Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

T R E 4 5 O N

This chaos was totally avoidable.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

I would gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today.

No one could have predicted…

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Everybody saw this coming.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

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

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

They spent the last eight months firing professionals and replacing them with ideologues.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

White supremacy is terrorism.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

You are here: Home / Economics / Grifters Gonna Grift / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Everybody Wants Their Little Cut

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Everybody Wants Their Little Cut

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Counter-proposal: Wrap Elon Musk in a blanket, roll him across that lovely White House lawn, and let the little kids use their wooden spoons on him.

(Yes, it’s a parody account, but the official WH 2025 Egg Roll site hasn’t been updated yet, so who knows?)
 
Thought(s) for the morning:

TRUMP LOST. WE WON.
Again…
TRUMP LOST. WE WON.

[image or embed]

— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) January 29, 2025 at 1:03 PM

Another B-list grifter gets her hard-earned reward:

Sinema gets her no-show job. I’m sure she will be richly compensated. This is why she acted the way she did on Democratic proposals in the Senate. It was always about post-office no-show jobs.

[image or embed]

— Jim Teeth (@drjamesjteeth.bsky.social) January 29, 2025 at 8:52 AM

Miss President Joe yet, MAGA suckers?

Having failed to impress the Democratic Senators of the Finance Committee yesterday, Bobby Jr. has a date with the Health Committee today. Per the Guardian:

After Robert F Kennedy’s bruising performance in a heated three-and-a-half-hour Senate confirmation hearing to become America’s top health official on Wednesday, he’s off to the health committee on Thursday morning for round two.

The 71-year-old faces another grueling day of questioning from a more health-minded crowd, with Republican chair Bill Cassidy – a physician who caught Kennedy confusing basic facts about Medicare and Medicaid in Wednesday’s session – likely to press further on his grasp of America’s healthcare system…

Democrats landed repeated blows in Wednesday’s hearing, with Senator Michael Bennet accusing Kennedy of “peddling half-truths” throughout his career and Senator Ron Wyden confronting him with seemingly contradictory statements about vaccines from podcasts in the past.

Kennedy’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services has sparked unprecedented pushback, with more than 15,000 medical professionals and 75 Nobel laureates mobilizing against his confirmation.

Despite insisting he supports vaccines and would not restrict access if confirmed, Kennedy’s history of controversial statements – including claims that “no vaccine is safe and effective” – are likely to face more scrutiny as senators weigh whether to hand one of America’s most prominent vaccine skeptics control of its public health system.

Thursday Morning Open Thread 25

(Jack Ohman via GoComics.com)

Reader Interactions

106Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    only about settling his personal grudges and getting revenge

    To be fair, that’s why he’s so relatable to his voters.

  3. 3.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud:

    To be fair, that’s why he’s so relatable to his voters.

    You’d think angry and resentful would be no way to go through life, but apparently they disagree.

  7. 7.

    Librettist

    JFK JFKjr RFK RFKjr. I guess it is all fungible to the resident troll.

    They are lining him up for a 2028 Democratic primary rat fucking run. Angry old white man speaking “truth” to power never goes out of style.

  8. 8.

    JML

    Sad tragedy with the aircraft collision in DC last night. No survivors. Of course, this is a time when you need a calm, reassuring presence who will lend comfort to the victims’ families and ensure that wild theories are tamped down and truth is brought forth backed up with facts and evidence.

    So of course we have a decompensating elderly golfer with poor impulse control and an utter inability to hold off before firing off a random unhinged thought in charge again.

  9. 9.

    prostratedragon

    I had a schoolmate who would imitate those faux fighters by practically moonwalking while saying, “Hold me back now, hold me back!”

  11. 11.

    p.a.

    @lowtechcyclist: You’d think angry and resentful would be no way to go through life, but apparently they disagree.

     

     

    So much for negativity being unhealthy.  Add that to his diet, and he should be fertilizing a fairway somewhere.

    But sadly, no.
    Not a Billy Joel fan, but “only the good die young…”

  12. 12.

    Librettist

    Call sign on the DCA chopper was PAT25.  Gold topped, priority air transport. Officially it was a training mission, but there is chatter that some of Trump’s Saudi friends went into the drink.

  13. 13.

