Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

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

“But what about the lurkers?”

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

In my day, never was longer.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Everybody saw this coming.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Our Brand Is Chaos

Our Brand Is Chaos

by | 245 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Our national and international embarrassment addressed the Coasties today. He thinks they’re a fucking brand:

The “brand” of the United States of America is in the shitter thanks to this ignorant blowhard, who finally uttered the words “Puerto Rico,” but only to babble moronically about “brands.”

Oh, and Trump has apparently never heard the word “prowess” before:

Let’s hope his tiny brain has already expunged all memory of that flub because if he has a flunky look it up and explain what “prowess” means, he’ll start applying it to himself in stupid and embarrassing ways.

Jesus, I’m so over this shit. Open thread!

Reader Interactions

245Comments

  3. 3.

    Derelict

    “When you’re reading aloud and encounter a word you don’t know.”
    Reminding me of when some speech writer put the word “paradigm” in one of Reagan’s speeches, causing him to blurt out “para-dig-em” because he’d never seen nor heard the word before.

  4. 4.

    VeniceRiley

    *headdesk-headdesk-headdesk* Now I feel better. Try it!

    Ordered a cheaper Android box (yay, promo code!) because I have now bricked 2 NVIDIA Shield TV Pro, and I am over it. I have a talent for bricking devices.

  5. 5.

    Elizabelle

    My beloved nephew is in the Coast Guard. He voted enthusiastically for Trump. I keep hoping the little darling will get furloughed, but Coast Guard is essential personnel. And other than the politics, he is about the best person I know. I blame his dad, the university-degreed Confederate.

    Le sigh.

  6. 6.

    TenguPhule

    I always thought our descent into a WH 40K dystopian shithole would involve a lot more bling, to be honest.

  8. 8.

    cmorenc

    EVERYTHING with Trump is about the narcissistic projection of self over everything. Me, me, me, me, me, MEEEEE !

  13. 13.

    James Powell

    At some point, in the middle of speech, he is going to pause, look uncomfortable, then shout “San Dimas High School football rules!”

    His supporters will go wild. FOX analysts will compare it with something Reagan said, probably “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

    The rest of the press/media will more or less go along with the notion that it was a great line, though “some Democrats” will suggest that San Dimas High School football is not all that good.

  14. 14.

    Jeffro

    Interrupted “Ozzy’s Boneyard” just so I could see how he mispronounced “prowess”. What a putz.

    Now back to the Boneyard!

  17. 17.

    TenguPhule

    @MisterForkbeard:

    We’re working on the all the skull-fetish jewelry, I think. We’ll get there.

    These Inquisitors of Chaotic Evil that they’re sending to round up the colored folks are not their best.

  20. 20.

    HeleninEire

    I’m sure I’m meant to larrrf at the fact that he doesn’t know the word prowess. But I just can’t watch him. Haven’t been able to for a long time. I am sad that I can’t laugh.
    At him.

    In good news; I’m in London. I love that I can go to London (or really anywhere in Europe) on a whim.

  21. 21.

    MisterForkbeard

    @donnah: Oh, I’m heavily disappointed in Americans – and I continue to be every time I look at the comments section of NPR on facebook. If I see one more “Democrats aren’t FOR anything” or “Dems are just as bad as Republicans” then I’m going to smack somebody.

    I feel rage and disgust at Trump himself, but I’m more sad about the rest of our nation and I’m deeply disappointed that Republicans are sticking to a narcissistic, ignorant con man just because they hate liberals.

  23. 23.

    patrick II

    Two things I learned.
    1. He doesn’t review his written speeches ahead of time, or if he does he pretends to know all the words well enough to fake them.
    2. His speechwriters are going to write with simpler and simpler words until they get it right.
    3. His farewell speech will be “bye-bye” if he is leaving in normal fashion and “Witchhunt, bigly!” if he is not.

  24. 24.

    hitchhiker

    In their ignorance and stupidity, more than 60 million Americans put one of the worst people in the USA right into the center of every frame. If we went looking on purpose for a more degrading experience, I don’t know how we could have done better. (Or worse.)

    We’re stuck with that.

    Right now I’m almost afraid to think about the 2018 elections, aside from doing my bit locally. There’s an election near me that will matter (WA 08 House), so at least I have something to do that might help.

    Whatever happens in the fall, though, there’s no giving up.

  25. 25.

    kindness

    Chaos is Trumps smokescreen. It has worked. Look at the MSM. They cover the chaos, not what the administration is actually doing.

  26. 26.

    jacy

    I feel like this shit is seriously starting to have a bad effect on my mental health. I’ve started to feel very dissociated. I’m already on meds for mood and see a therapist every week. I don’t know what else I can do. I’ve tried not to pay as much attention to it all, but it’s like having a fucking firehose trained on you 24/7. Aaarrgghh.

  27. 27.

    TenguPhule

    Speaking of Chaos, VISA transactions have stopped working in Europe.

    AMEX and Mastercard are still working.

  28. 28.

    TenguPhule

    @kindness:

    Chaos is Trumps smokescreen.

    Its not a smokescreen. Its a natural byproduct produced by his every fucking action.

  30. 30.

    Aleta

    Peter Gleick
    Seriously, I can’t stop thinking about this.
    What was behind the decision at the @NYTimes to put the Roseanne story on page A1 and the 5000 dead Puerto Ricans on page A13?

    Peter Daou
    ‏You know who never gets an apology for being smeared, vilified, demonized, maligned, and demeaned? (Photo of HRC)

  33. 33.

    Roger Moore

    @patrick II:

    His farewell speech will be “bye-bye” if he is leaving in normal fashion and “Witchhunt, bigly!” if he is not.

    If he’s leaving not normally, his farewell address will be delivered from a country without an extradition treaty.

  37. 37.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Aleta: What thinking – gossips fun and people dying from incompetence and neglect is a bummer.

  39. 39.

    Jager

    @Aleta: Maybe the NYTimes doesn’t believe that any of 1.5 million or so Puerto Ricans in the New York City Metro area can read?

  40. 40.

    James Powell

    @hitchhiker:

    If we went looking on purpose for a more degrading experience, I don’t know how we could have done better. (Or worse.)

    Republican Party: Hold our beers . . .

  42. 42.

    MattF

    @TenguPhule: I agree. Chaos is Trump’s primary need, strategy, and product. It diverts attention from the void. But, as a crazy old fart put it, ‘Nothing will come of nothing.’

  45. 45.

