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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Late Night Open Thread: Vulgarian Whale

Late Night Open Thread: Vulgarian Whale

by Anne Laurie|  March 15, 20161:12 am| 63 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Republicans in Disarray!

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"Trump Has Tiny Hands PAC" has changed its name. pic.twitter.com/UmlFF6RQrn

— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) March 14, 2016

moby trump sheneman

(Drew Sheneman via GoComics.com)
.

Trump has boasted about the people he has brought into the Party. The people he brought in are going to wreck the party & steal the keg.

— Donna Brazile (@donnabrazile) March 13, 2016

Wonder if Trump's recent behavior is intended to produce an implied threat that a contested convention could become violent.

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) March 13, 2016

Imagine what October is going to look like.
Imagine what the Day after the Election is going to look like.
And pray for the country.

— Wyeth Ruthven (@wyethwire) March 10, 2016

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Previous Post: « Interesting Read: “Why Team Clinton’s not sweating Trump”
Next Post: Tuesday Morning Open Thread: “Mega-Tuesday” »

Reader Interactions

63Comments

  1. 1.

    Big R

    March 15, 2016 at 1:14 am

    I am desperately hoping that my teaching assignment in the fall is NOT Introduction to American Politics, and is NOT meeting MWF. The last thing I want is to have to talk to a batch of freshmen about why Trump lost.

  2. 2.

    redshirt

    March 15, 2016 at 1:15 am

    A violence filled Republican convention is one of my secret fantasies, and look how close we are! SO CLOSE!

    1968 upside down.

  3. 3.

    Scamp Dog

    March 15, 2016 at 1:17 am

    That seems an appropriate companion to The Outlaw Jersey Whale!

  4. 4.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    March 15, 2016 at 1:18 am

    Gonna be tricky for a bunch of Republican pussies to mass sucker punch each other. Hopefully someone is working that out.

  5. 5.

    Big R

    March 15, 2016 at 1:19 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead: I believe the term for that is “Appalachian Wedding Reception.”

  6. 6.

    MomSense

    March 15, 2016 at 1:24 am

    @redshirt:

    Mad Max and the Trumpsterdome.

  7. 7.

    scav

    March 15, 2016 at 1:27 am

    They’ll just have to work out a system of gang-signs in order to recognize those of the appropriate tribe. Or maybe an elaborate code using pocket hankies.

  8. 8.

    redshirt

    March 15, 2016 at 1:29 am

    @scav: Colored face band aids.

  9. 9.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 15, 2016 at 1:31 am

    Imagine what October is going to look like.
    Imagine what the Day after the Election is going to look like.
    And pray for the country.

    I understand the concern, but any violence will be rare and small scale. Racists need to feel like they have an overwhelming advantage. They must feel absolutely free to vent their hate knowing they cannot be punished for it, and preferably that a lot of others will pile on with them. This both causes them to get bilious when they think there’s any chance they might lose that power, and it makes them too scared to be violent unless they feel the odds are heavily, heavily in their favor. So, Trump rallies are very dangerous. The spread out American landscape, not so much.

    EDIT – The big GOP convention might turn violent, because I could see an illusionary effect where everybody thinks that everybody else is on their side.

  10. 10.

    redshirt

    March 15, 2016 at 1:31 am

    @MomSense: Auntie Entity was the rightful ruler of Bartertown; the revanchist forces of Master/Blaster and the chaos of Max upended a noble attempt to reclaim civilization from the ashes of destruction.

  11. 11.

    scav

    March 15, 2016 at 1:35 am

    @redshirt: Color-blind guy nicks himself shaving, could have disastrous consequences..

  12. 12.

    Tenar Darell

    March 15, 2016 at 1:36 am

    I had recently had a horrible day-mare about what the convention floor might be like if you’re African American or Latino, and started preemptively worrying about anyone who is going to be there in a few months.

  13. 13.

    benw

    March 15, 2016 at 1:37 am

    @redshirt: remembering the characters from Beyond the Thunderdome and applying them to the current political climate? Well done!

  14. 14.

    hellslittlestangel

    March 15, 2016 at 1:37 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead: I can’t help but wish they make the convention open-carry.

  15. 15.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 15, 2016 at 1:37 am

    @redshirt:
    That… pretty much was how I interpreted it, although it’s been years.

    EDIT – @Tenar Darell:
    It is very hard to be sympathetic to anyone brown at the Republican Convention, but that is my failure. They do deserve compassion for the Hell there’s a good chance they’ll be put through.

  16. 16.

    Tenar Darell

    March 15, 2016 at 1:40 am

    @Tenar Darell: welp tried to edit & got completely bounced within the time limit. Is this a new FYWP, or the redesign?

