This happened AFTER the storming of the Capitol. https://t.co/wmS6KhEJje
— Susan Glasser (@sbg1) January 11, 2021
Ignore, for the moment, the gunbunny wannabe imagining herself Sarah Palin as played by Tina Fey. Mike Pompeo, self-styled smartest guy in any room, has long imagined that the common American voter would take one look at him and see the next, inevitable President. (That vision may have involved panties being thrown.)
However, after a tenure mostly noted for speaking loudly and waving a very small stick indeed — not to mention using his professional staff as personal servants — he’s burned through whatever credibility he may have had.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cancelled his Europe trip at the last minute on Tuesday after Luxembourg’s foreign minister and top European Union officials declined to meet him. https://t.co/9WtqeIDjRq
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) January 14, 2021
U.S. State Department diplomats and staff have expressed outrage at Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s failure to acknowledge, much less protest, President Trump’s role in inciting rioters who laid siege to the Capitol.https://t.co/NvjcKSpta9
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 12, 2021
Here's @ArmsControlWonk on his favorite politician, Mike Pompeo.https://t.co/WAB25gxSzA
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) January 12, 2021
… Since the start of the new year, Pompeo’s Twitter account has been on a rampage, touting the accomplishments, such that they are, of his tenure at the State Department. The account has been posting between 20 and 30 tweets a day, each defending the administration’s record and invoking all the hoary hashtags of “Make America Great Again” social media: #LeadingFromTheFront, #SoMuchWinning, #StillWinning, #MaximumPressure, #AmericansFirst, #PeaceThruStrength, and, of course, #swagger. At the time I filed this column, there were about 200 such tweets…
The tweets are short on diplomatic accomplishments measured in the traditional fashion—there are few mentions of any agreements reached, no statistical measures of progress, nothing. To the extent that concrete actions are mentioned at all, they are largely negative actions, such as withdrawing from international agreements like the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, Paris agreement on climate change, and Iran nuclear deal.
But good lord, there is a hell of a lot of posturing…
And so the defense of Trump will be this: He restored American toughness, but his chance to reap the benefits were stolen along with the election. All of Biden’s failures will be because Democrats doesn’t love America like Republicans do. And his successes will have been built on the leverage created by Republicans. A generation of aspiring Republican foreign-policy wonks will be expected to learn this catechism by heart or risk being labeled a socialist cuck.
It was, of course, inevitable that Pompeo would defend his legacy—and Trump’s. Even Richard Nixon, after resigning from the presidency in disgrace and accepting a pardon with its implication of guilt, sought to rehabilitate himself. If Pompeo’s efforts look comical in comparison, if they are a bloated mess of obsequious praise for Trump, empty sloganeering, and half-truths, well… they are also a fair reflection of the man himself.
"It’s really something to see Pompeo pleasure himself in such an anatomically unlikely fashion, but I suppose having no spine helps." https://t.co/ttvDcENlhD
— Dr. Jeffrey Lewis (@ArmsControlWonk) January 12, 2021
Mike Pompeo’s legacy will be that he failed to support and defend State Department officials like Marie Yovanovitch. https://t.co/iUrF67oR6R
— Bianna Golodryga (@biannagolodryga) January 14, 2021
Kansas City Star Editorial Board: In about a week, Mike Pompeo's service will mercifully come to an end.
"America will be better when he leaves office. Kansas will be much better if he decides to stay away from his adopted home state forever."https://t.co/XdQHoaxfBJ
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 14, 2021
… His battles with reporters, and reporting, were a theme during his time as secretary of state. He exploded after an interview with NPR. He accused a Nashville reporter of working for the Democratic National Committee, a charge he later leveled at PBS…
This is quite rich coming from a man who whines incessantly about alleged censorship on social media. As we now know, Pompeo may be the most anti-free-press secretary of state in American history.
The secretary’s aberrational behavior doesn’t stop there, of course. He sponsored highly questionable taxpayer-funded dinners at the State Department that appeared to serve little purpose beyond bolstering his political ambitions.
State Department workers were allegedly asked to perform personal errands for Pompeo and his spouse, another stain on his record.
More broadly, he has spent the last few months doing his best to wreck the foreign policy of the incoming Joe Biden administration. This week’s declaration of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism is the latest example of this sad behavior…
Now, days after thousands of Americans ransacked our own national Capitol, leaving at least five dead and hundreds terrorized, Pompeo is silent. It appears his concept of morality does not extend to these shores…
But when it comes to personal service, well…
Pompeo tweets the idea of Trump winning a Nobel prize, one of the president's favorite topics, on a day when I'm told advisers are doing whatever they can to keep him calm, a week out from the next POTUS's inauguration. https://t.co/uvdFQkQD8J
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) January 13, 2021
rikyrah
????
