.
Since I am not by nature a nice person, I’ll admit that stories like this make me quietly gleeful. From the Washington Post, “Senate Republicans have tolerated Trump’s controversies. His treatment of Sessions is different”:
… Cornyn is not alone in rallying to the defense of Sessions, who, despite sometimes having waged lonely battles as one of the chamber’s most staunch conservatives, still has many friends among Senate Republicans. Most have issued statements of support, and several are making private calls to reassure Sessions that they are behind him.
But the tension over Trump’s treatment of Sessions goes beyond the senators defending a friend.
Unlike any other controversial move that Trump has pondered in his six months as president, Senate Republicans are sending preemptive signals that firing the attorney general or pressuring him to resign would be a terrible move.
Some have warned high-level White House officials that it would look as though Trump were making the move solely to shut down an investigation of his campaign and the White House, now overseen by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, while also making clear that they agree with Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from an investigation of the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia.
Replacing Sessions would be difficult, and the idea of Trump making a recess appointment during the planned four-week break in August is foolhardy. Democrats can indefinitely stall a resolution to fully adjourn the Senate, having already forced minute-long periods during even shorter breaks to prevent Trump from having the authority to make temporary appointments while the Senate is away.
Democrats may have vehemently opposed Sessions’s nomination, but they have no intention of allowing Trump to fire him and name a new attorney general with a recess appointment, and frankly, Republicans do not seem to want to give Trump that power either…
What’s on the agenda, as we start another bound-to-be-beleagured day?
***********
Speaking of public schadenfreude: Having grown up in the sort of family where interactions tended to start with a challenge and escalate explosively, I’ve spent the past forty years learning that not every dark thought needs to be described exhaustively. Not only does such gleeful venting disturb those who come from less toughened environments, but it’s really quite stressful to keep up the paranoia level that’s essential when you know at a bone-deep level that talking the talk is liable to lead to walking a very unpleasant walk.
This is John Cole’s blog, and it will never be mistaken for an Oberlin drum circle. But rest assured, no matter how inventive your torture scenarios for those public officials who most absolutely deserve them, there is no membership requirement that those scenarios be shared in the comments.
Venting is important, especially in this Trump era, but not everybody here has the same tolerance for violence porn. Wish all the bad cess on Republicans and other miscreants that they deserve, but try to keep in mind that it’s not a competition to see which of us can produce the most disturbing rant.
OzarkHillbilly
What’s on the agenda? I wish it was sleep but alas, that seems to be escaping me this week.
MD SOregon
You’d have a hard time convincing me that you are not a nice person.
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone ???
Edward Zaitz
Gads! You leave me speechless!
Quinerly
@rikyrah:
Good morning! Poco sends out a giant sandy, salty tail wag. Anne, thank you for the last two paragraphs of your post.
OzarkHillbilly
@Edward Zaitz: I know. What are we going to talk about now?
NobodySpecial
Eye doctor appointment, followed by freaking out about my complete lack of preparation for GenCon.
Starfish
@OzarkHillbilly: I have had the same trouble this week.
Keith G
Oh good, more reporting on how irritated some of the GOP is at Donald Trump. And yet….
Fvck em all. We don’t need schadenfreude, we need dependable medical care and plans for affordable housing. To make that happen we need votes. And to get those we need voters.
I do not think that more reporting on Sessions, Don Jr, Jared, and/or the Mooch is that helpful. The folks I live and work around are up to their eyebrows in basic economic concerns. Except for the McCain episode, reporting on the healthcare legislative process has been pretty good and I have seen it move people toward the good side.
That is the type of information, and discussions, and reporting that needs to be generated and pushed out to the public – not more stories about Trump’s Tweets dissing Sessions.
I can dream, can’t I?
TenguPhule
@Keith G:
The problem is that they’re all connected in a giant web of evil, sleeze and general treason.
Its like a giant stew of crime and trying to complain about there being too many onions in it.
OzarkHillbilly
@Starfish: I always have trouble sleeping (pain), waking up 4-5 times a night, but usually I am able to go back to sleep and get enuf to at least reach coherency. Every now and again tho, I will go thru a string of nights where I come fully awake** and nothing I do can relieve it. I’ve tried a few drugs and the cure has always been worse than the disease. I take melatonin, and it helps, but only so much.
** it’s weird too, always at the same time in any one string, this time at 1 am
Joyce Harmon
I absolutely don’t root for injuries. On Facebook, a friend expressed a wish involving Trump and lightning. I set her straight – I want Trump to stay alive and healthy for a very long time. As I explained there:
So Long Live Trump, I say!
OzarkHillbilly
@Joyce Harmon: Alive yes, healthy?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Nope, can’t say that I want that for him.
lowtechcyclist
In Congress today: GOP to America: Drop Dead
Amir Khalid
The amplifier arrived today. I tried it out a bit, and have noted that
— I need an extension cable for my headphones, whose 2-meter cable is a little too short. Are Bluetooth headphones an option?
— The 5-meter (16 feet 5.5 inches in American money) guitar cable I bought at The Guitar Store (because the 3-meter one I ordered online isn’t here yet) is much too long.
— Also too, my new girl needs a guitar stand, a gig bag (not yet arrived) to live in, and a name (still not decided).
Gvg
@Joyce Harmon: I wonder what Nixon thought all those years he lived but was ignored and had to live quietly? All those international events he loved to study and wanted to influence but was kept away. Still he had the brains to know he had to be quiet.
Trump is not going to be able to,shut up even if removed from office and pardoned. He will keep doing more illegal things and babbling and now people will make sure he is caught. If we repeat the Nixon scenario Trump will still go to jail for crimes after Pardon. He really is dumb and entitled.
He is also guilty of much more serious things. Problem is many of the other Republicans appear to be also and used to not seeing their own corruption.
Amir Khalid
@Joyce Harmon:
I think your friend meant to say “great-grandkids”. In 2037 the grandkids he has now will be old enough to have bred.
Joyce Harmon
@Gvg:
Heck, even if he’s pardoned on the collusion and obstruction of justice, there are decades of stuff that can put him away that he’s already done. If the money laundering investigation doesn’t get him, the human trafficking investigation will.
Joyce Harmon
@Amir Khalid:
That’s a point – he’s an old sucker, isn’t he?
NobodySpecial
To misquote a favorite book, I want Trump doing the full clock screaming in solitary. I want him so far under the jail, they have to pipe in sunlight. I want his name to become a curse that a man spits after speaking for emphasis. And I want his name to feature prominently in the books as to why the Republican Party folded.
tokyo expat
Found this via the comments section in a WaPo article on how Trump and Republicans are breaking all the norms. Former Republican in Chicago joins the Democratic Party. You can read it here: http://www.chicagonow.com/politics-now/2017/07/44-years-a-republican-1-year-an-independent-today-im-joining-the-democratic-party/
bystander
Maybe we should just have an occasional thread devoted to torture porn, followed by a kitty/puppy thread?
Overactive imaginations need an outlet, too.
daryljfontaine
@NobodySpecial: What sort of prep do you need to do for GenCon? (Acknowledging that everyone’s experience is likely to be different — for me, it’s a means to hang out with specific nerd gaming friends from across the country/globe once a year.)
D
Lapassionara
A sneezing fit woke me at 2 am. I hope to catch a nap soon, or I will be unable to work, which is the only way I have to manage the dreadful news.
Mustang Bobby
Good morning, Friends. On the agenda today is wrestling with numbers at work and looking forward to a day off tomorrow to get ready for Monday night’s reading of my play.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning rikyrah! ??☕☕
Market day. And it looks like rain.
NobodySpecial
@daryljfontaine: I’ll be GMing, plus I was so late securing ability to attend that I haven’t added any events to my schedule. It’s very unnerving, because I love to over prepare to combat my usual anxiety.
satby
@Mustang Bobby: mmmmm, days off. I remember way back to last week when I had one. ?
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby:
Nice, wish I could be there for it.
Dr. Ronnie James, D.O.
“Sure, Trump can be a bull in a china shop, but right now this country *neeOH FUCK MY PRICELESS CHINA NOOOOOOO…”
Jeffro
Start your morning off light, peeps: watch Colbert interview Sessions! Sort of. :)
(still cannot get over how Shit Midas just puts it out there, time and again: “If I had known that Sessions was going to [do the proper thing and uphold the rule of law, thus allowing an investigation – into me & my campaign’s collusion with a hostile foreign power, no less – to follow the facts] recuse himself, I never would have nominated him”. Truly, the words of an innocent man…)
Anyway, I’ve added Keebler Elf cookies to the shopping list for this weekend…should make for some great moments at the dinner table! ;)
OzarkHillbilly
This will work out well:
NotMax
For the off the beaten track file:
What’s brewing in North Korea?
debbie
@Quinerly:
Seconded.
Mustang Bobby
@OzarkHillbilly: You’ll get a chance to see a full production — set, lights, and costumes — next March at the Willow Theatre in Boca Raton.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: I’ve had North Korean soju, it’s really, really awful.
Quinerly
Moral rot. Great Josh Marshall piece: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-darkness-and-the-rot
Yoda Dog
@Amir Khalid: I would recommend a hard shell case as opposed to a bag.
Good luck with it. I’ve played all my life and it is exceedingly cathartic. At least it can be. You are probly aware that playing can be pretty painful until callouses can develop on the fingertips. Well worth the aggravation once you get the hang of it though.
@Anne Laurie: But I like all the doom porn and torture rants!! ;)
Quinerly
@Amir Khalid:
I’m getting Guitar Centers ads on the site since you posted your update.?
rikyrah
I have not changed my mind:
The KKKEEBLER ELF WILL NOT RESIGN.
He is living out his White Supremacist fantasies.
Dolt45 will have to fire him.
rikyrah
@Amir Khalid:
Still rooting for Jezebel as the name.?
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby: March, hmmmm….
debbie
Trump’s tweet yesterday about Americans worshipping God, not Government, seems to be sitting poorly with Billy Baldwin:
https://twitter.com/BillyBaldwin/status/890315105447104512
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
That was a good post. Thanks.
NotMax
In other news –
Bueller? Bueller? Busted.
Iowa Old Lady
@Mustang Bobby: Cool! Is it odd to hear other people reading your dialogue out loud? Do they sound like the characters in your head do?
