Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Republicans in disarray!

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

I really should read my own blog.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. Do not congratulate. This is not business as usual.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Morning Open Thread: Eid Mubarak!

Friday Morning Open Thread: Eid Mubarak!

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(Hand to Murphy the Trickster God, this is the first result that came up when I typed Eid al-Fitr 2018 into Google!)

Eid al-Fitr is an important Islamic holiday that involves many Muslims waking up early and praying either at an outdoor prayer ground or a mosque. Many Muslims dress in their finest clothes and adorn their homes with lights and other decorations. Old wrongs are forgiven and money is given to the poor. Special foods are prepared and friends or relatives are invited to share the feast. Gifts and greeting cards are exchanged and children receive presents. Eid al-Fitr is a joyous occasion but its underlying purpose is to praise God and give thanks to him, according to Islamic belief…

Eid al-Fitr is also known as the Feast of Fast-Breaking or the Lesser Feast. It marks the end of Ramadan and the start of a feast that lasts up to three days in some countries, such as Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. It is one of Islam’s two major festivals, with Eid al-Adha being the other major festival. Eid al-Fitr celebrates the end of the fasting that occurs during Ramadan.

Speaking of the Beautiful Game, per Google, today’s World Cup matches are Egypt v Uruguay at 8am EDT, Morocco v Iran at 11am, and Portugal v Spain at 2pm. I’m gonna trust Alain (or Dave?) to put up the relevant Open Threads…
***********

But seriously:

Reader Interactions

102Comments

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Never saw this coming:

    Bannon may also have ambitions to create a currency of his own. Earlier this year, in a meeting at Harvard University, he apparently discussed creating a new digital currency called “deplorables coin”.

    The grift is strong in this one.

  4. 4.

    TS (the original)

    @Platonailedit: It is ALWAYS the dems who have to do it right. They have 40 dems – 80%, while they have 0% of the GOP. Why attack the dems when you should be calling out the republicans.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The remains of four Native American children who died more than 100 years ago at a government-run Carlisle Indian industrial school they were obliged to attend in Pennsylvania were being disinterred Thursday so they can start the long journey home to their Native families scattered thousands of miles away across the American west.

    The US army started the process on Thursday at the cemetery on the grounds of the Carlisle barracks, which also houses the US army war college, but used to be the site of the so-called Carlisle Indian industrial school. The institution acted as an off-reservation boarding school in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where Native American children were sent from their tribal territories in western states, in order to be “Americanized”. The exhumations are expected to be completed in early July.

    The children being exhumed include 10-year-old Little Plume, of the Northern Arapaho; George Ell, of the Blackfeet Nation; Herbert Little Hawk, of the Oglala Sioux; and Her Pipe Woman, also known as Dora Brave Bull, of the Standing Rock Sioux. The remains will be transferred to the children’s descendants in Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, who requested the exhumations.

    My inner pedant is more than a little perturbed right now.

  8. 8.

    Kay

    @NatashaBertrand
    Follow Follow @NatashaBertrand
    More
    Jim Baker, former general counsel for the FBI, said “the discussion was somebody in New York will leak this” prior to Comey sending his letter to Congress reopening the Clinton probe.
    Page said there were suspicions that the NY office was leaking Clinton Foundation stories.

    Comey testified that his fear was someone would leak. Actually the fear was the NY FBI office would leak. Like they did with the Foundation stories.

    And they’re all still working there, still protecting Trump, amid an ongoing investigation into Donald Trump.

  9. 9.

    Another Scott

    ‘morning everyone. Happy day to those who celebrate it.

    This news from Reuters struck me this morning.

    Afghanistan says Pakistani Taliban leader killed in air strike near border
    Ahmad Sultan, Jibran Ahmad

    JALALABAD, Afghanistan/PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah has been killed in a U.S.-Afghan air strike in Afghanistan, a senior Afghan Defence Ministry official said on Friday, a killing likely to ease tension between the United States and Pakistan.

    The U.S. military said in Washington on Thursday it had carried out a strike aimed at a senior militant figure in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar, which is on the Pakistani border, and one U.S. official said the target was believed to be Fazlullah.

