Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

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

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

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

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

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

An almost top 10,000 blog!

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Giving up is unforgivable.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Night Open Thread

Monday Night Open Thread

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Trump is such an asshole and makes turning on the news so unbearable that I title this thread Friday Night Open Thread and then thought to myself “goddamnit, it’s only Monday.” Cooked some catfish tonight, with some corn, potatoes, and sliced tomatoes:

catfish

Fiestaware makes me happy. And, for you ladies, some dessert:

brokedickmountain

Can’t you just feel the Ho Yay!

Reader Interactions

125Comments

  2. 2.

    Earl

    Come on now… there’s no *way* Trump has the self-discipline to have that body. Way saggier.

    You’re welcome.

  7. 7.

    Keith P.

    I had a big pile (1 cup) of rice topped with slices of garlic sautéed in olive oil. It’s quick, easy, and has a contrast of texture that I like. well, slicing garlic isn’t particularly quick.

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    Another Fiestaware fan here! Got a whole set for my wedding 20 years ago, but mugs and bowls in particular have been hard hit over the years. I need to restock.

    Just got back from the vets a while back; one of my dogs cut her paw badly. She’ll be okay, but is currently suffering the Cone of Shame. She’s also doped up and gawking around like she’s never seen the house where she’s lived for all of her 8 years.

    Watching the idiotic Don Lemon interview Dr. Drew. Never heard of the latter, but he seems like a dimwit. He’s disputing whether Trump is a narcissist by claiming Trump is obviously capable of sustaining marriages and raising mentally stable children.

    Say what?!? He’s on his 3rd trophy wife, and sons Uday and Qusay have a nasty habit of murdering exotic animals and posing with their dead bodies, the sick fucks.

  14. 14.

    amygdala

    Dinner looks delicious. It’s a shame that dessert would induce immediate projectile vomiting.

  15. 15.

    Punchy

    Tomatoes = red death. Vile nastiness of the pseudo-fruit family.

    I want to know Cole’s plan for buying/updating new servers before the election. If Trump pulls this much shit everyday for the next 3 months, every thread will have 300+ comments until the hamsters running the whole thing just quit to join a union.

  17. 17.

    Betty Cracker

    @dmsilev: If I heard him correctly (and admittedly, I was only half listening), Dr. Drew also scoffed at the idea that Trump is a sociopath.

    PS: Does anyone doubt for a second that the Trump campaign gave the NY Post the nekkid Melania pix?

  19. 19.

    jamesjhare

    Trump has nearly destroyed my interest in politics. I don’t want to talk about it around friends and family for fear someone will out themselves as a Trump supporter. I don’t want to look at the news because I know he’ll have said something new and terrible without any sanction from his party. I remember way back in 2000 when I had a really nice conversation with a Bush supporter outside the polls during a long day volunteering for Gore. I can’t imagine that now. I’m worried there will be fights between volunteers at the polls. My teenage daughter is watching THIS as the first presidential campaign she’s ever really paid attention to. I know I should be somewhat pleased that an entire generation is being turned off to the Republicans but it’s just too terrible to find a silver lining.

    And there’s still a chance this terrible human being wins. Trump would prove democracy a failure before doing away with it.

  21. 21.

    amygdala

    @Betty Cracker: He’s a narcissist. The ragey stuff when he’s crossed is textbook. Sociopaths more frequently run cold, not that kind of hot. He comes off as nuts because the only unifying principle in a narcissist’s universe is “what’s in it for me?” Seen through that lens, most of what he does becomes sickeningly congruent.

  22. 22.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    Fuck you very much for that shitpile “dessert.” I will never unsee that. Asshole.

  23. 23.

    eldorado

    i went downtown to my favorite catfish place over the weekend and they have closed. so very sad.

  24. 24.

    satby

    I have to admit I’m giving up on fighting back with a few of the rw nutjobs on my FB feed. Just unfollowed the two worst. I would happily never speak to them again since they’re showing a truly vile side of themselves, but I’m related to them.

  25. 25.

    satby

    Part of the “both sides” meme is meant to disengage voters, so in a way the current disgust most people are exhibiting about this election plays right into the hands of those who want lower voter turnouts. We really need to hang tough on this, but it’s horribly depressing.

  26. 26.

    Stacy

    So the Vulgar Yam is going to be rallying at a high school in Loudoun county, VA about a mile from my house. Horrifying especially considering the South Asian and Latino population in our area. Of course he is an offense to all decent people. I’m out of town so no chance to protest.

  27. 27.

