Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

T R E 4 5 O N

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

You cannot shame the shameless.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL.

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

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Post Debate Reaction

Post Debate Reaction

by | 163 Comments

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That was awful. A visual summation:

lag

Several thoughts I shared elsewhere:

1.) You know how sometimes in a city you see someone disheveled and crazy looking walking along talking to themselves? I think Ben Carson is having the other half of the conversation with them.

2.) I have a secret fantasy that at the final debate, when prompted for his closing remarks, Donald Trump will look directly into the camera and blurt out “The Aristocrats,” drop the mic, and walk off stage.

3.) Ben Carson said this after the debate:

Yesterday, Carson figured out his campaign was little more than an elaborate fundraising grift and tonight he realized how awful the GOP debates are for everyone. It’s like we’re approaching the midway point of Flowers for Algernon.

Reader Interactions

163Comments

  2. 2.

    James E Powell

    All over the internet, I’m reading that Rubio had a strong performance, really got to Trump, came out looking strong and well along on the his path to the nomination. Okay, I only read that in three or four places.

    I didn’t see or hear it. Did Rubio really rise or is that fluffing by his partisans?

  7. 7.

    gratuitous

    Uh oh, who woke up Dr. Carson? He was napping so peacefully, and now he’s all cranky. My visual representation of the Republican debates would be a dumpster fire, but Guernica works pretty good, too.

  9. 9.

    Joyce H

    Can’t SOMEONE, either a rival candidate or a reporter, ask Trump if he never regretted cutting off his nephew’s health insurance when the fellow had a new baby with cerebral palsy?

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    Interesting to me that there was a mass shooting tonight in Kansas, Dorothy, and CNN is not even mentioning it. They’re making their money off Trump and politics.

    Mass murders used to be … news.

  12. 12.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    2.) I have a secret fantasy that at the final debate, when prompted for his closing remarks, Donald Trump will look directly into the camera and blurt out “The Aristocrats,” drop the mic, and walk off stage.

    Jeet Heer says Trump is Max Bialystok of the Producers running for President: “I said the wrong things, about the wrong policies, to the wrong people! Where did I go right?”

  15. 15.

    Elizabelle

    I’d love to see a split screen of Hill and Bill watching the GOP “debates.”

    Would be a great SNL skit.

  19. 19.

    mike in dc

    I do think the hits on Trump University et al have more resonance if they cite specific people who were hurt by something Trump did. In the abstract, not so much.
    The one unforced error of Trump is saying he’s been audited a bunch of times. Uh…what? I’m sure his few supporters in possession of multiple brain cells flinched at that.

  23. 23.

    trollhattan

    @Joyce H:
    I trust Hillary to handle that if nobody else does beforehand.

    “But I’m yuuuge with the ladies! ”
    “Uh, Donald…”

  26. 26.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @mike in dc:

    The one unforced error of Trump is saying he’s been audited a bunch of times. Uh…what? I’m sure his few supporters in possession of multiple brain cells flinched at that.

    Not at all, they know that the IRS just loves to fuck with honest businessmen.

  28. 28.

    Mnemosyne

    @Joyce H:

    Totally OT, but I finally had a chance to read “A Feather to Fly With” and really enjoyed it. Amazon seemed to indicate that there’s a sequel?

  29. 29.

    ChrisH

    I think Trump, Cruz, and Rubio have a fantastic 3 Stooges vibe going on at some points in the debate. I’d love to see some parodies of them set up like that.

  30. 30.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    @ChrisH: Yeah, but the real hangup here is that the Three Stooges were funny–and likable. However dumb the situation they got themselves into might be, and however much it might have been their own fault, you had to root for them. These three clowns? I mean, yeah, there might be more unlikable creeps slinking upon the earth somewhere, but, damn, it would be work to find any.

    @seaboogie:I always thought I could have been another Dickens–if only I could come up with stories to drop all the names I come up with into…

  33. 33.

    Suzanne

    I thought Trump ate Rubio for lunch.

