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^Open Thread<

by — ,

I am rereading Don Quixote for the first time in decades. I’m not very far into it this time, but the good stuff is as good as I remember. The windmills hold up. The book burning is great: I had forgotten that it has a discussion of an earlier Cervantes book. So good!

But Christ on the Cross, the stuff that roots it in its time is not good in ways that I had forgotten about! A long digression about how you can’t trust Arabs, yikes. I remember some of these things, but it’s worse than I remember.

Comments

  3. 3

    @1 what do you suppose Puddy was doing while being black….was his downfall that he was just breathing?

  4. 4

    @1 maybe they didn’t try to speak to them because we speak English in the Country!

    Long Live Ireland!

  5. 5

    “what do you suppose Puddy was doing while being black”

    The loon was lynched for hanging out with white supremacists while being black. SAD!

  6. 6

    @1 I dunno, he is parked improperly, and nowadays it isn’t wise or safe to approach a stranger about something like this because it won’t accomplish anything and 9 times out of 10 they’ll get belligerent. So, if you have a problem with a stranger’s behavior, usually the safest thing to do is let the police handle it.

    Generally speaking, though, you should just walk around a poorly parked car unless it’s really a problem for some reason. It’s not possible to hire enough cops to police everyone’s trivial imperfections. You have to ignore a lot of petty irritations just to get through an average day.

    Human nature being what it is, you have to separate things that are merely annoying from things that are real problems, and this gal doesn’t seem able to do that.

  8. 8

    Confidential to Roger Dumbfuck Rabbit:

    Opinion: 5 more fat dividends that could be chopped like GE’s and A-B InBev’s

    General Electric GE, -1.33% once referred to as a stock for “widows and orphans” because of its surefire stability, just announced its third divided cut in roughly a decade.

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/5-more-fat-dividends-that-could-be-chopped-like-ges-and-a-b-inbevs-2018-10-31

    Barely more than a year after Roger Dumbfuck Rabbit touted GE stock in part on the basis of its dividend, that dividend has been cut 96%.

  9. 9

    @8 Post an article like that about stocks I actually own and I’ll be impressed. Anyone who owns stocks like these is an idiot. I assume that includes you, because most investors don’t waste their time reading articles about stocks they have no interest in.

  10. 10

    With midterm elections now less than a week away, Republicans are expected to hold onto House and Senate seats in states where Democrats aren’t allowed to vote.

  11. 11

    @ 10

    …Republicans are expected to hold onto House and Senate seats in states where Democrats aren’t allowednot motivated to vote.

    ftfy

  12. 12

    Christmas might come a little early this year.

    Phil Drake
    @GFTrib_PDrake
    Just got off conference call where Libertarian candidate Rick Breckenridge throws support to Republican Matt Rosendale. Breckenridge says he did not have numbers to win seat.

    9:43 AM – Oct 31, 2018

    In 2012 the libertarian candidate won 7% of the vote in MT.

    Senator Tester, check your shorts. Although the Libertarian will remain on the ballot and is not dropping out of the race.

  14. 14

    @13 If anybody sees a horse walking down the street on two legs, it’s either Doctor Dumbfuck or his barn mistress.

  16. 16

    “Lines snaked around the block outside immigration courts across the United States on Wednesday. But many people standing in them later learned they had no reason to be there. More than 100 immigrants showed up to court carrying paperwork ordering them to appear before a judge, only to find out that their court dates hadn’t actually been scheduled, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association …. And as a result, uncharacteristically long lines were reported outside at least 10 immigration courts, the association said.

    “Lawyers told CNN it’s part of a troubling trend that shows how dysfunctional the system has become and how chaotic the Trump administration’s approach to immigration enforcement can be. ‘From a humanitarian point of view, it’s sickening what you’re seeing happening here, because they’re toying with these individuals’ lives in many cases. … This is widespread, it’s national and it’s outrageous,’ said Jeremy McKinney, … an immigration attorney in North Carolina.”

    https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/31/us/immigration-court-fake-dates/index.html

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: The United States is facing a humanitarian crisis, and its name is Donald Trump. Before long, we may have U.N. monitors here. I wonder if he’ll use troops to keep them out?

