By Flatus, a Trail Mix Contributor
Or must they become castrati before they enter Congress. Does it make a difference if they are Senators or Representatives? And what about female members — are they unafflicted by an equivalent condition?
I have so many questions. Who has the answers. Our president surely doesn’t. But, what a guy; he has the Congressional Castrati believing he is the one holding all the balls.
And we are such wimps, afraid to demonstrate.
More Posts by Flatus
flatus, they may be ball-less, but the critters are also tune-less and soul-less compared to the real castrati
from wiki:
Farinelli, was the stage name of Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi, celebrated Italian castrato singer of the 18th century and one of the greatest singers in the history of opera. Farinelli has been described as having soprano vocal range and sang the highest note customary at the time,…
speaking of other voices, interesting piece from the guardian today:
The Final Year
Ben Rhodes: ‘Obama has a serenity that I don’t. I get more exercised’
He spent 10 years as Barack Obama’s right-hand man. As a new film puts him in the spotlight, he talks high-stakes diplomacy and the chaos of Trump’s White House
[….]
…a new documentary about the last days of Obama’s presidency, shot behind the scenes. The Final Year follows the Obama foreign policy team through the warren of the West Wing (dilapidated, cramped, home to cockroaches and rats), the corridors of the United Nations and on their valedictory foreign trips. Watching it now, knowing the result of the 2016 election and the ferocity of the backlash to come, gives the film a whole new significance.
“Unfortunately, it’s probably better because of the ending,” Rhodes tells me when we meet in Washington DC, less than half a mile from his former place of work. He is now able to laugh at it, albeit tentatively. “It would have been a nice movie about people working hard on foreign policy, but it acquired this tragic sensibility. It’s a horror movie when you know the twist ending.”
[…continues…]
If only we could conjure up a total bastard like LBJ (in his Senate years) to take on the current situation in Washington. Alas, this cannot be, we are stuck with the professional fundraising team/celebrity whores Pelosi, Schumer & Associates. As long as the voters keep voting these tools in, tools for Representatives we shall have: The government we deserve.
Very nice, Flatus. I am happy you have recovered from the flu. Let us hope that this year is not like a hundred years ago. The flu pandemic of 1918.
Most influenza outbreaks disproportionately kill juvenile, elderly, or already weakened patients; in contrast, the 1918 pandemic predominantly killed previously healthy young adults.
As for the repug party in lock step with trump? They are dancing on the grave of dignity and doing victory laps. How sick and how thick is this cancer on America? Only putie knows. We have our voice, but their repug ears are clogged with falsehoods. I continue to look to Mueller to get us through this and he has sent a sign, some hot evidence is delivered.
More from the flu of 1918.
In a 2009 paper published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, Karen Starko proposed that aspirin poisoning had contributed substantially to the fatalities. She based this on the reported symptoms in those dying from the flu, as reported in the post mortem reports still available, and also the timing of the big “death spike” in October 1918 which happened right after the Surgeon General of the United States Army, and the Journal of the American Medical Association both recommended very large doses of 8.0–31.2 g of aspirin per day.[87] Starko also suggests that the wave of aspirin poisonings was due to a “perfect storm” of events: Bayer‘s patent on aspirin expired, so that many companies rushed in to make a profit and greatly increased the supply; this coincided with the flu pandemic; and the symptoms of aspirin poisoning were not known at the time.
When I lived in Colorado, the Reyes syndrome was diagnosed.
Well, Flatus, Paul is certainly singing soprano in the Congressional Choir. His balls are probably in the bottom left hand drawer of the Resolute desk. My question is whether the retiring senators and representatives will demand the return of their family jewels when they depart or leave them with SFB.
bw, causes of 1918 flu deaths in addition to aspirin poisoning according to wiki:
More recent investigations, mainly based on original medical reports from the period of the pandemic, found that the viral infection itself was not more aggressive than any previous influenza, but that the special circumstances (malnourishment, overcrowded medical camps and hospitals, poor hygiene) promoted bacterial superinfection that killed most of the victims typically after a somewhat prolonged death bed.
remember “awakenings” and the doc’s theory of a 1918 flu link to developing parkinsons later in life?
Flatus – excellent. I do not think the greedy old perverts will get any break from the voters this year. We barely made ten days into the new year and SFB has caused world wide havoc. The more interesting thing is the s-hole comment was probably not planned, it is what he thinks and believes everybody else does too.
bbronc, you’re right according to this from ap:
Trump said he was only expressing what many people think but won’t say about immigrants from economically depressed countries, according to a person who spoke to the president as criticism of his comments ricocheted around the globe.
Trump spent Thursday evening making a flurry of calls to friends and outside advisers to judge their reaction to the tempest, said the confidant, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to disclose a private conversation. Trump wasn’t apologetic about his inflammatory remarks and denied he was racist, instead, blaming the media for distorting his meaning, the confidant said.
I knew they had to be smarter than Trump, but it turns out dolphins are smarter than most children.
🙂
Flatus… bravo! Unfortunately, anyone on the left that has the balls to be as sj pointed out… another bastard like LBJ… gets put down. And any bastard will tell you that one has to make compromises to get things done. Nope… not on the left… can’t pass the purity test.
