Pops head up. Looks around.
Going without connectivity is good for my mental health.
Pops head down.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
Nothing much happening…..
–>Just When I Thought I Was Out, They Pull Me Back In.
Let’s play Whack-A-Mole with Boo!
Enjoy the rest of your time off. Yes – being unplugged for a while is indeed a healthy thing.
Beat me to it!
The Guardian. (I’ve reorganized sections of the article for a sequential view.)
So, within one week of taking office, the incompetent Trump administration through DOJ managed to get a grand jury to issue a subpoena to obtain information on those that had accessed a website promoting an anti-Trump protest during his inauguration. This would be during the period when Trump was publicly going ballistic over the accurate reports of the underwhelming attendance at the inauguration. Who was the DOJ lead attorney that secured the subpoena? Whose instruction/order was he/she acting on? Who at the then Comey’s FBI was involved in this?
Undefined if anything secured from “protestj20” was used for these indictments. How far is DOJ prepared to go with this revenge prosecution of people that had to audacity to hurt Trump’s fee-fees?
Okay, a U.S. Magistrate Judge signed off on this search warrant requested by an FBI officer. (Also possible but not probable that a grand jury issued the search warrant.) WTH is the probable cause? (Did the FBI find the dumbest and/or most inebriated Magistrate or is probable cause a useful fiction for the masses?) What’s the alleged crime? Has the FBI/DOJ found another novel use of the Patriot Act – is the NSA passing captured communications to the FBI/DOJ? (Another POS promulgated by Republican in the WH and Congress that weak-willed, the most charitable interpretation, Democrats signed onto. The major hero resisters to that were librarians, but that resistance couldn’t go further than refusing to comply with “National Security Letters.” That POS remains the “law of the land.”)
Time for protests in front of the J. Edgar Hoover and Robert F. Kennedy buildings? (Just don’t use a website to advance/promote it. Dixie cups and strings and cryptic notes written with disappearing ink are the highest tech safe communication means.)
One of my favorite memes these days.
I just stumbled on it today. Many were having fun with that photo in March, but it appears that this speech bubble version is new and totally zings.
The speechbubbles didnt take long to be added, not that its important though.
Mostly an excuse to point out that reverse image searches can be very helpful to find the source and time of images easily, which is often a unmissable tool for me to determine the value of information.
https:/tineye.com/search/4e8204da33c733c69b0a12e473308ae576338856?page=2&sort=crawl_date&o
rder=asc
Another way to reverse search images is via google image search.
Was only curious as to when this version was created (not suggesting that it took any significant amount of time to construct).
Should have typed in “when …” in my original search because I have now found that it was in circulation by March 18, 2007.
Parody-subtitled Hitler bunker rant from the movie Downfall.
There’s one for GIS, which I use at work all the time (meaning GIS, not the Hitler-rant parody — though we’ve certainly forwarded that around) that’s hilarious. As well as for just about every event you could thing of that might provoke a rant, e.g., Hitler Reacts to Obama’s Re-election, Hitler Reacts to Trump’s Nomination, etc.
With the first in that linked playlist cleverly going all meta: Hitler finds out about the Downfall Parodies.
Counting down, 13 days until my unplugged vacation. I am looking forward to it. Will have to wait and see if my wife can stand the loss of her daily Trump-craziness
fix. As for me, I will be loving every minute of it.
It’s a major adjustment, going through my day without the occasional frogpond fix.
Thoughts on this?
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/is-america-headed-for-a-new-kind-of-civil-war
You picked the most pointless part of the article, the task of asking to put opinion on the question of future civil war into probability.
Its beyond a doubt the us faces immense ideological struggles, and that constantly it seems the boiling point is reached, especially since calm and analytical opinions dont get reported on as the public wants action and drama all the time.
Is it just drama and sensation? put your guess in a percentage number.
It was alright to read, and it reinforces my feeling that people are losing trust in it all, and want to fight everything. Chance of civil war? the same as it was before the article.
During your solitude, I would recommend not traveling to Guam, Puerto Rico, or anywhere with a Confederate monument. Other than that, have a blast.
And by Puerto Rico, I meant Korea. Clearly I haven’t had enough coffee today.
Glad that you are enjoying your break😄😄😄👏👏👏
I have to confess there is something kind of cathartic about being able to call people Nazis without worrying about Godwin. Because, you know, NAZIS. With actual swastikas and everything.
I have a Register article for you: Chap behind Godwin’s law suspends his own rule for Charlottesville fascists: ‘By all means, compare them to Nazis’.
