Trump opens up Camp David as an "adult playground" to woo GOP lawmakers during impeachment https://t.co/zNtOVyXSdz
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 23, 2019
Starter: Just be grateful you’re not on the cleanup crew…
President Trump, partial to gold and marble elegance, never took a shine to rustic Camp David. So acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney pitched to him an unusual idea at the start of the House impeachment inquiry: Use the secluded mountainous presidential retreat to woo House Republicans.
Since then, Mulvaney and top White House officials have hosted weekend getaways for Republicans at the historic lodge, seeking to butter up Republicans before the big impeachment vote. The casual itinerary includes making s’mores over the campfire, going hiking, shooting clay pigeons and schmoozing with Trump officials, some of whom stay overnight with lawmakers.
During dinners, Trump has called in to compliment members personally…
The Camp David excursions are one prong of a broad White House charm offensive, meant to hold House and Senate Republicans in line through a House impeachment vote and a trial in the Senate that appears all but inevitable.
Never shy to feud with his own party, Trump has for weeks refrained from full-throated attacks against Republicans who have been even remotely critical of the conduct now under scrutiny by the House: The president’s attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate former vice president Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee.
The White House has made sure that a small clutch of Republican lawmakers have accompanied Trump to a trio of recent sporting events, whether at the Ultimate Fighting Championship in New York, the World Series in Washington or at the football game in Tuscaloosa, Ala., between the University of Alabama and Louisiana State University
In recent weeks, the White House has also invited a group of GOP senators every Thursday to have lunch with the president, where the mealtime conversation rarely centers on impeachment but inevitably veers toward it, according to participants. Trump’s message to the senators echoes what he has said publicly against charges that he abused the powers of his office, and Republicans who’ve attended say they feel no overt pressure from the president to stay on his side…
At the Nov. 9 football game in Alabama, Rep. Robert B. Aderholt (R-Ala.) said he listened as Trump spoke — again — about impeachment, expressing surprise while chatting with lawmakers in a luxury box at Bryant-Denny Stadium that Democrats were even moving forward with proceedings.
Trump, again, implored the Alabama and Louisiana Republicans in attendance to read the memorandum of the call with Zelensky. He also stressed that he is pleased Republicans have been united behind him so far.
“He had more impeachment on his mind,” Aderholt recalled, “than anything else.”
Your strategy is working, Comrades Pelosi and Schiff!
CNN is running a one-hour @jaketapper special on Trump’s incessant lying. I think that is cool. All the President’s Lies, Sunday at 9 PM Eastern. pic.twitter.com/k5dz4yMxw1
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) November 22, 2019
2019, in one tweet:
so my puppy got spayed and then she had a foot injury the day she got her cone off, so she’s been in the cone for like almost 3 weeks. we finally took it off and turns out… she loves the cone. it is her best friend. she put it back on herself. i’m- pic.twitter.com/dcP9ULm6OA
— dream ghoul (@TheDreamGhoul) November 22, 2019
Baud
What about the second week of Trump’s term?
WereBear
Cone dependence. Puppy needs help :)
A friend sent me a link to the Fox & Friends segment where they stared at the carpet while Hair Furor ranted. Sick comedy gold.
That Ionescue feeling is sweeping over me again…
NotMax
So much better than a token response.
“We’re pivoting to submarines.”
;)
Chyron HR
Does… does he think that impeachment requires a 2/3 majority in the House?
p.a.
1st prize: weekend at CD with Mulvaney
2nd prize: lots of time off post 11/2020
3rd prize: trip with Trump
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax:
Heh.
Heh Heh.
WereBear
I have always wanted a Warren/Harris ticket. I think that would thread the needle nicely, with Warren planning and Harris in charge of kicking Republican butt.
NotMax
@Chyron HR
All the easier to gather them in one location in order to tape their conversations for future
leveragearm twistingblackmail.WereBear
I picked the wrong week to listen to “Behind the Bastards” podcast with a three-parter on Jeffrey Epstein, con artist (at least Bloomberg actually invented something) and pimp to the rich and famous.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ? ??
NotMax
“You must be this corrupt to enter this ride.”
//
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Louis XIV used invitations like this– Marly, the Trianon, his hunting parties– to corrupt, and debase, would-be trouble-makers
I wonder if trump will invite Susan Collins and Rob Portman to watch him eat breakfast and then observe… other parts of his morning routine. If he does, they’ll go.
OzarkHillbilly
Headline at the Guardian: ‘No one out there’: could Democrats’ lack of star power see Trump re-elected by default?
