This morning, the Fox Friends tried to stage an intervention in the form of a softball phone interview with Combover Caligula. They lobbed grapefruit after fat, juicy pomelo over the plate, but the Trumpenführer just kept whiffing:
When the Fox Friends served up a disappointing jobs report on a silver platter and pointed out that political strategists think it’s a bad idea to keep yapping about the Scam U lawsuit (translation: for the love of sweet weeping Christ, stop making racist comments about the judge!), Hair Raid pointed out that he never talks about Scam U, and then proceeded to fill six minutes of airtime talking about Scam U.
In desperation, the Fox Friends showed a clip of a lovely young black woman who was just crowned Miss USA last night. The Vulgar Talking Yam said, “I owned Miss USA.” No, not like that, silly! He owned the pageant! He bought it for a song and sold for “a lot of money, frankly.”
Poor Douchey, Not-Gretchen and Kilbuzz. This would be a challenge for even the most highly skilled turd-polishers, and those poor dears just weren’t up to the task.
[H/T: Valued commenter Hovercraft]
Yutsano
This is why I will forever love you.
jeffreyw
No way I click on that video. Anything after seeing the look on their faces would be a let down.
chopper
at least he didn’t point at Miss USA and say “there’s my african-american!”.
MattF
“I never said that. It was the horse.”
JanieM
I think someone commented recently that anything accompanied by “Believe me” is sure to be a lie.
I’d add: never trust anything that comes out of the mouth of someone in the habit of saying “Frankly.” And funny enough, in my real life experience the word often accompanies some brag about money.
bystander
@Yutsano: Me too. Little Boots with little hands.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
I think Trump really really doesn’t want to actually be president. He has no campaign to speak of, and won’t give anyone any power to organize one. I don’t see him making it beyond the convention.
Thoroughly Pizzled
Your nickname game is on point, Betty.
Mike in NC
Good one. I’ve been using Manhattan Mussolini. Such a phony and loser. Sad!
Peale
Since this is a Trump thread and I haven’t been hanging out here so much lately, I was wondering if one of the lawyers here could answer a question I have about Trump’s strategy of insulting the judge. Can you insult a judge so much as part of your legal strategy that the judge does indeed need to recuse him or herself? If so, why not just insult every judge until you find an impeccable one?
I know he’s just trying to set up the guilty verdict as being the result of reverse racism, the only kind of racism that matters…and will probably score points from it with his side. But I was wondering if it would work if one wanted to just avoid jail time – insult judge after judge and then appeal the verdict because of your own behavior in court.
Mike in NC
@JanieM: Drumpf is like Gingrich that way; the more he runs his mouth the deeper the hole he ends up in.
Benw
Trump is the best. I mean, he’s definitely the worst, but man is he the best. Ha ha Trump.
Major Major Major Major
Their file photo for him is much too charitable. Should be more like this, or maybe this.
“Lots of firms know about class-action lawsuits. It’s disgraceful.” LOL
MattF
@Peale: See comment #102 in this BJ thread.
LAO
@Peale:
No.
But, as you noted, this is not what this is about. He’s working the ref, to safe face when he loses the suit.
Major Major Major Major
@Peale: This is the worst kind of discrimination: the kind against me!
Ramping Up
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
The “Trump will drop out any day now” fantasies continues, just have they have since July, 2015. Lol.
Trollhattan
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
If the reasonable (so risky to use reason, but whatevs) assumption is it began as a vanity campaign and then caught fire like a kid playing with matches in a clown costume warehouse, the Donald has been sprinting the entire campaign trying to grasp the reins while figuring out whether he wants the jerb. Especially considering he’s never had a jerb in any conventional sense. His jerb has always been Being Donald.
The Mussolini-size ego wants it so badly he can taste it, but there has to be a kernel of rationality buried somewhere in that syphilis-addled pate telling him it’s a very bad, yoogely unclassy thing to pursue.
Frankensteinbeck
@Peale:
Not a lawyer, but this came up several times when I was researching the hilarious travesty that is the Sovereign Citizen Movement. No, you cannot insult a judge until they recuse. Attempting to do so is a Sovereign Citizen strategy. Instead, pissing off the judge is just about the worst thing you can do in a courtroom. Trump is not in for funsies with this case.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@jeffreyw: They all look like the caterer has literally hauled in shit sandwiches, and is unwrapping them behind the camera guy. Which is kind of what happened.
catclub
@JanieM:
There is this book I read once. One guy prefaces a lot of his remarks with ‘Verily I say unto you’.
Not sure if that is related
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
Y’know, legal basic rule 101 is that you never publicly trash talk the judge in litigation which is ongoing. It never, ever goes well, which surprises some people. Plus, appellate judges are unlikely to view your later recusal motions or whines about bias with sympathy.
aimai
My god, listening to them trying to avoid saying “you attacked a federal judge” and trying to help him avoid dealing with it is like watching someone chew baby food into an even pastier mush to cram it into the mouth of a toothless old grandpa. And then watching him refuse to take the hint is like watching it dribble out again. Horrifying. Or, to take Trump’s style: “Bad!”
nonynony
@Peale:
I’m pretty sure that any judge you appealed it to would either be very angry with you or laugh at you. Or both.
