December 1, 2016 pic.twitter.com/RIn0FA6cbo
— ???? (@marv_vien) August 12, 2017
.
Mr. Charles P. Pierce, at Esquire, is a wise man:
… [W]hen anybody, especially the president*, talks about what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia, over the weekend, from the Citronella Putsch on Friday night, to the violence on Saturday morning, to the graphic fulfillment of the philosophy behind these lunatic laws on Saturday afternoon, tells you that what happened in Virginia has anything to do with “polarization,” or that it is a problem equally shared by Both Sides, that person is trying preemptively to pick history’s pockets.
Every Republican who ever played footsie with the militias out west owns this bloodshed.
Every Republican who ever spoke to, or was honored by, the Council of Conservative Citizens and/or the League of the South owns this bloodshed.
Every Republican administration that ever went out of its way to hire Pat Buchanan, and every TV executive who ever cut him a check, and every Republican who voted for him in 1992, and everyone who ever has pretended his views differed substantially from the ones in the streets this weekend, owns this bloodshed…
Anyone who followed the presidential campaign saw this coming. Frankly, I’m surprised there wasn’t more of it. Every Trump rally came with an implied promise of some kind of violence. Sometimes, the promise was fulfilled. Sometimes it wasn’t. But it was the dark energy behind that whole campaign. For all the relentless chin-stroking about the economically anxious and forgotten white working class, and for all the prayerful coverage of Donald Trump’s “populist” appeal, there was no question what was driving events on the Republican side.
If they merely wanted change, they had 16 other Republican candidates to choose from. But that wasn’t what got them out to the rallies, to bathe in that dark energy and chant their imprecations. That wasn’t what got them to the polls in droves. The inside voice, carefully honed by four decades of practice, had gone silent in favor of saying out loud all the spells and incantations that had worked their magic ever since Harry Dent had written the original book of spells and handed it to Richard Nixon…
We now know what the reaction will be if the institutions of government, and the people in them, get so sickened by this administration that they act to rid the country of it. Is there any doubt that a president* who, after the events of this weekend, can’t even see fit to rid himself of the fascists around him, including the ludicrous Dr. Sebastian Gorka, Ph.D., wouldn’t balk at encouraging paranoid violence as a means of self-preservation? Is there any doubt that a president* who could not even muster the gumption or the outrage to criticize Nazis for what they are wouldn’t blink at bringing the temple down on his own head either out of pure childish pique, or because he doesn’t know any other way?Except for himself and (possibly) his family, there is nothing this president* cares enough about to keep from destroying it if he thinks he has to do so. And, if he thinks he has to do it, he will use whatever tools are at hand, because why wouldn’t he? Nobody in the party he purportedly leads has shown any willingness to do anything more than moan about how Troubled they are at what he’s doing. And a lot of what his administration is doing comes from the same place in our history out of which James Fields, Jr. and his automobile came barreling in the summer sunshine of a Saturday afternoon. The administration still employs Kris Kobach for the purpose of suppressing minority voters. The administration is still in court defending the rights of oppressed white college applicants. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III is still the attorney general, and a lot of people are trying to get the inside voice to speak again. Somebody never stopped whistling Dixie…
Today:
.
Made additional remarks on Charlottesville and realize once again that the #Fake News Media will never be satisfied…truly bad people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2017
“what was even the point of saying nazis are bad if you’re not going to praise me" https://t.co/Pic2iJy7vU
— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) August 14, 2017
There is absolutely no question Trump holds the media in more contempt than he holds the Nazis that marched in Charlottesville this weekend https://t.co/5aSE6ZYnTB
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) August 14, 2017
Think about the implications here. Essentiallly: "I condemned Nazis against my will to appease the media and they're still not happy." https://t.co/cSUyKCam1P
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) August 14, 2017
And I guarantee you that's part of it. He sees racists wearing MAGA hats instead of white hoods and thinks Cha Ching Cha Ching.
— Local Milk Steak (@ZeddRebel) August 14, 2017
Richard Spencer doesn't think President Trump condemned his movement today. He called it "kumbaya" nonsense, & said Trump didn't mean it.
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) August 14, 2017
Spencer took Trump's words seriously but not literally. https://t.co/PJpVOGSx6G
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) August 14, 2017
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
Another Confederate statue down, forcibly, Durham: http://on.wsoctv.com/2vDKO0Q
Ten Bears
If I could write like that I wouldn’t be somebody’s crazy unemployed uncle with a z-list blog.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
What are the odds that 20 years from now Spencer clinches the GOP nom for president?
