Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

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

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

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

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

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

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

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Let there be snark.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Late Night Eye-Roll Open Thread: “Make America PROUDLY Racist Again!!!”

Late Night Eye-Roll Open Thread: “Make America PROUDLY Racist Again!!!”

by | 137 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , ,

But his (Very) Base LOVES him for it! —


“Of course those not-white countries are shitholes — we love that “the left” doesn’t understand that all Reich-thinking Americans agree!”

Reader Interactions

137Comments

  5. 5.

    Duane

    Being able to tell blatant lies with a straight face is an essential skill in Trump’s administration. They’ve got a good one in the new DHS head.

  7. 7.

    chopper

    as to trumps recent glowing bill of health, given his preternatural ability to fuck over anyone who actually goes to bat for him I imagine he’ll completely humiliate the WH doctor by having a KFC-induced infarction like tomorrow. god, I can only wish.

    “reports say he died with the drumstick in his mouth, still gripping the cup of ‘dippin gravy'”

  8. 8.

    Mike in NC

    We did a great Baltic Sea cruise in 2014 that missed Norway but did hit ports in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Estonia. Nowhere did we run into people who wanted us to take them home with us. Quite the contrary, as they had a much better standard of living in most cases.

    Now imagine the reaction in 2018 as we flirt with Putinesque authoritarianism.

  9. 9.

    jimmiraybob

    @Adam L Silverman: I missed that thread but I’ve been seeing lately a trend toward an Apartheid system – a heavy favorite of the South African Dutch Reformed Church much as Trumpism is heavily favored by American Evangelicals (seemingly against the grain). For at least a decade, normal main-stream American churches have been sounding the alarm about an invasion of hard-core Calvinism.

  12. 12.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    I feel like our democracy is in one of those Star Trek episodes where the ship is going so fast it’s beginning to shake and people are telling Picard it’s going to come apart if nobody finds some way to slow it down and stop the shaking, ’cause starships were never built to go so fast for so long. The Democracy here is beginning to shake some of its pieces loose. We were never meant to careen this wildly all over the fucking place. We need to end this shit show before we shake the whole thing to bits.

  15. 15.

    brendancalling

    My son, who just turned 14 and is growing up in Canada where the humor is as dry as the weather is frigid, emailed me this evening. He wrote “Hey dad, did you know that Norway is mostly white people? Apparently your homeland security secretary doesn’t.” He added “At least the president doesn’t swear in meetings.”

    As you may imagine, I’m overjoyed.

  16. 16.

    Adam L Silverman

    Great, just great. Well it was bound to happen:

  17. 17.

    Kay

    Yashar Ali
    “Democrats pulled off a political upset in the election for Wisconsin’s 10th state Senate seat on Tuesday, capturing a district that Republicans have held since 2001 and that President Donald Trump won handily just 14 months ago.”

    We could just quietly take all the states away from them, one by one.

  19. 19.

    Mary G

    This oughta keep Paul Ryan up at night. Special elections today in Wisconsin, S. Carolina & Iowa:

    Here is a breakdown of Democrats' over performance tonight in all 4 contested special elections:

    SC #HD99: D+13.08%
    WI #AD58: D+24.90%
    WI #SD10: D+27.52%
    IA #HD06: D+20.44%

    That is an average Dem over performance tonight of D+21.49%That's… significant.— Aaron Booth (@ActorAaronBooth) January 17, 2018

    ETA: Special bonus was a tweet from Scott Walker whining about how voters didn’t understand all his great accomplishments.

  20. 20.

    Adam L Silverman

    @jimmiraybob: I’m not even sure it’s hard core Calvinism. Its more like hardcore something that is sorted of rooted in an extreme version of Calvinism. I think it is closer to extreme hardcore Knoxism, which started as a Scottish variant of Calvinism. Think the Wee Free Kirk of Scotland gloom and doomers. Only American and heavily politicized.

  21. 21.

    Hungry Joe

    Thought experiment: You’re a senator and have just attended a meeting with the President, a member of your party. A member of the opposition party, who was at the meeting, declares that the President made an obscene comment in reference to … whatever, when in fact, he did not. What would you do? (Hell, what would ANYONE do?) You’d scramble to the nearest microphone and say “No, I was there, the President said no such thing, Senator X is either lying or he’s lost his mind.” Instead, we got collective silence, followed by a fusillade of “I-don’t-recall-him*-saying-that”s. What does that tell you?