  18. 18

    It’s Hallowe’en, and Doctor Dumbfuck probably is giving the kids his Varian dividend checks instead of candy, because it’s cheaper.

  19. 19

    At least I’m not giving them antibiotic-resistant E. coli after not handwashing after a catheter change, Roger Dumbfuck Rabbit. Jesus, that smell. I bet they run like hell the second you open the door.

  20. 20

    @17 Trump would love a guy like that in his Cabinet. He might be a tad over qualified though. May a press under-secretary that could help Sarah?

    It almost makes me wish the Wasilla-hillbilly was still around.

  23. 23

    @19 “Jesus, that smell.”

    Ugh, being a feral rabbit, I know what you mean. I encounter it all the time when I visit farms. Doesn’t your wife tell you to shower after leaving the barn? Do you still have a wife?

  24. 24

    Ham-Handed doesn’t even begin to describe the Trump administration in its efforts to do, well, anything.

    It’s like they hired a bunch of lead-poisoned, alcoholic methamphetamine addicts to run everything and they’re paying them in paint chips.

  25. 25

    @ RR @ 17:

    That’s pretty damn funny. It’s happening in Nevada too with the Governors race.

    Adam Laxalt is the son of one Paul Laxalt, Governor and later US Senator from Nevada. Paul Laxalt was depicted in the movie “the Godfather 2” by G.D. Spradlin. He ended up in a bad way in the movie as I recall. In any case, the normalization of open, naked corruption is continuing with the Republican party.

    Even their own kids won’t support them. The Republicans piss and moan about “Hollywood elites” but they won’t answer the question about their own “DC Elites”, steeped and trained into the worst sort of political gamesmanship the corporations can offer, that is the professionalization of the same old Mafia tactics and methods.

    Now that Jared Kushner is on the receiving end of a serious butt-sniffing around the circumstances surrounding the Khashoggi murder, it’s becoming clear who is really in charge of the modern Republican party. It would then follow that the purposes are the same as they were for these guys as they were back in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

    Kinda makes one wonder who whacked Whitey.

    It sure as shit isn’t the working man.

  26. 26

    @ 24

    Ham-Handed doesn’t even begin to describe the Trump administration in its efforts to do, well, anything.

    Meanwhile, pretty much everyone in America except ‘froggy now has a job. Wages are increasing faster than productivity.

    I’d say pathetic is a pretty good descriptor for ‘froggy’s efforts to do, well, anything.

  27. 27

    https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/31/politics/elizabeth-warren-steel-tariff-exemption/index.html

    “Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren is questioning the Trump administration’s enforcement of steel tariffs, saying that a majority of early waivers granted went to foreign-owned companies.
    Companies with operations in the United States, but headquartered in Japan and China, were more likely to have their requests granted than American companies seeking relief”

    Pay attention to what they do, not what they say.
    Vote.

  28. 28

    Year to date, the dow is up 1%, take home pay went up $1.25 a paycheck and despite that, republicans are STILL massively unpopular.

  29. 29

    @ 27

    1. Warren’s review covered only the first 30 day period of a tariff that has been in place for several months now.

    2. That more foreign-owned firms are affected by tariffs for steel imported into the US than US-owned firms are affected by tariffs for steel imported into the US would seem obvious. US-owned firms are more likely to source their steel domestically and not have a need to avoid tariffs, dumbass.

  31. 31

    @6 Thanks to Obama. Imagine how much better it could be if Repukes didn’t resist for 8 years.

  32. 32

    The Harvard Kennedy School’s poll of voters aged 18-29 is devastating news for Republicans: They despise Trump and the GOP in equal measure, and they’re going to vote in record numbers.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/01/young-americans-signal-record-midterm-turnout-reject-trump-gop-poll.html

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: These are the wages of racism, bigotry, intolerance, dishonesty and corruption, exploiting the non-rich, and simply being wrong.

