Trump 'angry baby' blimp gets green light to fly over London during president's visit https://t.co/soHFzzMYgt
— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 5, 2018
Speaking of angry, entitled, elderly toddlers (and in honor of the traditional summer-news ‘silly season’)…
This week the nation is a party and the @nytimes and the First Amendment are both there and the @nytimes is drunk and trying to start shit with catty comments and passive-aggression and everyone’s just rolling their eyes at each other and pretending to ignore it
— WeaponizedHat (@Popehat) July 4, 2018
The New York Times is not afraid to tackle the grittiest stories of oppression in the United States of 2018.
Case in point: a wealthy lawyer getting the brush-off on Martha’s Vineyard. https://t.co/F1nVFTZdF1
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) July 4, 2018
NYT NEWS DESK: Okay, who wants to cover the Dershowitz-in-exile story on Martha’s Vineyard over July 4th?
REPORTERS: Me!!! ME!!!
NYT NEWS DESK: Huh, popular story for some reason. I guess I’ll send two reporters. https://t.co/Ub4ZsD93zx
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) July 4, 2018
Talking your editor into assigning you to go on vacation to Martha’s Vineyard to report on Alan Dershowitz is a really A+ grift.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 4, 2018
(1/2) I’m reveling not whining. I’m proud of taking an unpopular, principled position that gets me shunned by partisan zealots. It’s not about me. I couldn’t care less about being shunned by such people. It’s about their unwillingness to engage in dialogue.
— Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) July 3, 2018
Seriously folks, stop thinking that this is about Alan Dershowitz. https://t.co/KpbvNw636M
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) July 5, 2018
… Sure, those readers who do not read carefully might infer that this column is actually about Alan Dershowitz, who is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus, at Harvard Law School. You see, Alan Dershowitz has been rather prominent on the public airwaves in the past year. He has argued that it was a mistake to appoint special counsel Robert S. Mueller III to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election. He has repeatedly criticized the special counsel over the past year, suggested that Mueller should be investigated, told reporters, “I don’t believe collusion is a crime,” urged President Trump to fight any subpoena for him to testify and advocated for the investigation to end. He may or may not have a book coming out on the topic in the next few weeks.
But this is not a column about Alan Dershowitz. He is merely the vessel of a larger story, about people very much like Alan Dershowitz, who go on television to say unpopular things, and the horrible consequences of saying those things. What happens when Alan Dershowitz, the famed defender of O.J. Simpson and Claus von Bulow, who has been an unapologetic defender of Donald Trump’s rights vis-a-vis the special counsel, goes to his summer vacation house?…
This is not about Alan Dershowitz. It is about whether anyone can think of a better vacation activity than discussing the politics of the Trump administration with a retired Harvard Law School professor trying to hawk his latest book. It is inconceivable that these affluent residents are not rushing en masse to the Chilmark General Store to engage in a Socratic dialogue with famed advocate Alan Dershowitz the moment they get off the ferry! Who wants to lounge on the beach with a good summer read when that is the enticing alternative?! When one moderate Republican on the island told the New York Times, “I don’t come here to discuss politics,” he was making this all about Alan Dershowitz. It is about the larger principle of going on vacation to vigorously argue about politics within one’s social circle.
Do not weep for Alan Dershowitz, however, because he is reveling, not whining. He made it very clear to the Times that he had not one, but two parties to attend this past Tuesday, and another one on Independence Day. He told the Globe that he attended “the annual soiree hosted by designer Kenneth Cole and his wife, Maria Cuomo.”…
But srsly… Jack Holmes, at Esquire:
… Leave aside, for the moment, that Dershowitz felt compelled to write an editorial about this extreme personal hardship while, say, thousands of children remain separated from their parents at the border. (Also, leave aside his assurance that “this is not about me.”) What Dershowitz described in no way resembles McCarthyism, because it is not public officials using their power to get dissidents blacklisted and smeared, threatening their careers. It is simply private citizens deciding they don’t want to hang out with Alan Dershowitz. Apparently, for Dershowitz—and this is not about him, remember—this is morally equivalent to, and as historically significant as, the Red Scare.
