Awwww…
“I never really seriously considered it”- @HillaryClinton this morning on @SkyNews makes clear she had no intention of running for President again: pic.twitter.com/O7mgKcLE4o
— daphna (@daphna27) November 16, 2019
citing Trump's rallies in KY and LA and losses there:
"You know what I want to know–where is the president going to go next?" @amyklobuchar says, arguing the elections were about the economy and healthcare but "it was also a values check. It was a patriotism check."— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) November 18, 2019
Speaking of which…
"If [Trump] could fly, he could convey that he is as Jeanine Pirro suggests, superhuman. But if his shuffling, unsteady gait is any guide, that's a big if." https://t.co/kViYuiKwNS
— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 17, 2019
Trumpland sounds like some blown up Florida scheme that left behind a thousand lawsuits. https://t.co/W3h9DLyATG
— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 18, 2019
The NYTimes smells blood in the water. “President Trump Bet Big This Election Year. Here’s Why He Lost”:
… The results in Kentucky and Louisiana are particularly ominous for the president, in part because they indicate that his suburban problem extends to traditionally conservative Southern states and may prove even more perilous in the moderate Midwest next year.
They also reveal political weakness for the president at a moment he is embroiled in a deepening impeachment inquiry and desperately needs to project strength with his own party. And as he enters what will likely be a difficult re-election campaign, the two states emphatically demonstrated that he has become just as much of a turnout lever for the opposition as with his own supporters…
The Louisiana results are a stinging rebuke for the president, because he spent so much time there and because Trump allies couldn’t chalk it up entirely to local factors as they did for Kentucky, where Mr. Bevin was deeply unpopular. And even before the Louisiana race was called on Saturday night, finger-pointing from the Capitol to the White House to Mr. Trump’s campaign broke out about why he spent so much political capital on the race in the first place…
Still, the main instigator for the president’s involvement in the races, many Republicans said, was Mr. Trump himself, who simply craves the adulation of his supporters and is singularly focused on notching victories, no matter the details. He is even more eager to flex his political muscle in the face of impeachment, and has surrounded himself with several aides who either defer to his whims regardless of the neon-flashing signs of risk before them, or know little about politics.
People close to Mr. Trump — who spoke anonymously to discuss sensitive matters — said he viewed the campaigns he had weighed in on mostly as opportunities for gratification. And with few seasoned political advisers in his inner circle — his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has control over the president’s campaign, has never worked on another race — there was nobody to tell him that attacking an anti-abortion rights, pro-gun Democrat like Mr. Edwards as a radical would be folly. ..
Mr. Trump, of course, is not the first president to be faulted for his party’s losses. But few have so openly invited the risk of being blamed for them.
“Donald Trump just happens to relish this centrality more than most,” said Liam Donovan, a Republican strategist, “and has a tendency to say the quiet part loud, sometimes to his detriment.”
— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 18, 2019
mrmoshpotato
Just gonna put this here too.
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
Adam Lang
Evidence suggests back button from twitter to bj is broken again, on iOS safari.
Adam Lang
OzarkHillbilly
@Adam Lang:
I couldn’t have said it better.
mrmoshpotato
@Adam Lang: Yes, we are all a bunch of walking, fleshy skeletons. What of it?
Baud
I hope she doesn’t stop trolling people with this, however.
Baud
@Adam Lang: I thoth your comment violates Cole’s new decorum policies.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: She doesn’t have to do a damn thing, they are self trolling.
Baud
@Baud:
Thoth=think
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
She should visit Iowa. Just to say hi to folks.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
I hear New Hampshire is lovely this time of year.
JPL
@Baud: That would be awesome! The White House would have to double their supply of depends.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I have to admit, I must be tempting for her to want a second chance, given the motley cast of characters in the primary right now. I certainly would want an opportunity for payback.
Baud
@JPL: The White House would love it, unfortunately, because they could resurrect their tried and true hate machine. They wouldn’t be wrong.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: *walks into the debates* “You purity fuckers happy with yourselves?”
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: With the whackjob nuthouse projection coming from this bastard administration, they’d blame her for kidnapping brown kids.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I dunno, a part of her must feel like, “Fuck off America, you had your chance and you blew it. Sucks to be you.”
Funny, the visual box is coming and going this AM. Several times it has gone straight to the text box and a few times, like right now, the visual box isn’t even there as an option.
