He’s got notoriety, some power, support — while he’s perceived as a useful tool — but as he’s only too aware, nobody actually likes Ted Cruz. He’s superficially accepted that he’ll never be loved, but his inability to perform the ‘normal’ political functions far outweighs his self-promotional gifts.
Where was President BIden, on Friday?
Biden tells staff gathered at the Harris County Operations Center that he was eager to send federal aid when Texas Governor Greg Abbott called, telling staff, "Before he asked the question, I said yes."
Abbott laughs, adds "He did, he said yes before I even asked the question." https://t.co/7IoXiFWqgu
— DJ Judd (@DJJudd) February 26, 2021
And where was Texas Senator Ted Cruz?
This translates as "I can wag my dick in your faces and still get elected, because all you need to do in Texas is be to the right of Hitler, and I can do this in my fucking sleep." https://t.co/6tPARYd67I
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) February 26, 2021
“Please clap.”
Ted Cruz reminds us why it's so very important to work out your act in the small clubs before the big Netflix special at CPAC.
— Willie Geist (@WillieGeist) February 26, 2021
I don’t think quite fits the “how it started how it’s going” meme but it’s still pretty funny. pic.twitter.com/d8YUkYO4Qf
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) February 26, 2021
this is the party that literally ran the US government from a country club! https://t.co/3qdPkY2VLh
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) February 26, 2021
Let me remind you, AGAIN: the Republican Party has lost workers making under $50,000 by double digits in three consecutive elections.
You can keep saying it all you want, but you ain't a blue-collar party and you never will be. https://t.co/G7nRuSogjV
— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) February 27, 2021
The Republican Party is not the party of the country club, it’s the party of fleeing the country https://t.co/gfGqaC799S
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) February 26, 2021
Boob Bait for Bubba https://t.co/QuF2j0wrNu
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) February 26, 2021
We just had four years of lib twitter randos being mocked for talking like this https://t.co/VjSmXb9VKi
— Adam Serwer ?? (@AdamSerwer) February 26, 2021
Cruz was once Boehner's lawyer. https://t.co/Hpprc643uY
— Ramesh Ponnuru (@RameshPonnuru) February 26, 2021
When Howard Dean sounded like this they said he could never be president. https://t.co/fxYIknIMZD
— Reed Galen (@reedgalen) February 26, 2021
ted cruz riles up the crowd at cpac and then people are asked if they'll vote for ted cruz and they're like "oh fuck no"
it's pretty great
— Peloton InfoSec Analyst (Incident Response) (@CalmSporting) February 26, 2021
danielx
Oh my!
germy
Nora
I suppose he knows his crowd and what they want, but there’s nothing more ridiculous than screaming about the “failed policies” of someone who’s been in office for less than two months.
germy
feebog
He will be forever more titled “Taco Ted” when I speak his name. He should be doing a beer ad as the most unpopular guy in the world.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Boob Bait for Bubbas indeed, and maybe no elected Republicans have more contempt for Bubba than First-Tier-Ivies Ted and the very creepy but more subtle Josh Hawley.
Soprano2
We all know that when Cruz says “working class voters” the “white” in front of it is silent. Too bad all those reporters can’t or won’t say that.
Bruuuuce
The Mary Sue knocks it out of the park:
WereBear
I would think twice about a guy like Ted Cruz handing me a hot dog at a ball game and yet he’s a populous state’s senator. A living repudiation of “the most charismatic person wins the election.” A face that shows its character to the point where it exudes loathsomeness.
Talk about Authoritarian Followers. None of their senses operate, and they also have no sense.
Brachiator
Ted Cruz and Rand Paul walk into a bar …
StringOnAStick
I can sense the building tension for tRump’s CPAC speech tomorrow, and I think half of it is fear about what self serving crap he’s going to whine about that’s not going to help their seditious cause, perhaps a smaller bit of fear that he’ll just be incoherent with rage over his tax records being in the hands of a legal entity that can definitely harm him. I’m sure they’ve been prepping him and pleading that he stay on script; I’m hoping it will be in vain.
Bruuuuce
@Brachiator: Preferably one set at neck level.
Cameron
I love the description of him that says his face looks like all the Dick Tracy villains squashed into one.
Ken
@germy: Joke’s on them when they start to leave and find the whole convention center has been sealed for quarantine.
Ken
…but don’t notice because they’re Republicans, and the bar’s been set so low that it’s sub-surface.
