May 30, 2019

Would I be Bremmering if I said President Trump wanted to hire David Copperfield to make the USS John McCain disappear?

I don't know. It's the Era of That's Not Funny, and nobody seems to have understood my "treason" joke in last night's café.

119 comments:

rhhardin said...

Penn and Teller would be better.

rhhardin said...

A ship that will live in infamy.

David Begley said...

The joke didn’t work.

Speaking of jokes, check out “The Magnificent Mrs. Maisel” on Amazon Prime. Early 60’s Jewish NYC housewife becomes a standup comic. Lenny Bruce is her friend. Village venues. Catskills. Columbia. Lenny also sings. Excellent.

rhhardin said...

USS Benedict Arnold

exhelodrvr1 said...

The joke was understood, just not seen until now.

"Oh, look, the treason bloom!" Washington, D.C. in the spring, as the 20+ Democratic wannabes try to outdo each other.

tim in vermont said...

It’s too obvious and good natured a joke for these days, you need to say something like he demanded that the Space Force use their cloaking technology to make it disappear, so you can suck in the people who thought that a steam catapult was something out of a steampunk novel set in the dark ages.

David Begley said...

Pun jokes are just tough.

tim in vermont said...

I bet the Democrats wish they had Cheney’s Hurricane Control Machine to whip up some climate news leading up to the election too.

gilbar said...

Professor; i understood your comment last night; i just didn't think it was a joke
(gilbar's 1st rule of jokes: they have to be funny :)

born01930 said...

Joke? More of a clench

iowantwo said...

Everything has failed to remove, or even put a dent on President Trump. Ignoring their failure, the fake media marches on, running one of their fake plays, that has never worked yet, but still holding out hope. I won't look at the story. Hopefully President Trump will tweet out the reporters name and call them a liar.

robother said...

There's a reason people groan at puns.

Ann Althouse said...

"The joke didn’t work."

I didn't ask if it worked. I questioned if it was perceived as a joke. The "Bremmer" question isn't whether the joke was funny/good/successful, only whether people understood it as a joke. I'm afraid things that look weird/wrong are now understood as simply bad rather than attempts at jokes and you can get in trouble for even trying. This morning I looked at the café thread and felt that maybe people thought I was seeing "treason" in my neighbor. It's a dangerous world, the place where people don't consider that something was humor. That's a separate question from whether everyone, including David Begley, saw the joke and laughed. It's the Era of That's Not Funny, and I expect most people are humor-deaf or humor-impaired. Personally, I like to do jokes in a form that most people won't get. But I may end up talking only to myself.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

No, but you would be bremmering if you said President Trump invited Kim Jong-un to sink the USS John McCain.

Big Mike said...

I saw your “treason” pun (not really a joke) and I did not groan even slightly. Keep your day job.

gilbar said...

another iowan said....
Trump. Ignoring their failure, the fake media marches on, running one of their fake plays


OMMFGDG!

Trump is Lucy!

Hagar said...

The story beneath the headline does not bear out the claim that this was done at Trump's request - if it was done at all - and the Navy says it never happened.

Ann Althouse said...

My "treason" quote wasn't a joke that I made, but a found joke, a joke that was observed. I said "I see the neighbor has his little trees in" (after the little trees that had been sitting on the terrace had been planted), and I heard the homophone and laughed at the joke that had already happened. I thought the "trees in"/"treason" homophone was charming and I'd never thought of it before, but I happened to hear myself saying it.

Now, if I had no ear for humor, I would have known I was saying "trees in" and that would be that. Another day looking out the window, seeing normal things happening in the neighborhood. And if I thought no one here would feel the charm of the homophone, I might not have shared it. I mean, why am I blogging at all? The fun was lovely here in the house, and I had an audience of one person, and he enjoyed it.

David Begley said...

If you want to laugh, including Ann Althouse, I highly recommend Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime. The star is from Milwaukee and she is brilliant.

gilbar said...

Professor;
It was the pun aspect that i didn't enjoy; not YOUR pun.
For what it's worth; you pun made me stop and think, which could be the point of puns

(i stumbled over whether it was a pun (got his trees on), or a new portmanteau (got his tree season on))

Ann Althouse said...

