Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Every MSM headline appears to be written by DougJ. i hope he’s getting paid.

It might be fine, or it might be a clusterfuck.

I can’t take this shit today. I just can’t.

Everybody saw this coming.

Infrastructure week. at last.

The willow is too close to the house.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

What fresh hell is this?

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Let there be snark.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

I swear, each month of 2020 will have its own history degree.

Women: they get shit done

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Reality always wins in the end.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Just a few bad apples.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

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You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / It Is the Official Policy of the United States That What the Current President Says Is Not The Official Policy of the United States

It Is the Official Policy of the United States That What the Current President Says Is Not The Official Policy of the United States

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Wait, what?

About a week ago the President tweeted out a broad and sweeping declassification order as part of his own active measures and influence campaign to swing the 2020 election by claiming that President Obama, Vice President Biden, FBI Director Comey, DCI Brennan, DNI Clapper, AP-NSA Rice all working in conjunction with Secretary Clinton and her campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and the government of Ukraine conspired to undermine the President’s election by fabricating that Russia was actively trying to assist his campaign in 2016, that he and his campaign were actively trying to recruit Russia to help them, and to cover up the real conspiracy between Secretary Clinton and the Ukrainians. As I’ve written about before, this is all Russian disinformation and agitprop.

It Is the Official Policy of the United States That What the Current President Says Is Not The Official Policy of the United States

This Russian misinformation and agitprop was most recently laundered by DNI Ratcliffe to and through Senators Johnson and Grassley in his selective declassification and release of former DCI Brennan’s memos.

A number of reporters who have been seeking to have redacted and/or classified materials from the various Russia-Trump campaign 2016 investigations released through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) immediately filed emergency requests in Federal court to have all of this now seemingly declassified material released right away. Today the Department of Justice submitted their response:

Or a day ending in day.

We are off the looking glass and through the map!

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

185Comments

  1. 1.

    David Anderson

    The DOJ has a standard macro for their response memos that the President is a fucking idiot who rage tweets all the time and has not explicitly authorized a disclosure. This has been a standard position since January 2017.

  2. 2.

    Jerzy Russian

    I don’t suppose we will see the full and unredacted Mueller report any time soon?  Was that mentioned in any of the president*s tweets?

  3. 3.

    Cheryl Rofer

    LOL, when Trump tweeted that, I knew there was no way it would happen. Many routes were possible – simple bureaucratic foot-dragging, a Trump walkback, just ignoring it and it will go away.

    But good for Jason Leopold. And it was obvious to anyone who had been paying attention that he would go for the papers if they were unclassified.

    More humiliation for Trump – if he can recognize it as such. More indication that people in the government think he’s going to lose.

  5. 5.

    Ohio Mom

    Okay Adam, what are our options if these ratfinks steal the election?

    I can’t take to the streets, I’m high-risk for Covid. complications. An old friend tells me, “We’re leaving!” Um, to where? So, both fighting and flighting are out.

    Just spend the rest of my days laying low?

  8. 8.

    dmsilev

    Also today,

    ‘Unmasking’ probe commissioned by Barr concludes without charges or any public report

    The federal prosecutor appointed by Attorney General William P. Barr to review whether Obama-era officials improperly requested the identities of individuals whose names were redacted in intelligence documents has completed his work without finding any substantive wrongdoing, according to people familiar with the matter.

    The revelation that U.S. Attorney John Bash, who left the department last week, had concluded his review without criminal charges or any public report will rankle President Trump at a moment when he is particularly upset at the Justice Department. The department has so far declined to release the results of Bash’s work, though people familiar with his findings say they would likely disappoint conservatives who have tried to paint the “unmasking” of names — a common practice in government to help understand classified documents — as a political conspiracy.

  9. 9.

    Yutsano

    @Baud: Biden will declassify it but in a smart way. A blanket declassification would reveal methods and sources that could burn so many contacts that the act itself could be construed as an act of murder. Biden’s people would be much smarter, explaining the redactions correctly. Because yes, you can’t just release everything willy-nilly.

  11. 11.

