Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

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

You cannot shame the shameless.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

This really is a full service blog.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

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

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Their freedom requires your slavery.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Crowded Field

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Crowded Field

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Tonight is the fourth DNC primary debate, 8pm EDT, at private liberal arts college Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus.

Despite her ‘threats’ last week, Tulsi Gabbard will be on stage. As will Tom Steyer, ratite-resembling billionaire, for his first (and I devoutly hope last) appearance. (He’s already qualified for the November debate, but maybe tonight’s experience will wean him off his electoral fantasies.) Apparently 12 candidates on one stage is a new record — here’s to cutting that number in half by next month!

Elsewhere…

Reader Interactions

171Comments

  1. 1.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “I am not part of whatever drug deal Rudy and Mulvaney are cooking up,”

    This really doesn’t surprise me. Bolton has a moral code that he lives by. It’s a straight and narrow road (and lonely, oh so very lonely) that he travels and he will not stray from the path of the righteous.

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    Couldn’t find a thread yesterday which seemed right for dropping these in. Morning threads are more freewheeling and eclectic, so a couple of little stories which recently caught the eye.

    1) New Yorkers of a certain vintage may want to take a brief moment to unwistfully wave good-bye. Tad’s Steaks finally closing its last NYC outpost.

    (In)famous for plastic-wrapped pre-poured glasses of wine and steak-flavored shoe leather. So old can remember when the price for the steak platter shot up to $1.09.

    2) Face/palm to the nth power.

    ‘Jesus Shoes’ Filled With Holy Water Selling for More Than $3,000.

  3. 3.

    Betty Cracker

    Missed the news last night because baseball, but according to The Post:

    Fiona Hill, the White House’s former top Russia adviser, told impeachment investigators on Monday that Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, ran a shadow foreign policy in Ukraine that circumvented U.S. officials and career diplomats in order to personally benefit President Trump, according to people familiar with her testimony.

    If accurate, that seems like kind of a big deal. The Trump admin can attempt to sub-bus Giuliani, but there’s that pesky not-transcript of the “perfect” call with Zelensky, during which Trump makes it clear Giuliani is his man in Ukraine.

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax:

    ‘Jesus Shoes’ Filled With Holy Water Selling for More Than $3,000

    There’s a sucker born every minute.

    ETA Loved this: “Greenberg added: “We were wondering, what would a collab with Jesus Christ look like? As a Jew myself, the only thing I knew was that he walked on water.”

  5. 5.

    Betty Cracker

    Here’s an amusing story about a lazy-ass mastiff who got tired on a hiking trip and had to be carried off the trail on a stretcher:

    (CNN) Floyd the mastiff went for a hike with his owner up the Grandeur Peak trail near Salt Lake City on Sunday. But when it was time to come down, Floyd was too exhausted and just sat down.

    Thanks to the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office search and rescue team, the 190-pound dog made it home by being carried back down the trail.

    The rescue team was called around 6:30 p.m. after other hikers passed Floyd on the trail and saw his owner needed help. The 3-year-old dog wouldn’t budge and temperatures in the area were quickly dropping, according to police.

    There’s something to be said for knowing your limits. My old boxer dog Bart was that way. He loved to go for walks, but in his later years, if you took him too far afield, when he got tired, he’d just plop down and refuse to budge. I had to call my husband to come get us in the car a few times.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: I had that experience with my Alzheimered father. I would take him to the local city park where they had a nice lake with a paved path around it that was easy for him to negotiate. He always enjoyed the walk, the exercise, the air, the “young” people, etc etc, and then one day he sat down on a bench at the halfway point and that was that. The good thing about Alzheimer’s is they soon forget why they are doing what they are doing. So we sat there and discussed the geese, and discussed the geese, and discussed the geese, (always the same discussion) and after a half hour or so we got up and finished the walk.

    I took him on shorter walks after that.

  10. 10.

    Kay

    Nicholas Fandos
    @npfandos
    ·
    5h
    On the “drug deal” quote: 1 person in the room during Hill’s testimony initially said Bolton mentioned Rudy, but 2 others now say Hill said he actually cited Sondland: “I am not part of whatever drug deal Sondland & Mulvaney are cooking up”

    The more the merrier! ” I am not part of whatever drug deal literally all of these people are cooking up”

  11. 11.

    Mary G

    @Kay: The more people in this administration implicated in criminal acts the merrier. Especially the Murikans. I try to keep track of all the Russians Adam has in his poss and my head feels like one of the compulsive people in the movies with all the yarn stretching across every wall.

    Also, this story in WaPo about a dog that ran out of the house in Orlando and was found 12 years later in Pittsburgh is sweet. The owner said she paid $35 a year to keep its microchip going. Is this a thing? I thought you got the chip and were good to go.

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Ukraine was “special” to Team Trump because they wanted to prove Russia was framed and there is/was a deep state conspiracy against Trump. But there’s no doubt in my mind the Trumps subverted U.S. foreign and domestic policy for personal gain. Hopefully someone is looking into the patents and deals granted to Ivanka’s knock-off bag and shoe company by China and Japan, which happened to coincide with major trade meetings. Maybe it’s time to question the private prison company that dumped millions of dollars into Trump properties as detainee facility contracts were being handed out. The corruption was open, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be addressed.