    * Should be “his saying that” — possessive pronoun before a gerund. But that’s not what they said.

  23. 23.

    PPCLI

    Ok so the official story is apparently now that Trump prefers countries “like Norway” because the people there “work hard”. Sez Ms. Nielsen.

    So by implication, Africans and Haitians don’t “work hard”.

    And this is supposed to be less racist somehow?

  24. 24.

    Adam L Silverman

    Before anyone asks, I’ve deleted my post from earlier this evening. I’m tired of the abuse. I’m going to bed.

  25. 25.

    Anne Laurie

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Svartalf changeling DNA from breeding with Dark Elves pretending to be human.

    It’s much worse than Dark Elves (according to Scandinavian racists), it’s Saami blood. Norwegians are notoriously “politically correct” about their indigenous citizens, and even the Swedes and Danes who boast about their intake of Muslim refugees can be very Great-White-Superior-Genes about those “uncivilized, primitive reindeer herders”.

    ETA: Norway only succeeded in declaring its independence in 1905. Until then, first Denmark and then Sweden treated it much as the modern US government treated Puerto Rico. Citizens of all three nations have, shall we say, not forgotten this history.

  33. 33.

    Davebo

    @Duane:

    Telling blatant lies isn’t hard when you know you’re lying, you know that everyone else knows you’re lying and you know you’ll face absolutely no consequences for lying.

  34. 34.

    frosty

    @Kay:

    We could just quietly take all the states away from them, one by one.

    Like the Farside dog at the cat fud dryer:”Oh please, oh please.”

  36. 36.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    I can’t really understand why Trump’s team is so monomaniacally focused on his base’s reaction to this or that.

    Maybe they’re obsessed because they see the media has the very same obsession (ie how everything plays with his base).

  38. 38.

    Steeplejack

    @Adam L Silverman:

    WTF?! You deleted a post and thread with (at least) 280 comments?! Not cool. Not cool at all.

    And what abuse were you getting? I didn’t see anything untoward through #280.

  39. 39.

    Frankensteinbeck

    If they have the base, they can win GOP primaries.

    If they can win GOP primaries, Republicans in Congress will continue supporting his agenda and opposing impeachment / investigations.

    His bet is he can govern with 35% of the population. Not a bad bet so far.

    Or, you know, maybe Republicans are just a bunch of white supremacists and the ones in the White House can’t even be subtle about it. It looks like a duck and quacks like a duck and it’s saying that Nazis are ‘very fine people’, folks.

  42. 42.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Mary G: Not only that, these upswings were in deep red districts.

    Which means the wave is wide spread, not just in blue and purple districts.

  43. 43.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Adam L Silverman: Sorry you got abuse. I personally find the weight measurement kind of unbelievable, but absent other evidence I have to assume RADM Jackson isn’t doing anything wrong.

  45. 45.

    Steeplejack

    @NobodySpecial, @Mnemosyne:

    I’m kind of gobsmacked, more than anything. I read the thread (up to #280) and participated, and I don’t remember anything very contentious (more than usual), much less directed at Adam. People were expressing their opinions, and there was a lot of skepticism about Ronny Jackson and the presser, but . . .

    Jeez. Weird.

  46. 46.

    Corner Stone

    @MisterForkbeard: I still have the tab open so I can scroll through as needed. Nobody told Adam he was an asshole, etc. Speaking only for myself, when someone tells me the inauguration crowd size is the largest ever – and I can see for myself that simply is not true. I don’t give a shit if the person’s name is Sean Spicer or RADM Ronny. I know what the fuck I see.

  49. 49.

    Mnemosyne

    @Steeplejack:

    I wandered away for a bit, so I was wondering if something suddenly went south while I stepped away since I don’t recall anything abusive. I was quoting Jane Austen, among other things.

  50. 50.

    NobodySpecial

    @Steeplejack: He gave me some snark about being big boned when I questioned it. I like Adam, but his biases led him to not have his best performance today.

  52. 52.

    Monala

    @Adam L Silverman: I’d have to re-read your herrenvolk argument to comment on it, but I do think you’re wrong about girthergate. Some have pointed out that comparing Trump to young, fit athletes who are 6’3″ and 235 lbs is a poor comparison, given the age difference and muscle vs. fat mass.

