It’s the Damage Control Show with Princess Complicity again, this time with Axios, which comprises the dregs of the old Politico group (dregs of the dregs!) serving as the media vehicle of choice:
Ivanka Trump on family separation: "I am very vehemently against family separation and the separation of parents and children." #Axios360 pic.twitter.com/Qi5UhbAaN7
— Axios (@axios) August 2, 2018
Ivanka Trump shares that it was “a low point” for her personally when her loathsome father ordered migrant children to be snatched away from their parents at the border. She also astutely observes that immigration is “complex,” praises her own immigrant mother’s choice to migrate legally since “we’re a country of laws” and warns against “incentivizing” undocumented immigrants to come to America.
How…feckless. The truth is, desperate families arrive at our border because they’re fleeing unimaginable horrors at home — conditions that the U.S. very often had a hand in creating. There are serious conversations we should have about what can and should be done about that. But a brainless dilettante suggesting that people from impoverished and violence-plagued Central American countries follow in her mother’s footsteps? By what, finding a rich Austrian to fake-marry to get to the continent of North America, then coming to New York on a model visa to bag a rich American? That’s not particularly helpful.
As much as I hate Donald J. Trump — and the depths of my loathing for that contemptible wretch make the Marianas Trench look like a shallow ditch — it’s quite possible Ivanka is an even worse human being. Trump père is a loud-mouthed asshole who doesn’t give a shit about anyone on earth other than himself, but at least he doesn’t pretend otherwise.
PS: In that same interview, Ivanka also shared that she doesn’t believe the press is “the enemy of the people.” Well, that’s a relief. Not. Her vile toad of a father will repeat the same Stalinist mantra before the next crowd of gibbering loons he addresses in the next redneck shithole he visits. Ivanka might as well be a potted cactus.
Mandalay
Thanks for speaking out so promptly, your majesty.
schrodingers_cat
She is sorry, not sorry.
,
LAO
I really, really despise her. I’m sure she’s vehemently against being publicly associated with the family separation policy.
cope
To me, the difference between her and Pater Trumpitas is that he has no sense of self-awareness and she does. That makes her worse.
dmsilev
So, the absolute best case scenario for her is that Daddy doesn’t give a shit about what she thinks.
Chyron HR
Well, the “incentive” to come here is that the USA isn’t a banana republic run by a murderous thug, so Papa Trump is definitely doing his best to remedy that.
joel hanes
Can’t bring myself to really hate the Trump kids, given their upbringing.
Had Trump pere not decided to grift his way to revenge on Obama for laughing at him, they’d be no more important than any other celebrity sprog infesting reality TV, and we could turn them off.
zhena gogolia
Open thread, so — major psychodrama at the Rex Parker crossword blog today.
zhena gogolia
I resent my birthplace being called a redneck shithole. Even if it is.
Chyron HR
@joel hanes:
They were PART of the campaign. They explicitly sold themselves to the country as the ones who would keep the deranged nazi rapist in line.
nonynony
@joel hanes:
They’re adults now. They don’t have to continue to be assholes. They could decide to change, drop out of the public sphere, and devote themselves to good works. They won’t, but they could.
That said – I don’t have the brainspace to hate them. I seem to have a limitless well of rage and anger and sorrow these days but my hate reserve remains limited. Their father takes up most of it.
I do continue to feel bad for the youngest, though, who doesn’t have to turn out to be a sociopath like his siblings but will in the end be a sociopath like his siblings. Because that’s what being raised by horrible people does.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Meaningless – the Trump administration and The Base is against ALL immigration and could careless about laws.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Yep. You nailed it. She is as evil as her father. She understands and accepts Trump policy to hurt people trying to come to this country.
These are cruel, vicious people, and the big lie is that Ivanka is some kind of moderating influence on her father.
zhena gogolia
@nonynony:
Patti and Ron Reagan managed to be independent-minded adults somehow.
dmsilev
@zhena gogolia: Rex Parker is …not a fan of Will Shortz.
zhena gogolia
@dmsilev:
Shortz showed up in the comments to defend himself, and a gaggle of sycophants has jumped in to suck up to him.
germy
germy
@zhena gogolia:
Ronald was as absent as a father could be. Maybe that helped.
Ric Drywall
This is too clever by half. Donald is way worse than Ivanka. “At least he doesn’t pretend otherwise” is one of the reasons why his supporters like him. I hate that stuff, where you’re practically given authenticity points because at least you never pretended to be good.
JGabriel
Betty Cracker @ Top:
I actually think that makes Ivanka just a bit ever so slightly marginally better than her father. It means Ivanka can either feel a bare iota of shame, or, she’s at least smart enough to fake it – either of which puts her a couple of,
inchescentimetersmillimetersmicrometersokay, nanometers, ahead of her father.Of course, the distinction is ultimately so small as to be entirely meaningless in any ethical calculus.
rikyrah
BWA HA AH AH AH AH AH
rikyrah
They need to stop with this bullshyt with Lucretia. We see her for the vapid, vile disgusting human being that she is.
JUST STOP!
geg6
@germy:
Apparently, so was the Shitgibbon. These shitty Drumpf kids have consciously chosen to be the pieces of shit they are.
Mandalay
There are plenty of people I hate more than Trump, and Ivanka and her husband just happen to be two of them.
Ted Cruz is probably top of my list, for publicly sucking up to the President after Trump had told the nation that Cruz’s wife was ugly and his father was involved in the assassination of Kennedy. I really hate (not despise) Cruz for doing that. It encapsulated so much of what is rotten about his character and his values.
p.a.
Gotta try to maintain her brand, ’cause once daddy’s gone she doesn’t want to produce shite his minions would be interested in or could afford.
Brachiator
@zhena gogolia:
Defend himself against what? I had no idea that the Crossword Puzzle War had started. Should we send Jared Kushner in to mediate?
geg6
@rikyrah:
It made my day when a friend reported to me the other day that the Ivanka clothes line is now being sold in Dollar General stores. He spotted them there.
Suffragettecity
She is so devoid . Of everything. No personality, no sense of self..She really is like wallpaper; a relatively nice looking pattern that fades over time.
zhena gogolia
@Brachiator:
It is just too boring to explain!
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
I saw Zoolander 2 a few weeks back…it was on cable one evening and I found the first one amusing and I figured why not. She reminds me of a female Derek Zoolander.
schrodingers_cat
They are all complicit. The adult children of T, R party and the generals who were supposedly going to save us. Is Mattis fully on board purging non-citizens from the military. His silence speaks volumes.