Essentially this is like the militia idiots who refuse to recognize the authority of any judge. Judges don’t like those kind of shenanigans.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
@Peale:
Nope – I’ve seen it attempted a bunch of times, and it always fails. The appellate courts laugh it off.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@MattF: Aww damn. Yeah, that’s a piss-poor strategy. Don’t insult the judge. Don’t cast racial aspersions on the judge. That’s not going to end well.
Turgidson
The lack of coordinated faux-outrage over the shitty jobs report is the best evidence yet that the Trumpocalypse has knocked the mighty Wurlitzer off the rails. The jobs report was the best thing to happen to the GOP, as far as an actual substantive issue to attack Democrats with, in months, maybe a year or two. But Trump was so busy flooding the zone with indefensible stupidity that it got very little sustained attention from GOP yappers, at least in the media I’ve looked at.
The worst jobs report since the recession technically “ended” and the GOP spent the entire weekend fielding awkward questions about how their nominee hurled racist nonsense at a federal judge. Just wow.
germy shoemangler
file photo seems seriously retouched to be extra-flattering.
If Fox didn’t like him… they have … ways of altering photos. Didn’t they distort the faces of two journalists who’d been critical of them?
Kay
Attacking a federal judge based solely on ethnicity crosses a line for the Respectable Republicans.
I knew it would.
The one and only question was what they would do about it and now we have the answer- nothing. Sniveling cowards, all of ’em.
smith
@Trollhattan: I’m skeptical about the existence of that kernel. There are a large number of underinformed Americans who think the president has vastly more power to act unilaterally than he/she actually does, and the Rs have been feeding this misconception for the last 8 years. Just look at all the things they are sure Obama has done that in reality a president could never do on his own. Assuming that Trump has no more sophisticated understanding of presidential powers than the average underinformed American (an assumption already borne out in spades), he probably looks on becoming president as being equivalent to being proclaimed an emperor. That is a role he craves, thinks he deserves, and would be yoooogely successful at.
Major Major Major Major
@CONGRATULATIONS!: You shouldn’t cast aspersions on the judge’s asparagus, either.
Miss Bianca
@Yutsano: Yeah, seconded on that one. That’s up there with Vulgar Talking Yam.
Trollhattan
@efgoldman:
His braying what other Rs only whisper continues to expose what the corpse that comprises the Republican Party has become, so we have that. The…openly Trumpists I know are twisting themselves into pretzels claiming he “doesn’t really mean it” and that he’s “just doing it to get the nomination” and will pivot (on meticulously polished loafers) back for the general. Well, the nom has been sewn up for a month and he’s busy doubling-down holding a pair of 3s.
Continue killing the party, the Donald, they’ve earned this.
Betty Cracker
@Turgidson: Great point.
nonynony
@Trollhattan:
I think this assigns far more thought to The Donald than he’s shown so far this campaign (or, frankly, his entire life in the public sphere).
I think you’re right that this started as a vanity campaign, but I’m pretty sure that The Donald thinks he has his hands firmly on the reigns and is doing great. He “knows” that this all just Reality Television, and isn’t he the “King of Reality TV”? Of course he’s doing great – his ratings are YUGE!
He also has put no thought into whether he wants the job or not because he’s convinced himself that he’s going to be the Chairman of the Board of USA Inc. and will foist all of the real work of presidenting off on his Chief Operating Officer – whether that’s his Vice President or his Chief of Staff. He’ll be the guy “setting the direction” and then telling his minion to go carry it out for him. Just like every other job he’s had since his Daddy handed him a company to be “in charge” of back in the 70s.
If you think he’s put any more thought into this than “I’m Donald Trump – I’m going to be a great president because I’m great at everything” then I think you’re wrong. The man is an ego wearing a hairpiece – there’s nothing more to it than that.
FlyingToaster
I’m trying to think who in the Republican Party is in a position to stage an intervention.
Frankly, I’m not sure the Trumpenmeister will take their calls. And he burned his bridges with NBC/Universal/Comcast so that one of his old Apprentice producers can’t call him and say, “Dude, WTF‽ You’re looking bad, man. Stop that shit!”
Invest in popcorn futures, folks. And mosquito repellent, and Troll-B-Gone.
germy shoemangler
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class:
Another 19th century fable from Ambrose Bierce:
A Ghost To Most
@efgoldman:
This was Ralphing Up’s fantasy in a former (nym) life. Amazing the way he has corkscrewed around to the Trompe way of thinking.
Ramping Up
In December no doubt we’ll have people saying “President-Elect Trump won’t let himself be inaugurated! He’ll resign! He doesn’t really want it!”
Whatever helps you sleep at night, proggies.
Villago Delenda Est
His handlers must be going through cases of mad dog trying to deal with this. The guy keeps having his personal assistant retape the “kick me” placard on his ass.
Major Major Major Major
@FlyingToaster: (interrobang)
I’ll stop!
Miss Bianca
@CONGRATULATIONS!: @Trollhattan: the comments on this thread are shaping up to be priceless already. “Fire in the clown costume warehouse” and “unwrapping the shit sandwiches” are entering my personal lexicon as metaphors for colorful catastrophe. Thank you both.
smith
@Kay:
Well…maybe. At LGM today they have a fond remembrance of all the respectable Republicans who rather baldly asserted that Sotomayor could not be impartial because she’s Puerto Rican (and a woman). It’s all about the tone, you know.