    So here’s a better comparison: Trump vs. Jeb Bush. Jeb Bush is 64, 6’3″, and of unknown weight (although clearly fitter than Trump). However, he is also clearly at least 2 inches taller. See photos in comment 14 of this post, from the Republic primary debates: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210109437#post7

    So either Jeb Bush is lying about his height, or Trump is.

  53. 53.

    Steeplejack

    @Mnemosyne:

    I was quoting Jane Austen, among other things.

    Well, that was a clear provocation, of course, but I didn’t see it as a thread-killer.

    @Corner Stone:

    I still have the tab open so I can scroll through as needed.

    I’m kicking myself, because when I read Adam’s comment here I subliminally thought about opening the other thread in a new tab, but I went to the existing tab and refreshed. Poof! It went away.

    The last comment I had was #280. Were there many after that?

  54. 54.

    clay

    @Corner Stone: This is what happens to an administration that lies constantly. Even if the weight given is 100% accurate, no one will believe it.

    They’ve earned our skepticism and scorn.

  56. 56.

    divF

    @Juice Box: I assume that many people have already observed that 239 lbs. / 6’2″ = BMI 30 = boundary between non-obese and obese.

    Christ, these people are blatant.

  57. 57.

    Corner Stone

    @Steeplejack: 287. Calouste suggested Adam had a blind spot to military peeps. I furthered that mid comment.

    Calouste says:
    January 16, 2018 at 11:39 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Considering that we have had 360 days of transparent lies in the White House press room, starting with the inauguration crowds, Occam’s razor is that they lied again, not that they suddenly started telling the truth.

    I value your posts and comments here, but you have a blind spot the size of Jupiter where it comes to the honesty or more specifically, the lack thereof, of military folks.
    ReplyReply
    282
    Ruckus says:
    January 16, 2018 at 11:43 pm

    @Steeplejack:
    Yes, yes it was. A number of navy ships in that size range were/are? named after traitors from that war. But it’s been cut up into scrap long ago and no ships are named after him at this time. Given our racist head of the federal government I’m not holding my breath that more ships won’t be named after traitors.
    ReplyReply
    283
    Cacti says:
    January 16, 2018 at 11:44 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    You would be surprised how many people don’t actual live or die following campaign politics such as dodged the draft by claiming bone spurs. Just because we’re political junkies doesn’t mean that everyone else is. Including senior military officers.

    Uh huh. An Admiral, appointed by a President, confirmed by the Senate, and who keeps close contact with White House probably doesn’t know any more than your average Tom, Dick, or Harry about the machinations of Washington.

    Reaching Adam.
    ReplyReply
    284
    Adam L Silverman says:
    January 16, 2018 at 11:54 pm

    @Calouste: Actually I don’t. I’ve watched general officers lie to each other. I’ve watched senior officer lie to each other. I’ve watched junior officers lie to each other. I’ve watched NCOs of all ranks lie to each other. But not everything is a conspiracy. And not everything you disagree with or don’t want to hear is untrue.
    ReplyReply
    285
    Corner Stone says:
    January 16, 2018 at 11:55 pm

    @Calouste:

    I value your posts and comments here, but you have a blind spot the size of Jupiter where it comes to the honesty or more specifically, the lack thereof, of military folks.

    Jupiter seems a mite small. IMO
    ReplyReply
    286
    Corner Stone says:
    January 16, 2018 at 11:56 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Man…
    ReplyReply
    287
    Corner Stone says:
    January 16, 2018 at 11:57 pm

    RADM Ronny Jackson is a fucking liar.
    ReplyReply

  58. 58.

    Howard Appel

    @Juice Box:

    I am 6,1 1/2 (used to be 6 2 but shrinking as I get older) and 310 (down from 375 and determined to get down to 190) and tRump looks bigger (at least to me) than I do. Also, tRump looks like he has approximately a plus 50 inch waist – at 6 3 you don’t get that at 239 pounds. That is more than a 300 pounder, I know because that is what I am at now (50 inch waist – down from 60). A picture of someone 6 3 and 310 (slightly distended from surgery) – look at any asshole we know (talking about the body not the face))?

    https://height-weight-chart.com/603-310.html

    PS: I would post pic but I don’t know how and am too tired right now to learn.

  59. 59.