  33. 33

    @24 One thing’s for sure, that kind of bribe money usually doesn’t come from some 20-year-old starting up an “intelligence service” with business capital consisting of a $150 laptop. He’s just a conduit. If you want to know in what dark dank cavern this toadstool grew, follow the money trail.

  34. 34

    @ 32

    In 2016 voters 18-29 went for Hillary over DJT 58-28.

    She still lost, because that age group was only 13% of the electorate.

    There’s no national election this year.

    Other than that, Roger Dumbfuck Rabbit, you’re a dumbfuck.

  35. 35

    @26 “Wages are increasing faster than productivity.”

    It’s not lost on the peons that wage growth, productivity growth, and 1% income growth is a three-way race between two snails and a rocketship.

    One of the key drivers of productivity growth is business investment. Where is the business investment that $1.5 trillion of debt was supposed to generate? All I see is dividend raises and stock buybacks going into the pockets of greedy capitalists like me.

    But then, why would captains of industry invest in their businesses, when consumers can’t earn enough to buy anything?

  36. 36

    @26 “Wages are increasing faster than productivity.”

    It’s not lost on the peons that wage growth, productivity growth, and 1% income growth is a three-way race between two snails and a rocketship.

    One of the key drivers of productivity growth is business investment. Where is the business investment that $1.5 trillion of debt was supposed to generate? All I see is dividend raises and stock buybacks going into the pockets of greedy capitalists like me.

    But then, why would captains of industry invest in their businesses when consumers don’t earn enough to buy anything?

  37. 37

    @34 Wherein Doctor Dumbfuck assures us you don’t need votes to win elections. He certainly was right about that in 2016. The trouble with his reasoning is there’s no Electoral College for the House or Senate.

  38. 38

    @29 “US-owned firms are more likely to source their steel domestically”

    Really? Then why do domestic steel producers need tariffs to compete? If U.S. companies are already sourcing steel from U.S. producers, then aren’t the tariffs superfluous and pointless?

  39. 39

    @ 37

    The trouble with his reasoning is there’s no Electoral College for the House or Senate.

    The trouble with yours, Roger Dumbfuck Rabbit, is that every state has two US senators. Each and every time each state, now matter how few inhabitants, has two senators. Since you reflected on 2016, Roger Dumbfuck Rabbit, care to tell me how many states Trump took?

    Roger Dumbfuck Rabbit, a Senate with 54-55 GOP senators will be devastating for your ilk. RBG looks evermore shaky as the months drag by, doesn’t she?

    How ironic if Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett is the result of the Kavanaugh attacks your side attempted.

    Booker
    Harris

  40. 40

    @39 “a Senate with 54-55 GOP senators will be devastating for your ilk.”

    Skipping over your unbridled optimism about your tribe’s Senate prospects next Tuesday, if we may go to the heart of the matter, exactly what would 55 senators get you that 51 senators doesn’t?

    In addition, exactly what would a 6- or 7-seat majority on SCOTUS get you that a 5-seat majority won’t, unless you’re expecting conservative defections on key votes (e.g., Roe v. Wade) and/or suffering a crushing defeat in 2020 followed by court-packing by a Congress and White House controlled by Democrats? Mmmm?

  41. 41

    Meanwhile, GOP pre-election confidence is on display for the whole world to see.

    “In the most racially charged national political ad in 30 years, President Donald Trump and the Republican Party accuse Democrats of plotting to help people they depict as Central American invaders overrun the nation with cop killers.

    “The new web video, tweeted by the President five days before the midterm elections, is the most extreme step yet in the most inflammatory closing argument of any campaign in recent memory.

    “The Trump campaign ad is the latest example of the President’s willingness to lie and fear-monger in order to tear at racial and societal divides; to embrace demagoguery to bolster his own political power and the cause of the Republican midterm campaign.”

    https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/31/politics/donald-trump-immigration-paul-ryan-midterms/index.html

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: It’s interesting that Trump & Gang are campaigning on racial fear and hate instead of jobs, wages, and growth. Maybe because the Trump Economy isn’t all that great for anyone except the 1-percent? Or perhaps they can read polls, too, and realize they need a Hail Mary. Sometimes even the despicable know when they’re despised.

