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You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Wednesday NDAA Open Thread: Losers Get No Respect, Donnie

Wednesday NDAA Open Thread: Losers Get No Respect, Donnie

by Anne Laurie|  December 2, 20206:13 pm| 341 Comments

This post is in: 2020 Elections, C.R.E.A.M., Open Threads, Trumpery, Schadenfreude

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President Trump said he would veto the $740 billion National Defense Authorization Act unless it includes a measure eliminating a federal law protecting tech companies such as Facebook and Twitter https://t.co/H4InvBeYlo pic.twitter.com/9QQ42u9TMm

— Reuters (@Reuters) December 2, 2020

Into the grinder at the legislative sausage factory…

Threatening to shut down the military over Internet intermediary defamation immunity was not on my otherwise-expansive Presidential tweet bingo card. pic.twitter.com/eOLFPGSzug

— Jonathan Zittrain (@zittrain) December 2, 2020

BREAKING @JimInhofe says that Majority Leader @senatemajldr will bring the defense authorization bill to the floor "immediately" –which he says that he takes that to mean early next week h/t @elwasson

— Roxana Tiron (@rtiron) December 2, 2020

the president doesn’t remotely understand anything about section 230, he just likes to get mad about stuff and this is something somebody told him he should get mad about. “hey this is unfair to you” is the cheapest way to wind up the wind up toy that is donald j trump.

— Normie Transition Team (@CalmSporting) December 2, 2020

NEW: Lawmakers are moving ahead with a compromise NDAA despite Trump's threat to veto it without a repeal of Section 230.

“Republicans are sick of this shit,” one GOP lawmaker put it. w/@AndrewDesiderio and @marianne_levine https://t.co/zIcPnZfDWC

— Connor O'Brien (@connorobrienNH) December 2, 2020

Lemme get this straight: @realDonaldTrump wants to put the @GOP against annual raises for troops so he can make it easier for blue check Republicans to threaten to sue Twitter? And he wants [checks notes] Nancy Pelosi to honor this check his mouth is trying to cash? https://t.co/RbEY6KOHp6 pic.twitter.com/vkNgjLIKJA

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) December 2, 2020

The President's threat to veto an annual defense bill unless Congress removes legal protections for social media companies drew swift, sharp bipartisan pushback from lawmakers who charged Trump was using leverage over the troops to settle personal scores. https://t.co/8kHOO08HbZ

— CNN (@CNN) December 2, 2020

A Warren aide confirms that her provision to remove the names of Confederate generals from military bases over a three-year period has been included in the final NDAA.

— Connor O'Brien (@connorobrienNH) December 2, 2020

The final NDAA that Congress is pushing ahead with:
—includes a provision to remove Confederate base names (Trump threatened to veto if it's in)
—doesn't repeal Section 230 (Trump threatened to veto if it's not in)

w/@AndrewDesiderio @marianne_levine https://t.co/zIcPnZfDWC

— Connor O'Brien (@connorobrienNH) December 2, 2020

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Reader Interactions

341Comments

  1. 1.

    dmsilev

    December 2, 2020 at 6:15 pm

    And the cherry on top of the stupid sundae is that if Congress did repeal that section, Twitter’s response would be …to ban Trump, lest they get sued for all the shit he says.

  2. 2.

    dmsilev

    December 2, 2020 at 6:19 pm

    Also, McConnell bringing the bill to a floor vote means that, despite everything he’s said, he recognizes that there’s zero chance of Trump being in the White House past January 20th.

  3. 3.

    Fair Economist

    December 2, 2020 at 6:19 pm

    Trump has threatened to veto assorted essential budget measures over the year for assorted inappropriate trivialities like this. The threats have always been empty, and I expect this one is too.

  4. 4.

    Delk

    December 2, 2020 at 6:19 pm

    The very beautiful Resolute desk.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    December 2, 2020 at 6:19 pm

    “Republicans are sick of this shit,” one GOP lawmaker put it.

    I wish they’d stop quoting  anonymous Brave Sir Republicans.

    The vote on the NDAA won’t be anonymous at least.

  6. 6.

    The Moar You Know

    December 2, 2020 at 6:21 pm

    Per Trump’s tweet:  there is one other industry that has full liability shielding without which they could not function:  the gun industry.

  7. 7.

    Spanky

    December 2, 2020 at 6:22 pm

    @dmsilev: First override of a Trump veto? Eight Ball says “No way. Trump will back down”.

  8. 8.

    debbie

    December 2, 2020 at 6:23 pm

    I’d like to see NDAA pass with a veto-proof majority. Now that would make for a lovely going-away gift.

  9. 9.

    Frankensteinbeck

    December 2, 2020 at 6:23 pm

    Amazing.  Trump picks on literally the only thing left in American politics that has bipartisan congressional support.  The one thing that is still considered ‘must pass’.

    he just likes to get mad about stuff and this is something somebody told him he should get mad about.

    I think it’s more like Trump yells “Why can’t I punish Twitter for being mean to me???” and somebody says “Section 230-” and that’s it, it’s in his head, Section 230 must go.

  10. 10.

    Rob

    December 2, 2020 at 6:28 pm

    @Delk: Is that the tiny desk?

  11. 11.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 2, 2020 at 6:29 pm

    IS the section 230 ranting still about “Diaper Don”? I managed to miss most of that

  12. 12.

    Mike in NC

    December 2, 2020 at 6:32 pm

    @Delk:  To be stolen and moved to Mar-A-Lago, like the artwork he pilfered from a few of our overseas embassies.

  13. 13.

    Just Chuck

    December 2, 2020 at 6:32 pm

    I put the odds at 20% he actually does veto it. He’s made veto threats before, never followed up on them, and he’ll continue to be full of shit with regard to every last thing he ever says or tweets.

  14. 14.

    Baud

    December 2, 2020 at 6:32 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I feel like we should have come up with Diaper Don much earlier in his term.

  15. 15.

    Mike in NC

    December 2, 2020 at 6:34 pm

    Trump will veto the big, beautiful NDAA because it includes a provision for renaming bases named for Confederate traitors he reveres.

  16. 16.

    Just Chuck

    December 2, 2020 at 6:35 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: That bipartisan support will come in handy since Mitch will need a lot of Dems to override that veto.  Which means Dems will be able to extract more compromises.

  17. 17.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 2, 2020 at 6:35 pm

    @Just Chuck: he can create some new squid cloud five minutes before signing it and his followers will never know he backed down, and will in fact think he totally owned the libs that day by insulting Rosie O’Donnell or something

  18. 18.

    dmsilev

    December 2, 2020 at 6:35 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think it’s more about Twitter constantly slapping those “no, he’s lying about electoral fraud. Again.” labels on all his Tweets.

  19. 19.

    MattF

    December 2, 2020 at 6:37 pm

    Sen. Inhofe, who is chairman of the relevant Senate committee, is not going along. Trump’s power is leaking away.

  20. 20.

    Brachiator

    December 2, 2020 at 6:37 pm

    @Rob:

    @Delk: Is that the tiny desk?

    Tiny desk for tiny hands. Someone should give Orange Rage Infant Trump his baby rattle and a pacifier.

  21. 21.

    The Moar You Know

    December 2, 2020 at 6:39 pm

    Sadly, I’d love to see Sec. 230 repealed, as it would be the end of Facebook, Twitter, and all other “social media”, which I think would be a godsend to our democracy.

    But I’m such a petty shithead I don’t even want Trump to get that.  I want there to be a literal “our final offer is:  nothing” scenario as he is booted out of office.

    He will not veto.  What he’s really trying to blackmail out of everyone is legal immunity, and he’s not going to get it.

  22. 22.

    Baud

    December 2, 2020 at 6:40 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    It would be the end of Balloon Juice.

  23. 23.

    The Moar You Know

    December 2, 2020 at 6:42 pm

    It would be the end of Balloon Juice.

    @Baud:  Yes it would.  And as much as I truly love y’all, I’d be OK with that.  Good of the many outweighs the good of the few.

    And if we don’t get rid of Facebook, it will be the end of American democracy.

  24. 24.

    Kent

    December 2, 2020 at 6:43 pm

    Georgia has a ton of military bases including Fort Benning (named after Confederate General Henry Lewis Benning) .  And also a TON of military retirees.

    Please, please veto this bill so we can see Loeffler and Perdue twisting in the wind, refusing to fund the military and raise military pay over Trump’s twitter temper tantrum.

  25. 25.

    scav

    December 2, 2020 at 6:45 pm

    Oh, the funding opportunities that will open before him if still more of everyone is against him. Deep State Companies! Deep State Judiciary! Deep State Fox News! Deep State Republicans! It’s AAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL The Deep State. Send Money Now.

  26. 26.

    Kent

    December 2, 2020 at 6:46 pm

    @Baud:It would be the end of Balloon Juice.

    Nonsense, Balloon Juice would just have to move to a secret server in Ukraine!!!

  27. 27.

    Baud

    December 2, 2020 at 6:47 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    I. Choose. BJ!

  28. 28.

    Rob

    December 2, 2020 at 6:47 pm

    Tiny desk for tiny hands. Someone should give Orange Rage Infant Trump his baby rattle and a pacifier.

    @Brachiator: And a red stapler too

  29. 29.

    Baud

    December 2, 2020 at 6:47 pm

    @Kent:

    Nonsense, Balloon Juice would just have to move to a secret server in Ukraine Hillary’s basement!!!

    Unhackable!

  30. 30.

    Martin

    December 2, 2020 at 6:49 pm

    So, if Trump shuts down the military, that would seem to interfere with the marshal law, have the military oversee a new election fever dream on the right.

    I mean, these folks don’t exactly excel at planning, but this is literally holding two thoughts in your head and ensuring they don’t contradict each other, and they don’t seem capable of even doing that.

  31. 31.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 6:50 pm

    @Martin: Marshal?

  32. 32.

    Baud

    December 2, 2020 at 6:51 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Jared’s rank as military commander.

  33. 33.

    laura

    December 2, 2020 at 6:52 pm

    Diaper Don so mad! Grrrr!

