Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

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

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

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

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

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

You cannot shame the shameless.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

I was promised a recession.

Let’s finish the job.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Usually wrong but never in doubt

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Dolt 45 / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Today’s Magic Number

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Today’s Magic Number

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Meanwhile, Individual-1 remains Murphy the Trickster God’s gift to political cartoonists…

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Reader Interactions

182Comments

  1. 1.

    Betty Cracker

    The NYT Beltway team continues to suck:

    It’s starting to seem like a weirdly specific behavioral disorder.

    ETA: One of the voters interviewed was a woman who’s been to more than 20 Trump rallies. The NYT has interviewed that same woman four times during various Cletus safaris.

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    In a slight funk because my best friend on the island is setting sail for a new chapter of his life in Seattle on Friday. We were supposed to get together for dinner last night but he ended up backing out as he’s still swamped with last minute packing ‘n’ stuff. Promised he’d stop by this evening after an early farewell sup with a sibling here, but we shall see.

    @Betty Cracker

    a woman who’s been to more than 20 Trump rallies. The NYT has interviewed that same woman four times

    Ah, the fabled “independent.”

    :)

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker:

    The NYT has interviewed that same woman four times during various Cletus safaris.

    If ever you need one, she’s good for a quote. This “reporter” is probably an unpaid intern. I’d be a lazy fuck too if I wasn’t getting paid.

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    Somehow missed this earlier in the month.

    Gregory Cheadle, the black Republican Donald Trump once referred to as “my African American,” has finally had enough of Trump’s shenanigans and is quitting the GOP and making a run for Congress as an independent. Source

    Which served to remind me of this picture.

    “I thought you were bringing the ni-clang.”

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Thanx. PawPaw finally got to meet her yesterday. She might be my son’s daughter but she’s my baby girl. ;-) She also happens to be perfect. Just like her sister! What a coincidence!

  11. 11.

    PST

    You know that summer is over when you have to ask the dog to poop under a streetlight please during the first walk of the day. There is a little crispness in the air here in Chicago.

  12. 12.

    satby

    My exchange daughter Qunoot from Bahrain is flying in from Texas this morning where she’s spending a semester at the university there. I’m going to leave to go pick her up at ORD and take her to lunch before dropping her off at my son and DIL in the city, then I go back to Chicago tomorrow so we can go hang out downtown. She’s staying with my son and DIL, more fun for a college student to hang with her older “siblings” than with me, especially since I have to work Saturday. Going to be great seeing her again. ?

  13. 13.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @WereBear: Thanks, too bad about the people over by the ramp.
    @satby: Thanks, me too. I should shoot more of them in better places than here in town.
    @OzarkHillbilly: Thanks.

    If you look at that picture you’ll see a mountain just right of center by the two posts, that’s Santa Cruz Island. It’s where the boat caught fire earlier this month. One of the reasons I braved LA traffic(and almost got rear ended by a young Asian woman in a Subaru) was that when I went out there on Saturday I got to the coast just as the sun was setting. It was setting right behind the island, so I had to get back out there to shoot it, the Milky Way shots were just icing at that point(they didn’t turn out half bad though).

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: Years ago I told my sons that having been denied a daughter to wrap me around her little finger, that they had to give me a granddaughter who would wrap me around her little finger. I think my eldest misunderstood me and thought I said, “only granddaughters”. Which, for the record, would be just fine with me. :-)

  21. 21.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’m sure we will. It’s going to be hectic for me though, driving to and from Chicago each day. And I have to pop into the market both days first.
    By Sunday this old lady will be beat.

  30. 30.

    Baud

    @satby: I don’t know if the NYT is the only one who does it, but going back to the same people in a story about the “common man’s view” seems journalistically unethical to me.

  32. 32.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    One of the voters interviewed was a woman who’s been to more than 20 Trump rallies. The NYT has interviewed that same woman four times during various Cletus safaris.