Another soldier is being deported She is a Korean woman.
zhena gogolia
@Suffragettecity:
I tried to watch the video so I could enhance the experience of Maya Rudolph’s imitation (referenced in #17), but I could only make it through about a nanosecond.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Useless. Worthless. Soulless. The whole sad, sorry lot of them.
A Ghost To Most
@nonynony:
The Shitler Crime subsidiary of Putin, Inc. is a symptom. The disease is his brainwashed base.
Aleta
“very vehemently against” doesn’t wait for the right time. Or calculate one’s timing according to personal loss/gain that’s negligible compared to thousands of lives.
Ric Drywall
“At least he doesn’t pretend otherwise.” Ugh. This risks falling into the authenticity trap.
Donald is way more deserving of hatred than Ivanka because he has done waaaay more damage than her. The personality stuff doesn’t matter.
Roger Moore
This reminds me of one of the statements at the anti-child separation rally I attended. One of the speakers said, roughly, that if we don’t like people from shithole countries coming here, we need to stop treating the rest of the world as our outhouse. If those countries are shitholes, it’s often our shit. and we need to take responsibility for that rather than just complain the people living there haven’t cleaned up our mess for us.
gene108
@LAO:
She is s senior White House advisor to the President. She gets dragged into this by accepting the job.
She and her husband could quit their jobs as senior White House advisors in protest.
rikyrah
Can’t wait for Kay to respond :)
Roger Moore
@zhena gogolia:
Summary?
LAO
@p.a.: Also, I expect that NYC (the elite folks) won’t welcome her and Jared back with open arms. She’s going to have to hang out with FoxNews celebrities when they return. What a horrible fate.
LAO
@gene108: Which is exactly why I’m sure, that her so-called opposition is merely a marketing ploy.
Mandalay
@joel hanes:
You make me feel dirty for doing defending him, but couldn’t exactly the same argument be made for Trump himself? By many accounts his dad was a real piece of work.
germy
@Roger Moore: I don’t know enough about the subject, but does the War On Drugs™ have something to do with this? Compelling South American countries to fight that war, funding their wars, and then acting surprised when refugees flee into this country from drug gangs?
schrodingers_cat
@LAO: Better fate than she deserves, better than the little girl who died following her release from immigration detention in Texas.
JGabriel
@Mandalay:
There is no one at present whom I hate, despise, loathe, or find more contemptible than Donald Trump.
I say at present, because I suppose it’s always possible – even likely, perhaps – that, in the future, the GOP will find someone even worse to put in power. I mean, I never thought they’d sink lower than Nixon, Reagan, and Bush fils, in my lifetime, but it didn’t even take them a decade to go from President Fuckwit to President Clusterfuckwit.
schrodingers_cat
@germy: The rot goes back to the Cold War and the proxy wars in Central and South America.
LAO
To those that are paying attention — Manafort’s bookkeeper is currently testify. She’s (in the words of the AUSA) the heart of the government’s case.
zhena gogolia
@Roger Moore:
The blogger likes to criticize the NYT crossword puzzle editor, Will Shortz. Today Shortz showed up in the comments to respond, and several people echoed him, attacking the blogger for his strange obsession. It’s a nice break from the Trump psychodrama, because so little is at stake.
Roger Moore
@zhena gogolia:
Then you shouldn’t have brought it up. You can’t leave us hanging like this!
zhena gogolia
@Roger Moore:
Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Today he criticized Shortz, calling him “Dear Leader,” for postponing publication of today’s puzzle for seven years.
nonynony
@JGabriel:
Think of the trajectory of Republicans who have been elected after a Democrat held the office – starting from WWII:
Eisenhower
Nixon
Reagan
Bush the Lesser
Trump
Plot those on a graph and then pour yourself a stiff drink as you figure out where the next point on the graph will lie after the next Democratic president.
(For comparison, the Democrats are much more consistent – using the same metric of “after a Republican” you get Kennedy, Carter, Clinton, Obama. And once you do that you can also see pretty clearly just how persistently centrist and wonkish Democratic voters have been post-WWII.)
Old School
@Roger Moore: Today’s crossword puzzle in the NYT was submitted seven years ago. The blog author calls Will Shortz “Dear Leader” for making it wait so long. Will Shortz comments on post that the wait was due to a puzzle with a similar theme appearing in 2014.
WaterGirl
@LAO: she is the dog who’s sorry she got CAUGHT getting in the garbage, but isn’t the least bit sorry about getting into the garbage in the first place. And just like my dog, she will most certainly do it again next time.
WaterGirl
Test
Yarrow
Ivanka is a traitor, just like her brothers. Tick tock, Kremlin Barbie.
MattF
@Old School: I’d have expected the argument would be over TITLIST. In any case, I stick to Amy Reynaldo’s blog. Much more peaceful.
Yarrow
@LAO: What are the best ways to follow the trial?
TenguPhule
Especially if it involves herself and daddykins going into separate prisons.
Roger Moore
@germy:
It’s the legacy of colonialism more generally. Rich western countries took over the rest of the world, installed corrupt governments, governed by divide and rule, and looted everything they could haul away. Even after those countries were nominally independent, we’ve gone back and fucked them up every time they’ve done stuff we don’t like, like trying to take back control of their economies from the rich foreigners who own everything.
The drug war is just one example of the toxic legacy we’ve left behind us. Like, maybe if we had left those countries with functioning economies that could provide most of their citizens with good jobs, working in the illegal drug industry wouldn’t be such an attractive option to the people who live there.
LAO
@Yarrow: The Post has commentary that’s updated every 30-45 minutes. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2018/08/02/paul-manafort-trial-day-3-live-updates/?utm_term=.6f581fc0bf6b
Jim, Foolish Literalist
they’re damaged human beings, no question, neglected and treated with what amounts to non-violent abuse (as far as we know– I find the story about The Beast slapping a college-aged DJTJ believable) by their father, and this one in particular seems to have been trained to believe Daddy should find her sexy. But they’re full grown if not middle-aged adults now, and reprehensible ones. They could step back and away at any time. They’re poisoning our country to win The Beast’s approval, and cling to whatever money and grift-potential is/will left behind.
Who knows what Mueller has on KushnerCO, and what Jared is slipping to Mueller to keep his narrow ass from following daddy to that unpleasant prison in Alabama.
