Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

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

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

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

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

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

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

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

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

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

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

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Odds and Ends (Open Thread)

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Something tells me new indictments may be forthcoming:

This follows an extended rant about unfair treatment in the press, doubling down on the press as the “Enemy of the People,” and threats to shut down the government this fall because Democrats (who don’t control any branch of government) won’t give him money for the wall Mexico was supposed to pay for.

It’s a good thing we’re paying tens of millions of dollars to shuttle Hair Furor back and forth between self-branded golf resorts. Imagine how much more deranged he’d be if he didn’t relax on the links!

In other news, Jake Tapper sure can be a cockwaffle sometimes:

Fuck you, Jake.

Lastly, we were checking out some property in the country, and we took Badger along to 1) give Daisy a break from his constant harassment, and 2) ensure he learns to be a good road trip dog. The property we were inspecting had a pasture next to it that was occupied by an emu:

As a small breed pup, Badger weighs around 10 pounds currently. He’ll likely max out at around 20-25 pounds. My guess is he’ll grow wider rather than much taller than he is right now. He’s used to eye-balling chickens through a fence. I wish I had video of him processing the sight of this giant bird. It looked something like this:

But he charged at it to the limits of his leash and barked his head off because he’s a foolish boy. I kept him from getting within striking distance. The bird was neither afraid nor impressed, not even a little bit.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

213Comments

  7. 7.

    Teddys Person

    Tapper’s gonna hurt himself reaching for that “but both sides” bullshit.

  8. 8.

    Brachiator

    Fuck you, Jake.

    Agree 1,000 percent.

    From Reuters.

    U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he would allow the federal government to shut down if Democrats do not fund his border wall and back immigration law changes, betting that maintaining a hard line will work in Republicans’ favor in November congressional elections.

    Fuck Trump, too. We can categorically reject cruelty and support rational immigration reform. Fuck every pundit and reporter who falls for Trump’s false equivalency.

  11. 11.

    Humdog

    I think I remember you tellling us Badger is kinda chicken shit himself, letting Daisy do guard duty while he barks from the safety of far away. My husband thinks being on a leash gives our Peanut confidence she doesn’t have off leash. When she’s off leash, she approaches other dogs and people very cautiously, from the side and ready to dart away if needed. On a leash, she barks, gets her back up a tad and lunges straight toward dogs. Yeah, our Peanut needs some help, or we do.

  13. 13.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Wow. Even given my pretty moderate expectations for Tapper in particular and his ilk in general, that’s some major douche-itude. If Obama had been campaigning for someone, Tapper or more likely Dowd would be banging the “he thinks it’s all about him” drum. I hope and trust he got roasted in the replies.

    and that tweet about Mueller’s conflicts of interest and “I turned him down” is the sort of thing that makes me think Junior– or Jared– is about to be indicted.

  15. 15.

    Brachiator

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    We went to see Mama Mia this afternoon. It was fun, but if they wanted us to believe the other women could sing, they shouldn’t have let Cher do it.

    Does Cher sing “Fernando?”

    I hear that there is a post credit scene that people may want to stick around for.

  17. 17.

    Это курам на смех

    Thank you, Ms. Cracker, for a hearty laugh. Don’t ever change.

  19. 19.

    germy

    We saw Sorry To Bother You for a second time. Lots of little things I didn’t notice the first time around.

  26. 26.

    Chyron HR

    @Corner Stone:

    Which facts? That the Democratic party is allegedly at it’s “weakest” (based on some undefined metric)? Or that Obama rhymes with “numb digger”?

  27. 27.

    dmsilev

    @Brachiator: Shutdowns usually get blamed on either the party in power or the party that fomented the shutdown.

    Or, in this hypothetical case, both.

    Even if, as is likely, Trump doesn’t understand this, Ryan and McConnell do. They’re not going to stick their necks out for Trump’s Wall a month before the midterms. The Freedom Caucus lunatics might, of course.

  28. 28.

    zhena gogolia

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Haha, I’m going to see it Tuesday, and I saw the trailer and am worried about this very thing. Cher just blows them all away. There’s something to be said for a characterful voice.

  29. 29.

    oldgold

    I wonder if there is something afoot with Manafort that has set Trump off this afternoon.

  30. 30.

    Domestic short hair tabby (fka vheidi)

    @NotMax: got an attack of the introverts, hope you all have fun. Maybe next time…

  33. 33.

    debbie

    The next WH hire has got to be a teacher of remedial English. This is embarrassing.

  34. 34.

    SFAW

    The only “conflicts of interest with respect to Lying Littledick” is that Mueller is an honest, upstanding man who is (A) following the law and (B) trying to do something FOR, not TO, America.

    Unlike the Fuckhead-in-Chief.

  37. 37.

    lamh36

    @JamilSmith
    Following Following @JamilSmith
    More
    I wasn’t aware that @BarackObama was enjoying a concert on the same night that he should’ve been saving the Democratic Party. Or that after an admittedly flawed presidency during which he managed to rescue the country from recession, he is not allowed to dance to Beyoncé. Got it.

    4:04 PM – 29 Jul 2018 from California, USA

    https://twitter.com/JamilSmith/status/1023675576534544386

  38. 38.

    Brachiator

    @dmsilev:

    Even if, as is likely, Trump doesn’t understand this, Ryan and McConnell do. They’re not going to stick their necks out for Trump’s Wall a month before the midterms.

    Good point. And even if they did, this would end up hurting Trump.

  39. 39.

    p.a.

    @dmsilev: Trump has promised threatened to go all-out campaigning for Rethugs this fall. Their invitations should come pouring in to the WH any day now. Gotta figure anyone who actually wants Trump around wouldn’t need him anyway.

  41. 41.

    B.B.A.

    @dmsilev: I think he thinks a shutdown means he doesn’t have to work, and can spend the whole rest of his term doing what he loves – watching Fox and ragetweeting.

  42. 42.

