So, my first thought: Was there an understated, gilt-edged tip jar at every table?…
8 of the world’s wealthiest people attended Trump’s 1st state dinner.@DevPend @coldspot https://t.co/Cxy0X9L0bm
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 25, 2018
SIGN OF THE TIMES. A Billionaires' Fete: Guests Worth $120 Billion Dined With Trump at First State Dinner…Their fortunes have soared 70% since his inauguration https://t.co/2DHbZSsHjZ @DevPend @coldspot @BBGBillionaires pic.twitter.com/4qaf7jlaNd
— Mike Dorning (@MikeDorning) April 25, 2018
Afterwards, Macron spent his Wednesday on a charm offensive around DC. This may have
done him no favors with his hometown papers, but his American audience was (mostly) charmed:
“Closing the door to the world will not stop the evolution of the world. It will not douse, but inflame the fears of our citizens,” French President Macron says in speech to Congress pic.twitter.com/OXkiO9sJM9
— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 25, 2018
[O]n Wednesday, as his three-day visit drew to a close, Macron shifted the story dramatically. In his speech to American lawmakers, he offered a comprehensive rejection of the main tenets of Trumpism, excoriating “extreme nationalism” and protectionism, championing climate-change science and defending the international liberal order. “You can play with anger and fear for a time,” Macron said, alluding to the themes that fuel right-wing nationalist movements in the West, “but they do not construct anything.”
Macron went on, urging his American audience to look beyond borders and walls. “We can choose isolationism. But closing the door to the world will not stop the evolution of the world,” he said. And he bristled at the rise of autocrats and illiberal democrats, which include some leaders favored by Trump: “I don’t share fascination for new strong powers and the illusion of nationalism,” he said.Macron also cast a skeptical eye at Trump’s efforts to slap tariffs on imports from allies and undermine existing free-trade deals. To Macron, this bid to boost American manufacturing jobs at home — combined with Trump’s dismissals of climate change as a “hoax” — was counterproductive and shortsighted…
SHADE WAS THROWN:
Macron: “We have to fight against the ever-growing virus of fake news, which exposes our people to irrational fear and imaginary risks” https://t.co/N1B5qbDvol
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) April 25, 2018
Macron confirms he expects Trump to leave the Iran nuclear deal: “If you heard him in the Oval Office you will have come to the same conclusion.” Says it was “a campaign promise”. pic.twitter.com/Z1BNQkOnlP
— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) April 25, 2018
— darth™ (@darth) April 25, 2018
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
rikyrah
I do believe that Macron is trying to prevent war with Iran.
HeleninEire
Morning, morning crew. Niece and her friend have gone back to NY. Back to work for me.
BretH
Good morning back atcha.
Karen Potter
And it is pouring, which is great! I won’t have to water any of perennial pots but there is a flash flood warning.
So good morning to all.
Cermet
Well, telling the thieves, liars and soulless that they are wrong is like telling a group of cats to form a line. Useless. Greed and the opioid of the masses among the uneducated (i.e. minds that refuse to learn new ideas) is all that drive amerikan culture – an empty waste land headed towards a Soylent Green type culture – strange that such a silly movie would speak a number of truths: a world in heat and a micro-elite that control all real resources/money..
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
NotMax
That he meekly stood there like an errant schoolboy, allowing Dolt 45 to play dominance games and lay hands on him to do so reduced him from Macron to Micron in this geezer’s book.
Karen Potter
RawStory is calling Macron the new leader of the free world.
JPL
@Karen Potter: What about Angela?
bystander
On Moanin’ Joe, professional blabberer David Ignatius is telling us Rudi America’s Mayor is assessing whether Mueller has an open mind. Joe and Meeka seem to want to savage Tester but can’t because he may be telling the truth.
Baud
@Karen Potter: Anyone but Trump.
Baud
@bystander: “You’re not looking at me, are you?”
NotMax
[Insert punch line about Mother Nature’s sense of humor here.]
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Unuseful idiot
Ben Cisco
Complete (and complex) sentences, logic-based, and coherent.
Man, I miss that.
