If you want an expert’s insights on the issue of North Korea’s nukes, head over to CNN and read a piece featuring our own Cheryl Rofer. All I’ve got is something deeply weird and worrisome about the upcoming summit; the Trump White House issued a commemorative coin for it:
Kim Jong-Un’s PR shop must be stoked — what could signal Kim’s arrival as a legitimate player on the world stage more effectively than the U.S. president pairing his own image with Kim’s as an equal? Oh, right — nuclear weaponry.
This premature victory lap is disturbing on so many levels. From The Guardian:
Trump has reportedly been focusing on the pageantry of the summit rather than immersing himself in detailed briefings on the complex issue of North Korea’s nuclear program. He has been particularly interested in suspense-filled announcements that could come out of the meeting, according to the Associated Press.
Of course Trump has focused on the show biz angle — that’s who he is. But Trump is also a vengeful bully who is likely to go apeshit when he doesn’t get what he wants. And he’ll have Bolton whispering in his ear on the long plane ride home.
I don’t think anyone’s gonna win this coin toss.
WereBear
When it comes to Trump, no one wins. We don’t even have the option of not playing.
Elizabelle
OT, cuz I am not into discussing all things Trump (although congratulations Cheryl!!)
Tragic but interesting story out of North Carolina, Bessemer City, about 30 miles west of Charlotte, northwest of Gastonia.
WaPost: WaPost: He took his family to lunch, left the table and rammed them with his car, killing two, police say
Gaston News: Roger Self was a prominent businessman who had a background in law enforcement
it’s deaths caused by a white male so “mental illness, for sure” — except it absolutely is. The family, friends, pastor and man in question could all see the dissolution of his personality. Former police officer, now a private investigator. Became aware of his erratic behavior so he himself made sure the guns were out of the house.
And then — he excused himself from the table and drove his Jeep through a restaurant window, killing his daughter — a 26 year old local sheriff’s deputy — and his daughter in law — an ER nurse.
Note how many of these family members worked with a government at some point. Hate the government, starve the government, but it’s the most reliable employer in small-town North Carolina and elsewhere.
And this is a case where removing guns from the picture helped immeasurably: two dead and several injured by car, but think of the toll had Mr. Self retained his firearms. Removing the guns lessened the toll. Mr. Self himself, or his close family members (law enforcement) could see the risk, and removed it.
Have you heard about this story?
WaPost:
Things get treated quite differently if it’s a respect white male — no one is suggesting meth abuse or evil — but a tragedy. But: NO GUNS. It made a difference.
Brachiator
Trump is desperate to win the Nobel Peace Prize for getting a deal with North Korea. Obama’s got one, don’t ya know.
ETA. The coin looks like something a Batman villain would have.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Betty, as I read the article, it occurred to me that the proposed luxury development has been staked and a beautiful, expensive billboard has been put up showing the glories of the upcoming phases of building right next to a sales office, spec model and signature entrance with fountain.
In fifteen years, the sign will be faded, three units built and the whole thing will be in bankruptcy…
Josie
I realize that I am just an ordinary citizen with no knowledge of such things, but aren’t they a little early putting out this commemorative coin a full month ahead of the proposed summit? Won’t they look a bit silly if the summit doesn’t come to pass? From our previous experience with North Korea, It would seem smart to keep our powder dry until we are sure they will cooperate.
ETA: Congratulations to Cheryl for being recognized as the expert that she is.
schrodingers_cat
That coin looks cheap and tacky. And I am not going to play the game of theorizing what is the worst thing T can do.
Elizabelle
@Josie: I know. No dates on the coin, just 2018. SO: North Korea: you know what you gotta do.
LAO
@Josie: You lost me at “would seem smart,” when discussing the Trump Administration. It seems to me this entire presidency is worried about winning the “news cycle” and never about the consequences of their odious behavior. I suspect its because they don’t believe that there will be any consequences.
Yarrow
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Didn’t that exact thing happen with some Trump project in Mexico? I remember seeing a photo of a fraying billboard advertising the project and the article interviewed angry people who’d put down money.
Felanius Kootea
Of course #45 issued a commemorative coin before making sure there’ll be a summit.
@Elizabelle: I read that story yesterday – if he was concerned enough to get rid of his guns, why not get professional treatment for a bit in a hospital? Seems like they were worried about him being suicidal, not homicidal.
Platonailedit
@Brachiator: Here ya go.
Tom65
He’s an over-stimulated 8 year old trying to plan his own birthday party. Beyond the pony and the magician, he’s fucking clueless.
Roger Moore
@Elizabelle:
Let’s be honest: they’d love the government if they could guarantee it spent its money exclusively on white people. Hatred for government only really took off once the Supreme Court said it actually had to serve all citizens equally.
Where was the rational step of talking to a mental health professional? I appreciate that getting guns out of the house was a reasonable immediate step to take, but there seems to have been an assumption that he needed to take care of his mental health problems by himself, or at the very most through his family and pastor. If he had received proper treatment for his mental health problems, this whole thing might have been avoided.
LAO
The debasement continues:
What a lying, piece of shit.
trollhattan
NK gets tiny typeface. SAD!
tobie
So nice to see Cheryl’s wise words and thoughts on CNN’s website! Congratulations, Cheryl.
The summit is going to be another test for our media. Will they be manipulated into presenting things as the Trump White House wants them to be presented or will they turn to experts to discuss the substance of what’s being negotiated? The choice is pretty clear: be stenographers or be journalists.
trollhattan
@LAO:
Yes, and yes. But she has that Nordic name so it’s all good, maybe she can try out for our next winter Olympic Liar Team.
Immanentize
Of course, Kim is not the “Supreme Leader,” either. From WikiP:
Gelfling 545
@Josie: It’s not like the increased degree of silliness will vary much from the current absurdity.
Also if those images are supposed to be Trump & Kim – fail. Maybe Trump 30 years ago. And The supposed Kim image looks like Teddy Roosevelt if he’d been letting himself go. They did get the overbearing, hectoring Trump attitude correct, though.
Immanentize
@LAO: And if she is not lying — she needs to be fired immediately for being the head of a critical intelligence/LEO organization and being ignorant!
(Ha! Fired, as if. I crack myself up)
Sloane Ranger
@Josie: Actually I thought it sent a signal to North Korea about how desperate they were to have the summit. I expect Kim to up the ante over the next month.
