… but they grind extremely fine…
CNN Poll: Half of Americans say President Trump should be impeached and removed from office. It's a new high in CNN polling on the topic. https://t.co/aF8d8Stp60 pic.twitter.com/FR8Ji9nKoZ
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) October 22, 2019
Time Magazine releases an article by Sandy Smith that details Jeb Magruder's role in approving $250,000 within CRP for "political intelligence operations." Payments were made out of a secret fund kept by CRP, managed by Maurice Stans, and distributed by Hugh Sloan to Liddy.
— Watergate Day Of – 1972 (@WatergateDayOf) October 22, 2019
List of people who have said Trump was holding up military aid to Ukraine to force them to smear Biden:
1. Trump.
2. Giuliani.
3. Taylor.
4. Hill.
5. Mulvaney.
6. Yovanovitch.
The GOP: "The lying 'whistleblower' must be revealed!"— Dan Murphy (@bungdan) October 22, 2019
I mean if you are looking to best the Nixon administration indictment record.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) October 23, 2019
Trump met with members of his legal team—Jay Sekulow and Marty and Jane Raskin—at the White House today for a brief meeting on the state of play of the impeachment inquiry. Rudy Giuliani wasn’t there.https://t.co/haOJsSSzOE
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) October 22, 2019
Who you gonna believe, a 101st Airborne veteran and diplomat under two Presidents or a scared hotel owner working for a philandering draft dodger who went bankrupt 6 times, stiffed hundreds of contractors & is hiding his tax returns.
I know who REAL Americans believe!
— John Rogers (@jonrog1) October 23, 2019
When you see the usual pro-Trump conservative writers out there trying to undermine Taylor's testimony, always bear in mind one thing:
They know better. They know the law. They understand the basics of diplomacy. Their arguments are being made in bad faith.
They. Know.— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) October 22, 2019
ah yes the cunning globalist revenge plan to get trump’s soup brained lawyer in bed with ukranian mobsters and then make trump say things to the ukranians which everyone involved would admit he said and then sell t-shirts off it https://t.co/h4PGkONP6m
— kilgore trout captured isis (@KT_So_It_Goes) October 23, 2019
tomorrow https://t.co/lXyNzlcqUt
— George Conway (@gtconway3d) October 22, 2019
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
Spanky
Blech blech.
p.a.
Have I missed, or have they not yet reached the abusers’ excuse: “You liberals MADE us subvert America’s democracy?”
Zinsky
Great Twitter snippets, Annie! Watergate looks like a kid who stole from a cookie jar compared to the foreign intrigue and sheer venality, brutishness and raw criminality of Trump’s myriad of scandals.
On a lighter note, here is a timely joke for everyone:
Q. What do Donald Trump and a Halloween pumpkin have in common?
A. Both are orange on the outside, yellow on the inside and both need to be thrown out in November!
?BillinGlendaleCA
A happy picture for the morning. OK, it’s from a cemetery.
NotMax
More popularly referred to as CREEP.
Bruce K
I suspect it may say something ugly about me, but I’m starting to hope I live long enough to make a pilgrimage to visit the prison cell where Donald Trump died.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Although not usually applied in the context of construction I’d label that building an example of ectomorphic architecture.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: blech^4
Just based on some juice threads, 2016 was a warm-up for the bot disinformation campaign for the next election. I just want to check out until I can vote next year.
But the new site is great, IMHO, and we all owe WaterGirl a huge debt for the hard work and hundreds of hours she’s put into it.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Derelict
The Deep State is bringing in reinforcements! Indeed, the Deep State is so deep that it made Donald Trump himself admit he committed the crimes on live national TV. THAT is how effective the Deep State is!
Back in March, I was in South Carolina for a couple of weeks. I had one gentleman explain to me how Hillary Clinton most definitely belonged behind bars for her handling of the classified emails. So I asked: If what you say is true, then why hasn’t Donald Trump had her arrested? After all, for at least a year, Trump and the Republicans controlled the White House, both houses of Congress, and the Supreme Court. So why isn’t Hillary behind bars?
She’s not in customdy because she has dirt on everyone. You see, George Soros funded the global dirt-gathering operation that got the goods on everyone–including Donald Trump–so that Hillary can easily blackmail anyone she chooses.
These people are nuts.
rikyrah
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Sort of haunting. buT, appropriate for the season?
OzarkHillbilly
Susan Rice: Lindsey Graham is ‘a piece of shit’
Quinerly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: stunning! I bet I spend 20% of my NM travels every February in the old cemeteries. I have quite a collection of OK pictures on my smarty pants phone. Also fascinating and interesting out there are the roadside alters on the backroads. One year, they were an obsession for me. NM History Museum even had an exhibit of photos by photographers not nearly as good as you, Bill! And, no, I’m not obsessed with death and religion. I just love old churches and cemeteries and the photographs. Thanks for this one this AM.
OzarkHillbilly
@Derelict:
NO, they are Nucking Futs.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: It’s modeled on the Old North Church.
NotMax
Complete trifle and absolutely silly story the like of which only the British can get away with, if you’re in the mood for that sort of thing sometime. Found on Prime, Love In Pawn. Unapologetic B-fare in which one can sense everyone in it was having a ball, also infusions of snappy dialogue and gotta admit the chemistry between the two leads is as bubbly and piquant as well-chilled champagne.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@rikyrah:
@Quinerly: Thanks, I shot it last week(Patrons get a few days exclusive viewing), pretty much perfect clouds for IR.
TS (the original)
Maybe for the first time, I am becoming confident that trump will not be the president* at this time next year. There have to be some out there (Perry?) who are going to save themselves from the disaster that is happening – and there is surely one (Giuliani) who will not go down alone. My fervent hope is that Lindsay Graham & Moscow Mitch go down with trump. Icing on the cake.
