Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

T R E 4 5 O N

Maybe you would prefer that we take Joelle’s side in ALL CAPS?

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

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

Let’s finish the job.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

The current Supreme Court is a rogue court. Very dangerous.

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Now More Than Ever, Happy Independence Day

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Now More Than Ever, Happy Independence Day

by | 164 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , ,

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)
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Mr. Pierce, at Esquire:

… This thing has the potential to be the biggest, chewiest cluster of fck in Washington since the last time Louie Gohmert dined alone. And an infinitely more perilous one.

This is out-and-out banana republic authoritarian performance art. That it also is obviously a multimillion-dollar exercise in low comedy is sadly beside the point. It should be mocked, relentlessly and everywhere, by every American who still has a sense of dignity and a vague memory of what an actual celebration of patriotism feels like…

MAKE. IT. SO:

What if the GOP threw a military extravaganza, and only the Fox News shut-ins watched? Per Deadline:

… PBS and C-SPAN will join Fox News in providing live coverage of “Salute to America,” while CNN and MSNBC have said they will only break in to regular programming as news warrants.

The broadcasts networks will rely mostly on their streaming channels for Trump’s portion of the event — ABC News Live, CBSN and NBC News Digital will all provide live coverage — and report stories for use on their respective evening newscasts.

NBC has its own July 4 celebration, its annual Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular, which will air from 8-10 PM ET/PT, with a one-hour encore at 10 PM.

All other broadcast networks are airing regular programming in primetime…

(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)
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(Tom Toles via GoComics.com)
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(Signe Wilkinson via GoComics.com)
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(Marshal Ramsey via GoComics.com)
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Reader Interactions

164Comments

  1. 1.

    NotMax

    The hell with the Tacky Khaki Flag-Humping Blechstravaganza..

    Palate cleanser: An accompaniment for your Independence Day picnic or barbecue or whatever, Solid Potato Salad.

  2. 2.

    Raven

    Tensions all over America were high in the summer of 1970. The Nixon administration’s bombing of Cambodia and the continued war in Vietnam were seen by a vocal section of the population to be murderous disasters. Outraged students raised their voice, and in May, the National Guard killed four of them at Kent State and two others at Jackson State. It appeared to some as if the country doubled down on its sins, adding the blood of its own citizens to the mix.

    A month later, a group of wealthy and prominent Americans assembled to do something about the national divide. Their mission was not to address the problems behind it, but to invigorate a broad and vague spirit of appreciation for the United States of America. They called it Honor America Day: a massive, entertainment-filled ceremony, to be held in Washington DC on the Fourth of July. For a day, Americans could swap their discontent for waving flags, live music, and old-fashioned pride.

    That wasn’t exactly how it went down.

  3. 3.

    Raven

    In Champaign-Urbana there was a fairly large “Freedom Celebration” that kicked off with a parade around noon. My ex and I, along with our puppy, had head down the main drag “Green Street” to check things out. We got to the staging area and, somehow, an anti-war contingent had gotten in the front of the parade. I told her, “if anything happens take the pup and get the fuck away”. It didn’t take long, we got to the big intersection at Lincoln and Green and we’re set upon by a bunch of “counter-protestors” (many plain close cops) and a melee ensued. A lot of folks did skedaddle but being the recently returned pissed off vet I made the snap decision to stand my ground and fight. I whacked one dude and jumped on him and was immediately surrounded by 5 or 6 guys. They pushed me a bit but I was expecting to take much more of an ass-whipping so I was glad to rejoin the group and move on. A guy was shooting video and I saw it once, I ended up with an upside down American flag and wearing my army shit it looked pretty good. I’ve always wondered what happened to the video but I assume it is lost. Abut 4 years later I was in a class at the local community college and a guy came up to me and said “I was one of the guys who jumped you. It turns out you guys were right”! Just a little parable from a half-century ago.

