“You had the Nobel Prize?” Donald Trump learns of Yazidi activist Nadia Murad. Here’s how the interaction unfolded pic.twitter.com/DE3exTAm7N
— The National (@TheNationalUAE) July 18, 2019
If you wrote this scene for the cartoon villain in a genre movie, it’d be rejected as ‘too broad’. If your grandfather reacted this way during a serious event, you’d be looking at assisted living facilities with memory-care components. I don’t know if this event was scheduled well in advance, or if the Oval Office Occupation slapped it together to reassure the Talibangelicals that Jeffrey Epstein’s friend Trump still had their backs. But as an American, I’m genuinely ashamed that this is the face we’re showing the world.
When President Trump this week met human rights activist Nadia Murad, an Iraqi who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for speaking out about her agonizing torture and rape while in Islamic State captivity, he seemed unaware of her story and the plight ofher Yazidi ethnic minority.
For several minutes in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Murad stood beside a seated Trump, who mostly avoided eye contact with Murad, and implored the president to help her community return to Iraq. She explained that the Islamic State, or ISIS, may be gone but that Iraqis and Kurds are fighting for control over Yazidi lands…
Murad, who lives in Germany, told Trump that she never wanted to be a refugee but that ISIS murdered her mother and six brothers.
“Where are they now?” Trump asked.
“They killed them,” she repeated. “They are in the mass grave in Sinjar, and I’m still fighting just to live in safety.”
“I know the area very well that you’re talking about,” Trump responded.
Trump’s meeting — which drew widespread criticism because of its awkward moments — included nearly two dozen foreigners who, like Murad, had suffered religious persecution in their home countries. They included a Jewish Holocaust survivor, a Tibetan from China and a Rohingya Muslim from Myanmar.Trump told Murad he would look into it “very strongly.” As she started to back away, Trump said: “And you had the Nobel Prize. That’s incredible. They gave it to you for what reason?”
“For what reason?” Murad replied. “For, after all this happened to me, I didn’t give up. I made it clear to everyone that ISIS raped thousands of Yazidi women.” She told him she was the first woman to get out and speak publicly about what was happening.
“Oh, really, is that right?” Trump said, his voice notably more upbeat. “So you escaped.”
“I escaped, but I don’t have my freedom yet,” she said…
You can practically see the word balloon over his addled head: Yeah, but they gave you what should’ve been *MY* Nobel Prize!
Trump officials pressing to slash refugee admissions to zero next year – POLITICO https://t.co/c6t0dEP5bZ
— Jacob Heilbrunn (@JacobHeilbrunn) July 19, 2019
In 2016, the U.S. resettled 10,786 Somalis. In 2018, it resettled 139. The politics of "go back to your country" and the historic collapse of US refugee resettlement are obviously different, but let's not pretend they aren't linked to the same vision of America.
— Kevin Sieff (@ksieff) July 18, 2019
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Why did you get it and I didn’t for my photo ops with the guy who runs concentration camps and tortured Otto Warmbier to death?
otmar
Slightly connected news from Austria: https://wien.orf.at/stories/3005275/
You might want to run this through Google translate, quick summary: Persian dissidents en route from Iran to the US got stuck in Austria due to Trumps visa policy changes. They finally got asylum here.
JDM
So your parents were murdered? Are they here, or did they stay at home? So you escaped? What, what do you mean “of course I escaped you idiot; I couldn’t be here if I hadn’t escaped?”? Wow. Not very civil. There’s a cold BK Whopper around somewhere; be sure to thank me for it. No, not now, wait until the camera is on us.
Ohio Mom
Lately I have been trying on a new self-concept: So this is what it’s like to be a good German?
Whatever I can do is so puny against all of this evil.
BRobin
People died? Okay. Why would they give you a Nobel Prize just because rape? I only put out major tongue w/ Kim and Putin and MBSucks.
His delusional mind keeps replaying. If repeats of replay didn’t catch your eye ..
“Noble. That’d me”. I got this.
Keith P.
How long before Trump is telling the story of how someone came up to him and said “Sir, sir, I won the Nobel prize, but it should have gone to *you*, sir.”
O. Felix Culpa
@Ohio Mom: Everything done to combat this evil is important. It all matters. You do your part in Ohio and H.E. Wolf does hers (on the left coast?) and satby does hers in Indiana and I do mine in New Mexico and we will have collectively done something. At minimum we publicly declare that we do NOT support this evil administration’s evil policies. The Berlin Wall seemed to fall overnight, but it took years of seemingly fruitless effort and sacrifice to knock it down. We each chip away at the wall, one or two chips at a time. Eventually it collapses.
I’m reminded of what one of the speakers at our vigil said last week: We are NOT helpless. We can fight with our bodies, our voices, our money, and our votes. She is a frontline worker in immigration issues, and if she’s not despairing, neither am I.
ETA: This is meant to be encouraging, not scoldy. Hope it doesn’t come across that way.
Cathie Fonz
The only reason the US may be able to avoid war with Iran is Trump’s desire for a Nobel. On this triviality will hinge the fate of millions.
BRobin
@Keith P.: Due to the serious lack of Repumplicans ever having received any award beyond ShitHeel of the Year, Sir Sir is at a surely disadvantage, Sir.
Mike in NC
Fat Bastard feels entitled to a Nobel Prize, a Pulitzer Prize, and even the prizes contained in every box of Cracker Jacks. Maybe Putin will give him a medal next time he grovels before him.
rikyrah
@Ohio Mom:
It all matters. You are on the right side of good. And, next to the next person on the right side. We all add up.
donnah
I hate to see Trump in interviews and at any event where he is off script. Hell, he even screws up when he’s got a script! But when I see him with people who are actual heroes and good and decent people, his ignorance, lack of awareness, and confusion all make me sick. In those moments, he is clearly inept and he embarrasses our country on the big stage.
Trump isn’t fit to be in their presence. He didn’t have the common courtesy to stand up and shake her hand, just sat there on his fat ass, pretending to listen to what she actually said. He is a bloated humiliation.
kindness
Trump’s jealousy of Obama’s Nobel prize is going through his head when he said that stuff, right? Sad but funny.
Chyron HR
“I know places. I am president of the area. What is that like? Send her back,” Trump responded.
Josie
Since there is a strong possibility that he has committed rape and thinks it is no big deal, he probably wonders why she should get a prize for being a rape survivor. A horrible thought, but not out of the range of his possible private reactions.
zhena gogolia
@donnah:
It’s nauseating. She’s clearly trying to send him a message not only about her own plight but also about the people on our Southern border, but he’s brain-dead.
zhena gogolia
@Josie:
It was exactly what I was thinking.
Ohio Mom
@O. Felix Culpa: Thanks for the pep talk!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
so he’s re-tweeting UK ethno-nationalist Katie Hopkins and attacking Saddiq Kahn? The retired machinists of Rustberg, OH must be very concerned about Great Britain these days
Dr Ronnie James DO
@O. Felix Culpa: This is so correct: the “size” of what one individual does is important, but they also just need to see *NUMBERS*. Republicans love disgust, discouragement and disenfranchisement, bc when turnout is low, they win. They love nothing more than the sound of decent people cowed into silence. If they see and know you’re capable and willing to take one step against them, they will know you’re capable of taking 2. Think of the Women’s March in 2016, and how women’s votes led the Blue Wave in 2018. Every action counts.