    Leto

    @Librettist: maybe 1 person; there were 4 on the military flight, which automatically puts the crew at pilot/copilot/crew chief. A 3-4 person crew is a typical flight. So I’m not sure where those Saudi’s would be.

  16. 16.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @sixthdoctor: Gallows humor given the circumstances, but I’m reminded of the old Australian skit:

    “The front fell off, and twenty thousand tons of crude oil spilled into the sea and caught fire. I’d just like to make the point that’s not normal.”

    — Clarke and Dawe, “The Front Fell Off“

  23. 23.

    No One of Consequence

    @prostratedragon: I associate that word with Sade. However, upon review of your wiki link, this strikes me as a profoundly ironic note, both today and in these times.

    I dunno about anyone else, but it the nerve to act surprised at the results of one’s vote that steams my broccoli. So pointless to fight with them now, because as has been well-observed before, it is easier to fool someone than to convince someone they have been fooled. Perhaps that should read easier to fool someone than to get them to admit they have been fooled. They have already resigned themselves to the shuddering fact that they were wrong, and voted against their own interests, but they have to keep up the front for their tribe.

    At some point, enough of the tribe will question in parallel as opposed to in series, and then we might have some exciting times.

    One can hope, anyway.
    -NOoC

  26. 26.

    Soprano2

    @JML: And he disbanded the board that studies and makes recommendations for airport and airline safety to boot. I think that was a first or second day action, probably at the behest of Musk. He can’t get rid of the board because it was established by a law, but if it doesn’t have anyone on it that’s the same as disbanding it. Wonder if any of the press will mention this? I sure hope Democrats do. I think they should blame FFOTUS for this tragedy, over and over, because that’s what R’s did to Biden

    Also, they’re making it sound like it was a small plane, but it was a jet that held 60 people. That’s not what most people think of when you say small plane.

  30. 30.

    satby

    Watching the story from last night change from “helicopter strikes airplane” (clearly visible in the video) to “airplane collided with helicopter” today. Both statements technically true, but the second one subtly makes the airplane at fault. Anyone else notice that?

  31. 31.

    suzanne

    Looking at Sinema’s next move, and I am utterly unsurprised. Absolutely the kind of move I expected from her.

    But still: SNORT of derision.

  34. 34.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    Regarding those “Trump Lost; We Won” skeets:

    We all lost – all Americans lost. It’s just that the people who chose the right side of the fight (i.e. us) knew it immediately, while those on the wrong side, the “winning” side, didn’t realize it at the time.

    I thought it would take a year or two for them to cotton to the fact that they’d lost as well.

  35. 35.

    Elizabelle

    Baud put this up on Cole’s overnight thread:

    The head of the FAA, Mike Whitaker, resigned on January 20 — one year into his 5 year term — after facing relentless criticism from Musk for not approving SpaceX missions quickly enough.
    The Senate confirmed him unanimously in 2023.

    No acting FAA head has been appointed.

    — Judd Legum (@juddlegum.bsky.social) Jan 30, 2025 at 6:46 AM

    I would feel elated this morning if the Army heli, PAT25, had taken out Trump’s private jet, or Musk’s, or Zuckerberg’s.

    That would be a public service.

    Mean girl here, but when I heard it was a “small plane” (they did not immediately announce it was a passenger jet), I had hoped it was some corporate jet belonging to a malefactor.

    We have so many malefactors, and they are all coming in for a landing in DC these days.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    I thought RFK Jr made a passionate case for turning over billions in federal funding to his friends in the woo woo miracle cures, excuse me, WELLNESS industry.

  39. 39.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Baud:

    That is certainly a large part of his appeal. “He will hurt the people I despise” is one of those reasons for voting that people know not to tell the pollsters.

  41. 41.

    Leto

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: this was from a Politico article I happened to read, but it also ties into what we were discussing on the thread below:

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was directed to submit a plan for how military families can use Defense Department funds to send children to schools that could fall outside of the agency’s own school system.

