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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Repub Venality Open Thread: Cue the “How Can You Pick On An Ailing Old Man?” Defense

Repub Venality Open Thread: Cue the “How Can You Pick On An Ailing Old Man?” Defense

by Anne Laurie|  December 2, 20177:15 pm| 405 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Dolt 45, Don't Mourn, Organize, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Russiagate, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?

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This book appears to paint Trump as he actually is in some respects – not something often seen by people in his circle https://t.co/KsCdxR2lGI

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) December 2, 2017

It worked when they needed to shut down the Watergate investigations, it worked when they wanted to separate Reagan from “Iran-contra”, and now they’re setting up for the hat trick! Corey Lewandowski has a book (and a defense) to sell:

Elton John blares so loudly on Donald Trump’s campaign plane that staffers can’t hear themselves think. Press secretary Hope Hicks uses a steamer to press Trump’s pants — while he is still wearing them. Trump screams at his top aides, who are subjected to expletive-filled tirades in which they get their “face ripped off.”

And Trump’s appetite seems to know no bounds when it comes to McDonald’s, with a dinner order consisting of “two Big Macs, two Fillet-O-Fish, and a chocolate malted.”

The scenes are among the most surreal passages in a forthcoming book chronicling Trump’s path to the presidency co-written by Corey Lewandowski, who was fired as Trump’s campaign manager, and David Bossie, another top aide. The book, “Let Trump Be Trump,” paints a portrait of a campaign with an untested candidate and staff rocketing from crisis to crisis, in which Lewandowski and a cast of mostly neophyte political aides learn on the fly and ultimately accept Trump’s propensity to go angrily off message…

a quote from one of the "Get Me Roger Stone" directors. his takeaway from it is… not what mine would be pic.twitter.com/3BBEz7nxWd

— Owen Ellickson (@onlxn) December 2, 2017

.
Just coincidentally, look what Russiagate news dropped this morning!

Well, that's quite a thing for a Trump official to have said in an email. https://t.co/CHqYHf2b9b pic.twitter.com/Cq7YvUWSJ2

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 2, 2017


Trump back then: "I fired him because of what he said to Mike Pence. Very simple." https://t.co/iFM20AOVbC

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 2, 2017

These jokers seriously must compete with each other to write the most ludicrously incriminating emails. https://t.co/bevCC6MVNm pic.twitter.com/w5nMW6aVbX

— Zeddy ( me [ person ] ) (@ZeddRebel) December 2, 2017

A lot of people will go to town on this quote, but bear in mind that all of K.T. McFarland’s writings suggest that she’s a complete idiot. https://t.co/0wnUnnyKzl pic.twitter.com/Fin0GTEHTG

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) December 2, 2017

What does that make Flynn? pic.twitter.com/GBIj3J8z4a

— Marcel Dirsus (@marceldirsus) December 2, 2017

Most importantly, being dumb is not a get out of jail free card

— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) December 2, 2017

What are the odds Trump realizes obstruction of justice is actually a problem and not a perk?

— Schooley (@Rschooley) December 2, 2017

"Forget the myths the media created about the White House. The truth is, these aren't very bright guys, and things got out of hand." pic.twitter.com/8ZoovuUAFT

— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) March 3, 2017

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Reader Interactions

405Comments

  1. 1.

    Jerzy Russian

    December 2, 2017 at 7:20 pm

    Jesus, Mary, & Joseph.

  2. 2.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    December 2, 2017 at 7:21 pm

    OT: Sam Harris is a definite eliminationist, but would it be fair to call him an exterminationist?

    On that note, when did public/American left opinion firmly turn against New Atheism? The Affleck-Harris episode comes to mind easiest, but I feel that people might have soured on it beforehand.

  3. 3.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    December 2, 2017 at 7:23 pm

    r consisting of “two Big Macs, two Fillet-O-Fish, and a chocolate malted.”

    How does the mans heart keep on beating?

    That “thrown the election for him”,,,that is a common metaphor. Needs more context I would say and I say Muelar is the one to get that context.

    Good to see they knowingly supported a ranting, predeminita narcissist for president.

  4. 4.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 7:24 pm

    When I started here is was politics, food, pets and sports. Not so much anymore.

    GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~

  5. 5.

    lamh36

    December 2, 2017 at 7:24 pm

    @tommyxtopher
    Following Following @tommyxtopher
    More
    Hillary Clinton gets last laugh at Flynn, literally
    (VIDEO) https://twitter.com/tommyxtopher/status/937063761873170432

  6. 6.

    Corner Stone

    December 2, 2017 at 7:26 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):

    On that note, when did public/American left opinion firmly turn against New Atheism?

    I would ask, “What?” but am instead going to go with, “Who cares?”

  7. 7.

    The Dangerman

    December 2, 2017 at 7:26 pm

    I wonder what the reaction from Trump’s legal team was when he basically confessed to Obstruction of Justice with his tweet today; was it despair, in the same sense that the Guy/Gal that has to clean up after the elephants in the parade despairs, or joy, for upping the billable hours. Either one sounds like a good reason to have a bartender on retainer, too.

  8. 8.

    Adrift

    December 2, 2017 at 7:26 pm

    Seriously not trying to kill this thread and if I do, apologies in advance (my reputation precedes me here) but “Flynn’s Brain”? Really?

  9. 9.

    hellslittlestangel

    December 2, 2017 at 7:27 pm

    I thought a diet of fast food was the route to an early death. I am so disillusioned.

  10. 10.

    Davebo

    December 2, 2017 at 7:28 pm

    Definitely not the sharpest bowling balls on the rack.

  11. 11.

    Adrift

    December 2, 2017 at 7:28 pm

    @The Dangerman:

    joy, for upping the billable hours

    My money is on this one.

  12. 12.

    lamh36

    December 2, 2017 at 7:28 pm

    @ErikWemple
    2h2 hours ago
    More
    ABC News announces that Brian Ross, who reported Friday’s bogus story on Michael Flynn, will be suspended for four weeks without pay.

    https://twitter.com/ErikWemple/status/937089619165962243

    I saw the “clarification” of story ABC News did, but I didnt’ see the big difference after the clarification but guess it was enough to get ABC to do this?

  13. 13.

    debbie

    December 2, 2017 at 7:28 pm

    @raven:

    I had to Google to find out what you were talking about, but congratulations!

  14. 14.

    Mike in NC

    December 2, 2017 at 7:29 pm

    Jimmy Breslin wrote a novel in 1969. What was the name of it again? Oh, yeah: The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight

  15. 15.

    Corner Stone

    December 2, 2017 at 7:29 pm

    @hellslittlestangel: Two of anything from just about any fast food place on a regular basis should just about do it. Four entrees?!

  16. 16.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    December 2, 2017 at 7:29 pm

    @Corner Stone: Maher/Hitchens/Dawkins/etc., type atheism. Out of the Four Horsemen of New Atheism (Ditchkins, Harris & Daniel Dennett), only Dennett isn’t/wasn’t a gibbering Islamophobe.

    As to the “Who cares” question, it was something briefly discussed last week on LGM, and it just came to mind.

  17. 17.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 7:29 pm

    @raven:

    GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~

    You are correct, sir

  18. 18.

    Davebo

    December 2, 2017 at 7:30 pm

    Josh Barro‏Verified account
    @jbarro
    Follow Follow @jbarro
    More
    It is amazing that there is an organization whose huge mistake is they did not let Chris Christie make the personnel choices.

    https://twitter.com/jbarro/status/937071847056773120

  19. 19.

    The Dangerman

    December 2, 2017 at 7:31 pm

    @raven:

    GO DAWGS!!!

    Congratulations. Even better, Alabama could be completely shut out of the Final Four. If OSU takes out Wisconsin, it might go instead of Bama. Karma for Roy Moore, Bama Assholes.

  20. 20.

    debbie

    December 2, 2017 at 7:31 pm

    @lamh36:

    It was candidate vs. president-elect. That’s sloppy reporting.

  21. 21.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 2, 2017 at 7:31 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):

    Sam Harris is a definite eliminationist, but would it be fair to call him an exterminationist?

    This opinion is almost certainly not based on any actual thing he’s proposed.

  22. 22.

    lamh36

    December 2, 2017 at 7:31 pm

    Oh please…Chuckles…pot meet kettle!!!

    @chucktodd
    Blocked Blocked @chucktodd
    More
    Not surprised when the WH or its surrogates choose to incorrectly spin the significance of the Flynn news, but to see some journalists and columnists do it when they clearly know what they are saying is misleading makes it look as if all they care about is their WH access
    12:07 PM – 2 Dec 2017
    https://twitter.com/chucktodd/status/937020452047798272

  23. 23.

    Corner Stone

    December 2, 2017 at 7:31 pm

    @lamh36: Brian Ross has always been a bit of a loose canon. But this was a touch too far to let stand, and also gives the rwnj’s a foothold to a legit complaint.
    I think they clarified just fine but at this level you have to keep it tight…if it’s against a Republican, anyway.

  24. 24.

    ruemara

    December 2, 2017 at 7:32 pm

    You couldn’t get stupider than saying, in an email, that your foreign buddies put a finger or two on the scale of the election in your favor, so give them a favor back. But I am sure they will do more… and then the president says he knew Flynn was a crook, tried to get the investigation dropped because he’s a nice guy. But it was totally his lawyer doing that sure. Never a dull moment with the kleptokakistocracy. On the left, we should be ashamed to have been out-maneuvered by these morons, but we were. Well, some of us, who have more say and power were.

  25. 25.

    Corner Stone

    December 2, 2017 at 7:33 pm

    @lamh36: CAN.NOT.WAIT. For Chuck’s bad deeds to catch up to him and come to light.

  26. 26.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 7:33 pm

    @The Dangerman:

    joy, for upping the billable hours

    only if they got their money up front from deadbeat donnie

  27. 27.

    Wag

    December 2, 2017 at 7:34 pm

    @Adrift:

    Flynn’s Brain”?

    I guess that makes Flynn her brawn?

  28. 28.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 2, 2017 at 7:34 pm

    @lamh36: yeah, I have no idea who or what he’s talking about, but Chuck Fucking Todd talking about other people falling for Republican spin?

  29. 29.

    hellslittlestangel

    December 2, 2017 at 7:34 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): I don’t know about the When, but the Who is Harris, Dawkins and Hitchens. Atheists, like people of color, have to be twice as good as the in group in order to be regarded as decent, and those three are pretty fucking rotten bastards.

  30. 30.

    Adrift

    December 2, 2017 at 7:35 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    CAN.NOT.WAIT. For Chuck’s bad deeds to catch up to him and come to light.

    FWIW I think Chuckles is next in the barrel.

  31. 31.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 7:35 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Huh?

  32. 32.

    Mike J

    December 2, 2017 at 7:36 pm

    McDonalds doesn’t sell malteds.

  33. 33.

    Betty Cracker

    December 2, 2017 at 7:36 pm

    Been riding around all day on my new (to me) motorcycle. Trump who? Football what? Then it got dark.

    Caught the end of the Jawja-Auburn game — Go Dawgs! Next, I would love to see the Badgers knock off the Buckeyes.

  34. 34.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    December 2, 2017 at 7:36 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: Per The End of Faith:

    We are at war with Islam. It may not serve our immediate foreign policy objectives for our political leaders to openly acknowledge this fact, but it is unambiguously so. It is not merely that we are at war with an otherwise peaceful religion that has been ‘hijacked’ by extremists. We are at war with precisely the vision of life that is prescribed to all Muslims in the Koran.

    We cannot let our qualms over collateral damage paralyze us because our enemies know no such qualms. Theirs is a kill-the-children-first approach to war, and we ignore the fundamental difference between their violence and our own at our peril. Given the proliferation of weaponry in our world, we no longer have the option of waging this war with swords. It seems certain that collateral damage, of various sorts, will be a part of our future for many years to come.

    Among other things, there was also that defense of torture he published back in ’06.

  35. 35.

    hellslittlestangel

    December 2, 2017 at 7:36 pm

    @Corner Stone: He’s hard to kill, I guess, like a dumb, fat (but clean) Rasputin.

  36. 36.

    debbie

    December 2, 2017 at 7:37 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    Rats. I was hoping you were referring to Chuck Grassley.

  37. 37.