What I like — why I think the pun is funny — is the idea of looking out the window and seeing treason going on. What could my neighbor be doing? How paranoid would I be?

tim in vermont said...

Personally, I like to do jokes in a form that most people won't get. But I may end up talking only to myself.

I had just deleted a whole riff on that, I think tcross may have opinions as well.

Big Mike said...

Answering the question posed in the title of this post, you’d be lying, but so many pundits are doing what Ian Bremmer did I don’t think his name can really be attached to the practice.

David Begley said...

Mrs. Maisel also wears fab clothes.

It is better than Mad Men.

gilbar said...

oh! per 6:58, i like it much more as trees in. My stumble was on the on.

Meade said...

None dare call it teasin’

Ann Althouse said...

"If you want to laugh, including Ann Althouse, I highly recommend Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime. The star is from Milwaukee and she is brilliant."

You know, it's easy to search the archive. If you want to know what feels un-fun to me, it's bringing up something as if it's new when it's old and acting like you're cluing me in on something that I've blogged about already. Use the search box in the upper left corner.

tim in vermont said...

Blogger Left Bank of the Charles said...
No, but you would be bremmering if you said President Trump invited Kim Jong-un to sink the USS John McCain.


That is funny.

“Hey Kim, if you think you have a missile that will work, I will give you one free shot!” - @RealDonalTrump

The above is satire, BTW, not real, Trump didn’t actually tweet it, so don’t run with it AP.

Big Mike said...

But, Althouse, your devoted commentariat wants to know. Why did you o-pun the window to look at your neighbor?

Quaestor said...

Officially, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer christened USS John S. McCain honors two USN Admirals who were grandfather and father to Senator John S. McCain III.

richlb said...

And don't give it the Snopes treatment either.

gilbar said...

Questor, on 11 July 2018, at a rededication ceremony, Senator John McCain was added as a namesake, along with his father and grandfather. GOD knows why

Rory said...

I noted the pun. I checked Wikipedia to see if all puns are jokes. They seem to think so, so I guess I noticed the joke. My yard's being overrun with an unusually determined weed, so I might not be at the top of my game with respect to planting jokes right now.

There should be a "treason" joke in the "That's what she said" group. And there should be one that ends, "Mueller? I hardly know her!"

Big Mike said...

BTW, as CinC Trump could order the crew to take the ship out to deep water and scuttle it. His order would be obeyed.

Nichevo said...

Nobody said...
It’s too obvious and good natured a joke for these days, you need to say something like he demanded that the Space Force use their cloaking technology to make it disappear, so you can suck in the people who thought that a steam catapult was something out of a steampunk novel set in the dark ages.

5/30/19, 6:30 AM


If it had been President GHW Bush opposing the former Senator from Arizona, he could have invoked HIS favorite magician, David Cop-a-feel! Then he could have goosed her. THEN we would all laugh, and laugh, and laugh!

JML said...

The problem with tree puns is that people might feel compelled to branch out and o-pine, or worse yet, the puns can grow and grow and the original pun gets lost in the weeds.

iowantwo said...

Ann, I understood you were attempting to make a play on words, working off of current events. Kind of fell flat. Might have worked better in a conversation that had recently been discussing treason in the news. The verbal play on words would work a better, than the printed word, sort of without context in the overnight cafe, that doesn't have any context. Keep trying out your new material here. I'm rooting for ya.

Nichevo said...

If you want to know what feels un-fun to me,


We do: it's when you are the target of the "fun," not its source.

narciso said...

It was a lie, like the plastic Turkey in 2003, or an omission.

Jeff said...

Termite walks into a bar and asks "Where's the bartender?"

Marcus Bressler said...

I've tried watching Maisel. I gave up after three or four episodes. Did her comedy ever get funnier? I watched the ads proclaiming all the awards the show was getting (or nominated for, I forget) and NONE of the scenes used in that ad were funny. At all.

THEOLDMAN

JML said...

Check out the "Pepper..and Salt" cartoon on the WSJ's editorial page this AM. It is very appropriate.

tim in vermont said...

USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51), named for Admiral Arleigh A. Burke, USN (1901–1996), is the lead ship of the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers. She was laid down by the Bath Iron Works company at Bath, Maine, on 6 December 1988, and launched on 16 September 1989 by Mrs. Roberta (Gorsuch) Burke.