Villago Delenda Est
@efgoldman: By doing so, he’s speeding the day that the GOP collapses finally into the puddle of shit they’ve been aspiring to since the days of Nixon.
nonynony
@A Ghost To Most:
He’s here to irritate people – he can say whatever he wants to say to get people angry. He doesn’t need to be consistent – it isn’t like he’s here to do anything other than try to get under people’s skin.
Trollhattan
O/T It’s D-Day. The president is using today to honor Army Ranger Cory Remsburg and by extension, all who put their lives on the line to defend our country and freedom abroad. Bless you, soldier.
Mike J
@Kay:
Yet they’re still holding a Supreme Court seat for him to fill.
They may say they disagree with Trump, but their actions prove otherwise.
Chyron HR
@Ramping Up:
Or maybe they’ll be saying “Jeb Bush is going to have the most incredible ground game the world has yet seen in New Hampshire, we’re in the mix in the Granite State. Live Free or Die, baby. It’s a traffic jam for second place. If we even come in second we can spin it as “the great comeback” and have nice springboard right into Nevada and South Carolina, the latter of which has been very, very good for the Bush family in years past.”
Ha ha, just kidding, nobody could be dumb enough to believe THAT.
Patricia Kayden
@chopper: Or “There’s my Negress”.
@FlyingToaster: Why would we care if Repubs call an intervention? Let Trump burn their house down. Better for our side.
p.s. I assume when they lose in November, there will be shouts of “Trump wasn’t a real conservative!” and other such nonsense. **rolls eyes**
Ramping Up
@Villago Delenda Est:
And yet the race is TOO CLOSE TO CALL.
Here’s how it’s going to go down in the next week:
You’ll keep flogging the story about the judge, about Mexicans, about Muslims etc etc. You’ll be sure the Trump campaign is finished. You’ll talk about a Hillary landslide and taking back the House, or even how he’s going to drop out soon. You’re going to be very, very confident that this is it. And then…
…the new round of polls comes out. It shows a race either too close to call or Trump even slightly ahead nationally and in key swing states. You begin to tear your hair out. “This would have killed any other candidate!” You will get a sinking feeling inside your gut. Trump will then make another outrageous statement/action that should “end” his campaign. You rejoice and begin to flog the story “surely, THIS must end his campaign!”…and wash, rinse, repeat….
That’s exactly how it goes down when you’re up against someone as unconventionally invincible as Donald J. Trump.
Get used to it.
Brachiator
I love how Trump gets wound up in his personal business and issues when his thin skin is punctured. He provides his own distraction. Hillary slams him on his foreign policy incompetence, he wants to talk about the thousands who loved his shitty phony “university
The Democrats need to keep this up. Maybe talk about his crappy, uneatable steaks again.
And this is Whiny Ass Titty Baby Trump’s theme song: Why Am I Treated So Bad?
ETA: reposted from an earlier thread where a poster referenced the Fox and Friends “interview”
Trollhattan
@Miss Bianca:
See, The Donald inspires us all to semi-greatness. :-)
nonynony
@Kay:
Does it really cross a line if the response is “nothing” though? I mean, it gets them to respond and say “that’s horrible – Donald Trump shouldn’t be saying things like that”, but it doesn’t really get them to follow on with “.. and if he continues I will have to withdraw my support and suggest that you not vote for him for President”.
I mean, maybe it crosses a line but by refusing to follow up on it he’s basically just dragging them across the line with him, isn’t he? I also wonder if there are voters out there who this crosses the line for and will cause them to withhold their vote from Trump and his enablers, or if those kinds of voters already gave up on the GOP years ago. I know the reasonable Republicans I knew years ago have either become frothing at the mouth wingnuts or have become Democrats post-2008. I don’t know anyone personally left in the party who would get alienated by the stuff Trump is saying now.
Patricia Kayden
@the Conster, la Citoyenne: Trump probably wants the power and prestige that comes with being the President but he’s already said that there are some presidential duties which he doesn’t want to do. Imagine that!
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/there-are-presidential-duties-trump-doesnt-want-do
Mike in NC
@A Ghost To Most: You have to admire the breathtaking stupidity of a troll who originally named himself after a SuperPAC that wasted $55 million backing the dumbest member of the Bush family. Worst ROI in history?
Sad!
FlyingToaster
@Major Major Major Major: You don’t need to. I enjoy the attention.
However, the interrobang is the punctuation of choice when talking to lunatics.
Patricia Kayden
@smith:
I suppose only White, cisgender males can be impartial in Rightwingistan. I mean everyone knows that they are never biased, right?
Villago Delenda Est
@Ramping Up: To close to call if you believe what you want to believe, even though polls this early seldom mean anything at all.
Your bandwagonism is unbecoming, we all remember when you told us that ¡Heb! was going to launch devastating attacks that would destroy Drumpf.
“Madame President”. Get used to it, bunky. It’s what people will be saying come January.
Betty Cracker
@Trollhattan: I watched that video, which was linked in an email from President Obama. (He emails me because I’m special. Bet y’all are jealous!) Anyway, it made me so damn sad. Yes, it’s wonderful that the soldier is fighting so hard to make progress. He is inspiring. But goddamn. It hurts to see such suffering, and for what? For what?
