Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

There are times when telling just part of the truth is effectively a lie.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

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

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

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

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

They don’t have outfits that big. nor codpieces that small.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Stand up, dammit!

No one could have predicted…

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

You are here: Home / Elections / 2022 Elections / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Working Through ‘Recess’

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Working Through ‘Recess’

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And another RIP to a true hero:

… The Code Talkers took part in every assault the Marines conducted in the Pacific, sending thousands of messages without error on Japanese troop movements, battlefield tactics and other communications critical to the war’s ultimate outcome. The code, based on the then-unwritten Navajo language, confounded Japanese military cryptologists and is credited with helping the U.S. win the war.

Samuel Sandoval was on Okinawa when got word from another Navajo Code Talker that the Japanese had surrendered and relayed the message to higher-ups. He had a close call on the island, which brought back painful memories that he kept to himself, Malula Sandoval said.

The Navajo men are celebrated annually on Aug. 14. Samuel Sandoval was looking forward to that date and seeing a museum built near the Navajo Nation capital of Window Rock to honor the Code Talkers, she said.

“Sam always said, ‘I wanted my Navajo youngsters to learn, they need to know what we did and how this code was used and how it contributed to the world,'” she said Saturday. “That the Navajo language was powerful and always to continue carrying our legacy.”

Sandoval was born in Nageezi near Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico. He enlisted in the Marine Corps after attending a Methodist school where he was discouraged from speaking Navajo. He helped recruit other Navajos from the school to serve as Code Talkers, expanding on words and an alphabet that an original group of 29 Navajos created.

Sandoval served in five combat tours and was honorably discharged in 1946. The Code Talkers had orders not to discuss their roles — not during the war and not until their mission was declassified in 1968.

The roles later became an immense source of pride for Sandoval and his late brother, Merrill Sandoval, who also was a Code Talker. The two became talented speakers who always hailed their fellow Marines still in action as the heroes, not themselves, said Merrill Sandoval’s daughter, Jeannie Sandoval…

Reader Interactions

178Comments

  2. 2.

    germy shoemangler

    The thing about the New York Times op ed page is there’s a couple good people and then everyone else I don’t think could even get a job if they got fired, not just at like the Washington Post I mean at Arby’s

    — Brendel (@Brendelbored) August 2, 2022

    Would you trust Tom Friedman to make you a beef n cheddar?

    — Brendel (@Brendelbored) August 2, 2022

    Remember that old reality show that Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie had where they did normal people jobs? I want that but it’s Ross Douthat and Maureen Dowd trying to milk a cow

    — Brendel (@Brendelbored) August 2, 2022

  4. 4.

    Baud

    @germy shoemangler:

    then everyone else I don’t think could even get a job if they got fired, not just at like the Washington Post I mean at Arby’s

     
    Isn’t that why God invented substack?

  7. 7.

    Jesse

    I thought the Wisconsin primary hasn’t happened yet? Or is Mandela Barnes so far ahead that he’s essentially got it wrapped up.

  13. 13.

    sdhays

    @germy shoemangler: Yesterday, Atrios had a couple posts about Nicolas Kristoff coming back to the FTFNYT Op-Ed page – how it was so weird that they were bringing him back and then a very weird and silly interview with him about how people don’t become alcoholics on fancy Pinot Noir like he makes. Not really shocked that this guy moved to Oregon to run for governor without even looking up the basic requirements.

    They find such bizarre people, and he’s not even the worst.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    Still nothing from debbie.  It’s been about 3 weeks.  Hopefully she’s just on vacation.

  22. 22.

    Betty Cracker

    @Elizabelle: Apparently the missiles contain no explosives — they’re giant whirling machetes that chop people up (cars too — the WSJ article Baud linked show the damage to a car).

  24. 24.

    Spanky

    @Baud:

    Secret U.S. Missile Aims to Kill Only Terrorists, Not Nearby Civilians

    You know, it would just be a lot cheaper to classify anyone near a terrorist as not a civilian.

  27. 27.

