This is the face of a pup that just tried cheese for the first time and would like you to give her some more @BlairBraverman @darth pic.twitter.com/61iTYLK233
— Em Madden (@emamadden) August 14, 2018
It would be ridiculous to suggest that this adorable puppy would be a good POTUS. On the other hand, the guy currently squatting in the Oval Office certainly isn’t fit to be there, and he’s not even soothing to look at!
Dogs are brave, generous, and loyal. So of course he is. https://t.co/Ie585xVwFJ
— Barren Heath (@HeathBarren) August 14, 2018
“The president, who has an aversion to dogs and other pets, considers canine comparisons to be among his most devastating put-downs.”
he…..he what? https://t.co/bV3Ea4kOch pic.twitter.com/7UJuIpQodO
— Mark Berman (@markberman) August 15, 2018
In President Trump’s singular lexicon, there is no more vicious put-down than likening an adversary to a dog…
… Trump, an avowed germaphobe, has long had an aversion to dogs.
“Donald was not a dog fan,” his first wife, Ivana, writes in her memoir, “Raising Trump.” “When I told him I was bringing Chappy with me to New York, he said, ‘No.’ ”
But Ivana persisted, bringing her poodle with her when the couple moved in together.
“It’s me and Chappy or no one,” she recalls telling her husband
Chappy, it turned out, did not much care for Trump, either. Ivana writes that when Trump approached her closet, her poodle would bark at him territorially.
Trump is the first modern president not to have a dog — or any pet — in the White House…
…[P]residential historian Douglas Brinkley suggested that Trump has no pets “because he has no sense of giving and warmth and caring to any other animal but himself. Having no pet is another manifestation of his narcissism.”…
I personally suspect Trump hates dogs because (a) he suspects they’re on to him; and (b) he’s angry that the average dog gets positive attention — even from total strangers! — which Donald very badly wants to believe should be directed at him, Donald Trump. Pretty ladies would let Chappy the poodle jump in their laps, they’d pet his hair, but when Trump tried the same kind of physically affectionate greeting, well…
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Platonailedit
Vicious assholes can’t have dogs. Period.
Platonailedit
Paul Bronks
Platonailedit
OzarkHillbilly
Let’s hear it for daughters:
Daddy always listens to his little girl.
geg6
People who hate dogs (and all pets, really, but dogs especially due to their people pleasing natures) have something wrong with them. It’s a rule I’ve had about other people since I was a kid. No one I knew who disliked dogs was a good person. Even people like my dad, who was violently allergic to them, liked dogs. Animal haters are damaged people.
Rob
I want to give the pup another piece of cheese!
SiubhanDuinne
Good morning, everyone!
Is Alain all right? I miss seeing “On the Road/In Your Backyard” every morning. I know he was trying to deal with some of the persistent site issues, and I think was also coping with lower back pain. Alain, if you see this, I hope you’re better and able to post again soon.
HeartlandLiberal
Open thread topic: scam telephone calls.
Has anyone else noted the increase in frequency of scam telephone calls over the past few months.
We no longer answer the phone unless it displays the phone number, and if there is no caller ID, we have to recognize the number. If it is a legit call, they will leave a message on the answering machine.We have five wireless handsets communicating with one base unit positioned strategically around the house. Plus, we have two caption phones, since my wife is suffering serious hearing loss. You can even, if you happen to be in the kitchen by the more up to date captel phone, push the send to answering machine button, and watch the scammers hang up in real time, translated into text by the service.
Dead giveaways are the long phone numbers with no caller ID that start with the letter “V”. I googled, and apparently this is a whole new class of robodialers used by companies and scam artists.
Another frequent call lately is from some outfit claiming to be a healthcare organization. Yet they never leave a message.
For the past couple of weeks, we are getting up to a dozen attempted scam calls a day. Which gets to be really irritating. I suspect the fact that more and more entities with access to our data know we are “elderly” now, as the phrase goes, and so assume we are ripe for the picking.
I am convinced I can thank the era of Trump and the GOP in power for this, because the criminal scum wanting fix my computer or help avoid the IRS penalties etc etc simply have no fear anymore of regulations being enforced.
I am actually surprised that the Trump regime has not announced the abolition of the do not call registry as anti-business. I mean they just announced killing off a lot of the time broadcast stations, because it saves almost seven million dollars. Which of course is needed, since that is probably only a fraction of what Trump has spent on the government’s dime to play golf all the time.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Probably this has already been discussed, but do people have any theories on why the White House seems so afraid of the existence of the N-word tape? It seems to me that there isn’t a single person in the US who would (a) be surprised or (b) change their current opinion on that asshole, positive or negative. So what’s going on?
Are they in fact giving the deplorable base credit for having limits on their racism? That seems really unlikely.
Thinking about that guy first thing in the morning, blech!! In other news, acclimation of the new pets is proceeding nicely. But the pup is really clingy and last night defeated his second pet gate we were trying to use to keep him in the kitchen at night.
I bought a basic one which worked for one day because, as it turns out, he was kind of lethargic. The second day he leaped the 28″ gate with no effort at all (this is a 27-lb Beagle mix, well under that 28″ in height). I bought the tallest one they had, 41″. That seemed to keep him. We tried to ignore the pitiful whining and sounds of him hurling himself at the gate, and after a few minutes it stopped. Turns out he’d knocked it far enough out of position to make his happy escape.
The gate is pressure-mounted, but the big gate has cups that screw into the door jamb that the rubber “feet” fit into. I had just been lazy and didn’t mount them, planned on finishing the job today. I have visions of hearing splintering wood tonight.
I freely admit I need help settling this little guy down and have an appointment with a trainer today.
Litlebritdifrnt
I can’t believe you neglected to include the Obama and Bo photo in this post tweeted by Pete Souza.
geg6
So…the priest at my parents’ church who officiated at my sister and brother-in-law’s wedding was named in the big grand jury report on church sexual abuse in PA. I knew there would be at least one I knew in it.
BlueGirlFromWyo
@geg6: Animal haters and waitstaff stiffers are thetwo red flags for poor character IMO. Bet Mango Mussolini’s a lousy tipper too.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@BlueGirlFromWyo: Probably the variety that goes back into the restaurant to take the tip off the table that the other person left.
MagdaInBlack
@HeartlandLiberal:
My company required a 2-step verification process for accessing our email…Google. It required our cell # in order to text a code.
Ever since, I’ve had a surge in calls from odd numbers leave no message.
Company has since changed policy, mumbling something about “we never said you HAD to use this step.” Well, yes, yes you did.
? Love the cheesehund up top !
Mustang Bobby
As Harry Truman noted, if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. Trump can’t even do that.
