If someone told me 3 years ago, while I was waitressing to help my family stay afloat, that in a few short years an unhinged President of the United States would be repeatedly saying my name at the 2020 debate, I would’ve brought them some water and told them to sober up.
Televangelist Pat Robertson on Tuesday said God told him who will prevail in the Nov. 3 presidential election: President Donald Trump.
“First of all, I want to say without question, Trump is going to win the election,’’ Robertson told viewers during a segment on “The 700 Club.’’
The 90-year-old founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, who has been a supporter and defender of the president, also made dire predictions about the end of the world.
“What I think very frankly is the only thing that will fulfill the word of Jesus … is some kind of asteroid strike on the globe,’’ he said. “It’s sudden destruction. It’s not going to be some nuclear war. We’re not going to be allowed to blow this earth up.’’
In this Friday, Oct. 23, 2015, photo, the Rev. Pat Robertson poses a question to a Republican presidential candidate during a forum at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va.
More:A dozen ways life on Earth could end
More:1,000-mph winds, shock waves deadliest effects of asteroid strike
Robertson has made such prophesies before and was wrong. In 1976, he predicted the world would end in 1982. And in his 1990 book, “The New Millennium,” he said the world would be destroyed on April 29, 2007.
So maybe that’s why on Tuesday, after describing the destruction the asteroid will cause, Robertson said, “then, maybe the end.’’
Robertson said more than five years will pass between the end of the election and the asteroid’s arrival. He predicted horrible civil disobedience will commence after the election, there will be at least two attempts on Trump’s life and a war against Israel will end only when God intervenes.
“God is going to bring a period of great peace,’’ Robertson said.
That is, until the asteroid hits.
At the end of the segment, Robertson said, “I think it’s time to pray.’’
.@realDonaldTrump Im a immigrant and I came back. I may have a low IQ, but we work hard, have empathy, we build families and communities with our contributions! Wind mills cause cancer? You said! Mmmmmyou want to talk about IQ? #JoeBidenKamalaHarris2020
At the end of January, when the Former Reality Show Host returns to being a private citizen, we the public may have an unanticipated benefit, Twitter may banish him. We know he’ll continue to traffic in lies, rumors and conspiracy theories, which will bump up against the continually tightening terms of service enforced by social media companies, so it is difficult to see how Twitter and for that matter Facebook can avoid banning him.
He’ll scream of course and a subset of the conservative entertainment complex will join him, but I don’t see much pressure coming from R office holders, as he will be just as much, if not greater, an annoyance to them as he will to Dems.
The proposed declaration could come from the State Department as soon as this week. If the declaration happens, it is likely to cause an uproar among civil society groups and might spur litigation. Critics of the possible move also worry it could lead other governments to further crack down on such groups. The groups named, meanwhile, deny any allegations that they are anti-Semitic.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is pushing for the declaration, according to a congressional aide with contacts inside the State Department. Pompeo is eyeing a future presidential run and has taken a number of steps to gain favor with pro-Israel and evangelical voters who make up a key part of Trump’s electoral base.
But the proposal is drawing opposition from career State Department employees. Among the opponents are department lawyers who warn that it is on shaky grounds due to free speech concerns, could lead to lawsuits and might even lack a proper administrative legal basis.
“While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed the worst and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover.” — Herbert Hoover, May 1, 1930. Often misquoted as “Prosperity is just around the corner.”
The first report is a new poll from Gallup that asks the fundamental question: “Does President Donald Trump deserve to be reelected?”
56 percent say “no.”
43 percent say “yes.”
That’s -13 for Trump. Only 1 percent of the sample had no opinion.
This is death for an incumbent. By comparison: In the same poll, 60 percent of respondents said that their member of Congress deserves reelection and only 35 percent say their member does not.
So get your head around that: On the two federal offices that every American can vote on two weeks from now, the average member of Congress is +25 on reelect; President Trump is -13.
There is no skew, no shyness, no conspiracy that can overcome numbers like that.
Lost in the election frenzy and pandemic worries, James Randi, a founder of modern skepticism and bane of all psychics, passed away this week at the age of 92.
@Jen:
It looks as if he’s had IVs inserted into the back of his hand multiple times. Generally blood for a routine blood test is drawn from the crook of the arm.
On deck this week oven baked ground chicken (or turkey*) patties covered in cornmeal, egg, and breadcrumbs, topped with tomato sauce and gouda. And on the side oven baked potatoes with a mix of olive oil, garlic, lime juice, mustard, and oregano, from a recipe I chanced into online.
*Sometimes they have ground turkey at the supermarket, but not always. Therefore I don’t plan on it.
to gain favor with pro-Israel and evangelical voters who make up a key part of Trump’s electoral base.
Israel’s decision to align themselves so closely with a single party in the US is a mistake of historic proportions. Republicans operate solely on the principle that Victory = Doing things to hurt your opposition and then rubbing their noses in it. The fact that the Israelis are lobbying for this move shows how totally they have moved towards that Republican worldview. This effort will have no material impact on any of Israel’s long term goals. It will not promote acceptance by their neighbors. But it will antagonize a large group of people who don’t normally pay much attention to Israel either way. And in Democrat’s eyes it will associate Israel with the presidential campaign of a despised partisan. They are needlessly creating enemies merely to stick their finger in the eye of people they don’t like.