    That’s hysterical.

  33. 33.

    satby

    In other news, I closed the deal on my booth Tuesday, only to be told that the directors of the market had raised their price on the 4ft that belonged to them by an additional $100 /ft. Which evidently was news to their market manager and their secretary. I was so annoyed I snatched the $4k cashier’s check out of the secretary’s hand and stalked away. I went back to fight about it to find two of them pouring through meeting minutes to locate which board meeting they had voted on it and then not told their key staff. Rather than have me walk away from the sale, they cut me a deal to pay the $400 off over a year. So I closed the sale. But I’m still pissed off about it. I may make them wait the entire year for it.

  39. 39.

    Nelle

    @Baud: I was shocked when my daughter, in journalism school, was sent out to find people who would say x, y, and z. The narrative was set and they just needed names to go with it. She was a stringer for the NYT and they wanted Trump voters over and over. Not once was she asked to find a Clinton voter out in the hinterlands where she is. And they do exist. She’s leaving journalism..just trying to find a new way to support herself.

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Seeing as the common man never gets interviewed and it is very uncommon to get repeatedly interviewed, it certainly is an untruth.

  41. 41.

    Ohio Mom

    @NotMax: Ouch to having to say goodbye to your friend. Yes, there is always the telephone but it’s not the same as having them in person. I said goodbye to two BFFs this past year and it does leave a hole. Maybe there is a trip to Seattle in your future?

    @OzarkHillbilly: belated Congrats! I missed the thread yesterday where this delightful news was announced, glad I caught it here. Who is luckier, you to have teo granddaughters, or the girls to have you as a grandfather? Hard choice.

    I am not not usually on the internet this early but I have a new routine Thursday mornings. Take a bone-strengthening pill and a big glass of water and stay upright for thirty minutes before breakfast. Nothing makes the time drag more than knowing I have to wait for my coffee.

    I had been taking a very effective injection every six months for my osteopenia but it worked, my bones got stronger, and the insurance company saw their opening to balk at the price and make me switch to the much cheaper (and probably not as effective) weekly pills. Grrr… and ugh.

    Just checked the timer, only three minutes left. another week checked off.

  44. 44.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: They never miss a chance to squeeze a little more out of a person.

    @Nelle: Maybe your daughter should write an expose and get it printed in…. Never mind.

  45. 45.

    satby

    @JPL: it’s a great experience for all involved. A friend of mine is right now in Italy, visiting his exchange “brother” from 31 years ago. Those ties bind ?

    @NotMax: INORITE?
    They tried to sell it as good news for me, it made my booth more valuable.
    Bitch, please!

  51. 51.

    trnc

    @Baud:

    I don’t know if the NYT is the only one who does it, but going back to the same people in a story about the “common man’s view” seems journalistically unethical to me.

    On a similar note, I remember someone saying that NPR has a go-to right wing business owner for a lot of business stories, but I can’t find it right now. That probably isn’t as egregious as the “common man” example, but it still chaps my ass.

  52. 52.

    Betty Cracker

    Maybe this has already been discussed, but Ukrainian President Zelensky was surprised that notes on the call with Trump covered his side as well as Trump’s remarks:

    “I personally think that sometimes such calls between presidents of independent countries should not be published,” Zelenskiy told Ukrainian media in a briefing in New York that was broadcast in Ukraine. “I just thought that they would publish their part.”

    So the Trump admin just released the not-transcript without even running it by Zelensky? This is almost certainly the most incompetent administration in US history. An intern at piddling startup would be shit-canned for doing something like that on an earnings call report.

  53. 53.

    Kay

    We don’t know that impeachment will be politically popular though. It won’t be good for Trump but we don’t know if it will be good for Democrats with voters who don’t pay much attention. The argument was 1. it was legally and ethically necessary and/or 2. our base will love it. All the rest was guessing.