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Morning Poco and kitty ??
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@OzarkHillbilly:
What’s next? Peter King for the U.K.? Mel Gibson for Israel?
rikyrah
I just want them in Orange jumpsuits. No more. No less. And, I want the satisfaction of telling their voters that they are rotten judges of character. I mean it when I say that I will never get past them voting for Dolt45. Will never understand it. It will forever condemn them as people who lack character.
PIGL
@MD SOregon: thank you for beatingme to that. I second that emotion.
Anne == Wonderful
bystander
Who among us is not enjoying the idea that Scaramucci has sicced the FBI on Reince Prepuce for leaking? That’s almost as rich as Tillerson getting ready to quit because he’s being undermined by the guy who sought to avoid the spotlight by marrying Ivanka Trump.
Patricia Kayden
@Dr. Ronnie James, D.O.: You’ve captured how Republicans are treating Trump to the t. They’re perfectly okay with his bigotry, political gaffes, rage tweeting, inappropriate language, lies, etc., as long as he’s willing to go along with their agenda. Now that he’s going after one of their own (Sessions), all of a sudden, they’re having collective heartburn. Keep in mind that Ryan has already stated that he basically has no problem with Trump firing Mueller so Republicans have made it clear that Trump can do no harm as long as he isn’t targeting a conservative, racist Senator.
Yoda Dog
@rikyrah: I will be telling his voters what unamerican, worthless losers they all are til the day I die, regardless of whether we ever see justice done to this clown car of criminals.
Matt McIrvin
@Gvg: Nixon wrote and sold his memoirs–I remember the whole “don’t buy books from crooks” furor over it. And he put out a book or two after that, and right at the end of his life seems to have struck up a weird friendship with Bill Clinton. So he wasn’t completely quiet.
OzarkHillbilly
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Idi Amin for Uganda? Pol Pot for Cambodia?
oldgold
The Turtle’s latest cruel ploy at stripping millions of heathcare is being euphemistically referred to as the “Skinny Repeal.” It should be described as a “Trojan Hearse.”
frosty
@Amir Khalid: I like the Hercules stands that hold the guitar at the headstock. I don’t have a model number but I got one thru Elderly Instruments. They’re black and yellow, if that helps.
Patricia Kayden
@rikyrah: Right there with you, rikyrah. Once I hear someone say that they voted for Trump, I lose all interest in hearing anything else from them. Voting for Trump is such an indication that you have a lack of decency and intelligence that I can’t trust you to tell me what color is the sky or the shape of the sun. No way you could have seen Trump’s behavior during the campaign season and said, “Hell yes, that’s so presidential!”
Yoda Dog
@frosty: YESSSSS…. great suggestion. I use those. It looks cool having your guitars up on the wall and it saves a LOT of space, Mr. Amir!
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Same with people who voted for Jill Stein and who keep making excuses for T. I have judged them and found them wanting. I cannot forgive nor forget.
Brachiator
I almost enjoy watching Republicans being foolish. Sending Trump signals about Sessions. Trump don’t care. And even if he relents for a while, he will come back even stronger. He is ruled by his obsessions and his pettiness. And he clearly believes that being president gives him absolute power and absolute immunity from retribution.
The sad thing is that the part of the country that wants out of this shit show is being held captive. And Trump is only going to get worse. His little deal with Apple, for example, only convinces Trump that he is Big Daddy Donald twisting arms to make America great again.
Cheryl Rofer
This morning’s insanity from the administration. Apparently Scaramucci called in to CNN with a rant. These tweets are from the middle of a thread. Read the whole thing to get the (non)sense of it.
So it’s not enought to have dysfunctional rants on Twitter. We need dysfunctional rants on television too. It’s clear that this is Trump’s favorite tactic to mess people up. I admonished reporters to resist it via a tweetstream of my own.
Amir Khalid
@rikyrah:
I’ve read up on the Biblical Jezebel. She seems a fascinating woman, but her love of finery and make-up … I don’t know. She doesn’t seem the most apt namesake for a Telecaster, which is essentially the Volkswagen Beetle of electric guitars.
NotMax
@Cheryl Rofer
Full bore Captain Queeg.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@OzarkHillbilly: Have you ever tried a hop pillow? A friend raves about her’s, and as a career insomniac myself, I’d pondered giving one a try.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Hildegarde?
Anne Laurie
@PIGL: I thank you both for your very kind votes of confidence, but I have to work at being nice! It doesn’t come at all naturally to me — if I get any credit, it should be for overcoming all my natural instincts & training!
@Amir Khalid: Remember, the Bible stories about Queen Jezebel were written by her deadly enemies. So it’s like hearing about Hillary Clinton from Republicans. There’s an old feminist fondness for the name (note, for example, the website) because she can be seen as a woman getting hideously abused for doing what a man in the same circumstances would’ve been celebrated for.
Yoda Dog
Jezebel=Nasty Woman
Brachiator
@Amir Khalid:
Brunhilde?
JPL
@Cheryl Rofer: What is happening?
I keep referring back to Cicely Stong’s SNL quote “You’re doing too much. I want one day without a CNN alert that scares the hell out of me.” It would not surprise me, if Trump sets up a duel on the White House lawn.
OzarkHillbilly
@Yoda Dog: Mala Mujer. (a really nasty plant in Mexico)
Cheryl Rofer
@JPL: Thanks for the chuckle. We need to be able to laugh at them.
I’ve seen a couple of tweets to the effect that in a well-run democracy, people don’t have to think about how the government is being run and can concentrate on their lives.
I think part of this is strategic: keep people so confused, they don’t know how badly they’re being abused. But I think a very significant part is Trump’s dysfunctional personality, along with his ignorance of how government works. He thought he would step in, make pronouncements like his trans ban yesterday, and he would WIN. And be loved and get all the attention. But evil people are preventing that.
I am trying to figure out ways to cope. I think one is to back off from the immediate. I’ve put aside a number of posts when the next outrage appeared. I’m going to go back and finish some of them up. We need continuity in our lives and have to, to some degree, let the Scaramucci-Priebus soap opera play out by itself. White House dysfunction generally affects all sorts of things, but these two boys hating on each other is pretty far down in the weeds. Or Bolivian marching powder.
Brachiator
@NotMax:
But this time, Queeg gets a crew to totally go along with his madness.
Patricia Kayden
@Mustang Bobby: Congrats on having a play about to be shown to the public. That sounds quite exciting.
JPL
@Brachiator: Yup. The president has the power to hire and fire who he wants.
Sab
@OzarkHillbilly: Betsy devos responsible for this?
debit
@JPL:
He’s too chickenshit to actually duel. Now, an execution? Sure.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This is the guy who “charmed” the press corps and was smooth and all kinds of other shit?
ETA: Oh yeah, well-oiled machine
Immanentize
@Amir Khalid: When my son was born, my wife and I had three or four boy names we liked. But we needed to be around him a while to figure out which one would suit him. After two days, unnamed in the hospital, the name police called and said if we didn’t name him before 1:00 that day before they were discharged, he would have “Baby Boy Immanentize” on his birth certificate. We still checked him out for a few more hours….
NotMax
@
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Yup, one must be ever alert and on watch for those roving packs of piratical icebergs, which will change course at a moment’s notice to charge at a ship.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Keith G:
Baby steps. Remember; no one admits they are wrong so this will take a while.
Amir Khalid
Wow. Talk about inappropriate comparisons …
Nicole
@Amir Khalid: when I bought my acoustic, I tormented myself about the name and then finally settled on Allison, because I liked the little guitar jangle at the beginning of the Gin Blossoms. “Allison Road.” Now, all these many years, and acquisition of a few more guitars later, it’s just referred to as “the Martin.”
O. Felix Culpa
Good morning all! I think AL is a nice person and endorse her final paragraphs too.
With that out of the way, I think Trump has Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia on top of his preexisting personality disorders. I had a long conversation with a friend yesterday, who has a doctorate in psychology and works with Alzheimer’s patients. So many of his erratic behaviors fit their pattern (remember when he missed the stretch limo in front of him when disembarking Air Force One, to cite just one example?). While many Alzheimer’s victims go quiet and can be somewhat genial for a time (a la Ronald Reagan), Trump operates in the rage mode of others.
Trump’s impulse control and executive function were never good and they’re deteriorating. His speech is word salad and he jumps erratically from topic to topic. If you look at old interview clips, he could speak in full sentences once upon a time and with some logical – albeit vile – thought flow. The stress of being president is accelerating his condition. His enablers have to know about this and are doing their best to cover up, but at some point the media and others will connect the dots as his condition worsens.
Maybe (maybe) a major media figure will have a Walter Cronkite moment or Trump will decompensate so badly in public it will be undeniable to all but his most deluded cult followers. That man ain’t right and he isn’t going to get better.
ETA: If my hypothesis is correct, then there’s no value in making “sense” of his words or behavior. Chalk them up to a nasty man with a nasty degenerative disease who needs to be removed from power.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sab: Just trump being his usual totally ignorant trump: “He was born there? Cool, the Dutch will love him!”
JPL
@debit: Scaramooch and Priebus. The winner becomes Chief of Staff and the loser well you know what happens to the loser.
Having it at noon would just add to the tv value.
Nicole
@O. Felix Culpa: Unless that major media figure works for FOX, it wouldn’t make a difference.
satby
@Immanentize: LOL! I couldn’t name my own children until I got a sense of them after they were born too. But it was more to see if the top choice fit the child. Fortunately, they seemed to, though my younger son hasn’t always been happy about his Gaelic name spelling, which is an archaic version of Padraig.
different-church-lady
@Nicole: It probably wouldn’t make a difference even then.
NotMax
@Immanentize
The box for first name on my birth certificate is blank.
Tokyokie
@Amir Khalid: Why not name the guitar Bette after Bette Davis? She was an actress who was not a classic beauty and was on the short side, but she became one of the best and sexiest actresses in the history of film through the sheer power of her personality. (Hell, she even ran over Joan Crawford in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.) And besides, she played the title role in the 1938 movie Jezebel.
rikyrah
Pentagon Thought Trump Was Announcing a War on Twitter
by BooMan
Wed Jul 26th, 2017 at 05:22:21 PM EST
This is a just a casual observation, but I think we really should solemnly consider the implications of the following:
………………………………………………………..
