When your friends swing by for a quick visit and bring their new toy:
Yep, that’s J.C. and Alan flying the drone high above our suburban back yard. Me in the white pants. Wendy in the white fur. (Sammy is behind the dogwood.)
Looking west. Our backyard oak was stricken with oak wilt last year. We had it treated, but it’s not looking good this year. I fear we’re going to lose it, and that will suck on multiple levels.
Looking east, with Lake St. Clair at the very edge of the horizon. We’re in the affordable real estate, maybe a mile away.
Wendy’s tail is down. She didn’t trust that thing.
It was a nice, if brief, visit, as John ‘n’ Sam are headed for the U.P. and the thousand chores that come with the joys of cottage ownership. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be in the mid-90s here, so it’s an excellent day to be fleeing toward cooler regions. But we had time for a shrimp boil, two rounds of mojitos and some strawberries and cream. Oh, and some droning.
The photographer at the surf camp I went to two years ago had one of these things. I’m amazed at not just the quality of the photos they’ll take, but their range; a friend who was hanging out Movement weekend with this drone owner said they were able to fly his from a bar downtown all the way to Hart Plaza, just for the fun of buzzing the crowd.
Click that link, by the way. Some spectacular images.
Let’s hop to the bloggage:
You knew Roger Stone was in this Russia stuff right up to his hair plugs. And hey, he is:
The Florida meeting (with a Russian offering “dirt” on Hillary Clinton) adds another layer of complexity to Stone’s involvement in the Russia probe. For months, as several of Stone’s employees and associates have been subpoenaed or have appeared before the Mueller grand jury, it has been clear that the special counsel has been scrutinizing repeated claims by Stone that he communicated with WikiLeaks via a back-channel source before the group’s 2016 release of hacked Democratic Party emails.
Stone has said it’s possible he will be indicted, speculating that Mueller might charge him with a crime unrelated to the election in order to silence him. He said he anticipates that his meeting with Greenberg could be used in an attempt to pressure him to testify against President Trump — something he says he would never do.
Last year, in a videotaped interview with The Post, Stone denied having any contacts with Russians during the campaign.
Neil Steinberg has two boys graduating from college this year, and to celebrate, the family decided to spring for dinner at Alinea, one of those incredibly expensive, modernist-cuisine restaurants in Chicago. The price for dinner for four was something like $1,200 $1,700 and change, but they all agreed it would be a once-in-a-blue-moon trip, and that was OK. And it was OK; Neil got a column two columns out of it, which doesn’t make it expense-able, but almost certainly deductible. I’m fully down with special-occasion eating, and it’s a free country and all that, but when I read about the dishes served at this San Francisco restaurant, I honestly thought torches and pitchforks were called for:
A tin of osetra caviar arrives in a crystal bowl of crushed ice. It’s served as a bona fide “bump”— the server spoons the eggs onto your fist along with a dollop of smoked creme fraiche, then drapes it all in a fat slab of barbecued wagyu beef fat. (Yes, all on your fist.) It’s a salty, smoky, slippery slurp, enlivened by a perfect pop. The effect is similar to the drug it alludes to: I immediately wanted more — although not at $68 a hit.
Ah, well.
Happy Fathers’ Day to all fathers out there, and to all sons and daughters. Which is everybody, I guess, so: Happy day. I’m off to shower.
Hank Stuever said on June 17, 2018 at 1:05 pm
Re: deducting the Alinea dinner. Not in 2018 he can’t, not from my understanding. The new tax law eliminated “non-reimbursable work expenses.”
Which means, for one extremely personal case study, a TV critic no longer gets to deduct (in part, at least) a fully-loaded cable bill (about $240 a month, not counting broadband), streaming subscriptions (Netflix, Hulu, CBS All Access, Amazon Prime, etc.) and what-not. My tax guy said I need to go to my bosses and demand a $3,500 – $4,000 expense account to cover it all. (Haha, was my response.)
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beb said on June 17, 2018 at 1:36 pm
Does the wait=person cleanse and sanitize your hand before piling all that food upon it? Do they cleanse your sticky. food laden hand afterwards? Or is Salmonella part of the crusine?
