Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

When we show up, we win.

A consequence of cucumbers

FFS people, this was a good thing. take the win.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Democrats are back in array!

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

The willow is too close to the house.

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

Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

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 am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Afternoon Open Thread

Monday Afternoon Open Thread

by | 245 Comments

This post is in: 

Slow news day, at least by recent standards!

So there’s room to promote this from the comments – a most excellent song, written by commenter Mo MacArbie – to get the thread started.

I’ve written a song, and I beg your indulgence to present it here.
It’s a crooner, so tune up your inner big band and lush strings.

Republicans lie
Like cats meow
Like doggies bow-wow-wow

Republicans lie
Like billy goats bleat
Like birdies twitter-tweet

Why oh why
Do Republicans lie
It’s in their very nature
My oh my
How Republicans lie
In every state
On every date
In every legislature

Republicans lie
Like cattle moo
Like cocks cock-a-doodle-doo

Republicans lie
It’s true
And when you hear them calling
Republicans are lying
To you

What’s everyone up to today?

oh, and every thread needs a picture.  My bleeding heart vine today.

Monday Afternoon Open Thread 1

Reader Interactions

245Comments

  3. 3.

    lowtechcyclist

    Quiet news day!  Let’s see:

    Rudy 9/11 is a target of the Fulton County probe. Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving fellow, but one.

    And former Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann has been subpoenaed by the DOJ.

    That’s what ‘quiet news day’ means, these days.  I’m OK with that!

  4. 4.

    Math Guy

    Getting into this retirement thing: spent the morning working on my research project, now reading BJ and getting ready to go for a bike ride.

  6. 6.

    mali muso

    Put the kiddo on the yellow school bus for her first day of kindergarten this morning!  I may have shed a few tears.  How does that saying go…The days are long, but the years are short.  Sigh.

  10. 10.

    Math Guy

    @mali muso: So true. I remember cradling my newborn daughter in my arms in what feels like the recent past and now she is a junior in college. Cherish each day.

  11. 11.

    Butch

    Stepping away from work for a few weeks because there’s canning to be done and six cords of firewood to be bucked and split.  I became an independent subcontractor a few years ago because I’m at a point in life where no one is going to look at a spreadsheet and tell me how much vacation I’ve got left.

  13. 13.

    Will

    I see Politico running an article about a narrow pardon for Trump. I can’t stand Trump but actually argued this on Saturday with my father. Trump would be so pissed that Biden has the authority to do this and would ceaselessly talk about how he didn’t need pardoned. His supporters would flip out and lose their shit. However to the mainstream Biden would look like he is rising above and the fact there is a pardon means most Americans will think Trump was guilty of a crime. That’s how they think, why did he need a pardon if he didn’t do something criminal? Will just become accepted he was guilty. I think would also depress turnout among his crazies.

  14. 14.

    Baud

    @Will:

    1. Seems like it would hurt Biden with Dems.
    2. If it were to be done, it would have to be conditioned on Trump’s full and honest cooperation with the DOJ to implicate Trump’s co-conspirators in all his crimes.
  16. 16.

    Old School

    @Will:

    I see Politico running an article about a narrow pardon for Trump.

    How narrow?  It seems like it would need to cover a fair amount of ground.

  17. 17.

    bbleh

    @lowtechcyclist: That’s what ‘quiet news day’ means, these days.  I’m OK with that!

    No no NO! I want fireworks, dammit! I want indictments!  I want Fox News bots stammering and looking frantically sideways and then cutting to commercial! I want Nancy Pelosi and Liz Cheney in bronze armor diving out of the skies in flaming chariots and scattering exploding subpoenas as the Ride of the Valkyries thunders in the background! I want more, more, MORE!

  18. 18.

    Dangerman

    @Will: Pardon? Uh uh. We been that route.

    All in and let the chips fall where they may. If some throw a shitfit, well, too bad, and hopefully they will all have names as easy to write limericks about as Shiffer.

  19. 19.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Oooh, I does loves me some root beer floats! Perhaps I’ll add a pint of vanilla ice cream and a six-pack of A&W to my shopping list.

    (I feel justified. The bulk of the list is the makings of a spinach salad. I pull out all the stops: hot bacon raspberry vinaigrette dressing, bleu cheese crumbles, diced hard-boiled egg, thinly sliced red onion. A super-chilled glass of Pinot Grigio, and a couple of plain breadsticks for crunch. That’s my dinner tomorrow. Tonight — something something Marie Callender.)

  20. 20.

    Elizabelle

    @Will:  I do not want to see any pardons for Trump.  None.

    Not for a former president.  Not above the law.  Sends the totally wrong message.

    Which would be why Politico, horserace politics for douchebags, has published an article/trial balloon on that.

    Just.  No.

  22. 22.

    Will

    @Baud: I’m not saying pardon all his crimes. I’m just talking about this specific case of mishandling documents. It would make him look so small.

    I would love to see them get him on the Jan 6th stuff. If they can, then I’m all for it. That’s why I think a very narrow one on this would make for a great headline for Biden heading into the midterms and hopefully we get him for the other stuff later.

  23. 23.

    CaseyL

    @Will: I think this is a horrible idea, and would frankly be surprised if Biden was considering it.

    The only way it would make any sense at all is if a deal gets rid of some highly placed, still-in-office or on-the-ballot GOPers.  Like Hawley, Boebart, MTG, Gaetz, Cruz, Mastrianno, Paxton… who am I leaving out…

  24. 24.

    bbleh

    @Baud: … it would have to be conditioned on Trump’s full and honest cooperation …

    Ahahahahaha! Ha ha HAA ha ha!  HAA ha ha ha ha!  Stop, please! Yer killin’ me!