    Gravenstone

    Just because I enjoy the song (and was stunned to find Gary still active these days).

    My Name is Ruin

    Kinda fits Trumpster, or at least his effects.

  47. 47.

    JPL

    A federal study found signs that surveillance devices, called IMSI catchers often used by Chinese and Russian intel services, for intercepting cell phone calls and texts were operating near the W.H. and other sensitive locations in the D.C. area last year.

    https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1002608224749740034

    I wonder what countries knew in advance about our great jobs number.
    …………….but her emails.

  49. 49.

    lgerard

    @Aleta:

    Peter Gleick
    Seriously, I can’t stop thinking about this.
    What was behind the decision at the @NYTimes to put the Roseanne story on page A1 and the 5000 dead Puerto Ricans on page A13?

    Yesterday’s NY Post front page was coverage of The Big Ass Summit with trump and Kim Thong Un (their words)

    Evidently trolling is the new journalism.

  51. 51.

    Gravenstone

    @HeleninEire: I have an acquaintance who moved his family to Scotland last year for work. He’s taking great advantage of proximity to the rest of Europe to give his kids lifetime experiences. I think it’s really cool he has that chance.

  53. 53.

    Johnny Gentle (famous crooner)

    @Aleta:

    Peter Gleick
    Seriously, I can’t stop thinking about this.
    What was behind the decision at the @NYTimes to put the Roseanne story on page A1 and the 5000 dead Puerto Ricans on page A13?

    Because pop-culture is easy, requires no expertise and drives page views. Plus, there’s no “allegedly.” The government “allegedly” let 5,000 Puerto Ricans die, but Roseanne definitely said a thing! It’s hard work digging into the facts and finding the truth. Better to devote the column space to a TV show.

  54. 54.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @TenguPhule:

    There are people out there who really think the Imperium is a great place to live (or at least the best place in that fucked up universe), never realising that it was always meant as a satire of fascism and racism. I mean, the fact that the entire universe had to be a hellscape filled with evil chaos gods who make everyone unable to negotiate rationally in order for fascism to be a viable (barely) system speaks volumes to me.

  55. 55.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @TenguPhule:

    There are people out there who really think the Imperium is a great place to live (or at least the best place in that fucked up universe), never realising that it was always meant as a satire of fascism and racism. I mean, the fact that the entire universe had to be a hellscape filled with evil chaos gods who make everyone unable to negotiate rationally in order for fascism to be a viable (barely) system speaks volumes to me.

  57. 57.

    sdhays

    @rikyrah: I’ve never seen the new version of Roseanne, and I think I’ve seen maybe one or two episodes of the old one back in the 90’s; it wasn’t popular in my house. But yesterday I caught “Amber’s Minute of Fury” from a few weeks ago, and one of the things she riffed on was the most recent episode of Roseanne. It was appalling. Racist Roseanne thinks the new Muslim neighbors are terrorists, but then they share their WiFi password with her, so she decides they’re ok, and later sticks up for them with other racist white people.

    So the moral of the story is that if everyone who’s the target of racism shares their password with every racist white person they encounter, racism will be a thing of the past? That episode, as described, is racist AF, regardless of whether Roseanne is personally racist (which, of course, she is) or whether it’s actually true that the “head writer” was black. I’m glad the damn thing is finally gone.

  58. 58.

    Gravenstone

    @patrick II:

    He doesn’t review his written speeches ahead of time, or if he does he pretends to know all the words well enough to fake them.

    It’s been painfully clear since the beginning that he doesn’t practice most speeches ahead of time. It’s either stream of unconsciousness gibberish to his deplorable base, or it’s awkward attempts to decipher even simple words that happen to contain more than one syllable.

  59. 59.

    trollhattan

    @HeleninEire:

    I love that I can go to London (or really anywhere in Europe) on a whim.

    Don’t folks commonly do that on a train?

  60. 60.

    TenguPhule

    @HeleninEire:

    In good news; I’m in London. I love that I can go to London (or really anywhere in Europe) on a whim.

    Heads up, if you have a VISA card, their systems in Europe are currently borked. Use another credit card or cash.

  61. 61.

    trollhattan

    @p.a.:
    All will agree with Donny that, “She has a really great prow doesn’t she, folks?”

  62. 62.

    TenguPhule

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

    There are people out there who really think the Imperium is a great place to live (or at least the best place in that fucked up universe)

    I always preferred the Tau, myself. Screw the new edition’s retroactive canon changes.

  63. 63.

    Amir Khalid

    @trollhattan:
    Haven’t you heard of The Whim? It’s a much faster and more convenient mode of transport that connects any two places in Europe.

  66. 66.

    TenguPhule

    @JPL:

    My son keeps trying to convince me that I need another card besides VISA.

    Are you convinced now?

  67. 67.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @TenguPhule:
    Here’s what I would do if I was leading the Imperium. Say “screw it”, and take as many people and resources with me as possible and flee to a remote part of the universe to start over. Their ain’t no saving that. The IoM isn’t worth saving imo.

    Aren’t the Tau the stereotypical good guys?

  71. 71.

    TenguPhule

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

    Aren’t the Tau the stereotypical good guys?

    Retroactively changed in the newer editions to be space communists who specialize in chemical brainwashing and ethnic cleansing (although to be fair, much of this is coming from the Imperium’s well known unbiased reports).

    Here’s what I would do if I was leading the Imperium. Say “screw it”, and take as many people and resources with me as possible and flee to a remote part of the universe to start over.

    Flee to where? They’ve got Tyranids coming from below, the Necrons and Orks are pretty much every fucking where in the galaxy and they have to travel through Khaos to get anywhere. Plus, a good chunk of their planets can’t even feed their own populations, they rely on imports from other dedicated planets to survive.

  72. 72.

    Roger Moore

    @patrick II:

    A fourth thing I learned is that I can’t count to three.

    Surprise and fear and ruthless efficiency … and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.

  73. 73.

    rikyrah

    Trump’s Loudest Anti-Muslim Twitter Troll Is A Shady Vegan Married To An (Ousted) WWE Exec
    @AmyMek anonymously spread hate online for years. She can’t hide anymore.
    By Luke O’Brien

    She was supposed to be a Russian bot. That seemed like the best explanation for @AmyMek. No normal person could be so prolific and prejudiced.

