mike johnson’s son currently confiscating his phone and deleting all his news apps
— GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) October 14, 2025 at 7:53 PM
===
i am making a THEY DO NOT BREAK US THEY BREAK UPON US flag that i will wave as high as i can on saturday for no kings. repost this with what you intend to do. encourage every person you know to hit the streets.
— GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) October 15, 2025 at 1:00 AM
we have the rest of this week to rally every fucking person all of us knows to hit the streets, i have ten people i am bringing out, repost this with better numbers than mine, you competitive people, beat my numbers
— GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) October 15, 2025 at 1:24 AM
===
Fox News, the former employer of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has joined a near-unanimous outpouring of news organizations rejecting new rules for journalists based in the Pentagon.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) October 14, 2025 at 8:00 PM
===
A Florida judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the planned transfer of prime downtown Miami land for Donald Trump’s future presidential library.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) October 14, 2025 at 9:30 PM
===
BREAKING: The Supreme Court rejects Alex Jones' appeal of $1.4 billion judgment for calling Sandy Hook school shooting a hoax.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) October 14, 2025 at 9:45 AM
===
President Donald Trump has faced backlash after bragging about his ability to dodge bullets at an event honoring assassinated activist Charlie Kirk.
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast.bsky.social) October 14, 2025 at 9:25 PM
===
And, in reference to an item from Cole’s late-night post:
Kansas Young Republicans shut down after Politico report on racist, violent encrypted chat | #ksleg via @kansascarpenter.bsky.social kansasreflector.com/2025/10/14/k…
— Kansas Reflector (@kansasreflector.com) October 14, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Shocked — shocked! — to discover there is *gambling* going on at this gaming establishment!…
When I lived in DC I was once on the Metro w 3 guys like this: doughy, bad haircuts, dark ill-fitting suits on a Fri or Sat night. I looked at them & said “you guys here for C-PAC?” They smiled and said yes. I didn’t respond. After about 3-4 seconds their smiled sagged & they slumped in their seats
— Dana Houle (@danahoule.bsky.social) October 14, 2025 at 11:27 PM
On The Road – BigJimSlade – Alps 2025 – Milan, Saas-Fee, Chamonix and Courmayeur, part 10
Baud
Better then naked bike rides, I guess.
Baud
Related. Many, many airports are refusing to air Noem’s propaganda video.
p.a.
Republican Party backing Lysenkoism in every aspect of American society. Disastrous and ridiculous at the same time.
Baud
Ho hum
Baud
Never a dull moment
Baud
Folks are sleeping in today.
MagdaInBlack
@Baud: I wish. Just having a little trouble returning to human form. Wednesday-itis.
Liminal Owl
A square foot should suffice for Trump’s presidential library, shouldn’t it? Maybe they can dedicate that much land, as a settlement…
no body no name
Bragging about dodging bullets is wild.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Trying to understand how a naked bike ride could be the most threatening thing someone had ever seen, and all I can come up is Johnson just discovered after comparing his Johnson to a bunch of average dude’s Johnsons that his Johnson doesn’t measure up.
Baud
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Perhaps it awoke some scary feelings he didn’t know he had.
Deputinize America
America’s Bestest Ally EVAR! The most moral country in existence….
theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/14/freed-palestinians-describe-horrors-of-israeli-jail
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@no body no name: Yeah it’s totally feasible that he dodges them because he’s so incredibly nimble.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
rikyrah
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
He is a whiny crybaby. The naked bike ride, while odd, is hilarious😂😂
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Baud: Given that weird pact he has with his son I’m pretty sure he’s aware of those feelings. But he’s been telling himself all these years that sure I’m not hung like a porn star but who is? Then he saw a bunch of naked guys riding bikes on a damp cold Portland fall day – prime weenie shrinking conditions – and was like dammit!
Suzanne
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Threatened by a naked bike ride? Pastor Johnson better never come to PGH. We have a funny police scanner Xhitter account, and, like, half of the events are about someone taking off their pants in public.
PGH is #BaudArmy.
ETA: Recent call:
Baud
@Suzanne:
The key is not putting on the pants in the first place.
Suzanne
Someone in my neighborhood group alerted us to something sketchy yesterday. Law enforcement, wearing camo and face masks, showed up in unmarked vans and SUVs to a house a few blocks away from mine. PGH Police were also there, and one said it was a drug bust. They took five people, including two kids.
PGH Police has said they will not be coordinating with ICE, and SWAT does wear camo, But the face masks had my neighbors questioning if this was in fact ICE.
Geminid
I read that Cody Balmer, the guy who broke into the Pennsylvania Governor’s Mansion in Harrisburg and set part of it on fire, pleaded guilty to multiple felonies yesterday. I think the judge imposed a sentence of 25 to 50 years in prison as per a plea ageement.
Deputinize America
@Suzanne:
Why is it that Republican Speakers of the House turn out to be weirdly repressed closet cases?
Baud
@Deputinize America:
Look at the pool they have to choose from.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Baud: Yeah this is what I was going to say but Baud was quicker on the draw.
Chief Oshkosh
So ABC News(?) is traipsing out air traffic controllers at DCA who are trying to make the public aware of the potential for safety issues caused by the shutdown. That’s all well and good, and I applaud ATC personnel, but ABC of course reports it as though Republicans are not 100% in charge of the shutdown. If only those dopey Democrats would play the roles they were assigned, we’d all be able to get on with our lives.
