Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

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

Democrats are back in array!

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

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

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself. We’re allowed to grow past that.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Let there be snark.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Open Thread: Duncan Hunter, GOP Poster Boy of the Week

Open Thread: Duncan Hunter, GOP Poster Boy of the Week

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And here I thought Rep. Duncan was just a California-gated-community version of Jared Kushner — the entitled scion of a successful grifter who misused campaign funds because he felt he was entitled to a nicer lifestyle than he could afford honestly. Give Jared this much credit: either he has the sense keep his pants zipped, or he picks partners who have as much to lose from exposure as he does. Duncan was using campaign funds to ‘party’ with lobbyists — and using the campaign credit card he knew his ‘campaign manager’ wife would be auditing!

… “I’m saying when I went to Iraq in 2003 the first time I gave her power of attorney and she handled my finances throughout my entire military career and that continued on when I got to Congress since I’m gone five days and home for two,” Hunter said at the time. “She was also the campaign manager.”

“So whatever she did, that will be looked at, too, I’m sure,” he continued. “But I didn’t do it.”…

Bonus ‘Party of Family Value’ points:


Paging Ollie North…

P.S. Hunter was re-elected by his constituents last November even after news of his indictment…

Reader Interactions

176Comments

  1. 1.

    trollhattan

    He would never have had those affairs if his wife didn’t drive him to the arms of another woman…women as a result of her thievery.

    Naturally, he ain’t resigning. #Ain’tTooProudToBeRepublican

  2. 2.

    MattF

    Poster boys all over the place (via bloomberg)

    Trump’s chief of protocol was pulled from AF1 manifest for G20 trip after his staff complained about intimidating behavior, including carrying a horsewhip in office.

    I can see why Trump’s chief of protocol would have a horsewhip.

  3. 3.

    hilts

    OT

    One more piece of evidence that the White House Press Corps are a bunch of assholes. Sarah Sanders treated them with utter contempt and lied non-stop, but these dummies thought it was just fine to hold a farewell party for her.

    ON JUNE 13, WHEN SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS announced that she would step down as White House Press Secretary, Francesca Chambers, White House correspondent for the Daily Mail, and Anita Kumar, White House correspondent for Politico, invited some Trump staffers and members of the press corps to “farewell drinks” in honor of “SHS.”

    Held at Rare Steakhouse, the entrance was roped off for the event. Chambers clutched a glass of sparkling wine and presided over the guests—by the evening’s end, there would be about 50.

    The correspondents huddled to grab selfies with Sanders.

    A White House correspondent who resembled a young William Shatner (and didn’t want to be named) took a gulp of beer and said that the night felt like “the end of a battle, or a decent game of rugby, where at the end of the day you shake hands.”

    A colleague chimed in, “Everybody has their issue with Sarah Sanders, but if you can’t have a drink with somebody, then all of civilization has broken down.”

    h/t https://www.cjr.org/b-roll/sarah-huckabee-sanders-party-reporters.php

  4. 4.

    West of the Rockies

    Why is it that being able to consume alcohol (have a beer) with someone is some big test of authenticity or value?

  5. 5.

    Patricia Kayden

    He was re-elected so it’s all good. Republicans are lucky since their constituents don’t hold them to the moral standards that they push down everyone else’s throat.

  6. 6.

    TenguPhule

    As he blamed her for stealing from the campaign funds, I’m sure he’ll blame the affairs on her for not being available enough.

  7. 7.

    TenguPhule

    @West of the Rockies:

    Why is it that being able to consume alcohol (have a beer) with someone is some big test of authenticity or value?

    If you can fake enjoying drinking the dog piss that passes for American beer, you can do damn near anything. //

  8. 8.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MattF:

    Not just pulled off AF1 — quit-fired!!

    Every single time, I think it can’t possibly get any more surreal, and every single time, it does.

  9. 9.

    TenguPhule

    @hilts:

    “Everybody has their issue with Sarah Sanders, but if you can’t have a drink with somebody, then all of civilization has broken down.”

    Never have I wanted civilization to burn down more then at this moment.

  11. 11.

    The Dangerman

    @hilts:

    A colleague chimed in, “Everybody has their issue with Sarah Sanders, but if you can’t have a drink with somebody, then all of civilization has broken down.”

    …and if her drink had a couple of drops of dishsoap added….

  12. 12.

