Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

The world has changed, and neither one recognizes it.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

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

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

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

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

The revolution will be supervised.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

I really should read my own blog.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

So fucking stupid, and still doing a tremendous amount of damage.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

Be a wild strawberry.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

I would gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today.

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

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Morning Open Thread: Shana Tova!

Reader Interactions

96Comments

  1. 1.

    WereBear

    Yes. When I first moved to an area that wasn’t homogenous, I discovered one of the Jewish holidays was a sad one.

    But this isn’t it. Shana Tova!

  2. 2.

    JAFD

    Good morning, and Shana Tovah to all of you – Jews and goyim, monotheists, polytheists. atheists, agnostics and Methodists.

    May you all have a better year than this past twelvemonth has been for me, and thanks, from the bottom of my heart, for all the good wishes and healing energy and moral support and, yes, love, that you Juicers have poured out for me. I cannot begin to pay this forward, but I shall try.

    Shalom and Mazel Tov !

  4. 4.

    RAVEN

    @OzarkHillbilly: This is my last day on the books and they take away my work email with no provision for forwarding or notice to the sender. It may be a good thing but I’m sure I missed something important!

  5. 5.

    satby

    @WereBear: @JAFD: Shana Tova to you both! May the coming year be a better one for you JAFD, and for all the world.

    @OzarkHillbilly: ? morning sunshine.
    We’re waiting for the river to crest, it’s a couple of inches from flood stage. But I have power back, so that’s a plus. Now throwing out half the stuff in my fridge is my chore for the day.
    Edited for lack of coffee, currently being remediated.

  7. 7.

    satby

    @RAVEN: my old job did that too. If you have a LinkedIn update it and people who want to contact you personally (vs you as a faculty member) will find you.

  15. 15.

    satby

    @WereBear: out from Friday night at 10 to Sunday afternoon around 3:30. A lot of trees came down around town and we have overhead wires. Now foggy and will be hot and humid for the next three days, then more rain and the beginning of more autumn -like weather. Hopefully the heat will evaporate some of the water, because though I’m on the high side of the river the floods have been very hard on my neighbors across the way over the three years I’ve lived here. The city has started refusing new building permits in the worst hit areas and buying the people out of their homes instead, so that it can be returned to the wetlands it probably was before the development craze of the 60s.
    Edited again: my Kindle has obviously missed our morning battles.

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby:

    it can be returned to the wetlands it probably was before the development craze of the 69s.

    I had no idea oral sex was so damaging to the environment.

  19. 19.

    WereBear

    It has occurred to me, from catching up on past threads (and I am still answering cat questions with kitten pics) that just as Speaker Pelosi spoke of tRump “self-impeaching” he might very well “self-execute” with some extreme health crisis under this much pressure.

    I can’t image those arteries doing much flexing considering the kind of fast food he lives on.

  23. 23.

    NotMax

    General question for the jackaltariat.

    Mom has been making noises about wanting to get a recliner but her parameters for one are very specific, perhaps too much so.

    It must be very narrow, no more than 30″ wide max.
    Not the glide type, that is the kind with the back and the footrest operating in tandem.
    Not a powered one that has to be plugged in.
    Cloth covered preferable but other covering not necessarily a deal breaker.

    Went around with her looking at various kinds when I was there and discovered then that she doesn’t any longer have the oomph for the pushback type.

    Anyhoo, saw this chair while poking ’round the web and occurred to me maybe it would make a serviceable substitute. Anyone have any experience with this type of chair or thoughts on the matter? It’s gonna be for her home office/guest room, so would fit in with other furniture there.

  24. 24.

    satby

    @WereBear: and then it would be all about how the vicious traitor Democrats hounded him to his death. I want his treason and other crimes fully exposed and prosecuted and him in jail. Not that it will convince the true believers, but he can save his fatal heart attack for his jail cell.

  27. 27.

    satby

    Ok, just captured the latest neglected outdoor cat who comes to be fed. It’s TNR day ? Off to meet the rest of the kitty transport.

  28. 28.

    Kay

    Ben Collins
    @oneunderscore__
    ·9h
    He’s saying they were “acid washed” because somebody used a program called Bleachbit, which clears hard drive space.
    He simultaneously believes someone physically poured acid over her emails, and also that they might be in Ukraine, because he got his conspiracies mixed up.

    This is true. Not even the lead conspiracy theorist can keep them straight now.

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “Not all of Mozart’s paintings were perfect” – Chiefs coach Andy Reid following the team’s 34-30 win over the Lions in Detroit.

