Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

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

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Let’s finish the job.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

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

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Second rate reporter says what?

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Here We Go Again (Still)

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  3. 3.

    Patricia Kayden

    The other tragedy.

    "It’s a biological Armageddon." Millions of animals, many found on no other continent, may have perished in Australia’s disastrous bush fires, and Australians are taking care of survivors. https://t.co/FAskomWMBN— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 7, 2020

  4. 4.

    JPL

    Since Iran has threatened to set fire to the places we love, it’s time for them to realize that trump golf courses are enjoyed by the masses. just sayin

  5. 5.

    debbie

    I didn’t think they could dig up someone more wronger than Pete Hegsbeth, but I seem to have lost that bet.

    @Patricia Kayden:
    Some of the details I heard the weekend were absolutely horrifying.

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    tasking the VP to lay out the Administration’s Iran policy in speech next Monday

    One could hope that even Dense could handle a speech as short and vacuous as this one should be, but he’ll screw it up.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The Oakland women who took over a vacant lot to house the homeless

    Amid this city of makeshift shelters, churned together in a sea of hopeless necessity, stands 37MLK, a tent village created out of deliberate and coordinated intent; by community organizers taking over a vacant lot for the sole purpose of setting up a homeless encampment. It’s a community response to a housing crisis that has led to many black elders pushed out of the neighborhoods they call home.

    “You leave this land fallow during one of the greatest humanitarian crises in Oakland, pretty much ever, this mass homelessness?” said Stefani Echeverría-Fenn, one of the organizers, in a Facebook video announcing her intentions. “I will not abide by that. You can arrest me, but I’ll come back the next day, and I’ll bring more people.”
    …………………………..
    37MLK saw its start on a summer day in August, when Echeverría-Fenn left her rent-controlled apartment and walked two houses down the street to an overgrown lot at the corner of 37th Street and Martin Luther King Jr Way. She squeezed her way in through a hole in the chain-link fence, and spent the day clearing the weeds and brambles.

    Then she pitched the first tent.

    “Every single day for the past decade I lived here, I walked on my way to work past this vacant lot, this eyesore, this blight that was never put to good use to the community,” Echeverría-Fenn, 32, told the Guardian. “Meanwhile, you would see the tents grow just a half a block down there. You see people literally sleeping on the side of the street, on the side of freeways.

    “Here, we at least have a little sanctuary.”

    Echeverría-Fenn didn’t start 37MLK with the intention of it lasting for as long as it has. She wanted to bring attention to her friends and longtime neighbors who were now in need of housing, in hopes of securing them some space for a tiny house. Her friend and longtime neighbor Skinny, for example, lost her housing because her partner got behind on the mortgage payments after suffering health issues.

    The community began as an all-women’s encampment. Four months later, the lot has grown to house 21 people, including the male partners of some of the women. All the residents are black or Latinx, their ages ranging from 30 to 60. All are longtime neighborhood or Oakland residents.

  12. 12.

    ThresherK

    I’m of the very casual opinion (I don’t subject myself to hardly any CNN) that Don Lemon was basically useless when Obama was in office, but has really upped his game under the Trump regime.

    What say any of you about Karen Tumulty? I don’t know where I put her on the scale in the Before Times.

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: They thought the whole world would stand up and applaud the wannabe tuff guy arsonist setting the ME on fire. When even our friends and allies said, “That was really stupid.” they started casting about for justifications. They’re still looking for some they can make sound halfway reasonable.

    If Pence had a brain he’d just refuse to do this, If he had half a brain he’d get up and say, “We’re idiots who have no fucking idea what we’re doing. Fuck you, sue us.” As is he’ll yammer for a half hour or so and afterwards people will say, “WTF was that?”

  20. 20.

    Betty Cracker

    Jay Rosen, NYU journalism professor:

    So true.

  25. 25.

    TS (the original)

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will give a speech next Monday laying out the government’s policy on Iran, a White House official said

    Which presumably means Trump has no idea what the US policy is, Pence & the Defense admin will make a plan, present it in a speech & while Congress is attempting to sort that out, Trump will do something at complete odds with said speech.

  26. 26.

    Patricia Kayden

    Here come the lies.