Quinerly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: just gorgeous. I need to spend some time on your website. You ever shot anything in NM with those perfect skies and churches?
Quinerly
@Bruce K: I’ll meet you there.
Quinerly
@rikyrah: Good morning from Poco and his traveling companion from NC! We have been here a couple of weeks. In kitty news, John Lennon, fearless rescue kitty, has gone to live permanently with one of my besties. She just bought a house that works great for a second kitty. JL now has a girlfriend named Tinker Bell and they play, play, and play. He was lonesome as an only kitty after little Ivan’s death, especially when Poco and I are on the road. I’m thrilled I could do this for all of us. My friend lost her second cat, Tinks was lonely, my friend is 71, and didn’t want to start over with a kitten for companionship for Tinks. Perfect fit. Plus, I get to be an “aunt” now and visit! Win Win. Have a great day!
germy
Got a letter in the mail yesterday from Rep. Ilhan Omar. Not an email, a letter. When I opened it I thought it would be another one of those “Here’s a free bumpersticker and a pledge form… please give” letters politicians always send.
Instead, it was a letter giving thanks for support. Clearly stated she wasn’t asking for any $, just wanted to express her thanks.
It made us proud to receive it.
Raven
Down at the dock on a bit of a blustery mornin. I screwed up my foot overdoing it in the surf and I’m going to try to suck it up for and 8hr.
JPL
@Bruce K: Balloon Juice meet-up.
JPL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’m so happy that you are still sharing your pictures with us.
germy
(Onion headline)
JPL
I have another day of grandma duty, and I was reminded how exhausting taking care of a sick baby was. He’s taking tamiflu and yesterday afternoon I saw some smiles. I take that as a good sign.
mrmoshpotato
@Derelict: Dump opening his orange maw and yelling the quiet part (really the part he should STFU about for his own good) is a global dirt-gathering operation?
I wish to subscribe to that dude’s newsletter. :)
Chyron HR
@germy:
“Your generous contribution will help us keep Bernie Sanders in the primary race all the way to the rigged convention and beyond…”
Quinerly
@JPL: ?
Matt McIrvin
The CNN headline that just popped up on my computer: “Democrats think they found a smoking gun.”
As long as that’s the framing, Trump has nothing to fear.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: I got one of those from her too.
germy
@Chyron HR: I wonder what the future holds for Sanders.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Quinerly: Haven’t been out there since I was 4. Here’s my Patreon that’s got the latest stuff and of course there’s my store that you can get to by clicking on my nym.
ETA: I put up a public post on my Patreon of test shots that I’m taking the next few days. I’m headed(with Madame) up to Red Rock Friday evening.
mrmoshpotato
@Chyron HR: “The more you give, the more he’ll pout at the 2020 DNC!”
debbie
Have they figured out whose cellphone was shadowed on Taylor’s opening statement transcript?
debbie
@satby:
Seconded!
debbie
@JPL:
Great news!
mrmoshpotato
@Matt McIrvin: If it looks like a recently fired gun, smells like a recently fired gun, and smokes like a recently fired gun…
If CNN looks like they need a hard slap across the face, and CNN gets a hard slap across the face, then they deserved it.
satby
@JPL: so glad the little guy is better!
germy
https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/katie-couric-sheryl-sandberg-vanity-fair-summit-1203379961/
?BillinGlendaleCA
@germy: Bit of trivia, the Annenberg Center is the old Beverly Hills Post Office. It’s a really pretty building.
Derelict
@mrmoshpotato: The conspiracy theories this guy and his friends believe are astonishingly complicated. The only reason Hillary is not president is because Soros knows he can blow up democracy by having Donald Trump as president. And Trump is doing all these stupid things because Hillary is directing him to do so. She has that power because she has the dirt on him and everyone else.
Now, you might ask why someone with that kind of power wouldn’t just sweep away all the opposition. But, then, you don’t live in conspiracy world so you can’t possibly understand how this enormous edifice with ten million moving parts operates. Also, too, it’s an extremely well-kept secret that only everyone knows, but won’t talk about.
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Morning to Poco and the tribe ? ??
Jeffro
Hey how ‘bout those Nats, huh? =)
(And that is the last time I will be staying up ‘til midnight this Series…whew…)
rikyrah
Someone here brought up this point yesterday, explaining that this is why the GOP hasn’t been leaking the testimony in these closed sessions.
This is when being slick can come back and bite you in the azz????
,……………..
Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) Tweeted:
Poetic justice: By declining to investigate as a crime what Taylor is now reporting, Barr thought he was protecting his boss. In fact, he gave up the chance to say Congress can’t look into this stuff because DOJ is doing so! If he had half a brain, Trump would be pissed! https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1186768385696243718?s=17
rikyrah
???
Elie Honig (@eliehonig) Tweeted:
When a trial witness gives testimony like Bill Taylor gave today, that’s usually when the defense lawyer sidles over at a break and asks if there’s any plea offer still on the table. https://twitter.com/eliehonig/status/1186761149020327943?s=17
Imm
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Really great pic. I was going to mention the Old North Church and a couple other Boston area churches that looks like. Very nice indeed.
rikyrah
???