    Corner Stone

    December 2, 2017 at 7:37 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): I am aware of “New Atheism”. The “What” was in response to the rather strange setup that led to the “On that note”. And to the “Who cares” part, they have largely self-defeated…ummm, themselves over the past two+ decades in any kind of mental exercises.

  38. 38.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 7:37 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Been riding around all day on my new (to me) motorcycle.

    What bike?

  39. 39.

    Baud

    December 2, 2017 at 7:38 pm

    @raven: I support you in spirit.

  40. 40.

    Mnemosyne

    December 2, 2017 at 7:38 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):

    White atheist women turned on the movement at least two years ago when they realized that the spokesmen were all sexist assholes who had more than a touch of white supremacism around them, even if it was nominally from the “left.”

  41. 41.

    John Revolta

    December 2, 2017 at 7:39 pm

    I’m starting to think this is all a riff.

    Next thing we’re gonna see trump wandering around the WH lawn in his pajamas like Vinny Gigante.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    December 2, 2017 at 7:40 pm

    How does one disbelieve in God in a “new” way?

  43. 43.

    Lapassionara

    December 2, 2017 at 7:40 pm

    @raven: Congrats to Georgia. Well earned.

  44. 44.

    Mary G

    December 2, 2017 at 7:40 pm

    In support of my 50-state strategy, I just sent $25 (a lot of money for me) to Beto O’Rourke, who is going up against Ted Cruz next year. He’s ridiculously good-looking in a Kennedy kind of way, speaks Spanish and I have been following him on Twitter for quite a while as he barnstorms Texas, drawing crowds. Texas Observer has a great profile:

    Earlier this year, when he was starting to plan his bid for the Senate seat held by Ted Cruz, O’Rourke’s friends arranged meetings with a number of consultants and strategists. These were the people, his friends told him, who knew how to run a statewide campaign in one of the most complicated political battlegrounds in the country. The meetings didn’t go very well.

    “They show you all these ads,” O’Rourke says with the tone of someone describing a timeshare presentation. “They’re like, ‘Our deal is, we think you should introduce yourself to the state through video. We want to keep it edgy. We think you’re edgy, and we think we could make this a little raw.’ I was allergic to the whole deal.” He couldn’t figure out why he needed to pay someone to tell him to do a video that gave the false impression of being real. So instead he flew to El Paso, gathered his family together backstage at the downtown Palace Theatre, and introduced himself to Texas through Facebook Live.

    “Hey everyone,” he says, as the handheld iPhone shakes. “We’re gonna get started.” He introduces his family and staff, who seem a little uncomfortable on camera. O’Rourke then makes his way up a stairwell and exits the building as The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” blasts through muddy speakers. We’re conditioned to expect machine precision from campaign communications, and we pick over tiny flaws. This was something else — it looked like a home movie.

    In contrast:

    Ted Cruz was a certain kind of kid. He frequently tells audiences about the time he saved his allowance to send a $10 donation to Jesse Helms, the neo-Confederate senator from North Carolina. As a teenager, he performed with the Constitutional Corroborators, a group of high schoolers who used mnemonic devices to recite constitutional amendments in front of rotary clubs around Texas. In college, his classmates said, he’d stroll around the women’s wing of his Princeton dorm in a paisley bathrobe, making himself about as welcome as he’d be in the Senate many years later.

    O’Rourke was in a punk band and is very progressive for Texas, including not accepting PAC money, but the climate against creepy men is very bad and Ted Cruz is in the 99.99 percentile of creepy men. I believe in the 50-state strategy, so I put in my money for this guy.

  45. 45.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    December 2, 2017 at 7:40 pm

    @lamh36: Remember various times ABC’s Jonathan Karl filed inflammatory and incorrect stories about Benghazi and nothing happened.

    Liburel media bias.

  46. 46.

    Adrift

    December 2, 2017 at 7:40 pm

    @John Revolta:

    Next thing we’re gonna see trump wandering around the WH lawn in his pajamas like Vinny Gigante.

    If we’re lucky he will actually be wearing pajamas.

  47. 47.

    Juice Box

    December 2, 2017 at 7:41 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Not only are most of the prominent gibbering islamophobes, they’re also gibbering sexists. I regard religion in the same light that I regard the NFL — just the thought of either puts me in a state somewhere between deep sleep and a coma — and I can’t stand the New Atheists.

  48. 48.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    December 2, 2017 at 7:43 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):

    As to the “Who cares” question, it was something briefly discussed last week on LGM, and it just came to mind.

    Speaking as an atheist, do I care what other’s think about my beliefs? President Prence will turn that around.

  49. 49.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 7:43 pm

    @Baud: Do it while wearing a trilby?

  50. 50.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 2, 2017 at 7:44 pm

    @Adrift: wouldn’t surprise me, but besides Franken and Keillor (who strikes me as kind of asexual) the big surprise so far is that no one’s fingered Tweety

    @Mary G: In college, his classmates said, he’d stroll around the women’s wing of his Princeton dorm in a paisley bathrobe, making himself about as welcome as he’d be in the Senate many years later.

    ew

  51. 51.

    Mike J

    December 2, 2017 at 7:44 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): When people noticed that all the public atheists were raging assholes. Evangelists are fucking annoying, even if they’re trying to sell something you agree with.

  52. 52.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 2, 2017 at 7:45 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): A lot of what he writes is stupid, but he also doesn’t say we need to exterminate Muslims.

    @Mike J:

    Evangelists are fucking annoying, even if they’re trying to sell something you agree with.

    Yup.

    I do like Dennett though, but he’s not really evangelizing.

  53. 53.

    Corner Stone

    December 2, 2017 at 7:45 pm

    @Mary G: Nothing stopping Beto that a little voter registration and turn out in South Texas can’t fix.

  54. 54.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 7:46 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: @hellslittlestangel: It’s a combination of stress eating and the stress driving cravings for food from when things were better. My guess is this is what he ate when allowed to go off campus as a student athlete back when he was on the baseball team and tennis team and doing regular PT (physical training) at the military prep school his parents shipped him off to. And it explains the request for a chocolate malted. I don’t think McDonald’s has sold chocolate malteds since the 60s. It certainly isn’t healthy given his stated beliefs about exercise combined with the stressful environment he’s chosen to place himself in, but everyone’s individual make up is different. He may be able to live into his 90s eating like this, despite how bad it is for him. But if he is at hereditary risk for the same type of cognitive degenerative neurological disease that ultimately killed his father, this will definitely hasten it’s effects. In fact changing his diet might shock his system to the point that making him eat fruits and vegetables would kill him.

  55. 55.

    Baud

    December 2, 2017 at 7:46 pm

    @Mary G: That would be the win of the season.

  56. 56.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 7:47 pm

    @Betty Cracker: and this game shows why Mark Richt had to go. We needed a game day coach, and he wasn’t one.

    Would love to see ohio state lose, because that’s always fun, then wisconsin get exposed in its bowl game.

    SEC! SEC! SEC!

  57. 57.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 7:47 pm

    @Amaranthine RBG: You jive ass motherfucker.

  58. 58.

    Adrift

    December 2, 2017 at 7:47 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Paisley? Well that’s a crime right there unless of course we consider it was decades ago in which case it was fashionable harassment.

  59. 59.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    December 2, 2017 at 7:47 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Not all atheists, just the school of atheism helmed by Ditchkins, etc. (I identify as a strong agnostic, myself).

  60. 60.

    Corner Stone

    December 2, 2017 at 7:47 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: God damn it.

  61. 61.

    chopper

    December 2, 2017 at 7:48 pm

    @Mike J:

    he doesn’t know that. he asks for one, he ends up with a Krusty Partially Gelatinated Non-Dairy Gum-Based Beverage, he doesn’t ask any questions.

  62. 62.

    ArchTeryx

    December 2, 2017 at 7:50 pm

    Welp, my possibility of getting a fourth degree and career change may have just been cut off, as well as every graduate student’s education in this country. Way to go, Repubs. Used to be you thought universities were the backbone of our country. Now they’re just another partisan football.

    Fuck the whole lot of them. You threw in your lot with the Demons of Ignorance. If a single goddamned scientist votes Republican in the next election, they deserve what they’re about to get: The complete closure of their cheap labor pipeline. If only trustafarians become graduate students now, they won’t take 1/100th the shit us working class grad students did.

  63. 63.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 7:50 pm

    @Amaranthine RBG: I let it go once but I’m going to fuck with you EVERY time I see you post.

  64. 64.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    December 2, 2017 at 7:50 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    White atheist women turned on the movement at least two years ago when they realized that the spokesmen were all sexist assholes who had more than a touch of white supremacism around them, even if it was nominally from the “left.”

    Not to mention the whole anti-feminist gamer gate thing. I think there was something to the point that a lot of feminist were pushing what is their opinions as if they were scientific fact, but it quickly degenerated into just more whining about how white men have it so hard. Not to mention one one of the New Atheists community leaders is a 911 truther it doesn’t help anything.

  65. 65.

    eemom

    December 2, 2017 at 7:51 pm

    @Amaranthine RBG:

    You are the platonic form of insufferable. And I hate football.

  66. 66.

    Jeffro

    December 2, 2017 at 7:51 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    But if he is at hereditary risk for the same type of cognitive degenerative neurological disease that ultimately killed his father, this will definitely hasten it’s effects. In fact changing his diet might shock his system to the point that making him eat fruits and vegetables would kill him.

    So…a basket of Harry & David pears…it would potentially be the gift that keeps on giving (to the country, I mean)…

  67. 67.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 7:51 pm

    @Adrift: People that have worked with him, who were not dependent on him for references or to assist with his careers – specifically Interagency and DOD civilians, as well as other civilian augmentees (term appointments and contractors) – have said he is a notoriously sloppy thing, disorganized, none to bright, etc. His one bit of genius was in visualizing connections that others missed or couldn’t see, but even that had to be carefully hemmed in by superiors, peers, and subordinates or he veered quickly off into conspiracy thinking.

    Given that KT McFarland is a crank, conspiracist, and 50 lbs of dumb in a 10 lbs bag, placing her in the role of Flynn’s brain was a recipe for disaster. All she would do is reinforce his worst qualities and enable his worst impulses.

  68. 68.

    Ken

    December 2, 2017 at 7:52 pm

    @Mike J:

    McDonalds doesn’t sell malteds.

    You remind me of one of my favorite bits from Gaiman and Pratchett’s Good Omens, where Dr. Raven Sable (aka Famine) is inspecting the fast food franchise he’s founded:

    He found a small plastic table, sat down in the plastic seat, and examined his food. Artificial bread roll. Artificial burger. Fries that had never seen potatoes. Foodless sauces. Even (and Sable was especially pleased with this) an artificial slice of dill pickle. He didn’t bother to examine his milkshake. It had no actual food content, but then again, neither did those sold by any of his rivals.

  69. 69.

    Corner Stone

    December 2, 2017 at 7:52 pm

    @ArchTeryx: When I see someone complaining about not being able to acquire their fourth degree…

  70. 70.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 2, 2017 at 7:52 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Ugh, yeah, the reddit/gamergate atheist guys are terrible.

  71. 71.

    eemom

    December 2, 2017 at 7:52 pm

    @raven:

    GO DAWG!!

  72. 72.

    Just One More Canuck

    December 2, 2017 at 7:52 pm

    @John Revolta: or like Blake Farenthold – please note you wont be able to unsee this easily, so take care

    http://gawker.com/5665630/politician-stands-next-to-a-lingerie-model-while-wearing-duckie-pajamas

  73. 73.

    Mary G

    December 2, 2017 at 7:53 pm

    @Corner Stone: Do you know of any local groups doing that? I believe in the power of the grassroots and refuse to give money to the national party or the DCCC or whatever.

  74. 74.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 7:54 pm

    @lamh36: They were getting hammered by conservative media about a double standard in how they were dealing with this because the President is a Republican. So they assumed their usual position: fetal, thumb in mouth, bladder at full relaxed state.

  75. 75.

    ruemara

    December 2, 2017 at 7:54 pm

    I’m not usually fond of chocolate & peppermint, but this year’s double chocolate & peppermint chip cookies is quite good, as I am at 4 for the day and should really stop.

  76. 76.

    Corner Stone

    December 2, 2017 at 7:55 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    the big surprise so far is that no one’s fingered Tweety

    Phrasing!