Karen Potter
@JPL: Well, she didn’t just do a “take down” of dolt on his home turf; Macron has more charism and played to the cameras.
raven
@bystander: So it doesn’t make you wonder how this drunken maniac gets such race reviews from Obama people?
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@bystander: is this the same joe and meeka who abandoned their spouses and children for an office affair?
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Quinnipiac Poll — April 25 (link)
Drumpf rating
Approve…………………….39%
Disapprove………………..54%
——————————————————————
Generic Ballot
Democrats…………………48%
Republicans……………….40%
Karen Potter
@raven: he must have been their “candyman”
Ben Cisco
@raven: I’m kinda curious about it. Doesn’t seem like the sort of thing that would’ve gone by the boards – it would be VERY disappointing if it did.
Anne Laurie
@raven:
Not if Jackson was a “kiss up, kick down” kinda guy. Trump’s very favorite type!
To tell the truth, I kinda feel sorry for the dude, even if he doesn’t really deserve it. Way I see it, he’s a perfectly competent human-machine mechanic who didn’t have the foresight to step back fast when his biggest client offered him a job he manifestly wasn’t qualified to handle. I mean, much as you might love your mechanic, you wouldn’t necessarily offer him a job as the head of GM… or Samsung.
Mary G
Quite a bit of shade in how Macron staged his press conference. He did everything but leave an empty podium where Twitler should be.
Anya
@raven: That’s the most puzzling part of all of this. If these anonymous sources are telling the truth, Jackson committed most of what he’s accused of when he was President Obama’s physician so why did the Obama White House keep him? Why are they still speaking highly off him? Something is weird about these leaks. I hope Trump people are not setting up Tester.
raven
@Anne Laurie: revved up like a duece
raven
@Anya: It’s Morning Joe’s fault!!!
Anya
@Anne Laurie: He’s probably a kiss ass and power hungry. But all that stuff he’s accused off, like becoming intoxicated and banging on the hotel room door of a female employee during an overseas trip is pretty serious because the SS supposedly got involved so why wouldn’t this be reported to the Chief of Staff? The Obama adminstration promoted him so something is pretty strange.
Mary G
@raven: My theory is that Obama’s people were mostly like him – younger, healthy, fit, etc. and didn’t really need a doctor except for the sleeping pill for the plane and the waker-upper white when it landed. So there wasn’t much contact. And lots of head doctors tend to be assholes, so it wouldn’t have been that surprising.
There were a couple of times when the Secret Service got caught drinking and visiting ladies of the evening, so they and the doctor might have been covering for each other.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Anya: Maybe he was the “Candyman” for the Secret Service detail.
Anya
@raven: I really appreciate the respect.
Anne Laurie
@raven: Hey, I’ve known way too many dudes got away with marginally antisocial behavior as long as they continued to be ‘generous’ with their supply. (And I didn’t even imbibe much… which may be why I was the only one noticing Mr. Natural’s less attractive habits.)
Tried not to hang out in those circles for long, but from the ones I remember hearing about later, going from “everybody’s best bud, how can you not love the guy” to “half-crazed homeless addict, haven’t thought about him in years” was a common arc…
Baud
@Anne Laurie:
Interesting. I should try that.
RedDirtGirl
@raven: I have been wondering that myself!
Kay
@bystander:
Rudy will harm the credibility of the investigation, not with political media (who are probably thrilled the blabbermouth fixer is on board) but with the part of the public who don’t support Donald Trump- and that’s a big group of people.
Now we’ll get leaks and planted stories and an avalanche of bullshit. It’s a shame because it really was being handled professionally and seriously. Trump’s people stink up everything. This will be no different. There’s nothing Mueller can do about it- these are the people Trump hires to represent him. They’ll drown out any and all real events and facts. You’re not supposed to hear about an investigation until (and if) there’s indictments. Mueller was doing it right. Comey did it wrong.
That’s over now. The fixers, grifters and cable tv loudmouths have been retained. They’ll bury us in bullshit. It will mostly be to make Trump look good but it will also be designed to make Rudy look good. It just won’t have any connection to finding out what really happened in 2016. In a way it’s amazing it stayed clean as long as it did. Now the circus begins.
