Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

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

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

Cole is on a roll !

Good lord, these people are nuts.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Friday Morning Open Thread: Break Out the Kevlar News Vests

Friday Morning Open Thread: Break Out the Kevlar News Vests

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(Drew Sheneman via GoComics.com)
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Could’ve been…


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But nooooooo…

Even the cheerleaders are losing interest:

Reader Interactions

136Comments

  4. 4.

    Jeffro

    @satby: at this point, even Fox realizes that airing his speeches is a net negative in terms of votes this November

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    Power went out for around 90 minutes. Getting to be like back when first moved here – outages 2 or 3 times per week were the norm then.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: If it does make an appearance I need to make the most of it. My next chance to make it’s acquaintance is next Wednesday.

  8. 8.

    satby

    @Jeffro: yes, I’m sure it was done to maintain the plausible deniability that they cover for an extremely demented old fool. Show him too much and even their brainwashed viewers will start to realize Drumpf is senile.

  11. 11.

    NotMax

    Le sigh.

    “We’re coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now.…”
    [snip]
    The statement came as news to the departments of Defense and State. A defense official told CNN that Trump’s statement contradicted military commanders’ assessment of the situation in Syria and their recommended course of action, while State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said she was not aware of any policy to withdraw U.S. forces.

    A quick withdrawal from Syria is also at odds with what literally every relevant official has said on the matter in the recent past…. Source

  13. 13.

    MomSense

    Heading out to the gym. Yesterday fox was on one of the TVs so I changed it to HGTV. There are a couple of meatheads there every morning who shouldn’t be exposed to that mess. Also Tomi whats her name is the dumbest person I’ve ever heard. She makes Gohmert look like a genius.

  14. 14.

    NotMax

    Barbarism R Us. It’s that time of the year again.

    Filipino zealots marked Good Friday with a bloody display of religious frenzy by having themselves nailed to crosses and whipping their backs raw in Asia’s bastion of Catholicism.
    [snip]
    In towns located north of Manila at least three people had eight-centimeter (three-inch) spikes driven through their palms and feet in hot, dry fields. More devotees were expected to take part later in the day.

    At the same time, bare-chested men, some of whose faces were concealed by hoods, lashed their backs bloody, as selfie-snapping onlookers watched.

    They left droplets of blood on cars, houses and even bottles of soda displayed on snack vendors’ tables that lined the road. Source

  15. 15.

    Montanareddog

    @NotMax: “We’re coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now.…”

    “Vlad, there all over me over this Skripal thing. I have got to throw out some Russians”

    “OK, then but I have to throw some Americans out to save face. And I need free rein in Syria now”

    “yes, boss”

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: He had to say something to let daddy know how sorry he was after being such a bad boy and throwing daddy’s favorite play things out of the house.

  18. 18.

    NotMax

    In much less grim news –

    A group of Turkish academics have launched a project to create an alphabet for the whistled language, which is spoken in northern Turkey’s Black Sea region.

    Around 10,000 people, mostly in the district of Çanakçı in the Giresun province, currently use and understand the language, according to UNESCO.

    The language, Kuşdili (bird language) as locals call it, was listed by UNESCO as being in urgent need of protection last year.

    It was developed to allow people to communicate across steep mountain valleys but has been dying out, as mobile phones reduce the need for new generations to learn the language.
    [snip]
    …records of the language will first be turned into notes and later into letters. Source

    Whistle while you work, indeed.

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    @raven

    On Maui? Primarily diesel (from Indonesia), supplemented with bagasse (cane processing leftovers) prior to implementation of wind generation and the recent ending of sugar cane agriculture.

  21. 21.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: Interesting.

    The human voice can travel up to 500 meters in normal conditions, Genç said, adding that the whistled language allows the voice to reach up to 30 kilometers in good weather conditions.

  22. 22.

    opiejeanne

    @OzarkHillbilly: It’s Chester!

    The article said that this was one of three brothers they were observing and that the guide helped keep the tourists calm. He told them: don’t move, don’t talk, don’t make eye contact.
    I have seen several different videos of cheetahs doing this and wonder if the guides take them to this spot knowing that there’s a chance of a very close encounter. Thrilling, I’m sure, until someone gets ripped up for sneezing. I mean, the videos have been interesting and almost comical but that’s a wild animal with big claws and teeth.