    If past performance is any indication, if it isn’t wildly popular the people who pushed it most enthusiastically will insist that’s because it wasn’t handled properly and that will lead to a division. That doesn’t have to happen, but it usually does with these things. I myself think once you hold hands and jump you really have to stay with that to the end, but that hasn’t been the pattern and practice of the rank and file in the Democratic Party, ever.

    We have a LOT of managers and not a lot of employees. Many, many generals, very few soldiers.

  54. 54.

    Baud

    @trnc:

    It’s just as egregious. If a reporter is going back to the same people, then those people are a focus group and need to be subject to the rigors that apply when soliciting opinions from a focus group.

  57. 57.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ohio Mom: Thanx.

    Who is luckier, you to have teo granddaughters, or the girls to have you as a grandfather?

    Me, most definitely. I get to spoil them rotten, conspire with them against their parents, and when the whole world seems to be out to get them. I get to give them unconditional love.

  58. 58.

    NotMax

    @satby

    Would make me suspicious enough to drag out a tape measure and certify that four feet is really four feet.

    There was one occasion when had purchased a new vehicle. Better part of a day dickering on price ended with sales contract signed. When went in a few days later to pick it up (took that long back then to get plates, etc.,) was told that they had decided during the interim that the price agreed upon was too low and I needed to cough up another grand in order to get the keys.

    “Which is more convenient for you, meeting with my lawyer today or tomorrow?” put the kibosh on that right quick.

  59. 59.

    Baud

    I get to give them unconditional love.

    Mistake. Children are needy. You’ll get much better value if you drive a hard bargain. See @satby for how it’s done.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    It is extraordinary though. They tried to hide that call. That means it wasn’t the douchebag just blundering into another crime. They actually deliberately set out to solicit foreign interference in an election the moment the Mueller investigation was concluded. Wow.

    Democrats didn’t have any choice. But that doesn’t mean it will be politically popular with swing” voters, who are morons and vote on ridiculous things, or say they vote on ridiculous things. Who knows what they actually vote on.

  62. 62.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    We’re starting up that again?

    It’s an unfortunate personality tic of the West “Coast”ers. They think 500 yard of sand and rock makes it a “coast.”

  64. 64.

    germy

    .@murraywaas on Giuliani: "The Ukrainian initiative appears to have begun in service of formulating a rationale by which the president could pardon Manafort, as part of an effort to undermine the special counsel’s investigation." Wow. https://t.co/LrBOcAxgo9 @nybooks— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) September 26, 2019

    Looking for more on why Trump would be interested in digging up new evidence about CrowdStrike? @emptywheel has valuable insight: It all ties in with Roger Stone's plan to question the 2016 DNC hack findings, an effort that so far has failed in court. https://t.co/W3UowUVxUa pic.twitter.com/RraZa4pajA— Jeff Stone (@jeffstone500) September 25, 2019

  65. 65.

    JPL

    It’s really difficult for me to understand how a man who governs based on conspiracy theories was elected.

  68. 68.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    Where does one even find common men these days?

    I was going to say “Me! Right here!!”

    But then I realized I’m more-or-less “scum of the earth.” Which, although common in the Shitgibbon maladministration, is not what’s generally associated with the term “common man/men.”

  70. 70.

    Kay

    @JPL:

    That’s the other thing. That entire phone call is Trump stating a Right wing conspiracy theory as fact, to a person who has no interest in his ravings and is just desperately trying to do his job.

  75. 75.

    SFAW

    @trnc:

    I seem to recall the same thing. The person I recall was — surprise surprise — also a high-up member of the NFIB, which was party to some RWMF-vs-Obama Admin lawsuit, which I think made it to SCOTUS. Interestingly enough, NPR “forgot” to mention that piece of information.

  76. 76.