H.E.Wolf
@O. Felix Culpa:
@rikyrah:
Yes: it all matters. There are many, many, many of us, doing each our puny thing, and it all adds up.
I’m omitting the seventy-nine inspirational quotes that sprang to mind; you probably have your own favo(u)rites!
Jinchi
I realize this was a photo op, but what genius in the White House thought it was a good look to have him sitting with his back to a group of refugees, as they talk to him about the horrors that forced them to flee their homes and ask for asylum here.
CCL
OhioMom:
Thanks! I have been doing the same here. That thought experiment spurs me on to do more than I have been doing, which is primarily writing my congresscritters and donating money. But there’s more I can do.
H.E.Wolf
@O. Felix Culpa:
P.S.: Honored to be in that list. Thank you for the encouraging words! Please keep us posted on your efforts in NM – always a pleasure to read.
bemused
@donnah:
He was born with no moral core and nor the brains to fake it.
smintheus
Trump is a narcissist; he thinks everybody else is a bit player in his own drama. It shattered his frame of reference to meet somebody who got the Nobel Prize that should have gone to him, and therefore he could not wrap his mind around details of her narrative. It would be like acknowledging that other people’s lives matter.
HalfAssedHomesteader
When Trump says he’s going to do something “strongly”, start looking for help elsewhere cuz he ain’t gonna do squat.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
He’s so fucking bored with and resentful of everything happening in that meeting. He’s bored and resentful having to talk to a bunch of filthy losers from shithole countries, he’s bored and resentful hearing their stories, he’s bored and resentful that everybody isn’t talking about him and how awesome he is, he’s bored and resentful that somebody else got a shiny medal… It’s amazing how he can’t even plausibly pretend to give a shit about anybody but himself. It’s kind of mesmerizing in a way.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@HalfAssedHomesteader:
Yeah, and very strongly is even worse. He’s already forgotten about it even as the words leave his mouth.
Elizabelle
He’s not suited to the office. He never has been. Never will be.
At least he’s not peeing in the corners at the White House, although we do not know that for sure.
Spanky
@H.E.Wolf:
A lot of folks might never have seen this.
Major Major Major Major
Jesus Christ. You can’t take this guy anywhere.
Ruckus
As humans go, Trump is among the worst, on so many, no that’s wrong, it’s on all levels. He has zero redeeming qualities. Can anyone think of anything he’s ever done or said that isn’t shit?
And Trump seems to have Alzheimer’s, and which would explain why he’s getting even worse than he’s been for his entire life. But then awarding him the possibility that he has Alzheimer’s would mean that a lot of this isn’t his fault. But he’s been a shit hole his entire life, he just now has the ability to be himself up on a major stage.
He’s got to go but that is politically impossible because his entire party is comprised of shit holes. I’m glad I don’t have that legacy to leave when I’m gone. He and his party want that to be their legacy, and the worse off they are, the better they like it. Trump and friends aren’t just trying to be the worst, they want to be remembered for it. They think that makes them special.
Spanky
@Elizabelle: I’ll bet Vlad has been IMed dick pix.
Not that he needs any more than his guys have collected already, but maybe Donnie forgets that.
stinger
“And now it’s Kurdish and… who?” Doesn’t his staff BRIEF HIM before these public meetings? The President of the United States comes across as so ill-informed. I mean, I know he is, but doesn’t he have anyone around him who cares just a little about optics?
Poor Murad, pleading her case, voice sometimes breaking, to the back of that weirdly coiffed head. This was shameful. I thought Bush Jr. was bad; this is unimaginably so.
stinger
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): This.
Ruckus
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
I think you may have hit upon it. He has no idea what a good country is like, he has no idea on how to get there and he thinks that every other country is a shithole. He can’t make it better, he has no idea at all, so he wants to make it the worst. He’s mentally a small child, a spoiled 4 yr old brat. A spoiled 4 yr old brat who is known for always making a room worse by being in it.
NotMax
“Sinjar? I know the area very well that you’re talking about. Just south and west of Tribeca, right? More and more people are hearing about it every day.”
//
A Ghost To Most
If Tom Steyers wants to blow his money on something useful, he could bankroll a satirical movie based solely on the Mueller Report. It would be much harder for the nazis to ignore, and piss them off to boot.
Another Scott
@Ruckus: Pinned tweet:
And there are foolish people who claim that He’s not all-knowing. Can you believe it!??!!
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
@stinger:
HIs staff probably knows less than he does.
These aren’t the best people.
Adam L Silverman
@Jinchi: He did. He does his own staging. And it is always him, as the President, in the foreground surrounded by whomever he is meeting with arrayed around him facing the press gaggle in front of him. It is the same set up every single time. The only time this isn’t the case is when he’s meeting with people who have equivalent power. The leaders of foreign countries. In those cases they’re sitting or standing side by side. Unlike previous presidents, he doesn’t interact with anyone as an equal, a colleague, or a friend. No sitting on the Oval Office sofas being comfortable with someone sitting next to him being casual. It is the same reason that he only has two types of clothes: suits and ties or clothes for golfing. And, from what’s been reported about him, bath robes. But that’s it.
Elizabelle
Hoping that all Juicers stay cool and hydrated this weekend, and that we have no electricity fails. Central VA is heading for 99 this late afternoon, with a heat index of 110, and we usually top the forecast.
Stay safe! At least here, it’s projected thunderstorms will break the heat wave Monday.
HalfAssedHomesteader
@Elizabelle: I wonder always wonder what shape he’s going to leave the White House in when he’s finally gone. Hard to predict the details but it’s guaranteed to be petty.
Adam L Silverman
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): When the Rohingya man asked him if he could do something about the massacre of the Rohingya in Myanmar, the President asked him where Myanmar was.
mrmoshpotato
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): More like “word salad is vomited”
How exactly do you very strongly look into something? What can possibly be “very strongly” besides something like “It smells very strongly of sulphur?”
Dump’s brain is a decaying mush salad that probably smells very strongly of rot and decomposition.
Plato
More than the totus thug, it is the system that built, encouraged, elected and is still supporting and sustaining this disgusting moronic thug that is a disgrace.
Another Scott
@germy: Chait at NYMag from 2018:
ddale8 usually pubishes Donnie’s daily schedule. It looks like he has no official intelligence briefings when he’s on the road. And the last one I quickly found was at 1:45 PM on July 14.
Briefings (intelligence or otherwise) don’t make Donnie any money, so he doesn’t care.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Adam L Silverman
@stinger: They can’t. All the reporting indicates he cannot be prepped. He won’t read the briefing books. He won’t read the read aheads. He cannot handle multiple courses of action options. He pays attention if his last name is mentioned. And he does better with pictures than text.
Renie
A local florist near me has put up a flag with the words “American, love it or leave it”. When I went home I told my husband who said he always uses them when he sends me flowers. I told him not to anymore. I’m wondering if I should go into the shop and let them know we are not using them any longer and why. Comments?
germy
@Adam L Silverman: And while they talk he sits there making those weird faces, pretending to follow along. The visual is like an Eastern European mobster being asked for favors.
mrmoshpotato
@Major Major Major Major:
Padded room with soft furniture and no blunt edges?
Ruckus
@stinger:
You can’t tell him anything. He knows everything. Well actually everything he thinks he knows about anything is wrong, but still, you can’t tell him anything. So I’d bet no one is trying to tell him anything about anything, because it hasn’t worked and won’t work, he’s incapable of seeing anything but how great he is. His narcissism means he IS the best human possible and the best at everything and nothing anyone says will change that. He has no concept that there is anything he doesn’t know or needs to know, because of his delusional concept of himself.