  34. 34.

    Just Chuck

    December 2, 2020 at 6:53 pm

    @Martin:Oh they’ll just want him to take the money from somewhere else.  Preferably from the $500 trillion going to ACORN’s Abortion Megaplexes.  Hell the POTUS has already treated the military budget as a piggybank for other things, like the border wall, so they assume it works the other way too.

  35. 35.

    Kent

    December 2, 2020 at 6:53 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:@Martin: Marshal?

    That would be law under which ‘The Medium is the Message?”

    Probably apropos for Trump!

  36. 36.

    dmsilev

    December 2, 2020 at 6:54 pm

    @Martin: No, the answer there is simple. Get the troops to overthrow the republic and then don’t pay them. Historically, that’s a sure-fire winner with no possibility of going wrong.

  37. 37.

    SW

    December 2, 2020 at 6:56 pm

    God I hope he vetos the defense bill.

  38. 38.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 6:57 pm

    @dmsilev: But they are doing it in the wrong order.  Refusing to pay them then demanding that they overthrown the government doesn’t strike me as a good plan.

  39. 39.

    Calouste

    December 2, 2020 at 6:58 pm

    @dmsilev: Twitter would definitely get sued by people they ban for saying the exact same thing as the shitgibbon says, and doesn’t get banned for. Someone created an account that did nothing but retweet the shitgibbon, and that got banned within a few days.

  40. 40.

    Frank Wilhoit

    December 2, 2020 at 6:59 pm

    @The Moar You Know: The problem is not the storyteller(s). The problem is the audience.

  41. 41.

    scav

    December 2, 2020 at 6:59 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: And?

    What in the course of the last few years would bring you to expect the functional order?

  42. 42.

    Tom Levenson

    December 2, 2020 at 7:00 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:  Tucker!

  43. 43.

    Martin

    December 2, 2020 at 7:01 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Oh, usually I spot the autocorrects. Whoopsie. I wonder in what manner I originally misspelled that one.

  44. 44.

    Benw

    December 2, 2020 at 7:01 pm

    Trump’s such a coward that 1. he’s threatening to defund the military because he think’s Twitter (his best friend) is mean to him, and 2. he’s going to wimp out anyway and sign the bill.

    Brave, brave Sir Trump.

  45. 45.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 7:03 pm

    @scav: A fair point.

  46. 46.

    Martin

    December 2, 2020 at 7:04 pm

    @dmsilev: Yeah, that’s what I assume. The military will of course back Trump, and do it for free, because freedom. Nevermind the underlying assertion that black people voting is a form of fraud, and the military is heavily POC.

  47. 47.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 7:04 pm

    @Tom Levenson: Why bring Carlson into it?

  48. 48.

    Amir Khalid

    December 2, 2020 at 7:05 pm

    @scav:

    I agree. Trying to figure out Trump’s cray-cray is a fool’s errand.

  49. 49.

    Frankensteinbeck

    December 2, 2020 at 7:08 pm

    @Martin:

    The military will of course back Trump, and do it for free, because freedom.

    Always worth a reminder that Esper got fired for relaying the message from the generals that no, they ain’t touching the election and Trump can stick his coup in his pie hole.

  50. 50.

    The Moar You Know

    December 2, 2020 at 7:08 pm

    The problem is not the storyteller(s). The problem is the audience.

    @Frank Wilhoit: I disagree profoundly.  As does history.  The Third Reich without the storytellers is just a very dysfunctional Weimar Republic.  No Third Reich, no Hitler, no Holocaust.

    But I expect America to bitterly cling to guns, religion, Twitter, Facebook, Parler and the rest, all the way down the slide to the bottom.

  51. 51.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 7:09 pm

    @Martin:

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    @dmsilev:

    What I don’t get is why isn’t the military considered apart of the “deep state”, anyway, to these loons? The military-industrial complex is a thing that exists

  52. 52.

    The Moar You Know

    December 2, 2020 at 7:09 pm

    marshal law

    @Martin: Dude, it’s “Marshall Law”, as in the guitar amp.

  53. 53.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 7:11 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    Marshall Law should totally be the title of a courtroom drama

  54. 54.

    Wag

    December 2, 2020 at 7:12 pm

    @Rob:   No, that was the Reso-lite Desk

  55. 55.

    dm

    December 2, 2020 at 7:14 pm

    @Baud:

    It would be the end of Balloon Juice.

    You could repeal Section 230 for any business with more than $X million in revenues or more than Y million participants, leaving it in place for smaller businesses, preserving Section 230’s encouragement-of-communication-innovation by small businesses while causing the Twitters and the Facebooks to spend some of their billions exerting some editorial control.

  56. 56.

    The Moar You Know

    December 2, 2020 at 7:14 pm

    Marshall Law should totally be the title of a courtroom drama

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Sure.  It’s already the name of over a hundred shitty metal bands.

  57. 57.

    opiejeanne

    December 2, 2020 at 7:15 pm

    @Rob: Per Wikipedia:

    The Resolute desk is a nineteenth-century partners’ desk used by several presidents of the United States in the White House Oval Office as the Oval Office desk. It was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880 and was built from the English oak timbers of the British Arctic exploration ship HMS Resolute. 

  58. 58.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2020 at 7:15 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    “Beats up widows and orphans in court during the day, and blasts Nugent covers on his Les Paul copy and Marshall stack when the sun goes down!  Fridays at 8 pm on The CW.”

  59. 59.

    Martin

    December 2, 2020 at 7:15 pm

    @The Moar You Know: I’d be down with that. The reeducation music has never sounded better.

  60. 60.

    chopper

    December 2, 2020 at 7:16 pm

    i love that this motherfucker thinks he’s got that kind of leverage that you’d need to extort everyone over this sort of issue.

  61. 61.

    Martin

    December 2, 2020 at 7:16 pm

    @dm: Just do it for for-profits.

  62. 62.

    cain

    December 2, 2020 at 7:19 pm

    It won’t be Marshall law, it’ll end up with this clown show Barney Fife Law

  63. 63.

    waratah

    December 2, 2020 at 7:19 pm

    @Baud: They are all cowards. They could not stand by the election workers in Georgia who are being threatened. They try to bypass the threats which are real. We have all seen what has happened before when Trump encouraged things like this.
    I am praying that violence does not break out in Georgia.

  64. 64.

    Amir Khalid

    December 2, 2020 at 7:20 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Isn’t The Nooge a Gretsch player?

  65. 65.

    Tom Levenson

    December 2, 2020 at 7:21 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Can’t You See…I’d never do such a dastardly thing.

  66. 66.

    matt the semi-reasonable

    December 2, 2020 at 7:22 pm

    I mean, yeah, let the president get out his veto pen to defund the troops. let his Republican Party protectors suck on that.

  67. 67.

    HumboldtBlue

    December 2, 2020 at 7:23 pm

    “Republicans are sick of this shit,” one GOP lawmaker put it.

    What utter bullshit. They’ve enabled this entire monstrosity of an administration and gladly sat aside while Trump became the most unbearable and disgusting person to ever hold the office.

  68. 68.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 7:24 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    Is there so many of them because of that pun?

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Could you explain the joke, I don’t get it

  69. 69.

    Delk

    December 2, 2020 at 7:24 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Gibson Byrdland

  70. 70.

    Roger Moore

    December 2, 2020 at 7:26 pm

    @Martin:

    I mean, these folks don’t exactly excel at planning, but this is literally holding two thoughts in your head and ensuring they don’t contradict each other, and they don’t seem capable of even doing that.

    Republicans are double plus good at doublethink.

  71. 71.

    Frankensteinbeck

    December 2, 2020 at 7:26 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    What I don’t get is why isn’t the military considered apart of the “deep state”, anyway, to these loons?

    Because it kills brown people, and they imagine the military as their surrogate brutally putting inferior brown people in their place all over the world.  Similar to their support for the police.  Republicanism really is all about the right of white men to hurt everyone else.

  72. 72.

    The Moar You Know

    December 2, 2020 at 7:27 pm

    Isn’t The Nooge a Gretsch player?

    @Amir Khalid: not that classy.  I know for a long time he was playing those REALLY large hollowbody Gibsons, like the ES-175.  Which is not exactly the guitar you want to be using at those volume levels, but he did make it work.  Probably the only nice thing I can say about him.

    I think he plays anything that gets thrown at him these days.  He doesn’t really have a career left save as “right-wing grifter”.

    Delk nailed it, yeah, Byrdland.

  73. 73.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 7:27 pm

    @Delk: Why do you know that?  ::side-eye::

  74. 74.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 7:28 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: To be fair, it has also put in time killing fascists.

  75. 75.

    Frank Wilhoit

    December 2, 2020 at 7:29 pm

    @The Moar You Know: Your 2d graf contradicts your first.

    Here is how you totalitarianism.
    First, you decide to kill somebody.
    Second, you decide who to kill. (This tends to be a grab bag of potential victims, each of whom is as good as the next; if obstacles arise to pursuing one victim, you can immediately pivot to another.)
    Third, you invent a reason to kill them.
    Fourth, you build a propaganda around the reasons. This, and this only, is the “storyteller”.
    Fifth, you build a social/political movement to act out the propaganda.
    Sixth, you pick a leader. The leader is always a pure figurehead, who originates nothing and can be replaced in a split second if need be.

    The propaganda that was eventually adopted by the Nazis was fully formed by the mid-19th century, before Hitler was born. Sources: Peter G. J. Pulzer, The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria [New York: Wiley, 1964]; Peter Viereck, Meta-Politics: The Roots of the Nazi Mind [New York: Capricorn, 1965].

  76. 76.

    Roger Moore

    December 2, 2020 at 7:29 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    What I don’t get is why isn’t the military considered apart of the “deep state”, anyway, to these loons?

    The Deep State are the people within the government who oppose them.  They believe the military is on their side.  Therefore the military is not part of the Deep State.

  77. 77.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2020 at 7:29 pm

    @Amir Khalid:  you think screenwriters at the CW focus on details like that?  That’s why you never made it in LA!