White savior candidates can’t beat Trump ? (@Needle_of_Arya) Tweeted:
@Ms_MMMJ “Gain a little humility” is whitewomanese/Standard Caucasian for:
~she (Kamala) needs to ‘stay in her lane’
~Kamala is too “arrogant/uppity for my taste”
~AAs need to remember who really runs this Democratic Party (non-Latino whites), despite them presently being a plurality https://twitter.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1186831100078804994?s=17
OzarkHillbilly
Of course I have no memory of what happened on that particular day, but I did try to figure out what was going on in my life at that time. I remember that the Xmas immediately preceding was an absolute nightmare. I was the father of a 5 month old son and had tried to make everybody happy by holding up all the Xmas traditions of both my wife’s family and my own. No time to just sit back and enjoy anybody’s company. As soon as we arrived anywhere we had to start preparing for the next leg of the marathon. It was a journey of absolute misery, one that almost ended in our deaths when I had to thread the needle of a car spinning out and a guardrail in a blinding snow storm at 40 mph without ever touching my brakes.
Afterwards I pissed everybody off by announcing we were never gonna do it again. Xmas eve with one family and Xmas day with the other. I don’t care which, you pick. Of course I really did care and of course they picked the days I didn’t want, the opening of the presents rituals with each family (her family did it Xmas eve, mine Xmas morn) while I preferred the big Xmas feast ritual (which if you had ever eaten my mother’s roast beast, you’d understand completely) and the inevitable arguments with siblings and parents over the most mundane and inconsequential things imaginable.
Kay
Good lord, this story:
The Republican Party is a money-laundering operation for mobsters- and two things had to happen for any of us to find out about it- the Democrats had to win the House and a single whistleblower had to decide to come forward.
In a way it’s kind of nice- it wasn’t a prosecutor who got Trump and the rest of the criminal conspiracy- it was millions and millions of voters in districts all over the country.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Funny how Ingraham “hates” globalists, yet invests her money in multinational corporations
Betty Cracker
Hot fresh polling numbers from CNN:
The usual caveat: polls are meaningless this far out, especially individual polls. I wonder how much this has to do with Trump’s attempt to subvert US foreign policy to smear Biden? Further commentary from CNN:
There’s a lot that could happen to shake up the race, but if I were a Biden supporter (which I most emphatically AM NOT), I’d find this poll comforting because, for the first time, Biden seems to be adding support rather than coasting on name rec…
Chyron HR
@rikyrah:
I thought Harris was polling in the single digits with African-Americans?
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: I’ve said it before, and so have others — 34% support is a terrible number for Biden. And this was no huge movement in Biden’s numbers despite the cross tab hype. When he gets over 40% across the board, wake me up.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
It is good for him. I’m not a supporter but if he’s going to be the nominee I want him to be popular because I want to win.
Amir Khalid
@OzarkHillbilly:
And thus was Festivus born. By the way, what beast did your mother roast, or was it a different beast every year?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Imm: Thanks.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: That sounds like an absolute nightmare of a Christmas! We used to do a similar grueling marathon when we were first married, but once we had the kiddo, we used her as leverage to make everyone come to our house. :)
Gin & Tonic
@germy:
Is that what the unwashed like you or I would call a “bottle”?
Lumpy
RedState published a nude photo of freshman Democratic representative Katie Hill, details here:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/freshman-dem-katie-hill-denies-improper-relationship-with-aide/ar-AAJb19N?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=mailsignout
RedState is where Cole started blogging (Balloon Juice lore).
JWR
Stephanie Grisham put out a statement last night. I couldn’t find a transcript, so created one myself. (NPR was thoughtful enough to read it out loud.)
And that’s that. Standard boilerplate, far as I can tell.
Immanentize
@Kay: I am right there with you, but shouldn’t the presumptive front runner who has all the institutional backing and background one could ask for be getting more than a third of the pie? I am happy to have Joe be our candidate (not thrilled, just happy) but despite the hype here, he really is stuck and barely adding any voters.
From 538 regarding who do people NOT want as the candidate:
There is some serious weakness there. It worries me.
SFAW
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Hey, it worked for Ansel Adams, right? I’d say the was decent company to be in.
Kay
@JWR:
Is she still on the payroll? I didn’t know she was still showing up for work occasionally.
Betty Cracker
The Post called out Lindsey Graham by name in an editorial. Headline: Here’s the quid pro quo proof, Lindsey Graham. Hahaha!
SFAW
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Well, when it’s understood that “globalist” means something a little different to RWMFs, it’s less funny. To be (only slightly) more clear, it’s not unlike when Mary Marsh (West Wing character, prob. a Matalin stand-in) talks about “New York Humor.”
Butter emails!!!
@Chyron HR:
I have to admit the Needle_of_Arya account confuses me. The account is obviously very pro Kamala Harris, but most of the posts Rikyrah links to leave me thinking “you know, maybe I should vote for Joe Biden, or perhaps Bernie Sanders.”
Kay
We have a fun thing today. Well, “fun” if you’re incredibly boring, which I am.
The Ohio Supreme Court are hearing 3 actual cases in front of our high schoolers. The students read the briefs and local lawyers went out to the schools and the students asked questions to prepare to watch the hearing. Today they’ll hear oral arguments in one. They hear one of the three cases depending on which high school they attend. They brought the cases to them, so the justices and counsel travel up here. The hearings will be held in the veterans building- our courtrooms are too small to hold that many kids. The justices will decide the case, vote, and announce their decision (although not write the opinion, obviously). The kids are quite excited. The ones I talked to did a good job reading. Their case is thorny- complicated- has a jurisdiction issue- and they understood the question at issue.
JWR
@Kay: Apparently so, though I don’t know why. But she was cited as such in the NPR story from today.
BTW, the NPR link I provided goes to a decent interview with Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA), on the hearing yesterday. The Grisham statement comes during the last 35-40 seconds. It’s that brief.
bemused
@Derelict:
How did he answer your question?