  48. 48.

    Kay

    Lawmakers on Capitol Hill couldn’t figure out over this past summer why nearly $400 million in aid they’d voted to go to Ukraine still wasn’t in the country’s coffers.
    There was growing speculation by the end of August. Congressional leaders, their aides and members of key committees — including the Appropriations, Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees — were scrambling to figure out why money that had been appropriated by Congress months before still hadn’t been disbursed. Outreach by lawmakers to key agencies left few clues other than the delay was coming from the White House and no one could pinpoint exactly what the reason was.

    Trump himself admitted the first part of the impeachment justification – the threat, and this is the second part, the withholding, which even McConnell admits, and did so again last week. The whole Ukraine charge is already proven.

  49. 49.

    Spanky

    Now on CNN.com;

    Asics apologizes after porn plays for hours on screens outside one of its stores

    Seems like no one was particularly offended.

  50. 50.

    Barry

    @NotMax: “Not a powered one that has to be plugged in.”

    The ones that our family used had a battery, in case of power failure, if she’s worried abput being trapped.

  51. 51.

    Kay

    Pelosi had to know they were withholding aid from Ukraine and, due to the President’s lawyer, she probably knew why they were withholding it. So she just needed proof, enter whistleblower and White House then giving it to her.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    Elaine Luria
    @ElaineLuriaVA
    · 10h
    ?PSA?: “Fox News has learned that the Pentagon, State Department, and National Security Council were ‘unanimous’ in supporting the aid to Ukraine, and that Trump acted alone in withholding the aid over the summer.”

    I suppose they have to repeat these “scoops” but it’s a TAD self-serving for all of these people to loudly insist the President acted alone. Maybe one of them could have gone to Congress and told Congress “we’ve solved the mystery of where that aid is- Trump is holding it up”?

    This whole thing could have been conducted publicly.

  53. 53.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    We spent much of yesterday at our son and DIL’s house and watched the last (LAST!) Fast and Furious movie. Oh thank god.

    So I’m catching up. Lots of crazy being spread around yesterday by both Giuliani and Trump. So Trump wants Schiff questioned “at the highest level.” Who would that be? It seems to me Schiff is the highest level in intelligence matters.

    Also, how do we feel about Trump resigning in return for immunity for him and his family? I see speculation this morning. I want him and his spawn impoverished and in jail.

  54. 54.

    Betty Cracker

    Two bits of insanity from yesterday to digest this morning:

    1) The 60 Minutes interview with Kevin McCarthy: It’s clear from this clip McCarthy had no prep for the interview other than the extraordinarily ineffective talking points the White House forwarded last week — accidentally to Democrats as well as Republicans. When the interviewer notes during the interview that McCarthy isn’t answering questions but is instead parroting the talking points, McCarthy denies receiving talking points that everyone following this clown show knows were accidentally forwarded to the entire Congress due to White House incompetence.

    It just boggles the mind, the ineptitude on display here. The Republicans had days at this point to agree on a Trump defense strategy, and they’re still relying on the initial talking points, which are that the whistleblower wasn’t on the Ukraine call — irrelevant since Trump released the damning summary and the White House subsequently admitted facts that corroborate the whistleblower’s account of what happened.

    Trump is tweeting the same nonsense this morning because that’s all they have. Looks like the bottom of the barrel hires aren’t up to this challenge, even at a basic PR level.

    2) Trump retweeted this 9-minute clip of Giuliani babbling conspiracy theory nonsense to George Stephanopoulos about a Clinton/DNC/Soros plot with Ukraine to frame Trump/Putin/Russia for election interference, proving that to this very day, Trump hasn’t accepted that Russia intervened to help him.

    That last point — that Russia interfered — has been one of the only ones elected Republicans are willing to contradict Trump on, perhaps because they’ve seen the evidence, so they know denying it is bananapants and will make them look foolish and feckless to their constituents. Trump and/or his handlers know it’s dangerous too because a time or two, Trump has had to grudgingly admit he believes our security agencies about Russia attacking the election, though he denies it was to benefit him and equivocates as much as possible.

    Anyhoo, maybe that’s the wedge the House Dems use to attempt to pry Repubs away from Trump — he’s implicitly and explicitly accusing our security apparatus of lying. Undermining the work of his own handpicked security agency heads by denying the facts they found for his own political gain sounds like a high crime and misdemeanor.

  55. 55.

    Sab

    @Kay: Rob Portman is co-chair of the Senate Ukraine caucus. You’d think he would’ve noticed that their funding was being held up and why.