  43. 43

    @42 “he has no moral standing on any issue”

    Do any of them? In the GOP, even fine distinctions have disappeared, and they’re all the same now. They all march to the same drummer, making a sound reminiscent of Nazi jackboots on cobblestones.

  48. 48

    @ 40

    …exactly what would 55 senators get you that 51 senators doesn’t?

    The ability to lose Collins, Murkowsk, and a couple of other senators and still get Coney Barrett confirmed, Roger Dumbfuck Rabbit.

  49. 49

    @ 40

    In addition, exactly what would a 6- or 7-seat majority on SCOTUS get you that a 5-seat majority won’t…

    A greater level of comfort that the Senate will still be Republican-led in 2021, Roger Dumbfuck Rabbit.

  50. 50

    Good god. I just had a short online conversation with a conservative who was adamant that the 14th amendment doesn’t give birth right citizenship. He said it was an activist court and we have been wrong for the last 150 years.

  51. 51

    @48 Don’t worry, you’ve got Collins for every POS who Trump wants to put on the federal bench until 2021, and after that her vote wouldn’t matter anyway.

    But you don’t seem to have much confidence in your party’s ability to confirm its own nominees. It appears you know the quality of the nominees.

  52. 52

    @49 Even with a nakedly partisan Supreme Court, I don’t see how you can gerrymander the Senate. Are you thinking about jiggering some state boundaries by executive order?

  53. 53

    @50 Don’t worry about it. Unless your conservative friend is a Supreme Court justice, his opinion doesn’t count for a hill of beans.

    We already know these people believe in UFOs and don’t believe in science, so don’t expect them to think the Constitution can stop them.

  54. 54

    “Just how much money do you need to be among the global 1 percent? According to the 2018 Global Wealth Report from Credit Suisse Research Institute, you need a net worth of $871,320 U.S. Credit Suisse defines net worth, or ‘wealth,’ as ‘the value of financial assets plus real assets (principally housing) owned by households, minus their debts.'”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/01/how-much-money-you-need-to-be-part-of-the-1-percent-worldwide.html

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: Good Gawd, according to this, I’m a 1-percenter. But it doesn’t seem quite right to compare my Seattle burrow with a straw hut in Africa, or my stock portfolio with a herd of goats and a flock of chickens.

    Instead of comparing apples with oranges, the question to ask should be: What does it take to be a 1-percenter in America? This is what I dug up from the internet:

    “A New York Times article (Economix, 1/17/12) agrees that the threshold for being in the top 1 per cent in household income is about $380k but states that, based on Fed data, the 1% threshold for net worth is $8.4M.”

    I’m safely outside those parameters. So, I suspect, is Doctor Dumbfuck although I can’t be sure because it doesn’t take brains to make money. He’s living proof of that.

  55. 55

    Tom Wolfe was right, you can’t go home again:

    “Lachlan Murdoch on Thursday put an end to speculation that Megyn Kelly would return to Fox News now that her show on NBC has been canceled.”

    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/01/lachlan-murdoch-ends-speculation-megyn-kelly-will-return-to-fox-news.html

    Kelly is smart (she practiced lawyer before becoming a television reporter), telegenic, famous, and has a fan base, so she should be able to land somewhere if she wants to work, which she doesn’t need to.

    If nothing else, she could get a professorship at any prestigious journalism school, and be like Einstein — kick back, wear sweaters, get a frizzy hairdo, smoke a pipe, and take long strolls through the campus. That’s not a bad life at all. But if that doesn’t work out, either, she could always get a job at a corner deli, which have lots of openings now.

  56. 56

    Speaking of deli workers and such, Trump’s amateur economics adviser thinks “a federal minimum wage is ‘a terrible idea’ that hurts small businesses,” which I take to mean he feels people should be forced to work for less than $7.25 an hour.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/01/kudlow-calls-federal-minimum-wage-a-terrible-idea.html

    Of course he does. He’s a Republican. He has money. He doesn’t give a damn whether people who actually work for a living have a roof or eat. He’s probably hoping the serf system returns. Abolishing the minimum wage has long been one of conservatives’ holy grails. And, although they won’t say so, repealing the 13th Amendment probably is on their to-do list, too. That would solve the “black problem.” They don’t have to send them back to Africa if they can put them back in chains.