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    @NotMax

    Will add that solar is moving up along the rail and there is at least one pilot project for tidal power generation as well. For while there was enthusiasm regarding geothermal but it is not only very expensive and difficult to harness with any degree of success but also so caustic that it eats through equipment quickly.

  26. 26.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @opiejeanne: My first reaction was “Exit! Stage left!”

    When my boys were still boys we went to the STL Zoo every winter. One time at the Cheetah Rescue Center this male became fixated on my eldest. Every move Bob made the cheetah followed with a predatory intensity. Even with the fence between us it was more than a little scary knowing with certainty that it wanted to eat him and given half a chance it would.

  27. 27.

    satby

    @opiejeanne: I read somewhere that cheetahs are the only big cat that doesn’t see humans as prey. At the same time, any big wild animal should be left alone, so how it keeps happening makes you wonder.

  29. 29.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    The Kentucky General Assembly attached a gigantic pension change to a sewage bill late last night and locked out teachers. It was a 300 page ALEC-drafted piece of shit.

    It’s bad. The people who showed up were in a rage, GOP reps and senators had to get a police escort out. Today, there were so many sick calls compared to the number of available subs that most schools across the state are closed. I have some doubts that schools will open after spring break in Louisville – I’m betting illegal strike, which should spread.

  30. 30.

    NotMax

    @satby

    Humans are the three bean salad at the cheetah salad bar. Always there should everything else run out.

    ;)

  31. 31.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @opiejeanne:

    I’m going to Zambia, Botswana and South Africa in October. Maybe something cool like that vid will happen!

  32. 32.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    My first reaction was “Exit! Stage left!”

    To which the cheetah brain says “Oh cool! A really slow two legged deer that I won’t have to work real hard to get! Easy meal!”

  34. 34.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Inuit oral historian who pointed way to Franklin shipwrecks dies aged 58

    Growing up in the Canadian Arctic, Louie Kamookak was captivated by tales from Inuit elders of rusted utensils strewn along a remote shore and mysterious white men using ropes to haul a large ship through the ice.

    Years later, he realized there was a striking resemblance between the stories of his youth and historical accounts of the ill-fated expedition of Sir John Franklin, whose two ships – and 129 crew members – vanished while searching for the North-West Passage in the 1840s.

    Kamookak compared Inuit stories with explorers’ logbooks and journals to develop a working theory of where the ships might be.

    He shared these thoughts with Canadian archaeologists, and was eventually vindicated in a spectacular fashion when, using his directions, divers located the HMS Erebus in 2014, and two years later, the Terror.

    Both ships were found exactly where Kamookak had predicted.

    Archaeologists and historians have paid tribute to the Inuit oral historian who helped solve a mystery that had confounded explorers for generations, after he died this week aged 58.

    RIP.

  36. 36.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @satby:

    They’re covering it tepidly – they don’t know which way to go, and are terrified of being called “libruls”. Fingers are in the air and they’re checking the wind.

  39. 39.

    NotMax

    The weird vagaries of lazy subtitle writers. Just now, on a British program –

    Actual dialogue: I’m glad to have caught you at home.

    Subtitle: I’m glad to have brought you a poem.

  40. 40.

    HeartlandLiberal

    So, the networks cut away, rather than just let it run, so the American people can see what a dotard of a bumbling, rambling, senile, demented narcissist this man is, clearly incompetent, and in fact a clear and present danger to the existential future of the nation.

    By the same token, I would like for the networks to at least 15 minutes of nothing but raw footage of what the bodies of young people and adults look like after they have been blown apart like ripe melons by military assault rifles.

    Instead, our news media shield us from the truth very effectively.

  41. 41.

    Orange is the new Red

    Off topic, but has me really worried that more evil is afoot — saw on Twitter that some horrible folks were discussing finding a high school girl who could claim that David Hogg sexually assaulted her. I do not put it past someone to try this, since there don’t seem to be limits on what folks will do to shut the Parkland kids up. My apologies in advance, I don’t know how to put the tweet into this comment. I saw it on Josh Marshall’s feed, retweeted by Brian Beutler. Perhaps I don’t have a stomach strong enough for Twitter.

