Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Consistently wrong since 2002

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

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

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

The problem people have with Biden’s age is the color of the VPs skin.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Bark louder, little dog.

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

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

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Events / Quick Housekeeping Note Regarding This Weekend

Quick Housekeeping Note Regarding This Weekend

by | 102 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

I will be away on temporary duty from early tomorrow morning through Sunday night. I do not expect, based on the itinerary I was given today, that I’ll have any time to post, let alone comment over the next three days. So try to stay out of moderation as I won’t be here to release your comments.

For those of you who are nosey, which is pretty much all of you, I’m going up to Ft. Bragg. I was given the honor of being asked to give the keynote address at the 100th anniversary regimental dinner for the US Army Psychological Operations Regiment. (they didn’t get my bio quite right…)

Anyhow, it is also the 100th anniversary celebration weekend for US Army Civil Affairs Branch, where I was the Cultural Advisor (under Temporary Assigned Control) in 2012 and 2013. I’ll be participating in some of their events as well. And, of course, it wouldn’t be an Army event if I didn’t have some meetings! All in all, it’s going to be a busy weekend. So you all play nice and stay out of moderation!

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

102Comments

  2. 2.

    Miss Bianca

    I hope you have an enjoyable weekend, Adam! Or, well, perhaps “enjoyable” really isn’t the word I want…”productive,” maybe? Have a productive weekend!

    ETA: Altho’ if you enjoy giving keynote addresses, perhaps “enjoy” really is the word I am looking for! Congratulations on the honor!

  3. 3.

    Adam L Silverman

    I’m going to finish packing and rack out. I have to get up at extra dark thirty for my flight tomorrow AM!

  5. 5.

    Amber Forestier

    Ah, memories for my husband…he served with the Army Reserve in Psyops for a year in Afghanistan….sooo much fun.

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    John Cole hath tweeted a photo of Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Good God, she looks like a Hutt.

  15. 15.

    Kraux Pas

    Adam, I read your post about the EMAILS!!! coverage. This wasn’t evident in the coverage I read (but who wants to read a million stories about the same thing), but clearly the early reporting was wrong and led to a strain of presumption of guilt that ran through the overall coverage.

    I actually have a question. When I talk about this with my Dad, raising many of the same points you raised, he always refers to a bunch of emails on her server that were under subpoena and, purportedly, deliberately destroyed. My research hasn’t turned up much of a satisfying answer and I was hoping you or someone here could point me in the right direction without troubling yourself too much enumerating details. I’ll follow the lede.

  19. 19.

    Uncle Cosmo

    OT, but that Sourah Hucksterbe-Slanders mugshot in the sidebar reminds me that beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes to the bone.

  21. 21.

    geg6

    Congratulations on the honor, Adam. Have a good time…or as good as you possibly can while working.

    My big thing this weekend is my younger sister is taking me out for an early birthday (more than three weeks early) sisters’ night out. We’re going to see “Bohemian Rhapsody” at the new Tull Theater in Sewickley and a late dinner at the Sewickley Hotel, one of my favorite places to get a casual bite. My John took me there for our first date, many years ago. Sewickley is such a pretty little town with so many cool places. I also like to buy my costume jewelry at a little shop there called The Jewelry Thief. Every piece there is unique. And of course, the best small bookstore around, The Penguin Bookstore. I do Christmas shopping all over Sewickley on a Small Business Saturday almost every year. If any of you ever find yourselves in Pittsburgh, do yourself a favor and drive a few miles north of the city on Route 65 and spend an afternoon there.

  22. 22.

    Ruviana

    Adam, you’ve probably already gone to bed, but Rachel’s covering the released Military planning documents regarding troop movements to the Texas border. Reminds me of what you say about the IC releasing things tactically. The planning docs actually indicated non-military militias (apparently those are still a thing) may be more of a threat than the refugees as the militias have a propensity to steal military equipment.

  23. 23.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Kraux Pas: That’s one of the conspiracy theories. No emails were destroyed. A law firm, specializing in this type of thing, was hired by Clinton to go through the emails and remove those that were solely personal as they did not need to be turned over pursuant to the FOIA requests and Judicial Watch’s lawsuit. The emails that the President and others claim were deleted, hidden, destroyed, etc are these personal emails. The outside law firm had to do a full accounting for the Federal Court, which it, the Department of State, and Judicial Watch all got to review. And that accounting of what was work versus solely personal was accepted by the Federal Court.

