Remember when I said this would be a weird week?
"Just think of $700 billion because that is all going into our military this year"- Trump addressing [checks notes] children at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll pic.twitter.com/Nc2thW1HxL
— Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) April 2, 2018
Summary for those who can’t / won’t watch: Trump brags to group of children about increasing military spending while Third Lady looks on, seeming to privately fantasize about clamping Trump’s genitalia in a panini press, and Easter Bunny stands by silently, mouth agape in horror at the inappropriateness of it all.
Open thread!
Stan
So Sean Spicer is back, eh?
laura
@Stan: Doh! Ya beat me to it. I hope he got paid in cash in advance.
Lapassionara
Melanie looks like she is definitely menacing him. If only looks could kill . . ..
Corner Stone
The look on that bunny’s face though…
Immanentize
Is that really Melania or a body double? She is not looking so angular. Although she (the actress?) Has Melania’s stiffness down pat.
piratedan
any hope of the Ky teachers dragging out the GOP legislators and beating them to death with busted textbooks and yardsticks? Or will the Gov sic the KY State Patrol on them and ticket them for unlawful assembly?
rikyrah
The Easter Bunny is in the Sunken Place
Corner Stone
And I don’t care what kind of agreement you have for your “marriage”. Sleeping with a couple porn stars (at least) and having a 10 month affair with a woman right as you are delivering your only child…that’s gotta leave a mark.
Josie
I tried, I really did. I could only stand it for about one minute. I just cannot listen to his blathering or look at his pig face any longer than that.
Major Major Major Major
God, even that still is more than I want to look at.
Writing tests at work today, so I imagine I’ll be bugging y’all here a fair bit.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Dow 20000 looks a lot different on the downward delta.
TenguPhule
Oh for the days when this was only a skit on SNL.
Corner Stone
@rikyrah: That Easter Bunny looks like he woke up in Snow Crash.
Joyce Harmon
He was also telling the kids coloring Easter eggs that DACA is dead. This guy has absolutely no sense of situational awareness, does he?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@piratedan:
The teachers who vote GOP (and there are a lot who do) are quite surprised at this result. They didn’t think this would be the result of their votes.
eclare
@rikyrah: Hahaha…..
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Down 3%, we’re in correction toward recession territory.
Adam L Silverman
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Yep, it’s down another 3%/737 points as I type.
Of course Kevin Hassett is the Chairman of the National Council of Economic Advisors, so…
rikyrah
Dow down 689
TenguPhule
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
‘I never thought leopards would eat MY face,’ sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.
piratedan
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: another instance of folks not believing what they could see every fucking day, if they would only open their eyes. Tribalism truly sucks when you’re in a tribe of cannibals and “they” decide that you’re the next entree.
RSA
Trump’s defective mental state really comes out when he’s expected to talk with children. Remember the Boy Scouts last year?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Adam L Silverman:
I’ll also point out that Janet Yellin probably could have been asked to another term, but Trump wanted a tight money dude at the Fed, so of course needless rate hikes were in the cards.
Yutsano
@Adam L Silverman: This is where I ignore my TSP for a while, although the temptation to throw everything into G is strong.
different-church-lady
I’d say it’s time for a caretaker presidency, but there are no caretakers left who can do the job.
TenguPhule
@different-church-lady: Can’t we borrow it from Canada? Like a good neighbor?
dmsilev
More from the weird-emails file. This one gets extra credit for innovative choices of addressees. The letter was sent to the entire physics department (par for the course), the University President (probably deleted by a staff member rather than Dear Leader himself), the Australian bureau of The Daily Telegraph (???) and several people at the Indian Ministry of Science (?????).
Go on…
Emphasis added. We are so so fucked…
Also, while picking nits on stuff like this is kind of pointless, “MIT University”?
A taste of the actual “theory”
Major Major Major Major
@RSA: ugh, I’d forgotten.
eemom
Man, does she hate him. Just look at that face.
ruemara
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Good. I hope they get fucked hard.
Back to the subject, I CANNOT FUCKING BELIEVE THIS MAN IS POTUS!
Like, all day, every day.
@dmsilev: Starting to think having access to email should require a psych eval.
SiubhanDuinne
Well, at least the White House — or building, or house, or whatever you want to call it because there’s no word for it — is in tippy-top condition.
TenguPhule
@dmsilev: I swear there was a post like this last year. With the exact same email.
dmsilev
@TenguPhule: It’s possible. Some of the cranks are …persistent.
Edit: Also, a lot of the emails share common threads, even coming from different people. Einstein is usually wrong, for instance.
TenguPhule
@ruemara:
Unfortunately there is no officially accepted evaluation for “asshole”.
Brachiator
The expression on the Easter Bunny’s face is priceless. I ain’t gonna play the video. Not gonna do it.
Also, too, since this is an open thread. I want to thank the East Coast BJ commenters who were enthusiastic about last night’s production of “Jesus Christ, Superstar.” I caught the West Coast feed and it was great fun. well staged and had a number of great performances.
SFAW
I can’t tell if the talking-to-kids-about-the-military-budget thing is real, or a belated April Fool joke. And I refuse to listen to that fuckhead to find out.
But assuming it actually happened: in the words of Jesus of Nazareth:
You gotta be fucking shitting me
Waldo
Jeebus, it’s like a really messed up reboot of Donnie Darko.
Just One More Canuck
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro
Spanky
@dmsilev: So! Uh. A thought experiment involving mushrooms, I’m guessing.
@Yutsano: Let it ride for now, but if it bounces back most of the way … think it over.
dmsilev
@ruemara: I went to college in the early 90s, back when universities were the most common gateway to the Internet per se. At the time, the (Usenet) discussion groups would typically see a swarm of ignorant newbies every September with each new crop of freshmen. After a month or three, they’d learn the ropes and things would go back to normal, but September was always dreaded. Then, in I think 1994, AOL opened up a gateway to the Internet for their (huge) user base. That went down in Usenet history as Endless September.
(and the science crackpots back then were _real_ science crackpots. Do a Google search for ‘Archimedes Plutonium’ and be amazed or appalled.)
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: Same here. I mute the TV when he is on. I did not check news on TV for over a year to avoid the orange visage.
germy
@dmsilev: Okay. Sometimes people suffering from mental illness write letters. In their delusions, they come to believe they’ve solved scientific mysteries. They are mentally ill.
What’s the point of picking apart the letter? For laughs?
TenguPhule
FTFNYT confirms that the doorknob was the delivery vector for the nerve agent.
Add a new nightmare to all the other ones.