SFAW
@Kay:
You are many things, Kay, but “boring” is not one of them.
I wish there were a ton more like you, in every state.
Joey Maloney
@TS (the original): My heart is certainly with you in hoping that Moscow Mitch and Graham and indeed the entire GOP establishment get dragged under with Trump – but I would trade it all in a heartbeat for Pence so we could have a few months – even a few minutes – of President Pelosi
Kay
@JWR:
Not to be dramatic but I think it’s the biggest presidential scandal in US history. This doesn’t just affect the US. They were fucking around with millions of people’s lives in Ukraine for personal and financial gain. And if you think they just did it in Ukraine I have a bridge to sell you. What do you think Jared’s shadow foreign policy is like? Good God.
Here’s the thing. The institutions did not hold. Nearly ever check failed. I’m glad Taylor testified but without the whistleblower and a D House they would have gotten away with it. The NYTimes was already setting Biden up when the whistleblower crashed the party. We were hanging on a fucking thread.
OzarkHillbilly
@Amir Khalid: Beef, iirc a prime rib roast. I will never see it’s like again. Always cooked to pink perfection with the most delectable seasoning. Before Ma died I got many of her “secret” recipes but that one slipped thru the cracks. I come from a large family, arguing is what large families do for entertainment and lo to the interloper (otherwise known as an in-law) who takes a side. I really missed that part about Xmas, sitting around the big 16 seat table that barely fit in the room, with satellite table for all the grandchildren, eating and eating and eating and then eating some more, the yelling across and down the table over 5 different conversations to ask for the potatoes or the Brussels sprouts, the grandkids squealing because Sissy thru a green bean at Andrew and missed and hit Julie instead…
Just a complete and utter mayhem of happiness. It wasn’t often we could all get together like that.
Kay
@SFAW:
We’re trying to make their school better by bringing in people from outside, or taking them out in the world. I didn’t like school and I actually remember that- how I was thrilled if someone from outside came in. Just the break in the routine.
It’s a LOT of work though, and the local court staff and school staff did most of it, in addition to their regular duties. Just the logistics of moving that many kids around are complicated.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Derelict: Funny how they never think maybe don’t support dirty people with things to hide. I mean, what is this supposed dirt that Hillz has on everyone? Wouldn’t they want to know in order to decide whether they should continue to support and vote for that person? Kinda wonder what the response to that would be.
Ramiah Ariya
I would like to point out something – this whole scandal shows what is a conspiracy theory and what is not – When Donald Trump tried to use Ukraine to sabotage his rival’s chances, within a couple of months everything came tumbling out.
On the other hand the secret DNC “server” hidden in Ukraine theory has NOBODY revealing anything about it even though hundreds must have been involved.
You would think this will help Trump fans realize why normals out there call one a conspiracy theory and the other a true criminal conspiracy.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
That Laura Ingram quote is emblematic of how Fox News covers Trump – they keep saying he’s doing or trying to do great things, they just never say what those great things are. In reality he’s getting lots of nothing done policy wise. E.g. his ethanol sop to the corn farmers appears to have fallen way short of what was promised (see how his contractors feel now guys?) so they’re newly pissed at the guy.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
Damn, that is cool. Wish I’d had an opportunity like that when I was in school. Mine was happy with just keeping the open air drug market violence free.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: My husband and I were talking about that last night — what a very narrow thing it is/was. I’m in favor of pulling down every Confederate statue and replacing it with a statue of the Unknown Whistleblower. ?
JMG
@Betty Cracker: It’s my opinion that if Biden is rising in the polls (this is just one), there’s a simple explanation. His name is in every lead story of every news outlet as a target of Trump’s corruption. 1. Name repetition means a lot when people have yet to really pay attention. 2. Logical if IMO mistaken assumption among many Democrats that “well, if Trump’s that scared of Joe, I guess he IS our best candidate.”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Ramiah Ariya: That makes sense. Also, conspiracy theories tend to get more and more elaborate as they try to fill in the holes.
I’m struggling to keep the various Ukraine theories straight. There’s the “Biden and son did something bad in Ukraine” (I’m unclear on the details) and the “DNC server is physically in Ukraine, but it would prove that Ukraine, HRC and the D’s framed Russia for 2016 election interference.” Are those two related in any way? Or are they separate strands of spaghetti the loons have thrown against the wall in the hopes one will stick?
JWR
@Kay: Oh Hell Yeah (and you’re damn right about the elections, too!) The relief I felt after election night 2018 was similar to the way I felt watching Obama taking the Oath of Office in 2009.
But you, Kay, are a shining light within these threads. Your clarity of writing and devastating critiques make me feel far more enlightened than I would from any old TV news character. Thank you. ;-)
Matt McIrvin
@OzarkHillbilly: 1986 was a pivotal, formative year for me–I finished high school and entered college, and due to an unlikely series of events spurred by a high-school science fair, I both started the summer job that ultimately led to my current career, and traveled internationally for the first time. But that was all done by December.
On December 28th, I’d have been at home with my parents for Christmas break after my very first semester of college. I don’t remember much about what I was doing at the time aside from sleeping and eating a lot.
“What happened in 1986?” is kind of a weird question, though, even from a news point of view. The Challenger and Chernobyl disasters, glasnost brewing in the USSR, and in December people were still reeling from the initial revelations in the Iran-contra scandal. I remember all that well.
rikyrah
@Kay:
No lie told.
when folks say that November 2018 didn’t matter….
phuck them for their stupidity.
TS (the original)
@Kay:
agreed – which is why I decided yesterday that trump will not last to the election. Nixon’s re-election campaign had a slush fund, part of which was used to finance a break-in of the DNC. Sounds rather like breaking into emails of various groups/people that happened in 2016.