    Mart

    @Ohio Mom: Also no F or F for wife and me. If the Trump wins I am seriously thinking of registering us as Republics. Try to trick the brownshirts and lay low. It could work. I am old and I am white. Suppose will need to get a pistol and rifle to further seal the deal. (ETA – Guns in a safe, no bullets.)

  14. 14.

    jl

    ” It Is the Official Policy of the United States That What the Current President Says Is Not The Official Policy of the United States”

    At least they are making more sense than usual. Baby steps…. baby steps…

  15. 15.

    featheredsprite

    @Mart: Don’t cut your wrist yet. Trump hasn’t won yet. And if there is fighting, somebody will need to take care of injured and refugees from the violence.

  16. 16.

    Roger Moore

    @David Anderson:

    The DOJ has a standard macro for their response memos that the President is a fucking idiot who rage tweets all the time and has not explicitly authorized a disclosure.

    Which seems like a perfect summary of the insanity that is the Trump Administration.

  17. 17.

    dmsilev

    This headline feels overdetermined:

    Proposal to hasten herd immunity to the coronavirus grabs White House attention but appalls top scientists

    Maverick scientists who call for allowing the coronavirus to spread freely at “natural” rates among healthy young people while keeping most aspects of the economy up and running have found an audience inside the White House and at least one state capitol. The scientists met last week with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist who has emerged as an influential adviser to President Trump on the pandemic.

    When asked for comment, HHS referred a reporter to Azar’s subsequent Twitter statement about the meeting: “We heard strong reinforcement of the Trump Administration’s strategy of aggressively protecting the vulnerable while opening schools and the workplace.”

    A senior administration official told reporters in a background briefing call Monday that the proposed strategy — which has been denounced by other infectious-disease experts and has been called “fringe” and “dangerous” by National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins — supports what has been Trump’s policy for months.

  18. 18.

    VOR

    @dmsilev:  The unmasking was always stupid. If an American citizen is regularly talking to a senior representative of an unfriendly foreign country and the National Security Advisor to the President of the United States asks “who is that?”, they damn well ought to get an answer.

  23. 23.

    Adam L Silverman

    @dmsilev:

  24. 24.

    Percysowner

    @Ohio Mom: I’m in the same position, I’m old and overweight, although generally healthy. There is nowhere to go or I’d start talking to my kids about heading out. I read everything on getting a gun when Cole talked about it and decided that I don’t think I could actually shoot to kill, so that’s out. I could keep my head down and escape ramifications, but then what kind of country am I leaving my grandkids?

    50 years ago I walked around Akron, Ohio with a candle, singing “Give Peace a Chance” to protest the bombing of Cambodia by Nixon. Now, with COVID I’m scared to do even that. If they steal this, I know I should do something, because it’s my COUNTRY,  DAMN IT, but I want to know what would be effective and, preferably not kill me.

    I just remind myself that I drove around in a car with a bumper sticker that said “Nixon’s through in ’72”. I always said I was just off by 2 years. I hope this time I’m not years ahead of the curve and Trump et al. go, but if not, then what?

  26. 26.

    jl

    @dmsilev: Horrible policy.

    Lots of evidence spontaneous decentralized reaction to deaths and hospital crises are responsible for 50 percent of reduction in economic activity, apart from shut downs. So won’t save the economy.

    Health costs may be much larger than known, due to possible long term problems from even mild cases.

    Don’t know how long natural immunity lasts, so will we go through the same mess in a year or two?

    Incoherent thinking as in based on ‘we can’t stop this crap, it will go everywhere, so let it rip’, but to get public buy in, somehow magically can keep it from spreading the vulnerable.

    Total mess.

    The examples of countries that have tried it, usually Japan and Sweden are bogus. Those countries were serious constrained from shutdowns by statutory and constitutional limits on shut downs. No evidence either chose it as the best of all possible policies.

    As I noted in a previous thread, they are wrong about everything and confused about the rest.

  27. 27.

    A Ghost to Most

    @Mart: Fuck that. I’m planning to take some with me, if it comes to it. I hope not. All I really want to do is drive around in the mountains.

  28. 28.

    Ruckus

    This sounds a lot like another day ending in y. And in “Why God, Why???”

    What’s the name of this movie?