    Nobody is mourning, @NikkiHaley. Don't talk to people like they're stupid.Democrats & other sane people are rightfully questioning the impulsive choice by POTUS to make Soleimani into a martyr.We're strategically weaker & less safe as a result. Go wag some other dog. #DemCast https://t.co/7wK0zh7Bgq— Nick Knudsen ?? #DemCast (@DemWrite) January 7, 2020

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: I think he knows no matter who gets up there or what they say, they will be unmercifully skewered and laughed at for decades to come. He can’t handle that.

  32. 32.

    NeenerNeener

    @Lapassionara: On Friday my primary care physician was applauding the assassination. You’d think a doctor would recognize signs of dementia, but I guess not.

  33. 33.

    SFAW

    @satby:

    That’s not fair. Susan Collins was briefly considering furrowing her brow ever-so-slightly to indicate the possibility that she MAY have some concerns about the possibility of a hint of … something. Whereupon Traitor Turtle might need to address those not-really-concerns (or at least hint that he may address them at some point in the next decade).

    I think it’s unreasonable of you to ask for more from moderate Republicans.

  34. 34.

    Lapassionara

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I am not sure Trump can still read from a teleprompter. Another question is why is Trump letting Pence do this. Making a big bragging speech about American Might seems like something Dear Leader would want to do himself.

    I don’t know, but wouldn’t it be irresponsible not to speculate?

  36. 36.

    NotMax

    Well here we are, into the first full Infrastructure Week of the new year. And now for something completely different:

    “Honey, you have the nagging feeling we forgot something?”

    :)

  37. 37.

    Kay

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Another person who was sold as a rational Republican but is not. There are so many of them.

    Trump doesn’t make people bad. He reveals how bad they are. He’s a test and 99% of Republicans failed.

  40. 40.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker: In fairness, I think Rosen lifted that directly from a Hillary speech.

    C’mon snooze media, where’s your retrospective on how many things Hillz said about trumpov were true/how many things trumpov said about Obama were projection?

    I won’t hold my breath.

  41. 41.

    Patricia Kayden

    My lingering concern is that Bolton is so pleased Trump has put the US on a path to war with Iran – a war Bolton has dreamed of for so long – that Bolton has decided to reward Trump by offering to testify in a way that (falsely) attempts to exonerate Trump. Dark hearts at play… https://t.co/aRpiR8DDbk— Glenn Kirschner (@glennkirschner2) January 7, 2020

  42. 42.

    Kraux Pas

    Can someone help me get a better understanding of the phrase “wag the dog?”  I understand it refers to using military action to distract from problems/shore up support at home and that it is the tail that wags the dog.

     

    But why does it mean that? I understamd the concept but not tge metaphor.

  43. 43.

    Kay

    I love how they all switched from loathing the Deep State to pointing to “intelligence” to justify their new war. Overnight. Rush Limbaugh actually announced it yesterday- the formal announcement – they’re all ordered to change their minds.

    Loony tunes cultists.

  44. 44.

    Spanky

    Breaking from WaPo!

    People are seeing ‘Cats’ while high out of their minds. These are their stories

    Easy to find on their front page, surprisingly.

  45. 45.

    Baud

    @Jeffro:

    where’s your retrospective on how many things Hillz said about trumpov were true/

    Hahahaha.  We can’t even mention her in the goddamn Democratic primary except in quiet rooms.

  47. 47.

    Kay

    There are actually Q-Anon crimes now. The cultists were charged with attempted kidnapping in Colorado. A Q cultist had her child removed by protective services and the plot was to take the child back. Her grown daughter turned her in.

    Trump’s “movement”.

  48. 48.

    Kraux Pas

    @Lapassionara:

     I am not sure Trump can still could ever read from a teleprompter.

    Fixed. Reading from a teleprompter requires preparation and, more importantly, reading comprehension.

  49. 49.

    cmorenc

    @rikyrah: Fox News is the plague ???

    Fox was on one of the TVs in the airport lounge yesterday morning while I was waiting for my flight.  The steady stream of aggressive faux-patriotic jingoism about the necessity of taking out Soleimani an imminently dangerous-to-Americans terrorist and standing up against Iran was nauseating.  Their coverage is pure propaganda, designed to stoke viewers’ anger glands.

