Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL

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

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

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

T R E 4 5 O N

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

We still have time to mess this up!

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

He really is that stupid.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Biden-Harris 2020 / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Moving Along

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Moving Along

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A shonda for the neighbors!, as my Irish-American, NYC-born Nana used to say…

DC resident –

Saturday Morning Open Thread 5

(John Deering via GoComics.com)

Reader Interactions

227Comments

  3. 3.

    Immanentize

    There is some tussling between L.A. and Boston about this, but the Youth Poet who will read is Boston’s Poet Lauriate.  Harvard grad (’20) during the pandemic.  I’ve heard her read — she’s great!

    Linky

  4. 4.

    JoyceH

    Does anyone else think there’s a bunch of guys in Stockholm just on the edge of their seats waiting for Biden to do something even mildly humanitarian on the world stage so they can leap up and award him a Peace Prize?

  5. 5.

    Immanentize

    @JoyceH: I’ve been thinking of the Nobel as the “NOT” award since Obama won it, so Biden deserves it by not being Trump.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    John Harwood@JohnJHarwood
    new Pew Research poll on how Americans view President Trump’s job performance five days before he leaves office:

    whites w/no college degree
    44% approve
    52% disapprove

    everyone else
    19% approve
    79% disapprove

  8. 8.

    Quinerly

    Catching up on threads. Am I understanding Trump doesn’t have a working private airplane anymore? I have to assume as rich as Kushner is he must have one/access to one. I just don’t see any of the family flying commercial after 1/20. I guess I woke up with odd things on my mind but that plane with his name on it was such a part of his personal image. Had a lot to do with his celebrity on that show. Has the entire family been flying around on govt planes for 4 years?

  10. 10.

    hueyplong

    @JoyceH:  As Biden completes the oath, the host on whatever network you’re watching should say, “And that wraps up this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.”

    Then the spouse and I will turn to each other and say, in unison, “It shoulda been Stacy Abrams.” And take a sip of Courvoissier.

  17. 17.

    Quinerly

    @hueyplong:  I was going to get to that point next. I think Lara Trump’s hopes to be the next Senator from NC have been dashed. She has to be able to actually get back to her home state. For some reason, I dislike her almost as much as I dislike Ivanka.

  18. 18.

    Narya

    Delayed vaccine reaction after a week! Yesterday arm got swollen at the site, and warm/red; it looks like one hive. Will monitor and document, and passing along here. (I had Moderna.)

  19. 19.

    Bruuuuce

    With any luck, President Biden will be able to say that while his inauguration had one of the smallest in-person crowds in modern history, the TV ratings will be the highest ever. That should hit Donnie the Third Rate Reality Star right where it hurts.

  20. 20.

    PST

    Fresh snow here in Chicago this morning. It’s fun to make the first footprints. That’s a joy people without dogs can’t appreciate.

  22. 22.

    germy

    Joe Biden appears to actually care if people get vaccinated and don't die from COVID, and is putting the power of the federal government behind the effort, which is kind of the first step.

    — Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) January 15, 2021

  23. 23.

    hueyplong

    @Quinerly: As a NC resident, I really, really hope you are correct.

    Representation is bad enough as is

    And sorry for stepping on  your punch line.  It’s almost like big-footing a post.

  24. 24.

    Anne Laurie

    @JoyceH: Does anyone else think there’s a bunch of guys in Stockholm just on the edge of their seats waiting for Biden to do something even mildly humanitarian on the world stage so they can leap up and award him a Peace Prize?

    ‘Sweeping immigration reform’, maybe?

    (I suspect it won’t happen… at least not immediately.  But I’m sure the Nobel Committee is watching!)

  25. 25.

    Matt McIrvin

    @JoyceH: There was so much complaint about Obama not deserving it from across the political spectrum (including mild puzzlement from Obama himself) that I’ve been assuming they’re not going to repeat that.

  26. 26.

    Quinerly

    @hueyplong: you didn’t really step on my punch line. As I have mentioned before I’m “born and breaded in NC.” (h/T my beloved Bojangles and those country ham biscuits?) Now back to the logistics shit for Family Trump. I guess if one of them starts running for an office quickly, the “campaign” will pay for everyone jet setting around to who knows where. “Grifters gotta grift.”

  29. 29.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Quinerly:

    Has the entire family been flying around on govt planes for 4 years?

    Yes. And airplanes have to be maintained. What are the odds Trump paid for maintenance of an airplane he didn’t use? I don’t know much about aviation, but I’d be surprised if that Trump jet were still current on its certifications.

  30. 30.

    debbie

    @JoyceH:

    I’d like to think they’re smart enough to wait a bit longer. Frankly, they should be focusing on suing Trump for that fake Nobel Prize he awarded himself.

  31. 31.

    Gin & Tonic

    For those who follow international ice hockey (I don’t) or events in Eastern Europe (I do) this is big news. The IIHF President just paid a visit to Belarus and very publicly kissed Lukashenko’s ass in preparation for their co-hosting the world championships. So one of the prime sponsors said “we’re out.”

    We’ve been a proud partner to the @IIHFHockey World Championship for 28 years. But we also respect & promote all human rights. Therefore, #SKODA will withdraw from sponsoring the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship if #Belarus is confirmed to be co-hosting the event. pic.twitter.com/fC3ZMbY2cG
    — ŠKODA AUTO NEWS (@skodaautonews) January 16, 2021

  35. 35.