Our president is a massively delusional child, trapped in the body of a 73 yr old massively delusional adult with one of the most important jobs in this country and the world.
How could this possibly go wrong?
rikyrah
This is a crazy story . Please read it until the end.???
I hope that a Front Pager sees this.
Marshall Allen (@marshall_allen) Tweeted:
1/ A woman discovered her ex husband was defrauding health insurance companies for millions. She tried bringing him to justice. It didn’t go as expected.
(This story is one of the wildest I’ve reported.)
Here’s what happened: https://twitter.com/marshall_allen/status/1152238528639766528?s=17
Heywood J.
Trying to figure out why these people came to kiss the ring in the first place. It’s not like he’s going to do anything for them, unless one of them happens to know Kanye West.
This piece of shit needs to be delegitimized to the point where the only people who will be seen with him are fellow assholes like Kid Rock and Sarah Palin. Megan Rapinoe has the right idea.
Heywood J.
@Elizabelle: Why do you think the drapes are yellow?
Elizabelle
Public service announcement: if you have jewelry and other valuables in a bank safe deposit box, watch out.
NY Times: Safe Deposit Boxes Aren’t Safe
When Philip Poniz opened Box 105 at his local Wells Fargo, he discovered it was empty — and that he was totally unprotected by federal law.
The sad story of Mr. Poniz, who eventually recovered some, but not all, of his rare and sometime priceless timepieces.
Bank of America will cover ten times the box’s annual rent. Ergo: here’s your $2,500. Next!
I am heading for my safe deposit box Monday and cleaning it out. I can safeguard my stuff better at home. That’s sad.
Adam L Silverman
@germy: That is exactly what it is. It is how he’s run his business his whole life. And he learned it from watching how his father did business. Everyone in the company and in the family came to his father when they wanted or needed something. And he would either provide it or not. Same thing with the President. His family’s business, starting with his grandfather’s, have been small, family centric, organized criminal organizations.
Raven
@Heywood J.: Chris Hayes did a pretty good job of listing the groups who have gotten what they wanted from him.
Elizabelle
@Renie: Yes. Tell them. And put a photo up on Facebook, if you use it. I would appreciate knowing it would be better to find another small business to support.
Maybe share it on Next Door, too.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Didn’t Frederick Douglass visit there recently?
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
Yeah I saw that. I follow him. Not in the traditional sense of following god……god parities are usually funnier. This one is.
Elizabelle
@HalfAssedHomesteader: I want them to fumigate Air Force One. Thrice.
It bothers me that he is flying around on that beautiful plane, at our expense.
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: I’ve sent it to Anderson. He’s no Mayhew, but you cover health insurance with the blogger you have, not the blogger you want.
Aleta
‘But ISIS is gone.’ He can hear himself now. ‘Nadia…very beautiful woman, Nadia came to my office, she wanted to tell me, ‘Sir, ISIS is gone, my mother, my sister thank you so much.’ Lovely woman. ISIS is gone, do I keep my promises or what, you tell me.’ Applause.
Ohio Mom
@Renie: I would wait until I had occasion to order flowers from elsewhere. Then, depending how I felt, I might go into love-it-or-leave-it’s store and show them the receipt of the business they lost and why.
Or I might just look at the receipt and chuckle smugly to myself.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Someone responded to that tweet with ”sure there has been 56 stabbings in London this year, which is awful, but there has been 56 gun deaths in the US SINCE WEDNESDAY! Clean up your own house!”
Heywood J.
@Raven: I’ll have to see if I can find that. I imagine it consists mostly of talibangelicals, polluters, finance weasels looking for another tax cut, and mentally-ill rappers with daddy issues.
HRA
@Adam L Silverman:
Staging is the magic word in all he does in every aspect of his campaigns, his twitter, his presidency and much more. Kudos Adam!
mrmoshpotato
@Another Scott:
LIKE A CHILD!
It’s maddening that this moron is older than both of my senior-citizen parents.
Adam L Silverman
@Renie: Is the sign actually “American, love it or leave it”? If so, you may just want to explain to them that their sign makes no grammatical sense.
boatboy_srq
Agree with all the commentary about how Lord Dampnut doesn’t understand rape as a crime, and can’t grok surviving rape as noteworthy – let alone worthy of a Nobel.
But I’m also beginning to wonder whether Lord Dampnut is so addled that he hears “Nobel Prize” and thinks “Noble Prize” as if it’s akin to an OBE and doled out to people just for being vaguely special, and wonders why hasn’t dear Lizzie come through yet.
Raven
@mrmoshpotato: easy with that
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
So you are confirming that he has the mental capacity of a dim, 4 yr old spoiled brat.
Doesn’t/can’t read, understands pictures as long as you don’t show him too many or any too complex, has tantrums if not respected and fawned over, and thinks everyone else is beneath him. Yep, that sounds like dim, 4 yr old, spoiled brat.
Aww, such a nice picture on a nice Saturday morning.
Ohio Mom
@Elizabelle: Wow. Tne fact that the banks all have policies is proof they assume bank boxes will be pilfered.
I xerox whatever papers I’m going to put in the safety deposit box to have a record at home. The box’s main use is so I’ll always be able to find important records. No wondering where I thought was a good place to file the birth certificates.
Gretchen
@donnah: Right? He can’t even be bothered to turn his chair around to face his visitors, never mind standing up and shaking their hands! What an embarrassment. There are photos of Obama in similar situations, with him and all the visitors seated facing each other and talking. This guy doesn’t even have simple manners.
waspuppet
He just heard “Iraq” and thought “Muslim” so he stopped listening.
zhena gogolia
@HalfAssedHomesteader:
I would hope they reupholster all the furniture. Depends aren’t always dependable.
And yes, I’m against ageism, but it’s Trump we’re talking about.
Major Major Major Major
@mrmoshpotato:
Maybe we give him to Norway and he can be Breivik’s friend.
HalfAssedHomesteader
@Renie: Maybe send him a small bouquet from another florist with a note explaining. Black roses? Dead daisies?
Gretchen
@Ohio Mom: I’ve had that exact same thought, of being a good German. I hope the difference is that we know what is happening is wrong and are looking for ways to oppose it, while Germans were trying to pretend the bad stuff wasn’t happening. But we still have measures like protesting and voting that the Germans didn’t have once the Nazis took over.
JanieM
@Renie: @Adam L Silverman: Maybe they mean “I’m an American and this is my shop, love America or leave my shop.”
/snark
Regardless, time to go. And I think I would tell them, if I could do it calmly and without losing my temper, so that there might at least be a basis for them to think “gee, I lose a nice person as a customer” rather than “gee, I’m just as glad not to have business from that hot-tempered idiot.” (Not losing my temper would be the hard part………)
MattF
Mildly OT. Seems that Barr’s political contributions spiked right around the time he was nominated for AG.
<a href="https://qz.com/1667918/barrs-donations-to-senate-republicans-spiked-before-confirmation/" rel="nofollow"
ETA: Link looks hosed, but it works.
plato
zhena gogolia
@Gretchen:
My problem is I feel I’m surrounded by good Germans. When I talk about this stuff at a dinner party they think I have a tinfoil hat on.
plato
And their main instigator is still scot-free.
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: That. is. wild.