  15. 15.

    Kay

    @Mary G:

    The more people in this administration implicated in criminal acts the merrier

    Agreed. It will also be delightful if we find out that Giuliani only received the one 500k payment. They bought him cheap! God almighty he could have gotten MUCH more selling US foreign policy. Worth billions to them.

  18. 18.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    But there’s no doubt in my mind the Trumps subverted U.S. foreign and domestic policy for personal gain.

    Me too. It’s all they care about. That and their giant egos, which is of course the reason Trump chases the conspiracy theory- it tarnishes his win.

    Interests aligned. Everyone had something they wanted. It’s just kind of embarrassing that what all the Americans wanted was so petty and self-interested. No grand plan on our side! Just greed.

  20. 20.

    JDM

    @OzarkHillbilly: I wouldn’t call being a war-mongering asshole a moral code (an ethos, maybe) but Bolton doesn’t want to go to prison, and he’s at least smart enough to see that this particular fork in the road has one path that’s likely to lead there.

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    Tweet from NBC WH correspondent Kristen Welker:

    @RudyGiuliani on Bolton calling him a “hand grenade.” RG: “I’m very disappointed that his bitterness drives him to attack a friend falsely…It’s really ironic that John Bolton is calling anyone else a hand grenade. When John is described by many as an atomic bomb . “

    Watching the amoral Trump flunkies fight like meth-addled ferrets in a sack is going to be schadenfreude overload.

  28. 28.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Rudy’s a good get because he’s loathsome and a criminal, but we need administration people. We already have the President, who confessed. Now get 20 or so below him.

    This is JUST such a great crime story because it’s the opposite of what people always say “get the little fish, pressure them, etc” We got the kingpin the first day! Going down, not up.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    Not that it matters and not that anyone is surprised, but China played Trump and there’s not a thing he can do about it unless he wants to hurt his own re-election chances. They won. He will get nothing for those tariffs and the public didn’t just pay the tariffs, they paid the huge agriculture bailout. It’s a total loss.

  31. 31.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: If you’ve looked at those photos, there’s two Milky Way shots. The good one*(the first pic) is from July of last year when I took the kid up to Red Rock to teach her how to take Milky Way pics for her trip to New Zealand. The one further down with the lifeguard station was taken on Sunday with the full Moon(that’s why it’s pretty faint).

    *The reason it’s in this set is I redid that photo from the original source images, I’ve learned a bit since last year.

  32. 32.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: @satby: If (LOL ‘if’) Steyer fades, there’s always Bloomberg, waiting in the wings and “itching” for his chance to run:

    …The former mayor of New York City has told associates that former vice president Joe Biden’s seeming struggle to stay on top of the Democratic pack amid a surging Sen. Elizabeth Warren is making him seriously consider whether he should be warming up to join the race, according to CNBC. These associates say Bloomberg would join the Democratic contest only if Biden were to drop out in the early stages of the primaries. Bloomberg could then tap into his personal fortune, estimated at $51 billion, to bill himself as the moderate in the race.

    Give
    Me
    A
    Break

    Bloomberg better figure it out, like Howard Schultz (BLESSED BE HIS ‘CENTRIST’ NAME!) already did: any third-party candidate to the left of trumpov just helps trumpov.

    These big-money guys are making the case for heavily progressive taxation rates every time they open their mouths.

  33. 33.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Yep. This lie was the tell:

    LOL! He got rolled. He always gets rolled.

  34. 34.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Jeffro: Considering that the latest tax data show that we pretty much have an effective flat tax(with a small bump up at the top 5% and then it drops for the top .01%), even progressive tax rates would be an improvement(heavily progressive would be even better).

  39. 39.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jeffro: Glad to hear he’s not considering a third party run, at least. That’s what really worries me about these billionaire egomaniacs who can’t read a fucking room.

    And what makes Bloomberg think it would be up to him personally to represent moderate Dems? I mean, if Biden dropped out (not gonna happen), Bloomberg and pals could bankroll Klobuchar or Buttigieg or Bennet if they were serious about addressing the Warren Peril. It’s all about their gigantic egos…

  40. 40.

    satby

    I wish everyone below the top 5 or so would drop out. I saw a list of the number of offices opening for the organizing in every state, and most candidates have barely any. Buttigieg and Warren have the most, as of the date of that article anyway. The others aren’t putting their money into organizing as much and they’ve all raised millions. No idea what they’re waiting for.
    Ah, read it here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/12/us/politics/democratic-candidates-campaigns.html

  42. 42.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Hitesh Sirohi had gone to bury his own daughter, who died a few minutes after birth on Wednesday, when his spade hit an earthen pot, local police in Uttar Pradesh state told AFP.

    “When he noticed a newborn girl inside it, he immediately rescued her and dialled … for help.”

    Sirohi told the Times of India he found the baby wrapped in a cloth and crying.

    “At one point I thought that my daughter had come alive. But the voice was actually coming from the pot,” he told the newspaper.

    I truly can not imagine the horror this poor man must have felt in that moment.

    ETA forgot the link

  43. 43.

    TS (the original)

    I foolishly keep thinking MJ might stop being a republican hack – how stupid am I with this thought. Dear Sens McConnell and Graham are upset about Syria & want to stop the withdrawal. Democrats – well nacy Pelosi – should not let this chance go by to support what the GOP wants to do. No more – I’ll check it out when the impeachment is well advanced.