Fuck ’em. Shut it all down. It’ll play havoc with my professional and private plans, but hey, that’ll give me more time to participate in No Kings. I got three more cronies to sign on for this Saturday’s “festivities” – and two of them are conservatives!! (Though, admittedly, both of them left the Republican Party some time ago.)
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Suzanne: Had no idea PGH was so pants free.
Suzanne
@Deputinize America:
Because they’re Republicans.
Betty
@Baud: Get the peacekeeper on it, stat! No way the Nobel Peace Prize will escape him this time.
Suzanne
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I think the legal weed and all the meth has something to do with it.
Baud
@Betty:
The article quotes Trump as offering to broker peace.
Semafor has a big article today about Trump looking for more peace deals.
Trivia Man
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Just spitballing here – maybe it is a moral peril? If you see any non-procreative nudity, any gender, even unintentionally then your soul goes to hell. Immortal damnation is pretty bad.
Betty
@Baud: So the sun did rise in the east again? (Sigh!)
I have seen clips of the interview Jack Smith did with Andrew Weissman. Well worth a front page post. A man of integrity.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Trivia Man: I think they’re just weird about anything even vaguely suggesting sex. It’s practically Republican policy that you have to be.
Cheryl from Maryland
I was in Portland about 18 years ago for work. The Naked Bike Ride (mainly on fixies) was a weekly tourist attraction. It went past all the best coffee places.
tobie
@Baud: Say what? Good morning, early risers!
JML
What the hell are they putting in the Orange Idiot’s Presidential Library? Pile of stolen shit? Coloring books? Televisions? We know he don’t read.
Suzanne
@JML: It’s just gonna be screens endlessly scrolling his TruthSocial feed.
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Mike Johnson specifically is a publicly sex-phobic holy roller, so yeah.
narya
Those Young Rethuglicans . . . they think they want power, because that’s what they’ve been told they want, but what they really want is connection. But genuine connection means NOT wanting to lord it over others, NOT regarding others as means to an end but as ends in themselves, being vulnerable, etc. Their words and actions are despicable–deplorable, even–and also tremendously sad. Here’s hoping they realize the error of their ways and genuinely try to make amends. I’m not counting on that, as it’s only a matter of time before they get a job in some R “think” tank or at Bari Weiss’s CBS and their words are written off as youthful indiscretion instead of hatefulness.
jlowe
Pastor Johnson says it’s the most threatening thing he’s seen yet as he suppresses a shameful boner.
Librettist
Who didn’t expect Trump to creep on the widow Kirk? I bet he lied about his TPUSA halftime show donation. I manned up, if Charlie would have manned up…
Dorothy A. Winsor
@JML: He says the plane he got from Quatar is going in the library.
prufrock
The pictures in that last skeet are giving serious, “Where the fuck is your chin?” vibes.
Geminid
From Kan News reporter Roy Kais:
Hamas needs help retrieving hostage bodies it is required to deliver under the ceasefire agreement. This Turkish unit is practiced in post-earthquake recovery operations.
The US, Egypt and Qatar have mediated the ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas ever since they commenced in February of last year. Turkiye assisted from time to time only played a major role in the last few weeks.
At Monday’s summit at Sharm El-Sheikh, Turkiish President Erdogan joined the Trump, Egyptian President al-Sisi and Qatari PM al-Thani as guarantors of the agreement.
Many people– including Israelis– did not see this coming. I think Kais is being a bit tongue-in-cheek with “The Turks are coming,” but there does seem to be a certain amount of apprehension if not consternation among Israelis at the prospect of a Turkish presence in Gaza. It will likely include Turkish soldiers as part of the multinational “stabilization force.”
Suzanne
@Geminid: From what I have read, over 80% of the structures in Gaza are destroyed or are seriously damaged, including 90% of residences. I read that it is estimated to take 10 years to clear the rubble entirely. They’re going to need help from pretty much everywhere.
And, of course….. being me, I am wondering what this is going to do to prices of building materials and heavy equipment all around the world. One hurricane in a major American city (Harvey) spiked drywall prices for 18 months. That part of the world builds in concrete and that is resource-intensive.
Scout211
The media is already focused on Saturday’s “No Kings” protests, which bodes well for widespread coverage on Saturday.
. . .
. . .
. . .
randy khan
If you’d like an extra dose of Alex Jones humiliation (and I know I do), his Supreme Court appeal was so weak that the families filed a form with the court saying that they weren’t going to bother filing a response, and it was rejected just 35 days after it was filed. The kinds of appeals that prisoners file when they think they should get steak dinners get this kind of treatment.
Paul in KY
@Baud: He’ll be discussing that with his son…(yick)
zhena gogolia
People magazine in my inbox: “Cheryl Hines’ The View Appearance Gets Awkward After RFK Jr. Questions.” Not gonna click.
piratedan
@randy khan
Apparently Mr. Jones did not follow the newly established precedent of greasing the wheels of his appeal by showering the sleazy six with enough incentives to support his “legal position”.
Scout211
Just for a few laughs at Trump’s expense, Trump is super mad that his photo for the most recent cover of Time Magazine is very unflattering. The magazine was very flattering of him in the article, he even said they printed very nice things about him, but his photo was “the worst of all time.” LOL.
