Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He really is that stupid.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Let there be snark.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

I was promised a recession.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

The words do not have to be perfect.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

“Squeaker” McCarthy

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Saturday Morning Open Thread

Saturday Morning Open Thread

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So, the mister and I are on our first motorcycle trip, staying at a rental about 100 miles from home in a beachy town known for its high rate of cirrhosis of the liver.

The place we’re staying is built on piers overhanging a little bay. Someone installed a light underwater just off the dock, and after dark, fish circle the light all night long:

We’ve seen snook, tarpon and all kinds of fishes, just circling and circling around the the light. I don’t know why. It’s like a fish cult.

Even in this boozy refuge, the Cult of Trump is inescapable. Not the fish; I refer to an aggrieved loudmouth at the closest bar last evening who sat down and immediately started complaining, apropos of nothing, about how he was tired of being called a racist just because he supports Trump.

I guess he assumed we would be a sympathetic audience because we’re middle-aged white people. He was wrong. My husband quickly saw that this wasn’t going to go well, so he asked for the check and we decamped to the bar 15 yards west.

This accursed era would be easier to endure if the Trump assholes weren’t so goddamned whiny. Anyhoo, dawn breaks soon, so we’re off to the second leg of our adventure.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

179Comments

  5. 5.

    satby

    This accursed era would be easier to endure if the Trump assholes weren’t so goddamned whiny

    Whiny, entitled, petty. Just like their idol.

    But a friend shared this quote from Anthony Bourdain that is the truest thing I ever heard about my hometown:

    “You wake up in Chicago, pull back the curtain and you KNOW where you are. You could be nowhere else. You are in a big, brash, muscular, broad shouldered motherf***in’ city. A metropolis, completely non-neurotic, ever-moving, big hearted but cold blooded machine with millions of moving parts — a beast that will, if disrespected or not taken seriously, roll over you without remorse.
    It is, also, as I like to point out frequently, one of America’s last great NO BULLS**T zones. Pomposity, pretentiousness, putting on airs of any kind, douchery and lack of a sense of humor will not get you far in Chicago.”

    So that got me started for the day. Good morning all!

  7. 7.

    Immanentize

    Safe travels, Betty!
    Hmm I wonder which beachy town? So many in Florida to choose from….

  9. 9.

    bystander

    We went to a wedding last weekend. I was seated next to a woman in her late 60s. Originally from Algeria, then displaced by the revolution to France, then to the US. I embarked on what I thought was going to be an innocuous conversation discussing our recent trip. She immediately took the wheel and steered us straight into Aggrieved Since 1956 Town. Why would someone say to a stranger, “Arabs are ruining this world!”? Almost totally killed the fun time we were having.

  10. 10.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    I’m debating on whether to go to The Huntington and try some more focus stacking shots(here’s one I shot on Monday) before I go up to the mountains for Milky Way shooting with Madame. I also have to figure a way to keep her occupied while I shoot. She want’s to see what a non-light-polluted sky looks like(which will take about 15 minutes) and I need a couple of hours to shoot.

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Today in Floriduh news: Adam Putnam’s office stopped concealed weapons background checks for a year because it couldn’t log in

    For more than a year, the state of Florida failed to conduct national background checks on tens of thousands of applications for concealed weapons permits, potentially allowing drug addicts or people with a mental illness to carry firearms in public.

    A previously unreported Office of Inspector General investigation found that in February 2016 the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services stopped using a FBI crime database called the National Instant Criminal Background Check System that ensures applicants who want to carry a gun do not have a disqualifying history in other states.

    The employee in charge of the background checks could not log into the system, the investigator learned. The problem went unresolved until discovered by another worker in March 2017 — meaning that for more than a year applications got approved without the required background check.

    During that time, which coincided with the June 12, 2016 shooting at Pulse nightclub that left 50 dead, the state saw an unprecedented spike in applications for concealed weapons permits. There were 134,000 requests for permits in the fiscal year ending in June 2015. The next 12 months broke a record, 245,000 applications, which was topped again in 2017 when the department received 275,000 applications.

    Department employees interviewed for the report called the NICS checks “extremely important.” Concealed weapons licenses “may have been issued to potentially ineligible individuals.” If it came out they weren’t conducted, “this could cause an embarrassment to the agency,” the report said.

    Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam has made it a priority to speed up the issuing of concealed weapons permits since he was elected in 2010. In 2012, he held a news conference to celebrate the state’s one millionth concealed weapons permit, noting the time it took to process an application fell from 12 weeks to 35 days on his watch. There are now 1.8 million concealed weapon permit holders in Florida.

    Now running for Florida governor as a Republican, Putnam’s campaign touts his expansion of concealed carry permits as one of his top accomplishments.

    In today’s GOP, complete incompetence in performance of one’s duties is an “accomplishment”.

  14. 14.

    Lapassionara

    Good morning, everyone. I made the mistake of reading my Twitter feed this morning. Between the deranged statements coming from Canada and the alarming predictions about Singapore, it looks like we are running out of time to bring sanity back to our government.

  19. 19.

    trnc

    I refer to an aggrieved loudmouth at the closest bar last evening who sat down and immediately started complaining, apropos of nothing, about how he was tired of being called a racist just because he supports Trump.

    Believe it or not, I know a guy who voted for DT that is not a racist, so I’m prepared with the Walking Dead questionnaire if I run into people like the guy at the bar:
    Did you receive any of the Michelle Obama/Ape or Obama/tribal outfit emails?
    Did you laugh?
    Did you respond and say that was wrong, or did you forward it?

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Kay bait:

    A Broward Sheriff’s Office major told the commission investigating the Parkland school massacre that it may make more sense for Broward schools to have their own police force.

    BSO Maj. Nichole Anderson told the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Safety Commission on Friday that her office believes Broward County would be better served if the school district formed its own police department. She said similar arrangements work well in the neighboring counties of Miami-Dade and Palm Beach.