  27. 27.

    tomtofa

    Congratulations, Adam. Knock’m dead (break a leg? Unfamiliar with the proper ‘best wishes’ for a military presentation).

    Know, though, that there will be a lot of very pissed-off psy-ops personnel if, instead of you, Burkman and Wohl show up to say you almost made it but got scared for your life at the last minute and flew to another location. Don’t let that happen ;-)

  31. 31.

    lamh36

    That’s ok, you’ll be back just in time to by Monday which is a VERY special day (uh…my birthday!).

    Have a great time Adam, just be back to make sure I don’t go into moderation on my birthday…thank you very much

    :-)

  35. 35.

    sherparick

    @Adam L Silverman: Again, something the FFNYT never reported unless it was at the bottom of the story. For 25 years, the NYT political desk has had a culture which had a certain attitude toward Hillary Clinton that can be expressed in the chant “Lock her up!”

  39. 39.

    magurakurin

    @Gin & Tonic:

    yeah, the jet lag is brutal, too.

    I was just back in the States though. Spent a week in Waikiki. I really liked it. First time I had ever been there other than a stop over once on a flight back to Japan.

  44. 44.

    Michael Bersin

    The Kansas City Star reported yesterday that Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley (r) had Washington, D.C. political consultants operating in and dictating operations in the Attorney General’s office ten days after he took office in 2017. William Webster (r) the previous GOP Attorney General in Missouri (1985-1993) pled guilty to two felonies and served prison time for using state resources in his office for political gain.

    Josh Hawley (r) is challenging Claire McCaskill (D) for the senate seat this cycle.

    This morning Claire McCaskill held a press call with a statement and press Q and A on the subject (transcript):

    Senator Claire McCaskill (D): Who was in charge at the Attorney General’s office? – Press Q and A – November 1, 2018

  45. 45.

    tobie

    I’m a little late to this thread, but congratulations, Adam, on the honor of the keynote address. I’m sure it will go well. And enjoy your time away from the blog. We’ll try not to mess up the place too much in your absence.

  46. 46.

    Mary G

    Have a safe trip and thanks for letting us know, because as you said, I am nosey. Let’s hope nobody does anything crazy while you are out of pocket.

    So psyops started right after the end of WW!? Something about the Germans eating babies? I’m assuming they had something like it before, like Super-Secret-Department-of-Ratfucking.

  48. 48.

    frosty

    Have a great time Adam! We’ll do our best to avoid moderation … although my understanding is that FYWP doesn’t really have any rules on what throws us out, they’re more like guidelines.

    And I second the sentiment above: “Stay frosty!”

  51. 51.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Ruviana: I saw the order of battle, so to speak, last night. A bunch of engineers and sustainment folks and some medical units, which all makes sense. And then a bunch of HR specialists, Public Affairs folks. Even the aviation elements are sustainment. No actual combat arms folks in there.

  52. 52.

    tomtofa

    Open thread:
    Okay, so there are lots of sites that give good advice about voting at the state level – candidates, propositions, etc.
    I noticed it was much harder to get guidance about more local things: city council candidates, local initiatives, judges – especially judges, these days!

    This is a Northern California-specific whine, but unfortunately not SF or Berkeley; lots of coverage for them. Finally found most of what I needed, but it should be a lot easier. For instance, I got judges by going to a rightwing judge-ranking site and choosing the opposite to what they recommended.

    Anyway, done and delivered. Are there decent resources in other places, or is this something that needs work for 2020?

  53. 53.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Kraux Pas: As the Clinton’s outgrew, so to speak, each server everything was moved, and the moves were documents, to newer, bigger servers. The old servers were then wiped and recycled. I believe one of the programs used was called Bleach Bit, hence the President’s, who is not tech savvy, claims they literally poured actual bleach on the servers. As for smashing them, I think an old blackberry she replaced was reformatted and then smashed/physically destroyed as a security measure once all the data was moved to the newer blackberry she was upgrading to.

