Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

So very ready.

The world has changed, and neither one recognizes it.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

When we show up, we win.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

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

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

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

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Stay strong, because they are weak.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

You are here: Home / Politics / Trumpery / Hail to the Hairpiece / Saturday Cartoon Review Open Thread: Mike Who?

Saturday Cartoon Review Open Thread: Mike Who?

by | 167 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

I know, I know — but what political fiend can resist such a rich smorgasbord? This morning’s big VP candidate rollout… Your 2016 Republican Party, America!

Much more, blow-by-blowhard, below the fold…

Reader Interactions

167Comments

  2. 2.

    debbie

    I listened to Trump while running errands. It was like introducing Pence was an afterthought. Dan Quayle got more respect.

  3. 3.

    khead

    I rooted for Jack at Augusta in ’86.
    I really wanted Tom (at 59!) to close the deal at the Open in ’09.
    So, yeah, I’m rooting for Phil to win the Open tomorrow. For old guys everywhere.
    I also hope Phil managed to get a bet down somewhere back when Vegas had him at 40-1.

  5. 5.

    The Dangerman

    Someplace, Gingrich is breathing a huge sigh of relief; almost stepped in it.

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    So Trump devalued Pence.

    Venn diagrams of Indiana fundamentalists and KKK-curious have significant overlap.

  7. 7.

    Felonius Monk

    Hi, I’m Donald Trump and this is my pet rock, Mike. Now, let me tell you a few words about myself.

  9. 9.

    The Thin Black Duke

    “And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”

  10. 10.

    MJS

    @The Dangerman: No, I think Gingrich believes he would have been in control of the ticket had he been picked. He thinks quite a bit of himself, for some unknown reason.

  13. 13.

    Splitting Image

    Notwithstanding the poor quality of the rollout, I could see this actually being a high point for Mike Pence. I first heard about him years ago when Matt Yglesias repeatedly described him as “not very bright”. I have since come to think of him as the right-wing nutcase whose name I can never remember.

    And I wonder how many people are confusing him with Mitch Daniels, the other Indiana governor who was so beloved of the No Labels crowd a few years back.

  15. 15.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @Splitting Image:
    This is probably the high point of the moron’s career. Like Miller or Quayle or Palin this is as good as it will ever get for a nothing-burger nobody.

  17. 17.

    RAM

    Trump and Pence to appear on 60 Minutes

    Looks like they’re going to have to change it to 120 Minutes if Pence wants to get a word in edgewise.

  18. 18.

    hovercraft

    An excerpt of Michael Ian Black’s new book:

    Click for the illustrations.

    A Child’s First Book of Trump

    Dear reader, I know that you might be confused
    After spotting this creature that’s been seen in the news.
    What is this strange beast you keep hearing about?
    Together, I think we can figure it out…..

    Trumpus Americanus
    The beastie is called an American Trump,
    It’s skin is bright orange, it’s figure plump,
    It’s fur so complex you might get enveloped,
    It’s hands are, sadly, underdeveloped.

    Now where does it live? On flat screen TVs!
    It rushes toward every camera it sees.
    It thrives in the most contentious conditions
    And excretes the most appalling emissions.

    It’s diet is cash, it’s friends all go-getters.
    It’s poop spells out “Trump” in ten-foot high letters!
    Trump this Trump that, and Trump buildings and steaks,
    Trump airplanes and clothing and several Trump mates.
    Trump crap everywhere in a Trumpy Trump land.
    But don’t call it crap. The Trump calls it a “brand.”

    Yes, it can speak! Are you impressed?
    You should be, because a Trump’s really the best!
    It says so if asked, and even if not.
    “I’m the best” it declares in terms overwrought.

    “I have the best words and all the best things!
    My water is bottled from the best spring!
    My wine is the best, and so is my brain.
    You wanna know why? Too bad! I’ll explain,”
    (Here’s where a Trump will go on at some length
    On size of it’s manhood and physical strengths.)

  19. 19.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Schlemazel Khan:

    Like Miller or Quayle or Palin this is as good as it will ever get for a nothing-burger nobody.

    So, in a few years we’ll see Mike Pence doing AMEX commercials saying “Do you know who I am?”

  20. 20.

    dmsilev

    Do we know for sure that Pence will actually get a speech at the convention next week? I mean, couldn’t Trump decide he really needs to give two speeches himself, or maybe it’s a perfect opportunity to push units in that new Trump timeshare project.