    Cruz scares me most because he’s a True Believer. Rubio scares me second-most because he doesn’t truly believe in anything. Trump only scares me third-most, because he only believes in himself.

  38. 38.

    Nate Dawg

    Is anyone else concerned that Trump is possibly a full-blown psychopath and/or Narcissistic Petsonality Disorder. That he wouldn’t mind dressing up in military style…

  40. 40.

    trollhattan

    @Nate Dawg:
    He can resurrected Nixon’s palace guard uniforms for the White House staff. Now that I think of it, Gadaffi’s hawt security staff are looking for a gig.

  41. 41.

    Joyce H

    @Mnemosyne:

    Totally OT, but I finally had a chance to read “A Feather to Fly With” and really enjoyed it. Amazon seemed to indicate that there’s a sequel?

    Yes, indeed! Three sequels to date. First is a novella, Regency Road Trip, with Miss Merryhew and the General. Then a couple more novels – Katherine, When She Smiled features Arthur’s brother Lord Charles, and finally The World’s A Stage deals with the life of Peter, the actor posing as a gentleman. And I’m currently working on A Town And Country Season – twins! Impersonations!

  43. 43.

    Elizabelle

    CNN rebroadcasting the debate in a few minutes. Might have to watch the Rubio attack on Trump.

    Didn’t seem they were beating up on Obama as much as in earlier debates. That’s why I don’t like watching the GOP bloviate; it’s such an alternative universe…. only listened to about 20 minutes on original broadcast.

    It was enough.

  44. 44.

    Anne Laurie

    @James E Powell:

    Did Rubio really rise or is that fluffing by his partisans?

    At this point, every Very Serious Person is a Rubio ‘partisan’. What other choice to do they have?

    (… “and leave show business?”)

  47. 47.

    Redshift

    @Suzanne: Personally, I don’t think Cruz believes in anything but power. If being a Talibangelical wasn’t working for him, I think he’d be just as much a true believer in something different. I don’t have any proof, but I think he’s just another psychopath.

  48. 48.

    Elizabelle

    CNN voiceover, in best sportscaster fashion: “It’s an epic battle for the soul of the Republican party.”

    Uh, CNN, may we have a word?

  49. 49.

    SFAW

    @James E Powell:

    Did Rubio really rise or is that fluffing by his partisans?

    The always-impartial MSM is saying “Marco finished in the Top Five tonight, so that’s a win!”

  50. 50.

    seaboogie

    @Nate Dawg:

    Is anyone else concerned that Trump is possibly a full-blown psychopath and/or Narcissistic Petsonality Disorder.

    Yeah – pretty sure we are all aware of that, possibly even including the MSM. Also one more reason why I want Hillary to get the nom – these would be some interesting debates. As my former therapist (from England) mentioned, America really loves a narcissist. Also, said therapist closely resembles my mother, who is a narcissist. There was plenty to chew on there. All Hillary and her oppo researchers have to do is find the source of his shame, if they can – that’s what fuels this particular personality disorder.

  51. 51.

    Mary G

    It seems that the Village has decided that Marcobot is the winner, but I didn’t think so. He was talking a mile a minute and when he was attacking Trump all I could see is the little yappy dog that circles the big dog barking furiously, but is too scared to actually get into a fight.

  52. 52.

    MomSense

    I fell sound asleep before the debate started and woke up after it ended. Yay me? Or did I miss the best one yet? Seems like Rubio had to take on Trump tonight but I have a feeling he wasn’t quite up to the task. Did he look like he had a run in with a super soaker?

  54. 54.

    Elizabelle

    @MomSense: CNN is rebroadcasting it this very moment. All is not lost!

    National Anthem being twanged now. And we saw GHWBush, looking kind of animatronic.

    ETA: Grab the red wine!

  57. 57.

    Mnemosyne

    @Elizabelle:

    It’s about the guy who sweeps up after the elephants, and his response when someone asks him if he thinks he should get a better job.

