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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Not Laughing with You, Donald

Open Thread: Not Laughing with You, Donald

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(Jeff Danziger’s website)

Since the election of Barack Obama, the Republican Party has proved that one of its central intellectual arguments was right all along. It has long claimed that evolution is a myth believed in only by whiny liberals – and it turns out it was on to something. Every six months, the party venerates a new hero, and each time it is somebody further back on the evolutionary scale.
__
Sarah Palin told cheering rallies that her message to the world was: “We’ll put a boot in your ass, it’s the American way!” – but that wasn’t enough. So the party found Michele Bachmann, who said darkly it was an “interesting coincidence” that swine flu only breaks out under Democratic presidents, claims the message of The Lion King is “I’m better at what I do because I’m gay”, and argues “there isn’t even one study that can be produced that shows carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.”
__
That wasn’t enough. I half-expected the next contender to be a lung-fish draped in the Stars and Stripes. But it wasn’t anything so sophisticated. Enter stage (far) right Donald Trump, the bewigged billionaire who has filled America with phallic symbols and plastered his name across more surfaces than the average Central Asian dictator. CNN’s polling suggests he is the most popular candidate among Republican voters. It’s not hard to see why. Trump is every trend in Republican politics over the past 35 years taken to its logical conclusion. He is the Republican id, finally entirely unleashed from all restraint and all reality…

Reader Interactions

59Comments

  4. 4.

    Linnaeus

    As one who was raised a Midwesterner, I prefer to see this cartoon as a euchre game, and the president just took all five tricks from someone who called trump but was three-suited without trump.

  6. 6.

    daveNYC

    Actually there’s an experiment that anyone can do at home to determine if C02 is harmful. Tie a plastic bag over your head.

    Now go do some science, Michele.

  7. 7.

    Mike Goetz

    “Men wanted certainties, not more causes for doubt, and since the discoveries of science perplexed them with strange theories of the earth on which they walked and the bodies they inhabited, they turned with all the more zeal to the assurances of religion.” – C.V. Wedgwood, The Thirty Years War.

    That’s basically what’s going on here.

  8. 8.

    MattF

    This raises the question of what could possibly come after Trump. I’m recalling a South Park episode starring an animated piece of shit, but that’s merely disgusting.

  9. 9.

    The Other Chuck

    @daveNYC:

    Actually there’s an experiment that anyone can do at home to determine if C02 is harmful. Tie a plastic bag over your head.

    Judging by her behavior and level of intelligence, she may well have done that a few times.

  10. 10.

    xochi

    Say what you want about Trump, but the man is clearly not ‘bewigged.’ That majestic combover is clearly his, and his alone.

  11. 11.

    Poopyman

    Can we get back to blogging about Andrew Sullivan now? Trump’s 15 minutes have been over for a while. Time to move on.

  13. 13.

    Georgia Pig

    Trump is the gift that keeps on giving. Now we have Teabagger crowds cheering to “chinese motherfuckers!” It would be quite a step to have a presidential candidate throwing f-bombs around, to say the least. No doubt they’ll tsk-tsk the “fuck” and fail to notice it’s only a short step to “chink motherfuckers” and continued cheering. The question is whether the press will turn away in disgust or whip out their Visa cards to get through to the golden showers and coprophilia.

  14. 14.

    eemom

    I liked that article until:

    The tragedy is that Obama needs serious opposition – but not from this direction. In reality, he is funded by similar destructive corporate interests, and has only been a few notches closer to sanity than these people. But faced with such overt lunacy, he seems like he is serving the bottom 99 per cent of Americans much more than he really is.

    Serious opposition, ok. How much Obama is serving the bottom 99 per cent, debatable.

    But “only been a few notches closer to sanity than these people”?? Fuck this guy.

  16. 16.

    forked tongue

    The only thing I liked of what I read about Trump’s “Chinese motherfuckers” speech is where he says “…and we can’t even build a fucking school in Brooklyn!” and you can just imagine these mouth-breathing Teatards nodding along and huffing “Yeah! Yeah! We should be building schools in Broo– uh, wait.”

  17. 17.

    Culture of Truth

    Groupon has announced it will no longer have ads
    appear on the website for The Apprentice.

  22. 22.

    forked tongue

    That Milbank piece makes for some strange reading, not least this, delivered without the slightest trace of irony:

    My late colleague David Broder once recalled how, when he began newspapering in mid-century, journalists embraced the credo that “the only way a reporter should ever look at a politician is down.” He said they “prided themselves on their independence, their skepticism, and they relished their role in exposing the follies and the larceny of public officials.”

