Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Innocent people do not delay justice.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

You cannot shame the shameless.

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

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

The words do not have to be perfect.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Republicans do not trust women.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

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

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

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

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

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

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Reader Interactions

169Comments

  1. 1.

    LAO

    So Fricken cute. (Both of them)

    And since this is an open thread/dog blogging — Maggie’s DNA results:

    50% American Staffordshire Terrier (no surprise)
    25% Beagle (no surprise)
    12.5% Shih Tzu (Ah, what?)
    12.5% herding/terrier group (not really surprising)

  3. 3.

    spudgun

    Aww, puppies and pooches…what a lovely way to start my morning – thank you!

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Well, it’s always her turn, but she tolerates the pup’s antics pretty well for an old broad.

    “No puppeh! No puppeh! YOU’RE the puppeh!!”

    @LAO:
    And when may we expect to see a picture of Maggie, please?

  9. 9.

    Humdog

    Look at all the grey in Daisy’s ears! I love it when old gals let their hair go grey without shame.
    Sweeties, both of ‘em!

  10. 10.

    Yarrow

    Badger is so cute! His little pink tongue is adorable. And Daisy M is a good girl, yet she is!

  11. 11.

    LAO

    @eclare: I totally expected that result. She’s a little pocket pit with a giant chest and short legs. LOL, she’s quite funny looking.

    ETA: and a total sweetheart, I should add.

  14. 14.

    Jeffro

    Times is reporting that’s it, we’re out of the Iran deal.

    Obama, couldn’t you have begged Trumpov to end the deal? That would have kept us in for the rest of his term.

  17. 17.

    gene108

    @Jeffro:

    Any Republican President would have ended it. Every single Republican said it was the worst deal in human history. Obama got bamboozled. I believe Tom Cotton even wrote a letter to Iran basically saying Obama sucks, but Iran sucks worse, Losers!

    Face it, the Republican Party, their media enablers, their billionaire sugar daddies, and their voters are going to destroy this country’s standing in the world. There’s too much institutional muscle between the media and the sugar daddies to prevent this and too many of their voters think being bully is how you gain respect in the world.

    Basically, Democrats can slow the decline, but as long as Republicans exist we will hit bottom. Whether it is soft or hard landing depends on how often Democrats can regain power.

  19. 19.

    TaMara (HFG)

    I love animal threads.

    Badger is ADORABLE. And tell Daisy she and Bixby share a middle name. LOL

    @LAO: That’s so much fun and she is such a beauty.

    Speaking of Bixby – please keep a good thought, he’s been under the weather for a good 10 days and the vet is coming tomorrow because nothing I’ve done has adjusted his digestive distress and low energy. Hoping for maybe a bout with Giardia, praying it’s not an obstruction of some sort (he’s been known to eat weird things like, oh, towels and the arms off his giant stuffed animals – but he usually just throws those up in the middle of the night).

    Personally, although the vet has been awesome, I think i’m just in a panic because of Bailey and that has stressed Bixby out – making it worse.

  21. 21.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jeffro: Kinda figured that was coming — it’ll be good for Russia since oil prices will likely climb, so maybe the order came straight from the top. Isn’t the shit sack scheduled to make a statement about it later? Maybe Adam will front page a feed. I don’t feel up to the task of listening to Velveeta Voldemort’s piggish snuffling today.

  22. 22.

    Elizabelle

    @Jeffro: Some people only learn through stupidity and bad results. Here, I speak of Trump voters.

    If this is such a terrible “decision” (better word is “response”), it will become evident. And Trump is not president for life, unless his happens to coincide with his term (which I hope is almost over; same for M. Pence).

    Interested in results from the WV GOP primary. Cannot guess what will be actual outcome.

  26. 26.

    Nicole

    @LAO: Oh, fun! Thanks for posting the results. Mine came out almost entirely AmStaff, although she’s a bit skinny and leggy compared to the breed average. We kid that she’s the runway model version.

    About four years ago, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel did a really cool piece on dog shows and how the appearance of purebreds has changed over the years (basically a we’re-breeding-them-into-ill-health piece). It was really good and it makes me nuts I can’t find it on the intertubes anywhere (nor on HBO GO0. I loved the photos of dog breeds from 100 years ago compared to today.

  29. 29.

    Elizabelle

    @Betty Cracker: I would not be watching or listening to Trump. Don’t do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.

    Give Badger and Daisy a skritch for me. Lovely dogs. Well hydrated, too.

  30. 30.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @TaMara (HFG): Definitely thinking good thoughts about Bixby! Here’s hoping for a speedy return to health for Scout’s play- and nap-friend.