The EU told him, Boy Bye
LurkerNoLonger
Republicans: they’re all bad.
natem
Wondering if that Lincoln bust is the same as the one in a photo Jim Acosta tweeted out where people were carrying (smuggling?) shit out of the West Wing
Betty Cracker
About that bust of Lincoln pictured up top between the gun-fondling Q-a-loon and Pompouseo:
I mean, maybe they stamped those busts out and handed them out to every passing sycophant, but I do hope inventories have been taken…
The Dangerman
Nobel? Damn, smoking the whacky tobacky I see.
Betty Cracker
@natem: D’oh! GMTA.
Shalimar
So Pompeo is still all-in on Trump getting a peace prize a week after his armed insurrection. The Republican party is Humpty Dumptys all the way down.
Old School
@Betty Cracker: Probably just being taken for its annual cleaning.
They do that, right?
Starboard Tack
He’s a master of condescension and disdain. All hate, no cattle. Going to be plenty of opportunities on RWM.
MagdaInBlack
@Betty Cracker: Thank You!. I was just noticing that myself
Eta: Ya, several gmta
dexwood
What bust of Lincoln? It’s the Chia Pet Melania gave me for Christmas.
natem
@Old School: Authentic and historical figurines coming soon to eBay and craigslist listings near you!
NotMax
Pompeo and jerkumstance.
Woodrow/asim
…I mean, they do know the upcoming occupant has actually been in the White House before, right?
Starboard Tack
@NotMax:
Brill.
NotMax
@dexwood
Lincoln-head toilet brush holder?
“Adds klass to any john.”
Amir Khalid
Trump isn’t the Master of The Universe he thinks he is. He’s really just a petty crook, a Mundungus Fletcher.
jl
@Betty Cracker: I don’t think they can destroy all the records of government property in the WH. So, disgusting if they are swiping it.
OTOH, some easy criminal charges once it’s tracked down. And prosecutions, if Trump doesn’t change his mind about refusing to give mass blanket pardons to his flunkies if he’s been persuaded it’s too risky to try to give himself one.
patrick II
The whole lot of them are just putting on a TV show about being a functional government.
Benw
@natem: There’s some paper that looks temporary on the stand of the bust, just under the more official looking plaque. Too bad that lady’s arm’s in the way or we could probably read TAKE scrawled in Sharpie on it.
Also, poor Abe’s expression is like “guys, they’re gonna take me! GUYS”
Nelle
He saw the possible rub out of Pence, Pelisi, and Grassley as his time to shine, moving up in the line of succession. And what business would he have been conducting in Europe a week before the end of his tenure? More of the getting out of town to avoid fingerprints on what might be coming?
NotMax
re: the Lincoln bust
It’s possible that’s among items on loan to the White House that are in the process of being returned to the lending institution.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Old School: Not if it is real bronze rather than painted plaster. Real bronze gets a coating of microcrystalline wax. Also, this is not how one moves a valuable object – no gloves (oil from fingers leaves fingerprints on metal) no covering, no cart (carrier could trip and drop the item). So this is either a steal, amateur hour from a private collector, or some fed needs to be fired (FYI – I handled objects for the Smithsonian for 30 years).
jl
@NotMax: “Lincoln-head toilet brush holder?”
Saw a news story about Ivanka and Jared getting themselves $3000 a month toilets on the taxpayer dime. Paywall, so I couldn’t read the whole thing. I don’t know why they were paying for it monthly. Are there outfits that rent gilded super toilets on a monthly basis? (If so, I might spring for one for a month to get that off my bucket list. YOLO!).
It seems the whole Trumpster inner circle has an obsession with gilded ultra-luxe blowholes. Might be a very important human interest story there for the ace NYT investigative reporters working the WH beat.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I love Wonkette. Trump hates everybody! Everybody!
trollhattan
I am in favor of a Noble Gas award for Trump, comprising a neon-filled glass suppository. Yes, there is a power cord.
jl
On the main topic of this post, Pompeo has decided to rev up the supposed Iran-Al Qaeda connection. AFAIK, it’s based on the arrest of one AQ connection who was inside Iran recently, or he was arrested inside Iran? I’d like to hear more about the background of what Pompeo is up to there.
