Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No one could have predicted…

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

The words do not have to be perfect.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

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

In after Baud. Damn.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

“In this country American means white. everybody else has to hyphenate.”

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Republicans do not trust women.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Monday Night Open Thread

Monday Night Open Thread

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This post is in: 

It’s all just overt and also so tacky:

As Paul Walczak awaited sentencing early this year, his best hope for avoiding prison time rested with the newly inaugurated president.

Mr. Walczak, a former nursing home executive who had pleaded guilty to tax crimes days after the 2024 election, submitted a pardon application to President Trump around Inauguration Day. The application focused not solely on Mr. Walczak’s offenses but also on the political activity of his mother, Elizabeth Fago.

Ms. Fago had raised millions of dollars for Mr. Trump’s campaigns and those of other Republicans, the application said. It also highlighted her connections to an effort to sabotage Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s 2020 campaign by publicizing the addiction diary of his daughter Ashley Biden — an episode that drew law enforcement scrutiny.

Mr. Walczak’s pardon application argued that his criminal prosecution was motivated more by his mother’s efforts for Mr. Trump than by his admitted use of money earmarked for employees’ taxes to fund an extravagant lifestyle.

Still, weeks went by and no pardon was forthcoming, even as Mr. Trump issued clemency grants to hundreds of other allies.

Then, Ms. Fago was invited to a $1-million-per-person fund-raising dinner last month that promised face-to-face access to Mr. Trump at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla.

Less than three weeks after she attended the dinner, Mr. Trump signed a full and unconditional pardon.

It came just in the nick of time for Mr. Walczak, sparing him from having to pay nearly $4.4 million in restitution and from reporting to prison for an 18-month sentence that had been handed down just 12 days earlier. A judge had justified the incarceration by declaring that there “is not a get-out-of-jail-free card” for the rich.

It’s all so grotesque, like the sniveling supplicants kissing the ring for favors like in a period piece movie. It makes me sick.

***

It was another rainy shitty day here and I am officially over it. It’s 53 fucking degrees. I am going downstairs to sit on the chair under a blanket with a cat and watch Bosch Legacy. Just love this show.

Reader Interactions

133Comments

  1. 1.

    David_C

    This is horrible news.

    The federal government has removed COVID-19 vaccines from the list of shots recommended for healthy pregnant women and children, federal health officials announced Tuesday. … The decision will make it much harder for parents to get their children vaccinated and for pregnant people to get the shots because insurance companies will likely no longer pay for them. … The decision was apparently made without the usual input from independent outside advisers. Although independent advisers have been reconsidering the COVID vaccine recommendations, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices isn’t scheduled to meet until later this month to make a recommendation.

    We knew that RFK, Jr. would turn the power of the federal government against vaccination – he and the anti-vax crew has made good money with this grift. Not to mention the $$ made by the wellness industry, whose supplement commerce is only lightly regulated, and enforcement will be even lighter

    The cold and rain here in MD don’t bother me. I welcome anything that delays the miserable summer weather.

  2. 2.

    cope

    Not to mention the fact that the loathsome, venal and just plain gross Chrisley couple has likewise been sprung from the can.

  3. 3.

    sab

    Which cat? I have a little girl (Sadie) who looks like Maxwell but has a curling tail. But Echo is my new favorite. Solly is great but he is so big he can push me around. Dobby likes Sadie and Echo, and Solly to some extent.

    The other three can just go watch tv, which they will.

  4. 4.

    different-church-lady

    At work they just announced we have new anti-corruption training modules to do. And I’m like, “THE FUCK… DO YOU SEE WHAT OUR FUCKIN’ PRESIDENT IS DOING MAKE HIM DO THE GODDAMNED TRAINING!!!”

  5. 5.

    David_C

    To add: Don’t let the executive order about so-called “gold standard science” fool you. This is a ruse to undermine the hard work that scientists do. This from Derek Lowe explains things.

    1. These people are here to deliberately destroy the federally funded science agencies as we know them

    2. They are also hostile to the very idea of real data.

    3. To these ends it is permissible to say and do anything, anything at all.

    4. The central fact of any organization is that there has to be a big boss who gives the orders.

     

  6. 6.

    Suzanne

    I had a doctor’s appointment this morning. My doctor is of our political persuasion, and we discussed accessing the new Covid vaccine. On the topic of a qualifying pre-existing condition so I could get the vax, I said, “I might lie”. She said, “Good idea. I probably will, too”.

