Valued commenter LAO submits for our consideration a report of a norovirus outbreak at the RNC:
A handful of Republican staff members in Cleveland for the GOP convention were reported to be suffering Tuesday from a possible norovirus infection.
And if there are a few people with norovirus, it’s likely there will be more.
Norovirus, for those who are unfamiliar with it, is a massively contagious and unpleasant but usually non-life-threatening ailment that turns cruise ships into giant vomit-filled shit canoes.
If Uday and Qusay Trump appear on stage tonight and open their mouths to sing their horrid racist father’s praises but instead emit twin streams of projectile vomit while simultaneously shitting their pants, I will reconsider my lifelong atheism.
Open thread!
Tractarian
TRUMP/SHIT-CANOE 2016
JPL
Betty be careful what you wish for. When I woke up at six am and put on the news, I couldn’t figure out, why I was watching a replay of Michelle Obama’s speech. Anything can happen with the Trumpies convention.
CONGRATULATIONS!
My parents keep singing the joys of cruises. Not in a million fucking years, say I and my wife. Those boats are effectively subject to no laws or regulations and their passengers are largely cranky elderly people with piss-poor immune systems and terrible diets.
Much like the RNC, actually.
MJS
I have always wanted to go on a cruise, but have been very worried about norovirus. “Giant vomit-filled shit canoe” has convinced me that my vacation dollars can be better spent elsewhere.
Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill
So based on Manafort blaming it on Hillary, Melanoma could recite the Whitey Tape word for word and it would still be disavowed…
Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill
The Aristocrats!
Joel
Kind of an anti-shitshow.
BruceFromOhio
Eww. I really hope that’s not widespread. As much as I detest the bunch, I don’t wish that on anyone – it’s misery beyond description. Wash your hands, everyone, and air kisses only please.
Rosalita
Cruise ships are nothing more than floating petri dishes IMO. This scourge couldn’t happen to a more deserving crowd.
Robin G.
@Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill: Internet won.
amk
lol. you are mean.
glory b
Okay, I need my fellow balloon juice mean girls for a discussion of Pat Smith’s hair (or, as awesomelyluvvie might call them, her “struggle highlights”).
I wouldn’t let my mother on stage with her head looking like that.
bemused
What next for GOP convention? I’m starting to believe in Karma.
Jerry
This just might be the greatest thing ever written. I can’t stop laughing. Oh, and I’m totally going Melania Trump with this.
hovercraft
@Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill:
I may be convinced that FSM does exist if this happens. And that she loves me.
slag
For some reason, I feel that this part of the story:
evokes the most appropriate imagery.
Joe_MN
But how will you be able to tell the difference?
PaulWartenberg2016
Isn’t it interesting that they’ve got a contagious disease that tends to be on cruise ships… and that a lot of these conservatives use cruise ships for their annual party/motivational/fleecing the public con jobs?
I wonder who the carrier might be. Who was the star lineup at THIS year’s Cruise Ship of Fools?
ThresherK (GPad)
Barron’s name is with 2 “R’s”, it appears. But before I saw it, I heard it, and imagined a man with a monocle and a pickelhaube. Anyone else?
Jeffro
@Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill:
I’m dyin’…
Today has been educational. For instance, I had no idea that “Michelle Obama didn’t invent the English language” (true quote from Trump spokesperson).
Also looking forward to more Corey Lewandowski insights as to who in the Trump camp should be fired, and why…
Just One More Canuck
“Vomit-filled shitcanoe” is one for the ages
Miss Bianca
I just finished reading the article LAO linked to! I shouldn’t laugh, but oh…oh, I am. Because I’m Bad and Wrong.
hovercraft
@glory b:
I’ve had my fair share, probably more than my fair share of bad hair days, but what the f**k was with those highlights? She needs an intervention, maybe get her on “What Not To Wear”, they do the makeover from head to toe, ’cause that was not right.
Sorry.
Woodrowfan
having read about working conditions on cruises there is no way I’d go on one.
yellowdog
@ThresherK (GPad): Picklehaube is my new word of the day. I didn’t realize those things had their own name.
Cermet
Took a peek at RedState (I know) because I was wondering about the current plagiarism issue and was I shocked. Their first article was on Black Lives Matter protesters and it was a good post praising the BLM group on how these protesters had a cookout with the cops!
AS for the illness – please let tRump get it! PLEASE!!!!!
Miss Bianca
@glory b: are you gonna make me look up her photo? Because, you know, Awesomely Luvvie reference!
(goes and looks up photo).
Oh…oh, my. Looks likes someone just took a paint brush and some furniture stain to her head. I guess it wouldn’t say “grieving mother” enough if she looked too good. Plus, $2400 highlight jobs are for Democrats!
Felonius Monk
A Shit-Weasel (der Drumpf) in a Shit-Canoe. How apt.
BruceFromOhio
The linked article mentions “the delegation has added hand sanitizer stations at the Sandusky hotel and that the executive director has sent an email to the delegates advising them on precautions to take.”
Hand sanitizer does nothing to norovirus.
LAO
OMG! I feel like I won the lottery. Mrs. Cracker noticed me. I have a very small, sad life, if it’s not obvious. ?
lollipopguild
@Jeffro: We should blame dead English people/persons for inventing the english language, but there are peoplepersons in the Trump organization who allowed Lady M to give this speech and they are not the First Lady or Adolf Hitler Clinton.
? Martin
Let’s just wind this up a notch.
Keith P.
I imagine the last twelve hours are kind of like what Guild Navigators go through being suspended in a cloud of pure spice. Absolute overload of the good stuff.