  4. 4.

    plato

    Trump remains underwater in most 2020 battleground states, according to Morning Consult:
    New Hampshire: -23 net approval
    Michigan: -15
    Wisconsin: -14
    Iowa: -13
    Pennsylvania -9
    Arizona: -7
    Ohio: -6
    North Carolina: -3
    Florida: -3
    Indiana: +1
    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 4, 2019

    Is it the assaults on the constitution, the nepotism, the corruption, the emoluments, the rapes, the concentration camps, the family separations, the trade wars, the dictator hugging, the Russian conspiracy, or the obstructions of justice?— Erik Halvorsen (@erikhalvorsen18) July 4, 2019

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    @Raven

    “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”
     . – Samuel Johnson

    “Patriotism, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit it is the first.”
      – Ambrose Bierce

    “Nationalism is our form of incest, is our idolatry, is our insanity. ‘Patriotism’ is its cult. It should hardly be necessary to say, that by ‘patriotism’ I mean that attitude which puts the own nation above humanity, above the principles of truth and justice; not the loving interest in one’s own nation, which is the concern with the nation’s spiritual as much as with its material welfare—never with its power over other nations. Just as love for one individual which excludes the love for others is not love, love for one’s country which is not part of one’s love for humanity is not love, but idolatrous worship.”
      – Erich Fromm

    “Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.”
      – Denis Diderot

    “’My country, right or wrong,’ is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying, ‘My mother, drunk or sober.'”
      – G. K. Chesterton

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: Face it, you are in need of a little moderation from time to time.

    @raven: I have a friend who is a Champaign-Urbana alumni (her father was an English prof and iirc her mother has a doctorate of library science and was associated with that), if she can be there, she certainly will.

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    @Raven: It’s a shame that video went missing! It’ll probably resurface in someone’s attic someday.

  17. 17.

    plato

    Trump insulted a Gold Star Family because they were Muslim, implied John McCain didn't deserve respect because he was a POW, and thinks veterans with PTSD are just being pussies. And he thinks he deserves a military parade.— Denizcan James (@MrFilmkritik) July 3, 2019

  18. 18.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yea I’ll have to see. I know the author of the book and we have been talking. I like the book but there is not one mention of the VVAW contingent and he is very good friends with one of my compatriots and I wonder why we were left out?

  20. 20.

    raven

    @Betty Cracker: It was shot by Mitch Brown, he is Dee Brown’s son (Burt My Heart at Wounded Knee) and ended up in the military after that. I’ve tried to find him but no luck.

    Ozark, Dee Brown

    “From 1948 to 1972, he was an agriculture librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he had gained a master’s degree in library science, became a professor, and raised a son, Mitchell, and daughter, Linda, with his wife Sally.”

  21. 21.

    plato

    Calling it “incredibly exciting news,” President Donald Trump revealed on Wednesday that his long-planned Fourth of July parade in Washington will include a flyover by Russian Su-24 fighter planes.

    “These are beautiful, gleaming Russian planes,” Trump boasted to Tucker Carlson, of Fox News. “I’m the first American President who’s had Russian fighters flying over Washington.”

    He said that he finalized the flyover deal while speaking to the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, at the G-20 Summit last week. “Putin said, ‘This is the least we can do, after all you’ve done for us,’ ” Trump said.

    Trump said he imagined that the crews of the Russian military aircraft will be thrilled to fly over the nation’s capital. “I’m sure they’ll be taking a lot of pictures,” he said.

  24. 24.

    JPL

    @Betty Cracker: As do I. In order to make it happen though, the Biden and Harris camps should declare a truce. The busing issue is still on the news rather than her attack on the asshole in chief.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    @JPL:

    The news isn’t going to stop scaring old white people. If it’s not busing, it’ll be something else.

  32. 32.

    Baud

    On the news last night, they said Trump staffers were worried they they couldn’t find enough donors to give tickets to and were considering “opening it up” so Trump wouldn’t see a small crowd.