  59. 59.

    rook to queen's 8

    @Nate Dawg @Suzanne: My take (and I believe that these are not all original to me, but I neglected to remember where I first saw them) is that:

    * Trump is a Mussulini personality – he wants to be supreme leader, and his followers are prone to be violently dangerous in supporting him.

    * Cruz is a Torquemada wanna be – he’d love to be the Grand Inquisitor and “purify” the country of the heathens, removing the “bogus” separation between Church and State.

    * Rubio is a King John of England (more famous as Prince John in the Robin Hood stories, but I’m referring to his later reign after his brother Richard died) – trying to punch above his weight and likely to cause great harm to his country due to misplaced overconfidence. At least we got the Magna Carta out of John’s fiascos, but England was just lucky that he didn’t screw up worse.

    Personally, I rate my nighmares as Cruz being worst, then Trump being horrible, then Rubio being awful. I fear the consequences of any of them becoming President.

  60. 60.

    Chris T.

    @Elizabelle: Mass murders are now too commonplace and boring, like traffic incidents. I expect some news orgs to soon say “and on the lighter side, there were only 47 mass murders today”, etc.

  62. 62.

    Elizabelle

    Trump railing against Mitt Romney.

    Teach him to lecture about tax returns, eh?

    @MomSense: Best not to use too much energy, or brain cells, on these weasels.

  65. 65.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @rook to queen’s 8:

    At least we got the Magna Carta out of John’s fiascos, but England was just lucky that he didn’t screw up worse.

    You have noticed there’s never been a King John II? The royal family is still a bit piss off by that whole Magna Carta thing.

  69. 69.

    rook to queen's 8

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    You have noticed there’s never been a King John II?

    Indeed. Quite the unpopular fella. As another [citation needed] observation made: history can forgive a little genocide here, a little incest there, but royal (pun intended) incompetence is simply unforgivable.

  72. 72.

    Marc

    @Elizabelle:

    CNN voiceover, in best sportscaster fashion: “It’s an epic battle for the soul of the Republican party.”

    Uh, CNN, may we have a word?

    That sucker was sacrificed on an altar loooong ago…

  74. 74.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @fuckwit: True, George I and I believe George II didn’t speak English. However, the fact remains, they won’t name a male child John.

  75. 75.

    Calouste

    @BillinGlendaleCA: There’s also the expectation that Prince Charles won’t go for Charles III should he finally succeed his mother, considering Charles I was beheaded and Charles II became a Catholic. Edward VIII was probably also the last one.

  76. 76.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @MomSense: She went public with her diagnosis yesterday and said the prognosis was good. While I may disagree with Sen. McCaskill on many issues, she’s from a red state and is one hell of a politician. I wish her the best.

  77. 77.

    Elizabelle

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah. I hope they caught McCaskill’s cancer early enough, and that it’s not an ambitious one.

    She may very well have a bright prognosis, with good treatment.

  78. 78.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Calouste: I don’t know that being Catholic would be that great a problem being that all kings prior to Henry VIII were Catholic. King Charles III wouldn’t be that much a problem; King Oliver, I don’t think we’ll see.

    ETA: Charles has like 4 or 5 middle names, so I guess he could choose one of them.

  81. 81.

    mclaren

    @Elizabelle:

    Interesting to me that there was a mass shooting tonight in Kansas, Dorothy, and CNN is not even mentioning it.

    There’s a mass shooting every week in America now, Elizabelle. This is not news anymore.

  84. 84.

    mclaren

    New T-shirt idea:

    I SURVIVED THE LATEST REPUBLICAN DEBATE
    AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY BRAIN ANEURYSM

  85. 85.

    Calouste

    @fuckwit: They are actually related. George I’s mother, Sophia, was the granddaughter of James I, who was the great-grandson of Henry VII, who was the greatx3 grandson of Edward III, who was the great-great-grandson of John.

  87. 87.

    Temporarily Max McGee (Soon Enough to Be Andy K Again)

    “1.) You know how sometimes in a city you see someone disheveled and crazy looking walking along talking to themselves? I think Ben Carson is having the other half of the conversation with them.”