    For five years, the mysterious Twitter account ― which has more than 200,000 followers, including Sean Hannity, Roseanne Barr and the personal account of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and has earned endorsements from Donald Trump and Michael Flynn ― has tirelessly spewed far-right propaganda and, above all, Islamophobia. Around 25 tweets a day, sometimes more, the majority of them designed to stoke hatred of Muslims.

    And thousands of others. The bigotry was garden-variety Islamophobia: memes about Sharia executions and child rape, genital mutilation and Muslims torturing and butchering various life forms while dusky columns of Saracens, every one of them a potential jihadist, march into Western lands bent on pillage. What made @AmyMek special was her industriousness. She never took a break.

    “She’s a major cog in the Islamophobia machine,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy and civil rights organization that @AmyMek often attacks.

    Her Twitter timeline was one long screed that reflected the collective id of the Make America Great Again movement. Tea party rage, evangelical hokum and white supremacy ― it was all there. In sufficient volume, this kind of hate can now turn any no-account right-winger into a star on social media. And it worked for @AmyMek.

    But who was she?

    Even her Twitter bio, which features a grainy photo of a blond woman who claims to be a vegan, gun-loving psychotherapist and “fixer” fighting for the “wrongfully incarcerated,” felt janky. “[A]n ideological theme park map” is how Maureen Erwin, a political consultant who wrote about her search for @AmyMek last year, described it.

    There is a real person, however, behind the bio. The headshot is real, if dated. And the Twitter handle, surprisingly, differs little from her actual name: Amy Jane Mekelburg.

    ……………………………………………………………….

    When asked by HuffPost about the veracity of this claim, the WWE at first offered a cryptic answer. “This is the first time we’re hearing about Amy Mekelburg,” said a corporate spokesperson last Thursday, requesting not to be identified by name.

    The company had reason to worry about Mekelburg’s Islamophobia. In the early part of 2018, the WWE and Saudi Arabia finalized a controversial 10-year deal to bring pro wrestling there. Siino [HER HUSBAND] was negotiating TV deals in the United Arab Emirates, according to the WWE. Back in Fishkill, his wife was casting Muslims as subhuman filth.

    Twitter’s policy against hateful conduct prohibits “behavior that incites fear about a protected group” and “repeated and/or non-consensual slurs, epithets, racist and sexist tropes, or other content that degrades someone.” One digital sleuth who tracks @AmyMek told HuffPost that he has reported the account to Twitter more than 50 times to no avail. Although the company has “withheld” Mekelburg’s account in Germany and France, Twitter has done little to cramp her style in the U.S.

    Mekelburg appeared to operate without fear of fallout anywhere. As this story neared publication, she kept tweeting hate, even when her husband’s job was in jeopardy. Last Friday, after HuffPost asked the WWE a second time if anyone there had known about @AmyMek before hiring Siino, the company responded definitively.

    “No,” said the WWE spokesperson. “Now that it has come to our attention, Sal Siino is no longer an employee.”

  74. 74.

    Mnemosyne

    @jacy:

    Your therapist has probably already recommended this, but you should look into getting involved with an Indivisible or Swing Left group near you. If even that seems too stressful right now, do some other local volunteering with kids or pets. Feeling helpless will only make your mood worse, so it’s good to find a way to take some actual action.

    And if you can’t even stand the thought of interacting with other people face to face, there’s the 5 Postcards thing that some people here have been doing. Every little bit helps, and even small positive actions will help your mood.

    Now if only I could practice what I’m preaching … ?

  77. 77.

    LAO

    I truly despise (1) everyone responsible for Trump and (2) Trump and his merry band of enablers:

    Trump says June 12 summit with North Korea is back on as a “get-to-know-you situation”— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) June 1, 2018

  78. 78.

    Brachiator

    I don’t think any brand has gained more momentum or has gained more of anything than the brand of the United States Coast Guard.

    OK, I give up. There is no reason to try to make sense of this verbal gibberish. Brand? Brand?

    What is this, an outtake from “The Apprentice?”

  79. 79.

    LAO

    Of course he didn’t discuss human rights because he lacks all empathy and the ability to fake empathy:

    Trump says he did not talk about human rights with Kim Yong Choi— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) June 1, 2018

  80. 80.

    chopper

    “During the hurricanes I was in Texas, I was in Puerto Rico”

    you were where now?

  81. 81.

    LAO

    I can’t let this go — where’s Cheryl?

    Trump lowering expectations: “we’re not going to go sign something on June 12. the process will begin”— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) June 1, 2018

  82. 82.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @TenguPhule:
    Take an expedition of the best and flee to some other galaxy. Or time travel to the past.

    I admit I’m only passing familiar with WH40K

  84. 84.

    No Drought No More

    “A republic, madam, if you can keep it”.

    “Jesus, I’m so over this shit”.

    “I’ll say it before, and I’ll say it again: democracy simply doesn’t work”. Kent Brockman-Springfield News

  85. 85.

    Jeffro

    BREAKING (even though it shouldn’t be): WaPo has it up that illegal border crossings were up again this past month, and “officials are bracing for an eruption from the president*” No that quote is not a joke. “Bracing for an eruption”. Go ahead, Twitler, stroke right the fuck out why don’t you?

    Any reporter want to ask Trumpov or Smokey Eye why we should give a shit given the totes awesome job numbers that were reported earlier today by Mr. Market Whisperer? If the illegals are swarming us, it sure doesn’t seem to be driving up unemployment!

  86. 86.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Alain, I again tried to submit photos and the capture thing crashed my browser. Seems that the form is not yet fixed.

  87. 87.

    HeleninEire

    @Gravenstone: Good for him.
    One of the best things here (behind easy access to the rest of the goddamn world) is that women feel free and happy to travel alone. I first came here 30 years ago and everyone in America thought I was NUTS. But the answer to a woman traveling around alone here is “YAY, Good on ya”

  89. 89.

    Brachiator

    @Gravenstone:

    It’s been painfully clear since the beginning that he doesn’t practice most speeches ahead of time. It’s either stream of unconsciousness gibberish to his deplorable base, or it’s awkward attempts to decipher even simple words that happen to contain more than one syllable.

    The written speeches are almost entirely superfluous. What he says at his political rallies are closer to what he really thinks. This stuff is also stream of conscious gibberish, but without any censor or filter.

    @LAO:

    Trump says June 12 summit with North Korea is back on as a “get-to-know-you situation”— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood)

    Is this a date or a summit meeting?

  93. 93.

    Jeffro

    @Mary G: Principled Libertarianism! KochFirst-ism! Man those fuckers just do not car about ANYTHING other than their bottom line, do they?

