Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

“They all knew.”

Their shamelessness is their super power.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

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

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Reality always gets a vote in the end.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Come on, man.

Too little, too late, ftfnyt. fuck all the way off.

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

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Reader Interactions

195Comments

  2. 2.

    Schlemazel Khan

    Picked and pitted 12 quarts of cherries today. That is about 2/3s of one of the two trees. Anyone in MN want to pick a couple quarts of tart cherries?

  3. 3.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @Baud:
    Yes, that is true, you didn’t get it. But there is still the VP nod under Drumpf. Word is he wants Oprah so when she turns him down you would have the inside track

  4. 4.

    Schlemazel Khan

    Seriously BTW, that lewdouchey guy claims Oprah is on Drumpfs list. Given that she has already endorsed Clinton I am not sure how excited she would be to get the offer.

  5. 5.

    danielx

    92 today, now thunderstorms and 77…..all the plants are saying “ahhhhhhh…..”……I heard them.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    @Schlemazel Khan: Why would she possibly turn that down?

    On another point, did anyone else read Charles Pierce’s odd and whiny post today? What’s up with him?

  7. 7.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    I was wandering around the intertoobz unsupervised, and followed a follower of a Tumblr to this artwork.

    I’m sure some folks here are already in the know.

  8. 8.

    Felonius Monk

    I don’t get it either, but maybe he’s suggesting the Kristol is trying to recruit LeBron to replace Trump.

    BTW, for anyone believing that Trump actually fired Lewandowski, I have some nice ocean-front property for sale in the Arizona desert. I saw a little bit of the interview on CNN today. That was not a person who had just been fired. The Trump Parade of Bullshit continues.

  10. 10.

    RaflW

    Heidi Heitkamp can just fuck off.

    She is free to vote as she will as a sitting senator. But to then complain to the media that the gun amendment votes were a waste of time is just total fucking bullshit and the worst sort of politician butthurt. So sorry we put you in a tight spot with your voters, Heidi. Show a little spine for the dead of Orlando. Or Sandy Hook. Or….

    But what galls me most is this absurd notion that her time is that valuable. The Senate does nothing. For weeks at a time. Boo hoo, clockwatcher lady.

  11. 11.

    Felonius Monk

    @Baud:

    did anyone else read Charles Pierce’s odd and whiny post today? What’s up with him?

    Are you referring to the one about DWS and the DNC? I don’t think Charlie was fully conscious when he wrote that.

  12. 12.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Felonius Monk: Some reporter tried to get him to confirm that he’s got a non-disclosure agreement still binding him about his tenure as Drumpf’s campaign manager, and he ducked the question.

  18. 18.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @Baud:
    Those two titanic egos on one ticket could achieve critical mass and destroy all mankind. Me personally, I don’t see that as a negative but some do.

  19. 19.

    Felonius Monk

    @ThresherK (GPad):

    I was wandering around the intertoobz unsupervised

    Usually not a good idea unless you have a lifeline and a quick disconnect, but this time you done good.

  20. 20.

    muddy

    @Schlemazel Khan: Pit some and put them in balsamic vinegar. The result after some months is just amazing, and delightful on vanilla ice cream. Amongst other things.

  22. 22.

    JPL

    @RaflW: Portman decided he was on the side of the LGBT community, when his son came out. It will take a personal tragedy to win over republicans and some democrats. Fucks for the rest of us though.
    Now that I finished that rant, Reid could have said vote your constituents, because we can’t win this round.

  27. 27.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Felonius Monk:

    I saw a little bit of the interview on CNN today. That was not a person who had just been fired. The Trump Parade of Bullshit continues.

    Until I heard that interview I would have gone cheerfully along with the “Corey was fired” story. I mean, why not? But I heard a few minutes on CNN, and he was completely calm, positive about the campaign and everyone on it, and still sounding like a loyal member of the team. I have been fired a couple of times in my life, and I guaranfuckingtee you I had no gracious thoughts about the job or any of the people there. Certainly not within the first few hours. This is a YUUUUUGE smokescreen. What its purpose is, I guess we’ll have to wait and see, but Corey Lewandowski is no more off the Trump campaign than Ivanka.

  28. 28.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @muddy:
    We do that, thanks! Mostly what I am tired of is the pitting process. We do them by hand & I did 7 of the 12 after I got home from work – foolish lady picked them & started the pitting.

    Edit: I also do that with a chocolate balsamic we get from a local place. I am not that thrilled with the vinegar by itself but after the cherries sit in in for a few weeks it is much better.

  29. 29.

    RaflW

    So, I just got an ask email from Gabby Gifford’s Americans for Responsible Solutions PAC. I gave a couple times in the past, but to be honest I just don’t ever know if they are really getting much traction. Other groups that are doing the work? Or is this the strongest option right now??

    I know that just tweeting angrily at Heitkamp ain’t gonna do it. We have to break the stranglehold the NRA has on the issue. They have probably a million+ single-issue voters they can rile up and get going whenever they want. Our more dispersed progressive base(s) don’t tend to work that way.

