A.M. Links: Spain Threatens to Take Control of Catalonia, Taliban Attack Kills 43 Afghan Troops, Iran Says It Will Expand Ballistic Missile Program

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  Gage Skidmore / Flickr.com

  "President Trump's condolence call to the widow of a slain soldier exploded into a vicious row that swamped the White House on Wednesday, with the soldier's grieving mother accusing the president of disrespecting her family and a defiant Mr. Trump complaining that his words had been cynically twisted for political purposes."

• Spain is threatening to take direct control of Catalonia.
• Labour Party leader Jacinda Ardern will be the next prime minister of New Zealand.
• According to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards, ""Iran's ballistic missile program will expand and it will continue with more speed in reaction to Trump's hostile approach towards this revolutionary organization."
• At least 43 Afghan troops were killed after the Taliban attacked a base in the province of Kandahar.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Fast, good or cheap. Pick two.

[Rufus The Monocled]

Hello.

[Rhywun]

Only 3 out of 5 from the NYT and WaPo. That must be a record.

[gaoxiaen]

Forget the articles. Just skip to the comments.

[Fist of Etiquette]

President Trump's condolence call to the widow of a slain soldier exploded into a vicious row...

This sounds out of character. He would have tweeted insults at her.

[gaoxiaen]

And then grabbed her pussy.

[Citizen X - #6]

According to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards, ""Iran's ballistic missile program will expand and it will continue with more speed in reaction to Trump's hostile approach towards this revolutionary organization."

Guys, i don't think it counts as a revolution anymore when you've been in power almost 40 years.

[BestUsedCarSales]

If it's still the same guys, then that sounds about right.

[gaoxiaen]

Well, it's understandable. All the kids were killed off fighting Iraq.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...a defiant Mr. Trump complaining that his words had been cynically twisted for political purposes.

This, at least, is no doubt the truth.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Spain is threatening to take direct control of Catalonia.

BUT THAT'S THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT THEY WANT.

[Mickey Rat]

If you take a shot at the king, you had better kill him.

[CE]

You know who else threatened to take direct military control of a region threatening to secede?

[Citizen X - #6]

the soldier's grieving mother accusing the president of disrespecting her family and a defiant Mr. Trump complaining that his words had been cynically twisted for political purposes.

I mean, they could both be right.

[Citizen X - #6]

That said, Trump's words as reported are pretty much a nothing, aside from the fact that it was Trump who said them.

[BestUsedCarSales]

And it completely deflects conversation from the important point. Why are we in Niger?

[Rhywun]

Shh!

[Citizen X - #6]

Well, I'M not.

[gaoxiaen]

The same reason I was in Somalia in 1982.

[John]

Democrats cynically exploiting a grieving mother to attack a Republican President? They would never do that.

[Cyto]

It is a bit interesting that there were no grieving widows from 2008 through 2016.

[Chinny Chin Chin]

They forgot their grief when they saw Michelle's sculpted arms and Barak's smoove jump shot.

[Citizen X - #6]

Who doesn't love a middle-aged nerd in mom jeans?

[BestUsedCarSales]

Don't try and talk her up. I already know what she's like.

[John]

The light giver made it all better.

[Eek Barba Durkle]

I mean...there was the Benghazi families, but they were obviously just racist Republicans who hate women.

[John]

You leave a few Americans to die and you never hear the end of it. Holding anyone accountable for the death of an American ambassador and trying to blame it on a YouTube video is just one of those things government does. How dare those Racist Republicans exploit the deaths of Americans for political advantage. Move on. What difference does it make?

Fixed it for you.

[creech]

I worked with a guy who was an Army officer assigned to give the bad news to mothers and wives during the Vietnam war. He had to ask for reassignment relatively quickly as he couldn't handle the grief that was poured out at him, LBJ, etc. He said they had to assign black officers when the dead soldier was black because the venom spewed out (and physical assaults) on white officers got out of hand. I bet LBJ himself never called even one widow.

[John]

I know a couple of people who have done that duty. I honestly cannot think of a worse job in the world. I think I would rather handle cobras and I have a paralyzing fear of snakes

[Fist of Etiquette]

Labour Party leader Jacinda Ardern will be the next prime minister of New Zealand.

And is threatening to take direct control of Middle Earth.

[Citizen X - #6]

Maybe she is hiding the One Ring in her weird-looking mouth?

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Iran's ballistic missile program will expand and it will continue with more speed in reaction to Trump's hostile approach towards this revolutionary organization."

Revolution from what?

[BestUsedCarSales]

From self-to-self. A full revolution leaves you back where you started.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Continuous Revolutionary Improvement

[John]

They just want to kill Saudis and Sunni Arabs. Is that so wrong?

[gaoxiaen]

I'm ambivalent (IDGAF), A dead Jihadi goes in the +column.

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

Could it be *arches eyebrow, dons sunglasses* the great SATAN?!

[John]

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/372037.php

FBI confirms Comey drafted memo exonerating Clinton before investigation began. Too bad the Republicans have no balls. Dragging his sorry ass before Congress to explain that would be great theater.