    Fazlullah was Pakistan’s most-wanted militant, notorious for attacks including a 2014 school massacre that killed 132 children and the 2012 shooting of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

    “I confirm that Mullah Fazlullah, leader of the Pakistani Taliban, has been killed in an joint air operation in the border area of Marawera district of Kunar province,” Mohammad Radmanish, spokesman for Afghan defense ministry, told Reuters, adding the air strike was carried out at about 9 a.m. on Thursday.

    Fazlullah’s death could ease strained ties between Islamabad and Washington even as Afghanistan observes an unprecedented three-day ceasefire with the larger Afghan Taliban.

    Pakistan is considered key to persuading Afghan Taliban leaders, who Washington believes shelter on Pakistani soil, to open negotiations to end the 17-year-old war in Afghanistan.

    In March, the United States offered a $5 million reward for information on Fazlullah.

    A member of the Pakistani Taliban told Reuters by telephone on Friday the group was trying to get word from Afghanistan, where most of the Pakistani Taliban fighters are now based.

    “We have been hearing since early Friday that our Emir(leader) was martyred along with four other militant commanders in Marawar area of Kunar. They were staying at a house when a drone fired missiles and martyred them,” said Taliban member Maulvi Abdur Rasheed.

    Fazlullah emerged as an Islamist leader in the Swat Valley, northwest of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, more than a decade ago. He was known as “Mullah Radio” for his fiery broadcasts.

    He was reviled in Pakistan for the 2014 assault on an army-run school in the city of Peshawar in which Pakistani Taliban gunmen killed at least 132 children.

    He is also believed to have ordered the 2012 shooting of then-15-year-old Yousafzai over her advocacy of girls’ education.

    The Pakistani Taliban have waged a decade-long insurgency seeking to establish a harsh interpretation of Islamic rule but most of their fighters have now fled to Afghanistan.

    They are separate from the Afghan Taliban who ruled Afghanistan for five years before being ousted in a 2001 U.S.-led military action.

    Washington and Kabul accuse Pakistan of harboring Afghan Taliban and the allied Haqqani network, which Islamabad denies. Islamabad says the Pakistani Taliban maintain sanctuaries in Afghanistan.

    So, the Afghan Taliban are in Pakistan and the Pakistani Taliban are in Afghanistan. And their respective governments are upset with the other. :-/

    No wonder it’s such a mess over there, and why it’s so hard for us to understand what’s going on and how to get out…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  11. 11.

    Kay

    So why was Comey confident the Trump investigation wouldn’t leak but not confident the new Clinton information wouldn’t leak?

    Because he knew the NY field office was leaking to harm Clinton and help Trump. Which matters, a lot, because Hillary Clinton isn’t under investigation and she isn’t President, and Trump is and they all still work there. This isn’t a 2016 problem. It’s a problem right now and no one has done anything to stop it.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Another Scott: Getting out is easy. Getting blamed for everything that follows, whether it is connected or not, isn’t. We never should have “invaded” to begin with.

  13. 13.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    They said there will be another report. Meanwhile, they have the Trump FBI field office in place and Donald Trump is currently under investigation and he’s President now. So it’s worse. They have a bigger problem than they did in 2016.

  17. 17.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Last night, Giuliani went on the Hannity show and demanded that Rosenstein and Sessions suspend the Mueller investigation today and bring in “honest people” from the NY FBI office to investigate anti-Trump bias in the FBI. We need a new word for “brazen.”

  18. 18.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    So eldest daughter has been driving boyfriend’s car, as he’s in some master’s program in Ireland. Yesterday, she left work, and was going to see some friends, taking a busy freeway.

    In an inattentive moment (according to the super nice guy in the most destroyed vehicle, who was simply trying to drive to his home in St Louis) , she was the spark that caused an 8 car pileup. Thankfully, nobody got hurt, but she totaled 3-4 cars, severely damaged the rest, and inconvenienced something like 10000-20000 drivers by briefly but completely shutting down 6 lanes of westbound traffic.

    Plus, she was really fucking high-handed with me as I was trying to talk to her on the phone and later, when I got to the scene because I went straight to “business mode” instead of wallowing in “poor, poor you”.