Jay
@germy:
It’s a four fer:
– dismantling regional democracies and enabling/creating Dictatorships,
– the Drug War
– deportations of violent Gang members back,
– Corporate Looting
Kay
The Trump apprenticeships worry me. Aprrencticeships are wonderful- my middle son is in one to be an electrician. He likes the work and it’;s a good deal for him. It comes with a union, though. The union takes up for the apprentices so the contractors can’t take advantage of them.
Does anyone really believe these companies won’t take advantage of young people? Who is the advocate for the apprentice in this scenario? The sleazy Trump family? These giant corporations?
Young people are young. They get into bad deals. Are these slick fraudsters going to treat them fairly, compensate them for their work and offer them something of value or is this just more corporate welfare?
Betsy Fucking DeVos designed this? The same crook who robs them on student loans?
They need AN ADVOCATE. Someone tough who isn’t beholden to Master Card or FedEx. They’re 18 years old. They don’t know what the hell they’re doing.
trollhattan
@schrodingers_cat:
Thank goodness she didn’t mix up incentivize and monetize this time.
I wonder how many for-profit prison corporations Kushner has a stake in? Miserable housing is his family’s specialty.
LAO
@WaterGirl: Couldn’t agree more.
@schrodingers_cat: She is a truly horrible human being.
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
@joel hanes: Trump Sr.’s upbringing wasn’t that great either. If I can hate him, I can hate his adult-approaching-middle-aged kids. And I do. They remind me of every slicked-back sleazebag I knew and loathed growing up in Brooklyn. Their fathers were authoritarian assholes, and now that they’re grown up they think it’s their turn. They reek of asshole entitlement, and absolutely will not learn because either (a) they’ve never seen anyone suffer consequences for that bullshit, or (b) they’re too stupid to realize the bad things they encounter as a result are, in fact, consequences, and they just blame everyone else.
rikyrah
I despise her. I despise the people in the MSM who continue to try and make this shallow, wretch of human being happen.
She and her husband belong IN JAIL.
I want both of them in orange jumpsuits.
When I think of how much of a fraud she is, and that she’s using the Presidency to enrich her and that evil azz husband of hers…
My blood pressure rises.
Yarrow
@LAO: Thank you.
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
DA PHUQ???
debit
@LAO: WTF is wrong with this judge?
Betty Cracker
@Ric Drywall: Cope said it better than I did at #4.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
Thanks Ivanka, for clarifying this position a month and a half after the story first broke.
Mandalay
Here’s C-Span video of Ivanka Trump responding to the question “What is your high point in the White House”.
In the first 55 seconds she really does match the persona of someone who is thick as shit, fake and shallow. She’s breathless, fake-smiling, and spewing word salad.
She’s a hybrid of Sarah Palin and a Valley Girl.
trollhattan
Ladies and gentlemen, from the state that gave us representative Dick Cheney’s evil spawn…
The Moar You Know
@nonynony: When (not if) this happens I suspect most of the blame will lie with the android that is his mother. Dad at least understands that the less fortunate need to be pandered to and can be a great source of easy money; Melania quite obviously believes they are only useful when ground into fertilizer.
I’m probably in a minority here in that I think she is by far the worst of the two; but thanks to Donald’s off-the-charts level of boorishness and misogyny, she at least, thankfully, doesn’t have much power or say in anything.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@nonynony:
Black Mirror has done that one already – a cartoon character that does nothing but scream obscenities all day. That’s the only place the Right has left to go.
Kay
I just know I will read about these apprenticeships turning into cut-rate labor that rips off the apprentice and probably replaces higher wage employees too.
The skilled trades apprenticeships work because they’re regulated. Contractors get a pipeline of skilled workers and the apprentice gets a wage and a skill. But if they were not regulated they would turn into a sleazy bait and switch rip off of 18 year olds. I know they would. I feel like this is 100% predictable.
The Trumps and their low quality hires designing a program for young workers just seems like such an obviously terrible idea we may as well write the stories uncovering the scams right now. Especially if it includes federal subsidies. Jesus.
hueyplong
Donald Trump, President of the United States, puts children in camps/cages.
Ivanka, reflected celebrity, much later squeaks that she personally is opposed to the concept of cages, but can’t really finish the paragraph before noting the cagees (or their parents) are complicit in their torment.
The no-accountability corollary to “Both Sides.”
Aleta
Talk about liars in tandem. Today I-want-ka amplified MVP “sold-myself-to-the-devil” Penc “In just a few moments, the remains of some of those same American heroes will finally return to American soil, draped in the colors of the country they served. Today, they are known but to God. But soon we will know their names. And we will tell their stories of courage.” They really want us to believe that the IDs of each soldier were carefully catalogued and matched with an individual grave? That NK spent more effort (on a battlefield, for its enemies) than this administration did for children in Republican-owned cages?
The Moar You Know
@Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA): Huh. I see you’ve met my mother. Probably won’t surprise you that she is an enthusiastic Trump supporter – not just voter.
Yarrow
All the Trumps are awful. All of them. They’re awful in the same way and in different ways. I don’t need to pick which one I think is more awful. One day one of them has done something more overt and noticeably awful and the next day it’s a different one. The rest of them aren’t suddenly being good people; they’re doing terrible things we just can’t see at that moment. They’re all terrible, garbage human beings with power and money who choose to use it to hurt people. They are all horrible.
LAO
@debit: I don’t think he’s been terrible. I know that I’m in the minority here but I think he’s rulings have been fair. And frankly, the government has been allowed to put up significant evidence of Manafort’s extravagant spending and lifestyle regardless of what the Judge is telling the government.
Ruckus
@Mandalay:
Shitgibbon didn’t have a great childhood. A lot of people don’t. But he’s been an adult for a long time and he’s gotten worse, not better.
So lots of people have shitty upbringings and grow up and get better. You don’t have to stay a shit head when you grow up. It’s actually a choice to stay shitty.
rikyrah
@Kay:
You are not wrong, Kay.
You aren’t wrong at all.
Nothing good can come from this.
Designed by a heifer who uses slave labor for her garbage companies, and another bitch whose qualifications is that she’s a GOP donor.
Neither one are qualified for shyt.
JPL
@Brachiator: haha Today’s puzzle was easy for a Thursday, but after the comment about puzzle war, I did check out his blog.
Although I dropped my subscription, I still pay for the puzzle.
