There is no greater honor than being retweeted by Bowles and Simpson themselves. Both of them.
Retweeted DougJKidney (@DougJBalloon):
If Obama had only listened to these two wise men, we wouldn't be in this… https://t.co/WVN88ZmKGv
— The Moment of Truth (@BowlesSimpson) November 30, 2017
Raoul
If you’ve lost Bowels-Syndrome, Mister Speaker, you’re in a world of hurt.
Mike J
Changing your handle to Doug Poe?
Corner Stone
I thought we had somehow survived something. Like maybe an entire parking garage collapsed on GOP leadership or something useful like that.
Steeplejack
Goddamn, Doug. This is like the Nobel Prize of trolling. Where do you go from here?
Let me be the first to say that we should do a whip-round to buy you a huge, garish Super Bowl of trolling ring. One that Putin would be itching to steal.
MomSense
@Corner Stone:
I’ve given up on meteors and now I pray for sinkholes.
Another Scott
Heh indeedy.
:-)
Of course, we all know that they just have some unpaid intern running their Twitter comments, so … :-/
But still, congratulations! :-D
Cheers,
Scott.
Major Major Major Major
To be fair it’s essentially impossible to tell that this tweet is sarcastic unless you’re familiar with Doug’s ouvre.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
your worst ear worm infliction ever, you nefarious foul fiend
Steeplejack
@Major Major Major Major:
Penetration at all levels.
Cathie from Canada
I for one welcome our new economic overlords…
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
WE’RE BROKE!
GREECE!
THINK ABOUT OUR GRANDKIDS!
SHARED SACRIFICE!
Aleta
Why do we keep renting golf carts for the SService? ($145,000 for rentals since Jan 20. $7500 for cart rental over Thanksgiving.) Why don’t we buy and garage them?
At sunset the tiercel flew above the marsh, pursuing a wisp of snipe. They drummed away down wind, like stone skidding across ice.
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
We need to tighten our belts another notch around our neck.
trollhattan
Brill! Trolled like a post-hip-hop David Broder.
Mnemosyne
@Aleta:
Because renting them puts money in Trump’s pocket. Who did you think we were paying to rent golf carts at Trump’s golf courses?
(Yes, I’m a little cranky tonight. Turns out I jacked up my knee even worse than I thought I did, and I will need surgery on it next year. Fuck.)
Mike J
@trollhattan: I was shocked that nobody suggested our next meetup be at the Applebee’s salad bar.
Davebo
@Mike J: Clever!
Meanwhile, I’ve just gotten on the Twitter recently. Winner!
TBogg liked your reply 27m27 minutes ago
danielx
Congratulations, Doug! The trolling of the decade.
Amir Khalid
@Aleta:
So POTUS can make money renting the things to them. Besides, imagine the Director putting such a line item in his budget proposal, and the reaction from the Secretary of Homeland Security: “You want two hundred thousand dollars to buy WHAT?”
Steve in the ATL
@Davebo: that is fantastic–congrats!
Except for the part about being on twitter–condolences for that.
Gretchen
I needed a laugh tonight.
B.B.A.
Lost in today’s media shuffle: WDIV says Conyers isn’t running for reelection.
frosty
@Mnemosyne: Bad news about the knee. It seemed like it might be bad based on how long you needed the crutches. But if you’re like me, you assume the best.
jl
So NBC said that they acted right away really really fast on the first complaint they received about Lauer. And Chuck Todd was being very journalistic when he started fluffing his corporate network bosses for being good on this stuff not like those crummy politicians. But now I hear that word got out about several stories on Lauer were going to be published this week. Man, that is quite a coincidence. And what do they say?
Matt Lauer Accused of Sexual Harassment by Multiple Women (EXCLUSIVE)
http://variety.com/2017/biz/news/matt-lauer-accused-sexual-harassment-multiple-women-1202625959/
The corporate bosses are as dopey as people who think it is easy to make things disappear from the internet that everyone has noticed. You just delete it.
Edit: Maybe Todd was auditioning to replace Lauer on Today?
Edit2: and the corporate bigwigs are also vile. The stuff sounds awful. Very bad behavior. Some of it might be criminal.
WaterGirl
@Mnemosyne: sorry to hear the bad news about your knee.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Well, that sucks; but kind of figured, like frosty, that it’d be the case.