Adam L Silverman
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: It goes beyond that. The tax cuts will superheat a hot/functioning economy. Combining that with the most recent omnibus appropriation, which contains a lot of weaponized Keynesian spending, and this will further contribute to the superheating. So the Fed is going to have to tighten interest rates. Then add in the tariff inspired trade war and his picking economic winners and losers via twitter and threatening to blow up NAFTA. Kevin Hassett is a crank. Navarro makes Hassett look sober and mainstream. Kudlow isn’t an economist. And the President managed to bankrupt two casinos, one of which he was operating as a laundry for Russian organized crime. This will not end well.
Van Buren
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Leopards, faces, etc.
JPL
This is a clip of trump signing autographs for the kiddos, while discussing DACA.
https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/980823471155503104
Mary G
Too depressed to go look for the link, but Twitler has Lou Dobbs participate in meetings with his economic team via speakerphone, hushing the people actually present so Lou can speak. Two senile ragemonkeys are in charge, no wonder the market is tanking.
Jager
Did I read somewhere that Malania’s chain migrated parents just bought a house in Virginia? And where is young Barron?
The Dangerman
Anyone else think one of the Trumpers shorted Amazon before The Orange One went off on them? Never let a money making opportunity go to waste.
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: Have you run this past Levenson?
Spanky
Oddly enough, you can find this link on the CNN Money page:
Which makes sense given Kay’s comment two threads down on their contracts stipulating they have to pay Sinclair in order to quit. I would love to see one of them test that clause in court.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Uh no. The tax cuts are gonna fuck up financing long term, but the net spending effect from them on the economy is shit. Between the stock buybacks and dividend payouts, the velocity multiplier is gonna be piss. Its gonna be banked, not spent.
Where? I don’t recall any big spending initiatives that could be called that?
Now this I agree with, I just disagree with a couple of your points on how we get there.
? Martin
1) I think this explains how Walt (Ivanka), Larry (Jr.) and Igner (Eric) turned out.
2) I wonder if we could solve a whole mess of problems by requiring that anyone who appears on-air at Fox News be Senate confirmed?
JPL
@Jager: There’s a rumor floating around that they purchased a house near Baron’s school, and often the first lady stays there. As far as I know though, it’s just a rumor.
Chyron HR
Two freaky creatures in suits and a nude model. Which set of Power Rangers villains are these?
MisterForkbeard
@germy: Agreed. My nephew-in-law is actually in the throes of this right now – he’s 19 and had some kind of break over the last week. He’s discovered how to “build rail guns and power armor” and that the federal government has contracted him to do so secretly. Also that the KGB is after him and that the feds will do something to him if he delivers the designs late or tells anyone about it.
This has not stopped him from texting me pictures of hand-drawn designs and warnings about the government. He’s also convinced he’s figured out several new scientific theorems. We’re trying to get him some help, but it’s startlingly difficult to do involuntarily.
rikyrah
Dow down 705
Ruckus
@Mary G:
Ostensibly in charge, but really, NO ONE is in charge. There is one senile old fart that for some corrupt reason people sort of listen to, then still have no idea what to do and because they are stupid enough to listen to him, do stupid shit, but really, there is no one home.
MisterForkbeard
@Chyron HR: “Rita Repulsa” is oddly appropriate for Melania. Lord Zedd is also kind of appropriate for Trump – an arrogant idiot with pretensions to royalty with a tendency to fuck up everything he touches and blame his underlings for it.
If I remember my Power Rangers: The Movie lore correctly, Zedd is also responsible for his own downfall when he frees Ivan Ooze, who promptly fucks him over before being taken down by the good guys. Maybe this can be prophetic.
Also: I cannot BELIEVE I still remember this from babysitting my next-door neighbors 20 years ago. Wow.
@rikyrah: Tired of all the winning, etc.
TenguPhule
@MisterForkbeard:
Check for a “Rifts” RPG book in his room.
Anonymous At Work
Melania isn’t thinking about a pannini press. She’s trying to figure out how to get out of the pre-nup and get half of Trump’s liquid assets.
Spanky
Cue Nelson: “HA HA!”
MisterForkbeard
@TenguPhule: Not present, but he DID tell me that “The Military has secret teleportation technology already. I found out about it while I was doing research on the internet.” Apparently to Power Armor design is that Power Armor is not, as commonly thought of, “full of metal”. Ideally it’s a thin metal or ceramic armoring but is mostly air or uncovered machinery on the inside, which brings the weight down.
Yeah.
Did I mention I’m super concerned about this? I already called his grandparents (where he’s staying after he got kicked out of my brother’s place for being too scary around the 3 year old), and asked them to make sure their guns were in a safe and they locked their room at night.
If anyone has any resources about mental health statutes in Pennsylvania, I’d be appreciative. >_<
BruceFromOhio
Will now and forever remind me of Sean Spicer.
Boris, Rasputin's Evil Twin
So, what did we think of “Jesus Christ, Superstar”? Mrs Boris and I enjoyed it, but hated the endless commercials.
Adam L Silverman
@TenguPhule: $700 billion to the DOD is weaponized Keynsianism.
MisterForkbeard
@Adam L Silverman:
I see what you did there.
TenguPhule
@MisterForkbeard:
Did he say where on the intertubes he found it?
More seriously, sounds like either psychotic brain damage or a dire need for a good therapist.
El Caganer
That photo….when did John Bolton’s ears get so big?
efgoldman
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
About fucking time they woke the fuck up, isn’t it?
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
It might be if we knew where half the money actually goes to. There’s a reason why the Pentagon is referred to as the place where reconciliations go to die.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@rikyrah:
Compared to the Dow, NASDAQ took a gigantic greasy shit – 4% and rising.
Ruckus
@MisterForkbeard:
Good luck with that, it is very difficult, some states more than others.
Adam L Silverman
@MisterForkbeard:
Usually they just pay you more money, so this might be a good idea.//
On a more serious note: we’ll keep good thoughts for him and hope that you all can get him the help he needs.
Corner Stone
@JPL: More likely a pied-à-terre for Melania and whomever she’s revenge banging at the time.
Quinerly
@Mary G: just finished reading it. Disgusting:https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-cherishes-lou-dobbs-so-much-he-puts-him-on-speakerphone-for-oval-office-meeti
Adam L Silverman
@MisterForkbeard:
Have him contact the skipper of the Zumwalt. They have problems with their’s.//
Adam L Silverman
@MisterForkbeard: Every penny I’ve made since 2007 are the result of weaponized Keynesianism. I’m very honest about that.
sukabi
@MisterForkbeard: this is a link to Pennsylvania’s Nami site…local resources and hotlines.
I don’t know anything about PA mental health resources, but I do know you’ve got to be persistent…it is extremely difficult to get services or even an evaluation for someone who doesn’t want to cooperate. Good luck to you and your family.