But to the best of my knowledge Nixon was not involving foreign leaders in investigations of political enemies. I can’t think of any country’s leader who has been accused of doing this. Sure there are spies and users and nations using facebook to spread propaganda – but has any other leader tried to blackmail the leaders of other countries into investigating their political enemies? I am wondering what trump has been requesting of the leaders of SK, Japan and anyone else (incl Australia) whose leader has visited the White House..
Mr TS thinks I am reading conspiracy theories, I think at last we are reading the truth after the US elected a democratic party house and a whistleblower spoke.
Thanks Kay – and just to add – I think it is dramatic as well as a massive scandal.
rikyrah
@Lumpy:
I got nothing.
Gin & Tonic
@Dorothy A. Winsor: They are separate strands of spaghetti. The Biden one at least has the foundation that Hunter Biden was on the board of a Ukrainian company called Burisma; the DNC server one is completely batshit, Comet Pizza-level stuff
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: NYTimes finances need investigating. Their role in giving us Orange T is enormous.
opiejeanne
@Kay: I remember a HS field trip into Los Angeles to watch part of a trial. It was interesting but we didn’t get an explanation of what it was about, other than what we heard being argued. Something to do with a firetruck hitting a car.
Then we traipsed over to the county building and watched the County Board of Supervisors conducting business. Kenny Hahn* sat with his feet up on his desk and made paper airplanes out of his notes, and sailed them into the audience for our amusement.
*BillinGlendale may be the only person here who remembers him.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
If there were 100 meals cooked in my house growing up, my father cooked 95 of them. I learned how to cook from him. The only recipe I never got was his for pancakes. To this day, I haven’t had pancakes as good as his :(
I had a dear Aunt, and I never got her recipe for peach cobbler. Then again, she wasn’t a recipe kind of cook. She was, ‘ oh a pinch of this, and you know, this much of that’ (never quantifying what this much was) It had the perfect ratio of crust to juice everytime. …sigh..my mouth waters just thinking of it.
rikyrah
@SFAW:
ICAM.
Kay is good people.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
No wonder the dialogue’s snappy! Two of the writers were Frank Muir and Denis Norden, the creative team responsible for two of the funniest and most erudite quiz shows ever to grace the BBC (later imported to NPR) for decades, My Word! and My Music. Have to say I’ve never heard of, let alone seen, Love in Pawn, but sounds like fun; shall have to track it down.
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The basic idea “Putin is being framed for everything he does by the Ukrainians, who are the real villains” goes back to the days when Bob in Portland was hijacking every thread here. The DNC server nonsense is just an elaboration of that: no, Russian hackers didn’t put Trump in office, in fact it was the Ukrainians pulling strings for Hillary! The connection to Hunter Biden is just that Ukraine is involved, so it’s another thing to throw on the pile (with an actual personal connection). But it’s the same pattern–no, Trump doesn’t have Russian mob connections, it’s Biden who has Ukrainian mob connections!
SFAW
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
As G&T commented, they’re separate strands.
The Hunter Biden thing is the 2020 equivalent of “but her e-mails”: the Liar-in-Chief having a bludgeon to use against his (presumed) opponent. “Lock him up” would become a thing.
The DNC server thing is so that Russia/Putin can get back into G7/G8, by re-directing attention from Russia’s culpability for the 2016 fuckery. The Russian-Asset-in-Chief is doing his master’s bidding.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I just watched smarmy aging hipster Joel Stein on Morning Joe pitching his “funny book’– if he did say so himself– about elitism. it’s all about how heartlanders feel aggrieved, and how if you had told him twenty years ago that we would have populist explosion in this country, he would have thought it was because we had a war or an economic collapse, and we had none of those things, we were doing fine! It was the most amazing segment. I hope somebody bats it around the twitter or the tubes. Oh, and impeachment is an elitist trap. It’s the latest Cletus Safari, apparently, at once celebrating these virtuous folk who go to church and sit on their front porches in the evening, and so dripping with godawful condescension.
Meanwhile, as Mika and Mike Barnicle and Stein commiserate with the forgotten white rural (southern, midwestern) Republican, I see some Tennessee city councilman, member of an all white city council, ranting about how whites got it so bad we got a queer running for president! O! Heartland!
took more indeed
zzyzx
@Immanentize: it’s a 10 person race. Trump was polling in the 30% range too.
Moreover, with our weird non-winner take all plan where getting below 15% screws you [1], Biden could easily gather an insurmountable delegate lead in the first month if he consistently gets 20-25% in every state while Warren and Sanders eat into each other’s results and they regularly get 13% each in states. If there’s a few early states where Biden gets 35-40% and no one else gets about 14, there’s no easy way of coming back from that. That’s what we learned in 2008 and had confirmed in 2016. Barring a complete collapse, there’s no way of coming back if you’re down 200 delegates.
[1] You get no statewide delegates at all if you’re below 15% as long as one candidate gets above that. You can still get a few delegates here and there if you get above 15% in a district, but you’re at a serious disadvantage.
Kay
@opiejeanne:
You need that. They need prep for what they’re going to hear. We didn’t have time to give them a lot and they had to do the reading first, but they’ll at least understand the basic questions. My son is one of them. I didn’t go to his class but I heard he asked and answered questions. He got the criminal case, which is the most interesting. The class is the state required civics course for high school juniors so it’s all of them, which is nice. It isn’t just “honors” or AP and it includes the kids who go to the vocational school.
bemused
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Hurst chewing on a toothpick during his rant just completed the “good old boy” image.
