Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Giving up is unforgivable. ~Joe Biden

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

The willow is too close to the house.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

When they say they’re pro-life, they don’t mean yours.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

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It’s a chopper, baby

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The helicopter is the new tire swing (via).

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86Comments

  1. 1.

    Gimlet

    by Ezra Klein

    At the New York Times, Josh Barro argues that Donald Trump is a moderate Republican.

    Here’s the argument: Trump’s affect is much more confrontational than his (occasionally self-contradictory) policy pronouncements. Trump opposes cuts to Social Security and Medicare, hasn’t signed Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge, believes single-payer health care works well in other countries, and is skeptical of free trade.

    “Trump is offering an unusual combination of extreme language, moderate policy and rudeness, and so far it’s connecting with Republican voters,” Barro writes.

    I think Barro’s onto something, but it’s not that Trump is a moderate Republican. It’s that he’s a moderate, full stop. And he’s the kind of moderate that really exists, not the kind of moderate Washington likes to pretend exists — which is to say, his policy ideas, such as they exist, are often extreme, but they can’t easily be classified as left or right.

  6. 6.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Gimlet: I wonder if that was written– by either Barro or Klein– before Trump put out his position paper on immigration, which was greeted thusly by a person who was once brought on TV to be Very Serious Person on a Very Serious Sunday Show (ABC– for all I know she still appears on it)

    Ann Coulter ‏@ AnnCoulter 5h5 hours ago
    I don’t care if @ realDonaldTrump wants to perform abortions in White House after this immigration policy paper.

  9. 9.

    Steve from Antioch

    Wowser.

    First, has Candy Crowley – that’s who it was, right? – never been in a helicopter before? Taking video out the window???

    Second, “Mitt Romney is not rich.”

    Third, “I’ve never run for office before.” said the Reform Party candidate of 2000.

    I sincerely hope Trump will be in the race in November of next year.

  10. 10.

    JPL

    Someone needs to get Halperin a bib to catch all the drool.

    @Gimlet: Having Jeff Sessions write your proposal for immigration is not moderate.

  11. 11.

    raven

    @schrodinger’s cat: It’s a gunship. The one I got to ride in was a Marine ship used in the two Gulf Wars but we had them in Vietnam too. I won the ride in an auction for scholarships that was held this spring. It was unreal, 150mph straight down and then flipped over and came back on the target.

    If you click on it you see a picture of it.

  12. 12.

    Gimlet

    Trump’s helicopter arrival was particularly effective when his advance man cranked up “The Ride of the Valkyries” as it appeared at the fair.

  15. 15.

    Josie

    That picture should have some advance warning! I cannot express how much I am repulsed by it and how it perfectly describes our current news media.

  16. 16.

    Gimlet

    If Donald Trump manages to win the presidency, his wife Melania, will be the first foreign-born first lady since John Quincy Adams’ spouse, Louisa.

    She’ll also be the only one — as far as we know — who has posed nude.

    Certainly the only one to pose nude on a bearskin rug on her then-boyfriend’s private jet, as Melania Knauss did in British GQ in 2000.

    Eat your heart out, Eleanor Roosevelt.

  19. 19.

    Kropadope

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Ezra Klein is aiming to be Broder Jr. and he is succeeding. I haven’t forgotten his hair on fire reaction during the ACA website roll out.

    I wish we could’ve taken that opportunity to discuss federal contracting policies, likewise this mining waste spill in Colorado.

    I posted this on Facebook in response to someone who had posted another article about the spill that didn’t mention the contractor:

    One aspect of this that isn’t being covered very well is that the attempted cleanup was being performed by an independent contractor; Environmental Restoration, LLC.

    We really need to look at government contracting policies. Private companies contracting with the government were responsible for another recent costly failure, the rollout of the health exchange websites.

    Even when the job is being done properly, this often costs taxpayers more money. Mercenaries we hired to fight in Iraq were being paid far more than our own soldiers, likewise private charter schools and janitorial companies hired by Jeb Bush in Florida.

    Meanwhile, the U.S. Government, not having to perform these tasks themselves, doesn’t retain the knowledge base or resources to handle issues that arise, like the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico a few years back. Instead they had to develop the resources as the spill continued for weeks on end.

  22. 22.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Somebody yesterday posted the “interview” Martha Raddatz did on that same helicopter ride. Dear FSM, it was vomit-inducing. She used to be a not-bad journalist, but she was creaming all over the place in her frenzied excitement about Riding In Donald Trump’s Helicopter With Donald Trump Himself!!

    It was just so embarrassing to be a member of the same human race.

    ETA: Halperin, meh. I expect nothing better of him. But I was really disappointed in Raddatz.

  25. 25.

    raven

    @Gimlet: Yea, well it’s in Full Metal Jacket but the language surrounding if might be. . . .OFFENSIVE!!!!! It’s an old joke anyway. Juts like the chrome on a trailer hitch!

  28. 28.

    Gimlet

    Get back to us when you figure out if waterboarding is torture.