The photo is everywhere, but Here is the Time Magazine post on X with a preview of the article and a photo of the cover. LOLOL.
Most of the media seems to be focused on Trump’s anger at the photo even though the article is positive. Trump really knows how to bring attention on himself for his vanity issues.
Paul in KY
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: They are generally called ‘Baudinzers’.
Paul in KY
@Trivia Man: Think you need to get a new religion, if that’s the case.
Scout211
@zhena gogolia: I read about that. The weirdest part was when she answered questions about the brain worm and she said,
She has a memoir that she is promoting. I think I’ll skip that.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Scout211: That photo doesn’t seem particularly unflattering to me. It shows an old man, true. Maybe that’s it.
Soprano2
@Scout211: They will always find a way to be the victims somehow. I do think it’s an unflattering photo; I wonder why they used it.
Paul in KY
@JML: You just know they’ll have the classified info that was in the staff bathroom at Mar a Lardo. No national security problems now with that, as you know Vlad and PRC and everyone else has a copy.
Geminid
@zhena gogolia: I saw an article on New Lines Magazine thought you and others mightbe interested in. It’s by Howard Amos and titled:
This link might work:
newlinesmag.com/review/how-a-classic-russian-opera-became-a-work-of-protest/
RevRick
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I don’t know about that, but clearly the naked bike ride is giving Johnson the vapors.
Paul in KY
@narya: Have you ever met anyone who was in College/Young Republicans?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Scout211: “Who cares?” So, Abigail, I take it we’re a little upset.
Paul in KY
@Geminid: The Israelis know they can’t fuck with the Turks. No ‘accidental’ hellfire missile that wipes some out or other fuckery.
Turkish troops served in Vietnam. I served with an officer in USAF whose older brother was in Nam and said he was scared to death of them. Said “When the Turks enter the valley, the only thing that leaves the valley are the Turks.”.
JMG
@JML: The Trump Presidential Library! We Have the Loosest Slots in Town!!!
different-church-lady
This is what you get when you follow the “Make voters feel good about themselves” advice.
narya
@Paul in KY: Yes. And I find them horrifying. The sadness on my part is because of the hate. I mean, it also makes me angrier than I can fully articulate, and I am by no means excusing or minimizing a single vile comment or act. The sadness sits right next to the anger and repulsion. I’m probably not making much sense . . .
Soprano2
I think it’s hilarious how all the older Republicans are disavowing what these “young Republicans” said, as if they were at all surprised by it. I wasn’t surprised; I kind of figured that’s how they talked to each other. I’m seeing stuff on Twitter where other R’s are trying to say these are teenagers and college kids. One of them is a state senator in Vermont! Others had jobs with campaigns. I don’t think most of them were even in college, let along high school (that’s one claim I saw). It’s the same as always, Republicans don’t attain actually adulthood until they are 40+, while Democrats are considered full-fledged adults when they turn 18. *rolleyes
different-church-lady
@Scout211: Protests against the king are always dangerous.
Dangerous to the king.
RevRick
@rikyrah: Philadelphia has had sixteen annual naked bike races on a ten mile circuit through the city. It’s for body positivity.
My reaction is that it’s got to be uncomfortable, sweaty parts and all that.
narya
Unless they’re Black, in which case they’re considered full-fledged adults when they’re, oh, 8 years old or so.
different-church-lady
@JML: All that gold crap from his Oval Office.
jonas
Johnson was claiming at the news conference that the naked cyclists were assaulting federal officers. Deflecting questions about why ICE fired pepper balls directly at a *priest* during a protest in Chicago.
Motherfucker. The shamelessness…
different-church-lady
@narya: Adults, yes, but not human ever.
Geminid
@Suzanne: There’s a lot of rebuilding to do in Syria as well. As with Gaza, a lot will be funded by the Gulf Arabs who’ve been experiencing their own own building boom.
That estimate of ten years to clear the rubble seems kind of high. I guess we’ll see, or at least those of us who stay interested will.
At any rate, the process has begun. Kan News posted video of a line of big rubber-tired loaders rolling down an avenue in Gaza. They had Qatari flags flying. The neighborhood they drove through was fairly intact but as you say, most of Gaza has been leveled.
The Other Bob
Anyone who can participate in a naked bike ride clearly has pain resistance that should strike fear in the hearts of any ICE “Officer”.
Soprano2
@narya: Yeah, there’s that too. I was riffing on how in the 1990’s a Republican who had an affair with a woman not his wife described it as a “youthful indiscretion”. They seem to never grow up enough to be required to take responsibility for their actions.
narya
@different-church-lady: Exactly.
NotMax
@Paul in KY
They goosestep to a different drummer.
//
frosty
@RevRick: Ten miles without bike shorts? Ouch!
different-church-lady
@Baud: There is one, and only one time news media will rally, and that’s when their own are threatened.
Ohio Mom
@Geminid: I always appreciate your take on the Middle East, it’s something I don’t follow closely* and your details add a lot to my understanding. Thanks.
* My understanding starts with, “They’re all assholes, they deserve each other.” Particularly as a Jew, I resent Israel’s arrogance.
narya
@Soprano2: White supremacy means never having to say you’re sorry. Or take responsibility for ANYthing.