    JCJ

    @Jesse: The primary is August 9.  There were 8 people running, but of the top 4 in recent polling three (Alex Lasry, Sarah Godlewski, and Tom Nelson) dropped out and all endorsed Mandela Barnes.

  30. 30.

    Baud

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Apparently the R9X missile is informally known as the “flying ginsu.”

     
    The best part is that it only costs the DOD 3 easy payments of $19.99 + shipping and handling.

  33. 33.

    Betty Cracker

    Guy Reffitt, the insurrectionist who told his children turning him in would be traitorous and “traitors get shot” and then was turned in to the FBI by his son, was sentenced to more than 7 years yesterday. His daughters had thoughts:

  37. 37.

    Ohio Mom

    Apparently, Fancy Feast is marketing cat food based on human food — one of their cat food flavors is “Beef Ragú Recipe With Tomatoes & Pasta in a Savory Sauce” — by serving human food based on the cat food.

    So: a human food recipe based on a cat food recipe based on a human food recipe. Full circle.

  38. 38.

    NotMax

    FYI.

    A Tokyo clothing maker has teamed up with veterinarians to create a wearable fan for pets, hoping to attract the anxious owners of dogs – or cats – that can’t shed their fur coats in Japan’s blistering summer weather.

    The device consists of a battery-operated, 80-gramme (3-ounce) fan that is attached to a mesh outfit and blows air around an animal’s body. Source

    I don’t care how silent may be the boast for the fan, doggy ears are much more sensitive and acutely alert to sound so whatever constant whirring there is by anything sitting that close to the head must be nothing short of irritating.

  40. 40.

    Layer8Problem

    @Baud:  “Order now and we’ll throw in a Javelin light anti-tank launcher, a $200,000 value, absolutely free!“

  41. 41.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: Not to mention it won’t do the dog any good. They don’t sweat. So blowing hot air over there bodies is just that: Hot air. No evaporative cooling effect.

  45. 45.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Raoul Paste: I did some work on ballistic missile defense (“Star Wars”) back when there was a lot of BMD money floating around. As I recall, amidst all the high-tech anti-missile weaponry, the most reliable technology was “kinetic energy kill”, which was pretty much just “throw an anvil at it”.

    (Admittedly the tough part was the same as for any other technology, calculating the trajectory of the missile and intercepting it in time. i.e. aiming the anvil)

  46. 46.

    RedDirtGirl

    @lowtechcyclist: When I was little I came up with a non-violent way to wage war. All soldiers had to wear suspenders, and all guns shot rays that made the suspenders break. Then when everyone’s pants fell down they would run away in embarrassment. No more soldiers – no more war. The Quaker mind at work.

  47. 47.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Don’t ever change Alabama.

    Last Thursday night, the state of Alabama took three hours to find a vein in Joe Nathan James Jr through which officials could pump lethal injection drugs and execute him, a process that the department of corrections insisted was “nothing out of the ordinary”.

    Alabama appears to specialize in its extraordinary sense of the ordinary, particularly when it comes to the death penalty. It has now emerged that, during that execution, prison officials subjected female reporters who came as witnesses to the proceeding to a clothing inspection, attempting to bar one woman from the death chamber on grounds that her skirt was too short.

    Ivana Hrynkiw, a journalist for Alabama’s pre-eminent news outlet AL.com, recounted how she was pulled aside by a prison official and told that her skirt was too diminutive to meet regulations. “I tried to pull my skirt to my hips to make the skirt longer, but was told it was still not appropriate,” she recounted on Twitter.

    The paradox that the state went to such lengths to uphold what it regards as propriety in clothing even as it prepared to kill a man appears to have been lost on the department of corrections. Officials also subjected an Associated Press reporter, Kim Chandler, to a full-body inspection, making her stand to have the length of her clothing checked. Chandler said that such an indignity had never happened to her before in the many times she had covered executions since 2002.

    Hrynkiw was eventually allowed to enter the death chamber after she borrowed a pair of waterproof fisher’s waders from a photographer, attaching their suspenders under her shirt to keep them up. That was deemed appropriate attire when watching a judicial killing.

