Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Petty moves from a petty man.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

We will not go back.

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

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

He really is that stupid.

Let there be snark.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

T R E 4 5 O N

This fight is for everything.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Look for the Helpers (Literally)

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Look for the Helpers (Literally)

by | 154 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Feel-good local story from the Washington Post — “A mother’s leap of faith at an African airport, and a 15-year mystery”:

The story of Tom and Maya and Zainab is about trust, about listening to your heart over your mind, and about that gut feeling you have when you meet a good person.

And it’s a story that could’ve gone horribly wrong.

It began in 2003 in the Lungi airport in Sierra Leone, the only international airport in the coastal African country.

Maya Hughes was 5, with two pigtails, a wide smile and a pink Hello Kitty bag. Her mom was looking for someone to get Maya out of the country — fast.

Zainab Sesay was born in Sierra Leone and left when she was 11. Raised in Maryland, she married, worked as a technical writer and thought it would be a great experience to spend some time introducing her daughter Maya to her homeland.

But Sierra Leone was still recovering from a brutal and bloody civil war. The country, the towns were struggling. Her family was struggling.

Maya, who is now 20 and a college student in Chino, Calif., knew none of that then. She recalls her time in Sierra Leone fondly. She was surrounded by cousins and other family. There were clothes washed outside, generators for light, a small bag filled with dirt to create the ball they would use to spend hours playing soccer. She was 5 and delighted and charmed.

But there was a crisis in the family. Maya and Zainab are reluctant to go into detail, but Zainab carefully explained that Maya’s life depended on getting her out of the country quickly and quietly.

So they packed that Hello Kitty bag and — when no one was watching — they headed to the airport.

Zainab began asking ticket agents to point out people traveling to America…

Tom was part of the U.N. war crimes tribunal team that had just indicted Liberian dictator Charles Taylor and at the time, he was working as an adviser to the prosecutor of the Special Court of Sierra Leone.

But he wasn’t at the airport on business. Tom was headed to Charlottesville because his beloved grandmother — the last of his four grandparents still alive — had died. He was heading home for the funeral…

Reader Interactions

154Comments

  1. 1.

    Schlemazel

    Big day. We will be leaving in a bit for Rochester & will finally get the final word on what is going on inside me. The best outcome sucks but is 100x better than the other outcome

    If I had a complaint about the work Mayo does it would be that they have kept me on the hook for 3 weeks now, spacing out the tests. The anxiety of not knowing has been worse than I would have expected

  4. 4.

    FelonyGovt

    @Schlemazel: Waiting for a diagnosis is awful. Hoping you receive news of the best outcome as soon as possible. Healing thoughts headed your way.

  5. 5.

    Platonailedit

    Tens of thousands of passengers at one of the UK’s busiest airports are experiencing flight disruption after drones were seen over the airfield.

    Gatwick’s runway remains closed after two of the devices were seen nearby.

    Flights are unable to take off or land and Gatwick said 110,000 passengers on 760 flights were due to use the airport on Thursday.

    Police were still hunting for the drone operator after another device was reported just before 07:00 GMT.

    A spokesman for Sussex Police said: “There is absolutely nothing to suggest that this is terrorism-related.”

    Gatwick chief operating officer Chris Woodroofe said police had not wanted to shoot the devices down because of the risk from stray bullets.

  15. 15.

    Platonailedit

    Children as young as 14 are making thousands of pounds a week as part of a global hacking network built around the popular video game Fortnite.

    About 20 hackers told the BBC they were stealing the private gaming accounts of players and reselling them online.

    Fortnite is free to play but is estimated to have made more than £1bn through the sale of “skins”, which change the look of a character, and other add-ons.

    This fuels a growing black market.

    Hackers can sell player accounts for as little as 25p or hundreds of pounds, depending on what they contain.

    #weirdworld

  16. 16.

    Phylllis

    For those of you near or near-ish to Columbia SC, the Jackson Pollack mural he painted for Peggy Guggenheim is at the Columbia Museum of Art through next May. The display includes information on Pollack’s technique and how it’s been handled and restored over the years.

