‘We can't allow politics to interfere with a vaccine in any way,’ says Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden https://t.co/3bPTpctpwy pic.twitter.com/hTfey7cIIi
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 17, 2020
‘We have to do better as a country’: Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris visited her home state of California to assess an area devastated by historic wildfires raging across the state https://t.co/adxr2Kps84 pic.twitter.com/V6QG2Zby6s
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 16, 2020
McEnany, on the other hand, is the Caligula’s Horse of this administration. Of course she can’t perform the functions of the job title; she’s been installed to remind the press, just by her presence, exactly how badly the Oval Office Occupant(s) regard them.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany offered few details about President Trump's healthcare plan, telling a reporter, ‘if you want to know, come work here at the White House’ pic.twitter.com/CyPC44HZMN
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 16, 2020
Speaking of which… Business/economics writer for the NYTimes:
Four years on, I'm still not sure what the alternative is to broadcasting the president's long, lying soliloquies — but I'm confident that we're basically poisoning ourselves.
— Binyamin Appelbaum (@BCAppelbaum) September 16, 2020
(This does nothing to change my conviction that too many modern ‘economists’ are basically hierophants of an abtruse cult, paid to explain calamities and predict the future by examining the entrails of failed businesses and murdered consumers.)
Step four: be appalled that this has taken you four years! Actually discuss how to do it better. Actually have a teeny bit of introspection about where you (as a group) have failed. And yes you’re not only poisoning yourselves, you are helping to poison the general public. https://t.co/6ON5ENpngr
— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) September 17, 2020
PsiFighter37
Obama announced that his memoir is being released on November 17th. Already preordered. It is apparently the first of two volumes…and people complained that Bill Clinton’s memoir was too long! Am sure it will be great reading nonetheless.
prostratedragon
Long, fugly article in the Daily Beast which I will have to read later. Maybe Mr. Silverman will ring in on this soon?
Scanning it, one matter it discusses is how Johnson’s “investigation” is being used to launder Russian propaganda much like what Soledad O’Brien’s tweet above says about the media. Oh, and there was this:
What factors condition these views?
debbie
All I hear Trump say is that there will be a “powerful,” “very strong,” “very successful” vaccine. How about “effective”?
Baud
The media will take its failures in covering Trump out on Joe Biden. Just you wait and see.
Barbara
@prostratedragon: Occam’s Razor suggests that the reason for this is that they are actually allied with Russia. I bet the reaction would be different if the asset were allied with Iran.
OzarkHillbilly
A reporter who, believe it or not, works at the White House. I guess KM is not the most observant person in the world.
SiubhanDuinne
Reposted from the overnight thread:
OzarkHillbilly
@Barbara: Iran would become our staunchest ally in the ME.
OzarkHillbilly
For your edification: More than 200 naked inmates escape jail in Uganda
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Also reposted from the overnight thread:
OzarkHillbilly
‘Sit! sit!’ How one Australian dealt with a 4m crocodile called ‘Bonecruncher’ (videos at the link)
SFAW
@Baud:
After witnessing the magnitude and quantity of corrupt practices that the Murderer-in-Chief has been allowed (thanks, Moscow Mitch!) to promulgate, one of the more frustrating things has been the expectation that: EVERY (legitimate) action that President (FSM willing) Biden takes will be screeched about by both the Partei of Traitors and the MSM, and the calls for investigations will deafen those not wearing hearing protection.
gene108
@Baud:
I hope you are wrong, but I doubt it.
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
This is a book I’d like to get as an audiobook. I want to hear his voice again.
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
Obama has no respect for people who don’t like to read.
Marc McKenzie
@Baud: I’m expecting it. It’s what they also did to Obama.
SFAW
Is that the same plan that your boss said he’d release/present for the last four years, including in the last couple of days?
I don’t believe in Heaven and Hell, but if they exist, Hell has a reserved spot for her.