    Corner Stone

    @p.a.: They are scared to death of the racist, ignorant base they have cultivated for 30+ years. They never thought…

  43. 43.

    Teddys Person

    Well Bobby Three Sticks should just pack it in. Rudy 9/11 was on the CBS moring show and dropped this little nugget.

    Giuliani: A lot of his tweets have been very helpful. The reason he may not have to testify is that he’s laid out his defense very clearly, …

  44. 44.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Brachiator:

    U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he would allow the federal government to shut down

    Trump will sign whatever is handed to him, like he did last time. There is no bigger chickenshit in the world.

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    how much longer can Republicans cover for him?

    If it involves just saying ‘Nuh-uh, YOU’RE the criminal’, forever. There’s nothing to stop them. Seriously, have you seen any sign they care about decency at all? Actually actively sticking their neck out and interfering for him is iffy and depends on the Republican. McConnell would happily introduce an Apartheid bill into the Senate right now if he thought he had the votes.

  45. 45.

    Jeffro

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    that tweet about Mueller’s conflicts of interest and “I turned him down” is the sort of thing that makes me think Junior– or Jared– is about to be indicted.

    I think it all drops in the next week or two. There’s almost nothing left to look into – Mueller’s had everything, EVERYTHING, for months if not a year or more.
    – Don Jr
    – Jared
    – Parscale
    – Stone
    – Page

    Anyway…that Trumpov, he sure acts like an innocent man, doesn’t he? If he’s so sure he’s clean and the “Witch Hunt” is illegal/baseless/both, why doesn’t he fire Mueller and shut it all down? Go for it, you fucking orange moron. The midterms (and House Dem subpoena power) sure are getting closer, aren’t they?

  46. 46.

    lamh36

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I loved the first one, and was a bit sketchy bout seeing this one, but I’ve gone ahead and enrolled in that AMC A-list thing where you pay one montly price and you can see up to 3 current movies in one week, and I’ll have some free time in Miami before I check in to the hotel and while I wait for the other members of my party to arrive…so I figured I see a movie or two while I wait…HMM

    I saw Mission Impossible this past Friday, and I really liked it.

    I won’t say too much, in case folks plan to see it, but what I will say that this film was the BEST use of Henry Cavill I have ever seen. I like the way they used him in this film much more than I EVER liked him as Superman, or any other films I’ve seen him in.

    If his agent is paying attention, they should be looking for more roles like that one for Henry…he was perfect, even being the weakest in the acting cast (I mean come on, he was working with Baldwin, Cruise & Angela Bassett, neither 3 a slouch in the acting department).

    Anyway, I may see Mamma Mia while I wait for flights to arrive

  47. 47.

    raven

    @schrodingers_cat: Lil Bit is doing ok. I took her temp and it’s good so we just have to see what develops with the cough.

    Are you aware of the large Indian and Pakistani population in Houston? The Anthony Boudain about the city has some great segments in that community. The folks in it said there is really no ill will between each other and that the caste system is pretty much irrelevant.

  53. 53.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jeffro: some people say Jared and Junior haven’t been interviewed yet, and those will be the sign that Mueller is wrapping up. Other people say he might well already have interviewed them and we would only know it if the interviewees told us. Shrug emoji thing. IANAL and IDK.

    There is a twitter theory that floats around from time to time, that Team Jared, in the person of Abbe Lowell with the consent of his client, is the source for rumors that make Junior look bad. I want this to be true, cause I hate all of them, and I’m pretty confident Jared will be in legal trouble for Kushner stuff if the NY, and maybe NJ?, state authorities start to look at stuff Mueller digs up.

  55. 55.

    Yarrow

    @Jeffro:

    I think it all drops in the next week or two. There’s almost nothing left to look into – Mueller’s had everything, EVERYTHING, for months if not a year or more.

    Agree in general but my guess is in the next 2-4 weeks. It’s not going to go well for the traitors in the White House and Congress.

  58. 58.

    Ruckus

    @Jeffro:

    Anyway…that Trumpov, he sure acts like an innocent man, doesn’t he?

    Well at least he thinks he is. And really how can such a great human being ever be guilty of every thing he’s done?

  59. 59.

    Corner Stone

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I want this to be true, cause I hate all of them, and I’m pretty confident Jared will be in legal trouble for Kushner stuff if the NY, and maybe NJ?, state authorities start to look at stuff Mueller digs up.

    Ivanka has the absolute best PR team in the history of PR teams. It’s not even close.

  61. 61.

    Shalimar

    @lamh36: Cavill is horrible as Superman, though I blame the scripts that distort and diminish everything Superman has ever stood for more than I blame him. Anyway, that is a low bar to crawl over, though I am looking forward to Mission Impossible to see how he could be decent in something.

  62. 62.

    geg6

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    We saw it last night. It’s silly and fun, just like the first one. And no one could sing in that one either. Though Streep isn’t awful. But nobody cares, the actors are obviously having the time of their lives and don’t care if they sound awful and the girl who plays the young Christine Baranski character has her down to a tee. We had a smile on our faces when we walked out of the theater.

  66. 66.

    OldDave

    I was more than a little curious about this:

    we had a very nasty & contentious business relationship

    … but apparently DJT is referring to a golf club membership. Seriously?

  68. 68.

    lamh36

    @Shalimar: let’s just say if the rumors bout him being a jackass (and that was before his stupid #MeToo comments) are true…then he was perfect in this role and there is a reason why he much better playing bad Superman than wholesome Clark Kent…

    Best utilization of his acting ability that I’ve ever seen from him…

  69. 69.

    Betty Cracker

    @schrodingers_cat: Season 2 focuses on Philip’s back story a bit more. He had a truly awful, tragic childhood, if the portrayal is accurate (not that that’s an excuse for being whiny and selfish).

  70. 70.

    Shalimar

    @Yarrow: The last federal state primaries are New Hampshire and Rhode Island on Sept. 11th and 12th, so that is the hard deadline for wrapping up this part of the investigation if Mueller doesn’t want the appearance of influencing the general election.

