Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

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

This really is a full service blog.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Republicans in disarray!

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

He really is that stupid.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

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

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

We still have time to mess this up!

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Monday Evening Open Thread: Be of Good Cheer!

Monday Evening Open Thread: Be of Good Cheer!

by | 219 Comments

This post is in: , , ,


.

Maybe all we have left is sarcasm, but at least it’s an infinitely renewable resource…

Reader Interactions

219Comments

  1. 1.

    low-tech cyclist

    “Open thread (which I’m sure after 7 hours of dead air, someone will big foot in 10 minutes)?”

    Ten minutes, my ass. :)

  2. 2.

    VeniceRiley

    I finally figured out how to vote in the CA judges on the ballot. Go to the ultra-conservative judgevoterguide.com and vote the opposite of their ratings.

  4. 4.

    germy

    Our cat is sarcastic sometimes. She has a variety of vocal styles; meows, yelps, purrs etc.

    But sometimes, if she feels I am in her way she’ll let out a short, raspy “Aeh!” sound, which we believe is her sarcasm.

    So I hope she lives a good long time.

  5. 5.

    satby

    Being sarcastic on a regular basis can add up to 3 yrs to your life. Sarcasm is extremely healthy for the mind.

    But it’s not going to counter the decade these last two years have taken off of my life.

  8. 8.

    Brachiator

    Little Marco brought out all my sar and my casm today with this bullshit.

    The #KhashoggiMurder was immoral. But it was also disrepectful to Trump & those of us who have supported the strategic alliance with the Saudi’s. Not only did they kill this man, they have left @potus & their congressional allies a terrible predicament & given Iran a free gift.— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio)

  9. 9.

    SiubhanDuinne

    For some reason, the response I wrote to the “sarcasm” tweet ended up in a different thread. Weird. Anyhow, here it is again:

    October 22, 2018 at 6:41 pm
    Between this and that Viralpedia thing the other day on the benefits of swearing, I figure I’m good to hit the century mark.

  11. 11.

    Roger Moore

    @VeniceRiley:

    I finally figured out how to vote in the CA judges on the ballot. Go to the ultra-conservative judgevoterguide.com and vote the opposite of their ratings.

    My rule of thumb is to look at how they describe themselves. The more they try to puff up their anti-crime credentials the less I like them. Candidates who describe themselves as “attorney”, “superior court commissioner”, “deputy city attorney”, and the like are probably OK. Ones who are “deputy district attorney” are questionable. “Criminal gang homicide prosecutor” should be avoided like the plague. Interestingly, this seems to line up fairly well with the “go against judgevoterguide.com” standard.

  12. 12.

    Brachiator

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Per Open Thread, I ran across this. One of the most important modern orthodox rabbis (on the Israeli high court, no less) had a mostly pro-transgender commentary.

    Trump would call him a fake rabbi because clearly, Israel, the home of the Bible, must obviously be strictly evangelical, anti-choice, and also clearly must have a free market medical system and none of that universal health care. In fact, I have it on good authority that Jesus never healed anyone with a pre-existing condition.

    Oh, hell, my sarcasm must have slipped again.

    More seriously, good commentary by this rabbi. A shame that it would fall on deaf ears here in America.

  13. 13.

    Schlemazel

    Being sarcastic on a regular basis can add up to 3 yrs to your life. Sarcasm is extremely healthy for the mind.

    I guess I am now undead forever

  14. 14.

    Brachiator

    @VeniceRiley:

    I finally figured out how to vote in the CA judges on the ballot. Go to the ultra-conservative judgevoterguide.com and vote the opposite of their ratings.

    Good tip. I finally waded through this long ass California ballot, but will give this a look.

    I am still wrestling with Prop 11. This should have been resolved by the legislature and not put before the voters. I hate this kind of stuff.

  15. 15.

    debbie

    It just occurred to me: What if the middle class tax cut Trump’s been bellowing about all day turns out to be cuts to Social Security?

    That would make Trump bigly sarcastic!

  19. 19.

    Roger Moore

    @Brachiator:

    I am still wrestling with Prop 11. This should have been resolved by the legislature and not put before the voters.

    It was decided by the legislature and the courts. The legislature wrote labor law, and the courts determined that it requires ambulance drivers and EMTs not to be on call during their legally required breaks. The ambulance companies don’t like that because it means they need to have higher staffing levels, so they are trying to rewrite labor law in their favor through the initiative process.

  20. 20.

    germy

    When you try to stir up people’s fear of brown foreigners with lies right before an election, that’s called caravansplaining.— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) October 22, 2018

  21. 21.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    People rarely know whether I an being sarcastic or genuine. It’s a fucking curse I tells ya.

