Did you NOT see the "South Park" movie? I mean, the song was up for an Oscar and everything...

(heh)

-CW

Nice Hemingway quote there, too...

-CW

nice use of bolding.

Just had to say that...

heh

-CW

Truth be told, I am not very optimistic about the prospects for change here in the comments sections of Chris's excellent blog.

I have been here long enough to have witnessed and participated in the best of the best and worst of the worst in terms of what has passed for discussion over the years. A lot would have to change in the way we presently interact with each other.

Childish name-calling and personal insults have become par for the course, even for those who have been here as long as I have and who have been heretofore respectful in their interactions, especially in the midst of deep disagreement.

Oh, I suppose this kind of change for the better is possible but it will take a great effort from all of us with none of us waiting for others to take that lead.

Is that what JL has been doing?

Heh. Y'all are both too intelligent to not know that I was kidding with JL. It was just too tempting what with all the incessant whining by the board troll desperately crying out for specifically you two posters to defend him against all the "others." Same old victim garbage.

I never thought of it that way.

And you've never had a reason to. The crux of it all is that there isn't a hair's width of difference in what JL has posted about the Middle East that I don't agree with, and that applies equally to the posts that MtnCaddy and JL have posted regarding the Ukraine/Russia historical ongoing SNAFU (situational normal, all effed up). So -- cut to the chase -- we're just knowledgeable people about certain things and... perhaps... we just can't understand how you can't see what is dang obvious to the rest of us.

This place is a kind of public humiliation square where hardly a day goes by when someone or another isn't hurling varying kinds of insults toward a fellow Weigantian.

I don't see our conversations that way; I see it as (your term) "muscular debate," and people wanting other people to see things as they see them. As for the endless right-wingnut desperate trolling for attention, that's a whole other issue.

I sincerely regret any part I may have played in any of that despicable behavior.

You're apologizing for nothing. There's nothing to regret... except maybe I/we couldn't find just the exact perfect wording to make you understand what we already know. I thought we were on the right track when we asked you how you would feel if the United States were threatening to invade Canada and whether you'd still agree that the nation being threatened should just appease the aggressor's demands.

Never in my wildest imagination did I envision a scenario where a POTUS would eff with our friends to the North in word wars and trade wars. It's batshit crazy, and I formally apologize for Trump's ignorance on behalf of the part of America that isn't part of the cult.

whoops. sincerely sorry Liz.

JL, you know I was teasing you. You're apologizing for nothing. I love it. :)

I scrolled the entire politics sections of Fox News, Newsmax and OANN, so y’all don’t have to.

Thank you! I would wager all that scrolling felt just like home (here). :)

Aaand…there was not a single mention of the Hands Off protests. Alternative reality they live in.

Yes, over on "Earth 2" where their main concern is culture wars and providing their viewers people to look down on so they won't notice the myriad of ways in which they are being grifted and conned by their icon.

If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.

~ Lyndon B. Johnson

Meanwhile, SSDD over on right-wingnut media:

I don't really care about my 401(k) today. You know why?... I believe in this man.

~ Jeanine Pirro

It's a cult practicing culture wars... but nothing that we haven't seen before. Maybe some of them will "clue in" now or soon. We haven't hit bottom yet IMO so there's still time.

maybe I missed some northern isle, but it reminds me of perhaps Gary Larson's biggest embarrassing mistake...

https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/far-side-comic-showing-a-polar-bear-with-penguins.jpg?q=70&fit=crop&w=750&h=422&dpr=1

Heh. Nope, you didn't miss it, Larson did. A classic.

1000s of miles apart (sigh)...

Yes and actually factually also no; so if anyone queries you about this, you "one up" them and truthfully explain: The San Diego Zoo.

Wasn't Karl Rove once known as "Turd Blossom"?

Yes, and you get brownie points for that; it was one of George W. Bush's nicknames for Karl Rove.

that etymology seems pertinent to this discussion, somehow...

Heh. :)

Yes, that's what I'm hoping may happen too:

"...the comments sections will, one fine day, begin to reflect the respectfulness and thoughtfulness of Chris's excellent headlining columns. Chris's renewed interactions here will surely help to bring that day about!"

Thanks for the encouragement.

Print Media to Mass Protests: “Please Turn to Page 18”

Most media outlets "covered it" but you had to look/search to find it. Should have been front page material. Maybe April 19th will be...

I would wager that "@liz" will (once again) be elated to learn that you've gone out of your way to single her out for your particular brand of being "insufferably arrogant" and the way you slyly yet transparently backed yourself into that public humiliation of her and her views on a plethora of subjects, including but not limited to the Middle East. :p

Is that what JL has been doing? I never thought of it that way. But it makes perfect sense. This place is a kind of public humiliation square where hardly a day goes by when someone or another isn't hurling varying kinds of insults toward a fellow Weigantian. I sincerely regret any part I may have played in any of that despicable behavior. And, I remain ever hopeful - being such an insufferable cockeyed optimist - that the comments sections will, one fine day, begin to reflect the respectfulness and thoughtfulness of Chris's excellent headlining columns. Chris's renewed interactions here will surely help to bring that day about!

That's challenge for sites like this and others, even moderate centrist news and opinions, even people just talking with people they know: how do you speak to the millions in the right-wing news/opinion isolation bubble?

(opens the envelope)

Aaand…there was not a single mention of the Hands Off protests. Alternative reality they live in.

https://www.axios.com/2025/04/07/musk-trump-tariffs-kimbal

Upon further reading, Melakon himself isn't all too happy with Big Brother.