  43. 43.

    opiejeanne

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: That’s great. I would like to visit Botswana, and my niece has been working in Entebbe, Uganda for the past three years and she’d REALLY like us to come visit. I just can’t handle the extremely long flights that it would take to get there. I’ve played around with various air routes, trying to break it into several smaller pieces but Africa is huge and I haven’t figured it out yet. I have trouble with the 7 hours it takes to get from Seattle to Reykjavik, anything more than that and I’m really a bad mess.

  44. 44.

    WereBear

    Cheetahs in captivity are also known for the intensity… of their crushes.

    If they become fond of a caretaker, they will follow them around, mourn for them at gates until they come back, and otherwise become overwhelmed with the intensity of their affectionate feelings.

    Kind of like my Tristan cat. :)

  48. 48.

    Steve in the ATL

    @NotMax: we do similarly barbaric things in the episcopal church. Later today, I will attempt to drink a glass of blended whiskey [shudder].

  52. 52.

    Patricia Kayden

    @NotMax: I can’t whistle at all so I find it fascinating that there’s a whole language based on whistling. Too bad it’s dying out.

  55. 55.

    Woodrowfan

    @NotMax: which is exactly what Jesus would NOT want! Spend that energy and effort feeding, clothing, or comforting someone!!!!

  57. 57.

    Woodrowfan

    when trying to outrun a Cheetah just remember,

    1. you only have to be faster than the slowest human in your group.
    2. try NOT to be the slowest human in the area
    3. If you ARE the slowest, trip the second slowest

  59. 59.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @OzarkHillbilly: Oh, that’s too young. I’m glad Canada recognized his contributions to the nation and to scholarship before Mr. Kamookak’s death. The cable channel AMC just started a series on the Franklin expedition with a top notch cast ( Ciaran Hinds, Jared Harris, Tobias Menzies). While it has supernatural elements and is based on a 2007 book, the show has a historical basis and incorporates the recent findings of the ship. I plan to watch it once it gets warmer and sunnier.

  60. 60.

    SFAW

    It’s probably already been noted and commented on in another thread, but I just saw that Philip Kerr, author of the “Berlin Noir” trilogy, died last Friday.

    Mentioning it because this was the first place I ever saw a mention of the trilogy. [Which I still have not read.]

  61. 61.

    debbie

    Was I the only one who didn’t understand how holding South Korea hostage over the trade deal would give the U.S. a stronger hand in dealing with North Korea? And yet, there were no shouts of, “You lie!”

  62. 62.

    Chyron HR

    @HeartlandLiberal:

    So, the networks cut away, rather than just let it run, so the American people can see what a dotard of a bumbling, rambling, senile, demented narcissist this man is, clearly incompetent, and in fact a clear and present danger to the existential future of the nation.

    Well, okay, but if the networks just air his shitty speeches in their entirety then we complain that they’re giving him free advertising.

  65. 65.

    MJS

    @Chyron HR: Exactly. It takes 5 minutes, tops, to see how demented, narcissistic, and clueless Trump is. Anything beyond that is free advertising for the idiot.

  66. 66.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: It’s about letting the S Koreans know they better not making any deals with NK without little lord smallhands’ approval.

  67. 67.

    debbie

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Gah, that’s absurd. Almost as absurd as his statement that his infrastructure plan would create 40,000 jobs that paid 32% more than current infrastructure jobs.

  71. 71.

    Steeplejack

    @SFAW:

    The Bernie Gunther “trilogy” got up to 13 books with the recent publication of Greeks Bearing Gifts. Supposedly there is a final one in the can for release next year. A good series.

  72. 72.

    SFAW

    @Steeplejack:

    I don’t recall which jackal was the first to mention it — i.e., that I recall seeing, of course — but the praise got it added to my “Gotta Read” list. The only problem is that my list is reaching the point where I better live to 150, sans dementia, so I can get through all of it/them.

  73. 73.

    JGabriel

    Hillary Clinton is striking back at critics telling her to “shut up” following her 2016 loss, saying, “They never said that to any man who was not elected.”

    To be fair, I say it all the time to Trump and Bush II.

  75. 75.

    Steeplejack

    @SFAW:

    The problem will solve itself when your memory gets so bad that you can just endlessly cycle through your three favorite books.

  76. 76.

    sherparick1

    @HeartlandLiberal: Well, I think the second thing would probably help some, but as for cutting away from President* Orange, I think the ratings are finally crashing. The act is starting to wear thin.

  77. 77.