In reality, Dershowitz is getting publicly shamed. This is not an assault on his rights or an attempt to end his career. It is other private individuals in society using an ancient social tool to punish him for his behavior. His actions do not break laws, but his neighbors think those actions should be discouraged because they violate social norms or facilitate others breaking them. This is the same force Sarah Huckabee Sanders felt at the Red Hen, and that her colleagues experienced when they decided to chow down at Mexican restaurants. Just because many in the Trump Era have forgotten what shame feels like doesn’t mean it’s now some vicious new phenomenon. Shame’s power has been hugely diminished, thanks to a president who has resisted it by hiding in friendly infotainment bubbles and through sheer obstinacy. But recent signs are it still has a pulse…
In fact, Dershowitz seems to be acutely aware of the politics here. Just look at this slice of his Hill column, referencing the island paradise frenemies who are shunning him:
He and others have demanded “trigger warnings” so that they can be assured of having “safe spaces” in which they will not encounter me or my ideas.
Did anyone really say this? That, dear reader, is for you to decide. But Dershowitz knew what he was doing by including it. It’s the kind of thing conservatives feast on, and it’s pretty much perfect as part of an extended airing of privileged grievance—a staple of conservative media…
Look. I got friends who work for you (some of whom have been quite poorly treated by you) but at what point did y'all just decide to be a f***ing gossip mag for fascist enablers? https://t.co/Lqbpc5y54h
— zeddy (@Zeddary) July 4, 2018
OzarkHillbilly
There aren’t enough tiny violins in all the imaginations in all the world for all the martyrs in today’s GOP..
oatler.
@OzarkHillbilly: You wouldn’t believe all the gaslight shit they say that Pruitt was “harassed” out of his position by Evil Leftists. Kafka came to me in a vision this night to tell me “you guys are fuuuuucked…” If the administration tolerates and defends corruption this way what wont’ it do?
OzarkHillbilly
@oatler.: If Pruitt had been harassed out of his position by the Evil Leftists, he would have been tarred, feathered, and rode out of DC on a pole. Lucky for him it was only the Good Leftists involved in his demise.
JGabriel
@oatler.:
Anything honest or admirable.
JGabriel
Alan Dershowitz:
Someone put Dershy in corner, and now widdle Alan is all upset.
Platonailedit
tl;dr: fuck him.
OzarkHillbilly
The situation in the Thai cave is getting complicated as the difficult realities of this rescue assert themselves:
Former Thai navy Seal diver Saman Kunan dies inside cave from lack of air
They are preparing to be there for a long, long time.
This is probably the most complex cave rescue I have ever read of. It’s just insane.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@JGabriel: You’d think that somebody Dersh’s age, who lived through the 60’s, would know that taking an unpopular, principled position can have negative consequences. Some folk even got killed, but Alan seems to more concerned about being shunned by polite society.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Alan seems to more concerned about being shunned by IMpolite society.
FTFY.
satby
So outrage, protests, and appeals to their (non-existent) better natures don’t work but public embarrassment at social gatherings does. May it continue as long as we’re plagued by these vile shits.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: that sounds very like taking the kids out via diving is also being reconsidered, if an experienced former Seal perished going through.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning rikyrah ?!
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
RedDirtGirl
My newest button design says:
Who’s The Snowflake Now?
?BillinGlendaleCA
For those not around in the afternoon…I got my new camera and took a picture.
The camera is the “big brother” of my NX500, the NX1. It came with a really good lens(16-50mm, f/2-f/2.8), I’ll try it out this weekend when I go “On the Road” to take Milky Way pics.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I said yesterday that taking those kids out via diving thru the flooded passages was tantamount to murder and this is why. I’m sure these SEALS get quite a bit of confined space dive training but the fact of the matter is, the most minor occurrence can balloon into a life or death situation in a matter of seconds. There is just no room for error.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Someone enjoys being a model.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Whose a sweet puppy dog? Enjoy the new toy/tool.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Heh, she can be a real bitch.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s significantly heavier than the NX500, but that’s mainly due to the lens. I’m thinking of letting the kid barrow the NX500 for her trip, it’s got the wide angle lens for shooting the Milky Way and the kit lens is great for other stuff. It’s also really light and easy to carry.
EZSmirkzz
Putin’s poodle gets a write up comparison with Millard Fillmore, ( even history has it’s puns, doesn’t it Pocahontas?, ) one of the founders of the Know Nothings! https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44688337 Now that’s a rhyme!
So far Trump’s managed to slip under the thumb of Saudi Arabia and Israel, get played by the N Koreans, slide into a trade war with friend and adversaries, marginalize Great Britain and the European Union, and presides over the most corrupt administration since Warren G, Harding.
Whether it is a noble, overdue thing to unwind the neo-con foreign affairs, along with the entangling alliances that have brought 75 years of relative peace to Europe, and bring America’s large standing army back to pre-WWI levels, ( that’ll happen RSN,) is debatable, but bankrupting America’s standing in the world shouldn’t be. That is the height of incivility!
