Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

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

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

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

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

A tremendous foreign policy asset… to all of our adversaries.

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

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / {FacePalm} Open Thread: Greenland, Unlike the Trump Administration, Is Not For Sale

{FacePalm} Open Thread: Greenland, Unlike the Trump Administration, Is Not For Sale

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202Comments

  1. 1.

    Ken

    Ok, is anyone around him, at the very least, a little bit concerned that he has lost his mind?

    A question that, if there is any justice, will be asked of every one of them on the witness stand.

  2. 2.

    opiejeanne

    This is why I love Balloon Juice.

    I just read this to mr opiejeanne and he doesn’t know whether he should laugh or not. Trump is insane.

  3. 3.

    dmsilev

    For the next, I dunno, five generations, whenever someone tries to claim that Republicans are serious adults, it should be met with ‘they elected and supported Donald Trump. Case closed.’

  5. 5.

    namekarB

    Somebody should whisper in his ear that the Lost isle of Atlanta has been found and is looking for a host country

  6. 6.

    Peale

    The sad truth is that for the next 40 years, Republican presidents will be running on the promise to get the Danes to sell Greenland and eventually Denmark will join Iran, Venezuela and North Korea in the Axis of Evil.

  8. 8.

    Mike in NC

    What Fat Bastard really meant to say was “Denmark is a very WHITE country with incredible WHITE people…”

    When we visited Copenhagen, a tour guide explained that their national flag was the exclusive property of the Danish government. People couldn’t just run out to whatever they have equivalent to Wal*Mart and treat the flag like a piece of toilet paper, like Fat Bastard does.

  9. 9.

    Wag

    @opiejeanne:

    I just read this to mr opiejeanne and he doesn’t know whether he should laugh or not.

    I’m laughing while beating my head against the table.

  11. 11.

    Joe Falco

    I go and watch a movie (The Art of Racing in the Rain) and this was the first piece of news on my phone when I walk out of the theater. Dammit, America, I need to go back in and watch another movie until I get better news when I come out.

  13. 13.

    Ken

    Now that I’ve read his tweets postponing the trip, I’m pretty sure he thinks this is a negotiating tactic, and in less than a month the Danes will crawl back to the table and beg to sign the deal.

    So yes, insane.

  15. 15.

    TS (the original)

    trump really hates travelling anywhere other than to his golf courses. He made a ridiculous fool of himself in London, maybe he was just looking for a reason to cancel a trip that one of his minions thought he was capable of doing.

  23. 23.

    Ken

    @NotMax: The “Three Sisters” combination of corn, beans, and squash is nutritionally complete. Working out how to add beans and squash to popcorn is left as an exercise for the reader, or perhaps a particularly disgusting episode of “Chopped”.

  26. 26.

    zhena gogolia

    The night of that f–king election I was shaking all night and I said to my husband, “I don’t want to see what he’s going to do. I don’t want to live through it.”

    I had no idea.

  27. 27.

    Joe Falco

    @dexwood:

    It’s a sweet movie like most dog movies are. I’d recommend it if you got nothing else to watch. I could probably listen to Kevin Costner’s gravely old man(dog?) voice narrate audio books all the time in the car if I could.

    @NotMax

    Maybe not, but if it’s fresh popcorn , I wouldn’t mind wasting away eating it. ;)

  28. 28.

    stinger

    @Mary G: Evidence of the immutable law that, when you are chastising someone for minor errors, you make one yourself. There’s an Urbandale, Iowa, and an Urbana, Iowa, but no Urbande. Glad to see that Nolan caught his typo shortly after tweeting it.

    And there’s probably a typo in this comment!

  30. 30.

    kindness

    I’m not really sure what is real anymore.

    What’s worse is the President is already there.

  32. 32.

    zhena gogolia

    @stinger:

    He obviously meant late 60s.

    I’m paying no attention to Biden “gaffes.” The POTUS cancelled a trip to Denmark because they won’t sell him Greenland. There is no such thing as a “gaffe” by any Democrat. Note I said Democrat.