For those of you who have been paying any attention to my blog, you know that last Saturday a package arrived from Colorado. In it was a small urn with a share of my former husband’s ashes. His family sent them on with their love, and it now has a place on the piano next to his picture. I can’t help but think he’d be saying, “Oh, you want a piece of me, huh?” His final note was “Never stop laughing.”
Amir Khalid
Trump despises the one humanising thing about Mike Pence, that Pence has dogs and cats in his household. It would be so typical of Donald Trump to also resent dogs because they are more likeable than he.
Schlemazel
@HeartlandLiberal:
It seems to go in cycles. I was getting 2-3 a day a couple months ago now none. spousal unit was getting them over the last couple of weeks. We have had a policy of not answering unknown callers for a long time, if it is important they will leave a message.
I have not noticed the long numbers you mentioned but have noticed numbers that have my area code & exchange (that fooled me a couple times because they looked familiar).
I work with a guy who loves to answer & try to keep them on the phone as long as possible. He tied up “Amy from your credit card company” for nearly an hour one day & even got them to call him back.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Betty Cracker
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I believe there are scads of white folks who think racism = using the n-word and/or parading around in white sheets. Anything less than that isn’t really racism in their eyes, which conveniently exculpates these same folks for their own racism.
My Trumper relatives angrily push back on the notion that Trump is a racist, even though it’s screamingly obvious to people who aren’t in the cult. I don’t think the emergence of a tape where Trump uses that slur would cause these people to abandon Trump — the main reason they love him is because he gives loud voice to their prejudices. But it would make it a lot harder to defend him in public. That’s what they’re afraid of.
evodevo
@HeartlandLiberal: Yes, I have noticed. Over the last year, we have missed a couple of important calls on our landline because we NEVER answer the phone any more unless it’s a number I recognize – we just wait till the answering machine picks up to see who it is.. I noticed a new tactic a month ago where they evidently displayed the number of someone local who I was familiar with, but when I picked up, it was a robocall. So now I don’t answer ANY of them. Yes, I suspect they don’t fear enforcement any longer, from ANY agency. I can’t imagine why lol
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@rikyrah: good morning !
Amir Khalid
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Here you go.
Schlemazel
In the 2 really contested state races yesterday both endorsed candidates lost. I guess there is no sense in going to caucuses and conventions anymore. Once again an endorsed female lost to a less qualified,, less progressive man in MN. Ellisons stunt paid off for him & his follower. So now we will go down the rat hole about did Ellison abuse his girlfriend instead of discussing the issues on next AG needs to deal with.
Betty Cracker
@BlueGirlFromWyo: Bingo! Being rude or stingy to wait staff is definitely a sign of poor character. Back when I was dating, I ghosted more than one dude for being a dick to the server.
evodevo
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: This is why crates were invented …we suffered through chewed up doors for a couple years before we got one, and it was a life-saver. In fact, the dog eventually regarded it as a “safe place” and would go in and shut the door herself. We used it for every new dog after that.
MagdaInBlack
@Betty Cracker:
Theres some old saying something to the tune of: Pay attention to how people treat the waitstaff, it tells you how they’ll eventually treat you.
Same here….I’ve “ghosted” couple myself.
Kay
This was odd:
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby: Nice.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Amir Khalid:
Actually I was talking about this one (from Pete Souza’s twitter feed, no idea how to embed)
SufferinSuccotash
@BlueGirlFromWyo: And parks in handicapped spaces.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: More like bizarre. Anybody who wins the endorsement of the CoC loses my vote.
debbie
I wonder if Putin sicced his dog on Trump like he did on Merkel.
germy
I bet he’s terrified of cats.
Our cat would scare the shit out of him. And she’s a gentle little girl.
Litlebritdifrnt
@MagdaInBlack: When I was waiting tables at my Uncle’s pub and I had to deal with really loud and obnoxious customers, he gave me the best advice ever (which I have since passed on to wait staff I have come across), “People who mind don’t matter, people who matter don’t mind”. Words to live by when you hear someone loudly berating wait staff, particularly when they begin with “Do you know who I am?”
debbie
@HeartlandLiberal:
Yes, I’ve gotten more than usual, I think, because of the Equifax hack. Amazing how all of a sudden, the IRS, Facebook, BoA, etc. are threatening to send me to prison if I don’t respond!
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Maybe that’s why trump is so subservient to him.
Betty Cracker
@MagdaInBlack: I have a sister-in-law who’s such a gigantic pain in the ass at restaurants that I refuse to eat out with her unless it’s unavoidable due to a big family occasion or when I’m ambushed with her presence unexpectedly. She’s not rude to servers per se, but she can be curt and she’s exceptionally persnickety and complains about everything. I don’t want someone in the kitchen accidentally hocking a loogie on my plate, so I decline many invitations! Anyhoo, true to form, she’s a pain in the ass to live with too!
Kay
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
This is a good theory (I agree with it) :)
I think liberals exaggerate the “nothing matters” aspect of Trump. He’s unpopular. His margin of supporters vs people who absolutely loathe him is tiny. It’s not “nothing matters”. It’s “everything matters” because all this shit chips away at his support.
We always do this when we lose. We build the winner up as unstoppable.
The Trumps care A LOT whether people like them or not. That caring doesn’t change the way they behave because they’re horrible people who cannot act differently. Because they can’t make themselves popular doesn’t mean they don’t want to be popular.
Baud
@Kay: Weird.
@Kay: I agree. The right hates the N-word issue because it’s a simple attack for which their only defense is “rappers use it all the time,” which they know is weak. Most of our other attacks against the right are more complex.
Ken
Don’t Muslims also use “dog” as an insult?
Especially secret Muslims…
Baud
@Schlemazel: His entire political future will now depend on their being no tape. We’ll see.
Baud
@Ken: It’s actually not a new thing to use “dog” as an insult. Hopefully the association with Trump will make people stop doing it.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Hence trump’s continuing addiction to campaign events.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
I don’t know anything about Connecticut but she’s such a star – one of those people who probably immediately got calls to run after she was Teacher of the Year and she’s really liberal. It’s sort of a “teacher year” too, in state races. A lot of them are running after the strikes.
Anyway, doesn’t matter, looks like she trounced, but weird. The CofC backed candidate was telling them she was single payer and 15 dollar minimum when none of that was on her site. I wonder if the CofC has figured out they can align with Our Revolution and/or Moveon and stop a liberal Democrat by labeling that Democrat as “establishment”.
debbie
@geg6:
The whole thing — the extent of the abuse — is so appalling. Part of me is waiting for someone to just declare all of this “religious freedom” and move on to the next outrage.
arrieve
@Betty Cracker:
This. I don’t doubt that there will be some defenders twisting themselves into rhetorical pretzels “rappers use the word, why can’t EVERYBODY?” but there is still something stark and shocking and unforgivable about using the n-word, even in these degraded times.