Baud
@SFAW:
It’s Infrastructure Week in hell because of the new wing they’re constructing just for the Trump administration.
Joey Maloney
@SiubhanDuinne: Way at the bottom of the NYT article it mentions that Obama will read the audio version himself. Which made me think of listening to the audiobook of Dreams From My Father, and now I’m tearing up.
It’s from a combination remembering what a real President is like and the constant ragedespairexhaustion of these days.
germy
Geminid
Political analyst Rachel Bitecofer’s September update of her 2020 Election Model will be posted today, by The Niskanen Center. Should be good.
debbie
I know why, but the reddish rising sun is still a surprise.
RandomMonster
November 17th, because the ending needs to be decided after the election?
germy
Oh, okay.
SiubhanDuinne
@debbie:
I didn’t see an option yet to order the audiobook, but the NYT piece said he is indeed recording it. Probably another Grammy in the Obama pipeline. As soon as it’s available, I’ll definitely be ordering it too.
germy
They want drama. They want excitement. They want ratings.
SFAW
@germy:
Who knew that racism and fascism were lymphatic issues? Although I guess I can recall “it’s my glands” being used as an all-purpose excuse, back in the 1970s and 1980s.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: It probably looks just like her present job, except it’s for eternity.
germy
@SFAW:
I’m glad he has a good insurance plan to pay for his glandular issues.
SiubhanDuinne
@Joey Maloney:
There are very few authors I can think of whose works I purchase in every available format (Kindle, hardcover, paperback, audio as they become available), but if the author’s last name is Obama, I’m all about the redundancy.
OzarkHillbilly
That’s a long way of saying, “I will be returning to my previous mental healthcare facility for an indeterminate amount of time to get back my medications balanced.”
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
I think there may be an audio version out already?
cmorenc
@debbie:
Trump is a seedy used-car salesman, a carnival-barker.
Kay
Senior political reporter, Washington Post – spreads the false claim, legitimizes it. She avoids it easily, of course – I mean, she’s not stupid enough to get in the way of him spreading the claim.
germy
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne: I also buy the braille version.
Baud
@Kay:
Yep. It’s a dance they do. Like a tango.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
I think her present job looks to her like a slice of heaven. I don’t think she could be so persistently/consistently vile if she were not cut from the same cloth and the rest of the evil, corrupt mofos in the maladministration.
Morzer
Another sexual assault claim against Trump:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/17/donald-trump-accused-of-sexual-assault-by-former-model-amy-dorris
SFAW
@Baud:
Does Obama have an audio version of him reading that one?
WereBear
@Baud:
Yup. “How dare you expose our pretensions and character flaws! Do you know how much money I make?”
Chris Johnson
@prostratedragon: That they absolutely already know, and you’re trying to tell them something they already know, which is the whole point of them knowing those people?
Remember, brazen denial and making the crime too big to see is the hallmark of these people. They started out believing that they could do anything they wanted as soon as they absorbed the shock that they had ‘won’, and they ran with it because that’s what you do when you are a Russian op that unexpectedly hit the ultimate jackpot.
It goes all the way back to Paul Ryan hastily silencing the talk of ‘Putin pays two guys, Rohrbacher and Trump’. Nobody expected them to get THAT lucky, and once they did, there was no possible strategy but ultimate brazenness. I think you’ll find that their actions absolutely everywhere have been exactly what you would do if you were actually all Russian plants, and there was nothing you could possibly do but smash everything full force to either do maximum damage or position yourself to become a literal Russian vassal state (in spite of being WAY BIGGER than Russia). The drama of it is pretty amazing. Too bad it’s sordid reality being done on behalf of some of the shittiest, worst people in the world.
debbie
@Kay:
Bullshit. I’ve heard her say his name many times.
SFAW
@Morzer:
According to the Traitor Shill Barr, that was done as part of the Murderer-in-Chief’s official duties.