  57. 57.

    Betty Cracker

    Trump is tweet-screaming about Schiff again and ends the latest hysterical fulminations with “Arrest for Treason?”

    Friends, I know we’ve been wondering this for nearly three years, as the level of insanity has steadily risen, but can we really go on this way? I just don’t see this as sustainable.

  59. 59.

    NotMax

    @Betty Cracker

    The wagering* pool is open. 31 days from which to choose!

    Which date in October will Dolt 45 and company commence referring to what is taking place as a lynching?

    *Ladies’ and gentlemen’s bets, natch.

  60. 60.

    Ken

    @Kay: On the other hand, had anyone reported the withholding of aid, undoubtedly we would now be being assured by Thoughtful People that of course the President has full authority to control the timing of the release of funds.

    Or rather, we would have moved on from that a day or two after it was first reported, as it was buried in the daily gusher of criminality, idiocy, and criminal idiocy.

  61. 61.

    Betty Cracker

    @NotMax: Still, there’s a reason Republicans in Congress are not willing to simply parrot Trump’s line about Putin’s innocence and good intentions.

  62. 62.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Betty Cracker: Speaking of innocence and good intentions, I’m seeing reports in Ukrainian media today about Russian Special Forces units having been spotted in Norwegian territory. Waiting for some other confirmation, and I dropped a note to Adam to check whether he’s seen anything.

  63. 63.

    Immanentize

    @Kay:

    Maybe one of them could have gone to Congress and told Congress “we’ve solved the mystery of where that aid is….”

    But as you have pointed out, we are so lucky they didn’t! So lucky this wasn’t done in public because they would have just lied different lies and the Republicans would have supported those lies and we would never have the whistleblower (or it wouldn’t matter) because the lies would have swallowed the truth of what happened.

  64. 64.

    satby

    @NotMax: I would worry a bit about the wheels. We had similar non-reclining chairs at the Drs. office and it was always safest to hold them for people. You can lock the casters, but the chairs are light enough to still move if an unsteady adult misjudges their landing.

  65. 65.

    Immanentize

    @satby: The casters can be removed or not installed to begin with. Most of those types of chairs have rug or floor pad options.

  67. 67.

    Immanentize

    While I’m on the frequency for a bit, I wanted to thank you all for your kind and funny responses Saturday. Immp is home, ears pierced. Small tasteful white gold studs with surgical steel posts. Dad approved. I have learned (after the fact) that he completely hates the idea of ear gauges/spacers. Another win.

    And I will check in with the Thin Black Duke next time I catch him in-thread. Really small world, neh?

  68. 68.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Immanentize: The holding up of aid was accurately reported by Reuters on August 29, and the Washington Post ran an editorial entitled something like “Is Trump Strong-arming Zelensky?” on September 5. So it’s been in the news for quite a while, it’s just that people weren’t paying attention.

  69. 69.

    Ohio Mom

    @WereBear: Late to responding to you, but there are more than one sad Jewish holidays but we modern, comfortable people tend to ignore most of them.

    Doesn’t fit the culture anymore. For one example, having holidays that require fasting was useful in times of food scarcity but living in this era of abundance, we just don’t grok that. Religion evolves even if some people don’t.

  70. 70.

    Immanentize

    @satby: You may have missed the comments about his trip to NYC this weekend. He didn’t eat enough (of course) but he had a splendid time. His knee got out of whack. First from too much walking (he is still rebuilding atrophied muscles) and then from being cramped in the train home. He’ll be fine. Alles gut.

  72. 72.

    Betty Cracker

    @Gin & Tonic: Jesus. I wonder if Putin figures this is the opportunity he’s been waiting for, now that the US is thoroughly sidelined and most world leaders (not to mention the majority of US citizens) recognize that Trump is an inept buffoon.

  73. 73.

    Immanentize

    @Gin & Tonic:
    I get that. It was weird and there was an obvious hold up. But we would probably not have been able to make the Biden quid pro quo without that memo-script. This is how Trump does foreign policy. But we need the very specific proof every time or they will slime out of it.

  74. 74.

    Immanentize

    @NotMax: His ear posts? No, they are tiny. (Now.) Like a small silver dot on each ear. Women don’t have to take them out and neither do men. And we both are in the Global Traveler program so, precheck every time (with exceptions) which means freedom not to uselessly remove your shoes because everyone knows that is stupid. But still they make people do it!

