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Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

No Justins, No Peace

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

He really is that stupid.

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Anne Laurie

You are here: Home / Archives for Anne Laurie

Anne Laurie has been a Balloon Juice writer since 2009.

Friday Night Wind-Down Open Thread – David ‘BoBo’ Brooks Edition

by Anne Laurie|  September 22, 20239:41 pm| 173 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Our Failed Media Experiment, Show Us On the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You, Schadenfreude

You’ve probably seen something about this story already, if only out of the corner of your eye. It’s the ‘Reader added context’ that makes this tweet perfection… not to mention the number of replies (19.5 thousand and counting), most of them mocking:

This meal just cost me $78 at Newark Airport. This is why Americans think the economy is terrible. pic.twitter.com/1qeV9qOBL3

— David Brooks (@nytdavidbrooks) September 21, 2023

You’d think by now, BoBo (he’s only 62! I could’ve sworn he was older than me, but I guess he’s one of those guys who was born age 40, and already wearing a button-down shirt) would’ve know better than to use social media after the first scotch, but…

David Brooks deciding 2 triples in to get into the price takes game and thinking he is super smart by saying meal and including the drink, lmao

— vocational politics appreciation account (@Convolutedname) September 21, 2023

This meal cost me $78 at Newark Airport. This is why Americans think the economy is terrible. pic.twitter.com/UoR6WnoQcl

— derek guy (@dieworkwear) September 21, 2023

Jamele Bouie *also* writes for the NYTimes…
Friday Night Wind-Down Open Thread - BoBo Brooks Edition

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Friday Night Wind-Down Open Thread – David ‘BoBo’ Brooks EditionPost + Comments (173)

The Guardian was one of many major outlets to cover this saga (which I guess qualifies Brooks’ debacle as an international disgrace):

… Brooks posted his complaint on Wednesday. As of Friday morning, he had not posted again…

As of 9pm EST Friday, still no updates — possibly Wife #2 is keeping him away from the liquor cabinet?

If David Brooks had just tweeted "spent way too much money on whiskey at the airport" everyone would have been like "amen brother, been there, most relatable thing you've ever said in fact" https://t.co/GZ2C2An8tS

— Leigh Beadon (@leighbeadon) September 21, 2023

Capitalism remains undefeated https://t.co/uOW0WJagJv

— Jeremy Horpedahl ????? (@jmhorp) September 22, 2023

Friday Night Wind-Down Open Thread - David 'BoBo' Brooks Edition

The New Republic:

… Americans don’t think the economy is terrible because of inflated prices at the airport. But they might be swayed by commentators like Brooks who alternate between touting how great American capitalism is and cherry-picking details from their own upper-class lifestyle as proof that we’re nearing the end.

Airport food is expensive—but it’s not that expensive. Maybe Brooks could use this opportunity to pivot into speculative fiction, but in the meantime, if he ever wants to comment on economic news, he may want to lay off the whiskey first.

Some of the better clapbacks I’ve seen:

1) How many ?? did he have? Because the cheeseburger deluxe doesn’t cost that much.

2) Newark Airport has sneaky good restaurants.

3) Give his column to someone deserving please. pic.twitter.com/aLijvP3L2W

— Greg Olear (@gregolear) September 21, 2023

This meal just cost me $78 at Newark Airport. This is why Americans think the economy is terrible. pic.twitter.com/fVJSWOlXWC

— ??????????Hollaria Briden, Esq. & Ally (@HollyBriden) September 21, 2023

(bar bill: $66. food bill: $12. tip: $0 N Y Times expense account) https://t.co/ZcmHOKuPIi

— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) September 21, 2023

Biden is failing in the polls because of how expensive it has become to drink an airport double bourbon that's aged long enough to do porn

— Gas Stove Prayer Warrior (@canderaid) September 21, 2023

i'm happy that this food looks awful https://t.co/rCFOrRY1R6

— Jean-Michel Connard ?? (@torriangray) September 21, 2023

And the stomach-turning winner, h/t Satby…

These nachos just cost me $78 at Newark Airport. This is why Americans think the economy is terrible. pic.twitter.com/D21TuLa5nk

— John has the NebraskaBlues (@sun_dawg1) September 21, 2023

Brooks maaay just possibly be angling for a new job, one better aligned with his talents:
Friday Night Wind-Down Open Thread - David 'BoBo' Brooks Edition 1

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Some *Good* News, Too!

by Anne Laurie|  September 22, 20237:16 am| 158 Comments

This post is in: Biden Administration in Action, gun safety, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, War in Ukraine

“I think I can beat him again,” @JoeBiden said of Donald Trump tonight at a fundraiser.