    The right to rule is strong with these imbeciles

  44. 44.

    Leto

    @rikyrah: @satby: @Jeffro: I don’t know how he qualified, but I wish he’d actually help Dems out by sending money to vulnerable Dems in the House (like SC-1 Joe Cunningham) or to help win back the Senate. Conservatives have ample multi-billionaires willing to write blank checks to help fund every race, including dog catcher. Wish our pocket change allies would do the same.

  48. 48.

    Patricia Kayden

    @OzarkHillbilly: Bolton accepted a position in an administration which was rife with scandal and intrigue at the time he started working in the White House. He’s not righteous. He’s just smart enough to know how to preserve his freedom. He’s one of the rats who jumped out of the sinking ship and saved his skin.

  49. 49.

    satby

    @Leto: no argument from me! I wish they all would. Steyer is a jonny-one-note on impeachment though. And to be fair, he’s been blowing that horn for the last two years, before any of the other elected officials did. In a way, he softened the ground for it.
    But he’s not a contender and I hope he decides soon to support red to blue Senate races, where he might really get his money’s worth.

  51. 51.

    JMG

    Boston TV is of course saturated with Steyer ads due to our proximity to New Hampshire, but last night I saw something really unusual — a Joe Sestak for President ad!!!

  53. 53.

    David Evans

    A reasonably well-informed man of Trump’s age would see GREAT PATRIOT FARMERS and immediately be reminded of Stalin.
    On second thoughts, maybe he likes that.

  54. 54.

    Leto

    Whelp, I picked the wrong morning to stop drinking Drano:

    Trump Campaign Running Facebook Ads with Racial Slur

    President Donald Trump’s official Facebook page has been running a series of ads that feature an anti-Native American slur, according to the social media company’s archive of political ads. Trump can be heard referring to Senator Elizabeth Warren by the name “Pocahontas” in the ad, which started running on October 11.

    President Trump has repeatedly called the Democratic presidential candidate “Pocahontas” at White House functions and on Twitter, a reference to Warren’s claim she had Native American ancestry, for which she has apologized. But this might be the first time a racial slur has been used by a major political candidate in paid ads.

    …

    Native American leaders have repeatedly condemned Trump’s use of the slur, especially when he invokes acts of genocide against native peoples as a punchline.

    “If Elizabeth Warren, often referred to by me as Pocahontas, did this commercial from Bighorn or Wounded Knee instead of her kitchen, with her husband dressed in full Indian garb, it would have been a smash,” Trump tweeted in January, as just one example of many.

    The racist Facebook ad comes on the heels of the company’s increasingly combative relationship with the political left. CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently told employees that his company would sue the U.S. government if people like Elizabeth Warren tried to break up Facebook on antitrust grounds. And it was revealed by Politico just yesterday that Zuck has been meeting with conservative lawmakers and pundits about alleged “anti-conservative bias” on social media.

    Zuckerberg, who is schedule to speak at Georgetown on Thursday at an event called, “A Conversation On Free Expression,” even met with the white supremacist host Tucker Carlson of Fox News, a man who often complains about immigrants and has said they make the U.S. “dirtier.” Many advertisers have pulled out of Carlson’s show in the past year over his extreme language, but he’s still on TV for some reason. Carlson has also condemned Twitter in recent days, saying that the company is dividing America in a particularly ironic accusation from a Fox News host.

    Zuck met with President Trump himself in the Oval Office last month, though we have no idea what the two men talked about. White House Social Media Director Dan Scavino, Jared Kushner, and Facebook’s Joel Kaplan were also in on the meeting.
    President Trump and other rightwing extremists have consistently spread conspiracy theories that social media companies like Facebook and Twitter are working against them. But, if anything, it’s become clear that Facebook is working in the interests of Republican politicians to make enormous amounts of money and to maintain the power that they currently wield. Zuckerberg called Senator Warren an “existential threat” to Facebook, words that he hasn’t used after people like President Trump rail have spoken out against the social media giant.

    Facebook’s press team did not respond to questions about President Trump’s racist “Pocahontas” ad early Tuesday. Gizmodo will update this article if we hear back.

    Trump, Kushner, Zuckerberg… dipshit trifecta. The ad is at the link, and of course it’s as disgusting as you think.

  55. 55.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Patricia Kayden: No, he’s very righteous, I would say a zealot. One should always beware of “true believers,” no matter what stripes or spots they wear. There is nothing they won’t do in the name of their cause because the ends always justify the means. In this case, Bolton recognized the danger the machinations of Giuliani and crew posed to his cause.

  56. 56.

    satby

    @rikyrah: I know, but he qualified. The DNC should have tightened the rules drastically. He’s already qualified for next month.
    Honestly, thanks to bullshitter Bernie, we’re stuck this primary with a ridiculous system just to avoid the “rigged” charge. And now he’s a seriously sick old man who won’t quit even if it kills him. He’s never been fit for office either, he’s as much of a toxic narcissist as Trump in his own way.

  58. 58.