  71. 71.

    lamh36

    @geg6: I think the majority of the cast was ok with the singing, Baranski likely the best, since she is/was a Broadway vet…but OMGawd… Pierece Brosnan was HOOOORRRIBLE…like OMG…this was AFTER sound editing and stuff and his singing was STILLL pretty bad…lol.

    I’m guessing that doesn’t improve in this sequel…lol

  72. 72.

    Brachiator

    @lamh36:

    I won’t say too much, in case folks plan to see it, but what I will say that this film was the BEST use of Henry Cavill I have ever seen. I like the way they used him in this film much more than I EVER liked him as Superman, or any other films I’ve seen him in.

    Saw a morning screening of the film today. It is another “Tom Cruise running, jumping, falling down movie. This time with flying!!” But it is loads of fun, and you really get drawn into many of the stunts, which often look painful and very realistic.

    I agree that Cavill is very good. You see the mustache that he was not allowed to shave off for Justice League (they had to digitally remove it, not always effectively). Cavill is heavily hinting that he would be willing to ditch Superman to become the next James Bond, and his performance her makes a good case for this.

    Rebecca Ferguson, Angela Bassett and the rest of the IMF gang are all great.

    The one weird downside is that there are a whole bunch of white dudes with beards that all look like one of the main villains. It’s a little hard to keep straight who is who, and you really don’t want to have to work hard watching this summer romp.

  73. 73.

    Teddys Person

    @Ruckus: I think he and Trump have a contest going to see who can be the biggest, loudest, and most demented asshole in the country. They’ve surrounded themselves with sycophants all their lives, and there’s no one around to stop grandpa from pooing on the living room floor.

  74. 74.

    Another Scott

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: As Adam reminds us from time to time, this is (mostly?) a counter-intelligence investigation. It’s clear that Obama (and Hillary, and Warner and lots and lots of people in the House and Senate) know an awful lot of what happened and did long ago. It’s not clear, though, how many of the “sources and methods” that the Intelligence Community is going to be willing to give up to prove the extent of the conspiracy in court.

    That’s the aspect that makes me wonder how much longer this is going to last. And how much Mueller is ultimately going to bring indictments about….

    Rosenstein’s remit to Mueller was pretty broad, and that’s (at least part of) the reason we’re hearing so much about Manafort’s money laundering and all the rest. And that’s good. But I want Mueller to follow all the leads and get all of Ryan’s “family” that refused to protect the USA all for the sake of personal political power…

    Grrr.

    99 days to go. Eyes on the prize.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  75. 75.

    Shana

    My problem with both Mamma Mia and Mission Impossible is that I HATE ABBA and Tom Cruise. You couldn’t pay me enough to see either one of those. Well maybe $1 million, but not less. There, I’ve said it.

  76. 76.

    Chetan Murthy

    @schrodingers_cat: I have read that the caste system still stunts the life chances of lower-caste and untouchables in India. And I believe it. But in the US? Really? I’ve never once seen any indication that any South Asian American even *notices* the caste of other SAA. And for sure how could a non-SAA even tell?

    Again: I’m quite convinced from what I’ve read, that the caste system is still a blot on India’s people. But the comment was about Houston, not India.

  78. 78.

    geg6

    @lamh36:

    Nope, he’s awful again. **spoiler**

    Andy Garcia sings “Fernando” with Cher. He isn’t the worst but they had the good sense to keep him at a minimum and just let Cher go. The cast seems to just be having fun. I’ll bet that was a fun set.

  79. 79.

    efgoldman

    @Jeffro:

    If he’s so sure he’s clean and the “Witch Hunt” is illegal/baseless/both, why doesn’t he fire Mueller and shut it all down?

    As Paul Campos said a week or two ago, why is Mueller finding so many witches?

  80. 80.

    geg6

    @Shana:

    I despise Tom Cruise and wouldn’t watch his films for any amount ever. He’s a very sick person who shouldn’t be encouraged in any way. ABBA is just silly fun and so are the Mama Mia movies.

  81. 81.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Shalimar:

    if Mueller doesn’t want the appearance of influencing the general election.

    I don’t believe any candidates in the election are targets of the investigation, so that’s pretty much a moot point.

  82. 82.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Chetan Murthy:

    I’ve never once seen any indication that any South Asian American even *notices* the caste of other SAA.

    Is this a joke? May true of the generation born here, I don’t know. But people from India do certainly notice the region and caste any other Indian is from. That’s the first thing you notice. Last names, languages spoken are a dead give away.
    I was befriended by a Tamil Aiyar doctor, because husband cat was the caste that she was, she had zero interest in me before that.
    ETA: How many people marry outside their caste in a n arranged marriage situation? Why do you think arranged marriages are still so big in India and in the diaspora? To maintain the caste structure, that’s why.
    To understand the United States, you need to understand race to understand India, caste.

  83. 83.

    tracy ratclif

    This popped up in my newsfeed today: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6003457/Mystery-Russia-LIQUIDATES-holdings-Treasury-securities.html

    Now, it’s the Daily Mail, so take it with a very large pinch of salt, but they say the Russians have sold off 84% of their holdings on US Treasury bonds, maybe to get out of investments that might be confiscated, or to turn it into Cypriot bank accounts, or possibly to take advantage of some anticipated move in US bonds that didn’t happen.

  84. 84.

    Corner Stone

    @Another Scott:

    It’s clear that Obama (and Hillary, and Warner and lots and lots of people in the House and Senate) know an awful lot of what happened and did long ago.

    Fascinating.

  85. 85.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Shana: I’m with you on Tom Cruise. But ABBA ? Heresy, I say, heresy! Bring back the Inquisition!

    In the meantime, I’ll put on a little _Dancing Queen_.

  88. 88.

    efgoldman

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I don’t believe any candidates in the election are targets of the investigation

    Some of the RWNJ congresscritters? They’re not all retiring/resigning.

  89. 89.