Not the motive, which is obvious, but what are the facts, and how flimsy is the basis this time around.
zhena gogolia
@jl: They wouldn’t let the Secret Service use one of the six bathrooms in their house, so they ended up having to rent an apartment in a nearby house for $3000/month.
Betty Cracker
I’ve thought for a while now that the root of Pompeo’s seething anger — which is clear as day in every interview or encounter with the press — is frustrated ambition. He’s a horrible person but not a blithering idiot like Trump, and it’s obvious he’s been humming “Hail to the Chief” to his reflection in the mirror since infancy. Pompeo pushed all his chips on Orange in 2016 and realized not long after that it was a shitty bet. He’s been a boiling cauldron of rage ever since.
Martin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: This is why liberals don’t need to fear him any more. He was counting on his allies to keep feeding his narcissism, and the moment you stop doing that, you become enemy #1.
This is the lesson for anyone whose never dealt with a narcissist before – you can never, ever appease them. The only thing you can do to help them is get them to treatment. They always self-destruct eventually because they always require more fealty, praise etc. until there simply isn’t enough left to feed them. And when they self-destruct, you don’t want to be around.
Honestly, I’m surprised he’s gotten through a 2nd impeachment without offing himself. Still not ruling it out.
jl
@zhena gogolia: Thanks. So, extremely petty selfishness mean taxpayer had to shell out $3000 a month so Secret Service didn’t have to hold it in over the entire shift. Hope I got it right.
Where was OSHA on that?
NotMax
@jl
Point the first: Iran is Shia, al-Qaida is Sunni.
Point the second: Pompeo is a malign ignoramus.
Old School
@Cheryl from Maryland:
Balloon Juice is always an amazing collection of knowledge and experience.
Not positive if this is the bust in the photo, but this sculpture was modeled from life by Leonard W. Volk in 1860.
https://shop.whitehousehistory.org/products/president-abraham-lincoln-bust?variant=31470720450612
mrmoshpotato
Is it environmental safe to fire mass amounts of trash into the Sun?
The Moar You Know
oh, that overbite. Makes me want to feed her a carrot through a fence.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
Do try to keep up jl, this was covered earlier today. Princess Ivanka wouldn’t let the low life in their Secret Service detail use the palace bathrooms, so first they went over the Obamas and used theirs and then rented the basement across the street that had bathrooms for the 3k.
jl
@NotMax: I got that immediately, but Pompeo is apparently rolling out streams of supposed evidence. Would be nice to have a debunker for laypeople (we need that word, BTW, to go with ‘explainer’)
Martin
I’m pretty sure they give every member of congress a replica of that bust. I know they sell a smaller version of it in the WH gift shop.
raven
@Cheryl from Maryland: I’ve got that wax on an 1861 firearm I have.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Dude, try to keep up yourself. It was asked and answered already
Still possible signs of weird toilet obsession with the Trumpster inner circle. Secret Service butt have bad kooties, or what?
Edit: but good to know I am not the only one who does a two second skim of the comments, and then tell myself I’ve read them.
jl
@Martin: Thanks for info. But it should be ‘Do not trust, verify twice’, for that crowd.
Martin
@mrmoshpotato: The sun is a perfect recycler, so yes in that regard. But the amount of delta v to throw something into the sun is roughly that to reach any location in the universe, so fuel-wise, not so much. Mind you, if we want a make-work project of building a mass driver large enough to do it, I’m down with that.
NotMax
@jl
Some of them are less white than the toilet tissue.
Uncle Omar
@?BillinGlendaleCA: And the Obamas cut them off after a supervisor of the Jarvanka detail either puked, pissed, or took a dump on their garage floor and didn’t clean it up.
lamh36
A retired firefighter using an fire extinguisher to beat capitol police officers…
Wow…a fiction writer coudn’t have written this shit..
https://twitter.com/GeoffRBennett/status/1349828044404494336
Miss Bianca
Hmm. Gun Bunny posing with Pompeo after she tweets out compromising information on the location of the House Speaker. Who’s next in the line of POTUS succession after the Speaker of the House? Is it the SOS? Why yes, I believe it is.
Sloane Petersons knee therapist
That’s it. Time to change the name of that Military institution on the Hudson to West Disappointment.
mrmoshpotato
@Uncle Omar: All these could be possible.
Martin
@jl: I’m not sure how corrupted the Smithsonian and other historical archives have become, but every non-personal item in the WH is very carefully tracked. I don’t think they can even move the piece without one of their staff doing it.
