To Iranian President Rouhani: NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2018
Make it stop.
Roger Moore
Somebody is worried about the news and is trying to make it about anything but Russia.
chopper
PS I AM NOT A CRACKPOT
catbirdman
Not only a bad dream, but a poorly written one.
schrodingers_cat
Moscow Agent Gropes America
Yutsano
@Roger Moore: We need an established Fox news monitor. Something got reported there that set him off on this course. No way the Walrus of Doom planted that seed in his head.
chopper
this sounds like some 13-year-old metal fan’s first attempt at writing a song.
dmsilev
ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US.
Adam L Silverman
I’ll just leave this here on my way to the gym…
https://balloon-juice.com/2018/05/07/war-with-iran-a-campaign-of-catastrophe/
MattF
@Yutsano: In fact, Trump sort of plays that role. It’s true, he has other responsibilities, but watching Fox News is the big one.
chopper
@MattF:
i’d say watching fox is his primary job, at least hours-wise.
dmsilev
@MattF: I wonder whether he was watching Fox & Fiends [*] when they accidentally invited the wrong guest, who proceeded to lambaste Trump. Hope so.
[*] Typo, but decided not to fix.
chopper
@chopper:
or maybe a stryper song. jesus, those guys were just fucking terrible.
Baud
https://i.redd.it/lhk3ifkt6pb11.jpg
John Cole
@dmsilev: stealing
zhena gogolia
Jon Zal’s comment on this tweet:
debbie
@chopper:
It doesn’t sound at all like Trump. More like Stephen Miller. His tone of voice alone implies all caps.
Yarrow
Reminds me The Wizard of Oz. “Do not arouse the wrath of the great and powerful Oz!”
TenguPhule
@John Cole:
Dude, that meme is over 30 years old.
rikyrah
It’s all true.
And, but another reason why those responsible WILL NEVER BE FORGIVEN ? ?
TenguPhule
@Adam L Silverman: Air Wars are short and easy to win. //s //s //s
debbie
@Baud:
Reminds me of Lou Reed’s “Vicious,” if you can remember that far back.
chopper
@TenguPhule
and on the inside cole is like 30 years older than that.
dmsilev
@John Cole: Use it in good health.
ruemara
“Donald the Dove; Hillary the Hawk”
“I’m far more afraid of Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy.”
“Brother Donald is an authentic person.”
Yarrow
@ruemara: What are Cornel West’s connections to Russia?
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
I don’t know who the heck John Zal is, and yet I love him. This isn’t his first on-point Tweet.
NotMax
Sounding more and more like Kim Jong Un, ain’t he?
Switching gears, this is an under the radar BFD. Hope Yutsano shows up to provide some expertise.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
I’m making this my new motto. Can’t wait to see how it goes over at work.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
This could damage his chance to win the Nobel Peace Prize
debbie
@Yarrow:
What is with him? He’s slagging Obama for not being Mandela? WTF?
Roger Moore
@NotMax:
It’s worse than that. Just repealing the rule would be one thing, but this makes enforcement selective based on the whims of a political appointee.
NotMax
@NotMax
Ought to add that personally disagree with the use of the word “punish” in that snippet. It’s a piss poor editorial decision top have let that through.
TenguPhule
@NotMax:
Well that’s fucking great. //s
If it makes it past the Senate, we will officially have an official government religious litmus test.
germy
Borowitz headline:
Trump to Discontinue Obama-Era Practice of Using Lower Case Letters
Aleta
Picture him alone in the Lincoln bedroom screaming this at himself in the mirror.
TenguPhule
@NotMax:
Feature, not a bug. GOP worked the refs successfully.
SFAW
@debbie:
The esteemed Dr. West is what I believe is known as “an asshole.”
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
I heard about him here, and now I’m addicted to his tweets. He’s a really good writer.
I ordered A Gentleman in Moscow — I’m a little worried that I’ll be too picky about historical accuracy. I never heard about any nobleman being imprisoned in a hotel, unless the address was Magadan. But I’ll give it a shot!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: I remember when the Bush administration when after All Saints out your way.
TenguPhule
@chopper:
Well played.
lollipopguild
@Roger Moore: Conservative churches will be just fine, but every other church will be told that they are not allowed to back anyone.
TenguPhule
@SFAW:
Assholes only pass shit, they don’t generate it.
ruemara
@Yarrow: I think we may find out.
SFAW
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Buncha RINOs
danielx
@Yutsano:
Not for a hundred thousand. A million, maybe; I’m not cheap but I can be had. I would insist on a free and unlimited supply of intoxicants and anti-nausea meds as part of the deal above and beyond the mil..
danielx
@Yarrow:
it does make you wonder if he ever realizes how many people are laughing at him.
SFAW
@TenguPhule:
Interestingly, when I say to you “Don’t be fucking literal, smartass,” it doesn’t mean that I think you’re going to intercourse the
penguinliteral, nor that I think your buttocks have a high IQ.Yarrow
@debbie: I have no idea. He’s been angry at Obama since 2009 when he didn’t get tickets to the inauguration. Figure someone with an ego that big is ripe for turning by enemies.
Ohio Mom
@NotMax: That *is* a BFD. It will allow crazy fundamentalist churches to stop being coy — if they ever were — about backing specific candidates, but more significantly, it’s going to make life very, very hard for mainline churches and non-orthodox synagogues.
These sorts of congregations tend to have very liberal national organizations while also having lots of very conservative, old-fashioned Republicans in the pews.
The clergy are very careful not to adopt anything at all that looks like a partisan stance. They’ve always claimed this is because of the federal law, but it is really to prevent civil wars from breaking up their congregations.
Breaking up mainline Protestantism has always been a project of the VRW Conspiracy, even as it has been under-reported.
germy
SFAW
@danielx:
Normally I’d say “Deal!” but I think encouraging a person of good will to watch Fox probably qualifies as a war crime.