    I’m half tempted to watch the travesty to see how this all plays out.

  36. 36.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Good morning, BJ!

    So yesterday I mentioned I’d been pickpocketed on the Paris Metro and got some security advice such as carrying the wallet deep in a front pocket. I was doing that. I’d been riding the Metro all week and feeling pretty confident that I was being vigilant and safe. And the awareness announcements are pretty constant, in at least four languages.

    Here’s the whole story. It was our last couple hours in Paris. We were taking the Metro one stop from one train station (Gare du Nord) to another (Gare de l’Est). So we were carrying a lot of luggage, probably what made us a target.

    As we started to board, it was the usual crowding into the Metro but there was something odd about it. My wife was being blocked by these guys in front of us but pushed through. One of them picked up my bag and carried it on, and I thanked him. But then I was having trouble myself in getting on. These two guys on my right were jostling and weirdly blocking my forward progress, it just didn’t feel like a normal subway crowded situation. I was just thinking “this is weird” but no more.

    After a couple of seconds they suddenly stopped and then left the train as the doors shut. Something at that point made me check my wallet on my left side, and it was of course gone. Their take: About 100 Euro in cash, credit cards from three banks and my US drivers license. In retrospect, this was classic pickpocketing, a technique probably a thousand years old: the accomplice jostles and distracts the mark on one side while the pickpocket does his/her business on the other.

    We got off at our stop, made the calls the banks and shut down the cards, and then just kind of recovered till our train out. I didn’t even mind the cash, I just wanted to make sure they didn’t get any other gain out of it. Well one of my banks (Citibank) turns out to be completely incompetent. ALL of the pain of this incident was in the form of dealing with them for the next three days. Including the fact that they authorized $2600 in transactions in the 2 hours AFTER I reported the theft.

    I keep asking myself what I’d have done differently. One thing that really really bugs me is that in retrospect I think the one guy was checking out the suitcase for theft (it was very heavy, as it had everything. Truly irreplaceable on many counts). I think there was a signal exchanged among them when the guys on the left judged my wallet tasty enough and not to try the suitcase. For which I am so grateful. It makes me actually want to always have a tasty-enough wallet with some cash but preferably not any really important cards.

    I’m also through with Citibank, but that’s another tale. I only stuck with them this long because of inertia. Some of the automatic transactions going through that account are difficult to move.

  37. 37.

    Baud

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Including the fact that they authorized $2600 in transactions in the 2 hours AFTER I reported the theft.

    I wouldn’t worry about this. They can reverse authorizations pretty easily, and you’re not legally liable.

  40. 40.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Baud: Yeah, I know. It was already reversed. What bugs me is that the thieves got $2600 worth of benefit. And Citicorp is evil and I don’t mind them getting some pain. But I really wanted the thieves to get nothing out of it.

    Also, the Citibank fraud line is incredibly incompetent and staffed with idiots top to bottom. I dreaded each time I had to talk to them because I knew I was going to be on hold, on an overseas call, for at least 20-30 minutes, and that I was going to be dealing with stupid people once I got my phone call answered. Starting with the initial attempt to block the cards. You don’t want to be on hold forever when you’re trying to report a theft of credit cards.

    I can’t tell you how many times I had this exchange: “We need to confirm your identity. Can you give me your debit card number?” “Well, once again that would have to be by memory as my debit card was stolen…” “Oh yes, I forgot.”

  41. 41.

    Barbara

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Had a nearly identical experience in Rome, including the instantaneous charges. Assume the merchant was in on it because of the nature of the charges. I am sorry this happened to you.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Sounds awful. I thought a lot of credit card companies now give you a way to report a stolen card automatically through their automated system.

    At least it’s taken care of.

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Shit. At least you figured out what happened quickly. As to the bag… Learned the hardway at the Chicago Greyhound station a long time ago, don’t ever let go. Thank dawg you didn’t lose that too.

