Donald Trump has taken to “working” from his private quarters in the White House rather than the Oval Office because he distrusts the staff around him. https://t.co/TbogjsPREs pic.twitter.com/CyFvdjLSem
— Jim Roberts (@nycjim) November 24, 2019
This maaay sound familiar to those of us old enough to remember Nixon during the Watergate investigation. Per Politico:
… President Donald Trump is increasingly morphing the White House residence into a second Oval. It’s become the place where Trump feels most productive, where he avoids meddling by his staff and where he speed-dials his network of confidantes, GOP lawmakers and TV pundits.
The residence was where Trump made the infamous July 25 phone call to the Ukrainian president that’s now at the center of impeachment proceedings. It’s where Trump often meets his personal attorneys to plot legal strategy or campaign advisers to shape 2020 campaign moves. And last week it became the location for a Trump meeting that’s as official as any, hosting Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell — the target of countless Trump twitter attacks — along with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for a Monday morning discussion of monetary policy.
Maintaining a sanctuary to work and think has taken on greater importance for the president as he increasingly feels under siege by the Democratic impeachment inquiry. Frustrated by the whistleblower complaint and a parade of administration officials testifying on Capitol Hill, Trump is as wary as ever of the staffers around him and distrustful of the traditional White House infrastructure. Working from his private quarters gives him space away from what he perceives as prying eyes and guards against his omnipresent fear of leaks to the media.
It also gives Trump a greater sense of control as he faces the dual challenges of impeachment and his reelection, according to interviews with a half dozen current and former senior administration officials…
The president sometimes prefers to interview candidates for high-profile positions from his private quarters, so staff and White House journalists cannot monitor comings and goings. Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney landed his current job during a late Friday afternoon meeting in the private space of the residence…He also uses it during working hours as a place to watch TV freely, tweet and serve as own his one-man communications director and political strategist. The residence serves like a bunker for his impeachment response and his real-time reaction to testimony, witnesses and public hearings…
A third former senior administration official insisted Trump’s heavy use of the residence was “not an attempt on the president’s part to hide things. He is a workaholic, so he wakes up early and works out of the residence. It’s just the way his internal work clock has been for decades,” the official said…
Those halcyon early days when Trump was busy wasting his inheritance, bankrupting casinos, cheating everyone who worked with him, and first getting to know the Russian mob up close & personal. Well, *that’s* reassuring!
And at the end, Nixon walked thru White House halls talking to himself.
— Nancy Jackson (@catlover_nancy) November 24, 2019
Not to worry, though — Trump and his handlers have brought today’s GOP firmly to their knees his service:
Ruckus
Poor little boy, scared to come out of his room.
Has to curl up with his blankie and twitter and plan his escape.
Such a nice concept as I grow older by the minute to see the country not run but ruined by an overgrown, dipshit, moron, racist, narcissistic, fake wealthy, asshole, who was known for all of that before he even ran.
Life is stranger than fiction.
Amir Khalid
Does not compute.
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
No one said he was/is productive, he just feels like it.
Which really is as close as he’s ever been to productive.
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
He’s too lazy to walk to the oval office so he has his morning breakfast of cheeseburgers and pizza sent to his bed.
sukabi
Didn’t get through the entire politico piece because the pretence that drumpf is actually working as he’s hiding in the can is laughable. He’s twéeting and airing grievances and plotting how to smear his “enemies”, but he’s not working.
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
Only the best people
sukabi
@David ??Booooooo?? Koch: someone needs to leave boxes of knives and guns laying around the WH. The paranoia will take care of the rest.
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH
What bullshit. The chimp doesn’t know anything about economics, let alone monetary policy.
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
Hmmm. You know who else spent his final days in a bunker.
sukabi
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
Anthony Hopkins has the distinction of portraying Hitler, Nixon and Hannibal Lechler.
Gary Oldman has the distinction of portraying Count Dracula, Lee Harvey Oswald and Sid Vicious.
Alec Baldwin has the distinction of portraying con-man Jimmy Swaggart, con-man John Delorean and con-man Donald Dump.
Patricia Kayden
@David ??Booooooo?? Koch: Perfectly normal. It’s great having a paranoid, racist bully in the White House who is coached by White Supremacists like Stephen Miller. Everything is just fine.
Dorothy A. Winsor
The idea of Trump as a workaholic is hilarious. Being twitchy does not make you a workaholic. Not unless you count watching TV and ranting on the phone or twitter.
Ruckus
@sukabi:
Naw, he’s too much of a chickenshit to do it himself and no one around him has the balls or is I think quite that stupid. Who wants to hang for this asshole?
Also if he is starting/down the road into dementia, my experience with people in it is that their survival instinct doesn’t leave them. They hang on despite all the despair and pain, til the body shuts down.
sukabi
@David ??Booooooo?? Koch: well I think Danny Trejo should play drumpf in the made for tv movie Tweet Twit Twat
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid: “Productive” has many meanings. To phrase this as politely as I can: Being in the Oval Office, surrounded by windows and ‘his enemies’, makes his sphincter snap shut. But on his personal gilded throne, in a hard-tiled room with no windows…
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
He may be awake and he may be doing what he’s been doing for decades, wasting the world’s time but the idea of working seems to me to require some useful output. So no, he’s not a workaholic, nor is he productive or useful other than as a sample for your kids on what not to do/be when you grow up. Or any time before that. Of course if they never want to grow up then a 73 yr old child is what you are going to get.