    We agreed that this is really just thinly veiled eugenics. I said that the FFOTUS government is so stress-inducing that there should be a diagnostic code for it.

  7. 7.

    Scout211

    Also too, Trump to pardon reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley

    President Donald Trump will pardon reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, according to a video posted by Trump’s communications adviser Margo Martin on X. The couple was sentenced to prison for tax evasion and bank fraud.

    . . .

    The charges against the Chrisleys stem from activity that occurred at least as early as 2007, when the couple allegedly provided false information to banks and fabricated bank statements when applying for and receiving million of dollars in loans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. In 2014, two years after the alleged bank fraud scheme ended, the couple is accused of fabricating bank statements and a credit report that had “been physically cut and taped or glued together when applying for and obtaining a lease for a home in California.”

    In their sentencing memo, prosecutors said the Chrisleys had engaged in a “fifteen-year fraud spree.”

    You know, same as the Trump family business practices.  So they are the victims, of course.
    //

    ETA: and cope types faster than I do.

  8. 8.

    The Audacity of Krope

    Everyone should just take up embezzlement and other financial corruption. Trump seems to respect that wholeheartedly and will let you off evidently regardless of party.

  10. 10.

    sab

    @Suzanne: My pretty, intelligent, lovely white niece with a black husband and two adopted black children just died from a horrible version of long Covid. She wasted away and starved, almost totally paralyzed for more than a year. She caught Covid before the vaccine.

    I really cannot see the eugenics point of this (trying to even imagine Kennedy’s sick version). Just predation and cruelty.

    ETA Her job before her collapse was office manager for a psychology firm that specialized in helping families accept to gay and trans children.

  11. 11.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @different-church-lady: I work for the federal government and all month our intranet homepage has been reminding us that it’s operational security awareness month. Also that we have cyber security and insider threat training due by the end of the summer. We’re doing all this ironically I guess.

  14. 14.

    Elizabelle

    Trump is so frigging corrupt.  He has no loyalty to this country at all.  None.  I hope Karma has him in her sights but good.

  15. 15.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @sab: No, but Trump has a special love for unelected heads of state and elected heads who ended elections.

    So that probably hurt.

  16. 16.

    sab

    @Suzanne: Thank you.

    I think trying to inject some sort of rationale to Trump or Kennedy is pointless. The cruelty is the point. Little souls searching for negative attention.

  17. 17.

    Elizabelle

    How can you ask anyone to fight and die for him? Fucker won’t even pay taxes, or support the common good.

  20. 20.

    Suzanne

    @sab: I believe that MAHA is the branding that they are adopting to cover their hatred of the disabled, the sick, and the fat. That RFK and FFOTUS believe America would be better off without these people and they’re taking steps to make that happen.

  21. 21.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @sab: I am so sorry for your and your family’s loss and for the ongoing horror that must add to your grief.

  25. 25.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @cope: Not really. But you excerpted nothing.

    @Old School: Those scamming fools wanted to give their ill-gotten proceeds to their orange god anyway. Homage to the scammer in chief.

  26. 26.

    RSA

    According to court documents and statements made in court, Paul Walczak controlled a network of interconnected health care companies operating under various names, including Palm Health Partners. Through another of his entities, Palm Health Partners Employment Services (PHPES), Walczak employed over 600 people and paid over $24 million annually in payroll. As such, Walczak was required to withhold Social Security, Medicare, and federal income taxes from his employees’ paychecks and to pay those monies over to the IRS each quarter, and to pay the companies’ portion of Social Security and Medicare taxes.

    For more than a decade, Walczak was not compliant with his tax obligations and instead used the withheld taxes to enrich himself.

    This is from a U.S. government site.  I’m going to guess that at least some of the 600 people Waczak didn’t pay taxes for may be fucked over, in terms of time, paperwork, and possibly dollars.

  27. 27.

    kindness

    When this era is over, simply going after the bad guys and charging them with crimes doesn’t really seem to be enough.  I’m not saying use of violence.  We can’t just shrug our shoulders and say it’s the past and move on.  A price has to be paid.

  29. 29.

    NeenerNeener

    @sab: I’m sure they didn’t. But T***p desperately wants to be best buddies with King Charles, so this must have been quite a kick in the crotch.