    Shame! Stealing from Dana Gould!

  88. 88.

    MomSense

    @BillinGlendaleCA:
    It is tough just being a liberal person in a red state let alone getting elected to state wide office.

    @efgoldman:

    It is striking how disconnected Republicans are. I’m sure R Senstors will genuinely wish her well and not consider how they work to deny access to medical care for their own constituents.

  89. 89.

    Elizabelle

    @mclaren: Truly.

    They just got to Obamacare. TV is off. None of these fools have any sentient ideas on improving it. F*ck Rubio and his taxpayer funded healthcare. Cretin.

  93. 93.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    The local news just aired a investigative report, they film Pr0n in Pr0n Valley. Shocking, I know.

  95. 95.

    sm*t cl*de

    Yesterday, Carson figured out his campaign was little more than an elaborate fundraising grift and tonight he realized how awful the GOP debates are for everyone.

    A window of lucidity. They do not last.

  96. 96.

    Marc

    I saw the clip “Springtime For Hitler” posted elsewhere about the rise of tRump, and we’ve been mining “Blazing Saddles” ever since President Obama was elected. Mel Brooks was on to something…

  97. 97.

    mclaren

    So when are GOP voters gonna figure out their entire party is nothing but an elaborate fundraising grift…?

  98. 98.

    Origuy

    @fuckwit:

    No relation at all to John.

    Actually, QEII is a direct descendant of John, her 18th great-grandfather.. Here’s the line back to WIlliam the Conqueror George I, the German, was the great-grandson of James Stuart, First of England and Sixth of Scotland. He was a decendant of Edward IV, skipping all the Tudors. Then the line skips all the Yorks and Lancasters, back to Edward III. From there it’s a straight shot back to the Norman Bastard.

  99. 99.

    Aleta

    The media seems to think that competitive insult responsiveness is what we’re looking for in a president.

  100. 100.

    andy

    This is only tangentially on topic but it’s pretty hilarious:

    On a conference call with analysts on Thursday morning, Sturm Ruger Chief Executive Officer Michael Fifer looked beyond the current vacancy to future potential openings should any of the remaining eight justices leave the court.

    “I think we’ll see a step up in demand if a Democrat wins the election, particularly so if they win the Senate,” Fifer said.

    “Despite whether President Obama is successful in appointing a Supreme Court justice, it’s more than likely, based on age and health, that the next president will get several opportunities, and that could drive concerns about gun rights,” Fifer said.

    …

    Over the past five years, Sturm Ruger’s stock has more than tripled, dwarfing the S&P 500’s 45 percent increase.

    Those returns lave led portfolio managers to make gun-related stocks major holdings in mutual funds.

    “The firearms industry enjoys a sweet spot with the American consumer, and we believe shares of (Sturm Ruger) should be bought,” Dougherty & Company analyst Andrea James wrote in a research note following Sturm Ruger’s report.

    What’s a “conservative” to do?

  101. 101.

    Aleta

    @Origuy: Is it thought that sometimes when no son was born, a king might have secretly obtained one from outside the lineage, just to stay in power ?

  102. 102.

    Aleta

    I keep thinking that it might be easier to give up and offer Trump a pretend kingship distinct from the 3 branches that would continue on. He would enjoy it more than a presidency, the country would be spared, and it would be over in 15 years at the most.

  103. 103.

    Origuy

    @Aleta: That sort of rumor swirled around a lot of royal families, but I can’t place one about the English line. The closest would be the suspicion that Edward IV was not actually the son of Henry VI, who had bouts of mental instability. In fact, he had a breakdown before his son was born and was unresponsive for more than a year. In that case, it would have been the queen and the principle advisers who kept the secret.

  104. 104.

    benw

    @Aleta: won’t King Trump demand that it be a hereditary position so that he can pass it on to his children? I’m not sure I want a Trump royal family! Does Trump know how to do the little wrist wave thing?