Nomad
@David ??Booooooo?? Koch: Came here to say that. As the walls closed around him, a certain Central European dictator isolated himself from everyone but a few trusted sycophants. Just as Trumpf is doing.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ? ??
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: cruisemapper.com shows your ship and it appears that you are nearing South America.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
Good morning!
Think that’s the first time I’ve ever been able to say that. And it means I should go to bed.
different-church-lady
Dollars to donuts he’s spending most of his “work” time in his bathrobe now.
rikyrah
About the Central Park Five:
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Baud
@JPL: Stalker.
rikyrah
Zinsky
I can’t believe anyone hasn’t stated the obvious yet – The reason Trump spends more time in the personal residence of the White House than in the Oval Office is so he can have FoxNews on 24/7/365! Even a low class pervert like Trump recognizes that it would look bad to have FoxNews on all day in Oval Office. This dumbass does little or nothing resembling “work”!
Chris T.
@Ruckus: Or, “productive” means like with a cough: horrible, icky stuff comes out of his orifices.
mrmoshpotato
@sukabi: Ugh. What a pile of trash that production would be.
Ruckus
@Chris T.:
I was going to try to get some sleep.
Thanks…….
OzarkHillbilly
I have a friend who suffers severe,y from Seasonal Affective Disorder. He can go a whole week without ever getting out of his pajamas, and when he finally does it is only to take a bath. I can just see Mnuchin and Powell in the WH residence talking monetary policy while trump sits on the couch in his pajamas and robe, glued to the TV and tweeting every 5 mins. Every now and again one of them will throw trump a yes or no question framed so that trump will give the correct answer and then he is ignored again.
Baud
@rikyrah:
That tweet doesn’t quite match the content.
mrmoshpotato
@different-church-lady: Why? Why must that even be suggested? And at this hour – or any hour?
OzarkHillbilly
just checking.
ETA I guess everybody really did fall back asleep en masse.
WereBear
I’ll give Dump this: he’s so blatantly dysfunctional that even the lapdog press, with all their years of experience, are straining to gild this lily.
May they all get strangulated hernias.
Kay
@rikyrah:
Remember this?
That was before the Flint water poisoning came out. The infants who the whistleblower pediatrician identified with spiked lead levels are in school now and they’re tracking them. They’re “impacted” by lead poisoning. It’s permanent.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: nah, went to get moar coffee. Last night at 11:30, when I had been asleep one hour, a siren started going off very near my house. I thought an ambulance was coming for a neighbor. When I got downstairs, it was a car, empty but driver’s door open, 6 feet from my back door in the alley. I assumed a plainclothes cop was chasing someone but the cruisers arrived as I was looking out. It was a stolen car, evidently they had set off the lojack alarm and the thief had fled. It was towed away within the hour, but it took me much longer to fall back asleep. I’m going to need to mainline coffee today. And take a nap.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Uh huh
Thanks for the reminder
Raven
@OzarkHillbilly: we’re packed and heading out!
Betty Cracker
@Zinsky: Exactly right — Fox News is the only meaningful ego inflation mechanism at this point. If Bloomberg and Steyer were clear-eyed patriots rather than deluded egomaniacs, they’d buy that damned network and turn it into a 24/7 nature show about actual foxes. Trump would be wheeled out of the White House — locked in the fetal position — inside a month.
BTW, did y’all hear Trump’s insane call-in rant to Fox and Friends last Friday (I think)? Even the Two Boobs and a Blonde on the sofa were shifting around uncomfortably as he babbled about the nonexistent server, etc.
Trump is going to make every single elected Republican and media sycophant swallow that load of horseshit whole and on live TV before this is all over. Good.
rikyrah
@satby:
satby,
are you offering any Black Friday specials??
JPL
@Baud: lol That site is interesting and you can see how many cruise in the Caribbean.
Kay
@rikyrah:
Oh, I’m sure he’ll hear about it when he gets to Michigan:
JPL
@Raven: Have fun.
Betty Cracker
Speaking of empty-headed scions talented only at shoveling bullshit and squandering other people’s money, former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann:
Better elites, please. This current crop sucks.
Kay
I’m having a really small Thanksgiving- just our youngest, the middle son (no gf or her little boy- they’re broken up again), my youngest son’s gf and my husband.
No one is a Trump supporter but my youngest and his gf are unbearably pure Lefties. He told me last night I’m not “ready for this conversation” – omfg. I might strangle him.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Neumann
Baud
@Kay:
Time to find some Buttigieg 2020 merchandise and strew it across the house.
Immanentize
@Kay: you should put all of BJ on speaker comment so we can weigh in during his “conversation.”
Kay
@Baud:
He’s new at it so he has that “I learned something new” compulsion to tell people. She’s actually wonderful- his gf- she’s a vegetarian so I have to make sure she gets enough to eat.
He says he won’t vote in the general if Sanders loses the primary but I think I can move him off that. It’s his first vote. I think he’ll relent.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Life in the big titty, never a dull moment.
@Raven: Tight lines!
trnc
Has DT started to talking to the models in whatever low grade porn mags he looks at?
Kay
@Immanentize:
Sometimes talking to him I can’t believe he’s a real person saying these things :)
It’s like a caricature of an online Lefty. Well, you have one around this age. You know the drill – be PATIENT.
debbie
Bet Melania’s ticked off he’s home more.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: A taste for those who missed it:
“I do want, always, corruption”
“She wouldn’t hang my picture in the embassy … it took like a year & a half or 2 years for her to get the picture up … this was not an angel, ok?”