That TN county makes my list of places I’d never want to live in.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It’s just interesting that the conservative cure for populist unrest is huge tax cuts for rich people, incredible elite corruption, and grifting off the masses.
Do you think this will work? Will The Heartlanders be better off? I have my doubts.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@bemused: @Kay: Stein was fascinated by the fact that his Cletii go to church. I’d bet the mortgage that Cletus Hurst there never misses a Sunday. Fifty more says he belongs to a men’s bible study group or something like it.
Betty Cracker
@zzyzx:
I haven’t paid much attention to it, but didn’t the DNC completely revamp the rules to placate the Bernie-whiners?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Going by Ingham the Right’s gone full Flat Earther, I am sure the next nominee president form the GOP will be Alex Jones.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s exciting. Last year we brought in a local manufacturer. The fastener they make was invented here but then the company was sold to a German outfit, but they’re good employers. It’s a good company. That was the grade schoolers- 7th graders. The company really got into it. They sent in engineers and line people and marketing and accounting for a whole week. They did a “project”. Different people on each day. They did an outstanding job. The kids were excited and proud because many of their parents work there. It only works if the people coming in take it seriously and treat them like they deserve serious work. Yiu can’t just wing it or patronize them. They know.
Zzyzx
@Betty Cracker: they massively reduced superdelegates and said they got no vote in the first ballot but that’s it.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Which is why we need the transcripts of the calls on the Secret Server. It’s SO not just Ukraine. It’s all of them. I want the calls to China and Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Redshift
@JWR:
Yeah, that was damn annoying. I decided to check on how NPR was covering the day’s events at the top of the hour last night, and they led with “the White House pushed back” and that hysterical statement, and then one or two sentences that barely scratched the surface of Taylor’s testimony.
Grr…
rikyrah
@Kay:
I know that I go back and forth with you about the institutions holding. They only failed because Dolt45 is a White Man. If this had been Hillary or 44, you would be saying, ‘ thank goodness the institutions held.’.
Once again, I go back to the Founding Fathers. They actually saw Dolt45 coming. What they never anticipated was an entire political party betraying its oath of office, the Constitution and this country. THAT, they didn’t anticipate. And, I still believe it’s the problem that a lot of Democratic Party office holders have yet to grapple with and accept the consequences of that realization.
Repatriated
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Wouldn’t surprise me if your hypothesized church group was how the writer made contact with the person. “Hi, I’m writing a book. Would any of your parishioners want to be interviewed for it?”
Zzyzx
@Betty Cracker: also WA moved from a weird system where there was both a caucus and a meaningless primary to just having a binding primary. The WA caucus was one of Sanders’ best results. Going from a system that encouraged Seattle activists to a 100% vote by mail one might net Biden another 10-15 delegates.
Redshift
@Zzyzx: And they changed the rules to discourage states from using caucuses, directly contrary to the Sanders insistence that they were “more democratic” (because Sanders did better in them, QED.)
Uncle Cosmo
@Amir Khalid: OF COURSE it was “a different beast each year” – they’d already eaten the one from the year before!
Sheesh – duz I hafta splane EVERYTHING to yinz???
Jamie
@Kay: Nailed it.
Makes me wonder what other horrifying bullshit is going on that we haven’t found out about yet.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: My father, 1 of 10 children, grew up dirt poor in the Depression. They didn’t have much, but they had food and every one of them learned how to make a feast out of a bone, a few measly vegetables and some flour. My mother, the youngest and only daughter of Southern Gentry had learned nothing of cooking growing up. When she married my father she didn’t know how to boil water. Literally could not make a hard boiled egg. This was not acceptable in the old man’s family and his sisters, SILs, and mother took it as a mission to teach her everything they could because dog knows their skinny little Georgie was going to eat and eat well. And my mother undertook her studies with all due seriousness.
And succeeded.
Kay
Perplexing. I was told by several multimillionaire cable tv hosts that voters were deeply concerned with the “pay for”
Zzyzx
@Redshift: that really will be a huge secret shift to the moderate wing. Caucuses measure intensity of support which Sanders and Warren have. Primaries get the votes of people who don’t want to argue for hours but kind of like that one guy.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@germy: Yes, just to think, it was us German-Americans who 100 years ago were the other getting lynched in the streets and there is doll hands mouthing off about immigrants.
Ladyraxterinok
@bemused:
Interesting that it’s the county where Dolly Parton’s Dollywood is located. They came out with a statement saying his views aren’t theirs or those of the people of the area.
Ladyraxterinok
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
A men’s prayer breakfast group too.
And they put on a pancake breakfast during various local festivals.
Bible on his desk??
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: That is all so very cool, Kay. Getting those opportunities to see how the world works enlightens these kids to possibilities they might not otherwise know exist. I am seriously jealous.
bemused
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
White supremacist evangelists.
I told my husband the Jimmy Carter fell and got injured again and commented that I couldn’t imagine any Republican president or legislator at any age who would work to build houses for people who wouldn’t be able to afford one and my husband said, “No, that would be helping people”.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Derelict: On the other hand, it means Trump’s loony base is fishing for excuses to bail on him if they claiming he is a sekret’ Democrat plant.