    True story: college friend dreamed of being a jingle writer.  Double majored in Music and Philosophy.  Graduated and moved to Hollywood to pursue his dream.  Was possible the greatest failure in history of Hollywood failures.  Defeated and broken, he returned to Atlanta and became a cardiologist.

  78. 78.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 7:30 pm

    50 49 shades of bray – and counting.

  79. 79.

    opiejeanne

    December 2, 2020 at 7:30 pm

    @Rob: The Resolute desk was a gift from Queen Victoria to the White House during the Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes. It was made from the recovered timbers of a British arctic exploratory ship, HMS Resolute.

  80. 80.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2020 at 7:31 pm

    @Tom Levenson:  I’ve heard that you can, and I heard it in a love song so it can’t be wrong

  81. 81.

    Amir Khalid

    December 2, 2020 at 7:31 pm

    @Delk:

    Thank you. I lounge in bed corrected.

  82. 82.

    Frank Wilhoit

    December 2, 2020 at 7:31 pm

    @opiejeanne: I like desks that weren’t shipwrecked.

  83. 83.

    geg6

    December 2, 2020 at 7:32 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Yup.

  84. 84.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 7:32 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: I am so glad I didn’t go to college in the south.

  85. 85.

    Uncle Cosmo

    December 2, 2020 at 7:32 pm

    @Brachiator: Diaper Donnie at the Dissolute Desk.

  86. 86.

    Roger Moore

    December 2, 2020 at 7:33 pm

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Republicans became sick of Trump’s shit the moment he failed to steal the election.  Now that he can’t do anything more useful for them, they’ll be all too happy to see him go.

  87. 87.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2020 at 7:34 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:  well, there weren’t any colleges named after Robert E. Lee in the north, so what choice did I have?

     

    @Amir Khalid: you should change your nym to “Hugh Hefner”

  88. 88.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 2, 2020 at 7:36 pm

    I just want the tiresome Orange Clown to disappear. Buy a clue Orange man we are not that into you.

  89. 89.

    Calouste

    December 2, 2020 at 7:36 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: My first thought here was that I was surprised that the Nuge played the same acoustic guitar as Woody Guthrie. Woody had “This machine kills fascists” on his guitar.

  90. 90.

    Baud

    December 2, 2020 at 7:37 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:

    He wants to remain anonymous.

  91. 91.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 7:37 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Ah, delusional racism, how silly of me to forget. Not to praise the military too heavily, but diversity is one of it’s assets. I imagine that will help in the future

  92. 92.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 7:40 pm

    @Steve in the ATL

    Speaking of schools: Data: The Schools Named After Confederate Figures.

    ;)

  93. 93.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 7:40 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    The Deep State are the people within the government who oppose them.  They believe the military is on their side.  Therefore the military is not part of the Deep State.

    Simple enough

  94. 94.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 7:41 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: I do see your point, I guess.  And, of course, mine was founded as a coed institution and that just wouldn’t do.

  95. 95.

    Roger Moore

    December 2, 2020 at 7:42 pm

    @opiejeanne:

    Honestly, I would love for Biden to warehouse the Resolute Desk and get a contemporary American craftsman to build him a stylish new desk that’s designed from the ground up for a modern working style.  It would be a great symbol that he isn’t tying himself to an obsolete, backward-looking approach to government.

  96. 96.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 2, 2020 at 7:48 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    it has also put in time killing fascists.

    So it’s Antifa?  No wonder Trump wants to defund them.

  97. 97.

    patrick II

    December 2, 2020 at 7:48 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Neither order sounds like a good idea.  Would you want troops mad at you before or after you asked them to seize power?

  98. 98.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 2, 2020 at 7:48 pm

    @Roger Moore: Didn’t he actually lose the military vote this time around. I remember reading that somewhere.

  99. 99.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 7:48 pm

    @Calouste:

    Woody Guthrie’s later life is super sad. He suffered from Huntington’s disease. His wife eventually divorced him

  100. 100.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2020 at 7:50 pm

    @NotMax: my school was (1) a university, (2) private, and (3) named after Lee only after he served as university president.

    Also, the school appointed a blue ribbon commission to study the issue.   A number of buildings have been renamed already, but changing the name of the school is a bit of a sticky wicket.  And since he’s buried in campus, would he haunt the place in response?

  101. 101.

    Roger Moore

    December 2, 2020 at 7:51 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    You are making the mistake of allowing facts to interfere with a good story.  Republicans would never let that happen.

  102. 102.

    Craig

    December 2, 2020 at 7:52 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’s the title of a comic series from the 80s.

  103. 103.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2020 at 7:52 pm

    @Roger Moore: he can get one at the IKEA in Woodbridge!

  104. 104.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 2, 2020 at 7:54 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: According to my Norwegian friend IKEA is the Swedish Walmart. She is not a fan.

  105. 105.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 7:54 pm

    @Roger Moore

    Certainly no impediment to a different desk. The Resolute desk sat in several locations other than the president’s main office room over the years.

  106. 106.

    raven

    December 2, 2020 at 7:56 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: My bother repped this dude against Zep. They settled.

     

    Jake Holmes (born December 28, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and jingle writer who began a recording career in the 1960s.

    Holmes is the author of the song “Dazed and Confused”, later reworked by Led Zeppelin, and composed the music to the US Army recruitment jingle “Be All That You Can Be” in the 1980s.[1] The jingle and subsequent advertising campaign was used extensively by the US government throughout the 1980s.[2] Holmes also wrote the “I’m A Pepper” jingle, and with Randy Newman co-wrote the “Most Original Soft Drink Ever” jingle for the Dr Pepper soft drink.[3]

  107. 107.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 7:57 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Oberlin?

  108. 108.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 7:57 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Couldn’t find actual votes, but even with the probably inaccurate exit polling this time around, Trump lost 20 points with active military and veterans nationally

    Trump’s election fraud allegations suggest military voters uniformly supported him. It’s not so

    It’s not surprising, therefore, that Trump lost support among veterans and active-duty personnel. While exit polls showed that the military and veterans nationally favored Trump over Biden 52 percent to 45 percent, Trump’s margin dropped 20 points from his 61 percent (to Clinton’s 34 percent) of their vote in 2016.

  109. 109.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 7:57 pm

    @Steve in the ATL

    Just tweak the history to it being named after Bruce Lee.

    :)

  110. 110.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 7:58 pm

    @Dan B: No, Lawrence.  Oberlin was first, but we were second.

  111. 111.

    Bill Arnold

    December 2, 2020 at 7:59 pm

    @dm:

    You could repeal Section 230 for any business with more than $X million in revenues or more than Y million participants, leaving it in place for smaller businesses, preserving Section 230’s encouragement-of-communication-innovation by small businesses while causing the Twitters and the Facebooks to spend some of their billions exerting some editorial control.

    All this could and would be gamed, and a cottage industry of destroying communications platforms for a fee would emerge.

    It’s interesting. Facebook is quite shameless about its nature, a computational propaganda (which includes marketing) platform. Twitter has been changing[1], enough to cause a nutter exodus to nutland outlets like Parler. They are also open, and there is substantial academic interest (sociology etc) in analysis of twitter, which is basically a publicly accessible graph with time labels. And there are active projects attempting to find (and often succeeding) twitter-based influence operations (bots etc) in real time, and sometimes to disrupt them.

    [1] Is Twitter Going Full Resistance? Here’s the Woman Driving the Change. – Vijaya Gadde flies under the radar in a world that worships tech CEOs. But she’s quickly moving Twitter toward a tougher line on speech—and infuriating conservatives along the way. (NANCY SCOLA, 10/28/2020)

  112. 112.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 7:59 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: That’s because it is Swedish.

  113. 113.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2020 at 7:59 pm

    @NotMax: I like it—there was even a Chinese restaurant one county over!

  114. 114.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio

    December 2, 2020 at 8:00 pm

    @Wag:  Is that anything like Hippolyte fudge?

  115. 115.

    zhena gogolia

    December 2, 2020 at 8:03 pm

    @Dan B:

    Oberlin?

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Haha, perish the thought!

  116. 116.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 8:03 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: For the GOP at your school, there is always Lee Harvey Oswald.

  117. 117.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 8:04 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus

    Per Wikipedia, seventh.

    ;)

  118. 118.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 8:04 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Did you see that Prof LaRoque died?

  119. 119.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 8:04 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I wondered since my mother, two of my father’s sisters and a couple cousins graduated from Oberlin.  And they were / are strong women

    Lawrence is good as well.  Oberlin has gone full PC event horizon last I heard.

  120. 120.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2020 at 8:05 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: does the ownership of ikea fund right wing politics and move fine art to rural Arkansas?  Could duck duck go it, I suppose.

  121. 121.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 2, 2020 at 8:06 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yeah I know. But their labor practices are not great compared to other Scandinavian companies. They rely on economies of scale and scope just like Walmart does and kill local competition etc. etc.

  122. 122.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2020 at 8:06 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Washington and Lee Harvey Oswald University—catchy!

  123. 123.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 2, 2020 at 8:08 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: IKEA’s founder was a part of the Swedish fascist movement and had Nazi connections.

  124. 124.

    Benw

    December 2, 2020 at 8:08 pm

    @raven: I’m tickled to learn that the same person who wrote Dazed and Confused wrote the Army jingle!

  125. 125.

    Martin

    December 2, 2020 at 8:10 pm

    @NotMax: Zebulon is a hell of a first name, though.

  126. 126.

    Baud

    December 2, 2020 at 8:10 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    But their labor practices are not great compared to other Scandinavian companies.

    They pay me nothing for putting together their furniture.

  127. 127.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 2, 2020 at 8:10 pm

    @Baud: It is a pain in the neck to put together too.

  128. 128.

    Baud

    December 2, 2020 at 8:12 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    The pictorial instructions are like hieroglyphics!

  129. 129.

    Craig

    December 2, 2020 at 8:12 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: W&L? I had some good times there when I was at Va Tech.