  23. 23.

    germy

    Just saw Mitch McConnell at a restaurant. I handed him a multivariable regression demonstrating why the policies he likes are bad. McConnell looked at the data, paused, and said I have changed his outlook on politics and life. Civility and logic prevail once again.— Corkus Bucksuth (@samknight_one) October 21, 2018

  24. 24.

    Mandalay

    @Brachiator:

    The #KhashoggiMurder was immoral. But it was also disrepectful to Trump & those of us who have supported the strategic alliance with the Saudi’s.

    When it comes to being a self-important lightweight, Rubio has few equals. He view of the whole affair is centered on Saudi Arabia disrespecting him.

    A journalist was dismembered by the government of Saudi Arabia in a consulate, and Rubio’s primary concern is how his longstanding support for one of the most vile regimes on earth has put him in an embarrassing position.

  25. 25.

    germy

    “Now I am become sarcasm, destroyer of worlds. Cogito ergo sumbitch ipso facto vis a vis hold deez.”
    – Ragnarok Lobster

  27. 27.

    NotMax

    Think am in need of a new head gasket.

    SInuses leaking and eyes watering like nobody’s business.

  28. 28.

    VeniceRiley

    I visited another site that a guy had his in the know uncle tell him which judges were R & D and it tracks with the guide exactly. EXACTLY. Hm. Anyhow, if you don’t have a ton of time for research or even Roger Moore’s excellent rec above … this method worked great for me. And I did double check, so, should hold true for other counties they have there than just mine.

  30. 30.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Frankensteinbeck: And this is the opening the revanchists have provided by going all in on the 1st Amendment means you can’t ever tell a faith community what it can or can’t do or must or must not do. Judaic law requires an abortion if the life or health of the mother is at risk from the pregnancy. Judaic law does not have a problem with birth control. Judaic law is exceedingly nuanced, despite what evangelical Christians who have hijacked a couple of sentences of the Torah may think, regarding matters of sexuality. As a result the challenges to these attempts to restrict and/or outlaw abortion, restrict and/or outlaw birth control, and restrict and/or outlaw equal rights for LGBTQ people should all be litigated as unacceptable burdens on the practice of Judaism. It’ll tie the courts up for decades on these issues if done right.

  33. 33.

    Adam L Silverman

    @debbie: It isn’t. He’s, and Larry Kudlow and Kevin Hassett, been floating the idea of a tax cut by executive order for about the past six weeks. That they have determined that the President has the authority to adjust specific tax rates for specific things by ordering the appropriate Federal agency to make the changes. If Obama had every floated something like this, let alone tried it, Paul Ryan would have burned down the White House.

  34. 34.

    Fair Economist

    @VeniceRiley: I looked up who appointed them. Brown or Davis keep, otherwise boot (for nonresidents, all the other recent CA governors were R). I imagine there’s one or two decent R judges, but hey, that’s the price for saddling us with this stupid vote.

  35. 35.

    Roger Moore

    @Adam L Silverman:

    It’ll tie the courts up for decades on these issues if done right.

    It would if the courts actually gave a damn about deciding the question correctly. In practice, religious liberty will be defined as whatever the conservative Catholic majority on the Supreme Court want it to mean.

  36. 36.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Roger Moore: But it will take years for them to get all the way there. There will be circuit splits and restraining orders and injunctions. And that conservative Catholic majority still has to contend with RBG.

  37. 37.

    Fair Economist

    Sarcasm won’t make you live forever, but it can make your friends and family feel like you are.

  39. 39.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Headline:

    15 Days Left. Democrats Are Getting Nervous.

    Fuck the goddamn fucking New Fucking York fucking Times.

    // not sarcasm

  44. 44.

    Matt McIrvin

    @SiubhanDuinne: Well? They are getting nervous–look at Cole on Twitter: he’s a Democrat and he’s beyond nervous to downright morose. Nervousness is natural.

    Whether that nervousness is based on anything, that’s another question. Early early voting in the key Senate states doesn’t look good, but we kind of knew that already–as far as I can tell it’s pretty consistent with the polls (also, since early voting just started, most of this is mail-in ballots, which historically run Republican). It’s a question of whether the bad news is something we should have already incorporated into our worldview.

  45. 45.

    germy

    @Schlemazel:

    Groucho complained later in life that he could not ever insult people because they assumed he was being funny.

    I remember an anecdote about his later years; there was a delay on a long flight and he was complaining bitterly. Later, a woman came up to him and said “You weren’t very funny on that plane.”