    Quinerly

    @Gin & Tonic: someone said last night that that Trump plane doesn’t even have one of its engines anymore. Plus, I think it was mentioned that he sold that Trump helicopter from the show.

  39. 39.

    Ken

    @Immanentize: the Youth Poet who will read is Boston’s Poet Lauriate.

    That should be good, though I suppose it rules out anything beginning with

    “There once was a loser from Queens…”

  41. 41.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I’m still processing the fact that there are no reserved second doses of vaccine. What do you think happened there? Were those doses never created? That is, is production about half of what they claimed?

    Last night I was entertaining conspiracy fantasies that Jared sold them.

  45. 45.

    Immanentize

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I think it was more incompetence than grift.  According to reports, the Trump administration decided in late December to ship whatever was available — right off the manufacturing line as it were.  So, they were not holding back second doses as of, say, Christmas.  They either thought that production would catch up or, who cares, Biden’s problem.  Azar’s announcement was either ignorant or mendacious.  Again.

  46. 46.

    p.a.

    Mags at FTFNYT:

    “But just among Republicans, a majority, 60%, wants to continue to follow Trump — sharply fewer than in the past (83% in a similar question in 2018), but still marking the risk of a Trump/no Trump schism within the party.”

     

    Constructive destruction.  “Make it so!”  His one positive result would be to gut the Nazgûl party.

  48. 48.

    Quinerly

    I mentioned in a previous thread about watching LOD last night (Trump can secretly pardon people, pardons don’t have to be in writing per head pardon atty during Bush/Clinton administrations). I think it was also mentioned on that show that if Trump leaves early, he will of course have the “football” with him with the codes . Biden will also have one with him. So if Trump is in the air at 12:01 the codes immediately switch over. (I seem to be hung up on “logistics” this AM… humor me?)

  51. 51.

    Platonicspoof

    @Narya:

    I’m not going to speculate, but at least you have time to ask your doctor and state health dept. (since individual doctors shouldn’t be expected to know everything about a new vaccine) before the second shot.

  52. 52.

    Immanentize

    @Quinerly: I’m not certain about that pardon information.  Secret unwritten pardons?  How will a court know?

    ETA. What’s LOD?  I don’t do much TV watching.

  54. 54.

    Quinerly

    @p.a.: I always get amused when I see these large %s of “the Republican Party” still support Trump pieces/polls. People need to continue to talk about how many people have left the Republican Party and how small it is getting as a national party. (2000 Republicans in Tampa area just changed party affiliation right after 1/6).

  55. 55.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @DCrefugee: The dumb motherfucker has the same approach to aircraft maintenance as he did for pandemic preparedness.

    “I don’t need it RIGHT NOW, so why bother?”

    Now the dumb motherfucker doesn’t even have a plan for getting the plane ferried somewhere for maintenance. I hope the airport authority at Steward charges him for storage, and when he doesn’t pay (guaranteed), they dismantle it for salvage parts.

  57. 57.

    Ken

    @Immanentize: Yeah, it does sound dubious.  I mean, what if they catch some serial killer who was active in the 1980s, and he says “Reagan gave me a secret unwritten pardon in 1987”?

  58. 58.

    MattF

    @Quinerly: Agree. A shrinking majority of a shrinking minority. Trump’s approval has plummeted, but we’re still getting ‘equal time’ reporting about the ones who approve. Why?

  59. 59.

    Elizabelle

    Good morning, jackals.  Our last weekend of the Trump occupation.

    WRT airplanes being in longterm storage:

    Some conjecture that may have been a contributing issue with the recent Indonesian air crash.  27-year old 737; had been in storage for maybe 8 months due to the pandemic; brought out and flew the very next day, completed about 134 cycles and then — down 10K feet in one minute on its last flight, without the pilots even issuing a distress call.  (It’s now at a depth of 75 feet, so very reachable.  They’ve already found the data recorder; may still be looking for the cockpit voice recorder.)

    Also, (1) I think Trump, Jared and the older Trumpskins should have their passports lifted.  They are all facing serious legal issues (maybe not Ivanka; don’t know there), and may also be national security risks if they’re out there with their big mouths flapping and bottomless pockets.

    (2) Why would Trump need an aircraft as large as the one in storage?  Jackass might need to downsize.

    He may not be able to afford to fly all over the place anymore in his previous style.  He’s been grifting off taxpayers for 4 years, extracting every penny he can for Secret Service lodging, etc., and his bankers (that we know of) have cut him off.  Forensic accountants are going to enjoy going through his records, such as they are.

  61. 61.

    Quinerly

     

     

    @Immanentize: I want more research. She identified herself as the head pardon atty for those administrations. Now in private practice. O’Donnell was a bit “floored” (Southern expression). Said it hasnt been done before and obviously would need witnesses. But no really set rules. He could just scribble something out. I’m going to look for her name and poke around a bit. I mentioned it last night in a thread hoping someone would pipe in.

  62. 62.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @MattF: From the Fintan O’Toole’s piece (and thanks for the link):

    Donald Trump’s demented last days have washed away the illusion of the US as a stable, settled democracy.

    Trump was just a handy snake, a tool. It’s the GOP and it’s paymasters who have been and continue to attack our once-stable, once-settled democracy.

  64. 64.

    Ascap_scab

    @Baud: WRONG, he started a trade war with China that he said would be ‘easy to win’, but then commander bone spurs went golfing. Ask any Midwest farmer how that’s going.

  69. 69.