Another Scott
Of course, the really important CPAC questions are – Who is going to hold up the fake rifle this year, and what type of rifle will it be??!
Of will they change it up and wave a bloody shirt instead??!
The suspense is horrible!!1
(groucho-roll-eyes.gif)
Cheers,
Scott.
Chief Oshkosh
@StringOnAStick: I’m rooting for injuries.
Almost Retired
CPAC is just unwatchable. They moved it from the DC area to Florida this year, for nefarious purposes (a sponsored super-spreader event). I predict that next year they’ll hold in a Munich beer hall.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@StringOnAStick: I wonder if he’ll get distracted from whatever anti-Biden stuff Jared and Miller are writing down for him and start riffing on McConnell, then feeding off the crowd’s rage and not coming back to the script
Kent
Whatever he says, it will all be about him. Just like every other speech or rally he has ever given in his political life. He only does one note. That’s all he knows how to do.
The real question is why do people even care what he says? What has he ever offered anyone else? Other than racism and resentment I suppose.
Why people eat this shit up is just beyond me. Racism is a hell of a drug I guess. But honestly, Trump’s schtick is usually about 90% narcissism and only 10% racism.
scav
Funny thing that. It was certainly the country club member class that stormed the capital to take their country back.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Almost Retired:
Bill Kristol used that very analogy last night, CPAC has gone from looking like the bar scene in Star Wars to sounding like a Munich beer hall.
WereBear
@Kent: It’s tough sledding being a RWNJ. Your cultural choices are scorned because they usually suck and never having advanced beyond the surly early pubescent stage, you just get mad and refuse to listen.
So when anything remotely like a “winner” crosses your screen, you scream in delight. It’s so rare.
StringOnAStick
@Kent: All true, but he’s the guy the base voters love, so the chance that sooner or later one of his live speeches ends in utter humiliation is definitely there and likely increasing as his legal stresses keep ramping up and messing with that narcissistic glob inside his skull. Rooting for injuries AND complete humiliation!
Matt McIrvin
@Bruuuuce: In my experience, it’s more common for right-wing Star Wars fans to overtly root for the Empire and insist that they’re the good guys.
Now, I’m all for the observation that the Jedi and the Old Republic were not the good guys. The prequels and other parts of the franchise even actively imply this.
But the Empire? The Empire are bad guys.
Ken
@StringOnAStick: It would be nice to have someone on the inside, who just before Trump goes on stage could “casually” mention his taxes.
MattF
The thing RW assholes have learned since 2016 is that it’s OK to be a RW asshole.
Baud
@MattF:
Agreed.
Ken
@Matt McIrvin: One reviewer of the prequel trilogy said “We didn’t need Darth Vader’s backstory. When he stalked into his first scene with that black helmet and the black cape swirling, we knew everything we needed to know about him.”
Likewise, we didn’t need to know how the Empire became evil, after seeing them blow up a planet.
Joe Falco
@Almost Retired:
That’s scheduled in ’23.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Joy Reid said yesterday that all this “freedom” and “cancellation” crap is they’re mad they can’t use the N-word without consequence, or even criticism. Certainly true of Bill Maher, who’s trending on twitter cause he had attractive, well-groomed “suburban” racist Meghan Kelly on his show last night. I can’t bring myself to watch the clips, but I gather it was basically her whining about being cancelled.
WereBear
@Joe Falco: Perhaps the answer is to imprison Trump and not let him out until he completes a book all by himself.
West of the Rockies
Truly, fellow jackals, it feels like we’re either morlocks or eloi. The Trumpling morlocks are pure greed, violence, and wretchedness. All the adjectives strung together begin to mean nothing: foul, vile, loathsome, etc. A hundred such words don’t really cut it.
Team Blue (eloi) is not perfect, but we’re not constantly shitting in the punch bowl and smirking.
The villagers media group can’t seem to quite recognize any differences, and insist that if the eloi just weren’t so damn happy about light and trees and laughter, the morlocks wouldn’t have to devour them.
Lady Gaga, clearly a splendid person, got her dogs back. HOORAY!!!
Ted Cruz flees his constituents, lies about it, then laughs about it.
Team Morlock chooses Cruz every dawn time. “Let’s call Gaga a freak! Let’s swoon over Cruz!”
Firebert
@feebog: I would rather nobody besmirch the greatness of tacos with associations with that shitbird.