    Anne Laurie

    @Monala: Don’t wanna relitigate whatever led to the mess in Adam’s ex-post, but quibbling about Donny Dollhand’s height & weight strikes me as somewhere between “pointless” and “falling for a deliberate distraction”. Sure, he’s neither as tall nor as svelte as he claims, but that puts him in the same category as probably 65% (minimum) of his fellow Americans.

  62. 62.

    maeve

    I noticed in 2016 that Trump was barely under the line from overweight to obese and didn’t believe it. In 2016 he claimed to be 236 lbs – now its 239 – both just below the threshold for “obese” – I’m over BMI of 30 and hate the label but in both instances I don’t believe it. His photos show he’s gained more than 3 lbs since before election. Its not about the weight – due to genetic factors he may be in “excellent health” ( I have super blood profiles too due to genetic factors) – but its seems more than a coincidence that he always comes in just before the (arbitrary) cutoff between “overweight” and “obese”

  65. 65.

    Redshift

    On this “shithole” thing, once again, the right’s triumph is not that it’s winning the argument, it’s that it has *made this into an argument*. We are debating, as a nation, whether calling nations of brown-skinned people “shitholes” is racist. Just think about that.

    The problem with this is that we’re not having that debate. After a pretty solid initial response from news figures, now we’re mostly hearing a debate about whether or not Trump said a naughty word, since that’s almost all that Republicans have been disputing. There’s been almost no denial that he made blatantly racist and white supremacists comments. (Vague hand-waving about “tough talk” barely counts.)

    The annoying thing about this is that the next time a Democrat lets loose with a cuss word, we’ll get inundated with phony accusations of hypocrisy. The possible good thing about it is that the profanity may actually hurt him with some supporters – remember, Nixon really started losing support from Republican voters when the the tapes came out and people heard how he really talked in private. I know it’s not the 1970s, but it’s still possible.

  66. 66.

    Steeplejack

    @Corner Stone:

    Appreciate the detail. That pretty much gets me through the end of the thread. I guess it got a bit “personal” at the end, but, damn, that seems very mild in comparison to the mayhem that breaks out here on a daily basis.

  69. 69.

    Howard Appel

    Edited to add: I am 63 years old and was fairly athletic until my third left knee surgery, the fusion of my C4, C5 and C6 vertabrae, the herniated L4 and L5 and a few assorted other matters. But hey, it gives the excuse to have prescriptions for morphine and Vicodin daily, so it is not all bad.

  70. 70.

    Mnemosyne

    @Redshift:

    There’s been almost no denial that he made blatantly racist and white supremacists comments. (Vague hand-waving about “tough talk” barely counts.)

    As other people have said, keep in mind that Republicans are not disputing the content of what he said because they agree with him that we should only allow white Europeans to immigrate here. That’s why they keep denying the naughty language — they think that the content of what he said is irrefutably true.

  72. 72.

    Steeplejack

    @Anne Laurie:

    [. . .] quibbling about Donny Dollhand’s height & weight strikes me as somewhere between “pointless” and “falling for a deliberate distraction.”

    As I said to Ruckus in that now disappeared thread, we can multitask: we can laugh/​rage at the #Girtherism without losing track of the substantive stuff. What makes 239-gate so viral is exactly that it is so pointless and devoid of content: it’s pure, distilled essence of Trump.

  73. 73.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Steeplejack: It’s back.

    And I agree. I think we need to mock him as well as keep track of the serious stuff, and with the The Beast the mockery can be effective

  74. 74.

    jl

    “The people from Norway work very hard.”

    I dunno. Trumpsters call people in the US who want policies that allow us all to live like Norwegians a bunch of lazy deluded ‘taker’ commies who want to rob the captains of industry and society’s ‘makers’ of all their hard earned wealth through tax theft.

    So, I am confused.

  75. 75.

    Mnemosyne

    @Howard Appel:

    prescriptions for morphine and Vicodin daily

    Ugh. Sorry, but that’s my personal nightmare. Vicodin in particular causes uncontrollable vomiting for me within 24 hours, and the other opiates aren’t much better.

  76. 76.

    Librarian

    It’s not just the weight. It’s the “good genes” thing. It’s the prediction that he’ll be in good health for 7 more years. So many things Jackson said were just plain bizarre stuff that no real doctor would ever say. Like the thing about how 4-5 hours of sleep a night is just fine.