    Besides, isn’t a figurehead king/queen what the British royal family has evolved into? Why did our founding fathers bleed the blood of liberty to throw off English oppression if after 250 years we go right back to the same system the British have? :)

  105. 105.

    Zinsky

    The wife and I went out for dinner in Minneapolis with some dear old friends and had a wonderful Italian meal and had great, quiet, educated thoughtful conversation about the arts, music and philosophy. Then, we got home about 9:30 and I thought I would turn on the GOP debate. My God what an ignorant clusterfuck! Everyone yelling at each other and talking over one another, calling each other liars and worse. Trump smugly mugging and looking straight ahead, like the 8th grade bully. I really, seriously don’t understand how intelligent, thoughtful Republicans (there has to be a few) can’t be just absolutely ashamed of what a disastrous joke their party has become. I turned it off after 10 minutes and thanked God that I am a liberal and a Democrat.

  106. 106.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    You know how sometimes in a city you see someone disheveled and crazy looking walking along talking to themselves?

    It’s funny because if you live in a big city these days, I notice that the long-standing instinctive reaction when seeing a person doing that, “Okay, crazy person, better give a wide berth” or whatever yours may be, is being rendered obsolete because it’s usually followed now by realizing that it’s just someone on the phone wearing ear buds or a mini earpiece of some sort.

    I’m not saying that Ben Carson isn’t who’s on the other end of the line of course, I’m just saying.

  107. 107.

    Ecks

    @benw: Because they might be a bastard, but they’re OUR bastard.

    (and the US revolution was arguably more about what happened with tax money, and the political philosophy stuff was just nice clothes to make it look a bit more noble)

    (also too, the current UK monarchy situation is actually marginally complicated. As someone put it: “The queen has total absolute power, on the single condition that she never use it.” In theory it’s a backstop against fascism. Hitler had to remove the German royal family, because they could have stopped him. If England (or Canada or Australia, etc) did elect a flat-out murderous government, the Queen is the commander in chief of the armed forces, parliament sits at her pleasure, and bills are only passed into law by receiving royal consent (normally a rubber stamp). So she would actually have the power to stop a government. If she used it, the laws would probably be changed in a hurry though so that she wouldn’t ever get to do it again. And yes, the army does actually take seriously that the Queen is technically where their loyalty lies – it’s baked into their culture.)

    Just FYI.

  108. 108.

    Comrade Nimrod Humperdink

    I have never been able to reconcile the content of Ben Carson’s utterances with his delivery. If you read the transcript it’s like Glenn Beck on a bender. But when you listen to it it’s like hearing a crazed battle cry delivered through a NyQuil filter.

  109. 109.

    Baud

    @Ecks:

    “The queen has total absolute power, on the single condition that she never use it.”

    Yet when God follows those rules, people argue that he doesn’t exist.

  110. 110.

    Michael Bersin

    @rook to queen’s 8: All this sound and fury is just about the figurehead. In any case the functionaries will be the same – the usual government can’t work incompetents and those with agendas and knives they want to bloody.

    If any of them win John Bolton becomes Secretary of State That’s what frightens me and gives me nightmares.

  111. 111.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    @Aleta:
    I’m not sure there was a lot of ‘secret’ to the deal. A left-to-right stripe in heraldry is called a ‘bastard stripe’ and indicates you were born out of wedlock. The rest of the symbol indicated who your father was and these only went to noblemen.

  112. 112.

    moderateindy

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): My favorite dog was 3/4 Chocolate Lab 1/4 Chow, and was named by a 5 year old who said we should call her River Water. When asked why he responded because she looks brown and dirty just like a river. His family spent time the week before near the Mississippi.

    Rubio scares me the most as a President, because after his whole glitch at the one debate reports came out fron his friends that such behavior was not uncommon. That he will freak out, and focus on something often trivial to the exclusion of everything else. It really sounds like he has panic attacks. Beyond his crap policies I really don’t want a pres that regularly freaks out.
    Trump basically has very few core beliefs other than he is the best at everything ever. I see him basically being a windsock. He doesn’t scare me as much as I am embarrassed by the fact that our country might actually have him as a nominee.