  95. 95.

    Roger Moore

    @patrick II:

    How big of a Monty Python fan are you?

    I’m a big fan, but even somebody who isn’t a huge fan would have seen the opportunity.

  96. 96.

    Kay

    @Mary G:

    I’m afraid of that, though. Less insane Republicans have nowhere to go so guess who gets stuck with them?

    We do. It would be goddamned tragic if the Republican Party was given the Democratic Party as a reward for their horrible behavior. The Koch brothers aren’t going to move Left. They’ll just pull the Democratic Party Right and at the end of this “the Koch brothers” will be the “centrist” position.

    Time to close up the old tent. They can go form their own party.

  98. 98.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    Trump sounds very Canadian in that last video clip. Pro-wess … suspiciously Canadian.

  99. 99.

    Brachiator

    @TenguPhule:

    Speaking of Chaos, VISA transactions have stopped working in Europe.

    This reminds me of a recent story about … Sweden, I think, becoming a cashless society. Yep. From a 2017 story.

    In Sweden, the rate of cash payments in stores fell from 40% in 2010 to a stunning 15% in 2016. In terms of total value of purchases, the percentage has tumbled to 1.4%. According to a study by the country’s central bank, two-thirds of Swedes now feel they could live without cash. “It’s a unique development internationally,” according to the bank.

    Fewer banks have any cash at all, and a wild side effect is a dramatic decline in bank robberies: “Last year, there were only two bank robberies, compared to 110 in 2008.”

    Oddly enough, Sweden may have invented paper money in the West:

    The trend marks a historical full-circle for Sweden, which in 1661 became the first European country to print banknotes.

    The downside, of course, are technological glitches that interrupt any electronic payments system. Still, the entire world may be moving to a cashless society.

  101. 101.

    jl

    It could be that he is just using the English Received Pronunciation.
    Prin-CESS
    Prow-ESS

    But BJ haters gotta hate, I guess.

    Edit: that’s a joke, BTW. I got no clue how ‘prowess’ is pronounced in RP.

  102. 102.

    rikyrah

    @Mary G:

    (WaPo)Trump’s descent into mercantilism is so bad that it seems to have prompted the Koch brothers to take an appropriate and long-overdue step — start supporting Democrats who generally reflect their free-market economic views. Their political arm, Americans for Prosperity, is actually supporting a Democrat for the Senate — incumbent Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota.

    You don’t really believe this, do you?
    Come on now…you know it’s absolute bullshyt.

  104. 104.

    Barbara

    @Mary G: Last election cycle, we got a personal “invitation” signed by Charles Koch to join AFP. The content of the letter was all about trying to conserve the American ideals that for generations have allowed people to excel and succeed by their own initiative, and so on, and it never ceases to amaze me that a person with such vast inherited wealth could actually believe that his policy agenda would achieve that.

  105. 105.

    TenguPhule

    @LAO:

    Trump says June 12 summit with North Korea is back on as a “get-to-know-you situation”

    I do not like this updated remake of 50 First Dates.

  106. 106.

    jl

    @TenguPhule: It’s good news. Trump dithering away for months on end with pointless negotiations, while everything is on hold, is the best thing that can happen.

    The most likely alternatives are either another dangerous nuclear war scare, or a bad deal that causes tension and rifts between US and its allies in the region.

  108. 108.

    TenguPhule

    @jl:

    It’s good news. Dithering away for months on end, while everything is on hold, is the best thing that can happen.

    First Rule of Donald Trump. Trump always lies.

  110. 110.

    TenguPhule

    @Brachiator:

    The downside, of course, are technological glitches that interrupt any electronic payments system. Still, the entire world may be moving to a cashless society.

    Doubtful. I think we will have physical exchanges of value as long as we have places and people where electricity and internet are not invited.

  112. 112.

    HeleninEire

    @rikyrah: Thank you. And thank you for supporting me in that Rand Paul got beat up kerfuffle. That asshole screwed the daughter. And got away with it.

  113. 113.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    @HeleninEire:

    In good news; I’m in London. I love that I can go to London (or really anywhere in Europe) on a whim.

    Is that marriage offer still open?

  114. 114.

    rikyrah

    @HeleninEire:

    And thank you for supporting me in that Rand Paul got beat up kerfuffle. That asshole screwed the daughter. And got away with it.

    For now, Helen…
    Just for now….

  115. 115.

    Brachiator

    @Jager:

    Just getting together over double cheeseburgers, fries and diet cokes to see if they like each other.

    God! Can you imagine that coke commercial?

    Pudgy Kim holding Trump’s pudgy little hands, looking into his eyes and saying “Donnie, I will de-nuke for you…”

  116. 116.

    JCJ

    @Amir Khalid:

    Haven’t you heard of The Whim? It’s a much faster and more convenient mode of transport that connects any two places in Europe.

    Is that a special kind of Port Key for muggles?

  118. 118.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Brachiator: I was in Sweden in May. You literally cannot find a bank in Stockholm; we looked all over. There is a prominent chain of coffee shops called Espresso House, with a sign on the door of every establishment saying they do not accept cash. It’s remarkable.

  121. 121.

    gene108

    @LAO:

    Of course he didn’t discuss human rights because he lacks all empathy and the ability to fake empathy:

    I think Trump is jealous of authoritarian states being able to lock up people, who don’t agree with them. I think he wants to figure out how these dictators do it and bring it to the USA.

  122. 122.

    jl

    @Gin & Tonic: In that part of the world, and I can’t find some service I need, I just find a post office. Need some small time cash, head to a post office, they can either do it for you or direct you to nearest place where you can get it done. That worked for me in Estonia, Finland, Germany, Sweden, etc.

  123. 123.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @rikyrah:

    You don’t really believe this, do you?

    Why not, the Kotch brothers believe in nothing but Kotch and trade wars are bad for business.

  124. 124.

    Brachiator

    @TenguPhule:

    Still, the entire world may be moving to a cashless society.

    Doubtful. I think we will have physical exchanges of value as long as we have places and people where electricity and internet are not invited.

    With solar and satellites, these places may be extremely rare. Still, the transformation of mainstream society to cashless, including many poorer countries, may be inexorable.

  125. 125.

    TenguPhule

    @Gravenstone:

    If you tell me that Trump is the Doctor, I will personally hunt you down and punch you in the neck.

    The Master, surely?