  25. 25.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Okay update.  Appointment today to discuss the biopsy results and yes it is lung cancer, on the upside though it is such that I can undergo “soft chemo” (whatever that is) so my hair and teeth are probably not going to fall out.  Anyhoos I have an appt with the Oncologist on Aug 30 (after our vacation to Scotland Aug 18 to 28) in Kendal, which is cool as they have lots of great thrift stores in Kendal LOL.  Got books on cancer and financial benefits available should I need them (which I don’t) and all the help that is available while I go through chemo.  My Nurse Jo took me to a room in case I needed to cry and stuff but to be honest me and Dr. Gupta and Jo have been talking about this for about a year so it is not really a surprise.  Hubby was a bit more fragile and he said to Jo “but there is hope?” and she smiled and said “Oh yes, we are going to fight this”.  So that is where I am, looking forward to my hols in Scotland (Nessie here I come!) and then getting ready to fight this stuff on my return.  Jo said the most important thing was not to give up, and she is damn right, I am not going to give up, I am going to fight this thing like I have fought things all my life.  Onwards and upwards and I am already planning holiday trips for next year.  So there is that.

  27. 27.

    bbleh

    @Baud: Right.  And as soon as the results are in and she loses, she does the Gandalf-the-White-in-front-of-possessed-Theoden thing, and then there’s a Raiders of the Lost Ark covenant meltdown scene, and then she heads for the chariot.

  28. 28.

    Scout211

    @Will: Will just become accepted he was guilty.

     

    I live in California, but in a rural, very red county and what I hear from the mainstream Republicans, the MAGA Republicans and the Independents is that they do not now and would not then (if Biden pardons him) accept that he was guilty of a crime. They believe these charges against him are politically motivated and a pardon would actually confirm that to them.

    Nothing short of a conviction or a deal made with prosecutors would even budge them an inch from their belief that he had a right to do everything that he did as President. 

    Oh and “both sides do it!” Ad nauseum.

  29. 29.

    SiubhanDuinne

    1. @Baud:

    Trump’s full and honest cooperation

    BWAHAHAHahahaha (gasp) wahahahaha!!!
    🙂😃😄😆😂🤣

    ETA: Oops, bbleh got there first! Oh well, we’ll just laugh together!

  37. 37.

    Will

    Anyone that thinks Trump is ever going to spend a day in jail is just simply not living in reality with the rest of us. He’s just not. It’s never going to happen.

    However there are ways for us to capitalize off his mess ups that make us look more reasonable to the simpleton voter. They think he is probably guilty, and the pardon just affirms that.

  38. 38.

    Ken

    @Baud: Speaking of Cheney, I think her primary is tomorrow.

    Which she’ll win handily, due to all her opponents accidentally brutally stabbing themselves in the stomach while shaving.

    (Blackadder, if you’re wondering.)

  47. 47.

    JCJ

    @Litlebritdifrnt:   So many questions – is it primary lung cancer or a metastasis?

    If primary lung is it small cell or non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and what stage?

    If NSCLC did they get enough tissue in the biopsy to run next generation sequencing to look for actionable mutations (if indicated)?

  49. 49.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    Damn damn damn. Was so hoping for different news. But it certainly sounds as though you have a team (including you and hubs) that will fight this as aggressively as you want to, and I for one feel very encouraged and optimistic on your behalf. I’m glad you’re going forward with your Scottish vacation (I love Nessie, and Inverness is glorious!) and hope you will keep all of us regularly updated. Big hugs to {{{{{you}}}}} 🥰😍💕❤️

  52. 52.

    narya

    I am preparing for a three-day virtual site visit from the feds. Yes, senior leadership waited until this weekend, basically, to review things I provided two weeks ago. Can I change that? Nope.

  53. 53.

    Elizabelle

    @Litlebritdifrnt:   Enjoy that vacay.  Hope you do see Nessie.

    Lung cancer always sounds quite frightening, but doctors can do so much more for cancer treatment, every year.  I hope yours responds well to therapy, and you beat it outright or at least to a long, long, long remission.

    Glad you have such a good med team, and good health benefits.

  55. 55.

    Ken

    @narya: I am preparing for a three-day virtual site visit from the feds.

    Making sure the cardboard boxes labelled “Top Secret Documents” are securely padlocked in the closet?

  57. 57.

    Quiltingfool

    I need some cat advice.  My kitty, Baby, hasn’t been doing well.  We went to the vet 2 weeks ago – Baby was experiencing upper respiratory problems (recurring) and was not eating very much.  The vet gave her a steroid shot and an antibiotic.  However, he had the “look,” the one you get when they want to tell you something that will break your heart.

    Since then, she hasn’t been eating or drinking much.  I’ve tried every kind of food I can think of – the food treats she has always loved – but she just won’t eat.  She is skin and bones.

    I think it’s time to let her go, but she gets on my lap and purrs,  she waits by the bed every morning and escorts me to the bathroom when I get up…she hangs out with me all day.  I’m so conflicted, I don’t want her to suffer, but is she ready to go?

    Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

  58. 58.

    Yutsano

    @Litlebritdifrnt: ​Oh sweet spirit! My heart and my love go out to you. Love, Healing Light, u haz. I’ll be thinking of you​

    EDIT: oh and kick cancer’s ass from here to the Dardanelles!

  59. 59.

    Will

    @Elizabelle: Sure, keep holding that hope and make horrible political decisions based off it.