So even if they were walking out with the real thing, that just becomes another felony.
WaterGirl
@Martin: I think curled in a ball and babbling to himself is more on-brand than killing himself.
NotMax
@Miss Bianca
President pro tem of the Senate, then SoS.
(For a long time the president pro tem was next after veep and the Speaker after that; order of succession changed to what we’re familiar with in the middle of the last century.)
Just One More Canuck
(That vision may have involved panties being thrown.) – OP at top
Why do you hate us so?
Steeplejack
In too many photos Lauren Boebert looks like a young, evil Edith Prickley.
WaterGirl
@lamh36: I wonder if the one without a helmet was the one who died, or if he was truly beaten with a fire extinguisher. These fuckers have to pay.
jl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: “I love Wonkette. Trump hates everybody! Everybody!”
The astounding thing about Trump is his infantile psychology and stupidity.
We can get a rough understanding of the characteristics, and mechanisms many of Trump’s immense faults: his bigotry, racism, xenophobia, sexism, greed. We understand the outlines of his MO for graft, corruption, inside dealing, his techniques for asinine attempts at intimidation that he thinks is negotiation. We have some understanding of why he’s so ignorant.
But his infantile psychology and stupidity is just an immense black void beyond description, measure, or understanding of mere mortals.
Perhaps once cosmologists understand the immense cosmic voids of the universe, humanity can make some progress in comprehending how much larger ones can exist inside Trump.
dmsilev
@Martin: There are ways of getting to the Sun that aren’t so delta-v expensive. Bi-elliptic transfer is the simplest; we send Trump and his crew way out beyond the orbit of Pluto, and once they reach aphelion the burn to bring the perihelion down into the body of the Sun is acceptably small.
I mean, given the circumstances, it’s not a problem that this trajectory would involve a few decades of frigid transit through the outer reaches of the Solar System, is it? Because another option would be gravitational assists via flybys of the garden spot of the System, Venus.
cain
@Betty Cracker:
Come now, we know that’s the same bust that batman uses to get into the batcave.
SFBayAreaGal
Since this is an open thread, NASA Curiosity Rover celebrates 3,000th day on Mars with stunning panorama of planet. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-curiosity-rover-celebrates-3000-day-mars-panorama/
patrick II
@Martin:
I am sure not hoping for it. It would give Qanon fodder for years.
jl
@dmsilev: Why can’t scientists create mini black holes that can be contained inside a simple container, available at a convenience store near you? Then we could throw all the stuff we don’t want into them and it completely goes away forever? No muss no fuss.
Wouldn’t all that cheap, so I won’t buy one until I read through the Consumer Reports product review.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
Haha!!!! Exactly! I could not put my finger on it.
ETA: Just put a leopard-print pillbox hat on her and voila!
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: Well, rats, there goes the beginning of a beautiful
relationshipconspiracy theory…Must just be a case of “shitbirds of a feather flock together”.
Matt McIrvin
@cain: It’s Schroeder’s bust of Beethoven. He has a whole closet full of them.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: ZG beat my comment by 7 minutes, I blame the time zones.
ETA: You know if we had threaded comments, this sort of misunderstanding wouldn’t have happened. So now you want threaded comments jl?
Martin
@lamh36: That’s very french. I do admire the french firefighters who go on strike, set themselves on fire, and then they and the cops beat the hell out of each other.
They still remember how unions work.
Miss Bianca
@Steeplejack: I confess, I had to look up Edith Prickley. Then I laffed and laffed and laffed.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
https://alchetron.com/Edith-Prickley
Martin
@dmsilev: Yeah, but you’re still paying the cost of getting to Pluto which is like 80% of the cost to getting anywhere. Plus, you’re really deferring gratification here.
I mean, you can gravity assist into the sun, but I don’t think these assholes deserve the level of planning needed to do that when we have a perfectly serviceable volcano in Hawaii we can throw them into.
'Niques
@Old School: “Balloon Juice is always an amazing collection of knowledge and experience.”
Quoted for truth.
NotMax
@Miss Bianca
Contemplate for a moment that nonagenarian drooling sack of protoplasm Strom Thurmond was third in line of succession.