  17. 17.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    The basic factory setting on the perception of Trump is: gigantic douchebag. This is a man who manufactured fake Time magazine covers featuring himself with the headline, “Donald Trump: The ‘Apprentice’ is a television smash!” so that he could put framed copies of it on the walls of his clubs.

    His business is convincing people with lowbrow taste to give him their money.

    He’s a vulgar publicity hound who used to call reporters in a fake voice and pretend to be his own PR agent, “John Miller” or “John Barron,” so he could brag that actresses wanted to date him.

    ***

    On the basis of his self-interest alone, he must know that if he doesn’t build the wall, he has zero chance of being re-elected and a 100 percent chance of being utterly humiliated.

    ***

    Instead, what he’s doing now absolutely guarantees that the next president will be a Democrat and, given today’s Democratic Party, that president will be Kamala Harris.

    COPYRIGHT 2018 ANN COULTER

    HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA

  18. 18.

    Elizabelle

    @Schlemazel: All the best to you, SchlemazelJackal. I hope Mayo can fix (or control) whatever has been ailing and ailing and ailing you. Fingers crossed.

  19. 19.

    Platonailedit

    US senator Jeff Merkley has introduced a Senate bill aiming to stop the Department of Agriculture (USDA) from killing kittens it uses in experiments.

    The Oregon Democrat said the USDA breeds up to 100 kittens a year.

    They are used in research into toxoplasmosis – a parasitic illness, which can be serious for unborn children and people with compromised immune systems.

    Cats are the only animals whose faeces contains the parasite.

    The animals are fed infected meat, and the parasite’s eggs are harvested for use in other experiments.

    The cats are killed after the research, but Mr Merkley believes they should be adopted instead.

  20. 20.

    Schlemazel

    Ran into a new stream of BS from the wingnut font
    “The author of “Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer” was Jewish and as a kid others made fun of his nose” Therefore if you have a problem with the song you are anti semitic”

    I didn’t even need google to see though that one. It is of course all bullshit

  21. 21.

    Raven

    @Schlemazel: Good luck. When I pissed blood (after dead lifting a Harley I dropped) they did all these tests and the last one was a Cystoscopy. Ruling our cancer was the LAST thing they could do.

  23. 23.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Brexit preparations: Troops on standby as businesses are ‘watching in horror’

    By Guy Davies

    LONDON — Dec 19, 2018, 6:04 PM ET

    ***

    As well as placing the military on standby, the government will send new advice packs to 80,000 businesses on how to plan for a no-deal Brexit on Friday.

    With 100 days to go until the Brexit deadline, the government’s announcements coincided with a joint statement issued by five leading business groups — the British Chambers of Commerce, the Confederation of British Industry, the Institute of Directors, the Federation of Small Businesses, and the EEF Manufacturers’ Association — that said “businesses have been watching in horror” as the prospect of a no-deal Brexit increases.

    Troops in the streets – oh shit.

    If Claire Foy (photo) defects to the US, I am prepared to grant her asylum..

  24. 24.

    Schlemazel

    @Raven:
    Had a few of those, fun aren’t they?
    I was first on the scene of a motorcycle accident & the guy was only worried about his bike os I told him I would get it out of the street. Big mistake! I had no idea how heavy those things are!!

    The guy tried to blow a yellow light but realized he was not going to make it so he hit the breaks. My 4 year old son saw it & said “LOOK DAD, THAT GUY IS FLYING!” and for a few brief seconds he was. Wearing a wife beater & no helmet he only wanted to get back up and ride away but he was in shock so I forced him to lay down. It was hard because he had gravel embedded in his back and shoulders.

  25. 25.

    RAVEN

    @Schlemazel: I saw a dude eat it on a small bike on a gravel road in Negril in 1972. I would NOT have wanted to have gotten hurt like that down there then,

  27. 27.

    Chyron HR

    @Schlemazel:

    That context really doesn’t make the song less offensive.

    Then one foggy Christmas eve
    Donald Trump came to say
    “Schlomo with your nose so yuge
    “Count my cash ’cause you’re a Jew.”

  29. 29.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Schlemazel: I would think that Rightwingers are okay with making fun of people based on their features since they strongly oppose “political correctness”.