    I’m to the point where I don’t want any of my kids to call me when there’s a crisis ever again – none of them want the thing triaged or mitigated; they only want their feelings massaged, and that’s worthless in a crisis moment. There’s probably $80000 to $100000 in busted metal attached to this wreck, judging by the cars I saw, and her inattention caused it (she was probably texting, were I to guess, since it was questions about that which triggered her hanging up on me – I was simply coming up with a plan on how she should interact with law enforcement). Her applicable policy probably has a $25000/$50000 policy limit, and there’s going to be a ton of excess liability that I’ll probably have to bankrupt.

    Plus, I didn’t get to do what I wanted to do last night.

  22. 22.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Seems sort of urgent to suspend the Trump agents, since he’s the sitting President and he’s currently under investigation. They’ve probably fed the public lies the last 2 years, and will continue to do so for the re-elect.

  24. 24.

    debbie

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    Yikes. Glad there were no serious injuries and sorry at the lack of gratitude. Here, there were three separate (severe) motorcycle crashes yesterday. I hate texting and wish there was some way to have cars disable all but 911 when the engine is running. Every fucking day I’m yelling at some driver to stop texting and getting moving when the light turns green.

  26. 26.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    They better hurry up. They’ll destroy any credibility in the current Trump investigation, just as they did in the Clinton investigation. They won’t be able to take back any lies or misinformation Guiliani is spreading right now, and we don’t know what they’re feeding Mueller.

  27. 27.

    debbie

    @JPL:

    Now that the evangelicals are beginning to turn against this, I’d bet more will sign on. I’d also bet Trump will take note of even Franklin Graham’s disapproval and also turn against it — if only to have another opportunity to slam Sessions.

  28. 28.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Betty Cracker:

    Probably. Officer didn’t examine the phone, but it’s not impossible to determine. I’m going to look at her text history when I get in – phones are all on my account.

    I just hate that she’ll have to do a BK just as she was getting on her feet, but I’m sure in shit not paying for the wreck.

  29. 29.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    We don’t know what they’re feeding Mueller, but I’m confident he’s not biting at just anything. My worry is the approaching July deadline to go silent until after the midterms.

  30. 30.

    Schlemazel

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
    Your little girl is about to grow up a whole lot. It is not going to be a happy occasion for her.

    Thankfully all my kids have gotten to the age where when they call with a crisis they only want to discuss ideas. They have even stopped needing my money. But it sucks when they know they have screwed up and want you to feel sorry for them & make it all go away with no effort from them. For now caulk it up to her being upset by the crash and scared. She will learn and come to appreciate your efforts.

  31. 31.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    We saw the panic and chicken with their heads cut off running around in circles in how they handled the Clinton investigation and she wasn’t President. They must be absolutely frozen in fear now, that the sitting President is under investigation.

  34. 34.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    Right. That “norm” will be honored. Norms are not norms at all. They need a new word. Mild suggestions that can be bent every which way depending on which outcome they want?

  35. 35.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    They need a new word.

    I can think of something short and sweet, easy to remember and snappy: Sieg Heil!

  36. 36.

    Kay

    @BoDiddleySquat:

    I said at the beginning of this I wanted an outside contractor who wasn’t complicit in the Clinton investigation rolling disaster to investigate Trump. “Russia” isn’t the only Trump Administration corruption issue. There are tens of them.

  37. 37.

    Mai naem mobile

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Glad she’s okay and hopefully everybody else is okay. Metal is fixable and replaceable. Lives aren’t. I don’t mean to sound flip but if she’s over 18 isn’t it better for her to assume the responsibility because she probably has no assets for any lawyers to come after and I am guessing you do have assets. Also,are you sure she’s responsible for the whole thing? Aren’t you generally responsible for the car you directly impacted not indirectly impacted?

  38. 38.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: I haven’t paid that much attention, but I don’t get the sense that Nelson is phoning it in. My sense is the campaign hasn’t really begun in earnest and won’t for another couple of months. I’m reasonably confident Nelson will win because Scott is just an abysmal retail politician, but then again, I didn’t think it was possible for Trump to win, so grain of salt, etc.

  42. 42.

    Suzy Fay

    @Baud: Another Floridian here. ‘Phoning it in’ isn’t the impression I’m getting, but I get the sense Nelson is also busy with things like the Keep Families Together Act (he was one of the 1St senators to sign on). I do get the idea Scott is outspending him, though.