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
It was the same one
Jeffro
The alt-right/Nazis/white whatevers know full well that this president* supports them to the hilt. They hear his late, weak, and forced condemnations and know that he’s only doing it to buy them more time to continue infecting this country.
Fortunately, their numbers are very, very small. But the tacit supremacy-supporters in the GOP…why, adding in those folks, that adds up to about 46% of voters, apparently. Or at least, it did last November. This is why it’s important to stay in their faces and see if any of them might have any sense of shame left at all, because now Trumpov is down to about 34%. Message? Keep banging!!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
His statement is a bit both-sidesy, but he does call out the racists
I have already made clear my abhorrence at the recent hate-spawned violence in Charlottesville, and earlier today I called on all leaders to condemn the white supremacists and their ilk who marched and committed violence.
Patricia Kayden
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: He’d be no different than Trump.
Adam L Silverman
It was reported earlier this evening on MSNBC that the President was upset about being forced to have to make his statement earlier today.
clay
Off-topic, but maybe not: The band Wilco has a song available for purchase called “All Lives, You Say”. All proceeds will be donated to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
efgoldman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
No matter what these guys really believe deep inside, they know that failing to cast out racists/racism can have a pretty strong influence on the bottom line, that no amount of PR can help.
Suzanne
@Adam L Silverman:
Well, he could just go fuck right off and then he wouldn’t have to do it.
lamh36
Shorter Tiki Torch company…https://media.giphy.com/media/3o7btW6jvrZduOA3ZK/giphy.gif
(lets see how many of you ole BJ foagies :-) understand this bit of pop culture…LOL)
Omnes Omnibus
@Patricia Kayden: Word.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Picture a very long conference table with Trump, Ivanka and Jared sitting alone at the head. When I worked for a caterer and we had to make it look like a wedding reception wasn’t poorly attended we had to remove place settings and stre-e-e-tch the chairs out and around. Turn an emptiesh 8 into a full 6, or even a 4! Trump might know that trick, actually.
Adam L Silverman
Did anyone see this in real time? The whole thing was completely insane. And seems to be a microcosm of where we are at this moment.
lamh36
And…another one…
https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/897291453474504704
Another Scott
@Adam L Silverman: Some sharp reporters there.
:-/
His tweet this evening made that abundantly clear even if one didn’t see the video of his comments. As I said downstairs, it wasn’t the quantity of his remarks that people were upset about on Saturday, so “[making] additional remarks” wasn’t the solution.
But he’s too brain damaged to see that, and him being upset about the reception is proof that it wasn’t sincere…
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Of course he was.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m not surprised at all.
lamh36
@Adam L Silverman: Yes…that’s Keith Boykin I believe…did you see the clip of Symone Sanders basically telling Cuccinelli on CNN, she was “reclaiming her time”!
“You do not get to tell me shut up on national television.”
https://twitter.com/SymoneDSanders/status/897090267773378560
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@Patricia Kayden:
He’d be far worse. The dude, I assume, is a lot more competent than Trump.
sharl
Ashley’s been having a field day trolling #Brands, and sometimes patience and persistence pays off:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I want to add to Republicans who should take ownership of this Willard Romney and his bringing trump in to make robocalls in OH and MI not despite but because of birtherism. One of the Mittlets went full birther, and the old robot attempted “humor” with his “No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate! Ha ha ha”
and there was lots of birtheresque rhetoric in that campaign. “The president doesn’t understand what it means to be an American…”
Gingrich: Foodstamp President
Sununu: I wish this president would learn how to be an American
And Romney’s niece, current head of the RNC (I think is her title) hired birther dingbat to be an official RNC spokeswoman. She had to hire her away from CNN.
different-church-lady
Do I really have to look her in the face?
Villago Delenda Est
@lamh36: Epic
Villago Delenda Est
And Pierce is absolutely right about this. They’ve been cultivating these slime molds for 50 years.
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: It is Boykin laying into Dennard. When Joy Ann Reid would have him on during the campaign he always struck me as someone trapped between recognizing that who he was fronting for was a highly dubious individual and recognizing that that highly dubious individual was the one buttering his bread. I don’t have any sympathy or empathy for him, but it was pretty clear what the dynamic was.
I did see that segment with Symone Sanders. She’s fierce and I mean that in a good way.
lamh36
Oh and…
@lamh36:
efgoldman
@Villago Delenda Est:
And he’s been saying so since W
Mike J
@lamh36:
The I don’t know her interview was 15? 20? years ago. I’d think old fogies were the only people who knew it.