  77. 77.

    lurker dean

    December 2, 2017 at 7:55 pm

    @Betty Cracker: nice, congrats on the bike!!

  78. 78.

    Betty Cracker

    December 2, 2017 at 7:56 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Suzuki Boulevard S40 — nice little entry-level cruiser!

  79. 79.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 7:56 pm

    @Wag: He’s about 5’9, maybe a 145-165 lbs. He may be quick and wiry, but brawn doesn’t really cover it.

  80. 80.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    December 2, 2017 at 7:57 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: I still feel “eliminationist” is an accurate description of his beliefs w/r/t Muslims; at any rate he’s significantly nastier than Bill Maher on the issue.
    @Mike J: Any specific dates/events, though? Most of the comments here indicate a steady, gradual souring on New Atheism.

  81. 81.

    TenguPhule

    December 2, 2017 at 7:57 pm

    Since when has diminished capacity ever stopped Americans from executing crooks?

  82. 82.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 7:57 pm

    @Mike J: Not since the 1950s!

  83. 83.

    rk

    December 2, 2017 at 7:57 pm

    It seems to me eating junk food is perfectly o.k. This man has been eating junk food for every meal for years. Seems to have survived it just fine. made it to 70. I’m surprised McDonald and KFC don’t shout it from the rooftops that the president of the United States loves their food.

  84. 84.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 7:58 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Cool. Enjoy.

  85. 85.

    TenguPhule

    December 2, 2017 at 7:59 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    How does the mans heart keep on beating?

    Going with, Antichrist, traditional rules do not apply.

  86. 86.

    FlipYrWhig

    December 2, 2017 at 7:59 pm

    I still think Trump has a weird psychosexual fascination with Michael Flynn (among his other weird psychosexual fascinations).

    My working hypothesis is that Trump views Flynn as the man he wishes he was and that he views Kushner as the man he used to be.

  87. 87.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 7:59 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): This guy knows nothing about war. About it’s nature, character, and/or characteristics. About the different types of war. This is someone highly educated in one area spouting off and expecting to be taken seriously because he is highly educated in that one area regardless of what he’s going on about.

  88. 88.

    John Revolta

    December 2, 2017 at 8:00 pm

    @Just One More Canuck: I ain’t clicking on that. I already can’t ever unsee it.

  89. 89.

    Mary G

    December 2, 2017 at 8:00 pm

    More from Lewandowski’s book:

    The plane’s cupboards were stacked with Vienna Fingers, potato chips, pretzels and many packages of Oreos because Trump, a renowned germaphobe, would not eat from a previously opened package.

    The book notes that “the orchestrating and timing of Mr. Trump’s meals was as important as any other aspect of his march to the presidency,” and describes the elaborate efforts that Lewandowski and other top aides went through to carefully time their delivery of hot fast food to Trump’s plane as he was departing his rallies.

  90. 90.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 8:00 pm

    @Baud: There’s an app for it now. That’s how.

  91. 91.

    Adrift

    December 2, 2017 at 8:02 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:
    So Mission Accomplished then?

  92. 92.

    Amaranthine RBG

    December 2, 2017 at 8:02 pm

    @FlipYrWhig:

    You may be onto something here.

    DIdn’t Trump go to some “military” high school? So he see Flynn and “his” other generals as the man he could have been, except for that debilitating bone spur.

  93. 93.

    Baud

    December 2, 2017 at 8:02 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Nice.

  94. 94.

    Mike in NC

    December 2, 2017 at 8:02 pm

    @Mike J: Not too long ago I decided to order a vanilla milkshake at a McDonald’s for the first time in maybe 30 years. It was nectar from heaven.

  95. 95.

    Ken

    December 2, 2017 at 8:03 pm

    @The Dangerman:

    wonder what the reaction from Trump’s legal team was

    What they’d probably like to do is copy the Opening of the “Bad Moon Rising” episode of The West Wing. The new WH legal counsel (Oliver Platt) is having trouble with a recorder that will not stop recording. The President (Martin Sheen) walks in and says “I just did X, does that break any laws.” Pratt grabs a paperweight and smashes the recorder to bits.

  96. 96.

    debbie

    December 2, 2017 at 8:03 pm

    @ruemara:

    Graeter’s sells peppermint stick ice cream during the holidays. I pick up a pint, along with a jar of bittersweet fudge sauce and am in, if only briefly, hog heaven.

  97. 97.

    Chip Daniels

    December 2, 2017 at 8:03 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    no one’s fingered Tweety

    Dude, seriously?
    Brain, bleach…

  98. 98.

    ArchTeryx

    December 2, 2017 at 8:04 pm

    @Corner Stone: I wouldn’t if I had any choice in the matter. I’m switching from bioresearch to vocational rehab counseling, which requires a Master’s in rehab counseling in the state of New York.

    And I’m all but forced to do it because Republicans already completely decimated the bioresearch sector with their sequester. There are hundreds or thousands of PhDs for every job in bioresearch, especially here in NYS. There are actually more vocational rehab counseling positions than there are people right now.

    One day I actually want to make a middle class salary and marry my sweetheart and set up a household. I know, that’s asking a lot of our brave new economy, but…

  99. 99.

    TenguPhule

    December 2, 2017 at 8:04 pm

    I have noticed that this blog’s advertisement hell and Trump’s wrecking of the USA are proceeding at the same pace.

    Coincidence?

  100. 100.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 8:05 pm

    @Jeffro: Imagine what might happen if someone gave him a prune compote…

  101. 101.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 2, 2017 at 8:06 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Oh, he definitely advocates taking at least the Israeli approach to security.

    FWIW (not much!) the biggest Harris fan I know grew up Muslim in Tunisia. He’s now super atheist of course, but I doubt he prominently displays a Harris (and Dawkins) book in his office because he thinks somebody should murder his family.

  102. 102.

    Mike J

    December 2, 2017 at 8:07 pm

    @Ken: It’s not even an issue of artificial or not. From what I’ve read they do sell actual milkshakes, just not good ones as they’re reduced fat. The problem is that a milkshake is not a malted unless you add malt. They don’t. Saying you got a malted at McDonald’s makes as much sense as saying you got an absinthe flavored milkshake.

  103. 103.

    Emma

    December 2, 2017 at 8:07 pm

    @TenguPhule: Now that made me spray water through my nose!

  104. 104.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 2, 2017 at 8:08 pm

    @Mike J:

    absinthe flavored milkshake

    ew.

  105. 105.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 8:09 pm

    @Corner Stone: I have four, or five depending on how you count them. I highly recommend seeking professional help after the second one…

  106. 106.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 8:10 pm

    @Corner Stone: Is ruffled Tweety’s feathers better?

  107. 107.

    Adrift

    December 2, 2017 at 8:10 pm

    Very happy that dinner just arrived – pizza, too tired to cook, and the eagles in SW Florida just aerated their (two!) eggs and momma is incubating.
    http://www.dickpritchettrealestate.com/eagle-feed.html#

  108. 108.

    Just One More Canuck

    December 2, 2017 at 8:10 pm

    @John Revolta: Good move on your part

  109. 109.

    lamh36

    December 2, 2017 at 8:12 pm

    @GlennKesslerWP
    7h7 hours ago
    More
    Let’s see if I have this correct. @realDonaldTrump now says he fired Flynn on Feb. 13 because he lied to the FBI. But on Feb. 14 he asked @Comey to drop the investigation — even though he knew Flynn had committed a crime? And why did he wait to fire Flynn till WaPo exposed lie?

  110. 110.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    December 2, 2017 at 8:12 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: @Adam L Silverman: Is that meant to emphasize extreme rigor or overt racism? Because Harris has also spoken out in favor of ethnoreligious profiling.

    David Daley brought Jeffrey Tayler on as a featured Salon columnist for a few years. From what I could tell he was a decent on Russia and foreign policy, but somewhere between Maher- and Harris-levels of awful when it came to Islam/Muslims, which made reading him incredibly frustrating. Does his Eastern Europe FP work hold up that well?

    Additionally, has Salon ever had a foreign policy columnist who wasn’t, as a whole, a shitbag person?

  111. 111.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 2, 2017 at 8:13 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: My working hypothesis is that Trump views Flynn as the man he wishes he was and that he views Kushner as the man he used to be.

    and who fucks the woman he wishes he could fuck

    assuming, of course….

  112. 112.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 8:13 pm

    @Betty Cracker: But they are so dangerous and so many people die and are injured on them. Ask fuckface.

  113. 113.

    lamh36

    December 2, 2017 at 8:14 pm

    @lpackard
    1h1 hour ago
    More Laura Packard (P.S. Pls ban the nazis already) Retweeted Battle Born Progress
    .@DeanHeller @SenDeanHeller’s goons threatened me before the event even started. (Srsly, wut?) Then he read my question from the stage, so I stood up to add to it. This is what happened next.
    https://twitter.com/lpackard/status/937110198484791296

    @BattleBornProg
    .@SenDeanHeller now throws out a stage 4 cancer patient for demanding answers. This is disgusting. #GOPTaxScam

    https://twitter.com/BattleBornProg/status/937096015420653568

  114. 114.

    jl

    December 2, 2017 at 8:15 pm

    @Mike J: ” an absinthe flavored milkshake. ” Might be able to get one of those in San Francisco.

    A real honest to goodness malted is hard to find. But the local Bi-Rite ice cream joint went on a malted kick a few years ago. Those were the days! Now they usually only have one malted ice cream flavor at a time for double strength malted milks shakes. Used to have two or three.

  115. 115.

    Corner Stone

    December 2, 2017 at 8:15 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think he stopped fucking Ivanka when she was in her teens. Now he’s just reliving the glory days through his dementia and wishful thinking. In his mind she will always be the little girl sitting in his lap at inappropriate times/locations.

  116. 116.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 8:16 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    vanilla milkshake at a McDonald’s

    Shake, not milkshake. They got in trouble for deceptive advertising as there was no dairy in it.

  117. 117.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 2, 2017 at 8:16 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    This is someone highly educated in one area spouting off and expecting to be taken seriously because he is highly educated in that one area regardless of what he’s going on about.

    Particularly irritating when it’s a neuroscientist like Harris, it’s like Engineer Syndrome on steroids.

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): I stopped reading Salon once the site became unusable with ads and trackers, which was some time ago.

  118. 118.

    sukabi

    December 2, 2017 at 8:16 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: fie on you for “fingering Tweety”.

    ?

  119. 119.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 8:17 pm

    @Corner Stone: That’s it. Time for an absinthe milk shake or twelve.

  120. 120.

    Bruuuuce

    December 2, 2017 at 8:19 pm

    @hellslittlestangel:

    I thought a diet of fast food was the route to an early death

    Only the good die young.

    Or rock’n’rollers.

  121. 121.

    Yarrow

    December 2, 2017 at 8:19 pm

    @Corner Stone: Ivanka is pretty much too old for him these days. And that’s just so gross.

  122. 122.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 8:19 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): I think he’s tendentious and tedious. I also think he’s an asshole. If you don’t believe in a deity or deities, nor want to, it doesn’t take much effort. The one thing he’s most known for is overthinking unbelief. I really don’t read his stuff or pay attention to him, as is the case with most of the others you’ve listed, because I find I have better things to do.

  123. 123.

    frosty

    December 2, 2017 at 8:19 pm

    @raven:

    Congrats on your Dawgs!

    And if there’s a disproportionate amount of politics these days, blame it on the Gish Gallop we’re living through. There’s some new damn thing every damn day. Sometimes two or three.

  124. 124.

    Duane

    December 2, 2017 at 8:20 pm

    @raven: You seem happy.

  125. 125.

    chris

    December 2, 2017 at 8:20 pm

    Yeah, about that tweet…

    Just so we’re clear, a vetted statement drafted by counsel that admits to a crime is MUCH MORE INCRIMINATING than a tweet tossed off by a suspect with a well-known reputation for saying things that aren’t true.— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) December 3, 2017

    LOL

  126. 126.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 8:21 pm

    @sukabi: Hopefully he gloved up first!

  127. 127.