    Betty Cracker

    @germy: I think that’s been an under-reported part of this scandal so far — that Trump is using the levers of American foreign policy to run crackpot wingnut conspiracy theories to ground. Giuliani was raving about George Soros on the Fox shows Tuesday night when explaining his role. And yesterday, Trump was blurting out PizzaGate level kookery on TV while poor President Zelensky sat there with his eyes darting around like a hapless passenger trapped on a subway with a ranting loon.

    My husband is a partisan Democrat, but he’s a regular person who doesn’t pay attention to politics all that much, so I use his reaction to things as a gauge on how things might play outside the bubble. He had no idea what Trump was going on about with “Crowdstrike” and the DNC server, etc. I’d love to see Giuliani testify before Congress with a professional like Barry Berke doing the questioning. The depth of these people’s lunacy needs to be exposed for the general public.

  79. 79.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    I don’t know why. She’s got a great career ahead of her. The former Democratic elected who exists to criticize Democrats.

    It’s a lucrative niche.

  80. 80.

    SFAW

    @debbie:

    She was very crabby and rude when interviewed on NPR yesterday.

    You’re a better person than I — I heard her voice, said “Fuck you,” and switched to the blessed relief of a Florence Foster Jenkins Marathon

  82. 82.

    Betty Cracker

    @debbie: She made the next debate, unfortunately. Speaking of no-hopers, looks like Sanders rolled out an “abolish billionaires” proposal yesterday. Great timing!

  83. 83.

    SFAW

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    1500 miles of ocean front make it a coast.

    So YOU say. All I’ve seen is a few pictures of some rocks amd some “sand” (looked like cornstarch, which I hope you wiped off your mukluks) in or near what may be a lake.

  87. 87.

    Sab

    @Kay: Weird timeline we are living in to have been through three of the four impeachment issues in our lifetimes, and the republic is only two hundred and fifty years old. Something is broken here, if three of the four happens within 35 years.

  90. 90.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    I felt bad for him because he really does have to navigate this, it’s deadly serious on his end, and he probably didn’t want his call with the US President broadcast all over the world. The level of self-absorption of these Trump people is pathological. They’re bad people.

  99. 99.

    Kay

    @Sab:

    I don’t think a straight timeline works. People know a lot more about what goes on than they used to know. Nixon’s crimes alone inspired a “transparency revolution” that went all the way down to state law. A lot of the sunshine statutes came out of it.

    The whistleblower law itself – the one at issue here- was a response to abuses. My father says this- he says they never knew what was going on so there were fewer scandals :)

  102. 102.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    I laughed out loud when I heard that clip. I love the fake-casual of how he tacks on Pence there at the end.

    Not that it matters. It was a mistake to release that call record. They won’t make that mistake again.

  106. 106.

    montanareddog

    @Baud:

    Former French president and cool-name record holder Jacques Chirac is dead.

    What cool names? The only nickname I can remember was from his protection detail who allegedly called him “cinq minutes, douche comprise” because of how long his visits to his mistresses took.

    An anecdote with 1 degree separation: I worked with a guy who was an activist in Chirac’s party. Chirac came to visit the local party HQ and my colleague lined up proudly with his 8 yo son to shake his hand. When Chirac reached his son, the kid stuck his hand out and said “pleased to meet you, Mr Mitterrand”

  108. 108.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Kay: But the increase in reporting about scandals(some real and some made up to boost ratings) can also increase cynicism in government. Voters just think they’re all crooks, so who cares who gets elected.

  109. 109.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    Well, and too, the few professionals in the White House tried to keep him away from the Ukraine leader because they knew he would do this. And he did do it. Twice.

    Ukraine is just one country. Imagine what else goes on. He’s desperate for a deal with China. Imagine what he tells them.

  111. 111.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:
    I don’t know if it will convince swing voters
    To be honest, I don’t care.
    He is a muthaphuckin’ criminal and needs to be impeached.
    Barr too??, with his criminal azz.

  112. 112.