  21. 21.

    hueyplong

    @Splitting Image: Living hell. Just realized I was confusing Pence with Mitch Daniels. Daniels is the guy at Purdue. Pence is the guy doing the public submission and humiliation thing for Trump. Got it now.

  22. 22.

    Mary G

    Well, it took the spotlight off Nice and Turkey. If it’d gone the usual way, it wouldn’t have gotten half the coverage. DT seems to think that even negative attention is better than no attention.

  24. 24.

    SiubhanDuinne

    [Trump] recited Pence’s accomplishment like he was reading his Wikipedia page for the first time, inserting little snippets of meta-commentary and quick jabs as if to keep himself interested.

    — Ezra Klein, Vox

    And during one of those rare moments, Drumpf mentioned Indiana’s unemployment rate — 8.4% when Pence took office (January 2013), less than 5% in May 2016.

    Two points: (a) those numbers pretty closely track the national UE rate. Some months are the same, some are a smidge lower, some a tad higher (at the two end points Trump mentioned, Indiana actually had a higher rate than the national average, ha ha ha); and (b) whenever Donald mentions jobs in his rallies, he makes a HUUUUUGE point of saying that the “real” unemployment rate is 42%, never mind that it’s a pants-on-fire exaggeration. Funny, when he was lauding Pence’s accomplishments as governor, he never mentioned Indiana’s “real” UE rate.

    It’s a minor point that flew past in a matter of seconds, but once again I blinked at the utter shamelessness of the man.

  25. 25.

    Villago Delenda Est

    At least the McCain/Palin veep rollout came across as well planned and professional. The crazy happened after the convention was over. This one is crazy before the convention even starts!

  26. 26.

    Mike in NC

    We can all surmise that since Trump and Newt are such expert scam artists — both of them grifting for decades on multiple fronts — that they’d never be able to appear on the same stage together. Not enough oxygen in the room to sustain them both.

  30. 30.

    dmsilev

    @Villago Delenda Est: In retrospect, Palin’s speech at the convention was the turning point. I mean, the trainwreck really got going once she actually started giving interviews, but the speech was where it all began.

  32. 32.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @hueyplong:

    Just realized I was confusing Pence with Mitch Daniels. Daniels is the guy at Purdue.

    Yeah. And Trump actually said Daniels was “at Duke” (or maybe he said “a duke”) before correcting it to “Perdue.”

    LOL.

  33. 33.

    ThresherK

    @dmsilev: As I always said, if they could have announced her on Halloween rather than Labor Day.

    Fascinating that her campaign was very similar to Dan Quayle’s “Witness protection program” appearances in ’88. Wonder if Pence needs to be protected that way, or if the press is so wobbly they can’t do the job of interviewing him.

  34. 34.

    cmorenc

    We can laugh, but the grim joke is that Trump/Pence have a small, but not unrealistic chance of winning in November. And even though Clinton is much more likely to win than not, the margin may be nervously closer than it should be in a sane, well-informed country, where it would be a landslide blowout win for Clinton.

  35. 35.

    rikyrah

    13 OF THE BLACKEST, MOST UNAPOLOGETICALLY WOKE NAMES TO USE AT STARBUCKS

    You know the Black Lives Matter movement has reached critical mass when activists are ordering up their Starbucks with a double shot of woke. Some crafty coffee lovers use BLM as their name when ordering, in turn prompting baristas to yell “Black Lives Matter” aloud while serving drinks.

    ………………………..

    To continue with the motion, we have devised 11 of the most unapologetically blackest names to use at Starbucks or any coffee shop.

    1. “Baby Hair & Afros”
    2. “Jumpman”
    3. “Reparations”

  39. 39.

    sdhays

    @efgoldman:

    Next thing, he’s going to get Cornel West, Thomas Sowell and maybe Justice Thmoas as his liaisons to the African American community.

    No no no. To fit the pattern, he’ll have David Duke as his liaison to the African American community. Which is basically already true, even though Trump “doesn’t know who David Duke is or what white supremacy means”…

  40. 40.

    rikyrah

    Black Women Are Reclaiming The ‘Loud’ Stereotype With A Powerful Hashtag
    No, we won’t quiet down.
    07/15/2016 03:56 pm 15:56:00

    When Erica Garner walked into ABC News’ Presidential Townhall on race on Thursday, she expected to be productive. She expected to be respected. She expected to be heard.

