Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

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

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

This blog will pay for itself.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

This fight is for everything.

Come on, man.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

“woke” is the new caravan.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Not All Heroes Wear Capes

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Not All Heroes Wear Capes

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… But I hope this one was wearing a good pair of work gloves. Per the Washington Post:

It was one of those gag cards you can buy in a drugstore. “Merry Catsmess!” read the caption. And in a personal touch, as if for emphasis, Robby Strong had enclosed a box of horse manure.“To Stevie,” he wrote on the envelope, meaning Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, for whose doorstep the manure was bound.

“We’re returning the ‘gift’ of the Christmas tax bill. It’s bulls‑‑‑.” Strong wrote on the card. “Warmest Wishes, The American People.”

And then, he says, he went through with it. On Saturday, Strong hand-delivered the manure to two Los Angeles homes he believed belong to Mnuchin — one in Beverly Hills, and one a mansion in Bel Air that consequently got a visit from Secret Service agents and a bomb squad.

“I wanted to ring the door and hand it to him myself,” Strong told AL.com the next day, after his early Christmas package had locked down one of the richest neighborhoods in the world.

Strong works as a psychologist for Los Angeles County, he told 89.3 KPCC, and expects that delivering animal feces to the man in charge of the U.S. Treasury Department could jeopardize his job. But Strong doesn’t sound as if he regrets it…

As proof of his commitment, he posted photos of himself — shovel in hand, serene smile beneath his beard — loading manure into a box the size of a mini-fridge. It looked much like the box a news helicopter would later observe being dumped out by police in Bel Air, as so many police and federal agents swarmed the street that Mnuchin’s neighbors couldn’t leave their driveways…

.

Apart from a round of applause, what’s on the agenda for this abbreviated year-end week?

***********

Also, I’m not sure one can believe anything from The Sun, but you know the very suggestion is gonna chafe someone’s thin, orange-tinted skin…

Reader Interactions

135Comments

  6. 6.

    Amir Khalid

    If it pisses den Scheißgibbon off that Obama got invited to Harry’s wedding and he didn’t, too bad. I can imagine Trump wanting to shit on US relations with Britain over it, but I doubt he’ll succeed.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ydobon: How many lawyers would serve the 3-7 he’d get for whatever charge some creative and vindictive prosecutor could dream up for causing the Secret Service and LA police so much trouble?(or pay the alternative $250K fine) Besides, just needing a lawyer hit’s an 8 or 9 on the Suckitude Scale.

  8. 8.

    Quinerly

    @rikyrah: Good morning from Little Ivan and Fat John Lennon.?? (Poco is still snoozing, he knows there is snow outside.) Have a wonderful day.

  9. 9.

    satby

    I hope the young royals ignore the naysayers and invite the Obamas, and the resulting hissy fit causes a stroke in the Tangerine Traitor.

  14. 14.

    satby

    I definitely caught a cold. So I’m planning on just laying around, stirring only to fill birdfeeders, take dogs out, and check to see if the feral cats have found the heated cat house I put in the shed. It’s bitterly cold here, and will be for the next week.

  16. 16.

    Amir Khalid

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Per the Washington Post story, it doesn’t look like the Secret Service will recommend prosecution. Besides, the agency probably agrees with Robby Strong about Mnuchin.

  18. 18.

    Viva BrisVegas

    Why do I suspect that there is some backgound to that Prince Harry wedding story?

    Trump to Murdoch: Hey Rupe, can you get me into Prince Horry’s wedding?
    Murdoch: Donnie mate, I can only do so much. How about instead I get Obama put onto the shit list as well as you? By the way it’s Harry.
    Trump: Thanks Rupe. Also too, you haven’t said thank you for the couple of billion I just dropped on you.
    Murdoch: Thanks Donnie. You’re the biggest, bestest, greatest President a plutocrat could ever wish for. Now excuse me I have the call the Sun offices in London to get a rumour started.

  19. 19.

    Kristine

    @satby: thought I caught the season’s affliction a few days ago, but it may just have been a sinus-cold weather thing. Currently-1F here in far NE Illinois. We’re in for the same Arctic blast.

  20. 20.