Felonius Monk
Can we pleez haz us some respect here. A political party is dying as we watch and while it writhes in its death throes, we all sit around laughing. Oh well, carry on.
gogol's wife
@MJS:
Norovirus is the worst. You don’t have to go on a cruise, just teach at a university with hygiene-challenged students.
JPL
@Felonius Monk: President GW Bush is concerned that he will be the last Republican President. Let us Pray!
gogol's wife
@Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill:
He blamed it on Hillary? How did he manage that?
gogol's wife
@Jerry:
Betty must have had noro at some point, because this is an uncomfortably accurate description of what happens. It’s not like any flu you’ve ever had.
lollipopguild
@Keith P.: Nice DUNE reference!
Miss Bianca
@LAO: Aw, naw! No sadder and smaller than the rest of us!
btw, I’m dying over here with the Bundy updates. Thanks for taking on the burden of sharing *that* particular shitshow with us!
Felonius Monk
@gogol’s wife:
Like everything else Manafort does, He pulled it out of his ass.
hovercraft
@Cermet:
Leon Wolf a Red State editor has been on Joy Reid’s show a couple of time in the past month, because he has seen too many videos, and can no longer discount what black people have been saying forever. He said in one appearance that the policing he has witnessed is so far removed from the policing in his neighborhood and haunts, that it took seeing the interactions for himself to believe that the police could actually treat citizens that way. He came at it from a libertarian perspective.
Peale
@gogol’s wife: We wouldn’t have to try to write such wifey drivel to attract the chicks if that bimbo weren’t heading the other ticket.
Mike J
If they had any sense at all they would leap at this opportunity to cancel the rest of the con. Err, convention. We know they won’t cancel the con. Trump could give his acceptance speech from a secure bunker and Manafort could be on Fox saying the Clinton campaign is using bio warfare.
hovercraft
@Felonius Monk:
I think like cockroaches the party will survive. But we can enjoy the fact that the lights have been turned on and left them all exposed as they scurry to their corners. Oh look the exterminator is here. Unfortunately a few always survive.
Poopyman
@slag: Almost makes one pine for the old days, when the river would catch fire. Nobody ever got norovirus out of that.
gogol's wife
@Peale:
I looked it up and he seems to be saying that the H. Clinton campaign ginned up the accusation. Any student who copied from a source in that manner would be brought to an honor board. He is so full of it.
Miss Bianca
@hovercraft: Interesting how certain RedState writers seem to be coming around…I’ve actually been able to read a couple of articles over there lately without gagging.
p.a.
tonight:
“who put the snakes in the motherfuckin auditorium?!”
Citizen_X
@Keith P.: Yeah, but that at least gets you across the galaxy. We’re still stuck with these assholes on Earth.
hovercraft
@gogol’s wife:
She is attacking a strong woman, who is threatening her. Even the stenographers were having none of it, they just swatted it away and returned to the plagiarism.
LAO
@Miss Bianca: I’m glad some appreciates my crazy. And while I would love to get my hands on the transcript from Ammon’s testimony yesterday — there appears to be a limit to my crazy.
Jerry
@gogol’s wife:
OK, thanks. I’ve got a kid so I know the special hell that having both barrels firing at the same time is like.
Miek G
Somebody tell the delegates Michelle Obama wants them to wash their hands. Trump’s “Rolling Coal” demographic doesn’t bend your fascist hygiene regulations. The free market will solve the problem.
dr. bloor
How can you tell the difference?
LAllen
Right when President Obama was running for re-election our church small group was going through Proverbs ( yea, the one in the middle of the Bible) . One verse (27:14 I think) is paraphrased as ” Don’t be too happy about your enemies problems because God might take his side”. Someone asked, ” does that apply to Obama?”. I have been thinking for 4 years about what’s happened since. Obama’s re-election, Scalia’s death, Trump’s rise and many other things that affect the Republicans and Evangelicals. Perhaps Betty Cracker should downgrade to agnosticism. There might be a God after all.
Tractarian
@? Martin:
opiejeanne
@MJS: Any cruise ship that is not affiliated with Carnival Cruises is a good place to start, if you’re interested. There are a surprisingly large number of lines run by them, plus they seem to have higher prices than other lines, but the poor maintenance and repeated outbreaks on their ships are a good reason to avoid them.
We went on a cruise out of Long Beach California on (I think) Viking Lines, back in the 90s. I don’t know if they are still independent. That one was nice, even if it just ran along the coast of California and Mexico with stops in Ensenada and Catalina Island.
Disney cruises are great, the ships are very clean and they have hand-washing stations all over the ship; there is a cast member posted at the dining room door to remind everyone to sanitize their hands before entering. There is a policy that one hint of norovirus and the ship will be evacuated.
My youngest worked on one as an entertainer for a year, so we went on her ship to the Bahamas and had a wonderful time, even though we were not with small children, maybe especially because of that. Lots to do without kids, some activities and areas are kid-free. The beaches at Castaway Cay, an island that the ship stops at, are set aside for families or adults only, and there are areas and activities for teens only.
SiubhanDuinne
@gogol’s wife:
Has the Clinton campaign actually said/tweeted anything about this?
scav
The Haaaaattte Boat soon will be making another run
The Hate Boat, promises something for every(white)one.
The Ship of Fools sails onward.
slag
@Poopyman: For sure. Have there been any good discussions of the parallels between the series of Cuyahoga river fires and today’s Republican party? It feels extremely relevant.
amk
@LAllen: It sure looks like god, to whom they always ‘prey upon’, ain’t taking their bs any more. #pestilence.