“We have to stand with Hong King, but I’m also standing with President Xi. He’s a friend of mine, he’s an incredible guy. We have to stand … if it weren’t for me, thousands of people would have been killed in Hong Kong right now.”
“I would have been in some trouble right now, because they were coming after me … turned out to be the best move I ever made — firing Comey. Because they were looking to take down the president.”
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I have online Bernie Bros to thank for pushing my daughter into Hillary’s arms prior to her first vote. She was Bernie-curious since she patiently listens to both parents’ political views and the mister voted for Sanders in the 2016 primary. But Sanders’ online supporters were so obnoxious that they turned her against him.
Baud
@Kay:
Draw Hitler moustaches on his photos if he doesn’t relent.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Eww. What an image to start the day with!
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:
I’m a little surprised Beetlejuice didn’t make that list.
satby
@rikyrah: well, free shipping on purchases over $35, but it’s not just for Black Friday, it’s the entire holiday season.
I may as well tell everyone, this is my last Christmas in business. I’m going to really retire next year. It’s been harder to keep up with the online store since most of my ready to sell stuff is stored at my market booth. I’m going to work through the summer and lease my booth out next year unless my current plans change. Everyone here has been so supportive and it’s bittersweet, but I think that the time is coming.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Tell him if he doesn’t you will chop his head off and shit down the hole. While cleaning your shotgun.
debbie
NPR interviewed Neal Katyal, the author of Impeach, and mouthy Rachel did not interrupt him one single time. Considering she learned all she knows from Steve Inskeep, this was quite a surprise
Anne Laurie
See last post but one.
(Probably should’ve saved it for this morning, except So! Much! News!)
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: At least I left out the half eaten box of donuts with crumbs everywhere, the mostly empty 12 pack of diet coke, the urine filled cans so he didn’t have to go to the toilet, the…
NotMax
60 comments and not one mention of Howard Hughes yet?
Out of left field first world question for the jackaltariat.
Mom called and one of the things she mentioned was that her kitchen sink faucet is going to need replacing. The problem (such as it is): Her kitchen sink is red porcelain-clad and the current faucet is a matching red color. Both installed many moons ago by the previous owners. Her handyman (good guy, in his seventies, does excellent work) has said he can’t find anything even close to that color locally so she wants to know if I can find one. Initial quick whiparound online last night (including a check at some places which deal with RV or marine kitchen faucets) wasn’t much help as the only ones in red which I could initially find are (a) not solid red but a combo of red and stainless steel and (b) ridiculously pricey (as in well over $500). Delta makes a more moderately priced faucet which is roughly the same style she now has (also a Delta) but the only solid color other than metallics they seem to offer it in anymore is white.
Anyone by any chance have suggestions of specialty plumbing places to look at? No fancy-schmancy touch-to-use or extendable sprayer heads necessary.
satby
Do a pasta side like ravioli or tortellini (cheese and spinach works) for her. That plus any other sides will make a fine meal, it’s what I and my friends do for our vegetarians. My one friend’s daughter is vegan though, so more challenging because no cream, eggs, cheese… She does tofu stuff for them.
low-tech cyclist
@Dorothy A. Winsor: And it wasn’t just the SAO describing Trump as a “workaholic.” The Politico article itself describes Trump “working late into the night and very early in the morning.”
I want a hit of whatever they’re smoking.
Baud
ThresherK
Nobody here has mentioned Howard Hughes?
Trump may be weeks away from going there. Well, except Hughes, who wasn’t exactly a Boy Scout, did accomplish lots of things in his life.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: closer to the truth. As dementia progresses, very often the person with it doesn’t want to leave familiar surroundings. Which probably works out well for his
staffhandlers, because they need to try to keep the con going as long as possible. He’s getting too publicly erratic. And everyone surrounding him is a traitor.Elizabelle
@satby: Good to have made that decision. That’s going to make this Christmas special and memorable.
And frees you up for a trip about this time next year to see Christmas in Mexico or elsewhere in the world.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
My daughter too! She voted for Sanders in the ’16 primary in PA (Clinton in the general) and now she has complete disdain for him and his enthusiasts. The truth is I’m cranky about the holiday. The Denmark son and wife aren’t coming and my daughter is very pregnant so is skipping the 8 hour car trip. I also have grown quite close to my middle son’s gf’s 4 year old but their relationship is a disaster and so I never know from one day to the next if I’ll ever see him again. They’re “off” right now. I texed her to say hi but she didn’t respond so I’ll leave her alone.
I’ll buck up in time for the event. I like having parties.
debbie
Is it too much to hope Trump listens to NPR from his bunker? Jonah Goldberg just called Crowdstrike “bat guano crazy.” That ought to be good for a chest twinge or two!
ThresherK
@NotMax: I swear I was composing my post about Hughes before reading yours.
This is a bit eerie!
ETA: According to the wiki, Hughes was a scratch golfer. Trump can only dream of that, and a hundred other things Hughes did.
OzarkHillbilly
I gotta brag on my daughter in law. On September 24 she gave birth to my grandbabygirl Addelyn Rose. Yesterday, 2 months to the day, she ran a 5K. She was gonna run/walk it but then her sister and a few friends said they’d run it with her. So she ran the whole thing, wasn’t gonna be the one to wuss out.
satby
@Elizabelle: I just know that my juggling skills aren’t as good as they used to be ?! I’m constantly missing something that’s in the other place.
