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How has Obama failed you today?

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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Now *We* Have “the Bigger Half”

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Now *We* Have “the Bigger Half”

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“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”


Despite its origins, I always had a soft spot for the ending of this animated film:

Reader Interactions

186Comments

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    Under the radar story – observatories abandoned.

    In new victory for protesters, police back away from Mauna Kea for second straight day

    The directors of existing telescopes atop the mountain have evacuated their employees over safety concerns. Source

    There’s delicate precision equipment there. One doesn’t just shut the lights off, shut the door and expect no ramifications (and expense) upon return.

    “Without guaranteed reliable access to the telescopes, the Maunakea Observatories will suspend all summit activities,” said Dr. Jessica Dempsey, the Deputy Director of the East Asian Observatory. “The Maunakea Observatories have millions of dollars of instrumentation. This is a risk for us to have to step away at this point.”

  3. 3.

    eclare

    Barry is gone, and I never lost power! A tree branch did fall close to, but not on, my car, so all is well. Whew. Memories of four days wo power two years ago still haunt me. Not just uncomfortable, scary.

  4. 4.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: ?
    @NotMax: Why did they leave?
    @eclare: Good! Edited: we got some decent rain, but now we’re heading into an “excessive heat watch” for the next four days.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Police in Tennessee are warning residents to stop flushing methamphetamine, the drug more commonly known as “meth”, down the toilet for fear that alligators in the sewage system could ingest the drug to create hyped-up “meth-gators”.

    You read it here first.

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @eclare:

    In a round-up of recent drug seizures, the Loretto Police Department in the state recently reported on Facebook that it had served a search warrant at a home only to find suspect Andy Perry “attempting to flush methamphetamine along with several items of paraphernalia”.

    They reported that Perry was unsuccessful, arrested and charged with schedule two drug possession, possession of drug paraphernalia, and tampering with evidence.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    1.4 million people have signed up to storm Area 51. What could go wrong?

    In a post pinned to the top of the event page, a user named Jackson Barnes has drawn a diagram “game plan”, illustrating how different factions of attendees could best swarm the base.

    Beneath his scheme, Barnes writes: “Hello US government, this is a joke, and I do not actually intend to go ahead with this plan. I just thought it would be funny and get me some thumbsy uppies on the internet.” (He currently has 101,000 “thumbsy uppies” for his effort).

    Barnes’s disclaimer contains perhaps the most important bit of information to retain from this story: “Storm Area 51” is all a joke. And through engaging with that joke, most people are simply trying to take it to further extremes of silliness, such as by posting goofy blitzkrieg suggestions based on astrological signs.

    And yet…

    The Times also noted that Nevada’s alien-themed Little A’Le’Inn hotel has been booked solid on 20 September, with many guests referencing the Facebook event while making reservations. It seems some people hope to take this gag as far as they can.

  30. 30.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I can think of no worse fate than being gummed to death by an octogenarian gator.

    You’re not very imaginative. I can envision the Ludovico Technique done with:

    Having to watch and listen to the Racist-in-Chief
    Having to watch and listen to Hannity
    Having to watch and listen to Fox and Fiends
    Having to watch and listen to Traitor Turtle

    [BRAIN BLE(A)CH ALERT!]
    Having to watch the Racist-in-Chief prance around in the buff

    and that’s without thinking about it too much.

  33. 33.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: The real risk of flushing meth is to humans. They don’t treat sewage for meth, so whatever remains goes into the creek when the treated water is discharged. People have tracked the usage of different drugs in a city by analyzing the drug content of sewage drawn from different points in the system. That’s probably more than most of you wanted to know.

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: I am more afraid of meth addled platypi. Fortunately they aren’t endemic to the Ozarks. The worst thing I have to fear are ‘possums on Angel dust.

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Hmmmmmm…. I used to play the laptop dulcimer. “OzarkHillbilly and the ‘Possums on Angel Dust” has a nice ring to it.

  40. 40.

    bemused

    I’ve decided it’s a wild goose chase trying to figure out the relationship of George and Kellyanne Conway.