Chyron HR
@Ramping Up:
Wow, it sounds like this “Jeb” guy is gong to crush the “chaos candidate” Trump. How many delegates has he won so far?
Villago Delenda Est
@Patricia Kayden: Christian. You left out the Christian.
FlyingToaster
@Patricia Kayden: I wasn’t hoping for the GOP to rein in their id; I was trying to figure out if there was any way they could manage it.
Mike in NC
@Turgidson:
Drumpf’s defeat is going to be epic and the GOP will take years to recover. I’ll estimate he loses by 10-15 million votes. They’ll commission a study to work on outreach to women and minority voters, then misplace the report just like last time.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@FlyingToaster: Oh my, that works splendidly. Put the link in my nym. It’s that good – Endorsed By CONGRATULATIONS!®
Takes out the trolls and those who reply to them (those folks only for the one post). Sheer genius.
Gelfling545
I like to think of myself as a humane sort of individual and, as such, am beginning to feel pity for Trump. His words and actions are not those of a balanced person who is comfortable within himself. I believe his eventual loss will bring about a serious crisis for him and he, poor soul, hasn’t got a clue.
aimai
@nonynony: I think the only reason to keep bringing it up is that individually, in certain political markets, like some states, it forces voters to consider voting against their own Republican Senators and Trump. Its not like saying it over and over again creates any impetus for anyone to do anything about Trump. Its just that its another stone to lob onto the sinking ship.
Shell
Who needs to. Trump cant shut up about it. Hes doing all our w ork for us
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
I’m with Mark Cuban – Trump is living on credit, the vig on which is paid on occasion by people stupid enough to still buy into his garish, bullshit “brand”. His self-valuation is vapor, and all related to essentially a trademarked name.
A true billionaire wouldn’t be attached to steaks or scammy real estate courses by name.
Miss Bianca
@Trollhattan: that made me weepy.
Brachiator
@Trollhattan:
People have been saying this about both Trump and Sanders. I don’t know if it really makes sense, and don’t much care. Mark Danner, in a recent NY Review of Books piece, makes the cynically dumb claim that Trump wanted to run just to polish his media celebrity “brand.”
This is too easy, too simplistic, and even Danner has to acknowledge that Trump had been making critical noises about national politics for years. In 1987 he took out a full page ad in a number of major newspapers. The ponderous title?
“An Open Letter from Donald J. Trump on Why America Should Stop Paying to Defend Countries That Can Afford to Defend Themselves.” A familiar theme, yes?
And it is pretty clear by now that Trump loved the ego satisfaction of defeating the GOP Presidential Doofus Brigade. And I would bet good money that he also has a burning need to get back at Obama for dissing him at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner years back, and for making him look like a fool over the birther business.
Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class
I have a brilliant idea – Obama can prepardon Trump for his Trump U mail and wire fraud criminal acts. Say that it’s important that The Donald be able to proceed with the campaign without the thought of indictment hanging over his head…
JustRuss
OK, that made me guffaw out loud. Can’t watch this train wreck right now, but look forward to catching all the fail tonight.
nonynony
@Brachiator:
I know right? It’s the most amazing thing – you state something factual about him that is negative and, instead of doing what a natural politician does and deflect it (Ronald Reagan’s “There You Go Again” comes to mind), Trump not only takes the punch but then repeatedly hits himself in the face again and again with it – doubling down each time.
He did this all through the primaries too – the difference there was that he had a solid third of Republican voters that were with him as his base, the rest of the GOP candidates were clowns who were also a bit afraid to land too solid of a punch because they wanted his voters, and the GOP as a whole had a collective action problem where there were very few non-candidates out attacking him in ways that the candidates couldn’t. The Dems have none of those issues – I look forward to him getting really distracted as he fends off attack after attack from surrogates and keeps getting his eyes taken off the actual goal of the campaign.
Turgidson
@Mike in NC:
I thought they’d take years to recover from the 2008 curb-stomping, yet they got back in the game just by screaming lies about the Ni*CLANG in the White House and all his scary Kenyan sockulist tyranny.
Unless Trump has an emergency lobotomy that successfully excises the “ignorant, bigoted asshole” part of his brain and replaces it with “not a raving lunatic” tissue, the GOP will probably have to take their medicine and get walloped by Hillary in November. But they’ll just write it off as a freak black swan event, which causes them to reevaluate exactly none of their agenda or tactics (remember, conservatism can only be failed), and start screaming about Hillary in a way they think will depress the electorate and allow them to win another extremely low-turnout midterm election, which they will then offer as proof that “the people” have rejected Hillary’s extreme Democrat sockulist feminazi ideology.
Chris
@Ramping Up:
Holy crap, I just realized! You’re that guy! You’re the “bookmark it, liberals!” guy from Sadly, No! who wrote that iconic comment all the way back in 2008 calling the election for McCain, which then became one of that blog’s most beloved memes for years! Great God, you have been at this a while!
ETA: iconic comment, not post.
ETA take 2: with apologies to gene108 and the other people in the last thread for feeding the troll.
Mike J
@Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class:
I remember reading that Armand Hammer bought a minority stake in the company that produced Arm & Hammer baking soda because people always asked him about it any way.