Sometimes I just can’t.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax:
Why the // after your comment?
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
So as not to leave even the slightest impression that such placards are in actuality physically present.
OzarkHillbilly
You mean I’m not getting probation and released immediately? What a bummer.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax:
Citing facts not in evidence. I would want to go there and see for myself.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Amir Khalid
@OzarkHillbilly:
For what he did to those kids, I think it just that Jerry Sandusky must live out his life in jail. So no sympathy from me, either.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: As with any speculative article, the answer could be yes. But nothing we can do about the star power of our candidates.
JMG
Star power? Did the author suggest nominating Oprah? Bold talk from a publication in a country that is choosing between an upper-class twit out of a Monty Python sketch and a moth-eaten old twit who’s a parody of the clueless academic to be ITS leader.
germy
Amir Khalid
@Chyron HR:
And does he think a fun weekend at Camp David is all it will take to win them over? Incidentally, I seem to recall that the US Government, not Donald Trump, owns Camp David. Isn’t there some rule/law against him using government property for his personal political purposes?
germy
germy
Baud
@germy: Martians are such capitalists.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
More proof that Trump couldn’t make a ham sandwitch without screwing it up. Let’s just consider the whole idea of the President of the United States having to charm the his own party in the face of almost sure impeachment vote. (the subtext here, is the Republicans hate him, I’ve heard this from someone who was a lobbyist)
And the cheery on top.
” During dinners, Trump has called in to compliment members personally…”
Trump can’t find the grace to do that personally.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
If people vote for trump or stay home because the DEM candidate is lacking in “star power” then I am glad to be dying soon.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@OzarkHillbilly: Makes one understand the mean of the phrase “Intellectual voluptuary” doesn’t it?
And what’s Warren with her crowds to hear in speak in the rain, or it doesn’t count because Warren isn’t a guy born before 1963?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
The Dem core is large and solid, but the periphery that we need to actually win elections is flaky and soft. We saw that in 2016, and that is just something we have to deal with.
NotMax
@germy
50+ years ago, purely as something to pass the time and for my own amusement, dashed off a rough draft of a Heinlein parody in short story form titled “The Moon Is a Hirsh Mattress.”
;)
germy
@Baud:
And yet a hundred and fifty years ago their biggest public works project was building all those canals.
germy
@NotMax: Dust if off and send it to McSweeneys.net
I understand they’re paying writers now.
OzarkHillbilly
Driver fined £100 at BP for taking too long
Imagine patronizing a company that really really really doesn’t want your business.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
I’m not in disagreement with you, but my comment at #28 stands.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: I was actually agreeing with you in a way. Lack of star power could doom us, but so could a million other absurd things because we can’t rely on ourselves to win elections but need other people to vote for us as well.
Ken
Does Camp David have a bunker?
NotMax
@germy
Long since vanished. Which I’m more than reasonably sure is just as well.
germy
@NotMax:
More proof that socialism doesn’t work.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@OzarkHillbilly: There’s a chain of convenience stores called Wawa in our area. They’ve added gas pumps to their stores in the last few years, and it’s frequently the most convenient place to get gas.
90% of the time when I pull up to the pumps, I’ll find them all blocked by empty cars whose owners are all inside doing their shopping.
i would be very happy if Wawa started handing out $100 fines to encourage people to park in the damn parking spaces and not at the pumps if they’re not actually pumping gas. In fact I’d encourage them to start towing. It really doesn’t take that much effort to start up your car and drive 20 feet.
Ken
@OzarkHillbilly:
I often get that feeling when dealing with customer service. None of them have ever fined me for it, though.
I take that back, there was a bank once that wanted to charge me for using a human teller. I changed banks.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Wooing votes is not necessarily corrupt, but the thing I always want to know about Trump is if I’m paying for his corruption. And with Trump the answer of course is always yes, taxpayer money is being used for partisan political purposes. And that pisses me off no end.
Chyron HR
@OzarkHillbilly:
I can’t imagine anyone at the Guardian would suggest that BERNIE THE BERN lacks star power, so I assume this is a tacit admission that he’s not really a Democrat even as he runs for the Democratic nomination?
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
Yeah, my only point is that if the Criminal in Chief isn’t enough to motivate people to get off their asses and vote, then as Ben would say, we don’t deserve to keep our republic.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Agree. I’ll be ready to go Galt.
But we’ve seen positive indications so far.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
If I need the bathroom or am going to be getting a few things (very rare that I buy anything other than gas at a gas station), I’ll move my truck after filling. But if people are unable to pay at the pump and have to go in and stand in line to pay before they can even begin, I don’t hold that against them.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
I am hopeful.
germy
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Good morning. ?