    Instead, she told The Huffington Post that she was “silenced” when there was no mention of her father, Eric Garner, or their family. She said ABC producers ignored her questions for President Barack Obama, which she says she was promised she could ask. She walked off set yelling that the network used her for ratings. She was eventually able to speak with Obama, but she was livid that she had to get loud to have her voice heard. She tweeted about her disappointment.

    “It’s a shame as black people that we have to yell and become belligerent to have our voices heard,” she told HuffPost.

    What Garner faced Thursday night is something that black women face all of their lives.

    Too often, black women’s voices aren’t heard. It becomes frustrating to the point where we feel like we have to speak louder and louder until we’re screaming to be heard. Even when we’re yelling, people don’t hear us. They throw the “angry black woman” stereotype in our faces and tell us to quiet down.

    More and more black women are rejecting the label that we are “angry” and “loud,” however.

    After hearing about Garner’s situation, Feminista Jones tweeted that she could relate. She said the routine silencing of black women ― by non-black people, black men and ourselves ― builds up into rage, understandably given how much oppression we face.

    She tweeted the hashtag #LoudBlackGirls to highlight why silencing black women is dangerous. Jones also called for black women to reclaim the terms “loud,” “ghetto” and “ratchet” and share how they find their voices.

  41. 41.

    rikyrah

    Man Creates GoFundMe so Racists Can Send Him Back to Africa
    Let’s see if people put their money where their racist mouths are.
    BY: YESHA CALLAHAN
    Posted: July 14, 2016

    ……………..

    Larry Mitchell, of Indiana, created his GoFundMe page and is accepting money from racists so they can send him back to Africa.

    “Send me ‘back’ to Africa fund … If you want me to go back to Africa I will gladly go … you can help make your dream and mine come true … accepting all donations … KKK, Skin Heads and anyone else with like mind thinking are welcome to donate … Thank you.. God bless you and America … #putyourmoneywhereyourhateis,” Mitchell states on the page.

    So far he’s raised a little over $200, and people have left comments along with their donations. Someone named “fedup whiteguy” left $45 and told him, “You better not come back.” But there are other people who have applauded Mitchell.

  42. 42.

    Ruckus

    @BIG410:
    Yeah, I wouldn’t say anywhere near as far as apologizing, I was thinking of maybe, at the most, 1% better. Still, one inch up from the bottom of a 8 ft high barrel of shit is better.
    Hadn’t thought about Quayle being the high point of republican VP picks for at least the last 35 yrs but I think you may be right. And that really is disgusting.

  43. 43.

    Baud

    Taegan Goddard @politicalwire
    Pence Not Likely to Matter Much

    A Veep pick not mattering much? Way to out on a limb there.

  44. 44.

    TriassicSands

    @debbie:

    I was surprised at how much time Trump gave to Pence — more than the amount of time he spent running down HRC.

    Pence needs a healthy ego to endure what he’s in for now. Trump’s praise is as empty and meaningless as his criticism. What Pence has to worry about most is simply being ignored.

    As I wrote in another thread, Trump’s comments included what may be the only thing about which I’ve ever agreed with him. He referred to his “message” as “unbelievable.” Yep, it is truly unbelievable.

  46. 46.

    BR

    @rikyrah:

    I’m waiting to see when the press will force Trump to answer questions about his birtherism. About the implicit racism of it, and about whether he thinks that if Obama isn’t a citizen then he should be deported, etc.

  49. 49.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Remember that list of RNC Convention speakers?

    Know who’s not listed?

    The fucking Republican Governor of the fucking host state, that’s who.

  50. 50.

    Mike in NC

    @efgoldman: Also Walter Williams, the economics professor at GMU and Koch-funded columnist who constantly lectures black people about why they should hate big government and vote Republican.

  60. 60.

    rikyrah

    How Marginalized Families Are Pushed Out of PTAs
    Parents with socioeconomic resources are more likely to exert influence on school officials.

    When Rolling Terrace Elementary School in Takoma Park, Maryland, told parents in the fall of 2014 that it would allow students to use Chromebooks as a way to bridge the digital divide between low-income families and affluent families, there were mixed reactions. The plan was aimed at helping students become more adept at using technology, but the affluent parents, most of whom were white, were apprehensive about their children getting more screen time.