Alternatively, if the summit doesn’t come to pass, presumably the coins will have some sort of extra value to collectors and have a higher re-sale value. In this scenario I’m sure the Trampanistas will work out a way to get their cut.
JMG
@tobie: Trump has the exact same thought process as does cable news. He’s all about the pageantry and so are they. The chances any substantive discussion of the outcomes or lack thereof at the summit gain wide currency are remote. Although I’ll bet in the affected countries other than the US they’ll be noticed and how.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
one of Obama’s guys– Richard Stegnel, I think— said last night what I think is becoming increasingly clear: trump wants this more than Kim. This is what people have been warning about his id-driven twitter and public rambling being a gift to hostile foreign powers. Standing up there with that stupid grin on his face while the howler monkeys chanted “No-Bel! No-Bel!” was a huge gift to NORK. And China.
Teddys Person
I suspect there were a lot of high level talks convincing Dolt45 not to use the moniker “Supreme Leader” on his side of the coin. He only conceded when promised a third scoop.
LAO
@Immanentize: I’ve come to realize that we here at Balloon Juice need to adopt the Media’s view of Trump — no more holding him or his administration to the standards of a non-evil, non-grifting, normal presidency — but instead, ask ourselves, have they shit the bed today? If so, shake our heads sadly and move on to why the Democrats are so ineffectual.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@LAO: I believe she’s the one who claimed she didn’t know if Norway was a predominantly white country
JPL
@LAO: I assume that within a few months, that Pompeo will say he never saw intelligence while at the CIA that Putin wanted Trump to win.
LAO
@Immanentize: That made me laugh too — I needed that today.
Mike in NC
But of course. He really does live in an alternate universe of tawdry reality TV buffoonery. Groping teenage girls taking part in his beauty contests is more important than world peace. How many of these cheesy coins were made and can I buy one on eBay to go with my cherished Trumpy Bear and collection of MAGA hats?
Ryan
We thought ZTE was bad, wait until he’s left to defend why giving South Korea to the North is a good idea.
Yarrow
@Roger Moore:
He was. From the article:
Sometimes finding the right medication and getting the right dose can be really difficult.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@LAO: Ilsa, She-Wolf of the ICE, ICE.
(Is that a Godwin flag? )
jonas
WTF is up with this commemorative medallion? “Supreme Leader” Kim? Please tell me these are tacky North Korean propaganda trinkets…*checks story*….oh shit. smh.
Elizabelle
@Roger Moore: You guys, I think he was under medical treatment. And who knows what it takes to get hospitalized these days?
The minister, from the Gastonia newspaper:
Immanentize
@JPL: My operating theory is that Pompeo is planning to run for President in 2020. He will figure out whether he believes the intelligence fully in 2019.
brettvk
Remember Very Serious People? We used it as a jeer but I’m getting nostalgic. VSP were actually interested in keeping the planet from blowing up – they didn’t sit around daydreaming about camera angles and designing “challenge coins” (“This magnificent commemoration of our country’s glory can be YOURS for just 3 payments of $19.95 plus s/h!”).
I wonder what the coin is made of. I’m not an expert but the design looks crappy to me – very like the stuff that gets advertised in those weekly coupon sheets blown into Sunday papers. It’d be a perfect embodiment of the administration if it was genuine gold, painstakingly handcrafted into a piece of shit.
jc
So even before the meeting happens, Trump’s main focus is on marketing – slapping the TRUMP brand on coins to commemorate his extraordinary statesmanship™. Jeezus, what a raging ego-putz.
jonas
Can you fucking imagine the sound of heads exploding if Obama had issued some commemorative medallion with himself next to Raul Castro or something? And Castro labelled as “Supreme Ruler”? Articles of impeachment would have been drawn up within 20 minutes…
tobie
I’m curious if others have noticed an uptick in complaints about Andrew Weissman coming from Trump World. TPM is reporting that Manafort’s legal team has filed a brief claiming that Weissman leaked information to AP about the ledger found in the Ukraine before the Special Counsel’s office was formed. I was reminded that Sam Nunberg had said over the weekend that he and Roger Stone know all about “Andrew Weissman’s tricks.” They seem terrified about having to face Weissman in court and so–yet again–are trying to discredit him. This worked with McCabe. Will it work here?
LAO
@tobie: Not to agree with Roger Stone but Weissman is a dick. But since his “our” dick, I’m cool with it.
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
More like
Yarrow
@Elizabelle: I find the whole story incredibly sad. He was getting professional medical treatment. He had strong religious beliefs and was talking with his pastor and his church friends and getting support that way. His family was supportive. He had removed guns from his house because he felt that was the right thing to do. He was doing everything professionals say to do. And it didn’t work.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Immanentize: Ha! I deleted the “Baby” from mine, but my mind went to the same place
ETA: jokes aside, her patronizing little chuckle as she explained to Kamala Harris that she was merely enforcing the law by separating children from their parents was both infuriating and blood-curdling. I think she’s meaner than Kelly.
gene108
@Roger Moore:
They’d have to go to Gastonia to find a psychiatrist. Maybe he’d wind up as far out out as Charlotte, to find a hospital with in-patient psychiatric facilities.
I think lack of access in the small town might have played a part.
I think it is still more common to view mental illness as a failure of “will power” than to think it’s due to chemical imbalances.
Edit: Still too much stigma around mental illness
Amir Khalid
Trump focuses on the pageantry not just because he’s a showbiz guy, but also because he thinks that is the summit. Then when Jong-un has punked him, with a last-minute cancellation or a bait-and-switch job that everyone but Trump saw coming a mile away, watch out for the Tweetstorm of Defensive Fury.
Jeffro
GOP Crime Cartel Enablers (aka Congressional Republicans) are on TV right now introducing legislation for a second special counsel, to investigate the first. Louie Gohmert is up there now, spewing lies about Uranium One, Mueller and Rosenstein, and so on. This is wrong, wrong, wrong. It’s time to fire up the phones people – call Congress AND media outlets.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
Also no mention of the location, Singapore.
Cheryl Rofer
This is a very knowledgeable take on the commerce negotiations with China.
Also, I’ve got another interview coming up in a bit. After that I will take the kittehs outside for their walks and then will post something. Much complaining from the kittehs on the disruption of their morning.
trollhattan
@brettvk:
Dollars to donuts [mmmm, donuts!] it’s made by the same folks who make the soccer tournament medals my kid has a fistful of. They deselected “matching ribbon” and there ya go, Winning Winner Coin.
