Seems like we could use a little more thread to chew upon, so here’s some not-quite-random material to masticate:
Hillary, today in the Church of Latter-Day Saints owned Deseret News:
Trump’s Muslim ban would undo centuries of American tradition and values. To this day, I wonder if he even understands the implications of his proposal. This policy would literally undo what made America great in the first place.
But you don’t have to take it from me. Listen to Mitt Romney, who said Trump “fired before aiming” when he decided a blanket religious ban was a solution to the threat of terrorism.
Listen to former Sen. Larry Pressler, who said Trump’s plan reminded him of when Missouri Gov. Lilburn Boggs singled out Mormons in his infamous extermination order of 1838.
Or listen to your governor, who saw Trump’s statement as a reminder of President Rutherford B. Hayes’ attempt to limit Mormon immigration to America in 1879.
Instead of giving into demagoguery, Gov. Gary Herbert is setting a compassionate example and welcoming Syrian refugees fleeing religious persecution and terrorism. Once they’ve gone through a rigorous screening process, he is opening your state’s doors to some of the most vulnerable people in the world.Americans don’t have to agree on everything. We never have. But when it comes to religion, we strive to be accepting of everyone around us. That’s because we need each other. And we know that it so often takes a village — or a ward — working together to build the change we hope to see.
The Polyester Cockwomble, uttering word-like strings of sound in the Old Dominion State:
Trump himself made a veiled reference to the flap during a rally Wednesday in Abingdon, Va., protesting media coverage and drawing loud applause by telling the crowd that “the Second Amendment is under siege” from Clinton and other politicians.
Thomas Friedman in today’s The New York Times (sic! I know):
During the Republican convention, with its repeated chants about Clinton of “lock her up,” a U.S.-based columnist for Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, Chemi Shalev, wrote: “Like the extreme right in Israel, many Republicans conveniently ignore the fact that words can kill. There are enough people with a tendency for violence that cannot distinguish between political stagecraft and practical exhortations to rescue the country by any available means. If anyone has doubts, they could use a short session with Yigal Amir, Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, who was inspired by the rabid rhetoric hurled at the Israeli prime minister in the wake of the Oslo accords.”
People are playing with fire here, and there is no bigger flamethrower than Donald Trump. Forget politics; he is a disgusting human being. His children should be ashamed of him. I only pray that he is not simply defeated, but that he loses all 50 states so that the message goes out across the land — unambiguously, loud and clear: The likes of you should never come this way again.
Me, on the subject of the “inarticulate” excuse for Trump’s “Who will rid me…” meditation on political assassination:
The first Tuesday in November can’t come too soon.
Image: Paul Cezanne, The Murder, 1867-70.
MattF
And… Trump’s reaction to the Secret Service statement that he’s been ‘spoken to’? Denial. The Secret Service is lying.
David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch
CerseiHillary is one tough badass. Secret Service tackles loony protester who rushed the stage and she didn’t even blink. (Video)Trump would have hit the deck, curled up in the fetal position, and cried for his mommy.
Trentrunner
Imagine if Hillary had said:
“Now, if Trump wins in November, his justices will fully repeal the Civil Rights Act. If he gets in, it’s over, there won’t be anything to do. Though I suppose Black Lives Matter might do something, but…”
But today I see CNN is back to bothsidesism 24/7, with something about Hillary SoS emails or something. I thought Ana Marie Cox was going to have an aneurysm debating some mook from the Trump campaign. I don’t blame her.
dmsilev
I keep wondering how he’s going to get worse, because we all know that he will get worse. Punches a nun? Attacks puppies and kittens? Literally pulls his pants down and waves Little Donald around?
Mai.naem.mobile
CNN is reporting that the Secret Service did talk to the Trump Campaign about the second amendment comments. Just remember this guy is the GOP nominee for POTUS. This is who they consider qualified to be POTUS. Words fail me.
Tom Levenson
@dmsilev: Extremely Little Donald. Yuuugely Tiny Donald.
Gin & Tonic
And the specialists at our almost-as-favorite-as-BJ blog, Language Log, assess Trump’s attempted justification as “utter bullshit.” I think that’s one of those technical terms that has the same meaning in the specialist literature as in the colloquial.