    Punchy

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Raw tomatoes have the smell and taste of a gym shoe. One that just ran a half-marry, left in the hot sun to bake, then a rainstorm, followed by more sun baking and stinking, put on just to step in dog poop, then wore to Rio and used in their polluted beaches loaded with feces and coliform.

    But the carfish looks pie-hole’able and potaters look edible.

  28. 28.

    Mnemosyne

    @Betty Cracker:

    If it’s the Dr. Drew who used to do “Loveline,” he is an actual medical doctor, but he’s an internist who specializes in addiction, not a psychiatrist.

    I’m kind of surprised he didn’t diagnose Trump as a dry drunk — the guy has most of the signs of that and Drew is usually pretty convinced that everyone in the public eye is an addict.

  30. 30.

    Betty Cracker

    @satby: I’m 100% sure my father is voting for Trump, but thankfully he doesn’t post anything political on FB, and we agreed not to discuss politics about 25 years ago. About half my family are wingnuts, but I’m lucky in that only a handful post wingnut bullshit on social media or forward deranged emails.

    My grandmother used to be the worst with email forwards, but she’s slowed down now that she’s halfway through her 90s. And I swear, ever since we blocked Fox News on her TV behind her back, she’s so much more chill. (She thinks the cable company dropped it!)

  31. 31.

    Mnemosyne

    I’m kind of liking Michael Feinstein as a Robert Osborne substitute. He needs to work on his physical presentation (he seems a little stiff) but he has a very soothing voice and sounds like he knows what he’s talking about when he reads from the TelePrompTer, which is harder than people realize.

  32. 32.

    Miss Bianca

    Oh John…”yum” to “yuck” so fast on that pair of images that I absolutely gagged.

  35. 35.

    Miss Bianca

    @satby: I’m really regretting getting into it with people whom I’d rather still think well of, and have them think well of me. : /

  36. 36.

    Aardvark Cheeselog

    Holy fvck I feel like I’m reading The Onion:

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump suggested Monday that he fears the general election “is going to be rigged” — an unprecedented assertion by a modern presidential candidate.

    Trump’s extraordinary claim — one he did not back up with any immediate evidence — would, if it became more than just an offhand comment, seem to threaten the tradition of peacefully contested elections and challenge the very essence of a fair democratic process.

    “I’m afraid the election is going to be rigged, I have to be honest,” the Republican nominee told a town hall crowd in Columbus, Ohio. He added that he has been hearing “more and more” that the election may not be contested fairly, though he did not elaborate further.

  41. 41.

    scav

    I may never click on a new thread again for a while. Certainly not at the top. On the upside, I didn’t need that appetite anyway.

  42. 42.

    Gemina13

    Fuck the garbage-eating catfish, and fuck the “dessert” sideways with a rusty chainsaw. I’ll keep my nice grilled sirloin with caramelized onions, and Lindt truffles.

  45. 45.

    BR

    @Aardvark Cheeselog:

    Yeah, it’s not just Trump. His right-hand man Stone is saying even more extreme things about an uprising if Trump loses, because of course Trump is a winner so any loss must mean he was cheated…

  46. 46.

    Miss Bianca

    @satby: I shrink from conflict for only so long: then I try to keep disagreement civil, then I allow my sarcasm freak flag to fly, and it can get ugly. Donald Trump is not the only one who can be baited by a Tweet. Sad!

  48. 48.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    If I heard him correctly (and admittedly, I was only half listening), Dr. Drew also scoffed at the idea that Trump is a sociopath.

    The long distance diagnosis of mental illness in celebrities is best left to amateurs. That’s what blogs are for!

  53. 53.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    I like breaded catfish! Nice presentation, sir.

    That pic of Trump: Fabio… The (much) later years.

  54. 54.

    Brachiator

    @BR:

    Yeah, it’s not just Trump. His right-hand man Stone is saying even more extreme things about an uprising if Trump loses

    So let’s see, if I cross this with the Bernie nut stream, if Hillary wins it will bring about neoliberal fascism, and will guarantee that Trump will win in a landslide in 2020, bringing either the short finger people’s revolution or something.

    Well, OK, then. Go, Hillary, go!

  59. 59.

    Miss Bianca

    @Brachiator:

    The long distance diagnosis of mental illness in celebrities is best left to amateurs.

    FTW!

    ETA: I’ve always wanted to see a gay bluegrass band call themselves “The Brokeback Mountain Boys”…

  62. 62.

    Stella B.

    Since most of my social contacts are in my language classes, I can safely discuss politics. The other side doesn’t have a passport and doesn’t study foreign languages. The pro-Bernie people (which included a recently retired Navy captain) weren’t particularly nutty and have made the transition.

  64. 64.