  57. 57

    If you’re a Republican scrambling to survive the 2018 midterms, the obvious thing to do is use your coal industry donations to buy ads attacking your Democratic opponent for taking coal money and painting her as a climate villain:

    “[Rep.] Curbelo has received more than $192,000 from energy and natural resource firms, in comparison to the less than $5,000 that Mucarsel-Powell has received from the same sector of donors, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.”

    https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/11/carlos-curbelo-debbie-mucarsel-powell-the-gop-is-attacking-a-democrat-for-being-weak-on-climate-change-wait-what/

  59. 59

    “It appears you know the quality of the nominees.”

    Well, Doctor Dumbfuck did crave seeing a Justice on the SCOTUS who gang-rapes innocent little prep-school girls for kicks, so I’m pretty sure he’s good with goatfuckers and other deplorables sitting on the courts as well.

  60. 60

    Well we finally found out just “How Stupid is Too Stupid.” Congratulations to all involved. Prior to today the answer had been, “There is no level of Stupid that is too.”

    Frank Luntz @frankluntz

    “On Thursday The Gateway Pundit suspended our relationship with @JacobWohl.”

  61. 61

    I’m so old I remember when Jade Helm was fake sending troops to defend Texas and people were upset about it.

    Well mostly people who called the President Ape, but people. Racist people.

  62. 62

    The last time I checked, Megan Kelly’s net worth was something near $15 million. She’ll be OK.

  63. 63

    @ 59

    Take a good look at the POS that Charles Schumer is frantically shoveling cash at in New Jersey, Steve.

    Unanimous condemnation of his corruption by the Senate. Yet you motherfuckers couldn’t gently ease him out of his seat, so you’re funneling cash to him instead.

    Few on HA deserve our current government more than you do, Steve.

  66. 66

    Speaking of Gateway @ 60, Trump’s in the capital city of Missouri for a Klan Gathering tonite.

    FIFY

    Good of him to remind Ferguson and BLM to GOTV

  67. 67

    @60 Geez, if I had a relationship with Jacob Wohl, I wouldn’t admit it except under compulsion of subpoena and then only if granted immunity.

  69. 69

    @62 That’s “Megyn” to you, buddy. And I’m very OK. I don’t need NBC, Fox, you, or anybody else!

  70. 70

    @63 Your best prosecutors couldn’t convict him, and you’re still calling him “corrupt”? Careful, that might be libelous. (Yes, he’s a public figure; but in your case, actual malice would be easy to prove.)

    The difference between your crooks and our crooks is that yours are in prison and ours are innocent.

    But then, there never was any equivalency between the parties.

  71. 71

    @65 Do come here next Wednesday to engage us in lively conversation about the election results. Win or lose, I’ll be here, waiting for you.

  73. 73

    This might be a good time to pause and take a gander at how the Queen’s subjects across the pond see us:

    “As America prepares to go to the polls on November 6th, the country is more divided and angry than it has been in decades. … Toxic federal politics is America’s great weakness. It prevents action on pressing real issues … erodes Americans’ faith in their government … and it dims the beacon of American democracy abroad. The mid-term elections are a chance to begin stopping the rot—and even to start the arduous task of putting it right.

    “Mr Trump did not begin this abasement. But he has embraced it … and carried it to new depths …. Mr Trump lies with abandon …. His deceit is so brazen and effective that many of his supporters take his word … in the face of all the evidence. That suits Mr Trump …. But it is disastrous for America. …

    “Mr Trump is also wilfully divisive. … Such divisiveness matters because … compromise … becomes … impossible …. A dishonest executive, conniving with a fawning legislature and empowered by a partisan judiciary: were it to come to that, America truly would be in grave trouble. …