  56. 56.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Some happier news for a change:

    Dozens of major companies have warned the Trump administration to stop attacking transgender people. 56 corporations joined the statement to “oppose any administrative and legislative efforts to erase transgender protections.”

    …Collectively, the companies employ nearly 4.8 million people and generate more than $2.4 trillion in annual revenue.

    https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2018/11/dozens-major-companies-just-warned-trump-not-mess-transgender-rights/

    #WontBeErased #StillFuckingHere

  57. 57.

    jl

    pix of Silverman at the shindig or it didn’t happen.
    Sounds so spiffy and high class, should be a pic of Silverman cutting the haggis with a fancy sword.

    Congrats to Adam and hope he has a great time.

  60. 60.

    Amir Khalid

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Might Herr Präsident Scheißgibbon demand the addition of combat troops, even though they would obviously have no useful role at the border? How would the generals react to such a demand?

  61. 61.

    Jerry

    If you have lots of extra time, maybe we could have a meet up in Raleigh or Durham? Richard Mayhe…errrr…Dave lives in Durham, you know. Meet up!

  62. 62.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Meanwhile, there’s Barbara Bookstore:

    https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2018/11/christian-woman-terrifies-kids-crashes-childrens-story-time-yell-anti-gay-slurs/

    An independent bookstore in Riverside, California, called Cellar Door was hosting a Halloween event for kids that had three drag queens reading books to children.

    This bothered Genevieve Peters, who went to the bookstore to record the event.

    Bookstore owner Linda Sherman-Nurick said that she saw Peters in the audience recording, and she went to tell her to stop recording the kids without their parents’ permission.

    But Peters refused to stop…

    Peters said that she would be back every time there are drag queens at the bookstore.

  64. 64.

    Denali

    Just in your spare moments this weekend,
    Adam, do you have any thoughts on
    Sibel Edwards’ investigation of the Khashoggi murder?

  65. 65.

    cmorenc

    @Adam Silverman:

    Pleasure to be sorta, kinda in your neighborhood this weekend – I’ll be exactly an hour away from you in the southern burbs of Raleigh, but I too will be completely occupied with business this weekend – serving as referee/site coordinator for one of the field sites for the first (of four) weekends of NCFC’s big soccer showcase tournament series. Hope your honorary talk goes well down at Ft. Bragg.

  67. 67.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Sister Golden Bear: Working in a pretty normal corporate environment, I was surprised at how much of a non-issue it turned out to be when one of my co-workers transitioned a couple of years ago.

  70. 70.

    eclare

    @Steve in the ATL: I think so, yes, Omnes gave me a recommendation. I have a call with the attorney tomorrow. For the record, we are not trying to screw anyone out of unemployment insurance, it’s the reporting that we are having issues with.

  72. 72.

    Steve in the ATL

    @eclare: none of my business! In my experience, it doesn’t matter much what you try to do on benefits. The labor department does what it wants regardless of what info the company sends.

    Good luck dealing with them in reporting requirements….

  73. 73.

    Steve in the ATL

    @eclare: none of my business! In my experience, it doesn’t matter much what you try to do on benefits. The labor department does what it wants regardless of what info the company sends.

    Good luck dealing with them on reporting requirements….

  76. 76.

    Mike in DC

    Building a wall, reducing refugee intake, putting people in detainment “camps”, sending armed troops and suggesting troops should shoot any migrants who throw rocks at them, ending birthright citizenship, likening migrants to vermin…it’s as if they’re creeping towards suggesting some sort of definitive solution to the “migrant question”. A final one, if you will.
    Vote, dammit.

  78. 78.

    NotMax

    Suppose someone needs to point out that Fort Bragg is named for a Confederate general.

    Also too, should the audience be sparser than anticipated,

    Fort Bragg aviators, medical personnel, military police and logisticians will be among the more than 7,000 active-duty troops deployed to the southwest border.
    [snip]
    While specific troop numbers were not released, no installation will deploy more individual units than Fort Bragg.