    But even then it didn’t stop. The reporter was informed that her open toe heels were a breach of regulation and she was forced to change into tennis shoes retrieved from her car.

    If not for Alabama and Mississippi, we might not know how foul the scrapings from the bottom of the barrel smelled.

  48. 48.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @OzarkHillbilly: Might be effective if you combined it with a squirt gun, but I’m not sure the dog would appreciate your efforts.

    A cool surface is a much more useful idea, judging by my guy who has a definite preference for wooden floors over his comfy beds when the weather is hot. If you want to get fancy, perhaps invent a wooden or stone bed which is cooled by evaporative cooling.

  49. 49.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @rikyrah: Good morning!

    We’re at ten more sleeps until closing on our house sale. And seven more sleeps until the movers whisk (safely, I hope) our stuff to our next home. Plus a “pop-up” garage sale on Saturday. Apart from that, nothing much going on at Chez O.

    On topic, the Dems are showing how much they can do with the slimmest of majorities. They’re competent professionals who care about the national good. Imagine that! Then imagine what they can accomplish with a bigger Senate majority. Fingers crossed, donations made, and postcards to be written. After the move.

  52. 52.

    Miss Bianca

    @germy shoemangler: “feline-inspired human cuisine”? Uh…

    So, does that means we are eating cats, or just eating *like* cats? I dunno, don’t want to know.

    (now wondering whether that means Fancy Feast is the can of choice, if I am reduced to eating cat food in my old age.)

  56. 56.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The dress code for female reporters is bizarre enough, but it was harder for me to get past the first paragraph. THREE FUCKING HOURS to find a vein? In order to FUCKING KILL A GUY?

    We can be a barbaric species.

  57. 57.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Miss Bianca:

    if I am reduced to eating cat food in my old age.

    I’ve always wondered about that: is cat food actually cheaper than buying human food for human sustenance?

  60. 60.

    Miss Bianca

    @O. Felix Culpa: Inquiring minds want to know… ; )

    Hey, what’s up with the move to the big city? (missing New Mexico something fierce, btw. My sister’s memorial service is later this month – it’s in Baltimore, where my niece lives, but I expect some of her NM friends to be there. Hoping I can get down there for a visit in the winter.)

  64. 64.

    Amir Khalid

    @RedDirtGirl:

    My own idea for non-lethal war is to ban all weapons more dangerous than pillows. Thus, combat would consist only of pillow fights. And the only permitted type of munition would be the F-bomb.

  65. 65.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I just searched from the back end and debbie commented in the Jan 6 hearing on 7/21.

    I just sent her an email message, though.

    It’s titled “Baud is starting to worry!”  :-)

  66. 66.

    Anyway

    @SiubhanDuinne:

     was harder for me to get past the first paragraph. THREE FUCKING HOURS to find a vein? In order to FUCKING KILL A GUY?

    Yes, I couldn’t get past that either. THREE hours to find a vein?! Jeeze.

  67. 67.

    Ken

    Breaking…Iowa Democrats will have to wait until AFTER the midterms to learn fate of the caucuses for 2024.

    Do all twitter reporters start every post with “Breaking”?  It dilutes the meaning of the word, especially when the main message is “we have no news on this, and won’t for another four months.”

    Complaints about presentation aside, I know which way I hope the decision goes. But I don’t live in Iowa — anyone out there from the (google) Hawkeye (really??) state with an opinion?

  68. 68.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Miss Bianca:

    Let me know if you’re in the ‘hood, as defined as within the state, more or less. Our new abode is in ABQ, a mere six-minute drive to Ms. O’s office, as opposed to an hour-plus commute each way.

    I’m so sorry about your sister. She sounds like she was a really interesting person. I imagine there will be some good stories shared at her memorial. Condolences to you and all who loved her.

  69. 69.

    Ken

    @Baud: They always get you on the shipping + handling. I suspect that’s why so many of the ads offer “a second gizmo free, just pay additional shipping + handling.”

  70. 70.