Betty Cracker
@Zzyzx: So if I’m understanding you correctly, the current system is actually less hospitable to so-called “insurgent” candidacies, meaning the Berniacs got nothing but a pat on the head about “superdelegates.” Tom Perez, you sly devil! :)
If we end up with Biden because of this, it will put us in a terrible position, IMO. Oh well. I’ll damn well vote for him or whoever wins.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
My maternal grandmother’s idea of haute cuisine (vis-a-vis her own cooking) was to bake a haddock (or maybe halibut?) filet in a bath of Campbell’s Cream of Tomato soup for about an hour or so. My paternal grandmother, on the other hand, was from the Old Country, and thus was a pretty good cook. I’m pretty sure that any cooking skills my mother had were learned after she and my father married.
bemused
@Ladyraxterinok:
Good to know there are pockets of places in rabid states that are rational. Still wouldn’t want to live there especially in small town/rural south. We’ve enjoyed visited many southern states and have family in NC but the cities and large towns are more diverse.
opiejeanne
@Kay: I think the point was just to visit the Board of Supervisors but we were a little too early, so we wandered over to the courthouse. I don’t really remember very well, but the trial was not something that was planned in advance, our teacher just picked a door where court was in session so we could see a bit of a trial.
We also got to see inside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, which was fairly new then.
Ladyraxterinok
@OzarkHillbilly:
My mom’s mom died when mom was born. Her mother was the oldest child and a most loved daughter. My grandmother raised my mom and just did everything for her. As a result, mom never learned to cook when she was growing up, although the family was poor living near St
Louis.
My dad taught her a bit, but it was really her mother-in-law—who was an absolutely fabulous cook—who taught her to cook
Zzyzx
@Betty Cracker: correct. The reason I could never get behind Sanders was that he didn’t seem to have any critical strategic thinking and I think that’s an important part of the job.
I’m the token Balloon Juice moderate (or to be more precise, a progressive who doesn’t believe that policies I like can really win nationwide based on centuries of history so I focus on using local elections to move the conversation and just want to minimize damage on the federal) and even I think that eliminating caucuses was a mistake.
I like the idea of a complex system with changing rules that tests different strengths because that’s a good test for both the general and the actual job. If you can build a good team that will advise you well about how to understand the delegate allocation, you’re more likely to be able to build a good team for the White House.
Frankensteinbeck
@rikyrah:
Bingo. And at that, it comes down to the voting Republicans, not the elected officials who are carrying out their wishes. You cannot build a system that will hold when half a country’s population goes apeshit crazy because they see their white supremacy slipping away.
We are not quite at that point, for a few reasons. We outnumber them already. Demographically, that is only moving towards our side. Unlike many previous examples of this phenomenon, the white supremacists are too lazy and cowardly to use force to cull the population of their opponents. No, the terrorism we’re facing does not count. It’s a speck compared to stuff like how whites took back the post-civil war South. The white supremacists have limited themselves to cheating the system from within.
We’re still close enough to that situation that it’s pretty damned ugly, especially as the white supremacists rig as much of the electoral system as possible to draw out their power and inflict as much pain as possible before they lose it.
opiejeanne
@Zzyzx: Oh God, no! I have to disagree with you. Did you attend one? And did you become a delegate? The very first level was fun, it was great, but everything after that was nightmarish. Getting rid of the caucus in WA was a very good thing.
glory b
@Derelict: “…astonishingly complicated. ”
You spelled “clear signs of serious mental illness” wrong.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: @Ladyraxterinok: It’s kinda funny that the cooking bug bit all of us kids, except for my older brother Dave. The rest of us have taken the preperation of food as very serious business, Dave just takes the eating of it as very serious business. ;-).
Erin in Flagstaff
@NotMax: It looks like fun!
Zzyzx
@opiejeanne: I was a second level for Obama in 2008. Hours of debating every plank in the district platform, a document whose sole purpose is to provide a cure for insomnia.
It’s great for the voters to move to a primary, no doubt. I just think the party is better off for a complex process.
Betty Cracker
@Zzyzx: Great points about strategy and testing different strengths! I don’t like the fact that our presidential campaigns have stretched out into a years-long slog, but this is a diverse and complex country, and choosing the right people and formulating winning strategies in different places does leave a record to evaluate. Of course, a moron like Trump managed a “win,” but that was a black swan event, IMO.
bemused
@rikyrah:
@Frankensteinbeck:
Agree.
Kay
It’s not just Trump though! The entire Republican Party is on board for this!
We live in amazing times. Watergate looks quaint and folksy compared to this.
Avalune
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m team Dave. I try to be in love with the food prep – using mindfulness techniques and trying to channel my grandparents and community and all that happy stuff. I want to be in love with that part of the cooking but I have finally accepted I am simply not. I just want to eat the delicious food!
O. Felix Culpa
Huh. Trump was SO concerned about corruption in Ukraine that he sought massive funding cuts in anti-corruption programs: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/10/23/trump-administration-sought-billions-dollars-cuts-programs-aimed-fighting-corruption-ukraine-abroad/?wpisrc=al_politics__alert-politics–alert-economy&wpmk=1
opiejeanne
@Zzyzx: That caucus was very different from the 2016 one. The bros, many of whom were not even delegates, shouted down any speaker who did not sing the praises of their favorite.
Many people I talked to couldn’t be bothered to show up at their local caucus, and I’m talking about people who didn’t have to work. People who did have to work were upset that they couldn’t take part.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Kay: Ours wasn’t nearly as exciting, but the 1st District Court of Appeals held a session at a local high school. Coincidentally, on one of ths case, one counsel was a grad of the school. I argued the other side because my colleague whose case it was thought I had “a better grasp of the issues” which was code for I don’t want to drag my ass out to a suburban high school and defense counsel is your pal so you can carpool. I found it great fun. Ours was the last case so we answered their questions along with the judges.
opiejeanne
@O. Felix Culpa: HUD used the supposed corruption in Puerto Rico to hold back most of the aid that had been approved to go to the island. They see corruption everywhere except where it is the worst, in the White House.
trollhattan
I ❤ “kilgore trout captured isis.”
Neighborhood has been invaded by jackhammers and it’s too damn early for that nonsense. Will go to work for the peace and quiet.