[Cyto]

If that is real, this should be an explosive story.

But as you can guess, I will not be holding my breath.

[John]

It is true. And yes it is being buried as we speak along with the fact that Muehler covered up Clinton taking bribes from Russia

[gaoxiaen]

Eugene Hasenfus disagrees.

[John]

I imagine the only reason we know about this is because Trump was smart enough to fire his sorry ass while he was in California allowing the FBI to get his computer before he scrubbed it. I wonder what else they found.

[gaoxiaen]

Kiddie porn.

[Aloysious]

For Comey's response, we'll have to wait to see what he leaks to his friend at Columbia and then to the New York Times.

ha ha.

Well deserved mockery.

[John]

http://www.commentarymagazine......classless/

Sally Quinn is a sociopath who makes up for it by being a delusional idiot. Of course, she didn't actually kill anyone with her hexes but she seems to honestly believe she did and is proud of it. Amazing how journalists always turn out to be even worse than you think they are. It is also interesting how so many boomer feminists were just cheap whores who got where they were on their backs. Such liberated women

[Rhywun]

Paywall?

[John]

Not for me. I don't subscribe and got in.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Me too.

[Cyto]

Got in... but what was gained?

Well, I learned that Sally Quinn is absolutely stark raving mad. As in "probably schizophrenic" stark raving mad - the whole "hearing voices", talking to ghosts, being psychic thing is kind of a giveaway.

That nobody seemed to notice in the last 40 years is more remarkable. And maybe more instructive of the culture in DC.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Honestly, I think she's just lying about this. If she truly believed those things about hexes and ghosts and such she likely would not be telling anyone. She is basically admitting to murder in the case of the hexes, and it doesn't fit well with the pathology of schizophrenia. They tend to keep it to themselves.

What I do think is true is her stories of bullying people out of Washington, of picking and choosing who got to stay and who had to go. Stories of her own power. That's what we see here, the stereotypical rich-elite who sees the world as bending to their wishes and that their morality is whatever suits them at a given moment. She sounds like a shitheel.

[John]

She is a delusional idiot and likely suffers from some form of mental illness. The fact that no one at the post noticed this or cared is pretty remarkable. Washington is the most broken place on earth outside North Korea.

[BestUsedCarSales]

She sounds like a power-hungry jerk. No need to insult people who actually suffer with mental illness by saying every asshole is one. Besides, to some extent that acts to forgive her for her actions.

[John]

She was a party reporter and could not even get that job without fucking her boss. Quinn lived a shallow and unimportant life. The book seems to be a her fantasy that she was important or mattered. The women spent her entire life latched onto important people and at the end of it cannot face how powerless and unimportant she is. So she imagines hexes and having power and importance she never had as a way of dealing with what a wasted and pointless life she led.

[Citizen X - #6]

When she finds this page by googling her own name, which she no doubt does on the daily, you're gonna get sooo hexed.

[John]

I have a Voodoo priestest down in New Orleans on retainer. Quinn knows better than to screw with anyone under her protection.

[Rhywun]

Only works if I disable my adblocker. Not gonna happen.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Weird. Works with Ad Block Plus on Firefox.

[Citizen X - #6]

No issues with ABP on Chrome, either.

[Cyto]

The review is actually pretty good... of a subject that probably doesn't warrant a review.

Here's a nice bit of writing:

Sally Quinn has been writing books and articles for more than 40 years, yet her prose retains a childlike, disarming artlessness that makes Finding Magic and its serial revelations all the more arresting.

Disarming artlessness.... that's pretty cutting. "How's the back of my hand feel?"

[Rhywun]

I'm using "uBlock Origin" now. Actually it's not so bad with the blocker disabled. That all-stories-on-one-page thing they do drives me nuts, though.

[Cyto]

When did that become a thing? It used to be that they'd break up an article into as many pages as possible to get more page views and ad impressions.

Now they are making the entire site into one continuous scroll - which often makes weird jumps in the page as ads and pictures fill in after the text is rendered.

[BestUsedCarSales]

I think it's a change in the stats that are valued by advertisers. Time on page has become more important. It's one reason why Google and Bing and such give more and more information from the website from the search page. The longer you stay on their page the better now.

[gaoxiaen]

Halloween.

[Citizen X - #6]

Delusional, amoral idiots run the city that runs the country, huh. Hang on, let me find a monocle to drop into my martini glass.

[BestUsedCarSales]

You're becoming one of them.

[Citizen X - #6]

It's impossible to underestimate the amount of power and influence i wield.

[John]

http://bigleaguepolitics.com/d.....ng-redder/

Country getting more Republican. I guess calling everyone a racist isn't a good way to win friends and influence people.

[BYODB]

Of course, the fact that Republicans are becoming more Progressive could have something to do with that as well.

[John]

It is about the Democrats becoming the too bat shit crazy to vote for under any circumstances party. The stupid party are just bystanders

[Stormy Dragon]

Trump was probably trying to be consoling, but this is not the first time Trump's attempts to sound consoling came across as some weird alien trying to mimic human emotions they have no chance of ever understanding.