One time the daily puzzle was late, and when I called customer service, the person appreciated my understanding. He then asked if it was normal for crossword puzzle people to be so fierce.
West of the Rockies
@Suffragettecity:
The under-stated quality of your words is resounding. Really, that is one of the most pleasantly venomous observations I’ve read. Hats off to you! Ivanka richly deserves it.
rikyrah
@Kay:
You will be proven right. I know you will.
Gex
@Mandalay: This. Yes, terrible parenting can set a person up for some really bad behavioral/personality traits. I had terrible parents and had a lot of dysfunctional behaviors (fortunately that mostly harmed me, not others). At some point as an adult you have to take responsibility and do the work to stop being a piece of shit.
And frankly, I think Ivanka is more capable of the self-awareness to be able to do that than her father. There’s a reason it matters to her to be seen as being on the right side of these issues.
I vary back and forth between finding people who are bad and gleefully so better or worse than people who are bad but know better. Depends on my mood. And we don’t have to rank it anyhow. Complicity in this monstrous administration is damning regardless of how one arrives at it.
debit
@LAO: I get that and I’m not an attorney, so I have no basis for comparison, but it just seems like he’s pushing this through as fast as possible. If they need two hours for testimony, why is he pushing for them to shorten it? Is he bored?
rikyrah
@Kay:
Let me be blunt…what the phuck kinds of jobs that they have would need APPRENTICES?
The Airline could be machinest jobs-but, does it say that?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@zhena gogolia: I have no idea what that blog is or the drama you’re talking about, but I met Shortz in New York last December and was kind of star struck, and I’m afraid I’d probably be in danger of sycophancy myself in such a situation.
RedDirtGirl
@zhena gogolia: Took a peek, but didn’t notice anything untoward… What’s going on?
rikyrah
@LAO:
They brought in the bookkeeper. And, they have the bankers and auditors coming. Straight up numbers case.
nonynony
@The Moar You Know:
See – I don’t think what Trump does is “pandering”. Pandering is when you play to the baser instincts of someone in order to get their support. Pandering implies you don’t really believe what you’re saying – you’re just saying it to get their votes.
Trump plays to his own base instincts and gets a cadre of followers around him who like what he’s saying. That’s more demagoguing than pandering to me.
I disagree with you – mostly because as you point out she will never have the power to make whatever hateful things she believes a reality.
Trump does. So he’s worse. She may be worse in theory, but we don’t live in theory. And so by the measure of what she can do vs. what he can do, he’s the worst.
LAO
@debit: Most Judges push because they’re not fans of the “dead horse” theory litigation (stop beating the dead horse). Often prosecutors and defense counsel are super repetitive during examination. It’s irritating to Judges (and me, unless I’m doing it).
TenguPhule
@joel hanes:
Nobody held a gun to their heads to force them to commit treason and be utter scum unfit to be called human beings.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@zhena gogolia: Ah. Should have read farther in the thread. That is kind of a-holish. I’d like to think I wouldn’t actually leap to defend the action, though I don’t think I’d be one to pike on whatever the pile-on is.
rikyrah
The Presidential Records Act makes clear that White House records, including Brett Kavanaugh’s, belong to the American people. Now, the National Archives is refusing to provide those records to Democrats so we can vet his nomination. This has NEVER happened. #ReleaseTheRecor…
— Renee Hoagenson 2018 ? (@ReneeHoagenson) August 1, 2018
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
The best I can say is that with their track record, the actual number of apprenticeships will turn out to be negligible. It’s quite easy to pledge 500,000 jobs and then do nothing. There’s been a whole lot of that sort of thing.
swiftfox
I don’t know about grades but she did pass through Georgetown on her way to getting a degree from the Wharton School of Business. Maybe DF Wallace wrote all of her papers. Lacks ethics, for sure, but she has some brains in there.
The Dangerman
@Yarrow:
Pretty much this; it’s like arguing for the relative merits of projectile vomiting vs. explosive diarrhea. The bottom line is there’s gonna be a mess to clean up. We can give Ivanka a mop (made out of Daddy’s hair if he checks out).
JPL
@RedDirtGirl: I saw this under the comments, but I didn’t research further.
Will Shortz said…
TenguPhule
@Kay:
Only for professions where you have to be trained to learn a very specific skill set. And you should be paid well for it because this is stuff you need to be licensed to do.
Mastercard, Walmart? This is slave labor. Those kids are not going to get paid. They’re not going to be hired after the free labor period is over.
Betty Cracker
@Mandalay: With a dash of that unfortunate Miss Teen USA contestant who was widely ridiculed several years ago for stammering out an absurd word salad about “U.S. Americans” punctuated by “like such” and “such as” in response to a question about maps…
rikyrah
nonynony
@rikyrah:
Software developers.
I don’t know if that’s what they’re doing, but there’s been a big push in corporate America suggesting that universities don’t teach software development correctly. So maybe these companies are finally going to put their money where their mouths are and start doing in-house training of software developers as an apprenticeship program?
That’s what those three companies all scream out to me – most of their business is IT-heavy (even if that isn’t the first thing most folks think of when they see those corporate names).
FedEx and WalMart could be apprenticing drivers, but if MasterCard is involved in an apprenticeship program I can’t think of anything it could be other than software development related.
Mary G
@LAO: I am kind of a fan girl of Judge Ellis based on what I’ve read, which is that he’s hard on everybody equally. The fact that he sat a jury in a couple of hours was astonishing based on my multiple experiences being on jury duty here in California. He had them fill out questionnaires ahead of time and then questioned them himself, which is much better than watching the attorneys grandstand and kiss up to the candidates for hours and days. He obviously learned from Judge Ito how not to run a celebrity trial.
Bobby Thomson
Sam Bee was right.
lollipopguild
@Mandalay: Cruz should have walked over to trump on the debate stage and punched trump’s lights out for him on live TV.
Mandalay
Trump on May 13, pleading for ZTE workers in China:
Trump today, head stomping Charles Koch:
MisterForkbeard
@germy: Well, now I want to see that impression.
Ivanka in general is just an awful human being. She’s not *worse* than Trump, but she’s just as damaged. She comes across as even more ridiculous sometimes, because she’s pushing and supporting all the things Daddy does, but wants the cool kids to still invite her to parties.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
Slave labor. Packing, filing, fetching coffee. All the mindless jobs which they will not be paid for and experiences that will not help them in the future.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Yep. There’s no way these assholes don’t turn apprenticeships into a giant grift. It’s what they do. Unfortunately, that could poison the well for the concept down the road, and it is a good model that seems to work well in places like Germany. The Trumps will turn it to shit in America.
laura
This feckless monster cannot resist using herself as the measuring stick for any/every issue BECAUSE she lacks the basic empathy that most are born with. It’s a family trait.