MattF
If anyone doubts that Roger Ailes is soon out the door, consider this, from the New York magazine article:
Emphasis added.
philpm
The end of the RNC was going to look like the end of the Six Million Child Blow from South Park, and that was before the norovirus.
catclub
@Jeffro: When Megan McArglebargle comes out and say there is NO WAY those phrases were accidental, we are through the looking glass.
hovercraft
@Miss Bianca:
I only read him because Joy said she has been finding herself in agreement with him several times recently. Donald Trump has succeeded in making some people wake up to what the GOP is, they’re in various stages of denial, acceptance, resignation, but they can no longer pretend to be blind to what they are. It’ funny how many, “the democrats have been accusing us of using dog whistles and race for years, and now Trump is proving them right” articles from very serious people. The question will be after Trump what do they do? They can pretend it was all about him in which case minorities will keep moving away, or they can tackle the problem and tell their base that old white people alone do not a winning coalition make. Or GW Bush’s lament that he may be the last republican president might be true.
justawriter
F*ck. I don’t want anything to happen to that vast collection of douchecanoes that would even tempt me to feel sorry for them. Damn @$#@ liberal bleeding heart $#!%.
dmsilev
@SiubhanDuinne: I don’t think so, and that’s probably the right thing for them to do. I could imagine the White House press office saying something snarky (“we’re glad the Trumps seem to be improving their opinion of the Obamas…”), but that should be about it. Let the media chew over it for the rest of today, and then tomorrow talk about whatever shit-show we’re going to get tonight.
martian
So, has the burning corpse of a Republican speech writer been found in front of Trump Towers yet?
Hmm. Maybe Melania really did “write” her own speech. I guess she’s a Rick Astley fan.
Jeffro
@Keith P.:
This…this is what I come here for…LOLOLOLOL
GregB
Ill Deuce.
catclub
@MattF: So is Dianne Brandi Ailes’ attorney or Fox’s attorney? Can Fox free someone from an NDA
when the agreement was with Ailes’ attorney?
Busy news week.
The important news is the loss of any chance for democracy in Turkey until Erdogan dies.
gogol's wife
@SiubhanDuinne:
They denied that they were the source of the accusation.
catclub
@opiejeanne:
Pun intended?
Jeffro
@catclub:
True, true.
It would have been a reach for most of the “deep bench”, but one of the things I liked to ask my right-leaning brother and dad about Trump during the primaries was, “Why can’t any of these guys point out what a moron Trump is?” I mean, at the end they were starting to hit their stride a bit about what a con artist he is…but that’s because he’s too stupid to earn a living any other way.
GregB
@MattF:
@Miss Bianca:
The man behind this blog had a transformation at the incessant madness that is the current day conservative Republican movement.
Cermet
@hovercraft: Amazing and frankly, I am both shocked and humbled that they do care enough about this issue that they looked into it. Damn, that was both impressive and took real intelligence to do. Thank you for that extra comment. This actually helps to make my day! :)
LAO
@MattF: Also — waiving in the NDA’s certainly sends a strong message to Ailes to leave before the “door hits him where the good lord split him.”
rikyrah
Courtney Milan @courtneymilan
It’s not just plagiarism. It’s plagiarism of a black woman in an election where surrogates say that nonwhite people have added nothing.
Peale
At this point they are plagiarizing each other, too.
catclub
@Miss Bianca: I got to David Stockman’s blog via a finance link, and he is determined that it is all going to blow up yesterday, if not sooner, on the finance side. So on that he would be considered unhinged.
But then look at his post berating Donald Trump for being an idiot about Islamic terrorism.
It is highly observant. Starting lines:
schrodinger's cat
@Peale: If you call it by name then it disappears? I don’t understand the logic.
catbirdman
@Jerry: Yeah, pulling an Uday and Qusay reference out of your ass at just the right moment takes a special talent. Kudos, Betty!
Peale
@rikyrah: Yep. I believe if this were the history of Rock-and-Roll, this would be the point where white folk are denying that their music has been appropriated without credit. I believe that even the visitors to the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland would know how problematic that process was.
daverave
Clearly, clearly, the Obamas used that time machine of theirs to go forward to Melania’s speech last night and copy her words so that Michelle could use them in 2008. That of course makes Michelle the plagiarist… freakin’ lieberils!
Roger Moore
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
@PaulWartenberg2016:
I think we have a connection.
FWIW, if you want a cruise that’s actually subject to regulations, choose one of the Hawaii cruises. The reason cruise ships have such lousy regulations is because international cruises- those that put in at ports from at least two different countries- can be served by ships of any national registry. Naturally, the cruise lines pick flag-of-convenience countries that have minimal regulations, and they do their best to arrange at least one brief stop in a second country to make it possible. That’s effectively impossible in Hawaii, so the cruise ships have to be American flag and follow American regulations.
Miss Bianca
@GregB: I was going to describe it as a John Cole-like “come to Jesus” moment, but considering that he had his in active revolt against the Schiavo madness, I wondered about invoking that terminology…
Quinerly
@p.a.:
I’m so stealing that!
catclub
@LAO: OTOH, the fact that Fox’s attorney previously protected Ailes via settlement and NDA means they knew about it all along.
Matt McIrvin
The once cruise we took several years back (Celebrity, in the western Med) convinced me that I’m not really a cruise person; these cruises seem to have their own strange insular culture that we weren’t plugged into, and it seemed like we were never ahead of the deadlines to sign up for anything interesting. If I did it again I’d know better, except that I probably wouldn’t do it again.