    Lets say your fantasy ever did come true… what now? You think he’s going to some grim jail where he gets raped in the shower or at best the head of some white power group? No. He would go to some low security place with a plush room where he’d have internet access to send out his fatwas and only increase his victim complex. Change of administration and he’s out. He’s old, but hey Hitler did prison too and it worked out great for him.

     

    Or, as was happening, he’s pardoned, and then begins to fade away again. A grumpy disgraced idiot farting his proclamations into the wind because most of the country has accepted he is a petty and idiotic crook. He dies knowing his legacy is a sham and his name considered a blight outside a small circle of crazy cult like followers.

    I’d certainly prefer he just fade away as he was doing.

  61. 61.

    Scout211

    @Quiltingfool: I feel so bad for you. With every cat we’ve owned over the past 40+ years, we have been faced with that difficult choice. I always let my husband make the final call because he has the softer heart.  He has always decided to let the cat choose its own day to say goodbye.  It has worked for us and has been the only way my husband could let go.

    On the other hand, we had the vet euthanize our dog when she was too sick and in too much in pain to be comfortable anymore.

    It’s totally your call. But we’ve said goodbye both ways and both are hard.

  62. 62.

    CaseyL

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Crap.  Crappity crap crap. OTOH, treatment is so much better nowadays, and your team sounds like they’re ready to rumble.  Enjoy your vacay!

    @Quiltingfool:  Did the vet say what the problem might be? How old is your kitty? Cats’ kidneys tend to fail toward the end, but sometimes you can nurse them along for a while with good quality of life.

  65. 65.

    eclare

    @Quiltingfool:   Oh no!  I know from your comments how much Baby means to you.  In the experiences I have had, not eating or drinking is not a good sign.

    Could you take Baby back to the vet to have some tests done on kidney function?  I know as cats get older, that can be common.

  66. 66.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @JCJ:  From what I understand it is small cell, there is a growth of about grape size in one lung and a growth the size of rice in the other.  The grape size one has grown, the rice size one has not.  If it was just the one they would do surgery to remove the grape but because it is two they are going to do chemo to make sure they get them both.  Does that make sense?

  67. 67.

    Geminid

    @Elizabelle: It’s an op-ed piece and not based on any reporting of the Biden administration’s intentions. As you say, a trial balloon.

    One premise, that a “narrow” pardon over the documents would help “peel away” Republicans from trump is worthless I think. Sure, there has been a flurry of Republican politicians coming to trump’s defense. But they are rats boarding a sinking ship. When they see how little support there is for trump outside his base base, they’ll be quietly swimming away.

    They’re in a political bind now because they think control of Congress is still within their grasp, and they need trump’s fanatics to pull that off. But that’s a Republican problem, and now so is trump.

  68. 68.

    HumboldtBlue

    In early January, Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley took to his home state’s flagship newspaper, the Des Moines Register, to rail against California’s “war on breakfast.” The strongest animal welfare law in the nation had just gone into effect, and, according to Grassley, it threatened Iowa’s behemoth pork industry.

    California’s Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act, or Proposition 12, mandates that factory farms make more physical space for some animals to reposition their limbs and move around. If factory farms across the country don’t comply, they’ll be barred from selling to the Golden State’s coveted consumers, who make up a whopping 15% of the United States pork market.

     

  71. 71.

    prostratedragon

    @Litlebritdifrnt:  So sorry that you must deal with this,  but good to that the prognosis is optimistic and that see your spirit is strong. And the trip to Scotland sounds just the thing to keep it going.

  73. 73.

    rikyrah

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    Prayers for you.

     

    Can they take the lung? If they say that they can, seriously consider it.

     

    My father had lung cancer back in the barbaric ages (1950’s), and they took his lung.

    He lived 30 years after that operation.

  77. 77.

    Will

    @Geminid: I agree as well that the premise it will pull away Republicans is stupid. They’ve made their decision. It’s not what I was arguing with my father. My target is the mushy middle. I feel like we have a chance to cleave a large part of that group from the GOP for a couple election cycles and this would be an easy way to build the path that leads those people to passing on the GOP.

  78. 78.

    Immanentize

    @Litlebritdifrnt: i couldn’t have said this ten years ago — but cancer treatments have advanced so much! If it is “soft chemo,” it might mean a long hormonal targeted treatment in addition to our as part of the plan, but it is so much less hard on the body than the knock out chemo of old. Enjoy your vacation, stay strong, and please keep us posted as I will keep you and your hubby in my thoughts.

  84. 84.

    catclub

    @Old School: What research project are you planning on working on?

     

    My present retirement research project has to do with wall painting.  Also baseboards.

  87. 87.

    Kristine

    That vine is beautiful!

    I planted a couple of pink bleeding hearts last fall in the shady sideyard. Only one bloomed, but it was a nice pop of color amid the mostly green and white.

  88. 88.

    JPL

    @MattF:  On twitter, emptywheel thinks it has to do with a temporary restraining order by trump’s attorney to halt the FBI search into his seized property.  Other tweets suggest it’s the suits to unseal the affidavit.

  89. 89.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MattF:

    “Docket entry #— restricted/sealed until further notice.”

    I get that they are sealed, so anything would be speculation, but are there any plausible guesses as to what these new items mean?

  90. 90.

    catclub

    @Will: I’m not saying pardon all his crimes. I’m just talking about this specific case of mishandling documents. It would make him look so small.

     

    Pardon usually only comes with a statement of what you did wrong – admission of guilt.  That will never happen, but would be amusing for Biden to offer it.