SFBayAreaGal
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yup. Singing the song right now in my mind
Davebo
@Steve in the ATL: Being obsessive on Twitter is no worse than being obsessive on BJ.
Either way, you’re still wasting time online. Sad to say Twitter offers more variety.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Timelapse of tonight’s sunset from the ‘ol Boy Scout Trail.
Davebo
@Mnemosyne:
Someone I care about is facing knee surgery as well. Hopefully yours is simple arthroscopic. She’s biting the bit waiting for it. We already had to cancel one marathon trip but hopefully within 3 months she’ll be on the road again.
some guy
Entitlement Cuts will continue until morale improves.
Aleta
@Mnemosyne: Really sucks about your knee. Bad mood understandable; My sympathy.
What I mean is, why can’t we stop him taking advantage like this by refusing to rent from him.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Aleta: It’s his golf course, he sets the rules. Convenient isn’t it.
Mnemosyne
@frosty:
I was pretty sure it was bad even though I was trying to keep a stiff upper lip around other people, but I had to wait for the authorization to see the orthopedist. Still, you never want to orthopedist to manipulate your leg and immediately say, “Yep, the ACL’s gone.”
Weirdly, the ACL almost seems to be the least of the damage — the MCL and meniscus are hurting a lot worse.
Mnemosyne
@WaterGirl:
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
@Aleta:
I keep trying to remind myself that it would have been a lot worse to go headfirst down cement stairs rather than twist the way I did to avoid it, but it’s not very comforting today.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: Knee surgery is a whole lot better than brain surgery.
piratedan
as much as I loathe 45, regardless of his mental shortcomings, the people I want hurt, politically, socially, economically are the GOP. Those folks enabled him. They conspired with him and despite everything that is currently on fire both in our country and around the world can be laid on their doorstep for the purpose of making their already wealthy benefactors even more so.
If we get to have more elections and if they’re halfway legitimate ones, and the Dems regain power, I want these people eviscerated. I want their benefactors taxed to a fare thee well, I want their “churches” taxed like the political organizations that they are. I want their pensions garnished and given to the lesser among us and their possessions confiscated and sold as criminal assets that have been forfeited. These people are the supposed political ancestors of Lincoln, that believed that people are simply people and have a right to a vote, a voice and an opportunity… now, they’ve made that legacy essentially a shit sandwich all in the name of political expediency. I fucking hate those people.
I want these people politically defeated like Sherman’s March to the Sea.
Fair Economist
@Mnemosyne: Sorry your injury turned out to be so nasty.
A completely torn ligament typically hurts less than a badly injured one so it is no surprise other parts bother you more than your ACL.
Oh, and this is absolutely better than headfirst down concrete stairs. Heads are way more important than knees.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I was saying in one of the threads below that, between this injury and the choking thing from March, I’m now convinced that 2017 is trying to kill me. Good thing I always wear my seatbelt.
@Fair Economist:
I knew it was going to be bad even as I did it because my foot stayed planted (stuck on the carpet) while my knee twisted. That’s how football players get themselves career-ending injuries.
jl
@Mnemosyne: Sorry to hear. Good luck. Hope the pain gets better you have surgery.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: There goes your career as a middle linebacker.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl:
You’ve been reading too many of Trump’s tweets.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Just when I was about to make it through the combine, too.
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
I’ve also been in situations where there are no good options. Of course I was going a lot faster and on a race track but still, not having reasonable options does sort of suck.
Sorry about the knee. May they make it as good as new and as pain free as you like.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: It’ll be “better, faster, stronger….”.
fuckwit
Feeling especially shitty about the future tonight.
Rethugs try to pass a tax cut specifically so they can gut SS and Medicare next. Simple formula: throw the USG so deep into debt that there’s no money left for anything anymore. Drown us all in a bathtub. Especially everyone in the blue states (can’t deduct state taxes anymore from Federal taxes).
Then “rocket man” launches a nuke on DC. Takes over 30 minutes to arrive, so in the meantime Twitler and Dense are either rushed into an underground bunker or Marine One’d safely out of the blast radius. Horrific loss of innocent life. Mulller and investigatiors either all killed or simply can’t proceed further with their work to put Dotard behind bars. Tax cuts pass anyway, and WWIII is started by a retaliatory strike on DPRK, for which China retaliates by who knows what. US can’t occupy DPRK, so either nothing happens or they launch more nukes or there’s massive loss of life in ROK as they get stuck in a ground war.