  29. 29.

    Yutsano

    @Ohio Mom:  If worst comes to worst, I can absolutely seeing the Left Coast saying, “Sayonara Sunshine!” to the rest of the country. There should be zero reason our resources and population should suffer under such a horrific regime. We can always come get you and put you somewhere safe here. Washington may not have the supports that Ohio does, but hopefully we can figure out something that will work.

  31. 31.

    Zzyzx

    I’m Jewish in a blatantly obvious way. If the election gets overruled, they’ll come for me eventually. The COVID risk from being in the streets is less dangerous.

  34. 34.

    Ohio Mom

    Adam L. Silverman @20:

    Thanks, I guess. Not the type of answer I was hoping for but can’t say I’m surprised.

    On another note, as a layperson I have to say, skimming through the table of contents, I’m impressed with how comprehensive this DIY guide is.

  35. 35.

    LuciaMia

    ‘all working in conjunction with Secretary Clinton and her campaign, and her unholy army of the night.’

     

    Fixed!

  37. 37.

    Zzyzx

    @Adam L Silverman: pretty much. Even if I didn’t look the way I did, “David Steinberg.”

    I used to have churches from NC and AL send me unsolicited fliers telling me to convert for the sake of my soul, which means there were people bored enough to go to the library and look up obvious Jewish names in states 3 time zones away.

  38. 38.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Ohio Mom: If you need to know just how much rice you can pack on a yak as you traverse the Himalayas to conduct a counterinsurgency, this is the manual for you. It is that detailed.

  42. 42.

    Shana

    It’s like Michael Scott in The Office going out into the parking lot and yelling “I declare bankruptcy.”

    That’s not how this works.  That’s not how any of this works.

  43. 43.

    Ruckus

    @Percysowner:

    It was easier for me in the navy. On in port watch I carried a loaded 45 pistol. It was called sounding and security watch. Orders were that if you saw someone boarding the ship that didn’t belong, that was attempting to take over the ship, shoot to kill. Now you had to be at least reasonably close to right to shoot someone but still, you had orders to kill them. I always thought that’s a lot of responsibility for someone say 18 yrs old with brain that’s really full with the possibility that you might someday meet a woman who might let you get near her. I was 21 so at least a month’s worth of thought past that. In Copenhagen in 1972 we had to hide the gun under our jacket when we were outside. If I remember correctly the war was not going well for us. at the time….. The only time I fired that weapon was qualifying, to show that I could use it if necessary. We had to hit the water behind the ship without hurting anyone. I managed.

    The point is that often people get put in positions that they do not want to be in, and sometimes/often have to do things they don’t want to do. You don’t have to put yourself in that position, so I’d think very hard before spending a dime that you may regret more than you can imagine.

  44. 44.

    Ruckus

    @jl:

    they are wrong about everything and confused about the rest.

    That is one of the best descriptions ever. Too bad it took this level of republican shit to get here.

  45. 45.

    Raven

    @Ruckus: I remember going on a tour at Norfolk and the Reagan was there. The squids had a line and a sign that said :cross this line a you will be fired on” . The guy on the 50 looked like he would have had no problem with that order.

  46. 46.

    Ruckus

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Not the “real” movie, the movie with all the pretend stuff.

    And no I’m not kidding I think I remember that line from a movie, but damned if I know what it was.

  52. 52.

    Martin

    Eh. I’m happy to head to the streets. We’re headed toward an overwhelming popular vote win. The Senate desperation for Barrett suggests they know they’re out of power come Jan, which also indicates they aren’t really planning on fighting to stay in power.

    I’m willing to bet there are more than enough Dems like me willing to face off against the nutters.

    We got this, one way or another.

  55. 55.

    Ruckus

    @Raven:

    Back in the day there was the Quarterdeck watch, that’s the enlisted guy at the head of the gangplank, he had a 45. And sounding and security, me, with a 45. The end. I went on a tour of a current DDG about 4 yrs ago, there were 2 quarterdeck watches in fatigues and 9mm and a guy walking the pier with a semi auto long gun, I have no idea which one and a 9mm. All three had bullet proof vests. They laid out damage control personal gear for everyone to check out. They were a lot, and I mean a fucking lot better supplied/prepared than we ever were. I’ve had to climb the mast and shimmy out the yardarm with no safety harness, just a rope that I tied around my waist and no one to watch or help if I got in trouble. The yardarm ends about 20 ft from the mast and is a bit over 60 feet off the deck. Fun times.