    “Go fuck yourself,” he replied.

  46. 46.

    Mary G

    Politico has begun the slamming of Kamala:

    Kamala Harris’ 2016 Senate run was a blowout, and the lack of a competitive race — coupled with her home state’s reliance on TV advertising — has left her largely untested in retail politics at the highest level https://t.co/TqUbJCxkGg— POLITICO (@politico) October 22, 2018

    God these Villagers make me sick. She ran for Attorney General. The senatorial race was a blowout because she was good at campaigning and getting her message out. And the youngest Californians don’t watch TV. They are just snotty because she’s a woman of color and she’s from California.

  47. 47.

    MisterForkbeard

    Since it’s an OT, I have a short story. My wife finally called her (Trumpist) parents and told them that as people who pride themselves on their integrity and honesty, their acceptance and following of Trump and the Republican Party was causing huge problems for her personally and she wanted them to have a really deep think about what they were willing to support.

    It.. devolved fast. Some shouting. I wasn’t on the phone, but my FIL accused *us* of being fools that are lied to by Democrats, and that Republicans are telling the truth about everything. He also went straight to defending Trump’s immigration policies and said that if not for him, LA would be a giant pit of gang violence and MS-13 killings. It ended with my wife telling them not to contact her for 6 months and hanging up.

    This is hard, because our two little ones adore their Nana and Grandad, and the feeling is mutual. I had to ask my wife if she still wanted me posting kiddo pictures to the shared app.

  48. 48.

    Ruckus

    @Fair Economist:
    Good take.
    In this case, fortunately for me, my family is no longer around to give me shit. They made up for it when they were though. And I do hang out here.

  49. 49.

    germy

    @Mary G: CBS News just referred to a democratic candidate tonight as (gasp!) “well funded”

    I’ve never heard them refer to any republican as “well funded”

  51. 51.

    Luthe

    @SiubhanDuinne: Every time I see one of these articles, my resolve to canvass and drag as many people to the polls as possible is strengthened. The more the media tries to depress us, the more I want to prove them wrong.

  53. 53.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    What’s up with Leto?

    He was in a terrible motor accident the other day. He was on his motorcycle, woman in a car came whooshing out of nowhere and hit him head-on IIRC. He’s in for probably months of surgeries and rehab.

  54. 54.

    Ruckus

    @Mary G:
    And even if she hadn’t been all that and a bag of chips, she was still head and shoulders above the opposition. It wasn’t at all difficult to vote for her for senator.
    But I also agree, FTFNYT. And no that’s not meant sarcastically. I see my reading skills are lacking today, it was politico. Still FTFNYT.

  56. 56.

    henqiguai

    @Omnes Omnibus (#40):

    What’s up with Leto?

    15 October, someone turned into him, while he was on a motorcycle. Major injuries, hospitalization. Wife, Analune, had been updating BJ. Son was being flown in by the Red Cross.

    ETA: Moderation, ’cause I misspelled my email address.

  57. 57.

    JaySinWA

    @Adam L Silverman: IANAL but I don’t see how you make that work as a legal argument. You describe Judaic law as permissive but not mandating things. Restricting things that are permitted doesn’t seem to rise to the level of requiring participation in things that are considered verboten.

  62. 62.

    Emerald

    @VeniceRiley: That’s what I did. Also you can tell by which governor appointed them. Google is your friend. For the first time I voted on all of the judges.

  63. 63.

    JaySinWA

    @Adam L Silverman: Given Trump’s statement today, he’s going with a draft of legislation that would be aired but not voted on before the election and not an EO. Of course that could change at any minute and the odds of there being an actual proposal are slim to none based on history. He’ll just claim it is done and expect everyone to believe.

  64. 64.

    sukabi

    @SiubhanDuinne: that’s their signal that they’re getting all the ‘Dems in disarray’ and ‘Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory’ stories that they run incessantly every election.

  68. 68.

    Schlemazel

    @germy:
    I was just watching a couple of documentaries about him on youtube. Sadly I think he really was kind of an asshole despite the great sense of humor. What really set my teeth on edge was his daughter discussing the way he treated his wives and how she would have to go hide at Harpo’s home when it got too bad. I love his character but he was a beast to live with.

    OTOH, his mother told him when he was young that he was her least favorite child . . .

  71. 71.

    Roger Moore

    @Mary G:
    And honestly, if any presidential candidate has real, glaring faults, they’re likely to come out during the primary campaign. If it turns out Kamala Harris is too bad at retail politics to win a presidential election, we’ll find out in Iowa and New Hampshire. Until then, it’s silly to worry about it.