Well at least our Christian mobs are only sticking pilgrims in internment camps, so there that.
SFAW
I thought I had remembered a time when Daeshowitz was actually something approaching a liberal, but I think I just misunderstood (at the time) that he was a glibertarian.
I expect all his whining and snow-flakiness (with the emPHAsis on “flakiness”) should get him an invite to the Extra-White House. Or it would, if Shitgibbon didn’t hate Jews.
SFAW
@RedDirtGirl:
Outstanding!
kd bart
Why doesn’t Dershowitz just summer in Newport?. Oh wait…
satby
@?BillinGlendaleCA: she’s adorable!
Bobby Thomson
@OzarkHillbilly:
The Evil Leftists would have buried him and the rest of his family in unmarked graves that he dug himself. He’s very lucky this country doesn’t have those.
Bobby Thomson
@EZSmirkzz:
Oh, they’ve both been pulling the strings here at least since 2001. The only thing Trump has changed is to add Russia to the mix.
debbie
I can’t believe Dersh wasn’t struck blind when he used the adjective “principled” in describing himself.
Aleta
@?BillinGlendaleCA: That looks like the author photo for her latest book.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
80 year old has-been moaning and groaning about his fee fees.
debbie
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Even as his lifetime has been spent trampling on others’ fee fees!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@satby: She’s a good girl, I’ll try to get a good pic of her little sister, the YorkiePom.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Aleta: I was impressed with the shot, since it was shot handheld.
Aleta
@JGabriel:
He could try the traditional “Hey I’d like to hear your ideas about something. Can I buy you dinner any night you’re free?” Instead of “If you don’t invite me to fight with people at your party I’ll publicly denounce you as a McCarthyite. And here’s how to preorder my book.”
trnc
Dershowitz is an asshole. Full stop.
Honest question that I’ve thinking about more and more – can someone explain to me why a restaurant owner refusing to serve a woman due to her politics is more acceptable than a cake shop owner refusing to serve a gay couple due to his religion? I’m all for the public shaming of smokey by customers everywhere she goes, but not the restaurant refusing to serve.
Feel free to point out if I’m missing some context.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@trnc: Because you can’t become un-Gay, or un-Black, they’re immutable characteristics. Working for an asshole administration is not one, you can quit.
Florida frog
@trnc: yes, you are missing some very important context. Refusing to serve someone because of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or other inborn trait is descrimination. The Red Hen owner refused to serve Huckabee-Sanders because of her behavior, not her race or gender. It is more similar to refusing to serve a loud, obnoxious person who is disturbing other patrons. Moreover, the restaurant owner made it clear that this was about standing up to bigotry and cruelty. I admire her.
Robert Sneddon
@OzarkHillbilly: Cave diving isn’t anything like regular diving ops. It kills people, even well-trained well-equipped experienced divers. A SEAL may be the wrong type of person to do cave diving rescue work with their “push ahead at all costs” complete-the-mission mentality rather than thinking “I’m going to turn back now because it isn’t going exactly to plan”. There are old cave divers and bold cave divers but no old, bold cave divers.
Getting the kids out in buddy-dives (two experienced divers accompanying each inexperienced kid) is probably less risky than the elaborate equipment pre-staging operation they’re currently attempting to set up but it depends very much on the underground conditions in the cave. There could be squeezes where that sort of buddy diving won’t work.
RedDirtGirl
@SFAW: Thank you kindly!
Sherparick
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Allen is concerned about selling a book & keeping the grift going & to hell with the Constitution & democracy.
Ken
@satby:
We’re primates, it’s what we do.
Gin & Tonic
@trnc: Refusing to serve one person because you don’t like his/her politics is different than refusing to serve an entire class of people for who they are. If you can’t see how it’s different I can’t help.
Gin & Tonic
@Robert Sneddon: My recollection is that OH knows a thing or two about caves.
Skepticat
@OzarkHillbilly:
Spot on.
OzarkHillbilly
@Robert Sneddon: The 2 things I think most complicating of any such attempt are 1) visibility and 2) the current. I was a part of the Cliff Cave rescue in ’93, the 3rd caver to arrive. While the water had subsided from it’s highest, the current was…. Awing. No other word for it. Just to feel that raw power was exhilarating. It was also very challenging to fight against it. When we got to low air there was no way to safely proceed and communication was almost impossible. We actually got within a hundred feet or less of the only survivor but we could not hear him yelling for us (how he heard us I have no idea)
Sherparick
@Florida frog: She & her employees were very brave about this action. They knowingly challenged a powerful person working for the most powerful person in the world & that as a result her business & their employment, if not their safety, would be at risk.
different-church-lady
Okay, Alan, let’s have a dialog. I’ll start: you’re a fucking idiot. Your turn.