  42. 42.

    ThresherK

    @Soprano2: Caffeine is water-soluble. Part of me isn’t kidding when I wonder about that sometimes. Caffeinated gators wouldn’t be as dangerous, but certainly more widespread.

  44. 44.

    Keith P.

    CNN got video of Trump and Epstein hanging out at a model party. Lots of Trump telling Epstein shit like “She’s hot!”. Gonna be an entertaining day, methinks.

  45. 45.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The best things in life are free …

    Mushrooms in Russia
    The langar in India
    Public transport in Estonia
    Open-air workouts in Senegal
    Amber fishing in Germany
    Visual treats in Tokyo
    Generous grannies in Spain
    The phallic shrine in Bangkok
    Festivals in France

    but the airfare is a bitch.

  48. 48.

    ThresherK

    @OzarkHillbilly: I am just unawake enough for my brain to start humming “The mushrooms in Russia belong to everyone, the best things in life are free…”

  49. 49.

    germy

    @Just One More Canuck: It’s a small world when it comes to RW elites. And most of them (like Ingraham and Coulter) are incapable of maintaining a relationship.

    I remember seeing a quote from Kellyanne about her husband. “He’s not annoying to be around.”

    The love affair of the century.

  56. 56.

    John S.

    @NotMax:

    Given the awful history of how Hawaiians have been treated, is it not reasonable for them to protest commercial development on land they consider to be sacred?

    Is it any different than the Native Americans protesting a pipeline being built on their sacred lands?

    If anyone has a right to say “go back to where you came from”, it’s these people.

  57. 57.

    bemused

    @germy:

    Considering George’s blunt and legal opinions on trump breaking laws and norms and Kellyanne’s defenses of trump and possibly violating the Hatch Act, I can’t imagine how they cohabit peacefully. AFAIK, I don’t think George has tweeted on Hatch Act in connection with his wife.
    I thought the Carville/Matalin marriage was bizarre but the George and Kellyanne duo is on another level of weird.

  58. 58.

    HalfAssedHomesteader

    @Baud: Maybe it won’t bankrupt them but the capacity to help poor women with health issues including abortion just dropped 40%. How many multiples of $60M do they have in their emergency fund? I’m guessing well under 1.

  59. 59.

    Matt

    This is why we need to start impeachment: they’ll stoke the base so high that with any luck we’ll lose a statistically-significant number of ’em to heart failure or brain aneurysm before November 2020.

    Keep puffin those ciggies and downing those burgers, Trumpkins.

  60. 60.

    germy

    @bemused:

    I don’t think George has tweeted on Hatch Act in connection with his wife.

    Yes, it’s interesting to see the topics he remains silent on.

    I agree with others here who believe they’re positioning themselves to be the Carville/Matalin of the new, deplorable era. They should be shunned but they’ll probably end up on MSNBC or CNN as regulars, telling the rest of us what we should think.

  62. 62.

    Kay

    @Keith P.:

    It’s so bad. This is the state case:

    On Nov. 14, the Herald asked the sheriff’s office for a full accounting of Epstein’s check-ins for 2018. The record the office supplied two days later showed he registered in January and in July — as required. But PBSO also inexplicably had him registering on Nov. 14 — the very same day that the Herald asked for the records from the sheriff’s office.
    When asked about this sudden registration, Barbera replied: “The information we provided you was a snapshot from the FDLE website. Perhaps, someone from FDLE can provide a reason for you.’’
    Said FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger in an email: “The screenshot is not on the public registry. This is information inputted by the local agency when the offender comes into the local sheriff’s office to register.’’
    So it’s not clear why he would have suddenly registered a third time on Nov. 14.

    Someone inside was working for him. Their records aren’t reliable.

  63. 63.

    SFAW

    @germy:

    George Conway previously dated Laura Ingraham. Ann Coulter introduced him to Kellyanne.

    So Conway is just Dinesh D’Felon D’Douchebag with a less-punchable face?

    ETA: And with (occasionally) less vile opinions.