  30. 30.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @Schlemazel:
    When my wife was alive, she went thru an ordeal to determine what was wrong. We visited doctor after doctor. Turned out to be lupus. Still wasn’t much to be done except pain management. But a diagnosis was something of a comfort, especially in lieu of the condescending advice proffered from several physicians that it was “all in her head”.

    Sounds like you are in the hands of the best, and as one feeling human to another, I hope you arrive at a path to wellness.

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Patricia Kayden: They like to throw around the anti-Semitic slur tho, especially at anyone who takes a stance contrary to Netanyahu and Israel’s current stances on Gaza, the West Bank, and Palestinians in general.

  32. 32.

    Immanentize

    @Schlemazel: Good luck. I am glad you will get the consult now and the planning work can begin. I am sending stong vibes of health your direction (West)

  35. 35.

    Schlemazel

    @Chyron HR:
    Nice writing!
    I almost might have bought it if not for the “you’re anti semitic” bit. That just sounds like the sort of crap a wingnut (particularly one that hates Jews) would say

  37. 37.

    Immanentize

    @Schlemazel: @RAVEN: I have a friend in Texas who was heading out on his heritage from San Antonio to Luckenbach when an idiot at a gas station pulled fast right out in front of him on a 4 lane road — accross two lanes south and into his going north. He dumped the bike, went to the hospital and vowed never to ride again. But at the hospital, they discovered he had somewhat advanced prostate cancer which they immediately operated on. He called it the accident that saved his life and when he got out (and a bit better) got back on his bike.

  40. 40.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I would think that Rightwingers are okay with making fun of people based on their features since they strongly oppose “political correctness”.

    Kiss-up, kick-down wingers are A-OK with making fun of peeps based on their features. Except situationally when they see a chance to bray “who’s-the-racist-NOW,libtards!”

    The bad-faith insipid gotcha infantilism is ever more evidence (as if it were needed) that peak wingnut is a lie.

  41. 41.

    TS (the original)

    @Immanentize:

    So May is trying to scare people shitless to support her shit sandwich?

    Politicians of the right persuasion seem to have no other options in their makeup. I am so sick of the fear and hate they like to drum up to stay in power.

  42. 42.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: I love her line about how “a responsible government should plan for the worst”. No, a responsible government would end this madness.

  44. 44.

    satby

    @Betty Cracker: no full moon tonight for you! Probably not me either, but our rain won’t be nearly as bad. Not going to be snow, because the high today will be 46°, it’s already 41° out.

  46. 46.

    Elizabelle

    Der Spiegel, the famous German news magazine out of Hamburg (think Time and Newsweek in their heydays, but still today lots of pages and newsstand space), has its own fake news stories scandal.

    Like fabulists Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair before him, award-winning journalist Claas Relotius was making up characters, facts and stories once the editors’ focus for his story did not pan out. He wrote the usual “what’s going on with the local Midwest yokels?” story in the wake of Trump’s “victory”, and picked the wrong yokels. Two read his story and did not recognize their town or its citizens.

    Residents Michele Anderson and Jake Krohn limited themselves to debunking 11 very clear misrepresentations in Relotius’s article, “Where they pray for Trump on Sundays”, which Der Spiegel has taken down. By the time they published their article, another journalist had already alerted Der Spiegel about fabrications on another story and Relotius was already fired.

    Medium: Der Spiegel journalist messed with the wrong small town

    FWIW, Fergus Falls, in western Minnesota (Otter Tail County!) is closer to Fargo and Grand Rapids than the Twin Cities. Happening little place; once home to the state’s largest mental institution (which closed a few years ago and left a cinema-ready campus) and town is rebranding itself as a supporter and attractor of artists. Star Tribune story on Springboard for the Arts.

    And yeah, right behind the “Welcome to Fergus Falls” sign you can see … an Applebee’s. It’s right there in the Medium photos.

    Michele Anderson in Medium:

    Not only did Relotius’ “exposé” on Fergus Falls make unrecognizable movie-like characters out of the people in my town that I interact with on a daily basis, but its very basic lack of truth and its bizarrely bleak portrayal of the place I love left a very sick, unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach.