    Quinerly

    @raven: I just tagged you this AM. Was late to those threads. That company was mentioned and I ordered from them in the Spring when they only had the KN95s. I was kinda surprised they have the N95s. Can you cancel your Amazon order?

  71. 71.

    Aleta

    Qasim Rashid, Esq.  @QasimRashid
    ·
    One of the worst parts of the right wing lie that “BLM burned cities to the ground” isn’t just that it’s a lie—it’s that white supremacist mobs themselves burned Black cities to the ground & most white Americans wholly ignored it

  73. 73.

    Quinerly

    @Ken: I thought it sounded crazy. Didn’t catch the pardon atty’s name. Female. Someone needs to pull up the YouTube of that segment. He said he had been questioning her back and forth with these crazy hypotheticals and he was shocked by the answers.

  76. 76.

    Ken

    @Elizabelle: I think Trump, Jared and the older Trumpskins should have their passports lifted. They are all facing serious legal issues (maybe not Ivanka; don’t know there)

    Ivanka was called to give testimony about some of the more dubious spending for the inauguration, so she may have some issues.

    In one way I have to give her credit – when she was called, she showed up, and I’m pretty sure I saw that Junior didn’t show up for a NYC deposition.  On the other hand, she walked out of the courtroom and made some statements about what she’d said that were so misleading that the attorneys for the other side felt a need to issue a statement.

  78. 78.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    You laugh, but I have secretly exercised my authority as a future president to give all Juicers a clean slate.

    It’s my way of saying, “Thank you for your support.”

  79. 79.

    grelican

    Speaking as a fellow DCer, it really does look like Mosul downtown, but like the tweet says, few have been going down there anyway. It’s been sad to watch the White House become farther and farther removed behind barriers; something that’s been slowly happening during this whole administration. When I was a kid in the 80s, we used to sled down the Capitol lawn. People used to play roller hockey on the broad asphalt across from the White House where they closed Pennsylvania Avenue to traffic after 9/11.

    All that’s long gone. I just hope all the billions that keep going to the area’s security will one day also make things as accessible as they used to be.

    Make Washington Great Again, said nobody.

  81. 81.

    Elizabelle

    WaPost: A former president Trump won’t ‘need to know.’ Cut off his intelligence.

    Susan M. Gordon was the principal deputy director of national intelligence from 2017 to 2019.

    My recommendation, as a 30-plus-year veteran of the intelligence community, is not to provide him any briefings after Jan. 20. With this simple act — which is solely the new president’s prerogative — Joe Biden can mitigate one aspect of the potential national security risk posed by Donald Trump, private citizen.

    … His post-White House “security profile,” as the professionals like to call it, is daunting. Any former president is by definition a target and presents some risks. But a former president Trump, even before the events of last week, might be unusually vulnerable to bad actors with ill intent. He leaves, unlike his predecessors who embraced the muted responsibilities of being a “former,” with a stated agenda to stay engaged in politics and policy. No departing president in the modern era has hinted at or planned on becoming a political actor immediately after leaving office.

    In addition, Trump has significant business entanglements that involve foreign entities. Many of these current business relationships are in parts of the world that are vulnerable to intelligence services from other nation-states. And it is not clear that he understands the tradecraft to which he has been exposed, the reasons the knowledge he has acquired must be protected from disclosure, or the intentions and capabilities of adversaries and competitors who will use any means to advance their interests at the expense of ours. [Gently put, but that is an astonishing thing to say about a US president. True for this one.]

    …. I also have personal experience with the president: I briefed him many times, participated in scores of meetings with him as his principal deputy director for national intelligence. While I resigned my position in 2019, this is not a personal grievance. As an intelligence professional, I have gone out of my way not to judge his policy or personal actions publicly. This is an intelligence assessment born of my years of experience.

  82. 82.

    Kristine

    I remember reading the following in a Dominick Dunne novel. One of the überwealthy characters says “If it floats, f*cks, or flies, rent, don’t buy.” Because storage/maintenance costs for something used infrequently. And challenged prenups.

  83. 83.

    Ken

    @Baud: Now I’m wondering if there are any science fiction stories about the legal conundrums of time travel.  If a president pardons you for all crimes associated with your use of time travel, and you go back in time and murder his grandfather….

  88. 88.

    cintibud

    @Quinerly: I didn’t see the face mask post and I just ordered N95 masks from Amazon that were branded Kimberly-Clark. I recognized the name so I figured they were safe. Is there a problem with them? Thanks

  91. 91.

    Quinerly

    @Kristine: loved Dominick Dunne. We are aging ourselves. “People Like Us” and “The Two Mrs. Grenvilles.” You just gave me a strong flash back memory of sitting on the beach at our beach place in NC with my mother, reading those two books and trading with each other as we finished. Cheap used paperbacks, sipping Coors Light (don’t judge me, my mother liked it b/c as she said “we won’t get tipsy. We sweat it out.” but I digress…. )

  92. 92.

    Tony Jay

    @Ken:

    Wouldn’t work. The utility of the pardon relies upon the relevant authorities recognising its legitimacy. If you’ve got a pardon from a President Hiram J. Flobbawacker who, because of your actions, never existed to win election in the first place, the government of President Hilda P. Flobbawacker-Vanderwang (your retconned President’s now more successful baby sister) likely won’t take kindly to your claims.

  93. 93.

    mrmoshpotato

    Visible from the front windows of the White House residence.

    Biden Harris

    Drink it in Donnie Dipshit.