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Jakash said on June 17, 2018 at 2:05 pm
“ahh, $1,766.16 for one meal,” when tax, tip and 2 glasses of wine for $80 got added in. All but the wine paid for a month-and-a-half in advance. But everything is relative, no? After all, he got *two* columns out of the experience! ; )
We paid significantly less than that a number of years ago, before they developed the fancy reservation system. I’m certainly in no hurry to return, but it was — well — an experience. And when the sometimes-called, arguably “Best restaurant in the country” is in your own town, it’s a little more tempting to drop an absurd amount of money checking it out. Sadly, this comment is my lame, poor-man’s alternative to two columns…
Cool photos today, though I’m with Wendy — not really on-board with the idea of drones flying around the neighborhood, myself. Strangely, nobody’s asked me for permission, however!
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Deborah said on June 17, 2018 at 7:04 pm
Nancy, you mean that cute tree angel isn’t helping the oak? I love the drone photos how cool to see your house from that angle. Our cabin is finally showing up on google earth, we love seeing that and the rest of our property from space.
It has been heavenly in northern NM today. I drove to ABQ to pick up my husband, you have to get up at the butt crack of dawn in Chicago to get here in the late morning, one of the 2 nonstops from MDW each day. We went to Coyote Cafe Cantina for lunch when we got back into Santa Fe. You sit outside on a shaded rooftop of the Coyote Cafe building. It was a famous cafe for awhile there, Mark Miller started it and was the chef there for a long time. It’s changed hands over the years but the food is still pretty good. We wanted to go to Pasquals, our favorite but there was an hour wait. The plaza was filled with tourists. Tis the season.
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Deborah said on June 17, 2018 at 7:30 pm
For those gardeners among us, this movie is about a famous Dutch garden designer, it’s playing in Chicago now at the Siskel and will be in Santa Fe mid-July. The website lists the schedules in cities around the world http://fiveseasonsmovie.com
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kayak woman said on June 17, 2018 at 7:41 pm
I am acquainted with Droney and love him. I tried to buy one for my husband on his April birthday. Nevertheless, he resisted. I guess I really want my own drone but (alas) I do not have time to figure out the drone learning curve at this time in my life. I’m not sure I would send a drone around my Planet Ann Arbor neighborhood but I am interested in looking at our yooperland beach property from above. Used to fly over it with my dad in a rented Cessna…
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Bitter Scribe said on June 17, 2018 at 8:03 pm
Call me a reverse snob if you have to, but the thought of laying out a month’s salary to eat quail eggs charred with a blowtorch or some damn thing is beyond ridiculous.
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FDChief said on June 17, 2018 at 8:49 pm
Why does the whole “1700-buck meal” make me think of Mme. De Stael grazing on petits fours at the Trianon..?
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Basset said on June 17, 2018 at 9:07 pm
I couldn’t enjoy a meal that expensive. Our idea of a high-end dinner is St Elmo’s in Indianapolis… we don’t get out much.
Still getting my head around the idea of retirement, which Is drawing nearer every day. Saw a shirt I liked in a catalog earlier tonight and thought “that’d be good for work” – quickly followed by “you’re not gonna need it.”
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Dexter Friend said on June 17, 2018 at 9:46 pm
That’s the same price range as the meal the late Michael G. and his party spent at The French Laundry near Sacramento. Hey , if you got it, spend it!
Today the kid and her husband and my granddaughter took us to Hilliard’s “Old Bag of Nails” pub. I like the joint, an old pub atmosphere in a wonderful old Oddfellows Lodge hall, right downtown Hilliard. I had the fried pub-grub sampler and it was great.
My son-in-law has had drones for years, always getting the biggest one allowed by law, I suppose. He lives with #1 daughter in Las Vegas, Nevada…right now they are in Kalispell, Montana with The Beast, their style…a great big motorhome.