And that’s not fair to my customers.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: wow, good for her!
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Forget it. Any red you find will be off just enough to look like, “Well, they fucked that up.” Go with the white or something else, the contrast will at least appear to be by design.
Cheryl Rofer
@NotMax: From yesterday:
Kay
@satby:
She’s a good cook- her mother is a home ec teacher- so they’re going to make some vegetarian dishes day-of, which is nice because it gives them something to do. She made vegan cookies last Christmas that were really good.
Betty Cracker
@Anne Laurie: Good. It needed highlighting. It’s just impossible to keep up with the fire-hose-volume of insanity.
@Kay: Sounds like you’re doing the only possible thing — keeping the door open but not pressing. :)
mrmoshpotato
@Kay:
Edit – you answered my question. Best of luck convincing him this doesn’t just affect him.
WereBear
@satby: I always Twitter-promote your products once the holiday season commences because of the rescue angle.
But if you CAN retire you SHOULD.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Went thru that with my father, the familiar is comforting and they begin to cling to one person for security. With my father it was my mother. Something tells me that with trump it won’t be Melania.
ThresherK
@Cheryl Rofer: Ooh, I missed that one.
WereBear
@satby: he’s headed straight for Big Macs in a blender.
NotMax
@ThresherK
Who will be the new Melvin Dummar?
Could be worse. Could be Indiana.
:)
(Apologies to satby.)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@JPL: Whoa. I didn’t know there was such a thing. Yes, we should be in Brazil tomorrow. There were birds circling the ship this morning, so we have to close to land somewhere.
I just went to a talk on Shackleton’s trip to Antarctica with the Endeavor. That was a bad cruise!
satby
@Kay: nice! I honestly can’t imagine cookies made without real butter and eggs, though I’ve had them (and cake too) in India. But those were exotic, to me anyway. Vegan Toll-House cookies?!? I don’t know.
HinTN
@Baud: Sticks the landing! 9.5, 9.8, 9.5
Betty Cracker
Looks like we’ll have 14 for Thanksgiving, which we are hosting. I’ve farmed a lot of stuff out, but now I realize probably not enough! Is it too late to call people and add onto the side dish load?
Also, our guest room is overbooked. Two weeks ago, I told my aunt and uncle they could have it Wednesday and Thursday night. Then a couple of days ago, my mother-in-law told my husband she might want to stay overnight after Thanksgiving.
That means I might have to kick my aunt and uncle onto the sofa, which is fortunately very large and comfy. I suspect pretty much everyone will be sufficiently inebriated that it won’t be an issue, thanks to my world-famous white sangria. :-)
SFAW
@Anne Laurie:
When he was still living in Queens, he used to go to his Flushing office.
satby
@WereBear: thanks! And
@WereBear: ewww!
@NotMax: never saw that show! I tell people I’m a Chicagoan in temporary exile. Even though it’s been 11 years. ?
mrmoshpotato
@low-tech cyclist:
Sounds like they’re smoking coal ash cut with bleach and stupid.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Holidays are when I’m most grateful for my sociopathy.
ThresherK
@NotMax: Could be Melvin and Howard(s).
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Turgatorken?
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: And an amazing story. Not a single person died. Shackleton was a dude.
If that was the shot, here’s a chaser: The Worst Journey in the World
From the Wiki page:
Just reading it gave me frost bite.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: I see. And what’s the preferred punishment for Kremlin ass-suckers who are destroying our democratic government?
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: That is something to brag about.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
Trigger warning:
I see the potential for a rom-com film, with a side of partner-swapping. [I was going to write “wife-swapping,” but realized that’s sexist.] Their names wouldn’t happen to be Bob, Carol, Ted, or Alice?
HinTN
@OzarkHillbilly: I agree. My first thought was gold.
Shalimar
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Watching TV and talking on the phone for input, tweeting and ranting to people on the phone for output. This is pretty much the only work he has ever done in his life. Phone conversations have mostly replaced in-person meetings and dinners, but otherwise everything is the same. He has always had underlings to flesh out the details of his negotiations and do all the actual work.
Another Scott
@NotMax: I hate working on plumbing. You have my sympathy.
I assume you’ve checked eBay. I just took a quick look at Etsy – sometimes they have off the wall stuff that you can’t find anywhere else. But nothing immediately jumped out at me.
Are you sure it needs to be replaced? Often those faucets from the name brands have lifetime warranties or easily available parts. Maybe you can just replace the guts and that will be good enough?
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:
Never.
NotMax
@Another Scott
Being 6000 miles away, not in my bailiwick to do the work. Which I would, were I there and also had access to my tools.
OzarkHillbilly
@HinTN: That would work very well, better than the white I think. The only fly in the ointment might be if the sink had a stainless steel trim ring. But if that’s the case, SS is the obvious choice.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: The rotten truth is I’m a control freak when it comes to food that is being served in my house. My brother is nearly 40, and it’s possible he can be trusted with something other than ice and sodas, but I’ve never tested him!
Kay
@satby:
These were kind of carroty and oaty, but I like that. You could eat them for breakfast.
Like a cereal cookie :)
SFAW
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Somewhere on the Intertubez, there’s a video walk-through of the shelter he and the crew constructed, I assume it was from the wreckage of the Endeavour. My (very vague) memory was that it was not too shabby, everything considered.
satby
@Betty Cracker: I booked a room for my son and his gf. I have a reasonable expectation that I can get the public part of my house presentable for guests and dinner, but not the entire house.