  128. 128.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Playing Trump’s speech and in the background was my Spotify playing Tanz Mit Laibach, by the group Laibach
    Perfect!

  129. 129.

    TenguPhule

    @Brachiator:

    With solar and satellites, these places may be extremely rare. Still, the transformation of mainstream society to cashless, including many poorer countries, may be inexorable.

    Japan is one of the most technologically advanced nations on Earth and still mainly cash transactions on the individual day to day level. While rail and big name stores are exceptions to the general rule, cash is still king.

  130. 130.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @gene108:

    I think Trump is jealous of authoritarian states being able to lock up people, who don’t agree with them. I think he wants to figure out how these dictators do it and bring it to the USA.

    Thank the gods then that Trump is to dumb to be bothered to read up on Wodrow Wilson.

  131. 131.

    TenguPhule

    @Brachiator:

    Pudgy Kim holding Trump’s pudgy little hands, looking into his eyes and saying “Donnie, I will de-nuke for you…”

    And their lips meet and the tongue war begins….

  132. 132.

    Ruckus

    @Jeffro:
    No, they care about nothing that doesn’t put money in their hands. Money is their religion. If you were to cut one of them, they would bleed greenbacks.

  133. 133.

    Brachiator

    @Mandalay:

    And yet “roughly 80% of all transactions in Germany are conducted in cash“, and many smaller stores do not even accept credit cards.

    Go figure.

    Did not know that. Very interesting.

    The host of a podcast I listen to mentioned that he spent 2 weeks in Australia and only used cash once, at a small local store during a side trip.

  136. 136.

    rikyrah

    @gene108:

    I think Trump is jealous of authoritarian states being able to lock up people, who don’t agree with them. I think he wants to figure out how these dictators do it and bring it to the USA.

    You do not lie.

  137. 137.

    El Caganer

    A “getting-to-know-you” situation? Christ, I hope Kim’s sisters aren’t around.

  138. 138.

    J R in WV

    @trollhattan:

    @HeleninEire:
    I love that I can go to London (or really anywhere in Europe) on a whim.

    Don’t folks commonly do that on a train?

    Umm, not when you’re in Eire, aka Ireland, an island west of the British Isles. Once you’re in Britain, for now, yes, you can take a train to the continent. So far, permanent status to be determined by future negotiations, which are not going well.

  139. 139.

    TenguPhule

    @Lapassionara:

    Does anyone know why? Working on a fix? Leaving for Paris in 12 days, and my debit card is a Visa.

    VISA is reporting system network problems. Yes. Have a backup card from another issuer and bring cash.

  140. 140.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Brachiator: In many African countries, where electricity is sporadic and what we think of as Internet is largely non-existent, the mobile phone operators have taken on the payment process, and mobile-to-mobile payments of even very small amounts are widely accepted. You don’t need a Western European infrastructure to go cashless.

  141. 141.

    TenguPhule

    @J R in WV:

    So far, permanent status to be determined by future negotiations, which are not going well.

    You have a talent for understatement.

    Ireland looks like its going to go back to the bad times of the Troubles.

  144. 144.

    J R in WV

    @rikyrah:

    Thanks for the story!

    Loved how at the end, the frantic, nearly insane Muslin hate got her husband fired from what sounds like a pretty high-end entertainment biz job:

    Last Friday, after HuffPost asked the WWE a second time if anyone there had known about @AmyMek before hiring Siino, the company responded definitively.

    “No,” said the WWE spokesperson. “Now that it has come to our attention, Sal Siino is no longer an employee.”

    I would have to imagine that caused a little household tension for darling Amy, ya think?!!

  146. 146.

    Brachiator

    @Gin & Tonic:

    In many African countries, where electricity is sporadic and what we think of as Internet is largely non-existent, the mobile phone operators have taken on the payment process, and mobile-to-mobile payments of even very small amounts are widely accepted. You don’t need a Western European infrastructure to go cashless.

    Yep. One of the more hopeful developments is how mobile phones let people partly overcome the lack of huge investment in infrastructure, and still contribute to economic improvements.

    As an aside, I wish that there were more investment in phone technology that was not spurred by the desire to make the phones better game playing toys.

    However, I do note that a significant amount of tech innovation has come about as an outgrowth of catering to gamers, gamblers and people interested in “adult entertainment.”

  148. 148.

    TenguPhule

    @Brachiator:

    However, I do note that a significant amount of tech innovation has come about as an outgrowth of catering to gamers, gamblers and people interested in “adult entertainment.”

    You almost make it sound like three different groups of people.

  149. 149.

    Brachiator

    Don’t want this to get lost in the thread, and hope a front pager will pick up on it. A blistering report about economic inequality in the US, from The Guardian:

    UN: US inequality reaching a dangerous level due to Trump’s ‘cruel’ measures

    Scorching report on poverty finds ‘systematic attack on welfare program’ will leave millions deprived of food and healthcare

    Donald Trump is deliberately forcing millions of Americans into financial ruin, cruelly depriving them of food and other basic protections while lavishing vast riches on the super-wealthy, the United Nations monitor on poverty has warned.

    Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur who acts as a watchdog on extreme poverty around the world, has issued a withering critique of the state of America today. Trump is steering the country towards a “dramatic change of direction” that is rewarding the rich and punishing the poor by blocking access even to the most meager necessities.

    “This is a systematic attack on America’s welfare program that is undermining the social safety net for those who can’t cope on their own. Once you start removing any sense of government commitment, you quickly move into cruelty,” Alston told the Guardian.

    I was particularly struck by this section of the report (emphasis added):

    Who then are the poor? Racist stereotypes are usually not far beneath the surface. The poor are overwhelmingly assumed to be people of color, whether African Americans or Hispanic ‘immigrants’. The reality is that there are 8 million more poor Whites than there are Blacks. Similarly, large numbers of welfare recipients are assumed to be living high on the hog.

    Some politicians and political appointees with whom I spoke were completely sold on the narrative of such scammers sitting on comfortable sofas, watching color TVs, while surfing on their smart phones, all paid for by welfare. I wonder how many of these politicians have ever visited poor areas, let alone spoken to those who dwell there. There are anecdotes aplenty, but evidence is nowhere to be seen.

    In every society, there are those who abuse the system, as much in the upper income levels, as in the lower. But the poor people I met from among the 40 million living in poverty were overwhelmingly either persons who had been born into poverty, or those who had been thrust there by circumstances largely beyond their control such as physical or mental disabilities, divorce, family breakdown, illness, old age, unlivable wages, or discrimination in the job market.