  51. 51.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: What a wonderful story — just the sort of thing one needs to hear when waking up to bad news all around the world. Thanks for sharing the link.

  52. 52.

    NotMax

    @Kraux Pas

    It derives from comes the saying that “a dog is smarter than its tail, but if the tail were smarter then the tail would wag the dog.” AFAIK gained wider currency as a slang expression from the movie.

  54. 54.

    Kay

    Nancy Youssef, نانسي يوسف
    @nancyayoussef
    ·21h
    When the USS Bataan, carrying 5K sailors and Marines, arrives, the U.S. will have added roughly 10K troops to Iraq in the last week.

    And they’ll all lie about it and insist it’s not an escalation- at their “avails” today, over and over, on tv. Pure state-produced propaganda.
    Now they don’t even bother to lie about the reasons- they just take the action and then lie about the action as it is happening. It’s another lurch downward on standards.

  58. 58.

    artem1s

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It’s simple enough: trump is a coward.

    Bingo! you win the internet for the day! The Secret Service has probably finally clued him in to what life under siege will look like for him. Probably told him no more rallies and he interpreted that to mean no where is safe. Question is, will he decide to show for the SOTU or job that out to Pence too?

  61. 61.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Trump wanted his OBL moment SO BAD. Now he’s getting publicly and privately scolded instead.  On the plus side, if we can get through the flailing period it should scare him back into being unwilling to do anything military.

    @Lapassionara:

    Trump fucked up and is getting a lot of criticism.  As a narcissist this is pure Hell for him.  Making Pence do this is cowardice plus throwing somebody under the bus.  Anyway, standing at a podium and repeating whatever lie he was told to say is Pence’s only skill.

    @Kraux Pas:

    Since everybody is addressing the meaning instead of the metaphor:  A tail wagging the dog is an example of decision making backwards.

     

    @Kay:

    This is not a step down.  I mean, it’s awful, but Trump has been doing this since day one.

  62. 62.

    catclub

    @OzarkHillbilly: when the allies said, “That was really stupid.” they started casting about for justifications. They’re still looking for some they can make sound halfway reasonable.

     

    the justification is that Obama said he was not anti-war, he was just anti doing-stupid-things. Another in the list of ‘I’m Not Obama’ objectives.

  63. 63.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ken:

    The State of the Union speech is going to be lit batshit crazy and fucking incoherent.

    Fixed. Free of charge.

  64. 64.

    mrmoshpotato

    @SFAW: What is this “moderate Republican” species you speak of?  Was it known of in Darwin’s time?  Was it written about in The Origin of This Fucking Shitshow?  Are you experiencing fever dreams?

  66. 66.

    Spanky

    Well shit, I was just reading about yesterday’s 5.8.

    Via WaPo:

    Puerto Rico earthquake Tuesday morning triggers blackout, reports of injuries and at least one dead

    Edited to fix yesterday’s quake’s magnitude.

  67. 67.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Ken: I really wish Democrats would boycott it.  I certainly will. Trump is going to spend the entire time ranting about impeachment and boasting about his misadventure in Iraq.  No thanks.

  69. 69.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax:

    Ms Ahmed said: “This year’s audit includes: an Aston Martin, a dissertation, a gingerbread village with residents and a precious 20-year-old celebrity autograph book.

    “Interestingly our hotel teams have reported a rise in wedding and proposal props being left behind in our hotels in 2019. This included a 5ft floral unicorn, a huge full moon, a flower wall, palm trees, a Tiffany engagement ring and even a best man.”

    Let’s see.  Unicorn is the new out-front piece, was it the best man showing a full moon?, All in all you’re all just flowers in the wall?, those palm trees had better come with ripe coconuts, pawn the ring and the best man.

  71. 71.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Kay: War, deficits, being a Soviet shitpile mobster conman?  IDMIYARx3 (It doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican)

  72. 72.