    Corner Stone

    December 2, 2017 at 8:21 pm

    @Mary G: I wish we had a “pessimist” font, because that’s what that comment was imbued with. I have seen him live twice and myself and my mom both gave him money a few times. She’s a social media evangelist for Beto, while being all, “There’s a good candidate running against Slimy Ted named Beto! He seems alright so maybe you should check him out!”
    I’ve worked with and/or donated to groups in South Texas since before Obama. The Party Bosses have managed an impressive level of low voter enthusiasm and combined with the R’s voter suppression and ICE trucks running 200 miles north of the border at opportune times it all adds up to low turnout.
    Beto’s running a low angle campaign but that doesn’t mean they aren’t gunning to win. I would consider donating directly to his people when the times come up that you can.

  128. 128.

    FlipYrWhig

    December 2, 2017 at 8:21 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, that was the OTHER weird psychosexual fixation I meant. It’s easy to explain Kushner: Kushner is the designated successor because Don Jr. and Eric are so obviously absurd. And Ivanka, argh, that’s a Freudian trainwreck.

    But I think this Flynn thing is also coming from a place of deep, dark wish-fulfillment crossed with reflected glory. I have to think that when Flynn told him he supported him, Trump just went weak in the knees. The badass army man told him he was worth something! IMHO he misses Flynn badly.

  129. 129.

    Duane

    December 2, 2017 at 8:23 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: That’s been said a million times. Boring.

  130. 130.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 2, 2017 at 8:24 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):

    Is that meant to emphasize extreme rigor or overt racism?

    Confused by what you mean here.

    Because Harris has also spoken out in favor of ethnoreligious profiling.

    Bruce Schneier handed him his ass on this which was great. Look, I already said I don’t like the guy very much–at least not for his religion stuff–I was just defending him against charges of ‘exterminationism’.

  131. 131.

    Tom Q

    December 2, 2017 at 8:25 pm

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Wasn’t it this same Brian Ross who made some sort of unsubstantiated link between the anthrax letters of Fall 2001 and Saddam Hussein, which was used to help gin up the Iraq war? No suspension over that, as I recall.

  132. 132.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    December 2, 2017 at 8:25 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: See also, the Salem Hypothesis:

    In any Evolution vs. Creation debate, A person who claims scientific credentials and sides with Creation will most likely have an Engineering degree.

  133. 133.

    lamh36

    December 2, 2017 at 8:26 pm

    So…let me see if I got this right… Trump finally tweets about Flynn and basically says he knew Flynn lied to FBI that’s why he fired him…essentially confirming guilt…and now they trying claim his lawyer wrote the tweet…

  134. 134.

    Bruuuuce

    December 2, 2017 at 8:27 pm

    @Amaranthine RBG:

    except for that debilitating bone spur

    You do mean “that debilitating need to avoid being shipped off to Vietnam, like all the other privileged wealthy white male kids”, I’m sure. After all, we want to be truthful and honest about El Jefe.

  135. 135.

    lamh36

    December 2, 2017 at 8:27 pm

    @evepeyser
    Bernie tells the crowd not to boo Trump voters. “Let’s not boo anyone,” he says. “Except for Donald Trump.”
    6:07 PM – Dec 2, 2017

    FUQ you Bernie!!!

    BOOO….

  136. 136.

    FlipYrWhig

    December 2, 2017 at 8:27 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Ted Cruz is another candidate for VCB status.

  137. 137.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 2, 2017 at 8:28 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Heh.

  138. 138.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    December 2, 2017 at 8:28 pm

    @Mnemosyne: I would say that Elevatorgate was the beginning of when I saw the rifts. Then some Islamophobia from Maher/Harris, some OMG the PC Police Are Out of Control!!1! by Dawkins/Jerry Coyne and others, some seriously rapey shit from Shermer/Dawkins and then some Transphobia from Ophelia Benson and the writing was on the wall: New Atheism doesn’t give a shit about minorities or their problems. Most of the vocal atheists I still love: Greta Christina, Communist, Dana Hunter, Rebecca Watson, Stephanie Zvan etc., have been actively pointing out the awfulness of the aforementioned a-holes, for years. Notably they are mostly women and/or people who aren’t white.

  139. 139.

    coin operated

    December 2, 2017 at 8:28 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: You are evil…I like the way you think

  140. 140.

    Yarrow

    December 2, 2017 at 8:28 pm

    @Mary G:

    Do you know of any local groups doing that? I believe in the power of the grassroots and refuse to give money to the national party or the DCCC or whatever.

    Have a look at the Texas Organizing Project. They are working at a very grassroots level and finding issues that matter to local people then getting them involved. They’ve had small successes all across Texas over the last several years and have increased Latino turnout. In 2016 they were instrumental in a lot of Dem wins in the Harris county (Houston area) and Ft. Bend county (southwest of Houston).

  141. 141.

    FlipYrWhig

    December 2, 2017 at 8:29 pm

    @lamh36: “I was saying Boo-urns Boo-ernie.”

  142. 142.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 8:29 pm

    @chris: Let’s see what the experts think. You know, people who have actually worked in national security law:
    First, the former DOJ spokesman and senior advisor to the Attorney General:

    Oh my god, he just admitted to obstruction of justice. If Trump knew Flynn lied to the FBI when he asked Comey to let it go, then there is your case. https://t.co/c6Wtd0TfzW

    — Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) December 2, 2017

    Next up a senior attorney in the US intelligence community:

    This is a pretty substantial confession to essential knowledge elements of an obstruction of justice charge. https://t.co/UpQfilPVfJ

    — Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) December 2, 2017

    The former acting Director of Central Intelligence:

    Absolutely true. But get ready for denial, dissembling, and obfuscation when someone points out to him what he just said.

    — john mclaughlin (@jmclaughlinSAIS) December 2, 2017

    Next up the founder of the Lawfare Blog and Co-Director of Brookings Institute on Law and Security:

    Just to be clear, if Trump had said this privately and some reporter got wind of it, it would a VERY big story. It is no less a big deal for taking place in public on Twitter.

    — Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) December 2, 2017

    One component of a state of mind inquiry is what precisely the President knew about Flynn’s legal jeopardy.

    — Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) December 2, 2017

    Trump just answered that question.

    — Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) December 2, 2017

    And then there’s this little complication. Clearly an attempt at ass covering, but it isn’t going to fly.

    Trump lawyer John Dowd drafted today's much analyzed tweet, two people familiar tell the Post. https://t.co/azuj3H9sHR

    — Rosalind Helderman (@PostRoz) December 2, 2017

    Um, no (and to be clear, not blaming the Post, just saying the sources are full of it) https://t.co/zsbB4k8cAI

    — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December 3, 2017

  143. 143.

    Corner Stone

    December 2, 2017 at 8:29 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m all for education and challenging oneself. But at some point you’ve gotta cut bait and do something with all that noggin overload.
    I know a female partner at a law firm whose husband has never held a job. He’s been in school the entire time they met/dated/married/had kids. Still no end in sight, afaict.
    Nothing wrong if that works for the two of them, sayin’ not sayin’.

  144. 144.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 8:31 pm

    @frosty: Nah, despite this whiny asshole Amaranthine RBG, I always thought of this a primarily a political blog but there used to be thread about hoops, soccer, and baseball too.

  145. 145.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 8:32 pm

    @coin operated: Someone has to put the irregular in irregular warfare!

  146. 146.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 8:32 pm

    @Corner Stone: If I had the means, I would be a perennial student.

  147. 147.

    Baud

    December 2, 2017 at 8:32 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Benjamin Wittes
    ✔
    @benjaminwittes
    Replying to @benjaminwittes
    There are a number of issues Mueller would have to resolve if there is to be any obstruction of justice case. One of them—and it’s not by any means the only one—is state of mind on Trump’s part.

    Not guilty by reason of insanity?

  148. 148.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 8:33 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: As you know, learning is a lifelong endeavor.

  149. 149.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 8:34 pm

    @Corner Stone: I’m not going back for more. I’ve got no wall space left!

  150. 150.

    Yarrow

    December 2, 2017 at 8:34 pm

    @raven: Whatever happened to Randhino? (Not sure I spelled his name right.) He used to do soccer threads.

  151. 151.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 8:35 pm

    @Baud: No. Wittes is referring to intent. The President, in his interview with Lester Holt, in his remarks to the Russian Ambassador to the US and Russian Foreign Minister, and in this tweet is providing evidence of his intent.

  152. 152.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    December 2, 2017 at 8:35 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: Derp, I’d already edited out Matt’s comments. For the record:

    …self-perceived autodidactism is core to the VCB mindset. Broadly speaking, the profile is: male, intelligent (possibly even brilliant), contemptuous of their “stupid” peers and/or teachers as children, convinced that they can know everything worth knowing about the world via a priori reasoning, mistakes their own experiences and assumptions for logical axioms, mistakes their own emotions and prejudices for rationality, mistakes anyone who disagrees with them for the “stupid” kids and teachers who tormented them.

    …it[Very Clever Boy syndrome]’s kind of an advanced Dunning-Kruger. If you’ve been very successful using your brain to solve certain types of problems, it’s natural to assume that you can also use it to solve other types of problems. The problem is that an engineer or a nuclear physicist or whoever went to the trouble of developing expertise in that subject, but once they move on to something like, say, gender relations, they don’t have the humility to recognize that they’re starting over at the bottom again.

  153. 153.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2017 at 8:35 pm

    @Jeffro

    Remember Reagan’s “ketchup is a vegetable” folderol?

  154. 154.

    Bruuuuce

    December 2, 2017 at 8:36 pm

    Serious question: why aren’t liberals packing Trump’s speeches and chanting “Lock him up!” Except for the unfortunate aspect of showing far larger crowds than we’d like, it seems that would be a swell goad for the gonif.

  155. 155.

    lamh36

    December 2, 2017 at 8:36 pm

    Don’t recall if I posted this yesterday, but I’m posting it now…

    My reaction when I read it was DAFUQ?

    “Bohemian Rhapsody” production halted due to Bryan Singer’s ‘unexpected unavailability’ http://ew.com/movies/2017/12/01/bohemian-rhapsody-production-halted-bryan-singer/ via @ew

    As a result of director Bryan Singer’s “unexpected unavailability,” production on the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody has been temporarily put on hold.

    In a statement to EW on Friday, the studio behind the film said: “Twentieth Century Fox Film has temporarily halted production on Bohemian Rhapsody due to the unexpected unavailability of Bryan Singer.”
    The reason for Singer’s absence, according to a report first published by the BBC and confirmed by EW, is “a personal health matter concerning Bryan and his family” and that the director hopes to return to the film after the holidays.

    All allegations and witness intimidation that’s alleged against Singer, think Kevin Spacey…who was a frequent guest at Singers’…ahem…”parties” (cough…rentboys…cough…) and you can guess that I had some thoughts on the “suspiciousness” of Singer being out the country as so many of this sexual harassment/assault allegations are sweeping Hollywood..

  156. 156.

    Corner Stone

    December 2, 2017 at 8:37 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: There’s no way an attorney drafted that tweet. Not an actual one that had passed the bar in some state in the US.

  157. 157.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 8:37 pm

    @Yarrow: I think he limits it to the really important stuff and, even after trying for years, I still can’t quite figure out what that is.

  158. 158.

    chris

    December 2, 2017 at 8:37 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I saw a lot of that and of course I agree. I laughed because the obvious lie just makes it worse.

  159. 159.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 8:39 pm

    @Bruuuuce: They screen the crowd to control access by either selling tickets or only releasing them through trusted local agents, such as the county Republican Party where the events take place.

  160. 160.

    Westyny

    December 2, 2017 at 8:39 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oh, I bet Tweety’s been “fingered” plenty of times.

  161. 161.

    zhena gogolia

    December 2, 2017 at 8:39 pm

    @John Revolta:

    Yeah, I keep falling for it because I keep forgetting who Blake Farenthold is. Never again.

  162. 162.

    Yarrow

    December 2, 2017 at 8:40 pm

    @raven: World Cup only, maybe?

  163. 163.

    Amaranthine RBG

    December 2, 2017 at 8:40 pm

    @Bruuuuce:

    Well, sure, if you want to be accurate and stuff.

  164. 164.

    ruemara

    December 2, 2017 at 8:40 pm

    @Corner Stone: I could only get my bachelor’s. And that was working my way through it full time at night.

  165. 165.

    Baud

    December 2, 2017 at 8:40 pm

    If they’re claiming the lawyer drafted the tweet, are they waiving privilege?

  166. 166.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 8:41 pm

    Fuck.

