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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

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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…

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


Reader Interactions

405Comments

  2. 2.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    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

    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

    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!!!~

  7. 7.

    The Dangerman

    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

    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

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

  12. 12.

    lamh36

    @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?

  14. 14.

    Mike in NC

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

  16. 16.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    @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

    @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

  19. 19.

    The Dangerman

    @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.

  22. 22.

    lamh36

    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

    @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

    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.

  28. 28.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @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

    @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.

  33. 33.

    Betty Cracker

    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)

    @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.

  37. 37.

    Corner Stone

    @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.

  41. 41.

    John Revolta

    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.

  44. 44.

    Mary G

    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

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

    Liburel media bias.

  46. 46.

    Adrift

    @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

    @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

    @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.

  50. 50.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @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

  54. 54.

    Adam L Silverman

    @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.

  56. 56.

    Steve in the ATL

    @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!

  61. 61.

    chopper

    @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

    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.

  64. 64.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @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.

  66. 66.

    Jeffro

    @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

    @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

    @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.

  73. 73.

    Mary G

    @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

    @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

    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.

  79. 79.

    Adam L Silverman

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

  83. 83.

    rk

    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.

  86. 86.

    FlipYrWhig

    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

    @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.

  89. 89.

    Mary G

    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.

  92. 92.

    Amaranthine RBG

    @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.

  94. 94.

    Mike in NC

    @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

    @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

    @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.

  98. 98.

    ArchTeryx

    @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

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

    Coincidence?

  102. 102.

    Mike J

    @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.

  109. 109.

    lamh36

    @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)

    @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

    @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….

  113. 113.

    lamh36

    @lpackard
    1h1 hour ago
    More Laura Packard (P.S. Pls ban the nazis already) Retweeted Battle Born Progress
    [email protected] @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
    [email protected] now throws out a stage 4 cancer patient for demanding answers. This is disgusting. #GOPTaxScam

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

  114. 114.

    jl

    @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

    @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

    @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

    @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.

  122. 122.

    Adam L Silverman

    @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

    @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.

  125. 125.

    chris

    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

  127. 127.

    Corner Stone

    @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

    @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.

  130. 130.

    Major Major Major Major

    @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

    @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.

  133. 133.

    lamh36

    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

    @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

    @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….

  138. 138.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    @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.

  140. 140.

    Yarrow

    @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).

  142. 142.

    Adam L Silverman

    @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:

    Next up a senior attorney in the US intelligence community:

    The former acting Director of Central Intelligence:

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

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

  143. 143.

    Corner Stone

    @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

    @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.

  147. 147.

    Baud

    @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?

  151. 151.

    Adam L Silverman

    @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)

    @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.

  154. 154.

    Bruuuuce

    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

    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..

  157. 157.

    raven

    @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.

  159. 159.

    Adam L Silverman

    @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.

  167. 167.

    Adam L Silverman

    @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.”

  169. 169.

    Another Scott

    @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.

  177. 177.

    Corner Stone

    @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!”

  179. 179.

    Corner Stone

    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

    @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.

  182. 182.

    NotMax

    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

  188. 188.

    Yarrow

    @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

    @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

    @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

  198. 198.

    Steve in the ATL

    @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.

  200. 200.

    debbie

    @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.

  203. 203.

    raven

    @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)!

  207. 207.

    Adam L Silverman

    @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.

  211. 211.

    Bruuuuce

    @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

  220. 220.

    lgerard

    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

    @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.

  223. 223.

    Adam L Silverman

    @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.

  225. 225.

    Chyron HR

    @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.

  228. 228.

    NotMax

    @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.

  230. 230.

    germy

    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.

  233. 233.

    Adam L Silverman

    @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.

  236. 236.

    schrodingers_cat

    @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.

  238. 238.

    frosty

    @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.

  240. 240.

    Just One More Canuck

    @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

    @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?

  246. 246.

    ruemara

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

  248. 248.

    Another Scott

    @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

    @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.]

  253. 253.

    Adam L Silverman

    @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.

  258. 258.

    NotMax

    @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.

  265. 265.

    Corner Stone

    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?

  270. 270.

    chris

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

  271. 271.

    lamh36

    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?

  275. 275.

    Steve in the ATL

    @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.

  278. 278.

    ArchTeryx

    @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.

  281. 281.

    Feathers

    @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.

  285. 285.

    NotMax

    @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

    @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.

  288. 288.

    Steve in the ATL

    @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

    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

    @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…

  300. 300.

    NotMax

    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

    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

  306. 306.

    Matt McIrvin

    @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

    @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

    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

    @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?

  314. 314.

    rikyrah

    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

    @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

    @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.

  319. 319.

    efgoldman

    @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.

  327. 327.

    Gin & Tonic

    @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.

  329. 329.

    Betty Cracker

    @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

    @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

    @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

    @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. ?

  340. 340.

    Mike in NC

    @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

    @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.

  344. 344.

    Tenar Arha

    @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

    @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.”

  347. 347.

    chris

    @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.

  351. 351.

    raven

    @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

    @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. :(

  356. 356.

    Mayim

    @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…

  358. 358.

    eemom

    @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

    @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

    @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??

  366. 366.

    Anne Laurie

    @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.

  374. 374.

    Anne Laurie

    @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

    @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.

  377. 377.

    carcin

    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…

  381. 381.

    No Drought No More

    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

    @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

    @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.

  385. 385.

    raven

    @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

    @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

    @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.

  392. 392.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @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

    @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

    @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.

  398. 398.

    raven

    @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.

  401. 401.

    Citizen Alan

    @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

    @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

    @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

    @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.

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