  31. 31.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    I’m in some Minnesota town with an O and a W in the name. Too tired to look it up. It’s lovely, like Minnesota is except December-March.
    First Class back to Detroit early tomorrow.

  32. 32.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @Origuy:
    I was very disappointed to learn it was not poison cherries that got him, it was one of the few things that made is administration the least bit interesting. Truman refered to that bunch of losers before Lincoln as the “little 5” for a very good reason. Sadly they were hemmed in by the forces demanding a civil war but it is a shame none of them had the courage to do the right thing.

  35. 35.

    lamh36

    So… less heavy fare…

    I have no interest in seeing Tarzan, but with all the press for it, I’m reminded how much I miss True Blood (when it was good)…no…scrap that. I miss Vampire Eric (Alexander Skarsgard)…THE ONLY reason to even think about seeing Tarzan.

    Oh and did ya’ll know his dad was Stellan Skarsgård? Google him and I swear you’ll go…oh really?

    My…but that Alrexander Skarsgard is pretty darn easy on the eyes aint he.

  38. 38.

    muddy

    @Schlemazel Khan: I have one of those old fashioned cast aluminum pitters. I use it for both cherries and olives. Usually with a task like that I will sit and watch a movie with a big bowl on my lap and mindlessly pit away.

    I’ve just recently broached the creme de cassis I made from last year’s black currants. It’s very nice! And I assume full of vitamins. We’ll see how the bushes do this year, I had to prune a good 1/3 of it after a late frost gave them a zap.

  39. 39.

    Origuy

    From the BBC

    A Briton who tried to grab a police officer’s gun at a Donald Trump rally in Las Vegas said he wanted to shoot the candidate, court papers say.

  40. 40.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    Owatonna. I will have forgotten this by noon. I have relatives in Minnesota and I swear Garrison Kiellor has been eves dropping on them for 30 years.

  46. 46.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Baud: I can see where you’d be confused, but the “shooter” definitely hat nicht alle Tassen im Schrank, as the Germans say.

  48. 48.

    Roger Moore

    We have a couple of out of control wildfires in the mountains just above where I work. They’ve burned more than 1000 acres each, and they’re still completely uncontained. The huge clouds of smoke drifting out over the city are very impressive. It doesn’t help that it’s been close to 110°F here today.

  50. 50.

    JPL

    @Origuy: Sad! He probably would have been in favor of staying, but now won’t have the chance to voice his opinion, or to vote.

  51. 51.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    @RaflW:
    Minnesota is fantastic this time of year.
    I spent the day bunny-suited up in a laboratory clean room doing machine stuff. So I’m going for a walk and ignoring the media for a while.
    Happy summer everyone.

  53. 53.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    @lamh36: Spousal ThresherK has all the Burroughs books, and the first thing she said was, “Can this be any good?”

  54. 54.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @shomi: According to laughing boy, based on his inside information, right around last Christmas ¡Heb! was going to launch a devastating volley of attacks on Drumpf that would utterly destroy him and pave the way to the nomination for “the smart one”.

    We’ve seen how well that turned out.

  55. 55.

    Botsplainer, Neoliberal Corporate Shill

    I just come here to kick hippies in the face and to discourage progressives.

  57. 57.

    dmsilev

    Pool for ‘how long until the troll gets banned again’ now open. I’ll take 2 hours.

  58. 58.

    lamh36

    @ThresherK (GPad): to be honest, I’m not much a Tarzan fan outside of the Disney cartoon and the Tarzan-lite George of the Jungle. So I wasn’t the focused audience for this anyway. But they did have Skarsgard as Tarzan and Margot Robbie as Jane for the other side of the eye candy and of course blockbuster actor himself Sam L. Jackson, but still…it ain’t for me

  60. 60.

    ecomcon

    Cheri Honkala, the leader of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, announced that her group was organizing the world’s largest “fart-in” to be held on July 28 at the Wells Fargo Center during Hillary Clinton’s anticipated acceptance speech for the Democratic nomination.

    “We will be holding a massive bean supper for Bernie Sanders delegates on American Street in my Kensington neighborhood on the afternoon of July 28,” she said. “We are setting up a Clintonville there, modeled on the Hoovervilles of the 1930s where the poor and unemployed built shanty towns. The Sanders delegates, their bellies full of beans, will be able to return to the Wells Fargo Center and greet the rhetorical flatulence of Hillary Clinton with the real thing.”

    Honkala said she would issue an invitation to Sanders to join the bean supper, which she is calling Beans for Hillary. She has asked donors to send cans of beans to 1301-W Porter Street, Philadelphia, Pa., 19148.

    h/t truthdig

  61. 61.