  36. 36.

    dexwood

    @Joe Falco:
    Thanks. Will look for it. We have one independent/art theater left in this town. We patronize the place. My son and his wife booked the place for their wedding years ago.

  39. 39.

    Chip Daniels

    Nancy Pelosi should go to Mexico and announce that Texas is available for purchase or lease with option.

  40. 40.

    Amir Khalid

    I look forward to seeing the list of sanctions that Trump proposes against Denmark for its churlish refusal to sell Greenland.

  41. 41.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    I was looking at my programming guide on Sling TV, and I noticed two channels.

    1. RT America showing ‘Politicking w/Larry King’.
    I despised Larry King when he was on CNN, so I’m not upset or disappointed at this like I was when Ed Schultz (R.I.P.) went to RT America after his MSNBC show was cancelled.

    2. NewsmaxTV listing ‘Michelle Malkin Investigates’
    Frankly I wouldn’t watch that channel unless I was getting paid, but I can guess what she ‘investigates’.

    The above notwithstanding there are some interesting news channels on Sling Blue, especially since I added the News Extras package to get MSNBC.

  43. 43.

    Mary G

    Biden says he’s not worried about large crowds his progressive rivals are getting. “What I'm trying to do is go around from town to town. And I'm drawing as big of crowds — bigger than anybody. Have you seen anybody draw bigger crowds than me here in this state?” Yes, he’s told.— Matt Viser (@mviser) August 20, 2019

  44. 44.

    Miss Bianca

    @zhena gogolia: I’m with you. Any time now someone tries to make something of “Democratic gaffes” I’m going to go all Death Stare and say “Greenland. At least they’re not offering to buy fucking GREENLAND.”

  46. 46.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Peale: Maybe I’m being optimistic but I’m hoping that Trump is the last Republican President for a couple of decades. He certainly should be. They have lost their minds.

  48. 48.

    zhena gogolia

    @realDonaldTrump
    2h2 hours ago
    More
    Denmark is a very special country with incredible people, but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time….

    @BettyBowers
    Follow Follow @BettyBowers
    More
    Replying to @realDonaldTrump
    She found out your credit score.

  49. 49.

    Jeffro

    @zhena gogolia: Agreed. Joe’s not my #1 pick, but I’ll start drilling down on his “gaffes” right after he gets busted paying off a mistress with campaign funds laundered through a shell corporation, or participating in multi-generational tax fraud, or calling for/accepting the assistance of a hostile foreign power in subverting our democratic elections.

    Also, Greenland. Also, tweeting crazy shit eight times a day. Also, also, also…

  50. 50.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Ken: reminds me of “Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years”. Good read if you haven’t already.

  52. 52.

    Gravenstone

    @Ken: Simple. Add the popcorn as a ‘textural component ‘ to a mixture of spaghetti squash and beans. I’m sure we can come up with a sauce to tie it all together.

  53. 53.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Mary G: Biden recently claimed that Dr. King and President Kennedy were assassinated in the 70s. I really hope that he’s not our nominee.

  56. 56.

    Jeffro

    @Dan B: Belgium? No wait – CANADA! (I know trumpov has already knocked Trudeau around a bunch of times but not the country itself)

    When he goes after Canadians, well, THEN we’ll know he’s finally 25th Amendment material. But not now – getting pissed at Denmark for rejecting his offer to buy Greenland is totally reasonable. Absolutely.

  58. 58.

    Ken

    @Gravenstone: If we’re hypothetically talking about a “Chopped” basket, the sauce will have to be based on squid, because the fourth item in the basket is always a squid.

  61. 61.

    Gravenstone

    @Miss Bianca: At this point, I think it’s more threatening to buy Greenland. As in approaching ‘offer they can’t refuse ‘ level of fixation.

  62. 62.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Biden recently claimed that Dr. King and President Kennedy were assassinated in the 70s. I really hope that he’s not our nominee.