I don’t post much sports here because this ain’t the place, so file this as weird human interest. The kids chipped in and got me a Father’s Day present, a Liverpool FC jersey, so cool because it’s the one they will wear in the upcoming season. It’s also a #11 jersey, my fave player, Mo Salah, of Egypt, playing for Liverpool. (Thanks for great cable TV where I get the games). I just got it, put it on Saturday morning, then we drove to little Maddie’s soccer game. Immediately a young man charged us at full tilt…he was aghast at seeing an official Liverpool jersey in Columbus, Ohio. He said ” Liverpool ! I’m from Liverpool! That’s my team!” Then he told me all about Anfield, the storied football stadium where LFC plays…I then got a history lesson about former greats who graced Anfield…quite a coincidence, seeing a Liverpudlian the first time I wore the shirt…small world indeed. He’ been in the USA a few years now, and told me how his friends told him Ohio State football in “The Horseshoe” would make him forget English football. So he went, and he said the 104,000 in Ohio Stadium didn’t hold a candle to the noise emanating from Anfield and it’s 54,000 fans. It was a nice weekend…except for this fucking heat dome. I hate it. We drove the old Chrysler van back…99F half way, then it dropped quickly to 95. I think the reason this old battle wagon (it is a 2007) runs so well and the A/C is ice cold is because when it was made, Daimler was in charge…plenty of Daimler stickers under the hood. https://d31g1t86vhddag.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/1/thumbnail/400x/5887c91b9d03388a5707eaeb94851d98/M/T/MT83000.jpg
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Sherri said on June 17, 2018 at 10:36 pm
Cool story, Dexter.
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Deborah said on June 17, 2018 at 11:02 pm
The most expensive meal I’ve ever been a part of was this past December in London at Bibendum. The total came to about 700 pounds (don’t know how to make that symbol). There were 5 of us, it was an excellent meal, one of the best I’ve ever had. Uncle J, happily paid for it. The absolute best meal of my life was at a hole in the wall place in Tuscany, Greve (I think). We had driven from Rome, we were very hungry, stopped at this simple place which was already closed but we didn’t know that. They were kind enough to let us in and served us homemade pasta with a simple fresh tomato sauce and some delicious red wine. I can still taste it. The cost was extremely low, but oh how memorable.
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Deborah said on June 17, 2018 at 11:06 pm
I almost forgot there was also delicious homemade bread served with that meal in Tuscany.
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ROGirl said on June 18, 2018 at 6:02 am
My father made a pilgrimage to a restaurant in France that he had read an article about in The New Yorker. Our family was living in England for his job and we went on vacation to France, touring around in a car. I was 13 or 14. The restaurant was La Pyramide (3 stars in the old red Guide Michelin, our bible), in Vienne, in the south on the Rhone River. I remember course after course of food brought to the table on big silver trays. Then came the cheeses, and finally the multiple desserts. The original owner/chef was long dead, but his widow came out to speak with us before we left, my father brought up that old New Yorker article.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 18, 2018 at 7:15 am
Ah, St Elmo’s in Indianapolis. That’s just three hours away . . . maybe in July. Going to Indy as the four of us kids gather to do our parents’ 60th wedding anniversary. We threw a party up in Valparaiso ten years ago at the church, but they specifically said don’t do anything like that this time because almost everyone their age or friends near or far are either dead or in a care facility. They’re mid-80s and still quite mobile, heading out to Iowa this week to do a long delayed memorial service of the last of my dad’s siblings; he was youngest of six.
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basset said on June 18, 2018 at 7:34 am
Dexter, I have a Leyton Orient scarf hanging in my cube at work, no comments on it yet though.
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Julie Robinson said on June 18, 2018 at 8:30 am
Jeff, I’m headed out from Iowa this morning, after taking my mom to a pair of family reunions. Which means the hateful right-wing uncle. I limited contact by staying in a hotel instead of at their house, but still had to hear ridiculous comments about George Soros and how teachers in Indiana are instructing their pupils in Islam.
For the most part I try to change the subject, since there’s no changing his mind, but I couldn’t let that last one go. I told him politely but firmly that Indiana was the last state where that would happen, and he needed to check his sources. Then I asked for more pix of their granddaughter. Who we can all agree is adorable.
I did find a way to shut him up, though. I hadn’t seen him since I learned about my black great-great-grandmother. He didn’t have a thing to say!
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Suzanne said on June 18, 2018 at 8:53 am
I know too many like your uncle, Julie. The ignorance is beyond frustrating and made worse by their isolation from immigrants and people of other religions. They just plain believe these insane stories because they have had almost no contact with the people who they regularly malign so they have no base of reality to dispute the craziness. And most of the people like your uncle that I know simply cannot shut up about it! I do what you do and try to deflect, but it’s tough. You try to have pleasant conversation but they always try to bring it around to their extreme views, don’t they?