  167. 167.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 8:41 pm

    @Corner Stone: Heard at the White House this morning: “Get Judge Moore on the phone! The President needs sound legal counsel in drafting this tweet.”

  168. 168.

    Baud

    December 2, 2017 at 8:41 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: You ok?

  169. 169.

    Another Scott

    December 2, 2017 at 8:41 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Yup. I used to read Pharyngula fairly regularly and PZ covered it pretty well. Too much of the Harris/Dawkins/etc. wing of New Atheism decided to show their racism and misogyny (and harassment, and worse) after 9/11 and Gamergate and all the rest. They’re too sure of themselves and their “reasoning” and have convinced themselves that they’re always right about things they know nothing about.

    E.g. I get e-mail, Sam Harris edition (from 2015).

    and, elsewhere

    TheNation – Atheists show their sexist side (from 2014).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  170. 170.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 8:42 pm

    @Yarrow: No, other stuff too but all that Euro stuff is hard to figure out.

  171. 171.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 8:42 pm

    @Baud: We’ll see.

  172. 172.

    Bruuuuce

    December 2, 2017 at 8:42 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Including events like the Christmas tree lighting?

  173. 173.

    lamh36

    December 2, 2017 at 8:43 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: if that was remotely true…Chump needs to fire that lawyer…smh

  174. 174.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 8:43 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: General or specific?

  175. 175.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 8:43 pm

    @Baud: Pick on the goal line and subsequent Buck td.

  176. 176.

    Bruuuuce

    December 2, 2017 at 8:44 pm

    @Amaranthine RBG: Let’s be accurate. Facts having such a liberal bias and all that, as I’m sure you’d assert.

  177. 177.

    Corner Stone

    December 2, 2017 at 8:44 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: “If he’s too busy at the mall then ring up Fox! Get me Judge Jeanine, pronto!!”
    “And fuck it! If she’s not there then call The Dersh! He’ll say any fucking kooky ass shit!”

  178. 178.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 8:45 pm

    @raven: It was the 84 yd TD that got me.

  179. 179.

    Corner Stone

    December 2, 2017 at 8:45 pm

    Seriously. If you’re Lester Holt don’t you go to bed at night wondering what the hell else you had to do take this Trump fucker down?
    Replays of that interview have to be haunting for him.

  180. 180.

    Mike J

    December 2, 2017 at 8:45 pm

    @Bruuuuce:

    Including events like the Christmas tree lighting?

    I’m not convinced that shouting him down at the Christmas tree lighting would be a great look for decent people.

  181. 181.

    coin operated

    December 2, 2017 at 8:45 pm

    @Baud: Damn…good catch.

  182. 182.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2017 at 8:47 pm

    This is passing strange (emphasis added).

    Former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik, who last week announced plans to run for the presidency, was deported from the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, his family said, and arrived in Cairo hours later. Source

  183. 183.

    Mike J

    December 2, 2017 at 8:47 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Do you need to borrow Russel Wilson? Just have him back for the Seahawks game (that I’m sort of dreading.)

  184. 184.

    danielx

    December 2, 2017 at 8:47 pm

    @raven:

    Not to mention some awesome music threads.

  185. 185.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 8:48 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I have PIP on and missed it.

  186. 186.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 8:48 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: @Baud: presumably football related. In some sad,third world areas, there is no SEC and the poor wretches have to follow lesser teams.

  187. 187.

    Patricia Kayden

    December 2, 2017 at 8:48 pm

    @Mike J: Shouting down Trump would be a great thing for decent people to do. He’s the one who is indecent.

  188. 188.

    Yarrow

    December 2, 2017 at 8:49 pm

    @Corner Stone: I see it the exact opposite. When Trump does get taken down Lester Holt’s interview will play a key part. The take down is in progress. Wouldn’t be surprised the Lester Holt interview is used as evidence.

  189. 189.

    Bruuuuce

    December 2, 2017 at 8:49 pm

    @Mike J: That would indeed have been ill-advised. But he has to hold public events where a couple of hundred folks could get into the crowd and play picador.

  190. 190.

    lamh36

    December 2, 2017 at 8:50 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Um…as you know I’ve decided to go back to finally getting my Master in HCM…I made the decision sometime last week but this past week, I’ve gone ahead and applied to the program of my choice, and hoping to make it in for the Spring semester in January…

    This was before last night’s vote…but still…I want it…now that I’ve got it in my head that I can actually do it

  191. 191.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 8:50 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: The barrister from Madtown would take exception!

  192. 192.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 8:51 pm

    @raven: I’m going to let you guys enjoy your win.

  193. 193.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 8:52 pm

    Woohoo!

  194. 194.

    Betty Cracker

    December 2, 2017 at 8:52 pm

    @Bruuuuce:

    Trump Motorcade arriving to chants of "Lock Him Up" in NYC https://t.co/fIFcUCLuIO

    — Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix) December 2, 2017

    @Omnes Omnibus: Better now? ?

  195. 195.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 8:52 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: There ya go.

  196. 196.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 8:53 pm

    @Betty Cracker: @raven: It may be a very up and down evening for me.

  197. 197.

    gene108

    December 2, 2017 at 8:54 pm

    @Just One More Canuck:

    You posted a cropped photo. The actual picture makes Farenthold’s PJ’s seem even weirder.

  198. 198.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 8:54 pm

    @raven: as noted supra, I am pulling for his boys! But the Badgers haven’t been tested this year so we don’t know how good they are. The Big [whatever number they are using now] West is like the SEC East was pre-Kirby–much weaker than the other division.

  199. 199.

    James E. Powell

    December 2, 2017 at 8:54 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Is it true that thing has one very large cylinder? What’s that like?

  200. 200.

    debbie

    December 2, 2017 at 8:55 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    We were talking about this in the previous thread. No actually lawyer would use “pled.” They would use “pleaded.” “Pled” seems to have become obsolete.

  201. 201.

    James E. Powell

    December 2, 2017 at 8:55 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    For me too, he said from the opposite sideline.

  202. 202.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 8:55 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’m pulling for you, but the game is on Fox so I won’t watch it. Keep posting updates!

  203. 203.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 8:56 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: As you know, I have some pretty deep B1G roots. Billy Marek knocked one f my buddies cold one afternoon in Camp Randall. (Plus I saw the Dead there)!

  204. 204.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 2, 2017 at 8:56 pm

    @Betty Cracker: that’s great

  205. 205.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 8:56 pm

    @debbie: yeah, and lawyers would never use out of date language!

  206. 206.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 8:57 pm

    Damn it.

  207. 207.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 8:57 pm

    @Bruuuuce: They issue tickets through the First Lady’s Office for that sort of thing. From my understanding of reading the reporting, there were significantly fewer requests for tickets for that, for the Halloween Party, for the Easter egg roll this year than in past years.

  208. 208.

    Bruuuuce

    December 2, 2017 at 8:57 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Perfect! Encore! Thank you.

  209. 209.

    Ken

    December 2, 2017 at 8:58 pm

    @zhena gogolia:Yeah, who decided we needed a replacement for rickrolling?

  210. 210.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 8:59 pm

    @Corner Stone: If you’re Lester Holt you wonder when they have you renditioned to a black site somewhere so you can’t testify.

  211. 211.

    Bruuuuce

    December 2, 2017 at 8:59 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    there were significantly fewer requests for tickets for that, for the Halloween Party, for the Easter egg roll this year than in past years

    I’m shocked, SHOCKED, to hear that

  212. 212.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 9:00 pm

    @NotMax: Someone is getting a 9mm retirement party!

  213. 213.

    debbie

    December 2, 2017 at 9:00 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Trump sure would, though.

  214. 214.

    James E. Powell

    December 2, 2017 at 9:00 pm

    I’m feeling horribly alone here.

  215. 215.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 2, 2017 at 9:01 pm

    Alright! Done drawing vampires for the week.

  216. 216.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 9:01 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: I’m a born and bred Illini, I understand.

  217. 217.

    debbie

    December 2, 2017 at 9:01 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Please don’t hurt the quarterback.

  218. 218.

    Baud

    December 2, 2017 at 9:02 pm

    @James E. Powell: You can lean on me.

  219. 219.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 9:02 pm

    @James E. Powell: Yeah, but your team is up right now.

  220. 220.

    lgerard

    December 2, 2017 at 9:03 pm

    In another episode, Lewandowski describes how staffer Sam Nunberg was purposely left behind at a McDonald’s because Nunberg’s special-order burger was taking too long. “Leave him,” Trump said. “Let’s go.” And they did.

    lol

  221. 221.

    Ohio Mom

    December 2, 2017 at 9:03 pm

    @ArchTeryx: I hate to be the party pooper but I am not convinced about voc rehab at the moment — one of the ways employers are enticed to hire the sort of people who have to have voc rehab counselors is with, wait for it, tax breaks that are on the verge of disappearing.

    I can’t help but imagine it is a field that is going to stagnate for a while.

  222. 222.

    Baud

    December 2, 2017 at 9:03 pm

    Maybe use a football emoji so we can distinguish between the game and personal crises. ???

  223. 223.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 9:03 pm

    @lamh36: As Norm Ornstein (full disclosure: Norm is a friend) said on O’Donnell’s show last night (and I’m paraphrasing): whole sections of this law are actually going to be illegal as they are going to clash with both existing laws that haven’t been repealed or with Supreme and Federal appellate court rulings in regard to constitutionality.

    No matter what comes out of the conference committee and the President signs, this thing is going to get litigated for a long long time.

  224. 224.

    Betty Cracker

    December 2, 2017 at 9:04 pm

    @James E. Powell: It’s a thumping mofo!

  225. 225.

    Chyron HR

    December 2, 2017 at 9:04 pm

    @rk:

    I’m surprised McDonald and KFC don’t shout it from the rooftops that the president of the United States loves their food.

    I imagine both companies have people on staff who understand that selling their food to 90% of the world is better than just selling it to 33% of Americans.

  226. 226.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 9:05 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Believe me, I know. With our history with Auburn I wasn’t comfortable until the gun went off.

  227. 227.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 2, 2017 at 9:05 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: If only there was some sort of legislative process they could have used to deal with these things appropriately.

  228. 228.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2017 at 9:06 pm

    @debbie

    Per A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, “The best course is to treat plead as a weak verb, so that the correct past tense, as well as past participle, is pleaded.”

    AP Stylebook recommends using pleaded

    Pled is a now common, previously sniffed at, colloquial alternative.

  229. 229.

    Ruviana

    December 2, 2017 at 9:07 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:
    @Adam L Silverman:
    I’m assuming possible “good genes” for certain values of “good.” Fred died at 93, even with Alzheimer’s and Mary at 88. Obviously neither was in great health but they lived very long lives.

  230. 230.

    germy

    December 2, 2017 at 9:07 pm

    Trump is a germaphobe who is simultaneously addicted to fast food? Has he ever actually seen it prepared? All those teenagers putting their fingers all over the buns and toppings and patties. The bacteria that sits in the ice they scoop for the diet soda.

    If someone pointed that out to him, he’d literally go insane and starve to death.

  231. 231.

    Corner Stone

    December 2, 2017 at 9:07 pm

    @James E. Powell: You’re rooting for OSU and that’s a new feeling for you?

  232. 232.

    lamh36

    December 2, 2017 at 9:07 pm

    McMaster: Potential of war with North Korea ‘increasing every day’
    http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/362956-mcmaster-potential-of-war-with-north-korea-increasing-every-day#.WiNcV243BeE.twitter

  233. 233.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 9:08 pm

    @lgerard: According to an interview Nunberg did with Chris Hayes back in January or February, it was Nunberg who convinced the President to jump on the birther conspiracy back in 2011 to brand it and himself for a potential run for the presidency. So that racist SOB deserves every bit of mistreatment he got.

  234. 234.

    Baud

    December 2, 2017 at 9:08 pm

    @NotMax: It’s like how we now say bleeded instead of bled.

  235. 235.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 9:08 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Like the one lung Beezers!

  236. 236.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 2, 2017 at 9:08 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: As long as you have an open mind and willing to learn new things you are student, even if you don’t go to school anymore.
    We have a new troll who thinks, I is made of munnies because I had to file taxes in more than one state for a few years. Apparently, that’s a rich people problem. I am so rich that I used to do own my taxes using pen and paper, only recently started using software to do that.

  237. 237.

    lamh36

    December 2, 2017 at 9:09 pm

    Sooooo this his lawyer write this too?

