I bitch about my job plenty. Non-specifically and vaguely these days, as both my gigs are pretty OK for now, but my irritation with the business in general remains the same. But every so often I look back at a day, week or month and think, “OK, so the money sucks, but just this summer alone I got to go to Jobbie Nooner and see Kanye West sing with a gospel choir, so it beats actuarial sciences.”
Jobbie was in June, Kanye was Friday. I’m not a Kanye fan. Most days, if he passed me on the street, I wouldn’t know who he was. But he’s probably stronger on my radar than most hip-hop artists, and so, when I heard that he was bringing his Sunday Service act to Detroit on about 24 hours notice, I figured, what the hell.
Sunday Service is West’s latest flight of fancy — short shows with a locally hired and hastily trained gospel choir doing both classics, Kanye covers and other pop hits. So it was intriguing.
It turned out to be almost entirely the choir’s show. Kanye sang maybe one verse and left almost everything else up to his director. As choirs go, it was pretty unconventional, with the group surrounding the musicians in a rough circle, unrobed, only casually grouped by voice. This picture should give you an idea:
Can’t find Kanye? Let’s move in closer:
Still lost? OK, visual aids:
I read in the Freep’s review that Kim Kardashian was there, too, but in that crowd, she would have been just another body in a very big crowd. I didn’t pick her out.
It was an interesting show. I love a good gospel choir, singing Kanye songs perhaps less so, but I always respect an artist who’s willing to try something different, and this certainly was that. He held another thing later that night, at the Fox Theater, which turned out to be a listening party for his as-yet-unreleased Sunday Service album. Didn’t go to that one. A little Kanye West goes a long way for me.
And even though Kanye is an infamous MAGAt, it was nice to think of something else, if only for a couple of hours. It was a beautiful day to sit under the big tent of the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre and not consider the trouble the country is in.
I did more of that avoidance today, as our trip to Morocco is fast approaching. I wrote out a detailed itinerary, put all the Airbnb numbers in one place, so we can find them easily. I hope this trip is everything I need it to be, i.e. two weeks in not-America, paying attention to things that are not-Trump. I hope most the Instagram influencers have cleared out for the season. I hope it’s not terribly hot. I hope there’s lots of tea. I feel certain of the last one there. I also want to do some shopping, because I’m an American idiot and I love all the colors in the souks and OMG LEATHER GIMME GIMME.
Finally, we come to current affairs, and, well, I need a new emoji. One that combines the feelings of sadness, horror, contempt and simple OMG-is-this-really-happening astonishment that I walk through every day.
I also see shit like this:
The road to my heart is paved with pawprints 🐾 pic.twitter.com/toOLPz5PDT
— Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) September 27, 2019
Why does this woman even have a Twitter account? Why would she post stuff like this? So we can all dunk on her in the comments? Maybe so.
And so it’s nearly time for “Succession,” and certainly time for me to get back to my Frommer’s/Lonely Planet/Rough Guide Morocco texts.
JodiP said on September 29, 2019 at 8:10 pm
I hope your trip is beautiful and interesting! I myself am leaving for Florence a week from tomorrow. I have many of the same “I just really want to avoid America for a while” goals.
I just read iGen, a book about people born roughly between 1997 and 2014, and how they are different than millenials. Fascinating. Now, I’m onto Moneyland, which promises to be much more depressing. Putin’s push to create chaos makes more sense, as we then have little energy to track the flow of money around the world.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/07/moneyland-oliver-bullough-review
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alex said on September 29, 2019 at 9:09 pm
Ivanka’s got her fingers in that puppy like it’s a bowling ball. Or like her father in a teen pageant dressing room.
So Morocco’s why you’re reading Sheltering Sky?
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Heather said on September 29, 2019 at 9:13 pm
I’m headed for Turkey in about a week and I get more anxious about not being in America. What if Trump bombs someplace while I’m gone? What if I can’t get back? Etc. My anxiety is in full tilt these days for various reasons.
Looking forward to your Morocco report as that was one of my options for this vacation–probably the last one in a while as I’m looking for work. But I’ve really wanted to go to Turkey for a long time, State Department warning be damned. I mean, people get shot all the time in my neighborhood–which country is more dangerous?