Amir Khalid
@Ken:
I don’t.
Kay
@Baud:
I think people overplay specific political events as defining – I think they do this because that’s the political media business model- “gamechangers”. That works for the nature of the coverage. I think people approach politicians much more as a whole- they put events together to get an overall picture of the person. The specific event LOOKS “gamechanging” but that’s because the event reinforces a general idea of the person voters already had. It’s cumulative.
I think of it as banked good will. Trump has nothing in reserve. One big unexpected expense and he’s bankrupt.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Just read this. She’s impressive.
James E Powell
@Kay:
I don’t think we’re exaggerating; we’re just talking about something other than the top line numbers. When I say nothing matters I mean that nothing stops him from making radical changes that will take decades to reverse. I mean that – occasional court decisions notwithstanding – that the RW make over continues apace no matter what he says or does.
JeanneT
@evodevo:
I use crates for my young/new dogs, too – at night they sleep in the crate right next to my bed. They don’t get free roam of the room until they’ve settled in and are housetrained and past the chew everything phase – and even then I keep a baby gate across the door of my bedroom for a while.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I think there’s a lot of truth to that, though I succumb to the “nothing matters” mindset sometimes because Trump’s behavior really is unprecedented and everything is so damned surreal. But no one defies political gravity forever, and my hope is that when he falls, he falls HARD.
Lapassionara
@debbie: Speaking of outrages, looks like the children separated from parents at the border have faded from the press’s view.
Good morning, everyone.
Baud
@Kay:
I agree. I also think our side focuses too much of their energy in the 40% of people who approve of Trump rather than the 60% who consistently do not, so that’s why we think nothing matters.
Kay
@geg6:
The Pennsylvania investigation/report is important in public policy circles re: child abuse because it’s the biggest government effort and investigation thus far. The imprint of that will matter – it needed to be taken out of academic studies and private sector investigations (newspapers) and into an “official” (state) realm and Pennsylvania did that.
It’s admirable that they did it because what we will find out is that there was state/church cooperation on covering up the abuse. That’s what they found in Wisconsin. It wasn’t that people weren’t reporting it to government, to state actors. They were reporting it. It’s just that the local Wisconsin government employees were helping the church cover it up. So Pennsylvania made themselves vulnerable for the scandal to reach public employees/politicians.
Baud
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2018/8/15/17683022/elizabeth-warren-accountable-capitalism-corporations
Ken
@Baud: @Amir Khalid: Sorry, all, I was trying for a joke and apparently missed. I blame the lack of comment editing.
The joke (what there was of it) was that we had eight years of loons, including one currently at 1600 Pennsylvania, screaming “secret Muslim” at every opportunity.
Kristine
@HeartlandLiberal: The one good thing Comcast set up in my area (NE IL) was the ability to sign up with Nomorobo. I enrolled the landline months ago. When the phone rings once, I know they’ve blocked a call. Some days, they don’t block any. But other days, they stop a handful.
Kay
@Baud:
I think it mattered a lot that people liked Obama. It gave him a resiliency that transcended his individual actions.
That’s the payoff of “reputation”- that’s the reward. If you cultivate a “good reputation” by behaving decently people will stick with you even when you fuck up. Trump (true to form of his whole life) burns thru everything he “makes” every single day. He starts every day in debt and either stays even or goes a little further into debt.
Tony Jay
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Quite possibly it’s who he’s referring to when using the word and in what context.
Frex, we know The Pustule is given to repetitive, crowing about his ‘achievements’ whenever he feels unappreciated. I wouldn’t put it outside the bounds of possibility that most of the WH Staff have, at one time or another, had to nod approvingly while he goes on and on about his MAGA Base forgiving him anything because all they really care about is him destroying the legacy of “That Ni*Clang Obama” and cleansing the WHITE HOUSE of “Obama’s Ni*Clang family”. The fact that he’s dead-on right about the bigotry of his Base wouldn’t lessen the earthquake of revulsion and betrayal tapes like that would induce outside of the 27%.
And though I don’t want to dwell, Obama has an attractive wife and two attractive daughters. It’s not hard to guess what The Pustule has said about them during his angry/triumphalist rants.
The WH is right to be very, very scared of what probably exists on tape. Not because it might make any of the 27% think “Oh no, the President is racially insensitive!” (they’re too far gone and would only find it affirming) but because of how vile and unforgivable they know their boss to be behind closed doors.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?!
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: @evodevo: sounds like he has separation anxiety. He’s found safe and kind people and doesn’t want to lose you.
Crates can be a big help here, but be warned: if in the past he was confined to one most of the time he may resist with all his might. One of my rescues was confined all the time, let out only to potty (and I suspect sometimes left to sit in excrement), and he refused to go into a crate for any reason. To the point where he threatened to nip me if I continued to try to push him in. His terror was real. He’s been a perfect pet for the last 7 years without a crate because I made a small room his “crate”. He learned to “go to his room” as a containment strategy. I used the laundry room.
Many other dogs come to see a crate as their safe quiet space, as evodevo says, as long as a crate hasn’t been a factor in their abuse. If he’s resistant, try a small indestructible room.
Kay
@Baud:
There’s actually polling on “codetermination” and it’s popular. I’m warming up to Warren. I thought she was too financial-system focused to be a good candidate – too narrow- but she’s really impressing me.
I haven’t heard any scandal around her, either. That’s important to me, in a good government sense, and it’s also a nice contrast with the crooked Trumps.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ken: FWIW, I got it.
RedDirtGirl
@geg6: A guy I work with had run-ins with one of them in HS.
ByRookorbyCrook
Even Montgomery Burns has dogs he cares for… well hounds at least. How pathetic he can’t even be less of a tool than a cartoon villain.
Kay
@Baud:
I don’t think political media like Warren though and we have to admit that’s a factor and face it head on. They will Clinton her. There’s the same kind of dismissive snarkiness and awful, cynical fake-sophistication about her that I saw in early Hillary coverage.
rikyrah
@Schlemazel:
The Ellison situation smells like a banana in the tailpipe ?
The woman has little to no credibility.
satby
@Betty Cracker: @arrieve:
This is true in my experience too. Sometimes they’re breathtakingly racist, but since they aren’t actually KKKers or use the n word in public, they insist they aren’t. And are stung and offended when you point out they are.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Damn . She must have run a grassroots campaign.