    The topic on the table for Friday’s MSD Public Safety Commission meeting centered around school resource officers.

  21. 21.

    evodevo

    @bystander: If she was Algerian French, there is a LOT of “history” there …you think the Civil War is still being fought in THIS country – it’s NOTHING compared to that conflict. There are still hard feelings 60 years on…

  23. 23.

    Quinerly

    @trnc: What I don’t get are the people who voted for Obama twice and then turned around and voted for Trump. I’m told they exist.

  24. 24.

    trnc

    @Quinerly: Good piece. I don’t like the one he wrote about the Pelosi Pay-Go statement, though. Pay-Go doesn’t always have to point down. It’s a good rationale for undoing tax cuts to billionaires who already paid no taxes while pointing out that we need roads, bridges and safe school bulidings way more than the billionaires need a 10th home they’ll visit once a year, and the rule can be set aside whenever she wants.

    I don’t know that that is her rationale and I doubt she would telegraph it, but I’m willing to give her some leeway since it doesn’t lock us into anything.

  25. 25.

    Elizabelle

    Underwater fish cults. That is something I would rather think about with coffee.

    Ride safe, Crackers. Good morning, jackals.

  28. 28.

    Dennis Brown

    Understand about the orange fart cloud supporter you ran into; after leaving our daughters graduation – we arranged to meet her just outside the main MIT dome. Of course, one of those same losers was holding a tRump sign up and waving it from across the street from there. The obviously ‘down on his luck’ man was yelling about the very fart cloud he wants to be fucked by – the ass was so pathetic he was just laughable but being a fart cloud supporter is their ultimate or I should say, their only way to compensate for their total failure in life. Again, so pathetic to demonstrate to all those winners what a loser one is – very sad, too. Oh well.

  31. 31.

    trnc

    @Quinerly:

    I’m told they exist.

    4 years is probably plenty of time to be reprogrammed by Fox and a Koch fueled anti-Hillary NPR.

  32. 32.

    Nicole

    Taking the 7-year-old to Belmont Race Track today, hoping to see Justify make it a baker’s dozen of Triple Crown winners. Apparently Soros is a partial owner, so now I REALLY want Justify to win because right-wing racing fans are whining about it. :)

  33. 33.

    Immanentize

    @Dennis Brown: That seems a little harsh if in fact the guy was suffering and you were at MIT for you daughter’s amazing! achievement.

    Congratulations to her.

  34. 34.

    kingweasil

    “This accursed era would be easier to endure if the Trump assholes weren’t so goddamned whiny”… just like their lord and master

  35. 35.

    BoDiddleySquat

    @Quinerly: I’ve wondered whether these rare and exotic voters might be those who were especially targeted by psy-ops (Russian or otherwise). The few who’ve been interviewed seem, at best, dazed and confused.

  36. 36.

    Jeffro

    Betty, you shouldn’t have left – what a great opportunity to mock a Trumpista!

    (ok…maybe that’s not everyone’s idea of a good time ? I probably need to get out more)

    But seriously…next time, buy the poor sap a drink. A White Russian ?

  37. 37.

    germy

    Odd interview:

    http://www.vulture.com/2018/06/what-sy-hersh-knows.html

    What’s going on today in terms of the U.S. and Russia, it’s pretty nasty now. Journalism can be a lot more interesting than what we’re seeing. I hate to see the way journalism is devalued. We have to feed the machine, we have to feed the Trump outrage machine, to feed the anger against Trump, to feed the New York liberal anger. The New York Times does this, and the Washington Post does the same thing, only to a lesser degree. The story is just, Trump clearly lied again when he said such and such. But those aren’t front page stories, yet there are three of them on the front page.

    Was it like that with Nixon or Johnson?

    Not as bad. Not nearly as bad. In fact, not nearly as bad with George W. Bush either. And not nearly as bad, certainly not, with Obama. He didn’t get into any of the trouble he could have gotten into and he got a big ride from people. So here’s where we are at. All the Mueller stuff, all the Russia stuff. It’s catnip for liberal outrage.

    I disagree with old Sy. I believe it’s front page news when a president lies.

  38. 38.

    debbie

    Hell with these people. They picked the “winner” and think they should get all kinds of respect. Proof they’re stupid.

    I hope that light doesn’t screw with the fishes’ sleep cycles (if they have them).

  39. 39.

    HeleninEire

    Good morning all. Just finished Cole’s Anthony Bourdain thread and I gotta say that you jackals are the best. So glad I found this community.

    And a special shout out to ruemara. Your comment made me cry. And I’m not generally a crier. Whoever is putting Team ruemara together please add me as a member.

  41. 41.

    Alain the site fixer

    @HeleninEire: I also want to be on team ruemara. I’m considering setting something up for this, not sure what. I’ll post in coming days. The past 24 hours of jackals sharing their pain has made it clear that we need to setup something for our folks here, now.

  42. 42.

    ThresherK

    I’m not young, and a straight white suburban married (to a woman) man who can still pass for the Catholic I grew up as.

    And I’m a radio amateur. This is a hobby with quite a lot of retrograde folks who (like with Betty and Mr. Cracker) will talk to me simply because I seem the part.

    The hobby is losing a lot of its appeal for me.

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    More Floriduh: Schools Without Rules: Private schools’ curriculum downplays slavery, says humans and dinosaurs lived together

    The Florida Department of Education does not track the curriculum used by the 140,000 students who attend private schools on state vouchers. In fact, Florida law prohibits the department from asking about or regulating academics at these schools.

    ………………..

    “Honestly, with our curriculum … a certified teacher is not required,” Natasha Griffin, district superintendent of Esther’s School, which has seven campuses in Florida, told the Orlando Sentinel last year.

    Yeah, that’s the school I want my granddaughter attending

  44. 44.