If anyone thinks this is tolerable, they’re just not people we should be listening to. This isn’t how a president should announce a policy change. It’s not how he should treat service members. It’s not a level of trust between the president and the Pentagon that is acceptable. It’s not a tolerable national security risk, since the North Koreans must have been wondering the same thing.
It can’t be accepted. It must come to a prompt end.
satby
@Nicole: so maybe Shepard Smith will have another burst of truth moment.
O. Felix Culpa
@Nicole: @different-church-lady:
You might be right, especially since we as a country no longer have common trusted media sources. Nonetheless, dementia can’t be hidden indefinitely.
different-church-lady
But hey, some good news for a change!
rikyrah
“Splinter confirmed Kushner used an encrypted messaging app that permits users to send disappearing msgs.”https://t.co/d3Slkk3uet#Busted
— StrictlyCovfefe ? (@christoq) July 27, 2017
Jared Kushner may have just been caught violating the Presidential Records Act — here’s why https://t.co/XLumcE5wjO
— Raw Story (@RawStory) July 26, 2017
Immanentize
@satby:
Our son is sometimes sour on his name too (it’s a family name from my wife’s German Texans — August Karl). I think this is partly the sign of a child who will think for themselves throughout life and resents a bit the first act of parental control about which he was not consulted.
different-church-lady
@O. Felix Culpa: Approximately half the country is behaving as though they are demented right now, so they’ll probably be good with it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I have so say that is a pleasing thought that the crises that will really trip up Trump will be him attacking his own racists little shit AG.
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
@Quinerly: Seems to me Josh Marshall is just stating the obvious. Of course the people who associate with Trump were already morally-rotted shells when they hooked up with him, and he didn’t magically turn them into that. Who other than morally rotted shells would hitch their wagons to him?
The… well, maybe not morally upstanding, but at least less rotted people have been wise enough to steer clear of him.
Tokyokie
@debit: I could see Trump setting up a duel on the White House lawn, as long as his opponent was Serge Kovaleski. And Kovaleski didn’t get a gun with live rounds.
Immanentize
@NotMax: Is that why you are “NotMax?”
PS. “Maxim” was on the short list for my son.
rikyrah
Kansas’ Brownback abandons his mess, prepares to join Trump admin
07/27/17 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback (R), having made a dreadful mess of his home state, isn’t sticking around to clean it up. The Kansas City Star reported:
The far-right governor’s departure marks the end of an error. After taking office, Brownback launched a radical economic “experiment” after taking office seven years ago, and it failed spectacularly. As regular readers know, the far-right Kansan, working with a GOP-led legislature, cut taxes far beyond what the state could afford, slashed public investments, and waited for prosperity to flourish across every corner of the state.
None of that has happened. Not only have Kansas’ job growth and economic growth rates lagged behind neighboring states, but the state’s budget is in shambles, and Kansas’ debt rating has been downgraded multiple times.
The Kansas City Star spoke to Joy Koesten, a Republican state representative, who said it will likely take a very long time to undo the effects of Brownback’s tenure.
MomSense
@Amir Khalid:
I like “new girl” but I’m sure she will reveal her personality and name in time.
Are you familiar with Duke Robillard? He has an online music school. You might want to check it out.
different-church-lady
@Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA: For quite a while now the whole thing reminds me of a mobster film where every character winds up dead and you wonder, “Why do any of them choose to be a part of this? They know they’re going to get offed.”
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize:
I hated my somewhat unusual, old-fashioned first name when I was young, but am very happy with it now.
NotMax
@Tokyokie
Spolier alert.
Revealed late in the film that no, she didn’t.
Wapiti
@Amir Khalid:
Beetlejuice.
satby
@O. Felix Culpa:
I would say it’s not hidden now, it’s just that confronting the ugly truth of removing him is going to be incredibly traumatic for the country. The Republicans will rightly see it as damaging their power, and the Republican base will be enraged that their retribution fantasies will be derailed. The rest of us sane folks are anxious to see him gone, but know the festering infection in government will take a long time and huge battle to clear.
rikyrah
If you missed this interview this morning, as I did, you have to read this thread. My god… what the actual hell is happening… https://t.co/dJce3fgG3K
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) July 27, 2017
The Thread in question:
2. Now Scaramucci is reading a statement from POTUS…he says POTUS told him if @ChrisCuomo is nice to him, he’ll let him come back on.
— Yashar Ali (@yashar) July 27, 2017
4. @Scaramucci just now: “150 years ago people would have been hung for these leaks…they’re treasonous”
6. Scaramucci: “The fish stinks from the head”
8. Scaramucci just now: “I don’t know if the relationship with Reince is reparable…that’s up to the President.”
10. The White House Communications Director is calling in to a morning show to have a therapy session.
12. Scaramucci just said to Cuomo, sarcastically, “oh, so you’re a proofreader now?”
14. I’ve seen a lot in my life…but this is madness!
16. Scaramucci attacking CIA…sowing doubt…just like his boss.
18. I can’t get over this Mooch call-in….there’s so much happening I can’t keep up.
20. Scaramucci keeps saying his controversial statements were just an attempt to tease…..Cuomo saying that’s not funny….insulting.
22. Scaramucci just now: There could be mistakes on my financial disclosure forms…I’m sure 400 journalists are looking through the forms
24. Scaramucci just now: “When the iceberg hits the boat…the rats come up from steerage.”
26. Mooch gets off the phone…and @RyanLizza just compared the interview to the Marshall McLuhan moment in Annie Hall
28. Scaramucci called Ryan Lizza and tried to figure out who leaked that he was having dinner with Trump/@seanhannity /@kimguilfoyle
30. Here’s the part where @Scaramucci says Trump may veto sanctions bill + be tougher on the Russians than Congress https://t.co/JoSBt2uADX
— Yashar Ali (@yashar) July 27, 2017
Amir Khalid
@satby:
Does your son prefer to be a Patrick?
NotMax
@Immanentize
No, but you do receive some lovely parting gifts and a copy of our home game.
:)
satby
@Wapiti: oh, YES!
rikyrah
Key: GOP Sen Thune says getting to conference is all about pressuring holdouts to swallow shit at end of process:https://t.co/9s4WEEUBxL pic.twitter.com/BkbHlGxW0l
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) July 27, 2017
rikyrah
If Rs say,
“stop attacking one of our own,”
that’s not the same as saying,
“don’t try to undermine the independent investigation” https://t.co/ifijwzKcpf
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) July 27, 2017
Many Rs defend Sessions by saying he’s principled & Trump must be “loyal” in return.
That’s not the point, folks:https://t.co/dnICIWZuDy pic.twitter.com/0K5le005Ga
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) July 27, 2017
rikyrah
The people trying to blame Reince as a leaker, leaked their strategy to do so. This is Inception but for incompetent fools https://t.co/nEVq5m7VHL
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) July 27, 2017
O. Felix Culpa
@different-church-lady:
I thought it was the proverbial 27% or thereabouts? Anyway, I don’t think the majority of the country will be good with it – if my theory is correct. Too many of us have had direct contact with Alzheimer’s victims and it’s an awful disease. It can’t be hidden indefinitely. I don’t believe any but the hardcore would stick with him in that scenario.
rikyrah
The GOP’s Addiction to Their Own Agony
by BooMan
Wed Jul 26th, 2017 at 01:31:27 PM EST
Yesterday, I wrote that I was surprised that the Senate Republicans agreed to bring up the health care bill because “losing this vote would have been the most painless way to end their agony.” A reader of mine reacted with some confusion, asking me, “Agony? Show me the agony.” And he followed that up with an astute observation: “It is beginning to become somewhat evident to me that there is not really a significant amount of agony among Republicans at all. I think that deep down, they really want this win more than they fear the results of actually doing this.” In this assessment, he is joined by many others. I think James Hohmann put it best because he backed up my reader’s point while also doing a decent job of explaining my own:
Nicole
@rikyrah:
And after Democrats manage to get the state sort-of heading back on the right track, racist white voters will reward them by putting the GOP back in charge to mess things up again.
Thus it ever was in the Song of Republican and Democratic Administrations.
satby
@Amir Khalid: there were several years when he was school aged that I got Mother’s Day cards that “love (Max, Bobby, Mike, boy name of the moment)”! He goes by “Pat” at his job, the family calls him “Paddy”, but his GF calls him his full name: Padhraic.
His girlfriend’s name is Gentry, so she has her own experience when it comes to unusual names.
Quinerly
@rikyrah:
A good morning meow from traveling kitty Ivan. Poco is sound asleep…collapsed after his beach walk. Much excitement! He finally caught a live crab, tossed it in the air, caught and bit into it mid air. Ate part right on the spot! He’s exhausted from being so proud of himself.?
rikyrah
@satby:
I’m past the point where it’s time these muthaphuckas should be slapped with reality. I have no symapthy. I truly do not care. They are awful people who voted for an awful person. And, they should be reminded of that everyday.
Quinerly
@rikyrah: @Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA:
I enjoy Josh’s writing.
Nicole
@O. Felix Culpa: And the hardcore, unfortunately, is most of the GOP voters now. I know a few of them on FB and I don’t unfriend them (although most are blocked from seeing my feed) because every so often I check in to see if the crazy has abated at all. And it hasn’t. They are living through a completely alternate version of reality, and their objective seems limited to winning (whatever that means) and, to quote one directly, “pissing off liberals.”
How do you reason with that?
I have a few GOP family members that have admitted to me they are very unhappy with the state of the party, but not so much so that they’ll leave it or vote for a Democrat. If the prospect of thousands of Americans dying is not enough to make them give up their “team,” what will?
satby
@rikyrah: agreed. If it wouldn’t cause so much collateral damage to innocent people, I would wish for them all to live under exactly what they voted for good and hard. I hate them.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby:
I agree that it’s not hidden and that we’re where we are now because (1) denial is not just a river in Egypt (I hear all kinds of sense-making activity going on even here, when with dementia there is no sense to be made); and (2) Trump is still perceived as useful to his handlers, although that usefulness is coming increasingly into question.