If Kirsten Gillibrand is on the 2020 Democratic primary ballot here in NH, she gets my vote. She did what needed to be done (even though IMO, Franken was railroaded and she grabbed an opportunity). After all… politics isn’t for the faint of heart!
RR – politics is often talked of as a contact sport.
I am enjoying watching The Bob Newhart Show of the mid-70’s and enjoying the detailed sets of that era. Memories of life back then. In the military at the time I was married and we had to furnish our rental apartments (living off base) with the many household items ‘Bob and Emily’ used. Maybe it is time to bring back Macrame.
Good one Flatus – nice puns
Democrats are standing up and speaking out Thank you Dick Durbin while the goops suffer from memory loss
daily mail:
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said Friday he spoke ‘directly’ to President Trump inside the Oval Office after he reportedly used a crude slur to describe to ‘s***hole countries’ from Africa.
Graham said he pushed back at the president – an account that was backed up by Illinois Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois – after Trump reportedly made the comment at an Oval Office meeting, where he was also is claimed to have said disparaging things about Haitian immigrants.
‘Following comments by the President, I said my piece directly to him yesterday,’ Graham said in a statement. ‘The President and all those attending the meeting know what I said and how I feel. I’ve always believed that America is an idea, not defined by its people but by its ideals.’
He did not say specifically what Trump said that caused him to respond, but his defense of American values make clear that the gist was Trump’s stunning comments that drew wall-to-wall media coverage Friday.
Graham continued: ‘The American ideal is embraced by people all over the globe. It was best said a long time ago, E Pluribus Unum – Out of Many, One. Diversity has always been our strength, not our weakness. In reforming immigration we cannot lose these American Ideals.’
His comment clashed with a statement by two other Republican participants Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and David Perdue (R-GA).
The two men said they ‘do not recall the President saying those comments specifically’ but also didn’t deny he said them.
Durbin praised Graham for being willing to confront the president over remarks roundly criticized as crude or racist on Friday – a term used by Hillary Clinton.
‘My colleague, Republican senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, spoke up and made a direct comment on what the president said,’ Durbin said in the Capitol, CNN reported.
‘I was very proud of him. It took courage for what he did. And I made my own comments in response to it but for him to confront the president as he did literally sitting next to him took extraordinary political courage and I respect him for it.’
Graham continued in his statement: ‘The American people will ultimately judge us on the outcome we achieve, not the process which led to it.’
‘I know the bipartisan proposal discussed at the White House can get a lot of support from both sides. As always, I look forward to considering additional ideas that could make the proposal even better,’ he said.
[…continues…]
kgc, not only is durbin a stand-up guy for telling us about it, but he really showed character when he stood-up for and praised a senator on the other side. kudos to both of them.
Durbin praised Graham for being willing to confront the president over remarks roundly criticized as crude or racist on Friday – a term used by Hillary Clinton.
‘My colleague, Republican senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, spoke up and made a direct comment on what the president said,’ Durbin said in the Capitol, CNN reported.
‘I was very proud of him. It took courage for what he did. And I made my own comments in response to it but for him to confront the president as he did literally sitting next to him took extraordinary political courage and I respect him for it.’
Dick Durbin is a smart politician
Ha, Flatus had to explain ‘Castrati’ to me last night. I thought it was a typo. So naive.
more examples of cloven hoof and big mouth disease
the guardian:
Amid a global furore over his reported remarks about “shithole countries” and immigration, Donald Trump faced further controversy on Friday when it was reported that he referred to an intelligence analyst presenting information to him in the Oval Office as a “pretty Korean lady” and suggested she should be part of negotiations with North Korea.
NBC News reported the exchange between the president and a “career intelligence analyst who is an expert in hostage policy”. The analyst, the report said, was briefing Trump last fall on “the impending release of a family long held in Pakistan”.
Citing two officials with direct knowledge of the exchange, NBC said the president asked the analyst where she was from, to which she said New York City. Trump reportedly pressed, asking where “your people” were from.
The NBC report said the analyst said her parents were Korean, leading Trump to ask an adviser why the “pretty Korean lady” was not involved in negotiations with nuclear-armed North Korea.
[…continues….]
The whole tragedy of the castrati in history was that these mutilations were carried out on poor prepubescent choir boys to preserve the innocence of their voices for God’s ears; what a sacrilege. Of course that practice was replaced by sexual abuse so that made it all okay. huh, did you read what Ohlfahrt just wrote?
That grown men subject themselves to the blade to prove that their squeaky attempts at the choir boys counter tenor is judged the real thing by SFB is more than pathetic, it is disgustingly sick. And, in the process they have lost the ability to muster the physical strength to turn the knob and leave.
I’ve called each of my critters–Graham, Scott, and Joe Wilson leaving them specific counsel. I was not gentle in my words to Graham, that AF JAG colonel who is required by oath to be an example for others; and to Scott the man who disgraces his fellow South Carolinian’s by being SFB’s on-screen dinner partner; and, finally, ‘You-Lie’ Joe Wilson, the lying, weaselly hypocrite who is a PoS in real terms.