@MarkedMan:
Seems to be a habit of the wilder shores of the right these days; and Likud appear to have become plugged in to the US-right political/media feedback loops.
I wonder what the Israelis professional diplomats are saying.
Not only were there no scandals or criminal indictments of Obama’s inner circle, but none of them were pranked by Borat. Maybe that’s an impossible standard.
@charon: whatever is going on, I hope it is painful and terrifying.
Having been on blood thinners for the past decade, I can say with moderate certainty that that is not normal. A few random bruises, sure, but not that many and that large.
I’m clumsy AF and will be wondering “what did I bang my shin into”, but I will never have it crawling up my arms and on my lips.
@Jen: I can almost guarantee he’s on blood thinners. Bruising is a real problem for me because of them. Beyond that, I have no idea why both his hands are black and blue. The only thing I can think of is the IV mentioned by CSK but that is usually only one hand. I did have a vein collapse once when I had an IV. Woke up in the middle of the night with a 5 fingered volley ball at the end of my arm. That would bruise a hand that badly. Trying to imagine the chances of a vein collapsing on each side.
Also the question arises of why he would have an IV.
A hospital in Idaho is 99 percent full and warning that it may have to transfer coronavirus patients to hospitals in Seattle and Portland, Ore. Medical centers in Kansas City, Mo., turned away ambulances on a recent day because they had no room for more patients. And in West Allis, just outside Milwaukee, an emergency field hospital erected on the grounds of the Wisconsin State Fair admitted its first virus patient this week.
More than 41,000 people are currently hospitalized with the coronavirus in the United States, a 40 percent rise in the past month, and cooler weather that pushes more people indoors is threatening to expand the outbreak still more. At least 14 states saw more people hospitalized for the virus on a day in the past week than on any other day in the pandemic, according to the Covid Tracking Project. Seven more states are nearing their peaks.
@OzarkHillbilly: For the record, I believe that Israel has passed beyond saving and the US should be decoupling. They are an apartheid state, and much of their population is deeply racist. They chose which path they would take when Jimmy Carter, the president who spent the most time on the security of Israel, warned in a book they were in danger of becoming an apartheid state and they painted him as a dupe and an anti-Semite.
@MarkedMan:
Not so sure racism is the correct term; the basis of Likud support, and the most anti-Arab segment of Israelis appears to be the intersection of two groups: the religiously orthodox and devout (largely superiority complex) AND of middle eastern origins aka Mizrahi (largely pure hatred).
Secular Jews (the basis of Labour) are far less prejudiced and make up about 40% of the population (Traditionals c.30%; Orthodox and UltraOrthodox 30%).
In terms of “race” the Mizrahi and Arabs are pretty much indistinguishable. A lot of the older Mizrahi IIRC are still Arabic speakers, though their descendants have largely abandoned it.
The hatred stems from memories of “Great Exodus”, when Arab countries responded to the creation of Israel by expelling, expropriating, and persecuting Jewish populations.
Given Israel’s ultra-democratic system, the Mizrahi and the “hardline” Orthodox, and the settlers
That has been the problem of the Arabs generally and Palestinians in particular since the 1980’s: the Israeli “offer” has always been to small for them to stomach.
But that became inevitable when they refused to accept the existence of “little Israel” between 1948 and 1967.
The question is, what would be the response of Israelis to “decoupling” and its logical extension of economic exclusion?
Would they shamefacedly repent?
Or maybe say “sod you” and proceed to annex half the Levant?
Or (more likely) a point of defiance in-between?
Trump has claimed a great many times that he’s immune to SARS-CoV-2 now. I don’t think that word means what he thinks it means*.
Leaving aside the documented cases of reinfection, we know Minimus was treated with monoclonal antibodies, apparently to great success. that’s all well and good, but those antibodies are produced in a lab by a line of B-cells, not by the patient who receives them.
Antibody and other adaptive immune system measures, are produced days after the initial infection. Those leave behind memory B and T cells that can later activate an immune response when the same pathogen invades again. This is not so of synthetic antibodies, no matter how well they work.
Now, I assume antibodies have a half-life, like any other organic substance int he body. Eventually they either neutralize a pathogen, decay, or are metabolized by the body. they don’t linger on forever, for sure. We heard the dose given Pessimus was good for several weeks. That’s nice.
But what happens after the monoclonal antibodies run out, if Trump’s own immune system did not produce his own, nor left behind memory cells?
I’m neither an MD not a biologist, but I think what happens then is reinfection if he’s exposed to SARS-CoV-2 again, and a second round of COVID-19.
Given he doesn’t seem to have changed habits after getting infected, he’s at the same risk he was before. or at a higher risk, seeing how America is trying very hard to make its third Corona peak leave the second Corona peak in the dust.
@Teve: I was most impressed with all the stuff he managed to weave together in this new pronouncement (I refuse to denigrate prophecy by identifying this word salad as one). He included all of the boiler plate Hal Lindsey stuff with Paul Crouch’s Trinity Broadcast theories, Mayan end of days, and finally, a killer asteroid. Very syncretistic. It’s amazing when a person of that age show this type of intellectual diversity and (in his case) growth.
I wonder who his current writers are. They’re doing a good job of keeping him current. Trump’s writers could take a cue (and The Donald could learn to stay on script, but I don’t see that in the offing).