  56. 56.

    cain

    @Yutsano: 
    Cascadia for the win!
    And the conservatives can leave and join their brethren. Hopefully though we can find some farmers though :D

  57. 57.

    Elizabelle

    @Raven:  @Baud:

    Skimmed enough to decide it will get a lot more attention.

    My dad went to law school as he retired.  He was incredible.  Could have read this manual in a day or two, and aced a test.  He was a Type A’s Type A.

  59. 59.

    cain

    @Zzyzx:

    My fellow Hindus think they are safe. But Trumpers can’t tell Muslim from Hindu – and in the dark they won’t care.

  65. 65.

    Ohio Mom

    Yutsano: I have family in Seattle — a cousin and her family, and my niece and her husband. And I’ve heard Washington State has good supports for adults with disabilities. So it could be doable, in a pinch.

    At any rate, a much more pleasant scenario than putting into practice 568 pages on Small Wars (is any war small if you are in the thick of it?).

  66. 66.

    Ruckus

    @Raven:

    Yep. If they gave a damn or had a fucking clue they wouldn’t be walking around with a loaded AR-15 or even thinking of playing war.

  67. 67.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    we must declassify Hillary’s emails in order to uncover her gefilte fish recipe

  70. 70.

    Ruckus

    @Raven:

    Aw, no thanks. I had my own fun. Forward refueling, in winter, in the North Atlantic. No foul weather gear. Or having to sleep in my bunk, next to the hull, below the waterline with the water temp around 30 degrees. Doesn’t freeze because of the salt. Of course take that out and you have icebergs. Or wait for it to just get colder.

  74. 74.

    dmsilev

    Sad President is sad:

    Trump lamented his souring support among suburban women voters, begging them during a Pennsylvania rally to like him. “Suburban women, they should like me more than anybody here tonight because I ended deregulation that destroyed your neighborhood. I ended the regulation that brought crime to the suburbs,” Trump said, referring to an Obama-era anti-segregation rule that his administration ended.
    “So can I ask you to do me a favor? Suburban women, will you please like me? I saved your damned neighborhood,” the president said. Trump said he’s heard that suburban women don’t like how he talks, but that he doesn’t have time to be nice. “You know, I can do it, but I got to go quickly. We don’t have time,” Trump said. “They want me to be politically correct.”

    He’s descended to Jeb “please clap” Bush levels.

  75. 75.

    Gravenstone

    In a lighter vein, I saw a headline about how Melania is “avoiding” Donnie in order to preserve her reputation. I got news for you Third Lady, that ship done sailed and ran aground quite a few years ago. You have jack and shit for a reputation, all of it exceedingly well earned.

  76. 76.

    Raven

    @Ruckus: I think I told you that I had a conversation with one of my old man’s WW2 shipmates. I’ll always remember him saying “Thank god we weren’t in the Atlantic”.

  80. 80.

    The Moar You Know

    Tweets aren’t official US policy?  I will be damned.  What is this world coming to?

    I would also like to take this opportunity to remind you all that the “1776 Project” executive order he claimed he signed more than two weeks ago was utter bullshit.  No such order has ever existed, much less been signed.

    One more item for the Biden cleanup pile: legislation that bans US government social media accounts.  Any politician can have a private one and say any goddamn thing on it they want, but government announcements must be done the old fashioned way; published on paper.

  81. 81.

    Ruckus

    @Ohio Mom:

    If you are in the way no war is small. Hell you can be half way around the world from a big war and it isn’t small. Most of that time we spent in the North Atlantic, sailing around with big guns and all that crap, we almost always had a similar sized Russian warship within less than a mile of us at all times except when we were refueling. They didn’t want any part of that. They’d back off 5 to 8 miles away then. Getting called to general quarters at 3 am and not a drill gets your attention.