And a sweet side note: I have two young assistants on Saturday at the market, a brother aged 10 and his sister, 12. They’re the children of two former old order Mennonites who never went home after rumspringa, got married and are shunned by their families. I’m their “market grandma”. They’ve grown up very isolated but have really blossomed with the socialization they’ve had at the market and tomorrow the girl is having her first sleepover ever at my house. Officially it’s to help me clean up for Thanksgiving, but I’m plotting fun stuff to do too.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Are we talking about a mutant turkey or mutant gator here, because that square peg, and that round hole…
Kay
I am glad I have a 3 day workweek. One of my colleagues who I like told me “we’re burned out”. I trust her observations on our mental state. I’m not that reflective.
It doesn’t matter though- we can’t quit. Especially her- she’s much younger. It’s nice to have a name for general malaise though.
Another Scott
@NotMax: Ah, so she’ll be doing the work then. Neato. You could help her via FaceTime or something. Save the video and post it here – it should be great fun!
;-)
Seriously, if she has to hire a plumber to install a new faucet then the plumber should be able to fix it (if it’s leaking or something – if the finish is damaged or the housing has issues, that’s another story of course.).
I’m sure you’ve gamed all this out (I remember trying to help my FIL fix issues with his Apple SE from 500 miles away…) – just trying to “help” a little.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
Well, you gotta be, when you bring home a ‘gator to cook, and the grocery store doesn’t prep it first.
But I can’t imagine how big a
lobstah‘gator pot you’d need.What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@debbie: The fact that Jonah Goldberg has a standing Monday morning segment on NPR infuriates me. Do they give a liberal pundit a standing segment every week? No, they do not.
He’s supposedly a never Trumper but he not infrequently (grudgingly) says that he approves of things Trump is doing. Or, he says Trump is doing the wrong thing but also here’s why Democrats are equally or more wrong. Just like the rest of the conservative movement, he can never say that the Democrats are doing the right thing. They can’t find a single liberal pundit willing to come on every week to tell us how the Republicans are always wrong? If you ask them why, they’ll say they like to provide a “variety of perspectives”…but there seems to be one perspective they’re not, ever, willing to provide.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Heh. Fortunately that was never a problem for me. When my wife and I got married we threw a potluck dinner out in the woods, everybody brought whatever they felt like. Messy, a number of duplicates, but it was still tasty. I did the meats, pulled chicken, pulled pork, brisket, and at the last minute I got paranoid about having enough for 150 people and did up a ham too. I was getting pretty frazzled trying to make sure all 4 were absolutely perfect! until a few of my friends kicked me out and took over the grilling/smoking.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly – @HinTN
Her kitchen is all white and red. Picturing an installed white one in my mind’s eye, though, just looks … off. Did come across a reddish brass (not bronze) finish which might do but am unfamiliar with the brand. More research to undertake. May go looking at faucets for bar sinks next, although my gut is telling me marine fixture suppliers is the way to go.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Auntie Satby strikes again.
Baud
@satby:
Jesus Christ. How congeniel are you?
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Good luck.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Betty Cracker: Whether it’s too late to farm out more side dishes probably depends on a) are these people retired/stay at home or working full time? b) how far are they traveling (are we talking a couple hour drive or like 6 or more, or worse yet flying?) and c) when they’re travelling – is it Wednesday or today/tomorrow?
If they’re working full time it would be kind of a dick move to ask them to do something more on a Monday, unless they’re taking the whole week off. If they’re not traveling too far AND they are not working this week AND they’re not leaving until later in the day tomorrow (see point a) or Wednesday, then I think asking today is fine.
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Young gator. For tenderness. :)
Watched an episode of a historical cooking program recently in which the chef prepped and cooked a 45 pound turkey in the method suggested by either Martha Washington or her contemporaries (I forget which). He commented that would have been a very commonly found size for turkey in the 18th century.
mrmoshpotato
@SFAW:
Fixed. ?
Cheryl Rofer
Kay
@satby:
Oh, that’s kind of you. I feel like people romanticize that fundie religion. It’s just as brutal as all the rest.
mrmoshpotato
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: NPR? Liberal? Does electric yellow have you by the brain banana? :)
OzarkHillbilly
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Which begs the question, is it a bigger dick move to just expect Betty to take it all on no matter the cost to her and her sanity? Not looking for a fight, just putting the shoe on the other foot.
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
E-lec-tric-al banana
Is gonna be a sudden craze
E-lec-tric-al banana
Is bound to be the very next phase
– Donovan
satby
@Baud: ?? I was a painfully shy kid myself.
@OzarkHillbilly: I like the parents, but the family lives out on a farm about an hour away from here, the kids are home schooled, and none are in sports so they were basically monosylabbic when they started at the market (their mom makes amazing pies). All but the oldest boy is much more social now. The youngest started helping me first, then his sister. I cheerfully just put an entirely different model of life out there for them: snarky humor, bad language, friendships with marginalized people and all. One of my friends here is an out and proud trans woman who stops by to juggle bath bombs and tell the kids punny jokes… And after she leaves we talk about why Megan uses female pronouns and why we respect that.
What can I say, not just animals need rescue sometimes.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax:
Haha
Oh my Jibbers!
Jeffro
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The mini-series from some years back with Kenneth Brannagh as Shackleton is outstanding.
I’ve made my kids read various versions of his expedition’s story since they were six (yes, there are kid-lit editions =)
Elizabelle
We should have a Gaslighting and Trump Normalizing Hall of Shame.
