Patterico's Pontifications

5/28/2017

Big Media Falsely Claims Texas Governor Joked About Shooting Reporters

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 9:33 am



Imagine my surprise at reading this headline at CBS News:

Texas governor jokes about shooting reporters

I respect Greg Abbott, and set about reading the story to see if he had actually done what CBS News accused him of.

He did not.

Here is their own account:

Two days after a GOP House candidate from Montana was charged with assaulting a journalist, Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, joked about shooting reporters, according to the Texas Tribune.

The comment followed Abbott’s Friday signing of a bill that reduces the licensing fee to carry a handgun in the state of Texas from $70 to $40.

The governor then made his way upstairs to the shooting range for some target practice, and once he was finished, he held up his target sheet to show off his marksmanship, joking to the reporters and photographers present that, “I’m gonna carry this around in case I see any reporters.”

And here is the Texas Tribune account:

Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday visited a shooting range to sign a bill into law that significantly reduces the cost to get a license to carry a handgun, making Texas one of the states with the lowest fee in the nation.

“The right to bear arms is something that is synonymous with the state of Texas. We are proud to expand the right to bear arms by lowering the cost of what you have to pay in order to get a license to carry,” Abbott said. “Texans’ ability to bear arms is going to be even bolder today than it’s ever been before.”

The law, Senate Bill 16, reduces the first-time fee for a license to carry from $140 to $40 and the renewal fee from $70 to $40. A license to carry permit is valid in Texas for five years. The new fee will go into effect on Sept. 1.Texas governor jokes about shooting reporters after signing gun bill

Following the bill signing, Abbott tested out a few guns at an upstairs shooting range.

“I’m gonna carry this around in case I see any reporters,” Abbott joked while holding his bullet-riddled target sheet.

The story doesn’t say he joked about shooting reporters. The headline does.

The Texas Tribune version has the photo, which I will reproduce here as fair use to help criticize the headline of the story.
Greg Abbott

The caption is: “Gov. Abbott admires his practice target after signing Senate Bill 16, which reduces the first-time fee for a license to carry handguns, on May 26, 2017.” And indeed, his markmanship looks pretty good.

You can easily see what actually happened. He was joking that he wants to have the evidence of his excellent marksmanship directly on hand if he runs into reporters. So he can boast about it.

The bit about shooting reporters was made up by the Texas Tribune headline writer — and all of Big Media seems to have run with it.

This is a great example of why people despise Big Media.

I don’t think joking about violence against reporters is funny. But Greg Abbott didn’t do that. Stop saying he did.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

162 Responses to “Big Media Falsely Claims Texas Governor Joked About Shooting Reporters”

  1. Ding.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  2. The Press can not be trusted on any story.

    Tempe Jeff (bf2d54)

  3. their prestige-well is run dry

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  4. Triggered?

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  5. Only republicans can be misquoted and then have it used against them.

    mg (31009b)

  6. Rock, Target, Scissors, Reporter, Spock.

    Target cuts Reporter.

    Pinandpuller (969159)

  7. While I’m sure your interpretation is what the governor meant, it is a person-shaped target with bullet holes in it, and I think the remark could be easily misunderstood in a climate where the leader of the governor’s party has repeatedly called reporters “enemies of the American people”, and another member of the governor’s party savagely attacked a reporter just two days before.

    Dave (711345)

  8. Rock, Fatwa, Adulterer, Reporter, Republican.

    Pinandpuller (969159)

  9. Dave

    Reporters got circles?

    In Memoriam Johnny Hart.

    Pinandpuller (969159)

  10. The Tribune is wretched I discovered that when gov perry had his surgery

    narciso (d1f714)

  11. They’re Pro-Choice. Hate Loves Abortion

    n.n (fbd038)

  12. When I heard the quote, I thought he meant he would scare off reporters by showing them how good he is with a gun.

    Not that he would shoot them, per se, but he would give them something to think about.

    It’s possible he meant it more benignly. But in today’s emotionally charged atmosphere, jokes about target practice and reporters really should be avoided.

    sauropod (271cbd)

  13. More squirrel meat.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  14. Gov Rick Perry killed a coyote with a .380 Ruger while walking his dog in Austin.

    Couldn’t hurt for reporters to take Hunter’s Safety.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  15. @7. While I’m sure your interpretation is what the governor meant…

    Sure?? Don’t bet the Texas ranch on that. To be inarticulate is an office requirement for Texas governors. See Bush, Perry and now Abbott for details.

    “Oops.” – 2012 Debate quip by former Texas governor Rick Perry now head of the DOE overseeing nuclear weapons storage.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  16. “I’m gonna carry this around in case I see any reporters,” Abbott joked …

    This the sort of quip Abbott’s PR guys should have told him to pocket and use at a photo op on a ranch while shoveling manure. Works much better in that scenario all ’round.

    “Here it is, you hicks! Nail up anybody who stands in your way!…And if they don’t deliver, give me the hammer, and I’ll do it myself!” – Willie Stark [Broderick Crawford] ‘All The King’s Men’ 1949

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  17. Greetings:

    Well, when I get elected President of Texas, I sure hope that CBS doesn’t find out what I did. Fr’instance:

    Back in the last ’69, I was an infantry squad leader in Viet Nam. One day, while we were being resupplied by helicopter out in the bush, a camera crew arrived along with the things we needed. A while later, our Captain came over to me with the crew in tow and asked me if I wanted to take them out on a patrol I was about to leave out on. In one of my proudest moments in the war, I replied, in my New York fashion, with a question, “Do I have to bring them back?” We went out; they didn’t.

    11B40 (6abb5c)

  18. To be inarticulate is an office requirement for Texas governors. See Bush, Perry and now Abbott for details.

    Texans have always been willing to dump someone who is only talented with their mouth to bring in someone who can do the job.

    See G W Bush using his “silver foot” to kick Ann Richards’ wrinkled, lying ass out of office.

    harkin (9fca6c)

  19. Wonder if Gov. Abbott ever has nightmares that mimic one particular scene of The Battleship Potempkin?

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  20. SeeBS is to the First Amendment what Dylan Roof is to the Second.

    nk (dbc370)

  21. “David Rhodes, President of CBS News and his brother, Ben Rhodes, Obama staffer”, a phrase that should tell anyone what a CBS story about a Republican is worth. We don’t even need to mention Dan Rather doing the TANGo.

    nk (dbc370)

  22. cbs, the ones who had craig Kilbourne with the ‘snipers wanted’ graphic for w, I guess one can go to another appendage of the Viacom umbrella, comedy central’s titus, technically he was on fox, and his brand of civility,

    narciso (d1f714)

  23. a trip down memory lane,

    http://www.wnd.com/2000/08/2083/

    narciso (d1f714)

  24. What a false persona, Titus rebooted as a series would be the ready reserve along side Rodney (Carrington) avenging Tim Allen’s cancellation.

    urbanleftbehind (c5d2d4)

  25. I saw the same story on Friday on the CBS Evening News.

    This is every place.

    http://heavy.com/news/2017/05/texas-governor-greg-abbott-shooting-reporters-greg-gianforte-violence-guns-photo

    This may not be too unfair. They don’t say Abott said he would shoot reporters. They said he joked about shooting reporters, and saying you are carrying a gun in case you see any repoters…

    except he didn’t say that. He was talking about carrying a target sheet.