Betty Cracker
@tobie: I’m sure Weissman has been on the Trump-Kushner radar for a long time (in a negative way) since he used to prosecute corporate fraudsters in NYC.
Jeffro
This is sickening…it’s wrong…
Betty Cracker
@Amir Khalid: Let’s hope it only triggers a tweetstorm. I seriously wouldn’t put anything past that lunatic, including launching a shooting war because Kim made him look like an idiot.
chris
Another fine day in the capital of the world’s richest third world country.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@tobie: @LAO: Isn’t Weisman a money-laundering specialist? Can we read something into that? I keep thinking about how Cohen, with millions of dollars in assets and recent real estate sales, etc, supposedly borrowed against his house (is this story still operative) to pay off Stormy, and trump having to launder campaign money to pay her off, and how petty his grifts are. I know trump is cheap and greedy, but I really wonder how broke his ass is and how he’s been maintaining his cash flow
dnfree
Thank you for the link to Cheryl’s article. Very informative. I appreciate the posts from a variety of experts here, as well as the link and twitter accumulations and other information I wouldn’t normally see.
And that mental health story is tragic–someone who had lots of support available, and sometimes it still isn’t enough.
Jeffro
Drop the charges on them, Mueller – drop them now
Jeffro
They’re phasing it all as if they are the ones supporting the rule of law…calling Mueller and the FBI treasonous…
The hour has come, folks.
LAO
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Weissman, before he took a leave of absence from the DOJ, was the Chief of the Criminal Fraud Division. I remember him from his time as Chief of the Criminal Division in the Eastern District of New York. He made his “bones” prosecuting the Italian Mafia and then moved on the White Collar prosecutions. I had a number of unpleasant interactions with him back in the day.
Kay
So gross. All of them, but “America’s Mayor” is really one of the sleaziest.
Spanky
@Betty Cracker:
He doesn’t need Kim’s help.
Immanentize
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Criminals with Anti-Social Personality Disorder do that when they describe their acts. The young D.C. sniper, Lee Boyd Malvo did that — picked it up from a film about Adelbert Waldron (Vietnam era sniper) who had the same sick tic.
Jeffro
Oh and now they want to look into Obama…what did he know, and when did he know it? And just how badly did he abuse his power?
Scum. Fucking scum.
MisterForkbeard
@Gelfling 545: The Trump image looks *bad*, too. He’s slumped forward, looks constipated and his hair looks like a solid shell. It’s instantly recognizable AND pity-inducing.
I don’t know why anyone would think this is a good idea on the Trump side. Let’s introduce a commemorative coin for an event that might not happen, where we get the opposing leader’s title wrong and make him sound even MORE important, and also let’s make our leader look like an ugly, hunched-over troll.
Jeffro
They’re doing this to “ensure the survival of the Republic”
It’s a nightmare
gene108
@Immanentize:
He can’t be President. His grandfather’s the Eternal President
Immanentize
I am a big believer that Mueller has to take his time, keep his eyes on the prize and not be pressured into any rash acts like early reports or indictments.
That said, it would be a good move to take a piece or two off the board right now.
Kay
@Jeffro:
Putin intervened in GOP Congressional elections too, which has not been investigated or reported for some reason. It isn’t just Trump. They wanted Donald Trump as President and a GOP Congress. Specifically.
Now that they’re joining the Trump obstruction effort I wonder if they colluded too.
It’s wild to watch, isn’t it? They’re flat-out lawless now.
SiubhanDuinne
@Jeffro:
Hell, Trump called Democrats treasonous for not cheering and applauding wildly at his SOTU speech.
Amir Khalid
@SiubhanDuinne:
Singapore? What’s a Singapore? Trump has probably never heard of it; you know how he is with geography. I actually hope the summit gets cancelled because I don’t want Trump coming that close to Malaysia.
ottercliff
You idiots! “Supreme Leader” goes on my side of the coin! And I told you, the coin should be life size!
Kay
Trump supporters here think Trump already solved North Korea. You can hardly blame them. That’s how it was reported.
They also think he won the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, probably because those aren’t covered at all anymore and stopped being covered the moment Obama left office.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
For a while I’ve been unable to listen to Trump. I mute or fast forward or whatever when they play a clip. I find that smarmy Pence is now in the same category.
lynn
I don’t get this. How does Trump shake hands and make nuke deal for nukes no one has ever seen?
rikyrah
That’s a real picture of a Neo-Nazi skinhead crying his ass off.
He also happens to be a Lieutenant in the @FDNY.
His name is Timothy Dluhos.
That’s him after he was exposed for leading a double life as a bigot online.
FULL STORY: https://t.co/5sgGwvqmiT pic.twitter.com/7WddrNNdSF
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) May 22, 2018
Jeffro
@Kay: It’s horrifying. I don’t know what else to say. There they are on camera, flat-out lying with their up-is-down, “we’re doing this to support the rule of law and fight the FBI’s treason” For. Trumpov. To protect him. Unbelievable.
Elizabelle
@Yarrow: And if you check out the Gaston local paper: the religiosity just drips. The headlines:
Reminds me of how insulating and polarizing religion can be in a small town. Maybe along racial lines too. The pastor’s the main spokesperson, it seems, because the family is still grappling with the mother and a granddaughter being in serious condition in hospital.
I wonder what lesson they will take from this. Not all mental illness is fully treatable. So do they support funding more treatment within their community? (Taxes! Government guidelines!)
Do they just decide this was evil, and a test of their Christian faith?
Jeffro
Oh…Congress is entitled to “oversight” of an ongoing DOJ investigation? Did not know that.
Drop it all on their heads, Mueller. These scum, these fucking scum.
Immanentize
This is actually among the worst things I’ve seen reported —
EPA bars Associate Press and CNN from contaminants summit. EPA forcibly ejects AP writer (woman).
If this becomes standard, we are in the end game.
dexwood
Supreme Tweeter vs Supreme Leader… in this corner, weighing in at 239 pounds, The Supreme Tweeter. In the opposite corner, weighing exactly the same, The Supreme Leader.
rikyrah
What happens when you discover that your father lynched someone?
History News Network
22 MAY 2018 AT 11:17 ET
How do you feel when you discover that your father lynched people?
That is the question asked in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s play Appropriate at the Theater Gym of the Virginia Repertory Company in Richmond, Virginia. The members of the Lafayette family gather after their father’s death at his plantation in Arkansas to sell his home and the various artifacts they found there. In their rummaging, the family members came across a book of photos their dad took of various lynchings of African-Americans in the 1950s and 1960s in which he participated, along with jars of human remains.