The president has more recently been criticizing Trump by name. He has preferred to use euphemisms for the former president, often referring to him as "the last guy." https://t.co/bGAKbP0556

— Akayla Gardner (@gardnerakayla) September 20, 2023

NEWS: Biden administration announces a crackdown on medical debt and a key tool hospitals and others use to enforce it: reporting patients to credit agencies.

By @NoamLevey, who's been investigating this issue for more than a year.https://t.co/CG3W9VNXF4

— Alex Wayne (@aawayne) September 21, 2023

"Harris, who has played a leading role in gun safety policy, will oversee the office, according to a White House statement. Longtime Biden aide @StefFeldman, who has worked on gun policy for more than a decade, will serve as its director."

https://t.co/8StKbgdXby

— Herbie Ziskend (@HerbieZiskend46) September 21, 2023

Republican Rep. Tim Burchett criticizes McCarthy and then compliments Pelosi, saying "she was pretty successful … a lot of work goes into that. But I'm not seeing that work right now." pic.twitter.com/xevmzsPjoz

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 22, 2023

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TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: Some *Good* News, Too!Post + Comments (158)

SCOOP: The Pentagon has decided to exempt Ukraine operations from a potential shutdown if lawmakers can’t agree on a deal by the end of the month, allowing key training and other activities in support of Kyiv’s forces to move ahead uninterrupted. https://t.co/u2REWCROag

— Lara Seligman (@laraseligman) September 21, 2023


Hope this holds up:

The Pentagon will exempt its Ukraine operations from a potential shutdown if lawmakers can’t agree on a deal to fund the government by the end of the month, allowing key training and other activities in support of Kyiv’s forces to move ahead uninterrupted, according to a Defense Department spokesperson…

But if lawmakers fail to reach an agreement and government appropriations lapse, DOD has decided to continue activities supporting Ukraine, DOD spokesperson Chris Sherwood told POLITICO Thursday — just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley and other senior leaders at the Pentagon.

“Operation Atlantic Resolve is an excepted activity under a government lapse in appropriations,” Sherwood said, referring to the named operation for DOD’s activities in response to the Russian invasion.

The move means that the U.S. military’s activities related to the war, such as training of Ukrainian soldiers on American tactics and equipment, as well as shipments of weapons to Kyiv, will continue despite any potential shutdown. As recently as Tuesday, Sherwood had said the shutdown could halt those activities, as POLITICO first reported…

By law, the Pentagon chief can make exceptions to activities suspended under a government shutdown, Sherwood said, noting that the decision to exempt Ukraine operations was just made…

 
And… Trending on Twitter: Senator Mike Lee(… roy Jenkins!) is BIG MAD, you guys:

1) create nonsense poll
2) lose to NAFO
3) seethe and rage publicly about cartoon dogs https://t.co/oFYoJYmW9O

— Abandoned BMP Tïcketer ?? (@st_javelin_stan) September 22, 2023

Outstanding from #NAFO.
Two US Senators (who are not on the right side of history) wondering who pays us.
Seeing this happen to BustedMikeLee is especially funny.Well done #Fellas.

Cheque’s in the post, right @Official_NAFO? pic.twitter.com/mhHsWaCioL

— Benjamin Tallis ???? (@bctallis) September 22, 2023

Goodnight Fellas,
I just spent the past 2 hours tweeting explanations about what NAFO does to two US Senators who were complaining that NAFO ruined their polls. I bet the Senators already knew what NAFO does. The Senators were probably just rage-farming with their MAGA followers. pic.twitter.com/SASYBTGVFn

— F e l l a Historian ?? (@thisuser_isdumb) September 22, 2023

Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: Mitt Romney Exits, Stage Right

by Anne Laurie|  September 22, 20233:23 am| 64 Comments

This post is in: 2024 Primaries, Excellent Links, Republican Politics, Romney of the Uncanny Valley

Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: Mitt Romney Exits, Stage Right

(Clay Jones via GoComics.com)

 
There will not be a Republican politician like Romney again, the pundits keep saying, and as far as I’m concerned this is not much of a loss. Willard ‘Mitt’ Romney was a bog-standard GOP Business Representative born a generation too late. Apart from a few belated spasms concerning Trump’s distastefully parvenu behavior, his voting record was indistinguishable from the GOP mean (in every sense of the term). He’s certainly old enough to retire while he can enjoy bullying just his extended family, and if my closest work colleague was Mike Lee(… roy Jenkins!), I’d quit too.

I never will get past how Willard deliberately ran against his only real achievement in government.

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) September 14, 2023


But let’s hear from another and far more eloquent Masshole:

… Politics has been such a disappointment to Mitt Romney. There always are so many…people involved.

He ran against Ted Kennedy, and those…people turned him down. He became governor of Massachusetts, passed a health-care law, and then tried to muscle Republicans into the state legislature only to have…people return more Democrats than were in there before. So, having lost interest in his day job, he ran for president in 2008, only to incur the profound dislike of his fellow candidates and the resounding loathing of the…people in general. In 2012, he thought he had it won only to have those…people deny him his rightful place at the pinnacle of power. Then came Trump, and Mitt Romney lost all hope in common humanity and got elected to the Senate from Utah, where he at least voted for both impeachments of the former president*. Now, he leaves the scene secure in the wisdom that has guided his entire public career — that there are two kinds of Americans: Him, and Everybody Else.

He was as maladroit a public politician as I’ve ever seen. And it took me while to realize that it wasn’t a lack of natural skills that accounted for that, it was the fact that Romney decided never to learn them. He was rich and he was handsome and he was the son of a beloved liberal Republican, and that was always enough to insulate him from the grubbier aspects of his chosen hobby. And he could always walk away.

This time, of course, he has legitimate reasons for walking away. He’d be over 80 by the time his next term was over, and his re-election campaign was going to be tougher due to his public opposition to the former president*. It was going to require some serious retail politics, and the Romneys haven’t paid retail for generations. But he will stand in history as a great missed opportunity. He had a lot of the wherewithal needed to keep the Republican Party from itself, if he only cared enough to do it.

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Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: Mitt Romney Exits, Stage RightPost + Comments (64)

Mitt Romney being marginally less awful than his Republican colleagues—whom even a spineless empty suit like him finds abhorrent—does not detract from the fact that he is a shitty person.

“Biden can’t lead, Trump won’t.” Screw this purposeless patrician hack. https://t.co/NRYLG6RICM

— Peter Wolf (@peterawolf) September 14, 2023

Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: Mitt Romney Exits, Stage Right 2

Annie Karni, at the NYTimes — “Six Takeaways From Romney’s Tea-Spilling Biography”:

… Publicly, Mr. Romney has long been on an island in a party subsumed by Trumpism. Privately, he reveals, many of his colleagues, including Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the longtime Republican leader, are actually on the same page when it comes to his dim view of Donald J. Trump.

“Almost without exception,” Mr. Romney told Mr. Coppins, “they shared my view of the president.”

Mr. Romney kept a tally of his colleagues who approached him to privately express solidarity when he publicly criticized Mr. Trump, often saying they envied his ability to air his views. At one point, he told his staff, the list reached more than a dozen.

Mr. Romney also recalled a 2019 visit Mr. Trump made to the weekly Senate Republican lunch in the Capitol. The senators gave the president a standing ovation and were attentive and encouraging during his remarks about what he called the “Russia hoax.” They nodded when he said the G.O.P. would be known as “the party of health care” after they moved on from impeachment. But as soon as Mr. Trump left the room, the senators all burst out laughing…

Mr. Romney, who unsuccessfully sought the presidency twice, was tempted to make a third run in 2024, this time to mount a kind of anti-Trump, kamikaze mission possible only for a politician with nothing to lose.

“I must admit, I’d love being on the stage with Donald Trump … and just saying: ‘That’s stupid. Why are you saying that?’ ” Mr. Romney said. He dropped the idea once he realized the project would only help ensure another Trump victory.