    Amir Khalid

    @NotMax:
    Now that you mention it, there’s an obvious case for putting den Scheißgibbon on the no-fly list: he’s the one harming America’s national interests every time he goes abroad.

  23. 23.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    We’re talking his defense lawyers, they don’t do time if he’s convicted.

    No shit Sherlock (as we used to say in HS), and they don’t pay his fines either.

    There’s a pretty strong 1st Amendment case here.

    When has that ever made a difference? When a prosecutor decides to get you, the constitution is no bar. Just ask any BLM protestor.

    As for pro bono lawyers, people talk about them as tho they just fall off trees. Is there a pro bono lawyer section in the yellow pages? (did I just age myself with that question? ;-) ) I have never seen one in the wild (tho I did know a few when I worked at a law firm that required all junior partners to do one case a year) Arch City Defenders do mostly pro bono work depending on donations but one has to qualify for it and something tells me a psychologist makes more than enough to pay for his own lawyer.

    I can not speak of the legal climate in LA where publicity is it’s own reward and there may very well be lawyer willing to take a case for that reason alone., but I’ve never met one here in the great unwashed fly-over country

    And I repeat, needing a lawyer, for any reason but especially for criminal charges, hits at least an 8 or 9 on the Suckitude Scale.

  28. 28.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @OzarkHillbilly: He will have NO PROBLEM getting a lawyer, there will probably be volunteers that will do it Pro Bono. If he is convicted and has to pay a fine, I doubt he will have any problem raising funds to do so. I doubt any LA jury would convict him.

  29. 29.

    bystander

    I feel certain that Mnuchin’s and Sessions’ love of the First Amendment will preempt any legal action.

  31. 31.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @OzarkHillbilly: Snark aside, remember there probably isn’t a USA here in LA so we’re dealing with career folk. Also the judge would have to grant a change of venue, best case might be another district in CA(LA is the Central District of CA for the federal courts).

    ETA: Also Congress just passed and Trump just signed the Fuck You California Tax Reform Act of 2017, folk out here are PISSED.

  36. 36.

    Amir Khalid

    Most Britons will feel that Harry and Meghan’s wedding has been graced by Donald Trump’s absence. I doubt that anyone but The Sun‘s most devout, UKIP-voting readers will feel the slightest twinge of sympathy for him.

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    folk out here are PISSED.

    It’s the Fuck You Misery Act too, but people around here are elated. Who woulda knowed conservatives like taking it up the ass>

  39. 39.

    satby

    @debbie: I gave notice last week. I made it a four week notice to coincide with my vacation anyway, and because they still haven’t found anyone to hire. The applicant I was anxious to have interviewed was a no-show after the manager set up the interview with her, which has me wondering what the manager said to sabotage that. It’s out of my hands, I won’t help any more because it just inspires all sorts of passive-aggressive behavior.
    A shame though: I like the basic job, love the doctor, and expected to be able to stay a couple of years, not just over 1.

  40. 40.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @OzarkHillbilly: Consider that the average price of a house in LA is a bit under 600K, and property taxes start at 4%(there are usually extra assessments). The reduction in SALT deductions and mortgage interest deductions doesn’t just hit the really wealthy here, it’s really going to have an effect on the middle class and upper middle class.

  42. 42.

    HeleninEire

    Happy St. Stephen’s Day, balloon juice morning crew.

    Still relatively quiet in the city center. Many more businesses closed than I expected would be.

  45. 45.

    satby

    @HeleninEire: the best thing (to me, anyway) about being in Ireland was that stuff wasn’t open all the time. People working retail could have reasonably set schedules and time with their families. Better quality of life all around, and it limited that vapid “shopping cause we’re bored” thing way too many Americans do.

  51. 51.

    Elizabelle

    @satby: Proud of you. This one is on the doctor, though. Can you find out why the applicant did not show?

    Now that you have given notice, the office is not your monkey, not your circus.

    Although: if you find out the manager did sabotage or sandbag the applicant, it would seem best to inform the doctor, who may not realize s/he has more problems w the manager remaining than going. Maybe it is time for two new hires.

    Or for retaining you, or bringing you back, once “manager” has decamped.

  53. 53.