[Cyto]

To be fair, he comes across the same way when trying to complement a fellow politician, or order a meal....

[Citizen X - #6]

"Steak, well done, with ketchup. Side salad of iceberg lettuce with ranch."

[BYODB]

Classy.

[CE]

As long as it's a Trump Steak.

[BestUsedCarSales]

New Yorkers are truly broken people.

[Rhywun]

C'mere and say that, I'll break your face.

[BestUsedCarSales]

If you were actually a New Yorker you would have said "I'll'a breaka your a'face." Nice try.

[Zeb]

Fact: all New Yorkers are of Italian extraction.

[gaoxiaen]

Klaatu Barata Niktu.

[BYODB]

Nickel? Necktie? It's definitely an N-word...

[Stormy Dragon]

Reason sadly overlooked the most important news story today:

Panasonic Moving Fridge

Panasonic now has a new voice active refrigerator that comes to you when you call it.

[Citizen X - #6]

Christ, like i need another appliance for my dog to be terrified of.

[BestUsedCarSales]

You won't need a dog anymore with this anyway.

[Stormy Dragon]

Obviously you just need to replace your dog:

This headless robotic cat pillow will wag its way into your heart

[Citizen X - #6]

What the fuck, Japan? What the actual fuck?

[Stormy Dragon]

No, no, no, the fuck pillows are Dakimakura.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Japan is a nation that puts full effort into every dumb idea that comes into their heads. That is their simple oddity. Someone has a weird dream and they decide to market it.

[John]

Wow. Finally the 21st Century I have been waiting for.

[CE]

For people who don't have someone to bring them their beer?

[Mitsima]

Psst, Cali, check out what Catalonia is doing. I think you should try it. I don't think DC would get much support if they tried to stop you. Just say'n.

[BestUsedCarSales]

It would certainly be interesting. They're a 10th of the economy as well, so it would be interesting how that dynamic played out.

[Liberty =><= Equality]

How much of that goes away if they're no longer part of the US?

I'd be more worried about them leasing bases to the PRC to pay for public sector pensions.

[BestUsedCarSales]

I have no idea. It's one reason I say it's interesting.

[CE]

Or North Korea, in exchange for not being targeted.

[Rat on a train]

California would break up. The people living on the coastal plains and the interior valleys don't like each other.

[gaoxiaen]

Especially after the wildfires.

[Liberty =><= Equality]

Cue NoCal and the Central Valley going West Virginia on their ass.

[John]

http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9986

Screaming protesters rake over UC Santa Cruz College Republican meeting. Cue Robby to explain how they should know better than to wear short skirts.

[Stormy Dragon]

Is a rake over like a comb over, but more so?

[BestUsedCarSales]

This song is the most accurate to the experience of being at that College Republican meeting.

[Stormy Dragon]

Counterpoint

[Citizen X - #6]

You leave GY!BE out of this.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Red Sparrowes doesn't quite fit though.

[Citizen X - #6]

The soundtrack to Antifa is nothing, because all music is culturally appropriated from somebody. The soundtrack to any College Republican function is Nickelback.

[BestUsedCarSales]

I remember one college Republican guy I knew who was super into Choking Victim/Leftover Crack. Seemed like a strange culture fit.

[Citizen X - #6]

I knew one who was way into Cypress Hill. It was insane, and NOT in the membrane.

[gaoxiaen]

She liked being strangled and hogtied. Who am I to judge her?

[BestUsedCarSales]

That's just true though. Skorts are the gentlewoman's preference.

[Rhywun]

Geez, I remember when the College Republicans was just a bunch of dorks in slacks and neat haircuts that nobody paid any attention to.

"As a Democrat, I am embarrassed that some people on the left act this way," remarked Phil Leonard Vogel, creator of the moderate campus news publication City on a Phil. "They give all of us a terrible name."

LOL - they ARE you, Phil. Your creation, your monster.

[John]

When people in your party embarrass you, maybe you need a new party?

[BestUsedCarSales]

Are you saying you don't belong to a party or that it's incredibly hard to embarrass you?

[John]

I am not a formal member of a party.

[BestUsedCarSales]

Fair enough then.

[CE]

Hey, I'm still a Libertarian.

[Mickey Rat]

It nice to the Library's staff's initial reaction to this is to ask the group who reserved the meeting space to leave, which would only invite more such nonsense in the future. Good on the College Republicans that they quietly refused to vacate the space they had proper rights to.

[BYODB]

?According to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards, ""Iran's ballistic missile program will expand and it will continue with more speed in reaction to Trump's hostile approach towards this revolutionary organization."

Does Iran need ICBM's to hit Israel? I'm curious who those missiles are meant for, because they don't need them to hit a few of the 'Satans' they want to cleanse the world of, but for other 'Satans' they do.

[Not a Libertarian]

Labour Party leader Jacinda Ardern will be the next prime minister of New Zealand.

So a Socialist/Green/Nationalist government?

I know that the incoming Deputy Prime Minister's party New Zealand First will demand a cut of immigration numbers back down to 10,000 a year.

Any Antipodean commenters know what else this government might do?