    Betty Cracker

    Jonathan Turley has an op-ed in today’s WaPo about how the Senate Dems are gonna get so burned if Republicans agree to call witnesses in the impeachment trial [narrator: they won’t] because “Hunter Biden could be a disaster.” Jesus, what a tool shed:

    Trump’s position is that he did not arbitrarily ask a country to investigate a possible political rival. Had Trump called for an investigation into Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) husband, for example, without a scintilla of proof of corruption, it would be entirely indefensible. However, the Biden contract was so openly corrupt it would have made Jack Abramoff blush. Even in the United States, lobbyists and companies will often give family members undeserved lucrative jobs and contracts to curry favor with powerful politicians.

    Yeah, except as in the hypothetical example of Warren’s husband, there’s not “a scintilla of proof of corruption” in the Biden case either, which Turley surely knows. So what’s his angle here, aside from getting invited on Fox News as often as possible?

    It’s to lay the groundwork for Trump — of all people! — to work the “my opponent is sleazy” narrative, both as an impeachment defense and as a campaign theme if Biden is the Democratic Party’s nominee. Basically, Turley is doing the work the Trump tried to force Zelensky to do.

  74. 74.

    SFAW

    @mrmoshpotato:

    What is this “moderate Republican” species you speak of?

    Spotted in the wild as recently as 15 years ago, it seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird.

    Was it known of in Darwin’s time?

    Did you know that Lincoln was a Republican?

    Was it written about in The Origin of This Fucking Shitshow?

    Darwin started to write about it, but quit, out of despair.

    Are you experiencing fever dreams?

    No, just some really good Owsley.

  77. 77.

    Kay

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Yeah, I disagree. It’s been getting worse since the first year. They’re unhinged 24/7 now. It is markedly worse than it was this time last year. That’s what IMO no one wants to admit- that they don’t know what is going on or how it ends.

  79. 79.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Betty Cracker: Am I missing something?  Is Hunter Biden running for President or for some other political office?  The last time I checked, Hunter is a private citizen.  He’s certainly not an Ivanka who is making millions off her Daddy’s presidency.  If Hunter is called to testify, Democrats should call Ivanka, Usay and Quday.

  83. 83.

    SFAW

    @catclub:

    the justification is that Obama said he was not anti-war, he was just anti doing-stupid-things. Another in the list of ‘I’m Not Obama’ objectives.

    Well done.

  84. 84.

    Kraux Pas

    @bjacques: I liked “Canadian Bacon” better.

    Sacrilege. That’s just a pan fried slice of ham.

    Oh, the quotes must mean that’s the title of some production. Carry on.

  86. 86.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Jonathan Turley has an op-ed in today’s WaPo about how the Senate Dems are gonna get so burned if Republicans agree to call witnesses in the impeachment trial

    What I love about it is the arrogance. Senate Democrats didn’t see the Hunter Biden trap! Thanks, counselor!
    That’s been his whole career. He’s a professional critic of people who actually do things. It’s always the most obvious, dumb “insight” but he’s so ridiculously insulated and coddled no one ever told him this bullshit is just mediocre GOP water carrying- it’s not even high quality shilling.

  87. 87.

    Kraux Pas

    @Kay: I do worry that they’re going to make this Hunter Biden BS stick. Republicans have proven time and again that a claim doesn’t have to be true for them to make a sufficient number of people believe it.

  88. 88.

    Immanentize

    Where are all the “DRONZ EVIL!!1!!” lefties and fake lefties in this assassination?

    Asking for Reality Winner…

  89. 89.

    Amir Khalid

    @NotMax:

    Keef tuning, strictly defined, is 5-string open-G: EGDGBD. I suppose one could tune a 4-string cello to GDGB, but that’s not five strings.

    Also too, Keef would probably not fancy lugging a cello around a stage.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    Tony Romm
    @TonyRomm
    ·28m
    Updated from last night: Biden campaign calls new Facebook deepfake policy “illusion of progress,” given the kinds of videos it would not target for removal.

    What’s scary about Facebook as a far Right company is that they have an education arm. They dangle money to public schools to put their cheap, garbage propaganda into public schools as part of their phony “charity”. They hope to push this garbage into public schools as part of the lesson plan.
    They use Zuckerberg’s wife as the salesperson, perhaps knowing that he’s completely repellent.

  93. 93.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: There’s data — the rate of Trump’s publicly uttered lies has grown year-over-year, so elected Republican lies and obfuscations must increase to keep pace. WaPo:

    In 2017, President Trump made nearly 1,999 false or misleading claims. In 2018, he added another 5,689, for a total of 7,688.