MattF
@dmsilev: I’m guessing ever deeper into conspiracy-land. It’s where he and his allies are headed right now, anyhow. And it’s where RW radio has been for a long time.
PigDog
@Trentrunner:
The media will get its horserace one way or another. Maybe they will all show the Citizens United video or something.
MattF
@Gin & Tonic: It’s dangerous to get into an argument with a grammarian.
SFAW
Feckless narcissism cannot fail, it can only be failed. Or Trumped
I’ve been saying that all these crazy/stupid/evil wingnuts — both elected, and the ones who vote for them — should be moved to
Nuevo AztlanTexas, have Deadbeat Donnie’s wall erected around it, and declare them the outlaw state known as Dumbfuckistan. Non-wingnuts would be welcomed to the remaining 49 states, of course.Because, really, some of these assholes are too fucking stoopid to be allowed into “polite society.”
dmsilev
@MattF: Maybe someone can nudge him into suggesting the Moon landings were faked. Or that tinfoil hats are useful for protecting oneself from the Orbital Mind-Control Lasers.
jl
We need to change IOKIYAR to EIOKIYAR. Since everything appears to be ‘OK’ now.
When Trump showed the he did not know, or did not care because he wanted to turn foreign policy into a penny-ante shakedown scheme, how NATO worked, McConnell shrugged it off as a ‘rookie mistake’.
schrodinger's cat
@Mai.naem.mobile: He is not qualified.
singfoom
@Mai.naem.mobile: This is who more Republican primary voters than ever before in history consider to be qualified for President. I think the ones who disagreed stayed home. Or maybe, for some reason, the reasonable people have left the party….hmmmm….
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Mai.naem.mobile: Worse yet, this is apparently not the first time. So he knew what he was doing and did it anyway, and he’ll do it again, because those camera aren’t getting turned off for the next ninety days, and until they are he can do anything he wants. The press will run cover.
Personally, I gotta say, Trump’s ascension to the top of the GOP and having even a possibility of being put in charge of this nation of ours has me doing something I’ve never done in my life before. Questioning the overall value of democracy, at least America’s version of it. A system that can produce this ambulatory orange shitpile as a presidential candidate is a broken system.
@SFAW: THAT is a surefire way to get Mexico to pay for a wall.
OzarkHillbilly
@Trentrunner:
Black Lives Matter has never advocated for 2nd amendment solutions and when somebody resorted to 2As they were among the first to condemn them. Your comparison smears BLM.
jl
@dmsilev: Many say Hillary Clinton was piloting that spaceship hiding behind the comet.
Many more say Nobama lets HRC take his time machine out on a spin from time to time. He just disables the 2008 time notch first.
Bill E Pilgrim
@dmsilev: It reminds me of one of the favorite phrases of finance reporters who talk about how the market is “looking for a bottom”, or “probing for a bottom” is another one, and yes it always seems slightly dirty, especially when I actually heard a CNBC reporter say “well, everyone here on the floor is just looking for a firm bottom”, but that’s beside the point, which is that that’s exactly what everyone seems to be looking for here. Is there a depth beyond which he will not go?
Trentrunner
@OzarkHillbilly: Missing the point, as usual. The point is that media would have a collective coronary for weeks if Hillary made a veiled threat like that. I’m smearing nothing. Again, fuck right off.
Roger Moore
I hope there’s enough time between now and then for Trump to lose another 10 points in the polls.
singfoom
@SFAW: Robert Anton Wilson had that idea years ago and fictionalized it either in The Illuminati Trilogy or Schrodinger’s Cat. I think it was Oklahoma instead of Texas, but everyone who wanted their guns etc voluntarily went to “Hell” which was a libertarian paradise/dystopia of no laws surrounded by giant walls with lasers. In the book, John Wayne moved to hell and became a cattle magnate.
Unfortunately we have to live in the Republic even with those that we disagree with. Because polite society has to include impolite people. YMMV, Cheers
amk
All that ass kissing by teann laid to waste.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@OzarkHillbilly: For fucks sakes, it’s an example. A hypothetical, if you will. Do you need some ointment for that rash in your ass?
JPL
@MattF: Do we know if Trump has ever made a honest statement?