They are shocked. Was their beloved father a member of a lynch mob? How could he have been one? After all, he was educated, sophisticated and at one point in his life even considered for a spot on the U.S. Supreme Court. How could someone that refined hang blacks? And, too, if he did, was that an indictment of them, too. Were they not descendants of a racist dog who rode around at night and murdered innocent people? Genes, right?
The family discussions, and arguments, about dear old dad begin right away and the children’s’ (men and women in their 40s and 50s) own racism flies out of the historical closet. One woman calls another a “kike.” They shout at a brother that a decade ago he was a pedophile, along with being a drug addict and alcoholic. None of them are as pure as they believed they were once they start talking about the lynchings.
SiubhanDuinne
Anybody here know Korean? What’s the translation of the characters at the top of the coin image? I assume it’s just something like “Peace Summit” but would be interested to know what it actually means.
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
GOP Candidate: Puerto Ricans Shouldn’t ‘Be Allowed’ To Register To Vote In FL
By Matt Shuham | May 22, 2018 11:08 am
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: They’re doing it to protect their own political asses.
It’s not so much for Trump. It’s offense is the best defense, because they are in a MESS of trouble and they know it. Who knows how much the average congresscritter (congresscrook, many of them) knows about foreign funds streaming into GOP campaigns, from the NRA, on what they hear about voter suppression.
They are dirty. Filthy dirty.
LAO
@rikyrah: I’m super confused, the story’s from March 2013 and, IIRC, Duhlos retired/quit when he was outed as a racist pos.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
I’m increasingly stunned by how fearless these people are. They break the law and abuse norms right out in the open with no fear of repercussions.
Kay
@Immanentize:
We’re already in the end game.
Nick Short ??
Verified account
They capitulated to Trump yesterday so now it will be demand after demand. Donald Trump is calling the shots in an investigation of Donald Trump.
They did it to themselves. That’s the most tragic part. That was a huge error in a long line of errors- the DOJ and the FBI won’t recover. Some mistakes matter more than others.
It’s all Mueller now and maybe Congress, if the opposition Party can get one chamber. It’s bad.
glory b
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): I think she also said she wanted hard working Norwegians to be able to get their chance to emigrate to the US.
I know, I cracked up too.
Elizabelle
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): Time to march against them, I think. It’s the only thing that scares them, while they await the midterms.
Cacti
Looks like they removed a couple of Trump’s chins.
mere mortal
“I don’t think anyone’s gonna win this coin toss.”
That is some art, right there.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
“discussed”… Reminds me of IIRC Peter Bergen, CNN ME reporter, reacting to the Bush admin speaking ominously of people who had had “contact” with Osama bin Laden– maybe as a justification for arrests? Can’t remember– and he said, basically, Hell, I’ve had lots of contact with OBL, I interviewed him. There are tapes.
ETA: ah, yes, Cornyn is citing the unflushable turd known as “The Federalist”. I wonder if this is ace reporter Molly Hemingway
Immanentize
@Kay: I know you have worried about this, but I have a more optimistic theory — they are going along with some of these ridiculous requests because they know they are ridiculous and it gives them additional time to complete the work — and they know what the work is already showing.
Of course, they could be seriously miscalculating, which is why I think it would be great for Mueller to drop a couple more indictments to both change the narrative and take some players off the board.
ETA I cannot imagine that the FBI agents, although a hugely republican bunch, likes this at all. At. All.
glory b
@tobie: Yep. I mentioned that the other day. Nunberg was going off about him on msnbc on Sunday.
Jeffro
@Elizabelle: absolutely.
I am trying to figure out what to do, but we sure as hell better do it quick
Yarrow
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oh. The Federalist. Molly Hemmingway. Cornyn’s going all in with the treason crowd.
Shalimar
@rikyrah: Why do I think John Ward would never actually vote to provide capital and resources to rebuild Puerto Rico?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yarrow: in his defense, Cornyn is quite genuinely and sincerely stupid.
as stupid as these people, can we just not with cakes anymore?
ETA: And wordpress censored my comment!
Pyre Light
This coin is going to be the “mission accomplished” of Trump foreign policy, I can feel it.
Julia Grey
@Elizabelle:
The dark little secret revealed here is that sometimes mental health treatment just DOESNT WORK. It’s not even a matter of “not finding the right medication before it was too late” or whatever. We’re still in the dark ages on mental health solutions for the thorniest, most dangerous illnesses. Neurosis we can sometimes MANAGE, if not cure. Psychosis, where the violence dwells, is still out in the wilderness.
This guy was only getting anxiety meds? For disordered thinking, depression and paranoia? I’m sure his muscles were nice and relaxed and his judgment was only a LITTLE impaired….
MattF
It would all be ridiculous, except for that ‘survival of the human race’ thing.
cain
Why the fuck is NK’s leader at a higher level than Trump almost like he’s looking down at him. I don’t personally give a shit, but I would think Trumper’s would be all pissed off with U.S. looking lower? Who knows what those clowns think these days.
tobie
@Kay:@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have no idea what this means:
Wouldn’t briefing details be part of any briefing? I am curious how Ron Johnson got these emails. Did CNN share its sources? Or did the FBI and DOJ do an audit of all of their employee’s emails? Dark, dark times.
rikyrah
Alabama Sues Census Bureau For Counting Its ‘Illegal Alien Population’
By Associated Press | May 22, 2018 10:41 am
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has filed a lawsuit against the federal government, challenging the practice of counting undocumented residents in U.S. Census counts used for congressional reapportionment.
In the lawsuit, Alabama argues the predicted 2020 census numbers will cause Alabama to lose a congressional seat, and an electoral vote, to a state with a “larger illegal alien population.”
The state and Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks are plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in federal court against the U.S. Census Bureau.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, all people, including citizens and noncitizens, with a usual residence in the 50 states are counted in the census and in apportionment counts.
Amir Khalid
@cain:
It’s an ugly and badly designed coin. What else were you expecting?
rikyrah
Meghan Duchess of Sussex laughs with in laws #PrinceCharles and Camilla Duchess of Cornwall as they attend The Prince of Wales’ 70th Birthday Patronage Celebration in the gardens of #BuckinghamPalace #meghanmarkle #duchesssussex #royalwedding pic.twitter.com/rQbdAqlO6L
— Rookie (@royalfocus1) May 22, 2018
Another Scott
@Ryan: Speaking of ZTE…
Drum at MoJo:
(Sorry if it was already mentioned this AM.)