  33. 33.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @NeenerNeener: I don’t know if Trump is smart enough to comprehend what the King and PM are doing and saying here. I think King Charles would have had to drop trow and dumped a steamer on a photo of Trump for the imbecile to maybe catch on that Charles and Canada are both flipping him the bird personally, but much worse, simply moving on without him. He’s fucked himself.

    Sadly, he’s fucked us in the bargain.

    And 77 million morans will blankly nod, drool, and adjust their MAGA ballcaps.

  35. 35.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Suzanne: First, let’s make Congress great (again?). Get a crew in there that will claw back their rightful Constitutional powers and hold an executive, any executive, properly accountable.

  36. 36.

    sab

    @Elizabelle: I lost my dad a year ago April, but he was 99 with dementia.

    My husband has lost a granddaughter, a niece and a cousin, all young, just in 2025.

    What a year.

  40. 40.

    NeenerNeener

    @Chief Oshkosh: I think he got the message. He told Fox, OAN and Newsmax that they weren’t allowed to broadcast the speech. He’s also supposedly hurt because Chuck has already had meetings with other world leaders, including Zelenskyy, before inviting T***p.

  41. 41.

    Jackie

    @NeenerNeener: Was King Charles proclamation made before or after FFOTUS’s veiled attempt at extortion?

    “President Donald Trump said Canada would need to pay $61 billion to join the ‘Golden Dome’ system he’s proposed to boost missile defense with space-based interceptors,” Bloomberg reports.

    “But the president needled Ottawa by saying he would be willing to protect Canada for free if the nation opted to join the United States, his latest suggestion that the northern neighbor would benefit from being absorbed by the US.”

  44. 44.

    NeenerNeener

    @Jackie: I can’t tell just from the news articles. But I saw something that said the “Golden Dome” is a pipe dream without Canada’s NORAD.

  45. 45.

    Elizabelle

    @kindness:  Agreed.  When Democrats win the House in 2026, and I really think they will, it should be nonstop hearings.  And make them compelling video, like the J6 hearings.

    No bloviating.

    This is not normal, and we are not going to let Republicans or Big Media and culture normalize it.

  47. 47.

    Another Scott

    ICYMI, LOLGOP at FrameLab – What ‘Weird’ Reveals About the Democrats’ Messaging Crisis – There are no magic words. But moral attacks your base loves are the core of a winning strategy.:

    Do you remember “weird?”

    That one word helped rocket Tim Walz from the governor of the state with the best record of progressive accomplishments in the 2020s to Kamala Harris’s running mate. Launched from Walz’s stellar early summer appearances on cable news, the word became a meme that spread like wildfire in the summer of 2024.

    Then, “weird” disappeared.

    […]

    I think he’s right that there are no magic words. And when the party has not been this unpopular since 2008 (according to recent polls), then soul-searching is certainly warranted.

    I’ll have to study this take, because I generally think that LOLGOP has a good head on his shoulders.

    FWIW.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  48. 48.

    sab

    @Jackie: How can we have a Golden Dome without Canada? Norad has all its stations in Canada. By the time missiles get in US airspace it is much too late.

    And the way Trump is behaving today, we might  have open WWIII as the two psychopaths battle it out with actual nations.

    I know (and agree with Fionna Hill that ) WWIII has already started. Our government has not noticed yet. Heaven help us when Trump finally notices.

  49. 49.

    Another Scott

    @sab: I’m sorry, sab.

    Condolences to you and yours and everyone who was touched by them and loved them.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  52. 52.

    Jackie

    @Jay: BAHAHA! The entire link is great, but this…

    Trump’s dome idea probably came from watching reruns of Get Smart. It’s a Cone of Silence, supersized.

    It’s probably true! LOL

  53. 53.

    pluky

    @sab: I’m sure Charles III was so undiplomatically blunt with the full foreknowledge and encouragement of 10 Downing Street.

  54. 54.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @Jackie: Trump’s dome idea probably came from watching reruns of Get Smart.

    Definitely a funny line from the article. Pity that Trump didn’t do as the show’s title suggests…

  55. 55.

    sab

    @sab: I don’t know how we will watch for Santa Klaus next Christmas.

    I suppose with one doll and five pencils per child he will not need a sleigh and can ride one reindeer.

  56. 56.