Karen S.
@StringOnAStick: Of course it will be in vain. He’s “You’re not the boss of me!” boiled down to its essence. It’ll be Trump grievance and grudges the whole time.
Almost Retired
@Joe Falco: Right, and Nuremberg in ’24.
df
CPAC? That’s a funny way to spell “Nazi rally”. Did I miss some English linguistic reform?
prufrock
Strong Bruno Kirby DJs in Good Morning Vietnam vibes from Ted.
Bruuuuce
@Matt McIrvin: Wow. My right-wing acquaintances all believe they’re the rebels, fighting bravely against left-wing oppression. Sort of like evangelicals, believing that Christians are oppressed in the United States. (FSVO “Christians”=”worshipers like them, not those who follow His teachings as reported”)
Bruuuuce
One thing proved by CPAC and its golden idol, though: The number two has special significance in a list of ten items for the right wing. They revere the Second Amendment out of the Bill of Rights, and they scorn the Second Commandment out of those Ten.
Tokyokie
@prufrock: I seem to be the only person who found Bruno Kirby to be funnier than Robin Williams in that movie. Williams just does his free-association shtick, but Kirby plays somebody who’s dreadfully unfunny in a way that is hilarious.
Major Major Major Major
I popped into Matt Gaetz’s room on Clubhouse (the hot new conference call social network) and they were saying that Cruz just didn’t know any better because he’s a transplant and doesn’t know that real Texans help each other, not like those effete liberals he’d been surrounding himself with up until 2002. Fantastic stuff. I left when they started talking about how great Newsmax is.
Tony Jay
I was surprised to learn that Ted Cruz didn’t have a cameo in Captain America: The Winter Soldier after all. Turns out the loathsome US Senator (spoiler – who is really a Hydra loyalist) is an entirely different mump-faced smarmaholic played, entirely in character, by Garry Shandling.
Nutcase Marjorie Taylor Greene is definitely a Mickey Rourke parody though, of that I’m entirely certain.
Kent
The man is not healthy. Some day he is going to literally have a real stroke on live TV. The right or left side of his body will go limp and unresponsive and he will be flailing around before collapsing and get wheeled off. And then we will be on 24/7 “Trump Watch”
Best case scenario it doesn’t happen until after he wins the nomination again with a singularly unappealing lackey as VP and then they are all stuck with an invalid drooling Trump and no logical successor.
rivers
@WereBear: Until he completes reading a book? I think writing is out of the question.
Major Major Major Major
prufrock
@Tokyokie: Kirby is doing the equivalent of a world class musician playing poorly on purpose. It’s genius.
Brachiator
@StringOnAStick:
I would love to see this one day, but so far, Trump supporters will forgive him anything.
Trump represents all the racist hopes and dreams of his base.
Hungry Joe
@Tokyokie: 1) Agree. Bruno Kirby nailed every role, but never got in the way — a classic character actor. Did he ever play a lead? He would have been amazing.
2) Face test: Try to imagine Cruz or Trump (ANY Trump, except maybe Mary), or any RWNJ leader, as a good-guy Progressive. I should be able to do it, but there’s so much baggage that the thought experiment just … implodes.
Brachiator
@Kent:
The GOP is not lacking in drooling fools.
They are lined up and waiting for their opportunity.
Ken
@rivers: I thought WereBear meant coloring all the pictures.
(Not necessarily staying within the lines, because we’re grading on the white male asshole curve.)
trollhattan
@Bruuuuce:
Ted’s the guy in Empire Project Controls who fucked up the Death Star construction by slashing its budget @90% completion, leaving it vulnerable to being blown up by essentially, an insect. “We can get rid of this grillwork.”
Ken
@Major Major Major Major: So maybe South Dakota saying, “Hey, if we report the real numbers, we can make Biden look bad”?
Miss Bianca
@prufrock: A friend of mine once told me that it takes a really good dancer to make bad dancing look funny. He cited Gene Kelly as a hoofer with more enthusiasm than talent in – was it Bus Stop? I’ll have to look it up – as an example.
ETA: Was not Bus Stop. Maybe it was The Time of our Lives. Or maybe I’m hallucinating and misremembering the whole episide.
Hoppie
“No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.”
Major Major Major Major
@Ken: storm in the second most populous state, plus president’s day
Joe Falco
@Kent:
Hell, Republicans might find that preferable for their electoral chances if that was the case. “Win one for the Drooler!” can be their rallying cry.