    Brachiator

    @jamesjhare:

    Trump has nearly destroyed my interest in politics. I don’t want to talk about it around friends and family for fear someone will out themselves as a Trump supporter.

    I listen to people talk politics on the train during my commute. I find that a good number are liberals (thank you, Jesus) who are similarly finding that Trump wingnuttery is straining friendships. I don’t know if this is really worse than past elections.

  67. 67.

    lgerard

    @Betty Cracker:

    And I swear, ever since we blocked Fox News on her TV behind her back, she’s so much more chill. (She thinks the cable company dropped it!)

    That is one awesome move!

    Perhaps doctors should start recommending this to improve public health

  68. 68.

    Quinerly

    For what it is worth, BBC is reporting rather dramatically that “US Republican candidate Donald Trump has called his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton “the devil.” Looks like we have the start of the next news cycle. The world thinks we have lost our fucking minds.

  70. 70.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker:

    PS: Does anyone doubt for a second that the Trump campaign gave the NY Post the nekkid Melania pix?

    Sadly, you might be right. Has he said anything about the photos? Silence on his part would be very unusual.

    She didn’t ask for public scrutiny or to be used as a pawn for the benefit of her husband’s ambitions.

  72. 72.

    Brachiator

    @Quinerly:

    For what it is worth, BBC is reporting rather dramatically that “US Republican candidate Donald Trump has called his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton “the devil.”

    Trump is stealing invective from Hugo Chavez. Plagiarism seems to run in the family.

  73. 73.

    Major Major Major Major

    I visited Salon to see what that part of the electorate was thinking, saw this headline, and bolted.

    Hillary Clinton’s bogus war on poverty: Her proposed minimum wage hike would only hurt low-income families

    Wasn’t she just bullied into accepting a $15/hour minimum wage as part of the Sanderseses platform demands? Now they’re saying any minimum wage increase is a fake plan?

    Is this like how Politifact thinks something is less true when she says it than when Bernie says it?

  75. 75.

    NotMax

    NZ. It’s not just for New Zealand anymore.

    Naval Zombies! (Your tax dollars at – um, er – work.)

    @Betty Cracker

    Did that to Mom’s cable when visited, but sometime along the line a software upgrade to her cable box wiped out that setting.

  76. 76.

    hilts

    Trump has nearly destroyed my interest in politics.

    Trump’s nomination has nearly destroyed my faith in this country.

    I don’t know if this is really worse than past elections.

    I’ve never been more nervous about the possible outcome of a presidential election because Trump is dumber and crazier than any other major party nominee.

  77. 77.

    Quinerly

    @Brachiator:
    Second story behind Zika in Miami on my NPR station when it switches over to BBC. BBC also reporting that the crowd cheered when “he referred to Mrs. Clinton as the devil.”

  78. 78.

    Betty Cracker

    @Brachiator: The thing I remember most clearly about Chavez’s UN speech calling Dubya the devil was the translator snickering about it. It made me smile.

  79. 79.

    Soylent Green

    I’d like to think that Trump’s gaffes will take him down, but like all celebrities he knows that no publicity is bad publicity. It will keep him at the top of the news every day, and that’s all the common clay will remember.

  80. 80.

    Betty Cracker

    @NotMax: Good to know; we’ll keep an eye on it! Now she watches Animal Planet and sports only, so there’s little chance of her discovering that Fox is back even if an upgrade wipes out our setting.

  81. 81.

    Peale

    @Betty Cracker: dr. Drew is a good looking doctor foisted on us by mtv. He’s famous for taking money from GSK to promote one of its anti-depressants as a sexual performance aid for women. He’s lately been promoting the idea that coffee with butter and coconut oil is a miracle cure. Another “health supplement” snake oil salesman for Trump. of course he can’t tell a fraud when he sees one.

  83. 83.

    BR

    Even the GOPers think there’s funny business going on:

    I am generally convinced Trump’s tax returns and an audit of the Trump Org. would show corporate funds directly propping up the campaign.— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) August 2, 2016

  84. 84.

    Betty Cracker

    @Soylent Green: I don’t believe that all publicity is good publicity. If this election were Hillary Clinton vs Fuck You, I’d be worried that Fuck You would win, because a lot of people are angry and frustrated and want to flip off the powers that be.

    But it’s Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump, and while Trump pulled off a credible imitation of Fuck You for a while, now that the focus is narrowed to two human beings, people are starting to look past the Fuck You factor and see Trump for what he is. And it ain’t pretty.

  85. 85.

    Brachiator

    @Betty Cracker: I think you’re right. It was very colorful language.

    “The devil came here yesterday, and it smells of sulfur still today, this table that I am now standing in front of.”

