.

    low-tech cyclist

    Fuck ‘unity tickets.’ At this point, the world views of the two parties are not just mutually incompatible, but directly and completely in conflict.

    That’s because the Dems, while not anyone’s idea of shining virtue, are basically good and want to make people’s lives better in tangible ways that actually work. While the GOP has pretty much gone whole-hog evil: screwing practically all the rest of America to kick money up to the top 0.1%, and fanning the fears and hatred of white America against the Real Enemy: not Russia or ISIS, but blacks and Hispanics and Mooslims and liberals and assertive women and college professors here at home.

    This stuff got rolling with Nixon and Agnew, of course, but first the Tea Party and then Donald Trump really ramped it up.

  258. 258.

    J R in WV

    @Adam L Silverman:

    When you posted that, I had a chicken pot pie in the oven for lunch, before I climb the ladder for another tank of gas blowing leaves off the roof. So I was also hungry. Now I’m not, and I have burned that tank of gas, moving the leaves from the roof to surround the house. A small step in the correct direction.

    I don’t use the word “right” as a direction any more if I can help it. I use it as an expletive, mostly. Along with fascist and republican.

    ETA: Never let an architect (sorry Suzanne!) talk you into a flat roof, regardless of miracle plastic membrane roofing materials! Frank Lloyd Wright loved ’em, my dad drew a house with one, after 30 odd years he put a regular peaked roof on because no way it wouldn’t leak. You can do a good looking building, but the maintenance is a bitch!

  259. 259.

    WaterGirl

    @J R in WV: I have never understood why replacing a flat roof is more expensive than replacing a steep, shingled rood. Yes, I have a flat roof. (Well, they call it flat, but it’s not totally flat, I have never understood that either.)

  260. 260.

    catclub

    @SFAW:

    it’ll tip Florida permanently Dem.

    just like passing medicare (and fighting to protect it) tipped the seniors into the Dem column fer good.

  261. 261.

    Barbara

    @WaterGirl: I think it has to do with the specifications that are required to permit adequate drainage when gravity is not doing most of the job on its own.

  262. 262.

    Barbara

    @SFAW: Florida would be more democratic if the Florida Democratic party had more leadership. In Florida, we have someone like Debbie Wasserman-Schultz who won’t support a Democratic candidate running against a Republican who is a friend of hers. Or the Democratic legislators at all levels who are willing to team up with Republicans to gerrymander the state to favor Republicans just to make their own seats safer.

  263. 263.

    Bill Arnold

    Some of you thought (years back) that the notion of a “State Car” was a joke. :-)
    Trained on Google Street View images:
    Artificial intelligence algorithm can determine a neighborhood’s political leanings by its cars

    For instance, if the number of sedans in a neighborhood is greater than the number of pickups, there is an 88 percent chance that the precinct will vote Democratic. Transpose those numbers to have more pickups than sedans and there is an 82 percent chance a precinct will vote Republican.

    And yes, the system does identify make, model, and year.
    (Using deep learning and Google Street View to estimate the demographic makeup of neighborhoods across the United States, paywalled, November 28, 2017)

  266. 266.

    Tehanu

    @Trentrunner:

    Then why should Trump resign?

    He shouldn’t resign. He should be impeached and kicked out and then hanged, drawn and quartered, and then the pieces should be arrested.

    @SFAW:

    Mmmm, haggis….

    @Barbara:

    If you can’t understand the difference between criminal acts and highly ambiguous comedy skits you are an idiot.

    Exactly!

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