Quinerly
@Boris, Rasputin’s Evil Twin: I struggled with it in the beginning. Hated the onslaught of commercials…. But, boy, did I love Alice Cooper. He was perfect for the part. (was shocked a bit how rounded his shoulders were.. almost matronly)
germy
@Boris, Rasputin’s Evil Twin: We enjoyed it, but I was startled by how frequent the commercial interruptions were.
gene108
@MisterForkbeard:
Can you somehow get him to come to the ER/crisis center at the hospital?
Once hospital staff evaluate him, they can recommend he be committed.
germy
Jay C
The Dow seems to be “coming back” a bit at 3:00 – or at least not falling much anymore: looks like 23,400 IS a sort of floor.
23,487
Immanentize
@Anonymous At Work: The thing about a pre-nup that no one ever mentions — You cannot sign away the rights (before marriage) of an unborn child. If she were to divorce, the pre-nup might say what state she has to divorce in, but Barron has all the rights to care and cash that any child would. If she is really staying for money, which I have no reason to believe, that would just be sad if she could otherwise help Barron escape whatever hell they live in.
Immanentize
@germy: That is a cherce burn.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
For anybody who was following in summer 2008, VIX (volatility index) is up 25%.
Baltic Dry Index is in middling territory, but on on a downslope.
Mnemosyne
@Boris, Rasputin’s Evil Twin:
As someone else said earlier, I initially was not planning to watch it, but the enthusiastic raves from the East Coast commenters got me to tune in. I’m not much of an ALW fan, but the staging and performances were stellar.
I was not initially sold on John Legend’s acting, but he won me over with Gethesmene.
And everyone agrees that Brandon Victor Dixon absolutely stole the show.
jl
@Adam L Silverman: Will be interesting, in a heartless cold-blooded way to find out. Tax cuts due to the GOP tax scam bill won’t do that much to super heat demand for real goods and services, until we see how much of the added tax loop-hole gimmicks filter down to merely affluent and upper middle class who will actually spend the extra after tax income on real good and services.
And I am a Dean Bakerite, in that I think we need to see an additional 1.5 to 3 million jobs added above long run trend prior to 2000 before real labor market slack disappears. So, unemployment rate currently not a good indicator of remaining slack in the economy.
Trump, with his incoherent and butt ignorant trade jihad is damaging prospects for economic growth for society as a whole. And, IMHO, doing it in a way that will hurt those ordinary people he claims to care about the most.
TenguPhule
Someone let Alain know that FYWP is borking on the links in comments to prior comments.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Jay C:
Those are rescue buys. Remember, there’s a gigantic storehouse of accrued value that piled up from 2010 to present which never went into the dividend pool and never got paid out in increased compensation that can be used to shore up markets on Twitler’s behalf in order to make conservatism look better.
The Moar You Know
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: My wife was union rep for her school. I was blown away how many of the teachers were Republicans. 40% seems to be the going rate. In California, no less.
The only thing that comes into my head thinking of these folks is the old PE refrain: “I can’t do nothin’ for you, man”
jl
A quibble, but why is Trump using the same Easter Bunny as the evil liberal swamp creatures GW Bush and BH Obama?
I expected a new, classier, terrifically the best, Trump Bunny. Or maybe she is staying quiet while fighting the NDA in court?
Major Major Major Major
@MisterForkbeard: sorry to hear that. You’re in CA, remember that imminent harm can always get you a 72-hour.
MisterForkbeard
@gene108: The problem is that getting someone involuntarily committed/evaluated in PA amounts to getting them to an ER, and hoping that the tired overworked doctor who does the quick evaluation doesn’t decide that they’re crazy but not an immediate threat.
I’m told this happens often. It doesn’t help that a lot of people are pretty good at hiding the crazy for short periods of time, long enough to pass through scrutiny at an ER.
Mnemosyne
@Immanentize:
Given what we’ve already seen with Trump’s lawyer Cohen’s shenanigans of teaming up with the allegedly “opposing” counsel to always get the best deal for Trump and Trump only, Melania may want to give Stormy’s new lawyer a call and see if he can recommend someone who can look at the prenup and see what can be challenged.
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Ok, let’s play it again, Boys and Girls…
WHAT IF….
44 had told people to shut up to listen to Roland Martin on White House conference calls?
Yeah…I know….I know…
Geeno
@MisterForkbeard: Rita smiles too much for Melania to be Rita
MisterForkbeard
@Major Major Major Major: I’m in CA, nephew is now in PA. So sadly our relatively good services don’t help me here. :(
BillinGlendaleCA
@ruemara:
You’ll take my email from my cold dead hands!
James E. Powell
@Boris, Rasputin’s Evil Twin:
I really liked the singing, the performances, and the sets, but I really hated the crowd noise. The loud applause and cheering intruded on some moments that needed quiet. There were a few times the noise made it difficult to hear the lyrics. I wondered, was that something the producers wanted?
MisterForkbeard
@TenguPhule: a little from Column A, little from Column B. :(
MisterForkbeard
@Adam L Silverman: @Ruckus: And to all others – thanks for the advice and the sympathy.
Apologies for posting several times in a row. Doing this on my phone.
Mnemosyne
@MisterForkbeard:
Make sure you choose a hospital that has an actual Psychiatric ER, not just a general purpose one. That at least gives you a slightly higher chance of getting a doctor or nurse who’s familiar with psychiatric emergencies.
Mike in NC
Replacement for Hope Hicks as WH Communications Director will be Trump’s Minister of Social Media, his former caddy and a guy whose wife just filed for divorce. 100% unqualified according to the media. At least he’s staying consistent.
The Moar You Know
I suspect the only state occasion that could bring a smile to Melania’s face would be the opening of a death camp for “the inferior races”. That woman was born to be a dictator’s wife.
Mnemosyne
@James E. Powell:
I think they didn’t quite realize how much of the crowd noise would be picked up by the stage microphones. They were able to dial it back after the first couple of numbers, but it was a little intrusive.
It actually didn’t bother me all that much because it was such a huge improvement over the previous live musicals that were performed into the void.
Adam L Silverman
@Immanentize: The theory is that the pre-nup is written so that she gets far less if she divorces than if she outlives him.
Corner Stone
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I followed the BDI fairly closely right before and during the Great Recession, where it was taking out behind the woodshed and beaten to death. Not a good sign it is back to 2009 levels.
TenguPhule
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Don’t you mean your demagnetized unpowered drives?
Brachiator
@Adam L Silverman:
Perhaps. The impact is still unclear. The tax cuts provide maximum benefit to a small group of richer taxpayers. And overall tax reform may see increasing accumulations of wealth by the top tier income groups without freeing up investment in the economy. On top of this you have the attempt to deliberately punish high state income tax blue states like California, New York and New Jersey, even though California and New York help drive the national economy.
