First, Wall of Voodoo. We listened to this sort of thing back in the day:
Now, the wall of lies Trump is building today on the Twitter in lieu of his racist “boarder” wall:
The reason the DACA for Wall deal didn’t get done was that a ridiculous court decision from the 9th Circuit allowed DACA to remain, thereby setting up a Supreme Court case. After ruling, Dems dropped deal – and that’s where we are today, Democrat obstruction of the needed Wall.
This is a big fat lie — as those of us who were paying attention last time know, Trump bungled a negotiation in the spring that would have netted $25B for his stupid wall in exchange for a path to citizenship for Americans in DACA status. The Post on March 22:
Trump himself made a last-minute push for a DACA deal in recent days, reviving immigration discussions that had largely been dormant since a Senate floor fight fizzled in February. The White House pitched $25 billion in border wall funding and three years of protections for current DACA permit holders, an estimated 690,000 young immigrants who had enrolled in the nearly six-year-old program.
But Democrats rebuffed the offer, declining to agree to any temporary extension of DACA permits for only the current program enrollees. Democratic leadership countered with a plan to pair the $25 billion in border wall cash and a pathway to citizenship for a broader dreamer population of about 1.8 million immigrants.
The administration rejected that approach, too. Trump was willing to accept a pathway to citizenship for the expansive pool of dreamers if he secured other significant immigration changes, not solely for the wall, one senior White House official said.
It’s true that a court decision affected the earlier immigration negotiations — the ruling scrapped an arbitrary deadline for ending DACA that Trump pulled out of his ass to try to increase pressure for a deal. But even after that, Democrats were still willing to fund the stupid wall in exchange for a path to citizenship for people in DACA status until Trump insisted on adding cuts to legal immigration. Trump killed the deal, not the court ruling.
So, why is he lying about this now? Maybe he saw something on Fox News about the $25B offer and suspects it could expose him to ridicule since he’s now staging a tantrum government shutdown for a much smaller amount. But if he’s deflecting and lie-splaining, he’s losing. No mercy for the lying loser, Democrats. No mercy.
germy
How To Vote
Another Benchley miniature. Should clear things right up.
dr. bloor
Stan Ridgeway, underrated prophet.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Dude can’t go ten minutes without lying. It’s incredible. It’s even crazier that a third of the country is happy being lied to every fucking day.
Luthe
It doesn’t matter if he’s lying if no one points it out. My belief our media betters will point out the lie is somewhere between Avagodo’s number and absolute zero.
Boris, Rasputin's Evil Twin
I can’t imagine Lord Smallgloves can remember his lies, much less keep them straight, anymore. Come to think of it, could he do so before the dementia hit?
Van Buren
Agreed, no mercy.
Gonna be tough with all the “I just wish they’d compromise” bs.
Mathguy
Mexican Radio–played a lot of pinball to that in college.
Major Major Major Major
I… kind of don’t care honestly. It’s all he ever does.
BC in Illinois
I really don’t understand why the price tag has to be so high.
If Speaker Pelosi is correct . . .
dmsilev
So, I guess the GOP has given up trying to find a resolution over the next week? Kind of stupid of them, as once Pelosi reclaims the Gavel Of Extreme Smashing on the 3rd, she’ll have every incentive to move a clean Continuing Resolution and dare the next Senate to reject the very thing that this Senate passed by a wide margin.
Gemina13
He’s neck-deep in shit, and he’s flailing. Pelosi and Schumer don’t even have to throw Trump an anchor; all they need to do is stay on dry ground and watch him sink.
Love Wall of Voodoo, and Stan Ridgeway. I’ve listened to his work piecemeal, but I love “We Never Close.” There’s a nice, bright, shining bit of Americana for ya.
Mnemosyne
This place where I’m having lunch is playing one of my favorite Queen songs, which is making up for the fact that I had to work a half day today in a mostly empty office.
(“Somebody to Love,” for the record.)
I need to stop reading Twitter for a few days, because the Berniebros are out and swarming anyone who doesn’t accept him as their lord and savior. It’s making me VERY CRANKY towards anyone who uses any of their stupid slogans, however innocently. ?
Old Dan and Little Ann
I want my MTV. Early 80’s style.
dexwood
@dr. bloor:
His album Party Ball is a favorite. Sorry to comment and run.
John Revolta
@BC in Illinois: Price tag for 2000 miles of that stuff comes to just over 84 million smackers. You’d have plenty left over for incense and lava lamps!
Gemina13
@Mathguy: Try playing Space Invaders to it. The SO and I went to Dorkly’s recently, which had Space Invaders on a huge projected screen, with gamers’ chairs with joysticks. We almost passed out twice: first from joy, then from sheer sensory overload. And “Mexican Radio” was playing overhead. The kids couldn’t understand why two olds were laughing, staggering, and turning green.
germy
this cat:
jl
My thought is that Trump knows even more, vary hard and reliable, evidence will drop early in new year that indicts him of multiple crimes, that went up to and through his election. So, Trump thinks that if he starts delivering on some of his campaign promises, that might help him. But Trump is doing so in a total BS, irresponsible and corrupt way, so it actually won’t help him that much.
A commenter in previous thread suggested that if Trump came clean right after taking office about his involvement with Russian election meddling, he might stand a better chance now. I think far fetched, but maybe so. Trump’s approaches to fulfilling Wall, and reduction of US overseas military commitment promises are so craptastic, they won’t help him at all, maybe damage him further.
