I was minutes into my last shift as a lifeguard (this school year) Thursday when the verdict came in. My phone gets zero service in the pool, which is below ground level and in a generally shitty cell-coverage area to begin with, so I had to wait a couple hours to get any details beyond GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS, MOFOS. We had plans Thursday night and a busy Friday morning, so I just decided to stand in the firehose of reaction for a while before weighing in.
And having done so: I’m allowing myself to be happy about this. I know it won’t change many votes, that MAGA is too far up their own asses to even consider changing their minds, so I’m just going to sit here and enjoy the sight of Rumpelstiltskin stamping his foot into the earth. I know we may well see — probably will see — violence before this is over, but how else are you supposed to respond to good news? This is good news. Enjoy it.
So far in this national nightmare, it’s been the courts that have held the line. I have a feeling SCOTUS will fuck everything up, but voters + courts may actually save democracy. This time. Or they might not.
Which isn’t exactly a stimulating take, I realize. Sometime Sunday morning I realized I was done taking it all in, having made the mistake of reading Maureen Dowd:
I called my Republican sibs Friday to see if hearing the word “guilty” ring out 34 times in a New York courtroom had finally severed them from Trump; they are, after all, children of a police detective.
My sister, Peggy, said she couldn’t sleep all night.
“You decided you can’t vote for a felon?” I asked.
“I wasn’t going to vote for Trump,” she said. “But now I am because I thought this whole thing was a sham.”
My own family is far from perfect and has vexed me on occasion, but at least none of us are this goddamn stupid.
On Saturday, Kate and I saw “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” sort of a belated uber-feminist Mother’s Day outing. It was…awesome. Yes, basically two hours plus of chase scenes, but such memorable chases, with stunts I couldn’t wrap my head around and frames — just frames in a movie — that I wanted to freeze so I could examine the costuming, makeup and other details on every character in it. It was too loud, granted, in Dolby BLOW YOUR HAIR BACK sound, but it worked. If you ever get a genetic menu to select from for the children in your future, choose “cupid-bow mouth” and “wide-set eyes.” It’s a killer combination on Anya Taylor-Joy.
Now, off to smear axle grease on my forehead and embrace Monday.
FDChief said on June 2, 2024 at 11:41 pm
The MoDo thing is perfect. Her sister votes Republican? MoDo, my sweet summer child, sissy was lying. Lye. Ing. To you about not ever voting for Tubby. She’s a Republican; she’ll vote for a fucking emu if it runsvas a Republican.
Christ but these people are infuriating. They kinda know that the stuff they want is shitty and greedy and selfish and petty and mean. They found a perfect shitheel who’ll let them get all those things if they bribe him and fluff him…but they know he’s a sleazy crooked shitheel, so they have to make stuff up to pretend it’s okay to vote for him.
Goddamn, sis! Just own it! You’re a shitty human being who wants shitty things and you’re gonna vote for this orange shitgibbon because he’ll give them to you! Just be honest for a change.
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Mark P said on June 2, 2024 at 11:59 pm
I was a little surprised by the quick verdict in Trump’s trial, but nothing the Republicans have said about it has surprised me. I will not be surprised if the corrupt Supreme Court justices overturn Trump’s conviction if the appeals reach them. That will just confirm what we already know about them. My hope is that the appeals take long enough that they can’t give Donnie a get-out-of-jail-free card before the election. I wish Georgia could get its case started before the election. I would love to see the convicted felon have to sit through another trial when he really wants to be out holding his Reich Rallies.
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alex said on June 3, 2024 at 12:33 am
Asshole was probably selling state secrets out of his chandeliered shitter and needs to get the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg treatment. That’s the trial I want to see.
The disingenuous Ann Althouse has been pretending that this “sham” trial in New York is going to drive “independents” like her into the arms of Trump because of the injustice of it all, and this crap from Maureen Dowd’s sister sounds like part of the same ruse. Althouse’s commentariat are mostly Q-Anoners and Pilot Joes (who can spell and know the rules of grammar!) and I can say from firsthand experience that she moderates who gets posted and if you call bullshit on the bullshitters you don’t.