    Barbara

    @NotMax: Fans won’t work for dogs the way they do for people.  We feel cooler because of the action of blowing air on sweaty pores.  I spent a long unairconditioned summer in an apartment in Baltimore, and the two things I did to cool my dog was, when I was away, I put him in my tiled bathroom — the tile was much cooler than the air, and when I was home, I would run a cool bath and let him soak for a while.  That and the air conditioned ATM vestibule down the street.

  71. 71.

    mrmoshpotato

    Would you trust Tom Friedman to make you a beef n cheddar?

    No, but I would trust Joshua Weissman and Sam The Cooking Guy.

  72. 72.

    Betty Cracker

    Speaking of fancy pet foods, I started feeding my dogs fresh chilled dog food instead of canned/kibble, and now mealtimes are fraught because if one dog finishes his first, he’ll go after the other’s remaining food, so I have to stand guard to keep the peace. It’s a giant pain in the ass, and I’m not sure how to get them to understand that this isn’t acceptable behavior. Any tips?

  73. 73.

    Soprano2

    @Spanky: I suspect they’re reluctant to classify children as “terrorists”, and since these people often have their children living with them it’s a real concern.

  74. 74.

    O. Felix Culpa

    So glad to have National Treasure ™ Alexandra Petri back. Excerpts from today’s essay on the Forward [sic] Party [sic].

    Our third party is not a party of ideas! It is the idea of a party! (WaPo):

    We are not a party of ideas. We are a party of the total absence of ideas. No, rather, our idea is that we will solve problems using good ideas. This is such a good idea we are amazed that nobody has had it before. Do we have any good ideas? No. We are more idea-ideas people than idea people, if you see. Our big idea is to disrupt the party system. Other parties have brought things to the table, but we are disrupting that by bringing nothing to the table. This is sort of a BYO situation, like when you bring stones to make soup and everybody brings everything else.

    [snip]

    To anyone who would dare to call this the Fyre Festival of parties — Fyre Festival had those sandwiches. We would not insult you by offering so much. At most, we are the shadow of a sandwich flickering on a cave wall.

    [snip]

    As the House committee on Jan. 6 hearings reveal, we live in a polarized country, and there are people in it who think violence is acceptable and who are working to undermine the legitimacy of our elections. On the other hand, Democrats seem pretty steamed about that. There is only one possible solution that will fix this problem: a third party.

    The upcoming elections are going to be absolutely pivotal when it comes to determining which peoples’ rights survive and whether this country continues to function. There are those who say that if you are starting a third party now, it must be galvanized by a very clear, powerful idea — one that makes it worth drawing votes away from both the alternative parties, which are equally falling short. They say that such a party makes sense only if it is buoyed by an idea so undeniable that people will come surging forth from their ideological bunkers to vote for it despite everything else that is going on and all the other things that are at stake.

    To those who say that, we say: We will have an idea like that soon! Or at least an idea about that idea! And it’s going to be a doozy!

  76. 76.

    Miss Bianca

    @Betty Cracker: I found that putting up a barrier between the bowls – really, just a sheet of black plastic garbage bags between two short poles, nothing fancy – helped my doggoes focus on their own bowls at meal times.

    @O. Felix Culpa: Thank you.

  78. 78.

    Ken

    @Betty Cracker: Back during season 1 of The J6 Committee, I suggested that they should allow Bannon to testify like he wanted, provided he was wearing an electric shock collar. But that seems too inhumane to use on a dog. So maybe feed them in separate rooms?

  79. 79.

    SFAW

    @Baud: ​
     

    The best part is that it only costs the DOD 3 easy payments of $19.99 + shipping and handling.

    From somewhere beyond this mortal coil, Ron Popeil is saying “Shit! Why didn’t I do weapons instead of consumer goods?”

  80. 80.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ken: I don’t think allowed her doggos to testify is going to solve Betty C’s doggo feeding issue.

    I mean, I could be wrong.

  81. 81.

    Kropacetic

    @O. Felix Culpa: What I learned from the Black Panthers in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” if you want to build a party, get involved. Do good deeds in your community. Establish yourself in a region and build.