  85. 85.

    NotMax

    Jeez, ya take time out for a refreshing catnap and the place goes all atypical.

    Meanwhile…

    Disgruntled conservatives threatened late Tuesday to scuttle Republican leaders’ plans to prevent a weekend government shutdown, saying GOP leaders now lack the votes to push their proposal through the House. The setback came as a deal between President Donald Trump and Congress to protect young immigrants from deportation also remained distant.
    [snip]
    The leader of the hard-right Freedom Caucus emerged from a Tuesday night meeting to say its members — and other GOP lawmakers as well — want a short-term bill keeping federal agencies open to contain added money for the military. Source

    $700 billion not enough to keep the lights on? This is a sure sign of frantic desperation about the midterms, falling back to one of the oldest ploys in the books.

  88. 88.

    lahke

    So I’m going to be in the Sacramento area (Fair Oaks/Roseville) for a couple of weeks. Any jackals want to meet up?

  89. 89.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @NotMax: They hate CRs because it continues the current budget. no cuts or increases. a big portion of their rich donors are defense contractors who want to loot the treasury, as well.

    That’s why I don’t think a CR is a bad outcome. It puts pressure on them because their donors freak out and they’re obsequious and servile to their donors.

  93. 93.

    Steeplejack

    @Librarian:

    Like the thing about how 4-5 hours of sleep a night is just fine.

    Christ, Jackson said that?!

    Now I’m sorry I didn’t watch the presser live. No, scratch that. I turned off the TV this afternoon, went out and got a gigantic pastrami sandwich with cheese, slaw and Russian dressing at the deli. Much better use of my time.

  94. 94.

    Anne Laurie

    @Howard Appel:

    I am 63 years old and was fairly athletic until my third left knee surgery, the fusion of my C4, C5 and C6 vertabrae, the herniated L4 and L5 and a few assorted other matters

    Trump: See, it’s the mistake of exercising that wears your body out! I keep *my* body mint-in-box!

  95. 95.

    afanasia

    @Anne Laurie: the Norwegian government took Sami children children away from their parents until the 1930s. My great-grandmother was in an orphanage until she was eight. Many Sami communities have the symptoms of systemic abuse that show up in Native communities here.

  97. 97.

    Jager

    I’m 6-1, over a 10 year period, I let myself get up to 234 (working my ass off, neglecting to exercise, etc, etc) I went from a 42 long suit with 33 inch waist to a 46 long with 38 inch waist. My neck went from 161/2 to 18 and I was 5 pounds lighter than trump? No way in hell. The fat bastard couldn’t get a pair of 38 inch pants past his thighs. I’d bet his waist is close to 50 and those suits are at least 52s.

    BTW I’ve dropped 50lbs, I weigh the same now as I did as a high school hockey player, right at 180 plus or minus a few pounds.

  98. 98.

    Steeplejack

    @Anne Laurie:

    I’m LOL’ing because I had a brief fantasy this afternoon of Admiral Jackson using that exact argument to explain why Trump is in such good shape. That would have been some epic trolling—almost as good as the woman journalist who asked him if they checked the president for bone spurs. That’s my hit of the month so far.

  99. 99.

    Anne Laurie

    @afanasia: Yeah, my baby sister married a Swedish immigrant whose mother was “mixed” (part Saami). Sister wants to retire to Sweden, one day; her wife is not quite so sure it would be better than toughing it out here in America.

  102. 102.

    NotMax

    There’s cold and then there’s beyond effin’ cold.

    As temperatures sink to -60C in Yakutia, heroic Chinese tourists take a swim!
    [snip]
    A new electronic thermometer in the village – in Yakutia region, also known as Sasha Republic – showed it to be colder, at -62C.

    But then it broke – because it was too cold!

    Some residents recorded temperatures as low as -67C at their properties, in touching distance of -67.7C, the coldest-ever officially recorded for a permanently inhabited settlement anywhere in the world, and the frostiest in the Northern hemisphere. Source

    Talk about shrinkage!    :)

    (Many frosty pictures at the link.)

  103. 103.

    Steeplejack

    Gotta say thanks to Adam if he’s the one who reinstated the previous thread. Class move, dude.

  107. 107.