Anya
@?BillinGlendaleCA: this could explain some of it but it would be really dissapointing if the Obama admin turned a blind eye to this man’s abuses. As things stand right now, the Obama admin gets more of the blame than the clown currently embarrassing our country on a daily bases.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?!
Getting ready for what will be a 12 hour day at the farmers market, they’re doing a special evening event tonight. Hoping it’s really dead during the middle of the day so I can run home and let the dogs out. No one told me being retired would be so much work ?
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
On the bright side, she’s doing really well with people who resent a non-white Santa Claus.
Baud
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I can’t believe they are sticking with her.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Anya:
They may have not known about them, I’ve known quite a few functioning substance abusers.
Baud
@Baud: She’s on the Today show right now.
satby
@Anne Laurie: everyone who’s ever worked in a large organization can tell stories about the unfit asshole who manages to get ahead in spite of their faults, until a spotlight happens to shine on them. And when their long term behavior comes out they get canned, and everyone wonders how the jerk got as many promotions as they did. Inertia, minimum competence, and most people’s avoidance of conflict: that’s how.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
I don’t care how much lipstick you put on it, it’s still a pig.
MagdaInBlack
@NotMax:
He struck me as being amused at the (needy)male primate dominance display. When you are in some one else’s “house” you allow them their displays.
Just my take.
Kay
@bystander:
Mueller can’t (and won’t) respond publicly to “whether Mueller has an open mind” which means the only people assessing and then talking about “whether Mueller has an open mind” will be Trump’s sleazy lawyers or political media repeating verbatim what Trump’s lawyers say is the question. They’re repeating this as accepted fact- that the real question here is whether Mueller is fit to investigate Donald Trump, setting it up to be some ridiculous clownish cage match between Mueller and Comey on one side and Trump on the other. That’s why America’s Mayor was hired. Not to defend, but to inject so much bullshit and squid ink that the public won’t have any idea what actually happened at the end of it.
Anne Laurie
@Baud:
As long as you don’t expect it to end well… because 99.9% of the time, it won’t.
satby
@Kay: Giuliani isn’t all that popular outside of Drumpf’s bitter enders and the village stenographers. He’ll be preaching to a shrinking choir.
Anne Laurie
@satby:
Tell me about it. I figured, when we decided I could afford to take some time off after my department was shut down / the company was sold, it would give me some extra time to comment on my favorite blog!
satby
@Baud: she’s a sunk cost fallacy in action.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
Right. We’ll still have the indictments and any charges as a kind of north star of what happened. But we;ll also have truckloads of bullshit regarding Mueller’s inner thoughts and motivations to wade thru, and we didn’t have that impediment before.
The objective here is to NOT get to any conclusion, to leave it as “questions remain”, to promote theories carefully planted by fixers, because that’s what fixers do when actual events aren’t going well for their client. They flood the zone with bullshit questions like “does Mueller like Comey better than he likes Trump?”
It was probably inevitable and like I said I’m surprised it took this long.
NotMax
Decidedly mixed bag on TCM this weekend.
(Omnes, please scroll on by this entry.) Friday, 4 a.m., Killer Klowns From Outer Space – if shabby drive-ins didn’t already exist, they’d have had to be invented to show this.
Saturday, 6 p.m., The Gumball Rally – Mindless fun for gearheads.
Saturday, 9:45 p.m., Five Million Years To Earth (a/k/a “Quatermass and the Pit”) – British no-budget thinking man’s sci-fi thriller.
Sunday, 6 a.m.,Holiday – quite possibly the single production that moved Kate Hepburn form ‘poison’ to ‘irritant’ in Hollywood and paved the way for her journey to ‘legend.’
Sunday, Noon , Executive Suite – the passage of time has served to encapsulate this as the corporate 1950s in a nutshell.
debbie
I’d like a t-shirt with “There is no Planet B” on it.
satby
@Anne Laurie: ??
satby
@NotMax: Holliday is another one of those films I stop and watch whenever it’s on.
TS (the original)
@Anya:
Which is what everyone in the trump admin would like you to think. Obama is not the president. Obama did not nominate the doctor for any other position. Democrats will accept the blame for anything & the GOP says “thank you so muich”
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: He has joined team trump. Is there anyone anywhere who did not become visibly less after signing on with him? Whatever credibility Giuliani had, it was never very much to begin with, it will be nothing but a dead flattened skunk in the road and smell just as bad.