But it wasn’t so bad and we didn’t get norovirus. I do remember they had all these hand sanitizer stations around and were trying to convince us they’d be effective against that.
Kilgore Trout
@MJS: FWIW my wife and I have taken more than 20 cruises and have never gotten ill. Hand washing is a wonderful thing.
LAO
@catclub: Of course they knew and they did not care. No doubt those women threw themselves at Ailes since we all know that conservative dogma does not recognize the existence of sexual harassment.
Matt McIrvin
@rikyrah: And not only that, it’s plagiarism of a particular black woman who is specifically a gigantic focus of hate from Republicans.
Peale
link
nonynony
@Miss Bianca: When RedState got on the #nevertrump bandwagon I was a bit surprised, but assumed they’d come around by the convention. Instead they seem to be doubling down a bit and are extending their feelers into Republican heterodoxy. Like the idea that some cops may actually systematically treat black people differently than white people – a tenet of faith for Republicans that such a thing is unpossible and anyone suggesting otherwise is a liar.
I guess there are different thresholds for figuring out the GOP is full of crap. For some it was the election of Nixon. For other Reagan. For still others the Clinton impeachment idiocy, the invasion of Iraq, or the Terry Schaivo insanity. I guess for a few it’s Donald Trump.
scav
@Peale: “small business owner employing more than 100,000 people”?
Back to Fractal Crazy.
Omnes Omnibus
@scav: Back to?
MattF
@Peale: And the products being sold are ‘nutritional supplement’ snake-oil. Not an ethical business.
schrodinger's cat
@catclub: He is a goldbug isn’t he? His financial commentary seems a bit cuckoo.
rikyrah
Monie
@MonieTalks_1
We are supposed to feel sorry after Michelle Obama was called a liability, satirized as a gun-toting militant,called a baby mama & uppity?
sukabi
@glory b: compared to some of the women around here young, middle aged and old (rural sw Washington) her hair was actualy “sensible”.
Can’t believe all the tie dyed, crayola colored, home colored vomitus messes that venture out in public… ugh
Miss Bianca
@catclub: Interesting article. I usually find the contrarian/libertarian strain of conservatism easier to take than the evangel-jihadist strain, if only because it seems to be at least *rooted* in observable reality, even if the branches and flowers end up getting kind of…nuts.
rikyrah
itgurl @itgurl_29
@Charmed86 TY. No one would be feeling sorry for FLOTUS if she were a former escort who lied about having a degree and plagiarized speeches.
glory b
@catclub: HA!
MattF
Yglesias/Vox on Trump’s laziness. It’s an important point and an obvious contrast with Hilz.
ruemara
Sitting in the airport, waiting for my plane & enjoying all the schadenfreude. Glad I don’t watch the GOP convention though. All this talk of hurling? Making me feel hurley.
Fair Economist
@catclub:
Of course, everybody had to have known this. The short-skirt blonde bimbo look turns out not to be a business decision but Ailes’ own sexual fetish. He must have harassed almost every woman at Fox for 20 years. I’m kind of shocked that even Fox could keep it under wraps so long. Probably part of the desire to push out Ailes is so that Fox News doesn’t get pulled down with him.
cmorenc
@Cermet:
Not just that, but the RedState article about the Melania plagarism issue called the first day of the Trump/RNC convention a “total dumpster fire”, and referred to the Trump Campaign manager as “alleged Russian mob-fixer Paul Manafort”. They’re definitely not feeling any Trump-love over at Red State.
schrodinger's cat
@glory b: Why was Melania wearing white? And those pouffy sleeves looked ridiculous.
cmorenc
@Fair Economist:
Probably more than just “part”.
Elie
Y’all have to stop. Betty this has to be if not the funniest one of the most hilarious posts ever on b-j! I am holding my sides!
Peale
@schrodinger’s cat: The $2,900 dress, which the guardian reports has sold out, is marketed as a wedding dress for the “modern” bride. Seriously?
Roger Moore
@catclub:
This is a chance for the Never Trump gang to take free shots at him; they aren’t going to pass that up.
scav
@Omnes Omnibus: You’re right. Sloppy wording. There are days where my coming from a planet that thinks digital watches are a pretty neat leaks through.
“O! Crazy at the RNC!”
bystander
I never dreamed the RNC would afford so many laughs.
Patricia Smith needs to see a new hairdresser. Might cheer her up not to be wearing the hair version of The Scream.
Mai.naem.mobile
Well, I thought they would need George W bush to fling poo at the convention. Apparently they are all capable of flinging poop.
lollipopguild
@schrodinger’s cat: It is all special RIGHT Wing Majic! If you say it loud enough and long enough the threat goes away. “i aint afraid of no ghosts”
schrodinger's cat
@Peale: It did have a bridal look to it, come to think of it. BTW in India, women wear white for funerals.
Mai.naem.mobile
@schrodinger’s cat: she really should have asked Michelle Obama to help her with some style tips while she was helping her with the speech
catclub
@schrodinger’s cat: His financial commentary is TOTALLY cuckoo, but his view of jihadi versus deranged loners seems quite sensible – by comparison.
schrodinger's cat
@catclub: Agreed.
glory b
@sukabi: Well, except for the Crayola colors (which seems to be a thing everywhere), when I see something like those highlights, I just shudder.
They look painted on, and the Crayola coloring is best left to the young.