  65. 65.

    bemused

    @germy:

    I’ve also thought they have been planning a George and Kellyanne road show. It doesn’t seem plausible to me that either of the them are staunchly prinicipled. They’d be fighting like cats and dogs. I imagine them going over their performances every day and coordinating their next moves.

  67. 67.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Gin & Tonic:

    The new RED WAVE is more than just a power cable. Its a precision instrument. Its three 10 awg conductors are wound with 1,386 strands of extremely pure, silver-coated OFC copper. These very high performance conductors are utilized in an ultra low inductance, double-shielded construction that provides complete immunity to both low and high frequency noise. This Silver Sonic cable is Robustly built to deliver instantaneous current without hesitation, in order to to satisfy the demands of the very finest audio components and video displays.

    The foundation of any audio or home theater system is the power delivered to it, and the RED WAVE is the most important improvement that can be made to your power delivery system. It is custom terminated with WattGate Audio Grade connectors, which are plated with 2.0 Microns of 24 karat gold.

    And to think I complain about the cost of a 100′ 12 ga extension cord.

  69. 69.

    Steeplejack

    @germy:

    Source?

    Your credibility took a bit of a hit Monday with “Katie Couric and George Stephanopoulos are good friends with Jeffrey Epstein, apparently.”

  70. 70.

    plato

    A Turkish court has acquitted two journalists and a human rights activist of terrorism charges.

    The three defendants had been accused of spreading terrorist propaganda for their work with a Kurdish newspaper, which has since been closed down.

    But the three maintained they were defending free speech amid a clampdown by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

    Applause erupted in the courtroom as the verdict was read out, the BBC’s Mark Lowen reported from Istanbul.

    Erol Onderoglu, the Turkey representative for press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), journalist Ahmet Nesin, and Sebnem Korur Fincanci, chairwoman of Turkey’s Human Rights Foundation, were arrested in June 2016.

    RSF’s annual press freedom index ranks Turkey 157th out of 180 countries, in part because Turkey is the world’s largest jailer of journalists.

    Last year, Turkey imprisoned 68 journalists in total – the highest of any country in the world. Most of the imprisoned or accused are of Kurdish origin.

  73. 73.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Let’s ask Betty what she thinks of meth-gators.

    Re Liz Cheney, the movie “Vice” shows her stabbing her lesbian sister in the back in order to gain power. Of course she’s a terrible person. The problems is the Rs like terrible.

  74. 74.

    Kay

    @Keith P.:

    The idea that the records were corrupted is just profound, because everyone relies on them. They’re the last word.
    Now, they wouldn’t rely on a screen shot- it would have to be a certified record, but if they inputted something after the fact or false in that one instance, what about everything else we’re all relying on out of that office?
    This is what corruption does. It doesn’t just destroy trust and credibility in an abstract way. It destroys the whole system – the ordinary everyday process that everyone relies on in a real way.

  75. 75.

    low-tech cyclist

    @HalfAssedHomesteader:

    They just blew a $60 million hole in Planned Parenthood! This could send PP the way of ACORN. Can someone here do a front page post about it? This is HUGE, right?

    No question, it’ll hurt – their 2018 Form 990 shows revenues of 274M, and 60M out of that means big cuts for sure. But it’s not an extinction-level event.

  79. 79.

    Immanentize

    @Baud:
    Reading between the lines, it sounds like Dr. Wen wanted to take Ivanka’s “deal” — stay with federal money and discontinue abortion related services or referrals. The Board disagreed with that approach.

  80. 80.

    Immanentize

    Lots and lots of Docs today. I just wanted to tell you all how much your kindness and comments meant to me during my dark night of the soul on Saturday. And if Eric is out there, I hope the chemo ended and your daughter is getting to feeling better.

  83. 83.

    Steeplejack

    @Immanentize:

    I was way late to that thread, so I just want to say that I’m sending healing thoughts for the Immp. Good luck with the docs today.

  85. 85.

    eric

    @Immanentize: her overall chemo lasts for two years. though this in patient round is nearing its end (maybe home today, certainly tomorrow); then she gets to do this ass-crappy chemo one more time in 10 days……the remaining chemo treatments are not THIS bad, but some are less than pleasant….the second year is supposed to be much easier.