    Betty Cracker

    @satby: That’s what pisses me off about Steyer — impeachment was his whole thing! Well, congrats Steyer, there’s an impeachment inquiry, so why does the vanity campaign continue? I just saw an presidential campaign ad last night. Jesus, imagine what he could do if he dumped those dollars into down-ticket races.

  59. 59.

    Leto

    @rikyrah: “Do we have parachutes? No? What about that presidential safe room pod like in the Harrison Ford movie? No? Really? Well I guess I’ll have to wait until the plane lands…”

  62. 62.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was booted from a House interview with President Donald Trump’s former Russia adviser because the congressman was not a member of one of the three committees present.

    Fiona Hill, the former Russia specialist on Trump’s National Security Council, resigned in August and was deposed Monday by the House Oversight, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees.

    Gaetz, who is not a member of any of those committees, attempted to join the interview and was removed by Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-FL), Gaetz later told reporters.
    ……………………….
    “If Adam Schiff and House Democrats were so proud of their work, they would be willing to show it,” Gaetz said, accusing Schiff of “trying to run a kangaroo court.”

    Because there are no Republicans on the House Oversight, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees. I guess.

  63. 63.

    artem1s

    Well at least this is one Bolton war fantasy I can root for. There has to be a way to get Newt Gingrich into this scrum. He and Giuliani are the perfect storm of a dumb person’s idea of a smart person.

  64. 64.

    satby

    @Betty Cracker: I know when he announced on FB that many followers there begged him not to run, thanked him for what he had accomplished, and asked him to turn his attention to flipping key Senate seats. As did I. Not enough I guess negative feedback I guess. Or ratfucking Republicans donating token amounts to keep Steyer in the running more likely.

  65. 65.

    Ken

    @Kay:

    It’s just kind of embarrassing that what all the Americans wanted was so petty and self-interested.

    We’ve been living with that embarrassment for decades. I remember back before I could vote being vaguely ashamed when one of my state representatives was arrested for corruption, and it came out that his favors could be bought for a steak dinner and a thousand dollar campaign contribution.

  67. 67.

    Ken

    @Kay:

    This is JUST such a great crime story […] We got the kingpin the first day!

    When he confessed, thinking it would exonerate him. Plus, we know he’ll throw every one of his minions under the bus to protect himself, because he’s done it for years now.

  68. 68.

    Spanky

    @Leto:

    The ad is at the link, and of course it’s as disgusting as you think.

    Meaning the purpose here was to push it out to other markets under the guise of “news”. And our media betters will happily follow along.

  71. 71.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: Rep. Gaetz is definitely a candidate for a canary trap.

    The analysis will be easier than usual, since after Gaetz goes running to the White House with the “confidential” document, Trump will undoubtedly tweet a picture of its first page.

  72. 72.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @OzarkHillbilly: I love how timeless Mark Twain is. Many modern grifts are to be found in his pages, grifting the rubes 100-150 years ago.

    In “Innocents Abroad” he describes vendors in Italy selling enough splinters of The True Cross to make a dozen crosses.

    And the ancestors of the televangelists are in Huck Finn.

  73. 73.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Balloon Boy Anniversary!

    Ten years ago today, one of the great hoaxes/media overreactions happened (link to Wiki), which in turn generated arguably one of the finest and funniest Balloon Juice threads EVER (link to thread.)

    (To DougJ): The cops that tracked that balloon didn’t make jokes.

    The helicopters didn’t make jokes.

    (To litlebritdifrnt): Oh yes… bring your condensation.

    Michael Gass first shows up around Comment #35 and entirely dominates the rest of the thread (which runs 323 comments and lasts for five days!)

    And a fair number of beloved former commenters are represented, including arguingwithsignposts (whatever happened to aws, anyhow?), asiangrrlMN and valdivia (I think they both lurk, and I wish they’d come back and play occasionally), and the late General Winfield Stuck (I’d forgotten the “Winfield”).

    Plenty, too, who are still active commenters: for instance, JPL shows up in her former incarnation as Demo Woman. And litlebritdifrnt briefly goes O/T with a very funny story about her mum and a pot of stew.

    If you have some time today, celebrate this amazing BJ moment, ten years on.

    P.S. Would have sworn this was the thread with “faxing my credenzas to John Cole,” but while the idea is there, the credenzas aren’t. At least, not that I could find.

  74. 74.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @JMG: WTF?

    He’s from this area of PA, most recently seen running for Senate. What’s he doing running for President in Boston? President of what?

  75. 75.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Betty Cracker: That’s exactly how my Boxer behaves. He loves going on walks but has no endurance. When he’s tired, he plops down and stays down until he’s good and ready to start walking again. My mixed Boxer/Great Dane is the opposite. Never gets tired and hates when you stop to rest.

  76. 76.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: True believers are always self-righteous. They know the one and only path to salvation. Any one who says otherwise is a heretic and needs to burned at the stake.

  79. 79.

    Patricia Kayden

    @SiubhanDuinne: I’m dying of laughter at the Balloon boy hoax. I vaguely remember the incident. We can be so ridiculous at times. That poor kid though. What weird parents he has.

  80. 80.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Betty Cracker: If he was smart he’d have Jacob Wohl or James O’Keefe back that up with video evidence.

    First you get some obviously non-Chinese to buy some potatoes at local farmers markets, using bad stereotyped accents copied from Charlie Chan movies. Then you coach the farmers (on camera) to say “The Chinese are buying from us”. Then you film them saying that.