Cheers,
Scott.
MattF
@Julia Grey: A fair comment. A psychiatrist called my parents’ families ‘a museum of psychopathology’, and I can tell you that a lot of the time you have to rely on ‘weak’ being the partner of ‘sick’. It’s no fun.
rikyrah
#PeeingWhileBlack: Three actresses were arrested at an Atlanta restaurant for taking too long in the restroom https://t.co/Azz8GY0lDc pic.twitter.com/hl23GslO0A
— The Root (@TheRoot) May 22, 2018
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah:
That story is from 2013. Did something new happen?
rikyrah
@LAO:
No.lie.told.
MattF
@Amir Khalid: More gold.
rikyrah
@Another Scott:
Can’t be mentioned enough.
Mention it over and over again.
sacrablue
I’m looking at this challenge coin from a slightly different angle (yes, it is fugly). As someone who designed a couple of coins for this agency during the Bush and Obama years, I don’t think Trump had anything to do with it. If I remember correctly, this is the military communications agency in the White House. They are the people that carry the football. They may actually have created and publicized the coin to try to diss the orange one.
MattF
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Probably never seen that phrase before. And… diploma? HaHaHa.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Interesting. These days, all improbable possibilities are equally likely. The more so the closer you get to to the Rough Beast
rikyrah
Do White People Go to Chuck E. Cheese’s?
Damon Young
Yesterday 4:35pm
As the father of a baby person—and also the uncle of some baby people—I’ve spent a disproportionate amount of time (for an adult) at Chuck E. Cheese’s in the past three years. Birthday parties, potty-train parties, random Saturdays when you’re babysitting your nephew and don’t have shit else to do—I’ve been there enough to consider myself a Chuck E. Cheese’s maven. I’m not even freaked out anymore by the fact that Chuck E. Cheese is an 8-foot-tall, line dancing, ticket-hoarding rodent.
Anyway, I’ve also made the following observations:
The pizza there is much, much, much better than you’d expect it to be. It’s actually better than it needs to be. It’s basically the Ving Rhames in Baby Boy of pizza.
I’m convinced that the music they play there is what the CIA forces you to listen to before you’re waterboarded.
White people kinda don’t go there.
Aleta
1. To foreign powers: “Play me like a piano.”
MattF
@Another Scott: Kevin Drum also noted Trump’s crude attempt to screw Jeff Bezos by raising postal prices would be a huge scandal anywhere but in Trumpland.
rikyrah
At What Age Did You First See Coming to America?
Panama Jackson
5/15/18 4:45pm
………………………..
This intentionality with what content they absorb has me thinking about when is the appropriate time to introduce kids to certain movies and things that I’m pretty sure I saw when I was at least my (9-year-old) daughter’s age.
For instance, Coming to America came out in 1988, when I was 9 years old. Now, I know for a fact that I did not see it right when it came out. I lived in Germany, and we usually got movies about six months late. I know I didn’t see it at a movie theater, and I know I didn’t see boobies on-screen at age 9. But I clearly saw it at some point as a youth, before I was a teenager. Maybe they just covered my eyes at the good parts. I intended that pun.
Pretty sure I saw New Jack City in similar fashion because I had context for the soundtrack I listened to during track meets. At 12, “I Wanna Sex You Up” was my jam.
I haven’t asked my parents yet, either, because there’s nothing like asking your parents when they first exposed you to television boobs and classic lines like, “The royal penis is clean.” That line is something I say to myself in the shower every morning. TMI? TMI. What can I say except “You’re welcome”?
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
I have MSNBC playing in the background and am now shouting at everyone on it to shut up.
I think I’ll head to B&N to write. I feel like killing a character.
MomSense
@LAO:
Her dishonest answer probably means we are not doing anything to protect the midterm elections. We are going to have to run up such huge margins that they can’t steal it again.
rikyrah
DEVELOPING: Associated Press reports that guards forcibly shoved AP reporter out of building after telling several news organizations they were not invited and there was no space for them at EPA summit on contaminants. https://t.co/aBUyAm9SjI
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 22, 2018
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
It seems like a long, long, time ago, and in an alternate time line, that Republicans were pushing lies about Hillary Clinton using the State Department to favor Clinton Foundation donors. And yet today Republicans would tell you that it is only natural that Trump continues to make deals that will personally benefit him while serving as president.
And don’t anyone dare ask about seeing his tax returns.
Nixon: it’s not illegal if the president does it.
Trump: it’s not corruption if I do it.
p.a.
Boom: BBC 12:30pm EDT. Trump announces at meeting w ROK Pres that summit may be delayed.
MattF
@rikyrah: Mini-Donald at work.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@p.a.: glitch in the Tivo and he has to wait for Rupert to messenger over a disk of today Fox and Friends before he can get dressed
Yarrow
@p.a.: LOL. Hilarious. No wonder they didn’t put an actual date on the stupid coin.
Doug R
@schrodingers_cat:
Cheap and overbusy. A few less elements well done would be so much better.
germy
I have released a commemorative coin celebrating my upcoming marriage to Charlize Theron.
Now all I need to do is make her acquaintance.
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
From Sky News
Gravenstone
Didn’t look at it closely before, but notice how Trump is depicted as leaning forward while Kim is slightly backward. Even the artist is buying into the absurd Trump iconography. Today in the Adventures of Bad Hair Diplomacy…
MattF
@Doug R: Gotta have both guys, gotta have room for hair, gotta have room for flags, gotta have room for titles, gotta have olive branches. And maybe just an itsy-bitsy nuclear device.
MisterForkbeard
@Gravenstone: I saw the “trump leaning forward” as his incredibly bad posture. It’s how he’s portrayed in most media, so far as I can tell – hunched forward, like a yellow-helmeted troll. It’s hard to believe that this was intended to be beneficial.
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
Dear Stupid Muthafuckas of Alabama:
Why not count three fifths of undocumented residents?
You know, like how you used to count enslaved persons.
Fuck you very much,
A concerned citizen
Immanentize
@Gravenstone: That’s just his hair leaning in. The rest is just lizard neck from a life of sloth and bad posture. Kim looks rather Mao-like and inscrutible.
ETA I see Mr. Forkbeard agrees.