I think it’s a tactical effort — the “I wasn’t going to vote for Trump but now I am” thing — and it reveals the right’s desperation.
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Jason T. said on June 3, 2024 at 1:14 am
Against my better judgment, I spent some time on Bookface after the verdict, arguing with MAGAs. I know it’s futile, but it was fun winding them up.
One of their arguments is that Trump’s conviction is going to make his followers angry. I’m like, my brothers and sisters, yinz are angry 24/7/365, how will we know the difference?
Another person told me that “there will be retribution for this” and when I pushed back (noting that it sounded an awful lot like a threat), he told me I wasn’t allowed to argue with him, because he’s a veteran. Oh, well, so that’s fine.
The idea that “I wasn’t going to vote for Trump, but now I am, because of the verdict” can be classified along with “don’t worry, I’ll pull out” and “the check’s in the mail” as one of the all-time B.S. lines.
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Jeff Gill said on June 3, 2024 at 8:07 am
After hearing on satellite radio a few dozen times “If you want to listen to jazz, go to New Orleans. If you want a bagel, go to New York. But if you want a psychic, you go to California…” I’m thinking about launching Ohio Poets.
“Are you looking for everyday inspiration? At Ohio Poets, our wordsmiths will tell you how to appreciate the commonplace, find guidance in the mundane, and gain direction in being encouraged to just get off your duff and do something. Our Ohio Poets are all hard working, thoughtful, but pragmatic guides for your personal ennui. Some post-industrial romanticism & existential realism is just what you need: Ohio Poets can provide it for you. Your first haiku is free; plans are available for sonnets, blank verse, or even full productions in iambic pentameter. Call Ohio Poets today!”
This could work, right? Or should I just try doing psychic readings for people?
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jcburns said on June 3, 2024 at 8:27 am
How much for a psychic haiku?
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Deborah said on June 3, 2024 at 8:53 am
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Poets_from_Ohio I didn’t recognize any names.
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alex said on June 3, 2024 at 9:18 am
I’d like to write an everything bagel sonnet, professing undying love for a foodstuff that’s deadly on blood sugar. It would be a great way of procrastinating on the processing of HOA dues, which I need to get done this morning.
I keep getting snippy e-mails from people telling me they sent their check two weeks ago and why the hell hasn’t it cleared? It’s all I can do not to respond that I don’t make separate trips to the bank to deposit every individual check that trickles in, and if they want to take over as HOA treasurer and give it that kind of dedication, they’re welcome to the job.
I’ve gotta scan copies of all the checks, stamp them for deposit only, enter them into a software app, and make a list of deadbeats to go after. Sucks but someone has to do it and volunteers are hard to come by. Our beleaguered president wants to step down but there are no takers. He may just have to sell in order to regain his freedom.
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Jeff Borden said on June 3, 2024 at 9:53 am
We have to take our pleasures where we can and last Thursday was a delight. I heard the news as I was driving Cosmo to the park to celebrate his 14th birthday. I shouted out the news to those I walked past and two people actually hugged me, but I live in a very liberal neighborhood in a blue city, so that’s not surprising. My favorite image from Thursday was video shot that night outside tRump Tower of thousands of people shouting “New York hates you!” I can assure you, Lumpy, outside your cult, EVERYONE hates you. You are the epitome of the ugly American.
The QOP is so corrupt it will not accept any ruling counter to its noxious ideology. They’ll wreck the court systems to protect their orange idol and to hell with the collateral damage. The only decent line in the entire MoDo essay was the only laws they like or those they order.
So, let’s flood the polling places this fall and start reeling in these atavistic assholes. Some are untouchable because of gerrymandering –i.e., Jockstrap Gym Jordan–both others can and should be sent packing.