  31. 31.

    Yutsano

    BADGERPUPPEH!!!

    A friend in New Zealand got a half Lab half border collie. And she came with an unexpected bonus: she was pregnant. She only had two pups that lived but ZOMG THEY ARE TEH CUTE!!! I’ll try to get some pics over to you Betty. I’ll throw you a tweet since the owner just posted them last night.

  38. 38.

    Major Major Major Major

    @LAO: I skimmed it to see what’s up. It’s basically a profile of poor oppressed white people who say controversial things and make lots of money doing it but are still somehow the “intellectual dark web”. Sam Harris comes out looking like the least annoying entitled schmuck if that tells you anything about the rest of them.

  40. 40.

    LAO

    @rikyrah: Regularly $79.99 but was on sale for $70. Apparently, saving $9.99 was what I needed to get off the pot. It seems crazy to spend the money but I was so curious and pretty much assumed she was a beagle/staffy mix already.

  41. 41.

    Just One More Canuck

    @LAO: Maggie has a great expression on her face in the picture of her on the bench (at the top)

  45. 45.

    LAO

    @Major Major Major Major: But he will always be special to you! And I’d think that cat owners were smarter than dog owners.

    re: Weiss — I can only bare to skim these people, I generally find their underlying premises to be weak and unsupported, Weiss is particular egregious in my opinion.

  46. 46.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker: @Elizabelle: if there is an upside here, it’s that despite Trumpov’s unique awfulness, all of his policies are unvarnished Republican stupidity and so will produce the expected results. Betty you noted higher oil prices – there’s little that registers with voters more than watching prices shoot up at the pump. Same thing with health care – we’re already seeing declines in coverage and higher prices for everyone.

    Greg Sergeant had a good take on it just a bit ago in the Post: Trumpov is a disaster and that’s helping Democrats, but not how you think, noting two recent items of interest:

    …The second piece is by Ron Brownstein, and it reports accurately on how Democrats are actually running their campaigns right now. As Brownstein notes, many Democrats think that their chances of winning this fall turn less on whether Trump gets further dragged down by scandal, and more on their ability to link the GOP’s tax cuts to its failed (but continuing) drive to roll back health coverage, which together amount to a deeply unpopular overall set of GOP priorities:

    In the district-by-district battle to retake the House, many Democrats are focusing less on condemning Trump’s character than on discrediting the Republican agenda. Central to that mission is arguing that the GOP has benefited the wealthy, and burdened the middle class, with its twin legislative priorities of the past 17 months: passing a large tax cut and attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

    There is an additional nuance that should be noted, and it gets at how Democrats actually are capitalizing on Trump’s unpopularity. What we have seen in the last year of elections, in Virginia, in Alabama, in Pennsylvania’s 18th District and in dozens of state legislative races, is that Trump’s unpopularity is driving Democratic turnout and Democratic volunteering, and is turning white, better-educated, suburban swing voters and independents against the GOP — because alienation from Trump has led such voters to give Democrats more of a hearing. The intensity of this outpouring against Trump is undoubtedly driven in part by Trump’s scandals and his response to them, and crucially, it is happening even as Democratic candidates are not particularly focused on Trump in their own campaigns.

    We can reel in horror that 40% of America is still with this kkklown and his minions (I know I do most every day) but as long as we stay fired up and focus on how horrible Republicans are, we’ll fire up our base and win far more ‘swing voters and independents’. We’ll win.

    And then there will be justice…and paybacks, also too…

  47. 47.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Elizabelle:

    Interested in results from the WV GOP primary. Cannot guess what will be actual outcome.

    I am too, and I can’t either.

    Furthermore, I’m going back and forth about Blankenship. I mean, on the one hand, he is awful and hateful and ignorant and racist and a multi-miner-murderer, and I don’t at all care for the skeevy way he holds those little blonde girls in his creepy ad, so of course I would like to see him decisively rejected by the voters of WBGV. On the other hand, that is the outcome Trump is hoping for* and I try not to wish for anything that would make him happy or give him the slightest reason to puff and congratulate himself. It is quite the dilemma.

    * (For all the wrong reasons, of course.)

  50. 50.

    Humdog

    LAO, I love the glop of butterscotch on Maggie’s forehead! Her legs look short for her body. What a cutie! Staffy and beagle? There’s a headstrong combo!

  54. 54.

    VeniceRiley

    Welp. Trump pulled us out of the Iran deal. So, a nuke race in the middle east might happen. But … cute pups!