    Alison Risso, then the president of the school’s PTA, said she was frustrated by the complaints those parents expressed at a meeting. “Everyone who could pay for that Chromebook with the money in their pockets was in the room,” Risso said. As Risso recalled, one parent said to her, “I don’t need my daughter to learn to make a PowerPoint.”

    At Rolling Terrace, 68 percent of the students receive free or reduced-price lunch. Sixty-three percent of its population is Hispanic, 15 percent is black, and another 15 percent is white. But the parents of that sliver of the student population that is white and affluent—most of whom were drawn to the school’s Spanish-immersion program—have outsize influence over what happens in the school.

    Risso explained to parents why it was important for the lower-income children to have access to the Chromebooks. Many of the school’s parents—mostly low-income people of color who didn’t attend the PTA meeting—were excited about the computers.

    Despite the differences in priorities, the school’s parents are expected to make decisions as a community. That kind of unity rarely happens in gentrifying neighborhoods, however. When white, affluent parents come into a school that has a high percentage of less-affluent students of color, the more advantaged group tends to take over parent organizations and unintentionally marginalize the parent community that was already there. Ultimately, Rolling Terrace proceeded with its plan to use Chromebooks, but not all such issues are resolved in ways that give low-income parents a voice.

    That’s unfortunate because parental engagement can greatly improve adolescents’ academic and emotional functioning, according to a 2014 study published in Child Development. A substantial body of research also indicates that parent involvement at home and school is an important factor in improving young children’s literacy and math skills. PTA membership was also associated with student achievement in a 2006 School Community Journal study authored by researchers at the University of West Florida.

  61. 61.

    germy

    @Baud: Not sure why the signs went up, but they’re scrambling to take them down now. Bad optics, doncha know

  62. 62.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud: More like the white zone for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only.*

    *I apologize for bringing abortion into it.

  63. 63.

    germy

    Trump is a bad influence on some white people. There’s a lady who lives about two doors down from us. Black lady in her late 60s, maybe older. Loves to garden. Beautiful flowers in front of her house. Today I was on my porch, heard a jaunty “Beep Beep Beep Beep!” (you know those short little car horn beeps when someone is trying to be funny). I saw a car drive by with two white people in the car. They saw her in front of her house caring for her flowers and decided to honk at her for yuks. She look startled and irritated.

  64. 64.

    germy

    @efgoldman: Didn’t he write a book about the potatoe famine?

    I remember the vice-presidential debate, Quayle vs. Gore.

    At one point Quayle warned the audience that Gore had written a book calling for the elimination of the internal combustion engine! He said it like he was expecting a horrified gasp from the audience.

  66. 66.

    sdhays

    @germy:

    It’s unclear how or why the signs were posted.

    When the dog-whistle becomes simply a whistle…

    What is the non-racist explanation that they’re going to come up with for “why the signs were posted”? Confused concern that color-blind people might not know that these elevators were painted white? Different banks of elevators are named after the surnames of virtually unknown low-level Republican functionaries, and this bank of elevators was named after a guy named “White”? Who is actually African American, no doubt.

  67. 67.

    jl

    I still think Trump has little use for the social conservatism that Pence is devoted too. Trump consciously spouted a lot of BS during the primaries, and most of it was wrt to weird stuff Pence believes to be important. Trump will have a very hard time faking interest in stuff that is important to people who think Pence is important.

    Which is same is what I typed yesterday. Except I want to clarify that I think Trump means every word of the racial and ethnic bigotry he spouts, even on the rare occasions that Trump doesn’t understand that he is spouting bigotry, but it is there deep in the marrow of his bones.

  69. 69.

    eclare

    @SiubhanDuinne: Hadn’t occurred to me til you wrote it, hmmm, I wonder how much of that is that Christie put Ivanka’s father in law in prison. Also, based on the speech Christie gave in 2012, would you let him speak? But that assumes Trump has some grasp of reality, and as they say, assumes facts not in evidence.

  71. 71.

    Doug R

    @germy: Lots of hospitals have color themes on the floor to get you around. Picking white as one of the colors is totally tone deaf. Unless they are the master elevators-because all colors together is white. Maybe they should change the sign to Master Elevators….uh wait….

  73. 73.

    rikyrah

    Why highways have become the center of civil rights protest
    By Emily Badger
    July 13

    After activists protesting the death of Philando Castile left the governor’s mansion in St. Paul, Minn., on Saturday night, they marched through the city down Lexington Parkway and then onto the highway, across all eight lanes of traffic. There, some of them sat down, a provocative gesture of civil disobedience in the face of rushing commerce.