  91. 91.

    Quiltingfool

    @CaseyL: Her kidneys are okay.  The vet said she has a heart murmur, which was a surprise, as it had never been mentioned before.  Her breathing is not normal for a cat – her sides move as she breathes.

  92. 92.

    J R in WV

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    Glad your nurse is positive for you! Actually sounds pretty well understood set of data for you, best wishes for a successful treatment. My dad had serious leukemia, a rare type, was admitted to a clinical trial which whipped his cancer fair and square.

    regarding your vacay:

    “looking forward to my hols in Scotland (Nessie here I come!) ”

    I understand Nessie spends August in the south of France usually. Tho with the fires maybe not this year?         ;~)

  94. 94.

    Baud

    @JPL:

    Other tweets suggest it’s the suits to unseal the affidavit.

    That doesn’t make sense.  People looking to unseal the affidavit wouldn’t have access to sealed material, so they wouldn’t need to file their motion under seal

    ETA: Also, most courts require attorneys to file a public version that would not be sealed. Whatever this is, it’s something that a public version can’t even be filed.

  96. 96.

    Ken

    @JPL: a temporary restraining order by trump’s attorney to halt the FBI search into his seized property

    JUDGE: “None of it is his property. Please explain that to your client, again.”

  103. 103.

    JPL

    @Baud:  Another tweet suggests one of the sealed warrants was for trump’s passports.

    In other words, twitter has no clue.

  109. 109.

    eclare

    @Baud:   I have no idea about sealed vs public, just saying the timing would be right for something to make the news around 4 pm.

  110. 110.

    JanieM

    @mali muso:

    The days are long, but the years are short.

    A version of this that I read in one of my mom’s women’s magazines when I was probably 8 or 9 years old. It has stuck with me all these years:

    The years go by like grace notes in a song. Only the days and nights are ever long.

    Yep.

  112. 112.

    cckids

    @Quiltingfool: One of the wisest cat people I know says you’ll know the time has come when you look at their behavior and your heart breaks. And to remember that our animals live in the present, and know how much we love them. And most importantly (to me at least, because I’ve done both), that saying goodbye a day too soon is better for the pet than a day too late.

    Wishing you clarity of heart and peace.

  113. 113.

    Geminid

    @Omnes Omnibus: The prospect of trump being tried on criminal charges makes people like the Politico writer uncomfortable. I’m not so squeamish. I say indict him over the classified papers, and if the Fulton County grand jury sees fit, indict him over attempted election theft. And if the trump organization committed tax fraud, indict him for that. I hope there is a grand jury somewhere developing money laundering charges too.

    It may well be true that trump will never go to prison. What with pre- and post-trial appeals it will take years for a final disposition anyway.

    I don’t care. Let him sweat and pay “yuge” attorney’s fees in the meantime. The nation can bear it, and so can I.

  114. 114.

    HumboldtBlue

    Here’s a story you don’t read every day.

    It’s not clear exactly how long a man who called himself Barry O’Beirne lived a quiet life in Daly City, the sleepy suburb a few miles south of San Francisco. It’s also not clear what he was doing on the morning of Wednesday, June 6, 2018, when, after 35 years, Air Force special agents knocked on his door and arrested him for desertion.

    The jigsaw puzzle of William Howard Hughes Jr.’s life has many missing pieces. After disappearing into thin air in 1983 he was wanted across the globe by numerous agencies, from the Air Force to the FBI to Interpol. At one point it was thought that he defected to the Russians. Some suggested he sabotaged the disastrous Challenger space shuttle launch. Even after his recent capture, much of this unlikely story remains a mystery for the ages. Here’s what we found out.

  115. 115.

    Scout211

    Someone likely already mentioned this but Trump surrogates, including Jonathan Turley (*spit!*) were all over the news this weekend claiming documents were seized from MAL that were covered under attorney-client privilege. And the FBI must give them back! 

    No, they did not elaborate why those privileged documents were stored in boxes in the basement along with top secret government documents.

  118. 118.

    Immanentize

    @JanieM: one of my professors who was stationed in some frozen hell hole west of Alaska during the cold war had a pithy version: “the months flew by but every damn day lasted for fucking ever.”

  124. 124.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Thanks for all the great wishes folks.  I am not going down without a fight.  If not for me but for the Hubby who would be lost without me.  Going to stomp this thing.  While I know that my family will take him to their hearts should he be left alone I do not want to imagine that would be needed.  Besides I have got so many places I want to visit yet, Whitby, Knowsley Safari Park, Pembrokeshire in Wales, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Tintagel, Stonehenge, The Doctor Who exhibit, Liverpool, Cardiff, The Great Caledonia Forest, Shetland, Isle of Mull, Isle of Wight, Gibraltar!  I am not done yet and this thing is not going to beat me.  Gots things to do!

  125. 125.

    catclub

    @Immanentize: i always want people who float this nonsense to remind me how pardoning Nixon worked out for Ford and the Republicans ….

     

    really?  It worked out really well. They lost the white house for only 4 years.  Nixon fighting a case and bringing down every other republican co-conspirator would have been different.

  129. 129.

    Immanentize

    @Scout211: There might be documents about the fake electors or seizing voting machines written by his then-kracken lawyers?  Ooopsie, Crime/Fraud exception to the attorney/client privilege!

  130. 130.

    Ken

    @WaterGirl:  Gee, maybe they should figure out all the crimes Trump committed before they start talking about a pardon???