  95. 95.

    Kristine

    @Quinerly: That quote is from “People Like Us.” I reread it so many times. I also devoured Dunne’s articles in Vanity Fair. He knew how to write about the rich.

  102. 102.

    Nelle

    @Ascap_scab: Well, the anti-sochulist, Trump loving farmers in Iowa got 40% of their income last year from the govt.  He really bought their vote with tax-payer money, despite all the damage his tariffs did.

  103. 103.

    Quinerly

    @Aleta: sooo.. I called out someone on FB yesterday for spreading BLM burned cities to the ground, Antifa stormed the Capitol, and Trump won lies. FB person (not a friend of mine) pushed back with some QAnon craziness. I ended with, “you are in a dangerous cult. Seek professional help.” FB tagged me for violating their Community Standards. It seems that I am now a bully and have been warned. Perhaps Melania can help me redeem myself. Isn’t she some sort of expert on cyber bullying. I guess I’m the one who needs professional help. ?

  104. 104.

    raven

    @Quinerly:

    “Please be advised that the information circulating on social media claiming to be from Acting Pardon Attorney Rosalind Sargent-Burns is inauthentic and should not be taken seriously,” the Justice Department said in a statement Jan. 9.

  105. 105.

    JPL

    @Narya:  Are you doing anything now to treat it, such as allergy cream?   I had the Pfizer vaccine Tuesday and so far no reaction.

  106. 106.

    R in GA

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: 

    There were a few articles last week noting that based on available data, holding back about 10% of the doses in case of supply chain issues would be a good value and I think this was Biden’s plan. Team T decided to beat them to the punch… But likely due to complete incompetence had already started shipping all doses, again likely because they let supply issues choke the production process and simply had no real numbers to go on. We won’t know for sure until Biden’s team has cleaned house.

    My understanding is that the overall plan is that vaccine production has to ramp up (and is planned to by the producers) such that at least for the initial phase 1 groups the second doses can come out of the expanded supply. Now, the companies doing the expansion should be reasonable competent to manage their end…. So the question is what happened exactly, is there a production issue, miscommunication on the rate of new production or what. Hard to put anything past the current set of clowns, but again no real way to know until they’re gone.

  107. 107.

    Kristine

    @MagdaInBlack: Just imagine the articles he’d have written about the lead-up to the 2016 election and the last four years. I’d like to think that he’d have revealed enough garbage to derail Trump’s candidacy. He’d have written about all the things the MSM were ignoring.

  108. 108.

    Geminid

    Every now and then I remember that there were two Georgia Senate runoffs January 5th. I finally got around to comparing the numbers to those of the November election. In the runoff, Joel Ossoff received (in round numbers) 2,269,000 votes, a drop of 105,000 from November. Perdue got 2,214,000 votes, a drop of 248,000 from his November total. (In November Libertarian Shane Hazel’s 115,000 votes prevented Perdue from winning outright).                                                  The November jungle primary prevents a similar comparison Warnock/Loeffler, but Warnock ran ~20,000 votes ahead of Ossoff on January 5, and Loefler ran ~20,000 votes behind Perdue.

    A really striking Georgia number is the difference between the 2020 presidential vote totals and those of 2016. In 2020, trump received 2,462,000 votes, an increase of 380,000 votes from 2016. At 2,473,000, Joe Biden polled almost 600,000 more votes than did Hilary Clinton in 2016, a gain of almost 33%. Stacey Abrams and company were not messing around.

  110. 110.

    Quinerly

    @raven: wow. LOD spent a long time with her last night. I was just trying to locate the segment. He’s got some explaining on Mon.

  112. 112.

    Ken

    @raven: “We are hoping the moron-in-chief thinks it is legitimate and uses these unwritten secret pardons for himself and his associates.”

    EDIT: If it’s a different person, the warning may be for the fake email / facebook post telling anyone who participated in the January 6 insurrection that Trump wants to pardon them, and they should send their name and other identifying information to some e-mail address.

  113. 113.

    mrmoshpotato

    @PST:

    Fresh snow here in Chicago this morning. It’s fun to make the first footprints. That’s a joy people without dogs can’t appreciate. 

    We dogless ones don’t have footprints?  Have I been able to fly but just never knew?

  114. 114.

    Quinerly

    @raven: this is the atty who is now in place under Trump. The gal on LOD was under Bush and Clinton administrations. Older White woman. Now in private practice representing people who want pardons. Unfortunately, I still haven’t found her name yet.

  115. 115.

    Quinerly

    @Kristine: they were great.♥️I’m an only, born of two onlies (who dated 10 years before marrying in 1959 and having me in 1961). We were a strange, little tribe of 3 for many years. I really miss them.

  118. 118.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WereBear:

    Having a private jet, or even access to one, is a BFD in that set.

    Not having one will hurt a LOT. Hee hee.

    Maybe Dump should (try to) flee to Moscow and ask his Daddy Vladdy for one.

  119. 119.

    SFAW

    @Quinerly:

    someone said last night that that Trump plane doesn’t even have one of its engines anymore.

    FSM will smite me for this, but: reading that, all I could think of was the 757 pulling a Curly Howard* on the runway.

    *Specifically, the bit where Curly is on the floor, but his legs keep propelling his body in a circle around the pivot-point of his head. I think others have also used that bit.

  120. 120.

    SFAW

    @Quinerly:

    It seems that I am now a bully and have been warned.