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Jenine said on June 18, 2018 at 9:36 am
@Julie R. Congrats on maintaining your polite-but-firmness! I know you were bracing for that visit.
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JodiP said on June 18, 2018 at 9:59 am
Hey everyone, it’s Judybusy under my real name. After 11 or 12 years, I suppose it’s OK.
Nancy, I love the design of your yard. I’m so sorry about the oak wilt. That will indeed be a loss.
Dexter, I love the soccer story!
I’m a bit melancholy today. Dear friends of ours are moving to Albuquerque this week. I met the guy in 2000, when I needed a summer roommate. He was such a baby, just 22 years old, and had emigrated from Mexico. We totally bonded, along with my wife. He’s now married to a wonderful woman, two great kids, got his bachelor’s degree. He is truly like a little brother to me, all the more precious because my own family is so conservative and well, dickish. We had them all over for a good-bye dinner last night to hear how it all came about and to bore the kids with “when your dad was a young man” stories. We have seen each other through some tough times, and it will be hard to have them so far away. However, it’s absolutely the right move for them, and I’m excited for them.
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Julie Robinson said on June 18, 2018 at 10:20 am
It was worth it all to see my mom and her sister gabbing away for hours. She’ll be 86 next month and I’m painfully aware that there may not be too many more chances. After she’s gone I won’t go back. I have built enough memories.
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Deborah said on June 18, 2018 at 12:05 pm
Heading out to Abiquiu later this morning. We’re staying 5 nights in a row this time, we usually don’t do that, we can only make our ice packs last 4 nights and during the hot part of summer that’s stretching it. In the middle of the stay we will go to Ojo Caliente (the hot springs place) to clean up. I still haven’t figured out a good shower situation in Abiquiu yet. But I’m excited as can be about getting the summer kitchen operational. We’ll just buy bags of ice when our ice packs warm up too much. Ahhhh, living without electricity or running water…
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Alan Stamm said on June 18, 2018 at 12:14 pm
Whiplash alert –> Brace for sharp-turn topic switch:
Can we talk now about that Iron Mike Tyson | Brooklyn, N.Y. T-shirt? . . .
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Jolene said on June 18, 2018 at 1:00 pm
Link not working, Alan.
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beb said on June 18, 2018 at 2:46 pm
Nancy’s third picture reminds me of my first impression of Detroit, a few years before moving here. I was looking out the Consuit window at an SF convention and marveled that there were trees every where I looked. It was hard to imagine that a metropolitan region would have so many trees.
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Deborah said on June 18, 2018 at 6:10 pm
Really, what is wrong with people? While 2/3 of the US population oppose the Trump policy of separating children and throwing them in cages, most Republicans support it. We must defeat these immoral, inhumane assholes. Vote, vote, vote. I know I’m preaching to the choir here.
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susan said on June 18, 2018 at 6:42 pm
deborah @26…meanwhile, call call call your Congressholes, Senateholes, state-holes and tell them to stop this criminal and anti-humane enterprise.
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Andrea said on June 18, 2018 at 9:24 pm
Listen if you can bear it. https://www.thecut.com/2018/06/immigrant-children-separated-parents-families-border.html
I asked my older teenaged children to hear it. One could not last for more than a minute, but the other one listened all the way through. We are planning to attend the march on June 30 in Chicago; I hear there will be similar protests all around the country.
I had a somewhat friendly dialogue going with a Trump supporter who seemed reasonable, but he has dug in his heels about this policy and I just cannot deal with him any more. Unfriended. Anyone who can try to excuse this will excuse anything.
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LAMary said on June 18, 2018 at 9:27 pm
Molly Ivins’ last column was about the surge, telling us all to go into the streets, bang pots and pans, but don’t let it happen. I can only imagine what she would think of what is happening now.
Let all your politicians know this is terrible. Make noise.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 18, 2018 at 10:56 pm
My tribe speaks up: https://disciples.org/resources/justice/immigration/family-separations/
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Deborah said on June 18, 2018 at 11:34 pm
Jeff tmmo, good for you and your tribe. I do find one thing a bit confusing, maybe I just need to reread your link. At one point the statement implies that what is being done by the Trump administration in separating families is a law that needs to be changed. Everything that I’ve read almost everywhere else states that there is no law and that it can be stopped today.