Or, more simply, tax reform was designed to help the rich, not to do anything for the national economy. Combine this with Trump’s quixotic meddling via “deals” and tariffs and you get uncertainty and instability.
MisterForkbeard
@Mnemosyne: Yeah. my brother is a psych nurse, so we know about some of these obstacles.But it’s a good idea.
germy
TenguPhule
@The Moar You Know:
And naturally those are the ones who try to fuck it all up for the rest of us by siding with union busting court cases.
It looks like unions are going to have to relearn all the bad old lessons of physically punishing people who fuck with the union like that. It seems to be the only way the lessons stick with some people.
germy
@Adam L Silverman:
I would worry if I were him.
Alain the site fixer
@MisterForkbeard: test
Adam L Silverman
@MisterForkbeard: No worries. And it’s what we’re here for.
Where in PA is your nephew?
Anderson used to be involved with health insurance in PA, maybe send him an email using the contact a front pager tool and see what he suggests. He may know a few tricks to finagle something more effective than what you all think you can do through normal channels.
Barbara
@MisterForkbeard: Who in your family does your nephew trust the most? When my sister was exhibiting signs of psychosis the only person who could persuade her to get help was my mother. She tuned out everyone else (especially negative messages) and considered the rest of us to be peers. He and your family will be much better off if he can be persuaded to get help. We phrased it as, “let’s just try it for a month and see how you feel . . .” Oh, so difficult. Wishing you the best.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: Fairly certain he has left instructions to have her killed if he dies first. Spite is all that drives him.
Adam L Silverman
@Mike in NC: The Caddy Rises! He’s not the Communication Director we deserve, but he is the Communication Director we need! Or something to that effect.
Major Major Major Major
@MisterForkbeard: ah, so I gathered reading further after I commented. Sucks ?
sukabi
@germy: how’d she type that with her arms in slings?
SenyorDave
I read the genitalia press somment prior to seeing the author of this post,. As soon as I saw the comment, I thought “must be a Betty Cracker” post. Thank you, Betty, for always putting a smile on my face.
AnotherBruce
@Joyce Harmon: Why would you want situational awareness in a President?
germy
@Mike in NC:
[W.C. Fields voice]: “Stand clear and keep your eye on the ball!”
TenguPhule
I really really don’t like how Trump keeps insisting on using that word. Limited vocabulary is not helpful.
BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule: There’s a difference?
Lyrebird
@MisterForkbeard: Best wishes.. that’s hard. FWIW when we were near the Penn State area, it was hard to visit an ER with a young adult without them getting committed, even if said person was dealing with a mood disorder and trying to find out what options were available. For some this was bad, but fingers crossed that nephew-person can get the right kind of help soon.
sukabi
@germy: it’s actually very fitting that his ball washer is now his Communications director.
SenyorDave
@Anonymous At Work: Trump’s liquid assets.
I just threw up a little in my mouth thinking about that.
JPL
@TenguPhule: Trump is careful not to mention Stormy and my thinking is that there is a clause in the pre-nup that might be used against him, if he does. Obviously I’m not a lawyer, and I’m batting zero on my gut instincts.
BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule: New term he learned from Faux Noise.
rikyrah
@Boris, Rasputin’s Evil Twin:
I thought it was fabulous.
rikyrah
@JPL:
Her new lawyer has a defamation lawsuit waiting for Dolt45, and has told him so.
TenguPhule
@BillinGlendaleCA: Sooner or later we’re gonna see a tweet going “NUCLEAR OPTION ON NORTH KOREA DEAL!!!” and that will be all she wrote.
rikyrah
@Mike in NC:
his former caddy?
TenguPhule
@sukabi:
It’s telling that the job description didn’t change.
Mnemosyne
@germy:
I hope somebody brings Michael Wolff as their guest. ?
prostratedragon
@Jager: Seems she wants to keep custody. Who knows, maybe her folks can help rear a somewhat normal kid.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Scraping the bottom of the barrel. Best and the brightest have been replaced by the worst and the dimmest.
TenguPhule
Does anyone know why the Oklahoma teachers are getting all the stories instead of the Kentucky teachers in the national news?
Elizabelle
No surprise at all.
WaPost: Russian bots are tweeting their support of embattled Fox News host Laura Ingraham
germy
@Mnemosyne:
I could be wrong, but I get the feeling he’s a pariah among the villagers.
Adam L Silverman
Someone needs to have a chat with the intelligence folks working the President’s Secret Service detail!
Mnemosyne
@germy:
Of course he is, but the whole point of the WHPC dinner is that they get to rub elbows with real celebrities, not just other press folks. And someone who’s outside the WHPC could bring Wolff as their guest.
germy
@Adam L Silverman: I think they’re still a thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Bourbon-Two_Sicilies
efgoldman
@dmsilev:
OK. I’ve known MIT types. They can be a little…. closed off from reality.
But these are grad students, for Neils Bohr’s sake. In physics. Shouldn’t they have at least a tenuous mooring to reality?
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Yes, they forgot to give the blonde on the left a cone snail to jab at Trump while nobody was looking.
satby
@MisterForkbeard: my ex-husband’s brother had schizophrenia but was non-violent, so it was impossible to get him involuntarily committed in IL.
But don’t most states have at least an involuntary commitment procedure for people who are threats to themselves or others? If you’re telling his grandparents to lock their bedroom door (the guns should always be locked up anyway) then face it, you think he’s a danger to others. Especially since his parents offloaded him as a threat to a younger child. Call the whoever is the Mental Health dept. in your state and make a report about the threat, and ask for their help in getting him committed for evaluation. I don’t blame you for not calling the trigger-happy police, but if you knew someone on the force they could maybe help too, without other cops feeling jeopardized..
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: Yep, Dan Scavino. Started as a caddy for the President at his Westchester golf course when he was 16. Worked all the way up to be the manager of the golf course/club. Then moved to the Trump Organization as social media director – basically the President’s in house tweeter, facebook and instagram updater. He currently carries civilian rank equivalent to a 3 star general. From my understanding he has, at best, a high school diploma.
rikyrah
@germy:
Continue to be SO GLAD that Wolff’s book stomped all over hers.
TenguPhule
@efgoldman:
You do realize the letter was made by a crank and not an actual student, yes?
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: Wikipedia definitely has a section on the House of Bourbon in Exile for that kingdom… I think they’re just minor minor minor minor royalty.
ETA beaten by germy!
BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle:
Nope.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
So vastly overqualified for the rank then. //
TenguPhule
@BillinGlendaleCA: Your winnings, sir.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Most humans would realize standing next to a six foot tall pink rabbit wasn’t the most of august occasions, but not Spanky there.
schrodingers_cat
@Jager: Her parents have used the existing immigration laws, why hate on them for what T and his minions are doing.
Uncle Cosmo
@The Dangerman: I’d be most interested to see what sort of maneuvers his fucking bazillionaire enablers pulled over the weekend & early today.
And maybe the idea was to blindside the pension funds from those baaaaad ole blue states…
Brachiator
@Adam L Silverman:
So, Trump had a couple of shots of bourbon.
satby
@MisterForkbeard: the family needs to describe what they’re in fear of.that may be hard or embarrassing, but if it gets him help they need to be brutally honest.
About fixation on the fantasy weapons too.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@TenguPhule: What, peer review in science isn’t done by elected officials?
germy
Anyone remember Michael Romanoff, the Brooklyn pants presser who passed himself off as royalty?
rikyrah
@Adam L Silverman:
Uh huh
Uh huh
Like I’ve said before, as a Non-White person, I don’t ever..and I mean ever..wanna hear bullshyt about ‘ Unqualified Minorities’.
Don’t even purse the lips to let it cross them.
Adam L Silverman
@germy: @Major Major Major Major: The people in the photo actually exist. But they have no kingdom. They’re just a bunch of pretentious grifters with delusions of (long lost) grandeur and (self) importance.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Only the Best People, Adam, only the Best People.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Adam L Silverman: god, what old Henri IV and Maria Theresa would think of their descendants toadying to that thing. If the term Eurotrash didn’t exist….
ETA: I wonder if that’s how they pay the bills, posing for captioned pictures with new money trash at parties and board meetings
Amir Khalid
@germy:
They’re definitely filthy rich with untold bazillions in wealth carefully husbanded for centuries. Possibly way richer than pikers like Bill Gates.
TenguPhule
@Brachiator:
Well played.
ruemara
@Adam L Silverman: Whoa. That, uh, genetic overbite tendency… Yow.
@Adam L Silverman: Jesus. Merit-fucking-tocracy.
What Rikyrah said. I have to remove things off my resume. I spent nearly a decade being unemployed and underemployed because over-experienced/over educated.
@Amir Khalid: Then they need to buy new genes, because, they can eat an apple behind their backs. Last time I saw teeth like that, it was on a Cthulu-esque horror in a movie.
germy
@rikyrah:
Yep. Two things I’ve noticed over my many years:
1) The minimally-educated white person who rises to amazing professional and financial success, helped along by sympathetic benefactors and mentors.
2) The white person who decides to knock off work for a year or so to “see the world” – travels alone with no fear all around the U.S., (especially the southern states) backpacking, hitchhiking, etc. Encountering nothing but good will along the way.
TenguPhule
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I can neither confirm nor deny this at this time given how fucked up our government has become.
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: so a perfect fit then, for the outer-borough slumlord striver Trumps.
TenguPhule
@germy:
Pretty sure hitchhiking has dried up at least. All the dead white women left a mark.
Adam L Silverman
Oy vey…
germy
@Amir Khalid:
They’re certainly richer than trump.
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
Putin is not sending his best here.
Spanky
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Hey! Will you knock it off?
Yutsano
@Adam L Silverman: Just curious: were the Romanovs not available? I mean they’re just up in St Petersburg*
*This is not a joke. There is an actual claimant to the Romanov throne who lives in St Petersburg, Florida.
Spanky
@Brachiator:
Charles and Camilla? You don’t suppose Trump thought …. NAH!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@MisterForkbeard: did your nephew confuse himself with his RPG character? That really sounds like full bore Mart Stu and he won’t come back. Wow.
stinger
@Adam L Silverman: Prince Charles and Camilla posing with Trump? Does Trump think that means he’s getting an invite to Harry and Meghan’s wedding?
Chris
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
European nobles have lots of experience sucking up to capitalists that they consider beneath them but can’t live without.
Although this kind of looks like the opposite of the usual story.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Oh my god– I just heard trump bragging about how he keeps the White House in top shape, “some people call it ‘tippy top shape'”
TenguPhule
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: To be fair, megadamage armor or characters are pretty much required in Pallidium Rifts unless you want to die on the first bad roll of the dice.
Yutsano
@Spanky: @stinger:
Okay waitaminute.
I know his staff is as dumb as he is but there’s no way…
Wait…
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Oh damn the Onion should just give up now.
Aleta
Her upper chest starts heaving when he gets to “military.” He’s a rolling cannon of panic attacks, and the boy would only agree to stand there if he could wear a different head. Mel sewed on the bunny ears last night to make it seem seasonal.
Adam L Silverman
Ruh Roh!!!
Yutsano
@Adam L Silverman: Oh dear. That’s going to leave a mark.
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: I’m aware.
TenguPhule
Final market score today, DOW down 458.
Tomorrow is going to suck.
germy
@Adam L Silverman:
trollhattan
@Adam L Silverman:
Shee-yit! Have they forgotten the fate of Kim Jong-nam? Damn, that’s lax.
The Moar You Know
@Adam L Silverman: Looks legit, they certainly have that look of savagely inbred royalty.
stinger
@stinger: Beat to the punch by Spanky. (That’s a pretty violent sentence, right there.)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@TenguPhule: Yes, it occurred to me that politicians having the last word on what is science is very likely that is one of Pence’s dreams
Origuy
@Adam L Silverman: Back in the day, one of my favorite features of Lawyers, Guns, and Money blog was Sunday Deposed Monarchs Blogging. Robert Farley did a piece on House Bourbon.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Here you go. Bonus Monkey Joe for added excitement!
Shana
@Adam L Silverman: Charles and Camilla? Really?
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: He’s claiming he might not have had dinner with Assange. Do you know who actually knows if he had dinner with Assange? Bob Mueller!
Adam L Silverman
@germy: Someone will have to spend time in the Ecuadorian punishment closet…
germy
Remember when Stone called Nunberg a ‘lying psycho a-hole” and “cocaine addict” for claiming that Stone had met with Assange?
Major Major Major Major
@Yutsano: @Adam L Silverman: Roger Stone’s defense keeps being that he just sends a lot of emails that say whatever. A brilliant strategy!
Adam L Silverman
@Origuy: He’s gotten lazy now that he has tenure. Happens to the best of them…//
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman:
I seem to recall a scandal awhile back where they got in trouble for enjoying that too much with the local women.
Adam L Silverman
@Shana: I don’t name these people.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
His next defense is that someone else actually reads and writes his emails. He’s just a figurehead, really.