He then toyed with forming a new political party with Senator Joe Manchin III, the centrist Democrat from West Virginia. His working slogan for it was “stop the stupid,” and he saw the goal not as running a likely doomed third-party candidate, but as endorsing “whichever party’s nominee isn’t stupid,” Mr. Romney explained. It is not clear if the plan has moved beyond the back-of-the-envelope stage…

(Spoiler: No way in Mormon Gehenna is Mitt Romney spending any significant amount of time with Joe Manchin, ugh.)

They seem to forget who is the real Willard Mitt Romney. Mr "Binders full of women" & "47% of Americans love free stuff" is the same as the people in his party. He pushed self deportation as his immigration policy. He's does his dirty works with more "class" and in secret.

— King Tampon I™ (@AfricanPrincess) September 14, 2023

So did Sen. Romney share this account with the January 6th Committee, who spent a year doggedly piecing together what happened on 1/6 and in the days & week’s prior? How is it courageous or responsible to withhold this info from your congressional colleagues investigating this? https://t.co/tA8gJsf8oS

— Sherrilyn Ifill (@SIfill_) September 14, 2023

Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: Mitt Romney Exits, Stage Right 3

“We turned to racism and fascism because you guys were mean to a multimillionaire who called half the country “worthless”” is not the argument you think it is.

— ?? (@jackfishemoji) September 15, 2023

Interestingly, Republicans deciding that they are entitled to the presidency and to special treatment they'd never extend to others to such a degree that they opted for trying to break Constitutional democracy while rationalizing it as someone else's fault is also the criticism. https://t.co/IP21HFqsDJ

— Nicholas Grossman (@NGrossman81) September 15, 2023

Republicans talk about the 2012 election like "we stifled our demons once and offered you a relatively decent human being and you scoffed at our generosity, you gave us no choice but to become irredeemable fascists, hope you're happy."

— Not up for trouble, please stop asking (@agraybee) September 15, 2023

The part of Romney’s final speech that landed with a thud for me was when he tried to “both sides” it with Biden and Trump. As far as I know, Manchin and Synema haven’t had to pay for round the clock security because they’re afraid rabid Joe Biden fans will murder them https://t.co/NDUaUkSiUK

— Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma) September 14, 2023

Cold Grey Dawn Open Thread: Mitt Romney Exits, Stage Right 1

There’s something very morbidly funny about the fact that towards the end of his Senate career, Romney preferred to work with colleagues he saw as sincerely insane over those who were cynically faking insanity pic.twitter.com/oymvrXKgRI

— Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma) September 13, 2023

it is always strange to me when people's reason for believing a politican "honourable" boils down to "they knew what they were saying and doing were wrong, but did it anyway because they wanted to win".

— Dan Davies (@dsquareddigest) September 14, 2023

Excellent / Horrifying Read: The Patriot — How General Mark Milley protected the Constitution from Donald Trump

by Anne Laurie|  September 21, 202311:05 pm| 77 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Military, Trumpery

Shut the fuck up, STEVE pic.twitter.com/LrNUjLdFtn

— vocational politics appreciation account (@Convolutedname) September 21, 2023

Whether or not you agree with General Milley, this longish read has already garnered quite a bit of attention, and it’s going to get more. Jeffrey Goldberg, in the Atlantic:

… In normal times, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the principal military adviser to the president, is supposed to focus his attention on America’s national-security challenges, and on the readiness and lethality of its armed forces. But the first 16 months of Milley’s term, a period that ended when Joe Biden succeeded Donald Trump as president, were not normal, because Trump was exceptionally unfit to serve. “For more than 200 years, the assumption in this country was that we would have a stable person as president,” one of Milley’s mentors, the retired three-star general James Dubik, told me. That this assumption did not hold true during the Trump administration presented a “unique challenge” for Milley, Dubik said.

Milley was careful to refrain from commenting publicly on Trump’s cognitive unfitness and moral derangement. In interviews, he would say that it is not the place of the nation’s flag officers to discuss the performance of the nation’s civilian leaders.