Betty
@Scout211: Oh, his sexter friend is also publishing a memoir including that episode. Dueling memoirs! Oh my!
Another Scott
@Soprano2:
Henry Hyde:
“Family Values!!” [ snicker ]
Divorce was still a big deal in many places in 1967.
They’ve always been about mouth noises and care nothing about the damage they do to others.
Grr…
Thanks.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Paul in KY
@Soprano2: Because they hate his guts too. Even if they kowtow to him in various ways.
prostratedragon
@Soprano2:
Think that was Hastert, who was over forty at the timeof the “indiscretion.”
Scout211
I saw that this morning. That’s another memoir I will skip. LOL But we will likely be inundated with Nuzzi’s media appearances and there will be excerpts published in media stories ad nauseam.
jonas
Not really. Many European cities, especially in Germany, still had large areas of bombed-out rubble waiting to be cleared/rebuilt well into the 1950’s. And that was under the Marshall Plan. Assuming the Gulf States pour aid into the Strip at a similar scale, a decade or so seems reasonable.
Ohio Mom
@Scout211: Well, TBF, it is an extremely unflattering photo. Can’t help but see a subtext: the emperor has no hair.
A careful look shows his usual poor application of his bronzer, there is a big unbronzed spot by his ear. But maybe we are all inured to that at this point.
Paul in KY
@narya: Some of them probably had really shitty parents. I do feel sorry (in general) for anyone who grows up with POS parents. You have no choice over the quality of parents you are saddled with.
I (luckily) had wonderful parents. Flawed individuals, but in the main wonderful.
Paul in KY
@RevRick: No padded shorts! When I did alot of bike riding, I used to wear 2 pairs!
Paul in KY
@narya: Very sadly true.
Paul in KY
@Soprano2: Batshit McChimpy was able to ‘explain’ away going AWOL as an Officer (for God’s sake) and various other acts of drunken mayhem by sticking robotically to his mantra of ‘when I was young i did…’!
RevRick
@narya: I agree that the doom loop of hatred they’re on is tremendously sad. I have little hope, however, of them seeing the error of their ways, because they have staked out their ugly beliefs in public. Likely too, they are immersed in an ideological information system, which constantly gives them feedback reifying what they believe. To change they would need to be broken.
It’s the old prophetic understanding of see and not see, hear and not hear, or as Jesus put it, “If those who have ears to hear, let them hear.” His call to repentance was a transformation of the mind, not a scolding to behave yourself.
Paul in KY
@NotMax: Like the KA’s with their fucking confederate uniforms they used to love to wear, you know these guys have SS uniforms they love to wear while they are jacking off to TACO.
jonas
@JMG: Or: “Loosest Craps in Town!!” (h/t The Simpsons)
narya
@Paul in KY: Oh, for sure. The older I get, the more grateful I am for my parents.
Baud
@Paul in KY:
Chafing for Democracy!
RevRick
@Paul in KY: I knew a few like that in high school. They would spout nonsense like “The United States is a republic, not a democracy.”
Suzanne
@Geminid:
It struck me as high, too, but they are probably limited by the amount of heavy equipment they think they can get. And when everything is so tightly packed in a confined area, that will constrain things further. And, of course….. where to put it all and how to get it there. May need road construction just to get enough equipment in and out.
Geminid
@Paul in KY: The job of the 200 U.S. officers and soldiers stationed at an Israeli air base in Negev will be to make sure the Turks and Israelis don’t shoot at each each other. I expect liason officers from the multinational force as well as the IDF will work alongside them.
CENTCOM has done this before. Some of the Turks and Americans will probably know each other from the “deconfliction” mechanism they set up to keep Turks and Americans operating in Northeast Syria from shooting at each other.
That worked pretty well the last 12 years. The Turkish and US armies know each other well from decades of joint Nato operations. And Israel has been a CENTCOM partner since 2021, so theoretically they all ought to get along.
The Turks do have a reputation as tough fighters, which Hamas and allied militia will also have to take into account.
The size and composition of the multinational force has not been announced yet. They’ll back up policemen affiliated with the Palestinian Authority but not under its control. Several thousand of these are training in Jordan and Egypt.
RevRick
@frosty: My thoughts exactly.
Matt McIrvin
@narya: I went to William and Mary, a college that had a lot of conservatives, and while I was there they kept launching conservative newspapers to compete with the Flat Hat*. None of them ever seemed to last more than a year or two, but I would occasionally read them and they were always awful. They’d interview these national conservative figures like R. Emmett Tyrell and Cal Thomas, and those guy were always saying these horrifying fascistic things, violent fantasies about beating up liberal professors, plans for a theocratic takeover of the country, yeah. None of what we’re seeing now is new, though it’s more brazen in power even though their side is LESS popular than it was then.
*Maybe the most significant thing the Flat Hat ever did was publish an exposé about the insane stylings of a notoriously racist and homophobic sociology professor, Prof. Edmonds, who was basically our Harvey Mansfield. Because that article was the big journalistic break of a kid named… James Comey. And now you know… the rest… of the story. Paaaage three! Buy Roach Prufe!
Wapiti
@Paul in KY: One of my history teachers was in Korea and he was equally respectful of the Turks who were there.
RevRick
@jonas: How does a naked cyclist assault anyone, other than the prudish “it hurts my eyes?”