Patricia Kayden
I wonder if Republicans would stop shutting down the federal government if they weren’t paid during shutdowns. The Democrats should address this when they take over the House. It shouldn’t just be federal employees who suffer because of this nonsense.
John S.
@Mnemosyne:
Don’t worry, I suspect many of the Berniebros of yesterday will become the Betobros of tomorrow.
scottinnj
This is a group based in El Paso doing great work with the migrants. They can really use some donations. Money on the ground to groups like this can go a long way,
https://ktla.com/2018/12/27/more-than-500-migrants-dropped-off-at-sites-throughout-el-paso-in-1-night-texas-nonprofit-says/
https://annunciationhouse.org/
dmsilev
@Patricia Kayden: A large fraction of lawmakers, particularly Republicans, come in with substantial assets and outside income. Missing a month or two of paychecks would mean a lot less to them than it would to some low-level civil servant.
rikyrah
@Patricia Kayden:
Do the people in their OFFICES get paid during a shutdown?
ThresherK
@Mnemosyne: My fave little part of that song is the backwards rhythm to the words “He just keeps losing the beat”.
randy khan
@dmsilev:
Ryan’s last whimper, I guess you could call it. One more bit of proof that the House Republicans have essentially been leaderless for the last two years.
My working assumption is that the House will move the clean CR, or maybe the clean CR plus the disaster funding, and send it to the Senate to at least put the ball in McConnell’s court. But I also could see Pelosi saying, more or less, that the ball’s already in the Senate’s court.
Mnemosyne
@Patricia Kayden:
@dmsilev:
It worked in California, though we had to pass a voter proposition to get it done. And the only permanent fix was electing a supermajority of Democrats.
Brachiator
A big lie and a refusal to admit his own clumsy failure at making a deal.
I keep hearing pundits talk about this in terms of what the Republicans want for “border security” and whether they can reach a deal with Democrats.
Has any Democrat (besides Pelosi) talked openly and hard about how this is about Trump’s ego, that his fantastical wall has nothing to do with border security?
I could see giving him some token amount. Babies sometimes need a pacifier to suck on. But they money could be put to better use elsewhere. And the Democrats could offer ideas on real immigration reform, and real national security without playing to Trump theatrics.
SFAW
@Major Major Major Major:
No shit. As I’ve said for awhile now: He has not intentionally told the truth since he started his campaign.
Were there such a thing as a Just God, that God would have gotten fed up with all the lies by now; as He/She hurled that well-aimed lightning bolt at the Fuckhead-in-Chief, He/She would say “Shut the fuck up, Donnie.”
NotMax
Realizing the name of the stuff is a misnomer, if Dolt 45 were administered truth serum, the resultant space-time disruption would create a miniature orange is the new black hole.
Truth is not a moving target yet he couldn’t hit it from two feet away with a bazooka.
Wag
I wish (Trump) was in Tiajuana
Eating bbq iguana
lgerard
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
try this one
Mnemosyne
@ThresherK:
I’m hopeless when it comes to music (was never able to get past “Mary Had A Little Lamb” on any instrument), but I believe you.
I didn’t realize that the musical joke of “A Spoonful of Sugar” is that the music goes up at the word “down” until I saw Saving Mr. Banks and one of the characters said so. ?♀️
VeniceRiley
me to the Cheeto of Obeseness just now: “This lie is so FAT, it can’t even put on YOUR pants.”
I’m trying for a block. :-D
Kathleen
@Mnemosyne: I find it interesting that the same time Shrillrota triggered the broslaught other leftist “writers” are bashing Obama. Heer Jeet (TNR) and Matt Stoller and I’m sure more is to follow.
Raven
@Wag: At the Blue Fox
terraformer
Why? He lies because his base of mouth-breathers will believe anything. He. Says.
But you knew that, right?
Kathleen
@germy: I had to leave and retweet. Hilarious.
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: What he wants is to deport or kill every immigrant he deems unworthy. Barring that he wants all immigrants and long term visa holders to live in perpetual fear.
@Major Major Major Major: Agreed.
NotMax
Putting new keyboard through its paces; am a happy camper.
Igerard
One of multitudinous roads not taken.
Was asked, repeatedly, to join a techie group involved with creating and founding MTV. Turned it down, as thought it would be a flash in the pan.
“Who wants to watch music?”
schrodingers_cat
What the Ds didn’t agree to in return for the DACA deal was sabotaging legal immigration for good, which was one of the sticking points. For that I am glad. Steven Miller and John Kelly also wanted to jettison entire green card categories, and throw in the garbage people’s applications whose intent to immigrate had been approved (first step of the GC process) and were waiting for the quota in their specific category to become available.
Brachiator
@jl:
I don’t know. I don’t know if Trump knows or cares that he has done anything wrong. Or maybe he thinks he can beat anything that is thrown at him.
Otherwise, his instinct seems to be to always lie, always deny, and always to fight, to move ahead. And the GOP Congress could block him or more actively try to push his administration in a particular direction, but they still choose not to. And his supporters may be shaken, but are still behind him.
Trump has never come clean about anything. I doubt that he knows how to come clean about anything.
Betty Cracker
@Major Major Major Major: It’s true Trump lies all the time, but the content of the lies can be a signal of what’s going on and what passes for strategy in this administration, For example, I think this particular set of lies from Trump today, plus the lies pushed by the @GOP Twitter account, signal that they know they’re losing this shutdown standoff.
A Ghost To Most
Man, it must have been tourist day at the weed store. People just gawking and giggling, not sure what to do. It doesn’t help that they have about 50 different strains of bud, plus everything else. Luckily, I was able to slip in and out.