    Wapiti

    @Mary G:

    Oh, I am expecting the fingerpointing to be epic when it finally all comes out.

    I ready that as “the fingerprinting to be epic” and thought, damn, I hope it is on pay-per-view.

  92. 92.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven:

    Lil Bit is doing ok.

    LOL, “Lilibet” is the royal family’s pet name for the Queen. She’s been called that since she was tiny (either she gave herself the nickname or maybe it was Princess Margaret who couldn’t pronounce “Elizabeth”). Never noticed the similarity to “Lil Bit,” but I’m very glad your pup is doing well!

  93. 93.

    germy

    Julie Chen is defending Mr. Moonves. And her “The Tawk” co-hosts are defending her defending him.

  95. 95.

    Matt McIrvin

    @germy: I saw “Sorry To Bother You” for the first time yesterday. There were incongruous subwoofer explosion noises leaking through from some other theater, probably playing the Mission: Impossible movie. For much of the running time I was honestly not sure they weren’t part of the soundtrack of the movie I was watching. It’s that kind of film.

  96. 96.

    schrodingers_cat

    @raven: No I haven’t seen it. I will check it out though. Its my guess based on years of experience. Mostly its Brahmin (or other upper caste) males that like to say things like that. Because for them its true, their caste doesn’t hinder them much.

  98. 98.

    Chetan Murthy

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Is this a joke? May true of the generation born here

    I came to America when I was 4. Only found out I was a Gowda when I was in my mid-30s; I had always figured based on my dark skin that I was some sort of low-caste, and took some pride in that. I’ve known lots and lots of Indian folks who came here as grad students; never noticed any sort of caste prejudice in any of them. But those were young folk (right out of college). Maybe the older generation is different; then again, I don’t interact with ’em much.

    To be frank, I don’t pay much attention to the prejudices of first-generation adult immigrants; my father used to say “out there it may be America; in here it’s India”. Guess what, dad? I’m an American, not an Indian! Ha! So it’s already confirmation for me that caste doesn’t matter, that I’ve never met someone born or raised in America, who ever mentions it, except as the butt of a joke about their relatives’ backward attitudes.

  100. 100.

    germy

    @Matt McIrvin: I had no idea until I studied the closing credits that Forest Whitaker was the first horse.

    And Rosario Dawson is the elevator voice.

  101. 101.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Corner Stone: BABBA! Ha! Never heard of ’em! But I do like Roxette! [one of my relatives was quite, quite withering in her rebuke about that *grin*]

  105. 105.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Chetan Murthy: Most people that end up here are already pretty privileged by Indian standards and in most cases upper caste. Its like a bunch of white people sitting around and saying racism doesn’t exist, because we get along.

  106. 106.

    raven

    Anthony Bourdain received plenty of love for the unconventional Houston episode of his popular CNN TV series Parts Unknown. The episode’s diversity was particularly praised. It turns out the bad boy chef turned travel savant achieved that with one simple edict.

    “No white people,” Bourdain told producers about his vision for highlighting Houston according to a recent New Yorker magazine profile.

  107. 107.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Corner Stone:

    Did you see that hagiographic tongue bath of Javanka in today’s FTFNYT? If I had already eaten breakfast, I would have lost it on the spot.

  109. 109.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Chetan Murthy: I felt like I should add: I’ve had friends who were Brahmins (high-caste) and other friends whose caste I don’t know. The only way I knew they were Brahmins is that one day the guy told me. Otherwise I’d have never guessed. B/c who in America is taught these things? Nobody. And rightly so,

  112. 112.

    Mel

    @Shana: @Chetan Murthy:

    Tom Cruise gives me the creeps. There’s always been something extremely off-putting about that smugly entitled grin and the phony wholesomeness.

    Love, love, love ABBA, but not so much the whole “Mama Mia” experience.

  117. 117.

    schrodingers_cat

    @raven: I am sure. I was listening to an Indian stand-up comic this weekend, who said that independent India has given death penalty to only 4 brahmins so far, two of which were Gandhi’s assassins.
    Life for a dalit is very different than that of the upper caste. Dalits* were kept away from education traditionally, so you will very rarely come across a Dalit in the United States.
    ETA: Dalit == down trodden, that’s what they call themselves. These are typically untouchable castes.
    The whole anti-cow slaughter thing in India is anti-Dalit as much as it is anti-Muslim.

  118. 118.

    Steeplejack

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I still have PTSD from the first Mamma Mia! The soundtrack album was on “in-store play” for a month when I worked at B&N, and I will never forget the horror of Pierce Brosnan bellowing his way through his songs.

  120. 120.

    raven

    @schrodingers_cat: Well the entire segment was on the rah-rah side but all these folks talked about how they saw America as a place where they could do better than where they came from. The Vietnamese were the kids of boat people or bat people themselves and they had busted their asses and it paid off.

  121. 121.

    JWL

    I’ve spent the afternoon gardening and listening to the Giants-Brewers game, and haven’t given a seconds thought to the health of the democratic party, either. That said, I too would like to hear both Obama and Jimmy Carter weigh in on it eventually. But I’m far more interested today in hearing what both men have to say about the health of the republican party, how best to kill it. Most importantly, to hear both explain why it needs to be scattered to the four electoral winds for the good of the country. Frankly, I don’t understand what’s taking them so long. Perhaps they intend to sit this one out, hard as that is to imagine happening..

  122. 122.

    Chetan Murthy

    @schrodingers_cat: I know of one who … well, I’ll just say that she had to get pretty forceful with her family before they relented. Aside from that? I know of nobody else. I knew a few grad students who got arranged marriages -during- grad school. By and large, if they made it past the first few years, it was too damn late there too — their parents back in India might coax, wheedle, and rage all they wanted. But at some point, those students were no longer willing to go along with the B.S.