I watched the launching from my brother in law’s boat on the Kennebec River. Let me tell you, the Navy types have some very sweet pleasure boats and they dress sharp for these things. The Navy people in the pleasure boats watching the launch were almost more interesting than the launch itself. Their womenfolk dressed sharp too.

Meade said...

I like warships that _don’t_ get disappeared, okay?

Big Mike said...

Now Jeff made me groan. Jeff, that was terrible!

Tommy Duncan said...

Lake Mendota has algae blooms. The Deep State has treason blooms.

Meade said...

“The problem with tree puns is that people might feel compelled to branch out and o-pine, or worse yet, the puns can grow and grow and the original pun gets lost in the weeds.”

Fir shear.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Another day looking out the window, seeing normal things happening in the neighborhood.

See Mrs Gray, she's proud today
Because her roses are in bloom...

And if I thought no one here would feel the charm of the homophone, I might not have shared it.

...and the kids just don't understand...

Meade said...

Also, yew have to get the spelling correct.

Ann Althouse said...

"Ann, I understood you were attempting to make a play on words, working off of current events. Kind of fell flat. Might have worked better in a conversation that had recently been discussing treason in the news. The verbal play on words would work a better, than the printed word, sort of without context in the overnight cafe, that doesn't have any context. Keep trying out your new material here. I'm rooting for ya."

Again, I wasn't "attempting to make a play on words." I said something that, after it was said, was perceivable as meaning something outlandish, like I was Mrs. Kravitz. I was describing something that happened, not writing something that was intended to happen. I'm sorry I said anything like: Did you get my joke? I should have said: Did I describe something in a way that allowed you to feel the way it felt at the time?

iowantwo said...

The Today Show did a whole segment of this lie. I do wish the White House would go after the reporter and call them a liar for making up a story from whole cloth. Every person in official capacity has denied the existence of any such murmurings. A poster here laid out all the facts that expose this lie.
All of these stories are just a platform the media use to get quotes from politicians slamming the President...for something he has never done. Like the meme President Trump is a racist. The NYT did a whole investigative piece. Buried deep in the article is the the lack of any evidence would suggest its hard to call him a racist, lacking any facts and such. But it did give the NYT to put President Trump and Racist in the headline...mission accomplished.

Phil 314 said...

What’s that old saying about jokes:

“If you have to explain it...”

narciso said...

That was the Atlantic most recently, it's in a competition with the new Yorker for category error

tim maguire said...

Marcus said...
I've tried watching Maisel. I gave up after three or four episodes. Did her comedy ever get funnier?


I really liked it, my wife did not at first. I think I'm more charitable about the stream of consciousness riffing Maisel does when she's just getting started.

Give season 2 a shot--most of it takes place in the Catskills and it's surreal--educated affluent adults acting like kids at camp. And yet from what I hear, that's the way it was. I can't promise you'll like the comedy more, but my wife did.

tim maguire said...

Also, I like Jewish humor. If you don't, well...

buwaya said...

Mrs Maisel is much less interesting re the showbiz than as a rather well done bit of family tragedy. The really good bits are the Jewish family and community dynamics, and all those eccentric but representative characters - the clothing manufacturer, the professor, etc., and their equally eccentruc wives.

Its a bittersweet comedy about a community really, not about Mrs. Maisel, and its (impending) destruction. The world is walking in and breaking apart, through the promotion of various individualistic vanities, that which was cozy and successful.

Mrs. Maisel herself was desperate and self-destructive, a compelling but pitiful woman. Theres more than a bit of Madame Bovary there.

David Begley said...

Research assignment completed Professor Althouse! I didn’t remember that you watched and loved Mrs, Maisel. I don’t have the memory you do.

Mrs. Maisel wasn’t literally Joan Rivers but there are threads of Rivers in her character. That’s what we screenwriters do.

Anyway, Meade wins the thread. He’s funnier than you. If you do a comedy act, Meade will have to do the jokes.

But okay, Mrs. Smarty Pants. Did you watch Bosch? The first seasons were good but the last one wasn’t.

alanc709 said...

Just another Pleasent Valley sunday, but on Thursday.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Meade,
Don't worry. We don't 'arbor any ill will towards you after those attempts!

buwaya said...