    This top-down shit is exactly ass-backwards.

  82. 82.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Betty Cracker: ​

    My daughter and husband have this issue with one of their two cats. They are very high-tech. They have a camera they can use to monitor feeding and some sort of water-squirting setup they can fire remotely via internet. Seems to work out well, as cats hate being squirted.

    I think squirting also works with dogs. A hand held squirt bottle is one of the main crowd-control devices at the kennel our guy goes to for boarding and daycare. Every time I pick him up and feel there’s water on his shoulders I know he got a little too rambunctious.

  83. 83.

    Soprano2

    TFG endorsing “Eric” in the MO Senate primary, when two of the leading candidates are both named Eric, is a *chef’s kiss* of idiocy. We got robocall phone messages from both candidates claiming the endorsement!

  85. 85.

    Betty Cracker

    @Miss Bianca: I moved their chow and water bowls to different rooms. We always have kibble down for grazing purposes, and when it’s just kibble present, they’ll eat from either bowl with no trouble. It’s just the fancy pet food that’s worth a conflict, I guess.  

  87. 87.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @lamh36:

    Woot! Happy 7th to Zoe! The birthday girl is looking so very grown-up and cool in her shades. Time does fly, as they say. Great to see you here too.

  88. 88.

    Jinchi

    @Spanky: You know, it would just be a lot cheaper to classify anyone near a terrorist as not a civilian

    I’m pretty sure thats Russian doctrine.

  89. 89.

    WaterGirl

    @lamh36: Holy cow, all grown up!!!  I wouldn’t use the word “adorable” like I did last time around, lest she track me down and cut me. :-)  I like her style, with the shades and the hat!

    You can tell that she is one special kid.

  91. 91.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Kropacetic:

    You are right, which suggests the obvious: this latest Andrew Yang and co. special is not intended to accomplish anything apart from lining the pockets of Andrew Yang and co., with the lagniappe of undermining democracy by undermining Democrats.

  92. 92.

    The Moar You Know

    It’s a giant pain in the ass, and I’m not sure how to get them to understand that this isn’t acceptable behavior. Any tips?

    @Betty Cracker: get good at standing guard because that’s how it’s going to be for quite some time.

    My dog DELIGHTS in stealing food, especially if it’s from another dog that we are babysitting.  The normal cure for fixing dog behaviors is to give them something they find more interesting, but for most dogs, there is nothing more interesting than someone else’s food.

  93. 93.

    Miss Bianca

    @lamh36: Woot, she looks so grown-up and stylin’ in her shades! Has it really been 7 years already?! – Happy birthday, Zoe!

  94. 94.

    Ken

    @Soprano2: I’m left wondering if that’s because TFG got out “I endorse Eric” and went blank on the last name, or if it’s deliberate so he can claim a win if either of them gets the nomination.

  95. 95.

    Betty Cracker

    @Ken: Politico has a story that claims it was deliberate. Trump supposedly called both Erics and said he was endorsing them without telling them he’d endorsed the rival Eric. What a clown.

  98. 98.

    Betty Cracker

    More good news for Fetterman:

    Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman leads Dr. Mehmet Oz 52% to 38% among likely voters in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race, according to a new poll from nonpartisan political action committee Center Street PAC (www.centerstreetpac.com). Ten percent of voters remain undecided. However, the poll showed good news for Fetterman across the board, while signaling Dr. Oz could be in trouble.

    “If I were a Republican donor, I would think twice about putting significant dollars into this race,” says Center Street Co-Founder Matt O’Brien. “Even showing a huge lead for Fetterman, if anything, this poll understates his advantage. Barring some black swan event, Oz has no chance to win.”

    Here’s hoping Trump’s idiotic endorsements cost the GOP their shot at the senate and make the two obstructionist Dems irrelevant.