  56. 56.

    LAO

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Until now, I didn't realize how oppressed I am. I mean, sure, I get to write for the Times, am very well paid, and am invited to speak to audiences all over the world. But sometimes people criticize me and my ideas. Why, it's positively Stalinist! t.co/zj9yBuZ0WI— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) May 8, 2018

  58. 58.

    Major Major Major Major

    @LAO: “intellectual dark web” doesn’t even make sense, it’s obviously a phrase invented by a 23-year-old white dude on reddit who voted for Gary Johnson in a swing state and doesn’t know how bitcoin works but thinks he does, and will happily explain it to you even though you didn’t ask.

  63. 63.

    Manyakitty

    @LAO: Thank you! She knows it, too. As with Major^4, I look forward to reliable cat genetic testing. She’s got to have a substantial amount of Siamese in her. The boys, Heisenberg and Schrodinger, are basic DSH tabbies.

  65. 65.

    schrodingers_cat

    Against my better judgment I clicked the Nazi Times link. First of all, who the fuck is a Bari Wiess? And of participants of the Intellectual Dark Web that I have heard of are either misogynist and/or racist internet trolls with intellectual pretensions.
    Well done Official Newspaper of the Fourth Reich, well done.

  68. 68.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @LAO:

    One more reason, in a list the length of which is approaching infinity, to love K-Thug.

  70. 70.

    Jager

    Anze the Dog and I have decided that one of the guys pouring concrete for our retaining wall is Curly from the Three Stooges.(with neck tattoos)

  72. 72.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    a 23-year-old white dude on reddit who voted for Gary Johnson in a swing state and doesn’t know how bitcoin works but thinks he does, and will happily explain it to you even though you didn’t ask.

    Wow! Whew!! :: fans self ::

    That was … amazing.

  74. 74.

    Brachiator

    @gene108:

    Face it, the Republican Party, their media enablers, their billionaire sugar daddies, and their voters are going to destroy this country’s standing in the world.

    Look on the bright side. According to Glenn Greenwald and Susan Sarandon, Clinton would have been worse.

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Have we talked about how today’s Bari Weiss piece is terrible?

    Who is Bari Weiss, and why should I care?

  75. 75.

    Aleta

    Spring has showered far her drip
    splash and trickle running,
    plant has flowered in the sand
    shell and pebble sunning.

    So begins another spring,
    green leaves and of berries,
    chiff chaff eggs are painted by
    mother bird eating cherries.

  76. 76.

    Sab

    @Humdog: 25% beagle? Is she loud? (I love to irk the neighbors’ beagle just so that he barks/howls at me. Otherwise he and I get along fine.)

  77. 77.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Brachiator: An intellectually provocative (translation: racist fuck with intellectual pretensions) female columnist at the Nazi Times.
    P.S. I had no idea who this person was until I read this blog post. Sometimes I think that I should just go on a media blackout and work towards electing more Ds in November.
    I have no idea where Nazi Times is recruiting its “intellectual Nazis” from.

  80. 80.

    LAO

    @Sab: I’m answering because it’s my dog, only times she ever bayed was when I used a crate. Other than that, she’s pretty quiet.

  83. 83.

    Humdog

    @Sab: I have a beagle mix and knew it without a DNA test. Just one bark let me know. I love when she barks with the ball in her mouth because it cuts the ear piercing notes. She is bullying me for a walk right now so to the forest we will go!

  85. 85.

    LAO

    @Aleta: Thanks, she works it! She likes to play a game during her walks. She stops in the dead center of the sidewalk, drops her ears and generally looks pathetic. And she waits and waits, until somebody stops to pet her and or rub her belly. She gets a lot of attention. It’s frankly a little embarrassing — she can be so manipulative.

  89. 89.

    Brachiator

    @Jeffro:

    Greg Sergeant had a good take on it just a bit ago in the Post: Trumpov is a disaster and that’s helping Democrats, but not how you think

    This is largely good stuff, although much of it drives me crazy with it’s stupidity.

    There’s a narrative about our politics right now that you constantly encounter on social and political media. It goes like this: Democrats are too obsessed with the Russia investigation, or with Stormy Daniels, or they’re just too focused on “not being President Trump,” and as a result, they aren’t articulating an affirmative agenda and risk getting caught flat-footed by Trump’s supposedly rising popularity.

    Any talk about narratives, brands, and messages is Villager, navel gazing bullshit. I hate it. And Democrats are not obsessed with Russia and Stormy; these are investigations that need to play out. And the Russians are not going to stop or retreat, so to abandon the Russia investigation is to surrender to foreign influence of national elections.