    Now, with a few weeks still left in 2019, the president already has more than doubled the total number of false or misleading claims in just a single year.

    Is there any doubt he’ll shatter the previous record for most lies ever this year, given a Senate impeachment trial AND an election?

  97. 97.

    schrodingers_cat

    Its only the 7th day of Jan and I am already officially tired of 2020. The year has begun on a high note with my mother gaslighting me about what is going on in India.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    @Kraux Pas:

    Oh, no doubt. Biden has a ton of baggage, too. I don’t think there’s any upside to kidding ourselves about that. It won’t harm him at all with his supporters, who I think price all of it in and support him anyway, but it would be better NOT to have it.

    I feel like these people have to do some serious soul searching on why none of the children they raise make their own way in the world. It’s bad. They should think about why there are so many of them.

  101. 101.

    NotMax

    @SFAW

    The difference being those are played upright, and bowed. Unlike the one referenced which is held aloft horizontally and strummed.

  102. 102.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: as education, it’s also like heroin.  The idea is to hook kids on their product so they keep returning.  This is a K-12 scam many companies have tried, but none have yet been successful (well, maybe apple and i-pads?)  Facebook is for the Olds, and getting older. The yutes know it.  They want nothing to do with the platform.  Zuck is seeing his great creation lie in dust too soon (for the investors)

  103. 103.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kraux Pas: I share that concern. And honestly, I wouldn’t begrudge members of the public their disgust if not for the rank hypocrisy of the Trump family and cabinet’s unprecedented corrupt profiteering from public office. It IS gross that public figures and family members hoover up millions of dollars for no-show or low-show jobs that are obviously at least attempts at influence peddling. It’s legal, yes, and that is a problem, albeit a separate issue from the phony and hypocritical “corruption” claims from the likes of a lifelong grifter like Trump.

  106. 106.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think of the people who won’t admit how bad he is and how he’s gotten worse as The Denialists”

    I think it’s a form of self-protection. They’re scared. They KNOW how the world works! Even when they don’t. They do all these predictions and minimizing because it makes them feel better.

    The NYTimes basically spends every day saying over and over “everyone knew this!” It’s one giant ass-covering exercise. Just say he’s a lunatic and none of us have any idea what he’ll do! That’s the truth.

    Remember all that nonsense about “the guardrails”? These are people who are desperately seeking something to cling to. “Mom and Dad are NOT insane child abusers! They’re FINE”

  107. 107.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    Yes, I understood all that. Of course, the guy in your vid was using it as a kid-sized string bass (what with plucking/strumming, four strings, musical register). Better he had used a ukelele, as germy suggested.

  108. 108.

    Fair Economist

    @SFAW: Are their bows coming apart in that video? It makes the splicing pretty obvious because there seem to be a lot of continuity errors in the state of their bows. Nice performance tho.

  109. 109.

    Shalimar

    @OzarkHillbilly: Pence’s one talent I have seen is the ability to deflect questions and talk endlessly without saying anything.  He will do fine at giving a mindless speech.  No one will watch, no one will care, and no one will change their minds, but at least they can check that box off of their to-do list.

  110. 110.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker: And who would defend the kids if a serious anti-nepotism bill was introduced preventing children of elected officials from serving in any position that would interact with government?  Republicans, of course.  Freedom of Contract!  What else am I gonna do with this brat?  It’s like the priesthood or nunnery of old — a place to park worthless offspring.

  111. 111.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    They did a slick promotion which they advertised to schools with a clip from a Harvard conference.

    Harvard should be fucking ashamed of themselves. This is junk. They’re jamming product in front of kids. Why are they all such goddamned cowards? STOP promoting this bullshit. Stop putting your name on it. These scams RELY on trusted institutions with better brands because they can’t sell it under their own brand. This isn’t hard to figure out.

  114. 114.

    SFAW

    @Betty Cracker:

    cabinet’s unprecedented corrupt profiteering from public office. It IS gross that public figures and family members hoover up millions of dollars for no-show or low-show jobs that are obviously at least attempts at influence peddling.