    There’s really nothing like this feeling — knowing that people in another country have read about the place I call home and are shaking their heads over their coffee in disgust, sharing the article on Facebook and Twitter, and making comments on the online article like “creepy,” and “these are the people who don’t believe electricity exists.”

    Relotius has received accolades for his daring quest to live among us for several weeks. And yet, he reported on very little actual truth about Fergus Falls life.

    Lot of confirmation bias fodder out there. Der Spiegel expected to find it easily in Fergus Falls. But did not. And where are Der Spiegel’s famous fact-checkers? Relotius’s article had a movie that was not screening at the time, the view from a windowless cafe, not being able to keep the local Mexicans straight (along with a phantom “Mexicans Keep Out” sign), and a City Administrator who is not (a) without a girlfriend, (b) untraveled, and (c) the only person in town to subscribe to a national publication. All tropes.

  47. 47.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’m undecided on whom to support in the 2020 Democratic primary. But President Kamala Harris would drive all the worst people bug-fuck crazy, so that’s an incidental point in her favor.

    Wingnuts are sure to clutch their pearls and squeal they’re being unfairly Harrised.

  49. 49.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    The stock market is on pace for its worst December since the Great Depression

    Published Mon, Dec 17 2018 • 4:24 PM EST | Updated Tue, Dec 18 2018 • 3:56 PM EST

    Two benchmark U.S. stock indexes are careening toward a historically bad December.

    Both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 are on pace for their worst December performance since 1931, when stocks were battered during the Great Depression. The Dow and S&P 500 closed Monday down 7.6 percent and 7.8 percent this month, respectively.

    Who could have known tariffs would backfire.

  52. 52.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Elizabelle: It’s amazing that a reporter could have gotten away with making up a story. Where are the editors and fact checkers to ensure that before a story is published, it is vetted for accuracy? This is embarrassing.

  56. 56.

    OzarkHillbilly

    December 21 will be 56-year-old Joe Kempker’s last day at the Siemens Turbine Plant in Burlington, Iowa, where he’s worked for 31 years.

    The plant has been Kempker’s life. “It takes a little bit of my heart every time one of those machines go out the door,” Kempker said. The German conglomerate, one of the US’s government’s largest contractors, purchased the plant in 2014 and announced its closure earlier this year. One hundred and twenty five people will lose their jobs at a plant that has been in operation since 1870, the latest victims of a wave of closures and offshoring that have increased under the Trump administration despite promises to halt the trend.

    “I’m at an age that probably is not the most desirable in the job market at 56 years old. Too young to retire early, but I can see why someone would have questions hiring someone at my age. It’s devastating,” said Kempker.

    Burlington is a small city with roughly 25,000 people on the Mississippi River. Donald Trump held a campaign rally in the city in October 2015, where he promised “I will be the greatest jobs president that God has ever created.” But critics charge Trump has done little to fulfill his promise as corporations like Siemens continue to shut down plants and send those jobs overseas.

    “It’s something we keep seeing played out over and over. Companies buy a facility, in this case, it had been operating in the Burlington area for over 100 years, it was part of the community, and suddenly they get a notice the plant is closing down,” said Owen Herrnstadt, the director of the trade and globalization program at the International Association of Machinists. “A lot of people during the holiday time are going to be out of a job and we all know how incredibly painful that is.”

    Earlier this year, Siemens laid off more than 200 workers at a turbine plant in Fort Madison, Iowa, just a 20-minute drive from Burlington, though a few months later Siemens announced plans to rehire 100 of those laid off workers. Siemens also announced plans to shut down a turbine plant in Wellsville, New York, in 2020, laying off 250 workers from a plant that has been in operation for more than 100 years, and it shut down a plant in Mount Vernon, Ohio, in September 2018, laying off about 400 workers.

    Since Trump was elected, German manufacturing company Siemens has offshored 1,700 jobs throughout the United States, yet they’ve won $765m in federal contracts during the same period.

  58. 58.

    SFAW

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Where are the editors and fact checkers to ensure that before a story is published, it is vetted for accuracy?