Baud
@Anne Laurie: I don’t expect happy endings.
Baud
@TS (the original): Thank you.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Baud: you can’t fool dogs into eating something they don’t like.
bemused
@Mary G:
@Ben Cisco:
I wonder if president fubar even caught on to the full meaning of Macron’s critical statements unless someone in the WH later wrote out large postcard crib notes for him. After a couple of minutes, at best, he tunes out complete, complex, logic-based coherent statements particularly if he isn’t mentioned by name. The only thing that gets his attention is hearing his brand name. I wouldn’t be surprised if the standing ovations for Macron were interpreted by twitler to be favorable to him.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Kay: Now the circus begins? Holy cow. That’s ominous.
NotMax
@NotMax
Correction – “Killer Klowns” on at Saturday, 4 a.m.
Kay
@satby:
I hope so. But he hit with his first bullshit question. They’re all repeating it as if the Mueller investigation is an investigation into Mueller. It’s not even smart or sophisticated what Giuliani is doing. It’s what any advocate faced with a bad set of facts and a sketchy client would do- from the most exalted “America’s Mayor” to the lowliest practitioner in a muni court.
He’s fixing it. But it doesn’t have anything to do with guilt or innocence or facts or what actually happened. If you want to get some idea of those read the indictments or the affidavits or follow the trials, if there are trials. That’s the closest any member of the public will get to what happened. The rest is now officially a circus, because they WANT a circus. A circus is the best outcome for Trump.
debbie
@Kay:
Oh, please. Rudy wouldn’t know an open mind if it walked up and smacked him over the head. I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. He’s not good enough.
MJS
@Kay: That may have been why Guilliani was hired, but expect him to fail as spectacularly at that assignment as he did when he ran for president. His sell-by date is long gone, and to anyone paying attention to this stuff, his opinion is meaningless. He may get his air time, but probably would have been slightly more effective had he not been hired as Trump’s attorney. That way he could have pretended to be unbiased in his shit opinions.
TS (the original)
@OzarkHillbilly: Watched some of Lawrence last night & he emphasized that it has been decades since Giuliani worked as a defense lawyer – all he can do is attempt to smear Mueller which is unlikely to be very successful.
satby
@TS (the original):@Anya:
If this was an isolated incident of one of Drumpf’s nominees being unfit, maybe. But there’s been a failure parade in this administration, and so this becomes another one of a long line of incompetent moves.
debbie
@TS (the original):
Also, Rudy needs something to react against. Without pushback from Mueller, Rudy will be no more than a shrill harpy.
Kay
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
Mueller’s thing was really clean, though. Not a word. No spin at all. Political media found out who was getting indicted the same time we did- no one had any time to layer it with “motives” or any of this other bullshit.
Now they have Rudy on the inside as a “source” and we still won’t hear anything from Mueller because talking about investigations and indictments before you bring them is unethical and grossly unfair. So all we’ll hear will be Rudy.
It’s like when Trump was smearing the federal judge. The judge can’t say anything, and of course he didn’t. He can’t defend or even comment at all. He’s bound by ethical rules that don’t apply to Donald Trump or his sleazy fixers.
rikyrah
@bystander:
Tester dropped a house on the doctor, and I am here for it.
rikyrah
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
They deserve it. She was never worth it.
TS (the original)
@satby: I also heard (Lawrence or Rachel) that Huckerbee Sanders was asked and didn’t know the answer (thus probably NO) as to whether the doc had had any checks done since the new administration started.
rikyrah
@Baud:
She is a blonde White Woman that they overpaid. Of course, they are sticking with her.