  43. 43.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Mai naem mobile:

    Yeah, she’s over 18, and it wasn’t our car, so it’s on her. She’s got no assets, so the BK would be easy. The volume of mail that is about to arrive will be intense – that’ll be a stress inducor all by itself.

  44. 44.

    JPL

    @Betty Cracker: I guess Scott supports getting rid of coverage for preexisting conditions, and that surely will hurt him. The residents did elect him even though his company had to pay the biggest fine ever for medicare fraud.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    @Lapassionara:

    Right. The Trump supporters in the FBI leaked the Clinton information. The Clinton supporters in the FBI did not leak the Trump investigation. Once again Trump benefited from the norms he violates. He could not operate without two things- the dishonesty and lack of ethics of his supporters coupled with everyone BUT his supporters following the rules. He needs both.

  48. 48.

    Betty Cracker

    @JPL: True — I think Scott will regret saying that bit on camera about people needing to take responsibility to pay up for their preexisting conditions. It’s also true that Scott won two elections, but the context is that the Democrats ran uniquely HORRIBLE candidates against him both times and that Scott never broke 50%. Bill Nelson is an experienced incumbent. Scott is trying to use that against him with a “throw the bums out” strategy, but the fact that Scott is a two-term governor and Trump ass-kisser kind of detracts from his “outsider” message. I think Nelson wins handily, FWIW (nothing).

  49. 49.

    Kay

    @Lapassionara:

    And that’s exactly how it spreads, corruption. The people who are resisting Trump corruption will continue to watch as cheating and lying and getting an unfair edge works for the Trump Administration and they will respond in kind. Because there’s no payoff for following the rules. In fact, it’s a chump move. That’s the mindset. If they cannot win without playing they will play.

  50. 50.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie:

    My worry is the approaching July deadline to go silent until after the midterms.

    It isn’t going to stop Meuller from indicting anyone in the admin or the trump campaign as they aren’t involved in any elections this year.

  51. 51.

    Dorothy Winsor

    I love the way Giuliani goes straight to saying Strzok should be imprisoned today. None of that charge someone, try them, etc. stuff. That’s for wusses.

  52. 52.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Mai naem mobile:

    Aren’t you generally responsible for the car you directly impacted not indirectly impacted?

    No. If you are the primary cause of an accident you are liable for all that follows. At least here in Misery and Louisiana..

  55. 55.

    Mai naem mobile

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: i have gotten hit by uninsured drivers and AFAIK my insurance company never went after the person because basically they had nothing to go after. Hopefully it will be the same for your dtr. If you want to look at a silver lining here it would be that your dtr will learn a valuable lesson while young instead of when she’s 35.

  58. 58.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: Heh. I gave my youngest a car I was no longer driving some years back. I was sure to make it official before he drove it back to Louisiana.

  59. 59.

    Mai naem mobile

    Has efgoldman checked in recently? I always think about how he talks about how long Watergate took when we’re all getting impatient with Mueller.

  65. 65.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: So? The GOP is going to frame any indictments in as advantageous a manner as they can anyway, no matter when they come about. That’s politics. It’s up to DEMs to not let them get away with it.

  67. 67.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Mai naem mobile:

    i have gotten hit by uninsured drivers and AFAIK my insurance company never went after the person because basically they had nothing to go after.

    I had an uninsured accident once. (long story) They don’t have to sue. The heavy hand of the state does it for them. As part of the settlement of my “Driving w/o Insurance” charge, I had to reach an accomadation with the other party’s insurance company for the damages. I would be very surprised if it was otherwise where you live.

  68. 68.

    rikyrah

    The GOP Senators, especially the whiners that the media want to tongue bathe as being so ‘outraged’, should really be called on the carpet about not being sponsors to Feinstein’s legislation.

  74. 74.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    He threw an election to an idiot tool of a hostile, foreign nation because the self-righteous prick didn’t have the leadership ability to tell his fucking agency to conduct themselves properly?

  75. 75.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    He’ll, the amount of money it takes to fix or replace a car nowadays, most minimally insured drivers are essentially uninsured (save for the fact that they won’t draw a criminal charge).

  77. 77.