    They’re all on loan to the FTFTFNYT for an upcoming, GROUNDBREAKING, 15-part series on Joe Doakes, a farmer in East Overshoe, Nebraska, who despite losing the family farm and associated business because of the tariffs, is still a Shitgibbon supporter.

  65. 65.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    As someone who wishes he was still within spittin’ distance of 56, I sympathize with that guy. I considered snarking that Wal-Mart is hiring, but being out of work at 56, with no prospects, is pretty bad.

  68. 68.

    Elizabelle

    @Patricia Kayden: Truly. This one will have legs. Writer has copped to fake stuff being in 14 of his stories, but he’s published maybe 30. And it’s Der Spiegel. Probably one of Germany’s five most famous publications, if not the most recognizable.

    And it gives fodder to the people who scream fake news.

    PS: Last year at this time, Der Spiegel’s cover had Mary and Joseph with Jesus in the manger, delivered by Amazon.

  69. 69.

    debbie

    @SFAW:

    I listened to an interview on Monday with a guy who had been let go from McDonald Douglas after 29 years (1 year shy of his full pension). At 80, he’s a Walmart greeter and his wife can’t afford her diabetes prescriptions. These are real tragedies.

  72. 72.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @debbie:

    If in fact Ann actually wrote this, this is the first time in her very long career that she has spoken truth.

    Sometimes, when the party’s over and your plodding horse’s ass ain’t got no more juice, even a vile demagogic grifter like Ann “I’ll-Say-Anything-for-Munnies!” Coulter knows that truth is oft yer best lifeboat.

  75. 75.

    Aleta

    Fear mongering I saw on the internet: (paraphrase) If the wall doesn’t get built we’ll lose the entire Congress and the Chief to the Dems. Who want the borders wide open to monster invasion. So send money and build a wall.

  81. 81.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: I pretty much had to roll it up at 56. My wife just lost her job of 30+ yrs at the age of 60 and finding a new one has been problematic to say the least

  84. 84.

    JPL

    Trump confuses me. Yesterday he tweeted that we are leaving Syria because we defeated ISIS. Today he tweeted that Syria, Russia and Iran are upset about our plans because now they have to fight ISIS alone. One of these statements appears to be false, or what I like to say is why not both.

  85. 85.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    @Aleta:

    … So send money and build a wall.

    (Sung to the tune of …)

    All in all, it’s just another kick in the balls.

  86. 86.

    Kay

    @Aleta:

    Spite fence is a term used in American property law to refer to an overly tall fence, structure in the nature of a fence, or a row of trees, bushes, or hedges, constructed or planted between adjacent lots by a property owner (with no legitimate purpose), who is annoyed with or wishes to annoy a neighbor, or who wishes to completely obstruct the view between lots. Several U.S. states and local governments have regulations to prohibit spite fences, or related regulations such as those establishing a maximum allowed height for fences.

  87. 87.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I hear you. I consider myself exceedingly fortunate that I lucked into my current work; if I didn’t have this, I’d probably end up at Walmart myself. Because who the hell is going to hire a 60-plus engineer whose CAD skills are not current?

  88. 88.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    WASHINGTON —
    The 44th President of the United States tried his hand at a new gig: Santa Claus.

    Wearing a Santa hat and carrying a bag full of toys, Barack Obama visited children and their families at Children’s National Hospital in Washington D.C.

    (photo)

    Man, he’s just trolling Meygan Kelly

  90. 90.

    Baud

    @John S.: If he runs, he’ll have to answer for his votes. Until then, I don’t see a reason to join the recent progressive push to kneecap him prematurely.

  92. 92.

    SFAW

    @JPL:

    or what I like to say is why not both.

    The correct choice. Russia is probably pretty happy to have the US out of there.

    I half-expect Fuckhead-in-Chief to tweet that he’s looking into ending manufacturing in this country because we’ve “defeated” China in that realm.

  95. 95.

    Kay

    Betsy DeVos used her (poor quality) school safety report to rescind Obama administration guidance on the disparate impact of public school discipline policies on black and brown kids.