    So the joke wasn’t about shooting reporters; it was about sublimating his anger by shooting at a target which he could pretend was a reporter.

    It was a joke about being angry.

    Sammy Finkelman (0c3646)

  26. if sleazy job-raping o9food stamp slut obama had said the same thing, it would be so funnie

    remember his funnie joke about the special olympics?

    LOL!

    that one was almost as funnie as when he joked about droning some American kids to death

    “The Jonas Brothers are here; they’re out there somewhere. Sasha and Malia are huge fans. But boys, don’t get any ideas. I have two words for you, ‘predator drones.’ You will never see it coming. You think I’m joking.”

    proving once again how snooty out-of-touch harvardtrash should really, really avoid any and all attempt at comedy

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  27. 09?

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  28. mr. titus looks like he’s not very healthy in that pic

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  29. You can easily see what actually happened. He was joking that he wants to have the evidence of his excellent marksmanship directly on hand if he runs into reporters. So he can boast about it.

    I’m calling bullshit on that interpretation.

    Spartacvs (2db708)

  30. no i think failmerican propaganda sluts are starting to have rape fantasies Mr. Spartacvs

    they love love love draping themselves in a mantle of victimy goodness

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  31. Wonder what he was shooting?

    mg (31009b)

  32. I don’t have a handgun, but that looks like a respectable grouping.

    mg (31009b)

  33. 11b40

    I was imagining you asking with your NY accent,” Hey boss, you want that I should take them out?

    Pinandpuller (8f614f)

  34. @24 narciso

    I can’t do it any justice in brevity but Christopher Titus has a whole story from his act about his mom and step dad.

    Basically step dad abused his mom. Step dad taught his mom to shoot. Mom murdered step dad.

    Guys with drug histories like him and Tom Arnold should probably stay away from the gun debate altogether.

    Pinandpuller (8f614f)

  35. Yes I remember the series, Stacy keach played his father, that outburst happened after the two minute tucson hate, like Martin Bashir, well crawled out of colloidal slime, and Louis ck and Russell brand, well you get the idea.

    narciso (d1f714)

  36. great line 11B40

    mg (31009b)

  37. @30… I’m calling hosesh*t on your bullsh*t, Sparky

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  38. Yes there was plenty of psycho to go around;

    https://mobile.twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/868960712823115776

    narciso (d1f714)

  39. Well if you leave out the Hamas family tie:

    htttp://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/clay-waters/2017/05/28/nyt-poses-muslim-feminist-sarsour-target-right-wing-hate-skips-her

    narciso (d1f714)

  40. @36 narciso

    I used to watch Titus’ show. Maybe I just found it funny in that Married with Children first marriage sort of way.

    Pinandpuller (8f614f)

  41. So did I maybe Cynthia watros was there reasonm

    narciso (d1f714)

  42. I think Titus was my bridge between Peggy Bundy and Gemma Teller Morrow.

    Pinandpuller (8f614f)

  43. Couldn’t get into that show, justified was my favorite show there.

    narciso (d1f714)

  44. How many bogus MSM headlines does it take to tame the “surprise” reflex?

    I’m beginning to think Aesop missed the mark with this fable.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  45. The Tribune are tools of the Texas establishment they hated perry and cruz.

    narciso (d1f714)

  46. Here’s another one: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-fails-to-commit-to-paris-climate-agreement-as-he-concludes-first-overseas-trip/2017/05/27/e1d3ac5c-42e3-11e7-8c25-44d09ff5a4a8_story.html?utm_term=.8890692e88fd

    “Failed to commit”. W …T…F! I understand that, crushed though were at Trump’s failure to commit, WaPo reporters nonetheless “failed to commit” to slitting their wrists having first sent out 13 tapes explaining why they did it.

    nk (dbc370)

  47. The point of this article isn’t to damn Governor Abbott, but to confirm the bias of the Elite and their sycophants about the nature of the rubes in flyover country and their chosen representatives – very much including the chosen representative occupying the White House.

    If you read a few of the articles critical of Abbott, the same logic(or lack of it) appears in a number of places: Abbott is to Gianforte is to Trump. It is all part of the 24/7 hate.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  48. I can’t imagine Texans care any more about shooting reporters than Montanans care about body-slamming them.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  49. The Texas Tribune is the major media outlet for the shambles of the Democratic Party in Texas. Nothing it publishes influences anyone not already in the Dems’ camp. This is indeed typical of its sad blather.

    But fret not. Gov. Abbott is very popular and politically astute. He’s still a very young man and right now he’s John Cornyn’s obvious heir apparent for the U.S. Senate, when/if Gov. Abbott wants to move into national politics via a Congressional route. (He might well rather run, as Dubya did, for a higher office using the Texas governorship as his platform.) He is smart, articulate, hard-working, and ambitious. Above all, he is superbly even-tempered, as I was able to observe back in the days when he was a Harris County Civil District Judge and I’d watch him run through a heavy docket.

    Texas Dems don’t have anyone left on the bench who’s as promising as Wendy Davis was, and Abbott defeated her very handily — out-polling her among Hispanic males in 2014, for example, en route statewide to a 59.3%/38.9% margin. Since then, the Legislature has passed several fairly high-profile measures with which his name has been closely associated, and I suspect that if that election were re-run today, he’d beat her by an even wider margin.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  50. As a matter of fact, Texans do care about shooting reporters. They have made it legal if the reporter is trespassing. On your lawn.

    nk (dbc370)

  51. Re-reading this post, I see that as between CBS and the Texas Tribune, the latter actually had more contextual detail.

    Look for more efforts by national media like CBS to trash Abbott with misinformation, then — as they did in 2012-2017 with Scott Walker — in an attempt to preempt him becoming a national candidate.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  52. I appreciate the context you provide, Beldar.

    Thank you.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  53. Reporters learned nothing from Arjen Rudd and Lethal Weapon 2.