    Felonius Monk

    For your summer reading pleasure:

    That Donald Trump is an asshole is a fact widely agreed upon—even by his supporters, who actually like that about him. But his startling political rise makes the question of just what sort of asshole he is, and how his assholedom may help to explain his success, one not just of philosophical interest but of almost existential urgency.
    Enter the philosopher Aaron James, author of the foundational text in the burgeoning field of Asshole Studies: the bestselling Assholes: A Theory. In this brisk and trenchant inquiry into the phenomenon that is Donald Trump, James places the man firmly in the typology of the asshole (takes every advantage, entrenched sense of entitlement, immune to criticism); considers whether, in the Hobbesian world we seem to inhabit, he might not somehow be a force for good—i.e., the Stronger Asshole; and offers a suggestion for how the bonds of our social contract, spectacularly broken by Trump’s (and Ted Cruz’s) disdain for democratic civility, might in time be repaired.
    You will never think about Donald Trump the same way after reading this book. And, like it or not, think about him we must.

    (Source)

  63. 63.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @dmsilev:

    Yeah, I think Adam might be grabbing a bite of supper and a cold beer. Otherwise it might’ve happened already.

  64. 64.

    dmsilev

    @Villago Delenda Est: Trollboy has a record of “accuracy” much longer than that. For instance, back in 2012, he was confidently predicting all summer long that the big money was coming to Romney’s aid in the fall and that once ads blanketed every single NFL game, Romney’s victory would be inevitable.

  65. 65.

    Baud

    @Felonius Monk: I wouldn’t want to take that guy’s class for credit. What can you say if he screws you over with a bad grade. “You’re an asshole!” “Um . . . yes.”

  67. 67.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    I can’t tell anymore whether something as ridiculous as a Berniebro fart protest at the Dem convention is a real thing, or a parody of something a bunch of Bernie’s idiotic cultists would actually come up with. Does anybody know? Poe’s Law is being tested sorely every day by morons of the left and right.

    @ecomcon:

    Oh fer fuck sake. Can’t imagine why this revolution of COSplaying idiots failed.

  70. 70.

    catclub

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    but Corey Lewandowski is no more off the Trump campaign than Ivanka.

    Hasn’t gotten his final paycheck.

    Doesn’t realize that he never will.

  72. 72.

    hovercraft

    From The Guardian

    A British man has been detained and charged with attempting to seize a police officer’s gun at a Las Vegas rally in order to commit an act of violence against Donald Trump, authorities said on Monday.

    Michael Steven Sandford was arrested at the Saturday rally after grabbing at the holster and handle of a gun at the hip of a Las Vegas police officer who was providing security at the event for the presumptive Republican nominee.

    A federal magistrate on Monday found that Sandford was “a danger to the community and a risk of non-appearance” and ordered that he be held without bail, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, who also confirmed that Sandford is a British citizen.

  73. 73.

    Jeff Spender

    The USS Trump! I laughed Mountain Dew all over the place.

    Hey, don’t tell the poor bastard in the crow’s nest about icebergs.

  74. 74.

    danielx

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    It’s always blue skies in that world.

    In other news, TPM has it that Trump’s campaign is just now coming into what some of us refer to as (ahem) the reality-based community, in the sense that Donald Trump lives in a bubble.

    I noted earlier this week that Donald Trump is uniquely reliant on strong poll numbers. Every candidate is dependent on good poll numbers for morale, fundraising and more. But Trump’s platform isn’t abolishing Obamacare or lowering taxes or kicking more ass in the Middle East. His platform is “winning.” So if he’s clearly not winning, it’s uniquely debilitating. But there’s another way to understand this phenomenon, a broader framework for understanding Trump’s current rough patch. It is the inherent turbulence faced by a bullshit-based candidate making first contact with an at least loosely reality-based world.

    I’ve been observing political campaigns for a hell of a long time. Trump’s campaign isn’t a campaign at all in any normal sense. Der Trumpenführer has a worldview in which anyone who doesn’t plummet to their knees in awe at the awesomeness of Donald Trump…doesn’t matter. That was fine in the primaries, in which Trump voters were living in the same bubble. Before, as long as he was in the news, he was winning as far as he was concerned. Now, though, now he’s dealing with people who are ready – nay, eager! – to show how much they not only don’t go along with him but don’t even take him seriously. For one with a narcissistic complex the size of Trump’s, the phrase “cognitive dissonance” doesn’t begin to cover it.

  75. 75.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @muddy:
    MIL made some cheery liqueur out of a bunch but I am not that fond of it. I was thinking of maybe a cherry wine but I hate sweet wine so I’d have to be careful.

  76. 76.

    Reforming with Results

    And if Trump doesn’t play ball? The Wisconsin Junto offs him at the convention behind a phony “grassroots” campaign and nominates Scott Walker.

  81. 81.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    Sigh. English language construction gives rise to many unintended ambiguities.

    Edit: Also, too, that’s disgusting and you have a horrible potty mind.

  85. 85.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Schlemazel Khan:

    Cheery cherry.

    My grandmother was almost entirely a teetotaller, but she had an affection for some vile liqueur called “Cherry Heering.”

    Of course, we kids always referred to it as “Cheery Herring,” and to this day I envision a bottle of merry little kippers.