  82. 82.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    127,000 people voted in Harris County [Houston] on the first day of Early Voting; more than double the record of 68,000 set in 2016.

    Polls still haven’t closed because of long lines

  85. 85.

    Mike in NC

    Per Rachel Maddow a little while ago, with impeccable timing the Trump maladministration is thinking (?) about killing even more of us by endorsing “herd immunity”, which most scientists call bullshit on.

  87. 87.

    Patricia Kayden

    I mean, come on. Dodge all you want about Roe and the Affordable Care Act. Dance around with "originalism" and "textualism." But, dammit, the president doesn't have the power to postpone a national election. https://t.co/ecupQyCrds— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) October 13, 2020

  93. 93.

    jl

    @Ruckus: I forgot to say that the herd immunity people are also wrong on the idea that you can’t stop covid-19 from going everywhere. A dozen countries have shown you can stop it from going everywhere, if you can get prevalence down very low. They have economies and societies that are operating half-way normally.

    That is one reason that I have problems with IMHO sloppy reporting that says, for example that all of Europe is in a resurgence as bad as their first wave, or that just emphasize every temporary defeat (an outbreak of 5 or 10 or even 100 cases) but then say nothing about the victories.

    As I said in previous thread, if you look back, there have been many stories about outbreaks in S Korea, Hong Kong, Australia etc. that doomed and gloomed about all progress being undone. But, they managed to quash the outbreaks without resorting to very damaging and lengthy general or country wide shut downs. If people get pessimistic because they only see news that makes everything seem hopeless, they are more likely to buy into quackery that depends on convincing people that any and all control efforts are hopeless. (but as I noted, somehow magically, they also assert that protecting vulnerable is not hopeless even as disease rages at levels orders of magnitude above those in countries with successful efforts).

  94. 94.

    MagdaInBlack

    @mrmoshpotato:
    You mean the ” I’m just a harmless little girl” voice?
    That’s so as to be non-threatening to the men folk.

    Eta: It annoys the f out of me.

  95. 95.

    Ruckus

    @Raven:

    Yep. Crazy though I didn’t mind it, as long as I didn’t have to go stand outside for 20-40 minutes freezing my ass and every other damn part of me off. My sister sent me a bright green wool scarf that she’d knitted and I wore it once while we refueled. One of the officers yelled down to me from the bridge to take it off. I can’t remember exactly what I told him but the gist was no, and fuck off till I get cold weather gear. Politely stated as always of course. He looked at me, didn’t say a word, walked back inside and I never heard another word from anyone about it.

  97. 97.

    James E Powell

    @Ohio Mom:

    Okay Adam, what are our options if these ratfinks steal the election?

    We don’t need to talk about that right now because we are winning. The only useful question is, “What can I do to increase the number of Democratic votes?”

    Volunteer, donate, call your friends & family, alert your social network.

    Look in the mirror. Smile. Say it. We. Are. Winning.

  101. 101.

    Ken

    @Keith P.: I saw a post from a doctor who warned that Trump might not have developed immunity, because the Regeneron antibodies knocked out the virus before his own system “learned” to fight it. I can’t find the post now and I have no idea if the guy had any qualifications to speak on the immune system.

  102. 102.

    Jeffro

    Who among us wouldn’t look at all this chaos, corruption, and Covid and go, “Oh yeah, baby, let’s go with four more years of THIS!”

    Ye gods.

  103. 103.

    Anya

    @dmsilev: Every time I hear his whiny pathetic baby act I just feel so confused by anyone who still supports him. But most of all, those who have sacrificed their dignity to support this pathetic piece of sh*t.

  106. 106.

    Jeffro

    @dmsilev: FWIW, naturally I forwarded this information to my dad and bro, who were busy critiquing Mazie Hirono’s and Richard Blumenthal’s intelligence.

    (I may have also noted to them that the Durham/’Hunter & Ukraine’ report came up with nothing, and gee we sure never heard anything about the Clinton Foundation, ‘Uranium One’, etc.  I think I wrapped it all up with “time for a caravan”!!!1!)

    Radio silence in response, of course.  But what do I know, I just have a bad case of trumpov Derangement Syndrome.  0_0

  107. 107.