That Politico article is a contender. Why let Mags Haberman have all the glory?
danielx
@Zinsky:
not that I’m disagreeing, but that would be about the first time Trump ever worried about something looking bad.
Jeffro
I saw a clip this morning of Rick Perry relaying to a Fox “reporter” that he told trumpov, “mr. president*, you are the chosen one”
For realz
If he’s so innocent…if he’s the ‘chosen one’…why’s he holed up in the WH bathroom, tweeting and scarfing cheeseburgers? Wouldn’t a truly innocent ‘chosen one’ be able to hold his head high (and publicly!) and do a news conference or three? Testify before Congress, since he has nothing to hide?
it’s weird…these are kind of low standards for a ‘chosen one’
satby
@Kay: Amish and Mennonite farms often are some of the worst puppy mill breeders. Rescue groups aren’t fond of them.
Farmers market sellers are like travelling carnival workers. It’s a bit of a subculture, and is populated by people who often wouldn’t be employable or only marginally employable. A lot of my market is ex-Amish and Mennonite, and they only have 8th grade educations. I’m hoping to help the kids see more than their parents can, only because the parents have been crippled in the same way. I proposed a trip to Chicago for the kids to go to some museums, and mom and dad want to come too.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax:
I gotta call bullshit on that one. The avg wild turkey (male) weighs 11-24 lbs. All turkeys are descended from them. The turkeys Martha Washington worked with would have probably been very close to a Narraganset which go 22-28 lbs. The Broad Breasted White turkey, which is no doubt what he was using avg 40 lbs, but they are a recent breed and can’t even breed without human assistance.
ETA: I should say BBWT’s can get to an avg 40#s. Slaughter weight is obviously much less
Racer X
Doesn’t know who to trust?
How about trying this?
Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly:
That sounds awful.
Shackleton’s expedition ate penguins.
Judging by other posts here, Thanksgiving must be this week. I’ve lost track.
khead
JFC. The GOP is a cult now.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@SFAW:
They constructed shelters in several places as they tried to get themselves back to safety. There was a photographer on board and among the things they salvaged were his pictures. Apparently they believed (rightly as it turned out) that they could sell artifacts and pictures from the trip.
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: it is, this Thursday. In a way isn’t it nice to be not under pressure for any of it?
Josie
@Jeffro:
I saw that clip and couldn’t believe even Rick Perry would say something so idiotic. Maybe he is getting ready to plead temporary insanity when they come to arrest him.
SFAW
@Jeffro:
Where’s Obi-Wan when we need him?
NotMax
@OzarkHilbilly
Suppose it’s possible he said 25 pounds (he speaks with a thickish accent) and the closed caption AI was funnin’ with me again, displaying 45 pounds.
Visually, it looked as if a hobbit could fit inside the turkey shown. ;)
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s a great book, in a horrific way.
Well, that’s what my wife tells me, and she wouldn’t lie, would she?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby:
That’s a sweet thing to do.
Elizabelle
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Excited for you being on your trip. Do you spend much time in Brazil and South America?
Cruise on.
Just One More Canuck
@NotMax:
would matte black be an option – Moen has one (we are thinking about a kitchen re-do)
Mo' Salad
Disqus test.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I was thinking “So watching TV all day and ranting about it is work now”
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: I looked into raising heritage breeds on our place for friends and family. Did a fair amount of research before deciding it was wholly impractical on the available acreage. That was why my BS detector went off. Hopefully he knows better.
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
One thing have always wondered about is exactly what the ship’s carpenter – whose skills were so crucial to aiding in their eventual survival – did to piss off Shackleton so much that he insisted the carpenter be denied receiving the medals presented at the big ceremony celebrating their return to England.
mrmoshpotato
@Racer X:
Silly
rabbitRacer X, not criming is for people who haven’t been mobster trash their entire adult lives.mardam422
“He is a workaholic,”… who has the time to waste an hour ranting on Fox and Friends.
Honest to Dog. How much of a sycophant do you have to be to tell someone Trump is a workaholic?
Just One More Canuck
@OzarkHillbilly:
if you want frostbite just from reading, try “Erebus” by Michael Palin (yes, that Michael Palin)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Elizabelle: We’re going to kind of skip down the coast stopping in Recife, Rio, Montivedeo, and Buenos Aires, with sea days in between. I fly home on Dec 5, so that’s how long it takes to do it.
We don’t stop long in each place though, so it’s just a tiny taste.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Mmmmm…..Turkeyzilla.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: No idea if it still exists, but back in the day there was a place on Webster Avenue in the Bronx that was the go-to for antediluvian plumbing supplies.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@NotMax:
I thought that was unfair and sad. He was vital to their survival.
There was a stowaway on board the Endeavor too. He went on the whole trip with them after they found him.
Elizabelle
It’s the Donald Trump Full Employment Act.
You’re employed, and you’re employed, and you’re employed, and …
Best president for Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Ever.
ETA: You forgot the “conspiring.” That’s moar hard work.
ThresherK
@Just One More Canuck: Frostbite? It’s been too cold for several weeks for me to read Iceblink, Scott Cookman’s book about the lost Franklin expedition.
Elizabelle
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Sounds heavenly.
Just looked up your ship. The Jupiter. Brand new. Wow.
NotMax
@Just One More Canuck
Always a possibility to consider. Thanks.