MomSense
Am I crazy for deciding to quit my job and apply for a work from home call center job? Huge pay cut, but my co workers will not wear masks. In fact I found out that the office manager told the new assistant (20s) to stop wearing a mask because it looks stupid.
I just don’t feel like dying or killing my mom.
germy
Baud
@MomSense: Not stupid at all. What’s stupid is that you have to make that financial sacrifice for your health.
MomSense
@Baud:
Thanks, Baud. I’m thinking that a job that doesn’t require wearing pants could be a good thing.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: Imagine dealing with trump on a daily basis. For eternity.
SFAW
@MomSense:
Definitely not crazy, but it’ll make your life easier if you find something first, then quit. Yeah, I realize you know this. But given today’s job market, getting something new might be tougher than expected. And I think hiring companies tend to give preference to those currently employed, because some of them view the unemployed as “damaged goods.”
Baud
@MomSense: ?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I thought that’s where we were, but I looked it up and it’s only been four years.
germy
Mitch McConnell wanted to make sure businesses were immune from lawsuits for spreading the virus. It was his top priority.
Kay
@Baud:
On Twitter the reporter said this question was intended to show that the White House would “punt” so he actually knew she wouldn’t answer it.
I don’t know- maybe just stop being so clever and just ask real questions you actually want an answer to? That seems like a solid place to come from and more likely to result in something productive.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
And rightly so.
Chris Johnson
@OzarkHillbilly: Funny, but don’t you believe it.
Caputo is not crazy or unbalanced. He may well be very stressed.
He OUGHT to be stressed, because he is a literal former Putin employee inexplicably working an American government job who has just successfully delivered the payload of publically dumping a bunch of QAnon-style conspiracy ranting, but as an insider instead of an outsider. That was his real job. And he doubly should be worried because since that was his real job, killing him now would only heighten the conspiracy stuff that is the real purpose for his being there.
Damn right he should be worried, but he is a working mook serving political and even espionage purposes, and there’s nothing sincere about his payload and ‘crazy’ rantings. That shit is carefully crafted even when it’s meant to be spewed out into the void. It’s even more carefully crafted when it’s the exit speech from a mouthpiece of the American government.
He’s scared and rightly so because he is doing work for Putin, as he literally used to do. The nature of the work is different. The consequences of fucking it up are more severe than we generally get in the West.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
For a non-evil, non-corrupt person, I agree that would be Hell. But Kaylee seems to love her job, and seems to relish the Daily Hate she provides, and certainly loves being able to spout boldfaced lies to the MSM with impunity.
She reminds me of Tomi Lahren in more ways than one, and so I put her in the same group.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Feels like eternity tho.
Betty Cracker
I can’t help but be amused by the “Biden is taking performance-enhancing drugs” accusation. Trump spent months telling the cult that Biden was so senile he didn’t know where he was and couldn’t complete a sentence. So now, when confronted with evidence that this is wrong, Trump says there’s a drug senile people can take that enables them to sound coherent?
That’s wonderful — let’s make sure people in memory care units worldwide get this miracle drug! Hell, get Trump his own supply since he’s an old dude who says nonsensical things nonstop!
SFAW
@Kay:
Thank you.
Kay
@debbie:
Oh, he knew she wouldn’t answer. Repeating the claim and asking her about it was intended to show she wouldn’t answer it. It’s an incredibly effective method, as you can see.
TS (the original)
@germy: From your link
Baud
@Kay:
Right. They’re either going to not answer or they’re going to lie.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Patricia Kayden
Thankfully Biden is amassing a cadre of attorneys to fight back.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud: I hired an ASL interpreter just to sign the Obamas’ books at me.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
OzarkHillbilly
@Chris Johnson: Occam’s razor says he has gone around the bend. A complete nutball. Lost his moorings. Whatever. I won’t delve into the reasons for it because #1, i don’t know what they are and #2, they are beside my point.