    Quinerly

    @BoDiddleySquat: My soon to be ex next door neighbor claims to be. She’s an Air Force nurse (Lieutenant Colonel). We had a bit of a dust up about a week after the election at a local watering hole (actually, at one of Ozark’s old haunts, The Venice Cafe…a shout out to our Red, but I digress?). She was hellbent on convincing me and some innocent bystanders (who were young Gay men) that HRC was crooked and the “grab them by the pu##y” remark was “boys being boys.” She also felt that “women need to grow up” and quit being so easily offended…Trump didn’t mean most of what he said….just politics, brilliant businessman, understands the world and military….blah, blah,blah. I’ve barely spoken to her since. Thankfully she’s not around, selling her home….She finally caught the younger guy she has been chasing for almost 20 years. He left his wife and children (young triplets and a spare). Married him, took an assignment out of Andrews, and moved in the house he once shared with his family. She’s quite religious also…..if that means anything.

  46. 46.

    bystander

    @evodevo: If I had any doubts about the lingering resentments, I didn’t after dinner. And she was an adolescent when they were dispossessed. Her whole life has been spent carrying around this anger.

  50. 50.

    Wapiti

    @bystander: There’s probably a cohort of Cuban-American’s that are like that as well. People who did well (or whose family did well) in an oppressive/unfair regime are probably more likely to damn the insurgents that threw them out and destroyed their wealth. It’s either that or they have to admit that everything their family had came from supporting an oppressive regime that grew rich on the back of the common people.

  53. 53.

    Fair Economist

    @germy:

    I disagree with old Sy. I believe it’s front page news when a president lies.

    Sy Hersh defending Trump? Now I’m wondering whether his years of thwacko stories (after a few incisive ones long ago) have been in service of Russia.

  54. 54.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @germy: he went bonkers a few years back.

    first he came up with a conspiracy theory that the bin Laden raid was staged (that he had really been dead for years). then he pushed another conspiracy theory that benghazi wasn’t an attack by extremists taking advantage of a world wide protest over slander of the prophet muhammad, but a gun deal gone bad (as if was an old episode of Miami Vice).

    he was really angry that the liberal media wouldn’t publish such suspect material.

  56. 56.

    germy

    @Fair Economist: Not sure if he’s in their service, but his anonymous sources might have been. And he’s a useful old egotist. (See: Wilmer, et al.)

  59. 59.

    Amir Khalid

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Thr GOP is, after all, the party of Carly Fiorina. Who ran for President citing, as her main qualification, her experience as CEO of Hewlett-Packard — a job from which she was sacked for her legendary incompetence.

  60. 60.

    Dennis Brown

    @Immanentize: Thank you very much – yes, a little harsh but the guy was being a total fool; and considering no one there was political, the man’s point was simply being an anti-educational (he, of course, considers these people elitist) because that is fundamental to tRumps supporters (why?.)

  63. 63.

    MomSense

    I remember during the primary season hearing people talk about the Republican candidates and I’ll never forget hearing a farmer say that Trump said the things they were thinking but couldn’t say out loud. All the people sitting with him nodded their heads in agreement. We all knew that Republicans had been dog whistling and running horribly racist campaigns like the one HW Bush ran with Lee Atwater in ‘88. How is it that all of these never trumpers and “principled independents” (I hate them the most!) dare to pretend they didn’t know the evil that was at the heart of their party?

    I’m so disgusted by the people who have been perfectly willing to go along with the Republican dog whistling and now act like trump is an aberration who has taken over their party. Fucking Joe Scarborough is pretending he’s never been a partisan. The fuck you say? I think we need to be very cautious about letting these assholes claim horror about trump and try to hitch themselves to the resistance. The truth is that trump is just like the Republican base. He’s a crass, racist, no nothing psychopath who enjoys hurting people to satisfy his delusions of superiority. And what exactly are the differences between Trump’s policy goals and the never trumpers? Aside from tariffs, I’m not seeing much difference.

    We need to call out the never trumpers, the principled independents, and all the other pundits and personalities who are trying to erase their connections to and role in creating this clusterfuck. I guarantee you they are all just biding their time and positioning themselves to reconstitute the same Greedy Old Party with all of its cruel policies once trump is out of office.

    They need to be held to account because the human suffering they have caused is real and they do not deserve to get off the hook so easily.

  65. 65.

    cmorenc

    @evodevo:

    @bystander: If she was Algerian French, there is a LOT of “history” there …you think the Civil War is still being fought in THIS country – it’s NOTHING compared to that conflict. There are still hard feelings 60 years on…

    The wife of the manager of a ski resort I worked at one long-ago winter was French Algerian, and if she’s a typical example of French Algerians, I can see why the native Algerians hated them so much. She was a real piece of work.

  66. 66.

    D58826

    @bystander: A couple of years ago I read side by side opinion pieces by a Serb and a Croatian. They listed mirror image complaints about each other that went back to the late 14th century

  68. 68.

    Platonailedit

    HuffPost asked every House Republican—all 235—what they would do if Trump pardoned himself.

    Only one definitively said he would support impeachment. Justin Amash.

    https://t.co/VYtGDS2gE2— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 9, 2018

    Corrupt cowards.

  70. 70.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @germy: a lot firebrand– or at least right-side-of-history– journos turn into crotchety old cut-my-taxes farts if they linger too long: Mike Royko and David Brinkley come to mind. Throw in race and religion and they sound a lot more like your uncle who assures you “I don’t have a racist bone in my body, but you’ve gotta admit…”

    He’s not a journalist but a lot of people ask “What happened to Alan Dershowitz?” Google his name with Obama’s and the results will make you think you added “stabbed Israel in the back” to your search, but you didn’t.

  71. 71.

    oldgold

    @MomSense:

    I disagree.

    We need everyone in this fight against Trump. I welcome people like Joe Scarborough and Jennifer Rubin to the fight.