    Jager

    @Steeplejack:

    I started to go to the geriatric clinic at Kaiser when I turned 65, the doc asked me what my goals were, I told her I didn’t want to look like the people in the waiting room. She had me send her a list of everything I ate and drank for a week. She told me my diet was healthy but I eat too much. She put me on the “Dog Diet”. Fill my plate like I normally do, give half to the dog and then take the dog for a walk. I cut down on my food intake (really hard at first) I walk at least 10,000 steps a day, high rep exercise with light weights. Started playing hockey again with a bunch of old guys. ( I’ve lost at least 30 mph on my slap shot.). I feel pretty damn good for an old guy, I’ll be 73 in June. The process took just under a year.

  108. 108.

    Steeplejack

    Well, you bastards made me miss Blood of the Vine at 9:00 and midnight on MHz—French series with subtitles, so I have to actually watch it, not just have it on in the background—so I have set the overloaded DVR to see if it can snag it at 3:00. I thought it was going to be a rerun, but from the first ten minutes it’s either a new episode or my memory is getting worse than I thought.

  109. 109.

    tychay

    @Anne Laurie: maybe if he left the post undeleted people wouldn’t feel the need to relitigate it here? I know I’d prefer that even though you and Adam seem at odds with me and most of the BJ commentariat.

    Just a thought.

  111. 111.

    Steeplejack

    @Jager:

    Thanks for the details. I’m somewhat where you were when you started. I’m 65, got on Medicare last year, birthday coming up next week. Looking at how sedentary my lifestyle is and ready to make a change. Used to be a jock, but 11 years ago I got mugged and suffered a compound fracture of my jaw. Had some nerve damage that left my jaw like a tuning fork—really sensitive to vibration and “jostling.” It made a lot of sports and exercise—sometimes just walking—uncomfortable. I avoided the issue for a long time, but lately I have been experimenting with “no impact” exercise: swimming, kettlebells, body-weight exercises. I need to roll it into a more formal plan and do it regularly.

  112. 112.

    Anne Laurie

    @tychay: There’s always a mental contest, for me, when a post turns ugly — how nasty do I want to get in response to commentors whose statements I disagree with? And at what point does a thread get ugly enough, with or without my participation, that it’s reached a tipping point where the more gentle spirits among us are getting abused beyond Queensbury rules?…

    Quite often, I choose not to comment in such situations, because any response makes the trolls happy. Rarely, I’ve deleted comments where one commentor personally attacked another — you’re allowed to call *me* whatever nasty words you’ve learned from reddit, but not to call other BJ jackals those names. Even more rarely, I’ve used my vast front-pager status to (temporarily) ban a commentor who’s (temporarily, it is to be hoped) misplaced their manners.

    Different front-pagers have different levels of tolerance. But I’m aware of more than one smart, interesting long-term commentor who’s left because the atmosphere in the threads got too toxic for them — that worries me, probably more than it should, because I was socialized in a period when women were expected to pay close attention to such interactions…

  113. 113.

    Ruckus

    @Steeplejack:

    it’s pure, distilled essence of Trump

    First of all, euuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
    Second of all, would that be anything like 239 lbs of rotting shit in an oversized bag?
    Third of all, are we all questioning his weight because we all instinctively know that there is more than 239 lbs of rotting shit in that bag?

  114. 114.

    Anne Laurie

    @Steeplejack:

    I need to roll it into a more formal plan and do it regularly.

    Have you checked your local Y to see if they have programs for “older adults”? The local branch has a whole bunch of low- or no-impact classes — tai chi, water walking, ‘low-impact’ aerobics…

  116. 116.

    Ruckus

    @Anne Laurie:
    Just for the record, I like your level of tolerance and banning. We are all supposed to be adults here and yet sometimes a point or comment will rub us the wrong way. My fix is to pie someone. But the filter stopped working correctly for me so I’m back to unfiltered comments and I haven’t checked to see if the filter works for me again, mainly because firefox seems to have crapped itself with the last major update. That and I’m lazy for stuff that doesn’t matter.
    Back to the original point. If it gets nasty I walk away. I’ve been coming here long enough to know that in a short time things will sort themselves out. Sometimes it takes a day or three but it always does. Maybe because we are mostly adults, most of the time. And because the worse abusers do get banned for a while. I also like (most of the time!) that banning is a temporary cooling off period and that can change if someone has no idea how to cool off. I think that makes this a place where we can talk, be it about stupid stuff, like how much shit can a drumpf stuff in a over sized suit, or how important are the details in healthcare policy, or how was the big game or who got a new puppy or kitten.