This is the brass one I mentioned (guessing it’s a brass-like finish over fiberglass). Always difficult to judge colors from online pix, however. She’d have to forego the built-in soap dispenser on her current unit, but I suppose the existing deck plate could be reused in place of the one that comes with the new unit.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: The same thing carpenters always do to piss of their customers, he said “I can’t build that with this.”
Jeffro
@Josie: not to be outdone, Sarah “DON’T CALL ME A LIAR” Sanders said that trumpov “reads more than anyone I know”
Twitter is having a field day pointing out that is essentially a confession that she knows not a single person on this planet.
mrmoshpotato
@Jeffro: Sir, that’s a maze on a Denny’s placemat for children.
Chief Oshkosh
As this is an open thread…
Navy Secretary Spencer resigned after Defense Secretary Esper demanded his resignation. What if Spencer had said “No. I refuse to obey an unlawful order, so I’m proceeding with the SEAL review. If you don’t like it, fire me.”?
I ask because I don’t know that Trump and his minions have the guts to actually fire someone, but I also don’t know if someone in Spencer’s position can tell the CiC to fuck off, fire me if you don’t like my performance.
OzarkHillbilly
@Just One More Canuck: I know the story of course, I’ll have to put the book on my list. Palin is a man of many talents.
Mo' Salad
https://youtu.be/plMzj2t7DGM
mrmoshpotato
Who wants to bet Dump tries to blame all of his criming on these two?
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: It’s from the Empire Brass Company, hopefully they take their name seriously and it is all brass construction. Anything less is… Less.
rikyrah
@Kay:
The courts. The children in cages.
rikyrah
@Kay:
This person has a Twitter thread responding to those who said that kind of shyt in 2016.
https://twitter.com/Kennymack1971/status/1198631464008667137?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Weight is listed at 3½ pounds, so maybe not entirely plastic-y?
rikyrah
@satby:
Thanks for the notice. So sad about you retiring,but, if it’s positive for you, then, I’m happy for you.
I have to tell you that the Rose scent for the creme (which is divine) is overwhelming for my senses. I had to wind up giving it to Peanut, who has no problems with it, and likes the way it moisturizes her skin. I think I’m going to try lavender this year.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
Just wow!
Aleta
National Day Of Mourning
This year’s NDOM is dedicated to Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls & Two Spirits, and to our thousands of relatives who are migrants and are being abused by ICE and other government agencies, including having their children stolen from them. We didn’t cross the border – The border crossed us! #NoJusticeOnStolenLand
http://www.uaine.org
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I am starting to see the Impeachment really about tearing down Trump’s support structure like they do with a Mafia boss and I see our Media Betters are working themselves up to declaring Trump innocent because of White, Male, Born before 1963,
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: I like his style. That’s exactly how I feel.
Jeffro
Aren’t we overdue for a big multi-million person Impeach the MF rally on the Mall? Or are we doing that while the trial’s going on?
Yes, yes, I know there will be a counter-protest. We’ll try to get all eight of those folks into the same half of a Metro car for their own sake.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Hmmm… I just googled them and went to their home page. Not promising.
They specialize in RV and mobile home plumbing. Maybe you can find the specific item and it will tell you more.
Chief Oshkosh
@Chief Oshkosh: Nevermind. I see that the so-called letter of resignation is actually an acknowledgment of being terminated:
“I hereby acknowledge my termination”
PPCLI
@Chief Oshkosh: Spencer’s letter sure seems to indicate he was fired, whatever the ass-covering story the administration is spreading.
Just One More Canuck
@OzarkHillbilly: Highly recommended – what they accomplished on their first voyage under sail only was amazing, but to meet the end that they did….- the ultimate blech. Palin tells it very well.
Mordecai Richler used the story of the Franklin Expedition to get one of the protagonists from England to Canada (Solomon Gursky Was Here) – pretty entertaining book – classic CanLit
Brooklyn Dodger
@satby: Oh, sorry to hear you’re hanging up the scrub biz. My family are big fans of your lovely creations! BUT good for you to set an end date for work. Mine is also the end of the year after putting it off for a whole year (and looking forward to it for 10).
rikyrah
Mayhew,
Did you see this?
University to Students on Medicaid: Buy Private Coverage, or Drop Out
Emily and Kullen Langston were enrolling in classes for the winter semester at Brigham Young University-Idaho when they hit an unexpected roadblock.
The school, like many others, requires all students to have health coverage. But this month, the university made an unusual announcement: It would no longer accept Medicaid.
Ms. Langston, 20, enrolled in the free government insurance program last year after becoming pregnant with the couple’s daughter, who is now 4 months old. Mr. Langston, 22, was planning to sign up for Medicaid in January, when it is set to expand in the state.
To remain in school, they would have to buy private coverage. The cheapest option available is the university’s student health plan, which does not comply with the Affordable Care Act’s consumer protections and would require the Langstons to pay a $3,125 annual premium.
Ms. Langston said her family, which relies on the income her husband earns as a call-center operator, cannot afford that. She had hoped to become a teacher, but now intends to drop out of school, and her husband is unsure whether he will attend.
“I’m disappointed that they’re showing prejudice against those of us who are poor right now,” Ms. Langston said. “I’m disappointed that I’m not going to be able to finish school.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/24/us/medicaid-students-brigham-young.html
waysel
@NotMax: I’ll bet her faucet is a high quality name brand unit that has a replaceable ‘cartridge’ I believe they call it- the part inside that does all the work and has seals that fail over time. Custom color porcelain ain’t cheap and companies like Kohler would create color matched faucet / sink combos. I would try to find out the brand and model. Replacing the cartridge is usually a pretty simple procedure.