    In the district-by-district battle to retake the House, many Democrats are focusing less on condemning Trump’s character than on discrediting the Republican agenda.

    Hell to the yes! This should be freaking obvious. The Republicans lied. Hit that point. The Republicans lied. They promised to fix healthcare, and abandoned the effort. They promised to cut taxes and to stimulate the economy. Instead, they gave away trillions to the wealthy. The Democrats need to fix this.

    Whatever riles up the voters in a good direction is fine by me. I want them to come to polls because they are outraged by Trump. Then I want them to pull the lever for the Democrats because the Democrats will fix shit.

  94. 94.

    rikyrah

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I know. Kelly not seeing why this was bad was what cemented it for me that he was a rotten piece of shyt.

    But, to have the Attorney General of the United States..
    Stand there, and say that formal United States Policy..

    IS TO TAKE CHILDREN FROM THEIR PARENTS!

    I still can’t get past my rage.

  95. 95.

    PaulWartenberg

    trump not only wants to put the Iran sanctions back into place, he wants to ADD MORE.

    how many of our allies will actually play along with this bullying move? I can only think of Israel and Saudi Arabia. Everyone else is either going to denounce us (NATO) or silently applaud while doing their own backroom deals with Iran (Russia and China).

    And all of this feels like prelude to an actual war with Iran, not just some stick-waving like he’s trying to do with North Korea (another deal that’s bound to fall apart because trump won’t stop himself).

  97. 97.

    Aleta

    @Sab: There’s a winning young beagle in the neighborhood. I can tell from blocks away when she’s headed this direction.

    And of course my pup is concerned — there’s obviously some catastrophe, but for the life of him he just cannot see it.

  98. 98.

    ruemara

    @TaMara (HFG): Sending healthy, do not be obstructed vibes to Bixby.

    Some animals require regular intervention to not harm themselves. I caught my little boykitty SWALLOWING a ribbon with it halfway down his throat, while choking from the string down his throat. Just like “eh, this seems like a thing to do. I don’t know why I’m coughing and not feeling too good right. Oh well, best keep eating the ribbon.” I pulled out all of it and a portion was far down enough to be coated with a little pink. Maybe it’s a boy thing?

    In the interests of love, light and happy animals, here is the much more sensible and elegant girlkitty, Hime Beribetto. She’s not going to eat ribbon. She eats guitar picks, as the good lord intended. Lately, I’ve taken to pretending she’s posing for classic oil paintings.

  99. 99.

    jonas

    @Jeffro: Well, pretty much saw that coming. Ball’s in Iran’s court now, I guess — will they tell us to get bent and start firing up the reactors and centrifuges, or can the Europeans work out a deal that keeps the nuclear development on hold for the time being, even if the US reimposes its own sanctions?

    As Adam pointed out the other day, there is no military solution to this, no matter how much Trump and Bibi want to start the bombing. Iran is too big and its MI-complex too large to simply take out with a couple of cruise missiles. As usual, Trump likes the bluster and bombast up front, but he never has a Plan B.

  101. 101.

    Brachiator

    @rikyrah:

    Rachel Maddow juxtaposes First Lady Melania Trump’s announcement supporting the wellbeing of children with announcement by Jeff Sessions a few minutes later that it is officially the policy of the United State to remove children from their parents as part of border enforcement.

    To Sessions, immigrant children are not children. They are vermin who can be separated from their parents. No doubt Sessions learned this from his wanna be slaveholding ancestors.

  103. 103.

    Bill Arnold

    @jonas:
    Why an attempt to fix, not nix, the Iran nuclear deal with the help of Europe is Trump’s only sensible option
    Might be moot in a hour, but this could happen (it’s much less stupid than some of the alternatives):

    This is where Mr Trump’s decision becomes most complex. If the United States withdraws from the agreement but re-institutes only a small range of sanctions on non-essential Iranian entities and, especially, does not try to penalise European and other international entities doing business with Iran’s core institutions, the nuclear deal could, at least for a time, survive a US rejection. But what would be the point of such a theatrical, hollow exercise?

    The point is theater, and not entirely hollow.

  105. 105.

    Yarrow

    @Jeffro: From the article:

    In the district-by-district battle to retake the House, many Democrats are focusing less on condemning Trump’s character than on discrediting the Republican agenda. Central to that mission is arguing that the GOP has benefited the wealthy, and burdened the middle class, with its twin legislative priorities of the past 17 months: passing a large tax cut and attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

    This is excellent stuff. The entire Republican agenda is bad for the average person. Everyone gets hurt except the ultra-rich. Glad candidates are highlighting it. Republicans are bad for America.

    there’s little that registers with voters more than watching prices shoot up at the pump.