    Nah, that’ll take forever. Just issue a blanket pardon. And an apology from Biden for stealing the election. Oh, and throw Obama and Hillary Clinton in jail.

    That should make Trump’s deranged supporters content, for about five minutes until Mars Inc. announces they’re making the green M&M less sexy.

  131. 131.

    geg6

    @Will: ​
     
    No. No. No. No, no, no, no, no, no.
    Having lived through the first presidential pardon and all the lawlessness that brought about, I say fuck that bullshit. No.
    Absofuckinglutely not. Not narrow, not broad, not for anything whatsoever. No.

  136. 136.

    mali muso

    @Baud:

    @Math Guy:

    Yeah, the time goes by so fast.  A little too fast for my tastes, but I guess there is no helping it.

    @WaterGirl: We didn’t do the sign, but we did take quite a few photos.  No tears from her, but she did get a little nervy right when the bus boarded.  I may have cried a little on my walk home.

    @HumboldtBlue: I plan to make her favorite dinner. Biscuits!  lol

  137. 137.

    geg6

    @Elizabelle: ​
     
    Truth. My older brother is three years beyond his chemo and immunotherapy. He’s doing really well and hasn’t relapsed at all yet.

  138. 138.

    WaterGirl

    @Kristine: Thank you!  I like the white ones because of the contrast with the red.  The secret to getting them to bloom is to cut them WAY BACK.

    This one was HUGE last year and maybe got one bloom.  This spring it was still huge and no blooms.  A couple of months ago I said fuck it and cut it WAY BACK.  Probably bad timing because it was 100+ for a couple of weeks, so I apologized to the plant every day as I watered it, and soon it had more green and then finally started to bloom

    edit: Just noticed that you wrote “shady”.  It definitely wants some sun, though not brutal sun.

  141. 141.

    Geminid

    @Scout211: Marcy Wheeler noted that the return the FBI team left at Mar-a-Loco divided items taken into two separate lots. She speculated that the team knew that a privilege claim might be made over some, and that these were listed in one lot.

    Wheeler says priviledge claims take time to resolve, and that Giuliani’s phone was tied up for 9 months over a privilege claim once it was seized.

  143. 143.

    Immanentize

    I can think of little more bourgie than going through security of Martha Vineyard airport and the TSA pre-check line is packed but the regular line is empty and all those folks refuse to go to the empty line because they have TSA pre-check. What. 😂😂😂— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) August 15, 2022

  145. 145.

    jonas

    @Ken: Accidentally slipping and falling onto the spire of Norwich cathedral is another unfortunate thing that happens now and then. Especially to troublesome archbishops.

  148. 148.

    Ken

    @WaterGirl: Ah yes, the Crowley approach to plant care from Good Omens: keep them terrified.

    BTW I’ve never had a problem with pruning; I tell myself that this plant’s ancestors survived millions of years in an environment with goats and locusts, so it can handle a twice-yearly trim.

  149. 149.

    scav

    I’m sorry, I am undoubted decades late in youtube time as well as even open topic tangent, but this trip to The Vet is pure giddy icing on today. (Be sure to complete the entire prescribed dose.)

  151. 151.

    CaseyL

    @Quiltingfool: Heart murmurs aren’t that big a thing – my Oscar has one; the did an echocardiogram and said his heart was still in pretty good shape.

    However, one other thing they checked was his thyroid – because a thyroid condition could trigger or aggravate heart problems.  They said he’s a little hypothyroid, and gave me medication that’s supposed to slow things down a bit.

    You might want to ask your vet about that.  Hypothyroidism might also be why Baby isn’t eating.

  153. 153.

    WaterGirl

    @Ken: I’m okay with pruning except when it’s my most treasured flowering plants.  Then I get wobbly.  Unless they are really doing badly and then I take the same approach I used to take when I got my hair permed, which I lovingly referred to as “perm roulette”.

    “Even if it’s bad, it can’t be worse than it is right now.”

    My beloved mandevilla, for instance, where the blooms come out the most gorgeous pale pink color and then open white with a yellow center.  One of my favorites, year after year after year.  Then last year it was mostly dead, and I hacked it way back and now it’s thriving.

    I can be brutal as a last resort.

  154. 154.

    bbleh

    @JPL: The hilarious thing about a TRO is, it’s been a week.  One assumes they’ve been running 24/7 to find out what’s in them, not just as part of a criminal inquiry but also as part of a national security inquiry.

    (I mean, TS/SI, really?  I can’t imagine that, even at the WH, that kind of stuff would be treated cavalierly.  They build SCIFs — which are expensive to construct and to run — for a reason.)

    Now IANAL, but I presume a TRO would also bring to a halt any investigation provably based on those materials lest it be tainted by “fruit of the poisoned tree.” But regardless ain’t no way they don’t know pretty much everything that’s in them by now.

  155. 155.

    cckids

    @WaterGirl:What a thrill it will be when she comes home and excitedly tells you all about the day as only 5-year-olds can!

    LOL. When my middle son started kindergarten, he was obvs unhappy when I picked him up. When questioned about it, he said “You said I would learn to read in school. I was there ALL DAY, and I still can’t read!”.

    I still laugh about it.

  158. 158.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: I think Mr. Weeks is pushing back on all the impatient Garland critics who’ve been accusing him of being too timid to do his job. Those folks have been quite abusive. We’ve seen just a little bit of this on this forum.

    Mr. Weeks has a very interesting Twitter account, @WonderKing82. He’s a Bronx native who attended Hampton University in Norfolk, Virginia and then came back to the Bronx as a school counselor in a district with a lot of underpriveldged kids. He’s an ardent Democrat and a big, big Beyonce’ fan.