    D58826

    In a way I feel sorry for Jeff Sessions. He looks so uncomfortable in that suit and tie when he appears on TV. I’m sure he would much prefer casual dress – hood and sheet

  78. 78.

    rikyrah

    @Suzy Fay:
    I am not a Floridian, but I hope that someone is involved in getting the few hundred thousand Puerto Ricans who were displaced by Maria, registered to vote in November.
    And, also, there is a team involved at getting that referendum on ex-felon voting rights restoration passed. If it passes, Florida will be changed.

  79. 79.

    Kay

    I hope the Scott Pruitt investigation, which almost certainly exists, isn’t corrupted by the rot in the NY FBI office, like the Clinton investigation was and the Trump investigation was.

    No reason to think it won’t be, however, given the track record and the fact that no one has been held accountable there.

  82. 82.

    JAFD

    “Any auto accident that you can walk away from is not a BAD accident” – My father, 1974
    “When I said you should LEARN something from that, I did not mean that you should decide ‘driving to work on Monday morning is a bad idea’.” – My father, 1975

    Happy Eid, everyone ! And Fathers’ Day, and am hoping the Last Weekend Of The Spring – or Fall – is as beautiful where you are as it looks to be here.

    With Portugal playing Spain this afternoon (really rigged the draw there, eh ?), the Ironbound’ll probably be shout down this afternoon, and you should be able to hear the game (in at least two of three languages) walking down Ferry Avenue, all the way from Penn Station to Magazine Street (back in the old days of black powder and open fireplaces, the citizens of Newark could keep their guns at home, but stored their ammunition supply in a municipal facility)

  86. 86.

    Leto

    It appears that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is taking a page from ICE: Canadian citizen held for months after border agents dismiss papers as fake

    A Canadian man is suing the country’s government after he was arrested by border agents and detained for eight months – despite producing evidence of his citizenship.

    Olajide Ogunye, 47, is seeking $10m in compensation from the Canadian government after he spent months incarcerated in what his lawyer has described as a “profoundly disturbing” case of mistaken identity.

    Ogunye was approached by border agents and detained outside his Toronto home in June 2016, even though he produced citizenship papers and a government-issued health card.

    The agents disputed the validity of the documents and brought him to a detention facility near Toronto Pearson airport, where they fingerprinted him and alleged his prints matched those of a fraudulent refugee claimant who was deported to Nigeria in the 1990s.

    …

    Targeted arrests, like the one that ensnared Ogunye, are common for clearing a backlog of immigration violations, said a number of lawyers working in immigration and refugee law.

    But the arrest of a Canadian citizen by border guards was nearly unheard of, said Max Chaudhary, a Toronto-based immigration lawyer. “That’s simply not what [border] officers do. Their mandate is not with Canadian citizens.”

    …

    “Because there’s no oversight, there’s nobody who reviews the conduct of CBSA officers and this matter was allowed to drag on for months and months. It’s extremely unacceptable.”

  88. 88.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: I think Mueller is such a straight arrow, that he will follow the rule even to prevent the appearance of trying to effect the election. That is, he will continue taking pieces off the board if they are foreign national or secondary figures like Cohen. He may refer other corruption cases out to other offices for them to deal with. But he will not act against any government official between August and November unless absolutely necessary. (Of course he can always get sealed indictments to open after the voting).

    PS. I love the pedant in you. I guess there could have been some medical miracle….

  92. 92.

    germy

    @Baud: TYT says the staff reduction is because of the company’s “growth”.

    What company lays off employees and then cites “growth” as a cause?

  93. 93.

    Immanentize

    @Kay:
    I can’t imagine why the NY office would have anything to do with an investigation of Pruitt. Nothing I have heard of would be in their territory. But the Clinton server was, as was Weiner.

  97. 97.

    waysel

    @Baud: I had the same thought at first, and I’m not familiar with either person, but regarding Nomiki, any enemy of Joy Reid is an enemy of me. Hopefully Nomiki doesn’t fail up.

  98. 98.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: If the rules say Corey Lewandowski has no relevance to the AZ Senatorial election, Mueller will indict as appropriate. It is his reputation as a straight arrow that I put my faith in, what little is left, because it inspires so much fear in trump.

  99. 99.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Kay: Good point. If Comey feared that FBI agents were going to leak the Clinton investigation, those agents should have been rooted out and punished.

  101. 101.

    oldgold

    No, Comey’s actions and the tragic results that followed illustrate the peril of not properly considering timing and time.

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