    Well, you are pretty fearsome, what with your attack dogs (the still-missed Poco and Jojo).

  121. 121.

    MomSense

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    We’ve been stuck in this abusive relationship for so long now that we don’t know what is up or down anymore.  We’ve been gaslit to the point of doubting our sanity and senses.  When the initial supplies to the states were less than expected there were news reports from the companies that they had millions of doses and no instructions for distribution.  Six seven months ago we were told the government didn’t order many doses.  So who the fuck knows what happened.  It’s probably as simple as the Trump administration didn’t order enough doses, other countries have been ordering them like mad, and now the shelves are empty.

    And just like abusive relationships, you never know what the real situation is so it’s impossible to plan and the consequences are disastrous.

    All this god damned winning is exhausting.

  122. 122.

    Jinchi

    @Quinerly: I just don’t see any of the family flying commercial after 1/20.

    It sounds like Trump can’t bear the humiliation of flying on anything less than “Air Force One”, so hopefully he’ll never leave Florida after he lands there on the 20th.

  123. 123.

    narya

    @JPL: I slapped some Benadryl on it, and I will likely put some Sharpie dots at the borders so I can document if it gets better/worse, and likely take a pic. I realized I also got a flu shot in that arm three weeks prior, though I also doubt that is related. It’s pretty regularly shaped, whereas the one time I had hives, they were definitely blotchy. And that was contact dermatitis; when I stopped using the spray starch and washed everything, it went away right away.

  125. 125.

    burnspbesq

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Cool news, but not a huge surprise. Skoda is owned by VW, who are very attuned to reputation all issues these days after the diesel scandal.

  127. 127.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ken:

    Ivanka was called to give testimony about some of the more dubious spending for the inauguration, so she may have some issues. 

    I’ll just be over here cackling maniacally.

  129. 129.

    PST

    @mrmoshpotato: No, but I couldn’t imagine any other reason to be out at 5:30 a.m. except a dog who was pretty earnest in her desire to go out. It would be nice to fly, though. I’ve been getting into the movies of Hayao Miyazaki recently. They are astonishingly beautiful. I just watched Kiki’s Delivery Service. It feeds the fantasy of how great it would be to just hop on your broom and fly. No room for the dog, though, and it’s more neighborly to take the poop run on foot.

  130. 130.

    Jinchi

    @raven:

    It reads like someone was trying to get direct confessions from members of the Capitol mob.

    Although, you’d have to have the intelligence of a Nigerian prince scam victim to fall for this one.

    The parley — a post on Parler — which has been shared as a screenshot to Facebook, asks those who are seeking a pardon to send their name, city and list of crimes they committed.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/01/12/fact-check-false-claim-pardons-those-involved-capitol-riot/6615362002/

  131. 131.

    DCrefugee

    @Elizabelle:

    Couple of thoughts:

    — Now consider all the 737 MAX airframes that have been sitting…

    — I have no clue what a relatively low-time, executive-configured 757-200 with only one engine is worth, but it’s probably not much more than the cost of a) hanging another RB211 on it, b) making it airworthy and c) paying off the storage fees.

    — I saw recently where his helicopter (an S-76, I believe) was for sale. Dunno what the outcome is/was.

    — I’m actually surprised that, as announced plans currently stand, he won’t be taking AF1 on the 19th, non-stop to someplace like Dubai.

  132. 132.

    Jinchi

    @DCrefugee: It’d be a shame if Trump flew to the airport and discovered Air Force One was down for some unexpected maintenance when he arrived.

  134. 134.

    Immanentize

    @Elizabelle

    No departing president in the modern era has hinted at or planned on becoming a political actor immediately after leaving office.

    Hmmm. When did the “modern era” begin? After TR obviously maybe? Also, not a lot of Presidents have been single termers, so, couldn’t run again? Further, Nixon in 1960 (ok, a Vice President, but Hoover fed him whatever he wanted). Sounds impressive, but not really.

  136. 136.

    Immanentize

    @Jinchi: Air Force One is not a plane.   It is the plane a President is on.  It could be a single engine Piper if the President were aboard.

  137. 137.

    Jinchi

    @Elizabelle: WaPost: A former president Trump won’t ‘need to know.’ Cut off his intelligence.

    I’m pretty sure you lose your security clearance if you send an armed mob to storm the Capitol.

  139. 139.

    mrmoshpotato

    @MomSense:

    Am I imagining that at some point he wanted  his personal pilot to be head of the FAA?

    I vaguely remember that crap.  (It’s been a long 4000 years.)

  140. 140.

    Quinerly

    @Quinerly: she’s legit. Extensive bio. Chief Pardon Atty Dept of Justice 1990-1997. Bio says she is an authority on presidential pardon power. Gotta walk JoJo las Orejas with his fancy Easy Walk Harness. While I’m gone, everyone envision their own secret unwritten pardons. (I hope Trump didn’t watch that segment of LOD)

  141. 141.

    MomSense

    I shouldn’t have watched the movie Herself.  It was excellent, but I was not prepared for it.

  143. 143.

    Jinchi

    @Immanentize: Air Force One is not a plane.

    I realize that. I just think that any crew would be able to stall Trump’s departure long enough that when he leaves, he’s no longer on it.

  144. 144.

    MomSense

    @Immanentize:

    I think this summer we should plan on lobster rolls in Maine. If the pandemic is still raging we can at least sit outside.
    In order to make this a B-J sanctioned event, we should probably engage in vicious arguments about Mayo versus butter until then.