  44. 44.

    satby

    I’m driving to Lexington today, just for overnight; but first I have to put in an appearance at the farmer’s market because they decided to be open the usual business hours. $25 penalty/week to leasees if we aren’t there 3 of the 4 open days. Only 4 owners (out of about 50) will be there, but they require renters to be there and waste time and money anyway, even if there’s no customers because it’s a holiday.

  45. 45.

    Barbara

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: FWIW, I found the Chase and Barclay fraud lines to be reasonably competent. Thieves use the cards fast because they know they are going to be cancelled. I absolutely think they have merchants they work with. It was hard for me to believe an optician in Italy would accept a charge of more than $1000 from someone using a credit card without a matching ID (did not get driver’s license or passport from us) and with an obviously non-Italian name.

  47. 47.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: Set up, sit for 5 minutes, break down. if the lease agreement doesn’t specify how many hours you have to be there for it to count, that’s their problem.

  48. 48.

    NotMax

    Closed caption follies from last night.

    Dialogue: Horsefeathers!
    Caption: Whore’s feathers!

  49. 49.

    Betty Cracker

    @NotMax: I’ve seen Trump-like Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s name rendered “Hairball Sonaro” several times on closed caption. Cracks me up every time! :)

  50. 50.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: says three out of 4 days but don’t think it specifies hours of operation. Doesn’t matter, they basically told us to shove it when they announced last week we would be open and we protested. They had voted to be open last March, but just never remembered to tell anyone until the last week of June. Most of those voting to be open aren’t even there on regular Thursdays.
    My life consists of a steady diet of schadenfruede these days, because I hope the expense of being open dwarfs any sales. I’ll stay about an hour, no more. Fuckem.

  58. 58.

    Raven

    Rep. Justin Amash is celebrating this Fourth of July in a manner years in the making: by declaring his independence from the Republican Party

    Oops

  62. 62.

    JR

    Trump should have called it something catchy, like “The festival of the federation” or something.

  64. 64.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax:

    Not much past midnight here and have three different fans running in the living room.

    And? Would you like an igloo?

    ?NotMax been spending most my life complaining about island paradise ?

  66. 66.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud: Who’s the current Lie-to-the-public secretary tasked with telling us Comrade Dump’s Wanker Parade was attended by everyone in the nation? PERIOD!

    I’m sure there will be plenty of Soviet shitpile shitshow coverage on Twitter.

  68. 68.

    Ken

    @satby: I’m kind of hoping for a nice clear sunny day, so when the “special VIP” area is less than a third full there are no excuses.

  69. 69.

    Amir Khalid

    I took Missy, my Yamaha acoustic, to a luthier today. In a week’s time I will have to brace myself (pun intended) for a repair bill about equal to what I paid for her: tropical humidity has already weakened the glue on the internal bracing, causing a bulge in the top. I got Missy new in October.
    On the bright side, I got to meet the luthier’s dog, a very friendly pit bull named Fender* who rested his head on my lap seeking skritches. Yes, he got them.

    *Of course

  71. 71.

    satby

    I’ve gone outside twice now and the humidity is oppressive already before 8 am. Ugh! Wish I could just stay home all day, much as I love my son and want to see him. Mileage is going to be shit running the air conditioning for 337 miles. ?

  72. 72.

    Amir Khalid

    @satby:
    Lady’s just fine, and so are Sister and The Girl. I’ll have them for company while the luthier makes Missy better than new.

  74. 74.

    satby

    @Barbara: Chase has always caught fraud and potential fraud very fast. They’ve asked me to confirm my own purchases if it’s a deviation from my normal pattern. Even when I travel out of the U.S. And they’ll freeze the card completely if you don’t tell them in advance that you’re traveling overseas. Much as I hate big banks, they’ve done well in that regard.

  75. 75.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Last bit of pain was 3.5 hrs at the DMV on Monday getting a new license. But the person who waited on me was cheerful, helpful and competent and that kind of took the edge off.