    Did an editor take out the following sentence about how Broder then began laughing so hard his dentures flew across the room?

  23. 23.

    nancydarling

    @Georgia Pig: The village will never stand for it. Remember how Taibbi gave Gergen the vapors and spasms of pearl clutching when he used the f-bomb during a panel discussion. Can’t remember the topic. I still treasure the look on Gergen’s face. I looked this up and my memory was faulty. Taibbi only said tea partiers were crazy. If that horrified them, imagine what the word ‘fuck’ will do, especially in the refined circles inhabited by the village.

  24. 24.

    nancydarling

    @eemom: I agree totally with you. Hari had me until that line. Considering the steaming pile of shit on President Obama’s plate from day one, I think he has stayed remarkably sane.

  25. 25.

    MCA

    @nancydarling – you’re forgetting the critical distinction of IOKIYAR. Taibbi pissed in the corporatocracy establishment’s bowl of cereal. Trump’s on their side, so they’ll chide occasionally but keep the camera pointing his way.

  26. 26.

    Bruce S

    The reality is that Trump is more buffoonish but no more cynical than Paul Ryan and the entire GOP House majority.

    CEPR crunched the numbers on “RyanCare” and it ups the total cost of full health care coverage for seniors by $34 Trillion over the projected budget window – something close to a half-trillion a year on average. That’s not the presumed cost-shift “savings” to government – that’s extra money in the pockets of insurance companies awarded as profits, overhead and the bonus for their inability to match Medicare’s cost controls. Of course it wouldn’t work out quite like that, because people simply couldn’t afford coverage. Trump is IMHO actually less sinister than Ryan because he lets it all hang out and doesn’t hide his sick garbage under a “nice young man” aura. Ryan – so far as I can tell – watched Alan Grayson give his “The GOP Plan: Die Quickly!” rant and thought, “Hey, that’s a great idea!”

    http://titanicsailsatdawn.blogspot.com/2011/04/economists-at-center-for-economic-and.html

    I’m totally in Trump’s corner as the GOP nominee, but mostly because he just shows their collective ass – not because he’s worse. He isn’t.

  27. 27.

    chopper

    i swear to god, after watching the dude in vegas, he’s a liberal plant. he’s the pied piper trying to take all the teabillies away from the GOP.

  28. 28.

    Anoniminous

    The surprising thing, to me, is that I’m not surprised.

    The deeply embedded racism of US culture has been kicked from covert to overt by the election of Obama and that’s all.

  29. 29.

    Bruce S

    Incidentally, the thing that’s so beautiful about Trump’s Las Vegas rant was that it was sponsored by two Republican Women’s clubs. I’ve never been a fan of “Republican women” but I never quite expected them to go this route…

    Also, I’m looking forward to that speech being sampled in a rap video. It’s just sitting there waiting…

  31. 31.

    Yevgraf (fka Michael)

    In other news, Lizardhead Rick Scott is giving Florida the dry-hole assbanging it earned with his election.

    http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110426/ARTICLE/110429568/2055/NEWS?Title=Scott-Citizens-should-be-insurance-of-last-resort-

    Scott said he had no secret plan to abolish Citizens, which provides coverage for some 1.3 million Floridians. He was responding to a Herald-Tribune report Sunday of insurance lobbyists’ emails showing Scott’s aides had backed a plan to phase out Citizens over four years. Scott said the only plan he has backed is the one outlined in his campaign where he said he pledged to make Citizens the “insurer of last resort.”

    That’s what you get when you elect an insurance fraudster as governor.

  32. 32.

    fasteddie9318

    Can people please stop calling Trump a billionaire? He’s not one, and it really pisses him off when people point that out.

  33. 33.

    jimmiraybob

    @daveNYC:

    Actually there’s an experiment that anyone can do at home to determine if C02 is harmful. Tie a plastic bag over your head.

    As much as I’d like to see the Teabirchrandpublican wing of crazy mansion do this as a mass experiment*, I’d also suggest a review of the Apollo 13 astronaut’s flirtation with CO2.

    *of course as a pathetic and weak hippie lacking in the the killer instinct I do hope that they have an an effete-liberal, bleeding-heart, science-savvy, peacenic, summer-of-love-indoctrinated assistant on hand to terminate the experiment pre-mortem.

  35. 35.

    fhtagn

    @fasteddie9318:

    How about “negative billionaire”? Given how many bankruptcies Begging Bowl Boy has gone through, he’s probably on the hook for billions to his victims.

  38. 38.