Trollhattan
@Betty Cracker: @Miss Bianca:
I also couldn’t help but think about Gabby Giffords and the tortuous path to whatever her “new normal” is. Good people suffering for uncountable bad reasons. I’m grateful at least our president has genuine empathy and isn’t cut from the photo-op-and-onward cloth of typical politicians.
Reggie Mantle
@JanieM:
Also, “I’m not going to lie to you,” “I’m going to be honest with you,” etc.
And, anyone who repeats the question back to you is trying to think of a lie. Example:
“So, where were you when the fight started?”
(Pause) “Where was I when the fight started?”
“Yeah.”
“Um. I was at home.”
hueyplong
Those old enough to have seen the movie Network know that there simply could not be an intervention once Howard Beale went off the rails after his period of shocking success and his ratings started to tank in a manner deemed irreversible. They blandly discussed options and then had him assassinated on the air (by members of the Ecumenical Liberation Army).
A similar meeting may be convening at FoxNews now, about Trump.
Olivia
@catclub:
Well, that’s how they mis-translated it to English.
What he really said is, “Here’s an idea; take it or leave it.”
Mike J
@hueyplong: He was supposed to be crusty yet benign.
Reggie Mantle
@Trollhattan:
http://www.xojane.com/issues/stephanie-cegielski-donald-trump-campaign-defector
Kay
@nonynony:
I think it hurts, because IMO a big part of conservatism is lording it over other people on moral superiority. I really believe this. It’s all “good men” and “bad men” with these people.
I’m finding it so funny because they were such assholes w/Clinton- all that BULLSHIT about “the dignity of the office” and treating Clinton like a used car salesman who somehow sullied the Presidency and now this ridiculous OAF is their standard-bearer! It has to sting.
evgen
@Peale:
Others have covered this pretty well in pointing out that this line of attack will not work for Trump, but if you want a masterclass in how to explain this to everyone else, check out Ken White’s recent post: https://popehat.com/2016/06/06/lawsplainer-when-must-federal-judges-recuse-themselves-anyway/
Best pull quote related to this whole recusal mess: “It’s extremely well established — as well-established as anything in federal law — that you can’t judge-shop by being a douche.”
nonynony
@Mike in NC:
I’ll take the under on that. McCain lost by 9.6 million votes, Romney by less than 5 million. I predict that Trump’s floor is a 10 million vote loss, but he’s going to be closer to Romney’s losing numbers than to McCain’s (so a loss of between 5-10 million).
I would love for you to be right, but I think that white people in this country have gone spectacularly crazy. I don’t think Trump is going to lose as many female Republicans as everyone thinks, and I think that while he nets fewer Hispanic/Latino voters than Romney got, turnout on the Dem side will be down compared to 2008 though hopefully comparable to 2012 (because 2008 was a historic “OMG Republicans have turned this country to shit let’s elect a magical man who can fix everything” moment that isn’t going to be replicated this year.)
hueyplong
@Mike J: Exactly. But it didn’t work out. Only Bernie was crusty but benign.
Brachiator
@Patricia Kayden:
Doesn’t matter. By embracing Trump, the GOP leadership is acknowledging the fact that at least for now, Republican voters are not interested in “real conservatives,” since they so soundly rejected every flavor of mainstream Republican that was put in front of them.
Major Major Major Major
Troll-B-Gone is the best!
Iowa Old Lady
@nonynony: It’s difficult to say what the long term effect on the election will be though. Supposedly, Nicole Wallace didn’t vote in the presidential part of the 2008 election after her close exposure to Sarah Palin.
nonynony
@Kay:
This is certainly true. They had to convince themselves that W was a “man of God” to keep that moral superiority in place (the number of times I got that “George Bush is a Godly Man” lecture from some family member over the course of his 8 years remains a sore point with me. Asking “Who Would Jesus Bomb” probably netted me no friends among my extended family…)
Absolutely. But then I thought elevating George W Bush to the Oval Office was already a jaw-dropping refutation of the whole “dignity of the office” slams against Clinton. The only “dignity” that W brought to the position was that he had the right color of blue in his blood – otherwise he was just an oaf who managed to get his job through the right family connections.
germy shoemangler
@Brachiator:
Wasn’t there bad blood between Trump and Jeb?! over some Florida real estate thing? Jeb?! interfered with something Trump wanted to build in Florida? It seems like at the beginning at least Trump’s #1 goal was to deny Jeb?! the thing he wanted (or said he wanted): to take over the family business in the White House.
Major Major Major Major
@germy shoemangler: Get on board, we’re using interrobangs now‽
germy shoemangler
@Major Major Major Major: “get on board, roll up for the magical mystery tour.”
I bet the Bush family hates Trump with the heat of a billion suns.
Paul in KY
@jeffreyw: Their looks tell me all I need to know. I’m LOLing right now.
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator:
Doesn’t need Bamz’ help for that.
Villago Delenda Est
@nonynony: My dad, on election night 2000, told me that George W. Bush was “a good man”.
In 2006, he admitted to me (and this took a lot of guts on his part to do so) that he was wrong about George W. Bush.
aimai
I am really going to miss calling him B. Barry Bamz and all the other nicknames that Wonkette dreamed up for him.