Adam L Silverman
Good for the VVA setting an example for the President:
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Who the fuck is Paris Dennard? And Keith Boykin’s face while Dennard spoke…. Holy fuck. Dennard seems to be what rikyrah calls a “slave catcher.”
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: I missed the earlier news? Been out of the loop for a while. Apologies.
jl
” Spencer took Trump’s words seriously but not literally. ”
That’s what Trump’s own people say we are supposed to do.
What is Fox News broadcasting now? Hours of patriotic band music and parades?
lamh36
“the U.S. is really my home”… who da fuq talks like that
Shalimar
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: If we still have elections 20 years from now? Very low. Republicans have come pretty close to maxing out the results their current racist coalition can achieve, and they only got this far through massive voter suppression. Even they know they eventually need to appeal to groups other than white males if they want to remain a viable party. Or we can become a dictatorship, if their billionaire masters have gotten tired of the bible-thumping hatred.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
and on Kellyanne Conway… In one of the long write-ups she got a few months back, the reporter went and talked to her mother, who said she was glad to have a President who would say the word “God” again, and Obama would only go to funerals when “blacks” were killed. A few people (twitter types) expressed surprise that Conway let the reporters talk to her mother. There is no way KAC didn’t know her mother talks like this. The most benign explanation is that Conway sees this kind of hate-filled spew as “tellin’ it like it is”, the paranoid part of me speculates that she wanted the Deplorables to know she (Kellyanne) was from their tribe. But then I remember Deplorables probably don’t read a whole lot of glossy mags like Vanity Fair and New York.
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: Perhaps Merck’s CEO should make an offer when the note on Trump Tower comes up for sale?
Kay
Guffaw.
Omnes Omnibus
@Shalimar:
Could people of good faith please stop doing this kind of thing? I know that everyone is worried, but creeping pessimism doesn’t help.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Here’s his bio:
http://www.parisdennard.com/about/
Miss Bianca
@lamh36: I had an order come in today for a bundle of nine Tiki torches. I had to think for a second about whether or not I was going to lie and pretend that we were ought of stock. Then I had to think about what *that* pretend message might have said.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: She’s a small town, ethnic Catholic Jersey girl. You can imagine what growing up was like.
Adam L Silverman
Pretty much sums things up nicely:
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman:
Psychologists could go to town on this.
jl
@Adam L Silverman:
” Obama would only go to funerals when “blacks” were killed. ”
That quote says deluded ignorant bigot to me.
efgoldman
@jl:
At least. Says racist lying sack of pigshit to me.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The theory might be right, though. I listen to Right wing radio sometimes. They don’t like Conway. They basically blame the people around Trump for Trump’s failures but the callers really don’t like Conway. The theme is she’s kind of a “gold digger”- using President Trump for her own benefit- which is so gross because it turns her into his wife/girlfriend. They also think she’s a bad mother- neglectful.
Adam L Silverman
@Miss Bianca: If it was for the Ginsburg bar mitzvah party in Miami Beach I think you can fill the order.
different-church-lady
@jl:
dou·ble·think
ˈdəbəlˌTHiNGk/
noun
noun: doublethink; noun: double-think
the acceptance of or mental capacity to accept contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time, especially as a result of political indoctrination.
lamh36
@Mike J: lol…it’s a popular meme cause of who the interviewer asked her about and the way in which Mariah answered the question…
ETA: came back in force since then
Then it became one of the goto petty memes…lol
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: I have a lot of ties because of work. But I don’t put that in my bio.
Shalimar
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: I wouldn’t assume Spencer is even remotely competent. He has basically built his position as white nationalist leader with family money rather than dues-paying supporters. He has never had a real job. Say every bad thing you can think of about Trump, but at least he has lived extremely well on his talent as a con man. He used up all his inherited family money decades ago.
Felonius Monk
@Omnes Omnibus:
THIS is all you need to know about Paris Dennard.
DissidentFish
@Omnes Omnibus: Paris Denard is often on NPR. I know I’ve heard him on Weekend Edition and I think on Here and Now also. I honestly don’t know how Michele Martin, who’s awesome, can speak to him. He is awful.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: I don’t have a count, but I have maybe 30? I wear about ten. You know my career field.