James E Powell
I’m assuming the whole press/media world is going to cover Trump’s speech as if it was the Super Bowl. Am I being unduly negative?
I’m listening to CNN talk about it right now and they are definitely excited for it.
trollhattan
@Kent:
Covid came damn close to killing him, we now learn. I expect when ex-president Trump has some kind of serious medical event the usual disinformation regime will kick in and they’ll lie that he’s “never felt better” until he actually kicks the bucket. Being sick=weakness in his world; he’s “a killer” just like dad demanded.
Baud
@James E Powell:
Can you blame them? What has Biden given them? Meijers.
Ohio Mom
I’ve taken to visiting Aaron Rupar’s (from Vox) twitter to see video clip highlights of whatever the day’s big events are — a Biden speech, Congresscritters sparring, etc. They are generally short and sweet encapsulations.
I am finding I can not tolerate the CPAC ones. Even the ones where the speakers are making absolute fools of themselves, there is no pleasure in sneering, I am simply repulsed.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: today’s scandal is that the White House wants to charge each press corps member $170 for their routine covid tests, which honestly is super weird. If Trump did that we’d be outraged about restricting access to the press and penny-pinching.
MagdaInBlack
@Ohio Mom: I found myself stunned by their behavior, and yes, repulsed. I really don’t get the appeal.
Another Scott
@Major Major Major Major: While there’s no doubt that the cold snap in the center of the country messed up the numbers, I’m willing to bet cash money that there will be additional waves. Maybe not as big as the most recent one, but certainly as big as the ones in the spring/summer of 2020. There’s still a huge amount of community spread just about everywhere, and too many people aren’t getting vaccinated (either because they’re refusing or because it isn’t available).
Far too many people are STILL being too sanguine about the plague. Maybe by 12/31 we can start letting our guard down a little. Maybe…
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
germy
@James E Powell:
Brachiator
@James E Powell:
Is he bringing his guitar? I suppose it will be like a Super Bowl halftime show.
I will not watch his nonsense, but I am curious as to what he will say, if only because I know it may be obnoxious and potentially dangerous. I also suspect that there is nothing that he can say that would not be applauded by the GOP. They have sold their souls and are all in with Trump.
The political press are an odd bunch. They were kicked in the ass by Trump for 4 years and miss the excitement and the attention. They also believe that their cynicism and eagerness to play up to right wing idiots confers some kind of immunity.
They are very wrong.
trollhattan
@Major Major Major Major:
Thankfully, my county and California as a whole are down to pre-Halloween case rates and at the same time, tallying an accelerating vaccination rate. There will be more bumps but this is what the pandemic end game looks like.
Joe Falco
@Another Scott:
I agree. By the end of 2031, we can start to breathe a little easier.
Major Major Major Major
@Another Scott: oh there will definitely be additional waves, but there is currently nothing in the data to suggest one is happening this second, as opposed to a routine reporting blip. Obviously we can’t say for sure what’s happening right now until the future though.
I get vaccinated on 3/9 (asthma)! Can’t wait! Haven’t been to the Javits center in years.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I realize that he was one of (IIRC) two Dems to win in a trump district– the other being I believe Elissa Slotkin– but are his voters really against getting money?
The other was Kurt Schrader of WA, and I have the same question.
Brachiator
@Major Major Major Major:
If Trump had believed in the virus he might have charged the press $500.
I guess this is weird, but I cannot work up a great deal of outrage.
Brachiator
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Again, the dumb ass targeting argument.
It is pointless to try to micro-manage pandemic relief. Equally dumb is the assertion by politicians and even some economists that the “best thing” would be for people to spend any relief payments in order to “stimulate” the economy.
Entire sectors of the economy are still shut down. If people save money or pay down debt, they are improving their lives and making it easier to live whenever the pandemic eases up and the economy can get going again.
Jeffro
The 2024 GQP primary is going to be such a monumental douche-off I can hardly wait
actually, of course I can wait, but you know what I mean.