    Well, on the plus side, if a Dem wins the WH in November, then Moscow Mitch (if he remains Majority Traitor) will suddenly become laser-focused on rooting out corruption in the Executive branch.

  116. 116.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    And the “free!” nonsense. It. Is. Not. Free. If your school buys this garbage you are going to spend hundreds of hours putting it in. Time isn’t free. Time is the single most valuable thing a school has.

    In Zuckerberg’s world both teachers time and students time is free. He can take it with no loss to them.

    Is that how they run Facebook? They put employees on dumb-ass tasks for weeks and insist it’s “free”? No, of course not. So why do they think the lower classes time isn’t worth anything?

  117. 117.

    SFAW

    @Fair Economist:

    I think they just string their bows in a “non-standard” fashion. [To me, “non-standard” in this case means the catgut isn’t trimmed. Caveat lector: I have never played a violin, nor any other string instrument, so WTF do I know?]

  118. 118.

    Kraux Pas

    @Betty Cracker: It IS gross that public figures and family members hoover up millions of dollars for no-show or low-show jobs that are obviously at least attempts at influence peddling. It’s legal, yes, and that is a problem, albeit a separate issue from the phony and hypocritical “corruption” claims from the likes of a lifelong grifter like Trump.

    Preach. A close friend of mine is often banging on about Ukraine and Hunter Biden. He insists that Trump was making a legitimate inquiry into corruption and that Biden having that prosecutor removed was actually the corrupt act. And how can I defend nepotism?!?!?

    My remarks that nepotism is a separate question that I would love to discuss as a separate matter, that the prosecutor was famously corrupt, and that the prosecutor’s removal actually paved the way for an investigation of Burisma to happen have all gone unheeded.

    You may think my well-documented disdain for Biden would give me a little room to work with when debunking these claims against him. You’d be wrong. Ok, I was wrong. It was I. I thought that.

  119. 119.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: I worked pretty extensively with folks at the earliest version of Ed-X which was a cooperative funded effort between Harvard and MIT.  They were brilliant, energetic, visionary even.  Then they realized how much high quality educational online products cost to produce. Remember Ed-X? Not many do.

    Because someone had a better model — Kahn Academy is doing everything that Facebook dreams of doing. For free without the propaganda.

  120. 120.

    NotMax

    @SFAW

    Our little group has promulgated the Universal Theory Of Hawaiian Musician Inverse Proportionality.

    To wit, the larger the person is physically, the smaller the instrument they play.

  122. 122.

    Betty Cracker

    @SFAW: McConnell can start with his Transportation Sec Elaine Chao, who’s dropping pallets of cash all over KY to ensure her husband’s reelection. Oh wait…

  123. 123.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    To wit, the larger the person is physically, the smaller the instrument they play.

    That law probably can be applied to other areas, such as anatomy: The fatter a Traitor-in-Chief President is, the smaller his “instrument.” [Although he’s not Hawaiian.]

  127. 127.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: Harvard is not in the education business, it is in the Harvard business.  I am a proud graduate of their Institute for Education Management.  It was a good seminar.  I learned a lot in the intensive one-week stay-at-Harvard program. But I certainly could not have gone if my University hadn’t paid for it. I think it cost them a small car.

  128. 128.

    mrmoshpotato

    @SFAW: Oh that sack of shit would’ve spent 4 years investigating if the Constitution allowed a woman to nominate Supreme Court Justices, federal judges and her own damn cabinet members.

  132. 132.

    Immanentize

    @schrodingers_cat: how prounounced phonetically?  It’s like I can say “two beers, please” in at least ten languages. I would like to be able to say “without shame” in as many!

  133. 133.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    And then there are those bowmeisters particularly skilled who can also rock a mean 5-string violin.

    Little-known fact: Keef started as a violinist, went to Juilliard for a year.

    NB: That fact would be better-known, were it true.

  134. 134.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kraux Pas: Ugh. And the obvious rejoinder — that what Hunter Biden did looks bad and seems a bit sleazy but it’s legal, whereas Trump, his family and cabinet are openly looting the U.S. Treasury — just ties it all up in a tidy “both-sides” bow. That’s how the actual criminals get away with their crimes, by destroying the idea that ethics in government exist.