  130. 130.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 8:12 pm

    @Martin

    Had it not already been taken DuPont might well have used it as a fabric name.

    ;)

  131. 131.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 8:13 pm

    @Steve in the ATL:  My Oberlin graduate mother came from Walton land.  The college her aunts taught at, College of the Ozarks, was turned into a university by Helen Walton.

    My mother lived a life of contrasts.  Put her younger brothers through MIT and Harvard on a music teacher’s salary.  They avoided tickets driving from Arkansas to Cambridge by claiming to be yokels.   Went on to careers at high levels of the space program at Goodrich and JPL.

  132. 132.

    Patricia Kayden

    December 2, 2020 at 8:14 pm

    @laura: Diaper Don is always mad.  I’m looking forward to seeing him have a meltdown when NY AG Leticia James goes after him and his juvenile delinquent spawn.

  133. 133.

    Patricia Kayden

    December 2, 2020 at 8:15 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: O-o.  Didn’t know that. Disappointing.

  134. 134.

    laura

    December 2, 2020 at 8:15 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: If I recall correctly, IKEA is incorporated in the Netherlands as a non-profit.

  135. 135.

    Rob

    December 2, 2020 at 8:16 pm

    @Wag: Indeed.

  136. 136.

    Rob

    December 2, 2020 at 8:17 pm

    @opiejeanne: I didn’t know that. I hope it resolves to stay in the White House.

  137. 137.

    Doc Sardonic

    December 2, 2020 at 8:18 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Nugent’s  main axe is the Gibson Byrdland..Looks a lot like a Gretsch. The only time I am aware he strayed from that was his fling with PRS during the Damn Yankees days.

  138. 138.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 8:19 pm

    @NotMax

    “The soldiers became even more popular among the civilians by handing out candy bars and zebulons.”

    :)

  139. 139.

    zhena gogolia

    December 2, 2020 at 8:22 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I didn’t remember him.

  140. 140.

    O. Felix Culpa

    December 2, 2020 at 8:24 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Refusing to pay them then demanding that they overthrown the government doesn’t strike me as a good plan.

    I’m late to the show, but this has me ROFL.

  141. 141.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 2, 2020 at 8:24 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: But what will you do with Bobby’s body, maybe Subaru Diane can help with that.

  142. 142.

    Roger Moore

    December 2, 2020 at 8:24 pm

    @NotMax:

    To me, though, it’s not just about a different desk; it’s about having a new one. I’m tired of having our government so wrapped up in hoary old traditions that we can’t get anything done. Replacing a century-old desk with a modern one that represents the best of what America can do today would be a fitting symbol of an administration that isn’t going to let old ways of thinking smother progress.

  143. 143.

    moops

    December 2, 2020 at 8:27 pm

    “Republicans are sick of this shit”

     

    No they aren’t.

  144. 144.

    Baud

    December 2, 2020 at 8:32 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Two words: Open workspace.

  145. 145.

    opiejeanne

    December 2, 2020 at 8:33 pm

    @Rob: IIRC, it’s featured in “National Treasure” which is a silly fun little romp through “history”.

  146. 146.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 8:34 pm

    @NotMax: I believe that the kicker is “founded as coed.”

  147. 147.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 2, 2020 at 8:34 pm

    Ivanka Trump, the President’s daughter and adviser, sat for a deposition Tuesday with investigators from the Washington, DC, attorney general’s office as part of its lawsuit alleging the misuse of inaugural funds, according to a court filing.
    In January, the DC attorney general’s office sued the Trump Organization and Presidential Inaugural Committee alleging they abused more than $1 million raised by the nonprofit by “grossly overpaying” for use of event space at the Trump hotel in Washington for the 2017 inauguration.

  148. 148.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 8:35 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Short dude, taught econ.

    @O. Felix Culpa: I was bringing to bear my experience as a soldier.

  149. 149.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 8:36 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I’m surprised Herr Barr hasn’t tried to short circuit that

  150. 150.

    scav

    December 2, 2020 at 8:37 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ahhhhhhh, can it possibly be a Merry Christmas in the offing?

  151. 151.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    December 2, 2020 at 8:37 pm

    “Republicans are sick of this shit”

    Maybe they are in some alternate universe.  In the reality that I inhabit, they’re a bunch of nail biting, bed wetting cowards who are afraid of their own shadows.

  152. 152.

    zhena gogolia

    December 2, 2020 at 8:38 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I never went near Econ. I really have no recollection of him.

  153. 153.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    December 2, 2020 at 8:38 pm

    @Baud: The Resolute Cubicle.

  154. 154.

    Lyrebird

    December 2, 2020 at 8:41 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    Popehat on twitter retweeted this thread 

    ..from a another lawyer (Turkewitz) about why keeping 230 is a good idea.

     

    I am sooooooo not a lawyer, so I dunno, but I respect much of what Popehat (Ken White) has to say.

  155. 155.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    December 2, 2020 at 8:43 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Ivanka Trump, the President’s daughter and adviser, sat for a deposition Tuesday with investigators from the Washington, DC,

    I look forward to seeing Ivanka in a designer prison jump suit.

    Siri has way more class and personality than this pathetic doofus.

  156. 156.

    RSA

    December 2, 2020 at 8:43 pm

    @opiejeanne: Cool. Thanks. I did not know that.

    Funny note: I checked Wikipedia and found that the first photo on the page is of the President at the Resolute Desk… President Obama. That may rankle with some. Good.

  157. 157.

    O. Felix Culpa

    December 2, 2020 at 8:43 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I was bringing to bear my experience as a soldier.

    I’m sure you were. The dryness of your observation is hilarious and spot-on.

  158. 158.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 8:43 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    You were an officer, right? Out of curiosity, what branch did you serve in?

  159. 159.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 8:43 pm

    @Roger Moore

    Heck, I’ve been pushing the concept of incorporating modern furniture in the mix since Ike. If oil lamps and candlestick phones can be updated so can other accoutrements.

    ;)

  160. 160.

    Yarrow

    December 2, 2020 at 8:45 pm

    @Wyatt Salamanca:  No designer prison jumpsuit. A regular, standard issue one will do just fine. I’m interested to see what color her hair is once she’s behind bars for awhile.

  161. 161.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 2, 2020 at 8:46 pm

    @Yarrow: Brown

  162. 162.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 8:47 pm

    @moops

    They have but to wait five minutes and there will be fresh, heaping servings of sh*t for them to slavishly swallow.

  163. 163.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 8:47 pm

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka): Field Artillery.

  164. 164.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 2, 2020 at 8:54 pm

    the very beautiful Resolute desk

    What kind of freak* talks like this?

    No offense to actual freaks.

  165. 165.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 8:54 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Oh, cool. So you worked with artillery, then? I think you mentioned once that you served in the late 80s. Were you involved in the Gulf War at all?

  166. 166.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2020 at 8:57 pm

    @Craig: yup.  I had a couple of good nights in Blacksburg too!

  167. 167.

    Yarrow

    December 2, 2020 at 8:58 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:  Or gray.

  168. 168.

    raven

    December 2, 2020 at 8:59 pm

    @Craig: Go Hokies!

  169. 169.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 9:01 pm

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka): So you worked with artillery, then?

    Um, yeah….

  170. 170.

    raven

    December 2, 2020 at 9:03 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Hahahaha, get em Red Leg. . .

  171. 171.

    Uncle Cosmo

    December 2, 2020 at 9:04 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I presume your specialty was (allegedly) “adding dignity to what would otherwise be an ugly brawl.”

    One went high! One went low!
    Where the hell did that one go?
    As the caissons go rolling along…

  172. 172.

    raven

    December 2, 2020 at 9:05 pm

    @Uncle Cosmo: The King of Battle

  173. 173.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    December 2, 2020 at 9:05 pm

    7 weeks from today, we will be liberated

  174. 174.

    Amir Khalid

    December 2, 2020 at 9:06 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    This baffles me. Trump has done it so many times, he should know how it goes: first you make them do the work, then you stiff them on payment.

  175. 175.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 9:06 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I was prompting you to talk about the artillery you worked with

  176. 176.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    December 2, 2020 at 9:07 pm

    @mrmoshpotato:

    What kind of freak* talks like this?

    No rational human being has ever spoken like Trump.  With each passing day, he’s setting new records for batshit crazy.  He belongs in a straitjacket in the lockdown unit of a mental hospital.  The notion of this raving lunatic inhabiting the White House for 50 plus more days is truly horrific.

  177. 177.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 9:08 pm

    @Uncle Cosmo: One owns a print.

  178. 178.

    CarolPW

    December 2, 2020 at 9:10 pm

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka): So you have stalked Omnes all these months in your posts to him and his responses to you without having tracked that he is artillery? Fucking son of a bitch. Will wonders never cease. Satby is right.

  179. 179.

    Steve in the ATL

    December 2, 2020 at 9:10 pm

    @Dan B: there’s hope for rural folks after all!  I’ve known some really smart people from the middle of nowhere, including my mother, though most of them have moved to more urban areas.

  180. 180.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 9:10 pm

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka): You weren’t doing it well.

  181. 181.

    Spanky

    December 2, 2020 at 9:11 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Something I’ve always wondered: Where else do you put artillery than in the field? Is there office artillery? Stream artillery? What other flavor do you guys have?

  182. 182.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 9:14 pm

    @Spanky: There is Air Defense Artillery, and there used to be Coast Artillery.

  183. 183.

    schrodingers_cat

    December 2, 2020 at 9:15 pm

    @Spanky: naval artillery?

  184. 184.

    jeffreyw

    December 2, 2020 at 9:16 pm

    @raven: I still can’t ask anyone to “repeat that”.  I default to “say again”.  I have managed to drop the over in the last 50 years.

  185. 185.

    Amir Khalid

    December 2, 2020 at 9:16 pm

    @Spanky:

    Who is this Artie Leary guy that you all are talking about?

  186. 186.

    raven

    December 2, 2020 at 9:16 pm

    @Spanky: Air defense artillery. When I was in during the 60’s they actually made the ADA insignia and the FA insignia the same. They changed it back so that FA is now just two crossed cannons.