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Diane said on June 18, 2018 at 11:57 pm
Deborah,
Jeff’s link refers to it as a “policy and practice” which I believe is correct and I think the law they are talking about is a proposed one to give the force of law to the position of not separating children from their parents.
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Sherri said on June 19, 2018 at 12:26 am
The deliberate and intentional cruelty of this administration, with the support of the Republicans in Congress, is really getting to me right now. I could not bring myself to call my father on Sunday. I just couldn’t deal with him. Not that we would discuss it, because we carefully don’t, but I didn’t even want to think about his stance on the issue. I had talked with him just the week before on his birthday, so there’s that.
My daughter is leaving for a trip to Japan in a couple of weeks, and I’m excited for her, and I’m also anxious about after the earthquake in Osaka. She’s lived in earthquake territory her whole life, I know, but I suddenly flashed back to when she was just a week old. I was holding her on my chest in the rocking chair, watching scenes from the earthquake in Kobe, and in the haze of postpartum hormones, was ready to move away from California because what was I thinking bringing a child into the world in a place where something like that could happen! It was a very visceral feeling.
So, I’m trying hard to not just collapse into a mess of anxiety. It would be nice if the world would cooperate for just a moment.
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Dexter Friend said on June 19, 2018 at 2:50 am
Sherri, in a world where a mass of cheering fans of Mexico’s World Cup football team can cause an earthquake, I understand your feelings.
I was working in the old wooden Fort Ord hospital near Monterey one day when the floors began to roll like sea waves, the light fixtures banged and shook, and the desks and beds began shake-walking, scooting for maybe 12 seconds. My first earthquake. Early next morning, an aftershock, our old WWII era barracks shook, the footlockers slid around, and the windows quietly rattled . “Earthquake”, I thought…as an experienced quake man, I just went back to sleep. The world is nuts…in Houghton, Michigan, the streets are rivers, the pavement crushed, looking like a trench filled with black corn flakes …we had 99F yesterday and today; daughter Lori on vacation in Montana had 59F. Oh…I know some of you like Allegiant Airlines schedules, but again, a warning: my son-in-law the pilot has forbade his family from boarding any Allegiant aircraft. None of his fellow pilots will do anything with Allegiant but spread the word to stay off those planes. My daughter re-booked from Allegiant to Spirit, to Florida next month. According to the S.I.L., the maintenance is now just as shoddy as ever. I heard Allegiant has bought some new planes but if they don’t do thorough maintenance…you know. Bad news.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 19, 2018 at 7:31 am
While I find I have to stay very much on my toes to deal with them, my more Trumpian parishioners are like some of the family members you’re all talking about, but they generally calm down and can be reasonable (even when their pastor signs some lib-squishy letter thing on that there internet), if you tell them that you understand that immigration is not a simple issue. My parents live just outside of McAllen for six months or so each year (we’ll see about next year, health and finances-wise), and they have been talking for over a decade about the complexity of the situation in the Rio Grande Valley. The US formally admits a million a year, there are disputed figures of how many hundreds of thousands each year come in just through Texas, and when apprehended it’s well known that pretty much everyone claims asylum status. The detention facilities and holding areas and hearing/processing campuses are *everywhere* down there, and the Border Patrol is not able to keep up.
So I’m happy to say I am not for Open Borders. I’m not mad at anyone who isn’t, and I’m sure that’s not a few here, but practically speaking, I just don’t see that happening politically or culturally. Which means the question is simply a) how many (less than a million, which Trump is pushing for, or millionS, which some are asking us to increase to), and b) what to do with those entering who don’t qualify, who are not on the list. If we increased legal immigration to 2 million a year, I don’t think b) would go away.
And putting my conservative hat back on, I can condemn Trump from the right, too; people who lean more towards open borders and supported the former “catch and release” process saw the inevitable family separation that would come with making the misdemeanor unlawful entry a felony charge everytime (which is what “zero-tolerance” means). So opposition has been primed and ready to highlight this for months, waiting for Trump to basically walk into this trap — and he did, I would infer because he’s counting on it riling up his own base. Yes, the overall conservative base and the Trump base are circles that not only largely (but not entirely) overlap, they overlap with the circle of willful racism. All of which makes it easy for me to walk away . . . but I can still say that it’s incredibly stupid and shortsighted, as well as immoral and cruel and foolish politically to hand your opponents a stick this heavy to beat you with.