    NeenerNeener

    @sab: Chiming in late to say I’m sorry for your loss, sab. I know what it’s like to lose family.

  57. 57.

    Harrison Wesley

    Golden Dome is a missile defense? Shit. I’m really out of it. I thought his barber talked him into using that tacky gold spray on his head.

  60. 60.

    alquitti

    Who knew that the secret sauce was to be open about corruption, evil, hate, incompetence, criming, treason…not even to be open about it, but to flaunt it. Christ I’ve lived too long…

  61. 61.

    Harrison Wesley

    @sab: I’m so sorry for your losses. My older brother passed away a couple months ago and my head still goes to bad places unexpectedly.

  62. 62.

    The Audacity of Krope

    @alquitti: Who knew that the secret sauce was to be open about corruption, evil, hate, incompetence, criming, treason

    Anyone who have been watching Republican politicians and most especially Presidents in the last 40 years, minimum.

  66. 66.

    Chacal Charles Calthrop

    @Old School: methinks you have never played Monopoly. The get-out-of-jail-free means you can get out of jail regardless of why you were supposed to be in jail in the first place; it’s the forgiveness that’s free,

    the card itself costs whatever you paid for it.

  69. 69.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Not sure if this has been posted in a previous thread. Will probably prove temporary due to the inevitable push back, but the damage to the U.S.’ position as a desirable destination for higher learning will continue to rapidly erode. The national sepukku continues.

    Trump team pauses new student visa interviews as it weighs expanding social media vetting
    It’s the latest salvo against universities, many of whom rely heavily on foreign students for funds.
    By NAHAL TOOSI
    05/27/2025 11:46 AM EDT
    Updated: 05/27/2025 03:50 PM EDT

  71. 71.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @YY_Sima Qian: Here is an excellent tally of all the self-inflicted wounds:

    Cole McFaul @colemcfaul

    The White House just paused ALL visa interviews for foreign students. A disaster for longterm US competitiveness in emerging techs. Five months in, and the damage is adding up. A detailed account of the disruptions to US science, by month. /40

  72. 72.

    sab

    @Harrison Wesley: I am so sorry for you. I have not lost a sibling. Husband has lost two of his five, I have lost none of my three.

    The grandchild has us reeling, and then worrying about her mother and sister. Sister ( age 11) is adjusting but mother is still in some sort of frenzied non-acceptance phase. She did the same with her own mother ( husband adopted her at age ten out of horrible scary foster care.) I don’t think she has ever processed even that death thirty years ago.

  73. 73.

    Elizabelle

    This is the way you do it.  (Learn up, FTF Vichy Times.)

    BBC headline:

    King’s Canadian speech doesn’t mention you-know-who

  74. 74.

    Marc

    @sab: How can we have a Golden Dome without Canada? Norad has all its stations in Canada. By the time missiles get in US airspace it is much too late.

    First, I’m quite sad to hear about your family member, I wish we lived in a better world.

    Golden Dome is a trillion dollar joke, it won’t protect against China or Russia, as both have fractional orbital warheads and hypersonic glide vehicles that can easily evade it (by arriving from the “wrong” direction). Nor will it protect against Iran, as they would have to be very creative about delivering theirs (meaning no long range missiles).  So, who’s it for, Canada and Europe?

  75. 75.

    Baud

    @Marc:

    Also, no reason for anyone to attack us when Americans are doing a good job destroying the country themselves.

  76. 76.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Marc: For the MIC, & the capital owners that back the MIC.

    That’s assuming it ever gets beyond vaporware.

  79. 79.

    sab

    Fortunately Trump cannot be riled by subtle insults because he is too stupid to recognize subtle i sults. If Melania stays away or keeps quiet we might be safe.

  80. 80.

    Marc

    @Another Scott: Israel has “Iron Dome”, so

    The dirt little secret is that Iron Dome works against a few slow missiles at a time (like Hamas was making) and not all that well against ballistic and cruise missiles.  The US and allies navies have been providing the effective missile shield against the Houthis. Israel, however is a small place compared to the US, and defense via a allied Navy missile destroyers and fighters is viable.

  81. 81.

    RaflW

    James Fallows said that attendance at an alumni meeting put on by Harvard about the insane attacks the Trump Admin is unfurling was very large. He suggested that was a surprise. I’ve had my issues with Harvard (including thinking their endowment is absurd … but suddenly it doesn’t seem so) but I’m hoping Donald’s dumbasses have poked a hornet’s nest.