  187. 187.

    Uncle Cosmo

    December 2, 2020 at 9:17 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: As soon as you mentioned it I knew exactly what print it was – a copy hung behind the desk of one of my very favorite grouchy gravel-voiced retired-bird-colonel coworkers when I was an ILS geek at Westinghouse Defense in the 80s.

    FTR the song lyrics are courtesy of one Seamus Kennedy, who made a living for many years in the DC area as a solo act. The other services fared about as poorly, e.g.:

    Off we go into the wild blue yonder –
    Lost again, son of a bitch!

    and

    Let’s go get laid, my boys,
    Let’s go get laid!

    Just FTR you should check out his rant re chihuahuas. “It’s not a dog, it’s a rat with a thyroid condition.” Und so weiter…

  188. 188.

    raven

    December 2, 2020 at 9:17 pm

    @jeffreyw: 5×5 dawg. Over is the one that drives me nuts in movies. Over and out indeed.

  189. 189.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 9:20 pm

    @CarolPW:

    What are you talking about? I’ve been a “regular” here for the last 3 years. I was trying to make conversation. And guess what, I happened to remember him mentioning at various times he was military. I was curious and decided to ask

    And Satby isn’t right

  190. 190.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 9:20 pm

    @jeffreyw: I can’t do that either.  I have removed “check or hold?” from my vocab unless I am with other gunner types.

  191. 191.

    Spanky

    December 2, 2020 at 9:20 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:  @raven:

    Ah. Thanks. I hadn’t considered AAA to be artillery in spite of that 3rd A. My bad.

  192. 192.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 9:22 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Ok. What specific artillary did you work with?

  193. 193.

    raven

    December 2, 2020 at 9:25 pm

    @Spanky: I was in the 1/79th Arty in Korea.  Battery F /79th Arty in Vietnam was an Aerial Rocket Artillery unit.

     

    Aerial rocket artillery (abbreviated ARA, also called aerial artillery) is a type of armed helicopter unit that was part of the artillery component of the United States Army’s two airmobile divisions during the Vietnam War. Controlled by division artillery and not the aviation group, the 2nd Battalion, 20th Artillery, 1st Cavalry Divisionand the 4th Battalion, 77th Artillery, 101st Airborne Division, along with Battery F, 79th Artillery, 1st Cavalry Division, were the only ARA units fielded during that conflict. The ARA concept disappeared from Army aviation by the mid-1970s, replaced by more generic attack aviation units.

  194. 194.

    Timill

    December 2, 2020 at 9:25 pm

    @Spanky: Fixed artillery – in fortifications &c., or hanging out on the Siegfried line…

  195. 195.

    CaseyL

    December 2, 2020 at 9:25 pm

    I don’t know how closely y’all are following the legal antics of Dolt45’s “Strike Force,” but – talk about event horizons – they’ve gone Full Metal Wacko.

    Lin Wood and Sidney Powell just presided over a rally (broadcast by OANN, and a snippet was posted on YouTube) where Wood worked the crowd up into a frenzy against Georgie Gov. Kemp and Sens. Loeffler and Perdue. He’s telling the crowd to boycott the Jan. 5 runoffs unless Kemp, Loeffler, and Perdue reverse certification, “bring in the Legislature!,” and then “Resign, Kemp!”

    I’m not sure how many potential Georgia GOP voters are paying attention. I hope many, many are.

  196. 196.

    raven

    December 2, 2020 at 9:26 pm

    @CaseyL: He also said he was willing to die in the effort.

  197. 197.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 9:28 pm

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka): M110A2

  198. 198.

    Jeffro

    December 2, 2020 at 9:28 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:he can create some new squid cloud five minutes before signing it and his followers will never know he backed down, and will in fact think he totally owned the libs that day by insulting Rosie O’Donnell or something

    I LOL’d at three different things in just this one sentence!  =)

  199. 199.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 9:31 pm

    @raven

    There’s at least one military movie (with Walter Pidgeon, IIRC) where the chatter of an air unit uses “don’t answer” as a verbal cue the radio transmission is now finished.

  200. 200.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 9:32 pm

    @CarolPW:

    I think you might’ve been joking

  201. 201.

    zhena gogolia

    December 2, 2020 at 9:33 pm

    @NotMax:

    Not Command Decision?

  202. 202.

    raven

    December 2, 2020 at 9:33 pm

    @NotMax: Proly Command Decision

  203. 203.

    Gin & Tonic

    December 2, 2020 at 9:35 pm

    @raven: Most people who very publicly say they are willing to die turn out not to be so willing when the rubber meets the road.

  204. 204.

    Another Scott

    December 2, 2020 at 9:37 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Yup.

    Repost, ICYMI…

    Sending some prayers for her husband to get a decent wife who doesn't put him at risk with his conditions. pic.twitter.com/TsZhhTDlQu

    — Ben Tribbett (@notlarrysabato) December 1, 2020

    Notice the time delta on the two images…

    :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  205. 205.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 9:38 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: Yes there is hope for rural folks… but my uncle retired to the ranch in Arkansas near the OK border – 600 acres – and hated Clinton.  My grandfather owned a coal mine and a large wholesale produce business.  They were anything but yokels.  My grandfather studied the classics in Greek, no silly translations.

    So there is always hope.  Sigh.

  206. 206.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 9:38 pm

    @raven

    Aerial rocket artillery

    Before the eyes focused properly I momentarily read that as Animal rocket artillery.

    Which conjures up an entirely different and novel panorama.
    :)

  207. 207.

    Peale

    December 2, 2020 at 9:39 pm

    @Spanky: on boats. I’m pretty sure the big guns on boats aren’t field artillery.

  208. 208.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 9:40 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    A howitzer? Those things are awesome!

  209. 209.

    Jeffro

    December 2, 2020 at 9:42 pm

    @The Moar You Know:What he’s really trying to blackmail out of everyone is legal immunity, and he’s not going to get it.

    Good point.

    Think he’ll slip and say it publicly sometime in the next 47 days?  I do.

  210. 210.

    CarolPW

    December 2, 2020 at 9:43 pm

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka): Have you not read any comments unless they were in response to you? Are the only comments you read those that have your name in them?

    ETA: not joking.

  211. 211.

    trollhattan

    December 2, 2020 at 9:44 pm

    File under W for “What the actual fuck?”

    Am getting emails from Quest Diagnostics advertising 15% discounts on lab tests all week.

    Bless their hearts.

  212. 212.

    trollhattan

    December 2, 2020 at 9:44 pm

    @Peale:

    If the decks are planted with lawns?

  213. 213.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    December 2, 2020 at 9:46 pm

    @Another Scott: She couldn’t think through in advance the fact that if she gets Covid her husband is exposed. Doesn’t occur to her until after she gets it. These people are pathologically short-sighted.

  214. 214.

    Jeffro

    December 2, 2020 at 9:47 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: the same kind of freak that humps American flags on stage, methinks

  215. 215.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 9:47 pm

    @CaseyL:

    Holy shit, that’s insane. Can you imagine what must be going through the minds of Kemp, Perdue, and Loeffler, right now?

  216. 216.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 9:49 pm

    @raven – @zhena gogolia

    Just looked it up – Flight Command.

    Triva: Find it giggly (in a juvenile fashion) that Pidgeon’s first marriage was to a lady named Pickles. If only they’d agreed to hyphenate the joint surname to Pidgeon-Pickles.

    Second wife’s maiden name was Walker, which would’ve been cute but Pidgeon-Walker is nowhere near as amusing. :)

  217. 217.

    Jeffro

    December 2, 2020 at 9:49 pm

    @Another Scott: Wow.  Karma is a beast.

  218. 218.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 9:50 pm

    @CarolPW:

    I don’t read every single comment, no. I also don’t remember every single thing I read in detail either.

    I don’t know what your point is. I wasn’t “stalking” anyone

  219. 219.

    Spanky

    December 2, 2020 at 9:51 pm

    @Peale: I’m pretty sure they’re not Army, either, and aren’t called artillery..

  220. 220.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    December 2, 2020 at 9:52 pm

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka): Ronna McDaniel (RNC chair) was trying to plead with the leopards a couple of days ago not to eat the faces of their GA Senate candidates. It didn’t have much effect.

    I don’t know if this craziness is enough to significantly depress the Republican GA vote, but it sure couldn’t hurt.

  221. 221.

    BruceFromOhio

    December 2, 2020 at 9:53 pm

    @CaseyL: Either someone has been up late playing long games of 12-dimensional chess, or it’s a random collision of stupid particles causing a US Senate controlled by a Democratic majority to come into existence.

    Gonna go see how the popcorn supplies are holding up.

  222. 222.

    BruceFromOhio

    December 2, 2020 at 9:55 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: That this accurately describes current events is very disturbing.

  223. 223.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 9:57 pm

    @Another Scott: This “I’m not going to be kept from my religion by you socialist dictators.”  Followed by “Pray for me and my immune compromised husband.”  Is like “Forgive me because I’ve sinned.”  And turning around and condemning people who are not as holy and pure in your beliefs.  Logic is not to be found in claims of superiority like this.

    And thus you see the appeal of conservative religion.  Failing at logic and humility repeatedly is not disqualifying.  There are so many people who struggle with these.  Religious dogma is their refuge but not really their salvation.

    Farce or tragedy?

  224. 224.

    satby

    December 2, 2020 at 9:57 pm

    @CarolPW: Gracias! I just notice things.

  225. 225.

    Redshift

    December 2, 2020 at 9:57 pm

    @The Moar You Know: Another thing in sure he wouldn’t like in the Defense bill is Mark Warner’s provisions to crack down on money laundering and shell companies, if anyone has told him about it. But I don’t think anyone has told him, because he’s not restrained enough to keep from blabbing about it.

  226. 226.

    trollhattan

    December 2, 2020 at 9:59 pm

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka):

    Perdue and Loeffler will wave it off as some deep state shenanigans because that’s how they roll. Kemp will hopefully ponder the prior sins that led him to this underbusing, although I have my doubts.