    They were occupying a highway that, a half-century ago, was constructed at the expense of St. Paul’s historically black community. Interstate 94, like urban highways throughout the country, was built by erasing what had been black homes, dispersing their residents, severing their neighborhoods and separating them from whites who would pass through at high speed.

    That history lends highways a dual significance as activists in many cities rally against unequal treatment of blacks: As scenes of protest, they are part of the oppression — if also the most disruptive places to call attention to it.

    “If you can find a way to jam up a highway — literally have the city have a heart attack, blocking an artery — it causes people to stand up and pay attention,” said Nathan Connolly, a historian at Johns Hopkins University. “Highways still perform their historic role from a half-century ago. They help people move very easily across these elaborately segregated landscapes.”

    Block a highway, and you upend the economic life of a city, as well as the spatial logic that has long allowed people to pass through them without encountering their poverty or problems. Block a highway, and you command a lot more attention than would a rally outside a church or city hall — from traffic helicopters, immobile commuters, alarmed officials.

    “We’re the home of Dr. Martin Luther King,” anxious Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said on Saturday, acknowledging the city’s legacy of protest but drawing a line at the interstate on-ramp. “The only thing I ask is that they not take the freeways. Dr. King would never take a freeway.”

    That is not strictly accurate: King led the 1965 march that iconically occupied the full width of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. But as protests in Atlanta approached the high-speed artery that courses through the city’s downtown, Reed understood that the stakes were much higher, both for the safety of the protesters and the functioning of the region.

  74. 74.

    sacrablue

    Look at that bizarre Trump/Pence family photo. The Pence women are standing like normal humans having their photo taken. All of the Trump women strangely posed legs and matching long blonde hair. Stepford Wives?

  78. 78.

    burnspbesq

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    And Trump actually said Daniels was “at Duke”

    Duke is, in fact, in the market for a new President; Richard Brodhead is retiring next year. Daniels will not be considered.

  80. 80.

    The Lodger

    @sdhays: Sure he does. David Duke founded the university run by Mike Pence, I mean Charlie, er, Godfrey Daniels, ah, fuck it.

  81. 81.

    drdavechemist

    @efgoldman: Hey efg, do you remember when here in RI, thanks to an unfortunate superposition of a goofy nickname with a (presumably) married surname who wanted to be a benefactress, we were blessed with the “Happy White Family Concert Series” at the RI Philharmonic? Can’t believe that nobody saw a problem with that!

  82. 82.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @rikyrah:
    The street name was “Rondo” my family lived not far from there & we used to deliver extra food to a retirement home that used to exist just off Rondo. Yeah, the highway was seen as an urban renewal project It was a way to eliminate a lot of poor housing, the problem was they didn’t replace any of it. Rondo was the heart of a viable black neighborhood but it was ripped out

  83. 83.

    jl

    @sacrablue: They all, the men and the women live in ‘MREAM’ (Marketing Rules Everything Around Me) world. Hot babes are expected to market, their men expect it, and they do it automatically. If not for cash, then for status and attention. I think that explains some (but not all) of the reported ‘creepiness’ of the male Trump comments on their female kin. Their minds automatically zero in on the marketing of sex appeal and beauty, for whatever of any value it can get at the moment.

  84. 84.

    philadelphialawyer

    @sdhays: I’m pretty sure that there actually IS a non racist reason for the “white elevator” thing. Like, the “white elevators” are those located at such and such location and will take you from x floor to y floor and so on, while the “red elevators” and the “blue elevators” are those located somewhere else, and operate between different floors, etc. There is a local hospital here that has various color paths on the floor, because the place is so labyrthian that you need some kind of marker to find your way to the coronary section, the maternity ward, etc. But that hardly means that only “white” people are allowed to follow the white path, only “yellow” people the yellow one, and so on. I think it very unlikely that, in 2016, a building in Cleveland, or even in the South, would openly have real, honest to God, straight up racist apartheied, Jim Crow “white” and “colored” elevators

  86. 86.

    NonyNony

    @sdhays: I won’t be surprised to find out that there are 3 banks of elevators and they named them red, white, and blue because Republicans are all about the fake patriotism via symbols like that. That no one was around to explain to the that “white elevators” sounds really bad – especially given their nominee – goes a long way toward explaining the nominee…

  87. 87.

    rikyrah

    María Agramón ‏@eclecticism 8h8 hours ago

    Black people all over NC woke up to KKK flyers on their property. But Black Lives Matter is the problem. Ok.

