[Possibly NSFW]
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Apart from taking bets on the contents of today’s inevitable news dump, what’s on the agenda as we wrap up another severely Not Normal week?
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Voters Who Elected Henry Ford's Bile Duct Have Memes, No Regrets pic.twitter.com/fCnw1yHgdq
— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) August 24, 2017
Trump retweeted this Obama eclipse meme and people had questions https://t.co/W4IWIsPrbr pic.twitter.com/nvC7fz78rL
— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) August 24, 2017
What don't you get about a cold, lumpy ball of isolation having to plunge the world in darkness just to feel bigger? https://t.co/cgwEunbnof
— Zed, Zedd 'n' Zeddy (@ZeddRebel) August 24, 2017
He does know what happens immediately after the totality, right? https://t.co/cHkilqnIwD
— Schooley (@Rschooley) August 24, 2017
rikyrah
Good Morning,? ??
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
p.a.
@rikyrah: @Baud: good morning
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: @Baud: @p.a.: Blech.
raven
I see we almost doubled up on the fundraiser last night.
Betty Cracker
Turns out the person whose eclipse meme Trump retweeted is an anti-Semite, as recent tweets from that same account demonstrate conclusively. It’s an amazing coincidence how often that happens — Trump retweets someone, and it turns out the person he retweeted is a Russian bot, Nazi, white supremacist, etc. It’s almost like he has no impulse control at all.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: It’s also almost like nobody but Russian bots, Nazis, white supremacists, etc.can find anything to like about him.
ThresherK
@Betty Cracker: A story about my wife’s friend at a concert:
He goes to the venue, gets into his seat, and the PA says “Ladies and gentlemen, we regret to inform you that Marianne Faithfull cannot sing tonight…” to which he shouts, “Whaddya mean tonight? We knew that when we bought the tickets!”
It’s now my all-purpose bumper sticker for Trump voters or latecoming, still-surprised media types.
p.a.
@Betty Cracker:
or he’s in the process of distilling his open supporters to its pure essence of human scumbags.
ETA: O’Billy beat me to it…
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Yeah, but Hillary is such an elitist that she hooked up with and married the dirt-ass poor son of a struggling single mom. And she gave some speeches to banks about female empowerment and being ethical. So both sides are the same!
PsiFighter37
Back in the U.S. after 2 weeks in Europe. I wish I could go back and skip the next 3+ years…
Betty Cracker
@raven: What fundraiser is that?
OzarkHillbilly
As a 3700 year old broken clay tablet shows, there is much we don’t know:
Pretty cool stuff, and the best may be yet to come:
GregB
@OzarkHillbilly:
Please don’t insult his base. They are very sensitive from what I hear.
p.a.
@GregB: yes. If we’re not nice they might vote Nazi instead of neoNazi!
ETA: Old joke. Hitler’s Germany: Nazi. Mussolini’s Italy: semiNazi. Franco’s Spain hemisemiNazi. Salazar’s Portugal: demihemisemiNazi.
bystander
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
But I thought she got up in front of a room full of banking tycoons and laid out the payment schedule they’d be using for sending funds to the Clinton Foundation in exchange for “special” regulations.
Everytime I heard those jerks complain about the “missing” transcripts of her talks at banking institutions, it left me slackjawed. ETA. I did in fact attend one of those talks Clinton gave during the 2007 campaign, and the Count’s précis is exactly what I recall.
Lapassionara
@GregB: to Trump’s base, those words are not insulting. They are proud of their ignorance and prejudices.
Good morning, everyone
Gin & Tonic
@PsiFighter37: I’m in precisely the same position.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: Commenter jacy put up a GoFundMe link to help with some troubles she’s having. The night crowd is such a bunch of vicious jackals they doubled her goal in a couple of hours.
OzarkHillbilly
@GregB: I can’t help it. My every breath is an insult to them. And speaking of insults, I mentioned this a week or so ago: Turd Reich: San Francisco dog owners lay minefield of poo for rightwing rally
It gets better:
Betty Cracker
@Gin & Tonic: That’s awesome!
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: F’n good for nothing jackals….
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: …and her emails.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Lets not forget her perfidy in creating a foundation to take money from awful people to give to AIDS sufferers in impoverished nations.
Or that she declined meetings with people who had money! Horrors!
That was no different than Trump skimming charity money or paying Barron’s Cub Scout dues from a charity!
debbie
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
If she’d been smart, she’d have pulled a Trump and kept the funds for herself.
MJS
@OzarkHillbilly: The only completely accurate trigonometric table, huh? Then I want that D I got in trig in high school revisited.
Baud
I’m tired of all this Hillary bashing.
We need to focus on Chelsea.
satby
@rikyrah: @Baud: good morning! @OzarkHillbilly: ?
satby
@raven: isn’t that great?!
OzarkHillbilly
Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop faces new false advertising claims
How is it with stains?
Punchy
Parts of TX expected to get 35″ of rain. Thats just effin’ absurd. Cant wait for all those rugged individualists to start crying out for federal gov’t help….
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@debbie:
That just proves how stupid she is and/or had some nefarious plot in mind.
That woman is capable of ANYTHING.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly:
.
Fixed that for you
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
That’s your job, I hear she’s the front runner for 2020.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Baud:
Did anybody check Chelsea’s bags for White House silver or trinkets when she left in January 2001? I’m thinking that several House committees should get right on that.
TheMightyTrowel
@OzarkHillbilly: (archaeologists and ancient historians with an interest in mathematics have known this for over 100 years. Lab scientists have discovered it and think they’ve invented the wheel)
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly:
I can attest from personal experience that’s a big fat lie.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@OzarkHillbilly: There’s a reason Tony Stark and Pepper Potts broke up in the Marvel movies….