Matt McIrvin
@RevRick: “They’re awakening things in me!”
Viva BrisVegas
@Geminid: Now to just get some of those Turkish troops into the West Bank, where settlers are killing Palestinians with just as much impunity as the IDF in Gaza.
Steve in the ATL
@Paul in KY: it’s totally different because KA isn’t a fraternity, it’s an ORDER. Whatever that means.
Suzanne
@RevRick:
There’s a fair amount of people for whom clothes are an improvement (me)….. but seeing a saggy titty doesn’t qualify as “assault”.
Booger
@Suzanne: Sounds like the Arcata Eye back in the day.
Paul in KY
@Baud: They have a much higher pain threshold than ole Paul!
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Good choice. Not giving oxygen to these influencers/celebrities is what we can do.
Geoduck
I’ve sorta assumed the library will never actually be built, and it’s all just another money-suck.
And wow, the young GOP Nazis actually shut down? That was a bit surprising. Probably just re-brand under a new name.
Geminid
@Suzanne: Gaza has three main avenues running from north to south that are still functional. Some of the side streets will likely need clearing.
As for being crowded, Gaza is not nearly as crowded as Brooklyn. The New,York borough has a land area of 80 square miles and a population of around 2.6. million. Gaza’s land area is 150 square miles and it’s population is 2.2 million.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Geoduck: I have vague memories of reading that the “library” will be a Trump hotel
iKropoclast
They always made sure they were heard at the student council meetings and also were a frequent presence at the queer student union, where I liked spending my time.
lowtechcyclist
@Trivia Man:
So my occasional visits to nude beaches, and the times I went skinnydipping in mountain streams with female friends, have doomed me to eternal damnation? Who knew?
Miss Bianca
@jonas: Hell, Berlin still had bombed-out sections from WW II standing when I was there in 1996! Admittedly, it was the eastern part of the city…
Miss Bianca
@lowtechcyclist: No Jesus time for *you*, buddy!/
frosty
@Suzanne: “fair amount” = 99.9% of people. Maybe even more 9s after the decimal LOL.
catclub
Henry Hyde, of Hyde Amendment fame had an extramarital affair when he was 38 and called it a youthful indiscretion.
Baud
@Miss Bianca:
Yeah, if the measure is all rubble, then it’ll take forever. The question is how long before the Gazans will have enough rebuilt to have a semblance of a normal life.
lowtechcyclist
@Librettist:
That’s rather interesting mourning garb she’s wearing in that pic. She’s certainly not discouraging male interest.
Dave
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Truthfully I think it’s one of the best photos of him that I’ve seen.
He looks like an actual normalish older person.
iKropoclast
And will it happen before the Sword of Damocles perpetually hovering over them falls again?
Trivia Man
@Geoduck: I think they even admit it is a “library-hotel entertainment complex”
$$$ hotel/ conference center with a 10’x10’ “library” in the basement
stinger
@Suzanne:
And who will pay for it? Seems to me there were London neighborhoods still imperfectly cleared/rebuilt ten years after the Blitz.
Geminid
@jonas: I think it will be more like five years, but as I said, we’ll get to see.
The money will be forthcoming I think. The Europeans and other Western countries will pitch in and so will Asian nations like Japan and China.
The Gulf Arabs will likely provide the most funding, and they are very focused on seeing this project through. They intend for this war to be the last one.
Ed. I think Americans tend to underestimate the Gulf Arabs. That area has undergone a transformation over the last decade, and those nations are not the ones they were 20 or even 5 years ago. They are modernizing culturally socially and economically, and they have a confident and forward-looking posture towards their region.
Trivia Man
@frosty: It’s ok for people to be naked even if they aren’t sexually alluring. I have met thousands of people, only a very small fraction had a sexual component of any kind at all. A slightly larger fraction had some interest that direction.
Many signs at our ride said NUDE ISN’T LEWD
stinger
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I was assuming that!
Paul in KY
@RevRick: Back in my HS days, in the Paleozoic of KY, we only had those who were really rich & snobby/preppy. KY was a Democratic state with 2 Dem senators and the such. Began to change when Ronnie got in. Our Democratic party back then was very, very overconfident and out-of-touch with how GQP was weaponizing single-issue voting, etc. etc.
Suzanne
@stinger: And London then was much less compromised than Gaza is now. I read that they currently have 5% of their water treatment capacity that they had before the war. So basically everything needs to be rebuilt.
When I was in graduate school, we did a deep-dive studio trip to Munich. Munich was 75% destroyed. They were still rebuilding into the 70s, when they hosted the Olympics.
Steve in the ATL
@lowtechcyclist: no big deal–if that didn’t doom you to eternal damnation, commenting here surely will!
Suzanne
@Geminid:
From what I have looked at and read, Gaza is much more dense in the large urban areas and then they have some fairly large undeveloped areas. So the averages don’t tell the whole story. Demolition and construction are significantly more time-consuming in dense areas. Just having a staging area next to where you’re working can be hard to come by.
NotMax
@Geminid
“I’m proud to announce it will now be named the Gulf of Trump.”
//
Paul in KY
@Geminid: I sure hope it all goes well.
prostratedragon
@Another Scott: Ah, right you are. Hyde.