El Caganer
@Adam L Silverman: These folks needed a year of research to figure out that something was a bit squirrelly with ‘David Jewberg?’
germy
@Major Major Major Major:
we’ll just have to wait for what he has to say on twitter in his defense.
Oh wait… he’s off twitter. How does he communicate nowadays? Snapchat or tumblr?
Gravenstone
@Adam L Silverman: And what was the faux scandal when those two pretenders to wealth and fame managed to crash some Obama function back in the day?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Adam L Silverman:
If Camilla gets any more cosmetic surgery, her pubes are going to be on her neck.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Major Major Major Major:
And who bothers with such a bullshit title for a defunct house?
The Moar You Know
@TenguPhule: The one after that will involve him being the actual coffee boy. He just took their orders and brought it back from Starbucks.
Ridnik Chrome
@TenguPhule:
I’m never going to get to retire, am I?
jl
@The Moar You Know: I figure I have enough on my plate of ‘trying to figure out what the hell is going on’ ti worry about bit players like Melania, Tiffany, etc. The current First Lady has held some wholesome, multi-ethnic, local kid events in the WH veggie garden, which she insists should keep going. She is a better First Lady than Trump is at his job, and I’ll take what I can get in terms of minimal decency out of this bunch.
trollhattan
@Ridnik Chrome:
My Q1/18 statements will be arriving this month. I shouldn’t even open them.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Ridnik Chrome:
Nope, work til you drop, that’s the Republican retirement plan.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Maybe I could score a Mar-a-Loco visit by changing my name to Paul Atreides of the noble House Atreides. My dad was Duke Leto, you know.
TenguPhule
@Ridnik Chrome:
I haven’t hit forty yet and my current revised retirement plan so far boils down to “Find survivalist preppers with their stash. Eat the preppers first.”.
joel hanes
@dmsilev:
the science crackpots back then were _real_ science crackpots. Do a Google search for ‘Archimedes Plutonium’
Or Alexander Abian. (He was my Stats professor my junior year.)
Or Ted Holden on the felt effect of gravity, catastrophism, Saturn as a magnetic star, and Kazmeier.
Or Stefan Hartman and FREE ENERGY from Testatika
Or, God help us, Robert McElwaine:
brendancalling
I realize I’m late to the party, but I LOVE how Melania looks like a robot in this photo.
TenguPhule
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Coincidentally its also their new healthcare plan.
TenguPhule
@jl:
She’s an unrepentant birther. Fuck em.
Brachiator
@brendancalling:
And I originally missed Betty Cracker’s “Third Lady” reference. What a burn!
Also, you can google “Obama and Easter Bunny” for a fun contrast. I don’t think Obama ever wore a suit during the Easter Egg party, and both he and Michelle looked far more at ease than Trump and his Iron Maiden.
Mnemosyne
@germy:
As I understand it, nobody in Hollywood believed he was a Romanoff, but they thought the food at his eponymous restaurant was tasty.
Corner Stone
@brendancalling: Melania looks like an East German border guard.
BillinGlendaleCA
@TenguPhule: No, that’s “Don’t get sick, and if you do die quickly”.
Ridnik Chrome
@joel hanes: I knew a guy in Chicago in the late 80s-early 90s whose hobby horse was getting the government to construct Fuller domes over nuclear reactors, because he was worried that a meltdown would cause HIV to mutate into an airborne virus. “The Nuclear Condom” is what he called his plan. Nice, friendly guy, but totally off his rocker…
germy
@Mnemosyne: You’re right, they knew he was a con man, but they played along and loaned him the money to open his restaurant.
JR
@Adam L Silverman: Jean-Christophe, here’s your chance!
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@ruemara: I had to look up the pedigrees. My first thought was that they had to be Hapsburgs.
jl
@TenguPhule: From what I’ve read, she is a true right winger. But it’s what she does in her official capacity that I think is important, and so far that is acceptable, versus completely incompetent and vile, so I think there is at least one person setting at least some good examples of behavior.
She might think that this dimwit schlub who has repeatedly betrayed her will do some good in the world. but she will be as disappointed there as in their private life. But that is her problem..
Boussinesque
@dmsilev: this is really taking me back to the first time someone showed me Time Cube.
Aleta
@Immanentize: It would be in character for him, and typical of abusive men, to make threats beyond money. Claiming they’d fight for or win sole custody is common. Get someone deported, destroy her rep with photos or stories. Lie about what they would do in or out of court.
El Caganer
@Ridnik Chrome: Christ, nobody tell Trump that. He’ll be threatening the N Koreans with nuclear condoms.
Mnemosyne
@germy:
And gave him small parts in movies, too.
As long as he didn’t cheat any of the moguls, they didn’t care. Hell, most of them were using new names themselves — Goldfish to Goldwyn, Meir to Mayer, etc.
(The Warner Bros’ father was the one who Anglicized their last name — no one is quite sure what the original was.)
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
April Fool’s Day was yesterday.
Barbara
@JR: I linked to the Wikipedia entry on Napoleon’s heir and found this sentence: “Despite the dynastic dispute [between the father and the son, Jean-Christophe], Jean-Christophe’s father has stated that ‘there will never be conflict’ between him and his son over the imperial succession.”
Sort of like there will never be conflict over who owns Pluto.
Aleta
@JR: If they have a claim to a throne, they should behave like royalty. No more shopping. Get their vassals together, provide horses and armor and ride forth.
Mnemosyne
@Barbara:
First you have to resolve the conflict between who gets the French throne, the Bonapartes or the Bourbons.
And then you have to figure out which Bourbons have the better claim, the Capets or the d’Orleans.
My novel partly involves a possible royal pretender, so I find this stuff fascinating anyway.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
Whichever side that manages to kill all of the competing claimants. of course.
SATSQ.
germy
@SiubhanDuinne:
Olivia Nuzzi is on twitter defending Maggie; calling her “best at what she does, a great reporter” or something.
Nuzzi is also a big fan of Milo and Coulter, so…
Barbara
@Mnemosyne: Well it turns out that young Jean-Christophe (now 32 or so) is descended from both Napoleon (via his brother Jerome) and Louis XV (not sure through what marital connection), and from Louis XV, it’s only a hop skip and a jump to just about every other royal family in Europe. Louis XV was the son of a Spanish princess and the grandson of an Austrian princess.
Chris
@Mnemosyne:
French monarchists, the original People’s Front of Judea/Judean People’s Front.
MisterForkbeard
@Adam L Silverman: He’s an hour or two west of Philly, but I don’t remember the town’s name. Up until a couple weeks ago he lived with my brother in California.
I’ll talk to this David Anderson character, but I don’t trust him. I’d much rather speak to Mayhew – that guy knew what he was doing. :)
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: huh, and Stone just got done calling Nunberg a coke-headed liar.