  86. 86.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    I appreciate that a white Texas native wanted to star in the movie but, yeah, that appreciation doesn’t necessarily translate into paying $15 a seat to see it.

  88. 88.

    Mnemosyne

    Shouldn’t trolls who have been repeatedly banned for being racist shits get an automatic banhammer when they change their IP address to annoy us again?

  91. 91.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Mnemosyne: If they change IP addys it can’t be done automatically. We’ll have to wait for one of the blog overlords to manually do the honors.

  94. 94.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Roger Moore: And I was going to go up to the observatory and take some pics, I may sitll.

    ETA: Google maps shows some traffic up there, are people hiking in this heat?

  96. 96.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    @lamh36: There’s a difference twist those options.

    We were watching something on basic cable, which we just stumbled across, edited to run in the time alotted and for content, and when it wrapped, I asked my wife, “If that DVD were anyplace in the library except right in front of you, would you search for it to check it out?”

  98. 98.

    NonyNony

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    This is a YUUUUUGE smokescreen. What its purpose is, I guess we’ll have to wait and see, but Corey Lewandowski is no more off the Trump campaign than Ivanka.

    If next week he’s starting a Trump SuperPAC that “isn’t coordinating with the main campaign” I will be not at all surprised.

  100. 100.

    Mnemosyne

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    I mean “automatically” as in “without getting a reprieve or appeal.” The troll is obviously here to annoy people and just keeps doing it over and over again, so it doesn’t even have the same defense as a BiP.

  101. 101.

    lamh36

    @ThresherK (GPad): I find myself watching a number of things on tv and realizing I wish I’d seen it on the big screen.

    One “recent” movie was John Carter of Mars. Saw it on tv once and actually really liked it. But I recall when the movie came out seeing the trailer and not being interested AT ALL.

    But now, if it’s on, I’ll watch it. In fact, I need to just go ahead an get it on DVD. I liked it that much. So much so, I’m still mad I won’t be getting a sequel.

    If it wasn’t for cable, I’d never had watched it AT ALL.

  102. 102.

    NonyNony

    @Mnemosyne:

    Shouldn’t trolls who have been repeatedly banned for being racist shits get an automatic banhammer when they change their IP address to annoy us again?

    Anyone who could figure out how to make that work would not only be declared a Patron Saint Of The Internet, they would probably never have to pay for a drink again.

    It’s a hard problem – how do you accurately and automatically identify an individual by their writing style in an open situation where the person posting could be a troll or could be a legit new person whose writing style is superficially similar to the troll that has been booted but who intends no harm. People can’t do it well – witness how many folks end up accidentally engaging with the troll for a few posts before they figure it out. Coming up with a system that could do it automatically from one or two posts would be insanely difficult and likely would accidentally catch a lot of innocent posters into the same net.

    ETA: Ah – I see that you meant something different by “automatic”. Yeah, I think it’s pretty much the case that R2R gets smacked off as soon as a frontpager sees that he’s come back to pester people with his racist nonsense.

  103. 103.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @dmsilev:

    Thus the title of Heidinger’s memoir, “Wer es roch, behandelt es.”

    (Why yes, I do have Google Translate in my Favorites. Why do you ask?)

  104. 104.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Mnemosyne: Adam has been pretty quick with our trollish friend as of late, I’ve seen no evidence of any reprieve or appeal.

    ETA: The only appeal would be an email(IN ALL CAPS, natch) to Cole, but we all know what his response would be.

  107. 107.

    NonyNony

    @lamh36:

    One “recent” movie was John Carter of Mars. Saw it on tv once and actually really liked it. But I recall when the movie came out seeing the trailer and not being interested AT ALL.

    The marketing for that movie was terrible. The movie was pretty good, though it was too long and slow in bits (they needed to edit out about 20-30 minutes – not every movie needs to be 2 hours plus). But the ads made it look awful. (And I also am not a huge fan of the source material, which I know makes me a Bad Nerd).

  108. 108.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    ETA: And surely you saw this picture which was posted here and there over the weekend.

    Saw it several months ago. It creeped me out then, and it creeps me out again now. Didn’t know it had resurfaced.

  109. 109.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    My mom loves that movie and made G and I sit down and watch it with her when we were visiting one time. It’s actually not a bad little movie, but it was marketed really poorly.

  110. 110.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @dmsilev: Remember when he confidently told us we could “take to the bank” an Rmoney win in the Colorado GOP primary, that Rick Santorum wound up winning?

  111. 111.

    Mnemosyne

    @efgoldman:

    BiP strikes me as the same kind of person as a streetcorner preacher — he’s annoying people, but he’s convinced that he’s doing it to save their souls.

    This other troll is just boring.

    @NonyNony:

    Automatically =/= automated. There have been a few instances where the front-pagers seemed to give the troll the benefit of the doubt and let it go on for several weeks before it finally spouted more of its racist/transphobic/etc crap. I say, no more benefit of the doubt. Once we figure out it’s the same one, banhammer.

  114. 114.