    This. And they’re about to go up. They always do this time of year–go up a bit for the summer driving season. But if they really skyrocket that’s when people will pay attention.

  108. 108.

    Jager

    Dog park conversation:
    Me: “Wow what happened to your Lab?” (dog is all shaved and beat up looking),
    Lab lady: “Intestinal obstruction.”
    Me: “Really, what happened?”
    Lab lady: “He ate a beach towel.”

  110. 110.

    Aleta

    @LAO: It reportedly took four hours for Trump to get through two questions (tpm)

    Hmm, if he goes to the interview, and it’s limited to an hour and a half (b/c of all that work work work, work work work Giu explained about) .. then a few rough calculations indicate … he will finally reveal his real name, where he presently resides, what he thinks of the furnishings, and what size crowd came to see him pose with a bible.

  112. 112.

    Brachiator

    @TenguPhule:

    Trump withdrawing from Iran Deal.

    War drums starting to sound.

    Well, it was getting a little boring around here. A lot of smart money on Trump being too cowardly to actually start a war. Let’s see what European leaders say.

  113. 113.

    TenguPhule

    @gene108:

    Basically, Democrats can slow the decline, but as long as Republicans exist we will hit bottom.

    Step 1. Remove the Republicans from the Country.

  114. 114.

    TenguPhule

    @Elizabelle:

    Some people only learn through stupidity and bad results. Here, I speak of Trump voters.

    Point of Order. The problem is that Trump voters NEVER FUCKING LEARN.

  115. 115.

    ruemara

    @Major Major Major Major: The boy is pretty smart about finding things & hunting. The girl is genius level. But not killing themselves takes mom finding them out once they get a sneaky look on their face.

  116. 116.

    TenguPhule

    Trump to withdraw U.S. from landmark Iran nuke deal

    Donald Trump is following through on his campaign threat and withdrawing the U.S. from the landmark nuclear accord with Iran.

    That’s according to two people familiar with the decision, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. They did not have any details on how the withdrawal would unfold.

    Trump is expected to make the announcement this afternoon.

    It wasn’t immediately clear which sanctions lifted under the deal that Trump plans to immediately re-impose. He has several options. A more limited move could leave Trump more room to potentially stay in the deal if other members agree to toughen it.

    Always the stupidest possible decision. ALWAYS.

  119. 119.

    The Moar You Know

    Democrats are too obsessed with the Russia investigation, or with Stormy Daniels, or they’re just too focused on “not being President Trump,” and as a result, they aren’t articulating an affirmative agenda and risk getting caught flat-footed by Trump’s supposedly rising popularity.

    @Brachiator: Name me the last Republican “affirmative agenda” that didn’t directly translate to “kill the poor”. I’m pretty sure I gotta go back to Teddy Roosevelt for an example.

    God, the media is awful.

  120. 120.

    TenguPhule

    @Sab:

    Isn’t that what set off the ’08 recession?

    No, that was bad mortgage financial instruments. High gas is what made 2002-2006 so painful since motorists were paying $3-5 a gallon at the pump depending on where you lived.

  121. 121.

    TenguPhule

    @The Moar You Know:

    Name me the last Republican “affirmative agenda” that didn’t directly translate to “kill the poor”.

    Revoke the IRS!

    Which translated to “Fuck it, Lords and Serfs forevah!”

  122. 122.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    My Aunt and Uncle had a very fat Beagle called Rex when they owned a pub (The Lindale Inn whatpub.com/pubs/FUR/1234/lindale-inn-lindale). We served a lot of food (me and my Mum worked there at the weekends). Anyhoo Rex was as I said “Big boned” but it didn’t stop him from visiting dining customers tables and looking pitifully at them as they ate their food, and of course they would feel sorry for him and “just give him a bit of steak”, or whatever. It got to the point that we were having to take him out for walks half a dozen times a day to walk off the calories he would consume during a lunch service, which he would then pile on again during a dinner service. Eventually we all agreed that Rex had to be shamed and we made a sign which we hung around his neck which said “Please do not feed Rex, he is on a diet”. Rex was so pissed off he TWICE ate the fu*king sign and we had to make another one. Rex passed away of course and was buried next to my beloved Danny, our Boxer who died one weekend while he was up there with us, I always imagine them both grumbling at each other in the afterlife.