    Good luck today! if you need anything, just let me know…..seriously. I am also a lawyer, so if you want to talk ship to distract you, let me know as well

    if you are at BCH, let me know…heading there shortly….

  86. 86.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: On clarity — I don’t know if I wrote this before, but I spent part of a day dazed thinking, “What am I gonna do? What am I gonna do?” Over and over. Then, I realized, what a stupid question that is. The path is set. I’ll do everything I can. Fini.

    It was a very clarifying and calming thought.

  90. 90.

    germy

    @Steeplejack: Okay, here are my sources. I hope that restores my damaged credibility:

    After spotting the DC pollster Kellyanne Fitzpatrick on the cover of a magazine in the late 1990s, George called his friend Ann Coulter to introduce him to her.

    businessinsider.com/kellyanne-george-conway-marriage-love-story-2018-8

    [I]t took time for George — pudgy, soft-spoken and borderline shy — to find love. Not that he didn’t have a type. He became friends with Laura Ingraham, often inviting her to the ski slopes or the beach.

    abovethelaw.com/2017/05/a-closer-look-at-george-conway-wachtell-lipton-partner-and-husband-of-kellya…

  91. 91.

    Immanentize

    @eric: Hang in there! 10 days off will be so welcome.

    I am sorry to miss you, but it’s Dana Farber for us (genetic oncology). The Immp turned 18 in April so we got kicked out of the Jimmy Fund space to the Yawkey Way building. But we should meet up sometime for lunch or coffee.

  94. 94.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize:

    It was a very clarifying and calming thought.

    Yes, acceptance is difficult but there is a peace of mind that follows that is liberating of doubt..

  95. 95.

    Immanentize

    Do any of you have an Amazon Treasure Truck in your area? Maybe once or twice a week, Amazon texts some deal on one item which they then drive around and distribute at various places in the area. The Immp loves succulents, so I had to get the treasure truck deal last Sunday for this: 20 wee succulents

  98. 98.

    Neldob

    @Kay: I hope they find the perp, or perps. Like termites …, so destructive, and part of the problem with making shameless daily lying presidential. Rots from the inside and destroys the whole society.

  99. 99.

    Steeplejack

    @germy:

    All righty, then. We’ll put you at one for two lately. (Although “became friends with Laura Ingraham” is an odd way to say “dated.”)

  105. 105.

    Quinerly

    @Immanentize: these are great! I have been growing cactus and succulents since I started my New Mexico treks. It’s gotten out of hand here and I trim and transplant… Then give away cuttings to friends. I also have a 70 plus year old jade plant that was my grandmother’s. Actually have a picture of her with it when she lived on Dupont Circle. ? It has been my goal for a few years to send various cuttings of it to friends in different states. Sounds silly but I enjoy doing it, so it lives on. Plus, I have to trim it so I can manage it. My mother had let it get waist high and it was impossible to move. If you get my email from a front pager and I can get your info, I’ll send you a hunk of my 4 times married, Alabama grandmother’s jade. ???❤️? It is a very healthy plant. Any leaves that fall off in transient can also just be stuck in soil. They root.

  106. 106.

    eric

    @Immanentize: we are just a walkway away….perhaps one of the front pagers will help us get our information to one another for direct contact…

  109. 109.

    Quinerly

    @Steeplejack: I’ve never felt the same about Keith Olbermann after learning he dated Laura I. (he also lived with Katie Turec. He obviously does not have “a type.”)

  112. 112.

    Immanentize

    @Quinerly: that sounds lovely. Thanks!

    @eric: will do. We are there this afternoon.

    Tomorrow (maybe tonight) I will get in touch with AL to hopefully send me each of your email addys.

    Thanks

  113. 113.