    It’s flawless!

  81. 81.

    Ken

    @SiubhanDuinne: “Balloon Boy” is a timeless reminder that you shouldn’t center your conspiracy around a six-year-old who’s likely to blurt out a confession on live TV.

    Or a septuagenarian with the mental faculties of a six-year-old, but that goes without saying.

  82. 82.

    Patricia Kayden

    @OzarkHillbilly: His cause being ginning up Middle East wars? Destroying the UN? Bolton didn’t report his concerns to the FBI or some other investigatory agency but I wonder if he’ll testify before the House if called to do so.

  84. 84.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I’m not a gamer, online or otherwise, but this cracked me up: Is Fortnite down? Is it just hype? And is it all Elon Musk’s fault?

    Josh, my Twitter is flooded with people mourning the loss of Fortnite and blaming Elon Musk and I really have no idea what is happening. What is happening?

    I’m glad you asked, Steph. So: Fortnite is a massive online multiplayer game played by 250 million people around the world. It’s huge.

    A few hours ago a big asteroid in the game began to flare up and within a short time basically blew up the entire map.

    You can’t play the game right now. It’s just a black hole. People, naturally, began freaking out.

    This 2:00 minute video with dialog is hilarious:

    Jack “CouRage” Dunlop
    ‏Verified account @CouRageJD

    RIP Fortnite: Battle Royale

    FULL LIVE REACTION TO THE END!

    Fortnite also deleted all of its tweets and is running a livestream of said black hole both on Twitter and game-streaming platform Twitch, which around 40,000-60,000 people are currently watching. According to some reports, the total number of viewers across all platforms is more than six million.

    Well done, Fortnite, well done indeed.

    And as much as I deride Beetlejuice, I have to give him credit for this retweet of an old one of his:

    Elon Musk
    ‏Verified account @elonmusk

    Had to been done ur welcome

    Elon Musk buys Fortnite and deletes it
    By Mike Murphy
    published Oct 10, 2018 7:49 pm ET

    I had to save these kids from eternal virginity -Elon Musk

  85. 85.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Patricia Kayden: I am really unsure of what his cause is. He’s never seen a war that America shouldn’t start/be in/end because AMERICA IS THE BEST AND THE WORLD SHOULD JUST SHUT UP AND DO WHAT WE (I) SAY!!!!

    I mentioned above that I read somewhere that he had inked a book deal. I think testifying would give away too many spoilers.

  87. 87.

    Jeffro

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I hear you. I’ve been posting, re-posting, tweeting, etc that Leonhardt NYT op-ed for a week now.

    We could be doing so much more good in this country, but instead we let the 1% and .1% and .01% throw vast sums around to bang on our democracy.

  89. 89.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Matt McIrvin: Yeah, I might be showing my myopia because I think wars should only be fought for just causes and then only as an absolute last resort.

  92. 92.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker: Exactly. Heck if Klobuchar wanted to, she could cut ads to that effect. “Thanks Mike but we don’t need yet ANOTHER Dem candidate running. How about you give to my campaign and also Stacy Abrams’ voter un-suppression efforts?”

    (Right. And then I woke up…)

  93. 93.

    Marcopolo

    @Leto: Good morning folks.

    Steyer has pretty much bought his place on the stage. First by spending a lot of money running those “Impeach Trump” tv ads in 2017/18 to develop a mailing/ contact list w/ 8 million names—that he then leveraged to get his 130,000 donations. Second, and more recently, he’s been backing up the Brinks trucks full of cash running incessant campaign ads in the 4 battleground states to get his state poll numbers up to 2%. I don’t have the exact figure on the tip on my tongue but it is over $1M/week (just used the google—apparently he “spent over $7M in the first month just on ads dwarfing expenditures by his opponents.”). According to his FEC filing, he raised about $2M in Q3 and spent over $30M.

    So, yep, he’s trying to buy the nomination. Guess we’ll find out how well that works.

  95. 95.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Patricia Kayden:

    His cause being ginning up Middle East wars? Destroying the UN?

    Yes. As near as I can tell, most neocons are entirely sincere and passionate in their belief that everything will be awesome and the world a better place if America conquers it.

  97. 97.

    guachi

    I was just starting my deployment to Iraq and completely missed Balloon Boy. Thank you for wasting my morning with the link to the old thread.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    “I am not part of whatever deal – fill in the blank(s)- are cooking up”

    I love this as a generic denial. Recite this to your attorney every morning and you’re good to go for the whole day!

  99. 99.

    Kay

    I have an event at the high school so I can’t watch the debate. The debates make me miserable anyway- I hate the questions and…the answers.

  100. 100.

    Gin & Tonic

    Wonderful (and accurate) piece by the BBC about borshch, its true origins and current interpretations, and how Russians have culturally appropriated it, to use a current term.

    Yes, I prefer “borshch” as a transliteration, although the author writes “borsch” – although either one is preferable to “borscht.”

  101. 101.

    Just Chuck

    @Gin & Tonic: I’m just never sure how to quantify my +n. Joints? Bowls? Dabs? +0 right now, left all my greens at my gf’s place 80 miles away.

  102. 102.