  17. 17.

    redshirt

    March 15, 2016 at 1:41 am

    @benw: I’m something of a Mad Max scholar around these parts.

    Thunderdome is the worst because Max destroys two functioning post-apocalyptic societies. The kids seemed to be doing OK until he showed up.

  18. 18.

    Tenar Darell

    March 15, 2016 at 1:46 am

    @Frankensteinbeck: yeah, I felt the same kind of schaudenfreude before I managed to remind myself not only does no one deserve that, there’s reporters too.

  19. 19.

    Anne Laurie

    March 15, 2016 at 1:50 am

    @scav: Different colored trucker caps. Trump’s already trademarked the red MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN gimme caps. Cruz can go for Godly white, blazoned with something like TED IS THE CHOSEN ONE. And Reince Preibus’s RNC team gets the blue ones, with CAN’T WE ALL GET ALONG FOLKS?… in Comic Sans, probably.

    Great optics — a swirling panorama of red, white, and blue on the convention floor!

  20. 20.

    redshirt

    March 15, 2016 at 1:51 am

    @Anne Laurie: LOL. That’s beautiful.

  21. 21.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    March 15, 2016 at 1:52 am

    @efgoldman: Isn’t the idea of violence at a contested convention predicated on the notion that Captain Consumption will have to face off against his own kind next time?

  22. 22.

    scav

    March 15, 2016 at 1:55 am

    @Anne Laurie: Still Tricorn deficient. But those can be colorful accents, along with the stovepipe Uncle Sams for the Otherwise Aligned.

  23. 23.

    benw

    March 15, 2016 at 1:59 am

    @redshirt: you’re kidding me. I hadn’t noticed!

    I’m something of a Mad Max scholar around these parts.

    ETA: :)

  24. 24.

    redshirt

    March 15, 2016 at 2:04 am

    @benw: Yeah, my thesis was on “The changeability of personhood: A tale of two pilots” covering the pilot from The Road Warrior and the pilot from Thunderdome who were both played by the same actor yet were listed as different characters and certainly have a different arc from one another.

    What was Miller trying to say by this, do you think? That all Australian pilots are creepy MF’ers?

  25. 25.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    March 15, 2016 at 2:04 am

    I worry the Cruz supporters can’t fight. They’ll run away with that high pitched squeal laugh, deer legs all akimbo. The Romney supporters will fall on them, administering a much needed haircut and hazing. Rubio supporters will be locked into fierce argument with Jeb supporters about who jeopardized the friendship first.

    Meanwhile Trump supporters will be sucker punching anyone that turns their back on them. Except the freaky Paul Ryan goths who no one gets near.

  26. 26.

    redshirt

    March 15, 2016 at 2:05 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead: The Paul Ryan goths lift, bro. Do you even lift?

  27. 27.

    benw

    March 15, 2016 at 2:11 am

    @redshirt: Aussies are the WORST, obviously. They got the Irish criminals, while the US got the religious fanatics. Actually, I think the Aussies are doing ok!

    Are you talking about the ‘copter pilot? It’s funny, I remember him very clearly from Road Warrior, but not at all in Thunderdome. He was definitely a weirdo in Road Warrior, but didn’t he have a romance with the pretty girl? That seemed to humanize him.

  28. 28.

    mclaren

    March 15, 2016 at 2:13 am

    @redshirt:

    A violence filled Republican convention is one of my secret fantasies, and look how close we are! SO CLOSE!

    1968 upside down.

    Bingo.

    As I’ve said before, 2016 is 1968 turned inside out.

    Look for the Republican party to fracture, collapse, and spend another 30 years in the wilderness…if it even survives.

    Another parallel? The fracture of the Republican party after Teddy Roosevelt’s 1912 Bull Moore Party run that left the Democrats in control of all three branches of government for 30 years.

  29. 29.

    benw

    March 15, 2016 at 2:18 am

    @redshirt: anyway, I’ve got to hit the sack. Sorry to launch you on your area of expertise right before bailing!

  30. 30.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    March 15, 2016 at 2:20 am

    Oh and here’s a thought I had about Christie I haven’t seen printed anywhere. He’s latched onto Trump because it makes him the insider favorite for a unity candidate if Trump fails on first ballot voting. Weds the establishment with Trump.

  31. 31.

    redshirt

    March 15, 2016 at 2:25 am

    @benw: Yes, the toothy copter pilot. Who does get the Olivia Newton John fighter girl at the end, yay! Although he loses his cool snake. :(

  32. 32.

    mclaren

    March 15, 2016 at 2:27 am

    @redshirt:

    What was Miller trying to say by this, do you think?