ETA and more often when replying to someone… Or maybe only when replying to Baud.
OzarkHillbilly
@mrmoshpotato:
And keeping them in the basement of a DC pizzeria. Naaaaahhhh, that’s too far fetched even for them.
mrmoshpotato
@OzarkHillbilly: But it’s a child sacrifice coven this time around.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: LOL. Good one.
So far this morning, I ate French toast while watching the sun rise over Africa, went to a lecture on the measuring of longitude, and worked out in the gym. Life is good.
David ??Booooooo?? Koch
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ? ??
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
rikyrah
ICAM???
Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) Tweeted:
Read my column, “Bloomberg’s Bogus, Belated Mea Culpa,” and let me know what you think. https://t.co/QMdzJnQ7EV via @NYTOpinion https://twitter.com/CharlesMBlow/status/1196239157825351680?s=20
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Sounds good ???
eclare
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I asked in a dead thread, what is the cruise’s itinerary? You’re on your way to Senegal? Sounds awesome!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@eclare: After Dakar, we take off across the Atlantic. We have stops in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. I fly home from Buenos Aires on December 5, I think.
The ship is repositioning from the Mediterranean to where it will spend the winter sailing from Buenos Aires to Santiago and back. So there’s a lot of days at sea which I was afraid would be boring, but so far, it’s been great.
eclare
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That sounds wonderful! I’ve only been on one cruise, and I thought the days at sea would also drive me nuts, but they were very relaxing. Take lots of pictures to submit!
TS (the original)
@mrmoshpotato:
That headline needs fuller details (edit)
TS (the original)
@TS (the original):
Edit won’t allow me to change the post – grrr
Edit: And then it does??? I’m confused
OzarkHillbilly
@TS (the original):
Join the club.
JPL
ABC News Poll
51% impeach and remove
70% it is wrong to ask a foreign leader to investigate a political opponent
58% following proceedings closely
gene108
@Baud:
Thoth = Egyptian God of Writing
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?!
@Dorothy A. Winsor: sounds wonderful! A cruise is so different from most average lives it really almost forces you into relaxing, it seems to me. I’ve never been on one, but maybe someday.
Barney
If Donovan wasn’t trying to hold on to his job, that’d be “Trump is the most narcissistic, bigoted and stupid politician we’ve seen in modern times”.
Butch
“If Trump shows discipline….?” Three years into his presidency Axios is actually stupid enough to write something like that as if it’s suddenly a possibility?
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: How long is the cruise? I cruised one time and it was only 8 days. The first day home my legs were wobbly, which is not unusual.
Your trip sounds amazing.
NotMax
What’s up with the suddenly newly appearing “you are here” line above the title? Needlessly redundant clutter.
JPL
@Butch: When backed into a corner, trump stays on message. After the grab by where ever tape leaked, he read for the teleprompter. Recently there was an animated meeting with Barr and trump before he went to LA for a rally. He stayed on message and read the prepared speech. I’m not sure I’d call it discipline though.
germy
debbie
@rikyrah:
The BBC reported this overnight. What a jerk he is. Out he goes.
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
French toast makes everything great!
Baud
@germy: The guy that Dick Cheney shot apologized to Dick Cheney.
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah:
Good morning. ?
germy
JGabriel
NYTimes via Anne Laurie @ Top:
Deference “regardless of the neon-flashing signs of risk” and knowing “little about politics” are not mutually exclusive traits. One might go so far as to call them mutually reinforcing.
Quinerly
Good morning from Poco and his chauffeur!
I truly believe something is up with Trump’s health. Plus, no Tweets in 18 hrs, I think.
Just One More Canuck
@TS (the original): Rosemary Woods’ grandchild was the executive secretary?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@JPL: 22 days with travel days at each end. This is the longest cruise we’ve ever been on.
JGabriel
via germy: https://twitter.com/DougJBalloon/status/1196049592187535360
I see NYT is still recycling stories from the Cheney era.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@debbie: It certainly makes a good start to the day!
debbie
@JGabriel:
When did racist bullshit and outright lies become “political muscle”?
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Well you will have plenty of pictures to share with us upon your return.
JPL
@Quinerly: Kelly O’Donnell had a video of trump leaving for his visit to Walter Reed.. He didn’t have a tie on and to me that’s a sign.