    At this critical juncture we cannot spare a single ally. The stakes are too high.

    After the battle is over, we can sort this out.

  73. 73.

    Mai naem mobile

    @Fair Economist: I think Sy did go bonkers a few years ago but the way I read this is that he thinks we should talk policy instead of being outraged by every Trumpov lie. I have no idea how you deal with the Trumpov fish gallop shit machine but I don’t think whatever the Dems are doing right now is working. The Dems don’t have a FOX. MSNBC is not FOX. Two of their main daily hosts are Republicans for crying out loud. CNN is busy trying to be FOX. It’s depressing to watch this.

  74. 74.

    germy

    @ruemara: This statement from Sy was just stupid:

    certainly not, with Obama. He didn’t get into any of the trouble he could have gotten into and he got a big ride from people.

    No he didn’t. He was hounded and disrespected for eight years.

  76. 76.

    Skepticat

    This accursed era would be easier to endure if the Trump assholes weren’t so goddamned whiny.

    True dat. For some reason I cannot reconcile, in the summer I live with a well-off, well-educated man who buys into all that garbage except tRump himself, thank the FSM. He watches Fux incessantly, though he does wear earphones to spare my tender ears—and brain.

    The light makes the fish think the sun is out and it’s feeding time. We have a number of people on my island in the Bahamas who do this, and it not only screws up the fishes’ biorhythms, but it also attracts sharks to the cafeteria. I’ve asked several of the folks why they do it even though their grandchildren swim off the dock, but they cannot seem to make the connection. Yes, all are from Floriduh, and most are Rs.

  77. 77.

    Matt

    @Quinerly: She appears to buy every other lie, so I have zero doubt she’s 100% on board with all the racist-ass shit about immigrants and Black Lives Matter.

    And of course she claims not to be racist – Trumpkins lie.

  78. 78.

    Viva BrisVegas

    I see that Trump says that he wants to pardon Muhammad Ali.

    Although a slight problem may be that Ali’s conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1971.

    The other problem being that Trump is a moron.

  79. 79.

    Mai naem mobile

    @MomSense: I would love to hold them accountable but honestly we don’t have the luxury with Trumpov in power literally destroying democratic norms built into our system. Get Trumpov out and a Democrat in,then we can talk about holding these assholes accountable.

  81. 81.

    MomSense

    @oldgold:

    They need us right now. Hey don’t get to rehabilitate themselves without the resistance AND they know we have the numbers they need to stay relevant. We have to extract something from them now.

    Pod Save America has more listeners than Morning Joe has viewers. If he wants to benefit from our association he needs to at least be asked why the hell he enabled trump so during the election. He needs to be asked why he was against health insurance. He needs to be at least asked about reproductive rights.
    We don’t actially need him. He needs us.

  82. 82.

    Bex

    @satby: Thanks for posting the Chicago quote. It’s my hometown too. Have you read You Were Never In Chicago by Neil Steinberg (Sun-Times columnist)? You’d enjoy it.

  83. 83.

    oldgold

    @MomSense:

    We don’t actually need him. He needs us.

    In this moment of existential peril to our Republic, we need each other.

  84. 84.

    maya

    Why do fish circle the light? Not sure, but when I was 12 and summering up on the Delaware River a similar aged boy who summered with the ‘miners camp’ * just down the river invited me to go eeling one night. He had a lantern posted at the stern of the skiff and as we floated along the shallow shore eels came up to the light and were easily speared. I think that that may have been illegal then, but I do know that those miners and their families were big into smoked eel. Rather rich to my taste.
    *The ‘miners camp’ were a collection of retired or vacationing coal miners from the Olyphant area of PA.

    Also, too, just stopped at the local gas pumps yesterday where a white 60s guy was wondering out loud if a long time musical event was going to happen this summer in early August. I told him, yup, and he immediately started in on the river pollution the event was going to inflict – it already is polluted by mid July and I’ve ceased swimming in it by then – from that his train of thought switched into “liberals are ruining everything” overdrive. However, he never once mentioned trump so my tank was half full in a sense.

  85. 85.

    NorthLeft12

    @evodevo: I’ll take you at your word, but you do realize that the US Civil War was almost one hundred and sixty years ago?

  86. 86.

    trnc

    @Mai naem mobile: Not necessarily disagreeing with the sentiment, but in practice, they’ll get away with it. If we make it through the age of DT and feel like Scarborough and Rubin helped, it’s unlikely people are going to turn around and start dogging them. Imagine the next Joe and Jen in 20 years deciding who to back.

  87. 87.

    MomSense

    @oldgold:

    I don’t think he’s helping. Every day he blathers on about trump being a lifelong democrat. If he were on our side he would be railing on Ryan, McConnell, and the other GOP leaders who are failing their obligations to our constitution. Scarborough should at least be challenged.

  88. 88.

    NorthLeft12

    Just read the Guardian story about Deadbeat Donald asking to let Russia back into the G7.

    Well, of course he would. There really is no doubt whatsoever anymore that Trump is actively working as an agent of Putin/Russia. I think anyone who would try and say that they just have the same agenda [breaking up the Western alliance] is absolutely kidding themselves. Trump is too fucking stupid to have any kind of plan/agenda. These are orders. Period. Full stop.

  89. 89.

    MomSense

    @Mai naem mobile:

    The only path to getting rid of trump before the next presidential election is through Congress. As long as Scarborough and the rest focus solely on trump they are actually giving cover to the members of Congress who could do something about this mess. Unless Scarborough turns his attention to shaming Ryan and McConnell, he’s actually prolonging this mess.

  91. 91.

    debit

    Is anyone else watching AM Joy? The shitgibbon is speaking and I had to mute it, and just watching his face it seems there are weird crevasses alongside his nose, under it and on his chin. Like his face is slowly turning into a sponge.

    ETA: And reading the chevrons underneath, it looks like he’s still broadcasting his total lack of understanding about how tariffs work.

