Sunday Evening Open Thread: Second Time As Farce…
The president’s favorite child. https://t.co/v8XrvuJ7eU
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) June 16, 2019
Is it just me, or has the Gulf of Trumpkin incident receded from the top of the news unusually fast? It's almost as if they figured out that this dog won't wag, and moved on
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) June 16, 2019
The whole thing was curiously half hearted. The Limpet mine/torpedo/missile attack didn't make any objective sense, but these things never do. Almost as if Bolton and Pompeo were a tribute act for the good old days when Bush/Cheny/Rumsfeld were in charge.#Iran
— hairysteve20 (@hairysteve20) June 16, 2019
Their incompetence is what we depend on to survive.
— Irizaurus (@Irizaurus) June 16, 2019
I was wondering this myself, especially since it happened in the most politically fraught waterway on the planet. Maybe it could be done in the middle of nowhere, but the Strait of Hormuz? https://t.co/luEVdNt7gr
— Molotov Frappuccino Thrower (@agraybee) June 16, 2019
Cotton's gonna be the first asshole in history to start a war because some Iranian teenager tea bagged him in Battlefield V https://t.co/MTDWropbDm
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) June 16, 2019
That Tom Cotton’s got a raging war boner that can be seen from space.
Months after Khashoggi’s brutal murder at the direction of MBS, still no definitive identification of the evil doers. Minutes after a grainy video and ginned up malarkey, Orangmandious, Pompeo, the Senatorette and Cotton are itching to get their war crimes project started on behalf of their owners and handlers. And the press is once again willing to suspend disbelief and rally round the cause.
Not Tehran Tom and the other 46 asshole Republicans who signed that letter to Iran!
@laura:
They are their own owners and handlers. They like war. They’re assholes. You’ll see the same thing a lot on television pundits. They think war is cool.
@laura: So f*cking depressing that Senator Tom (Asshole) Cotton could see active duty in Iraq and come back a major warmonger. My brother was slightly involved with Grenada and Iraq in ’91, and he **never** wants us to go to war unless it’s absolutely necessary. Cotton can’t wait to get people killed and maimed.
Shouldn’t that be Second Time As Farsi?
;)
@NotMax: Hardy har groan!
@NotMax:
Go to your room without supper, young man.
@NotMax: Ouch!
I would love to discuss Tom Cotton with the NCOs of his platoon in Iraq over a few beers. I’ll bet they’ve got some good stories.
If we didn’t bomb Arkansas for sending us Tom Cotton, I don’t know how we could justify bombing Iran.
@Frankensteinbeck:
This.
They get to use war as an election tool. They aren’t at risk of having to be killed or to kill. It’s like playing a computer game that actually can pay off for them. Slot machines with better odds than Las Vegas. And someone else’s kids as the quarters.
The first problem the war hawks had was having the Trump administration say it was Iran. The default assumption is that it is a lie.
@Baud:
This may come very close to comment of at least the month.
@Villago Delenda Est:
Not taking that bet.
I’m going to pretend I definitely understand that last Zeddy tweet when I only have a general sense, just so I can feel with it for a short while.
@Baud: Agreed.
@Villago Delenda Est
Wouldn’t be in the least surprised to find out his nickname among them was Weevil.
Can we start calling him “Fat Bastard’s Cabana Boy”?
@FaceTheNation via Anne Laurie @ Top:
Commercial shipping? Was the ship even registered in the US?
IIRC, most commercial ships aren’t, in order to avoid US / First World shipping regulations.
@Mike in NC:
The truth? You want to tell the truth? Is that nice?
I had a classmate whose name was Hormazd, whenever I see the Gulf of Hormuz I think of him. We lost touch. So I have no idea where he is now. He was Parsi, like Freddie Mercury.
@JGabriel: The ships were flagged to Japan. Japan is deciding to not raise a formal protest with the Iranian government. The Japanese crews say the attacks happened above the waterline. It’s almost as if Japan has a higher bullshit detector than the entire Dolt45 administration.
@Mike in NC
Bringing along a his personal ball washer. //
@Notmax (Fix)
Bringing along a personal ball washer. //
@JGabriel:
A Japanese ship, registered in Panama.
Rest of the info is locked down as is normal on the marine websites that track ships.
I wish Tom Cotton was less evil but he is who he is. He seems to like it. Twisted misfit. One to keep an eye on if you know what I mean.
I think one thing holding all this back is that unlike Bolton and Co, the Tangerine Shiatgibbon doesn’t really care about Iran in any personal way. I mean, sure, he’ll start a war if he thinks it’ll help him somehow, but chomping at the bit eager to go in? Nah.
@Yutsano:
I’d bet that most Japanese 10 yr olds have better bullshit detectors than the entire shitgibbon maladministration. Also better bullshit.
@Geoduck:
The word I use for drumpf is chickenshit. Combines two of his best properties. Or at least the two he shows every one all the time.
Ok, this is funny.
CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/16/politics/trump-fire-campaign-pollsters-numbers-leak/index.html
@Villago Delenda Est:
I also wonder if there is ever a unit reunion, he will want to go or if he would even
suspectexpect he would be the roast of honor. I also wonder if he’s ever read the definition of honor.@germy:
Interesting.
@Ruckus: I just call him Dump if not using my long form Fat Orange Fascist Soviet Shitpile Mobster Conman.
@Baud:
So he does know that he hires people to lie for him.
And we all thought he had no concept of lying, just opening his mouth and words come out.