Dopey-o
@Renie: YES! If you don’t tell them why you won’t spend your money in their shop, they won’t get the message. And they need to get the message GOOD and HARD!
(hat tip to Mr. Menken)
mrmoshpotato
@Raven: Sorry. Didn’t mean to insult actual children. :)
Brachiator
@plato:
But the tax cuts!
Dog Mom
@Renie: I might send a note with a picture of the Statue of Liberty – and some text like American – I stand with her. and then the inscription, signed Former Customer
LuciaMia
You know if he could find some way to rescind Obama’s Nobel he’d be on it like a rat on a cheeto.
Im surprised he doesn’t trash talk it more often.
mrmoshpotato
@Major Major Major Major:
Got some beef with Norway you’d care to share? ?
WhatsMyName
@Elizabelle:
You really need to insure each item above a certain value. It’s common practice to add it to your household/renters insurance as a “rider” (just an additional policy). And those basement vaults can get wet, put those valuable papers in freezer bags. More here.
Banks do not want to know what you are putting in your safety deposit box, partly due to the liability issue.
Gretchen
@zhena gogolia: That’s tough. The last time I had dinner with friends « what can we do if I’m not a lawyer and don’t speak Spanish? ». The others all seemed concerned too, but it all feels too little right now. I guess we just have to remember that there are a lot of us and if millions each do a little bit, it will have an effect. I just read that Trump is in danger of losing in North Carolina and Georgia next time, which may have down-ballot effects.
Renie
@Adam L Silverman: LOL No just my bad typing. I tried to engage with my law student daughter about the flag. My round-a-bout logic was that they have a first amendment right to display the flag but Americans have a first amendment right to disagree with the country without having to ‘leave it’. So does this make the wording on the flag ‘unconstitutional’. She said I was stretching it but a lawyer can make an argument for anything. LOL
Heywood J.
@rikyrah: That is an amazing story. Even better, now I know how I can pay off those damned student loans….
Brachiator
@Elizabelle:
This is insane. I’ve never had a safe deposit box. Do they mention that the bank is not responsible on any of the paperwork you sign when you get a box?
Jiminy's Cricket
@Spanky:For the alternate ending the book provides, truly disturbing imagery awaits…..
NotMax
On a much less teeth-gritting note, Happy Moon Landing Anniversary!
Elizabelle
@WhatsMyName: Yeah. I have good insurance, but had forgotten to get the jewelry rider I planned.
Not thinking so much of liability as my mother’s beautiful jewelry, a lot of which I look forward to wearing but always wanted to safeguard. While it does have a dollar value, it is priceless to me because it was hers as gifts from my father. Some very elegant stuff. I am all worried, and chose not to go until Monday so as not to ruin the weekend, just in case.
Also, would really have to search for the key. I think having the bank drill boxes is how so much stuff goes missing, initially. They don’t take enough care; they make mistakes. And there is some thievery …
ETA: There is this beautiful gold charm bracelet, with working charms. A little gold fish with working scales. I cannot wait to retrieve that, and then put an easier and secure clasp on it so I can wear it sometimes …
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator: sounds like Citigroup pays back 500x rent, which isn’t bad.
Most people I know who use safety deposit boxes (that I’m aware of at least) use them for offsite backups of hard drives and documents… but that’s crazy, movies make them seem so secure!
Natural disasters I can understand at least.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I know! where am I going to keep my cache of kruggerands, Spanish dubloons and loose diamonds, should I ever come into said cache
Elizabelle
The safety deposit box problem sounds like a first world problem — and truly, it is! — but it’s another concrete example of an assumed “security” that is not there when you need it. It’s been hollowed out; there isn’t even regulation dealing with it. There could be, but most likely the banks’ lobbyists made sure there is not.
It’s this country, writ large. Many people here have commented that living in the US forces you to assume far too many risks, that Europeans (and perhaps some others) do not, and it is so true.
NickM
@Renie: Yes, let the florist know!!
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Keep it in some perspective. Per the snippet you provided, there are 25 million boxes. You have 1. Odds are in your favor.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Mooniversary?
smintheus
@rikyrah: Shocked but not surprised. Insurance companies have incredibly perverse incentives in their system. I’ve had multiple car insurers try to nickle ‘n’ dime me over fender benders caused by their clients, even before an adjuster looks at the damage. They also often rely upon lying about whatever they need to lie about. Hell, some have even offered me (bad/false) legal advice to con me into not pursuing a claim against them – which is itself illegal.
Thanks for the link.
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major:
Yep. Of course, some stuff put in boxes has sentimental value. Or 500x doesn’t even come close to the value.
The tax software company I work with offers cloud storage for tax data. One customer didn’t trust the cloud. He kept a hard drive off-site at his bank.
Flood damaged his office and the bank.
He uses cloud storage now.
Obviously, the cloud can have problems as well, but it is useful in providing another level of backup.
WhatsMyName
@Elizabelle: You still need a jewelry rider at home for your insurance. I would also find a different bank and still have a box there. You could leave some of the jewelry at home to wear and some in the new safety deposit box. Homes do have fires and metals melt.
plato
rikyrah
@Adam L Silverman:
Functional Illiterate??
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
????
Spanky
Well, at 12:56 it was 95 at Andrews AFB with a dew point of 74, making a heat index of 106. Doesn’t look like we’ll get to the predicted 99 temp and 114 heat index.
I’m OK with that. I’m also aware that the temp will rise for at least another 2 hours here, so predictions are always difficult – especially about the future.
mad citizen
@zhena gogolia: At this point I’d be totally OK with demolishing the Oval, and building a new office for the President somewhere else in the White House.
smintheus
I’m not terribly pleased with my new Dem Congresswoman, Susan Wild. After years of being represented by a weasely Republican, I was hoping to have a tough-minded Democrat who acts with integrity with regard to stopping Trump’s worst abuses. Instead, when I complained about her anti-impeachment vote, here’s her response:
Really tough vote there. That’ll teach Trump. If she doesn’t pull her thumb out, she can find somebody else to canvass for her.
J R in WV
@Renie:
I think you should. There’s no possibility of a learning experience for them if you don’t. If they don’t receive your information well, just leave more rapidly. That horrible slogan has been a right-wing trope for decades, I remember it was very popular during the anti-war protests against the Vietnam war, and I’m not sure if it was also popular during the McCarty era as well…
stinger
@Adam L Silverman: I know. I was just shrieking in anguish.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Brachiator
I saw this last night. I don’t have enough words to express my disgust over this travesty.
And sadly, it’s just Trump being Trump.
Another Scott
@Brachiator: Repost – Krebs:
As I said earlier, I’m surprised that it took this long (but it’s undoubtedly not the first).
One expects cloud companies to suffer backup failures now and again, and have ways to very quickly mitigate them. One doesn’t expect that cloud companies will suffer ransomeware attacks. One of their supposed selling points is that they protect you from such things. If I had my business records with them, I’d be looking for the best class-action lawyer available…
Any human construct has risks. Anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you something. [/westley]
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
@NotMax: Thank you. That’s true. And it’s in a pretty sleepy little area. But still … that little gold fish!
@WhatsMyName: Will get on it with the insurance rider. I wonder if credit unions offer secure boxes as a service … will check that out.