VeniceRiley
@A Ghost To Most: Folks buying for new years Eve I suppose.
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
Did you watch the Kennedy Center Honors? Right at the best part of “One Last Time” they showed Mnuchin’s ugly mug.
NotMax
@A Ghost To Most
Christmas Day … Boxing Day … Bonging Day.
;)
Roger Moore
@Mnemosyne:
Not quite. The real fix was amending the State Constitution to let the legislature pass a budget with a simple majority. Once the Democrats could afford to lose not just all the Republicans but 20% of their own caucus and still be able to pass a budget, the process got a lot easier.
Brachiator
@schrodingers_cat:
Blunt, but gets to the heart of it, although I don’t think Trump gives a crap about long term visa holders.
He and his vile advisors have a narrow view of who should be a citizen, and who should become citizens. He has more or less purged the country of non-citizen asylum seekers by ordering them to leave, and he wants to do this and more to immigrants and undocumented residents. Then, after he has total control, he will admit those he deems worthy (largely white people in his own image).
Old Dan and Little Ann
@lgerard: I have never seen that video nor heard that song. It certainly screams 80s.
J R in WV
@Major Major Major Major:
Yes, this.
Why does a liar lie? Why does the wind blow, water fall from the sky? Why is the sky blue, why is Trump talking about thing he knows nothing about?
I do not care, he lies always about everything!
schrodingers_cat
@Brachiator: He totally does. He is screwing up both the work visas and student visas. Read about the proposed changes to the F-1 student visa.
* To be precise his immigration staffers who are aides of anti-immigrant senators like Grassley and Sessions or come from the Tanton thinktanks like FAIR and Numbers USA.
ETA: Here you go. Forbes article
Roger Moore
@Betty Cracker:
That’s true when he’s the one initiating the binge of lies. When he’s reacting to somebody else, though, the lies have to at least pretend to be responsive to what the other person is saying, which often requires him to make something up on the spot. That’s why he can contradict himself in such a short period of time.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
He wants more than just to change who is admitted. He wants to throw out people he thinks are the wrong sort, and he doesn’t give a damn if they’re citizens.
ThresherK
@Mnemosyne: Frankly I didn’t get that joke either, but Mary Poppins was never my favorite.
I do remember that scene in the movie and it tickled me. Novak and Schwartzman were great as the Sherman brothers, and I’m a sucker for movies which tell me about creating music. I have watched a lot of old-Hollywood style biopics and like the meta (while recognizing when it gets pretty wayward of history).
Roger Moore
@J R in WV:
Pressure differences.
It condenses when the air temperature gets lower than the dew point. The droplets then aggregate into larger drops that fall rapidly.
Rayleigh scattering.
delk
Liars got to lie.
FlyingToaster
We saw a bumper sticker on Lynn Shore Drive, Xmas Day:
“Elect a Clown
Expect a Circus”
debbie
I’ve been fuming all day, ever since I heard Trump’s remark about the U.S. not being “suckers” anymore. It was nice to hear that someone (with far more standing than I) shares my anger. NPR interviewed General John R. Allen (retired four-star Marine who was in Iraq and Afghanistan), who was so ticked off he could barely spit out his words. But far more diplomatically than I would ever be capable of.
debbie
@Brachiator:
By his standards, Trump would have to kick himself out of the country!
rikyrah
Marcus H. Johnson (@marcushjohnson) Tweeted:
Bernie dropped the “If I Run” email asking for money. My guess? Desperately wants to get in and raise money before others announce. He’s seen the same poor numbers we have. This time around nobody is gonna play with kid gloves. This is gonna be fun
https://twitter.com/marcushjohnson/status/1078402425734774792?s=17
Gex
@Roger Moore: seriously. FTFNYT posted an article with a headline that denaturalizatiom might be the new front. Of course, this started last year, so both phrasing it as a question and referring to it as “next” and not “underway” were extremely inaccurate.
Add to it their belief that Obama, even though born here to an American isn’t a citizen and you have a rough outline of how expansive their goals are of purging of brown citizens and residents.
And that where they got in one year.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@schrodingers_cat:
This is something that continually bothers me about when people say a change is “permanent”, like “Permanent Tax Cut” or a whatever. Changes in the law(either by statute or even Constitutional Amendment) can be changed, either by a new statute or an Amendment. Something that can be changed is by definition NOT permanent.
I’m not disagreeing with your characterization that it would be difficult to change the law back to current law, but it’s not “for good” in that it couldn’t happen.
/rant
JPL
@rikyrah: That’s why the bernie bros are attacking Beto. My fear is that Bernie is in it for the money.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@J R in WV: “Tide goes out, tide comes in, you can’t explain that.”
Ruckus
@Mnemosyne:
Wanna bet that a lot of those BS bros don’t have English as their first or daily language?
Roger Moore
@Gex:
It’s not just denaturalization; they’ve also been explicit about wanting to end birthright citizenship as defined in the 14th Amendment. It’s not a great step from there to stripping anyone of their citizenship. My grandfather and his family were all stripped of their German citizenship by the Nuremberg Laws, so I certainly believe it can happen.
Ruckus
@SFAW:
He hasn’t intentionally told the truth in decades. I think he’s afraid he’ll have a sezure if he does.
Brachiator
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Yep. In the 2015 tax law (PATH Act), some changes to depreciation were made “permanent.” New and different changes to these rules were made with the Trump tax cut (TCJA). Also, “permanent.”