Yeah, it is amazing how quickly Keef’s gotcha fell apart. Hint for you Keef, make sure that your attempted gotcha is going to remain effective for more than 30 nanonseconds.
Also, Keef (I suspect you are reading this even just lurking on this site which you just can’t quit) our not taking Tony B at his word that everything he says is the gospel truth is something that made you vomit…wow dude, you need to toughen up or have a steady supply of antacids on hand.
If anything about Tony B is going to make you vomit it should not be that we did not fall in line to 100% believe everything he says rather that Tony B was almost instantly revealed to be lying (no ax to grind…yeah, right, next you are going to ask me to pull your finger and insist that what I think will happen is not going to happen)!
That should stress you out, that you are being played by folks like Tony B. Tony is basically angry that Biden wanted to disassociate himself and his father from him. Tony and you should be aware that Biden not wanting to be friends with him is not a crime.
Again, Keef, again, I know you are reading this…are you willing to admit you were wrong about Tony B? It will help you gain back some of your credibility amongst the folks on this great site.
There’s been some other erporting recently re. Trump, ultra-evangelicals and “end times”. This at In These Times was one (also fits in with comments here re. Israel and evangelicals). Sure I’ve seen another but link lost.
It’s not for no reason that quite a lot of Anglicans view the evangelical “ultras” as both heretics and lunatics.
@inhumans99:
My favourite bit in the Wonkette article: the bit from Christopher Miller’s tweet showing the “incriminating message” displayed on a phone on the Russian ru_mts network.
ROFLMAO.
Turns out, Rudy CAN fail.
Stop your fooling around (ah-ah-ah)
Time you straighten right out (ah-ah-ah)
Better think of your future (ah-ah-ah)
Else you’ll wind up in jail (ah-ah-ah)
Rudy
A message to you, Rudy
A message to you
It’s striking that 4 years ago Republicans talked a lot about saving coal as some kind of political checkmate and 4 years later they’ve basically given up on it because coal is so obviously dying.
I find it odd, if not curious, that the moment I hit “send” on my column that’s highly critical of Joe Biden my Wi-Fi service disconnected. Inexplicably, it will be out all day. Never happened before. Probably just a coincidence. I drove to the local store and sent the column .
@MarkedMan: I would be very wary of painting all Isrealis with the same brush. That said, the wave of Russian immigrants has bolstered the hard-right there.
The decision by Netanyahu to align Isreal with the hard-right of their biggest patron was probably not a good idea for Isreal long term though — another example of putting Party over Country, this time in a country that isn’t the US, which is a change.
But, a future Israeli government might change that relationship. The elections there hinge as much on local and economic issues as foreign relations. We just don’t get a lot of the non-foreign-relations news out of Israel in our press. I don’t think Democratic administrations will be as reflexively pro-Israel anymore.
@Jen: Meth does bad things to a body, and I doubt blood thinners help.
Kentucky has quite a meth problem, and it affects all sorts of communities these days — it’s best not to rule it out prematurely based on race or class. McConnell might be the victim of the opioid epidemic, and switched to the more easily available meth.
@Gustopher: The other potentially destabilising force in Israel is the ever-increasing percentage of Ultra-Orthodox. Israel is already getting swamped by COVID-19 cases from the Ultra-Orthodox (many of who refuse to carry out social distancing, etc.) and the non-Ultra-Orthodox are getting awfully ticked off.
I suspect that the more religious Israel gets, the less support it will have from American Jews.
Israel is already getting swamped by COVID-19 cases from the Ultra-Orthodox (many of who refuse to carry out social distancing, etc.)
The Ultra-Orthodox in NYC are also causing problems with that, refusing social distancing and masks. The latter, I think, can be fixed with a targeted branding campaign, referring to masks as “Yarmulkes For Your Face!”
and the non-Ultra-Orthodox are getting awfully ticked off.
They’ve been ticked off before.
Last time I visited Israel, in 1985, I remember coverage of labor unrest in El Al, mostly having to do with the prohibition of operating any flights on Saturdays (from Friday evening to Saturday evening to be precise).
My family there, and many of their friends whom I met, as well as a few others I met here and there (I spent about two months in country), were largely ticked off with the religious parties and people then. there were issues other than prohibitions on Saturdays, like the exemption for many Orthodox from military service, subsidies they got from the government, etc. All that, I should mention, was a bit secondary to the country’s hyperinflation at the time.
And all that was before these religious parties gained the power they have now.
In September 2015, the Obama-Biden administration approved the sale of a strategically sensitive Michigan manufacturer, Henniges Automotive, to a firm connected to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, and a Chinese military contractor that was on an American watch list because of its close ties to the People’s Liberation Army. Hunter Biden’s equity fund, backed by the Communist Chinese government, and the Chinese contractor, Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC), needed special approval for the deal from the Committee of Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CIFIUS) because Henniges produced technology with potential military use.
AVIC entities have been sanctioned by the United States on five separate occasions since 1993 and the addition to the watch list–a major red flag–occurred less than a year-and-a-half before they co-purchased Henniges with Hunter Biden’s BHR. The fact that CFIUS approved the deal is alarming given that Henniges owns numerous facilities in the United States that are now controlled by a Chinese military front company.