  123. 123.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Brachiator: This is why I have no problem with Sessions being publicly executed. Preferably with a clue by four.

  124. 124.

    Sab

    @rikyrah: Was it you that posted a couple of days ago that ICE has lost 1400 toddlers in custody?@TenguPhule: I think it was the gas prices that made the bad mortgages unsustainable for the borrowers.

  125. 125.

    Yarrow

    @Sab: Housing. Gas prices didn’t help.

    Wonder if Cole will put up a thread for the WV primary. This tweet is from yesterday.

    One GOP source tracking #WVSEN said they’ve seen three outside polls in last week: One showing Jenkins up, one showing Morrisey up, one showing Blankenship up.

    Buckle up. Tomorrow’s going to be a wild primary night.

    — Josh Kraushaar (@HotlineJosh) May 7, 2018

  127. 127.

    rikyrah

    @Sab:

    @rikyrah: Was it you that posted a couple of days ago that ICE has lost 1400 toddlers in custody?

    YES…

    And now, that number will only grow.

  128. 128.

    germy

    Updated: Tuesday, May 8, 2018, 11:15 a.m. EDT: It turns out that one of the three filmmakers who were recently stopped by a swarm of police cars for checking out of an Airbnb is the granddaughter of the late, great reggae singer and prophet Bob Marley.

    The Root

  129. 129.

    Peale

    @Jeffro: Well the deal wasn’t the result of a war, so how good a deal can it be? As much as the problem is the GOP insistence of getting revenge for hostage crises that ended when I was 10 years old and continuing to get us involved in Sunni/Shite wars that do not benefit us one bit, the other problems is that Democratic voters by and large don’t give a shit about foreign policy and wouldn’t be able to make “staying in the deal” a rallying cry to motivate their voters even if it came with winning lottery tickets and unicorn rainbows.

  130. 130.

    TenguPhule

    @Brachiator:

    A lot of smart money on Trump being too cowardly to actually start a war.

    The smart money thought everything was fine right up to the moment that a freak accident resulted in Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination.

  131. 131.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @gene108:

    Basically, Democrats can slow the decline, but as long as Republicans exist we will hit bottom. Whether it is soft or hard landing depends on how often Democrats can regain power.

    So you’re saying GOP voters should be put in FEMA death camps?

  132. 132.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Yarrow:

    Cole’s at the vet for Lily’s second round of chemo today. He may be preoccupied with her. Maybe another FP could start a thread tonight and J R in WV could bring his expert commentary. I think we may have a couple of other regulars who know WV politics pretty well.

  133. 133.

    frosty fred

    @Major Major Major Major: Cat breeds don’t have the long closed pedigree history that dogs would, and even working with dogs there’s a lot of “well what’s this is the closest to?” that comes into it. A friend’s rescue dog tested with a substantial amount of Pharaoh Hound, which neither of us believes for a minute–they just don’t want to say “unclassified.”

  134. 134.

    TenguPhule

    @Sab:

    I think it was the gas prices that made the bad mortgages unsustainable for the borrowers.

    No, the bad mortgages were because the fucking banks and other lenders stopped doing their fucking jobs and literally gave them to anyone with a pulse and half the time they didn’t even check for that. And then marked up and resold those loans as A+ paper while dicing them into a so many bits and pieces that who actually owned the title of the property came into question.

  135. 135.

    ruemara

    @TenguPhule: These “smart money” people do not understand what the fuck is going on here and abroad. It is because he’s a coward he’s more likely to start a war. He’s a craven fool about everything except manipulating people through media and currying favor with his bosses. War was ALWAYS on the table.

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: I am surprisingly amenable to that. Or some sort of protective custody. With charming ankle bracelets for monitoring. & Corrective discipline.

  136. 136.

    Jeffro

    @jonas: They don’t have to do much. If Trumpov reimposes sanctions, gas could go up as much as $.30 a gallon in a very short amount of time. No idea if that is on top of the ‘summer spike’ in gas that happens every year or not but I suspect it is.

    Iran’s rulers can sit there and solidify support at home all year, and wait for the U.S. midterms/blue tsunami to hit.

    On a sort of tangent: while I don’t agree with it at all, if I close my eyes and try really hard, I can picture the Randians’ point of view. It’s dumb and shortsighted and selfish as hell, but at least it has some internal logic to it. I have never been able to do this with the neocons’ point of view. They’re scared about threats to the US and Israel, so…the solution is to antagonize those countries, bomb them whenever possible, put harsh sanctions on them when they can’t, and above all else remember to, “pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business.” every ten years or so.