Baud
@Kay: Trump’s model is different. It’s loyalty based on privilege. His supporters believe their (racial) identity in the U S. is tied to his success. They might not be wrong.
@Kay: Sounds like a great Senator for life. I won’t consider her for president unless she denounces her prior conspiracy mongering about the 2016 primary.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Would love to get a local POV on the contest.
satby
@Ken: I got it too, and for what it’s worth, I laughed.
Baud
@Kay: Depending on how broadly you define the term, any Dem nominee will be Hillary’d.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: I have a link to the Courant here- @OzarkHillbilly:
rikyrah
@geg6:
I got sad and angry reading the stories about the report.??
Those poor children.
Kay
@rikyrah:
Moveon has always had the “direct democracy” problem. The problem is people are idiots. They’re dumb. They think the “establishment” candidate is the endorsed Democrat even if that person is actually the insurgent and they’re backing the long-term moderate :)
I wrestle with this myself. I love state referendums because you can get them on the ballot and subvert the legislature. I hate them for the same reason.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Any female DEM at least. The misogyny runs deep.
Betty Cracker
Regarding dogs and crates: I’ve managed to train all of the dogs we’ve had without a crate, but I’m not sure it would be possible if I didn’t work at home and suffer from chronic insomnia. The dogs can’t escape my vigilance while working nor when normal people sleep! Of course, not sleeping and not leaving the house isn’t sustainable long term. But I’ve found the training period with dogs to be like raising an infant — a brief time of joy and wonder that is also incredibly stressful and debilitating.
Cheryl Rofer
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Apologies to Amir Khalid, but it’s lovely to have the photo in the thread.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
The style will be different, but remember how Kerry and Gore were treated by the press. Extremely charismatic people like Bill Clinton and Obama can overcome it, but it’s hard.
satby
@Tony Jay:
the Trumpers who pop up in other friends’ FB feeds are still doing Planet of the Ape comparisons. Wouldn’t surprise me if that sort of filth crawled out of the Traitor’s mouth. They’re right that would hurt him with the mindless middle “both sides” crowd. But it would really hurt them with the media, which seems to be comprised of incredulous morons.
Baud
@Kay: People are the worst part of democracy, Kay. This is well known.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I’ve always liked Warren, but I am also finding her more impressive lately. If she does run for president, a bill like that is the type of bold idea that could set her apart.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I wouldn’t call that “Hillary’d” tho. It was different with her, deeper and more relentless. It opened my eyes to how deeply misogynistic our society is. It was there all along I was just able to mostly ignore it.
Tony Jay
@satby:
What might really be damaging is if there are tapes of The Pustule not only using vile, racist language about the Obamas, but doing so in the context of “This is what my base want. This is why they love me. Because I’m just like them.”
It’s one thing Democrats and ‘The Left’ saying it, the MSM dismiss that as “just partisan talk”, but to have The Pustule call his own Base a bunch of bigoted, entitled racists – deplorables, in fact – would stick a knife right into the soft underbelly of the MAGA/GOP axis.
raven
Lookin’ for some love
I guess that why people buy dogs
Is there someone up above?
And I wonder is the Captain keeping logs
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Schlemazel:
I’m one of those people. My husband often has to leave the room to keep from ruining the act by laughing hysterically.
If I have a free computer, I just hit whatever number to speak to a live representative, start a “babies babbling” file on loop, and put the phone next to it. I’ve come back to the phone to hear the person on the other end still begging the baby to give the phone to Mommy….
If it’s a live call and I’m in a really bad mood, I flat-out tell them that I know they’re a scam because I’m on the Do Not Call list.
The fake Microsoft ones turn into endless rounds of “If my computer phoned home and told you it had a virus, then it would have also identified itself. So which computer was it?”
But you should hear me when it’s a local realtor with the “your neighbor told us you might be interested in selling your house” spiel.
Matt McIrvin
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I hear similar things frequently but I don’t think it’s entirely true. Modern elections are games of inches in a closely divided population. Trump’s base isn’t going to change their minds, and Democrats aren’t going to change their minds.
But there’s a crucial margin of people in this country who in 2016 voted “well, he’s gross and unpleasant but I guess I can live with him,” because they wanted Republican policies, or they hated Hillary Clinton more, or they thought a “businessman” would be good for the economy, or they were just habitual Republican voters. Many of these people are horrified by Trump’s behavior in office, but if the economy is doing well and the Trump-outrage stories subside, they’ll probably just slide back into thinking he’s good enough. Stopping that loss is what hammering on Trump’s grossness is about.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s why I said it depends how broadly you define the term. But I agree, what they did to Hillary was off the charts (and international). And since they succeeded, they will be incentivized to push even further against our next nominee, especially if it’s a woman.
germy
Penn Jillette:
link
Kay
@germy:
“Fingernails on a chalk board” is apt. I have a nearly physical disgust response when Trump comments on how women look- “the lovely”, etc.
He’s gross. It’s leering and disgusting and bullying. That this fucking physical wreck of a human being thinks he can sit in judgment on every woman he sees just amazes me. He’s physically repulsive. His appearance. Does he not know that?
Steeplejack
@Mustang Bobby:
That’s beautiful. And very nice of Allen’s family to include you.
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
I think there’s another important aspect of a hypothetical N-word tape, which is its effect on the media. They’ve been carefully tiptoeing around Trump’s racism for as long as he’s been in the public eye. The most glaring example is the way they’ve come up with a whole range of ways of excusing racist statements- calling them “racially charged”, “racially insensitive”, or what have you- to avoid flatly calling them racist, but they’ve more generally avoided talking about his motivation at all.
A recording where he acts like the worst caricature of a racist threatens that carefully constructed edifice. Once Trump’s motives start coming into question on something like that, it gets really hard to ignore the bigotry that’s driving so many of his decisions. I’m sure Fox News will manage to come up with a way of doing it, but other media outlets may not be so gentle.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: His wallet has always told him otherwise.
Kay
I thought this was interesting political analysis, just because it’s different than what you hear every day.
The basic idea is this: the political “center” isn’t where most elites have decided it is, thru ideological horsetrading, the political “center” is where most voters are- WHAT they are.
The second has the advantage of being measurable. One can look and SEE that 50% of working people make less than 18 dollars an hour- “the majority” can be defined and measured and located.
Kay
We’re all ordered to dismiss Omarosa as not worthy of the Trump Administration and not to be taken seriously, while this fucking hack clown tells blatant lies every day from the podium to tens of millions of people speaking as The United States.
WHAT is the difference? Is it “reality tv”? We all know Sanders will leave DC and take her guaranteed multi-million dollar contract on FOX.