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
What did Chelsea know about the criticism of Pastor Terry Jones on Benghazi, and when did she know it? Several House committees really want answers.
David Evans
@OzarkHillbilly: the Babylonian tablet is interesting, but it doesn’t do the same job as modern trigonometry. Sample problem: I am 1000 feet from the base of a tower and the line of sight to the top is an angle A above the horizontal. How high is the tower? The answer is 1000*tan(A), which my calculator will give me to about 30 decimal places whatever the value of A. Not perfect accuracy, because that would be an infinitely long decimal. The Babylonian tablet gives answers for a finite set of triangles and no answer at all for anything in between.
randy khan
The Schooley comment was more or less the first thing I thought when I saw the Trump retweet.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I can take Chelsea. It’s her two kids that worry me.
Iowa Old Lady
@Betty Cracker: It’s also like he’s following Nazi twitter feeds. I’ll bet those memes never pop up on your feed.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: She’s probably the one that took all the ‘w’ keys off all the keyboards in the White House.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: True, their grandpa did time in the Big House.
Betty Cracker
Speaking of Chelsea Clinton, if you follow her on Twitter, you’ll soon realize she’s one of the most gracious human beings on the planet. She responds to the most vicious trolls with kindness, humility and empathy. Whatever their flaws, Bill and Hillary Clinton raised that girl right.
The contrast with Uday and Qusay Trump couldn’t be more stark — they do nothing but whine and brag. Ivanka is merely vapid, useless and opportunistic, but in a way that’s even more maddening since she and her dilettante husband have official roles in our government — positions that rightly belong to qualified people who have earned a seat at the table.
The one gigantic lie Hillary Clinton told during the campaign was when a debate moderator asked her to say something nice about Trump, and she said he’d raised fine, upstanding children. That’s demonstrably untrue, but I suspect Clinton was just trying to be nice. Must be where Chelsea gets it.
Lurking Canadian
@OzarkHillbilly: I have no doubt that there is cool mathematical shit on some Babylonian tablets, but I must chuckle at the notion that trigonometry represented as ratios in a right angled triangle is “novel”.
Sine = opposite/hypotenuse is how it was first taught to me in Grade twelve, long before I learned anything about solutions to classes of differential equations.
Face
@Betty Cracker: I’ve heard that sleep cures insomnia.
Iowa Old Lady
I have a Skype meeting with my prospective publisher this morning. She had to move it earlier because a spider bit her and she now has a doctor appointment, so I will still be in my gym clothes.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: So you admit Hillary’s a gigantic liar. Checkmate, liberal.
Or is it checkmate, neoliberal now? It’s all so confusing.
Amir Khalid
@David Evans:
You gotta cut the Grauniad reporter some slack. She has probably not been in a mathematics class since before university.
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady: Cool. Maybe she’ll have Spidey powers.
Gin & Tonic
Another followup with my orthopedic surgeon this morning. Hoping for better news than last time. Next week I see one of the country’s leading specialists, though.
Patricia Kayden
@Betty Cracker: And yet he has a Jewish daughter and son-in-law and several Jewish Cabinet holders in his administration. When are they going to speak out about his wink wink attitude towards anti-Semites?
dww44
@Punchy: As well as denying there is such a thing as climate change that might be underlying these extreme weather events.
Gin & Tonic
Another followup with my orthopedic surgeon this morning. Hoping for better news than last time. Next week I see one of the country’s leading specialists, though.
OzarkHillbilly
@David Evans: Not being a mathematician and my own high school trigonometry being 40+ years in the rearview mirror, I will leave it to the mathematicians to argue the exact ins and outs of what this table they finally figured out does and doesn’t do, what it means and doesn’t mean. I do know this however, working in base 60? That’s some pretty cool shit, especially some 3625 years before computers. Also, “a novel kind of trigonometry based on ratios, not angles and circles.” is a very different way of looking at that math from the way we do.
It’s edifying.
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly: Good morning!
Another Scott
@raven: Yup. jacy’s post.
Recent lottery winners looking for something to do can always kick in more. :-)
Cheers,
Scott.
Iowa Old Lady
@Baud: That occurred to me too!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: Most non-science majors I knew avoided math post high school.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby: Hah! Was just about to apply the same fix. Great minds etc.
OzarkHillbilly
@Lurking Canadian: Don’t tell me, tell the PHD in Mathematics who is being quoted.
O. Felix Culpa
@Patricia Kayden: How about never? They’re in thrall to him.
Shorter: kapos. The Jewish version of slave catchers.
satby
@Gin & Tonic: Hope that there’s been some progress in healing. Good luck!
Cheryl Rofer
@Betty Cracker: It raises questions about whom he follows.
OzarkHillbilly
@O. Felix Culpa: Blech to you too.
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly: Oooh, I got a blech from Ozark! Made my day! ?
bemused
@Betty Cracker:
I rarely get enough sleep, haven’t for years but discovered that babysitting for 13 month old grandchild for a week put his grandparents into sleep coma every night.
Kay
It’s fun to watch them lose and lose and lose- it’s like courts have just had it with this shit. It got too blatant.
rikyrah
@Punchy:
I can’t even imagine that.
That’s a yardstick of rain.
Da phuq??
Gin & Tonic
So “request deletion” on a comment in moderation doesn’t work. And the word specialist is still one that requires the fancy trick to avoid moderation.
Gin & Tonic
@Cheryl Rofer: It doesn’t raise questions, it answers them.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Betty,
She was grasping at straws. She had to say something positive. I bet that they had thought about it, trying to find something.