The humor in Maisel is low-key, embedded in the entire ensemble, its not in the stage routines.
Second season was nowhere near as good, or as comfortable, as the first. Theres more of a sad, desperate edge to it.

rhhardin said...

What could my neighbor be doing? How paranoid would I be?

Emma Thompson's mother character in Last Chance Harvey (2008) an excellent picture.

- He's at it again.
- Who? At what?
- The new neighbor, barbecuing or something.

traditionalguy said...

“From little trees in grows mighty treason.” I don’t know...that won’t fit on a red cap.

Make trees grow great again to make hanging gallows. But that is even longer.

MayBee said...

If they did want to cover up the John McCain name, I'd guess it was out of fear Trump would notice it and go on a riff against McCain.

tim in vermont said...

Are they planning to refresh the trees with the blood of tyrants and patriots?

Ann Althouse said...

Is that story about the ship even true?

Has that been verified or is it like the drunk-Nancy stuff?

narciso said...

It was undergoing maintenance, professor.

rhhardin said...

Man is an oak. Nature contains nothing sturdier. The universe need not arm itself to defend him. A drop of water is not enough to preserve him. Even if the universe were to defend him, he would no more be dishonoured than whatever does not protect him. Man knows that his reign has no death, that the universe boasts a beginning. The universe knows nothing: it is a best a thinking reed.

- Lautreamont

Ann Althouse said...

To answer my own question... it sounds pretty true. ADDED: Is that story about the ship even true? It got started with the Wall Street Journal: The White House wanted the U.S. Navy to move "out of sight" the warship USS John S. McCain ahead of President Trump's visit to Japan, according to an email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. In a May 15 email to U.S. Navy and Air Force officials, a U.S. Indo-Pacific Command official outlined plans for the president's arrival that he said had resulted from conversations between the White House Military Office and the Seventh Fleet of the U.S. Navy. In addition to instructions for the proper landing areas for helicopters and preparation for the USS Wasp -- where the president was scheduled to speak -- the official issued a third directive: "USS John McCain needs to be out of sight." "Please confirm #3 will be satisfied," the official wrote. When a Navy commander expressed surprise about the directive for the USS John S. McCain, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command official replied: "First I heard of it as well." He said he would work with the White House Military Office to obtain more information about the order.... There were discussions within the U.S. military over the past week about how to handle the warship, another U.S. official said. The ship is being repaired after a 2017 collision, and any ship undergoing such repair or maintenance would be difficult to move, officials said. A tarp was hung over the ship's name ahead of the president's trip, according to photos reviewed by the Journal, and sailors were directed to remove any coverings from the ship that bore its name. After the tarp was taken down, a barge was moved closer to the ship, obscuring its name. Sailors on the ship, who typically wear caps bearing its name, were given the day off during Mr. Trump's visit, people familiar with the matter said."

Gahrie said...

Is that story about the ship even true?

Does it matter? "Fake but accurate" is the apparent standard when attacking Republicans.

JML said...

Now every son of a birch is going to try to weigh in on the peachy tree trend. Well, not me, I am going to bough out.

wendybar said...

And yet Meghan McCain ran her mouth against Trump again, claiming he is making her grieving unbearable. Maybe is she stopped listening to the lies the left tell, she could get on with her life. Liberals are just pissed off at Trump, and will use ANYTHNG to make him look bad...

Dave Begley said...

Last night I went to an open mic night at a bar. The first act was a comedian and he act was mostly puns. He was so bad, he got very few groans. He was so bad that he wasn't worth me heckling him.

Later a slam poet performed his "F**k white Jesus" piece. He was gay.

The music act were all terrible. The only good thing was that the hostess wasn't wearing a bra. If she would have pulled a Mrs. Maisel and gone topless, I would have stayed. As it was, I left after about an hour.

John henry said...

Your search box doesn't work for me, Ann. I get a "This page does not exist" error.

I vaguely remember you blogging about Ms Maisel a while back.

There is a second season that just released in March (April?) Have you blogged about that? I don't recall.

In any event, I'll add my 2cents. Both seasons are excellent.

John Henry

narciso said...

People can't even do observational humor like Seinfeld anymore.

John henry said...

FWIW, I call bullshit on the McCain story too.