  92. 92.

    Baud

    @MomSense: He’s not an ally, but there’s no real way to hold him accountable except to call out his lies and misdirection (“life-long Democrat,” “both sides”) when they occur. He’s simply too irrelevant to bother with.

  96. 96.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: He’s simply too irrelevant to bother with.

    I enjoy the nevertrumpers. Nicole Wallace and Jennifer Rubin hate trump as much as I do, but George Will can still go fuck his toupee’d self. But I don’t know how relevant they are. It seems like the more people who got Republicans elected (Rick Wilson, Steve Schmidt, Ana Navarro, Stuart Stevens) turn against trump, the tighter the Republicans they got elected cling to trump.

  97. 97.

    Barbara

    @rikyrah: Perez is a very smart man, someone I actually have a lot of confidence in. Anybody who understands his record as Secretary of Labor and in the DOJ would know that — I am only sorry that his career probably makes it unlikely that he would run for elected office.

  99. 99.

    Barbara

    @rikyrah: It’s too bad they have to wear all those pastel colors. They both have the kind of coloring that is lit up by brighter colors, but especially red.

  100. 100.

    clay

    @MomSense: I haven’t watched Morning Joe in a couple of months, but Paul Ryan was a frequent target of Joe’s ire when I did. Like, Betty Cracker-worthy rants.

  101. 101.

    germy

    BTW, Putin doesnt want to rejoin the G-7. He's trying to destroy Western clubs, not join them. So Trump's overture looks all the more ridiculous — both weak and ill-informed.
    — Michael McFaul (@McFaul) June 8, 2018

  103. 103.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    they don’t come much more sober-sided and buttoned-down than

    John Harwood
    @ JohnJHarwood
    strange presidential performance getting stranger

    also…

    Trump on nuclear summit with Kim Jong-un: “I have a clear objective but i think it’s something that will always be spur of the moment”

    since his objective is to get his picture took, it’s just a matter of deciding if he wants to put on that constipated mug– that I gather he thinks is Churchillian– or his hey look at me! smile

  104. 104.

    Baud

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have no doubt they’ll take all the credit if we prevail, or that the media will completely agree and chastise us for not appreciating them more. Such is life when you are doing the Lord’s work. All we can do is keep pressing forward.

  105. 105.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @ MrWalterShapiro
    Sometime soon, Kirstjen Nielsen is going to head to a DC law firm or consulting group. She should be shunned in all work and social settings. The sin of separating children from their parents is permanently unforgivable — and she should never be allowed to forget it.

    Norman Ornstein Retweeted Walter Shapiro
    Spot on. She is a monster plain and simple. She should not be treated as a normal human being. Same with her mentor, John Kelly.

  106. 106.

    bystander

    @debit: But now, Joy’s panel is doing everything but setting off sirens. The reportage is increasingly how manic and frenzied he appears. He knows the wheels are about to come off his wagon. He may have given the repubs the excuse they need with the tariffs. They can all wax patriotic about all his assaults on the Constitution without ever mentioning that they didn’t mind until he tried his asinine tariff scheme. Increasingly people are talking about how obviously compromised twitler is.

  107. 107.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Barbara:
    If it’s true that Perez is behind the DNC’s outreach to new minority-focused GOTV systems that paid off heavily in Alabama and Virginia, I don’t want him anywhere but where he is now.

    @germy:
    I thought Putin specifically was angry about being kicked out of the G8 and very much wanted back in. That it was one of his personal pet peeve issues. Mr McFaul’s background clearly puts him in a better position to know than me, but looking at his account, he doesn’t talk like an expert. He talks like a guy with a book to shill. I’d like to hear from someone here about Putin’s view of the G8 thing, especially Adam. Gin & Tonic seems to know a lot about Russian issues as well. I’m unclear how much this is Cheryl’s bailiwick.

  108. 108.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    VSPs gettin’ seriously shrill– good for Macron, who’s flirtations with trump get on my nerves

    Julian Borger @ julianborger
    Macron to Trump on JCPOA “You’re not comfortable with an agreement signed by your predecessor, maybe just because it was signed by your predecessor, but don’t stop others from respecting it and don’t push Iran to leave, because that’s the best protection we have today.” #G7Summit

    Jeffrey Lewis @ ArmsControlWonk
    Macron says it more politely — Trump pissed all over the Iran deal for the same reason he watched two hookers pee on that hotel bed in Moscow: because Barack Obama makes Donald Trump feel small and impotent. It’s not more complicated than that.

  109. 109.

    cain

    @ThresherK:

    I’m not white, but for some reason racists seems to have no problem talking to me about the darkies at random bars. God save me from idiots. I must have that kind of face.

  113. 113.

    cain

    @debbie:
    Those students are going to be pissed (and their parents) when they find out that their education is completely useless and that no university will have them other than another private wingnut evangelical university. I suppose they’ll have to find a job in some evangelcal owned businesses. God what a bunch of fucks.

  114. 114.

    Spanky

    @Barbara: Coincidentally, there’s an email from Perez just hit my inbox, asking for $$. And I’m willing to give, but then I see this:

    Contribution rules
    I am a U.S. citizen or lawfully admitted permanent resident (i.e., green card holder).
    This contribution is made from my own funds, and funds are not being provided to me by another person or entity for the purpose of making this contribution.
    I am making this contribution with my own personal credit card and not with a corporate or business credit card or a card issued to another person.
    I am at least eighteen years old.
    I am not a federal contractor.

    Well, I am a federal contractor, or at least I work for one. But seeing as I have no influence within the company, is that enough of a difference to allow me to contribute?

    And I do not recall seeing this rule in previous years, fwiw.

  115. 115.

    cain

    @Amir Khalid:

    Thr GOP is, after all, the party of Carly Fiorina. Who ran for President citing, as her main qualification, her experience as CEO of Hewlett-Packard — a job from which she was sacked for her legendary incompetence.