    He’s too busy fucking up one of the best school systems we have, which is the DoD Education system for our dependent kids. (Anyone can look into this: DoD schools are exceptional because they don’t have to deal with conservative state legislatures fucking everything up. They have really high standards, and the kids excel in them.) These are found overseas because guess what… you’re not sending your kids to the local school system. When we were stationed in Italy, the local schools were 100% Italian and weren’t going to be able to take our kids. The reason I know this is because you had a few parents trying to find an alternative to their kid having to travel 90 mins one way to the DoDDS school at Vicenza Army Base.

    The flip side is when we moved to the UK. Our base was so small that they closed the school there for kids past the 3rd or 4th grade, so they were already in the local schools paid for by the DoD. So this, like all the rest of these “choices,” is just a scheme to funnel money to themselves. It’s all bullshit. It’s all fucking bullshit.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    Oh, that is sad. It is a really strong US school system. They want to indoctrinate kids in the GOP -aligned religions, hence, vouchers.

  47. 47.

    different-church-lady

    TRUMP: “I don’t care.”

    The commercials write themselves. Except there’s no more commercials.

  48. 48.

    Starfish (she/her)

    I am assuming John Cole has an infinite budget for troll-y shirts. This one looks good, but I am suspicious of its extremely low price.

  53. 53.

    suzanne

    @satby: FFOTUS’ tweet was pretty straight up blaming the military helicopter. Absolutely irresponsible to make any sort of statement even hinting at blame at this point….. but of course he’s irresponsible.

  54. 54.

    Frank Wilhoit

    The difficulty with Pinboard’s theory is that the courts have been seizing every opportunity to increase their own power.  Sometimes, but so far less than half the time, that involves giving Trump some kind of real or apparent check.  More often, it has involved going along with the spirit of what he proposes, but placing the courts in position to decide each individual case as it is brought or not brought.  The immunity ruling must be seen in this light: each challenged act of the President must be deemed official or not by the courts, separately: stare decisis being a thing of the past except where it can be used as a topical weapon of convenience.

  55. 55.

    Leto

    @Kay: it really is. If I could implement that system here, nation wide, I would. But that’s my personal bias, from both my son going through it, but also the Airmen I supervised who graduated from it and they were some of the smartest Airmen I had.

    This is akin to the previous topic of, “How do we help our trans family/friends?” The military was already starting to do this in considering assignment choice if you had a trans family member (dependent). Trying to move those people to blue states, if we could. Or one of the last remaining red states that doesn’t have horrible policy (don’t know if that exists at this point). But now? Nope, you can throw all this shit out the window. Maximum pain, 100% of the time. Along with 100% grift, 24/7/365.

  56. 56.

    No Nym

    @Wag: Listening to that recording of air traffic talking to the pilots before, during, and after the crash, you hear the cool-headed competence of people who know how to do their jobs as unexpected events unfold. We are going to miss that on so many levels from here on.

  57. 57.

    Leto

    @Melancholy Jaques: maybe not AFT, but the Federal workforce does have its own union. I don’t know if they’re a part of that though. Not sure if they’re federal workers, or contract style employment.

  59. 59.

    Leto

    @Kay: from that Politico article I mentioned above:

    And Interior Secretary nominee Doug Burgum would also be ordered to submit a plan on how families who rely on that agency’s Bureau of Indian Education schools can use federal funds to attend the school of their choice.

    “This plan is a direct attack on all that parents and families hold dear,” American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said in a statement on Wednesday. “It’s a ham-fisted, recycled and likely illegal scheme to diminish choice and deny classrooms resources to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.”

    They’re going to fuck over Native families as well. They’re already underfunded, their Reservations are how far from a charter school, there’s no bus system to it, as well as a funding gap… I mean, just straight up fucking them over.

    And Randi’s response is correct. I posted her email to all AFT members in the previous thread, but it’s definitely worth the time to read it.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    A lot of people agree with you that a national school system makes the most sense. I personally would just take Massachusetts standards and practices and make them national.

    DoD schools were designed so the children of service people could leave a school in Oklahoma and enroll the next day in North Carolina and be on the same chapter in the same textbook. Seamless transfers. It works, too. The schools are consistently good no matter where they’re located.

  62. 62.

    Barbara

    @satby: ​Helicopters are maneuverable and so far as I know these helicopters were training and not regularly scheduled flights. A passenger airplane is not supposed to be engaging in evasion tactics. Without assigning blame, even if the plane hit the helicopter there is just no way that helicopter should have been in the flight path of a passenger plane getting ready to land. DCA has really narrow tolerances for planes that are landing.