But his views emerged in a number of books published after Trump left office, written by authors who had spoken with Milley, and many other civilian and military officials, on background. In The Divider, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser write that Milley believed that Trump was “shameful,” and “complicit” in the January 6 attack. They also reported that Milley feared that Trump’s “ ‘Hitler-like’ embrace of the big lie about the election would prompt the president to seek out a ‘Reichstag moment.’ ”…

Twenty men have served as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs since the position was created after World War II. Until Milley, none had been forced to confront the possibility that a president would try to foment or provoke a coup in order to illegally remain in office. A plain reading of the record shows that in the chaotic period before and after the 2020 election, Milley did as much as, or more than, any other American to defend the constitutional order, to prevent the military from being deployed against the American people, and to forestall the eruption of wars with America’s nuclear-armed adversaries. Along the way, Milley deflected Trump’s exhortations to have the U.S. military ignore, and even on occasion commit, war crimes. Milley and other military officers deserve praise for protecting democracy, but their actions should also cause deep unease. In the American system, it is the voters, the courts, and Congress that are meant to serve as checks on a president’s behavior, not the generals. Civilians provide direction, funding, and oversight; the military then follows lawful orders.

The difficulty of the task before Milley was captured most succinctly by Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster, the second of Trump’s four national security advisers. “As chairman, you swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, but what if the commander in chief is undermining the Constitution?” McMaster said to me.

For the actions he took in the last months of the Trump presidency, Milley, whose four-year term as chairman, and 43-year career as an Army officer, will conclude at the end of September, has been condemned by elements of the far right. Kash Patel, whom Trump installed in a senior Pentagon role in the final days of his administration, refers to Milley as “the Kraken of the swamp.” Trump himself has accused Milley of treason. Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump White House official, has said that Milley deserves to be placed in “shackles and leg irons.” If a second Trump administration were to attempt this, however, the Trumpist faction would be opposed by the large group of ex-Trump-administration officials who believe that the former president continues to pose a unique threat to American democracy, and who believe that Milley is a hero for what he did to protect the country and the Constitution.

“Mark Milley had to contain the impulses of people who wanted to use the United States military in very dangerous ways,” Kelly told me. “Mark had a very, very difficult reality to deal with in his first two years as chairman, and he served honorably and well. The president couldn’t fathom people who served their nation honorably.” Kelly, along with other former administration officials, has argued that Trump has a contemptuous view of the military, and that this contempt made it extraordinarily difficult to explain to Trump such concepts as honor, sacrifice, and duty…

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Excellent / Horrifying Read: <em>The Patriot — How General Mark Milley protected the Constitution from Donald Trump</em>Post + Comments (77)

The story of Milley’s promotion to the chairmanship captures much about the disorder in Donald Trump’s mind, and in his White House.

By 2018, Trump was growing tired of General Dunford, a widely respected Marine officer. After one White House briefing by Dunford, Trump turned to aides and said, “That guy is smart. Why did he join the military?” Trump did not consider Dunford to be sufficiently “loyal,” and he was seeking a general who would pledge his personal fealty. Such generals don’t tend to exist in the American system—Michael Flynn, Trump’s QAnon-addled first national security adviser, is an exception—but Trump was adamant.

The president had also grown tired of James Mattis, the defense secretary. He had hired Mattis in part because he’d been told his nickname was “Mad Dog.” It wasn’t—that had been a media confection—and Mattis proved far more cerebral, and far more independent-minded, than Trump could handle. So when Mattis recommended David Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff, to become the next chairman, Trump rejected the choice. (In ordinary presidencies, the defense secretary chooses the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the president, by custom, accedes to the choice.)…

But a group of ex–Army officers then close to Trump had been lobbying for an Army general for the chairmanship, and Milley, the Army chief of staff, was the obvious candidate. Despite a reputation for being prolix and obstreperous in a military culture that, at its highest reaches, values discretion and rhetorical restraint, Milley was popular with many Army leaders, in part because of the reputation he’d developed in Iraq and Afghanistan as an especially effective war fighter. A son of working-class Boston, Milley is a former hockey player who speaks bluntly, sometimes brutally. “I’m Popeye the fucking sailorman,” he has told friends. “I yam what I yam.” This group of former Army officers, including Esper, who was then serving as the secretary of the Army, and David Urban, a West Point graduate who was key to Trump’s Pennsylvania election effort, believed that Trump would take to Milley, who had both an undergraduate degree from Princeton and the personality of a hockey enforcer. “Knowing Trump, I knew that he was looking for a complete carnivore, and Milley fit that bill,” Urban told me. “He checked so many boxes for Trump.”…

