I just realized I promised you guys a MWF blog, and this week I neglected the F. And now it’s 10 minutes before I really should start working, so here goes with the speedblog.
Also, I’ve also realized that the way news moves at a breakneck pace these days, the links I haphazardly gather throughout my week are going to be stale by the time I post them. Last night, for instance, I was watching “Creed,” because I was exhausted, and all I wanted to do was eat pizza, drink a glass of wine and forget I live under the current regime for a couple hours. Adonis Creed was in the climactic fight when Alan groaned and announced the president may be planning to have a pardon party, with himself as the guest of honor. (Of course.)
I wanted to whimper. Can’t I watch a dumb boxing movie for two hours? I guess not.
So, then! The president’s pardon party! Discuss. Also, you’ve probably read by now about R. Kelly’s harem of zombie sex drones, but if you haven’t, do so. Jim DeRogatis, the Chicago pop-music writer, has done dogged, heroic work on this story. Please, let this be the one that makes a difference.
And a housekeeping note: MarkH, send me your email. I tried to forward something from basset and it bounced.
We’re going to see “Dunkirk” in IMAX this weekend if it’s the last bloody thing I do. Starting to go a little stir-crazy around here.
coozledad said on July 21, 2017 at 9:07 am
If Trump fires Mueller and the Republicans let him, then it’s open season on that trash, isn’t it? Isn’t that what the 2nd amendment solutions they’re always barking about are supposed to be for? (The 2nd amendment was never anything but a slavehunting law.)
https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/888381009384923137
Republicans are traitors. Have been since the Dixiecrats joined them in 1948. Not a one of them worth their fucking skin.
441 chars
Peter said on July 21, 2017 at 9:09 am
CNN had a chyron yesterday that said in his first 6 months in office La Donald has sent 991 tweets, spent 40 days at a Trump golf course and passed 0 pieces of major legislation. Sad!!
185 chars
coozledad said on July 21, 2017 at 9:22 am
It might be time for a test of the public will. It might also be time to check whether the US military will be willing to fire into a crowd of thousands of protesters.
Trump’s already expressed admiration for the Chinese government’s handling of Tiananmen Square. The only question is whether the military has the balls to murder US citizens. A massacre that includes children and the elderly might not play as well as Kent State did with white trash.
454 chars
Deborah said on July 21, 2017 at 9:26 am
Agree, if he fires Mueller and the Republicans do nothing, then it’s time for the Democrats to get very creative. Not that they shouldn’t be creative now. This keeps getting worse and worse. Is this guy guilty or what?
218 chars
4dbirds said on July 21, 2017 at 9:40 am
Every day, my anger grows over the oh so serious conservatives who bitched about Hillary.
89 chars
coozledad said on July 21, 2017 at 9:41 am
He’s effectively admitted guilt. The Republicans are complicit.
63 chars
coozledad said on July 21, 2017 at 9:46 am
This isn’t just a smoking gun, it’s the gun and the bullet riddled corpse. Trump was in direct contact with the fucking FSB.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-lawyer-exclusive-idUSKBN1A61LZ?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social
288 chars
Icarus said on July 21, 2017 at 9:52 am
I’m really hoping Ed is right on this one:
“The dribble of damning information will never stop. Six months is enough to establish a decent understanding of the pattern, and it is (with respect to my old man, a career prosecutor) a very obvious Prosecutor Trick that Trump will never, ever stop falling for. First, present Fact A. Give Trump a week to lie about it in an attempt to explain it away. Reveal Fact B, proving that everything said in response to A was a lie. Give him another week to tie himself to a made-up story. Reveal Fact C. Repeat. ”
http://www.ginandtacos.com/2017/07/16/begin-by-hoarding-supplies/
623 chars
basset said on July 21, 2017 at 9:57 am
“Dunkirk”? How could you be so insensitive?
http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/19/dunkirk-review-in-usa-today-warns-no-lead-actors-o/
145 chars
Icarus said on July 21, 2017 at 10:06 am
“I just realized I promised you guys a MWF blog, and this week I neglected the F.”
I don’t think anyone minds that your day job comes first. If you want to keep fresh pages for comments, you probably already know that you could just pre schedule a few blank MWF pages to come up if you don’t having any bloggage or bandwidth to fill.
337 chars
Dorothy said on July 21, 2017 at 10:12 am
We want to see Dunkirk this weekend, too. But our grandbaby might be coming over with her parents and that’s a priority. I’m hoping Dunkirk will be around for awhile. The NYTimes had a great review of it, too.