    “Greenland. At least he’s not offering to buy fucking GREENLAND.”

    @Miss Bianca: I think it works.

  63. 63.

    dmsilev

    @Jeffro: Belgium has another century or so of living down what they did in their Congo colony before being allowed to compete for ‘most innocuous’.

  65. 65.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Jay: If you mean Limburger, that is Dutch. That style of cheese is also made in Wisconsin. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

  70. 70.

    TaMara (HFG)

    Marc Goldberg The staff of The Onion all just quit today as you can’t even write satire when real life has become a colossal joke.

    Comment on FB regarding Greenland/Denmark IQ45 tweet.

  75. 75.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    If I understand this, trump was talking not too seriously about buying Greenland, and it leaked to the media. Trump denied wanting to buy Greenland, but then his apologists on Fox and elsewhere, what Jon Lovett calls his zambonis, started being all “Akshully, wanting to buy Greenland is bigly smart and it was Truman’s idea.” And trump saw these people making excuses for him and got confused and now thinks he was trying to buy Greenland and so he cancelled his visit.

  76. 76.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Ken: Spent four days on a boat in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam – live-aboard sea kayaking – and I swear to God, every dish at every meal involved squid (squid fishing is very big there.)

  78. 78.

    Repatriated

    The US buying buying Greenland makes a weird kind of sense when viewed in the context of a near-future US & Russia alliance against the entire rest of the world, particularly Europe and China.

    That said, such an alliance would benefit Russia far more than it could possibly benefit the US. Which raises the question, “WTF!?”

  79. 79.

    cynthia ackerman

    @Ken:

    Real Indian popcorn (e.g. those little dried multicolor ears on sale around Thanksgiving) is more flavorful and delicate than Paleface’s.

    I make a mean salmon stew with it, and beans and squash.

    Seriously, if you like popcorn, try a few ears this fall. Recommend pan frying over air popper, as the tiny kernels can blow away.

  80. 80.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    @NotMax:

    Larry King has been appearing on RT for years, and is among the co-owners with them of the concern behind some of the odious video ads that show up on the front page.

    Ora TV?

    His shows may just be licensed to RT America, as opposed to being produced by them, but I have no doubt that if he consistently went ‘off message’ RT America would drop him like a hot potato.

    Never mind that his appearance gives RT America undeserved credibility.

  81. 81.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Omnes Omnibus: I was thinking maybe Andorra but the whole 13th century loyalty to two princes brought back painful memories of the Spin Doctors and other ‘90’s atrocities.

  88. 88.

    NotMax

    @Steve in the ATL

    San Marino.

    We’ll finally break the stranglehold of Big Match!

    …Italy provides San Marino with an annual stipend, and at cost, sea salt (not more than 250 tonnes per year), tobacco (40 tonnes), cigarettes (20 tonnes) and matches (unlimited amount). Source

  90. 90.

    zzyzx

    Might be bad form to quote my own tweet but…

    Maybe someone can read Trump the book of Esther so he can see how Jews feel about politicians demanding that we swear loyalty to them.— David Steinberg (@zzyzx) August 21, 2019

  95. 95.

    cynthia ackerman

    @debbie:

    My usual Queeg pet peeve:

    Conventional wisdom too often treats him as a case study in freak. Strawberries, yellow stain, shirt tails, ball bearings, typhoon … Hyuk hyuk hyuk, what a maroon!

    The real point of The Caine Mutiny is that his officers are the bad guys, for actively and/or passively throwing him under the bus, when they had a range of options that preserve his dignity while ensuring the ship’s safety, because that’s what he asked them to do.

    When someone today pokes fun at Queeg, it’s probably out of ignorance, possibly because s/he is child of darkness, just like the mutineers.

  96. 96.

    lamh36

    Whassup BJ.