  63. 63.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @Leto:

    I confess I am not familiar with the federal system. I was just responding more to the push for vouchers, generally.

  66. 66.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Wag:

    I’m no fan of Bennett (member of the Tonya Harding Dem Club and as milquetoast, pale-blue Dem as they come) but he hit a home run yesterday.

    Hick’s probably thinking that’s a tough act to follow.  Let’s hope Hick gives it the ole college try notwithstanding.

  67. 67.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Wag:

    Thanks for that.

    Fallows calls it National Airport like any good non-conservative-asshole-or-corporate-media-tool calls it.

  73. 73.

    azlib

    @Wag:

    The Fallow’s piece is a good read. I have flown that particular approach into National.  What is puzzling is the controller knew both aircraft were in the area and instructed the helicopter to pass behind the CRJ. Why that did not happen is a mystery. I am curious why the helicopter was so close to the runway approach. I imagine the CRJ pilots were very busy handling the landing and were likely unaware of the location of the helicopter or did not have time to react.  Also did the helicopter not have the TCAS system which would have issued a warning of an imminent collision.

    I am sure the the NTSB will get to the bottom of this accident unless Trump guts that agency as well.

  74. 74.

    satby

    @Barbara: @suzanne: My comment wasn’t about assigning blame, it was about how subtle differences in word choice and phrasing used to report incidents build different pictures in people’s minds. Both witnesses and the video show the helicopter hitting the side of the plane. That’s a straight recitation of what happened. Later reporting was refined to “small plane collides with helicopter”, still a true statement but a different mental picture. The first impression is what sticks in many people’s minds; we know the news media subtly shades news reports of political things, but in reality what they cover and how they present it affects what we consider straight reporting too. 

  75. 75.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    It’ll harm only the children of Right wing military. Their children will still have to move a lot and will no longer have the advantage of consistency from school to school if they use a voucher and go outside the DoD system. Vouchers will kill the whole reason the DoD schools were created – consistency, so the children of military wouldn’t be harmed by changing schools.

    But as we know, Right wingers will happily harm their own children if it means Right wing dogma is rigidly followed. These are people who will expose their children to measles or whooping cough if they imagine that makes Dr Fauci mad.

  78. 78.

    Geminid

    @Barbara: One account I read was that the helipcopter pilot was warned about an approaching airliner and mistakenly focused his attention on a larger airliner that was trailing the smaller Bombardier.

    There were a lot of reports from “flight trackers” last night with screenshots and video of the two flight paths. There seemed to be consensus that te helicopter flight originated at CIA headquarters in Langley, so this might not exactly have been a training flight, but rather a return flight from a VIP delivery.

    If the Langley part is true there will be all kinds of “chatter” like that someone repeated above. Conspiracy theorists thrive on this type of accident or as they would put it, “accident.”

  80. 80.

    Soprano2

    @No Nym: When I went into the air traffic control tower here as part of my CAMP rotation (it’s a program where you get to find out about the different departments and what they do) I realized for the first time that the air traffic controller who was trying to help my sister’s BF right before his plane crashed probably saw the flames from the crash when it happened. I wished I could talk to that person about how awful that must have felt. I never thought before about someone like that also being affected by the event that killed my sister.

    It was also amazing to see what they did; it’s complicated even at a relatively small airport like ours.

  81. 81.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    One of the things I like about public schools is the commonality. It’s one of the few shared American experiences – 80 to 90% depending on the state. Ask someone who went to school in Michigan to show you where in Michigan they live and they all put their hand up in a mitten shape. Ask what HOMES means in Ohio or Michigan and it’s the Great Lakes – Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior. I learned a ridiculous amount about the Erie canal and so did my children. I think we need more common experiences, not fewer.

  83. 83.

    Starfish (she/her)

    @Wag: Yes, we love reading about the out of state money coming in to support candidates. It makes us really confident that the candidates are real.

  84. 84.

    Elizabelle

    @Geminid:  Do you think that information will eventually come out? If there is a CIA transport involved

    Also, assuming the heli was too high for where it was, no matter what?

  85. 85.