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    @JaySinWA: Judaic law requires Jewish women have an abortion if their life or health is at risk from a pregnancy. If you outlaw abortion or severely restrict it to the point where it is functionally illegal, then you deny Jewish women the ability to make health decisions that comply with their religious beliefs and the bio-ethics that derive from them.

  74. 74.

    Adam L Silverman

    @JaySinWA: I finally saw the interview transcript. Apparently he thinks if he submits a resolution – not a bill, a resolution – to Congress mandating a tax cut, that it can take effect even though it can’t be voted on until after the mid-term elections.

  76. 76.

    Brachiator

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Early early voting in the key Senate states doesn’t look good, but we kind of knew that already–as far as I can tell it’s pretty consistent with the polls (also, since early voting just started, most of this is mail-in ballots, which historically run Republican). It’s a question of whether the bad news is something we should have already incorporated into our worldview.

    Why does anyone need to incorporate this into their world view? What would be the point?

    I guess some people need spoilers. They want to be pundit and prophet, reading the tea leaves so that they can say I told you so, and be the first to celebrate or to shed a tear.

    But except for the voting, the rest of this navel gazing accomplishes nothing.

  77. 77.

    Adam L Silverman

    @debbie: I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure none of those guys 1) have the stomach for an animal sacrifice and 2) the President would probably curl up in a fetal ball if he had to talk to a babalou, because they’re all Hispanic/Latinx, and Hispanics/Latinx scare him.

  78. 78.

    MisterForkbeard

    @MomSense: @Ruckus: Yeah – it doesn’t help that my wife wasn’t intending to cut them off, but had wanted to warn them that she COULD. When he got to Immigration and defending children in cages, my wife blew up and it escalated from there.

    Gonna be a fun month.

  80. 80.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Brachiator: So Khashoggi’s murder is somehow a slight against Trump and his GOP enablers and that should be our focus? Wow. Narcissistic as hell.

  83. 83.

    Martin

    When Crime Is a Family Affair

    Kids have a habit of imitating their parents’ criminal behavior. It’s no wonder, then, that by one measure, 10 percent of families account for two-thirds of criminals.

    Go after Walt, Larry and Igner, and work upward to dad. Nobody in that family has the capacity to not break the law. They have no concept of it.

  85. 85.

    raven

    @Omnes Omnibus The driver of the car hit him head, she was turning and he had the right-of-way but that doesn’t matter now. He had multiple injuries including a sheared pelvis but it looks like the helmet did its job.

  86. 86.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @MisterForkbeard:

    He also went straight to defending Trump’s immigration policies and said that if not for him, LA would be a giant pit of gang violence and MS-13 killings.

    When I had to move back to Kentucky because my publisher is stealing my money, a fast food worker saw my California plates in a drive-through. He asked me about living in LA and the crime. He was shocked when I said there wasn’t much. A couple of bad areas of town, but I guarantee Lexington, Kentucky is worse.

  88. 88.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: Both, plus the specific sources from Torah that halacha is rooted in. In the case of abortion, the controlling interpretations (responsa) were written by Maimonides, which is why they were largely adopted whole into Islamic jurisprudence.

  89. 89.

    Schlemazel

    @debbie:
    yeah, she was a stage mom but I thought it was a giant step down from there to telling a kid he was your least favorite. My dads mom did a similar thing to him. No idea if that made him a bigger asshole but it could not have helped

  91. 91.

    Brachiator

    @Patricia Kayden:

    So Khashoggi’s murder is somehow a slight against Trump and his GOP enablers and that should be our focus? Wow. Narcissistic as hell.

    Yep. Trump prefers journalists who don’t let themselves be killed by Saudis.

    And Little Marco is picking up all of Trump’s bad habits.

  92. 92.

    Schlemazel

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    It sounded horrific. Given my fractured pelvis experience & nephews MC accident Leto has a long haul ahead of him & is going to need a lot of support. His mom suggested there would be a gofundme; I’m waiting. He will need more than money but it would be good if we could help remove that burden

  93. 93.

    Ohio Mom

    @Schlemazel: My mom had a lot of shortcomings but her genius as a parent was that each of the three of us are convinced that we were her favorite, too bad about the other two.

  94. 94.

    JaySinWA

    @Adam L Silverman: Okay, thanks for that detail. Of course the majority of the Republicans pay lip service to the life of the mother and pretty much disregard or mock the health part claiming it to be a loophole for doctors. I would guess the arguments would need to be de facto rather than de jure restrictions. Rape and incest exceptions are probably lip service as well. The argument still leaves open a lot of restrictive legislation.