He is too intelligent. He sees too clearly and speaks too plainly. The Party does not like such people.

~ George Orwell, 1984

Aha! There's all the research I didn't do (for that last comment)...

thanks.

-CW

They ceded the power in the 1970s, as long as the pres declares some "natl emergency" or another.

So they've got to claw it back. The law is on the books (possibly unconstitutional, but those court cases are coming, don't worry!)

but thanks for pointing it out! nice cite!

-CW

There's been a disturbing trend in the media to conflate "islands with only penguins and polar bears on them"...

maybe I missed some northern isle, but it reminds me of perhaps Gary Larson's biggest embarrassing mistake...

https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/far-side-comic-showing-a-polar-bear-with-penguins.jpg?q=70&fit=crop&w=750&h=422&dpr=1

1000s of miles apart (sigh)...

-CW

One of my favorite National Parks to visit is Grand Tetons.

(heh)

Beautiful! Spectacular! In every beer/menthol cigarette ad ever made!

:-)

-CW

Wasn't Karl Rove once known as "Turd Blossom"?

that etymology seems pertinent to this discussion, somehow...

:-)

-CW

I'll just be relieved if there really IS a breaking point for the GOP, personally...

The whole "Aren't the emperor's new clothes amazing" thing is getting kinda scary...

I miss John McCain, personally....

-CW

read more closely.

I definitely encourage the same of you.

at least in my opinion, I'm only insufferably arrogant when i know significantly more than you do.

On closer read at your total insistence, it becomes infinitely obvious that you're confusing me with "@liz" a.k.a. "Canada."

which in your case is not all that often :p

I would wager that "@liz" will (once again) be elated to learn that you've gone out of your way to single her out for your particular brand of being "insufferably arrogant" and the way you slyly yet transparently backed yourself into that public humiliation of her and her views on a plethora of subjects, including but not limited to the Middle East. :p

:)

Good Lord, Chris Weigant! Maybe should have done a little more research?

Okay... so you're definitely not wrong about Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution; however, Congress has definitely voted to allow a POTUS the power to regulate and/or prohibit imports under the National Emergency Act contained in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, which Trump is doing wherein there (my opinion) isn't actually an emergency except the ones he's falsely claiming in his multiple Executive Orders containing a plethora of lies.

Just imagine if Barack Obama had signed an Executive Order claiming there was an emergency fentanyl crisis at the Canadian border and repeatedly claimed that Venezuela was emptying their insane asylums and prisons directly into the United States at the Southern border of the United States. Republicans would lose their collective shit and rightly so, and Republicans Are Revolting for allowing Trump to do it... jellyfish with no spines, among other squishy things.

No new legislation is required! Doormat Repugs can take their power back the moment they choose to.

You're definitely correct about them taking their constitutional power back the moment they choose to, but then they're hypocrites and spineless jellyfish who have definitely chosen not to do a dang thing about it (yet), and they therefore currently don't have the votes they'd need to claw back the power they granted a POTUS in multiple laws in several prior Congresses. In Trumpian terms, they refer to this as "concepts of a plan."

Article 1
Section 8
US CONSTITUTION

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

No new legislation is required! Doormat Repugs can take their power back the moment they choose to.

ALL PIE GIVES A SCENT

You do realize that "all" is one of those exceedingly small words that means "every single one," right? Consult any dictionary besides that faulty one of yours wherein you searched for the meaning of "troll." Obviously, there is a pie that does not give a scent; however, in your defense, I would wager there are very few people who would expect someone who describes himself as "insufferably arrogant" to actually know anything about it.

be it apple, pecan, banana creme or cow.

Be it ever so modest, there's seriously no scent in humble pie.

I've never been a fan of pretty much anything from Texas, but i thought you'd have guessed from the tone of my post which kind of pie i meant.

I cannot say I did not know.

wait, there is something from Texas I'm a fan of:

this

I've actually got not one but two of those things... the hats! That Rangers hat you posted and the Houston ASHOS hat. It's also hard to unsee that Los Angeles ANAELS hat. *laughs*

Check what the Philadelphia Phillies hat says? It's "Phi Pies"... also with not even a scintilla of a scent there either. ;)

There are thousands of penguins on a nature reserve of Antarctica who would like to report that while technically it's only been "three business days" in the United States, the penguins of Heard Island don't measure time in terms of "business days" because there is no day where a penguin isn't seriously TCB. So what might seem like nothing to America is like about a month to thousands of eating, sleeping, and pooping flightless birds who produce nothing beyond poop and eggs and will continue to export them to nowhere on Earth, including especially to the U.S. of America.

You think the penguins are kidding? Do the math (obviously keeping in mind that not a single one of them was born yesterday):

https://www.age-calculator.online/penguin-age-calculator/

Okay, maybe dozens of them were conceivably hatched yesterday.

And already there are seven out of 53 Republican senators and one GOP House member willing to rein in the craziness to some extent or another. It's going to have to get a lot worse before those numbers grow big enough to be decisive.

So you're saying they're jellyfish? Asking for the penguins.

ALL PIE GIVES A SCENT

be it apple, pecan, banana creme or cow.

I've never been a fan of pretty much anything from Texas, but i thought you'd have guessed from the tone of my post which kind of pie i meant.

JL

There are often a handful who are willing to do something as long as it's futile. It's a shell game.