    Pinandpuller (986b5e)

  54. It is absolute open season on the GOP. Anything that a reporter wants to print, no matter how badly sourced, no matter how ludicrous or malicious, will be printed. The WaPo is the worst of the lot, attacking Trump and anyone standing near Trump of anything that a reporter thinks might hurt them.

    What’s really perverse is that some GOP folks who dislike Trump think this is helping them in some way. I’m looking at YOU, McCain.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  55. Anything that a reporter wants to print, no matter how badly sourced, no matter how ludicrous or malicious, will be printed.

    Baloney. The stuff that is hurting him isn’t badly sourced, ludicrous or malicious. Some details are always incomplete or uncertain in initial reports, but the important facts are indisputable:

    1) Trump appointed a foreign spy to be National Security Advisor.

    2) That spy, and multiple other key players in Trump’s campaign, were in bed with Putin at the very moment that Russian intelligence agencies were conducting an illegal covert operation, unprecedented in its scope and sophistication, to influence our election in Trump’s favor.

    3) Trump himself is on videotape instructing Russian intelligence to unlawfully obtain damaging information on his opponent, and release it to help him win the election.

    4) Trump corruptly attempted to suborn the FBI director into a cover-up of the wrong-doing by his friends and relatives, fired him when he wouldn’t play ball, and then went on TV and admitted what he had done. For good measure, he explained it to his Russian handlers in identical terms a few days later.

    5) Trump also corruptly attempted to suborn the heads of other intelligence agencies into making false statements to discredit the investigation into the wrong-doing of his friends and relatives.

    What’s really perverse is that some GOP folks who dislike Trump think this is helping them in some way. I’m looking at YOU, McCain.

    Anything that further deprecates and marginalizes Trump, and hastens his return to sewer he crawled out of, is good for the GOP, good for conservatives and good for America.

    Dave (711345)

  56. “Anything that further deprecates and marginalizes Trump, and hastens his return to sewer he crawled out of, is good . . . for America.”

    – Dave

    You have perfectly captured the mindset: any tactic, no matter how dishonest, unprincipled or illegal, is justified to bring down Trump. Anything.

    Thank you for ceding the moral high ground by admitting the obvious. I’m afraid, however, your audience, which is still mired in the regressive, patriarchal, cis-gendered morality of right and wrong, God and country will be unmoved. You might have more luck over at the Daily Kos.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  57. i can’t wait til later this week when he tells the chinesers and the eurotrash fascists where they can stick their Paris Agreement

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  58. Yes, happy, another good week.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  59. this is troubling

    why does a sleazy democrat like freakboi General Mattis think anyone cares what his pervy ladyboy ass thinks about climate treaties

    Despite his promise to withdraw from the Paris Agreement during the campaign, President Trump is “wide open” on whether or not the U.S. should remain in the climate change agreement, Secretary of Defense James Mattis said Saturday.

    sounds like our sleazy and putative “Defense Secretary” is wandering far afield from his portfolio

    wtf happened to the Pentagon?

    it’s so disgustingly – almost reflexively – unserious anymore

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  60. ThOR (c9324e) — 5/29/2017 @ 8:16 am

    Well said, ThOR.

    felipe (023cc9)

  61. Thank you, felipe.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  62. thank you disillusionment

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  63. Further, much of the “proof” stank to high heaven as well, including the infamous dossier cooked up by “British intelligence” that was laughably amateurish — it is either the product of the disinformation campaign that the Deep State and the American and European media have been waging against the administration since its inception, or a back-door Trojan Horse designed by the Russians themselves

    .

    this is the dossier sleazy torture victim John McCain hand-delivered to the narcissistic ponce in charge of the sleazy and corrupt FBI hoping to cripple the Trump presidency before it even started

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  64. lol Tiger Woods on Drudge

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  65. Now pikachu like the late admiral Denton & Stockdale, colonel day, thorsness et al maverick deserves his due, for his service I chalk this foolishness up to Salter, who wrote that terrible Roman a clef some years back

    narciso (d1f714)

  66. you’d think so Mr. narciso, but in retrospect, his “service,” such as it was, served only to bloat his self-regard, enhance his generally craven and cowardly douchey nature, and encourage a bizarrely out-sized sense of entitlement

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  67. Leftists are on a perpetual baby hunt. They should be careful when wielding double-edged scalpels.

    n.n (fcd090)

  68. Yes they serve moloch or who was the serpent God James earl Jones played in conan.

    narciso (d1f714)

  69. Recall how the Texans for public justice tried to get a scalp out of atty gen Paxton, what happened there.

    narciso (d1f714)

  70. this will give ladyboy mattis the piss-shivers, but it’s worth reading and thinking about

    The Trump administration is currently reviewing the Obama standards to see if they should be changed. We’d argue that the federal government should drop the mandate altogether.

    Consumers should be free to choose the cars and trucks that best meet their particular mix of needs — for safety, reliability, functionality, price, as well as fuel economy. A government policy that tries to tilt the playing field toward fuel economy is going to put lives needlessly at risk.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  71. Like the dope smoking nudist cowboy poet, the bench isnt deep in Montana, all the same democrats like Mark white have vowed out.

    narciso (d1f714)

  72. “Anything that further deprecates and marginalizes Trump, and hastens his return to sewer he crawled out of, is good . . . for America.”
    – Dave

    Not quite. Trump is like that intestinal bacteria that you suppress if you take too much of the wrong kind of antibiotics. Then, with no competition, a really bad bacteria colony flourishes and kills you. That bad bacteria colony is called c. dificil but it also goes by the name of Democrats. I’d like to see Trump replaced too, but not by the Democrats trying to bring him down. Trump may make us queasy, but the Democrats will send us into septic shock.

    nk (dbc370)

  73. nk, this is more true than you suppose. It’s political ecology.

    I keep telling people who are R or conservative to tell me the name of someone D or prog that they respect—even just as a person, not necessarily as a leader, POTUS, etc.

    Ditto the other way.

    Both sides have become super toxic. This is where we are.

    When I push people about this, they respond “Yes, but the other side did it first and worse.”

    Sigh.

    Of course the statists LOVE this fighting. It’s the goal. That way, more statists win.

    I have no solution. I’m just sad.

    Simon Jester (473673)

  74. I respect my congressman Simon, the first time in a long while, I have my reservations about trump but I don’t broadcast them 24/7 when he does well I acknowledge it.

    narciso (d1f714)

  75. They would just as assuredly attack Mike pence, in fact you’ve seen a recent example,

    narciso (d1f714)

  76. If you didn’t hold your tongue about concerns when Obama was President, you shouldn’t when Trump is President.

    DRJ (15874d)

  77. I know you walk the walk, narciso. I also understand the need to blow off steam with over the top statements.

    Certainly I remember how people talked about Nixon, Reagan, GHWB, GWB, etc.