LAO
@Mary G: Well not to reduce your Judge Ellis fandom but in federal court, jury selection is always run by judges (either the trial judge or a Magistrate) and questionnaires are routinely used in high-profile cases OR when the court wants to seat an anonymous jury (or in this case — both; high profile and anonymous jury). But, I agree with you to the extent that he runs a tight ship and seems to me to be fair, in that he’s tough on both sides.
TenguPhule
@Frankensteinbeck:
Considering that those aren’t jobs so much as conning people into working for free, I think its going to be worse then you’d expect.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: I love Maya Rudolph, one of SNL’s underrated players. As Tina Fey said about the late, great Jan Hooks, she should certainly have a bigger career than Rob Fucking Schneider.
TenguPhule
@Aleta:
They actually probably did. Just to ensure that what they shipped was only animal bones and possibly some Korean war dead, not any actual American remains.
Kay
@Frankensteinbeck:
This is where the “they’re awful people” comes in. It’s a trust issue. You tell me these Trump people are involved with something that involves young and naive people signing agreements with Wal Mart and I’m wary.
They’re sleazy. They lie. They cheat. They can’t be trusted. This isn’t my fault. It’s how they behave. They haven’t earned any trust.
That’s why THE PERSON matters. You can’t trust bad people and the Trumps are bad people.
TenguPhule
@nonynony:
Hahaha no. Those are going to be outsourced to India. Or possibly Vietnam or South Korea.
Brachiator
@zhena gogolia:
Of course it is, it’s freaking crossword puzzles!
But I guess in puzzle circles, this crap is as serious as the equally stupid beefs of East Coast and West Coast rappers.
MisterForkbeard
@rikyrah: Agreed. WTF is Walmart going to do that requires apprenticeships?
For comparison, when I think of people who’ve gone through apprenticeship programs I think of electricians, plumbers, architects, etc. Not… low-level manager or retail workers who can be paid little and who aren’t learned marketable skills. This is just another way to pay young people less.
Ohio Mom
@zhena gogolia: Was the big drama triggered by Will Shortz dropping by to defend himself? I was checking my answers just after he commented. I thought to myself, “Wow. That’s going to sting,” and went on with the rest of my morning routine.
Nowbim going to have to go over there and see what happened. Was there a bit of karma for the never-happy or grateful Rex?
JWL
Photo caption in the book review section of todays NY Times: “Ernest Hemingway surrounded by American soldiers in France, months before Allied troops liberated Paris from the Nazis..”.
If that caption is correct, that means the photo was taken sometime during the battle of Normandy (“months” meaning at least two months). Paris was liberated in August, and the invasion commenced on June 6th. Because they’re all seen yukking it up in the photo, my guess is it was taken somewhere in jolly old England instead. A WW2 fanatic notices things like that, and there’s nothing we can do about it..
The late Andy Rooney (of 60 Minutes) took cover from German fire behind a stone wall with Hemingway on their way to Paris with the French Army in 1944. A few days later, Rooney with no uncertain disgust watched Hemingway play the big shot at the famous Parisian hotel where he commandeered an entire floor, at one point dramatically challenging another writer to a fistfight over a perceived insult to his manly-man self. Rooney really made him look like a jerk.
On the other hand, he recalled the journalist Ernie Pyle with great affection. Rooney wrote the trapped a big fly in a glass jar once, and sat watching it’s desperate attempts to escape for a few minutes. Pyle shared the tent, and finally said in a tone of voice that imparted his innate humanity, “Ah. let the poor thing go, Andy”, which Rooney did, a It was a small, fleeting moment, yet even after decades remained as vivid a recollection as Hemingway with all his bellowing..
kindness
How does Axios make money? Subscription? Advertising? We need to work on that.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
And this isn’t the first goat rodeo for apprenticing abuse. There’s a history there of corporate entities abusing the whole concept with college kids in internships. This is going to be worse, because the people who are supposed to regulate are going to be in on the con.
p.a.
@Roger Moore: functioning economies that could provide most of their citizens with good jobs
We’ve got one political party here (and a bit of the other) working against this at home, never mind abroad. Only half-snark to say we should probably thank Uncle Joe Stalin for incentivizing the Marshall Plan; one of the post 13th 14th 15th Amendment high points of US gover mentioned (Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act the others)
Mary G
@LAO: Don’t worry, it wasn’t much of a fandom. I’ve never been called to federal court, and I am scarred by having to go to jury selection in a courtroom that was three doors down from the OJ trial while it was going on. What a nightmare that was.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah:
There is no voting restriction too fucking petty for these assholes.
p.a.
gover mentioned
government
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@TenguPhule:
No but when your thought processes have been utterly fucked by your father, who was probably fucked up by his father then you have less of half a chance to understand the full extent of your actions. Not excusing them by any means.
TenguPhule
Via Wapo.
Gravenstone
@JGabriel: C’mon, go the full femto-. You know you wanna…
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I watched Tina Fey’s Interview on Letterman’s new streaming-only show. At one point he semi sort of regrets not hiring more (any?) women, but then says “well, I’m not sure you’d like working that job with those late hours…”
Tina handles it gracefully, just a jaw drop and an incredulous “yes, Dave, women would like those writing jobs” with her usual smile and charm.
If there’s progress being made in the comedy industry, and I do believe there is, it’s still pretty damned slow and very far from equality. Someone mentioned Sam Bee. She’s a pretty good example.
Mandalay
@nonynony:
The problem is that software development changes so rapidly. New languages get invented, old languages fade away, and hardware advances continually change what is possible compared to just a few years ago.
Much of what this year’s computer science graduates learn will be irrelevant five years from now. Perhaps that it is true in some scientific fields as well, but it’s not really an issue for those studying the arts or economics or accounting.
LAO
From the Post:
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Don’t care at this point. Tumbrels are the most merciful I’m willing to go for them. And that feeling probably won’t survive the year.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@rikyrah:
@TenguPhule:
Hold up. How would this even begin to be constitutional? What is the justification for banning straight-ticket voting that isn’t meant to make it harder for their poltical opponents to gain more seats the legitimate way?