Internal BHR documents show exactly how the Chinese military contractor was able to disguise its ownership via shell corporations and formed a joint-venture with the son of the vice president to facilitate the Chinese takeover of an American dual-use technology supplier. Additional documents suggest that Hunter Biden’s Chinese-backed venture funneled money to an entity controlled by Vanessa Kerry, the daughter of then-Secretary of State John Kerry, just one month before CFIUS approved the takeover. At the time, Secretary Kerry played a lead role on the Obama-Biden CFIUS committee.
When news of the AVIC takeover of Michigan-based manufacturer Henniges Automotive hit the wire, Biden’s associates celebrated, calling the transaction a “proof of concept” for future Chinese acquisitions.
Isn’t it odd that the family members of top neoliberal China Lobby Democrats keep turning up in companies taking Chinese communist army money?
@keef:
Pookums, why do you never post your sources — Breitbart in this case. It’s almost like you are embarrased about that!
And did you catch how the WSJ’s newsroom confirmed the Bobulinski was a big yawn.
Beyond that, Keef, my sweetie, you seem like the bright type of guy who has done well in the world. To confirm your strong support of the President and his chances, how about placing a wager — for charity — on the election? Say $100 to the charity of the winner’s choice?
Beyond that, hugs and kisses as always. Keep thinking of us in your downtime. Don’t tuck in your shirt too much, I’ve heard it causes you to go blind.
@charon:
@Jen:
My hands have looked like that exactly twice in my life. The first time I’d punched through the driver’s window to grab the driver. Broke it badly, but I did grab him (with the other hand). The second time I spent 30 days in solitary. Everyone left me alone after that one.
@Gustopher:
@Jen:
I got in real trouble for my first thesis proposal, which argued that the better solution to the then new War on Drugs (TM) would be legalization and taxation. Of everything. Got tons of pushback from my advisor. But truth is, meth manufacture causes so much more damage (human and environmental) than amphetamines ever could, or did, or will.
Going back to my cave now, replaying the loop of Sleepy Joe looking away from Chucklehead-in-Chief and laughing quietly to himself.
Patrick Wyman
@Patrick_Wyman
·
28m
Clay Higgins, while a law enforcement officer, was credibly accused of police brutality and then lied about it to internal affairs investigators with one of his accomplices, who is now on his congressional staff payroll
Quote Tweet
Rep. Clay Higgins
@RepClayHiggins
· 2h
My wife has the gift of premonition.
Last night she dreamed that Federal squads were in our home seizing guns, knives, “unauthorized foods” and stored water. They said we had been “reported”.
Becca awoke crying.
What happened to our freedom? She asked.
What indeed.
Roger ‘Vote Early’ Dutch Flag of Netherlands Resister Flag of United States
@Roger_J_Postma
·
16m
Replying to
@franksinatrama
and
@erikpjverweij
Here is some context:
Last month, Facebook took down two posts by this same Louisiana Congressman threatening to kill people protesting police killings of Black Americans. Clay Higgins is a former police officer and a
@NRA
ally.
I would be very wary of painting all Isrealis with the same brush.
This is something that people of every country do to every other country that they’re not geographically close to (and even then, sometimes).
Everyone also tends to paint entire populations as being the same as their leaders. I’ve had conversations with foreign friends who say “America believes X” when it’s something that Trump said.
Even though I thought I was better than that, I got (metaphorically) slapped in the face on more than one occasion when I was overseas. Building friendships with people from all over the world has been quite eye-opening (and, from what they’ve said, the same applies to them). When you have people from the US, Europe, Mexico, Africa, and Asia sitting around a table talking, you’ve got to learn how to understand things from different perspectives.
What about the facts that you keep evading?
Hunter Biden is not running for president
Hunter Biden has not been shown to have done anything illegal.
There is no evidence that Joe Biden (you know, the Biden who is running for president?) has had any involvement in his son’s business dealings
If there is any evidence that both of these things are true:
a) Hunter Biden business dealings criminal
b) that Joe Biden was a witting party to them
Could you let us know?
p.s. And please, oh please, this time NOT some pile of flimsy artifice that collapses as soon as someone pokes it with a stick.
That’s just a waste of your time and ours.
@keef:
Sugar lumps, are you saying you don’t think Trump is going to win and that’s why you don’t want to get easy money for a charity of your choice?
Say it ain’t so pumpkin.
Also, you really should talk to a therapist about you obsession with us. I know we are sexy beasts, but your desire to get us to notice you is getting a bit pathological.
@keef: Odd indeed–as odd at the current President having bank accounts in China and playing 180K taxes there–as opposed to $750 in the country of his citizenship. I thought your crew was America First? Friggin Commies
@keef:
OK.
So as not to be closed-minded I modify my previous request.
How about, instead of requiring both to be shown initially, how about either of criminal activity by Hunter Biden or the clear involvement of Joe Biden in Hunter Bidens’ business dealings?
But please: NOT allegations, NOT insinuations, NOT a dodgy third party maybe said, NOT content of emails that turn up first for sale in Ukraine in September 2019 and then, ooh how miraculously my dear, on a laptop hard image of debatable provenance, NOT allegations that turn out to be very carefully avoiding accusations of illegal activity.
Oh and not phone text messages on a laptop LOL..
(Hey, if these guys want dirty deeds done dirt cheap, maybe I should offer my services? Can’t do much worse. LOL)
I decided more than 10 years ago to make it VERY CLEAR that I was not part of the Republican Party or the conservative movement or the right wing. At all.