Mnemosyne
@nonynony:
He seems to frequently confuse “anger” and “derisive laughter,” so there’s that.
Germy Shoemangler
Brachiator
One other thing about the Fox and Friends T-rump kissing.
There have been some mildly valid criticism for Hillary Clinton not doing a formal press conference, but Trump’s running to friendly media venues to give phone interviews is another level of ball washing entirely.
But I noticed last week and over the weekend that some media outlets are going out of their way to shield their listeners against how foolish Trump has been looking recently. Local radio station KFI, the biggest English language talk radio station in the Los Angeles market had one of their most popular hosts only briefly play a clip from Hillary’s devastating speech. Then, the next day, they simply dismissed it as a phony speech (without specifying what was phony about it), played a clip of Trump’s response, and then talked about the violence at the San Jose Trump rally and Hillary’s “email problem.”
My guess is that a number of conservative voters who wrap themselves up in the right wing media cocoon have only a vague idea that their leader has stumbled. But it is a bit interesting that the bottom graphic accompanying the Fox and Friend’s video at least indicates that Trump said something naughty that even Republicans don’t like.
gratuitous
@Ramping Up: I’ll take that action for $100. Trump will not win the 2016 election to be President of the United States.
Might as well monetize the trolls.
Paul in KY
@hueyplong: If they were 100% convinced that they were going to get a mega-ass whupping in Nov., I can see the Repub movers & shakers gaming out various ‘accidents’ that might unfortunately stop the Trumpenfuhrer.
Problem is that he’s now getting Secret Service protection & that makes it much dicier.
Major Major Major Major
@gratuitous: That’s what I’ve been doing on FB. So far I’ve got $45 on “the superdelegates won’t vote against the majority of pledged delegates” from back in April. Suckers.
patroclus
I just don’t understand what Trump’s strategy is at this point. He’s got the Republican nomination sewed up, so what he should be doing is taking time off from the media storm and focusing on issues (like the relatively mild jobs report) and gearing up for the convention and the general election). And he should be letting the Hillary-Bernie campaign take center stage showing the relative discord among the Dems. Instead, he’s doubling down on the racism and making the faux Trump University more important and calling the media sleazy and so much more. He just had a terrible week and he appears to be heading for another terrible week. And he’s got all the Republicans trying to distance themselves from his blatant racism, which he extended again to Muslims yesterday. This is unforced error after unforced error after unforced error. He’s really running the worst campaign I’ve seen since McGovern/Eagleton.
This is really a Godsend to Hillary – compared to Trump’s missteps, the Bernie brouhaha is being overshadowed. It almost doesn’t matter what Bernie does or says – Trump shooting himself repeatedly in the face is dominating the news cycles. A few weeks ago, I was concerned that this might be a close election. I am becoming increasingly confident that this is going to be a blow-out, with vast down-ballot implications. And a LOT of fun for Democrats, because Hillary just seems to be getting better and better.
A Ghost To Most
@gratuitous:
Good luck collecting. It’s a Trompe bet; he will disappear, and leave you holding.
Villago Delenda Est
@Germy Shoemangler: It’s amateur hour.
Mike in NC
Yeah, troll doesn’t have two quarters to rub together.
MCA1
@patroclus: There is no strategy, nor has there ever been. It’s all tactics, all the time. In a 16 car demolition derby that works. In a mano a mano 5 month game of chess, you’re probably better off thinking more than one move ahead.
SFAW
@Reggie Mantle:
Well, except for us old farts who can’t hear the question when the questioner mumbles.
Which is why I sometimes need commenters here to type in UPPER CASE.
RandomMonster
Trump brags about speaking plainly, so he should admire this guy: Dem Rep. In Letter To Trump: ‘Take Your Border Wall And Shove It Up Your Ass’.
GregB
The Fox and Fascists crew look like Clarence Thomas just set them up with a round of pube-laden Cokes.
Amir Khalid
Remember when Anderson Cooper told Trump he was using a five-year-old’s excuse? That hasn’t stopped our short-fingered friend from talking like one. It wouldn’t do Trump any good to have advisors, or a proper campaign staff, because he wouldn’t listen to them anyway. Trump will be Trump all the way to the downfall of Trump’s campaign. And then he’ll blame his staff.
Mnemosyne
@nonynony:
That blue blood is vitally important to getting the establishment Republicans’ support. W was the son of a president and the grandson of a senator. McCain was the son of an admiral. Romney was the son of a respected governor and CEO.
Trump is the son of a slumlord made good, and it shows. Muffy and Bunny down at the country club are having a LOT of second thoughts right now.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Patricia Kayden: I kind of want some media type to ask Trump if he thinks “El Chapo” should be given a Hispanic judge when he’s tried here, because obviously a white one might be biased against him.
Millard Filmore
@FlyingToaster:
The only way for the RNC to save this situation is to make the nomination contingent upon a good psychiatric evaluation.
MCA1
I sure hope Rumping Up hasn’t seen this: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-poll-idUSKCN0YP2EX
His/her bleatings are fun, and I would miss them if they were to ever give up attempting to concern troll everyone here. Unfortunately, since he/she is so invested in telling us the polls in May and early June should be scaring Democrats into jumping off a bridge en masse, I fear anything showing a double digit lead for Clinton might lead to despair for our old friend Ripe to Rot. Because I know internal consistency is really important to them, and I know they realize that a 10+ point loss in a presidential election equates to about a 250 electoral vote curbstomping.