Betty Cracker
I’ve been tamping down my joy at the news about Ailes being on the way out, thinking it’s too good to be true. But this latest smoke has me believing there’s a fire. Let’s not forget that less than a week ago, Trump was basically calling Gretchen Carlson a liar and vouching for Ailes as a stand-up guy. If Ailes gets kicked to the curb, that’ll be huge news in the media, which loves nothing better than covering itself, and with any luck, Trump’s ignorant pronouncements on the matter will be reviewed and amplified, underscoring what a sexist pig he is. That’ll help his horrendously bad numbers with women. Not.
SiubhanDuinne
@gogol’s wife:
Rethugs: “Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they?”
Miss Bianca
@bystander:
OK, might be a little early in the day yet to say that this comment Wins the Internets, but it’s definitely a contender!
Villago Delenda Est
Suffer, fascist assholes.
Suffer.
glory b
@schrodinger’s cat: I knew I could count on you!
I remember when Michelle Obama wore a $300 Tracy Reese dress to the 2012 convention and some conservatives said the white house was lying because it looked too expensive!
Then, Tracy Reese (an African American designer) used the statement to advertise her company.
But yeah, the white dress was a bit much. I’ve always heard that jewel toned colors are best on television.
Villago Delenda Est
@bystander: Patricia Smith (seriously) needs psychiatric help.
schrodinger's cat
@Mai.naem.mobile: Michelle’s alright except for the poofy sixties skirts she sometimes wears. I loved her outfit at the last convention speech she gave.
hovercraft
@bystander:
Steve Benin
sukabi
@Betty Cracker: I’m hoping the Ailes mess will take out a few of his fellow henchmen…Doocey, Hannity and O’Reilly besides very vocally defending Ailes, are more than likely pulling the same shit with the women they work with.
? Martin
@Tractarian: Thank goodness.
gogol's wife
@bystander: @Miss Bianca:
He’s a witty guy, isn’t he?
lollipopguild
@Betty Cracker: I have been hearing for years that Ailes was in poor health, sooner or later he was leaving Fox. What are all of his cult-worshipers going to do, slit their wrists when he leaves?
Joy
I am primarily a lurker here, but that last paragraph made me spit out my soda. Ursay and Qusay!! Perfect.
Feathers
I got a horrible case of what I’ve been calling food poisoning on the overnight train from Vienna to Frankfort. Reading the links here it must have been norovirus. I had a kind of intestinal PTSD for nearly a decade afterwards. At the least sign of stomach upset, I’d start throwing up. I’d get the other symptom triggered by bad period cramps. That still occasionally happens, over twenty years later. So not something to be trifled with.
What helped a good bit was the very kind doctor with very good English at the Frankfort airport. That the walls and ceilings were covered in diagrams of how to bandage people with missing limbs put the whole event into perspective.
And cruises – I went on a knitting cruise from Boston up to Canada. It was really fun, but I could also see why people hate cruises. It will never be my first choice of vacation, but I might go on a short cruise with an interest group again. One of the things that struck me was how racially and ethnically diverse the guests were. I could see that the people who didn’t “go to the beach” went on the cruise instead, where their money was paying an international assortment of workers.
EDITED TO ADD @sukabi: What I’m waiting for is who his “friends” are. Several of the women whose stories have been told mentioned that they were told they would also be offering up favors to his “friends.” This couldn’t happen to a nicer group of people.
Peale
@Betty Cracker: If Trump can’t recognize that Ailes is a scoundrel, how’s he gonna deal with more subtle adversaries, like Kim Jong-un or Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi?
Peale
@sukabi: Yep. There’s never just one.
schrodinger's cat
@glory b: mind meld! See # 129
LAO
@sukabi: Well, they aren’t going to look very good when Ailes quits before being fired — after vigorously defending him. But again, I’m pretty sure that the average FOX viewer won’t particularly care.
LAO
@Peale: You mean Trump can’t just look into their eyes and see their souls? I thought that was a republican party trick.
Mnemosyne
@hovercraft:
There are still some white folks out there who can be woke up. It’s frustrating for us white folks who figured this shit out earlier than they did, but they do exist. As I’ve said before, open white supremacism is distasteful (to say the least) to most casually racist white people, which is why Lee Atwater came up with dogwhistles to conceal the real message. Now quite a few casually racist white people are seeing for themselves what the dogwhistle was concealing, and they don’t like it.
And as the great Molly Ivins said, Once you figure out they’re lying to you about race, you start to wonder what else they’re lying about.
ruemara
Cruises are my fallback career. A zumba cert for the olds & I’ll just teach that & kickboxing.
Y’all don’t get why she’s in white? Really? In a campaign with all the white supremacist dogwhistles? Pure, virginal (yes, I know) white womanhood on display, people. To inspire more pride & nativism. Trump & Co fully understand the power of visual contrasts.
sukabi
@LAO: I’m hoping that the Murdoch boys will be in a “we need to clean house and ‘rebrand'” frame of mind shortly after Ailes has left the building.
geg6
@schrodinger’s cat:
And was it just me or did she look like she had a giant pooch, too? It wasn’t her, she’s as thin and polished as she can possibly be, but that dress really didn’t do her any favors. I mean, she wears this thing that looks like she got it off the discount rack at H&M in the wrong size and people bitch about Hillary’s pantsuits and Michelle’s bare arms? Seriously?
nonynony
@lollipopguild: Forbes has an interesting piece up (from yesterday, before the new info about Kelly and the NDAs hit) on what a post-Ailes Fox might be doing. A few candidates for his job, some suggestions that one person might not be able to take over and they’ll need to split his position up – I guess into a “manage the newsroom” position and a “crush dissent with an iron boot” position or something. Dunno if they’ll also need to add a “proposition women who work for the company with skeevy pickup lines and then fire them if they say no” position for that last third of the work he was doing or if that requirement will just be eliminated with the transition.
bystander
@gogol’s wife: @Miss Bianca:
I take that as quite a compliment considering how many times I’ve LOLd reading this thread. I haven’t laughed this hard since last night’s recap of Melania quotes. “Thunderbirds are go” is still making me laugh.