Roger Moore
@dmsilev:
I expect him to start breaking out the really foul language pretty soon. Expect the N-word for Obama and the B- and C-words for Clinton.
SFAW
@dmsilev:
It’s an unresolvable question — have we reached Peak Wingnut yet? Will we ever? Every time we think they can’t get any worse, they outdo themselves. It’s like a James Spader closing argument.
MattF
@JPL: My recollection is that there was a comparative fact-checking chart showing at least one.
Villago Delenda Est
@SFAW: Deport all ammosexuals there. Then they’ll take care of the ammosexual problem themselves.
Mnemosyne
@David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch:
Now I’m starting to wonder why animal rights protesters are targeting Hillary. Anyone have any clue?
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
The best guess is because it will attract attention. They’re probably far enough out on the loonie fringe that no mainstream candidate is good enough for them, so they might as well protest at a rally where doing so won’t get the shit kicked out of them.
OzarkHillbilly
@Trentrunner: Oooooooo…. that almost hurt my feeling. Good thing it didn’t because it’s the last one I have. Maybe little Trenty should go back to his room and put on his bigboy commenting pants?
I refrained from saying that you smeared BLM as I thought the smearing was accidental and done with out malice. It would now appear that I was wrong and you knew exactly what you were saying, and that that was in fact the point of your comment, seeing as you never bothered to retract that part of your statement.
Grow the fuck up.
Mnemosyne
So a writer at Mediaite seems to think that The Donald’s “full quote” is not as threatening, because Donald finishes his blurt by saying that it will be a “terrible day” if Hillary’s judges get in. What, exactly, are they smoking over there?
Matt McIrvin
@singfoom: Robert Heinlein wrote it earlier as “Coventry”. It’s an interesting story in that it provides a window into Heinlein’s youthful politics before he went full libertarian: the protagonist is an idiot who considers himself a rugged individualist and welcomes his mandatory exile to no-laws-land, but, surprise surprise, it turns out to be a craphole run by mobsters.
SiubhanDuinne
There’s not enough cray-cray in Campaign 2016, so some dude in Manhattan has decided to scale Trump Tower — to the delight/consternation of a crowd of onlookers. Going on now, or was 5 minutes ago.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I wonder ow long it’ll take this country to get over this shit that Trump has unloosed on us.
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Link to coverage of TT climber.
PhoenixRising
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Problem is they’ll want it on the southern border.
dmsilev
@SiubhanDuinne: Doesn’t bode well for Trump’s Great Mexican Wall if anyone with a few suction cups can scale it.
Corner Stone
Wow! Commenter v Commenter incivility and I am not even a part of it?! Now you guys are trying to hurt my feelings!
Emma
@srv: And your point is, dolt?
Corner Stone
@dmsilev:
Maybe he was inspired by the USA Men’s Olympic swim team. It seems they are trying to make “cupping” a thing.
Thor Heyerdahl
To riff off of Harvey Korman’s (RIP) quote from Blazing Saddles “How did he do such fantastic stunts with such little feet?”
How does Trump fool so many with such little hands?
(Signed a Canadian whose hand size is 60 percentiles higher than the tangerine scrotum’s)
Roger Moore
@SiubhanDuinne:
And apparently there’s footage of Malia Obama smoking a joint at Lollapaloza. Expect The Donald to be crazier than usual trying to get the attention back on him.
aimai
@Tom Levenson: I used to have a great quotation from, I think, Confucius or else Mencius about the importance of the right speech by the ruler (emperor). I can’t find it but it is very apposite, here in Trumplandia. I used to use it before exams. It goes something like this:
The Emperor asks the scholar what is the most important thing–right speech or right action? And the scholar answers “right speech is the most important thing. Because if the Emperor doesn’t choose his words correctly the people won’t know what to do, and if they don’t know what to do they will do the wrong thing and in this way the entire society will come crashing down. So before eerything else the ruler must be careful and circumspect and thoughtful and say only and exactly what is needed, using the exact right words, or society comes to a terrible end. “(this is a total paraphrase since I can’t find the quote anywhere to check it and I haven’t used it in about twenty years).