  95. 95.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Schlemazel:

    My dads mom did a similar thing to him. No idea if that made him a bigger asshole but it could not have helped

    Dear god, I can’t imagine that. At different times and in different situations, it can be seen which parent want to which other. Also, who is more like whom. So, at 54, I had parents who never conveyed an affection difference, never had one, or I was to clueless to notice. Anyway you look at it I was lucky.

    My dad, born during WWII. was never his dad’s favorite, but I can say it made him a better person.

  96. 96.

    Ken Shabby

    @satby:

    No, it’s not and, if i let it, it defeats me.

    But – it doesn’t. It’s a f#$(&@king act of daily will, between rage and resolve.

  97. 97.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Schlemazel: I have been reliably informed, by no less an expert than Secretary Ben Carson MD, that the 2nd Amendment will ensure that Jews are safe.

  98. 98.

    Timurid

    @Schlemazel:

    It will be. In Greater Israel, under the stern and benevolent gaze of Imperator Netanyahu.
    Aside from the window lickers who are still waiting for the Jews to be redshirts in the Battle of Armageddon, “pro-Israel” Trumpists care because they think it will Madagascar, for real this time. That’s going to take a lot of settlements…

  99. 99.

    Ohio Mom

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m familiar with the Jewish approach to abortion, it is pragmatic and reasonable. And IMO, completely right.

    I just wonder how many of our coreligionists know about it. And how many of them don’t care because nothing matters more to them than Israel, and their mistaken belief that Republicans are “better for Israel.”

  102. 102.

    Schlemazel

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    My grandmother was very old by the time I came along (change of life baby here). I hardly knew her but my memories are all of a cold, harsh old lady. My mom told me a couple of stories later in life & grandma made it very clear who she favored & who she didn’t. Most of the guys enjoyed the sunny SOuth Pacific in the early 40s at places like Peleliu and Iwo Jima so I can’t tell how much of the angry drunk was nurture & how much experience. My dad worked in defense related work & had knocked up mom in 1940 so he missed all that experience but displayed the behaviour

  103. 103.

    Brachiator

    @Adam L Silverman:

    He’s, and Larry Kudlow and Kevin Hassett, been floating the idea of a tax cut by executive order for about the past six weeks. That they have determined that the President has the authority to adjust specific tax rates for specific things by ordering the appropriate Federal agency to make the changes.

    I recall that they were playing with this idea when considering whether they could change the way that capital gains were taxed, but originating a tax cut from the White House is going to far.

    Trump is also pushing harder on the idea that there are no limits to his presidential authority.

  105. 105.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Ohio Mom: I think fewer and fewer of our coreligionists care about Israel.

    As for what they know about Judaic law and abortion, I have no idea. But all it’s going to take is one Jewish woman, one Jewish couple, and/or one Jewish doctor to get the litigation going.

  108. 108.

    MisterForkbeard

    @debbie: The thing she’s most worried about is that her parents are racist towards latinos… and the kids are about to start at a Spanish immersion school next year. She’s worried that her parent attitudes will cause severe problems for them if the kids are exposed to it much.

    To be fair, they’ve done a good job of separating their racism/republicanism from their status as parents and grandparents. I suspect we’ll eventually come to an accommodation around that.

  110. 110.

    NotMax

    @Schlemazel

    Have been told that one great-grandmother used to prepare individual challahs for each of her children every Friday while they were growing up. And that if they didn’t come out of the oven close enough to all being the same size she would toss them and begin again.

    Never had her challah but she made killer rugelach.

  112. 112.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Schlemazel: One of my grandmothers had a clear favorite. I am the first, the smartest,the best looking, and the most charming, but I could have handled it being my younger bro who is a better athlete, taller, nearly as charming, and the only one who offered great-grandchildren. But it was the unexpected late arrival kid – who is kind of a shit, albeit charming.

    ETA: My other grandmother would have known that, if either my brother or I had gone on a multi-state killing spree, it was only because those people needed killing.

  113. 113.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Martin:

    Kids have a habit of imitating their parents’ criminal behavior. It’s no wonder, then, that by one measure, 10 percent of families account for two-thirds of criminals.

    So from Prescott all the way down to Neal and George and Jeb… and the rest of the Bush crime family.

    And so on with various other republican players

  115. 115.

    WaterGirl

    @Schlemazel: @Omnes Omnibus: Cole has been in touch with Leto’s wife, Avalune, and as I understand it, they agreed that she will contact Cole when she needs something from us.

    Besides moral support and companionship!