    Wrecking universities. Cancelling a ton of science grants outside the uni system. Making vaxes hard to get. Causing hospitals and nursing homes to go bankrupt and put seniors out on the sidewalks. It’s tipping towards the fucking Khmer Rouge. But folks don’t see it … yet. Because it just doesn’t make any sense in a modern world. But there’s a lot of brain poisoning disinfo and propaganda out pushing this shit

  82. 82.

    prostratedragon

    Lost jewels of the internet:

    Man Feared to Be Cognitively Slipping After Writing Book About Wrong President

    Can’t find the link where I saw this.

  85. 85.

    tobie

    @sab: What a heartbreaking loss for you. How infuriating that this insane admin is going to cause so much pain for people in the US and abroad.

    Today the White House had an event to boost raw milk. No doubt HHS is going to hide the figures on e coli moving forward.

  86. 86.

    Lyrebird

    @sab: So terribly sorry sab!!!

    May you and her grieving husband and kids be surrounded by love and acceptance and all the help they need as you walk through these painful hours and days and months of loss

    ETA:

    @RaflW:I’m hoping Donald’s dumbasses have poked a hornet’s nest.

    Me too!!!  They’re certainly picking on a school that graduates a LOT of lawyers!

  88. 88.

    tobie

    @RaflW: Interviews for J1 visas were put on hold today. Visiting academics for 3-6 month stays won’t be able to come. Research collaborations will suffer immeasurably.

  89. 89.

    sab

    @tobie: Also too TB. You can get that from milk, and a lot if it is antibiotic resistant. My grandmother’s mom died of TB when grandma was a toddler.

  91. 91.

    lowtechcyclist

    @sab: ​
     

    My pretty, intelligent, lovely white niece with a black husband and two adopted black children just died from a horrible version of long Covid. She wasted away and starved, almost totally paralyzed for more than a year. She caught Covid before the vaccine.

    That had to have been a terrible ordeal for her and everyone who cared about her. My condolences to you and to her family.

  92. 92.

    Harrison Wesley

    @tobie: So no vaccines for kids or pregnant women, but all the raw milk they can afford. This isn’t even modern quackery; it’s quackery from a hundred years ago.

  93. 93.

    Scout211

    @prostratedragon:

    The Borowitz Report

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—A man’s decision to spend months writing a book about the wrong president is a worrisome sign of cognitive slippage, brain health experts warned on Tuesday.

    Devoting a 352-page book to unmasking a president who is no longer in office instead of the one currently sowing global chaos indicates serious mental impairment, the experts asserted.

    Making matters worse, an inner circle of the man’s co-workers have been enthusiastically touting his book on television in a coordinated effort to conceal his cognitive decline.

    “It’s sad that no one around him seems willing to tell him he’s slipping,” one cognitive specialist said. “Every day it becomes clearer that he’s no longer up to his job.”

  94. 94.

    NotMax

    FYWP FYI. Nothing can go wrong…go wrong…go wrong….

    Today, I’m pleased to announce the formation of a new WordPress AI Team, a dedicated group focused on accelerating and coordinating artificial intelligence projects across the WordPress ecosystem. Source

  96. 96.

    Geminid

    @Marc: Houthis still managed to land a missile right next to Ben Gurion International Airport a few weeks ago. The video was striking. I could see the control tower with some hangers in the background and then blam! this big black plume rose on the other side of the hangers. The missile landed in a field and no one was hurt, but it left an impressive crater.

    I think that out of around 50 Houthi misslies fired since March, that’s the only one to make it through the defenses. Some airlines have stopped flying there, though.

  97. 97.

    prostratedragon

    @NotMax:  Maybe this is my own attention deficit problem showing, but it did  not seem to me that all that verbiage in any way described what AI is actually going to do here.

  98. 98.

    RevRick

    @Harrison Wesley: This is the latest fantasy version of Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative aka Star Wars. Covering the entire US would require more $ than we could afford and the system itself would be vulnerable in a variety of ways. It’s a boondoggle.

  99. 99.

    sab

    @lowtechcyclist: For people who think long covid is not a big deal, it can be.

    She had Covid bad but then recovered a lot.

    Then one day she woke up and her hands and feet didn’t much work. Within days they didn’t work at all. Her last year she was on a feeding tube because she couldn’t swallow.