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MarkH said on September 29, 2019 at 10:05 pm
As you may have heard by now, Kanye and Kim are now our neighbors, sort of, at least by standards of the West. After about three years of transiting in and out of Jackson Hole working on his most recent album, and amid speculation that they were going to buy property here, they decided to get the most for their money with a massive ranch just south of Cody.
https://billingsgazette.com/people/kanye-west-buys-m-wyoming-ranch/article_5878fa8d-3a83-5c53-92d2-52aa4abab52a.html
All of this was on the QT, until a few weeks ago when the news got out. So far, they have been ingratiating themselves with the locals, visiting the mayor, local establishments and such. By all accounts he loves the area, wants to be a part of it, however much time he spends there. By all accounts he is getting a good reception. Then last week, he did what he did in Detroit, a last-minute call for one of his Sunday Services, held at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. About 4,000 people turned out from throughout the region.
https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/kanye-hosts-sunday-service-in-cody/article_f3c4d43a-96a5-58ea-8e56-f4596c044729.html
Pretty amazing event. Then there was news that Snoop Dog was getting in on the act – buying the famous Two Dot Ranch north of Cody.
Most interesting real estate news in our state in quite a while.
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MarkH said on September 29, 2019 at 10:16 pm
Of course, the above means welcome to your neighborhood, too, Charlotte!
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Joe Kobiela said on September 29, 2019 at 11:29 pm
Mark H,
How close to Cody are you? A guy that was a few years ahead of me in school has a dinner theater in Cody, Dan Miller, does cowboy songs saw him last month here in Indiana. Great guy and very talented.
Montana had 2 ft of snow today?
Wild
Pilot Joe
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Dexter Friend said on September 30, 2019 at 1:07 am
I have an old friend who just left Montana, for back home to Carlsbad, CA after a healing trip to parks when she was cleared of uterine cancer. Cancer was detected , just a dot, she had it removed and after the obligatory time period elapsed and she was re-examined, she was declared cancer free. She timed it well, the USA NW got hammered with snow, hail and wind.
I see West was sans leather skirt. Wotta pity; didn’t everyone love that weirdo with that skirt and those thick hoodies? I mean, I did see him with Trump way back when.
…well, we spent the weekend in Commercial Point, that housing development just south of Grove City (Columbus). Not much, really…checking up on daughter Vanessa as she was recuperating from having drainage ports removed from surgery, seeing granddaughter who now is staying with Vanessa’s family to go to some school in Columbus, and seeing adorable 3 1/2 year old great grand, meaning I spent hours watching Vampirina and playing with they tyke’s Vampirina dolls, and doing puzzles over and again. Daughter Lori flew in from Las Vegas to see everyone and we all had Chinese. Oh man how I love rangoon and also steamed pot sticker dumplings and plates of stir-fry vegetables and the good kind of lo mein. Sure is a long tiring drive…never used to phase me…now it kills me…don’t get old! Damnation.
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MarkH said on September 30, 2019 at 2:21 am
Never been to Danny’s show, but it’s there, Joe, and popular.
https://cowboymusicrevue.com/
Cody is about 175 miles away, 4 hours through Yellowstone, summer/fall only. There was actually 5 feet in most of NW Montana.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 30, 2019 at 7:56 am
Thanks to “The Monroes” I associate Jackson Hole with Barbara Hershey. Which is not a bad thing.
But I really need to visit someday. Going to Deadwood this summer was . . . odd. But getting to see Devil’s Tower and Wall Drug was delightful; Mount Rushmore was more enjoyable from Needles Highway and Iron Mountain Road than it was at the official spot, and I wholly endorse spending the money to visit the Crazy Horse memorial and taking the extra $5 bus to the backside of the project.
The only problem is it takes three days to drive there (perhaps less for a tougher driver than me), so with ten days to take that gives us four days to roam. We’ll have to figure out our next hub for going west in a couple of years.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 30, 2019 at 7:59 am
Nancy, you may have missed this one:
https://twitter.com/HamillHimself/status/1178394628464070656
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Julie Robinson said on September 30, 2019 at 10:03 am
A college friend brought home a men’s caftan from Morocco–I think they are called thobes or djellabas, and it was so comfy he wore it pretty much full time when he was at home. Forget the leather purse, I want one of those. I am also longing for the days we can take two-week trips.
Great burn from Luke Skywalker, but Jefftmmo, didja notice Jared and Ivanka have blank walls in their home? Insert any blank minds jokes you’d like.
Nancy Pelosi has undergone a transformation, and not just her permanently raised eyebrows. She always has a patriotic pin on her pink or lavender jacket, and is speaking slowly, calmly, somberly. She’s saying we have to approach impeachment prayerfully, that she takes no joy, speaking of what our founders had in mind. Obviously there were some opinion polls run.
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Suzanne said on September 30, 2019 at 10:14 am
I am getting very uneasy with Trump’s talk of civil war because I do live among Trumpsters and yes, many of them are armed to the nines and have a very juvenile view of what armed rebellion would involve and what it would do. These are people that, almost to a person, have told me that had they been present in that Colorado movie theater or in that school in Newtown or in that church in Sutherland Springs, the perpetrator would not have gotten away with it. Most of them also believe that the USA is God’s chosen nation and he will not let destruction reign down on it. Civil war, for them, would be a great way to weed the field and get rid of the godless liberals that are keeping God from allowing the nation to prosper the way it should.