    HeleninEire

    @satby: The department stores and malls are all open. That started a few years ago. There’s been some push back but it’s not going to change. And anything remotely American is open. In fact I am writing this to you from inside a Starbucks. Please don’t judge me ;). There is even a huge movement to let the pubs open on Good Friday. That’s huge and it looks like the liquor lobby is gonna get it’s way.

  54. 54.

    Patricia Kayden

    I hope that the Obamas are invited to the Royal Wedding and that Trump throws an epic twitter tantrum, this further damaging his already tattered reputation.

    Ms. Markle and Prince Harry have made it clear that the Orange Bigot won’t get an invite and that’s exactly how it should be. The entire world doesn’t have to pretend that they respect Trump.

  56. 56.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    1) When Trump forbade a Christmas tree — and other forgotten stories from the ‘war on Christmas’

    2)

    President Donald Trump couldn’t stop talking about the red carpets, military parades and fancy dinners that were lavished upon him during state visits on his recent tour of Asia. “Magnificent,” he declared at one point on the trip.

    But Trump has yet to reciprocate, making him the first president in almost a century to close his first year in office without welcoming a visiting counterpart to the U.S. with similar trappings.
    [snip]
    Not since Calvin Coolidge in the 1920s has a president ended his first year in office without hosting a foreign leader for a state visit, according to the White House Historical Association.
    [snip]
    Every president since Coolidge has hosted at least one state visit their first year. Source

  57. 57.

    NotMax

    For those of you affected, let’s be careful out there.

    More bitter cold, snow expected after snapping Christmas Day records
    [snip]
    Eighteen states from Montana to New York are feeling the dangerous wind chills. The National Weather Service has issued wind-chill warnings and advisories for wind chills expected to dip as low as minus-50 in the Northern Plains. Everyone else will see wind chills from minus-25 to minus-45. Source

  58. 58.

    satby

    @HeleninEire: too bad! But I was last there in 2011, so of course things have probably changed.

    @Elizabelle: I will make the offer of coming back on a limited basis to help should anyone be sidelined with a health crisis after my trip. The doctor knows the issues, I think; but she has a busy practice and ends up doing a lot of stuff her manager should too. Plus she has a family. She’s pretty clear about my frustration with the manager, it’s not like I haven’t communicated it.

  60. 60.

    Amir Khalid

    @NotMax:
    It’s probably just as well that Trump hasn’t hosted any state visits. Think of the embarrassing scenes that have been avoided.

  61. 61.

    Lapassionara

    @Kathy Quinerly: Thanks for the link, and good morning to all.

    Spent all day yesterday, after the gift-opening ceremony at my daughter’s house, in a car traveling from Roanoke to St. Louis. Winter is definitely here.

  62. 62.

    satby

    @NotMax: it’s really cold! I just ordered another outdoor heated pet bed and kitty house, this one for my front porch. I made a shelter, but it’s not warm enough for the ferals to stay once they’ve finished the kitty chow. I have a ground level heated bird bath so all critters can get water. I hope some of them found the heated house in the shed and are staying in it. There’s plenty of food there, or there was. Will check later.

  63. 63.

    Betty Cracker

    One of my Christmas presents was “My Life in France,” Julia Child’s memoir about her post-WW2 years. She was a big old libturd just like us!

    She said her deeply conservative father expected her to marry a Republican banker and settle in Pasadena but that if she had, “I’d probably have turned into an alcoholic, as many of my friends had.”

    Here’s to breaking the mold and finding your own happiness.

  67. 67.

    Leaving Texas

    Mnuchin had nothing to do with the tax bill. That was all Congress.

    ETA okay, I guess he had a hand in selling the tax bill.

  71. 71.

    Chyron HR

    Wow, it turns out that gerrymandering the house, having a senate majority that only represents 1/3 of the country and winning the Presidency on a technicality doesn’t actually mean the American people support your party’s agenda, go figure.

  72. 72.

    Immanentize

    @Leaving Texas: Before the tax bill.was even written, the Mnuch’ gave a speech saying treasury experts had scored the bill and that it would pay for itself. He was on that bill from soup.to nuts.

  73. 73.

    lowtechcyclist

    Horseshit to Mnuchin is coals to Newcastle, but props to Robby Strong regardless!