Adam L Silverman
@jl: Yep. Pretty much.
efgoldman
@Adam L Silverman:
I have a ton of ties, but when our group moved from Boston to RI in 2001, we went full business casual, so they’re just gathering dust except for the occasional wedding or funeral.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Adam L Silverman: @jl: went spelunking for the quote and found Anne Laurie did a post on the not one not two but three KAC long-reads from last May. Anyway:
I may have been a bit unfair about the language, but the racism can be smelt through the internets.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Tracking. I’m probably in the same range as you.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: So 600 seems … weird?
burnspbesq
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant):
Since neither Duke nor Central are fully back in session yet, it will be interesting to learn who was responsible.
I was thinking, as i was driving home tonight, that all it would take to prevent a recurrence of the mayhem in C’ville would be … two RPGs. Just wipe out the statues of the traitors late at night.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Oh, he went to Pepperdine? Nice campus by the beach, shitty school.
lamh36
Because of course he did…smh…is the media tired YET of Trump pulling one over on them…smh
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: No argument here. Small town, Jersey, ethnic white conservative. The bigotry is going to run deep.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Don’t wear ’em myself but have probably almost 200. Each time a male in the family died, his ties would somehow always find their way, unsought, to me.
Some really outrageous ones too, which came in handy over the years as costume adornment for theater productions.
sigaba
@Adam L Silverman: Paris was farting talking points but going into the whole I’m-blacker-than-thou discourse is extremely unsettling. It reminds me of Alfre Woodard in Bob Roberts and not in a good way.
efgoldman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Sounds fishy to me :::ducks, runs away:::
Ithink
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
Higher than it should be frankly; and if the Republicans don’t fully renounce being the White Man’s party on all but name only to say nothing of the toxicity that is pure, unkempt Trumpism then de facto white supremacists are all the candidates they’ ever get & have!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Interesting, because as someone said, as I went digging around for that quote from her mother, one of the quotes I saw (maybe Anne Laurie’s, I was scrolling) is that while KAC is very good at playing the ditz (this was her schtick during the Clinton years and when she was one of Maher’s regulars), I think she’s actually very smart and was one of the reasons trump got close enough to ooze into office. She was said IIRC to have kept him relatively on-message in the last weeks of the campaign. As to “gold digging”, I believe our own Dr Silverman has said her real employer is Rebekah Mercer, and I believe him. I’m sure she loves having a WH office, but she didn’t need trump’s money.
And it is gross to suggest that she’s trump’s mistress. Again, I hate her, but…
Adam L Silverman
Found it, couldn’t remember the news service that had covered Trump being forced to make today’s remarks.
https://apnews.com/395f6966223043babc448e9eae97c6b8
Aleta
removed–redundant!
lamh36
burnspbesq
@Adam L Silverman:
South Jersey. Important distinction.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman:
That dialysis must be working wonders.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes.
scott (the other one)
@Adam L Silverman: This middle aged, (lower) middle class white male does not understand how Paris Dennard can possibly see Donald Trump in anything remotely resembling a positive light. I do not get it.
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: Ah Posobiec. Tied to Flynn. Member of a Slavic nationalist group. Friend of Roger Stone. Can’t keep his mouth shut on social media.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: Aside from two skinny ties that my dad had from his mod days that I grabbed to go with his suits from then that I appropriated when I was in college in the early ’80s, all of my ties are my own original things. I also have never received gift ties, so they are my choices.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
“No, you want the Harold Ginsburg party. They’re at the Fontainebleau. This is the Benjamin Ginsburg affair.”
JGabriel
Local Milk Steak (ZeddRebel) via Anne Laurie @ Top:
I’ve been thinking for a while now that, like the fascists who were called *brownshirts*, we should start calling Trump’s white-nationalist neo-nazi klan-klub: *redcaps*.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Correct, she is the in house pollster for Rebekah Mercer. Her husband is a partner at a white shoe law firm. She’s also done polling for Pence and some other GOP campaigns, but even when she’s done that, over the past several years she’s been on the Mercer payroll. Just like Bannon.
George Spiggott
@Adam L Silverman:
Too bad dear Paris wasn’t told to sashay away:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFgUEQSoHJc
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Inherited a doozy which is about 5 inches wide. Shiny silver silk festooned with large black polka dots.
If you ever want to borrow it…
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: He can’t go farther. He knows who he owes.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I know but a Donald Trump employee can hardly complain that Donald Trump’s base is horribly sexist. It’s a real dilemma for her, huh? Part of the secret to her success is attracting horrible people, who then judge her when things aren’t going well for the douchebag she works for, because they have to explain it somehow and it ain’t gonna be Trump’s fault.
I don’t listen to her because I don’t watch cable anymore but to me she looks somewhat harried and always exhausted- so like every other working mother of small children I know. I find her more sympathetic than Ivanka, not that it matters, because I’m not her target demo.