SFAW
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
But the RWA Talibangelicals say you can “pray The Gay away”! Are you telling me that might not be correct? [Sound of me falling over in a dead faint]
zhena gogolia
I got all depressed by a friend last night describing several encounters (in blue CT) with people who seemed normal but then would quietly announce, “I support Trump” (without offering any reasons, of course). Also my doctor said, “I don’t think we’re even going to take the House. There are a lot of silent Trump supporters out there.” So f–king depressing.
SFAW
@different-church-lady:
At times like this, I think of Olsen Johnson.
lowtechcyclist
It’s a terrible shame that Martha’s Vineyard isn’t a ‘safe space’ for Alan Dershowitz.
SFAW
@zhena gogolia:
There are a shitload more who won’t shut the fuck up. Their insane, moronic ramblings knock points off my IQ every time I hear/read them
Robert Sneddon
@Gin & Tonic: So do I although it’s a long time since I’ve done any caving. I knew a few cave divers in the past, back when it wasn’t quite slaughtering large numbers of early experimenters, when the equipment was better and some basic rules like no solo dives were in place. They were, to a man (it wasn’t a female thing at that time) intensely risk-averse, no “to boldly go where no man has gone before” malarkey, more like “carefully and slowly going where no man has gone before, backing off if there was anything remotely troubling encountered on the planned route, mapping everything and never stretching the air supply budgets or energy levels.”
From the press reports I’ve seen of this guy’s death he pushed himself beyond his limits to the point where a combination of exhaustion and hypothermia and possibly anoxia added in to the mix did for him. The reports aren’t clear but he may even been working solo. This is not something that cave divers do.
MomSense
@trnc:
Liar for a Republican administration is not a protected class. Politics is not an immutable characteristic.
SFAW
@lowtechcyclist:
Someone should tell him the bottom of the Marianas Trench has no Evul Lie-berals who would shun him.
Chyron HR
Don’t you loony liberals get it? Tortuously gerrymandering congressional districts, holding a slim senate majority that only represents 1/3 of the country and winning the presidency on a technicality means THEY ARE POPULAR. Get with the program!
lowtechcyclist
@OzarkHillbilly: The thing that surprises me is that this group was 3.2 km (a little over 2 miles) into the cave. Inexperienced cavers rarely get anywhere like that far from the entrance, IME. I did a fair amount of caving (in VA/WV mostly) in my teens through my 30s, and I’m not sure I was ever a mile from an entrance.
rikyrah
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Beautiful ?
OzarkHillbilly
@Robert Sneddon:
All the cave divers I know have worked solo at times. I know it is not an infrequent occurrence in Huautla due to the depth and the amount of work it takes just to get a single rebreather to the deepest penetration. As to their care, preparation, and risk averse attitudes you are correct.
@lowtechcyclist: Yep. I was saying the other day that during a S&R in Arkansas the volunteer firemen who entered all swore they went miles into the cave with out finding the “spelunkers”. When my buddy went in he found them about a half mile in (at a place later dubbed, “Last Match Pass”). It is really hard to judge how far one is traveling underground, especially for those who don’t make a habit of it.
Aleta
When you look at these photos Pruitt is … batshit. He’s a parody of an over the top Mel Brooks megalomaniac.
https://www.politico.com/gallery/2018/07/05/scott-pruitt-time-at-epa-photos-002840?slide=0
James R Lindley
I remember the day almost twenty years ago when Atlanta talk show host Neil Boortz, saying he wanted to give the liberals a day, gave Alan Dershowitz the microphone for a day’s show. He was an embarrassingly ignorant political twit for a couple of hours, an embarrassment even then to reason and knowledge. He confirmed every prejudice of Boortz’s conservative audience about liberals.
MomSense
The other night I convinced my 14 year old to watch The Dana Carvey Show with me on Hulu. I told him that I watched it when his brothers were little and thought it was the funniest show on tv but that I was the only one of my friends who watched it. We laughed about how they lost all their sponsors until the last show was sponsored by the Chinese restaurant down the street from the studio.
Anyway, the show covered politics in 1996 with cast members impersonating the politicians. One show had Pat Buchanan giving a concession speech loaded with xenophobia and racism and my son said that he was trump before trump. It’s pretty striking when you see how that faction of the party that was for Buchanan 20 years ago is now the mainstream of the Republican Party.