    Meanwhile, Trump insists that society can be easily separated into winners, losers, and animals. And only “winners” can be real Americans.

  150. 150.

    rikyrah

    @J R in WV:

    I would have to imagine that caused a little household tension for darling Amy, ya think?!!

    her costing him $$$$$$?

    Yeah, I can smell the friction all the way over here.

  152. 152.

    J R in WV

    @TenguPhule:

    Doubtful. I think we will have physical exchanges of value as long as we have places and people where electricity and internet are not invited. contraband is involved!

    FTFY…

  153. 153.

    Jager

    @MattF: The burnt steaks are a 2nd date thing…the third date is the real deal, trump will have a pocket full of tic tacs

  154. 154.

    trollhattan

    @Jager:
    By the third date doesn’t Donny simply demand they tell him his breath smells like rose petals and winning?

  156. 156.

    Jager

    @trollhattan: I don’t even want to think about trump dating moves. Mrs J and I have an artist friend in New York. She used to see trump out and about during his “Vietnam” days. Our friend grew up in Texas and is still a bit of a good old girl when she needs to be, she told Mrs J, “trump was one of those guys that would fuck a woodpile if he thought there was a snake in it”

  157. 157.

    efgoldman

    Not dead yet, feeling much better. Been in hospital, off line. No details, typing on bad lapotp.

    Fuckemall

  158. 158.

    Roger Moore

    @TenguPhule:

    I think we will have physical exchanges of value as long as we have places and people where electricity and internet are not invited.

    I suspect cash will hang on for some kinds of transactions, but they’re going to dwindle in importance. At some point, the government may decide it’s not worth their time to make physical coins and bills anymore. Where physical exchange of goods (or desire to avoid leaving a record) is important, we may see either barter or some medium of exchange other than government approved money.

  164. 164.

    Anotherlurker

    I grew up in NY. I worked, as a tech, in TV.
    All the rumors about trump, deadbeat to contractors, racist, rapist, general raging asshole, I heard, starting in the early 1990s.
    Same is true of Bill Cosby rumors.
    It was/is standard procedure in production that no one, no matter what job, would be alone with trump or Cosby. A tech or production person would always work in pairs, if it required direct contact with these 2.
    We warned of these 2, for years.
    No one listened.
    Call us Casandra.

  166. 166.

    trollhattan

    @Jager:
    I would give anything to have a toolkit of sayings like that. Instead, they occur to me fifteen minutes later.

    And yeah, NYers have always known. Nobody listened to them and look at us now.

  167. 167.

    Jager

    @Roger Moore: The GM at the car store where we bought our Jeep has become a friend. He gets a few all cash deals on new cars from time to time. The last one he mentioned was 49k in paper bags for a new Grand Cherokee (including tax and license) 4 brown paper bags of 10’s, 20’s and 100’s) The buyer owned a big Chinese restaurant. He said there is additional paperwork, tax and bank affidavits, etc. He, the business manager and the cashier did the counting and signed off on it.

  168. 168.

    rikyrah

    I support Joy Reid 200%. Long history of racists trying to silence Black voices in America. The same people who give Trump, Greitens, Roseanne, Roy Moore, and Assange a pass for heinous acts want to destroy her.

    — Marcus H. Johnson (@marcushjohnson) June 1, 2018

  169. 169.

    randy khan

    @LAO:

    A “get to know you situation”??!!?!?!?!?!!??!??! (+many additional interrobangs)

    I sure hope they read each other’s Match profiles before the meeting so there aren’t any big surprises.

  172. 172.

    Mike in NC

    Apparently Trump forgot that one of his fiirst genius ideas to fund The Precious Wall was to slash the Coast Guard’s budget.

  176. 176.

    The Other Chuck

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

    Aren’t the Tau the stereotypical good guys?

    They’re big on keeping order, and have a rigid caste system to enforce it. This works out okay for the Tau themselves, but any systems they take over are “reprogrammed” forcibly to follow their organization. They’re certainly gentler than the other xenos, but there are NO absolute good guys in the WH40K universe, by design.

  177. 177.

    Yutsano

    @rikyrah: No more giving in. No more scalps. Joy stays. Samantha stays. Let the howler monkeys roar all they want. Fuckem.

  180. 180.

    Mel

    @jacy: I hear you. I find that checking out for a little while each day has become essential to surviving the constant onslaught.

    It’s no long term solution by any means, but I breathe a little easier and find my stomach in fewer knots if I can just steal an hour completely away from the stress every evening. I’ve never been a person who watches much tv, but recently have found cooking shows like “Great British Bake Off” and “Lidia’s Italy” to be pretty soothing. The “GBBO” seasons missing from Netflix are up on Dailymotion, and I have found the DVDs of “Lidia’s Italy” at the library.

    Playing with my five year old niece has been the source of a lot of unexpected peace of mind. We “bake” Play Doh cookies, read books she likes, and talk about the things that are of utmost importance to her right now: her doggy Cammie, her love of Moana, her enjoyment of making mud pies, her standing up to a bully who was picking on her friend, and her frustration with her brother who is in the Terrible Twos. When he’s good, she refers to him as “Littles”. When he’s been on her last nerve, she refers to him as “Stinker”. As in, “Stinker is at it AGAIN!” Seeing the world through her eyes for a little while and seeing her happiness somehow makes it a little easier to deal with the ugliness around us.

    I’m an introvert, and tend to withdraw further when I’m really stressed or when my autoimmune illness is flaring up and I’m feeling useless and in a lot of pain. Sometimes that’s a good thing – retreating, trying to find some peace and balance- but I have been finding that the constant onslaught of awfulness has the tendency to compound the stress and depression of my situation, and turns the retreating into isolation.
    Not a good thing, as for me, at least, it tends to really increase the feelings of hopelessness / grief.

    If that is happening with you, please promise me that you will reach out every day to somebody that you care about. It’s so easy to wind inward more and more when everything is so chaotic, and before you know it you feel very alone even if you are not.

    Sending you hugs. Hang in there.

  181. 181.

    Ruckus

    @efgoldman:

    Fuckemall

    Indeed!
    Hope health things improve, sorry about the hospital.

    On a note that might bring you some minor joy, I got another email from the republican Cox campaign for CA gov. This time under his wife’s byline that she’s upset about another candidate’s mailer about her husband. If she didn’t like that she won’t like what I sent back.
    I practiced my swearing that I learned in the navy and decades of machine shop work. But I can step up my game if it once again becomes necessary.

