Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

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

When the time comes to make an endorsement, the pain of NYT editors will be palpable as they reluctantly whisper “Biden.”

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

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

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

Pelosi: “He either is stupid, or he thinks the rest of us are.” Why not both?

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

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

The gop couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

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

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Democrats are back in array!

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

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Wild Man’s World is Crying in Pain

Wild Man’s World is Crying in Pain

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Ho-hum. I wake to another Post piece saying that now the Trump White House is really crazy pants! Until that motherfucker strokes out, Ryan and McConnell apologize to the nation for their perfidy and appoint Nancy Pelosi as regent, we gotta keep raising that dosh. Patriots, this here’s the fund that’s split between all eventual Democratic nominees in House districts currently held by Republicans.

Goal Thermometer

Bonus! Three (sic) people who don’t care about politics.

So chill, we’re lens-flaring!

Reader Interactions

81Comments

  6. 6.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    @JCJ: Paraphrasing Jon Stewart, there are two kinds of people in the world: People who like that painting, and others who, but for the existence of the legal system, would gladly murder such people.

    (Being serious, most of even the chintziest of kitsch is a bit ways better that quite a few ‘avant-garde’ artistes. I’m not talking about people such as Rothko, Pollock or Yves Klein, whose works all involved technical skill/innovation that might not be readily apparent; I’m talking about obvious piss-take artists in the vein of “Cloaca” or Richard Prince).

  9. 9.

    schrodingers_cat

    What do you guys think about Yascha Mounk? Garbage Times has an op-ed and Atlantic has an interview by David Frum. Most of what he says sounds sensible but not particularly path breaking. Also too, too many generalizations.

  19. 19.

    GregB

    From Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield:

    Trendy Man:
    Mr. Melon, your wife was just showing us her Klimt.

    Thornton Melon:
    You too, huh? She’s shown it to everybody.

  21. 21.

    Mnemosyne

    I was trying to get some laundry done today, but two out of our three cats decided to lay on me, so I guess it will be another unproductive day. At least my migraine has finally faded.

  22. 22.

    rikyrah

    Ivanka Trump: Born to legitimize corruption and make the shoddy look cute

    By Virginia Heffernan
    Mar 03, 2018 | 4:15 AM

    On July 27, 2017, near the end of the one of the most compelling hearings yet on the Trump-Russia affair, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) offered an extraordinary insight. It shot through the proceedings like a comet.

    “Corrupt kleptocrats and international criminals make themselves rich in criminality and corruption,” he said. “Then at some point they need the legitimate world in order to protect and account for their stolen proceeds.

    ………………………………..

    Oh, Ivanka. Her livelihood is as opaque as her full-coverage foundation, but she plays a critical role in her father’s administration — and in the broader danse macabre of corruption and legitimacy.

    The so-called first daughter proves that “laundering” applies to more than money. She washes and gilds just about everything she touches. Consider her warehouses upon warehouses of petroleum-based separates, many of them sewn for poverty pay in sweatshops. When you call this schmatte smorgasboard the Ivanka Trump Collection it does brisk business — if not on Rodeo Drive, then in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

    She has the same magic touch with the multitudes of flesh-and-blood rogues who flock to her for redemption. It’s Ivanka who first brought Gen. Michael “Lied to the FBI” Flynn into the administration, according to the New Yorker; she praised him for his “amazing loyalty” and offered him his choice of positions at a transition-team meeting. One person present said, “It was like Princess Ivanka had laid the sword on Flynn’s shoulders and said, ‘Rise and go forth.'”

    …………………………………..

    It’s impossible to keep track of all the gangsters Ivanka has palled around with. But what’s truly damning are the shady real-estate projects she has made rise and go forth.

    In 2006, she oversaw the development of the Trump Ocean Club International Hotel and Tower in Panama City. The project was connected to a Brazilian money launderer later arrested for fraud and forgery as well as a Russian investor who’d previously been jailed in Israel for kidnapping. On Wednesday, a dispute between Trump’s company and the building’s owner turned violent. The journalist Marcy Wheeler has suggested the fight concerns records that may show Ivanka knew the property was laundering money. Police in riot gear stormed the hotel that Ivanka once hyped as “exemplary of the grandeur in which we like to enter a market.”

    Ivanka was also a ranking official on the Trump SoHo, which has since shed the name Trump. In 2010, as ProPublica and WNYC have reported, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office began building a criminal case against Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. for using inflated sales figures to defraud prospective buyers. After receiving a visit from Trump family lawyer and campaign donor Marc Kasowitz, then-DA Cyrus Vance Jr. backed off.