    Years later, referring to Obama, Chavez said that the smell of sulphur had gone away, and instead it smelled like hope.

  87. 87.

    BR

    @efgoldman:

    I think it will be key whether the Khan story lasts another week or Trump creates a new controversy. It’s actually better that he creates a new controversy without the media, on their own, getting bored of the Khan story. (Because if they get bored of the Khan story I could see them start to go back to both-sides-do-it reporting about it, etc.)

    I really did see a change in some comments from pundits who I normally don’t see explicitly take a side against a candidate, even when you know where they lean — CNN and MSNBC folks, mostly, but also some GOP nevertrump folks and the WSJ second in command guy.

  88. 88.

    Oldgold

    Is there any possibility the GOP strips Trump of the nomination and runs someone else? I know that sounds batshyt crazy, but after the last few days….,

  90. 90.

    BR

    @Oldgold:

    I know it sounds crazy but I’ve been thinking the same thing. Roger Stone isn’t the only dirty trickster in the GOP. The Bush family probably knows a few, as do other GOP leaders. If they wanted to, they could create a controversy (not sure what), something that would provide pretext for McConnell, Ryan, McCain, Cruz, and other prominent GOPers to withdraw their support publicly. Then Trump would start imploding and lashing out, steepening the decline and they would then invoke some special GOP mechanism (which may or may not exist, but they could pull it off) to have a backroom deal to pick a new candidate.

    But that’s only if Trump doesn’t fake a health scare or something else and drop out on his own.

  91. 91.

    sigaba

    @Oldgold: Eagleton Overdrive Scenario? Someone quoted the RNC bylaws in the last thread and I think it amounts to compelling Trump to resign or decline the nomination. I suppose if Reince went to Trump and said “We will cut your funding and bury you unless you quit and we pick your replacement” he might do it since it would be the only avenue that offers him a decorous exit (heh) but that’s a crazy long shot and no matter what happened the ticket would be dead and the RNC will have alienated their most passionate base voters to supposedly appease the liberal media. They just have nothing on him to compel him to behave in that instance.

  92. 92.

    Brachiator

    @Soylent Green:

    but like all celebrities he knows that no publicity is bad publicity.

    But this is not true at all. Very many examples of celebrities damaged by negative or controversial publicity.

  94. 94.

    sigaba

    @Soylent Green @Brachiator:

    Bad press and good press both let people know there’s something to see. Celebrity, of all kinds, is about being in demand to be seen. Do people say, “I’ve heard about this person and he’s constantly making news, therefore he’d make a great president!”? I suppose that might work for some people…

  95. 95.

    SectionH

    John, you were just teasing us, right? With that “eye candy” I mean? So not.

    It did remind me that the Mongol Derby is going to start soon. This is only the 2nd year I’ll be following it, but what an incredible thing.

  96. 96.

    John Weiss

    @Punchy: Gosh. I suppose everyone has their distinct chemistry. A sun warmed ripe heirloom tomato is the food of the gods.

  97. 97.

    BR

    @sigaba:

    Yeah, I could see them making him an offer he couldn’t refuse — a few hundred million if he’ll take their escape chute (some story they cook up) or they would tell him they’ll bury him otherwise. Trump isn’t nearly as rich as he pretends, so he’d take the money as long as they lavish praise on him as he exits. Then he can say “I would have won if not for blah blah blah.”

  98. 98.

    Brachiator

    @Quinerly:

    The world thinks we have lost our fucking minds.

    Oh, the rest of the world has its little problems, too, even over small matters. The Brits, for example, are in an uproar over David Cameron’s outgoing honors list, which grants knighthoods and other honors to various undeserving cronies, including his wife’s hair stylist, in line to receive an OBE.

  99. 99.

    hovercraft

    @Betty Cracker:
    Someone on tv earlier pointed this out earlier, during the primaries there were multiple candidates and each campaign had only dozens of reporters following them, in the general each one of them have hundreds of reporters following their every move. Where during the primary a blizzard of bullshit could result in some of it slipping through the cracks, now there are hundreds of reporters sifting through it and every bit is being examined. I agree that he put those pictures of Melanoma out as a distraction, unfortunately for him no one gives a shit other than to point out that Michelle would be crucified for the same. He got to dominate the news cycle today, and it was not a good thing. But hey tomorrow he can dominate again, they can talk about him getting shot down by congress, still more condemnations raining down on him from republicans, his calling Hillary the devil, and the media nattering on about how Hillary’s bounce was bigger than his, his trying to chicken out of the debates and his lie about the NFL, and his conspiracy theory about the ‘rigged election system. Just watch those poll numbers soar. Though Sam Clovis said this morning that polls are meaningless till September, so their internals must look bad right now.