@SFAW: She’s a narcissist. Working for an even bigger narcissist. She thinks this is her path to a bigger and better share of the spotlight, that’s all. Take away that hope? All she is left with is an abusing relationship.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
Philosophically, I 1000-percent agree with the first sentence.
But given the corruption, I expect that Jared would make sure that any available supply first be directed to the maladministration, where they take their cut, then redirected to his business cronies and shell/straw corporations, from which he/they also get a cut, while mandating the supply only makes it to red “enclaves.”
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
I purchased the box set DVD of the book performed as an interpretive dance.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I think it’s like a closed circle and Trump is in the center of it. They tell him things that will make him happy and he believes them. He then goes out and blabs about what they tell him, because HE believes it. The “taking drugs” allegation is an explanation for why the earlier lie – that Biden is senile- doesn’t seem to be true. It seems disjointed to us because it’s like we’re standing with Trump and they’re on the other end of a phone call with him. We only get his half.
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
Wow, a signed copy? That’s worth a few bucks, I bet.
ETA: Or did you mean the signature was that of the ASL interpreter? That might not be worth as much.
OzarkHillbilly
@SiubhanDuinne: Good move, covering all the bases.
SFAW
@Baud:
Ya know, you could just do the interpretive dance yourself, and sell that — no one would know the difference.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW: Ouch.
germy
McEnany wanted a job in front of the camera but couldn’t get a break. Eventually she decided to become a student again, first at the University of Miami School of Law, then transferring to Harvard. Huckabee told the New York Times last month: “I think one of the reasons that Kayleigh went on to law school was because she didn’t see she was going to have an on-air opportunity at Fox any time soon.”
But in 2015, McEnany received some intriguing career advice over cocktails from Michael Marcantonio, a fellow summer associate at a law firm and a Democrat. In an interview with the New York Times, he recalled telling her “Donald Trump is going to be your nominee,” adding that if “a smart, young, blond Harvard graduate” wanted “to get on television and have a career as a political pundit, you would be wise to be an early backer”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/10/kayleigh-mcenany-donald-trump-white-house-press-secretary-profile
Dorothy A. Winsor
@MomSense: What a terrible decision to have to make. I hate your office manager and I don’t even know the person.
J R in WV
@germy:
Who knew your lymph system could make you a mad man !?!?!????
The things you learn as you age!
Kay
@Baud:
It’s wild to watch him without the employees and media around. He was really bad in that town hall because there was no one diverting or throwing up smoke or setting a narrative with double back flip “questions” intended to reveal something other than an answer. He’s extraordinarily vulnerable when he’s alone. He can’t handle anything. The town hall questioners started with a very simple assumption- they would ask and he would answer. They held him to a candidate standard, not a lower one. When he didn’t meet it they made it clear he failed and sat down.
Morzer
@Baud: So people DO get more conservative as they age!
germy
I have two Hillary Clinton autographs, both obtained by my wife.
The first one was when Bill was running for president. Hillary was campaigning for her husband. My wife approached her after the speech and got an autograph.
The second one was when Hillary was running for president. Her memoir had just come out. She appeared at our local bookstore, and so my wife got her copy signed.
I was hoping the autographs would be valuable; the first Woman President but it was not to be.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@germy: I try to avoid commenting on people’s looks because it’s trivial, but I’m riveted every time I see McEnany. She’s so…smoothed out. She looks plastic. I don’t know how to describe it. It’s unreal.
SFAW
@Kay:
I don’t know how you can stand watching him and hearing him for that long. If I were forced to do that, I’d throw a brick through my TV.
germy
@J R in WV:
Morzer
https://twitter.com/JamesRosenTV/status/1306333423154466818
MomSense
@germy:
She also takes sovereign silver every day to boost her immune health. She recommended it to me.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Sounds about right. I wonder how the Fox News viewers square this info though. I watch clips of the coverage through the unfortunate Media Matters employee who’s assigned to view Fox & Friends and curate clips on Twitter.