Corner Stone
@Roger Moore:
Is that like a Reverse Whitey Tape? What’s the Conspiracy Theory Level on this one?
mike in dc
Wait, are the media actually wasting hours of time covering a guy climbing Trump tower?
aimai
@Mnemosyne: Yes, its like they argue that adding “Sad!” to something means that Donald didn’t mean it.
OzarkHillbilly
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
People in BLM might take exception. If he wanted a hypothetical why didn’t he pick somebody who plays with guns on a regular basis?
He picked a really bad, lousy, hypothetical, comparing peaceful protesters to gun fondlers, and yeah, I took exception. No I don’t need any ointment. Do you? Did I hurt somebody’s feelings by pointing out a simple fucking truth? Maybe TR got some butt hurt. Ask if he needs it.
SFAW
@singfoom:
Way to misdirect. Forgive me if I’m unimpressed by your preaching, or deliberate missing-the-point, or whatever that was.
There is a difference between “those that we disagree with” and “those who are actively trying to destroy the American ideal.” I may not want to spend a lot of time with those that I “disagree” with, but being somewhat opinionated myself, I figure it goes both ways. (Of course, it’s THEIR problem if they fail to realize just how right I am.)
But as Cole wrote, lo these many years ago, it’s a case of the RWNJs ordering tire rims and anthrax. That’s no longer in the realm of “disagreement.” It’s far beyond “polite” and “impolite.” And, by the way, since English seems not to be your preferred language, the phrase “polite society” is not generally used as an expression of being polite vs being impolite.
SFAW
@Thor Heyerdahl:
I REALLY do not want to know how you know that.
Robert Sneddon
@MattF: Or a librarian. I was on the bus this evening and at the stop outside the National Library of Scotland someone got on with a bookbag with a logo reading “Very Important Librarian Stuff”. I had to agree, librarians are very important. They know stuff.
singfoom
@Roger Moore: That had to be funny. Was there with some of my friends didn’t see her firsthand, but others did and snapped photos of her and her SS guys dressed down.
You can tell a Secret Service agent by how they stand and look at the crowd. They’re pretty conspicuous even in cargo shorts and cubs hats. I’m sure people will try to make hay of a video of her smoking a joint, but our governor here just decriminalized it, so who cares?
Keith P.
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m watching it on fox news amazingly enough. It’s Shep and Greg Gutfield and Dana Perino and they’re all pretty funny with it. Good combo
Thor Heyerdahl
@SFAW: might have my sources mixed up. It could be John Boehner as well.
SFAW
@Mnemosyne:
She’s being mean to the ferret-headed shitgibbon? That’s a two-fer.
Roger Moore
@Thor Heyerdahl:
Please. I’m sure it’s closer to kumquat, at least in size.
singfoom
@SFAW: I’m not preaching, maybe I’m missing the point. Certainly wasn’t looking for you to be impressed.
All I’m trying to say is there’s a line to draw between those that you say are “actively trying to destroy the American ideal” and those you “disagree with”. Sometimes it’s hard to tell which group a person belongs to.
Thanks for the tip about ‘polite society’. That was very kind.
SFAW
@Roger Moore:
AAAAHHH!!! STOPIT!STOPIT!STOPIT!
This is all YOUR fault, Heyerdahl.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@PhoenixRising: Maybe we can go halfsies. I think that’s a worthwhile investment in national security.
debbie
@MattF:
Spoken to more than once, according to those lying Secret Servicers.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Corner Stone:
Fuck you. Fuck you up your stupid ass.
There, does that help.
SiubhanDuinne
@dmsilev:
L to the O to the L !!!
Bill E Pilgrim
@Mnemosyne: Including that line actually just further demolishes the idiotic defense that “he was just saying that they should vote against her”. Everything he was describing was after the election already happened. That line just makes that even more clear.
SiubhanDuinne
@Roger Moore:
Hahaha, that’s awesome! You go, Malia.
Mnemosyne
Anyone else having trouble posting links? I can’t get mine to post even when it’s decently clad in HTML.
SFAW
@singfoom:
At the risk of sounding glib, I would venture to say that the only ones left in the “disagree with” camp are Dems (or maybe Greens, although Jill Stein is doing her level best to “fix” that), and the “destroying the American ideal” crowd is all Rethugs. And it is getting close to the time when all Rethugs are destroyers.