  117. 117.

    Steeplejack

    @Anne Laurie:

    The thing is, at least for me, I didn’t see how that thread “turned ugly.” Still don’t, mostly. I do see that it hit a sore spot with Adam.

  118. 118.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jager:

    One thing to keep in mind that I think will probably be fine for you: to lose weight, you cut your food intake, but to keep it off, you increase your exercise. That trips people up a lot because you have to do different things for each phase, but the available science seems to show it to be the case.

    You can’t maintain a weight loss with food intake alone — exercise is more important for maintaining.

  119. 119.

    Steeplejack

    @Anne Laurie:

    Haven’t checked into that. Probably a good idea. Although I was never an “exercise class” kind of guy.

    My Medicare Advantage is through Kaiser. I should see if they have a geriatric program such as Jager mentioned.

  120. 120.

    Steeplejack

    @Mnemosyne:

    If I read Jager’s comment correctly, he’s been maintaining for almost seven years, so I think he’s on top of it. But your point is good.

  121. 121.

    Ruckus

    @Steeplejack:
    Problems are different but the results are the same. Not all that much older and I was, not all that long ago very active and reasonably athletic, worked out 1 1/2 to 2 hrs a day, long bike rides, run, etc. Things have taken a turn for the older in the last few years, had a HA, cancer, possibility that I had a mini stroke……… The last 3-4 yrs have not been a lot of fun and it really has kicked my ass. But I’ve gotten back the horse (figuratively speaking) and while my out of the gate speed has been glacial, it gets easier and better.
    I gave you a bit of the history to show that while we may all have different issues that we all have to be vigilant with our health. Healthcare is not just a doctor and medications, it is us as well. I keep thinking of the girl I went to school for 12 yrs with, who had polio and never gave up. Not when it must have hurt more than imaginable, not when assholes made fun of her, not when just walking (with braces and crutches) was far, far, far more difficult than anything I’ve ever had to do. Screw professional athletes, Janet is my hero.

  122. 122.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    Absolutely. Calories in, calories out.
    And I know you know this, that it’s not just a simple equation. The right amount of calories, in the form of say, ice cream doesn’t work. Proper nutrition, the right amount and the proper type of exercise is important. It is also vital to remember that one doesn’t put the weight on overnight, you can’t take it off overnight either. It takes a lifestyle change. And time. And work. And devotion. But that devotion is to one’s health.

  123. 123.

    gene108

    @Juice Box:

    Chart is not accurate. I looked up my height and weight, about 5’7″ and 195 pounds and people look a lot thinner than I do. The men they featured are probably a lot more heavy set than I am and have the bone mass to carry the weight or the chart is just wrong.

  124. 124.

    Anne Laurie

    @Steeplejack:

    Although I was never an “exercise class” kind of guy.

    Me neither, but it does help some people to keep to a regular plan if they’ve made that kind of commitment (and/or paid for it).

    Or you could do the modified version, and find an ‘exercise buddy’. The first time I seriously committed to exercising on a regular basis, back in the 80s, was when a friend needed to lose weight for medical reasons, and didn’t want to use the campus gym — really, the changing room full of coeds — without some backup. So we hit the pool at least two lunchtimes a week, and did one of those new-fangled aerobics classes twice a week after work. She lost a bunch of weight, I didn’t (because exercise left me STARVING)… but at least I did finally conquer my post-traumatic fear of drowning and start swimming. Okay, dog-paddling, but still a vast improvement over panicking & sinking…

    Now the Spousal Unit and I go to an old persons’ gym twice a week, which I finally persuaded him to pay for because *he* needed to lose weight before hernia surgery, and I didn’t want him “experimenting” with gym equipment in a situation where he could hurt himself. He’s lost more than 60 pounds over the last 18 months (in conjunction with counting calories); I haven’t lost very much weight, but at least my upper body strength & general stamina has improved somewhat…

    ETA: Given the aging of the Baby Boomers, I don’t understand why more physical therapists aren’t running their own versions of Peoplefit. Surely there are enough creaky old people in other cities who’d pay a premium not to have to work out in front of gym bunnies!