    Ruckus

    @jl:

    You can teach ignorant people.

    You can’t teach people with less brain power than a used, dirty dish sponge.

    It’s even harder to teach people that have no desire to learn anything more than to breath and sometimes wipe their asses. And aren’t too sure about those.

  108. 108.

    brantl

    @Martin: Remember, a bunch of those jackaloons (not a misspelling) have guns, and lots of them, and no respect for anyone but themselves.

  110. 110.

    kindness

    I can understand Trump freaking out and saying crazy dumb stuff.  I get scared.  I can’t understand how Republicans aren’t scared of Trump too.  Not the elected ones.  They are on the payroll.  The citizens.  They’ve gone from tribal to a cult.

  116. 116.

    jl

    @Ruckus: Also, now that good serology studies are coming in, it will take fricken forever for it to go everywhere. Just years and years of death and damaged health.

    The fact that spontaneous decentralized behavior change, again apart from shut downs, has such a big impact on lowering the rate of spread should be a clue that covid-19 can be controlled, it’s just a matter of finding the right bag of tricks, as we have done with bacterial meningitis, TB, other infectious diseases. It will be a much bigger pain in the ass until we get prophyaxis, therapies that keep people out of the hospital, and vaccine, but it can be done at far lower cost than going for disease induced herd immunity.

    And the US approach to control is so hideously incompetent, any sales job here that says it can’t be controlled is like telling a drunk that he is too bombed to wipe his own ass so why bother trying to use a toilet, just keep drinking so he doesn’t mind the smell. Maybe the drunk should try sobering up. But, hey, call me crazy!

    OK, rant/lecture over now.

  118. 118.

    Raven

    @Immanentize: You might enjoy this.

     

    https://richard-snow.com/book/a-measureless-peril/

     

    Far more than a story of battle, A Measureless Peril is a riveting account of the quotidian life of a nation at war. Snow writes of the home-hankering effect of fresh-baked bread tasted aboard a ship far from home; of the affectionate, kidding, and deeply longing letters from men at sea and the women who wait for them; of the pain of seeing other men die and the peculiar pride of doing an unpalatable impossible job well. Richard Snow, the son, and Richard Snow, the father, are two of the most felicitous writers I have ever read. Snow senior’s letters to his wife — wry, insightful, moral, occasionally short-tempered, and most of all, loving — make the war as vivid as this morning’s news. Snow junior’s account of the longest battle of World War II is authoritative, fresh, and heart-stopping. His portrait of his father, whom he sees as emblematic of a generation, is luminous. This is a book about fathers and sons that women will love. It is also a book about the experience of war that no woman will be able to put down.”

  119. 119.

    debbie

    Huh, Trump’s back to advertising in Ohio. I’ve been informed that 82% of Americans will be paying higher taxes under Biden.

  120. 120.

    Jeffro

    @James E Powell:

    We don’t need to talk about that right now because we are winning. The only useful question is, “What can I do to increase the number of Democratic votes?”  Volunteer, donate, call your friends & family, alert your social network.  Look in the mirror. Smile. Say it. We. Are. Winning.

    Totally on board here.  We are three weeks away from doing this and doing it right.  Those folks aren’t waiting in 12-hour lines to vote because they’re happy.

  122. 122.

    dmsilev

    @Anya: I know. For a guy who’s “thing” is “I am the alpha male of all alpha males”, he sure does a lot of whining about not being liked.

  124. 124.

    The Moar You Know

    All the folks freaking out about violence; it will happen. Possibly a lot of it.  So, since you didn’t arm up, and it’s far too late to arm up and learn how to use a gun in a combat situation without being a hazard to everyone around you, just stay inside.  You’ll probably be fine unless you do stupid shit like go out and protest.  If you’re out and you see people gathering, go the other way.  Protests are where America’s righties and cops go looking for people to shoot.  So just stay inside.

  126. 126.

    MagdaInBlack

    @debbie: Thats because they’re under the impression that 82% of Americans make over $400k / year.

    Ms. Romney McWhatever said that the other day.

  131. 131.

    WaterGirl

    @dmsilev: That really is sad.  In every sense.