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Dexter Friend said on June 3, 2024 at 10:06 am
Joe Scarborough and Ed Luce
“Edward Geoffrey Luce (born 1 June 1968) is an English journalist and the Financial Times chief US commentator and columnist based in Washington, D.C.”—(Wiki)
both said they avoid Trump’s live speeches (billed as pressers) because they can’t stand it. I think that is ostrich head-sticking…we must know our enemy. Trump’s Friday monologue was totally bizarre and really insanity proven. I wondered how anybody watching such twaddle could accept this clown as a Presidential candidate. Then I realized why…they don’t watch him, they just hear echoes, distorted echoes, framed in lies of how great everything was in Trump-land years ago. Here’s a fact: today’s USA economy is off the goddam charts. Joe Biden’s domestic policies are up there with FDR and LBJ.
Let’s remember that Trump advocated throwing HRC into prison just because he called her “crooked Hilary”, and that late in 2020 he ORDERED Barr to arrest Joe Biden.
Mass deportation, concentration camps…”retribution against (fill in the blanks)”
All three branches will be shaken up. Obviously, the executive will then become a king-based joke. The legislative totally revamped regarding abortion, gun laws (Trump promised gun laws will all but be thrown out), and the judicial? Ha! totally restructured according to Trump’s whims.
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Deborah said on June 3, 2024 at 11:20 am
I feel sorry for Hunter Biden today, the guy was a mess and probably deserves to be convicted of something but Lordy the rightwing is lapping it up after convicted felon Trump got his verdict Thursday. Biden’s affair with his brother’s widow was skanky but I get that they were both vulnerable after Beau’s death. I didn’t realize that they kind of grew up together back before she married Beau. Anyway, of course that’s not a crime. Lying on a gun purchase form is probably something some black and brown people got convicted of because the law seems to come down harder on those minorities, so when wealthy white people do it no one is above the law.
I think Biden is a good dad, seems to really care about his son no matter how much the guy messed up.
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Julie Robinson said on June 3, 2024 at 11:36 am
After 24 hours I was done talking about the verdict and ready to move on with my life. Yet, the 34-time convicted felon has sucked us in again by proclaiming he never said lock her up about Hillary Clinton. It’s classic 34-time convicted felon material.
Do you remember when someone went on vacation and wanted to show you their slides? We experienced the modern version yesterday, when our son and wife needed to show us (and talk about) each and every one of their 700 (!) photos from their honeymoon in Spain and Italy. They threw the pix up on the TV, so at least we weren’t passing phones around, but at a certain point, it all became a blur. Other people’s vacation photos < your own vacation photos.
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4dbirds said on June 3, 2024 at 12:51 pm
I paraphrase the Prosecution “There isn’t a maga store out there where they will find extra voters”. The really angry cult members thinking this verdict will drum up millions of people to vote for Trump is ridiculous. They were voting for Trump all along. Polls still show a very close race and Dems have to get out our WORK the blue wall where the votes really count.
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Jeff Borden said on June 3, 2024 at 7:08 pm
I’m not a violent person by nature, but after watching the clown show convened to torture Dr. Anthony Fauci by the QOP Keystone Kongress, I’d love to take a croquet mallet to those obnoxious pieces of shit. None are fit to lick the soles of Fauci’s shoes. HRC was correct. They are deplorables.
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Jerrie in MidMd said on June 3, 2024 at 7:50 pm
Are you following the latest news from the Washington Post where Sally Buzbee is now out as executive editor and Matt Murray, a former editor in chief at the WSJ is in, along with Robert Winnett, a deputy editor of Telegraph Media Group, from Great Britain. A major restructuring is underway. I dread this.
Gift link: https://wapo.st/4c3hiEV
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Jeff Borden said on June 3, 2024 at 9:16 pm
There’s a real scandal at the Post involving the seditious flags flown by the Alitos. The paper knew about it THREE YEARS ago, but didn’t report it. If you can find the dog vomit column written yesterday by Kathleen Parker, she’s great pals with Mrs. Alito and thinks it’s just awful her “walking buddy” and “life of the party” Martha Ann is being criticized by those mean Dems. If new leadership ends this kind of mollycoddling, bless them.
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Jerrie in MidMd said on June 3, 2024 at 10:10 pm
Sally Buzbee has been dead to me since her decisions to end the Sunday magazine, the Outlook section, and not least, home delivery in my town.