I’d be fucking pissed if Ohio tried that. Nobody’s gonna tell me how to fill out my ballot. Not like that. If I want to vote straight-ticket that’s my right.
catclub
@rikyrah:
The bookkeeper ( a word with three consecutive double letters) kept her head down and did not ask questions of Manafort – like
‘Where is this money coming from?’ “Who controls the account this money is coming from?’ (or certainly does not claim to know any of those things in testimony.)
Jay
@debit:
He’s known for running a tight courtroom, he’s known for cutting lawyers off when they have made their point and are now just beating a dead horse, he’s known for interjecting and making a lawyers point to the jury, faster, better and more comprehensively,
He’s very much an “evidence” and law man who doesn’t want any emotional bullshit, manipulation or misdirection in his courtroom.
rikyrah
@TenguPhule:
This is who they are.
TRAITORS, ALL.
catclub
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
of course, but they are trying to ban having a single box to punch to get a straight-ticket vote.
You can go through and pick the ‘wild-ass loony party’ candidate on every line, you just don’t get to do it with one check box.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@catclub:
You’re such a killjoy.
Citizen Scientist
I agree with you, except for one thing, BC: The Trumps are not obviously human. I suspect they are Lizard People; it’s the only explanation (other than they’re all rich sociopathic a$$holes, that is).
Boy, I really can’t wait for Trump to come back to Pennsylvania again today. It’s telling he’ll be in W-B with Barletta; that’s a highly friendly setting for both of them. I really hope that guy gets crushed by at least 20 points against Casey; Wagner too.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@catclub:
Oh. Then forgive me for asking what’s the big deal, then? The practice itself isn’t banned.
LAO
Alexandra Petri’s on the case. And boy has she got Ivanka’s number.
catclub
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: I suspected you were baiting someone like me.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@catclub:
I’m really not.
oatler.
EVIIIITA EVIIIITA
Gravenstone
@rikyrah: FedEx? Someone has to sling those millions of packages from conveyor to bin and back…
Mandalay
Sarah Sanders playing the victim, and lying that “a comedian attacked my appearance” during the press conference.
nonynony
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Ohio doesn’t have straight-ticket voting – or at least if it’s allowed I’ve never lived anywhere that implemented it in the state.
‘Straight-ticket’ voting is where you have a single option on your ballot to vote for all of the members of a particular party on your ballot. So there’s a button or a bubble for Democrats and another for Republicans (and another for Green and another for Libertarian and so on).
In Ohio if you want to vote for all Democrats you go through each and every race and vote for the Democrat. And then you break out your list of Democratic Party “endorsed” candidates for the non-partisan races because of the fiction that certain types of elections are non-partisan that Ohio is committed to (notably judicial races).
The Dangerman
From the WaPo regarding QAnon
Kinda like the old SNL sketch with Reagan.
What happens when these assholes discover the crass egotism and ineptitude isn’t strategic genius?
ruemara
@joel hanes: Nah, they were crooks, are crooks & if he wasn’t POTUS (oh if only) eventually, they’d have been caught up in some other stealing & crooked deal scandal.
That mediocre white person curve is so real. They are exactly who they’ve shown themselves to be. Arrogant, evil crooks. You’re not forced into it just because half your gene pool is Satan.
LAO
TenguPhule
@The Dangerman:
Normally at that point they die, because the situation they got themselves into was terminally stupid.
Gravenstone
@Brachiator: How many people have been shot over crosswords?
Brachiator
@The Dangerman:
They will never discover this. The thing about cults and people who believe in crazy conspiracies is that they lack any mechanism for evaluating or correcting their delusions.
catclub
@ruemara:
I find this very hard to believe. If Trump is never a candidate for pres, he also never gets brought up on money laundering for Russians. White collar corruption is not a priority. Ever. The Prosecuting attorney Might run into someone they know.
lollipopguild
@JWL: Pyle was killed while covering combat on an island in the Pacific. He was truly KIA.
lollipopguild
@oatler.: “Don’t cry for me New Jersey!”
rikyrah
There are over 700,000 people being detained in jails across the country, the majority of whom are eligible to vote, but are unlikely to know that.
We went to one of the biggest jails where organizers are regularly going in to register inmates to vote https://t.co/5we19MvoLS
— Sam Levine (@srl) August 2, 2018
Millard Filmore
@nonynony:
FedEx runs its own fleet of cargo aircraft, so they would be a good candidate to apprentice maintenance jobs. That field is heavily regulated and unionized.
Mnemosyne
@nonynony:
The Giant Evil Corporation I work for is doing an in-house apprenticeship to learn coding and software development. As in, they asked existing employees if they were interested in doing that and they’re getting paid to do it as their new job within the company.
Mandalay
Jim Acosta just did a classy meltdown/rant on CNN following the press conference given by Sarah Sanders. He’s had a bellyful of the attacks and lies from the Administration, and he’s obviously disgusted by it all. Good for him.
https://youtu.be/rGIY5Vyj4YM
Teddys Person
@Kay: When I hear Trump and his ilk talk about apprenticeships, my mind automatically replaces it with (what I suspect) is the more accurate term: unpaid internships.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Yes, but they’re Giant and Evil and run by a large Mouse.
Roger Moore
@Mandalay:
Not if they’re being taught well. If they’re being trained as code monkeys, then yes, the stuff they learn today won’t be applicable in a few years. But if they’re actually being taught some real computer science- algorithms, data structures, etc.- then that knowledge will still be useful as long as they’re programming.
trollhattan
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Tina Fey’s “Bossy Pants” is instructive for anybody wanting an inside look at that whole world and how women fit. She does not throw Lorne Michaels under the bus FWIW.
ETA She does discuss the writers’ various hilarious/appalling habits in some detail. It ain’t a gig for the faint of heart.
Jay
@Brachiator:
Koolaide
I'll be Frank
@Jay: Let’s not forget that the violent gang members learned that power comes from the barrel of a gun during step 1.
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
Michaels did hire several women writers (not just performer/writers) for SNL way back in the early 1970s, so sexism doesn’t seem to be one of his many faults.
Gravenstone
@LAO: 93 pages to tell them essentially “shut up and get in the box!”. Can’t happen to a nicer set of assholes, too. I believe that’s time to queue up Stone’s ‘time in the barrel’, as it were.