There is NO difference. Omarosa is BETTER. She lies less and she lies to fewer people.
rikyrah
Critical of Israel, Embraced by Ocasio-Cortez: Minnesota Muslim Candidate Becomes Target of Alt-right Troll
Backed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar hopes to replicate the achievement of the soon-to-be first Muslim woman in Congress
Allison Kaplan Sommer Aug 13, 2018 5:30 PM
eric
@Kay: she is clearly substantively smarter than the press. Hillary is substantively smarter. Press does not mind the ideologues because they can feel superior. Not so with truly smart and clever people, and especially true with smart and clever women. For no other class of people (women) is ambition a bad thing in DC.
Kay
@eric:
I’ve told this story before but I stumbled on Warren before she was a politician and I was impressed. I was taking a continuing legal education course- “lunchtime bankruptcy” (do NOT do that- courses at ‘lunchtime’ are such a bad idea) and it was all conservative or pro-lender reading UNTIL we got to a legal analysis written by Warren. She stuck out so much. Plain language, really punchy and combative and pro-debtor.
eric
@Kay: and that was at a time when NO ONE was advocating her positions in the public sphere.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Trump commissioned an oil painting of himself in the 1980s. It’s famous — you’ve almost certainly seen it because reporters who are allowed in Disgraceland in Palm Beach gravitate toward it. Trump is young and fit in the portrait — his hair is normal human hair instead of urine-colored cotton candy, and he has no jowls or overhanging gut. He’s in tennis whites with sunbeams shooting through the dark clouds behind him like God’s own favor. That’s how he sees himself, so of course he’s qualified to pass judgment on everyone else’s appearance. :)
Betty Cracker
@eric: True. Hillary Clinton irritated male reporters and pundits by being a woman who sought power, which wasn’t a surprise to any sentient woman. But Clinton’s effect on female reporters and pundits produced content that was just as fraught, IMO. I wouldn’t read Amy Chozik’s book on the campaign if SHE paid ME, but from Chozik’s own description and excerpts I’ve seen, I get the distinct impression that Chozik desperately craved Clinton’s attention and approval but was angry at herself for that, so trashing Clinton became something akin to an adolescent rebellion ritual. And Chozik wasn’t alone in that weird dynamic.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Kay: To me, Warren’s great strength is explaining things in a way that sounds smart and clear. Not many people can do that.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Good observation re Chozick, who should NEVER have been in that gig. The press as a bunch of teenaged mean girls and guys.
That’s about right. It’s definitely homecoming court analysis skills. Where can I plug THIS candidate in?
Media treats it like it’s sports, too, but governing is actually hard work and calls for creativity in addressing the perennial problems.
eric
@Betty Cracker: There are very few reporters that I think “that person is a badass.” (See, e.g., Mayer, Jane.) The overwhelming number of local and national reporters are not experts on anything. Most are stenographers who get quotes and report what they see. There is nothing wrong with that; it is an essential element of a functioning democracy. But, there is a resentment to the smart kid in the class. Bill Clinton is their ultimate antagonist because he achieved what he did without the aid of social class and money (you could argue that his background should have retarded his national ambitions). Bill Clinton and Hillary and Warren are monuments to the members of the press underachievement.
cmorenc
@Betty Cracker:
IMHO working as a waitperson in a restaurant or bar is a really valuable experience for a late teen to twenty-something person – you learn a lot about people’s character and how their respect and empathy for others (or deficiencies thereof) play into that. You also learn how to discreetly stroke (aka “suck up”) to others to try to set a positive (and hopefully tip-rewarding) relationship with them, without going overboard into obsequiousness, which is an essential skill toward successful networking with people. You also learn a bit of humility, which is not a bad thing either.
danielx
Bad image to start the day.
Jim Parish
@HeartlandLiberal: I was amused, a while back, when one of the pseudo-Microsoft YourComputerIsCompromised calls came in. The answering machine announced it, not as the usual “Call From … Unavailable”, but as “Call From … Illegal Scam”.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I sort of resent Amy Chozick treating a presidential campaign as her personal journey of self discovery, frankly.
Jesus. Talk about ego. Is that the job? What is her job? Does anyone know?
This is a temptation in every profession- where you put yourself first and ignore who it is you are serving- it’s a pitfall- but political reporters seem to consider it some kind of value-add. It’s not.
ruemara
@Kay: Not sure what’s odd there. By now I’d think we all understand that racism trumps everything else for some people.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: I don’t think he was all that when he was young, either. Unlike his predecessor who is smart, handsome,charming and accomplished. It was the illusion of wealth that attracted the women not his personality or good looks for that matter.
TomatoQueen
I join the endorsement of Nomorobo. Here in NoVa, it’s a life-saver during election season, and at least so far, KomKast has offered it at no charge. At some point of course they’ll figure a way to monetize it. WARNING: if you work for a GINORMOUS gov’t agency as I do, Nomorobo will treat calls from your workstation as calls from the main number and not as calls from your direct line, and more than likely they will be blocked. As I have a child at home who has multiple medical issues, necessitating at least one daily call to the caregiver, this failing of Nomorobo’s made me disable the service for some months as KomKast’s customer service failed to help me get the number whitelisted, and Nomorobo was quite slow in responding directly, clinging to the ol’ “our database of gov’t numbers is the BESTEST database” excuse until they admitted I was right. I still encounter the same issue with VERY LARGE vendors who call me from 800 numbers, but not too often. Nomorobo also serves the mobile phone market, so I hear, but possibly not in all areas. I have been on the so-called do-not-call list since it was first invented, and it’s just not functional. Nomorobo is the stuff.
schrodingers_cat
@eric: I sent you a rather long email. I was wondering whether you had a chance to see it.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: How is this different from BS of Vt and his platform, that if only Ds focus on economics everything will be okay.
MomSense
I have a question about the Taliban and Russia. Because of the constant deluge of scandals and news, I don’t know if I was dreaming that Russia has been assisting the Taliban for several years or if that was actually reported a few months (weeks? days?) ago.
Given the recent stories about the resurgence of the Taliban, it seems relevant that our POTUS is so tight with a foreign adversary that is aiding an enemy in our longest running war.
Villago Delenda Est
As it turns out, the Germans have a word for people like Donald Trump.
Schweinhund
ruemara
@eric: This is also true of Obama.
BlueGirlFromWyo
@Betty Cracker: I ghosted guys for it in my dating days too. I waitressed my way through college and learned a lot about how I wanted to be treated.
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara: How is the citizenship application coming along? My friend takes her oath of citizenship tomorrow.
Kay
Chozick:
She admits they focused on the emails to a ridiculous extent but then shuts down any real analysis of why they did that or how they might correct it next time.