@Ruckus:
I know that’s the CW. But I’m not so sure it’ll work out for the GOP if they dare try. This country (rank and file, not the clueless GOP) is still worn out from Bush Jr’s wars. And we got lied to by a seemingly upright guy like Gen. Powell, so the bullshit detectors are at 111% with this jackass administration.
If the GOP tries to throw US bodies at Iran to bolster the electoral chances, they might just be as shocked about the unpopularity of war as they seem to be about the unpopularity of Trumpkin.
@Yutsano:
See, there’s a fundamental error there. No one can smell their own bullshit, and all this bullshit is generated by the Dolt45 assministration. ER, us, administration, kinda.
Wife decided he is Orange Julius… may be too kind to him.
@mrmoshpotato:
I believe drumpf is his original family name, brought over from the old country.
I also like to show him less respect by not capitalizing his name. After all he has no respect for me or millions of my friends.
@Baud: Can’t dance and complains that the yard is crooked.
नाचना जाने आंगन टेढ़ा
@Frankensteinbeck: I can’t disagree for the most part – Cotton’s definitely a Neidermyer and Logan Act shite-bag, and Lindsay loves a big strong daddy while Pompeo is a talibangelical end timer, but that trump, I dont know, regain the news cycle, war president reelection campaign, owes a debt to Saudis, and other sub rosa transactional partners. Fully agree with you that each is a flaming assshole – their most marked characteristic. Still, I cant shake the sense that they are compromised.
@Frankensteinbeck: To them it is a video game with real people.
@Raoul:
That’s possible but I know one kid (OK he’s a grown adult but 1/3 my age) who just got back from a year’s duty in the middle east and is waiting to go back. He gets all kinds of extra pay and has no place to spend it so he thinks it’s great. I just hope he doesn’t find out the hard way that he gets combat pay for a reason.
@Raoul:
I certainly hope so. I was nearly a draftee into the front lines in Vietnam, but instead joined the Navy a week or two before my scheduled draft date, back in 1970.
As a potential statistic in Nixon’s long-term war crime in SE Asia, I have no fucks to give for Gen. Powell, Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, Scooter Libby, and all those other warlike chicken hawks who got us into the Middle East.
The Navy already shot down a civilian passenger aircraft by means of a war hawk cruiser Captain back in the day. We don’t need another Gulf of Tonkin incident in the Strait of Hormuz, the Arabian Sea, or the Persian Gulf! The first one was a war crime, and so will this one be.
I just hope the media aren’t able to whip up enthusiasm for another fake war, like they have for so many wars in the past.
ETA: General Powell attempted to cover up the My Lai atrocity early in his career, and continued to lie for his superiors for his whole career!
@J R in WV: I thought Boehner was Orange Julius.
I like referring to him as the ASSet, myself.
@laura:
Compromised.
Even if they aren’t compromised in the way your comment intended, their world view compromises them. It limits them in the way they are able to see things, in their perceptions of themselves and especially of others in relationship. They think they are always superior, when they are anything but. They think because they are superior they can do anything they want, to whomever they want. And they drag the rest of the world along with them, degrading and debasing the entire planet.
@Ruckus: He also has No respect for capitalization of Words when he Decides to tweet. Like, legendarily.
(One of the tells that a staffer has tweeted for him is that the capitalizations at least sort of make sense, whereas Orangemandias’ tweets are really rando)
@Baud: you should retire now. You’re not going to top this comment.
@Raoul:
That’s among the least of things he has no respect for. It’s a long list and seems to include most things not named Donald Trump. Or owned by same. Or who loans him money. Still a very long list.
@Baud: Perfect! Winner. Winner!
@Baud:
Funny indeed. He seems genuinely committed to creating reality. This will not end well for his ego. (Democrats and other non-Republicans are pushing back so reality is as easily shaped by the Rs as it was several years ago and earlier.)
Transcript (RealClearPolitics (RW) for those who care):
Full Interview: President Trump Calls In To “FOX & Friends” (Tim Hains, June 14, 2019)
The relevant bits:
@Ruckus: I know. I still call him Dump for short. 😀
@mrmoshpotato:
Had a short timers calendar in the navy. One could probably guess the picture and the prize, you know last day location…….. It was only actually a good idea on the very last day, otherwise one just got reminded every day how insufferably long it would be til the prize.
IOW he’s not short, we just wish he was.
Oh you meant shorthand……
@Ruckus: Yeah. Shorthand.
Yutsano, Ruckus: That’s what I thought. Thank you, fellow jackals, for confirming my suspicion.
via Bill Arnold:
That doesn’t make any sense at all. The positive polls he sees are from the people Trump’s firing because of their negative, incorrect polls?
Sigh.
So they get Abe to go to Iran. He actually states Iran is not trying to make nukes. Lo and behold a Japanese ship is attacked. Grainy footage, no time or date stamp..but the hawks start yapping. And have noticed that now MSB has decided something needs to be done to those nasty Iranians for attacking our friends the Japanese.
Why do I get the distinct impression it was all a set up and Abe is the stooge.
So they get Abe to go to Iran. He actually states Iran is not trying to make nukes. Lo and behold a Japanese ship is attacked. Grainy footage, no time or date stamp..but the hawks start yapping. And have noticed that now MSB has decided something needs to be done to those nasty Iranians for attacking our friends the Japanese.
Why do I get the distinct impression it was all a set up and Abe is the stooge.
Just like the Republican Iraq scam, the reasons will continually change as they cycle through different propaganda campaigns looking for what will stick — but the solution will always be the same.