    NonyNony

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:

    I can’t tell anymore whether something as ridiculous as a Berniebro fart protest at the Dem convention is a real thing, or a parody

    There are people who think giant paper mache puppets are an effective protest or that what is written on a protest sign is a make-or-break choice that can destroy the opposition. I never doubt the ability of a certain stripe of activist to delude themselves into thinking that their juvenile antics are going to be the thing that really “sticks it to the man”. And those folks exist on both the left and the right.

  119. 119.

    Origuy

    @ecomcon:

    Cheri Honkala, the leader of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign

    Also Vice Presidential nominee of the Green Party in 2012. And they want to be taken seriously!

  120. 120.

    aimai

    @rikyrah: Yes, broke my heart too. 49 years old, a mother of 11 children, who all adored her. The life and soul of her family. Unbelievable loss.

  121. 121.

    NonyNony

    @Mnemosyne:

    BiP strikes me as the same kind of person as a streetcorner preacher — he’s annoying people, but he’s convinced that he’s doing it to save their souls.

    BiP is actually the only person we have posting around here that I think could be getting paid to post here and a few other places. I’m not sure who would be paying him, but the tactic of a left-leaning person posting on a left-leaning site and starting fights is one that might actually be effective in sowing division. (I think there could very well have been a few paid operatives posing as Sanders supporters on a variety of sites to do just that for the GOP – right up until they had their “OH SHIT” moment and realized Trump was going to be the nominee, that is). It’s far superior to the tactic of a right-wing poster coming in and unifying everyone in kicking the crap out of him – that’s just stupid and something that no one would pay for, but plenty of self-hating trolls who are desperate for human contact but who are afraid of real human interaction will happily do for free. Getting a mocking or angry response may not be as good as a hug, but at least it’s human contact.

    (And I saw your response to BillinGlendaleCA and realized that you weren’t actually proposing that we build SkyNet to automatically boot our trolls off the site. But I think the frontpagers are actually booting our noxious little resident pretty quickly once they realize he’s returned.)

  122. 122.

    Corner Stone

    Sanders’ two big ideas are stupid. They are stupid. Can we all just agree to ignore this person now?
    He wields no power, Rachel. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada.
    “It has ceased to be.”

  123. 123.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @RaflW:

    But to then complain to the media that the gun amendment votes were a waste of time is just total fucking bullshit and the worst sort of politician butthurt.

    North Dakota being its own fucking state is a fucking waste of time. Here’s to Dakomontahoning, a state whose senators will still all vote for gunz gunz gunz, but there’ll only be two of them to do it instead of ten.

  124. 124.

    Anne Laurie

    @lamh36:

    One “recent” movie was John Carter of Mars. Saw it on tv once and actually really liked it. But I recall when the movie came out seeing the trailer and not being interested AT ALL.

    I actually reviewed that favorably when it came out in theatres! We very rarely go out to movies, but Spousal Unit was a childhood ERBurroughs fan & the John Carter books were his very favorites, so we were there opening weekend… in a half-full theatre.

    I expected to be bored, but it was actually quite a charming movie, in its own weird way. We finally got a BluRay player a few months ago, so I should really score of copy for home viewing…

  126. 126.

    Mingobat f/k/a Karen in GA

    Watching House of Cards again (just to have some noise in the house, but eh, who cares why). Are set designers ever taught anything like “if people notice the sets, you’ve failed”? Because I’m really wondering how every building they’re in, be it the White House, a small house in a working class Philadelphia neighborhood, an FBI interrogation room, a prison in Moscow, has the exact same damned gray-green paint on the walls?

  128. 128.

    ? Martin

    Trump fundraising – ended May with $1.3M cash on hand. Hillary raised $28M, Trump raised $3.2M.

    Quite the business acumen there.

  130. 130.

    Brachiator

    @ThresherK (GPad): I could barely finish the first novel, but admit that I’ve seen a lot of Tarzan movies. The cast seems talented, but the FYI effects seem weak. I think that Tarzan has been superceded by later action heroes.

    Btw, there was an 80s Tarzan movie with Andie McDowell as Jane. The studio did not like her voice and had Glenn Close redo all the dialog.

  131. 131.

    Mnemosyne

    @NonyNony:

    I should have known that using a word with “auto” in it around a bunch of computer nerds would make them auto-fill it as “automate.” IIRC, Bill has all of the lighting in his house automated at this point.

    During one of his bans, BiP actually emailed me through my movie website, so I still lean towards him being the real thing, for the most part. But he sure does seem susceptible to Russian propaganda, which doesn’t totally fit that.

  132. 132.

    pseudonymous in nc

    And of course it’s bullshit. Not even El Trumpador would fire fire someone on a Monday morning unless it was to steal the headlines.

    It’s a reality show firing.

  133. 133.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    @Anne Laurie: Okay, now I’ll have to put John Carter on hold at the library. I’m sure my wife’s read it,and I’m not counting on the Tarzan being good.