    @realDonaldTrump
    Blocked Blocked @realDonaldTrump
    More
    So General Flynn lies to the FBI and his life is destroyed, while Crooked Hillary Clinton, on that now famous FBI holiday “interrogation” with no swearing in and no recording, lies many times…and nothing happens to her? Rigged system, or just a double standard?

    https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/937141061343956992

  238. 238.

    frosty

    December 2, 2017 at 9:09 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Whew, I quit after one BS and 2 MS degrees. Thought about the PhD but my MS Engineering advisor answered all my questions with “you don’t want a PhD.” And for a practicing engineer, he was right.

  239. 239.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 2, 2017 at 9:09 pm

    @lamh36: Wasn’t he supposed to be the wisest of all the wise Generals in the WH?

  240. 240.

    Just One More Canuck

    December 2, 2017 at 9:10 pm

    @gene108: He doesn’t need any help looking weird, but where does one find ‘husky’ sized ducky pajamas

    Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son

  241. 241.

    Corner Stone

    December 2, 2017 at 9:10 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    I am pulling for his boys!

    Jeebus. What is going on with phrasing here tonight?
    Was it something I said about Trump fucking his underage pre/teen daughter Ivanka?

  242. 242.

    Baud

    December 2, 2017 at 9:10 pm

    @lamh36: It’s so unfair the role that evidence plays in the justice system.

  243. 243.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 9:10 pm

    @Chyron HR: Like the people that live near this KFC:

  244. 244.

    debbie

    December 2, 2017 at 9:11 pm

    @germy:

    I think he uses germophobia as an excuse.

  245. 245.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 9:11 pm

    @Ruviana: Yep.

  246. 246.

    ruemara

    December 2, 2017 at 9:12 pm

    @lamh36: I’ve been wondering when that other shoe would drop. Singer is going to find he has terrible health issues for a while.

  247. 247.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 9:12 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: It would be a wonderful thing. Someone should invent it. Perhaps refer to part of it as the greatest deliberative body or something.

  248. 248.

    Another Scott

    December 2, 2017 at 9:12 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: It’s Ok. Donnie doesn’t run his Twitter, you see. It was Barron’s fault. Or maybe Hope’s.

    And, besides, what about Crooked Hillary, anyway?!?!!!

    Twitler:

    Donald J. Trump‏ Verified account @realDonaldTrump

    So General Flynn lies to the FBI and his life is destroyed, while Crooked Hillary Clinton, on that now famous FBI holiday “interrogation” with no swearing in and no recording, lies many times…and nothing happens to her? Rigged system, or just a double standard?
    6:06 PM – 2 Dec 2017

    (sigh)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  249. 249.

    efgoldman

    December 2, 2017 at 9:12 pm

    @raven:

    GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!~GO DAWGS!!!

    They fire Kirby yet?

    [Believe it or not, there are more important things here and there but pets or sports.]

  250. 250.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 9:13 pm

    @Ruviana: Yep.

  251. 251.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 9:13 pm

    @efgoldman: I missed you so much.

  252. 252.

    Baud

    December 2, 2017 at 9:14 pm

    @efgoldman: There’s nothing more important than pets.

  253. 253.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 9:15 pm

    @germy: He is addicted to it because he believes the restaurants are still like they were when he was growing up in the 50s. He has no idea what a modern fast food kitchen looks like. Everything is done on gut instincts of nostalgia back to the 1950s and early 1960s.

  254. 254.

    SgrAstar

    December 2, 2017 at 9:15 pm

    @Adrift: Gavin Newsome should have a turn in that barrel as well.

  255. 255.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 2, 2017 at 9:15 pm

    @raven: Curmudgeon reunion!!
    I too missed efg!

  256. 256.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 9:16 pm

    Shit.

  257. 257.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 9:16 pm

    @lamh36: @schrodingers_cat: His reputation for bluntness can sometimes be a disadvantage. That reply called for a lot more strategic nuance and ambiguity.

  258. 258.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2017 at 9:16 pm

    @germy

    teenagers putting their fingers all over the buns

    Not that ever visited often but stopped going to Wendy’s entirely after sitting at the drive-up window and witnessing one such person reach his hand down the back of his pants to scratch (or perhaps adjust something) and then continue on with food prep using that hand afterward.

    @Baud

    :)

    Much more like how we now accept using hung without it grating on the ears in place of the traditionally correct hanged.

  259. 259.

    debbie

    December 2, 2017 at 9:16 pm

    @efgoldman:

    Hey, hope you’re doing better.

  260. 260.

    Baud

    December 2, 2017 at 9:16 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: His absence has not gone unnoticed.

  261. 261.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 9:19 pm

    @ruemara: And will be convalescing someplace without an extradition agreement with the US.

  262. 262.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 2, 2017 at 9:19 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I don’t know, are their egos really so big that that name would appeal?

  263. 263.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 9:19 pm

    @Baud: Especially DAWGS!!!!

    James, Payback!

  264. 264.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 9:21 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: I’m sure they’ll rise to the occasion.

  265. 265.

    Corner Stone

    December 2, 2017 at 9:21 pm

    Ok, people. We’re approaching a serious glidepath for Go/No Go. I have been craving the local Chinese Buffet place for a couple months now, but have resisted. It’s about what you’d expect, 3/5 or so. I am about to hit the window between families with kids leaving and customers slowing down so refresh also slows down.
    I have already pre-emptively slut shamed myself for my won ton desires. If our Furiously Incurious Dear Leader can eat Four Entrees from Mickey D’s then I should be able to handle a dose of the good bad stuff once in a while, amirite?

  266. 266.

    efgoldman

    December 2, 2017 at 9:22 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: OT, but – most of my pie cabinet seems to have emptied out while I was busy not dying. Only two well- known Wilmer bot trolls left. You run somkind of operation?

  267. 267.

    Another Scott

    December 2, 2017 at 9:22 pm

    @NotMax: “Pled” is up there with “Snuck”. Wrong, but likely impossible to eradicate.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  268. 268.

    rikyrah

    December 2, 2017 at 9:22 pm

    Battle Born Progress‏ @BattleBornProg

    .@SenDeanHeller now throws out a stage 4 cancer patient for demanding answers. This is disgusting. #GOPTaxScam

    https://twitter.com/BattleBornProg/status/937096015420653568

  269. 269.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 2, 2017 at 9:23 pm

    @efgoldman: They die without the attention, I think.

    Trentrunner went full troll while you were gone, and got pied a bunch, and then came back with a new name to avoid the filter, how sad is that?

  270. 270.

    chris

    December 2, 2017 at 9:23 pm

    @raven: Everybody forgets the Royal Enfields. Single cylinder 750cc hardtail. Like riding a jackhammer, a very fast jackhammer.

  271. 271.

    lamh36

    December 2, 2017 at 9:24 pm

    Seriously though…talk to me like I’m slow…what exactly makes the significance of the initial tweet about Flynn any different by claiming the lawyer wrote it?

  272. 272.

    rikyrah

    December 2, 2017 at 9:24 pm

    Natasha Bertrand‏Verified account @NatashaBertrand

    Maybe don’t put this in writing, KT McFarland…

    https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/937066296138764292

  273. 273.

    rikyrah

    December 2, 2017 at 9:25 pm

    @efgoldman:

    good to see you :)

  274. 274.

    Matt McIrvin

    December 2, 2017 at 9:25 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Dunno, but Hitchens’ continued stumping for Bush’s foreign policy didn’t help. I think the Richard Dawkins/Rebecca Watson “Elevatorgate” fight was a turning point in some nerd communities.

  275. 275.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 9:25 pm

    @NotMax: preferred usage is “hanged” for the method of execution, “hung” for your pictures on the wall.

    Was about to make a “hung” joke, but the clock hanging on the wall tells it’s too early for Balloon Juice After Dark.

  276. 276.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 9:26 pm

    @chris: They are still being made.

  277. 277.

    Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)

    December 2, 2017 at 9:26 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Congrats on the new bike!

  278. 278.

    ArchTeryx

    December 2, 2017 at 9:27 pm

    @Ohio Mom: In my case it’s strictly a local phenom. I work at a voc rehab organization, and they just had a boatload of counselors retire. They can’t fill the positions…not enough voc rehab folks in Albany, NY. I expect that once the Trump recession really gets legs, it will get tough…but state jobs are (as of now) unionized, and you can’t readily get fired from the state.

    And they get paid a PhD level salary, something that I don’t get as a mere Office Assistant.

  279. 279.

    rikyrah

    December 2, 2017 at 9:27 pm

    Laugh for the day

    BWA HA HAHAHA HA HA

    https://twitter.com/Phil_Lewis_/status/936806114489860097

  280. 280.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 9:27 pm

    @chris: Not everyone!

  281. 281.

    Feathers

    December 2, 2017 at 9:27 pm

    @germy: Germaphobia is weird. Things that arrive wrapped up and you open are “clean,” no matter what conditions they were prepared in, while food prepared right in front of you, with immaculate hygiene, is somehow tainted when it arrives on a plate at the table. (For certain values of you.)

    Yes, I cared for my grandfather when he had Alzheimer’s. From scratch bad, cans good.

  282. 282.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 9:28 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: “And they was right.”

  283. 283.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 2, 2017 at 9:28 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Was about to make a “hung” joke, but the clock hanging on the wall tells it’s too early for Balloon Juice After Dark.

    Not in San Francisco!

  284. 284.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 9:28 pm

    @ArchTeryx: When I broke my back the Voc Rehab folks were awesome.

  285. 285.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2017 at 9:29 pm

    @Another Scott

    Yup. Both are examples of what I refer to as parvenuisms.

    (Come hell or high water, shall never, never, never accept lightening as a substitute for lightning.)

  286. 286.

    eemom

    December 2, 2017 at 9:29 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    As long as you have an open mind and willing to learn new things you are student, even if you don’t go to school anymore.

    Fun fact: UVA undergrads are called “first year,” “second year,” etc., rather than the traditional appellations, because it was Mr. Jefferson’s opinion that no one is ever a “senior” at learning.

    Second fun fact: UVA professors with Ph.D.’s are not addressed as Dr., out of respect to Mr. Jefferson, who didn’t have a Ph.D.

    Third fun fact: they call the place “the grounds” instead of the campus. Dunno what the reason for that is.

    Anyway, my kid’s graduated now. Second kid is at U South Carolina.

  287. 287.

    Feathers

    December 2, 2017 at 9:29 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: I am now voting for occasional “Balloon Juice After Dark” threads of filfth.

  288. 288.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 9:30 pm

    @debbie: @NotMax: @Another Scott: the definitive source is one of the greatest songs ever written, “Devil’s Right Hand”, by hardcore liberal Steve Earle, and he says “pleaded”, so there you go.

    At his show last year (or was it earlier this year?) at City Winery in Atlanta, he paused between songs for a few Black Power salutes.

  289. 289.

    The Dangerman

    December 2, 2017 at 9:30 pm

    Well, this sucks; OSU drubbing Badgers, setting up at Clemson/Alabama rematch, which I want to watch as much as a Trump Press Conference.

  290. 290.

    germy

    December 2, 2017 at 9:31 pm

    @NotMax:

    stopped going to Wendy’s entirely after sitting at the drive-up window and witnessing one such person reach his hand down the back of his pants to scratch (or perhaps adjust something) and then continue on with food prep using that hand afterward.

    trump has clearly never visited the drive-thru. I’ve seen things that put me off fast food forever. I guess it’s different when your big mac is hand delivered by hope hicks to your private plane…

  291. 291.

    Baud

    December 2, 2017 at 9:31 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: It’s even earlier in San Francisco.

  292. 292.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 9:33 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: you disgusting people with your Nancy Pelosi values….

  293. 293.

    Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)

    December 2, 2017 at 9:34 pm

    @Betty Cracker: I started on an S40! That thing is a jackrabbit of a bike. I’ve had two bikes since that one, both white in honor of my ’05 S40. If I had room in my garage, I’d have kept it.

    Congrats again, and keep the rubber side down.

  294. 294.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 2, 2017 at 9:35 pm

    @Baud: Steve (below) figured it out.

    @NotMax: For some reason a lot of people on the innertubes say “loose” instead of “lose”.

  295. 295.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 9:35 pm

    @Feathers: road head was covered thoroughly; what do you want to see next?