  145. 145.

    Ken

    @DCrefugee: I’m actually surprised that, as announced plans currently stand, he won’t be taking AF1 on the 19th, non-stop to someplace like Dubai.

    Isn’t the UAE one of those places where if you can’t pay your debts, they sell you into slavery make arrangements with a local businessman to provide you with gainful employment until the debt is paid off?

    I recall reading stories about construction workers traveling there and ending up trapped, in many cases because their employer-owner charged them more for food and housing than they were being paid.

  148. 148.

    Steeplejack

    @MattF:

    Good piece. Thanks.

    Biden the Irish pol is a revenant from a dead era. His skills as an operator, a fixer, a problem-solver, are finely honed—but they are redundant. He is a horse whisperer who has to deal with mad dogs. He is a nifty tango dancer with no possible partners. There is no reasonable, civilised Republican opposition with which he can compromise. There can be no such thing as a unilateral declaration of amity and concord.

    You don’t try to rebuild on land that has been washed away. You move elsewhere. In his own mad, intuitive way, Trump has already done this for his followers. He no longer even pretends to occupy the terrain of democracy. He has built his own new piece of real estate in which the U.S. is a demagogic despotism, wholly owned by himself and his family. Even after the deadly debacle of 6 January, a huge part of the American polity is content to up sticks and follow him there.

    Biden has to create an equal and opposite space, with an equally bold departure, away from the hollow promises of the American dream and towards a new awakening of real equality. He has, after all, little to lose, not just in the political sense of having no second term to win, but in the personal one of having already endured so much loss. He has the paradoxical freedom of knowing that nothing that lies ahead of him is likely to be as bad as what lies behind him. In that freedom lies the possibility of a courage adequate to the fight he has promised to engage in—a relentless struggle for America’s soul.

  150. 150.

    Immanentize

    @MomSense: Frankly both are fine with me, but butter is better on a fresh lobster!  The roll is a vehicle, not the driver.  It’s just the wave, it’s not the water.  Etc.

  151. 151.

    Baud

    @Steeplejack:

    He has, after all, little to lose, not just in the political sense of having no second term to win,

    I know it’s highly possible that Biden doesn’t run for reelection, but it’s not something that can be assumed.

  152. 152.

    Ken

    @Immanentize: Air Force One is not a plane. It is the plane a President is on.

    IIRC Nixon took off on Air Force One, and it changed designation mid-flight when Ford was sworn in.

    Which raises an amusing thought. Say Trump does manage to persuade the military for a token sendoff, in the form of a line of servicemen saluting him as he walks past them to AF1.  Now imagine he futzes around long enough that he’s only halfway down the line at noon.

    And they stop saluting him….

  155. 155.

    Jinchi

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Flashback to 2018:

    Rudy Giuliani warned special counsel Robert Mueller to steer clear of Ivanka Trump, daughter of and adviser to President Donald Trump, but said her husband, White House adviser Jared Kushner, is “disposable.”

    His comment was strange at the time, since she hadn’t been publicly implicated by the investigation.

  158. 158.

    Immanentize

    @Quinerly: She has good current Defense attorney creds, but I bet people pay her mostly for her Reagan and Bush years contacts.  And, saying it don’t make it so.

  159. 159.

    NotMax

    Mentioned in passing last night but find it enough of an expression of the aloha spirit to bear repeating.

    The entrance designated for vaccinations at the hospital here is providing free valet parking.

  161. 161.

    Elizabelle

    @Steeplejack:   Great pull out paragraphs.  Bookmarked to read the whole thing.

    @ MattF:  thank you, again, for the sanity dose of Fintan O’Toole, an honorary O’Jackal.

  165. 165.

    Ken

    @Jinchi: His comment was strange at the time, since she hadn’t been publicly implicated by the investigation.

    There’s probably a trope for that, though I avoid tvtropes lest I lose six hours of my life.  Hogan’s Heroes used it a lot.

    Trump-Klink: “Now Rudy, I don’t want anyone to know about the shenanigans with the inauguration funds, and especially not about Ivanka’s role in it.”

    Giuliani-Schultz: “Listen, DOJ, don’t investigate the inauguration funds, and if you do, don’t look at what Ivanka did.”

  168. 168.

    Elizabelle

    @PST:   Our local (and missed during this pandemic) ancient art house theatre ran a film series of “Miyazaki Mondays.”

    Sold the theatre out.  Only time I have ever been allowed into their (usually closed) balcony.

    Please, gods, keep Hayao Miyazaki safe during this pandemic.  Even retired, he is an international treasure.

  169. 169.

    Elizabelle

    @MattF:   I appreciate that you do.  Stalk away (and share).

    A lot of the foreign journalists are way more honest and clear-eyed than our courtiers.

  170. 170.

    Lacuna Synechdoche

    So … I don’t know if anyone else has noticed-slash-commented on this yet, but, uh, erection is trending this morning on Twitter.

    Seems Harry Litman (now with the LA Times, apparently) was writing about Trump being charged with election tampering and, umm, you see, there was a typo …

    Not much doubt that Trump will be up to his eyeballs defending suits from this period for rest of his life; But this one is up there with the New York DA for jeopardy to him.Tampering with erection, a crime in Georgia, in his call to the Secretary of State

    Which I guess is the mother of all Freudian slips (see what I did there?). I mean, seriously, look down at your typing hands – R is nowhere near L on a keyboard. It’s not even on the same hand.