    “What is to be done? Just as American politics did not sour overnight, so the route forward is by many small steps, beginning with next week’s elections. And the first of those steps is for the House, at a minimum, to switch to Democratic control … because … House Republicans have repeatedly … neglect[ed] their constitutional responsibility … a continued Republican majority … would eventually imperil the rule of law. For Democrats to win control of the House would, in the long run, benefit both parties. …

    “America will not mend its politics in a single election. At a minimum, progress will take more votes, a renewal of the Republican Party and a different president with a different moral compass. But the right result next week could point the way.”

    https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/11/03/why-the-mid-terms-matter

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: Meanwhile, Doctor Dumbfuck is an unabashed cheerleader for the most toxic president since Nixon — because he’s unabashedly a dumbfuck, and you can’t teach dumbfucks.

  74. 74

    It appears the Pentagon’s planning for a border deployment includes dealing with “unregulated militias” operating “under the guise of citizen patrols” who’ve been stealing National Guard equipment.

    https://www.newsweek.com/trump-administration-migrant-caravan-border-troops-1196855

    Did Trump just say something about lethal force? In every military assignment I ever participated in, including base duty in CONUS, we posted armed guards who were authorized to shoot anyone trying to steal military equipment, and on a Marine base in Vietnam, I viewed the dead body of a South Vietnamese soldier who got himself killed doing just that.

  75. 75

    72

    I’ve never seen FIFY. I’ve only seen FTFY used. At least that seems to be the preferred term here on this blog.

  77. 77

    “If nothing else, she could get a professorship at any prestigious journalism school, and be like Einstein — kick back, wear sweaters, get a frizzy hairdo, smoke a pipe, and take long strolls through the campus. That’s not a bad life at all. But if that doesn’t work out, either, she could always get a job at a corner deli, which have lots of openings now.”

    Hopefully she just kicks back and croaks and ends up 6 feet under. She has no morals either.

  79. 79

    @77 I don’t wish her dead. I just wish she’d go away. How about a career change to Antarctic explorer?

  81. 81

    All that money GOP spent in WV. Pissed away.

    A leading Republican super PAC has retreated from the airwaves in West Virginia, as GOP hopes of ousting a Democratic senator in the most pro-Trump state of the 2016 election have faded in the final days of the midterm campaign.

    After spending millions on the air in recent months, the Senate Leadership Fund is no longer airing television advertisements in the race,

  82. 82

    @81 Yeah, Real Clear Politics has Manchin leading 48% to 39%.

    A GOP candidate polling only 39% in a state Trump carried by 42 points, wow, what’s wrong with this picture? Did the guy shoot a puppy on live teevee?

  83. 83

    I haven’t really looked at RCP in this cycle because I’ve been following 538, but RCP’s Senate projections align with most others. They have GOP taking North Dakota and Missouri, and holding onto Nevada and Tennessee, and have Democrats taking Arizona and holding Florida, Montana, Indiana, West Virginia, New Jersey, Michigan, and Minnesota, which would result in the GOP picking up 1 seat for a 52-48 majority. As I recall, 538 also projected a 52-48 Senate split as the “most likely” outcome.

  84. 84

    I will be voting for The Hump in 2020. Because I don’t think this Country has suffered enough punishment and destruction.

    Long Live Ireland!!!!

  85. 85

    CT will probably elect a Repuke for Governor; that’s my prediction. I felt this way when the candidate was down in the polls. New polls show him leading by small margin. I told a Repuke friend 2weeks ago that he would win. When I did his eyes bugged out. Republicans are pretty fucking stupid and a bunch of assholes.

  86. 86

    81, 82, 83,
    Mr. Justice DateRape “booted” in their faces.

    But Yertle is a “genius” because… reasons.

  87. 87

    60,
    Please note the precise use of the word “suspended”.
    And recall that this is Frank Luntz using it.

  88. 88

    65,

    “Whatever happens on Tuesday…”

    We already know.
    You have announced the outcomes hundreds of times over the last couple of months.

  89. 89

    @88 “Whatever happens on Tuesday” qualifies the outcomes he announced hundreds of times, and prefaces the denials of having made those announcements that will follow their failure to materialize.

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