    Mean-spirited, nasty people. They had a chance to do something decent- focus on school shootings- and instead they used the report to drum up resentment on a long list of Right wing grievances. They packed so many Right wing hobbyhorses into the report that it’s incoherent garbage, and useless.

  96. 96.

    John S.

    @Baud:

    That’s a nice sentiment, but as we have seen time and again, once a meme gains critical mass about a politician, their actual voting record becomes less relevant than their persona.

    It’s a phenomenon nearly worthy of becoming one of Cleek’s laws.

  97. 97.

    JPL

    @Kay: He’s moved onto the wall. Democrats don’t want border security, and border patrol is doing a great job stopping the immigrants. It’s all too confusing, except for the part that we must not mention Flynn.

  101. 101.

    Platonailedit

    Finally.

    The United States Senate has unanimously approved a bill to make lynching a federal crime in the country.

    Three black senators introduced the bill in June to allow lynching to be charged as a hate crime alongside existing crimes such as murder.

    For much of US history, lynchings were rarely prosecuted at all.

    More than 200 anti-lynching bills have been introduced to Congress since 1918, all of which have been voted down.

    Lynching is murder by a mob with no due process or rule of law. In the US South in the 19th and 20th Centuries, thousands of African Americans were lynched by white mobs, often by hanging.

    In a tweet, Senator Kamala Harris – one of the bill’s architects – said the vote was “history.”

    “I thought we did that many years ago,” Mr McConnell said earlier this year in an interview with Sirius XM radio. “If we need one at the federal level, I certainly will support it,” he said.

    Of course, the asshole ‘thought’ that.

  102. 102.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @John S.: The Guardian printed their latest pro Wilmer fluff piece just yesterday: Why Bernie Sanders is (still) the most progressive choice for president

    and on Monday had this little doozy up: Beto O’Rourke poses growing threat to fellow Democrats with 2020 hopes

    That Beto,coming out of Texas, has taken positions liberals might find troublesome is no surprise, but the same can be said of Wilmer. The Guardian has had a pro Wilmer slant for quite some time, and their anti Beto agenda has become undeniable.

    Be aware that you are having your chain yanked.

  107. 107.

    David Evans

    @OzarkHillbilly: Re: drones. I think these drones are flying too high to be reached by a shotgun from the ground. There are lasers and radar jammers that could be used. Also nets that could be deployed from helicopters. I’ve no doubt that after this, major airports will be scrambling to acquire them.

  108. 108.

    satby

    @JR: it doesn’t make the cat sick and it’s not a danger to humans unless they have compromised immunity, or to pregnant women. They tell all pregnant women with cats not to change or clean litter boxes as a result.

  109. 109.

    Kay

    Trump tweeted that he won’t sign any of the Democrats legislation, “including infrastructure” unless they fund his wall.

    They’ll be happy he credited Democrats with infrastructure. It’s wildly popular.

    In fact, setting it up as “Trump’s wall v Democrats infrastructure- roads and bridges and ports” might be an ideal contrast.

  110. 110.

    Gin & Tonic

    @OzarkHillbilly: Siemens. My grandfather worked for them before the war – lost his job when he refused to join the Party, AFAIK. They, um, are not a humanitarian organization.

  114. 114.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @David Evans:

    Also nets that could be deployed from helicopters.

    I was thinking of shotguns in helicopters. A thirty inch barrel w/full choke should be able to hit a drone with a dozen or so pellets at 40-50 yards, and at 100 yds or more #7 won’t have the kinetic energy to cause damage.

  119. 119.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Gin & Tonic: I don’t know, I’m not going to read it either. I am really tired of other people telling me how I should feel about various possible candidates. I’ll wait until the primaries start and make my own decision when I can see how they measure up against one another.

  120. 120.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: I wish it were only The Guardian. It’s almost like some secret bat signal went out instructing the Wilmerites to attack O’Rourke, who probably won’t even run. It’s easy to see why O’Rourke spooks them, though.

  121. 121.

    low-tech cyclist

    I was already a big Tom Perriello fan before reading this story, but wow, just wow. What an amazing human being.

  122. 122.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven:

    @Mustang Bobby:

    Keep that shit away from Miami. I drove my antique car to work this morning and it leaks.