    Kay

    @Neldob:

    This is a hobbyhorse of mine, but it’s part of why I found birtherism so appalling. OK, what Trump and the rest did – among other things- was call birth records into question. Just think about your own ordinary life- your documentation, your paperwork. What do you and everyone else rely on? That these records are true. I don’t have to bring the state recordkeeper into court with a birth record. I get the raised seal and we’re done. Everything after rests on that record. What they’re doing with this is discrediting everything. Just as a practical matter it’s impossible because something simple like “where were you born” becomes a matter of debate, but the whole system grinds to a halt without this credibility. It can’t function.

    I don’t know if Epstein registered in Florida. I DID know. There were state records. I relied on those. Now I don’t know- and no one else does either except for the individuals who witnessed his appearance. Imagine a country that ran like that. It’s not a functioning country. That’s what they’re creating. A system so corrupt, so open to interpretation by malicious or self-interested actors that no regular person can function in it. So what’s the value of a non-corrupt system? A lot! It’s valuable! Even for something like running a business the reliability is the value.

  114. 114.

    Immanentize

    @rikyrah: @OzarkHillbilly:
    My favorite part of the Epstein bond hearing was, after his attorneys described the extraordinary measures he would take to stay in his man-shun (guards, ankle bracelet, surrender his passport, etc.) The Government said, “Anyone who requires such precautions should be in custody.”

    We’ll find out tomorrow

  115. 115.

    jimmiraybob

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The worst thing I have to fear are ‘possums on Angel dust.

    I hear that bears are making a comeback. Not to mention the invasion of armadillos. And squirrels. Don’t get me started on squirrels.

  120. 120.

    Betty Cracker

    @Immanentize: Damn, I missed that thread over the weekend. I am so sorry to hear about this and am wishing all the best for you and your boy.

    @eric: Jesus, I missed your news as well. So sorry that you and your daughter are dealing with this. Best wishes for you both.

  121. 121.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @jimmiraybob: I have a bear that pays us a visit from time to time (I’ve only seen her once but the dogs let me know when she’s been around) We have more dead armadillos in our roads than anything else. I go back to pre-armadillo times.

  122. 122.

    Kay

    @Neldob:

    What birtherism said was no one can rely on state records. We have to bring the individuals involved in and, I don’t know, depose them. Which completely destroys the whole reason we have records. You show me your driver’s license. You don’t bring in the driving instructor and your mom and another witness to back up your mom’s account. This is fucking crazytown. It’s not a functioning state. Trump does this every day. He says “don’t believe anyone or anything except me“. It’s terrifying and profoundly damaging. There will be consequences. We will pay and pay and pay for this.

  123. 123.

    Steeplejack

    @germy:

    He invited her to the beach and the ski slopes. Again, an odd locution. Why not just say “dating”?

    It’s a red flag for “We can’t source this, so we can’t say it directly, but we want to get the idea across.”

  124. 124.

    plato

    The White House Office of Management and Budget has projected in its that the federal deficit will surpass $1 trillion this year.It's the first time the U.S. deficit has exceeded the $1 trillion level since the period following the Great Recession. t.co/Fr8oHZzUiO— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 17, 2019

  127. 127.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay:

    I don’t have to bring the state recordkeeper into court with a birth record. I get the raised seal and we’re done. Everything after rests on that record. What they’re doing with this is discrediting everything.

    “Deconstruction of the administrative state,” as Steve Bannon put it. When we can’t count on good government, we have to count on a strong man to lead us!

  128. 128.

    plato

    Kamala Harris on Trump's racist tweets: Trump "needs to go back where he came from and leave that office."

    "I think it defiles the office of the U.S. … It is irresponsible. It is hateful. It is hurtful. And he has taken the presidency to a new low." t.co/67G96YVf10— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 17, 2019

  129. 129.

    zhena gogolia

    I see in my NYT this morning that Tom Friedman is very, very concerned that the Democrats might not win.

    He joins Tom Nichols in this terrible concern for the well-being of the Democrats.

  132. 132.