  88. 88.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @eclare:

    But nothing to do with Christie. John Kasich is Governor of Ohio, and his name does not appear on the announced speaker list.

  89. 89.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SiubhanDuinne: I think that Kasich has found important shit that needs in Columbus at that time. Visit the zoo, grab a burger at Thurman’s, scrape barnacles off of the Santa Maria – you know, important stuff. He falls on the evil side of the stupid/evil axis.

  90. 90.

    sacrablue

    @jl: Yeah, I realize that they are treating as a sales tool for “the Trump Organization” but as a typical suburban women voter, I just got creeped out by the overall effect of the skinny blondes bitches with over-emphasized legs and designer shoes.

  93. 93.

    Bill Arnold

    Followers of the armscontrolwonk website may be amused to see that they made page 3 of the NY Times (2016/07/16 in paper edition) re MA 17 downed over Eastern Ukraine: Russian Images of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 Were Altered, Report Finds

    The researchers focus on using open-source information to study nuclear nonproliferation. They originally bought the specialized software to analyze North Korean propaganda photographs, but have found other uses for it.

    The ACW article is MH17 Anniversary
    New frontiers in non-governmental intelligence; I’ve seen them do other interesting photo-analysis in the past, and it’s only getting better.

  96. 96.

    Jeffro

    @Splitting Image:

    Notwithstanding the poor quality of the rollout, I could see this actually being a high point for Mike Pence.

    Some nitwit someplace – I think it was Chris Czillia of the WaPo – noted how this is Pence’s best week ever. If Trump loses, Pence is supposedly “the standard-bearer in 2020, where he might win 8 years in the Oval Office”. If Trump loses, Pence delays those plans by 4 more years and rolls to victory in 2024.

    Ye gods. The thought that a clod like Pence could get elected to national office – ESPECIALLY now with Trump-taint all over him – it boggles the mind.

  97. 97.

    Old Broad in California

    As a baseball fan I would have been more entertained if it had been Hunter Pence on the ticket.

    THIS Pence wanted to make it illegal to have an abortion because of fetal abnormalities. Forcing a woman to give birth to a baby with a terminal illness, who she might be financially unable to care for.

  99. 99.

    Jeffro

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Remember that list of RNC Convention speakers?
    Know who’s not listed?
    The fucking Republican Governor of the fucking host state, that’s who.

    Yup. As has been pointed out endlessly – since the media is not pointing it out at all – if this were the Dems, we’d see nothing but HOST GOV NOT IN ATTENDANCE or PREV DEM PREZS, NOMINEES SKIPPING CONVENTION.

    The TrumpVention (as with all things Trump) is so far out of the norm, it’s almost like they’re paralyzed. So many things are wrong, where to begin the news coverage?!?

    (hint to the media: it doesn’t matter what you cover, just START SOMEPLACE and do your jobs!)

  100. 100.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I hold no brief for Kasich as a politician (or a person, for that matter) but it strikes me as the height of petty arrogance and arrogant pettiness for the Trump/RNC folks to overlook the governor of the state that’s hosting the convention. Maybe they have him giving a welcome or something during daytime hours — I think the preliminary schedule we saw was only for prime time — but IMO he should have a prominent and well-publicised role by virtue of his position as governor (whatever his shortcomings as a politician).

  103. 103.

    Jeffro

    @SiubhanDuinne: I don’t think they overlooked him, I think he declined to appear at this mess. Maybe he’s out mowing his lawn just like Jeff Flake

  107. 107.

    joes527

    @sdhays: just a guess, but I’d look to see if there are red and blue elevators too.

    Still horrible judgement (or as the Trump campaign likes to call it: Tuesday)

  108. 108.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @debbie: If that is the case, Trump can’t have him as a speaker. Just like we were saying about Bernie a couple of weeks ago.

  109. 109.

    Feebog

    @debbie:

    The Pences look very small in that photo.

    And where is the rest of the Trump family? Looks like some of them slept through the alarm.

  110. 110.

    eclare

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yes, it’s been a long day…reread your comment and tried to take it away before anyone saw!

    Also there is an article in the NYTimes today about Trump’s pattern of gleefully humiliating people, as you noted before about the roll-out of Pence.