@schrodingers_cat:
I see what you are saying. There are ways to encourage more American citizens (of all ethnicities) to find work without being cruel. Trump encourages cruelty.
Roger Moore
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
When people talk about a change being permanent, they don’t mean it’s impossible for it ever to be changed back. They just mean it has no built-in end date. Until you come up with a better way of distinguishing between laws that have sunset clauses and ones that don’t, calling one temporary and the other permanent is a useful distinction.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@JPL:
Grandpa needs an addition to the lake house.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: I was going to do an ETA about sunset clauses, but decided not to.
ETA: Permanent is poor description of laws that don’t have sunset provisions, the law still is NOT permanent. They need a different word to provide a better description.
plato
Yup.
geg6
@Betty Cracker:
There was a poll I saw today that had something like 75% blaming Trump. Even GOPers are blaming him.
schrodingers_cat
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Okay let me be precise then, T (and Tanton minions have an idea on how to to do this) wants to sabotage the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which was part of the civil rights package and replace it with a version of the Johnson-Reed act that curtailed immigration from “undesirable countries”
IIRIRA passed with Bill Clinton’s signature by Newtie’s Congress got us half way there.
plato
Don’t fucking normalize this fucker’s 24×7 lying.
debbie
@geg6:
Good, because he won’t give in. He never concedes and instead digs himself deeper into a hole. Maybe this is how we get him out of the country.
Gwangung
@schrodingers_cat: Remember, the reason why we have immigration laws is because of (white) identity politics.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JPL: @?BillinGlendaleCA: I hate his guts and liver, and I think he deserves as much blame for trump as Comey or Putin, but I don’t think he’s in it for the money. I think he’s in it for the adulation. After years of being dismissed if not derided, he’s a player in national politics, he gets screaming crowds, twittergasms, Susan Sarandon and Michael Moore and Cornell West telling him he’s the savior of a nation that doesn’t even deserve him….
Now, if we eventually learn that Tad Devine had persuaded Jane, in spite of her principled objections of course, that she and Bernie were entitled to some compensation for their noble sacrifice to the greater good? I for one will not be shocked. If that money has foreign origins, still not shocked.
schrodingers_cat
@Gwangung: Indeed. And No-nothings of the twenty first century are in charge now.
AnotherBruce
@dr. bloor:” Songs that made this country great.” A terrific compilation by Stan Ridgeway. Underrated prophet indeed.
debbie
@plato:
People need to stop with the euphemisms and call it what it is: Lies. Period.
Roger Moore
@schrodingers_cat:
As stated elsewhere, Trump wants to go well past changing immigration law. He also wants to overturn 14th Amendment protections so he can strip birthright citizenship. And that’s just what he and his people have copped to in public. I strongly suspect that he would like to be able to strip citizenship from any person or group he doesn’t like.
Brachiator
@plato:
Trump loves to lie. He bragged about how lying to Canadian PM Trudeau kept the younger man off balance. Trump don’t care.
Unfortunately, the president creates norms by the example of his behavior. This has been the case since George Washington. Again, Trump don’t care. And his successors may be encouraged by what Trump continues to do. This would be a shameful legacy, but again, Trump don’t care.
geg6
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
This.
schrodingers_cat
@Roger Moore: Deporting and killing covers this desire, doesn’t it? Hitler is his idol after all and Nazis are mighty fine people, according to him.
FlyingToaster
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
[snark] It’s the orbital pattern with the moon and sun, doofus. Which is why NOAA can tell us when we’ll have neap and king tides. Add in the current weather and they’ll tell you how high the tide will get.
Didn’t you people finish 5th grade?[/snark]
Seriously, this is basic fucking knowledge to grade school kids. Why on earth are we electing adults who don’t know shit?
debbie
@Brachiator:
He bragged about his lying in Art of the Deal. “Say anything three times and they will believe you.” The problem Trump didn’t foresee was that when he was working in business, he would deal with one group of people for a few days and then move on to the next group. As president, he’s now dealing with the same millions of people, day in and day out. It’s far easier to get caught in myriad lies when you don’t get to move on to a new group of people.
plato
@Brachiator:
No, he doesn’t. He is not fucking omnipotent as you make him out to be.
Frankensteinbeck
@Boris, Rasputin’s Evil Twin:
Yes. The difference between how Trump talks now and a couple of decades ago is dramatic. He was always an evil, not that bright white supremacist, however.
@dmsilev:
She has said this is exactly her plan. I now believe it is why McConnell and Ryan abandoned the negotiation and what Trump is clinging to, to get him through the storm of bad press until January 3rd. If the Democrats control the House, they don’t have to admit defeat. McConnell can go ‘Oh, well, not my fault anymore, demon woman in the House, what can you do?’ Trump gets handed a bill and signs it saying that it’s not his failure, the world is being mean to him and is stacked against him. Narcissists love excuses like that.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“Can’t we have both?”
Chris Johnson
@John S.:
Not a chance. I’ve seen the Russian trolling and the intended direction for the actual left. They probably want to crank Bernie up again this time with even more troll backing, and they want the hard left to hate the shit out of Beto. Beto’s supposed to get opposed by the left on the grounds that he’s Obama 2.0.
There were never hard left Bros. Remember that was Twitter? Russia freaking owned Twitter early on. The left wing Bros are fake, Russian trolls. The real leftists go in for struggle-sessions and fret over inclusivity and whether they are expressing slurs that would offend somebody. Of course, Russian trolls feed that too…
Brachiator
@plato:
It ain’t got a damn thing to do with omnipotence. A president, any president, establishes norms by his behavior. What he does establishes precedents.