    A bit of late night posting for a little while…before getting back to some studying

    So, I’m taking 2 accounting courses this semester. I’ve never taken an accounting course before. I’m ok with math, but after one day of class and studying, I’m realizing that I will need to use as much of my time just keeping up and not falling behind in these accounting classes. I was spoiled by the ease of classes I had this past 3 semesters…smh. Looks like my nights will be filled with studying and practicing…and not much social media if any…

    media.giphy.com/media/IPbS5R4fSUl5S/giphy.gif

  98. 98.

    Jay

    Genetic study of sockeye salmon in B.C. river suggests 75% decline since 1913

    Researchers look back more than 100 years using DNA from Skeena River salmon

  102. 102.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Jay:
    Hmm. Overfishing, effects of climate change, pollution, or all of em’ Katie? (I tend to go with D.) all of the above

  104. 104.

    Ruckus

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    That sounds exactly like what actually happened and makes about as much sense as anything else about trump. He’s not any brighter than any of his followers/supporters.
    Is it possible that this entire four years of trump is president, is an SNL skit gone terribly wrong, because we all believed it? It has all the right concepts, the lead is stupidly asinine and asininely stupid, doesn’t do any of the actual job, tweets from the toilet, remains in character by lying, stealing, cheating, acting massively racist, misogynistic and narcissistic, at the minimum.

  110. 110.

    cokane

    i dont think this is evidence he’s losing it at all. this is the bullshit spectacle that he loves putting out there

  111. 111.

    Ohio Mom

    @lamh36: Would you consider getting a tutor — if your college has a tutoring center, that’s one option, or finding an advanced student and paying out of pocket. Just to help you get over the initial hump.

    In any case, good luck, we are all rooting for you.

  115. 115.

    Jay

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    I haven’t seen the year by year breakdowns yet, but the commercial industry was basically “take as much as you can” then with clearcut logging and unregulated log drives until the major collapse in the 70’s.

    I’m gonna go with overfishing and logging for now, with non-recovery post 70’s due to all the above factors, loss of genetic diversity and changing conditions due to a bunch of factors, from fish farms, to global warming.

    I know that for all the Fraser River salmon runs, the collapse came in 1923 and they have never recovered. There’s a 157 salmon rivers and streams in the Thompson River drainage. Only one has healthy runs, every other year. 42 have salmon runs, 113 the runs are functionally extinct.

  117. 117.

    Bill Arnold

    @Jay:
    Found the paper for that. Long, on a skim looks interesting.
    Genetics of century‐old fish scales reveal population patterns of decline (Michael H.H. Price, 20 August 2019, open access html)

    We applied genetic tools to a unique collection of 100‐year‐old salmon scales to reveal declines of 56%–99% in wild sockeye populations across Canada’s second largest salmon watershed, the Skeena River.
    …
    Populations of larger‐bodied fish have declined the most in abundance, likely because of size‐selective commercial fisheries.

  118. 118.

    Uncle Omar

    @NotMax: #66 Hell, Lakrids can’t ship to the US already. Somehow Trump put a kibosh on them a couple of years ago. Bastard.

  119. 119.

    jl

    If the Trumpsters are as innovative as they think they are, why not try for a Greenland timeshare? They could fly the Danes into a New Jersey Day’s Inn, treat them to a breakfast buffet (on Day’s Inn dime, if boiled eggs, oatmeal, and raisin bagels are good enough), make the pitch. Maybe have a ringer there, pretending to offer Lichtenstein.

    That doesn’t work, see if Norway interested in unloading Svalbard. If Trump wants a little country, where there’s a will, there’s a way. All you need is focus.

  121. 121.

    zhena gogolia

    @Jay:

    What are you talking about? It was the New York Times that published the 1619 project. The tweet is responding to the National Review.

  125. 125.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    @zzyzx: The Haman thingy? Being somewhat unfamiliar with the story of Esther, I had to question our young Jewish guest tonight about this. He explained the reference to me, and then gave our visiting grandchildren (ages 10 and 11) a lesson in how to read Hebrew. He’s one of the 5 young people we’ve had staying with us as campaign workers for the the Iowa caucuses. It’s been a great experience – I recommend it to any who can do so.