I can’t even imagine what sort of person would have continued associating with the right for the past decade.
I don’t know. Something something people, something something values?
I binged all of Deep Space Nine in a month. It was fantastic, because Deep Space Nine is the best Trek. But now I’m sad that it’s over and I have no more Deep Space Nine. 🙁
I honestly don’t know how people with kids do it. I’m 44, and between Netflix and HBO Max and books and magazines and dates and workouts and friends and shopping, there are just not enough hours in the day as it is. I’ve got a stack of Vanity Fairs 6” tall on the coffee table. Maybe if I get up early tomorrow I’ll read the Elle Fanning one.
The headline of the day-
Santa Claus won’t be coming to Macy’s this year
The Florida headline of the day-
Prison inmate sues state, says officer bleached her drink
Ven der putz shteht, ligt der sechel in drerd.
Krugman: How Many Americans will Ayn Rand Kill?
Linky
@Bill:
Well, according to Donald Trump, she’s protected from Covid-19. Right?
The New Yorker: The Republican Identity Crisis After Trump
At the end of January, when the Former Reality Show Host returns to being a private citizen, we the public may have an unanticipated benefit, Twitter may banish him. We know he’ll continue to traffic in lies, rumors and conspiracy theories, which will bump up against the continually tightening terms of service enforced by social media companies, so it is difficult to see how Twitter and for that matter Facebook can avoid banning him.
He’ll scream of course and a subset of the conservative entertainment complex will join him, but I don’t see much pressure coming from R office holders, as he will be just as much, if not greater, an annoyance to them as he will to Dems.
Holy Shit
@Teve: See? We’ve turned a corner.
“While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed the worst and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover.” — Herbert Hoover, May 1, 1930. Often misquoted as “Prosperity is just around the corner.”
@Teve:
I haven’t read the piece, TL;DR, and the premise seems flaky as I have a hard time picturing the GOP changing significantly post Trump.
I think a more interesting area of speculation is how a post-McConnell GOP might change.
https://twitter.com/riotwomennn/status/1319029793296363520
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ek4im3BW0AATshw?format=jpg&name=small
He is not looking too good.
Trump Is Toast
Lost in the election frenzy and pandemic worries, James Randi, a founder of modern skepticism and bane of all psychics, passed away this week at the age of 92.
@charon: Wow. Those are not ideal photos to have circulating. What’s wrong with him?
And, the tweets are correct. If this were Nancy Pelosi the press would be absolutely hounding her for information. McConnell needs to fess up.
@Jen:
It looks as if he’s had IVs inserted into the back of his hand multiple times. Generally blood for a routine blood test is drawn from the crook of the arm.
@CSK: Could be bruising from being on blood thinners, or it could be covid rash. Or something else, but gawd, he looks awful.
@charon: @Jen: Spoiler: Snape kills McConnell.
A baby sea lion trying to tag along with the Navy SEALs. Bet he passes the swimming test.
On deck this week oven baked ground chicken (or turkey*) patties covered in cornmeal, egg, and breadcrumbs, topped with tomato sauce and gouda. And on the side oven baked potatoes with a mix of olive oil, garlic, lime juice, mustard, and oregano, from a recipe I chanced into online.
*Sometimes they have ground turkey at the supermarket, but not always. Therefore I don’t plan on it.
@charon:
Could be incipient Grayscale. Anything’s possible in that caucus.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Israel’s decision to align themselves so closely with a single party in the US is a mistake of historic proportions. Republicans operate solely on the principle that Victory = Doing things to hurt your opposition and then rubbing their noses in it. The fact that the Israelis are lobbying for this move shows how totally they have moved towards that Republican worldview. This effort will have no material impact on any of Israel’s long term goals. It will not promote acceptance by their neighbors. But it will antagonize a large group of people who don’t normally pay much attention to Israel either way. And in Democrat’s eyes it will associate Israel with the presidential campaign of a despised partisan. They are needlessly creating enemies merely to stick their finger in the eye of people they don’t like.
@Kathy: Truly a national, a world, treasure.
@Jen:
True. The bandages made me think they might be covering an IV puncture.
@charon: His Horcrux spell backfired.
McConnell definitely looks like he’s got some kind of Voldemort/Palpatine thing going on…
@Jen: @sam: @scott: @An Interested Party:
According to CNN, he says nothing’s wrong.
@charon: having done a lot of sticks back in the day, McConnell’s right hand looks like he had an IV with a butterfly needle and it blew out a vein.
@MarkedMan:
Seems to be a habit of the wilder shores of the right these days; and Likud appear to have become plugged in to the US-right political/media feedback loops.
I wonder what the Israelis professional diplomats are saying.
Not only were there no scandals or criminal indictments of Obama’s inner circle, but none of them were pranked by Borat. Maybe that’s an impossible standard.
https://twitter.com/BoratSagdiyev/status/1319431436550561792
@charon: whatever is going on, I hope it is painful and terrifying.
Having been on blood thinners for the past decade, I can say with moderate certainty that that is not normal. A few random bruises, sure, but not that many and that large.
I’m clumsy AF and will be wondering “what did I bang my shin into”, but I will never have it crawling up my arms and on my lips.