JPL
@germy: That’s an odd twitter fight.
Press Sec Grisham said “Somebody who is of an advance age may not understand how twitter works? Grisham doesn’t realize that her is boss is a doofus and is old.
WereBear
Like so much else, “customer service” has been outsourced to us, the consumer.
I’ll never forget a week I spent on the phone at work, about a bill from AT&T that made no sense. Seriously, a solid week of jumping through their hoops, and it was partly because AT&T corporate culture never called things by their real names. I would ask for a “detailed invoice” and they wouldn’t know what an invoice was.
So 90% of my time was spent learning their system, their specialized language, figuring out how things had gone wrong, and how it had to be fixed. Then I gave them instructions, in their language, which was the only way it would EVER get fixed.
Because they didn’t know how to work their own system.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@OzarkHillbilly: We curmudgeons all make our personal choices what we’ll curmudge about. In an earlier era I’d be writing angry letters to the editor of my local rag every week. Instead BJ is my curmudgeon outlet of choice. You’re all welcome.
I’m not old enough to have watched Steve Allen when he was on air but when I was a kid they showed a lot of his old shows. One of my favorite recurring bits was where he would read letters to the editor and give them all the anger the original author intended. “The POTHOLE on 7th Street still has not been fixed since I complained EIGHT DAYS AGO…!!!”
debbie
@germy:
Hopefully, the WH will regret that decision before too long.
debbie
@JPL:
It’s petty, which makes it very Trumpian.
germy
@debbie:
Yes, Bolton is a vindictive, bitter, warlike person. Not someone I’d want to piss off.
He won’t testify, but he’ll do a lot of pissing into their tent.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Heh. BJ alone is not enough for me, I need multiple outlets for all my curmudgeoning. My wife is grateful.
NotMax
Closed captioning AI for the old movie running in the background seems to have either suffered a stroke or is now transmitting code. Verbatim, this just flashed up on the screen: “Burnley a gas for today up Holland Tunnel.”
Which has no relation whatsoever to any of the dialogue.
:)
germy
Trump Privately Frets ‘What’s Going on With Drudge?’ During Impeachment, Asks Jared Kusher to ‘Look Into It’
Kay
Ever since 2016, when it was reported that there was Russian (state) interference in US congressional elections – only Democratic races- I’ve been wondering about it. 60 minutes is (finally) interviewing the candidates who were targeted:
LOCAL journalists. So specific to individual House races.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy:
I think he wants to, hence his going to court as to which is superior, a subpoena from the House or the White House directive? If the court says the subpoena, he’s hoping it will give him enough political cover to still have a career in Republican politics.
I think he’s wrong but who am I dispel his delusions.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
Fake news, Kay.
SFAW
“Elegance”? The only time the Liar-in-Chief did anywhere close to “elegant” was when he misspelled “illegal” when talking about his own activities.
OzarkHillbilly
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…
NotMax
@Ceci n est pas mon nym
Mr. Allen was truly a gifted and multi-talented gent of the highest order. His later in life innovative program Meeting of Minds was, for this fellow, must-see TV.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Google says he’s 71 years old. How much longer would he really have much of a career anyway? Time to take the leap and do the right thing.
chopper
they could have done that an hour into his presidency.
Steeplejack (phone)
opiejeanne
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks for posting that. What a sweet-looking creature.
ThresherK
@NotMax: Steve Allen also discovered and basically codified the elements of the successful late-night TV talk show. (See here and I’m sure I’ve poached some Erik Barnouw about this too.)
Doesn’t seem like such an accomplishment, except the format has succeeded for six decades now, and everyone from Carson to Letterman to Colbert to parodists such as Martin Mull (America 2 Night) have made it work.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Relevant NYT (not politics so not garbage).
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/22/science/dogs-love-evolution.html
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie:
Spoken like a true Democrat.
Kay
@chopper:
Jake Tapper is good about the incessant lying, though. He treats it like a profound problem instead of a delightful celebrity quirk. It is a profound problem. Trump and his employees all lie constantly. It’s not sustainable – it has done extraordinary damage.
Luciamia
Pup: Oh, Sweet Cone, only you understand me.
danielx
White House charm offensive…there is something so wrong about that phrase.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
I can’t read the article but I have read of that study, very interesting.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
700 votes. Could the stolen information have determined the outcome of that race? Absolutely it could have.