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
Morning to Poco and his chauffer ??
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Good morning BJ!
My morning started out especially blech-y. Q: What’s worse than finding a tick on your dog? A: Finding a tick on yourself.
Was getting up to walk the dog but instead we went into surgery. We decided I should take a nice hot bath to increase his discomfort level (it seemed to work a treat) then my wife did the removal. It was behind my knee.
Turns out the match head trick is folklore. CDC just says get the tweezers and pull.
Edit: Ticks are kind of a concern because Lyme Disease is a major health risk in PA. But we’re pretty sure it was the other kind of tick.
Baud
Oh, next debate on Wednesday. All eyes will be on Pete.
JGabriel
@debbie:
Outright lies became political muscle around the Nixon era. Or, given how that turned out for Tricky Dick, maybe the Reagan era.
Sadly, I’m pretty sure racist bullshit has been politcally muscular since the days when Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Jackson owned slaves. The whole Electoral College system was created to appease racist bullshit. Though I suppose that dates it back to when the country’s founders wrote the Constitution.
Shalimar
Where does Trumpland want him to hold his rallies? There are few states that are deeper red, and none where his presence can’t hurt them at the ballot box in 12 months. I know losing Kentucky and Louisiana hurts, but at least they got a trial run for how toxic he is everywhere before next year. The safest place to send him is to bed to tweet about Fox.
JPL
@Baud: In fact it will be 2 days, 11 hours and twenty something minutes according to the countdown on ajc.com .
JPL
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Such ugly little critters.. ugh. Glad your wife performed surgery. Now my head itches.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Which Pete will show up, the one that showed up to attack the Rs or the one in the last debate that attacked Ds using Republican talking points?
TS (the original)
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Cruising has the advantage of being able to visit many different places without having to pack/unpack in a different hotel at every location. Enjoy it all.
Baud
@JPL: A countdown clock seems … excessive.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
I don’t know. But the last debate obviously helped him.
JPL
@Baud: The paper put a pop-up as shortly after Atlanta was announced and it’s annoying.
Immanentize
I’m giving an extra class session to give my students an opportunity to discuss impeachment. I wonder how many will show up? Some are very interested, others seem completely disengaged….
Hi DAW. The Immp and I are planning a Mediterranean cruise this Spring. So when you return, all the recommendations, please.
Richard Guhl
Just a historical data point. In 1938, FDR sought an ideological realignment of the Democratic party, campaigning against anti-NewDeal Democratic Senators.
It ended in disaster, as the GOP picked up 7 Senate seats, and the Democrats lost 72 House seats.
The election cemented a GOP-Southern Democratic alliance that would exert a stranglehold on federal politics until 1964.
TS (the original)
@Baud: Nothing is excessive if it relates trump and is published by the political media. If he really is ill, prepare yourself for the intimate details.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: If that performance helped him we might see a repeat. Or may be he will be more magnanimous because he has jumped ahead and is now leading in some polls out of Iowa.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: He’ll definitely be a bigger target.
I am disappointed that we now have four front-runners and they are all white. And that one is Bernie.
John S.
@Baud:
Mayor Pete seems to be benefiting the most from folks desperately seeking a centrist, and finding Uncle Joe not up to the task. Not sure how much that has to do with Mayor Pete and his debate performance.
Unfortunately, the majority of those who like Mayor Pete in the most recent polls also don’t think he can beat Trump. Which ironically is the one area Uncle Joe still excels in.
Dog Mom
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: A small plastic gadget called a Tick Twister works very well to get the whole of the nasty off – both man or beast. Two curved prongs in a V at the end wrap around the tick and then you twist while it has no choice to release. Hopefully, yours was biting on you for too long.
Baud
@John S.: I have a feeling we’ll see more poll upheaval before the voting begins.
Dog Mom
@Dog Mom: was NOT, NOT, NOT biting on you for too long!
Gin & Tonic
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Call your MD and get a scrip for 200mg of Doxycycline and take it today. Do not wait.
I got babesiosis from “the other kind” of tick. It was awful.
satby
@Baud: debates don’t matter except to the village and political junkies like us. Outside of that bubble I can’t name a person I know who watches them. People who see him in person just like the guy. Including black people I know here in South Bend (including the head of the NAACP here) and young people, though the media insists neither group of voters likes him. Whatever.