211 chars
coozledad said on July 21, 2017 at 10:37 am
There were black troops in the BEF. There were black troops in the French army. There were black troops in the Belgian army.
This might chap your ass, but to willfully deny the presence of colonials in the retreating forces is historical malpractice. It’s a disservice to their dead.
286 chars
Judybusy said on July 21, 2017 at 10:56 am
Pod Save America had a recap of the NYT interview. I have’t read it, and to be honest, probably won’t, but he basically said if he’d know Jeff Sessions was going to recuse himself, he was have appointed a more compliant lackey to help him obstruct justice. (The hosts’ paraphrasing.)
I haven’t given Anna Marie Cox’s pod, With Friends Like These a try, but I might have to. In the latest, she interviews a sex educator form Chicago on how the administration cut $200,000,000 from further research on how to reduce teen pregnancy. (FWIW, there really needs to be no research. Go to any sane country in Europe for a month, copy and paste. Done. However, the admin of course is doing it because they’re just assholes.)
We were planning on having a patio party tonight, but thunderstorms are forecast, so we’ll move inside. Making sangria and a pasta with vegetables and pasta.
879 chars
Sherri said on July 21, 2017 at 11:10 am
The biggest problem is that there are too damn many people, both in Congress and among voters, who are just fine being ruled by a corrupt dictator because they think that they will be among the favored.
http://lawfareblog.com/president-vs-federal-law-enforcement-trump-attacks-everyone
288 chars
brian stouder said on July 21, 2017 at 11:29 am
My son saw Dunkirk, and was impressed.
I’ve no desire to see it; last big-screen, full-price horrible war movie I saw was Saving Private Ryan – and now I’m ready to be the old guy who says ‘no more for me’
As for race/catastrophic wars – it is good to remember that white Christian human beings have slaughtered many many many more babies and moms and sisters and brothers and teens then all the Muslim terror cells combined, ever! – and probably did so by the week, in any number of different wars
504 chars
Suzanne said on July 21, 2017 at 11:30 am
Sherri, don’t the complicit masses always think they’ll be the favored? And they are right up until they aren’t.
I remember watching a documentary years ago about Stalin. What still sticks with me was the story of woman (I think a government official) who was a big Stalin supporter, who had friends warn her and warn her that he could not be trusted but she did not believe it at all. She knew Stalin wanted what was best for the Soviet Union. Until one day, the “authorities” showed up at her door….
I just wonder when it will start dawning on some of Trump’s sycophants that they aren’t safe either.
609 chars
Connie said on July 21, 2017 at 11:40 am
I was planning on watching Atonement this weekend, which has a long one camera shot of Dunkirk that got mentioned in all the reviews.
But that review was funny to me. “A USA Today review of “Dunkirk” is under increased scrutiny from industry peers for warning viewers that it lacks women and minorities.” Somehow I doubt there were many women at Dunkirk, more likely they were on the various rescue boats.
413 chars
Sherri said on July 21, 2017 at 11:53 am
It’s like I said during the campaign, trump hates all the right people, so that’s good enough to convince them that they’ll be okay.
132 chars
brian stouder said on July 21, 2017 at 12:00 pm
This pardon discussion sent me to Uncle Google, where I found this –
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/20/obama-used-more-clemency-power/
which lends some perspective.
…And – what happened to the fancy cursive headlines? Even though they were still kinda new, I feel like an old friend has gone missing!
325 chars
jcburns said on July 21, 2017 at 12:13 pm
Brian, your browser is falling back to any generic “cursive” font you may have installed. It may have had trouble pulling the Nancy specific font from the cloud. It may have been in a bad mood, Restart the browser, maybe?
221 chars
FDChief said on July 21, 2017 at 12:06 pm
Re: the BEF at Dunkirk.
While the Royal Army as a whole had scads of colonial troops in 1940, there weren’t any in France that year. Here’s the order of battle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Expeditionary_Force_order_of_battle_(1940)
The French First Army DID have some North African units assigned )https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_battle_for_the_Battle_of_France), so the presence of some darker faces in French bleuhorizon wouldn’t be unrealistic. There ‘s really no way of telling how many of the Moroccan and “North African” (presumably largely Algerian…) guys made it to the beach, though.
626 chars
Joe K said on July 21, 2017 at 12:14 pm
I saw Dunkirk last night, on the whole pretty good a little hard to keep track of who was who on the beach,
Not a lot of dialogue thru out, the flying shots were very realistic and there can’t be a more beautiful aircraft than a Spitfire with that elliptical wing, and while there were no minorities with big parts there were blacks and women in the movie.