    TenguPhule

    Prosecutors are also moving to block Hunter from arguing that all Congressmen misuse campaign funds

    Have I mentioned lately just how much I hate this fucking godawful timeline we all seem to be eternally trapped in?

  13. 13.

    Steve in the ATL

    I’m almost kinda beginning to think that republicans might be really shitty people.

    But I’m in a restaurant that is showing Fox News which assures me that the gays and the coloreds and the women’s libbers are the problem.

    ETA: there is another tv showing drag racing. So all you blue state people whining about your lives can shut your respective pie holes.

  14. 14.

    A Ghost To Most

    I don’t know if Hunter claiming a political hit job, or Jerry Falwell jr explaining away pool boys and concentration camps, is the better example of “conservatism”.

  15. 15.

    TenguPhule

    ‘The Taliban gave me toothpaste’: Ex-captives contrast U.S. treatment of child migrants

    SMH, When Pirates and the Taliban get to look down on you with contempt.

  17. 17.

    dmsilev

    How long until we learn about the two wetsuits and the dildo? Because we all know that’s coming.

  18. 18.

    TenguPhule

    @dmsilev:

    How long until we learn about the two wetsuits and the dildo? Because we all know that’s coming.

    Hunter or Falwell?

  19. 19.

    A Ghost To Most

    @TenguPhule:
    On the plus side, our preparations for any unpleasantness are way far along. Every time I shift into nuetral, they do something heinous to get me off my ass again.

  20. 20.

    Steve in the ATL

    @TenguPhule: ha! There is no salmon within 20 miles of me. Seafood options here are shrimp and tilapia. I may also be the only person here who finished high school.

  28. 28.

    Steve in the ATL

    @SiubhanDuinne: btw, the wine you drink at your local would be Chateau Lafite Rothschild compared to what’s available here.

    I’m a flexible guy, however, and can live with Modela Especial and Negra (no offense).

  31. 31.

    Eljai

    Josh Marshall at TPM highlighted an intriguing paragraph from the Hunter Filing about Hunter’s so-call get-togethers. Apparently, there is evidence that is so sensitive that prosecutors are afraid that public disclosure could taint the jury pool. The stuff we already know about is pretty bad, so what could it be? Were goats involved? It would be irresponsible not to speculate…

  33. 33.

    TenguPhule

    @Eljai:

    Apparently, there is evidence that is so sensitive that prosecutors are afraid that public disclosure could taint the jury pool.

    So there were dildos involved.

  34. 34.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Baud: there is one in this strip mall! Along with KFC and A&W and various other horrors.

    So, for the remainder of the evening, do I (1) get really high and watch Jamaica v. Cameroon, or (2) smoke some brown oil heroin and watch Honduras v. El Salvador?

  35. 35.

    Anne Laurie

    @dmsilev:

    How long until we learn about the two wetsuits and the dildo? Because we all know that’s coming.

    Speculation on twitter, at the moment, seems to revolve around using campaign funds to pay for prostitutes (gender & ages unspecified) as ‘party favors’ for his fellow Repubs. People may just be hoping Hunter will take a few of his tainted fellows down with him…

  38. 38.

    lamh36

    #NEW according to a @KamalaHarris Campaign Adviser, the Senator has been debate prepping @ @gmmb’s DC office while in town. Did some more in Miami yesterday & today. Part of that prep: Caribbean food – arroz con pollo & stewed fish and callaloo.

    Also according to the @KamalaHarris campaign advisor, the Senator sees this debate as a huge opportunity to introduce herself to millions. I’m told she plans to continue her message — that she can prosecute the case against four more years of President Donald Trump.
    https://twitter.com/ramirezreports/status/1143664488371118080?s=21

  41. 41.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Baud: because I have to prep my witnesses in the morning, but, now that I think about it, how hard can it be to do lawyering in northeast Alabama? Weed and smack it is. Thanks, Mr. soon-to-be President!

  42. 42.

    Anne Laurie

    @John Revolta:

    I gotta say, this story makes me wonder a little what exactly are the job requirements for being a “lobbyist”

    Lobbyists are salespeople for “ideas”. If you’re a professional lobbyist for the GOP, either you basically agree with the GOP program… or you figure you’ve done worse things to please more repellant individuals than Rep. Hunter.

  44. 44.

    Roger Moore

    @West of the Rockies:

    Why is it that being able to consume alcohol (have a beer) with someone is some big test of authenticity or value?