Kay
@opiejeanne:
That’s good though. I just wanted a trip. GO somewhere. Sometimes they bring the preschoolers into the courthouse. They do “walking field trips”, so it has to be somewhere close to the school. They look so cute in their giant parkas – you can stand on the ground floor and look up thru the opening for the stair sets to the rotunda at the top and they all do it. They look like they will tip over and bounce, due to their puffy coats.
PPCLI
@Kay:
Indeed. Right from the moment the inauguration, it was reported that Jared was spending crazy amounts of time digging through classified information. Then his buddy MBS makes massive arrests, followed by torture and death of a hotel full of former high officials, wealthy Saudis, etc. Disgusting.
OzarkHillbilly
@Avalune: Heh… I like recipes that keep to the basic ingredients plus a spice/herb or 3. The more complicated things get the more opportunity there is for me to screw it up. I am a firm believer in the KISS principle. Soups are great that way.
Any complicated recipe I may have, I need to be able to break it down into 2 or3 steps max. If it has 7 different spices, I need to be able to add them all at once or at most break it into 2 spice drops. Adding them at 7 different intervals is never gonna work, I’ll either forget one or mis-time several.
I know my limitations.
germy
ProPublica and WNYT, doing valuable work.
delk
Oh jeez. DUI Matt is leading a group of freedumb caucus idiots to break into a secure space to get impeachment material.
OzarkHillbilly
@delk:
Gaetz?
O. Felix Culpa
@opiejeanne:
Willful blindness, perhaps? And/or projection/deflection/hand-waving, etc. The term “whited sepulchers” comes to mind.
delk
@OzarkHillbilly: yep
OzarkHillbilly
@delk: How’d I know?
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s stable genius insight!
delk
@OzarkHillbilly: I could have said multiple DUI Matt.
Kay
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho:
They can tell, I think, if you’re enjoying it. My son got an asst prosecutor and a crim defense for his class. He liked the defense attorney, which doesn’t surprise me. He’s interesting. He wears velvet jackets like an aging rock star and uses kind of arcane language. He’s the one who immediately reported back to me (I had your son…) which I appreciate :)
germy
@delk:
Reminds me of the Brooks Brothers Riot.
Uncle Cosmo
@Kay:
It’s not “the cure,” it’s the cost: The GOP will be glad to pwn all them overedjumacated pointyheaded libruls who been disrespectin’ y’all – but first we need a few favors.
IMHO, deep in their hearts of hearts them folks out in The Sticks know purt’ dang well the Repubs are thieves, but they’re morally certain the “coastal elites” stole from them just as much, & hey, at least the Thugs are givin’ ’em sumpin’ back they value – the satisfaction of seein’ them big-city eee-lights squirm.
Uncle Cosmo
@OzarkHillbilly: Dad used to tell us he had to teach Mom how to cook. He’d been batching it for a few years in Appalachia before they met in the middle of the Thirties & it was learn to cook or go hungry. She had a dozen sibs & when the household jobs were parceled out hers were cleaning & laundry.
In the end she learned a lot more than he could teach, & we still make a few of her signature dishes: top-flight crab cakes, barbecue pork, creamed turkey with frozen veggies (a post-Thanksgiving favorite), Neutronium Lasagna. I miss her pineapple upside-down cakes, but it’s been years since I could give one of those even a sideways glance & not go into hyperglycemic shock…(sigh)
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@delk: Does Gaetz understand there are Republicans on that committee and in the hearing room? Has anyone tried to explain that to him?
zzyzx
@opiejeanne: my group went 100% for Sanders or otherwise I would have moved on. I was the math person so I was able to swing a few Bernie people to supporting Clinton in the general both because I noticed something that no one else did that swung a delegate TO Sanders (which showed integrity for people who were buying into conspiracies) and I sat around for 40 minutes afterward explaining why national moderation given the current Senate was an acceptable thing.
In general though, that shows why the Sanders’ campaign drove me crazy. They used all of this energy to try to flip 6-7 district level delegates, not even understanding that the exchange rate is like 100 of those for one state wide delegate and they were behind by hundreds. They just couldn’t do math or prioritize resources and that’s why I didn’t trust the campaign to win the general.
polyorchnid octopunch
@Betty Cracker: The main reason that your campaigns have stretched into years-long slogs is fixed election dates and modern marketing techniques. When you know the date you want your marketing campaign to climax years ahead of time, you can put a lot of work into it… and it all costs money.
mrmoshpotato
@Derelict: Wow. The stupid – it hurts.
Avalune
@OzarkHillbilly: Dead thread but I am a simple dishes with few ingredients kind of chef too. That’s if I cook. Which is rare. Fortunately, Leto likes playing in the kitchen and likes to do some of the more complicated stuff. I’m more a I feel like making a relish, or a jam, or a watermelon liqueur. I have certain “specialties” I break out sometimes, like a homemade bread or jam thumbprints. I’d probably bake a little more if our current oven wasn’t a box shaped campfire – temperature is way off and fluctuates. :(
J R in WV
@Ladyraxterinok:
Of course a Bible on his desk. But he isn’t allowed (or able) to read it by himself, he needs the guidance of the Pastor or the reader’s guide to be sure he doesn’t make a different conclusion about what Jesus said than the conclusion the senior members of the conference reached 70 years ago.
The dark folk are supposed to be led by the white folk, and the white folk are to be led by their pastors… Jesus said so, and if he didn’t say that, he shoulda!
J R in WV
@Avalune:
That’s pretty funny. I’ve had to deal with that kind of old stove too… You just have to watch it close! Without causing things to fall by slamming the door…