    But they should charge him for being a litterbug, just to give Arlo Guthrie a reason to write a song about it.

  75. 75.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Kathy Quinerly: Well that comes under WTF?

    As for the horse manure, last I checked the Secretary of the Treasury is a public servant. We’ve forgotten we’re democracy somewhere along the way?

  76. 76.

    Feathers

    @Quinerly: I have to admit at this point it cheers me when a rich kid uses the money to do an actually interesting bucket list item. All these people seem to waste money on things I’d never in a million years want to do.

    But I would rather see a taxation system that prevented this sort of wanton frivolity. And I did notice that the boat had a crew, and would be more interested in their perspective than the rich kid’s.

  77. 77.

    Immanentize

    @HeleninEire: Hi Helen! He actually did finally, under pressure, release a one-pager which “proved” his assertions by making improbable (at best) assumptions about growth, gdp, etc. It was shameful. No back up economics at all. Clearly produced by the politicals, not the professionals.

  78. 78.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @OzarkHillbilly: Oh calm down. This is California were talking about. He’s not going to get charged with Assaulting the Dignity of a Vessel of the Baby Jesus, punishable by death. Most likely trespassing and a public health violation. Keep in mind the prosecutor, judge and lawyers all had their property taxes jacked thanks to this bill.

  79. 79.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: Krugman ripped him a new over it.

    @Feathers:

    And I did notice that the boat had a crew,

    To do all the work. I used to know a guy who had circumnavigated the globe solo on 2 separate occasions. He said the best part was being wholly and completely alone, living (or I suppose dying) on your own merits.

  80. 80.

    Kay

    I’m afraid he’s gonna get some incredibly draconian punishment.

    I love how Trump cannot stop himself from bragging at that horrible country club:

    President Trump told members of his exclusive Florida resort “You all just got a lot richer,” just hours after signing a sweeping $1.5 trillion tax reform bill that critics said would disproportionately help the wealthiest Americans, a report on Sunday said.
    Trump made the announcement during a dinner at Mar-a-Lago – the “Winter White House” – on Friday evening, boasting to his fellow one-percenters that the “biggest in history” tax cut he signed earlier in the day would make them even wealthier, CBS reported, citing people sitting near the president’s table who heard the remarks.

    Most people think they’ll be less terrible now that they all got paid off, but I think they’ll be worse. It worked! Their horrible behavior was rewarded! Adults are just tall 3 year olds. Reward bad behavior, you get more of it.

  81. 81.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    After handing out $1,000 bonuses, AT&T has already announced lay-offs for 2018.

    It’s such a lie that there’s some “establishment” group of elites who are appalled at Trump. He bought them off. They haven’t done shit to stop him because they don’t want to stop him. If anyone stops him it will be some career federal employee no one has ever heard of who makes 120k a year. Our elites are useless.

  83. 83.

    Immanentize

    Heading to Texas tomorrow for a week with the Immp to visit FIL and BIL. it will be our first Boy’s Club meeting. Oof.

    But I am happy be be heading south!! We are looking at lows around 0° and highs in the teens for several days this week. Hope my pipes don’t freeze.

  85. 85.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: Kay will, I think back you up on this. When I was representing juvies in Miami, there would be the occasional (yet still too frequent) parent who thought a little legal tough love was just what their kid needed. So they would call the cops on their own kids and land everyone in a world of hurt for a long time.

    Pro tip:. If your kid ever gets arrested, spare no expense to keep them out of that system which often has as it’s goal, maintaining that kid in the system to — and through — adulthood.

  88. 88.

    rikyrah

    The temp here is 0.
    I just didn’t feel like putting on my Eskimo coat – it’s so heavy, so I just doubled up the scarves and hats.

  89. 89.

    kindness

    I am not of the Prince status but I think they should have who they want at their wedding. It’s THEIR wedding after all. And honestly, who would want to look at old wedding photos/video with that troll Trump in them anywhere? Tell the PM to go screw Trump herself. Give them Hell Harry!

  90. 90.

    rikyrah

    @Immanentize:

    Pro tip:. If your kid ever gets arrested, spare no expense to keep them out of that system which often has as it’s goal, maintaining that kid in the system to — and through — adulthood.

    truth

  91. 91.