Cruz, Cotton, Harley, Pompeii, DeSantis, and on and on and on
should be really appealing to voters… instead of one trumpov acting the bully/fool in front of the cameras for a year, it will be at least a half dozen of them
Joe Falco
@Major Major Major Major:
Why are they so upset about this? The news organizations that regularly send reporters to the White House should be able to cover these fees for them and be able to list them as business expenses.
patrick II
I saw part of Ted’s speech yesterday at CPAC. He wants to relate to his audience so badly, but it was like a fish trying to moonwalk. He yelled “FREEEEDDOMMMM” — no response. He told his “Orlando is not as nice as Cancun” joke — no reaction. He was so alone in the middle of a crowd, trying so hard to be one of them. It’s heartbreaking to see a man not making any human connections because he has no empathy for them. He wants to, but he’s just not capable — even Donald has empathy for their fear and insecurities, which he then uses to add more to their fear and insecurities. Ted just flops around up there looking for oxygen, a fish out of the water of humanity.
smith
@Major Major Major Major: There’s no sign at this point of a reversal of the downward trend in hospitalizations, and that’s probably the most valid indicator we have.
Joe Falco
As Futurama once joked: “Nixon with charisma? My God! I can rule the universe!” Except I’d find it harder to believe Cruz could ever possess charisma in any fictional setting.
Uncle Cosmo
You mean the orange one with the Wilson logo? While Darph Nader mutters incomprehensibly and the Princess Anne-Droid squeals Basketball is a peaceful planet! – ? That one??? (FF to 6:50, but watch the whole sick thing…;^D)
(FTR FarFawks 86.0 on WinBlows 7, & the Visual comment field is still intermittently FUBAR.)
divF
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The thing that really torques me about idiotic statements like this is that these bozos hold themselves up to be experts about macroeconomics. Hell, we are getting establishment economists like Federal Reserve Board Chair Powell practically begging for more fiscal stimulus. Plus “poorly targeted” is a code phrase for the wrong kind of people getting funding, if you know what I mean.
Major Major Major Major
@Joe Falco: I think it’s inexplicably vaguely hostile, and at a minimum they had to know how it would play. Like… why? I assume the White House has a lot of money. A sudden $170 cover charge is weird!
Another Scott
@Brachiator: Agreed.
It cost $170 to enter the Marine Corps Marathon (plus processing fee) (in 2018).
From the WaPo story (scraped from the page source):
(Emphasis added.)
0) Being limited to “only” 80 people “per day” doesn’t sound like a huge limitation to me.
1) The White House has a budget like every other part of the government. They don’t create their own money. I’m sure there isn’t a line item in it to pay for 80xN COVID tests for every N news organization every single day. (When the WH doesn’t get a say in how many people (up to 80) that a news organization can send.)
2) They’re not being monsters about it. If people want to get test results elsewhere, that’s fine.
3) A fence is not the same as proof that a person that an employer sends into a vitally important government facility will not infect people.
4) I saw a headline in the last week that the press room was being decontaminated because of someone was in close contact/tested positive/etc.
tl;dr – The press is complaining about being treated unfairly. That’s fine. That doesn’t mean it’s important.
Cheers,
Scott.
James E Powell
@Brachiator:
Most of the cable show people talk as if when Trump & the right-wingers are demonizing “the fake news media” they don’t think it’s directed at them. Strange.
Ken
May I humbly suggest “Win one for the Dripper!”
Baud
@Major Major Major Major:
It’s all taxpayer money. I can see someone making hay of it the other way — bailout for big media companies, buying their favor, etc.
I don’t really care about this issue.
Miss Bianca
@Joe Falco:
Or would that be, “Win one for the Dripper!”?
Yes, yes, I’ll see myself out..
@Ken: Curse you, Red Baron!
Frankensteinbeck
Forget it, Jake. It’s CPAC.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: I wouldn’t say I care, but I do think it’s weird and tone deaf
Another Scott
@Brachiator: The apparent official talking point I heard last night (on C-SPAN radio) was that “only 9%” was going to actual COVID-19 (something) so (obviously) the rest was just money that was going to be set on fire, or given to the undeserving to buy Bitcoin and Krystal and T-Bone steaks. Or something. Every GOP person that I heard (while continually switching stations to try to find something worth listening to on the drive home) mentioned the “9%” over and over again…
They’re shameless and they literally don’t care. They’ll keep trying every single stupid talking point they come up with and keep repeating it until they find that it takes hold, or move onto another one.
“The GOP doesn’t lie to be believed. They lie to be repeated.” – LOLGOP
Cheers,
Scott.
Joe Falco
@Ken:
“Win one for the Flag Humper!”