    Just Thursday, CNN reported that FBI counterintelligence officials are investigating another Trump real-estate deal, the 63-story Trump International Hotel and Tower in Vancouver, which opened after Trump became president.

  24. 24.

    Mnemosyne

    I’m going to drag my Oscar opinion up here from the dead thread:

    IMO, The Shape of Water has a good chance of winning both Best Picture and Best Director and Jordan Peele will probably get Best Original Screenplay because Peele is a first-time writer/director, and Del Toro has been a successful writer/director for almost 30 years. Oscars are often career achievement awards.

    So, yes, despite the racist Oscar voters interviewed by the Hollywood Reporter, race will be a factor, but not the only one and probably not even the most important one. Del Toro has paid dues with Hollywood that Peele has not. And I really can’t get too pissed that the Mexican immigrant is probably going to win.

    Now, if the British director of Three Billboards gets both of the top two awards, then I’ll be pissed.

  25. 25.

    Elizabelle

    Cisco! Love the photo. Who are the other two pets?

    Am guessing the GOP powers that be are trying to push Trump out, and install Pence, in advance of the midterms.

  27. 27.

    schrodingers_cat

    @GregB: Carrot Halwa recipe: Its a two step process, cook in the slow cooker first and then finish it on the stove top

    6 medium sized carrots ( 1.5 pounds would be my guess, I didn’t weigh the carrots)
    Heavy syrup 1 cup
    1/4 cup ricotta cheese
    2 tbsp butter
    1/4 cup heavy cream
    1/4 cup skim milk
    1/2 tsp cardamom removed from pods and ground
    pinch of salt
    Part I
    Spray the slow cooker insert with cooking spray
    Add all the carrots.
    2/3 cup heavy syrup
    salt
    cardamom
    1tbsp butter
    1/8 cup heavy cream
    and ricotta cheese

    Cook on low for 4 hours, and high for another two.

    Part II
    To finish the halwa in the pan
    Add the tbsp of butter to a heavy skillet like a Calphalon pan or a cast iron skillet.
    When the butter melts add the carrot mix from the slower cooker to the skillet
    Then add 1/3 cup heavy syrup and 1/8 cup heavy cream to the pan.
    Turn the heat to low when the liquids start bubbling
    Stir frequently till all the liquid is absorbed (5 to 7min)
    Your halwa should look reddish brown.
    Serve hot or cold with whipped cream or ice-cream.

  29. 29.

    patroclus

    For those interested in the trade discussion we had a few days ago, I’ve looked up what Trump is specifically proposing. It isn’t going to be done under either the Trading with the Enemy Act or the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Instead, he is proposing to use section 232 sanction authority, which requires a Presidential “finding” of national security and has only been used twice in situations involving Iranian and Libyan oil at the time of the various military conflicts with those countries. It is also not going to be the process which President Bush used in 2003 – which was Section 201 authority and involves going to the WTO and showing harmful effects of alleged over-production and “dumping.” Bush did that (on steel), there were no imposition of tariffs by other countries; rather, the EU took up the tariffs directly with the WTO and won their case and Bush backed down two years later. (And all the studies showed that the tariffs did not have good effects and cost more jobs and higher prices across multiple industries).

    Trumps’ proposed action would not involve the normal WTO processes and would almost certainly result in retaliation by affected countries. The largest steel exporters to the U.S. are Canada, Brazil, the ROK and Mexico – it is they who will be mostly affected and it is they (plus the EU) who would likely retaliate. The supposed bad actor is China and they would be only lightly affected. The “normal” way of trying to get China to change its behavior is to work with Canada and the others to negotiate different behavior by the Chinese (and in the steel industry China is mostly dominated by its SOE producer – not decentralized competitors) so that over-production is reduced and prices are pressured to rise. Trump’s proposed action is wrongly targeted, uses the wrong process, avoids the WTO, probably won’t affect China all that much but will have an adverse effect on our allies.

  33. 33.

    debbie

    @patroclus:

    Yes, and I look forward to our “allies” assessing tariffs against products made by every red state in this country. Bourbon, cheese, and jeans should only be the beginning.

    See how easy that is to win, you stupid fuck.

  36. 36.

    Another Scott

    @patroclus:

    Trump’s proposed action is wrongly targeted, uses the wrong process, avoids the WTO, probably won’t affect China all that much but will have an adverse effect on our allies.

    So, IOW, exactly the kind of policy that Vlad and Xi would want if they were designing it.