Not just that PDJT didn't order it or even know about it, I think even the MSM is not saying that any more.

I doubt it ever happened.

Just more fake news.

Learn to code, journalists. Or, perhaps the smarter among you, who would like to make real money, could learn to weld or plumb.

John Henry

narciso said...

Jason Beale was my debunker, hes a seal who debunked the Feinstein interrogation report put together by Dan jones.

John henry said...

I was using Firefox when I got the "this page does not exist" error.

I tried it in the new Dissenter browser (which I am liking more and more every day) and found some posts on Mrs Maisel from 2018.

You can get the browser at Dissenter.com It is based on the open source Chrome software but without Google's privacy issues. Fully functional but with a very light resource footprint. All (AFICT) Chrome extensions work with it.

So, no, you have not commented on Season 2 it would seem.

John Henry

John henry said...

Blogger Nobody said...

launched on 16 September 1989

So 30 years old. We won't have her to kick around much longer.

PDJT could just order that she be decommissioned.

John Henry

John henry said...

Sort of related since I have seen it mentioned in a couple of stories about PDJT and the steam catapult.

He made some comments about the virtues of steam over electricity the other day and caught a lot of flak for being boneheaded. "Steam is so 19th century" "This is the 20th century, you know."

But the Ford's electronic catapult has problems every dozen or so launches. When it does, it apparently takes 30 minutes just to power down so they can start troubleshooting.

Ditto the electronic arresting wire system.

An aircraft carrier that can't launch or recover planes is useless.

Electronic catapults may work reliably some day and, when they do, perhaps they should be adopted. Until then, stick with steam.

You all do know that all of our aircraft carriers are still steam propelled, right?

John Henry

John henry said...

Not electronic, electromagnetic catapult.

John Henry

Narr said...

Lettuce raisin together!

Narr
Sorry, I'm late and it's early

Big Mike said...

Is that story about the ship even true?

My assumption is that someone working for the Wall Street Journal was trying to one-up Ian Bremmer.

robother said...

There was a time when a US President could arrange the disappearance of a US naval vessel directly with the Japanese government. That's the treason narrative you want, Ann, if you shooting for Avenatti-level internet fame. Go big or go home.

Bob said...

As Dad said, if you want that thing to grow, you're going to have to water that treason.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

AA --we replied "good one" last night.
And we responded with a light hearted comment about your neighbor's viewpoint: (being a target of domestic spying)
But you "didn't get it" **--
"I don't look into neighbor's homes, just their yards"

** (I got it-- I just didn't think it was that funny and I don't spy on my neighbors)

Charlie Currie said...

I tittered at treason last night.

rcocean said...

"And if I thought no one here would feel the charm of the homophone, I might not have shared it. I mean, why am I blogging at all? The fun was lovely here in the house, and I had an audience of one person, and he enjoyed it."

Trees in = treason. Clever. Didn't see it until now. You have a great sense of humor. Don't let the mad haters win.

rcocean said...

Any anti-Trump story that is based on Anonymous sources "close to the white house" or work "in the White House" are disregarded by me. What happened is some idiot naval officer decided to hide the name of the USS McCain (maybe) for motives unclear. Did he do it to make trump look bad, or because he thought Trump wouldn't like see the ships name?

Again, this anti-Trump story number 1,016 with no name attached to it. I don't believe it.

rcocean said...

If there's USS John McCain that is named after the Senator, it should be renamed the USS John Maverick McCain. That way, we can distinguish it from the USS McCain named after the Admiral.

BTW, Halsey's big mistake was in not notifying Kincaid CLEARLY that he was leaving the strait unguarded. Had Kincaid knew Kurita with his Center force was coming, he could have moved his escort carriers out of the way, and set up a nice reception committee for him. Instead, Halsey sent an ambiguous message that led Kincaid to a Task Force of BB's had been left to defend Surigao Straits.

Darkisland said...

Blogger rcocean said...

Instead, Halsey sent an ambiguous message

My recollection, and I could well be mis-recollecting, is that the ambiguity was something to do with the code they were using. Not enough words or limited vocabulary or something.

John Henry

Darkisland said...

As a pallet cleanser after all this talk about McCain, here's what an good Naval Officer looks like. Pure coincidence I ran across it just now but I have always been an admirer of Admiral Stockdale.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/master-of-his-fate?