Barbara
@Kay: Mueller is at best a stopgap. He is not an end unto himself. He is and never had been deliverance, just the guy holding the light as he guides people between safe houses.
satby
@Kay: Kay, it’s been a circus on the Republican side all along. And we’ve already had the news stories psychoanalyzing Mueller and what motivates him since the start. This latest move is part of an ongoing campaign of misinformation and attempted sabotage. And in the end, we’ll probably be right where we are today: the partisan dead-enders and troglodytes of the right will believe the investigation was a smear job, the partisan left will be angry it didn’t lead to a complete do over with Wilmer declared the winner, and the vast middle of saner people will read whatever the indictments show and hope the corruption gets the punishment it deserves. Same shit, different day.
rikyrah
@Anya:
The man has been in this position since 2006. Ask the Bush people about him
TS (the original)
@rikyrah:
And so am I. If this had been an Obama nominee (or even a Clinton campaign employee) the outcry from the media would be heard in London (UK). No-one would be querying whether Tester’s information was correct.
bemused
@TS (the original):
Corn’s story of Giuliani, two inches from his face, screaming about Hillary was pretty interesting too. Mention Hillary to Hillary haters and instant insanity ensues.
Barbara
@rikyrah: I actually find this amusing in what it says about the NBC male executives who cannot figure out that women – most of their audience – will never like Megyn Kelly. Amazingly they can’t stop thinking with their dicks long enough to understand that Megyn built her whole career as a tease for the average Fox viewer. That appeal doesn’t travel well and her efforts to adjust are clumsy.
Barbara
@rikyrah: People can deteriorate especially if they love alcohol. Also, the people who were with them in these incidents are often willing to trade alibis to cover their own tracks.
Baud
@Barbara: When she is on Today to promote her show, I don’t think the Today people like her.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
Five Million Years to Earth stars James Donald, one of the greatest actors who ever lived.
raven
Ronnie bailed now on to other outrages.
TS (the original)
@bemused: That was, I think “she should be in jail”. David Corn was not expecting that response & realized Giuliani had no interest in “innocent until proven guilty”. Was a good show from Lawrence. Stormy has herself a great lawyer. He was to be on MJ this am – should have watched to see his put down of Joe if he tried to give the trump point of view, but not up to listening to MJ this week.
Ben Cisco
@bemused: I agree with your assessment.
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
It’s fine, Kay. Rudy will change nothing. Nothing at all. He’s the new brand of squid ink being squirted, but they’ve been doing it nonstop. You personally find his convincing enough to worry other people will, but it’s just more garbage from a Trumpster’s mouth. It will fail because the narrative is in place. It will fail because Mueller is working courtrooms, not television shows. It will fail because it will take fifteen minutes for Rudy to prove as air-headed your ignorant as any other Trumpster, then his fifteen minutes will pass. It will because we win this in the voting booth, or not at all. Mueller has not been driving electoral results, and pundit babbling does not drive the outcome of a trial. Even if Rudy’s squid ink was the best ever, it would change nothing. You can relax.
Kay
Political media really aren’t doing themselves any favors here rushing in to call Clinton a liar. I mean, if one purports to be fair-minded there must at least be a question whether Chelsea Clinton actually said and did these things since Chelsea Clinton says she didn’t. The argument has changed too- initially Chozick said her book was a “memoir” as a defense and now they’re presenting it as some kind of transcript of actual events. The only way to actually verify that Clinton isn’t lying would be, what? Depose her hairdresser?
They should have stuck with “memoir”. I am amused that the rock solid belief that everything every Clinton says is a LIE remains their go-to position. They’re LIARS, the Clintons. Which we ALL know.
They’re all selling books “about the campaign”, which is fine, but to present this obvious cashing in as some kind of historical record is just bullshit. I really preferred Hunter Thompson. He didn’t lie to himself, or attempt to bullshit his readers. He was telling a story.
Anne Laurie
@Kay: I’m with the people who believe Giuliani officially joined Team Trump in hopes of finding out exactly how much Mueller’s people are holding… on Rudy Giuliani.
Vain and cocksure as Mayor Nine-Eleven is, I don’t think he’s gonna risk getting his own ancient carcass thrown into jail just to “help” his old buddy Donny. There will be lots of fussing on friendly media, but unless age & his third divorce have dinged Rudy worse than it seems, he’ll make sure to stay juuuust within bounds.
Quinerly
@Baud: if you supply Poco with copious amounts of cheese, he’ll let you get by with anything. Baud/Poco 2020!
Anne Laurie
@Baud:
Darn skippy, bud — this ain’t that kinda blog.