The Trump people could have done a lot of things differently. For thing that could have had the humility to recognize he barely won and done some outreach to people who didn’t vote for him, you know- bank a little goodwill for when the inevitable crash came- but they decided not to. They’re high rollers! Risk takers! They bet the wad on the Trump base. Oh, well. Bad bet.
Everyone thinks it’s scary now but wait until his most loyal followers become disenchanted. They were angry people when he won and they still believed all his bullshit. They’re going to be even angrier when it starts to sink in.
efgoldman
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
It’s working well, but running away is metaphorical.
scott (the other one)
@DissidentFish: That is why I finally stopped giving money to NPR.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: How kind. I must most respectfully decline.
Adam L Silverman
@scott (the other one): You don’t have 600 ties.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Exactly!
efgoldman
@JGabriel:
Nope. That’s disrespectful of the honorable profession of railroad porters, which was one of the few jobs African Americans could get back in the day, and who wore red caps and went by that name.
Lyrebird
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thanks for that. I also loathe KAC and the agenda she’s working herself ragged to advance.
One of the pettier reasons I want the whole raft of Republican strategists and maladministrators to be fully discredited is to get some hints that American society is getting less prone to falling for KAC’s and MacEnany’s brand(s) of smiling lies. Underestimating them won’t get us there!
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Yep. And he has a long history of actions and statements that show he’s largely in agreement with them.
jl
@Omnes Omnibus: Trump is a fool. I don’t think he owes the Nazis his election. And he has wound up with this toxic brew as his base because of his own stupid and reckless and hateful choices since election night. I keep recalling his interviews during the campaign where he calmly promised he would leave off all the bigot and nasty BS, that he claimed he knew was a gimmick to get through the GOP primary, for a much more dignified, less rough, more inclusive and mature presidential mien. He could have done it easily, if he was one tenth as competent as he thinks he is. But he threw all the better possibilities of his term (which isn’t saying much, but it is something), the moment he started acting like an ass the day after election.
Either he was lying through his teeth when he re-assured people during the campaign that there would be a new presidential Trump after he was elected, or he is such a feckless undisciplined ass he can’t manage himself from one minute to the next.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
A lot of people observed that if trump had brought to an infrastructure bill– even a shitty one– the energy and persistence he brought to the Muslim ban, he’d have really fucked over the Dems and the GOP.
Josh Barro wrote a piece today that trump in the last few days has made it harder for his Deplorables to pretend they’re not deplorable. trump’s peeps need to believe themselves when they say “I don’t have a racist bone in my body, but… “
NotMax
@efgoldman
Perfectly kosher to Shuffle Along.
Adam L Silverman
This is an excellent thread:
https://twitter.com/BA_Friedman/status/896788653720051712
Adam L Silverman
@jl:
Lizzy L
@Kay: His “most loyal followers” will never desert him. But that group is going to get smaller and smaller as he is further exposed for the incompetent grifter that he is. All the whining and excuses about unfairness and fake media will not keep people from peeling away. Eventually, I believe, the group that’s left will be small — but vicious, mostly insane, and occasionally very dangerous. Think Oklahoma City.
different-church-lady
@jl:
Not mutually exclusive.
Felonius Monk
@JGabriel:
@efgoldman:
How about we call the MAGATT-heads.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Exactly. Bannon, Miller, and Gorka aren’t the problem in the White House. Trump is. I don’t see Kelly as helping; it’s gone bananas since he came to the White House.
jl
Ah, those dang ‘bothers’! OK, add in some “stupider that I can imagine a human could be”, and I could go with ‘both’.
JGabriel
@efgoldman:
Sorry, didn’t know that. Apologies to anyone I inadvertently offended through my ignorance.
Omnes Omnibus
@jl: Based on his life, I think that he is completely down with the White Supremacists. He just lacks the courage to say so.
Adam L Silverman
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/stephen-bannon-facebook-group-racist-material-obama-death-threats/
Lyrebird
@Adam L Silverman:
Okay now y’all have better info than I do, but I will mouth off anyhow: I am way more convinced of the above than that he knows who he owes… Quite possible that even his largest debts, financial and otherwise, are too numerous to keep track of. During the election, he had many opportunities to turn his own and his fathers’ track record of racial discrimination into a big PR win with even the least shred of remorse, of acknowledging having needed to learn a different point of view. Woulda fit perfectly with his “we need to do better for the inner city” song and dance. But no.