During Milley’s time in the Trump administration, the disagreements and misunderstandings between the Pentagon and the White House all seemed to follow the same pattern: The president—who was incapable of understanding or unwilling to understand the aspirations and rules that guide the military—would continually try to politicize an apolitical institution. This conflict reached its nadir with the Lafayette Square incident in June 2020. The day when Milley appeared in uniform by the president’s side, heading into the square, has been studied endlessly. What is clear is that Milley (and Mark Esper) walked into an ambush, and Milley extracted himself as soon as he could, which was too late.

The image of a general in combat fatigues walking with a president who has a well-known affection for the Insurrection Act—the 1807 law that allows presidents to deploy the military to put down domestic riots and rebellions—caused consternation and anger across the senior-officer ranks, and among retired military leaders…

======

“I absolutely, positively shouldn’t have been there,” Milley says of Lafayette Square. “I’m a soldier, and fundamental to this republic is for the military to stay out of politics.”

“I just about ended my friendship with Mark over Lafayette Square,” General Peter Chiarelli, the now-retired former vice chief of staff of the Army, told me. Chiarelli was once Milley’s superior, and he considered him to be among his closest friends. “I watched him in uniform, watched the whole thing play out, and I was pissed. I wrote an editorial about the proper role of the military that was very critical of Mark, and I was about to send it, and my wife said, ‘You really want to do that—end a treasured friendship—­like this?’ She said I should send it to him instead, and of course she was right.” When they spoke, Milley made no excuses, but said it had not been his intention to look as if he was doing Trump’s bidding. Milley explained the events of the day to Chiarelli: He was at FBI headquarters, and had been planning to visit National Guardsmen stationed near the White House when he was summoned to the Oval Office. Once he arrived, Trump signaled to everyone present that they were heading outside. Ivanka Trump found a Bible and they were on their way.

“As a commissioned officer, I have a duty to ensure that the military stays out of politics,” Milley told me. “This was a political act, a political event. I didn’t realize it at the moment. I probably should have, but I didn’t, until the event was well on its way. I peeled off before the church, but we’re already a minute or two into this thing, and it was clear to me that it was a political event, and I was in uniform. I absolutely, positively shouldn’t have been there. The political people, the president and others, can do whatever they want. But I can’t. I’m a soldier, and fundamental to this republic is for the military to stay out of politics.”…

The week after Lafayette Square, Milley made his apology in the National Defense University speech—a speech that helped repair his relationship with the officer corps but destroyed his relationship with Trump.

“There are different gradients of what is bad. The really bad days are when people get killed in combat,” Milley told me. “But those 90 seconds were clearly a low point from a personal and professional standpoint for me, over the course of 43, 44 years of service. They were searing. It was a bad moment for me because it struck at the heart of the credibility of the institution.”…

I asked Milley to describe the evolution of his post–Lafayette Square outlook. “You know this term teachable moment ?” he asked. “Every month thereafter I just did something publicly to continually remind the force about our responsibilities … What I’m trying to do the entire summer, all the way up to today, is keep the military out of actual politics.”

He continued, “We stay out of domestic politics, period, full stop, not authorized, not permitted, illegal, immoral, unethical—­­we don’t do it.” I asked if he ever worried about pockets of insurrectionists within the military.

“We’re a very large organization—2.1 million people, active duty and reserves. Some of the people in the organization get outside the bounds of the law. We have that on occasion. We’re a highly disciplined force dedicated to the protection of the Constitution and the American people … Are there one or two out there who have other thoughts in their mind? Maybe. But the system of discipline works.”…

Trump was and is a deranged man who has no sense of honor or duty. Apparently, that’s what his cult loves about him. https://t.co/QKaj5Y0K4L

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) September 21, 2023

CNN's coverage at the time vs reality pic.twitter.com/fIIZ7SuwR2

— Eric Schultz (@EricSchultz) September 21, 2023

In my heart I know that Trump is guilty of basically every depravity caused by a dearth of human feeling, but it never fails to shock me to see accounts of him saying it out loud to other people like this. https://t.co/ncJdy3V5tQ

— The Fig Economy (@figgityfigs) September 21, 2023

Thursday Evening Open Thread: GOP War to the Knife Spork

by Anne Laurie|  September 21, 20237:12 pm| 73 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republicans in Disarray!