Growing up in NY, Rockefeller was the enemy, because he was a Republican. It was all tribal, not necessarily rational. These days, now that I’m an old fart, I find myself pining for
the fjordsa Republican like Rocky.Bill E Pilgrim
@SiubhanDuinne:
Excellent idea. I’d say make it around 1:1600. To match his hands.
The Golux
@David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch:
Her Secret Service detail must be on hair-trigger alert status after the Clueless Numpty issued his fatwa.
And to repeat myself from another thread: Will Drumpf be the first presidential candidate to be fragged by his own Secret Service detail?
Mnemosyne
(I really hope this doesn’t get posted a million times, but I’m not even getting a moderation message, just a poof.)
Hey, now, kids, let’s not have all of this bickering. Who wants some Broadway stars to sing a tune for us?
(Relax, it’s not Hamilton.)
dedc79
I (mostly) swore off Politico years ago. Anyone know if they still do that nonsense where they identify which candidate “won the day?” (at least I think it was a politico thing). I could totally seem them awarding it to Trump on every day that is relatively quiet.
Major Major Major Major
@SFAW: Basically every Republican Party leader is evil. The other republicans, especially the voters, it gets harder.
singfoom
@SFAW: I can understand where you’re coming from, I just reject the idea that the other political party is the “enemy”. I think we too easily make people we disagree with the “other” and dehumanize them. Are there awful POSes that their every idea I find revolting and disgusting within the R party?
Sure, plenty of them and they suck. But they’re also human beings and they’re also citizens. I’m just tired of the tribalism. Never meant to preach, cheers.
Trollhattan
@Mai.naem.mobile:
“Uh, yeah, Mister Trump, about the assassination threat against Secretary Clinton…What? No, Mister Trump, we’re the Secret Service and have to take every threat seriously, no matter how subtle. What’s that? We…uh…Mister Trump, the Secret Service isn’t technically allowed to have a sense of humor. Anyway, your intelligence briefing is here but I’d like your assurance you won’t be making any more threats…let’s call them ‘jokes’ to Secretary Clinton. Can we count on you, sir? Eyes up here, Mister Trump.”
And, scene.
dedc79
@SFAW: Was at a memorial service recently for the first person to head NY’s Department of Environmental Conservation (which was the first state environmental agency in the nation). He had been a Rockefeller appointee. One of the Rockefellers delivered a eulogy. I remarked to a friend that in all likelihood the last few Rockefeller Republicans in the country were sitting in this room. And I wasn’t just referring to actual members of the Rockefeller family. They are a dying breed, and have been for awhile.
Omnes Omnibus
@The Golux:
No.
jl
@singfoom: Sooner or later, the hard core Trumpites will start causing trouble.
Because their hero will not be president.
Or if, God forbid, He is president, then it will not be the case that All Problems Will End because of the mere fact that His fat ass lands in the seat cushion in the Oval Office. And they will wonder what sinister forces have thwarted the reintroduction of All Things Right and Good.
So, I want as many allies as possible, and I want the ones that I have to be reliable with firm resolve. So, I don’t dismiss whole groups of people.
Miss Bianca
@Tom Levenson: completely o/t, but I am currently listening to an audiobook version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Kidnapped” narrated by Scottish actor Kieron Elliott, and he reads in quite a heavy Scots brogue. Now I’m picturing him throwing “polyester cockwamble” and “bolt ya hamster heedit bampot, away and boil yer napper” at random intervals throughout the narrative and cracking up.
Sometimes I kill me.
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
At the rate he’s going (only on the 19th floor as of 6pm), he may make it by daybreak.
Patricia Kayden
@Mai.naem.mobile: It’s breathtakingly horrific that Trump has more than a zero chance of being President. Anyone who supports him should be asked if they are comfortable with a President who is not articulate and who routinely speaks carelessly. Try to picture him speaking at home or abroad, especially during times of crisis when we need a cool head to soothe the masses, and you cannot imagine him saying anything substantial.
Trump is just not presidential and anyone who believes he is should be embarrassed of him/herself.