So the coverage will continue to suck into the foreseeable future and Democrats are going to have to figure out a way to get past the NYTimes and present their candidates to the public. Part of the problem is “the Democrats” (high ups) also fucking worship the NYTimes, so it’s a very hard problem to solve.
The Moar You Know
I’m perfectly OK with Trump (and his hellspawn) not having pets. They’d kill them for fun.
Gin & Tonic
@MomSense: Adam can comment more substantively, I’m sure, but here’s one view. Here’s another.
The Moar You Know
@HeartlandLiberal: Started for me in February of 2017 (I might also note I am not elderly). Went from zero telemarketing calls ever to at least five a day on my cell. Someone told the marketers that the Do Not Call list and other laws would not be enforced. Had to have done so.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby:
Another item for annals in US racism: My mixed-race son with a Chinese last name reentered the country yesterday, and the TSA officer holding my son’s US passport says “Ni hao” to him. Welcome back to America!
schrodingers_cat
@O. Felix Culpa: Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Was he trying to be friendly? I took it as a compliment when the Customs guy at Logan airport did a namaste and said welcome home (I was not even a citizen then)
JanieM
@Schlemazel: @HeartlandLiberal: I like to keep them on the phone too (I once got one of them to say to me, “Fuck you, ma’am.”). But that entertainment isn’t available when it’s a recorded voice doing the calling. Also, while it’s true that a legit caller can leave a message, it’s also true that robocalls leave messages. Worse, even when they’ve dialed a blocked number, the blocking is in the phone itself and doesn’t stop access to voice mail. There’s a way to block a few numbers entirely on my provider’s website, but I got tired of doing that over and over….because the blocks expire, and there aren’t enough slots, and… other reasons.
I suppose one of these days the phone companies will offer to block spam/robocalls…for a fee, of course. I’ve been told that it doesn’t actually have to be this way, but … someone is raking in the bucks from the present “open” system, so there we have it.
Platonailedit
Dems just have to do this, over and over.
O. Felix Culpa
@schrodingers_cat: My son took it as a bad thing, as did his millennial friends. I trust their instincts for smelling out racism. He’s not from China. He’s American.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Jim Parish: Verizon is offering this Great! New! Service! that’s basically caller ID. They installed it on my phone without asking for a free trial. My initial reaction was “hasn’t that technology been around for awhile already?” Then it struck me that since giving up the landline, I only get ID from numbers that are in my contacts list.
My junk-call numbers come from either random area codes where I know I have no contacts, like Arkansas, Montana, Turkey (!); or they use a number nearly identical to mine, same area code and 3-digit exchange. Is the logic there that somehow I’m supposed to think it’s a friend because the number looks sort of like my number?
I suspect the Caller ID is just ID-ing people with Verizon phones, because now some of those random calls have names on them, of people I’ve never heard of. Once in awhile I get one that says “Possible Scam” so I guess they’re trying.
I’m mad at the cell phone industry for a different reason right now. I just learned that the unlimited data plan I’m paying an arm and a leg for has limited data. It throttles the data rate for hotspot usage back after 15 GB. There is no unlimited hotspot plan. And a quick search of the competition shows me that practice is apparently common across the industry.
I bought a dedicated hotspot device from them for business purposes. I need it to work.
eric
@schrodingers_cat: I did and I will respond, but work has thrown me a curveball that will require my attention for the next day or so. I am certainly willing to help out — though I will need to watch it again.
schrodingers_cat
@eric: No problem, take your time. If you are too busy that’s okay too. This should be fun, not work!
WaterGirl
@Mustang Bobby: First I smiled, then I cried. Thanks for sharing this here.
kindness
Open thread so…..There are a bunch of web sites I look at almost every day. I have them bookmarked so it’s easy. One I used to go to more was Raw Story. I’m using it less and less. It seems to me they have decided to be the ‘Look at these Racists!’ web page and while some of that is useful having almost only that is really depressing and dull. So I don’t go there as much. Oh well….what can you do?
schrodingers_cat
@kindness: Its too sensational. My outrage meter is broken. Just give me the facts without the sensationalism.
WaterGirl
@germy: How did they describe Omarosa? Something like scary and intimidating, though I don’t think they used those words. I’m sure that’s how Donald feels about cats and dogs.
germy
@WaterGirl: Authoritarians usually hate and fear cats.
MomSense
@Gin & Tonic:
Thanks.
opiejeanne
@germy: Cats won’t be slaves.
HeartlandLiberal
@Kristine: I have a business class Comcast account in our residence, phone and Internet. I run my own servers for web and email here at home, needed it for consulting even five years after I retired, and maintain for the high speed and keeping up to date on tech. I was not aware of the service you referenced. I will see if I can find it via my web account, I sure hope it is offered here! Thanks for the information.
FWIW, is Alain dabbling? This morning the blog knew who I was when I posted comment to this thread. Now four hours or so later, there is a new option to enter my Name, Email, and Website, and a checkbox if I want the blog to remember me the next time I comment.
I know that even getting older you are supposed to keep on learning and changing, but sometimes, I wish things would slow down. In 72 years, I think I have lived through the most rapid change in society and technology in the history of the species.
germy
@opiejeanne: My cat tells me what to do.
But she is affectionate, generous with purrs, head bumps and long loving stares.
One day I was sitting with my ukulele, strumming very quietly and softly singing an old sad song. I looked up and saw her little face on the other side of the room, staring at me intently. Then she walked over and bumped against me with her tail arched over my arm.
danielx
@Villago Delenda Est:
There’s another one: backpfeifengesicht.
WaterGirl
@germy: Really? I did not know that.
JanieM
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
They’re a bunch of lying pieces of sh!t. And sneering, too. I was told with immense supercilious condescension by the manager of my local Verizon store (young enough to be my grandson) that it goes without saying that I should shop around for cheaper phone service on a regular basis, otherwise, in effect, it’s my own fault if they’re gouging me. I walked out of that store swearing to dump Verizon, but quickly discovered that the other options available to me were no better.
danielx
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Probably afraid of losing the ever so significant black Republican vote.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Kay:
This – and the media plays a big role in this too. Republicans always have a mandate in their eyes, no matter how slim (or questionable) their victories are. And the opposite is true for Dems – look at how Obama was treated after his significant 2008 victory that included leading his party to a 60-vote majority in the Senate.
So we need to push back on the idea that Trump’s any kind of political svengali (or idiot savant). He’s a very successful grifter who’s played the Republicans like a fiddle. But he’s polarizing, unpopular, and a drag on the Republican Party – despite what we’re told by the complicit political media.