Our President held a press conference to talk about infrastructure today:
Trump Defends Initial Remarks on Charlottesville; Again Blames `Both Sides’
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and MAGGIE HABERMAN
AUG. 15, 2017
“…Many of those people were there to protest the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee,” Mr. Trump said. “This week, it is Robert E. Lee and this week, Stonewall Jackson. Is it George Washington next? You have to ask yourself, where does it stop?” he said, noting that the first American president had owned slaves…
…David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader, praised Mr. Trump’s comments as a condemnation of “leftist terrorists.”
“Thank you President Trump for your honesty & courage to tell the truth about #Charlottesville,” Mr. Duke said in a Twitter post…
…Mr. Trump defended those gathered in the Charlottesville park to protest the statue’s removal, saying, “I’ve condemned neo-Nazis. I’ve condemned many different groups. Not all of those people were neo-Nazis, believe me. Not all of those people were white supremacists by any stretch…”
…The president added that blame for the violence in the city – which also took the lives of two Virginia state troopers when their helicopter crashed – should also be on people from “the left” who came to oppose the nationalist protesters.
“You had a group on one side and the other, and they came at each other with clubs, and it was vicious and horrible. It was a horrible thing to watch,” the president said. “There is another side. There was a group on this side, you can call them the left. You have just called them the left, that came violently attacking the other group. You can say what you want. That’s the way it is…”
Hillary was right. This sorry ass excuse for a human being, and a substantial number of people in his movement, were deplorable.
Anyone still choosing to support him and his movement, after behavior like that we’ve seen by them over the last few days, is deplorable.
Well, the good news is he’s even more tone deaf than Clinton and apparently hell bent (an apt expression if I do say so myself) on reducing his approval numbers to only the most deplorable of the dead-end deplorables.
Trump’s a con artist. He made outrageous lies about what he could do for the public (“Obamacare repealed/replaced by a better, cheaper system, so easy, so quickly”) that too many people were willing to believe.
Outrageous, propagandistic lies were also assembled about Clinton and Democrats by Trump, the conservative media, and a curiously large army of people on social media.
Today is a particularly offensive day to be attacking Clinton. She and her campaign warned the public that Trump was entirely unsuitable for office. She was 100% correct about that.
Never Interfere With an Enemy While He’s in the Process of Destroying Himself or any of the variations is good advice.
(Ignore Carville’s variation – when the enemy is drowning throw him an anvil – because in the moment it’s very difficult to identify an anvil.)
If good people don’t speak out, this sort of behavior can become acceptable. For way too many, it already has. Tip-toeing around this is unacceptable and likely counterproductive.
Through targeted denial of the vote, particularly extreme gerrymandering and other methods, racists, sexists and oligarchs are trying to secure the ability of the minority to exhibit ruthless power against the majority for the long term. The New Jim Crow, indeed.
I want liberals and Democrats to be the ones who benefit if the attacks against the President and his movement succeed. We now see more Congressional Republicans and more movement conservatives sneaking away from the raging dumpster fire. These conservatives can’t be allowed to benefit and behave as if they are the moral beacons. They remain complicit up to the moment they impeach, the Senate votes him out of office, and they abandon their racist, sexist, oligarchical policies.
And, as we see time and time again, the media is anxious to rehabilitate Republicans and conservatives. It’s up to us to name Trump as the logical outcome of the previously existing conservative movement. Major leaders in American culture are attempting to keep the general public ignorant of which movement is to blame for making the general public’s lives most difficult and unpleasant.
Highly imperfect as the Democratic Party is, they are not complicit in any of this bullshit. We not only need to own the rejection of the toxic conservative movement, we need to help make it happen as promptly as possible.
The “hook” is Trump-KKK-Nazis. Their own words are damning themselves.
Have you no faith in the ability of people to be able to read the faces of Trump advisors that appeared with him today at his presser? (Excluding Cho who never leaves home without her smiley-face mask — and as the wife of McConnell may not even remove it at home.)
All the Republican pols to the left of the far right are lining up to condemn Trump-KKK-Nazis. Are they “good people?” Is this helpful to Democrats?
Trump also pushed the “Alt-Left” as bad people meme. Who concocted that and has also for weeks been pushing that?
Add Neera Tanden who uses Alt-Left and calls them fascists. And Markos Moulitsas and Armando for doubling down on that AFTER the events in Charlottesville.
So, yes, Democrats have been complicit in one aspect of this BS — and President Trump thanks those “good” Democrats for the “Alt-Left” creation that he could run with. (Not that it’s done him any good because fortunately, most people are unfamiliar with it and side with those that have been injured and killed, particularly when the other side is waving swastikas.)