    Immanentize

    @Kay:
    Denials don’t last as long as the did in the good old days. With Trump, you have to now issue two denials each day covering different scandals.

  103. 103.

    Kay

    Conversation
    Byron York
    @ByronYork
    From
    @susanferrechio
    ‘Where’s the whistleblower? Key GOP questions about Schiff’s contact may never be answered.’

    This might matter in a prosecution except the perp confessed and gave us the call record. Can they really be this dumb in the elite conservative brain trust? This isn’t relevant at all to the issue. How do they get these jobs?

  104. 104.

    HalfAssedHomesteader

    OK, I looked up ratite in the dictionary and I still don’t know what it means!

  105. 105.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    Bolton is an old hand, though. “Go tell that lawyer over there- cover my ass”

    I am NOW reporting this to…any random lawyer standing around!

    So brave these people. Such incredibly dedicated public servants.

    It reminds me of the episode of The Office where one of them thinks “declaring bankruptcy” means just that – “I declare BANKRUPTCY”

  108. 108.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I sure hope somebody is cooking up a videogame featuring all these players and all the buses they are throwing each other under. You could add steamrollers, tanks, humvees with MAGA stickers,… I’d certainly play it.

    It’s like “Lord of the Flies” but as if the adults had arrived another month later. So appalling but so predictable.

  109. 109.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @HalfAssedHomesteader:

    rat·ite
    /ˈratīt/
    Learn to pronounce
    Ornithology
    adjective
    adjective: ratite

    (of a bird) having a flat breastbone without a keel, and so unable to fly.

    noun
    noun: ratite; plural noun: ratites

    any of the mostly large, flightless birds with a ratite breastbone, i.e. the ostrich, rhea, emu, cassowary, and kiwi, together with the extinct moa and elephant bird.

    Or so says the google.

  110. 110.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Gin & Tonic: At the big National Air and Space Museum annex in Virginia, they have an exhibit on space food that includes a toothpaste-like tube of cosmonaut borsch. I was slightly surprised, but should not have been, to discover that the word has four letters.

  111. 111.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay: Can they really be this dumb in the elite conservative brain trust? This isn’t relevant at all to the issue. How do they get these jobs?

    it’s all just squid ink to give Joni Ernst and Cory Gardner talking points, or stammering points

  112. 112.

    rikyrah

    @satby:

    Honestly, thanks to bullshitter Bernie, we’re stuck this primary with a ridiculous system just to avoid the “rigged” charge. And now he’s a seriously sick old man who won’t quit even if it kills him. He’s never been fit for office either, he’s as much of a toxic narcissist as Trump in his own way.

    tell the truth

  113. 113.

    HeleninEire

    @SiubhanDuinne: Girlfriend. That was the best thing ever. I’ve got stuff to do today and I just spent an hour in bed reading the whole thread.

    So worth it. Jeffreyw at 158 was brilliant. And then when Michael came back at the end???? Da bomb.

  114. 114.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Matt McIrvin: Yeah, but one of those letters stands for about 17 English letters.

    I’m guessing the last letter is щ which is transliterated as “shch” and which we’re told is “just pronounced as SH followed by CH” as if that’s possible.

    Reminds me of when I first saw haiku written in Japanese. The Japanese syllabery uses one character per syllable, so the 5-7-5 pattern makes a whole lot more sense in that system, where the lines are exactly 5-7-5 characters long and form a visual pattern.

  117. 117.

    Kay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    It’s really what defendants actually say. “She hates me!” Of course she hates you- everyone does- the problem is they have the 5000 texts you insisted on sending because you never fucking stop talking.

    We’re past the whistleblower. Moving ON.

  118. 118.

    RobertB

    @Betty Cracker: My sister-in-law took their boxer mix with her on a walkathon, and he did just that. Got tired and called it a day. Had to get my father-in-law to come pick him up.

  119. 119.

    rikyrah

    I do believe I’m going to get the Disney streaming service

    …………………………..

    Disney Plus unveils its massive lineup of over 600 movies and TV shows… spanning nearly 100 years of content

    Disney unveiled an epic Twitter thread unveiling all of the titles that will be available upon the launch of Disney Plus
    The movies and TV shows include Disney’s first feature film, 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
    There are also obscure films like The Story of Perri and films from the 20th Century Fox merger such as Miracle on 34th Street
    Other titles include the numerous Star Wars movies and TV shows, and superhero adventures from the Marvel Cinematic Universe
    There will also be titles from 20th Century Fox, National Geographic, Pixar, Disney Animation Studios and much more
    By BRIAN GALLAGHER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

    PUBLISHED: 19:51 EDT, 14 October 2019 | UPDATED: 19:59 EDT, 14 October 2019

  120. 120.

    Leto

    @Kay:

    Anonymous caller: Hello police this specific guy murdered someone at this specific location.Cops: We found the body.That specific guy: I did the murder.Murderer’s friends: The only important question is who told the police about this. https://t.co/sFxpc1mwJO— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) October 15, 2019

  121. 121.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @rikyrah: Guess we won’t be seeing much of you for a while. Make sure you pause the stream at least once a year on election days and go vote. Also take breaks to eat meals every couple of days or so.

    Couple of months ago we had an urge to watch the animated “101 Dalmations” and couldn’t find it anywhere. For some reason Disney had apparently made it unavailable for streaming or on DVD. A quick glance shows me it’s apparently available once again, so I don’t know what that was about.