    Competence is high on my list of things I value in the Trumpian everything-is-shit era.

    When you think of what it takes to maintain that kind of demeanor in a place like the DMV, it’s especially impressive.

    @JR: You know that if he could pass an Executive Order demanding we all do a “Heil Trump!” salute, he would. Hell, maybe he’s already imposed that inside the Oval Office, or maybe he makes RNC officials do it. Does he know about the Catholic tradition of kneeling and kissing the ring of the Bishop when you see him? That would make a nice addition to White House protocol.

    [Confession: I was Catholic up through the thing called Confirmation, which for you non-Catholics is the Catholic equivalent of a Bar Mitzvah in the sense of now being an adult member. The Bishop stopped and talked to me, and waited expectantly for the ring kiss. But I couldn’t make myself do it.]

  77. 77.

    satby

    @Amir Khalid: jeeze… It’s like a harem of guitars! I didn’t realize you were up to four either, and I had confused Lady and The Girl. I meant to ask after your first one, since she’d have been in the tropical humidity longest.

  78. 78.

    debbie

    I woke up to a very foggy, gray Independence Day. Seems prophetic of something…

  79. 79.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @debbie: I’d ask the English if they wanted to take us back for a while, but not while they’re under their own idiots.

    Could we maybe offer to become an EU protectorate or something?

  80. 80.

    debbie

    @Raven:

    A lot of folks did skedaddle but being the recently returned pissed off vet I made the snap decision to stand my ground and fight.

    Why am I not surprised? A great story, and look how you’ve been remembered over the years!

  81. 81.

    MomSense

    Happy 4th everyone. Going to start cooking for the party I’m going to later today.
    We had lots of tears when we said goodbye to the Czech family yesterday. The daughter was an exchange student this past school year. She and my youngest fell in love in music class. Even the dog is sad. She fell in love with Czech mom and brother and kept stealing mom’s sandals when it was time to go.

    Today we are going to kayak with some friends and watch the fireworks from their house. They have a new bunch of feral cats they’ve been trapping to spay and neuter and a couple of them are getting almost friendly. These are magnificent Maine Coon cats – yuuge and interesting to watch.

  82. 82.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @NotMax: I heard yrs ago that Nat King Cole was on a TV show in the 50s?60s? –stations in the South cut that part out for fear white women would see /hear him and be contaminated?seduced?

  86. 86.

    debbie

    @Barbara:

    American Express is surprisingly fast and more than competent. Whichever clown it was that ran up more than $1,500 in phone charges more than 20 years ago not only cost me zero dollars, but I received an apology from Amex for not being even speedier. All this when they first noticed a change in my spending habits.

  87. 87.

    Amir Khalid

    @satby:
    Solid-body guitars don’t have internal bracing, so it’s not a worry with my other three. For those keeping score, Lady is a white Squier Stratocaster, The Girl a butterscotch blond Telecaster, and Sister a black Epiphone Les Paul Studio.

  88. 88.

    Gin $ Tonic

    Happy 4th. Celebrated yesterday by going to a minor league baseball game that ended with a (literal) fireworks show. Baseball, tube steak, beer, explosives, can’t get much more Murican.

    On the way I saw a middle-aged white guy, alone, driving a new-ish Dodge Ram pickup truck – what I’d call in this area a likely Trump voter. Truck had a sticker on the tailgate: “Kamala Harris for the People.” I smiled.

  89. 89.

    Ohio Mom

    MAD magazine is ending! Ohio Son waited patiently until I woke up to share this terrible news. The end of an era.

    Of course they will continue issuing complimations of old material, like they always have. But no new issues, ever.

  90. 90.

    Gin & Tonic

    Huh. Moderation. Not sure why, so I’ll try a few tricks.

    Happy 4th. Celebrated yesterday by going to a minor league baseball game that ended with a (literal) fireworks show. Baseball, tube steak, beer, explosives, can’t get much more Murican.