  125. 125.

    gene108

    @Ruckus:

    It is also vital to remember that one doesn’t put the weight on overnight,

    Unless you got put on anti-depressants / anti-psychotic after a major depressive episode. I put on 25 pounds in under 2 months, after getting out of in-patient and 50 pounds in 8 months.

    Still struggling to get the weight off.

  126. 126.

    gene108

    @Redshift:

    The annoying thing about this is that the next time a Democrat lets loose with a cuss word, we’ll get inundated with phony accusations of hypocrisy.

    Some have already tried, trying to say Biden’s hot-mic “this is a big fucking deal” comment, when Obama signed the PPACA into law is the same thing.

  127. 127.

    Jager

    @Steeplejack: @Steeplejack:

    The low weight-high rep thing is really good for older folks. I’ve maintained myself at 180 for a long time now. A month or so ago I played down in a hockey game with 40-50 year olds, The game was fast and I could skate all out for about a minute. I have gotten my “Hockey Heart” back, which means you can wind it up to max and recover within a few minutes. My resting pulse is now 63. Funny and big motivator to lose weight was Mrs. J saying to me one night when we were fooling around, she grabbed one of my man boobs and said “Jeez I feel like I’m in bed with a girl.” That got my attention

  128. 128.

    Steeplejack

    @Ruckus:

    You have mentioned Janet before. A great story.

    For a long time I avoided how painful it was to exercise with “Well, I’ll get back into it when my jaw heals.” Yeah, no. It’s as good as it’s going to get. Took me a long time to accept that. So I’ve been grappling with “What can I do if this is the way it’s going to be?”

    And I agree with you about “vigilance.” You reach a point where you can’t just assume that “health” is the default. I see “old” people when I’m out and about and get taken aback when I realize that some of them are probably my age—or younger. Just in worse shape or had the misfortune to run into some illness. All you can do is whatever you can to increase your odds.

  129. 129.

    Steeplejack

    @Anne Laurie:

    Good points, especially about Peoplefit-style codger health clubs.

    Still don’t think classes are for me. I never had trouble motivating myself to exercise, because I liked it and also did a lot of sports for fun. And things like jogging and swimming were Zen time for me, because I could zone out and not be around other people.

    One odd thing that has helped me the last year is a small but significant change in perspective. Somehow I went from “Exercising is hard and painful, and how did I get so out of shape!” to “I’m doing rehab, so of course it’s hard and painful.” Maybe just a trick of the mind, but it helped.

  130. 130.

    Steeplejack

    @Jager:

    Low weight, high reps is already working for me. I have gone back to a light kettlebell that I bought years ago and have been concentrating on basic exercises with no jostling. And it has helped that I use a “don’t grind your teeth at night” plastic mouthpiece when I exercise, which muffles the tuning-fork vibrations somewhat.

  132. 132.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Anne Laurie:

    Norwegians are notoriously “politically correct” about their indigenous citizens–

    Saami!
    Howweloveyinz howweloveyinz,
    Our dear old Saami!
    I’d give my fjord to stay
    Among the rein, deer,
    Herders roaming Nordkapp way…     //

    (just in a parody mood this a.m.)

  135. 135.

    Barbara

    @Adam L Silverman: FWIW, and definitely late, I read your post and mostly agreed with it, although I would not have been quite so definitive. I think that Trump has suffered cognitive decline just based on having watched interviews of him when he was younger. Whereas, I would not have said that about Clinton or Biden. He was always a racist asshole but he was much more nimble with responses to questions and engaging in repartee. The problem with any “cognitive test” is that we don’t know what the baseline is supposed to be — if he has cognitive skills that are no worse than an average 70 year old that still leaves us with a man without the ability to grasp the details and nuances of arguably one of the most difficult jobs in the world. As with Silvio Berlusconi, I don’t think it’s exactly wrong to point out the salacious and despicable aspects of Trump’s character, but ultimately it’s his effect on voters — their lives, their values — that will cause them to come out to vote against him and his party.

  136. 136.

    Jack the Second

    @gene108: I’ll say again: fat vs muscle.

    I’m 230-ish and 6 even, and I’m definitely not small, but I’ve still got enough muscle that I’m not terribly chunky.

    Trump has *absolutely no muscle mass* he does no exercise, spends most of his time on the couch, doesn’t even walk when golfing. He’s positively *fluffy*.

    I can believe he manages to be that bloated at a much lower weight that the rest of us fatties.

Comments are closed.