    “Cui bono?” works yet again.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  38. 38.

    schrodingers_cat

    @GregB: No. Its sugar dissolved in water.
    1 cup heavy syrup: 1 and 1/4 cup sugar to 1 cup water.
    Heat the water and then add sugar stir till all the sugar dissolves. Turn off the heat.

  40. 40.

    Jewish Steel

    @Elizabelle: Rescue bite dog Echo and rescue separation anxiety Spencer. Echo will offer a nip now and again, Spencer seems to have cycled out of separation anxiety. I think all he needed was some consistency at home. Plus he’s getting pretty ancient. A lot of my anxieties have faded now that my muzzle is no longer dark.

  42. 42.

    Ohio Mom

    @debbie: One of my favorite moments ever was when the upper rectangle in the Rothko I was admiring started to float in front of the canvas.

    Just like I can’t run fast anymore, I don’t think I can be that immersed in a painting anymore — part of that is my old lady eyes and part of that is my attention, which for some reason, is a lot shallower than it once was.

    But I am very happy to have the memory of that magical moment.

  45. 45.

    Aleta

    @rikyrah:

    My father’s way of doing things is over, it’s finished. Even he knows that. I mean, in five years the Trump Family is going to be completely legitimate. Trust me, Jared.

  47. 47.

    Mnemosyne

    @bystander:

    That’s the advantage to being on the Weat Coast in the post-internet age: the show is over by 9 pm because they don’t tape-delay it anymore. It’s live nationwide.

  48. 48.

    MoxieM

    @Jewish Steel: I was surprised to see early Rothko works in an (amazing) exhibit I was lucky to see in Hamburg. (Visiting kid, last year). It was works of Surrealist and Dada artists drawn from private collections across Europe. Stunning. (I could have done with fewer works by Dali, but that’s my POV). It was an incredible show.

    Apropos of highly-strung rescue dogs, I just returned from a walk with Murphy, and learned just how strongly-strong a determined 85 lb. dog-aggressive rescue pupper can be (anxiety + Pyrenees + unknown, in her case). After years of walking Newfies–basically like walking cows back to the barn, Holy Cow! my dog is powerful, and she gets super riled up. And she’s eight, whatever that is in dog years.

  49. 49.

    Patricia Kayden

    @rikyrah: She does neither well. Mueller is exposing her Father’s corruption and her style is not cute. It’s forgettable.

  50. 50.

    raven

    Roger Bannister died, he broke the 4 minute mile in 1954

    But then, shortly after 6 p.m. on May 6, 1954, the wind subsided. Bannister glanced up again and saw the flag fluttering oh-so gently. The race was on.

    With two friends acting as pacemakers, Bannister churned around the cinder track four times. His long arms and legs pumping, his lungs gasping for air, he put on a furious kick over the final 300 yards and nearly collapsed as he crossed the finish line.

    The announcer read out the time:

    “3…”

    The rest was drowned out by the roar of the crowd. The 3 was all that mattered.

    Bannister had just become the first runner to break the mythical 4-minute barrier in the mile — a feat of speed and endurance that stands as one of the seminal sporting achievements of the 20th century.

  52. 52.

    Brachiator

    @Aleta:

    My father’s way of doing things is over, it’s finished. Even he knows that. I mean, in five years the Trump Family is going to be completely legitimate. Trust me, Jared.

    Wow. This means that Donald Jr and Eric are both Fredo.

  55. 55.

    Gin & Tonic

    Latest update is that I’m supposed to get power back at 5:30 today (all day long they were saying 4:00 pm.) I sure don’t want to spend another night without heat or electricity. I know, first-world problems. But it’s really cold in the house.

  58. 58.

    zhena gogolia

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Generator companies are about to have a boom time in your area. We got one (the all-house kind) after spending four nights without heat.

  59. 59.

    John Carter

    A scary thought.

    As was stated on another site:

    Possibly the reason Ryan is doing nothing might be because if Mueller takes down trump, pence goes with him.
    That leaves Ryan as president! Ugh!
    To make things even more bizarre, he could pick Mitch as his vice president to be approved by Congress.

    Possible?

  61. 61.

    Gin & Tonic

    @zhena gogolia: Propane or liquid-fueled? Automatic startup? What brand? I’ve thought about it, but there’s some awkward engineering to get from a good spot for the generator over to where my electrical service enters.

  62. 62.

    Another Scott

    @John Carter: Doubt it.

    Donnie’s not leaving unless he’s impeached (not happening soon), or he resigns (seems most unlikely, but who knows). Pence thinks he’s in a great position to move up, so he’s not going anywhere willingly.