Fox News ran with the “Biden is senile” story for months. And now viewers are supposed to just swallow the notion that there’s a senility cure on the market? It’s absurd.
The “Biden is senile” theme was also heavily featured in Trump campaign ads here in Florida. It was a bad idea when you’re trying to appeal to seniors! But it was central to the campaign. And this is how they explain that away?
I think you’re right that absurdities like this emerge from a closed circle that is intended to pacify Trump. If the low-quality hires weren’t of such low quality, maybe they’d be smart enough to ensure the pablum they feed Trump didn’t become campaign fodder. But of course he’s going to barf it out in public. Oh well. Their problem, not mine!
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
I bought two copies of the print edition, cut out all the words with my trusty
garden shearssewing scissorsnail clippers, rearranged all the words on the dining table, and will publish the result as “found poetry.”MomSense
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Its like they all go to the same plastic surgeons. Reminds me of the Uglies Pretties Specials series.
Morzer
@MomSense: You could always tell her – entirely truthfully – that the Chinese used to use mercury as a major component of immortality elixirs.
germy
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
She seems obsessed with her own “attractiveness” because she always mentions it in interviews. Sometimes defensively. “When you’re an attractive blonde, they don’t take you seriously” etc.
She’s a basic, plain person (like most of us) who lathers on a ton of makeup, mascara, fake eyelashes, to cover some basic insecurity. Weaponized beauty, like many Republican women on TV. That’s my opinion, anyway.
If we saw a photo of her without makeup, I suspect we wouldn’t recognize her.
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW:
Not sign as in autograph. Sign as in sign language.
Patricia Kayden
Arghhhh
Dave
@Dorothy A. Winsor: She looks stressed to me. Smoothed out but in a manner that is trying to cover immense amounts of stress; I of course could be very wrong here but I suspect she’s not enjoying the fruits of her labor as much as she would have hoped.
germy
@MomSense:
If she takes sovereign silver, does that make her immune to all laws of the United States?
Some folks have tried to get out of parking tickets by claiming to be sovereign citizens, so maybe.
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yes, I know. Work with me here.
OzarkHillbilly
GOP Senator Who Walked Out To Stop Climate Vote Loses House To Wildfire
Karma is a beach in Washington state.
ETA Ooopps, Oregon. Tomato, tomahto, all those NW Pacific coast states look alike.
rikyrah
Spanky
@Morzer: Great. So he won’t mind suffering a bathtub accident while defenestrating.
SFAW
@germy:
Speak for yourself. I’ve been told I’m “an 8.” Well, sort of — I think it was actually a “minus 8,” but they’re the same thing, right?
A Ghost to Most
@Kay: Every accusation is a confession. Everything they say we want to do, they are planning to do.
Pointing and laughing is the human equivalent of boiled frogs. When you finally take it seriously, it might be too late.
Van Buren
@Baud: I just hope he remembers his roots and puts out a version in Swahili.
SFAW
@Spanky:
Didn’t the mohel already defenestrate him?
Ken
Yeah, the Reader’s Digest ran that series regularly. “I am Joe’s Thymus”, “I am Joe’s Pineal Gland”, etc. Offhand I don’t recall “I am Joe’s Spite and Malice Gland”.
J R in WV
@MomSense:
Wow… is she turning blue-grey yet???
SFAW
@Ken:
Well, the brain [sic] isn’t normally considered a gland.
Ken
That may be useful for her after the election, especially if they use one of the official pictures in the pack of cards.
Betty Cracker
@Dave: I hope that’s true — that she’s not enjoying her ill-gotten gains. That’s the only justice we’re likely to see for most of these people: that they’re stressed out by impossible task of passing their monstrous baby of boss off as a responsible leader and that their reputations and social lives take a hit.
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW:
Sorry. I’m pre-caffeinated.
ETA: Meaning, I’m not yet caffeinated— not that I was caffeinated in advance.
John S.