I wish I was making this up, but I am not. And it scares the crap out of me.
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Deborah said on September 30, 2019 at 10:31 am
Suzanne, there’s a funny twitter thread about what to bring if you’re signing up for the civil war https://twitter.com/hashtag/CivilWarSignUp?src=hash there are a lot of tweets on it about not bringing potato salad with raisins in it (is that a thing?). You have to laugh about it all, or you’ll cry. I mean what are those idiots who talk about mowing down liberals really going to make happen, it’s all ridiculous. Unfortunately there will continue to be mass shootings until we do something about the gun situation, whether there will be more because of Trump’s language remains to be seen, IMO.
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Julie Robinson said on September 30, 2019 at 10:50 am
One of the recent shootings–the one in Texas, where the police shot the perpetrator in about 30 seconds? They also shot civilians. I’ve never seen if any of the police bullets were fatal, but imagine if that had been a “good guy with a gun”, perhaps experiencing panic, how many more might have died. Collateral damage, I guess, sad but necessary. Trot out the quote about the tree of liberty needing to be watered by blood.
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Dorothy Michalski said on September 30, 2019 at 11:00 am
I don’t travel very much, but after spending 15 days and nights away from home this month I’ve determined I need to pack a washcloth or two when I do. Several of the cottages/homes where we stayed only provided us with a bath towel and a hand towel. I guess for washing they expected us to use our own hands. I prefer a washcloth for that duty. So I found a body scrubber shower thing in a grocery store and we just kept using that. Also about half the places did not provide a top sheet on the bed. The comforters were way too heavy for us as the rooms were plenty warm, and the coverlets were the only way to be covered while we slept. One was a brocade fabric and felt a little itchy. I’m not going to start packing a queen sized top sheet though. But it was instructive about European habits I guess.
Oh Jeff – The Monroes! I hadn’t thought about that show in years! I was a fan. Also 11 year old Dorothy loved Here Come the Brides. I wasn’t keen on Bobby Sherman, though. Robert Brown (Jason Bolt) was my fave. He’s still alive! I just checked Wikipedia. Imagine that!
Kanye was in Dayton a few weeks ago for a Sunday Service. This was hastily put together after the mass shooting on August 4 in Dayton. Someone called my department to see if we had singers that wanted to participate, but there really was very little notice and we declined the offer. A member of the faculty did attend it and I can’t remember what he said about it. That faculty member is Jewish so a Sunday Service is not something he usually attends.
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Suzanne said on September 30, 2019 at 11:01 am
We recently had a presentation on an active shooter situation at our church given by a state trooper. Someone asked about being armed in church and the trooper very soundly shot down the idea (pardon the pun). He said that is a very bad idea for all the reasons same people understand; adds to the chaos, nerves, more people killed, cops won’t know who is the “bad guy with a gun.” Will people listen. I can guarantee the answer is no.
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Jeff Borden said on September 30, 2019 at 1:39 pm
Suzanne,
Talk of armed rebellion is never pleasant and I agree with your assessment that plenty MAGAts are heavily armed and intellectually poisoned by decades of talking points that demonize those with whom they disagree. But the gun-humpers preaching a second civil war forget a couple of key points about the first one. First, large numbers of Southern military strategists chose their states over the U.S., offering the Confederacy brilliant leadership and tactical skills most Union generals never matched. Second, since entire states left the union, the Confederacy had an infrastructure including roadways and railways to move troops and supplies. Third, the Confederacy had allies abroad, primarily nations that wanted their access to the textiles of the south left unimpeded. Fourth, a committed fighting force who were true believers to the cause and only had to defend their own land, not necessarily attempt to take Union territory.
Of the four factors above, the only one modern day civil warriors might be able to claim is the fourth and even that one is a bit iffy. If the Bundy clan takeover of the wildlife refuge in Oregon proved one thing, it’s that our tough-talking would-be revolutionaries actually like the finer things in life, such as French vanilla flavored coffee creamers and Marlboro Light 100s. I’m sure some of these folks are fit as a fiddle, but many of the ammosexuals pictured waving their rebel flags and brandishing their long guns look like they’d fade pretty fast on a forced march. And while they may fantasize they’ll face battalions of pasty-faced college humanities professors or pudgy bureaucrats from the DMV, the reality is highly-trained, highly-competent and very fit Marine rifle companies would be on the other side of the conflict.
Life isn’t “Red Dawn,” the John Milius rightwing fantasy film where determined high school kids battle Russians, Cubans and Nicaraguans in Colorado. It would be more like Tiannamen Square.