    Beer is considered to be a normal, middle/working class drink; that’s why people will sometimes describe an ordinary person as “Joe Sixpack”. Saying that a politician is somebody you could have a beer with is a way of suggesting they’re an ordinary person you could engage with the same way you do with your normal social group, rather than an elitist snob who drinks expensive wine or fancy cocktails. It’s a way the media projects its own biases about people living outside their bubble.

  46. 46.

    Jay

    “This is the second targeted arrest of people defending Pride as police continue to target queers and the LGBTQ2+ community,” it said in a statement on its Facebook page.

    “At this point, no one from the right has been arrested or charged with anything.”

    The lack of arrests on the anti-Pride side has drawn criticism. The Hamilton and District Labour Council wrote an open letter Monday to police and Mayor Fred Eisenberger saying police appear to be prioritizing the wrong things.

    “There is video footage, from Gage Park, of an identified male assaulting two people with a weapon and he was wandering the streets of Toronto this past weekend inflicting the same harassment and violence at that Pride event,” the letter says.

    To sum up so far:

    Nazi’s and Christofacists attacked Hamilton Pride with weapons.

    Hamilton Police Services did nothing because “they wern’t invited to Pride”.

    Instead, they are arresting Pride Participants and LBGTQ Activists.

    6 of the same Nazi’s also violently attacked Toronto Pride with weapons.

    None of the Nazi’s have been arrested depite posting on social media, plans to attack Pride, video’s clearly showing them assaulting people, later tracking down and assaulting Pride stragglers, and boasting of their assaults on their social media.

    https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5188910

    https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5188153

    SSDD Halifax with the Halifax Police Services, also protecting Nazis.

  48. 48.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Steve in the ATL: FOX is the channel of choice here in Old People Central, so Mr DAW and I have been running this guerilla campaign in which we change the TVs in the café and on the gym machines to CNN and then hide the remotes. We do what we can.

  52. 52.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I do that too! Couldn’t find the remote in a gym the other day in Texas, so I unplugged the tv. When I left a couple of days later, it was still off. Mission accomplished!

  53. 53.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Baud: “is Gillette Foamy thick and rich enough to stop this union decertification campaign?”

    My turn to show my age….

  54. 54.

    Martin

    I’m glad that at least some Dems realize that the problems at the border aren’t due to funding. The federal government isn’t unable to pay for toothpaste, just as it didn’t take 3 days to get water to the Superdome because we couldn’t afford to buy water.

    These things are happening either because the people running the government want them to happen, or because they’re so incompetent that they can’t actually do it. Or both. Giving them more money won’t change any of this.

  57. 57.

    NotMax

    @lamh36

    Trivia: The Highlights headquarters are quite homey and demurely unobtrusive, smack in the middle of a residential street, identifiable only by an understated lawn sign about the size of a real estate agent’s for sale placard. Not too far from my old stomping grounds in NE Pennsylvania.

  59. 59.

    Mike in NC

    Maybe Hunter was a frequent lunch guest at the White House where he and Fat Bastard quietly spoke about their deep respect for all women.

  60. 60.

    kindness

    Don’t you love it when you see karma in action? Usually we don’t. Karma doesn’t work that way. But when it does, especially in today’s world, it is quite the sight, huh?

  61. 61.

    Steve in the ATL

    Perhaps I’ve been in the city too long, but why are three people sitting in the bed of a pickup truck in a strip mall parking lot, and why do the men’s shirts not have sleeves?

    #CletusSafari

  62. 62.

    NotMax

    @Steve in the ATL

    My turn to show my age….

    “I dreamed I settled a labor dispute in my Maidenform bra.”

    (Not intended to suggest extant or former personal wardrobe.)    ;)

  63. 63.

    A Ghost To Most

    @Jay: I’m sorry the infection has spread to your fine country. I’d like to be surprised, but some of nastiest pieces of work I know live east of Niagara Falls.

    Fucking Nazis.

  64. 64.

    NotMax

    @Steve in the ATL

    why are three people sitting in the bed of a pickup truck in a strip mall parking lot

    Left the instructions for how to get out at home?

    Bird Liberal watching?

  65. 65.

    NotMax

    @NotMax

    One more; popped into noggin the very moment the publish button was activated.

    “Hold my beer” superglue incident?

  66. 66.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @TenguPhule:

    Seafood options here are shrimp and tilapia.