MuckJagger
Wrong religion, but that sure is one big fucking halo Dersh is wearing.
Aleta
@OzarkHillbilly:
Do you think they went farther in after the flooding started, trying to find high ground?
Have you heard of any US cavers who’ve explored that cave and know it?
hueyplong
The world is an imperfect place, as evidenced by the fact that Dershowitz isn’t living on Molokai with several other people constantly in the news.
Tom Levenson
@hueyplong: which was the leper island in the Hawaiian chain?
OzarkHillbilly
@Aleta: It’s possible, but as I understand it this cave has a very fast recharge (rain events on the surface translate to high water in the cave very quickly). It would depend on how well their leader knew the cave.
I know some folks who have caved in SE Asia but I don’t know the specifics of exactly where all they have been (Laos and Vietnam, and one friend has done 2 or 3 expeditions to Indonesia, Thailand is a highly likely destination as well but this cave in particular…. shrug)
SFAW
@Tom Levenson:
Yes. But I think once he got to know Daeshowitz, Father Damien would shun him, too.
Amir Khalid
The World Cup resumes tonight. I’ve been a bit antsy these past few days with the break between the last-16 matches and the quarterfinals. Uruguay vs France and Brazil vs Belgium tonight, Russia vs Croatia and England vs Sweden tomorrow. Knockout stages are inherently unpredictable; I support no particular team, and fancy no team’s chances. I just want to see some memorable football.
jimmiraybob
A friend of mine last night asked why trump would want to make a military takeover of Venezuela. I immediately answered oil resources and mentioned trump’s crowing during the campaign years that a victorious aggressor has the right to take what they want – for instance, oil from Iraq. Just thinking out loud here.
R-Jud
I’ll be at the London march next week acting as a steward. I’ll send pictures. Are there any other jackals who will be in the area (slim chance, I know).
sixthdoctor
@OzarkHillbilly: Unfortunately (and apologies if this has already been posted), heavy rains are in the forecast and they may have no choice but to evacuate:
https://gizmodo.com/threat-of-heavy-rains-could-force-emergency-evacuation-1827359807
snoey
There was a BBC? report from the area that there is a locally known route to a wall where you write your initials to prove you did it.
They were probably doing this as a team bonding thing.
schrodingers_cat
Its not just the undocumented or the asylum seekers that are not wanted by the current WH. They are discharging army recruits and even veterans. Once they don’t have the underlying legal status it makes them fair game for deportation. Warrior monk is asleep at the switch like he was on the Theranos board. This is the kindest interpretation I can come up with. Or may be he is not that different from his marine buddy Kelly.
ETA: Few months ago the USCIS shut down all its offices on military bases.
But MAGAs are only against illegal immigrants…
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat:
I’ll go with #2.
joel hanes
@Aleta:
look at these photos Pruitt is
a small man in every way. Shriveled heart, vestigial soul, no conscience..
MomSense
MSNBC is about to interview lobsterman in Maine who are now “feeling the pinch” of the trade war with Canada.
All the lobstermen I know voted for trump and are climate deniers.
Sloane Ranger
@R-Jud: I signed up to go but with my osteoarthritis making walking uncomfortable (Brit under-statement) and dealing with the aftermath of my brother’s unexpected death I doubt I will make it.
I’ll be there in spirit.
schrodingers_cat
@O. Felix Culpa: I was assured of his nobility and moral rectitude more than once in these very comments. I have no personal knowledge to figure which one of those two options is true. Either ways it looks bad for Mr M.
MomSense
Oh FFS the lobstermen they just interviewed said that he hopes in the long run what trump is doing will be great for everyone. He said this right after saying he lost a deal to ship 40,000 lbs a month to China.
This is why it doesn’t make sense to waste a minute trying to reason with a trump supporter.
A Ghost To Most
@MomSense: I’m getting visions of crustaceans playing tiny violins.
MomSense
@schrodingers_cat:
And now USCIS has set up a denaturalization task force.
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
Remember, it was only going to be the CRIMINALS…
That’s what they shoveled during the campaign ?
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
They are risking the National Security of the country to satisfy their racism ?
MomSense
@A Ghost To Most:
I’m going to take advantage of the low lobster prices. For once the invisible hand is a helping hand.
rikyrah
@MomSense:
Phuck him?
rikyrah
PragmaticObotsUnite (@PragObots) Tweeted:
RT @ChrisLu44: Key stat in today’s #JobsReport: wages are up only 2.7% over the year.