I’m still nervously awaiting an actual Democratic candidate to run against the man, though. Please. If it’s not Elizabeth Warren, I’m not seeing much activity, and I sure would hate to see the DNC repeat the GOPs immolation of 14 candidates and the attrition leading to a biggest bozo left standing.
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Suzanne said on June 19, 2018 at 9:06 am
Agree, Jeff. Immigration is complex and part of what we are seeing is the expected result of the tea party led tax cuts and spending cuts. There needs to be more people at the border dealing with it, but I am guessing there is no funding for it or no will to fund it. Gov’mint interference and all that.
But the ultimate result of the latest round of evidence of the Trump administration’s inability to organize something as simple as a group trip to McDonald’s leaves us with traumatized, screaming children in cages, oh, excuse me “summer camps” and Trump using them as hostages to get Congress to pay for the wall that he swore for months that Mexico would pay for.
And we have this:
http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-photos-kim-jong-un-macronp-982436
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Joe Kobiela said on June 19, 2018 at 9:07 am
Dex,
I spent last night in Jackson Hole, I can attest to the cooler weather.
After spending most of this tour between the Bahamas Florida and Texas, it was refreshing to get a night in the high country.
Pilot Joe
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Sherri said on June 19, 2018 at 9:24 am
I’m sorry, but while the atrocity of the current policy of separating children from parents is going on, I’m not interested in discussing the complexities and nuances of the immigration issue.
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Sherri said on June 19, 2018 at 9:31 am
What is happening is state supported terrorism. It is the intentional performance of excessive harm to innocents in pursuit of a political goal. That it’s not performed guerrilla style by marginalized groups but rather by a government in power doesn’t make it any less terrorism, and engaging in the policy discussion with the terrorists shows them it’s an effective strategy.
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Suzanne said on June 19, 2018 at 11:52 am
Jeff, especially, this might interest you.
http://theweek.com/articles/779677/confessions-former-immigration-hawk
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basset said on June 19, 2018 at 11:59 am
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/climate/koch-brothers-public-transit.html?emc=edit_nn_20180619&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=6995308620180619&te=1
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beb said on June 19, 2018 at 12:27 pm
What Sherri says @39 is what I’ve been thinking for a while. This isn’t just some strict enforcement of some policy, it’s a deliberate act of terrorism.
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Scout said on June 19, 2018 at 1:03 pm
Sherri @39 speaks for me too. Twitler is now saying people who are seeking asylum are infesting the US, while falsely blaming the Democrats for this human rights horror. I can’t believe it’s taking the courts so long to shut this down. Babies crying, kept in kennels, photographed wrapped in silver blankets like baked potatoes… all of it is making me physically ill. And where are the girls? They only show boys, which feeds into the future-MS13-gang-member talking points on Fox State TV. Even our Neo-Nazi HS/DOJ knows showing baby girls with tears streaming down their faces is bad optics. And the worst part about it is that Hair Furor is ransoming these innocents in exchange for his vanity wall and not even trying to hide it. Anyone excusing this is dead to me. Hell yeah, I’m marching. I don’t care if it 120 degrees in Phx on June 30.
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Jakash said on June 19, 2018 at 1:47 pm
“An imagined conversation between Trump supporters:
‘What is it now?’
‘Kids in cages.’
‘We support kids in cages?’
‘Yep.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes.’
‘Jesus Christ.’
‘You okay?’
‘No, yeah, sure. Kids in cages.’
‘Kids in cages!’
‘Kids in cages! Kids in cages! KIDS IN CAGES!!!!'”
https://twitter.com/imchriskelly/status/1008889549634899968
The ease with which many respond to these atrocities with whatever the talking point is — “they’re not *actually* cages,” “perhaps it looks bad, but it’s simply meant as a deterrent,” etc., demonstrates that Hair Furor (my current favorite moniker, thanks to Scout, that I keep forgetting) is on-target in his understanding of the depravity of his base. After all, he barely got off the escalator to announce his candidacy before he was calling Mexicans rapists and criminals. The wall is his #1 calling-card. The ones that are so fervent in their hatred for non-European immigrants that they’ll even go along with this are truly the basest of the base.