  134. 134.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    Apparently Bernie only made one vote of the four. He also flew first class to DC, on the same plane as Pat Leahy who was flying coach, and his campaign numbers are due by midnight. Jane must be looking for another cookie jar to stick her hand in, cuz she’s stuck to Bernie like a fly on shit, even following him into the Senate building. What a freak show those two are now. Heckuva job, Bernie, turning yourself into a cringeworthy ungracious joke.

  137. 137.

    NonyNony

    @Mnemosyne:

    so I still lean towards him being the real thing, for the most part. But he sure does seem susceptible to Russian propaganda, which doesn’t totally fit that.

    Yeah, I don’t actually think BiP is being paid to troll us, and I think he’s sincere in his beliefs even if I find a lot of them to be a bit cuckoo-bananas sometimes. It’s just that if anyone here IS being paid to troll us it would most likely be someone pretending to be someone like Bob.

  138. 138.

    dmsilev

    @? Martin: You’re asking the wrong question. The right question to ask is how much money will Trump personally extract from the campaign and the GOP in general over the next several months? Remember that he loaned his campaign a bunch of money, and presumably is expecting to be paid back using donor funds. Similarly, I’m sure he’s billing the campaign some excessive rate for the use of the Trump airplane, etc. Hell, he probably charges a royalty for each use of the word ‘Trump’ on campaign paraphernalia.

    We need to stop thinking about this as a conventional political campaign and more in terms of a mob bust-out operation.

  140. 140.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Remember when he confidently told us we could “take to the bank” an Rmoney win in the Colorado GOP primary, that Rick Santorum wound up winning?

    Good times, good times.

    ETA: Curse you to heck and back, BillinGlendaleCA@120.

  141. 141.

    Mnemosyne

    @ThresherK (GPad):

    One interesting thing to keep in mind when you see it — it’s basically an animated film with a few live-action actors in it, kind of like the recent version of The Jungle Book. Andrew Stanton, the director of this weekend’s blockbuster Finding Dory, was John Carter‘s director as well. I would love to see more animation directors be given the chance to do that kind of CGI/live action mix and see what they come up with.

  142. 142.

    NonyNony

    @efgoldman:

    It doesn’t say why, but they probably all told him no or maybe wouldn’t talk to him.

    I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that he couldn’t stand being in the position of “guy who is asking for a favor” instead of “guy who is getting asked for a favor”. I bet his ego just can’t stand that he has to ask someone else to help him rather than just telling people to do what he wants them to do.

  143. 143.

    Anne Laurie

    @ThresherK (GPad):

    Okay, now I’ll have to put John Carter on hold at the library.

    I had trouble getting through Princess of Mars even when I was 12 and could finish anything. But the movie is steampunkly charming — it’s properly visual, but the roots go back to genuine Dickensian three-volume-novel Victorianism instead of ERB’s pastiche of same.

  144. 144.

    hovercraft

    @dmsilev:
    Well of that massive May haul Donald ponied up a whopping $45,000.
    So when he brags about self funding if he has to he’s either to cheap or more likely can’t afford to.

  146. 146.

    Anne Laurie

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: To be fair, I suspect the Secret Service won’t let Sanders fly coach. (Of course there’s a cure for that, but then, that British nutball did just get apprehended trying to assassinate Trump, so it’s not completely outside the realm of possibility that Bernie could be targeted, at least until after the convention.)

    And Jane’s been putting up with the old crank for decades & decades; as someone in a similarly long-lived relationship, I can’t ding her too hard for wanting to stick close to the old fella right now. Sure, it’s “glamorous” for some very weak values of glamor, but he’s not young & the trail is full of unpredictable risks.

    Bernie or his #BernOuts will no doubt infuriate me again within hours, but I can’t waste my best outrage on a minor defection like this.

  147. 147.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    Donald Trump is an egotistical fraud running a con, and Bernie Sanders is an egotistical fraud running a con. But, Crooked Hillary. LOL.

  148. 148.

    Mnemosyne

    Today in First World Problems, I got all of the accessories I ordered for my new iPhone, but I won’t actually get the new iPhone until tomorrow. I waited Virgin Mobile out until I could get the 64MB iPhone SE from them because the 6s is way too big for my hands.

  150. 150.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @Anne Laurie:

    good point about the Secret Service – hadn’t considered that. But, what’s the deal with Jane following him into the Senate building where they vote? Imagine Bill doing that with Hillary, it would break the internet, or likewise if it came out that Chelsea was calling the shots in her mom’s campaign. So fucking sick of the double standards.

  151. 151.

    KS in MA

    @lamh36: Me too. It looks like an interesting story (I got as far as the Wikipedia entry) but kind of a cliche-ridden movie.

  152. 152.

    NotMax

    @Anne Laurie et al.

    Just to be clear for any seeking out a DVD:

    John Carter of Mars is the re-title of the lower budget Princess of Mars, starring Antonio Sabato, Jr. and Traci Lords.

    John Carter is the high budget offering from Disney.

  153. 153.

    Corner Stone

    @dmsilev:

    We need to stop thinking about this as a conventional political campaign and more in terms of a mob bust-out operation.