Peale
@ruemara: So he’s offering his virginal wife up to be the nation’s bride? The convention is really swingin now.
Booger
@catclub: Obligtory ‘Wire’ reference:
schrodinger's cat
@ruemara: I am not well versed in the cues of white supremacists, but what you said makes sense.
Quinerly
@glory b:
I still love that Tracy Reese dress. It prompted me to go on line and check it out. Came close to buying it. I’m on Tracy’s mailing list because of that dress.❤
Snarki, child of Loki
Norovirus is typically spread by “fecal-oral” transmission.
Since most of the GOP at the convention have cranio-rectal syndrome, they’re primed and ready for their virus infection!
catclub
@sukabi:
I would bet an erotic loofah that such a thing is unpossible.
LAO
@sukabi: Sadly, I believe that they are making money hand over fist, so a rebranding is unlikely. But like you, I wish it would happen.
I'll be Frank
The Sandusky? Is the ghost of Joe Pa there too?
Peale
@MattF: Multi-level scam to boot. Is it really that hard to find ONE vocally republican but otherwise honest small businessperson? In 2008 it was the Not-Really a Plumber or something like that. Are honest small businessmen just naturally Democrat? Or does being a vocal Republican just signify dishonesty?
hovercraft
From Buzzfeed, Mike Pence’s history of womens outreach.
philpm
@lollipopguild: Fox Security needs to make sure all the doors to the roof are locked. And all the matches and lighters in the building are secured as well.
catclub
@Booger: Thanks! I should rewatch all of it.
Mnemosyne
@glory b:
I’ve noticed that Hillary has been taking a page from the Queen of England’s book and wearing very brightly-colored suits for her campaign events. It makes sense — you want people to be able to point to the electric-blue dot in the middle of a crowd so they can say they “saw” Hillary speak.
Gin & Tonic
@gogol’s wife:
Um, he’s Paul Manafort. You know what he is.
Brachiator
Thanks for all the clarifications here. I thought that Noro Virus was the successor to Reince Priebus as chairperson of the Republican National Committee.
I also get Noro Virus, Grover Norquist and Vicks NyQuil mixed up.
geg6
@catclub:
Falafel. It was a falafel. I remember that very clearly because I couldn’t figure out why anyone would take a falafel into the shower.
catclub
@hovercraft: Also, monthly FEC reports that show lack of real fundraising, should come out during the convention.
Patricia Kayden
@CONGRATULATIONS!: And can you imagine getting stuck on one of those boats for days with sick people? That happened recently and I felt sorry for the passengers who were on an excrement-laden ship for days on end until they could return to Florida. No thank you!
@ruemara: Not to sound sexist, but when I think of Melania, “pure” and “virginal” are the last things I think of. She’s certainly not in the same class as our current FLOTUS.
catclub
@philpm: It might be more economical to make sure they are open.
schrodinger's cat
@hovercraft: Obviously, Pence has never heard of the Rani of Jhansi.
MattF
@catclub: Tomorrow, in fact, for the FEC filing.
schrodinger's cat
@Patricia Kayden: The Benghazi mom was wearing white and Joni Ernst was wearing a white jacket too, or so it seemed in the photos I saw.
Miss Bianca
@hovercraft: My God, I knew Pence was a sexist dunce who couldn’t reason his way out of a wet paper bag, but really…”Mulan” as commentary on women serving in the military and Why It’s a Bad Idea? “Mischievous liberals at Disney”?
Jesus wept.
jl
I heard on the news that the GOPocalypse convention norovirus outbreak started among the California delegation, which seems consistent with what is in the link in this post.
Maybe the BBQ sauce fountain at their picnic in Sandusky was a bad idea?
Mike in NC
We’ve taken several ocean and river cruises and the only time I got sick was when we visited Nassau and took part in a snorkeling trip, where people were sharing the diving equipment. The boat crew thought rinsing the snorkels in seawater was sufficient to clean them! Never again.
Patricia Kayden
@Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporatist Shill: Manafort can spin all he wants, everyone is talking about Mrs. Trump’s plagiarism. It was just too blatant. How is it Secretary Clinton’s fault that Melania stole paragraphs from Mrs. Obama’s speech? Nonsense.
Gin & Tonic
@cmorenc:
Nothing alleged about it.
MattF
Unusual photograph of the day.
Patricia Kayden
@schrodinger’s cat: Okay. I didn’t notice that white was their theme. I guess I was too busy listening to the shrill calls to arrest Secretary Clinton for personally killing those four Americans in Benghazi.
Looking forward to next week when Democrats show everyone how you do a Convention!!
SiubhanDuinne
@Villago Delenda Est:
I am completely sympathetic to the notion that everyone grieves in their own way and on their own time schedule — but Patricia Smith’s howls of anguish last night, the barely-controlled sob in her voice, sounded as though she had just that minute been told of her son’s death. She misses him deeply and daily, I’m sure, but it shouldn’t take four years to at least learn to accept the fact that he’s gone. So yes, some compassionate but realistic psychological counselling would probably be in order.
hovercraft
@schrodinger’s cat:
Interesting woman, never heard of her, but I’d like to read her sons memoir.