Betty Cracker
@Cheryl Rofer: He only follows 45 accounts, many of them his own golf properties, staffers and family members. He does follow Ann Coulter — maybe that’s where he gets the Nazi stuff.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: There’s an op-ed in the Post today arguing that there should be penalties for public officials who are found guilty of disenfranchising voters. I heartily agree. There’s no incentive for them not to now, and every incentive in the world to cheat people out of their most sacred right as a citizen.
OzarkHillbilly
A netflix/HBO mini-series coming soon:
….
That’s how it’s done in real America.
Tenar Arha
@Patricia Kayden: It’s likely they never will say anything unless he attacks them or their families directly, though they’re probably beginning to realize they need an exit plan.
Someone on one of the many podcasts I listen to had the best explanation. They quoted an alternate history novel of the US where Lindbergh wins in 1940 instead of FDR. There’s a Jewish character that explains why certain famous Jewish people campaigned and are working for Lindbergh, “he’s there to make Lindbergh kosher for the gentiles.” That’s who they all are, they’re the tokens meant to prove he’s not an anti-semite, that he’s “kosher” enough for Jewish people & therefore not the dangerous xenophobic, misogynistic, racist, kakistocrat that the majority of Jewish people see. It’s this way the supporters he does make a bit nervous can ignore everyone else’s warnings.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I agree. It’s an interesting idea- switching the focus from penalties on voters to penalties on lawmakers.
The Texas decisions are doubly delightful because they’re a loss for Sessions/Trump. They switched sides when Trump got it- the United States joined the losing side.
This is from February:
Trump/Sessions got in right in time to lose :)
OzarkHillbilly
@O. Felix Culpa: I live to serve. (bows with great humility)
SFAW
@Another Scott:
Thanks for the link.
The Dangerman
I’m betting on “No”.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: I guess they thought Roberts gave them a “wink wink, nudge nudge”.
satby
I woke up to a gloriously cool morning, it’s sunny and going to be pleasantly mild. I’m going to play hooky from the market today and get some yard work done. And try to stick to my new resolution to exercise more.
One of the tomato varieties I planted was an Orange Whopper from Gurney, and those babies are producing more tomatoes than all the other varieties combined. I recommend them to tomato lovers next year, they won’t disappoint.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ozark! I think someone is spoofing your account/nym/nom!
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic:
That can’t be good. Sorry to hear the problems continue.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Jesus. One hopes they never make it to trial, except in very tiny pieces.
Eric S.
@OzarkHillbilly: Wait! His name is Tuffy Tuffington and his dogs’ names are Bob and Chuck?
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: I don’t envy Clinton and the debate prep people who had to come up with something nice to say about that disgusting pustule. I’m completely stumped. The only good thing I can think of to say about Trump is that he’s old, fat, sedentary and hateful, so he is unlikely to encumber the planet with his noxious presence for too much longer, in actuarial terms. I guess that wouldn’t count as a positive response!
Cheryl Rofer
Trump is tweeting again – just shot one at Bob Corker. Also demanding that the Senate end the filibuster and other oldies but goodies.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: In moderation…. No idea why, maybe the Mod Bot thinks my comment to Gin and Tonic is fake empathy.
Patricia Kayden
@Iowa Old Lady: Good luck with that. ??
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: Roberts did give them a wink and a nudge, but as is usual with them, they overreached. When one of those cases makes it back to SCOTUS, they’re going to force Roberts to rule against them; he was counting on them to be subtle and they were blatant in their suppression.
Patricia Kayden
@Cheryl Rofer: It’s hilarious that he’s going after members of his own Party in public. You’d think he’d be sensible enough to call Republicans on the phone and talk to them privately about disagreements instead of subjecting them to public scolding via twitter. I don’t remember President Obama ever engaging in similar conduct.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Cheryl Rofer: Have the Democrats filibustered anything of consequence? The “health care” bill was under reconciliation so it couldn’t be filibustered.
Applejinx
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Manning? Cool.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Gorsuch, but they solved that problem, as expected.
Another Scott
@Patricia Kayden: It’s all part of Bill Clinton’s plan, remember? Trump is a Democrat and he’s trying to destroy the Republican Party.
So far, so good!!11
(groucho-roll-eyes.gif)
Cheers,
Scott.
(“Who does kinda wonder occasionally, given how far into Bizzarro Land we are these days…”)
Patricia Kayden
@OzarkHillbilly: What a depressing read. Sad now.
Cheryl Rofer
@Patricia Kayden: Or Lyndon Johnson, who was a famous legislative bully. Who got things done.
Trump has no idea of how government works and has managed to preserve that ignorance despite being in the middle of it. It’s hard to imagine the conversations he must be having with legislators.
L: We’d very much appreciate your help in passing the AHCA. Here’s a list of wavering Reps/Senators.
T: Did you see my electoral results? Or this latest tweet of praise from a guy with a frog avatar?
L:
The way horse-trading is carried out is by suggestions of actions on each side. Trump thinks his pronouncements are actions, and he is totally resistant, as he proves with his continuing campaign rallies, to any suggestion by others that he do anything.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Applejinx: No, Clinton.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Cheryl Rofer: To paraphrase my dad, “You can tell Trump, but you can’t tell him much”.
satby
@?BillinGlendaleCA: you know he already knew that, right?
O. Felix Culpa
@Cheryl Rofer: @Cheryl Rofer:
When will the Republicans figure out they can’t control the monster they created? Rooting for injuries. To them. May all the saints, gods, goddesses, demi-gods, and tylwyth teg protect the rest of us.
O. Felix Culpa
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Oh you and your liberal *facts.* Since when did they get in the way of a lunatic Trump tweet?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@satby: Yes, just thought I’d rub it in a bit.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@O. Felix Culpa: I’m sorry, I lived in a world for 56 years where the President dealt with reality; give me time to adjust.
O. Felix Culpa
Headline from WaPo’s World View: Jared Kushners Quest for Peace Looks Increasingly Doomed
Hoocoodanode? (Falls on the floor laughing.)