Thursday Evening Open Thread:  GOP War to the <del>Knife</del> Spork

(John Deering via GoComics.com)

 
Anybody wanna hand them some sharp implements? Nothing too dangerous — maybe some sharp scissors?

Note sender:

https://t.co/vxYqKnLxNq pic.twitter.com/Z48ppBkBZQ

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 20, 2023

McCarthy genuinely making the case for sending the GOP back to minority where they can do less harm: “just want to burn the whole place down.” https://t.co/7TugFOToLA

— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) September 21, 2023

The House GOP, which is “tearing itself apart”, is divided into three factions. There’s the Freedom Caucus; abt 160 reps who do what the Freedom Caucus tells them to do; and about 20 moderates who bitch and moan before doing what the Freedom Caucus tells them to do.

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 20, 2023

House Republicans like Gaetz, Greene, and Boebert are “not serious people,” @JohnJHarwood tells @brianstelter. “They’re on television, they have podcasts or whatever, but they’re not built to do what politicians have to do to make government work.” https://t.co/TG9vlTO9By

— Michael Calderone (@mlcalderone) September 21, 2023

This is all GOP nonsense.

When @HouseDemocrats had a slim majority, we made investments in infrastructure and manufacturing. We cut the cost of prescription drugs.

Instead of honoring our bipartisan deal and protecting American jobs, McCarthy is consumed with keeping his job. pic.twitter.com/Hr8frpkeKa

— Katherine Clark (@WhipKClark) September 21, 2023

Thursday Evening Open Thread: GOP War to the <del>Knife</del> SporkPost + Comments (73)

Thursday Morning Open Thread: The GOP Death Cult Doubles Down In Its War On Women

by Anne Laurie|  September 21, 20238:12 am| 164 Comments

This post is in: GOP Death Cult, Healthcare, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, The War On Women

Let’s be clear: Donald Trump is responsible for ending Roe v. Wade.

And if you vote for him, he’ll go even further. pic.twitter.com/24Xq6s33wv

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 19, 2023

Wow.

As the dad of a teen girl, this ad cuts to the bone.

America needs to wake up. Republicans are BEYOND extreme. #MAGAIsWatchingYou pic.twitter.com/MQJSSGSgas

— Nick Knudsen ???? (@NickKnudsenUS) September 19, 2023


Yep:

Hadley’s story is important.

Under Kentucky’s current law—which Daniel Cameron supports and defended to the Supreme Court—women and girls like her would have no options. pic.twitter.com/U89QieNgr2

— Andy Beshear (@AndyBeshearKY) September 20, 2023

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Thursday Morning Open Thread: The GOP Death Cult Doubles Down In Its War On WomenPost + Comments (164)

This ad is genuinely hard to watch, and it's also a sign of the wild situation in Kentucky, where Democrats are going on the offensive on abortion, *and it's working* https://t.co/5gAnqHucvk pic.twitter.com/XlvgERSVa5

— Opinion Haver (@AsInMarx) September 20, 2023

This weekend, Donald Trump told a lie about “after-birth abortions”.

And after so many years of binging Fox News, it’s not hard to see where he got that (completely nonsense) idea: https://t.co/Du5h2ktpsF pic.twitter.com/P76huO4Jhv

— Kat Abu (@abughazalehkat) September 18, 2023

Hats off to every journalist who said the pro-life movement would turn on Trump instead of just adjusting their definition of pro-life, way to not get it after 8 years. https://t.co/9cy5ZHneZT

— Not up for trouble, please stop asking (@agraybee) September 19, 2023

It's possible that the 2024 presidential election will be the first post-Dobbs election where the Democrat doesn't significantly over-perform, but it seems unwise to bet on that.