    Mai naem mobile

    @debbie: Tulsi Gabbard better be being primaried. The state that is represented by Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono cannot be represented by Tulsi. Hawaii can do better.
    Just say Trumpov on Morning Ho. Idiot pronounces Kashmir like Cashmere. Jeezus I’ve made jokes about him confusing Kashmir with Cashmere but none of his aides could correct him on this? Not even his moron kids who BTW have been to India setting up hotel/condo development deals?

  113. 113.

    rikyrah

    @JPL:
    Those pictures of Zelensky were hard not to laugh at them, cause this is real life, but they were funny in the horror on his face. He couldn’t even hide it

  119. 119.

    Kay

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    For my part, I think voters should grow up, but then I don’t have to get elected. I appreciate that my father has somehow resisted being sentimental about the past. There was no golden age of government. You’re suppose to learn something over your life, not regress into fantasies of how 1940’s and 1950’s and 1960’s government was squeaky clean and staffed with Great Men and Patriots. It’s not true.

    His big takeways from being drafted was 1, the country is much more racist than he imagined and 2. the country has many more poor people than he imagined. Somehow he managed to bear up under that and carry on.

  120. 120.

    Baud

    Former Vice President Joe Biden said during an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Wednesday that “it’s awful hard to avoid the conclusion” President Donald Trump committed “an impeachable offense” by pressuring the Ukrainian president to investigate Biden.
    It was the furthest Biden has gone on the subject of Trump’s impeachment — which most of the other leading 2020 Democratic presidential contenders have called for.
    Asked how the matter ranks on the “outlandish scale” of American politics, Biden said: “18 out of 10.”

    https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/26/politics/joe-biden-kimmel-trump-impeachable-offense/index.html

  123. 123.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ken: No, “Time to hand you back to Daddy.” My son and his wife have equal responsibilities for the duties of child raising. Mommy takes care of what goes in, Daddy takes care of what comes out.

  126. 126.

    Betty Cracker

    Further update on the NYT story referenced at #1:

    Pure garbage.

  127. 127.

    montanareddog

    @Betty Cracker: I think it is underreported too. Trump’s appearance yesterday with Zelensky was public – so the conspiracy ravings could conceivably have been for his base’s consumption. But in the infamous phone call with Zelensky, which was not meant to go public, his chuntering on about Crowdstrike and servers and the Bidens proves that he actually believes this shit.

  128. 128.

    Gin & Tonic

    Can’t help wondering how our old friend BiP would be reacting. Not wondering enough to go looking on Booman or wherever he hangs his hat now.

  130. 130.

    Gin & Tonic

    @OzarkHillbilly: OT – I had an exterior door installed. It’s a fiberglass door, so doesn’t need painting, but the frame/molding, which is wood, does, before the winter. What’s the best thing to fill the nail holes with, that will look smooth when I paint over?

  131. 131.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: Biden is in a uniquely tough spot here, since anything he says is going to be spun as self-serving. Which is why everyone else has to step up.

  134. 134.

    germy

    whenever a Republican politician is accused of a crime they all act like the law is this rigid and highly technical thing, but our prisons are full of people who are behind bars because some half-wit cop was like "uh yeah i'm pretty sure that's the guy"— Law Boy, Esq. (@The_Law_Boy) September 25, 2019

  135. 135.

    Sab

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Here’s hoping. Trump is extremely psychologically damaged. I don’t think he has ever thought a clear thought in his life. Barr, on the other hand, chose to be who he is.

  139. 139.

    Ohio Mom

    @debbie: I ended up on Thursdays by chance — the first batch of pills were ready at the pharmacy on a Wednesday — but then realized it’s our garbage (pick-up) day. Reflects my feelings about being kicked off the Prolea shots.

  140. 140.