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Scout said on September 30, 2019 at 2:30 pm
Jeff Borden @ 17: Exactly. Which is why I am taking the whole ‘civil war’ threat as just that. I recognize it’s dangerous and that there will be some who take it upon themselves to enact their dear leader’s feverish fantasies, but an all out situation is unlikely. He who shall not be named is only adding fuel to the impeachment fire with stupid talk like this. He literally knows nothing about government or the military, only about being a reality tv conman.
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Suzanne said on September 30, 2019 at 3:03 pm
Well reasoned points, Jeff B. But I am not concerned about an organized effort like the 1st civil war because you are correct; this bunch wouldn’t be able to organize it. I am more fearful of a Rwanda-like group lunacy with armed people roaming the countryside and cities, killing people who they think are on the wrong side. I don’t think it would last long, I never have, but how much bloodshed would there be until it burned itself out or until our military could stop it? The Rwandan genocide only lasted a short time, remember, but thousands were killed.
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Jeff Borden said on September 30, 2019 at 3:23 pm
Well, that very much is a worry and, quite honestly, may already be underway. The pinhead in El Paso who targeted Hispanics and the anti-Semite who attacked a synagogue in Pittsburgh were both driven by memes popular on the right. The Texas murderer fretted about the “Mexican invasion” while the Pennsylvania murderer thought he was avenging support for the Central American caravans, which he believed were funded by George Soros.
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Deborah said on September 30, 2019 at 4:51 pm
Have we as a country really devolved to the possibility of what happened in Rwanda? Surely not. But Republican leaders need to step up and call an end to Trump’s madness so things don’t escalate out of control. A couple of them have started to, but it’s very few and needs to be many more. They certainly will go down with the ship if they don’t get smart soon.
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Dexter Friend said on September 30, 2019 at 4:54 pm
Rudy’s big mouth and crazed TV appearances have gotten him subpoenaed. Seems folks want to see all these text messages he has been foolishly bragging about…he’s smack dab in the middle of Trump’s impeachment inquiry. ~ Beto called for Trump’s resignation on Ali Velshi’s show a few minutes ago on msnbc. Good idea, but really…Trump ain’t gonna do no such thing, of course. That little shit Julian Castro made the grade for the next debate by selling a line of tee-shirts this weekend. Yep. Talk about chickenshit. Castro’s outburst, ridiculing Biden at the last debate, and the way he did it, turned me totally against that little smart ass bastard.
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David C. said on September 30, 2019 at 6:21 pm
I’m not terribly concerned about all the talk about civil war. Most of them can’t go a week without a paycheck and revolution as a second job doesn’t sound like it’s going to be all that sustainable for them financially. They also don’t buy the guns because they’re brave, they buy them because they’re chicken shits. They’ll probably stand (sit) sentry over the TV and scare the shit out of the kids but that’s about all. If the keyboard kommandoes were actually itching for war, they could have signed up for a stint in the Army.
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alex said on September 30, 2019 at 9:24 pm
Little Lord Fauntleroy won’t incite a civil war. His escalating rhetoric will just draw increased attention to his impotence and delusional state and he’ll get the humiliating bum’s rush that he so richly deserves. I’m at peace with it at long last.
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basset said on September 30, 2019 at 11:14 pm
“…an administration bereft of self-restraint, moral compass and statecraft…”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/donald-trump-s-scandal-could-prove-his-salvation-nqqnhwqb9
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Dexter Friend said on October 1, 2019 at 1:44 am
“Lodge 49”, the AMC wild crazy show that has captured my devotion, joins the list of shows that are really getting better each week and then *poof* —they are done for the season. I miss “Ozark”, “Ray Donovan”, so many others. It takes me a while to get into a show, so when one I really like finishes a season, it’s a little sad. I know many here watched “Downton Abbey”. 44 years ago I watched “Upstairs, Downstairs” every week…I know that show focussed on the upstairs people, and I heard Downton emphasized the downstairs cast, but now with Netflix and so many choices I didn’t even try Downton. ~ Also, as a baseball nut, I am disappointed that no team I care about made the postseason. Indians, White Sox, Cubs, Tigers, Redlegs, Pirates, Red Sox, Giants…geez, they all fell away early or faded in the last 10 days and none of them made it. Even the Mets, who have an exciting team to watch, died on the vine.
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Peter said on October 1, 2019 at 10:43 am
Nancy, I’ve been an intermittent reader as of late, so if someone has mentioned this before, I do apologize, but:
Have a great time in Morocco, but if you’re on a bus DO NOT sit next to a Frenchman named Louis Bernard (sure, it’s tempting, when he says that he’s an importer/exporter, and you do the Seinfeld routine….) and for sure DO NOT go out to dinner with Reverend and Mrs. Dayton. Unless you want to have a side trip to London.