    By Michael B. Mukasey
    Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server to conduct public business while serving as secretary of state, followed by the deletion of information on that server and the transfer to her lawyer of a thumb drive containing heretofore unexplored data, engages several issues of criminal law.

    Let’s consider the potentially applicable criminal laws in order of severity.

  30. 30.

    raven

    @BruceFromOhio: I took an instamatic shot of one that was landing below us when I was in a Huey 46 years ago but flying in the front seat was a whole different enchilada!

  31. 31.

    Thoughtful Today

    heh

    I thought exactly that when I saw NBC’s Meet the Press’s Chuck Todd riding on Trump’s private plane: ‘Chuck’s riding on the tire swing.’

  35. 35.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @raven:

    Years ago I was reading the Duct Tapes column in CycleWorld magazine and the writer Ed Hertfelder dropped that vulgar old joke. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The next month he was gone, with no explanation. A year later the column reappeared and he published an apology. It seems he considered himself a poor writer in need of editing. So in every column he included one unprintable paragraph to make sure that his editor looked it over well and EDITED him. Well, his editor took a vacation and the column was printed verbatim. The phone lines at the publisher must have melted down when that hit readers’ mailboxes.

  37. 37.

    Gimlet

    DONALD TRUMP: Jeb Bush is a puppet to his donors, there’s no question about it; he’s got lobbyists, I know them, and he made statements over the last couple of days that were incredible, trying to justify the war in Iraq.

    It can’t be justified. And then he said “skin in the game.” I don’t know if you saw his recent statement. The U.S. has to prove to Iraq that we have “skin in the game.”

    We spent $2 trillion, thousands of lives lost, wounded warriors all over the place, and he said we have to prove that we have skin in the game. I think it may be one of the dumbest statements I’ve ever heard.

    “Skin in the game?”

    We don’t have to prove anything. First of all, the Iraqi leaders are a bunch of crooks. If there even is an Iraq, which I don’t think there is. Iran is taking over Iraq. It was one of the dumbest things ever. And I think what happened, because I understand psychology, I think his brother said ‘you’re killing me.’

    That was his war, and he looks very bad, so Jeb Bush tried to push back

  38. 38.

    cahuenga

    Both Trump and Clinton fizzled here in Des Moines IMHO. Posing while waving a porkchop in a market tested fashion while saying nothing

    Bernie on the other hand…

  39. 39.

    Thoughtful Today

    LOL @

    schrodinger’s cat says:

    “Ezra Klein is aiming to be Broder Jr. …”

    Amen. ‘Both Side’r’ism’ Broder’ism’ is definitely part of Ezra’s schtick.

    Nonetheless, his point about Trump is worth noting: If you take two, opposite extreme positions and average them out, you get a ‘moderate centrist’.

  41. 41.

    Mike in NC

    In ’08 McCain wanted a helo, but had to settle for a bus given his track record of destroying government property.

  43. 43.

    Kay

    @Gimlet:

    Do you think there’s something to it, though? They don;t really want to cut SS and Medicare but they can’t be Democrats so they can be Trumpsters. It’s like all of the belligerence with none of the personal risk and possible downside. His big issue, immigration, has little or no chance of harming them directly.

  44. 44.

    Bill Murray

    @Mike in NC:

    In ’08 McCain wanted a helo, but had to settle for a bus given his track record of destroying government property.

    and things that fly

  46. 46.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @raven: How about a dud with more guts than brains? I am pathologically afraid of choppers. Sadly encouraged by my old man, who advised me never to get on one unless there was . no. other . choice. The first time I heard one as a kid I hit the dirt. He found that odd, but didn’t say it was a dumb move!

    Did you ever find out if your buddy knew David Foster Wallace at Illinois or if you ran across him when he was a junior tennis whiz?

  47. 47.

    Gimlet

    @Kay: I think he’s just spouting off. If he gets a few primary wins or near wins, I think his positions will be more clearly defined. And it may not be what he’s saying now. I think there will be even more revisions if he really gets to the big dance.

  49. 49.

    Kay

    @Gimlet:

    I just think Trump is not a conservative so Republicans have to explain this. Their base loves entitlement programs and Big Government but they hate Democrats – explains it.

    I really just follow Walker’s polls because I can’t wait until he loses. I hold a grudge :)

    He’s at 6 and hopefully falling fast ! I’ll keep you-all posted. I insist on a dropping-out press conference. I’d like the WI statehouse in the background, please.

  51. 51.

    Peale

    @Kay: I do. I mean it’s tough to think of anything easier than to pick on Mexican immigrants and unpopular trade deals. So the users of visas have to pay more. But the people who that affects aren’t voters. Instead of blaming the industries who use those visas, they blame the holders who can’t do much about their visa status, but it keeps the blame off industry so it’s in line with Republican ideology. Remittance rules are different though. I think that’s going to generate a lot of problems. It sounds like the plan is to confiscate money that isn’t tied to a w-2. What could possibly go wrong with that? But again, if you’re not sending money abroad, what is it too you if western union might help the government steal your money if you can’t prove how it was earned.

  53. 53.