Perhaps he’ll be jettisoned once his enablers realize that they can’t manage him or his condition and he’s subverting their most treasured goals.
rikyrah
as for Reince….I believe he’s had a lawyer on retainer even before he moved into the White House. You best believe, the slimeball is still there on his lawyer’s orders.
different-church-lady
@O. Felix Culpa:
Plutonium is useful too.
NotMax
Old Yiddish proverb –
May they be like chandeliers: hanging during the day, burning at night.
O. Felix Culpa
@Nicole:
You don’t. I have similar FB “friends” I retain just to get a sense of right-wing “thought” and elevate my blood pressure. The hardcore are lost, but I don’t think they’re the majority. We can win without them.
Quinerly
@rikyrah:
The Mooch doesn’t start work until 8/15. His company hasn’t sold yet to the company that has the Chinese connections. You just wait until he’s really working for the WH. ?
O. Felix Culpa
@different-church-lady:
Please to explain. Are you suggesting Putin will take him out? I doubt it. Too high profile a removal method and unnecessary.
rikyrah
@Nicole:
You don’t.
You say phuck ’em.
OzarkHillbilly
@O. Felix Culpa: My name is not unusual (thomas) but I went thru a similar period. I think most people do.
rikyrah
I’m still chuckling at the Secretary of Exxon ‘ taking a break’.
The man hasn’t done shyt, and needs a ‘ break’?
Ah, to be a mediocre, unqualified White man.
Lips pursed.
Quinerly
Corner Stone picked a fine time to just abandon us.?
TS
@rikyrah:
Could have been describing the Trump administration.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 7/26/17
Trump DoJ pick recently represented Putin-aligned Russian bank
Rachel Maddow reports on the Department of Justice accusing a former Paul Manafort associate of being a Russian mobster while Donald Trump’s pick for Justice Department’s criminal division, Brian Benczkowski, discloses that he previously represented Russia’s Alfa bank.
different-church-lady
@O. Felix Culpa: Merely that like plutonium, his utility is mostly for destruction, and he is a grave danger to those who handle him.
Iowa Old Lady
So I’m reading that Scaramucci’s leaked financial disclosure forms were public documents to begin with. They have “public” printed right on them. Yeah, let’s have the FBI investigate that. Good use of taxpayer money.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 7/26/17
Trump sloppy tweet attack on transgender US troops sparks outrage
Sue Fulton, U.S. Army veteran and founding member of OutServe, and Allison Jaslow, executive director of IAVA, talk with Rachel Maddow about Donald Trump’s surprise attack on transgender U.S. service members and how his new policy might be implemented.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 7/26/17
Trump spurns serving transgender US military with careless ban
Shane Ortega, U.S. Army and U.S. Marines veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, talks with Rachel Maddow about Donald Trump’s abrupt announcement banning transgender people from serving in the U.S. military, even as they are already openly doing so.
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly:
I tried melatonin when I did a lot of international travel for work. I found it helped me to fall asleep, but didn’t help me stay asleep.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 7/26/17
Trump looking at recess replacement of Sessions: reports
Rachel Maddow shares reports that Donald Trump is considering the option of a recess appointment of a replacement for Attorney General Jeff Sessions as Senator Chuck Grassley makes clear a confirmation vote on a new AG won’t happen soon.
O. Felix Culpa
@different-church-lady:
No argument there. They’re playing a dangerous game with a dangerous man.
nonynony
@Nicole:
Oh-ho! That’s a good one! Democrats in charge in Kansas. Hilarious!
Republican control the legislature and the governor’s seat in Kansas. And by control I don’t mean “bare majority” – I mean overwhelming majorities. The Senate in Kansas is 31 GOPers to 9 Dems. The House is 85 GOPers to 40 Dems. Dems in Kansas are basically powerless.
What happened in Kansas is an internal coup within the GOP itself. Voters finally got fed up with misfeasance and malfeasance and voted in a group of economically responsible Republicans who campaigned on platforms of a) stopping Brownback from doing any more damage and b) attempting to fix the damage he caused. They were very open that tax cuts would need to be rolled back to get the state back in line.
But make no mistake – these guys are still Republicans. The hardcore conservatives are very angry with them at the moment and all it will take is a few years out in the wilderness before the hardcore tax cutters come roaring back into power and try again. Just one primary cycle where the voters who care about maintaining their schools and roads don’t bother to show up at the polls and the nutjobs will take the party back over again in a heartbeat.
(I have nutjob family members in KS who still insist that more spending should have been cut and that the tax cuts weren’t given time to work. They are champing at the bit for the next election to try to throw the so-called “moderates” who got into the legislature out and put in “real Republicans” again. They’re pretty horrible people – for example, despite having grandkids in the Kansas public schools they think that the schools need to have their budgets cut even more to balance the budget instead of raising taxes. Taxes they can easily afford to pay but just don’t want to because “why should they”? People like that are everywhere, but somehow they seem to have a lot more power in Kansas than they do in other places. )
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 7/26/17
Democrats wait for struggling GOP to produce a health bill
Senator Amy Klobuchar talks with Rachel Maddow about the resistance to flailing Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and Donald Trump’s public spat with Jeff Sessions for doing the right thing in recusing himself from campaign-related matters.
OzarkHillbilly
@O. Felix Culpa: It is a dangerous to work with material.
burnspbesq
@Amir Khalid:
Even the besr ones are mediocre. Powerbeats are ok for the gym, but that’s about it. There are Bluetooth dongles from Astell & Kern and Noble that are serviceable, but still don’t overcome the inherent limitations of Bluetooth.
The next major Android update will include a new audio codec developed by Sony that I hear (from an acquaintance at Google who has played with it) is a major improvement, but it’s months away.
rikyrah
Seems like someone concerned about regular order and the sanctity of the institution might wanna speak up on that one.
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) July 27, 2017
according to Senate rules, a CBO score must be posted 28 hours before a vote, or there’s a point of order with 60 vote threshold
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) July 27, 2017
They may try to circumvent the rule by stripping down AHCA one amendment at a time. This would be…nuts. https://t.co/3YUF4qxYcg
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) July 27, 2017
Wait, you can pass a non-budget compliant law just by stripping out amendments and avoiding CBO?
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) July 27, 2017
We’re careening toward a Banana Republic in the Senate today. They may violate rules on 1) posting a CBO score and 2) hitting savings target
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) July 27, 2017
What it would mean: no idea of the end product, no CBO score – and deliberately circumventing the rules. Banana republic.
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) July 27, 2017
My understanding is, this would be unprecedented and nobody knows if it’d stand, but maybe
— Ben Wikler (@benwikler) July 27, 2017
rikyrah
VOTER RECORDS FOR SALE: “More than 40 million voter records from at least nine states are being offered for sale on a dark web forum, and the seller claims to have records for an additional 20 to 25 states, according to Dark Reading, a news organization focused on information security…The voter data for sale includes first, last, and middle names, voter ID numbers, birthdates, voter status, party affiliation, and addresses for some voters in Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Washington state.”
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/07/someone-is-selling-more-than-40-million-voter-records-on-the-dark-web/
Quinerly
Hey, I’m going to my favorite fish market (Headen Willis in Salter Path, NC…that was the original owner’s name) for shrimp to steam and Spanish Mackerel to broil, to the Food Lion for beer, tonic, limes, and the ABC Store for Boodles. Anybody need anything? Looks like a slow news day…we could all just hang out on the beach eating and drinking and maybe Amir will play his new guitar for us. I’ll cook!?
OzarkHillbilly
@O. Felix Culpa: Melatonin helps me to fall back asleep. Without it, what I am going thru this week is a nightly occurrence. It will pass.
NotMax
@Quinerly
Like to add a good few dashes of Tabasco sauce to the liquid to be used for cooking the shrimp.
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
Reince and repeat. An insane Republican spin cycle.
Immanentize
@Quinerly: Oh that sounds so good! I wish I was there.
PS. Ivan (or Yvonne like Lendl) was also on our boy short list. Good kitty!
germy
Here’s something I predicted, and it’s coming true.
Compare Sarah Huck’s face from the first time she appeared before the press to how she looks now.
They’re giving her the full Fox Babe makeup treatment. I predict this will continue until she’s wearing so much makeup, eyeliner, eyelashes and eyeshadow, she’ll make KellyAnne look like Little Debbie the snack cake girl.
I’m sure they’ve got her on a restricted diet as well. Which explains her increasing irritability.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly: Drinking plain (not sweetened) kefir at bedtime kept me drowsy and helped with the reflux as well. YMMV.
Immanentize
@NotMax: Right now, cooking and gardening are my pleasure. I have one of the best gumbo recipes ever from my friend whose parents both grew up in Lafayette, LA. I wish we could someday have a world-wide BJ Meetup with cook off.
This fantasy is more pleasant than eliminationist rants.
MomSense
@Nicole:
You can’t reason with them because they are not making their decisions based on reason or facts. The key is that they want to piss off liberals. The real problem is how do you get them to care about other people?
I was talking to my dad last night and he was sort of asking the universe how do we ever recover from this administration and I said as bad as this administration is, it is just the symptom and not the illness. The problem is that we have had 25 years of Fox and other right wing outlets brainwashing people to the point where we honestly don’t even agree on a basic set of facts or principles anymore. And this is after the Powell memo which ushered in the scourge of embedding institutions of higher education with right wing funded professors and chairs, and the god awful think tanks like Heritage who were pushing altbefore alt was cool. Then there was Reagan who was the spokesperson for the nihilism, cruel economics, and cult of strong man/daddy figure that has permanently stunted the development of several generations of impressionable white people.
Much as I hate to, I remember those Republican debates and their convention and thinking that I didn’t even recognize the world they were describing. I’m sure they feel the same way about us. And this is the other problem. It is us and them–and I don’t know how to fix that because I can’t stand them and want nothing to do with them and I cannot see my way to we right now.
At some point we will probably need to have a truth and reconciliation process like they did in South Africa. I don’t currently see any other path forward that preserves our nation with any semblance of e pluribus unum.
InternetDragons
Today is an important day for saving healthcare. We are down to the wire here, so I hope it’s OK if I again share a link from Indivisible for those of us lucky enough to live in blue states. If you’re in a red state, you already know what to do today!