TONYG
Those CPAC guys have finally figured out why no women have ever wanted to be with 100 feet of them. It’s those WOKE FEMINISTS!!!!
lowtechcyclist
@prostratedragon:
Hastert’s ‘indiscretions’ could be said to have been ‘youthful’ regardless of his age at the time.
TONYG
@Cheryl from Maryland: The Naked Bike Ride is the real reason why they invaded Portland.
NotMax
@Suzanne
Astounding and sobering color footage documenting the devastation.
What Was Life Like In Germany Immediately After The Fall Of The Nazis?
RevRick
@Matt McIrvin: For most people that’s the scariest thing possible. Forget ghosties and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night. It’s the existential crisis that awakening to a different reality poses.
RevRick
@lowtechcyclist: “skinny dipping with female friends…”
Braggart!
TONYG
@iKropoclast: Hmmm. Maybe I’m being too cynical, but … 1) Qatar (now a Best Buddy of the United States, was, in the recent past, the primary funder of Hamas. 2) If (or when) Hamas attacks Israel again, Israel will resume bombing Gaza. 3) When another ceasefire takes place, American corporations will get lucrative contracts to rebuild in Gaza. 4) Profit! (with kickbacks)
Timill
@stinger: IIRC St Anne’s Court still had bomb damage into the eighties…
Paul in KY
@Steve in the ATL: Oh, crap! I forgot that. They are an ‘ORDER’, so they can do WTF they want. Dammit!
No wonder they always looked so smug in their composites…
Paul in KY
@Suzanne: I think people can be divided into 2 cohorts:
A) Those who look better with clothes on
B) Those who look better without.
I am firmly in cohort A
Jackie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Same. I think I read a Trump hotel will be adjacent to the “museum.”
zhena gogolia
@Geminid: Thank you — very interesting!
I’ve been wondering where G&T is. I hope he’s okay. (Maybe he’s in the Ukraine threads, but I haven’t looked lately, I’m too depressed about it.)
Old Man Shadow
I’ll give it about two weeks before the “Young” Republicans in this chat are hired by the Justice Department.
hueyplong
@Jackie: I’d guess the “museum” will be in Room 237 of the hotel.
Red rum.
Geminid
@Suzanne: Regarding water supply in Gaza: the Emiratis funded construction of a water line from Egypt into central Gaza capable of supplying water for as msny ss 600,000 people, so that’s a start. It began functioning over a month ago. This was not reported very widely because the bad news coming out of Gaza gets all the attention.
This project was made possible by the cooperative relationship between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. The two nations normalized relations in 2020, and since then the UAE has become the closest ally Israel has in the Arab world. The Emirates have provided the most humanitarian aid of any nation during this war.
Turkiye has been second. Despite Erdogan’s bombastic speeches denouncing Israel and its toxic Prime Minister, Turkiye’s Jerusalem Consulate has been up and running continuously.
One result of this ceasefire deal is that Turkiye is now flying aid for Gaza to Israeli airports. Once the Rafah crossing is up and running– and reports are that it opened today– much of this aid will be routed through Egypt.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Matt McIrvin: My years at William and Mary were in the 70s, so the GOP and preppies were close to non existent on campus, except for the sororities. Went to a Homecoming in the 1980s and saw many, many students, especially the guys, in suits. Stopped going to Homecomings.
prostratedragon
@NotMax:
Thanks, will get to it. I see it was just posted this week. Must have been on someone’s mind.
Recently I’ve seen Berlin Express and The Third Man, where clear views of the damage in Berlin and Vienna are shown. Even much later in, say, Wings of Desire (Berlin) or The American Friend (Hamburg), scars are noticeable. So, several decades if conditions are favorable.
prostratedragon
Fantasyland!
JoshTPM:
iKropoclast
All it takes is one yahoo who may or may not be Hamas-affiliated with a homebuilt rocket that doesn’t actually hit anything and the sabers will be rattling again
Of course. That’s the whole reason we do this.
Geminid
@zhena gogolia: If you check out the Boris Gudenov article, it could be worth your while to take a look at New Line‘s other offerings as well. They cover a lot of ground both geographic and historical.
I learned about New Lines Magazine while following the fall of the Assad regime last December. British/Labanese war carrespondent Oz Katerji recommended New Lines editor Hassan I. Hassan as a reliable source on Syrian affairs.
Hassan I. Hassan is a Syrian American who has put together a very impressive journal. The articles are long, in-depth and very well written.
Paul in KY
@lowtechcyclist: You poor, poor devil…
Paul in KY
@Trivia Man: Right next to the broom closet.
Jackie
Another agism senate challenge:
I never cared for Moulton after he refused to support Nancy Pelosi. But, I don’t reside in MA.
Matt McIrvin
@Cheryl from Maryland: In the Eighties, it wasn’t an exclusively right-wing campus but they had a huge presence, and they still for some reason acted like a put-upon and oppressed minority.
William and Mary had a statewide reputation as “the gay school” just because we had SOME visibly out gay people. I think I knew most of them. But the homophobia was still so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Baud
@Jackie:
Not surprised. Progressives supported Markey over Patrick Kennedy last time. It’ll be interesting to see if they still support Markey, or if someone else throws their hat into the ring.
Omnes Omnibus
@prostratedragon: You can see bomb damage in London in the Beatles’ Hard Day’s Night from 1964.