    Miller just came across an actor he liked and stuck with him, continuity be damned. Same deal with Sergio Leone and Lee Van Cleef in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE and THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY. Totally different characters, same actors.

  33. 33.

    mclaren

    March 15, 2016 at 2:27 am

    Someone needs to put out baseball caps with pics of Trump on them and the logo

    MAKE AMERICA GRATE AGAIN

  34. 34.

    Kropadope

    March 15, 2016 at 2:32 am

    @mclaren

    Another parallel? The fracture of the Republican party after Teddy Roosevelt’s 1912 Bull Moore Party run that left the Democrats in control of all three branches of government for 30 years.

    I’m not much of a Congressional historian before the 1990s, but Coolidge? Hoover?

  35. 35.

    Yutsano

    March 15, 2016 at 2:32 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Nah. Christie was the choice of virtually no one and has too many lingering skeletons from Joisey to get much of anywhere. To be honest, if they don’t just let Trump have it they blow up almost everything and if they take it away from him his supporters go meschugnah. I’m investing in popcorn and Band-Aids now.

  36. 36.

    redshirt

    March 15, 2016 at 2:33 am

    @mclaren: Are you sure about that?

  37. 37.

    mclaren

    March 15, 2016 at 2:37 am

    @Kropadope:

    Most of the New Dealers were former Republicans who bolted the party in 1912 when the Republican party stiffed Teddy Roosevelt and forced him to run as an independent. The 1920s boom years witnessed the temporary rise of Republicans only to see the Republican brand crushed when it all collapsed.

    The analogy is the 2009 crash and the ruination of the Republican brand after the Iraq 2003 debacle and global financial meltdown, only this time the Republican party is fracturing after the big financial crash instead of before it.

  38. 38.

    GregB

    March 15, 2016 at 2:43 am

    I am old enough to remember when protesters preventing politicians finishing their town hall events by jeering and screaming was considered the height of patriotism.

  39. 39.

    mclaren

    March 15, 2016 at 2:51 am

    @GregB:

    I am old enough to remember when American politicians urging parents to kill their own children was considered the height of patriotism.

    Viz., Ronald Reagan’s infamous statement in May 1970 on the antiwar protests: “If it takes a blood bath, let’s get it over with.”

  40. 40.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    March 15, 2016 at 2:59 am

    @mclaren:

    The fracture of the Republican party after Teddy Roosevelt’s 1912 Bull Moore Party run that left the Democrats in control of all three branches of government for 30 years.

    Sure if you don’t count the years 1921-1933.

  41. 41.

    cokane

    March 15, 2016 at 3:07 am

    huh, that’s a good point by Silver, I had not been thinking about

  42. 42.

    Steeplejack

    March 15, 2016 at 3:07 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Can you shoot B&W infrared with your hot-rodded camera?

    My photographer friend who did a lot of infrared stuff worked mostly in B&W, and it was awesome. Your stuff is great too, just asking about B&W capabilities (and interest).

    Today I just accidentally found the charger for one of my cameras, which I had been looking for on and off for over a month. (Don’t use that camera often.) Have now dedicated a credenza drawer for all camera chargers, cables and software CDs, even if I swear that I will never use/need them.

    ETA: Listening to Pharoah Sanders, “Astral Traveling.” Good late-night music.

  43. 43.

    Bjacques

    March 15, 2016 at 3:27 am

    The GOP convention would be a great time for the party to show its commitment to RKBA, by allowing Open Carry.

  44. 44.

    sm*t cl*de

    March 15, 2016 at 3:31 am

    I am surprised that none of your art-historian front-pagers has linked to the North-European graphic tradition of Beached Whales with Huge Tumescence.
    http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad292/smutclyde/whales_1.gif

  45. 45.

    Amir Khalid

    March 15, 2016 at 3:34 am

    @Yutsano:
    I’m quite at a loss to work out whom the Republican party will pick if they somehow manage to keep the nomination away from the Donald. Donald is plainly unfit to be president. The strongest not-Donald left is Ted Cruz, the most unpopular man in the party. Anyone else from this cycle’s Klown Kar, (ETA:) Christie included, is doomed to end up as roadkill against Hillary. The party is simply out of choices, it seems to me.

  46. 46.

    sm*t cl*de

    March 15, 2016 at 3:38 am

    @redshirt:

    @scav: Colored face band aids.

    +1 Purple Heart.

  47. 47.

    Steeplejack

    March 15, 2016 at 3:39 am

    @sm*t cl*de:

    Eh, more of a tentacle-porn crowd here. (Image safe for work.)

  48. 48.