SFAW
@Mike in NC:
Just “a” Nobel Prize? I’m guessing he feels entitled to ALL the Nobel Prizes, because he is the smartest, humblest, bestest person EVER. He alone, with only his own two tiny hands, saved America and the World from the Menace of the Darkies (etc).
stinger
@Ruckus: Somebody decides who will get in to see him in the Oval Office. Why do they bring in these people pleading for humanitarian aid, when it’s crystal clear that he has no humanity? They’d be doing him a big favor if they’d keep these events for winners of the Kentucky state pancake toss or the annual Wyoming Chamber of Commerce honoree.
OzarkHillbilly
@Renie: Make sure you tell them they don’t get to decide who and what is American.
Gammyjill
@LuciaMia: you know, I don’t think Trump knows there are several categories of Nobel Prize. I bet he thinks there’s just one and it’s given for reasons that allude him.
Karen
@MattF: Of course this bribery can’t be prosecuted because the people he bribed are in charge. And he owns the Justice Department so no help there. Plus I’ve been hearing that because of the whole “presidents can’t be prosecuted” thing, the SDNY are not gonna do anything either.
If I have faulty information please let me know.
Brachiator
I don’t know which is more creepy. Trump in this meeting, or the new “Cats” movie trailer.
Major Major Major Major
@Elizabelle:
Just wait until you hear about how software is written…
JPL
My niece sent me flowers and used a company called Farmgirl Flowers. They are beautiful and very fresh, According to their website they only purchase from companies that pay a living wage and provide health benefits.
Until yesterday, I had never heard of them. Buying local is nice, but not from bigots.
mrmoshpotato
@SFAW:
and a Putin-hating, female President.
stinger
@Aleta: Spot on.
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
We absolutely expect this in the tax industry.
MattF
@Karen: The article cites ‘not obviously illegal’ expert opinions. It doesn’t look good— but Barr might regard that as a plus.
JPL
@Brachiator: Both are horrifying, so don’t choose.
Major Major Major Major
@Brachiator: i don’t see what the big deal is with the Cats trailer. It looks exactly like you’d expect a movie version of Cats to look.
Gay twitter thinks part of the issue is, we’re being hypersensitive because this is an accurate portrayal of musical theatre and now normies are seeing it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
cracks me up that trump and his MAGAts are so obsessed with CNN and the NYT, when both have done so much to boost him
Spanky
@Brachiator: “Cats” is just bad fiction.
Spanky
@Major Major Major Major: How the software is written is not so much a problem. Now testing, on the other hand ….
Dorothy A. Winsor
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Spanky: Come sit by me.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Dorothy A. Winsor: only surprised anyone felt the need to put this out about Melanie. She has such a low public profile, I wonder how many people even think about her
Mr Stagger Lee
@zhena gogolia: It reminds me of a story of an German officer in WWI who saw the horrors of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire, he wrote to Hitler on the eve of WWII about it. Hitler on the other hand scoffed and said “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
MattF
@Dorothy A. Winsor: So, maybe Ivanka and Melania aren’t actually secret liberals.
Another Scott
@Brachiator: Maybe some do. Others, apparently not so much.
To be clear, anyone can make mistakes. And staying on top of the latest software threats is more than a full-time job that pretty-much only specialist firms can really do well. It’s just that all of us need to understand that it’s far too easy for someone that you pay to take care of your “stuff” to not do it adequately well. Don’t trust your life and your company exclusively to someone else. Cloud backups, and all the rest, are convenient, but they’re not 100% safe. People and companies need to have a plan for when the cloud goes down.
Cheers,
Scott.
Major Major Major Major
@Spanky: idk the XKCD “modern tech stack” is pretty accurate https://xkcd.com/2166/
ETA a devops person at work a few months ago hacked our JavaScript package manager to point out security flaws in our UI builds. It was highly effective! And that’s a security hole that’s in like, every web application.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
Life is a risk.
An acquaintance was at the show in Las Vegas where 58 people died, the person standing next to him got shot. My cousin lived for 6 months.
Life is a risk.
Everything has a chance to go wrong or to be made wrong. People wanted small cars that got decent mileage – we got the Pinto and the Vega.
Life is a risk.
And none of the above takes into account those who actively try to screw others. We talk about animals have natural instincts, like lions eat most anything besides themselves, but humans are animals, we have survival instincts. Of course some take that to levels way beyond others.
Everything has risk.
Hell I might win the lottery. Of course I’d have to have bought tickets for that, but the risk is still there. It’s just the risk is actually that I much more likely would just lose my one or two dollars for the ticket.
There is even a risk that drumpf will do something that will be not stupid, racist, and right. I’m not betting on the side of that.
J R in WV
@Major Major Major Major:
So funny, so sad. Wasn’t there a case where people were injured and killed because of poor software computing dosages for cancer patients receiving radiation treatments? Got way too much because the software was all wrong?
I’ve had software contract developers who thought they knew what they were doing, but were treating a complex regulatory environment as if it was a Dairy Queen. Just Nope!!
We don’t overwrite an old address with a new address in a regulatory database, we end-date the old data and create a new record with the new data, to over-simplify a wee bit.
But you can afford to pay me a whole bunch because you don't have to micro-manage me, I'm experienced at Dairy Queen!!!
Spanky
@Ruckus: We fancy ourselves at the top of the food chain, but as the climate changes we’re going to be reminded that viruses, bacteria, and insects don’t much care what we fancy.
Spanky
@Another Scott: If the cloud goes down, isn’t that just ground fog?
Spanky
@Major Major Major Major: He did not come up with that security hole on his own, either.
‘Nuff said.
ETA: Hmmmm! Is everyone else out cavorting in the sunshine?
Frankensteinbeck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It is an article of faith, and I am sure Trump believes it, that places like California that refuse to brutally oppress brown people are Hellholes of crime and violence. MAGAts seriously believe this. They are baffled if you tell them it’s not true. Everybody knows it’s true, right? I haven’t heard them talk about London in person, but from the trickles of conspiracy theory I’ve run into on the internet I would not be surprised if London is on that list of Hellholes. I mean, a lot of them think there are parts of London where Muslim fundamentalists rule and kill any police that enter.
Major Major Major Major
@Spanky: oh, no, just a passive aggressive way to ensure compliance with internal standards. At least three package managers with public registries (npm, pypi, rubygems) are actually a source of ransomware attacks now, and most people don’t even think to mitigate that.
Ksmiami
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: you know I no longer give any fucks about retired bigoted machinists in Ohio. May they be condemned to oblivion for supporting two bit Mussolini.
Mnemosyne
@Ruckus:
Most people remain who they are at their core even with Alzheimer’s. If you’re a decent person before it strikes, you will remain decent. If you’re a shitty person before it strikes, it will make you even shittier.
G’s grandfather famously had a big (for him) outburst while he had Alzheimer’s where he declared, “I don’t want any damn pudding!” And then he settled back down when they assured him that he didn’t have to eat the pudding.
So, no, Trump’s behavior can’t be excused by his having Alzheimer’s, because Alzheimer’s only makes you more of who you already were all along.
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major:
I don’t know. I didn’t have much expectation about the trailer at all. But something just seems off. And actually repulsive, despite the variety of interesting actors in the movie. With the exception of James Corden, who kinda bugs me.
There may be an element of this. I watched a few Cars reaction videos on YouTube (because reaction videos are a thing). A number of people admitted that they had not seen any musical, movie or live theater. Or they generally hated musicals. Another person kept trying to figure out how much CGI was used.
There are people whose only visual frames of reference are computer games and super hero comic book movies and an occasional Disney Pixar film. So they are lost when trying to make sense of the trailer.