“Win one for the Race Hustler!”
“Win one for the Traitor!”
Maybe slogans the Republicans won’t use, but I’d have fun writing them!
Mike in NC
Is Loser Jr. speaking to these imbeciles today? Hilarious that he thinks he has a future in politics.
Ken
What, for their reporters to stand there saying “This is Bob outside the White House”?
Pro tip: 99% of the time, Bob represents no value added. For the other 1% of events, there’s normally ample warning to get Bob and the camera crew out there. Or just have Bob in the studio in front of a green screen, and add the WH background.
Hoppie
@Joe Falco: Reminds me of Bloom County (remember, the Doones-clone) and the secret of George Bush’s appeal.
Ken
@Uncle Cosmo: I didn’t see Star Wars when it was released. The first time I saw it was in college, at the weekly movie night. They showed Hardware Wars first, which affected my reaction to everything that followed.
Another Scott
@Uncle Cosmo: OT – I’m convinced, without strong evidence that I can point to, that the Visual Tab not working in FF is an interaction between a bad ad/javascript/tracking cookie/something and FF trying to protect users from such things. That’s why it doesn’t show up all the time – it depends on what particular ad the ad server is injecting into the FYWP code and whether FF likes it or not.
It’s interesting that Chrome doesn’t seem to have a problem with that part of the FYWP code/ad server here.
That’s why having an ad-blocker on or off doesn’t matter, also too. It depends on the interaction of all the things.
Just my guess. FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
LOL That’s good. Also, fuck Ted Cruz and the entire Rethuglican party.
Major Major Major Major
@Another Scott:
This is decent evidence for your theory since chrome is now unique in not automatically blocking this stuff.
This whole website is a complete disaster, though, javascript-wise. Sometimes my phone doesn’t even have the juice to scroll down the front page and see content in real time. I knew these devs were going to be bad and I have not seen anything to indicate otherwise.
Kent
Kurt Schrader is from the OR-5th, not Washington. His district stretches from the southern Portland suburbs to Salem and out to the coast. Cook rates it as a neutral district, not D or R leaning. It has some liberal pockets but also large stretches of bright red rural MAGA land.
I don’t know what his excuse was.
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
It is mildly interesting to see these dopes try to find some smear that they think will stick to Biden. Of course, they cannot be bothered with doing any actual journalism.
Just Chuck
@West of the Rockies: Weren’t the Morlocks that way because the Eloi wouldn’t allow them to live above ground? At least the Morlocks are sympathetic in that respect. These fascists are just vicious snarling troglodytes who want us all dragged underground with them.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
they’re not sending their best… art
If he can’t get a hundred K from some trumpy car dealer or dentist, and I won’t be surprised if he does, he wants it to go to the trump library
ETA: @Kent: ah, thanks. I guess those trumpy pockets might explain some of it. A show of “independence” from that scary woman from (dramatic squirrel music) SAN FRANCISCO!
Another Scott
@Another Scott: Whoops. It looks like the story says “80 people collectively” for all news organization. So 80x$170 per day, not 80xNx$170 per day.
Still, the White House doesn’t have 80x$170x5x52 = $3.54M just sitting around in their annual budget for such things.
Need more caffeine!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Ken
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Who had “someone trolling CPAC” in the pool? If I recall our discussion, there were a few, though I think more people speculated that it was CPAC trying to pwn the libs.
JoyceH
I honestly thought that statue was a leftist troll operation, but it’s set up in the lobby and attendees are taking selfies with it.
RSA
@germy:
LOL. Nice one.
cmorenc
Meanwhile, journalist Tim O’Brian, who has seen Trump’s tax returns now in hands of Vance’s prosectors, says there is definitely big tax fraud trouble for Trump and his two sons + Ivanka in there, as well as Alan Weissberg their long-time accountant. Why or how O’Brian got access wasn’t specified, nor were the exact particulars, so take with some salt grains unless and until any actual indictments come down. But that’s a serious allegation by O’Brian that he better have accurate facts to back him up – here’s hoping he does.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@cmorenc: if memory serves, and sometimes it does, though with decreasing frequency, O’Brien wrote a bio of trump and said he lied a lot about his net worth, he may be the original source for the stories about trump and “John Barron” lobbying Forbes to put him back on their richest people list. trump sued him and made the mistake of letting things go to discovery and O’Brien got to see his tax returns, but has to be very careful about talking about it because of the eventual settlement agreement in that case
@JoyceH: I wonder if trump will take a selfie with it, or if he thinks it makes him look silly and it will be quietly moved out of sight. I think either scenario is equally likely
Ken
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Scenario 3: Trump can’t make his speech for some reason, so the statue is rolled onto the stage and the crowd applauds and heils it for an hour.