You know what would be an interesting news story? A list of the D candidates who had their information stolen and their stories. By state and district so we could see how close the races were and how fine-tuned the targeting was to ensure Trump had a GOP majority.
When did they find out? How did they handle it? How, specifically, was it used and what were the first indications local media were using it? We would then also have a list of the sitting GOP House members who benefited individually from Russian state interference and theft.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
They had to accept the help from Russia Kay. It was the only way to counter all the hacking the Ukrainians were doing for DEMs.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: I pay $4.00 a month until March and I have been tempted to cancel that.
Baud
@Kay:
Sounds like a lot of work to devote to a story that doesn’t undermine Democrats.
chris
Reposting this from yesterday because it’s even funnier the second time through. Former editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer does not care for Gym Jordan. At all.
Kay
Our county sheriff was convicted of a misdemeanor 4 (just below a felony) and that means he has to be taken off the ballot for what will be a spring 2020 GOP primary. I’ve been following it because everybody is and also because he’s hired a well-known election lawyer to try to stay on the ballot and that area of law interests me. Anyway I know him personally and he’s not been considered either a bad sheriff or corrupt- it legitimately seems to be a one-off error. And that’s what people are saying. They’re surprised. They expected better of him.
I was wondering if that’s why Trump and the Trump hires mostly get a pass for the rampant corruption. No one expected better.
Maybe corruption is measured not by the fall but by the distance of the fall. Everyone knew they were lying scumbags going in, so they didn’t fall very far. They barely cleared a rock bottom standard at the outset, so “the fall” is inches not miles.
BurisMaMa
Watch your back, Fredo.
OzarkHillbilly
When I heard of Musk’s project my first thought was, “This can not be good.” Turns out I was right: ‘Not cool’: telescope faces interference from space-bound satellites
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
There is something to be said for that.
PsiFighter37
@Kay: I would very interested to know if they helped a certain local legislator in Hawaii win a contested Democratic primary earlier this decade despite her family’s virulent anti-LGBT history.
Gin & Tonic
William Taylor is back in Kyiv, and the US Embassy has issued a nice video of him speaking on the day of remembrance of the Holodomor, the Stalin-induced famine on 1932-33. The Channel 5 piece leads off with “The USA will never forget the Holodomor.” Taylor says “we are with you.”
That man deserves a medal. His boss deserves a bag of salted dicks.
PsiFighter37
@OzarkHillbilly: Naturally, Musk’s first reaction was to say that having global Internet access was more important.
I credit Musk for doing a couple meaningful things – breaking the monopoly on NASA rocket launches, as well as forcing automakers to start making the long transition to manufacturing electric vehicles – but otherwise, the guy’s a complete asshole.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
My son just finished an electrical update on what was a Ford stamping plant but is now a chopped-up facility that makes various components for several automakers in one plant. So they’re making something for Fords in one section and Hondas in another and Tesla in another. He says the Tesla workers are all low wage temps and horribly bitter because they’re in the same facility with actual permanent, experienced higher-wage employees.
He says the Tesla workers are in the “sad” part of the plant :)
zhena gogolia
@chris:
Phrasing!
I don’t think he’s the “second most contemptible man” in the govt. Maybe third or fourth, after Barr and Nunes.
Immanentize
@NotMax: It is sending coded signals to the Hawaii cell of the resistance.
jeffreyw
Kay
@PsiFighter37:
Ooo. Good catch. I’m a Tulsi loather so I would be interested in that. I know this sounds woo-woo but it continues to amaze me that people can’t pick up what is to me such a malicious sense I have around her. I feel like it’s blinking red. It’s like “stay away from that“, on a gut level.
jonas
To see crowds boo him and the home team lose a historic game as he watches? That must have really impressed them.
Kristine
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
He doesn’t want them to see that he’s reading from notes. In big block letters. Written with a black Sharpie.
yellowdog
@PsiFighter37: I think being an asshole is what enabled him to do the things you admire. But yeah, major asshole.
hells littlest angel
This is perfectly normal: Republicans sitting around a campfire, making s’mores and discussing ways they can help Vladimir Putin weaken the United States.
M31
@jeffreyw:
wow, Putin must be convinced Trump is on his way out to be pushing for quitting NATO now
Kay
@PsiFighter37:
Open Secrets had Tulsi donors at 75% men, which is interesting. No one other D candidate has that wide a gender spread. So Right or Right leaning and male.
OzarkHillbilly
@jeffreyw:
IOKIYAR.