We will beat them. Just don’t expect much acknowledgement or appreciation from talking heads and political “journalists” when we do it.
rikyrah
@Kay:
You nailed it, Kay.
danielx
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
Must disagree. Polarizing and unpopular, yes. But at this point Donald Trump IS the Republican Party, with all the sneering, vacuous viciousness, incoherence and stupidity that implies. The bigger an asshole he is, the better they like it. Republicans who think of Trump as a drag on the Republican Party are not exactly lying thick upon the ground at this point, if recent primary results are anything to go by. Republicans who do think he’s a drag on the party are exceedingly unlikely to publicly admit it at this point.
ETA: and yes, we are going to beat them like a rented mule.
Doug R
He is literally worse than Hitler, who at least loved dogs.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Baud:
Political media helps drive this behavior too, with their neverending stories about unrepentant Trump supporters in “the heartland”.
Kill your television, and FTNYT.
Elizabelle
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: I agree with you. Good comment.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: @Kay: Omarosa is taking on her former boss, which none of the other WH employees who have left so far has done. That alone makes her better.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Baud:
But that shit takes time. Hillary was “Hillary’d” for years. It doesn’t work as well with a “fresh face”.
Gravenstone
@Kay: Nice to see the establishment power bases losing influence with the actual voters when they wield that power in what looked to be blatantly racist ways.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kay: Josh over at TPM was discussing how Trump uses NDAs to bully ex-employees into silence, I suspect the real fear is if Omorosa flaunts the NDAs and gets away with it the rest of the disgruntled ex-Trump employees realize they can get away with tell alls too.
I also don’t agree that the core of Trump’s support is racists, they are fan bois who bought the myth Trump created of Trump being the ultimate businessman so like gossipy Tell-All books is the stuff they pay attention too.
ruemara
@schrodingers_cat: Application is complete. I have the supporting documents & I need photos. I’m also very anxious and it’s making me slowdown on things because… well, we currently have a neonazi administration and I want everything to be perfect. It doesn’t just affect me if they find something, this would at the very least affect my mother. Plus, currently swamped and stressed and annoyed at work so, that’s adding to the aforementioned anxiety. All things considered though, it could be worse. I have the funds to pay the application off, thanks to you guys. And I can divert some of the tax payment funds to pay an attorney to just review everything so I know if there’s anything missing or huge red flags. I’m rational but anxiety isn’t fully rational either.
Chyron HR
@Gravenstone:
How exactly is Bernie’s Revolution the “establishment power base”?
zhena gogolia
@OzarkHillbilly:
the Courant is a disgusting rag.
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara: You don’t need photos, unless the rules have changed again. USCIS takes them when you go for your biometrics. Good luck!
ETA: I understand your anxiety and trepidation. I dithered back and forth in the fall of 2016.
gvg
I have had way too many robocalls and scam calls for a couple of years now. Supposedly it’s because of technology and that scammers can call in mass from outside the country where our laws can’t touch them. The technology is it’s now supper cheap AND they can get our phones to display a false phone number that isn’t the real source. I used to pick up if the area code was local but now I know that isn’t reliable. So it’s not even enforcement nor Trump, it’s that it’s really non US.
The government was putting pressure on the phone companies to do more and they were resisting but lately they are begining to offer some tools. ATT my provider puts out a couple of scam blocking and scam warning APS for free but they only work on newer phones. I usually hate changing just to upgrade but an shopping now specifically for compatibility. I have also decided not to go for cheaper phones that are a few years old because i think they will stop getting updates too soon. I hate shopping but am going crazy because of the stupid scammers. They aren’t even clever ones.
I prefer to answer my phone because of various family issues. it annoys me to not have my device able to keep me in contact like I want.
My nephews school, the local government, and my employer all use robo calls to announce big things like closing for hurricanes, field trip reminders and some crime threats. Just having no robo won’t work for me.
Kay
That dog is really cute. I don’t love dogs the way you people do- I’m not snuggly with them- but I do feed them and such.
My cat has a bad personality. No one “likes” her, truly, but we take good care of her. My son walks his friends by her because they have never heard a cat growl before. They parade past her to hear her growl. That’s how bad it is :)
She sort of likes me- she doesn’t growl at me anyway.
Doug R
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I think t Mobile throttles you after 30 gig and they’ve got 30Mps speed in a lot of cities.
zhena gogolia
@gvg:
Yeah, it’s really annoying. And much as I like to blame everything on Trump, I think it’s unrelated.
Rand Careaga
@HeartlandLiberal:
In the early nineties, it seemed to me that the pace of change had fired up the afterburners, and I found this thrilling. At sixty-six, not so much. As to the most rapid changes in society and technology, I think that had you been born in America a century earlier, you would have lived through even more profound transformations between 1846 and 1918.
satby
@O. Felix Culpa: @schrodingers_cat: I would imagine that the agent meant it to be welcoming too, like schrodingers_cat. The problem is that the assumption was that he even spoke Chinese and wasn’t a native English speaking American is racist without really meaning to be, I think. It’s not always a bad bet, my Chinese exchange son’s parents and wife have been in the USA for 10 years, but still barely speak any English. There’s a large enough Chinese community in NYC that they don’t really have to.
I say hello in other languages all the time too, but I’ve learned to wait until I hear my victim of overenthusiastic friendliness actually speak that language first.
Kristine
@HeartlandLiberal: Here’s a webpage describing the service: https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/nomorobo
I’m in NE Illinois–not sure if region matters. My Comcast account is personal/residential.
Good luck–I hope it’s available and you can make it work for you.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@cmorenc:
Humility is everything. We need so much more of it.
Amir Khalid
Oh, in case this hasn’t been pointed out in the thread:
Dogs understand, and return, love and loyalty. Dogs understand and respect rules. Dogs expect and appreciate fair dealing. Dogs have courage and determination. Dogs show dignity and grace and restraint and humour. A typical dog is by any of these measures a better person than Donald Trump.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@danielx:
Good – keeping their heads in the sand won’t save them.
satby
@Amir Khalid: truth!
schrodingers_cat
@satby: Appu doesn’t bother me much either like it does the children of immigrants born here. There is prejudice everywhere. In India too, if you don’t belong to that particular region, speak the language of the state, you can get picked on for your accent etc.
ETA: That we are all equal and we should treat each other with respect is an aspiration and many a times falls short of reality. No point in being slighted for these minor slights. Like, But where are you really from? type questions.