I’m so sick of this stuff but am praying that more people pull an Orrin Hatch and suddenly become aware that the coffee aroma is strong enough to crowd out all our oxygen (as in waking up).
Random absurdity in a serious situation – the nazis were chanting “you will not replace us” ??? and even “Joos will not replace us”… what my kid hopes for these days is to grow up and turn Unitarian anyway, so he can have Christmas (more bling) and Hannukah (more nights*!) and extra apples for Rosh Hashanah too.
*of gift-giving rather than of the official holiday…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
in re trump’s ‘advisory council’
LesGS
@JGabriel: Do you know who the Redcaps are in fairy-tales? A type of goblin which gain their power from their caps that they must dip regularly in fresh blood.
Omnes Omnibus
@JGabriel: The British Army uses the same term for MPs: it is not a term of respect.
efgoldman
@JGabriel:
You’d have to be of a certain age, and also conversant with train travel in the old days. But yes, the porters and the cooks and wait staff in the dining cars (when there WERE dining cars) were all black and strongly unionized.
Adam L Silverman
The good news is that it wasn’t terrorism. The bad news is someone deliberately used their car as a weapon to hurt people in a restaurant.
NotMax
@JGabriel
While am on a Broadway kick, note the red caps.
Lizzy L
@Adam L Silverman: A group calling itself “Patriot Prayer” has been given a (federal) permit to hold a pro-Trump “Free Speech” rally at Crissy Field in San Francisco. The venue is in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Seems pretty clear to me that they are hoping to provoke a violent reaction. They won’t have guns, unlike the nazis in Charlottesville.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: Gee Willikers!
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: He doesn’t like being handled. Can’t take being told what to do. The more order Kelly brings over all and McMaster brings to the national security interagency process the more he is going to act out and lash out.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: God damn it.
Adam L Silverman
@JGabriel: you could call them the Khaki Korps.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Adam L Silverman: not to nitpick a tragedy, but that tweet makes it look like he targeted the little girl. As I understand it, this was some kind of suicide attack, the guy had tried to kill himself a few days earlier.
Yarrow
@Omnes Omnibus: Perhaps Kelly has helped in that it could be even worse than the disaster it is now.
Adam L Silverman
@LesGS: Specifically you’re looking for Robin Redcap.
http://faeryfolklorist.blogspot.com/2009/09/hermitage-castle-redcap.html
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: But these guys are awesome! (not MPs)
http://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/britains-most-awesome-rank-the-pioneer-sergeant?utm_content=buffer1fe61&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
LesGS
@Lyrebird: Hey, and then a lot of Unitarians do the Pagan thing too, and you can to the Strega Nona thing on January 6th, and get even more loot!
Adam L Silverman
@Lizzy L: They won’t legally have guns. And if they have enough folks with conceal carry permits from the California counties that issue them, then they’ll also legally have concealed guns.
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
Because this is an open thread, I’m going to be moving from Maui to Albuquerque in December for a year or two. My dissertation adviser has a research grant that I am a perfect Post-Doc for.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Horrifying either way. But we needed a day off from this type of terrorist attack.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: I know. OTOH, I don’t trust Kelly farther than I can throw him based on his performance at DHS. He seems to be a fellow traveler on FP. McMaster, I hope that the guy who wrote the book is still in there and that he is fighting against worse.
lamh36
@jl: Donald Trump’s favored child converted to the Jewish faith, the same favored child gave him 2 half Jewish grandchildren…if he can’t be bothered to condemn Nazis even with this circumstance he either feels he owes them too much or he feels exactly as they do.
My take, he’s a racist P.O.S. who’s rather hang with white folks than those colored folks
Omnes Omnibus
@Yarrow: I don’t trust Kelly at all. I saw what he did at DHS.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Nope, we’re not crazy here in California.
ETA: In most counties in CA, CC permits are hard to get. LEO’s, judges, prosecutors, and attorneys have an easier path that most.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m not up on all the details, but was just trying to highlight it wasn’t terrorism.
smintheus
Has anybody on our side been paying attention at all to what the Putin-Trump axis means? This isn’t hard to figure out. It’s now gone way beyond the same old both-sides-do-itism from our pathetic news media.
Trump’s “many sides” means one specific thing: “Everybody’s to blame, so nobody’s to blame.” It’s the distilled essence of most of Putin’s international propaganda. Trump did not pick up on that resonance accidentally. His campaign and his presidency have both been propped up not by any real philosophy of his own but by the ideology that Putin has supplied them with. And that ideology is that everything everywhere is going to hell so why pick on Putin’s vile behavior.