@jonas:
If I am not mistaken, he got mostly cheers at that game.
zhena gogolia
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: What’s wrong with these “Astronomers”, haven’t they ever heard of Photoshop’s ‘Healing Brush’? //
This is on good reason to NOT have this done by private companies, since they’ll all want their own.
PsiFighter37
@Kay: The NYT did a profile on her presidential campaign earlier. My takeaway is that she is still in a cult, and that she and the people she surrounds herself with are weird as fuck. I also think they are too stupid to realize they are unwitting Russian assets.
SFAW
@jeffreyw:
No doubt Lindsey Graham will be all-in on leaving NATO.
There is no action so egregious that the Traitor-in-Chief could pull that would cause the RWMFs/Rethugs to desert him. The only thing(s) he could do to cause that, would require him to (hypothetically) do something to try to end racism or its effects, and that’s not something I would classify as “egregious.” Since he would never do that …
I used to say that W could go on prime-time TV and strangle “with his bare hands” a bunch of four-year-old girls and boys, and the RWMFs would say “Well, those kids must have done something REALLY bad, to deserve that.” I think it’s even worse with the Traitor-in-Chief.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Well, there was the directive from the Alabama student government, “Cheer or else…’.
PsiFighter37
@SFAW: I disagree. The one thing Sweet Lindsey seems to love more than Trump is anything related to extremely hawkish foreign policy that keeps the U.S. involved in as many parts of the world as possible. That said, just like with the Syria stuff, Trump will just verbally bitch-slap him, and Lindsey will assume the supplicant position again.
SFAW
@Kay:
I think I recall a commenter at another site trying to tell me that Tulsi is far more progressive/liberal than Warren, and that her policies were about 97 percent in line with Bernie’s.
As Arte Johnson/Wolfgang used to say “Ungeliegegable.” [Or something like that.]
schrodingers_cat
@SFAW: I would never trust anyone who is supported by the RSS. They are evil.
SFAW
@PsiFighter37:
Which was my point. As with Susan of the Deeply Furrowed Brow, Graham talks a great game initially, but he eventually gets back in line.
In a way, that’s good for me: were he to show some actual contra-Trump backbone, and not reverse himself to stay in Shitgibbon’s good graces, I might need to drop a few nitro pills from the shock.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: It is not woo woo. You have a good head on your shoulders and good intuition.
SFAW
@schrodingers_cat:
RSS? Russian Security Services? The only “RSS” I can think of is the Intertubez thing, as in “your RSS feed.”
Kristine
@Kay:
Starbursts.
Baud
@Kay:
It’s the white streak in her hair. She’ll probably where a witches hat at the next debate.
PPCLI
Sorry if this article is all old news to everyone here, but I found it illuminating framing info. Trump and Rudy had already primed the Biden fake investigation sleaze and it was ready to go with the previous Ukrainian administration, and then the landslide election of Zelensky f*cked up all their plans. That’s no doubt why (as Volker testified) Trump was so visibly angry when aides argued that Zelensky was the real deal and would tackle corruption. Because Trump didn’t want corruption tackled; he had already arranged some corruption that he had been counting on:
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/11/22/the-election-of-zelensky-threatened-trumps-plan-to-exploit-corruption/
WereBear
@Kay: I was a sixth grade when Nixon was running and I could not believe all the adults weren’t seeing the low rent used car salesman vibe.
Baud
@WereBear:
Love (of privilege) is blind.
SFAW
@PPCLI:
Obligatory.
SFAW
@WereBear:
My father hated Nixon with a passion. Which I tried to keep in mind when he later voted for Reagan.
OzarkHillbilly
@PPCLI:
Never apologize.
Another Scott
An excellent video (about the NHS from a former American) being pushed by Corbyn’s Twitter account.
(via nycsouthpaw)
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
?
In unrelated issues, this is goddamn good news:
On A Tom Waits Covers Album, Women Transform A Classic Catalog
I just found my Christmas present to me.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SFAW: Same with my dad.
Ruckus
@Chyron HR:
No. But he is worried about senators checking out on him to protect their own asses. All eyes, and noses have to be trained on his fat ass, not on their own careers. They don’t get to protect themselves if they haven’t laid down for him to walk all over them.
debbie
@jeffreyw:
If that’s not proof he’s a Russian asset, I don’t know what is.
schrodingers_cat
@SFAW: The *Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Facist Brown shorts whose political arm BJP that rules India
*National Volunteer Service Corps would be a rough translation.
BJP=Bharatiya Janata Party or the Indian people’s party.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Getting ready to head up the coast to Mission Santa Barbara and see other interesting sights.