    Glory b

    @Melancholy Jaques: I will continue to make everyone hete roll their eyes with continuing this recommended reading:

    “Dying of  Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland” by Jonathan Metzl.

    Also, a re read of “What’s the Matter With Kansas,” that foretold this a couple decades ago.

  86. 86.

    WTFGhost

    In his actions as President, Trump often acts like a guy trying to start a bar fight, with the role of friends holding him back played by Federal courts. The secret is understanding that the guy starting the bar fight really depends on the guys holding him back to not let go.

    Wow. I’ve never seen a more factually vacuous, historically inaccurate, dull-witted fascistic apology, but, no, when the courts hold him back, he tries again. And again. And again.

    There is absolutely no part of Trump that is expecting the courts to hold him back. What kind of moron would even entertain that thought? He’s bitterly blamed every negative judicial decision *including* a no-penalty felony sentencing (for not dropping the case entirely) on everything, *EVERYTHING*, except the facts, the law, and his own behavior.

    I’m sorry – I feel I must apologize, this was an embedded twit or something, I wouldn’t want any of the regulars here to think I feel *that* much contempt for a thought they expressed.

  88. 88.

    WTFGhost

    @Baud: alas, yes. There has been so much hate generated toward imaginary enemies that people want to see blood.

    That’s why I often warn that we’re well past the hope for a bloodless revolution.

  89. 89.

    WTFGhost

    @azlib: there’s a new post up about this. One of the issues was the copter was lower than normal flights – under 1000 feet, when you’d get a collision alert, not a traffic warning.

    Definitely check the new post – my short term memory sucks, and there’s *real* information there to chew on.

  90. 90.

    TBone

    @Leto: can confirm. My Great Aunt Odeena Strange (originally from Ketchikan, Alaska) met my Great Uncle Lt. Col. John Strange because she was teaching his CO’s child:

    Odeena attended Ketchikan public schools and graduated from Ketchikan High School, Class of 1938. Her pursuit of higher education at the College of Puget Sound was interrupted by the advent of World War II.
    She left college to help care for her two younger sisters who were relocated to the Seattle area due to parental concerns about the safety of living in Alaska during the war. She resumed her education post war and earned bachelor’s AND master’s degrees from San Francisco State College.
    Odeena taught school in California for several years (and found it hysterical that beginning in her 90’s the California Teachers Pension Board demanded annual proof that she was in fact still alive). She became a teacher and administrator abroad in U.S. Army Dependents schools.
    Odeena taught across Europe and Asia and experienced many adventures “as a blonde driving my Volkswagen Bug on the autobahn.” While traveling during a school holiday in Asia, she encountered a handsome Army Lt. Colonel on a flight to Korea. When the answer to “is that seat taken?” was a “no” she found both a place to sit and her future husband. Together, she and John continued fine adventures including an Army posting in Cold War Afghanistan, where she was a substitute teacher in U.S. Army school and experienced exciting episodes near the Soviet Union border.
    Odeena and John retired out of the Army in 1968 and returned to his family home in Grays Valley. John continued working for Gannett Fleming Engineers for many years. Full retirement for both meant days working in their abundant gardens, fishing and hosting friends and family.

  91. 91.

    WTFGhost

    @different-church-lady: Just because he’s not running doesn’t mean you can’t hang him around the neck of every Republican for generations to come, and I fear that he will do enough damage that the memories will last far beyond 9/11 memorials.

    Or maybe we’ll just do post-Nazi Germany, only say “well, you know, American exceptionalism – it’s not wrong when AMERICA does it!” and not de-nazi-fy.

    (For those of you who don’t know what “American Exceptionalism” is – that’s it. It’s not wrong when America invades Iraq, because we are AMERICA. Goddamn Republicans resemble toddlers who know they’re too big to spank.)

  92. 92.

    Steve LaBonne

    @Glory b: I recently finally got around to reading Dying of Whiteness and yes, it is a devastating and thoroughly documented indictment of the commitment of far too many white people to racism even unto (their own) death. Really essential reading.

  93. 93.

    WTFGhost

    @Leto: LOTS of right wing grift demands that local politicians be able to reward the faithful. Hence, charter schools – let lots of millionaires and billionaires wet their beak, at the expense of your children.