John Henry

Darkisland said...

Palate cleanser

John Henry

Michael K said...

You can get the browser at Dissenter.com It is based on the open source Chrome software but without Google's privacy issues. Fully functional but with a very light resource footprint. All (AFICT) Chrome extensions work with it.

Macs don't seem to like it.

Halsey's error was in not telling Kincaid that he was taking the BBs with him on what has come to be called "The Battle of Bull's Run."

Halsey fell for the Japanese decoy, convinced the Northern Force constituted the main Japanese threat, and he was determined to seize what he saw as a golden opportunity to destroy Japan's last remaining carrier strength. Believing the Center Force had been neutralized by 3rd Fleet's air strikes earlier in the day in the Sibuyan Sea, and its remnants were retiring, Halsey radioed (to Nimitz and Kinkaid):

CENTRAL FORCE HEAVILY DAMAGED ACCORDING TO STRIKE REPORTS.
AM PROCEEDING NORTH WITH THREE GROUPS TO ATTACK CARRIER FORCES AT DAWN[1]

The words "with three groups" proved dangerously misleading. In the light of the intercepted 15:12 24 October "…will be formed as Task Force 34" message from Halsey, Admiral Kinkaid and his staff assumed, as did Admiral Nimitz at Pacific Fleet headquarters, that TF 34—commanded by Lee—had now been formed as a separate entity. They assumed that Halsey was leaving this powerful surface force guarding the San Bernardino Strait (and covering the Seventh Fleet's northern flank), while he took his three available carrier groups northwards in pursuit of the Japanese carriers. But Task Force 34 had not been detached from his other forces, and Lee's battleships were on their way northwards with the 3rd Fleet's carriers. As Woodward wrote: "Everything was pulled out from San Bernardino Strait. Not so much as a picket destroyer was left".[4]


Taffy Three fooled the Japanese admiral, Kurita, into thinking he was facing Halsey, not an escort carrier. Had Kurita persisted he could have massacred the Leyte invasion force. Instead he turned away.

tim in vermont said...

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2019/05/30/can-they-get-anything-right-looks-like-that-trump-wanted-the-uss-mccain-obscure-n2547071

Hmmm.

That photo is not from the day of the POTUS visit (Monday in Japan, Sunday in US), as the WSJ report itself mentions. - Navy Chief of Information.

This is the koi feeding plastic turkey syndrome all over.

tim in vermont said...

Koi feeding-plastic turkey serving-supermarket scanner type news.

Funny how it seems to go all one way.

Ann Althouse said...

"I got it-- I just didn't think it was that funny and I don't spy on my neighbors"

I look out into the yard and see that trees got planted in the next over yard (and right at the property line, I might add)... if that's "spying"...

Ann Althouse said...

I don't blame the Trump people for wanting to keep the McCain name from being framed into the anti-Trump photographer's shots.

tim in vermont said...

A tarp was hung over the ship's name ahead of the president's trip, according to photos reviewed by the Journal,

Ahead of his visit, not during it, per the Navy.

tim in vermont said...

The important thing was to distract from a successful visit to an important ally, just like the koi feeding story was. As Rush says, they have one playbook, and it doesn’t change much.

exhelodrvr1 said...

"Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors" - great book about the battle off Samar that led to Kurita's retreat

narayanan said...

gilbar said... Questor, on 11 July 2018, at a rededication ceremony, Senator John McCain was added as a namesake, along with his father and grandfather. GOD knows why.


Has anybody followed the paper(money) trail leading to that decision?

Yancey Ward said...

The story as reported was likely untrue. The "sourcing" of the article is suspicious right off the bat- "people familiar"- "e-mail reviewed", etc. I mean, wouldn't you include at least a photograph of the e-mail in the article? And if the "source" didn't let you photograph it, what does that tell you?

Big Mike said...

Is the story about the tarp even true? Jim Treacher (a true humorist) has the right take:

“The most surprising thing about the Trump presidency isn’t Trump. He hasn’t changed, and he’s not going to change. The most surprising thing is how low the press is willing to go just to pester him. I really didn’t think they could embarrass themselves this badly. They still can’t get over Hillary’s humiliating loss, so they spend every waking moment proving they hate Trump as much as they’re supposed to hate him. They’re so addicted to gotchas that they’re now obsessed with… a tarp.”

tim in vermont said...