    Why does Loeffler even bother? She has a billion bucks or so to figure out how to spend before she croaks.

  227. 227.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 10:00 pm

    @satby:

    What do you think you “noticed”? By the way, I never “bragged” about getting “100” N95 masks back in March or whenever the hell it was. It was only ever 10. And guess what, I tried to donate them, but because they’re industrial, the hospital doc I talked to said they couldn’t accept them

    I know I haven’t always acted my best around these parts. But I’m trying to move past it. Please, let’s just start over

  228. 228.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 10:02 pm

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka):  I don’t believe that these Georgia GOP’s are realizing that the Leopards are eating their faces.  They are too far into the bubble.

  229. 229.

    Downpuppy

    December 2, 2020 at 10:05 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:  Crew of 12, 200lb projectile, 18 mile range, looks like a tank but isn’t really armored
    That’s some weird shit, man

  230. 230.

    Yutsano

    December 2, 2020 at 10:05 pm

    Jeebus. It’s like Loeffler just wants to lose this race. Hooking up with crazy Qanon lady? Yeah that’s how you win over moderates!

  231. 231.

    BruceFromOhio

    December 2, 2020 at 10:05 pm

    @Dan B:

    Farce or tragedy?

    Tragic farce – characters too stupid to know that jumping off high places causes injuries to everyone.

  232. 232.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 10:10 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Turnout is usually much lighter in special elections, so gonna lowball a guy-can-dream-can’t-he result.

    Warnock – 171, 833
    Loeffler – 26
    .

    BTW, from a longtime columnist and editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, just yesterday:

    I have been unable to decide which is more disturbing — referring to an African American man as an “it,” or marking Ebenezer and its congregation as a den of satanic influence. But it is hard to walk either back — and with her silence, Loeffler has acquiesced to both. Source

  233. 233.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 10:10 pm

    @Downpuppy: Most accurate gun the US ever had.

  234. 234.

    Viva BrisVegas

    December 2, 2020 at 10:10 pm

    @trollhattan: Why does Loeffler even bother? She has a billion bucks or so to figure out how to spend before she croaks.

    You know of a hobby that is more fun than kicking the weaker?

    This is how people like Loeffler affirm their self worth, by punishing their inferiors.

  235. 235.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 10:12 pm

    @CaseyL: Thanks for posting this.  I saw a post that Lin Wood was being called barshit crazy and didn’t feel like anymore batshit winger news but my mistake.  If the headline had read “Right-wing eating its own”  I would have been getting out the popcorn

    I hope this civil war stays confined to the GOP.

  236. 236.

    SFAW

    December 2, 2020 at 10:16 pm

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka):

    I don’t know what your point is. I wasn’t “stalking” anyone

    I’m a-guessing that Carol’s point is that Omnes has mentioned numerous times over the years that he was in Artillery. Even I know that, and I’m not stalking him responding to his every comment the way you have/do/are. [Not that you’re as bad as Little Boots (I think) was.]
    Unless he trash-talks the Jets, of course

    ETA: NB that I was not being literal when I used “every.”

  237. 237.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 10:17 pm

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    I don’t know if this craziness is enough to significantly depress the Republican GA vote, but it sure couldn’t hurt.

    We can only hope! Winning control of the Senate will be a big help for sure

    @trollhattan:

    Why does Loeffler even bother? She has a billion bucks or so to figure out how to spend before she croaks.

    Well, being a Senator is a prestigious job. It comes with a lot of power. And they say that Senate is like a country club too

    @Dan B:

    That one guy in the SOS office seemed to at least. He sounded pissed from the clips I’ve seen

  238. 238.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 10:19 pm

    @SFAW: Isn’t any talk about the Jets trash talk?  And Little Boots lived in Madison too.  I may actually see him on the streets when I am out.  Scary thought, huh?

  239. 239.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 10:19 pm

    @BruceFromOhio: But, but, but, optimists jump off high places because they BELIEVE!  Pessimists never accomplish anything great.*

     

    *Just FYI I don’t consider ‘splat’ to be great.

  240. 240.

    randy khan

    December 2, 2020 at 10:21 pm

    @dm:

    So I work in this area.  (I actually was involved in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and specifically worked on the Communications Decency Act portion of it, which included Section 230.)

    It’s important to keep in mind that Section 230 works quite well on the whole, for the vast majority of Internet platforms.  The exceptions are significant, but they’re still exceptions.  Heck, the problems don’t even affect all social media (you don’t hear Section 230-related complaints about Pinterest, SnapChat, Instagram, or TikTok, after all).

    So a fix needs to be nuanced.  Something like the size of the company probably isn’t going to work.  Among other things, what do you do about companies that aren’t public, where valuations are, let’s say, squishy?  (That’s Facebook until 2012.)  And Twitter is about half the size of Snap in market capitalization, and SnapChat isn’t part of the problem.

  241. 241.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 10:21 pm

    @SFAW

    Commenter caligula was creepy and crude, two conditions unassignable by any measure to Goku.

    ;)

  242. 242.

    debbie

    December 2, 2020 at 10:22 pm

    Am I the only one wondering why Trump hasn’t been photographed in the Oval Office recently? I’m thinking he might have trashed it or done some sort of damage in a fit of loser fury.

  243. 243.

    SFAW

    December 2, 2020 at 10:22 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Isn’t any talk about the Jets trash talk?

    Perhaps. How would you categorize “I hope Steve Cohen has enough money left to buy the Jets”? [Apologies if that ref is (literally) too inside-baseball-y.]

    ETA: I take it from your response that I was correct in which former commenter it was? Or am I inferring something not there?

  244. 244.

    CaseyL

    December 2, 2020 at 10:23 pm

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka):  Voters are peons to Loeffler and Perdue.  I’m sure they pay no attention at all.

    @Dan B: We have our own crazies. (And every time someone says Democrats should at least listen to them, I seethe, for that very reason.) But our crazies get into Twitter wars, not real ones.

  245. 245.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 10:24 pm

    @SFAW:

    I don’t “respond to his every comment”. All I remembered was him mentioning he was former military. I don’t read or remember every single comment. And don’t compare me to that freak little boots

  246. 246.

    SFAW

    December 2, 2020 at 10:26 pm

    @Dan B:

    Just FYI I don’t consider ‘splat’ to be great.

    Depends on who’s doing the splatting, don’t it?

  247. 247.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 10:26 pm

    @SFAW: Too insiderish for me.

    Yeah, you were right.  He was always a bit nuts but he went way off that the rails when I told him I would never speak to him again after he went on a misogynistic rant at a longtime and very decent female commenter and refused to apologize.  I think it was his continuing abuse aimed at that commenter that got him banned.

  248. 248.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    December 2, 2020 at 10:26 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’m sure I’ve mentioned that my gramps the (Lt) Colonel worked on the improvements to the 4.2 mortar for WWII. But that’s a whole different class of artillery, no?

    Also, in case you’re interested, in a recent Season 2 episode of my buddy’s concert streams, he played a mix where he’d asked Adrian to play “kind of a Fripp-like solo” and Adrian said “Crimson’s in town next week, why don’t you just have him do it?” I remember the story from when he first made it. In the show he just notes he doesn’t play the guitar solo.

  249. 249.

    SFAW

    December 2, 2020 at 10:27 pm

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka):

    Chill the fuck out.

  250. 250.

    Redshift

    December 2, 2020 at 10:27 pm

    @debbie: I was assuming it had something to do with the Christmas decorating, but I don’t know.

  251. 251.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 10:28 pm

    @NotMax:

    Thanks, man. I appreciate that

  252. 252.

    L85NJGT

    December 2, 2020 at 10:28 pm

    Railway artillery, mountain artillery, mortars.

  253. 253.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 10:29 pm

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka): The Georgia SOS was pissed but seemed like these people are an aberration in the GOP that can be dealt with by strongly worded requests.  It seems to me that the crazies are getting crazier and attracting recruits.

    We’ll see but my money is on the Malignant Narcissist in Chief continuing to rip the GOP to shreds.  He has no control, only unbridled fear and hatred.

    Flynn’s call for Martial Law is one more indication.  The GOP brass seems to be impotent and unresponsive.  They think they bought Trump but the Trumpists owned them instead.

  254. 254.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 10:30 pm

    @SFAW:

    Sorry. It’s just that Carol comment really pissed me off

  255. 255.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 10:31 pm

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    FWIW, details other than having been in service of anyone here who has brought them up them wash over me without adhering at all.

    Spotty memory storage is a perquisite to which you can look forward sometime in the 2060s.

    ;)

  256. 256.

    Barbara

    December 2, 2020 at 10:31 pm

    @CaseyL: I read an account of the voting machine allegations they made in a complaint they filed in federal court in Georgia and I can’t figure out what the judge is thinking.  Who do they represent?  How do they have standing? They want to bring in three teams of “experts” to basically figure out how the machines are programmed.  I cannot wrap my brain around a judge just letting people run into a federal court and walk all over the voting process without producing any actual evidence.  He didn’t give them exactly what they wanted but he ordered the state to impound at least three machines.  It’s all now apparently on appeal as the judge acknowledged the case was “novel.”  That’s being very charitable.

  257. 257.

    SFAW

    December 2, 2020 at 10:32 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Steve Cohen just bought the Mets from the execrable Wilpons. Which, except for Cohen being (apparently) kind of a shit — or maybe a criminal? I can never remember* — is (potentially/probably) great news for Mets fans. Of which I am one, as you doubtless remember (and doubtless don’t care).

    Were he to buy the Jets, I think it would also be A GOOD THING.

    *PS to NotMax: The other problem with Cohen is that he went to GNN.

  258. 258.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 10:33 pm

    @Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Yeah, mortars are little artillery pieces that travel with the infantry.

    Love that story.

  259. 259.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 2, 2020 at 10:33 pm

    @Dan B: The GOP brass seems to be impotent and unresponsive. They think they bought Trump but the Trumpists owned them instead.