  127. 127.

    The Dangerman

    @Dan B:

    Trump rage tweets at Denmark. At Denmark?!? Is there a more benign country?

    Someone gave him an intelligence briefing that something is rotten in Denmark. That the intelligence briefing was cribbed off of Shakespeare is of no concern.

    Just wait until Trump wants his pound of flesh from Venice … then the shit will hit the fan.

  128. 128.

    ola azul

    @Ruckus:

    Not sure but I don’t think it was a complement.

    Compliments is uncomplementary. Unless, a-course, the complement is complimentary.

    (Will say, separate n apart from my silly comment to you, Ruckus: Don’t give a shit about folks’ spelling rigor-mortis pedantry, just find peeps reax to the phenomenon both ridiculous and sad, inna fulsome complement of uncomplimentary.)

    ‘Minds me of a saying I heard once ’bout campus politics: The small-minded attacks is so vicious cuz the stakes is so small.

  129. 129.

    jl

    @zhena gogolia: I’m not sure why the NYT get the FTF treatment from comenter Jay either. The NR piece mentioned some notable figures. Celebrating African-American soldiers who fought for the country since the Revolutionary War is inspiring. But odd that the NR writer thought that provided a contrast to his idea of the flawed focus of the NYT 1619 project.

    I don’t know about earlier periods, but in 20th Century, returning black veterans who had fought in battle, or even had gained discipline and some success in the military during war time, were seen as a threat to racist whites. After WWI, this has been cited as one reason for horrific ‘race riots’ (really, US versions of pogroms) that wiped out prosperous black business communities. And the outrage of black veterans returning from WWII being beaten as soon as they arrived was one reason Truman ordered integration of the military. Not quite the stark contrast the NR guy had in mind.

  130. 130.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Jay:
    Thank you. That’s awful! It’s so sad that all of this started years ago when we were so ignorant. It seems humanity never plans ahead or tries mitigate the possible or foreseeable consequences of our actions until it’s too late.

    For example, we’ve known automation has been coming for a while. We should’ve been planning for and anticipating for it 30 years ago

  133. 133.

    Jay

    Anne Frank did not die from gas chambers. She died from typhus, contracted in the overcrowded Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The denial of flu vaccines will kill immigrants, especially the most vulnerable- children, the elderly, the immunocompromised. t.co/wp8sfyBj4A— ✡️ Never Again Action ✡️ (@NeverAgainActn) August 20, 2019

  136. 136.

    SRW1

    Would Deutsche Bank even be in a position to extend another loan to Trump? I hear they are in deep doo-doo themselves!

  137. 137.

    laura

    Has new American Citizen Ruemara checked in since the swearing in?
    I’m hoping delicious cake was involved.

  139. 139.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @laura:

    Yes, in one of the downstairs threads. She didn’t mention cake, so we jackals will have to supply it. Labour of love, that’ll be.

  141. 141.

    cynthia ackerman

    @zhena gogolia:

    If his officers cared a fig about his dignity, he never would have had to measure out all those …

    Part of the problem is that Bogart did such a great job. As they say, he stole every scene. And well he should. But it’s a shame that the enduring icon of the story/film is his oddness, not the Lord of the Flies baseness of his officers.

  144. 144.

    Jay

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:

    In many, many cases, we were not ignorant, we were greedy, refused to listen, refused to enquire.

    There was always another forest, fishery, technology just over the horizon. No biggie if “we” left dead zones behind.

    Up near Ross Moore, I drive through a standing dead forest, that was a tree plantation. They clear cut the origional 200 year old forest, stuck saplings in the ground a year later, which grew for the next 5 wet years we had, but with no roots, no shade, no groundcover, with herbicides sprayed to keep “the weeds” down, ( ground cover), they died standing in the next drought cycle, one by one over the years.