    Anyhoo,  enough people started making just enough twitter jokes about it to make it trend, and, of course, from there it took off, because everyone who looked at the trending What’s Happening? sidebar (including yours truly) thought, “What the hell is … ? Why is erection trending?”, clicked on it, and, well, you can figure out the rest from there.

    So now, when you see erection trending on Twitter this morning, you’ll know why and won’t have to click to click on it. Unless, of course, you really want to …

    ——

    Harry has since corrected it:

    Had to correct that typo but I was tempted to let it go and send around the 10 best responses because you guys were killing it.

  171. 171.

    Quinerly

    @Immanentize: it is worth a watch. Basically, it sounds like there is nothing written down re rules or any caselaw. So LOD was going thru all these hypotheticals with her and she was pretty much “nothing precludes that” and some chuckles.

    I know nothing… I was just a lowly collection atty for 30 plus years who chased commercial debtors for banks and other companies. Now, if we want to execute on a judgment against Trump and seize his plane, store, and auction off at a sheriff’s sale, I can do that. In fact, I did do that with a small plane in 1993 owned by an Iowa deadbeat. The sheriff was like, “we are doing what? We will store it where?” But I digress. Covid is making me miss my old practice. And I hated my practice….taking large toys away from debtors was fun, though…

  175. 175.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @MomSense: I’m in! For lobster rolls. I’ll passively observe the vicious arguments.

    ETA: I see that so far you and Imm are in violent agreement. No entertainment value there, but it will make for a more congenial meetup.

  176. 176.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Immanentize:

    @Baud: That’s why they thought Black people were that way!

    And that’s about 95% true (if not more). When Obama won so many wypipo lost their minds thinking Once he’s in he’ll give the n*****s His People everthang! Why? Because that’s exactly what they’d do – hell, that’s exactly what they’d been doing since time immemorial! And “they ain’t no better’n we is, they jess cai’nt be, right??” Game, set & match, libtards! //

  184. 184.

    Steeplejack

    @Elizabelle:

    I will repeat that all of Studio Ghibli’s movies, including Miyazaki’s, have dropped on HBO Max this month. (I think all; 21 of them, anyway.)

    Those who subscribe to HBO on their cable system are likely eligible for a free HBO Max account.

  186. 186.

    sdhays

    @DCrefugee: They now say he’s going to stay until the 20th, so he can have a “big send off”. Of course, they’ve just decided to plan the “big send off” days before he leaves, so I expect it’s going to be disappointing for him.

    At least, I certainly hope it is.

  187. 187.

    Quinerly

    @Ken: made arrangements to store at Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield, MO. Put up a substantial bond since technically wasn’t under complete control of the sheriff like a car, truck, heavy equipment would be in their normal storage place. We were waiting for the sheriff’s sale. The 93 flood happened. Plane got beat to shit in the hanger with flood waters. It was a smallish plane owned by a debtor crop dusting company. Very long story short, we collected on the bond. Plane was worthless by the time I could get to it with the deputies by boat. Made the newspaper. Everyone got sued by the debtor. Everyone got out of the suit either on motions to dismiss or motions for summary judgments. Good times!

  188. 188.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Gin & Tonic: Entire Czech nation is netopýří hovno šílené (bat-shit insane**) for hockey; Škoda (based in Plzen’) is their main (hell, only) carmaker; this qualifies as a skvělý obchod (big fucking deal**) in Czechia.

    (Fun fact: Škoda is also a Czech expression for “what a shame”- the equivalent of French [Quel] dommage – which probably hasn’t helped the brand. Cf.  the urbane-legendary Chevrolet Nova marketing faux-pas in Latin America.)

    ** At least that’s what the Internet tells me. Mluvim jenom trochu česky, ale bohužel ne rozumim nic.

  189. 189.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Immanentize:

    Air Force One is not a plane.   It is the plane a President is on.

    An Air Force plane the President is on, specifically (which is usually the case). Otherwise it’s Marine One, Navy One, etc., or “Executive One” for a commercial flight (which Richard Nixon did once as a PR stunt, ostensibly to save fuel).

    These days they’ve got two 747s on standby to serve, so “sorry, Air Force One is down” would be a hard excuse to manage. It sounds like Trump is going to do Nixon’s thing and bug out of Washington while he’s still technically in office, so if Biden needs a plane immediately the other one will be there.

  191. 191.

    Jinchi

    @Baud: I know it’s highly possible that Biden doesn’t run for reelection, but it’s not something that can be assumed.

    Biden has every intention of being on the ballot in 2024.

    He knows the value of incumbency and he knows he’ll have to declare his intentions in a little over two years. Announcing that he won’t run for re-election would make him an instant lame-duck and put Kamala Harris in the undesirable position of running for president owning every unpopular decision made by the executive, while receiving none of the credit.

    Not running dramatically increases the likelihood that Democrats lose the presidency in 2024. He’s not going to do that.

  193. 193.

    trnc

    Someone tell me there’s an inventory of all valuable items in the White House and that it isn’t just assumed that no prez or their staff will steal anything on the way out. I know we’ve already seen a pic of someone’s wife (Meadows) putting something in her car, but hopefully it was something they already owned.

  194. 194.

    sdhays

    @Jinchi: I think that’s Baud’s point in pushing back on the assumption that he’s definitely not going to run. But he will be 82 years old in 2024, so it’s unfortunately a higher likelihood that he won’t run again than it would be for others.

    But you’re right that he has every intention of running again.