Mike in NC
@Patricia Kayden: I feel bad for Trump’s latest trophy wife. She’s a Slovenian-born model with a rudimentary command of the English language. Sticking her onstage like that was cruel and unusual punishment.
Brachiator
@hovercraft:
Bonehead pundits have been writing this ever since Trump announced he was running for president. At this rate, they will be writing the same thing as he is finishing (gods help us) his second term.
hovercraft
Gin & Tonic
@Mike in NC: Her English is completely satisfactory.
philpm
@catclub: I was thinking more of the mess they’d make and the possibility of taking unwilling participants with them.
hovercraft
@MattF:
My recollection from years ago when I saw something similar on the news (in Zimbabwe), is that they are tranquillized and once they are down there is no way to get any kind of strap underneath them, so the only way to do it is by their feet. When they wake up they are lying down in the transport. remember African elephants are very aggressive if disturbed, piss them off and they will stomp and toss your truck/car. They like to stroll down the middle of the road when heading to the water hole, never ever blow your horn or they will show you who’s boss.
Peale
@Brachiator: They don’t care if he operates the government competently. They want him to destroy everything he can get his hands on since it has been tainted by Obama and political correctness.
nonynony
@Patricia Kayden:
Looking at the audience, it’s pretty clear that’s the theme of the whole convention…
Gelfling 545
@schrodinger’s cat: it’s an old principle of demonology. If you can name the demon you can control it. Very medieval, just like the GOP.
Barb2
@Keith P.:
Another Dune fan! And yes, now that you mention it, the current GOP convention seems to be stealing plot lines from Herbert’s Dune.
sheldon vogt
@Betty Cracker: not enough popcorn
jl
OK, what happened with the Melania speech was bad, but cripes, that is about all I hear about the damned lie- and delusion-fest that was the first night of the GOP convention. I suppose some of it is the Trump camp’s fault for not just saying ‘yeah, we messed up, sorry’, but jeez.
I read that the big lie was broadcast to nation from the GOP mess that HRC issued, or approved the State Dept issuing, a ‘stand down order’ so that the staff in Benghazi would not be rescued when they could have been. So, a big lie the GOP has been peddling and contradicts the conclusion of GOP Congress’ own investigation was repeated to the nation several times last night. Isn’t that worth some discussion?
But I also read at TPM blog that even Rachel Maddow is so lost in corporate media conventions, it was impossible for her to do a fact-based analysis of the fallshoods that poor suffering deluded woman relative of a Benghazi victim was spouting last night, she called that vile exploitation of her a ‘bold choice’. Jesus.
And I heard DWS, her vision as narrow and inadequate as ever, interviewed this morning, and she was obsessed with milking the plagiarism gotcha for all it was worth. (Edit: not sure whether I heard the whole interview with DWS this morning, so maybe she did mention that big and baldfaced lies were broadcast to the whole country last night, but if so, the worthless media is so obsessed with the plagiarism gotcha, I guess they didn’t think it was important enough to broadcast, or they are afraid to get into the issue of whether the GOP is just a damn lie machine now.)
SiubhanDuinne
@Patricia Kayden:
Pretty sure white is the theme of the entire convention.
Roger Moore
@schrodinger’s cat:
He has people from ZeroHedge posting on his site, which qualifies as much more than “a bit” cuckoo.
schrodinger's cat
@Roger Moore: You are right he is completely cuckoo.
NCSteve
I’m not claiming I’m the first person to call them “Uday and Qusay Trump, but if I was, I can die feeling like I contributed one positive meme to the world.
hovercraft
The RNC has come up with a new plagiarism defense.
My Little Pony
schrodinger's cat
@hovercraft: She was one of the leaders of 1857 uprising. Alternatively known as the First War of Independence or the Sepoy Mutiny, depending on who you ask.
Trollhattan
@Kilgore Trout:
All well and good until the kitchen staff gets it.
Roger Moore
@nonynony:
I bet the Murdoch boys will be happy to take over that part of the job.
hovercraft
@jl:
I think the Pat Smith speech was so over wrought and full of lies that it can be characterized as a bold choice, knowing that she would be fact checked and debunked, but counting on her raw emotion to override her mendacity. I was watching msnbc last night and I didn’t get the impression Rachel was being complimentary, it was more in the spirit of “bless your heart”.
schrodinger's cat
@Gelfling 545: I thought the convention was if you name a demon, you just make it stronger.
hovercraft
@schrodinger’s cat:
Apart from regular history for my O’Levels which did cover Indian history, I read the Far Pavilions one summer in high school, and it gave me a fascination for Indian history.
Uncle Cosmo
@Joy: Saddam Hussein’s 3 sons: Uday, Qusay, Irsay? Sounds about right (at least if you’re a Baltimore sports fan with a long memory)
schrodinger's cat
@hovercraft: I have been on an Indian history trip since last year, especially the British rule and the Marathas before them. Is you a British kitteh? Asking since you mention O levels.
Keith P.
@Uncle Cosmo: And Dewey.
Betty Cracker
@jl: I heard Maddow’s coverage live, and I wouldn’t characterize it that way. Hovercraft has it right; Maddow seemed more taken aback and appalled that the convention organizers would use the poor woman in that fashion. It really is monstrous, in my view. I don’t fault Ms. Smith; she lost her only child and is unhinged by it. I blame the bastards who wound her up and sent her out onstage. Fuck them with an entire tool shed of oxidized farm implements.