Messed up linky thing, so here it is: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/08/25/jared-kushners-quest-for-peace-looks-increasingly-doomed/?utm_term=.9e2319de0923
?BillinGlendaleCA
@O. Felix Culpa: Ivanka made him sleep on the couch again?
satby
@?BillinGlendaleCA: ???
OzarkHillbilly
@Patricia Kayden: Horrific is the one word that comes to my mind. I can not imagine what kind of person can do this to a child.
O. Felix Culpa
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Whippersnapper.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m sure it’s a case of economic anxiety.
sdhays
@Patricia Kayden: Obama didn’t hold enough cocktail parties, so it’s all the same.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@sdhays: “You have a drink with Mitch McConnell.”
Kay
Yeah, they’d like that. Forget it. He’s yours. You nominated him and your entire Party voted for him. This BS about “real Republicans” has to stop. That are what you see. There is no alternate, better, wholly imaginary Republican Party. The President reflects the base who put him in office.
A Ghost To Most
And people wonder why I have no use for religion and the religious
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay:
To quote the esteemed rikyrah, Preach it Kay!
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Induced by mental health issues resulting from Obamacare’s inadequate minimum standards for MH insurance.
Kay
@O. Felix Culpa:
Sometimes I like to ponder how none of these people has ever applied for a job. That’s really extraordinary. How many adults are there like that, do you think? It can’t be more than single digit thousands.
Nothing. Nada. Not an application at the Dairy Queen when they were 16. What an odd and privileged existence. Never once have they been objectively evaluated for employment.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: The base the GOP has been dog whistling to for decades now.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: And right on cue:
Asked and answered. There is no saving these people.
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay: From F. Scott Fitzgerald’s story, “The Rich Boy”:
I went to college with some people of wealth and privilege. I was agog at the fact that they truly inhabit a world that is different than ours and have no idea (and no interest in) what our world is like.
Betty Cracker
@A Ghost To Most: I’ve certainly got no use for shitheads like Paula White, who can’t go leap into the nearest conflagration fast enough to suit me. But lumping all Christians in with the likes of her isn’t any more fair than Trump barring refugees from entering the U.S. because of “radical Islamic terrorism.”
The Thin Black Duke
@OzarkHillbilly: If some people refuse to evolve, then they have to be left behind. Darwin is a harsh mistress.
clay
@Kay:
Twice in the past two days, on two different shows and by two different people, I saw someone on MSNBC trot out the BS about ‘Trump isn’t a REAL Republican; he used to be a Democrat.’ (And, of course, no push back by the host.) This shit drives me crazy. From The Smoking Gun:
See? Trump was a Democrat for 8 years. He was ‘independent’ for 3 years. But he was/is a Republican for 19 years and counting, 50% more than the others put together. He shares approximately ZERO of the core beliefs of the Democratic Party, so don’t give me any more of this bullshit about ‘oh, he hijacked the party, he’s not a true Republican’.
THEN WHY DID ALL OF THOSE REPUBLICANS VOTE FOR AND ENDORSE HIM ASSHOLES?
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly: In the meantime, your former Senator is bleating in WaPo that “Trump is exactly what Republicans are not.”
As the comments say in so many colorful ways, nice try, Senator Danforth, but that dog won’t hunt. The GOP owns Trump.
Jeffro
@Cheryl Rofer:
I saw that. Apparently he was watching Huckabee-Sanders up at the podium not answering questions yesterday, and she was asked about Corker’s comments. Would have loved to see Trumpov leap in to action trying to discover “what, what Was THIS that was said about me, Marvelous ME?!?!?” LOL We really are going to be able to tie this jackass up just by jerking his chain at regular intervals.
Speaking of jerking Trumpov’s chain…his eventual response to this should be quite interesting: Gary Cohn, who leads the White House’s National Economic Council, finally spoke out publicly about President Donald Trump’s failure to fully condemn white nationalists in the wake of the Charlottesville attack, urging the Trump administration Thursday to do more to denounce hate groups
Ooooh-kay, Gary, whatever you say…Trumpov doesn’t give a shit what you think and he’s certainly not abandoning his base of “many fine people”. You figure it out.
MomSense
@Gin & Tonic:
Vicious jackals really are the best jackals. Good in all of you for helping Jacy. She’s had much too much on her plate.
BTW, how is that wrist if yours? Hope it is healing.
Kay
Amusing and true:
Nepotism hire Huckabee Sanders is the queen of this. She defends the rudest, nastiest, most mean-spirited President of my adult life by clutching her pearls every time anyone says anything about him. Trump can say anything about anyone, but mention his obvious unfitness and they all cry foul.
We can questions whether the President is losing his mind. That’s allowable. Especially because both political media and Trump speculated endlessly on Clinton’s physical health. The big baby will just have to bear up because it’s a valid question.
Jeffro
@Kay:
Amen, Kay.
Hey, if he’s not a Republican, then kick him out, right GOP? Let’s hear you deny him three times before morning. Let’s hear you tell us where y’all differ on policies. Go for it!
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
There is a video making the rounds on FB of some enflamed GOP hemorrhoid denying that the stars & bars is a racist symbol and he is not a racist himself. He then uses the name “Martin Luther Coon” as snickers about it. I just don’t understand why people will not believe they are not racist, I mean what more could the guy, he already explained to you he is not racist!
Jeffro
Btw folks, if you’re at all inclined to drop a couple hundred pounds of “I Told You So” on your Trumpov-loving friends and family, here’s a pretty good way to do it – send them this eye-opener from Ben Wittes at Lawfare Blog.