  113. 113.

    Amir Khalid

    @Ecks:
    Huh? The German Empire was abolished in 1918, years before Adolf Hitler got anywhere near the levers of power in that country. It wasn’t he who removed the Emperor.

  114. 114.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    Someone posted a clip of Robotio getting a zinger ob tRump and the crowd going wild . . . for waaaayyy too long. Anyone know if the GOP staked the crowd like they did at the last debate?

  116. 116.

    Sherparick

    Judy Collins said all that is necessary to be said those many years ago:

    “Don’t you love farce?
    My fault, I fear.
    I thought that you’d want what I want…
    Sorry, my dear!
    And where are the clowns
    Send in the clowns
    Don’t bother, they’re here.”

  117. 117.

    Ecks

    @Baud: Indeed. The better analogy might be with nuclear weapons and MAD. They both have a whole lot of one-time-use-only power, that is nearly entirely irrelevant to daily life.

  119. 119.

    Ecks

    @Amir Khalid: You’re right. I misspoke. There were some movements in Bavaria to fire up the monarchy again as a way to block the Nazi’s, and one of the first things the Nazi’s did when elected in 1933 was to ban all the monarchist organisations.

  121. 121.

    Germy

    Popehat ‎@Popehat on twitter:

    “Cutting from Trump v. Rubio to Kasich is like the hot water suddenly going out during shower sex”

  125. 125.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Calouste: Word on the street, yo! is that Charlie will take the surname “George” on his accession to the Monarchy (assuming he lives that long). He is widely reported to admire his grandfather George V who was King during the war.

  128. 128.

    Ohio Mom

    Johns Hopkins: the hospital that brought us
    The mistreatment of Henrietta Lacks,
    That lung doctor who misdiagnosed on purpose all those black lung patients so they couldn’t get financial restitution,
    And Ben Carson.

    Hmm….

  130. 130.

    PaulW

    @mclaren:

    So when are GOP voters gonna figure out their entire party is nothing but an elaborate fundraising grift…?

    Never. That’s the beauty of partisan politics. The suckers will never admit it because their faith and their hate compels them to the same bad decisions.

  132. 132.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ecks: What this vaguely reminds me of is the end of Francoism in Spain, only that was stranger, since Franco had actually taken over from a short-lived republic, and Juan Carlos walked right into absolute monarchy on the strength of the far right’s monarchist sentiment. He had apparently played this long game in which he pretended to be a worthy successor to a quasi-fascist dictator, then he immediately turned Spain into a democratic constitutional monarchy once he had the power.

  133. 133.

    Sherparick

    @Origuy: Well the Tudors were also descendants, through the female line, both through Henry VII’s marriage to Elizabeth of York, the surviving daughter of Edward IV and legitimize Beaufort descendants of John of Gaunt (“Time Honored Lancaster”), the third son of Edward III. As the current reign of Elizabeth II demonstrates, the English Monarchy has never had problem with descent going through the female line if the there was no legitimate male heir (which was how the Plantagenets got the crown in the first place, Henry II’s mother being Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I and granddaughter of William the Conqueror, who was the direct descendant of the Viking Rollo, besieger of Paris and first Duke of Normandy (Vikings rule – frankly, if asked to choose between Trump and Ragnar Lothbrok, I would take Ragnar any day.)

  135. 135.

    Princess

    @seaboogie: The source of his shame has got to be his incredibly small and ineffectual pen!$. It explains the irrational anxiety over the size of his hands, his penchant for “erecting” tall skyscrapers that thrust into the sky with his name emblazoned on them, etc. etc.

  137. 137.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Nate Dawg: Check out Altmeyer’s The Authoritarians. Trump is a social dominator by the Altmeyers’ definition. Being a social dominator (or “would-be social dominator”) doesn’t mean you have a personality disorder, but it helps.