    It’s hard to see Trump and Pence being forced out at exactly the same time. One will go first. That means either:

    – Donnie goes, and Pence movs up. Pence gets replaced by someone that Pence nominates.
    – Pence goes, and Pence gets replaced by someone that Donnie nominates.

    It’s hard for me to see Paulie Blue Eyes getting the brass ring (short of some crash of AF-1 or something similarly disastrous).

    We shouldn’t get distracted by things that are very unlikely to happen.

    247 days to go…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  63. 63.

    Achrachno

    @debbie: Yeah, I know. Is there some particular kind of cheese produced only in red states? Velveeta? American? But, I’ll bet we don’t export much of those. Heck, for all I know CA may be a leading Velveeta producer. Trade wars have few winners and lots of casualties.

  64. 64.

    Mnemosyne

    @zhena gogolia:

    I’m sick of all artists from either of the British Isles who insist they understand America better than Americans do. See also Nick Broomfield.

    At least Neil Gaiman admits that he finds us weird and alien sometimes.

  65. 65.

    zhena gogolia

    @Gin & Tonic:

    We have propane Briggs & Stratton, automatic startup. It can be a pain, but when power outages are predicted in the winter, it certainly sets my mind at ease somewhat. If you have central air conditioning, make sure you talk about that with the installer so that there aren’t any problems.

    I think people were recommending Kohler here a few years ago. I wouldn’t necessarily say that Briggs & Stratton is the best.

  66. 66.

    zhena gogolia

    @Mnemosyne:

    I was turned off by the phrase “Ebbing, Missouri.” I’m from Missouri, and that just doesn’t sound like the name of a town in Missouri. I can’t tell you why.

  69. 69.

    Gin & Tonic

    @zhena gogolia: I see Generacs, mostly, among people who are serious. I have a large propane tank since we remodeled the kitchen 5-6 years ago and put in a gas range, so that could do double duty. I have no air conditioning, of any kind. But since I have a well, no power means no water. Anyway, food for thought.

  70. 70.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Mnemosyne:

    I’m sick of all artists from either of the British Isles who insist they understand America better than Americans do. See also Nick Broomfield.

    At least Neil Gaiman admits that he finds us weird and alien sometimes.

    Where did McDonagh claim that? He did a pretty good movie about hitmen on the lam and he’s certainly never been that either.

  71. 71.

    Mnemosyne

    @zhena gogolia:

    I admit, I was making an assumption because I don’t think I’ve ever heard that director speak, so I didn’t know he was Irish. But I am #TeamDelToro this year, so I have to trash him. ?

  72. 72.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    He made a movie about Irish hitmen on the lam in a foreign country, so you could at least say there’s a parallel there. Making a movie about Middle America that purports to show what Middle America is “really” like is not the same thing.

    And, full disclosure, I really hated In Bruges. I found it stupid and sadistic for the sake of being stupid and sadistic.

  74. 74.

    Amir Khalid

    @zhena gogolia:
    If your Irish friend is from the Republic of Ireland then he’s definitely not British. If he’s Northern Irish, he’s not from the island of Great Britain, but he is a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland like any Englishman, Scotsman, or Welshman. I’m not sure if you get to call him a Briton.

  76. 76.

    debbie

    @Ohio Mom:

    Even worse than the creaking bones is the lousying vision. If I were to stand before a Rothko again, I wouldn’t be able to tell you if what I felt was in the present or in the memory of seeing one long ago.

  77. 77.

    MoxieM

    At least Gaiman lived in middle America for a long, long time (Wisconsin maybe?). And his current wife is American. She worked on a play with the kids at my daughter’s HS–or should I say the kids worked with her. It was a musical about Anne Frank, set to The Aeroplane over the Sea (Neutral Milk Hotel). Public school, no less! My kid was in her Gaiman phase, and when he popped up in her English class I think she about fainted.

    And Yeah, I should try a better restraint device on doggo. She only does it with me (not walkers)–apparently I’m her flock of sheep.

  78. 78.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Jay: Where do you live? Solar here in New England isn’t the same as in, say, southern California.

  80. 80.

    Ohio Mom

    @debbie: I know, sometimes I think I should have looked more when I was younger. But I did look a lot, I don’t know how I could have looked more.

    I had hopes for cataract surgery but after having one eye done, I am very disappointed. My new eye would be best for watching TV, an appliance I no longer own.

  81. 81.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Amir Khalid: If they’re Northern Irish they are British but whether they enjoy being described as such will depend on their religion. Protestants love it, Catholics not so much.

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