    Kathleen

    @satby: Speaking of old ladies. I misread “pop” as “poop”. “What’s all this I hear about pooping in the booth”…

  141. 141.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: I don’t think impeachment will be popular; most people think, with some justification, that politics is unpleasant and gross and they don’t want it in their faces. They don’t like Trump but they really don’t want to think about him. An impeachment crisis pushes politics in everyone’s face. I think Trump will probably come out ahead on this in the short term and cruise to reelection. A year from now the conventional wisdom will be that the Democrats went crazy and overplayed their hand.

    But there’s no other way forward. What do you do, when the President blatantly commits crimes in public and dares you to give a shit? If giving a shit means you lose then you lose. If the whole world is on record as being pro-crime you want to be on the anti-crime side. Long term it’s the place to be. Even if in the long term you’re dead.

  143. 143.

    different-church-lady

    @Betty Cracker:

    “..and I’m going to vote to upset the fruit basket, and I did. And…

    “…now there’s all this fruit all over the floor and who’s gonna clean up all this goddamed fruit? Not the government I can tell you that!”

  145. 145.

    terry chay

    @Kay: Swing voters don’t matter. What matters is mobilizing your voters or immobilizing your opponents.

    Hillary “lost” the election because Comey and Bernie combined to immobilize the Democratic voters. Turnout was up among Republicans. in 2018, but they got drowned in a blue wave because the Democrats mobilized far more. Without gerrymandering, that election would have broken every record for a wave election,

  149. 149.

    Betty Cracker

    @different-church-lady: Exactly, and I hope the wretch slips on a banana from that overturned fruit basket and stoves in his skull on the fake Christmas tree stand. (I vaguely remember being a kinder person before November 2016, but maybe I was always a spiteful bitch. I’m honestly not sure anymore.)

  153. 153.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Matt McIrvin: I can only speak from my memories of Watergate. The Ervin committee hearings were riveting TV. I hadn’t been paying a lot of attention because Nixon was already in his second term, so he couldn’t run again, and I had concluded he was a crook already. Everyone I knew called him “Tricky Dick.” But I watched every second I could because it was like super compelling reality TV. I think a lot of people reacted that way.

  154. 154.

    jonas

    @germy: I saw Waas’s article as well and was gobsmacked. How the collusion between Manafort’s legal team and the White House, not to mention Giulliani’s shenanigans in Ukraine, doesn’t amount to obstruction of justice is just inconceivable to me. Mueller absolutely knew what was going on and decided not to pursue it. No wonder Trump felt so emboldened. With the Democrats unable to gain traction over the Mueller report and Barr protecting him at DOJ, he thought he was invincible.

  157. 157.

    satby

    @jonas: TBF, Mueller didn’t “decide not to pursue it”, he knew that the DOJ memo stated he couldn’t.
    He did say he would expect that Trump could be prosecuted (meaning he hoped he would) after Trump left office.

  159. 159.

    jonas

    @Matt McIrvin: I think it depends on what he’s being impeached *for*. The Clinton impeachment was wearying and a waste of time because it was so transparently an overreach by a partisan Special Prosecutor and his Republican enablers desperate to catch Clinton on *anything*, even if it meant going through every piece of discarded underwear in the WH basement. Of course Trump’s insane basket of deplorables base will never budge, but I think most other voters will look at this whole imbroglio and be like “Yeah, a president can’t do that and get away with it.” This isn’t covering up a blowjob. It’s covering up massive corruption throughout the administration.

  160. 160.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Excellent! I’ve been wondering about the classification and declassification processes related to this. You can’t just classify things arbitrarily, you have to cite one of the defined justifications. And there is language about what constitute specifically illegal justifications.

    The whistleblower cites the law in the footnote on page 2. So I suspect somebody classified it for bullshit reasons and the declassification process was as simple as noting the Classification Authority hadn’t given a valid reason in the markup.

    I’ve never been involved with Original Classification, only Derived where there’s a pretty good paper trail you can cite as authority. So I’m not completely sure of the whole Original process.

  162. 162.