@Morzer: If you look up “failing upwards” in the dictionary, you will find a photo of Jared.
germy
They travel in their own circles, where they’ll be regarded as heroes.
They might not be acceptable to decent society, but that’s a different crowd for them.
WereBear
@Morzer: Because it seemed to take forever to die.
Baud
Trump knows how to take the oxygen out of the room and focus all the attention on himself, including by flailing in a most cringeworthy manner. Let’s not forget to dedicate time to talk up our two great candidates, even though competence is less entertaining.
Chyron HR
Surely she’s not saying that we’ll only find out what’s in Trumpcare once it passes?
Morzer
@Baud: Surely Baud/Baud 2020 is two persons of like substance in one candidate.
Amir Khalid
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I think it was Trevor Noah who compared her to a Bratz doll. And I do kind of see the resemblance.
Betty Cracker
@germy: Yeah, but I suspect someone like Ivanka won’t be thrilled with a social circle limited to people like the Huckabees and sundry Q-a-Nun loons. I don’t know about McEnany, but she seems like a climber. A prestige job like Press Sec used to be a ticket to lifelong respect, and maybe it still is. But perhaps the series of lying losers Trump had to settle for has tarnished the position, or she’ll be treated like an aberration. I hope so.
SiubhanDuinne
@A Ghost to Most:
I believe it was The Huffington Post who, in 2015, made an editorial decision to cover every Trump campaign story under “Entertainment” rather than “Politics.” I didn’t (and don’t) normally read HuffPo, so I’m not sure how long they continued this. At the time it seemed somewhat understandable, but in the event it contributed to an overall reluctance to take him seriously.
jonas
This has been their approach from the very beginning, from Spicer to Sanders, and now McEnany. You appoint an arrogant jackass whose only job is to treat journalists like fools by lying, dissembling, and bullshitting and then watch them squirm and hem and haw and meekly protest. It’s a power trip — just like Caligula making his horse a senator.
MomSense
@J R in WV:
Not yet, although she does wear significant makeup. FSM must not love me enough. I think it can cause organ damage, too. I mean why would ingesting metal be healthy?
jonas
@Baud: Politics as a trainwreck you can’t look away from.
Soprano2
Since this is an open thread, I thought I would post about our latest local outrage. Two Amish young men repeatedly raped their underage sister (two of their underage brothers evidently did as well, but I didn’t see anything about them pleading guilty to or being charged with a crime); it was only discovered when the teen got pregnant and a doctor hotlined it. The county prosecutor decided there will be no jail time for them because they’d be “eaten alive” by the prison system! I’ve never heard of a prosecutor being so solicitous of two criminals before. Here’s what I think is the key quote from the article, and why he’s not sending them to prison:
Notice that he didn’t call it “rape”, he called it “sexual relations”. It seems obvious to me that he believes the relationship was consensual, and that’s why he’s not sending them to prison. Link to the article here https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2020/09/16/no-prison-time-two-amish-men-seymour-who-pleaded-guilty-molesting-relative/5818667002/?fbclid=IwAR2ouBUssAYPjHlRoKRuwf0Z6pDknBsxJ7PuspnvJ0nHw_kFvRBRj2upQG8
jonas
They know liberals like intelligence and competence, so it totally owns us to slather America with stupidity, starting with electing the most aggressively pig ignorant president in history.
Bruuuuce
@Soprano2: I suppose preventing anthropophagy is a better motive than saving a brat’s potential swimming career, but neither is worthy of preventing them from undergoing the consequences of their crimes.
Just One More Canuck
@OzarkHillbilly: Who’s a good boy?
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
It’s amazing — or would be, in a rational political world — that each Press Secretary has been worse than the previous one. Spicer was bad, but then Jethrene came along, and so on.
Geminid
debbie
@MomSense:
You are not crazy.