    Sort of how some people talked about JFK, LBJ, JC, WJC, BHO.

    It’s the venom that has always been there, amplified by social media in recent years. Nothing but confirmation bias and hatred everywhere.

    To find something decent about an opponent is not agreement with all of their policies.

    But we sure do want our angels and demons.

    Simon Jester (473673)

  78. To buttress DRJ’s point, you saw the recent photo of GWB and Bono, right?

    People on the Left can’t handle it. But the fact is, GWB did a lot to battled HIV in Africa, and even though Bono’s politics, um, differs from GWB’s, he salutes the good act.

    Simon Jester (473673)

  79. It just frustrates me to no end that the left is always unaccountable, Steyn repeated a comment some other blogger made about Michael Mann and he’s been through medieval ordeal for how many year now

    narciso (d1f714)

  80. It’s too easy to pile on, when it’s the default mode specially from the usual suspects. So the Tribune tpj they always haunt.

    narciso (d1f714)

  81. You are not wrong, narciso. I too am frustrated. But I think that DJT being elected was a ginormous raised middle finger to the Washington statists.

    That said, when DJT does something good—like get a good person on the Supreme Court—we have to celebrate that. But we also have to say it’s not good when he does high drunk stupid things, like tweeting his feelings.

    If we all did that, we could eventually get a government that wasn’t about politicians. But it’s unlikely.

    Simon Jester (473673)

  82. “If you didn’t hold your tongue about concerns when Obama was President, you shouldn’t when Trump is President.”

    – DRJ

    Because it creates a power imbalance, which favors Democrats and their policies. Dems only complain about Republicans, never about their own. If we don’t do the same, it gives the Democrats an unfair advantage in the fight over policy and personnel. Alinsky clearly understood this dynamic and it became rationale for one of his Rules for Radicals.

    The Gipper got this – though most Republicans still don’t. The wisdom of Ronald Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment is as true today than ever:

    “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”

    If the past few months are an indicator, the self-defeating behavior of Republicans knows no bounds. It is saddening that so many self-proclaimed Reagan Republicans are anything but.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  83. ted cruz called mcconnell a liar on the floor of the senate

    yeah there’s some fearful asymmetry what’s been framed in this picture

    which is not to say that Ted was wrong

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  84. I’d like to see Trump replaced too, but not by the Democrats trying to bring him down. Trump may make us queasy, but the Democrats will send us into septic shock.

    Dave would be OK with the sun going nova if it would harm Trump.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  85. As for Dave’s idiotic recitation of Maxine Waters impeachment drivel, what can you say but “Good Kool-Aid, eh?” You have managed to compile an amazing nest of innuendo, assertion and deeply-piled sophistry to arrive at the conclusion that you want.

    I’m no fan of Trump, but folks like you and Maxine are his best friends as they make all criticism look like crazy-talk.

    Setting up a back-channel to important players in the world is time-honored. To the degree that Wikileaks (not the Russians, Wikileaks) influenced the election, they did so by exposing information that Obama’s folks were trying to hide. ALL of it was true. What do you have against truth, Dave?

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  86. Well he could be lipsyncing Malcolm nance who is a three level mensch,

    http://dailycaller.com/2017/05/29/trump-fired-a-corrupt-va-official-then-the-va-stepped-in-and-said-not-so-fast/

    narciso (d1f714)

  87. ThOR.

    I’m a conservative, not a Republican. And I certainly wouldn’t belong to Trump’s tribe, even if it were the only one left.

    DRJ (15874d)

  88. Back channels rely on a high level of reciprocal trust. I don’t fault a clumsy amateur such as Kushner making a fault laden attempt at something far beyond his competence given the character of the principal he represents. It’s not as if a list of those with the actual competence and willingness to extend blind trust to Yosemite Sam could fill more than half a match book cover.

    I suspect we will be seeing quite a few C list hires as time passes. Climbing out of the available talent pool and sprinting for safety seems a very reasonable tactic given a rational risk/reward assessment.

    Rick Ballard (4fdfcf)

  89. Thank you Kevin M. I am no wordsmith as I’m sure you all know* and I was trying to put together a response to the innuendo, insinuations, rumors and put right lies listed by Dave but my words, as usual failed me.

    Leftists have this strange ability to completely ignore the truth, facts and reality and plough straight ahead. They look like liars and weasels when they do that. Welcome to the club with Maxine and Chucky and the rest of the wacky radical left, Dave.

    * That said I used to put together a delightful menu!

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  90. But I will stand up for Trump when he does good things. I hope Gorsuch works out well, and that Trump will carry through on dropping climate change as US policy. I also liked some of the things he said about terrorism in his foreign speeches. I wish he would build the Wall but that seems to have disappeared.

    DRJ (15874d)

  91. One man, even a great man like Reagan, can’t do it alone:

    The 1980 election victory gave Buckley and his colleagues hope that it was not too late to revive the economic and military strength that had dissipated through decades of poor leadership by both Republican and Democratic administrations. But, although Buckley and Rusher knew Reagan held strongly to his own views, they believed it was important to remind him regularly that if he was to succeed, he must bring into his administration people who shared his desire for the new direction in which he wanted to take the country. Rusher, like his editor-in-chief, believed that Reagan had the capacity to be a great president. However, that could be achieved only if those he hired shared his conservative beliefs.

    In addition, Reagan criticized things Ford did so obviously the 11th Commandment isn’t about unwavering support of any policy just because it is by a Republican. It’s about being conservative.

    DRJ (15874d)

  92. 88. Kevin M (25bbee) — 5/29/2017 @ 10:29 am

    Setting up a back-channel to important players in the world is time-honored.

    Well, there the idea that the Russian wanted the back channel (and it was the Russians, not Kushner, who wanted the back channel, and it could hardly be otherwise, unless it’s the whole thing is just totally meaningless)

    The idea would be that the Russians and Mike Flynn wanted this back channel so they could tell Mike Flynn what lies and false arguments to make to Donald Trump – although the Democrats would have it, this was Trump, acting through Kushner, trying to make secret arrangements with the Russians. If you flesh it out it doesn’t quite make sense. It wouldn’t start then – there’d already be secret communicatiopns. So they have Kushner be an incompetent </i onspirator.

    The possible bad uses for such a channel could be:

    1) Mike Flynn – and it’s not Kushner – wanted to negiotiate before Trump took office. A problem, but not a giant problem.