  116. 116.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Omnes Omnibus: yeah, that was awful, but did you hear that some Ohio state university lost to Purdue? Purdue! By 29 points!!!

    So there may be a god after all.

  117. 117.

    Fair Economist

    @Mary G: Kamala Harris won a fierce 2010 AG race, cruised to reelection in 2014, and then she and Loretta Sanchez smoked the Republicans so badly they couldn’t even get into the Senate race. She’s not “untested”, she’s so good at her job and and at politics rivals run away from her.

  120. 120.

    Schlemazel

    @NotMax:
    That is a lot of work, what a mom! With our kids we used an idea that is now popular, one kid gets to cut but they get last choice. It is amazing how precises kids can be when necessary!

  129. 129.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Steve in the ATL: Does it start with “The?” Been offline. Niece’s X-C meet, Mom’s B-day, Nephew’s b-day, illness, and vomiting. Quite a weekend.

    But listening to “Upstairs at Eric’s” right now, so…..

  130. 130.

    WaterGirl

    @Steve in the ATL: I was referring to Marco Rubio’s “okay, so they brutally murdered the reporter, but the big deal here is that this puts Trump and others like me in an awkward position” comment.

    That’s what your “awful about Leto, but the real tragedy is that somebody-or-other beat/lost to Ohio State” comment seemed like to me. I was hoping your comment was in reference to that because it seems out of character for you to be joking about Leto’s accident.

    But maybe I completely misunderstood your comment?

    edited to add words that were left out of the original sentence.

  133. 133.

    Jeffro

    RWNJ dad tried to get some political discussion going earlier today (I’ve been quiet for weeks, waiting for the midterms)…first thing out of the gate was the blessed caravan, of course.

    So I mentioned that “caravan” was a northern African word that meant “the tax cut for billionaires isn’t working, we’d better scare some old white folks with pictures of brown people, STAT!” He didn’t seem to get the humor, so I asked him if all of the pieces of Jamal Khashoggi had been found yet, and boy didn’t Trumpov and Pompeo do our country proud by buying the Saudis 17 days to come up with the “fistfight” excuse. I guess he didn’t think that was funny either?

    Thanksgiving is gonna be LIT this year!

    Bring it on home, Dems…Gillium, Abrams, whoever is running against Scott Walker, Abby Spanberger, Jennifer Wexton…all of y’all please give me something to share along with the mashed potatoes n’ gravy!! ;)

  134. 134.

    Roger Moore

    @Schlemazel:

    With our kids we used an idea that is now popular, one kid gets to cut but they get last choice.

    This is certainly standard practice when there are only two people doing the division. There are apparently more elaborate procedures for groups of three or more that produce theoretically fair divisions.

  135. 135.

    NotMax

    @Schlemazel

    Sounds like the policy I instituted when became head counselor at a summer camp. Whenever the kids had to make up teams, whoever was picked last on each team got to do the choosing the next time.

  138. 138.

    Steve in the ATL

    @WaterGirl: no, you understood it perfectly.

    I chatted with Avalune the other night and offered her some hopefully useful advice on things to do. I’m not a monster!

  139. 139.

    Jeffro

    And speaking of the “tax cut isn’t working”…looks like Ms. Rampell’s on top of things as usual: The Republican tax cut is a big, fat failure

    …The Treasury numbers should not be surprising, by the way. Literally every independent forecaster predicted that the tax cut would increase deficits on net. Yet Republicans were somehow caught flat-footed by the news.

    After all, when the White House published its 2018 fiscal plan a year and a half ago, Trump officials predicted that deficits would shrink substantially in 2018, thanks both to his tax cuts and the Miracle-Gro that Trump was supposedly sprinkling across the economy.

    Yet in the end, the deficit was almost twice what the White House estimated it would be: $779 billion, compared with the forecast $440 billion.

  140. 140.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @WaterGirl: Steve and I have a tendency to sometimes use flippancy as a form of black humor. I am sure no disrespect or lack of concern was intended. Our kind sometimes can be driven form the tribe and hunted for food.

    ETA: Lawyers, medical types, and the military go this way a lot.

  145. 145.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Schlemazel: I know that and you know that. The 2nd Amendment absolutists don’t seem to be able to know and/or understand that. They also have trouble keeping the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the later Warsaw Uprising separate.

  149. 149.

    Schlemazel

    @WaterGirl:
    I was thinking of Leto. I spent 80 hours over the six weeks before my procedure, mostly making phone calls. The last 2 weeks have been a blur of doctors and work travel.
    I did stop my sustaining gift to the Dems in 2016 with a strongly worded letter about party operations but still donate that amount to individual Dems running.