Signed,
Crazy person
J R in WV
@Soprano2:
I doubt he believes it was consensual, I certainly don’t expect it was. So many little girls want to have multiple brothers rape them, after all! I don’t think he cares that it wasn’t consensual.
What a despicable mess! I don’t think Amish deserve special consideration with regard to their sexual crimes… I personally think the “prosecutor” is as guilty at this point as the older brothers. All the brothers, actually.
OzarkHillbilly
@Just One More Canuck: Woofwoof!
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW:
Yup. And McInaney is worse than the one who never held a single press briefing (whose name escapes me and about whom I am sufficiently uninterested to look it up).
Bruce K
@germy: His lymphatic issue seems to have metastasized to his brain, so I hope he has a very good proctologist covered by his insurance.
OzarkHillbilly
@Soprano2: @J R in WV:
As any lawyer who actually graduated from law school knows, it is legally impossible for an underaged person to consent to sex.
Soprano2
@J R in WV: I was heartened to see how many people were outraged by this on Facebook. One person said that she had probably been forced to forgive them, because that’s how their religion is. Another woman is trying to start a group of people to go to court on cases like this to observe what is happening, so that people know ahead of time. I think this prosecutor might be in big trouble for making this deal. It is so tone-deaf. I find myself wishing that someone sicks all the local Q Anon believers on him.
I agree that he probably really doesn’t care whether it was consensual, but using the words “sexual relations” to describe the crime of rape betrays a certain mindset.
Zinsky
I often tell my wife that Democrats should run under a banner of “Responsible Governance”. I know – it’s boring…. But, wouldn’t it be refreshing to have a president who actually strives to be responsible and evaluates and executes policies with common sense and sound outcomes in mind? One who doesn’t mindlessly throw billions at the military-industrial complex to demonstrate how “patriotically correct [PC]” they are? How long has it been since we had that a president who listened to science and made fact-based decisions while striving to incorporate as many points of view as possible? One who wasn’t concerned with making a penny themselves and who wasn’t constantly trying to pay back wealthy benefactors with unnecessary, irresponsible tax cuts and positions within government that they were wholly unqualified for? How long has it been? Since Eisenhower? FDR?
When are we going to elect a woman as president, because clearly modern men have utterly failed to govern responsibly? Exhibit A – Mitch “Turtlehead” McConnell!
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: Sure, but I’m talking about his mindset. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit to find out that he believes it wasn’t really those men’s fault, it was their illicit sister who led them astray, and even though he knows the law he also knows what he believes to be true. It’s not an uncommon attitude especially among the highly religious, which is why they always want women to cover themselves up. He didn’t say she consented, but calling it “sexual relations” definitely implies a state of mind.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Amir Khalid: Yes! That is what she looks like.
OzarkHillbilly
I know, I’m just pointing out that his mindset is supposed to be that of a lawyer, not a religious zealot.
Keithly
@Morzer: of the /same/ substance not /like/ substance! Heretic!!1!!11!!
satby
@Baud: @SiubhanDuinne: I love you two.
PsiFighter37
@Soprano2: Jesus Fucking Christ that is fucked up…
rp
@Zinsky: I agree with you on the merits, but unfortunately this plays into the longstanding views of the GOP as the “daddy” party and the Dems as the “mommy” party. The daddy will keep you safe from the bad guys, but will also let you play with firecrackers and ride an ATV. Mommy wants you to wear a bike helmet and eat your vegetables. This view has a lot of appeal because we’re a nation of children
ETA: That said, we don’t have to go back to Eisenhower to find a responsible and common sense president. We had one four years ago.
Immanentize
raven? No raven?
I was hoping to hear his take on his former employer’s announcement yesterday?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
McEnany famously told another (liberal) talking head at CNN that trump meant boon times for right-wing “pretty girls”.
cmorenc
@Soprano2:
Even if the sister did have an adolescent carnal awakening that made her act at least somewhat receptive to her adult-age brothers’ advances – the concept of statutory rape is nonetheless still fundamentally based on the proposition that someone of adult age is taking criminally predatory advantage of the underage victim’s inherently immature incapacity of judgment and inability to resist pressure from an adult to sexually indulge. It’s still stealing sexual candy from a child.