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Jakash said on October 1, 2019 at 1:07 pm
Well, here’s something wacky. A wild 33-second video of an out-of-control service vehicle at O’hare yesterday.
Of course, things being as they are these days, it’s immediately followed by somebody labeling it as a metaphor for the political situation.
https://twitter.com/Emergidoc/status/1178781464097374208
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beb said on October 1, 2019 at 1:47 pm
As for an emoji that “combines the feelings of sadness, horror, contempt and simple OMG-is-this-really-happening astonishment” I would have to go with Munch’s “The scream.” But has that been emoji-fied?
Trump’s talk about a civil war if he gets impeached is sheer bluster. I mean, with the increase in hate-crimes and mass shootings we are in a civil war but it’a more of an annoyance than a threat.
Julie@14 — The shooting you;ew thinking of was the one in Dayton just hours after El Paso. But, yeah, you never hear about the collateral damage of such shoot-outs. As for good guys with a gun I recall, that there was a recent case when a good guy with a gun had the bad guy on the floor when the cops came in. They promptly shoot the good guy because he was the only one with a gun. Whuch, to me, proves that the only thing more dangerous than a bad man with a gun is a cop responding to a active shooter situation.
Rwanda was a mixture of tribal hatred and a war between the haves and have-nots. The Maga types like to blame blacks or immigrants for lots of things but on the whole they’re pretty well off an don’t feel the need to butcher their neighbors. Different situations.
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Deborah said on October 1, 2019 at 2:00 pm
Wow, Pompeo is an asshole, he’s accusing the Democrats now of intimidation and bullying and says honoring the deposition requests is not feasible. if that doesn’t beat all. His boss of course is the one who is the most guilty of intimidation.
All my routine medical tests came back fine except for one, I’m now just inside the range of osteoporosis, I was just outside the range for a few years. So now I have to take medication to keep it from getting worse, there are three kinds available, one pill a week, one pill a month, or an IV procedure once a year. I’ve made an appointment for the once a year option, but I can’t get in until Jan 31st. Geez.
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Deggjr said on October 1, 2019 at 5:35 pm
If there is another civil war, I think it would take the form of suicide bombers, like the Iraqi Sunni v. Shia bombings. It wouldn’t take many suicide bombers to make life horrible. Our whole country is full of soft targets.
The civil war killing fantasies of tubby 70 year olds who own AR-15s are truly weird.
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Julie Robinson said on October 1, 2019 at 6:09 pm
Thanks for setting me straight, beb. Sadly the shootings are getting all blurred together.
I have a Scream emoji on my keyboard. But I just tried, and it doesn’t show up once I hit submit.
Deborah, I saw the doc today too, mostly to get a referral for my knee but I also got a flu shot and the first Shingrix shot. My insurance won’t even pay for osteoporosis screening until I turn 65. It makes as much sense as you having to wait four months to get your treatment.
Giuliani has lawyered up now. How long before he’s out? And from what I’ve read Pompeo hasn’t made many friends in the countries he’s visited. He’s a good (as in accurate) representative of the administration.
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Suzanne said on October 1, 2019 at 7:15 pm
Speaking of civil war, a friend of mine told me today that her in-laws, who love their guns and their Trump, have told her that if he is impeached, they are taking to their guns and putting a stop to it.
So, yeah, it could happen.
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Deborah said on October 1, 2019 at 8:11 pm
Suzanne, have your friend’s in-laws said how exactly they’re going to put a stop to it? Sounds like nothing but bluff and bluster to me. They want you to be afraid. Pffft.
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LAMary said on October 1, 2019 at 8:45 pm
Dexter: GO DODGERS.
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Dexter Friend said on October 2, 2019 at 2:26 am
Well, Mary…I have no rooting interest either way. Washington last won in 1924 I believe without asking Siri, and LAD won 31 years ago. I hope you get to see your Dodgers win. Actually, I rarely see either team play , as I mostly watch other teams. I wonder if there’s any way to watch Salzburg v. Liverpool? WTF is Galavision…a British thing? Date: Wednesday, Oct. 2
Time: 3 p.m. ET
Location: Anfield (Liverpool, England)
TV channel: Galavision
Streaming: fuboTV (Try for free)
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 2, 2019 at 7:17 am
The “Scream” emoji:
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1a1fa6d9520e251f3e97f3162dc1aedcf8d3b126/0_0_1144_1413/master/1144.jpg?width=700&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=82ee66ed0fd69e1eeb4d8bb9fad35098
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LAMary said on October 2, 2019 at 9:22 am
Dexter: GO MO. Or if you’re into Salzburg: GO MOZART.