ETA: Second day in a row the YorkiePom woke me up, asshole(but she’s cute).
Ruckus
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
You think his presence would make things better?
They will follow him because that’s who they are, but like him? That might just be a thousand mile hike too far.
schrodingers_cat
@?BillinGlendaleCA: My cat woke me up at 5 am.
mrmoshpotato
Fixed. How does your mind not go there when this pile of shit’s first wife said in court documents that he raped her because he was pissed about shitty hair plugs?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@schrodingers_cat: The YorkiePom woke me at 4:30am, yesterday and today. She jumps off the bed and with the thicker covers can’t use the stairs to get back up. The Cocker Spaniel just sleeps in the bed until I wake up, good dog.
ETA: Yesterday, she woke me at 8:30am, but I didn’t get to sleep until 4am, so still she’s an asshole.
mrmoshpotato
@debbie: Aahh, what a Soviet shitpile. Thanks Susan!
mad citizen
@debbie: Thank you for posting this–perhaps my favorite artist in any field all time. I miss Tom, wonder what he is up to, etc. But good on him for enjoying himself. December 7, 1949.
On to the traitorous party, maybe it’s time for a simple, yet humongous, impeach and convict mass protest in D.C. Hope some people plan this in and around any Senate trial that happens. I’d been vaguely thinking, since I’ve never been to an inaugeration, of attending the next one, but perhaps attending such a protest would be far more important. Just reading the news and posts this morning from the last 24 hours is sickening. Pulling out of NATO? What?
Raven
@mad citizen: He was really good in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
SFAW
@schrodingers_cat:
Thanks. I recognize the BJP (mostly from your comments), but I don’t recall hearing about the RSS (although you may have mentioned them before, in which case I apologize for the oversight or faulty memory).
Kay
@Baud:
I have a white streak in my hair so I’ve found this commentary very hurtful :)
I love how it looks and I’m not covering it. It just appeared when I changed the part. One of my older friends told me “it looks good NOW but it won’t stay silvery- it’ll just be dull grey”. That seems to be true, sadly.
Immanentize
@debbie: I hope they cover “Frank’s Wild Years.”
MagdaInBlack
@Kay:
Same here, with the streak.
Secret: Purple Shampoo. Once a week or so keeps its silvery.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I saw someone commenting that all cats are chaotic neutral. Seems true to me.
Kay
@MagdaInBlack:
Thanks. Isn’t it great? It’s like this crazy gift out a nowhere. I know it’s witchy, which only adds to the appeal.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Someone’s telling Burnley to go fart in the Holland Tunnel. ? << fart emoji apparently
MagdaInBlack
@Kay:
i think its fun. I used to enhance it, ala Bonnie Raitt ?
Immanentize
@mad citizen: At that protest, the crowd could elect a replacement — maybe Pigasus?
Sab
@Kay: She is so hot that she surfs. I get why guys like her.
Immanentize
@Immanentize: I’m having link issues….
PIGASUS!
mad citizen
@Raven: Yes! Need to watch that one again. Liked all the stories but the last one transcended. Waits also had nice minor role in The Old Man and the Gun with Redford/Spacek, although he didn’t get much screen time.
Has anyone seen The Irishman in a theater? Is it worth the experience? Just found out it is at a local Flix Brewhouse and I’m debating. Only review I found on this point says watch in theater because the film builds on itself, etc. Don’t break it up on netflix. But I watch things straight through anyway, so that’s irrelvant. Doesn’t seem like the material/scenery demands a big screen…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Not a cat, this is a small dog(Yorkshire Terrier/Pomeranian mix).
Matt
So he’s LUNCHING with potential jurors in his impeachment trial. And WE’RE buying the lunch.
A needed reminder: the only good Republican is one that’s safely behind bars. #lockthemallup
mad citizen
@Immanentize: Franks Wild Years was the first Waits I listened to. I think I was vaguely aware of him, then around 1983/84 in that Rolling Stone year end issue where artists tick off their favorites of the year, 2 or 3 of the R.E.M. guys mentioned Frank’s Wild Years.
Love that album, wish I’d had the wherewithal to have seen the play in Chicago in the mid-1980s or whenever that was; I’m not that far away. But at least got to see Waits in concert twice in 1999, and once on that short tour around 2006(?).
Sab
@?BillinGlendaleCA: What a classic first world problem.
My dad’s blind elderly cat, who I adopted when I put dad in a nursing home, woke me up at 3 am. He was hungry and lost, so he sat down at the bottom of the stairs and yowled until somebody (me) woke up and fed him. Nightly routine that I am sick of.