Gravenstone
@patroclus:
That’s a physical impossibility for him. He’s such a narcissist that if he isn’t the subject of conversation, then that simply has to be remedied right fucking now!
Ruckus
@Villago Delenda Est:
An amateur would at least try to do the job, a little research, maybe a night class or two, and an attempt at getting the work done. This would have to get several steps up to be amateur. And at those several steps up this would still be a disaster. Like trying to build a house and starting with the roof tiles nailed to the ground and hoping that everything else would fit underneath.
patroclus
@MCA1: Yeah, I know, but it just seems bizarre. He should be taking time off, conferring with staffers and other party members to coordinate issues and strategy, going to Maura Lago to get some down time, making an appearance at the Muhammed Ali services and, you know, reaching out. Instead, it’s just more media interviews and racism and doubling down on all his idiotic comments. I’ve never seen any Presidential campaign act this badly. Does he really think he’s going to convince voters to swing around to his side on the Trump University Fraud or on allegations of judicial bias?
Villago Delenda Est
Josh Marshall is watching this, and directly addresses Ralphing Up’s over dependence on current polls to draw conclusions.
cckids
@Villago Delenda Est:
“You’ve made the Fuhrer a laughingstock!”
“He didn’t need our help!”
Has there ever been a musical & campaign so perfectly suited for each other as The Producers and the Trumps?
Villago Delenda Est
@Mnemosyne: W’s grandfather was also a convicted Nazi collaborator.
hovercraft
@FlyingToaster:
After this is all over and he is back to being citizen Trump who will want to associate their brand with him? With his racism so blatant how does anyone take that risk? Can’t his kids get through to him that he is risking their future earnings. They all suckle at the teat, don’t they?
Mnemosyne
@Villago Delenda Est:
The one thing that Crazy Bob is right about is that the Republicans brought over and protected a whole lot of Nazis after WWII. The only thing Prescott’s conviction did was make it impossible for him to run for president. Otherwise, no harm, no foul, as far as the Republican establishment was concerned.
(Note in case BiP shows his face: No one is disputing the history, which has been known for decades. What we’re disputing are the crazy conspiracy theories you’ve built around your bizarre interpretation of that history.)
hovercraft
@Brachiator:
I agree, he’s a bully who’s ego could not stand the fact that Obama humiliated him in front of the whole world. For years he enjoyed reporters fluffing him suggesting he should run for president. And then Obama made them laugh at him so he ran to show them that he is better than Obama. He truly believes that he is the greatest, smartest, and most handsome. Unfortunately all he succeeded in doing was showing the world what a pathetic man he really is. Small, petty, racist, misogynist, vindictive, and ignorant.
Great job Donald.
Chyron HR
@cckids:
Depending on your definition of “musical”, he seems to be heading into the 4th side of The Wall.
El Caganer
@Villago Delenda Est: He was? I know he was tied up with companies that were money-laundering for German companies, but I didn’t know he had ever even been charged with anything, let alone convicted.
Jeffro
@Miss Bianca: Do we have a list going anyplace yet? Combover Caligula, Manhattan Mussolini, Vulgar (talking) Yam…it’s all great. Yuge, even.
SiubhanDuinne
I hope Mnemosyne is around to see this. It combines two of her passions, one of which is Chicago.
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
What, does Mnem like Hamilton? Who knew?
Outside of the entire blogosphere, that is.
SFAW
@Jeffro:
You forgot
Poland“Deadbeat Donnie”!Miss Bianca
@SiubhanDuinne: oh, screaming cuteness!
SFAW
@MCA1:
Interesting poll. Somebody should tell Baud!2016 that he should make his move to capture the 19 percent that said “None of the Above.” I can see him come from out of nowhere, a real Cinderella story … President Baud! Let’s hope he has DougJ as his running mate, plus having long coattails.
Ramping Up
And yet the race is TOO CLOSE TO CALL.
Here’s how it’s going to go down in the next week:
You’ll keep flogging the story about the judge, about Mexicans, about Muslims etc etc. You’ll be sure the Trump campaign is finished. You’ll talk about a Hillary landslide and taking back the House, or even how he’s going to drop out soon. You’re going to be very, very confident that this is it. And then…
…the new round of polls comes out. It shows a race either too close to call or Trump even slightly ahead nationally and in key swing states. You begin to tear your hair out. “This would have killed any other candidate!” You will get a sinking feeling inside your gut. Trump will then make another outrageous statement/action that should “end” his campaign. You rejoice and begin to flog the story “surely, THIS must end his campaign!”…and wash, rinse, repeat….
That’s exactly how it goes down when you’re up against someone as unconventionally invincible as Donald J. Trump.
Get used to it.
JustRuss
@cckids: Apparently Jimmy Kimmel agrees:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OemqVWi_R0k
Ramping Up
@SFAW:
Poll over sampled Dems by +11, so awful and such an outlier haven’t heard it on media all day, not even included in the RCP average. Sad!