    I -have- read that overbearing Indian fathers push their daughters into it more than we’d like to believe. Which is an atrocity on so many levels. But I haven’t seen many cases where -American- South-Asian decent kids opt for it. Maybe they use their parents’ networks to find people to go on dates with, or go to the local Indian-American cultural association to meet other singles. But that’s it.

  124. 124.

    lamh36

    @Brachiator: it’s really the stunts that sell it…cause as we konw Cruise does alot of the stuntwork himself (as I may have mentioned before, he took an accelerated course in helicopter flying so not only did he pilot the copter, but he also was the ONLY in the copter and had to also work the camera for a bit of the shots).

    And yeah…the running…there is literally an article I saw where some one with a lot of time on their hands calculated that the amout of running Cruise does in a film correlates to the likelihood of bigger box office…

    LOL..like what?

  128. 128.

    lamh36

    @geg6: Oh god…LOL.

    I gotta at least comment Brosnan for singing in his own voice, even if it was BADLY. As much as I loved The Greatest Showman…I’m still mad that Rebecca Ferguson lip synced her singing…like the role wasn’t THAT big a deal, they could have used the actual singer and maybe a new star coulda been born…

  129. 129.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Corner Stone: Oh, CS, I somehow think there’s a coded looking-down-your-nose goin’ on. And you might be right. Plebeian tastes, man. Just parta the hoi polloi, I yam. It’s OK. _Money Money Money_ is comin’ in.

  131. 131.

    germy

    @Mandalay: Yes, it’s racism. If the Obamas had been seen at a Yo Yo Ma concert, Tapper wouldn’t have felt the need.

    Wasn’t his first scoop dating Monica Lewinsky?

  133. 133.

    lamh36

    @raven: I happened across a tweet about Bourdain’s Parts Unknown episode about Miami while I was looking for some Miami suggestions…all the eps are On Demand (I might just watch them while I couch surf the net).

    I loved that Bourdain made an effort to visit ALL the ethnic and immigrant area of Miami…

  134. 134.

    germy

    I’m on my home wi-fi right now.

    When I click my little wi-fi icon, I can see mine and all my neighbors’ routers.

    One of them is named “2 Girls, 1 Router”

    I must have interesting neighbors.

  138. 138.

    germy

    @lamh36: I’ve always loved Diahnn Carroll.

    I’m 60, and my earliest memories of her are the TV show where she played the nurse.

    Last week, my wife and I were watching some old western, and I recognized an actor. “That’s Lloyd Nolan,” I said. My wife expressed surprise that I’d remembered the name. I told her I remembered his name from “Julia”

  139. 139.

    zhena gogolia

    @Corner Stone:

    I’m really not sure where the stress is, but I’m guessing it’s the same as Putin, so BOO-tee-nuh. I can’t seem to find any audio of her name being pronounced. Some last names are hard to predict where the stress lies.

  140. 140.

    Steeplejack

    @zhena gogolia:

    ¿Qué? Feel like I’m missing some nuance here.

    Mental faculties a bit dull because I’m still battling the cold from hell that everybody here was bitching about a few months ago but I didn’t pay attention to because I never get sick. I’m on about Day 11 and actually thinking about going to see the doctor on Tuesday. How long does this thing last?

  141. 141.

    zhena gogolia

    @Steeplejack:

    I just thought that making you listen to Pierce Brosnan sing ABBA on a constant loop would be a good way to get you to talk, if I were an enemy agent.

  142. 142.

    raven

    @lamh36: I read his book when it first came out and really liked I liked it but had never seen the show. 8 seasons on Netflix!

  145. 145.

    lamh36

    I am no fan of Tom Cruise personally…but I am a fan of classic action stunt work…and how ever much I don’t like him…sometimes even I get tired of CGI stunts.

  148. 148.

    b

    @Chetan Murthy: I am a white many generation American. However, I have worked for several smallish companies owned by Indians, and I was forced to learn the caste system and how to tell the caste from names, etc. As a supervisor of many Indians that were brought in on various work visas, I found that they often did not get along with each other – some of it based on language, some of it based on their region of India and some of it based on caste. Unfortunately, the caste system appears very much in place still- at least with the first generation immigrants. I also agree with Schrodinger’s Cat – I’ve been invited to several arranged marriage weddings, and caste and region appeared to play a large part in the selection.

  150. 150.

    Another Scott

    @Steeplejack: Consider visiting an ENT if your sinuses are involved. The nasal spray antihistamine Azelastine HCl made a huge, huge difference for me. Stopped my snoring, also too (by reducing the chronic swelling in my sinuses).

    Good luck.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  151. 151.

    Chetan Murthy

    @b: So, uh, I can’t speak to those arranged marriages. But for the rest — “many Indians that were brought in on various work visas” — those were short-term guest workers, right? I’m not talking about those folks, who are basically still Indians. As I wrote above, I’m quite persuaded that the caste system is still a blot on the culture of India. I was writing specifically about America, and much more about American-raised people of South-Asian ancestry. Look: people who come here as fully-formed adults, or who are only here short-term, why should we expect them to adapt to our culture? FFS, there were German-language newspapers in the US into the ’20s. There are still stores in SF’s Chinatown where the workers simply don’t speak English — not at all, not at all. But then there’s a guy I know who was raised in Shenzen, and I thought he’d grown up in LA, his accent is so SoCal. I don’t think South Asians coming to the US *to stay* are any more prone to carry over their factional divisions from India, than Sicilians were, back in the day.

    It’s possible that my experience is biased by being mostly amongst the highly-educated [grad school, postdocs], and tech workers more than other occupations.

  152. 152.

    b

    @Corner Stone: It was very eye opening to see that the US wasn’t the only country with issues and marginalization of large portions of the population.

  153. 153.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    Some good news tonight:

    AprilDRyan
    AprilDRyan
    @AprilDRyan
    Update on Congressman John Lewis: Rep. John Lewis has been released from the hospital this evening. All tests have been completed, and doctors have given him a “clean bill of health”. He thanks everyone who shared their thoughts, prayers and concerns during his stay.
    6:49 PM · Jul 29, 2018

  154. 154.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    @b:

    You haven’t traveled outside the US much, then. I’ve seen plenty of it in my travels.