    Ohio Mom

    @Kay: That was exactly my Uncle Henry’s take from his WWII army days.

    It was a remarkable observation to me because one, the men in my family of that generation almost never spoke of their military service. I can’t think of another instance of Uncle Henry ever mentioning those days. No talk of battles, ever. Just a passing remark about his bunk mates in the training camp.

    And two, Uncle Henry was a bit of a bigot himself so to mention his bunkmates’ bigotry means it was too much even for him.

  163. 163.

    Gin & Tonic

    My daughter was listening to C-SPAN on her drive to work, and a Republican caller called in to talk about yesterday’s events. He noted that in the joint press appearance, Zelensky got so frustrated with the questions he started speaking in Spanish.

    America, folks.

  164. 164.

    Leto

    I get up late and it’s almost a 200 post thread. I’m starting at @Dorothy A. Winsor:, which is a good place.

    Matt breaks down how at least three of the people in the quoted article aren’t “swing voters” but devoted MAGATs who’ve been quoted, multiple times, before in similar stories.

    No, the New York Times did not talk to six “swing voters” about impeachment. The article quotes a handful of devout GOP voters who the NYT has repeatedly interviewed multiple times. A thread…. https://t.co/QYKCWB9V5I— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) September 26, 2019

  165. 165.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: There is an appendix containing info the whistleblower considered classified, so it’s not entirely BS that there were classified paragraphs. But I don’t see anything in that first paragraph, the one with the TS marking, to justify the marking. To me it was a BS marking whose reason was to cover up the BS marking and handling of the original notes.

    And that page 2 footnote tells why this is an explicit violation of the law.

  167. 167.

    jonas

    @satby: That’s apparently how Mueller and/or his team viewed it, but I still think it’s odd. If referring Manafort for prosecution and coordinating his plea agreement was within Mueller’s purview, how could Manafort’s lawyers’ brazen attempts to subvert that work, with the assistance of the President and his lawyer, not also be something he could go after? IANAL, but it’s just sort of baffling.

  170. 170.

    jonas

    It’s also important to point out that this wasn’t one cranky whistleblower somewhere in a basement with a score to settle. It was a foghorn sounding. According to the complaint, “over the past four months, over half a dozen officials” have come forward with disturbing accounts of the president’s illegal actions. Sweet baby Jesus backflipping on a biscuit.

  171. 171.

    Kathleen

    @OzarkHillbilly: So happy for you. I agree. Being a grandparent is the best
    even when they’re adults as my two grandsons are. I swear they grow up faster than your own kids.

  172. 172.

    rikyrah

    @satby:

    glad to hear that you closed your deal.

    I don’t mean to be a Nervous Nelly about your exchange student, but, does she have everything in order? You know how they are being right now, and Bahrain isn’t exactly Norway. I hope the entry into America goes smoothly for her.

  173. 173.

    rikyrah

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Me, most definitely. I get to spoil them rotten, conspire with them against their parents, and when the whole world seems to be out to get them. I get to give them unconditional love.

    Grandparents can be so wonderful for children, giving them something nobody else can. What a special bond.

  174. 174.

    SFAW

    @Miss Bianca:

    for realz? Or are you merely making a point?

    OK, so the Florence Foster Jenkins thing was … um … not strictly factual. But I did say “Fuck you” to NPR/Tulsi when she came on, and did change the station (or maybe shut it off?) Just as I was yelling/screaming — yes, literally — the day before when NPR’s Greg Myre (sp?) was asked a direct yes-or-no question re: whether there was anything to the Joe/Hunter Biden accusations, and he responded with something very close to “Well, President Trump says there is” and went on from there. Fuck him, fuck NPR, and of course FTFTFNYT

  175. 175.

    Miss Bianca

    @SFAW: You know, I remember back around the turn if the century when my ex used to rant about how the media were fucking up the country, and I was all like, “sure, honey…” *eyeroll*. Now I realize he didn’t go nearly far enough in his excoriations.