Gravenstone
@LAO: And makes herself knowingly complicit in the crime.
MisterForkbeard
@Immanentize: Yep! Kim looks like he’s standing up and dignified, at least so far as he can be. Trump looks awful and squinty.
walden
Coin completely leaves out South Korean leader Moon. This is not a bilateral summit. And if it’s aimed at settling the Korean war, among other things, seems like a major omissions. Ridiculous.
Yarrow
@rikyrah: So, Prince Charles is 70 years old. Kind of hard to imagine what it must be like to be King-in-waiting for your entire life and get to an age where most people your age are retired and you’re still waiting to get the job you were born to do. Must be strange. Wonder if he’ll ever be King or the Queen will just keep going. Her mum lived to be 101.
Kay
@Immanentize:
It makes them look dumb, corrupt and weak so they should stop with the elaborate machinations where they’re supposedly pretending to comply and say “no’.
Say no. It’s what Comey should have done when Republicans were pressuring him to violate SOP and open his big mouth. Part of their job, literally part of it, is taking political hits. They have to take the attacks and carry on.
The time for these games has passed. They think they’re “retaining credibility” but they’re not- they’re pissing it away with each capitulation.
ruemara
@Kay: You wonder? You’re a much kinder person than me, because I had no doubts about their collusion going back to december of 2016.
Immanentize
@Brachiator:also, the Constitution is clear that everyone must be counted. Period. And the Supreme Court just ruled that the Constitution does not allow congressional apportionment based of citizenship (or the right to vote like excluding children or disenfranchised felons). This is a totally bullshit lawsuit.
But it demonstrates how Republicans never give up on a bad idea.
MattF
@Yarrow: Charles should be King-For-A-Day, and then abdicate.
trollhattan
@Immanentize:
I cling tenaciously to my belief since January 2017 that Scott Pruitt is the worst and most dangerous of the entire bunch. He’s a monster and just cunning enough to cause real and lasting, looooong-lasting damage.
Immanentize
@Kay: They say no, they get fired. Is that really the best result here? Rosenstein and Wray fired for disobeying a directive of their Boss? I think they are better off where they are even if they look a little foolish.
burnspbesq
@Immanentize:
Roger Stone expects to be indicted. Let’s not disappoint him.
Yarrow
@Kay: @ruemara: No lie. Republicans have been conspiring with Russia for years. They are traitors.
Immanentize
@trollhattan: I agree. But he is SO corrupt. Corrupt AF as the kids would say. That may save us.
And Pruitt is making Zinke look not corrupt AF. That’s some serious effort right there.
Bill Arnold
@MattF:
J. Bezos has so many billions of dollars that he’s struggling to find ways to spend his money.[1] That DJTrump would pick a fight with such a man (who is quietly ruthless, by most accounts) is oddly comforting. This is not Russia; the US extremely-rich are not operating in fear of the state security apparatus.
[1] E.g., how much opposition research would $1 billion buy?
waysel
@ruemara: I’m with you on that.
TenguPhule
I think Russia already won it. With China as a close second.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Yarrow:
I constantly tell clients that pastoral counseling is never an appropriate substitute for secular therapeutic care – that too many filters and biases exist to get troubled people to an appropriate level of functionality. It is good that he was seeing a psychiatrist and getting medication, but that is only a part of the solution – there are two distinct and different roles.
Pastoral counseling emphasizes “pray for” solutions far too much. Instead of having patients analyze their lives for the problems, the causes for the problems, the effects those problems cause themselves and others and the solutions one can bring to bear, pastoral counseling tends to run to allegory and conclusion, skipping all too many of those “insight” steps that people need in order to recognize their own emotional triggers or what tools to bring to bear.
Aleta
@germy: ha
D58826
@Immanentize: and consider who Der Fuhrer would name to replace them? Jerod? Ivanka? Don Jr? Barron!!!!!!
Mary G
@sacrablue: I was wondering why it leaked; that is a great theory. Or else it was Bolton or one of his people. He’s already tried to sabotage negotiations with the Libya comparison. How can he bomb the shit out of them if there’s a deal made?
TenguPhule
@LAO:
To be fair, its perfectly in character as a Trump appointee to not have read anything required for her job.
Kay
@Immanentize:
I think it would be pretty effective if they both got fired because they wouldn’t help the president obstruct justice.
I believed all these rationalizations 6 months ago. I no longer believe them.
Maybe they support Trump politically and that’s why they’re capitulating to his demands. That’s just as likely as the scenario where they have a grand secret plan to appear to capitulate but not really do so. I would say it’s more likely since he hired both of them.
Mnemosyne
@Julia Grey:
That was my first thought, too. I’m not sure if we’re talking about malpractice or just an inexperienced psychiatrist who hadn’t dealt with a serious psychosis in that small town before.
TenguPhule
@brettvk:
No, you’re remembering them wrong.
VSP were outraged about a blowjob.
Invade the wrong country and have tax cuts while waging two wars? Mistakes were made, insisted the VSP! Look forward, not back!
The VSP were proto-Trumpers who still wore the silly masks.
This time, they don’t bother with masks these days.
Snarkworth, short-fingered Bulgarian
@trollhattan: If you flip it over, it says “Miller Lite.”
Brachiator
@Yarrow:
Edward VII waited a long ass time for Queen Victoria to die. And then he was king for only 9 years, I think.
Mnemosyne
@rikyrah:
Seriously. The royal family LOVES Meghan. It’s so nice to watch them close ranks against the haters. ??
LAO
You have to be kidding me —
TenguPhule
@Cheryl Rofer:
Future Textbooks will prominently feature Trump along with the big helpful words in red: DO NOT DO THIS.
Assuming we still have textbooks in the future.
MisterForkbeard
@Mary G: This white house leaks horrendously. I don’t think we need to ascribe complicated motivations to the premature release of a commemorative coin. It leaked because that’s what they do.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I share your pessimism today.
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne: We only have the pastor’s word for what Roger Self was taking, right? Issues of medical privacy, and next of kin may not be talking.
I think the pastor is savvy enough to know that prayer alone was not going to get Mr. Self past his mental issues. Think I saw that many in the community were alarmed and saddened at how much Self had deteriorated.
Some commenters on newspaper sites have suggested a brain tumor or serious neurological problem as the cause. I guess we may find out, eventually …
MattF
@LAO: Ya think Kim Jong-Un is unaware of what happens afterwards to people who make a deal with Trump? Maybe Kim should lawyer up.