Amir Khalid
@Kay:
My Bianca has a polite and friendly greeting for any human. For other cats and for dogs, not so much.
schrodingers_cat
@Amir Khalid: OMG, my bosscat has this, fuck you, who do you think you are, reaction to every other kitteh he sees. Dogs, either he tries to run away from them or dominate them.
scav
At some point, those exceptions within team R should very well concern themselves with what’s constantly seeping through the blood-brain barrier into the mental landscape of the largest mass of the American voter: the low information one. This constant playing to the base with louder and louder whistles really only excites the already excited. If Miss Sluggard and Mr Conventional Tick-The-Box-and-Forget-About-it gets tired of being needled for their noisy and increasingly down-market affiliation, they may eventually switch into a new rut and then what? Ruts tend to persist by definition. And what about all those new generations of low-information voters being molded now with the current Screaming Meanies being burned into their minds as the archetyal repubs? A simple tape of simple outright racism might be easy enough and small enough to break through
Kay
@Amir Khalid:
The teenagers think it’s funny but it’s hard with little kids. “Don’t pet the cat. She hates you”.
She’s had a nice life! Was a rescue. I don’t know what she has to complain about. She’s like a Trump supporter. Bitter and entitled.
Elizabelle
That’s a really beguiling little doxie up top. Love dachshunds. Every single one of them deserves better than Donald J. Trump.
As do we all.
schrodingers_cat
@satby: People have tried to talk to me in Spanish, Hindi and Greek at airports. Its pretty funny, actually.
lollipopguild
@Rand Careaga: We went from the first plane flight in 1903 to jet planes 40 years later to landing people on the moon in 1969. 66 years.
Kelly
Day 2 of officially “unhealthy” air in the Willamette Valley due to far away wildfire smoke. Second August in a row. Interior Sec Zinke sez climate change has nothing to do with wildfires.
Platonailedit
Every norm being broken every day.
opiejeanne
@Kelly: Zinke’s a liar and an ass for thinking that he’s fooling us.
Really bad to the north of you in the Seattle. Yesterday I thought it was just overcast until we left our driveway. Our lot is sunny but encircled by trees, so I didn’t notice until I realized that big trees just across the street looked like they were in the far distance. I guess we’re in the Sammamish Valley, but up on a hill.
The Moar You Know
@Kelly: This may just be a SoCal thing, but even my Trump-loving mother knows and freely admits this is utter bullshit.
A hammerhead shark was reported off the coast here yesterday. That’s a goddamn tropical animal. Typical water temp around here this time of year was 66 degrees. Just a few days ago it hit 80 – and it’s stayed there. Few weeks of that should kill most everything that lives off the coast here.
WhatsMyNym
@HeartlandLiberal: The “do not call registry” list is used by scammers to find you, and you go to the top of their call list. Do not register your phone unless you want a bunch of scammers trying to contact you. They know it is hard for anybody to trace the fake numbers they show on caller id.
ETA: this started to occur under our last real President. I changed a couple of phone numbers because of this. The calls came in just after I registered the lines.
Immanentize
@The Moar You Know: And hammerheads are not friendly sharks.
Kelly
@opiejeanne: I have a cousin that lives near the Rogue River. They had to evacuate for a week. Their neighborhood didn’t burn but they have had terrible air for most of the summer. I’m very troubled by the large areas of 10 to 30 year old fires that are burning again. Fuel reduction only helps a bit.
Kelly
@The Moar You Know: Zinke’s been making the moar loggin’ argument nationwide. He just took advantage of the Cali fires to get some more attention. The timber communities are 100% believers even though the fires burn just as robustly in plantations or wilderness. The fastest burning areas are plantations stocked with 10 to 20 year old monocultures.
frosty
@lollipopguild: 1903 to 1969 – my grandparents spanned this era. My maternal grandmother grew up on a farm with no electricity or running water and lived to see the Space Shuttle. Plus two world wars. That’s the generation that saw the most change IMHO.
WhatsMyNym
@opiejeanne: I’m right by the San Juan Strait and there’s just no wind to dissipate the smoke. There’s usually a constant breeze.
TenguPhule
Dogs can sense evil, machines disguised as humans and lizards disguised as humans.
Make of that what you will.
sgrAstar
@Baud:
Who can forget the running dogs of capitalism? Echoes of a misspent youth on the barricades…
TenguPhule
@Kay:
He’s been operating at a deficit for the last decade. He not only has nothing in reserve, he’s issuing IOUs he can’t cash. But his supporters are insane. That’s what’s wrong about this.
Brian Murphy
To be fair, dogs are loathsome creatures. Trump’s hatred of dogs may be his one redeeming quality.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Brian Murphy: Aiming to turn this thread into a Tbogg-length beatdown in defense of dogs, are we?
Gelfling 545
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: T mobile identifies calls from numbers that have been associated with robo calling/ scam calling as Scam Likely. They haven’t been wrong yet.
TenguPhule
@Brian Murphy: Would you prefer a firing squad or a simple hemp rope?
J R in WV
Trump is a mangy, mean, hateful, cowardly, dangerous, dirty cur. My dogs are lovable, strong, protective, cute, fur babies I would kill to protect; they would kill and die to protect us.
There’s a large difference there…. what is it? Hmmm.
J R in WV
@Schlemazel:
I do that with the IT conspiracy who want to find my virus that’s reporting to MS Security HQ. I’ve been promoted to their “supervisor” several times. Often, when I reveal that I worked in IT database development for 25 years, they curse as they hang up their device. Mostly Indian call centers from the accents. Kind of fun if I’m not busy.
J R in WV
@Cheryl Rofer:
Thanks, Cheryl!! Great photo of a great dog.
The human is ok too.
;-)
I kid, he’s a hero for doing all he has done.
Dan B
@Lapassionara: It’s so true that the refugee children no longer seem to interest the MSM. Homeland Security seems to have learned that you can’t allow any images to be released and you can’t let the media or politicians near these kids or their families.
My rep Pramila Jayapal is quite good at media so I’m not sure why she’s not agitating for attention.
Dan B
@Tony Jay: I hope you’re right that Trump insults Obama and his family. It wouldn’t surprise me but it would make his base twist into contortions defending the n word. When they’re defending Trump they’re not attacking liberals… although they’ll probably try to pin the blame on PC. That’s what my partner’s family does. Hypocritical snowflakes.
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: I’ve been to India with good friends who are from New Delhi and have family in Mumbai. Last night I asked this young guy at the local mart if his name was Sunny or Aditya? He said it was Sunny, seemed thrown off a little. Had a good shirt discussion about where he’s from: Punjab. I believe he said Democracy Nagar. He hates the pollution in Delhi. Seemed genuinely to encounter an old bearded guy who knew something about his home.
He’s not an Appu in the least. Tall, handsome, athletic, on his phone every chance. It’s nice to encounter people who light up at making an unexpected connection, especially in this moment politically.