    Cassidy

    @jimmiraybob: I have plenty of killer instinct. You may borrow some. I’ll watch the experiment for you while you run up to the store to get us a 12 pack. I promise to untie the string….really, I promise.

  39. 39.

    ...now I try to be amused

    The seating at the bridge table implies that Obama and Trump are partners, as are the donkey and the elephant. A better bridge metaphor is Trump bidding a grand slam, his partner the elephant cringing because he knows Trump is fucking the partnership over, and Obama setting them big time.

    Then again, maybe Trump is secretly Obama’s partner.

  40. 40.

    jimmiraybob

    @Cassidy:

    Well……as long as you promise. But, I could be gone awhile. I’m in the mood for selecting 12 individual samples of the finest in microbrewery art. Don’t forget the string thingy. Call if you need anything.

  43. 43.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    I half-expected the next contender to be a lung-fish draped in the Stars and StripesBars.

    Fized

  44. 44.

    Prometheus Shrugged

    Speaking of frauds, I can’t believe that Breitbart hasn’t been thrown in jail yet, let alone the fact that anyone still pays attention to him. It would be incredibly disheartening if he actually got away with this…

  45. 45.

    Geeno

    @Linnaeus: My son did that when I was teaching him to play Euchre. He had the 3 away aces, and kings below them, and he ordered up his off suit. We actually marched, because the bowers were buried, and I was able to over-trump on the “other” two tricks. That’s why Euchre doesn’t work for this; you CAN actually pull that shit off in euchre.
    I told him it was a “brave call”, but said “Dude, you had a no-trump loner if went around”. We were playing no-trump as a valid call.

  46. 46.

    Linda Featheringill

    He is the Republican id, finally entirely unleashed from all restraint and all reality…

    You realize, of course, that when your internal censor deteriorates and your id takes over, you are engaged in the process of senility.

    Yeah, I’ve seen it happen a few times.

  47. 47.

    Studly Pantload, now with enhanced schmuckosity

    And speaking of assholes, did anyone catch Michael Scott’s sendoff on The Office, last night? Although played to top hilarity by Carell, Michael is nevertheless a supremely enough buttmunch of a character that I completely did not expect the ep to be anything of a tearjerker. But then when they had Pam run to say goodbye to him in the airport, I got – uh, a serious case of something in my eye. And I’ve only discoverd the show through reruns over the last year or two. Can’t imagine what it would have been like if I’d been there all six seasons.

    Of course, Pam (and Jim) is the most accessible character on the show, so that’s why the scene worked. Very smart writing.

    Still on the fence about Will Ferrell’s character, though.

    (And those of you who don’t deign to watch basic cable can save your “What’s ‘The Office’? posts.)
    =0 P

  48. 48.

    Studly Pantload, now with enhanced schmuckosity

    Oh, and I was happy to have waited to watch it on the DVR. I was all too thankful I could skip over the plugs for The Apprentice.

  49. 49.

    Studly Pantload, now with enhanced schmuckosity

    @efgoldman:

    If that sales guy is on commish, he should repeat the Trump name loudly and often if it might mean an upsale.

  51. 51.

    Geeno

    @chopper: You’ve never played “No Trump” or “Ace High” as a valid suit call? Most traditional games/tournaments don’t recognize it, but as a house rule, it’s not that uncommon around here – Western NY. It’s kinda like declaring a misdeal on a four-under-a-jack hand.

  53. 53.

    BARRASSO

    I for one welcome the legitamizing of profanity in public political forums, well done Combover Cartman!

  54. 54.

    Linnaeus

    My son did that when I was teaching him to play Euchre. He had the 3 away aces, and kings below them, and he ordered up his off suit. We actually marched, because the bowers were buried, and I was able to over-trump on the “other” two tricks. That’s why Euchre doesn’t work for this; you CAN actually pull that shit off in euchre.

    You’re right that euchre is probably a less fitting metaphor (though that call you mention is still pretty risky), but I liked it better because it’s a game I know.

  55. 55.

    Frank W.

    What a steaming pile of poo the Republican party has become. I ask you Republicans: “Have you of decency, sir, at long last?”

  58. 58.

    Frank W.

    re: #59 — Sorry… it helps to proofread. “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last.”

  59. 59.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @Mike Goetz: I love that book. It’s not in fashion now, but as an comprehensive treatise on why Europe went barking mad and wiped out over 1/4 of its population over nothing, it can’t be beat. Have you read the late Christopher Hill’s writings on the religious crazies who came out of the wood work under Cromwell. More details on how people who couldn’t deal with the stirrings of the modern world and science turned to religion and went wingnut.

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