    The nine deploying units include: the headquarters of the 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, the 2nd Assault Helicopter Battalion of the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, the headquarters of the 16th Military Police Brigade, the 51st Medical Company of the 28th Combat Support Hospital, the 172nd Preventive Medicine Detachment, the 264th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, the 329th Movement Control Team, the 403rd Inland Cargo Transfer Company and the headquarters of the 503rd Military Police Battalion, according to U.S. Northern Command. Source

  79. 79.

    Steeplejack

    @Mike in DC:

    thank fucking god we elected the heartless fucked-up bastard who just ordered the military to fire on rock-throwing children a thousand miles away, and not the lady who was careless with three emails, holy fucking shit what a living nightmare that would have been, believe you me
    — Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) November 1, 2018

  82. 82.

    NotMax

    the 100th anniversary regimental dinner

    Picturing a buffet showcasing a seemingly endless row of chafing dishes brimming with SOS.

    :)

  84. 84.

    jl

    Not sure who Mark Herfling is, but he says he is ex-military. He points out some problematic aspects of Trump’s idea that US troops would shoot at unarmed refugees throwing rocks. If something unexpected happens, and Trump’s ideas get within a mile of reality, I hope Herfling is correct.

    @MarkHerfling
    FWIW, there is no leader in the military – Officer or NCO – who would allow a soldier to shoot at an individual throwing a rock. They know that violates the rules of engagement, the law of land warfare & the values those in the military believe. It would be an unlawful order.

  90. 90.

    sgrAstar

    @schrodingers_cat: that was a really tragic accident. I’ve walked out to Taft Point many times- it’s very accessible. Also a spectacular vantage point for all of Yosemite Valley. It’s not so hard to imagine that you could back up..just a little more…just a little more…and go over the edge. Climbers are always dumbfounded by the casual attitude tourists bring to these very exposed sites. Sad for the families involved.

  91. 91.

    stinger

    FYI, Dorothy Winsor (formerly IowaOldLady) is telling a story on Twitter. Hilarious (involves the Shitgibbon) and has a touch of Halloween about it.

  92. 92.

    jl

    @Cheryl Rofer: When I joked about my concern over troops’s safety when carrying weapons while they learned how to monitor surveillance monitors and processing crates of chain link fencing supplies, Adam took me very seriously. He needs some R&R at his shindig this weekend.

    I’m glad to hear about the strong comments in favor of decency and the US Constitution made by the majority of people who have been in military leadership. Similar to their comments on Trumps big military parade nonsense.

    Edit: thanks for correcting my typo. Hertling, noted.

  96. 96.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Gin & Tonic: Thankfully, transitioning at work was non-issue for me as well, when I did two years ago.

    Ironically, my co-workers sped up things.

    I’d purposely planned to do it at the end of the year, and still work the last two weeks (after announcing) as a guy — since the consensus among trans folks at the time was that it was best to give your co-workers a chance to adjust to idea.

    However, the evening after my second day post-announcement, my managers emailed me to say that my co-workers found it kind of confusing for me to still be in guy-mode, and would I consider coming to work as a woman the following morning. Needless to say, I said yes. And yes, I cried.

  97. 97.

    JanieM

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Quibble away the point if you want, but they were an armed military force that shot at and killed rock-throwing civilians. People go rogue sometimes.

    The United States National Guard, part of the reserve components of the United States Armed Forces, is a reserve military force, composed of National Guard military members or units of each state and the territories of Guam, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia,

  99. 99.

    BruceFromOhio

    For those of you who are nosey, which is pretty much all of you,

    Pfft. Do you have any evidence to support this conclusion? I’d like to examine it.

    Travel safe, and enjoy the company.

  101. 101.

    Ruckus

    @NotMax:
    So, you’ve attended prior events……

    Funny fact. Entire time in the navy, was served SOS once. Was sort of amazed at that. All those opportunities and all the different duty stations, only once.

  102. 102.

    JanieM

    At BJ pace this thread is no doubt long dead, but just for the record:

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    ETA: I’m old enough to remember Kent State.

    So am I. I was in college then, and some of my high school friends were students at Kent State at that time. I grew up not far from there.

    As to this:

    Careful with that, you know how may lawyers comment here?

    Oh FFS. I was making the same point as @Cheryl Rofer, and I don’t see you chipping away at her about it:

    What bothers me is that all it takes is one bigot taking the opportunity to fire.

Comments are closed.