    2) Mike Flynn – and again not Kushner – was looking to set up cmmunications with the Russians whereby they would help him influence Trump.

    In that case Kushner was roped into it. At that time, it was easy not to realize, especially if you wren’t paying real attention, that Flynn was a double agent.

    3) Flynn wnating to change U.S. policy with regard to Syria, but in a way that shouldn’t happen. This would not be a legal problem by itself, but just a probable problem with the policy. Back channels have existed, and a National Security Adviser sometimes has done that.

    That could be done to make policy changes without other parts of the U.S. government knowing, so that it wouldn’t leak for one thing Kissinger did this kind of negotiating with China in 1971.

    Sometimes maybe the issue is with the other government that. They would want to communicate with them without all parts of that government knowing, maybe because the usual responses from that government are too blustery and propagandistic. There was a back channel during the Cuban misisle crisis.

    Sammy Finkelman (0c3646)

  93. This accusation about request to set up a back channel with the Russian government is being treated by the leakers as the tip of the iceberg – evidence of collusiopn with Russia. Of course it’s taking place too late for that.

    They also leaked something about two or three telephone calls that Kushner did not report when requesting a security clearance. I would say the most likely explanation is that the calls are wrongly attributed to him, or that somebody else used his phone number, which perhaps he let happen.

    Kushner claims he cannot remember any such calls, and would like to have the dates and times of these calls so that he can figure out maybe what that is or was, but he’s not getting that information, according to a statement.

    It could also maybe be some kind of a conference call.

    Or maybe like Trump probably thinks, the whole leak is a lie, although I would doubt it was made up by a reporter.

    Sammy Finkelman (0c3646)

  94. It was a suggested back channel unlike the one Obama actually accomplished with William miller and Robert malley.

    narciso (d1f714)

  95. Kevin M:

    To the degree that Wikileaks (not the Russians, Wikileaks) influenced the election, they did so by exposing information that Obama’s folks were trying to hide. ALL of it was true.

    There’s a new leak that the Russians influenced the election by faking an e-mail (Q. is there such an email, and if so is it really fake?) where Loretta Lynch is promising not to harm Hillary – as I said, I doubt anything so blatant would be sent – and this supposedly caused Comey to make his July 5 announcement.

    One problem – Comey closing that case helped Hillary.

    Giving a reason for not prosecuting minimized the help and helped Comey.

    In an ideal-for-Hillary world Comey would have closed the case, announced it was entirely his decision, and not said one bad word about Hillary.

    Now everything Comey did is supposed to have helped Trump, because he announced Oct 28 – well actually he didn’t announce it, but he sent a letter to two committees of Congress – the Republicans told the press while the Democrats kept it quiet and later tried to pretend for a while that they hadn’t been notified – that the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s handling of classifed information had been re-opened because more emails were discovered on Anthony Weiner’s computer.

    Then he closed it a second time two days before the election. And I don’t think they looked through anything except email to and from Hillary. They scanned it only for mentions of classified information. It was scanned mostly without any humans looking at it.

    Sammy Finkelman (0c3646)

  96. Also a back channel wouldn’t involve electronic communications.

    narciso (d1f714)

  97. 97. narciso (d1f714) — 5/29/2017 @ 11:46 am

    It was a suggested back channel unlike the one Obama actually accomplished with William miller and Robert malley.

    I looked it up. I found aBreitbart sory which indicated, if correct:

    These are two different things.

    One with Iran using Ambassador William G. Miller. Breitbart cites this 2014 article by Michael Ledeen:

    https://pjmedia.com/michaelledeen/2014/08/29/latest-big-lie-we-have-no-strategy/

    Robert Malley met with Hamas but said it had nothing to do with the campaign, but had to do with something called the International Crisis Group, was not a secret and he stepped down as a Middle East adviser. But later he joined the Obama administration, and in 2015, was appointed to lead the Middle East desk of the National Security Council and also became Obama’s special adviser regarding the Islamic State.

    Malley’s explanation in 2008: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/opinion/l20malley.html

    and Hamas during the 2008 campaign.

    Sammy Finkelman (0c3646)

  98. 99. narciso (d1f714) — 5/29/2017 @ 11:50 am

    Also a back channel wouldn’t involve electronic communications.

    If you wanted quicker responses, it would.

    Sammy Finkelman (0c3646)

  99. Without a functional Republican Party, conservatives and other Republicans have no skin in the game. Conservatism becomes a philosophical pursuit with no practicable policy aspirations. We all become Ron Paul. I don’t want to become Ron Paul, not for my children’s sake; not for my own.

    Our entire elective system is based on the principle of consensus and taking some bad with the good. I want the world to be a better place and I’m willing to endure the imperfect to get it. Those who are unwilling to take some bad with the good, get nothing and their children will suffer.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  100. Very few of us who write positive comments about the accomplishments of the Trump administration are members of the “Trump tribe.” Most of us flinch at Trump’s narcissistic excesses – even happyfeet. I voted against Trump in both the primary and the general elections -“Trump tribe” doesn’t describe me at all. Such terms are an easy way to dismiss commentary with which we disagree without specifically addressing the disagreement. It is a dodge.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  101. @58 ThOR

    Since Trump supposedly crawled out of the sewer the moral high ground ain’t that high.

    Pinandpuller (8f614f)

  102. I liked that imagery, Pinandpuller. In President Trump’s previous incarnation, he was a Hillary Clinton supporter and contributor. That qualifies as “out of the sewer” in my book.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  103. Despite Trump’s negative geographical exposure the entire domestic product of small countries is being used to turn a molehill into a mountain as seen on TV in that movie staring Hugh Grant and the Welsh countryside.

    Pinandpuller (8f614f)

  104. President Trump’s the only reprieve we can expect of even the most solicitous and kind-hearted God in heaven

    a precious gift, and divinely so

    who can question this, given the odds that were surmounted

    and we must use this time we’ve been given

    to staunch the bleeding

    to do what we can to turn the tide

    as grievously futile as it may seem to join a battle what’s raging on so many fronts

    democrats, yes

    and of course their propaganda slut media

    the brute fascists in our universities and colleges

    but we also have to fight cowardly disgraced trash like John McCain

    perverts like Evan McMullin

    poncey hypocrites like disgusting p.o.s. Mitt Romney

    totalitarian harvardtrash like John Roberts

    and slicked-up over-promoted sex toys like Paul Ryan

    but fight we will we few

    we happy few

    the wolf’s at the door

    and the night what’s falling is dark and unceasing

    so shine brightly President Trump!

    our eyes we’ll fix upon the fragile hopes and dreams of freedom

    hopes and dreams so tenderly nurtured on our behalf

    by you

    our duly elected president

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  105. Happy 100th Birthday, John F. Kennedy

    “Bang! Zoom! To the moon, Alice!” – Ralph Kramden [Jackie Gleason] ‘The Honeymooners’ DuMont TV

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  106. You know who elsecoms out of the sewer? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

    Pinandpuller (8f614f)

  107. teenage mutant ninja turtles are just a myth

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  108. Say what you will, do you want a sewer or The Ganges River running across your property?