I’m waiting for actual voters in primaries picking candidates before I start analyzing most of them negatively (exceptions being Sanders, Gabbard, Yang, and the delusional billionaire club).
OzarkHillbilly
@Dog Mom:
I 2nd and 3rd this recommendation. That little tool works wonders here on our tick ranch.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: ugh! Misery now crossed off future road trip lists. Ticks give me the heebie -jeebies.
Overland
Gotta say, the Schooley Twitter at the bottom of the original post contains the most wonderful Jon McNaughton painting I’ve ever seen.
Baud
@satby:
He’s definitely very personable. We’ll see what happens. I would have no problem if he’s the nominee, but he’ll certainly trigger the religious right.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Everything I know about cruises I learned from Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad. I believe that he was documenting the first ever leisure cruise, and he got the newspaper to pay for it.
I remember one point where half the passengers took the option of going overland (Italy maybe?) and the captain just said, “OK, see in you in a couple weeks on the other side”. I’m not even sure there was anything organized for the cross-country trip or whether they were on their own.
I guess it doesn’t work that way anymore.
SFAW
CNN has an above-the-fold (so to speak) story about a bunch of flat-earthers, and how it’s spreading around the globe [sic].
The lede:
It ain’t turtles, it’s morons all the way down
ETA: Still hoping they all move to Dumbfuckistan, so this country can get back to reality. Well, semi-reality, I guess.
JGabriel
@germy:
I think the ultimate NYTimes pitch would be:
Baud
@SFAW:
We should gather them up and shoot them into space.
SFAW
@Baud:
Cyril Kornbluth agreed with you.
Another Scott
@Baud: I wonder how much of Pete’s apparent bump is related to “flavor of the month” poll fickleness. I guess we’ll find out.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
It is the State Department that is going to bring him down. I wonder why that department was resilient when so many others collapsed. Better quality hires in general? A better ethical culture?
OzarkHillbilly
@satby:
The Ozarks are tick heaven. On my place they are at their worst in Spring. I can’t work in the garden without getting at least one and quite often 2 or 3. Not a big deal, pick them off and forget about it. (a tick has to be embedded for a minimum of 24 hrs to infect one with Lyme disease) (don’t know about other tick born diseases but they probably need a minimum time period as well) By midsummer it is a rarity for me to find a tick crawling on me and by September I never find them. I have no idea why but for 9 years that has been the consistent pattern.
We give the dogs an anti-tick chew tablet (it can change year to year depending on what the vet finds to be working) and that takes care of most of the ticks. For the rest, the claw grabber is a miracle worker, gets the head every time.
Baud
@Kay:
We’ve gotten leaks from a number of departments. I think it’s the nature of the allegations that see different here.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Jesus would trigger the religious right. They would turn out in droves to vote for his opponent.
Kathleen
@debbie: When NYT gets a hold of it.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW:
I am going to send you the bill for a new desk.
Amir Khalid
Wish me luck, I’m going to try to embed one of the Bloglord’s tweets.
Apparent success. But I wonder how one would go about suggesting he fix the unintentionally funny typo in that book ttle.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Jesus was gay?
I guess the whole apostle thing makes a lot more sense.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
No, they’d turn out to lynch him, or to watch the “festivities.”
@OzarkHillbilly:
No problem. Glad it’s your desk that broke, and not your head. That would be extra-blech-ful.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
Might just be the whole “team” mindset. Attack one? You attack them all. They have been under attack for a while. Going after Yovanovitch pushed them over the edge and they just aren’t putting up with it anymore. Now it’s personal.
Kay
@Baud:
I think I disagree. Leaks are what powerless people do. Showing up is what people who take real ownership and agency do. They were horrified not on their own behalf but on behalf of US interests and they took and have taken action on that, personally and publicly.
Compare to Immigration – they went along with huge roundups of children. Or the DOJ, who are apparently completely comfortable acting as Donald Trump’s personal lawyers, or at least not uncomfortable enough to do anything about it. There’s something in the culture of the state department that either attracts or retains people who will do the right thing under enormous pressure.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Dog Mom: Is this an item I get at the pet store?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
Everything Jesus said about homosexuality:
.
.
.
.
.
Yeah, that about covers it.