    On the way I saw a middle-aged white guy, alone, driving a new-ish Dodge Ram pickup truck – what I’d call in this area a likely Trump voter. Truck had a sticker on the tailgate: “Kamala Harris for the People.” I smiled.

  91. 91.

    BC in Illinois

    Abraham Lincoln:

    I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence . . . which gave liberty not alone to the people of this country, but hope to all the world, for all future time . . . which gave promise that in due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence.

    Now, my friends, can this country be saved on that basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world if I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it.

    Address in Independence Hall
    February 22, 1861

    Now, Martin Luther King, speaking at the Lincoln Memorial correctly described the promise of the Declaration as a “promissory note” that had not yet delivered on the promise. But still, the promise is worth coming back to. As Lincoln wrote in 1855:

    As a nation, we began by declaring that ‘all men are created equal.’ We now practically read it ‘all men are created equal, except negroes.’ When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read ‘all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.’ When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.

    With thanks to Sydney Blumenthal, at The Guardian.

  92. 92.

    RobertDSC-Mac Mini

    As Orange 45 has made a debacle of celebrating this day, I am heartened by turning to comic books. In addition to the birth of the country, today is the birthday of Steve Rogers, the man who would become Captain America.

  93. 93.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @plato: NOT the Onion!? First president to have Russians fly over DC?!? They’ll take pictures?!?

    Has to be a fake story! Please!

  95. 95.

    Immanentize

    @Amir Khalid:
    I’m old enough to remember when you said your second guitar was absolutely your final one. We all laughed behind our hands.

  100. 100.

    Another Scott

    Good morning everyone.

    Cloudy, still, and very humid here in NoVA (across the river from DC). 75F, 89% humidity, 72F dew point (anything above 70F feels horrid). 60% peak chance of thunderstorms, above 50% chance of rain from 2 PM to 10 PM. Not a good day to be outside in DC, but it can always be worse.

    Have an excellent 4th!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  103. 103.

    BC in Illinois

    @BC in Illinois:
    What I’m actually going to do today:
    –Walk with the Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense group in the Webster Groves 4th of July Parade. [They had so many marchers last year, that the city has said that only the first 200 get to march.] (And yes, unjustifiably, I have a red “Moms” shirt.
    –Get together with a portion of the family. (Larger gathering tomorrow, weather permitting.)
    –Try to finish Our Declaration, by Danielle Allen a self-described “mixed-race (but aren’t we all) African American woman” and Harvard Prof. She presents Our Declaration as a “Defense of Equality.” You take the equality out and the foundation collapses. You take the word “all” out and the there is nothing left that is worth defending.

    The Declaration, and this Independence Day, cannot call us to look back.
    I’m ready to dedicate at least the next 487 days to looking forward.
    We need to survive until November 2020, and then survive November 2020, with the Declaration intact.

    My last goal for today is to defend the new Yesterday movie as a really enjoyable movie.

  105. 105.

    Amir Khalid

    @Immanentize:
    Ths time I’m sure: my fourth guitar will definitely be my last. Unless, of course, I decide I want a semi-hollow, like an Epiphone Dot …

  109. 109.

    germy

    BEST. NEWS. EVER.Giant robot of Trump tweeting on toilet is coming to DC on July 4 to protest his “Salute to America” celebration. https://t.co/NCaOTo0J8j— The Hummingbird ? (@SaysHummingbird) July 4, 2019

    Is it possible because they don’t want to have to cover all the surrounding protests? The giant inflatable trump baby, the trump on the toilet robot?

  110. 110.

    japa21

    Axios claims Der Trumpfurher is going to add the citizenship question via executive order.

  111. 111.

    debbie

    @japa21:

    Well, that pesky Constitution will have a few things to say about that. As well as the Supreme Court, which he thought he’d packed.