  296. 296.

    rikyrah

    December 2, 2017 at 9:35 pm

    David D’Ag (fss)‏ @jackjonesbabe

    URGENT! If you live in DC please try to make it here to counter Konst/Zogby/Turner efforts to enshrine Sanders through voter disenfranchisement

    https://twitter.com/jackjonesbabe/status/937027461019308032

  297. 297.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 9:35 pm

    van Ginkel again!

  298. 298.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 9:35 pm

    Who dat hippie badger???

  299. 299.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 9:36 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: that reason would be ignorance.

  300. 300.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2017 at 9:36 pm

    Sans comment.

    An opossum that apparently drank bourbon after breaking into a Florida liquor store sobered up at a wildlife rescue center and was released unharmed.

    Emerald Coast Wildlife Refuge officials say the opossum was brought in by a Fort Walton Beach, Florida, police officer on Nov. 24. A liquor store employee found the animal next to a broken and empty bottle of bourbon.
    [snip]
    …the opossum did not appear to have a hangover. Source

  301. 301.

    rikyrah

    December 2, 2017 at 9:37 pm

    Danez Smith‏ @Danez_Smif

    Maybe, just maybe, this tax heist almost enough to make some white ppl realize how whiteness hates them too. Cause whiteness convinced them to put these crooks in office and whiteness just said fuck they sick grandma and they niece n nem too.
    7:45 AM – 2 Dec 2017

  302. 302.

    hedgehog mobile

    December 2, 2017 at 9:37 pm

    @Feathers: Dear Balloon Juice: I never thought this would happen to me….

  303. 303.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 2, 2017 at 9:37 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: But why that typo? It’s so pervasive.

    @hedgehog mobile: Isn’t that how every Cole post goes? We’re doing it wrong.

  304. 304.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 9:38 pm

    @NotMax: I was just there.

  305. 305.

    rikyrah

    December 2, 2017 at 9:38 pm

    Andy Slavitt‏Verified account @ASlavitt

    BREAKING: On Tuesday, Congress will propose to fund CHIP through the end of December.

    Yes, of this year.

    https://rules.house.gov/sites/republicans.rules.house.gov/files/BILLS-115HJResPIH-CRFY18.pdf …
    7:46 AM – 2 Dec 2017

  306. 306.

    Matt McIrvin

    December 2, 2017 at 9:38 pm

    @eemom: My experience in academic fields in general is that anything less than “Professor” is insufficiently exalted to be used as a form of address. PhDs are a dime a dozen and to call a professor “Doctor” would be a grave insult, so often professional communications address any academic as “Professor” just to be safe.

  307. 307.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 9:38 pm

    @NotMax: Florida Man has been eclipsed by Florida Possum.

    Ok, going dark for a while. Don’t want to TenguPhule the thread!

  308. 308.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 2, 2017 at 9:39 pm

    I wonder if this could actually fuck them up… I can’t imagine Rubio would bring it up publicly if it weren’t a (potential) problem

    Marco Rubio‏Verified account
    For days heard that anything more than 20% corp rate would be anti-growth & catastrophic. Less than 12 hours later 22% is now an option?

  309. 309.

    Ken

    December 2, 2017 at 9:39 pm

    @germy:

    I guess it’s different when your big mac is hand delivered by hope hicks to your private plane

    Yeah, it’s an extra 15 minutes for the germs to breed. Plus the fries get cold.

    Uh, when it says he had two burgers and two fish, that’s just the sandwiches, right? He didn’t get four orders of fries too?

  310. 310.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 2, 2017 at 9:39 pm

    @eemom: My condolences. Columbia is a shithole.

  311. 311.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 2, 2017 at 9:40 pm

    Trump tweet density plotted by time of day and month, with Fox & Friends showtimes indicated (not me)

  312. 312.

    debbie

    December 2, 2017 at 9:40 pm

    I don’t know Congressman Larson (D-CT), but I like him and his rant.

  313. 313.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 9:41 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: The bell is ringing!

  314. 314.

    rikyrah

    December 2, 2017 at 9:41 pm

    Sen. Lisa Murkowski‏Verified account @lisamurkowski

    Senate passed #TaxReform that provides relief for hardworking Alaskans & their families by doubling the standard deduction, increasing the child tax credit, & reducing the tax brackets at every income level. http://bit.ly/2BzSaFf
    9:59 AM – 2 Dec 2017

    …………..

    Topher Spiro‏Verified account @TopherSpiro

    Topher Spiro Retweeted Sen. Lisa Murkowski

    – eliminates personal exemption
    – pushes middle-class into higher tax brackets
    – sunsets EVERYTHING you’re pointing to
    – spikes premiums a couple thousand $$
    – taxes middle-class tax payments

  315. 315.

    chris

    December 2, 2017 at 9:41 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yes, in India. They were folded into Norton in the 60s and went under a while later. The one I rode around the block and didn’t buy forty years ago was a restored late 40s model. Not even rubber engine mounts!

  316. 316.

    Mike in NC

    December 2, 2017 at 9:41 pm

    @Corner Stone: We’ve lived in this podunk town for 10 years now and within the past 18 months two very highly rated Asian restaurants have opened nearby. Beats driving an hour to the nearest P. F. Chiang’s.

  317. 317.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 2, 2017 at 9:42 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: I had one prof, a Brit, who did not have a PhD, and we adrressed him as “Mr”.

  318. 318.

    debbie

    December 2, 2017 at 9:43 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Or autocorrect.

  319. 319.

    efgoldman

    December 2, 2017 at 9:43 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    Not too long ago I decided to order a vanilla milkshake at a McDonald’s for the first time in maybe 30 years. It was nectar from heaven

    Yeah, every 25-30 years or so it’s great.
    BTW, if memory serves “malted” is the generic NY name for a milkshake, even though it contains neither a drop of milk nor a teaspoon of malt.

  320. 320.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 9:43 pm

    @chris: And then there is the Ural!

  321. 321.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 2, 2017 at 9:44 pm

    @efgoldman: and an egg cream has neither cream, nor egg, as I understand.

    Hope you’re doing well

  322. 322.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 9:44 pm

    @chris: They have a showroom in Milwaukee just across the Milwaukee River from the Harley HQ and museum.

  323. 323.

    Major Major Major Major

    December 2, 2017 at 9:45 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: And don’t get me started on peanuts.

  324. 324.

    debbie

    December 2, 2017 at 9:48 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Bet F&F is playing him, just because they can.

  325. 325.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 2, 2017 at 9:49 pm

    @NotMax: “Traditionally correct”? Dude was hanged like a horse is correct usage?

  326. 326.

    Adam L Silverman

    December 2, 2017 at 9:50 pm

    @Ken: Don’t forget the apple pies!

  327. 327.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 2, 2017 at 9:52 pm

    @efgoldman: A real malted in NY did in fact contain an ingredient called malted milk powder.

    Don’t get me started on the New England idiocy of frappe vs milkshake vs cabinet.

  328. 328.

    Amir Khalid

    December 2, 2017 at 9:52 pm

    @Betty Cracker:
    Ooh, she’s pretty, like a butterscotch-blond Tele.

  329. 329.

    Betty Cracker

    December 2, 2017 at 9:52 pm

    @eemom: Dayum, that first kid already graduated? Seems like only yesterday I was teaching my kid to drive, and you were sending your eldest off to UVA!

    Congrats on launching kid the 2nd. FWIW, my grandma went to University of South Carolina, and she turned out mostly okay. Still alive and smack-talking her Gator descendants this year! (They beat us at the football.)

    @Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA): It is a jackrabbit for sure! What did you move on to, if I may ask?

  330. 330.

    Jim Parish

    December 2, 2017 at 9:52 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: When I was a math grad student at the University of Chicago, the (departmental?) custom was that everyone – faculty and students alike – was addressed as “Mr.” or “Ms.” It didn’t make the hierarchy go away, or even make it less obvious, but that was the custom.

  331. 331.

    Ladyraxterinok

    December 2, 2017 at 9:54 pm

    @Corner Stone: Check PZ Myers posts at his blog pharyngula as he progressively becomes immensely disillusioneud with Harris. Posts over 2 to 3 yrs.

  332. 332.

    Betty Cracker

    December 2, 2017 at 9:55 pm

    @Amir Khalid: My sister insists that everyone in the family name their vehicles. I may call the new bike “Bianca” after your kitty, if you don’t mind. ?

  333. 333.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2017 at 9:56 pm

    @Gin & Tonic

    If the horse is dangling off the ground by a noose, yes.

  334. 334.

    James E. Powell

    December 2, 2017 at 9:58 pm

    @Corner Stone:

    Point taken. I moved to Los Angeles, but it’s Hang On Sloopy ’til I die.

  335. 335.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 9:58 pm

    @Betty Cracker: You shoulda tried my Yamaha RD 350!

  336. 336.

    chris

    December 2, 2017 at 9:58 pm

    @raven: Russian perfection!

    @Omnes Omnibus So I see. There’s also a Canadian branch. Alas, my riding days are long gone by.

  337. 337.

    Mike in NC

    December 2, 2017 at 10:01 pm

    @efgoldman: And one of the greatest treats in RI is a Del’s Lemonade.

  338. 338.

    Chet Murthy

    December 2, 2017 at 10:02 pm

    @Wag: Her bunghole.

  339. 339.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 10:05 pm

    @chris: The last time I was in Wisconsin I rented a softail and rode for a day.

  340. 340.

    Mike in NC

    December 2, 2017 at 10:07 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Many years ago I attended a “Welcome to Rhode Island” class in Providence that covered the local jargon, such as water coolers being known as “bubblers” (pronounced “bubblas”).

  341. 341.

    frosty

    December 2, 2017 at 10:07 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Cool! Love singles! I had a Triumph single way back when: 200cc Tiger Cub. Even with 15 HP it was a thumper. I gave up the motorcycle jones; but otherwise the next one would have been a 441 Victor.

  342. 342.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 10:09 pm

    @frosty: My first sled was a Honda 150 Dream. Two cylinders but just one carb!

  343. 343.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 10:10 pm

    @Jim Parish: My undergrad did the same thing.

  344. 344.

    Tenar Arha

    December 2, 2017 at 10:11 pm

    @debbie: Good one. Only problem I have with it is it’s clear none of the members of the GOP on the committee are honorable.

    ETA: ? when do the rules of decorum allow Senators to call each other names…outside the hearing & Senate chamber I suppose.

  345. 345.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2017 at 10:12 pm

    @raven

    Brings to mind the old joke. Much truncated version:

    Texan is bragging that he can “get into mah car at dawn, drive all day and still not reach the edge of mah property at sunset.”

    Recipient of bragging: “Yeah, I had a car like that once.”

  346. 346.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 10:13 pm

    @raven: Mine was a 1973 Honda CB350. It could touch 90 if I laid over the tank.

  347. 347.

    chris

    December 2, 2017 at 10:13 pm

    @raven: Good for you, still goin’

    I got very lucky and very scared in my mid twenties and gave it up. The bike was totalled and I walked away. Still get the itch once in a while.

  348. 348.

    Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)

    December 2, 2017 at 10:15 pm

    @Betty Cracker: First I moved to a Boulevard C50. Now I ride a Yamaha VStar 1300.

  349. 349.

    marv

    December 2, 2017 at 10:15 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
    Not sure when, but it was inevitable. There’s too much beauty in the world.

  350. 350.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 2, 2017 at 10:19 pm

    @Mike in NC: They still are “bubblers”

  351. 351.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 10:20 pm

    @chris: I was 64 then. We were in Appleton and trying to figure out what to do. It was yard sales or Harley’s! We road for hours and hours only to stop once in a while for a break. The last half hour was on the interstate and I wasn’t all that crazy about it but we just hauled ass and made it through.

  352. 352.

    eemom

    December 2, 2017 at 10:21 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    huh. I always thought Dr. was the highest honorific there was, short of Your Excellency, etc.

    But then, I’m just a fucking “Esq.”….and, like everything else about the legal profession, what a sad joke that is. :(

  353. 353.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 10:22 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Loved them.

  354. 354.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 10:22 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Same name in Wisconsin. Weird.

    @raven: There was pissing on Joe McCarthy’s grave.

  355. 355.

    Amir Khalid

    December 2, 2017 at 10:23 pm

    @Betty Cracker:
    I’ll tell my Bianca. No doubt she’ll be flattered.