    Pinandpuller (8f614f)

  109. what’s the difference again

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  110. @ Dave (#7), I fixed what you wrote for you:

    I think the remark could be easily distorted and misrepresented in a climate where the leader of the governor’s party has repeatedly called reporters “enemies of the American people”, and another member of the governor’s party savagely attacked a reporter just two days before.

    Weak sauce as persuasive rhetoric, sir.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  111. DDCSA, I can both dislike Jack Kennedy for losing his boat. And llike him for the subsequent he showed to his crew.No

    No way a Japanese destroyer should have run done a PT boat.

    But kudos for swimming at night with a battle lantern.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  112. 105.I liked that imagery, Pinandpuller. In President Trump’s previous incarnation, he was a Hillary Clinton supporter and contributor. That qualifies as “out of the sewer” in my book.

    ThOR, he was also a Democrat. Now we know why the Dems are so crazed by Trump. He’s using their play-book on them. Hahahaha.

    Rev.Hoagie® (630eca)

  113. 105. ThOR (c9324e) — 5/29/2017 @ 12:28 pm

    In President Trump’s previous incarnation, he was a Hillary Clinton supporter and contributor.

    He still seems to like her personally (the Clintons are very good at getting close to people (they want to) – who somehow don’t notice or don’t care about their faults. They got close to the Bush family. They couldn’t get so close to George W. Bush, so they got close with George Herbert Walker Bush.

    “Lock her up” was just campaign rhetoric (Mike Flynn led the chants at campaign rallies)

    Of course Trump probably doesn’t really want to put anyone in jail.

    Sammy Finkelman (0c3646)

  114. Gerald Ford was a stud, BTW.

    http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,121339,00.html

    …Instead of waiting for the draft, Ford wanted to join the Navy. His background as a coach and trainer made him a good candidate for instructor in the Navy’s V-5 (aviation cadet) program. Ford received a commission as ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve on 13 April 1942. On 20 April, he reported for active duty to the V-5 instructor school at Annapolis, Maryland. After one month of training, he went to Navy Preflight School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he was one of 83 instructors and taught elementary seamanship, ordnance, gunnery, first aid, and military drill. In addition, he coached in all nine sports that were offered, but mostly in swimming, boxing and football. During the one year he was at the Preflight School, he was promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade on 2 June 1942, and to Lieutenant on March 1943.

    Applying for sea duty, Ford was sent in May 1943 to the pre-commissioning detachment for a new light aircraft carrier, USS Monterey (CVL-26) at New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Camden, New Jersey. From the ship’s commissioning on 17 June 1943 until the end of December 1944, Ford served as the assistant navigator, Athletic Officer, and antiaircraft battery officer on board Monterey. While he was on board, Monterey participated in many actions in the Pacific with the Third and Fifth Fleets during the fall of 1943 and in 1944. In 1943, the carrier helped secure Makin Island in the Gilberts, and participated in carrier strikes against Kavieng, New Ireland in 1943. During the spring of 1944, Monterey supported landings at Kwajalein and Eniwetok and participlated in carrier strikes in the Marianas, Western Carolines, and northern New Guinea, as well as in the Battle of Philippine Sea. After overhaul, from September to November 1944, aircraft from Monterey launched strikes against Wake Island, participated in strikes in the Philippines and Ryukus, and supported the landings at Leyte and Mindoro.

    Although the ship was not damaged by the Japanese forces, Monterey was one of several ships damaged by the typhoon, which hit Admiral Halsey’s Third Fleet on 18-19 December 1944. The Third Fleet lost three destroyers and over 800 men during the typhoon. Monterey was damaged by a fire which was started by several of the ship’s aircraft tearing loose from their cables and colliding during the storm. During the storm, Ford narrowly missed being a casualty himself. After Ford left his battle station on the bridge of the ship in the early morning of 18 December, the ship rolled twenty-five degrees which caused Ford to lose his footing and slide toward the edge of the deck. The two inch steel ridge around the edge of the carrier slowed him enough so he could roll and twisted into the catwalk below the deck. As he later stated, “I was lucky; I could have easily gone overboard.”

    After the fire, Monterey was declared unfit for service and the crippled carrier reached Ulithi on 21 December before proceeding across the Pacific to Bremerton, Washington where it underwent repairs. On Christmas Eve 1944 at Ulithi, Ford was detached from the ship and sent to the Athletic Department of the Navy Pre-Flight School, St. Mary’s College, California where he was assigned to the Athletic Department until April 1945. One of his duties was to coach football. From end of April 1945 to January 1946, he was on the staff of the Naval Reserve Training Command, Naval Air Station, Glenview, Illinois as the Staff Physical and Military Training Officer. On 3 October 1945, he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander. In January 1946, he was sent to the Separation Center, Great Lakes, Illinois to be processed out. He was released from active duty under honorable conditions on 23 February 1946. On 28 June 1963, the Secretary of the Navy accepted Ford’s resignation from the Naval Reserve.

    For his naval service, Gerald Ford earned the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with nine engagement stars for operations in the Gilbert Islands…

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  115. Yes, Sammy, he does. So how is it possible that the man who coined “Lyin’ Hillary” actually likes her? With behavior like that he sure doesn’t make a very good bully or, perhaps, some of us have misread the implication of Trump’s labeling. You think?

    I don’t see why we need to personally dislike our political adversaries. This is part of the Democratic Party playbook – a profoundly un-Christian part we shouldn’t adopt. That Trump still likes Hill speaks well of Trump. You can also see it in his embrace of former Republican Party adversaries. He’s a liker, not a hater. It is a quality of a good man.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  116. yes yes he’s a much better role model than the last douchebag what was elected president (barack obama)

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  117. 114. Steve57 (0b1dac) — 5/29/2017 @ 12:49 pm

    I can both dislike Jack Kennedy for losing his boat. And llike him for the subsequent he showed to his crew.

    There’s another PT boat which John F. Kennedy commanded – PT-59 – which he never used to talk about (probably the only reason anybody knew about PT-109 is that his father wanted to make him into a a bit of a hero when he frst ran for Congress.)