Baud
@Kay: Why should I believe Chozick when she hasn’t refuted Chelsea’s claims?
TS (the original)
@raven: Another one bites the dust – for much less than we know about the president*.
On to Pruitt.
JMG
As luck would have it, and I do mean lucky for me, I will be in France next week on our annual visit to see our daughter. Macron’s popularity at home has slumped badly, so whatever he said to Trump in private he was gonna do a snotty elegant French put-down in his public remarks to salvage something from the trip for himself.
SiubhanDuinne
Dr. Ronny Jackson has removed himself from consideration.
ETA: As raven already noted.
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
National news media hates the Clintons and operates exactly on Chozick’s system. It’s no surprise their fee fees are in a twist that someone pointed out it’s bullshit.
Kay
@Frankensteinbeck:
I don’t find it convincing. I don’t believe Guiliani has ever been credible. I never bought the America’s Mayor bullshit. I thought he did a fairly competent job when faced with an emergency (9/11) and it was puffed up into incredible heroism and moral leadership. That time period was like that, histrionic, exaggerated, not really the truth. A story. I actually think it’s gross how Rudy immediately cashed in on the “security” industry. It disgusted me at the time.
I just think the reporting of the Mueller investigation changes now that they have a cable tv personality on the inside. The public doesn’t have one of those. That’s good! I’m pleased with Mueller’s professionalism. The last thing we need are press conferences and tv appearances by the prosecutor. But. It is inequitable as far as how events will be portrayed.
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Morning to Poco and the tribe ??
TS (the original)
@raven:
From WAPO
Given what he said about trump’s health, I don’t believe anything he says any more.
Frankensteinbeck
@NotMax:
Like an adult, Macron let the little child act like a little child, and then went to the adult forum and humiliated Trump on important, substantive matters while making a decent shot at accomplishing productive change internationally. I would say Macron won this by a mile.
rikyrah
@Kay:
I am amused by Chelsea. Being oh so polite in her push back on Twitter.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: Real question is, how long does he keep his job? I am thinking, not long at all.
Navy has standards, even if Trump does not.
Baud
@TS (the original):
As others have pointed out, this does not follow.
rikyrah
@raven:
Pruitt trying to blame underlings for his heinous behavior.?
Weaselone
@Kay:
It’s amazing how clueless the press is to how little credibility they have with anyone. It’s also amazing they’re jumping to the defense when Amy has already had to “modify” something. Initially, it was put out as if the champagne uncorking was something she’d witnessed, then after Chelsea’s pushback, it was “some people say”‘d. We’ve also had Tur jump in about the awesomeness of her fact checker because they apparently checked flight times, but we it’s looking clear that said fact checker didn’t bother to check with Chelsea.
Quinerly
@rikyrah: Tail wags, meows, and waves back! Have a great day!
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
He will be retired within the month.
HeleninEire
@Frankensteinbeck: Agree
Mary G
Rudy’s unhinged screeching at the convention was enough to ruin his credibility with serious people, and I imagine Mueller has taken steps to insure his Clinton-hating buddies in the NY office are kept well away from his operation. The whole Comey fiasco was due to their leaking, and Mueller doesn’t leak.
Kay
@Frankensteinbeck:
To call her a liar though. Wow. They didn’t have to do it. It’s a factual dispute- she either did or did not straighten her hair. She either did or did not pop champagne. To make this moral judgement – Chozick is honest while Clinton is A LIAR, without a shred of anything to back it up? Wow.
WTF IS this book, anyway? Is it a “memoir”? So it’s how Chozick remembers it? Then why call Clinton a liar? People can have wildly different recollections of the exact same event. That doesn’t mean one is a liar, especially when we’re talking about actions Clinton supposedly took.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Kay: Clinton Derangement Syndrome is a powerful drug.
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: I think so too. We should keep a betting pool.
Mary G
@rikyrah: That or a weepy confession of poor stressed out doctor driven to drink and a retreat to rehab.
Layer8Problem
@zhena gogolia: He played Major Clipton, the doctor in The Bridge on the River Kwai, too. The image of him saying “Madness! Madness!” at the end kind of resonates these days.
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
Oh, it’s offensive and stupid. It’s just the expected offensive and stupid from people who have always been offensive and stupid.