    Except that it makes me happy to know that he has sunk to that.  A normal person would be embarrassed.  “Please like me.”

    O.M.G.  As bad as we thought it would be, we couldn’t even comprehend that it could be this bad.

  133. 133.

    sdhays

    @jl: This is America. The drunk not only has a (gawd-given) right to be drunk, he has a right to be celebrated being drunk, no matter how much vomit and shit he hurls on the people around him.

    It’s called freedumb.

  135. 135.

    The Moar You Know

    Remember, a bunch of those jackaloons (not a misspelling) have guns, and lots of them, and no respect for anyone but themselves.

    @brantl: remember this; a person can only shoot one gun at a time. I don’t worry about a guy who owns 50 guns. I worry about 50 people who own a gun and decide sometimes in the next three months might be a dandy time to go use theirs on someone. Be aware of your surroundings and stay out of protests and dangerous situations.

  136. 136.

    Ruckus

    @Immanentize:

    I was in the Atlantic. I’m glad I didn’t get sent to the Pacific.

    When I was a mental health counselor, another guy there had been in the navy at the same time on a sister ship to me and he was in the Pacific, actually in the waters off of Vietnam. One of their missiles looped back at them and flew between the forward and aft exhaust stacks without hitting anything. Now understand these missiles traveled way faster than the speed of sound. They accelerated past the speed of sound in less than 10 feet when fired. It would have done an immense amount of damage if it had hit them. And they had no way or time to do anything. Here’s the ship I was stationed on, a side view so you can see what I’m talking about.

    When I say between the stacks, the missile was below the tops of the stacks.

  138. 138.

    Bill Arnold

    @Ohio Mom:

    On another note, as a layperson I have to say, skimming through the table of contents, I’m impressed with how comprehensive this DIY guide is.

    Opposition research is legal and a powerful tool.
    Similar vintage:
    Simple Sabotage Field Manual (1944)
    (Note: property crimes are crimes, and are legally violence.)
    The technologies/infrastructures to be monkey-wrenched have changed a lot since then. (Techies, tool up, read guides. Tool up some more. The NSA has vast resources; make them work for your identities/communications.)
    Learning how to communicate securely (and at least basics of OPSEC) might be most important if it gets bad. The recent Five Eyes statement on banning unmonitored opposition political communications banning end-to-end encryption is a tell.
    International Statement: End-To-End Encryption and Public Safety (Department of Justice – Office of Public Affairs – Sunday, October 11, 2020)
    (Ostensibly to protect children from pedophiles and traffickers, mainly. Thanks, QAnon, for getting 10s of millions of Americans freaked out about child-eating pedophiles!)

  139. 139.

    prostratedragon

    @mrmoshpotato:  Goodness. Haven’t heard her voice yet, but the amount of comment here about it has me dreading the possibility that I might slip up.

  140. 140.

    WaterGirl

    @James E Powell:

    Look in the mirror. Smile. Say it. We. Are. Winning.

    Hmm.  Just a few minutes ago I wrote to someone that when they start to panic, they should remember that the Republicans want us to feel that way, and then yell “fuck you!”.

    I guess yours is nicer.

  147. 147.

    Ruckus

    @jl:

    A good rant. And you are correct.

    The willful desire to maintain ignorance is astounding. The concept that the world can be better if we’d all just bend over and stick our heads up our own asses, like they do, and are pissed because we won’t, never ceases to amaze me.

  149. 149.

    sdhays

    @dmsilev: I can’t wait for the commercial which puts these two together. All ending with a “womp womp” :-(.

    Just run it on Fox in DC so he’s sure to see it.

  150. 150.

    Jay

    For those wondering what they can do if TSHTF, but because of Sars-Covid 19, can’t engage in peaceful protest,

    the people out there will need:

    – bail money,

    -shields

    – masks

    – goggles

    – helmets

    – body armour

    – child and petcare

    – phones replaced

    – food

    – water, lots of water

    – medical care

    peaceful protests have a long line of both organizing and logistical support. There are groups near you, already at work, that you in your own way can contribute to.

  153. 153.

    Ruckus

    Been at work all day, just checked my email.

    95 emails, 5 were not political ads asking for money.