    It’s never been replanted because that Corporation doesn’t exist any more, and the Corporate welfare that was the slashing of stumpage rates, has left the Ministry of Forests no money to replant.

  150. 150.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Plausible theory. Obama was on his bubbling brain today

    David Frum @ davidfrum
    22m22 minutes ago
    This isn’t about Greenland. Obama scheduled to visit Denmark 9/28. Trump was scared of the likely contrast to his state visit on 9/2-3.
    In his self-loathing heart, Trump knows Obama is bigger than he is, around the world as well as in the United States. That knowledge tortures Trump, never allows him a minute’s respite

  151. 151.

    Yarrow

    @SiubhanDuinne: There is a woman at my gym who looks so much like Elizabeth Warren it’s startling. The only difference is her hair style–color is the same. I do a double take every time I see her.

  152. 152.

    Steve in the ATL

    And on that note, I should hit the rack. Slept only three hours last night and I have to drop the hammer on some teamsters tomorrow morning. Hope I dream of furries all night!

  154. 154.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @SRW1:

    Would Deutsche Bank even be in a position to extend another loan to Trump?

    Trump has his own bank now. It’s called the US Government.

  156. 156.

    ola azul

    @Jay:

    I stand Corrected.

    Odds are, you sit corrected. Just so long’s you don’t lie corrected, no explanation necessary.

  158. 158.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @cynthia ackerman:

    If his officers cared a fig about his dignity, he never would have had to measure out all those …

    Queeg was a remarkably shitty commander. And a bad commander can easily turn his subordinates into bad sailors/soldiers/junior officers which is exactly what Queeg did. Christ, I could live blog the movie and point out a leadership mistake every 30 seconds.

  159. 159.

    Jay

    The idea that Jews are disloyal and trying to undermine our country from the left has been the animating force behind the deadly, antisemitic violence we've seen under the Trump administration.This rhetoric from the president is going to get Jews killed. It already has. t.co/nWSAD6ZUtU— IfNotNow? (@IfNotNowOrg) August 20, 2019

  161. 161.

    Yarrow

    @SRW1: Not that I’ve seen. I really want to ask her if people tell her she looks like Elizabeth Warren but I haven’t got the nerve to do it. We’ve exchanged pleasantries once or twice. She seems nice but I don’t want to get into politics at the gym. Too stressful.

  162. 162.

    Jay

    “At least twenty-six people have died in ICE custody since Trump took office, and tens of thousands have suffered as a result of the federal government’s abject failure to provide basic medical care.” t.co/L1SlTQU3QY— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) August 21, 2019

  163. 163.

    Jay

    A central tenant of Flores is that children cannot be detained for more than 20 days. Some of my earliest reporting at Rewire was covering a hunger strike by mothers in Berks who'd been detained with their children for almost A YEAR. t.co/gOZuDWjL03— Tina Vasquez (@TheTinaVasquez) August 21, 2019

  164. 164.

    Yarrow

    The best people.

    Our Ambassador to Denmark is a grad of Life Chiropractic College & an actress “best known for her work in Deathstalker & the Warriors from Hell” as Wiki painfully notes.

    So Trump trying to buy Greenland may not make him the most ridiculous American Denmark has encountered. t.co/K7qj1fUNr0
    — stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) August 21, 2019

  168. 168.

    West of the Rockies

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Is that a “humorous” conservative Twitter critter? If so, as usual, it is not funny. Cons don’t do funny. They only do mean and sarcastic.

  169. 169.

    Jay

    As we face a global resurgence of far-right extremism & a governmental response that is neutered at best, those who are committed to combating the threat should look to those who’ve been in the fight the longest. You know them as antifa.My latest: t.co/EuqgZeoim1— Caroline Orr (@RVAwonk) August 21, 2019

  170. 170.

    BigJimSlade

    Maybe he could offer California and Massachusetts for Greenland. I live in one and have a bunch of the friends in the other (so I wouldn’t need to leave the country to visit my friends), I think we could live with the trade.