It’s kinda like how George Washington established a precedent of only serving two terms.
This does not mean that future presidents are bound by the prior example, but it does tend to set, establish or widen political boundaries.
@debbie:
Trump gets a kick out of lying. He doesn’t care that he gets caught. And he has a staff who will tell everyone that he didn’t lie.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@FlyingToaster: I don’t think the person quoted has ever been elected to any office, he did host a “News” show on Fox News for a number of years.
lamh36
Evening BJ.
How was everyone’s Christmas?
Any special plans for New Years?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@debbie: But that’s the thing, the folk that he screwed over in business came back and did deals with him over and over. Adam has said it’s Trump’s(Fred and Donald) mob connections and I have no reason to doubt that. That doesn’t work in politics.
debbie
@Brachiator:
Of course he doesn’t care. But he doesn’t get away with it anymore. That’s the whole point.
plato
@Brachiator: Washington vs this lying thug? Really? Talk about false equivalence overreach.
Frankensteinbeck
@Chris Johnson:
Boy, I wish that were true, but no. I know some of these people. The people who assume ‘the Left’ means them believe in the primacy of the class war over all other political issues. Either you are calling the rich evil and shouting about tearing them down, or you are on the side of the rich against the poor. This is so transparently obvious to them that they are willing to swallow any number of insane lies that must also be true, such as the belief that the vast majority of the American people are waiting to vote for a politician who finally calls out the rich as the enemy. They often have their own bigotry issues as well, but that gets complicated.
jl
@Frankensteinbeck: McConnell might as well have been playing a recording of himself that he made from several years ago. The Democrats are hostage to their radical leftist base and won’t do the responsible thing… The Democrats are hostage to their radical leftist base and won’t do the responsible thing… click whrrr…. The Democrats are hostage to their radical leftist base and won’t do the responsible thing… .
FlyingToaster
@?BillinGlendaleCA: O’Reilly’s a toad, but he’s also someone that morons like Grassley and Ernst and Snowbilly Snooki like to quote.
plato
@debbie: Exactly. Who gives a shit whether or not he gets a kick of out lying?
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
A lot of folks didn’t come back though. They may not have publicly condemned him, but they didn’t continue to work with him. (As an example, the Evans family, who made a charitable donation of $800,000 to the Trump Foundation and later found out Trump claimed it was his money when he was giving it away. They wouldn’t speak out against him because they considered him to be a friend, but they never donated to the foundation a second time.)
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
That’s what you said while you were live commenting. I think I DVR’d it, but at least I know ahead of time to avert my eyes.
plato
Frankensteinbeck
@jl:
He can say it in a superficially calm, mature, and educated tone, which is exactly what Conventional Wisdom has been waiting to hear. Plus, he might believe it. All evidence points to him being an extremist white supremacist himself.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@debbie: I’m not talking about the Trump Foundation, I’m talking business deals in the Real Estate business. There were quite a few folk that got screwed by him that continued to do business with him.
Yarrow
@plato: No…….
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Sigh. That was just one example. It was no different in real estate or in any of his other businesses.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
For centuries, composers have played with the text-music relationship, to startle or point out contradictions or underscore key words.
One of my favourite examples is from J. S. Bach’s Magnificat, a cantata on Mary’s “My soul doth magnify the Lord.”
In the ninth section, the alto soloist sings “Esurientes implevit bonis et divites dimisit inanes” — “He hath filled up the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away.” That word “inanes” — “empty” — is central to the message of the text, in Bach’s hands. Up until the end of the movement, there is constant instrumental accompaniment. But at the end, in a textual repetition, Bach has his soloist sing that one word, “inanes,” completely empty of accompaniment. Something our 20th-21st century ears don’t notice, but would have been a musical whap upside the head to Bach’s congregations. Once you learn to listen for it, it is startling.
plato
Mr Stagger Lee
@lamh36: Not bad saw Vice on Christmas,not a bad film. New Years is watching bowl games. Maybe see Aquaman.
Raven
@Mr Stagger Lee: We’ll be at the Sugar Bowl.
Mr Stagger Lee
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Because they thought the Trump name would make up for whatever the screw over they got, of course that applies to areas outside of the Greater New York/New Jersey metropolitan zone.
jl
@Frankensteinbeck: We might disagree on what McConnell, is, I think he is the most cynical operator imaginable who doesn’t believe anything beyond what benefits him tomorrow. But you are correct, regardless of the motivation, he knows what to say to please the media. He’s never called on repeating the same line over and over for every occasion. Never challenged on saying the same damn thing, almost word for word.
I think at least once I’d hear something similar to ‘aren’t you repeating the same tired Democratic platitudes’?
Mr Stagger Lee
@Raven: I hope you beat Texas
SiubhanDuinne
@lamh36:
Hope your Christmas was wonderful, lamh!
Mine was quiet and uneventful, just the way I like it these days. Delicious dinner (filet mignon and trimmings), which provided some fine leftovers for Boxing Day.
Hope to see “Mary, Queen of Scots,” “The Favourite,” and “On the Basis of Sex” during the next week. Any thoughts on those movies?
Raven
@Mr Stagger Lee: Our best dback just announced he wasn’t playing. Makes me feel like a chump for paying $150 each for tickets that are now TWENTY DOLLARS! Good thing we have a free place in the Quarter where we can sit out the rain.