  99. 99.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: I was just reading that, between the lines, it was Kimberly Guilfoyle’s idea

    Guilfoyle was steadfast in her defense of the former governor, saying that the party establishment had been trying to get Trump to oppose Greitens. McDaniel, meanwhile, reiterated her argument that Greitens would make for a weak nominee given his personal baggage.
    As the meeting wore on, those familiar with what transpired say, Trump began to lose patience. At one point it was suggested that he could endorse “Eric,” and that by doing so he would be supporting both Schmitt and Greitens.
    It was a madcap exit ramp. But Trump went in on the details, asking if the two candidates’ first names were spelled identically — noting that it wouldn’t work if they weren’t. While Trump was intrigued, he also remarked that it might be too cute.

  101. 101.

    prostratedragon

    @Ohio Mom:  Would have been wasted effort on any cat I ever had. They loved to share morsels of fresh liver, seafood, or hamburger with me, but were indifferent to prepared food (I’m at least a decent cook, sometimes better than merely that).

  102. 102.

    Barbara

    @Kropacetic: I don’t really know what Andrew Yang did before he went all in on politics, but top down reasoning versus ground up organization is usually what separates CEOs from politicians.  The CEO gives orders — their underlings carry them out and are judged by how well they execute.  Whereas, politicians are engaged endlessly in persuasion and debate in an effort to get people to see how their interests are sufficiently aligned to vote the same way.  It’s not a knock on CEOs to say that most of them find this to be exhausting and alien to the way they carry out their mission.

  109. 109.

    prostratedragon

    @Miss Bianca:
    So, does that means we are eating cats, or just eating *like* cats?
    It took me a moment to admit that I was anxious enough about this very question that I needed to glance at the article. It’s the latter.

  111. 111.

    Kropacetic

    @Barbara: Don’t be silly. You can simply buy, trade, and dismantle entire businesses. Having a product to sell is for noobs.

  112. 112.

    Barbara

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Greitens lured a woman to the basement of his house where he lives with his wife and restrained her apparently against her will to satisfy his sexual fantasies.   All the tactical maneuvering in the world can’t change the fact that this is not a guy who deserves to continue in office.

  113. 113.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: I thought David McCormick would have made a better candidate than Oz. Fetterman’s a formidable opponent, but at least McCormick’s a veteran of the U.S. Army and not Turkey’s.He has very little public record and could have run like Youngkin, being all things to all people. I think Fetterman would beat McCormick but McCormick would have had a chance and I don’t think Oz has any.

  115. 115.

    kindness

    ‘Ross Douthat and Maureen Dowd trying to milk a cow steer.’

    Be a better fit for them.

  116. 116.

    Suzanne

    @Ohio Mom:

    one of their cat food flavors is “Beef Ragú Recipe With Tomatoes & Pasta in a Savory Sauce” — by serving human food based on the cat food. 

    So Chef Boyardee.

    Which I will admit is a comfort food. Because my upbringing looked like “Stranger Things”, minus the Upside Down. It accurately captures the Rightside Up, though.

  118. 118.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Suzanne:

    I LOVED Beefaroni as a kid. Mega-carbs and sodium and artificial flavorings! What’s not to like?

    I tried it again once as an adult. Blech. Same with Twinkies. Double-blech.

  121. 121.

    Geminid

    @Barbara: Greitens’ wife’s divorce filings are every bit as devastating as that story, if not more so. National Republicans keep saying that Greitens is the only primary candidate who could lose that seat. They’ve put a lot of money into anti-Greitens ads to head him off.

  122. 122.

    Heidi Mom

    The mention of the Navajo Code Talker’s passing brought to mind, yet again, my reason for disliking the otherwise-not-bad movie Windtalker, starring Adam Beach and Nicolas Cage:  It implied that the Navajo Marines were taught the code by their white officers.  No–they developed it! Talk about missing the point

  124. 124.

    frosty

    @Geminid: ​
      Fetterman has done a masterful job of defining Oz (with his trolling) before Oz got a chance to introduce himself as a candidate. I expect everyone in PA knows Oz is a Jersey boy at this point.

    And the trolling has been really funny, too. I love Snooki and Stevie Van Zandt’s endorsements.

  125. 125.