That’s what this is all about: Nobody’s to blame so stop pointing fingers.
Of course that’s the only ideology that the Nazis have ever been able to hide behind. They knew how much they needed Trump, just as Trump needs them to fulfill the promise of making things everywhere go to hell.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Tracking. And agree.
Millard Filmore
@JGabriel:
As someone that adored railroads as a boy, and came to the horrible realization that few others shared my obsession, I forgive you.
LesGS
@Adam L Silverman: Yep, that’s them! Great site. I know what I’ll be reading for the next few hours…
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: She converted. That means the grandchildren are 100% Jewish. Of course this ignores the fact that Judaism in 2017 is a religion not an ethno-nationality as it was 2,000 years ago.
Lizzy L
@Adam L Silverman: They have the right to both open and concealed carry in federal parks. Hell, they can carry open loaded guns in a federal park. But in order to get to the park they have to travel through the city and county of San Francisco, and SFPD is not going to be happy about idiots with loaded guns moving through the city.
NotMax
@Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
Albuquerque’s gain. The Valley Isle shall be the poorer without you.
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’m aware of how it works. That in most places they are may issue and hard to get. But my understanding is that in the more rural counties it is closer to shall issue.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: To the extent that they were not gunners…. meh.
Yarrow
@Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]: Congratulations on the post-doc position! Albuquerque will be quite a change from Maui.
Adam L Silverman
@LesGS: Don’t get elf shot!
rk
He’s tweeting crap again. Quoting an alt-right conspiracy theorist now. UGH! Will be never be free of him? Sorry I don’t know how to link to tweets (maybe it’s better that way).
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Adam L Silverman: I felt the same weird relief that such a terrible thing couldn’t be politicized here. It’s very strange how our rightwing spent years denigrating France (and “old Europe”, and “the chocolate-making countries”), yet terror attacks in France generate more rightwing rage, and often more news coverage, than US military personnel killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. And it’s one of the those things you can’t blame on trump. He domesticates, so to speak, every terror attack in Europe (an attack in Nice or Rouen “When will we learn?” Who’s “we”?), but I don’t remember him joining in on the O’Reillyesque/Jonah Goldberg foolishness about “cheese-eating surrender monkeys”, etc.
@Omnes Omnibus: yeah, to quote the great Hank Hill, that boy ain’t right.
Adam L Silverman
@LesGS: Also, this:
Yarrow
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t trust him either.
I saw you mention McMaster. I saw him on a Sunday show this week (maybe MTP?) and was just as unimpressed as the previous times I’ve seen him. Maybe he’s fighting the good fight but it’s not apparent when he gives an interview. Not everyone is good in front of a camera, so that could be part of it.
LesGS
@Adam L Silverman: I’m pretty sure I’m a changling. So I may be immune…
Lyrebird
@LesGS: More loot? You have this kid’s number.. knows where it’s at!
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yep. Two Soldiers were killed in northern Iraq yesterday or the day before. Got almost no coverage here at all. Nimitz, which has just gotten on station to provide air support for Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, waved off a F18/A Super Hornet with engine trouble rather than risk a ramp strike. Diverted the bird to Qatar where it crashed into the runway at Qatar International. The pilot safely ejected. Also no coverage.
Mike in NC
@Adam L Silverman: Uh, somebody needs to tell him there is no Royal Army in the UK.
NotMax
@NotMax
Long neglected brain cell fired up.
Off topic: One the actors playing a porter in that production had the unforgettable name of Quitman Fludd III.
(Saw it on B’way and the name leapt out of the Playbill and burrowed into the gray matter.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Patton’s darker younger brother
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@JGabriel:
I like it!
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
I’ve heard of buckshot, but….
Omnes Omnibus
@Yarrow:I was a junior officer with HR. I worked with him, arty supporting cav. I also drank with him a bit. He became a bit of a hero (was one in combat) to reform oriented junior officers. It delayed his promo to general. He may be bad at TV, I hope that he is good at no war.
LesGS
@Adam L Silverman: Excellent. But my favorite Irish band song is the Dubliner’s “Paddy Won’t Be At Work Today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66cxc9emQgY
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@JGabriel:
Ditto. I was unaware. Maybe MAGA Mushrooms? Insulting to fungi I suppose.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I do believe they feed on bullshit
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/elf-shot
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]:
Man, that’ll be a culture shock. Congrats, and good luck!
Adam L Silverman
@LesGS: I was going for topical.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: OK, who gave the AG arrows?
Adam L Silverman
Who would have imagined?