Jeffro
These GOP assholes all suck: Pompeo, Hawley, Cotton, Crenshaw, Haley, Cruz, moron Jr, Carlson, and more. Good luck selling America on your party’s platform: sedition, violence, Q-craziness, more violence, and outright lies.
danielx
@patrick II:
Well, yes – this whole shitshow has been The Presidency As Reality Show, right down to the focus on ratings as opposed to, you know, reality.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
” You know if we had threaded comments, this sort of misunderstanding wouldn’t have happened. So now you want threaded comments jl? ”
Your logic resembles that of a GOP Congresscritter. Trumpster illogic is corrupting our precious youth.
hueyplong
@patrick II: What DOESN’T give Qanon fodder? The whole point is that whatever happens next is just further proof of conspiracy.
Ascap_scab
Fucking Luxembourg told Pompeo to ‘go screw’!! Luxembourg!?!?!? A country the size of Memphis, Tennessee gave him and Trump the finger!
HumboldtBlue
@Betty Cracker:
Nailed it.
He was the A-plus student, top of the class all the way, military career, and now he’ll forever be a Trump flunky.
MattF
Alexandra Petri asks who’s to blame, really, for stabbing Julius Caesar?
Jay
@jl:
@zhena gogolia:
the whole story is more seedy than that.
Jarvanka wouldn’t let their Secret Service detail use any of their 6 bathrooms in the house,
so former President Obama and his Secret Service detail use their garage and an attached bathroom, as the “command center”, for Jarvanka’s Secret Service detail,
For free,
until the head of Jarvanka’s SS detail shit all over the bathroom and left it.
That’s when they got kicked out of the Obama’s house and had to go looking for rentals.
David Evans
@jl: Why can’t scientists create mini black holes that can be contained inside a simple container, available at a convenience store near you? Because if the containment failed they would fall through the floor and start slowly but surely swallowing the Earth.
Jeffro
@hueyplong: “if EVERYTHING trips your paranoid delusions…instead of being evidence of a secret, worldwide conspiracy…it might be evidence that you’re having paranoid delusions…”
westyny
Mike Pompeo, Shitlord of Swagger
Fixed it for you . . .
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin:
Don’t fuck with Pele
Benw
@Martin: volcanos are for virgins, and since these people are fuckers it’s no go
Cameron
@jl: The guy was jailed in Iran. Al-Qaeda are fundie Sunnis; they regard Iranian Shia as heretics. Perhaps you’ve seen some of the pics/videos of what they do to heretics?
zhena gogolia
@MattF:
Great.
jl
@David Evans: It happened with Trump and we handled that. I don’t see a big issue there.
Roger Moore
@NotMax:
I think most of the furnishings of the White House are owned by GSA, and each occupant winds up redecorating a bit by getting rid of some things and bringing in others. I remember, for example, a stupid kerfuffle about Obama removing a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office. It’s possible they’re returning stuff to storage so the Bidens have a chance to put their personal stamp on the place. I’d be interested in details, though.
Nutmeg again
@Benw: State Dept has an art-share program called Art In Embassies that must include a catalog of their large and circulating art collection. The plaque on that bronze bust–if it’s the same one under the arm of the presumed thief–suggests it would be cataloged in some system. I know it’s the government (hence redundancy?) but I doubt they would pay for two different cataloging applications. They’d have to train staff on them, among other things.
If somebody, not me, has a more functioning brain and better search juju you can probably figure it out. I’d start with “Art in Embassies” and go from there.
Yeah, I’d put some money down that they are snitching stuff. Bastards.
patrick II
We’re not stupid
Brachiator
@NotMax:
Yeah, I assume that there is some standard accounting for the items in the White House. Of course, I would not be surprised if Trump tried to violate all norms and traditions and grab a little keepsake.
But otherwise, I am not worried about stuff mysteriously disappearing from the West Wing or elsewhere.
ETA: There are a ton of online references about the White House and how items are stored, maintained and selected for use by presidents and their families. The GSA keeps track of things.
TomatoQueen
@Martin: Herself isn’t a goddess to be playing with.
Starboard Tack
@Matt McIrvin:
But what happened to Schroeder’s Cat?
Aleta
Nutmeg again
@Roger Moore: Right-o. So is that bronze bust “furnishings” or “art collection” ??
I would guess mainly gold-plated, or gold-plated-looking, things would get boosted by Trump family members …
?BillinGlendaleCA
@David Evans: I’m pretty sure those mini-black holes exist and are in my apartment, I still can’t find some stuff.
Subsole
@Martin: Really???
Doesn’t that depend on where you throw from?
Like, firing from the moon has got to require less delta than terrestrial launch.
NotMax
@Roger Moore
Dolt 45 (and/or Melania) rushing out memos to GSA to surreptitiously scour the warehouses for the Ark of the Covenant?