  155. 155.

    burnspbesq

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    McConnell would happily introduce an Apartheid bill into the Senate right now if he thought he had the votes.

    Why not? It doesn’t seem to have hurt Netanyahu.

  156. 156.

    b

    @Chetan Murthy: Almost all my Indian employees intended to remain in the U.S. – there were only a couple of exceptions. I am not insisting they not bring their culture. I found it fascinating to learn about their culture and religion. But the caste part – not so much. It was also interesting watching highly educated (in the sciences) individuals use the Indian version of astrology (which is far more complicated than what we grew up with here) to help arrange marriages. Indian culture is not monolithic, and is quite old and complex. I think most Americans are like me – very ignorant of their history and culture (and regional conflicts that go back centuries).

  157. 157.

    frosty

    @lamh36: Pierce said in the comments on the DVD that he’s done all kinds of acting but he’s never been as terrified as when he had to sing. I liked all their singing, even his. What a trouper!

  158. 158.

    A Ghost To Most

    @germy:
    One of my neighbors named his wifi “Harry Balzanya’s Network”. I don’t want to know which neighbor.

  159. 159.

    Steeplejack

    @zhena gogolia:

    So how do you pronounce “Nabokov”? I think most Americans would say “Na-boh-kov,” but I seem to remember some Time profile years ago that said it should be “Na-boa-kov.”

  160. 160.

    b

    @The Ancient Randonneur: Agreed. But my experiences started right while I was still in grad school – and that was a long time ago. I was in grad school in physics and had little experience with foreigners before this. I realized long ago that the US was hardly the only country with problems.

  161. 161.

    Ruckus

    @Teddys Person:
    I don’t think they could conceive of such a contest.
    That would entail them coming up with the idea that someone could be all that close to them in their minds view of perfection. Now seriously delusional people do exist in this world but I believe that they mostly decide they are superheroes and try and fly off of things. High things. Having a contest to see who could be the biggest asshole? Yeah I doubt that they think they are assholes in any way. Their delusion is that they are normal.

  162. 162.

    Ruckus

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    I wouldn’t be too sure that some are not involved but to say no one?
    Given the current republican party I wouldn’t bet against anything unethical going on with any of the candidates.

  163. 163.

    Steeplejack

    @zhena gogolia:

    Okay, got it. That went right over my head.

    In-store play was its own special taste of hell at B&N. Every month we would get a box of 8-10 CDs that we were supposed to promote on the store sound system. We had a six-disc changer in the back office that fed the system. Since I worked in Music I had some control/​input on my shifts, but some months the selection was just awful. I always thought it was funny when we would get a memo a week into the month saying “Don’t play that one CD—salty lyrics.” Good times.

    But even with good CDs you would get sick of hearing them multiple times a day over a month. The low point was September ’09, when the Beatles remasters were issued (09/09/09). One day I was working in Music with Rubber Soul playing, and a coworker about my age came in to talk for a minute. We looked into each other’s eyes, and I knew what she was going to say: “I never would have thought that anything could make me hate Rubber Soul!”

    What could I say? “I know, right?” It was a horrible, soul-crushing moment.

    Now I find that I am hyper-aware of whatever “Muzak” is playing in any store I’m in. They have it at my grocery store, for chrissake! Although I have to admit it’s pretty good, go figure. Innocuous classic rock. You could do worse.

  166. 166.

    Steeplejack

    @zhena gogolia:

    I haven’t been tested for Lyme. I barely have contact with other humans, much less woodland parasites. If I go to the doctor on Tuesday I will ask about it.

  168. 168.

    Steeplejack

    @Another Scott:

    Sinuses not involved at this point. The cold has tapered down to congestion in my chest, occasional coughing jags to clear that and extreme fatigue. I’ve been trying to sleep a lot, which helps, but even slight exertion leaves me overheated and exhausted.

  170. 170.

    frosty fred

    @Steeplejack: You are correct; there was a sequence on Dick Cavett back in the day where Adela Rogers St John (I think it was) corrected his pronunciation, and he responded with And here I’ve been NAB-akov-ing all over the place.

  171. 171.

    zhena gogolia

    @Steeplejack:

    He had a joke about that. If you’re speaking Russian, it’s “vlah-DEE-meer na-BOH-kof.” If you’re speaking French, it’s “vlah-dee-MEER na-boh-KOHF,” and if you’re speaking English, it’s VLA-di-meer NA-bo-kov.” Anyway, it’s originally na-BOH-kof.

  172. 172.

    Another Scott

    @frosty fred: You inspired me to do some looking, and I found this:

    Edmund Wilson v. Vladimir Nabokov

    Before there were Twitter spats, there were letter feuds. Wilson and Nabokov aired their grievances via letters, including some which were published in the New York Review of Books. “I do not think Mr. Wilson should try to teach me how to pronounce this or any other Russian vowel,” Nabokov wrote. “The ‘yaw’ sound he suggests is grotesque and quite wrong. It might render, perhaps, the German-Swiss affirmative (‘yawyaw’) but has nothing to do with the Russian ‘yo’ pronounced, I repeat, as in ‘yonder.’ I can hear Mr. Wilson (whose accent in Russian I know so well) asking that bookseller for Myawrtvïe Dushi instead of the correct Myortvïe Dushi (Dead Souls).” Later, Wilson continued the feud by wondering in the same magazine pages why Nabokov seemed to switch his preference from St. Petersburg to Minsk pronunciation and vice versa when convenient.

    Hehe.

    Reminds me of vacationing in Quebec with J (who took years of French in school and has a wonderful French accent) and her being corrected on her pronunciation by some wet-behind-the-ears waiter… ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  173. 173.