  123. 123.

    Miss Bianca

    @geg6: I was lurking here at that time but somehow missed that thread IRT. Someone posted a reminder about it a couple years ago and yeah…pretty much the best thread ever.

  125. 125.

    Miss Bianca

    @rikyrah: oh, man…I don’t stream, but if I could lay my hands on such obscure Disney gems from the 60s like “The Horsemasters” (starring Annette Funicello!) thereby, I would be seriously tempted…

  126. 126.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    Chris Murphy
    @ChrisMurphyCT
    ·13m
    ?Fiona Hill describes this scene:
    In a White House meeting, Sondland tells Ukrainians they will get a Trump meeting if they open the investigations Trump wants. Then, Sondland follows the Ukrainians out of the meeting to privately make clear he’s talking about Hunter Biden.

    Then the 56 people who heard it got very nervous and told the WH lawyers, who did….nothing with this information except participate in covering it up.

    Just excellent work all around. A real bunch of heroes Trump hired.

  127. 127.

    Brachiator

    @rikyrah:

    There are also obscure films like The Story of Perri and films from the 20th Century Fox merger such as Miracle on 34th Street

    Hmmm. Did Disney acquire all of Fox’s library in their recent acquisition? The Disney movie and tv vault was already massive, but this is ridiculous.

  129. 129.

    guachi

    @Brachiator: Disney acquired everything that Fox hadn’t already sold/transferred to someone else. I’m not actually sure if Fox owns the entirety of its library of movies, but whatever Fox had went to Disney.

  130. 130.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Sen. Chris Murphy’s Twitter feed is always informative. All I ever get from my senators is self-referential bible verses and self-serving “outsider” gibberish. :)

  131. 131.

    Aleta

    I saw he resigned (instead of properly fired) but I missed this news last night so (even if repeating here)

    Ofc. Aaron Dean has been arrested and charged with Murder of #AtatianaJefferson. No bond set yet. @wfaa

  133. 133.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @gbbalto: Right. Now drop the FRE and the EESE from FRESH CHEESE. And say it all as one consonant.

    I could tell you that the English word SIXTHS is all one syllable, which theoretically it is. And we can even pronounce it. But that’s not the same as trying to pronounce XTHS as one consonant. Just say XTHS to yourself a few times.

  137. 137.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    As a Twitter lurker, some are much better than others. I like Talking Points Memo a lot and Josh Marshall seems like a good person but he doesn’t understand Twitter. I wouldn’t be good at it either! But he’s a pro. He needs a Twitter tutorial.

  138. 138.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Gin & Tonic: German as our cousin language should be easier for us to pronounce, but it’s probably really fun listening to me trying to ask directions to Marktplatz.

    ETA: That was the example that came to mind off the top of my head but it’s actually not that hard to get out. I went looking for more examples, and found a few with double PF’s like impfpflicht, Sumpfpflanze and Dampfpflaume

  139. 139.

    Jeffro

    Hey everyone, trumpov is busy complaining about “a lack of transparency” in the House impeachment inquiry.

    Yes really.

    The guy who hasn’t released one tax return, who used a shell corporation to hide his mistresses’ payoffs, who goes by “John Barron” and other names to ‘brief’ reporters…yes, HE is complaining about a “lack of transparency”.

    LOLOL

  141. 141.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    Did everyone know Trump Administration got rid of WH visitor logs? I just found that out. That’s just so bad.

    The Dem nominee has to hit “transparency” hard – people love it- I think we’re gun shy because Clinton released so much and they used it against her in dishonest ways, but it’s a good thing and we should support it. Plus, it’s popular.

  142. 142.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    neo-liberal corporate Dem sell-out

    Alex Thompson @ AlxThomp
    Ohio’s SenSherrodBrown hits Medicare for All hard, telling @jeffzeleny “I think it’s a terrible mistake if the Democratic nominee would publicly support ‘Medicare for All,'”

  143. 143.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jeffro: One reason I believe they (Republicans) are in deep shit is because the talking points are so terrible. Trump and his most devoted elected toadies (Graham, Paul, Jordan, McCarthy, Gaetz, etc.) are out there ludicrously and hypocritically complaining about “lack of transparency” and “due process,” as if they don’t know how congressional investigations work. Well, to be fair, Trump probably really doesn’t understand how it works. But the rest of those mooks have participated in investigations and hearings before, and most of them even have law degrees. Yet this is the best spin they can put on it? Yeah, they’re in deep shit.

  144. 144.

    Kay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I’m not a health care purist but I have to give the Lefties The Overton Window. They were right about that, I was wrong.

    We’re going to end up at a Medicare buy-in as the position and that’s an unqualified success.

  145. 145.

    chopper

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    my favorite bit about that thread was at the very end, after it was dead, the guy came back saying that cole sent him an email saying the guy was right and everybody else was a jerk I SWEAR IT HAPPENED

  147. 147.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Betty Cracker: It’s the same as the standard response to a #MeToo outbreak: dudes demanding dude process, as I think one of the LGM posters put it. As if everything in the world was the same as a criminal conviction in court (including the investigations without which you can’t have a criminal conviction in court). Conditions constantly heightened in order to create impossible gridlock.