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
That’s actually one theory of how Louis XVI and his family ended up on the guillotine during the French Revolution — Louis’s cousin Phillippe from the d’Orleans branch of the family wanted the throne for himself, so he threw his lot in with the revolutionaries as “Phillippe Egalite” in the hope of deposing Louis and installing himself as king.
But as so often happens when you think you can control the crazy, Phillippe ended up following Louis to the guillotine 8 months later.
MisterForkbeard
@Barbara: He trusts me at the moment. I tend to actually discuss many of his weird ideas with him and take them seriously, and I haven’t called him out on any of his less-than-great behavior of the past couple years, and when he had his last confrontation with the family he insisted I be there before he would talk to anyone.
We’re currently debating whether asking to go would alienate him from the last relative he isn’t angry with. I’m pretty sure I could present it in a positive light that he would agree with, but I also think he’d just shrug it off and not actually go.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
He didn’t expect the leopards to eat his face!
sukabi
@germy: grinder most likely.
TenguPhule
@Chris:
I assume a Timey Whimey Ball is involved in this somewhere.
Mnemosyne
@Chris:
I just read a pretty interesting book on it called Marie-Therese: Child of Terror, a biography of the only child of Louis XVI to survive the revolution. The conflict between the two branches of the family went back centuries, but it didn’t become bloody until the Duc d’Orleans thought he could manipulate the revolution to his advantage. Whoops!
Then you had the Carousel of Kings where Marie-Therese’s d’Orleans cousin managed to put himself on the throne, only to be himself deposed in favor of Napoleon’s nephew. And then the French finally said, “This is stupid, let’s just be a republic and forget the whole thing.”
Mnemosyne
@MisterForkbeard:
This was a slightly different situation (no psychosis involved), but when our teenage nephew needed to go to a psychiatric boarding school to get his ADHD and bipolar disorder under control, one of his great-uncles was able to talk him into it by discussing his own days at a similar school for similar reasons. Please note, however, that all of the arrangements had been made and a spot had been secured before this last discussion, so all my nephew had to do was give his final agreement. He did, conditional on the great-uncle going with him to the check-in at the school, which he did.
So the timing could be very important if you think there’s a chance he might listen to you — the family should probably have all the arrangements in hand and only need his final agreement. And a trip out there to talk to him in person would probably be better than a phone call.
Barbara
@MisterForkbeard: David did recently live in Pennsylvania. Both my father and my sister lived in Pennsylvania at a time when they needed mental health services. My father was involuntarily committed at one point, but I considered it to be an abuse of the involuntary commitment statute. Nonetheless, he had an existing psychiatrist who clearly knew what to say to invoke the law. Every state is subject to constitutional standards on the deprivation of liberty only as a result of just cause. That’s one reason why the standard for commitment is so high. Even if someone is involuntarily committed, it is typically for a period of no more than 72 hours, and they can contest the commitment and often have a right to an attorney to help them. In the meantime, they will no longer trust the person who they blame for having them committed. It’s such a no-win situation.
Here is a link that includes information on the standards required to get someone committed in Pennsylvania: http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/browse-by-state/pennsylvania
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
And of course being the French, they made it even more complicated.
Chris
@Mnemosyne:
I didn’t actually know that, but I did remember a similar situation after “Napoleon’s nephew” was deposed (by a German army). Apparently, when trying to form a new government, Plan A was in fact to restore the monarchy, but the various branches involved couldn’t agree on how to do it. Most people agreed on an heir (can’t remember who), but the heir wanted more power and less constitutionalism than the rest of the monarchists were prepared to give him, and they couldn’t agree on anyone else to take his place. So the Third Republic was basically what happened by default because the monarchists couldn’t get their shit together.
MisterForkbeard
@Barbara: Thank you. I really appreciate the help.
This whole thing is confused a bit first by my incorrect terminology, and by the fact that he was incorrectly involuntarily committed once or twice already when he was younger.
Short version: He grew up in a verbally and borderline physically abusive home with his mother and step-mom. My brother is married to his Aunt, he’s technically my… nephew-in-law-in-law. His folks had him committed twice (the first time he actually DID try to commit suicide, but the second time was his parents just being assholes). After the 2nd time, my brother’s family took him in and tried to get him help. He kind of bounced between doing fine and backsliding for about two years before he made an accidental threat about the young kids in the house that caused him to get kicked out a couple weeks ago, and now he’s living with his grandparents in Pennsylvania, and they’re kind of afraid of him. His complete breakdown appears to have started around the time my brother had to evict him – that’s when the talk about power armor first started.
Barbara
@Chris: I am reading a book called France: The Dark Years, which is about France during WWII, but the first 100 pages or so (out of more than 600) discusses the antecedents for why, in 1939, France had basically arrived at a political stalemate that made it impossible to mount a more robust resistance to German incursion. Pacifism resulting from the cataclysmic carnage of WWI was only one of the reasons. Among the other tidbits I learned was that even in the 1930s there were people who refused to celebrate Bastille Day because they thought they preferred a monarch to the Troisieme Republique. Some of these people looked at the occupation as a way to foist their idea of a cultural revolution or renewal on their fellow citizens.
Yutsano
@TenguPhule: Eh. One measly little Reign of Terror and suddenly we looked terrible to the rest of Europe.
Then that stupid Corsican showed up…
Barbara
@MisterForkbeard: Would it be possible to have him come back to California to get help? Proximity to his family (you and others) would make everything a lot easier and you could support and encourage him personally.
Jager
@Adam L Silverman: His doc at the VA, now his caddy, what about his pilot running the FAA is that proceeding?
debbie
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Oh, I think we’re there. Dow’s dropped somewhere around 3,000 points, which is about 11+% down from the high of 26,600. I await the Tweet telling me I have nothing to fear but fear itself.
debbie
@eemom:
She’s probably still gagging from having had to hold his hand when they went to church yesterday.
Mnemosyne
@MisterForkbeard:
Ugh. Yes, the previous forced commitments are going to make it trickier to get him to voluntarily agree to go. I think that’s where preparing ahead of time would be useful, particularly if you can offer him some kind of choice in the matter.
And the fact that his father thought he might be threatening the kid could be a potential talking point, assuming it was truly accidental and not an unguarded moment. After all, he doesn’t want his younger siblings to be afraid of him, so maybe talking to a therapist about better strategies for dealing with them would be helpful.