And yet, something is off. This is a movie, not a stage play. There is something unsettling about seeing human actors on what appears to be a real street, somewhat looking like real cats prowling at night. I think this actually works, but it is jarring.
Later you see a “cat” at a table, and it is shot so that the character is the size that a cat would be. This didn’t quite work for me, but I see what the director is doing, and I suppose there will be juxtaposition of a cat’s view and the perspective of a human viewer.
But as with the problematic nature of this new photo realistic Lion King, the Cats body suits and mix of CGI, at least on initial viewing, just looks wrong in a movie. It might work fine on stage, but this is a different medium.
Also, though, the Internet loves to over react.
Brachiator
@Frankensteinbeck:
Oddly enough, Trump just recently bashed the Muslim mayor of London over knife crimes in the city.
Trump not only believes that Muslims should be banned from the West, but they also should not be citizens or elected officials.
Another Scott
July 30th is the 400th anniversary of the opening of the General Assembly in Jamestown, VA. VA House and Senate Democrat[ic!] Caucuses announce they will not attend a ceremony if Donnie is there:
One member, Elaine Luria, has tweeted that she’ll be there.
Virginian-Pilot has more.
If he had any shame, he would stay away. Will he? Dunno…
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
Oh. I thought they were making a movie about cats. Am disappointed.
Chief Oshkosh
@Renie:
Sure, if you have the time. You might ask them if they’ve ever considered that MAGA was based on saying that America was terrible and that therefore all Trump supporters should have self-deported in 2015. Might spice up the conversation.
boatboy_srq
@Elizabelle: CUs do have safe deposit boxes; however, pricing is attractive enough, and member loyalty high enough, that the backlog is substantial. If you can get one, go for it.
Elizabelle
@Baud: Got to put in my plug for Kedi, the documentary about Turkish cats.
Time to watch it again. Although in the trailer: the merchant shooing the cat who is digging through the (apparent) bag of coffee … ummmm….. how quickly did you catch that cat?
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
As any film major can tell you, what works in live theater rarely works on film, because the tricks live theater uses to get the audience to suspend their disbelief don’t work with the heightened reality of film. That’s why “faithful” adaptations of stage plays usually suck — it’s the live theater version of the Uncanny Valley.
JPL
@Chief Oshkosh: All good points, but she could suggest that she would have never told trump as a private citizen that.
charon
@Adam L Silverman:
He has a reading disability, does not grasp meaning of text words although he can make the sounds.
Discussed at yastreblyansky:
.. http://yastreblyansky.blogspot.com/2019/07/its-literacy.html ..
It’s why he sounds so weird when he”reads” from a teleprompter – the text is just the sounds to him, no meaning.
Bill Arnold
@mad citizen:
Or the whole White House. Congress (which includes the R Senate, alas) controls the District of Columbia, according to (my reading of) the Constitution.
They could close the White House for decontamination for the next 1.5 years?
Aleta
@Renie: “Hi, I’d like three dozen roses… Where were these grown? Ecuador? Are all your roses from South America? Oh, OK. What countries does your company buy flowers from? You ought to leave that company/supplier.”
But realistically, that’s not so good. Besides voicing prejudice, this point does not matter to them, since their complaint is immigrants. Also it repeats the jingoism of the 80s and 90s.
I imagine the suppliers that he is contracted with, or the larger company that he represents, use immigrant labor and other people who speak Spanish. I think I would complain over his head — look up what larger companies are connected to him. What 1-800- flower service sends local orders to him to deliver? Ask some of us to put complaints on their twitter ? If you can find out who supplies him, write/call/publicize the suppliers, because he represents them.
If what he he wanted was to make his point but still play it safe locally, it’s possible the flag may go down in a few days. That’s why I would complain over his head, so that he might feel some heat from above.
Second, who’s selling those flags? What local or internet group is encouraging him?
Overall, if the person who put up the flag is the owner of the shop or the leaseholder, his message is he doesn’t want your business. Another approach would be to send letters (or call from a protected number), even if the flag goes down tomorrow. “You’ve been our florist for years. Are you telling us to leave your shop since we support immigrants and their descendants? Are you saying you don’t take orders from the children and grandchildren of immigrants?
If he’s argumentative, tell him he’s unAmerican. If sending a letter, ask him if he belongs to unAmerican fascist groups. Tell him the street is a representative of your town, and his flag is unAmerican.
Best advice might be, bring it up with friends and neighbors. If you go into businesses near his to buy or look for something, during the short simple interaction you could also ask the cashier or helper what they think of that flag. Moving the conversation into the open.
charon
From my link above, Trump’s condition has a DSM description:
Elizabelle
@boatboy_srq: thank you!
J R in WV
I was sure that I saw Cats as a stage play, but perhaps on reflection I’m suffering from a false memory. I’ve seen a lot of live theater, my folks loved it, and took us all over the place to see all sorts of stage productions. So maybe mixing up Cats with one of the multitude of other shows over the years…
eta, shorten…
Another Scott
@charon: Eh? WhiteHouse.gov (dated July 5):
Surely, surely that was the as-prepared text??!!!?!
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
Mnemosyne
@charon:
When Trump was a kid, it was very, very common for boys with learning disabilities to be shipped off to military schools to “straighten them out,” because clearly the reason they couldn’t read or couldn’t remember things was laziness that required harsh discipline, not dyslexia or reading comprehension disorders or ADHD.
My dad ended up at military school because he had ADHD, and he never quite forgave his parents for it. I have suspected for years that Trump landed at military school for the same reason — he had learning disabilities that needed to be papered over but were never actually dealt with.
Mnemosyne
@charon:
That ain’t the only DSM disorder Trump has. Narcissistic Personality Disorder is a cluster B disorder.
Bill Arnold
@J R in WV:
One of my aunts got like 10X the correct radiation dosage for a colon cancer post-op treatment. This was several decades ago; not sure if it was the same case. Did some damage, and caused mild (I think, maybe she just didn’t complain much) lifelong discomfort. However, the cancer did not recur until her early 90s; she decided after consideration that she had lived long enough and did not get it treated at that time.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
Not sure that’s 100% true.
Have a friend about my age told me that his mother was the kindest, nicest person he’d ever met, so much so that it was unusual. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when he was about 50 and she turned into the exact opposite. He’d never heard a swear word out of her mouth but after that she swore more than I do and fuck came out of her mouth as often as any other word. My experience with my dad in Alzheimer’s care gave me the same impression. Now not everyone had this dramatic of change but many do.
My take on Alzheimer’s is that it is infancy/childhood in reverse. A child grows and learns how to do things we as adults take for granted, Alzheimer’s patients start from the point of adulthood and regress, forgetting everything ever learned, except the nightmares and have to be taken care of more and more, including everything physical, not less and less. Raising a child is rewarding because you are teaching someone to live. The only thing rewarding about Alzheimer’s is that you are caring for someone who every day can do less and less. Of course that person doesn’t lose size as the opposite of infancy/childhood, but that only makes it harder.
Tony Jay
You know, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to find out that Don Poor ‘n Lonely actually thinks that there’s ‘a’ Nobel Prize that gets passed around among whoever those damned foreigners think is flavor of the week, Liberally speaking.
“They gave it to you? Have you still got it? Is it here? Gimmee, I want it.”
Who’s going to tell him he’s wrong?
Mike in NC
@charon: Also remember Trump’s absurd vanity, which precludes him from ever wearing reading glasses or a hearing aid, like so many people his age need.