//
Jay
@Ascap_scab:
Luxembourg GDP, $71.1 billion dollars.
Immanentize
@Roger Moore: I for one am tired of the desk made from the remaining timber of the ship, Resolute. Let’s get a better desk for Biden.
narya
So (in reference to previous post), why let people know cell phone data can be used that way? Won’t that encourage folks to just get burner phones? I mean, some of us already knew to do that (not least from advice on this full-service blog), but clearly these jamokes did not.
Subsole
@WaterGirl: If it comes to that he’s more likely to try firing a tomahawk at Manhattan. Or Philly. Or the ATL.
I said TRY, not succeed. He directs his hatred outward. Not inward.
karen marie
@jl: I think you saw a story about Javanka refusing to allow their Secret Service detail use one of the multiple toilets in their house, forcing the Secret Service to rent a nearby $3k/month studio apartment for that purpose.
Immanentize
@Starboard Tack:
Like the pianist in Peanuts? He had a cat?
Roger Moore
@Nutmeg again:
I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump and family try to keep everything in the White House they’ve taken a shine to over the past 4 years. I’ve actually been predicting that a bunch of stuff from the White House would be discovered down in Mar-a-Lago when his term is over. That would be great, IMO, since it would be an open and shut grand theft case. I want him put away for the rest of his life, and I’m not too particular about the charges they get him on.
Miss Bianca
@Jay: Well, you know, if *that’s* the way they were going to behave, Melania’s reluctance makes a little more sense to me.//
Brachiator
@Steeplejack:
She was reminding me of an armed chipmunk, but Evil Edith Prickley is spot on.
JustRuss
Is it asking too much for that bust of Lincoln to grow arms and smack their heads together?
NotMax
@Martin
In this case, I evoke NIMBY.
:)
rikyrah
@Nelle:
It would be irresponsible not to speculate
Mike in NC
The Trump Crime Family isn’t looking to pillage the White House during his last week in office. They’ve all been stealing stuff from it for four deplorable years.
HumboldtBlue
@Brachiator:
I’m gonna go with evil chipmunk cuz I don’t know who Edith Prickley is.
Betty Cracker
@’Niques: Unfortunately WordPress decided it cannot process apostrophes in usernames. So, if you use one in your username, every single comment you make will go into moderation until someone with keys to the backend approves it. (And sometimes that never happens.) Just saying you might want to lose the apostrophe!
hueyplong
Clear out all the rooms in the WH. Makes it easier to debug, delouse, fumigate.
NotMax
@Mike in NC
“Escargot tongs? I thought they were fancy ball scratchers.”
//
Peale
Remember that during the riot, Ivanka was photographing things for her coffee table book about all the wonderful gifts they’ve gotten in the white house. I would not be surprised to find out that they weren’t actually gifts and they’ll probably be taking photos as fake provenance to sell cheap knock-offs. And Iwouldn’t doubt that we’ll find “originals” for sale that aren’t originals either. Like the splinters of the cross in pre-modern Europe, I bet they’ll be selling these fakes for years to come.
Spanky
@Martin:
He’s so totally incompetent at everyfuckin’thing that he’s probably tried and fucked up. <CoughtriptoBethesdaNavalcough>
JMG
@Miss Bianca: No, it’s not. Sec. of State is second after Speaker. President Pro Tempore of Senate comes after Pelosi. That’d be Chuck Grassley today, Pat Leahy after the two Ga. Senators are seated. Either way, it’s a position that’s always held by some really old Senator.
Roger Moore
@Subsole:
Most of the delta-V to get to the Sun is from slowing from the Earth’s orbital speed, not getting it out of the Earth’s gravity well. The Sun actually requires more delta-V to reach than anywhere else in the Solar System.
CaseyL
The issues around fuel consumption on a slingshot to the sun via Pluto really pale in comparison to the issues around creating a self-contained life-supporting environment that will last long enough for the garbage scow to get to Mars, never mind Pluto.
I see this as a real opportunity for engineers to try creating such a craft, and putting all of the Trumps and Trump-adjacents on it (except Mary), along with as many of their Congressional enablers as will fit, and sending it off into the Final Frontier.
Let’s see how far they get! It will be science! It will be fun!
MattF
@Betty Cracker: I have a suspicion that WordPress has good reasons for disliking quotes in names.
The Moar You Know
@Martin: I have a narcissist parent.
I am in no way surprised. Trump will not kill himself.