With inflation at 2.8%, that means all of the wage… https://twitter.com/ChrisLu44/status/1015215450022727690?s=17
rikyrah
Serious question about the trade war and pork.
Does this mean that the price of bacon is going down?
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Actually if you listened carefully T did say that he wants to natural rates of immigration or something to that effect == dogwhistle for going to the 1920s restrictive regime. (Johnson-Reed Act)
: @MomSense: I know. Frank Cissna the current head of the USCIS was Grassley’s aide. Grassley has been one of the most anti-immigrant R senators after Sessions.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Many of these recruits bring essential language skills or are medics, skills the armed forces severely lack. Hence W’s program to expedite their immigration process in return for military service.
R-Jud
@Sloane Ranger: Oh, I remember seeing posts about the sudden passing of your brother. I’m so sorry for your loss.
Is there anything you’d have put on a sign if you were going? Having trouble deciding what to put on mine.
Spanky
@A Ghost To Most:
Coming right up!
A Ghost To Most
@Spanky: Thanks. I had a suspicion.
Nelle
@R-Jud: When and where is the march? I can’t walk any distance but would be honored to show up, if possible.
prostratedragon
I think this has been mentioned here. Sen. Durbin has a twitter series about it. He expects the traitors (my word) to use the SCOTUS business as cover to slip this nomination through.
stinger
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Lovely!
Steve in the ATL
@Gin & Tonic: “ My recollection is that OH knows a thing or two about caves.”
True—he has posted in depth about Plato’s allegory
Kay
@MomSense:
My county is one of them– soybeans and auto parts. It’s one of the few FAIR things Trump has done, actually.
My son is working on expanding a Chinese-owed magnesium recycling facility in Ohio.They process the magnesium used in auto manufacturing and resell it. It’s a huge job. They’ve had electricians working 7 days all spring and summer. His union is bringing in “travelers” from Georgia and Florida they’re paying so much overtime. He teases the Trump supporters about Trump. They don’t tell him what they tell the NYTimes. They tell him “Trump sucks but all politicians suck”- it’s what Bush supporters used to say when they stopped worshiping him.
Steve in the ATL
@snoey: they should have just gone to TopGolf.
Steve in the ATL
@Amir Khalid: France, Belgium, Croatia, Sweden. Not a prediction, just my preference.
J R in WV
@JGabriel:
Dershowitx says
No, it isn’t, it’s that the Democratic dialogue is “Alan, shame shame shame o you for supporting a corrupt Kleptocratic Nazi right here at home!!!!”
Over and over, and over and over again. Shame!!!! We don’t need to approach this academically, because there’s no academic issue here. It’s a moral issue, and Alan D,
you are ON THE WRONG SIDE!!!!! The immoral side. THE EVIL SIDE>!!!!
FUCK you for that, and Fuck Trump for being a thief and You for supporting a fascist thief!!! Sorry you don’t get to hear tiny violins! no, not really sad at all — what you deserve!
Kay
@prostratedragon:
I maintain Sessions will do more damage than any other Trump hire and he isn’t some newbie “MAGA”. He’s been around forever. The Republican Party has always been like this. They’re just unchecked now by any moderating influence or oversight.
This is what they are- the true boiled down essence.
Calouste
@Kay: They might tell the NYT the same thing. And the NYT might or might not tell the public that thing, or some completely different thing.
Kay
@MomSense:
Keep in mind they’re more likely to express doubt or regret privately, one on one, than they are to make an announcement in the NYTimes or on cable television with their name and/or photo attached for one of these 10,000 “I still love Trump” pieces. It’s hard to admit a mistake. Them saying they hope he knows what he’s doing is itself an expression of doubt.
Political media always act like the loss of support is a moment in time and that’s partly because that’s how people talk about it- they say “THIS happened and I turned”. But when you talk to them it’s always a corrosion- a series of events and then one event or issue used as a tipping point.
schrodingers_cat
@Calouste: Nazi Times manufactures narrative does little reporting.
Kay
@Calouste:
When Bush supporters abandoned Bush they never said they regretted supporting Iraq. They said he did a bad job executing it. To admit that were wrong about Iraq was too profound a mistake to admit- that calls THEIR judgment into question – it’s easier to blame incompetence in execution than it is to renounce the underlying idea. I feel like this endless screaming that they are being treated unfairly is itself an expression of doubt. They’re not at all confident in this decision or this man, or they wouldn’t be engaging in this ridiculous pity party. They are demanding validation.