James E Powell
Small ask. I’m hanging around here, but I’m also watching Wales v England in the Six Nations. On the off chance that somebody knows something, please don’t say so.
Delk
George Michael has really let himself go.
Catherine D.
@JoyceH: The statue’s stance just begs for a sledgehammer to the nuts!
debbie
@Another Scott:
That wasn’t what Kimberly was clutching last night? //
Ken
@James E Powell: No problem, I know nothing and my modest contributions here are limited to snark, sniping, and snottiness.
Just Some Fuckhead
Ted Cruz: Yes We Cancun!
LuciaMia
Got my first dose this morning. The building management organized a vaccine clinic here, and in three hours they’d jabbed everybody who’d signed up. It was a such a greta convenience.
Jay
@Ken:
I pity you,
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2RDWuA0F7yU
Seeing Star Wars in the day, in a good theatre, was amazing. An event remembered over 40 years later.
When the first space ship appeared, the vibration you felt was not the pulses of energy from it’s engines, but Dolby Surround Sound, and when the Star Destroyer appeared, ( the big one), even the empty seats shook.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@LuciaMia: Congrats! On the way to normal
Just Some Fuckhead
@Ken:
I’ve been blaming the other ken and Kent.
Yutsano
@cmorenc: O’Brien is wrong here. Being a felon won’t keep Drumpf from running again. If anything he’ll take it as even more proof of the Deep State working againat him.
Jay
@LuciaMia:
congrats, go to the sidebar and get your sticker!
Jay
So, I’m scheduled for another round of tests next week. I don’t expect clear results.
I’ve been struggling with “brain farts”, for almost a month now, at work and at home. Things I should know, disappear. Then, about 2 weeks ago, lost control of my left arm, came back after 2 days.
They now suspect lots of microstrokes from Covid clots.
My system seems to be clearing them out, and my brain seems to be resetting the paths quickly, but there are thousands of microclots still floating around in my brain after months, and months.
trollhattan
@Jay: So true.
Friends and I drove 50 miles on day 2 and saw it in a proper theater. You ducked when that damn ship first appears “overhead” and the entire place erupted into boos when Vadar first walks in. So much fun.
The only prior experience remotely like it was seeing “2001” in a Cinerama, with its three projectors and screens, but SW upped the ante an order of magnitude. Plus, you didn’t have to think. :-)
germy
@Jay:
I’m glad your doctors are aware of what’s going on. I read somewhere that blood thinners are being prescribed successfully to covid patients.
Keep us posted on your progress!
germy
@trollhattan:
I remember many years ago, sitting a a multiplex watching some little film or another, and right “next door” they were playing Midway… in the new technology Sensurround.
I could hear every explosion.
tybee
@Ken:
Hardware Wars was pretty damn funny
Hoppie
@LuciaMia: Thunberg?
Jay
@germy:
funny thing is, wasn’t my Doctors.
both sides of my family have a long history of many, many strokes, so I know the symptoms for even a mild stroke.
So I suggested to my Doctor that I may be experiencing microstrokes and one mild stroke from Covid, and within a week, a MRI and CT Scan, and a UBC Research was “on it”, and are looking for more study participants.
cmorenc
@Yutsano: if trump gets a felony conviction he could still run if he gets out of pridon on parole in time – but its much more difficult to serve as president from a proson cell than for a mafia don to stay on top of a criminal mob
Jay
BTW, has anybody come across an authoritative, peer reviewed study establishing what gender potatoes are born as?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Yutsano: A conviction for sedition might put a bit of sand in the gears.
NotMax
Ted Cruz manages to make Jar Jar Binks seem bearable.
@germy
Once attended a very serious drama (the name of which escapes me at the moment) in a Broadway theater. The building immediately next door was also a theater, in which Penn & Teller were performing.
Sounds of loud audience laughter leaked through the intervening wall at the most inappropriate times. Very disconcerting.
James E Powell
@NotMax: @germy:
I recall that with Earthquake.
Humanities Prof
@Brachiator: and no one calls 911.