Frankensteinbeck
@jl:
To be fair, the two look very similar, since Republican power = White power.
Forget it. McConnell saying Democrats are extremists is the ultimate Both Sides. He sounds so bland and reasonable, after all! And Democrats say HE’S knuckling under to extremists, but they don’t sound nearly as bland and reasonable saying it. Thinking done, stamp personal biases on news report, send it out.
Scuffletuffle
@SiubhanDuinne: saw The Favourite…not at all what I was expecting. Enjoyable, if you like adult themes, but not particularly enlightening as to the time and place it purported to show.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@debbie:
@Mr Stagger Lee: Josh Marshall had a short piece* on how Trump conducts business, and folk kept doing deals with him.
*Adam’s quoted it multiple times.
dmsilev
@lamh36: Had its ups and downs. Quality time with family, including my nearly-seven niece and nephew, that’s good.
Not so good was going to visit an old family friend that we’ve known for going on thirty five years and hear her ask, among other things, whether my mother and I knew each other. A year and a half, roughly, since the Alzheimer’s diagnosis; at this point, there are good days and bad days. Sigh.
Brachiator
@SiubhanDuinne: Loved The Favourite. It is wickedly inventive, and its creativity steals Queen of Scots’ thunder. The latter film is well acted, but The Favourite soars.
Scuffletuffle
@Brachiator: can you explain the blood oranges scene?
Chetan Murthy
[deleted bc superfluous]
lamh36
LONG OVERDUE!!!
If the Grammys was any good, they’d have his daugther Lalah
SiubhanDuinne
@Brachiator:
@Scuffletuffle:
Thanks, both of you, for useful comments. I remember watching and loving “The First Churchills” on Masterpiece Theatre a million years ago (Susan Hampshire, Margaret Tyzack, and the dashingly sexy John Neville in lead roles), but generally I’m much more familiar with the Tudor era. Anyhow, looking forward to both.
Roger Moore
@plato:
It doesn’t matter if you’re ready for 2019; 2019 is ready for you.
NotMax
Oh my. Phone call this afternoon telling me that have been “assigned” to make a soup for a New Year’s Eve gathering which was also invited to during the same call. Guy doing the meal promised to call back once he decides what it is he’s going to prepare, so I’m kind of on hold until then. Our gaming/friends group used to do this annually until about 3 or 4 years ago and apparently have now resurrected it.
Going through files of soup recipes and setting aside possibilities. At least one person will not touch seafood of any sort, another can’t abide mushrooms.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore:
It’s obviously never met me.
Patricia Kayden
For any of you who have Netflix subscriptions, you should check out the movie “Bird Box”. It’s a really great thriller. Had me at the edge of my seat hyperventilating throughout. It’s a great distraction from all the Trump mess and is worth the two hours of play time.
Jay C
@dmsilev:
Unfortunately, they just might take her up on that dare – Mitch McConnell is going to have an even bigger Majority to work with in the 116th – and there aren’t (AFAICT) any GOP “mavericks” left to buck him. And thanks to that one last “F.U.” from the Ryan-“led” House, and the fact that the Orange Moron in the WH has made “The Wall” a make-or-break ego-issue, to end the shutdown, he’s got only a few options, as I see it.
1. Pass the existing CR (no Wall) and send it to the WH where Trump will veto it: which will present him/us with Option(s)
2. See if the House and Senate will override Trump’s veto
3. Try to convince Trump not to veto it – via a serious BS offensive wrt Wall funding, probably.
4. Go back to Square One and try ginning up public pressure (on Democrats) to cave.
No good options, really: but this IS the Trump Era….
Phylllis
@SiubhanDuinne: We saw The Favourite yesterday. Terrific acting, and dazzling, sumptuous costumes.
Jay
@Raven:
Paul Campos notes that this is happening more and more. No sense for an unpaid College player to risk getting injured in a meaningless Bowl game, all so other people can make millions,
When the NFL awaits.
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2018/12/griftonomics-college-bowl-game-edition
raven
@Jay: whatever
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jay C: Trump won’t veto anything that passes Congress, Wall or not Wall.
Mr Stagger Lee
@lamh36: His version of This Christmas is my standard Christmas song(not Chris Brown)
@Patricia Kayden: Have you seen The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, if you haven’t seen it I reccomend it.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore: Eventually your skin color will be irrelevant; your ideology will be scrutinized.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jay C: nd @?BillinGlendaleCA:
Also, the original CR Nancy wants to pass and send to them passed literally 100-0 in the Senate. That does affect calculations.
NotMax
Dick Powell noir fest beginning at the top of the hour.
Murder My Sweet
Pitfall
Cornered
For real nights owls, the not a noir but a based on a true happening assassination plot tale, The Tall Target, follows those.
Roger Moore
@NotMax:
If you have a pressure cooker, I can’t recommend this recipe highly enough.
Ivan X
Wall of Voodoo were awesome. Everything they did was good to great. I even liked their post Ridgway incarnation (though I never was captivated by Ridgway’s solo records). They could really write a haunting tune about the dark side of the American Dream without being pretentious about it. (The song “Call of the West” really sums it up.) And great percussion.
Barbara
@SiubhanDuinne: My family saw On the Basis of Sex and we all liked it a lot. The movie is about how she was finally able to marshall her considerable intellect to become a lawyer who waged a frontal attack on laws that embedded gender discrimination in all kinds of social policies. Title VIi passed Congress in 1964, but many other state and federal laws incorporated gender based distinctions, sometimes ostensibly to protect women. What RBG did was refine constitutional arguments that undermined the legitimacy of those laws.