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Dorothy said on October 2, 2019 at 10:55 am
Have any of you watched Fleabag on Amazon Prime yet? Phoebe Waller-Bridge won several Emmy awards last Sunday and I had never seen that show. So last week I easily watched season 1 over two evenings. There are only 6 episodes. Oh heavens is it entertaining! Olivia Colman is in it, too. Mike caught up with me and watched them on his own, so yesterday after dinner we watched the first three episodes of season 2. Phoebe is my new favorite actress. She’s hosting SNL this Saturday. Hope it’s a good show.
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Sherri said on October 2, 2019 at 11:08 am
David and I loved Fleabag, both seasons of it. Phoebe Waller-Bridge was also the creator of Killing Eve, is currently one of the writers on the latest Bond movie, and just signed a big production deal with Amazon.
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Julie Robinson said on October 2, 2019 at 11:17 am
Fleabag is on my long list of shows to watch, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.
The NYT is reporting that Bernie Sanders was hospitalized after experiencing chest pains. He’s had two stents put in after they found a blockage in an artery. All campaign events have been cancelled. Make of it what you will.
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Deborah said on October 2, 2019 at 12:05 pm
My husband and I started watching a British Netflix series called Cabins in the Wild. It takes place in Wales, it’s a reality series about a competition of 9 teams building small unusual cabins (they have to be transported to the incredibly beautiful site in the wild on a flat bed truck so they have to be small enough to do that). It gets well into how they’re constructed off site by the various teams etc. If you’re a cabin nerd like we are, you might like it. One of our Abiquiu neighbors recommended it to us, since we have an unusual cabin too. As far as I know so far there’s only one season.
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JodiP said on October 2, 2019 at 1:59 pm
Deborah, the cabin show sounds interesting.
Here’s a super random recommendation for Netflix: Palio, about the crazy horse race that takes place in Siena in July and August. I watched it just to get my ear a little used to Italian, but got sucked into all the drama.
I’ve been reading a lot more, not watching too many shows.
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Deborah said on October 2, 2019 at 5:09 pm
Everything Trump says is a lie, we all know this, it’s well documented, it’s been going on all of his life and is being tracked by Wapo and others since he’s been pres. I realize there is a whole contingent of our society who doesn’t care one wit. Which is mind boggling to me. All of the stuff that’s coming out about impeachment is par for the course of his lying. He’ll say anything and it’s sooooo obvious, yet he has a percentage of people (low) who get polled who still support him. This is something I cant wrap my head around and I realize that it’s a big part of the reason the rightwing supports him, because people like me don’t understand why his base supports his lies and they like gigging the libs, or just flat out don’t care, or pretend they don’t pay attention when he does it. How can they keep getting away with this? I feel like their day is coming, as stuff like that can only go on for so long. Seeing the Roy Cohn movie has made that apparent to me.
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Suzanne said on October 2, 2019 at 6:03 pm
I listened to the latest episode of Gaslit Nation today. You really must listen. The women that do the podcast have predicted nearly everything that has come to pass. It’s a much deeper rot than it seems and Putin has his fingers all over it. Ukraine has been his practice field.
I really can not recommend the podcast enough. It’s horrifying. And I, like you Deborah, I struggle to understand how people don’t see it. But I do know that most of them never get anywhere near the facts because they will only listen to right wing media and, if they read at all, will only read Christian fiction or non-fiction written by people like Bill O’Reilly. Everything else is liberal propaganda. If Trump succeeds in turning us into an authoritarian state, they still won’t get it.
I also started listening to this: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/broken-jeffrey-epstein/id1478460758
Epstein also had so much rot and strangely changed his will just a few days prior to his “suicide” so all the. Only is stuck out of the country.
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Jeff Borden said on October 2, 2019 at 6:56 pm
The Orange King is going mad. Watching him on the news a few minutes ago, he is terrifyingly close to be utterly out of control. He went berserk while meeting the press alongside the president of Finland, who is deserving of great pity for having to take this ugly old man seriously, when he was asked about the Ukraine situation. And he really went bonkers over the NYT story about how he wanted snakes and alligators in a moat at the Mexican border along with an electrified fence and spikes at the top capable of piercing human flesh. He screamed that he never said it, yet it sounds so very much like what a stupid, stupid old man might think about border security. And does anyone doubt he would suggest shooting immigrants in the leg to slow them down after watching him gleefully separate parents from children? He’s a sick man. Forget impeachment. It’s time for the 25th Amendment. He’s gone ’round the bend.
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beb said on October 3, 2019 at 1:10 am
The list of people involved in the Ukraine scandal seems to include Trump, Pence, Pompeo, Barr and Giuliani. If Trump is impeached it will be like dominoes taking out most the White House.