Baud
@Kay:
You’re comparing largely Trump appointees in other Departments with career staff at State. The main difference at State seems to be that career people still did high level work.
Ken
@Kay:
Maybe, through years of interacting with other nations, they had a better idea of just how fragile the US status and reputation were?
OzarkHillbilly
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I think my wife get ours at the vet.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: It might just be that Trump has for the most part tried to destroy the State Department instead of co-opting it. Justice and Homeland Security can serve him and get money and staff. But he doesn’t see the need for State. So it’s fighting for survival.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
Good point. I wonder too if it’s maybe the “long arc”- the bigger lens. All of the witnesses pointed to it- how the policy isn’t intended as a quick fix – how you have to stick with it thru successive administrations.
It doesn’t whipsaw so there isn’t as much opportunity for malicious actors to upend it. Steady.
The central characteristic of the Trump hires (besides the dishonesty and general lack of character) is how they are all gimmicky, flashy quick fix people. A huge tax cut will fix it! A wall will fix it! Children coming across the border? Jail them! Gut the health care law before there’s any replacement! They just careen from one bad idea to the next.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I was pondering that too this weekend: of all the institutions Trump is trying to destroy, the State Dept. fought back hardest so far. Why? The DOJ has been the most disappointing of the lot, IMO. Maybe people are speaking up but Barr is more effective at silencing them? He tried to shut the whistleblower up too, but that person wasn’t having it.
Maybe someday we’ll get a full reckoning of the Trump era — the damage inflicted on our institutions, how civil servants resisted and how Trump toadies tried to cover it all up. There should be a select committee to investigate that, at the very least.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Exposure to other cultures makes you see both the flaws and the strengths in your own with a clear eye. When is T going to start railing against naturalized citizens, because you know that’s coming.
Yovanovitch, Hill and Vindman were not American at birth.
Amir Khalid
@SFAW:
Now that’s retro. It’s been centuries since hangings were a public entertainment in the West.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
What happens in Galilee stays in Galilee.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I agree but you’d have to be careful. I don’t want any kind of purge. The reason to look for what held up and what didn’t is to adopt the internal culture of the resilient departments across the board.
Because, frankly, not “holding up”? That’s corruption. They were vulnerable to corruption. The meaning of that word. They have a job description and they take an oath. It really isn’t an oath to Donald Trump. They’re actually supposed to follow it. Which is asking a lot! I know that. But they did take the oath and it wasn’t a suggestion.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: His appeal is not universal.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
I agree with that too. One of the things I found moving about the testimony were the many, many statements about how they admire Ukranians. They know these people. They’re real to them.
Immanentize
@Kay: I know you think the DOJ has failed, but it is so massive that I think it is doing admirably well. I know a bunch of people in all sorts of DOJ placements and they are continuing unabated to fulfill their statutory duties. The problem at DOJ is that it is by design hierarchical so that rotten leadership can have an apparent effect on the whole system. Bush II understood that when he tried to stack the US Attorney offices with lackies.
Baud
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
Somewhat more recent than that. [Extrajudicial hangings, that is.]
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
I think the State Department remembers having a leader who worked hard to repair the damage and demoralisation from eight years of being marginalised and starved of resources by the W administration, and strengthen it so it could do its rightful and much needed job. I think it doesn’t want that leader’s hard work frittered away by Trump. The whole world remembers that leader, and wishes she were President now.
SFAW
@Baud:
Outside of you, I can’t think of anyone.
Well, maybe Cole.
SFAW
TPM is reporting that Sondland kept Dick Dulvaney (or perhaps Mick Mulvaney?) and Rick Perry in the loop regarding the Zelensky/Biden investigation efforts.
It would be nice if that evil motherfucker (Mulvaney) were to get jailed for a good long while.
It would also be nice if I woke up 30 years younger tomorrow.
Kay
@Immanentize:
You’re right it’s huge and perhaps I’m oversimplifying. Here’s an example of public lawbreaking that goes on in the Trump Administration that we hear about almost weekly. They violate laws about secure communications. Now, even if I put aside that this was a HUGE issue with Clinton are these fucking LAWS or what? They have to decide. They’re selectively prosecuting.