    Yet was still paid massive amounts of money in the form of a golden parachute.

  116. 116.

    D58826

    Not an econ expert by any means so here is my question. Since tariffs seem to be on every ones ‘not a good thing’ list why is Der Fuhrer’s threat to remove all US tariffs a bad thing as a general principle. I realize the devil is in the details (and Der Fuhrer would not recognize a detail if it hit him between the eyes) but if the G7 moved toward a 0 tariff policy what is the down side (again as a general principle)? ..

  117. 117.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    I’m sitting in the lounge of a used-car lot in scenic Fallston, MD, where Bro’ Man may or may not be about to buy a gigantic white whale of a Chevy Suburban. He and the salesman have been amiably quarreling for a while, so I decided to check out. Thank God for cell phones and the Internet.

    Think I lined up a good Mexican restaurant for lunch, so there’s that.

  118. 118.

    afanasia

    @Quinerly:

    She’s quite religious also…..if that means anything.

    Clearly, it doesn’t. I like to think I’d have given up when the object of my affections got married. Or had 4 small children.

  119. 119.

    cain

    @Mai naem mobile:

    Thr GOP is, after all, the party of Carly Fiorina. Who ran for President citing, as her main qualification, her experience as CEO of Hewlett-Packard — a job from which she was sacked for her legendary incompetence.

    Fox News watchers have more dispensable money or are just plain stupid and so getting them as viewers is profitable. 24 hour news isn’t about educating and telling the news as much as infotainment. So they’ll chase whatever demographic will give them money.

    The best thing to do is don’t watch 24 hour news. Any of them. Something I can’t seem to convince my parents on who seem to be part of the TV watching generation. I used to be an intense tv watcher, but tapered off after college. There just more things to do that’s better.

  120. 120.

    germy

    @Spanky:

    This contribution is made from my own funds, and funds are not being provided to me by another person or entity for the purpose of making this contribution.

    Dinesh D’Souza ruined everyone’s fun.

  122. 122.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @D58826:

    When did Trump threaten to remove all tariffs? I haven’t seen anything in the news. To the contrary, he has been racking them up lately.

  123. 123.

    Schlemazel

    @Spanky:
    quasi-federal employee here, covered by the Hatch act. We can give money to any party we want as long as we do not campaign or put up signs of support. We are allowed up to 1 bumper sticker on our cars.

    I assume they mean the contract companies

  124. 124.

    germy

    During his few hours at the G7 Summit in Quebec, President Trump acted as a one-man turd in the punch bowl, distancing America from its supposed allies to such an extent that French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron all but relabeled the group the G6.

    On Saturday morning, Trump threw in straight-up rudeness to his list of offenses, showing up conspicuously late to a meeting assembled by Canadian Prime Minister on the topic of gender equality — which, admittedly, is not high on Trump’s list of concerns.

  125. 125.

    MattF

    Somewhat OT, but not really.

    I’ve often wondered what Scott Pruitt’s magical get-out-of-trouble-free card is, this Slate article pretty much explains it. Briefly, Pruitt is a no-kidding evangelical Christian. He’s the guy who, as a state legislator wanted to put a ‘Evolution is only a theory’ erratum note in Oklahoma biology texts. And, as it turns out, evangelical Christians are (mostly) entirely indifferent to environmental concerns. Somewhat surprising to me, but it’s the truth.

    So, Trump is fine with him.

  126. 126.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @zhena gogolia:

    My family lived in North Dakota when I was in college. I was glad I was in college.

    I’m pretty sure North Dakota was not in Bro’ Man’s search criteria, but I wouldn’t swear to it. He’s carrying a wad of papers with leads on Suburbans all over the region.

  129. 129.

    Steve in the ATL

    @MattF: the Bible commands us to be good stewards of the earth and doesn’t mention abortion, therefore abortion is obviously the issue that matters.

    Pruitt is quite the grifter. No surprise there as in my experience the people who most loudly broadcast their alleged Christian faith are the least trustworthy to do business with.

  130. 130.

    I'll be Frank

    When I’ve been told by someone that they are “tired of being called a racist just because he supports Trump.” My response is always “Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.”

  131. 131.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    Looks like a bipartisan deal has been reached with terms amicable to both sides. Now I’m facing the prospect of convoying back to D.C. behind my fussbudget-driver brother at the wheel of an unfamiliar prairie schooner. I did not think this whole thing through very well.

    And it looks like we need to get back to Sighthound Hall to let the sighthound out, so we’ll eat lunch down there somewhere. Still hoping for Mexican.

  132. 132.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    AM Joy w/Joy Reid @ amjoyshow
    JOHNJHARWOOD-I’m concerned about the president’s state of mind. He did not look well to me in that press conference. He was not speaking logically or rationally. It sounded as if he was making stuff up… There was something about his affect that was oddly kind of languid #AMJoy

    other than languid, when his usual state leans more hypomanic, I don’t see a real difference here, but I didn’t see the video
    ETA:

    @Steeplejack (phone): prairie schooner

    LOL, what a great descriptor for the big SUVs

  133. 133.

    Spanky

    @Schlemazel: Thanks. I don’t recall being slowed down in prior years.

    Also too, I thought the Hatch Act applied only to Federal employees.

    ETA: Fun fact – Google come back with several “People also ask” items about the Hatch Act, one of which is
    Who was named for the Hatch Act?

    I pity the kid who was named Hatch Act.

  134. 134.

    MattF

    @Steve in the ATL: I can believe that. However, the Slate article suggests 1) that any environmental concern is considered by Evangelicals to be a tell for left-wing radicalism, and 2) that particular line in the Bible is ignored by Evangelicals. As I said, it’s somewhat surprising, but appears to be true.

  135. 135.