  183. 183.

    rikyrah

    @efgoldman:

    Not dead yet, feeling much better. Been in hospital, off line. No details, typing on bad lapotp.

    So, good to see you. Hope that you are getting better. Sending you positive thoughts:)

  185. 185.

    Ruckus

    @Jager:
    I walked into a dealership and paid $10,000. cash as the balance on a new motorcycle once. No one in the office blinked about it.
    My best cash story is about having to carry about $35,000 on an airplane (which I actually did rather often) back to the home office when I worked in pro sports. There was some security BS and they emptied all the planes at the gates and the entire terminal. All of us had to go back through X Ray twice and hand search once. When the woman doing hand search opened my bag she shouted, “His bag is full of cash!” The supervisor came over and told her that’s OK, but she yelled it out again. So an entire terminal at SFO now knew that I was carrying a rather large amount of cash.

  186. 186.

    Roger Moore

    @Jager:
    As long as there’s cash, there will be people who use it to buy expensive stuff, but that’s going to decline more and more over time. One of the things that’s coming out in the discussion here, though, is that there’s a strong social component. People tend to go along with what’s popular in their area and their culture. If all your friends and neighbors are switching to cashless payments, you will, too, if only so you can accept money from them. If everyone around you is using cash, you probably will, too, because that’s what’s expected and accepted.

  187. 187.

    ruemara

    @gene108: Yes.

    @TenguPhule: Don’t tempt the universe.

    Still dithering about citizenship. I just don’t trust the ‘rents to fulfill their end of the bargain, or the government to not do something fascist about my $3k tax bill. I’m between unreliable Scylla & Satanic Charybdis.

  190. 190.

    TenguPhule

    @The Other Chuck:

    but there are NO absolute good guys in the WH40K universe, by design.

    Well technically there were in the past, but they’ve all been wiped out by one of the remaining factions.

  191. 191.

    schrodingers_cat

    @ruemara: I say do it. USCIS couldn’t have been nicer during the entire process, when I applied last year. They were both friendly and professional.
    Are there organizations in your area that help with citizenship applications, there are several over here where I live. Many offer legal counseling at modest rates. You could take your case to them. If you want I could ask my immigration lawyer (he handled husband kitteh’s GC application) or give you his contact info if you like. He is helpful and will be glad to answer your questions about the tax issue or anything else.

  192. 192.

    TenguPhule

    @Roger Moore: As long as there are visible transaction costs to using electronic payments, a portion of society will do their best to avoid them.

  193. 193.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    Weird and nosy question — is your credit good enough to get a small personal loan to pay off the tax bill? It may even be cheaper to do it that way. The IRS should be happy to take your money.

  194. 194.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Mnemosyne: Yutsano said that if she is on a payment plan with the IRS there should be no problem. I had brought ten years worth of tax documents at my citizenship interview, I was asked no questions about my taxes.

    ETA: I also don’t know of anyone asked any tax info at their interview.

  195. 195.

    Mel

    @ruemara: Could there be a “Go Fund Me” started to cover the legal costs of your citizenship process and to clear out the tax bill in advance? You deserve to be able to do this without all the stress!

    (Completely off topic, but autocorrect kept trying to change “Go Fund Me” to “Ho, Fund Me.” When I was teaching Shakespeare courses, it used to pick up on my typing patterns and suggest, “Lo, Fund Me.“ Now, it’s apparently just talking trash at me.)

  198. 198.

    Mart

    @rikyrah: I stopped reading Amy Siskind’s weekly summaries of the actions of the fascists in charge a couple months back as they leave me devastated. The sheer volume of nasty shit they pull under the news radar is overwhelming.

  199. 199.

    japa21

    Speaking of paying in cash. Back in the early 80’s we sold out house for IIRC $65,000. At closing, the buyer showed up with the full amount in $100 dollar bills. They were opening a restaurant in the town and village ordinance required they live within the village limits if they wanted to sell alcohol. Ours was one of the cheaper houses on the market at the time. Closing took a little longer than normal.

  202. 202.

    MomSense

    @HeleninEire:

    How do you feel about arranged marriages? I’ve got a very handsome musician son who is also a great cook and completely housebroken.

  205. 205.

    Kay

    Sherrod Brown is way up in Ohio. It will get closer because the fake independents are still pretending they won’t vote for any Republican, but they will. It will always be close with Sherrod. Always.

    Cordray is behind DeWine, but that was expected- DeWine is a really well known name. I volunteered for Cordray because it’s more challenging than Sherrod :)

    Elizabeth Warren is helping Cordray. I imagine she’ll campaign for him as it goes on.

  207. 207.

    Jager

    @Ruckus: The GM of the Jeep store was a MB sales manager a few years back, he sold a 105k Benz to a guy who put the car on a AmEx black card. The store’s policy was to add the AmEx transaction fee on anything over 10k. The guy shrugged it off and told my friend, “I get airline mileage credit with the card, let’s me pass out airline tickets to my family like 5 dollar bills.”

  208. 208.

    JPL

    @mark: We were speculating earlier, but it appears she is at the White House. Trump went to Camp David with the adult children, but not Melania or Barron.

  210. 210.

    Capri

    I could easily see the Kochs and their ilk switch to the Democratic party, moving it to the right and a more left-leaning socialist party arise occupying the current territory to the left of the current Democrats. The GOP as currently figured is non-sustainable.

  211. 211.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Amir Khalid: How is the fasting coming along? Hindu fasts are cool we can eat but the diet is restricted to sattvik foods (not spicy, no ginger garlic or onions and of course no meat, fish or poultry, no wheat or rice either)

    ETA: Even with so many restrictions you can have delicious food. I love the special fasting foods. Some religious people forgo cooked food for fruits.

  214. 214.

    raven

    Good day on the water! I got to the boat at 5:30 and by 6:15 (for a 6am start) SIX of the 12 had not shown. Finally the other 6 straggled on board and we took off. It turned our they were not the 6 scheduled but a group that got on a boat without the fed license needed to snapper fish so they made the guy bring them back. We were all really lucky it worked out, we caught our limit of 24 and are all happy. I thought I was ok but I just woke up after a 2 hr nap!

  216. 216.

    JPL

    This is disgusting.

    @NYTNational
    Obama offered balm. Trump drops verbal bombs. But both were accused, in a polarized country, of making racial tensions worse.

    The comments are fair. If I had twitter, my comment would be deleted.