Amir Khalid
@SFAW:
I stand corrected. I should have said, it’s been decades since hangings were a public entertainment in the West. Or was it even more recent?
schrodingers_cat
@John S.: Amy K seems a better bet for the centrist lane. She has more achievements under her belt and she doesn’t pander by saying both sides do it.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I am speaking of Ds here since we are still in the primary season. Let’s see how he does in the southern primaries.
Obama was universally liked by Ds of all stripes.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
I think there were lynchings into the late 1960s, but I don’t know if the “public entertainment” qualifier applied for those. For the 1920s and 1930s (I think), however, that may have been the case.
schrodingers_cat
@SFAW: Betty Cracker.
Immanentize
@Kay: check out the sad prosecution in Boston of the state judge who let an immigrant defendant slip out a back door to avoid ICE. That was a discretionary choice by our USA as a sop to Central so he can go about his regular prosecution business. Or so I’m told. Corrupt, certainly, but also something else.
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay:Better quality hires in general? A better ethical culture?
Yes, I think so, on both counts. The Foreign Service folks I happen to know (all retired) are intelligent, dedicated and highly ethical individuals. They’ve also seen the world in all its misery and glory. Perhaps that gives an additional sense of perspective and grounding. It’s really really hard to get into the Foreign Service and there are a lot of hardship postings, with little to no glory attached, so you have to be a person of quality and believe in something larger than yourself to pursue that as a career.
Matt McIrvin
@Amir Khalid: Just decades, here.
Sab
@Kay: I have never understood how Pompeo thought his reputation could survive working at such a high level position so close to Trump’s concerns.
Dog Mom
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Vet, pet store, big box and online , but google or call ahead – it is probably about $5. The newer packages have an extra tiny one for the tiniest of the buggers. Some places have a”tick spoon” – it doesn’t look like it works as well. Good luck – you can hang these on a key chain to keep it handy.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: In fact, all the US Ambassadors to Ukraine since its independence have been career Foreign Service Officers. It hasn’t been one of those postings traditionally given to fat-cat contributors. Off the top of my head I can name the last 4-5, and they have all been extremely well-qualified and professional people.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Amir Khalid: Less than a century, actually. I know people who remember such incidents as children.
Frankensteinbeck
@mrmoshpotato:
The purity fuckers I’ve seen are extremely happy with themselves. They got to block Hillary and the Democrats. They don’t ever have to face facts that would spoil their fantasy of how bad a president Hillary would be. They have four years of horrific Republican evil to blame on Democrats under the claim their way would have worked. That last part has always been the core of their movement, so they’re in pig heaven.
Cheryl Rofer
@Kay: The State Department has a strong internal culture, which sometimes in the past has been a problem. They can be hidebound.
I’ve been thinking about writing about how it feels to be working for the United States of America – I’ve experienced some of that, and so have many people, for instance in the military.
The State Department has a structure like the military – this shows up occasionally in a reporter’s apparent surprise at “this State Department person is the equivalent of some rank in the military.” There is a formal equivalence.
At the same time, their work has to do with a deep knowledge of the countries they are working with, including learning the languages.
The fact-based nature of the hierarchy gives State Department people a strong sense of who they are and what they are doing. And it ain’t finding campaign dirt for Donald Trump. Or anyone else.
OzarkHillbilly
@schrodingers_cat: She has a fatal flaw: Too many X chromosomes.
Betty Cracker
@schrodingers_cat: Ha! I think you make a good point about PBO’s appeal. The PUMAs (remember them?) saw him as a usurper and grew to despise him, but Obama was enough of a blank slate that everyone could project their likes and dislikes onto him. He wasn’t really a blank slate for people who bothered to read his book and study his proposals, but that’s a tiny minority of voters.
Mayor Pete might be benefiting from a similar lack of a long track record in the public eye. We’ll see what voters make of him as the race progresses. My initial enthusiasm has cooled as he swerved aggressively toward the center lane. I see why he did it, and so far, it appears to be working. But it undercut an initial impression I had of him when I first heard him interviewed on the Obama Bros’ podcast — this smart young guy with a lot of interesting ideas.
OzarkHillbilly
@SFAW:
Pretty sure that the black man dragged to death down a dirt road in TX qualifies as a lynching, tho not public. And Matthew Sheppard would too. A rope is optional in these things.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sab:
In some circles, reputations are like souls: For Sale to the highest bidder.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Your post about the float with your little sister dressed as a cockroach made me your fan forever. You need to post it again.