    SFAW

    @Steeplejack:

    The problem will solve itself when your memory gets so bad that you can just endlessly cycle through your three favorite books.

    What are you talking about? Books? I thought we were talking about …. um … never mind.

  78. 78.

    Amir Khalid

    @NotMax:
    I’m not sure if this practice should be described as barbaric. The guys who undergo the flagellation and crucifixion are volunteers; you couldn’t say they were being forced into it. I would call it misguided, rather, given the Catholic church’s position that Lenten sacrifices are supposed to benefit the poor and suffering rather than to call attention to one’s own devotion (which, as I understand, is the sin of vanity).

  81. 81.

    MomSense

    @SFAW:

    I signed up for audible so that I can listen to books while I’m walking, driving, making dinner, at the gym, etc. I’m so glad I did. Before audible I would try to read, usually at the end of the day, and fall asleep about a page and a half later.

    My next book will be The Last Wild Men of Borneo by Carl Hoffman. Some friends of mine went to a talk given by the author at LL Bean a few weeks ago and said it was fascinating.

  83. 83.

    Kay

    Fox News host Laura Ingraham mocked Parkland student David Hogg for not getting into UCLA. Big mistake.

    Never forget how rich these people are. How much they are paid for decades of mean-spirited, lazy mediocrity. Whole careers spitting out venom and spreading their own internal nastiness and emptiness.

    This is what we reward. The private sector showers them with money. They live crazily opulent lifestyles and they do this “work” for decades. They go on into their 70’s, 80’s- whole 50 year careers doing nothing else. No particular talent or skill, just professional nasty assholes. Nastiest and most mean-spirited “wins”.

  87. 87.

    Betty Cracker

    I’ve got a busy couple of days coming up. Have to sculpt a butter lamb, put together Easter baskets for kiddo and roommates and make two side dishes (asparagus and carrots) for Easter feast at the in-laws.

  89. 89.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @MomSense: I can NOT do audiobooks. My mind wanders and the next thing I know the protagonist is dead and I have no idea of who what where when or how. Reading focuses my mind.

  91. 91.

    SFAW

    @MomSense:

    Mrs. SFAW loves Audible. I find that my retention is much better from reading, rather than hearing, so I don’t use it.

  96. 96.

    Betty Cracker

    @schrodingers_cat: I haven’t really settled on how I’m going to make those two sides yet. I’m thinking of just roasting the asparagus and bringing béarnaise sauce to go with it. Will probably saute the carrots in butter and herbs.

  99. 99.

    GregB

    Twitter is telling me that Mueller is sweeping up characters with ties to Nigel Farage, Alex Jones and Roger Stone and St. Jules of the Broom Closet.

  100. 100.

    germy

    Off topic, but didn’t Roseanne basically steal her whole schtick from Judy Tenuta?

    The persona, the voice, the whole thing?

  101. 101.

    bemused

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Same here. For retention, reading vs listening has always worked better for me and lately more re-reading. My mind does wander a lot anyway but there is an overload of information to process.

  102. 102.

    condorcet runner-up

    @MomSense: I change the gym tv channels all the time, when they are blaring Fox, especially in the locker rooms. It’s mostly CNN and ESPN now, but there was a time when they were all Fox all the time. Drove me nuts.

    That is one of the more pernicious ways for talking points to go mainstream, because people just kind of hear it in the background, and it’s dressed up as news and sounds “newsy” enough, and these little buts of slanted info stick in people’s minds.

  103. 103.

    No Drought No More

    “Hillary Clinton is striking back at critics telling her to “shut up” following her 2016 loss, saying, “They never said that to any man who was not elected.”.

    Rubbish. Plenty of democrats were disappointed and vocal about it when Adlai Stevenson ran a second time (and was thrashed by Ike).

  105. 105.

    Amir Khalid

    @schrodingers_cat:
    No, I don’t. I don’t agree with the Shiite practice of self-flagellation on Al-Shura, either, or with any practice in any faith that involves this kind of physical injury.

  108. 108.

    rikyrah

    @GregB:

    Twitter is telling me that Mueller is sweeping up characters with ties to Nigel Farage, Alex Jones and Roger Stone and St. Jules of the Broom Closet.

    oh please oh please oh please be true

  109. 109.

    germy

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Good work, going back over six decades to find one counterexample.