As for the plagiarism scandal sucking all the oxygen out of the room, it’s not surprising since the media is sensitive to plagiarism charges (being so frequently caught up in plagiarism scandals themselves). They weren’t going to deconstruct the lies the Trump campaign and wingnut establishment have been pushing all year anyway, so if they use this shiny object instead to make Trump look like an incompetent loser, more power to them, IMO.
jl
@Betty Cracker: OK, I’ll take your and hovercraft’s words on it. I am unable to bring myself to watch the mess live, or so far, even look at clips of it. I am not really a spring chicken anymore, and do have to remind myself about risk factors for stroke. I guess there is a price I have to pay for just reading and listening to the news about that wretched spectacle.
hovercraft
@schrodinger’s cat:
I went to a British boarding school in Botswana, but my parents were from Zimbabwe.
Keith P.
@jl: I tried to watch the convention live. I literally got about 60 seconds into Chachi before I got bored (you can’t spell “Chachi” without half of charisma!). I tuned in at another point to watch Duck Dynasty attempt standup comedy; he should stick with sitcoms, as even Liam Neeson does better standup comedy.
Applejinx
@hovercraft: As a con-going, on-staff-serving My Little Pony fan, every pony I know basically dropped little rainbow horseapples over THAT one.
And the reaction images of cranky pissed-off Mane 6 are epic.
And Tabitha St. Germain (Rarity, Derpy, Mayor Mare) is a VERY committed Berniac and leftie.
And Tara Strong, voice of Twilight Sparkle, has tweeted that their argument is not Pony Princess approved. She is Twilight Sparkle and does not approve that message.
XD
Boy, did they pick the wrong fandom. Are they ALL crazy and Manchurian ratfuckers trying to destroy themselves?
Gelfling 545
@schrodinger’s cat: To control them, you must speak their names. Only way to get them to do your bidding, with which, no doubt, the Republican have experience. Still, they always expect recompense so it does give them a hold over you, in the old lore.
HeartlandLiberal
We sailed to Europe and back last Spring. The efforts the ships go to now to avoid spread of such viral disease outbreaks is extraordinary. It can cost them real serious monetary losses when it happens. Despite both the ship’s constant reminders, including signs in all rest rooms, staff standing with squirt bottles of hand sanitizer, videos on the onboard TV system, materials when boarding, I could always guess the right wing political leanings and general a**holeishness of my fellow travelers by watching the ones in the rest rooms who, when leaving, either did not wash their hands, or ignored the sign on every damn door asking them to wash, dry their hands, then use a paper towel to open the door when exiting, then dropping the towel in a conveniently placed trash container. I imagine the who I remember as worse, who slapped his hands under water, no soap, then opened the door with his hands still dripping wet, is probably a delegate at the Republican convention. I used three layers of paper towels to touch the door handle to let myself out after him. yecch.
John Revolta
@Trollhattan: This. Y’know those signs that say “Employees must wash hands before returning to work”? Maybe they actually work…………………. do ya see them on a cruise ship?
John Revolta
@HeartlandLiberal: Okay, that answers my question. I take it though that such measures are fairly recent?
schrodinger's cat
@hovercraft: I had a friend in college from the Sudan, who went to a went to school in England until she completed her A levels. I know next to nothing about either Zimbabwe or Botswana, except that Zimbabwe’s cricket team was pretty good but with hardly any black players.
Suzanne
Oh my God. If just one, JUST ONE, Rethuglican pol could shit themselves on stage…….
Seriously, I don’t think I would ever stop laughing at the karma. #assplode
Original Lee
@catclub: Stockman is an intelligent person. Like many pundits, he does his best writing and thinking when he is sticking the shiv into an enemy’s ribs. In this case, he’s going after a number of people in Bush’s White House who dissed him during the Reagan years. It’s almost coincidental that he’s making complete sense.
(Full disclosure: Stockman grew up less than five miles from my parents’ house, and my dad knew his family.)
Uncle Cosmo
I gather no one is getting the banner ad I am at the top of this post, since there’s been no snark sighted.
It’s for upscale men’s briefs from someone called Mack Weldon.
Now, an ad for Depends…
catclub
@Original Lee:
I have written the same thing about Joe Klein. He was in high dander and fine form only after someone insulted him personally. Of course, that was years ago.
J R in WV
@Felonius Monk:
Wouldn’t that spread norovirus?
Maybe that’s the problem with today’s Republicans?
Too much pulled out of their ass!
Trollhattan
@John Revolta:
When they installed video cameras on some hospital sinks they discovered the hospital staff were not remotely following hygiene procedures. Cracking down in turn greatly reduced hospital-acquired infections.
Signs in restrooms do not comprise an effective policy, it takes monitoring and enforcement.
Trollhattan
@Uncle Cosmo:
Too funny!
trnc
@Tractarian: Shit-Canoe and Donald, too.
trnc
@BruceFromOhio: Well, why not apply the same logic for disease prevention as they do for the economy?
Feebog
We have done a couple cruises the last two years, Alaska and the Panama Canal. No problems except for the backstage fire on Thursday night that had the crew scrambling for stations and everyone else back to their staterooms for life preservers.
Uncle Cosmo
@trnc:How about
Shittycanoe & Schadenfreude too!
Original Lee
In memory of Ogden Nash:
Mike Pence
Is dense.
ding
@jl:
Even if the GOPers cling to the discredited notion of a “stand down order”, I cannot understand why they believe the SOS can issue military commands
dianne
I keep thinking of Bridgegate- is it wrong that i am laughing? The answer would be Michelle up on the Jumbotron reminding everyone to wash up. Please, oh please let that happen. Norovirus would be assured.