@MarkedMan: Not to mention the fact that the majority of American Jews vote DEM.
@Jen: I can almost guarantee he’s on blood thinners. Bruising is a real problem for me because of them. Beyond that, I have no idea why both his hands are black and blue. The only thing I can think of is the IV mentioned by CSK but that is usually only one hand. I did have a vein collapse once when I had an IV. Woke up in the middle of the night with a 5 fingered volley ball at the end of my arm. That would bruise a hand that badly. Trying to imagine the chances of a vein collapsing on each side.
Also the question arises of why he would have an IV.
COVID-19 patients push hospitals to the brink
@OzarkHillbilly: yeah but there are 7 million Jews in the US and 62 million evangelicals.
@OzarkHillbilly: For the record, I believe that Israel has passed beyond saving and the US should be decoupling. They are an apartheid state, and much of their population is deeply racist. They chose which path they would take when Jimmy Carter, the president who spent the most time on the security of Israel, warned in a book they were in danger of becoming an apartheid state and they painted him as a dupe and an anti-Semite.
pretty much all you need to know about Trump’s sad loser Tony Bobulinski Hail Mary pass
@Teve: If there were any more nothing in that burger, the entire universe would collapse into it and then repeat the Big Bang only even worse.
@Teve: I just find it a strange thing to do, alienating the people who should be your strongest supporters.
@MarkedMan: Agreed.
@sam:
Congratulations! Your post gets today’s seal of approval.
@MarkedMan: They buy too many US-made weapons systems. Its all about the Benjamins–
@OzarkHillbilly:
Look closely, not just bruising, he is showing edema also.
@MarkedMan:
Not so sure racism is the correct term; the basis of Likud support, and the most anti-Arab segment of Israelis appears to be the intersection of two groups: the religiously orthodox and devout (largely superiority complex) AND of middle eastern origins aka Mizrahi (largely pure hatred).
Secular Jews (the basis of Labour) are far less prejudiced and make up about 40% of the population (Traditionals c.30%; Orthodox and UltraOrthodox 30%).
In terms of “race” the Mizrahi and Arabs are pretty much indistinguishable. A lot of the older Mizrahi IIRC are still Arabic speakers, though their descendants have largely abandoned it.
The hatred stems from memories of “Great Exodus”, when Arab countries responded to the creation of Israel by expelling, expropriating, and persecuting Jewish populations.
Given Israel’s ultra-democratic system, the Mizrahi and the “hardline” Orthodox, and the settlers
That has been the problem of the Arabs generally and Palestinians in particular since the 1980’s: the Israeli “offer” has always been to small for them to stomach.
But that became inevitable when they refused to accept the existence of “little Israel” between 1948 and 1967.
The question is, what would be the response of Israelis to “decoupling” and its logical extension of economic exclusion?
Would they shamefacedly repent?
Or maybe say “sod you” and proceed to annex half the Levant?
Or (more likely) a point of defiance in-between?
@Teve:
What! Le affaire Bobulinski was a confected pile of nonsense?
I am shocked, shocked I say.
Where is my fainting couch?
Trump has claimed a great many times that he’s immune to SARS-CoV-2 now. I don’t think that word means what he thinks it means*.
Leaving aside the documented cases of reinfection, we know Minimus was treated with monoclonal antibodies, apparently to great success. that’s all well and good, but those antibodies are produced in a lab by a line of B-cells, not by the patient who receives them.
Antibody and other adaptive immune system measures, are produced days after the initial infection. Those leave behind memory B and T cells that can later activate an immune response when the same pathogen invades again. This is not so of synthetic antibodies, no matter how well they work.
Now, I assume antibodies have a half-life, like any other organic substance int he body. Eventually they either neutralize a pathogen, decay, or are metabolized by the body. they don’t linger on forever, for sure. We heard the dose given Pessimus was good for several weeks. That’s nice.
But what happens after the monoclonal antibodies run out, if Trump’s own immune system did not produce his own, nor left behind memory cells?
I’m neither an MD not a biologist, but I think what happens then is reinfection if he’s exposed to SARS-CoV-2 again, and a second round of COVID-19.
Given he doesn’t seem to have changed habits after getting infected, he’s at the same risk he was before. or at a higher risk, seeing how America is trying very hard to make its third Corona peak leave the second Corona peak in the dust.
@Teve: I was most impressed with all the stuff he managed to weave together in this new pronouncement (I refuse to denigrate prophecy by identifying this word salad as one). He included all of the boiler plate Hal Lindsey stuff with Paul Crouch’s Trinity Broadcast theories, Mayan end of days, and finally, a killer asteroid. Very syncretistic. It’s amazing when a person of that age show this type of intellectual diversity and (in his case) growth.
I wonder who his current writers are. They’re doing a good job of keeping him current. Trump’s writers could take a cue (and The Donald could learn to stay on script, but I don’t see that in the offing).
@Teve:
Yeah, it is amazing how quickly Keef’s gotcha fell apart. Hint for you Keef, make sure that your attempted gotcha is going to remain effective for more than 30 nanonseconds.
Also, Keef (I suspect you are reading this even just lurking on this site which you just can’t quit) our not taking Tony B at his word that everything he says is the gospel truth is something that made you vomit…wow dude, you need to toughen up or have a steady supply of antacids on hand.