    Let me guess. Fried and grilled or grilled and then fried.

    Silly TenguPhule. You forgot “breaded.”

  67. 67.

    Brachiator

    Hunter’s wife must be pissed. She pled guilty to using campaign funds for vacations only to learn that Hunter was also using the money for his side piece.

    Republican family values.

  69. 69.

    TenguPhule

    @John Revolta:

    I gotta say, this story makes me wonder a little what exactly are the job requirements for being a “lobbyist”

    Same qualifications as a used car salesperson. But with lower standards of conduct.

  72. 72.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    Jeezus, you must be old! Thought I was pretty much the only commenter here who might remember that years-long Maidenform campaign.

  75. 75.

    leeleeFL

    @TenguPhule: Where the hell is the Meteor?! I swear to the FSM this shit cannot continue much longer. I haven’t watched a news report on television since 11/8/16. This crap oozes thru to me only in very small doses, and still, I can’t even with these people.

  78. 78.

    Brachiator

    @Martin:

    These things are happening either because the people running the government want them to happen, or because they’re so incompetent that they can’t actually do it. Or both.

    Clearly it’s more the former.

    Giving them more money won’t change any of this.

    I thought all the money was supposed to be for the Wall.

    Trump is a liar, and the GOP leadership love to follow Trump’s lead. The Democrats need to nail them to the Wall over this.

  80. 80.

    TenguPhule

    @Barbara:

    Prostitutes or gay prostitutes. Wonkette speculation.

    Impossible. We’ve already seen that hookers don’t budge public opinion if its a Republican.

  83. 83.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @SiubhanDuinne: it’s like a bad reality show trying to hang onto ratings where the b list show stars are doing crazy stuff to get attention.

  85. 85.

    karen marie

    @MattF:

    Lawler has worked for the government for almost three decades, according to his State Department biography. He’s a U.S. Navy veteran who has served in diplomatic roles at the White House National Security Council and U.S. Cyber Command in Maryland. Individual-1 has little fondness for Lawler, and repeatedly asked why he still worked at the White House, according to the people.

    Yeah, I’m going to have to take the accusation that he carried a whip in the office with a GIGANTIC grain of salt.

    The quote is from a Bloomberg story but because I have a thing that changes “Trump” to “Individual-1,” it’s screwing up the link address with the substitution. When I manually change “Individual-1” in the link address to “Trump” it comes back “page not found,” and of course does the same thing with the link left reading “individual-1.” Hahahaha. Trump manages to fuck up everything.

  88. 88.

    karen marie

    @hilts: If it was perfectly appropriate, why were only a handful of people willing to be mentioned by name?

  90. 90.

    Dan B

    @Jay: Seattle Pride is this weekend. It’s usually 300,000+. It wouldn’t take much to cause panic with so many people jammed together. The Trans march has been threatened by Proud Boys and others and there have been sporadic assaults. The Leather community is planning to protect the trans march so we’ll see how it goes.

    Pretty disturbing to hear Hamilton and Toronto police ignoring, or helping, the thugs. Seattle Police have been under federal examination for years because of racism so they may be on better behavior. Our lesbian Mayor and other LGBT higher ups may provide some buffer. Portland may be the flash point – bigger Proud Boys presence there.

  92. 92.

    Hungry Joe

    Duncan Hunter’s district is NOT gated-community-like. It’s east San Diego County, just east of my district, and a lot of it is semi-rural redneck. He was reelected 51.5-48.5, even though he’d already been indicted, largely because 1) see “redneck,” above; 2) his father, Duncan Sr., a lower-profile crook, held the seat for many years, and a lot of the locals (see “rednecks,” above, yet again) seem to think he’s the same guy; and 3) his Dem opponent’s heritage is half Hispanic and half Lebanese, and his name (Ammar Campa-Najjar) reflected that. My wife and I canvassed for Ammar, and I had three of the scariest, diciest canvassing experiences I’ve ever had. Whole lotta nasty, frightened people out there.

  93. 93.

    Jeffro

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Let’s be honest…those 5 gals are no more “lobbyists” than I am a brain surgeon or astronaut.

    Let’s see an expose’ here, WaPo…who is pimping these “lobbyists” out on the Hill, and what are they getting in return?

  94. 94.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Jeffro:

    those 5 gals are no more “lobbyists” than I am a brain surgeon or astronaut.