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Dexter Friend said on October 3, 2019 at 1:48 am
Jeff Borden, it’s a call to remove Trump from office. Trump keeps calling efforts to move along the process of removal the will of “a coup”, which for what he is referring to is a coup d’etat . He does not even understand what this means. I watched much of his antics today. He is pathetic. He also has the “Teflon Ron” thing going, like Reagan had…Trump should have been impeached for using campaign dough to pay off Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels. No, everybody moved on. The Southern District of New York (Manhattan) will be going after Trump big time after Trump is booted out of office. I can’t wait. At least I don’t make myself sick with hatred like I did over Nixon’s crimes and Reagan’s BULLSHIT (Trump’s newest thing is to shout just like this) One good thing about being ancient is you really realize nobody gives a damn if you rant yourself into the bottle or the hospital. 🙂
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Connie said on October 3, 2019 at 6:05 am
So a couple of weeks ago my bridge fell out of my mouth, and yesterday the dentist removed the remaining stumps of the two teeth it was mounted on. In the process I have discovered that the CVS Price before insurance for 16 oxycodone tablets is $1.03.
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Julie Robinson said on October 3, 2019 at 7:17 am
Wow, I had no idea, but at that price it’s no wonder Oxy became the drug of choice.
And apropos of nothing else, there are two outstanding pieces of news coming out of Orlando today. First, our solar panels were connected to the grid last night, so going forward we’ll be pretty much energy independent.
Second, our son is on a plane right now, coming home for the first time in four years. Yay for weddings!
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Suzanne said on October 3, 2019 at 8:56 am
This is interesting. Another coincidence? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-02/giuliani-s-ukraine-work-tied-to-firm-whose-website-has-vanished
I am also amused by Pence trying to distance himself from the Ukraine phone call which apparently one of his trusted aids was in on. He says he didn’t know.
Funny how they are all caught lying and deflecting about a phone call that they all claim there was nothing wrong with having. So why lie?
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Deborah said on October 3, 2019 at 9:37 am
Suzanne mentioned Gaslit Nation which is cohosted by Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa. Andrea’s sister is Alexandra they are Ukrainian Americans. Here’s a Politico article from early 2017 before Trump’s inauguration about Ukrain which mentions Alexandra Chalupa as one of the first people to out Manafort as one of the swindlers, https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ukraine-sabotage-trump-backfire-233446 it’s long and somewhat confusing to follow all of the operatives. What a mess.
Also Sarah Kendzior is a friend of one of my friends in St. Louis. That woman is one smart cookie.
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4dbirds said on October 3, 2019 at 10:08 am
Connie,
So sorry to hear about the dental issues. I too am looking at two deteriorating bridges. Are you going to replace it with an implant or just leaving it be?
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Deborah said on October 3, 2019 at 12:02 pm
You’ve gotta find the time to read this article in the Atlantic by Kelleyanne’s (or however you spell it) husband, George Conway. It’s a remarkable distillation of Trump’s outrageous narcissistic behavior https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/george-conway-trump-unfit-office/599128/ It amazingly lays out incident by incident what Trump has done and how egregious it really is.
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Suzanne said on October 3, 2019 at 12:31 pm
I don’t really believe anything George Conway says. His wife gets out there and spews Trump’s lies all the time. Isn’t he a member of the Federalist Society? I think he and Kellyanne are playing us. And probably looking forward to a fabulous book deal when all this is over to add to their bank account.
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Deborah said on October 3, 2019 at 12:42 pm
Yeah, I hear you Suzanne, I don’t get how the Conway marriage works, and it makes you wonder. But this article is extremely damning in its spelling out incident by incident what Trump has done, it’s very thorough. I don’t see how it can be turned around to support Trump in any way, but maybe I’m just being naive.
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Deborah said on October 3, 2019 at 12:44 pm
I’m not getting anything done today that I wanted to do, I still need to take my walk, I wanted to clean out the fridge and do laundry but I keep getting wrapped up in long articles on the internet. We’re going back to NM on Tuesday for about 2 weeks and I’ve got so much to do before that.
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Heather said on October 3, 2019 at 1:50 pm
Here’s an interesting and short thread on the George Conway article and what he might be up to:
https://twitter.com/blogdiva/status/1179807429418192898
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Deborah said on October 3, 2019 at 2:40 pm
There was some scuttlebutt a while back when that republican wrote the oped in the NYT about how there were people on the inside trying to curb the worst of trump, some thought Kelleyanne wrote it. I have no idea. if in fact she wrote it maybe she thinks (erroneously) that if she stays on Trump’s side she can do more good curbing his vile instincts. These folks think it’s perfectly fine if the lie to the American people on teevee or in the newspapers as long as they don’t lie under oath. And they parse all kinds of words to stay just barely inside the law when they’re under oath. Of course some of them lie brazenly (Kavanaugh, Lewindowski etc) no matter where they are. I realize I’m defending the Conways which admittedly is bizarre. They’re a mystery.