    Raven

    We’re halfway back from the beach. In 10 days the only conversation I had that even mentioned this shit was when a guy on the deep sea boat
    asked me what I thought of the Korea summit and I said “well, they are both morons so who knows?” We went to an old school fish joint last night and they had Trump and McCain stickers on the door. I was tempted but I said zip.

  136. 136.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @MattF:

    I thought the evangelical line was that since they are going to be raptured pretty soon they don’t need to worry about trashing the place.

  138. 138.

    Wapiti

    @Spanky: The FEC site defines a contractor as “A person who enters into a contract, or is bidding on such a contract, with any agency or department of the United States government and is paid, or is to be paid, for services, material, equipment, supplies, land or buildings with funds appropriated by Congress.”

  140. 140.

    JPL

    This morning I had a meeting with a group about local issues, and it appears since I’ve been gone the president has once again acted like the immature bully he is. Is that about right?

  141. 141.

    PPCLI

    @D58826: I’m no expert either, so hopefully someone who knows more can chime in. One complication, as I understand it, is that tariffs can be used in response to anti-competitive subsidies. That was the argument of the US softwood lumber industry in advocating for a softwood lumber tariff in Canada: that much of the Canadian logging takes place on Government land with low fees. Trump clearly understands the dynamic at some level, since he keeps telling farmers who might be hurt by tariffs that “they will be taken care of”, presumably by subsidies.

    So there would need to be an elimination of subsidies too, and in many if not all countries there are at least some agricultural subsidies, etc that are politically untouchable. Witness the ethanol subsidy in the US, or sugar price supports. Or the artificially low grazing fees for cattle on government land.

  143. 143.

    trollhattan

    @germy:
    Holy crap that’s on the nose. In this case the person attached to said nose won’t fully appreciate the act but we get to.

  144. 144.

    Baud

    @D58826:

    Most free traders would love to see a zero tariff world. Tariffs continue to exist to protect certain industries and/or certain types of jobs.

  145. 145.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    since twitter is like a party-line (ask your grandparents) I thought I’d eavesdrop on the neighbors

    Mike Murphy @ murphymike
    Meanwhile, enough please with the inane Nikki Haley boosterism! She’s a complete and shameless Trump suck-up and enabler; silent at the UN while Trump runs amuck. #AmbitionFirst #Complicit #VichyNikki

    Bill Kristol @ BillKristol
    I guess we need to find a different chief strategist for Nikki’s 2020 campaign?

    Mike Murphy @ murphymike
    I’m sad to say it, but I know her to be one of the least trustworthy people I’ve seen in 34 years of GOP politics. Plus, she has chosen to be an absolute Trump suck-up and toady. I’ll never be for #VichyNikki

  146. 146.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    So it looks like we’re about 75 miles from Sighthound Hall, a straight shot down I-95. About an hour and a half in the current (hellish as usual) traffic.

    Still waiting for the final niceties to be concluded. And I guess they’re prepping the prairie schooner. It’s big enough to go down a slipway after having a bottle of champagne broken on its prow.

  147. 147.

    Quinerly

    @afanasia: @Mai naem mobile: She’s actually a weekly mass going thrice married, twice divorced Catholic born on a military base 57 years ago somewhere in Europe. Her father was military stationed over there and met her Irish mother.

  148. 148.

    trollhattan

    @Frankensteinbeck:
    I don’t recall the details either but am sure Putin objected to any pushback at all over Crimea because of course it belongs to Russia and how dare anybody think otherwise? And also, too, that airliner shot itself down so fuck you, Holland et al.

  150. 150.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    Okay, I just got a CNBC news alert:
    “Trump says trade should be ‘tariff free’ between G-7 nations.”

    WTF. I guess he dropped that one on them as he was heading out the door. Genius!

  151. 151.

    trollhattan

    @Schlemazel:
    Do you have bumper sticker monitors? That sounds oddly specific.

    “We notice you have one ‘I’m with her’ sticker and one ‘My child is an honor student’ sticker. You’ll have to choose.”

  154. 154.

    Schlemazel

    @trollhattan:
    It mostly is self-policed but I don’t think it would result in much action. I went on a trip to the international intake facility at JFK in January 17 & some asshole had a Trump sticker on hs locker which is a big no-no under Hatch.

  155. 155.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Steeplejack (phone):
    ‘It’s all about the Rapture, so fuck the Earth’ is one official aspect. Another is ‘People who care about the environment are evil liberals and the enemy.’ A third is ‘We are stewards of the Earth because we hold dominion over it, which means it exists for our use, and how dare you question anything we want to do with it.’ All of those are overtly stated, non-coded, official evangelical arguments, albeit I may have tweaked the phrasing to be less self-congratulatory. You may notice the thought process of all of those arguments revolves around being a mean-spirited asshole.

  156. 156.

    Schlemazel

    @Spanky:
    I assume contractors are not held to higher levels of requirements than employees so I was comparing.

  157. 157.

    sdhays

    @trollhattan: She humiliated the United States in the UN just a couple weeks ago with her sheer incompetence and pathetic begging. Sure, President “America Alone” has dealt her a poor hand, but it’s clear that she’s a shit ambassador, which is no surprise since being shit is a job requirement to work in the Tapeworm Administration.

  159. 159.

    artem1s

    @Quinerly:

    What I don’t get are the people who voted for Obama twice and then turned around and voted for Trump.

    Misogynists AND racist. one just a little stronger than the other.

  160. 160.

    trollhattan

    @sdhays:
    Confess I was relieved Trump didn’t put Bolton back in the job but she’s as bad in her own way, just not as belligerent and now Bolton’s back anyway, in a job where he can do even more damage. Le sigh.

  161. 161.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    Now the salesman, Wayne, has tapped out and Bro’ Man is huddling with (I presume) the sales manager. Hopefully this is just the final paperwork.

    I’m getting hungry. I might accidentally lose Bro’ Man on the way home and hit a fast-food joint for a li’l bite.