Pete B will be interesting to watch tomorrow. I like Amy K in the debates so far, in addition to Harris and Booker who don’t seem to be catching on.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@OzarkHillbilly: I was reminded of the photos I’ve seen from the days when lynching was public entertainment when I started seeing film of the early Trump rallies.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Yep, the same mindless joy at evil done to others written all over their faces.
James E Powell
@schrodingers_cat:
Except for West Virginia.
schrodingers_cat
@James E Powell: True.
TerryC
t@JPL: One evening last spring I took eleven ticks off of my body, most still crawling around. I had spent the day with a machete in deep bush walking ahead of a brush hog as I marked the progress n a new disc golf course fairway. Ugh.
Then, in September, on the same developing disc golf course, I was swarmed by yellow jackets, which was terrifying, as my face swelled up to twice normal size.
My 72nd year on Earth has been quite something so far.
rikyrah
@schrodingers_cat:
It’s already happening -with them trying to take away citizenship from naturalized citizens.
JPL
@TerryC: I was attacked by a swarm of bees and had no problem stripping outside and then hopping in the shower. I’m so sorry that you had to go through that because fortunately my stings were mainly on my limbs.
How awful.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Yes I know about Operation Janus. I was specifically talking in terms of the impeachment. RWNJs already have attacked Vindman over his Ukranian ancestry. They may go there with Hill and Yovanovitch too.
Steeplejack
@Amir Khalid:
Not the best way to do it. You don’t have the link, and there’s some cruft at the bottom.
The best way to do it is to go to the down arrow/V at the top of the tweet (next to the nym), open that and copy the code from the “Embed Tweet” selection. Paste that into a comment here—in Text mode!—and post. Voilà!
Uncle Cosmo
Did he have a belt on? Maybe the staff was afeared* he’d string himself up in the disrobing room – just like Jeffrey Epstein. (After all, silk is pretty strong & those ties are pretty long.)
* Yes, I said “afeared.” Who else is gonna give them goobers a job with a fat paycheck once Hair Furor leaves office?
J R in WV
I was once beset with yellow jackets in our barn loft while getting ready to load hay into the barn. I jumped out of the loft onto the load of hay, and like a snake went down the hay, the roof of the cab, the hood of the truck, and when I hit the ground, I was dancing and disrobing as they were going up my pants legs.
The yellow jackets were in the loose hay left on the loft floor after the previous winter. I heard buzzing, and looked around, but the loft was very dim, just what light leaked between the logs. Then I bent over to pick up the loose hay I had kicked into a stack, and the buzzing was coming from a swarm between my knees!!!
My friend who was helping with the annual chore was standing aside, grinning at my antics, as I shouted “God Damm” repeatedly. Once I was on the ground I managed to change my shrieking from GD to “BEES” at which point Bob lit out for the house. Unfortunately our creek was way too shallow for me to jump in there, so I too beat feet for the house, swatting away. Clothes were abandoned in the road, which back then didn’t have much traffic.
Maybe a dozen stings, not too hard as yellow jackets bother me least of all the stinging bugs. Wasps are the worst…
SFAW
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m embarrassed/ashamed that I forgot her.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
I hadn’t forgotten Mr. Byrd, but I didn’t think it was a “public entertainment” type of thing. [In the sense of “Y’all gather up the kids an’ let’s go watch ’em hang a n**** down in the holler.”]
mrmoshpotato
@Frankensteinbeck: Yeah. Wingnut left no better than wingnut right in that respect.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@OzarkHillbilly: This isn’t actually true, although it’s very easy to understand how a person who read the NT without outside context would come away with that impression. Jesus’ words about homosexuality are roughly the same as Lady Gaga’s. I’m not even joking about this. This is poorly understood in modern times because the phrase “born eunuchs” and its variants are no longer understood to refer to gay people, but (alongside particularly effeminate males), that is what the phrase meant. There are several other historical cases of contemporary writings, including the Talmud, using the phrase in the same way. In short, anyone who cites the NT to justify discrimination against queer people has to contend with Jesus’ actual words, poorly understood as they are.
Ceterum censeo factionem Republicanam esse delendam.
debbie
@schrodingers_cat:
Neither was Trump’s mother.