Chyron HR
@Ramping Up:
Feebog
This whole thing with the judge really is troubling. What is especially troubling is that while a number of prominent republicans have called Trump out on his remarks, not one of them has said that this will change their mind about supporting him. When they fall in line, they fall in all the way, and there is no turning back.
Brachiator
@hovercraft:
Yep. I would like to see someone call him out on this and watch his reaction. It would be so much fun.
Ironically, one of the few people who could actually make this brag stick was Muhammad Ali. Talk about the difference between a true giant and an insecure, short fingered little bully.
Surreal American
@Ramping Up:
SiubhanDuinne
@Miss Bianca:
I know!!! Mnem and G need to visit Lincoln Park Zoo on their upcoming Chicago sojourn, if only to pay tribute to the unbearable cuteness!
Brachiator
@El Caganer:
@Villago Delenda Est:
I don’t think he was convicted of collaboration. A bank he was involved with had its assets seized. And according to a Guardian story:
What a family.
Jack the Second
My wife keeps referring to this election as “elder abuse”.
I suspect that reporters are going to find — if they already don’t — talking to Trump throughout this election like talking to your slightly-senile grandparents. You say something, and he says something unrelated, or recounts one of his five rotating stories, or says something ranging from slightly to outrageously racist or “outdated”. Sometimes all at once!
Zinsky
This dirtbag Trump is such a fruit loop, as well as being such a despicable human being, its hard to even get worried about him being elected president. What kind of human garbage would vote for this piece of human garbage?
Groucho48
@Major Major Major Major:
So, I finally got fed up with some of the trolls and installed this. Unfortunately, I have no idea what to do next. I see a bunch of code but that’s it.
Can you, or any other kind Balloon Juicer, give a brief explanation of how to add, oh, I don’t know, say, ramping up to a troll be gone list?
Captain C
@Peale:
This sounds similar to the prime example of chutzpah: killing one’s parents and then pleading for mercy from the court because one is an orphan.
Major Major Major Major
@Groucho48: Once it’s enabled (with greasemonkey or tampermonkey or whatever), when you mouse over a comment, a “block” link comes up next to the time of the comment. Click that.
Groucho48
@Major Major Major Major:
Ah! Ok. I didn’t see the word “block” come up. It’s working now, thanks!
chopper
@Ramping Up:
at this time in 2012, as i’m sure you were fond of pointing out back then, it was TOO CLOSE TO CALL. yet O beat your boy Mittens like a rented mule.
no worries on this end. she’s got this.
J R in WV
@Turgidson:
The jobs report numbers are what they are because of the CWA – Verizon strike, which had tens of thousands of workers off the job. It’s over now, and so the jobs report for next month will be a resounding success.
So maybe someone in the R party is aware of what causes the jobs report to bump up and down – what you should call random noise.
JosieJ (not Josie)
@Ramping Up:
Dude, stop fapping. It’s only early June–you’ll never be able to keep up this kind of pace all the way through November. Give your arm a rest.
(And please keep making the same mistake Romney did in ’12: “unskewing” unskewed polls.)
Troublesome Carp fka Geeno
OMFG – the faces on that video frame are priceless.
chopper
@MCA1:
and trump’s playing whack-a-mole.
SFAW
@Racist Hump:
The day you will be able to read polls accurately is the day the Washington Senators win the World Series. You proved that back when you were fluffing for Jeb.
You and Dean Chambers, quite the pair of morons. Maybe you can start a website, call it Barack O’Fraudo or something like that.
SFAW
@Zinsky:
Any loyal Rethuglican or wingnut, of course.
Renie
@Groucho48: When I enabled the pie filter I didn’t realize it would replace the comment the troll said with a new sentence all about pie. I thought Retching Up was just trolling us with constant pie sentences. LOL I was hoping the filters would eliminate trolls completely from the thread but they don’t.
Cat48
Trump plans to double down on this strategy. He called his surrogates to go out & defend him re: Trump U, Judge & Racism. He told them to tell the press they were the real racists, not him. Per Bloomberg, Sorry don’t know how link.
rk
I’m actually a little bit surprised as to how stupid he is. I had a very low opinion of him, but he’s ten times worse, just plain awful. Every question is seen as an opportunity to talk about himself and how great he is, or to insult others. How can anyone support him? That’s the real mystery? Unbelievable!
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
6 looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong weeks to the Cleveland convention.
as this rate, I don’t think he’s gonna make it.
Cruz is going to end up the nominee.
grandpa john
@MCA1: and this should send him in a headfirst dive off a tall building
debbie
@the Conster, la Citoyenne:
I know this thread is long dead, but I lived in NYC from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s and witnessed (unwillingly) the Rise of the Trump. Believe me, he’s doing this because he wants this and because he, as always, knows he is the smartest guy in the world.
MCA1
@grandpa john: Boy, sounds too close to call to me!
Are Wang’s numbers the average of various simulations, or an actual possible total based on state-by-state predictions? I don’t see an easy way to move states from column to column and end up with “Romney’s winnings + 11 electoral votes.”
Carl W
@Villago Delenda Est: My favorite quote from the Josh Marshall piece you linked:
Paul in KY
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: If he keeps on this trajectory, I think you’re probably right.
Paul in KY
@debbie: That’s why it is going to be so fun (if he stays in) to watch the slow, humiliating beatdown he’s going to get.