    Heh, when’s your next flight to ISS Doctor?

    Yeah, what do you think constitutes the qualifications for lobbyist? Especially for the current crop of Republicans.

  96. 96.

    Ruckus

    @West of the Rockies:
    How many of the people who use that test would you want to sit and have a drink with? In my mind a reasonable person’s concept of that answer is zero. There has to be something there to talk about that one doesn’t need alcohol to make the situation palatable. One might even think that having the test of having a drink with this person would be OK says more about the person giving the test.

  99. 99.

    Marmot

    @TenguPhule:

    If you can fake enjoying drinking the dog piss that passes for American beer, you can do damn near anything.

    That makes sense only if you’re visiting from 1989. You’re revealed time traveler!

  103. 103.

    Miss Bianca

    @lamh36: @NotMax: I primarily associate “Highlights” magazine with my time spent waiting in terror/dread at my dentist’s office when I was a tad, when they were the only relief available: so glad, very glad, as it turns out, that they are still around, still relevant, and kicking socio-political ass. Good on them!

  106. 106.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:
    OK that’s worth 2 points. You are finally on the board.
    I will say that Steve in the where ever does know how to use a knife and a fork. Of course I ate food not fit for a dog, off a steel tray for 4 yrs so maybe I’m shouldn’t be one to talk.

  108. 108.

    Jeffro

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Low-hanging fruit for any enterprising young reporter here…guaranteed headlines for at least 72 hours, which is an eternity in today’s media environment.

  109. 109.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio

    I realize ice hockey is of limited interest to many here, but the San Jose Sharks posted the schedule for their 2019/2020 season on Twitter, and listed a song for each game.
    Some are vaguely connected to the team or place they’re playing, some are playful jokes—“Living in Beverly Hills” for a game against the Last s Angela’s Kings—others are connected, downright painfully.

    For their first game against Boston, the losers in this year’s championship, the song selected is Whitney Houston’s “Didn’t We Almost Have it All.”

  114. 114.

    Jeffro

    On a side note, MSNBC…you know, the liberal, thoughtful news network…actually has a ‘LIVE!’ Countdown clock going leading up to tomorrow night’s Dem debate.

    Instead of, you know, a countdown clock to trumpov’s last day, or X number of days and counting since children have been getting put in cages, days since Helsinki, etc etc

  120. 120.

    Elizabelle

    Mueller Time. July 17. WaPo:

    Former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III will testify to Congress in open session next month about his investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and possible obstruction of justice by President Trump.

    The House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, in a late-night announcement Tuesday, said that “pursuant to a subpoena” Mueller has agreed to appear before both panels on July 17.

    “Americans have demanded to hear directly from the special counsel so they can understand what he and his team examined, uncovered, and determined about Russia’s attack on our democracy, the Trump campaign’s acceptance and use of that help, and President Trump and his associates’ obstruction of the investigation into that attack,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) in a statement. “We look forward to hearing his testimony, as do all Americans.”

  125. 125.

    Jay

    @Dan B:

    Detroit Pride,

    Watch out for Patriot Prayer.

    There was supposed to be a SF Pride attack, but they couldn’t get anyone to show up.

  127. 127.

    hilts

    @glory b:

    Mueller subpoenad to testify in open session July 17!

    Well, it’s about motherfucking time. I thought they were going to wait until December.

  130. 130.

    Ruckus

    @A Ghost To Most:
    Sober? Nah.
    Ability to drive at any stage of inebriation? Possible.
    Ability to find the keys because it’s someone else’s truck, that they don’t know? Real possible.
    Having a good time? Well it is a Sat in a no where town……

  133. 133.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @glory b: I hope they’re also bringing in his deputies. From what people who know him say (Chuck Rosenberg, among others), and the fact that they had to subpoena him, Mueller will go out of his way to be an uncooperative witness. I suspect more than one of that group wants to be made to talk. Just a hunch that not everyone share Mueller’s apparently exaggerated, not to say narcissistic, sense of rectitude.

  137. 137.

    patrick II

    Being a Republican lobbyist requires more repulsive duties than I had imagined.