Shana
@Bruuuuce: Well to be fair he also seemed to misunderstand the meaning of Green Eggs and Ham.
moonbat
@Baud: Cost of doing business. Tell your editor the News organization needs to pony up if they want access. The WH doesn’t owe the press free tests. If they want in there to ask their stupid plane questions they should have to pay for it.
Amir Khalid
@Yutsano:
Being a prisoner might constrain his campaigning style a bit.
CarolPW
@Jay: When you began commenting again after being sick I was sure someone else was using the nym Jay, and actually thought about telling that person the nym was already in use for someone else and to pick another one. It seemed in really poor taste for someone else to be using your nym when for all we knew you had not made it through covid.
It took at least 2 weeks before you started sounding even a little bit like you again, so I’m not surprised you still have shit going on.
Have you been vaccinated? There have been some reports (waiting for something to show up in the morning covid aggregations) that indicate vaccination helps clear up some of the symptoms long-haulers are dealing with.
Good luck and know people are thinking of you.
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: That sounds like the production of Romeo and Juliet we did a few years back, in the lovely little park next to the theater. Across the highway about a quarter-mile away are the fair/rodeo grounds, and one weekend we had some kind of carnival set up there. With the requisite loud canned music. Juliet in the tomb with Yakety Sax blaring in the background just doesn’t have the same emotional impact…
Kent
Wait what? The only soccer I remotely follow is the Portland Timbers, and then only if I’m going to an an actual match. All the Euro stuff? not interested. Unless it involves Ted Lasso.
Jay
@CarolPW:
in BC I am in about the middle pack for the vax. September if I am lucky.
right now, they arn’t vaccinating people who have had Covid.
Hoppie
@germy: You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll kiss $5 bucks goodbye!
Good lord, I’m so old I remember when my dad told me: “Yeah, it sucks movies cost a quarter. When I was a kid, movies cost a nickel. But at least you have a quarter.”
trollhattan
@Kent:
Pro tip: Ask Amir about City.
Ruckus
@Almost Retired:
Germany outlawed nazis.
They won’t be allowed in the country.
cmorenc
@NotMax: you were clearly at the wrong show – penn and teller is lots more fun than a dour drama
Uncle Cosmo
@Ken: I was working the info desk at Balticon the year Hardware Wars was schedule for one showing (’78? ’79?). Then fans came up asking when it would be shown again. They did. The fans kept coming. They showed it again, & again. Finally fans were practically grabbing us by the throat snarling that we goddamn well better show it again….
On about the 7th showing I decided to check it out. Standing room only in the film room, under the projector jeek to chowl with ~2000 other fans (yeah, Balticon was that big back in the daze) & I muttered, This had damn well better be worth it –
& 10 minutes later stumbled out of the hall unable to see where the hell I was going because I was laughing so hard I was blinded by tears. Good memories!
grandmaBear
@Miss Bianca: I remember seeing Midsummer Night’s Dream at the outdoor Old Globe in San Diego when you could clearly hear the nearby zoo’s howler monkeys in the background. Seemed sort of appropriate.
westyny
But he is getting the acclaim he deserves . . . Also, too: 146th!
Jazzman
(With apologies to Professor Lehrer:)
Oh the white folks hate the black folks
And the black folks hate the white folks
And the Hindus hate the Moslems
And everybody hates Ted Cruz!
Jazzman
I mostly lurk so #147 was my first encounter with the Firefox Visual/Text issue (Firefox 86 on a Windows 10 desktop). My text propagated to both the the Visual and Text boxes but specifying the line breaks where I wanted them was most frustrating! C’mon, Mozilla, line breaks are Computer Programming 101 stuff.
Chris Johnson
@trollhattan: Silver Screen Edition is worth finding. There exists a digital transfer of original film footage, way before all the ‘remastering’ Lucas did, and it’s a hell of a thing. Everything about it is retro awesome sauce, and the funny thing is how it’s more like ‘Alien’ than you’d remember: stuff like film grain and more natural color means it conveys this gritty realism that Lucas promptly scrubbed clean… even before running hogwild with extra CGI.
debbie
@Jay:
I missed all this, not even sure I knew you had COVID. Hope your doctor is able to help you. As if the virus isn’t bad enough, the aftereffects refuse to disappear.
debbie
@Jay:
And whatever happened to Mrs. Potatohead?