    PT-59 is now sunk, in New York City, in Manhattan, in Inwood, at the bottom of the Harlem River just off 208 St, next to sa subwy yard, off the University Heights Bridge that connects to Fordham Road in the Bronx. How it got there is a story.

    First, in 1944 PT-59 went from the Solomon Islands to the Motor Torpedo Squadrons Training Center in Rhode Island. Later it wound up in the Philadelphia Navy Yard and was declared Army surplus, and was sold to someone named Gus Marinak who lived in the Bronx who used it as a party boat for weekend fishermen in the 1940s and 1950s.

    At that time even if they would have known of its history, it wouldn’t have meant anything.

    In the 1960s, it was sold again to Donald Schmahl, who used it for commercial fishing trips and docked on the 23rd Street Pier, near the FDR Drive by the East River.

    But around 1969 the PT boat was set on fire by vandals. In 1970 Redmond Burke purchaed what anewspaper called ‘the burned-out hull of a World War II PT boat’ and docked it at 208th Street, near where he lived, with the intention making it into a houseboat.” (was he one of the earlier users hen Gus Marinak used it for parties?)

    Aubrey Mayhew, one of biggest collectors of JFK memorabilia (he purchased the Texas School Book Depository) heard about it and tried to buy the boat, but the sale fell through.

    Burke couldn’t fix it up, and eventually let it sink (scuttled it?) so it would be less of a hazard.

    http://nypost.com/2017/05/27/jfks-wwii-boat-may-be-at-the-bottom-of-the-harlem-river

    Sammy Finkelman (0c3646)

  118. If you wanted quicker responses, it would.

    If you didn’t want to read about it in the press, it wouldn’t.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  119. Tillerson rides his own Hog with Rolling Thunder.

    Does it get any better than that?

    ThOR (c9324e)

  120. 69 Minutes had a story (actually a repeat) of a 98-year old – now 99 – survivor of the battan “Death march” on 60 Minutes, every year now for upteen years now he’s made an 8-mile march in New Mexico whee they label markers with the names of places along that route in the Phillipines. He never talked about it at all till he was 80. He was no hero, he says. Suffering doesn’t make you a hero, he says.

    He survived because of a can of condensed milk he had with him on the march, and because someone helped him trade in his Clemson College class ring for a chicken. He had gotten beriberi.

    Two fellow Clemson college graduates he was with died, one when the ship taking the to a prison camp in Japan was bombed (it was bombed twice) and the other of disease in a prison camp. He was eventually liberated by Russian troops in Manchuria.

    On the march they were threatened with bayonetting and while he didn’t see it, someone behind him was. He also saw a place where two American soldiers had been run over, and they continued to run over them, and it looked like sillouettes of crime victims they have now.

    The Japanese (army) considered any person who surrendered as dishonerable.

    Sammy Finkelman (0c3646)

  121. @ ThOR (#122): I think it increasingly likely that at some point, with some appropriate setting, Secretary Tillerson will demonstrate the percussionist abilities that made him a section leader in the Longhorn Band. When it happens, remember that you read it here first!

    Beldar (fa637a)

  122. I’d say that, next to antibiotics, sewers are The Crown Jewel of civilization.

    The trouble comes from unflushables like John McCain. Ask London about that. It’s horrid.

    Pinandpuller (2140e8)

  123. We’re a drum corps family, yet that comes as news to me.

    Thanks for the heads up. I’ll remember!

    ThOR (c9324e)

  124. Maybe he’ll come to the Longhorn Alumni Band game this fall, whatever weekend that turns out to be.

    I have zero doubt that with no more than 20 minutes’ preparation, Rex Tillerson could perform, flawlessly, exactly what was done by the Longhorn Alumni Band snare drummer who shot this video — every step, every drumbeat. (I was part of this performance, but I don’t appear in this particular video.)

    They could arrange a Blue Angels overflight, etc. Excellent photo opportunities, very ‘Merican!

    Beldar (fa637a)

  125. The other problem comes when you flood your country with people who want to stand on the toilet seat. I think Art Laffer calls that The Supply Side of the sewer.

    Pinandpuller (2140e8)

  126. Another great Trump appointment.

    T Rex is out there with Rolling Thunder and must have had 200 photos taken with others in the ride.

    Mike K (f469ea)

  127. ThOR, to go with that percussionist’s-viewpoint video, here’s the press-box view of the same halftime show, which has a much better audio. With the combined LHAB and LHB, something more than 1000 bandsmen on the field at the end, playing “The Eyes of Texas.” I’m in one of the trumpet ranks, three steps off the west sideline starting on the north 30, IIRC. But you could put me in any slot in any section (except flags or percussion, which do weird stuff unique to them!) and I could march that slot in this show.

    The reason I’m so confident — 100% — that Secretary Tillerson could do this same show so easily is that all 600+ LHAB members on the field in that 2015 video have learned the particulars of that year’s show earlier that same Saturday morning, in a single practice session lasting about 3 hours, of which all but 20 minutes was hurry-up-and-wait. Then we perform it that night before a 100,000+ audience! As a former section leader, Section Tillerson taught this show, or something only trivially different from it, to would-be Longhorn Band aspirants for three successive years during “Hell Week,” the week before classes during which tryouts were held. In that previous video, the percussionists you see are a mix of former LHB members covering many decades, not one of whom has done this more than once a year since. But note the precision!

    Beldar (fa637a)

  128. Ah, left out the link after all that. Sorry.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  129. From the source that Breitbart linked, note the burnt orange Longhorn patch on his jacket front. Way to represent.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  130. it haa been a long time coming well five months

    https://twitter.com/BabaluBloggers/status/869252803700633600

    narciso (d1f714)

  131. The Japanese (army) considered any person who surrendered as dishonerabSammy Finkelman
    (0c3646) — 5/29/2017 @ 1:30 pm

    This wasn’t true.

    I have it on the word of Hama Tameichi. Navy. Sometimes you are done swimming.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  132. Well, that’s what 60 Minutes said, and I read that sort of thing, long, long before. Maybe it si only Japanese who durrendered who were codnsidred dishonorable. Who is/was Hama Tameichi?

    Sammy Finkelman (b66da2)

  133. there’s an interesting book out by peter Eisner, about the staybehind network that operated in the phillipines, that led up to macarthur’s return,

    narciso (d1f714)

  134. Greetings, Sammy Finkelman: ( @ 123 (0c3646) — 5/29/2017 @ 1:30 pm )

    I saw that “60 Minutes” story last evening. My favorite progressive bit was when the woman asserted that there was a “disproportionate” number of New Mexico soldiers in the Bataan Death March.