  100. 100.

    Brachiator

    @sigaba:

    That’s where his mother dipped him in the River Lethe to render him immune to all human shame.

    Excellent. I was trying to come up with an Achilles reference, but this nails it.

    Mighty thin skin around those heels.

  101. 101.

    Miss Bianca

    @Peale: Well, coffee with butter and coconut oil is surprisingly delicious – I’ve tried it: but I don’t know abut “miracle cure”. It does have the benefit of making you feel full at the same time you drink it – so it’s like coffee and breakfast at the same time!

  102. 102.

    BR

    @hovercraft:

    Do you think they have internal poll numbers? I bet the RNC does, but the Trump “campaign” doesn’t seem like much more than a couple of advance staff and campaign flunkies.

  103. 103.

    hovercraft

    @BR:
    I think that they did finally hire a pollster back in June, and like you say I’m sure the RNC is polling, they need to be able to know when it’s time to break the glass because of emergency, everyone over there already has their parachutes on.

  104. 104.

    Brachiator

    @sigaba:

    Bad press and good press both let people know there’s something to see.

    The example that another poster cited of Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle suggests that negative publicity can be fatal.

    Who’s the famous former college quarterback who is self destructing? Much of the ongoing curiosity about him is about watching him die.

  107. 107.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @schrodinger’s cat: What’s amazing about that clip is the guys are messing with their hair as part of the dance routine. I can’t imagine anyone in Hollywood going THERE!

  108. 108.

    Dog Dawg Damn

    It’s quite possible Trump is getting bored of the whole thing. Doesn’t campaign as much as can’t seem to muster the excitement he used to have. SAD!

  111. 111.

    opiejeanne

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): I have a slight allergy to tomatoes: if I eat too many of them the roof of my mouth starts itching like mad. Thankfully, that means I can eat a bit each day for a month before it gets really bad.

    And there is someone on our property smoking pot, or a pipe, not sure which it is. The smell is drifting in through our east facing bedroom windows and it’s making me nuts. It’s 2am, we have nearly an acre, and I do not relish hunting for them at this hour. I wish they’d leave. They’re either out there casing the joint or getting high looking at the pretty lights in the trees (solar powered) that we put up for the wedding.

  112. 112.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Betty Cracker: Some malignant narcissists stay married because they enjoy tormenting their spouses. Also because they’re too insecure to get a divorce.

    Some malignant narcissists kill their spouse if they try to leave.

    Dr. Drew is a moron.

  113. 113.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Mnemosyne: Dry drunk? I have one of those in my family (he’s twelve stepping and it actually works for him, unlike most people) and while he has his annoying side (he flips out if people are drinking around him even though it’s been over a decade) he is NOTHING like Donald Trump. Nothing like him.

  114. 114.

    Another Holocene Human

    @NotMax: Nope. If anything, W showed some signs of psychopathy (mild), while Trump, in addition to being a raging narcissist, is also a sadist, indicating an anti-social personality, if not sociopathy. Usually a sociopath is a person who hates everyone not himself, and that’s not true of Trump. He views people instrumentally (what can you do for me?), which is typical of NPD rather than SPD. He doesn’t suffer the pathology of SPD, rather NPD. A lot of the psychiatric profession doesn’t consider there to be a meaningful difference between the two, but as a lay person it’s helpful to understand what you’re dealing with. I’ve dealt with narcissists, malignant (sadistic) narcissists, and sociopaths at work and there are distinct differences between them, what sets them off, what makes them dangerous.

  115. 115.

    Matt

    That last photo should be Chuck Tingle’s next book cover, “Pounded In The Butt By A Honking Orange Clown Penis”.

  118. 118.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Villago Delenda Est: Hollywood has become too formulaic and boring off late, especially the big studio production. Hindi movies in particular and Indian movies in general have been undergoing a renaissance the past 10 to 15 years or so. 80s and 90s were pretty darned awful with a few exceptions here and there.

  120. 120.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Frankensteinbeck: Its from Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s RamLeela.
    Ramleela is Bhansali’s telling of Romeo and Juliet set in a fictional town in Gujarat.
    Ram and Leela are the names of the protagonists and it also refers the enactment of Ramayana during the annual Dasshera celebrations.

  122. 122.

    Dadadadadadada

    @Another Holocene Human: Dry drunks are drunks who stop drinking without 12-stepping or any medical/psychiatric help. Cold turkey. They stop drinking, but the personality disorders remain. 12 steps and co. are meant to address the underlying issues.

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