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Suzanne said on October 3, 2019 at 2:43 pm
I broke down an skimmed the George Conway article. Still think he’s playing kabuki political theatre. On and on about how Trump lies, everybody knows he lies, he doesn’t really know what the truth is, on and on, while his wife goes on camera frequently and amplifies those lies. Who is her audience? Trump’s base. Old George is complicit as much as his wife is. clearly Trump is deranged and we all know it. Still not buying anything George is selling.
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Deborah said on October 3, 2019 at 3:48 pm
OK, one more theory and then I’m done: the Republicans obviously know their party is no longer what it used to be, they know it has become the down and dirty, lawless party of Trump, but some of them don’t want it to be that way. Those Rs are usually more educated professionals, they’re appalled, but they’re still conservative and can’t quite breakaway (although I think George Conway left the party). They’re desperately trying to salvage their version of the party but they’re in a huge bind so they think if they disparage Trump without actually doing anything about it they can still keep themselves in power or at least Democrats out of power and still keep their dignity. It’s a big gamble because they could just as easily go down with the ship, but they don’t have many options. But what do I know.
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Deborah said on October 3, 2019 at 4:37 pm
Hysterical https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/10/02/last-time-trumps-every-move-is-brilliant-calculated/
Fridge remains uncleaned, laundry is in the cart ready to do… tomorrow. But I did get my walk in.
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Jakash said on October 3, 2019 at 4:57 pm
Yeah, while it’s handy to see all that craziness linked to and laid out in an organized fashion, his wife being the Marmalade Mussolini’s “counselor” and one of the administration’s longest-tenured liars and propagandists is pretty freaking hard to take. “Many people have watched all of Trump’s behavior, and they’ve drawn the obvious conclusion. They know something’s wrong… Others have changed the channel, or looked away, or chosen to deny what they’ve seen. But if Congress does its job and presents the evidence, those who are in denial won’t be able to ignore the problem any longer.”
Uh, your wife is *on* the freaking channel, she’s looking right into the camera, though she’s certainly denying what she’s seen. How ’bout you start with *her*, George, and see if your evidence gets her to stop ignoring the problem she’s so readily aided and abetted?
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Icarus said on October 3, 2019 at 5:07 pm
Deborah at 61
A Republican merely suggested “Let’s put it through the process and see what happens.”
and he got pushback. lots of pushback.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2019/10/01/off-message-republican-takes-heat-for-his-impeachment-remarks/Jju2qtldrZwAM6iv5OKdzL/story.html?p1=SectionFront_Feed_ContentQuery
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Scout said on October 3, 2019 at 5:10 pm
I too have my issues with Conway, especially that he is married to Ratface Sewer Barbie, however, that piece in the Atlantic is still worth a read. As a lawyer, he presents the craziness, dishonesty and mental delamination in a undeniably cogent manner.
It is my opinion that Dump will resign for ‘health reasons’ once his aides manage to penetrate his thick, narcissistic head with the fact that he is done, finished, over. And Nancy was right when she said he would impeach himself. He is in the process of doing just that every time he opens his nasty cake hole. At the rate he’s going, he may not last until Christmas.
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Jakash said on October 3, 2019 at 5:36 pm
Il Douche tweets (all caps, of course): “ELECTION INTERFERENCE!”
nachosarah replies: “this is twitter not google”
https://twitter.com/nachosarah/status/1179852378314612736
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Deborah said on October 3, 2019 at 5:52 pm
“Ratface Sewer Barbie” ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
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Deborah said on October 3, 2019 at 6:05 pm
Icarus, as I said, the Rs just want to disparage Trump but not actually do anything, so they can say they want to go through a process (impeachment inquiry) and see what happens but they really don’t want to go through that process because that’s doing something instead of just complaining about Trump’s behavior. It’s a problem for them.
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LAMary said on October 3, 2019 at 9:44 pm
A few guys I know refer to Kellyanne as a seventies valley coke whore. These are guys who would know what a seventies valley coke whore looked like.
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Connie said on October 4, 2019 at 5:58 am
4dbirds, losing a bridge means a three tooth hole on my upper right. I did one implant last year, and my cost after insurance was (over two insurance years) 2,500$. And that was for a custom sculpted two in one tooth implant. Dds sculpts on his computer, then creates on a 3d printer in the back room. We filled in a two tooth hole with one double sized tooth.
So still not sure what I can afford to do, maybe a plate. Its hard to eat chips with three teeth missing on the upper right.
My dad is a retired dentist. I used to get all my dental work done free.
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