Bill Arnold
@Renie:
If (but only if) you can do it politely, I would tell the florist face-to-face that they’re losing a formerly-loyal customer.
This tweet has been making the rounds. The newspaper (1969) op-ed title is “The ‘love it or leave it’ nonsense”
P.S. the new Twitter UI sucks. Really really sucks. The new tab BS for embedding a tweet is beyond stupid.
Ruckus
@Ruckus:
So maybe if you had a shitty childhood you will have a shitty Alzheimer’s regression.
Or maybe it’s just a disease that damages the brain to such a degree that the physical world is no longer important and the world inside your head is whatever strikes you at any one moment. So some will be true to themselves and some will be true to their nightmares. But no one can tell the difference because everything is jumbled up, going in or coming out. The world we know is not the world that Alzheimer’s patients know. And we see people daily who have no idea what the world we live in is like.
HalfAssedHomesteader
@Another Scott:
OT and random: I’m just trying to imagine how that would sound to someone who just popped in from the ’90s.
Steeplejack
@Renie:
Fuck, yes, tell the asshole. Silence lets them think “everyone” agrees with them.
Ruckus
I have questions.
Why would anyone not an asshole go to the WH to meet drumpf if they weren’t forced at gun point? It’s not obvious that he can’t be human? Why would people who are not only human but trying to be the best humans they can be want to be in the same room with drumpf? Go to the WH to meet shit for brains? What is the point, am I missing something?
Another Scott
@HalfAssedHomesteader: There’s a fairly famous quote in Michael Crichton’s (bad book) “State of Fear”:
(One can quibble with many of the examples – the Chinese were using rockets in 1232.)
It’s the same now, even moreso.
Cheers,
Scott.
Renie
Thanks for all the suggestions. I did a short Google search on the phrase ‘love it or leave it’ and found the earliest use was by the KKK. Then of course, as some here may recall, it was used towards people who believed in integration of schools, people who believed in civil rights for all and then towards people against the draft and against the Vietnam War. So far I just left my opinion about the flag on their Yelp page but will probably go into the shop next week to talk – as calm as I can – about it.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
Even moreso.
Yep, that list is not even close to being inclusive today. And the book was published in 2004. Hell it wouldn’t be close to inclusive to some alive today. Like me.
Ruckus
@Renie:
You can use it, the phrase.
“I no longer love your store, I’m leaving it forever.”
Drop the mic and walk out. Never look back.
Gelfling 545
@Adam L Silverman: This is something I’ve been ranting to people about, IRL and online. Previous presidents, even ones I couldn’t stand were never so rude. Not sure why, in the midst of all his evil actions, this is particularly firing me up. Maybe it’s just that all his cruelties have been at a distance, carried out out of his sight but this discourtesy to people actually right in front of him just glaringly points out his horrible nature.
Jay
For those interested, antifia/Never Again/community support groups are brainstorming what people can do, beyond donations, protests, contacting representatives.
They are keeping the list ideas seperate from Direct Action.
As they come up with complete actions, ( which will have written guides), if anybody’s interested, I’ll post them in threads as they are created.
The ideas they are working on are:
– how to safely block a warrantless ICE raid,
– ICE Raid alerts and sheltering your neighbors in place,
– how to intercede/intervene safely in an ICE arrest to ensure they are adhereing to the law,
– community supported distributed Sanctuary, ( Anne Frank)
– safe relocation transport to reunite families,
Ruckus
@Ruckus:
How’s this for a concept?
I’ve been alive and a citizen for 29.66% of the USA’s existence as a country. 236 yrs is how long we’ve been a recognized country.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
Because not everyone wants to believe that Trump is a jerk. Because an invitation to the White House is still a big fucking deal. Because the president of the United States is the most powerful Western leader.
Jay
https://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2019/07/via-its-painful-watching-human-being.html?m=1
Gelfling 545
@Renie: A garden center I used to patronize occasionally, fortunately not one of my main ones, lost me as a customer by displaying a Paladino for governor sign. I pulled up, saw the sign, went in and told them that Zi would not be back & why. The guy said he had the right to support whoever and I said that indeed he did but I also had the right to be sure not 1¢ of my money ever went to support such an awful candidate. He knew me because I tend to spend a lot in garden centers so I like to think it gave him pause. I’ve never seen another political sign there when I go to the garden center across the street, but I still have never gone back.
Skepticat
@Renie: It might be interesting to have a discussion with the florist about how s/he feels about the people who love America so much that they’re dying—sometimes literally—to get here. Recent immigrants do indeed seem actually to love the U.S. more than many of those of us who simply ended up here by winning the genetic lottery.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
I always thought that Trump had Irredeemable Asshole Disorder, cluster A through Z.
a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio
@Renie: You might point out that you’re also upset by their violation of federal law (the US Flag Code is Chapter 1 of Title 4 of the United States Code), namely this bit:
The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.
(Wikipedia has an article on this; it can also be googled pretty easily, I should think)
It always disconcerts people of that ilk when someone tells them their patriotic display is disrespectful to the flag, with the law to back it up ready. It’s a real wrong-foot for them, because they knowthey’re the ones who love the flag sooooo much, unlike the dirty communist hippies and foreigners.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
What’s your point?
OK all snark aside I did and do understand what you wrote and agree with it as a general concept. Except this is Trump. We’ve all seen him, listened to him. I’m saying that they are going to the WH to see Trump, who is definitely not your standard president. GWB was a shitty president, a real shitty president and he was miles above this asshole. Our president is an asshole. Actually an asshole deluxe. That’s the biggest, bestest kind of asshole. Would you go? I wouldn’t. Of course I’m never going to be asked so it’s not that big a deal. But people whom he hates, victims of his racist remarks, people who should have no trouble knowing how big an asshole he is and how he will act when they show up. Megan Rapinoe has the right idea. Do you want a picture of him anywhere in your vicinity?
gorram
@stinger: My suspicion is they did, but there were “too many” different refugee stories for him to keep track of – not out of inability, but just sheer indifference.
Jay
@Ruckus:
They wern’t going to the White Supremacy House to see Dolt 45.
The were attending a “bipartizan Religious Freedom” dog and pony,l show, as “International Religious Freedom Award” winners.
In otherwords, they were attending what they thought was a “serious” discussion on what the US can do to promote and support religious freedom, and got dragged across the hall after it ended, to be props in Dolt45’s “I am not a Racist” photo op.
MisterForkbeard
@J R in WV: Yes. That computer was the Therac-25, and the case was a pretty big deal in computer ethics.
The Lodger
@Elizabelle: Do you think it’s easy to pee in the corners of the Oval Office?
Michael J Allen
@donnah: Yup.
(This blog need an upvote function.)
J R in WV
@MisterForkbeard:
I thot so! Thanks for verifying my old memories!
Back in the Day, when it was my career, I paid a lot of attention to things like massive fatal errors in code, for example. Nearly as bad as as the secret software in the Boeing 737-3200 crashing those planes into the ground. Deaths one by one instead of 150+ at a time, but still, over the months, silently making people ill unto death.
Ken
@HalfAssedHomesteader: Or “Mongolian coal-powered bitcoin mining server farms”.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
Everyone does not share the Balloon Juice consensus about Trump. I enjoy the disdain and mockery as much as anyone, but sometimes you have to look at things from a wider perspective.