  112. 112.

    Jeffro

    So hey a WV GOP House of Delegates members thinks HRC should be hung on the National Mall, you know, for her email transgressions. He put it up on FB and everything and is not backing down. (His last name is Folk, I believe)

    As I told my RW Dad yesterday, I’ll be glad to meet in the middle once y’all acknowledge that your side has folks calling for hangings…our side is asking for crazy stuff like free college.

  113. 113.

    Anne Laurie

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I think that Kasich has found important shit that needs in Columbus at that time.

    One night while the RNC convention is in session, KasIch will be speaking to the NAACP in Cleveland. So will Hillary.

    They offered Trump a spot, but his spokespersons said he was too busy.

  116. 116.

    jl

    @sacrablue: in the context of the Trumps living in a 100 percent ‘MREAN’ world, it is creepy. I don’t think Trump is so completely sexist that he can only see women in the context of ‘MREAM’ world. I believe the women who say that Trump gave them unusual chances and treated them based on their merit in his real estate, or marketing business. But then, that is business and management, and the women were working away in his offices, not on public display as personal consorts of one type or another and therefore helping with the Trump brand. I’d bet that in his personal life, his relationship with women is ‘MREAM’ to a creeptatic degree.

    Creepy because the Trump brand is very very personal, as well as business.

  118. 118.

    Jeffro

    Btw my Twitter feed has an amazing “44 & 45” post from HRC’s campaign up and running…again, when in modern American political history has a party and the outgoing/incoming Prez/heir been this aligned and on-message?!?

  119. 119.

    NotMax

    125 posts and nobody mentioned that Pence will be pounding the campaign trail shilling for Trump?

    Sad. ;)

  120. 120.

    NotMax

    Ohio’s “Joe the Plumber” must feel slighted as his name is nowhere on the program list.

  121. 121.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    125 posts and nobody mentioned that Pence will be pounding the campaign trail shilling for Trump?

    Well done. Here’s your crown.

    £/s/d

  122. 122.

    JGabriel

    debbie:

    I listened to Trump while running errands. It was like introducing Pence was an afterthought. Dan Quayle got more respect.

    Arguably, Dan Quayle deserved more respect than Pence.

    After all, at least Quayle was never stupid enough to hitch his future to Trump’s id.

  123. 123.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @eclare:

    Yes, it’s been a long day…reread your comment and tried to take it away before anyone saw!

    FYWP would never allow such a thing.

  124. 124.

    jl

    @NotMax:

    ” 125 posts and nobody mentioned that Pence will be pounding the campaign trail shilling for Trump?

    Sad. ;) ”

    Well, hell, The Trump Himself doesn’t seem to think it is that big a deal. Why should we?

  125. 125.

    dmsilev

    @Jeffro: It’s pretty damn unusual. Looking at 2-term Presidents and their potential successors:

    * Bush was radioactive by mid/late 2008, and John McCain did what little he could to pretend that Bush didn’t exist.
    * Gore famously and foolishly distanced himself from Clinton in 2000.
    * Reagan was in …dubious health in 1988; I’m not sure if he did any real campaigning for GHW Bush or whether it was just some pro forma efforts.
    * Ike hated Nixon, and did little or nothing to help his campaign.

    I don’t know enough about the nitty-gritty of the pre-WWII campaigns to comment usefully on those. But, we’re going back 80 or 90 years at a minimum before finding an example.

  126. 126.

    jl

    Forgot to say. I also will buy every new book with ‘Another Adam Silverman thriller!” slapped on the cover. As long as they are not insanely long (like most of those things are). Keep ’em under 300 pages and I’m all in.

  128. 128.

    eclare

    @Jeffro: Hillary has learned alot from 2000 and 2008. I have been very impressed with the way the campaign has been run, and I definitely see that as a sign of how she would function as president.

  129. 129.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jeffro:

    Could be. But I also heard (sorry, cannot recall source) that the Trump people have assigned the Ohio delegation undesirable back-of-the-room seating. That makes it sound deliberate on the part of the Trumpistas, and it speaks volumes about how they would govern if, God forfend, they ever got the chance.

  131. 131.

    amk

    Is the site acting weird today? It take many refreshes just to freaking see the page.

  134. 134.

    Jeffro

    @dmsilev: I know…it’s amazing in the historical context…in this campaign, it just makes the contrast that much more clear for reporters and pundits willing to note it.