Chris
@Barbara:
Oh Lordy, that era. Yeah, the backstory to the whole Vichy thing is that there were a lot of people who simply never accepted republicanism as a form of government, who spent the entire Third Republic waging a culture war against the liberals and the emerging left (the Dreyfuss Affair being its most famous battle), and, when the republic got stomped on in 1940, thought it was the opportunity of a lifetime to get rid of their enemies and create the right kind of government. But even before 1940 they were starting to lose their shit, in no small part thanks to – stop me if any of this sounds familiar – a 1936 election in which we not only elected a left-wing government, but a Jewish prime minister.
The whole narrative of post-WW1 pacifism leading to WW2, while not wrong (it was one of the big factors), simplifies things very conveniently for people pushing the narrative of “it was fucking pacifists and leftists pushing their weak-kneed appeasement on the population, like they always do,” the solution to which is of course to keep supporting arch-nationalist conservatives. It nicely glosses over the role of arch-nationalist conservatives, who hated the left and the liberals so much that they were willing to ally with anyone to see them crushed, in Hitler’s rise to power. And not just in France by any means.
Paxton, the guy who wrote An Anatomy of Fascism, has a pretty good book on Vichy that covers this.
SiubhanDuinne
@Adam L Silverman:
As is almost always the case, William S. Gilbert has the apt word:
To help unhappy commoners, and add to their enjoyment,
Affords a man of noble rank congenial employment;
Of our attempts we offer you examples illustrative:
The work is light, and, I may add, it’s most remunerative….
Song
James E. Powell
@germy:
The Beltway Courtiers doing their usual daisy chain.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: TRUE nobility gives up. There is a claimant to the throne of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem out there and that collapsed over 600 years ago.
Origuy
@Mnemosyne: Have you seen this video: Who Would Be King of France?
I think that it makes perfect sense for pretenders to a throne to hang out with a pretend president.
MisterForkbeard
@Barbara: The problem I have with this is that I don’t actually want him near my brother’s kids, and I don’t really want him near MY kids either. It’s hard to be nearby and supportive of him when I’m genuinely worried he might snap and try to attack my brother (for example).
@Mnemosyne: Technically, he was threatening his cousins. Like I said, it’s complicated – but he was living my brother’s family (his aunt and uncle) when he made the threat. And specifically, the threat was “If you don’t let me smoke weed or drink I don’t know how I’ll cope and I might snap, and I don’t know what I would do to your kids.” Which is… possibly a threat, and possible a warning. My brother believes it was a threat/blackmail, and I don’t think he understands that he confessed that he might kill or hurt a toddler if he doesn’t get to do what he wants. As far as I can tell, his interpretation is that weed/alcohol helps him, so therefore if they forbid him to use them in the house then he’s not responsible for how he acts, his aunt and uncle are.
Sigh. The whole thing is complicated and bad.
Ridnik Chrome
@Chris:
Sounds strangely familiar…
Chris
@Ridnik Chrome:
Doesn’t it, though?
The real prize was right-wingers screaming “better Hitler than [Jewish/leftist prime minister] Blum!” Long before any of this Russia mess popped up, conservatives were circulating this picture of Obama smoking weed in college next to a picture of Putin in his manly uniform, with the implication that it’d be so much better if a dreamy manly man like him were in charge. I could never see that meme without thinking of “better Hitler than Blum.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Chris: The fun of the Stavisky Affair and the Feb 6, 1934 demonstrations.
Mnemosyne
@MisterForkbeard:
Yeah, just to be super clear, I’m thinking of a possible way for the family to plan a voluntary commitment and then for you, the trusted person, to fly to PA to give him the options in person. A voluntary commitment would probably work out better for everyone than an involuntary one. Involuntary should be a last resort, because it will only make his existing paranoia worse and make him determined to resist treatment.
Barbara
@MisterForkbeard: He’s self-medicating. In the circumstances, I would probably say yes to marijuana and no to alcohol, because it is far more likely to result in poor impulse control and escalation into bad behavior. What I was thinking was more along the lines of finding a therapeutic setting in California that would be closer to his family so that you could support him in his treatment, which will soon enough be outpatient in nature.
Mnemosyne
@MisterForkbeard:
Also, as you know, the self-medicating with weed and alcohol is probably causing problems of its own, so they’ll need to find someplace that does both substance abuse and psychiatric. Weed is very detrimental to someone with psychosis.
Barbara
@Mnemosyne: Once upon a time I sat on the phone in tears with a doctor from my sister’s HMO who approved an inpatient psychiatric stay and then said to me, “I know how scared you and your family are but you have to believe me that your sister will be so much better off if she agrees to treatment.”
MisterForkbeard
@Mnemosyne: Yeah. My brother thinks the same – at best it might alleviate some symptoms like stress, but is making the underlying problem worse, or at least allowing him to ignore it as it gets worse.
Thanks again for the assist, everyone. I’ll pop up with status updates in some later OT when something changes.
MoxieM
@Aleta: Why yes, yes it would. Even non-famous abusive narcissist husbands (spouses) undertake smear campaigns (ask me how I know…or don’t if you prefer to sleep well.)
I can’t imagine the horror when spousal unit is that powerful, notorious, connected, cruel, and, well abusive.
Yes, she married him. But Narcs are very persuasive, and can be, in fact, super charming when they want to. I hope somebody has her back.
Ruckus
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Damn it, I’m going to have my ten minutes of retirement. That is of course all I will be able to afford.
Ruckus
@Corner Stone:
Thank You!
That’s where I’ve seen that look before.
Mnemosyne
@Barbara:
Marijuana + existing psychosis = very bad news.
There is some debate about whether or not pot can actually cause psychosis or if it makes an existing problem more evident, but everyone seems to agree that someone who’s already having issues with psychosis will only get more psychotic if s/he smokes pot.
TS
@Spanky:
Of course he did – still does. BFF with the future King of England.
Barbara
@Mnemosyne: That makes sense. In my experience, marijuana is one of the most highly variable substances on the brain. Generally it reduces agitation, but it does cause paranoia in some people. It irks me how many legalization advocates ignore the downside of marijuana.
Jay
@Barbara:
France did pretty f’n good in defending herself at the start of WWII.
The sad reality is that the German Blitzkrieg smashed into Reservists, in a region in which there was no Maginot Line because of Belgium, neutrality, and nobody at the time had an answer to Deep Battle.
The Brit’s got away at Dunkirk because of French Heroism and sacrifice.
The German’s failed in WWI because Paris was too far to walk. Nice driving distance though.
Shuggoth
@MisterForkbeard:
Normally I lurk, but I know a couple of relevant keywords and this seems important. The NAMI Pennsylvania has some guidance, and I suggest you start there. Question 1 has some crisis line phone numbers you can call. Question 8 describes both a communication method that’s sometimes useful and some links that will tell you about how to start the Assisted Outpatient Treatment process started. Pennsylvania is…not great when it comes to AOT, but it’s important to know your options. Good luck!