Ohio Mom
@Ohio Mom:
This is the article that first alerted me to the war on liberal Protestantism.
Of course, the part of this new legislation that allows the federal government to either approve or disapprove a church’s endorsement of a candidate is beyond awful. But I would guess that could be fought in court.
Mike in NC
Look for some trumped (yes) up incident to take place near Iran around the middle of October.
HRA
I am led to believe there was an agreement, pact or contract made early on between T and P. It is a current feeling I have been keeping to myself.
It begins when I saw the exit from the summit meeting and how T looked in contrast to P. Someone had been threatened and someone had delivered his message.
A day or so ago I quickly glossed over apiece that told about P’s desire to capture the oil market. Iraq is a competitor in that field. Today the threat went out to Iraq.
You all are better informed than I am on this subject. All I ask is some kindness in the attack.
Roger Moore
@debbie:
Obama didn’t get him an invitation to some inaugural event, and he took it as a personal slight. He’s never forgiven Obama for it and has slagged him at every opportunity since.
Yutsano
@NotMax: On my way to an appointment after work but: this is bad. This is really really bad. You’re basically making a church a PAC while letting said church keep its tax exemption. And you bet this will be subject to political whims. I can’t see this getting out of court easily.
TenguPhule
@Yutsano:
Depends on the district the suit is decided in. That’s where we are now.
debbie
@Roger Moore:
Seems pointless. Obama would be the first to say he wasn’t Mandela.
Thoughtful David
@Ohio Mom: I think everyone, and I mean everyone, 320 million of us, should just become a “church” and then we could all go about using tax exempt money for campaigning and see if they could prosecute us all. Hell, some us could become several “churches.”
TenguPhule
@Thoughtful David:
Bad idea. Tax court has a lengthy history of those kinds of cases. Except for Scientology, the IRS win record on scam churches is really good.
Miss Bianca
@zhena gogolia: I just started it – so far, so good, but I’m guessing you know way more about the history of early Soviet Russia than I do.
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
FWIW, I don’t think that Alexander is supposed to be based on a real person, but he seems to interact with a lot of real people, which is part of what makes it interesting. I think he’s largely a device to tie together a bunch of otherwise disparate people from that time period (though he’s also an interesting character in and of himself).
HRA
I meant to write Iran and not Iraq up at #53.
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
From a writing craft point of view, it’s pretty amazing to see someone write a book in third person omniscient in 2018 and actually pull it off.
Redshift
Aaaaaand my local (non-Sinclair) news had this story with the caption “Trump responds to Iranian threats.”
Sigh.
Chip Daniels
In the late 60’s when I was a kid, I remember my older brothers smirking and riffing off of those bizarre Communist Chinese slogans from the Cultural Revolution, you know, like “EXHORT THE PEOPLE’S CADRES TO SMASH THE CLAQUE OF THE RUNNING DOGS OF CAPITALIST OPPRESSORS!”
I’m wondering how long it will be before we see these sort of Tweets blown up into giant Jumbotron placards for Trump rallies to cheer to, N. Korea style.
patrick II
@Roger Moore:
Is this all bad? Evangelicals are choosing candidates anyway, and since it is no longer in violation of any code, neither is rebuttal. Politicians should rebut their arguments, call out their lies, and ties to money, power and Russia. People like Falwell Jr. and Graham Jr. have stood above the fray; no politician has the nerve to take them on yet — but they should. They aren’t holy guys, just politicians interested in their candidate and causes (racism and money) just like the rest of the republican politicians.
Bex
@zhena gogolia: Have you read “A Terrible Country” by Keith Gessen? I just finished it and thought it was outstanding. It is set in Moscow in 2008.
Lee
Did anyone figure out what set him off (other than the obvious -the latest Manafort revelations)?
I’ve heard a couple of suggestions, but nothing concrete.
Quinerly
@John Cole: emailed you back this AM re Pine Knoll Shores, NC. Took a break from Trump, BJ, on line, and news for about 48 plus hrs. Still waiting to hear back from a friend who usually rents from me 7-10 days in Sept. Think there would be overlap in timing, though.
Roger Moore
@patrick II:
Yes. If the law were changed to make politicking from the pulpit fine, that would be one thing. But changing it so it’s technically still wrong but it requires a high-level political appointee to enforce is begging for selective, politically biased enforcement.
Denali
@Miss Bianca,
Just finished reading Saramouche. Enjoyed it immensely. Would like it to be dramatized. The best books are those recommended by others, I’ve found. And so I will pass along one – The Sympathizer – a historical novel of the Viet Nam war from the perspective of a Vietnamese.
Mainmata
@Adam L Silverman: As always, you nailed it. But, the same analysis could have been made (and should have been) prior to the Iraq War. Iran is just exponentially worse. The neo-cons are always wrong.
Of course, Trump knows nothing of thi because h is demented and ignorant. That is the danger (but believe the US military would defy an insan order to bomb/invade Iran.
LosGatosCA
Omnes Omnibus
@Denali: There have been movies. They have sucked.
Denali
@Omnes Omnibus,
Maybe they did it wrong.
Omnes Omnibus
@Denali: Maybe?
japa21
Of course, what he was responding to was not a threat, veiled or otherwise.
Denali
@Omnes,
Ok, they did it wrong. You (were)’re the judge.
burnspbesq
@Ohio Mom:
No kidding. Cardinal Dolan just came on his cassock.
burnspbesq
@Redshift:
Maybe I lack imagination, but I thought Rouhani’s statement wasn’t much of a threat.
AnotherBruce
@NotMax: unless it is specifically approved by the commissioner of the agency. In other words, the government official who gets to play God.