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Sherri said on June 19, 2018 at 2:56 pm
At least I can come here to not feel so crazy. It feels like I’m insane to say my own government is committing terrorism.
A few weeks ago, ads for 4th of July themed apparel started showing up in my various feeds, and I realized I was feeling disgusted at the very thought of celebrating our country right now.
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Sherri said on June 19, 2018 at 3:07 pm
The Divine Dahlia explains precisely why it’s pointless to discuss the nuances and complexities of immigration: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/how-the-trump-administration-is-defending-its-indefensible-child-separation-policy.html
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beb said on June 19, 2018 at 4:13 pm
When I read Slate earlier today Dahlia hadn’t posted that article. It was bracing to read. Dahlia doesn’t say it here but this is classic mob extortion — “nice kids you have here, shame if something should happen to them, heh heh heh…”
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Scout said on June 19, 2018 at 4:23 pm
The link that Sherri @46 posted is well worth a read.
That feeling of black dread we all felt on November 9, 2016? We knew this was coming.
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Jakash said on June 19, 2018 at 5:10 pm
Yeah, that piece sums things up very well. An exhaustive review of the bullshit and double-talk that are hallmarks of the Rump regime. Particularly asinine is “the fact that nobody in this administration even bothers to coordinate their cover stories.” But the understated icing on the cake of a take-down that features dozens of links, IMHO: “You can suggest that the children in cages are not real children (not linking to Ann Coulter)…”
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David C. said on June 19, 2018 at 6:44 pm
I barely slept last night. I can’t even talk myself out of being angry even to sleep. I called my good Senator’s (Tammy Baldwin) office and she, of course, is co-sponsoring the Feinstein bill. I called my idiot Senator’s office (Ron Johnson) and my idiot Congressman’s office (Glenn Grothman (Louie Gohmert with hair)). They both said almost the exact same words “We support upholding the law”. How can anyone see that and say “yeah, that’s cool”.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 19, 2018 at 7:02 pm
I keep fighting back the temptation to tell people I encounter who are supporting the administration’s policy on family separation: “You do realize that sooner or later Trump is going to flip, deny he ever was in favor of this, and will leave you holding the keys to the cages?”
Nah, let ’em figure it out for themselves.
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Colleen said on June 19, 2018 at 7:52 pm
Another fan of Sherri @ 39. The fact is, this horror can be stopped. And no one is stopping it. It is not ok to put children in cages. Ever. Period. Full stop. Paragraph.
How long can I stay outraged? And why are all the Republicans kowtowing to the president? Don’t they have any values of their own? Any morals? Is it really so important to be obstructionist that children are used as bargaining chips?
I just can’t anymore.
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MarkH said on June 19, 2018 at 9:09 pm
Jeezol Pete, Pilot Joe —
You flew in to Jackson Hole for the night and I didn’t know about it? Tsk tsk, never again, pal. I’m authorizing Nancy to forward you my email and phone so, next time, and we’ll get together for a meal or something. I assume you already left today. Danny came out a few years ago intending to meet up, but he bailed with a lame excuse before it happened. You can be better.
Not only has it been cold here lately (37 deg. last night), very stormy, too. Hope you had an uneventful flight in and out and my friends at JH Aviation took good care of you. I didn’t think you flew this far west of the Mississippi. Did you fly the 310? Anyway, Safe travels to you.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on June 19, 2018 at 9:58 pm
Renaming Balbo Street for Ida Wells would be genius: Chicago folk, can this happen?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/you-cant-just-gloss-over-this-history-the-movement-to-honor-ida-b-wells-gains-momentum/2018/06/15/50445bbc-700d-11e8-bd50-b80389a4e569_story.html
FYI, Balbo was as close to being an Italian Fascist as you can get and not be named Benito. It’s overdue.
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Deborah said on June 19, 2018 at 10:08 pm
Scout, your description of the poor kids wrapped in those awful foil blankets like baked potatoes was both accurate and heartbreaking. Could they not give a kid SOMETHING comforting like a nice soft blanket. Those foil things have got to be crackly and scary. I certainly wouldn’t want to have to sleep under one of those. Kids should be tucked in bed under a blanket by mom or dad. Shameful.
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Diane said on June 19, 2018 at 11:56 pm
I hadn’t thought of it like that but Sherri @39 is exactly right, this is state sponsored terrorism.
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