    Her amazing husband was there all along, but eventually the family brought in hospice because he was overwhelmed by the caretaking.

    Covid isn’t always just a bad cold. Healthy young people die from it, fast or slow.

  100. 100.

    lowtechcyclist

    @sab: ​
     

    I know (and agree with Fionna Hill that ) WWIII has already started.

    Anytime Adam says that, I think, “what was the Cold War, chopped liver?” It was far more of a world war than anything that’s happening now. Maybe this is WWIV, maybe not. But it damn sure ain’t WWIII.

  101. 101.

    sab

    @lowtechcyclist: I always thought Cold War was just the coals of WWII. That’ just me.

    You do agree we have moved on to something beyond or more serious than WWII?

  102. 102.

    RevRick

    @sab: I personally know a formerly active, healthy young man who developed a debilitating heart condition from long COVID. He committed suicide.

  104. 104.

    lowtechcyclist

    @sab: ​
     

    I am in tears at the thought of what she and her husband went through. Again, my deepest condolences.

  107. 107.

    cain

    @David_C:

    COVID is making a comeback.

    They won’t shut down this time and instead will allow it to proliferate and let people die.

    With rural hospitals closing down. There won’t be any help this time and we will see large parts of this country die.

    I suppose they will blame biden, but not having vaccines means that the body count is going to be crazy and businesses will force themselves to close and likely get sued by the govt.

  108. 108.

    sab

    @RevRick: I am absolutely sure that RFKJr and all his ilk are fully vaccinated. Caroline said as much.

    He is just a grifting predator. He thinks: fall for his scam and  you deserve it, stupid chumps. Nothing complicated, just grift and paydown. Stupid serfs.

  110. 110.

    catclub

    @RSA: I’m going to guess that at least some of the 600 people Waczak didn’t pay taxes for may be fucked over, in terms of time, paperwork, and possibly dollars.

     

    Not enough of those 600 checked my_socialsecurity to check the status of their credited earnings.

  111. 111.

    Chacal Charles Calthrop

    @Geminid: right now airlines are starting to not fly to the US because we’re not letting foreign students or visitors in & anyway we’re also starting not to have air traffic controllers anymore, so there’s that.

  113. 113.

    RevRick

    @lowtechcyclist: Centuries from now historians may count this era as the second Hundred Years War. World War 1 created the conditions for WW2 and by shattering the Ottoman Empire has created the endless conflict in the Middle East. WW2 was followed immediately by the Cold War, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

    There was a brief interregnum of “peace” between the fall of the Soviet Union and 9/11, just as there had been a brief interregnum between the end of Greco-Turkish War and the invasions of Ethiopia and China by Axis powers.

  114. 114.

    Jackie

    @sab:

    He is just a grifting predator. He thinks: fall for his scam and  you deserve it, stupid chumps. Nothing complicated, just grift and paydown. Stupid serfs.

    That’s why FFOTUS admires RFK Jr. Birds of a feather…

  115. 115.

    sab

    @lowtechcyclist: She was an amazing person. Her funeral had more people than any Sunday mass, and the priest ( a good guy I like)  talked about her and not abortion. Also he talked about the Beatitudes from Sermon on the Mount. That is unusual in Catholic funerals lately.

    But she is still dead and her family still needs her.

  116. 116.

    prostratedragon

    Josh Marshall at TPM: “The Trump White House and The Great Quieting”

    Journalism is important since, among other things, journalism is the means by which people speak anonymously to avoid retaliation. I got to thinking about the journalism part of this a few days ago when I saw the report that that PBS had excised part of an Art Spiegelman documentary that featured a comic critical of Donald Trump. Something seemed particularly striking to me about this because Spiegelman is a critical, avant-garde, political comic artist. If you have to pretend Art Spiegelman is not critical of Trump, things have gone pretty far. If you have to operate within those bounds, what’s even the point of doing a Spiegelman documentary?

  117. 117.

    Gvg

    @RevRick: Star Wars was physically impossible. My dad worked for Martin Marietta and the engineers and bosses knew, but couldn’t get the defense industry or the politicians to believe. It goes like this, which ever missile is fired first, gets to build up the most speed and is therefore harder to intercept because it can evade by going faster. The rocket technology in the engines and radar is basically the same (at the time). The defensive reaction always happens after the offensive attack. The only advantage a defense can have is volume, that is being able to fire more and saturate the approach. It was not enough. The only success they managed was by fusing the scenario’s and downgrading the probable attack spec’s.