Keith G
@Trentrunner: The one problem with the email story is that it has some evergreen components to it. Throughout the course of the next several months, more and more of these emails will gain public notice. So there will be some push to discuss them as they find their way to the public.
The flip the flip side to that is that there seems to be diminishing marginal returns on the story. There is already some polling data showing that most of the public is rather tired of story. This is yet another front where Hillary is making progress.
Major Major Major Major
@Miss Bianca: So much reading and listening, this one.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Steeplejack (tablet):
Rusty chainsaw or old fashioned way?
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack (tablet): Ah, that’s better.
Trollhattan
@Patricia Kayden:
I know you won’t be surprised to hear that any Trumpster I press, even a little, reflexively offers “But I can’t trust Hillary, she’s worse.” The devil you know is worse than the devil you don’t, or something. Not getting “He’s not a politician so he’ll change government.” much these days.
germy
@Patricia Kayden:
They had no problem 2000-2008.
Mary G
I read in comments on another blog that the Hillary commercial showing kids watching Trump’s greatest hits on TV was made by a woman director with an all-female crew who were very protective of and careful with the child actors. Also, all her clothing is made in America and all her printing is done at a union shop.
Money where mouth is, I like it.
Trollhattan
@Keith G:
I think of the emails as twenty-thousand whitey tapes.
Patricia Kayden
@singfoom: As a Black woman, I have no problem with saying that people who support an unqualified, loudmouthed, dangerous Bigot are the enemy. And if they had their way, they would inflict untold damage on people of color, the LGBT community, and many other minority groups with the election of Trump. America has always been a tribalistic country and that won’t change any time soon.
P.S. I can never understand the need of some on the Left to always want to pretend that some groups aren’t under attack by the GOP. Calling Republicans the enemy is the least of our problems.
Corner Stone
@Keith G:
Fenster: I don’t know anything about no fuckin? truck.
Interrogation Cop: Oh, yeah? Well, your friend McManus told us a different story altogether.
Fenster: Oh, is that the one about the hooker with the dysentery?
Interrogation Cop: What are you saying?
Fenster: I said he’ll flip you.
Interrogation Cop: He’ll what?
Fenster: Flip you. Flip ya for real.
p.a.
@singfoom: Damn
QuakerFriends’ schools!Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
Random, but it cracked me up: the “pirate accent” that everyone is familiar with traces back to one specific actor in one specific Disney movie from the 1950s.
Sort of like how Bela Lugosi’s accent became the generic “vampire” accent, but nobody remembers this poor guy.
bemused
@David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch:
More likely peed his pants. He is a 70 year old, overweight guy who sweats a lot.
dedc79
@Miss Bianca: Just had the pleasure of touring the Robert Louis Stevenson museum in Calistoga, California (he honeymooned there, apparently). Highly recommend it if you’re ever in the neighborhood.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Corner Stone:
Here to help.
singfoom
@Patricia Kayden:
Let me be very clear. I wasn’t speaking of Drumpf supporters. Anyone who supports Drumpf indeed is the enemy. That’s not what I was saying above. I was saying that not all Republicans are the “enemy”. Maybe the days are gone where it’s ideas vs. ideas and the compromise that gets worked out for policy works for everyone but not perfectly.
That’s what I was talking about. Nor was I ranking “our problems” in a priority order. Nor was I suggesting that any group is or isn’t under attack. YMMV, cheers.
Miss Bianca
@Major Major Major Major: More audio reading than print reading, these days!
@dedc79: ooh, cool!
bemused
@SFAW:
An island surrounded by sharks would be a better idea. No wall needed.
p.a.
@Trollhattan: Your post may be first known use of ‘Trump’ and ‘subtle’ in same sentence.
amk
@srv: Idiot.
1,000 Flouncing Lurkers (was fidelioscabinet)
@Trentrunner:
@CONGRATULATIONS!: Whether if it is, as the football color commenters would say, a hypothetical or not, it’s a bad example to use because the BLM movement has been the target of so many accusations of intent to comment violence, target law-enforcement personnel, disrupt society, and harass Santa Claus. If we’re going for sarcastic wit, maybe we should try to avoid employing examples that amount to the use of friendly fire. They catch enough of the unfriendly kind. Always remember, as John Scalzi notes, the failure mode of clever is “asshole”, and try not to be that guy.