    Interestingly, the North American social dominator group expressed vile racist beliefs in private, and seemed to think that everyone thought that way.

  139. 139.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Calouste: Assuming nobody had a child by the wrong parent, and some historians think that’s exactly what happened during the Middle Ages.

    Oops.

  140. 140.

    Another Holocene Human

    @benw:

    Besides, isn’t a figurehead king/queen what the British royal family has evolved into? Why did our founding fathers bleed the blood of liberty to throw off English oppression if after 250 years we go right back to the same system the British have? :)

    An awfully good question.

    Another good question, if America broke away because of the senseless and unfair drawing of Parliament districts (right? that’s what the ‘no taxation’ fight was about), and Britain went ahead and reformed theirs by the end of the 19th century after a lot of drama, why can’t we fix ours for fuck’s sake?? And why doesn’t DC get a US Rep?!?

  142. 142.

    J.D. Rhoades

    @Elizabelle:

    “Mass murders used to be … news.”

    A couple of months after Sandy Hook failed to generate enough outrage to even get expanded background checks enacted, I predicted this: that we’d have so many mass shootings that they wouldn’t be news any more.

  144. 144.

    SRW1

    @Another Holocene Human

    You remember correctly. In March 1918 His Imperial Highness, Wilhelm II, had moved his Imperial Headquarter to Spa in Belgium. When the discussion of whether he should seek an honorable death at the front heated up at the end of October, the coward ended it by withdrawing form Berlin to Spa. His generous offer to resign from the Imperial throne while remaining King of Prussia arrived in Berlin after the then chancellor had already announced Wilhelm’s abdication from both in a desperate attempt to get the situation in Berlin under control. So, his brave Majesty made his way to the Dutch border and appealed for asylum in Holland.

  145. 145.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Another Holocene Human: Districting reform is starting to happen on a state-by-state basis, though people have been pushing back with court cases (without much success). I expect more of this.

    Any real constitutional change is up against the problem that just under half of the US genuinely is very reactionary, they’re more passionate about it than the anti-reactionaries, and it’s enough for them to have effective veto power. Going by the rulebook, even modifications proposed in a constitutional convention would have to be ratified like regular amendments, so the only way for things to seriously change would be a situation like 1787 where nobody even cares about following the old Constitution any more. And given the interested parties involved, we’d be more likely to end up with the Republic of Gilead than anything good.

  146. 146.

    danielx

    Another episode of The Trump Show, in which everybody else is a chump for Donald. In the show biz context, the final episode of this particular reality show will be the Republican National Convention, at which (you heard it here first) Trump will at some point indulge himself and blurt out “you’re all fired!” to the rest of the klown kar occupants, then point to the media gallery and scream “and so are all of you!”. The crowd will go insane and carry Donald out of the hall to a waiting white horse.

    Cue the Silvio Berlusconi Express.

  147. 147.

    NickM

    @rook to queen’s 8: IANAP but pretty clearly, Trump has Narcissistic Personality Disorder or somewhere close to it on that spectrum. He is empathy-deficient, but I don’t think he utterly lacks it.

    I think everyone who listens to him hates Cruz because there’s a protective instinct we have against people like him. It can’t even be articulated clearly, but he strikes people who aren’t besotted with his twisted ideology as dangerous. This meme about him being the Zodiac Killer is really just making a joke out of the feeling we get from seeing him in action; there is virtually nothing sadistic and bizarre that you could tell me he is into that would surprise me because he gives off such a weird vibe.

    Rubio is just a lightweight twit who’s willing to step on anyone to get what he wants. In a way, he worries me the least.

    It’s interesting that the Republican party, which appears to be built on not giving a shit about anyone else (as well as orthodox “Christianity”) is elevating people with obvious personality disorders to their leadership ranks. They are twisted fucks, for sure, and we all are going to have to deal with it.

  148. 148.

    Dan Garfinkel

    Thanks, John. Most succinct and insightful analysis of the poo flinging I’ve read anywhere. Kudos.