    Amir Khalid

    @Kay:
    I have to hope that this and all the other things will bite the Republican party in the arse in 11 months time.

  93. 93.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    It’s such a lie that there’s some “establishment” group of elites who are appalled at Trump. He bought them off. They haven’t done shit to stop him because they don’t want to stop him. If anyone stops him it will be some career federal employee no one has ever heard of who makes 120k a year. Our elites are useless.

    Keep telling the truth, Kay.

    It has been the grunt civil service that has blown the lid off these folks, exposing them for the frauds that they are.

  95. 95.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    Absolutely true and infuriating. They just have no idea what they’re getting into. There’s a weird, mean impulse toward draconian punishment that is really appalling. 80% of juveniles don’t belong in locked facilities, and the remaining 20% should be in a hospital for mental illness rather than a jail.

    I’m on a school committee and everyone agrees that “zero tolerance” in schools was a bad idea, but there are 25% of parents who absolutely love it.

  97. 97.

    MomSense

    @satby:

    I hope you feel better and it’s not the pestilence that has been knocking us all out up heah.

    @NotMax:

    To keep warm I plan to imagine the scene when Ivanka and the Donald find out that Jared has flipped on them to save himself. It’s going to be amazing.

  98. 98.

    MomSense

    @Immanentize:

    Tough love is bullshit. There are some horror stories in quaint little Maine about the abuse that took place in a juvenile detention facility.

  99. 99.

    MomSense

    @Immanentize:

    I really like Rice. I was sort of hoping my oldest would consider it but he wanted to be closer to a certain someone and now he probably wishes he had gone to Rice.

  100. 100.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: In most cities, “zero tolerance” just meant putting police into schools. How can that be good for kids? We are NOT talking about a visit from Officer Friendly, but a bored police guy sitting in an office next to the principal thinking up ways to search and arrest kids. Ugh.

  101. 101.

    Emma

    @kindness: poor Theresa has caught her girdle in the wringer. The government declared that the wedding was a private affair — they wouldn’t even declare a bank holiday. So that means the Royal family, primarily Charles, is paying for everything. Now they are trying to say that, although private, Harry is a member of the Royal family. I think the Old Windsor Lady is giving them the Royal middle finger on this one in some fashion. We will have to see.

  102. 102.

    Immanentize

    @MomSense: isn’t it funny how these college decisions turn on things like where a parent is or where a friend will end up? Generally I think that’s OK but sometimes the trade off is missed opportunity. But the kids are alright. They will be fine where ever they end up.

    And the Rice mascot is the Owl! How cool is that?

  106. 106.

    Jeffro

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    (or pay the alternative $250K fine)

    Dude could set up a GoFundMe or other fundraising page to pay this, and he’d probably end up netting $250K. I’d sure kick in for it!

  107. 107.

    eric

    @Immanentize: what time you flying out? which terminal? I am leaving out of terminal A at 10:10 am could treat you and your imp to a coffee if possible…

  108. 108.

    rikyrah

    I’m on a school committee and everyone agrees that “zero tolerance” in schools was a bad idea, but there are 25% of parents who absolutely love it.

    25%?

    So close to the Crazyfication Factor, once again.

  109. 109.

    Jeffro

    Worth sending to your RWNJ friends and relatives near and far: Russia Never Stopped Its Cyber Attacks on the United States.

    In a single week this month, Moscow used these accounts to discredit the FBI after it was revealed that an agent had been demoted for sending anti-Donald Trump texts; to attack ABC News for an erroneous report involving President Trump and Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser; to critique the Obama administration for allegedly “green lighting” the communication between Flynn and then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak; and to warn about violence by immigrants after a jury acquitted an undocumented Mexican accused of murdering a San Francisco woman.

    This continues a pattern of similar activity over the past year. Russian operatives have frequently targeted Republican politicians who have been critical of Trump, including Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.). In September, they also attacked Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) after his decisive “no” vote against the Republican health-care bill.

    It’d be something if, say, Chinese internet trolls kept supporting every last position…or attacking every last lil’ enemy…of President Hillary Rodham Clinton, wouldn’t it? Hmm. Trying to picture the Repubs’ response…

  111. 111.