  171. 171.

    ola azul

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Live-blogging the incessant shit-show of the Trump presidency made any thought of live-blogging the abject failures of any other endeavor seem … what was the Bush-era saying? … quaint.

  172. 172.

    frosty

    @lamh36: Accounting. Blech. I’m an engineering project manager which means I schedule staff on my projects, QC their work, do some of the technical work myself, and manage the budget and schedule. My usual complaint when accountants and supervisors ask about my budgets and overruns:

    “I’m an engineer, I’m good with numbers … until you put a dollar sign in front of them!!!!”

    ETA: I look forward to your GIFs, always on the money (eek, there’s the $$ again!)

  174. 174.

    Chetan Murthy

    @BigJimSlade:

    Maybe he could offer California and Massachusetts for Greenland.

    Yabbut if he did that, how many other Blue States would line up and demand to be traded also? Equal Dignitude of the States [(c) Chief Justice John “Trump-Felcher” Roberts] and all, donchyano? He’d be left with the shithole states and not much else.

  175. 175.

    cynthia ackerman

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Agreed, Queeg is a disaster. But the point of the story is that he asked for help and his officers let him twist n the wind because that’s what they liked.

    They had the opportunity to salvage his dignity but they chose to torpedo him.

    ETA — my point isn’t that Queeg is a hero, it’s that his officers are unrecognized dicks.

  176. 176.

    prostratedragon

    @zhena gogolia: That summer I told a friend that 1) the bastard just might get elected; 2) the GOP think they can control him like GWB, but they can’t; and 3) she’d be longing for a bottom only to find a new low quite regularly. Since then I’ve been disappointed (by the election result), angered, exasperated, disgusted, vibrating with contempt, and lots of bannable things, but I have not been surprised.

  180. 180.

    Mandalay

    @Mary G:

    When Bobby Kennedy and Dr King were assassinated, in the 70s—in the late 70s.

    Here’s the video, and it’s not pretty:

    twitter.com/banditelli/status/1163957029897031680

    No worse than umpteen other recent gaffes of his I suppose, but the giant elephant in the room is that while everyone giggles about Trump it’s crystal clear that Biden is not all there either.

    How many times does Biden have to “misspeak” before it becomes apparent that the Democrats potentially have a huge problem on their hands: he’ll get the nomination and Trump will squash “crazy Joe” like a bug.

  182. 182.

    Jay

    Two more people associated with the National Rifle Association have resigned. Country music singer and NRA board member Craig Morgan. David Lehman, the deputy executive director and general counsel at the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, is leaving the organization.— Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) August 20, 2019

  183. 183.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @cynthia ackerman: Actually, asking for help like that was one of his worst blunders. He told them that he could not function. Now, I will agree that the XO should have jumped on MacMurray’s character with both feet the moment he started his little campaign. Queeg was in over his head, the XO was weak, and MacMurray was poison. What happened was more or less inevitable.

  185. 185.

    Jay

    @NotMax:

    Solitary Confinement in the US is a type of prison cell, small, cramped, no windows, no bars, just a steel door with sliding slots, often soundproofed. One mattress, one toilet/sink. People often spend their entire day lying on the bare concrete just hoping to see the shadow in the light crack under the door as a foot passes, in the hope that there are other people out there. The protocols for “dealing” with those confined, are meals through the slot, a routine of checking to see if they are still alive, an absolute minimum of verbal contact.

    The “record” for the number of people confined to a Solitary Confinement cell in the US, is 9. 8 died from heatstroke over 5 days.

  186. 186.

    frosty

    @Steve in the ATL: OMG what a great song, I’d forgotten all about it. Where are the jangly guitars and harmonies these days? And like one of the commenters said: “12-string solo!”

  187. 187.

    Jay

    @Mandalay:

    It’s no Greenland. Don’t worry about Joe, campaign/donate/vote for your favorites. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and we are at mile 4.