    Being upset because someone ran a second time for president is not the same as insisting someone shut up and take up knitting every time they give an interview.

    I mean, they don’t even want her to TALK.

  111. 111.

    tobie

    @rikyrah: I hope Conserva-Dems are taking note of how the Parkland students respond to right-wing critics. Heidi Heitkamp continues to agree with every right-wing smear against Dems in the hopes that this will endear her to her constituents. Is she really the best the party can offer in North Dakota? I love the fearlessness of these kids. Unlike so many Dems, they don’t crouch in a defensive posture from the get-go.

  114. 114.

    rikyrah

    Meet Trump’s New, Homophobic Public Health Quack
    The Centers for Disease Control will soon be run by a military doctor with a long history of pushing discriminatory AIDS policies.
    BY LAURIE GARRETT | MARCH 23, 2018, 4:37 PM

    The extraordinarily disruptive turnover in the Trump administration’s senior staff has officially reached the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The White House, having already cycled through one CDC director, has named its second: Robert Redfield, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and former University of Maryland opioids and AIDS researcher.

    He is exactly the wrong person for the job. Amid an exploding influenza epidemic across the United States, an opioids crisis that has decreased the statistical life expectancy of Americans, and a budget crisis that twice compelled closure of critical laboratory and disease-fighting services, the CDC desperately needs a leader who can promise stability and expertise. Redfield represents the opposite; he is someone whose track record in HIV research and public health policy has been a scientific and moral failure.

  115. 115.

    rikyrah

    The Hawaii State Senate Judiciary Committee has unanimously voted to approve that a Statue of Former President Barack Obama be erected in the state. WELL DESERVED! That’s one more statue then Donald Trump will ever have erected.

    — Ed Krassenstein ? (@EdKrassen) March 30, 2018

  118. 118.

    rikyrah

    American once touted as possible ambassador to EU tells of being detained at Boston airport and subpoenaed by Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia inquiry: FBI questions Ted Malloch, Trump campaign figure and Farage ally https://t.co/Ej5k8qIAMf

    — meta (@metaquest) March 30, 2018

  120. 120.

    GregB

    @Amir Khalid:

    I have seen the places where Christian extremists actually crucify people in reenactments.

    I’ll have none of any of that, no matter the faith.

  123. 123.

    laura

    @Betty Cracker: I like carrots cooked in gingerale with a big slice of fresh ginger and when just about tender, drained of excess liquid, sprinkling of Chile powder or smoked paprika and a glaze of butter.
    Asparagus with bernaise -yes please!
    There’s anticipation building to see that butter lamb…..

  124. 124.

    Yarrow

    @rikyrah: Who would want to come here, given all this invasive investigation of personal lives? Wonder what the latest numbers on foreign travel to the US are? I”m guessing still down.

    Also from the article:

    n addition to requiring the five years of social media history, the application will also ask for previous telephone numbers, email addresses,

    Does everyone remember previous telephone numbers and email addresses? I don’t.

  126. 126.

    Yarrow

    @laura:

    There’s anticipation building to see that butter lamb…..

    Yes! Betty Cracker’s butter lamb has become a tradition! Can’t wait to see this year’s incarnation.

  131. 131.

    Tarragon

    @MomSense:
    At one point I went and searched for some comment I had made… Enough recipes get posted that it was an interesting experience.

  132. 132.

    Gelfling 545

    @satby: I suspect that was the best thing they could do for him. Even their befuddled viewers might have begun to get a clue if it continued.

  135. 135.

    Procopius

    Timothy Burke’s tweet is at variance with the official story we were given in 2005 or 5. Saddam Hussein knew very well he didn’t have WMD, but he was hoping to bluff Iran into thinking he still did, because he had used poison gas he got from the United States against them. Of course I should be skeptical of any government issued statement, so maybe Timothy Burke is correct and the Cheney government followed by the Obama government have just been lying to us all along.

  136. 136.

    Procopius

    @sherparick1:

    The act is starting to wear thin.

    I dunno, last I saw his positive rating was up to 42%, a rise of 7% but they didn’t say over what time period. Given that they are endorsing only Blue Dogs and are actively working to defeat progressive Dems, I think the DCCC is going to pull defeat from the jaws of victory again. Hoping I’m wrong, because there are so many progressive candidates this year and the word of what the DCCC is doing is spreading better this year than it usually does.

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