Either the corporate media succeeds in whipping the USA into post-9/11-like right-wing jingoistic war frenzy, or there is total chaos and anarchy and riots in the streets.
Bitcoin goes up over $20k though, as rest of global financial system starts collapsing.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne:
Oh no! So sorry to hear that.
Mnemosyne
@Ruckus:
My friend at work was trying to comfort me by saying that they’ve probably improved knee repairs since the last time I had it done (12 years ago). But I really really hated the whole process of surgery. Hated. It.
@fuckwit:
FWIW, North Korea doesn’t have a rocket capable of hitting DC. If they did manage to get one to hit the contiguous US, Seattle is probably as far east as they could get.
fuckwit
@Mnemosyne: Latest ICBM they tested can apparently hit east coast of USA. Yes, they’re incompetent fools. No, missile and guidance technology isn’t that hard by modern standards (we had them in the 1960s… they got us to the moon).
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Like I said above, I strongly suspected I had done a lot of damage to it because it wasn’t getting better even as quickly as the last time I tore my ACL. And that time I had a hairline fracture of my femur to boot.
Cckids
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I know, right? Manilow, Doug? REALLY??
Mnemosyne
@fuckwit:
I don’t recall Cheryl confirming that, but unlike her, I’m no rocket scientist. Do you have a link?
fuckwit
@Mnemosyne: http://allthingsnuclear.org/dwright/nk-longest-missile-test-yet is what I’m going off of.
SRW1
@Aleta:
To put some change in presidential pockets. There is a saying in German: Kleinvieh macht auch Mist. Which loosely translated means: Chickenshit also qualifies as fertilizer.
Mnemosyne
I know that Cole is almost always wrong in his predictions, but his Twitter rantings are at least giving me hope that I’ll be able to watch Trump’s trial from my couch as I recover from knee surgery next year.
(Nope, no clue at all when it might happen. I still need an MRI to see exactly what I did and what needs to be repaired.)
Mnemosyne
@fuckwit:
FWIW —
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: “You’ve been reading too many of Trump’s tweets. ”
I meant to type ” Hope the pain gets better long before you have surgery. ”
Sounds like it must be a painful injury.
My comment was not a Trump parody. Maybe I am losing it too. OTOH I am preoccupied with some unpleasant family squabbles that have me really down, and have been very distracted. Having trouble focusing, but starting to come out of it.
danielx
@fuckwit:
And then I get leprosy and bubonic plague.
Mnemosyne
@danielx:
Weird factoid that I may be misremembering — leprosy and tuberculosis are caused by the same bacteria, or at least closely related ones.
K-to-the-Jane
@Mike J: Applebee’s–yikes!! Number one worst restaurant ever. Filth and squalor combined with all food served at the same temperature (Should one’s dinner salad be as warm as one’s fries are cold?). Ho-ho-rendous.
Redshift
@fuckwit: The discussion with experts on BBC this morning was a bit more nuanced. The distance it covered was equivalent to the East Coast on a different trajectory, but apparently getting a missile intact through the stress of reentry is not trivial. I think they estimated 2-3 more years for that.
Which makes me feel like we’re in a time travel story where our hero is trying to make sure the administration that would set off WWIII is out of office before NK gets that capability…
Millard Filmore
@Aleta:
Garage fees $45,000.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: Happy to hear things are getting better, I’m scheduled* to hike up Mt. Pinos on Friday.
*Since I’m going with the young’n, scheduled…
jl
@Mnemosyne: I also heard a news report that NK has announced that its ‘testing phase’ is over and it’s now a nuclear power. And wants to formulate a deterrence strategy. I’d like to hear more what that is about.