Never is a long time Treacher, especially when you stand with such friends against Trump.

narciso said...

stockdale, denton alvarez, all navy men, only McCain had the category error about waterboarding,

narciso said...

you mean treacher is a never trumper, but he's not manic about it,

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Jim Treacher has me blocked on Twitter! One of only a few I know about, and I can't imagine why. Oh well.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

AA -
No, looking at the neighbor's yard is not spying.
No, planting trees is not treason
We made a joke. We hope you didn't take it wrongly
Our apologies if it was constructed in such a fashion,
and will try to do better in the future

Churchy LaFemme: said...

I am reminded of the Asimov story 'Jokester' about puns being the only "real" human form of humor and the natural response is to groan. Where, then, do laughter and jokes come from? Well, that's the question..

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, you may be one of the last few people outside the Acela corridor and the left coast metropolises who still believes that the news media try to be honest. And I sense that you are wavering. The problem for you is that you remember when the Times was a real newspaper and you have s hard time seeing what it is today.

rcocean said...

Chief of Naval Information has tweeted that:

1) Name of USS McCain NOT - I repeat - NOT obscured during Trump visit
2) WSJ Photo showing ship's name obscured was taken BEFORE Trump visit
3) Trump visit was on USS WASP. Sailors on other ships were given leave.

IOW, its the anti-Trump media LYING about Trump for the 894th time, using anonymous sources. When are people going to wise up? OR Demand the MSM start attaching NAMES to their slanders?

rcocean said...

BTW, while the WSJ has conservatives on their Op-ed page. Their news reporters are liberals - just like the NYT and the WaPo. Never think that because a news story is from the WSJ - you're getting more objective or "Conservative" news.

tim in vermont said...

narciso said...
you mean treacher is a never trumper, but he's not manic about it,


He knows now he was wrong, but can’t back down. He is stuck in a zombie position he created when he used the word "never."

Churchy LaFemme: said...

He should have listened to James Bond..

rcocean said...

"Taffy Three fooled the Japanese admiral, Kurita, into thinking he was facing Halsey, not an escort carrier. Had Kurita persisted he could have massacred the Leyte invasion force. Instead he turned away."

What would've happened s Kurita had gotten into Leyte gulf is a matter for speculation. Kincaid had several old battleships that could have blocked his entrance to the Gulf. I can't remember whether all or just a few could have made to Leyte Gulf in time. Anyway, Kurita would've had a hell of a time fighting American BB's with planes constantly attacking him, and presumably we would have been able to spot our shots with the BB aircraft, while all Kurita's spotter aircraft would've been shot down. But once in the Gulf, he would have shot up quite a few transports. How he could have gotten out, is another question mark.

wildswan said...

Maybe the joke shows what is on Althouse's mind, i.e., treason. And the undermind reaching toward what it means if there was no collusion by Trump but the head of the CIA said he had a Russian source but he didn't and so, and so, well, then, looking out the window, like seeing your thought in a cloud shape, so, seeing her thought in a pun. "Oh, look the neighbor's have some little treason."

wildswan said...

Due to recent events, I personally reject the story that the FBI has the tapes they supposedly recently found about Dr. King. The tapes could be faked, either then or now, and if they were the Press would be too busy faking up stuff on Trump to look in to it. And the Press is also too mentally disabled by ingesting PC for years to think out how to use timelines and contradictions in stories and how to look into documents. Also they don't want the DemPop to get in the habit of checking out stories. Republicans pounce, Russians meddle but so far the DemPop just drinks the Kool-Aid. That's why they are so Kool.

rcocean said...

You just can't stop the Republican stupidity. Now, Arizona Senator McSally is demanding an investigation into who ordered the USS McCain's name covered up while Trump was visiting the port!

Ah, excuse me Senator Dumbass - the name was NOT covered up. The ship was not moved. It was under repair. NOTHING HAPPENED. Looks like Arizona elected another winner.

tim in vermont said...

There once was a punster named Ann
Who tried to make soufflé, got flan.
It sank like a stone
With not even a groan
Her fans recommend a new plan.