PPCLI
Trump has a bizarre Saturday night visit to the hospital. Nobody sees him for a couple of days. The first recorded sighting is then a meeting with his Treasury secretary and the Fed. chair in his residence. Then suddenly there is this butt-kissing article in the site that publishes John Solomon, about how Trump has preferred the residence for some time, because it makes it easier to be his “workaholic” self (Jesus, they can’t even make the lies the least bit plausible). He likes being able to do things unnoticed, don’t you know. And look, all these other high-profile things took place in the residence, it’s been a tendency for some time ….
Maybe. Or maybe that health event was more serious than they want to let on and they need to retrofit a cover story for why Trump will be meeting in the residence a lot for awhile.
rp
@PPCLI: They’re having a harder and harder time hiding his cognitive and physical decline, and they want to minimize his interactions with the WH staff. He’s going to fall or have some sort of severe episode in public in the next few weeks.
Brachiator
@satby:
Best wishes for a pleasant retirement.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@OzarkHillbilly: Well, she agreed to host. That comes with certain responsibilities IMO. One exception to the above rules is if the plan is for them to cook the sides the day of, and she can provide the ingredients, it would still be OK for her to pile on tasks on Turkey Day itself, even for those holding down full time jobs.
If they have to make something new in advance, that means another trip to the grocery store and then prep and cooking time…could be tough to someone working full time to fit in at this late date.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@OzarkHillbilly: Also, another exception is if they don’t have to do any cooking – i.e. if you task someone with getting something from the ready made section of the grocery store, or something that requires virtually no prep (cheeses for a cheese plate) still OK to ask.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Yeah, the more I checked the more skeptical I’ve become. Gonna scratch it off the list.
Been doing some more poking around – fell in love with this one from Costco. Not red, but a beauty that would fit in without being in-your-face design-wise, IMHO. And real brass innards.
satby
@rikyrah: I’m so sorry, I can do barely scented and unscented too. I do medium strength if very light isn’t specified. I have to do it by calculations, because I get habituated and lose my sense of smell in the middle of making products, so I can’t go just on my own judgement of strength.
@Brooklyn Dodger: Thanks! And I admit, I’m looking forward to dialing back a lot. It’s an all or nothing kind of biz.
satby
@rikyrah: that’s just disgusting. Those poor kids.
@Brachiator: not until the end of next summer, but thanks!
NotMax
@waysel
It’s a Delta (don’t know the model number). Probably 20 – 30 years old. She did say her handyman told her that cartridge is no longer available, which could be the case.
I’ve met and interacted with the guy. He’s a meticulous pro of the old school but also struck me as more a replace than repair kind of guy. Mom got him the gig of being the on-call maintenance person for her three story, 12 unit building for stuff the super can’t or won’t handle, so don’t believe he would deliberately try to snow her.
Villago Delenda Est
So, tweeting out his deranged stream of consciousness crap is “work” now for Donald.
He’s a walking (barely) obscenity. Impeach, convict, remove, indict, try, convict, imprison.
ellenr
@satby: Make vegetarian stuffing. Use Penzey’s veggie base for the liquid, regular Thanksgiving spices (poultry seasoning does fine), and add walnuts or other kinds of nuts. If they’re not vegan, add eggs. Bake about 30 – 45 min.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: I thought the place I recalled was so old-school that they wouldn’t be on the interwebs, but I was wrong: https://www.websterplumbingsupply.com/
Might be worth a phone call.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Coolness. On the list to check out. Thanks.
waysel
@NotMax: Delta may no longer make and stock the part, but many on-line supply places have back inventory. It can take some rooting around to find the right part. I just wanted to be sure the guy was aware of the possibility, and hopefully did some thorough research.
Barbara
@satby: My whole role at Thanksgiving is to make sure my vegan daughter has something to eat. This year I will be making a pumpkin crostada, based on a recipe at the Washington Post. I am changing it somewhat. I will also make roasted Brussels sprouts with hazelnuts, and a vegan dessert that I know she likes.
@ellenr: This is a great idea, and you can use mushroom broth for a deeper flavor, although vegetable broth is nice as well.
Miss Bianca
@Betty Cracker: ooh, white sangria? Do tell!
Barbara
@waysel: It’s true, there seems to be an online business model that is geared to supplying parts for just about anything. We have found parts for our 1991 Volvo, a Swedish camping stove, and a host of other things that we could never get through the manufacturer. Definitely worth a shot.
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: My friend who raised some turkeys for meat has some 45-50 pounders still available. I’m not sure the bird would even fit in my chest freezer!
Miss Bianca
@satby:
Satby, you is good people.
SFAW
@Villago Delenda Est:
ICRITCI NOW!
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
I pretty much agree with OzarkHillbilly. You never realize how many shades of one color there are until you try to match the one you’ve got. I think your only chance would be if you could discover the manufacturer of the current faucet and go from there. Probably doubtful since you’re not on site and your mother probably can’t investigate the innards of the faucet.
Captain C
The staff that he hired.
NotoriousJRT
@OzarkHillbilly: When Trump made his comment about standing with Hong Kong AND his friend, good man Xi, I thought I saw contempt flicker in Brian Kilmeade’s eyes. May these marathon rambles through the disordered mind of Trump on F&F torture those toady hosts.
Chris Johnson
Assumes facts not in evidence.
Putin’s people run Trump’s whole show. There is no reason to assume Trump is the boss of Putin.