This simple tool gets you set up to call allies in Red states and encourage/love/support/remind them that they need to keep calling their senators:
https://twitter.com/benwikler/status/890415374528905218
For those of us who have already been calling, I know this has been a long slog. I’m feeling a little crispy around the edges myself, but this isn’t the time to stop. The pressure needs to increase so that McConnell and company aren’t able to pass their invisible zombie bill.
Immanentize
@NotMax: I would have to put that proverb into Mel Brooks’ warning: “We mock the things we are to become.”. Probably also an old Yiddishe proverb.
manyakitty
So here’s my latest theory:
What if the whole Sessions/45 feud is a game to get the hideous social agenda carried out? Look how Sessions is destroying the progress on criminal justice and social justice reform, all under the radar. And now he gains the cover of acting like a brave little conservative soldier. Those scumbags are playing EVERYONE.
Immanentize
@MomSense: Or an alien invasion. That seems to bring all of humanity together in movies!
Matt McIrvin
I’ve been watching Republican job approval and disapproval for Trump.
Approval is still high. But it’s not completely immovable– it’s dropping, and after exactly six months in office, his Republican disapproval rating doubled from 9% to 18%. Assuming it’s roughly linear (as with Bush), things could get interesting after a year or two of this.
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly: FYWP eated my first reply. Anyway, I’m glad melatonin helps you. The chronic sleeplessness and pain you endure are no fun. And yet you are a nice person. I would turn into a snarling jackal in your shoes. Oh wait!
Immanentize
@manyakitty: Hi Many! I thought of you the other day when Daft Punk was played by the French Military Band. Of course, I thought, Daft Punk is in the House
Meanwhile, to your point — this is not a clever plan at all. I have friends at Main Justice as they call it — and the place is just in chaos. Little is actually happening. Sure, what is happening is worse today than yesterday; but much of the bad policies just haven’t been carried out because of the uncertainty.
Matt McIrvin
@manyakitty: I think Trump is genuinely stupid–it’s not a master-level chess game for him. Most of the right is upset that he’s fighting Sessions.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
I welcome our alien overlords!
Did you see that tv series Braindead? It was a helluva lot funnier when I thought HRC would be our President but I highly recommend it. An alien invasion might explain our current predicament.
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize: I endorse your BJ meetup and cook off fantasy! Can your gumbo recipe be shared?
rikyrah
@manyakitty:
I honestly don’t think it’s a game.
Dolt45 is mad that the KKKeebler Elf recused himself.
But, Attorney General White Citizens Council has fans because he’s actually living out his White Supremacist fantasies, and the fantasies of his ilk.
Dolt45 could care less about everything that the KKKeebler Elf is doing, because he’s worried about what threatens HIM PERSONALLY.
But, all the evil that the KKKeebler Elf is doing has not gone unnoticed by the loathesome population that thinks he’s doing a standup job.
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
I go through this sleep thing myself. It’s either can’t get to sleep in under 2 hrs or 3am, eyes pop open and there you are.
I think some of it is medical, and some is, in having some things medical, one can at the oddest times, start to wonder about their mortality, or at least what the fuck could possibly be next in this fun part of life that is getting old and wearing out.
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa: Absolutely. It’s kinds long as it is a “double roux recipe” as it uses both a traditional flour roux and fresh ocra as thickeners. How can I get it to you?
ETA. The whole idea of secret recipes that shall not be shared really makes no sense — food is a sharing device, so should recipes be. So I share all my recipes — and I have gathered some good ones!
Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA
@different-church-lady: Ha! That that might be why I think what JM wrote is obvious. Having grown up in Brooklyn, and having a couple of cousins who may or may not have been involved in the stuff of Scorcese films, I’m going to wonder why someone’s inherent moral rot wouldn’t be obvious to everyone. I can spot that kind of shit a mile away, why can’t Josh Marshall? Which isn’t entirely fair to him.
Also, having been born and raised in New York, I was hearing about Trump for decades, so I got a good thirty-year head start on him.
Quinerly
@NotMax:
Cheap beer (“Beast Heavy”), shrimp boil, Tabasco…now I’m giving up secrets…and garlic cloves!
Immanentize
@MomSense: haven’t seen Braindead — but I will now!
Quinerly
@Immanentize:
?
Amir Khalid
@Immanentize:
I once heard Boris Becker pronounce Ivan Lendl’s first name in a TV interview: it sounded exactly like the English word “even”.
rikyrah
Source has told colleague @yabutaleb7 that Rs will *write* skinny bill @ today’s policy lunch. Unclear if wish list meets reconciliation.
— Amanda Becker (@AmandaBecker) July 27, 2017
Like starting your term paper an hour before it’s due but for remaking 1/6th of the US economy. https://t.co/X0aiMpXDSS
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) July 27, 2017
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize: You are a generous soul. Recipe can be sent to barmen1934 at the usual Gmail. Thanks!
Immanentize
@Amir Khalid: Yes! That is how it should be pronounced! with a bit of stress on the second syllable At least the Germanic/Nordic versions
rdldot
@Immanentize: Why not just post it right here? I want it too and so would others, I’m sure.
narya
@Immanentize: When I worked at the bakery, there was a group of a dozen (of course) bakery owners who got together several times a year. A few times, they all made the same recipe–and the results nevertheless varied. The owner for whom I worked, like you, didn’t believe in keeping recipes secret.
Immanentize
@narya: That is the secret to secret recipes. The cook makes the difference. Or, as I learned from my Czech Gramma, they couldn’t tell you what the recipe is without doing it at the same time. Therefore, family secret….
Amir Khalid
@narya:
A regular dozen of bakers, or a baker’s dozen?
manyakitty
@Immanentize: That’s excellent. Hope everything else on your end is progressing toward the desired goal. WRT your friends, I hope they’re right – my level of confidence in our firewalls is practically nonexistent.
@Matt McIrvin: @rikyrah: All valid points. I still think McConnell and Sessions, two of the most despicable shitbags to disgrace our country, are capable of manipulating 45. They’re also arrogant enough to think they can control him, despite clear evidence to the contrary.
Also, too, the entire traitor party must know things are moving fast, because they’re suddenly blasting their agenda through everywhere there can.
Eh, my thoughts aren’t as focused as I hoped. Shocking, I know.
Cheryl Rofer
@Immanentize: From a fifth-floor walkup I was staying in in Almaty, I heard little kids in the playground below, screaming “Eeevan” with a broad a. He seemed to be the terror of the playground.
Gelfling 545
@rikyrah: This was the name of our beloved rat terrier when I was a child. It’s a fine name indeed.
rikyrah
House GOP rep uses colorful language to blast Senate’s Murkowski
07/27/17 10:11 AM
By Steve Benen
Earlier this week, Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) expressed his frustration with “some female senators from the Northeast” who’ve refused to vote to take health care benefits from millions of Americans. “If it was a guy from south Texas, I might ask him to step outside and settle this Aaron Burr-style,” Farenthold added.
The Texas Republican later apologized, but we nevertheless saw Rep, Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) on MSNBC yesterday, expressing a related sentiment. The Georgia congressman reflected on Donald Trump’s criticism of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), over her skepticism of the party’s regressive health care plan. It led Carter to say this on the air:
First, there’s a problem when House Republican men use violent rhetoric in reference to Senate Republican women.
Second, before yesterday afternoon, I’d literally never heard the phrase “snatch a knot in their ass,” and I have absolutely no idea what it means.
I looked up “snatch a knot” in the Urban Dictionary, which has an entry that says, “To hit someone, usually used in a threat of punishment or retribution. A knot is generally snatched in one’s ass, though variants include the neck and the head.”
Raoul
Quick search of the thread I don’t see folks chatting about Interior Sec. Zinke threatened Lisa Murkowski and Alaska as part of the ‘whip’ process on repealing ACA.
It appears the WH got Zinke to tell her that funding for projects completely unrelated to health care were at risk if she voted no. She voted no, and somehow his threats got to the press. Remember, this is a woman who won her last Senate race on a freakin’ write-in vote.
I’m sure I’d not be a big fan of her if I were al Alaskan, but clearly she is not someone to just threaten, mob style.
mai naem mobile
I don’t know Anne,you seem like a nice person to me. I think Dolt45 really truly has coarsened the country.
I have a couple of old friends who I don’t keep up with enough. I haven’t talked.to them since before the election. They’re strong evangelicals. I would love to see what they think of Dolt45. There was a Trumper at work who flipped early on when he talked about cutting back Planned Parenthood and Medicaid.
rikyrah
White House struggles to defend Trump’s ban on transgender troops
07/27/17 09:20 AM
By Steve Benen
By some accounts, White House officials actually thought Donald Trump’s new ban on transgender troops would be a political winner for them.
That, of course, was before the policy was denounced by members of Congress from both parties. And before the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs said they hadn’t been notified of the change. And before veterans’ organizations denounced the pointless discrimination against active-duty soldiers.
But perhaps the most amazing moment in the rollout of Trump’s ridiculous new rules came during Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ press briefing yesterday, when the president’s principal spokesperson struggled to explain what the policy was and how it would work – because she simply did not know.
A reporter asked whether transgender Americans already in uniform would be kicked out of the military. Sanders didn’t know. Another asked, “How does it maintain or improve unit cohesion to leave thousands of servicemembers, some who may be overseas, serving in units overseas, in the dark about their status within the military?” Sanders couldn’t answer that, either.
As the questions continued, the White House press secretary threatened to simply walk away from the podium unless reporters changed the subject.
Uncle Ebeneezer
@Amir Khalid: Congrats on the amp/guitar. It’s always exciting. I missed the back-story (must’ve been in earlier threads) but I’ve been playing guitar for (sheesh) going on 30 years. Such a great way to spend time, cut lose etc. Funny thing, I’ve NEVER named any of my guitars. It never even occurred to me to do so. Enjoy.
PS once you know the guitar ain’t going nowhere (not just a passing phase) the wall-mount guitar stands are great. Frees up some space and lets the guitar’s beauty serve as a nice piece of art for your wall/room.
O. Felix Culpa
Hmm, there seems to be some serious helicopter action by my house. And yes, at least one of them appears to be black.
rikyrah
@Raoul:
I posted Benen’s post about it.