  176. 176.

    bluefoot

    @Nelle: Many years ago, the WSJ sent a reporter to our lab (we had just come out with a truly novel paper and the university insisted we cooperate with the interview request from the WSJ). There was clearly a narrative already set – the reported kept trying to get all of us to say specific things, both in one-on-one meetings and when talking to us as a group. We all followed the science, rather than their desired narrative. When the article came out, it cherry-picked our words and completely distorted the work to fit their pre-set narrative. It made me forever jaded about science reporting, and about the “man in the street” sort of reporting. I’d rather read quotes from The Onion – at least those aren’t presented as reality.

  178. 178.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Ohio Mom:

    [T]he men in my family of that generation almost never spoke of their military service. I can’t think of another instance of Uncle Henry ever mentioning those days. No talk of battles, ever. Just a passing remark about his bunk mates in the training camp.

    When I was 11 or 12 I repeated to Dad some combat stories I’d heard from a kid down the street whose father had manned a machine gun on a USMC landing craft in the Pacific.

    It was the only time I ever saw him enraged. Don’t you believe a word of it! he shouted. I said, So you’re saying Terry’s dad is a liar? How would you know? & he replied,

    Because no one who’s been through that ever wants to talk about it again! Ever!

    And Dad’s war had been relatively benign – diesel mechanic in the motor pool, Leyte and Okinawa but never onshore before the beaches were secured, one man killed.

    Oh, he told stories about his time in uniform. Funny ones. Only the funny ones. Many years later I spoke with some of the motor pool guys & heard some of the not-at-all-funny ones, including how that one guy had died. (Spoiler: Friendly fire.)

  179. 179.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @rikyrah: I’ll take your word for it, I guess. By my second birthday both my grandfathers were dead. My grandmothers lived far enough away that we saw them at most once a year on family vacations. Neither could speak more than a dozen words of heavily-accented English. (Dad’s mother smiled a lot; Mom’s was kind of a grouch.) Their families were so large that my brother & I kinda got lost in the shuffle – just another couple of grandsons (though slightly exotic since we lived so far away). ::sigh::

  180. 180.

    different-church-lady

    @Betty Cracker:

    I vaguely remember being a kinder person before November 2016, but maybe I was always a spiteful bitch. I’m honestly not sure anymore.

    I know your tongue is in cheek, but that’s dismayingly reminiscent of some passages in the early part of 1984.

  182. 182.

    J R in WV

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    … By my second birthday both my grandfathers were dead.

    My mom’s father died when I was 10 months old. My memories of him are from stories about him, and pictures of him. He was a Pennsy-Dutch farm boy who became a blacksmith, just as that trade became mechanic and steam-engine engineer. The strongest man in a coal mine with 400 strong miners working in it.

    My Paternal grandfather was a Switzer-Deutsch immigrant born in Ohio on a diary farm. He lost his leg in a farm accident at 13, and learned typesetting in the county home, which was work you could do on a stool. He became a prosperous newspaper man in a small coal town. I would sit in his not-lap while he read me the Sunday funnies, sometimes on Saturday… a hard worker. [ETA, that’s a little newspaper family joke, a tiny benefit to being with the newpapers was getting to see the Sunday funnies on Saturday!]

    My maternal grandma, whom I have mentioned several times, was a wonderful woman, who treated all my friends like her own grandkids. Generous, understanding, helped me deal with a sometimes difficult chldhood. My maternal grandmother was also kind, from a somewhat snooty southern family, she painted and tried to teach me how. She was lost to a stroke when I was young, perhaps 10 or 12.

    But my grandparents were all important to my growing up as I did. I’m so glad for Ozark Hillbilly, who has been one of my favorite B-J internet friends, to hear about his new grandchild! What a wonderful event in his life, and in that little girl’s life. Teach her how to build things, Ozark !! Nothing better to learn!!

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