Jay
@Miss Bianca:
pretty sure the SS would never do that in Jarvanka’s bathroom.
there is pretty much a theme going on there between the Obama’s bathroom and the Halls of Congress.
There needs to be a massive purge of the Secret Service, amongst others.
Peale
@JMG: yeah. the Senator Pro Tem thing is just really odd. If the President, VP and Speaker are knocked out, the country is in a bit of a crisis and we’ve set it up so that the person to handle that crisis will invariably be in his 80s or 90s. I mean, it was Robert Byrd when he was like 100 years old and needed to be sprayed with prednisone just to give him enough strength to vote.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
I just bought a beautiful desk on ebay for $100. Like any used furniture it does have flaws. Someone carved the initials for just for kicks on the drawer. Anyway, the seller John Barron says it’s the classiest, most luxurious desk, ever. What a steal!
Roger Moore
@Immanentize:
I have said exactly the same thing. I would love for Biden to commission a brand new desk made by some up-and-coming American craftsman, one that is actually build from the ground up for a digital office. It would be a great symbol of a Presidency that’s interested in moving into the future rather than reliving past glories.
Roger Moore
@Roger Moore:
Just to clarify, I want the charges to be true, not something made up. Of course Trump has done enough in office that it damn well ought to be possible to get him on something without having to fabricate evidence.
M31
hope it shot some Confederates
ReadWrite
@CaseyL: We’ll call the ship “Botany Bay.” What could go wrong?
Roger Moore
@Peale:
I thought most, if not all, the gifts the President gets are in his professional capacity rather than his personal capacity. IOW, they’re really gifts to the US government, not to the person who currently holds the office. So yet again, they belong to the office, not the person who happens to hold the office when they’re received.
Roger Moore
@CaseyL:
Who said this spacecraft needed life support?
Starboard Tack
@Immanentize:
It’s in the piano. Maybe alive, dead, who’s to say?
NotMax
@Peale
And how many of those she’s documenting fall outside or do not comply with the rules for gifts, in particular this section of one of the specific statutes, by which those over a certain value and not otherwise exempted become property of the GSA:
Spanky
@CaseyL: Life support! That’s not in the requirements spec.
Anya
I wish I had faith in the Kansas voters. They would vote for that bloviating douchenozzle. There is no one I despise more than Mike Pompeo. He’s even more loathsome than Trump.
CaseyL
@ReadWrite:
Ummm, maybe not.
@Roger Moore:
Because that would be more satisfying to watch.Because having passengers you’re at least nominally trying to keep alive for a while will make the project more science-y.Calouste
@narya: Even if you use a burner phone, it can still be tracked where that phone has been. And if the feds suspect you, they could check to see if that burner phone that was spotted at the scene of the crime was near your house earlier. You still need a lot more OpSec than just a burner phone.
Warblewarble
Pompeo shitload of swagger ,fixed now.
Mike in NC
@Roger Moore: After Trump visited Saudi Arabia somebody published a long list of some of the ridiculous gifts he was given, like robes and a sabre. If anything he’s been given is gold-plated, he’ll definitely try to keep it.
Matt McIrvin
@ReadWrite: Botany Bay?? BOTANY BAY?!?!!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Steeplejack:
To me (and I have an eye for this sort of thing, because I’m well, me) she seems awful thirsty. Like Marina Butina thirsty.
Countdown till the inevitable scandal begins somewhere around her primary win – you heard it here first.
Spanky
@Roger Moore: There’s an old hulk still floating in Baltimore Harbor. We can chop some of that up and make a desk. Goes by the name of “Constellation“.
Martin
@Subsole: Oh, from the moon, sure. But as a rule of thumb from earth, no matter how far you are going, half of your delta v is just to get into orbit.
If you’re going elsewhere in the solar system, you’re then starting with the orbital velocity of the earth, which is a LOT. If you’re heading out to Pluto, you need to add energy to add velocity to get out there, and if you’re heading to the sun, you need to add energy to remove velocity. In the case of the sun, though, you need to remove basically all of the earths orbital velocity so you can fall straight in.
A trick – a gravity assist is a way to steal some of the energy from another body, like Venus to do the same thing. So you head to Venus and with the right approach you can either speed yourself up or slow yourself down, and rather than burn rocket fuel, you use conservation of energy to transfer some of Venus’ energy to you. So if you slow down then Venus infinitesimally speeds up its orbit (proportionate to the relative masses of the two bodies).