Trump As National Security Threat, Revisited. He reviews his predictions about Trump from March 2016, just as the GOP primary field was narrowing (these echo what much of the BJ commentariat have been saying since/before that time, of course, which is what makes it fun to send to RWNJ relatives)
Guess what? Wittes was mostly on the money and Trumpov is a real danger to the country…with the main saving grace being that Trumpov’s such a completely unfocused, vindictive little moron.
clay
@Schlemazel: False flag. He was clearly a Democrat pretending to be a Republican, using racial slurs to make all Republicans look bad.
catclub
@Betty Cracker: Now they tell me that I should not have put on shoes to walk around the house in the middle of the night.
Captain C
@bystander: I wish Clinton had taken a different approach, to wit: “Taxes are equivalent to taxes. I’ve released 3 decades worth, you need to release yours or explain why transparency applies to everyone but you. Dog-ate-my-homework excuses don’t cut it.” This would apply to the primary and the general. In the primary, we can add: “I’ll release the speech transcripts if you post on your website the sex writings you did in the ’70s. You know the ones I’m talking about.”
OzarkHillbilly
@O. Felix Culpa: Danforth once epitomized the “respected conservative” but over the years he has shown more and more that it was all just a show. It makes me wonder if it is dementia that makes it too difficult for him to maintain the pretense.
Kay
@Jeffro:
I feel as if it’s an absolute given that Trump will release national security information. He constantly uses private conversations against people. He’s doing it this morning. Why people tell this person anything is beyond me.
Completely and utterly untrustworthy. He has no friends and it’s easy to see why. Tick tock! Just a matter of time.
Captain C
Also, my 17 year old silver tabby, Kashmir, is at the vet on fluids. If you like, please send good vibes her way.
Kay
I also like to imagine what a sick work environment that White House is. The paranoia must be off the scale. Nightmare.
If Trump isn’t collecting information to use against you, Jared and Ivanka are. No wonder they get nothing done. Everyone is jockeying to knife someone else.
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yes, I once had great respect for him, thinking he was a principled conservative. His opinion piece reveals him as either delusional or slipping into dementia, which sometimes lays bare the truth behind the facade.
Schlemazel
@clay:
Yeah and W was not a real Republican either. Apparently Republicans are so stupid they keep nominating non-Republicans. Maybe they should just stop nominating people
Schlemazel
@Captain C:
come on Kashmir! we are pulling for you!
bemused
@Betty Cracker:
True, should be evangelical/rightwing Christians, those Christians who are twice as likely to blame people at or in poverty level for lack of character than circumstances beyond their control.
Kay
@O. Felix Culpa:
I have a friend Jody who is a real conservative. They had a choice. He just didn’t vote for President. Easy.
Captain C
@Baud: it depends on whether the checkmate-saying person is to the left or right of the insultee.
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay:
I grew up with a narcissistic parent and then married a narcissist (go figure). It’s hard for “normal” people to grasp fully just how much narcissists don’t play by the “normal” rules. Plus, many narcissists can be charming and highly manipulative. So “normal” people fall for their schtick. Over and over again.
And then there are the folks who still think they can use Trump for their own ends. Cynical and corrupt fools.
rikyrah
@Patricia Kayden:
I will say this, and this is how I feel. How I’ve felt for awhile..
Kushner is a slave catcher.
Period.
Beginning.Middle.End of the story.
And, we know what slave catchers do.
Maybe Jewish folks see something different….but, from my Black female eyes…
He’s a slave catcher…which should tell you how much you should trust him.
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay: Yup. Sadly, there are either too few true conservatives, or too few of them chose your friend’s route.
Kay
You don’t have to over-think it: he’s an asshole. You can’t tell him anything in confidence because he’s just waiting to use it against you. That’s how he keeps people in line and that’s how he sold himself as a great businessman for 50 years although he’s incompetent. People couldn’t tell the truth about him or he’d open his big mouth and embarrass them.
The only part that baffles me is why anyone would tell him anything.
Trusting him is insane. This is what he is. I bet if you asked his 7th grade classmates they saw it then.
rikyrah
@Captain C:
sending positive thoughts…
Kay
@O. Felix Culpa:
Well, poor him, because he thinks I’m politically savvy and he kept asking me if Trump would win (horrified)- I know him and I bet he wanted to move his money into coffee cans or something if a win was a realistic possibility :)
I kept reassuring him “no”. So. Wrong about that. Sorry.
Patricia Kayden
@debbie:
**snort**
OzarkHillbilly
@O. Felix Culpa: His shepherding of Clarence Thomas thru the Senate was the first clue that he was not all he appeared to be, but I put it down to “loyalty returned” to a former acolyte, and to possibly Danforth’s acceptance of the “he said, she said” argument**.
** I should add that at the time my own less enlightened self felt a certain sympathy for that argument as well, until Anita Hill was so attacked by the usual deviants I had to conclude that there was definitely a “there there”. I also began to review my own blinders of ignorance on the subject of sexual harassment.
Patricia Kayden
@Captain C: Positive vibes being sent Kashmir’s way pronto.
OzarkHillbilly
@A Ghost To Most: @Betty Cracker: @bemused: I just came across a snapshot of her over at Rawstory. Now I know why she’s his favorite. In a Biblical sense.
Patricia Kayden
@O. Felix Culpa: Danforth is delusional if he thinks that Trump is an anomaly in his Party.
tobie
Would voters who were wrongly disenfranchised in the past election have standing to sue their state? With 1 in 4 African-Americans beings disenfranchised in FL, 2 million voters stricken from the rolls in OH, tossed ballots galore in KS, etc. it shouldn’t be hard to find individuals stripped of their right to vote. Usual disclaimer–I am not a lawyer–but it seems like this is one of the many causes for the ACLU to take up.