Baud
@Kay: Maybe Chris Hayes should think twice about inviting Chozick back on his show.
TS (the original)
@Baud:
Of course it doesn’t. There has been no need to vet him since he was vetted and appointed by Bush II – not withstanding, I have no doubt that President Obama checked him out when he first came into the job. That trump didn’t do any new checking before nominating him shows again how stupid & lazy the president* is – in everything he does.
Baud
I remember once Chozick snorted a line of coke off my ass. She might deny it, but I trust my fact checker.
Kay
@Weaselone:
They probably can’t jump back and forth between the “memoir” genre and the “reporting facts” genre this easily. Far be it from me to stand in the way of commerce but if you’re going to write a memoir then don’t jump to “I’m a reporter so therefore credible” when it suits you. Be one or the other or stop using one role to buttress the other.
It’s none of my business but in my view these books are a mistake. You can’t present yourself as a dispassionate observer of political campaigns WHILE writing books that are somehow your story. Quit one and then do the other.
Tur is actually even worse. She loudly and publicly complained about Trump’s treatment of the press which was an actual story- she made it a story. She then writes a book about the story? I mean, Jesus. My head is spinning. No one could keep these ethical lines straight. They are both players in this drama and reporting on it, unless they’re writing a book, then they want creative license to make it a “memoir”.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Off topic: Sort of musing reading some replies women some to other woman in my on line role play group. Is there some reason why women can’t say “no thank you” without trying to make the other party feel like shit in some passive aggressive way? I mean I can see it when some guy is mashing on them, but over something as petty as another woman asking when do you want to meet. Ah, the amount woman on woman squabbling that goes on that game… sessh.
Hmm reading the topic again. You all are sure this isn’t “overly entitled white people” and not “overly entitled white men”? And if you think white guys have being a willful idiot adult toddler cornered, work for a Chines boss. As for Trump, what’s wrong with him is simple; he’s a sale guy, so of course he is some phony baloney idiot who thinks he’s the most awesome thing in the world but can’t tie his own shoe laces.
But her emails!!!
@Weaselone: I may have to translate this from cellphonese.
1. Amy’s already had to adjust her commentary on the champagne opening incident. The quote originally appeared to suggest that Amy herself had witnessed the event, but was then altered to “sources”.
2. The details Chelsea has been hitting back on are the sort of catty crap that a mean girl clique in high school spreads about a cute, smart, stubbornly popular girl after she refuses to conform to the in group.
3.The stuff that Chelsea’s hitting back on seems to be things the author implies through writing that she personally witnessed or noticed. Do fact checkers actually fact check first person accounts, or items that someone has themselves backed up with sources besides possibly confirming with those sources that “yes, this happened”?
4. Tur jumped to the defense based on the awesomeness of her fact checker, a fact checker so godlike s/he used her/his black belt in Google Fu to verify flight times, but lacked sufficient mastery of cell-phone-go to call Chelsea Clinton to check personal details.
As an aside, Tur’s defense of Amy actually makes me question the veracity of her book.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
I agree with you.
Kay
@Baud:
Chris Hayes is not as rigorous as one would like :)
He did this “interview” with the Apple CEO which was part and parcel of an Apple advertising campaign to sell devices to schools. They did a marketing kick-off in a Chicago public school and then Hayes kindly provided this giant forum for the next sales events. Education technology is a 12 billion dollar industry. Apple is trying to regain market share from Google because schools went big for Chromebooks and the whole Google suite of products and Apple was asleep at the wheel- complacent. Public schools are INUNDATED with sales pitches for ed tech. It’s fucking cut throat.
This “interview” had fuck-all to do with “education”. It had to do with Apple finally offering a cheaper device for public schools because Google was eating their lunch in that “space”. They used Hayes and he allowed himself to be used.
Assistant principals know this. Hayes doesn’t?
Baud
@Kay: I saw a part of that. I agree. Seemed like an infomercial.
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
Which is possibly the single most heinous thing he’s done.
(Obviously apart from his actual dismantling of the EPA, removing protections, etc.)
bystander
@Kay: Rudy was outtrumping trump when he was mayor. Racism informed every decision. Well, spending millions on an emergency command center in the very same building terrorists attacked in ’93 was dictated by its proximity to his love nest IIRC.