    Elizabelle

    WRT the ginsu from the sky weapon:

    that could be extremely helpful in taking out major narco lords.  I wonder if they will try it.  Those folks are destabilizing their own societies/countries.  You also have the issue of poorly paid police who are working for … who?

    Anything that could help central (and South) America recover their opportunities.

  126. 126.

    lowtechcyclist

    Convicted 1/6 defendant Guy Reffitt’s daughters say that Trump deserves life in prison if their father is going to be in prison for seven and a half years.

    I agree with that part of what they said.

    The part that got me was when one of them said that their parents raised them to be freethinkers.  Yet her dad got caught up in a violent cult.  Good job of freethinking, dude.

  127. 127.

    Soprano2

    @Geminid: You should see and hear the TV ads a PAC is running against Greitens. They have a woman reading stuff from his wife’s court filings, the allegations that he restrained her, took her phone, and hit their son. I don’t know how anyone could vote for him after hearing that, but some of TFG’s supporters will. It feels gross to be rooting for him to win the Republican primary, but that’s the best hope the Democrats have to be competitive for the seat.

  131. 131.

    lowtechcyclist

    These are the Democrats in some of the key Senate races we need to win to save voting & reproductive rights:

    Where’s the best place to look up who needs money, and who’s already got a shit-ton?

  133. 133.

    MinuteMan

    Add getting the hell out of Afghanistan to the list of Peppy Joe’s accomplishments. An end to a the twenty years war.

  134. 134.

    Ken

    @Soprano2: Oh, that Eric. The one with the domestic abuse. I thought it was the Eric with the woman tied up in the basement.

    Oh, wait, they’re the same guy.

    (Which makes it kind of creepy that Guilfoyle was advocating for him.)

  138. 138.

    Geminid

    @lowtechcyclist: OpenSecrets does a good job reporting campaign finance in detail.

    If you look up “news” on individual races you’ll find state and local media reporting on donations too. They will report on PAC funding as well. The Vance and Oz campaigns are raising little money so PAC support for them will be the biggest factor in their races.

  139. 139.

    Barbara

    @Geminid: I haven’t followed Greitens since he resigned, but I guess his wife’s professed plea for privacy had more in common with a hostage statement than a true desire for marital reconciliation.  It’s just completely crazy to me — not that Greitens wanted to live out his fantasies but that he thought he could do so without any blowback for his desire to be an elected public official.  He basically kidnapped someone.  Really, he should have at least had to plea bargain his way out of a long jail term.  Instead, he is running for office.

  141. 141.

    Geminid

    @Barbara: The saying, “A politician is a sick man who gets well by being elected” applies to Greitens more than most others.

  143. 143.

    Geminid

    @Jinchi: trump’s advisors are third rate. The disparity between Eric Greitens’ and Eric Schmitt’s chances in November is so great this decision would have been a no-brainer for even second rate advisors.

  144. 144.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Betty Cracker: ​

    Better and better! Every time I hear a poll about this race the margin gets more comfortable.

    Especially satisfying because this race is to replace the execrable Pat Toomey (R-ptooie) who often manages to be the Worst Person in the Senate on many issues. I understand he’s largely responsible for the Republican turnaround on the “burn pit” bill. And it sounds like he’s managed to turn a lot of their voters against the party as a result, which is also <chef’s kiss>.

    The Warnock-Walker race in GA, on the other hand, still sounds annoyingly close. Walker is a moron, but Republicans seem to like their politicians to be morons.

  146. 146.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Steeplejack:

    AnyEricHat

    I am perpetually amused and impressed by the ease with which PopeHat, on a near-daily basis, comes up with new Twitter handles that are both clever and topical.

  147. 147.

    Soprano2

    @Ken: I said from the beginning that Greitens was a Trump-in-training – he had the same sneering contempt for most people and the same penchant for secrecy in government, the same disdain for the laws (those pesky things don’t apply to me!), and so on. If he hadn’t resigned in 2018 he’d be giving DeSantis a run for his money as the most “Trumpie” governor.

  151. 151.

    J R in WV

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: ​
     

    The Warnock-Walker race in GA, on the other hand, still sounds annoyingly close. Walker is a moron, but Republicans seem to like their politicians to be morons.