  158. 158.

    dmsilev

    @sdhays: I can’t find the link just now, but after Trump did that flop of a Tulsa rally, the Lincoln Project folks had an ad showing him flying off to Tulsa with the theme from Jurassic Park playing, and his defeated walk from the chopper back to the WH accompanied by a sad-kazoo version of the same music… Something like that would work here.

  159. 159.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Raven: My doctor advises waiting till mid October to get it given when the flu season really gets underway here. He doesn’t want it to wear off before the flu season ends.

  162. 162.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:

    @🐾BillinGlendaleCA:

    I may be a soft touch for a good cause. But there are limits. And it’s a rather small soft touch. I’m just trying to protect my retirement (and the ability to actually live) and shitforbrains is making that damn near impossible.

    So to answer your questions, Fuck off.

  163. 163.

    sdhays

    @dmsilev: I remember that. It was great! I just want to see him directly associated with Jeb Bush, who Dump correctly identified as a particularly pathetic and weak politician.

    He’s now Jeb!

  169. 169.

    mrmoshpotato

    @MagdaInBlack:

    You mean the ” I’m just a harmless little girl” voice?
    That’s so as to be non-threatening to the men folk.

    Eta: It annoys the f out of me.

    YES!  I just started one of Brian Tyler Cohen’s commentaries, and…😲.

    Time to skip to his commentary like I do with Dump.

  172. 172.

    WaterGirl

    @Miss Bianca: Isn’t that great!  It totally captures Trump’s desperation

    edit: So good, I had to watch it twice.  And I’ll bet Robert De Nero has a pretty good twitter following, so that’s nice.

  174. 174.

    The Moar You Know

    Nope, I’ve had my usual robust response to it.

    @Adam L Silverman:  I get the same thing where you feel like you’re gonna die for a day.

    Just wait until you get the shingles vaccine.  The second dose of the series.  Clear a whole weekend for that.  Goddamn.  Never had a medicine make me feel that bad in my life.

  178. 178.

    Adam L Silverman

    @The Moar You Know: First dose of that is next month. My doctor wants to space it out from the flu shot.

    Also, I’ve had the DOD’s anthrax series, so believe me I know all about multishot vaccinations and how they get worse with each one.

  179. 179.

    J R in WV

    @Adam L Silverman: 

    I just wish I knew what all the Navy gave me in the spring of 1970 at Great Lakes. The shot line was a long ordeal. It bothered me less than lots of the guys, needles never have bothered me much.

    But the pneumatic guns, those were pretty bad. Some guys twitched, and got cuts from the high pressure spray, and had blood running down their arms. No one on the injecting side of the line seemed to care about that.

  180. 180.

    Graham

    Is anyone else laughing their asses off thinking how Hair Furor must have felt when he saw every news report saying how dangerous Covid was to him because he is an extremely fat bastard? I know damn well that in his mind he is fit and oh so sexy. The Hitler thing that De Niro tweeted rekindled that insight for me…

  181. 181.

    Adam L Silverman

    @J R in WV: When I checked in at training for the program that would deploy me to Iraq, the first afternoon my ASO took me over to the base medical facility for the baseline checkup and any necessary vaccinations. In under 10 minutes I got a flu shot, a meningitis shot, a tetanus booster, another MMR shot despite already having three in my med file (the normal infant/toddler cycle plus an additional one when I was an undergrad and measles was going around universities), a whooping cough/diptheria booster, and the first shot in the anthrax series. We then did a few other administrative things, he took me to dinner, and then I have a very early and woozy night.

  182. 182.

    AnotherBruce

    So does a pygmy like William Barr, frighten anybody? He’s failed to indict Biden and Obama and Hillary. It’s not because he is evil. It’s because they both are really fucking lazy. Also, Barr has become as stupid as Trump. That was inevitable. That’s because everything Trump touches, dies.

  184. 184.

    Haydnseek

    @Adam L Silverman:”How Much Rice Can You Pack On A Yak As You Traverse The Himalayas?” Sounds like a line in a Noel Coward song.  Similar tone to “Only Mad Dogs and Englishmen Go Out In the Midday Sun.”

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