Brian, you didn’t like Private Ryan? Why?
Pilot Joe
411 chars
coozledad said on July 21, 2017 at 12:24 pm
Ship’s going down and the water’s on fire. Spicey we hardly knew ye.
https://twitter.com/ErickFernandez/status/888431203363287040
132 chars
Bitter Scribe said on July 21, 2017 at 12:28 pm
According to “The Final Days,” Nixon had his lawyers determine whether he could pardon himself. (Or they did that on their own maybe…don’t remember exactly.) The answer: yes.
Of course, it sounds like the kind of thing you should do with the loaded moving van revving up in the White House driveway.
304 chars
James Moehrke said on July 21, 2017 at 12:40 pm
Mark your scorecards, Spicey is out as presidential spokesman.
62 chars
Julie Robinson said on July 21, 2017 at 12:59 pm
Dang, I’ll miss Melissa McCarthy on SNL.
I’m with Brian re war movies, especially on the big screen. Not to sound like a delicate little flower, but they haunt my dreams for months afterwards.
And JC, if you’re still around, is there any way to change type to make it darker? As my vision problems continue I’m frequently frustrated by web pages with gray or blue type. I can increase the size easily, but it still lacks the contrast I need.
448 chars
Suzanne said on July 21, 2017 at 1:02 pm
Spicer resigns as SNL writers & Melissa McCarthy weep openly over their glowing future, now gone.
Seems like the rats are suddenly leaving the ship pretty quickly.
170 chars
Jolene said on July 21, 2017 at 1:06 pm
Legal scholars discuss whether the president can pardon himself here.
Short answer: It’s a legal gray area, but, even if he can, he could still be impeached.
308 chars
coozledad said on July 21, 2017 at 1:09 pm
Nixon’s Office of Legal Counsel:
https://twitter.com/edroso?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthorounsel
121 chars
coozledad said on July 21, 2017 at 1:10 pm
Here’s a functioning link:
https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/olc/opinions/1974/08/31/op-olc-supp-v001-p0370_0.pdf
124 chars
Deborah said on July 21, 2017 at 1:37 pm
Sherri, that lawfareblog link was the best analysis I’ve yet read about what Trump was trying to do with his rambling interview to the NYT.
I saw another snake on my morning walk on the mesa. This one was a red racer, it was a beautiful shade of pink. It raised up and hissed at me, I wasn’t looking in that direction, I scrambled and it slithered on. I got a (bad) photo of it. Google says red racers are aggressive and will bite but are not venomous. This one was about 4′ long,
484 chars
Bitter Scribe said on July 21, 2017 at 1:53 pm
I wonder if Spicer will now spill all in a book and/or to Robert Mueller?
My guess is naw, he’ll do a Corey Lewandowski and remain pathetically loyal to Trump. Perhaps he’ll get a gig on Fox, or even CNN.
207 chars
Suzanne said on July 21, 2017 at 2:12 pm
The LawFare blog link Sherri posted is good, but when I read something like that, I still wonder how this is a surprise to anyone. Trump is acting no differently than he ever has. Ever. Trump’s only motive for doing anything is himself. It always has been. At some point, the GOP has to come out of their stupor and realize he doesn’t care about their agenda, their legacy, or their re-elections. He cares about him and his money. All his life, the only way he won is when those around him lose.
495 chars
Jenine said on July 21, 2017 at 2:14 pm
@Deborah – thanks for the info on the red racer. I didn’t know anything about that type of snake. But that’s definitely what I saw in a Santa Fe field a long time ago, a pink and black striped snake. That color combo made me feel like I was hallucinating.
255 chars
brian stouder said on July 21, 2017 at 2:27 pm
Joe – a really well-made war movie is just to damned terrible for me, anymore; a mass “snuff film”.
A few years ago I’d now be arguing (semi-snootily!) that well written history books are the way to go; and indeed, I have shelves of books on the Civil War/Lincoln/Grant/Lee/Sherman/McClellan, and battles (Antietam and Gettysburg and Shiloh and Bull Run, etc etc)….but those damned things are even more haunting.