Brickley Paiste
@LAO:
Yes. There’s nothing easier than back-seat lawyering so I try to keep my mouth shut most of the time, but I was flabbergasted when I read through the government’s proposed exhibit list. Yes, I understand you often have to include marginal things, but all the pictures of the “luxury clothing”??? Why not just do a inventory that lists the item, where it came from, etc. and put that on through the FBI evidence team leader? The notion of putting up pictures of individual garments is … odd, given that their only purpose – apparently – is to show “Hey this is something he purchased with wire transfers (to hide undisclosed income.)
NY Robbin
@rikyrah:
Come sit by me . . .
Suffragettecity
@Kay:
I have kept a screenshot of the tweet Ivanka posted on Aug 18, 2016 which states
“How to make it work as an unpaid intern” #nomoneynoproblems #interntips #internships
And a link which has since been removed to the article on her company website. I’m pretty sure but not positive it was written by one of her unpaid interns.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@nonynony:
Wow, I feel stupid. Thanks
@catclub:
Now I understand what you were saying. Thanks, also too
Roger Moore
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
The argument is that straight ticket voting saves time. One of the popular approaches to voter suppression is to try to drive away minority voters with long lines by having too many voters per polling place and not providing enough staff and voting machines to keep the line moving. If you’re doing that, you want to make those ballots as cumbersome as possible to slow the lines. Straight ticket voting speeds things up, undoing your careful effort at voter suppression.
Gravenstone
@LAO: Also home to the USAF museum, so the potential for civilian involvement is rather higher than your standard military base.
hueyplong
The thought of Miller befouling himself in a room with Mueller’s people makes my day.
Gravenstone
@catclub: Or might get a convenient campaign contribution slipped into their coffers…
Ruviana
@zhena gogolia: So like academia then?
BlueGirlFromWyo
@trollhattan: Exhibit 546 on why I got out of there.
Chip Daniels
Compare the treatment of this princess to the right wing hatred for Sasha and Malia Obama, and Chelsea Clinton.
Chip Daniels
@trollhattan:
No worries- I will send them the directory of the Laramie County Republican Party.
daverave
@Mandalay:
It’s always 4:20 somewhere….
Mary G
@Roger Moore: One of my housemates only voted for president and apparently Democrats are less likely to fill out the whole ballot, which has contributed to Republican takeover of all the “little offices” like treasurer or SOS. Straight ticket voting denies them that advantage.
Kay
@Suffragettecity:
The new focus on “ripping off teenagers” on the Right is fucking disgusting. First the student loan scams and now this. What next? Knocking over 2nd graders and stealing their lunch money?
The coddled princess Ivanka never had to navigate a contract with a huge corporation at 17 or 18. How do we think this is gonna go? That’s a level playing field? Wal Mart negotiating with a high school junior?
Like I said let’s just start the countdown for the Propublica expose of how Trump apprenticeships are a tax payer and apprentice rip off. Start prewriting that now. It’s guaranteed.
Nothing makes me madder than this gross grifter FEEDING off of young people. I mean for God’s sake. Can we give them a fighting chance? Can we not steal from them until they’re at least 21?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Chip Daniels:
…who were children and NOT Government employees.
ETA: Chelsea Clinton was an adult in college during that later portions of the Clinton administration, but still not a Government employee.
Mike in NC
I honestly expect that at one of his upcoming Nuremberg style rallies we’re going to hear the words “shots fired” by somebody in the mob.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay:
Sure, stealing from enough 2nd graders would add up. Volume stealing.
Leto
@Kay:
So the military? I keed I keed… sort of.
Roger Moore
@Gravenstone:
93 pages to thoroughly debunk their arguments and warn anyone else who’s thinking about trying the same shit.
Matt McIrvin
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: The weird thing about that interview was that he didn’t even mention his longstanding head writer (and former romantic partner) Merril Markoe. I recall she tweeted some acid burn along the lines of “well, we had sex so he probably remembers me as an intern”.
Wapiti
@Brickley Paiste:
Manafort’s defense is that Gates did all of the bad stuff and he was just a taken advantage of. I think the government is trying to show: (a) he was totally involved in these purchases from high-end companies, (b) invoices from fictitious high-end companies went to his off-shore banks, and (c) (which I haven’t seen yet) those fake invoices shifted money to other accounts that he controlled.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
Haven’t they tried to defund the school lunch program? Why bother stealing from individual 2nd graders when you can take their lunch money wholesale?
zhena gogolia
@Ohio Mom:
Well, somebody called Rex a “bully,” which I think is kind of funny, that this highly obscure blogger could be “bullying” the NYT. Reminds me of Haberman.
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
It’s a hate movement, being run right out of the White House: https://t.co/HjqynWVeWx https://t.co/O3uKIQ1x6d
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) August 2, 2018
rikyrah
YEP
“The fact that I cannot identify the one person in this administration that is working night and day to make sure that our elections and communications in this country are protected from Russian intrusion speaks volumes,” Sen. Dick Durbin says https://t.co/emkWP8ulmx pic.twitter.com/TGX0u4iS4V
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) August 2, 2018
Aleta
@Kay: ” Ivanka never had to navigate a contract with a huge corporation at 17 or 18.”
Have Ivanka or Jared even once applied for a job? Filled out any application without an entitled guarantee? I think not.
Steve in the ATL
@Suffragettecity: “I have kept a screenshot of the tweet Ivanka posted on Aug 18, 2016 which states
“How to make it work as an unpaid intern” ”
What is there to say about that other than “have rich parents”?
Just One More Canuck
@Gravenstone: never go full femto
Brickley Paiste
@Wapiti:
Understand, but I think that an inventory of items seized from his closets accomplishes that – and is actually better because you get all the damning stuff in through one multipage exhibit rather than multiple single photographs. Heck they also have invoices sent to Manafort’s house shipping clothes to him there.
I mean, if they really do try to pin it on Gates, that would be a gift: “So what size is Mr. Gates? Why do you believe a size 44 short guy was buying 48 long jackets and storing them in Mr. Manafort’s closet?”
But, like I said, this is cheap backseat carping. From what I have heard of him, Uzo Asonye is extremely capable. And I confess that I take some delight in learning that the prosecutor is a black guy (I think) since I have no doubt that annoys Manafort and Trump a bit, too.
Mike in DC
I hope She-Who-Walks-Like-A-Giraffe gets hit with some NY State felony charges over the charity, the money laundering and the Trump Org. Be fun to see Daddy freak out over his favorite in trouble and being powerless to save her.