Amir Khalid
Crystal Palace have a goal disallowed against visitors Liverpool for a foul by Palace’s Jordon Ayew against defender Dejan Lovren in the buildup. Whew!
ETA: Fans on the BBC liveblog are complaining that the goal shouldn’t have been disallowed for an off-the-ball foul.
chris
Now I can edit? FYWP Deleted
chris
Bah! won’t let me edit.
Sab
@Kay: I grew out my bangs and discovered the new white streak. I had hated it. If you like your white streak then I will like mine. Thanks.
schrodingers_cat
@SFAW: They are the power behind the throne. BJP is just one of their many arms.
Sab
@Kay: I wonder how many billionaires he can sign on for his Mars venture. I am absolutely cheering for injuries. Class warfare and all of that. There are more of us than there are of them.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: You can be the modern day Indira Gandhi.
zhena gogolia
Well, Bret Stephens is calling for impeachment and removal. I haven’t broken my streak of never reading a word he writes (just the headline), but I thought it was notable.
RIP, Michael J. Pollard.
Amir Khalid
Crystal Palace 0-1 Liverpool. Sadio Mane scores for the Reds. YNWA.
MisterForkbeard
@zhena gogolia: I would be really surprised if he means it. But maybe?
It’s notable in that more and more conservative friendly voices are starting to turn on Trump publicly over this, but what really matters are his “Trump Right or Wrong But He’s Really Always Right So Fuck You” enablers in the media, which is basically Fox and its satellites.
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
So Musk’s satellite array, 50,000 of them, will interfere with telescopes searching the sky for asteroids which may collide with the Earth? Hmmm… wonder if that’s part of why Musk want’s to colonize Mars?
Wonder if there is some technical reason they don’t cover the satellites with the new cosmic black substance, which wouldn’t produce as bright a streak as a shiny titanium object? That might cost a little more, maybe the emerald mine his family stole is giving out suddenly?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@J R in WV: I think the reason they use a reflective surface is so the satellite internals don’t heat up as much.
Raven
@zhena gogolia: He was in the little known “Riders of the Storm” with Dennis Hopper.
zhena gogolia
@Raven:
That sounds wild. He was an interesting actor.
Kathleen
@hells littlest angel: Followed by a screening of their favorite musical comedy Le Mis.
Chris Johnson
@debbie: In the ‘no shit, Sherlock’ category…
Also, who upthread was shocked about the Guardian making a story about ‘since there are no Democrats running who are the least bit interesting, Trump will get re-elected’?
Sometimes I’m not sure whether it’s Putin or just plain oligarchy (or to what extent they form some unholy voltron armored with krugerrands) but you cannot be surprised at media outlets trying to explicitly throw the election. Isn’t the Guardian a UK paper? They exist in an incredibly heavy reality exclusion zone, much like our own. I can’t be shocked if their coverage is ‘from where we’re standing, everybody seems to uniformly think Trump will win and the Democrats are crooks’.
Because there’s a very expensive and high-effort full-on war underway that’s been going on for YEARS to redefine ‘from where I’m standing’ for everyone in the West, in very specific ways. And of course you target or straight-up capture the media. Nobody wants to acknowledge that their world is constructed of Russian propaganda, so people accept some wild things as ‘reality’. It’s not by accident.
Raven
@zhena gogolia: A better description:
Dennis Hopper and Michael J. Pollard (Doc Tesla) lead a crew of misfit Vietnam veterans highly trained in psychological warfare and armed with a B29 equipped as a flying pirate TV station creating havoc for the broadcast networks and authorities as they fly the country on a crusade to bring radical philosophies and classic audiovisuals to a conservative and media brainwashed viewing public.
On the verge of retirement they are compelled to mount one last campaign to destroy a demographically engineered presidential candidate who would see the country brought to war again.
Extensive explorations into concepts of non-violent defiance of authority and pursuit of justice, questioning conventional morality, exposition of criminal activities in the guise of righteousness by righteous people being classed as criminals by a corrupt establishment, existentialist themes, technology and rock music versus violence and force, nature of religious beliefs, political corruption and post Vietnam issues.
Some excellent 60’s and 70’s music in the soundtrack. Not to be missed.
Amir Khalid
Wilfried Zaha equalises for Palace against Liverpool. 1-1. Pout.
ETA: Bobby Firmino restores Liverpool’s lead. 1-2. Big smile.