I think a person needs to be aware – and I’ve done that. But at a certain point, awareness can morph into wallowing…and if I’m gonna wallow in anything, skipping the gore and going for the sublime is more the ticket
652 chars
basset said on July 21, 2017 at 2:51 pm
I like the map at the end of this…
https://www.citylab.com/design/2014/12/game-of-thrones-could-really-use-a-public-transit-system/383557
143 chars
Joe Kobiela said on July 21, 2017 at 3:38 pm
Brian,
Fully understand your feeling,myself I look at those pictures as honoring, the soldiers not glorifying war. I remember the feeling I had after flying a b-17 and talking with a combat pilot who flew one in ww-2, how did they ever get those guys back in the plane after the first mission, to witness the Carnage then have to do it again till you got 35 missions, I am still in awe.
Pilot Joe
400 chars
Bitter Scribe said on July 21, 2017 at 4:38 pm
Some French director, Truffaut I think, said that it’s impossible to make a movie that conveyed the pure horror of combat, because the inherent thrill of armed conflict without the possibility of being hurt or killed yourself would always be more appealing than not.
266 chars
FDChief said on July 21, 2017 at 4:38 pm
My problem with “war films” is that they don’t really do a very good job showing people who’ve never been there what it’s about and it’s either ridiculous or sickening for those who have.
“Ryan” was a great example. The beach landing scenes were pure “war porn”; close-up blood and gore. But after that it turned into what might have as well been a WW2 “keep ’em flying!” propaganda flick, all the way down to the carefully diverse (well, except for the “coloreds”) infantry squad.
There are a handful of flicks that kinda get close. William Wyler’s “The Best Days of Our Lives” may be one of the best films ever made about war, even though there’s not a single bomb dropped or shot fired in it. Sam Fuller’s “The Big Red One” is pretty good, and Sam gets even more props from me for nixing John the Wayne as the Lee Marvin role.
Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory”, which isn’t really a “war flick” but an anti-war one.
One of the oddest and perhaps the most interesting is a 1988 film called “The Beast” about the Russian war in Afghanistan.
Russel’s 1999 “Three Kings” is good only inasmuch as it does a great job pointing out the utterly weird, nonsensical stuff that happens in wars.
But, frankly, trying to make a war movie that would reflect actual war is almost impossible, simply because there’s almost no way to take a film, that requires a script and a story and comprehensible characters and some sort of narrative and fit the bizarre, chaotic mess inside that. Maybe from the perspective of some staff officer. But from the people who do the actual fighting? It’d be hours of boredom interspersed with outbursts of chaotic, hard-to-understand violence.
1681 chars
annie said on July 21, 2017 at 4:41 pm
I’m with you Brian re seeing these exquisitely detailed war movies. The underlying message, despite what you say, Pilot Joe @36, is a glorification of war, making heroes of the poor enlistees, inspiring more people to seek the acclaim of being a soldier & doing battle.
273 chars
Deborah said on July 21, 2017 at 5:50 pm
My husband is reading the book “Hue, 1968” about the Tet offensive. He was in Vietnam in April of 1970 and left in April of 1971, he was 23, and he was old compared to a lot of the other guys. He often exclaims how the movies get it wrong and it gets under his skin when he hears people gush thanking vets for their service. He says if you haven’t been in a war, you have no fucking idea.
388 chars
coozledad said on July 21, 2017 at 8:06 pm
Trump will be dumping Sessions for working with the Russians to elect Trump. Trump shouldn’t get another appointee to a hearing. He’s a fucking traitor.
https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/888536025743544322
212 chars
Deborah said on July 21, 2017 at 9:11 pm
I could not agree more with this opinion https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/07/20/opinion/democrats-midterm-elections-black-voters.html
132 chars
Sherri said on July 21, 2017 at 11:49 pm
Yes, Deborah. Dems need to stop asking what’s the matter with Kansas and start focusing on turning out the people who already support them. People don’t vote on policy and pocketbook, they vote on emotion and values.
216 chars
Sherri said on July 22, 2017 at 12:16 am
Randy Rainbow on little Donnie in the room where it happened: https://youtu.be/5h56N_uwS7c
90 chars
Dexter said on July 22, 2017 at 12:33 am
I was impressed with SPRyan, but a few of my cohorts said after the captain and his troops had established themselves above the cliff, the movie dragged on too long. I just have to see “Dunkirk”, having studied the events over the years. Last night I saw “America’s Most Hated Woman”. Melissa Leo, who is always busy acting in so many projects, plays Madalyn Murray O’Hair. The story-line stays pretty true to the book, which I believe was written by son Billy Murray. It’s on Netflix and it’s mighty gruesome. Christians beware: if you can’t handle “fucking goddamn Jesus!” and worse, stay away from this one. Murray-O’Hair had no use for religion…any of it.