Brickley Paiste
@Wapiti:
Agree with all that, but the inventory would suffice. Plus they have invoices sent directly to Manafort’s home itemizing many of the clothing purchases.
Brickley Paiste
Also nice to see a black guy, Uzo Asonye, front and center prosecuting Manafort.
You know that fact alone irks Manafort and Trump.
Jay
@Brickley Paiste:
Wonkette has the photo’s.
That ain’t a $15,000 ostrich leather suit, ( the $8,000 matching vest wasn’t shown), along with a collection of suits Herb Tarlick wouldn’t be caught dead wearing.
Clothing that nobody would pay good money for, ( except as a Halloween Costume),
+ poorly doctored invoices, ( shown)
+ offshore wire transfer payments from shady, paper “Companies”, ( shown)
goes a long way to visually establishing money laundering.
zhena gogolia
@LAO:
This looks great.
Mandalay
@Mike in DC:
She might be his favorite, but if she went rogue and was prepared to give testimony that would send Trump to the slammer I suspect that would put out a hit on her.
Fair Economist
@germy: US policies in Central America are the primary cause of the current asylum seekers. The purpose was geopolitical – deliberate help to very evil oligarchs and dictators. Drug smuggling was often encouraged as a means to that end (e.g Iran-Contra) but evil was the goal.
scav
All I get is this image of a princess delicately removing a silver gilt coffee spoon from between her dainty lips and attempting to bail out the sinking Titanic of her brand as the waters rise past her diamond ear-bobs.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
MSNBC reporting that Mueller wants to talk to Aymin Algalarov (sp? on both– the “pop star” son of the Kremlin’s contractor) about the trump tower meeting.
Tick, tock, Motherfucker Jr
randy khan
@Chyron HR:
IIRC, the kids from the first marriage did that, but the only time I ever recall seeing or hearing about Tiffany was when she was there for one of the debates. She’s in law school now and has been keeping a very low profile. Of course, she had very little contact with Trump because her mother moved to Florida and took Tiffany with her. Unless she starts speaking up, I’m inclined to leave her out of my judgments about his kids.
Ruviana
@randy khan: Think she moved to California. Kept Tiffany far far from daddy.
Msb
“Can’t bring myself to really hate the Trump kids, given their upbringing.”
Everybody is damaged, some worse than others. But you can decide to do something about that, or not.
Princess Complicity is good, but I like Lucretia better. But will Eric or Donnie junior be Cesare?
Betty Cracker
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
This Be The Verse
BY PHILIP LARKIN
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Msb: Neither, they’re the lesser known Borgia bros, Alfredo and Wilfredo. Alexander didn’t like to talk about them.
Ruckus
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Swearing all day? I thought that was my gig.
B.B.A.
@zhena gogolia: In general Rex Parker is right about everything.
The Moar You Know
@Betty Cracker: I am glad I came back to this almost dead thread. I’m not one for poetry. But that is greatness. I needed to read it and my wife needs to even more.
We decided in our teens (separately, it took a couple of decades for us to get together) that we never, ever, ever wanted kids after the number our parents had done on us. I have never seen our sentiments so perfectly encapsulated. I want that on my headstone.
Ruckus
@TenguPhule:
This is really the point. Apprenticeships are/should be a paid job. For years we had two apprentices working for us, it was the only way new people got in the line of work. 4 yrs long, work and school. And very good results. They got reasonable pay for every hour they worked.
Apprenticeships are there to build and maintain a trained employee. Full stop. Anything less is just fucking a person.
zhena gogolia
@B.B.A.:
I agree.
zhena gogolia
@The Moar You Know:
haha, check out Larkin, he wrote a few other good things.
Ruckus
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
I’ve never had the opportunity to vote by party. Haven’t missed it in the least. And here in CA, with the primary system we have you couldn’t do it anyway, most of the time there are two Dems on the ballot so it doesn’t work.
JGabriel
@Gravenstone:
Damn it, I knew I was forgetting one.
J R in WV
@Aleta:
In the past, returned “remains” have included mostly Korean bones, with some animal bones thrown in just to make their point – they don’t care about US or UN remains, not at all~!~ I imagine these “remains” are also left overs from a prison camp garbage dump.
But I could be wrong. They could be MIA troops from the UN mission in Korean back in the 1950s.
randy khan
@Ruviana:
Yes, California. Brain lock on my part.
The Lodger
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Didn’t read all the intervening comments, but I imagine this law forbids the big lever or single checkbox that allows the voter to cast a ballot for all members of a party with a single action instead of selecting the party candidate in each race. It used to be a feature on Pennsylvania voting machines. I can’t imagine rejecting ballots where all the candidates are from the same party. Even in Michigan.
The Lodger
@The Lodger: And now I wish I’d stuck around for the comment about the wild-ass loony party. Those are my people.
TenguPhule
@J R in WV:
Shit in one hand, North Korea’s promises in the other. Which one fills up first?
J R in WV
@Mandalay:
I have to disagree with most of this. I graduated with a BS CS in 1984, when personal micro-computers were just beginning to be available. We used IBM-style (called plug-compatible) mainframe computers, and a thing called a VAX-Cluster which was a group of tightly-linked minicomputers, all on a state-wide network for our programming work.
But the important things we learned weren’t the then-current OS, JCL, PL/I, FORTRAN or COBOL tools, but how those tools were used, the data structures, how to manipulate pointers, and most importantly, how to think logically and with structure.
I will admit that my college study didn’t qualify me to be a systems analyst, and my first job was using a very old IBM architecture, but I knew how to learn new tools, how to read tech manuals and figure out how a development system worked. I wound up working my way up the ladder of high tech jobs from programmer to analyst, from data analyst and database designer to project leader and ending up as the software development manager of a large state agency using state of the art technology.
At the end of my career we were using none of the “tools” I learned on in college, in fact those tools were no longer in existence except perhaps in old facilities not updated for 20 years. That will always be the case in high-tech IT environments. Without college training in math, logic and structures I wouldn’t have been able to properly make the decisions I made every day about how to solve that day’s problems and issues.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@germy – our intervening and interfering in the governments of South and especially Central America goes back much further than the War on Drugs. Here’s an excerpt of a speech by Major General Smedley Butler in about 1933: ” I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.”
Vhh
@rikyrah: at a time where the Army cannot meet its recruitment goals …