  135. 135.

    germy

    @SFAW:

    Little-known fact: Keef started as a violinist

    Bo Diddley started on the violin. He was quite good, and then switched to guitar (and the rest was history).

  141. 141.

    Kraux Pas

    @Immanentize: In spanish, unless there is an accent to specifically note where to put emphasis; words ending in most consonants will have the emphasis on the last syllable and words ending in vowels (or s or n which indicate plurals) will have the emphasis on the second to last syllable.

     

    ETA: I just realized you were talking about anpther language.

  143. 143.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: The strings break over time and always during performances. I think these guys may leave them untrimmed because it part of their image as the unruly cello boys.

  144. 144.

    NotMax

    @mrmoshpotato

    Mentioned it recently, yet still one of the most memorable lines to appear in any comic book:

    “Woman, thou hast hit me with a fish!”

    (Exclaimed by an Amish centaur – don’t ask.)

  146. 146.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax:

    To wit, the larger the person is physically, the smaller the instrument they play.

    I have noticed in folk music that the fatter a man’s fingers are, the more likely he is to play the mandolin.

  148. 148.

    NotMax

    @SFAW

    The violinist in It’s A Beautiful Day was adept at the 5-string violin, and was known to bring it along when he played violin in symphony orchestras.

    Which would seem somewhat an exercise in futility, as the majority of symphonic scores are written for standard violins.

  149. 149.

    PenAndKey

    You know, these last few years have really driven home what I imagine all of you who lived through the Iran Contra era must feel like. All these assholes that ensured the Millennial generation’s exposure to politics and the world was through the lens of never-ending Middle East war and neofascism just never go away, do they? Hell, many of them are the same assholes who have been a cancer in American geopolitics since Nixon.

    The ability of people like Miller to be consistently wrong and never be called on it would be impressive if it didn’t result in the world falling apart and starting on fire.

  152. 152.

    NotMax

    @SFAW

    You think that’s offbeat, when time permits look up The Desert Peach, by the same creator.

    Good stuff, the both of them.

  155. 155.

    Kraux Pas

    @SFAW: Without knowing what your talking about the answer is no, you never need to be drunk or high for anything.

    You ought to be, however, for most things that aren’t your job.

  156. 156.

    NotMax

    @SFAW

    “Need” is arguable. But as they say in deepest Brooklyn, it couldn’t hoit.

    ;)

    (For those who don’t know, the eponymous Desert Peach is the (fictitious) gay brother of Erwin Rommel, in command of a grave digging unit in North Africa during WW2.)

  160. 160.

    PenAndKey

    @SFAW: Yeah, it really is hard to tell the difference sometimes. I haven’t believed the old “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” in years, not with this bunch. There’s a point where tribal self-interest and narcissism is, effectively, malice no matter how stupid they are. They crossed that point years ago.

  163. 163.

    Barbara

    @Betty Cracker: This is an endemic problem, and I think it really needs to be acknowledged so that politicians can affirmatively direct their loved ones NOT to take these kinds of positions.  Of course, nothing compares to Trump, but it would still be nice to draw a much tighter line that is well short of the outright corruption among the Trumps.  I would also say that among sinecures, “board member” is probably one of the least consequential.  For instance, does anyone think Jane Sanders had the background or skills to be the president of a college? And as the actual president her lack of qualifications ultimately proved devastating.

    When I hear people defend this as everyone having the right to take advantage of professional opportunities, I really just want to scream.  If they think foregoing sinecures is too high of a price for public service, then go into some other line of work.  Which, of course, would make most of these kinds of opportunities dry up.

  164. 164.

    catclub

    @Immanentize: Harvard is not in the education business, it is in the Harvard business.

     

    Not new:  Harvard is a trust fund with an educational institition attached.

  165. 165.

    Jay

    @Kraux Pas:

    slide the knife in sideways,

    ”You know Burisma was investigated, right?”

    if they say no, you point out,

    ” after the EU, Canada the US and other donors, forced the Ukrainian Government to fire dozens of corrupt Government Officials, ( some went to jail, some fled to Russia, some are still under investigation, some were killed by the Ukrainian/Russian mob because “dead men tell no tales”))

    by insisting it was a condition of any more funding of Ukraine aid,

    and requiring that new anti-corruption laws, rules and processes be passed and enforced,

    right?”