  356. 356.

    Mayim

    December 2, 2017 at 10:30 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Late, as always, to the conversation (which is why I mostly lurk)…. but, yeah on sometimes wondering when/how to stop the perpetual student track.

    I’m at three and a half ;-) At least I use that last half of one [post graduate certificate in genealogy from a Scottish university ~ the joys of modern Internet life] the most at work, although I needed the third one [MLS] as the entry price for the job.

    So happy my mid-life crisis [go to library school and move to Maine] has actually worked ;-) And one of these days I will actually finish this last one…

  357. 357.

    chris

    December 2, 2017 at 10:31 pm

    @raven: Bet it was fun. Next time ride to Joe’s grave ;-)

  358. 358.

    eemom

    December 2, 2017 at 10:32 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Fortunately, the young ‘un doesn’t think so.

    @Betty Cracker:

    Yeah, I could hardly believe it was real when she graduated last May. And needless to say, I can even less believe it’s real that they are both grown up and out of the house, and suddenly it’s just me, eedad, and the doggies. ?

    eta: it is vewy, vewy, quiet.

  359. 359.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 10:33 pm

    @eemom:

    huh. I always thought Dr. was the highest honorific there was, short of Your Excellency, etc.

    But then, I’m just a fucking “Esq.”….and, like everything else about the legal profession, what a sad joke that is. :(

    Are you kidding? We are both Doctors of Jurisprudence and Esquires!

  360. 360.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 10:34 pm

    @chris: I think I’m done. I rode one of those insane 850 cc Triumph Scramblers, what the fuck do you need a 850cc Scrambler for, and that was about enough??

  361. 361.

    J R in WV

    December 2, 2017 at 10:34 pm

    @James E. Powell:

    Al the usual folks was here! Why are you feeling alone? I’ll do what I can via innertubes to help!! Trump is going down, surely that helps?!

  362. 362.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 10:38 pm

    @J R in WV: Don’t waste your sympathy on him. His Buckeyes are leading.

  363. 363.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 10:39 pm

    @raven: is the bell still ringing? You may not get to sleep tonight!

  364. 364.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 10:40 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Exactly. And Esquires are a step above gentlemen/women.

  365. 365.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 10:41 pm

    @eemom: and Senator is way above Dr. At least it was until early this morning.

  366. 366.

    Anne Laurie

    December 2, 2017 at 10:42 pm

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):

    Additionally, has Salon ever had a foreign policy columnist who wasn’t, as a whole, a shitbag person?

    Haven’t read Salon since the dialup days, but to be fair, the percentage of English-language foreign policy columnists who are “shitbag persons” is higher even than Sturgeon’s Law would suggest.

  367. 367.

    Betty Cracker

    December 2, 2017 at 10:43 pm

    @Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA): Bad ass! ?

    @frosty: Old school! I think an Indian Scout might be my dream bike.

    @raven: That’s a Steve McQueen-looking ride!

  368. 368.

    frosty

    December 2, 2017 at 10:50 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: That’s the one we called the “Unit Motorcycle” as in everything larger or smaller was measured against the 350.

  369. 369.

    chris

    December 2, 2017 at 10:52 pm

    @raven: That moment of Zen when you’re airborne at 85 mph and the bike is… somewhere else?

  370. 370.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    December 2, 2017 at 10:52 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: One of them went to LGM full-time.

    @Matt McIrvin: Yeah, Elevatorgate & Shermer’s rape accusations (2011 & 2013) were big intramural controversies; ISTR public antipathy turning against New Atheism some time after that.

  371. 371.

    Ladyraxterinok

    December 2, 2017 at 10:53 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Me too!! And energy, of course.

  372. 372.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    December 2, 2017 at 10:55 pm

    @Anne Laurie: Off the top of my head: Greenwald, Jeff Tayler (covered upthread), Patrick Lawrence Smith (Putin kiss-ass, perennial contender for worst writer in the world), Ben Norton (diehard Bernie Bro).

  373. 373.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 10:56 pm

    @chris: I have had that moment in a couple of spin-outs on ice.

  374. 374.

    Anne Laurie

    December 2, 2017 at 10:57 pm

    @Yarrow:

    Whatever happened to Randhino?

    He got a life, or so I’m told!

    See, that’s the problem with this here blog — it’s all volunteer labor. When front-pagers have other things to do, or just get bored (*cough*Cole*cough*) there’s no protocol for finding replacements.

    I can only hang out with y’all as much as I do because I’m retired, lazy, and an aspiring agoraphobe.

    You guys know any frustrated sportswriters who can pass the Blogmaster’s interview process (i.e., stand to hang around here), by all means get on Twitter and introduce him to Cole!

  375. 375.

    frosty

    December 2, 2017 at 10:58 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Really old school would be a BSA Gold Star 500.

    I had a college friend with a 441. He claimed he could put it against a brick wall rev it and dump the clutch and one of two things would happen. Either the wheel would spin or the wall would go down… but it definitely wouldn’t stall.

  376. 376.

    J R in WV

    December 2, 2017 at 10:59 pm

    @NotMax:

    Pictures are hung, people are hanged. May be important for Trump scandal resolution?

  377. 377.

    carcin

    December 2, 2017 at 11:01 pm

    TheNation – Atheists show their sexist side (from 2014).

    Hmm. Now imagine a headline like “Gays show their rapist side” in reference to the Spacey allegations…

  378. 378.

    Betty Cracker

    December 2, 2017 at 11:03 pm

    @eemom: Same. Hence, the motorcycles. We figure we’ve fulfilled our biological imperatives, so what the hell?

  379. 379.

    chris

    December 2, 2017 at 11:04 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: It was always fun til it wasn’t.

    Good night, all

  380. 380.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 11:06 pm

    @carcin: Explain please.

  381. 381.

    No Drought No More

    December 2, 2017 at 11:08 pm

    Flynn’s brain? That makes sense, at least insofar as the age old folk wisdom is true that birdbrains of a feather flock together..

  382. 382.

    Ladyraxterinok

    December 2, 2017 at 11:12 pm

    @Baud: A prof in my German grad program had as a hobby ‘let’s bring back the strong verbs in English!’ All who’ve studied German are haunted by memorizing the 7 classes of strong verbs.

  383. 383.

    J R in WV

    December 2, 2017 at 11:16 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Fuq the Fkin Bjuckeyes!!! Worthless Nuts!!!!

    Only time I was ever in OSU stadium was to see Pink Floyd, which was the first time anything but football happened there, I was told. We were walking up the concrete steps just a few yards from our seats when this bass note started to rumble… Fabulous, so much better than watching an OSU football game.

  384. 384.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 11:21 pm

    @J R in WV: I lived in Columbus for 15 years. I have never been inside the Horseshoe.

  385. 385.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 11:24 pm

    @Anne Laurie: This is an example of the “writing” that took place

    Steelers v. Ravens
    by Tim F.at5:34 pm on December 2, 2012. It has 42 Comments.

    Wish I was watching hockey right now.

  386. 386.

    J R in WV

    December 2, 2017 at 11:25 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Well, a friend invited us, knew that we were Fink Ployd fans, so it was really nice. His girlfriend lived a few blocks from the stadium, so we parked in their back yard, had snacks and beers and brownies and strolled to the big shew. Then strolled back 2 or 3 hours later.

    I should get up there more to see the cousins. We were so close 50 years ago…. then everyone moved away. I’m the only one left here, but for one guy. The bootlegger’s son. He’s a retired geologist.

  387. 387.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 11:28 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I was there once, probably 73. I didn’t stand up for the anthem and a guy behind me gave me shit about it. I told him I was a vet and I’d do what I wanted. It turned out he was Al Kustok, former Illini player. You may know of him because his son was a QB at Northwestern and he is now in prison for killing his wife.

  388. 388.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 11:29 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: I’m sure it is, I sleep (if you can call it that) with a noise machine and Normaltown is far enough away that you can only hear it if you go outside.

  389. 389.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 11:30 pm

    @raven: I know nothing about any of that.

  390. 390.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 11:32 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: @Omnes Omnibus: It was fairly big news in Chicago about 3 years ago.

  391. 391.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 11:35 pm

    @raven: Normaltown is real? Not just a term from a B-52s song?

  392. 392.

    Ladyraxterinok

    December 2, 2017 at 11:35 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: German verbs finally helped me figure out this distinction. Weak verbs add ed to infitive for past tense and have a direct object. Strong verbs change the vowel in the past tense (also do not add ed) and do not have a direct object.

    Weak verbs are so named because they have to add ed to change tense; strong verbs are so named because they are strong enough to change tense on their own internally and don’t have to add outside help of ed.

    I was told that was the reasoning given by German grammarians in the 19th cent.

  393. 393.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 11:38 pm

    @raven: sports writing is worse than amateur slash fic writing. The game summaries jump back and forth in time then end abruptly. They us the present tense for everything (“If he cuts left there he scores” rather than “If he had cut left there he would have scored”). And they, like everyone, seem to know nothing of using the subjunctive case and possessives before gerunds.

    Fuckers.

  394. 394.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 11:40 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yes Normal Schools, think ISU in Bloomington-Normal were teachers colleges. The campus here became the Navy Supply Corps School for about 50 years and got Brac’d. Now it is part of the Medical College of Georgia and Health Sciences for UGA. The thing I miss most is the bugle at revile, retreat and taps. We lived by it for 15 years.

  395. 395.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 11:41 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: get untracked

  396. 396.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 11:42 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: and then control your destiny

  397. 397.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 11:44 pm

    @raven: One of my great-grandmothers went to a Normal School – it is now UW-Stevens Point.

  398. 398.

    raven

    December 2, 2017 at 11:47 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: There you have it. Let’s go coach that party. . .

    Actually there is considerable consternation by the “hipster”element that Normaltown has become a very pricey (for Athens) are and people are not al that crazy about bands and shit playing all hours.

  399. 399.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2017 at 11:48 pm

    @Ladyraxterinok: mein gott.

  400. 400.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2017 at 11:52 pm

    @carcin: Drive-by troll.

  401. 401.

    Citizen Alan

    December 3, 2017 at 12:53 am

    @lamh36:

    Hell, I remember a controversy around Bryan Singer dating all the way back to “Apt Pupil” (a movie based on the Stephen King novella that starred Ian McKellan and a very young Brad Renfro). There was a high school shower scene in which underage males as young as 14 had were filmed showering nude. That was almost 20 years ago.

  402. 402.

    trnc

    December 3, 2017 at 7:16 am

    @lamh36:

    @chucktodd
    Blocked Blocked @chucktodd
    More
    Not surprised when the WH or its surrogates choose to incorrectly spin the significance of the Flynn news, but to see some journalists and columnists do it when they clearly know what they are saying is misleading makes it look as if all they care about is their WH access
    12:07 PM – 2 Dec 2017
    https://twitter.com/chucktodd/status/937020452047798272

    I don’t know much about Brian Ross or all the background to his suspension. Did ABC verify that he intentionally wrote candidate instead of Pres-Elect? It seems like the kind of mistake that would warrant a correction and maybe a personal mea culpa, but it sure as hell doesn’t seem any worse than Hannity labeling republicans as democrats every time he has to report on republican malfeasance.

  403. 403.

    trnc

    December 3, 2017 at 7:23 am

    @J R in WV:

    Only time I was ever in OSU stadium was to see Pink Floyd, which was the first time anything but football happened there, I was told. We were walking up the concrete steps just a few yards from our seats when this bass note started to rumble… Fabulous, so much better than watching an OSU football game.

    I have a friend who went to see PF in an arena here for the ’87 tour and said walking up to the place was like a religious experience.

  404. 404.

    Another Scott

    December 3, 2017 at 9:12 am

    @Steve in the ATL: Heh. “Come sit by me”, as Subaru Diane says.

    But weather reporting is worser. “Tuesday, the high is 75 degrees, while Wednesday and Thursday the high is 102 degrees with a 43.8% chance of showers south of I-95, and a 38.7% chance over Bob Smith’s house in West Overshoe…”

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  405. 405.

    JGabriel

    December 3, 2017 at 9:46 am

    @Mike J:

    McDonalds doesn’t sell malteds.

    Maybe Lewandowski meant that Trump gets his chocolate malteds at Applebee’s salad bar.

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