MisterForkbeard
@TenguPhule: Republicans follow cautionary tales about as well as Trump handles big red “DO NOT CONGRATULATE” instructions.
The only thing they learn is to be more outspoken and bullying. Every time they fail, it’s because they haven’t crossed far enough over the line. This is why you see Trump going after the media, obstructing justice and attacking the DOJ.
TenguPhule
@LAO:
Remember he also promised his voters this.
That didn’t work out so well for them.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Immanentize:
So why the fuck didn’t they just give him “Chairman” as his title on the coin? More idiocy and embarrassment.
Ruckus
@Tom65:
And all he really knows is that he wants a clown and a magician. The details, like how to even find a clown to hire, that he knows nothing about. And you expect him to pay? You’re kidding, right?
TenguPhule
@Betty Cracker:
Horse left that barn awhile ago.
Leto
It’s a continual irritation watching challenge coins continue to be used outside of the military. It really picked up after 9/11, but I hope this one starts their gradual decline. They’re still tied to mission specific accomplishments/recognition, but it’s to the point to where if you sign up for life insurance you get a “coin”. I really hope that the Midas Shit Touch happens with civilian coins.
Mnemosyne
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Once in a great while you can find a pastor, minister, or priest who is also a fully-trained and licensed psychologist, but it’s pretty rare. I wouldn’t get counseling from anyone who didn’t at a minimum have a MFT or similar certification.
ETA: IIRC, clergy usually have paraprofessional training, at best. That’s what I got when I applied to be a Resident Advisor in college, FFS.
Roger Moore
@Jeffro:
And, of course, it’s heads they win, tails we lose. If Obama kept his hands off anything having to do with the Trump campaign, he let the Deep State run wild because he was asleep at the switch. If he did anything, he used the Deep State for his nefarious purposes. Somebody needs to point out that “you shouldn’t have investigated us” and “why didn’t you stop us” are mutually incompatible complaints.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
Yes we can!
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
The real tragedy here is that they haven’t truly won either. (I know, American exceptionalism) Putin has helped to disrupt the West and therefore has caused the world to dip into chaos in a moment when it could least afford it, all for money, petty territorial ambitions, and spreading his twisted ideology. As fatalistic as this sounds, he has probably helped doom humanity.
MattF
@Roger Moore: They demand victory in every variation of the multiverse.
Amir Khalid
@Yarrow:
If the Queen lives as long as the Queen Mother, Charles will be 80 before he gets to the throne, and won’t be king for very long. That’s what happened to Victoria’s son Edward VII. Some have said Charles should yield the succession to William, but Charles would see that as abandoning his duty.
TenguPhule
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
And its turtles on down from here.
MisterForkbeard
@TenguPhule: Si se puede!
I blame them for LOTS of things.
Mnemosyne
@Elizabelle:
I’m sure the pastor did his best but, as the Comte said, the vast majority of clergy are not qualified to counsel someone who has a serious mental illness. It’s like having a paramedic do your heart bypass surgery.
ETA: And psychiatrists rarely do actual counseling except in hospital settings. The only thing I see my psychiatrist for is med checks.
TenguPhule
@Immanentize:
Yes.
Dr. Silverman explained how people are sucked into being turned by intelligence agents.
First you convince them to do little things. Things that seem harmless.
And bit by bit, those harmless little acts lead down the road to bigger things, until one day the person wakes up and finds they’ve become a traitor and their only choice going forward is bigger acts of treason, because there is no going back.
Everything Trump touches, dies.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
It worked out great, too:
Rosenstein is now in the “loser” category. They’ll bleed him dry and discard him when they’re done. Quitting was far the better option. When all these brave patriots get thru “protecting institutions” they’re gonna find out there’s nothing left to protect.
catclub
@Another Scott:
It has been mentioned for days. Even here. It has not been heavily covered in the news, but it popped up immediately after Trump tweeted that ZTE would be given a break. (Sunday a week ago)
catclub
@TenguPhule:
But unlike his voters, Kim Jong-Un is probably not a gullible fool as far as Trump’s promises are concerned.
JEC
I’m struck by the fact that Kim Jong-Un is literally the only man on Earth whose standing would be enhanced by association with Donald Trump.
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
And Russia gets higher oil prices. a market for their old Cold War era Weapons and Putin is now feared across the world.
Calouste
@Amir Khalid: I can’t see either the Queen or Charles abdicate, even though that is common in most other European monarchies. Uncle Edward set a rather bad example.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
You are Deadpool and I claim my five pounds.
Jay C
Most coins usually have a head and a tail: leave it to the Trumpistas to design one with two tails… well, two asses, anyway
Shell
Re: Coin. Dont you know its probably killing Trump that he cant put “Supreme Leader” in front of his name.
Gravenstone
@MisterForkbeard: It struck me as how he likes to lean into people during handshakes, to try and physically outleverage and dominate them. A typical cheap salesploitation trick.
LAO
@Amir Khalid: @Calouste:
Also, I think that the Queen and Prince Charles see the Monarchy as being burdensome and each is seeking to shield their child from that burden. I wouldn’t expect either to abdicate.
Roger Moore
@Immanentize:
That’s not correct. The Supreme Court ruled that it’s permissible to district according to the total population rather than the number of citizens, but it avoided ruling on whether it is required to do it that way.
Gravenstone
@LAO: It’ll be yuuuugggeeeee!!!1!
Wyatt Derp
Wow this looks like some kind of WWE wrestling promo! Battle of the Titans! Someone needs to tell Trump this match isn’t fixed though.
Roger Moore
@TenguPhule:
This. VSP care mostly that the country is in the hands of The Right Kind of People, i.e. other people just like them. As long as that’s the case, everything is OK and and teensy little mistakes that get made along the way, like making up a case to invade the wrong country, are just the inevitable result of human failure that nobody could have avoided. But if The Wrong Kind of People are in charge, everything is wrong. Success by The Wrong Kind is especially unforgivable because it came about for the wrong reasons. Some of those VSP are anti-Trumpers because they think he’s The Wrong Kind, but they’re almost all anti-Clinton because they still haven’t forgiven Bill for beating that epitome of The Right Kind, GHWB.
Neldob
@Jeffro: What exactly do we say?
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
Republican voters were dumb enough to think that W was one of them because he lived in Texas, but Republican elites knew he was a born and bred member of the East Coast Upper Class, just like them.