My wifi is fucky, damn it! I am trying all the little fixit maneuvers and it still keeps cutting off.
774 chars
coozledad said on July 22, 2017 at 7:08 am
It may not be THE piss tape, but this fucker sure is drinking Putin’s dick.
http://shareblue.com/new-white-house-comms-chief-caught-on-russian-tv-saying-he-wants-to-lift-us-sanctions/
188 chars
coozledad said on July 22, 2017 at 7:15 am
Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries
These, in the days when heaven was falling,
The hour when earth’s foundations fled,
Followed their mercenary calling
And took their wages and are dead.
Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
They stood, and the earth’s foundations stay;
What God abandoned, these defended,
And saved the sum of things for pay.
A. E. HOUSMAN
383 chars
ROGirl said on July 22, 2017 at 7:24 am
Not that I have any sympathy for Sessions, but who leaked the information about his meeting with the Russians?
110 chars
coozledad said on July 22, 2017 at 7:41 am
WAPO says they held the story from June, but went with it when the NYT was about to scoop them.
I don’t think Trump burned him. That would imply a degree of competence or knowledge nobody in this administration has. This is the shit happens administration. Their relationship with the US intelligence community is too hostile for them to be given this kind of information.
More likely is they’ve been the target of career Russia operatives who’ve been on this since Putin bought Trump five years ago.
Kakistocracies are brutal, but diligence and efficiency aren’t part of their makeup. You don’t have to do subtlety or play chess when you can just whack people. The Russians are sloppy as shit and leave their fingerprints all over everything.
753 chars
coozledad said on July 22, 2017 at 7:58 am
He’s an utter shithead. A feeb. The sum of all the booger picking back country trash who tongued his arse all the way to the White House.
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/888722387608457216
He didn’t flip Sessions. He can’t find his own asshole.
258 chars
alex said on July 22, 2017 at 10:35 am
A little palate cleanser to forget about politics…
This captures the essence of what we’ve been doing with our house, only ours is still a work in progress: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2017/07/21/a-midcentury-modern-in-annandale-gets-an-update
And we would never paint over masonry. I consider that part of respecting the home’s architectural integrity.
But I appreciated seeing that. It makes me feel good about what we’ve accomplished and affirms our choices. And here’s the new garage door we’re getting installed on Monday to replace the phony-colonial raised-panel steel one put on by the previous homeowner: http://www.dyersgaragedoors.com/gallery/images/steel2/1459900038ELt3VWBuchi_planks_dark_oak.jpg
Okay, back to politics. Regarding the discussion of Arizona politics upthread, the tinfoil-hatted harridan who primaries against McCain and lost, Kelli Ward, called in as a featured guest on a local right-wing political talk show yesterday and it’s apparently the talk of the town today.
1038 chars
Jeff Borden said on July 22, 2017 at 11:23 am
One of the better war films we’ve seen recently is “Eye in the Sky,” which was the last role filmed by Alan Rickman and stars Helen Mirren as a British colonel commanding a drone strike on terrorists in Africa. The film asks hard questions about how much innocent life can be taken –the terrorists are in a house in a very crowded neighborhood– to kill evil men who we see putting on bomb vests. It does not offer any easy answers and the ending is so powerful it left us speechless. Acting and writing are near perfection.
One of the great unheralded war films is “Hell in the Pacific” from 1968 with Lee Marvin and Toshiro Mifune stranded on an island with no other troops. They continue to fight the war in their own way –despite the obvious sense that working together would be smarter– and the ending is perfectly absurd.
833 chars
coozledad said on July 22, 2017 at 11:58 am
Hahaha. Indict that money laundering bitch!
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/888783349619318784
103 chars
Deborah said on July 22, 2017 at 12:33 pm
Love the garage door, Alex.
27 chars
basset said on July 22, 2017 at 1:05 pm
Never seen one quite like that, but I like it. Needs a Porsche or a Jaguar sitting behind it.
94 chars
alex said on July 22, 2017 at 1:21 pm
I think our Pontiac Solstice will look cute peeking out from behind that door. We have to keep it garaged because the cat thinks the convertible top is a combination bed and scratching post. There’s so much cat hair embedded in it at this point I may have to just get a new top anyway.
285 chars
susan said on July 22, 2017 at 1:31 pm
For several years I’ve been toying with getting this, or maybe this for my garage door. This one might be nice. But I can never decide, there are so many from which to choose!
638 chars
Jolene said on July 22, 2017 at 1:34 pm
I like the garage door too. Have we seen pictures of your house?