  75. 75.

    chris

    The man who would be king also retweeted somebody calling for a civil war if he's removed from office. Trump swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. Now he's one of them.— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) September 30, 2019

  76. 76.

    Duckrabbit

    @Notmax
    Is aging an issue here? That chair swivels, so if she needs to brace herself to stand up, this will make that more difficult, and a fall hazard if she is not unsteady. Same problem with the wheels; check whether all 4 lock.

  80. 80.

    chris

    First thing this AM I see Newt fucking Gingrich. Now comes Bernie Kerik. It’s starting to look like a zombie movie.

    Fox & Friends just hosted "former NYC police commissioner" Bernard Kerik to accuse Democrats of planting evidence against Trump, and to declare that Rudy Giuliani is the real whistleblower.No mention, of course, that Kerik is a felon, did over 3 years in prison for corruption. pic.twitter.com/wtS09FXUQ8— Eric Kleefeld (@EricKleefeld) September 30, 2019

  81. 81.

    rikyrah

    @chris:

    The man who would be king also retweeted somebody calling for a civil war if he’s removed from office. Trump swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. Now he’s one of them.— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) September 30, 2019

    He’s always been one of them. Always.

  82. 82.

    rikyrah

    @Amir Khalid:

    @Betty Cracker:
    I’ll say it again: The Trump administration is a version of The Godfather where all the Corleones are Fredo.

    It’s still an insult to Fredo.
    The only Michael in the Bunch might be Barr.

  83. 83.

    Amir Khalid

    @Ohio Mom:

    … having holidays that require fasting was useful in times of food scarcity but living in this era of abundance, we just don’t grok that. Religion evolves even if some people don’t.

    That makes me think of how during Ramadhan, no Muslim considers not fasting by day; but at night, once the prayers are said, it’s just food food food all the time, and this season of abstinence is when people gain weight.

  88. 88.

    Ruckus

    @RAVEN:
    Are you at work? No?
    That’s the important part. You enjoy life, enjoy this new part! Work around the house, annoy your wife, enjoy your wife, go for long walks, learn to do nothing.

  89. 89.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:
    I’ve heard Maxine Waters over a loudspeaker. She swears more than I do. I like her.
    We talk about both siderism and it’s true. But those news folks, as much as they might be to blame for putting themselves there between a rock and a hard spot or even creating it all by themselves. They have to appeal to the vast majority or they lose money. Poor fucking babies. If money wasn’t their sole reason to exist they’ed figure out how to exist being truthful. Notice how many of them are actually discussing truth – sort of – right now? They have a choice and most of them won’t make that choice.

  91. 91.

    Ruckus

    @Betty Cracker:

    but can we really go on this way? I just don’t see this as sustainable.

    Of course it isn’t sustainable. The only good point is that it is starting to peel off – and it will be slowly – some of the somewhat more sane republicans. Once that happens trumps support starts to fall apart. The ones fully invested in trump, say Kevin McCarthy, may never turn. We don’t need 100% and should never count on it but the insanity is getting so bad that some will risk that enough of their supporters will follow them or that country actually can be put first. And at least one has. It’s even possible that moscow mitch has seen the light. It’s a flash light with almost flat batteries but it is a light.

  94. 94.

    J R in WV

    @Betty Cracker:

    Trump retweeted this 9-minute clip of Giuliani babbling conspiracy theory nonsense to George Stephanopoulos about a Clinton/DNC/Soros plot with Ukraine to frame Trump/Putin/Russia for election interference, proving that to this very day, Trump hasn’t accepted that Russia intervened to help him.

    Well, I have to gently disagree that any of this nonsense shows that Trump doesn’t believe or “hasn’t accepted” that Russia intervened to help him. After all, we’ve all seen him asking Mr. Putin for help on national TV. I think he hopes that his strenuous denials will help him find a jury willing to believe that Trump know nothing of the plotting behind his election.

    I also think that’s pretty unlikely, unless the prosecutor is also part of the plot and selects jurors willing to ditch the government’s proof.

    ETA to add a needed comma

  95. 95.

    J R in WV

    @NotMax:

    “Still hard at work on upgrading my hard won amateur status at doing nothing to professional levels.”

    I’m into my 10th year of of early retirement, so far so good. Whenever I get the urge to work on something, I find that taking a nap until that urge passes works well.

  96. 96.

    NotMax

    @J R in WV

    Ten years as well since (involuntary) retirement – or as I put if at the time, gainfully unemployed.

    Naps have left chocolate in the dust as the years have flown by. Zees over sprees.

    ;)

Comments are closed.