Soprano2
There was one bit of good news in Missouri. Somehow, for some reason, the MO House refused to pass the bill that would have allowed the attorney general to reach into St. Louis (and only St. Louis) to prosecute murder charges if the local (blackity black black Ms. Gardner) elected prosecutor refused to prosecute them. I haven’t read yet why it didn’t pass, just that it didn’t and the legislature adjourned rather abruptly. I’ll be interested to find out what happened there, because I thought it was a shoo-in. Perhaps it occurred to them that in the future there might be a Democratic attorney general who would interfere with a Republican prosecutor.
JPL
@PsiFighter37: Already ordered hard copy. This one is a keeper and deserves more than just stored on a Nook.
Nelle
@MomSense: I’m going to suggest something that may pay a bit more. Contact tracing. You can work from home. There is a free course you can take from Coursera to give you an up on a certification. My daughter said the section on interviewing was better than anything in her journalism course (Masters level). And you are doing good work. Private companies are hiring too, since the government seems uninterested.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: Fox viewers tend to be older and are now calling the company to find out the name of the drug. Previously they did not know there was a drug for senility.
I want what Joe’s taking.
Nelle
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Like Javanka. None of them look real.
MisterForkbeard
@germy: I saw that. When they say “it’s tightened”, they mean Biden’s electoral share has barely changed, and his national polling has him down to a 6.8% lead over Trump.
I’m sort of okay with them trying to panick people, though. We need to push hard on this election as much as we can.
MisterForkbeard
@SFAW: What kind of amazes me about this account is that the victim thought she could dissuade Donald Fucking Trump from groping her by changing into a more conservative outfit.
It’s also sort of unspoken here that she didn’t report it and continued to hang out with Trump in the next few days because… this was expected and common behavior from powerful men like Trump and she had to put up with it as part of her career.
Miss Bianca
@MomSense: You’re not crazy. *They* are crazy. The times are crazy. So sorry. : (
Hoppie
@Zinsky: Uh, four years. I mean, duh! Was this meant to be stupid?
Miss Bianca
@Nelle: Ooh, that sounds like an interesting prospect!
There go two miscreants
I am glad we don’t have threaded comments: the exchange of one-upmanship between Baud and SubaruDianne was much funnier spread out like that!
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@MomSense: No, you are doing the best thing you can for your health and you mom. And the lessening of your stress that working from home may afford you will also help your health. There’s probably also some savings in transportation costs, so there is that too. I don’t know what you commute was like but not having to figure that time into your day may also help (sure did for my husband when he was working from home, he does IT support and he bought himself a really good wireless headset which meant he could get up and walk around on calls and between calls without fear of missing an incoming call. with his headset and laptop he could work from the 3 season porch. It was great.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Soprano2: because somehow people think the Amish are quaint and old fashioned and “pure” and most people have no idea how much abuse goes on, and is then covered up. Under the cover of religious freedom and honoring others cultural traditions. I don’t honor traditions that hurt people and protect abusers from the consequences of their actions.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@MisterForkbeard: Welcome to regular life as a girl/woman in 2020…”If it happened you must have misunderstood what actually happened, or you should have not been dressed provocatively, or maybe you gave off unconscious “signals” , but he’s a nice guy and you don’t want to make waves and make everyone else feel uncomfortable, Do you? ”
SO glad I am old and unattractive now, since it means I am now invisible.
Elizabelle
@Nelle: Thank you, Nelle, for the info re the contact tracing Coursera class. Looking at that.
Great advice for MomSense. Protect her health, and help fight COVID spread.
The Lodger
@Nelle: Thanks Nelle. It’s nice to know you can learn to be a contact tracer without having a nursing, PA or other medical credential.