Mnemosyne
@bemused:
Can we equip the sharks with laser beams?
Or at least Sondheim lyrics?
bemused
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Rabid Trumpies is what worries me.
Mnemosyne
(I really hope this doesn’t get posted a million times, but I’m not even getting a moderation message, just a poof.)
Hey, now, kids, let’s not have all of this bickering. Who wants some Broadway stars to sing a tune for us?
ETA: Heh, so apparently directly referencing A Certain Broadway Show nukes your comment, when I was merely trying to reassure people that the link is NOT related!
Patricia Kayden
@singfoom:
Yes. It is obvious from the fact that on the day of President Obama’s 2009 inauguration, Republicans spent their time eating steaks and plotting his downfall. It’s also obvious from the fact that the Republicans have obstructed every dang thing President Obama has proposed, including sitting on his SCOTUS nominee for the last few months.
I hope Secretary Clinton doesn’t waste any time trying to work with Republicans and also hoping that both the House and Senate flip so she can get some good things done.
I apologize if I misinterpreted your comments but I have no warm and fuzzy feelings towards Conservatives.
Jeffro
@Steeplejack (tablet): (at Corner Stone)
Great minds thinking alike and all that…
I know I’ve agreed with Trentrunner on a few occasions recently, and I’m pretty sure I’ve at least never gotten into it with OzarkHillbilly, how’s about in honor of our (sob) term-limited PBO…beer summit, anyone? Or just a beer? (I don’t know SFAW or singfoom; they’ll have to cover their own tabs)
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: Oh, that is an *awesome* tidbit! And just knowing there’s such a thing as a “dialectblog” makes my heart sing!
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
Call me cynical, but I’m glad they disabled comments. It would have been just horrible.
Taylor
@Mnemosyne:
Plenty of us remember Robert Newton!
Check out Oliver Twist and This Happy Breed for some classic Robert Newton.
Also notable in Around The World in 80 Days (he’s the cop chasing Fogg) and Odd Man out.
bemused
@Mnemosyne:
Heh. Whatever we could do to make their stay memorable.
Keith G
@Trentrunner: And one more thing to you and some others on this thread, Trump is taking a hit for his comments. Of course there are defenders trying to pull fantastical stories and explanations out of their asses. And there are befuddled members of the media who don’t know how to correctly handle this story. So, they are trying to weave a delicate dance that precludes the appropriate judgment that Trump’s actions demand. That is pretty much standard operating procedure and Trump is still paying a price.
I check in here from time to time only to see nattering ninnies clutching their pearls about how unfair things are for Hillary. When in actuality, she’s got to be losing her shit right about now. In a good way.
There is just no imaginable scenario that could have been presented to her a couple months ago which would have shown her to be in as strong a position as she is right now.
Dear sweet Jesus, not only is Trump affirmatively destroying any case that could be made about his competence to be president, he is also failing to have a chance (because of his dumpster-fire shit parade) to develop a portfolio of policies to present to the public describing what a Trump presidency would accomplish. Without a case to make, he can not gain any ground in the states he needs to gain ground in.
So yeah, maybe it would warm our little hearts to the media went to the hysterics over this, as well as the next series of fuck up, but let’s face it that’s probably not going to happen. What is happening is quite enough.
Kathleen
@Mnemosyne: Well, Here and Now’s (NPR) Robin Young, Breathless White Republican Fan Girl, teased an upcoming segment with this question: “What Donald Trump said is sensational but is it criminal?”
gogol's wife
@Keith G:
That’s my feeling too.
Major Major Major Major
@Keith G: Oh, come on. Complaining about the media being unfair to Hillary is only like half of what we do here.
Keith G
@Corner Stone: I didn’t catch that little present left for me by speech recognition. Oh fucking well.
Woodrowfan
It’s the first Tuesday AFTER the first Monday. This year that means it’s the second Tuesday in November.
SFAW
@singfoom:
Good Christ.
They made themselves into the Nihilism Party. The Dems did not start out by saying: “Fuck you all, we’ll never work with you again.” They done that all by theyselves. No matter how many times President Obama offered them the hand of peace (for lack of a better term), no matter how many times the Dems ate shit and gave the Rethugs 90 percent of what they wanted, the Rethugs kept saying “Screw you! We want 120 percent!”