Some people call you the elite — I call you my base.
Aleta
Does commemorative mean designed to encourage a false memory? These are pocket ads to suggest Trumpo is a leader like Kennedy and Reagan, Vienna and Geneva. (T only remembers the initial buzz on his TV set, when Vienna was a success.)
Aleta
@Mnemosyne: Cheney on a horse.
Citizen Alan
@Amir Khalid:
Refresh my memory. If the queen outlives Charles, doesn’t that take both William and Harry out of the line of succession? With the throne instead going to prince Andrew when she dies?
Mnemosyne
@Citizen Alan:
Nope. Inheritance continues down Charles’ line, so William would move up to being Prince of Wales.
You may be thinking of some of the historical situations where an heir presumptive would die with no heirs and the next closest relative in line — brother, nephew, etc — would inherit.
ETA: Andrew would only become king if Charles, William, Harry, and all of William’s children died.
? Martin
Way to signal that you are fine walking away from the summit at any time. The WH is now committed to making this work, but Kim isn’t. He’s got all the negotiating power now.
Brachiator
@LAO:
Summit time, and de-nuking is easy
Fish are jumpin’ and the kim chi is high
Oh, your country’s rich and Ivanka’s good-lookin’
So hush, Supreme Leader, don’t you cry
Roger Moore
@Calouste:
My understanding, though, is that the Queen is doing a sort of soft abdication, where she turns more and more of her daily duties over to Charles, even if she theoretically retains all the real responsibility. It seems like a reasonable way of doing things. Charles gets some practical experience before he’s in the hot seat, and she gets to share some of the burden.
Betty Cracker
@Mnemosyne: Princess Anne would also have to take a dirt nap to put Andrew on the throne — they changed the rules a while back to allow succession by birth order without consideration of gender, and Anne is older than Andrew.
Brachiator
@Amir Khalid:
Also, Charles really wants to be king.
Beezus
Who PAID for the production of this tacky “coin?”
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
Anne is out of luck.
However, young Prince George better watch out. Princess Charlotte seems to be very self-assured for a three year old.
On the other side of the world, Japanese princesses automatically fall out of the line of succession if they marry a commoner. This, of course, does not apply to males in line for the throne.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
Would be nice
rikyrah
@Kay:
Traitors, ALL, Kay.
TRAITORS, ALL.
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
Come site by me
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Bill Arnold: 1 Billion can buy Bezos a newspaper to hammer Trump with, like say the Washington Post.
Comforting or not, Ambition meets Ambition as the Founding Father said.
Felony Govt (Formerly Old Broad in California)
@Beezus: Probably all of us. Your tax dollars at work.
Roger Moore
@Citizen Alan:
No. The succession doesn’t depend on who dies when, except that somebody who’s dead can’t become the monarch. Charles’s heirs don’t lose their rights if he predeceases Elizabeth; instead they each move up one spot in the succession. The only way you can move down in the succession is when somebody higher than you has a child.
Leto
@Beezus: Typically you pony up the money first, then buy that number. But here? That’s a good question. How many of these have been made, are there any excess, where is that money going? Follow the money.
Betty Cracker
@Brachiator: Well, shoot. Still, good on the Brits for dumping that sexist rule.
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
This is not quite correct. The Prince of Wales is an oddball exception to the normal rules in that it can’t be inherited; it lapses when the current prince becomes king or dies and doesn’t come back into existence until the monarch bestows it again. So William would not automatically become Prince of Wales if either Charles or Elizabeth died; he would remain the Duke of Cambridge until the monarch made him Prince.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
Apparently, the title merges with the crown when the Prince of Wales becomes king. Weird stuff!
J R in WV
@chris:
Wife was an AP reporter, and was attacked by security guards in a local county courthouse, was rescued by two city cops who were also in the courtroom, which was packed for a political event of some sort, I forget the details. This was at least 10 or 12 years ago. It is common at this point for bullies in uniform to attack reporters when they get fired up and enraged about the media being nosy.
She wasn’t badly hurt, but in the end wound up with total and permanent disability after a 30 year career, PTSD and physical problems. Disability payment was peanuts compared to her union wage!
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
William also wasn’t the Duke of Cambridge until his grandmother granted him (and Kate) that title after his marriage.
Also, all inheritors of British titles have to be confirmed by the House of Lords and approved by the monarch. (Technically, the monarch gets the application for the title, passes it to the HoL, the HoL votes their recommendation and sends that to the monarch, and s/he grants it to the new heir).
And don’t even get me started on the difference between courtesy titles and aristocratic titles. Legally, every upper-class person who does not hold a title in their own right is a commoner. Princess Anne turned down courtesy titles for her two children, as did her husband.
Another Scott
@catclub: ZTE has come up in several threads, and we’ve speculated that somehow Donnie was getting paid, but Drum’s post is the first I’ve seen that shows exactly how Donnie got money from China and for what.
Is there something I missed earlier?
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
MattF
Apparently ‘Fat Leonard’, the guy at the center of the Navy’s worst scandal ever, is in very bad health.
SgrAstar
@Kay: I’m leaning toward the Immanentize position on this- I think it’s pretty obv that they’re trying to protect the Mueller investigation. If Wray and Rosenstein get fired- and they will- what next?
Scarshapedstar
I like the body language with Kim backing away. Looks like Trump has serious halitosis.
daverave
And why the jagged line between the two flags? Is that supposed to represent the DMZ? Or the winding road to this “peace” summit? Or the fissures in the planet when the nukes start flying? Inquiring minds and all that….
Ruckus
@Yarrow:
Doesn’t seem like all the waiting has been all that hard on Phillip.
Mnemosyne
@Ruckus:
Philip never gets to be king in any scenario. He’s just the Prince Consort.
debbie
Some guy on NPR said the medal was premature, but very good-looking. I hadn’t seen it until now, and it is ass-ugly.
Robert Sneddon
@LAO: The solution Liz has come up with is Monarch Emeritus in effect. She’s handed off a lot of her regular ceremonial duties to Charles and Anne over the years recently although they’ve always understudied her. There are a few which only she can do, of course, such as the Opening of Parliament and the Queen’s Speech but a lot of the rest of her duties are optional.
I’d expect the Heir and the Spare: the Next Generation to get their workload increased after London Bridge Falls (the media code alert phrase for the death of the reigning Monarch) and Charlie gets his bum on the Scone of Stone (Terry Pratchett reference there).