  188. 188.

    ola azul

    @cynthia ackerman:

    ETA — my point isn’t that Queeg is a hero, it’s that his officers are unrecognized dicks.

    Agreed.

    Will say: I admire your dogged tenacity, even if in vain, to advance an unappreciated point and compel acknowledgement of same.

    Piggybacking offa your point, may I add another?

    I submit that Tom Sawyer, in the novel Huckleberry Finn, is one of the great unacknowledged monsters in literature. He ain’t the impish lovable rogue of his eponymous novel; in HF, Tom Sawyer is an active agent of minstrel repression and selfish menace. Tom Sawyer is the consummate douchebro asshole.

    imo

  192. 192.

    Jay

    Ummm… "Russia told an international organization set up to verify a ban on nuclear tests that a military testing accident in northern Russia earlier this month was none of its business and that handing it radiation data was entirely voluntary." t.co/c1GaZ6T0zY— Mark MacKinnon (@markmackinnon) August 20, 2019

  194. 194.

    Mandalay

    @Jay:

    It’s a marathon, not a sprint

    OK. I like the cut of your jib. You are BJ’s most Panglossian poster for 2020.

  197. 197.

    Msb

    Trump asked for a state visit, so the Queen (Margrethe II) invited him and spouse. Official Denmark has been scurrying around preparing (and unofficial Denmark has already imported the trump baby balloon and planned a huge demo), and the the lout cancels by tweet! Danish politicians are already calling it both rude and insane and the palace has said “This is a surprise — we have nothing further to say at present.” Typical, that the Queen has better manners than Putin’s Puppet.

    Former US ambassador Rufus Gifford tweeted the following: mobile.twitter.com/…

    read the replies. Trump is a joke, but not a funny one to Americans in Denmark.

  198. 198.

    Sm*t Cl*de

    @Msb:
    Your POTUS has also been beating the “Denmark is not paying us enough for NATO membership, the freeloading parasites!” drum. So how much does the US pay for ground-rent on the Thule Base complex? That would be the amount formerly known as “Two-thirds of sweet-feck-all”.
    Feckin freeloading parasites.

  199. 199.

    Sloane Ranger

    I repeat what I’ve said before. Nations selling inhabited land to other nations is not something you can do in democracies today. Greenland is an autonomous area of the Kingdom of Denmark. It’s inhabitants get to vote for a government so they are the people who get the say in who has sovereignty over them.

    Denmark cannot sell Greenland anymore than the USA can sell Alaska. If either nation were minded to even consider off loading parts of their territory, it could only be done after a plebiscite showing a significant majority of people supported the change in sovereignty.

    There is no more support in Greenland for becoming part of the USA than there is in the Falklands for becoming part of Argentina

  200. 200.

    Gvg

    I came up with another theory of why Trump is talking about buying Denmark.
    His polls show him losing support. He thinks like a TV star or wrestling character. He needs a surprise twist plot device to regain audience share and ensure his show is renewed. He really thinks things are that simular and that reality is as simple as ratings. Bizarre plot twists often play well on TV, at least as far as ratings go.
    I also thinks he loves the things about being President that resemble being a big star. He likes the attention, and having royalty meet him. He just ignores the work and doesn’t understand the significance of anything. He really can’t take in that he won’t be re-elected.

  201. 201.

    Chris Johnson

    @Repatriated:

    The US buying buying Greenland makes a weird kind of sense when viewed in the context of a near-future US & Russia alliance against the entire rest of the world, particularly Europe and China.

    That said, such an alliance would benefit Russia far more than it could possibly benefit the US. Which raises the question, “WTF!?”

    Exactly. I don’t know how much more obvious it could be… other than to say, it’s also a distraction from the ongoing process of revealing that nearly all the top Republican leadership are in fact traitors working in fear of, and knowingly to the advantage of, Russia and Putin.

    I don’t know how much more obvious it could be.

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