  138. 138.

    raven

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: WWII Navy Food Remembered

    A]t Eniwetok in the Pacific during World War II they fed us mostly dehydrated food. One was an orange item that was billed as Pumpkin one time and Sweet Potato at others. Neither way was it worth the trouble to prepare…. [W]e had a small British contingent of four warships in the harbor. One day when they were ashore they were given some dehydrated potatoes. Two days later on my watch, they sent in a visual (flashing light) message that read: “Those potatoes you gave us: we have tried boiling, frying, and stewing them. How can they be prepared for eating?” Our cooks never found out either! But those powdered eggs were not fit for humans to eat. After two attempts, I gave up on them. If it had not been for the tin cans Marie [Anderson’s wife] and Mother sent me, I might not have made it!

  139. 139.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud:

    Hello, BJ bud who has become one of my passwords (Baud2020; easy to remember).

    Been lurking.

  141. 141.

    Jay

    We are asking that on top of joining in local demonstrations, that people make respectful calls to Cassie Rapert, the Director of Conference Event Reservation, who is in charge of booking events at the park, and Commissioner David Salyers, a new political appointee to the park system. We demand that the State of Tennessee stop booking KKK, neo-Nazi, and white nationalists events in public parks!

    https://itsgoingdown.org/call-in-to-get-the-klan-and-neo-nazis-out-of-tennessee-parks/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

  142. 142.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Republicans are lucky since their constituents don’t hold them to the moral standards that they push down everyone else’s throat.

    How would the party exist if they did?

    “Constituents say we can’t be grifter, hypocritical, racist, sexist assholes. Guess that’s the end of the party.”

  144. 144.

    Elizabelle

    I hope a few of our representatives ask Mueller some very pointed questions pertaining to AG Barr’s purposeful misrepresentation of his report. Really dig; set the stage for eventual impeachment hearings WRT Barr.

  145. 145.

    Ruckus

    @RAVEN:
    Better than pissing about the boat moving. Because they only serve food at certain times but the boat moves all the time. Sometimes it moves enough to do a compound fracture of a leg. This actually happened once, cook went to a food locker that was a deck below him and he stepped off the ladder just as the boat came up the face of a pretty decent sized wave, slamming the deck into him. Had to be transferred off ship to ship in a wire basket liter to a ship that a helicopter could land on to take him to a hospital.

  148. 148.

    Jeffro

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I wanna hear more about all the other lines of inquiry/investigation that Mueller was pursuing that (supposedly) Barr has now kneecapped. I want to hear more about Barr running cover for trumpov and have him exposed for the DJT book-licker that he is

  151. 151.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Eunicecycle: Drill sergeants were still pointing out in the ’80s that Basic Training was the first time some recruits ever owned more than one pair of shoes.

  152. 152.

    Ruckus

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    The food varied a lot depending on the skill of the cooks. And some of them really, really didn’t want to be there. Like most of the crew.
    A cook on a smallish ship was a crappy job. Basically you worked for about 15 hrs a day, had to listen to people complain about the crappy food, clean up after the same people, wash all the food trays, silverware and pots pans, ovens steam tables, haul garbage, etc. That’s pretty much every day of the week. In port or out to sea.

  153. 153.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Have been watching the dramatic reading of the Mueller Report (John Lithgow has wonderful timing!), but took a short break halfway through and saw that Bobby Three Sticks will testify publicly before Nadler’s House Judiciary Committee on July 17th. That will be must see TV for sure. Hope the Dems are cocked and loaded with some devastating questions for him.

  154. 154.

    J R in WV

    @Steve in the ATL:

    …why are three people sitting in the bed of a pickup truck in a strip mall parking lot[?]…

    Because they aren’t legally allowed to drive any more?

    Or: Because they are all aware that they’re too high to drive?

    Or: Because none of them can afford a vehicle, and the owner of the truck only lets them ride in the back, so he doesn’t have to be in the truck cab with them.

    Or: All of these.

    ETA: I dunno about the shirt sleeves, I like sleeves.

  157. 157.

    J R in WV

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    …maybe the food before and during WW2 was better than during your time.

    I was in about the same time as Ruckus, and it wasn’t terrible when I was in. I mostly ate beef jerky and drank hot tea when we were at sea, though. There was that one time when mid-rats (the meal served at midnight for people starting a mid-night watch) made everyone sick – green salami for sandwiches… those cooks got on report for that meal!!

    Seriously, it wasn’t that bad, but I was in the submarine service, and rumor had it that the subs got the best food…. can’t prove it by me, tho.

  158. 158.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Ruckus:

    The food varied a lot depending on the skill of the cooks. And some of them really, really didn’t want to be there. Like most of the crew.