Matt McIrvin
@Jackie: I don’t like Moulton very much, certainly not as much as I do Markey, but I guess you could do worse.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
A bombed out church is currently a tourist site in Liverpool.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Moulton’s more of a centrist, has been trying to triangulate on trans rights.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Right. He’s to Markey’s right. That’s why what progressives do will be interesting.
Paul in KY
@hueyplong: Or maybe Room 101
schrodingers_cat
@Matt McIrvin: Moulton is a pompous ass. Markey will beat the challenge easily.
Geminid
@TONYG: I suspect the bulk of th reconstruction will be carried out by contractors from the region including Egypt and and Turkiye. The Gulf Arabs will be footing most of the bill and will call the shots accordingly, They know US contractors are not competitive and have little presence in the region. Gulf Arab nations have been funding plenty of major construction contracts in their own countries, and they know the business well.
NotMax
Does Mike Johnson suffer from Stendhal’s syndrome?
//
Soapdish
From that picture I’m seeing a disturbing amount of clothing at the naked bike ride.
iKropoclast
Moulton is running the exact campaign to guarantee I won’t consider him.
Scout211
Lately, when I actually find good news in the morning, I just have to share.
Trivia Man
@Matt McIrvin: My personal favorite homophobe “argument” is “everybody is sexually aroused by the thought of naked men. You just have to resist temptation like I do!”
Uhhh – you may not be entirely straight.
prostratedragon
@Omnes Omnibus: Sure can, and that might not even be the latest, though I don’t trust my memory at the moment.
randy khan
@piratedan:
That’s one of the problems with being in bankruptcy – you need permission to bribe people, and that’s kind of hard to get.
iKropoclast
Joseph Kennedy III
Trivia Man
@lowtechcyclist: repent, sinner!
Personally my only regret is i didnt have more casual nudity in my life.
jonas
@RevRick: They don’t. As usual, Johnson was lying out his ass. I haven’t seen the whole presser, but I’m assuming no reporter challenged him on that. (Kudos if one actually did, if only to hear another baldfaced lie as an answer.)
Baud
@iKropoclast:
Thanks.
jonas
@Paul in KY: All that was repo’d by the FBI during the search. But I’m sure there’ll be a bunch of other shit he stole out of the WH and stuff.
iKropoclast
@Baud: No problem. Calling Kennedy’s Congressional office was weird. More activist sensibilities, like they were a campaign office instead.
Nevertheless, I still hear he did good work on behalf of constituents.
Geminid
@Jackie: Moulton only refused to support Nancy Pelosi for a while in late 2018. She had him, Tim Ryan, Kathleen Rice and the other rebels back line in time for the Speaker vote in early January. Some freshmen Reps like Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger voted for other Democrats but Pelosi didn’t care.
Trivia Man
@Soapdish: It was very cold and rainy
prostratedragon
Ann Telnaes, “It’s About Time”
Miles Davis, “It’s About That Time”
Soprano2
@Omnes Omnibus: They deliberately didn’t repair Coventry Cathedral; they built a new, modern one next to the ruin. We saw it when we were in England in 2006. It was quite the thing to see the damage.
pieceofpeace
@Scout211:
To me, it looks like a composite of Trump and Netanyahu. Apt.
Eyeroller
@Scout211: Perhaps ironically, it’s clearly an attempt to make Trump look like a serious elder statesman with a visionary look on his face. None of those traits are characteristic of or valued by Trump, so of course he hates it.
Geminid
@Eyeroller: Also, the photo makes Trump look old and corpulent, which he in fact is.
iKropoclast
Trump recognizes this in himself for what it actually is, gas.
Paul in KY
@jonas: I hope the actual classified was properly disposed of, so TACO couldn’t display it at his griftbrary. Cause you know he’d want to.
TONYG
@Trivia Man: Ha ha. The right-wing “belief” that being gay is a choice says a lot about those people.
Baud
@Geminid:
I’m just happy he hates it.
iKropoclast
You can choose to embrace all your authentic attractions or not.
TONYG
@Geminid: That’s probably true. But somehow I think that Trump and his cronies will get a taste of the money being spent.
Matt McIrvin
@Trivia Man: Especially the ones who go on about how much MORE enticing gay sex is than associating with icky, gross women. Um.
prostratedragon
Something about a parking structure. Actual cause of death is pending.
Suzanne
@Jackie:
Similarly, this is part of why I think Conor Lamb is deeply disappointing.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Stupid, sexy Flanders.
Castor Canadensis
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: They need to attack anything good, if they’re to claim that we have _never_ done anything good.
Castor Canadensis
@Paul in KY: I met a few “Young Conservatives” when I was an undergrad. These days you would have said “Tea Party”
RevRick
@Paul in KY: Kentucky was joining the rest of the Appalachian-Ozark arc in shifting from conservative Democratic to Republican. Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and West Virginia went from solidly Democratic to the most solidly Republican states. You see the same movement in Western Pennsylvania.
The Pale Scot
Those guys look a little light in the loafers to me, just sayin’
NotMax
@Castor Canadensis
So old I remember the few members of YAF* in high school back in the Stone Age, progenitors of these putrid poltroons.
*Young American for Freedom
Gravenstone
@Liminal Owl: If it needs to expand, they can always burrow.