I skim Kathleen Parker’s columns to get to the comments and this one rose immediately to the top of her long worst list. However, as long as the column is syndicated and brings in cash, she’ll be in the Post.
You’re right that the Post’s refusing to report the Alito flag story 3 years ago is a disgrace. But Murray’s saying that one of the stories that will be top priority for the Post is the trial of Hunter Biden is not an encouraging sign.
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Mark P said on June 4, 2024 at 12:52 am
It sounds like the Post has decided that their business model requires pandering to the Trumpers. That’s really too bad, because it seems there are too few reliable news sources around today.
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Courtney said on June 4, 2024 at 10:29 am
This man is a manipulative narcissist (I mean I know we all know this). If mainstream media could somehow find a way to STOP covering him for two weeks to a month it would do wonders. I used to really enjoy the first twenty minutes of morning news shows at 7 in addition to reading papers – now it all feels like trash, for the most part.
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alex said on June 4, 2024 at 10:55 am
I don’t know what Bezos’ plans are for the Post, but I hope he doesn’t think he’ll win back subscribers by trying to mollify the right. Jennifer Rubin of the Post faults mainstream media in general, and even her own paper, for false balance and failing to call out lies for what they are. What we call mainstream media isn’t even mainstream anymore, and if it’s our last bulwark against fascism I’m afraid we’re sunk.
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Bruce Fields said on June 4, 2024 at 1:38 pm
“Other people’s vacation photos < your own vacation photos."
One of the things Facebook is good for. I can enjoy vacation photos when I get go through them at my own pace.
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Deborah said on June 4, 2024 at 2:15 pm
Yay! We got fresh morels today from Whole Foods, and they were only $34 a lb. They were fairly picked over by the time we got there so we only got $5 worth, but that’s plenty for us. Last time we saw them there they were at $49 a lb and they’ve been higher there than that.
Thursday it’s going to get up to 93° here in Santa Fe, way too early, so we’re gonna drive up into the mountains and take a hike.
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tajalli said on June 4, 2024 at 4:24 pm
This is receiving zero press – saw it on FaceBook. Police at UC Santa Cruz are ziptie-ing plastic bags over the head of protesters and not removing them even when the person becomes unconscious. F***ing ignorant a**holes.
https://twitter.com/NationalSJP/status/1796626404836094016
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Jeff Gill said on June 5, 2024 at 9:11 am
David Baker, Rita Dove, Mary Oliver?
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
https://www.loc.gov/programs/poetry-and-literature/poet-laureate/poet-laureate-projects/poetry-180/all-poems/item/poetry-180-133/the-summer-day/
Spent Monday ordering a gravemarker. The only easy part was when I was asked to choose between two red granites. It came up that one was from China, the other from Texas where my dad died. “Yeah, the Mountain Red from Texas.”
The rest was stuff that got increasingly more difficult, like “March or Mar. on the death date?” My sister and I were exchanging messages back and forth through it all, and the lady at the stone shop said “it’s nice you have someone to help you with this.” So true.
$2,500 later, and this for a beveled low stone, we’re done. Then to the marble garden to work out getting the foundation set, concrete work they do for the monument companies.
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Jeff Gill said on June 5, 2024 at 9:14 am
Tajalli, it’s a spit hood. I hate to say we have them in our county car for juvenile transport; the officers who do that (not me, no, no, no) try not to put them on kids, but they do get used on a second “spit.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPlhUdfyie4
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Dexter Friend said on June 5, 2024 at 9:42 am
Anybody read today’s WSJ trashing of Joe Biden, apparently quoting stuff Kevin McCarthy said about Joe’s cognitive skills in public versus what he actually told his inner circle people? I heard discussions of this all morning so far but cheap-ass Dexter, he don’t climb no goddam paywalls.
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Dexter Friend said on June 5, 2024 at 9:46 am
tajalli: Damn, that’s distressing news. I used to hang out a bit at UC Santa Cruz, it being so close to Monterey where I was so long ago. Most beautiful campus I have ever visited, for sure. Hated to read this about the protesters getting suffocated.