64 chars
alex said on July 22, 2017 at 1:57 pm
I think Nancy has posted some in the distant past. I don’t have any publicly posted at the moment. At one time I was going to try to figure out how to share through iCloud but it became too technologically overwhelming.
219 chars
alex said on July 22, 2017 at 3:51 pm
Just signed up for shutterfly.com but I can see it’s gonna be some work.
72 chars
basset said on July 22, 2017 at 7:51 pm
Just signed up for Air BnB. First time I’ve used the camera on my iMac, and it’s a 2009 model.
95 chars
beb said on July 23, 2017 at 1:08 am
ROgirl @48: Who leaked that Sessions talked to Russians? I’m guessing it was the Donald himself. And I wouldn’t put it past him that it was a lie.
146 chars
coozledad said on July 23, 2017 at 8:57 am
Republicans and other old white mediocrities think they’re going to write history and magically erase the turd hanging in their trousers.
Nope.
The handful of journalists who can actually write are the ones who are going to sing your idiocy forward for generations. Jeb Lund, motherfuckers:
Maybe White House press secretary Sean Spicer cast his eyes toward the horizon and saw that the sky looked like it was going to rain indictments. Maybe the word “dignity” came up recently in his word of the day calendar. Either way, he’s gone. Instead of working for former hedge fund manager and new White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, Spicer quit his job representing President Donald Trump.
Spicer’s planned demotion would be enough to make you feel pity for him — if you ignored everything else about Spicer and his job. After Spicer’s foully contemptuous and bullying introduction to the nation’s press, nothing was more appealing in some quarters than flirting with pity for the man whose boss undercut him repeatedly. That sort of light comedy is always entertaining for people — like the White House press corps — who would never truly be imperiled by what Spicer promoted and defended. Games are fun when you aren’t going to die.
Spicer already had an antagonistic relationship with Scaramucci — but even if he didn’t, he’d still have reason enough to leave rather than work for him.
“Mooch” talks with the subtlety of a ball-peen hammer to the temple. He’s the kind of guy whose explanation of the difference in height between himself (5 feet 8 inches) and Magic Johnson (6 feet 9 inches) can’t even be made up: noting that “standing on my wallet” isn’t enough to cover the span. His entire personality and demeanor seems extruded from central casting’s vision of “a crooked cabbie who robs tourists on the way from JFK.” He’s the kind of unbearable jerk who has made so much money that he doesn’t think that people like you have earned the privilege of hearing him put in the effort to tell convincing lies.
In short, Scaramucci seems like the sort of boss who would only make Spicer’s job terrible. And Spicer already has a boss like that.
The hallmark of Spicer’s tenure as press secretary — apart from stuttering mispronunciations and ritualistically abusing the press — has been him fumbling to explain away Donald Trump’s ceaseless stream of ad-libbed lies. Those were never the conventional, useful lies that grease the skids in Washington, but rather monumentally idiotic lies — like, on Day One, when Spicer asserted that Trump’s inauguration drew a record crowd. That is the job of press secretary under Trump: to do all the labor of hammering into the shape of truth whatever fantasy Trump’s sewer-stew of narcissism and breathtaking ignorance had convinced him should be reality instead.
Then, usually within hours, Trump would reverse course and undermine both his own claims and the press secretary’s makeshift defense of them, and thus humiliate Spicer in front of the nation.
Perhaps this is the story that Spicer will tell his children when he goes home tonight: “One bad boss made me tell lies, and a new bad boss was going to make me tell them unconvincingly.”
The story he probably won’t tell his kids is this: Before taking the White House press secretary position, their dad was the Republican Party’s communications director for six years. His entire professional utility was and is his ability to tell lies to people, and his goal was telling more, better lies for progressively more important people until he could retire at 55 with a multimillion-dollar nest egg.
Their dad then took a job for a man who was accused of sexual assault by multiple women and who bragged on tape about such assaults; who ridiculed a disabled man; who regularly stiffed contractors and betrayed compatriots; who has a rich, decades-long history of racist business practices and comments; who demonized an entire religion and every citizen of every nation south of the Rio Grande. And all Spicer had to do every day was wage ceaseless war against objective reality and try to engender in every citizen a malicious distrust of anyone trying to report on such a reality.