  149. 149.

    Shell

    I have a secret fantasy that at the final debate,

    Theres gonna be ANOTHER debate? Why does God hate us so?

    Could only watch a few minutes of that clusterfuck last night, but caught the section where Rubio was going on about his hiring Polish workers. Like Trumps rabid base gives a shit about his using illegal workers. They’ll probably say it was a shrewd business move.

  151. 151.

    Paul in KY

    @BillinGlendaleCA: He was considered a failure by his Plantagenet descendents and after they were overthrown, the following dynasties didn’t care for any association with his benighted reign.

    King John was known for his cruelty. Not to level of Ramsey Bolton, but along that plane.

  153. 153.

    Paul in KY

    @Origuy: Edward IV was not closely related to Henry VI. Henry did have a child named Edward. He was executed at age 17 (by Edward IV) after a battle in the Wars of the Roses.

  154. 154.

    Paul in KY

    @Sherparick: That Rollo guy was supposedly so large that he couldn’t ride a normal horse, as it couldn’t hold him when he had all his armor on.

  155. 155.

    Paul in KY

    @Another Holocene Human: When Edward IV upped and married a nobody scion of a Lancaster, it completely sent the rest of his family around the bend. His mother actually testified that Edward IV was the result of an adulterous relationship to try & get him & his wife & her family out of the picture.

  157. 157.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Another Holocene Human:

    if America broke away because of the senseless and unfair drawing of Parliament districts (right? that’s what the ‘no taxation’ fight was about), and Britain went ahead and reformed theirs by the end of the 19th century after a lot of drama, why can’t we fix ours for fuck’s sake??

    Well, it was a wee bit more complicated than that. (I had a nice conversation at Independence Hall some years back with a NPS ranger about how the Whig ideas for representation weren’t sustainable, simply because the British American colonies had grown used to the autonomy required to function at an ocean’s distance. Steam ships and telegrams made it easier to manage things a century later in Canada.)

    But the problem that the US faces is that it made itself a constitution that was shiny and innovative in the 1790s and got stuck with it, whereas Britain has never been so massively attached to anything constitutional that it can’t be changed.

  159. 159.

    'Niques (frequent visitor; occasional commenter)

    @Joyce H: Thank you so much for the lineup . . . I just purchased “A Feather To Fly With” after sampling a taste, and have made a note (in chronological order) of the others for future reading. I feel I know you personally from your comments on Balloon-Juice, so am really excited about your novels!

  160. 160.

    Robert Sneddon

    @pseudonymous in nc:

    But the problem that the US faces is that it made itself a constitution that was shiny and innovative in the 1790s and got stuck with it, whereas Britain has never been so massively attached to anything constitutional that it can’t be changed.

    Britain doesn’t have a Constitution per se, it has a thousand years of hoary traditions and it-seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time decisions flying in close formation. Nothing is ruled in and nothing is ruled out. The monarchy know this and remember Charles 1’s fate. As does Parliament.

  161. 161.

    NCSteve

    Its too late to say this, but kudos are due. This is a witty blog with witty commenters and I often chuckle and lol. But it’s been a long time since I broke out in a fit of giggles that had me covering trying to stifle office-disrupting guffaws over something I saw on a blog not specifically devoted to humor, like Jenny Lawson’s.

    Then I saw the first line of this post and the illustration. And now I’m doing it again . . .

    I won’t thank you for the laugh, sir, because it’s not the kind of laugh you thank someone for. But laughing, I am.

  162. 162.

    mclaren

    @NickM:

    It’s interesting that the Republican party, which appears to be built on not giving a shit about anyone else (as well as orthodox “Christianity”) is elevating people with obvious personality disorders to their leadership ranks.

    That’s been gong on for a loooooooooooooong time.

    Richard Nixon?

    Ronald Reagan?

    George W. Bush?

    Diagnosable mental problems in every case, clinically pathological. Fabulation, narcissism, manipulativeness, lack of empathy…the whole Hare sociopathy checklist.

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