  217. 217.

    Ruckus

    @Jager:
    People with a lot of money come in two types in my experience.
    1. They have it, they don’t flaunt it but they do use it and enjoy it.
    2. They may have it, they flaunt it as much as possible, they are cheapskates across the board and they don’t enjoy anything.

  219. 219.

    Mnemosyne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Well, sure. I was just wondering if it would help her application to get the debt paid off.

    Though you’d think it would be more likely to work in her favor as long as she’s making the payments on time. After all, if they deny her application and she has to leave the country, the IRS ain’t ever getting the rest of that money. ?

    (Well, they would still get it because ruemara is a good and responsible person, but they can’t really count on that for everyone.)

    I think the bottom line is that she needs to talk to an immigration lawyer and get the real scoop.

  220. 220.

    FlipYrWhig

    Is there any way to understand Trump’s Coast Guard brand-momentum nonsense other than that Trump didn’t know what the Coast Guard was?

  221. 221.

    JPL

    @mark: From the WP

    President Donald Trump boarded the presidential helicopter on the South Lawn of the White House in the afternoon with his daughters Ivanka and Tiffany, his oldest son Donald Jr., and his son-in, law Jared Kushner. The group appeared headed for a family weekend, minus the first lady, at the official Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains. Trump’s youngest son, Barron, 12, also was not seen boarding the helicopter.
    The White House had said earlier Friday that Mrs. Trump would skip this trip, but gave no official reason.
    Her mother, Amalija Knavs, was seen walking along the White House grounds around midday Friday.

    Next week is the G7 or as some countries are now calling the G6 + 1, anyway it will be interesting if she attends that.

  223. 223.

    Ruckus

    @FlipYrWhig:
    Always a good starting point with trying to figure out anything about drumpf is to figure that he knows nothing about the subject. It almost always comes back around to that no matter what route you take so save the time and start at that point.

  224. 224.

    Lapassionara

    @JPL: Too right. What dumb bothsiderism.

    In other news, Visa says the problem has been fixed.

  225. 225.

    Ruckus

    @raven:
    Yes but that was a few years ago. And lbs.
    Back in the end of the last century I got on a plane at O’Hare, took my seat up towards the front and watched a somewhat unkempt and stoned looking hippy be escorted on board by a gate agent holding a sheath knife, at least 6 maybe 8 inches so not a small one, she handed it to the pilot, told the pilot he was to give it back to the guy when deplaning. I wonder what would have happened if the guy walked into an airport today with a knife like that. Actually I don’t wonder.

  227. 227.

    debbie

    Yeah, but can those Coasties toss paper towels as well as Trump? Can anybody? He shows real pro-ess.

  228. 228.

    Jager

    @Ruckus: One of my closest friends, made a fortune in the car business. Had a nice home, nice things, never over the top. When he sold his car stores he had to buy a couple of cars. He hadn’t had to buy a car for 40 years. He got his wife a two year old Lexus at one of his auctions and he floor planned his own lease on a Bentley GT. He drove the Bentley for two years, got rid of it and got a used Impala at his auction. When I asked him why, he said, “I drive it 18 miles a day, it sits in the sun for 8-10 hours. I may as well throw 100 dollar bills out the damn widow every time I start it up, besides that, the Impala gets better mileage.” He sold his auctions to Warren Buffet a few years ago. Sadly he died suddenly last fall. My old man taught him the car business. I don’t know how many times he told me I was crazy not to have taken over my dad’s store.

  230. 230.

    Amir Khalid

    @schrodingers_cat:
    It’s going okay. The Muslim rule on fasting is simple no food of any kind, no drink of any kind, no intake of any kind of physical substance. (That includes smoking and even medication; if your medication schedule doesn’t allow that 12-hour gap, you have grounds to break fast.)

  231. 231.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Amir Khalid: From sunrise to sunset, right?

    ETA: In Marathi we have a saying, Ekadashi duppat khashi.
    On Ekadashi you eat double your usual amount.
    *Ekadashi ==11th day of the lunar cycle which is of significance to devotees of Vishnu and a popular day to fast.

  232. 232.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    Cordray’s ad starts with a voice-over by Obama. I was really happy when I heard it the first time.

  233. 233.

    ruemara

    @Mel: I am trying to keep a straight face at work because I’d totally use the name “Ho, FUND ME!” because I am quite awful.

    @Mnemosyne: I’m quite strapped between paying off the car loan and the medical bills from surgeries the years prior. I’m handling them well, but I simply cannot deal with another set of credit bills, even if I do have the good credit now. They give you good credit so you can drown in bills later & I am unwilling to get above my neck.

    @rikyrah: And come back in to find I’ve been nominated for some office or the other? I see the game there, ma’am.

  236. 236.

    debbie

    @Jager:

    I used to live in New York. Trump would have been one of those slimeballs frequenting First Avenue bars on Saturday nights a la Mr. Goodbar–style.

  237. 237.

    The Lodger

    @mark: Up until today, efgoldman hadn’t been seen for a couple of weeks either.
    Coincidences? Don’t believe in them myself.

  238. 238.

    The Other Chuck

    @debbie: Nope, Trump partied at his own place where he could ensure it would be much, much tackier

  240. 240.

    J R in WV

    @ruemara:

    I understand that 3K is as good as an infinite amount of money, if you don’t have 3K in liquidity. But that isn’t a huge amount… a gofundme for your citizenship publicized among the Jackals might hit that amount in no time.

    Else, tell your parents to kick in $3k now, at the beginning, and send it to the tax peoples.

    Also, take Schrodinger’s_cat offer to talk to her immigration lawyer… sounds nearly free.

    Best of luck…!

  242. 242.

    ruemara

    @J R in WV: My parents, I say this with respect, are the prime source of my belief in the unreliability of others. I’d trust a request for water to be filled by them, but I know better than to believe I can trust a promise of wine. However, I will be accepting a quick consult with Madame Schrodinger’s lawyer. If the recommendation ups my anxiety, then I have my answer.

  243. 243.

    J R in WV

    @ruemara:

    Don’t trust them, just tell them it’s time for the money, NOW… or forget it.

    If they don’t come through, let us know what to do to help. We do it all the time, it isn’t a burden for hundreds of us to pitch in for someone we know. Take care.

  244. 244.

    Tehanu

    He wants to show his prowess
    Be a lion, not a mowess —
    But he hasn’t got a brain, or a heart, or… well, anything except sheer gall.

Comments are closed.