  116. 116.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Gin & Tonic: We’re out here. My rusty beat up dodge p/u still has it’s Hillary sticker on the twisted remains of it’s rear bumper.

  126. 126.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Does he know about the Catholic tradition of kneeling and kissing the ring of the Bishop when you see him?

    It’ll be the salute. When Trump dies, somewhere in his affects will be found the evidence that he is an actual, non-metaphor Nazi. He checks off every box. He not only has concentration camps, he passionately demanded them. He hates brown people and has prejudices against Jews (although clearly they’re way down his list, maybe his model minority). He damn near worships brutal dictators. One of the only things he balked on lying about is when he was asked to condemn Nazis, and even then he had to reverse course with ‘very fine people.’ We’ll eventually find out he isn’t Nazi-ish, he is an actual Nazi.

  131. 131.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    That’s interesting. I go through his district a lot – he has really devoted supporters. Huge signs in front of both small and large businesses – it’s how I became familiar with his name before he was in the news so much. Unusual for a House candidate. I thought he was a real up and comer on the Right because he’s younger and libertarian-leaning and not overtly racist. It’s also DeVos country. She must be livid- I bet they were big donors.
    Amash is the direction they could have gone instead of Trump.

  134. 134.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I see that, like Snyder, he blames “partisans on both sides” for the fact that the GOP is now completely and utterly dominated by Donald Trump and Trumpism.
    Democrats are now wholly responsible for the careers of Republican politicians, while they are in office and also for the rest of their lives.

  135. 135.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    If we didn’t fight for justice, they wouldn’t have to embrace fascism openly. How is it not our fault?

  136. 136.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Snyder and Amash can blame Trump and the far racist Right if they want, but they own this as much as Trump. They wouldn’t budge on far Right economic policy, which is unpopular and doesn’t work. Because they wouldn’t budge on their garbage economic policy they needed something to keep their voters and Trump gave them something- racism, lies and mean-spirited nastiness. They died on the cross of tax cuts and now it’s all they have left.

  137. 137.

    dnfree

    @Raven: What an awesome story about your time in Champaign-Urbana (which for some reason is now called Urbana-Champaign, and I can’t get used to it). My husband was part of an extremely small contingent of antiwar protesters at Northern Illinois University in that era (actually 1966-67).

  138. 138.

    Kay

    Harris’ position on busing is the same as Biden’s, if “busing” is court ordered desegregation of schools thru the mechanism of taking one set of kids into a different district using a school bus. There are other ways to put court ordered desegration in- for example, one can open up enrollment intra-district and then enforce it so white schools don’t game it – Ohio has open enrollment but obviously that raises a problem of geography- how will the kids get from A to B every day- but if we are talking about the common usage of “busing” – which uses a bus- then Harris is saying the same thing Biden said.

    Unless I’m not understanding her position. Which is entirely possible.

  139. 139.

    Kay

    Ohio’s open enrollment also is limited by “sending” schools and “receiving” schools- some schools have more open enrollees than others- they are more desirable- so they have a net gain of students (receiving) and others have a net loss (sending). So when they school is fully enrolled – measured using “seats”- they can halt open enrollment. There’s also a cut off date- the open enrollees have to be enrolled by June 4 of the prior year so schools can plan.

  142. 142.

    laura

    @raven: I’m friends with Mitch Brown! We’re taking him to a friend’s party tonight.
    Small world Raven, small world.

  143. 143.

    Rand Careaga

    @satby:

    Chase has always caught fraud and potential fraud very fast. They’ve asked me to confirm my own purchases if it’s a deviation from my normal pattern.

    Near the end of his life, my elderly father had his wallet lifted while he was in “assisted” living, and several hundred dollars in phone cards (for the Philippines, as I recall) were purchased with his Chase Visa online. For some reason, the fact that a man of ninety-three who had never once conducted any business on the internet had suddenly taken up electronic commerce failed to tickle any of the bank’s automated subroutines.