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly:
I had forgotten about Danforth’s role in that debacle. So the delusion/cynicism (take your pick) is not new.
ETA: And good on you for questioning your assumptions when faced by disconfirming facts. It seems to be a rare gift – shared by you, Cole, and a few highly treasured others.
Citizen Alan
@Schlemazel:
I think Chris Rock explained it best. A racist is someone who murders Medgar Evers. The word doesn’t apply to anything less.
OzarkHillbilly
@O. Felix Culpa:
I was guilty of that too. I am quite often told by some that I should forgive and forget. Nope. Her sons can forgive her if they like but I pray they never forget because she’s never changing. My oldest is getting married next month and I had to tell him I want nothing to do with her. He already knew that, but the reminder was necessary anyway.
A Ghost To Most
@Betty Cracker: Too much experience with them, and I’m done being nice to those people. Religion is the cause of many of the worlds’ ills. Their good works does not offset the damage they have done. Christians put the orange skidmark in the WH.
When I see a movement by christians to denounce all this shit, maybe then I will be more generous. Until then, they remain, in my eyes, Talibangelicals. I’m sick to fucking death of hearing “a true christian wouldn’t do that”.
Who keeps the list, and what are the rules? I judge christians by what I see them do, not who they think they are.
OzarkHillbilly
@tobie: They are. As to how they go about it, I leave strategy up to the lawyers.
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yup. The worst thing you can do with a narcissist is forget their innate character. They will ALWAYS betray you. They can do no other.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Hoping for great news for you! It’s always nice to have the next step in your pocket, though, in case you need it.
O. Felix Culpa
@A Ghost To Most:
Well then, remember that there are Christians among the regular BJ-commentariat and working in the Resistance. The Talibangelicals are evil, but they are not the whole thing.
Peale
@Kay: Yeah, but I fear enough people will buy it that we’re doomed again in 2018. “Help stop Trump! Elect more Republicans to stop him” sounds stupid to us, but then we’re not Republican mid-term voters..
WaterGirl
@Kay: Hopefully “being on the verge” doesn’t mean that they get more chances to discriminate before they have to get pre-approval.
edit: I should have read the last line more carefully:
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: You beat me to it.
frosty
@OzarkHillbilly: I’m with you, blech. 10:20 is a perfectly fine time to say “Good Morning” so consider it said.
OzarkHillbilly
@A Ghost To Most:
No, the worlds ills are caused by humans. Humans, the “beleivers” use religion to justify what they do in it’s name. But religion, a wholly human construction, is not the cause of that, the humans are.
Religion, of and by itself is neither good or bad. It is used for both good and bad by humans. The difference is the human who is wielding it.
For the record, I am an atheist.
OzarkHillbilly
@O. Felix Culpa: When I took my sons in after her marriage blow up (those words are very kind) I found myself sucked right back into her world. Ended up in counseling just to try and keep in touch with reality. My counselor once asked me “How’d you allow her to suck you back in?” I just looked at her, wanted to scream “THESE ARE MY SONS!!!”
When she finally went to prison and I could finally just do what needed to be done for the boys with out her… interference, life began to return to some semblance of sanity.
catclub
@OzarkHillbilly:
Is this a quote from Pete Sampras?
WaterGirl
@Captain C: Flying her way now!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Had a thought on my commute:
American conservatism is so desperate to obtain, clench and expand its power that the Nixon crowd went ahead with a third rate burglary in order to enhance an election tally that they knew they were going to win by a landslide. Nixon was so far ahead that these were his stats:
That indicates a huge structural advantage going in, yet the assholes from CREEP wanted to run up the score, showing just how craven they were – and some of those assholes are still around now. Funny thing is, that result would have been reached even without the tricks, as it exposed what the public opinion of white voters was at the time – jingoistic, absent empathy and reckless.
I know we like to bitch about The Pardon, but I’m not certain that Ford wasn’t considering the magnitude of that genuinely “bigly yuge” Electoral College win, and the fact that in the eyes of any observer at the time (and even in my eyes now), it was truly a mandate election.
O. Felix Culpa
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s amazing how crazy-making dealing with narcissists can be. I’m so glad you were able to get the help and distance you needed. I’m many years removed myself, also with the help of good counseling, but all my nerve-endings went on alert with the T candidacy and then (weeps) presidency.
WaterGirl
@Kay: If it’s all a game to you, and you think you’re the better player, then yes, you would tell him things that would benefit your goals in the long run.
divF
@catclub: Or Bene Gesserit.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
The next time Trump does something that can be considered a “Christian act” will simultaneously be the first. Have noted previously that his campaign was utterly void of personal anecdotes from “regular folk” for whom Trump performed a selfless deed with no expectation of repayment, or someone he befriended from outside his circle. I can’t name another candidate without a shred of compassion for others.
schrodingers_cat
@OzarkHillbilly: Agreed. I am an agnostic. Religion is also the muse for truly inspiring art, from architecture to music. Be it churches, temples, mosques or the Buddhist cave temples. Also music. Right now I am listening to Sufi music from Coke Studio, India, invoking Bismillah. Composed by Salim, Sulaiman and sung by Munawar Masoom and Kailash Kher.
ETA: Look through the credits, Indians of every religion and region are represented. Kailash Kher himself, is a Kashmiri Pundit.
Betty Cracker
@A Ghost To Most: True of a subset of Christians but not all. Barack Obama is a Christian. Hillary Clinton is a Christian. Martin Luther King was a Christian.
I’m an atheist myself — I have plenty of wingnut jackhole Christian relatives that give a bad name to the whole enterprise, so I get the bitterness. But I also have liberal Christian friends who are fighting alongside all of us to make the world a better place. They don’t deserve getting tossed in the same dung heap as Paula White and Jerry Falwell Jr.