Their dad was vicious, lying scum, and the fact that his old boss and his new boss are worse doesn’t obviate his complicity in trying to destroy the very baseline idea of shared reality in service of a vain and cancerous meringue sowing fear and uncertainty among the citizenry, when his policies don’t merely immiserate or kill them. Their dad carried water for the worst president in American history, and now that the investigations are drawing further into the White House, Spicer can bail out and blame his new boss for wrecking the plane. Let it never be said that, when times got tough, their dad was just a liar: He was also a chickenshit.
Regardless of whatever yarn Spicer spins behind closed doors, we can be sure of this much: He won’t have to tell it for very long. Like the 24-hour news cycle that refreshes every day and discards old untruths as newer and sexier ones come into view, he will eventually be rescued from the pains of narrative consistency and self-reflection by some novel, beneficent entity.
Just when he might have to ask himself why he’s still repeating the same exculpatory delusion to people who cannot leave him and to four walls that cannot care, a knock at the door will come bearing a six-figure commentator contract — probably from CNN — where he can spend five days a week explaining the procedural intricacies of lying from the inside.
Because, to people like Spicer and the media gatekeepers, politics is just a game and that’s just how it’s played — and nobody minds playing when it’s always someone else who’ll lose.
5911 chars
basset said on July 23, 2017 at 10:23 am
And that, Cooze, is how you tear somebody a new one without vulgarity.
70 chars
coozledad said on July 23, 2017 at 10:31 am
You don’t know from vulgar.
27 chars
Sherri said on July 23, 2017 at 12:47 pm
The primary for the special election to fill the state senate senate seat in my district is ongoing, with ballots required to be postmarked by Aug 1. The primary is pretty much a warmup, that will eliminate the lone independent, whom I’m told has sharpened his message since I first heard him but still seems to mainly stand for independence rather than much of anything else.
Were inundated by mailers; with three voters in the house, we get multiple ones per day. It’s interesting to see how they’re targeted. My daughter, being a coveted young voter, gets the most. My husband, who is on Republican mailing lists for some reason, gets a lot of letters in envelopes, even though both he and I maxed out for Manka Dhingra, the Dem candidate the day she announced. Some mailings are targeted at both my daughter and me. The Republican candidate’s mailings almost uniformly feature pictures of white suburban women with kids or older white women and emphasize that she is a military spouse, I guess to make up for the fact that she is Asian-American and doesn’t really live in the district. (She sort of moved to the district in March; using her brother’s address as hers.)
As <a href="
1201 chars
Sherri said on July 23, 2017 at 12:58 pm
Oops, accidentally hit submit.
As this article mentions, over $2 million has already been spent in this race. Manka knew going in that at least $5-6 million would likely be spent in this race, and she’s been working the fundraising circuit hard. Last time the seat was up, with Andy Hill the incumbent, about $2 million was spent. How much more is spent probably depends on the outcome of the primary. I don’t know what the polling looks like, though I know both campaigns and outside groups are polling extensively, because my phone rings constantly, but my gut says that Manka should be ahead. If she has a substantial lead, then Englund’s out of state independent money may dry up, though I don’t expect state Republicans to give up easily, because control of the senate is the only lever they have right now.
I think that next year, they will try to peel away some state house seats in our area by running against the property tax increases they just enacted. The Republicans held fast against any capital gains tax, and faced with a state Supreme Court mandate to fully fund
1245 chars
Sherri said on July 23, 2017 at 1:03 pm
Damn it, my IPad is not cooperating!
Faced with an order to fully fund basic education, the Republicans in the senate pushed through a property tax solution that lowered property taxes in red districts while raising property taxes in Seattle and the blue suburbs. Much like Englund says she wouldn’t have voted for it (Dino Rossi, our appointed senator was one of the architects of the proposal), I expect that Reoublican candidates in the area will run promising to fix it. I have Dem friends who don’t believe me yet, but they won’t take my bet, either.
There, more than you wanted to know about Washington politics. I should have made it a blog post and linked, but I didn’t realize how long it was going to be when I started!
735 chars
coozledad said on July 23, 2017 at 3:07 pm
Faced with an order to fully fund basic education, the Republicans in the senate pushed through a property tax solution that lowered property taxes in red districts while raising property taxes in Seattle and the blue suburbs.
They’re doing this nationally, too. And cities are already footing the tax bill for white trash to continue their pretense of country life. The only cash flow in these hellholes comes from the Federal government. Everything outside the major conurbations is literally subsidized housing.
OT, but Wallace Bradsher, the criminal DA I’ve written about on my blog, has just done got his holy roller ass indicted. His co conspirator is turning states’ evidence against him.