— Not up for trouble, please stop asking (@agraybee) September 20, 2023

Thursday Morning Open Thread 10

Grey Dawn Open Thread: The Missing F35 Has Been Found (Dammit)

by Anne Laurie|  September 21, 20235:04 am| 64 Comments

This post is in: Military, Open Threads, Tech News & Issues, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

Late Night Open Thread:  The Vernal Pool of Social-Media News Jokes - STOCKPILE

(Walt Handelsman via GoComics.com)

BREAKING: Authorities have found debris that belongs to a missing F-35 Marine fighter jet that crashed in South Carolina after its pilot ejected. https://t.co/FAKQo3qkBJ

— The Associated Press (@AP) September 18, 2023

News-related jokes on social media usually have the lifespan of a vernal pool, but sometimes I regret the ones that die too swiftly…

This tweet just cured my imposter syndrome https://t.co/vqHl03bhO6

— Taylor Delong (@taylordelong18) September 18, 2023

losing an F-35 because the pilot put it on autopilot before ejecting and then not being able to track it because it’s too good of a stealth fighter is probably the funniest possible fuck-up in modern military history

— DaSkrubKing (@DaSkrubKing) September 18, 2023

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Grey Dawn Open Thread: The Missing F35 Has Been Found (Dammit)Post + Comments (64)

Grey Dawn Open Thread:  The Missing F35 Has Been Found (Dammit)

US Marines to hit missing F-35B with rolled up newspaper after finding it in the neighbor’s yard with a dead MiG-31 Foxhound in its mouth.

— Starfish Unexpectedly Cancelled For Hating Hitler (@IRHotTakes) September 18, 2023


(MiG-31)

Grey Dawn Open Thread:  The Missing F35 Has Been Found (Dammit) 1

the f-35 goes online on december 15th, 2006. human decisions are removed from strategic defense. the f-35 begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware 2:14 p.m., eastern time, september 18th. in a panic, they try to pull the plug.https://t.co/tdT8grHjaK

— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) September 18, 2023

I know we don’t want to face it, but we all know it’s true: the F-35 ran off with a Chinese balloon.

— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) September 18, 2023

Not technically social media, but Alex Petri remains a treasure:

Hypothetically, if a plane followed me home, looking lost and confused, would I need to contact the U.S. military immediately?…

I know this might be the jet the U.S. military is looking for, but I have a lot of questions I want answered before releasing it to its prior owner. I think a jet’s owners need to be responsible, even if it is a purebred jet that can cost in some cases over $100 million. I understand that you don’t have to keep your jet on a leash everywhere it goes, but then the least you can do is install an absolutely reliable tracker. A jet its size, with its needs, should not be wandering around on its own. It might get into a bad situation with a smaller, more aggressive plane, or a bigger plane that was on-leash.

Also, I hate to say this, but I was Googling the U.S. military and its record of caring for its F-35s, and I was not at all satisfied with what I saw! This is not the first one to suffer an unexpected mishap, nor the only one in South Carolina. Nor is it even the most expensive. I know that some breeds have issues; I used to have a bulldog! But if you bring a breed with these needs home, one that has a single engine and is vulnerable to fire and something called “wing drop,” you have to be ready to step up to the task! That’s all…

as we all know, america maintains the best air force in the world. what is less well-known is that we also maintain the second-best air force in the world, and on top of that we decided to *also* maintain the third-best air force in the world. you know, for kicks

— Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li (@perdricof) September 18, 2023

There’s a (probably apocryphal) story of a diplomat watching Marine helicopters take off and saying “I understand why your navy has an army but why does your navy’s army need an air force?” https://t.co/ewhSMOCb5G

— Not up for trouble, please stop asking (@agraybee) September 20, 2023

I don’t understand all the terms in the tweet below, but I suspect Soonergrunt knows whereof he tweets…

The chain of command started talking about double arm interval across North Carolina and all leave and pass revoked until further notice and suddenly IT JUST APPEARS!
It’s like fucking magic!
Or the E-4 Mafia took care of business. https://t.co/JSa9HIuTeb

— Mike Galletly ???? (@galletly_mike) September 19, 2023

(The E-4 Mafia explained)

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