  148. 148.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay: We’re going to end up at a Medicare buy-in as the position and that’s an unqualified success.

    I hope so, the question is when, and what effect will the “No allies to the right!” battlecry have this time around.

  149. 149.

    CliosFanboy

    @Mary G: you pay every year. it’s sad when you have to go online to tell them that you will not have to renew because your dog passed away. :(

  150. 150.

    Kay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I don’t know- my youngest is one. Oh well. He could have gone Right. It could be much worse. He says Warren is a “centrist”

    I might run for delegate to the convention – I would pledge to her but I’m easy. I’ll switch if someone else gets it. It’s a caucus which is a PIA.

    They should hold all the nat conventions in Denver. Perfect weather. Is that fair? No. But life isn’t fair :)

  154. 154.

    StringOnAStick

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I hope and pray we end up with a Medicare buy-in option, because then my husband and I can retire. We both have pre-existing conditions and his has the potential to be expensive and long term, so we can’t retire until we know how the 2020 election goes because losing the pre-existing condition protection from the ACA would leave us naked.

    I enjoy (in a twisted way) explaining how health insurance works in the US to people from other western countries; they always look so bewildered by our “system”, like “why do you people stand for such treatment from your government?”.

  156. 156.

    patrick II

    @Mary G:

    Ivanka got Chinese patents on voting machines. It reeks.

    You underestimate how much time she spends in the shed out back tinkering on new inventions.

  157. 157.

    prostratedragon

    @Ken: It creates a tremendous leverage opportunity for the rich. If we stripped down all the billionaire holdings and put them into the treasury, it probably wouldn’t be enough to change the fortunes of the country (though some targetted spending would be great), but look what the motivated among them can do by way of these legal bribes with just a small fraction of it.

  159. 159.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Kay:

    I don’t know- my youngest is one. Oh well. He could have gone Right. It could be much worse. He says Warren is a “centrist”

    As the parent of a much younger child, I have to ask: Did you have the urge to slap your kid when he said that? Right now all I have to deal with are tantrums, which make a certain amount of sense but can still be incredibly annoying. :)

  160. 160.

    patrick II

    @TS (the original):

    Dear Sens McConnell and Graham are upset about Syria & want to stop the withdrawal.

    The problem with stopping the withdrawal now is that the Kurds (justifiably) may not be your friends anymore. You will be surrounded by Syrians, Russians, Isis, and betrayed Kurds. Get the hell out or send serious backup.

  163. 163.

    MisterForkbeard

    @patrick II: Right. It’s too LATE to just back up and reverse what we did. That was an option for the first day or two.

    Now there’s been executions, murdered civilians, the beginnings of genocide, escaped prisoners, and (lest we forget) our allies the Kurds had to ally with Russia and Syria to survive.

    Unless we go in with a MASSIVE force and start doing something to earn back their trust (impeaching Trump would help a lot, guys!), it’s too late. Trump fucked up and handed the whole game to Russia (again) because Republicans don’t have spines. This is just McConnell and Graham trying to pretend they actually care. If they cared, they would have done something before it was unrecoverable.

  165. 165.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Immanentize: In fact it was a number of factors, depending on the country:

    In Polish, the “helper consonant” z, which is a crucial component of sounds like sz (“sh”), cz (“ch”), and rz (the “ř” in Dvořák).

    In Czech, the “ambiguous sounds” r and l, both of which function occasionally as vowels (prst, finger; vlk, wolf)

    In both the above plus Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian (when written in latinitsa), diacritical marks (čárka, háček; kroužek in Czech, ogonek in Polish). And all kinds of fun in Hungarian: single & double acute accents, umlauts…

    A tak dale…

  166. 166.

    J R in WV

    Can we get that Michael Gass dude back to troll some more? What a loon [not to diss loons, I love loons, but that sound, OMG that sound] that dude was.

    Seal, mine fields, cop, ER doctor, what didn’t he do that was heroic? And certificates for every heroic dangerous task he ever undertook!!

    I pulled a guy out of a burning car once, imagine that! And never got a certificate from the authorities! ! I did get a nice thank you card from his landlady… Hilarious thread, no thanks to Mr Gass who was the most humorless POS in the history of the innertubes.

    Thanks for posting the link ot that thread. What a gas, and then “Comments are Closed for this thread!” so disappoint when I saw that.

    Now I’m gonna take a nap. Yesterday was really busy and tiring, got both puppies to the vet, had to carry them around some, I’m tooo old for that action.

    Luv and pease to all!!

  168. 168.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @NotMax: The SureKill? Good buddy who grew up in the Philthy ‘burbs told me that in the day (1960s) the water was so vile that participants in regattas on the river were issued cyanide tablets in case they fell in… I think he was kidding. I think… :^D

    Of course I now have a nephew in his second year of vet school at Penn, so…

  171. 171.

    Origuy

    I’m guessing the last letter is щ which is transliterated as “shch” and which we’re told is “just pronounced as SH followed by CH” as if that’s possible.

    Learning Russian, this has always confused me, because when I hear щ pronounced, it doesn’t sound like SH followed by CH. I found a YouTube video that explains it. This isn’t the one I used, but it’s good. Essentially, you pronounce SH with the tip of your tongue raised to your hard palate.

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