    Amir Khalid

    @Gimlet:
    Is it meaningful to call the Donald a “moderate” if, as I suspect, he hasn’t really thought through his policy proposals? What he’s said so far about policy suggests little if any understanding of the process of making policy or law. I think he’s just making shit up as he goes along. His proposals are often absurd (making Mexico build, and pay for, a border wall), illegal (re-invading Iraq and seizing its oil) or unconstitutional (abolishing birthright citizenship).

  55. 55.

    different-church-lady

    @Gimlet:

    Trump’s helicopter arrival was particularly effective when his advance man cranked up “The Ride of the Valkyries” as it appeared at the fair.

    Someday this war campaign’s gonna end.

  57. 57.

    rikyrah

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    @Gimlet: I wonder if that was written– by either Barro or Klein– before Trump put out his position paper on immigration, which was greeted thusly by a person who was once brought on TV to be Very Serious Person on a Very Serious Sunday Show (ABC– for all I know she still appears on it)

    Ann Coulter ‏@ AnnCoulter 5h5 hours ago
    I don’t care if @ realDonaldTrump wants to perform abortions in White House after this immigration policy paper.

    Jeb went on Univision and pretty much said a variation of what Trump said, except for he said it in Spanish.

  59. 59.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @raven: That’s so totally cool. Do you still have my email, and would your buddy be willing to share any impressions? I did apologize (I think) for my typo; if not – I’m sorry I can’t type.

    I wondered why I hadn’t read a Tommy comment recently. he’s gone? Is he old enough to have played against DFW (who’d have been 53 this year)?

  64. 64.

    feebog

    @Gimlet:

    Juts like the chrome on a trailer hitch!

    Link?

    Willie Nelson line in Electric Horseman. Look it up for yourself.

  65. 65.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Omnes Omnibus: That’s kinda sad. I had my issues, of course, but I knew they were my issues, since he was just being Tommy. I may not always have made that clear.

  67. 67.

    Keith G

    @Amir Khalid:

    Is it meaningful to call the Donald a “moderate” if, as I suspect, he hasn’t really thought through his policy proposals?

    Another way to look at it is, what are Trumps conservative policies?

    Actually, I can ask that in all honesty because other than his abhorrent tirades about (illegal immigration from) Mexico I have not paid much attention to anything he has said.

    His main policy seems to be to continue on as an arrogant blowhard – a blowhard who has in the past supported many things highly discordant with the GOP liturgy of the present and recent history.

  68. 68.

    sigaba

    @schrodinger’s cat: I get the feeling that Klein allowed himself to be too closely identified with Obama policy, so he’s constantly under pressure to show he can be critical. He broadly agrees with Obama policy so it constantly leaves him writing articles that basically argue that “2+2 = 4 if you’re a liberal, but liberals have to reach out to people who may disagree.”

    Also when something he supports isn’t perfect, like the Obamacare website, he has to get ahead of it by throwing bombs at the implementation — the idea he flogged for two years is perfect, and now those twits I voted for are screwing it up. This is a universal pundit tick, everyone from Freidman to Brooks has a Microsoft Word macro that can spit out a column defending their ideal position while flicking spitballs at the people trying to make it happen, mixing and remixing various permutations of “lacks the will,” “has failed to explain to the American people,” and “but can they follow through?”

  79. 79.

    David Koch

    Dougie, you coulda gone with

    Get to the choppa (1)

    Get to the choppa (2)

    it’s a timeless horror film. and Trump’s campaign is timeless horror… the horror.

  80. 80.

    Thoughtful Today

    Amir Khalid says, re: Trump:

    “I think [Trump is] just making shit up as he goes along.”

    Erm …

    Polls suggest Trump is a savant, especially if you’ve been listening to the ‘informed’ punditocracy dismiss him.

    I dismissed him as a “clown” myself without thinking through how much of the country loves a flamboyant actor.

  81. 81.

    bystander

    I went on ABC News facebook page yesterday to mock Martha Raddatz. I generally dislike her and think her much vaunted reporting is generally shallow. She always seems like just a microphone for various military spokespeople. But the past few days about Trump’s helicopter have been unbearable. She didn’t dare uncross her legs while thrilling to Trump’s helicopter.

    Once I learned that Sally Quinn hates Raddatz’ guts, I figured there was something worthwhile about Raddatz. Now I’m pretty sure there is not.

  82. 82.

    brantl

    If it weren’t for the kids, I was thinking were is the ubiquitous helicopter crash, when you need one?

  83. 83.

    Hurling Dervish

    What’s up with Trump’s slogan, Make America Great Again? How come conservatives aren’t all over for him for not saying the USA is the greatest nation ever?

  86. 86.

    David Koch

    @bystander:

    Once I learned that Sally Quinn hates Raddatz’ guts, I figured there was something worthwhile about Raddatz.

    Sorry to tell you, and it shouldn’t surprise you, but Quinn’s hatred is over something superficial. Raddatz was once married to Ben Bradlee’s son. Quinn hates that Raddatz dumped her step-son.

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