    Emma

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: actually in this case she does. She even put down her foot over William’s wedding after he complained to her that the government was trying to veto his personal friends. And that was actually a State occasion. In this one — her money, her rules. Besides, there are ways to get around some of that. A couple of Brit acquaintances suggest an option would be “big pre-wedding event, family only wedding.” The other one would be for Harry to give up his rights to the succession –and that would trigger a huge political mess.

  114. 114.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Being in the criminal system is horrible- life changing. Oh, well. We can comfort ourselves with knowing the Trumpsters worry about that every day. There isn’t one day that any of these people who are under investigation don’t think about it.

    They better hope the people conducting these investigations are better than they are. If the situation were reversed there wouldn’t be an process at all. “Lock her up!” Trump is getting MUCH better and fairer treatment than he has given anyone in his life. No one has (yet) taken out a full page ad calling for his execution, and that’s what he did to those kids. Mean-spirited, vindictive, nasty people – they should give thanks every day that not everyone is like them.

  115. 115.

    Kay

    The President of the United States is busy this morning. He’s tweeting a moronic cable tv show – all the multi-millioniare media personalities who work there just got a huge tax cut and they’re promoting his “brand”, presumably in thanks for the gift he just gave them. Later today the CEO’s of major US companies will also promote his presidency, the CEO’s of said companies having all gotten the same huge gift. It’s amazing how all the hand-wringing about “norms” went out the window when he paid them all off.

  119. 119.

    dmsilev

    @eclare:

    IIRC, isn’t there a card that Julia and her husband sent out of them in a bathtub?

    Yep. My mom and I were talking about that yesterday (we had been looking up her baugette recipe, and that led to talking about some of the episodes in her life). The story was that she and her husband were habitually so late in sending out Christmas cards that eventually they gave up and started sending out Valentine’s Day cards instead. Including, one year, a card with a picture of the two of them in a soap-bubbbly bathtub.

  120. 120.

    JanieM

    @Emma:

    And that [William and Kate’s wedding] was actually a State occasion.

    Not according to Snopes (and other online sources).

    Once William and Kate’s next kid is born, Harry will be sixth in line for the throne, so who cares about him anymore anyhow? ;-)

    The Obamas weren’t invited to William and Kate’s wedding, and the tabloids stirred the pot then, too.

    From the article linked in the tweet in the OP:

    There are deep fears among senior Foreign Office and No10 officials that another perceived national snub will make it impossible for Theresa May to meaningfully engage with Trump.

    As if Therea May, or anyone else, can “meaningfully engage with Trump” about anything whatsoever anyhow.

    Whatever else may be true or false, President Clickbait will find reasons to have a shitfit and say stupid petty nasty things about other people. IOW, just an ordinary day.

    ETA: petty correction.

  121. 121.

    Quinerly

    @Lapassionara: Looks like Hatch didn’t bother to read it. He tweeted his thanks for the”honor.”https://shareblue.com/sen-orrin-hatch-bizarrely-thanks-utah-newspaper-editorial-calling-retire/

  122. 122.

    Immanentize

    @eric: sorry about the delay in responding! I fear we will pass in the night literally. We leave at 7 am from C. Gotta get there by 6 ish. Wah!

  123. 123.

    Some Guy, Helvering

    @Immanentize:

    Mnuchin might have hyped a bad product, but Treasury did no real plumbing on the tax bill. Input was pretty much limited to hollering to not do some phenomenally stupid technical things. (Technical things, not phenomenally stupid policy things, mind you.) The hill maybe listened to a few points. Or maybe to some lobbyists who realized their clients could have paid more tax on some transactions as some provisions had been written.

    Mnuchin and Trump want to own the manure, but Congress and the lobbyists parasitsizing their colon are the ones who made it.

  125. 125.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: IOW, you bought a camera-size clock drive & equatorial mount? If you’re serious about astrophotography, why not go the whole hog & buy a decent-aperture portable Cassegranian telescope (ETA: like a Celestron, a brand name I couldn’t recall earlier) with an eyepiece-adapter for the camera?

  126. 126.