  160. 160.

    kalakal

    @Litlebritdifrnt: You’ve got a terrific attitude to towards this. Have a great holiday, say Hi to Nessie and then kick cancer in the teeth.

    Kendal a nice part of the world, I lived in Settle for years, went there often

  162. 162.

    JPL

    The RNC is cutting their funding in WI, PA and AZ.    My reaction is oh great, more money to spend for Herschel.   fk

  163. 163.

    JCJ

    @Litlebritdifrnt:  It does, but it depends on what the rice sized one is.  It is quite common to find lung nodules on CT scans which turn out to be benign.  Small cell is seldom found at such an early stage as to be amenable to surgery, but if the grape sized lesion is the only site of disease it would be the treatment of choice as long as the rice sized lesion in the opposite lung is benign or possibly even a synchronous non-small cell lung cancer.  Small cell typically grows quite quickly so the fact that the grape sized one has grown while the rice one has not could be consistent with limited stage small cell.  If the opposite lung nodule is the size of rice it would be difficult to biopsy and depending on the location likely difficult to remove with a wedge resection.  Has the mediastinum been staged?  PET scan?

  164. 164.

    WaterGirl

    @Geminid: Thanks for the primer on Mr. Weeks.  That tweet was pretty poorly done – it wasn’t clear to me whether he was slagging on Garland or the people who have been impatient.

  166. 166.

    eclare

    @JPL:   Salami and mango???  Interesting choices

    I always tried, and succeeded, in getting Cap’n Crunch from my gram, because mom did not allow sugary cereals.

  167. 167.

    WaterGirl

    @JPL: The RNC cutting their funding in three really critical states seems like good news for us.

    You are suggesting that they are putting EVERYTHING into Georgia?

  169. 169.

    stacib

    @Will: I was probably among the first on this blog to back Biden.  He pardons trump** and not only am I done, all of the black folks I know would be done, too and my guess is folks will take it out on the Democrats, not just Biden.  This is a horrible idea.

  170. 170.

    Immanentize

    @eclare: sweet and salty! I get the salami/mango special whenever it’s available. :-)  (Like prosciutto and cantaloupe?)

  171. 171.

    eclare

    @Immanentize:   Ahhh…a sophisticated palate for a three yo!  BTW a good prosciutto goes with almost everything.  Since we were talking crudites earlier, try it wrapped around (cooked and chilled) asparagus with a little goat cheese.  Yum!

  173. 173.

    Ken

    @WaterGirl: The RNC cutting their funding in three really critical states seems like good news for us.

    My inner Democrat whimpers “Or they know the fix is in, and those states are going to declare the Republican won no matter what the vote is.”

  174. 174.

    MisterForkbeard

    @stacib: I think it’s a terrible idea, but I could see him doing something like commuting the sentence of one of the lesser charges, maybe.

    Something like “Pardons require that the criminal be repentant for his actions, and Trump is not. However, I do not find it appropriate for former President Donald Trump to serve 6 months in prison for taking the hurricane map that he sharpied on and am commuting that sentence. Finally, I wish Donald luck with the remaining 6 years of prison time for stealing national secrets and lying about it.”

  182. 182.

    Old School

    @JPL: Thanks!

    Interesting, but there is enough outside advertising that I’m not sure it’ll make a huge dent.

  184. 184.

    Geminid

    @Immanentize: Polls are showing Mark Kelly with a 5 to 9 point lead over Masters. I saw that as of July Kelly’s campaign had raised $52 million dollars.

  185. 185.

    MisterForkbeard

    @eclare: Yep. Trump getting pardoned for the whole shebang would be ridiculous – the media would probably love it, but Dems would hate it and Republicans would spent all their time laughing at us. The rest of the world would also be appalled.

    I can’t imagine Biden would ever seriously consider it.

  188. 188.

    WaterGirl

    @JPL: They just made it lots harder to vote in Wisconsin, so that seems like an odd move.

    I first read the OldSchool comment as pretty much pulling out of those states.  But the link says only that they are slashing ad buys and that is definitely not the same as pulling out or throwing in the towel.

  189. 189.

    WaterGirl

    Seems to me that Politico threw the pardon idea against the wall, and we have spent 2 hours taking the bait.  Me included.  sigh.

  190. 190.

    Geminid

    @stacib: There has been no sign at all that Biden intends to pardon trump. This is something whipped up by others. Now that the prospect is out there, though, we’ll hear it a lot from his bad faith critics who want to sow doubt. This has already started..

  191. 191.

    Westyny

    @Litlebritdifrnt: My best friend was diagnosed 2 years ago with lung cancer and had soft chemo, a little radiation and immunotherapy.  He is now “cancer free.”  Treatment is advancing by leaps and bounds.  It helps that the tumors haven’t spread. Sending “fuck cancer” thoughts.

  194. 194.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, I knew that but I was careless in describing it as “they just made it harder”.

    Still it’s harder than it was in 2020.  Fuckers.

    Seriously, did every Republican have a bad mom?  Because my mom taught us that if you have to cheat to win, it’s not really winning.  You want to win fair and square.

  197. 197.

    Immanentize

    @MisterForkbeard: President Biden will not, I am sure! pre-pardon anyone, especially a twice impeached former guy who tried to take over the country by coup.

    I can hear Biden — “We have a process for pardons in this administration and everyone who would like consideration of a pardon should apply through that office.”