Quinerly
@Immanentize: @O. Felix Culpa:
It has been said that I give good gumbo. (Actually won a little award in a little cook off). Personally I’m not big on the seafood ones…mine has two kinds of sausage and chicken. It’s all about the roux…relaxing WINTER dish to make. I pretty much cook by taste and instinct but when I get back to Soulard, I can post the recipe…the basis of it came from an old friend with the last name Boudreaux. It’s the real deal. He’s Zachary Richard’s first cousin.?
Amir Khalid
Bianca is looking curiously at the new girl, whom I have just put down next to her after practising my D, A, and E chords. (I have Justin Sandercoe’s website open in another window.) I hope she doesn’t get jealous.
danielx
NY Times op-ed never ceases to amaze and (unintentionally) amuse, at least one occasion. My man Douchehat is in high dudgeon at the appalling humiliation to which Jeff Sessions is being subjected:
(Emphasis mine.)
Douthat, you fucking idiot, Trump has no governing philosophy other than government should do what benefits Donald Trump, and not do what doesn’t benefit Donald Trump. Humiliating people for fun and profit is one of his standard tactics and if you haven’t noted this, both Chris Christie and Mitt Romney could provide detailed background for you. I know it usually takes demolition charges for Villagers to have the blinders removed, but christ jesus when will you get it?
danielx
@Quinerly:
Something to be said for it in summer, too.
Quinerly
@Amir Khalid:
Open mic at one of my favorite clubs tonight ..come on down.?
Quinerly
@danielx:
I guess. It has hit 107 in St.Louis since I have been gone (actual temp,record broken)100 here at the beach. I can’t imagine stirring roux for 30 minutes even in ac and eating it in the summer. Heavy dish. Maybe a “Green Gumbo?”
rikyrah
WATCH: How McConnell is trying to con senators into supporting massive Medicaid cuts w/ “Skinny Repeal”https://t.co/kCgEpoYZti
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) July 27, 2017
Quinerly
@O. Felix Culpa:
I’ll see if Annie has posted anything re Madrid/Cerrillos. She’s usually “on” that kind of stuff.?
Cain
Well, my AirBNB hostess looks in Edinburgh ranted for a bit about Trump but also Melania since she is from Slovenia. But she said KGB agents are everywhere in Slovenia and are using blackmail to get what they want.
Just about everyone is sick of Trump here in UK.
Gin & Tonic
@Raoul:
This. Perhaps someone in the WH wants to call Joe Miller and ask him about underestimating Lisa Murkowski. I’d bet there are plenty of people in Alaska who wish they hadn’t gotten on the wrong side of her or her father.
Immanentize
@Immanentize: @rdldot: OK, I will post it here on this thread — but I have to type it up first, so I i will leave it here in about 10-15 minutes for whoever wishes it….
Amir Khalid
@Quinerly:
It’s only my second day with the girl, and I’m still getting the hang of those first three chords. I’m not quite ready yet for public performance. But I’ll get there, someday.
Hmm. Maybe that’s her name: The Girl. What do you guys think?
Cheryl Rofer
O. Felix Culpa
@Quinerly: They’ve flown on now, in an easterly direction.
MomSense
@Amir Khalid:
How about “my girl”. It’s a classic song, too.
Gin & Tonic
Huh. Bill Browder filed an OFAC complaint against Dana Rohrabacher.
Browder’s got stones, and he doesn’t give up. This is interesting.
Amir Khalid
@Cheryl Rofer:
So Der Trump was just shooting his virtual mouth off on Twitter, without having issued any official order? It figures.
frosty
@Yoda Dog: That’s a nice one, but since I don’t have any wall space I got a floor model: GS414B.
narya
@Amir Khalid: I vote for grown-ass woman.
different-church-lady
Ah, open thread: does anyone know of an extension for Mac Safari that will kill video autoplay?
Jeffro
@rikyrah:
I think we all have guessed that Trumpov will veto the sanctions bill…didn’t see “bring me a tougher one” coming. Hope Congress’ response is, “Sign this one now, and we’ll bring you an even stronger one tomorrow”.
different-church-lady
@Cheryl Rofer: Because our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming…
Kay
@mai naem mobile:
It’s bad. The “normal” Republicans here have gone from being sort of sheepish and approachable on him to defensive. They’ve hardened their position. I got into a tense back and forth with one of them. He was telling me how well the economy is doing. This makes me mad because there isn’t a bit of difference between now and 7 months ago on the economy. They just refused to give Obama credit for anything. If they like “the economy” now they should have liked it 7 months ago. It didn’t go from “horrible” to “good”. It’s exactly the same. In fact, unemployment has ticked up a bit, although it’s still very low.
They tend to lecture me on “the economy”, conservatives. I’m sick of it. They’re in no way the experts. They want to treat me like their stereotype of (female) liberals like I don’t know where money comes from and where it goes and so I just want to hand it out. Their President lies constantly. He’s created a whole reality. They aren’t allowed to lecture me about the real world.
If you live in Ohio and you like the “Trump economy” you should have liked the “Obama economy” or you’re full of shit.
rikyrah
Cornyn says process ‘is about as open and transparent as it gets’
07/27/17 10:46 AM
By Steve Benen
Much of what Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) has said during the health care fight is better left ignored, but he made one observation yesterday that stood out for me.
I suppose it’s possible that Cornyn literally doesn’t know the meaning of the words “open” and “transparent,” but it’s far more likely that the Senate Majority Whip is trying to gaslight the public.
It’s a dynamic that requires no exaggeration or hyperbole. Senate Republicans this week began a floor fight on a health care proposal they had not yet written. While amendments are usually offered as a way to improve legislation, GOP leaders invited senators to introduce amendments on a bill they haven’t read – not because they’re lazy, but because it’s impossible to read a bill that does not exist.
At this point, the Senate Republican leadership continues to craft a secret measure, behind closed doors, making changes along the way following secret deals.
A vote on the GOP plan is imminent, despite the fact that no one, including senators themselves, knows anything about the bill’s contents. Indeed, even now, no one can say with confidence if the bill has even been written.
John Cornyn believes this is “about as open and transparent as it gets.” If that’s true, the American policymaking process is irretrievably broken. If it’s false, the Senate Majority Whip is lying in ways the political world should not tolerate.
Amir Khalid
@MomSense:
She’s definitely mine, so I’ll call her that too.
different-church-lady
@different-church-lady: …….victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous disruption that throwing out thousands of transgender soldiers already in the military would entail. Thank you
Jeffro
@Cheryl Rofer: Wow. The adults have spoken, and apparently they don’t follow orders given over Twitter. Good for them. I say that with no small amount of hesitation, but still…good for them. And us.
NotMax
@Quinerly
Yeah, fussing with a roux while standing over a hot stove duiring midsummer isn’t the most inviting thing to contemplate.
Haven’t made a pot of vichyssoise in ages. Maybe this year will get back to that. (at least prep allows one to not keep constant stove vigil).
Cheryl Rofer
@Amir Khalid: Yes. Trump has the idea, as do a lot of Americans, that if the President says something, it’s policy. But in order to change a policy like that, you have to put together some facts about how the policy is likely to affect current operations, how to handle problems that may arise, and a bunch of stuff like that. That’s what the bureaucracy is for. Words, even the very best words, aren’t enough.
I’m glad that the Joint Chiefs of Staff are showing more spine than the Boy Scouts of America.
Yoda Dog
@Uncle Ebeneezer: I never thought to name any of my guitars either. I kinda wish I had now, hearing Amir get excited about naming his… Seems kinda weird to start calling them by names now after not doing so for ages though..
Cheryl Rofer
@different-church-lady: Yeah. I found that “decisive and overwhelming victories” fantastical. How exactly do you do that in, say, Afghanistan, when you have tribal animosities throughout the country? Or even Syria, which is smaller.
joel hanes
@OzarkHillbilly:
The core body temperature usually drops in the early stages of sleep. If you’re too well blanketed, or the room too warm, that becomes more difficult.
If it’s possible, try getting a bit chilled — maybe stand in front of a fan for a few minutes in your skivvies, then retire covered only by a sheet.
It’s that moment when the circulation valves in the arms and legs open and the core admits cooler blood from the extremities, while the extermities warm up, that induces lassitude. Having a second pillow so you can swap to the cool one helps too.
Another Scott
Chad Bolt thread on Twitter reminding us of what’s going on with the Teabaggers. McConnell is desperate to pass something. Cornyn says they will pass something tonight.
We have to keep fighting.
(via ASlavitt’s Twitter feed).
Cheers,
Scott.
rikyrah
@Kay:
TELL IT, KAY!!!
Kay
@rikyrah:
It’s worth mentioning that the health care debacle has nothing to do with Trump. He could give a shit what they pass as long as they pass it. This is the GOP Congress. They’re terrible at their jobs. They don’t care. They’ll churn out any piece of shit and put their names on it, as long as they get a short term “win” in that box.
It’s just garbage. It’s low quality work and they don’t care.
rikyrah
@Cheryl Rofer:
But, the Joint Chiefs didn’t have a multi-billion dollar merger that they wanted approved.
Nicole
@Amir Khalid: Hey, three chords makes up most of John Denver’s oeuvre. ;)
Mel
@Amir Khalid: I know someone who used to name her mandolins after first ladies that she admired. (Dolly, Rosalyn, Eleanor, etc.)
Another acquaintance named her guitar after Madame Curie (“Ms. Marie”!)
Another friend named one of his guitars after his grandmother. She taught him how to play (on an old acoustic that had belonged to her father) when he would stay with her during the summers when he was a little boy.
My first childhood banjo was named Charlie (after my pet goat, which is an entirely different topic…)
Your guitar will find her true name. Sometimes it just takes a little time.
rikyrah
Rod Stewart covered travel costs for kids with disabilities going to DC to protest GOP healthcare bill https://t.co/P01iZNhYbU pic.twitter.com/I5mgIou7Gy
— The Hill (@thehill) July 27, 2017
Chris
@Patricia Kayden:
I think it’s a lot more sinister than simply solidarity between senators. I think the reason they’re making noises about Sessions is because he’s the nation’s leading expert on how to suppress votes, specifically the votes of liberal demographics in general and nonwhites in particular. And that vote suppression is what most Republicans in Congress are counting on to save them from changing demographics and allow them to maintain power in a country that’s increasingly not on their wavelength. That’s why they’re making all this noise. They’re happy to let Trump indulge himself on any number of topics up to and including treason, as long as he keeps bringing in the votes, but Sessions is not simply one of Trump’s pet projects, it’s something that matters deeply to their survival as a party, and they’re letting Trump know that they’re not going to let him fuck that up in a fit of dumb pride.