    Ruckus

    @Steeplejack:
    My bug is rock from the 70s. One guy at work has to have on the oldies rock station as long as he’s breathing. It’s not the songs it’s the mindless fucking repetition that drives me batty. I’ve heard all of the 20 songs they play, over and over and over and over and……………….
    My pudgy little brain is black and blue from the assault.

  174. 174.

    Ruckus

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    He may not stop but releasing indictments I don’t see. After all he is entrusted with investigating election tampering and what could be more tampering than releasing indictments right before an election? Of course not releasing them could allow that criminal to be elected. Which is worse?

  176. 176.

    Shell

    I dont believe Trump wrote that first tweet himself. Tho Im sure he’d have no problem referring to himself in the first person.

  177. 177.

    Steeplejack

    @frosty fred, @zhena gogolia:

    Thanks.

    I really like Nabokov’s short stories. Many of them seem to stick with me more than his novels. I had a volume containing all of them at one point, but I might try to run down a copy of Nabokov’s Quartet, which I bought as a small paperback in college.

    Lately I have been thinking about getting copies of the exact physical editions that I had of some especially beloved books: that Nabokov, Borges’s Ficciones (the black paperback with the sun face), some others. I lost all my books in the terrible fire of ’02*, and some of them I really miss.

    Adela Rogers St. John strikes a chord. When I got to the age of being an avid reader as a kid, I discovered that my grandmother’s farmhouse attic was a treasure trove of all sorts of books. She particularly liked St. John and had some of her books. St. John was a flamboyant “girl reporter” of the ’20s and something of an early feminist. My grandmother was educated and well-read but had to “retire” from teaching school when she got pregnant in the late ’20s. (She was married at the time.) Connect the dots.

    * Not an actual fire, merely a personal low point.

  178. 178.

    ellie

    @Mel: I know right? I never liked him, even during his Top Gun days. He is creepy and unsettling.

  179. 179.

    Steeplejack

    @Ruckus:

    My condolences. God, I can’t remember the last time I listened to terrestrial radio. One good thing about SiriusXM is that each channel really goes into the “deep cuts,” whatever the genre. When I (occasionally) listen to the ’70s rock channel for even a little while I am always amazed to hear some song that I hadn’t heard in years. They do hit the high points, of course, which is when I head back to my home base, Soul Town (“before disco and after doo-wop”).

  181. 181.

    Amir Khalid

    I’m surprised to learn that Trump was considering Mueller for director of the FBI. Muller had already served for the full term of a decade, plus (at Obama’s request) another two years. You’d think a guy like Trump, who’s had a lot of experience lying, would know how to make up a believable lie.

  182. 182.

    Mandalay

    The Official Court Stenographer has been busy publishing a White House press release on the feckless couple with her name on it:

    Earlier this month, Ms. Trump held an event at the White House to promote job training, and her father turned up to offer support. In June, when the United States won its joint bid with Canada and Mexico to host the World Cup in 2026, Mr. Kushner’s team made sure to tell reporters that it happened in part because of the efforts of the president’s son-in-law, who reportedly used some of his international contacts to win enough votes to seal the bid.

    The couple entertains in both Washington and Manhattan, where the guests for a recent dinner honoring Nikki R. Haley, the American ambassador to the United Nations, included former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and A. G. Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times.

    Their dinners in Washington have drawn a range of both Democratic and Republican lawmakers.

    Trump must have kidnapped her kids to get her to agree to publish that drivel with her name on it. It’s like something from the society pages in 1950s, yet it qualifies as front page news at the FTNYT.

  183. 183.

    Steeplejack

    @frosty:

    True, but I have to admit that I was impressed the last time I went to Five Guys—I belatedly discovered that there is one less than half a mile from my house, but it’s on a side of the strip shopping center that I never go to—when I lingered to hear all of “Light My Fire” and they actually played the long version. Props for that.

  185. 185.

    Mel

    @Ruckus: Thank goodness, no. I generally try to avoid fanatics of any stripe.

    The one thing I feel (almost) bad about is flinging my front door open to some unsuspecting teenaged Jehovah’s Witness doorknockers an hour after returning home from having extensive tissue grafts and bone grafts in my mouth. It was two days before Halloween.

    Suffice it to say that there was enormous swelling, two black eyes, and lots of drool and blood involved, and the only sound I could make when I tried to speak was a gnarly, wet gargling.

    One of the kids backpedaled so quickly that he fell off the edge of the porch. I haven’t had another Jehovah come knocking since, and that was almost four years ago…

  188. 188.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    The Republican dependency in the 1920s was followed by something like twenty years of the Demcrats in control just to undo the damage the Republicans did. So history Jake Tapper, how does it work?

  189. 189.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Amir Khalid: could be a complete fabrication, could be that somebody tossed his name out in a meeting because Mueller was/is a lifelong Republican and more importantly to the Big Oaf, looks like a “central casting” FBI Director.

  192. 192.

    Steeplejack

    Well, I didn’t do my homework and get caught up on Endeavour so that I could watch tonight’s episode live, so it will join the others on the DVR.

    I did, however, get caught up on The Tunnel: Vengeance, so I’ll be watching that later—presuming I can stay awake. Might fade early tonight.

  194. 194.

    efgoldman

    @Corner Stone:

    I just don’t like Lester Holt.

    His promos annoy me no end. They make it look as if HE is out there physically working with the the first responders instead of just reporting it.

  196. 196.

    Ruckus

    @Mel:
    That almost sounds like a good day.
    When ever they came to my door with pamphlets in hand I’d always start off with “What the Fuck do you want?” That always convinced them to leave. I never had the same guys come to the door again and seldom anyone else either. Till of course I moved and the cycle started all over again.

  197. 197.

    Ruckus

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    Don’t even bother. You get caught in a non logic trap and someone has to come in a drag you out. Then slap you for 15 minutes to make sure all the non logic and fact burning neurons have fallen out.

  198. 198.

    Mel

    @Ruckus: My neighbor watched the whole thing go down, and reports that both kids were last seen running away down the street as fast as their sensible lace-up shoes could carry them.

  199. 199.