I also watched some interesting youtubes of interviews with North Korean refugees. One interesting bit was their analysis of aspects of Un that seem bizarre to us. His haircut, weight gain, some behavior and antics in public appearances that seem bizarre. They said it was a very calculated and obvious homage to Kim Il-Sung. They also said in their opinion, that Un is not at all crazy, but very calculating and rational. They said that the regime is just as afraid of losing control of their people as it is of foreign-backed invasion or regime change. Population has to be kept away from brink of feeling that they have nothing to lose, so if they are going to die soon anyway, why not take out their frustration on the goons in charge. Said that most NK population, particularly the young are not brainwashed. Easy enough to get, and there are relatively light penalties for having, bootleg CDs and tapes from other parts of the world. Just don’t get caught with any South Korean material, porno or anything explicitly critical of NK regime.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@K-to-the-Jane: I don’t think I’ve ever been to an Applebee’s.
kilo50
@piratedan: They deserve everything that your imagination can conjure up. The only problem is that many will insist that we play by the rules that we endeavor to uphold. In other words civility. And then we must develop a steely resolve to pay back in criminal convictions that put many away for a long time.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: They must vary in quality. The one near my ancestral stomping grounds has been very good (for what it is, compared to competitors) the few times I’ve been there, mainly when a family elder sees a special. I was a little annoyed at first, but then realized it was unfair to hold them responsible for David Brooks and one of his most famous boo-boos in journamalism.
kilo50
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I made a decidedly poor decision to order a steak while out of town with the hotel I was staying at was across the parking lot from an Applebees. The center was still frozen. Reheating it did not enhance the culinary experience.
Steve in the ATL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I may be in Glendale next week for bargaining. What restaurants do you recommend outside of appleby’s?
Steve in the ATL
@Mnemosyne: you too, gimpy—what’s good around there?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve in the ATL: What kind of food?
Steve in the ATL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I don’t eat red meat and don’t like sushi. Beyond that, flexible, though nothing too spicy.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steve in the ATL: So we’ve eliminated Japanese, Korean and Mexican…
I guess there’s also price and time constraints to consider as well.
A place we’ve enjoyed is the Vegas Buffet(Chinese) on Brand.
Steve in the ATL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I eat all of those! I know I’m white bread but jeez I’m not looking for bland American food.
kilo50
Related to a thread last night it appears the Project Veritas campaign to “expose” the biases of the Washington Post were far more sustained and undertaken much longer than Wednesday’s reporting.
Her true identity and intentions were revealed only when The Post published a story on Monday, along with photos and video, about how she falsely told Post reporters that Moore had impregnated her when she was a teenager. The Post reported that Phillips appeared to work for Project Veritas, an organization that uses false cover stories and covert video recordings in an attempt to embarrass its targets.
Phillips’s sustained attempt to insinuate herself into the social circles of reporters makes clear that her deception — and the efforts to discredit The Post’s reporting — went much further than the attempt to plant one fabricated article.
It will be interesting to see just how much of effort the Post is going to take in fully exposing the O’Keefe racket will be. They get millions from the Mercers and Bannon is apparently somewhat affiliated with these liarsso there is dirt to dig. Now that Trump is into retweeting snuff films from ISIS it will also be interesting to see if Trump turns pro.
Mnemosyne
@Steve in the ATL:
If you’re in downtown Glendale near the Americana, we really like Granville, which is on Brand but not in the Americana itself. There’s also a really famous dim sum place, Din Tai Fung, but they’re crazy busy and you’ll probably have to wait at least an hour. Porto’s, the famous Cuban bakery, is about three blocks north of rhe Americana, still on Brand.
And, of course, if you don’t hit In N Out right there on Brand, the gods of the Angeles will strike you down.
Origuy
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Mt Pinos is beautiful. The LA orienteering club usually has a meet there in June every year. I missed this year, but I’ve been a half dozen times or so. Any snow at the summit yet?
?BillinGlendaleCA
If your time is constrained there are actually some pretty good places at the galaria’s food court(Bibigo, Bento Box, and Massis Kabob) everything else is meh.
More upscale is the Americana @ Brand, they have sit-down Mexican and Japanese places(I’ve not been but they seem to do good bidness).
I’ve been to a Peruvian place down near the BMW dealer, it was so so(I may just not care much for Peruvian food, my first time), there’s also one near the Alex(it has a large spire in front) theater(on Brand). Most of the restaurants in town are on Brand, unless you go up to Montrose(North Glendale), then it’s Honolulu(my info up there is a bit dated).
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne: No red meat might present problems with In N Out.
ETA: I guess he could get the fries, they’re quite good.
TenguPhule
@MomSense:
Spanish Flu.
Becoming increasingly more likely thanks to Global Warming.