    Just made me think that the same could be said about some of us older people as well.

  124. 124.

    low-tech cyclist

    @OzarkHillbilly: Take your time and make up your own mind, but look ’em over as much as possible in 2019. The primaries are over practically before they start, most years: IIRC, Super Tuesday is just three weeks after Iowa in 2020.

  125. 125.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: The Guardian is the one I am aware of because it is the one I read every day. Kind of hard not to see it.

    It’s easy to see why O’Rourke spooks them, though.

    He’s got that certain something that makes people sit up and listen.

  126. 126.

    Princess

    @Kay: He’s such a terrible negotiator — pick the most popular item on your opponents agenda and swear to block it.

  127. 127.

    gvg

    @JR: Apparently it’s not actually a problem.

    Once infected with Toxoplasma is my cat always able to spread the infection to me? collapsed

    No, cats only spread Toxoplasma in their feces for 1-3 weeks following infection with the parasite. Like humans, cats rarely have symptoms when infected, so most people do not know if their cat has been infected. Your veterinarian can answer any other questions you may have regarding your cat and risk for toxoplasmosis.

    For more information on toxoplasmosis in cats: https://www.capcvet.org/guidelines/toxoplasma-gondii/

  129. 129.

    JGabriel

    Ladyraxterinok:

    Cannot read rest of story in OP. WaPo has firewall.

    Which browser do you use? Chrome?

    If Chrome, go to Settings | Advanced | Content Settings | Cookies

    Scroll down till you find the section “Clear on Exit” near the bottom.

    Click Add.

    Where it says site, type in: [*.]washingtonpost.com

    Hit enter

    While you’re there, you might also want to add: [*.]nytimes.com

    Close your browser and start it again. You should be able to access WaPo again. Whenever you hit their article limit, close your browser, start it again, and it should delete the cookie that counts how many articles you’re read that month, effectively resetting it to zero.

    If you’re using a different browser, I can’t help you. But the concept is the same – look for the section in the application’s settings that let you tell it to clear cookies that track you on exit.

    Obviously, don’t do this if you want to support them financially. In that case, just pay for an account.

    Otherwise, if WaPo and NYT want to track you fine, but they can do it on their own dime, using their own equipment – there’s no need or reason for you to let them keep cookies on your own computer that keep you from accessing their sites.

  130. 130.

    JPL

    @OzarkHillbilly: Agree with you about Beto. I’d like to see him on the ticket in the vice slot
    because he excites people. I loved Tim Kaine, but for whatever reason, he didn’t excite people. We need a cheerleader.

  131. 131.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @low-tech cyclist:

    Take your time and make up your own mind,

    I’ll take my time but I’m not likely to make up my mind until the wkend before the primary. I’m a yellow dog DEM who will support whoever the nominee is but my choice inevitably comes down to whichever one I think is the most electable, who is nearly always not the one who pushes all the right buttons.

  134. 134.

    sdhays

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I remember the first time I had ever heard of Ann Coulter. It was in her (FTFNYT?) Op-Ed after 9/11, where she said “we” should commit war crimes in Afghanistan and “convert ‘them’ to Christianity” in response. I was horrified that such an awful screed was actually published by a “respectable” publication, and I’m still horrified that she has been able to get anyone outside of the wingnut-o-sphere to give her the time of day in the years since. It should be difficult for her to get a job as a temporary day laborer, let alone get paid for her to speak or write.

    She is just about the most disgusting person in American punditry, and what a distinction that is considering all of the competition.

  135. 135.

    Elizabelle

    Here’s a copy of the Der Spiegel story on Fergus Falls. In the original German. You can’t use adblocker if you want to see DSp content. Catch it quick, in event they take it down.

    Fans des US-Präsidenten

    Wo sie sonntags für Trump beten

    Die US-Kleinstadt Fergus Falls ist typisch für das ländliche Amerika, das Donald Trump ins Weiße Haus gewählt hat. Wer sind die, die dort leben? Ein Monat unter Menschen, die den Präsidenten für ihren Retter halten.