    “then, Burisma was investigated, and the investigation found nothing.”

    the 2 most important keys are to:

    – never mention “Biden”, in fact, Biden just carried the US Government message, which was the same as the EU message, the Canadian message, the World Bank message, the IMF message,

    “Biden” and “Hunter Biden” have, through repetition, been turned into “trigger words”, ( so have IMF, World Bank, Soros) even for people not engaged in Full Metal Winger Ranting.

    They hear the word(s), their brain shuts off, the Techniques cassett deck clicks on, the tape starts rolling, and all the Greatest Wingnut Hits of the 90’s and ‘Aughts starts playing, over, and over, and over.

    – follow Newt’s Advise. Always use neutral words, terms and descriptions, as bland as possible to talk about, describe, “your side”. Always use loaded terms and extreme language to describe “their side”.

    You can see #2 in play, over and over daily in Your Trusted News Media(tm).

    Doltus’s and ReThugs out and out, obvious LIES, are never called LIES. The bones of ancient long dead thesourai are cast in a bowl and from their position, the High Priest Editor selects the     Moderating Word of the Day.

    And FACT’s, are never called for being FACT’s, plain and simple, they are always “dirtied up”, muddled, etc.

  166. 166.

    Pappenheimer

    “You need to get a piano! People can gather around a piano and sing!”

     

    “People can gather around a cello and shut up.”

    from the play, Absence of a Cello

  168. 168.

    J R in WV

    @Kraux Pas:

    Back during the end of the Clinton era there was a movie about “Wag the Dog” which was amusing but mostly accused Bill Clinton of launching cruise missiles at Osama bin Ladin in order to distract from his Impeachment trial.

    It was an established metaphor for political distraction before that, but that’s how it entered common metaphorical language.

    Of course now we know Osama bin Ladin was a really good target, imagine how things may have changed if Bill had nailed that bastard.

  169. 169.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @J R in WV: WTD was released in ’97, before anybody heard of Monica Lewinsky as I recall, and I imagine developed and greenlit and whatever before she and Bubba ever met.

  171. 171.

    WaterGirl

    @debbie: Trying to buy time to get their stories straight?

    They are stupid enough to think this will all “blow over” by that time?

    Waiting until he gets his orders from Dear Leader?

    Trying to figure out how to please all his favorite dictators and authoritarians all of whom may not have the same desired outcome?

  172. 172.

    Another Scott

    @Kay:

    “The hero of this next movie is a naive, misguided child who spreads Nazi propaganda and only has imaginary friends,” the comedian said midway through the ceremony. “His name is Mark Zuckerberg.”

    As the audience awkwardly laughed, he added, “Sorry, sorry. This is an old intro for The Social Network. I’m actually talking about Jojo Rabbit. It’s nominated for two Golden Globes and it’s directed by its star, the brilliant and groundbreaking Taika Waititi.”

    Baron Cohen’s comments follow a powerful speech he delivered at the Anti-Defamation League’s Never is Now summit in November during which he singled out Zuckerberg for facilitating the spread of hate around the world.

    – DailyBeast

    Good, good. More please.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  174. 174.

    Boris, Rasputin's Evil Twin

    @OzarkHillbilly: There’s a need for a fairly concise term meaning “mediocre in all aspects from start to finish, but unaccountably popular.” The term, I would suggest, is “Lloyd-Webber”. As in “that was so ‘Lloyd-Webber!'” or “That’s the most ‘Lloyd-Webber’ thing I’ve seen in months!”

  175. 175.

    WaterGirl

    @Boris, Rasputin’s Evil Twin:

    Your comments keep going into moderation because of the punctuation in your nym.

    In my testing before rollout, apostrophe’s were definitely an issue,  but I can’t recall whether it was okay with a comma.  So you may want to think about a slight change?

    If it will take the comma, you could think about Boris, Evil Twin of Rasputin.  If the comma is a no go, it might be harder. :-)

  180. 180.

    WaterGirl

    @Boris Rasputin (the evil twin): FYI, the first comment will always go into moderation.  So you will have to post with this one again in order to be sure whether it will take the parenthesis in a nym.  I’ll be here for a little while if you want to try.

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