    We have one party on an unprecedented ‘roll’ (unemployment down, healthcare coverage up, troops home, and so on) and the torch clearly being passed…on the other side, we have one party on the verge of a history-making crack up, fraying at every possible edge.

  135. 135.

    Jeffro

    @eclare:

    Hillary has learned alot from 2000 and 2008. I have been very impressed with the way the campaign has been run, and I definitely see that as a sign of how she would function as president.

    She had a ‘growth mindset’ before growth mindsets were cool, lol. No, true, she has learned and does learn along the way…and it stretches down into her campaign, that much is obvious. I’m totally comfortable with her as Prez for the next 8 years. It’s a shame she’s been slammed with GOP propaganda for the past 30+ years…if you took her name off everything and put her resume and policy positions out to American voters, she’d be an unbelievable shoo-in. I’ll settle for a regular shoo-in ;)

  138. 138.

    Scott Alloway

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Old enough to remember that ad. And I was at that Republican convention when he was nominated. My parents failed to convert all four of us kids,

  139. 139.

    Jeffro

    @SiubhanDuinne: I think that (the back-of-the-room seating) is just payback to Ohio and Kaisch…even in Trump’s lizard brain, he has to know Kaisch was and is the biggest threat to Trump’s candidacy. And in Trump’s world, he meets that challenge by…acting as petty as possible.

    Folks who thrive on subtlety, whether domestic or foreign, would eat this clown for lunch. Fortunately, we’re all going to GOTV in November and deal the Trump GOP a loss so profound that they actually rethink doubling down on conserva…lol…ok, I couldn’t actually finish that sentence. Let’s just deal them the loss and let them learn from it what they may!

  140. 140.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jeffro:

    Yes, you’re right. GOTV is deathly serious, and I expect most of us BJ denizens will do our part. But in the meantime, it’s all just such an obvious parade of Pure Fail that I can’t help pointing and laughing.

  141. 141.

    The Golux

    @hovercraft:

    What I’m trying to figure out is how all the correct uses of “its” in the original got replaced by the incorrect “it’s” in your comment.

    And don’t get me started on the signs in the produce section at your local supermarket…

    [/grammar pedant]

  144. 144.

    eclare

    @Jeffro: Unlike a depressingly high percentage of this country, I like people who learn along the way. Will do whatever it takes to GOTV in November. I’m in a red state, but I want her to go in with the biggest possible popular vote mandate evah!

  145. 145.

    cokane

    Nate Silver is right though, way too much ink spilled about VP picks. I also don’t understand all the stories speculating on this shit before it happens. Getting leaked info is one thing, but damn, why is so much news nowadays writing about shit that has not happened?

  146. 146.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Pax, I pray thee. I yield.

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Shut the fuck up, you useless shitgobbling fartknocker.

    Gotta tell you, Omnes, I am in total awe and amazement that those two consecutive comments came from the same pen. You are nothing if not versatile. And you know your audience.

  151. 151.

    Ohio Mom

    @Anne Laurie: The NAACP is meeting in Cincinnati, not Cleveland. Cleveland is in the state’s northeast corner, Cincinnati is in the southwest corner.

  163. 163.

    Fair Economist

    @dmsilev:

    It’s pretty damn unusual. Looking at 2-term Presidents and their potential successors:

    Going back before that: Truman was unpopular after his terms, Coolidge famously avoided campaigning, and Wilson was incapacitated. So the last time a President publicly and actively supported his successor was Teddy Roosevelt supporting Taft in 1908.

  165. 165.

    Ian

    I had to google Bobby Knight. Good basketball coach apparently.

    WHAT FUCKING RELEVANCE DOES A FUCKING BASKETBALL COACH HAVE TO WHO RUNS THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH.

    We need to keep these people as far, far, far, far, away from power as possible.

  167. 167.

    Cleos

    @Mike in NC: @Baud:

    Was that supposed to be like the white courtesy phone?

    Several years back, when I worked at a Living History museum, someone put up what was intended to be a helpful sign on the building that housed the dressing room and commissary. It was one of the historical buildings but had been modernized on the inside and was white clapboard. Needless to say, the building was for staff only; for the public it was an outside display.

    If the sign had been written as White “Staff Only” Building it would have been okay. No such luck: it read:

    White Staff Only Building.

    Needless to say, it was replaced rather early in the day.

Comments are closed.