Attacking Trump fires up OUR base and despite the scolding from the NYTimes political team we’re allowed to do that. We have a base and we’re allowed to pitch to them. We’re permitted to act politically. If we want to fire up our base to beat the other side we can godammned well do that and we can feel good about doing it. It’s a fight. We’re permitted to hit them without worrying about THEIR base.
I don’t accept these rules they’ve laid down. I object. We’re speaking to our base? You bet. Just like Republicans speak to theirs.
Sloane Ranger
@R-Jud: I was thinking something along the lines of
Traitor
Reprobate
Untruthful
Moron
Pervert
If you want to use as shown or amend to taste, please do.
Good luck.
trnc
For some reason, I’m not able to reply to specific comments right now. Anywho, thanks to all who responded to my question. I’m still not sold on the idea of evicting someone for their politics, but I am 100% on board with the argument that the action was directed specifically at her as the lying mouthpiece for a shitty and cruel administration.
Hungry Joe
Shameless name drop (of a shamed name): About 20 years ago I interviewed Dershowitz — on stage, with Q & A, at the San Diego Jewish Book Festival. Backstage, waiting to go on, we had five or ten minutes to kill. We talked baseball. That’s all I remember.
prostratedragon
@Kay: Heard that. There’s been too much methodical planning in support of this faster pace.
Dev Null
@jimmiraybob:
Venezuela nationalized Conoco’s properties a few years ago. I dunno whether Conoco has Трамп Whisperers, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Conoco has Трамп Whisperer Whisperers.
IIRC Russia regards Venezuela as a kind of client state. Seems unlikely that there’s a Russia connection.
Dev Null
@Aleta: @joel hanes: It’s a rum game to speculate on the psychological condition of someone one does not know personally (doubly so when one has no expertise in psychiatry, much less clinical / diagnostic experience), but Pruitt’s corruption and self-dealing is simultaneously so over-the-top yet so penny-ante, I find myself wondering (FWIW I have no experience, so take this as random bloviating.)
I mean: he’s in a position where he makes decisions worth $B to interested parties. He could leverage those decisions for (pick a number, say) $100K a shot. All he needs is loyal staff, a cut-out, plausible deniability, and a clean rep.
Yet what does he do?
He stiffs his loyal staff for the cost of airplane tickets – $600 at a shot, admittedly after corruptly getting them 50% or whatever pay raises, but still. Were they expected to intuit that he got them those pay raises so that he could draw on their bank accounts? Because it appears that they were surprised when they weren’t reimbursed.
He crashed in a pad owned by a lobbyist with business (in the family) at the EPA, and made himself so unwelcome that eventually they locked him out.
The list goes on and on.
And then when a member of his loyal staff testified under penalty of oath that she (or some other staff member) went out looking for a used mattress for him, he excommunicated her from the cult, smeared her, and went to some trouble to ensure that the cult would never employ her again.
He expected her to lie under oath.
This is bonkers. It’s self-destructive behavior.
I read somewhere that “consistently self-destructive patterns of behavior” is a rough-and-tumble description of “personality disorder.”
Weird that so many people in the Трамп Admin behave this way … it’s as if Трамп is drawn to psychopathy in others.
Maybe it’s a Mob thing.
Dev Null
@Kay:
Rome analogies are a dime-a-dozen, but it’s been said that once the Rome Republic destroyed Carthage, the absence of an external existential adversary made it possible for Roman society to turn on itself, which led to the Civil Wars, and eventually to the collapse of the Republic.
History moves faster these days.
That said, Republicans are moving so fast I can’t help wondering whether they’re over-reaching. Perhaps they really do see this as their last chance. Or perhaps they’re trying to lock down all the marbles.
@prostatedragon:
What methodical planning? The Federalist Society has a short-list of reactionary judicial possibilities. Трамп issues poorly written ill-considered EOs. Трамп starts trade wars. Трамп installs a reactionary Cabinet.
None of that is evidence of methodical planning, except perhaps on the part of the Federalist Society, but they’ve been preparing short lists for years.
Against that set the impromptu tax cut, which by all accounts was not methodically prepared; and the non-existent ObamaCare replacement plan.
Republicans don’t do government.
(PS: Odd that your nym is plaintext, not a link, at the top of your last two posts.)
Aleta
@Dev Null: Yeah seems like if you’re going to grift in the big leagues you need to be rational.
Excerpts from Atlantic article
Dev Null
@Kay: This.