Another poster has noted that Trump hijacked another event to use for his own purposes. But apart from this, it’s clear that some people hope that Trump will not be as bad as he is. Maybe they think that media stories are biased. Maybe they think that this is really a partisan squabble. Maybe they respect the office of the president no matter who the occupant might be. Maybe they think that the issue they represent is so important that they will do everything they can to bring it to the light.
Maybe they think that Trump might actually help them.
Again, Trump is an asshole. He is also president of the United States. For now.
I wouldn’t want him around me. But right now I can afford to be disdainful. But you know what? If I were invited to the freaking White House, I would seriously consider going. It’s the freaking White House. However, since there ain’t a chance in hell that I am getting an invite, I don’t have to deal with any moral quandary.
Another thing. Some in Europe appeared to be shocked over Trump’s petulance over the UK ambassador. Even though they have seen the news, read the stories, they believed that Trump would behave like a normal head of state. Even after all this time, it hasn’t sunk in who Trump really is.
Lastly, I listened to a couple of interviews with Jim Acosta, the White House reporter Trump mistreated. He seemed to suggest that some of Trump’s dealing with the press is political theater. White House aides have come up to him afterwards and told him he was doing a great job. I think this guy is a fool. Trump is cultivating a disdain for all journalism which does not praise him. And he is happy that his base will listen only to him and Fox News.
It’s not just that Trump is a moron or an asshole. He is a danger to democracy. But many people still don’t want to believe it.
Ben Cisco
@Brachiator:
I absolutely got a dose of this at work yesterday. Young kid, literally less than half my age, pretty convinced that the media is full of shit, but also doesn’t trust what little is out there taking Trump to task. Totally taken in by the “both” sides narrative. Ironically, he doesn’t watch TV “newz” and therefore his exposure to Wussolini is limited.
The Lodger
@Ruckus: Based on their experience with other governments, I’m not sure they expect any head of state to be a human being. Still an embarrassment to the US, of course.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
I thought I’d read you correctly.
But still, he is a moronic asshole. Maybe it’s because I worked in pro sports and many of the people I worked with and participants were first rate humans, there were a number who were anything but. And I still had to deal with them professionally. Which is what you are saying here. Deal with people like adults, we will have our differences and that’s OK. But that was then, this is now. I knew how to deal with assholes and morons when I was getting paid for it, when I’m not, and it is vital for a lot of people we should still act like adults. but adults who are dealing with immature, spoiled rotten, moronic, asshole, whiny brats. And if that means not going to someone’s house because their kids are immature, spoiled rotten, moronic, asshole, whiny brats, or even dealing with your bosses immature, spoiled rotten, moronic, asshole, whiny brats, because being nice to them empowers them to continue to act like immature, spoiled rotten, moronic, asshole, whiny brats.
Ruckus
@The Lodger:
Yeah. I had an Iranian guy worked for me, his dad had owned a factory in Iran when the shah was overthrown and the entire family had to flee with basically the clothes on their backs. I can understand why someone from somewhere else would not believe that Trump is the devil’s illegitimate spawn but he’s been in office for what 20 yrs now (maybe it just seems like that long) and his press coverage is pretty clear, he’s a complete fucking asshole to anyone who he doesn’t like the looks of. It’s really no secret.
sm*t cl*de
@Mnemosyne:
No, he was sent to military school because he was trying to rape the maids.
EthylEster
@Elizabelle: Well, it IS Wells Fargo. I don’t understand how anyone would trust them with money given all we know about their shenanigans.
Mike G
Shorter Trump:
So enough about your rape and torture and all that crap, can you get me in with the Nobel Committee? It’s a big gold medal, right?
Mnemosyne
@sm*t cl*de:
Please, like slumlord Fred Trump gave a shit about that?
Mnemosyne
@Ruckus:
As someone who swears a lot, I don’t necessarily see that as being incompatible with being a nice or kind person, but I think you mean that she also started to show other behaviors like being impatient or mean?
One of the famous stories about George Washington is that he had a really bad temper that he had to carefully train himself to suppress. If your friend’s mom or your dad had detected a fault like that in themselves that they consciously corrected, and then that learning process faded away; that might be (part of) the explanation for why they suddenly seemed so different.
But IANAD, so I’m mostly spitballing. I still think that Trump has been an asshole his entire life, so any effect of Alzheimer’s is just enhancing what was already there.
charon
@Mnemosyne:
Personality traits that already exist get amplified, habitual behaviors, routines, get more relied on.
If he actually is progressing a dementia, the behaviors we have seen lately are the preview of coming attractions.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
I’m not saying that you are necessarily wrong, just that it’s a more complex issue than basic personality. We all have personalities based upon many factors, upbringing, genealogy, siblings, surroundings, friends, those we reject as friends. culture surrounding us…. And that’s not a comprehensive list by any means. And Alzheimers can change any of those formed since birth. Personal history is a big factor but the biggest thing to remember is that all of a person’s memories can be misinterpreted because all the memory control functions are disrupted. Think computer with a bad hard drive. Some bits are lost or can’t be retrieved, which alters the memory. Some bits are changed, which can change the way we perceive other bits. An example, my dad told me that as a kid he’d lived in North Hollywood with his parents in an apartment – and his pet cow. His parents lived in an apartment in Hollywood for a while, I stayed with them for a week there when I was around 10. That’s as close to my dad’s Alzheimers story as it gets. He never had a cow. Alzheimers fucks with the memory, which seems to be what it mostly does. More specifically I believe it fucks with the memory controller, that bit that stores and recalls everything, so that everything ever in the memory is distorted or forgotten completely. That includes all the learned things, like potty training or your favorite color, or who your spouse of decades is. And as your personality is a learned thing, sort of an overview of your life, it too can change. If you don’t think so, how many people do you know who were one type of person before HS and then you see them a decade later and it is said about them, they aren’t the same person I knew. But they are, it’s their outside outlook that’s changed. Or it’s the alcoholic who sobers up, makes a massive change in their life and personality. Or it’s the person who stops fighting everyone and finds their place in the world, possibly even becoming a far more equitable person. I have a lot of the traits that I had as a ten yr old, but I also have a lot of traits that I’ve learned since. And so do you and everyone else. We are an amalgamation of our experiences, which shape how we see new experiences, how we attack life or how we allow it to attack us. You are married to a nice guy, think back to how your life has changed over the time you’ve known him, how he shapes new experiences for you. You do the same for him. And all of that is your personality. My take is that we don’t actually have a personality built in, it is all experiences of our total lives and how we use those memories to shape how we see new experiences. And what happens if we shut that learning off. Or if that learning is actually propaganda, rather than reality. Think faux news and what happens if you turn it off.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
Cutting into his action?
Someone had to say it. You all were thinking it.
Ruckus
@EthylEster:
Had a customer who worked in a bank – during the recession. This bank went under and the Fed got Wells Fargo to purchase it. Wells hired this guy to work in the same, renamed branch. He called me once shortly after and made a sales pitch about something. I asked him if he was fucking kidding. He said, to the effect, it’s a recession, I have a family, they hired me so I make the calls. I have to feed my kids and keep a roof over their heads. I do what I have to do. I told him I understood and good luck. He remained a customer. But he hated working for them, told me soap and hot water could never wash off the stench. Like the kid I knew in HS who worked at an H.Salt Fish and Chips. The stench was in his clothes and on him, he couldn’t wash any of it off. But it was a job. I’d guess sort of like being hammer operator in a slaughter house. Someone’s got to do it.