Gravenstone
@Baud:Perhaps it awoke some scary feelings he’s
didn’t know he hadtired of denying.cain
@Baud:
Pakistan is pissed off at Afghanistan – I don’t know the reasons why but it seems seems that Pakistan must always be involved in some conflict.
I feel bad for the Pakistani people.
Suzanne
@RevRick:
Except in Pittsburgh and the bougie-er suburbs, which are shifting bluer.
cain
@Cheryl from Maryland:
I live in one of the satellite towns and so I only seen the naked bike ride like twice. Good times.
In portland, it’s legal for women to be topless fyi.
cain
@Scout211:
I suspect that a lot of ex-MAGAts are showing up. Otherwise, the press ignored the last largest protest in history.
Gravenstone
@Soprano2: Henry Hyde, who was a “youthful” 41 at the time it occurred.
Paul in KY
@prostratedragon: Blunt force injuries, I guess.
Paul in KY
@RevRick: True. Sucks, but true. IMO, it’s just about all racism (with jeebus thrown in).
Geminid
@cain: I think the current conflict started with fighting on the the two nations’ border. The “Durand Line” cuts across Pashtun tribal lands and has long been a source of trouble.
pluky
@Geminid: Well how many centuries was Israel/Palestine just a part of an Ottoman vilayet?
Lyrebird
@prostratedragon:
Thanks for the link, and good on LA County and Pritzker!
Apparently today they (ICE?) just arrested the off-key singer guy, for… singing mocking lyrics in a giraffe costume. Sorry I closed the window and I am not remembering his name right.
Geminid
@pluky:
I think the Seljuk Turks conqered the area innthe 13th or 14th century. The Ottomans took it over before they conquered Constantinople in 1453.
So, a long time before the British conquered it duting the First World War. The British left much of the legal system intact and Israel retained some Ottoman law after independence. That accounts for its weird marriage laws.
hotshoe
@Soprano2:
My completely-uninformed guess is that somewhere in Gaza there is a mosque which has been bombed out, which will be preserved as ruins to become a revered monument, similar to Coventry.
prostratedragon
@Lyrebird:
By happenstance, I just ran across it. There’s video🎥:
I guess they don’t care how ridiculous they look. Check out the one covering their rear as they drag the giraffe man away.
gvg
@Another Scott: That date can’t be right. If they divorced in 67, she would not have been married when the impeachment of Clinton was going on (he was President in the 90’s), and she would not have been 29 etc. Maybe 97?
hotshoe
@cain:
I guess there’s a few scattered days a year where the Portland weather is warm enough for folks to go topless.
Certainly wasn’t nice enough last week for the bike ride. Some brave souls in the chilly rain.
Paul in KY
@prostratedragon: What a pathetic bunch of goobs they are.
H0-Bob
@lowtechcyclist: “have doomed me to eternal damnation” … when you’ll be naked the entire time 🤔
Trivia Man
@hotshoe: It’s always warm enough if you are brave enough. Source: me, skinny dipping in the Sierras in June.
Ruckus
@Paul in KY:
I (luckily) had wonderful parents. Flawed individuals, but in the main wonderful.
Mine were pretty good, and flawed as well. Of course when I was training to be a mental health counselor we were told and it was proven that all humans are flawed. The difference is that some are flawed a lot worse than the majority. And that the best understood being flawed and worked around the flaws as well as possible. The worst would often only be worst because they could never admit their faults even existed. I was taught that perfection was overrated, (and impossible!) which was the reason we weren’t perfect, and that the best humans admitted faults and worked around them, at least trying to be better. I knew that was absolutely true when I was a mental health counselor for 5 years. About 3/4 of my clients were pretty good humans, often stuck on how to be better. The way I looked at it was that we had to teach our clients how to be a bit better and to understand that perfection in humans means to do the best you can, but that no one is perfect. Look at the top people in sports. Perfection would be always making the ball go exactly where you wanted it to. Or setting a record no one else could. And of course often then someone did. Some are very, very good at that, most of us watch them be far better than we are/were. But then maybe they can’t even accomplish the thing we think is very simple. It takes all of us to make humanity, even as some that are great at something that most of humanity fail at. We all eat, some of us should NEVER attempt cooking. Or at least take lessons with the hope to learn at least the minimum.
Ruckus
@Trivia Man:
It was fun, wasn’t it?
(Been there, done that!)
There was/is a hot spring south of Mammoth Lakes that I can’t remember anyone not skinny dipping in, not matter the month. Down a dirt road off 395. Let’s see, first time was 6 decades ago. I think they paved the road in, so that may have ended.
SteverinoCT
@gvg: You have to read it closely– it’s not saying he had an affair at the same time, but rather that he had had an affair at all. Took me a couple of passes, because I was thinking of Newt.
Paul in KY
@Ruckus: Good points. Being a metal health counselor would be a tough job, but one with sometimes great moments of joy. I’m sure you helped out alot of people.
lowtechcyclist
@RevRick:
I had some good times in my single years!
Also some lonely times in between the good times. Wouldn’t want to go back!
Kayla Rudbek
@RevRick: it’s also unsanitary with respect to the saddle, and probably extremely uncomfortable as well
Kayla Rudbek
@Paul in KY: We had business Republicans and religious Republicans at Notre Dame
Paul in KY
@Kayla Rudbek: I bet the religious ones were a drag.