NotMax
@NotMax
Whoops. Left out that it’s on TCM.
RAVEN
@NotMax: A Star is Born follows Cornered.
hueyplong
@NotMax: For what it’s worth, Time Out considered “Cornered” to be superior to “Murder My Sweet.” So I’m looking forward to checking out the former.
Chetan Murthy
@NotMax: Thai Pumpkin Curry. With or without chicken it’s a lovely soup.
lamh36
@Mr Stagger Lee: It is NOT Christmas in a Black household if Donny’s This Christmas ain’t played at least once or twice or more!
Brachiator
@Scuffletuffle:
Not entirely sure. The director likes his odd images and metaphors.
Brief mini spoiler
But the scene also shows Abigail’s ascendancy. She is no longer fighting for survival. And yet she succumbs to decadence and cruelty. Not much of a victory.
NotMax
@RogerMoore
Thanks. IIRC, last time I made a soup for the group it was a carrot soup; don’t wanna repeat my tricks.
;)
Still looking. Currently set aside as possibilities (dependent on the rest of the menu) are a cheddar ‘n’ ale soup or a cabbage with caraway soup.
86 degrees outside yesterday, and also hot today. Not exactly conducive to thinking soup. Would do my version of vichyssoise, except for that many people it may be more work than I want to tackle.
Scuffletuffle
@Brachiator: not simple shock value then?
NotMax
@RAVEN
Not according to TCM’s online schedule.
raven
@NotMax: I’m looking at the listing on the Dish Network guide.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Frankensteinbeck: Also that Trump has never vetoed ANYTHING.
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Honestly, I don’t care what Josh Marshall says. I know I am right. I listened to accounts of Trump’s activities practically every day on my local NYC news shows.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: IIRC, Not Max is a member of the Instant Pot cult.
Barbara
@NotMax: Gazpacho or a cold cucumber/melon soup. I don’t have any favorite recipes but I appreciate refreshing and tangy cold soups on a hot day.
debbie
@Barbara:
Also cold blueberry or cherry soups.
Brachiator
@plato:
Has nothing to do with false equivalence.
I elaborated on my point. You disagree. No big deal.
Miss Bianca
@Patricia Kayden: I’d bw cool with, “every time the government shuts down, the President and Congress forfeits a year’s pay.” That might get their attention.
Fair Economist
@schrodingers_cat: Actually Trump wants to deport every *worthy* immigrant. He is letting the criminals stay and deporting everybody else. 2017 saw the lowest rate of criminal deportation and the highest noncriminal rate of any year this century at least.
Barbara
@debbie: Personally I like those better as desserts, but they can be a good soup course if not too sweet.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Roger Moore:
Or, to shuffle Pericles about a bit: You may not take an innerest in 2019, but sometimes 2019 takes an interest in you.
Fair Economist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: An important point about Bernie’s small donation: donations less than 100 don’t have their source verified. You can launder at will with small donations. Launder, say, foreign money from, say, Russia.
Brachiator
@Scuffletuffle:
That too, I suppose
J R in WV
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I hear that’s something about lunacy. I know about dew points, barometric predrumpfssure, and reyleigh scattering too, but none of that addresses the point of Trumpism.
Drumpf never heard about any of that.
Chetan Murthy
@Miss Bianca: I’m betting that would have an exactly counterproductive effect to what you wanted. B/c the “bad guys” are either (a) already rich, or (b) counting on lobbying money after their political careers. Why would they quibble over a few hundred thou? Whereas the “good guys” are were you’ll find people who don’t have much money to begin with.
As with many “structurally neutral” measures, it would hurt one side more than the other.
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
Schrodinger, could you spell out what the heck “IIRIRA” means?
Never mind, DuckDuckGo shows me it is the “Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act …” which in its very first word kid of sets an ugly stage for the discussion. Yuck!
Jay C
@?BillinGlendaleCA: @Frankensteinbeck:
Yes, Trump hasn’t vetoed anything – YET.
But it’s not been until just now that the Toddler-in-Chief has had a “signature” issue become so important (i.e. a direct challenge to “I want!”) – if the last person in the WH that gets Trump’s ear convinces him that killing the budget resolution will get him his “Wall” money – and to hell with any consequences to the government, or the country (as if Donny gives a crap) – he’ll have that veto
penSharpie out before you can say “Trump steak”.And that unanimous CR from the Senate?. Sorry: last year’s Senate, last year’s issue. Slate gets wiped (and so, probably, will the country….)
J R in WV
@lamh36:
It was OK, we just hung out here at home, reading mostly.
Neighbors have their annual NYE party we’re invited to, will go if the weather isn’t too bad. Rain causes landslides which can block a rural road or two, which could trap us up a hollow. That’s OK if it’s our hollow, not so good half way across the county.
Tonight I made a big pot of veggie beef soup, now simmering into goodness. There’s also wine to drink with. There’s a front coming through here in a little bit, just leaving Kentucky right now. Hope we don’t lose out web connection!!
You take care down south, there’s a lot of water headed down the Mississippi later on in the season!
poleaxedbyboatwork
@SiubhanDuinne:
Thank you for that recommendation and insight. Loves me some J.S. Bach. Fairly sure am unfamiliar with that piece, so appreciate muchly the reference and explication. Will hunt it up and listen attentively.