  144. 144.

    debbie

    @Rand Careaga:

    Same thing happened to my mother while dying in hospice. We didn’t start getting bills (I was on the card so I could run her errands) until after she died (coincidence? //), but my brother pursued corrections with an admirable vengeance.

  148. 148.

    raven

    @laura: Whoa, can you ask if he still has the film of that day. I also have a pal who was friends with him and we’d love to touch base! markann at the gmail thing dot com.

  149. 149.

    Richard Guhl

    @plato: Wait, what? Indiana is a battleground state?
    These numbers are tasty and delicious, and may help drag down enough Republican Senators to allow the Democrats to retake the Senate!

  152. 152.

    EthylEster

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Last bit of pain was 3.5 hrs at the DMV on Monday getting a new license

    When I misplaced my WA license last year, I was amazed to find that DOL would mail me a replacement. I got it in about 4 days AND the website provided me with a temp version to print out so I could drive while I was awaiting the replacement.

    Also, too, CitiBank has been a POS for decades. Demonstrably worse than most.
    Chase is second on my shit list.

  154. 154.

    JDM

    and I, for one, love shows of force that inadvertently reveal a ton of flaws in the strength they’re trying to project

    This was also one of the reasons I thought going to war (actual war as opposed to special forces seeking a certain person) in Afghanistan and Iraq was bad. Even IF you ignore the moral reasons not to do it, and ignore the lies about why we were doing it, AND ignore the destabilization they brought about, you’re stuck with a before and after impression of the USA’s military capability: before, very strong, better not cross them; after, hey, unless they use their nukes they’re not so tough.

    That’s not a good impression to leave. But we did.

  155. 155.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Another Scott:

    They waited 54 years, until after most of them were dead. It was not until 1990 that Congress finally addressed this particular stain on our honor and granted them citizenship.

    Great story, marred only by the minor but inalterable fact that 1990 – 1946 = 44 years, not 54.

  156. 156.

    J R in WV

    @plato:

    “These are beautiful, gleaming Russian planes,” Trump boasted to Tucker Carlson, of Fox News. “I’m the first American President who’s had Russian fighters flying over Washington.”

    You and Andy Borowitz had me going there, so totally believable. then I thought, maybe Onion. Nope, but same same. Thanks!!

  157. 157.

    J R in WV

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    My dad and mom were in Mexico City many years ago, and he got tripped getting off a bus, fell down, people helped him up, very helpful and friendly, Oops, wallet gone. He. was. pissed. and who could blame him. No huge loss IIRC. Was probably in the ’80s. They loved the trip, but for that. Museums, monuments, loved it all.

  158. 158.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @J R in WV: One of these days very soon I am going to post an execrable excerpt from RWNJ Allen Dreary’s scaremongering 1970 novel Come Nineveh, Come Tyre which will stand everyone’s hair on end (viz: =8^O) & gently suggest whence the Borowitz drew his unspiration.

    (ETA: 13:42 in Ballmer & raining like a sumbige.)

  159. 159.

    J R in WV

    @Ohio Mom:

    MAD magazine is ending!

    Oh, no! Say it isn’t so… we need Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale in these hard times!!

  161. 161.

    J R in WV

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    He needs a National Steel dobro… really fine sound. Friend has one that was in a fire, all the crome is gone, just brown steel, like an old tool. Sounds so fine!

  162. 162.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @J R in WV: Um…Rocky & Bullwinkle effectively ended a long time ago. You are perhaps thinking of Spy vs. Spy?

    (Sigh. I used to own a Spy vs Spy tie – dark gray background with a couple of blood-colored highlights & the Spies facing off in the foreground. I swore that were I ever asked to brief the CIA – & at one corp, there was a significantly non-zero chance of that – I would wear the mofo in & dare them to throw me out. Sadly the cryptic cravat vanished long ago into I dunno where, though I keep hoping that as I empty out my packrat palace it’ll sneak up behind me & bite me in the butt…)

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