Be that as it may …. We next come to
@singfoom:
So now you’re qualifying it? Interesting. Please note that the comment of mine that got your knickers in a twist — #11 — contains the key phrase:
You’ll note that I did not say “all Republicans.” I didn’t even say “all Republican leaders.”
So, please move that straw man away from any open flames
Major Major Major Major
@Woodrowfan: I never quite understood why they did that. Why not just… the first Tuesday? Second?
Wednesday? I know why it was November and I know why it wasn’t the weekend.
Mnemosyne
@Keith G:
Dude, if we’re not allowed to join hands and dance in glee around the dumpster fire, it’s going to be a loooooong haul to November. Let us have some fun.
SiubhanDuinne
This is nitpicky as all hell, but…
Election Day is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, not simply the first Tuesday. Most years, it’s the same thing, but the 2016 calendar is such that the 1845 law kicks in (because reasons having to do with agrarian society, harvest time, number of days between voting and Electoral College, and other considerations that are wildly irrelevant in the 21st century).
SFAW
@bemused:
Clearly, I am a mere tyro at this stuff, compared to you. I thank you for your most excellent suggestion.
One question, though: will the sharks have frickin’ lasers?
singfoom
@SFAW: My knickers are untwisted. I was responding to Patricia Kayden and clarifying what I said to her as she seemed to ascribe some meaning to my words that I did not intend to impart.
And the discussion started about where that line between evil/stupid is…… I’ve burned the straw man, happily warmed by it’s fire. It seems that I ascribed meaning to your words that you didn’t intend either. No worries, cheers.
Joey Maloney
@JPL: That time he said he’d date his daughter if he could?
Jeffro
@Major Major Major Major:
It’s just one of the many halves, really.
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW:
Frickin’ laser-sighted lasers.
Fair Economist
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Which is odd because usually it’s harder to find a top (at least that’s the stereotype).
Keith G
@Mnemosyne: It’s not the fun that is frustrating, it is the continual exaggeration of the negative. Immediately after this last Trump eruption, there were countless commenters here bemoaning the ‘fact’ that the press was just going to ignore and bury this story. Even though the press is doing a decent job, there were even echoes of that above in this thread.
Our candidate is in a pretty good spot and she seems to not be making any new mistakes. Enjoying this run of good fortune might be a good thing.
Keith G
@Fair Economist: See, this is a much more pleasant use of commenting space.
Mnemosyne
@Keith G:
I’m Irish Catholic. Every silver lining comes with a cloud attached.
Viva BrisVegas
Except atheists. Everybody hates atheists, even other atheists.
Corner Stone
@Viva BrisVegas:
Eh. I’m agnostic on the whole atheist situation.
EthylEster
Mr. Levenson, couldn’t you just post what you think instead of quoting us your tweets?
After all that’s what blogs are for.
Emma
@Mnemosyne: On my Gawd. I remember him! That’s hysterical.
J R in WV
@srv:
I have to say I don’t much care for Erdogan, at all. I suspect the “coup” was like a certain fire in Germany, years ago. And I don’t think the US’s willingness to extradite someone to another country without seeing any evidence is deterministic of that other country’s democracy.
If it takes America extraditing someone to make Turkey a democracy, I’m not understanding what democracy is, nor how we got one here, without someone extraditing someone to us back before we inherited democracy from someone. Is that unclear enough, or should someone keep typing?
Feebog
@Keith G:
Gunna agree with you here. Trump is self imolating and we are bitching that we didn’t get to strike the match. I’m just going to sit back and munch the popcorn for a few days.
rikyrah
@Patricia Kayden:
ICAM.
I do not have the luxury of NOT taking Ferret Head at his word.
The Lodger
@Omnes Omnibus: Look up what happened to Benazir Bhutto. Chief-of-state security doesn’t have to rely on actual weapons.
Tom Levenson
@SiubhanDuinne: awesome. I so love learning esoteric gorgeousness like this.
Captain C
@singfoom: Schroedinger’s Cat, and I think it was Mississippi.