    Matt McIrvin

    @germy: I came in fairly cold, but I’d read a capsule summary saying it “starts out as a brilliant satire, but then turns in a direction that may leave many alienated,” and thought “OK, that’s the kind of movie I like to see, I’m not going to read any more about it.”

  200. 200.

    Amir Khalid

    I was wrong when I thought Trump was lying about considering Mueller for director of FBI. Wikipedia, citing a CNN report, says Trump did indeed interview Mueller for the job — and the very next day, Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller Special Counsel.

  201. 201.

    WaterGirl

    @Amir Khalid: Trump was probably going to pick him and then was pissed when Mueller betrayed him by taking the special counsel position.

    It seems very strange, though, that Trump would consider Mueller as FBI director, and ask Preet to stay on as US attorney for SD New York, and then switch to only hiring scum in his administration. Wonder what changed.

  203. 203.

    J R in WV

    @b:

    As a supervisor of many Indians that were brought in on various work visas, I found that they often did not get along with each other – some of it based on language, some of it based on their region of India and some of it based on caste. Unfortunately, the caste system appears very much in place still- at least with the first generation immigrants. I also agree with Schrodinger’s Cat – I’ve been invited to several arranged marriage weddings, and caste and region appeared to play a large part in the selection.

    We hired ( we always formed a small committee to interview and hire both contractors and FTEs ) a really sharp Indian fellow to guide our shop’s move from Mainframe programming to using Windows based development with Oracle backend. He was brilliant, handsome, friendly, competent and helpful.

    He worked in my cube 12×12 with two guys. I got to know him well. Piyush was his name, and he was HIndi. His wife was Muslim, and they emigrated to America to avoid the embarrassment of one or the other of them being killed. It was a horrible and sad story, they were both completely severed from their families back in India so that no one would know where to go to attack them. It was impossible for them to know whether their family would attack their loved one or them, for “honor”.

    So I’m sure caste and religion and region are still paramount in many circles in India, and among South Asians here in America.

    Eventually we also hired his wife, as she had a graduate degree in IT, but had no professional experience. We figured we couldn’t lose and Piyush would make sure she succeeded in her assignments, and elegantly as well. She was also quite brilliant, friendly, and I’m sure is today making a ton of money right there with her husband. Southern California, last Xmas card I got.

    Several of our younger men developers from India took long vacations in order to go home for arranged marriages. They got resumes from their families to review during the process, so it wasn’t like they did know anything about their future family. But, also, I have to admit, my family knew my wife’s family quite well long before I met her.

    I remember my Great Uncle Harlow drifting around at a family party going “Rogers’s, fine family, fine stock!” [not her real family name!] as if we were talking about breeding a thoroughbred horse! Her grandmother was chairwoman of the dominant Democratic party committee back in the day, long before women were in politics at all. Her cousin (much older than wife) was my grandfather’s executive assistant for several decades. So not so different in some ways. Small town America back in the day…

  204. 204.

    J R in WV

    @A Ghost To Most:

    My neighbor’s wi-fi is named “FBI Counter-Intelligence Net” just for fun. I bet no one ever tries to log into that. Actually, where we live, no one will ever see a glimpse of that network node. Nor ours.

  205. 205.

    J R in WV

    @Steeplejack:

    I was working as a contract software developer in a project that involved Deloitt-Touche briefly, and they invited everyone to a local Marriot lounge after work Friday’s for teambuilding via drinking. I was enjoying my second drink and the tapas, when I heard over the bar’s muzak a well known Pink Floyd piece – I leaned over and asked my co-worker “Did you ever think you would be as a business event and hear that Pink Floyd as the background music?”

    She opened her eyes wide, and said “No, never!” It was one of their more revolutionary songs…

  206. 206.

    Ruckus

    @WaterGirl:
    I don’t believe anything the shitgibbon or his underlings or supporters say. They are all so full of shit and lie so much that there is no telling what is real and what is bullshit. So for me, the safe thing is to just accept that anything anyone of them says is just bullshit. Which means that I fully doubt that he was going to pick Mueller. I doubt until Mueller was given the task of investigating him and every one near him that he even knew the name or who he was. Interview him for the job, sure, consider hiring him? He obviously doesn’t know people in DC who he could hire and Mueller would be on a short list for sure, so he would interview him. But the man is competent. That is a disqualification right there.

  208. 208.

    J R in WV

    @Mel:

    The one thing I feel (almost) bad about is flinging my front door open to some unsuspecting teenaged Jehovah’s Witness doorknockers an hour after returning home from having extensive tissue grafts and bone grafts in my mouth. It was two days before Halloween.

    When we first built our house, there was a pool and hot tub on the ground floor, and a giant dehumidifier to keep it under control. Friends had a standing invitation – one was a paraplegic who came with other friend to help her in and out of the two pools of water.

    So some Jehovah’s came knocking, and they knocked on the ground floor door, to the hot tub room, and Kate answered that door knock, nude but for a beach towel. All pink and glowing wet and statuesque. Have never had another Jehovah’s Witness in nearly 25 years now.

    Thanks so much, Kate!

  209. 209.

    Tehanu

    No question on my part that Tom Cruise is a weird and probably sick individual — in real life. But I’ve always liked him as an actor since Risky Business. My dear friend refuses to listen to Frank Sinatra because he was “a horrible person” and all I can say is, she’s missing something wonderful. I always remember that Caravaggio was a murderer. If people don’t like an artist, fine, everybody’s taste is different.

  213. 213.

    JAFD

    @Steeplejack:
    I feel your pain. Worked in K-Mart one December, got enuf ‘secular Christmas music’ for a lifetime.

    But the Saturday evening between Christmas and New Years, real busy day and then some, 10 PM – “please finish your shopping and bring your purchases to the cashiers” “The Store Is Now Closed” “Department Managers Will Check There Are No Customers Remaining In Your Area”. And then the system played …

    Madonna’s “Material Girl”

    Everybody clapped !

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