  195. 195.

    The Moar You Know

    All those wondering:  Trump has a backup plane, a “small” Cessna Citation business jet.  That one works.  It can fly across the Atlantic.  He’ll be just fine.

  198. 198.

    Quinerly

    @Elizabelle: chased that particular debtor for a couple of years. Had registered the judgment in Iowa. It was only happenstance that I got a call from a mechanic at Spirit who had worked on the plane prior when owner was out of Missouri. I had told him to be on the lookout for the plane as it seemed to be the only asset I could find still in debtor’s name. Just one of those freak things that we were able to have the only asset dropped in our laps.

  201. 201.

    Elizabelle

    @Quinerly:   I know of someone who was moving all the assets he could — including aircraft — out of state before he filed for divorce against his wife # … I don’t remember which.

  202. 202.

    trnc

    @NotMax: Good. While it’s interesting to see what the mob will try to get away with, we don’t need investigations of the insurrection to have agents diverted.

  203. 203.

    DCrefugee

    @Ken: I don’t know about UAE debtor law. A couple of years ago in Dubai, I had an Uber driver from India. He told me his family was still there and he’s been sending money back to them. At the time, he wasn’t making enough to bring them to the UAE. Classic Catch-22.

    From what I’ve seen in the UAE, non-natives do the scut work the locals can’t be bothered with, like in a lot of the “civilized” world.

  204. 204.

    Steeplejack

    @MattF:

    My Neighbor Totoro is a good place to start—a nice introduction to Miyazaki’s magical world. Then I would say either Kiki’s Delivery Service or go straight to his masterpiece, Spirited Away. After that (my personal favorites), whatever catches your eye. You can hardly go wrong.

    The video near the top of this page is a quick introduction to Miyazaki’s visual style.

  206. 206.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Elizabelle: Nah, I say, still give him the briefings. Just make sure that they are seeded with traps and that the rest of the content is confirmed as already-known.

    And then go hunting.

  208. 208.

    DCrefugee

    @Jinchi: An even bigger shame would be for the plane to develop a problem and be forced to put down in a country that would turn him over to Interpol, and then to Iran, which has an arrest warrant for him…

  210. 210.

    Citizen Alan

    @Baud:  As I have said before, the biggest welfare queens in America wear overalls and ride around on tractors that cost more than my house.

  211. 211.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Immanentize: What’s LOD? I don’t do much TV watching.

    Lawrence O‘Donnell. Also (in lower case, with a y at the end) Polish for “ice cream” (mmmm).

    NB When traveling in Eastern Europe, this is a necessary term to learn, as it is uniformly tasty. Zmrzlina (Czech & Slovak), fagylalt (Hungarian), lody (Polish), sladoled (Croatian, Serbian & Slovenian), morozyvo (Ukrainian)…a tak dale.

  212. 212.

    hotshoe

    @MomSense: I would drive all the way to Maine with that meet-up in mind.

    A nice round 3500 miles. And a nice round 48 hours on the road.

    Y’all would be worth it. At least, with lobster rolls thrown into the deal ;)

  215. 215.

    Quinerly

    @Elizabelle: it used to be fun tracking down the big stuff or going after assets that had been fraudulently transferred to a shell corp. Companies, people who could truly pay their loans, bills but didn’t and hid assets. I really burned out in 2007-2009 when I was chasing debtors for Wells Fargo who truly had lost everything. I feel like I lost my kill instinct. Certainly wasn’t fun like seizing those big concrete mixing trunks at dawn hidden across the state in a rural county (again fun times!, pre sale storage problems) Kept at it for a few years but hated every minute of it.

  216. 216.

    L85NJGT

    Not sure why he owns the 757. That’s 70s rock star stupid. Just wet lease a Gulf Stream, Embraer, or whatever, business jet.

  217. 217.

    karen marie

    @Quinerly: It’s “statements circulating on social media” that are refuted. Rosalind Sargent-Burns is in fact Acting Deputy of the Office of Pardon Attorney.  As far as the refutation, I’d take it with a grain of salt. Of course Trump talked – even if only briefly – about pardoning his insurrection crew.  His people are just mad because she wasn’t “authorized to talk to reporters.”

  218. 218.

    karen marie

    @Quinerly: i hope the Easy Walk harness is working for you. I loved it – my Lucy used it for her first three years. While she will occasionally drag me, it’s an unusual circumstance. It taught her there’s no point in pulling while keeping her safe from neck injury and my coffee safe from spilling even when carried in my leash hand.

  220. 220.

    PST

    @Steeplejack:

    I will repeat that all of Studio Ghibli’s movies, including Miyazaki’s, have dropped on HBO Max this month. (I think all; 21 of them, anyway.)

    Those who subscribe to HBO on their cable system are likely eligible for a free HBO Max account.

    That’s what got me started. In addition to HBO subscribers, some AT&T wireless phone plans include free HBO Max as well. I assume this is promotional and won’t last forever, but there are tons of other great movies available in addition to Studio Ghibli.

  223. 223.

    nclurker

    i’ve always footnoted my use of”it floats,flys,or fucks,rent it” to p.j.o’rourke.

    so,did dunn steal it from o’rourke,or vice versa?

    cheers all

  224. 224.

    The Fat White Duchess

    @Ken:  Not quite what you asked for, but do you know “Compounded Interest” by Mack Reynolds?

    And, sorta kinda, Alfred Bester’s “The Men Who Murdered Mohammed.”

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