TriassicSands
WaPo headline:
I guess that means Yellen has zero chance of reappointment as the Fed chair.
In other news, Trump goes after GOP Senator Corker.
Question: Is one four-year term enough for Trump to publicly criticize by name every Republican in Congress?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Patricia Kayden: Trump doesn’t have the guts for direct confrontations. Typical bully, so he uses twitter to cheep shot them from the sidelines.
Betty Cracker
@trollhattan:
Great point. I don’t think I’ve heard an anecdote like that about any of Trump’s family members either. Ivanka tried to pass off an anecdote about shaking down the servants for lemonade stand money when she was a child as plucky and precociously entrepreneurial. They seem to be uniformly awful people.
japa21
It is really interesting how much a certain subset of Christians have supported Trump. Trump has said his favorite biblical quote is the “eye for an eye” quote from the OT.
Here is what Christ said about that quote:
So, in actuality, Trump said he was the antithesis of a Christian.
WaterGirl
@O. Felix Culpa: If you don’t mind my asking, how did you manage to break out of that world?
O. Felix Culpa
@Betty Cracker: It doesn’t seem like any of the grown kids escaped the family sociopathy. Tiffany perhaps, but haven’t seen enough of her to know for sure. I feel sorry for Barron. He doesn’t seem like a happy kid.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Another Scott:
You must admit Donald Trump is the prefect Republican president from a liberate point of view; vile, corrupt, inept, racist, venial, ignorant, vicious, loathsome, lazy and treasonous. The problem Trump is so bad he’s doing damage to the country.
catclub
From Paul Waldman:
I think the second paragraph negates the first. Given that Trump loves conflict, he would rather be fighting ( and blaming) a Democratic Congress.
He will love having his lawyers saying things more absurd than Cheney’s did about unitary executives and a fourth branch separate from both the legislative and executive branch. Also, refusing to obey subpoenas and court orders [until repeatedly sanctioned] is a hobby of Trump and his lawyers.
Having to compromise with a GOP Congress is what is completely foreign to him.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: The thing about T is that I just don’t get his appeal. I didn’t like W but I could get his aw shucks appeal. I wouldn’t let him feed my cats if I had to go out of town for two days.
O. Felix Culpa
@WaterGirl: Boldly? ;-)
I don’t really know. I was a voracious reader and surmise that literature helped save my life. There were a few adults/teachers I adopted along the way as surrogate parents, who showed me how kind and decent people operate. I fled as soon as I could and ultimately moved thousands of miles away in my young adulthood. I still got sucked back into that system periodically. It’s very hard to escape. A breakdown in my mid-thirties and subsequent counseling helped me to see and understand what one can’t fully grasp when that craziness has been your defining reality from infancy on. Even then, I still returned to help when summoned. Guilt is a powerful weapon. With the support of other family and friends, I ultimately made a final break and no longer came back to the rescue of the narcissist-abuser. It was astonishingly hard to do, but I held fast. That parent’s death a few years ago was a relief to all of us siblings. Sad but true.
ETA: Not all that sad, really, except as a commentary on a lost childhood. None of us siblings continued as child abusers and actually turned out to be pretty good parents, of which I’m inordinately proud. Our young adult children are good, kind, compassionate people and I’m inordinately proud of them too.
The Moar You Know
@schrodingers_cat: You’re not an asshole. Assholes fucking love the guy. My mother, for example: world class asshole. Always was, always would be. And I knew who she’d be voting for the day that orange motherfucker made his speech about Mexicans being diseased rapists. She’d always wanted to say exactly that in public (she’d been saying it to her kids since I was in high school) but was too chickenshit to let her freak flag fly – plus she’d have lost her job. So someone was saying it for her.
I get Trump’s appeal. He appeals to appalling, bad people who are boiling with rage inside. And there’s a lot more of them in this nation than anyone thinks.
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: Thanks. News was kind of “meh”. He needs to run a CT scan, because he can’t properly see what’s “under” the plate on x-ray. He suspects that the main shaft of the radius is doing pretty well, based on a complete absence of pain or tenderness, but needs more pictures. The collection of bits and pieces floating around in there with no visible attachment to the radius don’t seem in any particular hurry to reattach. I asked whether it’s a concern if they don’t, like ever, and he didn’t seem to think so. I wouldn’t mind if I were back in one piece again, frankly. But I was cleared to start on light strengthening. Still nothing aggressive, which means no bicycle (which really sucks) but maybe some variety in my exercises.
I’m still seeing the guy in NYC next week. I want an old guy who’s seen a lot of cases. Nothing against my surgical team here, they’re all super-qualified, but these younger guys love to operate – they’re rock stars of cutting and drilling, but six months of gradual followup is just not in their wheelhouse. I want a guy who’s seen multiple thousands of these, not a hundred.
And apologies for all the male pronouns, but you don’t run into a lot of female orthopedic surgeons. Like they say, for this you need to be strong like an ox and twice as smart.
FlipYrWhig
@Betty Cracker: There’s some story about Trump sending a plane to get some returning soldiers home from being stuck in an airport. I’ve seen it linked a few times on FB by faithful Trumplings.
O. Felix Culpa
@Gin & Tonic: No worries about the male pronouns. Just hoping for someone who can do the job for you!
Mnemosyne
@SFAW:
Nah. I want them both to have to live in an 8×8 room under close guard for the next 60 years until they die in prison.
Chris
@Betty Cracker:
As soon as I heard that question, I thought of this moment in a Paul Krugman column:
Some months ago an academic colleague — a man with strong Democratic connections — urged me to write a couple of columns praising the Bush administration. ”What should I praise?” I asked.
There was a long pause — funny, isn’t it, how ”balance” becomes a goal in itself?