    The problem also was, nobody in our position or Russia’s si going to accept there is nothing to be done and go, oh well let’s all just hope. We have to do something, the best we can. That’s why you do Star Wars, but it wasn’t a good idea anyway. This time, since Trump is causing the damn instability, it’s more stupid than ever. Forgive the grammar, please. I am frustrated.

  118. 118.

    Chetan Murthy

    @cain: I read @sab: ‘s posts with mounting anger and frustration.  We could have kicked covid to the curb, but we (as a nation) were too busy insisting on Speaking To The Manager.  Ugh.

    It seems like this is a time to say:

    (a) this is month 5.  The accepted wisdom is that you can get a shot after 4months; that’s month 9.  So if you haven’t had a six-months  booster (or your yearly shot), -get it-.  You can still get the new shot in Sept/Oct (assuming we have one, sigh).

    (b) I wear a P100 respirator everywhere ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B013SIIBME?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1 ); this puppy has wide bands that go around the head, a wide rubber skirt around the mask, so it’s easy to wear for long periods.  I wear it while lifting weights for 2hr.  the only time I don’t wear it in foreign buildings, is when I’m in a bar or restaurant.  So I’m not a nut: I want to live my life.  But when there’s no upside from being unmasked, I figure: wear it.

    @sab is right that Long Covid is nothing to scoff at.  Let’s maximize the chances that we don’t get it.

  119. 119.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Gvg: Star Wars was physically impossible.

    I was in CS grad school 1986-90.  I remember we discussed Star Wars a lot, and yeah, it was physically impossible.  We all viewed it as a GIGANTIC grifting oppty.  There was a company, Odyssey Research Inc, across Cayuga Lake (from Cornell) that did exactly that.  Gynormous fucking grift.

    Same as today.

  120. 120.

    karen gail

    The orange one sure has a thing for criminals; the maga crowd sees immigrants as criminals blaming them for all the things that those who are surrounding felon in Oval Office are doing.

  121. 121.

    Jay

    @karen gail:

    Well, don’t forget, there is White Genocide in South Africa, so y’all took in the refugees, bumped them to the head of the line, “perked” them up, all 59 of them, the only ones left.//

  123. 123.

    karen gail

    @Jay: I thought I read somewhere that these are well to do people who might suffer consequences of their own actions of stealing from black people. Much like “poor” Muak’a family’s emerald mine.

  124. 124.

    Jay

    @karen gail:

    Pretty much  Cape Town city folk of varying “status”. No “farmers” so far, a guy who’s family used to be farmers, now they run a B&B, maybe helped by him bring a online racist, maybe not. Nazi’s and Klan members tend not to travel internationally much.

    But hey, you rescued the last 56 “White” people in South Africa from genocide.//

    The other 4.5 million “White” people didn’t make it.//

  125. 125.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Elizabelle: I make depositions to the karma department every day. I sometimes even suggest recourse or consequences they could offer. Just waiting for it.

  126. 126.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Scout211: I watched a bit of it on a Fox News YouTube earlier today. Tapper, sitting with some very plastic bimbo-ey blondes, all going on and on about this ( the covering up of bidens cognitive decline) being worse than watergate.
    its nothing like watergate. And heck, Reagun kept on President ing with Alzheimer’s, and nancy and the teams were covering that up.

    But nothing related to the kinds or levels of criminal corrupt actions that watergate involved.
    I feel outraged.  What are they doing? Concocting distractions so we don’t see the mess, and the hell being unfolded?
    this boriwitz comedy is spot on. It helps, thank you.

    i get his emails, I’ll look for it.

  128. 128.

    Nancy

    @sab:

    Back when our leader was pretending there was no COVID, someone you loved was stricken. I’m so sad for you and for this family I’ll never know.

  129. 129.

    Nancy

    @RevRick: I’m saddened to read that for you and for his family.

    I’m furious that other healthy young people won’t be able to get coverage for vaccinations due to rfk Jr’s whim.

  133. 133.

    Paul in KY

    @Marc: If the PRC ever nukes us, it will come in a shipping container.

     

    Edit: I see Timill got there before me.

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