Kathleen
@NotMax: I think that film has held up well and is archetypal representation of 50’s. Well written and well acted. Also serves to trigger anxiety in the pit of my stomach. The 50’s were horrible for women.
danielx
Just guessing here, but I’d bet being invited to a White House state dinner is the only way most of those people would ever break bread with Donald Trump.
MomSense
I never thought Ronny Jackson was qualified to run the VA as he had never managed any kind of large organization. The hostile work environment, drunkenness in the job, and other allegations are obviously quite troubling. The only thing that bothers me about the handing out pills to sleep and then pulls to wake up is that I definitely would have taken them if I were an official who was on a multi day international tour, skipping a bunch of time zones, and needed to be functioning at full capacity in order to conduct my job. Anyone here ever try to function as just a tourist with jet lag?
If I were flying to Japan I’d take an ambien so I could sleep and then wake up ready for diplomacy. I’m just saying that some of what we are hearing may be overblown.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Baud:
Kid: you gonna take me to jail
Fletch: for car theft?
Fletch: Why, did you steal the car?
Kid: I sure did!
Fletch: I’m not even sure
that’s a crime anymore.
Kay
@Baud:
I hate Facebook as much as the next gal but letting Apple take this holier then thou position with no pushback is just bad.
Didn’t Apple slow down their older model phones? Didn’t I read that?
It’s an industry. It’s not, in fact, “magic”. It’s a brutal and cut throat industry to boot and in the case of public schools they sell product by gilding it with this magic fairy dust of “creativity”. It’s a device. A tool. It’s competing with another device which captured a lot of school market share because a Chromebook really fit what schools needed. They needed a cheap reliable tool with a keyboard and a set of integrated doc programs that are so easy 2nd graders can use them. They can lose or drop a Chromebook and it’s no big deal- we dropped the insurance parents had to buy this year because it’s more expensive to insure than replace them. Kids actually took pretty good care of them, which is not surprising since 100% of their work is on them.
Kids themselves are pretty prosiac about this whole thing. They know it’s a product. Gullible and easily led adults are the problem.
But her emails!!!
@danielx:
You’re not being fair. I’m certain most of them would also attend a party where they were allowed to beat him with baguettes.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Barbara: If I went from working for Obama to working for Trump, my drinking would certainly increase.
Kathleen
@Baud: Chris wants to maintain his Hillary hating Bernie Bro street cred. Amy will be back with Katy ’cause Katy is part of the Manson – er AMessNBC family. God I hate these weasels.
Calouste
@Baud: Flynn got promoted regularly until he went around the bend and then got canned.
Karen Potter
@satby: Grandpa said after he retired he was even more busy than before; he did wood working and home repairs for those either who couldn’t or didn’t know how, every person seemed to think he had all this free time to fill so they asked for help.
Karen Potter
@debbie: do a web search, there are a number of outlets that sell them
Ruckus
@Anne Laurie:
I used to know the sales manager for Chev Silverado trucks. You wouldn’t want him running anything of any size or importance either. And he was.
geg6
@Kay:
I have no idea who you are watching or reading who is doing this, but it’s certainly not what I’m seeing in the media. The consensus I’m seeing is that Rudy isn’t helping.
geg6
@Kay:
This is nuts. Are you saying that suddenly the Mueller people are going to start leaking because they are skeered of big bad Rudy? Or that the country and all the media are so in love with Rudy that his narrative will take us all over and make us Trump zombies?
I don’t understand your panic about this. As I said above, no one I’ve read or listened to seems to think Rudy is helping Trump much here.
Gelfling 545
@satby: I suspect that President Obama saw him only when officially required and,being a healthy guy, this was seldom. It isn’t like he’s a WH featured character. It would be an excuse for Trump as well if it weren’t for the fact that he tried to make hin head of the VA. I think WH do tor is probably not a post they spend a lot of time on.
ETA. Was trying to reply to the post above but my iPad is flipping the screen about today.
russell
Yes. And at the end of the night it contained $1.17 in small change, a button, and a gift certificate for a free burger at Carl’s Jr.