    Now *that* is a commercial someone could do. Mob scene. “You have it – you have them all! You have dug the well – but now you must let us all drink!” (flash to the children)

    “NO! I always said, don’t touch the STREETS or the SCHOOLS!”

    “But Guido… now *we* own the schools…”
    (back to the kids, slow fade out, with a mob flag flying above the American flag)

    Yeah, slick ad people could do it cool, but, the gist is there. Make school choice all about the mob.

  94. 94.

    Geminid

    @Elizabelle: The flight tracking sites use open intelligence resources and seem to be in agreement on the helicopter’s starting point. That much will be verified if it is in fact true, I think. I doubt there will be an official acknowledgement that there was a VIP delivery, much less who it was. But that was an odd time and place to conduct a training flight.

    What bugs me is, if the flight originated in Langley and was headed to Fort Belvoir which is where this helicopter is said to be based, a direct, straight-line flight would have taken it miles to the west of the airport. This might have been due to mundane considerations like avoiding a noisy flight over quiet suburbs.

  96. 96.

    Belafon

    @azlib: An analyst on GMA this morning said that it’s a fly by sight for the helicopters. You can hear the tower ask the helicopter pilot if he sees the plane, but the guy notes that there are all sorts of city lights on and that there were other planes in the area, so he pilot may not have seen what the ATC was actually talking about.

  97. 97.

    pluky

    @Leto: Went to DoD schools for much of my childhood (Army brat). Was pleasantly surprised to discover that my intro college biology class was basically a refresher course on what I had been taught by Miss Grace Miriam Kinner at Zama HS.

    BTW, “Miss Kinner” was how she insisted on being addressed.

  98. 98.

    Harrison Wesley

    @WTFGhost: Sorry, “American Exceptionalism” is passe. It’s the “Unipolar Rules-Based Order” now. Occasionally someone will accidentally burp up “exceptional” or “indispensable” or some such, but we’re working on correcting that.

  99. 99.

    Geminid

    @Belafon: I saw some video of the midair crash taken from ground level a mile or so away. That area is full of bright lights of all kinds. I could see how they would have been a distraction for that helicopter pilot trying to spot an airplane that wasn’t flying very high above those lights.

  100. 100.

    Miss Bianca

    @Wag: Nice to see Bennet actually out there getting some hits in for a change. Hope Hick does too. Meanwhile, of course, I am writing both their offices saying, “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON’T VOTE TO CONFIRM *ANY* OF THESE FUCKERS!”

    Or words to that effect.

  103. 103.

    WTFGhost

    @Frank Wilhoit: The courts haven’t been voting to increase their own power – Republican judges and justices have been. Ordinary, hardworking, ethical, and intellectually honest people are probably trying to be a co-equal branch of government, but, the net result of a fish with a rotten head is a rotten fish, and the SCOTUS is pure-R partisan Republican.

    (“pure-d” is the actual slang expression, probably from before you were born, but trust me, in my day, it was the bee’s knees! Still, Pure-D sounds… wrong, yes, wrong, when applied to Rs.)

    Lawyers are a really strange breed of people. Part reference guide, part performance artist, but convince them a “theory” will allow them to “serve their client” and they’ll grab onto it like Trump grabbing a dime from the hand of a helpless waif. Somewhere along the line, they’re supposed to try to follow the law, but Republicans have heard of that notion, and it seems they want no truck with it.

  104. 104.

    Miss Bianca

    @Glory b:

    I tried to read that book a while back and couldn’t even make it past the first chapter. I *live* with these people and I see this shit every damn day and having white rural resentment rubbed in my face daily makes reading about it just a bridge too far for me.

    Maybe I’ll try it again someday.

    ETA: As i find myself saying all too often about where I live – “beautiful place. some really ugly people.”

  105. 105.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Barbara: yes, seconded. For those of you not local to DC, the National Park Service has a park at Gravelly Point where you can watch the planes landing or taking off at National. (The Mount Vernon bike trail runs through there so Mr. Rudbek and I have biked through there plenty of times). You can go there and see in person how narrow the landing area is.

  106. 106.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @WTFGhost: as I’ve said before, every single member of the Federalist Society and Opus Dei needs to be permanently disbarred. They are the 90% of the lawyers that give the other 10% of us the bad name.

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