Chris
@Cheryl Rofer:
150 years ago, the people who threw a violent revolution because they’d lost an election for the first time in their life were simply forgiven as soon as they’d laid down their arms and essentially allowed to win the peace. I admire his optimism that we cared about treason so much.
Jim Parene
@Amir Khalid: Here is an old Audio Guy’s suggestion: Stick with hardwire connections for you headphones. Extensions for the ‘phones are readily available. What you should do is make a “married pair” . Take the guitar cable and the headphone extension cable and plug them into the amp. Next, take some electrical tape and tape the 2 cables together approximately 12″ from where they plug in. Move 24″ down the line and tape the cables together. Make sure they are straight and somewhat snug. Repeat until you have made a neat 2 cable bundle. Both the male guitar connector and the female headphone extension should be fairly close together at the end of the bundle. It makes cable management easier.
I’m very glad you are playing and enjoying it. Beating on my guitars has been a lifesaver for me, these last 5 years. Enjoy!
Brachiator
The NYT reports that the Justice Department has filed court papers arguing that civil rights legislation does not prohibit job discrimination against gay people. Look for a Twitter message tonight from Trump declaring how much he loves gays.
ETA: also a story with the headline, “Furious gay rights advocates say they are now seeing President Trumps’s “true colors.”
The world’s irony meter breaks.
Kay
@rikyrah:
Remember how the stock market wasn’t the “real economy” so Obama couldn’t take credit for it? Now they’re all thanking Trump for the stock market.
Nothing was the “real economy” for Obama- not unemployment, not the stock market, not anything. For some reason he was just excluded from all credit for any economic indicator. Miraculously, the rules have changed back again! Now we’re back to the Bush Rules.
If you’re going to credit the President with “the economy” (which is suspect to begin with) at least be consistent.
Where are the Lefties on this? All I heard about under Obama was how “working class” were not benefiting. Are they now benefiting? How? It’s the same fucking economy. The whole wage stagnation discussion has just stopped. They only criticize Democratic Presidents on the economy?
Immanentize
Re: Gumbo in the summer — One, it’s the best time to get shrimp off the docks from the Vietnamese fishermen near Houston. Two, science just proved that what my Grandfather used to say, “Hot things on hot days” is biologically sound advice. Eating hot things lowers your body temp better than fanning.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Have always had a thing for the name Astrid.
But of course YMMV.
Gave up the guitar some 50 years ago and haven’t touched one since; even then it never occurred to me to name the thing.
Immanentize
And here is my (well-stolen) Gumbo Recipe:
DeLaune Gumbo
Ingredients:
3 Onions (med. To lg) chopped
1 Celery stalk (lg) chopped
2 Bell Peppers (Must use at least one green Bell)
2 cans Whole tomatoes – Drain cans and reserve juice, course chop the tomatoes
2-3 lb Ocra – sliced in rounds about ¼” thick
3/4 C Corn Oil
3/4 C Flour (scant)
4-8 C Shrimp (or seafood) Stock – The shrimp stock is from getting whole shrimp, snapping their heads and boiling them with some onions and celery (maybe a small carrot). If you do not want to go that route, a high quality seafood stock will do. But remember, most store-bought stocks do not have the salt content that a true shrimp stock has, so adjust accordingly
Seasonings: (My amounts are completely adjustable for taste)
1-2 T Black Pepper (to add when making the roux)
1 T Good smoked Paprika (I use hot, but sweet is also fine!)
3+ T Tony Chachere’s Original (I believe this is the best Cajun seasoning blend on the market, YMMV)
2 t Salt (more or less depending on the stock used – remember, shrimp absorbs salt)
3+ Garlic Cloves, chopped or pressed
3 Bay Leaves (Fresh if available)
* Basil — Fresh and Chopped
* Thyme – Fresh, leaves stripped from the stem and chopped
* I can’t say what amount – just a handful of basil and half as much Thyme….
Add Ins:
2-3 lbs Shrimp – roughly 3 lbs if heads on, 2 lbs if not (less shrimp if you like more sausage)
1/2 lb Andouille Sausage (some people like more sausage – I sometimes leave it out altogether)
Other add in as you like – Crawfish, catfish, even chicken!
What you gotta do:
First, de-head the shrimp, then peel and devein the bodies. Set the bodies aside. Make stock with the heads (water, half the tomato juice, some onion slices, a stick of celery, and a small carrot). When done, strain it before using it.
The roux – Take a big pot (because everything is going into it!) and start the roux by heating the oil until it just starts to simmer/smoke. Put the flour into the oil about 1 T at a time so that the temperature is constant. Stir and keep stirring through this whole process. Once all the flour is in, add the black pepper. Stir! Let the roux get to the color of a light walnut then stir the peppers, onions and celery into the roux. Let the roux get a little darker (regular walnut color), then add a cup of stock – and stir – roux magic! It should be clumping together into a nice roux mix. Add another cup, repeat until your roux is smooth, but not wet. Add the basil, thyme, paprika, garlic and bay leaf and bring it back to a simmer. Then, put in the rest of the stock and tomatoes with about ½ of the reserved tomato juice. Bring to an easy boil – add in the Andouille for about a minute of simmering (n.b. some like to brown the sausage before they put it in, others don’t. I usually do fry it a bit then throw the sausage and the drippings in at once). Stirring, add the Tony’s. At this point it should be a deep brown gumbo (color altered to your liking by how much you cooked the roux at the beginning). Let it simmer for at least 1 hour to blend all the flavors. Finally, add the shrimp and let it simmer – not boil! – for another 10-15 minutes. Salt to taste.
Eat it!
Remove the bay leaves – those things can be killers! Serve over rice with Cholula (or other inferior tobacco-based sauces) and file gumbo if you like that (which I really don’t). Sides of corn-on-the-cob and good crusty bread. Yum it up!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Nicole:
Even more screwed up than that, Kansans won’t vote Democrat as a legacy of the Civil War. So these are the moderate Republicans who got feed up and finally moved to save the state from destruction, and they will be rewarded by the voters turning it right back to the Wingnuts the micro second the moderates fix it.
Kay
@Brachiator:
Again, though, how could he have fooled some voters on this? What was that based on? His enormous sense of fairness and commitment to equity? They thought these issues would be exempt from his pettiness and vitriol?
Allegedly he’s trading civil rights for his stupid fucking spite wall. It’s a hate two-fer. No one wins under Trump except Trump.
Chris
@O. Felix Culpa:
A thing that’s sometimes forgotten with that proverb: 27% is the floor, not the ceiling. Rogers was describing how, even in a race in which a right-wing lunatic candidate had the field tilted against him in every conceivable way, he could still count on the support of at least 27% of the relevant public.
Of course, in most circumstances, the field isn’t that tilted against right-wing lunatics: more often than not, it’s tilted for them. As a result, public support for them is very rarely as low as 27%.
Immanentize
@NotMax: This is so funny — If we were going to have a girl child (which we did not) our first by a long shot name was Astrud. It truly is a lattice of coincidences.
The Moar You Know
I’ve owned well over a hundred instruments over the years. Most of them did not make the cut. Those got names: “shitbox” or “crappile” being the norm.
Current collection: 3 acoustics, 6 electrics, 7 fretless basses, 2 fretted basses, a mandolin, a trombone, a full Slingerland drumset (1965, older than me!) and a violin. Lots of amps (SWR, Markbass and Marshall) and other supportive gear, including a full shop set to build/repair instruments. This all takes up one 8×11 room and about a quarter of a two-car garage. More when I’m actually building something.
I gig out on bass and drums, rarely on guitar. The rest are for fun.
None of the keepers have names. Not a one. Never thought of doing it, to be honest. Maybe I should.
NotMax
@Cheryl Rofer
Apparently the Joint Chiefs don’t fall into the “my generals” category and are not permitted at the kewl kids table at lunchtime.
Brachiator
@Chris:
You may have a point about why the GOP loves Sessions, but gerrymandering also lets Republicans blunt the impact of changing demographics. If you have permanently Republican districts, population changes don’t matter as much.
rikyrah
@Chris:
You are on point here.
Yarrow
@Kay:
He didn’t fool them. They voted with their racism and misogyny. They voted their beliefs.
Amir Khalid
@Yoda Dog:
Eric Clapton calls his black Stratocaster Blackie and his brown one Brownie. I think I should do better than that, if I’m going to name a guitar of mine.
@Jim Parene:
Thanks for the suggestion. Also too, I’ve noticed a bit of Ye Olde Single-Coil AC Hum. Should I consider getting the pickup and control cavities shielded like all the cool guitar people on YouTube do? Or would that be overdoing things?
rikyrah
Donald Trump’s ‘fine-tuned machine’ descends into chaos
07/27/17 11:25 AM—UPDATED 07/27/17 11:30 AM
By Steve Benen
I generally don’t care about warring factions and personalities in the West Wing. I do care, however, when a White House slips into chaos, due entirely to officials’ own incompetence and ignorance.
Take this morning, for example.
Scaramucci, the new White House communications director, insisted that “the leak” of his financial disclosure forms was “a felony,” and he intended to pursue the matter with the FBI and Justice Department.
He also called into a live CNN broadcast this morning to suggest Reince Priebus was responsible. “So if Reince wants to explain he’s not a leaker, let him do that,” Scaramucci said.
There was, however, no leak. The financial-disclosure materials, first noted by Politico, are public documents, obtained through a simple records request.
Feathers
@OzarkHillbilly: @joel hanes: The core body temperature thing is real, but some of these tips could just leave you cold and completely unable to fall back asleep.
One of the most helpful tips I’ve gotten is to put a hot water bottle or heating pad at you feet, this can trick your body into thinking that your core body temperature has dropped, and send you off to sleep. One of the better things about this is that you can do it in the middle of the night.
Adding a blanket with some weight can also help. I’m looking into the special weighted blankets. I had an llbean Cotton one that worked great, but it got too much love from the cat, so I’m looking for a new one.