I’m going to stop before I get carried away.
Oh, Damn! I’m sitting here looking at my copy of today’s WSJ. Although the story, Trump Lawyer Paid Porn Star, is three columns wide and on the front page, it’s below the fold!
John Tunney has passed away at 83. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, he is the politician whose life was the basis for the Redford film The Candidate
John V. Tunney
Thousands for hush money, not one cent to pay an honest contractor.
Another successful community meeting has ended. The new budget approved, information from the committees to inform our property owners what is happening, and updates from our president. And answers to questions. Life is good.
Returning to the other political world, one dominated by a senile old man with serious mental issues. As noted by several others, it was good that SFB was out killing golf balls and missed the Hawaii missile blast.
There was a big laugher from the greedy old perverts trying to say they never heard SFB say the world was a s-hole.
Sturg, you wanna guess the pctage of those honest contractors vote repug because they want a better deal?
Well we are in another round of cold, we were above freezing for 3 days and it is back down again. I’m about to run out of frost bit preventative. (100 proof southern comfort in a hot mug of Earl grey tea) must work, no frost bite so far.
Jamie, Tunney’s name was was familiar to me because of his dad, Gene.
I may have seen Gene Tunney box……used to watch the Friday night fights with me dad from 52 on…….
id guess high percentage on the GOP contractors but I bet most of the ones he stiffed voted for Hillary.
isnt Bear Haitian?
Nope, gene Tunney was before my time, as they say, but I’ve watched “the long count” on YouTube a few times
RIP Keith Jackson; the voice of so many Saturday afternoons.
Gene’s kids were very civic minded. Gene jr served many terms as Sonoma County DA
John was kind of a weird guy– a part of that Ted Kennedy group
the guardian: Another porn star says she was invited to Trump’s hotel room in 2006
Third adult star Jessica Drake reportedly signed non-disclosure agreement
Alana Evans says Stormy Daniels requested Evans join her and Trump
Donald Trump faced new accusations on Saturday regarding the alleged payment of hush money to a pornographic film star.
A second actor in pornographic films told the Daily Beast she had been invited to join Trump when he was with Stephanie Clifford, who performs under the name Stormy Daniels. The same site reported that a third actor, who accused Trump of sexual misconduct before the 2016 election, is now subject to a non-disclosure agreement.
[….]
Jacob Weisberg, editor-in-chief of the Slate Group, told the New York Times Clifford told him about her relationship with Trump in several interviews in 2016. He also provided to the Times text messages exchanged with Clifford and a draft settlement agreement.
On Saturday, the Daily Beast reported that it had also been in talks with Clifford about an interview on the eve of the 2016 vote.
It said it had spoken to another actor in pornographic films, Alana Evans. According to Evans, Daniels, at the time of her alleged encounter with Trump, said: “All I’m going to say is: I ended up with Donald in his hotel room. Picture him chasing me around his hotel room in his tighty-whities.”
[..continues..]
from that daily beast story:
“It was the second day of our trip, we were in a hotel with a tattoo parlor, and the hotel had huge windows so you could see people outside. When I saw Stormy, I was like WTF? I opened the door, called out to her, and she joined me while [my colleague] got a tattoo,” recalls Evans. “Stormy said she met Donald Trump and then tells me about the golf tournament and how she’s supposed to hang out with him later that night, and she invited me. Stormy said Donald knew exactly who she was and wanted to meet her.”
Later that evening after returning to her hotel room, Evans said Daniels kept calling, asking her to come join the party. But Evans wasn’t interested and made up reasons not to go.
“Stormy calls me four or five times, by the last two phone calls she’s with Donald [Trump] and I can hear him, and he’s talking through the phone to me saying, ‘Oh come on Alana, let’s have some fun! Let’s have some fun! Come to the party, we’re waiting for you.’ And I was like, ‘OMG it’s Donald Trump!’ Men like him scare me because they have so much power and this was way before his presidential nomination. So I bailed on them and turned my phone off.”
Evans said she talked to Daniels the next day, apologized for bailing, and asked her how the night went. “She tells me, ‘All I’m going to say is: I ended up with Donald in his hotel room. Picture him chasing me around his hotel room in his tighty-whities.’ I was like, ‘Oh I really didn’t need to hear that!’ Then she said he offered her keys to his condos in Florida, and I was like, ‘Wow guess you had a good night,’ and that was the last we ever spoke of it.”
It’s as if Sir Harry Flashman has been elected president..
And his supplicants, ummm, supporters, couldn’t care less that SFB was chasing porn stars a year after he married Melanoma and paid one of them $130,000 to shut up so they wouldn’t know. Fugging idjits.
I bet if it weren’t for her son, she would be gone in a minute–severance pay or not.
RR, looks like the Pats are in a battle tonight – but have regrouped and taken control.
The problem with our damned castrati, Mr Flatus, is that the sniveling rodents can’t even sing.
Grrrrrrr
I was right that the Patriots would romp all over the Titans.
I was wrong about the Eagles/Falcons game. Still, the Eagles did not impress me. They aren’t the team they were at mid season. The Saints and Vikings are the class of the NFC – maybe of the NFL.
GO VIKINGS !