    Kay

    Carla Provost, chief of the agency, was quick to respond. “These posts are completely inappropriate and contrary to the honor and integrity I see — and expect — from our agents day in and day out,” Provost said in a statement. “Any employees found to have violated our standards of conduct will be held accountable.”
    For Provost, a veteran of the Border Patrol who was named head of the agency in August 2018, the group’s existence and content should have come as no surprise. Three months after her appointment to chief, Provost herself had posted in the group, then known as “I’m 10-15,” now archived as “America First X 2.” Provost’s comment was innocuous — a friendly clapback against a group member who questioned her rise to the top of the Border Patrol — but her participation in the group, which she has since left, raises serious questions.

    She omitted this in her statement to the public. Nothing she says is reliable. How much of this can a system stand before it just collapses? Trump is making his view of the United States TRUE. He believes (and says) everyone is corrupt and self interested and he is making that TRUE.

  134. 134.

    satby

    @eric: I missed the thread about your daughter, but sending all the best wishes for her complete recovery. ?

    @Immanentize: and all the same best wishes to you and the Immp today. ?

    Love to both of you dads dealing with your children’s illness. Shit just isn’t fair ?

  137. 137.

    Kay

    @Steeplejack:

    I have such contempt for private sector businesspeople who support Trump. Who benefits MOST from a functioning administrative state? Businesses. It is CENTRAL to the value of “The United States” as a location.

    So, fuck them. I look forward to a system so corrupt that they can’t rely on a single record or ordinary state function or enforcement of their contracts or a fair bidding process or the security of their investments. They are RECKLESS and they richly deserve to get hurt. I hope they enjoy relying on honest individuals who may or may not exist within the corrupted system. Because that’s all they’ll have.

    Today, I will rely on records kept by the Ohio Sec of State for business registrations. Me and hundreds of millions of other people. I won’t check the underlying facts, I won’t be calling people “hey- were you THERE?” because I don’t need to. If I DO need to I can’t do anything else. I can’t function. And neither can any of the masters of the universe. It’s worse for them! Their stuff is much more complicated.

  139. 139.

    trnc

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’m guessing that any time a meth user is flushing meth down the toilet, the user’s number one concern probably is the cop breaking down the door, not gators on crack.

  146. 146.

    Steeplejack

    My gob is slightly smacked: I find myself in agreement with conservative talking head S.E. Cupp, who has a good op-ed piece in the Daily News: “The Republican Party owns all of Trump, not just the parts they like.”

    The Faustian bargain made by Republican lawmakers and many Trump voters was never sustainable, nor was it defensible. [. . .]

    It was worth it for a good economy, many said earnestly. It was worth it for more jobs, less regulation, conservative judges, a border wall. Whatever the particular chits, the Republican leaders and voters who made these cosmic compacts were only thinking about cashing out, not the consequences of selling out.

    [. . .]

    Of course, the people who made these bargains, who tricked themselves into thinking about Trump like a buffet where they could take what they want and leave what they didn’t, arbitrarily decided to imbue one group of things—policies, in most cases—with more significance than another group of things, like innate character.

    [. . .]

    Here’s the problem: Trump’s corrosive agenda to divide America is the policy. Bigotry and otherism are both the ideas and the merits for Trump. The racist rhetoric is the agenda. Pretending they are separate or disconnected was, is and always will be a cop-out and a lie.

  148. 148.

    TomatoQueen

    Is normalization of disgusting low-life grifters a thing now? I just had to scream at the TeeVee Box’s otherwise impeccable coverage of the Tour de France for having the scumball Lance Armstrong on for interview and commentary. They didn’t do this last year. Also, the commentator loved by all recently died, so maybe there’s less control and judgment operating now. Still it is an outrage to sully my Tour and LaBelleFrance and my arms are folded.

  149. 149.

    Gin & Tonic

    @TomatoQueen: I must have missed that, but I have to say the other day they did a historical background piece on the yellow jersey, since it’s 100 years since that was introduced, and Armstrong wasn’t mentioned even once.

    Sure, Bob Roll, who has taken the late Paul Sherwen’s spot, was for a time a teammate of Armstrong’s, but I haven’t heard anything from him (although I haven’t watched as obsessively as some years.)

  150. 150.