Yarrow
@Immanentize:
You were going to name your child Astrud so she could be called Asturd her entire life? The “ru” construction doesn’t roll off the tongues of English speakers as readily as the “ur” construction, so people would even honestly make that mistake. I’m already cringing for the poor girl being called Ass Turd.
NotMax
@Immanentize
Mucho mahalo for the recipe.
(Had to grin widely at tobacco-based sauces; classic typo!)
rikyrah
Just remember if someone you love is denied health care next year, your fate was decided by a bunch of yahoos chit chatting over lunch https://t.co/pEA0toXtxX
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) July 27, 2017
NorthLeft12
@different-church-lady: I watched a bit of Goodfellas last night, which immediately came to mind with your comment. That movie spent a fair bit of time having the lead character [Henry Hill] explain why he wanted to be a gangster, and why the risk of sudden death was acceptable.
The desire for power and wealth and recognition/infamy was everything to these guys. Life as an ordinary shmo was just not acceptable.
Unfortunately, there are a fair number of people around who think like that…..and they all are not criminals.
rikyrah
Update: lots unfolding. McConnell is getting VERY close to 50. Getting around the rules and buying off Sens every way he can. Here goes. 1/ https://t.co/n62lY9fzQM
— Chad Bolt (@chadderr) July 27, 2017
rikyrah
First they came for the transgender students and soldiers. Next they came for the gays & lesbians in the workplace. https://t.co/MKOfOlyEXq
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) July 27, 2017
Read my column, ‘First They Came For …,’ and let me know what you think. https://t.co/icFnpWdE0c
— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) July 27, 2017
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: Are you from Ipanema?
rikyrah
This is it. The vote is imminent. You will NOT have another chance to weigh in. Phone calls matter, RIGHT. NOW. Do it do it do it do it 16/
— Chad Bolt (@chadderr) July 27, 2017
rdldot
@Immanentize: Thanks! I copied it for preservation and hope to use in the not so distant future!
Immanentize
@NotMax: Tobacco, Tabasco — both products of the Louisiana slave economy! Let’s call the whole thing off….
gene108
@Cheryl Rofer:
The only way, I’ve seen that achieved is basically obliterating your enemy, like what happened to Germany and Japan in WW2 or the South, in the U.S. Civil War.
Otherwise, you have to use diplomacy to negotiate a lasting peace.
Even the Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown, the British could’ve thrown more resources into fighting the colonists, if they wanted to. They decided it wasn’t worth the headache and agreed to negotiate a peace treaty.
Aleta
@Cheryl Rofer: Re treason: Also familiar is publicity that accuses, loudly and over the top, Tr’s opposition of doing something that’s being questioned about his own campaign, as an attempt to neutralize the issue. Abuse of women, fixing the election, allowing Russian interference, taking money from the Russians, now treason. Also, once again, diversion of media minutes from health care and Kushner.
Yarrow
Hey, look! They’re voting to kill me.
Miss Bianca
@Nicole: And the Ramones, as well…”four great guys, three great chords!”
@Amir Khalid: The Girl is a perfectly good name. Incidentally, I name all or most of my instruments as well. Draco is my electric guitar – a hollow-body Ibanez that’s a copy of a Gibson ES-335. And Splatcat was my splatter-painted Strat, since sold to my ex…
Immanentize
@Yarrow: Astrud Gilberto. Astrid would have worked too. It is true kids can be cruel, but she would have had a mighty powerful woman to point to for strength and inspiration. But there is no Immp girl child. Of course, my son’s name August gets its own set of remarks. My favorite being, “Was he born in August?” To which I usually reply, “Now that would have been an utter failure of imagination, no?”
Immanentize
@gene108: Hence the War of 1812.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: No, Corcovado (not really)
The Moar You Know
@Brachiator: They stayed on board with the Dems until they got what they wanted, and then ditched the party, as they’d always planned to, for some good old – fashioned tax cuts and resegregation.
Now they’re finding out, too late, that what was done by one president can be undone by another, very quickly. If it were only the white male homosexuals getting burned by this I’d laugh my ass off. But, sadly, every American citizen is getting burned by their idiocy.
NotMax
@Immanentize
Could have been worse, could have misread the variant spelling of okra with a c!
“Okay, got 3 cups of orca. Now what am I supposed to do with the rest of the whale?”
;)
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
They had a long ass list. Straight white guys looked at it and said, “OK. I’m good.”
Fifty three percent of white women looked at it, and said, “I’m good, too.”
Immanentize
@NotMax: And there is now so little Orca available in the stores!
Uncle Cosmo
@rikyrah: (sigh) Do youse medigani have any idea how deeply, deeply embarrassed we of the decent branch of the italoamericano persuasion are by scumbags like Mooch, Scalia, Ghouliani eccetera? Makes one wonder if there isn’t a coding for fascismo dug deep into the genome. As my grandmothers would have said, Che vergogna!
NotMax
@Immanentize
Maybe in the vegan cooler? Right next to the tofurkey.
Toforca!
catclub
@Kay:
I disagree, It has everything to do with Trump. He is goading them on to pass anything – no matter how bad or badly constructed, to give him a win.
Since they are afraid of his voters, they are doing it.
Jim Parene
@Amir Khalid: Shielded cables might be a good idea.
However, check the ground on your A/C power cable from the amp to the wall. See if lifting the ground (3 to 2 ) plug adaptor works to diminish the noise. Lifting the ground can go a long way to diminishing noise. BTW don’t remove the ground pin from the plug, use an adapter. After doing this and you still have noise, then try the shielded cable.
Quick story: I worked the Newport Jazz Festival for several years. I was with the TV crew and I was Video assist that year. One year John Mayall was on the bill, along with Etta James & John Lee Hooker. Mr. Mayall’s amp had a pretty good buzz going on so my Audio colleague Bob offered to do this simple fix. John said thanks to Bob, but stated that he liked the presence of the buzz.
Go figure. Hey, if a blues God tells you he like his sound, you smile, move on and enjoy the gig!
I still can’t believe that I got paid for some wonderful shows!
catclub
@NotMax: When you make a turduckhen out of tofu, that is a tofucken.
Brachiator
@The Moar You Know: RE: “Furious gay rights advocates say they are now seeing President Trumps’s “true colors.”
This was incredibly short sighted. There is no universe in which a tight ass white Republican who can’t be alone in a room with a woman not his wife is going to be sympathetic towards gay rights.
I listened to some woman on the radio trying to justify Trump’s transgender ravings. She didn’t even try to hide the venom in her tone, and some of her language included some of the old lies used to try to rationalize segregation in the Army. You could just tell that Trump’s election had liberated her, and allowed her to let her racist and anti-gay flags fly.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@Cheryl Rofer:
Jeez, this is like Raymond Reddington and Mr. Kaplan level infighting!
The Moar You Know
@Brachiator: I agree. I told the few I know so. They voted for Trump anyway. Lot of misogyny there.
They seemed to have no idea how narrow the victories were, how fragile, and how easy to undo. And with this administration, well…damn, I’m waiting for the bill to reenact slavery hits the floor of the House or Senate, because that’s coming too. There’s no line where they’re going to be willing to stop and say “enough”.
manyakitty
@Mel: My nyminal cat is Mme. Curie (Manya). I support that name.
Quinerly
@Immanentize:
Not the spice for me. It’s the heaviness of the dish…plus rice. I grew up in the hot South…we just didn’t eat something that heavy in 100 degree weather.?
Groucho48
The Hollywood Reporter, of all places, has quite a nice article discussing the problematic proposed HBO series where the Confederates won the Civil War and slavery is still legal in it.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hbos-slavery-drama-confederate-faces-minefield-fundamentally-problematic-issues-1024598
Quinerly
@NotMax:
Cucumber bisque with slivered almonds and Tabasco….now we’re talking summer!
Immanentize
@Quinerly: Fair enough! Let’s get us some sausage biscuits and gravy instead? :-)
Quinerly
@Amir Khalid:
?
Quinerly
@Immanentize:
With Tabasco….in the winter!?
LAO
Super late, to what may be a dead thread, but this really made me laugh:
JWR
@Amir Khalid: Glad the amp arrived! Have fun! As far as giving any of my guitars names, I call my Telecaster “my Tele”, my Ibanez “my Ibanez”, my bass “my Bass” and so on and so forth. Very creative, eh? ;-) A friend used to name his guitars after his current girlfriend. But names aside, just be happy you’re playin’ yer bran’ new geetar!
TenguPhule
@Immanentize:
Republicans would sell out the human race to the aliens within 24 hours.
TenguPhule
@Immanentize:
Warning, it starts well but the ending really really drops the ball.
In trying to maintain a balance, the producers wounded up favoring the crazy righties.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
Got a shovel and wagon handy?
Steeplejack (phone)
@Amir Khalid:
Then what about Astrid, after Astrid Kirchherr, who was associated with the Beatles early in their career?
Miss Bianca
@Groucho48: good article. I tried to make the case on this yere blog last week about why I found the very idea of this series so offensive, but gave up when I found myself accused of blanket condemnation of dystopian literature. This article manages to make the points I wanted to make far more persuasively than I apparently did.
The Lodger
@Yarrow: Something like that happened to my best friend’s mother. She was in real estate and she wanted to order 100 pencils with her name on them. Her first name is Trudy.
Needless to say, she kept those pencils out of the office.
(And yes, they were #2 pencils.)
The Lodger
@NotMax: Now that would be a killer gumbo.
J R in WV
@Cheryl Rofer:
But didn’t I read that Tony Mucci’s financials – what he is infuriated about being “leaked” – were released because they became public data the moment he filed them??
So he’s just another mentally disturbed dude-bro too preoccupied with his own genius to actually learn anything about one of the most complicated jobs in this world before he starts accusing co-workers of treason. Which is an accusation prone to kick off an FBI investigation of the White House staff, just what Trump needs, another one of those, right?
I am not thinking Anthony Scaramucci is going to be Director of Communications for long at this rate. Too volatile, will compete with the boss for that factor. And when he gets fired, after selling his hugely successful company, he’ll want to sue Trump somehow, not realizing that his new important job is a “will and pleasure” type of position, from which he can be fired because the boss has indigestion.