    They all suck Kremlin asshole now!  SAD!

  260. 260.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 2, 2020 at 10:34 pm

    @SFAW: Little Boots had some good tunes.

  261. 261.

    SFAW

    December 2, 2020 at 10:36 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Little Boots had some good tunes.

    So did Snooky Lanson.

  262. 262.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 2, 2020 at 10:36 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: Your comment reminded me of this:

    (234) A Quick Poke at Uranus – YouTube

  263. 263.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 10:37 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Jesus, he played about 5 songs, the Numa Numa thing, two different versions of The Weight, and then some ’70s pap.

  264. 264.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 2, 2020 at 10:40 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: You forgot the Monkees!

  265. 265.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 10:40 pm

    @randy khan:  Do you think some updated version of the Fairness Doctrine would provide a solution?  I can think of multiple ways – thousands of platforms and blogs, getting the courts to separate the blend of media and platform so there could be clear rules, etc.  But it seems we’re heading for crises in governance at a rapid rate.  When one looks at the Rohingya and other persecuted groups Facebook seems like we are allowing a platform that facilitates toxic murderous propaganda.  It’s like giving plastic explosive and matches to unaccompanied children – violence is only a matter of time.

  266. 266.

    oclib

    December 2, 2020 at 10:40 pm

    @SFAW:

    “I hope Steve Cohen has enough money left to buy the Jets”

    iirc, trump was turned down by the NFL on buying a team.  If Cohen were to buy the Jets (are they really an NFL caliber team?)…..I’ll let one use their imagination on how that would play with trump…. :))))

  267. 267.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 10:41 pm

    @SFAW

    Took me several minutes to get you were referring to North high school. Staid and impressive – on the outside.

    :)

    Have a step-relation who still holds on to a few pieces of New York Titans memorabilia.

  268. 268.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 10:41 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Okay, six songs.

  269. 269.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 10:42 pm

    @CaseyL:  Who are these left wing crazies of whom you speak?

    /s

  270. 270.

    CarolPW

    December 2, 2020 at 10:42 pm

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka): You might try to say “Carol’s” to seem less sexist.

  271. 271.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 10:43 pm

    @SFAW:  Good point.

  272. 272.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 10:44 pm

    @NotMax:

    Hah, something to look forward to

    ; )

    @Dan B:

    It’s tempting to want the GOP to rip itself to shreds, but it won’t be a good thing if an entire political party institutionally collapses. Those crazies will still be around. The last time that happened in American history was the Whigs

  273. 273.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 10:44 pm

    @CarolPW: Come on.  At least he didn’t call you Karen.

  274. 274.

    SFAW

    December 2, 2020 at 10:44 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I can see why it scarred you. [Figuratively speaking, of course.] It probably would do that to me as well.

    Re: ” ’70s pap”: When I was in college, the nearest watering hole ALWAYS seemed to have “How Long Has This Been Going On?” [by Ace, not Gershwin] playing on the juke when I was there. It was enough to drive me to drink.

  275. 275.

    debbie

    December 2, 2020 at 10:45 pm

    @Redshift:

    He would be back in there by now if it was about decorations. He’s all about demonstrating his power, and the Oval Office certainly conveys power. Especially since his time there is coming to an end, you would think he would be camping out there.

  276. 276.

    SFAW

    December 2, 2020 at 10:46 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I think it was his continuing abuse aimed at that commenter that got him banned.

    I missed all that, and thus assumed it was because he seemed to be stalking you. [“I miss Omnes” “Where’s Omnes?” and so forth]

  277. 277.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 10:46 pm

    @SFAW

    Snooky Lanson

    Shrimp Boats!

    How do you feel about Jessica Dragonette?

    ;)

  278. 278.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 10:47 pm

    @CarolPW:

    I’m sorry for that. Sincerely. It was insensitive.

  279. 279.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 10:48 pm

    @SFAW: No, there was real ugliness.

  280. 280.

    CarolPW

    December 2, 2020 at 10:48 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Since nobody knows what my middle name is, “Karen’s” might have been OK but needs the possessive.

  281. 281.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    December 2, 2020 at 10:49 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: But, but, I thought the 4.2 was kind of an important little piece of artillery for the infantry in that war… Not nearly as impressive looking as what you had when you weren’t on leave skiing though.

    The song’s very sad (“Dave”) but the guy it was written for was a huge Robert Fripp fan, and that makes the story better for me.

  282. 282.

    mrmoshpotato

    December 2, 2020 at 10:49 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Haha, ok.  Just to clarify, I meant the GOP are now all traitorous Soviet shitpiles now.  SAD!

    ETA – intro music makes me want to shake my bones.

  283. 283.

    L85NJGT

    December 2, 2020 at 10:51 pm

    @debbie:

    I’m surprised he didn’t have a Space Force uniform made up for himself. Maybe that was a second term project.

  284. 284.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 10:51 pm

    @mrmoshpotato:  A hypothesis that will be clarified in time.

    Another hypothesis:  The rupture in the GOP is between the GRU influenced and the Chinese influenced.  Or it could be factions  in the Kremlin.

    Fun time waster in the time of social isolation distancing.

  285. 285.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 10:51 pm

    @Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: No, I wasn’t dismissing the 4.2.  It was very important for the grunts.  It kept them alive until they could call for real help.

  286. 286.

    CaseyL

    December 2, 2020 at 10:52 pm

    @Dan B: They come in many flavors and aren’t well organized.

    The Young Turks.

    The hardcore BernieBros, currently dragging Biden for his “corporatist neoliberal” Cabinet picks.  These were also the “Kamala is a COP!” cadre.

    The left-wing anti-vaxxers pushing “natural immunity” (i.e. deliberately catch whooping cough, measles, mumps, and chicken pox) or inventing conspiracies between Big Pharma and doctors.

    …that lot.

  287. 287.

    SFAW

    December 2, 2020 at 10:53 pm

    @oclib:

    I think you’re right re: You-Know-Who getting turned down.

    As far as the Jets: they’re pretty effing bad this year, but I’m assuming Cohen would get rid of Gase and Douglas and their OC before the ink was dry. Get a QB coach who knows what he’s doing, maybe save Darnold from the scrap heap. But, of course, Cohen is a Mets guy, it’s too much to hope that he also buys out Woody Johnson.

    What I’m REALLY hoping Cohen does is convince Theo Epstein to come out of retirement/sabbatical, hire him, and turn him loose. [But I’m also hoping to wake up young-and-handsome tomorrow AM.]

  288. 288.

    SFAW

    December 2, 2020 at 10:55 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Then I’m glad I missed it.

  289. 289.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    December 2, 2020 at 10:57 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I never thought you were! I was riffing on your very (impressively) dry “Artillery” replies. I know my life is going sideways when I can no longer convey wit sensibly. Perhaps following replies back to the prompting comment and then getting back to where you started is as unreliable for you as it is for me.

    Nice chatting with you, as always.

  290. 290.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 10:57 pm

    @L85NJGT: Thanks for the image of Tang the Supreme in a Space Force Uniform.  Images should carry a warning for small children, small animals, most adults but Qanon, the sane, etc.

    I hope this vision avoids my dreams.

  291. 291.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 10:59 pm

    @CarolPW:

    Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it

  292. 292.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 10:59 pm

    @L85NJGT

    Design prototype leaked. Rear view to see what’s pinned there sadly unavailable.

    :)

  293. 293.

    SFAW

    December 2, 2020 at 11:00 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Most accurate gun the US ever had.

    Since I know approx zero about artillery: what does that mean in practical terms? That it can put a shell within (for example) 10 yards of the target at the limit of its range

    ETA: Just Wiki’d it. Impressive-looking machine. I expected to see a semi-fixed unit, similar to a 155mm, to give you an idea of how little I know about it.

  294. 294.

    Ian

    December 2, 2020 at 11:02 pm

    @Baud:  I’m assuming you are being sarcastic, but y’all are being just a wee bit alarmist about this.  Internet companies will survive without liability protections, and the protections they do currently have are plenty fine for them with or without this modification.

  295. 295.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 11:04 pm

    @CaseyL:  I went to the National Socialist Convention in 1970.  That and some meetings at Freeway Hall were the most vicious events I’ve experienced.  They may have been infiltrated by CoInTelPro to rile everyone up.

    And there were the fights between Stalinists, Trotskyites, Marxists, etc.  Fun times!  /

    Kamala is a Cop disturbs me as do your other examples.  Saving grace is gratefully absent murderous intent.

  296. 296.

    Amir Khalid

    December 2, 2020 at 11:05 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    As I recall, it was the C-bomb he dropped on her that got him smote with the banhammer.

  297. 297.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 11:07 pm

    @NotMax: Tacks!

     

    Courtesy of Wild and Crazy comrades!!

  298. 298.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 11:09 pm

    @Dan B:

    They may have been infiltrated by CoInTelPro to rile everyone up.

    I’d say that’s pretty certain. COINTELPRO was pretty fucked up

  299. 299.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 11:09 pm

    @Dan B

    there were the fights between Stalinists, Trotskyites, Marxists, etc.

    “And everybody hates the Jews.”
      – Tom Lehrer
    .

    :)

  300. 300.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 11:10 pm

    @SFAW: With good targeting info, you could get all 24 guns in a battalion to put their rounds on a target the size of a football field from a distance of over 10 km.  You normally wouldn’t fire a converge sheaf with that many guns on any target, but if you wanted to, the 8″ was your boy.

  301. 301.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 11:10 pm

    @NotMax:  Thanks for the LOL / Snorting / scaring cats!  But don’t you think that Tang the Most Malevolent would pitch forward from the further imbalance?

    Oh, I forgot about weightlessness.  Never mind!

  302. 302.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 11:10 pm

    @SFAW:

    It’s also self-propelled. It’s an impressive barrel, looking at the pictures

  303. 303.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 11:12 pm

    @NotMax: Ah, memories!

    Cole Porter. attributed.

  304. 304.