There’s always a cost-benefit tradeoff that should be considered: you want to fire up your base without firing up the other side’s base, at least not to the same or greater extent)…
… but allowing Vichy Times Villagers to constrain one’s strategy and tactics seems like a serious error.
Perhaps “We won’t rape your kids” is over the top (hey, I’d go there), but surely “We won’t molest your kids” is within the bounds of reasonable (uncivil) political discourse. Make the bastards deny that they
rapemolest kids.Aleta
@Dev Null: I honestly think they are indifferent to children who are not their own or on their hometown football team. They don’t have a core belief that all children are to be protected and nurtured. (Birmingham 1963. The death of children didn’t give the racists pause.)
Dev Null
@Aleta:
It’s not even small-town Mob-rational. As someone said up-thread, there are bold divers and there are old divers, but there are no old bold divers.
If you’re going to be a mobster, you learn the rules of the game and act accordingly, because if you don’t, you will soon be a dead mobster.
And srsly, corruption should not seek publicity.
Aleta
@Dev Null: Case the joint. Think it through. That’s rational.
Dev Null
@Aleta:
Agreed, with the caveat that many Republicans are NOT racists / low-IQ tribalists / whatevs. We should try peel off the decent folk … which is why I think that “we won’t rape your kids” might be effective, should Republican activists take the bait and start huffing and puffing, because that’s keeping the focus on children.
Did Jim Jordan look the other was when the team physician was abusing wrestlers? Five wrestlers say so. Трамп says otherwise: he is smearing the wrestlers and praising Jordan … and raising the profile of the story. Ryan and McCarthy are looking at their shoes hoping the issue goes away… and they’re “right” (some definition of “right”) to do so, because they can’t bury the story as long as it is in the news.
Ditto family separation… where are the girls? where are the toddlers? where are the babies? Keep ’em in the news. If those lines aren’t punchy enough, find better gut punch lines.
Possibly apocryphal LBJ story I quoted yesterday:
And y’know? Republicans can’t deny that they’re separating families. They can’t deny that their rising star looked the other way when the team doctor raped young men. Not convincingly, anyway.
Dev Null
@Aleta: Agreed. Don’t waltz in as if you owned the place. Know the terrain. Know your risks.
Not that I’m endorsing rational considered grift, rather saying it is barking madness (not a technical term!) to act as Pruitt acted.
Dev Null
@Aleta: Incidentally, this:
is on Joanne Ashmun’s “traits of extreme narcissists” list:
wrt “he was jealous of other members being on TV” (from your Atlantic quote):
(same link)
Again, IANAPsych. I’m not pretending to diagnose. Don’t do this at home, most certainly not in a public forum. The plural of anecdote is not data, it’s anecdata. Patterns matter, not anecdotes. (Admittedly, with Pruitt, the anecdata appear to line up in a pattern.)
People who know the psych business are welcome to tell me I’m nuts. (Hey, it won’t be the first time.) Or to give a better explanation.
Still, it’s striking how many Трамп appointees display behavioral patterns that would feel right at home in pop psych essays.
jimmiraybob
@Dev Null:
It appears that the height of trump’s Venezuelan invasion fantasy may have peaked last year. I would wonder if there was any Russian push back that overrode whatever trump’s possible motives were including any Conoco Трамп whisperer whisperings if there were any whisperers to whisper? Sorry, couldn’t resist my inner child.
Juju
I don’t know why shunning Allan Dershowitz is news, I’ve been doing that since I found out about him.
Dev Null
@jimmiraybob:
~laughs~
Wordplay can be fun …
wrt Russian pushback, a good point. We’ll have to wait for the history books to be written, or perhaps Mueller’s report … but I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out that you called it.
Dev Null
@Aleta: @Dev Null:
Latest TPM horror story:
See also …
They’re not just racists, they’re sociopaths.
Decent Republicans will not wish to be associated with them, if the message ever gets through to the decent Republicans.
And for sure kids have been mistreated and uncared for. If there’s ever any transparency after this is over, we’ll learn that kids have been raped in these detention centers, with near-certainty. Kids will have died – have died – a point made by a commenter with relevant expertise writing here a few weeks ago (sorry, can’t remember the name).
That’s why gut punch messaging is necessary … because the message is true, and to get past tribalism the message has to go for the gut.
My two Euros.
Dev Null
@Aleta: Along the same lines, Rick Wilson at the Daily Beast last night:
Not a fan of Rick Wilson, but he rants well.
Parfigliano
@MomSense: I hope they go bankrupt and lose everything. I hope their children grow up living in cars on a diet heavy on government cheese.