  200. 200.

    karen marie

    @SiubhanDuinne:   I recently had a hankering for a vanilla egg cream (contains no egg! no cream!), so I made a quick and easy vanilla simple syrup.  So good!

    I don’t know where I saw the “recipe” but it recommended club soda (which is the only soda I drink at home), so I was beyond delighted.  I still have some syrup left but it spoils my appetite for dinner, so I keep postponing having another one.

  201. 201.

    Elizabelle

    @Quiltingfool:   Hugs.  Pets mean so much to us, and their little lives are way too short, no matter how long they live.

    I liked cckids’ advice upthread. Be merciful.

    IMHO, once pets stop eating and drinking, that is a real sign.  Although, most of us try to tempt them with any morsel possible, and have a battery of tests run.

  202. 202.

    karen marie

    @Will:  No.  This isn’t a small case of “mishandling documents.”  He stole documents that have the potential to threaten national security.  Lock his motherfucking ass up.

  205. 205.

    Elizabelle

    @Immanentize:   And with a vivid imagination for prison rapes!  Plus:  Hitler.  Nyah nyah nyah.

    They’re scared something is going to stick.

    Floating ideas of assassination or … pardon.  Right, jack.

  206. 206.

    Redshift

    @Will:

    Sure, keep holding that hope and make horrible political decisions based off it.

    As opposed to your political fanfic about what you’re sure would happen in the convoluted scenario you propose?

    Whatever you and Politico fantasize, “Joe Biden manipulating the judicial process to try to produce political outcomes indirectly because he decides that’s more important than the rule of law and an independent judiciary” is such patent horseshit that it’s not even worth getting further into the details than that.

  207. 207.

    Immanentize

    @karen marie: I am still freaked out by the rather bureaucratic sounding document (reported not confirmed) that included the payroll list of all assets working abroad. The CIA will know if that has leaked into the world.

  210. 210.

    Quiltingfool

    @CaseyL: I had thought about hypothyroidism, too.  The vet did blood tests to check for that plus kidney and liver problems. Her blood work showed no problems.

    She has been diabetic for several years (insulin shots).  I don’t know if that has contributed a bit.  She’s about 16 years old.

  211. 211.

    Redshift

    @WaterGirl:

    Seriously, did every Republican have a bad mom? Because my mom taught us that if you have to cheat to win, it’s not really winning. You want to win fair and square.

    Authoritarians know they deserve to rule, so making sure that happens isn’t cheating by definition, it’s making sure they aren’t cheated out of what’s rightfully theirs.

  212. 212.

    Redshift

    @Litlebritdifrnt: Best of luck and f*ck cancer. I’m at the “extremely unlikely to every have a recurrence” stage with my cancer, and I hope it goes as well for you. (Completely different kind, so I don’t think I have any useful advice, other than that there have been amazing advances in treatment in recent years.)

  213. 213.

    trollhattan

    Can someone check Tony Jay’s ale and champagne supply? Removal (moving) vans spotted at #10 whilst BoJo vacations elsewhere (as he’s inclined to do while trolling for his next baby mama).

    Boris Johnson will be kept informed of any “urgent issues” while on holiday this week, Downing Street has said.
    The prime minister – who was criticised for taking a holiday earlier this month amid growing economic turmoil – is now on another break. It comes as removal vans were spotted in Downing Street earlier on Monday.
    The PM’s spokesman confirmed Mr Johnson would return from holiday at the weekend, when he will have two weeks to move out of his No 10 flat.
    The prime minister, who was forced to announce his departure in July after a cabinet mutiny, will officially stand down on 6 September.
    It is not known if he will return to the Downing Street flat before it is handed over to Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak, who are competing to take over as Conservative leader and prime minister.​

  214. 214.

    jonas

    @Immanentize: It was a Newsweek article citing anonymous government sources who were speculating about that based on the documents classified TS/SCIF they seized. Types of documents with that kind of extremely sensitive classification include nuclear secrets and overseas intelligence contacts. Also, as it’s been widely reported, those classifications are set by law, not executive authority, so Trump can’t just magically declassify them. I’m a little skeptical because I don’t think Trump reads well enough to know what that kind of document would be. The stuff he wants has to be visual — satellite photos, maps, diagrams, etc. I can totally believe that, e.g., he’d have a diagram of a newly-developed warhead or something because it’s a picture. Papers with long words and numbers and things? Not so much.

  215. 215.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Immanentize: Yeah. I should have been clear that there’s no evidence Biden is even considering this, and I can’t imagine that he would.

    But I could see him commuting a small part of a sentence, under the right circumstances. AFTER sentencing.

  217. 217.

    eclare

    @WaterGirl:   Did you read what Ivanka’s IVANA’S kids said at her service?  They told supposedly “touching” stories about her as a mom that anyone else would find appalling.  I think it was in WaPo.

    edited

  218. 218.

    Geminid

    @Immanentize: The report that was linked to made me think that Republican Senate Campaign Committee is undershooting their projected fund raising target. Their prospects for retaking the Senate have dimmed now so they may stay low on funds.

  219. 219.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @eclare: in her own book, she told what she apparently thought were touching about how little use The Beast had for Junior even as a child. I don’t know if there similar stories about Ivanka (probably not allowed) or Eric (maybe she forgets he’s there, too)

  221. 221.

    Will

    @Redshift: What do you got? You dismiss what I say but I’m the one putting down what I think will happen.

    What do you think? You think he spends any time in jail? You really think so? How do you think that goes down? Where does he go? How do people react?