‘Minds me of one of my favorite contrasts, namely at the end of Mussorgsky’s piece about Walpurgis Nacht, after alla that frenetic, highly-enervated music, when it’s time for the demons of the night to surrender the stage, there’sa soft, lovely angelic flute (I think) solo that transports the listener into a new reality. It’sa simple, beautiful melody that shines in starker relief when contrasted with the bustle and bombast that precedes it.
Chetan Murthy
@J R in WV:
Uh, as a, uh, medical non-red-meat guy[1], could I ask: “veggie beef soup”? How does that work? Just curious.
ETA: [1] by which I mean that I’m not predisposed that way, and sure do miss a good steak. The only thing for which I’ll break the rule, is the occasional lengua taco (or three). Been a few months since the last time, sigh.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jay C:
Every budget bill so far has given his demands a middle finger. He signed them all.
While it’s true McConnell has no shame, that kind of complete about-turn is rare. McConnell would have to refuse to let it be brought to the floor.
The evidence of previous budgets and the psychology of a narcissist suggests that what they really want is for Nancy to hand them an iron-clad excuse to get something signed as quietly as possible and go back to pretending they didn’t lose. That’s very different from backing down on a negotiation. Think of it as a game of chicken. If they let themselves get knocked off course by a truck, they can claim they didn’t lose. Sure that’s worse in practical terms, but they didn’t lose!
Yarrow
@NotMax: You could try a sort of rustic gazpacho. That’s fairly easy to make. Or try this soup if you want something completely different and visually stunning. My friend’s mom made a version of this and it’s delicious.
J R in WV
@Jay:
WVU’s record breaking hot quarterback isn’t going to play in their bowl game, either.
I can’t blame him, really. He’s worked his butt off for years, now he’s got a shot at big money, why chance blowing out your knee for Camping World Bowl fame? Really, Camping World Bowl with Syracuse?? That’s why we aren’t in FL right now. Stupid Bowl, as well be.
NotMax
@Yarrow
Yeah, gazpacho is relatively easy. However have a feeling the main course(s) are gonna be Italian, which means tomato sauce. Gazpacho would just be too much tomato at one meal.
Also have to check when sunset will be, as it’s been getting darn chilly (for here) at night.
SiubhanDuinne
@poleaxedbyboatwork:
Then you will also enjoy the word-painting that occurs in the Chorus “Sicut locutus est ad patres nostros
Abraham et semini ejus in saecula” (“As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.”) It’s rather graphic, the way Bach scatters Abraham’s seed from one voice line to another :-)
poleaxedbyboatwork
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yowza! Sounds like the naughty bits from Song of Songs set to music — a seminal Ba(c)chanal if you will!
Thank you again.
SiubhanDuinne
@poleaxedbyboatwork:
The lovely thing about the Magnificat, of course — as with all great music — is that one needn’t be aware of any of Bach’s little tricks in order to appreciate and adore the experience.
J R in WV
@Chetan Murthy:
Vegetable Beef soup: Dice and fry onions, celery, carrots, a filet of beef, or stew meat,
and saute things as you dice.
Then add potatoes, add frozen corn and green beans, canned tomatoes, assorted herbs and spices you like (thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, salt and pepper, red wine, broth, I usually use organic free range low sodium chicken broth.
Then simmer until the potatoes are done, 35 minutes or so. An old country farm family recipe, has nothing to do with vegetarianism or veganism. Vegetable beef soup, look it up. A real favorite of mine for my birthday. My grandma used to make it, probably a little different, but she would have enjoyed mine too.
She used a pressure cooked to make hers, once something plugged up the vent and the safety blew open, the whole pot full hit her kitchen ceiling. IIRC she was doing a crossword in the living room at the time. They had a hard time getting the red stain on the ceiling covered, had to use some kind of enamel paint and then use ceiling paint on it. I wasn’t around for that, either away at college or in the Navy.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
If only the powers that be at DC Comics had thought to name Supergirl’s pet Magnificat instead of Streaky.
;)
BruceFromOhio
It’s a day that ends in ‘y’.
Ruckus
@JPL:
Don’t kid yourself.
BS has always been in it for the money.
He’s old and just above useless some days and worse than useless on most. As much as he thinks he should be anointed King, he isn’t fit to clean the King’s stable. He’s at the point that retirement is his calling but I’d guess he doesn’t have enough bank to live like he thinks he’s entitled to.
Villago Delenda Est
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Well, it’s not like he’s been bombarded with bills to sign. Executive orders, yes. Legislation? Not so much.
Ruckus
@FlyingToaster:
Because if you elect someone who doesn’t know anything you get someone who’s not smarter than about half the country. Or at least 27%. They want someone not as smart as them, and that’s a low bar.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@SiubhanDuinne:
Wholeheartedly agreed. The universal language is open to all with ears to hear and hearts to feel. But your grace notes help me appreciate the work even more. Which I love.
Sources of inspiration are oft revelatory, too. E.g. Dvorak cribs, samples, pays homage to the spiritual Swing Low, Sweet Chariot in his New World symphony’s first movement. Somehow this standing on the shoulders of giants to see further makes me appreciate both works more.
Jerry
That Wall of Voodoo album is such a product of its time. It’s also a perfect example of its time. If an alien dropped down on us right now and demanded to hear music from the early ’80s, you could pop this album on and they would all, “damn, lots of synth, weird sounding guitars, the percussion sounds kinda odd, and boy howdy, that singer is fucking weird. But I can’t stop dancing to this music and I’m having a lot of fun!”
Ted
I still listen to Wall of Voodoo today. Stan Ridgway is underrated.