    That would be fine if the target had a viable and ongoing operation when he started the grift. But the RNC doesn’t have anything to sell, even at a discount.

  154. 154.

    Vhh

    @JPL: I suspect a mass shooting at the GOP convention might do the trick. Oh wait–no guns allowed there …

  157. 157.

    dmsilev

    @hovercraft: I’d argue that’s backwards; we need to look at how money flows from the campaign to Trump, not vice versa. That’s how he’s run his businesses over the years, draining cash from the business through things like huge management fees and transferring personal debts onto the corporate books. I don’t see why the campaign would be any different.

  158. 158.

    rikyrah

    What Donald Trump Learned From Joseph McCarthy’s Right-Hand Man
    By JONATHAN MAHLER and MATT FLEGENHEIMER
    JUNE 20, 2016

    …………………………..

    But there was one client who occupied a special place in Roy Cohn’s famously cold heart: Donald J. Trump.

    For Mr. Cohn, who died of AIDS in 1986, weeks after being disbarred for flagrant ethical violations, Mr. Trump was something of a final project. If Fred Trump got his son’s career started, bringing him into the family business of middle-class rentals in Brooklyn and Queens, Mr. Cohn ushered him across the river and into Manhattan, introducing him to the social and political elite while ferociously defending him against a growing list of enemies.

    Decades later, Mr. Cohn’s influence on Mr. Trump is unmistakable. Mr. Trump’s wrecking ball of a presidential bid — the gleeful smearing of his opponents, the embracing of bluster as brand — has been a Roy Cohn number on a grand scale. Mr. Trump’s response to the Orlando massacre, with his ominous warnings of a terrorist attack that could wipe out the country and his conspiratorial suggestions of a Muslim fifth column in the United States, seemed to have been ripped straight out of the Cohn playbook.

    “I hear Roy in the things he says quite clearly,” said Peter Fraser, who as Mr. Cohn’s lover for the last two years of his life spent a great deal of time with Mr. Trump. “That bravado, and if you say it aggressively and loudly enough, it’s the truth — that’s the way Roy used to operate to a degree, and Donald was certainly his apprentice.”

    For 13 years, the lawyer who had infamously whispered in McCarthy’s ear whispered in Mr. Trump’s. In the process, Mr. Cohn helped deliver some of Mr. Trump’s signature construction deals, sued the National Football League for conspiring against his client and countersued the federal government — for $100 million — for damaging the Trump name. One of Mr. Trump’s executives recalled that he kept an 8-by-10-inch photograph of Mr. Cohn in his office desk, pulling it out to intimidate recalcitrant contractors.

    The two men spoke as often as five times a day, toasted each other at birthday parties and spent evenings together at Studio 54.

  159. 159.

    hovercraft

    @dmsilev:
    Sorry read that wrong. I bet that regardless of how long it takes, he will make sure he gets every penny back, they all do (even Clinton I think). And the biggest expenditures so far for his campaign are for his plane to himself and his properties. So he gets to loan his campaign money to spend with his companies. Ultimate grifter.

  164. 164.

    rikyrah

    igorvolskyVerified account
    ‏@igorvolsky
    .@marcorubio felt so compelled to re-enter public service after #orlandoshooting, he just voted AGAINST expanding background checks

  165. 165.

    median

    @Origuy: A Briton tried to shoot Trump! There’s only one thing to do: shut down all travel from Britain until we know what the hell is going on!!

  168. 168.

    dmsilev

    @hovercraft: His May FEC report is here; I would call everyone’s attention to lines 10 and 12, cash on hand and debts. $1.2 million cash on hand, $46 million in debt. All of the latter are personal loans from one Donald J. Trump.

  171. 171.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Clinton burying Trump: $42 million to $1.3 million

    Washington (CNN)Donald Trump began this month badly financially outmuscled by groups supporting Hillary Clinton, amplifying the stakes for Trump’s fundraising push in the run-up to next month’s Republican convention.

    Clinton’s campaign had $42 million in the bank as of May 31, according to its report filed with the Federal Election Commission Monday. Her super PAC Priorities USA has $52 million.

    Trump’s campaign has $1.3 million.

  174. 174.

    Central Planning

    @efgoldman:

    Apparently it is both and neither, all at the same time.

    Schrodinger’s Fart?

    ETA – Dang it. Beaten by SiubhanDuinne at #97

  175. 175.

    dmsilev

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: I was bored just now, so took a few minutes and skimmed Trump’s FEC report. Beyond the anemic topline number, he has $46 million in debt (to himself), his properties are charging the campaign a couple hundred thousand a month in rent, he and at least one of his kids are drawing salaries. I’m sure if I knew where to look, I’d find that he’s charging for use of his plane at inflated rates. Etc.

    Trump is a tapeworm inside the GOP’s digestive tract.

  176. 176.