    Well, I guess the internal logic there actually is the same: the assumption, despite all previous evidence/experience, that the Randian/neocon will be the one to come out on top. Never mind.

  137. 137.

    TenguPhule

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    So you’re saying GOP voters should be put in FEMA death camps?

    Death camps take too long.

    Three week GOP Trail of Tears. Overseen by Native American overseers armed with rifles and shotguns for dramatic irony.

  138. 138.

    The Moar You Know

    This is ridiculous, if true

    @LAO: Ever done a civil deposition with a mentally ill accountant? I have. First question led to a multi-hour “confession” of every sin he’d ever felt he’d committed in his life. Trump sounds like a cakewalk in comparison. I could have gotten this guy to confess to murder in a day, and I’m not an attorney. Pretty sure the worst thing he’s ever done in his life is call in late to work. Lead counsel was seriously ready to kill this SOB by the end of the day.

    (We managed to get the judge to not depose this guy, God knows how. We would have lost badly otherwise. Afterwards we gently recommended to the client that they find another accountant, which they didn’t.)

  139. 139.

    TenguPhule

    @ruemara: Bingo. Its not like it takes a lot of courage to pick up the phone and order the bombings to start. We haven’t attacked anyone able to actually hit back since Vietnam.

  140. 140.

    Jeffro

    @TenguPhule:

    Always the stupidest possible decision. ALWAYS.

    That’s because Obama almost always did the smartest, best thing for the country, and Trumpov’s guiding doctrine is, “The Opposite of Whatever Obama Did”. This is on top of Trumpov being beholden to the dumbest, greediest, cruelest, wackiest parts of the GOP (i.e. 90% of the current GOP, but still). It’s like a double guarantee of the worst people and worst policies.

  142. 142.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Jeffro:
    Yes. That is a good winning strategy. Don’t just focus on Trump, point out how horrible the party is that facilitated his rise. They’re just as horrible.

  143. 143.

    Jeffro

    @Peale: When it comes down to it, I doubt very many GOP voters find Iran to be their most motivating issue either. Let’s not give the typical Republican a lot of credit for being up on much of anything beyond their La-Z-Boy and remote control.

  144. 144.

    Cacti

    Since New York is in need of a new AG, I had a thought guaranteed to drive Trump and his followers so completely bonkers, the schadenfreude would be sublime:

    Hillary Clinton for Attorney General.

    It would also put her in the catbird seat for some well deserved retribution.

  145. 145.

    Shell

    by Native American overseers armed with rifles and shotguns for dramatic irony.

    Id prefer cattle prods.

  147. 147.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @TenguPhule:
    The constant whining would be too much for me, either way.

    @ruemara:

    I am surprisingly amenable to that. Or some sort of protective custody. With charming ankle bracelets for monitoring. & Corrective discipline.

    Amazing how much the seeming collapse of American values in nearly half the population can do to a decent person.

  148. 148.

    LAO

    @The Moar You Know: I can only imagine. And, because I have spent my entire career in criminal defense, I have never done a deposition in my life. Although, I feel mildly embarrassed admitting that fact.

  149. 149.

    Brachiator

    @TenguPhule:

    A lot of smart money on Trump being too cowardly to actually start a war.

    The smart money thought everything was fine right up to the moment that a freak accident resulted in Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination.

    Crazy thing is nobody wanted The Great War. Today, on the other hand, the neocons are just itching for some hot military action. Nobody can predict what might happen.

    Besides, the ultra-progressives keep saying that Hillary is the real warmonger, so clearly, everything will be better under Trump.

    More seriously, I am as dismayed as anyone over Trump’s actions. I was about 99 percent sure that he would do something stupid over Iran because he has a hard on for undoing Obama’s legacy, but that 1 percent was seriously hoping for a better outcome.

    The “Trump is Strong” idiots are now creating the new fantasy that by showing the Iranians what’s what, Trump will make North Korea tremble and seek peace in our time.

  150. 150.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Bill Arnold:

    Trump administration officials called key members of the U.S. Congress on Tuesday

    How much do you want to bet that all of those “key members” were GOP?

  152. 152.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Brachiator:

    The “Trump is Strong” idiots are now creating the new fantasy that by showing the Iranians what’s what, Trump will make North Korea tremble and seek peace in our time.

    I don’t know what it will take for that notion to be disabused from them. I talked to some “free speech” crusader a few days ago and they really bought into the idea that Trump has created lasting peace on the Korean peninsula, that the ROK President truly thinks Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize. I pointed out it was a mistranslation but they ignored my point.