  162. 162.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    And my phone’s running low. Need to get it hooked up to life support in the doughty Kia.

    Steep out.

  165. 165.

    sukabi

    @germy: think it’s more likely that he’s afflicted with the same malady that has swept the nation since Obama took office.

    Latent racism has metastasized.

  167. 167.

    J R in WV

    @Quinerly:

    She’s quite religious also…..if that means anything.

    No, she isn’t religious. No religion supports her behavior, and behavior is what all religions judge people on. Except for the prosperity gospel fools.

    What she is, is a hypocrite. And we know what Jesus had to say about those guys.

  168. 168.

    J R in WV

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    So I looked at that photo, and agree that it’s amazing, in focus from the floor tiles right in front of you to the trees outside. And from your comment, it all happens inside the Samsung camera, which selects the portions of one exposure in focus to keep, and overlays the portions not in focus with parts of another exposure that is in focus. Probably iteratively spinning through all the available exposures until the best focused spots are in place for the whole final exposure.

  169. 169.

    J R in WV

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Mohammed Alaa al-Jaleel is known as the cat man of Aleppo. His sanctuary in the rebel-held town looks after 170 cats that were abandoned when their owners fled the war.

    Jackals will appreciate that picture.

    All those cats look to be in pretty good shape, too. Healthy looking is what I’m saying, for cats in a war zone. Will keep the rodents in check, too, which can be a problem in war zones.

  170. 170.

    Ruckus

    @Quinerly:
    Conservatives spent 25 or more years telling the nation how bad the Clintons are. That’s 25 yrs of propaganda and bullshit. How many “investigations” were there? How many newspaper articles, “news” shows, fucking hit pieces were there? An impeachment over a consensual blow job. And as soon as Bill was out of office everything turned on Hillary. Yet she still won the popular vote. And to this day there is still bullshit being published about both of them. And the asswipe in chief spends his entire time trying to undo anything either Clinton and Obama did. He spends not one moment actually trying to do anything positive but everything to tear down both the legacies of 3 people but also to screw over an entire county of over 300 million because they had the termidity to try and elect one of those people again.
    So yes, anyone foolish enough to only follow what they are being spoon fed by conservative politicians and “news” organizations is going to have a long history of hate, stupidity, dumbassery as their guiding principles. The entire republican party has become far more stupid and far more dangerous than they were 50 yrs ago, and that should have been impossible for anyone able to breathe without assistance. But here we are.

  171. 171.

    Shell

    just down the river invited me to go eeling one night.

    Same with crabbing down at the Jersey Shore. At night we’d shine a light off the dock onto the water (Barneget Bay!) and the crabs would swim up to be scooped up with a long handled net.

  172. 172.

    Ruckus

    @Alain the site fixer:
    That is a great idea.
    We have a wide range of people here, some are hurting in many ways, and a lot have little in the way of a support group other than BJ, which really isn’t the same thing. A lot of us use it that way, but it falls short (only a bit actually!) of being that, mainly because it isn’t intended as one. There are a lot of people with a lot of differing skills and ideas for helping in this population and probably a few lurkers with something to add as well.
    It is a tough thing to pull off though, because of the differing skills and needs. And would that pull off people from BJ? Or add to it? I’m intrigued and am offering to help.

  173. 173.

    Brachiator

    @MattF:

    I’ve often wondered what Scott Pruitt’s magical get-out-of-trouble-free card is, this Slate article pretty much explains it. Briefly, Pruitt is a no-kidding evangelical Christian. He’s the guy who, as a state legislator wanted to put a ‘Evolution is only a theory’ erratum note in Oklahoma biology texts. And, as it turns out, evangelical Christians are (mostly) entirely indifferent to environmental concerns. Somewhat surprising to me, but it’s the truth.

    This makes a lot of sense. Pruitt is such a crooked grifter that I didn’t think that he would also be a religious nut. Good insights.

    As others have noted here, some religious folk seem to twist “be good stewards of the Earth” into “Free Market Jesus says you can do anything you want to the planet.”

    I have also seen angry evangelicals insist that arrogant liberals are trying to subvert God by suggesting that human beings might cause damage to the planet. Their counter argument is that humans are too puny, should be humble, and only God is knowledgeable enough and powerful enough to shape the planet. And after Noah’s Ark, God promised that he would never try to wipe the world clean again.

    Anyhoo, I don’t think Trump gives a rat’s ass about religion, but he will humor people who will let business do whatever they want to the environment.

  174. 174.

    Ruckus

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    People get invested in politics. And not necessarily invested with money. They get invested with their personalities. Like people get invested into TV shows/stars. They get invested with the ideals. Yes the ideals may be horrible, superficial, racist, misogynistic, hateful, harmful, etc but they are invested. If they stop investing, that makes them wrong in the first place. Then they have to admit they were wrong. Most people can’t do that. They were never trained to have a reverse gear, they charge full speed ahead, damn the torpedos. Don’t forget they are zero sum people, not logical in the least. It’s their way or no way. They are fully invested in their politics.
    We can turn on those that act or talk liberal but really aren’t. Wilmer, Edwards, Werner……. They can not accept that one of their own is wrong, bad, a sexual degenerate. They are invested in the concepts of the republican party, the hate, the false economic theories, the religions, even the sexual degeneracy. They won’t, they can’t learn, they are too invested, to admit, to back down would be to admit that they were wrong their entire lives. It’s very rare, the individual that can do that. As a group they have to lose a war and badly to even think about admitting that.

  175. 175.

    Ruckus

    @I’ll be Frank:
    Given the current person they are lying down with I think some changes to the original are in order.
    Sleep with a perverted asswipe, wake up with gonorrhea.

  179. 179.

    No One You Know

    @Ruckus: Yeah. What Ruckus said. But talking in this kind of forum is a little iffy. Not sure what I can bring, but I’ll help if I can…

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