    PurpleGirl

    March 15, 2016 at 3:55 am

    @Big R: I was a Political Science – American Government major at NYU. My department adviser was Professor Rita Cooley. She was a fantastic teacher. She assigned textbooks and readings but her lectures were mostly based on the NY Times headlines of that day. She could talk on her feet about what was happening and the meanings, etc. Even after I graduated I’d go back to sit in on her Intro class just to hear her lecture. I’d love to hear her now.

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack

    March 15, 2016 at 4:17 am

    Dr. Lonnie Smith, “Trouble Man.”

  50. 50.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    March 15, 2016 at 4:29 am

    @Steeplejack: I can shoot B/W, I prefer color and I’m shooting using a R72 filter so I get some visible color.

  51. 51.

    Steeplejack

    March 15, 2016 at 4:35 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Okay, cool. Look forward to seeing more stuff from the “new” camera.

  52. 52.

    hkedi [Kang T.Q.]

    March 15, 2016 at 4:38 am

    @Amir Khalid: Plus undemocratic “democratic” results are supposed to happen to “those” people, not Real Americans. I don’t think their base will take that very well, even with their authoritarian mindset.

    If as 3rd/4th pick gets nominated (or even worse, somebody who never ran), I think the Republican party detonates in ways that all the Koch money in the world won’t be able to put back together.

  53. 53.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    March 15, 2016 at 4:40 am

    @Steeplejack: I’m planning of doing some walk/drives around town.

    ETA: What I did was buy a used NX300(my main camera is a NX500 so ALL my lens are compatible) and had it converted to full spectrum(had the hot mirror filter removed).

  54. 54.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    March 15, 2016 at 4:51 am

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Yeah, I got that. Been reading (belatedly), not commenting much.

    Off to bed.

  55. 55.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    March 15, 2016 at 5:03 am

    @Amir Khalid: my crackpot conspiracy theory is they give the Donald the nomination and have an establishment guy as Veep as a compromise. I was thinking Kasich originally but the Donald has started going after Kasich so somebody else. Okla Gov Mary Fallin, Gov Rick Scott,Tom Ridge etc. Get the Donald onto his helicopter. Crash the helicopter. Ride into the WH on the sympathy with the Veep.

  56. 56.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 15, 2016 at 6:50 am

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    So, Trump rallies are very dangerous. The spread out American landscape, not so much.

    I wonder how many cops nationwide are Trump supporters, and how it’ll affect the situation on Election Day?

  57. 57.

    Matt McIrvin

    March 15, 2016 at 8:33 am

    @Amir Khalid: I’ve been assuming that if they actually managed to do it, either Mitt Romney would ride in on his white horse and take over, or they’d install Kasich.

    And we think disappointed Trump fans are going to screw everything up for them in these scenarios, but if I were on Hillary’s team I’d be sweating them. A lot of people just don’t like Hillary Clinton but would vote for her over Trump or Ted Cruz. If Romney ends up as the nominee, I definitely know people who would see him as a lifeline, and vote Republican out of combined distaste for Hillary and relief that he’s not Trump.

  58. 58.

    FridayNext

    March 15, 2016 at 8:50 am

    Trump has boasted about the people he has brought into the Party. The people he brought in are going to wreck the party & steal the keg.

    I’d say the people he brought into the party are the type who bring their own cheap ass beer and put it in the cooler and then drink other people’s expensive beer while whining about lazy ass free loaders who didn’t bring any beer. Then leaves and takes the his own cheap ass beer home with him complaining if anyone drank one of his beers and convinced he is a generous person for brining beer to the party.

  59. 59.

    Cermet

    March 15, 2016 at 9:09 am

    tRump takes Florida, and a few other states and the issue is mostly decided. Zero chance the thug’s in charge allow a brokered convention that guarantee’s that a third party splinters off taking the heart of their voter base. Anyone that they would allow a brokered convention believes that also believes in unicorns.

  60. 60.

    No One You Know

    March 15, 2016 at 10:01 am

    I think there’s quite a bit of mileage to be had from banning guns from the Republican convention. It’s prima facie proof that the intent of open carry is to menace the public anywhere.

  61. 61.

    Chris

    March 15, 2016 at 10:20 am

    @benw:

    Aussies are the WORST, obviously. They got the Irish criminals, while the US got the religious fanatics. Actually, I think the Aussies are doing ok!

    Yeah, I’m pretty sure us Yanks got the short end of that stick.

  62. 62.

    Paul in KY

    March 15, 2016 at 10:34 am

    @mclaren: Hope you are right. Think you’re a tad overconfident.

  63. 63.

    Paul in KY

    March 15, 2016 at 10:35 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead: I’m sure Trump would be totally OK with that & wouldn’t try to kneecap him…

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