    The only thing I think could disillusion them would be the United States getting the crap beat out of it like Germany and Japan did in WW2. Same with the Ottoman Empire in WW1 and it’s successor state, the Republic of Turkey. Democrats could easily play the same role the Young Turks played by leading the country down a new path. The trouble with this is that while you never fight a land war in Asia, fighting a war in the continental US is a big no-no as well.

  153. 153.

    TenguPhule

    @Brachiator:

    The “Trump is Strong” idiots are now creating the new fantasy that by showing the Iranians what’s what, Trump will make North Korea tremble and seek peace in our time.

    Now imagine what happens when Trump discovers North Korea’s definition of a nuclear free Korea is a Korea free of American influence.

    He reacts badly to being humiliated. And Kim is setting him up for the Mother of All Swirlies.

  154. 154.

    JPL

    There’s a lot unknown about Trump’s plans for additional sanctions. That could split us from our allies, which is what Putin wants.

  155. 155.

    zhena gogolia

    Badger is too much cuteness! Daisy too! I refuse to think about Trump!

  156. 156.

    HeleninEire

    @The Moar You Know: I cannot explain why I am asking this, but my first thought was “despite his mental illness, was he a good accountant?” Maybe because I’m an accountant. AND PERFECTLY SANE.

  157. 157.

    Aleta

    @TaMara (HFG): Cooling breeze off the ocean here, going out to Bixby, you and whole gang.

    “in a panic because of Bailey and that has stressed Bixby out – making it worse”

    I know that situation well, so I think I can say: It’s natural you would feel that way. You can’t help it for the moment, so don’t feel badly about that piece. The opposite will soon happen: As your system calms, he’ll respond to that too. The vet’s on the way, you’ve done your part for now.

  158. 158.

    rp

    “Here are some things that you will hear when you sit down to dinner with the vanguard of the Intellectual Dark Web: There are fundamental biological differences between men and women. Free speech is under siege. We must wipe out half the universe.”

  159. 159.

    jonas

    Trump administration officials called key members of the U.S. Congress on Tuesday and told them he had decided to withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement, but would not reimpose sanctions for up to six months, congressional aides said.

    WTF? So…we walk away from the deal because Iran was supposedly breaking it, secretly still pursuing a nuclear program, building missiles (which weren’t covered) and continuing to support terrorism and promote instability in the region and then don’t give them any consequences? And tell them we’ll check back on them in six months? The only conceivable explanation I have for this is that they’re hoping that Iran decides to leave the agreement as well and restart their weapons program, giving the US and Israel a pretext to go to war and topple the regime.

  161. 161.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @jonas:
    That’s exactly what they’re hoping for, so they can tell those pointy-headed globalists I told you so.

  162. 162.

    Shell

    Before the Great War, there were those advocating war to toughen men and states up.

    Just like today.

    And are they saying that itll all be over by Christmas?

  164. 164.

    LAO

    @Aleta: I agree but she’s relentless in the pursuit of human affection so it gets a bit wearing at times since we live in a crowded city,

  166. 166.

    Major Major Major Major

    @MomSense: it’s good that Harris is willing to debate people in public and unfettered and all but Christ what an asshole. I guess he must think he comes across better than the other guy. I’m always reminded of the very polite shredding he got over concepts of free will by Daniel Dennett.

  168. 168.

    Just One More Canuck

    @LAO: There’s a hell of a lot of people who don’t recognise sarcasm when they see it

  169. 169.

    J R in WV

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I voted down at the school. The old guy was still there, he’s 86 now, fell last winter and broke both hips. He seemed pretty chipper, but his wife appears to have developing dementia, he’s got a bunch of kids. He’s been there every time I’ve voted for as long as I can remember.

    Elections… I dunno. I would have said that no one who every had anything to do with a coal mine, even if it was just to drive by on their way to work in town, would vote for a vile killer for money like Donald Blankenship. Now, though, I just don’t know.

    I was dumbfounded when Trump won as big as he did. He’s hateful, and folks in WV always seemed polite to a fault to me. In other words, not inclined to vote for an asshole, even if they were too polite to call hi out for what he is.

    The Democratic ballot wasn’t too big. Some of the races weren’t contested, and it’s a mid-term, so no state senators. Board of Ed, some Democratic executive committee memberships. House of Delegates, every two years, and Congressional races.

    And I voted for Uncle Joe Manchin, even though I personally hate his greasy ass. He is a Democratic candidate, and he mostly votes for the party positions, mostly. More than Shelly Moore Capito does, anyway.

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