TenguPhule
@Aleta: Better yet, why can’t they just buy some bicycles?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Origuy: I went up there about 50 years ago, and it was the coldest place in my memory(and I’ve been to Anchorage in the winter), from what I can gather, there’s not been any snowfall up there this year. It looks like it’ll be sunny, 43 degrees with a 5mph wind.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
Look on the bright side, we may not have any working hospitals left in the desolate wasteland where our nation once stood next year.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Point of order, there are plenty of Non-meat Japanese dishes that are not sushi.
Mnemosyne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
He should make a red meat exception for an In N Out burger. And if he absolutely can’t, they can make him a grilled cheese upon request from the secret menu.
@TenguPhule:
Speak for yourself, bub — I live in California. We’re going out last.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mnemosyne:
Damn straight, when we fall into the sea, after the Big One.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne: We are having nuclear missile warning siren drills Friday. This hasn’t happened since the Cold War.
TenguPhule
So we need to peel off three GOP defectors in the Senate to stop the tax destruction of America.
And the female Republicans have already sold themselves cheaply. So they’re out.
We might have McCain. But honestly at this point he’d do the most good at this point by suddenly dropping dead and giving us an excuse to run out the clock till the government shuts down.
I have no idea who else we can target as the weak link in the Elephant chain. All the “moderates” have fallen into line.
Sister Golden Bear
@Steve in the ATL: More on the fast food side than fine dining, but I always make a pilgrimage to Zankou Chicken whenever I’m in town. Best garlic chicken evah!
Sister Golden Bear
@Mnemosyne: So sorry to hear that. About a decade ago, I had to have a blown quad tendon sewed back together. Not fun.
FWIW, if you know any good Pilates instructors, I found them to be far more helpful than the PTs during my rehab. Unfortunately I also had to pay them out of pocket.
OzarkHillbilly
@TenguPhule: They have those the 1st Tuesday of every month up in STL (iirc), only there they call them “tornado sirens”.
raven
I wish I’d had something to throw back on throwback Thursday!
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Heh.
satby
@raven: sorry fishing hasn’t been very good this trip! But you got some beautiful photos at least.
bystander
For Giving Tuesday, twitler gave the dignity of the Presidency to slur an entire religion and, more importantly, to smear Joe Scarborough over the Lori Klaustis thing. Today, Joe and Mika are calling for twitler to be removed from office because he’s insane. Last night on Ari M., the guy who ghostwrote Art of the Deal said that twitler is “decompensating” and losing touch with reality.
Joe and Mika, whose righteous hasn’t been so aroused since Hillary Clinton’s husband had a foundation that saved lives, are a real success story of how sexual harassment can work out well for everyone.
Starfish
@Major Major Major Major: It’s almost impossible to know that half of Doug’s tweets are trolling. I follow him and still get mad about half the time he tweets anything.
Steve in the ATL
@Mnemosyne: thank you! And I have had both fries and shakes at In N Out and they were awesome.
@?BillinGlendaleCA: thank you! Can’t recall if I’ve had Peruvian food, though I have eaten at some weirdly specific Latin American restaurants in Atlanta.
@Sister Golden Bear: thank you! Love garlic anything. Well, not garlic pancakes so much.
artem1s
@piratedan:
Uncle Billy was too nice. I want Uncle Billy with Sherman tanks.
Citizen Alan
@Aleta:
Presumably because rental fees eventually make their way into Shitgibbon’s pocket.
Uncle Cosmo
@Mnemosyne: “Fat Man” weighed in at a bit over 5 tons. Granted there’s been a lot of progress in miniaturizing electronics & probably somewhat less progress in increasing the power of HE (thus reducing the weight required for imploding the fissile core). But it also takes a fair amount of structure & shielding to deliver a functioning fission device after re-entry at ~14,000 mph. Hard to believe a deliverable warhead would mass it at less than a tonne (~2200 lb).
My not-terribly-informed guess is that the high arc of this test (1000 km downrange vs 4000 km vertical) was primarily a test of warhead survivability after re-entry at ICBM speed, & probably involved a payload that was mostly sensors & wasn’t nearly that heavy. I also conjecture that once the launch was noticed, radars from Japan, ROK & the US Navy tracked the flight path & from the velocity profile after re-entry should have a very solid handle on the payload weight & performance during re-entry.