  150. 150.

    Jeffro

    Far and away the biggest contributor to the deficit increase was the GOP tax cut, which cost Uncle Sam an estimated $164 billion.

  162. 162.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Steve in the ATL: When I win one of this weekend’s lotteries, I am finding an AM DB-7GT. A true madman’s car – and I am keeping the Saab for the same reason.

    How is Frau Steve?

  163. 163.

    raven

    When and if the time comes to help Leto out I’m sure there will be an outpouring here. There’s only so much good to be done with maudlin “OMG that is horrible” and, when people learn about it for the first time, that’s a natural reaction. In the meantime I think it’s good to to boost Avalune’s spirits and drive on. I wanted to tell her stories of my beaten up ass to try to say that you can come back from horrible shit and it’s good to stay as positive as possible. And I had a long ass fucking day and I’m tired.

  167. 167.

    oldgold

    We should take Trump’s tax bs and use it against him.

    It is an naked admission that the earlier tax cut did nothing for the middle class. It was a bill for the 1%. For the professional classes in high tax states it was a swift kick in the ass. For the rest of the middle class it was a water treader.

    You campaign on the message the GOP’s first order of business was to take care of the top 1%. As an after thought and in an election panic, they throw the middle class a many dollars short – day late – extra-constitutional mini – tax bone.

  168. 168.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    I’m really worried about that caravan headed for the US border. Of course, I’m worried for them not about scary foreigners like bigots are. Even my father, who bought into the right wing’s framing about legal vs illegal immigration (if they’d just come here legally, etc), recently described the caravan members as “innocent women, children and broken-down men”, who no one should fear.

  169. 169.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Omnes Omnibus: generally a bit better, danke, but still has good days and bad days. Nice weekend at the lake helped, until some random pain hit yesterday afternoon, and not even my new golf clubs made her feel better.

  171. 171.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @raven: I bounced a toboggan off my left ankle during basic and tightened the boot down sounds a bit inadequate. He needs help; we will be there.

  172. 172.

    Jeffro

    @oldgold: keep asking ’em, and their supporters: why aren’t you campaigning on your super-awesome tax cut? Aren’t you proud of that vote, just like the many ones you cast to repeal the ACA?

  175. 175.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Ken Shabby: That dude is Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson. She’s a former congresswoman from Arizona, as well as being a former Air Force officer (she did seven years and out).

  176. 176.

    Steve in the ATL

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: and remember that the horrible, horrible conditions they are fleeing in their home countries were largely caused by the CIA and US corporations ,so we are under at least some obligation to help.

    Notwithstanding the fact that republicans feel no shame or sense of duty.

  177. 177.

    Schlemazel

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    In “Shogun” there is a brief epilogue after the final Battle where Ishido is captured. The old prophecy said Ishido would “die an old man with his feet firmly planted in the earth, the most famous man in the land”, Toranaga has him buried up to his neck and passers-by are offered the opportunity to saw at the most famous neck in the realm with a bamboo saw. The novel states that “Ishido lingered three days and died very old”.

  178. 178.

    Raven

    @Omnes Omnibus: I was tellin her about being in Grady Hospital for two months and then another 8 months in a full body cast. I didn’t even get to the 18 bone fragments when I shattered my left leg an spent 6 months in that cast (and THAT didn’t get me no fucking deferment!)

  181. 181.

    Citizen Alan

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I have always clearly been my mother’s favorite while my sister (8 years older) was just as clearly my father’s favorite. Naturally the fact that our father died years ago while my mother is still kicking it at 82 is a source of tremendous bitterness for my sister.

  184. 184.

    Schlemazel

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Tangent but I have always wondered if escaped POWs actually had any actual impact on the war. One of the reasons I have heard is that resources are wasted hunting them down. I always wondered if that was true.

  186. 186.

    Schlemazel

    @WaterGirl:
    It might have been the History channel but maybe not. SOmone showed the entire series but then had breaks where they discussed the reality and Clavell’s stereotypes. Yeah, it makes the story uncomfortable. It is a great story, well written but it has ‘issues’

  197. 197.

    J R in WV

    @Schlemazel:

    … I did stop my sustaining gift to the Dems in 2016 with a strongly worded letter about party operations but still donate that amount to individual Dems running.

    We donate, have for years now. So we get fund raising calls from individual candidates as well as the D Governor’s CC, the D Legislative CC, the DCCC, the DSCC, etc. etc. I now tell all those committees that we don’t contribute to committees anymore at all, ever, because the overhead is wasted and the politics is pale. We only contribute to individual candidates who run as progressive liberal fighters. If they won’t put Democratic on their campaign literature, Screw Them!