If anything about Tony B is going to make you vomit it should not be that we did not fall in line to 100% believe everything he says rather that Tony B was almost instantly revealed to be lying (no ax to grind…yeah, right, next you are going to ask me to pull your finger and insist that what I think will happen is not going to happen)!
That should stress you out, that you are being played by folks like Tony B. Tony is basically angry that Biden wanted to disassociate himself and his father from him. Tony and you should be aware that Biden not wanting to be friends with him is not a crime.
Again, Keef, again, I know you are reading this…are you willing to admit you were wrong about Tony B? It will help you gain back some of your credibility amongst the folks on this great site.
There’s been some other erporting recently re. Trump, ultra-evangelicals and “end times”.
This at In These Times was one (also fits in with comments here re. Israel and evangelicals). Sure I’ve seen another but link lost.
It’s not for no reason that quite a lot of Anglicans view the evangelical “ultras” as both heretics and lunatics.
@inhumans99:
My favourite bit in the Wonkette article: the bit from Christopher Miller’s tweet showing the “incriminating message” displayed on a phone on the Russian ru_mts network.
ROFLMAO.
Turns out, Rudy CAN fail.
Stop your fooling around (ah-ah-ah)
Time you straighten right out (ah-ah-ah)
Better think of your future (ah-ah-ah)
Else you’ll wind up in jail (ah-ah-ah)
Rudy
A message to you, Rudy
A message to you
@Jim Brown 32: On the other hand, they buy them with our money…
@Kathy: Randi did magnificent work. I did some undercover work for him right after the whole Peter Popov revelation on the Johnny Carson show.
@MarkedMan: I would be very wary of painting all Isrealis with the same brush. That said, the wave of Russian immigrants has bolstered the hard-right there.
The decision by Netanyahu to align Isreal with the hard-right of their biggest patron was probably not a good idea for Isreal long term though — another example of putting Party over Country, this time in a country that isn’t the US, which is a change.
But, a future Israeli government might change that relationship. The elections there hinge as much on local and economic issues as foreign relations. We just don’t get a lot of the non-foreign-relations news out of Israel in our press. I don’t think Democratic administrations will be as reflexively pro-Israel anymore.
@Jen: Meth does bad things to a body, and I doubt blood thinners help.
Kentucky has quite a meth problem, and it affects all sorts of communities these days — it’s best not to rule it out prematurely based on race or class. McConnell might be the victim of the opioid epidemic, and switched to the more easily available meth.
@Gustopher: The other potentially destabilising force in Israel is the ever-increasing percentage of Ultra-Orthodox. Israel is already getting swamped by COVID-19 cases from the Ultra-Orthodox (many of who refuse to carry out social distancing, etc.) and the non-Ultra-Orthodox are getting awfully ticked off.
I suspect that the more religious Israel gets, the less support it will have from American Jews.
@grumpy realist:
The Ultra-Orthodox in NYC are also causing problems with that, refusing social distancing and masks. The latter, I think, can be fixed with a targeted branding campaign, referring to masks as “Yarmulkes For Your Face!”
@grumpy realist:
They’ve been ticked off before.
Last time I visited Israel, in 1985, I remember coverage of labor unrest in El Al, mostly having to do with the prohibition of operating any flights on Saturdays (from Friday evening to Saturday evening to be precise).
My family there, and many of their friends whom I met, as well as a few others I met here and there (I spent about two months in country), were largely ticked off with the religious parties and people then. there were issues other than prohibitions on Saturdays, like the exemption for many Orthodox from military service, subsidies they got from the government, etc. All that, I should mention, was a bit secondary to the country’s hyperinflation at the time.
And all that was before these religious parties gained the power they have now.
Just the facts, mam.
In September 2015, the Obama-Biden administration approved the sale of a strategically sensitive Michigan manufacturer, Henniges Automotive, to a firm connected to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, and a Chinese military contractor that was on an American watch list because of its close ties to the People’s Liberation Army. Hunter Biden’s equity fund, backed by the Communist Chinese government, and the Chinese contractor, Aviation Industry Corporation (AVIC), needed special approval for the deal from the Committee of Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CIFIUS) because Henniges produced technology with potential military use.
AVIC entities have been sanctioned by the United States on five separate occasions since 1993 and the addition to the watch list–a major red flag–occurred less than a year-and-a-half before they co-purchased Henniges with Hunter Biden’s BHR. The fact that CFIUS approved the deal is alarming given that Henniges owns numerous facilities in the United States that are now controlled by a Chinese military front company.
Internal BHR documents show exactly how the Chinese military contractor was able to disguise its ownership via shell corporations and formed a joint-venture with the son of the vice president to facilitate the Chinese takeover of an American dual-use technology supplier. Additional documents suggest that Hunter Biden’s Chinese-backed venture funneled money to an entity controlled by Vanessa Kerry, the daughter of then-Secretary of State John Kerry, just one month before CFIUS approved the takeover. At the time, Secretary Kerry played a lead role on the Obama-Biden CFIUS committee.
When news of the AVIC takeover of Michigan-based manufacturer Henniges Automotive hit the wire, Biden’s associates celebrated, calling the transaction a “proof of concept” for future Chinese acquisitions.
Isn’t it odd that the family members of top neoliberal China Lobby Democrats keep turning up in companies taking Chinese communist army money?