My wife and I were handing out sausage biscuits during early voting in 2014, and he stopped by, crammed into a baby blue track suit. He ate it in the time it takes most people to inhale. Vulgar streak of shit.
http://www.greensboro.com/news/crime/lives-drastically-change-for-das-charged-in-theft-of-funds/article_fb27235c-a2e6-5fb5-b7ae-4fd16dc08550.html
1069 chars
Sherri said on July 23, 2017 at 3:42 pm
Part of what makes my district interesting is that has rural areas, too. The urban growth boundary runs through our district, which means parts of the district are mandated to grow and parts are restricted from growing. That means that the district is getting bluer, even though it’s been represented by a Republican in the state senate for the last couple of terms. Andy Hill had very strong ties in the community, and even though I disagreed with him on many issues, I respected him and never doubted that he cared about the community. He may never have seen a tax he liked, but he did do a lot to help Hopelink, the local nonprofit addressing poverty in the area, get some state money to build a new service center in Redmond. Had his cancer not recurred, he would have been difficult to beat, and likely would have been a candidate for governor.
Jin Young Englund doesn’t have those ties, though, while Manka Dhingra does, and in the end, I think that’s what will matter more, not the millions of dollars spent on the race. If you’ve been around and involved in PTSA or kids’ sports, especially soccer, that goes a long way here.
1136 chars
beb said on July 23, 2017 at 4:13 pm
I’m with basset @64.
20 chars
coozledad said on July 23, 2017 at 4:40 pm
Of course you are. And it’s precious.
37 chars
coozledad said on July 23, 2017 at 4:56 pm
And I thought I’d save you sweethearts the trouble of selecting some phrases that chap your ass. Here’s a few:
“tetchy moribund”
“Lumpenprole Epiphone frotteur”
“grizzled ofay”
“Mopey shotgun balladeer”
“Fishin’ show sunburn accident”
“guitar store riff mugger”
“stunt garden gnome”
“Fakebook wedding accessory”
“rent a fart”
“PayLess store detective”
“kneejerk Republican fluffer”
“liver mush sculpture”
“Maiden aunt”
“Captious walleyed lawn ornament”
“knotted shorts display mannequin”
“pee saturated recliner pilot”
“Kiwanis club sgt. at arms.”
It’s good to be loved.
659 chars
Dexter said on July 23, 2017 at 5:05 pm
I just watched “Hacksaw Ridge” on cable T V… it’s the Mel Gibson war and morality play about the carnage at Okinawa. It’s based on true events. Jesus Saves. If you doubt this, watch this film. I was a medic in a war too, but I never saw 1% of the mayhem and death the hero of this movie saw, not even a half of a per cent. Damn!
337 chars
basset said on July 23, 2017 at 6:19 pm
Cooze, isn’t it about time to enroll for fall semester? You gonna take drivers’ ed this year? Hope you do better in algebra II than I did.
140 chars
coozledad said on July 23, 2017 at 6:27 pm
Fish in a damn barrel.
22 chars
Sherri said on July 23, 2017 at 7:04 pm
I have far more concern for what the short-fingered vulgarian in the White House is doing than the profanities Cooz spouts here. When Senator Fucking Piece of Shit (R-KY) and the Zombie-Eyed Granny Starver stop trying to destroy America, maybe then I’ll have some neurons left over to worry about tone and civility.
315 chars
susan said on July 23, 2017 at 7:41 pm
Beb and Bassett, I gather you are also not fond of the Rude Pundit? I think both Rude and cooz are brilliant word-smiths, anatomizers, and parsers. Does coming from the US southeast (as they both do) foster such vivid temperaments? I would think a thoughtful person, growing up surrounded by Confederates of the worst racist, misogynist, homophobic sort would find just the right not polite words and concepts to counter that shit. The world is a better place because they are in it and saying such. Enough with goddamned courtesy in dealing with fascists.
616 chars
basset said on July 23, 2017 at 9:12 pm
Not familiar with the Rude Pundit. I’ll admit that Cooz does come up with a good line every once in awhile, but on balance he seems to spend more energy on being obnoxious than on getting his point across, and that’s I’m getting at. He only seems to have one act, and it does grow thin.
I still want to see a birth certificate.
332 chars
basset said on July 23, 2017 at 9:13 pm
That’s WHAT I’m getting at, I should say.
41 chars
Jeff Borden said on July 25, 2017 at 1:01 pm
The presidency is an obscenity. The Congress is an obscenity. Modern American conservatism is an obscenity. Right-wing agit-prop media is an obscenity. It is difficult not to respond in kind.
191 chars