    When I first looked my name up at the Federal Election Commission web site, I was astounded at how much I had contributed over the years. Then I realized that much of that contributed money came from my uncle whom I share a name with, he was independently wealthy and started contributing long before we could afford to.

    He was a CO during WW II, and when the draft board refused to allow him that status, he joined the American Friend’s Committee as an ambulance driver with the Free French military in North Africa. Before he came home with jaundice he was awarded a Croix de Guerre, which doesn’t come to American volunteers that often.

    Long gone now, but I honor his memory with every contribution to a progressive candidate. He would have hated Drumpf with a passion.

    Regarding favorites, my mother always preferred my brother, who never served, but is a Republican through and through. She loved me too, also, but not the same. Mom always thought the company had to pay wife for her work for the union, which is so wrong. Finally she said so, and was disabused of that misinformation.

  198. 198.

    Schlemazel

    @Steve in the ATL:
    more realistic. There are some funny parts too – the painting their way to the womens showers. The one that really cracked me up though is one I could not imagine the censors letting go “I believer her! Why wouldn’t I believe her?”

    A lot of great acting in the too

  201. 201.

    laura

    @Brachiator: I am still wrestling with Prop 11.
    Please vote NO on Prop 11. It is a wage theft proposition. EMTs would be denied any expectation of an uninterrupted break or lunch period, and not paid or replaced with another break if called to respond. Make the employer negotiate over this rather than allowing management to unilaterally impose this.
    Writing from San Jose where I’ll be walking a picket line tomorrow from 6am to 6pm.

  203. 203.

    FlyingToaster

    @Steve in the ATL: Let me know when the Buckeyes* lose to the Hoosiers, THEN I’ll believe there’s a God.

    * If I could sing, I’d be singing “Come, Blow Us Buckeye Band”, as a Marching 100 alumna. Heh.

  204. 204.

    Schlemazel

    @NotMax:
    And what a range!
    SOme Like It Hot
    Double Indemnity
    The Apartment (one of my all time faves)
    Sunset Boulevard
    The Seven Year Itch

  205. 205.

    JoeyJoeJoe

    @Adam L Silverman: Deb Haaland, who’s an Albuquerque city councilor I think, is running for Wilson’s old seat and is about to be the first Native American woman to be elected to Congress

  206. 206.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Adam L Silverman: Grassley won his 1st senate election (early 70s?) by attacking prices Pentagon pais for things. Eg he’d hold up a screwdriver, tell what he paid for it at the good local hardware store, and then point out how much, much more the Pentagon paid for a similar one. That Grassley disappeared with the Contract ON America!!

  207. 207.

    NotMax

    @Schlemazel

    Flawed (vacillates between razor sharp satire and pell-mell farce) but worth a look is One, Two, Three, if only to watch James Cagney brilliantly milk everything he can from his role.

  209. 209.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Schlemazel: I do not know. Not something I’ve ever looked into. I do know some of the Polish resistance folks were hunted down, escaped/released, and went right back to the resistance.

  210. 210.

    Ruckus

    @Raven:
    I didn’t think I’d tell her about the guy that worked for me and got himself a motorcycle. On the way to work one Sat, he hit something or something went wrong, no one will ever know, and hit the center divider. He flipped over and severed his right leg on the top of the armco barrier. Only thing holding it on was the quad muscle. Took him to County General, his wife drove up and they were in the hallway waiting on an operating room when an intern walked by and asked them if they had money/insurance. He told them to get to a better hospital because the docs were just going to cut off the leg, they didn’t have time to fix him. This is late 70s, no ATMs the ambulance told them cash only, have no idea what she did but long story, another hospital and he was walking 6 months later, with a cane. He had also broken his back and had to be in a full body cast for 6 weeks.

  213. 213.

    J R in WV

    @JoeyJoeJoe:

    ….is about to be the first Native American woman to be elected to Congress.

    There are at least half a dozen First Nation women running for congress, and I expect several will be the “first” Native female members of Congress next year.

    Unless the Republicans decide to mess with the rules and refuse to seat them. That would be a death blow to democracy in our nation, in my opinion. But hard to predict at this time. We’ll see.

  214. 214.

    Ruckus

    @Raven:
    Deferment? What’s that?
    I noticed that when I did my draft physical, the blood and urine samples were put in large rolling carts, with no labels on the containers. It wasn’t so much a physical, as an utter waste of a lot of people’s time. There were a couple of guys wearing panties, that didn’t help them.

Comments are closed.