The Observer – Establishment Democrats Shamelessly Exploit Tragedy to Punch Left Done shamelessly because they can’t stop trying to re-litigate the 2016 election and can’t stop promoting Clinton. Dragging both into conversations about the events in Charlottesville and Trump’s statements muddies the waters. And in this moment, repeating Clinton’s loser “basket of deplorables” meme isn’t going to catch any flies.
This is getting passed around with the caption, “I’ve Made a Huge Mistake:”
Ordinary people, unconsciously and non-verbally for the most part, check their own responses to occurrences for which they don’t have ready-made response with that of others. Most don’t commit to their personal response unless others and/or a person of stature appear to confirm it.
Kelly resigns this week or this sad face he pulled today doesn’t mean jack. You’re in the Trump Administration, you’re complicit. Particularly the President’s Chief of Staff. He’s 100% complicit.
Hell, if you’re in the conservative movement and you’re not seeking the President’s removal, you’re complicit. Speak of the devil:
Paul Ryan
@SpeakerRyan
We must be clear. White supremacy is repulsive. This bigotry is counter to all this country stands for. There can be no moral ambiguity.
3:01 PM – 15 Aug 2017
And one of many justified responses:
Charles P. Pierce
@CharlesPPierce
Say his goddamn name.
3:28 PM – 15 Aug 2017
Bannon resigned and now the battle for what is going to be the GOP begins.
Elaborately attacking Clinton and Democrats with whom you have an ax to grind at a moment like today, at this place in the comments thread? With extremely sketchy claims? For what?
And you’re suggesting elsewhere in the thread that liberals and Democrats should hold their tongues today?
If you were on the Trump Train, how would your comments be any different from these? Not at all!
You want to enable our terrible President’s Whataboutism like this? In the wake of a Nazi murdering a peaceful protester?
Fuck, what a sickening display.
Do you have a link for the reference to Markos calling the left fascists?
I quit readingago after12 years. Never cared what Kos had to say on anything. Ditto for Armando. The alt left c— is enough in itself to send one running. Now they’ve created a smear slogan for Trump.
Trump has attacked the alt left which seems to be antifa, the antifacist group who opposes the Nazis at their rallies. So there is such a thing, it appears. In my view that doesn’t make them evil. Speaking only for myself I suspect my uncle would turn over in his grave with these white nationalists, since he spent years fighting the bastards in Europe and N Africa.
(they really need to do something with their name.)
The issue here, is that we have shown we are pretty poor judges of when the enemy is drowning.
Just walked halfway up Rockchuck Peak and I am tired in a very good way.
Wicked cool! However did that mountain get its name?
Oh, wait: It’s so-called for the yellow-bellied marmot: http://www.summitpost.org/rockchuck-peak/738622
Seems as good a reason as any.
Simply beautiful. I wonder what the Native American names were for those mountains.
teewinot, for “many pinnacles.”
Hey! There you are, Martin. Keep on keeping on, Brother. Good Lord, Rockchuck looks like it has 30- to 40-percent gradients. That about right?
Those granite peaks of the Tetons are verrrry striking. I loved taking their foothill trails on mules with my grandmother right before she began losing her major neurofunctions to Alzheimer’s.
That mountain range just announces itself from anywhere nearby.
30- to 40-*degree gradients, I meant to write.
Will you be there for the eclipse on Monday?
Lots of goodies in the presser.
This might be the best:
The best because it’s totally laughable and relates exclusively to Trump, and if there’s one thing that gets under his skin, it’s being mocked.
He’s clearly rattled — likely checked his approval rating and can’t believe that it has gone down in the past three days. Desperately seeking a way to throw the handful of pubic parading KKK and Nazi members under the bus without alienating the Alt-Right and white nationalists/racists. Too bad that’s near, at, or more than half his support base and they’re joined at the hip. The remainder are authoritarians but don’t like Nazis.
Kat Timpf doesn’t mince her words:
You picked a good week to check out, lemme say.
Boo- Good day to stay underground.
Boo- Good day to stay underground.
Poll result heard on NPR just now: 27% of poll respondents said Trump’s response to Charlottesville was ok.
Ref.:
LOL — never gets old, does it?
I see Trump is attacking Amazon as a job killer. What does he know that we don’t? If we are really anti monopoly, as the Better Deal suggests, why are we not doing the same? Trump is taking over our issue.
He doesn’t know anything; he’s just flailing.
I’m not sure about that. He just talked about it in relation to jobs,
He’s a cornered animal and acting like I would expect. He has some on-going animosity toward Amazon’s CEO, who also bought WaPo (which Trump considers to be a hostile news outlet). Probably as simple as that – cornered animal snarls and tries to bite.