    Von Claas Relotius

    AMIR BAIT! Of course we can run it through a translator, but Amir might enjoy looking it over in the original German. Which is often similar enough to English to have fun trying to parse it out. You can figure out “wald” and some of the other common German words …

    I found it via this article from the Star Tribune, which had a working link.

    Stuff like this fascinates me.

  136. 136.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud:

    Crossing wires with another commenter up above, I thought you meant Claire Foy. Rachel is doing celebrity interviews now?

  140. 140.

    tobie

    @Elizabelle: I skimmed the article because it was long and I didn’t feel like devoting that much of my morning to yet another exposé on Trump voters. It appeared in March 2017 and is currently under suspicion for misrepresentations, distortions and fabrications according to the Spiegel website. (Is this part of your interest in the article? I sense there’s a backstory I’m missing.)

    Anyhow…the people in this town seem to be like the Trump supporters featured on TV. They were convinced that Democrats would take their guns away; they fear immigrants from the south, although the town in which they live is something like 96% white; and they were convinced that neither Hillary nor Obama was of the people and would fight for the people (i.e., good ol’ fashioned, salt of the earth white working class folk). The town executive said Obama was for “bankers, gays, and students,” not folks like him in Fergus Falls.

    So there you have–the typical populist palaver. One funny tidbit: the town executive knew tons about Imperial Germany but didn’t have a clue who Angela Merkel is. That tells you a lot about whom he identifies with.

  141. 141.

    Platonailedit

    U.S. voters say 3 to 1 that any president should face indictment, per @QuinnipiacPoll.

    71–21%, including 49–38% among Republicans, believe any president should be subject to being charged with a crime while in office, rather than after a president leaves office.

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 20, 2018

    but, but his 40% ‘popularity rating’?

  143. 143.

    J R in WV

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    “@satby: No full moon for anybody tonight, the full moon is on Saturday.”

    Well, but, my dogs can’t tell the difference… they were in and out all night, thanks to my wife and I getting up to let them i and out. Bark, bark, bark… until just a few minutes ago, when they got a morning cookie (Milkbonz) and crashed hard!

  145. 145.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    In fact, setting it up as “Trump’s wall v Democrats infrastructure- roads and bridges and ports” might be an ideal contrast.

    Sounds good to me.

  146. 146.

    Elizabelle

    @tobie: Cool, tobie. I had forgotten your facility with German. Wow. We must talk further.

    My interest was just with the fabulism by the journalist, and I wonder how much of those details, which resonate, are factually true. Star Tribune informs the guy visited a few other small towns in Minnesota, and — if they are “true”, some things might be composites.

    How much was delivering for the audience, which apparently the writer and his editors presumed loves to thrill about uneducated rubes, and how much actually was observed or happened?

    How much would any community appreciate being depicted with only its oddballs or outliers? Especially if fabricated? (Although 62% voting support for Trump in 2016 is heinous; the Fergus Falls residents/writers confirm that.)

  148. 148.

    tobie

    @Elizabelle: Okay…I guessed your interest in the article had something to do with its journalistic malpractice. I will look up how the author of the article was treated in the German press. Yes, the people interviewed do all seem to be stereotypical Trump supporters. But, then again, the Trump voters I know invariably end up spewing slogans when asked about their voting choice. They usually explain their vote by saying Hillary was so corrupt or some nonsense about guns, immigration, the American way, etc. My own interest is in the judgment about who is of and for the people. Populism has to divide the world into those who speak for the people (the vox populi) and those who are against them (i.e., unrooted cosmopolitans, globalists, people who work with capital as opposed to the soil). You see a bit of that in the article. It’s also what makes me deeply suspicious of populists of any stripe from Trump to Chris Matthews and, shall we say, some contenders for the Democratic party’s nomination in 2020.

  150. 150.

    Gin & Tonic

    @tobie: According to the related Medium piece, pretty much everything in the original article was made up, and Der Spiegel has fired the author.

  152. 152.

    John S.

    @Betty Cracker:

    Beto came from a pretty safe blue district, meaning he didn’t have to vote the way he often did. And yet, his record stands.

    It’s bad enough we were saddled with one Wilmer. We don’t need another one.

Comments are closed.