James E Powell
@Immanentize:
I was thinking the same thing, but I checked the track list and no, not on the album. I committed that to memory years ago and I still bring it out from time to time, though usually just the last line.
sukabi
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: that’s purely a display of their own (media / editors / owners) bias. What excites the proles doesn’t matter, unless it’s spoon-fed from the mighty propaganda machines.
jimmiraybob
To be honest, I’m a bit surprised that none of his loyal minions has yet gotten him to rename it Camp Trump.
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: I *loved* “Meeting of Minds”! There was a point in my young life (ages 16-17) when that and “The Muppet Show” were the only things I watched on TV!
J R in WV
@Kay:
Not so !!! Wife was in her mid-60s the last time we went to NYC, were at BB King’s nightclub to see Jimmy Vaughn, having dinner before the show (great huge porterhouse steak we split) when a young woman came over to tell wife how lovely her long silver hair was.
Totally unexpected bonus compliment which I have used ever since when she is down about something. So if you take ordinary care of your hair, which is all she does, shampoo and conditioner in the shower, you too will/may have beautiful platinum silver hair.
Amir Khalid
The final whistle blows after five minutes of injury time: Crystal Palace1-2 Liverpool. Liverpool win by another Kloppage-time (i.e. very late) goal but no Liverpool fan really minds that. YNWA!
germy
https://screenrant.com/batman-2021-movie-cast-john-turturro-mobster-falcone/
Miss Bianca
@germy: They’re making yet another “Batman” movie?
Amir Khalid
Up next in the EPL: Manchester City host Chelsea as they duke it out for third place, behind two teams whose names begin with L: Liverpool and Leicester City.
West of the Rockies
@MagdaInBlack:
Purple Shampoo? Is that the product name?
germy
For some reason I’m having trouble scrolling up and down here.
germy
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@JMG:
Uh oh: TonyJay has entered the chat
VOR
@SFAW: you laugh, but CNN (I think) recently asked a Trump supporter if it was okay if Trump shot someone. The answer was, it would depend on why he shot them.
sukabi
@West of the Rockies: there are “toner” shampoos that help neutralize hair color casts. So a purple (literally purple) toner shampoo will help get rid of any yellow cast to otherwise silver / gray hair, making it look a nice pure white / silver.
Toner shampoos
debbie
@Immanentize:
Just checked and no. But I have not wanted an album in years like I want this one!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@sukabi: indeed, it’s been obvious since our Media betters couldn’t figure out why the general public didn’t share their outrage over Bill Clinton having consensual sex with an adult woman. Going by the lawsuits somethings are just unnatural to them.
WaterGirl
@germy: Can you say more about what you mean by that? Scrolling with a trackpad? A mouse with a wheel? Every thread? Just this one?
Inquiring minds want to know. :-)
planetjanet
Since the November elections, I have been purging my email, trying to get off of so many fundraising lists. It was sad to unsubscribe to MoveOn, having been a member since the 90s, but the emails were just neverending. Most are candidates I have never heard of, but basically legit. Today is a lazy day, so when one came in from Dump Trump, I did a little investigating before I unsubscribed. There were no direct links to their website, just ActBlue, for the vaguely named Nominee Fund. Took a bit to find the website. Google searches for the name brings up lots of similar sounding names. The only stated goal was to raise $2500 for each candidate who qualifies for the DNC debates as of January 1, 2020. Incredibly modest goal, Balloon-Juice can easily blow that away. Of course, this is only after expenses. The email listed an Austin, TX address. Looking on the FEC website, I finally found a registration, listing Brandon Philipczyk as the Treasurer. The address was a WeWork location in Southeast DC. Might as well be a post box at UPS. A LinkedIn profile of Philipczyk shows his position as Chief Operating Officer for the Florida Democratic Party. So he appears to be a run of the mill political gopher, with his own sideline. Thankfully, another FEC search shows he only reported $6000 in donations for the first half of the year. Naturally, $0 went to candidates and $5000 to consultants. Is there anyway to stop this?
J R in WV
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
So, are you posting from the mid-Atlantic, heading towards South America?
So cool… have always wanted to travel by ship without being in the USN. Our one cruise last winter to Baja for whale watching was great fun, summer camp at sea, very informal, the whales were great!
But we didn’t actually cruise very far at all.
ETA: What ship or cruise line are you traveling with, if you don’t mind saying? We’re looking for an adventure next spring…
Martin
@OzarkHillbilly: I feel guilty if I take more than 4 minutes to buy gas at Costco.
Martin
I think it was clever of Trump to get Mulvaney to write the checks for the hookers and porn stars. Grade A presidenting right there.