    Dan B

    December 2, 2020 at 11:16 pm

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka):  We got decent at picking some of them out.  The convicts who were given pardons – temporary if you met their goals – were non-stop rude and disruptive.  Some were mentally unstable.  Others were undoubtedly clever con artists so it was tricky trying to accuse anybody.

  305. 305.

    SFAW

    December 2, 2020 at 11:17 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Thanks. As long as the football field isn’t Shea Stadium [sic].

  306. 306.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 11:20 pm

    @SFAW: Think of it as a notional football field.  Maybe something around that size that is storing gas and oil.  Big badaboom!

  307. 307.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 11:20 pm

    @SFAW

    Shea Stadium

    Currently landfill in Joisey.

    ;)

  308. 308.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 11:22 pm

    @Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Hey, I just didn’t want you to think I was dissing Gramps.

  309. 309.

    SFAW

    December 2, 2020 at 11:24 pm

    @NotMax:

    Yeah, I know. I still reflexively refer to Citi Field as “Shea,” if I don’t catch myself.

  310. 310.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 11:26 pm

    @SFAW: So which one don’t you want shelled?

  311. 311.

    L85NJGT

    December 2, 2020 at 11:27 pm

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka):

    I read somewhere there isn’t a foundry left on the planet that can do larger than a 155mm barrel. Large caliber guns aren’t cost effective in an age of drones and laser guided munitions.

  312. 312.

    cain

    December 2, 2020 at 11:33 pm

    @NotMax:

    What a wonderful read. Thanks for posting that.

  313. 313.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 11:33 pm

    @L85NJGT: The guns we had in the the late ’80s were built in the the 1950s and retubed (given new barrels) in the 1970s.  Those guns were phased out in early ’90s.  They were dinosaurs, anachronisms but still impressive.

  314. 314.

    Suzanne

    December 2, 2020 at 11:37 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    What I don’t get is why isn’t the military considered apart of the “deep state”, anyway, to these loons? The military-industrial complex is a thing that exists 

    If you ascribe to Joan Williams’ thoughts on this, it’s because white working class men love the military. It’s seen as honorable and most importantly, properly masculine. “Turning boys into men” and all that shit.

  315. 315.

    SFAW

    December 2, 2020 at 11:37 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    So which one don’t you want shelled?

    Let’s just say I’d prefer that general area of Queens not get targeted.

  316. 316.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 11:39 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Why were they in service for so many decades?

    @Dan B:

    It’s hard to organize when you have opponents willing to do underhanded crap like that

    @L85NJGT:

    They’re impressive feats of engineering for sure

  317. 317.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 11:42 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): If it ain’t broke, why fix it?

  318. 318.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    December 2, 2020 at 11:43 pm

    So peak Trump right here; Trump is threatening to take the military pay away over some BS while at the same time fantasying about those very same troops staging a Coup to keep him in power.

  319. 319.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 11:43 pm

    @SFAW: Spoilsport.

  320. 320.

    SFAW

    December 2, 2020 at 11:45 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Spoilsport.

    You seem surprised.

  321. 321.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    December 2, 2020 at 11:45 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    True. Though I’ve read the army has struggled in recent decades to replace aging equipment and vehicles, like the M3 Bradley IFV

  322. 322.

    NotMax

    December 2, 2020 at 11:46 pm

    @SFAW

    I do appreciate the LIRR not giving the financial behemoth additional advertising; they changed the name of the stop from Willet’s Point-Shea Stadium to using just Willet’s Point or in season Mets-Willet’sPoint.

  323. 323.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    December 2, 2020 at 11:46 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Having worked in the Military Industrial Complex it’s amazing the number of conservatives in the aforesaid complex who don’t understand it’s all funded by public money.  It’s a bit like “don’t socialize my medicare”

  324. 324.

    Omnes Omnibus

    December 2, 2020 at 11:57 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Basically, the 8″ howitzer was no longer being made.  They kept it in service as long as they could keep them working and had enough parts to fix ’em.  Once it was too much effort to keep enough units in the field, they phased it out.  Its role was taken by the MLRS and the M109 howitzer.  Neither could match what the M110A2 could do by itself, but two together could do its mission plus other things that 8″ couldn’t do.

  325. 325.

    Bookeater (formerly JosieJ)

    December 2, 2020 at 11:59 pm

    comment withdrawn

     

    Once again, slow typing gets the best of me!

  326. 326.

    SFAW

    December 3, 2020 at 12:01 am

    @Bookeater (formerly JosieJ):

    If Trump backs down, he loses face with his cult,

    Never happen (i.e. losing face with his cult). Outside of that, I like your gaming-it-out scenario.

  327. 327.

    Bookeater (formerly JosieJ)

    December 3, 2020 at 12:04 am

    @SFAW: thanks, but I took the comment down because, while I was typing, the conversation moved on!

     

    Backing down will, at the very least, cause Trump actual psychic pain.  At least I can get small comfort from that!

  328. 328.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    December 3, 2020 at 12:06 am

    @Bookeater (formerly JosieJ): I’m not sure Jared is bright enough to figure it out either.  The whole lot of them are pretty stupid.

  329. 329.

    SFAW

    December 3, 2020 at 12:07 am

    @Bookeater (formerly JosieJ):

    Backing down will, at the very least, cause Trump actual psychic pain.

    Absolutely agree.

  330. 330.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    December 3, 2020 at 12:17 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: 
    Interesting. And makes sense.

    @Suzanne: 

    If you ascribe to Joan Williams’ thoughts on this, it’s because white working class men love the military. It’s seen as honorable and most importantly, properly masculine. “Turning boys into men” and all that shit.

    Would go a long way to explaining the hard hats during Vietnam heckling anti-war protestors

  331. 331.

    Bookeater (formerly JosieJ)

    December 3, 2020 at 12:18 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:  This is true!  Either way this plays out, it promises to be entertaining.

  332. 332.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    December 3, 2020 at 12:20 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Having worked in the Military Industrial Complex it’s amazing the number of conservatives in the aforesaid complex who don’t understand it’s all funded by public money.  It’s a bit like “don’t socialize my medicare”

    I suppose they all think the Free Market pays them, huh?

  333. 333.

    burnspbesq

    December 3, 2020 at 12:23 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    Speaking of “who plays what,” I was pretty surprised last night to tune into a livestream from Norway of the Hedwig Mollestad Trio and see the jazz-metal-fusion ace playing a 335 (through what looked like a 1970s Fender Bandmaster and a 4×12 cabinet). Yup, the instrument associated with B.B. King, Larry Carlton, and Vince Gill.

  334. 334.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    December 3, 2020 at 12:25 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):  Yes, typical defense worker is went from high school to the military, retired after 20 years, got his collage degree threw the GI bill, then went to work in the Defense Industry. They are all self made men who never took a dime of public money.

  335. 335.

    satby

    December 3, 2020 at 5:56 am

    @NotMax: one of my favorite Tom Lehrer songs.

  336. 336.

    Matt McIrvin

    December 3, 2020 at 7:28 am

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I’ve talked to some who do know it’s funded by public money, but turn into Keynesians mindful of the value of economic stimulus whenever the talk turns to defense, while regarding all other public spending as dumping their tax dollars into the toilet.

  337. 337.

    Matt McIrvin

    December 3, 2020 at 7:32 am

    (The other, related area where this happens is SPAAAACE!! Libertarian space fans who want the welfare state to be eliminated largely so all that tax money can fund giant rockets instead. Related are the ones who idolize Elon Musk for doing it independently of The Gubmint but politely disregard who’s paying him.)

  338. 338.

    Uncle Cosmo

    December 3, 2020 at 8:03 am

    @NotMax:

    We farred our cannon till the barrel melted down
    So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round:
    We filled his head with cannonballs & powdered his behind
    And when we touched the powder off the ‘gator lost his mind…

    Um, I would imagine so. (Johnny Horton, “Battle of New Orleans.” Audio & lyrics here. :^D)

  339. 339.

    Uncle Cosmo

    December 3, 2020 at 8:13 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: These people are pathologically short-sighted.

    Truly. The godbothered and unedjumacated aren’t stupid, exactly. But they aren’t exactly intelligent either. What they are – at least the brightest among them – is clever.They can recognize situations where a certain action will immediately benefit them, and they will take such actions – but you have to have a certain amount of training in how to think to follow a train of thought further down the line to gauge the ultimate consequences. Instead they go barreling ahead, only realizing that the bridge is out too late to keep from tumbling into the gorge.

    (Trust me on this, I grew up among them.)

  340. 340.

    ballerat

    December 4, 2020 at 12:05 am

    This is very interesting. I am inclined to agree but admittedly I haven’t thought it through much.

    A quick search on section 230 brought this up from Forbes.com:

    [Section 230] offers a broad shield to tech companies, protecting them from lawsuits over content generated by users on their sites. It gives Twitter and Facebook the right to moderate content but does not give them the responsibility to do so. “Because content is posted on their platforms so rapidly there’s just no way they can possibly police everything,” says Sen. Ron Wyden, who helped create Section 230.

    In essence, the act treats internet businesses “very similar to how we treat the Post Office,” [tech ethicist David Ryan] Polgar explains. “There’s misinformation all the time that people are sending through letters, but you don’t blame the Post Office. They’re merely the conduit.”

    But Facebook et al aren’t like the Post Office at all. Facebook is not some passive conduit of information; it actively shapes a narrative, partly based on what their users view, and partly based on its own political agenda and business goals. The USPS does not do this. For example, they do not funnel more and more radical alt-right information to a user because she’s sent money via the mail to a Trump fundraiser or mailed in a subscription to a Proud Boys newsletter.

    In other words, the USPS does not read your goddamned mail and and use that information in an attempt to create a narrative for their own benefit.

    So if this was the original intent of Section 230, then technological advances, aka spying on users and content algorithms, have rendered it obsolete.

    I don’t have the answer to this but it is obvious Section 230 isn’t working as intended because social media companies are not “merely” a conduit.

  341. 341.

    ballerat

    December 4, 2020 at 12:26 am

    @Lyrebird

    I’m interested in reading too, thanks for posting the link.

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