You can do it with earth as well, also using something called the Oberth effect. So reaction engines (like a rocket engine) are more efficient in terms of generating velocity changes at high velocity than at low. So as dmsilev describes, you shoot out to Pluto, then enter it’s gravity well, accelerating toward the planet (fight me) and burning your engine to change velocity to send you on an intercept to the sun. It’ll be cheaper than doing it around Earth because Pluto has a very low orbital velocity (becaue it’s out there) so you don’t need to change your speed as much, but while you’re screaming down into Pluto’s well, you’re traveling VERY fast, so it’s relatively cheap to cancel out Pluto’s orbital speed. And then you’re just diving straight to the Sun.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
Aren’t most busts of famous people made from stone or bronze? Not exactly something one person would carry easily.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I just hope Trump doesn’t literally set something on fire on the way out, to go with the metaphorical fires they’re trying to set all over government.
JustRuss
“TRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMP!!!!!!!!!”
NotMax
@Ruckus
3-D printing will render those sculptors obsolete.
:)
Martin
I’ll add to the above. What SpaceX is trying to do with Starship is basically to ‘solve’ the above. It’s a 2-stage rocket, each of which is reusable. The idea is that you lift the upper stage into orbit, deorbit and land the lifter, add a new upper stage which is just fuel, send it up and dock with the previous upper stage, transfer the fuel to the previous upper stage, and then it can go to Mars (not that expensive, depending on how fast you want to get there) and land propulsively (kind of expensive). And then you land the fuel tank and lifter and you can start the process all over again.
I wouldn’t bet against them, but there are a lot of firsts in this plan. It’s far from easy.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
SCTV character played by Andrea Martin. She was the station manager of the fictional TV station.
If you tell me you’ve never heard of SCTV, I’ll weep.
Bill Arnold
Pompeo, Mossad head meet in Washington cafe – report (JERUSALEM POST, JANUARY 12, 2021)
Cohen is a (de-facto) believer in political assassination. His org’s assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh must be viewed as a (possible) veiled personal mortal threat to Joe Biden, so his meeting Pompeo is a bad sign.
As Biden enters White House, did Israel’s Mossad win war with Iran? – INTELLIGENCE AFFAIRS: As Biden prepares to take office, Israel is in a better place in efforts to prevent Iran’s nuclear program. (YONAH JEREMY BOB JANUARY 7, 2021)
Yossi Cohen, shadow warrior against Iran, is PM’s chosen successor – Spy chief widely seen behind killing of Iran’s nuclear weapons chief is a trusted Netanyahu loyalist, and his preferred successor
WaterGirl
@Peale: wow, I read about that in a bunch of places and I thought it was Melania. I guess they must be interchangeable to me.
Ruckus
@Martin:
As well as being a narcissist supreme he is also a chickenshit MF. He’s had flunkies his entire life to do his dirty work, they are called lawyers. Now there is no doubt that there are lawyer scum who seemingly studied the law to find ways around them but most of them know that they don’t want to get caught. I doubt he’s employed a lot of enforcers, he’s too chickenshit. IOW offing himself is I would think unlikely. Not impossible for sure, once it become obvious that he’s not getting everything he wants, and is beyond broke and beyond borrowing, that may be enough. But his entire life has been about proving that he’s not exactly what we think he is and if that ever sinks in, that he’s exactly what we think he is…..
marklar
@JustRuss:
“Coooooooooooooooooooon!!!” (pronounced Khaaaaaaaaaaaaan)
kindness
It is my sincere hope that when Pompeo goes back to Kansas he won’t be elected for anything ever again.
Ruckus
@kindness:
How are they going to get rid of him if they don’t elect him to go to DC?
danielx
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
There’s a special one for socks and another for cat toys.
Uncle Cosmo
@Spanky: You can keep your motherfucking hands off our USF Constellation, unless you want your fingers burned off with a blowtorch, thankew very much you POS!
prostratedragon
@jl: The New ACME Portable Hole
prostratedragon
@Peale: No, that was Trump’s wife (ooks off and whistles tunelessly).
Bill Arnold
Sumerian proverb:
Punishment is assigned for the swaggerer; he is afflicted with diseases.
Sumerian deities
don’tdidn’t like swaggerers. :-)Mary G
We should let Twitler take the portrait of Andrew Jackson away with him as a consolation prize. I hate seeing that guy on the $20 bill and every time I can’t get to the x in the box fast enough when WH video appears.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
It was Melania. Ivanka was in the tent with them.