    Another Scott

    @JanieM: Your quote ticked a knee-jerk button (is that a thing?) of mine:

    There are deep fears among senior Foreign Office and No10 officials …

    As Dean Baker reminds us periodically, this framing is not accurate. The reporter is relaying what s/he has been told – it’s what they said. The reporter does not – and cannot – know what those officials are thinking. When one remembers that fact, one can be more skeptical of the story.

    “Why are they telling me what they supposedly ‘think’? What’s the agenda here? Cui bono?…”

    /soapbox

    :-)

    Of course, Donnie shouldn’t be invited. And Donnie will come up with some reason why he didn’t want to go anyway. It’s what he does.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  127. 127.

    No Drought No More

    A gift wrapped package of horse manure is OK..

    ..but a horses head in the Mnuchin’s bed would have sent a more articulate message to the 2017 republican party.

  128. 128.

    JanieM

    @Another Scott:

    this framing is not accurate

    Well, it’s The Sun, so business as usual, no?

    As for this,

    knee-jerk button (is that a thing?)

    Mixed metaphors are definitely a thing, so you should be fine. ;-)

    I think I’m getting punchy.

  129. 129.

    Rand Careaga

    @Kay:

    80% of juveniles don’t belong in locked facilities, and the remaining 20% should be in a hospital for mental illness rather than a jail.

    Not quite a decade ago, as I wound up an evening meal at a local restaurant, I had a fifteen year-old press the barrel of a TEC-9 against my right occipital lobe. I and the other patrons might have enjoyed our dinners considerably more had he and his three confederates been confined in a secure facility rather than at liberty to gather up our wallets and purses. I am afraid that even by that time, thirty years in Oakland had rendered me highly unsentimental regarding our urban lumpenproletariat.

  130. 130.

    Suzanne

    @Immanentize:

    Pro tip:. If your kid ever gets arrested, spare no expense to keep them out of that system which often has as it’s goal, maintaining that kid in the system to — and through — adulthood.

    That seems to be the logic of the Brock Turner parents of the world. Along with starting a GoFundMe for his legal bills, because the parents sure as shit shouldn’t have to sacrifice. Can’t say that I think they did a good job parenting.

  131. 131.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Immanentize:

    And the Rice mascot is the Owl! How cool is that?

    As was my high school’s. May have been chosen because my grandfather went to Rice. Except for the whole timeline thing.

    Regardless, it’s a great school.

  132. 132.

    Jay C

    @JanieM:

    There are deep fears among senior Foreign Office and No10 officials that another perceived national snub will make it impossible for Theresa May to meaningfully engage with Trump.

    So? Is Donald Trump so popular in the UK that pissing him off (personally) is going to have that much of a political downside for the PM? (vs. just fobbing the issue off on the Royals, tut-tutting a bit, and hoping it all becomes moot after the wedding?)

  133. 133.

    Brachiator

    @JanieM:

    There are deep fears among senior Foreign Office and No10 officials that another perceived national snub will make it impossible for Theresa May to meaningfully engage with Trump.

    You have to wonder if this represents an honest concern, or is more shit being stirred.

    Former PM Tony Blair was derided as Bush’s poodle, and Theresa May has often been mocked for suggesting that her relationship with Trump is a repeat of the Thatcher-Reagan partnership. So it’s hard to see that she would win any points for capitulating to a Trump tantrum in regards to the wedding (which is, after all, a private affair).

    On the other hand, other conservatives are hot to topple May, so who knows whether she will still be PM by the time the wedding rolls around.

    ETA. On the conservatives who would love to see May fall is her Foreign Minister, Boris Johnson, who is also a straight up racist.

  135. 135.

    Tehanu

    @satby:

    I hope the young royals ignore the naysayers and invite the Obamas, and the resulting hissy fit causes a stroke in the Tangerine Traitor.

    Preferably during a televised speech, complete with drool and falling off the platform.

    @Patricia Kayden:

    an epic Twitter tantrum

    Oh, that’ll happen even if he does get invited!

    @JanieM:

    Whatever else may be true or false, President Clickbait will find reasons to have a shitfit and say stupid petty nasty things about other people. IOW, just an ordinary day.

    I can’t add anything to that.

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