    Cacti

    @David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:

    Clinton burying Trump: $42 million to $1.3 million

    Washington (CNN)Donald Trump began this month badly financially outmuscled by groups supporting Hillary Clinton, amplifying the stakes for Trump’s fundraising push in the run-up to next month’s Republican convention.

    Clinton’s campaign had $42 million in the bank as of May 31, according to its report filed with the Federal Election Commission Monday. Her super PAC Priorities USA has $52 million.

    Trump’s campaign has $1.3 million.

    I used to think it was a long shot, but I’m starting to believe the RNC might pull a coup at the convention.

    Everything about Trump is amateur hour.

  177. 177.

    Lamh36

    @Anne Laurie: I think I recall that post. I honestly don’t even know how I ended up watching it. nothing else on at the time but I watched the entire thing once I caught. Too bad it didn’t do well.

  179. 179.

    hovercraft

    @dmsilev:
    From the NY Times

    Mr. Trump’s campaign spent just $12.4 million in 2015, according to disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission, millions less than any of his leading rivals for the Republican nomination. More than half of Mr. Trump’s total spending was covered by checks from his supporters, who have thronged to his stump speeches and bought millions of dollars’ worth of “Make America Great Again” hats and T-shirts.

    About $2.7 million more was paid to at least seven companies Mr. Trump owns or to people who work for his real estate and branding empire, repaying them for services provided to his campaign. That total included more than $2 million for flights on his own planes and helicopter, a quarter of a million dollars to his Fifth Avenue office tower, and even $66,000 to Keith Schiller, his bodyguard and the head of security at the Trump Organization.

    While the convoluted accounting is required by law — so that Mr. Trump’s companies do not make illegal corporate contributions directly to his campaign — it also means that Mr. Trump is in effect taking millions of dollars out of one pocket and depositing it into another.
    What remains is a quintessentially Trumpian endeavor that blurs the line between campaigning and brand-building and complicates Mr. Trump’s claims that he is funding his own White House campaign. About three-quarters of Mr. Trump’s total campaign spending has either gone to reimburse his own businesses or has been covered by funds from grass-roots donors, according to an analysis by The New York Times of F.E.C. reports. Virtually all of the money Mr. Trump himself has put into the campaign was lent, rather than donated outright, meaning that he could potentially sell enough hats and T-shirts to pay himself back down the road.

    Grifter gonna grift.

  181. 181.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brachiator:

    I believe so, yes — it’s basically the update to the 5s. It has 90 percent of what’s in the 6s and is only missing some 3D movement thing that most developers aren’t writing apps for yet anyway.

  182. 182.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Ah. By the time you saw it, I guess the latest iteration of R t R had been banned, and all linkbacks with it. Supremely unimportant.

  183. 183.

    NotMax

    @dmsilev

    There was one report during the primaries that the campaign was being dunned for $100,000 per week for the plane, but it was single sourced and unconfirmed otherwise.

  184. 184.

    dmsilev

    More from Trump:

    THE MAR-A-LAGO CLUB, LLC 05/18/2016 FACILITY RENTAL/CATERING 423371.70

    How the Hell did he spend north of $400K at his own resort for “catering”? I stand by my “grand-scale grift” assessment.

  187. 187.

    SFAW

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:

    Donald Trump is an egotistical fraud running a con, and Bernie Sanders is an egotistical fraud running a con.

    Look, it’s been pretty obvious for a while that you don’t like Bernie (to put it mildly), but do you think you could dial it back just a little? His vanity (or whatever one wants to call it) is annoying, but he’s not the same as Trump — just as Gore was not the same as Bush — and it’s not really necessary for you to keep screaming that he is, nor does it reflect well on you.

  188. 188.

    SFAW

    @burnspbesq:

    “I will not buy this Bernie; it is scratched.”

    I believe the proper response is either “I am no longer infected,” or “Yandelvayasna grldenwi stravenka.”

    [Normally, I would have said something about eels, but I didn’t want hovercraft to get upset.]

  190. 190.

    daves09

    @dmsilev: Hitler got a royalty from every postage stamp with his picture on it-and they all had his pic. Grifting never changes.

  192. 192.

    Anne Laurie

    @Lamh36: Well, the director — who was excoriated as seventeen kinds of a self-indulgent loser for John Carter — just released a pic that’s getting somewhat better box office: Finding Dory.

    As Mnem says, between that & the blockbuster success of the live-action Jungle Book, Brad Anderson may yet get his chance at a Victorians-on-Mars sequel!

  193. 193.

    RaflW

    @pseudonymous in nc: I think it’s time for Dakota to be one state, and for there to be a North California and South California. That would at least begin to make the Senate a tad more representative.

  194. 194.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    @SFAW:

    The fraud is still fundraising. He’s blown through $212 mil. I stand by my characterization.

  195. 195.

    SFAW

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:

    I can’t believe I’m defending him, but: it’s possible that he’s fundraising so that he doesn’t end up in the hole. That’s part of the reason why so many candidates “suspend” their campaigns, instead of quitting outright — they have debt, and they can’t raise money to retire that debt if they quit (vs. “suspend.”)

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