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
Meanwhile, Sasha Obama had a summer food service job on Martha’s Vineyard. Because she has normal parents who want her to know what real life is like.
Chris
@Tenar Arha:
Yes! “The Plot Against America,” Philip Roth. “Koshering Lindbergh for the goyim.” That quote comes to my mind every time I see a prominent Republican who’s not white, not Christian, not straight, or even a woman.
WaterGirl
@O. Felix Culpa: Thanks so much for your reply. Yours is a story of hope for other people who may feel trapped in that same situation. Thanks for sharing. Happy for you that you found another way to live. OzarkHillbilly, too. Kudos to both of you.
Only slightly related, I spent 10 days with family earlier in August. Both my parents were alcoholic and at some point I did the alcoholic family tree thing, and holy shit alcoholism went back multiple generations on both sides of the family. That’s enough to give a person pause. It turns out that even my cousins are still having issues with alcohol. But the amazing thing is that my two sisters and I don’t have any issues with alcohol at all, and the same is true for their children. Yeah, I did a stupid amount of drinking in college, as a lot of people do, but it’s almost unheard of for me to even finish a second drink. It’s not like I police myself, something just turns off and I end up having only one drink or not finishing the second. Unless it’s an amazingly good home-made margarita with a ton of muddled strawberries. :-)
I have been wondering how all 3 of us (my sisters and I) dodged that bullet and managed to end generations of alcoholism. We grew up living in the apartment above the tavern my parents owned, so it’s not like we weren’t exposed to alcohol. Whatever the reason, I’m grateful for it.
O. Felix Culpa
@WaterGirl:
Our respective survival is a miracle and wonder, and I’m deeply grateful too.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: Sounds like the news wasn’t “hey, you’re healed, get back to your regular life!” but it seems to me that it’s much better news than last time. So at least there’s that!
I totally get your second paragraph – the young pups were raised on the latest technology but the old guys have seen it all. I remember a story about our old family practitioner growing up. Some fellow was having knee issues and had a million tests and no one could figure them out. He found his way to Dr. Nebrensky (sp?) who spent some time talking with him and really listening. Turns out the guy had problems with constipation and he would strain when he went to the bathroom, hence the knee problems.
I hope you get great results from the specialist visit that’s coming up soon.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: My reply to you seems to be in moderation. If it doesn’t show up soon, I will try again.
Is there a front pager who can rescue my comment from moderation?
satby
@Captain C: good luck Kashmir!
Heywood J.
@Kay: If Corker ever asked Clownstick about whether he should run next year (hundred bucks says he never did), it would have been a passive-aggressive way of seeing if Corker was being considered for any sort of Cabinet post. Supposedly Corker was passed over for SoS because he’s too short and wasn’t deferential enough. That “constantly asking me” bit is hilarious, like any career pol seriously thinks that fool has any predictive skill.
satby
@WaterGirl: @O. Felix Culpa: and I’m grateful to know both of you!
Raven Onthill
Immigration checkpoints in the Rio Grande Valley will continue to operate during Harvey. The plan, apparently, is to use the storm to either kill or apprehend Scary Brown People and endanger white people as well.
Katrina, it seems, was a test run.
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: I don’t know what you said, but “specialist” is a FYWP dirty word because of the embedded trade name – unless you know the trick for writing those sorts of words.
The Lodger
@WaterGirl: Let me guess: you used the word for a physician with a spe cializ ed practice.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby: Group hug!!!
StringOnAStick
@Captain C: Rest up and be well Kashmir, your human servant needs you in their life!
StringOnAStick
@WaterGirl: My childhood had a lot of similarities to yours; alcoholic but functional parents. We never wanted for anything, except well, being accepted and wanted. There wasn’t much of that available. I’m thankful for a close aunt and later a close, slightly older friend who were supports for me when I really needed it.
I recall discussing with my PCP that my folks were alcoholics but that none of us 4 kids drink at all. He expressed surprise, saying that 25% of kids of alcoholics end up in the same boat. When I started my first professional job at a consulting engineering firm, Friday drinks were a requirement it seemed if I wanted to join the GOB’s club (as a female geologist, not being male or an engineer were a negative). One day it just hit me that I was headed down the same path as my parents went so I stopped. My therapist says that young people who had a supportive older person in their lives at critical points do a lot better with surviving alcoholic/mentally abusive parents, it sounds like you were lucky enough to have that.
Chris T.
@OzarkHillbilly: This thread is probably quite dead, but I’ll just say:
That would be “misquoted”. :-)
Seriously, using base 60 means you can write certain fractions as non-repeating decimals, because 60 = 2 x 2 x 3 x 5 (vs 10 = 2 x 5). One-third in base 10 is 0.33333… with an infinite number of 3s, but in base 60, it’s 0.(symbol-for-20). That is, it’s 20/60ths, and no 3600ths (60*60 = 3600), and no 21600ths (60 * 60 * 60), and so on, because the 20/60ths took care of everything.
Base 210 is even better (it’s 2*3*5*7, the first four primes) but memorizing 210 symbols for the numbers between 0 and 219 is kind of painful. Even the 60 symbols needed to count from 0 to 59 with one “digit” are problematic, though if you use 26 uppercase letters and then 24 lowercase letters, that suffices (10 digits + 26 uppercase + 24 lowercase = 60 symbols).
Base 30, or 2*3*5, is easier: 10 symbols plus 20 out of 26 letters gets you there, and now 1/3 is 0.A (no ones, ten 1/30ths).
All these can be written down (or etched into clay) with full precision, unlike 0.3333… which one must represent symbolically as 1/3.
Another Scott
@Chris T.: Neat.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
No One You Know
@Gin & Tonic: Is that good news,as in “the best help possible,” or bad news, as in “the situations that bad?”
Fingers crossed for you, anyway!