    While Walker is not smart, his biggest problem is that he is diagnosed with a mental illness, and refuses to take the medications prescribed to help him be more stable. He’s banana pants CRZY.

    We’re on a regular donation to the good Rev. Senator.

  152. 152.

    sab

    I finally dpfound out what is going to be on my ballot for our second primary of the summer.  An unopposed candidate for state representative, and two contested seats for state Democratic party committee, one for men, the other for women.

    I usually vote, but I am not sure if I will haul myself in for this one. Basically my choice comes down to whether I vote for the man and woman from our urban/suburban county, or the pair from the neighboring rural county. I know something about the two women candidates. I know nothing about the men. Is utterly uninformed voting worse than not voting at all?

  153. 153.

    cain

    @germy shoemangler:

    I love that Paris loves to parody herself. I think she’s a really smart at managing her brand and making it accessible. I think I’d have a fun time hanging out with her.

  154. 154.

    Paul in KY

    @Baud: I read a SF story where a weapon was a gyroscope, rotating in a metal shell at 1/4 speed of light. Something was triggered that made it not stable and as it disintegrated it releases all sorts of energy/shrapnel.

    Had no explosives. Stuff like this (along with metal objects dropping from space at 40k mph) that will become the weapons of the future, IMO.

  160. 160.

    evodevo

    @Anyway: Well, not totally unimaginable…no competent caring phlebotomist would want to be involved in this AT ALL, so all the state would have left would be an incompetent…

  161. 161.

    evodevo

    @Kropacetic:  Yes.  This.  The machine Dems in old timey Chicago understood this. Constituent services are Job One, and everything else is secondary.  When people go to the polls, they remember who personally helped them out in their hour of need, instead of showing up on the doorstep every 2 to 4 years whining about voting…

  162. 162.

    Barbara

    @Paul in KY: Well I would too but there should be some shared  understanding of what is horrible that crosses party lines.  Evidently the national Republican is worried only about Greitens’ electability not whether he kidnapped his sexual conquest and then threatened to kill various family members.

  163. 163.

    Barbara

    @Anyway: If the person had a history as an IV drug user many of their veins might have been destroyed.  I had a friend who trained at the University of Chicago hospitals who had IV drug user patients who stuck themselves for blood draws because the “normal” ports of entry had closed up long ago.

  164. 164.

    Paul in KY

    @Barbara: The national Repubs probably know of several more in that boat who just haven’t been found out yet. Good Repubs all!

  171. 171.

    MrKite

    @Elizabelle: I would say we’ve “helped” Central and South American countries quite enough over the years. Other than the real work of diplomacy that Madame VP is involved with, I think it’s time we sat down and let them solve their problems without our so-called “help”.

  172. 172.

    misterpuff

    The upscale version of the Moderate’s Cat Food Commission, Now with a maître d’!

  173. 173.

    Ruckus

    @Anyway:

    Not intended to defend the state murder program but there are people who have small and or tough veins/arteries and it can be tough to inject them. Yes 3 hrs is a long time but I’ve had people who had a difficult time hitting mine. There was this one nurse at the VA clinic that could draw blood so effortlessly that I believe her nickname was Elvira. Fun, funny and a good shot, a combo for all to reach. And I’ve been told that some addicts are extremely difficult to get needles into, and it’s not impossible to imagine that someone on death row might just be one such person. Or we could do without death row in the first place, thereby eliminating the problem. A small issue with troglodytes makes that possible resolution difficult to implement.

  175. 175.

    Ruckus

    @SFAW:

    FIXITFY

    From somewhere beyond this mortal coil, Ron Popeil is saying “Shit! Why didn’t I do weapons instead of horribly bad consumer goods?”

  177. 177.

    Ruckus

    @Barbara:

    I wonder why Yang decided that he needed to go into politics? Was it that he is so smart and successful that he thinks he can solve any issue? Or is it maybe that he isn’t all that smart and hasn’t actually been as successful as is made out, which is often referred to as right place – right time?

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