    James E Powell

    @plato:

    Strange the Tea Party and what the Village Courtiers called deficit hawks aren’t screaming about this.

  151. 151.

    Gin & Tonic

    BTW, today marks five years since the Russians shot down Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine.

  154. 154.

    Neldob

    @Kay: My theory is that people are rewarded for their corruption, many ceos (Wells Fargo, Countrywide, etc), rewarded for their “risk taking” same as the occupant of the oval office. Practically every giant company I’ve dealt with has cheated me in some way. Is it late stage capitalism? It feels like a carnival cups game and continues to get worse. Does not bode well. I apologize for the morning negaverse. Guess I’ll go tend my garden.

  156. 156.

    mvr

    @ThresherK: Thanks for the link. I saw them in a hell of a show in Lincoln Nebraska just a few days before the inauguration in 2016 and it felt like a big communal we’re not going to go quietly. And then I saw the two main songwriters, Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley get interviewed in a nearly empty auditorium at Princeton (It was a blizzard and all events but that one were cancelled) along with a few students who had been advised to go and some fanatics who had braved the storm to get there from parts far away. They remembered the Lincoln show when it came up before the event began. And they did four acoustic versions of their songs.

  157. 157.

    bluefoot

    @John S.: Yep. it’s sacred land and Hawaiians have every right to protest. Just because land is (relatively) undeveloped doesn’t mean it isn’t as sacred as, for example, the Vatican. Would we bulldoze the Vatican to build an observatory or other scientific installation if it were the “best” site for one? Of course not.

  158. 158.

    Neldob

    And looky here (from the rwnyt). Fraud in the “justice dept.”
    “Critics who sued to block the Trump administration from adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census asked a federal judge on Tuesday to punish administration officials, saying the officials had deliberately delayed the lawsuit in order to hide damning evidence — conduct they called “nothing less than a fraud on the court.”

  160. 160.

    Steeplejack

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Inorite. And he had nothing useful to say. They were asking him about some intramural squabble on a team, and I tuned it out.

    ETA: If you want to see Armstrong in the replay, he’s around the time when the “distance to finish” number is about 65 km.

  162. 162.

    Brachiator

    @bluefoot:

    Would we bulldoze the Vatican to build an observatory or other scientific installation if it were the “best” site for one?

    Is this a trick question? I wouldn’t have a problem with this at all.

  165. 165.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @OzarkHillbilly: Just FTR, the gold plating on those terminals costs something less than $1.00 per. (~5 cm x 1 cm x 0.0002 cm x 19.32 g/cc x $45.14/g ~ $0.87). One of the reasons gold leaf was for many years used so commonly in (e.g.) lettering on shop windows is that Element 79 is exquisitely malleable & can be pounded into such thin sheets that it’s not really expensive per square inch..

  167. 167.

    Immanentize

    @NotMax:
    Also, the Vatican is not sacred, it is a city. And I suspect if OzarkH and I were the planners, some bulldozing would be ordered.

  168. 168.

    Shalimar

    @germy: I think George and Kellyanne have exactly the same feelings about Trump. Neither of them like him personally, but George would have taken the money too if he had been given the job he wanted. They’re both mercenaries.

  169. 169.

    Brachiator

    @plato:

    The White House Office of Management and Budget has projected in its that the federal deficit will surpass $1 trillion this year.It’s the first time the U.S. deficit has exceeded the $1 trillion level since the period following the Great Recession.

    The administration is still insisting that the tax cuts will pay for themselves. They are also getting ready to deploy their standard response, “the deficit is out of control, so we need to cut Social Security and Medicare and other entitlement programs.”

    It’s also sickening, but telling, how conservative economists are silent about the degree to which Trump and company violate free market “principles” in their handling of the economy. The hypocrisy is staggering.

  170. 170.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: In an earlier scene when the sister tearfully admits to her family that she’s lesbian, her dad is depicted as comforting & supportive. Shocked me out of my Rockports. But in the end, when Liz’s daddy advised her to shiv her sister for political gain, I thought, Now that’s more like it, that’s the Dick we all know & loathe.

  173. 173.