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Mark P said on June 5, 2024 at 10:39 am
Let’s calm down, everybody. First, the Twitter post showed “an individual”, not “a protester.” Second, as pointed out, it was not a “plastic bag”, it was a spit hood. Third, it was on the internet, so there is a reasonable chance that it’s not true, at least not completely true.
Spit hoods apparently have their own problems. We, as the reasonable faction, need to make sure we aim our outrage at the right targets.
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tajalli said on June 5, 2024 at 12:27 pm
Well, Mark, my link was documenting arrests happening on campus during pro-Palestinian protests. The refusal to remove the ziptie and call medics is not a non-credible response, given well-documented attitudes frequently expressed by police.
And, from Jeff’s link, there are cases of death by asphyxiation using what he’d identified as a spit hood.
I will contact my friend who posted this. She has a PhD from UCSC, heard about this through an alumni network, has a very crisp intelligence and earns her living doing translations and writing code for training AIs – so no fool.
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tajalli said on June 5, 2024 at 12:41 pm
Here’s some reportage I found today:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/uc-santa-cruz-gaza-protest-police-19488150.php
“This decision was not made because individuals demonstrated; it was because they have chosen to do so through unlawful actions,” [UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Cynthia] Larive wrote in a statement, adding, “Having law enforcement remove the unlawful encampment from campus is not an action we wanted to take or have taken lightly.”
Rebecca Gross, a union organizer at the school, said that some protesters were put into zip tie handcuffs as they were detained by police and others were struck by batons.
Other organizers connected to the protesters released a statement on Friday, saying that “comrades at the Gaza solidarity encampment were raided by police from precincts all across northern and central California. The camp has been flattened, students were brutalized by police, and many have been arrested.”
Seems that the Xitter link is credible given this context.
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Mark P said on June 5, 2024 at 12:42 pm
As I said, spit hoods apparently have their own problems, and it’s fine to aim our outrage at their use. But it wasn’t a “plastic bag” and the arrested individual was not identified as a protester. Facts matter.
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Jeff Borden said on June 5, 2024 at 1:32 pm
If Lumpy is reelected, spit hoods will be the least of the issues confronting protestors. Aside from his “patriots” on J6, tRump has no patience for anyone protesting as his actions in clearing Lafayette Park for his little Bible photo underscore.
The Keystone Kongress did to Merrick Garland yesterday what they did to Dr. Fauci. Jesus, the QOP has gone to shit. It’s wall-to-wall performative morons 24/7.
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Sherri said on June 5, 2024 at 2:03 pm
What’s notable about the arrests in Santa Cruz is that UC Santa Cruz has been the counter cultural UC school for forever. That this is happening there is significant.
It’s also not just about UC Santa Cruz. Unionized graduate students have walked off the job across the UC system in protest of excessive disciplinary measures of student protesters.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/uc-striking-grad-students-escalate-labor-dispute-19495504.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL2NhbGlmb3JuaWEvYXJ0aWNsZS91Yy1zdHJpa2luZy1ncmFkLXN0dWRlbnRzLWVzY2FsYXRlLWxhYm9yLWRpc3B1dGUtMTk0OTU1MDQucGhw&time=MTcxNzYxMDMyMjg0MQ%3D%3D&rid=Y2MzMjY5MzQtZDFhNC00YWY3LTllMzItZjdkMDc5YmQwODhj&sharecount=MA%3D%3D
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Suzanne said on June 5, 2024 at 3:39 pm
Speaking of performative BS like the GOP House members keep doing, I listened to this podcast this morning in which the guest being interviewed, Hank Willenbank, explains how Trump performs as the star of his own reality, the director, and the audience as well. Willenbrink has written a book titled “Performing for the Don:
Theaters of Faith in the Trump Era”. The interview is in the second half of the podcast and worth listening to. It helped me tie the theater of Trump to the modern evangelical megachurch where it’s all about the show and the performance of the leaders.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/straight-white-american-jesus/id1441649707?i=1000657455066
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