    I get it, this is a Democrat blog, it’s why I come here because I am Democrat. If you want to treat it like a bubble, that’s your right. Most of my friends are just as liberal and treat the circle as their bubble. They don’t have to interact with people that don’t think like them like I have to. Most average people, the mushy middle ones, don’t like Trump, he irks them, but still a lot of them voted for him. They are willing to believe he is a criminal, but they want a smoking gun. The definition of what is a smoking gun to them varies a great deal from what you and I would qualify as one. I don’t believe there is a smoking gun for the mushy middle in the files. Maybe there is. God I hope there is.

  225. 225.

    NotMax

    (D) results from Saturday;’s primary. In Hawaii, as close to a shoo-in for November’s general election as one can get.

    Current Lt. Governor Josh Green, running for governor: 60.6%
    U.S. Senator Brian Schatz: 87.7%
    U.S. Rep. (1st district) Ed Case: 76.4%
    U.S. Rep. (2nd district, no incumbent): Jill Tokuda
    .

    In the non-partisan race for Maui mayor, the top finishers will face off in November:
    Richard Bissen: 34.0%
    Mike Victorino (incumbent): 29.8%
    .

    Final results forthcoming as mail-in ballots continue to be tallied. Turnout hovering around 40%.
    (D) ballots currently counted: 244,426
    (R) ballots currently counted: 73,448
    3rd party, no party and spoiled (votes for more than one party) ballots currently counted: 20,603
    .

  226. 226.

    J R in WV

    @Quiltingfool: ​

    She’s about 16 years old.

    That’s getting up there for kitties. Both of ours are about the same age, eat espensive thyroid diet to control their high thyroid level, one is fat, named Punkin because she is pretty much a sphere, t’other is skinny as a rail, a nibbler in a world where everyone else wolfs everything in sight.So we feed her when she jumps up on the chair where we feed her, and once or twice a day she climbs up onto my shoulder and we purr together for half an hour or so. I tell her in my basso voice what a good kitty she is, and she purrs back at me. I taught her to purr over her first year with us. Took a while!When she quits climbing onto my shoulder to purr I’ll know she’s done. I know it’s hard. We try to keep several cats and dogs, two is a bare minimum….​ it makes transitions easier for us.​

  227. 227.

    eclare

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:   Ivanka told a *hilarious* story about how mom told her her skirt was not short enough.  Jr talked about how she beat him a few times (haha!).  As per usual, can’t remember what Eric said.

  228. 228.

    Immanentize

    @Geminid: from what I have read, the overturning of Roe has also killed RNC fundraising. They cannot run as a minority rump party. It’s happening.

  230. 230.

    Geminid

     

     

    @jonas: I wonder about other packing participants. Was there someone with knowledge of security matters in on the process, who might have been serving his own, Trump’s or a third party’s interest? Could someone trump was beholden to have required him to select certain papers, and maybe gather more just to make things seem more random and disorganized? Trump’s a lazy fuck, but when I think of that picture from the Helsinki meeting of a strutting Putin and a forlorn Trump, I can see the guy working late to fulfill a list before he ate it.

  238. 238.

    eclare

    @Immanentize:  Hahaha…bit of a long drive!  I think I’ll Google for something similar.  I have a wonderful Parmesan risotto recipe.  So rich.

    Now we sound like Podesta with his hacked risotto recipe!

  239. 239.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @JanieM: ​Reminiscent of the call-and-response recognition code for the extraordinarily long-lived members of the Howard Families in Heinlein’s Methuselah’s Children:

    Caller: Life is short.
    Responder: But the years are long.
    Caller: Not while the evil days come not.

  240. 240.

    Geminid

    @Will: A pardon under these circumstances would not be a smoking gun. And I doubt if it would have much influence on the “mushie middle” (whatever that is). And the way I see it, Trump’s lost the middle and is down to his base anyway..Without the office of President to magnify him, Trump’s hold on people is far from what it was in November 2020.

    I too am sceptical that trump will ever be incarcerated, as I said at #113. But I don’t see how that’s a reason not to charge him with a crime if there is a solid case.

  241. 241.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @MisterForkbeard: ​But I could see him commuting a small part of a sentence, under the right circumstances. AFTER sentencing.

    I would be fine with President Uncle Joe (or any other Democratic POTUS) commuting Trumplthinskin’s sentence to time served. But only after Tangerine Baal’s died in prison.

  242. 242.

    JPL

    OMG I’m shocked that the DOJ said they do not have trump’s multiple passports.   So did trump lie?

  243. 243.

    Amir Khalid

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    TFG has so far not stood trial on a federal charge. Or been convicted, or served out a sentence. So, as of now, the Biden has nothing to pardon him for.

    TFG is also under criminal investigation in the states of Georgia and New York. If he is convicted in either state, no President can pardon him; and I doubt the Governor of either state would either.

  244. 244.

    Scout211

    @JPL: Well, you know “people are saying . . . “

    He likely had no clue where his passports were even located. But it’s a good (fake) story.
    Link to Twitter.com

    @NorahODonnell

    NEW: According to a DOJ official, the FBI is NOT in possession of former President Trump’s passports. Trump had accused the FBI of stealing his three passports during the search of his Mar-a-Lago home.

    We are also learning tonight that if any items not contained in the warrant were retrieved during the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago, they will be returned.

  245. 245.

    Geminid

    @Amir Khalid: Georgia has a law that takes pardons out of the hands of the Governor. It was passed in the mid-20th century because of some notorious abuse of pardons by a Governor. I tbink the Governor still has indirect influence because he appoints the officials who constitute the pardon board.

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