Weird that keef suddenly doesn’t wanna talk about Bobulinski anymore 😀 😛
@keef:
Pookums, why do you never post your sources — Breitbart in this case. It’s almost like you are embarrased about that!
And did you catch how the WSJ’s newsroom confirmed the Bobulinski was a big yawn.
Beyond that, Keef, my sweetie, you seem like the bright type of guy who has done well in the world. To confirm your strong support of the President and his chances, how about placing a wager — for charity — on the election? Say $100 to the charity of the winner’s choice?
Beyond that, hugs and kisses as always. Keep thinking of us in your downtime. Don’t tuck in your shirt too much, I’ve heard it causes you to go blind.
@keef: And why beholdest thou the mote that is in the son of Biden’s eye, but considerest not the Chinese beam that is in trump’s own eye?
@Teve: I don’t know about weird, but it sure was predictable.
@charon:
@Jen:
My hands have looked like that exactly twice in my life. The first time I’d punched through the driver’s window to grab the driver. Broke it badly, but I did grab him (with the other hand). The second time I spent 30 days in solitary. Everyone left me alone after that one.
@Gustopher:
@Jen:
I got in real trouble for my first thesis proposal, which argued that the better solution to the then new War on Drugs (TM) would be legalization and taxation. Of everything. Got tons of pushback from my advisor. But truth is, meth manufacture causes so much more damage (human and environmental) than amphetamines ever could, or did, or will.
Going back to my cave now, replaying the loop of Sleepy Joe looking away from Chucklehead-in-Chief and laughing quietly to himself.
Oh, look who keeps trying to make fetch happen. 😐
@Teve: He’s really getting roasted for that idiocy on Twitter.
I mean really. A FOX News analyst thinks that Joe Biden controls his home wi-fi?
@Teve: Paranoia running rampant in the GOP:
@Monala:
@keef: You copy/paste garbage from garbage sites, my Q-adjacent friend.
@Jen: and that there’s some kind of semantic decoder monitoring him which can detect that his text was anti-Biden and take EVASIVE ACTION LOL.
@Gustopher:
This is something that people of every country do to every other country that they’re not geographically close to (and even then, sometimes).
Everyone also tends to paint entire populations as being the same as their leaders. I’ve had conversations with foreign friends who say “America believes X” when it’s something that Trump said.
Even though I thought I was better than that, I got (metaphorically) slapped in the face on more than one occasion when I was overseas. Building friendships with people from all over the world has been quite eye-opening (and, from what they’ve said, the same applies to them). When you have people from the US, Europe, Mexico, Africa, and Asia sitting around a table talking, you’ve got to learn how to understand things from different perspectives.
Okay. Now I’m officially afraid.
President Xi says “China is not afraid of war”
I’m going to go watch cheesy sci-fi, drink scotch, and pretend everything is okay.
@keef:
What about the facts that you keep evading?
Hunter Biden is not running for president
Hunter Biden has not been shown to have done anything illegal.
There is no evidence that Joe Biden (you know, the Biden who is running for president?) has had any involvement in his son’s business dealings
If there is any evidence that both of these things are true:
a) Hunter Biden business dealings criminal
b) that Joe Biden was a witting party to them
Could you let us know?
p.s. And please, oh please, this time NOT some pile of flimsy artifice that collapses as soon as someone pokes it with a stick.
That’s just a waste of your time and ours.
Closed minds. That’s fine.
@keef:
Sugar lumps, are you saying you don’t think Trump is going to win and that’s why you don’t want to get easy money for a charity of your choice?
Say it ain’t so pumpkin.
Also, you really should talk to a therapist about you obsession with us. I know we are sexy beasts, but your desire to get us to notice you is getting a bit pathological.
Maybe that’s why Rudy Giuliani was messing with his pants in the new Borat movie…
@keef: Odd indeed–as odd at the current President having bank accounts in China and playing 180K taxes there–as opposed to $750 in the country of his citizenship. I thought your crew was America First? Friggin Commies
P.S. I thought Melania’s nudes looked odd too.
@keef:
OK.
So as not to be closed-minded I modify my previous request.
How about, instead of requiring both to be shown initially, how about either of criminal activity by Hunter Biden or the clear involvement of Joe Biden in Hunter Bidens’ business dealings?
But please: NOT allegations, NOT insinuations, NOT a dodgy third party maybe said, NOT content of emails that turn up first for sale in Ukraine in September 2019 and then, ooh how miraculously my dear, on a laptop hard image of debatable provenance, NOT allegations that turn out to be very carefully avoiding accusations of illegal activity.
Oh and not phone text messages on a laptop LOL..
(Hey, if these guys want dirty deeds done dirt cheap, maybe I should offer my services? Can’t do much worse. LOL)
Put up or shut up, keef.
I don’t know. Something something people, something something values?
I binged all of Deep Space Nine in a month. It was fantastic, because Deep Space Nine is the best Trek. But now I’m sad that it’s over and I have no more Deep Space Nine. 🙁
I honestly don’t know how people with kids do it. I’m 44, and between Netflix and HBO Max and books and magazines and dates and workouts and friends and shopping, there are just not enough hours in the day as it is. I’ve got a stack of Vanity Fairs 6” tall on the coffee table. Maybe if I get up early tomorrow I’ll read the Elle Fanning one.
@JohnSF:
Have you heard this version by Joan Jett?