    Brachiator

    @Steeplejack:

    Here’s the problem: Trump’s corrosive agenda to divide America is the policy. Bigotry and otherism are both the ideas and the merits for Trump. The racist rhetoric is the agenda. Pretending they are separate or disconnected was, is and always will be a cop-out and a lie.

    You are right. Cupp nails it here. And the GOP can’t shake off or minimize their complicity. Sad thing is, they really seem to be happy with their deal with the Devil.

  174. 174.

    SFAW

    @Amir Khalid:

    A bargain-bin item, compared to what’s in this listicle.

    When I was in college, lo these many years ago, one of the local papers — maybe it was the college rag — ran a story about a guy in one of the dorms who had this stereo system with primo, A-number-one, top-of-the-line components. He was trying to get down to negative THD or something. (This is in the mid-1970s). The best part about the article was that his system was so superior, with so little hiss, etc., that he found he could no longer listen to the music that anybody else was listening to, because the sound from the vinyl was not as good as his system — so all he could stand to listen to was things like bird calls from the Amazonian rain forest, because that particular recording had no hiss (or whatever).

    There’s a lesson there. but I’m not sure what it is.

  175. 175.

    Steeplejack

    @Brachiator:

    I think they’re counting on being able to play the “George Bush? Who?” amnesia card again, but Trump’s trail of stank is too big for that.

  176. 176.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @rikyrah: If he works hard at improving his game, the SillyZilla might have a chance to attain mediocrity someday. But I doubt he’d be able to sustain it.

  177. 177.

    Steeplejack

    @SFAW:

    My audio-nut story is about the acquaintance years ago who showed me his science-fiction rig in tedious, interminable detail. When I asked him what he listened to, hoping to change the subject, he said: “Classic Dylan.” ?

  178. 178.

    J R in WV

    @John S.:

    Given the awful history of how Hawaiians have been treated, is it not reasonable for them to protest commercial development [my emphasis] on land they consider to be sacred?

    Can I just say there is nothing commercial about a scientific observatory…

    And many of us believe knowledge is sacred. So this seems to me like unscientific people being used as part of a political movement shooting us all in the foot.

  179. 179.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @rikyrah:

    Someone should ask Bernie if he still believes the overwhelming majority of Trump voters aren’t racists.

    Yes. His entire belief system, including Marxism, personal ego, and his own bigotries, requires racism to be a distraction that will be swept away when one man finally figures out the simple truth about what the people really want, and announces that the rich are evil.

    @Brachiator:

    They are also getting ready to deploy their standard response, “the deficit is out of control, so we need to cut Social Security and Medicare and other entitlement programs.”

    I didn’t vote in the midterms to stop Trump. I knew Trump would be with us until 2021. I voted in the midterms to stop McConnell, who was open about his desire to eliminate the entire safety net, and that he was merely waiting for the next year so he could do it without a cloture vote blocking him.

    @Immanentize:

    Also, the Vatican is not sacred, it is a city.

    While I don’t give a damn about its religious aspect, boy does it house a lot of great art that I would mourn the loss of.

  182. 182.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @SFAW: For me the lesson is one I learned many years ago: “Do not cultivate a taste for rare & expensive products & services without the willingness & wherewithal to pay for them & continue to pay for them into the foreseeable future.” YMMV.

  183. 183.

    TenguPhule

    @Kay:

    This is what corruption does. It doesn’t just destroy trust and credibility in an abstract way. It destroys the whole system – the ordinary everyday process that everyone relies on in a real way

    And now the entire federal government plus a lot of state governments are here.

  184. 184.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Kay: There are times when I want you to be a frontpager. Well, that’s basically all the time.

    Seriously though, the amount of times I’ve read you here and thought “I’d really like this same explanation to show up in news articles or on TV” is pretty staggering.

  185. 185.

    Jay

    @J R in WV:

    It’s actually a case of “in consultation and agreement with Indiginous peoples and their rights” that was ignored.

    At no step in the process were the Indiginous stakeholders consulted.

    They have been protesting and blocking access for years.

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