    That is probably the biggest difference, dad enlisted in ’37 so for most sailors it was a good job(including the cooks) that provided food.

  159. 159.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Ruckus:

    A cook on a smallish ship was a crappy job. Basically you worked for about 15 hrs a day, had to listen to people complain about the crappy food, clean up after the same people, wash all the food trays, silverware and pots pans, ovens steam tables, haul garbage, etc. That’s pretty much every day of the week. In port or out to sea.

    There’s a Kingston Trio hit lurking here.

  160. 160.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    Meh…the thing that sticks (heh) out to me is just how many corporate whores were willing to become actual whores.

  165. 165.

    Ken

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    maybe the food before and during WW2 was better

    Remind me – was it Balloon Juice that sometimes had classic recipe cards from the 40s and 50s? Ones that always seemed to include Spam, Jello, stuffed olives, and cream cheese, like some Chopped basket from hell?

  168. 168.

    danielx

    @hilts:

    A colleague chimed in, “Everybody has their issue with Sarah Sanders, but if you can’t have a drink with somebody, then all of civilization has broken down.”

    In another context, I’d say FINALLY the colleague is getting it.

  169. 169.

    Steeplejack

    @Eljai:

    God, the TPM article has a picture that reminded me that Duncan Hunter is the asshole who ostentatiously vaped during a congressional hearing to make some point about something—his rights being infringed, I assume. As if I needed another reason to hate him.

  170. 170.

    Matt McIrvin

    Seeing a lot of remarkably mainstream people now arguing that the Oregon GOP standoff means democracy is over and there is no hope left at all: the United States is doomed to descend into charnel-house omni-killing and totalitarianism.

    (which kind of makes me wonder how we ever came back from Jim Crow)

  172. 172.

    Wapiti

    @raven: My barber grew up poor in Alaska. A boat or ship broke up one year and they got cases of the dried potatoes from the wreck. He remembered the potatoes fondly.

  173. 173.

    Ruckus

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    When I reported on the ship I was on for 2 yrs the food was incredible. Everything was good, you never even asked what it was, you just ate. The guy who was the ship’s cook, the one in charge retired with his 30 before I had spent 90 days on board. Within less than 6 months we literally almost had a mutiny underway because the food was so bad. Lifers were talking about breaking into the gun locker and taking over the ship. It was serious. On lifer took his food tray up to the wardroom – where all the officers ate, and dropped his tray in front of the captain. “This is my fucking dinner, this is all the fucking dinner I get, what the fuck are you going to do about it?” (I heard this repeat twice that night from an officer that was there and one of the stewards that worked in the wardroom that I knew. I believed them, they both told me the same story word for word that night.) The end result was that no one stormed the gun locker or the wardroom. There was no mutiny. The food got marginally better. At least they made what was on the menu.

  175. 175.

    sherparick

    @hilts: I have been thinking that Bruce Cockburn’s song from 1983 is more relevant than ever.

    “If I Had a Rocket Launcher
    Bruce Cockburn

    Here comes the helicopter, second time today
    Everybody scatters and hopes it goes away
    How many kids they’ve murdered only God can say, hey
    If I had a rocket launcher, if I had a rocket launcher
    If I had a rocket launcher, I’d make somebody pay
    I don’t believe in guarded borders and I don’t believe in hate
    I don’t believe in generals or their stinking torture states
    And when I talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relate
    If I had a rocket launcher, if I had a rocket launcher
    If I had a rocket launcher, I would retaliate

    On the Rio Lacantun, one hundred thousand wait
    To fall down from starvation, or some less humane fate
    Cry for Guatemala, with a corpse in every gate
    If I had a rocket launcher, if I had a rocket launcher
    If I had a rocket launcher, I would not hesitate

    I want to raise every voice, at least I’ve got to try
    Every time I think about it water rises to my eyes.
    Situation desperate, echoes of the victims cry
    If I had a rocket launcher, if I had a rocket launcher
    If I had a rocket launcher, some son of a bitch would die”

  176. 176.

    Procopius

    I didn’t read the comments yet, so probably somebody else has already pointed this out, but

    … the entitled scion of a successful grifter who misused campaign funds …

    Jared is not Donald Trump’s son. He is Donald Trump’s son-in-law. He is the scion of a busted felonius grifter who was convicted in 2005 of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering. I admit this is a minor quibble.

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