    So far down the ideological hole that she (and her supervisors) can no longer see the sky.

    11B40 (6abb5c)

  135. Beldar,

    That field show was remarkably well executed for an alumni corps.

    Thanks for the links and the story behind them.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  136. One of the things I’m personally most impressed by in Greg Abbott’s background is sort of obscure, and almost certainly unappreciated by the overwhelming majority of his constituents in Texas. When Greg Abbott was Texas Attorney General, one of his top deputies — charged specifically with representing the State in important litigation, especially appellate litigation — was Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz. As Cruz candidly describes their work together in Cruz’ 2015 book, “A Time for Truth,” the two of them were very deliberate and strategic in making decisions about which cases the State of Texas would — or wouldn’t — pursue. In addition to making smart decisions about when and what to pick fights on, they monitored litigation involving other states for pending appeals in which the State of Texas might wish to file an “amicus” brief. Moreover, they became very effective in networking and brainstorming with like-minded attorneys- and solicitors-general from other states with which Texas shares interests. The most obvious example of their success was Van Orden v. Perry, involving the display of the Ten Commandments on the state capitol grounds, in which Abbott took the unusual (but entirely appropriate) step of appearing in the SCOTUS on behalf of the State. Texas won, but in a companion case decided the same day, McCreary County v. ACLU, the SCOTUS struck down Kentucky’s display of those same Ten Commandments at a courthouse.

    And almost no one in Texas appreciates the fact that it was Cruz and Abbott who successfully represented the State in the series of redistricting cases, taken repeatedly to the SCOTUS, necessary to undo the pro-Dem gerrymander from the 1990s that was still guaranteeing a majority of U.S. House seats to Democrats, despite their loss of majority-party status statewide.

    These are real accomplishments of smart public servants.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  137. Stories that make Republicans look smart seem all too few and far between – I presume part of this is the reluctance of the media to showcase it. None-the-less, it is nice to hear stories that make those guys – two of my favorite pols – seem now only smart, but also able to form a successful strategic partnership. You’re lucky to have them. I, by contrast, have Jerry Brown and, until recently, Kamala Harris, who has now been promoted to the Senate.

    I used to read your blog years and years ago and comment under a different name. I’m not sure if I found out about Patterico from you or the other way around. Those early years were a lot of fun for a blog reader like me.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  138. Reporters used to report who, what, where, and why.
    I liked that.

    mg (31009b)

  139. When, too.

    kishnevi (7bc26d)

  140. well yes, the problem with the other national networks, is they propagandize against their own country, take the bbc, please

    narciso (d1f714)

  141. M. le Presidente Macron is astonished to discover there is gambling in Casablanca.

    kishnevi (7bc26d)

  142. Which reminds me: one of the croupiers was also surprised to find out there is gambling in Casablanca
    http://www.rawstory.com/2017/05/russias-sputnik-news-correspondent-quits-in-furious-tweetstorm-attacking-agency-for-only-wanting-propagandists/#.WSjh3V80Xts.twitter

    kishnevi (7bc26d)

  143. survivor of the Battan “Death march” on 60 Minutes,

    My father-in-law commanded the mortuary battalion that went up the Death March trail to recover the remains of the guys who died when the war ended. He did the same thing on the trail over the Owen Stanley mountain range where a lot of Australian troops died and some were eaten by their captors.

    He came back in 1946 an alcoholic and spent a tyar at Letterman General getting sober.

    He was also commandant of a Japanese POW camp for a while. The only Japanese officers in the camp were medical officers and, when they went home to Japan, they carved their initials in a canteen for him. He kept the canteen until it was destroyed in the 1961 Bel Aire fire.

    Mike K (f469ea)

  144. Stories that make Republicans look good happen when we hold politicians accountable, so they have to work harder to make good decisions.

    DRJ (15874d)

  145. My father came back and was a good man.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  146. USCG.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  147. I will never be caught again, without fresh batteries.

    Steve57 (0b1dac)

  148. John Batchelor had as a guest on his radio show the author of a book “Beyond the Call” (Lee Trimble.)

    When his father got very old he mentioned he had gotten back after the war from Russia. He thought it was mistake. His father said no it wasn’t. “your mother knew” but it was a secret. He had always thought hs faher came back from England.

    What happened was that after completing 35 bombing misisons – and this, while it seems sort o f dsfe, was actually the most dangerous combat for American soldiers of the entire war, he was supposed to get leave and go home where his wife had given birth amonh before to a baby doctor. He was given an offer, do that and go back to the war or accept a special mission well behind he front lines, to bring back airplanes that had landed in Russia and their crew. He decided to do so and persuaded his wife that he should go.

    Now actually the mission was a little different. He he had not been told of his real mission before he got there – it had nothing to do with planes – in the hopes he would get into the Soviet Union easier if he didn’t know he was hiding something. It was to bring back POWs whom the Russians weren’t so anxious should come back because they didn’t want people possibly telling stories. He was really working for the OSS.

    He had a lot of dealings with the NKVD. He managed to win a lot of them. He found prisoners, also allied prisoners. Once he got them on a train to Odessa they were safe. There was a certain ticket agent named Yosef whom he used.

    Stalin denied to FDR at Yalta that they doing things wrong but the bahavior somewhat imporved after that.

    The Americans were based in Poltava, and when he got there the base had been considerably shrunk.

    He also saw Birkenau 3 weeks or so after it was liberated. He also found a tremendous number of prisoers who had escaped from the Germans. Once a French woman who was living with 400 – not 40, 400 others, came to him and he managed to communicate with her, showing his diplomatic passport, despite he attempt of his NKVD minder to prevent that.

    At one point the 3 people superior to him a Poltava got kicked out and he became the commander and got promoted because he was the only remaining Americans,

    Here is a book review:

    https://booko.com.au/9780425276044/Beyond-the-Call-The-True-Story-of-One-World-War-II-Pilot-s-Covert-Mission-to-Rescue-POWs-on-the-Eastern-Front

    After his mission was over he was offered another mission in the Pacific. Anxious to gte home he decliend. It would have involved the (still secret) atomic bomb.

    Sammy Finkelman (b66da2)

  149. A Texas Republican is accused of threatening to ‘put a bullet in one of my colleagues’ heads’

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/05/29/a-texas-republican-called-ice-on-protesters-then-lawmakers-started-to-scuffle/?utm_term=.f22999730420

    “Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Abbott!!!!!!!!!!!” – catch phrase, Lou Costello, Abbott & Costello comedy team

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  150. @160. =yawn= Kathy Griffin?! Only 130 days in and it’s New Year’s Eve already.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  151. More Abbott news.

    DRJ (15874d)


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