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Can’t imagine an elf bow having more than maybe a 5 lb. draw weight.
What with those pipe cleaner-like skinny arms and all.
Lyrebird
@Omnes Omnibus:
Fingers, wrists crossed on the “no war” front… And the “bad at TV” part at least sets him apart from other folks in that Cabinet.
I do not assume that “doing this for honorable or at least strategic* reasons” guarantees success. That also means that I’m not going to take specific moves by the Republican maladministration as evidence against his reasons or his character.
*”strategic” like “gee let’s not waste lives of our troops in a f)(#*g war with f*&#g Venezuela”
Don’t know whether I’m being tactically or strategically stupid by staying up this late. Should change course regardless.
Mnemosyne
@Lizzy L:
The Bay Area Black Bloc will probably oblige them, unfortunately.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: One is not surprised?
LesGS
@Adam L Silverman: Well, a hob is mentioned in the song. (Yes, yes, totally different kind of hob.)
Adam L Silverman
@?BillinGlendaleCA: He found them in the store room at the back of the tree when looking for more ingredients for today’s run of fudge stripes.
LesGS
@Lyrebird: My kids got the Solstice presents on the winter solstice, then stockings & grandparents’ presents on Christmas Day, and then stuff in their shoes on Befana’s Day on January 6th. We celebrated Hanukkhah at church, but, in our family celebrations, never personally appropriated that holiday. Though I’m sure the kids wouldn’t have minded…
jonas
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: 20 years from now? I wouldn’t be surprised to see “Dump the Cuck/Spencer 2020” bumper stickers popping up in the next couple of weeks.
Ruckus
@lamh36:
That would fit well with the last 50 yrs of his life.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: Maybe 60.
Fair Economist
@JGabriel:
Hmm. In English folklore, a redcap is a “malevolent, murderous goblin”.
Fits perfectly!
sharl
I haven’t been able to track down confirmation of this, but it’s such a lovely picture…
Sweet baby photo of Heather Heyer, sleeping in the arms of her…father?/grandfather?/uncle?…
SFAW
@Adam L Silverman:
What a coincidence! I used to “tie one on” a lot because of work, and I, also, do not put that in my bio.
John Waldron
This is what I posted on my FB page back in November 2016 after the election: “It’s the end of the world as we know it” keeps going through my head. Remember the most obvious personality trait of Trump is his narcissistic and anti-social pathology; and, by winning this election you bet his ego is ten times bigger than before and he is completely assured that he is right about everything. He is now in power. There will be little or no checks and balances against him in his cabinet; those that will deal with him will do so in an obsequious and deferential manner…just look at all the groveling that took place during the election and will continue to do so now. I wonder how many Republicans are lining up and flattering this ass hole of a man? I question that our institutions are strong enough to withstand Trump and his cohorts, the alt-right and the ugly violent-racism long rooted in this country that he has conjured back into existence. It will not be a peaceful time…” it’s the end of the world as we know it.” I still fear for my country…an unwilling Vietnam veteran.
TooTall
Am I surprised that Neanderthal scum still think this way? Not really. I am a 50 yr old Virginia native, growing up in school learning about how “honorable” General Robert E. Lee was, because he refused to fight the offer as General for the Union army, and instead accepted the position of General of the Confederate army, because he could not find against his native Virginia. Standard classroom history lesson in Virginia schools. We had a State Holiday in February, called “Lee/Jackson Day” honoring Gen. Lee & Stonewall Jackson. When the Federal holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King was established, Virginia refused to give Dr. King his own holiday. Instead, they renamed their existing state holiday, “Lee/Jackson/King Day.” Yes. The irony is just that deep. The Virginia state capital, Richmond, has a wide street called Monument Boulevard, filled with Confederate statues, which are still there today. It is still a source of city pride today that these statues are there. Not shame. Growing up there, this kind of thinking was the norm of the day.
I do not feel this way. I do not support these racist scum. I hate what they stand for. I went to school at the Univ. of Va, and am crushed at the thought of the Nazi invasion of my alma mater, and the murder they have brought there. But I understand how they have been indoctrinated into hateful thinking, and I don’t know how to undo the years of decades of hateful thinking inside them.
Classify them as domestic terrorists, and take away their rights of free speech, right to bear arms, and right to assembly? You bet. Tell me I am wrong. Give me a better answer. Please.
Interrobang
@JGabriel: Calling them “redcaps” would probably be unfair to the historical redcaps, who were (usually black) Pullman railroad porters. But I like the spirit of the idea.